TIME | EVENT DESCRIPTION | LOCATION |
UNIVERSE
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| 1)
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| 2)
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| 3)
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| 11)
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| 5)
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| 6) Light particles become trapped with each other and so form structures such as protons, atoms, molecules, planets, stars, galaxies, and clusters of galaxies.
This forming of light particles into atoms may be the result of particle collision, gravitation (an attraction of matter with itself) or a combination of both.
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940,000,000,000 YBN
| 7) All of the billions of galaxies we see are only a tiny part of the universe. We will never see most of the universe because no light particles from there can ever reach us.
Most galaxies are too far away for even one particle of light they emit to be going in the exact direction of our tiny location, and all the light particles they emit are captured by atoms in between there and here.
As telescopes grow larger, the number of galaxies we see will increase.
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935,000,000,000 YBN
| 4) There is a pattern in the universe. Light particles move from highly dense volumes of space to volumes of less density. In low density volumes, light particles slowly accumulate to form atoms of Hydrogen and Helium which exist as gas clouds (like the Magellanic Clouds or Orion nebula). These gas clouds, called nebulae continue to accumulate trapped light particles. At points of high density planets and stars form and the cloud is eventually dense enough to become a galaxy of stars. The stars emit light particles back out to the rest of the universe, where the light again becomes trapped and forms new clouds. Around each star are many planets and pieces of matter. On many of the planets rotating around stars, living objects evolve that can copy themselves by converting matter around them into more of them. Living objects need matter to replace matter lost from the constant emitting of light particles (decay). Like bacteria, these living objects grow in number, with the most successful organisms occupying and moving around many stars. These advanced organisms then move the groups of stars they control, as a globular cluster, away from the plane of the spiral galaxy. As time continues, all of the stars of a galaxy are occupied by living objects who have organized their stars into globular clusters, and these globular clusters together, form a globular galaxy. The globular galaxy may then exist for a long time living off the matter emitting from stars, in addition to the accumulation of light particles from external sources.
So free light particles are trapped into volumes of space that grow in density first forming atoms, then gas clouds, then stars, a spiral galaxy, and finally a globular galaxy.
Stars at our scale may be light particles at a much larger scale, just as light particles at our scale may be stars at a much smaller scale. This system may go on infinitely in both larger and smaller scale.
For any given volume of space, there is a ratio of light particles going in versus light particles going out. If more light particles are entering than exiting the volume has a deficit of light particles, and so acts as a vacuum and grows in size, if more particles are exiting than entering, the volume is already very dense, has a surplus of light particles, and is losing density.
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930,000,000,000 YBN
| 8) An expanding universe seems unlikely to me. The supposed red-shifted calcium absorption lines may be a mistaken observation, for one reason because of the different sizes of spectra as clearly seen in the 1936 Humason image, and because distance of light source changes the position, but not the frequency of spectra.
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LIFE
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165,000,000,000 YBN
| 13)
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| 6180)
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| 6181)
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| 16) One question is how dense must a volume of space filled with light particles be before a proton is formed? Another idea is that perhaps a certain light particle density is needed to create a large atom. Perhaps a combination of moving from high density to low density is required for larger atoms to be created and then be frozen as a distinct atom. Perhaps these high densities could be duplicated on earth, or perhaps it requires too large a quantity of matter. That is clearly one of the great questions: Can one atom be changed into a larger atom simply by increasing density? Another question is: at what density do light particles form protons?
The current view theorizes that the iron is made just before the supernova, in the gravitational collapse, but I find a liquid iron core being there for the lifetime of every star as a more logical explanation.
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5,000,000,000 YBN
| 22) In a star system, because of gravitation, heavier masses move closer to the center and lighter masses move farther out.
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4,600,000,000 YBN
| 17) Probably the star and planets form around the same time as focuses of high light particle density which trap all the free moving matter around the star system.
Possibly outer planets are larger, because the space their orbit covers is larger and may include more matter. The outer planets also may serve as a counter-weight to the central star. The force of gravity exerted by the larger planets, in particular Jupiter at 1000x less mass than the Sun, may help to pull matter away from the star.
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4,600,000,000 YBN
| 30) The Moon orbiting 5 degrees from the axis of the Earth's orbit implies that the Moon was captured, although 5% is not a particularly large difference from the plane of the Earth's rotation. That the Moon orbits in the same direction as the Earth is evidence in favor of the Moon forming around the Earth.
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4,600,000,000 YBN
| 50) Start of the "Precambrian". The Hadean {HA DEen} Eon.
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| 31)
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| 33)
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| 21)
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| 34) Oldest "terrestrial" zircon; evidence that the crust and liquid water are on the surface of earth. A terrestrial zircon is not from a meteorite.
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4,400,000,000 YBN
| 18) Larger molecules like amino acids, phosphates and sugars, the components of living objects, form on Earth.
These molecules are made in the oceans, fresh water, and atmosphere of earth (and other planets) by lightning, light particles with ultraviolet frequency from the Sun, and from ocean floor volcanoes.
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4,395,000,000 YBN
| 19) Nucleic acids form on Earth. One of these RNA molecules may be the ancestor of all of life on Earth, being part of the series of copies that leads to all later living objects on Earth.
The initial building blocks of living objects are very easy to produce, but the next step is more difficult: assembling the simple building blocks into longer-chain molecules, or polymers. Amino acids link up to form longer polymers called proteins, simple fatty acids plus alcohols link up to form lipids (oils and fats), simple sugars like glucose and sucrose link together to form complex carbohydrates and starches, and finally, the nucleotide bases (plus phosphates and sugars) link up to form nucleic acids, the genetic code of organisms, known as RNA and DNA.
Perhaps proteins, carbohydrates, lipids and DNA are the products of living objects, with RNA being made without the help of living objects.
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4,390,000,000 YBN
| 25) An RNA molecule may copy other RNA molecules.
Perhaps RNA molecules, called "ribozymes" evolve which can make copies of RNA, by connecting free floating nucleotides that match a nucleotide on the same or a different RNA, much like tRNA do in assembling amino acids into proteins. But until such ribozyme RNA molecules are found, the only molecule known to copy nucleic acids are proteins called polymerases.
These early RNA molecules may have been protected by liposomes (spheres of lipids).
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4,385,000,000 YBN
| 167) The first proteins on Earth. Transfer RNA molecules evolve (tRNA), and link amimo acids into proteins using other RNA molecules (mRNA) as a template.
For the first time, a nucleic acid functions both as a template for building other nucleic acid molecules, and also as a template for building proteins (with the help of tRNA molecules).
This protein assembly system is the main system responsible for all the proteins on Earth. Whether the first tRNA and protein assembly evolved before or after the evolution of the ribosome is currently unknown.
This is a precellular, pre-ribosome protein assembly system, where tRNA (transfer RNA) molecules build polypeptide chains of amino acids by linking directly to other RNA strands.
Part of each tRNA molecule bonds with a specific amino acid, and a 3 nucleotide sequence from a different part of the tRNA molecule bonds with the opposite matching 3 nucleotide sequence on an mRNA molecule.
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4,380,000,000 YBN
| 168) The ribosome evolves. First Ribosomal RNA (rRNA).
The ribosome may function as a protocell, providing a platform for more efficient protein production. A single RNA may contain all the instructions needed to make more ribosomes.
Ribosomes are the cellular organelles that carry out protein synthesis, through a process called translation. They are found in both prokaryotes and eukaryotes. These molecular machines are responsible for accurately translating the linear genetic code on the messenger RNA (mRNA), into a linear sequence of amino acids to produce a protein.
This early ribosome may function as a protocell, holding an mRNA molecule which is used as a template by tRNA molecules to assemble amino acids into proteins. A single mRNA molecule may contain the instructions for an RNA polymerase and for all the necessary rRNA, and tRNA molecules needed to make more ribosomes.
As time continues the ribosome will grow to include two more RNA molecules, some protein molecules, and a second half that will make polypeptide construction more efficient.
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4,370,000,000 YBN
| 40) A protein can copy RNA. This protein is called an RNA polymerase, and may be more efficient than RNA itself, at copying other RNA molecules, or may be the first molecule that can copy RNA.
An RNA polymerase must have been one of the first useful proteins to be assembled by the early (presumably) precellular protein production system. Eventually an mRNA that codes for the necessary tRNA, and RNA polymerase may be copied many times.
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4,365,000,000 YBN
| 166) The first Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecule. A protein evolves that can assemble DNA from RNA.
This protein, built by a ribosome, changes ribonucleotides into deoxyribonucleotides, which allows the first DNA molecule on Earth to be assembled.
Ribonucleotide reductase may be the molecule that allows DNA to be the template for the line of cells that survives to now.
If RNA and DNA evolved at the same or different times is not clear yet. Possibly RNA and DNA were created by the same process.
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4,360,000,000 YBN
| 212) A protein can copy DNA molecules, a DNA polymerase.
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4,355,000,000 YBN
| 20) The first cell on Earth (a bacterium). DNA is surrounded by a membrane of proteins made by ribosomes. The first cytoplasm.
This cell may form in either fresh or salt water, near the sunlit water surface or near underwater volcanoes on the ocean floor.
Binary fission evolves. A protein duplicates DNA within the cell and then the cell divides into two parts.
The DNA of this cell contains the template for itself: a copying molecule (DNA polymerase), and the necessary mRNA, tRNA, and rRNA molecules needed to build the cytoplasm. For the first time, ribosomes and DNA build cell structure. DNA protected by cytoplasm is more likely to survive and be copied. Copies of this cell also have cytoplasm.
This cell structure forms the basis of all future cells of every living object on earth. These first cells are probably anaerobic (do not require free oxygen) and heterotrophic, meaning that they do not make their own food: amino acids, nucleotides, phosphates, and sugars. These early bacteria depend on obtaining external sources of these molecules and light particles in the form of heat to reproduce and grow.
Amino acids, nucleotides, water, and other molecules enter and exit the cytoplasm only because of a difference in concentration from inside and outside the cell (passive transport) and represent the beginnings of the first digestive system.
This membrane forms the first protective barrier between for DNA and the external universe, and serves as a container to hold water.
Two important evolutionary steps evolve: DNA duplication in cytoplasm, and cell (DNA with cytoplasm) division. Not only must the DNA copy and divide, but the cell membrane must divide too.
A system of division may evolve which attaches the original and newly synthesized copy of DNA to the cytoplasm, so that as the cell grows, the two copies of DNA can be separated and the first membraned cells can divide into two cells.
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4,350,000,001 YBN
| 26)
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4,350,000,000 YBN
| 183) The first lipids on Earth; (fats, oils, waxes). Cells evolve that make proteins that can assemble lipids.
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4,345,000,000 YBN
| 6340)
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4,340,000,000 YBN
| 23) The first virus evolves.
The first viruses may be made from bacteria, or may be bacteria initially. These cells depend on the DNA duplicating and protein producing systems of other cells to reproduce themselves. Over time, more effective, and efficient virus designs will survive.
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4,335,000,000 YBN
| 28) Glycolysis evolves in the cytoplasm. Cells can now make ATP (adenosine triphosphate) by oxidizing glucose to pyruvate. ATP is the molecule that drives most cellular work. This is the beginning of cellular respiration, how cells convert food into ATP and waste products.
The word "glycolysis" means "sugar splitting", and that is exactly what happens during this molecular reaction. Glucose a six-carbon sugar, is split into two three-carbon sugars. These smaller sugars are then oxidized and their remaining atoms rearranged to form two molecules of pyruvate (the ionized form of pyruvic acid). Glycolysis occurs whether or not O2 is present.
Fermentation and aerobic cellular respiration are anaerobic and aerobic (or "nonoxygenic" and "oxygenic") alternatives, respectively, for producing ATP from food. Both pathways use glycolysis to oxidize glucose and other organic fuels to pyruvate, with a net production of 2 ATP molecules.In both fermentation and respiration, NAD+ is the oxidizing agent that accepts electrons from food during glycolysis. One important different is the method to oxidize NADH back into NAD+, which is required to sustain glycolysis. In fermentation, the final electron acceptor is an organic molecule such as pyruvate (lactic acid fermentation) or acetaldehyde (alcohol fermentation). In aerobic respiration, the final acceptor for electrons from NADH is oxygen. Cellular respiration (using oxygen) produces as much as 38 molecules of ATP per glucose, 19 times more than the 2 ATP molecules produced (without oxygen) by fermentation.
The role of glycolysis in both fermentation and respiration has an evolutionary basis. Ancient prokaryotes probably use glycolysis to make ATP long before oxygen is present in the air of Earth. Oxygen does not start to accumulate in the air of Earth until around 2.7 billion years ago, so early prokaryotes may have produced ATP exclusively by glycolysis. THe fact that glycolysis is today the most widespread metabolic pathway among Earth's organisms suggests that it evolved very early in the history of life. That glycolysis occurs in the cytoplasm (or cytosol), not requiring any of the membrane-bounded organelles of the eukaryotic cell, also implies that glycolysis is very old. Glycolysis is a metabolic system from early cells that continues to function in fermentation and as the first stage in respiration.
In glycolysis one glucose is converted into 2 Pyruvate molecules and 2 water molceuls, 4 ATPs are formed, but 2 are used resulting in a net gain of 2 ATP molecules, and 2 NAD+ ions, 4 electrons and 4 protons (hydrogen ions) are converted into 2 NADH molecules with 2 protons remaining.
Some people include glycolysis and fermentation as a form of "cellular respiration".
High frequency light particles emitted from the Sun are absorbed by photosynthetic cells, which produce food, which through cellular respiration is then converted into ATP used by cells for work, those cells in turn emit light particles at lower frequencies; infrared {heat} (and radio). So energy (matter and motion in the form of light particles) enters the cells of Earth in high frequency and exits in lower frequencies, the atoms staying intact and being constantly recycled.
(I think that it can't be ruled out that some atoms may completely separate into their source light particles, and oppositely, that a proton might split into two if absorbing many light particles.)
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4,330,000,000 YBN
| 44) Fermentation evolves. Cells can make lactic acid.
Fermentation evolves in the cytoplasm. Cells (all anaerobic) can now make more ATP and convert pyruvate (the final product of glycolysis) to lactate (an ionized form of lactic acid).
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4,325,000,000 YBN
| 213) (What about methanol, and gases like methane? Determine if these products are naturally or artificially made by bacteria.)
(Are cells the only way to make alcohols? alcohol can be synthesized too- but is it created without cells or humans intervention?)
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4,315,000,000 YBN
| 196) Active transport evolves. Proteins and ATP are used to transport molecules into and out of the cytoplasm.
Active transport enables a cell to maintain internal concentrations of small molecules that differ from the cell's surroundings.
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4,305,000,000 YBN
| 64) Operons evolve which allow for turning off the assembly of any protein.
Operons, sequences of DNA that allow certain proteins coded by DNA to not be built, evolve. Proteins bind with these DNA sequences to stop RNA polymerase from building mRNA molecules which would be translated into proteins. Operons allow a bacterium to produce certain proteins only when necessary. Bacteria before now can only build a constant stream of all proteins encoded in their DNA.
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4,260,000,000 YBN
| 27) A cell wall evolves. The cell wall (also known as the cell "envelope") maintains the shape of the cell and protects the cell from external molecules.
Plant, fungal, and most prokaryotic cells have cell walls. In prokaryotes the cell wall consists mainly of peptidoglycan. Peptidoglycan (also known as murein) is a huge molecule. In gram-positive bacteria the peptidoglycan forms a thick meshlike layer that retains the blue dye of the Gram stain by trapping it in the cell. In contrast, in gram-negative bacteria the peptidoglycan layer is very thin (only one or two molecules deep), and the blue dye is easily washed out of the cell.
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4,193,000,000 YBN
| 77) Archaea (also called archaebacteria) evolve. Phylum Nanoarcheota.
Eubacteria and Archaea are the two major lines of Prokaryotes. Prokaryotes are the most primitive living objects ever found. Prokaryotes differ from the later evolved eukaryotes in have a circle of DNA located in their cytoplasm (not chromosomes) and have no nucleus.
Archaea have a variety of shapes, including spherical, rodlike, and spiral forms. Genetic studies have indicated that archaea are more closely related to eukaryotes than to bacteria.
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4,189,000,000 YBN
| 193) This group of Eubacteria includes the Phyla "Aquificae", "Thermodesulfobacteria", and "Thermotogae".
The Aquificae phylum is a diverse collection of bacteria that live in harsh environmental settings. They have been found in hot springs, sulfur pools, and thermal ocean vents. Members of the genus Aquifex, for example, are productive in water between 85 to 95 °C. They are the dominant members of most terrestrial neutral to alkaline hot springs above 60 degrees celsius. They are autotrophs, and are the primary carbon fixers in these environments. They are true bacteria (domain eubacteria) as opposed to the other inhabitants of extreme environments, the Archaea.
Thermotoga are thermophile or hyperthermophile bacteria whose cell is wrapped in an outer "toga" membrane. They metabolize carbohydrates. Species have varying amounts of salt and oxygen tolerance. Thermotoga subterranea strain SL1 was found in a 70°C deep continental oil reservoir in the East Paris Basin, France. It is anaerobic and reduces cystine and thiosulfate to hydrogen sulfide.
The Hyperthermophiles may be the living object with the most primitive DNA still found on earth (depending on the accurate determination of the origin of Eubacteria and Archaea).
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4,189,000,000 YBN
| 292) Proteins in Archaebacteria flagella are related to pili in bacteria.
(Are these the first mobile bacteria?)
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4,187,000,000 YBN
| 78) Archaea Phylum: Korarchaeota. This group, originally identified by two environmental sample sequences from the Obsidian Pool hot spring in Yellowstone National Park, currently includes only environmental DNA sequences and no Korarchaeota have been cultured yet.
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4,187,000,000 YBN
| 180) Archaea Phylum: Euryarchaeota {YRE-oR-KE-O-Tu} (methanogens, halobacteria).
Earliest cell response to light.
The Euryarchaeota {YRE-oR-KE-O-Tu} are a major group of Archaea (or Archaebacteria). They include the methanogens, which produce methane and are often found in intestines, the halobacteria, which survive extreme concentrations of salt, and some extremely thermophilic aerobes and anaerobes. They are separated from the other archaeans based mainly on rRNA sequences.
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4,187,000,000 YBN
| 181) Archaea Phylum: Crenarchaeota (Sulfolobus).
The phylum Crenarchaeota, commonly referred to as the Crenarchaea, contains many extremely thermophilic (heat-loving) and psychrophilic (cold-loving) organisms.
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4,112,000,000 YBN
| 58) (Determine if the cells use the products {water and/or methane}. Determine if there are cells that can produce amino acids, nucleotides, sugars, etc. from more simple molecules.)
(Note that autotophs also, like many heterotrophs require the absorption of light particles. It may be that orgnisms that can live only off of light particles and perhaps water, oxygen or some other simple atoms may be the most naturally selected or optimized fit as evolution continues and a spiral galaxy turns into a globular galaxy. Perhaps some kind of walking and quickly moving photosynthetic organism will mix the best of plants and animals, and result in a species with a better selective advantage.)
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4,100,000,000 YBN
| 49) First photosynthetic cells. These cells only have Photosystem I. Photosynthesis Photosystem I evolves in early anaerobic prokaryote cells. One of two photosythesis systems, photosystem I uses a pigment chlorophyll A, absorbs photons in 700 nm wave lengths best, breaking the bond betwenn H2 and S. They are anaerobic and perform the reaction: H2S (Hydrogen Sulfide) + CO2 + light -> CH2O (Formaldehyde) + 2S.
Only 5 phyla of eubacteria can photosynthesize.
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4,030,000,000 YBN
| 35) Early metamorphic rock: a Gneiss near Acasta and Great Slave Lake in the North West territories of Canada dates from this time, 4030 million years before now.
Metamorphic rock is any rock that results from the alteration of a preexisting rock in response to changing geological conditions, including variations in temperature, pressure, and mechanical stress.
Gneiss is a highly metamorphosed rock of a granular texture and with a banded appearance.
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4,000,000,000 YBN
| 43) Photosynthesis Photosystem II evolves. Cells with this system emit free Oxygen. This sytem is the main system responsible for producing the Oxygen now in the air of earth.
Photosynthesis Photosystem II evolves in early prokaryote cells. Photosystem 2 absorbs photons best at 680nm wavelengths, a higher frequency of light than Photosystem I. These cells can break the strong Hydrogen bonds between Hydrogen and Oxygen in water molecules (which are more abundant than Sulphur) and then emit free Oxygen.
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4,000,000,000 YBN
| 51) End of Hadean start of Archean Eon.
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3,900,000,000 YBN
| 57) Aerobic cellular respiration. First aerobic (or "oxygenic") cell. These cells use oxygen to convert glucose into carbon dioxide, water, and ATP.
Aerobic cellular respiration evolves as an alternative to fermentaton, by using oxygen to break down the products of glycolysis, pyruvic acid, into carbon dioxide and water, producing up to 38 ATP molecules in the process.
Aerobic cellular involves two processes the "Citric Acid Cycle" (also called the "tricarboxylic acid cycle" or the "Krebs cycle") and "Oxidative phosphorylation", which take the product of glycolysis, pyruvate and produce up to 38 ATP molecules per glucose.
Initially, aerobic cellular respiration must evolve in the cytoplasm of a prokaryote cell, in particular the ancestor of the mitochondria, the proteobacteria, and will then through endosymbiosis will be inherited and adapted for use by eukaryotic cells (verify). In prokaryotic cells, the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosporylation occur in the cytoplasm, while in eukaryotes transport proteins must transport pyruvate into a mitochondrion (active transport) where the citric acid cycle and oxidative phosporylation occur.
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3,850,000,000 YBN
| 36) Oldest physical evidence for life: ratio of carbon-13 to carbon-12 in grains of ancient apetite {aPeTIT} (calcium phosphate) minerals.
Life uses the lighter Carbon-12 isotope and not Carbon-13 and so the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 is different from a nonliving source (calcium carbonate or limestone).
The oldest sediment on earth is also the oldest Banded Iron Formation, on Akilia Island in Western Greenland. The oldest evidence for life on earth was found in this rock by measuring the ratio of carbon 12 to carbon 13 in grains of apatite (calcium phosphate) from this rock. Life uses the lighter Carbon-12 isotope and not Carbon-13 and so the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 is different from a nonliving source (calcium carbonate or limestone).
| Akilia Island, Western Greenland |
3,850,000,000 YBN
| 45) Oldest sediment, the Banded Iron Formation begins. Banded Iron Formation is sedimentary rock that spans from 3.8 to 1.8 billion years ago, made of iron-rich silicates (like silicon dioxide SiO2) with alternating layers of black colored ferrous (reduced) iron and red colored ferric (oxidized) iron and represents a seasonal cycle where the quantity of free oxygen in the ocean rises and falls, possibly linked to photosynthetic organisms.
| Akilia Island, Western Greenland |
3,850,000,000 YBN
| 189) Possible earliest fossils. Microstructures from Isua Banded iron formation, Southwest Greenland.
| (Isua BIF) SW Greenland |
3,800,000,000 YBN
| 185) Molecular fossil evidence of Archaea. Isoprene compounds from Isua, Greenland Banded Iron Formation sediment are evidence of the existence of Archaea.
| Isua, Greenland |
3,700,000,000 YBN
| 184) Amount of Uranium isotope measured in Isua, Greenland Banded Iron Formation evidence of prokaryote Oxygen photosynthesis.
| Isua, Greenland |
3,700,000,000 YBN
| 215) The Carbon-13 to Carbon-12 ratio in 3700+ million year old carbon grains is consistent with biotic remains, possibly the remains of planktonic photosynthesizing organisms.
| Isua, Greenland |
3,500,000,000 YBN
| 37)
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3,500,000,000 YBN
| 39)
| Warrawoona, Western Australia, and, Fig Tree Group, South Africa |
3,500,000,000 YBN
| 287) Oldest fossils of an organism, similar to cyanobacteria, found in the 3,500 million year old Apex chert of the Warrawoona Group, northwestern Western Australia and in the Onverwacht Group in Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa.
Some people argue that these are not fossils of bacteria but abiotic material. Most genetic timelines put the origin of cyanobacteria much later around 2,700mybn.
Two and a half billion years will pass before the first animal evolves.
| Warrawoona, northwestern Western Australia and Onverwacht Group, Barberton Mountain Land, South Africa |
3,500,000,000 YBN
| 289)
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3,470,000,000 YBN
| 182) A sulphate molecular marker is evidence of moderate thermophile sulphur reducing prokaryotes from North Pole, Australia.
(Give the sulphur reducing equation.)
| North Pole, Australia |
3,430,000,000 YBN
| 833) Strelley Pool Chert
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3,416,000,000 YBN
| 218)
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3,400,000,000 YBN
| 190) Earliest fossils of coccoid {KoKOED} (spherical) bacteria from the Kromberg Formation, Swaziland System, South Africa.
| Kromberg Formation, Swaziland System, South Africa |
3,260,000,000 YBN
| 71) Earliest fossil evidence of prokaryote reproduction by budding.
Fossils from Swartkoppie chert, South Africa are oldest evidence of procaryotes that reproduce by budding and not binary fission.
Budding evolves in prokaryotes. Like binary division, budding is a form of asexual reproduction. However, with budding a new individual develops from a certain point of the parent organism. The new individual may separate to exist independently, or the buds may remain attached, forming colonies. Budding is characteristic of a few unicellular organisms (certain bacteria, yeasts, protozoans) but some metazoan animals (certain cnidarian species) regularly reproduce by budding.
| Swartkoppie, South Africa |
3,235,000,000 YBN
| 68)
| (Sulphur Springs Deposit) Pilbara Craton of Australia |
3,200,000,000 YBN
| 66) Earliest acritarch fossils (unicellular microfossils with uncertain affinity). These acritarchs are also the earliest possible eukaryote fossils.
Organic-walled microfossils of large size (50 micrometres or more) and of uncertain biological affinities are known as acritarchs. The oldest known acritarchs are from rocks of the Moodies Group of South Africa that date to about 3.2 billion years ago, and are almost twice as old as the next known acritarchs which come from mid-Proterozoic rocks that are about 1.8 billion years old.
Acritarchs, the name coined by Evitt in 1963 which means "of uncertain origin", are an artificial group. The group includes any small (most are between 20-150 microns across), organic-walled microfossil which cannot be assigned to a natural group. They are characterised by varied sculpture, some being spiny and others smooth. They are believed to have algal affinities, probably the cysts of planktonic eukaryotic algae. They are valuable Proterozoic and Palaeozoic biostratigraphic and palaeoenvironmental tools.
Living spherical prokaryotic cells rarely exceed 20 microns in diameter, but eukaryotic cells are nearly always larger than 60 microns. Although their precise nature is uncertain, acritarchs appear to be phytoplankton that grew thick coverings during a resting stage in their life cycle. Some resemble the resting stage of modern marine algae known as dinoflagellates (known from the "red tides" that periodically poison fish and other marine animals).
Chitinozoa are large (50-2000 microns) flask-shaped palynomorphs which appear dark, almost opaque when viewed using a light microscope. They are important Palaeozoic microfossils as stratigraphic markers.
The oldest known Acritarchs are recorded from shales of Palaeoproterozoic (1900-1600 Ma) age in the former Soviet Union. They are stratigraphically useful in the Upper Proterozoic through to the Permian. From Devonian times onwards the abundance of acritarchs appears to have declined, whether this is a reflection of their true abundance or the volume of scientific research is difficult to tell.
Although these acritarch fossils may be from eukaryotes, they may also be from ancestors of eukaryotes before a nucleus existed which there may be some genetic support for.
| (Moodies Group) South Africa |
2,923,000,000 YBN
| 178) Eubacteria Phylum Firmicutes evolves (low G+C {Guanine and Cytosine count} Gram positive bacteria: botulism, tetanus, anthrax).
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2,920,000,000 YBN
| 288) First endospores. The ability to form endospores evolve in some firmicutes. An endospore is a tough reduced dry form of a bacterium triggered by a lack of nutrients that protects the bacterium, and allows it to be revived after long periods of time. Some 25 million year old spores have been revived.
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2,800,000,000 YBN
| 76) The Proteobacteria are a major group of bacteria. They include a wide variety of pathogens, such as Escherichia, Salmonella, Vibrio, Helicobacter, and many other notable genera. Others are free-living, and include many of the bacteria responsible for nitrogen fixation. The group is defined primarily in terms of ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequences, and is named for the Greek god Proteus, who could change his shape, because of the great diversity of forms found in it.
All Proteobacteria are Gram-negative, with an outer membrane mainly composed of lipopolysaccharides. Many move about using flagella, but some are non-motile or rely on bacterial gliding. This non-motile group includes the myxobacteria, a unique group of bacteria that can aggregate to form multicellular fruiting bodies. There is also a wide variety in the types of metabolism. Most members are facultatively or obligately anaerobic and heterotrophic, but there are numerous exceptions. A variety of genera, which are not closely related, can photosynthesize. These are called purple bacteria, referring to their mostly reddish pigmentation.
The delta-proteobacteria Myxobacteria is capable of colonial multicellularity and some view as possibly being the bacteria that formed the cytoplasm in eukaryotes.
In the Domain "Bacteria", and Phylum "Proteobacteria" there are 5 Classes:
CLASS Alpha Proteobacteria (Rickettsia Prowazekii {mitochondria/typhus}) CLASS Beta Proteobacteria (Neisseria gonorrhoeae {gonorrhoea}) CLASS Gamma Proteobacteria (Salmonella, Escherichia coli., fireblight {Erwinia amylovora}, one form of dysentery {Shigella dysenteriae}, Legionaires' disease {Legionella pneumophilia}, Haemophilus influenzae {first free living organism to have entire genome sequenced}, Pseudomonas, the largest known bacteria {Thiomargarita namibiensis}, Cholera {Vibrio cholerae}) The number of individual E. coli bacteria in the feces that one human passes in one day averages between 100 billion and 10 trillion. CLASS Delta Proteobacteria (Bdellovibrio {parasite on other bacteria}, Geobacter {can oxydize uranium, may be used as battery that runs on waste}, myxobacteria {form multicellular bodies that make spores, have large genome} CLASS Epsilon Proteobacteria (Helicobacter {spiral bacteria})
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| 177) Gender and sex (conjugation) evolve in Escherichia Coli {esRriKEo KOlE} bacteria. Conjugation is the exchange of DNA (plasmids) by a donor {male} bacterium through a pilus to a recipient {female} bacterium. This may be the process that evolves into eukaryote sexual reproduction.
In addition to pili and conjugation, proteins that can cut DNA and other proteins that can connect two strands of DNA together evolve.
Some protists (cilliates and some algae) reproduce sexually by conjugation. So perhaps conjugation is related to the transition from a single circle of DNA to multiple linear chromosomes in eukaryotes. If conjugation in eukaryotes descends directly from a proteobacteria then perhaps the ancestor of all eukaryotes, or certainly those that can conjugate was a proteobacteria.
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| 176) Eubacteria Phylum, Planctomycetes {PlaNK-TO-mI-SETS} (also known as Planctobacteria) evolve according to genetic comparison.
Planctomycetes are a possible ancestor of all eukaryotes because the circle of DNA can sometimes be enclosed in a double membrane.
Planctomycetes is a small phylum with only 4 Genera, which requires oxygen for growth (obligately aerobic), and are found in fresh and salt water. Planctomycetes reproduce by budding. They have holdfast (stalk) at the nonreproductive end that helps them to attach to each other during budding.
The life cycle involves alternation between sessile cells and flagellated swarmer cells. The sessile cells bud to form the flagellated swarmer cells which swim for a while before settling down to attach and begin reproduction.
The organisms belonging to this group lack murein in their cell wall Murein is an important heteropolymer present in most bacterial cell walls that serves as a protective component in the cell wall skeleton. Instead their walls are made up of glycoprotein rich in glutamate. Planctomycetes have internal structures that are more complex than would be typically expected in prokaryotes. While they don't have a nucleus in the eukaryotic sense, the nuclear material can sometimes be enclosed in a double membrane. In addition to this nucleoid, there are two other membrane-separated compartments; the pirrellulosome or riboplasm, which contains the ribosome and related proteins, and the ribosome-free paryphoplasm.
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| 179) Eubacteria Phylum, Actinobacteria {aKTinO-BaK-TER-Eu} (high G+C {Guanine and Cytosine count}, Gram positive, source of streptomycin) evolve according to genetic comparison.
The Actinobacteria {aK-TinO-BaK-TER-Eu} or Actinomycetes are a group of Gram-positive bacteria. Most are found in the soil, and they include some of the most common soil life, playing an important role in decomposition of organic materials, such as cellulose and chitin. This replenishes the supply of nutrients in the soil and is an important part of humus formation. Other Actinobacteria inhabit plants and animals, including a few pathogens, such as Mycobacterium.
Actinobacteria include the causes of tuberculosis (Mycobacteria tuberculosis) and leprosy (Mycobacteria leprae).
Some Actinobacteria form braching filaments, which somewhat resemble the mycelia of the unrelated fungi, among which they were originally classified under the older name Actinomycetes. Most members are aerobic, but a few, such as Actinomyces israelii, can grow under anaerobic conditions. Unlike the Firmicutes, the other main group of Gram-positive bacteria, they have DNA with a high GC-content {guanine-cytosine content} and some Actinomycetes species produce external spores.
Mycobacterium bovis (the bacterium responsible for bovine TB) in particular has been estimated to be responsible, for the period of the first half of the 20th century, for more losses among farm animals than all other infectious diseases combined. Infection occurs if the bacterium is ingested.
Actinobacteria are unsurpassed in their ability to produce many compounds that have pharmaceutically useful properties. In 1940 Selman Waksman discovered that the soil bacteria he was studying made actinomycin, a discovery which granted him a Nobel Prize. Since then hundreds of naturally occurring antibiotics have been discovered in these terrestrial microorganisms, especially from the genus Streptomyces.
When M.leprae was discovered by G.A. Hansen in 1873, it was the first bacterium to be identified as causing disease in man. Although Leprosy is contagious, it is not widespread because 95% of the population have immune systems able to cope with the bacteria.
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| 174) Eubacteria Phylum, Spirochaetes evolve according to genetic comparison (Syphilis, Lyme disease).
The spirochaetes (or spirochetes) are a phylum of distinctive bacteria, which have long, helically coiled cells. They are distinguished by the presence of flagella running lengthwise between the cell membrane and cell wall, called axial filaments. These cause a twisting motion which allows the spirochaete to move around.
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| 175) Eubacteria Phylum Bacteroidetes {BaKTRrOEDiTEZ} evolve now according to genetic comparison.
The phylum Bacteroidetes is composed of three large groups of bacteria. By far, more is written about and known about the Bacteroides class, than the other two, the Flavobacteria and the Sphingobacteria classes. They are related by the similarity in the composition of the small 16S subunit of their ribosomes. Members of the bacteroides class are human commensals (they benefit but humans receive no effect) and sometimes pathogens. Members of the other two classes are rarely pathogenic to humans.
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| 217) Eubacteria Phylum Chlamydiae {Klo-mi-DE-I or Klo-mi-DE-E} evolve now according to genetic comparison.
Chlamydiae includes (clamydia, trachoma {Chlamydia trachomatis}, a form of pneumonia {Chlamydophila pneumoniae}, psittacosis {Chlamydophila psittaci}.
The Chlamydiae are a group of bacteria, all of which are intracellular parasites of eukaryotic cells. Most described species infect mammals and birds, but some have been found in other hosts, such as amoebae.
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| 6309) Eubacteria Phylum Chlorobi (green sulphur bacteria) evolve now according to genetic comparison.
Chlorobi are the "green sulphur bacteria", are a family of phototrophic (photosynthesizing) bacteria. Green sulfur bacteria are generally nonmotile (one species has a flagellum), and come in spheres, rods, and spirals. Their environment must be oxygen-free, and they need light to grow. They engage in photosynthesis, using bacteriochlorophylls c, d, and e in vesicles called chlorosomes attached to the membrane. They use sulfide ions as electron donor, and in the process the sulfide gets oxidized, producing globules of elemental sulfur outside the cell, which may then be further oxidized. (By contrast, the photosynthesis in plants uses water as electron donor and produces oxygen.)
A species of green sulfur bacteria has been found living near a black smoker off the coast of Mexico at a depth of 2,500 meters beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean. At this depth, the bacteria, designated GSB1, lives off the dim glow of the thermal vent since no sunlight can penetrate to that depth.
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| 6310) Eubacteria Phylum Verrucomicrobia (VeR-rUKO-mI-KrO-BEo) evolve now according to genetic comparison.
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| 216) (Find any published estimates of how old histones are.)
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| 80)
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| 299) This is required for diploid mitosis.
Duplication of diploid DNA may be very similar to duplication of haploid DNA.
Initially perhaps the diploid DNA duplicated, but still divided in one-division meiosis.
(Instead of a diploid cell dividing back into two haploid cells without their diploid DNA copying after fusion, here the DNA copies and then the division results in two diploid cells.)
(something signals the DNA to copy before the division that is not present in a diploid cell that divides into two haploid cells.)
(Does diploidy have anything to do with bilateral symmetry? How is symmetry defined in DNA? There must be two mirror copies of many large DNA genes that define the various body parts.)
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| 60) Eukaryotic cell. The first cell with a nucleus. The first protist. The nucleus may develop from the infolding of plasma membrane.
All cells have several basic features in common: They are all bounded by a selective barrier, called the plasma membrane. Enclosed by the membrane is a semifluid, jellylike substance called cytosol, in which organelles and other components are found. All cells contain chromosomes, which carry genes in the form of DNA. And all cells have ribosomes, tiny bodies that make proteins according to instructions from the genes.
There are some difference between prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells: In prokaryotic cells the DNA is concentrated in a region that is not membrane enclosed called the "nucleoid" while in eukaryotic cells most of the DNA is contained in a nucleus that is bounded by a double membrane. Eukaryotic cells are generally much larger than prokaryotic cells. Typical bacteria are between 1-5 um in diameter, while eukaryotic cells are typically 10-100 um in diameter. Unlike prokaryotic cells, eukaryotic cells have a cytoskeleton. The cytoskeleton enables eukaryotic cells to change their shape and to surround and engulf other cells. Eukaryotic cells also have internal structures that prokaryotic cells lack such as mitochondria and plastids. DNA in prokaryotic cells is usually in the form of a single cicular chromosome, while DNA in the nucleus of eukaryotes contains linear chromosomes.
Like prokaryotes, this cell is probably haploid (a single unique DNA), most eukaryotes are diploid (having two sets of DNA).
All protists, fungi, animals and plant cells descend from this common eukaryotic cell ancestor.
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| 62) Earliest molecular fossil evidence of eukaryotes (sterane molecules). Steranes are formed from sterols, molecules made by mitochondria.
| Northwestern Australia |
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| 192)
| (Bulawaya rock sequence) Zimbabwe |
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| 214) Biomarkers characteristic of cyanobacteria, 2α-methylhopanes, indicate that oxygenic photosynthesis evolved well before the atmosphere became oxidizing.
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| 207) Cytoskeleton evolves in eukaryote cytoplasm.
One theory is that the cytoskeleton formed from the eukaryote flagella (cilia, undulipodia) tubules. Cytoskeleton is a single body with the endoplasmic reticulum and nuclear membrane?
In recent years it has been shown that bacteria contain a number of cytoskeletal structures. The bacterial cytoplasmic elements include homologs of the three major types of eukaryotic cytoskeletal proteins (actin, tubulin, and intermediate filament proteins) and a fourth group, the MinD-ParA group, that appears to be unique to bacteria. The cytoskeletal structures play important roles in cell division, cell polarity, cell shape regulation, plasmid partition, and other functions. The proteins self-assemble into filamentous structures in vitro and form intracellular ordered structures in vivo. In addition, there are a number of filamentous bacterial elements that may turn out to be cytoskeletal in nature.
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| 208)
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| 65) Eukaryote cells with linear chromosomes (instead of a circular chromosome) evolve.
Perhaps the first eukaryote descended from one of those prokaryotes with linear DNA.
Some prokaryotes without a single circular chromosome are: Agrobacterium tumefaciens (Proteobacteria), Borrellia burgdorferi (Spirochaete), Streptomyces griseus (Actinobacteria).
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| 291) Eukaryote cell evolves two intermediate stages between cell division and DNA synthesis.
In prokaryotes, DNA synthesis can take place uninterrupted between cell divisions, but eukaryotes duplicate their DNA exactly once during a discrete period between cell divisions. This period is called the S (for synthetic) phase. It is preceded by a period called G1 (meaning "first gap") and followed by a period called G2, during which nuclear DNA synthesis does not occur.
For the first time, a cell is not constantly synthesizing DNA and then having a division period (as is the case for all known prokaryotes), but this cell has a period in between cell division and DNA synthesis where DNA synthesis is not performed.
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| 72) Mitosis evolves in Eukaryote cells.
Mitosis is the process in eukaryotic cell division in which the duplicated chromosomes are separated and the nucleus divides resulting in two new nuclei, each of which contains a complete and identical copy of the parental chromosomes. Mitosis is usually immediately followed by cytokinesis, the division of the cytoplasm.
All eukaryote cells divide using the same general plan. The cell division cycle contains four stages, G1 ("first gap"), S ("synthesis"), G2 ("second gap"), and M ("mitotic phase". The first three stages are called "interphase" which alternates with the mitotic phase. Interphase is a much longer stage that often accounts for 90% of the cycle. During interphase the cell grows and copies its chromosomes in preparation for cell division. In the mitotic phase, mitosis, division of the nucleus is followed by cytokinesis. Mitosis is thought to have evolved from prokaryote binary fission. That some proteins involved in prokaryote binary fission are related to eukaryotic proteins that function in mitosis supports the idea that mitosis evolved from prokaryote binary fission. Possible intermediate stages can be seen in some protists. In dinoflagellates, replicated chromosomes are attached to the nuclear envelope which remains in one piece during cell division. Microtubules from outside the nucleus pass through the nucleus inside cytoplasmic tunnels. The nucleus then divides in a process similar to prokaryote binary fission. In diatoms and yeasts the nuclear envelope also remains together during cell division, but inthese eukaryotes the microtubules form a spindle within the nucleus. Microtubules separate the chromosomes and the nucleus splits into two nuclei. Finally, in most eukaryotes including plant and animal cells, the spindle forms outside the nucleus, and the nuclear envelope breaks down during mitosis. Microtubules separate the chromosomes, and the nuclear envelope then forms again.
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| 170) Bacteria live on land.
(It seems likely bacteria lived on land much earlier - and perhaps even with any first arrival from a presumably frozen or solid material object. Even if evolved in Earth oceans, it seems unlikely that there is any significant barrier to bacteria living on the land once the crust of Earth formed.)
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| 73) Eukaryote sex evolves. Two identical cells fuse (isogamy). First diploid cell. First zygote. Increase in genetic variety. Haplontic life cycle.
Because of sex, two cells with different DNA can mix providing more genetic variety. Having two chromosome sets also provides a backup copy of important genes (sequences that code for proteins, or nucleic acids) that might be lost with only a set of single chromosomes.
Eukaryotic sexual reproduction, which is initially the fusion of two cells and their nuclei, probably first occurs in a single cell protist that usually reproduces asexually by mitosis. Two haploid eukaryote cells (cells with one set of chromosomes each) merge and then their nuclei merge (karyogamy) to form the first diploid cell, a cell with two sets of chromosomes, the first zygote.
The earliest form of eukaryote sexual reproduction is probably isogamy, fusion between two identical (genderless) cells.
This fusion of two haploid cells results in the first diploid single-celled organism, which may then immediately divide back to two haploid cells.
Conjugation, the second major kind of sexual phenomenon, which occurs in the eukaryotes ciliates, involves the fusion of gametic nuclei instead of independent gamete cells.
"Syngamy" refers to gamete fusion and "karyogamy" to nucleus fusion. In most cases syngamy is immediately followed by karyogamy, as a result, a fertilized zygote is produced.
Note that gender (anisogamy) probably evolves later, initially sex is probably the fusion of two indistinguishable cells (isogamy).
All sexual species alternate between haploid and diploid. There are three main different types of sexual life cycles; haplontic, haplodiplontic, and diplontic. Most fungi and some protists including some algae are "haplontic"; they make a multicellular haploid stage and no multicellular diploid stage. Plants and some algae are "haplodiplontic"; they make both a multicellular haploid and multicellular diploid organism occurs. Animals are "diplontic"; they make a diploid multicellular organism and no multicellular haploid organism.
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| 206) Meiosis evolves (one-step meiosis: 2 haploid cells or two pronuclei fuse into a diploid cell and a divide into 2 haploid cells).
Meiosis, which looks similar to mitosis, is the process of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes in reproductive cells from diploid to haploid, leading to the production of gametes in animals and spores in plants.
Most protists divide by two-step meiosis, and meiosis with only one cell division is rare.
Without the reduction back to haploid, genomes would double in size with every generation.
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| 210)
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| 296) Gender in eukaryotes evolves. Anisogamy {aNISoGomE}, sex (cell and nucleus fusion) between two cells that are different in size or shape.
Possibly eukaryote cell fusion and gender is directly descended from prokaryote conjugation.
It is interesting to note, that the first sex may have been homosexual sex - that is sex between two identical cells (isogamy).
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| 298) Sex between a flagellated gamete and an unflagellated gamete evolves in protists (oogamy {OoGomE}, a form of anisogamy).
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| 300) Diploid cell fusion (Gamontogamy) evolves.
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| 295) Two-step meiosis (diploid DNA copies and then the cell divides twice into four haploid cells).
Meiosis and mitosis are similar in being nucleus and cell division, but are different. Differences between meiosis and mitosis: 1) At least one crossover per homologous pair happens in 2 step meiosis but crossover usually does not happen in mitosis. (explain crossover) 2) Two step meiosis involves cell divisions that happen one after the other, where the cell division of mitosis only happens after one DNA duplication (there are never 2 mitosis divisions together without a DNA duplication between them to my knowledge).
The cell division in two step meiosis that involves a separation of sister chromatids (not homologous chromosome pairs) is basically identical to mitosis. For two step meiosis, this is the second nucleus and cell division.
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| 171) The Eubacteria phylum "Deinococcus-Thermus" evolves now (includes Thermus Aquaticus {used in PCR}, Deinococcus radiodurans {can survive long exposure to radiation}).
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| 172) Eubacteria phylum, Cyanobacteria {SIeNOBaKTEREu} evolve according to genetic comparison. Cyanobacteria are the ancestor of all eukaryote plastids (for example chloroplasts). There is a conflict between the interpretation of the geological and the genetic evidence: there is fossil evidence that suggests cyanobacteria existed as early as 3800 mybn but the genetic evidence places the origin of cyanobacteria here at 2500 mybn.
Some cyanobacteria (e.g. Anabaena, Synechocystis) can slowly orient themselves along a light vector.
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| 315) Eubacteria Phylum Chloroflexi, (Green Non-Sulphur bacteria) evolve according to genetic comparison.
The Chloroflexi are a group of bacteria that produce ATP through photosynthesis. They make up the bulk of the green non-sulfur bacteria, though some are classified separately in the Phylum Thermomicrobia. They are named for their green pigment, usually found in photosynthetic bodies called chlorosomes.
Chloroflexi are typically filamentous, and can move about through bacterial gliding. They are facultatively aerobic, but do not produce oxygen during photosynthesis, and have a different method of carbon fixation than other photosynthetic bacteria. Phylogenetic trees indicate that they had a separate origin.
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| 52) End of the Archean and start of the Proterozoic {PrOTReZOiK or ProTReZOiK} Eon.
The Proterozoic spans from 2,500 to 542 million years ago, and represents 42% of Earth's history.
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| 56) Banded Iron Formation starts to appear in many places.
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| 59)
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| 316) Cell differentiation evolves in filamentous prokaryotes, creating organisms with different kinds of cells.
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| 322) Nitrogen fixation. Cells can make nitrogen compounds like ammonia from Nitrogen gas.
Unlike most other bacteria, some filamentous cyanobacteria evolved a degree of cell differentiation, producing both specialized cells for nitrogen fixation (heterocysts) and resting cells able to endure environmental stress (akinetes).
Without bacteria that convert N2 into nitrogen compounds, the supply of nitrogen necessary for much of life would be seriously limited and would drastically slow evolution on earth. Nitrogen fixation is the process by which nitrogen is taken from its relatively inert molecular form (N2) in the atmosphere and converted into nitrogen compounds useful for other chemical processes (such as, notably, ammonia, nitrate and nitrogen dioxide).
Nitrogen fixation is performed naturally by a number of different prokaryotes, including bacteria, and actinobacteria certain types of anaerobic bacteria. Many higher plants, and some animals (termites), have formed associations with these microorganisms.
The best-known are legumes (such as clover, beans, alfalfa and peanuts,) which contain symbiotic bacteria called rhizobia within nodules in their root systems, producing nitrogen compounds that help the plant to grow and compete with other plants. When the plant dies, the nitrogen helps to fertilize the soil. The great majority of legumes have this association, but a few genera (e.g., Styphnolobium) do not.
| West Africa |
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| 290) The nucleolus evolves. The nucleolus is a sphere in the nucleus that makes ribosomes.
In some eukaryotes (thought to be more ancient), the nucleolus just divides during mitosis, but in other eukaryotes the nucleolus is dissolved and rebuilt after nuclear division.
In euglenids, kinetoplastids, dinoflagellates, some amoebae and some coccidians, the nucleolus remains visible throughout mitosis and divides into two, but in the majority of groups the nucleolus dissapears and reforms at telophase. That the nucleolus can divide by itself suggests that it was once a free living cell.
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| 198) Rough and smooth endoplasmic reticulum evolves in a eukaryote cell.
The rough ER manufactures and transports proteins destined for membranes and secretion. It synthesizes membrane, organellar, and excreted proteins. Minutes after proteins are synthesized most of them leave to the Golgi apparatus within vesicles. The rough ER also modifies, folds, and controls the quality of proteins.
The smooth ER has functions in several metabolic processes. It takes part in the synthesis of various lipids (e.g., for building membranes such as phospholipids), fatty acids and steroids (e.g., hormones), and also plays an important role in carbohydrate metabolism, detoxification of the cell (enzymes in the smooth ER detoxify chemicals), and calcium storage. It also is a large transporter of nutrient found in each cell.
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| 199) Eukaryote Golgi Apparatus evolves (packages proteins and lipids into vesicles for delivery to targeted destinations).
A vesicle is a closed structure, found only in eukaryotic cells, that is completely surrounded by a membrane but, unlike a vacuole, contains non-liquid material.
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| 47) Evidence of free oxygen accumulating in the air of Earth for the first time, most recent uraninite {YRANninIT}, a mineral that cannot exist for much time if exposed to oxygen.
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| 48) The oldest "Red Beds", iron oxide formed on land, begin here, and are also evidence of more free oxygen in the air of Earth.
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| 150)
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| 63) A parasitic bacterium, closely related to Rickettsia prowazekii, an aerobic proteobacteria, is engulfed by an early eukaryote cell and over time a symbiotic relationship evolves, where the Rickettsia forms the mitochondria.
Mitochondria are membrane-bound organelle found in the cytoplasm of almost all eukaryotic cells where cellular respiration occurs and most of the ATP in a eukaryote cell is produced. Mitochondria are typically round to oval in shape and range in size from 0.5 to 10 μm. The number of mitochondria per cell varies widely. Mitochondria are unlike other cellular organelles in that they have two distinct membranes, a unique genome, and reproduce by binary fission; these features indicate that mitochondria share an evolutionary past with prokaryotes.
In eukaryotes the mitochondria perform the Citric Acid Cycle and Oxidative phosphorylation using oxygen to breakdown pyruvagte from glycolysis into CO2 and H2O, and provide up 36 ATP molecules.
This presumes that all known living eukaryotes descend from a eukaryote that had mitochondria, and that eukaryotes without mitochondria, like the metamonada, lost their mitochondria secondarily.
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| 99)
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| 61) Oldest algae fossil Grypania spiralis (an alga 10 cm long). Earliest filamentous multicellular eukaryote fossil.
Oldest non-acritarch Eukaryote fossil.
The date of this fossil was originally 2100mybn, but Schneider measured the Marquette Range Supergroup (MRS), A rhyolite in the Hemlock Formation, a mostly bimodal submarine volcanic deposit that is laterally correlative with the Negaunee Iron-formation, yields a sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP) U-Pb zircon age of 1874 ± 9 Ma.
In 1992, Han and Runnegar, finders of this fossil, compared the fossil to Acetabularia, a single-celled green algae. If true, this would make Grypania the oldest green algae fossil.
Similar Grypania fossils have been found in the Jixian (Tianjin) and Montana that date to 1200 millions years ago.
Indian populations of Grypania shown by Kumar (1995) that are 1 million years old preserve a distinct millimeter-scale ring-like part that may reflect underlying cell structure. Kumar writes: "... Grypania spiralis was originally described by Tandon and Kumar (1977a) as Katnia signhi, and considered .. a worm, Grpania spiralis shows a spiral disposition of the filament, the presence of septa and also terminal cells. Except for the size, these morphological features indicate an affinity with a Spirulina-type oscillatoriacean form. Grypania also shows a more or less straight and elongated filament. These morpholofical characteristics are comparable to an oscillatorian form, except for the size which is again megascopic. Grypania can be placed under the Cyanobacteria only when the megascopic size if not taken into consideration as no extant Cyanobacteria are megascopic. There is no other characteristic except the megascopic size which supports a eukaryoteic nature of these fossils for assigning them to Algae. Grypania has been place under the Algae by most of the workers ... However, there is a possibility that these forms are prokaryotes and simply represent the phenomenon of gigantism in Cyanobacteria in the Mesoproterozoic. ...".
The Grypania fossils have no blade (leaf structure) or holdfast structures. The oldest algae fossil that has blade, stipe and holdfast are the algae from the Jixian dating to 1700 million years ago.
(It seems unusual that there are no living algae that have a spiral form like this, and the similarity to a worm like helminthes seems possible. If algae there must be no leaf-like structures or hold-fast. There is a similarity with cyanobacteria - possibly cyanobacteria is not as flexible, for example to coil. But there are images of cyanobacteria that are coiled (see image of cyanobacteria coiled in testate amoeba shell. Another possibility is Oscillatoria cyanobacteria, which is named for the movement it makes as it orientates itself to the brightest light source available, from which it gains energy by photosynthesis. However, each filament or trichome is 5 microns in diameter - where Grypania appear to be 5 mm in diameter a difference of 1000x. Perhaps Grypania is some kind of cyanobacteria that is 1000x larger- but no such cyanobacteria have been found to exist now. Note that Oscillatoroia cyanobacteria trichomes coil into a spiral when the algae sense that their habitat is drying up. State arguments against Grypania being a worm.)
Harvard professor Andrew Knoll describes Grypania fossils from 1450 million year old shales in Montana as "...most confidently interpreted as eukaryotic...".
Knoll describes the evolution of eukaryotes according to the fossil record this way: "A modest diversity of problematic, possibly stem group protists occurs in ca 1800–1300 Myr old rocks. 1300–720 Myr fossils document the divergence of major eukaryotic clades, but only with the Ediacaran–Cambrian radiation of animals did diversity increase within most clades with fossilizable members.".
(There is also some resemblance to the green algae Chaetomorpha (see images) - state how reproduce - what nucleus looks like.)
| (Banded Iron Formation) Michigan, USA |
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| 151)
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| 46) End of the Banded Iron Formation.
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| 6279) Earliest possible multicellular brown algae (and Stramenopiles) fossil. These fossils help support a limit for multicellular algal fossil (metaphyta) of at least 1700 million years ago.
If eukaryote these would be the earliest eukaryote fossils with both filamentous multicellularity and cell differentiation and also the earliest algae fossil with leaf structures.
| (Tuanshanzi Formation) Jixian Area, North China |
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| 152)
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| 197) The ancestor of all living eukaryotes divides into bikont and unikont descendants. Bikonts lead to all Chromalveolates, Excavates, Rhizaria, and Plants. Unikonts lead to all Amoebozoa, Animals and Fungi.
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| 202) Ribosomal RNA shows the Protist Phylum Amoebozoa (also called Ramicristates) which includes amoeba and slime molds evolving now.
The Amoebozoa are a major group of amoeboid protozoa, including the majority that move by means of internal cytoplasmic flow. Their pseudopodia are characteristically blunt and finger-like, called lobopodia. Most are unicellular, and are common in soils and aquatic habitats, with some found as symbiotes of other organisms, including several pathogens. The Amoebozoa also include the slime moulds, multinucleate or multicellular forms that produce spores and are usually visible to the unaided eye.
The Mycetozoa comprises two distinct groups of "slime molds", the Myxogastria and Protostelia (Dykstra and Keller 2000). This is a well-defined group of protists, characterized by the ability to form so-called "fruiting bodies". In some lineages of Mycetozoa the fruiting body is raised over the substratum on a distinct stalk. Both groups possess complex life cycles including an aggregation of cells, however the essential difference between them is that in Protostelia, only a pseudoplasmodium is formed (without fusion of the cells constituting the aggregate), while in Myxogastria a true plasmodium is formed (the cells completely fuse, forming a single organism) (Olive 1975; Dykstra and Keller 2000). The monophyly of Mycetozoa was proposed based on elongation factor 1-alpha gene sequences (Baldauf and Doolittle 1997) but it is not always recovered in SSU rRNA trees (Cavalier-Smith et al. 2004; Nikolaev et al. 2004).
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| 173) Earliest probable fungi microfossils, "Tappania plana". If true this would be the oldest eukaryote fossil.
| (Roper Group) Northern Australia |
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| 220) Protists Opisthokonts (ancestor of Fungi, Choanoflagellates and Animals). Mitochondria with flattened christae.
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| 38) There are many uncertainties surrounding the origin of multicellularity. Multicellularity may have evolved independently for Plants, Fungi and Animals, or multicellularity may have evolved only once in eukaryotes. Which species was the first multicellular species is not clear. Multicellularity is found in all 3 life cycles (haplontic, diplontic, haplodiplontic). The 3 main life cycle types (haplontic, etc.) probably evolved in single cell species before multicellularity evolved. If multicellularity evolved once and is inherited, perhaps all multicellular organism descended from a single haplodiplontic organism.
These multicellular organisms have undifferentiated cells in the multicellular stage (all cells in the haploid or diploid multicellular organism are made of one kind of cell).
In sponges, the most ancient living multicellular eukaryote species, all cells are "totipotent", which means that every cell is capable of becoming any of the sponge's different cell types. Any isolated cell is capable of growing an entire new sponge. In sponges there is no distinction between germ line and soma.
Dinophyta, and Fungi are multicellular Haplontic species. Most animals are multicellular Diplontic species. Most brown algae and all plants are multicellular Haplodiplontic species.
The vast majority of multicellular organisms reproduce only through sex, although there are exceptions (like some plants and rotifers) which have lost the ability to sexually reproduce or can also reproduce asexually. In multicellularity, one cell goes on to produce all the cells in a multicellular species, so that each individual organism is genetically unique. This cell is usually a diploid zygote, but can be a haploid cell.
This protist is most likely sexual, and multicellularity evolves only in a species that reproduces sexually.
Some describe algae multicellularity as "filamentous".
The first multicellular eukaryuotes are presumably undifferentiated. For haplontic organisms these cells are all gametes, for diplontic organisms the cells are all capable of meiosis to form gametes, and for haplodiplontic organisms, in the haploid stage the cells are all gamete producing, in the diploid stage the cells are all spore producing.
Some people think that multicellular organisms arose at least six times: in animals, fungi and several groups of algae.
(What did the first multicellular organism look like? Perhaps it was a haplontic protist that only did one or more haploid mitoses, but this time the cells stuck together (perhaps similar to the way bacteria form filaments). )
(An interesting aspect of multicellular organisms is that oxygen must still reach each cell for mitochondria to work, and so this requires that the cells be only 1 cell thick, or if thicker have some kind of (circulatory) system for oxygen to reach each cell.)
(Are the first multicellular eukaryote cells already differentiated? One alternative is that they are all haploid gamete cells that grow as a mass and create a new diploid zygote through fusion or conjugation. One possibility is a transformational colonialism, where a single colonial cell can change into different types of colonial cell.)
Knoll describes Grypania fossils from 1450 million year old shales in Montana as "...most confidently interpreted as eukaryotic..." but Grypania has also been interpreted as representing the phenomenon of gigantism in Cyanobacteria.
(Needs more research, to be clearer, more explanation, and citations of published opinions of those in the field.)
| (earlest red alga fossils:) (Hunting Formation) Somerset Island, arctic Canada |
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| 67) First "plastids". Cyanobacteria form plastids (chloroplasts) through symbiosis, within a eukaryote cell (endosymbiosis). Like mitochondria, these organelles copy themselves and are not made by the cell DNA.
Chloroplasts use their green pigment to trap light particles to synthesize carbon compounds from carbon dioxide and water supplied by the host plant.
This is a primary plastid endosymbiosis, and genetic analysis supports the theory that all green plants, which are eukaryotes with double membrane plastids, are descended from a single common ancestor. All primary plastids are surrounded by two membranes, because the cyanobacteria was enclosed in a vacuole. The inner wall being that of the bacterium, the outer wall that of the alga.
A secondary plastid endosymbiosis, where an algae cell is captured instead of a cyanobacteria, results in a plastid with more than two membranes.
A third (tertiary) plastid endosymbiosis occurs when an alga containing a plastid of secondary endosymbiotic origin is engulfed and reduced to a photosynthetic organelle.
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| 209)
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| 219)
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| 323) Protists Excavates: includes Parabasalids {PaRu-BAS-a-liDS}, and Diplomonads {DiP-lO-mO-naDZ} {like Giardia {JE-oR-DE-u}).
Most of these species have an excavated ventral feeding groove, and all lack mitochondria. However, mitochondria are thought by many to be lost secondarily because parabasalids contain hydrogenosomes and the diplomonad Giardia intestinalis contains mitosomes, both of which are descended from mitochondria. Neither hydrogenosomes nor mitosomes have been found to contain mechanisms of oxidative phosphorylation. Hydrogenosomes and mitosomes occur among eukaryotes that have oxygen-independent ATP synthesis. The view is that the anaerobic eukaryotes lack aerobic mitochondria but contain anaerobic mitochondria. Hydrogenosomes were identified in 1973 and mitosomes in 1999.
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| 187) A captured red alga (rhodophyte), through endosymbiosis, becomes a plastid in the ancestor of all chromalveolates.
A secondary plastid endosymbiosis, where an algae cell is captured instead of a cyanobacterium, has happened at least three times. A secondary plastid symbiosis results in a plastid with more than two membranes. Two groups have acquired plastids from green algae independently: the euglenozoa, which are fresh-water algae, and the chlorarachniophytes. Five algal lineages have plastids of red algal origin. These include the crytophytes, the haptophytes, the Strameopiles, which all together are the Chromista, and the Alveolates apicomplexans and dinoflagellates. The alveolate ciliates are thought to have lost their plastid and no traces of the organelle have yet been found.
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| 15) Differentiation in multicellular eukaryote. Gamete (or spore) cells and somatic cells. Unlike gamete cells, somatic cells are asexual (non-fusing), and are not omnipotent. Start of death by aging.
Cell differentiation is how cells in a multicellular organism become specialized to perform specific functions in a variety of tissues and organs.
All cells of an organism, except the sperm and egg cells, the cells from which they arise (gametocytes) and undifferentiated stem cells, are somatic cells.
Another early cell differentiation are that only the cell at the tip of the filament can divide while the older cells below the tip do not divide.
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| 88) Genetic comparison shows the ancestor of the "Chromalveolates" {KrOM-aL-VEO-leTS} evolving now. Chromalveolates include the Chromista and Alveolata. The Chromista include the 3 Phyla Cryptophyta (Cryptomonads), Haptophyta, and Stramenopiles (also known as Heterokontophyta) (brown algae {kelp}, diatoms, water molds). Alveolata include the 3 Phyla Dinoflagellata, Apicomplexa (Malaria, Toxoplasmosis), and Ciliophora (ciliates).
Genetic comparison shows the ancestor of the "Chromalveolates" evolving now. Chromalveolates include the Chromista and Alveolata. The Chromista include the 3 Phyla Haptophyta, Cryptophyta (Cryptomonads), and Heterokontophyta (brown algae {kelp}, diatoms, water molds). Alveolata include the 3 Phyla Dinoflagellata, Apicomplexa (Malaria, Toxoplasmosis), and Ciliophora (ciliates).
Chromealveolates have mitochondria with tubular cristae.
Thomas Cavalier-Smith writes: "The chromalveolate clade (Cavalier-Smith 1999) and its constituent taxa, kingdom Chromista (Cavalier-Smith 1981) and protozoan infrakingdom Alveolata (Cavalier-Smith 1991b), were all proposed based on morphological, biochemical, and evolutionary reasoning about protein targeting before there was sequence evidence for any of them. Now all are strongly supported by such evidence. Chromalveolates comprise all algae with chlorophyll c (the chromophyte algae) and all their nonphotosynthetic descendants. They arose by a single symbiogenetic event in which an early unicellular red alga was phagocytosed by a biciliate host and enslaved to provide photosynthate (Cavalier-Smith 1999, 2002c, 2003a). The strongest evidence that this occurred once only in their cenancestor is the replacement of the red algal plastid glyceraldehyde phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) by a duplicate of the gene for the cytosolic version of this enzyme in all four chromalveolate groups with plastids: the alveolate sporozoa and dinoflagellates and the chromist cryptomonads and chromobiotes (Fast et al. 2001). It would be incredible for such gene duplication, retargeting by acquiring bipartite targeting sequences, and loss of the original red algal gene to have occurred convergently in four groups, but it was already pretty incredible that these groups would all have evolved a similar protein-targeting system independently and all happened to enslave a red alga, evolve chlorophyll c, and place their plastids within the rough endoplasmic reticulum (ER) independently. Yet many assumed just this because of the false dogma that symbiogenesis is easy and the failure of all these groups to cluster in rRNA trees. For chromobiotes this retargeting of GAPDH has been demonstrated only for heterokonts-information is lacking for haptophytes. However, there are five strong synapomorphies for Chromobiota, making it highly probable that the group is holophyletic (Cavalier-Smith 1994). They share the presence of the periplastid reticulum in the periplastid space instead of a nucleomorph like cryptomonads, they uniquely make the carotenoid fucoxanthin and chlorophyll c3, they uniquely have a single autofluorescent cilium, and they have tubular mitochondrial cristae with an intracristal filament. Five plastid genes now extremely robustly support the monophyly of both chromists and chromobiotes (Yoon et al. 2002). We are confident that comparable sequence evidence from nuclear genes will also eventually catch up with the general biological evidence for the holophyly of chromobiotes to convince even the most skeptical, who ignore or discount such valuable evidence that chromobiotes are holophyletic."
Chromista include phyla: Heterokontophyta (heterokonts) (many classes) (includes colored: golden algae, axodines, diatoms, yellow-green algea, brown algae, colorless: water moulds, slime nets) Haptophyta Cryptophyta (cryptomonads) (many genera)
Alveolates include the phyla: Dinoflagellata (Dinoflagellates) Apicomplexa (Apicomplexans) Ciliophora (ciliates)
In 1981 Cavalier-Smith created a new kingdom called "Chromista" in which all chromalveolates are placed.
There are a number of classification schemes for the kingdom Protista and no one system has emerged as most popular yet.
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| 201) Earliest certain eukaryote fossils and earliest certain fossils of eukaryote filamentous multicellularity: Rhodophyta (red algae) fossils named "Bangiomorpha pubescens".
These are also the earliest fossils of a eukaryote that can reproduce sexually and that have differentiated cells (a basal holdfast).
Bangiomorpha pubescens is a large population of multicellular microfossils found in tidal flat deposits of the Hunting Formation in Arctic Canada, which is around 1200 millions years old. These filaments display patterns of thallus organization, cell division, and cell differentiation that ally them to the bangiophyte red algae.
These fossils are related to modern species of red algae in the genus Bangia.
Modern Bangia has a macroscopic multicellular haploid stage, and a microscopic multicellular diploid stage, although no multicellular diploid stage is seen in these fossils.
| (Hunting Formation) Somerset Island, arctic Canada |
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| 301) Haplodiplontic life cycle (mitosis occurs in both haploid and diploid life stages).
In land plants the haploid (gametophyte) stage is reduced to only a few cells. Since double DNA chromosomes (diploid) provides more possibilities than a single chromosome, diploid organisms have a selective advantage over haploid organisms.
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| 153)
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| 221) First fungi. This begins the Fungi Kingdom.
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| 6295) Earliest possible fossil worm trails.
The trace-like fossils suggest the presence of vermiform (the long, thin, cylindrical shape of a worm), mucus-producing, motile organisms.
| (Stirling Range Formation) Southwestern Australia |
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| 305) Chromista "Cryptophyta" {KriPTuFITu} (Cryptomonads {KRiPToMunaDZ}).
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| 6280) Protists Alveolates {aL-VEO-leTS} (ancestor of all Ciliates, Apicomplexans, and Dinoflagellates {DInOFlaJeleTS}).
DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Protozoa (Goldfuss, 1818) R. Owen, 1858 - protozoa SUBKINGDOM Biciliata INFRAKINGDOM Alveolata Cavalier-Smith, 1991 PHYLUM Myzozoa Cavalier-Smith & Chao, 2004 PHYLUM Ciliophora (Doflein, 1901) Copeland, 1956 - ciliates
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| 86) Genetic comparison shows Phylum Glaucophyta evolving now. Some people categorize Glaucophyta in the kingdom Plantae instead of Protists, and label glaucophyta the most ancient living plants.
The glaucophytes, also referred to as glaucocystophytes or glaucocystids, are a tiny group of freshwater algae. They are distinguished mainly by the presence of cyanelles, primitive chloroplasts which closely resemble cyanobacteria and retain a thin peptidoglycan wall between their two membranes.
It is thought that the green algae (from which the higher plants evolved), red algae and glaucophytes acquired their chloroplasts from endosymbiotic cyanobacteria. The other types of algae received their chloroplasts through secondary endosymbiosis, by engulfing one of those types of algae along with their chloroplasts.
The glaucophytes are of obvious interest to biologists studying the development of chloroplasts: if the hypothesis that primary chloroplasts had a single origin is correct, glaucophytes are closely related to both green plants and red algae, and may be similar to the original alga type from which all of these developed.
Glaucophytes have mitochondria with flat cristae, and undergo open mitosis without centrioles. Motile forms have two unequal flagella, which may have fine hairs and are anchored by a multilayered system of microtubules, both of which are similar to forms found in some green algae.
The chloroplasts of glaucophytes, like the cyanobacteria and the chloroplasts of red algae, use the pigment phycobilin to capture some wavelengths of light; the green algae and higher plants have lost that pigment.
There are three main genera included here. Glaucocystis is non-motile, though it retains very short vestigial flagella, and has a cellulose wall. Cyanophora is motile and lacks a cell wall. Gloeochaete has both motile and non-motile stages, and has a cell wall that does not appear to be composed of cellulose.
DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Plantae Haeckel, 1866 - plants SUBKINGDOM Biliphyta Cavalier-Smith, 1981 PHYLUM Glaucophyta Skuja, 1954 CLASS Glaucocystophyceae Schaffner, 1922
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| 188) Plant Green Algae evolves now according to genetic comparison. Green Algae is composed of the two Phlya Chlorophyta (volvox, sea lettuce) and Charophyta (Spirogyra).
The first land plants most likely evolved from green algae.
Cysts resembling modern Micromonadophyceae cysts date from about 1.2 billion years ago. Tasmanites formed the Permian "white coal", or tasmanite, deposits of Tasmania and similar deposits in Alaska. Certain Ulvophyceae fossils that date from about one billion years ago are abundant in Paleozoic rocks.
Knoll et al cite the earliest recognized green algae fossil as Proterocladus which dates to 750 million years ago.
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| 75) Oldest extant fungi phylum "Microsporidia" evolves now according to genetic comparison.
Microsporidia are obligate (survive only as) intracellular parasites of eukaryotes.
Microsporidians have some of the smallest eukaryotic genomes known (~2.3 Million base pairs).
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| 6284) Oldest molecular fossil evidence of Dinoflagellates, triaromatic dinosteranes.
Dinosterane, derived from dinosterol produced by dinoflagellates, occurs in the 1.1 Ga Nonesuch Formation, in the United States.
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| 87) Excavate Discicristates {DiSKIKriSTATS}, ancestor of protists which have mitochondria with discoidal shaped cristae (includes euglenids, leishmanias {lEsmaNEuZ}, trypanosomes {TriPaNiSOMZ}, kinetoplastids {KiNeTuPlaSTiDZ}, and acrasid {oKrASiD} slime molds).
The discicristates include photosynthetic flagellates, such as the green Euglena, and parasitic ones, such as Trypanosoma, which causes sleeping sickness. There are also the acrasid slime molds, which are not closely related to the amoebozoan dictyostelid and plasmodial slime molds.
Some euglenids exhibit colonialism and have a cell covering ("pellicle").
In eukaryote mitochondria there are three kinds of christae (the inner membrane protrustions of mitochondria): discoidal, tubular, and flattened. Discoidal are found in kinetoplasts and euglynoids, tubular christae are found in diatoms, crysophyte algae, and apicomplexans, and Flattened cristae are found in opisthokonts (animals and fungi) and both green and red algae.
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| 97) A eukaryote eye evolves; the first three-dimensional response to light.
The earliest eye probably evolves from a plastid. The first proto eye is a light sensitive area in a unicellular eukaryote.
Eukaryotes are the first organisms to evolve the ability to follow light direction in three dimensions in open water.
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| 203) Colonialism (where cells form a colony) evolves for the first time in Eukaryotes.
Colonialism may evolve independently in more than once in protists.
Euglenozoa may be the oldest eukaryote to exhibit colonialism. Perhaps eukaryote colonialism is partially or fully inherited from prokaryotes, but colonialism may have evolved independently again in eukaryotes.
Many cells that form colonies are unicellular and apparently identical but because each cell in the colony is exposed to a different environment, they transcribe different genes. For example, cells in the center of a bacterial colony growing on an agar plate see different nutrients and wastes compared to those at the edge, and so transcribe different genes, and activate different metabolic pathways.
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| 169) Protists Stramenopiles {STro-meN-o-Pi-lEZ} (also called Heterokonts) (ancestor of all brown and golden algae, diatoms, and oomycota {Ou-mI-KO-Tu)).
The strameopiles consist of some 9,000 species including diatoms, brown and golden algae (the Chrysophytes), some heterotrophic flagellates, labyrinthulids (slime nets), and Oomycetes and Hyphochytridiomycetes (formerly classified as fungi). A few stramenopiles form complex, rigid colonies and may reach extremely large sizes. It may be difficult to imagine that diatoms and kelp are closely related. There similarity is based on the fact that that almost all have unique, complex, three-part tubular hairs on the flagella at some stage in the life cycle. The name Stramenopiles (Latin stamen, "straw"; pilius "hair") refers to the appearance of these hairs.
Stramenopiles are found in a variety of habitats. Freshwater and marine plankton are rich in diatoms and chrysophytes, and they can also occur in moist soils, sea ice, snow and glaciers. Stramenopiles have even been found living in clouds in the atmosphere. Heterotrophic free-living stramenopiles are also found in marine, estuarine, and freshwater habitats. A few are symbiotic on algae in marine or stuarine environments. Many produce calcite or silicon scales, shells, cysts, or test, which are preserved in the fossil record. The oldest of these fossils are from the Cambrian/Precambrian boundary about 550 million years ago.
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| 297) Diplontic life cycle; organism is predominantly diploid, mitosis in the haploid phase does not occur.
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| 304) Protist Phlyum "Haptophyta" Coccolithophores evolves now according to genetic comparison.
Fossils of this group date back into the Jurassic (201-145 my), where they first become abundant, and some possible fossils of coccolithophores have been recovered from the Pennsylvanian (318-299 my) The group made a sudden and rapid appearance of new forms in the early Jurassic (201-176 my), and reached its greatest abundance in the Late Cretaceous (99-65 my). Near the end of the Cretaceous (65 my), the coccolithophores suffered a mass extinction of groups; two-thirds of the 50 genera disappear at that time, though many new groups appear in the Paleocene (65-55 my).
Some Haptophytes are haplodiploid (alternate between haploid and diploid cycles that both have mitosis), and this group is the most primitive with a haplodiploid life cycle.
Haptophytes are single cellular.
Haptophytes are found only in all oceans (marine) and are flagellates, almost all with plastids with chlorophylls a and c, with two flagella and one additional locomotor/feeding organelle, the haptonema.
Haptophyta are a group of algae (phytoplankton). The chloroplasts are pigmented similarly to those of the heterokonts, such as golden algae, but the structure of the rest of the cell is different, so it may be that they are a separate line whose chloroplasts are derived from similar endosymbionts. The cells typically have two slightly unequal flagella, both of which are smooth, and a unique organelle called a haptonema, which is superficially similar to a flagellum but differs in the arrangement of microtubules and in its use. Haptophytes have tubular mitochondria cristae. Most haptophytes are coccolithophores, which live strictly in the oceans (marine) and are ornmmented with calcified scales called coccoliths, which are sometimes found as microfossils. Other planktonic haptophytes of note include Chrysochromulina and Prymnesium, which periodically form toxic marine algal blooms. Both molecular and morphological evidence supports their division into five orders.
Emiliania is a small organism that is famous for turning huge portions of the ocean bright turquoise during its blooms. They are also known for contributing to the white cliffs of Dover because of the calcite in their coccolith cell structure. They play a very important role in the carbon cycle in the ocean because they form calcium carbonate exoskeletons that sink to the bottom of the ocean floor when they die. They are also one of the worlds major calcite producers.
Sexual reproduction: Asexual, Open mitosis with spindle nucleating (originating?) in cytoplasm. Phaeocystis colonial cells diploid, motile cells haploid or diploid; reproduction by vegetative division of non-motile cells and fragmentation of colonies, vegetative division of motile cells, or by fusion of gametes.
Members of the Haptophytes Genus "Phaocystis" form colonies (see photo).
Haptophytes are also called "Prymnesiophytes"
Some Haptophyta have hard shell made of calcium carbonate evolves around the single-celled species living in the ocean.
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| 313) Protist Phylum "Dinoflagellata" evolve (Dinoflagellates {DI-nO-Fla-Je-leTS}).
Dinoflagellates are single-celled, aquatic organisms that have two dissimilar flagella and characteristics of both plants (algae) and animals (protozoans). Most are microscopic and marine. The group is an important component of plankton, and an important link in the food chain. Dinoflagellates also produce part of the luminescence sometimes seen in the sea. In favorable conditions, dinoflagellate populations may rapidly grow, reaching up to 60 million organisms per liter of water. This rise called a "bloom" results in the red tides that discolor the sea and poison fish and other marine animals.
Dinoflagellates are typically unicellular but sometimes filementous or coenocytic {SE-nO-SiTiK} (a multinucleate cytoplasmic mass enclosed by a single cell wall, found in slime molds, certain fungi and algae). Dinoflagellates typically have two flagella and are found in both marine and fresh water environments worldwide. The name "dinoflagellate" refers to the distinctive whirling motion of the swimming cells. Photosynthetic species are responsible for being an enormous primary (food source), but many species, whether photosynthetic of not, can also be predators. Some species produce potent toxins that can be a cause of morbidity and mortality from direct exposure or indirectly as a result of accumulation in top predators.
Dinosterane, derived from dinosterol produced by dinoflagellates, occurs in the 1.1 Ga Nonesuch Formation, in the United States.
The earliest undisputed, structural fossils of dinoflagellates are cysts dating from the Triassic (251-201 Ma), with a few likely Permian records. Some Silurian (c410 Ma) fossils have been attributed to the group but the relation is uncertain. Acritarchs are microfossils with no known affinity. Some people have tried to link acritarchs with dinoflagellates. Some later acritarchs from the Jurassic and Cretaceous, have been shown to be dinoflagellate cysts and so are no longer treated like acritarchs. A correlation has been noted between the presence of triaromatic dinosteroids and acritarch abundance, implying that these acritarchs may be the cysts of ancestral dinoflagellates.
Dinoflagellates are the only group currently known to have tertiary plastids (when an alga containing a plastid of secondary endosymbiotic origin, for example a chromist, is engulfed and reduced to a photosynthetic organelle). Tertiary plastids in dinoflagellates have been acquired from haptophyte and prasinophyte algae and from diatoms. Currently there are five plastids known in dinoflagellates, each with its own evolutionary history.
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| 306) Earliest certain Stramenopiles fossil a xanthophyte (or yellow-green algae): "Palaeovaucheria".
| (Lakhanda Group) Siberia |
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| 154)
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| 223) Fungi "Chytridiomycota" {KI-TriDEO-mI-KO-Tu) evolves according to genetic comparison (includes all Chytridiomycetes {KI-TriDEO-mI-SE-TEZ})).
Chytridiomycota is a division of the Fungi kingdom and contains only one class, Chytridiomycetes. The name refers to the chytridium (from the Greek, chytridion, meaning "little pot"): the structure containing unreleased spores.
The chytrids are primitive fungi and are mostly saprobic (feed on dead species, degrading chitin and keratin). Many chytrids are aquatic (mostly found in freshwater). There are approximately 1,000 chytrid species, in 127 genera, distributed among 5 orders. Both zoospores and gametes of the chytrids are mobile by their flagella, one whiplash per individual. The thalli are coenocytic and usually form no true mycelium (having rhizoids instead). Some species are unicellular.
Some chytrid species are known to kill frogs in large numbers by blocking the frogs' respiratory skins - the infection is referred to as chytridomycosis. Decline in frog populations led to the discovery of chytridomycosis in 1998 in Australia and Panama. Chytrids may also infect plant species; in particular, maize-attacking and alfalfa-attacking species have been described.
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| 324) Protists (Mesomycetozoea {me-ZO-mI-SE-TO-ZO-u} (also called DRIPS).
Mesomycetozoea are in the protist Phylum Choanozoa (which includes Choanoflagellates). This phylum contains the first protozoans (Choanoflagellates), thought to be the ancestor of sponges.
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| 309) Protist Phylum Oomycota {Ou-mI-KO-Tu} evolves according to genetic comparison, (includes the Class Oomycetes) (Water molds).
Oomycetes (Water molds), with about 580 species, vary from unicellular, to multicellular highly brached filamentous forms.
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| 155)
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| 326) The Choanozoans "Choanoflagellates" and "Acanthoecida" evolve. Choanoflagel lates are the closest relatives to the animals and may be direct ancestors of sponges.
There are about 140 species of choanoflagellates. Some are free-swimmingpropelling themselves with a flagellum. Others are attached by a stalk, sometimes with several together in a colony. Choanoflagellates use their flagellum to drive water into the funnel where food particles like bacteria are trapped and engulfed. This is different from the choanocytes of sponges where each flagellum is used to draw water in through holes in the walls of the sponge and our through the sponge's main opening.
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| 6281) Protists Rhizaria {rI-ZaR-E-u} (ancestor of all Radiolaria, Foraminifera and Cercozoa).
The Rhizaria are an assemblage, or supergroup, of eukaryotes comprising mostly amoeboid protists, including ‘skeleton’-forming types such as the foraminiferans and radiolarians(). Some authorities now include Rhizaria in a broader grouping – the RAS (or SAR) group – with the alveolates and stramenopiles.
The term Rhizaria refers to the root-like filose and reticulose pseudopodia characterizing the majority of the taxa included in it. The existence of this supergroup is based exclusively on molecular evidence.
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855,000,000 YBN
| 286) In sponges all cells are "totipotent", which means that every cell is capable of becoming any of the sponge's different cell types. Any isolated cell is capable of growing an entire new sponge. In sponges there is no distinction between germ line and soma.
Some people think that multicellular organisms arose at least six times: in animals, fungi and several groups of algae.
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850,000,000 YBN
| 81) The first animal and first metazoan evolves (Porifera: sponges). Metazoans are multicellular and have differentiation (their cells perform different functions). There are only three major kinds of metazoans: sponges, cnidarians, and bilaterians (which include all insects and vertebrates).
Sponges have different cell types: cells that form a body wall, cells that secrete the skeleton, contractile cells, cells that digest food, and other kinds of cell types.
All sponge cells are totipotent and are capable of regrowing a new sponge. Mixtures of sponge cells of two species reconstitute into the separate sponge species.
Sponges have no nerve cells or muscles. Like plants their movement is at the cellular level. Sponges live by passing a constant current of water through their body from which they filter food particles.
Porifera are loosely constructed, but all other later animals including cnidarians and ctenophores have cells which are grouped together as tissues that are arranged in layers.
All sponges are capable of sexual and asexual reproduction. There is a large diversity of sexual reproductive sequences in sponges. Sperm are formed from choanocytes, and eggs from choanocytes or archaeocytes. Generally, sperm are contained in spermatic cysts, which are choanocyte chambers transformed by spermatogenesis. Eggs are distributed throughout the mesohyl. Some sponges are oviparous (zygote develops outside the body). Following gamete release, fertilization and development occur externally. Other sponges are viviparous, with fertilization and development both occurring in the mesohyl.
Some sponges can live for over 1000 years.
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850,000,000 YBN
| 224) Fungi division "Zygomycota" (bread molds, pin molds) evolve now according to genetic comparison.
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850,000,000 YBN
| 517)
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804,000,000 YBN
| 319) Protist Phylum "Radiolaria" {rADEOlaREo} (ocean protists, many with silica shells).
Radiolarians are protists found in the upper layers of all oceans. Radiolarians, are mostly spherically symmetrical, and known for their complex and beautifully tiny skeletons, called "tests". Tests are usually made of silica (SiO2).
Radiolarian skeletons are used to analyze the layers of the sedimentary record.
The earliest radiolarian fossils date to the earliest Cambrian (540 mybn).
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804,000,000 YBN
| 321) Protist Phylum "Foraminifera" {FOraMiniFRu} evolves.
Foraminifera (or "forams" for short), are unicellular protists characterized by long, fine pseudopodia that extend from a cytoplasmic body encased within a test, or shell. Shell sizes may be as large as 5 cm in diameter.
Forams are the most diverse and most widely studied of microfossils. Forams are related to the amoeba but unlike an amoeba they have a shell. Forams secret skeletons of calcium carbonate (the mineral calcite), which is different than radiolarians which secrete skeletons of silica. Most are marine and live on or in the sea bottom (are benthic) but one family is tiny and buoyant and make up a major part of the marine plankton.
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780,000,000 YBN
| 79) Metazoan Phylum "Placozoa" evolves.
Placozoans look like amoebas but are multicellular. The only known species in this phylum is Trichoplax adhaerens. Trichoplax lives in the sea and feeds on single celled organisms, mostly algae. Trichoplax has only 4 cell types compared to the more than 200 cell types in humans. Trichoplax has two main cell layers, like a cnidarian or ctenophore. Between these two layers are a few contractile cells that are similar to muscle cells, however placozoans lack muscle and nerve cells and have no symmetry or organs. Trichoplax has only 1 hox gene (Trox-2).
Possible eggs have been observed, but they degrade at the 32-64 cell stage. Neither embryonic development nor sperm have been observed, however Trichoplax genomes show evidence of sexual reproduction.
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| 312) Protist Phylum "Ciliophora" ("Ciliates") evolves according to genetic comparison (includes parameceum). Earliest mitochondria with tubular christae.
There are about 12,000 described species of ciliates. Ciliates are very common in benthic and planktonic communities in both marine and fresh water. Both sessile and free moving types are known and many are ecto- or endosymbionts, including some parasitic species. Most are single celled, but branching and linear colonies are known in several species. Ciliates have a fixed shape which is maintained by the alveolar membrane system and underlying fibrous layer. Ciliates use their cilia for movement. Mitochondria in ciliates have tubular cristae. Ciliates have two distinct types of nuclei, a hyperpolyploid macronucleus and a diploid micronucleus. Ciliates reproduce by asexual reproduction using transverse binary fission, and by sexual reproduction using conjugation: a pair of ciliates fuse and exchange micronuclei through a cytoplasmic connection at a point of joining. Ciliates include many different feeding types. Some are filter feeders, others capture and inject other protists or small invertebrates, many eat algal filaments or diatoms, some eat attached bacteria, and a few are saprophytic parasites (live on dead or decaying organic matter). In almost all ciliates feeding is restricted to a specialized area containing the "cytostome or "cell mouth". Food vacuoles are formed at the cytosome and then circulated through the cytoplasm as digestion occurs. A few ciliates (for example Laboea, and Stronbidium) contain photosynthetically functional chloroplasts derived from injested algae. The chloroplasts lie free in the cytoplasm, beneath the pellicle, where they actively contribute to the ciliate's carbon budget.
A few ciliates (for example tintinnids), secrete external skeletons, or loricae, which have been found in the fossil record as early as the Late Proterozoic in the Doushantuo Formation (580 million years ago). Biomarkers for ciliates have been found dating back ever farther to 850 million years ago.
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| 314) Protist Phylum "Apicomplexa" {a-Pi-KoM-PleK-Su} (Malaria, Toxoplasmosis) evolve according to genetic comparison.
The ciliophora, apicomplexa and dinoflagelatta are under the title alveolata because they have an alveolar membran system, which contains flattened membrane-bound sacs (alveoli) lying beneath the outer cell membrane.
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| 41) Cells that group as tissues that are arranged in layers evolve in metazoans.
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| 83) First nerve cell (neuron), and nervous system evolves in the ancestor of the Ctenophores and Cnidarians. This leads to the first ganglion and brain. Earliest touch and sound detection.
The most primitive extant organisms that contain a neuron cell are the ctenophora.
Simple and sessile cnidarians have no sense organs, but they do have sensory cells in both tissues that respond to light, chemical or mechanical stimuli. These sensory cells are often structurally similar to those of vertebrates. Each has a cilium that protrudes into the water. The sensory cells synapse (are closely spaced to) with nerve cells, allowing the animal to generally respond to stimuli at a distance instead of responding at the site of the stimulus.
Some Cnidarians have ganglia, aggregations of nerve cells.
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| 96)
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| 204) Earliest known fossil protozoan (single celled nonphotosynthesizing eukaryotes) and earliest fossil of a testate amoeba.
This fossil indicates that the last common ancestor of animals and fungi appeared at least 750 million years ago.
This fossil was found in the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
| ( black shales of Chuar Group) Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA |
750,000,000 YBN
| 225) Closeable mouth evolves in metazoans.
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| 414) Radiata Ctenophores {TeNOFORZ} evolve (comb jellies). Unlike the Porifera, in Ctenophores and all later metazoans, cells group as tissues. Ctenophora are the earliest still living phylum to have nerve and muscle cells.
Ctenophora were initially wrongly categorized as jellyfish. Like jellyfish, the bodies of Ctenophora are built from only two layers of tissue, their main body cavity is also the digestive chamber, and they have a simple nerve net. Hair-like cilia propel the ctenophora instead of the pulsating muscles which propel jellyfish.
While the Porifera (sponges) have no obvious symmetry, Cnidarians have radial symmetry, and Ctenophores have biradial symmetry.
Ctenophores are hermaphroditic. Ovaries and testies differentiate from the endoderm lining the eight meridional canals. The gametes are released through temporary gonopores, and fertilization is external.
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750,000,000 YBN
| 458) Fungi Phylum "Glomeromycota" (Arbuscular {oRBuSKYUlR} mycorrhizal {MIKerIZL} fungi).
Glomeromycota {GlO-mi-rO-mI-KO-Tu} are also know by their class name Glomeromycetes {GlO-mi-rO-mI-SETS}
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| 6320) Earliest chemical biomarker evidence of animals (metazoans), steranes associated with demosponges.
Demosponges comprise 85% of all extant sponge species.
| (Huqf Supergroup) South Oman Salt Basin, Oman |
700,000,000 YBN
| 82) Radiata Phylum Cnidarians {NIDAREeNS} evolve (sea anemones, corals, jellyfish). Earliest animal eye.
Cnidaria {NIDAREeo} are a phylum of invertebrate animals composed of the sea anemones, corals, jellyfish, and hydroids. Cnidarians are radially symmetrical. The mouth, located at the center of one end of the body, opens into a gastrovascular cavity, which is used for digestion and distribution of food, there is no anus. Cnidarians have a body wall composed of three layers: an outer epidermis, an inner gastrodermis, and a middle mesogloea. Tentacles encircle the mouth and are used in part for food capture. Specialized stinging structures, called nematocysts, are a characteristic of the phylum and are located in the tentacles and often in other body parts. These contain a coiled fiber that can be extruded suddenly. Some nematocysts contain toxic substances and are defense mechanisms, while others are adhesive, helping to anchor the animal or to entangle prey.
Cnidarians have two alternate body plans, the polyp and the medusa. A sea anemone or Hydra is a typical polyp: non-moving, mouth on top, bottom end fixed to the ground like a plant. A jellyfish is a typical medusa, swimming through the open sea. Many cnidarians have both polyp and medusa forms, alternating them through life cycle, like caterpillar and butterfly. Polyps often reproduce by budding, like plants. A new baby polyp grows on the side of a freshwater Hydra, eventually breaking off as a separate individual clone of the parent. In many marine relatives of Hydra, the clone doesn't break off but stays attached, and becomes a branch like a plant. Sometimes more than one kind of polyp grows on the same polyp tree, specialized for different roles, such as feeding, defense, or reproduction.
Cnidarians have a nervous system which is a network, not centralized into a brain, ganglia or major nerve trunks. They also have muscles which are contracted to propel them. Their digestive organ is a single cavity with only one opening which is both mouth and anus. They have no circulatory system. All cnidarians have cells called cnidocytes, each with its own cell-sized harpoon called a cnida. All cnidarians have cnidae, and only cnidarians have them. Once triggered the harpoon cell cannot be used again, but are constantly replaced.
Simple and sessile cnidarians have no sense organs, but they do have sensory cells in both tissues that respond to light, chemical or mechanical stimuli. These sensory cells are often structurally similar to those of vertebrates. Each has a cilium that protrudes into the water. The sensory cells and nerve cells are separated by a small space (synapse), allowing the animal to generally respond to stimuli at a distance instead of responding at the site of the stimulus. Medusae and complex motile colonies of Cnidaria have more complex sense organs: the statocyts detect the degree of tilt of the body, and the ocelli {OSeLlE or OSeLlI} are light receptors. Cnidarian ocelli range from patches of photoreceptors alternating with pigment cells, to complex structures in which the light receptors have a cup shaped shield of pigmented cells behind them and are covered by a lens formed from cytoplasmic extensions from neighboring cells {see image}.
Cnidarians see in black or white, because their eyes have only one pigment, for color vision the eye must have more than one pigment.
Porifera (sponges have no obvious symmetry), while Cnidarians are radially symmetrical and Ctenophores are biradially symmetrical.
There are differences between Cnidaria and Ctenophora. In Cnidaria, cells have a single flagellum or cilium, while the cells of Ctenophora have large numbers of cilia. Stinging cells called cnidocytes, are unique to cnidarians, and adhesive cells called "coloblasts" are unique to Ctenophora. Ctenophora swim by using arrays of fused cilia arranged in eight rows, while the Cnidaria move by means of muscle contraction of an epithelial cell. Cnidarians lack true muscle cells. The muscle fibers in Cnidaria are always extensions of an epithelial cell. Ctenophora have true muscles. Unlike Cnidaria, Ctenophora have gonoducts and gonopores by which gametes exit the body.
Cnidaria do not have complex reproductive organs; gonads develop in the body wall or mesenteries by differentiation of interstitial cells. In many species the gonads are absorbed again after spawning has occurred. Gonads may be formed in the tissue and gametes released directly into the water or gonads may be endodermal and the gametes released into the water through breaks in the body wall or through the mouth. Genders are usually separate, but some species are hermaphroditic (produce both ova and sperm). Sperm are released into the water and fertilization is usually external. In species that brood their eggs, fertilization occurs at the brooding site, which may be in the gastrovascular cavity or on the outside of the body. Sperm are often attracted to the eggs by highly specific chemicals.
Digestion in Cnidarians starts in the gastrovascular cavity, but once the food is reduced to particles small enough to enter the digestive cells of the gastrodermis, digestion is completed inside the cell (intracellularly).
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700,000,000 YBN
| 226) The second largest Fungi phylum, "Basidiomycota" {Bo-SiDEO-mI-KO-Tu} (most mushrooms, rusts, club fungi).
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| 227) The largest Fungi phylum "Ascomycota" {aS-KO-mI-KO-Tu} evolves now according to genetic comparison: (yeasts, truffles, Penicillium, morels, sac fungi).
There are 47,000 described Ascomycota species.
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| 523)
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| 156)
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| 69) Start of 60 million year (Varanger) Ice Age (650-590 mybn).
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630,000,000 YBN
| 107) Bilateral species evolve (two sided symmetry). Earliest animal brain (ganglion, memory). First triploblastic species (third embryonic layer: the mesoderm).
In bilaterians food enters in one end (the mouth) and waste exists at the opposite end (the anus). There is an advantage for sense organs: light, sound, touch, smell, and taste detection to be located on the head near the mouth to help with catching food.
Unlike the diploblastic Cnidaria and Ctenophora, flatworms and all later metazoans are triploblastic. A third embryonic layer, the mesoderm, lies between the ectoderm and endoderm. This layer increases the options for the development of organs with specific functions, formed by the association of tissues of various kinds.
The earliest brain (ganglion, memory) develop in a bilaterian worm.
This begins the Animal Subkingdom "Bilateria".
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630,000,000 YBN
| 403) Earliest extant bilaterian: Acoelomorpha (acoela flat worms and nemertodermatida).
The phylum Acoelomorpha (acoela flat worms and nemertodermatida) is the oldest surviving bilaterian.
Acoelomorpha lack a digestive track, anus and coelom.
Flatworms have no lungs or gills and breathe through their skin. Flatworms also have no circulating blood and so their branched gut presumably transports nutrients to all parts of the body.
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630,000,000 YBN
| 459)
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630,000,000 YBN
| 532) Cylindrical gut, anus, and through-put of food evolves in a bilaterian.
All bilaterally symmetrical metazoans except the Phyla Acoelomorpha and Platyhelminthes, have a tubular gut with an anus, mouth, and through-put of food. The Phyla Nemertea and Entoprocta are the earliest bilaterians with an anus.
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630,000,000 YBN
| 593) The genital pore, vagina, and uterus evolve in a bilaterian.
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630,000,000 YBN
| 660) The penis evolves in a bilaterian.
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625,000,000 YBN
| 6328) Protists "Cercozoa".
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610,000,000 YBN
| 95) Fluid filled cavity, coelom (SEleM) evolves in an early bilaterians.
In most bilaterally symmetrical invertebrates an internal cavity exists between the body wall and the gut wall. Having a space between body wall and gut wall has several advantages. The body wall and gut wall can act independently, the fluid in the cavity can act as a deformable skeleton, and other organ systems can be developed in the fluid-filled space. Three kinds of body cavity have been distinguished in the bilateral metazoans: pseudocoel, coelom, and haemocoel. A pseudocoel, or flase coelem, is an internal space that is not bounded by a cellular epithelium (tissue) and is not associated with a circulatory system. A coelom is a fluid-filled space that developed within mesoderm and lined by an epithelium. The haemocoel is the body cavity in between organs in which the hemolymph circulates through. In most vertebrates the oxygen is supplied to different organs of the body through capillaries in a closed circulatory system. In many invertebrates, the oxygen is supplied directly to the organs. That is, the hemolymph circulates through the haemocoel and bathes the organs directly to supply them with oxygen.
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600,000,000 YBN
| 91) Start of Ediacaran {EDEoKRiN} soft-bodied invertebrate fossils.
From around 600-560 MYA simple medusoid and frond fossils are found, then after 555 MYA tubular and bilaterian fossils are found.
Because the Ediacaran animals are soft-bodied, they are infrequently preserved.
The sudden appearance of Ediacaran fossils may relate to the accumulation of free oxygen in the atmosphere. As atmospheric oxygen increases, so does oxygen in the sea. The accumulation of free oxygen may permit oxidative metabolism in organisms.
Some of the earliest Ediacaran fossils date to at least 600 million years ago in Sonora, Mexico, and there are discoidal (circular or elliptical) fossils in Kazakhstan that are possibly cnidarian that date all the way to 770 mya. However, some people claim that these discoidal fossils are actually microbial mats made by cyanobacteria which flourish on the sea floor in the absence of grazing and burrowing organisms, but the development of efficient grazing greatly reduces their development in all but extreme environments.
| Sonora, Mexico|Adelaide, Australia| Lesser Karatau Microcontinent, Kazakhsta |
600,000,000 YBN
| 98) Red blood cells and blood channels evolve in a bilaterian. Nemerteans, cylindrical worms, have a network of blood channels in the mesenchyme (undifferentiated tissue between organs) but have no heart or pumping vessel. First blood vessels.
Some coelomates have a series of channels or blood spaces outside the coelic epithelium, that form a circulatory system, often with contractible walls to the larger vessels that act as pumps.
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590,000,000 YBN
| 70)
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| 93) Bilaterians Protostomes evolve. Protostomes are divided into two major groups: the Ecdysozoa {eK-DiS-u-ZOu} and the Lophotrochozoa {LuFoTroKoZOu}. The Lophotrochozoa, is subdivided into the Platyzoa {PlaTiZOu} and the Trochozoa.
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580,000,000 YBN
| 131) First shell (or skeleton) evolves in unicellular protists.
The first known shell belongs to unicellular protists ciliates called the tintinnids. This shell is called a lorica. These fossils are thought to be in shallow marine waters, not far from the coastline.
Similar modes of skeleton formation evolve independently in different groups to fulfill similar needs.
These are also the earliest known ciliate fossils.
Unfortunately there has been no consistent terminology for coverings. The terms lorica, shell, test, and case are often used synonymously. Euglenozoa have an outside covering which is called a "pellicle". A pellicle usually has openings for injestion, egestion, and water expulsion. Some ciliates (tintinnids) secrete an external skeleton called a "lorica", which start to appear in the fossil record around 500 million years ago. Foraminifera secrete a heavy shell of silica or calcium carbonate. The shape of Dinoflagellates is maintained by alveoli beneath the cell surface, and by a layer of supporting microtubules. In some, these alveoli are filled with polysaccharides, typically cellulose, and these dinoflagellates are said to be "thecate", or "armored", while dinoflagellates that have empty alveoli are said to be "athecate", or "naked". Diatoms secrete silicon in the form of an internal test or frustule, that contains two parts called valves. Beneath the test is the cell membrane enclosing the nucleus, chloroplasts and cytoplasm. Some protists build a "test" of sand grains or other particles cemented together. Resistant covering are sometime formed for brief parts of the life cycle. This is especially true for parasites, which usually pass from one host to another as cysts or spores, covered by a resistant membrane that protects them while out of the host.
In addition to its supportive function, the animal skeleton may provide protection, facilitate movement, and aid in certain sensory functions. Support of the body is achieved in many protozoans by a simple stiff, translucent, nonliving envelope called a pellicle. In nonmoving (sessile) coelenterates, such as coral, whose colonies attain great size, body support is provided by non-living structures, both internal and external, which form supporting axes. In the many groups of animals that can move, body support is provided either by external structures known as exoskeletons or by internal structures known as endoskeletons.
The skeleton may be on the body surface, for example the lateral sclerites of centipedes and the shell of crabs. These structures carry no muscle and form part of a protective surface armor. Similarly, the scales of fish, the projecting spines of echinoderms (for example sea urchins), the needle-like structures (spicules) of sponges, and the tubes of hydroids, raised from the body surface, all provide protection. The bones of the vertebrate skull protect the brain. In the more advanced vertebrates and invertebrates, many skeletal structures provide a rigid base for the insertion of muscles as well as providing protection.
The skeleton assists movement in a variety of ways, depending on the nature of the animal. The bones of vertebrates and the exoskeletal and endoskeletal units of the cuticle of arthropods (insects, spiders, crabs, etc.) support opposing sets of muscles.
| (Doushantuo Formation) Beidoushan, Guizhou Province, South China |
580,000,000 YBN
| 165) Earliest bilaterian fossil, Vernanimalcula, 178 um in length. First fossil of organism with bilateral symmetry, mouth, digestive track, gut and anus.
| (Doushantuo Formation) China |
580,000,000 YBN
| 318) Protostome Infrakingdom Ecdysozoa {eK-DiS-u-ZOu} evolves. Ecdysozoa are animals that molt (lose their outer skin) as they grow. This is the ancestor of round worms, and arthropods (which includes insects and crustaceans {also known as "shell-fish"}).
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580,000,000 YBN
| 331) Protosomes Lophotrochozoa {Lu-Fo-Tro-Ku-ZO-u} evolve. Ancestor of all brachiopods {BrA-KE-O-PoDZ}, bryozoans {BrI-u-ZO-iNZ}, and molluscs.
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580,000,000 YBN
| 6293) Earliest cnidarian fossil.
These are fossil cnidarian embryos and larvae from Doushantuo Formation in China.
Cnidarians which possessed hard skeletons, in particular the corals, have left a significant fossil record of their existence.
| (Doushantuo Formation) Beidoushan, Guizhou Province, South China |
578,000,000 YBN
| 92)
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575,000,000 YBN
| 139) Earliest sea pen fossils ("Charnia"). A member of the Cnidarnian Anthozoans (sea pens, corals, anemones).
Some people have suggested that a fossil from China shows that the fronds are ciliated which implies that these fossil organisms are possibly more closely related to Ctenophores than sea pens.
| (Drook Formation) Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland |
570,000,000 YBN
| 89) Protostome Lophotrochozoa {Lu-Fo-Tro-Ku-ZO-u} subgroup Trochozoa evolve. Ancestor of all Bryozoans, Nemerteans, Phoronids, Brachiopods {BrA-KE-O-PoDZ}, Molluscs and Annelids.
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570,000,000 YBN
| 94) Fossil animal embryo.
Fossil animal embryo.
| (Doushantuo formation) China |
570,000,000 YBN
| 105) Bilaterians Deuterostomes evolve. This is the ancestor of all Echinoderms (iKIniDRMS } (Phylum Echinodermata: sea cucumbers, sea urchins, starfish), hemichordates (Phylum Hemichordata: acorn worms), and Chordates (Phylum Chordata: all tunicates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds).
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570,000,000 YBN
| 311) Bilaterians Chaetognatha {KE-ToG-nutu} evolve (Arrow Worms). Earliest teeth. Animals start to eat other animals.
The evolution of teeth and then of animal predation starts an "arms race" that rapidly transforms ecosystems around the Earth. So in this sense hard teeth evolve first and then the shell evolves as an advantage to survival.
Chaetognaths are bilaterally symmetrical enterocoelous animals, with an elongated cylndrical body; they are usually colourless, transparent or slightly opaque. The body is divided in three parts by internal partitioning: head, trunk and tail. The head is slightly rounded and separated from the trunk by a constricted neck. Each side of the head bears a group of curved grasping hooks and one or two rows of teeth, called the anterior and posterior teeth; the hooks and teeth are made of chitin. A pair of uniquely arranged pigmented eyespots is present.
The earliest Chaetognath fossil is from around 520 mya.
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570,000,000 YBN
| 327) Protostome Lophotrochozoa {Lu-Fo-Tro-Ku-ZO-u} subgroup Platyzoa {PlaT-i-ZO-u} evolves. Ancestor of rotifers, gastrotrichs and Platyhelminthes (flatworms).
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570,000,000 YBN
| 345) Deuterostome Phylum Hemichordonia ("Hemichordates") evolve (pterobranchs {TARuBrANKS}, acorn worms).
Adult Pterobrachs are sessile, fastening to solid structures, but the younger (or larval) form is free swimming, and is thought to have retained this form before evolving into tunicates and then the first fish.
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570,000,000 YBN
| 346) Deuterostome Phylum Echinodermata ("Echinoderms" (iKIniDRMS }) (sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sand dollars, star fish).
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565,000,000 YBN
| 347) Deuterostome Phylum Chordata evolves. Chordates are a very large group that include all tunicates {TUNiKiTS}, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. The most primitive living chordate is the tunicate. Chordates get their name from the notochord, the cartilage rod that runs along the back of the animal, in the embryo if not in the adult.
Chordata is the highest phylum in the animal kingdom, which includes the lancelets or amphioxi (Cephalochordata), the tunicates (Urochordata), the acorn worms and pterobranchs (Hemichordata), and the vertebrates (Craniata) comprising the lampreys, sharks and rays, bony fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. Members of the first three groups, the lower chordates, are small and strictly marine. The vertebrates are free-living; the aquatic ones are primitively fresh-water types with marine groups being advanced; and the members include animals of small and medium size, as well as the largest of all animals.
The typical chordate characteristics are the notochord, the dorsal hollow nerve cord, the pharyngeal slits, and a postanal tail. The notochord appears in the embryo as a slender, flexible rod filled with gelatinous cells and surrounded by a tough fibrous sheath, and contains, at least in some forms, transverse striated muscle fibers; it lies above the primitive gut. In lower chordates and the early groups of vertebrates, the notochord persists as the axial support for the body throughout life, but it is surrounded and gradually replaced by segmental vertebrae in the higher fish.
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565,000,000 YBN
| 348) Earliest extant chordate: Tunicates {TUNiKiTS} evolve (sea squirts).
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565,000,000 YBN
| 6294) Earliest coral fossil (corals are cnidarian anthozoans).
These are fossil cnidarian coral (tabulata) from Doushantuo Formation in China.
The tabulata are an extinct Paleozoic order of corals of the subclass Zoantharia characterized by an exclusively colonial mode of growth and by secretion of a calcareous exoskeleton of slender tubes.
| (Doushantuo Formation) Beidoushan, Guizhou Province, South China |
560,000,000 YBN
| 117) Earliest chordate fossil.
| (Flinders Ranges, 490 km north of Adelaide) Australia |
560,000,000 YBN
| 349) First fish.
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560,000,000 YBN
| 6290) Earliest extant fish, Lancelets {laNSleTS} (also called amphioxus {aMFEoKSeS}).
Lancelets are the most primitive chordates to have a liver and a kidney, which are not found in hemichordates or tunicates.
The Lancelet is a protochordate and not a vertebrate. Lancelets have only a nerve tube on the notochord and no brain other than a small swelling at the front end of the nerve tube. They also have an eye-spot. There are gill slits at the sides used for filter feeding and not primarily for breathing which would mean that gills for breathing evolve later. The Lancelet is not like a worm in not being cylindrical, and swims like a fish using its muscles with side-to-side undulations.
| |
560,000,000 YBN
| 6292) Oldest mollusc fossil.
| |
560,000,000 YBN
| 6318) Earliest animal shell (or skeleton). Earliest evidence of animals eating other animals (predation). Appearance of the small shelly fossils and deep burrows correlated with a decline in stromatolites possibly from feeding.
The earliest animal shells are made by tiny organisms with simple tubelike skeletons, such as Cloudina and Sinotubulites in addition to sponge skeleton fossils.
The shell of Cloudina is made of Calcium carbonate (CaCO3), possibly made by some kind of worm.
Predatory bore holes have been found in Cloudina shells. This is the oldest evidence of predation known.
The appearance of the small shelly fossils and deep burrows are correlated with a decline in stromatolites. Before the appearance of small invertebrate animals, nothing fed on cyanobacterial mats. Some small shelly fossils must be primitive molluscs that graze on stromatolites. Stromatolites survive today only in environments that are hostile to grazing invertebrates. Tehse include lagoons too salty for grazing snails like Shark Bay, Australia, and shallow channels in the Bahamas where currents are too strong for clinging invertebrates.
The soft-bodied multicellular (but non-skeletonized) Ediacaran fauna appear starting around 600 mybn and may represent the next logical step up from single-celled life. The next stage is the appearance of small mineralized shells starting around 545 million years ago. These small shells are referred to as "small shelly fossils".
Most of the small shelly fossils are made of calcium phosphate, the same mineral that makes up the bones of vertebrates, but today, most marine invertebrate shells are made of calcium carbonate (the minerals calcite and aragonite). To some scientists this suggests that the later appearance of large calcified trilobites and other fossils, represents a time when atmospheric oxygen is abundant enough to allow calcite skeletons to be secreted.
Prokaryotic cyanobacteria also develop the ability to secrete carbonate skeletons around the same time.
Eventually, the expansion of infaunal life destroys the widespread and vast cyanobacterial mats in shallow regions of the sea.
| (Ara Formation) Oman|Lijiagou, Ningqiang County, Shaanxi Province |
559,000,000 YBN
| 103)
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 108) Cyclomedusa Ediacaran fossil, thought to be a jellyfish.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 109) Kimbrella Ediacaran (Vendian) fossil. Kimbrella is thought to be a bilateral mollusc with a non-mineralized univalved shell.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 110) Eorporpita Ediacaran (Vendian) fossil.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 111) (Helminth) Worm tracks Ediacaran (Vendian) fossil.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 112) Dickinsonia Ediacaran (Vendian) fossil.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 113) Pteridinium Ediacaran (Vendian) fossil.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 116) Nemiana, Ediacaran (Vendian) fossil.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 118) Tribrachidium, Ediacaran fossil.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 119) Arkarua, Ediacaran fossil.
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 157)
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 328) Ecdysozoa Superphylum "Aschelminthes" {aSKHeLmiNtEZ} evolves. This includes the 5 Phyla: Kinorhyncha (kinorhynchs), Loricifera (loriciferans), Nematoda (round worms), Nematomorpha (horsehair worms), Priapulida (priapulids).
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 329) Platyzoa Rotifers.
DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Protostomia Grobben, 1908 - protostomes INFRAKINGDOM Platyzoa Cavalier-Smith, 1998 SUPERPHYLUM Gnathifera - gnathiferans PHYLUM Gnathostomulida (Ax, 1956) Riedl, 1969 - gnathostomulids PHYLUM Cycliophora Funch & Kristensen, 1995 - cycliophorans PHYLUM Micrognathozoa (Kristensen & Funch, 2000) PHYLUM Rotifera Cuvier, 1798 - rotifers PHYLUM Acanthocephala Kohlreuther, 1771 - acanthocephalans
| |
550,000,000 YBN
| 6339)
| (Rawnsley Quartzite -same as White Sea Assemblage) Nilpena, South Australia |
547,000,000 YBN
| 333) Trochozoa Phyla Phoronida (phoronids {FerOniDZ}).
| |
547,000,000 YBN
| 334) Trochozoa Phylum Brachiopoda (brachiopods {BrAKEOPoDZ}).
Brachiopods are marine invertebrates that have bivalve dorsal and ventral shells enclosing a pair of tentacled, armlike structures that are used to sweep minute food particles into the mouth. Also called lampshells.
| |
547,000,000 YBN
| 335) Trochozoa Phylum Entoprocta (entoprocts).
| |
544,000,000 YBN
| 310) These fossil are sponge spicule clusters and date to around 544 million years old. The earliest complete sponge fossils do not occur until the early Cambrian
| southwestern Mongolia |
543,000,000 YBN
| 101)
| |
543,000,000 YBN
| 336) Lophotrochozoa (Trochozoa) Phylum Bryozoa (Bryozoans or moss animals).
| |
542,000,000 YBN
| 53) End of the "Precambrian". End of the Proterozoic and start of the Phanerozoic {FaNReZOiK} Eon, and the start of the Cambrian Period.
| |
542,000,000 YBN
| 114) Earliest arthropod fossils (Parvancorina and Spriggina).
Some people cite fossils of Pambdelurion and Kerygmachela from the Lower Cambrian of Sirius Passat in Greenland as lobopods and stem arthropods. Kerygmachela is thought to be a relative of Opabinia and Anomalocaris.
| Ediacara, Australia |
542,000,000 YBN
| 6297) The Cambrian radiation, (or "Cambrian explosion"), the rapid diversification of multicellular animals between 542 and 530 million years ago that results in the appearance of many (between 20 and 35) of the major phyla of animals. An increase of animals with shells.
It was once thought that the Cambrian rocks contained the first and oldest fossil animals, but these are now to be found in the earlier Ediacaran (or Vendian) strata. Ediacaran animals are soft-bodied and so are infrequently preserved. When animals begin to develop hard parts, their probability of preservation greatly improves. The first animals to develop hard parts are small shelly fossils, like sponge spicules, gastropods, and others with uncertain affinity. Small shelly fossils can be found back into the Neoproterozoic.
Two fossil locations preserve this period on Earth, the Burgess Shale in British Columbia Canada, and the Chengjiang in the Yunnan Province of China. The Burgess Shale fossils were discovered in 1909 by Charles D. Wolcott (CE 1850-1927), and are shiny black impressions on the shale bedding planes. Many are the remains of animals that lacked hard parts. Altogether there are four major groups of arthropods (trilobites, crustaceans, and the groups that include scorpions and insects), in addition to sponges, onycophorans, crinoids, mollusks, three phyla of worms, corals, chordates, and many species that cannot be placed in any known phylum. The Chengjiang Fauna resemble that of the Burgess Shale, but the Chengjiang fossils are older and better preserved. The fossils include many soft-bodied animals that are not usually not preserved. For example jellyfish show the detailed structure of tentacles, radial canals, and muscles, and on soft-bodies worms, eyes, segmentation, digestive organs, and patterns on the outer skin can be recognized. The Chengjiang fossils include the earliest fossil of a fish.
One theory is that the Cambrian radiation is triggered by predation, since the oldest traces of feeding within the mud occur around this time in addition to the various ways to protect the body by secretion of a mineral skeleton or building tubes by collected mineral grains that are developed by animals around this time.
| |
541,000,000 YBN
| 132) Archaeocyatha (early sponges) evolve.
| |
540,000,000 YBN
| 104) Platyzoa Platyhelminthes {PlaTEheLmiNtEZ} evolve (flatworms).
| |
540,000,000 YBN
| 6287) Platyzoa Phylum Gastrotricha (Gastrotrichs {GaSTreTriKS}).
| |
539,000,000 YBN
| 461) The first circulatory system (blood cells actively moved by muscle contraction) evolves in bilaterians.
Circulatory systems can be divided into two kinds, "open" and "closed", both which contain a circulatory fluid or blood. In an open circulatory system, the blood and body cavity (hemocoelic) fluid are one and the same; the blood, often called hemolymph, empties from vessels into the body cavity (hemocoel) and directly bathes organs. In a closed circulatory system blood is kept separate from the coelomic {SElomiK} fluid. Circulatory systems, open or closed, generally have structural mechanisms for pumping the blood and maintaining adequate blood pressures. Beyond the influence of general body movements, most of these structures fall into the categories: contractile vessels (as in annelids); osiate hearts (as in arthropods); and chambered hearts (as in molluscs and vertebrates). The method of initiating contraction of these different pumps (the pacemaker mechanism) may be intrinsic (originating within the muscles of the structure itself) or extrinsic (originating from motor nerves from outside the structure).
Nemerteans, cylindrical worms evolved from an earlier ancestor, have a network of blood channels in the mesenchyme (undifferentiated tissue between organs) but have no heart or pumping vessel. This bilaterian, a coelomate (the earliest of which are the molluscs), like some surviving coelomates, has a series of channels or blood spaces outside the coelom tissue, that form a circulatory system, often with muscle cell contractible walls connected to the larger vessels that act as pumps to move the blood cells through the channels.
| |
539,000,000 YBN
| 506)
| |
537,000,000 YBN
| 341) The Lophotrochozoa (Trochozoa) Phylum Nemertea {ne-mR-TEu} (ribbon worms).
| |
537,000,000 YBN
| 344) The Lophotrochozoa Phylum Sipuncula (peanut worms) evolve.
| |
533,000,000 YBN
| 342) Trochozoa Mollusks evolve. Mollusks includes snails, clams, mussels, and the cephalopods: squids and octopuses.
The phylum name is derived from mollis, meaning soft, referring to the soft body within a hard calcareous shell. Soft-bodied mollusks make extensive use of ciliary and mucous mechanisms in feeding, locomotion, and reproduction. The Mollusca are a successful phylum with probably over 110,000 living species, more than double the number of vertebrate species. More than 99% of living molluscan species belong to two classes: Gastropoda {GaSTroPeDu} (snails) and Bivalvia (muscles and clams). These two classes can make up a dominant fraction of the animal biomass in many natural communities, both marine and fresh-water.
Among the most primitive mollusks are the Aplacophora which do not have shells but their epidermis secretes aragonite (calcareous) spicules and their body has a repetition of structures along their front-back (antero-posterior) axis. Mollusks are thought, by some, to be descended from a segemented worm (annelid) because of this segmented repetition of structure which is lost in most of the other later evolved mollusks. But others think mollusks descend from a nonsegmented ancestor.
An early Cambrian fossil mollusk named Maikhanella, which has a shell made from sclerites that are only loosely fused together, implies that after millions of years of evolution the spines become more fused into a single, rigid shell familiar in mollusks of the present time.
Among the earliest fossil mollusks known from the Cambrian are simple cap-shaped shells, similar to an extant mollusk named "Neopilina". Neopilina is clearly a mollusk with a single cap-shaped shell secreted by the mantle, as well as a mouth, digestive tract, anus, and gills. But unlike all other known mollusks alive today, Neopilina still retains the segmentation of its worm-like ancestors. Around the body are segemented gills, kidneys, hearts, gonads, and paired retractor muscles to pull down the shell.
| |
530,000,000 YBN
| 338) The Ecdysozoa Phylum Arthropoda "Arthropods" evolve (includes crustaceans and insects).
Arthropods can be compared to a segmented worm encased in a rigid exoskeleton.
The phylum Arthropoda is the largest phylum in the animal kingdom. Arthropoda consists of more than one million known invertebrate species in four subphyla: Uniramia (includes insects), Chelicerata (includes arachnids and horseshoe crabs), Crustacea (crustaceans), and Trilobita (trilobites). All arthropods have a segmented body with bilateral symmetry covered by an exoskeleton containing chitin, which serves as both armor and as a surface for muscle attachment. Each body segment may have pair of jointed appendages. The phylum includes carnivores, herbivores, omnivores, detritus feeders, filter feeders, and parasites in both aquatic and terrestrial environments.
| |
530,000,000 YBN
| 339) The Ecdysozoa Phylum Onychophora (onychophorans) evolves.
Onychophorans, know as "velvet worms", are the living transitional form between worms and arthropods. Although they have segmented worm-like bodies, they also have jointed appendages, antennae, and shed their cuticle like arthropods do.
| |
530,000,000 YBN
| 340) The Ecdysozoa Phylum Tardigrada (tardigrades) evolves.
Tardigrades are slow-moving, microscopic invertebrates, related to the arthropods. Tardigrades have four body segments, eight legs, and live in water or damp moss. Tardigrades are also called "water bears".
| |
530,000,000 YBN
| 343) The Lophotrochozoa (Trochozoa) Phylum Annelida (segmented worms) evolves.
Annelids are various worms or wormlike animals, characterized by an elongated, cylindrical, segmented body and including the earthworm and leech.
| |
530,000,000 YBN
| 350) Chordata Vertebrates evolve. This Subphylum, Vertebrata, contains most fishes, and all amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds.
The characteristic features of the Vertebrata are a vertebral column, or backbone, and a cranium, which protects the central nervous system (brain and spinal cord) and major sense organs.
Vertebrates evolved from a lower chordate similar to the present-day Cephalochordata (lancelets). Vertebrates originate in fresh water and develop a kidney as their organ of water balance. The main line of evolution in the vertebrates which leads to the tetrapods remains in fresh waters, however, several vertebrate lines invade the oceans.
| |
530,000,000 YBN
| 351) Vetebrates Jawless fish (agnatha) evolve.
Some extinct jawless fish, that lived in the Devonian 'Age of Fish', such as ostracoderms, had hard, bony armor plating.
| |
530,000,000 YBN
| 386) Earliest vertebrate and fish fossil.
Haikouichthys ercaicunensis: About 25 mm in length.
| (Chengjiang) Kunming, Yunnan Province, China |
525,000,000 YBN
| 6329) Earliest hemichordate fossil: a Pterobranch "graptolite".
| (Chengjiang Konservat-Lagerstätte) Yunnan Province, China |
520,000,000 YBN
| 133) Earliest trilobite fossils.
Trilobites are numerous extinct marine arthropods of the Paleozoic Era. Trilobites have a segmented body divided by grooves into three vertical lobes and are found as fossils throughout the world.
There is a transition, after the soft-bodied (unshelled) organisms of the Ediacaran are the earliest small cylindrical shells of Cloudina and Sinotubulites, later in the Proterozoic, to the clam-like shells of the brachiopods in the Tommotian (Early Cambrian) to the segmented calcite and chitin shells of the trilobites in the Atdabianian.
One fossil arthropod, known as aglaspids, may be related to both trilobites and horseshoe crabs. Horseshoe crabs are not true crabs, but instead are members of the group known as the Chelicerata- a group that includes spiders and scorpions. True crabs are a family within the Crustacea, a different group entirely. So horseshoe crabs may be descended from trilobites.
| |
520,000,000 YBN
| 148)
| |
520,000,000 YBN
| 6296) Earliest worm fossil, a Chaetognath {KETOnat} (arrow worm).
The fossil is a member of the phylum Chaetognatha (also called arrow worm), with only about 100 living species, is found in oceans throughout the world and plays an important role in the food web as primary predators
| (Maotianshan Shale ) near Haikou, Kunming, China |
517,000,000 YBN
| 115) Earliest certain Echinoderm fossils, Helicoplacus.
Helicoplacoids are stem group echinoderms with spiral plating and three ambulacra arranged radially around a lateral mouth. They are the most primitive echinoderms and the first to show a radial arrangement of the water vascular and ambulacral systems. Unlike later echinoderms, their skeleton shows no dorsal/ventral (aboral/oral) differentiation. They were probably sedentary suspension feeders.
One theory is that Echinoderms evolved from sessile filter feeding organisms similar to Pterobranchs.
| (Poleta Formation) Bishop, California, USA |
513,000,000 YBN
| 6351) Ancestor of all Arthropod Crustacea (shrimps, crabs, lobsters, barnicles).
The earliest crustacean fossils are from the early Cambrian (542-513 MYBN) of Shropshire, England.
| (earliest fossils) Shropshire, England |
507,000,000 YBN
| 140) Aysheaia (onychophoran, also described as lobopod) fossil, from Burgess shale.
| |
507,000,000 YBN
| 142)
| |
507,000,000 YBN
| 143) Xenusion (onychophoran, also described as lobopod) fossil, from early Cambrian sandstones of eastern Europe.
| |
507,000,000 YBN
| 145) Priapulid worm fossils of Burgess Shale.
| |
507,000,000 YBN
| 146) Opabinia fossils of Burgess Shale.
| |
507,000,000 YBN
| 147) Anomalocaris fossils of Burgess Shale.
| |
507,000,000 YBN
| 149) Marrella (Arthropod) fossils.
| Burgess Shale |
505,000,000 YBN
| 74) Oldest fossil of an arthropod in the process of moulting (ecdysis), the soft-bodied arthropod Marrella splendens.
| (Burgess Shale) British Columbia, Canada. |
505,000,000 YBN
| 6291) Early Chordata fossil "Pikaia".
| (Burgess Shale) Mount Wapta, British Columbia |
501,000,000 YBN
| 6348) Arthropod subphylum Myriapoda {mEREaPeDu} (centipedes and millipedes).
The earliest possible Myriapoda fossil are marine fossils from the middle Cambrian of Utah and the late Cambrian (488-501 MYBN) of East Siberia, and the earliest certain Myriapod fossils, are land Myriapods from the late Silurian (416 MYO) from Shropshire, England.
| (earliest possible fossils Marine deposits)(Wheeler Formation) Utah, USA and (Ust-Majan formation) East Siberia|(earliest fossils) Shropshire, England |
488,300,000 YBN
| 121) End of the Cambrian (542-488.3 mybn), and start of the Ordovician {ORDiVisiN} (488.3-443.7 mybn) Period.
| |
488,000,000 YBN
| 6314) The Ordovician (ORDeVisiN} radiation. During the Ordovician (488-444 million years ago), the number of genera will quadruple.
| |
488,000,000 YBN
| 6349) Arthropod subphylum Chelicerata (KeliSuroTo) (horseshoe crabs, mites, spiders, scorpions). Chelicerata probably appeared during the Cambrian period. By the late Cambrian there is evidence for both Pycnogonida and Euchelicerata. The earliest pycnogonid (sea spider) fossils are larval sea spiders from the Late Cambrian (488-501 MYO), Orsten of Sweden.
| (sea spider fossils, Orsten) Sweden |
475,000,000 YBN
| 244) Non-vascular plants evolve, Bryophyta, (ancestor of Liverworts, Hornworts, Mosses).
The Bryophytes are the simplest land plants, and reproduce with spores.
The Division Bryophyta contains green, seedless land plants that contain at least 18,000 species and are divided into three classes: mosses, liverworts, and hornworts. Bryophytes are distinguished from vascular plants and seed plants by the production of only one spore-containing organ in their spore-producing stage. Most bryophytes are 2-5 cm (0.8-2 in.) tall. Bryophytes are found throughout the surface of earth, from polar regions to the tropics, they are most abundant in humid environments, though none is marine. Bryophytes are extremely tolerant of dry and freezing conditions.
| |
475,000,000 YBN
| 352)
| |
475,000,000 YBN
| 398) Plants live on land. Earliest fossil spores belonging to land plants. These spores look like the spores of living liverworts and Cooksonia.
Plants conquer land before animals do, and like animals may move to land not by sea but by freshwater.
| Caradoc, Libya |
472,000,000 YBN
| 402) The first animals live on land, arthropods Myriapoda (centipedes and millipedes).
The earliest fossil land tracks are from the Ordovician and are at least 472 MYO. The organism that produced these fossil tracks is possibly an Euthycarcinoidea, a rare arthropod group thought to be descended from the Myriapods.
| (earliest arthropod tracks) Kingston, Ontario, Canada |
470,000,000 YBN
| 234) Non-vascular plants Hornworts.
| |
460,000,000 YBN
| 84) Earliest fungi fossil. Fossilized fungal hyphae and spores strongly resemble modern arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (Glomales, Zygomycetes).
The oldest fossil fungi so far known are probably chytrid-like forms from the Ediacarian (also called Vendian) Period (630-542 my), found in north Russia.
| Wisconsin, USA |
460,000,000 YBN
| 235) Non-vasular plants Mosses.
| |
460,000,000 YBN
| 353) Jawed vertebrates evolve, Gnathostomata {no toST omoTo}. This large group includes all jawed fish, amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds. First vertebrate teeth.
The jaw evolves from parts of the gill skeleton. The earliest jawed vertebrates, have no bone, there skeleton is made of cartilage. Humans have cartilage too, for example, in the lining of joints and the human skeleton starts as flexible cartilage in the embyro. Most of the human skeleton becomes ossified when mineral crystals, mostly calcium phosphate, become integrated into the skeleton. Except for teeth, the shark skeleton never undergoes this mineral transformation.
| Oceans |
460,000,000 YBN
| 404) Jawed fishes Chondrichthyes {KoN-DriK-tE-EZ} (Cartilaginous fishes: ancestor of all sharks, rays, skates, and sawfishes).
The fossil record of Chondrichthyans dates to around 455 million years ago, but the earliest Chondrichthyan fossil dates to 409 million years ago.
| |
450,000,000 YBN
| 158)
| |
443,700,000 YBN
| 122) End of the Ordovician (488.3-443.7 mybn), and start of the Silurian (443.7-416) Period.
| |
443,000,000 YBN
| 90) End-Ordovician mass extinction. 60% of all genera are observed extinct.
Many species go extinct, mostly trilobites, echinoderms, corals, nautiloids, brachiopods, graptolites, conodonts, and acritarchs.
| |
440,000,000 YBN
| 236) Vascular plants evolve (Phylum: Tracheophytes).
Vascular plants are any plant that has a specialized conducting system consisting mostly of phloem (food-conducting tissue) and xylem (water-conducting tissue), collectively called vascular tissue. The phloem transports sugar and the xylem transports water and salts. Ferns, gymnosperms, and flowering plants are all vascular plants. In contrast to the nonvascular bryophytes, where the gametophyte is the dominant phase, the dominant phase among vascular plants is the sporophyte. Because they have vascular tissues, these plants have true stems, leaves, and roots, modifications of which enable species of vascular plants to survive in a variety of habitats under diverse, even extreme, environmental conditions. This ability to flourish in so many different habitats is the primary reason that vascular plants have become dominant among terrestrial plants.
Earliest spores of vascular plants.
| |
440,000,000 YBN
| 360) Ray-finned fishes (Jawed, Class Osteichthyes, Subclass Actinopterygii) evolve. This is the fist bony fish (Osteichthyes) which includes the ray-finned, lobefin, and lung fishes. Bony-fish have a skeleton at least partly composed of true bone. Other features include, in most species, a swim bladder (an air-filled sac to give buoyancy), gill covers over the gill chamber, bony plate-like scales, a skull with sutures, and external fertilization of eggs.
Most of the ray-finned fish are known as teleosts. They exist in both salt and freshwater. The name ray is because their fins have a skeleton similar to a handheld fan. The teleost fish are a very successful evolutionary line, with about 23,500 species, 30 times the number of shark species.
| Ocean and fresh water |
440,000,000 YBN
| 6172) The first lung evolves, in ray-finned fishes, from the swim bladder. Some surviving teleosts, such as bowfins, gars, and bichirs still use their swim bladder for breathing. Fish that breathe air through their gill chamber evolved breathing through a completely different route than those fish that breathe with a lung.
Bichirs (BiCR) are among the most primitive of the ray-finned fishes. Instead of the swim bladder of most ray-finned fishes, the bichir has a pair of lungs, which enables it to survive out of water for several hours.
| Ocean (presumably) |
425,000,000 YBN
| 377) Jawed fishes, Lobefin fishes evolve. Coelacanths. Lobefin fish have a fleshy lobe at the base of each fin. There are 2 living species of coelacanths known.
| |
420,000,000 YBN
| 6350) Arthropods Hexapods (arthropods with six legs {3 pairs}, includes all insects). The closest relative of the Hexapoda is most likely the Branchiopoda, the brine shrimps and their allies.
The earliest hexapod fossils are 396 million years old and from the Rhynie chert of Scotland. They are Rhyniella praecursor and a pair of mandibles described as Rhyniognatha hirsti.
| (Rhynie chert) Scotland |
417,000,000 YBN
| 378) Lobefin fishes, Lungfishes.
There are only six species of lungfish alive today. The Australian lungfish has a single lung, the others have two. The African and South American species bury themselves in mud during the dry season, breathing air through a little breathing hole in the mud.
| |
416,000,000 YBN
| 123) End of the Silurian (443.7-416 mybn), and start of the Devonian {DiVONEiN} (416-359.2 mybn) Period.
| |
415,000,000 YBN
| 401) Earliest fossil of land plant, Cooksonia. This is also the oldest fossil of a vascular land plant.
Cooksonia is only a few centimeters tall. It has slender, leafless branches with Y shaped forks, topped by capsules that relase microscopic spores. Some fossils have a dark stripe in their stems which may be the remains of vascular tissue, used by plants to move water.
They have been found in an area stretching from Siberia to the Eastern USA, and in Brazil. They are found mostly in the area of Euramerica, and most of the type specimens are from Britain.
| (Wenlock strata) Devilsbit Mountain district of County Tipperary, Ireland |
410,000,000 YBN
| 6352) Hexapods: insects. The most primitive living insects are the order Archaeognatha, the Bristletails.
| |
410,000,000 YBN
| 6354) Early arachnid fossils: trigonotarbids, spider-like arthropods with lung-books, the typical breathing organs of most of the larger recent living Arachnids. Unlike true spiders, Pleophrynus lacks poison and silk glands.
| (Rhynie chert) Scotland |
410,000,000 YBN
| 6363) Dicondylic insects (insects in which the mandible has two points of articulation with the head instead of one). Ancestor of Insects Zygentoma (Silverfish). Silverfish and all pterygota (winged insects) have dicondylic mandibles.
| |
400,000,000 YBN
| 159)
| |
400,000,000 YBN
| 399) Earliest fossil of an insect; thought to be a winged insect.
The oldest known insect fossil for which there is significant remaining structure (head and thorax fragments) is a bristletail (Archaeognatha), estimated to be 390 to 392 million years old.
| Rhynie Chert , Scotland (and Gaspé Peninsula of Québec, Canada) |
390,000,000 YBN
| 411) The first flying animal, an arthropod insect. Ancestor of all winged insects (Pterygota {TARiGOTu}) (Mayflies, Dragonflies, Damselflies).
The most primitive living pterygotes are the Ephemeroptera (Mayflies) and the Odonata (Dragonflies and damselflies). Unlike most other flying insects both the Ephemeroptera and Odonata have freshwater aquatic larvae, presumed to be an ancestral habit.
Arthropods evolve flight 90 million years before the first flight among vertebrates.
Insect wings evolved only once, and all winged insects descend from the first winged insect.
How flight evolved in insects is still debated. A terrestrial origin of pterygotes is supported by the fact that the most basal insects (apterygotes), the Zygentoma and Archeognatha are fully terrestrial. One theory suggests that wings develop as fixed extensions to the thoracic terga, called paranotal lobes. The paranotal lobes provide early insects with the ability to glide, and eventually to control the aerial descent of the insect from perches of tall plants, and from one Carbiniferous gymnosperm sporangia (which are located on branchlets) to another. Another theory has the wing evolving like the movable abdominal gills on aquatic naiads of mayflies which look like tiny wings and move in a similar way. The development of wings may have helped early insects to escape predators.
One theory supposes that early insects evolve wings because of the advantage of flying from one group of Carbiniferous gymnosperm sporangia (located on branchlets) to another and in escaping predators.
The earliest full body imprint fossil of a flying insect is like a may-fly (Ephemeropterida) that landed in soft mud, during the late Carboniferous (318-299 mybn) around a fresh water habitat in Massachusetts. Some wing impressions from the Czech Republic date to 324 mybn.
The Pterygota is the larger of two subclasses of Insecta. All have wings in the adult stage or have lost their wings secondarily.
| (Wamsutta Formation) southeastern Massachusetts and Upper Silesian Basin, Czech Republic |
386,000,000 YBN
| 406) Oldest fossil spider (Attercopus {aTRKoPuS}) from the Devonian (Givetian of) Gilboa, New York. These spiders represent the first use of silk by animals.
| (Givetian of) Gilboa, New York |
385,000,000 YBN
| 405) The first forests. Earliest large trees fossils.
First progymnosperms (treelike plants).
| Gilboa, New York, USA |
380,000,000 YBN
| 6330) The fish "Tiktaalik" {TiK ToLiK}, an important transition between fish and amphibian.
| (Fram Formation) Nunavut Territory, Canada |
375,000,000 YBN
| 380) The first tetrapods (organisms with four feet), the amphibians evolve in fresh water. The first vertebrate limbs (arms and legs) and fingers. Ancestor of caecillians, frogs, toads, and salamanders.
Almost no amphibians live in sea water.
The earliest fossil amphibian is Elginerpeton, found in Scotland, dates back 368 million years.The earliest well known amphibians come from around 360 million years ago, and are Acanthostega and Ichthyostega. Acanthostega represents the most primitive tetrapod that has hands and feet for which there is a full skeleton. Acanthostega has eight toes per limb, no fin rays, a large load-bearing pelvis and is thought to have retained gills into adulthood. Ichthyostega is a large carnivore, ranging in size from 0.5 - 1.2 m. The earliest known Ichthyostega comes from 363 million year old deposits in Greenland (then on the equator). Ichthyostega is largely aquatic but has massive broad ribs that may be used for support of internal organs while on land.
| Fresh water, Greenland (on the equator) |
SCIENCE
|
375,000,000 YBN
| 2599) The Tiktaalik (TiK Tol iK), a genus of extinct sarcopterygian (lobe-finned) fish with many features akin to those of tetrapods (four-legged animals) lives now.
Although the body scales, fin rays, lower jaw and palate are comparable to those in more primitive sarcopterygians, the tiktaalik also has a shortened skull roof, a modified ear region, a mobile neck, a functional wrist joint, and other features that predict tetrapod conditions. The morphological features and geological setting of (tiktaalik fossils) suggest a life in shallow-water, marginal and (earth surface) habitats.
| Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, in northern Canada |
368,000,000 YBN
| 407) Oldest amphibian (and tetrapod) fossil. Tetrapods are four-limbed, vertebrate animals (all vertebrates except fish).
| Elgin, Morayshire, Scotland |
367,000,000 YBN
| 408) Late Devonian mass extinction caused by ice age. 57% of all genera are observed extinct.
70% of all species go extinct. This include 3 of 5 trilobite orders, 90% of brachiopod genera, and major loss of reefs.
| |
365,000,000 YBN
| 160)
| |
363,000,000 YBN
| 379) The first vertebrates live on land (amphibians).
| Fresh water, Greenland (on the equator) |
360,000,000 YBN
| 237) Vascular plants ferns evolve.
Ferns are are flowerless, seedless vascular plants having roots, stems, and fronds (the leaf-like part of a fern or leaf of a palm) and reproducing by spores.
There are around 12,000 species of Ferns (Plant division Pteridophyta), which are nonflowering vascular plants that have true roots, stems, and complex leaves and reproduce by spores. The life cycle is characterized by an alternation of generations between the mature, fronded form (the sporophyte) familiar in greenhouses and gardens and the form that strongly resembles a moss or liverwort (the gametophyte).
| |
360,000,000 YBN
| 6353) The Neoptera, folding wing insects. Neoptera, means "new wing".
Ephemeroptera and Odonata, the most primitive living pterygota, do not live on the ground. It seems likely that selective pressures on the first winged insects heavily favor the development of some mechanism for folding the wings against the body after landing, making them less conspicuous, less awkward, and less susceptible to breakage. The neoptera represent a remarkably successful lineage and are the ancestors of all "higher" orders of insects.
| (Fossil: Archimylacris eggintoni, Coseley Lagerstätte) Staffordshire, UK |
359,200,000 YBN
| 124) End of the Devonian (416-359.2 mybn), and start of the Carboniferous (359.2-299 mybn) Period.
| |
359,000,000 YBN
| 243) The first plant seed evolves. The earliest fossil seed is from a seed fern (Pteridosperm {TARiDOSPRM}).
Discoveries of Lower Carboniferous fossils in Scotland indicate that the integument (cover) and the cupule wall (cup-shaped wall) of the pteridosperms (seed ferns) evolved from an enclosing ring of vegetative lobes that fused together.
Pteridosperms are a group of extinct seed plants characterized by fernlike leaves that produce naked seeds. The discovery of the seed ferns demonstrates the existence of a group of vascular plants that are today extinct.
| Scotland |
350,000,000 YBN
| 361) Ray-finned fishes, (Chondrostei), Sturgeons and Paddlefish.
| |
350,000,000 YBN
| 362) Ray finned fishes: Bichirs evolve.
| |
350,000,000 YBN
| 6355) The Neoptera: Dictyoptera {DiKTEoPTRu} (Cockroaches, Termites, and Mantises).
Paleozoic "roachoids" are among the most abundant animals that live in the extensive coal swamps of the Carboniferous. Earliest fossils are from the early part of the Late Carboniferous (around 320 MYBN).
| |
340,000,000 YBN
| 384) The hard-shell egg evolves. The Amniota {aMnEOtu} (ancestor of reptiles, mammals and birds). The hard-shell egg is waterproof. This is the start of vertebrate internal fertilization, because on land the egg cannot be fertilized as most fishes and amphibians do, by a male swimming near the eggs and spraying them with sperm. Amniote males and females must copulate so that the sperm can reach the eggs inside the female. Much of the development of Amniote fetuses occurs inside the female, not in the water.
Amniotes (reptiles, mammals, and birds) are distinguished from non-amniote tetrapods (amphibians) by the presence of complex embryonic membranes. One of these, the amnion, gives its name to the group.
This group of tetropods, the Amniota, will branch into Sauropsida {SOR-roP-SiDu} (which includes reptiles and birds) and Synapsida {Si-naP-Si-Du} (which includes mammals).
All living amniotes (reptiles, birds, and mammals) lay hard-shelled eggs, except in most mammals and some snakes and lizards, where egg laying has been replaced by live birth.
The earliest known amniotes, Westlothiana (~338 MY) and Hylonomus (~300 MY), are also the earliest known reptiles.
| Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland |
338,000,000 YBN
| 410) Earliest amniote fossil.
The next earliest amniote fossil is Hylonomus, a small lizard-like reptile that was trapped in the trunk of a swamp tree in what is now Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada (~300 MYBN).
| Bathgate, West Lothian, Scotland |
335,000,000 YBN
| 6331) The tetrapod Amniota divide into the Sauropsida {SOR-roP-SiDu} (which includes reptiles and birds) and the Synapsida {Si-naP-Si-Du} (which includes mammals).
The Sauropsida have two major lineages: the Parareptilia (turtles) and the Eureptilia (dinosaurs, crocodiles and birds).
The Synapsida are a subclass of extinct amniota from which and mammals descend. Synapsids are sometimes called "mammal-like reptiles" but it is incorrect to call them reptiles because they diverge at the beginning of amniote evolution, before the reptiles do. There are two major groups of synapsids: pelycosaurs (sail-backed) and therapsids (mammal-like).
The earliest Sauropsid fossils, are Lethiscus(~ 330 MYA) and Westlothiana (~328 MY) from Scotland. The earliest Synapsid fossil is Protoclepsydrops (~314 MY) from Joggins, Nova Scotia, although some people reject the Protoclepsydrops fossil in favor the next oldest possible synapsid fossils, such as Echinerpeton and Archaeothyris from Florence, Nova Scotia (~307 MY).
| (earliest possible Synapsid fossil: Cumberland group, Joggins formation.) Joggins, Nova Scotia, Canada |
330,000,000 YBN
| 409)
| |
330,000,000 YBN
| 6307) The Synapsids Pelycosauria {PeLiKuSOREu} evolve (includes Edaphosaurus {eDaFoSORuS}, Dimetrodon).
There are two main groups of synapsids: pelycosaurs (sail-backed reptiles) and therapsids (mammal-like reptiles). Pelycosaurs arise in the mid-Carboniferous from cotylosaurs and soon enjoy an extensive radiation through the early Permian, coming to constitute about half of the known amniote genera of the time. Some like Edaphosaurus are herbivorous, however, most are carnivores that prey on fish and aquatic amphibians. Pelycosaurs differ in size but not in design. The most notable feature in some species is a broad "sail" along the back consisting of an extensive layer of skin supported internally by a row of fixed neural spines projecting from successive vertebrae. If the sail is brightly colored, it might have been used in courtship or in bluff displays with rivals, similar to ornamentations in birds. The sail may be a sun light collector: when turned broadside to the sun, blood moving through the sail is heated, then carried to the rest of the body. Somewhat suddenly pelycosaurs decline in numbers and are extinct by the end of the Permian. Therapsides evolve from them, and largely replace the Pelycosauria for a time as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates.
| |
325,000,000 YBN
| 381) The Amphibians: Caecilians evolve.
| |
320,000,000 YBN
| 238) Gymnosperms evolve. Gymnosperm is Greek for "Naked Seed". Gymnosperms are the earliest surviving seed plants, Spermatophyta, and ancestor of all Cycads, Ginkos and Conifers) evolve.
The most primitive extant Gymnosperms, the Cycads evolve now.
The earliest known seed bearing plants are the Pteridosperms, seed ferns known only from the fossil record. Gymnosperms are the most primitive seed bearing plants still living.
A gymnosperm is any woody plant that reproduces by means of a seed (or ovule) in direct contact with the environment, as opposed to an angiosperm, or flowering plant, whose seeds are enclosed by mature ovaries, or fruits. The four surviving gymnosperm divisions are Pinophyta (conifers, the most widespread), Cycadophyta (cycads), Ginkgophyta (ginkos), and Gnetophyta. More than half are trees; most of the rest are shrubs.
| |
320,000,000 YBN
| 6356) The Neoptera: Orthoptera evolve (Crickets, Grasshoppers, Locusts, Walking sticks).
The Orthoptera and the later Hemiptera are termed hemimetabolous, and are said to undergo incomplete metamorphosis. In incomplete metamorphosis, the general form is constant until the final molt, when the larva undergoes substantial changes in body form to become a winged adult with fully developed genitalia.
Many insects in the order Orthoptera produce sound (known as a "stridulation") by rubbing their wings against each other or their legs, the wings or legs containing rows of corrugated bumps. The tympanum or ear is located in the front tibia in crickets, mole crickets, and katydids, and on the first abdominal segment in the grasshoppers and locusts.
One characteristic of Orthoptera are jumping hind legs and a thick femur packed with muscles. Orthopterans are the most "vocal" of all the orders, with calling behavior playing a major role in the biolkogy and evolution of the order. Mating calls are critical to recognize many species. Males regularly chorus on warm evenings for females. Sound is produced wither by rubbing a specialized area of the wing against a corresponding area on the other, overlapping forewing or by scraping the legs against stiff edges of the forewings. Scrapers of files are used to create the rasping sounds which are amplified by the specialized membranes of the wings called "mirrors".
The earliest Orthoptera fossils are from the Late Permian of France.
| |
320,000,000 YBN
| 6364) Neoptera: Plectopterida (Stoneflies, webspinners).
| |
317,000,000 YBN
| 385) Sauropsids Reptiles evolve (ancestor of all turtles, crocodiles, pterosaurs, dinosaurs and birds).
The class Reptila contains approximately 8,700 species and is a group of air-breathing vertebrates that have internal fertilization, and with the exception of the birds, have a scaly body, and are cold-blooded. Most species have short legs (or none), long tails, and lay eggs. Living reptiles include the scaly reptiles (snakes and lizards: Squamata), the crocodiles (Crocodylia), the turtles (Testudines), and the unique tuatara (Sphenodontida). Being cold-blooded, reptiles are not found in very cold regions; in regions with cold winters, reptiles usually hibernate. Reptiles range in size from geckos that measure about 3 cm (1 in.) long to the python, which grows to 9m (30 ft); the largest turtle, the marine leatherback, weighs about 1,500 lb (680 kg). Extinct reptiles include the dinosaurs, the pterosaurs, and the dolphin-like ichthyosaurs.
| (Joggins Formation) Nova Scotia, Canada |
315,000,000 YBN
| 453) Allegheny mountains form as a result of the collision of Europe and eastern North America.
| |
310,000,000 YBN
| 6357) The Neoptera: Paraneoptera (bark lice, true lice, thrips and the Hemiptera {HemiPTRu} who have mouthparts adapted for piercing and sucking: Cicadas, Aphids, and "true bugs": such as Bed bugs, and Stink bugs).
| |
310,000,000 YBN
| 6359) Ancestor of all Neoptera Holometabola: Holometabolous insects (beetles, bees, true flies, and butterflies). Complete metamorphosis.
Neoptera Holometabola (also called Endopterygota) are insects that have complete metamorphosis (holometabolous development), These insects have four developmental stages in the life cycle: egg, larva, pupa, and adult (imago). Unlike hemimetabolous insects in which the immature structures (legs, eyes, antennae, etc.) must also serve the adults, holometabolous insects have a larval stage and acquire a completely new body during the pupal stage. Start of larvae.
The larva is a defining feature of Holometabola.
| |
310,000,000 YBN
| 6366) Holometabolous Insects: Panorpida {PaNORPidu}, ancestor of all Mecoptera (scorpionflies), Siphonaptera (fleas), Diptera (true flies), Trichoptera {TriKoPTRu} (caddis flies), and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies).
| |
305,000,000 YBN
| 242) Earliest frogs fossil, Prosalire.
| |
305,000,000 YBN
| 382) Amphibians: Anura {unRu} (Frogs and Toads) evolve.
The order Anura, are tailless amphibians that include all frogs and toads.
| |
305,000,000 YBN
| 383) Amphibians: Salamanders evolve.
| |
300,000,000 YBN
| 162)
| |
300,000,000 YBN
| 387) Reptiles Testudines {TeSTUDinEZ}: Ancestor of Turtles, Tortoises and Terrapins.
Testudines is the order of all turtles, tortoises and terrapins. Testudines are reptiles, most are aquatic or semiaquatic, fresh water or marine, but lay eggs on land. They have webbed feet or flippers and their body is covered by a horny shell from which only the legs, head and neck, and tail protrude when needed. The upper shell is called the carapace and the undershell the plastron.
Tortoises are any of various terrestrial turtles, especially one of the family Testudinidae, characteristically having thick clublike hind limbs and a high, rounded carapace.
Terrapins are any of various North American aquatic turtles of the family Emydiolae, especially the genus Malaclemys, which includes the diamondback terrapin.
| |
300,000,000 YBN
| 1310) Stramenopiles Golden algae (Chrysophyta {KriSoFiTu}).
| |
299,000,000 YBN
| 125) End of the Carboniferous (359.2-299 mybn), and start of the Permian (299-251 mybn) Period.
| |
299,000,000 YBN
| 6360) Holometabola: Coleoptera {KOlEoPTRu} (Beetles).
The earliest fossil beetle, Adiphlebia lacoana.
Coleoptera contains 350,000 named species and is the largest order of organisms and 40% of all insects.
Well known beetles are: Ladybugs, Fireflies, Dung beetles, Japanese beetles, weevils, and scarabs.
| (Pennsylvanian deposit) Mazon Creek, Illinois, USA |
290,000,000 YBN
| 239) Gymnosperms: Ginkgophyta (Ginkgos).
| |
290,000,000 YBN
| 6358) Holometabola: Hymenoptera (bees, ants, and wasps).
The earliest definitive Hymenoptera, recognized by the distinctive wing venation, are from the Triassic.
| |
290,000,000 YBN
| 6367) Holometabolous Insects Antliophora (ancestor of Diptera: true flies and Mecopterids: scorpionflies and fleas).
| |
287,000,000 YBN
| 6308) Synapsid Therapsids evolve (Cynodonts).
Therapsids evolve from Pelycosaurs and largely replace them for a time as the dominant terrestrial vertebrates. Therapsids appear in the late Permian and prosper during the early Triassic. The Therapsids are quadruperal and their feet have five digits, but their legs are more directly positioned under the weight of their body. This reflects a more efficient and active mode of locomotion. Teeth are differentiated into distinct types. Some herbivorous therapsids become specialized for rooting or grubbing, some for digging, some for browsing. There is some evidence that therapsids become endothermic in parallel with their archosaur (avian) contemporaries.
One particularly successful group of therapsids are the cynodonts. Some are herbivores but more are carnivores. They arise in the late Permian and become dominant land carnivores in the early part of the Triassic, until largely replaced by the terrestrial sauropsids of the late Triassic. Cynodonts have teeth specialized for slicing, together with muscular cheek, that keep the food between tooth rows that chew the food. The Cynodont limbs are direectly under the body, contributing to the ease and efficiency of ative terrestrial locomotion. In addition, extensive turbinals are likely present in the nose. These are thin, scrolled, and folded plates of bone that warm and humidify the incoming air (as well as hold the olfactory epithelium). These characteristics suggest that cynodonts had an endothermic metabolism. During their evolution the cynodonts decline in body size from the size of a large dog to slightly larger than a weasel. By the Triassic, only one group of cynodonts, the mammals, will remain and eventually prosper after the great dinosaur extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous.
| |
280,000,000 YBN
| 6365) Ancestor of Holometablous insects Neuropterida (lacewings, snakeflies, alderflies and dobsonflies).
| |
280,000,000 YBN
| 6368) Holometabolous Insects Mecopterids (ancestor of Mecoptera: scorpionflies and Siphonaptera: fleas).
| |
274,000,000 YBN
| 307) Ancestor of all Protists: Phaeophyta {FEoFiTu} (Brown Algae).
The Phaeophyta are a phylum (division) of the kingdom Protista consisting of those organisms commonly called brown algae. Many of the Earth's familiar seaweeds are members of Phaeophyta. There are approximately 1,500 species. Like the chrysophytes, brown algae derive their color from the presence, in the cell chloroplasts, of several brownish carotenoid pigments, including fucoxanthin, in addition to the photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll a and c. With only a few exceptions, brown algae are marine, growing in the colder oceans of the world, many in the tidal zone, where they are subjected to great stress from wave action; others grow in deep water. Among the brown algae are the largest of all algae, the giant kelps, which may reach a length of over 100 ft (30 m). Fucus (rockweed), Sargassum (gulfweed), and the simple filamentous Ectocarpus are other examples of brown algae.
The cell wall of the brown algae consists of a cellulose differing chemically from that of plants. The outside is covered with a series of gelatinous pectic compounds, generically called algin; this substance, for which the large brown algae, or kelps, of the Pacific coast are harvested commercially, is used industrially as a stabilizer in emulsions and for other purposes. The normal food reserve of the brown algal cell is a soluble polysaccharide called laminarin; mannitol and oil also occur as storage products. The body, or thallus, of the larger brown algae may contain tissues differentiated for different functions, with stemlike, rootlike, and leaflike organs, the most complex structures of all algae.
| |
270,000,000 YBN
| 240) Gymnosperms: Pinophyta {PInoFiTu} (Conifers: includes Pine, Fir, Spruce, Redwood, Cedar, Juniper, Hemlock, Larch, and Cypress).
The gymnosperms, are a division of seed plants characterized as vascular plants with roots, stems, and leaves, and with seeds that are not enclosed in an ovary but are borne on cone scales or exposed at the end of a stalk.
| |
266,000,000 YBN
| 308) Protist Stramenopiles: Diatoms.
Diatoms are microscopic one-celled or colonial algae, having cell walls of silica consisting of two interlocking symmetrical valves.
The silica shell often has intricate and beautiful sculpturing. Diatoms are usually yellowish or brownish, and are found in fresh and saltwater and in moist soil.
| |
260,000,000 YBN
| 232) Earliest warm-blooded and hair growing animal.
This is possibly a therocephalian reptile..
Both birds and mammals are endothermic (also called "warm blooded") as opposed to other vertebrates which are ectothermic (or "cold blooded) and cannot internally generate heat. Endothermy is the physiological maintenance, by a body, of a constant temperature independent of the external environmental temperature. Hair for insulation is correlated to endothermy. Endothermy allows birds and mammals to maintain a high and relatively constant body temperature, even at rest, during a wide range of external environmental conditions.
Respiratory conchae (or turbinates) (small curved bones in the nasal passage, some which reduce respiratory water loss with rapid breathing), found in the primitive therocephalian Glanosuchus and in several cynodonts, are the first reliable morphological indicator of endothermy. Although the actual nasal turbinal bones are rarely preserved in fossils, their presence can be deduced from characteristic ridges on the walls of the nasal cavity. Ridges probably associated with respiratory turbinals first appear among advanced therapsids, the therocephalians and cynodonts. This suggests that the evolution of the higher oxygen consumption rates of mammals may begin as early as the Late Permian and develop in parallel in therocephalians and cynodonts, with full mammalian endothermy taking perhaps 40 to 50 million more years to develop.
| |
260,000,000 YBN
| 364) Ray-finned fishes: Gars.
Ray-finned fishes: Gars.
| |
256,000,000 YBN
| 6362) Holometabola: Diptera {DiPTRe} true flies, single pair of wings: mosquito, gnat, fruit fly, house fly).
| |
255,000,000 YBN
| 389) Reptiles: Tuataras {TUeToRoZ} evolve.
| (Islands of) New Zealand |
251,400,000 YBN
| 102) End-Permian mass extinction. 82% of all genera are observed extinct.
The Permian–Triassic extinction event is the Earth's most severe extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct It is the only known mass extinction of insects.
The are 5 known major mass extinctions.
| |
251,000,000 YBN
| 54) End of the Paleozoic and start of the Mesozoic Era, and the end of the Permian (299-251 mybn) and start of the Triassic (251-201.6 mybn) period.
| |
251,000,000 YBN
| 452) The supercontinent Pangea (PaNJEe) forms.
Pangaea is a hypothetical supercontinent that included all the landmasses of the earth before the Triassic Period. Pangaea broke apart during the Triassic and Jurassic Periods, separating into Laurasia and Gondwanaland.
| |
251,000,000 YBN
| 6306) Oldest fossil amniote egg.
| Texas (verify) |
250,000,000 YBN
| 241) Fourth oldest living Plant Division "Gnetales".
| |
250,000,000 YBN
| 368) Ray-finned fishes: Bowfin fishes.
Bowfins (Amiiformes) are a primitive bony freshwater fish of central and eastern North America, with a long spineless dorsal fin.
| |
245,000,000 YBN
| 392) Reptiles: Crocodilia {KroKoDiLEu} (Crocodiles, allegators, and caimans {KAmeNS}) evolve.
| |
228,000,000 YBN
| 412) Reptiles: Dinosaurs evolve.
| (Ischigualasto Formation) Valley of the Moon, Ischigualasto Provinvial Park, northwestern Argestina |
228,000,000 YBN
| 611) Dinosaurs divide into two major lines: Ornithischians {ORnitiSKEiNZ} (Bird-hipped dinosaurs) and Saurischians {SoriSKEiNZ} (Lizard-hipped dinosaurs). The Ornithischians will evolve into both bipedal and quadrupedal plant-eaters (herbavores), and the Saurischians will evolve into bipedal meat-eaters (carnivores) and quadrupedal plant-eaters.
| |
228,000,000 YBN
| 6282) Saurischian {SoriSKEiN} Dinosaurs split into two major lines: The Sauropodomorpha (SoroPiDimORFu} and the Therapoda {tiRoPiDu}.
Sauropodomorphs are divided into prosauropods and sauropods, are mostly plant-eating, and include the large, long-necked dinosaurs like Apatosaurus.
Theropod {tERePoD} dinosaurs are bipedal and carnivorous and include Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and Velociraptor. All birds descend from a Therapod ancestor.
| (Ischigualasto Formation) Valley of the Moon, Ischigualasto Provinvial Park, northwestern Argestina |
228,000,000 YBN
| 6283) Earliest dinosaur fossil, the Theropod Eoraptor. This dinosaur is a cat-sized meat eater.
| (Ischigualasto Formation) Valley of the Moon, Ischigualasto Provinvial Park, northwestern Argestina |
225,000,000 YBN
| 126) (Determine oldest evidence of hair.) (Some argue that Pterosaur hair is different from mammal hair.) (Some argue that birds and mammals evolved endothermy separately.)
| (Dockum Formation) Kalgary, Crosby County, Texas, USA |
225,000,000 YBN
| 6370) Holometabolous Insect Order Tricoptera: Caddisflies {KaDiSFLIZ}. Caddisflies are closely related to the Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths).
| |
220,000,000 YBN
| 400) Earliest mammal fossil (Adelobasileus).
This is a fingernail-sized skull found in Texas.
| (Dockum Formation) Kalgary, Crosby County, Texas, USA |
220,000,000 YBN
| 428) The first flying vertebrate (Pterosaur). Oldest Pterosaur fossils (Preondactylus and Eudimorphodon).
Pterosaurs have hair, and some argue have endothermy (are warm-blooded) and actively fly (contracting their wing muscles to flap, as opposed to only glide).
| |
210,000,000 YBN
| 317) Reptile Order: Squamata evolves (ancestor of lizards and snakes).
| |
210,000,000 YBN
| 369) Ancestor of all (Ray-Finned) teleost (TeLEoST) fishes evolves.
Teleosts (Subdivision Teleostei) are a large group of fishes with bony skeletons, including most common fishes, different from cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and rays.
Teleosts will grow to include (bonytongues, eels, herrings, anchovies, carp, minnows, piranha, salmon, trout, pike, perch, seahorse, cod).
DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates CLASS Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880 SUBCLASS Actinopterygii - ray-finned fishes INFRACLASS Cladistia INFRACLASS Actinopteri SUPERDIVISION Neopterygii DIVISION Halecostomi SUBDIVISION Teleostei
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210,000,000 YBN
| 390) Reptiles Iguania evolves: (iguanas, chameleons, and spiny lizards).
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210,000,000 YBN
| 391) Reptiles: Scleroglossa evolve (snakes, skinks, and geckos).
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210,000,000 YBN
| 413) (It's interesting that there is not an earlier form - like a much smaller carapace. State the theories about the selective advantage of a solid shelled back.)
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210,000,000 YBN
| 6313) Earliest extant Teleosts: Bonytongues.
Teleosts (Subdivision Teleostei) are a large group of fishes with bony skeletons, including most common fishes, different from cartilaginous fishes such as sharks and rays.
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209,500,000 YBN
| 489) Triconodonta (extinct mammals) evolve.
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201,600,000 YBN
| 127) End of the Triassic (251-201.6 mybn), and start of the Jurassic (201.6-145.5 mybn) Period.
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201,400,000 YBN
| 228)
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200,000,000 YBN
| 370) DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates CLASS Osteichthyes Huxley, 1880 SUBCLASS Actinopterygii - ray-finned fishes INFRACLASS Cladistia INFRACLASS Actinopteri SUPERDIVISION Neopterygii DIVISION Halecostomi SUBDIVISION Teleostei
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200,000,000 YBN
| 6285) Earliest certain dinoflagellate fossil.
The first dinoflagellate to appear in the fossil record is Sahulidinium ottii (of uncertain family status) from the late Anisian (Middle Triassic, 240 Ma).
The earliest undisputed, structural fossils of dinoflagellates are cyts dating from the Triassic (e.g., Suessia swabiana c200 Ma), with a few likely Permian records. Some Silurian (c410 Ma) fossils have been attributed to the group but the relation is uncertain.
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200,000,000 YBN
| 6372) Ornithischians Thyreophora {tIrEoFeru} evolve; ancestor of the armored ankylosaurs {ANKilOSORZ} and the plated stegosaurs {STeGeSORZ}.
One of the most primitive Thyreophorans is Scutellosaurus which has rows of armored plates along its body and tail.
| (Kayenta Formation) Arizona, USA |
195,000,000 YBN
| 246) Saurischian {SoriSKEiN} Sauropods {SoRuPoDZ} evolve; large, long-necked dinosaurs like Apatosaurus {uPaTuSORuS}, Brachiosaurus {BrAKEuSORuS}, and Diplodocus {DiPloDiKuS}.
| western USA |
195,000,000 YBN
| 6373) Ornithischians ornithopoda {ORnitoPiDu} evolve; the duck-billed dinosaurs, ancestor of the Hadrosaurs.
One of the most primitive Ornithopods is Heterodontosaurus.
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190,000,000 YBN
| 358) Cartilaginous fishes: squalea {SKWAlEo} evolve, ancestor of all rays, skates, and sawfishes.
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190,000,000 YBN
| 359) Cartilaginous fishes: "Galea" {GAlEu} evolve, (ancestor of all sharks: includes great white, hammerhead, mako, tiger and nurse sharks).
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190,000,000 YBN
| 371) Teleosts: herrings and anchovies.
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190,000,000 YBN
| 6289) Supercontinent Pangea splits into Laurasia and Gondwana. The northern part, Laurasia will form North America and Europe. The southern part, Gondwana will form South America and Africa.
| Pangea |
190,000,000 YBN
| 6347) Holometabola Lepidoptera {lePiDoPTRu} evolve (moths, butterflies, caterpillars).
The Lepidoptera comprise the largest lineage of plant-feeding organisms. The plant eating beetles form the other largest group.
Butterflies are only about 6% of all species the Lepidoptera, the rest being moths. Because unlike the day flying butterflies, moths are generally smaller, night flying insects, butterflies get all the attention.
The Leptidoptera, among all orders of insects, appears to have radiated most recently.
| Dorset, England |
185,000,000 YBN
| 194) Earliest diatom fossils.
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180,000,000 YBN
| 456) Earliest extant mammals, Monotremes {moNeTrEMZ} evolve. Monotremes are an order of primitive egg-laying mammals restricted to Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea and consisting of only the platypus and two species of echidna. Except for their egg laying, they have mammalian characteristics, such as mammary glands, hair, and a complete diaphragm.
Monotreme means single hole in Greek. As with reptiles and birds, the anus, the urinary tract and the reproductive tract empty into a single shared opening, the cloaca. The monotremes do not have microscopic eggs like the other mammals, but have two-centimeter eggs with a tough white leathery shell which contains nutrients to feed the baby until its ready to hatch. The baby monotreme hatches like a reptile or bird, using an egg-tooth at the end of its bill. Monotremes are like mammals in secreting milk for their young, but they lack discrete nipples, instead milk oozes out from pores over a wide area of skin and licked up by the baby who holds onto hairs on the mother's belly.
The earliest monotreme (mammal) fossil (Steropodon galmani) is 112 million years old and from Australia.
Monotremes are the oldest surviving warm blooded and hair growing species. (verify- perhaps the earliest bird is)
(Since monotremes lay eggs, it implies that the transition from egg laying to live birth did not happen until after any common warm blooded ancestor of pterosaurs, birds, and mammals who was presumably an egg laying species. So all reptiles and mammals were egg laying at least until 180 MYBN.)
| Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea |
170,000,000 YBN
| 372) Teleosts: carp, minnows, piranhas.
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170,000,000 YBN
| 373) Teleosts: salmon, trout, pike.
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165,000,000 YBN
| 457) Ancestor of all Marsupials. This is the last common ancestor of Eutheria (includes Placental) and Metatheria (includes Marsupial) mammals.
Marsupium means pouch in Latin. Marsupials are born as tiny embryos and crawl through their mother's fur into the pouch where they clamp their mouths to a nipple (teat). The other main group of mammals are called placentals because they feed their embryos with a placenta which allows the baby top be born much later. The pouch is like an external womb.
The earliest known marsupial is Sinodelphys szalayi, which lived in China around 125 million years ago (mya).
| China |
161,000,000 YBN
| 6369) Holometabola Siphonaptera: fleas.
The oldest flea fossils, which are much larger than modern species date to this time.
| (Jiulongshan Formation) Daohugou, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia |
160,000,000 YBN
| 163)
| (Daxigou) Jianchang County, Liaoning Province, China |
150,000,000 YBN
| 330) Stegosaurus, an armored, plant-eating Thyreophoran {tIRrEoFereN} dinosaur lives around this time. Stegosaurus has sharp spikes on its tail and large bony plates on its back. The plates may be used for display or for controlling its body temperature.
| western USA |
150,000,000 YBN
| 374) Teleosts: Lightfish and Dragonfish.
Lightfish are bioluminescent fish. (verify)
Bioluminescence is the emission of light by an organism or biochemical system. It occurs in a wide range of protists and animals, including bacteria and fungi, insects, marine invertebrates, and fish. It is not known to exist naturally in true plants or in amphibians, reptiles, birds, or mammals. It results from a chemical reaction that produces radiant energy very efficiently, giving off very little heat. The essential light-emitting components are usually the organic molecule luciferin and the enzyme luciferase, which are specific for different organisms. In higher organisms, light production is used to frighten predators and to help members of a species recognize each other. Its functional role in lower organisms such as bacteria, dinoflagellates, and fungi is uncertain. Luminous species are widely scattered taxonomically, with no clear-cut pattern, though most are marine.
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150,000,000 YBN
| 393) (Since the Pterosaur has hair, and early reptiles in China have hair and feathers. It may be that the feather, at least the hair-like part evolved from hair. Perhaps like a pinnate leaf, a hair structure was duplicated. Perhaps a hox gene codes for a single hair.)
DOMAIN Eukaryota - eukaryotes KINGDOM Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals SUBKINGDOM Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians BRANCH Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes INFRAKINGDOM Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 PHYLUM Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates SUBPHYLUM Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates INFRAPHYLUM Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates SUPERCLASS Tetrapoda Goodrich, 1930 - tetrapods SERIES Amniota CLASS Aves Linnaeus, 1758 - birds
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150,000,000 YBN
| 394) Oldest bird (and feather) fossil, Archaeopteryx.
The Archaeopteryx fossil is from the Solnhofen Limestone of the Upper Jurassic of Germany.
| Solnhofen, Germany |
150,000,000 YBN
| 6334) Probable fungi microfossils of "Tappania plana" with fused branches, a process found in higher fungi.
| (Wynniatt Formation) Victoria Island, northwestern Canada |
150,000,000 YBN
| 6374) Sauropods {SoRuPoDZ} are common; large, long-necked dinosaurs like Apatosaurus {uPaTuSORuS}, Brachiosaurus {BrAKEuSORuS}, and Diplodocus {DiPloDiKuS}.
| western USA |
146,000,000 YBN
| 490) Multituberculata (extinct major branch of mammals) evolve.
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145,000,000 YBN
| 245) The first flowering plant (angiosperm).
Almost all grains, beans, nuts, fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices come from plants with flowers. Tea, coffee, chocolate, wine, beer, tequila, and cola all come from flowing plants. Much of our clothing comes from flowering plants too: cotton and linen are made from "fibers" of flowering plants, as are rope and burlap, and many commercial dyes are extracted from other flowering plants. Many drugs also come from flowering plants including: aspirin, digitalis, opium, cocaine, marijuana, and tobacco.
Aside from primitive flowers like the Magnoliids, most later angiosperms can be divided into the more primitive Monocotyledons (Monocots), flowering plants that have a single cotyledon (seed leaf) in the embryo, and the more recent Dicotyledons (Dicots), which have two cotyledons in the embryo. The dicots contain two groups that account for two-thirds of all angiosperm species: the asterids, and the rosids.
The earliest fossil evidence of angiosperms is pollen 130-140 MYO in Israel, Morocco, Libya, and possibly China. The earliest macrofossils are leaves and flowers around 120-130 MYO.
Archaefructus, is an early angiosperm fossil that dates to around 125 MYO from northeastern China. Archaefrcutus does not have petals or sepals, but does have carpels and stamens which are attached to an elongated stem with the staminate (pollen-producing) flowers below, and pistillate (fruit-producing) flowers above. This ancient flower is similar in some ways to Trithuria, a genus of Nymphaeles (waterlilies).
Estimates of angiosperm origins based on molecular divergence are typically far older than those estimates based on fossils. These rate estimates may be a result of using living species in a group where the basal branches of a lineage have been extensively pruned by extinction, which may be the case for the angiosperm tree.
| Israel, Morocco, Libya, and possibly China |
145,000,000 YBN
| 415) Oldest flower fossil, Archaefructus, in China, a submerged wetland plant.
| (Yixian Formation) Liaoning Province, northeastern China |
144,000,000 YBN
| 128) End of the Jurassic (201.6-145.5 mybn), and start of the Cretaceous (145.5-65.5 mybn) Period.
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143,000,000 YBN
| 6288) Earliest extant flowering plant (Angiosperm) "Amborella".
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140,000,000 YBN
| 247) The second most primitive living Angiosperms, ("Nymphaeales") {niM-FE-o-lAZ}, the Water Lilies.
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138,000,000 YBN
| 248) Angiosperm "Austrobaileyales".
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136,000,000 YBN
| 249) Angiosperm "Chloranthaceae".
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136,000,000 YBN
| 460) Enantiornithes {iNaNTEORNitEZ} evolve (early birds).
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134,000,000 YBN
| 250) Ancestor of all flowers: "Magnoliids" {maGnOlEiDZ} (nutmeg, avocado, sassafras, cinnamon, black and white pepper, camphor, bay (or laurel) leaves, magnolias.).
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133,000,000 YBN
| 253) Flowers Eudicots {YUDIKoTS} evolve (the largest lineage of flowers).
Eudicots are also called "tricolpates" which refers to the structure of the pollen.
The two main groups of the Eudicots are the "rosids" and the "asterids".
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132,000,000 YBN
| 462)
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130,000,000 YBN
| 375) Teleosts: Perch, seahorses, flying fish, pufferfish, barracuda.
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130,000,000 YBN
| 376) Teleosts: cod, anglerfish.
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130,000,000 YBN
| 6338) Feathered dinosaur microraptors fossils.
| Northeastern China |
125,000,000 YBN
| 395) (Note that the authors of the report of the earliest fossilized flower support a {late Jurassic} date of 145 MYBN for the Yixian Formation.)
Biota Domain Eukaryota - eukaryotes Kingdom Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals Subkingdom Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians Branch Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes Infrakingdom Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 Phylum Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates Subphylum Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates Infraphylum Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates Superclass Tetrapoda Goodrich, 1930 - tetrapods Series Amniota Class Aves Linnaeus, 1758 - birds {Subclass Archaeornithes}
| (Yixian Formation) Liaoning Province, northeastern China |
120,000,000 YBN
| 463) Neornithes {nEORnitEZ} evolve (modern birds: the most recent common ancestor of all living birds).
Neornithes is the subclass of Aves that contains all of the known birds other than those placed in the Archaeornithes. Neornithes includes more than 30 orders, both fossil and living, its members are characterized by a bony, keeled sternum with fully developed powers of flapping flight (secondarily lost in a number of groups); a short tail with fused vertebrae to which all tail feathers attach; a large fused pelvic girdle; and a large brain and eyes contained within a fused braincase. In addition Neornithes have a fully-separated four-chambered heart and typically exhibit complex social behaviors.
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120,000,000 YBN
| 6361) Bees.
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119,000,000 YBN
| 251) Flowers: "Ceratophyllaceae".
Closest surviving relative of all eudicots.
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112,000,000 YBN
| 252) Flowers Monocotyledons (or "Monocots") evolve: Flowering plants that have a single cotyledon (or seed leaf) in the embryo.
Monocots are the second largest lineage of flowers after the Eudicots, and include lilies, palms, orchids, and grasses.
The two main orders of Monocots are "Base Monocots" and "Commelinids".
| |
112,000,000 YBN
| 481) Earliest Monotreme fossil (Steropodon galmani).
| Lightning Ridge in north central New South Wales, Australia |
110,000,000 YBN
| 416) Sauroposeidon fossil, a long-neck (sauropod) brachiosaur from Oklahoma, possibly the tallest animal of all time, at an estimated height of 60 feet.
| Oklahoma, USA |
108,000,000 YBN
| 254) Flowers: "Basal Eudicots" (buttercup, clematis, poppy {source of opium and morphine}, macadamia, lotus, sycamore).
| |
106,000,000 YBN
| 267) Flowers "Core Eudicots" (carnation, cactus, caper, buckwheat, rhubarb, sundew, venus flytrap, old world pitcher plants, beet, quinoa, spinach, currant, sweet gum, peony, witch-hazel, mistletoe, grape plants.).
| |
105,000,000 YBN
| 417) Sauropod Argentinosaurus {oRJeNTiNuSORuS}, a long-neck (sauropod) titanosaur from South America, possibly the longest animal of all time, at an estimated 130 to 140 feet length.
| |
105,000,000 YBN
| 491) Ancestor of all placental mammal Afrotheres evolves (elephants, manatees, aardvarks).
Afrotheres originate in Africa and are the earliest extant placental mammals.
| Africa |
100,000,000 YBN
| 164)
| |
100,000,000 YBN
| 418) Carnotaurus fossil, a horned, meat-eating (theropod) dinosaur from South America. The fossil includes skin impressions of its face.
| South America |
100,000,000 YBN
| 464)
| |
100,000,000 YBN
| 465) Birds "Ratites" evolve (ostrich, emu, cassowary {KaSOwaRE}, kiwis).
| |
95,000,000 YBN
| 419) The Therapod {tERePoD} Spinosaurus {SPINuSORuS}, perhaps the largest meat-eating dinosaur.
The only skeleton ever found was destroyed during World War 2.
| |
95,000,000 YBN
| 498) Mammals "Xenarthrans" {ZeNoRtreNZ} evolve (Sloths, Anteaters, Armadillos).
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93,000,000 YBN
| 256) Flowers: "Rosids" evolve (Basal Rosids include: geranium, pomegranate, myrtle, clove, guava, allspice, and eucalyptus).
| |
93,000,000 YBN
| 261) Angiosperm Eudicot "Eurosids I" Order "Fabales" {FoBAlEZ}.
Fabales include many beans (green, lima, kidney, pinto, navy, black, mung, fava, cow (or black-eyed), popping), pea, peanut, soy {used in tofu, miso, tempeh, and milk}, lentil, chick pea (or garbonzo) {used in falafel}, lupin, clover, alfalfa {used as sprouts}, cassia {Kasu}, jicama, Judas tree, tamarind {TaMuriND}, acacia {uKAsYu}, mesquite.
| |
93,000,000 YBN
| 265) Flowers "Base Monocots" evolve (vanilla, orchid, asparagus, onion, garlic, agave, aloe, lily).
| |
93,000,000 YBN
| 266) Monocots "Commelinids" {KomelIniDZ} evolve (palms, coconut, corn, rice, barley, oat, wheat, rye, sugarcane, bamboo, grass, pineapple, papyrus, turmeric {TRmRiK}, banana, ginger).
| |
93,000,000 YBN
| 274) Ancestor of flowers "Basal Asterids". Earliest surviving Order "Cornales" (dogwoods, tupelos, dove tree).
| |
93,000,000 YBN
| 275) Angiosperm "Basal Asterids" Order "Ericales" {AReKAlEZ} . Ericales includes kiwifruit (kiwi), Impatiens, ebony, persimmon, heather, crowberry, rhododendrons, azalias, cranberries, blueberries, lingonberry, bilberry, huckleberry, brazil nut, primrose, sapodilla, mamey sapote (sapota), chicle, balatá, canistel, new world pitcher plants {carniverous}, tea {Camellia sinensis}
| |
93,000,000 YBN
| 283) Angiosperm "Euasterids II" order "Apiales" {APEAlEZ} evolving now. Apiales includes dill, angelica, chervil {CRViL}, celery, caraway, cumin, sea holly, poison hemlock, coriander (or cilantro), carrot, lovage {LuViJ}, parsnip, anise {aNiS}, fennel, cicely {SiSelE}, parsley, ivy, ginseng.
| |
93,000,000 YBN
| 285) Angiosperms "Euasterids II" order "Asterales" {aSTRAlEZ} evolves.
Asterales includes burdock, tarragon, daisy, marigold, safflower, chrysanthemum (mums), chickory, endive, artichoke, sunflower, sunroot (Jerusalem artichoke), lettuce, chamomile, black-eyed susan, salsify {SoLSiFE}, dandelion, and zinnia.
| |
91,000,000 YBN
| 259) Flowers: Eurosid I "Malpighiales" {maLPiGEAlEZ} evolves (includes gamboge {GaM BOJ}, mangosteen {mANGuSTEN}, coca {used in cocaine and drinks}, rubber tree, cassava (or manioc {maNEoK}) {used like a potato, and in tapioca}, castor oil, poinsettia, flax, acerola {aSorOlu} (barbados cherry), willow, poplar, aspen, and violet (or pansy).
| |
91,000,000 YBN
| 260) Angiosperm Eudicot "Eurosids I" Order "Oxalidales" (fly-catcher plant).
| |
90,000,000 YBN
| 270) Angiosperm Eudicots "Eurosids II" evolves: most primitive Order is "Brassicales" {BraSiKAlEZ}.
Brassicales includes horseradish, rapeseed, mustard, rutabaga, kale, Chinese broccoli (kai-lan {KI laN}), cauliflower, collard greens, cabbage (used in coleslaw and sauerkraut), Brussels sprouts, kohlrabi {KOLroBE}, broccoli, watercress, radish, wasabi, mignonette {miNYuNeT}, and papaya.
| |
89,000,000 YBN
| 262) Angiosperm "Eurosids I" Order "Rosales" {ROZAlEZ}.
Rosales includes hemp (cannibis, marijuana) {used for rope, oil, recreational drug}, hackberry, hop {used in beer}, breadfruit, cempedak, jackfruit, marang, paper mulberry, fig, banyan, strawberry, rose, red raspberry, black raspberry, blackberry, cloudberry, loganberry, salmonberry, thimbleberry, serviceberry, chokeberry, quince, loquat, apple, crabapple, pear, plum, cherry, peach, apricot, almond, jujube, and elm.
| |
89,000,000 YBN
| 279) Flowers "Euasterids I" order "Gentianales" {JeNsinAlEZ} evolves. Gentianale s includes gentian, dogbane, carissa (Natal plum), oleander, logania, and coffee.
| |
88,000,000 YBN
| 284) Angiosperm "Euasterids II" order "Dipsacales". Dipsacales includes Elderberry, Honeysuckle, Teasel, Corn Salad.
| |
86,000,000 YBN
| 278) Angiosperm "Euasterids I" order "Solanales" {SOlanAlEZ} evolves. Solanales includes deadly nightshade or belladonna, capsicum (bell pepper, paprika, Jalapeño, Pimento), cayenne pepper {KI YeN}, datura, tomato, mandrake, tobacco, petunia, tomatillo, potato, eggplant, morning glory, sweet potato, and water spinach.
| Americas |
85,000,000 YBN
| 263) Angiosperm "Eurosids I" Order "Cucurbitales" (KYUKRBiTAlEZ} evolve. Cucurbitales includes watermelon, musk, cantaloupe, honeydew, casaba, cucumbers, gourds, pumpkins, squashes (acorn, buttercup, butternut, cushaw {Kuso}, hubbard, pattypan, spaghetti), zucchini, and begonia.
| Americas |
85,000,000 YBN
| 264) Angiosperm "Eurosids I" Order "Fagales" {FaGAlEZ} evolves. Fagales includes many flowers that produce edible nuts: Birch, Hazel {nut}, Filbert {nut}, Chestnut, Beech {nut}, Oak {used for wood, and cork}, Walnut, Pecan, Hickory, and Bayberry.
| |
85,000,000 YBN
| 466) Birds "Galliformes" {GaLliFORmEZ} evolve (Chicken, Turkey, Pheasant, Peacock, Quail).
| |
85,000,000 YBN
| 467) Birds "Anseriformes" {aNSRiFORmEZ} evolve (waterfowl: ducks, geese, swans).
The "Anseriformes" are an order of birds, characterized by a broad, flat bill and webbed feet.
| |
85,000,000 YBN
| 499) Ancestor of all placental mammal "Laurasiatheres" evolves. This major line of mammals includes the Insectivora (shrews, moles, hedgehogs), Chiroptera (bats), Cetartiodactyla (camels, pigs, deer, sheep, hippos, whales), Perissodactyla (horses, rhinos), Carnivora (cats, dogs, bears, seals, walruses) and Pholidota (pangolins).
Laurasiatheres originate in the old northern continent Laurasia.
| Laurasia |
84,000,000 YBN
| 454) The Rocky mountains start to form.
| |
82,000,000 YBN
| 271) Angiosperm "Eurosids II" Order "Malvales" {moLVAlEZ} evolve. Malvales includes okra, marsh mallow {malO}, kola nut, cotton, hibiscus, balsa, and cacao {KoKoU} (used in chocolate).
| Americas |
82,000,000 YBN
| 272) Angiosperm "Eurosids II" Order "Sapindales" {SaPiNDAlEZ} evolves. Sapindales includes maple, buckeye, horse chestnut, longan, lychee, rambutan, guarana, bael, langsat (or duku), mahogany, cashew, mango, pistachio, sumac, peppertree, poison-ivy, frankincense, and the citris trees: orange, lemon, grapefruit, lime, tangerine, pomelo, and kumquat}.
| Americas |
82,000,000 YBN
| 420) Hadrosaurs, Ornithopod {ORniTePoD} duck-billed dinosaurs.
Duck-billed dinosaurs (hadrosaurs) are common. The Hadrosaurs Maiasaurs are examples of dinosaurs from which fossil nests, eggs, and baby dinosaurs have been found.
| |
82,000,000 YBN
| 500) Laurasiatheres "Insectivora" evolves (shrews, moles, hedgehogs).
| |
80,000,000 YBN
| 421) The Ornithiscian Ceratopsian dinosaurs evolve. Protoceratops, an early shield-headed (ceratopsian) dinosaur fossil.
| Mongolia, China |
80,000,000 YBN
| 422) Therapods {tERePoD} Dromaeosaurs {DrOmEoSORZ}: Raptor fossils.
Raptors (dromaeosaurs) are Cretaceous dinosaurs, which have large, hook claws on their feet. Velociraptor is one example.
| |
80,000,000 YBN
| 482) Marsupials "Didelphimorphia" evolve (New World opossums).
| Americas |
80,000,000 YBN
| 501) Laurasiatheres mammals "Megachiroptera" {KIroPTRu} (Old World fruit bats) and "Microchiroptera" (Echolocating Bats) evolve.
| Laurasia |
78,000,000 YBN
| 502) Laurasiatheres "Cetartiodactyla" {SiToRTEODaKTilu} evolve (ancestor of all Artiodactyla {oRTEODaKTiLu}: camels, pigs, ruminants, hippos, and all Cetacea {SiTASEu or SiTAsEu}: Whales, and Dolphins).
The artiodactyla are an order comprising the even-toed ungulates {uNGYUlATS or uNGYUliTS}(hoofed mammals).
Cetacea is an order or marine mammals that includes the whales, dolphins, and porpoises, characterized by a nearly hairless body, anterior limbs modified into broad flippers, vestigial posterior limbs, and a flat notched tail.
| Laurasia |
77,000,000 YBN
| 483) Marsupials "Paucituberculata" evolve (Shrew opossums).
| Andes Mountains, South America |
76,000,000 YBN
| 503) Laurasiatheres order "Perissodactyla" {PeriSODaKTilu} evolve (also called "odd-toed ungulates") {uNGYUlATS or uNGYUliTS} (Horses, Tapirs {TAPRZ }, Rhinos).
Perissodactyla is an order of herbivorous, odd-toed, hoofed mammals, including the living horses, zebras, asses, tapirs, rhinoceroses, and their extinct relatives. They are defined by a number of unique specializations, but the most diagnostic feature is their feet. Most perissodactyls have either one or three toes on each foot, and the axis of symmetry of the foot runs through the middle digit.
| Laurasia |
75,000,000 YBN
| 423) Ceratopsian dinosaurs are common (Monoclonius, Styrakosaurus, Triceratops). Triceratops, is the largest of its kind, reaching 30 feet in length.
| |
75,000,000 YBN
| 492) Afrotheres: Aardvark.
| Africa |
75,000,000 YBN
| 504) Laurasiatheres order "Carnivora" (Cats, Dogs, Bears, Weasels, Hyenas, Seals, Walruses).
| Laurasia |
75,000,000 YBN
| 505)
| Laurasia |
74,000,000 YBN
| 280) Angiosperm "Euasterids I" order "Lamiales" {lAmEAlEZ} evolves.
Lamiales include many spices: lavender, mint, peppermint, basil, marjoram {moRJ uruM}, oregano, perilla, rosemary, sage, savory, thyme, teak, sesame, corkscrew plants, bladderwort, snapdragon, olive, ash, lilac, and jasmine.
| |
73,000,000 YBN
| 484) Australian Marsupial Order Peramelemorphia evolves (Bandicoots and Bilbies {BiLBEZ}).
| Australia |
70,000,000 YBN
| 424) Two of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs known are common (both Therapods {tERePoD}): Tyrannosaurus rex is the top predator in North America and Giganotosaurus is in South America.
| Americas |
70,000,000 YBN
| 425) The Thyreophoran {tIRrEoFereNZ} ankylosaurs evolve (shield back and/or clubbed tail dinosaurs) and are the most heavily armored land-animals known. These plant-eating dinosaurs are low to the ground for optimal protection. Many have spikes that stick out from their bone-covered back.
| |
70,000,000 YBN
| 426) Mosasaurs {mOSeSORZ}, marine reptiles evolve.
| |
70,000,000 YBN
| 469) Birds "Podicipediformes" {PoDiSiPeDeFORmEZ} (grebes {GreBS}).
| |
70,000,000 YBN
| 493) Afrotheres: Tenrecs and golden moles.
| Africa |
70,000,000 YBN
| 494) Afrotheres: Elephant Shrews.
| Africa |
70,000,000 YBN
| 507) Placental Mammal Order "Lagomorpha": Rabbits, Hares, and Pikas {PIKuZ}.
Rabbits were once classified as rodents, because they also have very prominent gnawing teeth at the front, but were separated into their own order called "Lagomorpha". Lagomorphs and rodents are grouped together in a cohort named "Glires".
| |
70,000,000 YBN
| 516) Placental Mammals: Tree Shrews and Colugos {KolUGOZ}.
| |
70,000,000 YBN
| 1383) Giant bird-like Theropod dinosaur Gigantoraptor.
| |
66,000,000 YBN
| 120) Largest Pterosaur and largest flying animal ever known, Quetzalcoatlus {KeTZLKWoTLuS}.
| |
65,500,000 YBN
| 129) End of the Mesozoic and start of the Cenozoic Era, and the end of the Cretaceous (145.5-65.5 mybn), and start of the Tertiary (65.5-1.8 mybn) Period.
| |
65,500,000 YBN
| 397) End-Cretaceous mass extinction. 47% of all genera are observed extinct. Dinosaurs become extinct. Also called the K-T (Kretaceous-Tertiary) extinction. Huge amounts of lava erupted from India, and a comet or meteor collided with the Earth in what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. No large animals survived on land, in the air, or in the sea.
Extinction of 60% of plant species, and all dinosaurs, mosasaurs, pterodactyls, plesiosaurs and pliosaurs.
| |
65,000,000 YBN
| 429) There is a rapid increase in new species of fossil mammals after the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Most early Cenozoic mammal fossils are small.
| |
65,000,000 YBN
| 468) Birds "Gruiformes" {GrUiFORmEZ} evolve (cranes, rails, bustards).
| |
65,000,000 YBN
| 470) Birds "Strigiformes" {STriJiFORmEZ} evolve (owls).
| |
65,000,000 YBN
| 485) Australian marsupial order "Notoryctemorphia" evolve (Marsupial moles).
| Australia |
65,000,000 YBN
| 486) Australian Marsupial order "Dasyuromorphia" (Tasmanian Devil, Numbat).
| Australia |
65,000,000 YBN
| 488) Australian Marsupial Order "Diprotodontia" {DIPrOTODoNsEu} evolve (Wombats, Kangeroos, Possums, Koalas).
| Australia |
65,000,000 YBN
| 508) Rodents evolve "Rodentia". Rodents: "Myomorpha" {MIemORFu} (rats, mice, gerbils, voles {VOLZ}, lemmings, hamsters).
Rodents are an order of mammals characterized by a single pair of ever-growing upper and lower incisors, a maximum of five upper and four lower cheek teeth on each side, and free movement of the lower jaw in an anteroposterior direction.
| |
65,000,000 YBN
| 509) Rodents: Beavers, Pocket gophers, Pocket mice and kangaroo rats evolve.
| |
64,000,000 YBN
| 585) Birds Psittaciformes {SiTaS-iFORmEZ} (Parrots).
| |
63,000,000 YBN
| 510) Rodents: Springhares and Scaly-tailed Squirrels.
| |
63,000,000 YBN
| 587) Primates evolve, most likely in Africa or the Indian subcontinent. Opposable thumb.
The order primates contains more than 300 species, including monkeys, apes, and humans. The primates are one of the most diverse orders of mammals on Earth. They include the lemurs, the lorises, the tarsiers, the New World monkeys, the Old World monkeys, and the apes and humans. The oldest known fossil remains of primates are about 60 million years old.
| Africa or India |
62,000,000 YBN
| 495) Afrotheres: Elephants.
| Africa |
60,000,000 YBN
| 430) In South America, the Andes mountains start to form.
| |
60,000,000 YBN
| 431) Earliest fossil rodent.
| |
60,000,000 YBN
| 432) The cat-like Laurasiatheres Creodonts {KrEuDoNTS} are common.
Creodonts are the dominant predators throughout the Eocene and Oligocene and occupy many of the same niches as the carnivores which eventually replace them. There are two families of Creodonts, Oxyaenidae and the more widespread Hyaenodontidae which includes Megistotherium one of the largest land predators to have ever lived.
| |
60,000,000 YBN
| 586) Earliest primate fossils.
The earliest primate fossils belong to the primate order "Plesiadapiformes" and are found near the start of the Paleocene (~55 mybn). These include Purgatorius from Montana, Plesiadapis, and Dryomomys from Wyoming, and Altiatlasius which appears in Africa and is known from a handful of isolated upper and lower teeth from Morocco.
| Morocco, Africa, (Willwood Formation) Clarks Fork Basin, Wyoming, USA), and Montana, USA |
60,000,000 YBN
| 796)
| |
59,000,000 YBN
| 496) Afrotheres: Hyraxes.
| Africa |
59,000,000 YBN
| 497) Afrotheres: Manatee and Dugong.
| |
58,000,000 YBN
| 511) Rodents: Dormice, Mountain Beaver, Squirrels and Marmots {moRmuTS}.
| |
58,000,000 YBN
| 524) Primates: Tarsiers {ToRSERZ}.
| |
57,000,000 YBN
| 433) Earliest hooved mammal fossil.
| |
55,800,000 YBN
| 588) Widespread appearance of primates.
Cantius and Teilhardina are the earliest euprimates in North America, followed quickly by Steinius and others. Cantius and Teilhardina also appear in Europe with Donrussellia.
| |
55,000,000 YBN
| 435) Rhinoceros-like Placental mammals Uintatherium {YUiNTutEREuM} are the largest land animals at this time.
| |
55,000,000 YBN
| 436) Horses. Earliest fossil horse, Hyractotherium, about the size of a dog).
| |
55,000,000 YBN
| 512)
| |
55,000,000 YBN
| 809) Last common ancestor of Ruminants with Hippos, Dolphins and Whales.
| |
54,970,000 YBN
| 434) Earliest primate skull.
| Hunan Province, China |
54,000,000 YBN
| 810) Last common ancestor between hippos with dolphins and whales.
| |
53,500,000 YBN
| 812) Earliest fossils of marine mammal "Pakicetus".
| |
52,500,000 YBN
| 6179) Earliest bat fossils.
| (Green River Formation) Wyoming |
51,000,000 YBN
| 513) Rodents: Old World Porcupines.
| |
50,000,000 YBN
| 437) Elephants. Earliest elephant fossil.
| Algeria, Africa |
50,000,000 YBN
| 438) Himalayan mountains start to form as India collides with Eurasia. This will continue for millions of years.
| Himalyia Mountains, India |
50,000,000 YBN
| 518) Primates: Lorises {LORiSEZ}, Bushbabies, Pottos {PoTTOZ}.
| |
50,000,000 YBN
| 816) Earliest Ambulocetus (an early whale) fossil.
| |
49,000,000 YBN
| 439) The largest meat-eating land animals of the Paleocene and Eocene epochs were flightless birds, like Diatryma from America, and Gastornis from Europe.
| |
49,000,000 YBN
| 472) Birds "Caprimulgiformes" (nightjars, night hawks, potoos, oilbirds).
| |
49,000,000 YBN
| 474) Birds "Falconiformes" {FaLKoNiFORmEZ} (falcons, hawks, eagles, Old World vultures).
| |
49,000,000 YBN
| 514)
| |
49,000,000 YBN
| 515) Rodents: New World porcupines, guinea pigs, agoutis {uGUTEZ}, capybaras {KaPuBoRoZ}.
| |
46,000,000 YBN
| 817) Earliest Rodhocetus fossil (early whale).
| |
45,000,000 YBN
| 519) Primate: Aye-aye {I-I}.
| |
40,000,000 YBN
| 440) In Europe the Alpine mountains start to form.
| Alpine mountains |
40,000,000 YBN
| 441)
| |
40,000,000 YBN
| 525) Ancestor of all Primates "New World Monkeys" (Sakis, Spider, Howler and Squirrel monkeys, Capuchins {KaP YU CiNZ}, Tamarins).
The ancestor of all New World monkeys probably originates in Africa, but all surviving descendants now live in the Americas, which suggests that a small group of New World monkeys got across the early Atlantic Ocean to South America, perhaps by rafting on fallen trees over a chain of islands.
| Africa |
40,000,000 YBN
| 815) Earliest Basilosaurus fossil (early whale).
| |
37,000,000 YBN
| 442) Oldest fossil of dog, Hesperocyon.
| |
37,000,000 YBN
| 471) Birds "Apodiformes" {oPoD-i-FORmEZ} (hummingbirds, swifts).
| |
37,000,000 YBN
| 473)
| |
37,000,000 YBN
| 475) Birds: Cuculiformes {KUKUliFORmEZ} evolve (cuckoos, roadrunners).
| |
37,000,000 YBN
| 476) Birds "Piciformes" {PESiFORmEZ} (woodpeckers, toucans).
| |
35,000,000 YBN
| 811) Last common ancestor of dolphins and whales.
(Toothed and Baleen split.)
| |
34,000,000 YBN
| 813)
| |
34,000,000 YBN
| 814) Earliest Baleen {BulEN} whale fossils.
| |
33,000,000 YBN
| 560) Primates Aegyptopithecus evolves in East Africa.
| |
30,000,000 YBN
| 443) The largest land mammal ever known, the hornless Rhinoceros, Paraceratherium lives at this time.
| India |
30,000,000 YBN
| 520) Primates: True Lemurs.
| |
28,000,000 YBN
| 477) Birds "Passeriformes" {PaSRiFORmEZ} (perching songbirds) evolve. This order includes many common birds: crows, jays, sparrows, warblers, mockingbirds, robins, orioles, bluebirds, vireos {VEREOZ}, larks, finches.
More than half of all species of bird are passerines. Sometimes known as perching birds or, less accurately, as songbirds, the passerines are one of the most spectacularly successful vertebrate orders: with around 5,400 species, they are roughly twice as diverse as the largest of the mammal orders, the Rodentia.
| |
27,000,000 YBN
| 521)
| |
25,000,000 YBN
| 444) Earliest cat fossil.
| |
25,000,000 YBN
| 522)
| |
25,000,000 YBN
| 531) Ancestor of all Primates "Old World Monkeys" (Macaques, Baboons, Mandrills, Proboscis and Colobus {KoLiBeS} monkeys).
This is also the last common ancestor of the Old World monkeys and the hominoids, the superfamily Hominoidea, which includes apes and humans.
| (perhaps around Lake Victoria) Africa |
24,000,000 YBN
| 662) The ancestor of all Hominoids (Gibbons and Hominids) loses its tail.
| |
23,000,000 YBN
| 478) Monotreme: Echidna.
| Australia, Tasmania and New Guinea |
23,000,000 YBN
| 479) Monotreme: Duck-Billed Platypus.
| Australia and Tasmania |
22,000,000 YBN
| 526) New World Monkeys: Sakis, Uakaris {WoKoREZ}, and Titis {TETEZ}.
| |
22,000,000 YBN
| 527) New World Monkeys: Howler, Spider and Woolly monkeys.
| |
22,000,000 YBN
| 528) New World Monkeys: Capuchin {KaPYUCiN} and Squirrel monkeys.
| Americas |
22,000,000 YBN
| 558) Afropithecus evolves in Africa.
| |
22,000,000 YBN
| 559) Hominoid Proconsul evolves in East Africa.
| |
21,000,000 YBN
| 529) New World Monkeys: Night (or Owl) monkeys.
| |
21,000,000 YBN
| 530) New World Monkeys: Tamarins {TaMariNZ} and Marmosets {moRmoSeTS}.
| |
21,000,000 YBN
| 556) Hominoid Kenyapithecus evolves in Africa.
| |
20,000,000 YBN
| 549) The ancestor of all Homonids may move (over land) from Africa into Eurasia.
| |
18,000,000 YBN
| 537) Primates: Gibbons.
| South-East Asia |
15,000,000 YBN
| 553) Kingdom: Animalia Class: Mammalia Subclass: Eutheria Superorder: Euarchontoglires Order: Primates Superfamily: Hominoidea Family: Hominidae Subfamily Homininae (Gray, 1825) Delson & Andrews in Luckett & Szalay, eds., 1975:441 Tribe Pongini (Elliot, 1913) Goodman, Tagle, Fitch, Bailey, Czelusniak, Koop, Benson & Slightom, 1990:265 Genus Lufengpithecus R. Wu, 1987
detail:
Note that Lufengpithecus is in the same Tribe as Orangutans.
Biota Domain Eukaryota - eukaryotes Kingdom Animalia Linnaeus, 1758 - animals Subkingdom Bilateria (Hatschek, 1888) Cavalier-Smith, 1983 - bilaterians Branch Deuterostomia Grobben, 1908 - deuterostomes Infrakingdom Chordonia (Haeckel, 1874) Cavalier-Smith, 1998 Phylum Chordata Bateson, 1885 - chordates Subphylum Vertebrata Cuvier, 1812 - vertebrates Infraphylum Gnathostomata auct. - jawed vertebrates Superclass Tetrapoda Goodrich, 1930 - tetrapods Series Amniota Mammaliaformes Rowe, 1988 Class Mammalia Linnaeus, 1758 - mammals Subclass Theriiformes (Rowe, 1988) McKenna & Bell, 1997:vii,36 Infraclass Holotheria (Wible et al., 1995) McKenna & Bell, 1997:vii,43 Superlegion Trechnotheria McKenna, 1975 Legion Cladotheria McKenna, 1975 Sublegion Zatheria McKenna, 1975 Infralegion Tribosphenida (McKenna, 1975) McKenna & Bell, 1997:vii,48 Supercohort Theria (Parker & Haswell, 1897) McKenna & Bell, 1997:viii,49 Cohort Placentalia (Owen, 1837) McKenna & Bell, 1997:viii,80 Magnorder Epitheria (McKenna, 1975) McKenna & Bell, 1997:viii, 102 Superorder Preptotheria (McKenna, 1975) McKenna in Stucky & McKenna in Benton, ed., 1993:747 Grandorder Archonta (Gregory, 1910) McKenna, 1975:41 Order Primates Linnaeus, 1758 - primates Suborder Euprimates (Hoffstetter, 1978) McKenna & Bell, 1997:viii,328 Infraorder Haplorhini (Pocock, 1918) McKenna & Bell, 1997:336 Parvorder Anthropoidea (Mivart, 1864) McKenna & Bell, 1997:340 Superfamily Cercopithecoidea (Gray, 1821) Gregory & Hellman, 1923:14 Family Hominidae Gray, 1825 Subfamily Homininae (Gray, 1825) Delson & Andrews in Luckett & Szalay, eds., 1975:441 Tribe Pongini (Elliot, 1913) Goodman, Tagle, Fitch, Bailey, Czelusniak, Koop, Benson & Slightom, 1990:265 Genus Dryopithecus Lartet, 1856 Genus Kamoyapithecus M.G. Leakey et al., 1995 Genus Proconsul Hopwood, 1933 Genus Limnopithecus Hopwood, 1933 Genus Kalepithecus Harrison, 1988 Genus Platodontopithecus Gu & Lin, 1983 Genus Pongo Lacépède, 1799 - orangutan Genus Ramapithecus Lewis, 1934 Genus Equatorius Ward et al., 1999 Genus Kenyapithecus L. Leakey, 1962a Genus Micropithecus Fleagle & Simons, 1978 Genus Lufengpithecus R. Wu, 1987
| |
14,000,000 YBN
| 542) Earliest extant Hominid: Orangutans.
| South-East Asia |
10,500,000 YBN
| 538) Gibbons: Crested Gibbons.
| South-East Asia |
10,000,000 YBN
| 533) Old World Monkeys: Colobus {KoLiBeS} monkeys.
| Africa |
10,000,000 YBN
| 534) Old World Monkeys: Langurs {LoNGURZ} and Proboscis monkeys.
| Asia |
10,000,000 YBN
| 535) Old World Monkeys: Guenons {GenONZ}.
| |
10,000,000 YBN
| 543) Hominids: Gorillas evolve in Africa.
The earliest possible Gorilla fossils, are some teeth found in Ethiopia and date to around 10 million years old and a jaw from Kenya that is around 9.8 million years old.
| Africa |
9,000,000 YBN
| 550) The ancestor of all Gorillas, Chimpanzees, and archaic humans may move over land from Eurasia back into Africa.
| |
7,750,000 YBN
| 539) Gibbons: Siamangs {SEumANGZ}.
| South-East Asia |
6,000,000 YBN
| 540) Gibbons: Hylobates {HIlOBATEZ}.
| South-East Asia |
6,000,000 YBN
| 541) Gibbons: Hoolocks {HUleKS}.
| South-East Asia |
6,000,000 YBN
| 544) Chimpanzees evolve. Last common ancestor of chimpanzees and humans.
| Africa |
6,000,000 YBN
| 1490)
| Argentina |
5,000,000 YBN
| 554) Hominid Gigantopithecus {JIGaNTOPitiKuS} evolves in China.
| |
4,400,000 YBN
| 546) Hominid: Ardipithecus. Earliest bipedal primate.
Some theories to explain why bipedalism evolved are: 1) to carry food home, for later use or for others (a leopard uses its jaws) 2) using weapons is easier 3) walking may be more efficient in traveling long distances. 4) sexual selection
Primates walking upright on two legs may signal that hominids have become the top of the food chain on land, which might be the result of the use of tools, since other land animals cannot defend themselves or attack others with tools.
| Lukeino Formation, Tugen Hills, Kenya, Africa |
4,000,000 YBN
| 547) Hominid: Australopithecus (x-STrA-lO-PitiKuS}.
| Sterkfontein, South Africa |
3,700,000 YBN
| 570) Hominid footprints in Laetoli {lITOlE}.
| Laetoli, Tanzania |
3,390,000 YBN
| 269) Hominids use stones as tools. Earliest evidence of stone used as tool.
| Dikika, Ethiopia |
3,180,000 YBN
| 571) Australopithecus afarensis fossil, "Lucy".
| |
3,000,000 YBN
| 446) North and South America connect.
| |
2,700,000 YBN
| 564) Hominid: Paranthropus {Pa RaN tru PuS}, a line of extinct early bipedal hominids.
| Africa |
2,500,000 YBN
| 455) Oldest formed stone tools.
This begins the Paleolithic or "Stone Age".
| Gona, Ethiopia |
2,400,000 YBN
| 827)
| |
2,200,000 YBN
| 447) Hominid: Homo Habilis evolve (earliest member of the genus "Homo").
This is when the human brain begins to get bigger.
| (Kenya and Tanzania) Africa |
2,000,000 YBN
| 545) Hominids: Bonobos {BunOBOZ}.
| Africa |
1,800,000 YBN
| 130) End of the Tertiary {TRsEARE} (65-1.8 mybn), and start of the Quaternary {KWoTRnARE or KWoTRNRE} (1.8 mybn-now) Period.
| |
1,800,000 YBN
| 563) Homo erectus {hOmO ireKTuS} evolves in Africa.
Some people call Homo Erectus in Africa, "Homo Ergaster", and think that Ergaster leaves Africa and evolves into Homo erectus in Asia, and into Homo Neaderthalensis in Europe and western Asia.
| Lake Turkana, East Africa |
1,700,000 YBN
| 449) Homo erectus moves into Eurasia from Africa.
| |
1,500,000 YBN
| 583) Controlled use of fire.
Earliest evidence of use of fire, burned bones from Swartkrans cave in South Africa.
This fire could have been made by Australopithecus (or Paranthropus) robustus and an early species of Homo, possibly Homo erectus.
| (Swartkrans cave) Swartkrans, South Africa |
1,000,000 YBN
| 589) Homo erectus evolves far less body hair, except head hair, facial hair, airpit, chest and groin areas.
| |
1,000,000 YBN
| 1479) This species this tooth comes from is thought to be Homo antecessor, which some think are either the same as or ancestors of Homo heidelbergensis. Some people group heidelbergensis with Homo ergaster, hominids with larger brains than Homo erectus, however some argue that heidelbergensis has a larger brain than ergaster.
| Madrid, Spain |
970,000 YBN
| 200) Hominids wear clothing.
That humans (Homo antecessor) wear clothing at this time is implied by the cold climate that occurred at the same time that stone tools found in the area were used.
The earliest genetic evidence of humans wearing clothes, is based on the differences of the head and body louse and puts the change to around 80,000 years before now.
| Happisburgh, Norfolk, UK |
790,000 YBN
| 584) Second most early evidence of the controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, or archaic Homo sapiens
The oldest evidence dates back 1 to 1.5 million years before now from Swartkrans Cave in South Africa.
Second most early evidence of the controlled use of fire by Homo erectus, Homo ergaster, or archaic Homo sapiens
The presence of burned seeds, wood, and flint at the Acheulian site of Gesher Benot Ya`aqov in Israel is suggestive of the control of fire by humans nearly 790,000 years ago. The distribution of the site's small burned flint fragments suggests that burning occurred in specific spots, possibly indicating hearth locations. Wood of six taxa was burned at the site, at least three of which are edible-olive, wild barley, and wild grape.
(Was this by Homo ergaster or a more modern?)
| Gesher Benot Ya`aqov, Israel |
400,000 YBN
| 615) Oldest evidence of spear.
| Schöningen, Germany. |
200,000 YBN
| 548) Humans (Homo sapiens) evolve in Africa.
The oldest Homo sapiens fossils (Omo I and II) are from Ethiopia.
| Ethiopia, Africa |
200,000 YBN
| 561) Genetic evidence that complex human language evolves in early Homo species.
| |
200,000 YBN
| 590) Human language of thirty short sounds begins to develop. All words are single syllable.
This is the beginning of the transition from the verbal language of chimps and monkeys, that will result in the "staccato" (short sound duration) language humans use now.
The majority of the 30 plus basic sounds in human language (U, o, K, S, etc.) were probably learned before humans leave Africa, because the language of native humans of Australia and America use the same sounds.
| |
190,000 YBN
| 601) The "Stop" family of sounds, B, D, G, K, P and T are in use.
Humans language has 30 or so base sounds which can be grouped into at least 4 major families, all of which probably originated at different times.
| |
170,000 YBN
| 600) The "Fricative" sound family is in use (the sounds S, Z, s, H, F, V).
| |
150,000 YBN
| 592) The sounds M, N, L, and R are in use.
| |
130,000 YBN
| 450) Homo Neanderthalensis evolves in Europe and Western Asia.
The oldest Neanderthal fossil is from Croatia.
| Europe and Western Asia |
120,000 YBN
| 572) Start of Wurm glaciation (120,000-20,000 YBN), which connects a land bridge between Asia and America.
| |
100,000 YBN
[98000 BC]
| 257) Theory of Gods.
The explanation that many phenomena in the universe are controlled by objects with human and animal bodies that have supernatural powers is one of the earliest theories that tries to explain how the universe works.
The theory of gods is recorded in the earliest recorded stories of history 4600 years before now.
This theory will last for all of recorded history to the present time, over 5000 years. Although polytheism will fall in popularity to monotheism which is introduced around 1300 BCE by the Egyptian Pharoah Amenhotep IV.
The theory that a god or gods controls the universe is perhaps the oldest theory that is still believed by some humans.
| Africa |
100,000 YBN
[98000 BC]
| 6333)
| (es-Skhul cave) Mount Carmel, Israel |
95,000 YBN
[93000 BC]
| 594)
| |
92,000 YBN
[90000 BC]
| 597) Oldest Homo sapiens skull outside Africa, in Israel.
| (Skhul Cave) Mount Carmel, Israel |
60,000 YBN
[58000 BC]
| 573) Earliest evidence of humans in Americas, from a rock shelter in Pedra Furada, Brazil.
| |
53,300 YBN
[51300 BC]
| 557) Homo Erectus extinct. Most recent Homo Erectus fossil in Southeast Asia (Java). This shows that Homo erectus lived at the same time as Homo sapiens.
| Ngandong, Indonesia |
46,000 YBN
[44000 BC]
| 577) Earliest evidence of water ship. Sapiens from Southeast Asia reach Australia by water ship.
Earliest sapians fossils Australia, "Mungo man".
| |
43,000 YBN
[41000 BC]
| 1187) Earliest known mine: "Lion Cave" in Swaziland, Africa is in use. Iron and pigment containing minerals mined.
| Swaziland, Africa |
40,800 YBN
[01/01/38800 BC]
| 1262) Earliest known human-made painting.
In El Castillo Cave in Spain, one of several large red disks on the "Panel de las Manos", made by using a blowing technique, has a minimum age of 40.8 ky. This age is measured using uranium-series disequilibrium of calcite deposits overlying or underlying the cave art. This implies that depictions of the human hand are among the oldest art known from Europe. The cave art may have been created by the first anatomically modern humans in Europe or possibly by Neanderthals.
| (The Panel de las Manos,) El Castillo Cave, Spain|Southern France |
40,000 YBN
[38000 BC]
| 598) Earliest sapiens fossils in Europe (in France).
| |
40,000 YBN
[38000 BC]
| 604) Earliest evidence of oil lamp.
| Southwest France |
40,000 YBN
[38000 BC]
| 5871) Oldest indisputable musical instrument, a flute made from the wing bone of a vulture.
| Hohle Fels Cave, Germany |
39,000 YBN
[37000 BC]
| 599) Sapiens reach China.
Earliest Homo sapiens fossil in China, from the Zhoukoudian Cave in China.
| (Tianyuan Cave) Zhoukoudian, China |
38,000 YBN
[36000 BC]
| 574) At Old Crow Basin, in the Yukon, broken mammoth bones date at 25,000 to 40,000 years.
| |
35,000 YBN
[33000 BC]
| 3943) Oldest known sculpture of the human form.
This statue predates the well-known Venuses from the Gravettian culture by at least 5,000 years.
The artefact is presumed to have been made by modern humans (Homo sapiens) even though Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) are present in Europe at this time.
| Hohle Fels Cave, Germany |
35,000 YBN
[33000 BC]
| 4191) Oldest clothed body yet uncovered.
| Russia |
32,000 YBN
[30000 BC]
| 602) Weaving and textiles.
The earliest evidence of weaving are 32,000 year old flax fibers. Some of the flax fibers are spun, dyed, and knotted.
| Dzudzuana Cave, Georgia |
31,700 YBN
[29700 BC]
| 42) Humans raise dogs. (Dog domesticated). One theory supported by evidence is that dog anatomy changes abruptly from wolf anatomy as a result of domestication by humans.
| Goyet cave, Belgium |
30,000 YBN
[28000 BC]
| 575) Mitochondrial DNA shows a sapiens migration to the Americas now.
| |
29,000 YBN
[27000 BC]
| 6215) Earliest ceramic object, the Venus figurines.
| Dolni Věstonice, Czechoslovakia |
28,000 YBN
[26000 BC]
| 451) Neanderthals extinct. Most recent Neanderthal fossil.
| Gorham's Cave, Gibraltar, Spain |
26,000 YBN
[24000 BC]
| 6224) Earliest "fired" clay (clay dried and hardened by fire).
| Dolní Věstonice, Pavlov, Czech Republic |
23,000 YBN
[21000 BC]
| 6231) Earliest human-made structure. A stone wall.
| (Theopetra Cave) Kalambaka, Greece |
20,000 YBN
[18000 BC]
| 576) Y Chromosome DNA shows a sapiens migration to the Americas now.
| |
20,000 YBN
[18000 BC]
| 1291)
| in the Peloponnese, in the southeastern Argolid, is a cave overlooking the Argolic Gulf opposite the Greek village of Koilada. |
19,000 YBN
[17000 BC]
| 6184) Cereal gathering.
| Near East (Southwest Asia Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) |
18,000 YBN
[16000 BC]
| 603) Oldest evidence of pottery.
| (Yuchanyan cave), Daoxian County, Hunan Province, China |
17,000 YBN
[15000 BC]
| 6225) Earliest rope, a 30 cm fragment of rope, only 7 or 8 mm in diameter.
| Lascaux, France |
14,000 YBN
[12000 BC]
| 6227) Earliest known map.
| Mezhirich, Ukraine |
13,000 YBN
[11000 BC]
| 578) Humans enter America. Oldest human bones in America.
The earliest bones of a human in the Americas, a skull (Peñon woman) from Mexico and bones from "Arlington Springs" woman, in the California Channel Islands date to now.
| Mexico City and Arlington Canyon on Santa Rosa Island, California, USA |
13,000 YBN
[11000 BC]
| 579) Very different from native anatomy, closest comparison is Ainu of Japan.
| |
11,500 YBN
[9500 BC]
| 719) Rice grown in China.
| Yangtze (in Hubei and Hunan provinces), China |
11,130 YBN
[9130 BC]
| 1292)
| =9130BCE |
11,000 YBN
[9000 BC]
| 606) Oldest city, Jericho.
Jericho is located in the West bank, near the Jordan river (east of Mediterranean).
| Jericho, (modern West Bank) Palestine |
11,000 YBN
[9000 BC]
| 608) Oldest saddle quern {KWRN}.
A saddle quern consists simply of a flat stone bed and a rounded stone to be operated manually against it, to grind grain into flour.
| Abu Hureyra, Syria |
11,000 YBN
[9000 BC]
| 617) Goats kept, fed, milked, and killed for food.
| Euphrates river valley at Nevali Çori, Turkey (11,000 bp), and the Zagros Mountains of Iran at Ganj Dareh (10,000). |
11,000 YBN
[9000 BC]
| 1290)
| Pangmapha district, Mae Hong Son Province, northwest Thailand |
10,700 YBN
[8700 BC]
| 829) Humans shape metal objects. Oldest copper (and metal) artifact, from Northern Iraq. This starts the "Copper Age" (Chalcolithic). This is a copper ear ring. Copper is the first metal shaped by humans.
| Northern Iraq |
10,500 YBN
[8500 BC]
| 6315) Sheep raised for wool, skins, meat and dung (for fuel).
| Northern Zagros to southeastern Anatolia|(Middle East) Eastern Mediterranean |
10,350 YBN
[8350 BC]
| 828)
| |
10,000 YBN
[8000 BC]
| 205) Pigs raised and killed for food.
| (Near East) Eastern Mediterranean and Island South East Asia|southeastern Anatolia |
10,000 YBN
[8000 BC]
| 614) Oldest evidence of bow and arrow.
| Stellmoor (near Hamburg), Germany |
10,000 YBN
[8000 BC]
| 1259) Clay tokens of various geometrical shapes are used for counting in Sumer.
| eastern Iran, southern Turkey, Israel, Sumer (modern Iraq)|Babylonia|Syria, Sumer and Highland Iran |
10,000 YBN
[8000 BC]
| 6233) Stone wall constructed in Jericho.
Jericho was first inhabited, perhaps around 9000bce. By about 8000 bce the inhabitants of Jericho have grown into an organized community capable of building a massive stone wall around the settlement, strengthened at one point at least by a massive stone tower. The size of this settlement justifies the use of the term town and suggests a population of some 2,000–3,000 persons. So this 1,000 years saw a movement from a hunting way of life to full settlement. The development of agriculture can be inferred from this, and grains of cultivated types of wheat and barley have been found, providing evidence of very early agriculture. To provide enough land for cultivation, it is highly probable that irrigation is also invented here.
Kathleen Kenyon excavated Jericho from 1952-8 and desribes the area like this: "Overlying the natural gravel, Stage I of the occupation in this area was marked by some slight traces of the Proto-Neolithic stage, with no evidence of solid structures. ...In Stage II solid structures appear. Very little of them survived within the area excavated, but they appear to consist of the normal round houses of Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. The expansion of the occupied area therefore does not long precede the stage at which solid houses appear. This stage likewise does not precede the construction of the defences. Only one phase of buildings could be identified as earlier than Stage III, which is the first period of the defences. The earliest defences consisted of a free-standing town wall, TW. I, solidly built of stone, 1.8 m. wide at the base, and surviving to a height of 3.65 m. Against the inner side of this was built the first stage of the towere, which formed the core of the later stages. The base of the core was circular in plan, but the curve flattens to join the wall at right angles; the summit was, however, circular, with a diameter of c. 7 m. The surviving height in 7.75 m. The tower was solidly built of stone, with, in its centre, a staircase leading down to a passage that gives access to the top of the tower from inside the town. The construction of passage and staircase is remarkably solid, with a roof of large slabs hammer-dressed to a flat surface. The purpose of the staircase is presumably to provide for the manning of the top of the tower, which, from its circular plan, was built separately from the town wall, and may have over-topped it. The whole is a most remarkable piece of military planning, and its date must be in ht eneighbourhood of 8000 B.C., since a Carbon-14 dating of 7825 B.C. was obtained for Stage IV, phase iii. In the first stage of the defences the area round the tower and against the town wall was open. Only in the extreme south-east corner of the area excavated in Sauare D I was the edge of a contemporary house cleared, one that had existed in the preceding stage and continued in use now. In Stage IV a number of enclosures were built up against the tower and town wall. These are quite unlike the houses of the period, and have vertical walls surviving to a height of 3.12 m. without any visible doorways. The wall of the enclosure to the east of the tower was built across the entrance to the passage, but access was still provided by a trap-door-like aperture over the top of the wall. The enclosures to the north and east of the tower have a filling showing a number of silt lines, and the two enclosures to the north of the tower are linked by an aperture through which run lines of water-laid silt. It is therefore reasonably certain that these enclosures were water-tanks. ...".
Interestingly some skulls from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) area, dating to around 7000BCE, have been remodeled into the shape of human faces with plaster of Paris, and painted.
(Determine if the staircase in the tower is the earliest known stair and/or staircase.)
| Jericho (modern West Bank) |
10,000 YBN
[8000 BC]
| 6316) Cows raised for milk, meat and for plowing.
| upper Euphrates Valley |
9,300 YBN
[7300 BC]
| 6185) Wheat grown.
| southeastern Turkey and northern Syria (Nevali Cori, Turkey) |
9,240 YBN
[7240 BC]
| 1478) Oldest domesticated plants in the Americas. Squash grown in Peru.
| Paiján, Peru |
9,000 YBN
[7000 BC]
| 273) Woven cloth. The oldest woven cloth, is made from flax and comes from Çayönü, Turkey.
Weaving apparently precedes spinning of yarn; woven fabrics probably originate from basket weaving.
| Çayönü, Turkey |
9,000 YBN
[7000 BC]
| 1288) Mehrgarh, an Indus Valley neolithic city begins now.
| |
9,000 YBN
[7000 BC]
| 1289)
| Iraq |
8,600 YBN
[6600 BC]
| 848) Symbols created on a tortoise shell from a neolithic grave in China may be the ancestors of Chinese writing.
| Jiahu, in central China's Henan Province |
8,410 YBN
[6410 BC]
| 580) Like Spirit Caveman, very different from native anatomy, closest comparison is Ainu of Japan.
| |
8,200 YBN
[6200 BC]
| 1295)
| Catal Huyuk |
8,000 YBN
[6000 BC]
| 605) Oldest known boat, the Pesse canoe, a dug-out boat.
| Netherlands |
8,000 YBN
[6000 BC]
| 607) Flint sickle.
A sickle has a semicircular blade and is used for cutting grain or tall grass.
| Palestine |
8,000 YBN
[6000 BC]
| 610) Flax grown. The flax plant is the source of flaxseed for linseed oil and fiber for linen products.
| |
8,000 YBN
[6000 BC]
| 612) Barley grown.
| |
8,000 YBN
[6000 BC]
| 613) Millet grown. Millet is a grass grown for its grains and as hay to feed animals.
| |
8,000 YBN
[6000 BC]
| 616) City "Catal Hüyük" {CaTL HvEK or KeToL HoYqK} in modern Turkey.
| Çatal Hüyük, (modern:) Turkey |
8,000 YBN
[6000 BC]
| 6220) Earliest drum. Drums appear with wide geographic distribution in archaeological excavations from Neolithic times onward; one excavated in Moravia is dated to 6000 bce.
| Moravia, Czeck Republic |
7,300 YBN
[5300 BC]
| 626)
| south Iraq, shore of Persian Gulf |
7,000 YBN
[5000 BC]
| 618) City of Sumer (in Mesopotamia, modern southern Iraq).
| Sumer. (Mesopotamia, modern southern Iraq) |
7,000 YBN
[5000 BC]
| 620)
| |
7,000 YBN
[5000 BC]
| 627) Oldest evidence of copper melting and casting.
Casting involves pouring liquid metal into a shaped mould of baked clay, stone, metal, or sand. The earliest moulds to survive are one-piece, of clay or stone, used for the manufacture of simple tools, flat weapons such as tanged arrowheads, bar-ingots...and jewellery.
| Belovode, Eastern Serbia |
7,000 YBN
[5000 BC]
| 631)
| |
7,000 YBN
[5000 BC]
| 727) Earliest Reed boats.
| Kuwait |
7,000 YBN
[5000 BC]
| 1296) The city of Uruk is founded in southern Babylonia.
| Uruk, southern Babylonia |
6,900 YBN
[4900 BC]
| 648) Oldest evidence of sail boat.
| Mesopotamia |
6,500 YBN
[01/01/4500 BC]
| 1263)
| Vinča, a suburb of Belgrade (Serbia) |
6,500 YBN
[4500 BC]
| 1293)
| Nabta, Egypt |
6,250 YBN
[4250 BC]
| 720) Earliest evidence of Corn (maize) grown in Mexico.
| Oaxaca, Mexico |
6,000 YBN
[4000 BC]
| 633)
| |
6,000 YBN
[4000 BC]
| 1061)
| Ukraine |
6,000 YBN
[4000 BC]
| 6232) Sun-dried mud brick and mud-brick house.
Mud brick, dried in the sun, is one of the first building materials.
In the early Ubaid period settlement a thick layer of reed matting is the earliest sign of occupation. Above that walls are built, first of pisé (Clay, earth, or gravel beaten down until it is solid and used as a building material for floors and walls) and then mud-brick.
| Ur, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) |
5,800 YBN
[3800 BC]
| 6235)
| Harran, Mesopotamia |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 621) Earliest plow (used to break up ground). Pictographs from Mesopotamia show a beam-ard, a simple machine that scratches a trench without turning the soil.
| Mesopotamia |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 622) Irrigation (artificial supply of water to land to maintain or increase yields of food crops).
| Middle east (eastern part of Mediterranean) |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 625) Donkeys raised and used for transport.
| |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 634) The Egyptian calendar (12 months of 30 days, plus 5 extra days).
| |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 636)
| |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 646) The earliest known wheel, a pottery wheel, in Mesopotamia.
| Mesopotamia (and a similar pottery wheel from Choga Mish, Iran) |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 1260) Writing (on clay tablets). First numbers. First stamp (or seal).
The first writing begins as numbers on clay tablets and stamped seals.
Writing is first used to solve simple accounting problems; for example to count large numbers of sheep or bales of hay. Writing may have arisen out of the need for arithmetic and storage of information, but will grow to record and perpetuate stories, songs, and most of what we know about human history.
| Sumer (Syria, Sumer, Highland Iran) |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 1285) Symbols on pottery from Harrapa an Indus Valley civilization.
| Harrapa, Indus Valley |
5,500 YBN
[3500 BC]
| 6223) Sundial, earliest timekeeping device. The first device for indicating the time of day was probably the gnomon, which is a vertical object. The length of the gnomon's shadow indicates the time of day.
| China and Chaldea |
5,490 YBN
[3490 BC]
| 702) Earliest cotton grown.
| Northwestern Peru|Indus valley |
5,400 YBN
[3400 BC]
| 913)
| |
5,310 YBN
[3310 BC]
| 704) Ox pulled vehicles with wheels in Krakow Poland. This is the earliest evidence for both animal pulled vehicles and wheeled vehicles.
| (TRB - Funnel Beaker culture) Bronocice, Krakow, Poland |
5,300 YBN
[3300 BC]
| 1261) Symbols of the Alphabet.
Now along with numbers on the tablets are symbols that represent the commodity (such as cows, sheep, and cereals). These symbols represent the earliest record of what will become the modern alphabet.
First training and industry of scribes. This will ultimately evolve into the modern school system. Writing will be continuously taught eventually in all major civilizations (even through the Dark Ages) until now.
These tablets are all economic records, used to keep a record of objects owned or traded, and contain no stories.
The symbol for ox ("aleph") will become the letter "A", the symbol for house, (/bitum/) will become "B".
This writing is evidence that most of the 30 or so basic sounds of humans language were already in use by the origin of writing.
| Sumer |
5,250 YBN
[3250 BC]
| 637) Scribes in Sumer change from writing in columns to writing left to right. Pictures are also turned 90 degrees.
| |
5,200 YBN
[3200 BC]
| 650) Cuneiform writing. Pictures are not drawn with pointed reed, but drawn with (diagonally) cut reed-stem pressed in to the wet clay to make wedges.
| |
5,200 YBN
[3200 BC]
| 1266) Earliest writing in Egypt.
| (Tomb U-j supposedly of King Scorpian, Royal Cemetery of:) Abydos (modern:) Umm el-Qa'ab |
5,100 YBN
[3100 BC]
| 638) One theory of how writing spread from Mesopotamia to Egypt is that, around this time an Armenoid or Giza race of humans enter Egypt and bring writing to Egypt. Skeletal remains show larger than average bones and skulls than the native humans around this time.
| |
5,100 YBN
[3100 BC]
| 640)
| |
5,100 YBN
[3100 BC]
| 641) The Narmer Palette, early Egyptian hieroglyphic writing.
| |
5,100 YBN
[3100 BC]
| 642)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 628) Oldest evidence of bronze (copper mixed with tin) melted, and casted.
| Tell Judaidah, Turkey|Egypt |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 645)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 647)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 649)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 653)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 664)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 665)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 668) Silk making in China.
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 670)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 672)
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 673)
| Egypt |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 675) Earliest silver objects, in Ur.
| Ur |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 676) Melting wax in clay (cire-perdu) metal casting.
| |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 1265) Written symbols combined to form words.
In the proto-cuneiform Sumarian script, symbols are combined to form words based on their sound.
Evidence of this is the sign /ti/, for "arrow" that is now also defined as the Sumarian word for "life" /til/ which starts with the same sound. After this phonetic abstraction, the introduction of multi-symbol words, names and words for which no symbols had existed can be created. For example, the symbol originally defined as the Summerian verb "bal" (to dig) can also be spelled with the syllabic signs "ba" + "al".(show image if possible)
The vast majority of Sumerian language is made of one-syllable words. This suggests that all earlier spoken languages contained only single-syllable words.
| Jemdet Nasr |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 1268) The Proto-Elamite language, still undeciphered, is pressed into tablets to represent the language of Elam in modern southwest Iran. Because 1,500 signs have been recorded, Proto-Elamite is probably logographic (each sign represents a unique word similar to Chinese writing). Some of the symbols of the Indus Valley script resemble those of the Proto-Elamite script.
| modern southwest Iran |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 6219) Earliest stringed musical instrument (lyre and harp). The lyre is first depicted in Sumerian art works around 3000 BC. Sumer has only arched harps, which originate from the bow.
| Sumer (modern Iraq) |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 6222) Inclined plane (ramp).
The inclined plane is thought to be older than any of the other basic machines, and is based on the concept that moving an object from a lower to higher elevation is easier when pushed up a flatter slope.
| Egypt? |
5,000 YBN
[3000 BC]
| 6226)
| Mesopotamia |
4,980 YBN
[2980 BC]
| 654) Imhotep (flourished 2980-2950 BCE), the first scientist of history, is credited with being the designer of the "step pyramid", the earliest of the Egyptian pyramids.
Imhotep was one of the officials of the Pharaoh Djosèr (3rd Dynasty), designed the Pyramid of Djzosèr (Step Pyramid) at Saqqara in Egypt around 2630-2611 BC. He may also have been responsible for the first known use of columns in architecture. His name means the one who comes in peace.
Imhotep is the first name of history, if correctly pronounced that uses the "i" and "e" sounds. At least clear proof that these sounds were in use by this time.
| Sakkara, Egypt |
4,925 YBN
[2925 BC]
| 643) Hieratic script, a cursive script of traditional Egyptian hieroglyphs replaces traditional hieroglyphs.
| |
4,800 YBN
[2800 BC]
| 629)
| |
4,800 YBN
[2800 BC]
| 1276)
| Sumer, Uruk, Kish, |
4,750 YBN
[2750 BC]
| 320) Earliest metal saw.
| Mesopotamia |
4,613 YBN
[2613 BC]
| 652)
| |
4,600 YBN
[01/01/2600 BC]
| 1258)
| Sumer |
4,600 YBN
[2600 BC]
| 1269) Earliest known inscription to a king, Enmebaragesi, ruler of Kish.
| Kish, a city in Sumer, 80km south of modern Bagdad |
4,600 YBN
[2600 BC]
| 1271) Oldest written story, the Sumerian flood story.
This story, the "Ziusudra {ZEUSUDru} epic" is known from a single fragmentary tablet, writing in Sumerian from Nippur. The first part tells the story of the creation of man, animals and the first cities. The gods send a flood to destroy mankind. The god Enki warns Ziusudra to build a large boat. A terrible storm rages for seven days and then (the god) Utu (the sun) appears and Ziusudra sacrifices an ox and a sheep. After the flood An, the sky god, and Enlil, the chief of the gods give Ziusudra "breath eternal" and take him to live in Dilmun. The rest of the poem is lost.
There are many similarities between the stories of Ziusudra, Atrahasis, Utnapishtim and Noah.
There is evidence that Ziusudra was a king of Shuruppak.
The Sumerians believe in a variety of gods and goddesses, which places the minimum origin of the theory of Gods and Goddesses by the time of the invention of writing. The Sumerians have around 50 Gods and 50 Goddesses so far counted. The view expressed is the traditional view that many of the Gods have human form, many are related, and they control various objects such as the sky (the god Anu, also God of Heaven (which may be the earliest evidence for belief in the concept of a Heaven), the earth (the goddess Ki, consort to Anu), the wind (the god Ishkur), the sun (the god Utu), grain (the goddess Ashnan), venus (the goddess Inanna), and many more.
Many of the gods will be renamed as time continues, for example, the Sumerian Goddess "Inanna", the first God known to be associated with the planet Venus, is named "Ishtar" by the Akkadians and Babylonians, "Isis" by the Egyptians, "Aphrodite" by the Greeks, "Turan" by the Etruscans, and "Venus" by the Romans. The Sumerians call Inanna the "Holy Virgin".
| Sumer |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 677) Bronze sickle.
| |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 689) First animal and vegetable coloring dyes.
| |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 691) Oldest evidence of skis used in Skandinavia.
| |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 692)
| |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 693)
| |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 694)
| |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 1052)
| |
4,500 YBN
[2500 BC]
| 6230) Earliest dice and boardgame.
| Ur, Mesopotamia |
4,450 YBN
[2450 BC]
| 708) Animal skin (leather) used for writing (parchment).
| Egypt |
4,400 YBN
[2400 BC]
| 915) The range of these texts is 2400-1800 BCE.
| |
4,400 YBN
[2400 BC]
| 1277)
| Sumer, Lagash, Umma |
4,345 YBN
[2345 BC]
| 695)
| |
4,345 YBN
[2345 BC]
| 800) Writing on Papyrus.
| Egypt |
4,300 YBN
[2300 BC]
| 667) Earliest evidence of glass making, glass beads.
The first human-made glass beads and pendants are made in the area of modern Iraq and northern Syria (Mesopotamia).
| Mesopotamia |
4,300 YBN
[2300 BC]
| 701)
| |
4,234 YBN
[2234 BC]
| 632)
| |
4,200 YBN
[2200 BC]
| 1294)
| Lima, Peru |
4,181 YBN
[2181 BC]
| 696)
| |
4,160 YBN
[2160 BC]
| 697)
| |
4,134 YBN
[2134 BC]
| 698)
| |
4,134 YBN
[2134 BC]
| 699)
| |
4,130 YBN
[2130 BC]
| 6234) Earliest evidence of horn used as musical instrument.
| Lagash, Mesopotamia |
4,100 YBN
[2100 BC]
| 1279) The earliest Health science (medical) text, found in Nippur.
There are more than 10 remedies listed on this clay tablet. Materials used are mostly from plants, such as cassia, myrtle, asafoetida, thyme, and from trees such as the willow, pear, fir, fig and date trees, but also include sodium chloride (salt), potassium nitrate (saltpeter), milk, snake skin, and turtle shell. For mixtures taken internally, beer, milk and or oil are used to make the "medicine" more palatable.
| Nippur |
4,100 YBN
[2100 BC]
| 6376) The first place value number system, a sexagesimal (base 60) number system. Fractional values such as 1/60 and 1/3600 are also in use.
This sexagesimal, base 60, number system is still in use to measure time (60 seconds, 60 minutes), and angles (for example in astronomical and geographic coordinates).
| Babylonia |
4,050 YBN
[2050 BC]
| 1278) The earliest recorded laws, the Ur-Nammu tablet.
| Ur |
4,040 YBN
[2040 BC]
| 700)
| |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 703)
| China |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 705) Stonehenge built.
| |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 706) Horse riding.
| |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 709)
| |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 710) Shaduf (Shadoof), an irrigation tool.
| |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 711) Spoked wheel. Spokes make the wheel lighter in weight.
| |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 733) Lock and key. Oldest lock, found near Nineveh.
| Nineveh |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 830) Shaped iron artifacts made from meteorites.
| Egpyt (and near East) |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 1273) The fall of the Ur II empire as the result of an Elmite raid results in the accidental burial of huge archives in the ruins of Umma, Puzrish-Dagan and Girsu.
| Ur |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 1283)
| Nippur |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 1286) Story of Gilgamesh.
| Nippur |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 5860) Earliest written musical composition.
| Nippur, Babylonia (now Iraq) (verify) |
4,000 YBN
[2000 BC]
| 6236) Metal traded as money.
| Babylonia |
3,842 YBN
[1842 BC]
| 712) The first all phonetic language and alphabet, a proto-semitic alphabet made by Canaanites in the Egyptian turquoise mines of Serabit in southern Sinai. This alphabet is thought to have replaced cuneiform, and may be root of all other alphabets.
Encyclopedia Britannica states that the evolution of the alphabet involves two important achievements. The first step is the invention of an all-consonant writing system. The second is the invention of characters for representing vowels which is made by Greek people between 800 and 700 bce.
The first word reecognized is the word "Baalat", the Canaanite name for Hathor, the goddess of the turquoise mines.
| (Caanan modern:) Palestine|(turquoise mines ) Serabit el-Khadem, Sinai Peninsula |
3,800 YBN
[1800 BC]
| 713)
| |
3,800 YBN
[1800 BC]
| 802)
| |
3,800 YBN
[1800 BC]
| 803)
| |
3,786 YBN
[1786 BC]
| 714)
| |
3,700 YBN
[1700 BC]
| 715)
| |
3,700 YBN
[1700 BC]
| 1280)
| Nippur |
3,700 YBN
[1700 BC]
| 1281)
| Nippur and Ur, Sumer |
3,650 YBN
[1650 BC]
| 716) The "Rhind Mathematical Papyrus". This papyrus contains a work entitled "directions for knowing all dark things", which contains the name of a scribe, Ahmose.
Ahmose (also called "Ahmes") states that he copied the papyrus from a now-lost Middle Kingdom original, dating around 2000 BCE.
This papyrus is now located in the British Museum.
| |
3,600 YBN
[1600 BC]
| 804)
| |
3,595 YBN
[01/01/1595 BC]
| 1274) The Hittite raid on Babylon that results in the collapse of the First Dynasty of babylon leaves large libraries of clay tablets in Larsa and Sippar that will be excavated in modern times.
| Babylon |
3,595 YBN
[1595 BC]
| 6335) Earliest evidence of theory of astrology: that the position of the stars effects life of Earth. The Babylonian text "Enuma Anu Enlil", written in cuneiform, contains "omens" about the Moon, Sun, Venus and weather.
| Babylon |
3,551 YBN
[1551 BC]
| 717)
| |
3,550 YBN
[1550 BC]
| 1282)
| Sumer |
3,531 YBN
[1531 BC]
| 639) First planet recognized, Venus.
Evidence of this comes from the so-called "Venus Tablet of Ammi-saduqa". The Venus Tablet records astronomical observations.
| Babylon |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 624) Oven-baked mud brick (also called "burned brick"). A burned brick is a mud brick that been baked in an oven (kiln) at an elevated temperature to harden it, give it mechanical strength, and improve its resistance to moisture.
| Ur, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 721)
| |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 722)
| |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 723) Earliest pulley.
A pulley is a wheel that has a grooved rim for carrying a rope or other line and turning in a frame. The pulley wheel is also called a "sheave". One or more independently rotating pulleys can be used to gain mechanical advantage, especially for lifting weights.
| Nimroud, Assyria |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 725)
| |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 1516) According to strict orthodox Hindu interpretation the Vedas are apauruṣeya ("not human compositions"), being supposed to have been directly revealed, and thus are called śruti ("what is heard"). Hinduism, sometimes known as Sanatana Dharma ("Eternal Law"), refers to this belief in the ageless nature of the wisdom it embodies.
Philosophies and sects that develop in the Indian subcontinent take differing positions on the Vedas. Schools of Indian philosophy which cite the Vedas as their scriptural authority are classified as "orthodox" (āstika). Two other Indian philosophies, Buddhism and Jainism, do not accept the authority of the Vedas and evolve into separate religions. In Indian philosophy these groups are referred to as "heterodox" or "non-Vedic" (nāstika) schools.
Vedism is the polytheistic sacrificial religion that exists at the time the Vedas are initially created. Vedism is very different from its successor, Hinduism. Vedism involves the worship of numerous male divinities who are connected with the sky and natural phenomena. The priests who officiate at this worship are known as Brahmans. The complex Vedic ceremonies, for which the hymns of the Rigveda are composed, center on the ritual sacrifice of animals and with the pressing and drinking of a sacred intoxicating liquor called soma. The basic Vedic rite is performed by offering these edibles to a sacred fire, and this fire, which is itself deified as Agni, carries these items to the gods of the Vedic pantheon. The god of highest rank is Indra, a warlike god who conquers innumerable human and demon enemies and even vanquishes the sun, among other epic feats. Another great deity is Varuna, who is the upholder of the cosmic and moral laws. Vedism, the religion in India at this time, has many other lesser deities, among whom are gods, demigods, and demons.
Soma is made from the stalks of a plant (hypothesized to be a psychedelic mushroom, cannabis, Peganum harmala, Blue lotus, or ephedra) are pressed between stones, and the juice is filtered through sheep's wool and then mixed with water and milk. After first being offered to the gods, the remainder of the soma is consumed by the priests and the sacrificer. In this time, soma is highly valued for its exhilarating, probably hallucinogenic, effect. The personified deity Soma is the "master of plants," the healer of disease, and the bestower of riches. The hymns in the Veda praise the hereditary deities, who, for the most part personify various natural phenomena, such as fire (Agni), sun (Surya and Savitr), dawn (Usas), storms (the Rudras), war and rain (Indra), honour (Mitra), divine authority (Varuna), and creation (Indra, with some aid of Vishnu). Hymns are composed to these deities, and many are recited or chanted during rituals.
The Rig-Veda is the oldest significant extant Indian text. It is a collection of 1,028 Vedic Sanskrit hymns and 10,600 verses in all, organized into ten books (Sanskrit: mandalas). The hymns are dedicated to Rigvedic deities. The religion reflected in the Rigveda is a polytheism mainly concerned with the appeasing of divinities associated with the sky and the atmosphere. Important dieties are gods such as Indra, Varuna (guardian of the cosmic order), Agni (the sacrificial fire), and Surya (the Sun).
The books of tghe Rigveda are composed by sages and poets from different priestly groups over a period of at least 500 years, which Avari dates as 1400 BCE to 900 BCE, if not earlier According to Max Müller, based on internal evidence (philological and linguistic), the Rigveda was composed roughly between 1700-1100 BCE (the early Vedic period) in the Punjab (Sapta Sindhu) region of the Indian subcontinent. Michael Witzel believes that the Rig Veda must have been composed more or less in the period 1450-1350 BCE.
There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities between the Rigveda and the early Iranian Avesta, deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo culture of ca. 2000 BCE, when the earliest horse-drawn chariots have been found (at Sintashta, near the Ural mountains).
Two representative democratic institutions, called the Sabha and the Samiti are mentioned in the Rigveda. The Sabha (literaly"assembly" in Sanskrit) is widely interpreted to be the assembly of the tribe or the important chieftains of the tribe, while the Samiti seems to be the gathering of all the men of the tribe, convened only for very special occasions. The Sabha and the Samiti keep check on the powers of the king, and are given a semi-divine status in the Rigveda as the "daughters of the Hindu deity Prajapati" After the record of the assembly formed in the Sumerian version of the epic of Gilgamesh, this represents the oldest reference to a representative democratic within a government.
The Yajur-Veda ("Veda of sacrificial formulas") consists of archaic prose mantras and also in part of verses borrowed from the Rig-Veda. Its purpose is practical, in that each mantra must accompany an action in sacrifice but, unlike the Sama-Veda, it applies to all sacrificial rites, not merely the Soma offering.
The Sama-Veda is the "Veda of chants" or "Knowledge of melodies". The name of this Veda is from the Sanskrit word sāman which means a metrical hymn or song of praise. This veda consists of 1549 stanzas, taken entirely (except 78) from the Rig-Veda. Some of the Rig-Veda verses are repeated more than once. The Sama-Veda serves as a songbook for the "singer" priests. A priest who sings hymns from the Sama-Veda during a ritual is called an udgātṛ, a word derived from the Sanskrit root ud-gai ("to sing" or "to chant").
The Artharva-Veda is the "Knowledge of the {atharvans} (and Angirasa)". The Artharva-Veda or Atharvangirasa is the text 'belonging to the Atharvan and Angirasa' poets. The meaning of the word "Atharvan" is unclear, but Atharvan may mean priests who worshipped fire.
The Atharva-Veda Saṃhitā has 760 hymns, and about one-sixth of the hymns are in common with the Rig-Veda. Most of the verses are metrical, but some sections are in prose.
The Atharva-Veda will be compiled around 900 BCE, and is generally thought to be the latest of the four texts, although some of its material may go back to the time of the Rig Veda, and apparently some parts of the Atharva-Veda are older than the Rig-Veda.
Unlike the other three Vedas, the Atharvana-Veda has less connection with sacrifice. Its first part consists chiefly of spells and incantations, concerned with protection against demons and disaster, spells for the healing of diseases, and for long life. The second part of the text contains speculative and philosophical hymns. The famous mantra Om (ॐ) first appears in the Atharva-Veda, and later will be identified with absolute reality (brahman) in the Taittitrīya Upanishad.
In its third section, the Atharvaveda contains Mantras used in marriage and death rituals, as well as those for kingship, female rivals and the Vratya (in Brahmana style prose).
The word "veda" will come to mean not only the four Vedas themselves, but the commentaries on them too. These include the Brāhmaṇas and Āraṇyakas of the period between c.100 BCE until c.800 BCE; the UpaniṢads, compiled between 800 and 500 BCE; and various sūtras (see Sūtras) and Vedāṇgas.
The entire body of the Veda literature seems to have been preserved orally. Even today several of these works, notably the three oldest Vedas, are recited with subtleties of intonation and rhythm that have been handed down from the early days of Vedic religion in India.
The rites of Vedic sacrifice are relatively simple in the early period, when the Rigveda is written down. In addition to soma, edibles such as meat, butter, milk, and barley cake could also be offered to a sacred fire. Animal sacrifice-the killing of a ram-existed either independently or as an integral part of the sacrifice of soma. The celebrated ashvamedha, or "horse-sacrifice," are an elaborate variant of the soma sacrifice. Human sacrifice (purushamedha) is described and alluded to as a former practice but may have been more symbolic than actual. The sacrifice of the mythical giant Purusha, from whose dismembered limbs sprang up the four major castes, may serve as a model for the conjectured human sacrifices. Other ceremonies mark fixed dates of the lunar calendar, such as the full or new moon or the change of seasons.
| India |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 6228) Water clock (Clepsydra {KlePSiDru}).
| Egypt |
3,500 YBN
[1500 BC]
| 6229)
| Nippur, Mesopotamia |
3,358 YBN
[1358 BC]
| 2727) In the fifth year of his reign Amenhotep IV dramatically alters Egyptian society and religion, introducing a new style of art and the concept of monotheism. In this year Amenhotep changes his name Amenhotep ("Amon Is Satisfied") to Akhenaton ("One Useful to Aton") and moves his capital from Thebes to Amarna. Rejecting the primary god Amun as superstition, Akhenaten strengthens his devotion to the sun god, who Amenhotep visualizes as the round sun disk, called the Aten, "the visible sun".
Akhenaton and his Queen Nefertiti worship only this sun-god. For them the Aton is "the sole god". The name "Amon" is also hacked out of the inscriptions throughout Egypt. Here and there the names of other gods and goddesses are removed, and in some texts the words "all gods" are eliminated. The funerary religion drops Osiris, and Akhenaton becomes the source of blessings for the people after death. The figure of Nefertiti replaces the figures of protecting goddesses at the corners of a stone sarcophagus. Yet Akhenaton and Nefertiti direct their worship only to the Aton.
Akhenaton is thought to have composed a hymn to his god, titled "Great Hymn to the Sun" around 1340 BCE. This hymn expresses gratitude for the benefits of life. The Aton, says the hymn, gave these blessings not only to the Egyptians but also to "Syria and Nubia" and to "all distant foreign countries", to "all men, cattle, and wild beasts", to the lion coming from his den, the fish in the river, and the chick within the egg. Men live when the sun has risen, but at night the dark land is as if dead. This hymn has a remarkable similarity to Psalm 104 in the Bible. Both the hymn and the psalm reflect a (common tradition where) a god is praised for his bounties.
The idea of Akhenaten as the pioneer of a monotheistic religion that later became Judaism has been considered by some scholars. One of the first to mention this is Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, in his book Moses and Monotheism. Freud argues that Moses had been an Atenist priest forced to leave Egypt with his followers after Akhenaten's death. Freud argues that Akhenaton was striving to promote monotheism, something that the biblical Moses was able to achieve. Freud comments on the connection between Adonai (meaning "our lord"), the Egyptian Aton and the Syrian divine name of Adonis.
| Amarna, Egypt |
3,310 YBN
[1310 BC]
| 728)
| |
3,300 YBN
[1300 BC]
| 729)
| |
3,300 YBN
[1300 BC]
| 914)
| |
3,200 YBN
[1200 BC]
| 730)
| |
3,200 YBN
[1200 BC]
| 731)
| |
3,200 YBN
[1200 BC]
| 734)
| |
3,200 YBN
[1200 BC]
| 735)
| |
3,200 YBN
[1200 BC]
| 736)
| |
3,200 YBN
[1200 BC]
| 737)
| |
3,198 YBN
[1198 BC]
| 738)
| |
3,180 YBN
[1180 BC]
| 805)
| |
3,087 YBN
[1087 BC]
| 739)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 741)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 742)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 743)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 744)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 745)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 746) Complex pulleys. The lifting power of a pulley is multiplied by the number of strands acting directly upon the moving pulleys.
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 747)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 749) Israel will only last 200 more years, Judah will last longer.
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 806)
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 1048) The tea plant is grown and made into the classic tea drink in China.
| |
3,000 YBN
[1000 BC]
| 6237) Earliest lens, a plano-convex lens (one side plane the other convex) made from rock-crystal found in Nimrud, a magnifying and burning glass.
| Nimrud, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) |
2,945 YBN
[945 BC]
| 748)
| |
2,922 YBN
[922 BC]
| 753)
| |
2,910 YBN
[910 BC]
| 635) Iron melted and casted.
This is the start of the Iron Age, as iron becomes more popular because iron is more abundant. in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Egypt.
The oldest smelted iron artifacts are from Tell Hammeh (az-Zarqa), Jordan and date to around 2800-2700 years ago, but two charcoal samples from the same site date to 2930-2910 years before now.
This is the start of the Iron Age, as iron becomes more popular because iron is more abundant. in Mesopotamia, Anatolia, and Egypt.
| Tell Hammeh (az-Zarqa), Jordan |
2,900 YBN
[900 BC]
| 750)
| |
2,850 YBN
[850 BC]
| 751)
| Greece |
2,848 YBN
[848 BC]
| 752)
| |
2,819 YBN
[819 BC]
| 754)
| |
2,800 YBN
[800 BC]
| 718) Possible origin of "u" sound (as in "cup", "run"). Earliest known word with "u" in native pronunciation "Pythagoras".
(possibly not until the Romans does the traditional "us" at the end of names occur.)
| |
2,800 YBN
[800 BC]
| 818) Theta sound {t} sound invented, (for example in the words "theater", "fifth") and in use in Greece.
| |
2,800 YBN
[800 BC]
| 1036)
| |
2,800 YBN
[800 BC]
| 5862) Earliest evidence of recorded musical notation. An undecipherable hymn engraved in stone is evidence of a primitive system of musical notation.
| Mesopotamia |
2,785 YBN
[785 BC]
| 771) Babylonian astronomers can predict eclipses.
| |
2,731 YBN
[731 BC]
| 6299) Lunar eclipses recorded.
| Babylon |
2,728 YBN
[728 BC]
| 755)
| |
2,722 YBN
[722 BC]
| 756)
| |
2,716 YBN
[716 BC]
| 757)
| |
2,715 YBN
[715 BC]
| 758)
| |
2,700 YBN
[700 BC]
| 1062) First saddle to make riding a horse more comfortable. This is a simple cloth attached to the horse by a girth (strap).
| Assyria |
2,700 YBN
[700 BC]
| 1075) Consonant letters can represent more than one sound. Letter "C" sounded as "K" in addition to traditional "G" sound.
Latin or Etruscan speaking people start using the letter "C" (Gamma), not only to represent it's traditional sound "G", but also for the sound "K", usually reserved for the letter "K" (Kappa). This will add confusion to how to pronounce a word, and violates a more simple, logical system where one letter equals only one sound.
| Italy |
2,688 YBN
[688 BC]
| 916)
| |
2,669 YBN
[669 BC]
| 1287) The "standard" version of the story of Gilgamesh: a wild-man Enkidu is tamed by having sex with a woman, Enkidu and Gilgamesh destroy Humbaba, the beast-like guardian of the forest, and a bull sent from Heaven, Enkidu is killed as a punishment by the Gods, and Gilgamesh visits him in the Underworld.
| Nippur |
2,668 YBN
[668 BC]
| 917)
| |
2,668 YBN
[668 BC]
| 1284) Clay tablet library of Ashurbanipal in Nineveh, an early systematically organized library from which 20,720 Assyrian tablets and fragments have been preserved.
| Nineveh (Assyria) |
2,664 YBN
[664 BC]
| 759)
| |
2,660 YBN
[660 BC]
| 644) Demotic script replaces hieratic in Egypt.
| |
2,651 YBN
[651 BC]
| 6337) All planets visible to the naked eye clearly distinguished from stars (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) in Babylonia. The position of these five planets compared to the stars is found in a series of baked clay tablet astronomical "diaries". The earliest datable tablet, from 651 BCE contains the names of all five planets.
| Babylonia |
2,650 YBN
[650 BC]
| 1066) Aquaduct, a channel to move water from one place to another.
| Nineveh |
2,640 YBN
[640 BC]
| 760)
| |
2,624 YBN
[624 BC]
| 761)
| |
2,622 YBN
[622 BC]
| 763)
| |
2,622 YBN
[622 BC]
| 826) Old Testament (The Torah, Hebrew Bible, The Ten Commandments, The Story of Genesis).
| Judah|(Israel) |
2,621 YBN
[621 BC]
| 1519) Aristotle recorded that the six junior archons (thesmotetai), or magistrates, were instituted in Athens after 683 BCE to record the laws. If true, Draco's code, dated to 621, is not the first recording of Athenian law to writing, but may be the first comprehensive code or a revision prompted by some particular crisis.
| Athens, Greece |
2,609 YBN
[609 BC]
| 767)
| |
2,609 YBN
[609 BC]
| 768)
| |
2,605 YBN
[605 BC]
| 918)
| |
2,600 YBN
[600 BC]
| 630) Metal coin money.
| Lydia, Anatolia |
2,600 YBN
[600 BC]
| 762) Thales (in Greek: Θαλης) is the first human of record to explain the universe with out using any Gods in the explanation, claiming the universe originated as water.
Thales explains that moon light is reflected sun light.
Thales measures a pyramid by comparing the pyramid shadow with the shadow from a stick.
| Miletus, Greece |
2,600 YBN
[600 BC]
| 765)
| |
2,600 YBN
[600 BC]
| 2619) The concept of a Devil is created and is first recorded in the book of Job, written around this time.
A lament in narrative form, the subject is the problem of good and evil in the world: "Why do the just suffer and the wicked flourish?" In the prose prologue Satan obtains God's permission to test the unsuspecting Job, whom God regards as "a perfect and an upright man"; accordingly, all that Job has is destroyed, and he is physically afflicted. The main part of the book is cast in poetic form and consists of speeches by Job and three friends who come to "comfort" him: Job speaks, then each of the three speaks in turn, with Job replying each time; there are three such cycles of discussion, although the third is incomplete. The friends insist alike that Job cannot really be just, as he claims to be, otherwise he would not be suffering as he is. Nevertheless, Job reiterates his innocence of wrong. The sequence changes with the appearance of a fourth speaker, Elihu, who accuses Job of arrogant pride. He in turn is followed by God himself, who speaks out of a storm to convince Job of his ignorance and rebuke him for his questioning. The prose epilogue tells how God rebukes the three friends for their accusations and how happiness is restored to Job. The author did not intend to solve the paradox of the righteous person's suffering, but rather to criticize a philosophy that located the cause of suffering in some supposed moral failure of the sufferer.
| |
2,590 YBN
[590 BC]
| 1518) Solon's new political constitution abolishes the monopoly of the eupatridae (aristocrates by birth who own the best land and monopolize the government) and substituted for it government by the wealthy citizens. Solon institutes a census of annual income, based primarily in measures of grain, oil, and wine. Political privilege is then allowed based on these divisions, without regard to birth. All citizens are entitled to attend the general Assembly (Ecclesia), which becomes, at least potentially, the sovereign body, entitled to pass laws and decrees, elect officials, and hear appeals from the most important decisions of the courts. Solon creates a new Council of Four Hundred, on which all but those in the poorest group can serve for a year at a time, which prepares business for the Assembly. The higher governmental posts are reserved for citizens of the top two income groups. The reforms Solon makes lay the foundation of the future democracy. But a strong conservative element remains in the ancient Council of the Hill of Ares (Areopagus), and the people themselves for a long time prefer to entrust the most important positions to members of the old aristocratic families.
Solon repeals Draco's code and publishes new laws, retaining only Draco's homicide statutes. Draco's laws, regarded as intolerably harsh, punishing trivial crimes with death, may have been unsatisfactory to the Greek people at this time.
| Athens, Greece |
2,587 YBN
[587 BC]
| 769)
| |
2,585 YBN
[05/08/585 BC]
| 770)
| |
2,580 YBN
[580 BC]
| 764) Anaximander (Greek: Αναξίμανδρος) (Anaximandros) oNoKSEMoNDrOS or ANAKSEmANDrOS? (BCE 610-546), friend and student of Thales, describes an Earth-centered Universe theory, and a theory that humans evolved from fish.
| Miletus |
2,580 YBN
[580 BC]
| 1522) Sappho (Greek: Σαπφώ) (Aeolian Greek {native dialect of Psappho}: Ψάπφω) (BCE c610-c570) female Greek poet, writes poetry at this time.
| Lesbos |
2,575 YBN
[575 BC]
| 773)
| |
2,550 YBN
[550 BC]
| 1035) Another inscription on a gold brooch (an object worn on the chest) "The Praeneste fibula" is thought to be a hoax. Which is unfortunate because this inscription uses K in place of C.
| |
2,545 YBN
[545 BC]
| 919)
| |
2,545 YBN
[545 BC]
| 920) Herodotus of Halicarnassus (Greek: Ἡρόδοτος, Herodotos) (484 BCE- c425 BCE), a Greek historian writes "The Histories", a collection of stories on different places and peoples he learns about through his travels. It includes the conflict between Greece and Persia.
| |
2,540 YBN
[540 BC]
| 783) Anaximenes (~570 BCE - ~500BC), possible pupil of Anaximander. Anaximenes is the first to distinguish clearly between planets and stars. Perhaps Anaximenes made the name "planet" which translates to "wanderer" in Greek. Anaximenes thinks that a rainbow is natural phenomenon, and not a goddess, as is the prevailing belief.
Anaximenes views air as a fundamental element of the universe, theorizing that by compression air turns to water and then earth.
(All five naked eye planets known?)
| Miletus |
2,540 YBN
[540 BC]
| 784) Xenophanes finds seashells on mountain tops and reasons that the Earth changes over time, so that mountains must have been in the sea and then rose.
| Elea, Southern Italy |
2,538 YBN
[538 BC]
| 788)
| |
2,530 YBN
[530 BC]
| 797) Tunnel cut through hill.
| Samos, Greece |
2,529 YBN
[529 BC]
| 772) Pythagoras describes the earth as a sphere. "Pythagorean Theorem" (in a right triangle: the square of the lengths of the hypotenuse always equals the sum of the square of the length of the two other sides).
Pythagoras is the first to write that the orbit of the earth moon is not in the plane of the Earth equator but at an angle to that plane. Pythagoras is the first to teach that the Sun, Moon, and planets do not follow the motion of the stars, but have paths of their own. This changes the star system theory from the theory of Anaximander of a single heavenly crystalline sphere, by adding separate spheres for the planets. This theory of the star system will last until Kepler.
| Croton, Italy |
2,525 YBN
[525 BC]
| 820)
| |
2,520 YBN
[520 BC]
| 785) Hecataeus (Greek: Εκαταίος) (~550 BC Miletus-476 BC) of Miletus is a Greek historian, native of Miletus from a wealthy family. Hecataeus continued the tradition of Thales, traveled through the Persian empire, and made a book on Egypt and Asia that has never been found. In Egypt, Egyptian humans showed Hecataeus records going back hundreds of generations. Hecataeus continued the work of Anaximander in trying to map the entire earth. Hecataeus rationalised history and geography, writing the first account of history that did not accept gods and myths at face value. Hecataeus had a skeptical and scornful view of myths. Hecataeus and his books will undoubtably become the inspiration for the later historian Herodotus.
| Miletus, Greece |
2,515 YBN
[03/12/515 BC]
| 821) In this temple there is no ark, cherubs, or urim and thummin used by priest to obtain oracles.
| |
2,515 YBN
[515 BC]
| 1264)
| Persia (Kermanshah Province of Iran) |
2,510 YBN
[510 BC]
| 786) Heraclitus views fire as the ultimate substance.
| Miletus, Greece |
2,510 YBN
[510 BC]
| 787) Parmenides follows in the tradition of the Ionian exiled Pythagorus and Xenophanes. Parmenides founds a school in Elea, the "Eliatic School" based on his philosophy of reason over senses.
| |
2,508 YBN
[508 BC]
| 1517) Cleisthenes belongs to the Alcmaeonid family, which has played a leading part in Athenian public life since the early Archaic period, and is the son of Megacles. At the time of Cleisthenes' birth the family was still affected by a public curse incurred by his greatgrandfather, also named Megacles. Megacles had been chief archon when the Athenian noble Cylon had made an unsuccessful bid to seize the Acropolis and make himself tyrant (c.632 BCE). Some of Cylon's followers had taken refuge at an altar and did not abandon their sanctuary until they had been promised that their lives would be spared. They were, however, put to death, and Megacles was held responsible. On the advice of Apollo's oracle at Delphi, a curse was pronounced on the Alcmaeonids, who went into exile, but they were back in Athens when the lawgiver Solon was called on to stop the possibility of civil war in 594 BCE. The Alcmaeonids were strong supporters of Solon.
In the period following Solon's reforms, Attica is unsettled. The old nobility thinks that Solon had gone too far and are anxious to reverse the trend; the common people think that Solon had not gone far enough.
After a Spartan army forces the tyrant Hippias and his family to leave Attica (modern Attiki, a district of east central Greece which includes Athens), Isagoras and Cleisthenes are rivals for power. Isagoras wins the upper hand and in this year, 508, Isagoras, the leader of the more reactionary nobles, is elected chief archon. At this point, according to later tradition, Cleisthenes takes the people into partnership and the main principles of a complete reform of the system of government are approved by the popular Assembly. A relative of the Alcmaeonids is elected chief archon for the following year, Isagoras leaves Athens to ask the Spartans to intervene, and Sparta does support Isagoras. The Spartan king demands the expulsion of "those under the curse," and Cleisthenes and his relatives are again exiles. The Spartans have no wish to see a democratic Athens, but they misjudge the mood of the people. The attempt to impose Isagoras as the leader of a narrow oligarchy is strongly resisted, and the Spartans have to withdraw. Isagoras and his supporters were forced to flee to the Acropolis, remaining besieged there for two days. On the third, they flee and are banished. Cleisthenes is subsequently recalled, along with hundreds of exiles, and he assumes leadership of Athens. The Athenians then carry out the decision (of democratic reform) that the Assembly had taken in 508.
After this victory Cleisthenes begins to reform the government of Athens. Cleisthenes continues Solon's reforms by removing the principle of hereditary privilege from Athenian government. Cleisthenes eliminates the four traditional tribes, which were based on family relations and had led to the tyranny in the first place, and organizes citizens into ten tribes according to their area of residence (their deme). They may be around 139 demes, organized into thirty groups called trittyes ("thirds"), with ten trittyes divided among three regions in each deme (a city region, asty; a coastal region, paralia; and an inland region, mesogeia). Cleisthenes also establishes legislative bodies run by individuals chosen by lot, instead of by kinship or heredity. He reorganizes the Boule, created with 400 members under Solon, so that it has 500 members, 50 from each tribe. The court system (Dikasteria - the law courts) is reorganized and has from 201-5001 jurors selected each day, up to 500 from each tribe. It is the role of the Boule to propose laws to the assembly of voters, who convene in Athens around forty times a year for this purpose. The bills proposed can be rejected, passed or returned for amendments by the assembly.
Cleisthenes calls these reforms isonomia ("equality of political rights").
| Athens, Greece |
2,500 YBN
[500 BC]
| 824) Oldest iron reinforced building.
| |
2,500 YBN
[500 BC]
| 825) Chinese literary records (such as The Romance of Wu and Yue) place the invention of the crossbow in China during the Warring States Period (475-221BC) in the kingdom of Chu about 500 BC. Some archeological evidence indicates that the crossbow was developed in China during the Copper Age around 2000 BC.
| |
2,500 YBN
[500 BC]
| 831)
| |
2,499 YBN
[499 BC]
| 832)
| |
2,490 YBN
[490 BC]
| 789) Carthagianian (Phoenician) navigator sails ships below the equator and reports that in the far south, the Sun at noon is in the northern part of the sky, which is true.
| Carthage (modern: Tunis) |
2,490 YBN
[490 BC]
| 819) Pro-democracy people gain popularity in Southern Italy and Pythagoras is persecuted and exiled 10 years before death. The Pythagoreans, the group that formed around Pythagoras lasts for only 100 years after his death. Influence of the Pythagoreans on the government, brings a violent wave of persecution that spread over the greek parts of earth, and by 350 BCE Pythagareanism was no more.
| |
2,470 YBN
[470 BC]
| 836) Anaxagoras (BCE c500-c428) views the Sun to be a mass of red-hot metal, that people live on the Moon, and thinks that the Universe is made of tiny bodies. The contemporary prevailing belief is that the Sun and the Moon are gods.
Anaxagoras introduces the Ionian science of Thales to Athens, saying that the universe is not made by a deity, but through the action of infinite "seeds", which will later develop into atomic theory under Leucippos.
| Athens |
2,470 YBN
[470 BC]
| 840) Humans understand brain controls body. First human dissection.
Alcmaeon (oLKmEoN) (᾿Αλκμαίων) (~500 BC Croton, Italy - ???) is first to theorize that the brain is the center of wisdom, and emotions. Alcmaeon is the first human known to dissect the bodies of humans and other species. (check in ) Alcmaeon records the existence of the optic nerve and the tube connecting the ear and mouth, and distinguishes arteries from veins.
Both Democritus and Hippocrates (and Plato and Philolaus ) will accept the idea that the brain is the center of wisdom and emotions, two generations later. This view of the brain as the center of emotions will not be accepted by Aristotle, who thinks the heart is the center of wisdom and emotions. This more accurate view of the brain as the center of wisdom and emotions was not popular for thousands of years, and many people even now still believe that the heart is the center of emotions, evidence of this is in the common expression "to feel something in your heart".
Humans understand brain controls body. First human dissection.
Alcmaeon (oLKmEoN) (᾿Αλκμαίων) (~500 BC Croton, Italy - ???) is first to theorize that the brain is the center of wisdom, and emotions. Alcmaeon is the first human known to dissect the bodies of humans and other species. (check in ) Alcmaeon records the existence of the optic nerve and the tube connecting the ear and mouth, and distinguishes arteries from veins.
Both Democritus and Hippocrates (and Plato and Philolaus ) will accept the idea that the brain is the center of wisdom and emotions, two generations later. This view of the brain as the center of emotions will not be accepted by Aristotle, who thinks the heart is the center of wisdom and emotions. This more accurate view of the brain as the center of wisdom and emotions was not popular for thousands of years, and many people even now still believe that the heart is the center of emotions, evidence of this is in the common expression "to feel something in your heart".
These two tubes are now called the "Eustachian tubes", named after Eustachio, who will describe these tubes again 2000 years later.
Alcmaeon lived in Croton during the height of Pythagarus' influence. There is evidence that Alcmaeon was not Pythagorean (for example, Aristotle writes a book on the Pythagoreans and a separate book on Alcmaeon), but the possibility exists that Alcmaeon was Pythagorean.
Alcmaeon thought the human body was a microcosm, reflecting the macrocosm (universe).
Alcmaeon distinguished arteries from veins, but did not recognize these as blood vessels, because veins and arteries are empty in dead people. (check, I find this hard to believe, where would the blood go?)
Alcmaeon wrote at least one book, or which only fragments remain.
Alcmaeon is the first to develop an argument for the immortality of the soul.
| |
2,470 YBN
[470 BC]
| 907) Oenopides of Chios is an ancient Greek mathematician (geometer) and astronomer, who lives around 450 BCE. He is born shortly after 500 BCE on the island of Chios, but mostly worked in Athens. Oenopides learns that the orbitg of the sun has an oblique course from Egyptian astronomers while in Egypt.
| |
2,468 YBN
[468 BC]
| 837) A stony meteroite falls on the north shore of the Aegean. This may lead Anaxagarus to think planets, stars, and earth are made of the same materials, and that the sun was a flaming stone.
| |
2,467 YBN
[467 BC]
| 1894) Particle (or wireless) communication. The optical telegraph (or semaphore)
An optical telegraph is an apparatus for conveying information by using visual signals, for example, using towers with turnable blades or paddles, shutters, or hand-held flags etc.
The Greek playwright, Aeschylus, describes in the play "Agamemnon" how news of the fall of Troy reaches the city of Argos (600 km away) in only a few hours by the use of fire signals.
| Greece (presumably) |
2,460 YBN
[460 BC]
| 835) Zeno (490? BCE, Elea now Velia south Italy - 430? BCE), is chief of "Eliatic School" (means "from Elea") in Athens and may have taught Pericles. The Eliatic humans teach the terribly false theory that senses are not useful for finding truth. Zeno made 4 paradoxes that were supposed to disprove the possiblity of motion as sensed. The most popular of these paradoxes is "Achilles and the tortoise", which is explained for example, by saying, if Achilles moves 10 times the speed of a tortoise, and the tortoise is 10 meters in front, Achilles will never catch the tortoise because when Achilles goes 10 meters, the tortoise has already moved 1 meter, by the time Achilles moves that 1 meter, the tortoise has moved 1/10 meter. This was supposed to be a paradox because humans usually view a fast object passing a slow object, so the human senses must be false. Although based on errors, the paradoxes will stimulate humans like Aristotle, who, for example, will give arguments against the paradoxes.
Zeno bases these paradoxes on the idea that space and time are infinitely divisible, and this encourages laters humans like Democritus, into searching for indivisible objects and reaching the conclusion of atoms. This view did not win popularity until 2200 years later with Dalton.
The argument Zeon made is obiously wrong, mainly because, this does not disprove motion, both objects are still moving. But also because people simply need to understand that even at 10 times the speed of an object, if the object is far enough ahead initially, the object will never be passed.
According to one argument, Zeno was on the wrong side of a political debate and was executed.
According to Asimov, Planck continued this idea more with the ultimate particles of energy. 2100 years later James Gregory showed that converging series exist where infinite number of terms (perhaps against first thought) added to a finite sum. Not until Newton and the Newton invention of calculus were methods of handling infinitly divisible made. Zeon of Elea is some times confused with Zeno of Citium that founded Stoic school 200 years later.
| |
2,460 YBN
[460 BC]
| 841) Theory that all matter is made of atoms.
Leukippos (Greek Λευκιππος ) (lEUKEPOS?) (BCE c490-???) is the first person to support an atomic theory. Leukippos theorizes that the universe is made of two different elements, which he calls "solid" and "empty", and that matter is composed entirely of an infinity of small indivisible particles called atoms, which are constantly in motion, and through their collisions and regroupings form various compounds.
| |
2,460 YBN
[460 BC]
| 842) Empedocles (BCE c490-c430) understands that the heart is the center of the blood vessel system. Empedocles thinks some organisms not adapted to life have died in the past. Empedocles unites the 4 elements (water, air, fire, earth) described by earlier people into a theory of the universe. Empedicles gains an understanding of air by trying to fill a clepsydra (also called "water thief", a hollow brass sphere with a long tube) by holding a thumb on the hole which then prevents water from entering the spherical container.
Empedocles (BCE c490-c430) understands that the heart is the center of the blood vessel system. Empedocles thinks some organisms not adapted to life have died in the past. Empedocles unites the 4 elements (water, air, fire, earth) described by earlier people into a theory of the universe. Empedicles gains an understanding of air, (perhaps Empedocles is where the word "impedes" originates from) by trying to fill a clepsydra (also called "water thief", a hollow brass sphere with a long tube) by holding a thumb on the hole which then prevents water from entering the spherical container.
Empedocles thought that objects formed and broke apart by forces similar to the human "love" and "strife", this idea will be taken by Aristotle, improved upon and remain the basis for chemistry for more than 2000 years.
Empedocles is actively pro-democracy where he lives in the Greek city of Akragas in Sicily, and helps to overthrow a tyranny in Akragas. When offered the job of tyrant, Empedocles refuses because he wants more time for philosophy. Empedocles is known also as a physician, as well as a philosopher and poet. Empedocles is influenced by Pythagoras, shows some amount of mysticism, does not object to being called a prophet and miracle-worker, and is thought to bring dead humans back to life. Empedocles says on one day he would be taken up to heaven and made a god, and on that day he is supposed to have jumped into the crator of Mount Etna, although some people say he died in Greece.
Empedocles combined the views of the schools of Asia Minor. Thales had water, Anaximenes had air, Heraclitus had fire, and Xeonphanes had earth as the main element of the universe and Empedocles combined these elements in his theory of the universe.
His philosophical and scientific theories are mentioned and discussed in several dialogues of Plato, and they figure prominently in Aristotle's writings on physics and biology and, as a result, also in the later Greek commentaries on Aristotle's works. Diogenes Laertius devotes one of his Lives of Eminent Philosophers to him (VIII, 51-77). His writings have come down to us mostly in the form of fragments preserved as quotations in the works of these and other ancient authors. Extensive fragments, some of them not previously known, were recently found preserved on a papyrus roll from Egypt in the Strasbourg University library (see Martin and Primavesi 1999).
Traditionally, Empedocles' writings were held to consist of two poems, in hexameter verse, entitled "On Nature" and "Purifications".
Empedocles wrongly thought that the heart was the center of wisdom and emotion.
Like Pythagoras, he believed in the transmigration of souls between humans and animals and followed a vegetarian lifestyle.
Traditionally, Empedocles' writings were held to consist of two poems, in hexameter verse, entitled "On Nature" and "Purifications". The recently edited fragments of the Strasbourg papyrus, however, have led some to claim that the two were originally a single work. In any event, the papyrus does show the two to be thematically more closely related than previously thought. Nevertheless, the themes of the two parts (if they did belong to a single poem) are sufficiently distinct that separate treatment is appropriate here. Even if there is not a strict separation of the two themes, the first primarily concerns the formation, structure, and history of the physical world as a whole, and the formation of the animals and plants within it; the second concerns moral topics.
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2,460 YBN
[460 BC]
| 1037)
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2,458 YBN
[458 BC]
| 834)
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2,454 YBN
[454 BC]
| 844)
| |
2,451 YBN
[451 BC]
| 906) Books of Protagoras burned for doubting the existence of Gods.
| |
2,450 YBN
[450 BC]
| 843) Philolaus (BCE c480-c385) theorizes that the earth is not the center of the universe, but instead moves through space circling a great fire.
Philolaus thinks that the earth, moon, the other planets and sun circle a great fire in separate spheres, and that the sun is only a reflection of this fire. This is the first recorded idea that the earth moves thru space.
Philolaus (BCE c480-c385), is the most recognized of the Pythagorian school after Pythagoras.
Philolaus is the first to print Pythagorian views and make them available to the public. Because of persecutions, Philolaus temporarily moves to Thebes (on the Greek mainland). Instead of 9 spheres Philolaus makes 10 (10 is viewed as a special number, one example is that 1+2+3+4=10). When Copernicus claims that the earth and planets move circling the sun, some people label this "Pythagorean heresy". Philolaus thinks that the spheres of the planets make celestial music as they turn, and this theory persist even to the time of Kepler.
Philolaus is a contemporary of Socrates.
Philolaus writes at least one book, "On Nature", which is probably the first book to be written by a Pythagorean. Of the 20+ fragments preserved in Philolaus' name, it is generally accepted that eleven of the fragments come from his genuine book. The other fragments come from books forged in Philolaus' name at a later date.
Philolaus is a precursor of Aristarchos in moving the Earth from the center of the universe to a planet. Some view this theory as an attempt to explain physical phenomena, and others view this theory as a guess, or based on mystical reasons.
Philolaus' book will be one of the major sources for Aristotle's account of Pythagorean philosophy.
There is controversy as to whether or not Aristotle's description of the Pythagoreans as equating things with numbers is an accurate account of Philolaus' view. Plato mentions Philolaus in the Phaedo and adapts Philolaus' metaphysical scheme for his own purposes in the Philebus.
Only one brief and not very reliable ancient life of Philolaus survives, that of Diogenes Laertius (VIII 84-5). Diogenes includes Philolaus among the Pythagoreans. Philolaus is one of the three most important figures in the ancient Pythagorean tradition, along with Pythagoras himself and Archytas.
The central evidence for Philolaus' date is Plato's reference to him in the Phaedo (61d-e). Socrates' interlocutors (speaking in Socrates' defense), Simmias and Cebes, indicate that they were pupils of Philolaus in Thebes at some time before the dramatic date of the dialogue (399 BCE).
The historian Diogenes Laertius probably near the end of the 100s CE, writes of Philolaus (translated from Greek) "...he was the first person who affirmed that the earth moved in a circle; though some attribute the assertion of this principle to Icetas of Syracuse. ...".
| Croton, Italy |
2,450 YBN
[450 BC]
| 1033)
| |
2,450 YBN
[450 BC]
| 1053)
| |
2,450 YBN
[450 BC]
| 1112)
| Yangzhou, Jiangsu, China |
2,438 YBN
[438 BC]
| 823) The Parthenon was built at the initiative of Pericles, the leading Athenian politician of the 5th century BC. It was built under the general supervision of the sculptor Phidias, who also had charge of the sculptural decoration. The architects were Iktinos and Kallikrates. Construction began in 447 BC, and the building was substantially completed by 438 BC, but work on the decorations continued until at least 433 BC.
| |
2,434 YBN
[434 BC]
| 839) Viewing Athens as not safe, Anaxagoras moves to Lampsacus. Meton continues astronomical research in Athens, but popular people in Athens turn from natural philosophy to moral philosophy.
Anaxagoras dies 6 years later in 428 BCE.
| |
2,432 YBN
[432 BC]
| 849) Metonic calendar: 12 years of 12 months, 7 years of 13 months.
Meton finds that 235 lunar months make around 19 years, so 12 years of 12 months and 7 years of 13 months will allow the lunar calendar to match the seasons. This calendar lasts until the Julian Calendar of 46 BCE. This calendar is also in use in Babylonia around the same time if not earlier.
| Athens, Greece (presumably) |
2,431 YBN
[431 BC]
| 1372)
| Sri Lanka |
2,430 YBN
[430 BC]
| 838) Anaxagarus is accused of impiety and atheism and brought to trial. Pericles faces people in court in defense of Anaxagoras, and Anaxagoras is freed (unlike Socrates a generation later).
Anaxagoras is the first human of history to have a legal conflict with a state religion.
The people in Athens cannot accept the rationalism of Anaxagoras (similar to the people of Croton to Pythagoras but with mysticism).
Anaxagoras is a friend of the most respected people in Athens, including Euripides (who writes plays), and Pericles. Some people claim that enemies of Pericles attempt to hurt Pericles through his friend Anaxagarus.
| Athens, Greece |
2,430 YBN
[430 BC]
| 845) Demokritos (Democritus) (Greek: Δημόκριτος) (BCE c460 -c370) in Abdera, elaborates on the atomic theory of his teacher Leukippos. Demokritos thinks that the Milky Way was a vast group of tiny stars. Demokritos explains the motions of atoms as based on natural laws, not on the wants of gods or demons. Demokritos creates the name "atoma" (atom) which means "cannot be divided".
Democritus is among the first to propose that the universe contains many worlds, some of them inhabited: (both "world" and "universe" translate as "kosmos", but perhaps "kosmos" is also used to refer to planets?) "In some worlds there is no Sun and Moon, in others they are larger than in our world, and in others more numerous. In some parts there are more worlds, in others fewer (...); in some parts they are arising, in others failing. There are some worlds devoid of living creatures or plants or any moisture." Aristotle argues against Demokritos' theory that the Milky Way is a large group of tiny stars.
Democritus travels in Egypt, and settles in Greece. He learns the rationalist view from his teacher Leukippos of Miletus (Thales is also from Miletus). Like all the early rationalist people, some ideas have a modern sound. Demokritos lives in the shadow of Socrates, who rejects the universe as defined by Democritus. None of the 72 books written by Democritos has ever been found, humans only have records of Democritus from other people (often unfriendly). Demokritos is widely called the "laughing philosopher", perhaps because he was cheerful, or because he laughed more than most people.
Demokritos thinks that even the human mind and the gods (if any) are made of combinations of atoms. Each atom is different and explains the various properties of substances. Atoms of water are smooth and round so water flows and had no shape, atoms of fire are thorny which makes burns painful, atoms of earth rough and jagged so they hold together to form a hard substance. Demokritos explains changes in nature and matter as the separating and joining of atoms. These views are similar to Anaximander.
Demokritos is one of the first people to support a "mechanist" view, explaining the universe as determinate as a machine. According to Demokritos the creation of the universe was the result of swirling motions set up in great numbers of atoms, forming worlds (planets?). Later people will chose to follow Socrates rather than Democritus, with the exception of Epicurus 100 years later, who will teach atomism.
The atomists hold that there are smallest indivisible bodies, Demokritos calls "atoma", which means "cannot be divided", from which everything else is composed, and that these move about in an infinite empty space.
Democritus is said to have known Anaxagoras, and to have been forty years younger.
Much of the best evidence is that reported by Aristotle, who regards Demokritos as an important rival in natural philosophy. Aristotle writes a monograph on Democritus, of which only a few passages quoted in other sources have survived. Democritus seems to have taken over and systematized the views of Leucippus, of whom little is known. Although it is possible to distinguish some contributions as those of Leucippus, the overwhelming majority of reports refer either to both figures, or to Democritus alone; the developed atomist system is often regarded as essentially Democritus'.
Diogenes Laertius lists 70 works by Democritus on many fields, including ethics, physics, mathematics, music and cosmology. Two works, the "Great World System" ("Megas Diakosmos") and the "Little World System" ("Micros Diakosmos"), are sometimes ascribed to Democritus, although Theophrastus reports that ("Megas Diakosmos") is by Leucippus.
Ancient sources describe atomism as one of a number of attempts by early Greek natural philosophers to respond to the challenge offered by Parmenides. Parmenides had argued that it is impossible for there to be change without something coming from nothing. Since the idea that something could come from nothing was generally agreed to be impossible, Parmenides argued that change is merely illusory. In response, Leucippus and Demokritus, along with other Presocratic pluralists such as Empedocles and Anaxagoras, developed systems that made change possible by showing that it does not require that something should come to be from nothing. These responses to Parmenides suppose that there are multiple unchanging material principles, which persist and merely rearrange themselves to form the changing world of appearances. In the atomist version, these unchanging material principles are indivisible particles, the atoms: the atomists are said to have taken the idea that there is a lower limit to divisibility to answer Zeno's paradoxes about the impossibility of traversing infinitely divisible magnitudes.
The atomists hold that there are two fundamentally different kinds of realities composing the natural world, atoms and void. Atoms, from the Greek adjective atomos or atomon, "indivisible", are infinite in number and various in size and shape, and perfectly solid, with no internal gaps. They move around in an infinite void, repelling one another when they collide or combining into clusters by means of tiny hooks and barbs on their surfaces, which become entangled. Other than changing place, they can not be changed, created or destroyed. All changes in the visible objects of the world of appearance are brought about by relocations of these atoms: in Aristotelian terms, the atomists reduce all change to change of place. Macroscopic objects in the world that we experience are really clusters of these atoms; changes in the objects we see-qualitative changes or growth, say-are caused by rearrangements or additions to the atoms composing them. While the atoms are eternal, the objects compounded out of them are not. Clusters of atoms moving in the infinite void come to form kosmoi or worlds as a result of a circular motion that gathers atoms up into a whirl, creating clusters within it (DK 68B167); these kosmoi are impermanent. Our world and the species within it have arisen from the collision of atoms moving about in such a whirl, and will likewise disintegrate in time.
Demokritus thought that many worlds are born and die, Demokritus argues by cutting an apple, that some material cannot be cut or divided.
(If the light particle is called the "atom", then a new name would be needed for the traditional atoms {Hydrogen, etc.}. perhaps they could be called "protom", or "cotoms", "multitom", "multicorp", "element", "glob", "cluster", "bunch", "tomicule", "monocule", "aster".)
The term "democracy" comes from the Greek: δημοκρατία – (dēmokratía) "rule of the people", which is coined from δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (Kratos) "power", in the middle of the 400s BCE to describe the political systems then existing in some Greek city-states, notably Athens following a popular uprising in 508 BCE. From c500 BCE to c330 BCE the people of Athens call themselves a democracy because all citizens can take part in political decisions. But women, slaves, and resident aliens (including people from other Greek cities) have no rights to participate.
(Perhaps the parents of Demokritos were strong supports of rule by the people in naming Demokritos.)
| Abdera, Thrace |
2,430 YBN
[430 BC]
| 847) Hippocrates (BCE 460-c370) founds a school of medicine, and views disease as a physical phenomenon and not the product of gods or demons.
The school founded by Hippocrates on Cos is the most science based of the time. Hippocrates will be recognized as the father of medicine, although other people (like Alcmaeon) had practiced healing and were students of the human body. Fifty books, called the Hippocratic collection, are credited to Hippocrates, but are more likely collected works of several generations of his school, brought together in Alexandria in 200-300 BCE. The books contain a high order of logic, careful observation, and good conduct.
Disease is viewed as a physical phenomenon, not credited to arrows of Apollo, or possession by demons. For example, epilepsy, is thought to be a sacred disease, because a human appears to be in the grip of a god or demon, but in this school epilepsy is described as being caused by natural causes and thought to be curable by physical remedies, not by exorcism. "Desperate diseases require desperate remedies", "one man's meat is another man's poison" are two quotes from this text. The people in the school taught moderation of diet, cleanliness and rest for sick or wounded (and also cleanliness for physicians), that the physician should interfere as little as possible in the healing process of nature (excellent advice for the amount of info learned at that time).
For the most part, disease was thought to be the result of an imbalance of the vital fluids ("humors") of the body, an idea first advanced by Empedocles. These are listed as four: blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile. A statue found on Cos in 1933 is thought to be of Hippocrates.
| Cos |
2,430 YBN
[430 BC]
| 910)
| |
2,424 YBN
[424 BC]
| 1138) Aristophanes (Greek: Ἀριστοφάνης) (c.448 BCE - c.385 BCE) a Greek comedy playwriter, questions the idea of Gods in "The Knights" by writing " Nicias: The best thing we can do for the moment is to throw ourselves at the feet of the statue of some god. Demosthenes: Of which statue? Any statue? Do you then believe there are gods? Nicias: Certainly. Demosthenes: What proof have you?"
| Athens, Greece |
2,409 YBN
[409 BC]
| 852) Plato becomes a student of Socrates.
| |
2,408 YBN
[408 BC]
| 5877) Fragment of the musical chorus "Stasimon Chorus" from Euripides' (BCE c485–406) tragedy "Orestes" (c 408 BCE) is preserved on a papyrus from the 200s BCE.
| Athens, Greece (or perhaps Macedon) |
2,404 YBN
[404 BC]
| 855)
| |
2,399 YBN
[399 BC]
| 846) Sokrates (Greek: Σωκράτης) SO-Kro-TES? (BCE c470-399) is sentenced to death and forced to end his own life, charged with impiety, (failure to show due piety toward the gods of Athens, "asebia" greek: ασέβεια) and of corrupting Athenian youth through his teachings.
One major issue with Sokrates is his opinion on democracy. Plato clearly is anti-democracy, but Sokrates appears to defend Athenian democracy with his military service, is friends with a Democratic general, and accepts the democratic decision of the jury instead of chosing to escape.
Another issue is Sokrates support for science. Clearly "The Clouds", written by Aristophanes in 423 BCE, paints Sokrates in the tradition of science and learning, and warns of the dangers of free thought. But there are clearly no recorded scientific contributions from Sokrates, and his life appears to revolve around conversation mainly centered on ethics, although Sokrates can be possibly credited with atheism.
Clearly there is friction between the traditional belief in gods and the newer belief in science which is associated with logic and atheism. Anaxagoras was persecuted for atheism, in Athens, 31 years earlier, in 430 BCE.
Another central issue is the conflict between the educated and the uneducated, in the case of Plato, blame is placed on Democracy for the brutality and stupidity of the majority, instead of on stupidity and lack of education itself.
Isaac Asimov claims that this will have a profound effect on science, and that it is surprising that the Greek people failed in science after such an excellent start with Thales, Demokritos, Eratosthenes, Aristarchos and Archimedes. Asimov claims that there are other factors, but one cause was the popularity of the views of Socrates (Carl Sagan relates the origin of these views to Pythagorus), typing that the largest part of Greek wisdom was focused into the field of moral philosophy, while natural philosophy (now called science) became less popular.
The execution of Socrates by the democrat humans is upsetting to Plato. Plato leaves Athens saying until "kings are philosphers or philosophers are kings" nothing would be good on earth. (Plato traces his descent from earlier kings of Athens and perhaps has himself in mind). For several years, he visits the greek cities in Africa and Italy.
Eunapius (346-414 CE) writes "So it was just as in the time of the renowned Socrates, when no one of all the Athenians, even though they were a democracy, would have ventured on that accusation and indictment of one whom all the Athenians regarded as a walking image of wisdom, had it not been that in the drukenness, insanity, and license of the Dionysia and the night festival, when light laughter and careless and dangerous emotions are discovered among men, Aristophanes first introduced ridicule into their corrupted minds, and by setting dances upon the stage won over the audience to his views; for he made mock of that profound wisdom by describing the jumps of fleas {an allusion to "Clouds"}, and depicting the shapes and forms of clouds, and all those other absurd devices to which comedy resorts in order to raise a laugh. When they saw that the audience in the theatre was inclined to such indulgence, certain men set up an accusation and ventured on that impious indictment against him; and so the death of one man brought misfortune on the whole state. For if one reckons from the date of Socrates' violent death, we may conclude that after it nothing brilliant was ever again achieved by the Athenians, but the city gradually decayed and because of her decay the whole of Greece was ruined along with her."
| Athens, Greece |
2,390 YBN
[390 BC]
| 909)
| |
2,387 YBN
[387 BC]
| 851) Plato's Academy.
Plato (Greek: Πλάτων) (BCE c427-347) founds the school "the Academy". The word "academy" will eventually be applied to all schools.
| Athens, Greece |
2,384 YBN
[384 BC]
| 860) Aristotle is born at Stageira, a colony of Andros on the Macedonian peninsula of Chalcidice in 384 BC. His father, Nicomachus, was court physician to King Amyntas III of Macedon. It is believed that Aristotle's ancestors held this position under various kings of the Macedons. As such, Aristotle's early education would probably have consisted of instruction in medicine and biology from his father. Little is known about his mother, Phaestis. It is known that she died early in Aristotle's life. When Nicomachus also died, in Aristotle's tenth year, he was left an orphan and placed under the guardianship of his uncle, Proxenus of Atarneus. He taught Aristotle Greek, rhetoric, and poetry (O'Connor et al., 2004). Aristotle was probably influenced by his father's medical knowledge; when he went to Athens at the age of 18, he was likely already trained in the investigation of natural phenomena.
| |
2,378 YBN
[378 BC]
| 854) Eudoxus (Greek Εύδοξος) (BCE c408-c355 BCE) is the first Greek human to realize that the year is not exactly 365 days, but 6 hours more. Egyptians were already aware of this and Eudoxus may have gotten this idea from Egypt. Eudoxus is first Greek human to try to map stars. Eudoxus divides the sky in to degrees of latitude and longitude, a system that is eventually applied to the earth.
Eudoxus draws a map of earth better than the map of Hecataeus. Eudoxus is at the Acadamy, and then later creates his own school in Cyzicus on Northwest coast of Turkey. Eudoxus visited Plato. Eudoxus is the first to try to save the appearances of the Philolaus (adopted by Plato) theory of planets moving on spheres.
| |
2,378 YBN
[378 BC]
| 861)
| |
2,372 YBN
[372 BC]
| 1038) Diogenes of Sinope (412 BCE - 323 BCE), considered to be one of the founders of Cynicism ("Cynic" Greek: κῠνικός, Latin: cynici, Cynicism Greek:κυνισμός)lives now. Diogenes is the first person known to have said, "I am a citizen of the whole world (cosmos)," rather than of any particular city or state (polis).
When asked how to avoid the temptation to lust of the flesh, Diogenes began masturbating. When rebuked for doing so, he replied, "If only I could soothe my hunger by rubbing my belly."
| |
2,370 YBN
[370 BC]
| 883)
| |
2,366 YBN
[366 BC]
| 858) The relations between Plato and Aristotle have formed the subject of various legends, many of which depict Aristotle unfavorably. No doubt there were divergences of opinion between Plato, who took his stand on sublime, idealistic principles, and Aristotle, who even at that time showed a preference for the investigation of the facts and laws of the physical world. It is also probable that Plato suggested that Aristotle needed restraining rather than encouragement, but not that there was an open breach of friendship. In fact, Aristotle's conduct after the death of Plato, his continued association with Xenocrates and other Platonists, and his allusions in his writings to Plato's doctrines prove that while there were conflicts of opinion between Plato and Aristotle, there was no lack of cordial appreciation or mutual forbearance. Besides this, the legends that reflect Aristotle unfavourably are traceable to the Epicureans, who were known as slanderers. If such legends were circulated widely by patristic writers such as Justin Martyr and Gregory Nazianzen, the reason lies in the exaggerated esteem Aristotle was held in by the early Christian heretics, not in any well-grounded historical tradition.
Aristotle is the first to describe the diving bell. A diving bells is a cable-suspended airtight chamber, open at the bottom, that is lowered underwater to operate as a base for a small number of divers. They are the first type of diving chamber. Aristotle writes (in which book?):"...they enable the divers to respire equally well by letting down a cauldron, for this does not fill with water, but retains the air, for it is forced straight down into the water."
| |
2,357 YBN
[357 BC]
| 856) Herakleitos is the first to suppose that some planets rotate around the Sun.
Herakleitos (Heracleides) (Ηράκλειτος) (387 BCE- 312 BCE) adopts the view of two Pythagoreans, Hiketos and Ekfantos, in theorizing that the earth rotates on its own axis. Herakleitos thinks that the planets Mercury and Venus orbit the sun (although putting the earth at the center of the universe). Herakleitos speculates that the universe is infinite, each star being a world in itself, composed of an earth and other planets.
Herakleitos learns in Plato's Academy. Herakleitos wrote on astronomy and geometry and thought the earth possibly rotated. Aristarchus took this idea, but the support Hipparchus gives for the earth centered theory was more popular.
Heraclides' father was Euthyphron, a wealthy nobleman who sent him to study at the Academy in Athens under its founder Plato and under his successor Speusippus, though he also studied with Aristotle. According to the Suda, Plato, on his departure for Sicily in 360 BCE, left his pupils in the charge of Heraclides. Speusippus, before his death in 339 BCE, had chosen Xenocrates as his successor but Xenocrates narrowly triumphed in an ensuing election against Heraclides and Menedemus.
A punning on his name, dubbing him Heraclides "Pompicus," suggests he may have been a rather vain and pompous man and the target of much ridicule. However, Heraclides seems to have been a versatile and prolific writer on philosophy, mathematics, music, grammar, physics, history and rhetoric, notwithstanding doubts about attribution of many of the works. It appears that he composed various works in dialogue form. The main source of this biographical welter is the collection by Diogenes Laërtius.
Like the Pythagoreans Hicetas and Ecphantus, Heraklitos proposed that the apparent daily motion of the stars was created by the rotation of the Earth on its axis once a day. According to a late tradition, he also believed that Venus and Mercury revolve around the Sun. This would mean that he anticipated the Tychonic system, an essentially geocentric model with heliocentric aspects. However, the tradition is almost certainly due to a misunderstanding, and it is unlikely that Heraklitos, or his Pythagorean predecessors, advocated a variation on the Tychonic system.
Of particular significance to historians is his statement that fourth century Rome was a Greek city.
The theory of homocentric spheres failed to account for two sets of observations: (1) brightness changes suggesting that planets are not always the same distance from the Earth, and (2) bounded elongations (i.e., Venus is never observed to be more than about 48° and Mercury never more than about 24° from the Sun). Heracleides of Pontus (4th century BC) attempted to solve these problems by having Venus and Mercury revolve about the Sun, rather than the Earth, and having the Sun and other planets revolve in turn about the Earth, which he placed at the centre. In addition, to account for the daily motions of the heavens, he held that the Earth rotates on its axis. Heracleides' theory had little impact in antiquity except perhaps on Aristarchus of Samos (3rd century BC), who apparently put forth a heliocentric hypothesis similar to the one Copernicus was to propound in the 16th century.
| |
2,347 YBN
[347 BC]
| 853)
| |
2,342 YBN
[342 BC]
| 857) It is possible that Aristotle also participated in the education of Alexander's boyhood friends, which may have included for example Hephaestion and Harpalus. Aristotle maintained a long correspondence with Hephaestion, eventually collected into a book, unfortunately now lost.
| |
2,341 YBN
[341 BC]
| 867)
| |
2,340 YBN
[340 BC]
| 801)
| |
2,336 YBN
[336 BC]
| 868)
| |
2,335 YBN
[335 BC]
| 859) The Lyceum {LISEuM} (Λύκειον, Lykeion {lUKEoN}).
Aristotle (Ancient Greek: Αριστοτέλης, Aristotélēs) (ArESTOTeLAS?) opens his own school in Athens, called the Lyceum (Λύκειον, Lykeion) (lUKEoN). Aristotle classifies 500 species, and dissectes nearly 50, correctly classifying dolphins with species of the field, not with fish. Aristotle puts forward the first theory of gravity, claiming that heavy objects go down and incorrectly that light objects go up.
Aristotle founds school called Lyceum, because aristotle lectured in a hall near temple to Apollo Lykaios (Apollo, wolf god), also called the "Peripatetic School" because Aristotle some times lectured while walking through the gardens of the school. Aristotle makes an early university library of manuscripts (papyri?). Aristotle founds the science of logic. Aristotle classifies 500 species, and dissectes nearly 50. Interested in sea life, Aristotle finds that dolphins are born alive and nourished by a placenta. No fish has a placenta but mammals do, and Aristotle correctly classifies dolphins with species of the field, not with fish. Aristotle also studied viviparous sharks, born with no placenta. Aristotle notes that torpedo fish stun other fish (with electricity). Aristotle is wrong in denying gender to plants. He studies the embryo of chicken, and the stomach of a cow. He thinks incorrectly that the heart is center of life and thinks the brain is only a cooling organ for the blood. Aristotle accepts the spheres of Eudoxus and Callipus and added more spheres to make 54 spheres in total. Aristotle thinks these spheres are real where Eudoxus probably thought they were imaginary. Aristotle accepts the 4 elements of Empedocles but only on earth, and adds a 5th element of "aether" for the heavens. This theory of aether will continue until the Michaelson-Morley experiment proves that no aether exists 2000 years later. Aristotle agrees with Pythagoreans that that laws of the heavens and earth were separate. Aristotle thinks that heavier object fall faster than lighter objects (technically, wrong for small everyday objects near earth, but true in principle for 3 similar mass objects. A heavier object will reach a second object faster than a lighter object will when all 3 objects are similar masses, because the heavier object will pull the other mass closer faster than the lighter object. For us earth bound people, common mass objects like rocks will not be massive enough to move the earth closer to them, and so therefore reach the earth at the same time.). Aristotle rejects the atoms of Leukippos and Democritos, dooming that idea for thousands of years, although Aristotle agrees with Pythagoras that the earth is a sphere. Aristotle found the science of zoology (the study of all living objects, biology). Aristotle thinks that sound travelled as impacts in air and could not exist without air.
Following Plato's example, Aristotle gives regular instruction in philosophy in a gymnasium dedicated to Apollo Lyceios, from which his school will come to be known as the Lyceum. The school is also called the Peripatetic School because Aristotle preferred to discuss problems of philosophy with his pupils while walking up and down (peripateo), the shaded walks (peripatoi) around the gymnasium.
Aristotelian philosophy then depended upon the assumption that man's mind could elucidate all the laws of the universe, based on simple observation (without experimentation) through reason alone.
| Athens, Greece |
2,332 YBN
[332 BC]
| 880)
| |
2,327 YBN
[327 BC]
| 875) Callisthenes censured Alexander's adoption of oriental customs, in particular disliking the servile Persian ceremonies. One source claims a different end for Callisthenes stating: By opposing servile ceremonies, Callisthenes greatly offended the Alexander, and was accused of being part of a treasonable conspiracy and thrown into prison, where he died from torture or disease. His sad end was commemorated in a special treatise (Callisthenes or a Treatise on Grief) by his friend Theophrastus, whose acquaintance he made during a visit to Athens. The Greek idea of freedom, independence, and autonomy dictated that bowing down to any mortal was out of the question. They reserved such submissions for the gods only. Alexander the Great proposed this practice during his lifetime, in adapting to the Persian cities he conquered, but it obviously did not go over well (an example can be found in the court historian, Callisthenes) - in the end, he did not insist on the practice.
| |
2,325 YBN
[325 BC]
| 865) Dikaearchos moves to Athens, he learns at the Lyceum under Aristotle, becomes friend of Theophrastus, writes a history of Greece, and a geography that describes the earth in words and maps. Dikaearchos estimates the heights of Greek mountains. He gains data from travels of Alexander. Dikaearchos draws a line of latitude from east to west on maps, marking that all points on the line saw the sun at noon on any day at an equal angle from the zenith (or highest point the sun appears to reach).
| |
2,325 YBN
[325 BC]
| 887) Pytheas correctly explains the tides as being because of the influence of the Moon. Only 2000 years later will Newton explain the attraction of the moon. Pytheas also shows that the North star is not exactly at the pole and so makes a circle everyday.
| Massalia (now: Marseille France) |
2,323 YBN
[06/10/323 BC]
| 876)
| |
2,323 YBN
[323 BC]
| 862) Aristotle choses Theofrastos (Theophrastus) (Greek: Θεόφραστος) (tEOFrASTOS?) (BCE c372-287) to head the Lyceum. Theophrastos describes over 500 species of plants and is the founder of botony, the study of plants.
| Athens |
2,323 YBN
[323 BC]
| 863) On the death of Alexander Aristotle (Greek: Αριστοτέλης) (BCE 384-322) is charged with "impiety" (lack of respect for gods, atheism) and leaves Athens.
| Athens |
2,323 YBN
[323 BC]
| 864) Callippus (Καλλιππος) KAL lEP POS? (~370 BCE Cyzicus - ~ 300 BCE) makes a more accurate measurement of the solar year, finding the measurement of Meton 100 years earlier to be 1/76 of a day too long. Kallippos constructs a a 76 year cycle of 940 months to unite the solar and lunar years. This calendar is adopted in 330 BCE and will be used by all later astronomers.
Ptolemy gave us an accurate date for the beginning of this cycle in 330 BC in the Almagest saying that year 50 of the first cycle coincided with the 44th year following the death of Alexander.
Callipps studies under Eudoxus and adds 8 more spheres to the 26 earth-centered spheres of Eudoxus, in order to more accurately explain the motions of the planets.
The system made by Eudoxus has the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars each with five spheres while Jupiter and Saturn have four and the stars have one. This addition of six spheres over the system proposed by Eudoxus increases the accuracy of the theory while preserving the belief that the heavenly bodies had to possess motion based on the circle since that was the 'perfect' path.
He also made careful measurements of the lengths of the seasons, finding them to be 94 days, 92 days, 89 days, and 90 days. This variation in the seasons implies a variation in the speed of the Sun, called the solar anomaly. The different length of the seasons is due to the fact that the sun is at one focus of an ellipse, which means that the earth will be on one side of the sun for more time than the other side.
| |
2,323 YBN
[323 BC]
| 877) Ptolomy and the people that follow him support science, and succeed in making Alexandria the intellectual capital of earth. Ptolomy makes a library, and a university called "the museum" because it was a kind of temple to the muses, the Goddesses of science and arts.
| |
2,322 YBN
[03/07/322 BC]
| 879) Aristotle dies. Aristotle dies. His lectures are collected in to 150 volumes one-man encyclopedia, of which only 50 have been found. Aristotle leaves his children in the care of Theophrastos.
| |
2,320 YBN
[320 BC]
| 866) Praxagoras was born on the island of Kos about 340 BC His father, Nicarchus, and his grandfather were physicians. Very little is known of his personal life, and none of his writings have survived. Between the death of Hippocrates in 375 BC and the founding of the school at Alexandria, Egypt, Greek medicine became entrenched in speculation with little advance in knowledge. During this period four men took up the study of anatomy: Diocles of Carystus (fl. fourth cent. B.C.), Herophilus (c. 335-280 B.C.), Erasistratus (c. 304-250 B.C.), and Praxagoras.
Galen (A.D. 129-216), the famous Greek physician, wrote of Praxagoras as an influential figure in the history of medicine and a member of the logical or dogmatic school. Galen also probably knew of the works of Praxagoras, which were extensive. He wrote on natural sciences, anatomy, causes and treatment of disease, and on acute diseases.
Praxagoras adopted a variation of the humoral theory, but instead of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) that most physicians held, he insisted on eleven. Like the other Greek physicians, he believed health and disease were controlled by the balance or imbalance or these humors. For example, if heat is properly present in the organism, the process of digestion is natural. Too little or too much heat will cause a rise in the other humors, which then produces certain disease conditions. He considered digestion to be a kind of putrefaction or decomposition, an idea that was held until the nineteenth century.
Praxagoras studied Aristotle's (384-322 B.C.) anatomy and improved it by distinguishing between artery and veins. He saw arteries as air tubes, similar to the {trachea} and bronchi, which carried pneuma, the mystic force of life. Arteries took the breath of life from the lungs to the left side of the heart through the aorta to the arteries of the body. He believed the arteries stemmed from the heart, but the veins came from the liver. Veins carried blood, which was created by digested food, to the rest of the body. The combination of blood and pneuma generated heat. As one of the humors, thick, cold phlegm gathered in the arteries would cause paralysis. Also, he believed that arteries were the channels through which voluntary motion was given to the body, and that the cause of epilepsy was the blocking of the aorta by this same accumulation of phlegm.
Aristotle, Diocles, and Praxogoras insisted that the heart was the central organ of intelligence and the seat of thought. Praxagoras differed with the others in that he believed the purpose of respiration was to provide nourishment for the psychic pneuma, rather than to cool the inner heat.
His views of arteries were very influential on the development of physiology. Since the concept of nerves did not exist, Praxagoras explained movement to the fact that arteries get smaller and smaller, then disappear. This disappearance caused movement, a fact now attributed to nerves. However, he speculated about the role of movement and was satisfied that he had found the answer of the center of vitality and energy. His pupil Herophilus actually discovered both sensory and motor nerves.
Praxagoras was interested in pulse and was the first to direct attention to the importance of arterial pulse in diagnosis. He insisted that arteries pulsed by themselves and were independent of the heart. Herophilus refuted this doctrine in his treatise "On Pulses." In another area, Galen criticized Praxagoras for displaying too little care in anatomy. He suggested that Praxagoras did not arrive at his theories by dissection.
Praxagoras was very influential in the development of Greek medicine in general and the Alexandrian school in particular. After the death of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.), Egypt fell to the hands of General Ptolemy, who established a modern university with the first great medical school of antiquity. Human dissection was practiced, and although the university in Alexandria and its massive library were destroyed by bands of conquerors, later Arabic physicians made the efforts to preserve some of the writings. After the fall of the Byzantine Empire, Greek scholars brought back Greek medicine to the medical schools of the Western Renaissance.
The beliefs of Praxagoras held sway for centuries. For example, for nearly 500 years after his death, many still believed that arteries did not contain blood but pneuma. His most famous pupil, Herophilus, was instrumental in establishing the marvelous medical establishment at Alexandria.
| |
2,317 YBN
[317 BC]
| 899)
| |
2,316 YBN
[316 BC]
| 908) Ironically this view will be used by early christians against the traditional polytheistic Greek religion (paganism). Cyprian a North African convert to Christianity writes a short essay, De idolorum vanitate ("On the Vanity of Idols") in 247 CE with the words: "That those are no gods whom the common people worship, is known from this: they were formerly kings, who on account of their royal memory subsequently began to be adored by their people even in death. Thence temples were founded to them; thence images were sculptured to retain the countenances of the deceased by the likeness; and men sacrificed victims, and celebrated festal days, by way of giving them honour. Thence to posterity those rites became sacred, which at first had been adopted as a consolation."
| |
2,311 YBN
[311 BC]
| 885) Epikouros (Επίκουρος) (Epicurus) (02/341 BCE Samos - 270 BCE Athens) founds a popular school in Athens. He argues against the existence of any god. Epikouros basis his philosophy on the principle that pleasure is good and pain is bad. This is the first school to admit females and slaves. Epikouros agrees with the atom theory of Demokritos.
Eipkouros defines justice as an agreement "neither to harm nor be harmed." In contrast to Aristotle, Epikouros argues that death should not be feared. Later humans will mistake the views of Epikouros to be supporting free, open and overindulgent sexuality, but he mistakenly warns against overindulgence because he believes that it often leads to pain. Epicurus thinks the highest pleasure is living moderately, behaving kindly, removing the fear of the gods, and death. Of 300 treatises (scrolls?), almost nothing has been found. Epikouros establishes the philosophy called Epicureanism.
Epikouros forms "The Garden", named for the garden he owns about halfway between the Stoa and the Academy. This original school had only a few members and was based in Epicurus' home and garden. An inscription on the gate of the garden reads: "Stranger, here you will do well to delay; here our highest good is pleasure." The school's popularity grows and it will became, along with Stoicism and Skepticism, one of the three dominant schools of Hellenistic Philosophy, lasting strongly through the later Roman Empire.
| |
2,310 YBN
[310 BC]
| 869) Kidinnu (BCE 340-???) understands the precession of equinoxes (a wobbling in the orientation of Earth's axis with a cycle of almost 26,000 years).
| (Astronomical School) Sippar, Babylonia |
2,310 YBN
[310 BC]
| 871) Strato is born 200 years after Anaxagarus.
| |
2,310 YBN
[310 BC]
| 911)
| |
2,307 YBN
[307 BC]
| 901)
| |
2,305 YBN
[305 BC]
| 884) Herofilos (Ηροφιλος) (Herophilus) (335 BCE Chalcedon {now Kadikoy, Istanbul Turkey} - 280 BCE) is the first human to distinguish nerves from blood vessels, in addition to motor nerves from sensory nerves. Herofilos is the first to describe the liver and spleen, to describe and name the retina of the eye, to name the first section of the small intestine "the duodenum", to describe ovaries, the tubes leading to the ovaries from the uterus, and names the prostate gland. Herofilos is the first human to note that arteries carry blood, not air as previously believed, a recognizes that the heart pumps blood through the blood vessels. Herofilos is first to distinguish between cerebrum and cerebellum.
Herofilos notes that arteries, not like veins, pulsate, and times the pulsations with a water clock, but does not make connection between artery pulse and heart pulse.
Herofilos is the first human to think wrongly think that blood letting has value, and this focus on bleeding will have a bad effect on healing for 2000 years. Erasistratus will carry on Herofilos' work, but after Erasistratus the Alexandria school of anatomy declined. Like Alkmeon, Herophilus also identifies the brain as the center of widom and emotion, not the heart.
Together with Erasistratus he founders of the great medical school of Alexandria. Herofilos makes many contributions to anatomy. Herophilus performs up to 600 dissections in public. Herophilos divides nerves into sensory (get sense information) and motor (those responsible for motion).
Herophilus' chief work was in anatomy, on which he composed several treatises, including one On Dissections in several books, and where a number of the terms he coined passed, either directly or via their Latin translations, into anatomical vocabulary. None of Herofilos' works have been found yet, but will be much quoted by Galen in the 2nd century AD. Later medical authors, Celsus, Rufus, Soranus and Galen, will quote and comment on their predecessors, often at considerable length. Before Herofilos and Erasistratos, such dissections as had been carried out were all performed on animals.
Herofilos or Erasistratos starts the school of health (traditionally called medicine) in Alexandria, and this school will last at least until Galen in the second century CE.
| |
2,305 YBN
[305 BC]
| 934)
| |
2,300 YBN
[300 BC]
| 927) Ptolemy I encourages Hekataeos (Greek: Εκαταίος) of Abdura (Άβδηρα) (340-280 BCE) (not to be confused with other historian Hekataeos of Miletus 200 years earlier) to live in Egypt and write a new Aegyptiaca (history of Egypt), which has not yet been found, but large parts of this work will be found in the writing of Diordorus. Hecataeus compares Egyptian Gods to Greek Gods, equating Dionysius to Osirius, Demeter to Isis, Apollo to Horus, Zeus to Ammon, Hermes to Thoth, Hephaestus to Ptah, Pan to Min, even the 9 muses to Osiris' nine maidens.
| Egypt |
2,300 YBN
[300 BC]
| 1166) Earliest drawing of a lathe in the tomb of Petosiris in Egypt.
| Egypt |
2,297 YBN
[297 BC]
| 900)
| |
2,297 YBN
[297 BC]
| 902) Museum of Alexandria.
| |
2,297 YBN
[297 BC]
| 925)
| |
2,295 YBN
[295 BC]
| 878) Euclid (Eukleidis) (Greek: Εὐκλείδης) YUKlEDES? (325 BCE - 265 BCE), in Alexandria, makes a scroll called "Elements" which is a compilation of all the mathematical knowledge known up to then, and will be one of the most successful mathmatical texts in the history of earth. Euclid proves that the number of primes is infinite, that the square root of 2 is irrational, and shows light rays as straight lines.
Eukleidos either answers Ptolemy I's invitation, or is recruited by Demetrios Falereus, and is one of the first people to work in the Mousaeion in Alexandria. He starts a school of mathematics at the Mousaeion which will last at least until the time of Pappus in the fourth century CE. Euclid's "Elements" will go through more than 1000 editions after the invention of printing. "Elements" compiles all the accumulated wisdom since the time when Thales lived (250 years before). Euclid starts with axioms and postulates, then adds theorems. The only theorem credited to Euclid with most certainty is the proof for the Pythagorean theorem. This book has geometry, ratio, proportion, and number theory. In his "Eudemiarz Summary", Proclus (410-485 CE) writes about how King Ptolomy I, studying geometry, asks Euclid if there was no easier path to understanding geometry, and that Euclid replied that "there is no royal road to geometry". It is likely that this quote has been taken from a similar story told about Menaechmus (fl. c350 BCE) and Alexander the Great. Euclid states that the whole is equal to the sum of it's parts, and that a straight line is the shortest distance between 2 points.
| |
2,295 YBN
[295 BC]
| 926) This shows that Ptolemy I was a scholar, or at least literate, which is relatively rare among kings. (see how common, Caesar wrote his own histories, as did a general after him).
| |
2,290 YBN
[290 BC]
| 903) Berossos (Berossus), a Chaldean priest, writes a history of Babylonia, which in complete form has not yet been found, although secondary sources provide some information.
| (Book probably funded by and stored in the Museum of Alexandria) Alexandria, Egypt |
2,288 YBN
[03/07/288 BC]
| 881) Aristarchus Αρίσταρχου (oRESToRKOS or ARESToRKOS) (320 BCE Samos- 250 BCE Alexandria) moves to Alexandria (the most popular place for science) when younger. Aristarkos may have learned from Strato (in Alexandria?). Aristarkos combines the Pythagorian view of an orbiting earth with planets Mercury and Venus rotating the sun.
| |
2,288 YBN
[288 BC]
| 873) According to the Letter of Aristeas, Ptolemy II Philadephus, is urged by his librarian Demetius of Phalarum {most people think this is incorrect since there are reports of Ptolemy II jailing Demetrios} to translate the Pentateuch. The King responds favorably, including giving freedom to the Jewish people who had been taken into captivity by his fathers and sending lavish gifts (which are described in great detail) to the temple in Jerusalem along with his envoys. The high priest Eleazar choses exactly six men from each tribe, giving 72 in all; he gives a long sermon in praise of the Law. When the translators arrive in Alexandria the king weeps of joy and for the next seven days puts philosophical questions to the translators, the wise answers to which are related in full. The 72 translators then complete their task in exactly 72 days. The coincidence of 72 translators in 72 days tends to sound like mystical religious exageration of coincidence. The Jewish people of Alexandria, on hearing the Law read in Greek, request copies and lay a curse on anyone who would change the translation. The king then rewards the translators lavishly and they return home.
| |
2,288 YBN
[288 BC]
| 905)
| |
2,287 YBN
[287 BC]
| 872) Strato {STrATO} (or Straton, Greek: Στράτων) (BCE c340-c270) becomes third director of the Lyceum after the death of Theophrastos.
| (Lyceum) Athens, Greece |
2,287 YBN
[287 BC]
| 924)
| |
2,285 YBN
[285 BC]
| 1028) Compressed air used for a catapult and musical organ.
| Alexandria, Egpyt |
2,283 YBN
[283 BC]
| 928)
| |
2,283 YBN
[283 BC]
| 929) Many view Demetrios as the first head librarian, the only evidence, the list found in the Oxyrhynchus papyrus, and the one made by John Tzetzes in the 12th century, both list Zenodotus as the first head librarian of the Royal library in Alexandria. Possibly Demetrios had a special post made by Ptolemy I Soter.
John Tzetzes (1100s) will claim that under Ptolemy 2, 'Alexander of Aetolia edited the books of tragedy, Lycophron of Chalcis those of comedy, and Zenodotus of Ephesus those of Homer and the other poets'.
| |
2,281 YBN
[281 BC]
| 904)
| |
2,281 YBN
[281 BC]
| 935)
| |
2,280 YBN
[06/10/280 BC]
| 922)
| |
2,280 YBN
[280 BC]
| 1199)
| Athens, Greece |
2,275 YBN
[275 BC]
| 888) The Ptolemies want their Library to be universal, not only containing the bulk of Greek knowledge, but also the writings from all nations to be ultimately translated into Greek. Manethon, a priest of Heliopolis in Egypt, writes a comprehensive history of Egypt in Greek. The surviving fragments of Manethon's writings fall into two main divisions, the Epitome, or long chronological lists of the Egyptian dynasties and their kings, and the episode of the Hyksos invasion of Egypt and its connection with the life of Moses, although the original text is apparently corrupted in the three centuries between Manethon and Josephus.
| Heliopolis, Egypt |
2,275 YBN
[275 BC]
| 897)
| |
2,275 YBN
[275 BC]
| 930)
| |
2,274 YBN
[274 BC]
| 886) Cerebrum and Cerebellum of the brain identified.
Erasistratos Ερασίστρατος (EroSESTrATOS?) (~304 BCE Chios {now Khios, an aegean island} - 250 BCE Samos), in Alexandria describes the brain as being divided in to a larger cerebrum and smaller cerebellum. Erasistratos accepts atom theory.
He compares folds (convolutions) in the brain of humans with those of other species and decides that the complexity of folds is related to intelligence. He thinks each organ is connected to and fed by nerves, arteries and veins. Eras titratos thinks digestion is from grinding of the stomach (which is only partially true). He proposes mechanical explanations for many bodily processes. He rejects the 4 humor theory popularized by Hippokrates, but Galen will support this idea. He believed in a three-part system of humors consisting of nervous spirit (carried by nerves), animal spirit (carried by the arteries), and blood (carried by the veins). Erasistratos was possibly a grandson of Aristotle and learned under Theophrasus in the Lyceum.
After the work of Erasistratus, the use of dissection and study of anatomy declined. The humans in Egypt stop dissection in Alexandria and not until 1500 years later (late 1200s CE) with Mondino de Luzzi is dissection practiced again.
| Alexandria, Egpyt |
2,270 YBN
[270 BC]
| 932)
| |
2,260 YBN
[260 BC]
| 663) Lever.
| Mesopotamia |
2,260 YBN
[260 BC]
| 822) Screw.
Archimedes (Greek: Αρχιμήδης ) (287-212 BCE) is usually credited with with the concept of the spiral screw. A spiral screw is an inclined plane wrapped around a cylinder. The spiral is called a "thread", and the distance between adjacent edges is called the "pitch" of the screw. The pitch is equal to the distance that the screw advances in one turn in a solid medium.
| Syracuse, Sicily |
2,260 YBN
[260 BC]
| 882) Aristarchos understands that the Earth rotates around the Sun each year and that the earth rotates around its own axis once a day.
Aristarchos also determines that the Sun is farther away from Earth than the Moon is by measuring the angle between the Moon and Sun when the moon appears half lit (quarter Moon).
| (Mousion of Alexandria) Alexandria, Egpyt |
2,260 YBN
[260 BC]
| 941)
| |
2,257 YBN
[257 BC]
| 891) Archimedes (Greek: Αρχιμήδης ) (287 Syracuse, Sicily - 212 Syracuse, Sicily) is the first to understand density (how mass and volume are related). Archimedes makes a system that is equivalent to the exponential system to describe the amount of sand needed to fill the universe. He makes the best estimate of pi, builds a mechanical model of the universe, and a "screw of Archimedes".
Achimedes outlines methods for calculating areas and volumes, which later will form calculus. Archimedes uses levers to lift heavy objects, for example the "claw of Archimedes" supposedly used to lift or turn ships over in the water. He reportedly invented an odometer during the First Punic War. He makes the "screw of archimedes" (although is not the first), a screw in a cylinder that when turned moves water up and is still used to move (pump) water. He makes a mechanical planetarian, not proud of his mechanical inventions (because this kind of hobby is not common for humans in philosophy) he prints only mathematical ideas. He makes the best estimate of pi by drawing polygons in a circle and describes pi as being between 223/71 and 220/70. Archimedes may have prevented one Roman attack on Syracuse by using a large array of mirrors (speculated to have been highly polished (bronze?) shields) to reflect and focus photons of light onto the attacking ships causing them to catch fire, although this has only been duplicated for closely unmoving ships. Archimedes also has been credited with improving the accuracy and range of the catapult.
The Archimedes work "The Sand Reckoner" will be the primary source for future people knowing that Aristarchos understood that the earth and planets rotate the sun, in addition to being evidence that Archimedes and Aristarchos talk to each other.
Archimedes screw devices are the precursor of the worm gear.
| |
2,250 YBN
[250 BC]
| 893)
| |
2,250 YBN
[250 BC]
| 894) Apollonios of Perga (Απολλώνιος ο Περγαίος ) (261 BCE Perga {south coast of Turkey} - 190 BCE Pergamum?) is the first to describe the ellipse, parabola, and hyperbola.
Apollonius is a Greek geometer and astronomer, of the Alexandrian school.
Apollonios is educated at the university in Alexandria, Apollonios may have learned from Archimedes. Like Euclid, Apollonois writes on math, makes 8 "books", 7 of which have been found. These writings include descriptions of the ellipse, parabola and hyperbola, 3 shapes Euclid did not describe. All of these shapes can be made by looking at a 2 dimensional piece of a cone (and are called "conic sections"). Kepler will make use of the ellipse to describe the movement of planets. He possibly thinks planets go around the sun, and the sun goes around earth, like Tycho Brahe will years later. Late in life, Apollonius moves from Alexandria to Pergamum, a city in western Turkey (Asia Minor) that has a library second only to Alexanmdria.
| |
2,246 YBN
[246 BC]
| 898) Eratosthenes correctly calculates the size of Earth by using the angle the Sun forms in Alexandria on the longest day of the year and the distance between the cities of Alexandria and Syene.
| Alexandria, Egypt |
2,246 YBN
[246 BC]
| 933)
| |
2,246 YBN
[246 BC]
| 936)
| |
2,245 YBN
[245 BC]
| 896)
| |
2,240 YBN
[240 BC]
| 923) Ptolemy III (Euergetes I, 246-221 BCE) has the Serapeion (Serapeum) (Σεραπείου SRoPAU?) built presumably to store surplus books of the Royal Library.
| Alexandria, Egypt |
2,240 YBN
[240 BC]
| 1325) Chinese astronomers observe Halley's comet.
| China |
2,235 YBN
[235 BC]
| 890) Philon is a Greek scholar and engineer who writes a collection of books about the most important mechanical inventions of the time. Philon considers in his writings the theoretical basis of mechanical contrivances: the law of the lever for pumps, war machines, and diving devices. He describes an instrument for the demonstration of the expansion of air. This device might have been used as a thermometer, one of the earliest known. Hero will also experiment with air.
| |
2,235 YBN
[235 BC]
| 895)
| |
2,230 YBN
[230 BC]
| 1034) The letter "G" is added to the Latin alphabet in Rome, as the seventh letter replacing the letter Z.
| |
2,230 YBN
[230 BC]
| 1373) From Ashoka the Great, Edicts of Ashoka, Rock Edict 2 "Everywhere within Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi's {Ashoka's} domain, and among the people beyond the borders, the Cholas, the Pandyas, the Satiyaputras, the Keralaputras, as far as Tamraparni and where the Greek king Antiochos rules, and among the kings who are neighbors of Antiochos, everywhere has Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, made provision for two types of medical treatment: medical treatment for humans and medical treatment for animals. Wherever medical herbs suitable for humans or animals are not available, I have had them imported and grown. Wherever medical roots or fruits are not available I have had them imported and grown. Along roads I have had wells dug and trees planted for the benefit of humans and animals."
| Hindustan |
2,212 YBN
[212 BC]
| 892)
| |
2,208 YBN
[208 BC]
| 1051) Beginning of Great Wall of China being built.
| |
2,205 YBN
[205 BC]
| 937)
| |
2,204 YBN
[204 BC]
| 938)
| |
2,204 YBN
[204 BC]
| 939)
| |
2,200 YBN
[200 BC]
| 1063) First stirrup (loop attached to a horse saddle that the person riding puts their foot into) is invented. In this primitive stirrup, the rider can only fit their big toe.
| India |
2,196 YBN
[196 BC]
| 1267) The "Rosetta Stone" is inscribed to memorialize Ptolemy V in three scripts, Egyptian hieroglyphs, Egyptian demotic, and Greek. This tablet will help to decipher the Egyptian language.
| Egypt |
2,191 YBN
[191 BC]
| 940)
| |
2,189 YBN
[189 BC]
| 948) Although there is some debate about this.
| |
2,186 YBN
[186 BC]
| 1117) Earliest known Chinese mathematica text: the "Suàn shù shū" (算數書) or "Writings on Reckoning".
| Zhangjiashan, Hubei Provience, China |
2,175 YBN
[175 BC]
| 949)
| |
2,173 YBN
[173 BC]
| 955)
| |
2,164 YBN
[09/??/164 BC]
| 1324) Babylonian people record the appearance of Halley's comet on a clay tablet.
| Babylonia |
2,160 YBN
[160 BC]
| 1029) Hipparchos (Greek Ἳππαρχος) (Nicaea {now Iznik in NW Turkey} 190 BCE - 120 BCE), astronomer in the Mouseion in Alexandria, uses a solar eclipse to determine the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Hipparchos, is the first person to make a trigonometric table, and is probably first to develop a reliable method to predict solar eclipses. Hipparchos compiles a star catalog with 850 stars and their relative brightness, and probably invents the astrolabe. Hipparchos does not use the sun-centered system of Aristarchos, but instead the mistaken earth-centered system Anaxamander and the vast majority of others chose to support.
Hipparchos compares the position of the moon compared to the sun during a solar eclipse in Syene and in Alexandria to determine the distance from the Earth to the Moon. Hipparchos recognizes precession (how positions of stars appear to change over centuries) perhaps from Kidinnu of Babylonia, or from previously recorded star positions. Hipparchus wrote at least fourteen books, but only his commentary on a popular astronomical poem by Aratus has been preserved. Most of what is known about Hipparchus comes from Ptolemy's (2nd century AD) Almagest, with additional references to him by Pappus of Alexandria and Theon of Alexandria (4th century) in their commentaries on the Almagest; from Strabo's Geographia ("Geography"), and from Pliny the Elder's Naturalis historia ("Natural history") (1st century).
calculates a range of the distance of the earth moon from earth is 60.3x. worked in Rhodes, an island in SE Aegean. used aristarchus luner eclipse method (?) and also measured parallax of earth moon. Hipparchus measured distance from earth to moon to be 30 times diameter of earth. parallax of other planets can only be measured with a telescope so this distance was only distance known/learned/remembered until telescope.
| |
2,150 YBN
[150 BC]
| 1039) Greek astronomer Seleukos (Seleucus) (SeLYUKuS or SeLYUKOS) of Seleucia (BCE 190-?), agrees with the sun-centered theory of Aristarchos. Seleukos views the universe as infinite in size.
Plutarch (CE c46-c120) writes: "...Does the earth move like the sun, moon, and five planets, which for their motions he {Timaeus} calls organs or instruments of time Or is the earth fixed to the axis of the universe yet not so built as to remain immovable but to turn and wheel about as Aristarchus and Seleucus have shown since; Aristarchus only supposing it, Seleucus positively asserting it. Theophrastus writes how that Plato, when he grew old, repented him that he had placed the earth in the middle of the universe which was not its place. ...".
| Seleucia (on the Tigris River), Babylon |
2,145 YBN
[145 BC]
| 950)
| |
2,145 YBN
[145 BC]
| 951)
| |
2,143 YBN
[143 BC]
| 1337) | Chengdu, China |
2,140 YBN
[140 BC]
| 1070) The invention of paper. The earliest paper artifact (although without writing) is made of hemp fibers and comes from a tomb in China.
The method of making paper by pouring wood pulp mixed in water into a flat mold and drying the sediment will take over 1000 years to be understood in Europe, although it will reach India in the 600s CE.
| Xian, China |
2,134 YBN
[01/01/134 BC]
| 1041)
| |
2,127 YBN
[127 BC]
| 943)
| |
2,120 YBN
[120 BC]
| 942)
| |
2,105 YBN
[01/01/105 BC]
| 1042) Poseidonios (Poseidonius) (Greek: Ποσειδώνιος) (POSiDOnEuS) (135 BCE Apamea, Syria - 50 BCE) calculates the largest and most accurate size for the sun, even larger than Aristarchos' calculation. Ptolemy will accept Poseidonios' inaccurate smaller estimate for the size of the earth, and reject the correct estimate of Eratosthenes, and this inaccurate value will last for 1500 years. Poseidonios forms a school in Rhodes.
| |
2,100 YBN
[100 BC]
| 952)
| |
2,100 YBN
[100 BC]
| 1064) First true stirrup (entire foot fits in) is invented in Central Asia by a nomadic group known as the Sarmatians.
| Central Asia |
2,100 YBN
[100 BC]
| 1374)
| Rome |
2,080 YBN
[80 BC]
| 870)
| |
2,080 YBN
[80 BC]
| 1046) Copies of works from Aristotle are found in a pit in Asia minor by humans in the army of Roman general Sulla. These are brought to Rome and copied.
| |
2,076 YBN
[76 BC]
| 1047) Cicero reports to have found the grave of Archimedes in 85 BCE. Cicero articulated an early, abstract conceptualization of rights, based on ancient law and custom. Cicero's memory survived, mainly because he will be declared a "Righteous Pagan" by the early Catholic Church, and therefore many of his works will be deemed worthy of preservation. Saint Augustine and others will quote liberally from Cicero's works "On The Republic" and "On The Laws," and due to this people will be able to recreate much of Cicero's work from the surviving fragments.
Cicero reads the many Greek works, including those of Aristotle plundered from Greece by Silla and brought to Rome in 86 BCE.
Cicero mentions a planetarium built by Poseidonius.
| |
2,075 YBN
[75 BC]
| 1116) Negative numbers. The first use of negative numbers is in the Chinese mathematics book "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art" (Jiuˇ zhāng suàn shù). Negative numbers are in red and positive numbers in black.
| China |
2,070 YBN
[70 BC]
| 953)
| |
2,060 YBN
[60 BC]
| 958)
| |
2,060 YBN
[60 BC]
| 959)
| |
2,056 YBN
[56 BC]
| 1045) Lucretius (BCE c95-c55) describes light and heat as being made of tiny atoms that move very fast.
Lucretius {LYUKREsEuS}, Titus Lucretius Carus, Roman poet and philosopher, writes this in his poem "De Natura Rerum" (On the Nature of things) which describes a mechanical Epikourean view of universe. Influenced by Democritus, Lucretius supports the idea that all things are made of atoms including souls and even Gods.
In "De rerum natura" Lucretius writes (translated from Latin): "...the velocity with which these images travel is enormous: light things made of fine atoms ("corporibus") often travel very swiftly, as sunlight; it is natural then that these images should do the same; of which too there is a constant succession one following on the other like light or heat from the sun. ...".
| Rome, Italy |
2,055 YBN
[08/??/55 BC]
| 1057)
| |
2,050 YBN
[50 BC]
| 1050)
| |
2,045 YBN
[45 BC]
| 954)
| |
2,045 YBN
[45 BC]
| 1056)
| |
2,045 YBN
[45 BC]
| 1523)
| Rome, Italy |
2,041 YBN
[41 BC]
| 957)
| |
2,040 YBN
[40 BC]
| 1058) Earliest waterwheel and elevator (vertical lift).
In his book "De architectura" Roman engineer Vitruvius describes the undershot water wheel and lifting platforms operated by human, animal, or water power.
| Rome |
2,033 YBN
[08/01/33 BC]
| 961)
| |
2,033 YBN
[08/01/33 BC]
| 962)
| |
2,033 YBN
[33 BC]
| 1059) Greek geographer Strabo (STrABO), writes 17 volumes (16 that have been found), of geography based on Eratosthenes' work and accepts Eratosthenes' estimate for the size of earth. Strabo writes a long history of Rome not yet found. Strabo recognizes that Vesuvius is a volcano (which will erupt 50 years after Strabo's death).
| Amasya, Pontus {on the coast of Turkey} |
2,031 YBN
[09/02/31 BC]
| 967)
| Actium, Greece |
2,030 YBN
[08/01/30 BC]
| 960)
| |
2,030 YBN
[08/01/30 BC]
| 963)
| |
2,030 YBN
[30 BC]
| 3060) Marcus Terentius Varro (BCE 116-27), Roman scholar, mentions microorganisms as a possible cause of disease.
| Rome, Italy |
2,027 YBN
[01/06/27 BC]
| 1524) Octavian offers back all his extraordinary powers to the Senate, and in a carefully staged way, the Senate refuses and in fact titles Octavian "Augustus" - "the revered one". Octavian is careful to avoid the title of "rex" - "king", and instead takes on the titles of "princeps" - "first citizen" and "imperator", a title given by Roman troops to their victorious commanders. All these titles, alongside the name of "Caesar", are used by all Roman Emperors and still survive slightly changed to this date. The word "prince" is derived from the word "Princeps" and the word "Emperor" from "Imperator", the name "Caesar" will became "Kaiser" (in German), and "Czar" (in Russian). Some historians consider thie the beginning of the Roman Empire, a transition from a representative democracy to a monarchy. Once Octavian names Tiberius as his heir, it was clear to everyone that even the hope of a restored Republic was dead. Most likely, by the time Augustus dies, no one will be old enough to know a time before an Emperor ruled Rome. The Roman Republic had been changed into a despotic regime, which, underneath a good Emperor, could achieve peace and prosperity, but under a bad Emperor will suffer. The Roman Empire will be eventually divided between the Western Roman Empire which falls in 476 CE and the Eastern Roman Empire (also called the Byzantine Empire) which will last until the fall of Constantinople in 1453 CE.
| Rome, Italy |
2,027 YBN
[27 BC]
| 1065)
| Rome |
2,019 YBN
[19 BC]
| 1067) Roman people build the aquaduct in Pont du Gard, France.
| Pont Du Gard, France |
2,010 YBN
[08/01/10 BC]
| 964) Abron (also Habron), a grammarian is a pupil of Tryphon (c.60 BCE‑10 BCE), originally a slave, teaches in Rome under the first Caesars.
| |
2,010 YBN
[08/01/10 BC]
| 965) Theon of Alexandria (not to be confused with the father of Hypatia), is a Stoic philosopher, who flourishes under Augustus, writes a commentary on Apollodorus' "Introduction to Physiology".
| |
2,008 YBN
[8 BC]
| 1071)
| Dunhuang, Jiuquan, Gansu province, China |
2,000 YBN
[1960/0 AD]
| 5737) William H. Oldendorf (CE 1925-1992) describes the principle of "Computerized axial tomography" (CAT), using a thin line of x-rays or gamma rays to determine the density of the inside of objects by measuring the difference in x-ray absorption from many angles around an object.
Computerized axial tomography (CAT) is also referred to as simply Computed Tomography (CT), and is an imagine method that uses a low-dose beam of X-rays that cross the body in a single plane at many different angles. CT was conceived by William Oldendorf and developed independently by Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield and Allan MacLeod Cormack. CT represents a major advance in imaging technology, and becomes generally available in the early 1970s. The technique uses a tiny X-ray beam that traverses the body in an axial plane. Detectors record the strength of the exiting X-rays, and that information is then processed by a computer to produce a detailed two-dimensional cross-sectional image of the body. A series of such images in parallel planes or around an axis can show the location of abnormalities and other space-occupying lesions (especially tumours and other masses) more precisely than traditional two dimensional X-ray images. In modern times, CT is the preferred examination for evaluating stroke, particularly subarachnoid hemorrhage, as well as abdominal tumours and abscesses.
Oldendorf publishes this in the "Institute for Radio Engineers Transactions on Bio-Medical Electronics" as "Isolated Flying Spot Detection of Radiodensity Dis-Continuities-Displaying the Internal Structural Pattern of a Complex Object". As a summary Oldendorf writes: "Summary-A system is described which monitors a point in space and displays discontinuities of radiodensity as the point is moved in a scanning fashion through a plane. A high degree of isolation of this point from other points in the plane is achieved by putting these changes in radiodensity of the moving point into an electrical form which allows them to be separated from all other discontinuities within the plane.". In the paper Oldendorf writes: "INTRODUCTION GREAT DEAL of information concerning the internal structure of an object can be obtained by shadowing the entire object onto a flat surface. The usual simple technique of radiography has several limitations, however, which, if overcome, would greatly extend the worth of this valuable tool. Radiography is used to some extent in all clinical fields but is especially prominent in those systems where the radiodensity of the tissue changes sharply from point to point, thereby casting a high-contrast shadow. Because of this, radiography finds its greatest application in the chest, where solid soft tissue can be seen against air and in the skeleton, which can be seen against soft tissue. In most other areas some artificial contrast must be created, such as the use of barium sulfate to see the lumen of the intestinal tract and heavily iodinated compounds to render urine and blood opaque. Even though we seldom are interested in the lumen itself, we can deduce much about the structure of the adjacent tissues. There remain many body regions where it is impractical to introduce a contrast medium, but the where structural information is vital. In this connection we might consider the problem presented by radiography of the human head. When several objects overlie each other and become superimposed, it is frequently impossible to delineate one from the other. This is especially true in the head where the dense, irregular skull completely obliterates any detail created by the very slight variations of radiodensity of the several tissues contained within the skull. By simple radiography the cranial cavity seems to be completely empty. Indeed, the cranial contents are so nearly homogeneous from a radiodensity standpoint that little useful information could be gained about brain structure by radiography even if the skull were not present. I have taken a 5-cm- thick coronal section of fresh human brain and attempted to make a radiograph in water just covering the upper surface. Even using a 40-kv technique and a range of exposure times, no useful anatomical detail could be made out other than a very indistinct outline of the ventricles. When, however, we introduce air into the ventricles of the living brain inside the skull (ventriculography), much useful information can be gained about brain structure, even though indirectly. Outlining the lumens of the brain blood vessels by rendering the blood opaque (angiography) will also yield information indirectly about what we are usually interested in- brain structure. Both of these techniques tell us about brain structure indirectly and require the introduction of a foreign substance into the brain As a practicing clinical neurologist I am daily confronted with the necessity of performing these traumatic tests because the information obtained is so vital to intelligent case management. These tests were both introduced into clinical medicine between 30 and 40 years ago, and neither has changed basically since then. Each time I perform one of these primitive procedures, I wonder why no more pressing need is felt by the clinical neurological world to seek some technique that would yield direct information about brain structure without traumatizing it. It was this firm conviction that prompted the development of a system which is theoretically capable of producing a cross-sectional display of radiodensity discontinuities within an irregular object such as the head. At the time of this writing, no biological system has been studied by this method. It may, indeed, prove to be totally useless in such a nearly homogeneous system and is presented here only as a possible approach. One way of isolating regions of interest that are obscured by superimposed unwanted detail is by the technique of planigraphy (1), (2). Here a controlled movement artefact is introduced by moving the X-ray source and the film during the exposure to blur everything but the central plane about which motion centers. If a sufficient radiodensity contrast exists in this plane, useful information may be obtained. Numerous minor modifications of this basic geometric approach have been made (3). Two basic limitations of planigraphy exist. It does not actually isolate a plane, but registers detail to some extent for several centimeters in either direction from the central plane but with reasonable isolation of a plane a few millimeters thick. Another limitation is the rather high radiodensity contrast which must exist to be seen in the final plate. Thus, planigraphy is most useful in areas in which there are major differences between adjacent tissues such as in the lung and skeleton. It would seem, therefore, that a system which gave a total isolation of a plane a millimeter or so thick and which would render interfaces between soft tissues visible would be extremely useful. ... Because of the bone problem it seems unlikly that any useful definition can be obtained in the intact head by an ultrasonic technique. The visualization of brain detail within the skull here resolves itself essentially to the same problem we have with radiography-how to read a low-level signal through high-level noise. Basically, this can only be done if the signal can be put in some form that will allow a high degree of discrimination against the noise. I wish to propose a scheme which theoretically seems to do this. It attempts to produce an image very similar to Howry's thin ultrasonic sections outlining interfaces between tissues of differing physical properties. But rather than ultrasound, I propose the use of a collimated beam of gamma radiation or X ray. Essentially, this beam is passed through the object in such a way that a point within the object is monitored. The point is then moved, and changes in radiodensity of the point are detected and displayed as the point scans through a plane within the object. Because ionizing radiations are not significantly refracted, the path of a beam of such radiation is quite predictable and the only variable of passage through different substances is the statistical likelihood of a photon penetrating the object. BASIC THEORY The following is presented as a potential solution of the above problems. X collimated beam of gamma radiation is caused to rotate about a center of rotation on the beam. This insertion of the beam and center of rotation is displaced at a constant rate linearly within the plane to be studied. The beam of gamma radiation remains within this plane as it rotates. The effects of rotation and the displacement of the center of rotation on the count rate of the beam emerging from the object should now be considered. All of the material in the path of the beam will contribute to its absorption and scattering, reducing the count rate. As the object rotates, all discontinuities of radiodensity not at the center of rotation will modulate the beam at frequencies which will be, in general, in excess of twice the rate of rotation. The material at the center of rotation through which the beam is passing will contribute a small dc component provided it is stationary or moving through a homogeneous region. Since the radiation incident upon the center will fluctuate, the absorption by this central material will vary as a function of rotation. This will average out in the proposed scheme of rotation and displacement, however. If the center moves into an area of different radiodensity, this central dc component will be modulated at a frequency which will be a function of the rate of displacement of the center, the diameter of the beam and the abruptness of the discontinuity. With a given beam and considering only sharp interfaces, the frequency content of the modulated central dc component will be a function of the rate of linear displacement of the center. All other discontinuities in the plane, but not at the center, will modulate the beam, in general, at frequencies above twice the rotation rate as noted above. If the rate of displacement of the center is kept sufficiently slow relative to the rotation rate, the low-frequency central modulation should be separable from the noncentral higher frequencies by a low-pass frequency filter. A dem )ns ration of this principle is diagrammned in Fig. 1. A simple model was constructed consisting of a block of plastic 10 by 10 by 4 cm in which two concentric but irregularly spaced rings of nails were inserted into holes of the same diameter as all of the nails used (about 4 mm). The nails were removable to allow modification of the model. A line in a plane about 1 cm above the surface of the plastic was studied. Near the center of these rings of iron nails were one similar iron nail and an aluminum nail of the same diameter, spaced about 1.5 cm apart (see Fig. 2). These central nails constituted the objects to be located and their radiodensity determined. The outer nails were simply to offer a dense, irregular obscuring screen to be seen through. This model can be seen to be analogous to the head where the skull would be equivalent to the outer rings of nails and the brain to the central nails. Since for this demonstration it seemed impractical to move the radioisotope source and detector, these remained fixed and the model moved. The plastic block containing the nails was placed on a toy "HO" gauge flatcar and this on a 22-cm piece of "HO" track. This track was glued to a strip of plastic on one end of which was a spring motor of an alarm clock with a pulley on the hour shaft. This motor pulled the flatcar and the model down the track at about 80 mm per hour. This whole composite was mounted on a 16-rpm phonograph turntable (see Fig. 3). The purpose of all of this was to cause insertion of the beam and the center of rotation to move through the model as it turned. Thus the beam effectively rotated at 16 rpm and the center of rotation moved through the model at about 80 mm per hour. The plastic block was so placed on the flatcar that the path of the center of rotation passed through the central iron and aluminum nails. A beam of gamma radiation was collimated by a 1.6-mm hole in 5 cm of lead with 10 millicuries of I.31 within the shield. With the model turning in the beam, about 30,000 cpm were registered. The beam was directed about 1 cm above the surface of the plastic block and aimed to intersect with the axis of rotation of the turntable. The beam emerging from the model struck a 1 by 1 inch sodium iodide crystal-photomultiplier detection apparatus and was counted by a ratemeter. The time constant of this ratemeter was 30 seconds. The ratemeter output was recorded on paper with a drive speed of 6 inchs per hour. Without the turntable rotating and with the obscuring outer rings of nails removed, the curve of Fig. 4 was produced by drawing the central nails through the beam. The deeper notch is caused by the iron and the shallower by the aluminum nails. This dual pattern will be the signal to be displayed through the noise created by the outer rings of nails in the subsequent curves. Again without rotation but with the obscuring rings of nails in place, Fig. 5 was produced in the same fashion as Fig. 4. Here the central nails are quite lost in the noise generated by the outer nails. Fig. 6 was produced with the same arrangement as Fig. 5, but with rotation. Here, the center of rotation has moved through the pattern of nails and passed through the iron and aluminum nails as shown by the broken line of Fig. 1. The iron and aluminum nails are readily demonstrated. As the center of rotation passed near nails in the outer rings, the dips at the end of the curve were produced. The curves represent ing the central nails are somewhat less well defined than they might have been bcause the alignment of the rotating model was not perfect as one might expect in such a humble arrangement. In this demonstration the low-pass filter required to isolate the central point from all others was provided by the long time constant of the ratemeter. Fig. 7 was produced in the same way as Fig. 6, but without the central nails. Their absence is quite evident. Figs. 9 and 10 were produced with a 4-mm-thick collar of lead wrapped completely around the outer ring of nails and with all of the nails in place (see Fig 8). The intent here was to produce an extreme handicap in the form of a very dense curtain. ... Despite the increased noise, the iron and, to a lesser extent, the aluminum nails are still recognizable. In all of these curves it should be recalled that the raw count rate is being plotted. Ideally, only the low-frequency ac components would be displayed. This could be easily accomplished by capacitance coupling one of the stages in the display system, thereby eliminating any dc component. With a more active source of radioactivity, a curve more closely resembling Fig. 5 could undoubtedly be obtained with the lead collar in place. The degree of regularity of the lead collar thickness is unimportant since presumably the same picture would result as long as the average lead thickness remained 4 mm. ... Further work is underway manipulating several factors which might make this technique of value in a biological system. ...".
(Clearly this relates to the secret science and inventions of neuron reading and writing. The key is reading from and writing to individual neurons. Can this technology be used to hear what an ear hears, or see what the eyes see?)
(Explain how this imaging of a center area can be then applied to the entire inside of an object.)
(Notice that there are many neuron keywords "overlie", "attempted", "render", "Rig. 8", etc. Notice that Oldendorf makes that case that many paople experience trauma from the tests they must perform - perhaps hinting at the brutality and suffering inflicted by keeping neuron reading and writing secret and not available to use in healing people.)
(This clearly brings the public one step closer to getting access to neuron reading and writing, and far better health-science technology to help remove pain and cure disease.)
| (University of California Medical Center) Los Angeles, California, USA |
FUTURE
|
2,000 YBN
[0 AD]
| 6298) Artificial muscle wing flapping plane.
| |
1,991 YBN
[9 AD]
| 1055) Stack-Casting is invented in China. In this technique multiple metal objects are cast vertically.
| |
1,980 YBN
[08/01/20 AD]
| 966)
| |
1,980 YBN
[20 AD]
| 912) Aulus Cornelius Celsus (25 BCE - 50 CE), a Roman encyclopedist, makes 8 books in Latin describing Greek learning.
| Gallia Narbonensis, southern France |
1,980 YBN
[20 AD]
| 1390) | Galilee |
1,965 YBN
[35 AD]
| 1049) Silk from China traded as far west as Rome, as recorded by Seneca the Younger and Pliny the Elder.
| |
1,960 YBN
[40 AD]
| 944)
| |
1,959 YBN
[41 AD]
| 968)
| |
1,957 YBN
[43 AD]
| 1076)
| Tingentera, Southern Spain |
1,950 YBN
[50 AD]
| 1068) Earliest evidence of crank in China.
| China |
1,950 YBN
[50 AD]
| 1078) Steam engine.
Heron of Alexandria (Greek: Ήρων ο Αλεξανδρεύς) (CE c10-c70), makes the first recorded steam engine.
Heron invents an aeopile, which is a hollow metal sphere that rotates from the power of steam jets that escape through open tubes on each side of the sphere.
Heron uses gears to make the first known odometer (meter that indicates distance traveled) for a chariot.
| Alexandria, Egypt |
1,950 YBN
[50 AD]
| 1097)
| Alexandria, Egypt |
1,948 YBN
[52 AD]
| 1079) Pliny ("Gaius Plinius Cecilius Secundus" also "Pliny the Elder") (PlinE) (23 CE Novum Comum (now Como), Italy - August 24, 79 CE near Mount Vesuvius, Italy) commands a group of people in the army in Germany, explores various parts of Europe. In this year, Pliny returns to novum Comun to study law, and write.
| Novum Comun, Italy |
1,938 YBN
[62 AD]
| 945)
| |
1,934 YBN
[66 AD]
| 1327) In the Talmud a sentence attributed to Rabbi Yenoshua ben Hananiah probably refers to this appearance of Halley's Comet. This sentence is: "There is a star which appears once in seventy years that makes the captains of the ships err".
| Judea |
1,925 YBN
[75 AD]
| 1270)
| Sumer/Babylon |
1,923 YBN
[77 AD]
| 1083) Encyclopedia. Pliny the Elder's "Historia naturalis" ("Natural History").
| Spain? |
1,920 YBN
[80 AD]
| 1077) Pedanius Dioscorides (DEOSKORiDEZ), Greek physician, pharmacologist and botanist who practises in Rome during the reign of Nero writes "De Materia Medica" in 5 books. "De Materia Medica" is the first encyclopedia of medical plants and drugs, and describes 600 plants almost 1000 drugs.
| Tingentera, Southern Spain |
1,919 YBN
[81 AD]
| 969)
| |
1,917 YBN
[83 AD]
| 766) Magnetic compass.
The first reference to a magnetic compass is from 83 CE, and describes a "south-controlling spoon" which is thrown on the ground and comes to rest pointing to the south.
| China (more specific) |
1,903 YBN
[97 AD]
| 1085) Frontinus also wrote a theoretical treatise on military science (De re militari) which is lost. His Strategematicon libri iii is a collection of examples of military stratagems from Greek and Roman history, for the use of officers; a fourth book, the plan and style of which is different from the rest (more stress is laid on the moral aspects of war, e.g. discipline), is probably the work of another writer (best edition by G. Gundermann, 1888). Extracts from a treatise on land surveying ascribed to Frontinus are preserved in Lachmann's Gromatici veteres (1848).
| Rome, Italy |
1,900 YBN
[100 AD]
| 5861) Earliest known complete musical composition, including musical notation (Epitaph of Seikilos). The Seikilos epitaph is inscribed on a tomb stele, or tombstone, found in Aidin, Turkey, near Tralles and date to around the first century CE. The poem is attributed to Sikilos in the inscription. Lines of the sung text are accompanied by letters representing pitches in the Greek notation and by signs indicating their duration. Translated from Greek the song is: "As long as you live, be lighthearted. Let nothing trouble you. Life is only too short, and time takes its toll."
The Epitaph was discovered in 1883 by Sir W.M. Ramsay. The stone had been placed in a museum in Smyrna where it remained until the city was destroyed during the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), but was lost. Later it was found in the possession of a Turkish woman who had had the base ground down so it would serve as a support for a pot in her garden. While the stele would now stand upright, the grinding had obliterated the last line of the epitaph. The marble stele is now located in the National Museum of Denmark (Nationalmuseet), in Copenhagen. (verify)
While older music with notation exists (for example the Delphic Hymns), all of it is in fragments; the Seikilos epitaph is unique in that it is a complete, though short, composition. (verify)
This is no clear evidence of polyphonic (multiple voice) Greek music, but there is evidence of polyphonic music being played, for example, on a lyre and double flute.
| (now Aidin, Turkey) (verify) |
1,900 YBN
[100 AD]
| 5872) Mosaic from Pompey shows street musicians playing the aulos (double flute), small cymbals, and a tambourine.
| (Villa of Cicero) Pompeii, Italy |
1,895 YBN
[105 AD]
| 1086) Tsai Lun (TSI lUN) (c.50 CE Kueiyang, Kweichow - c.118 CE) is thought by many to have invented paper from matter like tree bark, hemp, silk and fishing net around this time, but artifacts of paper have been found that date to before Lun by more than 100 years.
| Kueiyang, Kweichow?, China |
1,880 YBN
[01/01/120 AD]
| 1040)
| |
1,870 YBN
[130 AD]
| 970) Earth-centered universe of Ptolomy.
Ptolomy's "Almagest" describes an Earth-centered universe. This view dominates Europe until the 1500s.
| (some traditions place at) Alexandria |
1,851 YBN
[149 AD]
| 1088) Galen (Greek: Γαληνός) (c.130 CE Pergamum {now Bergama, Turkey} - c.200 CE probably Sicily), Greek-speaking Roman physician, studies abroad (away from his home in Pergamum) in Smyrna, Corinth and Alexandria for a period of twelve years. In Alexandria, Galen will write about the Ptolemy's Great Library, and these writings will survive until today.
| Pergamum, Turkey |
1,850 YBN
[150 AD]
| 972) Letter of Aristeas which describes the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible is thought to be created around now. This letter only mentions a library (without any Mousaeion).
| |
1,850 YBN
[150 AD]
| 973) A papyrus from Oxyrhynchos which dates to now shows that scribes are paid "for 10,000 lines 29 drachmas, for 6,300 lines 13 drachmas".
| |
1,850 YBN
[150 AD]
| 1087) Ptolemy, (ToLomE), Claudius Ptolemaeus, (Greek: Κλαύδιος Πτολεμαῖος), (c.90 - c.168), in the Museum in Alexandria, writes Ptolemy writes several scientific treatises, three of which have been of continuing importance to later Islamic and European science. The first is the astronomical treatise that is now known as the Almagest (in Greek "Η Μεγάλη Σύνταξις", "The Great Treatise"). The title "Almagest" is an Arabic corruption of the Greek word for greatest (megiste). The second is the Geography, which is a thorough discussion of the geographic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world. The third is the astrological treatise known as the Tetrabiblos ("Four books") in which he attempts to adapt horoscopic astrology to the Aristotelian natural philosophy of his day.
Ptolemy copies the system made by Hipparchus where the Earth is rotated by the Moon, Mercury, Venus, the Sun, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.
Ptolomy accepts Hipparchus' accurate measurement of the distance of earth moon, and also the innacurate (smaller) measurement of distance to the sun star by Aristarchus (this estimate will last until Kepler).
Ptolemy accepts the smaller less accurate measurement for the size of the earth of Poseidonius and not more accurate larger estimate of Eratosthenes.
Ptolemy follows Poseidonius in supporting the incorrect theory of astrology. Pto lemy may be a Hellenized Egyptian but no description of his family background or physical appearance exists, and there is no record that Ptolemy is related to the Ptolemy royal family. Ptolemy may have been born in Ptolemais Hermiou or Ptolemais Theron, both in Egypt, and then named after his birth place.
In the "Almagest", one of the most influential books of classical antiquity, Ptolemy compiles and extends the astronomical knowledge and theories of the ancient Greek and Babylonian people; he relies mainly on the work of Hipparchus of three centuries earlier. This work will be preserved, like most of Classical Greek science, in Arabic manuscripts and will only be made available in Latin translation (by Gerard of Cremona) in the 12th century. Ptolemy formulates a geocentric model that is widely accepted until it is superseded by the sun-centered (heliocentric) theory revived by Copernicus. Likewise his computational methods (supplemented in the 12th century with the Arabic computational Tables of Toledo) are of sufficient accuracy to satisfy the needs of astronomers, astrologers and navigators, until the time of the great explorations. They will also be adopted in the Arab world and in India. The Almagest also contains a star catalogue, which is probably an updated version of a catalogue created by Hipparchus. Its list of forty-eight constellations is still retained in the modern system of constellations, but they only cover the part of the sky Ptolemy could see.
In his work, the "Phaseis" (Risings of the Fixed Stars) Ptolemy gives a parapegma, a star calendar or almanac based on the appearances and disappearances of stars over the course of the solar year.
Ptolemy's other main work is his "Geographia". This too is a compilation of what was known about the world's geography in the Roman Empire during his time. He relies mainly on the work of an earlier geographer, Marinos of Tyre, and on gazetteers (geographical dictionaries with descriptive information) of the Roman and ancient Persian Empire, but most of his sources beyond the perimeter of the Empire are unreliable.
The first part of the Geographia is a discussion of the data and of the methods he used. Like with the model of the solar system in the Almagest, Ptolemy put all this information into a grand scheme. He assigned coordinates to all the places and geographic features he knew, in a grid that spanned the globe. Latitude was measured from the equator, as it is today, but Ptolemy preferred to express it as the length of the longest day rather than degrees of arc (the length of the midsummer day increases from 12h to 24h as you go from the equator to the polar circle). He put the meridian of 0 longitude at the most western land he knew, the Canary Islands.
Ptolemy also devised and provides instructions on how to create maps both of the whole inhabited world (oikoumenè) and of the Roman provinces. In the second part of the Geographia he provides the necessary topographic lists, and captions for the maps. His inhabited world spans 180 degrees of longitude from the Canary islands in the Atlantic Ocean to the middle of China, and about 80 degrees of latitude from the Arctic to the East Indies and deep into Africa; Ptolemy is well aware that he knows about only a quarter of the globe, and he knows that his information did not extend to the Eastern Sea.
Ptolemy also wrote an influential work, "Harmonics" on music theory. After criticizing the approaches of his predecessors, Ptolemy argued for basing musical intervals on (the more logical idea of) mathematical ratios (in contrast to the followers of Aristoxenus who thought intervals should be determined by ear) backed up by empirical observation (in contrast to the overly-theoretical approach of the Pythagoreans). He presents his own divisions of the tetrachord (a theory based on the tuning of a 4-string lyre) and the octave, which he derives with the help of a monochord. Ptolemy's astronomical interests also appear in a discussion of the music of the spheres.
Ptolemy's treatise on the pseudoscience of astrology, the "Tetrabiblos", will be the most popular astrological work of antiquity and will sadly also have a large influence in the Islamic world and the medieval Latin West. The "Tetrabiblos" will be an extensive and continually reprinted treatise on the ancient principles of Horoscopic astrology in four books (Greek tetra means "four", biblos is "book"), although this work will not attain the unrivalled status of the "Syntaxis". His other works include Planetary Hypothesis, Planisphaerium and Analemma.
The maps in surviving manuscripts of Ptolemy's Geographia, however, date only from about 1300, after the text is rediscovered by Maximus Planudes. It seems likely that the topographical tables in books 2-7 are cumulative texts - texts which were altered and added to as new knowledge became available in the centuries after Ptolemy (Bagrow 1945). This means that information contained in different parts of the Geography is likely to be of different date.
Maps based on scientific principles had been made since the time of Eratosthenes (3rd century BCE), but Ptolemy improves projections. It is known that a world map based on the Geographia will be on display in Autun, France in late Roman times. In the 15th century Ptolemy's Geographia will begin to be printed with engraved maps; the earliest printed edition with engraved maps will be produced in Bologna in 1477, followed quickly by a Roman edition in 1478 (Campbell, 1987). An edition printed at Ulm in 1482, including woodcut maps, will be the first one printed north of the Alps. The maps look distorted as compared to modern maps, because Ptolemy's data is inaccurate. One reason is that Ptolemy estimated the size of the Earth as too small. Because Ptolemy derives most of his topographic coordinates by converting measured distances to angles, his maps get distorted. So his values for the latitude are in error by up to 2 degrees. For longitude this is even worse, because there is no reliable method to determine geographic longitude; Ptolemy is well aware of this. It remains a problem in geography until the invention of chronometers at the end of the 18th century. It must be added that his original topographic list cannot be reconstructed: the long tables with numbers were transmitted to posterity through copies containing many scribal errors, and people have always been adding or improving the topographic data: this is a testimony to the persistent popularity of this influential work in the history of cartography.
Claudius is a Roman name. Claudius Ptolemy was almost certainly a Roman citizen, and he or his ancestor adopted the nomen of a Roman called Claudius, who was in some sense responsible for the citizenship. If, as was not uncommon, this Roman was the Emperor, the citizenship would have been granted between 14 and 68 CE. The astronomer would also have had a praenomen (the first of three names), which is unknown.
| Alexandria, Egypt |
1,843 YBN
[157 AD]
| 1090) Galen (Greek: Γαληνός) (c.130 CE Pergamum {now Bergama, Turkey} - c.200 CE probably Sicily), moves from Alexandria? back to Pergamum, where he works as a physician in a gladiator school for three or four years. During this time he gains much experience of trauma and wound treatment.
| Pergamum, Turkey |
1,838 YBN
[162 AD]
| 971) Galen (Greek: Γαληνός Galinos, Latin: Claudius Galenus of Pergamum) (129-200 CE), is a Greek physician. Galen's views will dominate the science of health in Europe for more than one thousand years. Galen is the first to understand that blood flows through veins, and is first to study nerve function. Galen is the first to identify many muscles and to decribe the movement of urine through ureters to the bladder.
| |
1,827 YBN
[03/31/173 AD]
| 974)
| |
1,823 YBN
[177 AD]
| 1030) Celsus (KeLSuS) writes "The True Word" against the Christian religion.
| |
1,820 YBN
[03/31/180 AD]
| 975)
| |
1,800 YBN
[200 AD]
| 976)
| |
1,800 YBN
[200 AD]
| 979)
| |
1,800 YBN
[200 AD]
| 1073) Earliest "press-on" printing. Chinese people put ink to Buddhist text inscribed on marble pillars and apply damp paper to the inscriptions to make a copy of the text onto the paper. Also around this time, religious seals are used to transfer pictures and texts of prayers to paper using ink.
| China |
1,798 YBN
[202 AD]
| 1027)
| |
1,797 YBN
[03/07/203 AD]
| 977)
| |
1,797 YBN
[03/07/203 AD]
| 978)
| |
1,785 YBN
[215 AD]
| 980)
| |
1,768 YBN
[232 AD]
| 981)
| |
1,755 YBN
[245 AD]
| 982)
| |
1,750 YBN
[250 AD]
| 1091) Some Diophantine problems from these books have been found in Arabic sources. An additional four books of the "Arithmetica", apparently from the lost Greek books, will be found in an Arabic manuscript in 1968. Arithmetica, an ancient Greek text on mathematics written by Hellenized Babylonian mathematician Diophantus in the 2nd century CE is a collection of 130 algebra problems giving numerical solutions of determinate equations (those with a unique solution), and indeterminate equations. Equations in the book are called Diophantine equations. The method for solving these equations is known as Diophantine analysis. Most of the Arithmetica problems lead to quadratic equations (a polynomial equation of the second degree. The general form is ax^2+bx+c=0 where a!=0).
It will be these equations that inspired Pierre de Fermat, in 1637, to propose his conjecture that for the equation x^n + y^n = z^n where x, y, and z are integers, n cannot be an integer greater than 2. Pierre de Fermat will write his famous "Last Theorem" in the margins of his copy of Bachet's 1621 edition of the Arithmetica. The Byzantine mathematician Maximus Planudes, will write in marginal notes (scholia) to Diophantus on the same problem (II.8), "Thy soul, Diophantus, be with Satan because of the difficulty of your other theorems, and of this one in particular".
Little is known about the life of Diophantus. Some biographical information can be computed from a 5th and 6th century math puzzle involving Diophantus' age and written as his epitaph. "This tomb holds Diophantus. Ah, what a marvel! And the tomb tells scientifically the measure of his life. God guarenteed that he should be a boy for the sixth part of his life; when a twelfth was added, his cheeks acquired a beard; He kindled for him the light of marriage after a seventh, and in the fifth year after his marriage He granted him a son. Alas! late-begotten and miserable child, when he had reached the measure of half his father's life, the chill grave took him. After consoling his grief by this science of numbers for four years, he reached the end of his life.". From this a person can calculate the age of Diophantus when he died which was apparently 84.
| |
1,738 YBN
[262 AD]
| 1031) Porfurios (Porphyry) (c.232-c. 304 AD) (Greek: Πορφυρίου) writes "Adversus Christianos" (Against the Christians) in 15 books, of which only fragments remain.
Porfurios also advocates rights for the other species.
| |
1,735 YBN
[265 AD]
| 983) Roman Emperor Galienus sends a campaign to crush a prefect of Egypt who has assumed imperial power.
| |
1,733 YBN
[267 AD]
| 984)
| |
1,716 YBN
[284 AD]
| 988) Diocletian tries to standardize the pay rate for scribes issuing the text: 'to a scribe for best writing, 100 lines, 25 denarii, for second-quality writing, 100 lines 25 denarii; to a notary for writing apetition of legal document, 100 lines, 10 denarii"
| |
1,710 YBN
[290 AD]
| 1092)
| Panopolis {now Akhmim}, Egypt |
1,703 YBN
[297 AD]
| 986)
| |
1,697 YBN
[303 AD]
| 987) The last and largest persecution of Christian people in the Roman Empire begins. In the earlier part of Diocletian's reign, Galerius was more the instigator of such persecution than Diocletian himself. However, in the later part of Diocletian's reign, Diocletian embraced the policy of persecution with unequivocal zeal in his first "Edict against the Christians" (February 24, 303). First Christian soldiers had to leave the army, later the Church's property was confiscated and Christian books were destroyed. After two fires in Diocletian's palace he took harder measures against Christians: they had either to apostatize or they were sentenced to death. This wave of persecution lasted intermittently until 313 with the issue of the Edict of Milan by Constantine. The persecution made such an impression on Christians that the Alexandrian church used the start of Diocletian's reign (284) as the epoch for their Era of Martyrs. Among the recorded martyrs, there are Pope Marcellinus, Philomena, Sebastian, Afra, Lucy, Erasmus of Formiae, Florian, George, Agnes, Cessianus, and others ending with Peter of Alexandria (311). Another effect of the persecution was the escape of one Marinus the Dalmatian to Mount Titano, forming what eventually became the Republic of San Marino.
| |
1,695 YBN
[305 AD]
| 989)
| |
1,685 YBN
[315 AD]
| 1004)
| |
1,681 YBN
[319 AD]
| 946) It's shocking how stupid the belief in Jesus as a magical diety is, and this conflict shows how stupid and rigid people under Christianity are. Perhaps kindness and tolerance would make educated people silent on this issue, but to me personally, it is mind numbing how stupid the entirety of religion is, and Christianity is no exception. To me the answer is simply that Jesus was a human, made of DNA, like all other humans, a person that received very little science education, that believed in Judeism, in a single diety, and like many people felt that he was a special chosen person with a special connection to the diety, but all this is untrue, and in addition, human's created the idea of Dieties, and this idea of gods is simply false, useless, unsupported by any physical evidence, proven to be a human creation. Facing the reality of having to spread life to other planets and stars, at least I realize that the constant debate and service to a god or gods is a total waste of time, even if a god did exist, I doubt seriously they would ask humans to constantly worship their greatness in special buildings, and constantly ask favors from them. Sagan said it well, humans created gods to explain how the universe works. Now there are better answers learned through science.
| |
1,680 YBN
[320 AD]
| 1094) Suidas enumerates other works of Pappus. Pappus also writes commentaries on Euclid's Elements and on Ptolemy's Ἁρμονικά (Harmonika). In Book iv is the first recorded use of the property of a hyperbola. In Book vi are comments on the "Sphaerica" by Theodosius, the "Moving Sphere of Autolycus", Theodosius's book on Day and Night, the treatise of Aristarchus of Samos, "On the Size and Distances of the Sun and Moon", and Euclid's "Optics and Phaenomena". In Book vii, Pappus enumerates works of Euclid, Apollonius, Aristaeus and Eratosthenes, thirty-three books in all. Each reference to these works is evidence that Pappos probably has access to these texts.
| Alexandria, Egypt |
1,679 YBN
[321 AD]
| 4060) Constantine I (CE 280?-337) establishes the seven-day week in the Roman calendar and designated Sunday as the first day of the week. A "week", as a unit of time has no astronomical basis. The origin of the term "week" is generally associated with the ancient Jewish and biblical account of the Creation, according to which a single God works for six days and rests on the seventh. Evidence indicates, however, that Jewish people may have borrowed the idea of the week frmo Mesopotamia, because the Sumerians and babylonians divded the year into weeks of seven days each, one of which they designated as a day of recreation. The Babylonians named each of the days after one of the five planetary bodies known to them and the Sun and the Moon, a custom later adopted by the Romans.
(It seems somewhat illogical, and potentially dangerous, to view a seven day week as something non-human made - in particular in developing mystical rituals that occur every seven earth rotations - like each "Sunday", because in truth, each time is unique, and no time ever repeats itself. So, an artificial paradigm or pattern is imposed on the human mind in my view. Although these traditional time divisions can be helpful for periodic and regular human activities.)
| Constantanople |
1,675 YBN
[07/??/325 AD]
| 947) This is called by the Emperor who has made Christianity the offucual religion of the Roman Empire, however the Church is still an autonomous power and conflicts between the authority of the Church and State will occur for many years.
This First Council of Nicaea urges the Church to provide for the poor, sick, widows and strangers. The Council orders the construction of a hospital in every cathedral town.
| |
1,669 YBN
[331 AD]
| 1375) Constantine I (CE 280?-337) abolishes all pagan hospitals.
| Constantanople |
1,660 YBN
[340 AD]
| 990) Epiphanius of Salamis is born into a Jewish family in the small settlement of Besanduk, near Eleutheropolis, Palestine, but converts to Christianity, and lives as a monk in Egypt, where he is educated and comes into contact with Valentinian groups (groups based on the teachings of Valentinus, a Christian Gnostic theologian). He returning to Judaea around 333, when still a young man, and founds a monastery in his home town. He is ordained as a priest, and lives and studies as superior of the monastery for thirty years. He becomes versed in several languages including Hebrew, Syriac, Egyptian, Greek and Latin.
His reputation for learning prompts his nomination and installation as Bishop of Salamis (also known as Constantia after Constantine II) on Cyprus in 367. He is also the Metropolitan of Cyprus. He serves as bishop for nearly forty years, as well as travelling widely to combat unorthodox beliefs. He is present at a synod in Antioch (376) where the Trinitarian questions are debated against the heresy of Apollinarianism. He upholds the position of Bishop Paulinus, who has the support of Rome, over that of Meletius, who is supported by the Eastern Churches. In 382 he is present at the Council of Rome, again upholding the cause of Paulinus. During a visit to Palestine in 394 he attacks Origen's followers and urges the Bishop of Jerusalem to condemn his writings. Origen's writings are eventually condemned at the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553. In 402 he is induced by Theophilus of Alexandria to travel to a synod in Constantinople, where he argues against the supposed heresy of John Chrysostom. He dies at sea on his return journey to Cyprus in 403.
Writings His earliest known work is the Ancoratus ("well anchored"), which includes arguments against Arianism and the teachings of Origen.
His best-known book is the Panarion which means "Medicine-chest" (also known as Adversus Haereses). Written between 374 and 377, it forms a handbook for dealing with heretics, listing 80 heretical doctrines, some of which are not described in any other surviving documents from the time. While Epiphanius often let his zeal come before facts - he admits on one occasion that he writes against the Origenists based only on hearsay (Panarion, Haer 71) - the Panarion is a valuable source of information on the Christian church of the fourth century. The Panarion was only recently (1987) translated into English.
| |
1,660 YBN
[340 AD]
| 991) Epiphanius of Salamis, a Christian writer, writes that the Septuagint is placed in 'the first library' in the Brucheion, 'and still later another library was built in the Serapeum, smaller than the first, which was called the daughter of the first one".
| |
1,643 YBN
[357 AD]
| 995)
| |
1,638 YBN
[362 AD]
| 1032) Emperor of Rome, Flavius Claudius lulianus, Julian (the Apostate), (Greek: Ιουλιανός o Παραβάτης) (331-June 26, 363) issues a "tolerance edict" which reopens the Pagan temples, and calls back exiled Christian bishops. Julian writes "Against the Galileans", which criticizes the Christian religion.
| |
1,637 YBN
[06/26/363 AD]
| 1044)
| |
1,637 YBN
[363 AD]
| 1010)
| |
1,636 YBN
[364 AD]
| 993)
| |
1,636 YBN
[364 AD]
| 996)
| |
1,634 YBN
[366 AD]
| 1100)
| Alexandria, Egypt |
1,630 YBN
[370 AD]
| 1376) How much was this hospital based on logical health science and how much on mistaken religious-based remedies or treatments?
In a letter addressed to the governor of Cappadocia, Bishop Basil of Caesarea (370-79) refers to several lodges or inns (katagopa) which he had built outside of his city. Basil emphasizes that these are to serve strangers, both those passing through and those who are in need of care because of some illness. To assist these people Basil hired nurses for the sick and doctors as well as pack animals and escorts.
| Cappadocia |
1,625 YBN
[375 AD]
| 992)
| |
1,625 YBN
[375 AD]
| 994)
| |
1,620 YBN
[380 AD]
| 999)
| |
1,614 YBN
[386 AD]
| 997)
| |
1,611 YBN
[389 AD]
| 1001)
| |
1,609 YBN
[391 AD]
| 1002) Emperor Theodosius I outlaws blood sacrifice (a Pagan ritual) and decrees "no one is to go to the sanctuaries, walk through the temples (all those except Christian temples, in other words the Pagan and Judean, etc temples), or raise his eyes to statues created by the labor of man". This decree basically allows Christians to destroy all Pagan and Judean temples and convert them to Christian Churches. Theodosius ends the subsidies that still trickled to some remnants of Greco-Roman civic Paganism. The eternal fire in the Temple of Vesta in the Roman Forum is extinguished, and the Vestal Virgins are disbanded. "Taking the auspices" (the fraudulent practice of divining the future from patterns of birds in the sky) and practicing witchcraft are to be punished. Pagan members of the Senate in Rome appeal to Theodosius to restore the Altar of Victory in the Senate House, but Theodosius refuses.
| |
1,609 YBN
[391 AD]
| 1003) Library in Alexandria (The Serapeion) destroyed.
The library in the Temple to Serapis (the Serapeion) in Alexandria is violently destroyed by Christian people and the temple is converted to a Christian church.
| Alexandria, Egypt |
1,606 YBN
[08/24/394 AD]
| 1095) The latest recorded hieroglyph inscription carved in Egypt, found on the island of Philae, near Aswan, in reign of Roman emeror Theodosius I (347-395). After this the humans that can read and translate Hieroglpyh become less in number, by the 400s no human can read or understand hieroglyphic writing.
| island of Philae, near Aswan |
1,600 YBN
[400 AD]
| 1005) The term pagan is from the Latin word "paganus", an adjective originally meaning "rural", "rustic" or "of the country." As a noun, paganus was used to mean "country dweller, villager". "Paganus" was almost exclusively a derogatory term. From its earliest beginnings, Christianity spread much more quickly in major urban areas (like Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth, Rome) than in the countryside (in fact, the early church was almost entirely urban), and soon the word for "country dweller" became synonymous with someone who was "not a Christian," giving rise to the modern meaning of "pagan." In large part, this may have had to do with the conservative nature of rural people, who were more resistant to the new ideas of Christianity than those who lived in major urban centers. It's not easy to think that Christianity was the new religion, and the conservatives were opposed to the new religion of Christianity. These were simply the followers of Zeus and the other pantheon of gods. Obviously all their parents and grandparents were probably "Pagan" or more accurately believers in the traditional polytheistic "Hellenic Religion" (with Zeus, Venus, etc.) or "Roman Religion" (with "Jupiter", simply because that was the polytheistic religion (with Greek "Zeus" or Roman "Jupiter" as the main god) that came before christianity in Greece and Rome. Infact, the Latin word for "God" is "Deus" which is derived from the word "Dyēus", the reconstructed chief god of the Proto-Indo-European pantheon, and is also a cognate of the Greek God of the daylit sky Ζευς (Zeus) in the polytheistic religion of the ancient Greeks at this time refered to as "Paganism".
In their distant origins, these usages derived from pagus, "province, countryside", cognate to Greek πάγος "rocky hill", and, even earlier, "something stuck in the ground", as a landmark: the Proto-Indo-European root pag- means "fixed" and is also the source of the words "page", "pale" (stake), and "pole", as well as "pact" and "peace".
"Peasant" is a cognate of "pagan" (derived from the same word), via Old French "paisent".
Later, through metaphorical use, paganus came to mean 'rural district, village' and 'country dweller' and, as the Roman Empire declined into military autocracy and anarchy, in the 4th and 5th centuries it came to mean "civilian", in a sense parallel to the English usage "the locals". It was only after the Late Imperial introduction of serfdom, in which agricultural workers were legally bound to the land (see Serf), that it began to have negative connotations, and imply the simple ancient religion of country people, which Virgil had mentioned respectfully in "Georgics". Like its approximate synonym "heathen", it was adopted by Middle English-speaking Christians as a slur to refer to those too rustic to embrace Christianity.
Augustine, whose mother is Christian and father is Pagan (Hellenic religion), uses the word "Pagaismus" in "The City of God" in 419 CE. The urbanity of Christians is exemplified in "The City of God", where Augustine consoles distressed city-dwelling Christians over the fall of Rome, pointing out that while the great 'city of man' had fallen, Christians are ultimately citizens of the 'city of God.'
| |
1,600 YBN
[400 AD]
| 1072) The iron pillar of Delhi is built now. The pillar, almost seven metres high and weighing more than six tonnes, is erected by Chandragupta II Vikramaditya in Vishnupadagiri (meaning "Vishnu-footprint-hill"), where it is was oriented so that on the longest day of the year, the summer solstice, the shadow of the pillar points in the direction of the foor of Anantasayain Vishnu (in one of the panels at Udayagin). The pillar is made up of 98% wrought iron of impure quality, and is a testament to the high level of skill achieved by ancient Indian iron smiths in the extraction and processing of iron. It has attracted the attention of archaeologists and metallurgists because it has withstood corrosion for the last 1600 years, despite harsh weather. Metallurgists at Kanpur IIT have claimed that a thin layer of "misawite", a compound of iron, oxygen, and hydrogen, has protected the cast iron pillar from rust. Another theory suggests that the reason that the pillar resists rust is due to its thickness, which allows the sun to heat the pillar sufficiently during the day to evaporate all rain or dew from its surface.
| Vishnupadagiri, India |
1,600 YBN
[400 AD]
| 1118)
| Bakhshali, Pakistan |
1,600 YBN
[400 AD]
| 1329)
| Mesoamerica |
1,598 YBN
[402 AD]
| 998) Last contemporary reference to the Mouseion in Alexandria.
| |
1,588 YBN
[10/15/412 AD]
| 1006)
| |
1,588 YBN
[10/17/412 AD]
| 1007)
| |
1,588 YBN
[412 AD]
| 1008) Orestes is Augustus' Prefect in Alexandria, Roman Governor of Egypt from 412?-415.
| |
1,585 YBN
[03/??/415 AD]
| 1009) Murder of Hypatia (Greek: Υπατία and Ὑπατίας) (CE c360-415) by Christian people.
| (steps of a church called The Caesarium ) Alexandria, Egypt |
1,584 YBN
[416 AD]
| 1011) Museum in Alexandria closed.
| |
1,577 YBN
[423 AD]
| 1012)
| |
1,561 YBN
[439 AD]
| 1013)
| |
1,552 YBN
[448 AD]
| 1043) Eastern Roman Emperor Theodosius II orders all non-Christian books burned.
| |
1,550 YBN
[450 AD]
| 1096) In this year Proclus is driven out of Athens into exile for a year. Proclus is a follower of Neoplatonism, a mytical philosophy that grew from a Roman philosopher named Plotinus two hundred years before.
The majority of Proclus' works are commentaries on dialogues of Plato (Alcibiades, Cratylus, Parmenides, Republic, Timaeus). In these commentaries he presents his own philosophical system as a faithful interpretation of Plato, and in this he did not differ from other Neoplatonists. Proclus also writes a very influential commentary on the first book of Euclid's Elements of Geometry. This commentary is one of the most valuable sources we have for the history of ancient mathematics, and its Platonic account of the status of mathematical objects is very influential.
| Athens, Greece |
1,524 YBN
[09/04/476 AD]
| 1098)
| Rome, Italy |
1,511 YBN
[489 AD]
| 1384)
| Gundishapur, Khuzestan (southwest of Iran, not far from the Karun river.) |
1,501 YBN
[499 AD]
| 1309) Aryabhata (Devanāgarī: आर्यभट) (CE 476-550), Indian astronomer and mathematician, writes in his "Aryabhatiya" (c499), that the apparent westward motion of the stars is due to the spherical Earth’s rotation about its axis. Aryabhata also correctly explains the luminosity of the Moon and planets to reflected sunlight.
| Kusumapura (modern Patna), India |
1,500 YBN
[500 AD]
| 1101) Clinker building is a method of constructing hulls of boats and ships by fixing wooden planks (and iron plates, in the early 1800s) to each other so that the planks overlap along their edges. The overlapping joint is called a land. In any but a very small boat, the planks will be joined also, end to end. The whole length of one of these composite planks is a strake. The technique developed in northern Europe and was successfully used by the Vikings. The Tang (7th century AD) and Song (9-11th century AD) Chinese will develop the same technique independently.
| Scandinavia |
1,500 YBN
[500 AD]
| 1102) The first boats with a bulkhead. A bulkhead is an upright wall within the hull of a ship. Bulkheads in a ship serve several purposes: They increase the structural rigidity of the vessel, divide functional areas into rooms and create watertight compartments that can contain water in the case of a hull breach or other leak.
| China |
1,500 YBN
[500 AD]
| 1105) Floating water mills in Rome.
A watermill is a structure that uses a water wheel or turbine to drive a mechanical process such as flour or lumber production, or metal shaping (rolling, grinding or wire drawing).
| Rome |
1,480 YBN
[01/01/520 AD]
| 1099) Boethius's most popular work is the Consolation of Philosophy, which he writes in prison while awaiting his execution, but his lifelong project is a deliberate attempt to preserve ancient classical knowledge, particularly philosophy. Boethius intendes to translate all the works of Aristotle and Plato from the original Greek into Latin. His completed translations of Aristotle's works on logic will be the only significant portions of Aristotle available in Europe until the 12th century. However, some of his translations (such as his treatment of the topoi in The Topics) are mixed with his own commentary, which reflect both Aristotelian and Platonic concepts.
By this year, 520, at the age of about forty, Boethius has risen to the position of magister officiorum, the head of all the government and court services. Afterwards, his two sons are both appointed consuls. Three years from now, in 523, however, Theodoric will order Boethius arrested on charges of treason, possibly for a suspected plot with the Byzantine Emperor Justin I, whose religious orthodoxy (in contrast to Theodoric's Arian opinions) increased their political rivalry. Boethius himself attributes his arrest to the slander of his rivals. Whatever the cause, Boethius will find himself stripped of his title and wealth and imprisoned in Pavia, without a trial, is tortured, and will be executed in 524 or the following year.
Boethius also writes a commentary on the Isagoge by Porphyry, which highlights the existence of the problem of universals: whether concepts are subsistent entities that exist whether a person thinks of them, or if concepts only exist as ideas. This topic concerning the ontological nature of universal ideas is one of the most vocal controversies in medieval philosophy. I view this as an abstract concept, and take the simple view that the universe exists even without a human interacting with it. It's a trivial question of little importance in my opinion. And I have the same opinion about questions relating to the idea of Gods and other mythical or unobservable matter.
Besides these advanced philosophical works, Boethius also translates into Latin the standard Greek texts for the topics of the quadrivium, with additions of his own in the fields of mathematics and music. His complete translations of geometry and astronomy have not yet been found, but the collection he produces will form the basic education in these four subjects for many centuries.
Boethius also writes theological treatises, which generally involve support for the orthodox position against Arian ideas and other contemporary religious debates. His authorship was periodically disputed because of the secular nature of his other work, until the 1800s discovery of a biography by his contemporary Cassiodorus which mentions his writing on the subject.
Despite the use of Boethius' mathematical texts in the early universities, it is his final work, the Consolation of Philosophy, that assures his legacy in the Middle Ages and beyond. It will be translated into Anglo-Saxon by King Alfred, and into later English by Chaucer and Queen Elizabeth; many manuscripts survive and it will be extensively edited, translated and printed throughout Europe from the late 1400s onwards. Many commentaries on it were compiled and it has been one of the most influential books in European culture.
| Italy |
1,472 YBN
[528 AD]
| 1377) Written shortly after 650, the "Miracula Sancti Artemii" describes seventh-century hospitals. In one story Stephen, a deacon of Hagia Sophia has a malady of the groin. His parents advise him to go to the surgeons of the Sampson Xenon. Stephen goes there and is assigned a bed near the section for people suffering from ophthalmic (eye) problems. After getting cold-cautery treatments for three days, Stephen has surgery. This is evidence that xenones in seventh-century Constantinople admit people above the poverty line and that the xenon staff may include eye specialists. This document also describes a second story of a cantor that also suffers from a disease affecting his groin who stays at the Christodotes Xenon, is treated by physicians called "archiatroi", trained nurses called hypourgoi assist these doctors, and command servants called hyperetai who perform non-health-related services. This story implies that hypourgoi like the physicians are career professionals. This view is also supported by an Egyptian papyrus that lists hospital hypourgoi with other lay guilds. This shows that nursing is done by specialists and no longer a pious exercise for ascetics. The emperor Justinian terminates state funding to the archiatroi of the cities, but the Miracula Sancti Artemii and other documents prove that physicians called archiatroi still function in the late sixth century and afterward as xenon doctors funded by the Christian hospital administrator.
| Constantanople |
1,471 YBN
[529 AD]
| 1014) Plato's Academy is closed.
Roman Emperor Justinian (CE 483-565) closes the schools of Alexandria and Athens (including Plato's Academy).
| Athens, Greece (and Alexandria,Egypt) |
1,471 YBN
[529 AD]
| 1378) Benedict of Nusia establishes a monastery, the source of the Benedictine Order, at Monte Cassino, where the care of the sick is placed above and before all other Christian duties. From this beginning, one of the first medical schools in Europe, will grow at Salerno. This example leads to the establishment of similar monastic infirmaries in the western part of the Roman empire.
| Monte Cassino, Italy |
1,471 YBN
[529 AD]
| 1423) The "Corpus Juris Civilis" (Body of Civil Law) is the modern name for a collection of laws, issued from 529 to 534 by order of Justinian I, Byzantine Emperor.
The "Corpus Juris Civilis" uses both the "Codex Theodosianus" and the 300s Codex Gregorianus and Hermogenianus.
The principle of "Servitus Judaeorum" (Servitude of the Jews) established by the new laws determined the status of Jews throughout the Empire for hundreds of years ahead. The Jews were disadvantaged in a number of ways. The emperor became an arbiter in internal Jewish affairs and Jews could not testify against Christians and were disqualified from holding a public office. Jewish civil and religious rights were restricted: "they shall enjoy no honors". The use of the Hebrew language in worship was forbidden. Shema Yisrael, sometimes considered the most important prayer in Judaism ("Hear, O Israel, the Lord is one") was banned, as a denial of the Trinity.
| Byzantium |
1,470 YBN
[530 AD]
| 1426) Aristotle's verdict that the speed is proportional to the weight of the moving bodies and indirectly proportional to the density of the medium is disproved by Philoponus through appeal to the same kind of experiment that Galileo was to carry out centuries later.
| Alexandria, Egypt |
1,467 YBN
[533 AD]
| 1015)
| |
1,463 YBN
[12/27/537 AD]
| 1106) The Hagia Sophia Church is rebuilt in Constantinople under the supervision of the eastern Roman emperor Justinian I. Justinian chooses Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles, a physicist and a mathematician, as architects; Anthemius, however, dies within the first year. The construction is described in Procopius' "On Buildings" (De Aedificiis). The Byzantine poet Paulus the Silentiary composed an extant poetic ekphrasis, probably for the rededication of 563, which followed the collapse of the main dome.
| Constantinople |
1,460 YBN
[540 AD]
| 1107) Prokopios (Procopius) (Greek Προκόπιος) (c.500 - c.565) is a prominent Byzantine scholar. He is commonly held to be the last major ancient historian.
| Constantinople |
1,458 YBN
[542 AD]
| 1381)
| Lyon, France |
1,411 YBN
[589 AD]
| 1328)
| China |
1,400 YBN
[600 AD]
| 1111) Earliest known windmill. This windmill uses a vertical shaft and horizontal sails to grind grain.
| Persia (Iran) |
1,400 YBN
[600 AD]
| 5864) (Saint) Gregory I collects and codifies what are now called the "Gregorian Chants". The form of music at this time is described as "plainsong", also called "plainchant". "Plainsong" is the form of the Gregorian chant and, by extension, other similar religious chants. The word derives from the 1200s Latin term cantus planus ("plain song"), referring to the unmeasured rhythm and monophony (single line of melody) of Gregorian chant, as distinguished from the measured rhythm of polyphonic (multipart) music, called cantus mensuratus, or cantus figuratus ("measured", or "figured", song).
| Rome, Italy |
1,396 YBN
[604 AD]
| 1104) Paper making reaches Korea and from there is imported to Japan by a Buddhist priest, Dam Jing from Goguryeo 6 years later in 610, where fibers from mulberry trees are used.
| Korea |
1,387 YBN
[613 AD]
| 1391)
| Mecca, Arabia (modern Saudi Arabia) |
1,367 YBN
[633 AD]
| 1114) Isidore is Archbishop of Seville for more than three decades and will have the reputation of being one of the great scholars of the early Middle Ages. All the later medieval history-writing of Spain will be based on Isidore's histories.
It is at the Fourth National Council of Toledo and through his influence that a decree is promulgated commanding and requiring all bishops to establish seminaries in their Cathedral Cities, along the lines of the school associated with Isidore already existing at Seville. Within his own jurisdiction Isidore makes available all resources of education to counteract the growing influence of the anti-educational Gothic tradition. Isidore was a strong force behind the educational movement, which is centered in Seville. The study of Greek and Hebrew as well as the liberal arts, is prescribed. Interest in law and medicine was also encouraged. Through the authority of the fourth council this policy of education was made obligatory upon all the bishops of the kingdom.
Isidore's Latin style in the "Etymologiae" and elsewhere, though simple and lucid, cannot be said to be classical, affected as it was by local Visigothic traditions. It discloses most of the imperfections peculiar to all ages of transition and particularly reveals a growing Visigothic influence, containing hundreds of recognizably Spanish words - the 1700s editor of Isidore's works, Faustino Arévalo identified 1,640 Spanish words: Isidore can possibly be characterized as the last native speaker of Latin and perhaps the first native speaker of Spanish.
Long before the Arab people will awaken to an appreciation of Greek Philosophy, he introduces Aristotle to his countrymen. Isidore is the first Christian writer to compile the summation of universal knowledge, in the form of his most important work, the Etymologiae (which takes its title from the method he used in the recording in ink the knowledge of this time). This encyclopedia, the first known to be compiled in western civilization, epitomizes all learning, ancient as well as modern, forming a huge compilation of 448 chapters in 20 volumes. In it many fragments of classical learning are preserved which otherwise would have been hopelessly lost but, on the other hand, some of these fragments will be lost in the first place because Isidore"s work will be so highly regarded that it supersedes the use of many individual works of the classics themselves, which will not be recopied and will therefore be lost.
The popularity of this work will serve as a seed of later encyclopedic writing, bearing abundant fruit in the subsequent centuries of the Middle Ages. It will be the most popular compendium in medieval libraries. It will be printed in at least 10 editions between 1470 and 1530, showing Isidore's continuing popularity in the Renaissance. Until the 1100s brings translations from Arabic sources, Isidore transmits what western Europeans remember of the works of Aristotle and other Greeks, although he understands only a limited amount of Greek. The Etymologiae will be much copied, particularly into medieval bestiaries (illustrated books about various species of animals popular in the Middle Ages).
In his works Isidore borrows from Pliny, as Bede will do. Isidore incorrectly accepts astrology as true, and wrongly supports the mystic importance of numbers in the tradition of Pythagarus. Isidore's crude "T" map of the known earth is a significant step back from the maps of Eritosthenes and other Greek geometers of Alexandria, and will endure in this backwards era dominated by the followers of Jesus.
Isidore's other works include * his "Chronica Majora" (a universal history) * "De differentiis verborum", which amounts to brief theological treatise on the doctrine of the Trinity, the nature of Christ, of Paradise, angels, and men. * "a History of the Goths" * "On the Nature of Things" (not the poem of Lucretius) * a book of astronomy and natural history dedicated to the Visigothic king Sisebut * Questions on the Old Testament. * a mystical treatise on the allegorical meanings of numbers * a number of brief letters.
| Seville, Spain |
1,360 YBN
[640 AD]
| 1119)
| Egypt |
1,360 YBN
[640 AD]
| 1120) Flame throwing weapon "Greek fire".
| Constantinople |
1,358 YBN
[642 AD]
| 1016)
| |
1,358 YBN
[642 AD]
| 1017)
| |
1,340 YBN
[660 AD]
| 1380) | Paris, France |
1,320 YBN
[680 AD]
| 1018)
| |
1,315 YBN
[685 AD]
| 1019)
| |
1,287 YBN
[713 AD]
| 1123) In astronomy Bede recognizes that the vernal equinox arrives 3 days earlier than traditional March 21. This inaccuracy in the calendar of Sosigenes would lead to an adjustment of leap years per millenium that will only happen 900 years later. Bede recognizes like Pytheas that the moon affects the tides, and like Seleukos 800 years before that high tide occurs at different times in different ports.
Bede is the first to date events from the birth of Jesus instead of the creation of the world. This is the primitive system shockingly still in use in much of the earth. A much more science-based dating system would be based on the beginning of the earth, or recorded history. Because the age of the universe is infinite, some fixed time in the past needs to be chosen as a time 0.
| Jarrow, Durham |
1,277 YBN
[723 AD]
| 1795) Yi Xing (E siNG) is credited with the first escapement (a device that powers a clock, the escapement stops the system from unwinding continuously, the escapement makes this motion periodic).
Yi Xing is a Buddhist monk Yi Xing, who along with government official Liang Ling-zan applies its use in 723 (or 725) to the workings of a water-powered celestial globe. Yi Xing's mechanical genius and achievements are built upon the knowledge and efforts of previous Chinese mechanical engineers, such as the statesman and master of gear systems Zhang Heng (78-139) of the Han Dynasty, the equally brilliant engineer Ma Jun (200-265) of the Three Kingdoms, and the Daoist Li Lan (c. 450) of the Southern and Northern Dynasties period.
| ?, China |
1,249 YBN
[751 AD]
| 1253) Abu Musa Jabir ibn Hayyan (Arabic: جابر بن حيان) (CE c721-c815), (Latin Geber, prepares and identifies sulfuric and other acids.
Jabir gives accurate descriptions of valuable chemical experiments. Jabir describes ammonium chloride, shows how to prepare white lead, prepares weak nitric acid, and distills vinegar to get strong acetic acid.
| Kufa, (now Iraq) |
1,240 YBN
[760 AD]
| 1020)
| |
1,230 YBN
[770 AD]
| 1060) Earliest wood block Printed book. Diamond Sūtra.
| China |
1,230 YBN
[770 AD]
| 1074) Wood-cut Printing.
Possibly around the 500s CE, carved wood block appears as a substitute to pressing paper onto marble pillars and seals covered with ink. First, the all of the text is written in ink on a sheet of fine paper, then the written side of the sheet is applied to the smooth surface of a block of wood, coated with a rice paste that retains the ink of the text. Next, an engraver cuts away the uninked areas so that the text stands out in relief and in reverse. To make a print, the wood block is then inked with a paintbrush, a sheet of paper spread on it, and the back of the sheet rubbed with a brush. Only one side of the sheet could be printed. The oldest known printed works are made by this technique. In Japan about 764–770, Buddhist incantations ordered by Empress Shōtoku are printed using this technique, and in China in 868, the first known book, the Diamond Sūtra is printed using wood blocks.
| Japan |
1,219 YBN
[781 AD]
| 1254) Lower case letters.
Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus (Alcuin) (oLKWiN) (CE c732-804) improves the system of education in Western Europe under Charlesmagne and creates lower case letters.
| Aachen, in north-west Germany, or York, England |
1,211 YBN
[01/01/789 AD]
| 1256)
| Aachen, in north-west Germany |
1,204 YBN
[01/01/796 AD]
| 1255) Alcuin establishes a school in Tours where scribes are trained to carefully copy manuscripts.
| Tours, France |
1,200 YBN
[800 AD]
| 6221) Earliest bow for stringed instrument.
| River Oxus (modern) Turkmenistan (Central Asia) |
1,185 YBN
[815 AD]
| 1021) "Bayt al-Hikma" (House of Wisdom).
Caliph al-Mamun founds the "Bayt al-Hikma" (House of Wisdom), a school, with Library and Observatory in Baghdad, Iraq, where many Greek, Persian and Indian works will be translated into Arabic.
| Baghdad |
1,175 YBN
[825 AD]
| 1257) Hindu-Arabic numerals (1 through 9), and decimal point notation.
Math books by House of Wisdom scholar Al-Khwārizmī (Arabic: محمد بن موسى الخوارزمي) (oLKWoriZmE) will introduce the words "algebra" and "algorithm" in addition to the numerals (1 through 9) and decimal point notation of India which will replace Roman numerals.
| (House of Wisdom) Bagdad, Iraq |
1,171 YBN
[829 AD]
| 1299) Al-Khwarazmi participates in measuring the degree of arc of the earth.
| Sinjar in Mesopotamia, west of Mosul |
1,159 YBN
[841 AD]
| 1304) Al-Kindi is refered to as the "Philosopher of the Arabs". Al-Kindi writes about 270 treatises, most now lost, in logic, philosophy, physics, mathematics, music, medicine, and natural history.
Possibly one reason that the names of Arabic writers are Latinized is to hide the fact that they are Arab people in order to make translations of their works more acceptable to people in Europe. A person seeing "Alkindus" may very well believe that the author is a Christian, where seeing "Al-Kindi" might raise questions of religious allegience for the person using the translated work.
| Baghdad, Iraq |
1,150 YBN
[850 AD]
| 1144) Gunpowder.
The earliest Chinese records of gunpowder indicate that it was a byproduct of Taoist alchemical efforts to develop an elixir of immortality.
| China |
1,150 YBN
[850 AD]
| 1332) Hunayn writes his own works on astronomy, meteorology and in particular philosophy. Hunayn ibn Ishaq writes "Aphorism of Philosophers" which will be well known in the West in its Hebrew version.
| Baghdad, Iraq |
1,150 YBN
[850 AD]
| 1333) When Al-Mutawakkil succeeded al-Wathiq as caliph (in 847), al-Mutawakkil reverted to a position of Islamic orthodoxy and began a persecution of all non-orthodox or non-Muslim groups. Synagogues and churches in Baghdad are torn down, and the shrine of al-Husayn ibn 'Ali (a Shi'i martyr) in Karbala' is destroyed and further pilgrimages to the town are forbidden. Old regulations prescribing special dress for Christians and Jews are reinstated.
| Samarra (near Baghdad), Iraq |
1,124 YBN
[876 AD]
| 1115) The number zero.
There is no doubt that the symbol for the number zero is invented in India, but exactly how and for what purpose is unclear.
The oldest symbol "0" in India that can be assigned a definite date, is inscribed on a temple in Gwalior.
| Gwalior, India |
1,124 YBN
[876 AD]
| 1300) Ibn Qurra is part of the Sabian group, which is not islamic, and dates back to the Babylonian civilization. Ibn Qurra is fluent in both Greek, Arabic and his native Syriac. Ibn Qurra moved to Bagdad to be educated.
Ibn Querra translates Apollonius, Archimedes, Euclid and Ptolemy from Greek to Arabic. Thabit had revised the translation of Euclid's Elements of Hunayn ibn Ishaq. He had also rewritten Hunayn's translation of Ptolemy's Almagest and translated Ptolemy's Geography, which later became very well-known. Thabit's translation of a work by Archimedes which gave a construction of a regular heptagon was discovered in the 20th century, the original having been lost.
| Bagdad, Iraq |
1,122 YBN
[878 AD]
| 1301) Alfred establishes a court school, after the example of Charlemagne. For this school Alfred imports scholars like Grimbald and John the Saxon from Europe, and Asser from South Wales. Alfred puts himself to school, and makes the series of translations for the instruction of his clergy and people, most of which have survived. These belong to the later part of his reign, likely to the last four years, during which the chronicles are almost silent.
Alfred creates a legal Code, reconciling the long established laws of the Christian kingdoms of Kent, Mercia and Wessex. These formed Alfred"s "Deemings" or Book of "Dooms" (Book of Laws).
Alfred has translated from Latin to Old English, the books: "Dialogues" of Gregory, Gregory's "Pastoral Care", "Universal History" of Orosius, "Ecclesiastical History of the English People" by Bede, "The Consolation of Philosophy" of Boethius, and compiles and creates the book "Blostman".
Beside these works of Alfred's, the Saxon Chronicle, a collection of annals (a concise form of historical writing which record events chronologically, year by year) in Old English narrating the history of the Anglo-Saxons, almost certainly, and a Saxon Martyrology (a list of martyrs or more precisely saints, arranged in the calendar order of their anniversaries or feasts), of which fragments only exist, are started under Alfred's rule and probably owe their inspiration to him. A prose version of the first fifty Psalms has been attributed to him. Additionally, Alfred appears as a character in "The Owl and the Nightingale", where his wisdom and skill with proverbs is attested. Additionally, "The Proverbs of Alfred", which exists for us in a 1200s manuscript contains sayings that very likely have their origins partly with the king.
| Wessex (871-899), a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England. |
1,110 YBN
[890 AD]
| 1302)
| Wessex (871-899), a Saxon kingdom in southwestern England. |
1,100 YBN
[900 AD]
| 1379) By the 11th century this school will be attracting students from all over Europe, as well as Asia and Africa. In 1221 the Holy Roman emperor Frederick II will decree that no doctor in the kingdom can legally practice healing until after examined and publicly approved by the school at Salerno.
Arab health treatises in Greek translations had accumulated in the library of Montecassino, where they were translated into Latin; this received work of Galen and Dioscorides is supplemented and invigorated by Arabic health science practices, known from contacts with Sicily and North Africa. As a result physicians of Salerno, both men and women, are unrivalled in the Western Mediterranean.(verify)
Women physicians are involved in the advances that come from the school in Solerno. The school in Salerno is credited with: 1) the first textbooks on anatomy, obtained mainly from porcine dissections (), 2) insistence on certification and training for physicians, 3) application of investigative thinking and deduction that leads to important advances such as the use of healing by secondary intention, 4) the first textbook about women's health, 5) the first recorded female medical school faculty member named "trotula de ruggiero" or "trocta salernitana". The women physicians of Salerno contribute to a textbook that will gain wide acceptance and distribution throughout Europe, called "De Passionibus Mulierium", which will be first published around 1100 CE and will be a prominent text until a significant revision by Ambrose Paré's assistant in the early 1600s.
| Salerno, Italy |
1,100 YBN
[900 AD]
| 5865) First evidence of polyphonic (many-voiced) music (Oragnum) in book "Musica Enchiriadis", which also is the first to indicate fixed, unambiguously identifiable pitches.
| northern part of the West Frankish empire|Possibly written in what is now Eastern France |
1,096 YBN
[904 AD]
| 1145) Gunpowder is first used as a weapon (missile) during war in China, as incendiary projectiles called "flying fires." Chinese people will soon expand the use of gunpowder to explosive grenades hurled from catapults.
| China |
1,095 YBN
[905 AD]
| 1303) Plaster used to hold broken bones in place. Al-Razi {oL-rAZE} rejects Islam and other religions.
| Rayy (near Tehran, Iran) |
1,090 YBN
[910 AD]
| 1407) Al-Farabi sees human reason as being superior to revelation. Al-Farabi believes that religion provides truth in a symbolic form to nonphilosophers, who are not able to apprehend truth in its more pure forms. Al-Farabi writes a book on music titled "Kitab al-Musiqa" (The Book of Music). Farabi plays and invents a varied number of musical instruments and his pure Arabian tone system is still used in Arabic music. In "Al-Madina al-fadila" al-Farabi theorizes about an ideal state as in Plato's Republic. Farabi is also known for his early investigations into the nature of the existence of void in physics.
| Baghdad, Iraq |
1,080 YBN
[920 AD]
| 6183) Norwegian explorers reach North America.
A Northern Newfoundland site establishes the presence of European settlers in North America prior to Columbus. Two unquestionably Norse pieces of handicraft, a soapstone spindle whorl, and a ring-headed pin of bronze (thought to be a belt pin) were found there.
| L'Anse Aux Meadows, Newfoundland |
1,064 YBN
[936 AD]
| 1408) The titles of more than 20 books attributed to him are known, most of which are lost.
A manuscript of one volume of "Akhbar az-zaman" ("The History of Time") is said to be preserved in Vienna; if this manuscript is genuine, it is all that remains of the work. Al-Mas'udi follows "Akhbar az-zaman" ("The History of Time") with "Kitab al-awsat" ("Book of the Middle"), described as a supplement to "Akhbar az-zaman". The Kitab is undoubtedly a chronological history. A manuscript in the Bodleian Library, Oxford, may possibly be one volume of it.
Al-Mas'udi rewrites his two combined works in less detail in a single book, with the fanciful title "Muruj adh-dhahab wa ma'adin al-jawahir" ("The Meadows of Gold and the Mines of Gems"). This book quickly becomes famous and establishes al_Mas'udi's reputation as a leading historian. Ibn Khaldun, the great 1300s Arab philosopher of history, will describes al-Mas'udi as an imam ("leader," or "example") for historians. In his introduction, al-Mas'udi lists more than 80 historical works known to him, but he also stresses the importance of his travels to "learn the peculiarities of various nations and parts of the world."
"Muruj adh-dhahab wa ma'adin al-jawahir" is in 132 chapters. The second half is a straightforward history of Islam, beginning with the Prophet Muhammad, then describing each of the caliphs down to al-Mas'udi's own time. This part of the book is seldom read now, as much better accounts can be found elsewhere, particularly in the writings of at-Tabari.
At this time books are readily available and relatively cheap. Aside from large public libraries in major towns like Baghdad, many individuals, like Mas'udi's friend al-Suli, have private libraries, often containing thousands of volumes. The prevalence of books and their low price is the result of the introduction of paper to the Arabic nations by Chinese papermakers captured at the Battle of Taslas in 751. Very soon afterwards there are paper mills in most large towns and cities. The introduction of paper coincides with the coming to power of the Abbasid dynasty, and there is no doubt that the availability of cheap writing material contributes to the growth of the Abbasid bureaucracy, postal system and lively intellectual life. This contrasts with the literary conditition in Europe where the first paper mill in Europe (Xavia, modern Valencia, Spain) will not be built until 1120, nearly 200 years later.
| Baghdad, Iraq |
1,040 YBN
[960 AD]
| 6186) Earliest evidence of rockets. These are gun-powder rockets probably in hollow bamboo tubes.
Fire-arrow technology is described in the "Complete Compendium of Military Classics" (960 CE), which provides evidence that Emperor Tseng Kung-Liang had a group of rocketeers equipped to make and fire powder rockets in combat.
Certainly by the year 1045 CE, the use of gunpowder and rockets forms an integral aspect of Chinese military tactics.
| China |
1,036 YBN
[964 AD]
| 1502) Al Sufi calls The Large Magellanic Cloud "Al Bakr", the White Ox of the southern Arabs, and points out that while invisible from Northern Arabia and Baghdad, this object is visible from the strait of Bab el Mandeb, at 12°15' Northern latitude.
Al Sufi lives at the court of Emir Adud ad-Daula in Isfahan, Persia, and works on translating and expanding Greek astronomical works, especially the Almagest of Ptolemy. He contributes several corrections to Ptolemy's star list and does his own brightness and magnitude estimates which frequently deviated from those in Ptolemy's work.
Al Sufi is a major translator into Arabic of the Hellenistic astronomy that had been centered in Alexandria, the first to attempt to relate the Greek with the traditional Arabic star names and constellations, which are completely unrelated and overlap in complicated ways at this time.
Al Sufi describes the Andromeda Galaxy as a "small cloud". Al Sufi observes that the ecliptic plane is inclined with respect to the celestial equator and more accurately calculates the length of the tropical year. He observes and describes the stars, their positions, their magnitudes and their colour, setting out his results constellation by constellation. For each constellation, he provides two drawings, one from the outside of a celestial globe, and the other from the inside (as seen from the earth). Al Sufi also writes about the astrolabe, finding numerous additional uses for it.
| Isfahan (Eşfahān), Persia (modern Iran) |
1,030 YBN
[970 AD]
| 1338) Al-Azhar University (Arabic: الأزهر الشريف; al-Azhar al-Shareef, "the Noble Azhar"), currently the second oldest operating university on earth after the University of Al Karaouine in Fez, Morocco is founded.
Al-Azhar University was built by the Shi'a Fatimid Caliphate (909-1171) who established Cairo as their capital.
| Cairo, Egypt |
1,025 YBN
[975 AD]
| 1839)
| ?, India (presumably) |
1,024 YBN
[976 AD]
| 1307) The first Arabic numerals in Europe appear in the Codex Vigilanus.
| |
1,021 YBN
[979 AD]
| 1410) Maslama makes astronomical observations.
| Cordova, Spain |
1,019 YBN
[981 AD]
| 1385) | Baghdad, Iraq |
1,015 YBN
[985 AD]
| 1306) Isaac Asimov wrote that the rebirth of European learning can be dated from Gerbert.
| Auvergne, France |
1,000 YBN
[1000 AD]
| 1022) The "Suda", one of the first encyclopedias is compiled, credited to a person named Suidas.
Suda, or Suidas, breaks with tradition by adopting alphabetical order for its contents.
| |
1,000 YBN
[1000 AD]
| 1054) Paper money.
Initially paper money represents promises to pay specified amounts of metal coin money (gold and silver) for which carrying in large quantities is inconvenient and a risk for loss or theft.
The first use of paper money occurs in China earlier than 1000 CE.
| China |
990 YBN
[1010 AD]
| 1311) A Hebrew version of the "Canon of Medicine" will appear in Naples in 1491 and an Arabic edition in Rome in 1593. Of the Latin version there will be about thirty editions, all founded on the original translation by Gerard of Cremona. In the 1400s a commentary on the text of the Canon will be composed. Other medical works by Ibn Sina that will be translated into Latin are the "Medicamenta Cordialia", "Canticum de Medicina", and the "Tractatus de Syrupo Acetoso".
It is mainly accident that from the 12th to the 17th century Avicenna will be the guide of medical study in European universities, and eclipse the names of al-Razi, Ali ibn al-Abbas and Averroes. His work is not essentially different from that of his predecessor al-Razi, because he presents the doctrine of Galen, and through Galen the doctrine of Hippocrates, modified by the system of Aristotle. But "the Canon" of Ibn Sina is distinguished from the "Al-Hawi" ("Continens") or "Summary" of al-Razi by its greater method, due perhaps to the logical studies of Ibn Sina.
"The Canon of Medicine" has been variously appreciated in subsequent ages, some regarding it as a treasury of wisdom, and others, like Averroes, holding it useful only as waste paper. In modern times it has been seen of mainly historic interest as most of its tenets have been disproved or expanded upon by scientific medicine. The vice of the book is excessive classification of bodily faculties, and over-subtlety in the discrimination of diseases. It includes five books; of which the first and second discuss physiology, pathology and hygiene, the third and fourth deal with the methods of treating disease, and the fifth describes the composition and preparation of remedies. This last part contains some personal observations.
Ibn Sina refers to impetus as proportional to weight times velocity which is an early identification of the concept of momentum.
| Hamadan, Iran |
975 YBN
[1025 AD]
| 5868) Guido d’Arezzo (Guido of Arezzo) (CE c990-1050) develops a system of musical staff notation and publishes this in the book "Micrologus de disciplina artis musicae" and develops the solmization syllables (ut, re, mi, fa, sol, la).
| (Cathedral school) Arezzo, Italy |
970 YBN
[1030 AD]
| 1409) Al-Biruni (full name: Abu Rayhan Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Biruni) (CE 973-c1051), a Persian scholar, write about the daily rotation of Earth and attraction of objects to center of Earth described.
| Ghazna, Afghanistan |
962 YBN
[1038 AD]
| 1308) Pin-hole camera (or camera obscura). Ibn al-Haytham {iBN oL HIteM} (Full Name: Abu 'Ali al-Hasan ibn al-Haytham) (Arabic and Persian: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم) (Latinized: Alhazen (oLHoZeN)) (CE c965-1039), builds the first recorded pin-hole camera (camera obscura).
| Cairo, Egypt |
959 YBN
[1041 AD]
| 1124) Movable type printing, where individual blocks can be put together to form a text, is invented in China.
About 1041–48 a Chinese alchemist named Pi Sheng (CE c990-1051) uses movable type made of clay hardened by baking. Sheng composes texts by placing the types side by side on an iron plate coated with a mixture of resin, wax, and paper ash. Gently heating this plate and then letting the plate cool solidifies the type. Once the impression has been made, the type can be detached by reheating the plate.
| China |
936 YBN
[1064 AD]
| 1313) Khayyam writes "The Rubáiyát" (Arabic: رباعیات), a collection of poems, originally written in the Persian language and of which about a thousand survive. "Rubaiyat" (derived from the Arabic root word for 4) means "quatrains": verses of four lines, which is how the poems are organized. Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883) will translate these poems, although somewhat freely, in 1859 raising the interesting in Khayyam.
In a metaphysical treatise, Khayyam divides the (arabic) seekers of knowledge into four catagories: 1) The theologians, who are content with written authority. 2) The philosophers and learned men who use rational arguments and seek to know the laws of logic. According to Seyyed Nasr this group includes all the famous names of arabic science. Within this group there is a sharp distinction between two schools, one school is the Peripatetic school who combine Aristotle and some Neoplatonists, with a philosophy of catagorize each object, for example in comprehensive encyclopedias. The other school is close to the Pythagoream-Platonic school which views nature many times symbolically, as if on a journey where phenomena are signs which guide them on the road toward final illumination. This second school will be come to called the Illuminatist (ishraqi) school. 3) The Ismailis (a branch of Shia Islam) and others who say that the way of knowledge is none other than receiving information from a learned and credible informant. Ismaili doctrines are esoteric (is specialized or advanced in nature, available only to a narrow circle of "enlightened", "initiated", or highly educated people). The Quran is the basis for the symbolic study of Nature. Alchemy and astrology are integrated in their doctrines. 4) The Sufis, who seek knowledge, not be meditation, but by purifying their inner being of impurities, so that the so-called impurities of nature and bodily form can be removed to see the so-called pure spiritual world. Khayyam describes himself as both an orthodox Pythagorean and a Sufi.
I am not sure how relevant this is to the story of science. It does support the theory that the philosophies of Pythagoras and Aristotle branched and grew into two major schools of thought, the Pythagorean mystical and religious and Aristotle nonreligious and basically natural science, the two groups potentially existing even today. I'm not sure this is entirely true. Clearly believers in religion form the major branch of philosophy throughout recorded history. A very small nonreligious branch separated from this main philosophy which includes many Greek (and non-Greek) philosophers and scientists. And in my opinion, the religious versus the non-religious forms a conflict through most if not all of recorded history, generally, the religious winning overwhelmingly because of their vast number, without doubt the god(s) explanation of all phenomena in the universe is by far the most popular explanation, more popular than those who interpret the universe without the idea of god(s), but it seems this will change by 2800 CE. There is perhaps an inaccurate bias by Western people to ignore science of the Eastern nations, and that must be avoided. Many believers in Deities and religions also make scientific contributions, so clearly understanding aspects of the universe without supernatural or Deity-controlled phenomena is found in people that believe supernatural claims of religions.
Around this time in Persia (Iran) the mathematician Al-Karaji (953-1029) and the poet-astronomer-mathematician Omar Khayyám (1048-1131) discuss the triangle of binomial coefficients (in Europe "Pascal's triangle"), therefore the triangle is referred to as the "Khayyam triangle" in Iran.
| Persia, Iran (presumably) |
934 YBN
[1066 AD]
| 1326) Halley's comet is seen in England and is recorded on the Bayeux Tapestry and Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Chaco Native Americans in New Mexico recorded this comet in their petroglyphs. In England the appearance of Halley's comet is thought to be a bad omen: later that year Harold II of England dies at the Battle of Hastings. This event is shown on the Bayeux Tapestry, and the accounts that have been preserved represent the comet as having then appeared to be four times the size of Venus, and to have shone with a light equal to a quarter of that of the Moon.
| England and New Mexico |
932 YBN
[1068 AD]
| 1840) The Indian mathematician Bhattotpala (c. 1068) gives rows 0-16 of the triangle of binomial coefficients.
| ?, India (presumably) |
930 YBN
[1070 AD]
| 1314)
| |
927 YBN
[1073 AD]
| 1316)
| |
923 YBN
[1077 AD]
| 1315)
| |
919 YBN
[1081 AD]
| 1312) Al-Zarqali (Latin: Arzachel) (Spanish and Italian: Azarquiel), (In Arabic أبو أسحاق ابراهيم بن يحيى الزرقالي ),(full name: Abū Isḥāqibrāhīm Ibn Yaḥyā Al-Naqqāsh) (CE ?-1100), describes the orbit of Mercury as being oval instead of circular.
In Al-Zarqali's text "Tratado de la lamina de los siete planetas" ("Treatise on the sheets of the seven planets") contains one of the most debated passages in medieval astronomy. In the graphic representation included in the Castilian translation ordered by Alfonso X (The Wise) the orbit of Mercury is not circular. On this basis it has been alleged that al–ZarqāĪi anticipated Kepler in stating that orbits–the orbit of Mercury in this case–are elliptical. Although the Arabic text merely states that an orbit is baydi ("oval").
| Toledo (in Castile, now) Spain |
914 YBN
[1086 AD]
| 1135) "Dream Pool Essay" written by the Song Dynasty scholar Shen Kua contains a detailed description of how geomancers (a pseudoscience method of divination that interprets markings on the ground) magnetize a needle by rubbing its tip with lodestone, and hang the magnetic needle with one single strand of silk with a bit of wax attached to the center of the needle. Shen Kua points out that a needle prepared this way sometimes pointed south, sometimes north.
| China |
912 YBN
[1088 AD]
| 1163)
| China |
912 YBN
[1088 AD]
| 1339) The University of Bologna (Italian: Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, UNIBO) is founded.
| Bologna, Italy |
905 YBN
[1095 AD]
| 1137) In Germany a group of humans follows a goose thought to be enchanted joins the army of Emich of Leisingen. This group decides that before marching 2,000 miles to kill people in Israel, they should "slay the infidels among us", the Jewish people of Mainz, Worms, and other German cities. These humans kill thousands of Jewish humans, and according to James Haught, some Jewish humans killed their families and selves before the mob of Crusading humans can. People employed as priests like Volkmar and Gottschalk lead groups of Jesus-cult members to kill Jewish people in Prague, Bavaria, and Regensburg. Some Jewish people were given a chance to be spared by converting to Christianity at sword point. These crusading people march in to Jerusalem and kill nearly all of the people. Raymond of Aguilers writes "Numbers of the Saracens were beheaded" (Saracens being Arab people).
| Jerusalem |
901 YBN
[1099 AD]
| 1382) | Jerusalem |
900 YBN
[1100 AD]
| 1023)
| |
900 YBN
[1100 AD]
| 1521) King Henry I of England (1069-1135) issues the "Charter of Liberties", a document that will bind Kings of England to the rule of law, and serve as a model for the later Magna Carta of 1215.
| London, England |
900 YBN
[1100 AD]
| 1841) A Chinese mathematician known as Jia Xian describes the triangle of binomial coefficients (in Europe "Pascal's triangle"), in his book (now lost) known as "Ruji Shisuo" (如积释锁) or "Piling-up Powers and Unlocking Coefficients", which is known through his contemporary mathematician Liu Ruxie (刘汝谐). Jia describes the method used as 'li cheng shi suo' (the tabulation system for unlocking binomial coefficients).
| ?, China (presumably) |
900 YBN
[1100 AD]
| 5883) Non-religious (secular) music evolves in France.
Secular (that is, non-religious) music undoubtedly flourished during the early Middle Ages, but, there are only a few sporadic references to secular music. The earliest accounts of secular music in Europe describes the music of the goliards; these people are traveling minor clerics and students who, from the 600s on, travel the land singing and playing topical songs dealing with love, war, famine, and other issues of the day. A fully developed secular-musical tradition emerges in France around the beginning of the 1100s. Partially motivated by the attitude of chivalry relating to the Crusades, a new life-style begin among the nobility of southern France. Troubadours, as they call themselves, circulate among the leading courts of the region, devoting themselves to writing and singing poetry in the vernacular (as opposed to Latin). The troubadour movement flourishes in Provence during the 1100-1200s. Around 1150, noblemen of northern France, most notably Adam de La Halle, carry on this tradition, calling themselves "trouvères", around the same time, in Germany a similar group known as 'Minnesingers", represented by Walther von der Vogelweide, begin their activities and continue for almost a century after their French counterparts have stopped composing. Late in the 1200s the burgher class in Germany will begin imitating the aristocratic Minnesingers, calling themselves "Meistersingers", and will flourish for more than 500 years, organizing themselves into fraternities and following strict rules of poetry, music, and performance. The most famous of them, Hans Sachs, is a central character in the 1800s Richard Wagner’s opera "Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg". Relatively little is known of similar secular-musical activities in Italy, Spain, and England. Closely associated with the entertainments of the aristocratic dilettantes are the professional musicians of the peasant class called jongleurs and minstrels in France, Gaukler in Germany, and scops and gleemen in England. The musical style established by the troubadours, is monophonic, of limited range, and sectional in structure, and this form is adopted by each of the succeeding groups.
Midieval instruments include strings - the two most common bowed string instruments are the vielle and the rebec. The vielle is a very early form of violin but with a longer body and a fifth string that provides a drone. The rebec is a small pear-shaped instrument with three to five strings, sometimes with frets. Plucked strings include a variety of harps, the lute, the psaltery. Wind instruments are made of animal horns, wood, or metal. The shawm, a double-reed instrument, plays an important part in dances, recorders and flutes take the form of panpipes, whistles and double pipes. The trumpet is a straight piece of tubing without slides, valves, or finger holes. With limited range the trumpet is probably used for fanfare only, until the slide trumpet which appears in the late midieval era. Percussion includes bells, sets of bells hung from a wooden frame struck with hammers. Cymbals, timbrels and other jingling instrumemts are popular. The timbrel may have a membrane stretched across it to be a tambourine. Many drums of various shapes are also in use at this time. Keyboard: the earliest known notated organ music is found in the Robertsbridge Codex of 1325, and requires a full chromatic octave (12-notes). In the midieval organ, there are no "stops" levers to control the movement of air through different combinations of pipes. The organistrum (also known as the symphonia, or more commonly hurdy-gurdy, is a stringed keyboard instrument smaller than an organ and so more widely used. The strings of the instrument are activated by a rotating cylinder of wood turn by a handle at one end. Larger versions of the instrument require two players, one to turn the handle, and the other to play the keys. The organistrum can play a drone bass and a melody at the same time. From the 1300s onward writers refer to instruments as "high" (alta) and "low" (bas) (refering to their pitch?). High instrumemts include trumpets, horms, shawms, bagpipes, and drums. Low instruments include stringed instruments like the lute, vielle and rebec.
| Provence, France (Southern France) |
894 YBN
[1106 AD]
| 1411) Ghazzali wrote more than 70 books on Islamic sciences, Philosophy and Sufism. Before "The Incoherence" Ghazzali wrote "Maqasid al falasifa" ("The Aims of the Philosophers"), near the beginning of his life, in favour of philosophy and presenting the basic theories in Philosophy.
There may be a racist appeal to many Arab people awakened by "The Incoherence", perhaps finding more alleglience to Islam, founded by an Arab person over ancient science of Greek and other non-Arab people. If true, this is another example of many how racism and religion play a role in stopping the growth of science and education around the earth.
| Nishapur, Iran |
880 YBN
[1120 AD]
| 1318) Abelard also writes a book called "Theologia", which will be formally condemned as heretical and burned by a council held at Soissons in 1121. Abelard's dialectical analysis of the mystery of God and the Trinity is held to be erroneous, and he himself is placed for a while in the abbey of Saint-Médard under house arrest. When Abelard returns to Saint-Denis he applies his dialectical methods to the subject of the abbey's patron saint; arguing that St. Denis of Paris, the martyred apostle of Gaul, was not identical with Denis of Athens (also known as Dionysius the Areopagite), the convert of St. Paul. The monastic community of Saint-Denis regards this criticism of their traditional claims as derogatory to the kingdom; and, in order to avoid being brought for trial before the king of France, Abelard leaves the abbey and seeks protection in the territory of Count Theobald of Champagne. There Abelard seeks the solitude of a hermit's life but is pursued by students who press him to resume his teaching in philosophy. Abelard's combination of the teaching of secular arts with his profession as a monk is heavily criticized by other men of religion, and Abelard contemplates flight outside Christendom altogether. In 1125, however, he accepts election as abbot of the remote Breton monastery of Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys. There, too, his relations with the community deteriorate, and, after attempts are made upon his life, he returns to France.
Abelard's preface to "Sic et Non" begins: "When, in such a quantity of words, some of the writings of the saints seem not only to differ from, but even to contradict, each other, one should not rashly pass judgement concerning those by whom the world itself is to be judged, as it is written: "The saints shall judge nations" (cf. Wisdom 3: 7-8), and again "You also shall sit as judging" (cf. Matthew 19:28). Let us not presume to declare them liars or condemn them as mistaken - those people of whom the Lord said "He who hears you, hears me; and he who rejects you, rejects me" (Luke 10:16). Thus with our weakness in mind, let us believe that we lack felicity in understanding rather than that they lack felicity in writing -- those of whom the Truth Himself said: "For it is not you who are speaking, but the Spirit of your Father who speaks through you" (Matthew 10:20). So, since the Spirit through which these things were written and spoken and revealed to the writers is itself absent from us, why should it be surprising if we should also lack an understanding of these same things?"
Just to give an idea of what this sounds like in the original text: " PETRI ABAELARDI SIC ET NON
PROLOGUS
/89/ Cum in tanta uerborum multitudine nonnulla etiam sanctorum dicta non solum ab inuicem diuersa uerum etiam inuicem aduersa uideantur, non est temere de eis iudicandum per quos mundus ipse iudicandus est, sicut scriptum est:
Iudicabunt sancti nationes
et iterum:
Sedebitis et uos indicantes.
Nec tanquam mendaces eos arguere aut tanquam erroneos contemnere praesumamus, quibus a Domino dictum est:
Qui uos audit, me audit; et qui uos spernit, me spernit."
| (the royal abbey of Saint-Denis near) Paris, France |
874 YBN
[1126 AD]
| 1155) Artesian wells are drilled by Carthusian monks and will come to be named after the former province of Artois in France. The technique was also known much earlier in Syria and Egypt, although whether the monks of Artois learned of it from outside sources, or discovered it independently, is unknown.
| Artois, France |
870 YBN
[1130 AD]
| 1140) Bernard had been hostile to the scholars at the University of Paris, the center of the new learning based on Aristotle, suspecting those who learned "merely in order that they might know" for the vanity of a learned reputation. For Bernard, the liberal arts served but a narrow purpose: to prepare the priesthood. In intellectual and dialectical power, the abbot was no match for the great schoolman; yet at Sens in 1141, Abelard feared to face him and when he appealed to Rome Bernard's word was enough to secure his condemnation.
| France |
870 YBN
[1130 AD]
| 1322) Abelard writes a Platonic dialogue "De eodem et diverso" ("On Sameness and Diversity"), in which his belief in atomism and his attempt to reconcile the reality of universals with that of individuals distinguish him from other Platonists (a universal is a type, property, or relation which contrasts with individual. For example the type "dog" is a universal, a specific instance of a particular dog is an individual).
Natural Questions will be first mass printed in 1472 in the form of a dialogue between himself and a nephew between 1113 to 1133. In Natural Questions Adelard raises the question of the shape of the Earth (which he believes is round) and the question of how it remains stationary in space, and also the question of how far a rock would fall if a hole were drilled through the earth and a rock dropped in it. Adelard theorizes that matter can not be destroyed. Adelard also addresses the interesting question of why water has difficulty flowing out of a container that has been turned upside down.
Adelard translates the Kharismian Tables (astronomical tables) and an Arabic "Introduction to Astronomy". Adelard writes a short treatise on the abacus (Regulae abaci). He writes a treatise on the astrolabe. Johannes Campanus probably will have access to Adelard's translation of Euclid's "Elements", and Campanus' edition will be first published in Venice in 1482 after the invention of the printing press. This book will become the chief text-book of the mathematical schools of Europe.
Adelard writes "De Eodem et Diverso" (On Identity and Difference) in the form of letters addressed to his nephew. This is a work of philosophy which contrasts the virtues of the seven liberal arts with worldly interests.
| Bath, England |
868 YBN
[1132 AD]
| 1146) First cannon and gun.
In Buddhist caves of Western China, a temple in Ta-tsu in Szechuan Province shows the earliest depiction of a gun. One relief depicts a small demon with two horns showing flames and a ball being shot from a handheld cannon. A second relief shows a devil holding a grenade.
| Ta-tsu, Szechuan Province, China |
865 YBN
[1135 AD]
| 1321) Around this time Pierre Abelard writes further drafts of his "Theologia" in which he praises the pagan philosophers of classical antiquity for their virtues and for their use of reason.
| (Mont-Sainte-Geneviève outside) Paris, France |
860 YBN
[1140 AD]
| 1320) At a council held at Sens in 1140, Pierre Abelard undergoes a resounding condemnation, which is soon confirmed by Pope Innocent II.
| Sens, France |
850 YBN
[1150 AD]
| 5882) Hildegard von Bingen (CE 1098-1179) writes musical compositions. More compositions can be attributed to Hildegard von Bingen than any other musician, male, or female, who worked before the 1300s. Bingen is the first woman to receive explicit permission from a pope to write on theology. Von Bingen is apparently the first woman composer in the Western tradition whose music is known. Though long regarded as a saint, she has never been formally canonized. Her numerous other writings include lives of saints; two treatises on medicine and natural history, reflecting a quality of scientific observation rare in this period.
| (convent) Rupertsberg, Germany |
850 YBN
[1150 AD]
| 6239)
| Europe |
846 YBN
[1154 AD]
| 1323) Toledo at this time is a provincial capital in the Caliphate of Cordoba and remains a seat of learning. Toledo is safely available to a Catholic like Gerard, since it had been conquered from the Moors by Alfonso VI of Castile. Since then, Toledo remains a multicultural capital. Its rulers protect the large Jewish colony, and keep their trophy city an important center of Arab and Hebrew culture, one of the great scholars associated with Toledo is Rabbi Abraham ibn Ezra, a contemporary of Gerard. The Moorish and Jewish inhabitants of Toledo adopt the language and many customs of their conquerors, embodying Mozarabic (Arabic speaking Christians) culture. Toledo is full of libraries and manuscripts.
Some of the works credited to Gerard of Cremona are probably the work of a second Gerard Cremonensis, more precisely Gerard de Sabloneta (or Sabbioneta) living in the 1200s. Gerard de Sobloneta's best work translates Greek/Arabic medical texts, rather than astronomical ones, but the two translators have understandably been confused with one another. His translations from works of Ibn Sina are said to have been made by order of the emperor Frederick II.
Other treatises attributed to the "Second Gerard" include the "Theoria" or "Theorica planetarum", and versions of Ibn Sina's "Canon of Medicine", the basis of the numerous subsequent Latin editions of that well-known work, and of the "Almansor" of al-Razi, which might have revolutionized European medical practices in this time, had it been more widely read.
| Toledo, Spain |
834 YBN
[1166 AD]
| 1330) At the request of the Almohad caliph Abu Ya'qub Yusuf, Ibn Rushd produces a series of summaries and commentaries on most of Aristotle's works (1169-95) (e.g., The Organon, De anima, Physica, Metaphysica, De partibus animalium, Parva naturalia, Meteorologica, Rhetorica, Poetica, and the Nicomachean Ethics) and not having access to a copy of Aristotle's "Politica" writes commentary on Plato's Republic, which will exert considerable influence in both the Islamic world and Europe for centuries. Ibn Rushd writes "the Decisive Treatise on the Agreement Between Religious Law and Philosophy" (Fasl al-Makal), "Examination of the Methods of Proof Concerning the Doctrines of Religion" (Kashf al-Manahij), and "The Incoherence of the Incoherence" (Tahafut al-Tahafut), all in defense of the philosophical study of religion against the theologians (1179-80).
Ibn Rushd will write 38 commentaries on different works of Aristotle, in addition to short treatises devoted to particular aspects of Aristotlelian philosophy. Ibn Rushd usually writes a short, medium and long commentary on every subject he deals with in conformity with the method of teaching in traditional schools. (Not by coincidence, this method of a short, medium and long version is exactly what I am doing independently with ULSF, and is a very nice and logical method to give a brief summary of the most important facts as an introduction and the barest education, a medium version with more information for those who want to know more details beyond just the most important facts, and then a third and more longer versions for those interested in even more details of the story.)
In his "Fasl al-Makal" and its appendix "the Kashf al-Manahij" Averroës makes the bold claim that only the metaphysician is competent to interpret the doctrines contained in the prophetically revealed law (Shar' or Shari'ah), and not the Muslim mutakallimun (dialectic theologians), who rely on dialectical arguments, claiming that the true meaning of religious beliefs is the goal of philosophy in its quest for truth. However, Ibn Rushd wrongly takes the elitist Platonic view that this meaning must not be told to the masses, who must accept the plain, external meaning of Scripture found in the stories, and metaphors, instead of seeking to educate and inform the public with science.
Ibn Rushd writes that the philosopher is not bound to accept what is contradicted by demonstration. A philosopher can therefore abandon belief in the creation out of nothing since Aristotle demonstrated the eternity of matter. Similarly, Ibn Rushd claims that anthropomorphism is unacceptable, and so metaphorical interpretation of those passages in Scripture that describe God in bodily terms is necessary.
Ibn Rushd regrets the position of women in Islam compared to their civic equality in Plato's "Republic". Ibn Rushd takes the view that the way women are only used for birth and raising of children is bad to the economy and is the reason for the poverty of the state, which is a very unorthodox opinion at this time in an Islamic nation.
Seyyed Nasr describes Ibn Rushd as "the purest Aristotelian among Muslim philosophers". Thomas Acquinas will call Ibn Rushd "the Commentator" and Dante will refer to Ibn Rushd as "he who made the grand commentary." Nasr states that Ibn Rushd's image in the West as an opponent of revealed religion is not altogether accurate because of a misunderstanding of some of Ibn Rushd's teachings.
| Cordova, Spain |
833 YBN
[1167 AD]
| 1340)
| Oxford, England (now: United Kingdom) |
830 YBN
[1170 AD]
| 1319) University of Paris.
| Paris, France |
830 YBN
[1170 AD]
| 5867) Léonin (Latin: Leoninus) (c1163-1201) the first major musical composer known by name and is probably the person who collects organum (polyphonic or multi-voice) musical compositions in the "Magnus liber organi" (c. 1170; "Great Book of Organum"). Léonin sets chant melodies for the Graduals, Alleluias, and Responsories of the masses for all major feasts.
| (Notre Dame Cathedral) Paris, France |
825 YBN
[1175 AD]
| 1341)
| Modena and Reggio Emilia, Emilia-Romagna, Italy |
824 YBN
[1176 AD]
| 1334) Maimonides writes a number of works on health science, including a popular book of health rules, which he dedicates to the sultan, al-Afdal.
| |
820 YBN
[1180 AD]
| 1335) | |
820 YBN
[1180 AD]
| 5869) Pérotin (CE c1155-c1225), edits and revises the "Magnus Liber" a generation after his successor Léonin, incorporating the rhythmic patterns already well-known in secular music and adding more than one part to the cantus firmus (the "given" or preexisting plainsong melody). Two decrees by the Bishop of Paris concerning the "feast of the fools" and the performance of quadruple (four-voice) organum, from 1198 and 1199, have been associated with Pérotin since the theorist known as Anonymous IV stated that he composed four-voice settings of both the relevant texts. The creation of three- and four-voice organum (c1200) is an important step in the development of polyphony which until then is only in terms of two voices.
Meter, in music, is the division of a composition into units of equal time value called measures, and the subdivision of those measures into an underlying pattern of stresses or accents. Meter is usually indicated by a time signature, a fraction whose numerator indicates the number of beats in a measure and whose denominator indicates the note value that is the unit of beating. When meter is applied to the original plainsong as well as to the vox organalis, the resulting form is called a clausula. Then, when words are provided for the added part or parts, a clausula becomes a motet. At first the words given to the motet are a commentary in Latin on the text of the original plainsong tenor (the voice part "holding" the cantus firmus; from Latin tenere, "to hold"). Later in the 1200s the added words are in French and secular (non-religious) in nature. Finally, each added part is given its own text, resulting in the classic Paris motet: a three-part composition consisting of a portion of plainchant (tenor) overlaid with two faster moving parts, each with its own secular text in French.
| (Notre Dame Cathedral) Paris, France |
816 YBN
[11/??/1184 AD]
| 1153) Start of the Inquisition.
The Inquisition starts when Pope Lucius III holds a synod at Verona, Italy, creating the shockingly brutal law that burning is to be the official punishment for heresy.
Pope Lucius II starts the medieval Inquisition to repress and punish people for heresy (heretics). At the Synod of Verona in 1184, Pope Lucius III, in agreement with the Holy Roman emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, initiates the "Inquisition", by declaring the excommunication of heretics and their protectors. This requires bishops to make a judicial inquiry or inquisition, for heresy in their dioceses. After ecclesiastical trial, heretics who refuse to recant are to be transferred to civil authorities for punishment—usually death by burning.
| Verona, Italy |
805 YBN
[1195 AD]
| 1331) Averroës continues his effort to promote philosophy against strong opposition from the mutakallimun (dialectic theologians), who, together with the jurists, occupy a position of eminence and of great influence over the fanatical masses. Ibn Rushd suddenly falls from grace when Abu Yusuf, (during) a jihad (holy war) against Christian Spain, dismissed Ibn Rushd from high office and banishs him to Lucena, perhaps to appease the theologians when the caliph needs the undivided loyalty of the people. The Arabic sources claim that Ibn Rushd is banished to protect him from attacks by people at the instigation of jurists and theologians. Caliph Abu Yusuf will call Ibn Rushd back shortly before Ibn Rushd's death.
| Lucena, Spain |
798 YBN
[1202 AD]
| 1393) Fibonacci was tutored by an Arabic person in Algeria, and so gained access to the Indian numerals Al-Khwarizmi had learned from Indian mathematicians. "Liber abaci" is the first European work on Indian and Arabian mathematics.
In "Liber Abaci" Fibonacci uses an intermediate form between the Egyptian fractions commonly used until that time and the vulgar fractions (10/3 as opposed to 3 1/3) still in use today.
The Fibonacci sequence is derived from a problem in the "Liber abaci": "A certain man put a pair of rabbits in a place surrounded on all sides by a wall. How many pairs of rabbits can be produced from that pair in a year if it is supposed that every month each pair begets a new pair which from the second month on becomes productive?
The resulting number sequence, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55 (Leonardo himself omits the first term), in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers, is the first recursive number sequence (in which the relation between two or more successive terms can be expressed by a formula) known in Europe.
| Pisa, Italy (guess based on:) |
791 YBN
[1209 AD]
| 1342) | Cambridge, England |
788 YBN
[1212 AD]
| 1343)
| Valladolid province of the autonomous region of Castile-Leon,in northern Spain. |
785 YBN
[06/15/1215 AD]
| 1520) The Magna Carta (Latin: "Great Charter") (literally: "Great Letter") is considered to be one of the most important legal documents in the history of democracy.
The Magna Carta is originally written because of disagreements between Pope Innocent III, King John and his English barons about the rights of the King. The Magna Carta requires the king to renounce certain rights, respect certain legal procedures and accept that the will of the King is bound by the law. The Magna Carta explicitly protects certain rights of the King's subjects, whether free or unfree, most notably the right of Habeas Corpus, meaning that they have rights against unlawful imprisonment.
On June 10, 1215 some of the barons of England, banded together, take London by force. These barons and other moderates force King John to agree to the "Articles of the Barons", to which King John's Great Seal is attached in the meadow at Runnymede on June 15, 1215. In return, the barons renew their oaths of allegiance to King John on June 19, 1215. A formal document to record the agreement is created by the royal chancery on July 15: this is the original Magna Carta. An unknown number of copies of the Magna Carta are sent to officials, such as royal sheriffs and bishops. The Magna Carta will be reissued with alterations in 1216, 1217, and 1225. The Magna Carta is modeled after the earlier Charter of Liberties of 1100. During the Middle Ages, Kings of England will mostly not, in practice, be limited by the Magna Carta.
The most significant clause for King John at the time is clause 61, known as the "security clause", the longest portion of the document. This establishes a committee of 25 barons who can at any time meet and over-rule the will of the King, through force by seizing his castles and possessions if needed. This is based on a medieval legal practice known as distraint, which is commonly done, but this is the first time distraint has been applied to a monarch. In addition, the King is to take an oath of loyalty to the committee.
As the Magna Carta was sealed under extortion by force, and clause 61 seriously limits his power as a monarch, John renounces it as soon as the barons leave London, plunging England into a civil war, called the First Barons' War. Pope Innocent III also annulls the "shameful and demeaning agreement, forced upon the king by violence and fear." Innocent III rejects any call for rights, saying it impairs King John's dignity. The Pope sees the Magna Carta as an affront to the Church's authority over the king and releases John from his oath to obey it. Magna Carta will be reissued with some clauses removed, such as clause, by the reagents for the next king, King Henry III.
For modern times, the most enduring legacy of the Magna Carta is considered the right of Habeas Corpus. This right arises from what we now call Clauses 36, 38, 39, and 40 of the 1215 Magna Carta.
Sentences such as clause 39, "No free man shall be
imprisoned or disseised {dispossessed}
except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land." and clause 21, "Earls and barons shall not be amerced except by their peers, and only in accordance with the degree of the offence." restrict the power of the king to punish people without the approval of their peers.
| Runnymede, England |
785 YBN
[1215 AD]
| 1154)
| |
782 YBN
[1218 AD]
| 1344)
| Salamanca, west of Madrid, Spain |
780 YBN
[1220 AD]
| 1345)
| Montpellier in the Languedoc-Roussillon région of the south of France. |
780 YBN
[1220 AD]
| 1394) Leonardo Fibonacci writes the Practica geometriae ("Practice of Geometry"), which included eight chapters of theorems based on Euclid's "Elements" and "On Divisions".
| Pisa, Italy (guess) |
780 YBN
[1220 AD]
| 3134) Shellac is introduced as an artist's pigment in Spain. Shellac is a natural thermoplastic (a material that is soft and flows under pressure when heated but becomes rigid at room temperature) made from the secretions of the lac insect, a tiny scale insect, Laccifer lacca.
The tiny lac insect (Laccifer lacca) is parasitic on certain trees in Asia, particularly India and Thailand. This insect secretion is cultivated and refined because of the commercial value of the finished product known as shellac. The term shellac is derived from shell-lac (the word for the refined lac in flake form), but has come to refer to all refined lac whether dry or suspended in an alcohol-based solvent. (What is chemical formula of lac secretion?)
Lac insect secretions are valued for the purple-red dye derived from being soaked in water. This dye is used to color silk, leather, and cosmetics and is cultivated primarily for this purpose until the 1870s. Then aniline or chemical dyes begin to replace these and other natural dyes.
| Spain |
778 YBN
[1222 AD]
| 1346)
| Padua, Italy |
776 YBN
[06/05/1224 AD]
| 1347)
| Naples, Italy |
775 YBN
[1225 AD]
| 1395) Fibonacci writes "Liber quadratorum" (1225; "Book of Square Numbers"),dedicating the work to Frederick II.
| Pisa, Italy (guess) |
773 YBN
[1227 AD]
| 1400) | Sicily |
772 YBN
[1228 AD]
| 1392) Theory that all matter is made of light published by Robert Grosseteste (GrOSTeST), (CE c1175-1253)
In "De Luce", Grossteste writes "Lux est ergo prima forma corporalis.", "Light is therefore the first corporeal (material) form".
| Lincoln, England (where de luce is written) |
771 YBN
[1229 AD]
| 1348)
| Toulouse, France |
767 YBN
[1233 AD]
| 1396) In botany, Albertus collects and records data on plants from his extensive travels throughout Europe. Albertus describes arsenic, although arsenic is probably known to earlier chemists. Albertus brings Arabic translations from Padua to Paris when he lectures at the University of Paris from 1245-1254. Albertus studies at the University of Padua (according to Isaac Asimov the University of Padua is an intellectual center at this time). Albertus teaches Thomas Aquinas. At the University of Paris Albertus is introduced to the works of Aristotle and to Averroës' commentaries and decides to present to his contemporaries the entire body of human knowledge as seen by Aristotle and his commentators. For 20 years Albertus works on his book "Physica", which includes natural science, logic, rhetoric, mathematics, astronomy, ethics, economics, politics, and metaphysics. Albertus believes that many points of Christian doctrine are recognizable both by faith and by reason.
Albertus is a proponent of Aristotelianism at the University of Paris and establishes the study of nature as a legitimate science within the Christian tradition.
Albertus' writings are at least 38 volumes. These writings exhibit Albertus' prolific and encyclopedic knowledge of natural and pseudo sciences of this time, such as logic, theology, botany, geography, astronomy/astrology, mineralogy, chemistry, zoology, physiology, phrenology and others.
Albertus rejects the idea of "music of the spheres" as ridiculous: movement of astronomical bodies, he supposes, is incapable of generating sound (in his commentary on Aristotle's "Poetics").
Albertus wrote "Natural science does not consist in ratifying what others have said, but in seeking the causes of phenomena".
| Paris, France |
766 YBN
[1234 AD]
| 1125) The movable metal block printing press is invented in Korea.
The oldest surviving movable metal print book is the "Jikji", printed in Korea in 1377. This volume contains the essentials of Zen Buddhism compiled by the Baegun in the late Goryeo period and was printed {in} the old Heungdeok-sa temple in Cheongju city, using movable metal types in July 1377. While some earlier metal type printings are mentioned in the old Korean books, this book is the world's oldest movable metal type printing evidence available.
In 1403, King Htai Tjong of Korea, orders a set of 100,000 pieces of type to be cast in bronze.
| Korea |
766 YBN
[1234 AD]
| 1399) Frederick's empire is frequently at war with the Papal States, is excommunicated twice and often vilified in chronicles of the time. Pope Gregory IX goes so far as to call Frederick II the Antichrist. The Emperor supported the contemporary demand that the church return to the poverty and saintliness of the early Christian community.
Frederick II founded the University of Naples in 1224, one of the earliest universities in Europe.
In August 1231, at Melfi, the Emperor issues his new constitutions for the Kingdom of Sicily. Not since the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian in the 500s CE had the administrative law of a European state been codified.
| Sicily |
760 YBN
[1240 AD]
| 1349)
| Siena, Tuscany, Italy |
758 YBN
[1242 AD]
| 1403)
| Oxford, England |
752 YBN
[1248 AD]
| 1397) Albertus Magnus (Albert the great) (1193-1280) is sent to Cologne to organize the first Dominican studium generale ("general house of studies"), a precursor to the University of Cologne, in Germany. Albertus will preside over this house until 1254 and devote himself to a full schedule of studying, teaching, and writing. Thomas Aquinas, who had been with Albertus in Paris, joins Albertus in Cologne, and is Albertus' chief disciple at this time. Aquinas will return to Paris in 1252. The two men maintain a close relationship even though doctrinal differences exist.
| Cologne |
748 YBN
[1252 AD]
| 1416) Alfonso X of Castille (1221-1284), a Spanish monarch, founds schools, and encourages learning. Alfonso orders the creation of the Alfonsine Tables, astronomical tables based on the Toledo tables but revised for more accuracy. These astronomical tables will be used for more than 300 years. Alfonso sponsors the writing of the first history of Spain and translations of the Koran and Talmud.
Alfonso X orders the creation of the Alfonsine tables, which are astronomical tables drawn up around 1252 to 1270 to correct the anomalies in the Tables of Toledo. The Alfonsine tables divided the year into 365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes, and 16 seconds. These tables are originally written in Spanish and will later be translated into Latin. The Alfonsine tables will become the most popular astronomical tables in Europe until late in the 1500s, when they will be replaced by Erasmus Reinhold's "Prutenic Tables", which are based on Nicolaus Copernicus's "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium".
Alfonso supported the long-established program of translation traditionally known as School of Translators of Toledo that increased the flow of ancient Greek and Arabic knowledge into Christian Europe. The scientific treatises compiled under Alfonso's patronage were the work of this "School of Translators" of Toledo, an informal grouping of Christian, Islamic, and Jewish scholars who make available the findings of Arab science to Europeans in Latin and Spanish translations. Alfonso's main scientific interests are astronomy and astrology, as indicated by the "Tablas Alfonsies" (Alfonsine Tables), which contain diagrams and figures on planetary movements, and the "Libros del saber de astronomia" (Books of Astronomical Lore), which describe astronomical instruments.
Welcoming Christian, Islamic, and Judaistic scholars to his court, Alfonso sponsors a translation of the Talmud (a record of rabbinic discussions pertaining to Jewish law, ethics, customs and history) and the Koran. After the revolt by his son Sancho, however, Alfonso turned against the Jewish community of Toledo, imprisoning them in their synagogues and demolishing their homes.
Alfonso is the first king who initiates the use of the Castilian language extensively, although his father, Fernando III had begun to use the Castilian language for some documents, instead of Latin, as the language used in courts, churches, books and official documents. Castillian therefore becomes the official language during the reign of Alfonso X. After this time all public documents are written in Castilian, and all translations are made into Castilian instead of Latin.
Wanting to provide his kingdoms with a code of laws and a consistent judicial system, Alfonso begins the law code called the "Siete Partidas" (Seven Divisions of the Law). Based on Roman law, the "Siete Partidas" contains discourses on manners and morals and an idea of the king and his people as a corporationâ"superior to feudal arrangementsâ"with the king as agent of both God and the people. After Alfonso's death, "Siete partidas" will be proclaimed the law of all Castile and Leon in 1348 by his great-grandson, and the language of Alfonso's court will evolve into modern Castilian Spanish. This work is not so much a legal codex as a learned essay on various kinds of law, covering all aspects of social life, and is therefore a repository of medieval Spanish custom. The Siete Partidas, will have enormous influence on the future course of Spanish law and on the law of Spain's overseas possessions.
Alfonso also patronizes two ambitious historical compilations, the "Primera crónica general" (First General Chronicle) and the "General estoria" (General History), designed to present a complete history of the world. These writings mix fact and fiction, especially when describing the ancient world, but they constitute a faithful representation of medieval people's attitudes toward the past.
Alfonso creates a multicultural haven for artists, scientists, and musicians, Jewish, Islamic and Christian people alike.
In 1254 Alfonso founds the chair of music at Salamanca University. Alfonso also overseas the compilation of the "Cantigas de Santa Maria", a famous manuscript collection of songs by Spanish and other composers. A cantiga is a genre of 1200s Spanish monophonic, or unison, song, often honoring the Virgin Mary. The Cantigas de Santa María manuscript is the most famous collection of cantigas, and is preserved in three manuscript copies at the library of El Escorial, northwest of Madrid, the Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid, and the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence. The collection contains the words and music of more than 400 songs in the Galician language, celebrating the miracles of the Virgin. Most of the songs are in virelai form (found in medieval French poetry and music) and show an affinity with the songs of the contemporary troubadours (poet-musicians of Provence). The King calls himself "the Virgin's troubadour". These songs contain a wealth of descriptive detail about medieval life.
(The focus on the virgin Mary may have represented some kind of want or desire for a female aspect in Christianity.)
| Castile, Spain |
741 YBN
[1259 AD]
| 1412) More than an observatory, Hülegü Khan creates a first-rate library and staffs his institution with notable Islamic and Chinese scholars.
Al-Tusi writes approximately 150 books in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish and edits the definitive Arabic versions of the works of Euclid, Archimedes, Ptolemy, Autolycus, and Theodosius. He also makes original contributions to mathematics and astronomy. Al-Tusi's "Zij-i Ilkhani" (1271; "Ilkhan Tables"), based on research at the Maragheh observatory, is a very accurate table of planetary movements. This book contains astronomical tables for calculating the positions of the planets and the names of the stars. His model for the planetary system is believed to be the most advanced of his time, and was used extensively until the development of the heliocentric model in the time of Copernicus. Al-Tusi's most influential book in the West may be "Tadhkirah fi 'ilm al-hay'a" (âTreasury of astronomyâ), which describes a geometric construction, now known as the al-Tusi couple, for producing rectilinear motion from a point on one circle rolling inside another. By means of this construction, al-Tusi succeeds in reforming the Ptolemaic planetary models, producing a system in which all orbits are described by uniform circular motion. Most historians of Islamic astronomy believe that the planetary models developed at Maragheh found their way to Europe (perhaps via Byzantium) and provided Nicolaus Copernicus (1473â"1543) with inspiration for his astronomical models.
In offering his services as an astrologer and astronomer to the newly conquering Hulagu Khan, and gaining the Mongol ruler's confidence, al-Tusi saves many libraries and educational institutions.
Al-Tusi's works include: * "Tajrid-al-'Aqaid" â" A major work on al-Kalam (Islamic scholastic philosophy). * "Al-Tadhkirah fi'ilm al-hay'ah" â" A memoir on the science of astronomy. Many commentaries were written about this work called Sharh al-Tadhkirah (A Commentary on al-Tadhkirah) - Commentaries were written by Abd al-Ali, Al-Birjandi, and by Nazzam Nishapuri. * "Akhlaq-i-Nasri" â" A work on ethics. * "al-Risalah al-Asturlabiyah" A Treatise on astrolabe.
| in Maragheh (now in Azerbaijan) |
739 YBN
[1261 AD]
| 1842) The earliest known Chinese illustration of the triangle of binomial coefficients ("Pascal's Triangle") is from Yang Hui's book "Xiangjie Jiuzhang Suanfa" (详解九章算法), although it existed beforehand. Today Pascal's triangle is called "Yang Hui's triangle" in China.
| ?, China (presumably) |
737 YBN
[1263 AD]
| 1417) Taddeo Alderotti (CE 1223-c1295), Italian physician, writes commentaries on Hippocrates, Galen, and Avicenna. Alderotti describes clinical cases and presents them with advice on treatments.
Alderotti's "Consilia" contain clinical case studies, together with the physician's opinion, the preventive measures taken and the dietary and therapeutic treatment given. Alderotti is the first scholar of health (medicine) to write health (medical) literature of this kind, and he also writes one of the first health (medical) works in the vernacular, "Sulla conservazione della salute", a kind of family health (medical) encyclopedia.
| Bologna, Italy |
735 YBN
[01/20/1265 AD]
| 1525) Simon de Montfort's army had met and defeated the royal forces at the Battle of Lewes on May 14, 1264. The rebels captured Prince Edward, and the subsequent treaty created the 1265 parliament to agree on a constitution formulated by Simon.
This is the first parliament at which both knights (representing shires or counties) and burgesses (representing boroughs) are present, which substantially broadens representation to include new groups of society. This parliament is also the first time that commoners attending Parliament are required to be elected. The knights representing counties who had been summoned to some earlier Parliaments had not been required to be chosen by election.
This Parliament lasts for about a month.
De Montfort sends out representatives to each county and to a select list of boroughs, asking each to send two representatives (this was not the first Parliament in England, but what distinguishes thi Parliament is that de Montfort insists that the representatives be elected).
De Montfort's scheme will be formally adopted by Edward I in the so-called "Model Parliament" of 1295.
| Rome, Italy |
735 YBN
[1265 AD]
| 1418) In this time people begin to react against the traditional feeling of powerlessness against nature and strive to master the forces of nature through the use of their reason. Because of Aristotle's emphasis on experiment and information gathering the dispute over the reality of universals (in other words the question about the relation between general words such as âredâ and particulars such as âthis red objectâ), which had dominated early Scholastic philosophy, was left behind as scholars begin to develop a more accurate understanding of the universe.
Around this time the works of Ibn Rushd (Averroës), who representated Arabic philosophy in Spain, known for his commentary on and interpretation of Aristotle, are becoming known to the Parisian scholars. Although a believer in the Islamic religion, Averroes asserted that religious knowledge is entirely different from rational knowledge, and that truth through faith and truth through reason can coexist. This dualism was denied by Muslim orthodoxy. This explanation found support in some of the faculty of the University of Paris, including Siger of Brabant. Thomas Aquinas opposed this view, but ultimately with the condemnation of 1270, Aquinas will be discredited. I view this Averroes idea of truth through reason and truth through faith coexisting as a progressive step in the replacing of faith with logic, and religion with science. In my view there is only one truth, and that is the truth revealed by logic, or so-called "reason", honest and accurate science, with no need for faith, religion, superstitution, myth, lies and less accurate theories and beliefs. According to Aquinas, reason is able to operate within faith and yet according to its own laws.
Aquinas writes commentaries on Aristotle. Asimov credits Acquinas with upholding logic as a respected method for extending human knowledge, and helping to make science respectable after a long period of science being considered Pagan. Aquinas studies under Albertus Magnus in Paris. Aquinas teaches in France and Italy.
Philosophically, Aquinas' most important and enduring work is the Summa Theologica, in which he expounds his systematic theology.
Aquinas believes that human beings have the natural capacity to know many things without special divine revelation. Like Ibn Rushd, Aquinas supports the view that truth is known through reason (natural revelation) and faith (supernatural revelation). Supernatural revelation is revealed through the prophets, Holy Scripture, and the Magisterium, the sum of which is called "tradition". Natural revelation is the truth available to all people through their human nature.
Aquinas writes against the forced baptism of the children of Jewish and heretical people.
| Paris, France |
733 YBN
[1267 AD]
| 1401) The Opus Majus is divided into seven parts: * Part one considers the obstacles to real wisdom and truth, classifying the causes of error (offendicula) into four categories: following a weak or unreliable authority, custom, the ignorance of others, and concealing one's own ignorance by pretended knowledge. * Part two considers the relationship between philosophy and theology, concluding that theology (and particularly Holy Scripture) is the foundation of all sciences. * Part three contains a study of Bibilical languages: Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Arabic, as a knowledge of language and grammar is necessary to understand revealed wisdom. * Parts four, five, and six consider, respectively, mathematics, optics, and experimental science. They include a review of alchemy and the manufacture of gunpowder and of the positions and sizes of the celestial bodies, and anticipates later inventions, such as microscopes, telescopes, spectacles, flying machines, hydraulics and steam ships. The study of optics in part five seems to draw on the works of the Arab writers Kindi and Alhazen, including a discussion of the physiology of eyesight, the anatomy of the eye and the brain, and considers light, distance, position, and size, direct vision, reflected vision, and refraction, mirrors and lenses. * Part seven considers moral philosophy and ethics.
Bacon uses a camera obscura (which projects an image through a pinhole) to observe eclipses of the Sun. Ibn Haytham was the first of record to use a camera obscura.
Bacon studies the work of Grosseteste. Bacon appeals to Pope Clement to allow more experimentation in the educational system. Bacon compiles a Greek grammar and a Hebrew grammar. A grammar is a document explaining the rules that control the usa of a language.
| Oxford, England |
732 YBN
[1268 AD]
| 1147)
| China |
731 YBN
[08/08/1269 AD]
| 1420) Peregrinus' letter on the magnet, "Epistola Petri Peregrini de Maricourt ad Sygerum de Foucaucourt, militem, de magnete" ("Letter on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus of Maricourt to Sygerus of Foucaucourt, Soldier"), commonly known by its short title, "Epistola de magnete", consists of two parts: the first treats the properties of the lodestone (magnetite, a magnetic iron oxide mineral), and the second describes several instruments that utilize the properties of magnets. In the first part, Peregrinus provides the first extant written account of the polarity of magnets (he was the first to use the word "pole" in this regard), and he provides methods for determining the north and south poles of a magnet. (explain how). Peregrinus describes how like poles repel each other and unlike poles attract each other. In the second part of his treatise Peregrinus talks about the practical applications of magnets, describing the floating compass as an instrument in common use and proposes a new pivoted compass in some detail. Peregrinus' writing on his experiments with magnets form the basis of the science of magnetism. This letter is widely regarded as one of the great works of medieval experimental research and a precursor of modern scientific Pivoting compass needle in a 14th century handcopy of Peter's Epistola de magnete (1269)methodology.
In "Epistola de Magnete", Peregrinus describes one compass with which "you will be able to direct your steps to cities and islands and to any place whatever in the world." Indeeed, the increasing perfection of magnetic compasses during the 1200s will allow navigators such as Vandino and Ugolino Vivaldi to set out on voyages to unknown lands.
| Lucera, Italy |
730 YBN
[12/??/1270 AD]
| 1405) The main ideas of Averroism are: * there is one truth, but there are (at least) two ways to reach it: through philosophy and through religion; * the world is eternal; * the soul is divided into two parts: one individual, and one divine; * the individual soul is not eternal; * all humans at the basic level share one and the same divine soul (an idea known as monopsychism); * resurrection of the dead is not possible (this was put forth by Boëtius);
| Paris, France |
725 YBN
[1275 AD]
| 1419) Villanova helps to introduce the teachings of Galen and Ibn Sina (Avicenna) to Western Europe. The first wine book to be mass printed will be de Villanova's "Liber de Vinis". In this book wine is recommended as a treatment of various illnesses such as dementia and sinus trouble.
| Paris, France |
723 YBN
[1277 AD]
| 1404)
| Oxford, England |
723 YBN
[1277 AD]
| 1406) Tempier's condemnation is only one of the approximately sixteen lists of censured theses that were issued at the University of Paris during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.
| Paris, France |
720 YBN
[1280 AD]
| 5873) Musical notes defined in terms of time ("long", "breve" and "semibreve") in "mensural notation".
Franco of Cologne codifies the mensural notation (from the Latin "measured", in the sense of division of units) in his "Ars cantus mensurabilis" (c1280, "The Art of measurable Song"). Franco's system assigns specific rhythmic meaning to each of the various note shapes. This provides composers with a system capable of much greater flexibility, and is the system essentially still in place today. In the earliest version of mensural notation (Franconian notation), the main note values are the "long", the "breve", and the "semibreve". In modern editions, the long is usually drawn as a dotted half note or half note and the breve as a quarter note. Each of these notes could be divided into smaller units of two or three.
| Cologne, Germany |
720 YBN
[1280 AD]
| 6238) Alessandro di Spina is credited with introducing eyeglasses into Europe. The first portrait to show eyeglasses is that of Hugh of Provence by Tommaso da Modena, painted in 1352.
| Florence, Italy |
719 YBN
[1281 AD]
| 1413) Qutb al-Din writes two notable works on astronomy, "The Limit of Accomplishment concerning Knowledge of the Heavens" (Nihayat al-idrak fi dirayat al-aflak) completed in 1281, and "The Royal Present" (Al-Tuhfat al-Shahiya) completed in 1284. Both present his models for planetary motion, improving on Ptolemy's principles.
| Maragha, Iran |
710 YBN
[1290 AD]
| 1350)
| Coimbra, Portugal |
703 YBN
[1297 AD]
| 1422) The full title of D'Abano's book is "Conciliator Differentiarum, quÅ" inter Philosophos et Medicos Versantur". D'Abano is a professor of medicine in Padua, trained at the University of Paris.
Peter of Abano usesAristotle's logic to suggest that Jesus's death was only apparent.
| Padua, Italy |
702 YBN
[1298 AD]
| 1421) Polo's detailed descriptions of the locations of spices will encourage Western merchants to seek out these areas and break the age-old Arab trading monopoly. The wealth of new geographic information recorded by Polo will be widely used in the late 1400s and 1500s, during the age of the great European voyages of discovery and conquest. Polo's book is largely not believed.
| Genoa, Italy |
700 YBN
[1300 AD]
| 1121) Earliest mechanical clock.
The first mechanical clocks in Europe work based on a simple principle. A weight is suspended from a cord wrapped many times around a driving shaft. As the weight descends the shaft turns and the movement is transmitted to the hands, or in many cases just a single hour hand. To regulate the movement so that the hands rotate at a fixed rate, using an escapement.
| Europe |
700 YBN
[1300 AD]
| 5874) In Florence, Italy, several new forms of musical composition evolve: madrigals (contrapuntal compositions for several voices), ballatas (similar to the French virelai), and caccias (three-voice songs using melodic imitation). Leading composers of these styles are a blind organist, Francesco Landini (CE c1335-1397), Giovanni da Cascia, Jacopo da Bologna, and Lorenzo and Ghirardello da Firenze.
Blinded by smallpox as a child, Francesco Landini takes up the study of music and the organ. He later becomes an organ builder as well as a composer, lyricist, and performer of more than 150 beautifully melodic two- and three-part songs. Landini's works represent about a quarter of the music that survives from the Italian Ars Nova (1300s).
(Note that Landini's songs, such as "Ecco la primavera" ("Here is the Spring" are non-religious {secular}. Determine if this represents a present or earlier transition.)
| Florence, Italy |
697 YBN
[1303 AD]
| 1351)
| Coimbra, Portugal |
692 YBN
[09/08/1308 AD]
| 1352)
| Perugia, Italy |
690 YBN
[10/24/1310 AD]
| 356) Secret: Possibly around this time, humans secretly figure out how to hear and record the sounds heard by a brain ("to hear ears") by measuring electricity remotely by examining the invisible frequencies of light emitted from the nerve cell of the human brain which reflect the frequency of the sound wave colliding with the ear ("remote neuron reading").
Perhaps all the of the direct and remote neuron reading and writing initiated with the finding that electricity makes a muscle contract. All other major discoveries probably occurred within a few years in all major nations. Much of the communication must have been centered around making wireless electric cameras as small as possible to spy on other people locally and in other nations.
The best evidence so far obtained for the theory that direct and remote neuron reading and writing occurred at least by the 1300s is the William Byrd poem "Songs of Sundrie Natures" (1589) which includes the phrases "your mind is light", "And we were out and he was in". The last verse is "For all my love was past and done, Two days before it was begun."- which may mean possibly that seeing that a person's mind is light was done two centuries before the writing of this poem. Hinting may have been easier after only 200 years after the secret.
| London, England |
690 YBN
[10/24/1310 AD]
| 656) Secret: Humans hear the sounds heard by a brain by examining low (heat) frequency light. This begins an amazing adventure of interpreting light emitted from brains, although terribly kept secret from the public. Using this same technique people will then hear the sounds made by thought. Soon after this they will see the images seen and thought by brains. In addition, they learn how to send sounds and images back to the brain (neuron writing) using x-particles (x-rays), sending sounds to be heard in the mind, or as if outside the body and sending images to appear in the mind or in outside space as if actually in front of them, and (better estimate at accurate chronology)
The exact date, time, location, invention, and even inventor are not clear because of the secrecy that still surrounds this technology.
William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) may be the first to see what the eyes see in the infrared (heat) frequencies of light which pass through and are emited (sic) by the human brain.
Many later scientists, such as Faraday will use the word "tenable" and there is a double meaning in that thought is first seen in 1810 but also that Wollaston, the possible first to see, was the assistant of Smithson Tennant.
Possibly, people use electronic oscillating circuits to detect heat.
In addition, initially, sounds heard by the brain, may have been detected using electromagnetic induction by using the greater aurical nerve of the ear as the primary wire of current, and using a secondary inductor to record the current produced by sound.
As people that are excluded from knowing the truth, and even from receiving direct-to-brain windows, knowing that actual story is almost impossible. It seems likely that whenever this effort occurred the value was quickly realized. That truth argues for a very early time- as soon as wealthy people figured out that such a thing is possible. It also must be a product of the technology in use then- but much of this technology is secret. The best indications are from the printed words of the wealthy - many, and perhaps even a majority of them hint with their word choice and by spelling words by using the first letter of each word.
One theory puts direct and remote neuron reading and writing in 1810 by William Hyde Wollaston. Wollaston hears and records sounds that his ears hear from his own brain in infrared light. So the variations in the intensity of infrared light (heat) emitted from the brain that exactly match the frequency of sounds are recorded - from light back into sound. Perhaps Wollaston uses loud sounds to detect a change in infrared signal.
At this point many other people must have heard about this finding and teams of people start to explore the idea of seeing, hearing and sending back images and sounds to and from brains. Next Wollaston and others must have recorded the sounds of thought - that is sounds internally produced by the brain or perhaps they recorded the light a brain sees next. Detecting and/or recording a sound signal is easier than an image, because sound only requires a single detector, where an image requires a large array of sensors, although changes in light can be detected with a single sensor.
Probably external sounds are recorded from infrared light first, then thought-sounds, then external images seen by the brain are recorded, then internal images are recorded. Perhaps seeing and/or recording of external and internal images from infrared light emitting from the brain are realized at the same time.
It seems clear that there must be a long space between hearing and seeing ears, eyes and thoughts and being able to do neuron writing - that is to write images and sounds and other sensations back to a brain. But then, Galvani had led the way in 1791 with direct electrical muscle movement and this electrical examination of the nervous system must have been an active area of scientific examination. Coulomb comments about remote muscle movements as early as 1827. Evidence for 1810 is in the use of the word "tenable" by Faraday and many others.
So there is clearly at least one screen in the brain that contains the image a brain's eyes see, but there is also a screen used to visualize thoughts, for example, with eyes open, imagine a yellow square. Where this yellow square is located is on a "thought screen", that may be different from where the screen the image in front of the eyes is located.
Much of this research relates to military, government, telephone developments. The military and telegraph companies, interested in fast communication and information gathering, quickly realize the value of microphones and cameras - and this thought hearing and seeing and sending technology is father along on in this particular field of science.
Other universities and science societies around the US and earth probably quickly develop their own "thought seeing" infrared processes. It probably takes a large amount of refining, to try and find the best method to see the images from behind heads, which may be greatly magnified or possibly microscopic. Seeing what other species see greatly adds to some people's knowledge of the other species. For example, it is possible that this is when it is learned that dogs are color blind. How wonderful it must be to see what the resolution of bird's eyes are, and what they draw on their brain screen. Clearly, for example most mammals, including humans, draw an unending stream of remembered images their eyes saw, of the faces of those around them, of food objects (in particular when they are hungry). Clearly there may be a major evolutionary difference between brains that can simply remember an image versus those that can also draw new images.
One of the most shocking, disappointing, and terrible series of decisions are made at this time, and that is to keep this unbelievable useful and wonderful technology and scientific finds a secret from the public. This secret has lasted until now in 2010 and continues to persist with very few clear signs of ending.
Probably the argument is that seeing eyes and hearing thought is too valuable a tool against their enemies, but this excuse must be quickly anulled when the elite of all major developed nations quickly duplicate the simple neuron reading and writing process. Ultimately the people who will suffer the most as a result of this secrecy are the poor and general public, who are routinely abused by those secretive people who become connected into a growing secret camera-thought network. The secret camera-thought network may have developed before 1810, clearly a secret spy network of microphones mainly, but possibly also film cameras may have already been in place by now. One of the most shocking aspects of this invention is that this will remain perhaps the best kept secret in recorded history, and certainly in the history of science, being a secret for most people since 1810 to this very day in 2010 two centuries later. (Although in terms of long held mistakes, perhaps the mistaken beliefs of the Jesus based religions, and the Gods theories are mistaken beliefs with a far longer duration.) In this time people have been born, lived, and died without even knowing that thousands if not millions of people (the current estimate is 300 million routinely see and hear thought) were listening and watching their thoughts. This technology is wonderful, and should be available to all people. This find greatly improves the understanding of what people and the other species think of, even when they dream, since it is instantly probably found that the thought screen is the very screen where those with brains watch dreams, and images of what each species thinks about during sex are helpful in understanding sexuality. Science originated in the closet of a secret wealthy elite, and this has been a disastrous truth for science and the public. These secrets quite possibly may result in those who try to tell the public being murdered, imprisoned or hospitalized. Knowing that neuron reading and writing was probably well developed in the 1800s, makes the development of World Wars 1 and 2 somewhat difficult to understand, since - how could there possibly be any thought of conflict - when everybody can see the other's thoughts? In 1914 World War I will start, and it is very possible that this conflict started because of or with the use of this new technology. World War I may be an example of how a wealthy insider neuron reading and writing elite quickly learned to use neuron reading and writing to manipulate large groups of people - the pubic into violent and disasterous war. It seems very likely that even the Nazi leaders will have this neuron reading and writing technology in the 1930s and 40s, and it is possible that these tools gave the Nazi elite and their wealthy backers the power to trick and mislead the excluded public. This new technology creates a completely new paradigm in communication. Now people can simply think to each other, and talking is not necessary (except to communicate with those who are excluded). In addition, there may be very few secrets in the camera-thought net since those who control this technology can see all thoughts. Quickly counter-technology must have been in development - and no doubt underground military who live in sealed buildings and tunnels in the earth - to prevent against particle penetration. It is difficult to know how this network grows, clearly wired, and then wireless too, and then to know who controls it, who funds it (quite probably the taxpayers of every nation fund most of it, even thought they do not get to use it) - clearly the government militaries and phone companies must be involved in manufacturing and using these neuron reading and writing devices.
No doubt some people have bad reactions when shown this neuron reading and writing technology. Many people feel it is a complete violation of what was the privacy of their minds and their thoughts. They feel there is no where to hide, and some probably even commit suicide as a result of knowing about the technology. But for the most part most people that are in the privileged few to be included relish this new technology with a cocaine-like addiction. Why is the seeing and hearing of thought kept secret for so long? That is a great mystery and a debate that will rage on for centuries. Clearly one part was the greed for power and control of the wealthy people of earth to keep this technology from those they want to control. Much is embarrassment of wealthy and powerful people not wanting the public to know about their lies, sexual affairs, etc of included that the excluded might find out about. A large aspect is the use of these tools against non-representative democratic governments, and those within representative democratic countries who push for true democracy or other forms of government which might remove the wealthy and powerful from their positions of power and control over the public minds. Another aspect is the publics lack of interest in the history of science. If people are actively interested in science and less in religion and sports, perhaps people would have figured out or duplicated neuron reading and writing and with so many people reproducing the findings, it would be more difficult to keep out of the main-stream newspapers, who readily accept the mandate of secrecy given by what must be a majority of the wealthy and powerful. Perhaps the neuron writing people are too far into violent crime to make showing the public a possible option - the result being known that the vast majority of them would be jailed, and perhaps given death sentences for their involvement in neuron writing or other particle beam murder - which occurs in the millions. The list of humans murdered by particle beam, in particular by neuron writing - having vital muscles contracted must be in the millions - and the public does not even know this. When if ever will seeing and hearing thought become public knowledge? My own estimate is within 50 to 100 years, around 2050-2100 CE. Surprisingly guns and other weapons, lasers (many of which are still secret, including antimatter and charged particle guns), even how to make nuclear weapons is all public information, but the harmless nonviolent seeing of images and hearing of thought - even neuron reading is still a secret nearly 100 years after it's origin.
A multi-million secret camera network will rise up out of this secret technology. People, mostly those who are very wealthy, in the government military and police, the power and telephone utility companies, the major media, first the newspaper and magazine companies, then radio, then television will all be members and secret viewers and listeners of the many microphones, nanocameras, and neuron reading and writing transmitters and receivers secretly placed in every house around the planet. This network continues to secretly grow even now. Those in power will use the power of sending images and sounds to brains in a systematic way to plant suggestions into the minds of the many excluded people who form the vast majority of people on earth. In addition, finding physical evidence of this massive network is very difficult, because everything is done mainly in the brain. All video is sent directly to and from brains (although if these images, transmitted by photons or electrons can be intercepted, a paper copy could be made). No people in these networks are allowed to nor have the technology necessary to print paper copies of any information explaining how to see thought in the infrared, how to hear thought, how to send images to brains, etc. The involuntary treatments and imprisonment based on the fraudulent theories of psychology can be and no doubt are often applied against those excluded who start to talk about people hearing their thoughts. They are labeled insane (mainly by included), and understand that to talk about people hearing their thoughts is going to make them look as if they have a mental disease. Most excluded who become aware of this secret thought-hearing technology are only left with stories giving their own word that a person said exactly what they were thinking, without any other physical evidence. There are parallels to the stories of prisoners being murdered in Auschwitz in WW II, so shocking that many simply did not believe them. And beyond that, very few lived to tell the story to the outside. Those in the camps that knew, workers, etc. knew it would only make matters worse to tell the victims on their way to the gas chambers about their inevitable systematic murder. This technology to see and hear thought has grown into a massive secret system where people have a virtual computer desktop beamed in front of their eyes where they watch video from inside people's houses, and casually communicate through thought to the other included around them, listening to those who are "read only", whom they can only hear the thoughts of without thinking back to them. This network now has grown to some 300,000,000 people and is hopefully growing every year. By now in 2010 even low income people routinely receive some form of basic service, and the secret network is no longer strictly only in the hands of the wealthy elite, although most of those included are conservative, most are followers of Jesus, and so many times, the worst, most violent, are allowed to use this technology to murder, assault, and generally abuse more liberal, educated, lawful, ethical people who are excluded, a prime example being the controlled demolition of 9/11, how Frank Fiorini (killer of JFK) and Thane Cesar (killer of RFK) probably hear thought, but many college educated nonviolent people still are excluded. You have to realize that people in police and military control much of this technology and so, since most of them have little education (although education is not a requirement for a person to live an honest, stop-violence, decent life), and are forced to live rigid lives in uniform, mostly surrounded by other males, a very spartan and uneducated group control this very useful technology, and use it, not to make communication easier and quicker, but simply to abuse innocent people in nazistic, pointless, sadistic, violent, annoying, illegal, and idiotic ways.
(Probably not until the 2300s or perhaps even later will most humans in developed nations realize and recognize the haulocaust of neuron writing of these centuries and the massive quantity of neuron written murders that occured secretly without the public every knowing.)
| London, England |
690 YBN
[10/24/1310 AD]
| 657) Secret: Humans hear and record the sounds of thought by measuring electricity from human nerves. Soon, the sounds brains hear and think will be recorded remotely by electromagnetic induction and amplification.
| London, England (presumably) |
690 YBN
[1310 AD]
| 357) Secret: Nerve cell made to fire directly ("direct neuron writing").
Jan Swammerdam will be the first to report this publicly in 1678.
Perhaps the first major secret science excitement must have been the camera, then the electric camera - which initiated probably a well funded and staffed program of making cameras as small as possible and wireless to spy on people and for rapid communications with each other- in the interested of survival against violent people - and then neuron writing and neuron reading probably caused the next big secret science stirring. The camera must be around 1100, the electric camera around 1200, for both direct and remote neuron reading and writing to be secretly invented around 1310. Or perhaps everything happened more quickly like 1200 for the universities and the camera, 1250 for the electric camera, and 1310 for neuron reading and writing.
| London, England (presumably) |
690 YBN
[1310 AD]
| 1424) Five of false (or pseudo) Jabir's works have suvived, dating from around 1310: * Summa perfectionis magisterii ("The Height of the Perfection of Mastery") * Liber fornacum ("Book of Stills"), * De investigatione perfectionis ("On the Investigation of Perfection"), and * De inventione veritatis ("On the Discovery of Truth"). * Testamentum gerberi
Pseudo-Jabir's books are widely read and extremely influential among European alchemists. Pseudo-Jabir will be instrumental in spreading Arabic alchemical theories throughout Western Europe.
Pseudo-Geber's rational approach, however, did much to give alchemy a firm and respectable position in Europe. His practical directions for laboratory procedures were so clear that it is obvious he was familiar with many chemical operations.
Pseudo-Jabir's works on chemistry will not be equaled until the 1500s with the appearance of the writings of the Italian chemist Vannoccio Biringuccio, the German mineralogist Georgius Agricola, and the German alchemist Lazarus Ercker.
| Spain |
690 YBN
[1310 AD]
| 4540) Secret: Nerve cell made to fire remotely (without having to touch the nerve directly). (neuron writing)
Perhaps initially a frog leg muscle is made to contract using an x-ray (x-particle) beam. Then a human finger muscle is made to contract by using remote particle beam. Then a sound is made to be heard by a human by remote particle beam. Probably around the same time, light is caused to be seen by a human by remotely using an x-ray or some other particle beam.
In 1678 Jan Swammerdam had contracted a frog leg muscle with electricity.
In 1791 Luigi Galvani had made a nerve cell fire directly by touching the nerve. Being able to remotely make a nerve cell fire allows the very important muscle contraction, and sending sounds and images directly to brains from a remote location without having to physically touch the nerve possible.
Images that the brain thinks of are seen and recorded by measuring the electricity the thought-images produce in the human nerves.
The exact date, time, location, invention, and even inventor are not clear because of the secrecy that still surrounds this technology.
Very quickly after this the first murder of a human by remote muscle contraction using neuron writing as the murder weapon occurs. Since this time, the number of humans murdered by neuron writing must be in the tens or hundreds of thousands, and it would not surprise me to find that over a million humans have been murdered by neuron writing since it's invention. One of the worst aspects of the neuron writer as a weapon is that it may murder leaving little or no trace, for example in the case of contracting and holding a heart or lung muscle until a person is dead.
| London, England (presumably) |
688 YBN
[1312 AD]
| 363) Secret: Images that the brain thinks of are seen and recorded by measuring the light of lower than visible frequencies emitted nerve cells in a brain. The thought-images are written to the nerves by the owner of the brain, and those images are emitted and captured electronically.
The exact date, time, location, invention, and even inventor are not clear because of the secrecy that still surrounds this technology.
| London, England (presumably) |
688 YBN
[1312 AD]
| 4539) Secret: Images that the brain thinks of are seen and recorded by measuring the electricity the thought-images produce in the human nerves.
The exact date, time, location, invention, and even inventor are not clear because of the secrecy that still surrounds this technology.
| London, England (presumably) |
684 YBN
[1316 AD]
| 1428) Mondino's "Anathomia", is based on the dissection of human cadavers, and will be the best anatomy book available until the Flemish anatomist Andreas Vesalius (1514â"64) 200 years later. Mondino is the first to reintroduce the systematic teaching of anatomy into the health curriculum at the University of Bologna, after this practice had been abandoned for many centuries. "Anathomia" will be first printed in 1478. Mondino's "Anathomia" begins a new era in the dissemination of anatomical knowledge.
In his "Anathomia" Mondino makes numerous mistakes, wrongly describing the stomach as spherical, a five-lobed liver (instead of 3), a seven-celled uterus, and adpots Ibn Sina's (Avicenna's) erroneous description of the heart as having three cardiac ventricles. Professors who succeed Mondino conduct anatomical demonstrations by reading statements from classical texts while an assistant (a barber-surgeon) does the actual dissection and a demonstrator points out parts referred to, but Mondino has been commended for having dissected cadavers himself. Evidence in the Anathomia of his firsthand experience is rare, however, and the work abounds with accounts of structures found not in the human body but only in authoritative writings.
In "Anathomia" De; Luzzi divides the body into three cavities (ventres) - the abdomen, thorax and the upper, comprising the head and appendages. De' Luzzi's general manner is to briefly note the orientation and shape or distribution of textures or membranes, and then to mention the disorders to which they are subject. The peritoneum he describes under the name of siphac, in imitation of Ibn Sina (Avicenna) and al-Razi (Rhazes), the omentum as zirbus, and the mesentery or eucharus as distinct from both. In speaking of the intestines he describes the rectum, colon, sigmoid flexure (of which, as well as the transverse arch and its relation to the stomach, he particularly remarks), then the caecum or monoculus, and the small intestine divided into ileum, jejunum, and duodenum. The liver and its vessels are minutely examined, and the cava, under the name chilis, a corruption from the Greek koile, is treated at length, with the 'emulgents' (kidneys).
Mondino's anatomy seems to describe rudimentary circulation of the blood, although he immediately repeats the old assertion that the left ventricle ought to contain pneuma or air, generated from the blood. His osteology of the skull has many errors, but his account of the cerebral meninges, describes the principal characters of the dura mater. De' Luzzi briefly describes the brain's lateral ventricles, their anterior and posterior cornua, and the choroid plexus as a blood-red substance like a long worm. He then speaks of the third ventricle, and one posterior, which seems to correspond with the fourth; and describes the infundibulum under the names of lacuna and emboton. On the base of the brain he describes the mammillary bodies and seven pairs of cranial nerves (which seem to correspond to the optic, oculomotor, abducens, trigeminal, facial, vagus and glossopharyngeal nerves).
| Bologna, Italy |
683 YBN
[1317 AD]
| 1427) Ockham is regarded as the founder of a form of nominalism (the school of thought that denies that universal concepts such as "redness" have any reality apart from the individual things signified by the universal or general term.
Ockham is one of the first medieval authors to advocate a form of separation of church and government, and is important in the early development of the idea of property rights. His political ideas are regarded as "natural" or "secular", holding for a secular monarchy. The views on monarchial accountability described in Ockham's "Dialogus" (written between 1332 and 1348) will influence the Conciliar movement and will assist in the emergence of liberal democratic ideologies. The Conciliar movement is a reform movement in the 1300s and 1400s that holds that the final authority in spiritual matters should reside with Christians, embodied by a general church council, and not with the Pope. In some way, this is almost a democratisation of the Christian power structure, adding something similar to a Congress. Counciliarism will be condemned at the Fifth Lateran Council in 1512-17, and the doctrine of Papal Infallibility, that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error is decided by nearly 800 church leaders at the First Vatican Council of 1870, a body similar to a Congress of Cardinals although voting only during the period of the Council.
The most-cited version of the Razor to be found in Ockham's work is "Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate" or Plurality ought never be posed without necessity which occurs in his theological work on the Sentences of Peter Lombard (Quaestiones et decisiones in quattuor libros Sententiarum Petri Lombardi (ed. Lugd., 1495), i, dist. 27, qu. 2, K). The principle was, in fact, invoked before Ockham by Durand de Saint-Pourçain, a French Dominican theologian and philosopher.
| Oxford, England |
680 YBN
[1320 AD]
| 5870) Philippe de Vitry (CE 1291—1361) writes the treatise of music "Ars nova" (c. 1320; "New Art"), which describes the theoretical aspects of French music in the first half of the 1300s. In 1324-1325 Pope John XXII will condemn the "Ars nova" because the "notes of...small values" are "disturbing" the Divine Office.
| (Royal Court) Paris, France (verify) |
675 YBN
[1325 AD]
| 5887) Earliest known notated organ music.
The earliest known notated organ music is found in the Robertsbridge Codex of 1325, and requires a full chromatic octave (12-notes). In the midieval organ, there are no "stops" levers to control the movement of air through different combinations of pipes.
| (Abbey of) Robertsbridge, Sussex, UK |
673 YBN
[1327 AD]
| 1164) Richard of Wallingford (1292-1336), an English mathematician, designs an astronomical clock.
| Hertfordshire, England |
673 YBN
[1327 AD]
| 1353)
| Timbuktu, Mali, West Africa |
665 YBN
[1335 AD]
| 1354) | Zaragosa, Spain |
665 YBN
[1335 AD]
| 1425) Burindan's concept of impetus, is the first step toward the modern concept of inertia (the property of an object to remain at constant velocity unless acted on by an outside force). One interesting thing about this idea of an object continuing in motion unless there is some other force, is that by nature of the universe, there is always some other outside force because there is always the force of gravity in a universe filled with matter, although the velocity of some object may be larger than all other outside forces.
For example, Aristotle thought that air supplies the constant force to keep an object catapulted moving, but Buridan explains that no such force is necessary.
In addition, he correctly theorized that resistance of the air progressively reduces the impetus and that weight can add or detract from speed. This theory of continuous motion is to be fully explained in Isaac Newton's first law of motion 300 years later.
The problem of a choice between two identical items is illustrated by the story of "Buridan's ass" although the animal used in Buridan's commentary on Aristotle's "De caelo" ("On the Heavens") is actually a dog, not an ass. Burindan describes how a dog must choose between two equal amounts of food placed before it. Buridan uses this example to claim that the dog must make a random choice and this will lead to theories of probability.
In 1340 Buridan launches a philsophical attack on his mentor, William of Ockham. This act has been interpreted as the beginning of religious skepticism and the dawn of the scientific revolution, with Buridan himself preparing the way for Galileo Galilei through the theory of impetus. A posthumous campaign by Ockhamists will succeed in having Buridan's writings placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (List of Prohibited Books) (a list of publications which the Catholic Church censors for being a danger to itself and the faith of its members) from 1474-1481.
Buridan writes: "...after leaving the arm of the thrower, the projectile would be moved by an impetus given to it by the thrower and would continue to be moved as long as the impetus remained stronger than the resistance, and would be of infinite duration were it not diminished and corrupted by a contrary force resisting it or by something inclining it to a contrary motion."
| Paris, France |
664 YBN
[1336 AD]
| 1355)
| Camerino, Italy |
657 YBN
[09/03/1343 AD]
| 1356) | Pisa, Italy |
652 YBN
[04/07/1348 AD]
| 1357)
| Prague, Czech Republic (EU) |
650 YBN
[1350 AD]
| 1168) 3-masted carracks (sailing ship) are built and sailed in the Mediterranean.
| Mediterranean |
650 YBN
[1350 AD]
| 5886) By this time three "formes fixes" (fixed forms) of structural patterns of musical composition are established: "the ballade", which is called Bar form in Germany, with an AAB structure. This type, along with "the rondeau" (song for solo voice with choral refrain) and the similar "virelai" (an analog of the Italian ballata), will become a favored form used by composers of polyphony.
| France |
648 YBN
[1352 AD]
| 1402) The first portrait to show eyeglasses is that of Hugh of Provence by Tommaso da Modena, painted in 1352.
| Italy |
645 YBN
[1355 AD]
| 1980) Nicholas Oresme (OrAM) (CE c1320-1382), French Roman Catholic bishop and scholar, publishes "De origine, natura, jure et mutationibus monetarum" ("On the Origin, Nature, Juridical Status and Variations of Coinage",1355), in which Oresme argues that coinage belongs to the public, not to the prince, who has no right to vary arbitrarily the content or weight. His abhorrence of the effects of debasing the currency influence Charles's monetary and tax policies. Oresme is generally considered the greatest medieval economist.
| Paris, France |
640 YBN
[1360 AD]
| 1977) Oresme describes uniformly accelerated motion, in a manuscript "Tractatus de configuratione qualitatum et motuum" ("Treatise on the Configurations of Qualities and Motions",1350-1360). In this work Oresme conceives of the idea of using rectangular coordinates (latitudo and longitudo) and the resulting geometric figures to distinguish between uniform and nonuniform distributions of various quantities, even extending his definition to include three-dimensional figures. Therefore, Oresme helps to lay the foundation that will later lead to the discovery of analytic geometry by René Descartes (1596-1650). In addition, Oresme also uses his figures to give the first proof of the Merton theorem which is that: the distance traveled in any given period by a body moving under uniform acceleration is the same as if the body moved at a constant speed equal to its speed at the midpoint of the period. Some scholars believe that Oresme's graphical representation of velocities has a large influence on the work on falling bodies done by Galileo (1564-1642).
In 1348 Oresme's name appears on a list of graduate scholarship holders in theology at the College of Navarre at the University of Paris. Oresme becomes grand master of the College of Navarre in 1356, and so must have completed his doctorate in theology before this date.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
639 YBN
[1361 AD]
| 1358)
| Pavia, Itlay |
636 YBN
[1364 AD]
| 1359) | |
635 YBN
[03/12/1365 AD]
| 1360)
| Vienna, Austria |
633 YBN
[03/12/1367 AD]
| 1361)
| Pécs, Hungary |
630 YBN
[1370 AD]
| 1978) Starting around this time, Nicholas Oresme (OrAM) (CE c1320-1382), French Roman Catholic bishop and scholar, at the request of King Charles V of France, makes the first translation into any vernacular (in this case from Latin to French) of Aristotle's "Politics" ("Le livre des Politiques d'Aristote", 1371), "Ethics" ("Le livre des Ethiques d"Aristote", 1372), and "On the Heavens" ("De caelo et mundo", "Le livre du Ciel et du monde", 1377), in addition to the pseudo-Aristotelian "Economics", with interpretative comments, designed explicitly to spread scientific knowledge not only to specialists but to average educated people too.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
623 YBN
[1377 AD]
| 1979) Nicholas Oresme (OrAM) (CE c1320-1382), French Roman Catholic bishop and scholar, in his commentary of Aristotle's "De caelo et mundo", ("Livre du ciel et du monde", "Book on the Sky and the World", 1377), argues against any proof of the Aristotelian theory of a stationary Earth and a rotating sphere of fixed stars, and shows the possibility of a daily axial rotation of the Earth, but addirms his belief in a stationary Earth. Like few other scholastic philosophers (of this time), Oresme argues for the existence of an infinite void beyond the earth, which he identifies with a Deity.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
621 YBN
[1379 AD]
| 1414) Ibn Khaldun is regarded as a forefather of demography, historiography, philosophy of history, and sociology (the study of societies and human social interactions). Khaldun is viewed as one of the forerunners of modern economics.
The Kitābu l-ʕibār (full title: Kitābu l-ʕibār wa Diwānu l-Mubtada' wa l-Ħabar fī Ayyāmu l-ʕarab wa l-Ājam wa l-Barbar wa man ʕĀsarahum min ĐawIu s-Sultānu l-Akbār "Book of Evidence, Record of Beginnings and Events from the Days of the Arabs, Persians and Berbers and their Powerful Contemporaries"), Ibn Khaldūn's main work, was originally conceived as a history of the Berbers. Later, the focus was widened so that in its final form (including its own methodology and anthropology), it represents a so-called "universal history". It is divided into seven books, the first of which, the Muqaddimah, can be considered a separate work. Books two to five cover the history of mankind up to the time of Ibn Khaldūn. Books six and seven cover the history of the Berber peoples and of the Maghreb, which for the present-day historian represent the real value of the Al-Kitābu l-ʕibār, as they are based on Ibn Khaldūn's personal knowledge of the Berbers.
In the "Muqaddimah" (or "Prolegomena"), Khaldun analyzes the causes for the rise and downfall of civilizations and cultures, in addition to summarizing the sciences and the reasons for their cultivation in particular periods and the lack of interest in the sciences in other periods.
Khaldun developed one of the earliest nonreligious philosophies of history, contained in the "Muqaddimah" ("Introduction").
| the castle Qal'at ibn Salamah, near what is now the town of Frenda, Algeria |
614 YBN
[1386 AD]
| 1362)
| Heidelberg, Germany |
609 YBN
[03/04/1391 AD]
| 1363)
| Ferrara, Italy |
603 YBN
[1397 AD]
| 5897) Harpsichord. Pictures of the harpsichord appear from the early 1400s when it is known by variants of the Latin name clavicymbalum, a word which has been traced back to 1397 in Padua. Before 1600 harpsichords are built with two keyboards (manuals).
| Padua, Italy |
602 YBN
[03/04/1398 AD]
| 1364)
| (Myeongnyun-dong, Jongno-gu in central) Seoul and Suwon, South Korea |
600 YBN
[1400 AD]
| 1024)
| |
600 YBN
[1400 AD]
| 1170) Caravel sailing ships are invented. A caravel is a small, highly maneuverable, three-masted ship used by the Portuguese for long voyages of exploration beginning in the 15th century. The Caravel is built because it is more highly manueverable near coasts and in rivers than the Carrack.
| Speyer, Germany and Basal, Switzerland |
600 YBN
[1400 AD]
| 5878) Painting shows the plainchant is sung in convents as well as monasteries.
| (St. Jerome) England (verify) |
590 YBN
[1410 AD]
| 1365)
| St. Andrews, Scotland |
580 YBN
[1420 AD]
| 1429) Henry establishes an observatory and school at Sagres on Cape St Vincent in 1418, in southernmost Portugal, the southwestern tip of Europe. Every year Henry sends ships that go farther down the coast of Africa and supervises the collection of astronomical data to ensure greater safety of the ships. Henry's goal is to circumnavigate Africa as Hanno had done 2000 years before, but his ships only reach Dakar, the western most part of the western bulge of Africa.
Under Henry's auspices, the sailing vessel known as the Portuguese caravel is developed, the techniques of cartography are advanced, navigational instruments are improved, and commerce by sea is vastly stimulated. This interest in exploration will eventually take humans to other planets and other stars.
Henry's goal is to find the southern route to India, in order to introduce Christianity to India and to foster commerce.
The last two important mariners sent out by Henry are the Venetian Alvise Ca' da Mosto (Cadamosto) and the Portuguese Diogo Gomes, who between them discover several of the Cape Verde Islands.
The farthest point south along the African coast reached during Henry's lifetime is generally considered to have been Sierra Leone, though one piece of evidence suggests that his ship captains progressed to Cape Palmas (off the Ivory Coast), some 400 miles beyond.
Twenty-eight years later, Bartholomeu Dias will prove that Africa can be circumnavigated when he reaches the southern tip of the continent. In 1498, Vasco da Gama will be the first sailor to travel from Portugal to India.
Henry is an early example of how sea navigation and exploration appears to excel in Spain and Portugal. This interest in exploration, not shared as much by the people in Arab, Indian, or Chinese nations will result in all of North and South America being first colonized by European nations, leaving a long legacy of mainly European and Native American people (the first wave of humans to reach America tens of thousands of years before this second wave of humans) in America.
| Lagos, Portugal |
580 YBN
[1420 AD]
| 1430) The madrasa is built from 1417 to 1420, and Oleg Beg invites numerous Islamic astronomers and mathematicians to study there. Ulugh Beg's most famous pupil in mathematics is Ghiyath al-Kashi (circa 1370 - 1429).
| Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
576 YBN
[1424 AD]
| 1431)
| Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
575 YBN
[1425 AD]
| 1366)
| Leuven, Belgium |
565 YBN
[1435 AD]
| 1435) In this year 1435, Guttenberg is involved in lawsuit, and the word "drucken" (printing) is used, so this may be the first record of Guttenberg printing. Asimov states that the practical development of the printing press takes Guttenberg at least 20 years. By now paper, helpful for bulk printing, has reached Europe. Until now books are laboriously copied by hand, so only the rich, monastaries and universities owned libraries of dozens of books.
This system of printing will be used until the 1900s.
The unique elements of Gutenberg's invention consist of a mold, with punch-stamped matrices with which type could be cast precisely and in large quantities; a type-metal alloy; a new press, derived from those used in wine making, papermaking, and bookbinding; and an oil-based printing ink. None of these features existed in Chinese or Korean printing, or in the existing European technique of stamping letters on various surfaces, or in woodblock printing.
| Strassburg (now Strasbourg, France) |
565 YBN
[1435 AD]
| 1440) Alberti uses pinhole cameras.
The idea of perspective is important in computer graphics, in order to draw a 3 dimensional scene onto a two dimensional plane, such as a computer screen. The principle of a "perspective transform" is very simple. As a 3d point gets a higher z value (is farther and farther away from the viewer), the x and y values of the 3d point are divided by z, so that the farther away, the higher the z, the more the point is moved towards the center of the screen, and this creates a triangle, or pie slice, with the viewer at the tip of the slice.
Alberti writes small treatise on geography, the first work of its kind since antiquity. It sets forth the rules for surveying and mapping a land area, in this case the city of Rome, and it is probably as influential as his earlier treatise on painting. Although it is difficult to trace the historical connections, the methods of surveying and mapping and the instruments described by Alberti are precisely those that were responsible for the new scientific accuracy of the depictions of towns and land areas that date from the late 1400s and early 1500s.
Alberti writes a grammar book, the first Italian grammar, by which he seeks to demonstrate that the Tuscan vernacular is as "regular" a language as Latin and therefore worthy of literary use. The other is a pioneer work in cryptography: it contains the first known frequency table and the first polyalphabetic system of coding by means of what seems to be Alberti's invention, the cipher wheel.
| Florence, Italy |
563 YBN
[1437 AD]
| 1432) Ulugh's writings are printed in Arabic and Persian, but will not be printed in Latin until 1665, when they will already be surpassed by Tycho Brahe.
| Samarkand, Uzbekistan |
560 YBN
[02/12/1440 AD]
| 1437) Nicholas of Cusa (Nicholas Krebs) (CE 1401-1464) describe space as infinite in size, and that stars are other suns with inhabited planets.
The relevant translated text from "De Docta Ignorantia" Book 2 is: "And so, {the universe is} unbounded; for it is not the case that anything actually greater than it, in relation to which it would be bounded, is positable."
Cusa suggests that stars may be distant Suns when he states that the Earth would look like a star from a distance. Cusa writes: "Hence, if someone were outside the region of fire, then through the medium of the fire our earth, which is on the circumference of {this} region, would appear to be a bright star-just as to us, who are on the circumference of the region of the sun, the sun appears to be very bright."
On life of other stars: "Therefore, the inhabitants of other stars-of whatever sort these inhabitants might be-bear no comparative relationship to the inhabitants of the earth."
| Cusa, Germany |
557 YBN
[1443 AD]
| 1438) Bessarion funds many scholars and himself translates Aristotle's "Metaphysics" and Xenophon's "Memorabilia" into Latin. Bessarion's palazzo in Rome is a virtual Academy for the studies of new humanistic learning, a center for learned Greeks and Greek refugees, whom he supports by commissioning transcripts of Greek manuscripts and translations into Latin that make Greek scholarship available to West Europeans. He supports Regiomontanus in this way and defended Nicholas of Cusa.
At Rome Bessarion contributes to the development of the Roman Academy of History and of Archaeology, and, with his former teacher Gemistus Plethon, the celebrated Neoplatonist, he attractes a circle of philosophers devoted to the study of Plato.
Bessarion gives his library to the Senate of Venice.
| Rome, Italy |
550 YBN
[1450 AD]
| 1171) This gives the clockmakers many new problems to solve, such as how to compensate for the changing power supplied as the spring unwinds.
| ? |
550 YBN
[1450 AD]
| 1798)
| southern Germany, or northern Italy |
548 YBN
[1452 AD]
| 1441) This work, not a restored text of Vitruvius but a wholly new work, gives him a reputation as the "Florentine Vitruvius" and becomes a bible of Renaissance architecture, because it incorporates and makes advances on the engineering knowledge of antiquity.
| Florence, Italy |
547 YBN
[05/29/1453 AD]
| 1439)
| Constantanople |
546 YBN
[1454 AD]
| 1436) The three-volume work, in Latin text, is printed in 42-line columns and, in its later stages of production, is worked on by six people (compositors) simultaneously.
Like other contemporary works, the Gutenberg Bible has no title page, no page numbers, and no innovations to distinguish it from the work of a manuscript copyist. Experts are generally agreed that the Bible, though uneconomic in its use of space, displays a technical efficiency not substantially improved upon before the 1800s. The Bible uses Gothic type.
The original number of copies of this work is unknown; some 40 are still in existence. There are perfect vellum copies in the U.S. Library of Congress, the French Bibliotheque Nationale, and the British Library. In the United States almost-complete texts are in the Huntington, Morgan, New York Public, Harvard University, and Yale University libraries. Printing in Europe will spread quickly, and results in low cost books. This influx of books leads to more educated and literate people. By 1500 up to 9 million printed copies of 30,000 different books are in circulation. Scholars can now communicate their ideas to each other faster. Asimov typed that the scientific revolution 100 years from now would probably by impossible without the printing press
| Mainz, Germany |
540 YBN
[1460 AD]
| 1367)
| Basel, Switzerland |
538 YBN
[1462 AD]
| 1443) In his translation and revision of Almagest, Regiomontanus demonstrates an alternative to Ptolemy's models for the orbits of Mercury and Venus.
Regiomontanus writes "De triangulis omnimodis" (1464; "On Triangles of All Kinds") which includes his formalization of plane and spherical trigonometry. "De Triangulis" is one of the first textbooks presenting the current state of trigonometry and includes lists of questions for review of individual chapters.
Regiomontanus discovers an incomplete Greek manuscript of "Arithmetica", the great work of Diophantus of Alexandria (fl. c. CE 250). This is the only writing of Diofantos found so far.
Regiomontanus learns Greek in order to translate ancient Greek texts.
In 1471 Regiomontanus moves to Nürnberg, Germany, where he establishes an instrument shop, a printing press, and continues his planetary observations in collaboration with the humanist and merchant Bernhard Walther who sponsors the building of an observatory and the printing press. Regiomontanus is credited with having built at Nuremberg the first astronomical observatory in Germany. Regiomontanus announces plans to print 45 works, mostly in the classical, medieval, and contemporary mathematical sciences. However, only nine editions appear, including Peuerbach's "Theoricae novae planetarum" (1454; "New Theories of the Planets"), his own attack ("Disputationes") on the anonymous 1200s "Theorica planetarum communis" (the common "Theory of the Planets"), his German and Latin calendars, and his 896-page Ephemerides (daily planetary positions for 32 years, which showcase his computational skills). Regiomontanus' editions pioneer the printing of astronomical diagrams and numerical tables. Several of the works that he prepared and had hoped to print, including editions of Euclid and Archimedes, his own astronomical "Tabulae directionum" (1467; "Tables of Directions"), and a table of sines that he had computed to seven decimal places, which will prove influential when circulated in the 1400s and 1500s in manuscript and in print.
| Rome, Italy |
530 YBN
[1470 AD]
| 5899) The "Buxheimer Orgelbuch" manuscript represents one of the earliest extensive collection of instrumental music (music with no vocal parts). The "Buxheimer Orgelbuch" manuscript consists of 169 folios with more than 250 organ compositions, including liturgical works, dances and song arrangements. Another manuscript from around this time is Conrad Paumann’s "Fundamentum organisandi" (Fundamentals of Organ Playing). There are also a few non-extensive sources of instrumental music dating from the 1200s and 1300s. The compositions in both collections are of two basic types, arrangements of vocal works and keyboard pieces entitled Praeambulum (Prelude). This is evidence of the early rise of instrumental music. Instruments had been in common use throughout the Middle Ages, but their function was primarily to double or to substitute for voices in vocal polyphonic music or to provide music for dancing. Dance forms, are most characteristically composed in pairs. Common dance pairs are the pavane and galliard, the allemande and courante, and the basse danse and tourdion. Preludes continue as a major form of organ music and are joined by the fantasia, the intonazione, and the toccata in a category frequently referred to as "free forms" because of the inconsistency and unpredictability of their structure and musical content. The ricercar and the canzona are like a fugue in that they depend on imitation as a structural technique. During the course of the 1500s, instrumental music grows rapidly. The four major forms of instrumental music of this time are the lute, the organ, stringed keyboard instruments, and instrumental ensembles.
| (thought to be:) southern Germany (verify) |
528 YBN
[1472 AD]
| 1442) Peurbach works at the Observatory of Oradea in Transylvania, the first observatory in Europe, and establishes in his "Tabula Varadiensis" this Transylvanian town's observatory as laying on the prime meridian of Earth.
Georg von Peurbach (POERBoK) (CE 1423-1461), Austrian mathematician and astronomer, uses arabic numerals (made popular by Fibonacci 200 years earlier) to prepare the most accurate table of sines. Peurbach's pupil Regiomontanus will also work on this table.
At the University of Vienna, Purbach begins to revise Ptolemy's Almagest, replacing chords by sines, and calculating tables of sines for every minute of arc for a radius of 600,000 units. This was the first transition from the duodecimal (base 12) to the decimal system (give examples). Peurbach's observations are made with very simple instruments, an ordinary plumb-line being used for measuring the angles of elevation of the stars. Purbach's main aim is to produce an accurate text of Ptolemy's "Almagest". The most common available text was that of Gerard of Cremona, which was a Latin translation of an Arabic translation and was nearly 300 years old. Purbach begins by writing a general introduction to Ptolemy that describes accurately and briefly the constructions of the "Almagest". Unfortunately Peurbach dies before he can begin the translation. Peurbach's pupil, Regiomontanus, completes the textbook begun by Purbach but fails to produce the edition and translation of Ptolemy so much wanted by Purbach.
Peurbach creates a very thorough table of lunar eclipses, which he publishes in 1459.
Purbach writes a textbook in 1472, "Theoricae novae planetarum", which becomes an influential support of the Ptolemaic theory of the solar system, a theory whose influence will last until the sun centered theory revived by Copernicus becomes popular. In this book Purbach attempts to reconcile the opposing theories of the universe, the so-called homocentric spheres of Eudoxus of Cnidus and Aristotle, with Ptolemy's epicyclic trains. The accuracy of Purbach's set tables are such that they will still be in use almost two hundred years later. Purbach uses the Alfonsine tables for this astronomy book. Peurbach wrongly believes that the Ptolemy spheres are solid, Ptolemy did not insist on them being solid in Almagest. Tycho Brahe will destroy this celestial sphere theory in 100 years. This work, is an enormous success and will remain the basis of academic instruction in astronomy until years after the sun-centered theory revived by Copernicus becomes popular.
In Peurbach's compilation of a table of sines, he uses Arabic numerals, and is one of the first to popularize their use instead of chords in trigonometry
Peurbach is credited with the invention of several scientific instruments, including the regula, the geometrical square.
Twenty works of Peurbach are known. Among these, the following are the most important: * Theoricae novae planetarum, id est septem errantium siderum nec non octavi seu firmamenti (1st ed., Nuremberg, 1472, by Regiomontanus; followed by many others in Milan and Ingolstadt); * Sex primi libri epitomatis Almagesti, completed by Regiomontanus (Venice, 1496; Basle, 1534; Nuremberg, 1550); * Tabulae eclypsium super meridiano Viennensi (2nd ed., Vienna, 1514); * Quadratum goemetricum meridiano (Nuremberg, 1516); * Nova tabula sinus de decem minutis in decem per multas, etc., completed by Regiomontanus (Nuremberg, 1541).
| Vienna, Austria |
528 YBN
[1472 AD]
| 1444) Regiomontanus (rEJEOmoNTAnuS) (Johnann Muller) (1436-1476), German astronomer, publishes the first printed astronomical textbook, the "Theoricae novae Planetarum" of his teacher Georg von Peurbach.
| Nuremberg, (Franconia, now) Germany |
528 YBN
[1472 AD]
| 1461) Da Vinci does not eat meat out of aversion to the killing of animals. Over two decades, Da Vinci does practical work in anatomy on the dissection table in Milan, then at hospitals in Florence and Rome, and in Pavia, where he collaborates with the physician-anatomist Marcantonio della Torre. By his own count Leonardo dissected 30 corpses in his lifetime. Da Vinci studies the heart and speculates on the circulation of blood a century before Harvey. Da Vinci recognizes that the moon shines by reflected sunlight. Da Vinci views the moon as earthy in nature. (specific) Da Vinci views earth as not center of universe, and to be spinning on its axis. Da Vinci writes "Il sole non si mouve", the sun does not move. Da Vinci considers the possibility of long term changes in the structure of the earth 200 years before Hutton will found the science of geology. Da Vinci understands the nature of fossils.
Da Vinci writes about geology, sedimentation and erosion: "And a little beyond the sandstone conglomerate, a tufa has been formed, where it turned towards Castel Florentino; farther on, the mud was deposited in which the shells lived, and which rose in layers according to the levels at which the turbid Arno flowed into that sea. And from time to time the bottom of the sea was raised, depositing these shells in layers, as may be seen in the cutting at Colle Gonzoli, laid open by the Arno which is wearing away the base of it; in which cutting the said layers of shells are very plainly to be seen in clay of a bluish colour, and various marine objects are found there."
In astronomy Da Vinci writes: "The earth is not in the centre of the Sun"s orbit nor at the centre of the universe, but in the centre of its companion elements, and united with them. And any one standing on the moon, when it and the sun are both beneath us, would see this our earth and the element of water upon it just as we see the moon, and the earth would light it as it lights us."
| Florence, Italy |
526 YBN
[1474 AD]
| 1433) Toscanelli's chart, however, has not been preserved, either in the original or in a copy. A successful reconstruction of this chart was made by Hermann Wagner of Göttingen.
| Florence, Italy |
526 YBN
[1474 AD]
| 1434) Halley's comet goes by earth and Paolo Toscanelli (ToSKuneLE) (1397-1482), an Italian physician and mapmaker, observes and calculates the orbit of the comet.
| Florence, Italy |
523 YBN
[1477 AD]
| 1368) | Uppsala, Sweden |
521 YBN
[1479 AD]
| 1369) | Copenhagen, Denmark |
520 YBN
[1480 AD]
| 1463)
| Florence, Italy |
516 YBN
[05/01/1484 AD]
| 1449) Columbus' goal is to find a route to the rich land of Cathay (China), to India, and to the fabled gold and spice islands of the East by sailing westward over what hes presumes to be open sea.
Columbus wrongly believes the earth is (as Poseidonius claimed) less than 18,000 miles in circumference (actual units used) from the map by Toscanelli, and is inspired by reading the book of Marco Polo. Columbus believes as do many European scholars that the earth is a sphere, the point of disagreement centers on the distance from Europe to Asia, and if such a distance could be travelled in the ships of the time.
John II refers the project to the Portuguese geographers who promptly reject it, claiming that 3000 miles (units) is a large underestimate and the fastest route to Asia is around Africa. This is actually correct (since the Americas are unknown at the time), and Africa will be successfully circumnavigated in 15 years. Coincidentally the Americas are 3000 miles west of Europe. Columbus takes his project to Genoa, other Italian cities, England, and Spain.
| Portugal |
515 YBN
[1485 AD]
| 1464)
| Milan, Italy |
513 YBN
[1487 AD]
| 1465)
| Milan, Italy |
513 YBN
[1487 AD]
| 1466) Leonardo da Vinci (VENcE) (CE 1452-1519), draws a design of a cannon.
| Milan, Italy |
513 YBN
[1487 AD]
| 1468)
| Milan, Italy |
512 YBN
[1488 AD]
| 1467) Da Vinci understands that humans are too heavy, and not strong enough, to fly using wings simply attached to the arms. Therefore he proposes a device in which the aviator lies down on a plank and works two large, membranous wings using hand levers, foot pedals, and a system of pulleys. Da Vinci only makes a small scale model. Da Vinci studies the flight of birds to design this.
| Milan, Italy |
509 YBN
[1491 AD]
| 1484) Giovanni Pico della Mirandola (1463-1494), Italian Renaissance philosopher, writes "Disputationes adversus astrologianm divinatricenm" ("Disputations against Divinatory Astrology") which is a skeptical attack on the foundations of astrology that reverberates into the 1600s. Among Pico's criticisms is the charge that, because astronomers disagree about the order of the planets, astrologers can not be certain about the strengths of the powers issuing from the planets. This book will influence both Copernicus and Kepler.
| (written:) Fiesole, Italy;(published:) Bologna, Italy |
508 YBN
[01/??/1492 AD]
| 1451) Ferdinand and Isabella had just conquered Granada, the last Muslim stronghold on the Iberian peninsula, and they received Columbus in Córdoba, in the Alcázar castle. Isabella turned Columbus down on the advice of her confessor, and Columbus was leaving town in despair, when Ferdinand intervened. Isabella then sent a royal guard to fetch him and Ferdinand later rightfully claimed credit for being "the principal cause why those islands were discovered". King Ferdinand is referred to as "losing his patience" in this issue, but this cannot be proven.
About half of the financing was to come from private Italian investors, whom Columbus had already lined up. Financially broke after the Granada campaign, the monarchs left it to the royal treasurer to shift funds among various royal accounts on behalf of the enterprise. Columbus was to be made "Admiral of the Seas" and would receive a portion of all profits. The terms were unusually generous, but as his own son later wrote, the monarchs did not really expect him to return.
According to the contract that Columbus made with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, if Columbus discovered any new islands or mainland, he would receive many high rewards. In terms of power, he would be given the rank of Admiral of the Ocean Sea (Atlantic Ocean) and appointed Viceroy and Governor of all the new lands. He has the right to nominate three persons, from whom the sovereigns would choose one, for any office in the new lands. One of Columbus' demands that is rejected is that he would be entitled to 10 percent of all the revenues from the new lands in perpetuity. Finally, he would also have the option of buying one-eighth interest in any commercial venture with the new lands and receive one-eighth of the profits. Think of the terms that might be constructed for the new "world" of the Moon, Mars, Venus, the planets of Centauri with the mother government.
Christian missionary and anti-Islamic fervour, the power of Castile and Aragon (the united kingdoms under Ferdinand and Isabella), the fear of Portugal, the lust for gold, the desire for adventure, the hope of conquests, and the need for a reliable supply of herbs and spices for cooking, preserving, and medicine all combine to produce the motivation to launch the first voyage.
This approval comes after two previous rejections.
| |
508 YBN
[08/03/1492 AD]
| 1452)
| Palos, Spain |
508 YBN
[09/13/1492 AD]
| 1453)
| Atlantic Ocean |
508 YBN
[10/12/1492 AD]
| 1450) Humans from Europe reach the Americas by crossing the Atlantic Ocean.
Christopher Columbus (CE 1451-1506) lands on a small island (probably San Salvador) in America.
In America Columbus explores, finds a new race of people, new plants, and many other new phenomena.
| (probably) San Salvador |
508 YBN
[10/28/1492 AD]
| 1454) Christopher Columbus (CE 1451-1506) reaches Cuba. Columbus explores the northeast coast of Cuba before landing. Columbus convinces himself by November 1 that Cuba is the Cathay mainland itself, though he sees no evidence of great cities. Therefore, on December 5, Columbus will turn back southeastward to search for the fabled city of Zaiton, missing the chance of reaching Florida.
| |
508 YBN
[12/05/1492 AD]
| 1455)
| Haiti |
507 YBN
[01/16/1493 AD]
| 1456)
| Haiti |
507 YBN
[02/26/1493 AD]
| 1457) A storm separates the Nina and Pinta. Christopher Columbus (CE 1451-1506) lands in the Azores, a Portuguese chain of islands in the Atlantic Ocean nearly half way between Europe and America. Here Columbus and his crew are temporarily imprisoned for 6 days by the hostile Portuguese governor.
| Azores |
507 YBN
[02/26/1493 AD]
| 1458) Christopher Columbus (CE 1451-1506) reaches Lisborn and there meets with Portugal's King João (John) II. These events will leave Columbus under the suspicion of collaborating with Spain's enemies.
| Azores |
507 YBN
[03/15/1493 AD]
| 1459) Upon arrival Columbus demands and receives the reward that rightfully belongs to the sailor Rodrigo de Triana of the Pinta, who first sighted land last year.
Ferdinand and Isabella grant Columbus enormous privileges in the territories he has claimed for Spain, and they send Columbus back to America as governor with about 1,500 men (including close to 200 private investors and a small troop of cavalry) in a fleet of at least 17 ships which sails from Cádiz September 24 and from the Canary Islands October 13. His second voyage has been financed in large part through the sale of assets formerly owned by Jewish people forced out of Spain. Colonization and Christian evangelization were openly included this time in the plans, and a group of friars shipped with him.
Asimov wrote that the realization in people of this time that the ancient philosophers did not know about the Americas may remove some restraints on free thought, showing that people now know something that the ancients did not know.
Columbus dies still wrongly believing he reached Asia.
| Palos, Spain |
506 YBN
[06/07/1494 AD]
| 1460) This theoretically allows Spain to claim all of America, however the treaty will eventually become valueless. Brazil, landed on in 1500 by Pedro Álvares Cabral, will be granted to Portugal, and the Spanish will not resist the Portuguese expansion of Brazil across the meridian. Imagine how ownership of the proprety on, around and in the Moon, Mars, planets of other stars will be negociated.
| Tordesillas (now in Valladolid province, Spain) |
506 YBN
[1494 AD]
| 1445) Although Pacioli codifies rather than inventes the double-entry bookkeeping system, (a system of accounts that are balanced by debits and credits), Pacioli is widely regarded as the "Father of Accounting". The system he publishes includes most of the accounting cycle as we know it today. Pacioli describes the use of journals and ledgers, and warns that a person should not go to sleep at night until the debits equal the credits. His ledger had accounts for assets (including receivables and inventories), liabilities, and capital, catagories found on a balance sheet, and also income and expenses, the account categories reported on an income statement. Pacioli demonstrates year-end closing entries and proposes that a trial balance (a summary of the closing of the previous ledger) be used to prove a balanced ledger. Pacioli's treatise touches on a wide range of related topics from accounting ethics to cost accounting (putting a cost on all elements of a business generally in order to find where costs can be reduced and profit increased).
| Venice, Italy |
504 YBN
[1496 AD]
| 1446) Luca Pacioli (PoKOlE or PocOlE) (CE c1445-1517), Italian mathematician, writes "De viribus quantitatis" (Ms. Università degli Studi di Bologna, 1496-1508), a treatise on mathematics and magic. Written between 1496 and 1508 it contains the first ever reference to card tricks as well as guidance on how to juggle, eat fire and make coins dance. It is the first work to note that Da Vinci was left-handed. De viribus quantitatis is divided into three sections: mathematical problems, puzzles and tricks, and a collection of proverbs and verses.
| Bologna, Italy |
504 YBN
[1496 AD]
| 1448) Luca Pacioli (PoKOlE or PocOlE) (CE c1445-1517), writes "De divina proportione" (written in Milan in 1496-98, published in Venice in 1509). The subject is mathematical and artistic proportion, especially the mathematics of the golden ratio and its application in architecture. Leonardo da Vinci draws the illustrations of the regular solids in "De divina proportione" while living with and taking mathematics lessons from Pacioli. Leonardo's drawings are probably the first illustrations of skeletonic solids, which allow an easy distinction between front and back. The work also discusses the use of perspective by painters such as Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì, and Marco Palmezzano.
| Milan, Italy |
498 YBN
[1502 AD]
| 1493) A map of earth in 1502 showing the meridian separating Portuguese from Spanish lands.
| |
496 YBN
[1504 AD]
| 1474) Vespucci makes at least two voyages to America.
| |
493 YBN
[1507 AD]
| 1473) Leonardo da Vinci (VENcE) (CE 1452-1519) draws the anatomy of a female human.
| Milan, Italy |
493 YBN
[1507 AD]
| 1476) The map is printed from a woodcut made with 12 blocks. The map is in a reprint of the "Quattuor Americi navigationes" ("Four Voyages of Amerigo"), which is preceded by a pamphlet by Waldseemuller entitled "Cosmographiae introductio" (Introduction to Cosmography). In this introduction Waldseemuller suggests that the newly discovered land be named "ab Americo Inventore
quasi Americi terram sive Americam" ("from Amerigo the discoverer
as if it were the land of Americus or America"). The proposal is perpetuated in a large planisphere of Waldseemüller's, in which the name America appears for the first time, although applied only to South America. The suggestion will catch on. The extension of the name to North America will happen later. On the upper part of the map, with the hemisphere comprising the Old World, appears the picture of Ptolemy; on the part of the map with the New World hemisphere is the picture of Vespucci.
In 1513 Waldseemüller will appear to have had second thoughts about the name, perhaps due to contemporary protests about Vespucci"s role in the discovery and naming of America. In Waldseemuller's reworking of the Ptolemy atlas (written without Ringmann) the continent is labelled simply Terra Incognita (unknown land).
| Saint-Dié, Lorraine, France |
491 YBN
[1509 AD]
| 1447) Luca Pacioli (PoKOlE or PocOlE) (CE c1445-1517), Italian mathematician, writes "Geometry" (1509), a Latin translation of Euclid. Pacioli makes Latin and Italian versions of Euclid.
| Bologna?,Italy |
490 YBN
[1510 AD]
| 1472) Leonardo da Vinci (VENcE) (CE 1452-1519) draws human arm and embryo anatomy.
| Milan, Italy |
489 YBN
[1511 AD]
| 1513) Erasmus criticizes ecclesiastical abuses, pointing to a better age in the distant past, and so encourages the growing urge for reform, which will find expression both in the Protestant Reformation and in the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Erasmus takes an independent stance in an age of religious controversy, rejecting both Luther's doctrine of predestination, and the powers that are claimed for the papacy. This makes Erasmus gain enemies from loyalists on both sides. But in this independence, Erasmus serves as is a guiding light for those who value truth and justice over religious orthodoxy.
Although Erasmus does not join the Reformation movement, the theologians of the Sorbonne suspect Erasmus of complicity with Luther, and campaign strenuously against Erasmus; Erasmus' translator Berquin will be burned at the stake in 1529.
Erasmus makes translations from Greek (into Latin) of Euripides, Lucian, Plutarch and other ancient Greek authors.
| written: London, Netherlands |
488 YBN
[1512 AD]
| 1481) At this time there is general agreement that the Moon and Sun circle the motionless Earth and that Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn are situated beyond the Sun in that order. However, Ptolemy placed Venus closest to the Sun and Mercury to the Moon, while others claimed that Mercury and Venus were beyond the Sun. (Ptolemy has the planet order as: Earth, Moon, Mercury?, Venus?, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn)
In the Commentariolus, Copernicus postulates that, if the Sun is assumed to be at rest and if the Earth is assumed to be in motion, then the remaining planets fall into an orderly relationship where their sidereal periods increase from the Sun as follows: Mercury (88 days), Venus (225 days), Earth (1 year), Mars (1.9 years), Jupiter (12 years), and Saturn (30 years). This theory does resolve the disagreement about the ordering of the planets but raises new problems. To accept the theory's premises, one has to abandon much of Aristotelian natural philosophy and develop a new explanation for why heavy bodies fall to a moving Earth.
Copernicus realizes that the planetary positions are more easily calculated by presuming the sun instead of the earth is the center of the universe. This idea is not new since Aristarchos recognized this 1700 years earlier, a few Indian and Arabic astronomers recognized this, and Nicolas Krebs (of Cusa) wrote that the earth and other planets move around a central point only a few years earlier.
According to the new system, the outer planets are periodically overtaken/passed by the earth, making these planets appear to move backwards. In addition the planets Mercury and Venus, inside the orbit of the earth, will always be near the sun (and will never reverse motion as the outer planets appear to do) as is observed. So this system more simply explains these two phenomena which introduced vast complications to the Ptolemaic earth-centerd system. In addition with this system, the precession of the equinoxes first observed by Hipparchos could be explained not by the twisting of the celestial sphere but by a wobbling of the earth as it rotates around its own axis. Copernicus views the celestial sphere of the stars to be at a vast distance from the earth, at least 1000 times as distant as the sun, so the position of the stas does not reflect the motion of the earth. The fact that the stars do not appear to move as the earth does in its yearly orbit is used as an argument against the sun-centered system, and will not be settled until the time of Bessel 300 years later. Copernicus uses circular orbits (instead of the more accurate elliptical orbits that will be found to fit more closely by Kepler 50 years later), and so retains 34 of the epicycles and eccentrics associated with the old earth-centered system of Ptolemy. Copernicus describes his system in a book but waits to publish for years, out of fear that the view of a moving earth will be viewed as heretical and he might be punished or even murdered.
Copernicus will also determines the length of year to within 28 seconds.
| Frombork, Poland |
487 YBN
[09/25/1513 AD]
| 1485) A few men journey with Balboa to the mountain range along the Chucunaque River. According to information from the natives, the South Sea can be seen from the summit of this range. Balboa goes ahead and, before noon that day, September 25, reaches the summit and sees, far away in the horizon, the waters of the undiscovered sea. Andrés de Vera, the expedition's chaplain, intones the "Te Deum", while the men erect stone pyramids, and engrave crosses on the barks of trees with their swords, to mark the place where the discovery of the South Sea was made. After the epic moment of discovery, the expedition descended from the mountain range towards the sea, arriving in the lands of cacique Chiapes, who was defeated after a brief battle, and invited to join the expedition. From Chiapes' land, three groups departed in the search for routes to the coast. The group headed by Alonso Martín reached the shoreline two days later. They took a canoe for a short reconnaissance trip, thus becoming the first Europeans to navigate the Pacific Ocean. Back in Chiapes' domain, Martín informed Balboa, who, with 26 men, marched towards the coast. Once there, Balboa raised his hands, his sword in one and a standard with the image of the Virgin Mary in the other, walked knee-deep into the ocean, and claimed possession of the new sea and all adjoining lands in the name of the Spanish sovereigns.
In 1511 Balboa advises the settlers of a colony on the coast of Urabá, in modern Colombia, to move across the Gulf of Urabá to Darién, on the less hostile coast of the Isthmus of Panama, where they found the town of Santa María de la Antigua, the first stable settlement on the continent, and began to acquire gold by barter or war with the local Indians. Santa Maria is the first stable settlement on the South American continent.
Balboa does barter with the Native Americans, but also uses torture, to extract information, and the tactic of divide and conquer by forming alliances with certain tribes against others. The Native Americans of Darién, are less warlike than their neighbours of Urabá and without poisoned arrows. The Spanish arsenal includes their terrible war dogs, sometimes used by Balboa as executioners against the Native American people.
| a peak in Darién, Panama |
485 YBN
[1515 AD]
| 1486) In Bamberg, Schöner owns his own printing company and publishea many maps and globes. The very first printed globe of the sky is made in his workshop in 1515.
| Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany |
485 YBN
[1515 AD]
| 3222) The wheel-lock, a device for igniting powder in a gun, is invented.
The wheel-lock is a device for igniting the powder in a firearm such as a musket. The wheel lock strikes a spark to ignite powder on the pan of a musket. The wheel lock does this by means of a holder that presses a shard of flint or a piece of iron pyrite against an iron wheel with a milled edge; the wheel is rotated and sparks fly.
| |
484 YBN
[1516 AD]
| 1515) Thomas More (1477-1535), English humanist, writes "Utopia" which expresses a view that all religions should be tolerated, but falls short of tolerating atheism. In "Utopia", a fictional traveler, Raphael Hythloday, describes the political arrangements of the imaginary island nation of Utopia (a play on the Greek ou-topos, meaning "no place", and eu-topos, meaning "good place"). In the book, More contrasts the contentious social life of European states with the perfectly orderly and reasonable social arrangements of the Utopia, where private property does not exist and almost complete religious toleration is practiced.
| London, England |
483 YBN
[10/20/1517 AD]
| 1492) The proposal of Ferdinand Magellan (moJeLoN) (c1480-1521) and Rui Faleiro are approved by the king of Portugal. This proposal is to sail west in order to give practical proof of their claim that the Spice Islands lay west of the line of demarcation, within the Spanish, not the Portuguese hemisphere. Faleiro and Magellan are appointed joint captains general of an expedition directed to seek an all-Spanish route to the Moluccas (an archipelago in Indonesia). The government of any lands discovered is to be vested in them and their heirs, and they are to receive a one-twentieth share of the net profits from the venture. Before the voyage, Faleiro decides not to go.
Magellan is convinced that he will lead his ships from the Atlantic to the "Sea of the South" by finding a strait through Tierra Firme (the South American mainland). Before Magellan others had sought a passage to the East by sailing West, thereby avoiding the Cape of Good Hope, which is controlled by the Portuguese. In the royal agreement Magellan and Faleiro are directed simply to find "the" strait. The officials entrusted with East Indian affairs are instructed to provide five ships for the expedition, prepared in Sevilla, where an unsuccessful attempt to wreck the project is made by Portuguese agents.
| |
483 YBN
[10/31/1517 AD]
| 1389)
| Wittenberg, Germany |
481 YBN
[08/10/1519 AD]
| 1498) Five ships under Magellan's command leave Sevilla and travel from the Guadalquivir River to Sanlúcar de Barrameda at the mouth of the river, where they will remain for more than five weeks. Spanish authorities are wary of the Portuguese admiral and almost prevent Magellan from sailing. The Spanish authorities switch Magellan's crew of mostly Portuguese men with men of Spain, but on September 20, Magellan will set sail for the Spice Islands from Sanlúcar de Barrameda with about 270 men.
| Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain |
481 YBN
[09/20/1519 AD]
| 1491) Ferdinand Magellan (moJeLoN) (c1480-1521), sets sail from Spain to circumnavigate the earth.
| Sanlúcar de Barrameda, Spain |
480 YBN
[04/08/1520 AD]
| 1494) While docked at their newly established port of San Julian, at midnight on Easter day, a mutiny involving two of the five ship captains breaks out. Two Spanish captains lead a mutiny against the Portuguese commander. The mutiny is unsuccessful because the crew remains loyal to Magellan. Sebastian del Cano is one of those who are forgiven. Antonio Pigafetta relates that Gaspar Quesada, the captain of Concepcion, is executed. Juan de Cartagena, the captain of the San Antonio, and a priest named Padre Sanchez dela Reina are left marooned on the coast. Another account states that Luis de Mendoza, the captain of Victoria, is executed along with Quesada.
| Puerto San Julian, Argentina |
480 YBN
[10/21/1520 AD]
| 1496) At 52°S latitude on October 21, 1520, the fleet reaches Cape Virgenes and concludes they have found the passage, because the waters are salty (brine) and deep inland. Four ships begin an arduous passage through the 373-mile long passage that Magellan calls the Estreito (Canal) de Todos los Santos, ("All Saints' Channel"), because the fleet travels through it on November 1, All Saints' Day. The strait is now named the Strait of Magellan. Magellan first assigns the Concepcion and San Antonio to explore the strait, but the latter, commanded by Gomez, deserts and returns to Spain on November 20, 1520. On November 28, the three remaining ships will enter the South Pacific. Magellan will name the waters the Mar Pacifico (Pacific Ocean) because of its apparent stillness or because of its calmness after the storms of the strait.
| Straight of Magellan |
480 YBN
[12/13/1520 AD]
| 1495) Antonio Pigafetta, an Italian navigator, who paid a large sum of money to accompany and assist Magellan on his voyage, records the first European observation of what will be named the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds.
Magellen's ships anchor near present-day Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. There the crew is resupplied, but bad conditions cause them to delay. Afterwards, they continue to sail south along South America's east coast, looking for the strait that Magellan believes will lead to the Spice Islands. The Santiago, is sent down the coast on a scouting expedition, is wrecked in a sudden storm. All of its crew survives and makes it safely to shore. Two of them return overland to inform Magellan of what has happened, and bring rescue to the rest of the survivors.
| Rio de Janeiro, Brazil |
480 YBN
[1520 AD]
| 1487)
| Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany |
479 YBN
[03/06/1521 AD]
| 1497) Magellan's 3 remaining ships cross the Pacific ocean and reach Guam in the Marianas. Magellen and his crew are tortured by thirst (which is ironic, to be surrounded by water and not to know how to purify it), stricken by scurvy (before people figure out that scury is a vitamin deficiency disease), feeding on rat-fouled biscuits (they could have tried to catch fish), and finally reduced to eating the leather off the yardarms. Magellan and his crew get food and unsalty water.
Magellan calls the island of Guam the "Island of Sails" because they see many sailboats. They rename the island "Ladrones Island" (Island of Thieves) because a lot of small boats of the Trinidad are stolen here.
| Guam |
479 YBN
[03/16/1521 AD]
| 1499) Magellan reaches the island of Homonhon in the province of Eastern Samar, Philippines, with 150 crew left. Magellan is able to communicate with the native peoples because his Malay interpreter, Enrique of Malacca, understands their language. They trade gifts with Rajah Kolambu of Limasawa, who will guide them to Cebu, on April 7. Rajah Humabon of Cebu is friendly to them, and even agrees to accept Christianity. Afterward, Magellan makes friends with Datu Zula, and agrees to join forces with him in a battle against Lapu-Lapu. Magellan will be killed on Mactan island by indigenous people led by Lapu-Lapu on April 27, 1521. Magellan is succeeded by his second-in-command, the Spaniard Juan Sebastián del Cano (or Juan de Elcano), who will continue on to the Moluccas and become the first captain to sail around the earth.
Magellan is the first European to map the archipelago now known as the Philippines, which is unknown to the Christian empire. Arab traders, who trade with Europeans, had established trade within the archipelago centuries before.
| Philippines |
478 YBN
[09/08/1522 AD]
| 1475) Magellen's crew is the first to circumnavigate the earth.
| Seville, Spain |
477 YBN
[1523 AD]
| 1488)
| Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany(presumably) |
477 YBN
[1523 AD]
| 5914) First set of independently composed keyboard music published.
| (Saint Mark's Cathedral) Venice, Italy |
476 YBN
[1524 AD]
| 1386)
| Mexico City, Mexico |
476 YBN
[1524 AD]
| 1510) | Landshut, Bavaria, Germany |
475 YBN
[1525 AD]
| 1477) This book is one of the first books to be published in German and not Latin (but is quickly translated into Latin for use outside of Germany), and it is the first book for adults to be published on mathematics in German. Along with Rembrandt and Goya, Dürer is considered one of the greatest creators of old master prints. An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process. The main techniques involved with an old master print are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are others. With rare exceptions, old master prints are printed on paper.
| Nürnberg, Germany |
474 YBN
[1526 AD]
| 1505) Paracelsus (PoRoKeLSuS) (real name: Phillip von Hohenheim) (1493-1541), uses the name "zink" for the element zinc in about 1526, based on the sharp pointed appearance of its crystals after smelting and the old German word "zinke" for pointed.
| Basil, Switzerland |
470 YBN
[1530 AD]
| 1503) Paracelsus establishes the use of chemistry in health. Asimov describes Paracelsus as marking the transition between chemistry and alchemy.
Paracelsus correctly diagnoses congenital (inherited) syphilis.
Paracelsus prepares and uses new experimental chemical remedies, including those containing mercury, sulfur, iron, and copper sulfate.
Paracelsus writes "Many have said of Alchemy, that it is for the making of gold and silver. For me such is not the aim, but to consider only what virtue and power may lie in medicines." So Paracelsus views the purpose of alchemy not to produce gold but to produce medicines to treat disease. This will develop into iatrochemistry, a science that seeks to provide chemical solutions to diseases and medical ailments. (in which book?)
Paracelsus is the first to use (plant-derived tincture of) opium in health treatment (naming it laudanum). Hohenheim stresses the importance of minerals in forming medicines (at this time plants are the primary focus of most people).
Paracelsus is the first to connect goitre with minerals, especially lead, in drinking water. Paracelsus writes on so-called "mental disease" and rejects explanations of demonic possession. Paracelsus states that the "miners' disease" (silicosis) results from inhaling metal vapours and is not a punishment for sin administered by mountain spirits.
Hohenheim correctly associates paralysis with head injury, and cretinism (a form of retardation) with goiter. (correct on second point?)
Paracelsus writes "On the Miners' Sickness and Other Diseases of Miners" (1567) documenting the occupational hazards of metalworking including treatment and prevention strategies.
| Basel?, Switzerland? |
470 YBN
[1530 AD]
| 3058) Girolamo Fracastoro (CE 1478-1553), Italian physician, names and describes the disease "syphillis", his poem "Syphilis sive morbus Gallicus" (part 1 & 2: 1525, part 3: 1530; "Syphilis or the French Disease").
This work establishes the use of the term "syphilis" for that sexually transmitted disease. The term is most likely derived from the name of the hero of the poem, the shepherd Sifilo. According to the poem, a mythological tale, the disease was originated and inflicted by the sun god on Sifilo, who had become unfaithful to him. However, in time the god forgave Sifilo and cured him through the use of a leafy tree he had created called guaiacum, from which people learned to extract a medicine that provided the cure. In the poem, the nymph Lipare also advised the shepherd that mercury could be used to cure the disease.
| Verona, Italy (and possibly mountain villa at Incaffi) |
469 YBN
[1531 AD]
| 1546) Michael Servetus (SRVETuS) (Spanish: Miguel Servet) (CE 1511-1553), Spanish physician, publishes "De Trinitatis erroribus" ("On the Errors of the Trinity"), which describes Jesus as only human and not part of a God.
The learning expressed in the book is astonishing in light of the fact that its author is only around 20 years old. But Servetus's contemporaries, both Catholic and Protestant label him a heretic. In his book, Servetus describes Jesus as a man who God had bestowed divine wisdom. In Servetus' view, Jesus was a prophet bearing God's precious gift, but that Jesus did not partake of God's immortality.
| Toulouse, France (presumably) |
467 YBN
[1533 AD]
| 1489) In this year, 1533 Johannes Schöner, the German maker of globes, writes: "Behind the Sinae and the Ceres {legendary cities of Central Asia} . . . many countries were discovered by one Marco Polo . . . and the sea coasts of these countries have now recently again been explored by Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci in navigating the Indian Ocean." From the map, Schöner clearly believes that North American is part of Asia, not realizing that there is not continuous land, but instead an ocean of water in between the majority of the two continents.
| Bamberg, Bavaria, Germany(presumably) |
467 YBN
[1533 AD]
| 1542) Reiner Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), Dutch cartographer, describes for the first time the method of triangulation still used today in surveying.
Triangulation is the process of finding coordinates and distance to a point by calculating the length of one side, and two angles of a triangle formed by two reference points and the distant point in question, then calculating the distance to the point using the law of sines.
| Friesland (present day Netherlands) |
466 YBN
[1534 AD]
| 1514) This is called the English Reformation. This separation of the religious establishment in England from Rome, is initiated when Pope Clement VII refuses to annul the marriage between Catherine of Aragon (1485-1536) and King Henry VIII (1491-1547).
| London (presumably), England |
464 YBN
[1536 AD]
| 1504) | Basel?, Switzerland? |
463 YBN
[1537 AD]
| 1536) Tartalia is incorrect in his theory of how a cannonball moves after being propelled from a cannon. A more accurate explanation of the motion of objects will have to wait until Galileo Galilei nearly 100 years from now.
Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia (ToRToLYo) (CE 1499-1557), independently of, but after Scipione del Ferro finds a solution for equations of the third degree (cubic equations), but keeps it a secret {a in order to improve his reputation for solving and presenting unsolvable problems}. In 1539, Tartaglia shows the solution to Cardano who promises to keep it a secret. But in 1545, Cardano will publish the cubic equation solution in "Ars Magna" crediting Tartaglia. To publish the solution is for the good of the public, and Cardano does give credit to Fontana (Tartaglia), but should not have lied about keeping it a secret. Scipione del Ferro (CE 1465 - 1526) was an Italian mathematician who was the first person of record to find a method to solve cubic equations.
Tartaglia is also known for having given an expression (Tartaglia's formula) for the volume of a tetrahedron (incl. any irregular tetrahedra) in terms of the distance values measured pairwise between its four corners, (see image) where dij is the distance between vertices i and j. This is a generalization of Heron's formula for the area of a triangle.
The triangle of binomial coefficients is referred to as "Tartaglia's triangle" who lives a century before Pascal. However the triangle of binomial coefficients goes back at least to the 900s CE India.
| Venice, Italy (presumably) |
462 YBN
[10/28/1538 AD]
| 1371)
| Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic |
462 YBN
[1538 AD]
| 1554) Andreas Vesalius (VeSALEuS) (CE 1514-1564), Flemish anatomist, publishes In 1538 he published six sheets of his anatomical drawings under the title "Tabulae anatomicae sex". The publication was a signal success. Because of the great demand the sheets soon were reprinted, without Vesalius's authorization, in Cologne, Paris, Strasbourg, and elsewhere.
| Padua, Italy{4 ans} (presumably) |
462 YBN
[1538 AD]
| 3059) Girolamo Fracastoro (CE 1478-1553), Italian physician, writes a book on astronomy entitled "Homocentricorum Seu de Stellis Liber Unus" (1538; "Homocentricity or the Book of Stars").
Fracastoro supports the view that the earth and planets rotate around a central fixed point in spherical orbits, which foreshadows the publication of the work of his fellow-student Corpernicus. Also in "Homocentricorum" Fracastoro makes mention of superimposing lenses, which may be the first suggestion of the use of the telescope, and observes that comet tails point away from the sun. Fracastoro also discusses the forces of attraction and repulsion between bodies, later examined by the famed English scientist Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727).
| Verona, Italy (and possibly mountain villa at Incaffi) |
460 YBN
[1540 AD]
| 1483) The main elements of the heliocentric hypothesis are published in the "Narratio prima" (1540 and 1541, "First Narration"), not under Copernicus's own name but under that of the 25-year-old Georg Rheticus (CE 1514-1574), a Lutheran from the University of Wittenberg, Germany, who stays with Copernicus at Frombork (Frauenburg) for about two and a half years, between 1539 and 1542. The "Narratio prima" is a joint production of Copernicus and Rheticus that serves as a test publication for the main work. The "Narratio prima" gives a summary of the theoretical principles contained in the manuscript of "De revolutionibus", emphasizes their value for computing new planetary tables, and presents Copernicus as following admiringly in the footsteps of Ptolemy even as he broke fundamentally with his ancient predecessor, and also provides what was missing from the "Commentariolus": a basis for accepting the claims of the new theory.
In this work Copernicus writes that the theories of his predecessors, are like a human figure in which the arms, legs, and head are put together in the form of a disorderly monster. His own representation of the universe, in contrast, is an orderly whole in which a displacement of any part would result in a disruption of the whole.
Rheticus persuades the older Copernicus to publish his book.
| Frauenburg (Frombork, Poland) |
460 YBN
[1540 AD]
| 1509)
| Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany |
459 YBN
[1541 AD]
| 1557) Most of von Gesner's botanical writings unpublished, are collected and will be published (in 2 vol., in 1751-71) as the "Opera botanica".
| Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
458 YBN
[1542 AD]
| 1511) This book will be regarded as the definitive work on physiology until William Harvey identifies the circulation of the blood in 1628.
Fernel also writes "Monalosphaerium, sive astrolabii genus, generalis horaril structura et USUS" (1526); "De proportionibus" (1528); "De evacuandi ratione" (1545); "De abditis rerum causis" ("On the Hidden Causes of Things") (1548); and J. Fernelii Medicina (1554), which is one of the late 1500s standard references and will go through 30 editions despite its traditional restating of Galen's physiology.
| |
458 YBN
[1542 AD]
| 1540) This book will separate botany as a science from health science, which previously were together in the writings of Dioscorides.
| Basel, Switzerland |
457 YBN
[1543 AD]
| 1025)
| |
457 YBN
[1543 AD]
| 1482) The Sun centered theory is revived. Copernicus' (1473-1543) book supporting a sun centered theory is published.
| (presumably) written in (Frauenburg, East Prussia now:)Frombork, Poland; (printed in)Nuremberg, Germany |
457 YBN
[1543 AD]
| 1553) By being printed, the illustrations are preserved in each copy, and so the invention of printing contributes more to the health sciences too. Steven van Calcar, a pupil of Titian does many of the illustrations. Vesalius publishes this book before age 30. Vesalius meets with opposition from Columbo. Asimov cites this as the end of Galen's influence, and that Vesalius' book marks the beginning of modern anatomy. Although accurate in anatomy, Vesalius is incorrect in some physiology (how the body functions), for example accepting Galen's view of blood moving through invisible pores in the wall of muscle diving the two ventricles of the heart. Vesalius recognizes the brain is the seat of consciousness (as Herophilos did) not the heart as Aristotle thought. Vesalius wants to dissect human cadavers but has trouble doing this in northern Europe so he moves to Italy where there is more tolerance of this practice. In Italy Mondino de' Luzzi had dissected human cadavers 200 years before. Vesalius conducts his own anatomical demonstrations (as Mondino did but others do not). Vesalius is a popular teacher and Fallopius and others gravitate to him. Vesalius demonstrates that female and male humans have same number of ribs, which is evidence against the truth of the (Old Testiment) Genesis story that Eve was made from Adam's rib and so men have one less rib than women.
In January 1540, breaking with the established tradition of relying on Galen, Vesalius openly demonstrates his own method-doing dissections himself, learning anatomy from cadavers, and critically evaluating ancient texts, while visiting the University of Bologna. These methods soon convince Vesalius that anatomy in the Galen tradition had not been based on the dissection of the human body, which was strictly forbidden by the Roman religion. Galenic anatomy, Vesalius maintains, was an application to the human form of conclusions drawn from the dissections of animals, mostly dogs, monkeys, or pigs.
The drawings of his dissections are engraved on wood blocks, which Vesalius takes, together with his manuscript, to Basel, Switzerland, where his major work "De humani corporis fabrica libri septem" ("The Seven Books on the Structure of the Human Body") commonly known as the "Fabrica", are printed.
Book 1 on the bones is generally correct but represents no major advance. Book 2 on the muscles is a masterpiece. Book 3 on blood vessels is exactly the opposite. Somewhat better is book 4 on the nerves, a great advance on everything written on the topic before, but it is largely outdated a century later. Vesalius' treatment in book 5 of the abdominal organs is excellent. Book 6 deals with the chest and neck, while book 7 is devoted to the brain.
After Vesalius, anatomy became a scientific discipline, with far-reaching implications not only for physiology but for all of biology.
| Basel, Switzerland |
456 YBN
[01/24/1544 AD]
| 3346) Reiner Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), Dutch cartographer, uses a pin-hole camera to view a solar eclipse.
Frisius publishes this illustration in 1545 in "De Radio Astronomica Et Geometrico".
| Louvain, Belgium |
455 YBN
[1545 AD]
| 1537) Cardano shows a hint of the theory of evolution by thinking that all animals were originally worms. Cardano publishs two encyclopedias of natural science which contain a wide variety of inventions, facts, and occult superstitions.
Mathematicians from del Ferro's time knew that the general cubic equation could be simplified to one of three cases: x3 + mx = n x3 = mx + n x3 + n = mx Th e term in x2 can always be removed by appropriate substitution. It is assumed that the coefficients m and n are positive, since negative numbers were not in general use at this time. If negative numbers are allowed, there is only one case, namely: x3 + mx + n = 0
| ?, Italy (presumably) |
455 YBN
[1545 AD]
| 1543) At the time Paré entered the army, surgeons treated gunshot wounds with boiling oil since such wounds were believed to be poisonous. On one occasion, when Paré's supply of oil runs out, he treated the wounds with a mixture of egg yolk, rose oil, and turpentine. Pare finds that the wounds he had treated with this mixture were healing better than those treated with the boiling oil. Sometime later he reported his findings in this book.
Pare reintroduces the tying of large arteries to replace the method of searing (blood) vessels with hot irons to stop bleeding (hemorrhaging) during amputation.
Unlike many surgeons of his time, Paré resorts to surgery only when he finds it absolutely necessary. He is one of the first surgeons to discard the practice of castrating patients who require surgery for a hernia. He introduces the implantation of teeth, artificial limbs, and artificial eyes made of gold and silver. Pare invents many scientific instruments, popularizes the use of the truss for hernia, and is the first to suggest that syphilis is a cause of aneurysm (swelling of blood vessels).
| Paris, France |
454 YBN
[1546 AD]
| 1507) Mainly because of this book Agricola is known as "the father of mineralogy". Agricola catagorizes minerals (called "fossils" at the time) in terms of geometric form (spheres, cones, plates). Agricola is probably the first to distinguish between "simple" substances and "compounds" (materials made of one base material and those made of a combination of base materials). In Agricola's day, chemical knowledge is almost nonexistent, and there was no method of chemical analysis other than by the use of fire.
| written: Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany| published: Basel, Switzerland |
454 YBN
[1546 AD]
| 1508)
| written: Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany | published: Basel, Switzerland |
454 YBN
[1546 AD]
| 3057) Girolamo Fracastoro (CE 1478-1553), Italian physician, proposes a germ theory of disease.
Fracastoro proposes a scientific germ theory of disease more than 300 years before (this theory will be proven) by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch.
Fracastoro publishes "De contagione et contagiosis morbis et curatione" (1546; "On Contagion and Contagious Diseases and Their Cure") in which Fracastoro describes numerous contagious diseases, stating that each is caused by a different type of rapidly multiplying minute body and that these bodies are transferred from the infector to the infected in three ways: by direct contact; by carriers such as soiled clothing and linen; and through the air. Although microorganisms had been mentioned as a possible cause of disease by the Roman scholar Marcus Varro in the 1st century BCE, Fracastoro's is the first scientific statement of the true nature of contagion, infection, disease germs, and modes of disease transmission.
This work is written in prose. Contagion via microscopic agents will not be mentioned as a major explanatory theme in health science until the work of Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680) in the 1600s.
| Verona, Italy |
451 YBN
[1549 AD]
| 1555) Konrad von Gesner (GeSnR) (CE 1516-1565), Swiss naturalist, completes "Universal Library", ("Bibliotheca universalis, seu catalogus omnium scriptorum locupletissimus in tribus linguis, Graeca, Latina et Hebraica exstantium", 1545-9), a catalog which lists all known books in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin with summaries of each.
In 1541 Von Gesner earns his Medical (Physician) degree from the University of Basel, and is the town physician to Zürich. This work makes Gesner famous, and offers of scholarly employment pour in, including one from the Fuggers, the richest family of Europe. The Fuggers, however, attach the condition that Gesner embrace Catholicism, which he refuses. He spends the rest of his life as a practicing physician at Zurich, leaving only for short expeditions to study flora and fauna. Von Gesner is called the "German Pliny" for his constant work ethic. Von Gesner dies when he refuses to leave patients dying of the plague which he eventually dies from. Von Gesner catalogs new plants arriving from America.
| |
450 YBN
[1550 AD]
| 1184) The cementation process (an obsolete method) of making steel is invented in Bohemia (Western Czech Republic). This process results in "blister steel", because of blisters that form on the surface of the bar after it is carburised in the furnace.
| Bohamia, Czech Republic |
450 YBN
[1550 AD]
| 1185) The Visby lenses are ten lens-shaped rock crystals found in a viking grave in Gotland that date to this time. Some of them are mounted in silver and may have been carried as a pendant, but others appear not to have been used as jewelry. The lenses are almost perfectly elliptical and very similar to modern lenses. They may have been used for magnification, to start fire or in a telescope.
| Gotland, Sweden |
450 YBN
[1550 AD]
| 1506) In this "De Re Metallica" Agricola writes about the history of ancient mining and use of metals. De re metallica consists of 12 books and covers every aspect of the industry. The book mainly deals with mining and metallurgy, describing the geology of ore bodies, surveying, mine construction, pumping, and ventilation. Agricola discuses the application of waterpower, the assaying of ores, the methods used for enriching ores before smelting, and procedures for smelting and refining a number of metals. The book ends with a discussion of the production of glass and of a variety of chemicals used in smelting operations.
Aside from the text are the hundreds of wood-cut illustrations, which are skillfully created technical drawings. These are not the only surviving illustrations of 1500s engineering, but are the most realistic and reliable because they are based on actual practice rather than on speculation.
Agricola may be the person who popularizes the word "petroleum". Agricola invents the word "fossil" to represent anything dug from the earth.
| Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany |
449 YBN
[1551 AD]
| 1549) These Prussian Tables are printed in order to replace the outdated Alphonsine Tables. Reinhold supports the sun centered theory revived by Copernicus after seeing the manuscript before even being published, even though Wittenberg is the center of Lutheranism and Luther opposes the sun-centered theory. This shows the lack of logic and intuition that Luther has. Reinhold calculates the first set of planetary tables based on the sun-centered theory. Reinhold goes over Copernicus' calculations and makes corrections. Apparently Reinhold believes that the sun-centered theory is only a mathematical device and does not represent reality.
| |
449 YBN
[1551 AD]
| 1560) Pierre Belon (BeLoN) (CE 1517-1564), French Naturalist, publishes "L'histoire naturelle des éstranges poissons marins" (1551; "Natural History of Unusual Marine Fishes"), much of which is devoted to a discussion of the dolphin.
Belon founds 2 botanical gardens (in France). Belon studies the porpoise embryo. Belen bases this book with the taxonomy of Aristotle. The book is written in French as opposed to Latin.
| France? |
448 YBN
[1552 AD]
| 1545) The engravings show that Eustachius had dissected with the greatest care and diligence, to give accurate views of the shape, size and relative position of the organs of the human body.
Eustachio is known as a challenger of Galen. Eustachio is the first who describes the internal and anterior muscles of the malleus and the stapedius, and the complicated figure of the cochlea.
| Rome, Italy |
447 YBN
[10/27/1553 AD]
| 1548) Servetus is captured in Geneva, then under the control of the dark and bitter Calvin, Calvin insists on having him murdered as a heretic. Servetus is burned at the stake crying out his unitarian views until dead. This shows clearly what a violent criminal and murderer Calvin was.
Calvin plays a prominent part in the trial and presses for execution, although by beheading rather than by fire. Servetus is found guilty of heresy, mainly on his views of the Trinity and Baptism.
| Geneva, Switzerland |
447 YBN
[1553 AD]
| 1541) There is, at this time, no way to measure the longitude (horizontal position on the earth) although latitude (vertical position on the earth) is easily measured by the height of the sun at noon. (or the lowest stars visible at a certain time?) Gemma Frisius explains that longitude can be measured by using an accurate timepiece (explain how), but no accurate timepieces exist at this time. In two centuries John Harrison in England will make the first accurate clock.
Frisius creates important globes.
While still a student, Frisius sets up a workshop to produce globes and mathematical instruments. Frisius becomes noted for the quality and accuracy of his instruments, which are praised by Tycho Brahe, among others. Frisius is the first to describe how an accurate clock could be used to determine longitude. A contemporary, Jean-Baptiste Morin (1583-1656) does not believe that Frisius' method for calculating out longitude would work, remarking, "I do not know if the Devil will succeed in making a longitude timekeeper but it is folly for man to try."
Frisius created or improved many instruments, including the cross-staff, the astrolabe and the astronomical rings. His students included Gerardus Mercator (who became his collaborator), Johannes Stadius, and John Dee.
| Friesland (present day Netherlands) |
447 YBN
[1553 AD]
| 1547) This book sharply rejects the idea of predestination and the idea that God had condemned souls to Hell regardless of worth or merit. God, insisted Servetus, condemns no one who does not condemn himself through thought, word or deed. To Calvin, who had written the fiery "Christianae religionis institutio", Servetus' latest book is a slap in the face.
Most copies of this book are burned shortly after its publication in 1553. Three copies have survived, but these will remain hidden for decades. Not until William Harvey's dissections in 1616 will the function of pulmonary circulation be widely accepted by physicians.
| Toulouse, France (presumably) |
445 YBN
[1555 AD]
| 1558) Konrad von Gesner (GeSnR) (CE 1516-1565), Swiss naturalist, writes "De omni rerum fossilium genere, gemmis, lapidibus, metallis" (1555) which has original illustrations of petrified fossils and crystals.
Von Gesner is the first to (print) images of fossils (but doesn't understand that they represent past life, but instead thinks they are stony concretions).
| Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
445 YBN
[1555 AD]
| 1559) Konrad von Gesner (GeSnR) (CE 1516-1565), Swiss naturalist, writes "Mithridates" (1555), a notable early example of the comparative study of languages.
| Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
445 YBN
[1555 AD]
| 1561) Belon notices similarity in skeletons of various vertebrates. Belon's earlier discussion of dolphin embryos and these systematic comparisons of the skeletons of birds and humans mark the beginnings of modern embryology and comparative anatomy.
| France? |
445 YBN
[1555 AD]
| 1773) Nicola Vicentino (CE 1511 - 1576) builds a 31-step keyboard instrument, the Archicembalo. In music, 31 equal temperament, is the tempered scale derived by dividing the octave into 31 equal-sized steps. Each step represents a frequency ratio of 21/31, or 38.71 cents.
| Siena?, Italy |
442 YBN
[1558 AD]
| 1556) Ray and Linnaeus will take this science a step farther. Von Gesner will ultimately collect 500 plants unknown to ancient writers. "Historia animalium" is the most important zoological treatise of this time, and is considered the foundation of zoology as a science.
| Zurich, Swizerland (presumably) |
441 YBN
[1559 AD]
| 1544) "De re anatomica" includes several important original observations derived from Colombo's dissections on both living animals and human cadavers. Most importantly is Colombo's description of general heart action, which correctly states that blood is received into the ventricles during diastole, or relaxation of the heart muscle, and expelled from the ventricles during systole, or contraction. Colombo clearly outlines circulation of venous blood from the right ventricle, through the pulmonary artery to the lungs, whence it emerges bright red after mixture with a "spirit" in the air, and returns to the left ventricle through the pulmonary vein. Columbo's descriptions of the mediastinum (organs and tissues within the thoracic cavity, excluding the lungs), pleura (the membrane surrounding the lungs), and peritoneum (the membrane surrounding the abdominal organs) are the best made until this time.
Colombo recognizes that blood moves from the heart to the lung through the pulmonary artery and returns to the pulmonary vein without ever passing through the wall that separates the two, as Galen had incorrectly supposed. Columbo understands the pulmonary circulation of the blood but fails to recognize the full circulation system which will be first understood by William Harvey.
Although pulmonary circulation was theorized as early as the 1200s, Colombo's is the first account and will be recognized by his colleagues and by William Harvey as the discoverer of the phenomenon.
| Rome, Italy (presumably) |
440 YBN
[1560 AD]
| 1538) "Liber de ludo aleae" will not be published until 1663, 87 years after Cardano's death.
| Italy |
440 YBN
[1560 AD]
| 1563) This group is suppressed by the Inquisition (clearly an antiscience view expressed by the religious establishment), but della Porta will reconstitute the society as the "Accademia dei Lincei" in 1610 and that remains. Asimov comments that the study of lynxs must be less of a threat to those in religion than the study of science.
The aim of the "Academia Secretorus Naturae" is to study the "secrets of nature". Any person applying for membership has to demonstrate that they have made a new discovery in the natural sciences.
The founders chose the lynx as a symbol of the academy because cats had long been believed to have particularly sharp eyesight. A generation later, Galileo Galilei will become a member.
Della Porta works with a camera obscura ("pinhole camera"), a closed box with a pinhole where light projects an inverted image. Niepce and Daguerre will develop the first film camera in 200 years.
Della Porta recognizes heating by light.
| |
439 YBN
[1561 AD]
| 1562) A friend and supporter of Vesalius, Fallopius joins Vesalius in criticizing the principles of the classic Greek anatomist Galen, which will result in a progressive shift of attitude in the development of Renaissance health science.
Fallopius publishes two treatises on ulcers and tumors, a treatise on surgery, and a commentary on Hippocrates's book on wounds of the head. In his own time he is regarded as somewhat of an authority in the field of sexuality. Fallopius' treatise on syphilis advocates the use of condoms, and he initiates what may be the first clinical trial of the device. Falloppio is also interested in every form of therapeutics. He writes a treatise on baths and thermal waters, another on simple purgatives, and a third on the composition of drugs. None of these works, except his Anatomy (Venice, 1561), are published during his lifetime. As they exist today, they consist of manuscripts of his lectures and notes of his students, published by Volcher Coiter (Nuremberg, 1575).
| Venice, Italy |
433 YBN
[1567 AD]
| 1512)
| |
431 YBN
[1569 AD]
| 1550) Mercator is the first to use a "cylindrical projection" to draw the earth's features. To visualize a cylindrical projection, imagine a cylinder placed on the outside of a globe of earth so the cylinder just touches the equator, then a light in the center of the globe projects the earth onto the cylinder, which is then unrolled to show a flat map. In this kind of map, sometimes called a "Mercator projection", the farther north or south from the equator the more inaccurate the representation, for example Greenland the Antarctica appear much larger than they actually are, but the important part is that a 3D surface can be drawn onto a flat 2D map, and both lines of latitude and longitude are straight. A Mercator projection map enables mariners to steer a course over long distances by plotting straight lines without continual adjustment of compass readings.
Mercator designs his own instruments for map making. Mercator founds a school of geography at Louvain. Mercator adjusts errors of Ptolemy. Mercator makes a detailed set of maps of Europe published after his death, which have a picture of Atlas holding the earth on the cover and these books of maps will come to be called "Atlases".
| Duchy of Cleves, Germany (presumably) |
431 YBN
[1569 AD]
| 1551)
| Duchy of Cleves, Germany (presumably) |
431 YBN
[1569 AD]
| 1992) Rafael Bombelli (CE 1526-1572), Italian mathematician, publishes "L'Algebra" ("Algebra") In "L'Algebra" Bombelli solves equations, using the method of del Ferro/Tartaglia, and introduces +i and -i and describes how they both work in Algebra.
| Bologna, Italy |
430 YBN
[1570 AD]
| 1186) Leonard Digges (1520 - 1559), father of Thomas Digges, is a well-known mathematician and surveyor, credited with the inventions of the theodolite and telescope, and a great populariser of science through his publications in English.
| English |
430 YBN
[1570 AD]
| 1539) Girolamo (or Geronimo) Cardano (KoRDoNO) (CE 1501-1576), Italian mathematician, is arrested for heresy. After several months in jail, Cardano is allowed to recant, but loses his job and the right to publish.
| |
428 YBN
[11/11/1572 AD]
| 1573) Hipparchos had noticed a new star and as a result was motivated to make a star map, another nova appeared in 1054, and Chinese and Japanese astronomers were the only people on earth to observe it. These stars are not new but are stars that explode, their star parts become bright enough to observe with the naked eye.
Tyco publishes a book which is the result of detailed observations of a comet in 1583. Brahe measures parallax of comet and finds it is farther than the moon, Aristotle realized that the motions of comets could not be harmonized with the regular motions of the other bodies, and so claimed erroneously that comets are an atmospheric phenomenon (Galileo agrees with Aristotle's erroneous claim). Tyco reluctantly comes to the conclusion that the comet's orbit can not be circular but is elongated. If this is true, then the comet would be passing through the planetary (crystal) spheres which would be impossible if such spheres actually exist. Tycho tries to make a compromise between the classic earth-centered system and the sun-centered system by writing that all the planets except the earth go around the sun, but that the sun with all it's planets goes around the earth. This explains everything the sun-centered theory could and also does away with the celestial spheres, which Copernicus had not done away with. Without the spheres, something else had to hold the planets in their orbits. This compromise theory is almost universally rejected. Tycho's observations are accurate to within 2 minutes of arc and this is the theoretical limit (for comparison Hipparchos' observations are only accurate to 10 minutes of arc). Brahe determines the length of an earth year to an accuracy of less than a second. Brahe prepares the best tables of apparent motion of the sun, producing tables far better than any before.
| Scania, Denmark (now Sweden) |
427 YBN
[1573 AD]
| 1574) This star (Tycho's star), now called the crab nebula, grows brighter than Venus and remains visible for a year and a half before fading out. After this book, exploding stars will be called "Novas". Tycho measures the parallax of the exploded star, using measurements from other locations such as England, and finds that the star is too far for it's distance to be measured. This strikes a blow against the view of Aristotle that the heavens (the so-called celestial sphere) are perfect and unchanging. Tycho makes a very small estimate of the size of the universe, thinking the most distant star to be only 7 billion miles {get actual estimate and actual units, compare to light years} from earth. As time continues astronomers will continue to make overly small estimates of the size of the universe, unable to imagine that there might be stars and later galaxies that are too far to be seen, and that the farthest stars and galaxies they see must represent the end of the universe, or beginning of time. Because of Tycho's popularity for finding the exploded star. Frederick II, the king of Denmark funds Tycho, and even builds Tycho an observatory on the island of Hveen (now Ven) (3 sq mi, between Denmark and Sweden). Tycho builds elegant buildings and makes the best instruments he can make. He builds a 5 foot {units} spherical celestial globe. Here scholars and rulers from all over Europe visit him. Tycho calls the observatory "Uraniborg", after Urania, the Muse of astronomy.
Tyco publishes a book which is the result of detailed observations of a comet in 1583. Brahe measures parallax of comet and finds it is farther than the moon, Aristotle realized that the motions of comets could not be harmonized with the regular motions of the other bodies, and so claimed erroneously that comets are an atmospheric phenomenon (Galileo agrees with Aristotle's erroneous claim). Tyco reluctantly comes to the conclusion that the comet's orbit can not be circular but is elongated. If this is true, then the comet would be passing through the planetary (crystal) spheres which would be impossible if such spheres actually exist. Tycho tries to make a compromise between the classic earth-centered system and the sun-centered system by writing that all the planets except the earth go around the sun, but that the sun with all it's planets goes around the earth. This explains everything the sun-centered theory could and also does away with the celestial spheres, which Copernicus had not done away with. Without the spheres, something else had to hold the planets in their orbits. This compromise theory is almost universally rejected. Tycho's observations are accurate to within 2 minutes of arc and this is the theoretical limit (for comparison Hipparchos' observations are only accurate to 10 minutes of arc). Brahe determines the length of an earth year to an accuracy of less than a second. Brahe prepares the best tables of apparent motion of the sun, producing tables far better than any before.
| Herrevad Abbey, an abbey near Ljungbyhed, Scania, Denmark (now Sweden) |
427 YBN
[1573 AD]
| 1575) Tycho makes a very small estimate of the size of the universe, thinking the most distant star to be only 7 billion miles {get actual estimate and actual units, compare to light years} from earth. As time continues astronomers will continue to make overly small estimates of the size of the universe, unable to imagine that there might be stars and later galaxies that are too far to be seen, and that the farthest stars and galaxies they see must represent the end of the universe, or beginning of time.
This book is the result of detailed observations of a comet in 1577. Brahe measures the parallax of the comet and finds the comet to be farther than the moon. Aristotle realized that the motions of comets could not be harmonized with the regular motions of the other bodies, and so claimed erroneously that comets are an atmospheric phenomenon (Galileo agrees with Aristotle's erroneous claim). Tyco reluctantly comes to the conclusion that the comet's orbit can not be circular but is elongated. If this is true, then the comet would be passing through the planetary (crystal) spheres which would be impossible if such spheres actually exist. This book also contains Tycho's new system of planets. Tycho tries to make a compromise between the classic earth-centered system and the sun-centered system by writing that all the planets except the earth go around the sun, but that the sun with all it's planets goes around the earth. This explains everything the sun-centered theory could and also does away with the celestial spheres, which Copernicus had not done away with. Without the spheres, something else had to hold the planets in their orbits. This compromise theory is almost universally rejected.
| Island of Hven (now Ven, Sweden) |
421 YBN
[1579 AD]
| 1567) Franciscus Vieta (VYATu) (CE 1540-1603), French mathematician, publishes "Canon mathematicus seu ad triangula" (1579; "Mathematical Laws Applied to Triangles"), which is probably the first western European work dealing with a systematic development of methods for computing plane and spherical triangles, utilizing all six trigonometric functions.
| ?, France |
420 YBN
[1580 AD]
| 3221) Earliest flintlock gun. The flintlock replaces the matchlock.
The snaphaunce-lock (earliest flint-lock) is in use. The snaphaunce is an early flintlock mechanism. A flintlock is similar to a wheel lock except that ignition comes from a flint attached to a hammer that strikes a piece of steel, with the resulting sparks directed into the priming powder in the pan (which explodes and propels a projectile). This lock is an adaptation of the tinderbox used for starting fires. A tinderbox is a metal box for holding tinder (material for starting a fire such as dry twigs) and usually a flint and steel for striking a spark.
The flintlock replaces the matchlock and wheel lock, but will be replaced itself by the percussion lock in the first half of the 1800s.
In the flintlock, the flint is always held in a small vise, called a cock, which rotates around its pivot to strike the steel (generally called the frizzen). Striking the flint against the steel forces (the steel) back and directs a shower of sparks into the forced-open pan, which ignites the priming powder, which sends a flash through the touch-hole connecting the pan to the barrel's breech, where the main charge is ignited to (propel a projectile).
| Netherlands |
419 YBN
[1581 AD]
| 1588) This "magnetic dip" is caused by the magnetic field of the Earth not running parallel to the surface. Norman demonstrates this phenomenon by creating a compass needle that pivots on a horizontal axis. This needle then tilts at a steep angle relative to the horizon line. Knowledge of magnetic inclination and local variations was known before Norman's publication, but Norman's work has a larger impact.
Norman records that steel does not change weight when magnetized, and this argues against magnetism being a fluid that is somehow poured into the steel. However, probably magnetism is electrism from a current of electrons in metal, and is composed of electrons, and is like a fluid, however a fluid that has a very low mass.
| London, England |
419 YBN
[1581 AD]
| 1597) Galileo Galilei (GoLilAO) (CE 1564-1642), recognizes that a pendulum swings in equal time no matter what height it starts from. During services at the cathedral of Pisa, Galileo notices in the a swinging chandelier that the time of the swing appears to be the same no matter what height the chandelier reaches. He verifies this by using his pulse to time the swings. He goes home and builds two pendulums that are the same size, and swinging both from different heights he finds that they both take the same amount of time to complete a swing.
Galileo shows that a full balloon weights more than an empty balloon. (try to place chronologically)
| Pisa, Italy |
418 YBN
[1582 AD]
| 1566) The Gregorian Calendar is devised both because over time the Julian Calendar year is slightly too long, causing the vernal equinox to slowly drift backwards in the calendar year, and because the lunar calendar used to compute the date of Easter has grown conspicuously in error too.
The Gregorian calendar system solves these problems by dropping 11 days to bring the calendar back into synchronization with the seasons, and then slightly shortening the average number of days in a calendar year, by omitting three Julian leap-days every 400 years. The days omitted are in century years which are not divisible by 400 (specifically: the February 29th of year 1700, 1800, 1900; 2100, 2200, 2300; 2500, 2600, 2700; 2900, etc.).
| Rome, Italy |
417 YBN
[1583 AD]
| 1569) Scaliger recognizes that history of Asian people should be studied too.
Two other treatises (published in 1604 and 1616) establish numismatics, the study of coins, as a new and reliable tool in historical research.
| ?, France |
415 YBN
[1585 AD]
| 1581) Although Stevin does not invent decimal fractions and his notation is somewhat unwieldy, he establishes the use of decimal fractions in day-to-day mathematics. Stevin declares that the universal introduction of decimal coins, measures, and weights is only a question of time. This decimal system will be perfected when John Napier invents the decimal point. This same year Stevin writes "La Disme" ("The Decimal") on the same subject.
As quartermaster of the army under Prince Maurice of Nassau, Stevin devises a system of sluices, which could flood the land as a defense should Holland be attacked.
Stevin's contemporaries are most impressed by his invention of a so-called "land yacht", a carriage with sails, of which a little model had been preserved in Scheveningen until 1802. Around the year 1600 Stevin, with Prince Maurice of Orange and twenty-six others, ride the land-sail vehicle on the beach between Scheveningen and Petten. The carriage is propelled only by the force of wind, and acquires a speed which exceeds that of horses.
Stevin is the first to translate Diofantos into a modern language (Dutch from Latin). Stevin accepts the sun-centered system.
Stevin demonstrates the impossibility of perpetual motion. Perpetual motion seems to me to be not only possible, but probably the rule in the universe. Matter is constantly in motion because of gravity and space, planets around stars, galaxies around their own axis and as they move around the universe.
In 1599, Stevin gives values of magnetic (needle) declination at 43 different parts of earth.
| Netherlands (presumably) |
414 YBN
[1586 AD]
| 1415) Al-'Amili's major work of astronomy is "Tashrihu'l-aflak" (âAnatomy of the Heavensâ).
Al-'Amili's "Khulasat al-hisab" (âThe Essentials of Arithmeticâ), written in Arabic, will be translated several times into Persian and German.
| Isfahan, Iran |
414 YBN
[1586 AD]
| 1582) This book also contains the theorem of the triangle of forces. The knowledge of this triangle of forces, equivalent to the parallelogram diagram of forces, gives a new impetus to the study of statics (in physics, the subdivision of mechanics that is concerned with the forces that act on bodies at rest under equilibrium conditions), which had previously been founded on the theory of the lever.
| (possibly Antwerp or Nassau), Netherlands |
414 YBN
[1586 AD]
| 1583) Simon Stevin (STEVen) (CE 1548-1620) , publishes a report on his experiment in which two lead spheres, one 10 times as heavy as the other, fall a distance of 30 feet in the same time. The first to do this experiment is usually wrongly credited to Galileo.
Stevin's report receives little attention, though it precedes by three years Galileo's first treatise concerning gravity and by 18 years Galileo's theoretical work on falling bodies.
Stevin writes in his 1586 work "De Beghinselen des Waterwichts" ("Principles on the weight of water") (translated from Dutch {presumably}): "... The experiment against Aristotle is this: let us take (as I have done in company with the learned H. Jan Cornets de Groot, most diligent investigator of Nature's mysteries) two leaden balls, one ten times greater in weight than the other, whi ch allow to fall together from the height of thirty feet upon a board or something from which a sound is clearly given out, and it shall appear that the lightest does not take ten times longer to fall than the heaviest, but that they fall so equally upon the board that both noises appear as a single sensation of sound. The same, in fact, also occurs with two bodies of equal size, but in ten-fold ratio of weight. ..."
| Netherlands (presumably) |
414 YBN
[1586 AD]
| 1598) Galileo Galilei (GoLilAO) (CE 1564-1642), invents a new form of hydrostatic balance for weighing small quantities. Galileo publishes a small book on the design of the hydrostatic balance and this is the first thing that attracts the attention of scholars.
Around this time Galileo also completes a second treatise which is a study on the center of gravity of various solids. These two treatises are circulated in manuscript form only.
| Florence or Sienna, Italy |
412 YBN
[1588 AD]
| 1579) Giordano Bruno (CE 1548-1600), Italian philosopher, writes "Articuli centum et sexaginta" (1588; "160 Articles") in which Bruno describes his theory of religion, where all religions coexist peacefully based on mutual understanding and the freedom of reciprocal discussion.
| ?, Germany |
411 YBN
[1589 AD]
| 1182) This device is called an "ajax", because "jax" is a pun on the work "jake" slang for "chamber pot". Though the Queen Elizabeth I of England, Harrington's godmother, is impressed by the invention, the public generally ridiculed and dismissed as unnecesary in England, but is adopted in France under the name "Angrez". The design has a flush valve to let water out of the tank, and a wash-down design to empty the bowl.
| Somerset, England |
411 YBN
[1589 AD]
| 5905) English composer, William Byrd (CE c1543-1623), composes music.
In London Byrd earns favor with Queen Elizabeth. Around this time Byrd composes "Songs of Sundrie Natures" (1589) which include the words (in "Whyle that the Sunne with his beames hot") "some of Gravitie, and others of Myrth", "beames", "your mind is light", "And we were out and he was in", "I was in your sight", and other potential evidence that remote neuron reading and writing was already realized by 1589 but exclusively only for the most wealthy.
(It would be nice to hear "Songs Of Sundrie Nature" performed but I can't find it anywhere.)
| London, England |
410 YBN
[1590 AD]
| 1580) In addition to developing an atomic theory, "De immenso", reelaborates the theories described in the Italian dialogues.
| Frankfurt am Main, Germany |
409 YBN
[1591 AD]
| 1568) | ?, France |
408 YBN
[1592 AD]
| 1587) Alpini travels to Egypt in 1580 as physician to George Emo or Hemi, the Venetian consul in Cairo, and spends three years in Egypt. From a practice in the management of Date Palms, which he observes in Egypt, Alpini seems to have deduced the doctrine of the sexual difference of plants, which will be adopted as the foundation of the Linnaean taxonomy system. Alpini writes that "the female date-trees or palms do not bear fruit unless the branches of the male and female plants are mixed together; or, as is generally done, unless the dust found in the male sheath or male flowers is sprinkled over the female flowers".
The genus of the ginger family (Zingiberaceae) is later named Alpinia.
In 1591, Alpini describes the current Egyptian medical practice in "De medicina Aegyptorum" (1591; "On Egyptian Medicine"), which is a valuable addition to medical (health science) history.
In 1601, Alpini publishes "De praesagienda vita et morte aegrotontium" (1601; "The Presages of Life and Death in Diseases"), which is the result of his study of Egyptian diseases and is widely praised.
| Venice, Italy |
408 YBN
[1592 AD]
| 1613) Earliest thermometer.
Galileo Galilei (CE 1564-1642) constructs a thermometer (he calls a thermoscope). The changing temperature of an inverted glass vessel produces an expansion or contraction of the air within it, which in turn changed the level of the liquid with which the vessel's long, open-mouthed neck is partially filled.
| Padua, Italy |
405 YBN
[1595 AD]
| 1586) This manuscript bears Napier's signature, and is currently in a collection now at Lambeth Palace, London. The manuscript enumerates various inventions "designed by the Grace of God, and the worke of expert craftsmen" for the defense of his country.
| Scotland (presumably) |
404 YBN
[08/??/1596 AD]
| 1616) At first Fabricius believes the bright star to be "just" another nova, because the concept of variable brightness stars is unknown at this time. But when Fabricius sees Mira brighten again in 1609, it becomes clear that a new kind of star had been discovered. David Fabricius is the father of Johaness Fabricius who may have been the first observer of sunspots in 1610 or 1611 and first to observe that the Sun rotate around its own axis.
Variable stars are currently classified into three different types: (1) eclipsing, (2) pulsating, and (3) explosive.
| Esens, Frisia (now northwest Germany and northeast Netherlands) (guess) |
404 YBN
[1596 AD]
| 1552) The book "Opus Palatinum de triangulis" (1596; "The Palatine Work on Triangles"), by German mathematician, Georg Joachim von Lauchen Rheticus (ReTiKuS) (CE 1514-1574), is published. This is the first book to relate the trigonometric functions (sin, cos, tan) to angles instead of arcs of a circle.
For much of his life, Rheticus displays a passion for the study of triangles, or trigonometry. In 1542 Rheticus has the trigonometric sections of Copernicus' Revolutions (chapters 13 and 14) published separately under the title, "De lateribus et angulis triangulorum" ("On the Sides and Angles of Triangles"). In Leipzig in 1551, Rheticus produces a tract titled, "Canon of the Science of Triangles", the first publication of six-function trigonometric tables, though the term "trigonometry" will not be used until 1595. This pamphlet is to be an introduction to Rheticus' greatest work, a full set of tables to be used in angular astronomical measurements.
At his death, the Science of Triangles is still unfinished, but, paralleling his own relationship with Copernicus, a student devotes himself to completing his teacher's work. This student, Valentin Otto oversees the hand computation of approximately one hundred thousand ratios to at least ten decimal places. When completed in 1596, "Opus palatinum de triangulus", fills nearly fifteen hundred pages. Its tables of values are accurate enough to be used as the basis for astronomical computation into the early twentieth century.
Rheticus writes a biography of Copernicus now lost. Rheticus draws the first map of East Prussia now lost.
| Kassa, Hungary |
404 YBN
[1596 AD]
| 1621) Kepler claimed to have had an epiphany on July 19, 1595, while teaching a class at a small Lutheran school in Graz, Austria. While demonstrating the periodic conjunction of Saturn and Jupiter in the zodiac Kepler realized suddenly that the spacing among the six Copernican planets might be explained by circumscribing and inscribing each orbit with one of the five regular polyhedrons, and that this might be the geometrical basis of the universe.
Remarkably, Kepler does find agreement within 5 percent, with the exception of Jupiter. Kepler writes to his mentor Michael Maestlin: "I wanted to become a theologian; for a long time I was restless. Now, however, behold how through my effort God is being celebrated in astronomy."
With the support of his mentor Michael Maestlin, Kepler received permission from the Tübingen university senate to publish his manuscript, pending removal of all Bible interpretations and the addition of a more simple and understandable description of the Copernican system as well as Kepler"s new ideas.
Tycho corresponds with Kepler, starting with a harsh but legitimate critique of Kepler's system; among a host of objections, Tycho takes issue with the use of inaccurate numerical data taken from Copernicus. Through their letters, Tycho and Kepler discuss a broad range of astronomical problems, dwelling on lunar phenomena and Copernican theory (particularly its theological viability). But without the significantly more accurate data of Tycho's observatory, Kepler has no way to address many of these issues.
| Graz, Austria |
403 YBN
[1597 AD]
| 1601) Galileo admits in a letter to Kepler that Galileo believes the sun-centered theory, although remains silent publicly. The execution of Bruno in 1600 may frighten Galileo from supporting the sun-centered theory publicly.
| Padua, Italy |
400 YBN
[02/17/1600 AD]
| 1578) Giordano Bruno (CE 1548-1600), Italian philosopher, is burned alive at the stake.
Bruno might have lived had he recanted as Galileo will, but Bruno chooses not to.
| Rome, Italy |
400 YBN
[1600 AD]
| 1564) | Padua, Italy (presumably) |
400 YBN
[1600 AD]
| 1571) Gilbert works with spherical magnets and views the earth as a spherical magnet. Gilbert recognizes that the compass points to magnetic poles not up to the stars (or heavens) as wrongly thought, although Gilbert does not realize that the magnetic field of the earth is not static and does change.
Gilbert proves garlic does not affect magnetism. Robert Norman was the first prove that the magnetic needle also points downward toward earth (magnetic dip) in 1576.
Gilbert is the first to distinguish clearly between electric and magnetic phenomena (although these two will be joined again as all part of electricity).
"De Magnete", will remain the most important work on magnetism until the early 1800s.
In "De Magnete" Gilbert described his methods for strengthening natural magnets (lodestones) and for using them to magnetize steel rods by stroking. Gilbert finds that an iron bar that is left in alignment with the earth's magnetic field will slowly become magnetized, and that sufficient heating will cause a magnet to lose its magnetism.
Gilbert uses his versorium (electroscope) to prove that numerous other bodies besides amber can be electrified by friction. In this case the visible indication is in the attraction exerted between the electrified body and the light pivoted needle which is acted on and electrified by induction. The next improvement, will be made by Benjamin Franklin, with the invention of a repulsion electroscope. Two similarly electrified bodies repel each other.
| London, England (presumably) |
398 YBN
[1602 AD]
| 1594) Santorio is an early exponent of the iatrophysical school of medicine (health science), which attempts to explain the workings of the animal body on purely mechanical grounds. This is one of the earliest diagnostic devices in health science.
| Padua, Italy (presumably) |
398 YBN
[1602 AD]
| 5916) Jacopo Peri (CE 1561-1633), Italian composer and singer, composes the first opera ("Dafne").
Two years later in 1600, Peri writes the opera "Euridice", based on the Orpheus legend, which is the earliest opera for which complete music survives.
(Try to find a performance of Dafne. It seems surprising that the first known opera is not more popular.)
| (Medici court) Florence, Italy |
397 YBN
[1603 AD]
| 1565)
| Padua, Italy (presumably) |
397 YBN
[1603 AD]
| 1636) Before this stars all had different names, some named by the ancient Greek people (like Castor, Pollux and Sirius), others by Arab people (Betelgeuse, Aldebaran, and Rigel).
Before Bayer's work, star charts were based on Ptolemy's star catalog, which was incomplete and ambiguous. Bayer updated Ptolemy's list of 48 constellations, adding 12 constellations newly recognized in the Southern Hemisphere. Based on Tycho Brahe's determinations of stellar positions and magnitudes, Bayer assigns each visible star in a constellation one of the 24 Greek letters. For constellations with more than 24 visible stars, Bayer completes his listing with Latin letters. The nomenclature that Bayer developes is still used today and has been extended to apply to about 1,300 stars.
| Augsburg, Germany |
397 YBN
[1603 AD]
| 1641) Christoph Scheiner (siGnR? or sInR?) (CE 1575-1650), German Astronomer, invents the "pantograph", an instrument which could duplicate plans and drawings to an adjustable scale. recognizes that the curvature of the lens in the human eye changes as the eye focuses to different distances.
| Dillingen, Germany |
397 YBN
[1603 AD]
| 3678) The first investigation of luminescence with a synthetic material.
Vincenzo Cascariolo, an alchemist and shoe maker in Bologna, Italy, heats a mixture of barium sulfate (in the form of barite, heavy spar) and coal and after cooling, obtains a powder that exhibits bluish glow at night. Cascariolo observes that this glow can be restored by exposing the powder to sunlight. This powder is barium sulfide.
This phenomenon introduces the theory of storage of light. In 1612 La Galla explains this phenomenon by theorizing that a certain amount of fire and light substance to which the calx has been exposed is confined in the stone and later passed out slowly. In this view light must be absorbed, like a sponge absorbs water, and this supports the theory that light is a material substance.
The name lapis solaris, or "sunstone", is given to the material because alchemists hope it will transform baser metals into gold, the symbol for gold being the Sun.
Cascariolo's finding will be followed by the discovery of a number of other substances which become luminous either after exposure to light or on heating, or by friction, and to which the general name of ("phosphorus" and "phosphori" in the plural) (from φώς "light" and "φόρος" "bearer") was given. Among these may be mentioned Homberg's phosphorus (calcium chloride), John Canton's phosphorus (calcium sulphide) and Balduin's phosphorus (calcium nitrate).
Currently, luminescence is defined as light emission that cannot be attributed merely to the temperature of the emitting body. Various types of luminescence are often distinguished according to the source of the energy which excites the emission. A phosphor is any material that exhibits phosphorescence.
In 1866 Theodore Sidot will prepare a zinc sulfide phosphor which will be used to see radioactive emissions and will lead to the cathode ray tube television, a very important part of the secret development of seeing eyes and thoughts.
Pliny wrote about various gems which shine with a light of their own, and Albertus Magnus knew that the diamond becomes phosphorescent when moderately heated. It is amazing that an observation of Pliny thousands of years before is linked to screens that display recorded images of life and images that a brain thinks.
The "bolognese stone" stone leads to a famous controversy between Galileo and Liceti concerning the light of the Moon.
In 1960, American physicist Theodore Harold Maiman will develop the first laser using a ruby, a gem that exhibits fluorescent characteristics. Crystalline in structure, a ruby is a solid that includes the element chromium, which gives the gem its characteristic reddish color. A ruby exposed to blue light will absorb the radiation and go into an excited state. After losing some of the absorbed energy to internal vibrations, the ruby passes through a state known as metastable before dropping to what is known as the ground state, the lowest energy level for an atom or molecule. At that point, it begins emitting radiation (just light or electrons too?) on the red end of the spectrum.
(I think that the process of how photons are released in luminescence may be related to how photons are emited when a material is heated - ultimately photons are added, but there may be a larger-than-photon phenomenon. In any event, luminescence clearly must be a major focus of science, and the missing material indicates to me that much of it may be secret.)
| Bologna, Italy |
396 YBN
[01/01/1604 AD]
| 1622) Kepler explains how light is refracted by a lens, including the lens in the human eye.(verify this is in astronomiae)
Kepler describes a compound microscope (a two lens magnifying device, basically a telescope).
Kepler shows that parallel rays of light are focused by a parabolic mirror, an essential part of the reflecting telescope that will be first built by Newton later in the century. However, Kepler is unable to describe a mathematical relationship for refraction of light, which will be done by Snell, his younger contemporary.
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
396 YBN
[10/??/1604 AD]
| 1623) The supernova (SN 1604, Kepler's supernova) is seen from earth. Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) will described the new star two years later in his "De Stella Nova". This nova is not as bright as the nova seen by Tycho.
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
396 YBN
[1604 AD]
| 1600) A supernova is seen by people on earth. Galileo uses this nova to argue against the Aristotelian claim of the immutability of the heavens.
| ? |
396 YBN
[1604 AD]
| 1635) Witelo (Latin: Vitellio) had written the most important medieval treatise on optics. But Kepler's analysis of vision changes the framework for understanding the behavior of light. Kepler writes that every point on a luminous body in the field of vision emits rays of light in all directions but that the only rays that can enter the eye are those that impact the pupil, which functions as a wall. Kepler also reverses the traditional visual cone. Kepler stating that the rays emanating from a single luminous point form a cone with the circular base being the pupil. All the rays are then refracted within the normal eye to meet again at a single point on the retina. For the first time the retina, or the sensitive receptor of the eye, is regarded as the place where beams of light compose upside-down images. If the eye is not normal, the second short interior cone comes to a point not on the retina but in front of it or behind it, causing blurred vision. For more than three centuries eyeglasses had helped people see better. But nobody before Kepler was able to offer a good theory for why curved glass works to correct vision.
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
395 YBN
[1605 AD]
| 1590) Bacon writes that science should concern itself with the actual world that is experienced with the senses, because it's true purpose is not to strengthen religious faith, but to improve the human condition.
Both the "Advancement of Learning" and his "Novum Organum" (1620, the "New Organon", refering to Aristotle's "Organon" which demonstrates the proper method of logic.), propose a theory of scientific knowledge based on observation and experiment that come to be known as the inductive method.
Bacon's elaborate classification of the sciences will inspire the 1700s French Encyclopedists. Asimov says that Bacon sees history as developing ideas, not conquering kings. Asimov claims that Bacon's strong influence made experimental science fashionable among English gentleman.
| London, England (presumably) |
395 YBN
[1605 AD]
| 1630)
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
394 YBN
[1606 AD]
| 1570) In this book Scalinger compares various chronologies using astronomy to put together a single timeline.
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
394 YBN
[1606 AD]
| 1589) Like Paracelsus, Libavius believes in the medical importance of alchemy. Libavius suggests that mineral substances can be identified by the shape of crystals produced after a solution is evaporated.
Although Libavius is a firm believer in the transmutation of base metals into gold, he is renowned for his strong criticisms against the mysticism and secretiveness of his fellow alchemists.
"Alchymia" is the most important of Libavius' numerous works, all of which are noted for clear, unambiguous writing. "Alchymia" establishes the tradition for 1600s French chemistry textbooks.
Asimov claims Libavius is an alchemist because he considers the possibility of transmutation of gold to be an important end of alchemical study. There is nothing unrealistic in the goal of transmutation of atoms. Asimov says if gold could be created which he firmly doubts it would then be of less value, and is practically a useless metal. However, this questioning of atomic structure, and inquiry into the question of how to change from one atom to another is an important scientific question. Transmutation of atoms will be confirmed by Rutherford, and explored in detail by Fermi, and then undoubtedly for many years later secretly by many others. In 1937 Andre Maurois mentions transmutation in his "The Thought Reading Machine", clearly hinting that this is a vigorously pursued secret science. And finally, so-called transmutation of atoms is fundamental to how can humans live on other planets and moons, we need to convert iron (or something as abundant) into H2 and O2. So I think, in the search for transforming one element to another, the alchemists were doing basic chemistry and pursuing a realistic goal. Although no chemical reaction has resulted in a change of one atom to another, clearly atoms are separated into photons from combustion, which may involve complete separation of even the nucleus of an atom.
| |
394 YBN
[1606 AD]
| 2099) The Dutch Willem Janszoon is the first European confirmed to have seen and landed in Australia.
| Australia |
393 YBN
[1607 AD]
| 5912) Claudio (Giovanni Antonio) Monteverdi (CE 1567-1643), Italian composer, composes his first Opera "Orfeo". Monteverdi represents the beginning of the transition from the Renaissance Era (1420-1600) to the Baroque Era (1600-1750).
The church and court remain the primary musical institutions in the Baroque era. These two institions have the money to hire the best musicians and there is competition between churches and courts for the best musicians. One example is how Monteverdi is lured away from his job at the court of Mantua to directing the music of the Basilica of San Marco in Venice with a substantial increase in pay and better working conditions.
The major new categories of instrumental music during the Baroque period are the "sonata" and the "concerto". Originally applied to instrumental ensemble pieces derived from the canzona, the term sonata becomes the designation for a form that is to dominate instrumental music from the mid-1700s until 1900. In its keyboard manifestation, the sonata is a binary (two-part) structure similar to a dance-suite movement. For small ensemble, the sonata evolves into a series of independent movements (usually in a slow–fast–slow–fast arrangement) called a "sonata da chiesa" ("church sonata") or a dance suite called a "sonata da camera" ("chamber sonata"). Especially prominent is the trio sonata, for two violins (or flutes or oboes) and cello with continuo (a continuo, also known as a figured bass, is a system of shorthand notation in which figures are written below the notes of the bass part to indicate the chords to be played by an accompanying instrument). Eventually, similar forms are adopted for orchestra (sinfonia or concerto), for orchestra with a small group of featured instruments (concerto grosso), or for a solo instrument with orchestra (solo concerto). The fundamental principle of the concerto is that of contrast of instrumental groups and musical textures.
| Mantua, Italy |
392 YBN
[1608 AD]
| 1618) Telescope and microscope.
Hans Lippershey (LiPRsE) (CE 1570-1619), spectacle maker from the United Netherlands, is traditionally credited with inventing the telescope (1608).
Lippershey places a double convex lens (the "object glass") at the farther end of a tube, and a double concave lens (the "eyepiece") at the nearer end.
This is a refracting telescope, which spreads light out using two transparent lens.
Lippershey applies to the States General of the Netherlands for a 30-year patent for his instrument, which he called a kijker ("looker"), or else an annual pension, in exchange for which Lippershey offers not to sell telescopes to foreign kings. Two other claimants to the invention come forward, Jacob Metius and Sacharias Jansen. The States General rules that no patent should be granted because so many people know about the device and that it is so easy to copy. However, the States General grants Lippershey 900 florins for the instrument but required its modification into a binocular device.
| Netherlands |
391 YBN
[08/??/1609 AD]
| 1603) Galileo hears that a magnifying tube, using lenses, had been invented in Holland (Netherlands). By trial and error, Galileo quickly figures out the secret of the invention and makes his own spyglass from lenses for sale in spectacle makers' shops that can magnify objects 3 times. Others had also build telescopes, but Galileo quickly figures out how to improve the instrument, teaching himself the art of lens grinding, and produces increasingly powerful telescopes. According to Asimov Galileo is the best lensmaker in Europe at the time.
Galileo goes to the Venetian Senate because Padua is at this time in the Venetian Republic.
| Venice, Italy |
391 YBN
[12/??/1609 AD]
| 1604) Galileo draws the Moon's phases as seen through the telescope, showing that the Moon's surface is not smooth, as had been thought, but is rough and uneven.
| Venice, Italy |
391 YBN
[1609 AD]
| 355) Galileo Galilei (GoLilAO) (CE 1564-1642) demonstrates, by dropping bodies of different weights from the top of the famous Leaning Tower, that the speed of fall of a heavy object is not proportional to its weight, as Aristotle had claimed.
Simon Stevin was the first to do this experiment and publishes the details in 1586. Aristotle had claimed that heavier objects fall faster than lighter objects.
The story is from the first biographer of Galileo Vincenzo Viviani (CE 1622–1703).
At the University of Pisa, Galileo's attacks on Aristotle make him unpopular with his colleagues, and in 1592 his contract is not renewed. His patrons, however, secure Galileo the chair of mathematics at the University of Padua, where he teaches from 1592 until 1610.
This phenomenon of two different mass objects falling to the earth at the same time, will eventually be understood in the larger phenomenon of Newtonian gravity. Newton's equation will show that the mass of two objects does effect their relative velocities (a2=Gm1/d^2), but on the earth, most objects are far smaller than the mass of the earth, and so the mass of smaller objects have little or no effect in moving the earth towards them. For example, two objects of larger mass will reach each other faster than two objects of less mass (when not under the influence of the gravity of other surrounding objects). Many people are mistaken in thinking that mass does not effect velocity, mass definitely effects velocity as shown in Newton's equation of gravity. This mistake happens, because on earth, the biggest mass around is the earth, and so the mass of all other objects around us, is irrelevant. So observationally on earth, Aristotle was wrong, and Galileo is correct. But Newton will show that mass does effect velocity, in some sense Aristotle was partially correct in the concept of heavier objects falling together faster than lighter objects. It seems intuitive that a heavier object would fall to earth faster than a light object, and what a surprise it must have been to find that objects of many different weights all fall at the same speed, again, because the earth is much more massive than any of the falling objects are. Humans in this time need to remember that almost all our experiences and experiments take place on the earth, and we need to imagine a time when our species is moving between planets and stars, we have to think outside our own experience stuck here on a tiny sphere. In this case, observation is misleading if ignoring the mass of earth. Perhaps some person will demonstrate that two more massive objects do actually fall together faster than two lighter objects some time in some low gravity location.
| (University of Pisa) Pisa, Italy |
391 YBN
[1609 AD]
| 1599) This is called the law of falling bodies.
Galileo recognizes that two forces can work on an object at the same time, for example how one force moves a cannonball forward, while another moves is up and then down. The two motions together form a parabolic curve. This is the first correct explanation of the propulsion of cannonballs, and makes a science out of gunnery. Asimov explains that this view of superimposed motions allows Galileo to see how people and birds can share the earth's rotation and still maintain their superimposed motions. The claim by the earth-centered supporters is that the turning earth would leave behind those not attached to the earth, such as birds. The reason the earth does not turn under a person who jumps up for a second, (given the surface of the earth's rotation of 1,669km/hour, or 1037 mi/hour) is that the velocity of those attached to the surface of earth have the same velocity as the surface of earth. The turning of the earth is noticeable in the way airplanes cover more ground in the same time when moving in the opposite direction of the earth's rotation. This effect is the same for birds, but is smaller because of their smaller propulsive force (which, like an airplane, offsets their initial ground velocity transferred from the surface of the earth). Birds and planes can only offset the .46km/s .28mi/s velocity they have (relative to the earth's center) in moving along with the rotation of the earth. Asimov states that this claim of any objects not attached to the earth being left behind is one of the most effective arguments against the turning earth.
Later other people (name who) will re-express this law in algebraic terms.
Galileo theorizes that in a perfect vacuum (empty space) all objects would fall at the same rate. Galileo slows down the movement of objects by using an inclined plane. Galileo recognizes that no constant push (force) is needed to keep an object moving, an initial push is all that is needed as Buridan claimed. There is the question of "is the force of gravity of all matter always in control, or do individual pieces of matter 'remember' their own velocity?" which is a complex question in my opinion. The argument in this time was centered around the idea that some god was pushing or pulling objects and that clearly is wrong.
Asimov argues that Galileo and Newton account for motions by "pushes" and "pulls" and implies that this view collapses under relativity. The view of relativity is that motion is a result of the geometry of a 4 dimensional space-time. I think once the idea of time and space dilation is removed, and time is the same value everywhere in the universe for any given time, the difference is only a matter of interpretation, where Newton has force as the result of gravity, Einstein has force as the result of geometry.
Galileo also concludes that objects retain their velocity unless a friction acts on them, rejecting the generally accepted Aristotelian hypothesis that objects "naturally" slow down and stop unless a force acts upon them. This is not a new idea, however. Ibn al-Haytham had proposed it centuries earlier, as had Jean Buridan, and according to Joseph Needham, Mo Tzu had proposed it centuries before either of them, but this is the first time that the idea of constant motion is mathematically expressed. Galileo's Principle of Inertia states: "A body moving on a level surface will continue in the same direction at constant speed unless disturbed." This principle is incorporated into Newton's laws of motion (first law).
Da Vinci 100 years earlier had studied falling bodies, perhaps driven by his dream of human flight. Instead of asking how fast, Da Vinci wonders how far a body would fall in successive intervals of time. Da Vinci theorizes that a body would increase by 1 unit of distance for each time interval. In other words, Da Vinci thought that an object would fall 1 unit the first time interval, 2 units of distance in the second interval, and 3 units in the third time interval, etc. Galileo picks up this experiment, but determines that the distance fallen increases by odd numbers with each successive time interval. In the first interval an object falls 1 unit, in the second time interval, the object falls 3 units in space, in the third time interval, the objects falls 5 units of space, and so on. As opposed to the theory described by Da Vinci, this theory described by Galileo is correct. Galileo learns this by timing a ball falling on an incline. At each time interval, the total distance fallen follows a pattern. The distance fallen is proportional to the square of time, and in this form, Galileo's law can be written as a simple equation using S for total distance an object falls and t for the time the object takes to fall that distance: S=ct^2, the constant c is equal to how much distance a body falls in one unit of time. (verify: Galileo made this actual equation? this is later changed to S=1/2at^2)
Before this around 1350, 250 years before this time, Nicholas Oresme (OrAM) (CE c1320-1382), French Roman Catholic bishop and scholar at the University of Paris, understood the movement of uniformly accelerated motion.
| (University of Padua) Padua, Italy |
391 YBN
[1609 AD]
| 1602) An interesting truth is that a telescope and microscope are the same thing in that they take a small area and spread it out. There is not much purpose for humans in taking a large area and compacting it together into a small area.
Galileo hears that a magnifying tube, using lenses, had been invented in Holland (Netherlands). By trial and error, Galileo quickly figures out the secret of the invention and makes his own spyglass from lenses for sale in spectacle makers' shops that can magnify objects 3 times. Others had also build telescopes, but Galileo quickly figures out how to improve the instrument, teaching himself the art of lens grinding, and produces increasingly powerful telescopes. According to Asimov Galileo is the best lensmaker in Europe at the time.
Galileo is the first person of record to use a telescope to look at planets and stars. Galileo uses his telescope to observe that the moon has mountains, and the sun has spots (although Galileo is not the first to identify sun spots, other naked eye astronomers had observed this when the sun is at the horizon or dimmed by clouds). Both mountains on the moon and sun spots are evidence that Aristotle was wrong in viewing the heavens as perfect and unchanging, and only on earth was there irregularity and disorder.
| ?, Italy |
391 YBN
[1609 AD]
| 1619) Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) shows that planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus of the ellipse.
With the precise astronomical data of Tycho Brahe, Kepler is able to discover, in 1605, his "first law", that Mars moves in an elliptical orbit.
Kepler discovers three major laws of planetary motion: (1) the planets move in elliptical orbits with the Sun at one focus; (2) A line connecting a planet and the Sun will sweep over equal areas in equal times (the “area law”)- this means the closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster the planet will move according to a fixed and calculable rule; and (3) there is an exact relationship between the squares of the planets’ periodic times and the cubes of the radii of their orbits (the “harmonic law”).
| Weil der Stadt (now part of the Stuttgart Region in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, 30 km west of Stuttgart's center) |
391 YBN
[1609 AD]
| 1620) The Great Comet of 1577 appears, and Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) will write that at age six he "was taken by {his} mother to a high place to look at it".
| Weil der Stadt (now part of the Stuttgart Region in the German state of Baden-Württemberg, 30 km west of Stuttgart's center) |
390 YBN
[01/??/1610 AD]
| 1605) Moons of Jupiter seen and their period determined by Galileo Galilei.
Galileo Galilei finds that planet Jupiter has four moons, visible only by telescope, that circle Jupiter with regular motions. Within a few weeks Galileo determines the periods of each moon. In addition, Galileo is the first to see that planet Venus has phases like the moon.
| Venice, Italy |
390 YBN
[1610 AD]
| 1624) Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) publishes "Dissertatio cum Nuncio Sidereo" ("Conversation with the Starry Messenger") which is a short enthusiastic response to Galileo's request for opinions about his "Sidereus Nuncius" ("Starry Messenger") of 1610. In this short work Kepler endorses Galileo's observations and offeres a range of speculations about the meaning and implications of Galileo's discoveries and telescopic methods, for astronomy and optics as well as cosmology and astrology.
This is the first of three important treatises that Kepler publishes in response to Galileo's "Sidereus Nuncius".
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) (presumably) |
390 YBN
[1610 AD]
| 1626) Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) publishes his own telescopic observations of the moons of Jupiter in "Narratio de Jovis Satellitibus", which provides further support of Galileo.
Kepler uses the telescope Galileo sends him to see the moons of Jupiter, which he does not believe until he sees them. Kepler names these moons "satellites" (from a Latin word for hangers-on of a powerful person).
These works provided strong support for Galileo's discoveries, and Galileo writes to Kepler, "I thank you because you were the first one, and practically the only one, to have complete faith in my assertions."
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN
[06/??/1611 AD]
| 1617) Dutch astronomer, Johannes Fabricius (FoBrisEuS) (CE 1587-1615), is the first to show that the Sun has spots and rotates around its own axis.
| Esens, Frisia (now northwest Germany and northeast Netherlands) (guess) |
389 YBN
[1611 AD]
| 1625) Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) publishes "Dioptrice". In it, Kepler sets out the theoretical basis of double-convex converging lenses and double-concave diverging lenses-and how they are combined to produce a Galilean telescope-as well as the concepts of real vs. virtual images, upright vs. inverted images, and the effects of focal length on magnification and reduction. Kepler also describes an improved telescope-now known as the astronomical or Keplerian telescope-in which two (double or plano?) convex lenses can produce higher magnification than Galileo's combination of convex and concave lenses.
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN
[1611 AD]
| 1627) Part of the purpose of "Somnium" is to describe what practicing astronomy would be like from the perspective of another planet, to show the feasibility of a non-geocentric system. The manuscript is part allegory, part autobiography, and part treatise on interplanetary travel. Years later, a distorted version of the story may have instigated the witchcraft trial against his mother, as the mother of the narrator consults a demon to learn the means of space travel. Following her eventual acquittal, Kepler composes 223 footnotes to the story-several times longer than the actual text-which explain the allegorical aspects as well as the considerable scientific content (particularly regarding lunar geography) hidden within the text.
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN
[1611 AD]
| 1628) In this treatise, Kepler investigates the hexagonal symmetry of snowflakes and, extending the discussion into a hypothetical atomistic physical basis for the symmetry, poses what later becomes known as the "Kepler conjecture", a statement about the most efficient arrangement for packing spheres.
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN
[1611 AD]
| 1629) The Epitome begins with the elements of astronomy but then gathers together all the arguments for Copernicus' theory and adds to them Kepler's harmonics and new rules of planetary motion.
Despite the title, which refers simply to heliocentrism, Kepler's textbook culminates in his own ellipse-based system. It contains all three laws of planetary motion and attempts to explain heavenly motions through physical causes. Though it explicitly extends the first two laws of planetary motion (applied to Mars in "Astronomia nova") to all the planets as well as the Moon and the Medicean satellites of Jupiter, it does not explain how elliptical orbits can be derived from observational data.
Kepler applies an elliptical orbit to the moons of Jupiter with success, but is unable to use an ellipse to predict the movement of the moon, which is more complex. (this will be done in 1638 by Horrocks).
Epitome will become Kepler's most influential work. This work will prove to be the most important theoretical resource for the Copernicans in the 1600s. Galileo and Descartes are probably influenced by this book.
Eventually Newton will simply take over Kepler's laws while ignoring all reference to their original theological and philosophical framework.
| Prague, (now: Czech Republic) |
389 YBN
[1611 AD]
| 1637) The Andromeda "nebula" had in fact already been known to Arab astronomers of the Middle Ages.
Marius is among the first to observe sunspots.
Marius studied briefly with Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe and later becomes one of the first astronomers to use a telescope.
| ??, Germany |
388 YBN
[01/12/1612 AD]
| 1642) | Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany (presumably) |
388 YBN
[1612 AD]
| 1595)
| Padua, Italy (presumably) |
388 YBN
[1612 AD]
| 3680) Gulio Cesare La Galla (CE 1576-1624), explains the luminence of the calcined "Bolognese stone" of Vincenzo Cascariolo, by theorizing that a certain amount of fire and light substance to which the calx has been exposed is confined in the stone and ater passed out slowly. In this view light must be absorbed, like a sponge absorbs water, and this supports the theory that light is a material substance.
Galileo presents samples of the stone to La Galla, a professor of philosophy at the Collegio Romano in Rome, and La Galla's book "De phenomenis in Orbe Lunae, etc.," is the first to describe the luminescent properties of the calx. La Galla makes it clear that the original stone does not luminesce but attains this property only after being heated into a calx.
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
387 YBN
[1613 AD]
| 1607) Galileo recognizes (independently after Johannes Fabricius had a few years before) that the sun rotates on it's own axis in 27 days, by following individual spots around the sun, in addition to recognizing the direction of the sun's axis. Johannes Fabricius had published this fact in 1611, but went unnoticed.
Galileo publishes "Istoria e dimostrazioni intorno alle macchie solari e loro accidenti" ("History and Demonstrations Concerning Sunspots and Their Properties," or "Letters on Sunspots"). Galileo is an independent discoverer of sunspots. In this book Galileo argues against Christoph Scheiner (1573-1650), a German Jesuit and professor of mathematics at Ingolstadt, who, in an effort to save the perfection of the Sun, argues that sunspots are satellites of the Sun. Galileo argues that the spots are on or near the Sun's surface, and supports this argument with a series of detailed engravings of his observations.
| Florence, Italy |
386 YBN
[1614 AD]
| 1584) John Napier (nAPER) (CE 1550-1617) invents exponential notation and logarithms.
| Scotland (presumably) |
386 YBN
[1614 AD]
| 1596) This book is the result of 30 years of regular measurement of his own weight, weight of food consumed and urine and feces produced, and attributes the difference to insensible perspiration", which we would now call metabolism leading to carbon dioxide production.
Sanctorius understands that perspiration forms and evaporates.
| Padua, Italy (presumably) |
386 YBN
[1614 AD]
| 1638) Marius prepares tables of the motions of the moons of Jupiter before Galileo does.
Marius' claims in this book to have discovered Jupiter's four major moons some days before Galileo, leads to a dispute with Galileo, who shows that Marius provided only one observation as early as Galileo's, and that this observation matches Galileo's diagram for the same date, as published in 1610.
It is considered possible that Marius discovered the moons independently, but at least some days later than Galileo; if so, he is the only person known to have observed the moons in the period before Galileo published his observations.
The mythological names given to these satellites by Marius are those still used today (Io, Europa, Ganymede and Callisto).
Simon Marius also claimed to be the discoverer of the Andromeda "nebula", which had in fact already been known to Arab astronomers of the Middle Ages.
| ??, Germany |
386 YBN
[1614 AD]
| 5898) German composer Michael Praetorius (CE 1571-1621) writes "Syntagma musicum" (1614), in which the second volume is devoted entirely to instruments and has detailed illustrations and measurements.
(Perhaps this indicates a large interest in music and musical education in Germany at the time.)
| (Magdeburg, Kassel, Halle, Dresden) Germany |
384 YBN
[1616 AD]
| 1608) In 1615 the cleric Paolo Antonio Foscarini (CE c1565-1616) had published a book arguing that the Copernican theory does not conflict with scripture, which prompts Inquisition consultants to examine the question and pronounce the Copernican theory heretical.
The Holy Office has an international group of consultants, experienced scholars of theology and canon law, who advise it on specific questions. In 1616 these consultants give their assessment of the propositions that the Sun is immobile and at the center of the universe and that the Earth moves around it, judging both to be "foolish and absurd in philosophy," and the first to be "formally heretical" and the second "at least erroneous in faith" in theology.
Foscarini's book is banned. Even technical and nontheological works are banned. Copernicus's 1543 "De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium libri vi" ("Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs") is placed on the Index of Forbidden Books, until corrected. Johannes Kepler's "Epitome of Copernican Astronomy" is banned by the cult of Jesus. Galileo is not mentioned directly in the decree, but is admonished by Robert Cardinal Bellarmine (1542-1621) not to "hold, teach, or defend" the Copernican theory "in any way whatever, either orally or in writing."
| Rome, Italy |
384 YBN
[1616 AD]
| 1644) William Harvey (CE 1578-1657) understands the circulatory system.
| London, England |
384 YBN
[1616 AD]
| 1654) William Baffin (CE 1584-1622), English explorer, tries to find a shorter Northwest from Europe to India (the path around South America is too long). Baffin gets 800 miles away from the North Pole by ship, reaching Baffin Bay.
Baffin sails as pilot of the Discovery and penetrates Baffin Bay some 300 miles (483 km) farther than the English navigator John Davis had in 1587. In honor of the patrons of his voyages, Baffin names Lancaster, Smith, and Jones sounds, the straits radiating from the northern head of the bay. There seems to be no hope, however, of discovering a passage to India by that route.
| Baffin Bay |
384 YBN
[1616 AD]
| 1831) Niccolò Zucchi (CE 1586-1670) builds the earliest known reflecting telescope.
This telescope is before the telescopes of James Gregory and Isaac Newton. A reflecting telescope focuses light reflected off a parabolic shaped (concave) mirror instead of through a lens. These telescopes remove the problem of "chromatic aberration", found in the glass lens refracting telescopes.
| Rome, Italy |
383 YBN
[1617 AD]
| 1592) During 1615 and 1616 Briggs spends two long visits to Edinburgh, Scotland, to collaborate with Napier on his new invention of logarithms, during which time Briggs convinces Napier of the benefit of modifying his logarithms to use base 10, now known as common logarithms. Napier had used a base approximately equal to 1/e, where e = 2.718, and logarithms with base e are now called natural logarithms.
Briggs invents the modern method of long division. (is this regular division?) Briggs uses decimal exponents. Briggs rejects astrology.
| London, England (preumably) |
383 YBN
[1617 AD]
| 1653) Willebrord von Roijen Snell (CE 1580-1626), Dutch mathematician, develops determining distances by trigonometric triangulation.
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
383 YBN
[1617 AD]
| 1852) Galileo proposes a method of establishing the time of day, and thus longitude, based on the times of the eclipses of the moons of Jupiter, using the Jovian system as a cosmic clock. This method is not significantly improved until accurate mechanical clocks are developed in the 1700s.
Philip III of Spain had offered a prize for a method to determine the longitude of a ship out of sight of land, and Galileo proposes this method to the Spanish crown (1616-1617) but it proves to be impractical, because of the inaccuracies of Galileo's timetables and the difficulty of observing the eclipses on a ship. However, with refinements the method could be made to work on land.
| Venice, Italy (presumably) |
381 YBN
[1619 AD]
| 1632) Much of this book is mysticism. Kepler attempts to explain the proportions of the natural world-particularly the astronomical and astrological aspects-in terms of music. The central set of "harmonies" are the 'musica universalis" or "music of the spheres," which had been studied by Ptolemy and many others before Kepler.
According to kepler, all harmonies are geometrical, including musical ones that derive from divisions of polygons to create "just" ratios (1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 3/5, 5/8) rather than the irrational ratios of the Pythagorean scale. When the planets figure themselves into angles demarcated by regular polygons, a harmonic influence is impressed on the so-called "soul". And the planets themselves fall into an arrangement whereby their extreme velocity ratios conform with the harmonies of the just tuning system, a celestial music without sound.
This book is dedicated to James I of Great Britain, who invites Kepler to England, but Kepler decides to stay in Germany and the Thirty Years War.
Kepler describes what will be called his third law of planetary motion as one of many other "harmonies". When this idea is joined with Christian Huygens' newly discovered law of centrifugal force it enables Isaac Newton, Edmund Halley and perhaps Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke to demonstrate independently that the presumed gravitational attraction between the Sun and its planets decreases with the square of the distance between them. This refutes the traditional assumption of scholastic physics that the power of gravitational attraction between two bodies remains constant, such as was assumed by Kepler and also by Galileo in his mistaken universal law that gravitational fall is uniformly accelerated, and also by Galileo's student Borrelli in his 1666 celestial mechanics.
| Linz, Austria |
381 YBN
[1619 AD]
| 1643)
| Innsbruck, Austria |
381 YBN
[1619 AD]
| 1656) Johann Cysat (CE 1586-1657), Swiss Astronomer, is the first to observe a comet with a telescope and publishes detailed descriptions of the comet of 1618 in his book "Mathematica astronomica de loco, motu, magnitudine et causis cometae qui sub finem anni 1618 et initium anni 1619 in coelo fulsit. Ingolstadt Ex Typographeo Ederiano 1619 (Ingolstadt, 1619)." According to Cysat's opinion, comets circled around the sun, and he demonstrated at the same time that the orbit of the comet was parabolic, not circular. Cysat saw enough detail to be the first to describe cometary nuclei, and was able to track the progression of the nucleus from a solid shape to one filled with starry particles. In this book Cysat also describes the Orion Nebula (but is not the first to see the Orion Nebula).
Cysat's book is also remarkable because it is printed by a woman, Elizabeth Angermar. During the 1600s, regulations laid down by printing guilds sometimes allow widows and daughters to take over their husbands' or fathers' businesses.
| Ingolstadt, Bavaria, Germany |
380 YBN
[08/??/1620 AD]
| 1631) Katharina Kepler, Johannes Kepler's (CE 1571-1630) mother is imprisoned for fourteen months charged with witchcraft.
In 1615, Ursula Reingold, a woman in a financial dispute with Kepler's brother Cristoph, claimed Kepler's mother Katharina had made her sick with an evil brew. The dispute escalated, and in 1617, Katharina was accused of witchcraft; witchcraft trials are relatively common in central Europe at this time. Beginning in August 1620 Katharina is imprisoned for fourteen months. She is released in October 1621, thanks in part to the extensive legal defense drawn up by Kepler. The accusers had no stronger evidence than rumors, along with a distorted, second-hand version of Kepler's "Somnium", in which a woman mixes potions and enlists the aid of a demon. However, Katharina was subjected to "territio verbalis", a graphic description of the torture awaiting her as a witch, in a final attempt to make her confess.
| Linz, Austria |
380 YBN
[1620 AD]
| 1591)
| London, England (presumably) |
379 YBN
[1621 AD]
| 1651) Dutch mathematician, Willebrord von Roijen Snell (CE 1580-1626), identifies the law of refraction.
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
379 YBN
[1621 AD]
| 1662) Pierre Gassendi (GoSoNDE) (CE 1592-1655), French philosopher, names the "Aurora Borealis".
Gassendi advocates experiment. Gassendi supports Galileo even after Inquisition. Gassendi is an atomist. Gassendi publishes biographies of Peurbach, Regiomontanus, Copernicus, and Tycho Brahe.
As a French Catholic preist, Gassendi tries to reconcile the philosophy of Epicouros (which sought to maximize pleasure and minimize pain) with the teachings of Christianity.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
378 YBN
[1622 AD]
| 1639) | Albury, Surrey, England (presumably) |
377 YBN
[1623 AD]
| 1609) Galileo publishes "Il saggiatore" (The Assayer), which describes the newly emerging scientific method.
In "Il saggiatore", Galileo writes "Philosophy is written in this grand book, the universe, which stands continually open to our gaze. But the book cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and read the letters in which it is composed. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometric figures without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it."
Maffeo Cardinal Barberini (1568-1644), a friend, admirer, and patron of Galileo for a decade, is named Pope Urban VIII as the book is going to press and Galileo's friends quickly arranged to have the book dedicated to the new pope.
| Florence, Italy (presumably) |
377 YBN
[1623 AD]
| 1633) Johannes Kepler (CE 1571-1630) at last completes the Rudolphine Tables, the planetary tables meant to replace the Prussian Tables of Erasmus Reinhold. However, due to the publishing requirements of the emperor and negotiations with Tycho Brahe's heir, the "Rudolphone Tables" will not be printed until 1627.
| Linz, Austria |
376 YBN
[1624 AD]
| 1593) Henry Briggs (CE 1561-1630), English mathematician, publishes "The Arithmetica Logarithmica" ("Common Logarithms"), demonstrates the use of logarithms in expediting calculations. This book contains tables of logarithms from 1 to 20,000 and from 90,000 to 100,000 calculated to 14 decimal places, in addition to an extended preface.
| London, England |
376 YBN
[1624 AD]
| 1610) Galileo has six interviews with Pope Urban VIII in Rome. Galileo tells the pope about his theory of the tides which he put forward as proof of the annual and daily (diurnal) motions of the Earth. The pope gives Galileo permission to write a book about theories of the universe but warns Galileo to treat the Copernican theory only hypothetically.
| Rome, Italy |
376 YBN
[1624 AD]
| 1667) Paris parliament declares in 1624 that on penalty of death "no person should either hold or teach any doctrine opposed to Aristotle".
| Paris, France |
376 YBN
[1624 AD]
| 6241) Submarine.
Cornelis Drebbel (1572-1633), a Dutch inventor, is usually credited with building the first submarine. Between 1620 and 1624 he successfully maneuvers his craft at depths of from 4 to 5 meters beneath the surface during repeated trials in the Thames River, in England.
| Thames River, England |
373 YBN
[1627 AD]
| 1188) Black gun powder is first used for mining in a mine shaft under Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia.
| Banská Štiavnica, Slovakia |
373 YBN
[1627 AD]
| 1634) Because of the Thirty Years' War, Kepler moves to Ulm, where he arranges for the printing of the Tables at his own expense. These tables are dedicated to the memory of Tycho. This book includes tables of logarithms and Tycho's star maps expanded by Kepler. Kepler spent three years completing new planetary tables based on Tycho's observations and his theory of elliptical orbits. Kepler used the newly created logarithms of Napier in his calculations. The "Rudolphine Tables" are named for Kepler's old patron.
The "transit" of Mercury will first be observed by Gassendi in 1631 at the time predicted by Kepler, but by then Kepler is dead.
| Ulm, Germany |
372 YBN
[1628 AD]
| 1645) In this book Harvey establishes the true nature of the blood circulation system. Drawing support from Galen's writings, Harvey first disposes finally of the idea that blood vessels contain air. Harvey then explains the function of the valves in the heart in maintaining the flow of blood in one direction only when the ventricles (the right and left chambers of the bottom half of the heart) contract: on the right side blood is sent to the lungs and on the left side to the limbs and organs of the abdomen. Harvey proves that no blood passes through the septum, separating the two ventricles, and explains that the valves in the larger veins direct the return flow of blood toward the heart. Harvey shows that blood is propelled from the ventricles during contraction, or systole, and flows into them from the auricles during expansion, or diastole. Harvey proves that the arterial pulse is due to passive filling of the arteries with blood by the systole of the heart and not by active contraction of their walls. Harvey describes the pulmonary circulation from the right ventricle through the lungs and from the lungs directly back to the heart's left auricle and ventricle. Harvey's only failure is in not demonstrating the connection of the artery and vein systems in the tissues of the limbs by means of the smallest, or capillary, vessels. These he was unable to see because he had no microscope. Harvey is the first scientist to employ measurement of the content of the chambers of the heart and estimation of the total amount of blood in the body.
Harvey calculates that in a hour the heart pumps an amount of blood three times the weight of a person, and it seems impossible that blood could be created and destroyed at this rate, so Harvey concludes that the same blood is only circulated through the body. Harvey has blood moving in a circle from the heart to the arteries, from the arteries to the veins, and through the veins back to the heart.
Learned doctors write books in attempts to prove Harvey wrong, but by the time Harvey reaches old age, most physicians accept the theory of the circulation of blood. The connection of arteries and veins had never been observed. Harvey notes that blood vessels subdivide into finer and finer vessels until they become too small to see. Harvey theorizes that the connections of arteries and veins are too small to see, but exist. This will be proven true by Malpighi using a microscope, four years after Harvey's death. (Explain more how the veins and arteries connect, is it in a single cell? Explain how arteries and veins interact with cells. Explain how blood vessels and cells evolved and are created after birth. Do cells evolve with holes for blood vessels, or do the blood vessels evolve connected to cells at the time of cell creation? Perhaps cells actually never touch blood, but only take oxygen from outside the blood vessel through a membrane?)
| London, England printed in: Frankfurt, Germany |
371 YBN
[1629 AD]
| 1672) Cavalieri following in the line of Archimedes, describes volumes as made of small areas, so small as to not be divisible. This will contribute to the development of integral calculus by Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz. Cavalieri delays publishing his results for six years out of deference to Galileo, who planned a similar work.
Cavalieri is also known for Cavalieri's principle, which states that the volumes of two objects are equal if the areas of their corresponding cross-sections are in all cases equal. Two cross-sections correspond if they are intersections of the body with planes equidistant from a chosen base plane. The principle was originally discovered in the 200s (CE?) Chinese mathematician Liu Hui in his commentary on "The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art".
Cavalieri is largely responsible for introducing the use of logarithms as a computational tool in Italy through his book "Directorium Generale Uranometricum" (1632; "A General Directory of Uranometry").
Other works by Cavalieri include "Lo specchio ustorio ouero trattato delle settioni coniche" (1632; "The Burning Glass; or, A Treatise on Conic Sections") and "Trigonometria plana et sphaerica, linearis et logarithmica" (1643; "Plane, Spherical, Linear, and Logarithmic Trigonometry").
| written: Bologna, Italy |
370 YBN
[1630 AD]
| 1649) The value Wendolin calculates is 60% of the true value (243 times the distance to the Moon; the true value is about 384 times; Aristarchus calculated about 20 times).
| Belgium (presumably) |
370 YBN
[1630 AD]
| 3347) Christoph Scheiner (siGnR? or sInR?) (CE 1575-1650), German Astronomer, publishes "Rosa Ursina" (1630) which will be the standard work on sunspots for more than a century.
| Rome, Italy |
369 YBN
[1631 AD]
| 1640)
| Arundel, West Sussex, England (presumably) |
369 YBN
[1631 AD]
| 1655) This is a scale used on many micrometers (or calipers). A moving scale is next to a fixed scale, and using the two scales, and finding a line on both that is in the same position, another significant digit can be read making a more precise measurement.
Vernier describes his new measuring instrument in "La Construction, l'usage, et les propriétés du quadrant nouveau de mathématiques" (1631; "The Construction, Uses, and Properties of a New Mathematical Quadrant").
| Ornans, France (presumably: birth and death location) |
369 YBN
[1631 AD]
| 1663) Pierre Gassendi (GoSoNDE) (CE 1592-1655), observes the transit of Mercury. A transit is when a planet moves in (a transit is the passage of a smaller astronomical object across the face of a larger one).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
369 YBN
[1631 AD]
| 1664) Gassendi is the first person to measure the velocity of sound, and shows that the velocity of sound is independent of its pitch. Aristotle had claimed that high notes travel faster than low notes.
Gassendi measures the time difference between spotting the flash of a gun and hearing it the sound over a long distance on a still day.
Gassendi obtains the too high figure of about 478 meters per second (1,570 feet per second). (actual units) The current estimate for the speed of sound in for dry air at 0 degrees C is 331.29 meters per second (1,086 feet per second 742 mph).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
368 YBN
[1632 AD]
| 1606) Galileo's book, "Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo, tolemaico e copernicano" ("Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic & Copernican") is printed in Florence. Galileo had finished the book in 1630, but the book needed to be approved by the Roman and Florentine censors first.
Galileo is convinced that the Pope (Urban VIII) will allow Galileo to speak out about the sun-centered theory. In "Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems", one person represents the Copernican system and the other the Ptolemaic system. Each present their arguments before an intelligent average person. Interestingly, Galileo choses to ignore Kepler's improvement of using elliptical orbits. Asimov states that Kepler's work is appreciated by almost no one in this time. This book is written in Italian, and is very popular. "Dialogue" is translated into other languages, even Chinese. In giving Simplicio the final word, that God could have made the universe any way he wanted to and still made it appear to us the way it does, Galileo put Pope Urban VIII's favourite argument in the mouth of the person who had been ridiculed throughout the dialog. The Pope is persuaded (incorrectly?) that Simplicio, the character that holds up the Ptolemaic earth-centered system is a deliberate and insulting imitation of himself. The pope convenes a special commission to examine the book and make recommendations. This commission finds that Galileo had not treated the Copernican theory hypothetically and recommends that a case be brought against him by the Inquisition. Galileo will be brought before the Inquisition in Rome on charges of heresy in 1633.
| Venice, Italy |
367 YBN
[06/22/1633 AD]
| 1611) Galileo, at 69 years old is forced to renounce any views that are at variance with the Ptolemaic system. He is condemned to psalm recitation each week for three years. There is no evidence to support the story that Galileo rising from his knees after completing his renunciation mutters "Eppur si muove" ("And yet it moves", refering to the earth).
| Rome, Italy |
367 YBN
[1633 AD]
| 1666) French Philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes (CE 1596-1650) (DAKoRT)) and compares light to a ball.
| Netherlands (presumably) |
366 YBN
[1634 AD]
| 1659) Marin Mersenne (mRSeN) (CE 1588-1648), French Mathematician, "Les méchaniques de Galilée" (1634) which is the first published version of Galileo's early work. Mersenne translates and defends Galileo.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
366 YBN
[1634 AD]
| 3344) The book "The Mysteries of Nature and Art" (London, 1634) by John Bate is printed. This book describes useful mechanical devices and is illustrated throughout with woodcut images. The work is divided into four books with the subjects of water works, drawing and painting, miscellaneous experiments, and the creation of fireworks.
This book inspires and educates Isaac Newtons. Newton discovers this book when he is about thirteen years old and is totally captivated by it. Newton spends 2 1/2 days on an exercise book into which he copies out long passages. Bate’s book is full of detailed instructions for making wonderful machines and devices. The teenage Newton designs and builds working mechanical models for which he gains a reputation as a schoolboy.
| London, England |
365 YBN
[1635 AD]
| 1657) In the "Académie Parisienne", many of the leading mathematicians and natural philosophers of France share their research. Mersenne uses this forum to disseminate the ideas of René Descartes.
Mersenne defends Galileo and Descartes' works. Mersenne writes voluminous letters to regions, even as far as Constantinople informing many people of the work of other scholars. Mersenne opposes astrology, alchemy, divination and supports experimentation.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
365 YBN
[1635 AD]
| 1660) Frequencies of sounds measured.
Marin Mersenne (mRSeN) (CE 1588-1648) is the first to measure the frequency of any sound.
Mesenne creates a law relating to a vibrating string: its frequency is proportional to the square root of the tension, and inversely proportional to the length, to the diameter and to the square root of the specific weight of the string.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
365 YBN
[1635 AD]
| 1669) Henry Gellibrand (GeLuBraND) (CE 1597-1636), English astronomer and mathematician, publishes findings that direction of magnetic compass needle in London had changed by more than 7 degrees in 50 years. This is the first evidence that the earth's magnetic field changes over time.
| ?, England |
365 YBN
[1635 AD]
| 1673) Bonaventura Cavalieri (KoVoLYARE) (CE 1598-1647), Italian mathematician, publishes "Geometria Indivisibilibus Continuorum Nova Quadam Ratione Promota" ("A Certain Method for the Development of a New Geometry of Continuous Indivisibles") which explains his "method of indivisibles" he developed 6 years before. Cavalieri states in his "Geometria" that the method of indivisibles is unsatisfactory and falls under heavy criticism, notably from the contemporary Swiss mathematician Paul Guldin.
| written: Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
365 YBN
[1635 AD]
| 3345) Second Edition of "The Mysteries of Nature and Art" (London, 1634, 2nd ed: 1635) by John Bate includes an image of a zoetrope, a cylinder with a series of pictures on the inner surface that, when rotated and viewed through the slits, give an impression of continuous motion. Not until the 1860s, when several patents are obtained, does the zoetrope appear on the market.
The zoetrope described, only appears to projects a rotating scene of various stationary images onto a surface, without describing the technique of animating some individual body by drawing a series of changing images, and does not contain any slits to view an animated image through.
| London, England |
364 YBN
[1636 AD]
| 1219) Asimov states that at this time Harvard remains firmly in support of the Ptolemaic earth-centered system.
| Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
364 YBN
[1636 AD]
| 1697) William Gascoigne invents the first ever micrometric screw as an enhancement of the Vernier. The micrometer is then used in a telescope (first by Jean Picard in France) to measure angular distances between stars. Jean-Louis Palmer will adapt this device and so it is often called a "palmer" in France.
Gascoigne is an English astronomer and maker of scientific instruments, improves the telescope with a crosshair in the focal plane, and his micrometer to measure angular separations between two stars.
The principle of Gascoigne's micrometer is that of two pointers lying parallel, and in this position pointing to zero. These are arranged so that the turning of a single screw separates or aligns the two pieces, and so the distance between two points can be determined with fine accuracy. (needs visual demonstration and better explanation)
| |
363 YBN
[1637 AD]
| 1615) Galileo is first to recognize the slow swaying (wobble?) (or "libration") of the moon as it rotates.
| Florence, Italy |
363 YBN
[1637 AD]
| 1668) René Descartes (CE 1596-1650) (DAKoRT) describes the Cartesian coordinate system where points are plotted on at two dimensional graph.
| Netherlands (presumably) |
363 YBN
[1637 AD]
| 1706) René Descartes (CE 1596-1650) (DAKoRT), French philosopher and mathematician is the first to use the name "imaginary" number.
| Netherlands (presumably) |
362 YBN
[1638 AD]
| 1612) Galileo Galilei's (CE 1564-1642) last book is smuggled out of Italy and published in Leiden, Netherlands, under the title "Discorsi e dimostrazioni matematiche intorno a due nuove scienze attenenti alla meccanica" ("Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences").
This book describes three laws of motion: 1.In the absence of resisting media, vertical fall is a uniformly accelerated motion, and hence the square of the speed acquired during fall is proportional to the height of fall. 2.In the absence of resisting media, the speed acquired during fall from rest is precisely sufficient to raise an object back to its original height, but no higher. 3.The speed acquired in fall along an inclined plane from a given height is the same regardless of the inclination of the plane. This first law will lead to Leibnitz's creation of the concept of "vis-viva", which is later called "kinetic energy", is represented by the square of a body's velocity.
This book also describes Galileo's attempt to measure the speed of light. Galileo describes an experimental method to measure the speed of light by arranging that two observers, each having lanterns equipped with shutters, observe each other's lanterns at some distance. The first observer opens the shutter of his lamp, and, the second, upon seeing the light, immediately opens the shutter of his own lantern. The time between the first observer's opening his shutter and seeing the light from the second observer's lamp indicates the time it takes light to travel back and forth between the two observers. Galileo reported that when he tried this at a distance of less than a mile, he was unable to determine whether or not the light appeared instantaneously. Galileo concludes that if not instantaneous, light is certainly very fast. Sometime between Galileo's death and 1667, the members of the Florentine Accademia del Cimento will repeat the experiment over a distance of about a mile and obtain a similarly inconclusive result.
In this book Galileo describes for the first time the bending and breaking of (light?) beams and summarizes his mathematical and experimental investigations of motion, including the law of falling bodies and the parabolic path of projectiles as a result of the mixing of two motions, constant speed and uniform acceleration.
Galileo had become blind and is helped by a young student, Vincenzo Viviani.
| Leiden, Netherlands and Florence, Italy |
362 YBN
[1638 AD]
| 1701) The book "The Man in the Moone, or a Discourse of a Voyage thither, by Domingo Gonsales" written by Francis Godwin (CE 1562-1633) is published posthumously, tells a story of geese that fly a chariot to the moon. Godwin apparently wrote this book some time between the years 1599 and 1603. In this production Godwin not only declares himself a believer in the Copernican system, but adopts so far the principles of the law of gravitation as to suppose that the Earth's attraction diminishes with the distance. The work, which displays considerable fancy and wit, influences John Wilkins, writes "The discovery of a world in the Moone".
| England |
361 YBN
[1639 AD]
| 1387) The Hôtel-Dieu du Précieux Sang in Quebec city is founded by three Augustinians from l'Hôtel-Dieu de Dieppe in France.
| Quebec, New France (modern Canada) |
361 YBN
[1639 AD]
| 1661) Marin Mersenne (mRSeN) (CE 1588-1648), French Mathematician, publishes "Les nouvelles pensées de Galilée" (1639), a summary and discussion of Galileo's "Discorsi" (1638). Mersenne translates and defends Galileo.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
361 YBN
[1639 AD]
| 1708) Jeremiah Horrocks (CE 1618-1641), observes the transit of Venus.
From his observations Horrocks establishes the apparent diameter of Venus as 1' 12" compared with the Sun's diameter of 30', a figure much smaller than the 11' assigned by Kepler.
Horrocks is first to show that the moon moves around the earth in an ellipse with the earth at one focus, which Kepler did not understand.
| Hoole, Lancashire, England (presumably) |
360 YBN
[1640 AD]
| 1665) This is evidence that people jumping from a moving earth will not land on a different part of earth, because they share the velocity of the earth's rotating surface.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
360 YBN
[1640 AD]
| 1700) John Wilkins (CE 1614-1672), English scholar, speculates that there could be ways to reach the moon.
Wilkens supports the sun-centered solar system in books.
Wilkens helps to form the Royal Society, and is the moving force behind it. Wilkens is the first secretary of the Royal Society starting at its first meeting in 1660.
Wilkens is inspired by the 1638 book "Man in the Moone" by Francis Godwin, that tells a story of geese that fly a chariot to the moon.
In 1668, Wilkins presents to the Royal Society his suggestions for rationalising the measurement system.
| England |
360 YBN
[1640 AD]
| 1718) Blaise Pascal (PoSKoL) (CE 1623-1662) at age 16 publishes "Essai pour les coniques", a book on the geometry of conic sections which moves the subject beyond the work of Apollonius 1900 years before.
Descartes refuses to believe that the book is written by a 16 year old person.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
359 YBN
[1641 AD]
| 1698) Franciscus Sylvius (CE 1614-1672), French physician identifies the deep cleft (Sylvian fissure) separating the temporal (lower), frontal, and parietal (top rear) lobes of the brain.
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
359 YBN
[1641 AD]
| 1699) Sylvius is the founder of the 1600s iatrochemical school of medicine, which holds that all phenomena of life and disease are based on chemical action. Sylvius views the body as a chemical balance of acid and base. Sylvius' studies help to shift the health science focus from mystical speculation to a logical application of universal laws of physics and chemistry.
Sylvius is the first to distinguish between two kinds of glands: conglomerate (made up of a number of smaller units, the excretory ducts of which combine to form ducts of progressively higher order) and conglobate (forming a rounded mass, or clump).
Sylvius may have organized the first university chemistry lab.
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
359 YBN
[1641 AD]
| 6244) Repeating gun.
A repeating rifle is a firearm designed for use with a magazine of cartridges, each of which is fed into the chamber or breech by lever, bolt action, or some other method. Before the invention of the cartridge that contains powder, ball, and primer, a repeater has to have separate magazines for powder and ball.
| Netherlands |
358 YBN
[1642 AD]
| 1719) Blaise Pascal (PoSKoL) (CE 1623-1662) invents a mechanical calculating machine that can add and subtract at age 19. Pascal builds this machine (la pascaline") to help his father with his fiscal computations. A machine is constructed, with the help of a mechanic in Rouen, in 1644, and a series of improved models follows up to 1652. This pascaline, or Pascal's calculator is the first mechanical calculator that uses gears.
In 1649 Pascal patents his machine and sends it to Queen Christina of Sweden (a royal patron of learning), but it is too expensive to build to be practical. But this machine serves as the ancestor for the mechanical devices that reach their height with the pre-electronic cash register.
| Rouen, France (presumably) |
358 YBN
[1642 AD]
| 2098) New Zealand is first sighted by Dutch explorer Abel Janszoon Tasman.
| New Zealand |
357 YBN
[1643 AD]
| 1190) Athanasius Kircher (May 2, 1602- November 28, 1680), German Jesuit scholar, and professor of math in the University of Rome, publishes around 40 works, most notably in the fields of oriental studies, geology and medicine. One of the first people to observe microbial organisms through a microscope, he is ahead of his time in proposing that the plague is caused by an infectious microorganism and in suggests effective measures to prevent the spread of the disease.
Kircher learns Coptic in 1633 and publishs the first grammar of that language in 1636, the "Prodromus coptus sive aegyptiacus". In the "Lingua aegyptiaca restituta" of 1643, he argues correctly that Coptic is not a separate language, but the last development of ancient Egyptian. He also recognises the relationship between the hieratic and hieroglyphic scripts.
| Rome, Italy |
357 YBN
[1643 AD]
| 1650) Godefroy Wendelin (CE 1580-1667), Flemish astronomer recognizes that Kepler's third law applied to the satellites of Jupiter.
| Belgium (presumably) |
357 YBN
[1643 AD]
| 1692) Earliest vacuum.
Italian physicist, Evangelista Torricelli (TORriceLlE) (CE 1608-1647), is the first human to create a sustained vacuum. Pursuing a suggestion from Galileo, Torricelli fills a glass tube 4 feet (1.2 m) long (units) with mercury and inverts the tube into a dish. Torricelli observes that some of the mercury does not flow out and that the space above the mercury in the tube is a vacuum.
Torricelli observes that the height of the mercury in the tube changes from day to day and correctly concludes that this is caused by changes in atmospheric pressure (the weight of the air on earth).
This device is also the first barometer, a measure of pressure exerted by air.
| Florence, Italy |
356 YBN
[1644 AD]
| 1658) Marin Mersenne (mRSeN) (CE 1588-1648), French Mathematician, invents "Mersenne numbers", in an effort to create a formula that will generate prime numbers, that has the formula 2n-1. Mersenne observes that if 2n-1 is prime, then n must be prime, but that the converse is not necessarily true. Some of the larger numbers produced by this formula are not primes. Although Mersenne fails to find a formula for primes (it is not certain that a formula to produce primes actually exists), Mersenne numbers continue to interest mathematicians, and his formula is still useful in testing large numbers to determine if they are prime.
In this year Marsenne publishes "Cogitata physico-mathematica" (1644), on such topics as ballistics, mechanics, and music. (Mersenne numbers in this book?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
356 YBN
[1644 AD]
| 1694) Hevelius builds an astronomical observatory, the best in Europe at the time, on top of his house, equipping it with fine instruments of his own making. Hevelius constructs his own lathe to grind large lenses.
Hevelius discovers four comets, and writes two large books on comets, but wrongly thinks the orbits of comets are parabolas.
In a famous visit to Hevelius in 1679, Edmond Halley, who had been instructed by Robert Hooke and John Flamsteed to persuade Hevelius of the advantages of the new telescopic sights, finds to his surprise that Hevelius can measure both consistently and accurately with the naked eye. Hevelius is the last astronomer to do major observational work without a telescope.
| |
356 YBN
[1644 AD]
| 2618) René Descartes (CE 1596-1650) (DAKoRT), suggests the concept of conservation of momentum in "Principia philosophiae" (Paris, "Principles of Philosophy", 1644).
In this work Descartes describes the same three laws of motion that had been worked out in "Le Monde": Law 1. Each thing, in so far as it is simple and undivided, always remains in the same state, as far as it can, and never changes except as a result of external causes... Hence we must conclude that what is in motion always, so far as it can, continues to move. (Principles Part II, art. 37)
Law 2. Every piece of matter, considered in itself, always tends to continue moving, not in any oblique path but only in a straight line. (Principles Part II, art. 39)
Law 3. If a moved body collides with another, then if it has less force to continue in a straight line than the other body has to resist it, it will be deflected in the opposite direction and, retaining its own motion, will lose only the direction of its motion. If it has a greater force than it will move the other body along with itself and will give as much of its motion to that other body as it loses. (Principles Part II, art. 40) (The first example is similar to perfect reflection, the second to a transfer of velocity from one object to another.)
Laws 1 and 2 embody the law of inertia, and law 3 describes the physics of collision.
This is the earliest publicly published clear statement of the law of inertia.
Descartes ' has the opinion that a vacuum is impossible, and that all space is therefore filled with matter, and the motion of any part of matter requires that the matter ahead of it be pushed forward. Descartes writes "in all movement a complete circuit of bodies moves simultaneously".
In the French translation three years later Descartes adds seven supplementary rules for explicitly predicting the outcome when two "perfectly solid" bodies, perfectly separated from all others, come into contact. The third supplementary rule, says that if the two bodies are of the same size, but one is moving slightly faster, then the faster body wins the contest, transferring to the other the minimum amount of speed that ends the contest. (EXPER: Is the velocity transferred from one body to another, and is the excess velocity between two bodies after collision observed?) Descartes then explains this third law of nature with 7 rules: 1) If two bodies B and C are completely equal and are moved with equal velocity, B from right to left and C from left to right, then when they collide, they are reflected and afterward continue to be moved, B towards the right and C towards the left, without losing any part of their velocities. 2) If B is slightly larger than C, and the other conditions above still hold, then only C is reflected and both bodies are moved toward the left with the same velocity. (This is clearly wrong, because the velocity of B will be less, but it is a minor mistake or unclearness.) The historian Richard Blackwell states that this is ambiguous because does Descartes mean that both bodies retain the same original velocity they had or that they velocities of both are equal after the collision? 3) If they are equal in size, but B is moved slightly faster than C, then not only do they both continue to be moved toward the left but also B transmits to C part of its velocity by which it exceeds C. Thus, if B originally possessed six degrees of velocity and C only four, then after the collision they both tend toward the left with five degrees of velocity. (This is inaccurate because C moves left with 2 degrees of velocity - although I'm not sure, experiments would show. For billiard balls, spin and friction are involved.) 4) If C is completely at rest and is slightly larger than B, then no matter how fast B is moved toward C, it will never move C but will be repelled by C in the opposite direction. For abody at rest gives more resistance to a larger velocity than to a smaller one in proportion to the excess of the one velocity over the other. Therefore there is always a greater force in C to resist than in B to impel. 5) If C is at rest and is smaller than B, then no matter how slowly B is moved toward C, it will move C along with itself by transferring part of its motion to C so that they are both moved with equal velocity. If B is twice as large as C, it transfers a third of its motion to C because a third part of the motion moves the body C as fast as the two remaining parts move the body B which is twice as large. And thus, after B has collided with C, B is moved one third slower than it was before, that is, it requires the same time to be moved through a space of two feet as it previously required to be moved through a space of three feet. in the same way if B were three times larger than C, it would transfer a fourth part of its motion to C, etc. (This I am not sure about, it depends perhaps on the shape of the objects) 6) If C is at rest and is exactly equal to B, which is moved toward C, then C is partially impelled by B and partially repels B in the opposite direction. Thus, if B moves toward C with four degrees of velocity, it transfers one degree to C and is reflected in the opposite direction with the remaining three degrees. (I think this describes a partial impact?) 7) Let B and C be moved in the same direction with C moving more slowly and B following C with a greater velocity so that they collide. Further let C be greater than B, but the excess of velocity in B is greater than the excess of magnitude in C. Then B will transfer as much of its motion to C so that they are both moved afterward with equal velocity and in the same direction. on the other hand, if the excess of velocity in B is less than the excess of magnitude in C, then B is reflected in the opposite direction and retains all of its motion. These excesses are computed as follows. if C is twice as large as B but B is not moved twice as fast as C, then B does not impel C but is reflected in the opposite direction. But if B is moved more than twice as fast as C, then B impels C. For example, if C has only two degrees of velocity and B has five, then C acquired two degrees from B which, when transferred into C, become only one degree since C is twice as large as B. And thus the two bodies B and C are each moved afterward with three degrees of velocity. And other cases must be evaluated in the same way. These things need no proof because they are clear in themselves. (I think the only major error is thinking that velocity is equally divided, as oppose to being completely transferred. And on this point, I am not completely sure, but am going from how billiard balls without extra spin impart the full velocity to a ball with a relative velocity of 0.)
In these collision rules Descartes presumes perfectly elastic collision, and perfectly solid objects.
(These laws contain no mathematical equations, or object shapes, and so it remains for later people to form specific equations and quantitative examples in terms of mass, volume, velocity and direction.) In addition Descartes uses no units of measurement.
Descartes never explicitly states that mass and velocity are conserved.
| Netherlands (presumably) |
355 YBN
[1645 AD]
| 1844) French astronomer, librarian and mathematician, Ismaël Bullialdus (CE 1605-1694) recognizes that the strength that the Sun holds the planets with decreases by the distance squared.
Bullialdus writes: "As for the power by which the Sun seizes or holds the planets, and which, being corporeal, functions in the manner of hands, it is emitted in straight lines throughout the whole extent of the world, and like the species of the Sun, it turns with the body of the Sun. Now, given that it is corporeal, it becomes weaker, and attenuates at a greater distance and interval, and the ratio of its decrease in strength is the same as in the case of light, namely, the duplicate proportion of the distance, but inversely. Kepler does not deny this, yet he claims the motive power decreases only in direct proportion to the distance. ..."
| Paris, France |
354 YBN
[1646 AD]
| 1684) Athanasius Kircher (KiRKR) (CE 1601-1680), publishes "Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae" ("The Great Art of Light and Shadow", 1646), on the subject of the display of images on a screen using an apparatus similar to the magic lantern as developed by Christian Huygens and others. Kircher described the construction of a "catotrophic lamp" that used reflection to project images on the wall of a darkened room. Although Kircher did not invent the device, he made improvements over previous models, and suggested methods by which exhibitors could use his device. Much of the significance of his work arises from Kircher rational approach towards the demystification of projected images. Previously such images had been used in Europe to mimic supernatural (Kircher himself cites the use of displayed images by the rabbis in the court of King Solomon). Kircher stressed that exhibitors should take great care to inform spectators that such images were purely naturalistic, and not magical in origin.
In this work Kircher will describe the property of an extract of "lignum nephriticum" which emits different colors depending on if seen from the side or by light transmitted through it. George Stokes will name this phenomenon "fluorescence" in 1852.
| Rome, Italy (presumably) |
354 YBN
[1646 AD]
| 1687) Johann Rudolf Glauber (GlOBR) (CE 1604-1670), German chemist, is the first to observe the "chemical garden" (or Silica Garden) was first observed by Glauber in 1646. In its original form, the Chemical Garden involves the introduction of ferrous chloride (FeCl2) crystals into a solution of potassium silicate (K2SiO3, water glass).
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
353 YBN
[1647 AD]
| 1674) Bonaventura Cavalieri (KoVoLYARE) (CE 1598-1647), Italian mathematician, publishes "Exercitationes Geometricae Sex" (1647; "Six Geometrical Exercises"), stating the principle of his "method if indivisibles" in the more satisfactory form that will be widely used by mathematicians during the 1600s.
| written: Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
353 YBN
[1647 AD]
| 1695) Most of Hevelius' names for craters do not last, because Riccioli's names will be preferred, but a few of his names for lunar mountains (for example, the Alps) are still in use.
"Selenographia" one of the earliest detailed maps of the Moon's surface as well as names for many of its features.
| |
352 YBN
[09/19/1648 AD]
| 1721) Interested in the work of Torricelli, Pascal understands that if the atmosphere has weight, then the weight should decrease with altitude, since the higher a person goes, the less air would be above you. This decrease in weight should be measurable with a barometer. On this day Pascal sends his younger brother-in-law carrying two barometers up the Puy-de-Dôme mountain. Pascal's brother-in-law finds that the mercury columns in the barometer drops three inches, and repeats this experiment 5 times. This proves the Torricelli view which Descartes wrongly doubts. This also shows that empty space (a vacuum) exists above the atmosphere, Decartes wrongly believes that all space is filled with matter and rejects the idea of empty space (a vacuum). Pascal repeats Torricelli's experiment using red wine, and because wine is even less dense than water, Pascal has to use a tube 46 feet long to contain enough fluid to balance the weight of the atmosphere. (This is a very tall tube, around 8 times the height of an average human.) (Does the diameter of the tube make a difference?)
Pascal produces "Experiences nouvelles touchant le vide" ("New Experiments with the Vacuum"), which details basic rules describing to what degree various liquids could be supported by air pressure. It also provides reasons why it was indeed a vacuum above the column of liquid in a barometer tube.
Pascal claims that pressure exerted on a fluid in a closed vessel is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid, and that it acts as right angles to all surfaces it touches (I have doubts, some force must be lost in atomic structure, and I find it hard to believe that a diagonal surface would only have a right angle pressure, very hard to believe indeed, but I can accept a force being moved through a fluid). This is the basis of the hydraulic press. For example, a piston can be pushed down in a container of liquid, which will push upwards a piston in the same container. According to Asimov, this multiplication of force is made up for by the fact that the small piston must move through a correspondingly greater distance than the large. (To me it has to do with surface area too and volume of each column of water.) Using the principle of the lever, a larger piston pushed a small distance, for example can be used to move a smaller piston a greater distance, and the opposite is also true. As in the case of Archimedes' level, force times distance is equal on both sides. (But also surface area has to be a factor)
| Rouen, France (presumably) |
352 YBN
[1648 AD]
| 1189) The Quakers ("The Society of Friends") group forms, angry with authoritarian and class based Protestantism. They refuse to pay "tithes" to the church, bear arms, or show obedience to king. The Quakers are not allowed to earn degrees from the 2 universities in England.
| England |
352 YBN
[1648 AD]
| 1648) Van Helmont is the first to recognize that there is more than one air-like substance, and that many reactions produce substances that are, in his words, "far more subtle or fine...than a vapour, mist, or distilled oiliness, although...many times thicker than air." To describe these substances, Van Helmont invents the word "gas" (after the sound of the word "chaos" in Flemish). Helmont studies the gas produced by burning wood, which he calls "gas sylvestre" ("gas from wood"), this is carbon dioxide (and carbon monoxide). Van Helmont identifies a number of gases besides carbon dioxide. Van Helmont's work on gases will be taken up by the British natural philosopher Robert Boyle, among others, and the word "gas", will become a standard chemical term, after being reintroduced 150 years later by the 1700s French chemist Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier.
Helmont shows that a willow tree gains 164 pounds after 5 years of just adding water with no change in weight in the soil. Helmont concludes that "164 pounds of wood, barks, and roots arose out of water only," and he had not even included the weight of the leaves that fell off every autumn.
Helmont does not know about the process of photosynthesis, in which carbon from the air, (hydrogen from water), and minerals from the soil are used to generate new plant tissue. Helmont's believes that the mass of materials has to be accounted for by some chemical processes. (Clearly many people do not realize that the hydrogen in the many hydrocarbons created in plant and other living tissue must come from water.) Ironically, carbon dioxide, the gas Van Helmont is first to identify is the major substance overlooked in his willow tree experiment (although clearly hydrogen from water must be sewed into the many hydrocarbon molecules used to build plant tissues).
In another experiment, Helmont demonstrates that, contrary to the beliefs of many alchemists, a metal is not destroyed by dissolving it in acid. Helmont weighs silver, dissolves it in acid, and then recovers all the original silver by reacting the solution with copper. Helmont also shows by using iron to recover the copper, that this transformation of one metal from its salt by using a second metal was not because of transmutation, as many people believed.
| Vilvoorde, Belgium |
352 YBN
[1648 AD]
| 1686) Glauber's writings will be reissued as "Glauberus Concentratus" in 1715.
Some of Glauber's principal works include "Philosophical Furnaces"; "Commentary on Paracelsus"; "Heaven of the Philosophers", or "Book of Vexation"; "Miraculum Mundi"; "The Prosperity of Germany"; and "Book of Fires".
The method of manufacturing nitric acid Glauber discovers includes the heating of potassium nitrate with concentrated sulphuric acid.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
351 YBN
[05/19/1649 AD]
| 1526) The Parliamentarians are lead by a variety of people, in particular Oliver Cromwell. The Civil War leads to the trial and execution of Charles I, the exile of his son Charles II.
| England |
350 YBN
[1650 AD]
| 1670) This double star Mizar, is the middle star in the handle of the big dipper, also known as the star "Zeta Ursae Majoris".
Riccioli is a skilled and patient experimenter who attempts to work out the acceleration due to gravity or g. Riccioli first tests Galileo's claim for the isochronicity of the pendulum and the relationship between the period and the square of the length. To measure the time a falling body takes Riccioli needs a pendulum that swings once a second or 86,400 times per sidereal day. This leads to using a team of Jesuits for days counting the beats of his pendulum but the figure of 86,400 per day escapes them. Eventually the fathers refuse to stay up night after night counting pendulum swings and so Riccioli and his pupil Francesco Grimaldi have to accept a less than perfect pendulum (is there an escapement to keep it from slowing from friction?). Riccioli then performs with Grimaldi the type of experiment Galileo is supposed to have done from the leaning tower of Pisa, dropping balls of various sizes, shapes, and weights from the 300-foot (92-m) Torre dei Asinelli in Bologna. Riccioli succeeds in confirming Galileo's results (of constant acceleration independent of mass) and establishing a figure for g of 30 feet (9.144 m) per second per second, which is close to the value of 9.80665 meters per second per second accepted today.
| Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
350 YBN
[1650 AD]
| 1675) Aristotle will be proven correct in his claim that sound cannot be produced without air. Kircher publishes around 40 works.
Kircher is credited with inventing an Aeolian harp, and a speaking tube. Kircher did not invent the magic latern as he is sometimes credited with.
| Rome, Italy (presumably) |
350 YBN
[1650 AD]
| 1683) German physicist, Otto von Guericke (GAriKu) (CE 1602-1686) constructs the first air pump and uses it to produce a vacuum chamber in which he examines the role of air in combustion and respiration.
This air pump is like a waterpump but airtight and is powered by hand pumping. Guericke uses the pump to create evacuated containers, and shows that a bell cannot be heard, candles will not burn, and animals cannot live in a vacuum. Guericke also demonstrates the enormous strength that two semispheres connected with a vacuum inside have.
| Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
350 YBN
[1650 AD]
| 1722) Pascal claims that pressure exerted on a fluid in a closed vessel is transmitted undiminished throughout the fluid, and that it acts as right angles to all surfaces it touches. This is the basis of the hydraulic press. For example, a piston can be pushed down in a container of liquid, which will push upwards a piston in the same container. {a this multiplication of force is made up for by the fact that the small piston must move through a correspondingly greater distance than the large. t: to me it has to do with surface area too and volume of each column of water} Using the principle of the lever, a larger piston pushed a small distance, for example can be used to move a smaller piston a greater distance, and the opposite is also true. As in the case of Archimedes' level, force times distance is equal on both sides. (but also surface area has to be a factor)
Pascal invents a syringe (but not the first, which was Iraqi/Egyptian surgeon Ammar ibn 'Ali al-Mawsili' in the 800s) and creates the hydraulic press, an instrument based on Pascal's law (using hydraulic pressure to multiply force).
| Rouen, France (presumably) |
350 YBN
[1650 AD]
| 1753) Malpighi observes the lungs of frogs with a microscope.
| Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
349 YBN
[1651 AD]
| 1572) Gilbert accepts the sun-centered theory revived by Copernicus and is first important English person to accept this. Gilbert states boldly that the Earth rotates daily on its own axis by its magnetic power. Unlike other people, in England, Gilbert is not murdered, tortured, jailed or censored in any way for supporting the moving earth theory, unlike Bruno and Galilei will be. Gilber t accepts Nicolas of Cusa's view that the stars are at different and enormous distances from earth, not all at the same distance from earth as popularly believed, and that they might also be circled by habitable planets.
| London, England (presumably) |
349 YBN
[1651 AD]
| 1646) Harvey wrongly accepts the theory of spontaneously generation of some species but argues that some seeds are too small to see, writing: "{M}any animals, especially insects, arise and are propagated from elements and seeds so small as to be invisible (like atoms flying in the air), scattered and dispersed here and there by the winds; yet these animals are supposed to have arisen spontaneously, or from decomposition because their ova are nowhere to be found." This theory will inspire Francesco Redi to do his famous experiment disproving spontaneous generation of maggots from meat in 1668.
| London, England (presumably) |
349 YBN
[1651 AD]
| 1647)
| London, England (presumably) |
349 YBN
[1651 AD]
| 1671) Riccioli names the craters on the moon after astronomers, giving the largest craters to those who supported the earth-centered system. In this book Riccioli presents 77 arguments against the sun-centered so-called Copernican theory. The book is not, despite the title, Ptolemaic. Riccioli is a supporter of Tycho Brahe's earth-centered compromise system, and names the largest lunar crater after Tycho.
| Bologna, Italy |
348 YBN
[1652 AD]
| 1775) Olaus (also Olof the Elder) Rudbeck is the first to identify the lymphatic vessels. The lymphatics resemble blood vessels but have thinner walls and carry the clear, watery fluid portion of the blood (lymph). This fluid is forced out of the thin-walled capillaries and into the spaces around the cells, forming the interstitial fluid. The interstitial fluid is connected in the lymphatics and carried back into the blood vessels. In various parts of the body, lymphatic vessels gather in small knots (lymph glands or lymph nodes), first noted by Malpighi, which are now known to be important in developing immunity to disease.
Rudbeck demonstrates lymphatic vessels to Queen Christina of Sweden using a dog for the purpose, in the Spring of 1652. However, he does not publish anything about it until the fall of 1653, after Thomas Bartholin, a Danish scientist, (and brother of Rasmus Bartholin (1625-1698)) had published a description of a similar finding of his own.
In December 1652, Bartholin publishes the first full description of the human lymphatic system. Jean Pecquet had previously noted the lymphatic system in animals in 1651, and Pecquet's discovery of the thoracic duct and its entry into the veins made him the first person to describe the correct route of the lymphatic fluid into the blood. Shortly after the publication of Pecquet's and Bartholin's findings, a similar discovery of the human lymphatic system is published by Olof Rudbeck in 1653, although Rudbeck presented his findings at the court of Queen Christina of Sweden in April-May 1652, before Bartholin, but delayed in writing about it until 1653 (after Bartholin). As a result, an intense priority dispute ensues.
| Uppsala, Sweden |
346 YBN
[1654 AD]
| 1693) Ferdinand II of Tuscany (CE 1610-1670), Grand Duke, Italian Ruler, devises a sealed thermometer, unlike Galileo's which was open and therefore varied with the air pressure.
| Tuscany, Italy (presumably) |
346 YBN
[1654 AD]
| 1720) Blaise Pascal (PoSKoL) (CE 1623-1662) and Pierre de Fermat (FARmo) (CE 1601-1665) through their correspondence create the science of probability, by solving the question of a person that gamble's about why he lost money betting on a certain combination in the fall of 3 dice. This new science involves the mathematics of chance, and allows for generalizations of phenomena without knowing the exact information about the phenomena.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
346 YBN
[1654 AD]
| 2018) Francis Glisson (CE 1597-1677), publishes "Anatomia hepatis" (1654; Anatomy of the Liver) in which Glisson puts forward his theory of "irritability", that muscular irritability, that is their tendency to respond to stimuli, is independent of any external input, nervous or otherwise.
Glisson describes the fibrous tissue which encases the liver, which will became known as "Glisson"s capsule." In this work Glisson corrects the mistaken view that the liver is the source of the venous system and of venous blood which existed before Paul Harvey showed that blood vessels converge on the heart.
| London, England |
345 YBN
[03/25/1655 AD]
| 1763) Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) identifies the first known moon of Saturn, Titan.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
345 YBN
[1655 AD]
| 1702) John Wallis (CE 1616-1703), English mathematician publishes "Arithmetica Infinitorum" (1655, "The Arithmetic of Infinitesimals"), which is the first to extend exponents to include negative numbers and fractions (for example x-2=1/x2, and x1/2=sqrt(x)).
Wallis is the first to interpret imaginary numbers geometrically.
Isaac Newton will report that his work on the binomial theorem and on the calculus arises from a thorough study of the "Arithmetica Infinitorum" during his undergraduate years at Cambridge.
| (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
345 YBN
[1655 AD]
| 1762) Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) devises a better method for grinding lenses with the help of the Dutch-Jewish philosopher Benedict Spinoza. (more details) Huygens uses these lenses in telescopes and uses a 23 foot long telescope himself. Although he is unsuccessful in his attempts to produce lenses with hyperbolic or elliptical surfaces, he and his elder brother do succeed in figuring and polishing lenses with an accuracy never before attained. His improved methods of grinding lenses allows Huygens to construct longer telescopes with greater powers of magnification. These "aerial telescopes" exceed 30 feet in length and dispense entirely with the usual tubular enclosure, utilizing instead two shorter tubes, one for the eyepiece and one for the objective lens.
In 1675, Christiaan Huygens will patent a pocket watch. Huygens invents numerous other devices, including a 31 tone to the octave keyboard instrument which makes use of his discovery of 31 equal temperament.
Christiaan Huygens is quoted as saying "The world is my country, science my religion". (from a book?)
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
345 YBN
[1655 AD]
| 1843) Blaise Pascal (PoSKoL) (CE 1623-1662) writes "Traité du triangle arithmétique" ("Treatise on arithmetical triangle") in which Pascal collects several results known about the triangle of binomial coefficients at the time, and employs them to solve problems in probability theory. The triangle will later be named after Pascal by Pierre Raymond de Montmort (1708) and Abraham de Moivre (1730), however the triangle of binomial coefficients goes back to at least 900 CE India.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
344 YBN
[03/25/1656 AD]
| 1769) Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) calculates rules for collisions.
This is the result of Huygens' study of collision phenomena between hard, elastic bodies. Huygens will not announce his conclusions until some 12 years later, and his complete study of such phenomena will be published posthumously in 1703. Huygens will publish a condensed version of his work on collision in the March 8, 1669 issue of "Journal des Sçavans".
Huygens extends (John) Wallis' (CE 1616-1703) finding of the conservation of momentum (momentum=mass times velocity), by showing that mv2 is also conserved. This quantity is twice the kinetic energy of a body.
I am not sure what the value of knowing that mv2 is conserved, because perhaps m2v is conserved too, but it may be of little or no value. The key idea is that velocity and mass are not exchanged, which is a mistake made by many people. It seems more logical to me that mass and velocity are conserved, but never exchanged, for example mass being converted into velocity or velocity into mass. This concept of mv2 will lead to Leibniz's labeling it "vis-visa", which Joule and Thomson accept, and ultimately into the modern concept of "energy".
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
344 YBN
[1656 AD]
| 1716) Athanasius Kircher (KiRKR) (CE 1601-1680) is the first to explicitly print that stars are other Suns with planets around them, which he prints in his book "Itinerarium extaticum" (Ecstatic journey).
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
344 YBN
[1656 AD]
| 1764) Christaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) invents the first pendulum {PeNJUluM or PeNDUluM} clock.
Huygens attaches a pendulum to the gears of a clock. The regular swing of the pendulum allows the clock to achieve greater accuracy, as the hands are turned by the falling weight, which releases the same amount of energy with each tick.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
343 YBN
[1657 AD]
| 1703) John Wallis (CE 1616-1703), English mathematician publishes "Mathesis Universalis" (1657, "Universal Mathematics"), which is the first to use the infinity symbol (sideways 8) ∞.
| London, England (presumably) |
343 YBN
[1657 AD]
| 1717) The scientific society, Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment is founded in Florence, Italy.
| Florence, Italy |
343 YBN
[1657 AD]
| 1765) Christaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) publishes book on probability, the first formal book on the subject.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
343 YBN
[1657 AD]
| 1794) Hooke develops springs and spiral springs instead of pendulums in his development of the pocket watch. Hooke describes the spiral spring as a "circular Pendulum".
Hooke's mechanical skill help Robert Boyle to build a successful air pump.
Hooke creates a wave theory of light. (chronology: After or before Grimaldi?)(Does Hooke have an aether medium? If yes may be first to use word aether to apply to medium for light.) (-?)Hooke creates an imperfect wave theory of light (which contradicts Newton and anticipates Huygens.(source?) (chronology) (Hooke may be the first to create the light as wave theory which will ultimately surpass Newton's more accurate light as a particle theory and stand as dogma (correct usage?) for hundreds of years.) (grimaldi)
Hooke speculates on steam engines. Hooke speculates on the atomic composition of matter. Hooke discovers the fifth star in the Trapezium, an asterism (a group of stars) in the constellation Orion. Hooke is one of the first to take seriously the idea that fossils represent the remains of ancient creatures (previously it was assumed they were simply features in the rocks which accidentally mimicked living forms), and is led by his knowledge of them to conclude that the surfaces of the earth can change, land giving way to sea and vice versa, and that the number and kinds of species of plants and animals are not fixed. Hooke suggests that earthquakes are caused by the cooling and contracting of the earth. Hooke is the first to suggest that Jupiter turns on it's axis. It is surprising that no known portrait of Hooke has yet been found, though it is speculated that at least two are painted during his lifetime. The engraved frontispiece to the 1728 edition of Chambers' Cyclopedia shows a bust of Robert Hooke.
In the famous book "La Machine a lire les pensees" (1937) ("The Thought-Reading Machine"), Andre Maurois (Walter Herzog) describes the thought hearing device as a device that uses a spiral spring.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
342 YBN
[1658 AD]
| 1677) Kircher takes a notably modern approach to the study of diseases, as early as 1646 using a microscope to investigate the blood of plague victims. In his "Scrutinium Pestis" of 1658, he notes the presence of "little worms" or "animalcules" in the blood, and concludes that the disease is caused by microorganisms. The conclusion is correct, although it is likely that what he saw were in fact red or white blood cells and not the plague agent, "Yersinia pestis". Kircher also proposes hygienic measures to prevent the spread of disease, such as isolation, quarantine, burning clothes worn by the infected and wearing facemasks to prevent the inhalation of germs. Pasteur will prove this theory to be true.
| Rome, Italy (presumably) |
342 YBN
[1658 AD]
| 1767) Christaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) builds a micrometer which he uses to measure angular separations of a few seconds of arc.
Huygens' micrometer consists of a series of small brass plates of varying widths which can be slipped across the focal plane of the telescope.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
342 YBN
[1658 AD]
| 1804) Swammerdam announces his identification of the red blood corpuscle at age 21.
No known portrait of Jan Swammerdam exists, a fake portrait copied from a Rembrandt painting is sometimes mistakenly thought to be an image of Swammerdam, but is a person named Hartmann Hartmanzoon (1591-1659).
Swammerdam designs a simple dissecting microscope that has two arms: one for holding the object and the other for the lens; the arms have coarse and fine adjustments. He used very fine scissors for dissection and capillary tubes of glass for inflating or injecting blood vessels. Swammerdam is one of the first to dissect under water and to remove fat by organic solvents.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
341 YBN
[1659 AD]
| 1681) In this year, Fermat publishes "De Linearum Curvarum cum Lineis Rectis Comparatione" ("Concerning the Comparison of Curved Lines with Straight Lines"), which proves the widely held view, stemming from Aristotle, which Descartes had reiterated in "Géométrie" that the precise determination of the length (rectification) of algebraic curves is impossible, by showing that the lengths of semicubical parabola and certain other algebraic curves are can be determined (are rectifiable).
Fermat generalizes the equation for the ordinary parabola ay = x2, and that for the rectangular hyperbola xy = a2, to the form an - 1y = xn. Fermat also generalizes the Archimedean spiral r = aq. In the middle 1630s identifies an mathematical procedure that is equivalent to differentiation, that enables him to find equations of tangents to curves, and to locate maximum, minimum, and inflection points of polynomial curves. During these same years, Fermat finds formulas for the areas bounded by these curves through a summation process that is equivalent to modern integral calculus. This formula is: (see image)
Whether Fermat understands that differentiation of xn, leading to nan - 1, is the inverse of integrating xn is unknown.
Fermat understands correctly that light travels more slowly in a denser medium, where Descartes held the opposite view.
Because Fermat's "Introduction to Loci" is published posthumously in 1679, their mutual discovery, initiated in Descartes's "Géométrie" of 1637, has since been known as Cartesian geometry.
The results of Fermat's and Pascal's correspondence on probability will be extended and published by Huygens in his "De Ratiociniis in Ludo Aleae" in 1657.
Fermet created various conjectures and theorems in number theory. One of the most elegant of these is the theorem that every prime number of the form 4n + 1 is uniquely expressible as the sum of two squares. A more important result, now known as "Fermat's lesser theorem", asserts that if p is a prime number and if a is any positive integer, then ap - a is divisible by p. Fermat seldom proves his theorems and other mathematicians such as Gottfried Leibniz and Leonhard Euler will prove some of Fermat's conjectures.
One unproved conjecture by Fermat will be shown to be false. In 1640, in letters to mathematicians and to other knowledgeable thinkers of the day, including Blaise Pascal, Fermat announces his belief that numbers of the form 22n + 1, known since as "numbers of Fermat," are necessarily prime; but a century later Euler will show that 225 + 1 has 641 as a factor.
The Encylopedia Brittanica describes Fermat as: "the most productive mathematician of his day. But his influence was circumscribed by his reluctance to publish."
| Toulouse, France (presumably) |
341 YBN
[1659 AD]
| 1741) John Ray (CE 1627-1705), English biologist (and naturalist), completes his book "Catalogus plantarum circa Cantabrigiam nascentium" (Cambridge Catalogue), a catalog of plants in Cambridge.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
341 YBN
[1659 AD]
| 1755)
| Bologna, Italy |
341 YBN
[1659 AD]
| 1766) Christaan Huygens identifies the V-shaped Syrtis Major ("large bog") although it is not a bog.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
341 YBN
[1659 AD]
| 1771) Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) publishes "Systema Saturnium", his complete study on Saturn.
This book contains Huygens' drawing of the Orion nebula.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
340 YBN
[11/28/1660 AD]
| 1704) The Royal Society forms when 12 men meet after a lecture at Gresham College, London, by Christopher Wren (then professor of astronomy at the college) and resolved to set up "a Colledge for the promoting of Physico-Mathematicall Experimentall Learning." Those present include the scientists Robert Boyle and Bishop John Wilkins and the courtiers Sir Robert Moray and William, 2nd Viscount Brouncker.
The English mathematician, William Brouncker (CE 1620-1684), is the first president of Royal Society, and subsequently reelected until resigning in 1677.
| London, England |
340 YBN
[1660 AD]
| 1682) Pierre de Fermat (FARmo) (CE 1601-1665), French mathematician solves the problem of finding the surface area of a segment of a paraboloid of revolution. This paper appeared in a supplement to the "Veterum Geometria Promota", issued by the mathematician Antoine de La Loubère in 1660. This is the only mathematical work of Fermat published in his lifetime.
| Toulouse, France (presumably) |
340 YBN
[1660 AD]
| 1691) Otto von Guericke (GAriKu) (CE 1602-1686) is the first to attempt to use a barometer to forecast weather.
| Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
340 YBN
[1660 AD]
| 1737) Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691), Irish physicist and chemist, publishes "New Experiments Physico-Mechanicall, Touching the Spring of the Air and its Effects" (1660), which describes Boyle and Robert Hooke's experiments in which they construct a duplicate of Guericke's air pump, and use the pump to shows that electrical attraction is transmitted through empty space (a vacuum), to verify that sound is not transmitted through empty space, and that a feather and lump of lead land at the same time in empty space (a vacuum). (Interesting that Boyle uses the usual word "touching", perhaps just a coincidence, or perhaps an endorsement for physical pleasure or touching in general.) This is an early scientific work written in English. Boyle is the first chemist to collect a gas.
Boyle is in favor of all experimental work being clearly and quickly publicly reported.
Boyle's scientific work is characterized by its dependence on experiment and observation and its reluctance to formulate generalized theories. Boyle supports the "mechanical philosophy", in which the universe is a huge machine or clock in which all natural phenomena are accountable purely by mechanical, clockwork motion. Boyle believes in a mechanical "corpuscularian hypothesis" cosmology, which is a kind of atomism that claims that everything is composed of minute (but not indivisible) particles of a single universal matter and that these particles are only different in shape and motion. This theory is similar to my own view of the Universe at being made of one kind of matter, that being the light particle, the photon.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
340 YBN
[1660 AD]
| 3142) Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691) records a measurement of sub-atmospheric pressure. Boyle uses a mercury manometer to measure the pressure produced in a bell jar by a piston pump built by Boyle's assistant Robert Hook.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
339 YBN
[1661 AD]
| 1738) Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691) publishes "The Skeptical Chymist" where he writes that elements should be identified experimentally, instead of intuitively. Boyle defines an element as any substance that cannot be broken down farther into another substance. Boyle is the first to recognize acids, bases and neutral liquids using acid-base indicators. This book separates chemistry from the health sciences (medicine).
Boyle shows that water expands just before and after freezing.
In "The Sceptical Chymist" (1661) Boyle critisizes Aristotle's theory of the four elements (earth, air, fire, and water), supports a corpuscular view of matter that is a preview of the modern theory of chemical elements.
Boyle focuses his attack on what he sees as the erroneous foundations of contemporary chemical theory. Boyle publishes extensive experimental evidence to disprove the prevailing Aristotelian and Paracelsian concepts of a small number of basic elements or principles to which all compounds can be reduced by chemical analysis. Boyle demonstrates that common chemical substances when decomposed by heat not only fail to yield the requisite number of elements or principles, but that the numberof substances yielded is a function of the techniques employed. As a result, Boyle denies that the familiar elements or principles (as hey were defined earth, air, fire, and water) were primary elements and advocates replacing these older concepts of chemical change with what he terms the "corpuscular philosophy." Boyle's corpuscular philosophy is that a God had originally formed matter in tiny particles of varying sizes and shapes. These particles tend to combine in groups or clusters which, because of their compactness, have a reasonably continuous existence and are the basic units of chemical and physical processes.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
339 YBN
[1661 AD]
| 1754) Marcello Malpighi (moLPEJE), (CE 1628-1694) observes microscopic blood vessels, eventually named "capillaries", in the wings of bats, that connect the smallest parts of the arteries with the smallest parts of the veins.
| Bologna, Italy |
339 YBN
[1661 AD]
| 1810) Steno makes these discoveries while studying human anatomy in Amsterdam.
Steno also recognizes that muscles are composed of fibrils
| Amsterdam, Netherlands |
338 YBN
[1662 AD]
| 1710) John Graunt (GraNT) (CE 1620-1674) English statistician, publishes his "Bills of Mortality" (full title: "Natural and Political Observations mentioned in a following index, and made upon the Bills of Mortality With reference to the Government, Religion, Trade, Growth, Ayre, diseases, and the several Changes of the said City") which contains the estimates of life expectancy for humans. In his book Graunt describes his findings that the death rate in cities is higher than in rural areas, the birthrate of males is higher, but more males die early in life, and so the gender population becomes equal. In addition he publishes life expectancy tables indicating the percentage of people that can expect to live to a certain age.
The Bills of Mortality (lists of the dead) are the vital statistics about the citizens of London collected over a 70-year period.
Graunt produces four editions of this work, the third (1665) is printed by the Royal Society, of which Graunt is a charter member.
Graunt is generally considered to be the founder of the science of demography, the statistical study of human populations.
| London, England |
338 YBN
[1662 AD]
| 1739) Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691) explains that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related (Boyle's Law).
Boyle finds this when using a 17 foot J-shaped tube to trap air using mercury. Boyle recognizes that when he adds twice the amount of mercury, he is adding twice the pressure on the air trapped in the end of the tube. When Boyle does this the air volume is reduced by a half, and in reverse, if pressure is lowered by removing half of the mercury, the volume of the air expands by two times.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
337 YBN
[1663 AD]
| 2247) Otto von Guericke (GAriKu) (CE 1602-1686) builds the first static electricity generator by rotating a sulfur globe against a cloth.
| Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
336 YBN
[07/??/1664 AD]
| 2328) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) is the first to measure the frequency of sound (that is the pitch, the number of beats or vibrations per second). Hooke does this for various pitches.
| London, England (presumably) |
336 YBN
[11/23/1664 AD]
| 1799) Hooke studies microscopic fossils and speculates on evolutionary development. (to what extent?) Hooke performs studies of insects, feathers and fish scales.
"Micrographia" is printed in English as opposed to Latin.
Also in this year Hooke publishes a work on the nature of comets, entitled "Cometa".
| London, England |
336 YBN
[1664 AD]
| 1714) Thomas Willis (CE 1621-1675), English physician, publishes "Cerebri Anatome, cui accessit Nervorum descriptio et usus" (1664; "Anatomy of the Brain, with a Description of the Nerves and Their Function"), the most complete and accurate account of the nervous system to this time. This book is illustrated by Sir Christopher Wren. "Anatomy of the Brain..." will be translated into English in "The Remaining Medical Works...of Doctor Thomas Willis" in 1681.
In this book Willis is the first to to describe the hexagonal continuity of arteries (the circle of Willis) located at the base of the brain responsible for the brain's blood supply, and the 11th cranial nerve, or spinal accessory nerve, responsible for motor stimulation of major neck muscles.
Willis is the first to study epidemic disease and is therefore the first epidemiologist.
Willis is the leader of the English iatrochemists (those who seek to cure disease through chemistry).
Willis recognizes (as earlier Greek physicians may have known) the (unusually high quantity of) sugar content in urine among some people with diabetes. (Perhaps this fact is recognized from oral sex?) Using this fact, Willis is able to distinguish diabetes mellitus the most serious form (of diabetes) from other varieties .
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
336 YBN
[1664 AD]
| 1800) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) identifies Gamma Arietis as a double star.
| London, England (presumably) |
336 YBN
[1664 AD]
| 1801) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) publishes "Description of Helioscopes", with a postscript about his invention of the balance-spring mechanism.
Earlier in this year, a dispute between Hooke and the Dutch scientist Huygens concerning the invention of the balance-spring watch occurred.
| London, England (presumably) |
335 YBN
[1665 AD]
| 1688) Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (BoreLE) (CE 1608-1679), Italian mathematician and physiologist publishes "Del movimento della cometa di Decembre 1664" (1665), in which he proposes, on the basis of observations and calculations, that comets also move in elliptical orbits. Kepler and others thought that comets are transient objects that pass through the solar system in a straight line. As the church opposes such views, Borelli chooses to publish under the pseudonym Pier Maria Mutoli.
popularizes Kepler's use of ellipses postulates an attractive force for Jupiter (which attracts the Jupiter moons) and the Sun recognizes that a hollow copper sphere is bouyant (in water, not air?) when evacuated, but that it soon collapses under air pressure. {the Montgolfier will recognize in 150 years that by putting in a lighter than air gas, a sphere can be used as a balloon.}
| Pisa, Italy (presumably) |
335 YBN
[1665 AD]
| 1707) Italian physicist Francesco Grimaldi's (GREMoLDE) (CE 1618-1663) "Physico-mathesis de lumine, coloribus, et iride" (1665; "Physicomathematical Studies of Light, Colors, and the Rainbow") is published posthumously and describes Grimaldi's experiments in which he passes light through narrow openings (in iron plates?) and observes what he calls "diffraction" or bending of light around the narrow opening.
Grimaldi allows a beam of light to pass through two narrow openings (slits), one behind the other, and then reflect off a white surface behind them. Grimaldi finds that the width of the light on the white surface is wider than when it entered the first opening, a phenomenon he calls diffraction. Grimaldi believes that the light bent around the sides of the opening. The more accurate explanation is that light is reflected off the sides of the narrow opening, and the number of times a light beam is reflected, results in it being sent at larger and larger angles. Why the obvious explanation of reflection off the sides of the narrow opening are not considered is a wonder.
People will interpret the so-called "diffraction" Grimaldi finds with the slit experiments, by explaining that the different bands of light produced represent an "interference pattern" from superimposed waves.
Grimaldi views light as a wave phenomenon. Grimaldi is the first to attempt a wave theory of light. (Does Grimaldi believe in an aether as a medium? This might be the first recorded use of aether as a medium for light or else it is not until Huygens) (What kind of wave does Grimaldi describe? A sine wave with amplitude, made of particles?) Grimaldi observes one to three colored streaks at both ends of the width of light. Fraunhofer will be the next to analyze this, but not for 150 years.
Newton fails to properly explain this "diffraction" phenomenon, theorizing in "Optiks" that the "diffraction" phenomenon described by Grimaldi, which Newton calls "inflexion", is due to variations in the density of an aether (Opticks Qu. 19,20). Newton will also incorrectly explain double-reflection of so-called Island Crystal (Iceland Spar), by theorizing that the sides of a ray differ.(Opticks Qu. 25,26)
Grimaldi coined the term "diffraction", from the Latin "diffringere", 'to break into pieces', referring to light breaking up into different directions. Isaac Newton will study these effects and attribute them to inflexion of light rays(explain). James Gregory (1638-1675) observed the diffraction patterns caused by a bird feather, which is effectively a natural diffraction grating. In 1803 Thomas Young will do his famous experiment observing diffraction from two closely spaced slits (not one behind the other as Grimaldi had done), and explain his results as interference of the waves emanating from the two different slits. Young deduces that light must propagate as waves. Augustin-Jean Fresnel will do more definitive studies and calculations of diffraction, published in 1815 and 1818, and thereby will give great support to the wave theory of light as advanced by Christian Huygens and reinvigorated by Young, against Newton's particle theory. This wave theory will obstruct the more accurate particle theory of Newton for centuries, the correct interpretation of particles of light as matter responding to gravity, a theory that seemed at Newton's and other people of his generation's fingertips, will elude humanity for centuries, and even now is not the prevailing view (which is that light particles are massless).
Some accounts have Leonardo da Vinci earlier noting diffraction of light. (through slits?)
Between 1640 and 1650, working with Riccioli, Grimaldi investigates the free fall of objects, confirming that the distance of fall is proportional to the square of the time taken.
In astronomy, Grimaldi builds and used instruments to measure geological features on the Moon, and draws an accurate map or selenograph which is published by Riccioli.
| Bologna, Italy (presumably) |
335 YBN
[1665 AD]
| 1726) Giovanni Domenico Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) measures the period of a Mars day as 24 hours and 40 minutes.
| Bologna, Italy |
335 YBN
[1665 AD]
| 1756) Malpighi (moLPEJE), (CE 1628-1694) observes red blood cells although Jan Swammerdam does has the earliest identification of red blood cells in 1658. Malpighi publishes four tracts in 1665. The first tract describes the presence of "red globules of fat" in the blood vessels of the mesentery of the hedgehog. This is one of the earliest descriptions of the red blood cell, although Malpighi does not realize the significance of his observation. In other tracts Malpighi describes the papillae of the tongue and the skin and suggests that these may have a sensory function. Malpighi regards the papillae of the tongue (taste buds) as terminations of nerves.
Malpighi describes the layer of cells in the skin now known as the Malpighian layer.
The last tract of 1665 concerns the general structure of the brain. Malpighi shows that the white matter consists of bundles of fibers that connect the brain with the spinal cord. Malpighi describes the gray nuclei that occur in the white matter.
| Bologna, Italy |
335 YBN
[1665 AD]
| 1776) Richard Lower (CE 1631-1691), English physician, performs the first blood transfusion.
Lower observes that dark venous blood is converted to bright arterial blood on contact with air, and theorizes that something is absorbed from the air. What that substance is will have to wait 100 years for Lavoisier to understand what air is made of. In this year, Lower transfuses blood from one animal to another, at the advice of Christopher Wren, and demonstrates how this technique can be useful in saving lives. However, the transfusion of animal blood into a human or even one human's blood into another is too often fatal. Landsteiner 250 years later will demonstrate the existence of different types of human blood (do other species have different types of blood?) and only then does blood transfusion become practical.
Lower also shows the phlem is manufactured in the nasal membrane, not the brain as Galen thought. Lower shows that the heartbeat is caused by the contraction of the heart's muscular walls. Lower's major work, "Tractatus de Corde" (1669) is concerned with the workings of the heart and lungs.
| London?, England |
335 YBN
[1665 AD]
| 1812) Nicolaus Steno (STAnO) (CE 1638-1686) publishes "Discourse on the Anatomy of the Brain" which is a lecture on the brain Steno gave 4 years earlier in 1665. In this work Steno argues against Descartes's theories of brain function, and that ideas about brain physiology should be grounded in the results of detailed dissection. This book will be the most influential of his anatomical works.
| Paris, France |
334 YBN
[12/22/1666 AD]
| 1712) The French Academy of Sciences (Académie des sciences) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect French scientific research. It is at the forefront of scientific developments in Europe in the 1600s and 1700s and is one of the earliest academies of sciences.
Colbert chooses a small group of scholars who meet on December 22, 1666 in the King's library, and thereafter hold twice-weekly working meetings there. The first 30 years of the Academy's existence are relatively informal, since no statutes had been recorded for the institution.
| Paris, France |
334 YBN
[1666 AD]
| 1689) Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (BoreLE) (CE 1608-1679), publishes "Theoricae mediceorum planetarum" ("Theory of the Medicean Planets"; 1666), in which Borelli presents a new and influential, although inaccurate account of the motions of the Medicean satellites around Jupiter. Newton will be aware of Borelli's work and will appreciate the originality of his approach, in using elliptical orbits. Borelli postulates an attractive force from Jupiter (which attracts the Jupiter moons) and the Sun.
| Pisa, Italy (presumably) |
334 YBN
[1666 AD]
| 1723) In this year Thomas Sydenham (SiDnuM) (CE 1624-1689) English physician writes "Methodis Curandis Febres" (1666) a book on fevers.
Sydenham describes Saint Vitus' dance, which is still called "Sydenham's chorea". (place chronologically)
In 1683 Sydenham writes a treatise on the disease gout, which he suffers from for years and which ultimately leads to his death.
This work will be later expanded into "Observationes Medicae" (1676).
| London, England (presumably) |
334 YBN
[1666 AD]
| 1757) In the liver tissue under the microscope, Malpighi identifies small "lobules," resembling bunches of grapes. In each lobule are "tiny conglobate bodies like grape seeds" connected by central vessels. He believed that the lobules were supplied by fine blood vessels and that their function was secretory. Malpighi realizes that one function of the liver is as a gland and that the bile duct must be the passage which the secreted material (bile) passes through: the gall-bladder is, therefore, not the site of origin of bile. Malpighi proves in an animal experiment that the gallbladder is only a temporary store for bile on its way to the intestine. Malpighi speculates that bile might be useful in the process of digestion.
Malpighi recognizes, from studying the blood supply to the spleen, that the spleen is not a gland, but a contractile vascular organ. He was the first to describe the lymphatic bodies (Malpighian corpuscles) in the spleen.
Malpighi showed that the outmost part of the kidney is not structureless as most anatomists think, but is composed of many little wormlike vessels (the renal tubules) which he calls "canaliculi".
Although Malpighi does not find any connection between the convoluted canaliculi and the straight tubules in the central mass of tissue (medulla), he predicts that such a continuity exists.
Malpighi's detailed description of the medulla of the kidney showed how the canaliculi converge on the pelvis and enter the ureter. Malpighi observes the formation of kidney stones in the pelvis.
Malpighi shows that there is no such thing as black bile, a mistaken belief that dates back to the school of Hippocrates 2000 years before, black bile was believed to be one of the four humors (or fluids) of the human body, together with yellow bile, blood, and phlegm. (presumably in this book)
It was Malpighi's practice to open animals alive (vivisection).
| Bologna, Italy |
334 YBN
[1666 AD]
| 1758) Before this treatise, it was believed that such small creatures have no internal organs, and Malpighi himself is surprised to find that the moth is just as complex as higher animals. Malpighi not only identifies the trachae and spiracles, the system of tubes and holes through which insects breathe, but also correctly guesses their function. Malpighi is the first to describe the nerve cord and ganglia, the silk glands, the multichambered heart, and the urinary tubules, which still bear his name.
| Bologna, Italy |
334 YBN
[1666 AD]
| 1803) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) publishes his theory that a single attractive force from the sun, which varies in inverse proportion to the square distance between the sun and planet, is responsible for the planets' elliptical orbits.
| London, England (presumably) |
334 YBN
[1666 AD]
| 1853) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LIPniTS) (CE 1646-1716), German philosopher and mathematician, publishes "Dissertatio de arte combinatoria", with subtitle "General Method in Which All Truths of the Reason Are Reduced to a Kind of Calculation" in which Leibniz tries to work out a symbolism for logic, but does not complete this effort. Leibniz's ideas will have to wait 200 years, to be embodied in the mathematical logic developed by George Boole and Giuseppe Peano in the 1800s, and by Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell in the 1900s. These ideas foreshadow modern computer and robot theory.
Around 1790, in "A Study in the Logical Calculus" Leibniz demonstrates syllogism geometrically in states such as if "a is in b, and b is in c, then c is in a". Leibniz introduces the use of determinants into algebra. (explain) Leibniz is first to suggest an aneroid barometer, a device that measures air pressure against a thin metal diaphragm (strip?). This will not need the column of mercury.
| Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
333 YBN
[06/15/1667 AD]
| 1815) Denis had first experimented with animal-to-animal transfusions; he published a letter in the "Journals des Scavans" describing his work. The recipient of the blood transfusion is a young man with a fever. Other doctors had employed leeches 20 times. After Denis transfuses him with 12 ounces of lamb's blood, the young man "rapidly recovered from his lethargy." Denis uses a similar method to cure a so-called "madman", and a few more experiments by scientists in France and London are deemed successful.
However two other people die (after blood transfusions), and Denis is brought into court on the charge of murder. Denis is acquitted, but blood transfusions are outlawed. Denis quits the practice of healing (medicine). Two hundred years will pass before blood transfusion is safe.
| ?, France |
333 YBN
[1667 AD]
| 1813) Steno is given the head of a giant white shark to dissect by the grand duke, Ferdinand II. Steno is interested in the muscle anatomy of the shark, but is even more fascinated by its teeth, which closely resembled the fossil objects known as glossopetra or tonguestones. Tonguestones, and nearly all other fossils, in this time are commonly regarded as mineral objects that grow in the rocks where they are found and are not thought to be from living objects. Steno offers compelling reasons why tonguestones must have once been sharks' teeth.
| Florence, Italy (presumably) |
333 YBN
[1667 AD]
| 1816) James Gregory (1638-1675) publishes "Vera Circuli et Hyperbolae Quadratura" (1667; "The True Squaring of the Circle and of the Hyperbola") In this work Gregory uses a modification of the method of exhaustion of Archimedes (c. 285-212/211 BCE) to find the areas of the circle and sections of the hyperbola. In his construction of an infinite sequence of inscribed and circumscribed geometric figures, Gregory is one of the first to distinguish between convergent and divergent infinite series.
This ends the 21 century old alleged paradox of "Achilles and the Toroise".
Gregory is the first to find series expressions for the trigonometric functions. Gregory introduces the terms convergent" and divergent" for series.
| Padua?, Italy |
332 YBN
[11/26/1668 AD]
| 3257) John Wallis (CE 1616-1703) and Christopher Wren (CE 1632-1723) publish a work on rules of collision. Wallis writes a paper on inelastic collision and Wren on perfectly elastic collision.
Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) also is asked and submits a paper on perfectly elastic collisions which is not published. Huygens will publish a condensed version in the March 8, 1669 issue of "Journal des Sçavans".
This work is written in Latin and is titled "A Summary Account of the General Laws of Motion".
(Discuss different between elastic and inelastic collision. In my view there is only elastic collision, or that inelastic collision describes a larger scale phenomenon of a series of elastic collisions.)
| London, England (presumably) |
332 YBN
[1668 AD]
| 1727) Gian Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) establishes Jupiter's period of rotation as nine hours fifty-six minutes, by observing the movement of spots of Jupiter's clouds.
Cassini is the first to observe the shadows of Jupiter's moons as they pass between Jupiter and the Sun.
| (Observatory at) Panzano (near Bologna), Italy |
332 YBN
[1668 AD]
| 1736) Francesco Redi (rADE) (1 1626-1697), Italian physician and poet, disproves "spontaneous regeneration" of flies from meat.
Aristotle and much later Helmont had speculated that some organisms arise spontaneously from mud, decaying grain, and other material. Redi reads in the book on generation by William Harvey, Harvey's speculation that insects, worms, and frogs do not arise spontaneously, as is commonly believed in this time, but from seeds or eggs too small to be seen.
One of the best attested cases is the case of maggots which appear in decaying meat, apparently from the meat itself. Redi does an experiment where he prepares 8 flasks with a variety of meats. Four he seals, and four he leaves open to the air. Flies can only land on the meat in the open vessels, and maggots only appear in the meat in these open vessels and not the closed vessels. Redi repeats the experiment this time using only gauze to close the vessels. This is the first clear case of the use of proper controls in a biological experiment. Redi concludes that the maggots were not formed by spontaneous generation but were the result of eggs laid by flies. The argument about the spontaneous generation of microbial organisms will last for 200 more years. Not until the time of Louis Pasteur that the spontaneous-generation theory be finally discredited.
Surprisingly, Redi still believes that the process of spontaneous generation applies to gall flies and intestinal worms. To some extent life, RNA and DNA spontaneously arose from what are thought of as non-living molecules. Redi lays the foundations of helminthology (the study of parasitic worms) and also investigates insect reproduction.
In this year, Redi prints "Esperienze intorno alla generazione degl'insetti fatte da Francesco Redi", ("Generation of Insects", translated in 1909) which includes a rigorous account his spontaneous generation experiment.
| Florence, Italy (presumably) |
332 YBN
[1668 AD]
| 1817) James Gregory (1638-1675) publishes "Geometriae Pars Universalis" (1668; "The Universal Part of Geometry"). In this work Gregory collects the main results known at the time about transforming a very general class of curves into sections of known curves (therefore the designation "universal"), finding the areas bounded by such curves, and calculating the volumes of their solids of revolution.
| Padua?, Italy |
332 YBN
[1668 AD]
| 1818) Regnier de Graaf (CE 1641-1673) describes the fine structure of testicles.
| Delft, Netherlands (presumably) |
332 YBN
[1668 AD]
| 1830) Newton is not the first to build a reflecting telescope as Niccolo Zucchi (CE 1586-1670) built the first in 1616.
Newton's first telescope in 6 inches long and 1 inch in diameter, and this telescope magnifies 30 to 40 times. Newton builds a larger one, 9 inches long and 2 inches in diameter. Dolland will solve the chromatic aberration problem not long after Newton's death.
What kind of mirror?
Newton is the first to publish the method of polishing (a mirror or lens) on a pitch lap.
| Cambridge, England |
331 YBN
[03/08/1669 AD]
| 3258) Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) publishes rules for collisions.
Huygens publishes a condensed version of his work on collision in the March 8, 1669 issue of "Journal des Sçavans".
Huygens extends (John) Wallis' (CE 1616-1703) finding of the conservation of momentum (momentum=mass times velocity), by showing that mv2 is also conserved. This quantity is twice the kinetic energy of a body.
This concept of mv2 will lead to Leibniz's labeling it "vis-visa", which Joule and Thomson accept, and ultimately into the modern concept of "energy".
Huygens describes a head-on collision as following four rules: 1. The quantity of motion that two hard bodies have may be increased or diminished by their collision, but when the quantity of motion in the opposite direction has been subtracted there remains always the same quantity of motion in the same direction. 2. The sum of the products obtained by multiplying the magnitude of each hard body by the square of its velocity is always the same before and after collision. 3. A hard body at rest will receive more motion from another, larger or smaller body if a third intermediately sized body is interposed than it would if struck directly, and most of all if this {third} is their geometric mean. 4. A wonderful law of nature (which I can verify for spherical bodies, and which seems to be general for all, whether the collision be direct or oblique and whether the bodies be hard or soft) is that the common center of gravity of two, three, or more bodies always moves uniformly in the same direction in the same straight line, before and after their collision. (I agree with all except 3, and add that 2 also applies for the velocity without being squared.)
Some historians claim that Huygens' use of mv2 proves Descartes view of collisions are wrong, however, I see them both as accurate, in that a net velocity remains after a collision, however, Huygens' creation of mv2 is unnecessary. In addition, that Huygens uses mv2 as opposed to the current value of 1/2mv2 for kinetic energy, which implies even more that this value, like 1/4m2v3 is conserved but apparently unimportant in terms of meaning.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
331 YBN
[07/??/1669 AD]
| 1827) Newton writes the tract "De Analysi per Aequationes Numeri Terminorum Infinitas" ("On Analysis by Infinite Series"), which circulates in manuscript through a limited circle and makes Newton's name known. During the next two years Newton will revise this work as "De methodis serierum et fluxionum" ("On the Methods of Series and Fluxions").
The invention of differentials will lead to their use in equations called "differential equations". Interestingly people do not include integrals in equations which would then be called "integratial equations".
In July 1669 Isaac Barrow, Newton's mathematics teacher, tries to ensure that Newton's mathematical achievements become known to the world. Barrow sends Newton's text "De Analysi" to John Collins in London, writing: "{Newton} brought me the other day some papers, wherein he set down methods of calculating the dimensions of magnitudes like that of Mr Mercator concerning the hyperbola, but very general; as also of resolving equations; which I suppose will please you; and I shall send you them by the next."
Barrow resigns the Lucasian chair in 1669 to devote himself to divinity, recommending that Newton (still only 27 years old) be appointed in his place.
Newton independently develops calculus around the same time Liebnitz does, and a controversy over who is first develops with nationalistic undertones between English and German people, although Fermat had all but developed calculus 50 years earlier.
It is now well established that Newton developed the calculus before Leibniz seriously pursued mathematics. It is almost universally agreed that Leibniz later arrived at the calculus independently. There has never been any question that Newton did not publish his method of fluxions; therefore Leibniz's paper in 1684 is the first to make the calculus a matter of public knowledge.
As president of the Royal Society, Newton will appoint an "impartial" committee to investigate the issue, secretly writes the report, "The Commercium Epistolicum" officially published by the society, awarding himself the victory. Newton then reviews the report anonymously in the Philosophical Transactions. Even Leibniz's death will not stop Newton's wrath. The battle with Leibniz, which reveals Newton's obsession to remove any charge of dishonesty, dominates the final 25 years of Newton's life. Almost any paper on any subject from the last 25 years of Newton's life is likely to be interrupted by a furious paragraph against the German philosopher.
| Cambridge, England |
331 YBN
[07/??/1669 AD]
| 1828) Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) writes "De methodis serierum et fluxionum" ("On the Methods of Series and Fluxions") which revises his tract "De Analysi" of two years earlier.
This will not be published until 1736.
| Cambridge, England |
331 YBN
[1669 AD]
| 1735) Erasmus Bartholin (BoRTUliN) (CE 1625-1698) is the first to record the "double refraction" phenomenon of calcite (Iceland feldspar).
Bartholin receives a transparent crystal from Iceland (now called Iceland spar) and notes that objects viewed through the crystal are seen double. Bartholin presumes that light traveling through the crystal is refracted at two angles, so that two rays of light emerge where one had entered. This phenomenon is therefore called "double refraction". In addition, Bartholin recognizes that when the crystal is rotated, one image remains fixed while the other rotates around it. The ray giving rise to the fixed image Bartholin calls the ordinary ray, and the other the extraordinary ray.
| Copenhagen, Denmark |
331 YBN
[1669 AD]
| 1774) Brand obtains a white waxy substance that glows in the dark he names "Phosphorus" ("light-bearer"). The glow is the result of the slow combination of the phosphorus with air (perhaps oxygen only?). Although Brand keeps his process a secret, phosphorus is discovered independently in 1680 by English chemist, Robert Boyle.
Brand heats residues from boiled-down urine on his furnace until the retort (a device for distillation) is red hot, where all of a sudden glowing fumes fill the retort and liquid drips out. Brand catches the liquid in a jar and covers it, where it solidified and continues to give off a pale-green glow, which is phosphorus.
| Hamburg, Germany (presumably) |
331 YBN
[1669 AD]
| 1793) Johann Joachim Becher (BeKR) (CE 1635-1682), German chemist, divides all solids into three kinds of earths, the vitrifiable, the mercurial, and the combustible. Becher theorizes that when a substance is burned, a combustible earth is liberated. These ideas will lead to the inaccurate phlogiston theory by Stahl, a theory that will be proved wrong by Lavoisier. Becher publishes this theory and other experiments on the nature of minerals and other substances in "Physica Subterranea" ("Subterranean Physics", 1669).
Becher suggests that sugar is necessary for fermentation. (is it? are there other substitutes?) Becher suggests that coal be distilled to obtain tar. (did he do this?)
Traditionally, alchemists considered that there were four classical elements: fire, water, air, and earth. In his book, Becher eliminates fire and air from the classical element model and replaces them with three forms of earth: terra lapidea, terra mercurialis, and terra pinguis.
In Becher's theory, presence of terra lapidea, represents the degree of fusibility. Terra mercurialis, also terra fluida, indicate the degree of fluidity, subtility, volatility, and metallicity. Terra pinguis is the element which imparts oily, sulphureous, or combustible properties. Becher believes that terra pinguis is a key feature of combustion and is released when combustible substances are burned. Stahl will rename "terra pinguis" to "phlogiston".
| ?, Germany |
331 YBN
[1669 AD]
| 1805) Swammerdam collects 3000 species of insects, and is thought of as father of Entomology (the study of insects). Swammerdam (is first to?) demonstrates the details of insect's reproductive organs which tend to support Redi's disproof of their spontaneous generation. Swammerdam does much to refute ancient beliefs that insects have no internal organs and that they originate by spontaneous generation.
Swammerdam accurately describes and illustrates the life histories and anatomy of many species. Swammerdam separates insects into four major divisions, according to the degree and type of metamorphosis. Three of these divisions have been more or less retained in modern classification. Swammerdam demonstrates that the various phases during the life of an insect- egg, larva, pupa, and adult-are different forms of the same animal, and do no develop from a totally different kind of organism. Swammerdam disproves the common mistaken belief about metamorphosis--the idea that different life stages of an insect (e.g. caterpillar and butterfly) represent a sudden change from one type of animal to another. Swammerdam uses evidence from dissection to prove this. By examining larvae, Swammerdam identifies underdeveloped adult features in pre-adult animals. For example, he notices that the wings of dragonflies and mayflies exist prior to their final molt, and demonstrates the presence of butterfly wings in caterpillars about to undergo pupation.
Swammerdam plays a significant role in debunking the "balloonist" theory, which holds that muscles contract because of an influx of air or animal spirits (or liquid) as Galen had suggested. Swammerdam's two best-known experiments in this field are both conducted on frogs. In the first, after he removes the heart of a frog, Swammerdam observes that touching certain areas of the brain cause certain muscles to contract (while the frog is alive?). For Swammerdam, this is evidence that the brain, not the circulatory system, is responsible for muscle contractions. In the second experiment, Swammerdam places severed frog muscle under water and caused it to contract. He noted that the water level does not rise and therefore concludes that no air or fluid can be flowing into the leg. In other words the volume of the muscle did not change when contracted. His use of, and experiments with, frog muscle preparations plays a key role in the development of our current understanding of nerve-muscle function. I question this find because, it seems to me that muscle cells would become smaller in volume when they contract, although maintaining the same weight. Maybe they simply change shape but not volume. There are ions that move into the muscle, perhaps the change in volume or weight is too small to be measured in the water tank Swammerdam used, but perhaps Swammerdam is correct and there is no actual change in volume. Studying the anatomy of the tadpole and the adult frog, Swammerdam notes a cleavage in the egg and discovers valves in the lymphatic vessels, now known as Swammerdam valves.
This work also included many descriptions of insect anatomy. It was here that Swammerdam revealed that the "king" bee is infact a female because it has ovaries.
Swammerdamn writes "All animals hatch from eggs that are laid by a female of the same species".
This book is written in Dutch.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
331 YBN
[1669 AD]
| 1811) Steno describes strata, and holds that tilted strata were originally horizontal.
Steno argues here that rock strata are like the pages in a book of history, and that proper understanding of the principles of stratigraphy will allow that book to be read. The Prodromus marks the beginning of historical geology.
Steno rejects the idea that mountains grow like trees, proposing instead that mountains are formed by alterations of the Earth's crust. In structural geology, Steno visualizes three types of mountains: mountains formed by faults, mountains due to the effects of erosion by running waters, and volcanic mountains formed by eruptions of subterranean fires.
Steno places all of geologic history within a 6,000-year span.
In this book Steno lays the foundations of the science of crystallography. Steno creates what is now called the first law of crystallography: that the crystals of a specific substance have fixed characteristic angles at which the faces, however distorted they themselves may be, always meet.
Steno proposes the revolutionary idea that fossils are the remains of ancient living organisms and that many rocks are the result of sedimentation.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands |
330 YBN
[1670 AD]
| 1742) John Ray (CE 1627-1705), publishes "Catalogus plantarum Angliae et insularum adjacentium" ("Catalog of English Plants"), a catalog of the plants in the British Isles.
Ray models this book on his earlier "Cambridge Catalogue". This book contains a long section on the medicinal use of plants, which denounces astrology, alchemy, and witchcraft.
| Cambridge?, England |
330 YBN
[1670 AD]
| 1908) Baruch de Spinoza (Hebrew: ברוך שפינוזה, Portuguese: Bento de Espinosa, Latin: Benedictus de Spinoza) (CE 1632-1677), Dutch philosopher, anonymously publishes "Tractatus Theologico-Politicus", in which he advocates freedom of thought, in particular religious thought. This book is banned by numerous political and religious authorities, and its author is labeled a blaspheming atheist. Like his posthumous works, Spinoza's "Tractatus theologico-politicus" (1670) is placed on the Roman Catholic Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1673.
As a result of the outcry, Spinoza decides not to publish his philosophical book "the Ethics" which will not appear in print until after his death. In "the Ethics" Spinoza rejects the traditional interpretation of God by the Jewish and Christian religions, explaining his view that the belief of a benevolent, wise, purposive, judging God is an anthropomorphic fiction that gives rise only to superstition and irrational passions. God, according to Spinoza, is equivalent to Nature.
When Hermann Boerhaave writes his dissertation in 1688 he attacks the doctrines of Spinoza.
In his "Ethics" Spinoza writes "All these evils seem to have arisen from the fact that happiness or unhappiness is made wholly to depend on the quality of the object which we love. When a thing is not loved, no quarrels will arise concerning it - no sadness will be felt if it perishes - no envy if it is possessed by another - no fear, no hatred, in short no disturbances of the mind."
Although being accused of atheism, to my knowledge, Spinoza never explicitly states that he rejects the idea of the existence of a God. Albert Einstein will refer to and share Spinoza's view of a diety as being equivalent to nature, viewing the best way to understand a diety being to understand what the universe is and how the universe works.
| The Hague, Netherlands |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 1713) Jean Picard (PEKoR) (CE 1620-1682), French astronomer, measures the circumference of the earth, producing the most accurate result up to this time.
Picard is placed in charge first of making a map of the region of Paris and then of the operation to remeasure an arc of the meridian. Picard utilizes Snell's (or Frisius') method of triangulation (measuring one side and two angles of a triangle to determine the distance to a location that forms the top point of the triangle). Picard's method and measurements are recorded in his book "Mesure de la terre" (1671).
Using new instruments such as William Gascoigne's micrometer Picard establishes an accurate baseline and by a series of 17 triangles between Malvoisin and Amiens calculates one degree (of planet Earth) to be 57060 toises (a toise = about 6.4 ft.) (111.2km (69.1 miles) ) and by the current measurement is only 14 toises too small. This result proves to be extremely valuable to Newton in his calculations on the attractive force of the Moon.
The quadrant Picard uses has a radius of 38 inches and is so finely graduated that Picard can read the angles to one quarter of a minute. The sextant employed for determining the meridian was 6 feet in radius. 1671 Picard publishes the length of a degree of longitude at the equator as 69.1 miles (unit?) giving the earth a circumference of 24,876 miles and a radius of 3,950 miles. (One story has the use of Picard's estimate allowing Newton to get the correct answer to the moon's motion replacing the incorrect answer of 1666.)
In 1679 Picard founds and becomes editor of "La Connaissance des temps ou des mouvements célestes" ("Knowledge of Time or the Celestial Motions"), the first national astronomical ephemeris, or collection of tables giving the positions of celestial bodies at regular intervals.
In this same year, Picard goes to the observatory of the noted 1500s Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe at Hven Island, Sweden, to determine the exact location of the observatory so that Brahe's observations can be more precisely compared with those made elsewhere.
Picard helps to found the Paris Observatory. Picard finds Cassini from Italy and Roemer from Denmark to work there.
Picard is the first to use Gascoigne's invention of the micrometer on the telescope.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 1715)
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 1729) Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) identifies the moon of Saturn, Iapetus (IoPeTuS).
| (Paris Observatory) Paris, France |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 1796) Athanasius Kircher (KiRKR) (CE 1601-1680), publishes a second and expanded addition of "Ars Magna Lucis et Umbrae" (1646), which contains two illustrations of his "magic" latern (projection system).
On pages 768 and 769 Kircher names Walgensten as having a fine lantern, but still claims the magic lantern as his own. He also described a revolving disk similar to the rotating wheel of his 1646 edition. He referred to this as a 'Smicroscopin'. The story of Christ's death, burial and resurrection are depicted in eight separate slides, or scenes. His illustration of the magic lantern in this edition (Amsterdam) clearly shows the possibility of movement using successive slides.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 1832) The Royal Society, hearing of Newton's reflecting telescope asked to see it. Barrow demonstrates Newton's reflecting telescope to the Royal Society, where it causes a sensation.
Newton will send a letter to the Royal Society describing his telescopes on March 26, 1672.
Newton demonstrates his reflecting telescope to King Charles II, and then to the Royal Society, which uses this occasion to elect Newton as a member, and still preserves this telescope.
| Cambridge, England |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 1834) Newton begins an intensive study of the textual history of the Bible (both in the original and in various translations) and of the Church Fathers, which continues to occupy him for the rest of his life and soon leads him to conclude that the doctrine of the Trinity is a heretical error introduced in the 4th century AD.
| Cambridge, England |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 1854) Unlike Pascal's machine, Leibniz's machine that can multiply and divide as well as add and subtract.
Leibniz will present his calculating machine to the Royal Society during his first journey to London, in 1673.
| Mainz, Germany |
329 YBN
[1671 AD]
| 2119) Boyle describes this reaction in a paper titled "New experiments touching the relation betwixt flame and air" (in 1671).
Hydrogen will be recognized as (a distinct gas and) element in 1766.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
328 YBN
[02/19/1672 AD]
| 1829) The theory that light is a particle is revived. Color determined to be a property of light, not of objects. Glass prism in use. White light separated into and recreated from primary colors. Light of different colors shown to refract at different angles.
Isaac Newton (CE 1643-1727) theorizes that light may be "...globular bodies...". Newton shows that white light can be separated into and recreated from primary colors. Newton also shows that color is a property of light, not a property of objects light is reflected off of.
| Cambridge, England |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1191) In my view the key to so-called mental disease is to make sure there is consensual treatment. The psychiatric industry needs to simply be consensual treatment only. If a person violates a law they should go to jail. Delusional beliefs should never be illegal or require forced treatment. Inaccurate beliefs and unusual behavior is common, for example, a majority of humans on earth deeply believe the obviously false stories of the religions. From this time labels of mental disorder will form a very effective tool to persecute and torture nonviolent lawful people, in particular atheists, agnostics, intellectuals, political enemies, etc. and a massive psychiatric system will rise up outside of the legal system of courts and jails as a loophole to imprison, drug and torture nonviolent lawful people without trial, charge, or sentence many times for an indefinite length of time. This illegal and unethical system still exists and prospers to now and appears to be going strong into the future.
| London, England |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1685) Otto von Guericke (GAriKu) (CE 1602-1686) publishes the results of his experiments in "Experimenta nova Magdeburgica de vacuo spatio" (1672; "New Magdeburg Experiments Concerning Empty Space").
This is a a Latin work devoted largely to cosmology.
| Magdeburg, Germany (presumably) |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1730) Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) identifies a moon of Saturn, Rhea {rEo}.
| Paris, France |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1731) The scale of our star system is determined from the parallax of Mars.
Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) uses parallax to measure the distance from Earth to Mars. This provides a scale to the star system, allowing the distance to all the other planets to be calculated.
Sun calculated to be 86 million miles from Earth.
| Paris, France;Guiana, South America |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1759) This work and "De ovo incubato" (1675) place embryological study on a firm basis of sound observation. Using his microscope, Malpighi is able to study much earlier stages of the embryo than had before been possible.
Malpighi observes the heart within 30 hours of incubation and notices that it begins to beat before the blood reddens. In chicken embryos Malphigi describes the development of the dorsal folds, the brain, the mesoblastic somites, and structures which are later identified as gill arches and evidence of the chickens descent from fish-like creatures.
| Bologna, Italy |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1778) Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) is the first to draw the polar cap on Mars.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1806) Jan Swammerdam (Yon SVoMRDoM) (CE 1637-1680) publishes "Miraculum naturae sive uteri muliebris fabrica".
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1807) Jan Swammerdam (Yon SVoMRDoM) (CE 1637-1680) publishes "Ephemeri vita" a study of the mayfly. This book is written at a time when Swammerdam is becoming increasingly involved in spiritual matters and the work contains long passages on the glory of the creator.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1809) Jan Swammerdam (Yon SVoMRDoM) (CE 1637-1680) describes the ovarian follicles of mammals in the same year as the physician Reinier de Graaf.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
328 YBN
[1672 AD]
| 1820) Nehemiah Grew (CE 1641-1712) publishes "The Anatomy of Vegetables Begun" (1672),
This book is presented to the Royal Society of London at the same time as Malpighi's manuscript on the subject.
"Anatomy of Vegetables Begun" includes many details about the structure of bean seeds, and notes the existence of cells.
| presented: London, England |
327 YBN
[1673 AD]
| 1709) Johannes Hevelius' (HeVAlEUS) (CE 1611-1687), publishes the first part of "Machina coelestis" (first part, 1673) which contains a description of his instruments.
The second part of "Machina coelestis" (1679) is extremely rare, nearly the whole issue will perish in the fighting of 1679.
| Gdansk, Poland |
327 YBN
[1673 AD]
| 1770) In this book Huygens demonstrates the isochronous nature of a body moving freely under the influence of gravity along a cycloidal path. Huygens shows how to calculate the period of oscillation of a simple pendulum. He provides a definitive solution to the problem of compound and physical pendulums, demonstrating how to calculate the "center of oscillation" and the length of an equivalent simple pendulum. In an appendix, Huygens presents the basic laws of centrifugal force governing bodies moving with uniform circular motion.
Huygens identifies the relationship mgs=1/2mv2 (mass*acceleration of Earth*distance=1/2mass*velocity2), in his derivation of the law of the compound pendulum. Leibniz will use this equation in introducing the concept of "vis-visa" which later grows into the concept of "energy".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
327 YBN
[1673 AD]
| 1819) De Graaf describes small structures in the ovary, which will be named "Graafian follicles" in his honor by Haller. De Graaf thinks that he has penetrated to the beginning of human life, but within the follicle structures, the individual ova or egg cells (not identified until Baer 150 years later) are formed. De Graaf describes the fine structure of the ovaries, and is first to use the word "ovary". De Graaf collects secretions from pancreas and gall bladder that discharge into the intestine (without a microscope).
Graaf is the first to note the morphological changes that the ovary undergoes in the course of ovulation.
De Graaf describes the function of the fallopian tube (itself discovered more than a century previously), the path that the ovum has to take through the tube from the ovary to the uterus, and the influence of a hydrosalpinx on the fertility of the woman. Hydrosalpinx is a blocked fallopian tube filled with fluid.
| Delft, Netherlands (presumably) |
327 YBN
[1673 AD]
| 1833) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) builds a reflecting telescope based on the Gregory design. Hook is one of the first to build a reflecting telescopes, although Niccolò Zucchi, the Italian astronomer, is the first to build a reflecting telescope.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
327 YBN
[1673 AD]
| 3377) Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) invents a "powder machine", which (creates a vacuum) in a cylinder from combustion (of gun powder).
(Explain more details of engine, creates a vacuum?) (in Horologium?) (Is this the earliest explosion machine (and design)?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
326 YBN
[09/07/1674 AD]
| 1781) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) is the first to observe protists (single-cell organisms with one or more nucleus).
| Delft, Netherlands |
326 YBN
[1674 AD]
| 1749) John Ray (CE 1627-1705), defines the concept of "species" in terms of structural qualities in a paper sent to the Royal Society.
| ?, England |
326 YBN
[1674 AD]
| 1783) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) gives a clearer description of red blood cells than either of his contemporaries Marcello Malpighi and Jan Swammerdam, and estimates their size to be, in modern terminology, 8.5 microns in diameter (the correct value is 7.7 microns).
| Delft, Netherlands |
326 YBN
[1674 AD]
| 1825) Mayow describes this work in "Tractatus quinque" ("Fifth Treatise"). Mayow correctly compares respiration to combustion, suggesting that breathing is like blowing air on a fire, that blood carries the combustive principle in air from the lungs to all parts of the body, and to the fetus through the placenta. Mayow also correctly holds that this combustive principle is what turns dark venous blood into bright arterial blood. All of these ideas are completely correct, but Stahl's erroneous phlogiston theory formulated shortly after Mayow's death will be the more popular theory (of combustion) until Lavoisier.
Accepting as proved by Boyle's experiments that air is necessary for combustion, Mayow shows that fire is supported not by the air as a whole but by a "more active and subtle part of it." This part he called spiritus igneo-aereus, or sometimes nitro-aereus. Mayow identifies this substance with one of the constituents of the acid portion of nitre which he regards as formed by the union of fixed alkali with a Spiritus acidus. In combustion the particulae nitro-aereae - either pre-existent in the thing consumed or supplied by the air - combine with the material burnt; as he infers from his observation that antimony, strongly heated with a burning glass, undergoes an increase of weight which can be attributed to nothing else but these particles. In respiration Mayow argues that the same particles are consumed, because he finds that when a small animal and a lighted candle are placed in a closed vessel full of air the candle first goes out and soon afterwards the animal dies, but if there is no candle present the animal lives twice as long. He concludes that this constituent of the air is absolutely necessary for life, and supposes that the lungs separate it from the atmosphere and pass it into the blood. It is also necessary, he infers, for all muscular movements, and he thinks there is reason to believe that the sudden contraction of muscle is produced by its combination with other combustible (salino-sulphureous) particles in the body; hence the heart, being a muscle, ceases to beat when respiration is stopped. In Mayow's view, animal heat is also due to the union of nitro-aerial particles, breathed in from the air, with the combustible particles in the blood, and is further formed by the combination of these two sets of particles in muscle during exertion. In effect, therefore, Mayow - who also gives a remarkably correct anatomical description of the mechanism of respiration - precedes Priestley and Lavoisier by a century in recognizing the existence of oxygen, under the guise of his spiritus nitro-aereus, as a separate entity distinct from the general mass of the air; he perceives the part it plays in combustion and in increasing the weight of the calces of metals as compared with metals themselves; and, rejecting the common notions of his time that the use of breathing is to cool the heart, or assist the passage of the blood from the right to the left side of the heart, or merely to agitate it, he sees in inhalation a mechanism for introducing oxygen into the body, where it is consumed for the production of heat and muscular activity, and even vaguely conceives of exhalation as an excretory process.
Mayow also shows that if a mouse is kept in a closed container over water then the quantity of air in the container will be lowered, that the properties of the air change, and that the water will rise up into the container.
Mayow publishes at Oxford in 1668 two tracts, on respiration and rickets, and in 1674 these will be reprinted, the former in an enlarged and corrected form, with three others "De sal-nitro et spiritu nitro-aereo", "De respiratione foetus in utero et ovo", and "De motu musculari et spiritibus animalibus as Tractatus quinque medico-physici". The contents of this work, which will be several times republished and translated into Dutch, German and French, show Mayow to be an investigator much in advance of his time.
| Oxford, England |
326 YBN
[1674 AD]
| 2410) Claude Dechales (1674, "Cursus seu mundus mathematicus", Lyons); who took notice, that if small scratches be made in any piece of polished metal, and it be exposed to the beams of the Sun in a darkened room, it will reflect the rays streaked with colors, in the direction of the scratches; as will appear if the reflected light be received upon a piece of white paper. That these colours are not produced by refraction, he says, is manifest; for that, if the scratches be made upon glass, the effect will be the same; and in this case, if the light had been refracted at the surface of the glass, it would have been transmitted through it. From these, and many other observations, he concludes that colour does not depend upon the refraction of light only..."
| Lyons, France |
325 YBN
[12/07/1675 AD]
| 1838) Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) writes a letter ("Hypothesis of Light") to the Royal Society that formally explains the hypothesis of "light's being a body".
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
325 YBN
[1675 AD]
| 1732) Giovanni Cassini (Ko SEnE) (CE 1625-1712) identifies the space between the ring of Jupiter, called "Cassini's division".
| Paris, France |
325 YBN
[1675 AD]
| 1760) Malpighi (moLPEJE), (CE 1628-1694) sends the Royal Society "De ovo incubato" (1675).
| Bologna, Italy |
325 YBN
[1675 AD]
| 1780) Christopher Wren's (CE 1632-1723) design is accepted and construction begins on St. Paul's Cathedral.
Wren designs 53 London churches, including St. Paul's Cathedral, as well as many secular buildings of note.
| London, England |
325 YBN
[1675 AD]
| 1835) Newton visits London in spring to ask the Secretary of State, Joseph Williamson, for a dispensation from taking holy orders, as the statutes of Trinity require him to do as an MA of seven years' standing. This is granted and the statutes altered for Newton's benefit. It is not clear what grounds Newton argues for his exemption, but his private reasons are almost certainly Newton's rejection of the Church's teaching on the Trinity.
Newton concludes that the Athanasian or homoousian party of the fourth century had corrupted the church by imposing on it the Trinity-a doctrine Newton believed to be post-biblical and inspired by Greek metaphysics. Denial of the Trinity is illegal in Newton's day and for a long time afterward. Therefore, for more than half a century, Newton will confine his heresy to the private sphere, while outwardly conforming to the Anglican Church.
Newton goes through some amount of work to have his belief tolerated, potentially risking imprisonment, and even execution. In some way I think that this Arian view can only result in the view that Jesus was a human and not part of a God. Possibly those who support this view are trying to introduce some logic and reason into Christianity, in viewing Jesus as only a human (rejecting the so-called divinity of Jesus). Of course, the truth is that Jesus was only a human, and a preacher of Judaism, and while many people who lived before and after have made contributions to science and life of earth, Jesus made no contributions to science, and was just another human that believes in gods, and claims to have a special connection to a diety, and to know what a diety wants.
| Cambridge, England |
325 YBN
[1675 AD]
| 1836) Newton sends the Royal Society a 'Hypothesis', an examination of the colour phenomena in thin films, which is identical to most of Book Two as it later will appear in the "Opticks". The purpose of the paper is to explain the colours of solid bodies by showing how light can be analyzed into its components by reflection as well as refraction. Newton's explanation of the colors of bodies has not survived, but the paper is significant in demonstrating for the first time the existence of periodic optical phenomena.
This paper is closely related to an alchemical essay, 'Of natures obvious laws and processes in vegetation', written (but not disclosed) by Newton around the same time. Relations with Hooke worsen as Hooke thinks Newton credits himself with a number of ideas Hooke had already put forward in his Micrographia (1665).
Thomas Young will use this phenomenon of "Newton's rings" to estimate the wavelengths of various colors of light from the precise measurement of the space between the lens and the glass, and form his wave theory of light based in part on this phenomenon.
| Cambridge, England |
325 YBN
[1675 AD]
| 1859) The Royal Greenwich observatory is founded in Greenwich, a London suburb, as the result of John Flamsteed's (CE 1646-1719) report to the Royal Society on the need for a new observatory, which Flamsteed is the first director (and therefore first astronomer royal).
In 200 years, in forming an international system of meridians of longitude, the meridian of the observatory at Greenwich be the agreed starting place with 0°0'0" (the Prime Meridian).
A suggestion had been made that the motion of the Moon against the stellar background could be used to determine standard time. Flamsteed, asked by Brouncker to comment on this proposal, points out that the scheme was impractical because of the inaccuracy of contemporary tables. Charles II subsequently commands that accurate tables should be constructed, appointing Flamsteed as first Astronomer Royal with this responsibility in 1675, and building the Royal Greenwich Observatory for him.
Flamsteed is paid a salary of £100 a year but is expected to provide his own instruments (apart from a few gifts) and staff. Flamsteed eventually managed to put together two small telescopes and then began his decades of observation.
| Greenwich, England |
325 YBN
[1675 AD]
| 2875) Jean Picard (PEKoR) (CE 1620-1682), French astronomer, describes the "barometric glow" (flashes of light observed in the vacuum chamber above the mercury).
Later an electric differential will be applied around a vacuum tube to produce high frequency beams of light such as X-rays. (what explains this glow? high speed electrons from the Sun?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
324 YBN
[06/13/1676 AD]
| 1837) Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) works out the binomial theorem, a device where the sum of two functions raised to a power can be expanded into a seres of terms according to a simple rule.
Newton mentions the Binomial Theorem for the first time in a long letter to Oldenburg, the secretary of the Royal Society, for communication to Leibniz, written in Latin from Cambridge on June 13, 1676. Newton discovered the Binomial Theorem in 1664 or 1665.
The binomial theorem is useful in algebra as well as for determining permutations, combinations, and probabilities. For positive integer exponents, n, the theorem was known to Arabic and Chinese mathematicians of the late medieval period. Isaac Newton states the binomial theorem without proof, the general form of the theorem (for any real number n), and a proof by Jakob Bernoulli will be published in 1713, after Bernoulli's death. The theorem can be generalized to include complex exponents, n, and this will first be proved by Niels Henrik Abel in the early 1800s.
| Cambridge, England |
324 YBN
[10/09/1676 AD]
| 1782) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) is the first to observe bacteria (prokaryotes, single-cell organisms without a nucleus).
| Delft, Netherlands |
324 YBN
[1676 AD]
| 1711) Edmé Mariotte (moRYuT) (CE 1620-1684), French physicist 15 years after and independently of Boyle identifies that the volume of a gas varies inversely with its pressure, and goes further than Boyle by saying that this law holds only if there is no change in temperature. Mariotte reports this finding is his book "Discours de la nature de l'air" (1676; "Discourse on the Nature of Air"). In this book Mariotte coins the word "barometer".
Mariotte understands that a gas expands with an increase in temperature and contracts with a decrease in temperature. In France, Boyle's law is called Mariotte's law.
In 1660, Mariotte is the first to recognize the "blind spot", the point where the optic nerve interrupts the retinal screen.
The first volume of the "Histoire et mémoires de l'Académie" (1733; "History and Memoirs of the Academy") contains many papers by Mariotte on such subjects as the motion of fluids, the nature of color, and the notes of the trumpet.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
324 YBN
[1676 AD]
| 1725) This textbook on epidemics will be the standard until the development of the germ theory of disease by Pasteur.
| London, England (presumably) |
324 YBN
[1676 AD]
| 1746) John Ray (CE 1627-1705), publishes "Ornithologia" (1676) which contains 230 species of birds, which both Ray and his deceased coauthor Francis Willughby personally observe, describe and classify. This book lays the foundations of scientific ornithology.
| ?, England |
324 YBN
[1676 AD]
| 1747) John Ray and the late Francis Willughby gathered information for this book.
| ?, England |
324 YBN
[1676 AD]
| 1748) This observation is sent in a paper "A Discourse on the Seeds of Plants," by John Ray to the Royal Society.
| ?, England |
324 YBN
[1676 AD]
| 1851) Humans measure the speed of light.
Ole (or Olaus) Rømer (ROEmR) (CE 1644-1710) shows that the speed of light is finite, and calculates the speed of light as (in modern units) 225,000 km per second (too small according to the modern estimate: 299,792 km per second.
| (Paris Observatory) Paris, France |
324 YBN
[1676 AD]
| 1870) English astronomer, Edmond (also spelled Edmund) Halley (CE 1656-1742) establishes the first observatory in the southern hemisphere on the island of St. Helena in the South Atlantic.
Before this the only stars known to be visible from the southern hemisphere are from reports by mariners and travelers. Halley finds an object in Centaurus that will be eventually recognized as a huge globular cluster of stars, Omega Centauri, the globular cluster closest to the sun.
| Saint Helena |
323 YBN
[1677 AD]
| 1784) Leeuwenhoek examines insect, dog, and human spermatozoa. Van Leeuwenhoek understands that the observation of sperm is delicate matter and therefore writes: "That what I am observing is just what nature, not by sinfully defiling myself, but as a natural consequence of conjugal coitus..."
The ancestors of the ovum and sperm cells were probably protists, the most ancient and first cells of all multicellular organisms.
| Delft, Netherlands |
322 YBN
[06/25/1678 AD]
| 3862) First woman to teach at a university after the collapse of science of the 400s CE. (verify)
Helena Lucretia Cornaro Piscopia (CE 1646-1684) is the first woman on Earth to receive a doctorate degree.
Piscopia earns a Doctorate in Philosophy from the University of Padua.
Piscopia is an accomplished musician- playing the clavichord, the harp and violin as well as composing.
In this same year Piscopia is appointed mathematics professor at the University of Padua.
Piscopia's first application for Doctor of Theology is rejected, because officials of the Church refused to give the title of Doctor of Theology to a woman. Not until the 1900s will a female human be awarded a PhD in Theology.
| (University of Padua) Padua, Italy |
322 YBN
[1678 AD]
| 1768) Huygens presents "Traité de la lumière" to the Royal Society in 1678, but it is not published until 1690.
Huygens challenges Newton's view that light is a beam of particles by suggesting that light is a wave. Huygens thinks light may be a longitudinal wave like sound. Newton's theory that light consists of particles will remain the more popular through the 1700s, but the wave theory will become the more popular theory 100 years later because of the work of Thomas Young.
Huygens supports a wave, or, more accurately, pulse, theory of light in which light consists of the longitudinal vibrations of an all-pervasive aether composed of small, hard, elastic particles, each of which transmits the impulses it receives to all connected particles without itself suffering any permanent displacement. The propagation of light is therefore reduced to the transmission of motion. According to Huygen's theory, each particle of a luminous body, such as a candle flame, sends out its own set of concentric, spherical wavelets. Huygens's views each particle of aether as also being the source of a new wavelet, which is likewise propagated to the adjacent particles. It seems clear that light beams are made of particles, and that in fact all matter is made of light particles that orbit each other because of gravity. And so this wave theory of light will plague the particle theory for many years.
Even into the 2000s light is rarely if ever referred to as being made of particles called photons. The wave theory of light will stop the progress made by Newton for 400 and counting years. The light-is-a sine-wave theory, I think, will be proven to be almost like the earth-centered theory in it's erroneous longevity. Most of the fault falls on the public for accepting these inaccurate ideas. One clear distinction needs to be made, and that is that light beams made of light particles are a form of wave in that their wavelength is determined by the space between photons, but this is different from the traditional wave theories for light, which reject the idea of light particles, and view light as a mass-less sine wave of energy. The light as a sine wave mistake, is still younger than the earth-centered mistake, by far the longest lasting wrong theory of recorded history after the claim of gods, but is an older mistake than time-dilation, the massless photon, the big bang, the expanding universe, black holes, dark matter (as somehow different from regular photonic matter), and quarks. But of course, I am keeping an open mind, maybe I am wrong.
I think that all waves are made of particles, sound waves are composed of the molecules in the medium, light of photons (what Planck called "quanta" and Newton "corpuscles", so this idea of light as a particle and the fundamental particle of all matter has been a very long and slowly developing realization).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
322 YBN
[1678 AD]
| 1802) Hooke Law creates this law from his observations of springs. This laws states that the force that restores a spring (or any elastic system) to its equilibrium position is proportional to the distance by which it is displaced from that equilibrium position. Hooke finds that a spring will expand and contract about an equilibrium position in equal periods with no regard to the length of the in and out (motion). This find will lead to the replacement of the pendulum clock with spring based clocks and ultimately to watches small enough to fit on a person's arm or in a pocket (and to a ship's chronometer).
This law is published in Hooke's "De Potentia Bestitutiva or Of Spring".
| London, England (presumably) |
322 YBN
[1678 AD]
| 1871) In his book, "Catalogus Stellarum Australium", Halley records his observations made on St. Helena, which include the celestial longitudes and latitudes of 341 stars, one of the first complete observations of a transit of Mercury across the Sun's disk, numerous pendulum observations, and that some stars apparently had become less bright since their observation in antiquity.
Halley identifies so few stars because St. Helena has a poor climate for astronomical observation. works with Newton to see if comets follow Newton's laws of gravitation.
| London, England (presumably) |
322 YBN
[1678 AD]
| 3379) The Abbé Jean de Hautefeuille (CE 1647-1724) suggests the construction of a powder motor to raise water. As the gases cool after combustion, a partial vacuum is formed, and the water is raised by atmospheric pressure from a reservoir.
Hautefeuille also invents the micrometer microscope to measure the size of minute objects.
| Orléans, France |
322 YBN
[1678 AD]
| 3592) Jan Swammerdam (Yon SVoMRDoM) (CE 1637-1680) contracts the muscle of a frog by hanging the frog by a silver wire and then holding the frog against a brass ring. This is similar to the experiment performed by Galvani more than a hundred years later (which leads to the first electric battery).
This electrical muscle movement will eventually lead to very precise remote nerve stimulation.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
321 YBN
[03/??/1679 AD]
| 1858) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LIPniTS) (CE 1646-1716), perfects the binary system of numeration. A binary numbering system is a system that uses two as a base, therefore only including the numbers 0 and 1. Many times 0 and 1 can be used to represent the concepts of false and true. Using only 0's and 1' and place-value notation, any number can be formed including both positive, negative, very large or small numbers. This system will form the basis of all modern computers.
Leibniz recognizes the importance of the binary numbering system.
| Hannover, Germany |
321 YBN
[05/27/1679 AD]
| 1527) This Act of 1679 which authorizes judges to issue the writ when courts are on vacation and provides severe penalties for any judge who refuses to comply with it. The use of this act will be expanded during the 1800s to cover those held under private authority.
| (presumably) London, England |
321 YBN
[1679 AD]
| 1734) (Italian:) Giovanni Domenico Cassini (Ko SEnE) (French:) Jean Dominique Cassini (KoSE nE) (CE 1625-1712) gives the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris a large map of the Moon, which Cassini compiled between 1671 and 1679.
| Paris, France |
321 YBN
[1679 AD]
| 1761) Malpighi is the first to describe the small openings (stomata) on the underside of leaves, these are part of the respiratory system of plants (which for both plants and animals is done at the cellular level by mitochondria).
Malpighi makes drawings of the embryo sac and endosperm and describes the germination of seeds in which he differentiates between those later called monocotyledons and dicotyledons. Malpighi is the first to describe tubercles on leguminous roots, and shows that some galls contain a grub. Galls, are modifications of plant tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites. Malpighi traces the grub back to an egg and onward to an insect, and illustrates the insect's egg-laying apparatus.
| Bologna, Italy;(p 2: published London, England) |
321 YBN
[1679 AD]
| 1863) Denis Papin (PoPoN) (CE 1647-1712), French physicist, builds the first pressure cooker which reawakens work with steam. Pain calls his device a "steam digester". In this device water is boiled in a container with an air tight lid. The steam raises the pressure in the container and raises the boiling point of water to a higher temperature allowing food to cook in a faster time (because the water gets hotter than boiling point). A safety valve of Papin's own invention prevents explosions. This device demonstrates the influence of atmospheric pressure on boiling points.
| London, England |
320 YBN
[01/06/1680 AD]
| 1848) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) sends a letter to Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) which describes: 1) (6c i )The inverse square law - "my supposition is that the attraction always is in duplicate proportion to the distance from the center reciprocall...." 2) (6c ii) The diminishing force within the globe: "What I mentioned in my last concerning the descent within the body of the earth was but upon the supposal1 of such an attraction, not that I really believe there is such an attraction to the very center of the earth, but on the contrary I rather conceive that the more the body approaches the center the lesse will it be urged by the attraction, possibly somewhat like the gravitation on a pendulum or body moved in a concave sphere where the power continually decreases the nearer the body inclines to a horizontal motion which it hath when perpendicular under the point of suspension." (6c iii) The decrease with increasing centrifugal force in low latitudes - "If it doth succeed there will follow several1 other consequences not less considerable -as, first, that all bodys will of a consequence grow lighter the nearer they approach the aequinoctiall, the circular motion being swifter, and for the same reason the further a body is from the center the less will be its gravitation, not only upon the account of the decrease of the attractive power which I have a long time supposed, but upon the increase of the endeavour of recesse." (6c i v ) The calculation from the center - "But in the celestial1 motions the sun, earth, or central1 body are the cause of the attraction, and though they cannot be supposed mathematicall points yet they may be conceived as physicall, and the attraction at a considerable distance map be computed according to the former proportion as from the very center." ( 6 d ) "which would make the motion in an ellipsis." ( 6 e ) "not at all owning he receiv'd the first intimation of it from Mr. Hooke." Newton acknowledges in the "Principia" that Hooke, together with Wren and Halley, had observed that the inverse square law for circular paths follows from Kepler's third law.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
320 YBN
[06/04/1680 AD]
| 1787) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) describes the protist yeast.
| Delft, Netherlands |
320 YBN
[07/08/1680 AD]
| 2326) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) puts flour on a glass plate, and bows on the edge of glass. Hooke then observes that glass vibrates perpendicularly to the surface of the glass, and that (from this bowing) the flour changed into an oval shape in one direction, and on the reciprocating (bowing) the oval changes into the other (direction).
This is one of the earliest known recording of sound to a permanent record.
Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (KloDnE) (CE 1756-1827), German physicist will develop this technique over 100 years later around 1787 and such pattens are still called "Chladni figures".
| London, England (presumably) |
320 YBN
[1680 AD]
| 1690) Giovanni Alfonso Borelli (BoreLE) (CE 1608-1679), publishes "De motu animalium" (1680; "On the Movement of Animals") in which he correctly explains muscular action and the movements of bones in terms of levers. Borelli performs detailed studies of the flight mechanism of birds. However, his extension of such principles to internal organs, such as the heart, stomach, and lungs, overlooks the chemical actions that take place in these organs. Borelli describes the stomach as a grinding device and does not recognize that digestion is a chemical reaction, not a mechanical reaction.
In his study of disease he concludes, against most contemporaries, that meteorological and astrological causes are not at work, but that something enters the body and coan be remedied chemically. (in this work?)
In seeking to explain the movements of the animal body on mechanical principles; Borelli ranks as the founder of the so-called iatrophysical school.
| Rome, Italy (presumably) |
320 YBN
[1680 AD]
| 1740) In 1860 Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691) discovers that phosphorus and sulfur burst into flame instantly if rubbed together. This is the basis of the match. Phosphorus matches are dangerous until the invention of amorphous (red) phosphorus in 1845. Carl Lundstrom of Sweden will introduce the first red phosphorus "safety" matches in 1855.
Also in 1860 Boyle prepares phosphorus from urine (second to Brand who ten years before had been first to find a new element).
(State how they know it is an element.)
(Give Boyle's original text.)
| London, England (presumably) |
320 YBN
[1680 AD]
| 1865) Denis Papin (PoPoN) (CE 1647-1712) publishes an account of his work with Robert Boyle in London (1676 to 1679) in "Continuation of New Experiments" (1680).
| London, England (presumably) |
320 YBN
[1680 AD]
| 3378) Christiaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) presents a memoir to the Academy of Sciences describing a method of utilizing the expansive force of gunpowder (explosion).
Huygens is the first to employ a cylinder and a piston. Huygens constructs a working engine, and exhibits it to Colbert, the French Minister of Finance. The powder in this motor is ignited in a little receptacle screwed on to the bottom of a cylinder. This cylinder is immediately filled with flame, and the air in it is driven out through leather tubes, which by their expansion act momentarily as valves. The piston is forced by the pressure of the atmosphere into the vacuum created. This is the action shown in atmospheric gas engines, but Huygens has difficulty in getting his valves to act properly, and in 1690 Denis Papin, the pupil and assistant of Huygens, attempts to improve on Huygen's principle.
This engine consists of a vertical open topped cylinder, in which works a piston; the piston is connected by a chain passing over a pulley above it to a heavy weight; the upstroke is accomplished by the descent of the weight, which pulls the piston to the top of the cylinder; gunpowder placed in a tray at the bottom of the cylinder is now ignited, and expels the air with which the cylinder is filled through a shifting valve, and, after the products of combustion have cooled, a partial vacuum takes place and the atmospheric pressure forces down the piston to the bottom of its stroke, during which work may be obtained.
In 1678, the Abbe Hautefeuille proposed a gunpowder engine without piston for pumping water. It is similar to Savery's steam engine, but using the pressure of the explosion instead of the pressure of steam. This engine, however, had no piston, and is only applicable as a pump.
(So powder is refilled for each cycle? Was there an effort to automate filling and removing combusted powder?)
| Paris, France |
319 YBN
[11/04/1681 AD]
| 1786) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) is the first to describe a parasitic protist, the flagellate Giardia and a bacteria identified as Spirochaeta in his diarrhea.
When ill Leeuwenhoek examines his own diarrheal stool, writing that "my watery excrements do contain much more little animals than a normal solid stool".
Leeuwenhoek identifies protozoa and spirochaetes or Spirillum, and notes that he does not find them in his feces when he does not have diarrhea, but does not connect the animalcules to the cause of diarrhea.
| Delft, Netherlands |
319 YBN
[1681 AD]
| 1824) Nehemiah Grew (CE 1641-1712) publishes "Of the Natural and Artificial Rarities Belonging to the Royal Society and preserved at Gresham University", a descriptive catalog of the rarities preserved at Gresham College, with which are printed some papers he had read to the Royal Society on the Comparative Anatomy of Stomachs and Guts. This book contains comparison of the stomachs and intestines of various organisms.
| London, England (presumably) |
318 YBN
[03/03/1682 AD]
| 1788) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) describes the first cell nucleus in red blood cells of a salmon. This is also the first image drawn of blood cells.
| Delft, Netherlands |
318 YBN
[1682 AD]
| 1821) Nehemiah Grew (CE 1641-1712) identifies the sex organs of plants, the pistils (female) and stamens (male) with a microscope in his book "The Anatomy of Plants" (1682).
1681 writes book on the stomachs and intestines of various organisms. Grew isolates magnesium sulfate from springs at Epsom, Surrey and this compound will be come to be called "Epsom salts".
"The Anatomy of Plants" includes a section on the anatomy of flowers and many excellent wood engravings that represent the three-dimensional, microscopic structure of plant tissue. The idea that the stamen with its pollen is the male sex organ and that the pistil corresponds to the sex organ of the female is suggested to Grew by the physician Sir Thomas Millington.
| presented: London, England |
317 YBN
[09/12/1683 AD]
| 1785) Leeuwenhoek writes "In the morning I used to rub my teeth with salt and rinse my mouth with water and after eating to clean my molars with a toothpick.... I then most always saw, with great wonder, that in the said matter there were many very little living animalcules, very prettily a-moving. The biggest sort had a very strong and swift motion, and shot through the water like a pike does through the water; mostly these were of small numbers." Leeuwenhoek estimates more bacteria in one single drop than the number of inhabitants living in the Dutch Republic at that time. Leeuwenhoek also observes that Vinegar and Alcohol can kill some bacteria in the mouth.
Leeuwenhoek writes "I have had several gentlewomen in my house, who were keen on seeing the little eels in vinegar; but some of them were so disgusted at the spectacle, that they vowed they´d never use vinegar again. But what if one should tell such people in future that there are more animals living in the scrum on the teeth in a man´s mouth than there are men in a whole kingdom, and mainly in the mouth of those people that do not clean their mouth :..."
| Delft, Netherlands |
317 YBN
[1683 AD]
| 1724) Thomas Sydenham (SiDnuM) (CE 1624-1689) writes a treatise on the disease gout, which he suffers from for years and which ultimately leads to his death.
| London, England (presumably) |
317 YBN
[1683 AD]
| 1728) Cassini correctly concludes that the zodiacal light is of cosmic origin and not a meteorological phenomenon, as some in this time theorize.
What size are these particles? Should they be called "dust" if they are large? Are these pieces of ice or rock? Perhaps "ecliptic dust" or "ecliptic matter" is a more accurate label.
| Paris, France |
317 YBN
[1683 AD]
| 3594) Joseph-Guichard du Verney (CE 1648-1730) publishes the first thorough, scientific treatise on the human ear (1683), illustrating its sensory nerves and giving a mechanical interpretation of its function.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
316 YBN
[10/??/1684 AD]
| 1855) Leibniz's version of calculus is published in 1684, three years before Newton's. This is one contributing factor as to why Leibniz's notation is universally adopted.
Leibniz developed his version of calculus while in Paris from 1672 to 1676. In Paris, Leibniz invents the notational innovations of dx for the differential and ∫ for the integral. The ∫ (the integral sign) is an elongated S for "Summa", the Latin word for "sum". Leibniz uses the idea of calculating area by imagining a picket fence of little rectangles under a curve, the summing their areas. Eventually their area reaches a limit which equals the area under the curve ((the area between the curve and the line that forms the x axis line at y=0)).
In addition is the trick or method of 1) multiplying the exponent with the coefficient, and lowering the exponent by one to differentiate, and reversing the process to get the area of a function. (did Newton understand this?)
The "first fundamental theorem" of calculus is: the derivative of the integral (area) of a function is the original function.
With an integral, an area of a segment of a function may be calculated, for example from t=1 to t=2 by simply subtracting the area of a function from t=0 to t=2 and substracting the area from t=0 to t=1, and the generalization of this concept is used to create the "second fundamental theorem" of calculus. The "second fundamental theorem" of calculus states that a function is equal to the integral of its derivative plus a constant.
Calculus solves the problem of "quadrature" which is calculating the area of a curved shape by filling the curved shape with quadrilateral shapes.
Newton and Leibniz both understand that the second fundamental theory has important consequences for he mechanics of moving bodies. Since the derivative of velocity is acceleration, velocity can be obtained by integrating acceleration, and since the derivative of displacement is the velocity, the displacement of an object can be obtained by integrating the velocity.
Leibniz's work on calculus is first published in the journal "Acta Eruditorum" with the title "Nova Methodus pro Maximis et Minimis" ("A new method for maxima and minima") in October, 1684.
Leibniz's discovery of the calculus in the 1670s occurred independently of Isaac Newton's (1642-1727) activity, though Leibniz later application of the theory of differential equations to planetary motion seems to be directly inspired by Newton's Principia (1687).
Newton correspondes with Leibniz but the two never meet. Newton wrote Leibniz a letter which is an anagram that hints at fluxions. Leibniz's version of calculus may not have been the first calculus, but is the first form of calculus published.
| (develops in) Paris, France; (publishes in) Hannover, Germany |
316 YBN
[11/??/1684 AD]
| 1847) Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) sends "De Motu Corporum in Gyrum" ("Concerning the motion of revolving bodies") to Edmund Halley. In two and a half years, the tract "De Motu" will grow into Newton's "Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica", which is the basis for much of modern science.
De Motu does not state the law of universal gravitation, and does not contain any of the three Newtonian laws of motion.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
316 YBN
[1684 AD]
| 1733) Saturn moons Dione (DIOnE) (Greek Διώνη) and Tethys (TEtuS) (Greek Τηθύς) identified.
| (Paris Observatory) Paris, France |
316 YBN
[1684 AD]
| 1822) Nehemiah Grew (CE 1641-1712) publishes "Seawater made Fresh".
| London, England (presumably) |
315 YBN
[1685 AD]
| 1705) John Wallis (CE 1616-1703) publishes "Algebra", preceded by a history of mathematics, which contains a great deal of valuable information.
| London, England (presumably) |
315 YBN
[1685 AD]
| 3348) Johann Zahn (CE 1631-1707), cleric in the Würzburg praemonstrantensian monastery, publishes images of portable camera obscura in "Oculus artificialis teledriopticus sive telescopium" (EA Nuremberg 1685).
,
| (Würzburg praemonstrantensian monastery)Würzburg, Germany |
314 YBN
[03/??/1686 AD]
| 3259) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LIPniTS) (CE 1646-1716), publishes a short note in that journal entitled (translated) "A Brief Demonstration of a Notable Error of Descartes and Others Concerning a Natural Law., According to which God is Said Always to Conserve the Same Quantity of Motion; A Law Which They Also Misuse in Mechanics." This starts the famous dispute concerning the "force" of a moving body known as the "vis viva" controversy.
Leibniz seeks to define "force" as mv2, which Leibniz claims is conserved throughout the universe, as opposed to Descartes "force" of mv, which Leibniz claims is not conserved.
Leibniz recognizes the concepts (in modern terms) of "kinetic energy" and "potential energy". Leibniz defines "motive force" (forerunner of modern "kinetic energy" 1/2mv2) as mv2 and "force" (modern potential energy) as ws (weight*distance) which Leibniz defines as the height to which a force can raise an object.
Leibniz writes (translated) "Seeing that velocity and mass compensate for each other in the five common machines, a number of mathematicians have estimated the force of motion by the quantity of motion or by the product of the body and its velocity. Or to speak rather in geometrical terms, the forces of two bodies (of the same kind) set in motion, and acting by their mass as well as by their motion, are said to be proportional jointly to their bodies or masses and to their velocities. Now since it is reasonable that the same sum of motive force should be conserved in nature and not be diminished - since we never see force lost by one body without being transferred to another - or augmented, a perpetual motion machine can never be successful because no machine, not even the world as a whole, can increase its force without a new impulse from without. This led Descartes, who held motive force and quantity of motion to be equivalent, to assert that God conserves the same quantity of motion in the world. In order to show what a great difference there is between these two concepts, I begin by assuming, on the other hand, that a body falling from a certain altitude acquires the same force which is necessary to lift it back to its original altitude if its direction were to carry it back and if nothing external interfered with it. For example, a pendulum would return to exactly the height from which it falls except for the air resistance and other similar obstacles which absorb something of its force and which we shall now refrain from considering. i assume also, in the second place, that the same force is necessary to raise the body A (Figure 11) of 1 pound to the height CD of 4 yards as is necessary to raise the body B of 4 pounds to the height EF of 1 yard. Cartesians as well as other philosophers and mathematicians of our times admit both of these assumptions. Hence it follows that the body A, in falling from the height CD, should aquire precisely the same amount of force as the body B falling from the height EF. For in falling from C and reaching D, the body A will have there the force required to rise again to C, byu the first assumption; that is, it will have the force needed to raise a body of 1 pound (namely, itself) to the height of 4 yards. Similarly the body B, after falling from E to F, will there have the force required to rise again to E, by the first assumption; that is, it will have the force sufficient to raise a body of 4 pounds (itself, namely) to a height of 1 yard. Therefore by the second assumption, the force of the body A when it arrives at D and that of the body B at F are equal. Now let us see whether the quantities of motion are the same in both cases. Contrary to expectations, there appears a very great difference here. i shall explain it in this way. Galileo has proved that the velocity acquired in the fall CD is twice the velocity acquired in the fall EF. So, if we multiply the mass of A (which is 1) by its velocity (which is 2), the product, or the quantity of motion, is 2; on the other hand, if we multiply the body B (which is 4) by its velocity (which is 1), the product, or quantity of motion, is 4. Therefore the quantity of motion of the body A at D is half the quantity of motion of the body B at F, yet their forces are equal, as we have just seen. There is thus a big difference between motive force and quantity of motion, and the one cannot be calculated by the other, as we undertook to show. It seems from this that force is rather to be estimated from the quantity of the effect which it can produce; for example, from the height to which it can elevate a heacy body of a given magnitude and kind but not from the velocity which it can impress upon the body. For not merely a double force, but one greater than this, is necessary to double the given velocity of the same body. We need not wonder that in common machines, the level, windlass, pulley, edge, screw, and the like, there exists an equilibrium, since the mass of one body is compensated for by the velocity of the other; the nature of the machine here makes the magnitudes of the bodies - assuming that they are of the same kind - reciprocally proportional to their velocities, so that the same quantity of motion is produced on either side. For in this special case the quantity of the effect, or the height risen or fallen, will be the same on both sides, no matter to which side of the balance the motion is applied. It is therefore merely accidental here that the force can be estimated from the quantity of motion. There are other cases, such as the one given earlier, in which they do not coincide. Since nothing is simpler than our proof, it is surprising that it did not occur to Descartes or to the Cartesians, who are most learned men. but the former was led astray by too great a faith in his own genius; the latter, in the genius of others. For by a vice common to great men, Descartes finally became a little too confident, and I fear that the Cartesians are gradually beginning to imitate many of the Peripatetics at whom they have laughed; they are forming the habit, that is, of consulting the books of their master instead of right reason and the nature of things. It must be said, therefore, that forces are proportional, jointly, to bodies (of the same specific gravity or solidity) and to the heights which produce their velocity or from which their velocities can be acquired. More generally, since no velocities may actually be produced, the forces are proportional to the heights which might be produced by these velocities. They are not generally proportional to their own velocities, though this may seem plausible at first view and has in fact usually been held. Many errors have arisen from this latter view, such as can be found in the mathematico-mechanical works of Honoratius Fabri, Claude Deschales, John Alfonso Borelli, and other men who have otherwise distinguished themselves in these fields. in fact, I believe this error is also the reason why a number of scholars have recently questioned Huygens' law for the center of oscillation of a pendulum, which is completely true."
The "five common machines are: the lever, windlass, pulley, wedge and screw-a windlass is a cylinder turned by a crack, lever or motor which raises an object attached to a cable, rope or chain. As an aside, all of matter appears to be a perpetual motion machine, and it seems likely that because there is more space than matter, and if one accepts the law of gravity, that acceleration is constantly created (although equally matched in the opposite direction) in matter. It seems unlikely that all matter would collapse to a central unmoving volume given an infinity of space. The planets around the Sun are an example of how motion can be preserved for very long periods of time. Leibniz does not explicitly state that the acceleration of Earth slows the pendulum from reaching the same height.
Leibniz adds a supplement with more specific examples and diagrams around the time of the "Specimen dynamicum". Replies to "A Brief Demonstration" are made by two Cartesians, the Abbé Catalan in 1686 and Denis Papin in 1689 and 1691.
A number of historians have published papers on the "vis viva" controversy.
This is the first in a long series of discussions between Leibniz and his opponents on the subject of "living force". This paper is before Leibniz uses the term "vis viva", and Leibniz only refers to "motive force" (vis motrix), (which =mgs mass*acceleration of gravity*distance). Leibniz does not speak of living force until 1695 in the well-known "Specimen dynmicum" although Leibniz uses the term "vis-viva" in his unpublished "Essay de dynamique" in 1691.
According to Iltis, in this paper and in "Discours de metaphysique" of the same year, Leibniz states that there is a difference between the concepts of motive force (motricis potentiae) and quantity of motion m|v| (quantitas motus) and that one cannot be estimated by the other. Leibniz does not distinguish between mass and weight, interchanging the Latin terms "mole", "corpus", and "libra" and the French terms "masse", "pesanteur", and "poids". Iltis states that Leibniz does not use different words for the m in motive force and the m in mv and mv2, so Leibniz's motive force is a rudimentary form of the modern concept of potential energy (mgs mass*acceleration of earth*distance, or ws weight*distance) and that in modern terms Leibniz's proof establishes the idea of the conservation of potential energy to kinetic energy, or more generally the basis for the work-energy theorem: Fs=1/2mv2.
Leibniz argues: "It is reasonable that the sum of motive force (motricis potentiae) should be conserved (conservari) in nature and not be diminished - since we never see force lost by one body without being transferred to another - or augmented; a perpetual motion machine can never be successful because no machine, not event the world as a whole, can increase its force without a new impulse from without. This led Descartes, who held motive force (vis motrix) and quantity of motion (quantitatem motus) to be equivalent, to assert that God conserves (conservari) the same quantity of motion in the world.".
Leibniz's arguments are based on two assumptions: 1) "A body falling from a certain height (altitudine) acquires the same force (vis) necessary to lift it back to its original height if its direction were to carry it back and if nothing external interfered with it." (so "motive force" is viewed as the body's weight times the height from which it falls.)
2) "The same force is necessary to raise body A of 1 pound (libra) to a height of 4 yards (ulnae) as is necessary to raise body B of 4 pounds to a height of 1 yard.". In modern terms, replacing the concept of "Work" for Leibniz's "force", the work done on bodies A and B will be equal: Fs=mgs.
Leibniz shows how the Cartesian quantities of motion are not equal, because as Galileo had showed, body A in its fall will acquire twice the velocity of body B. Body A, 1 pound, falling from s=4, will arrive at the ground (F) with a velocity of 2, which makes Body A's velocity of motion mv equal to 2. Body B of 4 pounds falling from s=1 arrives at the ground (F) with velocity 1, making Body B's mv equal to 4. Therefore the quantities of motion are unequal, but the "motive forces" (vis motrix), mgs, are equal (for A: (1g)(10m/s^2)(4m)=40 (g-m^2/s^2) for B: (4)(10)(1)=40). Therefore, according to Leibniz, the force of a body cannot be calculated by finding its quantity of motion but instead "is to be estimated from the quantity of the effect (quantitate effectus) it can produce, that is from the height to which it can elevate a body of given magnitude (magnitudinus).".
So to summarize, the basis of Leibniz's claim is that the quantities of motion of bodies A and B are unequal while the motive force ws (weight*distance) of the two bodies is equal. According to Iltus, Leibniz's statement 1 has its origins in Jordanus' notion of gravitas secundum situm (gravity according to position), the experimental observation that no system of falling weights will produce perpetual motion in any of its parts. Galileo showed that no series of inclined planes can impart a velocity to a descending body sufficient to carry it to a vertical height greater than its initial height.
Iltus explains that momentum in modern terminology is defined as the Newtonian force F acting over a time (p=mv, v=at, therefore p =mat, substituting F for ma gives p=Ft), and kinetic energy is the Newtonian force F acting over a space (v=at and so v2=a2t2, s=1/2at2, rearranged at2=2s, substituting S for at2 in v2=a(at2) gives v2=2as, multiplying both sides by m results in 1/2mv2=mas, replacing F for ma gives 1/2mv2= Fs) So momentum is a force over a time, and kinetic energy is a force over a space, (this is the equivalent of the concept of "work" which is W=Fd Newtonian force over a distance).
(Technically Leinbiz's statement 1 is not true because the constant deceleration from Earth stops an object from reaching its original height. Unless, it is presumed that the Earth accelerates the body, and then is turned off at the moment of collision, but then, the object would be reflected and continue indefinitely without some opposing force. The equation is s=1/2at, a=10, s=4m, 4=5t^2 t=.89 v=at v=8.9m/s at impact. adding that to the reflection s=vt-1/2at^2 and solving for maximum height reached is vt=1/2at^2, v=1/2at, a=10,v=8.9, t=.179 so in this time, s=8.9(.179)-5(.179)^2= 1.59-.16=1.43m for a difference of 4-1.43=2.57m. So the velocity at collision is only enough to raise object A to 1/4 as high. Technically, I think the a=Gm2/r^2 law should be used to account for the effects of mass on each object involved. Even though 1) is inaccurate, the principle of "energy" and "momentum" still are valid concepts. Although, again, I think people should recognize that mass and movement are separate quantities that cannot be exchanged. I think its safe to say that these are some complex issues, although apparently simple at the surface. I hope there are people that can make all these issues clear to people and easy to understand, as we move into the future.)
(This is an interesting and complex argument. One issue is the quantity of time involved in A and B falling. A has more time to fall then B so the time quantities are not equal.)
(In addition 1/2mv^2 is also the integral of momentum (with respect to time?).)
Abbé Catalan responds to Leibniz's "Brevis demonstratio", in defense of the conservation of quantity of motion (momentum) explaining that two moving bodies of different volume (more accurately mass, for example 1 and 4) with the same quantity of motion have velocities that are the reciprocal ratio of their masses (4 to 1). Catalan recognizes that the time taken for the two objects to fall is different, so when the times taken to fall are the same, so are the velocities. However, for the time to be the same the two heights must be the same, and the momentum of the two objects is only the same when the two masses are equal. Leibniz responds that time has nothing to do with force, and that force should be defined as acting through distance rather than time.
Papin, in 1689 argues like Catalan that the "force" mv of a falling body depends on the time of fall, and that if the times of the fall are equal the forces will be equal. However, for a constant acceleration from Earth, the freefall time is only the same for equal distances. This relates to the theory that all bodies fall at the same acceleration, however, it does not account for the reciprocal acceleration, however small, on the Earth which does depend on the mass of the object. In 1691, Papin responds to Leibniz's objections by stating that a body cannot transfer all its "power" to another body.
| Hannover, Germany (presumably) |
314 YBN
[09/??/1686 AD]
| 3262) Abbé Catalan responds to Leibniz's "Brevis demonstratio" in defense of the conservation of quantity of motion (momentum) writing that two bodies of unequal volume (more accurately mass) (for example, 1 to 4) but equal in quantity of motion (4) have velocities proportional to the reciprocal ratio of their masses (4 to 1). As a result they traverse, in the same time, spaces proportional to these velocities. Now Galileo, showed that the spaced described by falling bodies are the squares of the times (not written s=1/2gt^2). Therefore, in the example given by Leibniz, the body of 1 pound ascends to the height 4 in time 2 and the body of 4 pounds ascends to the height 1 in time 1. If the times are unequal, it is not surprising to find the quantities of motion unequal. However, if the times are made equal by suspending them to the same balance at distances reciprocal to their bulk, the quantities formed by the products of their masses and distances, or masses and velocities, are equal. But there is a problem with this, because, for the time to be the same the two heights must be the same, and the momentum of the two objects is only the same when the two masses are equal. Leibniz responds that time has nothing to do with force. (These arguments do not take into account the change in distance between the object and the Earth, however small, from the acceleration given to the earth by object A or B. The mass of object A or B has no effect on the acceleration from Earth they feel, but it does change the acceleration the Earth feels.[t)
| Paris?, France (guess) |
314 YBN
[1686 AD]
| 1874) Edmond Halley's (CE 1656-1742) map of the world, showing the distribution of prevailing winds over the oceans, is the first meteorological chart to be published.
| London, England (presumably) |
314 YBN
[1686 AD]
| 1879) French science writer, Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle (FonTneL) (CE 1657-1757) publishes "Entretiens sur la pluralité des mondes" ("Conversations on the Plurality of Worlds"), an introduction to the average person of the new astronomy of the telescope, including descriptions of each planet (Mercury to Saturn) and speculations about what kind of life might be on them. There will probably always be speculation until we land on all of them and fully explore them to become more certain.
This book supports the heliocentric system revived by Copernicus and the mechanistic physics of Descartes in elegant dialogs between a philosopher and a lady, speculating about the inhabitants of other planets and relativizing the importance of our own planet.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
313 YBN
[1687 AD]
| 1845) Law of gravitation. Isaac Newton (CE 1643-1727) describes the universal law of gravitation, that all matter attracts other matter with a force that is the product of their masses, and the inverse of their distance squared.
In his book "Principia" Newton codifies three laws of motion. The first is the principle of inertia: a body at rest remains at rest and a body in motion remains in motion at a constant velocity as long as outside forces are not involved (for example that planets move because nothing exists in the space they move to stop them after the initial impulse). The second law of motion defines a force in terms of mass and acceleration (Force=mass x acceleration) and this is the first clear distinction between the mass of a body (representing its resistance to acceleration; or in other words the quantity of inertia it possesses), and its weight (representing the amount of gravitational force between itself and another body). The third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.
The famous equation Newton publishes is: F=Gm1m2/d^2 where m1 and m2 are the masses of two objects (for example, the earth and moon), d is the distance between their centers, G is the gravitational constant, and F is the force of gravitational attraction between them. Newton holds that this law is true for any two objects in the universe. So this laws comes to be called the law of "universal gravitation".
Newton's second law describes the equation F=ma, that the force used to move an object, and likewise the force a moving object has, is proportional to the object's mass and acceleration. Substituting a=F/m in the F=Gm1m2/d^2 equation, the force of acceleration on any mass from another mass due to gravity can be calculated as a2=Gm1/r^2.
Newton is the first to estimate the mass or amount of matter contained in a planet.
That the Sun attracts planets with a inverse distance force was already known from Ismaël Bullialdus in a book he published in 1645 titled "Astronomia philolaica". In addition Robert Hooke had explained this inverse distance relation to Newton in his letter of 1679.
Newton never explicitly states that corpuscles of light, as matter, obey the law of gravity. Newton does support the idea of an ether that fills the universe.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
313 YBN
[1687 AD]
| 1890) French physicist, Guillaume Amontons (omoNToN) (CE 1663-1705) invents a new hygrometer, a device that measures the quantity of moisture in the air.
| Paris, France |
313 YBN
[1687 AD]
| 3895) Giovan Cosimo Bonomo (CE 1666-1696) proves that human scabies is caused by a mite which they observe with the newly invented microscope.
Bonomo describes this in a letter to Francesco Redi.
Giacinto Cestoni (CE 1637-1718) confirms this in a letter in 1710. Bonomo and Cestoni are students of Francesco Redi.
| Livorno, Italy |
310 YBN
[12/??/1690 AD]
| 1862) John Flamsteed (CE 1646-1719) unknowingly is the first to observe the planet Uranus, mistaking it for a star Flamsteed catalogs as 34 Tauri.
| Greenwich, England |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 1200) Polhem also contributes to the construction of Göta Canal, a canal connecting the east and west coasts of Sweden. Together with Charles XII of Sweden, he plans the construction of parts of the canal, particularly the canal locks in the 1700s, not until 1832, long after his death is it finished under the supervision of his son, Gabriel Polhem.
Other major contributions made by Polhem are the constructions of dry docks, dams and as mentioned before, canal locks, which he designs together with his assistant and friend, Emanuel Swedenborg.
| Sweden |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 1696) Elisabetha, wife of Hevelius, who had collaborated with him in his observations, publishes "Prodromus Astronomiae".
| Gdansk, Poland |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 1849) Isaac Newton (CE 1642-1727) sends his friend John Locke a work of antitrinitarian textual criticism entitled "Two Notable Corruptions" for anonymous publication on the Continent and only suppresses the publication at the last moment.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 1864) Denis Papin (PoPoN) (CE 1647-1712) builds a pump with a piston raised by steam.
Ten years earlier, Huygens had exhibited an explosion vacuum engine, the first to use a cylinder and piston.
Denys Papin, the pupil and assistant of Huyghens, continued experimenting on the production of motive power, and in 1690 publishes a description of his attempts at Leipzig, entitled "A New Method of Securing Cheaply Motive Power of Considerable Magnitude.".
Papin mentions the gunpowder engine (of Huygens), and states that "until now all experiments have been unsuccessful; and after the combustion of the exploded powder there always remains in the cylinder one-fifth of its volume of air.".
For the explosion of the gunpowder Papin substitutes the generation and condensation of steam, heating the bottom of his cylinder by a fire; a small quantity of water contained in it is vaporized, and then on removing the fire the steam condenses and the piston is forced down. This is substantially the Newcomen steam engine, but without the separate boiler.
With this invention people are finally back to the work with steam started 1500 years before by Heron in Alexandria.
In this year, Papin publishes his first work on the steam engine in "De novis quibusdam machinis".
The purpose of the steam engine is to raise water to a canal between Kassel and Karlshaven. Papin also uses a steam engine to pump water to a tank on the roof of the palace to supply water for the fountains in the grounds. (how is the water pumped by steam engine?)
Perhaps human will sometime or perhaps already use the immense heat from the molten rock in the mantel of the earth to create electricity from steam engines or other methods. Perhaps those desins will only be used by those living deep in the earth.
| Leipzig, Germany |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 1867) Denis Papin (PoPoN) (CE 1647-1712) builds a second steam engine.
| Leipzig, Germany |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 1873) Edmond Halley (CE 1656-1742) designs a diving bell. Halley's design is capable of remaining submerged for extended periods of time, and fitted with a window for the purpose of undersea exploration. In Halley's diving bell, air is replenished by sending weighted barrels of air down from the surface.
| London, England (presumably) |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 1888) Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem (PULHeM) (CE 1661-1751) constructs a track system for lifting ore that is powered entirely by a water wheel.
Polhem is appointed to improve upon the current mining operations of Sweden. Polhem constructs a system for lifting and transporting ore from mines, a process that was risky and inefficient at the time. This construction consists of a track system for lifting the ore, as opposed to wires; the construction is powered entirely by a water wheel. Human labor is only needed to load the containers. Being new and revolutionary, word of Polhem's work reaches the reigning king, Charles XI who is so impressed with the work that he assigns Polhem to improve Sweden's main mining operation; the Falun Copper mine.
| ?, Sweden |
310 YBN
[1690 AD]
| 3263) Denis Papin (PoPoN) (CE 1647-1712) publishes a response to Leibniz's rejection of Descartes principle of conservation of quantity of motion (momentum).
Papin, in 1689 argues like Catalan that the "force" mv of a falling body depends on the time of fall, and that if the times of the fall are equal the forces will be equal. However, for a constant acceleration from Earth, the freefall time is only the same for equal distances. This relates to the theory that all bodies fall at the same acceleration, however, it does not account for the reciprocal acceleration, however small, on the Earth which does depend on the mass of the object.
| Leipzig, Germany |
309 YBN
[1691 AD]
| 1744)
| Cambridge?, England |
309 YBN
[1691 AD]
| 1869) English physician Copton Havers (CE 1655-1702) publishes "Osteologia nova", the first full and complete study of bone structure. This book will remain the standard for 150 years. The Haversian canals in bone are named for him. "Osteologia nova" is a collection of five papers delivered earlier to the Royal Society, with the first description of the microscopic structure of bones, and a discussion of the physiology of bones.
| London, England (presumably) |
307 YBN
[1693 AD]
| 1745) This book destroys the fanciful stories of Pliny 1600 years earlier.
| Cambridge?, England |
307 YBN
[1693 AD]
| 1750) In this book Ray rejects Aristotle's classification and introduces the names ungulates (animals in which the toes are covered with horny hoofs) and unguiculates (animals in which the toes are bare but carry nails).
Ray tries to base his systems of classification on all the structural characteristics and not just one, including internal anatomy. Ray effectively establishs the class of mammals by insisting on the importance of lungs and cardiac structure.
| ?, England |
307 YBN
[1693 AD]
| 1856) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LIPniTS) (CE 1646-1716) recognizes the law of conservation of mechanical energy (the energy of motion and position). 150 years will pass before people such as Helmholtz generalize this to include all forms of energy. Leibniz contributes to the development of the idea of kinetic energy. I think mass and velocity are conserved in collisions of matter but that mass and velocity cannot be interchanged as is mistakenly believed by many people today. To me the concept of energy is a human made description (there is no intrinsic property of energy in matter since mass and velocity can not be exchanged), but think the concept of energy may be a useful concept. Certainly you and everybody else are welcome to disagree with me, and to prove me wrong.
(show equations-is this like Huygens' mv^2?, cite publication)
| Hannover, Germany |
306 YBN
[03/03/1694 AD]
| 1789) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) identifies that fleas are sexual.
Van Leeuwenhoek writes a treatise on the flea, recognizing that fleas, like fish, dogs, and humans, are sexual beings.
| Delft, Netherlands |
306 YBN
[10/23/1694 AD]
| 5923) Johann Pachelbel (CE 1653-1706), German composer and organist, composes "Canon in D" (also known as "Canon and Gigue in D"), his best known work.
| (Stuttgart and/or) Gotha, Germany (verify) |
306 YBN
[1694 AD]
| 1388)
| Halle, Saxony-Anhalt |
306 YBN
[1694 AD]
| 1797) Robert Hooke (CE 1635-1703) Hooke describes his "picture-box" in a paper to the Royal Society.
Hooke's instrument allowed the viewer to observe and draw just about anything, as Hooke said, "take the draught or picture of anything." The illustration shows a man with his head inserted in the device.
Hooke writes: "The Instrument I mean for this purpose is nothing else but a small Picture-Box much like that which I long since shewed the Society, for Drawing the Picture of a Man, or the like; of the Bigness of the original or of any proportionable Bigness that should be desired, as well bigger as smaller than the Life, which I believe was the first of that kind which was ever made or described by any. And possibly this may be the first of this kind that has been applied to this use."
| London, England (presumably) |
305 YBN
[06/10/1695 AD]
| 1792) Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual reproduction found in females where growth and development of an embryo or seed occurs without fertilization by males.
Leeuwenhoek finds that the parent aphids do not contain eggs, but young aphids just like the parent.
| Delft, Netherlands |
305 YBN
[1695 AD]
| 1883) David Gregory (CE 1659-1708), Scottish mathematician and astronomer, publishes a book in which he explains that different kinds of glass spread out the colors of the spectrum to different extents (to different widths?). He suggests that the proper combination of two kinds of glass might produce no spectrum at all. This will be realized by Dollond a half century later.
There is some conflict about if Gregory, Chester Moore Hall, or John Dolland is the first to understand how to make an achromatic lens.
| Oxford, England |
305 YBN
[1695 AD]
| 1891) French physicist, Guillaume Amontons (omoNToN) (CE 1663-1705) designs an improved barometer that does not use mercury and can therefore be used at sea. The motion on the water causes the mercury to not have an accurate reading. (is a solid used instead?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
305 YBN
[1695 AD]
| 3260) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LIPniTS) (CE 1646-1716), introduces the term "vis viva" to distinguish between living and dead force. Leibniz's examples of dead force include "centrifugal force and gravitational or centripetal force," along with the forces involved in static equilibrium that, when unbalanced, initiate motion.
Thomas Young will rename "vis-viva", the so-called "living force" as "energy" using the same free-falling object returning to the same height example, in 1807. So there is a direct link between the concept of "vis-viva" and the modern concept of "energy". Albert Einstein will define energy with the famous equation E=mc2, similar to E=1/2mv2, equating "energy" to a mass times a constant velocity of light squared (date, verify), which implies to me the theory that all mass is made of light particles.
Leibniz publishes this is the well-known "Specimen dynamicum", although Leibniz uses the term "vis viva" in his unpublished "Essay de dynamique" in 1691.
Hence force is also of two kinds: the one elementary, which I also call dead force, because motion does not yet exist in it but only a solicitation to motion, such as that of the ball in the tube or a stone in a sling even while it is still held by the string' the other is ordinary force combined with actual motion, which I call living force (vis viva). An example of dead force is centrifugal force, and likewise the force of gravity or centripetal force; also the force with which a stretched elastic body begins to restore itself. But in impact, whether this arises from a heavy body which has been falling for some time, or from a bow which has been restoring itself for some time, or from some similar cause, the force is living and arises from an infinite number of continuous impressions of dead force. This is what Galileo meant when in an enigmatic way, he called the force of impact infinite as compared with the simple impulsion of gravity. But even though impetus is always combined with living force, the two are nonetheless different, as we shall show below. Living force in any aggregate of bodies can further be understood in two senses - namely, as total and partial. Partial force in turn is either relative or directive, that is, either proper to the parts themselves or common to all. Respective or proper force is that by which the bodies included in an aggregate can interact upon each other; directive or common force is that by which the aggregate can itself also act externally. I call this 'directive' because the integral force of total direction is conserved in this partial force. Moreover, if it were assumed that the aggregate should suddenly become rigid by the cessation of the motion of the parts relative to each other, this alone would be left. Thus absolute total force is composed of relative and directive force taken together. but this can be understood better from the rules to be treated below. So far as we know, the ancients had a knowledge of dead force only, and it is this which is commonly called mechanics, which deals with the level, the pulley, the inclined plane (applicable to the wedge and screw), the equilibrium of liquids, and similar matters concerned only with the primary conatus of bodies in itself, before they take on an impetus through action. Although the laws of dead force can be carried over, in a certain way, to living force, yet great caution is necessary, for it is at this point that those who confused in general with the quantity resulting from the product of mass by velocity were misled because they saw that dead force is proportional to these factors. As we pointed out long ago, this happens for a special reason, namely, that when for example, different heavy bodies fall, the descent itself of the quantities of space passed through in the descent are, at the very beginning of motion while they remain infinitely small or elementary, proportional to the velocities or to the conatuses of descent. But when some progress has been made and living force has developed, the acquired velocities are no longer proportional to the spaces alreadyh passed through in the descent but only to their elements. Yet we have already shown, and will show more fully, that the force must be calculated in terms of these spaces themselves. Though he used another name, and indeed, another concept, Galileo began the treatment of living force and was the first to explain how motion arises from the acceleration of heavy falling bodies. Descartes rightly distinguished between velocity and direction and also saw that in the collision of bodies that state results which least changes the prior conditions. but he did not rightly estimate this minimum change, since he changes wither the direction alone or the velocity alone, while the whole change must be determined by the joint effect of both together. He failed to see how this was possible, however, because two such heterogeneous things did not seem to him to be capable of comparison or of simultaneous treatment - he being concerned with modalities rather than with realities in this connection; not to speak of his other errors in his teachings on this problem."
So Leibniz Leibniz describes dead forces as being proportional to the product of bulk (mass) and velocity, because "at the very commencement of motion" the space covered varies with the velocity. On the other hand, according to Leibniz, "living force", which appears on impact, "arises from an infinite number of constantly continued influences of dead forces.".
Leibniz invokes the metaphysical principle that the effect must equal the cause, describing "the force through the effect produced in using itself up" to conclude that the force transferred from one equal body to another is determined by the square of the velocity.
So one issue that arises from Leibniz is the semantic issue of what the term "force" should designate.
In the current view, the external force of gravity is added to the existing motion of a mass (which is called the mass's inertial movement), so in some sense, in the current view, an object is affected by a "current" force from the gravity of masses around it, which it also imparts to them, and a "pre-existing" force from it's own velocity which according to the law of inertia continues through time until stopped by some other force.
In my opinion, since mass and velocity are equally conserved, but not convertible into each other, any equations or quantities that mix the two are generalizations and in my view do not represent the specific collision phenomena.
| Hannover, Germany (presumably) |
303 YBN
[1697 AD]
| 1823) Nehemiah Grew (CE 1641-1712) publishes "the Nature and Use of the Salt contained in Epsom and such other Waters" (1697), which is a rendering of his "Tractatus de salis" (1695).
Grew isolates magnesium sulfate from springs at Epsom, Surrey and this compound will come to be called "Epsom salts".
| London, England (presumably) |
303 YBN
[1697 AD]
| 1887) Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem (PULHeM) (CE 1661-1751) Polhammer establishes the "laboratorium mechanicum" in Stockholm, Sweden, a facility for training of engineers, as well as a laboratory for testing and exhibiting his designs. This lab is considered to be the predecessor of The Royal Institute of Technology.
| Stockholm, Sweden |
302 YBN
[07/02/1698 AD]
| 1868) The English engineer, Thomas Savery (CE 1650-1715) builds the first practical steam engine. Savery uses principles first identified by the French physicist Denis Papin and others.
Savery calls this engine "the Miner's Friend", and it is used to pump water from coal mines without having to resort to manual labor, so the coal could then be retrieved and used for fuel (at this time England has already been deforested and all wood is reserved for the navy). Guericke had shown that air pressure is very strong if a vacuum could be produced, but making a vacuum with a hand pump was hard and slow work. Savery recognizes that a vacuum can be made by filling a vessel with steam and then condensing the steam (by using cold water). Burning fuel can then be used to create the vacuum, instead of manual labor. Savery connects this vessel to a tube running down into the water in the coal mine. The vacuum in the vessel sucks water up the tube some of the way and then steam pressure as demonstrated by Papin is used to blow the water out. This device is actually used in 1700 in a few places, but it uses steam under high pressure and the vessels designed at this time can not really handle the high pressure steam safely.
This machine is designed to lift water for such purposes as keeping mines dry (by pumping water up and out of the mines) and supplying towns with water (which needs to be pushed uphill).
This is the first successful steam pump, and in Thomas Savery's words provides an "engine to raise water by fire". In this image it is unlikely the egg-shaped vessels existed. The unit has two boilers, D and L, connected by pipe E. Valves r and M are both closed. Vessel P is filled with steam through pipe O. The valve between the boiler and the vessel is closed using handle Z. Water is showered on the vessel from reservoir X, cooling the vessel, condensing the steam, creating a vacuum, and valve M is hen opened to suck in the water from below. Then valve M is closed, and valve r opened. Handle Z is switched back and the water is expelled upwards through pipe s using steam pressure. While vessel P is expelling water upwards through pipe s, the vessel Pr is sucking water upwards. All the valves are then switched and the cycle is repeated.
Savery's pump has no piston, but uses a combination of atmospheric pressure and steam pressure to raise water.
By 1712, arrangements will be made with Thomas Newcomen to develop Newcomen's more advanced design of steam engine, which will be marketed under Savery's patent. Newcomen's engine works purely by atmospheric pressure, thereby avoiding the dangers of high-pressure steam, and uses the piston concept invented in 1690 by the Frenchman Denis Papin to produce the first steam engine capable of raising water from deep mines.
| ?, England |
302 YBN
[1698 AD]
| 1777) The size and distance of other stars is measured.
Christaan Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) makes the first specific estimate of the distance and size of the stars by comparing the size of Sirius to a fractional portion of the Sun.
| The Hague, Netherlands (presumably) |
301 YBN
[1699 AD]
| 1886) Swedish inventor Christopher Polhem (PULHeM) (CE 1661-1751) builds a water-powered factory for the manufacturing of tools.
Polhem also builds a minting machine for George I of Great Britain.
Funded by the Swedish mining authority, Polhem travels throughout Europe, studying mechanical development. After studying engineering techniques used in Germany, the Netherlands, France, and England, Polhem sets up a mechanical laboratory that gives a major thrust to Swedish technology. Polhem returned to Sweden in 1697 to establish the "laboratorium mechanicum" in Stockholm, a facility for training of engineers, as well as a laboratory for testing and exhibiting his designs, it is considered to be the predecessor of The Royal Institute of Technology. The laboratory was later moved from Stockholm to Falun and from there to Stjärnsund.
Polhem constructs water-powered machines such as rollers and shearing machines employed in the fabrication of metal products.
Some view this automated factory powered entirely by water as Polhem's greatest achievement. Automation is very unusual at this time.
Another product from the factory was the Scandinavian padlock ("Polhem locks"), essentially the first design of the variation of padlocks common today.
| Stjärnsund, Sweden |
301 YBN
[1699 AD]
| 1893) French physicist, Guillaume Amontons (omoNToN) (CE 1663-1705) publishes the results of his studies on the effects of change in temperature on the volume and pressure of air. Admontons extends the work of Mariotte who showed that the volume of air changes with temperature. Working with different gases, Admontons shows that each gas changes in volume by the same amount for a given change in temperature. These results will go largely unnoticed until revived a century later by people such as Jacques Charles who creates Charles' Law.
Amontons' work leads him to speculate that a sufficient reduction in temperature will lead to the disappearance of pressure. Therefore Amontons is the first person to discuss the concept of an absolute zero of temperature, a concept later extended by William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
301 YBN
[1699 AD]
| 1896) French physicist, Guillaume Amontons (omoNToN) (CE 1663-1705) published his rediscovery of the laws of friction first put forward by Leonardo da Vinci. Though they are received with some skepticism, the laws will be verified by Charles-Augustin de Coulomb in 1781.
Amontons considers friction to be proportional to load.
Amontons is often credited with having discovered the laws of friction (1699), though in fact this work deals only with static friction, the friction of objects at rest. Only after Isaac Newton formulates his laws of motion is the friction of moving bodies analyzed.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
301 YBN
[1699 AD]
| 2008) Nicolas Malebranche (CE 1638-1715) introduces the concept of frequency to light and is the first to theorize that color is based on frequency of light (not because of different sizes as Newton supposed, or because of the velocity of light particles as Thomas Melville will suppose).
| Paris, France |
300 YBN
[01/02/1700 AD]
| 1790) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) identifies the green algae volvox.
| Delft, Netherlands |
300 YBN
[07/11/1700 AD]
| 1857) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LIPniTS) (CE 1646-1716) convinces King Frederick I of Prussia to found the Academy of Sciences (Akademie der Wissenschaften) in Berlin. Leibniz draws up the bylaws following the pattern of the Royal Society and French Académie. Leibniz serves as the Academy's first president and remains as President until his death.
The Academy is founded because of the help of the electress Sophia Charlotte, daughter of Ernest Augustus and soon to become the first queen of Prussia (January 1701).
| Berlin, Germany |
300 YBN
[1700 AD]
| 1885) German chemist, Georg Ernst Stahl (sToL) (CE 1660-1734) proposes the "phlogiston theory" of combustion. Stahl develops phlogiston from the vague speculations of Johann Becher into a coherent theory, which will dominate the chemistry of the latter part of the 1700s until replaced by the theory of combustion of Antoine Lavoisier.
Becher had believed that an earth element "terra pinguis" is a key feature of combustion and is released when combustible substances are burned. Georg Ernst Stahl, a German chemist, is a student of Becher's who expands on his theories with several publications in the period between 1703 and 1731. Stahl is the first to rename "terra pinguis" to "phlogiston" from the Ancient Greek "phlogios" which means "fiery".
According to Stahl phlogiston is the combustible element in substances. If substances contain phlogiston they will burn. That charcoal can be almost totally consumed means to Stahl that charcoal is particularly rich in phlogiston. When a metal is heated it leeaves a calx (a powdery substance) from which is deduces that a metal is really calx plus phlogiston. The process can be reversed by heating the calx over charcoal, when the calx takes the phlogiston driven from the charcoal and returns to its metallic form. This is the first theory of combustion and gives chemists a theory in which to understand the normal transformations. Stahl views combustible materials like wood as having phlogiston, but ash as not having any, and the same for metals having phlogiston but rust not having any. The problem with this theory is that wood loses weight when converted to ash through combustion, but metals in rusting actually gain weight which implies that phlogiston must have in this particular reaction a negative weight. This erroneous theory will dominate chemistry for a century until Lavoisier's views are accepted. Stahl does correctly recognize that the rusting of metals is analogous to the burning of wood (atoms of a combustible material join with oxygen, however in the case of iron no photons with an interval in the visible portion of the spectrum are released, which is one of the many examples, of how variable the very fast chemical reactions of combustion can be). Combustion is a very interesting chemical reaction, and there is some question about where the photons that are emitted, for example, from a simply act of burning hydrogen gas in oxygen gas, originate from. A little known fact is that there are, in fact, other atoms that can chemically combust with other materials, flourine, chlorine are two other gases that can fuels can be burned in. Since those many photons can only originate in the atoms of the hydrogen or oxygen, are they taken from the electrons, protons, or neutron, or all three? If they are taken from the electrons, how is the electrical charge balanced in the remaining products, are there electrons made of various masses? If the photons originate from protons or neutrons, this reveals that there is nothing different between nuclear reactions and combustion, since in a combustion photons are the result of separated components of the nucleus of an atom.
For me, the example of how wood loses weight, and light is emitted in combustion is evidence that all matter is made of particles of light, and that the photon is the basic unit of mass, although in combustion most of the mass of a combustible material is converted to a variety of other molecules such as CO2 and H2O.
The 1500s German-Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus believed in a matter-less principle that was the basis of sulfur. The 1600s English scientist Johann Joachim Becher gave the name "phlogiston" to a substance underlying all inflammable matters. Stahl wrongly believes and tries to demonstrate by experimentation, that phlogiston is materially uniform in all bodies that contain it. In Stahl's view phlogiston can be released into the air from inflamed sulfurous minerals, from vegetable substances in fermentation, or from animal parts in putrefaction.
Stahl also founds another inaccurate theory. The theory that there is an "anima" that separates living organisms and (so-called) inorganic bodies, which will inspire the erroneous theory of vitalism in the 1700s. This is set in opposition of the materialism of Hermann Boerhaave and Friedrich Hoffmann. Boerhaave is a contemporary adversary of Stahl and Boerhaave's views will ultimately prevail.
Stahl's experimental expertise is shown in the richness of his ingenious chemical operations on oils, salts, acids, and metals. Stahl writes frequently on subjects of practical chemistry-such as brewing, dyeing, saltpetre production, and ore processing-and advocates the contribution of chemical science and industries to national economy.
As principles in addition to phlogiston Stahl accepted water, salt, and mercury. He also adopted the law of affinity that like reacts with like.
| Halle, Germany |
300 YBN
[1700 AD]
| 3593) Joseph-Guichard du Verney (CE 1648-1730) causes frog muscles to move by touching the cut nerve with a scalpel.
Du Verney's experiment is described in 1742 this way:- "M. Du Verney showed a frog just dead, which, in taking the nerves of the belly that go to the thighs and legs, and irritating them a little with a scalpel, trembled and suffered a sort of convulsion. Afterwards he cut the nerves. and, holding them a little stretched with his hand, he made them tremble again by the same motion of the scalpel.".
Swammerdam is the first of record to contract frog muscles with metal in 1678.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
300 YBN
[1700 AD]
| 6251)
| Florence, Italy |
299 YBN
[1701 AD]
| 1875) Edmond Halley (CE 1656-1742) publishes "General Chart of the Variation of the Compass (1701)" the first magnetic charts of the Atlantic and Pacific areas, showing curved lines that show positions in the oceans that have the same orientation as the compass.
| London, England (presumably) |
298 YBN
[12/25/1702 AD]
| 1791) Antoni van Leeuwenhoek (lAVeNHvK) (CE 1632-1723) identifies rotifers, hydra, and vorticellids.
| Delft, Netherlands |
298 YBN
[1702 AD]
| 1882) David Gregory's (CE 1659-1708), "Elements of Physical and Geometrical Astronomy" which defends Newton's theory of gravitation and is a sort of digest of Newton"s Principia is published posthumously.
| Oxford, England (presumably) |
298 YBN
[1702 AD]
| 1892) Guillaume Amontons (omoNToN) (CE 1663-1705), French physicist and inventor of scientific instruments, designs a constant-volume air thermometer. Amontons uses this improved version of Galileo's thermometer to determine that liquids such as water always boil at the same temperature.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
297 YBN
[1703 AD]
| 3261) "De Motu corporum ex percussione" by Huygens (HOEGeNZ) (CE 1629-1695) is published posthumously (1703). This work was largely complete by 1656. In this work Huygens relates the heights of fall of a body to the velocities acquired (in proposition 8). Leibniz makes use of this concept to establish the concept of "vis-visa" (modern energy).
| (written in 1656) Paris, France (presumably) |
296 YBN
[1704 AD]
| 1743) Ray's work on plants establishes "species" as the ultimate unit of taxonomy.
| Cambridge?, England |
296 YBN
[1704 AD]
| 1826) Newton suggests that light particles are affected by gravity.
| (mint) London, England (presumably) |
295 YBN
[1705 AD]
| 1872) Halley describes the parabolic (so an inverse square law may not necessarily describe an ellipse) orbits of 24 comets that had been observed from 1337 to 1698 in his pioneering work in astronomy "A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets". Haley shows that the three historic comets of 1531, 1607, and 1682 are so similar in characteristics that they must have been successive returns of the same comet. These four comets were 75 or 76 years apart and Halley figures out that this is a single comet in a closed but very elongated orbit around the sun, visible only when near the sun. Halley understands that this comet must travel far beyond the orbit of Saturn, the farthest planet then known. Halley accurately predicts this comet's return in 1758.
Halley understands that the gravity of the other planets might affect the path of the comet (and Clairaut will show that this is true). In addition, unlike with an asteroid, matter is thrown off the comet as the Sun heats it, such as water vapor and dust when a comet nears the sun.
Chinese astronomers observed the comet's appearance in 240 BCE and possibly as early as 2467 BCE.
| London, England (presumably) |
295 YBN
[1705 AD]
| 1876) Halley recognizes that many star positions (for example Sirius, Procyon, and Arcturus) have changed significantly over the years. He recognizes that the other stars have (proper) motions relative to the sun. This adds proof against the ancient claim that the stars are fixed on a celestial sphere.
Halley points out that three of the brightest stars (Sirius, Procyon, and Arcturus) have changed their relative positions markedly since having been observed by the Greeks. Sirius in particular has moved since it was observed by Tycho Brahe only a 150 years earlier. Halley suggests that if stars are observed over sufficiently long periods, this proper motion might also be detected in other stars as well.
Halley finds this after comparing current positions of stars with those listed in Claudius Ptolemy's star catalog. In addition Halley understands that the Moon of Earth gradually changes its orbit.
| |
294 YBN
[1706 AD]
| 1897) English physicist, Francis Hauksbee (the Elder) (CE 1666-1713) builds an electrostatic generator similar to that of Guericke (GAriKu) (CE 1602-1686) but substitutes a sphere of sulfur with a glass sphere.
English physicist, Francis Hauksbee (the Elder) (CE 1666-1713) builds an electrostatic generator with a hand crank. A glass sphere is turned by a crank which, through friction can build up an electric charge, similar to Guericke's sulfur ball but much more efficient. Hauksbee makes a thorough investigation of static electricity, showing that friction can produce luminous effects in a vacuum. Hauksbee places a small amount of mercury in the glass of his modified version of Otto von Guericke's generator and evacuates the air from it, a charge is then built up on the ball, at which time a glow is visible if he places his hand on the outside of the ball. This glow is bright enough to read by. This effect later became the basis of Neon and mercury vapor lighting.
Hauksbee contributes numerous papers to the society's Philosophical Transactions, including an account of a two-cylinder pump that serves as a pattern for vacuum pumps and remains in use with minor modifications for some 200 years.
Under the supervision of Newton, Hauksbee conducts a series of experiments on capillary action (the movement of water through pores, caused by surface tension) using tubes and glass plates. Investigating the forces of surface tension, Hauksbee makes the first accurate observations on the capillary action of tubes and glass plates. Hauksbee determines with reasonable accuracy the relative weights of air and water.
| London, England (presumably) |
293 YBN
[1707 AD]
| 1866) Denis Papin (PoPoN) (CE 1647-1712) builds the first paddle-wheel boat.
| Hesse-Kassel?, Germany |
293 YBN
[1707 AD]
| 3256) Isaac Newton publishes "Arithmetica universalis" (1707, English tr: 1720) in Latin, which includes Newton's only published solution for the motion of colliding spheres.
The standard term before Newton for mass (which Newton introduced in Principia) was "bulk" (Latin "moles").
In 1707 William Whiston publishes the algebraical lectures which Newton had delivered at Cambridge, under the title of "Arithmetica Universalis, sive de Compositione et Resolutione Arithmetica Liber". It is stated by one of the editors of the English edition "that Mr Whiston, thinking it a pity that so noble and useful a work should be doomed to a college confinement, obtained leave to make it public.". This book is soon afterwards translated into English by Raphson; and a second edition of it, with improvements by the author (Newton?), was published at London in 1712, by Dr Machin, secretary to the Royal Society.
The book goes through addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, finding roots, and other basic mathematical operations, and then has a set of problems and solutions. Problem 12 is: "Having given the Magnitudes and Motion of Spherical Bodies perfectly elastick, moving in the same Right-Line, and Striking against one another, to determine their Motions after Reflexion.". The solution is: " The Resolution of this Question depends on these Conditions, that each Body will suffer as much by Reaction as the Action of each is upon the other, and that they must recede from each other after Reflexion with the same Velocity or Swiftness as they met before it. These Things being supposed, let the Velocity of the Bodies A and B, be a and b refpectively; and their Motions (as being composed of their Bulk and Velocity together) will be a A and b B. And if the Bodies tend the same Way and A moving more swiftly, follows B, make x the Decrement of the Motion a A, and the Increment of the Motion b B arising by the Percussion; and the Motions after Reflexion will be aA-x and bB+x; and the Celerities aA-x/A and bB+x/B, whose Difference is = a-b the Difference of the Celerities before Reflection. Therefore there arises this Equation bB+x/B-aA-x/A=a-b, and thence by Reduction x becomes = 2aAB - 2bAB/A+B., which being substituted for x in the Celerities aA-x/A, and bB+x/B, there comes out aA-aB+2bB/A+B for the Celerity of A, and 2aA-bA+bB/A+B for the Celerity of B after Reflexion. But if the Bodies move towards one another, then changing every where the Sign of b, the Velocities after Reflexion will be aA-aB-2bB/A+B and 2aA+bA-bB/A+B; either of which, if they come out, by Chance, negative, it argues that Motion, after Reflexion, to tend a contrary Way to that which A tended to before Reflexion. Which is also to be understood of A's Motion in the former Case. EXAMPLE. If the homogeneous Bodies (or Bodies of the same Sort) A of 3 Pounds with 8 Degrees of Velocity, and B a Body of 9 Pounds with 2 Degrees of Velocity, and B a Body of 9 Pounds with 2 Degrees of Velocity, tend the same Way; then for A, a, B and b, write 3,8,9, and 2; and (aA-aB+2bB/A+B) becomes -1, and (2aA-ba+bB/A+B) becomes 5. Therefore A will return back with one Degree of Velocity after Relexion, and B will go on with 5 Degrees.".
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
292 YBN
[02/04/1708 AD]
| 5938) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes the Cantata "Gott ist mein König" ("God is My King", BWV 71).
Bach is the youngest son of Johann Ambrosius Bach, a town musician, from whom he probably learns the violin and the rudiments of musical theory. When he is ten Bach is orphaned and goes to live with his elder brother Johann Christoph, organist at St Michael's Church, Ohrdruf, who gives the young Bach lessons in keyboard playing.
This song is one of the few works by Bach composed on commission, rather than those composed as part of his regular duties, is published in Bach’s own lifetime, the only cantata by Bach to be so honored. (The city council, not the composer, pays for the publication of the work., and is one of a small handful of Bach’s early works to survive in his own hand. (Another cantata being performed this May, BWV 131, is among this select group as well.)
(Determine if this is the first use of the 1 6 4 5 pattern, which is frequency used in pop music, in particular of the 1950s.)
| (Saint Blasius’s church) Mühlhausen, Germany |
292 YBN
[1708 AD]
| 1902) Dutch physician, Hermann Boerhaave (BORHoVu) (CE 1668-1738) publishes "Institutiones Medicae" (1708; "Medical Principles") an influential textbook on physiology where he interprets the body mechanistically, as opposed to Stahl (who wrongly interprets living bodies as being different from non-living in containing an "anima").
Boerhaave is the first to describe sweat glands. Boerhaave establishes that smallpox is spread only by contact.
Boerhaave shows callousness in writing "The greatest remedy for {mania} is to throw the Patient unwarily into the Sea, and to keep him under water as long as he can possibly bear without being quite stifled". As a result of these writings of Boerhaave, Joseph Guislain builds "The Chinese Temple" for drowning humans diagnosed with various forms of "insanity".
Boerhaave teaches medical (health science) students at the patient's bedside, reviving the Hippocratic method of bedside instruction. In addition Boerhaave further insists on post-mortem examination of patients in which he demonstrates the relation of symptoms to lesions.
This book and Boerhaave's "Elementa Chemiae" (1732) will continue to be used as textbooks for at least 50 years after Boerhaave's death.
Boerhaave believes in a mechanical view and considers human physiology in a simple manner, apart from metaphysical interpretations. Boerhaave teaches students to focus on the circulation of blood and other bodily fluids, along with involuntary functions such as breathing, sweating, heartbeat, and peristaltic motion.
Julien Offroy de La Mettrie (1709-1751) is one of Boerhaave's students, and argues that humans are nothing but machines.
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
292 YBN
[1708 AD]
| 4481) French chemist, Wilhelm or Guillaume Homberg (CE 1652-1715), moves pieces of amianthus and other light substances, by the impulse of solar rays, and can make the substances move move quickly by connecting them to the end of a level connected to the spring of a watch.
(find portrait)
| Paris, France |
291 YBN
[1709 AD]
| 1194) Abraham Darby builds the first successful coke-fired blast furnace to produce cast iron. The ensuing availability of inexpensive iron was one of the factors leading to the European industrial revolution.
At the time the normal way of producing iron is the "bloomery method", in which small batches of iron ore are placed in pans, covered with charcoal, and then blown with a bellows. Charcoal is one of the few fuels that could reach the required temperatures to smelt iron, around 1500°C, and as the iron industry grew and chopped down entire forests to produce coal, it becomes increasingly expensive. The iron industry continually moves to new locations in an effort to maintain access to charcoal production.
After arriving in Coalbrookdale, Darby attempts to develop coke-powered smelting. This has been tried in the past with little success, but Darby's supply of coal is fairly sulfur-free, and to everyone's surprise, works. Better yet, he finds that the coke can burn in piles, whereas charcoal can only burn in thin sheets. By piling the coke and ore into a large container, he can process considerably more ore in the same time. Further developments of this process lead to his introduction of the first coke-consuming blast furnace in 1709. Before then, blast furnaces were all fueled by charcoal.
The use of the blast furnace dramatically lowers the price of ironmaking, not only because coal is fairly common around the Midlands, but also because it allowed for much larger furnaces.
| England |
291 YBN
[1709 AD]
| 1898) English physicist, Francis Hauksbee (the Elder) (CE 1666-1713) publishes "Physico-Mechanical Experiments on Various Subjects", which describes Hauksbee's numerous experiments on a wide range of topics.
| London, England (presumably) |
291 YBN
[1709 AD]
| 1904) Dutch physician, Hermann Boerhaave (BORHoVu) (CE 1668-1738) publishes "Aphorismi de Cognoscendis et Curandis Morbis" (1709; "Aphorisms on the Recognition and Treatment of Diseases").
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
291 YBN
[1709 AD]
| 1926) Gabriel Fahrenheit (ForeNHIT) (CE 1686-1736), invents the first alcohol thermometer.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
290 YBN
[1710 AD]
| 1752) In about 1690 Ray began to collect insects, mainly Lepidoptera. Ray divides insects according to the presence or absence of metamorphoses.
| ?, England |
290 YBN
[1710 AD]
| 3773) George Berkeley (BoRKlA) (CE 1685-1753) publishes "The Principles of Human Knowledge" (1710), which rejects Isaac Newton's absolute space, time, and motion.
Because of this criticism, some historians view Berkeley as the "precursor of Mach and Einstein".
George Berkeley will also publish similar criticisms of absolute space and time in "De motu" (1721).
In "The Principles of Human Knowledge", Berkeley writes: "112. But, notwithstanding what has been said, I must confess it does not appear to me that there can be any motion other than relative; so that to conceive motion there must be at least conceived two bodies, whereof the distance or position in regard to each other is varied. Hence, if there was one only body in being it could not possible be moved. This seems evidence, in that the idea I have of motion doth necessarily include relation. Whether others can conceive it otherwise, a little attention may satisfy them.
113. But, though in every motion it be necessary to conceive more bodies than one, yet it may be that one only is moved, namely, that on which the force causing the change in the distance or situation of the bodies, is impressed. For, however some may define relative motion, so as to term that body moved which changes its distance from some other body, whether the force causing that change were impressed on it or no, yet I cannot assent to this; for, since we are told relative motion is that which is perceived by sense, and regarded in the ordinary affairs of life, it should seem that every man of common sense knows what it is as well as the best philosopher. Now, I ask any one whether, in his sense of motion as he walks along the streets, the stones he passes over may be said to move, because they change distance with his feet? To me it appears that though motion includes a relation of one thing to another, yet it is not necessary that each term of the relation be denominated from it. As a man may think of somewhat which does not think, so a body may be moved to or from another body which is not therefore itself in motion. I mean relative motion, for other I am not able to conceive. 114. As the place happens to be variously defined, the motion which is related to it varies. A man in a ship may be said to be quiescent with relation to the sides of the vessel, and yet move with relation to the land. Or he may move eastward in respect of the one, and westward in respect of the other. In the common affairs of life men never go beyond the earth to define the place of any body; and what is quiescent in respect of that is accounted absolutely to be so. But philosophers, who have a greater extent of thought, and juster notions of the system of things, discover even the earth itself to be moved. In order therefore to fix their notions they seem to conceive the corporeal world as finite, and the utmost unmoved walls or shell thereof to be the place whereby they estimate true motions. If we sound our own conceptions, I believe we may find all the absolute motion we can frame an idea of to be at bottom no other than relative motion thus defined. For, as hath been already observed, absolute motion, exclusive of all external relation, is incomprehensible; and to this kind of relative motion all the above-mentioned properties, causes, and effects ascribed to absolute motion will, if I mistake not, be found to agree. As to what is said of the centrifugal force, that it does not at all belong to circular relative motion. I do not see how this follows from the experiment which is brought to prove it. See Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathemattica, in Schol. Def. VIII. For the water in the vessel at that time wherein it is said to have the greatest relative circular motion, hath, I think, no motion at all; as is plain from the foregoing section. 115. For to denominate a body moved it is requisite, first, that it change its distance or situation with regard to some other body; and secondly, that the force occasioning that change be applied to it. If either of these be wanting, I do not think that, agreeably to the sense of mankind, or the propriety of language, a body can be said to be in motion. I grant indeed that it is possible for us to think a body which we see change its distance from some other to be moved, though it have no force applied to it (in which sense there may be apparent motion), but then it is because the force causing the change of distance is imagined by us to be applied or impressed on that body thought to move; which indeed shews we are capable of mistaking a thing to be in motion which is not, {2nd edition: and that is all} {first edition: but does not prove that, in the common acceptation of motion, a body is moved merely because it changes distance from another; since as soon as we are undeceived, and find that the moving force was not communicated to it, we no longer hold it to be moved. So on the other hand, when only one body (the parts whereof preserve a given position between themselves) is imagined to exist, some there are who think that it can be moved all manner of ways, though without any change of distance or situation to any other bodies; which we should not deny if they meant only that it might have an impressed force, which, upon the bare creation of other bodies would produce a motion of some certain quantity and determination. But that an actual motion (distinct from the impressed force or power productive of change of place in case there were bodies present whereby to define it) can exist in such a single body, I must confess I am not able to comprehend.} 116. From what has been said it follows that the philosophic consideration of motion does not imply the being of an absolute Space, distinct from that which is perceived by sense and related bodies; which that it cannot exist without the mind is clear upon the same principles that demonstrate the like of all other objects of sense. And perhaps, if we enquire narrowly, we shall find we cannot even frame an idea of pure Space exclusive of all body. This I must confess seems impossible, as being a most abstract idea. When I excite a motion in some part of my body, if it be free or without resistance, I say there is Space; but if I find a resistance, then I say there is Body; and in proportion as the resistance to motion is lesser or greater. I say the space is more or less pure. So that when I speak of pure or empty space, it is not to be supposed that the word "space" stands for an idea distinct from or conceivable without body and motion- though indeed we are apt to think every noun substantive stands for a distinct idea that may be separated from all others; which has occasioned infinite mistakes. When, therefore, supposing all the world to be annihilated besides my own body, I say there still remains pure Space, thereby nothing else is meant but only that I conceive it possible for the limbs of my body to be moved on all sides without the least resistance; but if that, too, were annihilated then there could be no motion, and consequently no Space. Some, perhaps, may think the sense of seeing doth furnish them with the idea of pure space; but it is plain from what we have elsewhere shewn, that the ideas of space and distance are not obtained by that sense. See the Essay concerning Vision. 117. What is here laid down seems to put an end to all those disputes and difficulties that have sprung up amongst the learned concerning the nature of pure Space. But the chief advantage arising from it is that we are freed from that dangerous dilemma, to which several who have employed their thoughts on that subject imagine themselves reduced, to wit, of thinking either that Real Space is God, or else that there is something beside God which is eternal, uncreated, infinite, indivisible, immutable. Both which may justly be thought pernicious and absurd notions. It is certain that not a few divines, as well as philosophers of great note, have, from the difficulty they found in conceiving either limits or annihilation of space, concluded it must be divine. And some of late have set themselves particularly to shew the incommunicable attributes of God agree to it. Which doctrine, how unworthy soever it may seem of the Divine Nature, yet I do not see how we can get clear of it, so long as we adhere to the received opinions.".
(It is amazing to read this argument nearly 200 years before relativity - how much like relativity theory it sounds like.)
(I reject the idea that a single body cannot have motion without some other body as reference, since a point in space serves as a reference, even if it is impossible to see anything in the empty space.)
(My view is that Newton differentiated between absolute and relative space to mean simply that we assign local origins to space for the purpose of measurement, but that this is for a measurement or relative size - an origin we place on absolute space. Perhaps a better view would be simply to have stated "space" as opposed to absolute and relative. I think maybe the answer is that, there is no origin point of space. We attach an origin point and frame of reference to a point in space, and in this sense, to a point in absolute space. I view space, absolute or otherwise, as the set of all points in that space.)
(It is somewhat amazing that the modern popular view in science, relativity is so closely linked to an ultra-conservative religious bishop who rejected the material nature of the universe. I think an aspect of the criticisms of science is focused on casting doubts on popular theories - only the most successful strategies succeeding - which in a sense is science, since it would seem that the most successful arguments would be the most legitimate, but it seems to me to be not a productive forward viewing effort.)
(I think at least one flaw with Berkeley's arguments is the idea that a single object in a universe of space can never move because there is no other object to measure the movement relative to. In my view the object can still move relative to points in space itself, points which are empty of matter. This seems logical to me that even with only one object in a universe of space, there can be motion - motion relative to the space itself.)
(In terms of relative motion, I accept the view of an object as having motion relative to space. Perhaps the view is relative to an absolute space, everywhere the same, to which is attached a relative origin and axis or frame of reference.)
| (Trinity College) Dublin, Ireland |
289 YBN
[1711 AD]
| 1779) Christopher Wren's (CE 1632-1723) St. Paul's Cathedral is completed after 35 years of construction.
| London, England |
289 YBN
[1711 AD]
| 2329) John Shore, trumpeter for George Frideric Handel, invents the tuning fork.
| England (presumably) |
288 YBN
[1712 AD]
| 1860) 400 copies of John Flamsteed's (CE 1646-1719) observations are printed without his permission. Flamsteed struggled to withhold his observations until completed, but they were urgently needed by Isaac Newton and Edmond Halley, among others. Newton, through the Royal Society, led the movement for their immediate publication. In 1704 Prince George of Denmark undertook the cost of publication. The incomplete observations are edited by Halley, and 400 copies are printed in 1712. Flamsteed will later manage to burn 300 copies. Flamsteed's own star catalog, "Historia Coelestis Britannica" will be published 13 years later in 1725.
Flamsteed does manage, to revise the first volume to his satisfaction before his death in 1719.
| Greenwich, England |
288 YBN
[1712 AD]
| 1889) Newcomen invents the internal-condensing jet for obtaining a vacuum in the cylinder and an automatic valve gear. By using steam at atmospheric pressure, Newcomen keeps within the working limits of his materials. For a number of years Newcomen's engine is used to drain mines and raise water to power waterwheels.
Newcomen is an ironmonger at Dartmouth, a craftsman who makes tools, nails, and other hardware, which he sells throughout the mining areas around Dartmouth. Many mines at this time have been dug so deep that they are constantly flooded, and to continue them in operation the operators have to find a better method to pump the water out. Newcomen becomes aware of the high cost of using the power of horses to pump water out of the Cornish tin mines, and with his assistant John Calley (or Cawley), a plumber, Newcomen experiments for more than 10 years with a steam pump.
The basic principle of Newcomen's engine is simple. Steam is injected into a cylinder, forcing a piston to move out. Cold water is then sprayed into (onto?) the piston, the steam condensed, and a partial vacuum was formed. Atmospheric pressure then returns the piston to its original position, so that the process can be repeated. The piston's reciprocating motion is transferred to a water pump by a beam that rocks about its center. That this back-and-forth motion might somehow be transformed into the more useful rotary motion is a problem that has not yet been recognized. Francis Thompson's patent (1792), will introduce rotary motion.
Newcomen's steam engine spreads throughout the mining area of England and rescues many mines from bankruptcy. It was not until John Smeaton's and, more importantly, James Watt's versions of the steam engine almost 75 years later that Newcomen's machine will be superseded.
Newcomen's design is different from that of Savory in that high-pressure steam is never used and air pressure is made to do all the work. This engine is sometimes referred to as the "atmopheric steam engine". For this to work, Newcomen has to construct carefully polished cylinders in which pistons can be made to fit and be relatively air-tight.
Newcomen changes Savory's engine by replacing the receiving vessel (where the steam is condensed) with a cylinder containing a piston. Instead of the vacuum drawing in water, it draws down the piston. This is used to work a beam engine, in which a large wooden beam rocks on a central fulcrum. On the other side of the beam is a chain attached to a pump at the base of the mine. As the steam cylinder is refilled with steam, readying it for the next power stroke, water is drawn into the pump cylinder and expelled into a pipe to the surface by the weight of the machinery.
Newcomen's engine will be replaced after 1775 in areas where coal is expensive (especially in Cornwall) by a more efficient design, invented by James Watt, in which the steam is condensed in a separate condenser, as opposed to Newcomen's design where heat is lost when condensing the steam, as it cools the cylinder. Watt will make other improvements, including the double-acting engine, where both the up and down strokes are power strokes.
The steam engine increases the burning of fossil fuels, which put soot into the air blackening many trees and buildings, a characteristic trait of the industrial revolution, in addition, the burning of fossil fuels laid down over millions of years in the form of coal, put carbon dioxide back into the atmosphere raising the temperature of the earth. Because of these effects, humans will search for alternative fuels such as hydrogen and alternative technologies such as nuclear fission and separation.
| Dudley Castle, Staffordshire, England |
287 YBN
[1713 AD]
| 1751) John Ray's (CE 1627-1705), "Synopsis Methodica Avium et Piscium" is published posthumously (1713; "Synopsis of Birds and Fish"), and is a brief synopses of British and European plants.
| ?, England |
286 YBN
[1714 AD]
| 1925) Gabriel Daniel Fahrenheit (ForeNHIT) (CE 1686-1736), German physicist living in the Netherlands for much of his life, invents a thermometer by substituting water with mercury which uses the Fahrenheit temperature scale still in use today. Fahrenheit also develops a new method of cleaning mercury so it will not stick to the walls of the narrow tube in the thermometer. (Does Fahrenheit use a vacuum? Perhaps the mercury is just enclosed in blown glass.) With Mercury, temperatures well below the freezing point and well above the boiling point of water can be measured. In addition, mercury expands and contracts in a more constant rate than most other substances and a mercury thermometer can be divided into finer subdivisions. This is the first really accurate thermometer.
Using his thermometer Fahrenheit confirms the experiment of Amontons that water boils at a fixed temperature.
Fahrenheit also uses his thermometer to measure the boiling point of various liquids and finds that each, like water, has a fixed boiling point, which changes with changes in atmospheric pressure.
Fahrenheit also discovers the phenomenon of supercooling of water, that is, cooling water to below its normal freezing point without converting it to ice.
Fahrenheit introduces the use of cylindrical bulbs instead of spherical ones. Fahrenheit's detailed technique for making thermometers is kept secret for some 18 years, since it is a trade secret. Among the other instruments Fahrenheit invents are a constant-weight hydrometer and a "thermobarometer" for estimating barometric pressure by determining the boiling point of water.
Perhaps the Kelvin absolute temperature scale will become the standard because of not needing negative numbers.
The process of boiling is interesting. Boiling can only happen when some group of atoms are in liquid state. As photons are added to atoms, chemical changes happen which push out/release molecules. In the case of water, matter in the form of water molecules in gas form exit the liquid water for less photon filled space.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
284 YBN
[1716 AD]
| 5939) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes the Cantata "Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben" (BWV 147).
This song is composed originally in 1716 in Weimar, is later revised by Bach during his Leipzig years, and premieres in an expanded version in 1723.
| Weimar, Germany |
284 YBN
[1716 AD]
| 5940) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" (BWV 565) around this time, although some scholars doubt that Bach composed this song.
(Probably the neuron captured the truth.)
| (the ducal court) Weimar, Germany |
283 YBN
[1717 AD]
| 5951) George Frideric Handel (CE 1685–1759), English composer of German birth, composes "Water Music" to play for king George I at a river-party on the Thames.
Handel writes numerous operas and orchestral compositions. According to the Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia, at the time of his death, Handel is recognized in England and by many in Germany as the greatest composer of his day. The wide range of expression at his command is shown not only in the operas, with their rich and varied arias, but also in the form he creates, the English oratorio, where it is applied to the fates of nations as well as individuals. Handel shows a vivid sense of drama, but above all has a resource and originality of invention, to be seen in the extraordinary variety of music in the op.6 concertos, for example, in which melodic beauty, boldness and humour all play a part, that place him and J. S. Bach as the supreme masters of the Baroque era in music.
| (River Thames) London, England |
282 YBN
[1718 AD]
| 1846) Theory that Universe is mostly made of empty space and that light moves in a straight line.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
282 YBN
[1718 AD]
| 1899) French-English mathematician, Abraham De Moivre (Du mWoVR) (CE 1667-1754) advances probability theory past the work of Pascal and Fermat, in particular by making use of factorial numbers.
De Moivre publishes "The Doctrine of Chances" (1718) which is expanded from his earlier paper "De mensura sortis" (written in 1711), which appears in Philosophical Transactions. The definition of statistical independence, that the probability of a compound event made of the intersection of statistically independent events is the product of the probabilities of its components, is first stated in de Moivre's "Doctrine".
| London, England (presumably) |
281 YBN
[1719 AD]
| 5948) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes the six "Brandenburg Concertos". Among Bach’s influences in instrumental writing are a group of Italian composers who are Bach’s approximate contemporaries (or very near predecessors, separated by very few years), including (most especially) Vivaldi. Bach studies Vivaldi’s concertos, and rescores some of them himself. From Vivaldi and other Italian composers, Bach learns the concerto grosso format, where a larger ensemble (tutti, or ripieno) alternates with a soloist or solo group (concertino). This creates contrasts in texture, dynamics, and sometimes melody. The ripieno plays the opening section, which establishes a recurring theme (ritornello) for the movement. The episodes which fall between statements of the ritornello are performed by the concertino; these passages are more virtuosic, and may sound improvised, even when they are written out. Often, the melodic material comprising the episodes is based on motives from the ritornello, but after a short time, the theme is developed in a new direction.
| (court of Prince Leopold) Cöthen, Germany and (church of St. Thomas) Leipzig, Germany |
280 YBN
[1720 AD]
| 1917) René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (rAOmYOR) (CE 1683-1757), French physicist, builds the first cupola furnace for melting gray iron.
The cupola furnace is a cylindrical shaft type of blast furnace used for remelting metals, usually iron, before casting. The cupola furnace, is still the most economical and generally used process for melting gray iron.
Réaumur is also the first to demonstrate the importance of carbon to steel.
| Paris, France |
280 YBN
[1720 AD]
| 1958) Colin Maclaurin (MakloUriN) (CE 1698-1746), Scottish mathematician publishes "Geometrica Organica; Sive Descriptio Linearum Curvarum Universalis" (1720; "Organic Geometry, with the Description of the Universal Linear Curves") which includes several theorems similar to some in Newton's "Principia". This work introduces the method of generating conic sections (the circle, ellipse, hyperbola, and parabola) that bears Maclaurin's name, and shows that certain types of curves (of the third and fourth degree) can be described by the intersection of two movable angles.
| Aberdeen, Scotland (presumably) |
279 YBN
[1721 AD]
| 5955) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Violin Concerto No. 2 In E Major" (BWV 1042).
| Cöthen, Germany (verify) |
278 YBN
[1722 AD]
| 1934) James Bradley (CE 1693-1762), English Astronomer, measures the diameter of Venus with a telescope over 212 feet in length.
| Kew, England |
278 YBN
[1722 AD]
| 5944) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "The Well Tempered Clavier" (BWV 846-869). This may be Bach's best-known keyboard work.
A clavier is the keyboard of a piano, harpsichord, organ etc and also a generic term for a keyboard instrument.
| (the ducal court) Weimar, Germany |
278 YBN
[1722 AD]
| 5949) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Orchestral Suite Number 2 in B Minor" (BWV 1067) with the famous "Badinerie". The orchestral suites of Bach all use traditional French dances. Bach writes several French suites and several English suites for keyboard. The dance suite in fact traces its origin to the early Baroque period in France, most notably in the keyboard works of the celebrated harpsichordist, organist, composer, and teacher François Couperin (CE 1668-1733). Couperin did not call his compositions "suites," but rather "ordres.".
| (church of St. Thomas) Leipzig, Germany |
278 YBN
[1722 AD]
| 5950) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Orchestral Suite #3 in D major" (BWV 1068). Of Bach's four orchestral suites, the third is the best known, largely due to the fame of the second movement, the famous "Air for the G string." The third suite, in D major, consists of five movements: overture, air (strings and continuo only), gavottes I & II, bourrée, and gigue. All movements except the air are scored for 3 trumpets, timpani, 2 oboes, strings, and continuo. The oboes rarely play independently of the violins in this work. The trumpets are drums are used for color and emphasis. Typical of Bach’s suites, this one consists of mostly binary movements (two-part forms) based on French dances.
| (church of St. Thomas) Leipzig, Germany |
277 YBN
[1723 AD]
| 3322) Giacomo Filippo Maraldi (CE 1665-1729) describes an experiment where sun light is reflected off a knife to produce colors. This experiment may imply to some that Grimaldi's phenomenon of diffraction, called inflexion by Newton may be from reflection as opposed to bending of light, but this theory is not explicitly stated. Priestley reports this in his section on Inflexion in his 1772 history of Optics.
| |
276 YBN
[1724 AD]
| 1903) Dutch physician, Hermann Boerhaave (BORHoVu) (CE 1668-1738) publishes "Elementa Chemiae" (1724; "Elements of Chemistry"), a textbook on chemistry.
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
275 YBN
[1725 AD]
| 1861) Flamsteed is the first astronomer to routinely use a clock in his observations. This star catalog 3 times larger than Tycho Brahe's, and because of the telescope, the stars are located with six times more precision. Asimov describes this as the first great star map of the telescopic age. This catalog contains the position of around 3000 stars calculated to an accuracy of ten seconds of arc. The Oxford University Press states that this is the first great modern comprehensive telescopic catalog and establishes Greenwich as one of the leading observatories of the world. Some stars, such as 61 Cygni, are still known by their numbers in his system. This is the first star catalog to use right ascension and declination, known as the equatorial coordinate system. The equatorial coordinate system, is the most commonly used astronomical coordinate system for indicating the positions of stars and other celestial objects. This system uses right ascension measured in hours, minutes, and seconds, and declination, measured in degrees (the use of these different units makes this system somewhat inconsistent, however right ascension can be measured in degrees, although customarily is not).
There are two systems to specify the longitudinal (longitude-like) coordinate: 1) the hour angle system is fixed to the Earth like the geographic coordinate system and 2) the right ascension system is fixed to the stars and so rotates as the earth rotates.
Because these systems are both based on the location of the earth, which is the most convenient and accurate, since humans are stuck on the planet earth. In the future, a star centered, or galactic centered system (galactic coordinate system) might become more popular as the descendants of humans move from star to star.
Since the right ascension (and declination) of stars are constantly changing due to the precession (of the earth), astronomers always specify these with reference to a particular epoch. The currently used standard epoch is J2000.0, which is January 1, 2000 at 12:00 TT. The prefix "J" indicates that it is a Julian epoch. Prior to this astronomers used the successive Besselian epochs B1875.0, B1900.0 and B1950.0.
| London, England (presumably) |
275 YBN
[1725 AD]
| 3604) Basile Bouchon builds a device which selects the cords to be drawn to form the pattern in a textile by a roll of paper, which is perforated according to the pattern, which passes around a cylinder. The cylinder is pushed forward toward the selecting box, and needles carrying the warp-controlling cords; the needles that contact unperforated paper slide along, while the others pass through the holes and remain stationary. The selected cords are drawn down by a foot-operated tradle. This mechanical "drawboy" makes the proper selection of warp threads which eliminates errors, but still requires an operator.
This perforated paper is the basis for early mechanical computers, and perforated film.
| Lyon, France |
275 YBN
[1725 AD]
| 5934) Antonio (Lucio) Vivaldi (CE 1678-1741), Italian composer, composes "Il cimento dell′armonia e dell′inventione" (c1725, including "The Four Seasons").
| Venice, Italy |
275 YBN
[1725 AD]
| 5943) Johann Sebastian Bach (CE 1685-1750), German composer and organist, composes "Minuet in G" (from the Notebook dor Anna Magdalena Bach) (BWV 114). In the 1970s this work is identified as a piece from a harpsichord suite by Dresden organist Christian Petzold. (verify)
| (Saint Thomas Church) Leipzig, Germany |
274 YBN
[1726 AD]
| 3381) English botanist and chemist, Stephen Hales (CE 1677-1761), explains that distillation of coal produces an inflammable gas ("coal gas").
Coal gas is a gas used for illuminating and heating, produced by distilling bituminous coal and consisting chiefly of hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide.
| Teddington, England (presumably) |
273 YBN
[1727 AD]
| 1909) English botanist and chemist, Stephen Hales (CE 1677-1761), publishes "Vegetable Staticks" (1727), which detail his research in plant physiology.
Hales understands that light is necessary for growth, and measures the rates of growth of various plants by marking plants at regular intervals. Hale also measures the direction (upward) and pressure of sap. (explain how: possibly in illustration) From measurements of sap flow Hales concludes that there is no circular movement of sap in plants analogous to blood circulation in animals.
Hales measures the quantity of water vapor emitted by plants. Hales finds that this process, known as transpiration, happens in the leaves and that this process encourages a continuous upward flow of water and dissolved nutrients from the roots.
Hales identifies that plant leaves absorb air, and that a portion of air contributes to the nourishment of plants (explain how) correcting Helmonts' belief a century before (that nourishment comes only from water) and for this Hales is considered the founder of plant physiology.
Hales invents instruments to collect the gases that are produced by various chemical reactions. These instruments are forerunners of the pneumatic trough, which is now used to collect the gases of chemical reactions. Hales is the first to collect different gases over water, experimenting with hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, methane, and sulfur dioxide but does not recognize these as distinct gases.
| Cambridge, England |
273 YBN
[1727 AD]
| 1991) Leonhard Euler (OElR) (CE 1707-1783), Swiss mathematician, introduces the letter "e" as the base of natural logarithms.
Euler uses the letter e to represent the mathematical constant that is a unique real number such that the value of the derivative (slope of the tangent line) of f(x) = ex at the point x = 0 is exactly 1. The function ex is called the exponential function, and is the inverse of the natural logarithm, or logarithm to base e.
The first references to the constant were published in 1618 in the table of an appendix of a work on logarithms by John Napier. However, this did not contain the constant itself, but simply a list of natural logarithms calculated from the constant. It is assumed that the table was written by William Oughtred. The "discovery" of the constant itself is credited to Jacob Bernoulli, who attempted to find the value of the following expression (which is in fact e): (see image)
The first known use of the constant "e", is represented by the letter b, in a correspondence from Gottfried Leibniz to Christiaan Huygens in 1690 and 1691. Leonhard Euler starts to use the letter e for the constant in this year 1727, and the first use of e in a publication will be in Euler's "Mechanica" in 1736.
| Saint Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
273 YBN
[1727 AD]
| 2620) Alexander Pope (CE 1688-1744), writes "Epitaph for Newton": "NATURE and Nature's Laws lay hid in night: God said, Let Newton be! and all was light."
This may possibly reveal that people held the belief (perhaps secretly for some unknown reason) that all matter is made of particles of light at this early date. This understanding that all matter is made of particles of light has not gained popular support even to this day. Another possible interpretation is that Pope heard this idea from somebody, perhaps scientists or writers in London. Clearly, there is a history of people keeping technology secret, and also of keeping mathematical techniques secret, however, philosophy may not have been kept secret for supposed national advantage, but perhaps because of fear of punishments associated with perceived antireligious thought. Although I somewhat doubt, viewing all matter, including humans as made of particles of light would be viewed as a threat to religious beliefs. The phrase "All is light" may simply be coincidence with the truth of all matter being light, however it seems in retrospect to be a simple conclusion. If true, what a massive 200 year injustice has happened to neglect informing the public of this truth, and appears to still persist, even now.
| London, England (presumably) |
272 YBN
[08/??/1728 AD]
| 1913) Vitus Jonassen Bering (BAriNG) (CE 1681-1741), Danish navigator serving in the Russian navy is the first to map the eastern peninsula of Kamchatka, and to identify that Siberia and North America are not connected.
| Bering Straight |
271 YBN
[01/??/1729 AD]
| 1931) James Bradley (CE 1693-1762), English Astronomer announces his finding of the "aberration of starlight" (also known as the "Bradley effect"), an apparent slight change in the positions of stars (in a small ellipse) caused by the yearly motion of the Earth. This effect is due to the earth's velocity relative to the direction of the light particles emitted from the observed star.
After the publication of "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium libri VI" ("Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs") by Copernicus in 1543, observing and measuring the parallactic displacement of a star became very important to astronomers, in order to provide evidence in addition to the mathematical arguments for the idea that the Sun does not revolve around the Earth. Observing the parallax of a star, the change in a star's position over a six-month period, would confirm the orbital motion of the Earth around the Sun. Without this evidence, Tycho Brahe in the 1500s had rejected the Sun-centered theory. Ole Rømer, a Danish astronomer, had measured an apparent displacement of the stars Sirius and Vega in the 1600s, but his observations were found to be erroneous. Robert Hooke, one of the founding members of the Royal Society, measured the star Gamma Draconis in a series of observations in 1669 for a similar attempt but was forced to report failure.
In 1725, using Molyneux's house as an observatory, Bradley attempts to repeat Hooke's measurements on Gamma Draconis to measure parallax. Bradley observes that Gamma Draconis shifts south in position by an astonishing 1 (minute) of arc in three days, the wrong direction and by too large an amount to be accounted for by parallax. Bradley finds that the greatest shift in position occurs in September and March and not in December and June as it should if the difference in apparent position is due to parallax. However, the change in position is so regular (every six months) that it can only be because of the annual motion of Earth relative to the star.
Bradley realizes that he has at last produced hard observational evidence for the Earth's motion, for the finite speed of light, and for a new aberration that has to be taken into account if truly accurate stellar positions are to be calculated. Bradley calculates the constant of aberration at between 20ʺ and 20ʺ.5 - a very accurate figure.
This change in position of stars is explained as being analogous to using an umbrella in rain, if standing still a person holds the umbrella vertically, but if walking into the rain a person must hold the umbrella at an angle. The angling of the telescope makes a star appear in a slightly different position as the year moves on. From the amount of "aberration of light", Bradley can calculate the ratio between the velocity of the earth around the sun and the velocity of light. In this way, Bradley finds a second method to measure the speed of light, first reported by Roemer 50 years before. Bradley's estimate of the speed of light is more accurate than Roemers.
Bradley estimates the velocity of light to be 295,000 kilometres (183,000 miles) per second.
Bradley publishes this in the 1728 Philosophical Transactions writing: "Mr. Molyneux's apparatus was completed, and fitted for observing, about the end of November, 1725, and on December 3. following, the bright star in the head of Draco, marked γ by Bayer, was for the first time observed, as it passed near the zenith, and its situation carefully taken with the instrument. The like observations were made on the 5th, 11th, and 12th days of the same month, and there appearing no material difference in the place of the star, a further repetition of them at this season seemed needless, it being a part of the year when no sensible alteration of parallax in this star could soon be expected. It was chiefly therefore curiosity that tempted Mr. Bradley, being then at Kew, where the instrument was fixed, to prepare for observing the star on Dec. 17., when having adjusted the instrument as usual, he perceived that it passed a little more southerly this day than when it was observed before. This sensible alteration the more surprised them, as it was the contrary way from what it would have been, had it proceeded from an annual parallax of the star; about the beginning of March, 1726, the star was found to be 20" more southerly than at the time of the first observation. It now, indeed, seemed to have arrived at its utmost limit southward, because in several trials made about this time, no sensible difference was observed in its situation. By the middle of April it appeared to be returning back again towards the north; and about the beginning of June it passed at the same distance from the zenith as it had done in December, when it was first observed.
A nutation of the earth's axis was one of the first things that offered itself on this occasion; but it was soon found to be insufficient; for though it might have accounted for the change of declination in γ Draconis, yet it would not at the same time agree with the phenomena in other stars: particularly in a small one almost opposite in right ascension to γ Draconis, at about the same distance from the north pole of the equator ; for, though this star seemed to move the same way, as a nutation of the earth's axis would have made it, yet changing its declination but about half as much as γ Draconis in the same time, as appeared on comparing the observations of both made on the same days, at different seasons of the year, this plainly proved that the apparent motion of the stars was not occasioned by a real nutation, since if that had been the cause, the alteration in both stars would have been nearly equal.
When the year was completed, he began to examine and compare his observations; and having pretty well satisfied himself as to the general laws of the phenomena, he then endeavoured to find out the cause of them. He was already convinced, that the apparent motion of the stars was not owing to a nutation of the earth's axis. The next thing that offered itself was an alteration in the direction of the plumb-line, with which the instrument was constantly rectified; but this, upon trial, proved insufficient. He then considered what refraction might do; but here also nothing satisfactory occurred. At last he conjectured, that all the phenomena hitherto mentioned, proceeded from the progressive motion of light and the earth's anmwl motion in its orbit. For he perceived that, if light was propagated in time, the apparent place of a fixed object would not be the same when the eye is at rest, as when it is moving in any other direction, than that of the line passing through the eye and object; and that, when the eye is moving in different directions, the apparent place of the object would be different.
Mr. B. considered this matter in the following manner. He imagined C A to be a ray of light, falling perpendicularly on the line BD: then if the eye be at rest at A, the object must appear in the direction A C, whether light be propagated in time or in an instant. But if the eye be moving from B towards A, and light be propagated in time, with a velocity that is to the velocity of the eye as C A to B A; then light moving from C to A, while the eye moves from B to A, that particle of it, by which the object will be discerned, when the eye in its motion comes to A, is at C when the eye is at B. Joining the points B C, he supposed the line CB to be a tube, inclined to the line BD, in the angle D B C, of such a diameter, as to admit of but one particle of light; then it was easy to conceive, that the particle of light at C, by D A B which the object must be seen when the eye, as it moves along, arrives at A, would pass through the tube BC, if it is inclined to B D in the angle D B C, and accompanies the eye in its motion from B to A; and that it could not come to the eye, placed behind such a tube, if it had any other inclination to the line BD. If instead of supposing CB so small a tube, we imagine it to be the axis of a larger; then for the same reason, the particle of light at C could not pass through that axis, unless it is inclined to BD, in the angle CBD. In like manner, if the eye moved the contrary way, from D towards A, with the same velocity, then the tube must be inclined in the angle BDC. Although, therefore, the true or real place of an object is perpendicular to the line in which the eye is moving, yet the visible place will not be so, since that must be in the direction of the tube ; but the difference between the true and apparent place will be, caeteris paribus, greater or less, according to the different proportion between the velocity of light and -that of the eye. So that if we could suppose that light was propagated in an instant, then there would be no difference between the real and visible place of an object, though the eye were in motion; for in that case, A C being infinite with respect to A B, the angle A CB, the difference between the true and visible place, vanishes. But if light be propagated in time, which will readily be allowed by most of the philosophers of this age, then it is evident from the foregoing considerations, that there will be always a difference between the real and visible place of an object, unless the eye is moving either directly towards or from the object. And in all cases, the sine of the difference between the real and visible place of the object will be to the sine of the visible inclination of the object to the line in which the eye is moving, as the velocity of the eye to the velocity of light.
It is well known, that Mr. Romer, who first attempted to account for an apparent inequality in the times of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, by the hypothesis of the progressive motion of light, supposed that it spent about 11 minutes of time in its passage from the sun to us; but it has since been concluded by others, from the like eclipses, that it is propagated as far in about seven minutes. The velocity of light, therefore, deduced from the foregoing hypothesis, is, as it were, a mean between what had at different times been determined from the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites.
These different methods of finding the velocity of light thus agreeing in the result, we may reasonably conclude, not only that these phenomena are owing to the causes to which they have been ascribed; but also, that light is propagated, in the same medium, with the same velocity after it has been reflected, as before: for this will be the consequence, if we allow that the light of the sun is propagated with the same velocity, before it is reflected, as the light of the fixed stars. And this will scarcely be questioned, if it can be made appear that the velocity of the light of all the fixed stars is equal, and that their light moves, or is propagated, through equal spaces in equal times, at all distances from them: both which points appear to be sufficiently proved from the apparent alteration of the declination of stars of different lustre ; for that is not sensibly different in such stars as seem near together, though they appear of very different magnitudes. And whatever their situations are, if we proceed according to the foregoing hypothesis, the same velocity of light is found from his observations of small stars of the fifth or sixth, as from those of the second and third magnitude, which in all probability are placed at very different distances from us.
The parallax of the fixed stars is much smaller than has been hitherto supposed by those who have pretended to deduce it from their observations. Mr. B. thinks he may venture to say, that in either of two stars it does not amount to 2". He thinks that if it were 1" he should have perceived it in the great number of observations he made, especially of γ Draconis; which agreeing with the hypothesis, without allowing any thing for parallax, nearly as well when the sun was in conjunction with, as in opposition to, this star, it seems very probable that its parallax is not so great as one single second; and, consequently, that it is above 400,000 times farther from us than the sun.".
In July 1845 George Stokes will try to explain the aberration of light in terms of the undulatory theory, by presuming that an ether is dragged along with the earth, but is at rest in empty space.
Albert Michelson and Edward Morley will write in 1887: "The discovery of the aberration of light was soon followed by an explanation according to the emission theory. The effect was attributed to a simple composition of the velocity of light with the velocity of the earth in its orbit. The difficulties in this apparently sufficient explanation were overlooked until after an explanation on the undulatory theory of light was proposed. This new explanation was at first almost as simple as the former. But it failed to account for the fact proved by experiment that the aberration was unchanged when observations were made with a telescope filled with water. For if the tangent of the angle of aberration is the ratio of the velocity of the earth to the velocity of light, then, since the latter velocity in water is three-fourths in velocity in a vacuum, the aberration observed with a water telescope should be four-thirds of its true value.".
EX: Model Bradley's explanation of the aberration of light in a 2d or 3d video.
I accept Bradley's explanation as correct. Clearly, the principle that a particle, of any kind, that reaches an observer/detector must have a direction that reflects the relative velocity between the source and detector since the transmission and detection of any particle is never instantaneous.
| Kew, England |
271 YBN
[1729 AD]
| 1884) This lens solves the problem of chromatic aberration, which is the edge of colors that surrounds and disturbs images formed by a lens. This puts a limit on the (magnifying) power of lenses (and therefore on the power of refracting telescopes), because the more (magnifying power) the lens, the more chromatically distorted the images are. Chromatic aberration is caused by the different wavelengths that make up white light being refracted to different extents(or angles) by the glass, each (wavelength) being focused at a different point.
Convinced from study of the human eye that achromatic lenses are feasible, Hall experiments with different kinds of glass until he finds, in 1729, a combination of crown glass and flint glass that meet his requirements. In 1733 he builds several telescopes with apertures of 2.5 inches (6.5 cm) and focal lengths of 20 inches (50 cm).
John Dollond of London will receive the Copley Medal of the Royal Society in 1758 for the invention, but Dolland's right is contested by yet another inventor in 1766. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Hall is the established originator of the achromatic lens, and is largely indifferent to priority claims.
The achromatic lens proves Newton wrong in believing that chromatic aberration can not be avoided.
| ?, England |
271 YBN
[1729 AD]
| 1957) Stephen Gray (CE 1696-1736) , English electrical experimenter, is credited with discovering that electricity can flow.
Gray finds that corks stuck in the ends of glass tubes become electrified when the tubes are rubbed. Gray also transmits electricity approximately 150 meters through a hemp thread supported by silk cords and, in another demonstration, sends electricity even farther through metal wire. Gray concludes that electricity flows everywhere.
Dr John Desaguliers will soon categorize substances into conductors and insulators.
| London, England |
271 YBN
[1729 AD]
| 1962) Pierre Bouguer (BUGAR) (CE 1698-1758) French mathematician, publishes "Essai d'optique sur la gradation de la lumière" (1729; "Optical Treatise on the Gradation of Light") which explains "Bouguer's law" (sometimes unjustly attributed to Johann Lambert), which states that in a medium of uniform transparency the intensity of light remaining in a collimated beam decreases exponentially with the length of its path in the medium.
| ??, France (presumably) |
271 YBN
[1729 AD]
| 5936) Jean-Joseph Mouret (CE 1682-1738), French composer, composes "Sinfonies de Fanfare".
| (New Italian Theatre) Paris, France (presumably) |
270 YBN
[1730 AD]
| 1205)
| England |
270 YBN
[1730 AD]
| 1900) French-English mathematician, Abraham De Moivre (Du mWoVR) (CE 1667-1754) publishes "Miscellanea Analytica" (1730; "Analytical Miscellany"), De Moivre's second important work on probability.
De Moivre is the first to use the probability integral in which the integrand (a mathematical expression to be integrated) is the exponent of a negative quadratic (involving terms of the second degree at most).
De Moivre originates Stirling's formula, incorrectly attributed to James Stirling (CE 1692-1770) of England, which states that for a large number n, n! equals approximately (2pn) 1/2e-nnn; that is, n factorial (a product of integers with values descending from n to 1) approximates the square root of 2pn, times the exponential of -n, times n to the nth power.
De Moivre was one of the first mathematicians to use complex numbers in trigonometry. Trigonometry is the branch of mathematics concerned with specific functions of angles and their application to calculations. There are six functions of an angle commonly used in trigonometry. Their names and abbreviations are sine (sin), cosine (cos), tangent (tan), cotangent (cot), secant (sec), and cosecant (csc). The formula known by his name, (cos x + i sin x)n = cos nx + i sin nx, is instrumental in bringing trigonometry out of the realm of geometry and into that of analysis.
| London, England (presumably) |
270 YBN
[1730 AD]
| 1941) In 1735 Brandt postulates that the blue color of the ore known as smalt is due to the presence of an unknown metal or semimetal. Brant names this metal "cobalt rex" from the Old Teutonic "kobold", originally meaning "demon". ("Kobold" will later be applied to the "false ores" that do not yield metals under the traditional processes.)
Brandt is therefore the first person to discover a metal unknown in ancient times.
| Stockholm, Sweden |
269 YBN
[1731 AD]
| 1920) René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (rAOmYOR) (CE 1683-1757), invents a thermometer, using a mixture of alcohol and water, with a Réaumur scale that will eventually lose to the superior thermometers of Fahrenheit and Celsius. The Réaumur scale based on this thermometer has the freezing point of water at 0° and the boiling point at 80°.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
269 YBN
[1731 AD]
| 2956) Stephen Gray (CE 1696-1736) , English electrical experimenter, uses a simple hanging thread, called a "Pendulous thread". The thread is be attracted to any electrified body nearby.
| London, England |
268 YBN
[06/27/1732 AD]
| 2105) Laura Bassi (CE 1711-1778), Italian physicist, is the first woman to become a physics professor at a European university.
| Bologna, Italy |
268 YBN
[1732 AD]
| 3595) Alexander Stuart describes experiments using a scalpel on cut nerves, to make frog muscles contract. Stuart reports in 1732: "Experiment I.- I suspended a frog by the forelegs in a frame leaving the inferior parts loose; then, the head being cut off with a pair of scissors, I made a slight push perpendicularly downwards, upon the uppermost extremity of the medulla spinalis, in the upper vertebra, with the button-end of the probe, filed flat and smooth for that purpose; by which all the inferior parts were instantaneously brought into the fullest and strongest contraction; and this I repeated several times, on the same frog, with equal success, intermitting a few seconds of time between the pushes, which, if repeated too quick, made the contractions much slighter. Experiment II.- With the same flat button-end of the probe, I pushed slightly towards the brain in the head, upon that end of the medulla oblongata appearing in the occipital hole of the skull; upon which the eyes were convulsed. This also I repeated several times on the same head with the same effect. These two experiments show that the brain and nerves contribute to muscular motion, and that to a very high degree.".
| London, England (presumably) |
267 YBN
[12/??/1733 AD]
| 1965) Charles François de Cisternay Du Fay (CE 1698-1739), French chemist, finds that a cork ball electrified by a glass rod attracts another rod electrified by a resinous rod. If both are electrified by the same device they repel each other. Du Fay theorizes that there are two different electrical fluids, "vitreous electricity" and "resinous electricity". Benjamin Franklin will introduce the modern convention of calling "vitreous electricity" "positive" and "resinous electricity" "negative" (and this one of the earliest contribution s to science from any person in the America and the English colonies which will become the United States).
This is the "two-fluid theory" of electricity, which will be opposed by Benjamin Franklin's "one-fluid theory" later in the century.
Du Fay repeats the experiments of Gray on electrical conduction, noticing that a damp twine is a conductor while a dry twine is an insulator. Du Fay charges suspended corks by touching them with a charged glass rod, and notices that charged corks can repel each other (this repulsion effect was first noticed by Guericke).
Du Fay notes that electricity may be conducted in gaseous matter, (in other words what is called) plasma, adjacent to a red-hot body.
| Paris, France |
267 YBN
[1733 AD]
| 1197)
| England |
267 YBN
[1733 AD]
| 1901) Italian mathematician, Girolamo Saccheri (CE 1667-1733) publishes "Euclides ab Omni Naevo Vindicatus" ("Euclid Cleared of Every Flaw", 1733) where he tries to prove Euclid's fifth postulate, that through any point not on a given line, one and only one line can be drawn that is parallel to the given line. Saccheri tries to prove this by presuming that through the point not given on a line there are two or more lines that are parallel to the given line, and then finding a contradiction from that presumption. Saccheri claims to find a contradiction, but Asimov claims that he does not and was on the verge of finding non-Euclidean geometry which will wait for more than a century for Lobachevski and Bolyai.
If you think of a 3 dimensional space, you can see that there are many curved lines that are parallel, but in two dimensions there is only one. In some sense, euclidean implies two dimensional (in addition to planar only, in two dimensions, a sphere and other three dimensional shapes are not possible).
Many of Saccheri's ideas have precedent in the 11th Century Persian polymath Omar Khayyam's "Discussion of Difficulties in Euclid" ("Risâla fî sharh mâ ashkala min musâdarât Kitâb 'Uglîdis"), a fact ignored in most Western sources until recently.
It is unclear whether Saccheri has access to this work in translation, or develops his ideas independently. The Saccheri quadrilateral is now sometimes referred to as the Khayyam-Saccheri quadrilateral.
Euclid's fifth postulate reads: "If a straight line falling on two straight lines makes the interior angles on the same side less than two right angles, the straight lines, if produced indefinitely, will meet on that side on which are the angles less than two right angles." Saccheri takes up the quadrilateral of Omar Khayyam (CE 1048-1131), who starts with two parallel lines AB and DC, forms the sides by drawing lines AD and BC perpendicular to AB, and then considered three hypotheses for the internal angles at C and D: to be right, obtuse, or acute (see image). The first possibility gives Euclidean geometry. Saccheri devotes himself to proving that the obtuse and the acute alternatives both end in contradictions, which would eliminate the need for an explicit parallel postulate.
On the way to this proof, Saccheri establishes several theorems of non-Euclidean geometry-for example, that according to whether the right, obtuse, or acute hypothesis is true, the sum of the angles of a triangle respectively equals, exceeds, or falls short of 180°.
To prove the parallel postulate of Euclid, Saccheri assumes that the parallel postulate is false, and attempts to derive a contradiction. Since Euclid's postulate is equivalent to the statement that the sum of the internal angles of a triangle is 180°, Saccheri considers both the hypothesis that the angles add up to more or less than 180°.
If the angles add up to more than 180°, leads to the conclusion that straight lines are finite, contradicting Euclid's second postulate. So Saccheri correctly rejects it. However, today this principle is accepted as the basis of elliptic geometry (which requires at least three dimensions), where both the second and fifth postulates are rejected.
The second possibility of the angles adding up to less than 180° is harder for Saccheri to disprove. In fact Sacheri is unable to derive a logical contradiction. Today, the less than 180° degree triangle is a theorem of hyperbolic geometry (again a geometry thatt requires at least 3 or more spacial dimensions).
| Pavia, Italy |
267 YBN
[1733 AD]
| 1910) English botanist and chemist, Stephen Hales (CE 1677-1761), publishes "Haemastaticks" (1733; Blood Statics), which describe his experiments with the circulatory system.
Hales is the first person to measure blood pressure by inserting a tube in a horse's carotid artery. Hales measures the capacity of the left ventricle of the heart, studies the pulse rates of various-sized animals. Hales also measures the heart's capacity to pump blood through the pulmonary veins. Hales also studies the effects of heat, cold, and various drugs on the blood vessels and experiments with animal reflexes. Hales measures blood pressure by measuring the output of blood per minute from the heart. In addition Hales measures the rate of flow and resistance to flow in blood vessels.
| Cambridge, England |
267 YBN
[1733 AD]
| 1933) James Bradley (CE 1693-1762), English Astronomer, measures the size of Jupiter and people begin to realize how much larger some of the planets are compared to earth.
| Kew, England |
267 YBN
[1733 AD]
| 1943) Georg Brandt (CE 1694-1768), Swedish chemist, systematically investigates arsenic and its compounds. Brandt invents the classification of semimetals (now called metalloids), in which he includes arsenic, bismuth, antimony, mercury, and zinc.
| Stockholm, Sweden (presumably) |
267 YBN
[1733 AD]
| 1988) John Dollond (CE 1706-1761) English optician constructs an achromatic lens made of flint and crown glasses for use in telescopes. Chester Moore Hall is recognized by many to be the first to invent an achromatic lens 4 years earlier in 1729.
| London, England (presumably) |
266 YBN
[1734 AD]
| 1919)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
266 YBN
[1734 AD]
| 2073) This nebular hypothesis is in Swedenborg's "Principia Rerum Naturalium" ("Principles of Natural Things"). Kant and LaPlace will develop this the nebular hypothesis further.
| Sweden (presumably) |
265 YBN
[1735 AD]
| 1936) A clock is necessary to determine longitude at sea. This is done by comparing Greenwich time to the local time, which is obtained astronomically (by measuring the right ascension and declination of stars).
Several unfortunate disasters at sea, caused apparently by poor navigation, causes the British government to create a "Board of Longitude" in 1714 which creates an award of £20,000 to the first person who builds a chronometer with which longitude could be calculated within half a degree at the end of a voyage to the West Indies.
This clock is called "H1", and is the first in a series of five clocks Harrison submits for the prize, improving each design.
All of Harrison's chronometers meet the conditions set up by the Board of Longitude but Harrison has problems obtaining the prize money. In 1763 Harrison is given £5000 but it is not until 1773, after the intervention of King George III, that Harrison receives the full amount less expenses.
Harrison mounts clocks in a way that is not affected by the sway of ship. (explain) Harrison inserts a mechanism to allow the clock to continue keeping time while being wound.
This first "H1" watch is tested on a voyage to Portugal, not the West Indies as the government had promised. The voyage was a success and the clock runs well, proving for the first time that the mechanical portable timekeeper can be used by navigators.
| London, England |
265 YBN
[1735 AD]
| 1996) Swedish botanist, Carolus Linnaeus (lin Aus or lin EuS) (CE 1707-1778) creates a uniform system for categorizing living objects of earth, including the human species (overshadowing the earlier work of Ray) and is considered the founder of taxonomy. Linnaeus groups species into genus, class, order.
Linnaeus rejects the theory of evolution.
| Netherlands |
264 YBN
[1736 AD]
| 1923) John Théophile Desaguliers, (CE 1683-1744) is he first to use the word "conductor" for those substances that can conduct a flow of electricity and "insulator" for substances that cannot carry the electric fluid.
Desaguliers adds a safety valve to Thomas Savery's steam engine, which along with an internal water jet, condenses the steam in the displacement chambers, improves Savery's design.
Desaguliers proposes a scheme for heating vessels such as salt-boilers by steam instead of fire.
| London, England |
264 YBN
[1736 AD]
| 1966) Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (moPARTUE) (CE 1698-1759) French mathematician leads an expedition to Lapland (a region of extreme northern Europe including northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland and the Kola Peninsula of northwest Russia, largely within the Arctic Circle) to measure the length of a degree along the meridian. His measurement verifies the Newtonian view that the Earth is an oblate spheroid (a sphere flattened at the poles).
The Swedish astronomer Anders Celsius advocates and is part of this expedition.
| Lapland |
263 YBN
[1737 AD]
| 1808) This book, contains work done mainly between 1668 and 1675 and is the foundation of our modern knowledge of the structure, metamorphosis, and classification of insects. It also includes detailed observations on the Crustacea and Mollusca and on the life history of the frog.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands (presumably) |
263 YBN
[1737 AD]
| 1905) Dutch physician, Hermann Boerhaave (BORHoVu) (CE 1668-1738) publishes the drawings and many manuscripts of Swammerdam at his own expense in two volumes called Biblia naturae (Bible of Nature).
| Leiden, Netherlands (presumably) |
263 YBN
[1737 AD]
| 2001) Carolus Linnaeus (linAus) (CE 1707-1778) publishes "Genera plantarum" ("Genera of plants", 1737), in which Linnaeus explains his system for classifying plants largely on the basis of the number of stamens and pistils in the flower.
| Netherlands(presumably) |
262 YBN
[1738 AD]
| 1928) Joseph Nicolas Delisle (DulEL) (CE 1688-1768), publishes "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire et au progrès de l'astronomie" (1738; "Memoirs Recounting the History and Progress of Astronomy") which gives the first method for determining the heliocentric (Sun-centered) coordinates of sunspots.
| France (presumably) |
262 YBN
[1738 AD]
| 1946) Voltaire (CE 1694-1778) writes "Éléments de la philosophie de Newton" (1738), which is partially responsible for bringing awareness of Newtonian physics to Continental Europe.
| Cirey, France |
262 YBN
[1738 AD]
| 1971) Daniel Bernoulli (BRnULE) (CE 1700-1782), Swiss mathematician, puts forward a kinetic theory of gas.
Bernoulli publishes "Hydrodynamica", a book on hydrodynamics (the flow of fluids), in which Bernoulli describes the properties of basic importance in fluid flow, in particular: pressure, density, and velocity, and explains the fundamental relationships of these properties. Bernoulli describes what is called "Bernoulli's principle", which states that the pressure in a fluid decreases as its velocity increases. The Bernoulli principle is used in producing vacuums in laboratories by connecting a vessel to a tube through which water is running rapidly. (I wonder if the pressure of a liquid depends on it's velocity or only on the available space for its matter at any given time?)
Bernoulli also establishes the basis for the kinetic theory of gases and heat by demonstrating that the impact of molecules on a surface would explain pressure and that, assuming the constant, random motion of molecules, pressure and motion increase with temperature. (James Clerk Maxwell will advance this idea by theorizing that the average velocity of molecules is directly proportional to the temperature of some volume of space.)
Bernoulli thinks of gases as being made of many small particles (as Heron did).
The tenth chapter of "Hydrodynamica", contains the fundamental ideas of Bernouilli's kinetic theory. Bernoulli writes (translated from Latin) "Let us find the weight π which is required to compress the gas EDCF into the space eCDf, it being assumed that the speeds of the particles are the same in the natural and in the compressed state. Put EC = 1 and eC = s. Now when the piston EF is brought down into the position ef, it produces an increase of pressure upon the fluid for two reasons; first because there are now more particles per unit space; and second because each particle delivers its impulses more frequently...". Bernouilli goes on to define equations based on this scenario. Bernouilli writes "Experiment indicates that air can be enormously compressed and its volume reduced almost to zero. If we put m=0, then
π=P/s
from which we see that the compressing weights are almost in the inverse ration of the spaces which the gas in its different degrees of compression occupies. ..." and later ..." 6. The elasticity of air is increased not only by compression but also by increase of temperature {ab aucto calore); and since it is established that the temperature (calorem) increases as the internal motion of the particles increases, it follows, in accordance with our hypothesis, that when the elasticity of the air is increased, without any change of volume, the motion of the air particles becomes more intense, for it is clear that the more rapid the motion of the air=particles, the more weight P will be required to hold the gas in the position {situ} ECDF. In like manner, it is easy to see that the weight must be proportional to the square of this velocity, because, when the velocity increases, the number of impacts and the intensity of these impacts each increase, and each proportionally to the weight P. ... If, therefore we denote the speed of the air particles by v, the weight which is just capable of holding the piston in the position EF will be Pv2; and in the position of ef, ...very approximately Pv2/s". Historian and physics professor Henry Crew writes "One has here evidently more than a mere adumbration of the kinetic theory of gases; for the equation πς=P is practically Boyle's law; and the proportionality between pressure and the square of the molecular velocities is essentially the law of Charles and Gay-Lussac. Nevertheless one misses from Bernouilli's account any accurate specification of what is meant by the 'velocity of the gas particles,' or by 'pressure,' or by 'temperature.' All these were to come a hundred years later. Bernouilli may therefore be said to have drawn the first rough quantitative sketch of the kinetic theory. His views, like the views of Hooke, Boyle and, later, Rumford, stands in marked contrast to those of Gassendi, Boscovitch, and Marat; for the former believed heat to consist in the motion of small particles or ordinary matter, while the latter believed in a separate 'heat fluid' or caloric.'.
| Basel, Switzerland (presumably)| (published in ) Strasbourg |
262 YBN
[1738 AD]
| 2087) Robert Smith, professor of Astronomy at Cambridge publishes "A Compleat System of Opticks" (1738) in which he supports the corpuscular theory of light writing "Whoever has considered what a number of properties and effects of light are exactly similar to the properties and effects of bodies of sensible bulk, will find it difficult to conceive that light is anything else but very small and distinct particles of matter".
This book will introduce William Herschel to the techniques of telescope construction.
| Cambridge, England |
261 YBN
[1739 AD]
| 1912) English botanist and chemist, Stephen Hales (CE 1677-1761), publishes "Philosophical Experiments" (1739) which describe Hales' methods for distilling fresh water from ocean water, from protecting grain from weevils by using sulfur dioxide, and fish from spoiling.{explain how}
Under the title the text explains: ""Philosophical experiments: containing useful, and necessary instructions for such as undertake long voyages at sea. Shewing how sea-water may be made fresh and wholsome: and how fresh water may be preserv'd sweet. How biscuit, corn, &c. may be secured from the weevel, meggots, and other insects. And flesh preserv'd in hot climates, by salting animals whole. To which is added, an account of several experiments and observations on chalybeate or steel-waters ... which were read before the Royal-society, at several of their meetings"
| Cambridge, England |
261 YBN
[1739 AD]
| 1937) John Harrison (CE 1693-1776), English instrument maker, builds a second clock that can keep accurate time at sea, his "H2" clock.
| London, England |
261 YBN
[1739 AD]
| 2088) Alexis Claude Clairaut (KlArO) (CE 1713-1765), French mathematician publishes "Sur les explications Cartésiennes et Newtoniennes de la Réfraction de la Lumière" (written: 1739,published: 1741) in which he develops the corpuscular theory of light.
In this work Clairaut views the corpuscular theory as a ballistic theory in which light behaves like a ball. Clairaut creates the idea of an attractive "refringent" force that accelerates and deflects corpuscles of light that collide with a crystal. Clairaut wrongly theorzes that the velocity of the incident light corpuscle determines the amount of refraction. At this time Newton"s corpuscular theory of light does not recognize that the frequency of light corpuscles determines the light, and amount of refraction. This finding will come initially from Malebranche and other wave theorists such as Euler and Thomas Young, and so will make the corpuscular theory appear to be less accurate than an aether-medium light-as-a-wave theory.
| Paris, France |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 1201)
| Sheffield, England |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 1918) René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (rAOmYOR) (CE 1683-1757), French physicist, prepares a kind of white glass still known as Réaumur porcelain.
Réaumur investigates the chemical composition of Chinese porcelain and devises his own formula for the so-called Réaumur porcelain.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 2006) Georges Louis Leclerc, comte (count) de Buffon (BYUFoN) (CE 1707-1788), French naturalist, begins writing his "Histoire naturelle" (("Natural History")), a work that will dominate the rest of his life and which will eventually occupy 44 volumes.
| Montbard, France |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 2007) Georges Louis Leclerc, comte (count) de Buffon (BYUFoN) (CE 1707-1788), French naturalist, in "Les Époques de la nature" ("Epochs of Nature", part of volume 30 of his "Histoire naturelle", 1778) argues against the traditional Biblical chronology of about 6000 years for the Earth's age, claiming instead a period of 78,000 years between the formation of the solar system and the emergence of humans. These estimates are based on estimates of the rate that hot bodies of known size and temperature cool. Buffon's calculations allow him to predict that temperatures will continue to fall, and when they reach 1/25th of the present temperature after 93,000 years, life on Earth will be extinguished. This is the first age estimate for the universe estimate to go beyond the 6,000 year limit apparently set by the Book of Genesis.
Buffon claims that thousands of years ago a passing comet tore great masses from a molten sun. These masses scattered in space, congealed, and became planets (including the earth) revolving about the sun. At a later date life appeared on earth. The production of life requires organic molecules, he claims are merged by an internal mold (moule intérièure) to form the various kinds of plants and animals. Buffon speculates that each mold related to an individual or species.
Kant and Laplace will replace this theory with the nebular hypothesis.
This book also establishes the classic division of rocks into igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary.
| Montbard, France |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 2010) Johann Andreas Segner (CE 1704-1777), states that a ray of light should be viewed not as a continuous stream but as a series of loose particles with large intermediate spaces.
| |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 2019) Andreas Sigismunf Marggraf (MoRKGroF) (CE 1709-1782), German chemist , studies the oxidation of phosphorus (1740) (although not knowing it as an oxidation, since oxygen will be first identified by Lavoisier). Marggraf records that phosphorus gains weight when oxidized (burned?) which conflicts with the erroneus phlogistan theory of Stahl. Lavoisier will make use of this experiment. Marggrad will remain the last eminent German supporter of the phlogiston theory, which postulates that a "fire principle" is lost during the combustion or oxidation of substances.
Marggraf simplifies the process for obtaining phosphorus from urine.
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 2067) Charles Bonnet (BOnA) (CE 1720-1793), Swiss naturalist conclusively proves parthenogenesis (reproduction without fertilization) in female aphids.
| Geneva?, Switzerland (presumably) |
260 YBN
[1740 AD]
| 2961) Georg Mathias Bose (CE 1710-1761), German physicist, adds a "prime conductor" (also known as a collector) which is a tube of iron or tin, first supported by a human standing on cakes of rosin (an insulator) and then suspended (from the ceiling) by silk thread (also an insulator) near the (tube). Like Guricke's electrostatic generator, the globe is electrified by placing a hand on it and spinning the globe with a crank. The prime conductor is electrified by the globe and when touched by a person, a spark is produced.
Bose detects no change in weight in objects electrified.
| (University of Wittenberg)Wittenberg, Germany |
259 YBN
[07/16/1741 AD]
| 1914) An second Russian exploratory expedition under the leadership of Vitus Jonassen Bering (BAriNG) (CE 1681-1741), sailing on the "St. Peter", sites land, Kayak Island, off the Pacific Coast of America.
| Bering Straight |
259 YBN
[09/12/1741 AD]
| 5952) George Frideric Handel (CE 1685–1759), English composer of German birth, composes the oratorio "Messiah" with the famous "Halleluja" chorus.
According to the Oxford Grove Music Encyclopedia, during the rest of the 1730s Handel moves between Italian opera and the English forms, oratorio, ode and the like, unsure of his future commercially and artistically. After a journey to Dublin in 1741-2, where Messiah had its première (in aid of charities), he put opera behind him and for most of the remainder of his life gave oratorio performances, mostly at the new Covent Garden theatre, usually at or close to the Lent season. The Old Testament provided the basis for most of them (Samson, Belshazzar, Joseph, Joshua, Solomon, for example), but he sometimes experimented, turning to classical mythology (Semele, Hercules) or Christian history (Theodora), with little public success. During his last decade he gave regular performances of Messiah, usually with about 16 singers and an orchestra of about 40, in aid of the Foundling Hospital.
(Verify that movement 18 will be made the music of "Joy to the World" by Lowell Mason.)
| (composed) London, England and (performed) Dublin, Ireland |
259 YBN
[1741 AD]
| 1911) English botanist and chemist, Stephen Hales (CE 1677-1761), presents to the Royal Society a description of a ventilator to rid mines, prisons, hospitals, and shops of noxious airs. Hales will publish "A Description of Ventilators" (1743) and "A Treatise of Ventilators" (1758).
| Cambridge, England |
258 YBN
[1742 AD]
| 1929) Christian Goldbach (GOLDBoK) (CE 1690-1764), German-Russian mathematician, mentions "Goldbach conjecture" in a letter to Leonhard Euler, which is the conjecture that "every number greater than 2 is an aggregate of three prime numbers". Because mathematicians in Goldbach's day consider 1 a prime number (prime numbers are now defined as those positive integers greater than 1 that are divisible only by 1 and themselves), Goldbach's conjecture is usually restated in modern terms as: "Every even natural number greater than 2 is equal to the sum of two prime numbers".
| Moscow, Russia |
258 YBN
[1742 AD]
| 1942) Georg Brandt (CE 1694-1768), Swedish chemist, isolates the metal he had in 1730 named "cobalt", and finds that it is magnetic and alloys readily with iron.
In 1780 Torbern Bergman will confirm Brandt's results and is the first to obtain a fairly pure cobalt.
| Stockholm, Sweden |
258 YBN
[1742 AD]
| 1959) Colin Maclaurin (MakloUriN) (CE 1698-1746), Scottish mathematician publishes the two-volume "Treatise of Fluxions" (1742), a defense of the Newtonian method (of calculus), written in reply to criticisms by Bishop George Berkeley of England that Newton's calculus is based on faulty reasoning. Apart from providing a geometric framework for Newton's method of fluxions, the treatise gives for the first time the correct theory for distinguishing between maxima and minima, contains a detailed discussion of infinite series, including the special case of Taylor series now named in Maclaurin's honor. This work also contributes to the theory of the equilibrium of rotating bodies of fluid.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
258 YBN
[1742 AD]
| 1963) Henry Baker (CE 1698-1774) , English naturalist, publishes "The Microscope Made Easy" (1743), and uses a microscope to observe shapes of various crystals. Baker writes science books for the public, in particular on the microscope and its construction.
| Amsterdam, Netherlands |
258 YBN
[1742 AD]
| 1975) Anders Celsius (SeLSEuS) (CE 1701-1744), Swedish astronomer invents the Celsius temperature scale (often called the centigrade scale). Celsius makes a temperature scale dividing the freezing and boiling point of water into 100 degrees. Celsius describes his thermometer in a paper read before the Swedish Academy of Sciences. Although several hundred-point scales exist at that time, Celsius' scale assigns the freezing and boiling points of water as the constant temperatures at either end of the scale. Celsius originally calls his scale centigrade (from the Latin for "hundred steps"), and for years it is simply referred to as the Swedish thermometer.
Celsius is the first to measure the intensity of a star by a device other than the human eye, when he makes a series of observations using colored glass plates to record the magnitude of certain stars.
In 1733 Celsius publishes a collection of 316 observations of the aurora borealis, or northern lights, made by himself and others from 1716 to 1732. (In this work), Celsius is the first to associate aurora borealis with the earth's magnetic field. (I think the earth's so-called magnetic field is actually like all so-called magnetic fields, an electric field created by the movement of electrons. In the case of the earth, the electrons currently move from south to north{?} pole through either solid or molten metal in the crust or mantle of earth {and possibly the field itself above the earth is made of electrons or photons}.)
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
258 YBN
[1742 AD]
| 2068) Bonnet demonstrates the breathing pores (stigmata or spiracles) in caterpillars and butterflies. notes the freshwater hydra's ability to regenerate lost body parts first to use word "evolution" first to explain that fossils that resemble no living creature may have been animals that went extinct because of periodic catastrophes.
| Geneva?, Switzerland (presumably) |
257 YBN
[1743 AD]
| 1976) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790), American statesman and scientist, forms America's first philosophical society "the American Philosophic Society".
| Philadelphia, Pennsylviania, (English Colonies) USA |
257 YBN
[1743 AD]
| 2036) Alexis Claude Clairaut (KlArO) (CE 1713-1765), French mathematician describes "Clairaut's theorem", which connects the gravity at points on the surface of a rotating ellipsoid with the compression and the centrifugal force at the equator.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
257 YBN
[1743 AD]
| 2037) Alexis Claude Clairaut (KlArO) (CE 1713-1765), French mathematician publishes "Théorie de la lune" (1752), which contains his confirmation of the inverse square law of gravitational attraction for the orbit of the moon of earth.
The orbit of the moon is at least a three body problem, which involves the cumulative gravitational influence of the the three bodies: the Sun, the Earth and the Moon.
Initially Clairaut finds that newton's inverse square law does not explain the motion of the moon and announces on November 15, 1747 to the Paris Academy that the inverse square law is false. In this claim, Clairaut gets the support of Euler who, after learning of Clairaut's conclusions, writes to Clairaut on September 30, 1747: "I am able to give several proof that the forces which act on the moon do not exactly follow the rule of Newton, and the one you draw from the movement of the apogee is the most striking..."
However Clairaut realizes that the disagreement between theoretical movement and actual movement of the Moon are because of errors from approximations made. This work, together with Clairaut's lunar tables published two years later, complete his work on (the problem of applying Newton's gravitation equation to the motion of the moon).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
257 YBN
[1743 AD]
| 2057) Jean le Rond D'Alembert (DoloNBAR) (CE 1717-1783) French mathematician, publishes "Traité de dynamique" (Treatise on Dynamics, 1743), a fundamental treatise on dynamics, which contains "d'Alembert's principle," which states that Newton's third law of motion (for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction) is true for bodies that are free to move as well as for bodies rigidly fixed.
Starting in 1745 D'Alembert will contribute to Denis Diderot's encyclopedia.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN
[1744 AD]
| 1924) John (Jean) Théophile Desaguliers, (CE 1683-1744) publishes "A Course of Experimental Philosophy" (London, 1744).
| London, England |
256 YBN
[1744 AD]
| 1967) Pierre de Maupertuis (moPARTUE) (CE 1698-1759) describes the principle of least action, later published in his "Essai de cosmologie" (1750; "Essay on Cosmology"), which states simply that "in all the changes that take place in the universe, the sum of the products of each body multiplied by the distance it moves and by the speed with which it moves is the least (that is) possible."
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
256 YBN
[1744 AD]
| 2058) Jean le Rond D'Alembert (DoloNBAR) (CE 1717-1783) French mathematician, publishes "Traité de l'équilibre et du mouvement des fluides" (1744), in which D'Alembert applied his principle to the problems of fluid motion.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN
[1744 AD]
| 2059) Jean le Rond D'Alembert (DoloNBAR) (CE 1717-1783) French mathematician, publishes "Réflexions sur la cause générale des vents" (1747), in which D'Alembert develops partial differential equations.
When a function is expressed in terms of several variable rather than in terms of one variable, the concept of a partial derivative" is usually applicable. If, for example, z is a function of x and y - that is, if z=f(x,y) - then the function fx is the derivative of d with respect to x, with y treated as a constant, and the function fy is the derivative of f with respect to y, with x treated as a constant.
As an example, suppose z=f(x,y)=x2 - 2xy + y2. By differentiating with respect to x, with y treated as a constant, we obtain the partial derivative of f with respect to x at (x,y), namely,
fx(x,y) = 2x - 2y
Similarly, the partial derivative of f with respect to y at (x,y) is found by treating x as a constant and differentiating with respect to y:
fy(x,y) = -2x + 2y
Also in this year D'Alembert publishes "Recherches sur les cordes vibrantes" in which he applies his new calculus (D'Alembert invented partial derivatives?) to the problem of vibrating strings.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN
[1744 AD]
| 2060) Jean le Rond D'Alembert (DoloNBAR) (CE 1717-1783) French mathematician, publishes "Recherches sur la précession des équinoxes et sur la nutation de l'axe de la terre" (1749), in which D'Alembert explains the precession of the equinoxes (a gradual change in the position of the Earth's orbit), determines its characteristics, and explains the phenomenon of the nutation (nodding) of the Earth's axis.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
256 YBN
[1744 AD]
| 2121) C. F. Ludolff (CE 1707-1763) of Berlin succeeds in igniting ether with an electric spark.
| |
256 YBN
[1744 AD]
| 2964) Johann Heinrich Winckler (CE 1703-1770) substitutes a cushion instead of a hand as a rubber on the globe of an electrostatic generator.
Winckler uses cushions of wool or leather, covered with tinfoil, or with an amalgam of tin or zinc. Typically either an amalgam of zinc, tin and mercury, or else mosaic gold (sulphide of tin) is used, which is laid on with a very small portion of fat or wax. The friction then occurs between the amalgam and the glass.
This generator uses a bottle or glass as the cylinder. The main part of the generator is a pole lathe, used by generations of wood-turners for many years. When a wood turner steps on the treadle, the string is pulled down, turning the workpiece one way, when releasing the treadle the pole at top springs back and turns the workpiece the opposite way. For a wood-turner, using a knife or chisel, the lathe is only useful on the downstroke, however for electricity, creating friction against the glass both ways can be used. As opposed to the friction being provided by the user's hand against the glass, the friction cushion is more convenient (see figure 3).
During much of the 1700s, England and France are the centers of electrical study and progress, however during the early 1740s, there is a great burst of invention in Germany. Bose' use of a suspended metal conductor and his early experiments with thread become the basis of the later collector, or charge comb, of the electrostatic generator.
Winckler publishes this in "Gedanken von den Eigenschaften, Wirkungen und Ursachen der Elektrizität; nebst Beschreibung zweier elektrischer Maschinen" (1744, "Thoughts on the characteristics, effects and causes of electricity; together with description of two electrical machines").
| (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
255 YBN
[11/04/1745 AD]
| 1972) German cleric, Storage of electricity. The capacitor.
Ewald Georg von Kleist (KlIST) (CE 1700-1748), invents the (first) electric storage or electric memory, the capacitor, the Leyden jar.
On this day, November 04, 1745, Von Kleist sends a letter to Dr. Lieberkuhn at Berlin. An account from Mr. Gralath, from the register of the academy at Berlin is as follows (translated to English): "When a nail, or a piece of thick brass wire, &c. is put into a small apothecary's phial and electrified, remarkable effects follow: but the phail must be very dry, or warm. I commonly rub it over before-hand with a finger, on which I put some pounded chalk. If a little mercury or a few drops of spirit of wire, be put into it, the experiment suceeds the better. As soon as this phial and nail are removed from the electrifying glass, or the prime conductor, to which it has been exposed, is taken away, it throws out a pencil of flame so long, that, with this burning machine in my hand, I have taken above sixty steps, in walking about my room. When it is electrified strongly, I can take it into another room, and there fire spirits of wine with it. if while it is electrifying, I put my finger, or a piece of gold, which I hold in my hand, to the nail, I receive a shock which stuns my arms and shoulders. A tin tube, or a man, placed on electrics, is electrified much stronger by this means than in the common way. When I present this phial and nail to a tin tube which I have, fifteen geet long, nothing but experience can make a person believe how strongly it is electrified. I am persuaded, he adds, that, in this manner, Mr. Bose would not have taken a second electrical kiss. Two thin glasses have been broken by the shock of it. It appears to me very extraordinary, that when this phial and nail are in contact with either conducting or non-conducting matter, the strong shock does not follow. I have cemented it to wood, metal, glass, sealing-wax, &c, when I have electrified without any great effect. The human body, therefore, must contribute something to it. This opinion is confirmed by my observing, that, unless I held the phial in my hand, I cannot fire spirits or wine with it."
Joseph Priestley describes this account and imperfectly described, and explains that Kleist also sent letters to Mr. Winckler at Leipzick, Mr. Kruger of Hall, and to the professors of the academy of Lignitz, in addition to Dr. Lieberkuhn of Berlin, who all return the message that the experiment does not succeed with them.
Priestley describes that Gralath in Berlin is the first to make what is called an "electrical battery", by increasing the shock by charging several phials at the same time.
Modern capacitors can be very small. With a grid of capacitors, an image can be stored electrically.
| Pomerania?, Prussia (coast of Baltic Sea between Germany and Poland) |
255 YBN
[1745 AD]
| 1244) The first detonator (or blasting cap) is demonstrated, when a Dr. Watson of the Royal Society shows that the electric spark of a Leyden Jar can ignite black powder.
| England |
255 YBN
[1745 AD]
| 1906) French physician and philosopher, Julien Offroy de La Mettrie (CE 1709-1751) publishes "Histoire naturelle de l'âme" (1745; "Natural History of the Soul"). The outcry following the publication of this book forces La Mettrie to leave Paris. The book is burned by the public hangman.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
255 YBN
[1745 AD]
| 2695) Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich (CE 1711-1787) (also Rudjer Josip Bokovic), Serbo-Croatian Jesuit astronomer and mathematician, publishes "De Viribus Vivis" in which Boscovich tries to find a middle way between Isaac Newton's gravitational theory and Gottfried Leibniz's metaphysical theory of monad-points. Developing a concept of "impenetrability" as a property of hard bodies which explains their behavior in terms of force rather than matter. Stripping atoms of their matter, impenetrability is disassociated from hardness and then put in an arbitrary relationship to elasticity. Impenetrability has a Cartesian sense that more than one point cannot occupy the same location at once.
| Rome |
255 YBN
[1745 AD]
| 2965) Andrew Gordon (CE 1712-1751), Benedictine monk, and physicist, uses a glass cylinder instead of the glass globe in a static electricity generator.
Gordon uses cylinders that are eight inches long and four inches in diameter, turned with a bow, portable, and insulated not with a cake of rosin but with a frame made of silk thread.
| (University of Erfurt) Erfurt, Germany |
255 YBN
[1745 AD]
| 2966) Andrew Gordon (CE 1712-1751), Benedictine monk, and physicist, invents an electrostatic motor and electric chimes.
Gordon publishes both of these inventions in "Versuch einer Erklarung der Electricitat" (Erfurt 1745).
The electrostatic motor is commonly called the "electric whirl" and is a light metallic star supported on a sharp pivot with the pointed ends bent at right angles to the star rays.
Gordon's bell ringing electrostatic motor invented around 1742 is the first device to convert electricity into continuous mechanical movement.
The electronic chimes are usually credited to Benjamin Franklin.
On page 38, Gordon states that he was lead to try an electrical method of ringing bells and adds "for this purpose I placed two small wine glasses near each other, one of which stood on an electrified board, while the other, placed at a distance of an inch from it, was connected with the ground. Between the two I suspended a little clapper by a silk thread, which clapper was attracted by the electrified glass and then repelled to the grounded one, giving rise to a sound as it struck each glass. As the clapper adhered somewhat to the glasses, the effect on the whole was not agreeable. I, therefore, substituted two small mechanical gongs, suspended one from an electrified conductor and the other from a grounded rod, the gongs being on the same level and one inch apart. When the clapper was lowered and adjusted, it moved at once to the electrified bell, from which it was driven over to the other, and kept on moving to and fro, striking the bell each time with pleasing effect until the electrified bell lost its charge."
Two bells have opposite charge, and a clapper swings between them. The clapper is attracted to a glass until they touch, the glass chimes, and the clapper takes on the same charge as the glass. Because like charges repel each other, the clapper immediately is electrostatically repelled away from the first glass, and, because opposite charges are attracted to each other, the clapper is electrostatically attracted to the opposite glass. When the clapper rings the second glass, the clapper takes on the charge of the second glass, is repelled by it, and then returns to ring the first glass. The process keeps repeating as long as opposite electrostatic charges exist on the two glasses.
Gordon invents a (small) electric motor in which the rotation is the result of electrified air particles escaping from a number of sharp points. One of these motors consists of a star of light rays cut from a sheet of tine and pivoted at the center, with the ends of the rays slightly bent. When electrified Gordon notices that the star required no help to set it into motion, and is therefore a self-starting electric motor. In the dark, the points are tipped with light, and as they resolve trace out a luminous circle. This device is usually called "Hamilton's fly" or "Hamilton's mill".
According to Joseph Priestley the German electricians usually used more than one globe at a time, imagining the effects to be proportional. Priestley states that the German electricians reported breaking the skin and causing blood by electric spark, reporting that the skin would be burst and a wound appear.
Gordon uses electric sparks to kill small birds.
| (University of Erfurt) Erfurt, Germany |
254 YBN
[04/20/1746 AD]
| 1930) On 20 April 1746, Musschenbroek reports in a letter to René Reaumur details of a new but dangerous experiment he has carried out. Musschenbroek had suspended, by silk threads, a gun barrel, which receives static electricity from a glass globe rapidly turned on its axis and rubbed with the hands. From the other end (of the gun barrel) Musschenbroek suspends a brass wire, which passes through a cork into a round glass bottle partly filled with water. Musschenbroek is trying to "preserve" electricity by storing it in a nonconductor.
historian John Heilbron describes another letter also sent on April 20, 1746. Musschenbroek sends a letter to Georg Bose (CE 1710-1761) at Wittenberg in similar terms to the earlier letter to Reumer. Musschenbroek writes that he has tried to repeat some experiments which had been proposed by his correspondent (Bose) with such success that an improved version on one nearly killed him. This is he Leyden jar experiment and the experiment of Bose referred to is from Bose's "Tentamina electrica tandem aliquando hydraulicae chymiae et vegetabilibus utilia" (Wittenberg, 1747). Bose views himself as the discoverer of the fact that water can be used as a "nonelectric body" (a conductor) like a metal, in drawing a spark from an electrified object. In Bose's demonstrations the water is not electrified, and so it was naturally assumed that the electrical matter of the spark comes from the electrified object. Bose proposes a new experiment designed to reverse the phenomenon to see whether "fire", which Bose thinks is identical with the matter of electricity, can be drawn from water as well as from metals. Bose succeeds in drawing sparks from water in a drinking glass with his finger or with the point of a sword, although does not say how. Bose is convinced that the "fire" comes from the water. (Do the electric particles originate from the water? What elements/molecules are revealed by their spectrum?)
The Leyden jar is charged by bringing the free end of the wire into contact with a friction device that generates static electricity.
When Musschenbroek held the glass bottle with one hand while trying to draw sparks from the gun-barrel (to the bottle) he received a violent electric shock.
The Leyden jar can accumulate an electric large enough to shock people. Franklin will use a Leyden jar within 6 years for experiments. Ewald Georg von Kleist, a German cleric, independently developed the idea in 1745 for such a device, but does not investigate it as thoroughly as Musschenbroek does. The Leyden jar revolutionizes the study of electrostatics. Soon "electricians" are earning their living all over Europe demonstrating electricity with Leyden jars. Typically, they kill birds and animals with electric shock or send charges through wires over rivers and lakes. Another way of thinking about a Leyden jar is that a relatively large electrical difference (voltage) between the earth and the jar is created.
| Leiden, Netherlands |
254 YBN
[1746 AD]
| 2003) Carolus Linnaeus (linAus) (CE 1707-1778) publishes "Sponsalia Plantarum" ("The sex of plants", 1746) on plant sexuality.
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
254 YBN
[1746 AD]
| 2022) Andreas Sigismunf Marggraf (MoRKGroF) (CE 1709-1782), isolated (1746) zinc.
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
254 YBN
[1746 AD]
| 2953) Nollet describes electricity as composed of two fluids.
Jean-Antoine Nollet (CE 1700-1770), French clergyman, and experimental physicist develops a theory of electrical attraction and repulsion that supposed the existence of a continuous flow of electrical matter between charged bodies.
Nollet sees electricity as a fluid, (small) enough to penetrate the densest of bodies. In 1746 Nollet first formulates his theory of simultaneous "affluences and effluences" in which Nollet assumes that bodies have two sets of pores in and out of which electrical effluvia might flow. (Some people could possibly categorize "electric effluvia" as an early description of electrons.)
Nollet reasons that since any given electrified body simultaneously attracts some objects and repels others, electrification must involve two streams of electrical fluid traveling in opposite directions, an "effluent" current carrying repelled objects away from the charged body and an "affluent" current carrying attracted objects toward it.
Nollet's theory at first gains wide acceptance, but loses popularity to Franklin's theory in 1852 with the publication of the French translation of Franklin's "Experiments and Observations on Electricity". Franklin and Nollet are on opposite sides of the debate about the nature of electricity, with Franklin supporting action at a distance and two qualitatively opposing types of electricity, and Nollet advocating mechanical action and a single type of electric fluid. Franklin's argument eventually wins and Nollet's theory is abandoned.
Charles Du Fay (CE 1698-1739) had identified two kinds of electricity "vitreous" and "resinous".
Joe Priestley comments that Nollet is the first to experiment with Leyden jars in France, and performs many experiments which are described in Nollet's "Le�ons de physique" (page 481). Nollet uses electric sparks to kill small birds, and observes on dissection that the blood vessels are burned as if killed by lightning.
Nollet builds an electrostatic generator using a prime conductor like Georg Mathias Bose (CE 1710-1761) had in 1740. (chronology) Priestley describes this machine as the most common around the time the Leyden jar was discovered.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
254 YBN
[1746 AD]
| 2968) William Watson (CE 1715â"1787), English physician and scientist, shows that the electricity does not come from the sphere in an electrostatic generator but from the ground, because no spark between Watson and the sphere is produced when Watson stands and cranks on an insulated platform.
Benjamin Franklin finds this independently.
In a paper of June 28, 1764, Watson with Franklin observing melts a 1/182 inch thin iron wire by discharging a spark from an electric battery in the form of a case of bottles. The wire turns red hot and falls into spherical drops which burn into a table. Canton finds that a case of 35 bottles can melt brass wire 1/330 inch.
| London, England |
254 YBN
[1746 AD]
| 2969) John Bevis (CE 1695-1771) finds that the capacity of the Leyden jar is increased by coating the inside and outside with lead foil. Later other metal foils will be used.
This is the basis of the modern capacitor, in that two conductors are separated by some material which stores electric particles.
| London, England |
253 YBN
[07/11/1747 AD]
| 1981) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790), American statesman and scientist, correctly identifies the light and sound of lightning with the spark produced by a Leiden jar, and views electricity as a single "fluid" that can exist in surplus or in deficiency, instead of as two kinds of fluids as was believed. Franklin calls a surplus "positive electricity" and a deficit "negative electricity".
"positive" and "negative" electricity will replace the names "vitreous" and "resinous" electricity.(see example of )
Peter Collinson, Benjamin Franklin's (CE 1706-1790) Quaker correspondent in London publishes Franklin's reports about his ideas and experiments with electricity in an 86-page book titled "Experiments and Observations on Electricity".
In this book, Franklin suggests an experiment to prove the identity of lightning and electricity. This experiment (identify which experiment) will be first made in France before Franklin tries the more simple but more dangerous experiment of flying a kite in a thunderstorm.
Franklin views the two different forms of electricity by viewing electricity as a single fluid that can exist in surplus or deficit. Two objects with a surplus repel each other as do two with a deficit, but an object with an surplus and an object with a deficit attract each other, the surplus flowing into the deficit, and the two (electrical objects) then become neutral. Franklin calls the surplus "positive electricity" and a deficit "negative electricity". In addition Franklin demonstrates that the plus and minus charges, or states of electrification of bodies, have to occur in exactly equal amounts, an important scientific principle known today as the law of conservation of charge. 150 years will pass before electricity is associated with subatomic particles, particularly the electron, first found by J.J. Thompson. A large charge will be associated with a surplus of electrons similar to Franklin's theory. Franklin actually gets the labels backwards, calling the positive the object we now recognize as the object with an electron deficit, and the negative as the object with the electron surplus. This convention is still used, although people recognize that electricity flows from negative to positive.
Franklin invents a battery for storing electrical charges. (before Volta? 1800, is similar to capacitor or Leyden jar?)
Franklin supposes the existence of two kinds of matter: common matter, which is mutually attractive, and electrical matter, which is mutually repulsive. These two matters also attract each other, and in any ordinary object, equal quantities of each are needed to balance each other. When too much electricity is present, the extra fluid forms an electrical "atmosphere". When too little electricity is present, the unbalanced common matter becomes electrically active. So Franklin explains electric effects as the wanting of electric fluid in bodies and the striving of common and electrical matter to rectify the imbalance.
Franklin performs an experiment where two people stand on wax (are insulated from the ground), one which rubs the tube, and the other takes the spark from the tube. Franklin states that the person touching the tube is electrified positively or plus, being supposed to receive an additional quantity of electricity, where the person who rubs the tube is said to be electrified negatively or minus, being supposed to have lost a part of their natural quantity of the electric fluid.
This theory is in contrast to the two fluid theory of Jean-Antoine Nollet (CE 1700-1770). One problem with a single fluid theory is the question about how so-called negative repulsion can happen, for example, between two gold leaves in an electroscope, with a deficit of electrical fluid. In addition, if this repulsion is from particle collision, it implies that there are two different particles that can combine with each other but not with themselves. Priestley compares the two fluid theory to the acid-base theory in chemistry. Priestley states that "The zeal of Dr. Franklin's friends, and his reputation, were considerably increased by the opposition which the Abbe Nollet made to his theory. The Abbe, however never had any considerable seconds in the controversy, and those he had, I am informed, have all deserted him."
| Philadelphia, PA (English colonies) USA (letter to London, England) |
253 YBN
[09/01/1747 AD]
| 2970) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790) reports that the two sides of the glass of a Leyden jar are equally and oppositely charged.
Franklin finds that in the Leyden jar, that each side of the glass is oppositely charged. Franklin observes that a cork ball suspended by silk between two Leyden jars, when the jars are both charged through their hooks, is attracted (contacts a jar) and is the repelled, but when one jar is electrified through the hook, and the second electrified by the coating, the ball bounces back and forth between the two jars until the electricity is discharged. Franklin does not report the logical third experiment where the Leyden jars are both charged through the coating (making the hooks electrified minus), the ball would be repelled by them both, as when they were electrified plus.
Initially, Franklin states that the electrical "fire" (particles) accumulates on the outside metal foil (the non-electric) of the Leyden jar, and is crowded into the inside (non-electric) metal foil, however, later experiments will show that the "fire" on the inside of the Leyden jar is not in the metal foil (non-electric) but in the glass.
| Philadelphia, PA, (English Colonies) USA(London, England) |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 1907) French physician and philosopher, Julien Offroy de La Mettrie (CE 1709-1751) publishes "L'Homme-machine" (1747; "Man, A Machine), which develops La Mettrie's materialistic and atheistic views more boldly and completely. La Mettrie views the human body purely as a machine. The atheism and materialism in this book outrage even the Dutch. La Mettrie is then forced to leave Holland but is welcomed in Berlin (1748) by Frederick the Great, made court reader, and appointed to the academy of science.
| ?, Netherlands |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 1982) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790), recognizes the "power of points"; that a spark is emitted from a Leyden jar over a greater distance if the rod receiving the spark is pointed.
This will lead to the "comb" design of the charge collector of electrostatic generators.
Franklin suggests that pointed metal rods be placed above the roofs of buildings with wires leading to the ground. These lightning rods discharge (electricity in the) clouds safely and protect the buildings from lightning. By 1782 there will be 400 lightning rods in use in Philadelphia alone. (unknown date for this)
Franklin writes "The first is the wonderful effect of pointed bodies, both in drawing off and throwing off the electrical fire. For example, Place an iron shot of three or four inches diameter on the mouth of a clean dry glass bottle. By a fine silken thread from the ceiling, right over the mouth of the bottle, suspend a small cork ball, about the bigness of a marble; the thread of such a length, as that the cork ball may rest against the side of the shot. Electrify the shot, and the ball will be repelled to the distance of four or five inches, more or less, according to the quantity of Electricity. When in this state, if you present to the shot the point of a long slender sharp bodkin (a small, pointed instrument for making holes in cloth, leather, etc.), at six or eight inches distance, the repellency is instantly destroy'd, and the cork flies to the shot. A blunt body must be brought within an inch, and draw a spark, to produce the same effect. To prove that the electrical fire is drawn off by the point, if you take the blade of the bodkin out of the wooden handle, and fix it in a stick of sealing wax, and then present it at the distance aforesaid, or if you bring it very near, no such effect follows; but sliding one finger along the wax till you touch the blade, and the ball flies to the shot immediately. If you present the point in the dark, you will see, sometimes at a foot distance, and more, a light gather upon it, like that of a fire-fly, or glow-worm; the less sharp the point, the nearer you must bring it to observe the light; and, at whatever distance you see the light, you may draw off the electrical fire, and destroy the repellency. If a cork ball so suspended be repelled by the tube, and a point be presented quick to it, tho' at a considerable distance, 'tis surprizing to see how suddenly it flies back to the tube. Points of wood will do near as well as those of iron, provided the wood is not dry; for perfectly dry wood will no more conduct Electricity than sealing-wax. To shew that points will throw off as well as draw off the electrical fire; lay a long sharp needle upon the shot and, you cannot electrise the shot so as to make it repel the rock ball. Or fix a needle to the end of a suspended gun barrel, or iron rod, so as to point beyond it like a little bayonet; and while it remains there, the gun barrel, or rod, cannot by applying the tube to the other end be electrised so as to give a spark, the fire continually running out silently at the point. In the dark you may see it make the same appearance as it does in the case before mentioned.".
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 2012) Albrecht von Haller (HolR) (CE 1708-1777), Swiss physiologist, publishes "Primae lineae physiologiae" (1747), the first textbook of physiology.
| Göttingen, Germany |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 2020) Andreas Sigismunf Marggraf (MoRKGroF) (CE 1709-1782), German chemist , extracts a crystalline substance from various common plants including beets, which turns out to be identical to cane sugar. This finding lays the foundation of Europe's important sugar beet industry. Marggraf uses alcohol to extract the juices from several plants, including one now known as the sugar beet (Beta vulgaris). Marggraf identifies the sugar beet's dried, crystallized juice as identical with cane sugar by the use of a microscope, which may be the first use of a microscope for chemical identification. Marggraf's discovery of beet sugar will not be utilized until 1786, four years after his death, and the first beet-sugar refinery will not begin operations until 1802.
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 2055) Feeding citrus fruits to people at sea was a practice of Dutch seafarers in the 1500s.
Twelve sailors (with scurvy) in groups of two each receive cider, elixir of vitriol, vinegar, sea water, purgatives, or citrus fruits (oranges, lemons). Those who receive the citrus fruits recover rapidly from their scurvy, while the others do not.
Lind tries to get the navy to adapt citrus fruits as a dietary staple, but progress is slow. Captain Cook has his sailors perform a daily practice of sucking the juice of a lime, and none of these sailors get scurvy. Not until 1795 will the British navy adopt the use of feeding lime juice to sailors. The slang word "limey" to refer to British sailors originates from this practice.
Eijkman and others will show in a century that Lind unknowingly is treating a vitamin deficiency disease.
Lind also recommends shipboard delousing procedures, suggests the use of hospital ships for sick sailors in tropical ports, and suggests that sea water be made a source of shipboard fresh water through distillation.. Lind will arrange (in 1761) shipboard distillation of seawater for drinking. (I see this as a classic way to get fresh water for people near an ocean like those people on the California coast cities. It seems unusual that they would import fresh water with a vast ocean of fresh water meters away.)
| England |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 2056) James Lind (CE 1716-1794), Scottish physician, publishes his "Treatise of the Scurvy" (1753) in which Lind emphasizes the preventive effect of ingesting fresh fruit or lemon juice against scurvy.
| England (presumably) |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 2963) Georg Mathias Bose (CE 1710-1761), German physicist, publishes "Tentamina electrica tandem aliquando hydraulicae chymiae et vegetabilibus utilia" (Wittenberg, 1747) which includes an experiment of drawing a spark from water.
| (University of Wittenberg)Wittenberg, Germany |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 2986) Jean-Antoine Nollet (CE 1700-1770) builds an electroscope that uses light projection.
(see image) The lamp at G images the threads from the prime conductor on the screen H.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 3452) Humans recognize that an expanded gas lowers temperature, the basis of refrigeration.
| (Academy of Petersburg) Petersburg, Russia |
253 YBN
[1747 AD]
| 4483) Jean Jacques D’ortous De Mairan, French Physicist (CE 1678 - 1771) and Charles Du Fay (CE 1698-1739) French chemist observe that sun light focused with a lens can turn a wheel made of copper, and one of iron.
| Paris, France |
252 YBN
[01/01/1748 AD]
| 1960) Pierre Bouguer (BUGAR) (CE 1698-1758) French mathematician, invents the heliometer, to measure the light of the sun and other luminous bodies. This is the first instrument to measure the intensity of light.
| ??, France (presumably) |
252 YBN
[02/14/1748 AD]
| 1932) Bradley's star measurements in 1727-47 also revealed what he called the "annual change of declination in some of the fixed stars", which could not be accounted for by aberration. This small displacement, which, because it has the same period as the regression of the nodes of the Moon, Bradley identifies as the result of the 5° inclination of the Moon's orbit to the ecliptic. Bradley concludes that nutation must arise from the fact that the moon is sometimes above and sometimes below the ecliptic, and it should therefore have the periodicity of the lunar node, that is, approximately 18.6 years. This causes a slight wobble of the Earth's axis, which he calls "nutation". His observations of this covered the period from 1727 to 1747, a full cycle of the motion of the moon's nodes. Friedrich Bessel will later use Bradley's observations to construct a catalog of unprecedented accuracy.
Bradley does not announce the supplementary detection of nutation until February 14, 1748 (Phil. Trans. xlv. I), when he had tested its reality by minute observations during an entire revolution (18.6 years) of the moon"s nodes.
| Kew, England |
252 YBN
[1748 AD]
| 2045) John Turberville Needham (CE 1713-1781) in collaboration with Buffon, boils sheep muscle broth and seals it in glass containers, and finds microorganisms in the broth days later when they are opened. From this, Needham concludes that life can be spontaneously generated. Twenty years later Spallanzani will show that Needham had not boiled his broth long enough and that some spores had survived the short boiling period.
| London, England (presumably) |
252 YBN
[1748 AD]
| 2954) Jean-Antoine Nollet (CE 1700-1770), French clergyman, experimental physicist, and leading member of the Paris Academy of Science, describes osmosis.
Also in this year Nollet invents one of the first electrometers, the electroscope, which shows the presence of electric charge by using electrostatic attraction and repulsion. (verify)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
252 YBN
[1748 AD]
| 2955) Nollet invents an electroscope a device which measures electric charge
Jean-Anto ine Nollet (CE 1700-1770), French clergyman, and experimental physicist invents an electroscope, one of the first electrometers, a device which detects the presence of electric charge by using electrostatic attraction and repulsion.
An electroscope is an instrument for detecting the presence of an electric charge or of ionizing radiation, usually consisting of a pair of thin gold leaves suspended from an electrical conductor that leads to the outside of an insulating container. An electric charge (both positive and negative) brought near the conductor or in contact with it causes the leaves to separate at an angle because, as is explained by Coulomb's law, like electric charges transferred to each leaf causes them to repel each other.
(To detect ionizing radiation (photons)), radiation (photons in high frequency) from radioactive materials introduced into a charged electroscope ionizes the gas within, permitting the charge on the leaves to leak off gradually. The rate that the leaves converge to their parallel uncharged position is proportional to the intensity of radiation (photons) present.
I think that if you look at static electrical repulsion as a mechanical physical collision of many particles kind of phenomenon, then the fact that both positive and negative charges repel the leaves implies that there may be two different kinds of particles. Perhaps like two puzzle pieces that fit together but not with each other. Perhaps like electrons and positively charged atoms (ions). It seems physically clear that some invisible particles are located around some charged object, much like a person can smell invisible particles from an object far from the object.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
252 YBN
[1748 AD]
| 4537) Leonhard Euler (OElR) (CE 1707-1783), Swiss mathematician, shows that a spheroidal shape of Jupiter (as opposed to a perfect spherical shape) would cause irregularities in the motions of the satellites. This becomes important when people examine the rotation of the orbit of planet Mercury in the 1900s in order to examine the accuracy of Albert Einstein's theory of relativity. (presumably in and/or - verify)
| Berlin, Germany |
251 YBN
[04/29/1749 AD]
| 2971) The electrostatic battery.
Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790) constructs an electric battery. The electrostatic battery is a capacitor (or condenser) (also known as a Franklin or Leyden pane), which consists of a sheet of glass, partly coated on both sides with tin foil or silver leaf, a margin of glass all around being left to insulate the two tin foils from each other. This is the basis of the modern capacitor, in that two conductors are separated by some material which stores electric particles.
Franklin devises a method of charging jars in series as well as in parallel. In the former method, now commonly known as charging in cascade, the jars are insulated and the outside coating of one jar is connected to the inside coating of the next and so on for an entire series, the inside coating of the first jar and the outside coating of the last jar being the terminals of the condenser. For charging in parallel a number of jars are collected in a box, and all the outside coatings are connected together metallically and all the inside coatings brought to one common terminal. This arrangement is commonly called a battery of Leyden jars. To Franklin also we owe the important knowledge that the electric charge resides really in the glass and not in the metal coatings, and that when a condenser has been charged the metallic coatings can be exchanged for fresh ones and yet the electric charge of the condenser remains.
Franklin writes "16. Thus, the whole force of the bottle, and power of giving a shock, is in the glass itself; the non-electrics in contact with the two surfaces, serving only to give and receive to and from the several parts of the glass; that is, to give on one side, and take away from the other. 17. This was discovered here in the following manner: Purposing to analyze the electrified bottle, in order to find wherein its strength lay, we placed it on glass, and drew out the cork and wire, which for that purpose had been loosely put in. Then taking the bottle in one hand, and bringing a finger of the other near its mouth, a strong spark came from the water, and the shock was as violent as if the wire had remained in it, which shewed that the force did not lie in the wire. Then, to find if it resided in the water, being crouded into and condensed in it, as confin'd by the glass, which had been our former opinion, we electrified the bottle again, and, placing it on glass, drew out the wire and cork as before; then taking up the bottle, we decanted all its water into an empty bottle, which likewise stood on glass; and taking up that other bottle, we expected, if the force resided in the water to find a shock from it; but there was none. We judged then, that it must either be lost in decanting, or remain in the first bottle. Then latter we found to be true; for that bottle on trial gave the shock, though filled up as it stood with fresh unelectrified water from a tea-pot. To find, then, whether glass had this property merely as glass, or whether the form contributed any thing to it; we took a pane of sash-glass, and, laying it on the hand {stand}, placed a plate of lead on its upper surface; then electrified that plate, and bringing a finger to it, there was a spark and shock. We then took two plates of lead of equal dimensions, but less than the glass by two inches every way, and electrified the glass between them, by electrifying the uppermost lead; then separated the glass from the lead, in doing which, what little fire might be in the lead was taken out, and the glass being touched in the electrified parts with a finger, afforded only very small pricking sparks, but a great number of them might be taken from different places. Then dexterously placing it again between the leaden plates, and compleating a circle between the two surfaces, a violent shock ensued. Which demonstrated the power to reside in glass as glass, and that the non-electrics in contact served only, like the armature of a loadstone, to unite the force of the several parts, and bring them at once to any point desired; it being the property of a non-electric, that the whole body instantly receives or gives what electrical fire is given to, or taken from, any one of its parts.".
Franklin is apparently the first to use the word "battery" to apply to a device that stores electricity.
Franklin continues "18. Upon this we made what we called an "electrical battery" consisting of eleven panes of large sash glass arm'd with thin leaden plates pasted on each side placed vertically and supported at two inches distance on silk cords with thick hooks of leaden wire one from each side standing upright distant from each other and convenient communications of wire and chain from the giving side of one pane to the receiving side of the other that so the whole might be charged together and with the same labour as one single pane and another contrivance to bring the giving sides, after charging, in contact with one long wire, and the receivers with another, which two long wires would give the force of all the planets of glass at once through the body of any animal forming the circle with them. The plates may also be discharged separately, or any number together that is required. but this machine is not much used, as not perfectly answering our intention with regard to the ease of charging, for the reason given, Sec. 10. We made also, of large glass panes, magical pictures, and self-moving animated wheels, presently to be described. 19. I perceive by the ingenious Mr. Watson's last book, lately received, that Dr. Bevis has used, before we had, panes of glass to give a shock (I have since heard, that Mr. Smeaton was the first who made use of panes of glass for that purpose) though, till that book came to hand, I thought to have communicated it to you as a novelty. The excuse for mentioning it here is, that we tried the experiment differently, drew different consequences from it (for Mr. Watson still seems to think the fire accumulated on the non-electric that is in contact with the glass, p.72) and, as far as we hitherto know, have carried it farther."
What is interesting to me is how many things are like a capacitor, an insulator between two conductors, for example an electrostatic generator is an insulator between two conductors (people's hands), a Leyden jar is (nail or hook or tin foil, glass, and hand or tin foil), the electrostatic battery/capacitors in series, and also the similarity to a voltaic pile where two conductors are separated by an insulator of wet paper.
After Canton finds electrostatic induction, Franz Aepinus will suppose that storage of electric fluid in a nonconductor (electric) is not as Franklin suggests the result of the internal structure of glass, but is common to all insulators (electrics) that relates to the slowness with which the electric fluid moves in their pores, where in perfect conductors, this fluid meet no obstruction at all. (chronology)
Franklin describes how a spark will make a hole in one or more papers, leaving the hole dark from smoke. This is an early form of particle track detection, since the track of the electricity can be traced in the paper. Robert Symmer expands this experiment to trace the track of the electric spark through paper.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylviania, (English Colonies) USA (and London, England) |
251 YBN
[1749 AD]
| 1877) Edmond Halley's (CE 1656-1742) "Tabulae astronomicae" (1749, tr. 1752) is published posthumously.
| London, England (presumably) |
251 YBN
[1749 AD]
| 1961) Pierre Bouguer (BUGAR) (CE 1698-1758) French mathematician, publishes "La Figure de la terre" (1749; "The Shape of the Earth"), which gives a full account of his 1735 expedition with C.M. de la Condamine to measure an arc of the meridian near the equator in Peru. Bouguer uses the results of this expedition to make a new determination of the Earth's shape. Bouguer measures gravity by pendulum at different altitudes and is the first to attempt to measure the horizontal gravitational pull of mountains. Bouguer observes the deviation of the force of gravity, measured on a high plateau, from that calculated on the basis of the elevation, and correctly explains the effect as resulting from the mass of matter between his (location) and (average) sea level.
| ??, France (presumably) |
251 YBN
[1749 AD]
| 1997) Carolus Linnaeus (linAus) (CE 1707-1778) introduces the binomial system of nomenclature ((referring to an object with genus and species)), now the basis for naming and classifying all organisms.
Early herbalists had used a binomial system before Linnaeus.
Also in this year, the subject of ecology as a distinct area of investigation is first outlined by Linnaeus in a thesis entitled "Specimen academicum de oeconomia naturae" (also "Oeconomia Naturae", "The economy of nature", 1749), which is defended by one of his students in 1749. Linnaeus organizes ecology around the balance of nature concept, which he names the "economy of nature." Linnaeus emphasizes the interrelationships in nature and is one of the first naturalists to describe food chains.
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
251 YBN
[1749 AD]
| 2024) Johann Georg Gmelin (GumAliN) (CE 1709-1755) German explorer finds new plant species in his garden and understands that this cannot be explained in terms of the fixed species which Linnaeus believes and that the Biblical account of creation had made orthodox. De Vries will explain this (creation of new species) a century and a half later.
| Saint Petersburg, Russia |
251 YBN
[1749 AD]
| 2046) Denis Diderot (DEDrO) (CE 1713-1784), French writer , presents an evolutionary theory of survival by superior adaptation in "Lettre sur les aveugles" ("An Essay on Blindness"). In addition in this work Diderot proposes to teach blind people to read through the sense of touch, along lines that Louis Braille will follow in the 1800s. This hypothesis of superior adaption with an emphasis on the human dependence on sense impression is viewed as supporting materialist atheism, and leads to the arrest of Diderot and his imprisonment in Vincennes for three months.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
250 YBN
[01/01/1750 AD]
| 2040) Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (LoKoYu) (CE 1713-1762), French astronomer leads an expedition to the Cape of Good Hope where over the course of four years (1750-1754) records the positions of nearly 10,000 stars. At the Cape of Good Hope, Lacaille's observations of the Moon, Mars and Venus in combination with observations by Lalande in Berlin will allow the distance to those objects to be calculated using parallax.(using which star(s) as reference? Perhaps using the center of the oblate spheroid earth as a reference? What distance do they measure?)
Before leaving the Cape, Lacaille measures the first arc of a meridian in South Africa.
In only two years' time Lacaille will determine the positions of nearly 10,000 stars,-many still referred to by his catalog numbers.2]
| Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
250 YBN
[1750 AD]
| 1245) Benjamin Franklin in Philadelphia makes a commercial blasting cap consisting of a paper tube full of black powder, with wires leading in both sides and cotton wadding sealing up the ends. The two wires are close but do not touch, so a large electric spark discharging between the two wires will fire the cap.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
250 YBN
[1750 AD]
| 1921) René Antoine Ferchault de Réaumur (rAOmYOR) (CE 1683-1757), designs an egg incubator.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
250 YBN
[1750 AD]
| 2025) Thomas Wright (CE 1711-1786) English astronomer is the first to hypothesize that the sun is not the center of the universe, and that the Milky Way is flattened. Wright publishes "An Original Theory or New Hypothesis of the Universe" (1750), in which he explains the appearance of the Milky Way as "an optical effect due to our immersion in what locally approximates to a flat layer of stars".
| |
250 YBN
[1750 AD]
| 2063) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist invents a new way to make artificial magnets.(more detail, what are artificial magnets, and describe new method)
| London, England |
249 YBN
[1751 AD]
| 1968) Pierre de Maupertuis (moPARTUE) (CE 1698-1759) publishes "Système de la nature" (1751) which contains speculations on the nature of biparental heredity based on his study of polydactyly, or extra fingers, in several generations of a Berlin family. Maupertuis demonstrates that polydactyly can be transmitted by either the male or female parent, and explains polydactyly as the result of a mutation in the "hereditary particles" possessed by the parents. Maupertuis also calculates the mathematical probability of the trait's future occurrence in new members of the family, which is the first scientifically accurate record of the transmission of a dominant hereditary trait in humans.
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
249 YBN
[1751 AD]
| 2002) Carolus Linnaeus (linAus) (CE 1707-1778) publishes "Philosophia Botanica" ("Philosophy of botany", 1751) which lays down rules for classifying and naming organisms that will inform all future taxonomic practice.
In this book proposes the use of binomial nomenclature and will use this naming system for the first time consistently in his "Species Plantarum".
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
249 YBN
[1751 AD]
| 2047) 1751-1772 publishes a twenty eight volume encyclopedia. This book is legally suppressed in 1759 when half done, but Diderot continues to work on it secretly, even though many of his collaborators (such as D'Alembert) quit fearing imprisonment.
| Paris, France |
249 YBN
[1751 AD]
| 2070) Cronstedt experiments with an ore, that like Colbolt resembles copper ore and which the miner's named Kupfernickel ("The Devil's copper"). This ore does not impart a blue color to glass as the cobalt ore does. Cronstedt obtains green crystals from the ore (how?) that when heated with charcoal yield a white metal that is not copper. It looks like iron and cobolt but is different from both.(how) Cronstedt finds that the new metal is attracted to a magnet like iron but not as strongly. This is the first time anything besides iron has been found to respond to magnetism. In 1754 Cronstedt will name the new metal "nickel", a shortened form of the name given the ore by miners. Many people will argue whether this is a new metal or a mixture of (known) metals, but it will ultimately be recognized as a new metal.
| |
248 YBN
[01/03/1752 AD]
| 2009) Thomas Melvill (CE 1726-1753) describes the different spectra of an alcohol flame colored by various salts.
Thomas Melvill (CE 1726-1753), in his "Observations on Light and Colours", describes his use of a prism to examine (the spectrum of light of) an alcohol flame colored by various salts. Melvill remarks on a yellow line always seen at a constant place in the spectrum. This yellow line is derived from sodium, which is present in all the salts that he test, therefore Melvill is sometimes seen as the father of flame spectroscopy, although there is no evidence that Melvill views his experiments as a method of analysis.
In this paper, Melvill also argues that the reason light particles do not appear to collide with each other is that, as Johan Andreas Segner has stated in 1740, light particles follow one another at very great distance.
For nearly a century after the publication of Newton's "Opticks" in 1704 almost nothing is added to the human knowledge of the spectrum, Melvill's find being one exception. In the year before his death Melvill describes what he sees when looking through a prism at an alcohol flame fed with alum, potash, and other substances. A pasteboard screen with a circular hole in it is placed between the eye and the flame. In viewing the light, Melvill writes "All sorts of rays were emitted, but not in equal quantities; the yellow being vastly more copious than all the rest put together, and red more faint than the green and blue. ... Because the hole appears through the prism quite circular and uniform in color, the bright yellow which prevails so much over the other colors must be of one determined degree of refrangibility; and the transition from it to the fainter color adjoining, not gradual but immediate.".
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
248 YBN
[02/20/1752 AD]
| 2976) William Watson (CE 1715â"1787), English physician and scientist, experiments with electric lighting by passing electricity through evacuated tubes by making the vacuum part of the circuit. Watson does describe the light created. Canton extends this experimenting and compares the glow from the tube to an aurora borealis.
Boyle had shown that electrical attraction is transmitted through a vacuum in 1660. William Morgan will perform similar experiments sending electricity through evacuated tubes in 1785.
| London, England |
248 YBN
[1752 AD]
| 1922) Réaumur proves that digestion is chemical and not mechanical by feeding a hawk meat in small open ended metal cylinders with the ends covered with wire gauze. Hawks swallow large pieces of food, digest what they can and regurgitate the rest. When the hawks regurgitate the metal cylinder, Réaumur finds the meat partially dissolved. Since the metal cylinders are undamaged from mechanical movement Réaumur concludes that the stomach juices must have had a chemical action on the meat. Réaumur collects a quantity of stomach juice by allowing the hawk to swallow a sponge and squeezing out the juice after the hawk regurgitates the sponge. This fluid does slowly dissolve meat placed in it. Réaumur runs the same experiment with dogs and finds the same result. (how he gets stomach fluid from dogs?)
Réaumur also studies regeneration in crayfish and is the first to understand that corals are animals, not plants.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
248 YBN
[1752 AD]
| 1983) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790) performs an experiment where a spark moves from a key attached to a kite to his hand, and charges a Leyden jar from the key. (I have doubts about electricity flowing this regularly from the sky, but perhaps, has this experiment, been duplicated more safely since to verify Franklin's claims? Of course, that lightning is electricity is not in doubt.)
Franklin flies a kite in a thunderstorm. The kite carries a pointed (metal) wire connected to a silk thread (which is an electrical conductor although not as strong a conductor as metal wire - verify) that can be charged by electricity in the sky. Franklin puts his hand next to a metal key tied to the bottom of the silk thread and a spark comes from the key just like a Leyden jar. Franklin also charges a Leyden jar from the key. (was this experiment was repeated successfully?) Canton does a similar and safer experiment.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
248 YBN
[1752 AD]
| 2064) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist is the first in England to experimentally verify Benjamin Franklin's hypothesis of the identity of lightning and electricity.
| London, England (presumably) |
248 YBN
[1752 AD]
| 2987) Professor George William Richman (CE 1711-1753) builds an electroscope.
| (Petersberg Academy) St Petersberg, Russia |
247 YBN
[02/17/1753 AD]
| 2658) Earliest telegraph.
The earliest known telegraph experiment is reported by a person with the initials "C.M." in "Scots Magazine". The article is titled "An Expeditious Method of Conveying Intelligence" and proposes that "a set of wires equal in number to the letters in the alphabet, be extended horizontally between two given places, parallel to one another and each of them an inch distant from the next to it.". On the sending side the wires are connected to the conductor of an electrostatic machine, and on the receiving side a (metal?) ball is suspended from each wire and under these balls are bits of paper marked with each letter of the alphabet which are attracted to the ball when charged.
C.M. may be Charles Marshall of Renfrew Scotland or Charles Morrison.
(Clearly the telegraph must have been secretly developed many years before 1753, if remote neuron reading goes back all the way to the 1200s.)
| Scotland, Great Britain (presumably) |
247 YBN
[07/26/1753 AD]
| 2985) Professor George William Richman (CE 1711-1753) is killed by electricity from lightning.
| St Petersberg, Russia |
247 YBN
[12/??/1753 AD]
| 2972) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist discovers electrostatic induction, that an electrified object can induce an opposite charge in a second object without touching by being close to the electrified object.
This principle is the basis of the electrophorus and inductive electrostatic generator as opposed to the friction electrostatic generator (in short hand ("influence machines" or "friction machines").
Canton shows that glass and sulfur can both be used to produce positive and negative electricity (earlier known as vitreous and resinous).
Benjamin Franklin had shown in 1749 that the electricity of the two surfaces of charged glass are always opposite each other.
Canton shows that sealing-wax can have positive electricity induced onto it. Canton electrifies (or excites) a stick of sealing-wax about two feet and a half in length, and an inch in diameter; and, holding the wax stick by the middle, draws an electrified glass tube several times over one part of it, without touching the other. As a result, the half that is exposed to the action of the electrified glass is positive, and the other half negative. Canton understands this because the half that is exposed to the electrified glass destroys the repelling power of balls electrified by glass, while the other half increases the repelling power.
(I think that electrostatic induction is a physical phenomenon, and perhaps the result of pairing particles. I think particles making physical contact is a requirement, however, since these particles are in the space around an object and too small to be seen, the appearance is that some influence is detected without any physical contact. So I think that particles are pairing, which leaves unpaired particles in insulated conductors. Grounding some object either removes unpaired particles, or introduces particles to pair with unpaired "pairing particles".)
| London, England |
247 YBN
[1753 AD]
| 1927) Joseph Nicolas Delisle (DulEL) (CE 1688-1768), French astronomer, in 1753 organizes a worldwide study of the transit of Venus of 1761.
| Paris, France |
247 YBN
[1753 AD]
| 1964) Henry Baker (CE 1698-1774), English naturalist, publishes "Employment for the Microscope" (1753).
| London, England (presumably) |
247 YBN
[1753 AD]
| 1994) Leonhard Euler (OElR) (CE 1707-1783), Swiss mathematician, publishes "Theoria motus lunae" (Berlin, 1753, in quarto) which is dedicated to developing a more accurate estimation of the position of the moon of earth, and gives a partial solution to the three-body problem that exists from the interactions of the Sun, Earth and Moon.
Euler calculates (tries to predict/generalize) the motions of moon and other planets which Lagrange and Laplace will later develop.
| Berlin, Germany |
247 YBN
[1753 AD]
| 1998) Carolus Linnaeus (linAus) (CE 1707-1778) publishes "Species plantarum" (2 vols, 1753) in which Linnaeus attempts to name and describe all known plants, calling each kind a species and assigning to each a two-part Greek or Latin name consisting of the genus (group) name followed by the species name.
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
247 YBN
[1753 AD]
| 2013) Before Haller, physiology followed the views of René Descartes, that bodily systems are mechanical but require some vital principle to stimulate movement. Haller, anticipated somewhat by Francis Glisson, breaks with this tradition by showing that muscles contract when stimulated, and that such "irritability" is inherent in the fiber and not caused by external factors.
This muscle contracting technology will be developed further by Galvani, and then secretly in the early 1900s to move muscles remotely using photons. This technology will sadly be kept a secret from the public for a century and counting, usurped by a wealthy group of elitists to take advantage of other people, instead of allowing the people of the earth to make use of the technology for the benefit of all humans. Even worse, this remote muscle moving will be used to murder people by holding their lung muscles to prevent them from breathing, by causing a heart to fibrillate, etc. Secret remote muscle moving technology will be one of the major "secret technologies" that rise in the early 1900s and are kept a secret from the public even as late as the year 2000.
| Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
247 YBN
[1753 AD]
| 2957) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist improves the electroscope by adding two small pith balls suspended by fine linen thread. The upper ends of the threads are fastened inside a wooden box. When placed in the presence of a charged body, the two balls become similarly charged, and since like charges repel, the balls separate. The degree of separation is a rough indicator of the amount of charge.
Canton and Beccaria both independently find that air can hold electricity. Canton writes "Take a charged phial in one hand, and a lighted candle, insulated, in the other; and, going into any room, bring the wire of the phial very near to the flame of the candle, and hold it there about half a minute: then carry the phial and candle out of the room, and return with the pith balls, suspended and held at arm's length. The balls will begin to separate on entering the room, and will stand an inch and half, or two inches a part, when brought near the middle of it.".
| London, England |
246 YBN
[1754 AD]
| 2021) Andreas Sigismunf Marggraf (MoRKGroF) (CE 1709-1782), German chemist , distinguishes between the oxides of aluminum (alumina, aluminum oxide) and calcium (lime, calcium oxide) found in common clay.
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
246 YBN
[1754 AD]
| 2120) Charles Bonnet (BOnA) (CE 1720-1793), Swiss naturalist, identifies that bubbles of air emit from plant leaves in water during daytime but that the bubbles stop forming at night.
Bonnet publishes this description in his "Recherches sur l¹usage des Feuilles dans les Plantes, et sur quelques autres Sujets relatif à l¹Histoire de la Végétation" (1754).
Bonnet supposes that the air comes from the water and not to any action of the leaf, but Jan Ingenhousz, citing this text, will collect these bubbles, and show 25 years later in 1779 that these bubbles are "deflogisticated air" (now known as oxygen) that oozes out of the leaves and are not from the water.
| Geneva, Switzerland |
245 YBN
[01/25/1755 AD]
| 1370) | Moscow, Russia |
245 YBN
[05/01/1755 AD]
| 3249) William Cullen (CE 1710-1790), Scottish physician, recognizes that an expanded gas lowers temperature.
Cullen states that Richman at the Academy of Petersburg, had reported this in 1747, and that M. de Mairan reported this in 1749. Cullen writes in "Of the Cold produced by evaporating Fluids and of some other Means of producing Cold": "A Young Gentleman one of my pupils, whom I had employed to examine the heat or cold that might be produced by the solution of certain substances in spirit of wine, observed to me: That, when a thermometer had been immersed in spirit of wine, tho' the spirit was exactly of the temperature of the surrounding air, or somewhat colder; yet, upon taking the thermometer out of the spirit, and suspending it in the air, the mercury in the thermometer, which was of Fahrenheit's construction, always sunk two or three degrees. This recalled to my mind some experiments and observations of M. de Mairan to the same purpose; which I had read some time before. (See Dissertation sur la glace, edit. 1749, p. 248 and seq. Vol II.) When I first read the experiments of M. de Mairan in the place referred to, I suspected, that water, and perhaps other fluids, in evaporating, produced, or, as the phrase is, generated some degree of cold. The above experiment of my Pupil confirmed my suspicion, and engaged me to verify it by a variety of new trials."
| (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
245 YBN
[11/??/1755 AD]
| 1528) Paoli's ideas of independence, democracy and liberty gains support from such philosophers as Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Raynal, and Mably. The publication in 1766 of "An Account of Corsica" by James Boswell makes Paoli famous all over Europe. With the Treaty of Versailles, the Genovese sell their rights over the island of Corsica to France. The French invade Corsica the same year, and for one year Paoli's forces fight desperately for their new republic. However, in 1769 Paoli is defeated and takes refuge in England.
| Corsica |
245 YBN
[1755 AD]
| 1990) Leonhard Euler (OElR) (CE 1707-1783), Swiss mathematician, publishes "Institutiones calculi differentialis" (1755). This work and the later "Institutiones calculi integralis" (1768-70), contain formulas of differentiation and numerous methods of indefinite integration, many of which Euler invents himself, for determining the work done by a force and for solving geometric problems. In addition Euler makes advances in the theory of linear differential equations, which are useful in solving problems in physics.
In these works Euler insists that the calculus is essentially a relationship between algebraic functions and is not based on geometry. Euler has no place for the traditional interpretation of differentials and integrals as determining the tangent of a curve or the area beneath it, and his calculus textbooks include none of those familiar graphics. (I find visualization of equations helpful, however we are limited to 3 spacial and one time variable in our graphical representations of equations.)
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
245 YBN
[1755 AD]
| 2072) Emanuel Swedenborg had put forward a nebular hypothesis earlier in 1734.
Both Kant's nebular hypothesis and island universe theory are in his "General History of Nature and Theory of the Heavens". The nebular hypothesis will be developed further by LaPlace, and the Island Universe theory will be developed further by Hershel.
Kant also correctly suggests that tidal friction slows the rotation of the earth down. (in this book?)
| Königsberg, Germany |
245 YBN
[1755 AD]
| 2089) Black presents his findings in a paper "Experiments upon Magnesia Alba, Quicklime, and Some Other Alcaline Substances", given to the Philosophical Society of Edinburgh. Black performs a cyclic series of quantitative experiments in which a balance is used at all stages.
Black shows that magnesia alba (magnesium carbonate) behaves in a similar way to calcium carbonate (chalk), giving off a gas when mixed with acids. Black then heats a sample of magnesia alba and finds that the product, magnesia usta (magnesium oxide), like calcium oxide (quicklime), does not effervesce ((emit bubbles)) with acids. However, unlike calcium oxide (quicklime), the magnesium usta is not caustic nor soluble in water. Black suggests that the weight lost during heating is due to the gas released. Black then adds a solution of potassium carbonate (potash) to the magnesia usta and shows that the product weighs the same as his original sample of magnesia alba. Black shows therefore that the difference between the alba and usta is the gas released, which Black called "fixed air". The fixed-air can be re-added to magnesia usta to re-create magnesia alba by using potash.
Black introduces quantitative methods to chemistry.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
245 YBN
[1755 AD]
| 2979) Jesuit missionaries in Peking, China report that a pane of glass, rubbed side down on top of a compass case causes the compass needle rises to the top and then returns to its normal position. Removing the pane of glass causes the needle to rise and fall again. The Jesuits repeat this sequence for an hour without rerubbing the glass. This discovery will develop resulting in the invention of the electrophorus by Volta in 1775.
| Peking, China (sent to St. Petersberg Academy) |
244 YBN
[1756 AD]
| 2016) Albrecht von Haller (HolR) (CE 1708-1777), Swiss physiologist, publishes "Icones anatomicae", an anatomy book.
| Gottingen, Germany |
244 YBN
[1756 AD]
| 2061) Jean le Rond D'Alembert (DoloNBAR) (CE 1717-1783) French mathematician, publishes "Recherches sur différents points importants du système du monde" (1754-56) in which D'Albembert, using gravitation theory, perfects the solution of the problem of the perturbations (variations of orbit) of the planets that he had presented to the academy some years before.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
244 YBN
[1756 AD]
| 2066) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist, notices that the compass needle is more irregular on days with a very conspicuous aurora borealis. This is the first hint of magnetic (electric) storms and electrical charge in the sky far higher than the clouds.
| London, England (presumably) |
244 YBN
[1756 AD]
| 2090) Joseph Black (CE 1728-1799), Scottish chemist broadens his experiments on "fixed air" (carbon dioxide) from salts of magnesia to salts of calcium. Black reports that when calcium carbonate (chalk) is strongly heated and converted to calcium oxide (quicklime) a gas is given off that can recombine with the calcium oxide to form calcium carbonate again. Black refers to this gas as "fixed air" because it can be fixed into solid form again. This gas is now called carbon dioxide. Since calcium oxide can be converted to calcium carbonate simply by exposure to the air, {Black correctly concludes} that carbon dioxide is in the air. Black also recognizes carbon dioxide in expired breath. Black finds that a candle will not burn in carbon dioxide. Black finds that a candle burning in air in a closed vessel will go out eventually, and that the remaining air will no longer support combustion. (These experiments show that people are using airtight glass equipment). Black then absorbs the carbon dioxide in this air, and finds that the remaining air still cannot support combustion. Black measures the loss of weight involved in heating calcium carbonate. Black measures the amount of calcium carbonate that neutralizes a given quantity of acid. This technique of quantitative measurement applied to chemical reactions will be developed more fully by Lavoisier.
Black shows that the gas is not a version of atmospheric air, and so is therefore the first chemist to show that gases can be chemical substances in themselves and not atmospheric air in different states of purity as was believed. After Black's famous experiments, other gases will be chemically characterized in the second half of the 1700s, including oxygen (which Black calls dephlogisticated air) by the English clergyman and scientist Joseph Priestley, nitrogen by Daniel Rutherford (a pupil of Black), and hydrogen by the English physicist and chemist Henry Cavendish.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
244 YBN
[1756 AD]
| 2252) Floriano Caldani (CE 1772-1836) demonstrates electrical excitability in the muscles of dead frogs.
| Bologna, Italy |
243 YBN
[1757 AD]
| 2039) Clairaut presents a paper in which he uses this method to estimate the mass of the the moon and to Venus by calculating perturbations in the earth's motion due to their mass and then comparing the results with Lacaille's observations of the sun.
The estimate of the mass of the Moon is more accurate than Newton's estimate based on the tides, and before this estimates of the mass of Venus had been only guessed.
| Paris, France |
243 YBN
[1757 AD]
| 2041) Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (LoKoYu) (CE 1713-1762), French astronomer prints 120 copies of small but very accurate catalog of 400 of the brightest stars, titled "Astronomiae fundamenta" (1757).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
243 YBN
[1757 AD]
| 2697) Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich (CE 1711-1787) (also Rudjer Josip Bokovic and Roger Joseph Boscovich), publishes a "method of least squares". Boscovich gives the first geometric procedure for determining the equator of a rotating planet from three observations of a surface feature and for computing the orbit of a planet from three observations of its position. In 1757 and again in 1760 as a commentary on a Latin poem by B. Stay Boscovich publishes a geometrical solution to a question which would now be rephrased as being that of fitting a straight line to observational data, under the conditions that the sum of residuals be zero and the sum of absolute residuals be minimum ((also known as the "method of least squares")). Laplace will recast this solution in analytic terms. (I think analytic generally means non-graphical/non-geometrical/equation-based only.) (Gauss is also credited with a solution to the "method of least squares".) (show math and explain equation method)
| Rome?, Italy |
243 YBN
[1757 AD]
| 2981) Johan Carl Wilcke (CE 1732-1796), Swedish physicist and professor, uses the scattering of phosphorescent powder from an electrical conductor to determine direction of electrical fluid.
The powder is placed on a spike connected to a prime conductor. When the prime conductor is electrified either positively or negatively, the powder blows away from the prime conductor. Wilcke postulates that electrical matter drives the air which carries the dust. Franklinists, those in favor of a single electrical fluid, explain this phenomenon as the air particles becoming charged and repelling away from the prime conductor because like charges repel. (If physical repulsion is to be viewed as a mechanical phenomenon either by particle collision {or gravitational interaction}, the conservation of velocity requires that some particles must collide with the air particles to cause them to repel whether charged or not. To be charged, particles must emit from the prime conductor to reach the air molecules around the dust. One possibility in the charge repulsion view, is that {oppositely charged or neutral?} particles from the air are attracted to the prime conductor {mechanically, perhaps by particles falling into the holes of current chain created by the prime conductor loss of particles}, and then repulse. It seems not as simple as particles simply physically pushing the air. The key is understanding the phenomenon of electrical repulsion, which I interpret as two groups of particles, too small to see, that do not fit together and collide with each other. The repulsion is the result of collision.)
This is an early example of trying to trace the path of particles using powder or gas. One later examples is the cloud chamber of Wilson.
| (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
243 YBN
[1757 AD]
| 3250) Johann Christian Arnold publishes the results of his exploration of the cooling and heating effects that accompany the evacuation and refilling of the receivers of air pumps more fully than William Cullen had in 1755, two years earlier.
Arnold explains the cooling as a result of the evaporation of water vapor, and the heating as the result of friction between the thermometer and the air moving quickly into the receiver.
Cullen states that Richman at the Academy of Petersburg, had reported this in 1747, and that M. de Mairan reported this in 1749.
| (University of Erlangen) Erlangen, Germany |
242 YBN
[10/21/1758 AD]
| 4538) Chalres Walmesley (CE 1722-1797) reports that the elliptical shape of Jupiter would cause a rotation of the orbit of each satellite. Walmesley shows that the distubance that arises from Jupiter being an oblate spheroid, produces a motion of the nodes and apsides of each satellite. The apsides are the two points in an elliptical orbit that are closest to, and farthest from, the primary body about with the secondary rotates. In the orbit of a planet or comet around the Sun, the apsides are, respectively, perihelion and aphelion. This will be important when humans are trying to see if Einstein's theory of relativity and claim of relativity better explaining the rotation of the orbit (perihelion) of Mercury is more accurate than the motion described using the theory of Newtonian gravitation, in the 1900s.
Walmesley writes: "Since the time that astronomers have been enabled, by the perfection of their instruments, to determine with great accuracy the motions of the celestial bodies, . they have been solicitous to separate and distinguish the several inequalities discovered in these motions, and to know their cause, quantity, and the laws according to which they are generated. This seems to furnish a sufficient motive to mathematicians, wherever there appears a cause capable of producing an alteration in those* motions, to examine by theory what the result may amount to, though it comes out never so small: for as one can seldom depend securely upon mere guess for the quantity of any effect, it must be a blameable neglect entirely to overlook it without being previously certain of its not being worth our notice.
Finding therefore it had not been considered what effect the figure of a planet differing from that of a sphere might produce in the motion of a satellite receiving about it, and as it is the case of the bodies of the earth and Jupiter, which have satellites about them, not to be spherical but spheroidical, I thought it worth while to enter upon the examination of such a problem. When the primary planet is an exact globe, it is well known that the force by which the revolving satellite is retained in its orbit, tends to the centre of the planet, and varies in the inverse ratio of the square of the distance from it; but when the primary planet is of a spheroidical figure, the same rule then no longer holds : the gravity of the satellite is no more directed to the centre of the planet, nor does it vary in the proportion above-mentioned; and if the plane of the satellite's orbit be not the same with the plane of the planet's equator, the protuberant matter about the equator will by a constant effort of its attraction endeavour to make the two planes coincide. Hence the regularity of the satellite's motion is necessarily disturbed, and though upon examination this effect is found to be but small in the moon, the figure of the earth differing so little from that of a sphere, yet in some cases it may be thought worth notice; if not, it will be at least. a satisfaction to see that what is neglected can be of no consequence. But however inconsiderable the change may be with regard to the moon, it becomes very sensible in the motions of the satellites of Jupiter both on account of their nearer distances to that planet when compared with its semidiameter, as also because the figure of Jupiter so far recedes from that of a sphere. This is shown and exemplified in the 4th satellite; in which case indeed the computation is more exact than it would be for the other satellites: for as my first design was to examine only how far the moon's motion could be affected by this cause, I suppose the satellite to revolve at a distance somewhat remote from the primary planet, and the difference of the equatoreal diameter and the axis of the planet not to be very considerable. There also arises this other advantage from the present theory, that it furnishes means to settle more accurately the proportion of the different forces which disturb the celestial motions, by assigning the particular share of influence which is to be ascribed to the figure of the central bodies round which those motions are performed.
I have added at the end a proposition concerning the diurnal motion of the earth. This motion has been generally esteemed to be exactly uniform ; but as there is a cause that must necessarily somewhat alter it, I was glad to examine what that alteration could amount to. If we first suppose the globe of the earth to be exactly spherical, revolving about its axis in a given time; and afterwards conceive that by the force of the sun or moon raising the waters, its figure be changed into that of a spheroid, then according as the axis of revolution becomes a different diameter of the spheroid, the velocity of the revolution must increase or diminish : for since some parts of the terraqueous globe are removed from the axis of revolution and others depressed towards it, and that in a different proportion as the sun or moon approaches to or recedes from the equator, when the whole quantity of motion which always remains the same is distributed through the spheroid, the velocity of the diurnal rotation cannot be constantly the same. This variation however will scarcely be observable, but as it is real, it may not be thought amiss to determine what its precise quantity is. I am sensible the following theory, as far as it relates to the motion of Jupiter's satellites, is imperfect, and might be prosecuted further; but being hindered at present from such pursuit by want of health and other occupations, I thought I might send it you in the condition it has lain by me for some time. You can best judge how far it may be of use, and what advantage might arise from further improvements in it. I am glad to have this opportunity of giving a fresh testimony of that regard which is due to your distinguished merit, and of professing myself with the highest esteem, ...". Walmesley goes on to give mathematical explanations in Latin.
(Get portrait of Walmesley if one exists)
| Bath, England |
242 YBN
[11/14/1758 AD]
| 2038) Alexis Claude Clairaut (KlArO) (CE 1713-1765) announces to the Paris Academy that Halley's comet will reach its perihelion (closest point to the Sun) on 15 April 1759. Clairaut will be just over a month off when Halley's comet reaches perihelion on March 13.
This calculation needs to account for a decreasing mass as the comet nears the Sun and lose matter, although perhaps this loss of matter is so small it can be ignored. This problem must also take into account perturbations of Jupiter and Saturn, which Clairaut does.
| Paris, France |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 1203)
| England |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 1999) Carolus Linnaeus (linAus) (CE 1707-1778) publishes the tenth edition of "Systema naturae" (1758) that extends binomial classification to animals and moves whales from "fishes" to "mammals". That whales as related to other mammals was established 2000 years earlier by Aristoteles. This book classifies 4,400 species of animals and 7,700 species of plants.
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 2048) On the publication of the seventh volume of Diderot's (DEDrO) (CE 1713-1784) "Encyclopédie", d'Alembert resigns after receiving warning of trouble and reading Rousseau's attack on d'Alembert's article "Genève". Also in this year the philosopher Helvétius' book "De l'esprit" ("On the Mind"), said to be a summary of the "Encyclopédie", is condemned to be burned by the Parlement of Paris, and Diderot's "Encyclopédie" is formally suppressed. Despite Voltaire's offer for Diderot to continue the publication outside France, Diderot and Le Breton continue to work on the Encyclopedia in Paris and publish the later volumes secretly.
| Paris, France |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 2071) Axel Fredrik Cronstedt (KrUNSTeT), (CE 1722-1765), Swedish mineralogist publishes "An Essay towards a System of Mineralogy" (1758; tr., 2d ed. 1788), a book detailing a new classification scheme for minerals based on their appearance, and chemical structure.
Cronstedt introduces the use of a blowpipe in the study of minerals. Blowing air into a flame increases the temperature of the flame. When this hot flame burns minerals, information can be learned by the color of the flame, the vapors formed, the color and nature of the oxides or metallic substances formed out of the mineral, etc. The blowpipe will be rendered obsolete by the system of spectral analysis by Kirchhoff.
| Sweden (presumably) |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 2110) Charles Messier (meSYA) (CE 1730-1817), French astronomer begins cataloging a list of celestial objects. Messier spends much of his time searching for comets, and discovers 13 comets between 1759 and 1798. In finding what appears to be a faint comet in Taurus, Messier realizes after further examination that it is a nebula, objects at the time thought to be immense clouds of gas. So Messier thinks it wise to provide a list of such objects "so that astronomers would not confuse these same nebulae with comets just beginning to shine". Also in this year, Messier is the first to see Halley's comet on it's famous return.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 2174) Giovanni Battista (Giambattista) Beccaria (CE 1716-1781) demonstrates electrical excitability in the muscles of dead frogs.
| Turin, Italy |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 2696) Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich (CE 1711-1787) (also Rudjer Josip Bokovic and Roger Boscovich), publishes "Philosophiae Naturalis Theoria Redacta ad Unicam Legem Virium in Natura Existentium" ("A Theory of Natural Philosophy Reduced to a Single Law of the Actions Existing in Nature", 1758, trs. as "Theory of Natural Philosophy", 1922) in which Boscovich rejects the corpuscular theory that bases physics on the actions of impenetrable, inelastic, solid, massy atoms. Instead, following some of Leibniz's objections to this conception, Boscovich develops a theory of puncta, or point particles, interacting with each other according to an oscillatory law. In Boscovich's view there is nothing to the existence of a point particle except the kinematic forces with which it is associated. (Kinematics is the branch of mechanics that studies the motion of a body or a system of bodies without consideration given to its mass or the forces acting on it.) Boscovich's views will be influential on scientists such as Michael Faraday and James Clerk Maxwell and provide a forerunner of modern field theories. (The Boscovich-Faraday link is disputed in .)
| Vienna |
242 YBN
[1758 AD]
| 3649) Göttingen mathematician and astronomer, Tobias Mayer (CE 1723-1762), proposes the first comprehensive color order system. Mayer's color specification is based on the painters' three primary colors (red, yellow and blue).
I think that the view that any frequency of light can be made from 3 distinct frequencies is inaccurate, although it is not clear to me why a larger intensity of a single frequency results in changes to the resulting frequency of photons.
| (lecture at U of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
241 YBN
[02/01/1759 AD]
| 2973) Robert Symmer (CE c1707-1763) describes how two different kinds of silk stockings are electrified oppositely when rubbed and taken off, and that when separated remain oppositely electrified. Symmer reports that when such electrified silk stockings when put inside a Leyden jar lose their electrification to the jar (Phil. Trans., 1 759).
Symmer supports the existence of two electric fluids, always co-existent, and counteracting each other, and uses the sock example is evidence of this theory. In addition Symmer uses Franklin's experiment of piercing a quire (24) of papers with an electric shock, in which the bur which is raised on both sides of the paper, as evidence of electricity being composed of two fluids moving in different directions The perforations do seem to confirm a double flux, proceeding from covers to center. Symmer performs more experiments passing a spark through papers, through papers with a leaf of metal foil inside, and through papers with two metal foil leaves inside separated by two papers. Symmer finds that the track of the spark is linear in a group of papers with no metal inside, but that when a thin metal leaf is inside the paper, the tracks from the two sides do not always align. Priestley argues that since twenty people joined all feel the same shock, this argues against two electric fluids moving in opposite directions.
I honestly think, to my understanding, that this issue of a single stream of particles of pairs of particles is not yet solved. Clearly photons are released, are they the result of "turbulence" of the single electric stream that generally emits photons even in wire, or the result of some kind of atomic or molecular chemical combination between one moving and one relatively stationary object, or between two moving objects that releases photons?
(Experiment: test the direction of light particles emitted from electrical current between two electrodes in various gases at various densities to determine beginning and end of reaction including direction of reaction. This may be done by fast digital sampling of 8 or 16 inexpensive light detecting devices connected to a computer port which stores samples recorded at fast intervals such as 1 every 100ns. How fast does this light emitting reaction happen? Where does it begin and end?[t])
| London, England (presumably) |
241 YBN
[1759 AD]
| 1938) John Harrison (CE 1693-1776), English instrument maker, builds a third clock that can keep accurate time at sea, his "H3" clock.
The H3 includes two very important inventions still relevant today: the bimetallic strip (still in use worldwide in thermostats of all kinds) and the caged roller bearing, a device found in almost every modern machine.
Harrison designs a pendulum of different metals so temperature changes expands both metals in a way that leaves the overall length the same.
| London, England |
241 YBN
[1759 AD]
| 1939) John Harrison (CE 1693-1776), English instrument maker, builds a fourth clock that can keep accurate time at sea, his "H4" clock.
In 1762 the H4, is found to be in error by only 5 seconds (corresponding to 1.25′ of longitude) after a voyage to Jamaica.
The H4 is a pocket watch, which has a very stable, high-frequency balance.
| London, England |
241 YBN
[1759 AD]
| 2141) Caspar Friedrich Wolff (CE 1733-1794) German physiologist, publishes "Theoria generationis" (1759) in which reintroduces the theory of epigenesis (the theory that cells differentiate into specialized cells) to replace the then current theory of preformation (the theory that the entire organism already exists in the egg).
Wolff is the founder of observational embryology.
| Halle, Germany |
241 YBN
[1759 AD]
| 2156) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), Italian-French astronomer and mathematician, publishes two works in "Miscellanea Taurinensia": "Recherches sur la méthode de maximis et minimis" (1759) and "Sur l'intégration d'une équation différentielle a différences finies, qui contient la théorie des suites récurrentes" (1759). These works contain a solution to the problem of isoperimetry and are the beginning of the calculus of variations. The calculus of variations is a branch of mathematics concerned with the problem of finding a function for which the value of a certain integral is either the largest or the smallest possible. Perhaps the simplest example of a problem (that would be solved by using the calculus of variations) is to find the curve of shortest length connecting two points. If there are no constraints, the solution is obviously a straight line between the points. However, if the curve is constrained to lie on a (geometrical) surface in space, (for example on the surface of a sphere, or cylinder,) then the solution is less obvious, and possibly many solutions may exist. Such solutions are known as geodesics. An "isoperimetric problem" was originally a problem of finding, between all shapes of a given perimeter on a (two dimensional) plane, the shape enclosing the greatest area. This problem was known to Greek mathematicians of the 100s BCE. The term "isoperimetric problem" was extended to mean any problem in the calculus of variations in which a function is to be made a maximum or a minimum, subject to a condition called the "isoperimetric condition" (although this condition may not necessarily relate to perimeter). For example, the problem of finding a solid of given volume that has the least surface area is an isoperimetric problem, the given volume being the isoperimetric condition. Another example of an isoperimetric problem is finding the shape of a given volume that will cause the minimum resistance from a gas when moving at a constant velocity.
| Turin, Italy |
241 YBN
[1759 AD]
| 2157) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), Italian-French astronomer and mathematician, publishes a solution to Fermat's problem relating to the equation nx2+I=y2, n being integral and not a square, in "Sur la solution des problèmes indéterminés du second degré" (1767).
| Turin, Italy |
241 YBN
[1759 AD]
| 3011) Franz Maria Ulrich Theodor Hoch Aepinus (CE 1724-1802) applies an inverse squared distance law to electricity.
Aepinus publishes the first mathematical theory of electric and magnetic phenomena, "Tentamen theoriae electricitatis et magnetismi" (1759; "An Attempt at a Theory of Electricity and Magnetism").
Aepinus adopts Franklin's single electric fluid theory (two particle) theory. Aepinus assumes that just one electric (and one magnetic) fluid is present in all material bodies. The electric charge is represented as an excess (positive charge) or deficit (negative charge) of fluid.
In this work Aepinus describes known electric and magnetic effects on the basis of a mathematical assumption analogous to that of Newton's law of gravitation, in other words, that attractive and repulsive forces between charges act at a distance and decrease in proportion to the inverse square of the distance between charged bodies.
Cavendish will develop this theory in 1771.
Coulomb will prove this inverse distance relationship in 1785.
(Is this the first inverse square interpretation of electricity?)
This theory helps to end the idea of electrical "atmospheres", replacing with the view of action at a distance, although in my opinion the atmosphere idea seems more likely.
(Here Aepinus presumes that electricity (and magnetism) are not the result of gravity. I know of no person who theorized about electricity as being the result of gravitation. For example, the idea that electricity is the result of a collective effect of gravity and/or particle collision.)
| St. Petersberg, Russia |
240 YBN
[1760 AD]
| 2027) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, publishes the first history of Russia ("Kratkoy rossiyskoy letopisets", "Short Russian Chronicle"), which is ordered by Empress Elizabeth.
| Saint Petersburg, Russia |
240 YBN
[1760 AD]
| 2029) Mikhail Vasilievich Lomonosov (lumunOSuF) (CE 1711-1765) Russian chemist and writer, publishes "Meditationes de Solido et Fluido" ("Reflections on the Solidity and Fluidity of Bodies") which contains his "universal law of nature", which is the law of conservation of matter and energy (although at least one source disputes this). According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this idea of conservation of matter and energy, and the corpuscular theory constitute the dominant thread in all his research.
Lomonosov writes "all changes in nature are such that inasmuch is taken from one object insomuch is added to another. So, if the amount of matter decreases in one place, it increases elsewhere. This universal law of nature embraces laws of motion as well, for an object moving others by its own force in fact imparts to another object the force it loses" (this is first articulated in a letter to Leonhard Euler dated 5 July 1748, and rephrased and published in Lomonosov's dissertation "Reflexion on the solidity and fluidity of bodies", 1760).
| Saint Petersburg, Russia |
240 YBN
[1760 AD]
| 2074) John Michell (MicL) (CE 1724-1793) English geologist and astronomer, publishes "Conjectures Concerning the Cause, and Observations upon the Phenomena of Earthquakes" in which Michell recognizes that by noting the time an earthquake is felt (in different locations), the center can be located.
| Cambridge, England |
240 YBN
[1760 AD]
| 2094) Johann Heinrich Lambert (LoMBRT) (CE 1728-1777) German mathematician, publishes "Photometria" (1760; "The Measurement of Light") in Latin, which describe his investigations on light reflections. In this work Lambert uses the word "albedo" (whiteness) to describe the fraction of light diffusely reflected from an object. This term is still commonly used to represent the reflectivity of planetary bodies (or perhaps all non-luminous or visible-spectrum light emitting objects found orbiting stars). The "lambert" is a unit measuring light intensity named in his honor. (Perhaps people should use "number of photons/second" or Gigaphotons/second per area or per volume, or perhaps number of beams per second over an area or volume of space.) 1761 Like Kant Lambert speculates that there maybe other conglomerates of stars like the Milky Way.
| Augsburg, Germany |
240 YBN
[1760 AD]
| 2122) Water separated into hydrogen and oxygen using electricity.
Giovanni Beccaria (CE 1716-1781), Italian physicist, passes electricity sparks through water and observes bubbles (of Hydrogen and Oxygen gas) released from the water but incorrectly supposes that the action of the electric matter promotes the evaporation of water.
Beccaria does not recognize that the gases produced are the components of water.
| Turin, Italy |
239 YBN
[1761 AD]
| 1915) Giovanni Battista Morgagni (MoRGonYE) (CE 1682-1771), Italian anatomist, publishes "De Sedibus et Causis Morborum per Anatomen Indagatis" ("The Seats and Causes of Diseases Investigated by Anatomy") (1761) a book on the 640 postmortem dissections he has conducted.
This book marks Morgagni as a founder of pathological anatomy, the science of diagnosing the cause of disease based on anatomical examination.
Morgagni's work is based on years of careful observation and experiment, including over 600 postmortem examinations, in which he pinpointed pathological changes leading to death and showed the relationship with the symptoms of the illness preceding death. Morgagni also recognizes the role of the nervous system in making symptoms felt at a point distant from the seat of the disease and the possible influence of such external factors as weather, age, and occupation in causing pathological changes.
| Padua, Italy |
239 YBN
[1761 AD]
| 2028)
| Saint Petersburg, Russia |
239 YBN
[1761 AD]
| 2042) Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (LoKoYu) (CE 1713-1762), French astronomer makes a new and more accurate estimate of the distance of the moon taking into account the fact that the earth is not a perfect sphere.(How does the shape of earth affect calculating distance to moon? Perhaps it effects the relative positions (but not mass) of celestial objects from different positions on earth because their positions are not observed from the exact same distance from the center of the earth as they would if the earth was a perfect sphere.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
239 YBN
[1761 AD]
| 2044) Nicolas Louis de Lacaille (LoKoYu) (CE 1713-1762), French astronomer publishes "Tables solaires" (1758), which lists positions of the Sun.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
238 YBN
[1762 AD]
| 2065) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist shows that water is slightly compressible.(explain how)
| London, England (presumably) |
238 YBN
[1762 AD]
| 2187) Horace Bénédict de Saussure (SoSYUR) (CE 1740-1799) Swiss physicist invents an electrometer, the first device used to measure electric potential (also known as "voltage").
| Geneva, Switzerland |
238 YBN
[1762 AD]
| 2715) Johan Carl Wilcke (CE 1732-1796), Swedish physicist and professor, describes the principle of the electrophorus and also (independently of Canton) understands electrostatic induction.
Wilcke performs experiments with a dissectible condenser (see image), in an effort to determine the location of the charge in a Leyden jar. The dissectible condenser consists of the glass square ABCD, the (metal) coatings b, B, and the (metal?) leads L, C, each connected to detecting threads, the metal parts being mounted on insulating feet m which slide along a grooved bar RR. Wilcke electrifies the square, sparks it, and removes B and C (without touching them by using the slides), so that L (and b) appears positive and B negative (how measured between positive and negative?). Wilcke then takes a spark from B and C, replaces them, joins C and L (using an insulated device?) (to complete the circuit), removes B and C, takes another spark, and so on. Wilcke writes (translated) "In this way the glass can keep electrifying the coatings for many days or weeks, as often as the experiment is repeated.". An account of these experiments is published 13 years before Volta invented the electrophore. Wilcke publishes these experiments with a dissectible condenser in "Der Konigl. schwedischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, Abhandlungen, aus der Naturlehre, Haushaltungskunst und Mechanik", vol. 24, (1762), pp213-235, pp253-274. According to Heilbron, Wilcke will acknowledge Volta's designing a useful machine, but correctly asserts priority in discovering its principle, a claim supported by most German-speaking electricians, however ignored by Volta.
Wilcke's had described the principle of the electrophorus in 1762 to the Swedish Academy of Sciences two "charging machines" working by influence.
The Dictionary of Scientific Biography states that Wilcke understands the theory behind the electrophorus but does not embody it in an apparatus.
| (Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
238 YBN
[1762 AD]
| 2975) Johan Carl Wilcke (CE 1732-1796), Swedish physicist and professor, and physics professor Franz Ulrich Theodor Aepinus (1724-1802), create an air capacitor.
Wilcke and Aepinus suspend large boards of wood covered with tin, parallel and separated by a few inches. On electrifying one of the boards positively, the other is always negative. By touching one plate with the hand and bringing the other hand to the plate, a shock can be received like that of the Leyden experiment.
Wilcke and Aepinus are lead to this discovery by viewing the finding by Franklin how a plate of glass charged on one side has an equal and opposite charge on the other side. The reason that the electricity is not communicated through the glass is thought to be the impermeability of the glass on one side of the electricity and the impermeability of the air on the other. Knowing this, Wilcke and Aepinus try to use only air to cause an electric shock.
The two metal plates being oppositely electrified strongly attract one another, and would collapse together, if they were not held apart by strings. Sometimes the electricity of both is discharged by a strong spark between them. A finger between the plates promotes a discharge. Wilcke and Aepinus observe that the state of these two plates represent the state of the clouds and the earth during a thunder storm; the clouds being in one state and the earth in the opposite, while the body of air between them serves as a barrier in the same way as the air in between the two metal plates.
| Berlin, Germany |
238 YBN
[1762 AD]
| 2978) Gianfrancesco Cigna (CE 1734-1790) describes the principle of the electrophorus. ("De novis quibusdam experimentis electricis," Miscellanea taurinensia,1762/ 1765, 3:31-72, on pp. 31, 72.)
In one of Cigna's improvements to experiments of Nollet's based on Symmer's electrostatic sock finding, Cigna uses an insulated lead plate and observed that if a ribbon is electrified and removed, and the plate discharged, the plate can be recharged as often as wanted by grounding the plate when the ribbon is returned.
Volta will recognize Cigna's contribution to the principle of the electrophorus.
| Turin, Italy (presumably) |
237 YBN
[1763 AD]
| 2000) Carolus Linnaeus (linAus) (CE 1707-1778) publishes "Genera morborum" (1763), a classification of diseases.
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
237 YBN
[1763 AD]
| 2043) The star position Lacaille records from South Africa are published after his death in "Coelum Australe Stelliferum" ("Star Catalog of the Southern Sky").
In this catalog are the positions of nearly 10,000 stars, and fourteen new constellations.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
237 YBN
[1763 AD]
| 2080) Nicolas Desmarest (DAmureST) (CE 1725-1815) French geologist explains that valleys are formed by streams that run through them and that basalt is not a sedimentary rock but is formed by volcanoes.
Nicolas Desmarest (DAmureST) (CE 1725-1815) French geologist is the first to maintain that valleys have been formed by the streams that ran through them.
Nicolas Desmarest (DAmureST) (CE 1725-1815) French geologist, following the work of Jean Guettard, notices large basalt deposits and traces these back to ancient volcanic activity in the Auvergne region of France. This disproves the Neptunist theory that all rocks were formed by sedimentation from primeval oceans.
A.G. Werner's theory that most rocks are sedimentary dominates geology in this time but ultimately (igneous rocks) will be included in geology.
| France |
237 YBN
[1763 AD]
| 2128) Nevil Maskelyne (maSKilIN) (CE 1732-1811), English astronomer , invents method to determine longitude by lunar observations (apparent position of moon) that competes with the use of the chronometer built by Harrison (in conjunction with an astronomical measurement). Maskelyne describes this technique in "The British Mariner's Guide" (1763).
Maskelyne is the first person to make time measurements accurate to a tenth of a second. Maskelyne produces lunar tables and the "Nautical Almanac" (1766).
| London, England (presumably) |
236 YBN
[1764 AD]
| 2091) Black realizes that thermometers can be used to determine the quantity of heat if temperature is measured over a period of time while a body is heated or cooled. Black fills two glass flasks with water. In one flask, Black adds a little alcohol to prevent freezing. Black then places both flasks in a freezing mixture (more specific). After being removed from the bath, the water in the flask without the alcohol is frozen solid, while the water in the flask with the alcohol is still a liquid although both are at the same temperature. The two flasks are allowed to warm up naturally. The temperature of the water plus alcohol warms up several degrees, but the ice remains at its freezing point. Black presumes that the flasks are absorbing heat at the same rate, although the amount of photons an object absorbs, and therefore the amount of heat an object absorbs varies depending on it's color and density. Black shows that the heat absorbed by the ice in 10 hours would have raised the temperature of the same quantity of water by 78°C (140°F). The amount of heat absorbed by ice in turning it to water is called the heat of fusion of water. The amount of heat that can melt a solid or freeze a liquid is called the heat of fusion; while the amount of heat that can vaporize a liquid or a solid or condense a vapor is called the heat of vaporization. Black extends his experiments to measure the latent heat of vaporization of water.
The heat in melting ice is from photons adding to the ice. Clearly temperature measures intensity of molecular movement in some specific location and not quantity, quantity is simply the amount of molecular movement spread over a larger distance than the detector.
That heat is taken in for one change, and given off for another is an example of the conservation of energy to be established later by Mayer, Joule, and Helmholtz. In my opinion, the concept "energy" describes the combination of mass and velocity, and while mass and velocity are both conserved, in opposition to the popular belief of now, matter and velocity cannot be exchanged in my opinion. So I think there is conservation of mass and conservation of velocity, and conservation of energy, but with the restriction that the mass and velocity of energy cannot be exchanged but are both conserved independently of each other.
The heat taken in by water in boiling is a indication of the far greater energy content of steam at the boiling point temperature as compared with an equal weight of liquid water at the same temperature. I think this is a difficult and abstract concept to understand, in my own opinion I would say that since energy is composed of velocity and mass, an increase in velocity equals an increase in energy, and so this is simply that steam has more "energy" because the particles have more velocity at a higher temperature. Black's measurement of how much heat, or how many photons, are absorbed by water in liquid form to get to steam or water vapor form, indicate how much more velocity the water molecules have in steam as opposed to in liquid form.
Scottish inventor, James Watt is employed as instrument maker at the University of Glasgow and is friends with Black. Watt works on developing improvements to the steam engine, and according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Watt's double-cylinder version essentially recognizes the phenomena of latent heat.
Black shows that when two different substances at different temperatures are brought together and allowed to reach an equilibrium temperature, the final temperature is not at the midway point, one substance might gain or lose less temperature than the other. The same quantity of heat might effect a larger temperature change in one substance than the other. In my opinion, this is important, not as relates to energy, but as relates to molecular and atomic structure of the substance, and how many photons and movement they can take on. In addition this may show how many photons are needed to raise the temperature of some substance.
The temperature change resulting from a particular amount of heat is now called the "specific heat" of a substance.
Black views heat as an "imponderable fluid". Maxwell will develop the kinetic theory of heat, and this will explain Black's experiments in a more accurate way than a fluid (phlogiston) theory of heat can. Black believes the phlogiston theory for awhile, but eventually will accept Lavoisier's explanation of
| Glasgow, Scotland |
236 YBN
[1764 AD]
| 2160) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), wins a prize offered by the French Academy of Sciences for an essay on the libration of the Moon (the apparent oscillation that causes slight changes in position of lunar features as seen from Earth).
| Turin, Italy (presumably) |
235 YBN
[05/??/1765 AD]
| 2145) While repairing a model Newcomen steam engine in 1764 Watt is impressed by its waste of steam.
Watt realizes that the loss of latent heat (the heat involved in changing the state of a substance, for example from a solid or liquid) was the worst defect of the Newcomen engine and so condensation must happen in a chamber connected but distinct from the cylinder.
Watt improves the Newcomen steam engine, by recognizing that when the steam chamber is cooled with water and the steam creates a vacuum, a large amount of steam is wasted in heating up the steam chamber again. Newcomen introduces a second chamber (a "condenser"). The condenser can be kept permanently cold, while the first chamber (the "cylinder") can be kept constantly hot. In this way, the two processes of heating and cooling are not working against each other.
| Glasgow, Scotland (presumably) |
234 YBN
[01/01/1766 AD]
| 2959) Horace Bénédict de Saussure (CE 1740-1799), builds the first true electrometer. Saussure uses the device to discover that the distance between the balls is not linearly related to the amount of charge.
Saussure places the strings and balls inside an inverted glass jar and adds a printed scale so that the distance or angle between the balls can be measured. De Saussure discovers the distance between the balls is not linearly related to the amount of charge. However, the exact "inverse square" relationship remains for Charles Coulomb to discover in 1784.
| (Academy of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
234 YBN
[04/05/1766 AD]
| 3012) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist, hypothesizes that electrical atmospheres 'are not made of Effluvia (small particles) from excited or electrified Bodies, but are only Alterations of the State of the electrical Fluid contained in & belonging to the Air surrounding them to a certain Distance.". (see image) In the figure, A is neutral, B is positive, C is negative. The surrounding electrical matter is shown as dots. Body B pushes the surrounding electrical matter away while body C pulls the surrounding electrical matter in closer, so the air around B has less than the normal quantity, while the air around C has more. Other conductors that happen to be immersed in the stressed (charged?) atmosphere assume the distribution of electricity that matches that of the air they displace. Canton sends this in a letter to Joseph Priestley who includes it in his book of electrical history. Beccaria will also develop this theory. This view is supported by the failures to detect the flow of electricity through a vacuum. Heilbron writes that this approach of Canton and Beccaria, assigns to the air some of the tasks Faraday later imposes on the aether (and it is presumed adopted by Maxwell, and to a large extent still a part of relativity in the form of Fitzgerald's explanation of space contraction to explain the failure of the Michelson-Morley experiment to detect an aether). In my view, the view expressed by Canton and Beccaria is more probable than that of Faraday, and in my view, Faraday took a mistaken direction in supporting a wave theory with aether medium for light and space in general (as had Newton, however with a corpuscular interpretation for light).
(EXPER: Does a neutral rubbed rod of resin or glass become electrified when rubbed in a vacuum? If no, perhaps the electrification requires air molecules, if yes, perhaps the electrified particles come only from the rubber and/or rubbed object. This experiment could have been performed relatively easily with a vacuum, enclosed motor, and thread or metal leaf meters.)
| London, England |
234 YBN
[05/29/1766 AD]
| 2113) Hydrogen gas isolated.
Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810), English chemist and physicist, produces "inflammable air" (hydrogen) by dissolving metals in acids and "fixed air" (carbon dioxide) by dissolving alkalis in acids, and he collected these and other gases in bottles inverted over water or mercury.
An alkali is any of the soluble hydroxides of the alkali metals-i.e., lithium, sodium, potassium, rubidium, and cesium. Alkalies are strong bases that turn litmus paper from red to blue; they react with acids to yield neutral salts; and they are caustic and in concentrated form are corrosive to organic tissues. (show periodic table for this)
Cavendish publishes these experiments in a combination of three short chemistry papers on "factitious airs," or gases produced in the laboratory.
Cavendish's "inflammible air" will be later named Hydrogen by Lavoisier. The term Cavendish uses "inflammable air" is confusing because inflammable air is flammable and perhaps "flammable air" would have been a better choice of words.
Cavendish explains heat as the result of the motion of matter in the 1760s. In 1783 Cavendish will publish a paper on the temperature at which mercury freezes and in that paper make use of the idea of latent heat, although he does not use the term "latent heat" because he believes that it implies acceptance of a material theory of heat.
Cavendish will determine the "specific heat" for a number of substances (although these heat constants will not be recognized later.
These reactions form equations similar to the equation: metal + acid + water --> salt + inflammable air for example: Zn + 2HCl → ZnCl2 + H2
| London, England |
234 YBN
[1766 AD]
| 2014) Albrecht von Haller (HolR) (CE 1708-1777), Swiss physiologist, finishes publishing his 8 volume "Elementa physiologiae corporis humani" (1759-1766, Elements of the physiology of the human body), in which Haller explains how a slight stimulus to a muscle produces a sharp contraction, and how a stimulus to a nerve produces a sharp contraction in the muscle to which the nerve is attached. Haller shows that the nerve requires a smaller stimulus than the muscle and correctly concludes that the nerve stimulation and not muscle stimulation controls muscle movement. Haller shows that the tissues do not experience a stimulation but that the nerves carry the impulses (to the brain) that produce the sensation (in the brain). Haller shows that all the nerves lead to the brain, and the brain is the center of sense perception and responsive action. Haller experiments by damaging various parts of animal brains and notes the paralysis that results, and in this way Haller may be viewed as founder of modern neurology.
Haller is the first to recognize the mechanism of respiration and the autonomous function of the heart. Haller discovers that bile helps to digest fats, and writes original descriptions of embryonic development. Haller summarizes anatomical studies of the genital organs, the brain, and the cardiovascular system. On the basis of 567 experiments (190 performed by himself) Haller shows that irritability is a specific property of muscle, a slight stimulus applied directly to a muscle causes a sharp (muscle) contraction. These experiments also show that sensibility is a specific property of nerves, a stimulus applied to a nerve does not change the nerve perceptibly but causes the contraction of the muscle connected to it, implying that the nerves carry impulses that produce sensation. Although the English physician Francis Glisson had discussed tissue irritability a century earlier, Haller's complete scientific description of nerve and muscle action lays the foundations for the development of modern neurology.
This work describes the advances in physiology made since the time of William Harvey, enriched with Haller's own experimental researches.
| Bern, Switzerland (presumably) |
234 YBN
[1766 AD]
| 2095) Johann Heinrich Lambert (LoMBRT) (CE 1728-1777) German mathematician, publishes "Die Theorie der Parallellinien" (1766; "The Theory of Parallel Lines"), which contains results later included in non-Euclidean geometry.
| Berlin, Germany |
234 YBN
[1766 AD]
| 2142) Franz Anton Mesmer (CE 1734-1815), German physician founds a method of therapy (mesmerism) (based on an inaccurate theory), which is the ancestor of hypnotism.
| Vienna, Austria |
234 YBN
[1766 AD]
| 2161) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), wins a prize offered by the French Academy of Sciences for an essay on the movement of the satellites of Jupiter. (explain the method Lagrange uses to estimate the Jupiter moon's positions over time)
| Turin, Italy (presumably) |
234 YBN
[1766 AD]
| 3725) First edition of The Nautical Almanac and Astronomical Ephemeris, published by Astronomer Royal of England, with data for 1767.
An ephemeris (plural: eph·e·mer·i·des {ĕf'ə-mĕr'ə-dēz'}) is a table giving the coordinates of a celestial body at a number of specific times during a given period.
| London, England (presumably) |
233 YBN
[1767 AD]
| 2075) John Michell (MicL) (CE 1724-1793) English geologist and astronomer, theorizes that double stars exist, are physically close to each other and orbit around each other, which will be later verified by Hershel.
Michell shows that there are far too many examples of two stars appearing close together to be the result of two distant stars in the same line of view. Michell extends this idea to star clusters such as the Pleides where the chances are that stars that appear close together and of same brightness are close together.
| Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
233 YBN
[1767 AD]
| 2131) Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804), English chemist, publishes "The History and Present State of Electricity, with Original Experiments" (1767) which is an important history of electrical research. In this work Priestley anticipates the inverse square law of electrical attraction, discovers that charcoal (carbon) conducts electricity (1766), and notes the relationship between electricity and chemical change.
Priestley finds that an electrical charge stays on the surface of a conductor (more detail), and studies the conduction of electricity by flames .
Also in this work Priestley explains the rings formed by a discharge upon a metallic surface (known as Priestley's rings).
Priestley is the first to recognize that electricity will be important in chemistry. (in this work?)
Priestley gives the name "rubber" to the tree sap La Condamine introduced to Europe from South America, because the substance can be used to rub out pencil writing.
Priestley describes how the light visible in electrical appearances is supposed to be a part of the composition of the electric fluid, which appears when it (the fluid) is properly agitated.
Priestley describes Wilcke accepts Franklin's single fluid theory but acknowledges that there is a difficulty in accounting for the repulsive power of bodies electrified negatively, and that this requires the mutual repulsion of all homogenius matter. In the case of a positive charge, the repulsion is the electric fluid, in the case of the negative charge, the repulsion must be from the constituent parts of the bodies.
At least one source states that Priestley is probably the first to show that the electrostatic law is one of the inverse square of the distance. Priestley performs experiments with a hollow charged conductor and demonstrates that there is no charge on the inside. From a knowledge of Newton's theory of gravitation, Priestly publishes the theory that electric attractions obey the same law as gravitational attractions. (Quote exact text from Priestley work.)
| Warrington, England |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 1993) Leonhard Euler (OElR) (CE 1707-1783), Swiss mathematician, publishes "Institutiones calculi integralis" (1768-70).
| St Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2081) Nicolas Desmarest (DAmureST) (CE 1725-1815) French geologist, publishes the results of his mapping the Auvergne area of France and determining the geology of the volcanoes and their eruptions in great detail in the "Encyclopédie" of 1768. This work disproves the theory that all rocks are sedimentary by revealing basalt's igneous origins.
| France |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2093)
| Berlin, Germany |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2104) Spallanzani boils solutions that ordinarily breed microorganisms, showing that after 30-45 minutes of boiling and being sealed, that no microorganisms appear in them no matter how long they stand. This will make possible Appert's advance in food preservation.
| Pavia, Italy (presumably) |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2133) Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804) publishes "An Essay on the First Principles of Government" (1768), in which Priestley argues that scientific progress and human perfectibility require freedom of speech, worship, and education. Priestley supports laissez-faire economics as developed by the Scottish philosopher Adam Smith. Priestley supports limiting the role of government and evaluating the effectiveness of a government based only in terms of the welfare of the individual. The English economist and founder of utilitarianism Jeremy Bentham acknowledges that Priestley's book inspired the phrase used to explain his own movement which is "the greatest happiness of the greatest number."
| Leeds, England |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2213) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) shows that sediment from boiling water comes from the container and not the water.
In order to disprove the myth (based on the Greek idea of the four elements) that water turns in to earth, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794), French chemist, boils water for 101 days in a device called a "pelican" which condenses the water vapor and returns it to the flask so that no water is lost in the process. Lavoisier weighs both water and vessel before and after the experiment. Lavoisier finds sediment in the container, that the water did not change its weight after the boiling, and that the flask lost weight that is just equal to the weight of the sediment. So the sediment is not earth made from water, but is from the glass in the flask, slowly worn away by the hot water and precipitating in solid fragments.
The idea of conservation of matter in chemical reactions is familiar to Lavoisier. Lavoisier believes this principle, that matter is neither created nor destroyed in chemical reactions and tries to demonstrate this principle in his experiments.
One interesting aspect is that mass is gained when the water and glass container are heated, because of the absorption of particles of light, however this mass is lost again when the water and glass container cool, and is probably too small to measure anyway.
Lavoisier presents this find in a memoir to the Academy of Sciences.
Lavoisier is one of the first chemists to use quantitative procedures in chemical investigations.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2229) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier's (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) "Mémoires de chimie" (1805) are published posthumously.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2667) The first Encyclopaedia Britannica is printed.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 2967) Jan Ingenhousz (iNGeNHoUZ) (CE 1730-1799) of Vienna and Jesse Ramsden (CE 1735-1800), London instrument maker, independently invent electrostatic generators that replace the glass cylinder and globe with a circular plate of glass.
This circular plate of glass is generally about nine inches in diameter. The plate turns vertically and rubs against four cushions, each an inch and a half long, placed at opposite ends of the vertical diameter. The conductor is a brass tube, has two horizontal branches coming from it, reaching within about half an inch of the extremity of the glass, so that each branch takes off the electricity excited by two of the cushions.
| (Vienna? and) London, England |
232 YBN
[1768 AD]
| 4482) John Canton (CE 1718-1772), English physicist explains why light particles do not appear to interfere or collide with each other by saying that the distance between each particle must be large because of the very fast speed of light. Canton writes: "...A writer against the Newtonian doctrine of light is pressed with a great difficulty, and asks, if it be possible that a particle can move so far as from the sun to the earth, and not frequently impinge upon other particles, when, he says, every part of space must contain thousands of them? But this difficulty will nearly vanish, if a very small portion of time be allowed, between the emission of every particle and the next following in the same direction. Suppose, for instance, a lucid point of the Sun's surface to emit 150 particles in one second, which more than sufficient to give continual light to the eye, without the least appearance of intermission; and then the particles, on account of their great velocity, will be behind one another more than 1000 miles, and leave room enough for others to pass in all directions.".
| London, England |
231 YBN
[02/26/1769 AD]
| 3013) Giovanni Beccaria (CE 1716-1781), Italian physicist, develops John Canton's theory about the electricity of a body being located in its pores and electrifies the surrounding air, not by diffusing into it, but by exciting either a tension or a relaxation in the natural fire (electricity) in it.
In a 1772 diagram (see image), Beccaria's represents the electric field with E as a positive body, D as a negative body, and N as a neutral body. The electric field is shown in (a) around a positive body, in (b) around a negative body, in (c) between two positive bodies, in (d) between two negative bodies, and in (e) and between unlike bodies.
| Turin, Italy |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 1206) The first Self-propelled vehicle. A steam-engine powered automobile.
Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot (26 February 1725 - 2 October 1804), a French inventor, builds what may be the first self-propelled vehicle built on earth using a steam engine.
Cugnot may be the first to convert the back-and-forth motion of a steam piston into rotary motion (James Watt does this too in 1781 in England).
Cugnot is trained as a military engineer. He experiments with working models of steam engine powered vehicles intended for hauling heavy cannons for the French Army, starting in 1765.
A functioning version of his "Fardier à vapeur" ("Steam wagon") run in this year, 1769. The following year he builds an improved version. His vehicle is said to be able to pull 4 tons and travel at speeds of up to 4 km per hour. The heavy vehicle has two wheels in the back and one in the front, which supports the steam boiler and was steered by a tiller.
| England |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 1940) John Harrison (CE 1693-1776), English instrument maker, builds a fifth, and final clock that can keep accurate time at sea, his "H5" clock.
| London, England |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 2069) Charles Bonnet (BOnA) (CE 1720-1793), Swiss naturalist, explains that fossils that resemble no living creature may have been animals that went extinct because of periodic catastrophes that destroy most organisms, (in which survivors are left to thrive). Bonnet is the first to use word "evolution" in a biological context.
| Geneva?, Switzerland (presumably) |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 2097) James Cook (CE 1728-1779), aboard the Endeavor, circumnavigates and maps New Zealand.
| New Zealand |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 2130) Initially this device is powered by animals, then by falling water. In 1790 this device will be powered by steam.
Arkwright's water frame (so-called because it operates by waterpower) produces a cotton yarn suitable for warp (or longitudinal thread, a series of yarns extended lengthwise in a loom and crossed by the weft). The thread made on James Hargreaves' spinning jenny (invented about 1767) lacks the strength of Arkwright's cotton yarn and is suitable only for weft. Before this cotton thread was used for the weft, but only linen threads were strong enough for the warp. Now a textile made entirely of cotton can be produced in England, and (cotton fabrics) will eventually became one of the Britain's main exports.
| |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 2146) James Watt (CE 1736-1819) Scottish engineer has his steam engine working with greater efficiency than the Newcomen steam engine. Since there is no long pause at each cycle to heat up the chamber, Watt's engine works much more quickly. Watt also improves the design by allowing steam to enter alternately on either side of a piston, moving the piston (back down) faster.
In this year Watt (applies for the patent entitled) "A New Invented Method of Lessening the Consumption of Steam and Fuel in Fire Engines".
| Glasgow, Scotland (presumably) |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 2426) John Robison of Edinburgh attempts to measure the force of static electricity experimentally. Robison measures different results for attraction and repulsion but theorizes that the correct results are inverse (distance) squared.
Joseph Priestley had theorized that electric attractions obey the same law of gravitational attractions in 1767.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
231 YBN
[1769 AD]
| 2980) Giovanni Beccaria (CE 1716-1781), Italian physicist, demonstrates the basis of an electrophorus by removing the top metallic coating of a Franklin square using silk strings and touching the bottom metallic coating to restore the charge.
Giovanni Beccaria (CE 1716-1781), Italian physicist, performs an experiment with a Franklin square (a pane of glass between two metal foils, a glass capacitor) to explain the Jesuit Peking experiment (that a pane of glass on a compass remains charged for a duration of time). Beccaria insulates a Franklin square whose upper surface is charged. When Beccaria removes the upper (metallic) coating by silk strings, he finds that the pane loses a quantity of electricity. Replacing the upper coating and touching the lower coating, causes the the plate's electricity to increase. The net effect is that the pane loses a small quantity of electricity. With each subsequent removal, the (metallic) coating loses a small quantity of electricity until passes a state of being unelectrified and more replacing and touching of the lower coating, causes this top coating to take on a reverse electric charge, after which the coating acts like the metallic shield of the electrophorus slowly losing charge.
Beccaria hypothesizing that some of the charge remains in the air around the glass.
Beccaria publishes this in a pamphlet "Electricitas vindex" (1769).
| Turin, Italy (verify) |
230 YBN
[04/19/1770 AD]
| 2100) The Endeavour lands on Australia.
Joseph Banks names Botany Bay, the first point of landing in Australia out of delight at the prospect of exploring an isolated continent for new species of plants. (25 years later Botany Bay will be a prison/penal establishment).
| Australia |
230 YBN
[1770 AD]
| 2158) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), publishes a paper "Réflexions sur la résolution algébrique des équations" (1770; "Reflections on the Algebraic Resolution of Equations"), which inspires Évariste Galois to form his group theory.
Generality is the characteristic goal of all Lagrange's researches. In trying to find a method of solving algebraic equations Lagrange finds that the common feature of the solutions of quadratics, cubics, and quartics is the reduction of these equations to equations of lower degree. When this method is applied to a quintic equation ((an equation with a variable raised to the power of 5)), however, this method leads to an equation of degree six. Attempts to explain this result lead Lagrange to study rational functions of the roots of the equation. (explain) The properties of the symmetric group, that is, the group of permutations of the roots, provide the key to the problem. Lagrange does not explicitly recognize groups, but implicitly obtains some of the more simple properties (of groups), including the theorem known after Lagrange, which states that the order of a subgroup is a divisor of the order of the group.(explain) Évariste Galois will introduce the term "group" and prove that quintic equations are not in general solvable by radicals .
| Berlin, Germany |
230 YBN
[1770 AD]
| 2195) Anders Johan Lexell (CE 1740-1784), Swedish astronomer, calculates the orbit of a comet (originally observed by Messier) that is only 5 and a half years.
| St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
230 YBN
[1770 AD]
| 2214) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) designs a new method to prepare saltpeter (a substance needed for gunpowder). (detail)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
230 YBN
[1770 AD]
| 2257) Johann Gottlieb Gahn (CE 1745-1818), Swedish mineralogist, with Scheele discovers phosphoric acid in bones and prepares phosphorus from bones.
| Uppsala, Sweden |
230 YBN
[1770 AD]
| 2958) William Henley builds a quadrant electrometer. The device consisted of an insulated stem with an ivory or brass quadrant scale attached. A light rod or straw extends from the center of the arc, terminating in a pith ball which hangs touching the brass base of the electrometer. When the brass is electrified the ball moves away from the base, producing an angle which can be read off of the scale.
The English scientists use the pith balls of Canton until Henley, inspired by Priestley's call for a good electrometer, invents a robust form of Richmann's instrument that quickly becomes the standard.
| London, England (presumably) |
229 YBN
[07/12/1771 AD]
| 2207) The Endeavour returns to England. At each stop, Joseph Banks (CE 1743-1820), English botanist and Daniel Solander, Swedish botanist, collected specimens and bring them to be studied aboard the HM Bark Endeavour by Sydney Parkinson who then draws each specimen and makes notes on their color, and for some species he completes watercolor illustrations. When they returned to London, Banks hires 5 artists to create watercolors of all of Parkinson's drawings. Between 1771 and 1784 Banks hires 18 engravers to create the copperplate line engravings from the 743 completed watercolors at a considerable cost. Entitled "Florilegium", these plates are not printed in Banks' lifetime and Banks bequeathes the plates to the British Museum.
In his life Banks accumulates large collections of biological specimens, most of which are previously unclassified.
Banks is first to show that all the Australian mammals are marsupials and more primitive than the placental mammals inhabiting the other continents.
In a 1772 expedition to the North Atlantic, Banks finds great geysers in Iceland.
Banks' efforts will bring the breadfruit plant from Tahiti to the Caribbean.
| London (where Banks lives), England |
229 YBN
[1771 AD]
| 2118) Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) defines "degree of electrification" (now called "electric potential") and understands the fundamental equation of electrostatics, the relation between quantity and potential, in modern form, Q=CV (where Q is quantity of charge, C is a constant called capacity, and V is electric potential), and is the first to measure carefully the constant C, now called "capacity".
Cavendish shows how the capacity of a pair of plates is increased by replacing the air between them with some other medium, such as wax. Cavendish does this without using a gold-leaf electroscope, which Bennett will not invented until 1787. Instead, Cavendish's potentials or "degrees of electrification", are measured by determining the length of gap through which a Lane unit jar will discharge. This important instrument was first described by Timothy Lane (CE 1734-1807) in a letter to Benjamin Franklin in 1766.
Also in 1771, Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) publishes an early version of his electrical theory, which is based on an expansive electrical fluid that exerts pressure. In this work Cavendish demonstrates that if the intensity of electric force is inversely proportional to distance, then the electric fluid in excess of that needed for electrical neutrality will lie on the outer surface of an electrified (solid) sphere; and Cavendish confirms this experimentally. (more detail on confirmation)
So in his "Electrical Researches" (1879), Cavendish anticipates some of the discoveries of Coulomb (electrostatic inverse distance law) and Faraday (which law?).
| London, England |
229 YBN
[1771 AD]
| 3010) Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810), English chemist and physicist, develops a Newtonian theory of electricity in a famous 1771 memoir. Cavendish describes his works as extending the work of Aepinus in "Tentamen Theoriae Electricitatis & Magnetismi".
| London, England |
229 YBN
[1771 AD]
| 5956) (Ridolfo) Luigi Boccherini (CE 1743-1805), Italian composer and cellist, composes "Spring Quintet in E Opus 11 Number 5" with the famous Minuet.
| Madrid, Spain (verify) |
228 YBN
[10/20/1772 AD]
| 2224) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) when phosphorus burns it combined with a large quantity of air to produce acid spirit of phosphorus (phosphoric acid) and that the phosphorus increases in weight on burning.
Lavoisier reports this to the Academy of Sciences.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
228 YBN
[11/01/1772 AD]
| 2225) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) reports that like the burning of phosphorus, the burning of sulfur also results in the sulfur gaining weight. Lavoisier writes that "what is observed in the combustion of sulfur and phosphorus may well take place in the case of all substances that gain in weight by combustion and calcination: and I am persuaded that the increase in weight of metallic calces is due to the same cause." So some material was gained from the air. Lavoisier doesn't believe phlogiston can have a negative weight.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2049) Diderot supervised the illustrations for 3,000 to 4,000 plates of exceptional quality, which are still prized by historians today.
| Paris, France |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2078)
| Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2138) Priestley collects gas over mercury and therefore is able to isolate gases that cannot be collected over water
Fermenting grain produces a gas. Priestley notes that this gas puts out flames, is heavier than air, and dissolves to a certain extent in water. This is the "fixed air", (later to be named) carbon dioxide, that Black found. When Priestley tastes the dissolved carbon dioxide in water he finds that it has a tart and refreshing taste, this is what we now call seltzer or soda water. Priestley is therefore the father of the soda-water industry. (Before this beer must have been uncarbonated. Perhaps Priestley learned the adding carbon dioxide gas to water process from the beer makers, or introduced adding carbon dioxide gas to beer making.)
The directions for impregnating water with the "fixed air" generated by fermenting beer is in Priestley's first publication on pneumatic chemistry (in 1772). (describe process of collecting gas and dissolving in water)
In addition, Priestley isolates and identifies ten gases, most of them previously unknown.
Priestley uses an improved pneumatic trough in which, by collecting gases over mercury instead of in water. Using mercury instead of water, Priestley is able to isolate and examine gases such as ammonia, sulfur dioxide, and hydrogen chloride, which are soluble in water.
Between 1772 and 1790, Priestley will publish six volumes of "Experiments and Observations on Different Kinds of Air" and more than a dozen articles in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions describing his experiments on gases, or "airs," as they are then called at the time.
| Leeds, England |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2140) Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804) publishes "The History and Present State of Discoveries Relating to Vision, Light and Colours", a history of optics, (in which Priestley supports the corpuscular theory of light).
In this book, Priestley describes a metal-knife-produces-colors experiment as being the result of reflection instead of inflexion or diffraction, by Giacomo Fillipo Maraldi in Paris. This is the last public recording of the interpretation of light diffraction actually being caused by light reflection even to modern times. This is an extremely simple experiment anybody can do, to simply take a box, make 2 holes in one side of the box, hold a metal butter knife to the bottom of one hole, let sun light reflect off the knife into the box, and look through the second hole to see the spectrum of colors produced.
Priestley writes about an experiment described by Maraldi: " Our author concludes his curious paper with an account of the following experiment, which he repeated from Grimaldi. He introduced a beam of the sun's light into a darkened chamber, by an aperture of about half an inch in diameter. At the distance of seven or eight feet from the hole, he placed in the light of the sun a cylindrical body, and this reflexion made a semicircular train of light, the centre of which was in that part of the cylinder on which the image of the sun fell. Having received part of this reflected light upon a piece of white paper, in any part of the semicircular space, a great variety of lively colours were seen in it. These colours were red, violet, yellow, blue, and green; so that the paper which received them, had the appearance of being marbled with those different colours. In order to see them distinctly, it was necessary, however, to receive them at some distance from the image of the sun."
Newton does not recognize Grimaldi's "diffraction" as reflection, instead accepting Grimaldi's theory that light bends around the edges of the slit. Priestley in 1772, includes a chapter on "Inflection" (using Newton's word as opposed to diffraction, Grimaldi's word), and even reports on Maraldi's finding of a spectrum produced by reflection of sun light from a knife, but does not explicitly suggest that inflexion may be reflection. Perhaps Newton showed too much respect for Grimaldi's interpretation, and then Priestley showed too much respect for Newton's adopted Grimaldi explanation.
Some aspects of this 1772 history of vision, light and colors from 240 years ago is more advanced than modern science because Priestley supports a material particle theory of light, which is still not the majority view today. But 240 is nothing for the secret of remote neuron reading and writing which may extend to 700 years and more, or the duration of the Earth centered theory which lasted over 1000 years.
| Leeds, England |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2162) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), wins a prize offered by the French Academy of Sciences for an essay on the three-body problem. (explain what Lagrange's solution is)
Lagrange develops the math of motions of more than two objects, such as the earth-moon-sun system or Jupiter and it's moons. Newton's equations are designed around there only being two objects in the universe, (and a different form {for example the sum of a1=Gm2/r^2 for however many masses} must be used for calculating the position of a system of more than 2 masses responding to gravity).
This work results in the discovery of Lagrangian points, points in space at which a small body will remain approximately at rest relative to two larger mass bodies (because the gravitational influence of both is equal in opposite directions).
In each system of two heavy bodies (for example Sun-Jupiter, or Earth-Moon) there exist five theoretical Lagrangian points. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, each stable point forms one tip of an equilateral triangle having the two massive bodies at the other vertices.
However, this claim I don't think is accurate because if the two large mass objects are different mass, the distance where the two gravitational attractions cancel out will be at different distances from each of the larger masses. In addition I think I only accept the first Lagrangian point because, points 2-5 will be pulled by both masses being on one side of the smaller third mass, but perhaps I am wrong. This is just my own opinion after making many models of masses moving because of gravity on a computer.
I think another point needs to be explained and this is because I think the Lagrangian point concept as applied to the Sun-Earth system requires that the Earth and third body initially have an (x,y,z) velocity which hold them in orbit around the Sun while the gravity of the two larger bodies has no effect on the third body, being equally balanced in opposite directions at all times throughout the orbit.
| Berlin, Germany |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2170) Baron Louis Bernard Guyton De Morveau (GEToN Du moURVo) (CE 1737-1816), French chemist, demonstrates that rusted metals do weigh more than the metals themselves.
| ?, France |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2172) Baron Louis Bernard Guyton De Morveau (GEToN Du moURVo) (CE 1737-1816), publishes "Eléments de chymie" (3 vols., 1777-78; "Elements of Chemistry") from a 1776 public course of chemical lectures at the Academy of Dijon. In this work affinity, Guyton de Morveau tries to extend Isaac Newton's inverse square law of gravitation to chemical forces of attraction.
I see this attempt to apply the inverse square attraction of gravitation, in addition to physical collision, to chemical reactions as a good idea. I think chemical bonds are, like electricity, probably a cumulative effect of many particles moving because of gravity in addition to collision. We should not fear exploring this logical scheme in addition to all other promising theories.
| Dijon, France |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2199) Karl Wilhelm Scheele (sAlu) (CE 1742-1786), Swedish chemist, isolates oxygen around this time, calling it "fire air" but this is not published until after Joseph Priestley isolates oxygen (calling it deflogisticated air) in 1775.
Scheele isolates oxygen from heating a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid in a retort and collecting the gas in an oxen bladder attached to the neck. Scheele also isolates oxygen by heating mercuric oxide (Priestley's method), by heating potassium nitrate and from mixtures of manganese dioxide and sulfuric and phosphoric acids.
Scheele calls oxygen "fire air", like Priestly believing the erroneous phlogiston theory.
Scheele is involved in the identification of the elements chlorine, manganese, barium, molybdenum, tungsten, nitrogen, and oxygen.
Scheele describes the effect of light on silver compounds, which 50 years later Daguerre and others will use in the development of photography.
Scheele sent "Treatise on Air and Fire" to his publisher in 1775, but it will not be published until 1777.
| Uppsala, Sweden |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2215) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) and other chemists burn a diamond in a vessel using a magnifying glass, the diamond disappears and they identify carbon dioxide gas within the vessel concluding that diamond contains carbon. Lavoisier notes that diamond will not burn in the absence of air.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2266) Johann Elert Bode (BoDu) (CE 1747-1826), German astronomer, (publishes) a formula to express the distances of the planets, which German astronomer Johann Daniel Titius (TisuS) (CE 1729-1796) had recognized in 1772.
This formula states that the planets follow a series of 3x+4 (where x=0,1,2...) which creates the series 4,7,10,16,28,52,100,196, etc. This law is called "Bode's law" (or the Titius-Bode rule) even though it was found by Titius.
This law is an important factor in the discovery of the minor planets, most of which are located between Mars and Jupiter and in the discovery of Neptune by Urbain Le Verrier in 1846. This law will be proven false by the finding of Neptune.
| Berlin, Germany |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 2285) Nitrogen gas isolated.
Daniel Rutherford (CE 1749-1819) Scottish chemist, (is credited with being) the first to isolate nitrogen.
Joseph Black finds that when a candle is burned in a closed container of air, the candle will go out eventually, and the remaining air will not support a flame. This is normal, but when the carbon dioxide (caused by the candle) is absorbed by chemicals, some air is not absorbed. The air that remains does not support a flame. Joseph Black gives this problem to his student Daniel Rutherford to solve. In Rutherford's experiment a mouse lives in a closed container until it dies (of suffocation). The remaining air is then passed through a strong alkali (caustic potash) which absorbs the fixed air (carbon dioxide). (Interesting that potash absorbs CO2, what is the reaction?) The remaining air does not support respiration or combustion and Rutherford calls the remaining air "mephitic air". Rutherford publishes these findings in a thesis "De aere fixo dicto aut mephitico" (1772, "On Air said to be Fixed or Mephitic"). Rutherford is the first to publish his findings, but in England the chemists Joseph Priestley and Henry Cavendish and in Sweden the chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele also (isolate) Nitrogen around the same time. The French chemist Antoine Lavoisier was the first to recognize the gas as an element and named it "azote" because of its inability to support life. The name nitrogen (from "nitre" plus the suffix "-gen," thus "nitre-forming") is (created) in 1790 because of the presence of this element in nitre (ordinary saltpetre, or potassium nitrate, KNO3). Rutherford and Black wrongly believe the phlogiston theory and use this theory to explain Rutherford's findings.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
228 YBN
[1772 AD]
| 4484) John Michell (MicL) (CE 1724-1793) tries to determine the momentum of light, and uses sun light to move a very thin copper plate balanced on a quartz cap placed inside a box.
Priestley describes Michell's experiment: (find original source if any exists) "Mr. Michell, some years ago, endeavoured to ascertain the momentum of light in a manner much more accurate manner than those in which M. Homberg and M. Mairan had attempted it; .... The instrument he made use of for this purpose consisted of a very thin plate of copper, a little more than an inch square, which was fastened to one end of a slender harpsichord wire about ten inches long. To the middle of this was fixed an agate cap, such as is commonly used for small mariner's compasses, after the manner of which it was intended to turn; and at the other end of the wire was a middling sized shot corn, as a counterpoise to the copperplate. The instrument had also fixed to it in the middle, at right angles to the length of the wire, and in a horizontal direction, a small bit of a very slender sewing needle, about one-third or perhaps half an inch long, which was made magnetical. In this state the whole instrurrent weighed about ten grains. It was placed on a very sharp-pointed needle, on which the agate cap turned extremely freely ; and to prevent its being disturbed by any motion of the air, it was enclosed in a box, the lid and front of which were of glass. This box was about twelve inches long, six or seven inches deep, and about as much in width ; the needle standing upright in the middle. At the time of making the experiment, the box was placed in such a manner, that a line drawn from the sun passed at right angles to the length of it; and the instrument was brought to range in the same direction with the box, by means of the magnetical bit of needle above mentioned, and a magnet properly placed on the outside, which would retain it, though with extremely little force, in any situation. The rays of the sun were now thrown upon the copperplate from a concave mirror of about two feet diameter, which, passing through the front glass of the box, were collected into the focus of the mirror upon the plate. In consequence of this the copper plate began to move, with a slow motion, of about an inch in a second of time, till it had moved through a space of about two inches and a half, when it struck against the back of the box. The mirror being removed, the instrument returned to its former situation by means of the little needle and magnet; and, the rays of the sun being then again thrown upon it, it again began to move, and struck against the back of the box as before; and this was repeated three or four times with the same success. The instrument was then placed the contrary way in the box to that in which it had been placed before, so that the end to which the copper-plate was affixed, and which had lain in the former experiment, towards the right hand, now lay towards the left; and, the rays of the sun being again thrown upon it, it began to move with a slow motion, and struck against the back of the box as before; and this was repeated once or twice with the same success. But by this time the copper-plate was so much altered in its form, by the extreme heat which it underwent in each experiment, and which brought it nearly into a state of fusion, that it became very much bent, and the more so as it had been unwarily supported by the middle, half of it lying above and half below the wire to which it was fastened. By these means it now varied so much from the vertical position, that it began to act in the same manner as the sail of a windmill, being impelled by the stream of heated air which moved upwards, with a force sufficient to drive it in opposition to the impulse of the rays of light." "If we impute," says Dr. Priestley, the motion produced in the above experiment to the impulse of the rays of light, and suppose that the instrument weighed ten grains, and acquired a velocity of one inch in a second, we shall find that the quantity of matter contained in the rays falling upon the instrument in that time amounted to no more than one 1200 millionth part of a grain, the velocity of light exceeding the velocity of one inch in a second in the proportion of about 1,200,000,000 to 1. The light was collected from a surface of about three square feet, which reflecting only about half what falls upon it. the quantity of matter contained in the rays of the sun incident upon a square foot and a half of surface in one second of time, ought to be no more than the 1200 millionth part of a grain, or upon one square foot only the 1800 millionth part of a grain. But the density of the rays of light at the surface of the sun is greater than at the earth in the proportion of 45,000 to 1; there ought, therefore, to issue from one square foot of the sun's surface in one second of time, in order to supply the waste by light, one 40,000th part of a grain of matter; that is, a little more than two grains in a day, or about 4,752,000 grains, or 670 pounds avoirdupois nearly in 6000 years; a quantity which would have shortened the sun's semi-diameter no more than about ten feet, if it was formed of the density of water only.".
In 1708, in France, Wilhelm Homberg moved pieces of amianthus and other light substances, by the impulse of solar rays, and made the substances move move quickly by connecting them to the end of a level connected to the spring of a watch. Also in France, in 1747, Mairan and Du Fay observed that sun light focused with a lens can turn a wheel made of copper, and one of iron.
(find portrait)
| Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
226 YBN
[08/01/1774 AD]
| 2139) Priestley collects oxygen ("which he calls dephlogisticated air") by melting mercuric oxide (red calx of mercury) (in an evacuated container) with a lens.
Mercury when heated in air will form a brick-red calx now called mercuric oxide. Priestly heats some of this calx in an (evacuated?) test tube with a lens. These focused (photons) on the calx and convert the substance back into liquid mercury again which appears as shining globules in the upper portion of the test tube. (probably a flame on the test tube can also be used to heat the mercuric oxide.) In addition a gas is given off with interesting properties. This gas is colorless, odorless and tasteless. Priestley finds that this new gas is "between five and six times as good as the best common air" in supporting combustion.
The name Priestley chooses for the gas is "dephlogisticated air", which reflects the erroneous Phlogiston Theory of Stahl, an explanation of combustion widely believed in the 1700s. According to this theory, flammable substances contained phlogiston, the principle of combustibility, which escapes during burning. Air is necessary as a holder to absorb the escaping phlogiston, and when the air became saturated with phlogiston, burning stops. Because the newly isolated gas had an enhanced capacity for supporting combustion, Priestley concludes that the phlogiston content of the gas must be lower than that of air.
The correct interpretation of the role of this gas in combustion and in chemistry will be one of the major contributions of the French chemist, Antoine Lavoisier (1743-1794). Lavoisier will name Priestley's dephlogisticated air "oxygen" and include it among the thirty-three simple substances listed in his Elements of Chemistry (Traitéélémentaire de chimie, 1789). Oxygen is a key element in the revolution that will transform chemistry and establish the modern science, but Priestley never accepts the new "French chemistry" and holds onto the phlogiston theory until his death.
Unknown to Priestley Karl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786), a Swedish apothecary, had prepared the same gas in 1771, but did not publish until after Priestly.
Priestley finds that mice are particularly frisky (horney? or move more) in the "dephlogisticated air", and that he finds himself "light and easy" when he breathes it. He thinks that breathing dephlogisticated air may one day become popular. Priestly recognizes that plants emit dephlogisticated air and Ingenhousz develops this further.
| Calne, England |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2111) Charles Messier (meSYA) (CE 1730-1817), French astronomer publishes his first list of 45 celestial objects under the title "Catalogue des nebeleuses et des amas étoiles" ("Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters").
The objects on Messier's list are still referred to as M1, M2, M3, etc. Messier objects cover a wide variety of objects. Two supplements published in 1783 and 1784 increased the number of nebulae to 103. The current number of Messier objects is 110. Among these objects are clusters of stars (also called "globular clusters"), that will be used by Shapley 125 years later to demonstrate the true size of the Milky Way. In addition these clusters will be thought to be made by advanced life, certainly, although secretly, as early as the 1974 when the Arecibo telescope sends a message to a globular cluster (M13), and this view of globular clusters as being made by life is only first echoed publicly by Ted Huntington, who suggests as others must have secretly before, that the path of galaxies in the universe may change from nebula to spiral to elliptical (or globular) galaxy, moving from nebula to blue star filled spiral galaxy with life converting their spiral galaxy to a yellow star spherical galaxy over many millions of galactic years.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2129) Nevil Maskelyne (maSKilIN) (CE 1732-1811), English astronomer , Maskelyne creates a method of determining the average density of the earth by using a pendulum. Maskelyne measures the average density of Earth to be approximately 4.5 times that of water from observations in Scotland on Schiehallion Mountain, North Perthshireit. The current estimate is around 5.5 times the density of water as a liquid around 20 degrees Celsius. (show and explain method.)
| Schiehallion Mountain, North Perthshireit, Scotland |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2136) English chemist Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804) publishes "Institutes of Natural and Revealed Religion" (1772-74), Priestley describes how he rejects the "gloomy" Calvinist doctrines of the natural depravity of man and the inscrutable will of a vengeful God.
| Calne, England |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2200) Karl Wilhelm Scheele (sAlu) (CE 1742-1786) isolates chlorine gas (he calls "dephlogisticated muriatic acid"), and identifies manganese and barium.
Scheele is the first to prepare chlorine using hydrochloric acid and manganese dioxide. Scheele treats manganese dioxide (black magnesia, also known as pyrolusite) with hydrochloric acid (then known as muriatic acid) and notices a previously unknown gas form, which Scheele names "dephlogisticated muriatic acid", now known as chlorine gas.
Scheele also suspects that black magnesia contains a new mineral (manganese), but is unable to isolate it.
Scheele announces the existence of the new earth "baryta" (which is barium oxide), therefore helping in the isolation and identification of the element barium.
| Uppsala, Sweden |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2201) Scheele publishes his only book "Chemische Abhandlung von der Luft und dem Feuer" (1777; "Chemical Treatise on Air and Fire") which contains a description of how Scheele isolated oxygen calling it "fire air".
Most chemists at the time are convinced that air is made of at least two different kinds of airs: one that sustains combustion and one that does not. Scheele measures the amount of the air suitable for combustion to be about one-fourth the quantity of ordinary air.
| Uppsala, Sweden |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2216) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) shows how material in the air combines with metals when heated, which will end the phlogiston theory of combustion, and demonstrates the conservation of mass.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2217) Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) repeats Joseph Priestley's experiment and realizes that the dephlogisticated air theory is wrong and that instead a portion of the air combines with metals to form calxes (oxides).
Priestley visits Paris for a dinner held in Priestley's honor at the Academy of Sciences and informs his French colleagues about his experiment with (mercuric-oxide) and this new air, ("deflogisticated air"). Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) repeats Priestley's experiment and realizes immediately that the dephlogisticated air theory is wrong and that instead a portion of the air combines with metals to form calxes (oxides). The reason that objects burn so readily in the new gas is that it is undiluted by that portion of the air in which objects do not burn.
These results will be reported in Lavoisier's famous memoir "On the Nature of the Principle Which Combines with Metals during Their Calcination and Increases Their Weight," read to the academy on April 26, 1775.
In this original memoir (the "official" version of Lavoisier's memoir will not appear until 1778), Lavoisier shows that the mercury calx is a true metallic calx because it can be reduced with charcoal, giving off Black's fixed air in the process. But when reduced without charcoal, the mercury calx gives off an air which supported respiration and combustion in an enhanced way. Lavoisier concludes that this air is just a pure form of common air which is "undivided, without alteration, without decomposition" that combines with metals on calcination.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2226) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) publishes "Opuscules physiques et chimiques" ("Physical and Chemical Essays", 1774) which is a full review of all the literature on air. In this work Lavoisier makes a full study of the work of Joseph Black and suggests that the air which combines with metals on calcination and increases the weight might be Black's fixed air (that is CO2).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2258) Scheele discovered manganese and did much or the preliminary work.
| Uppsala, Sweden |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2267) Johann Elert Bode (BoDu) (CE 1747-1826), German astronomer, founds the "Astronomisches Jahrbuch" ("Astronomic Yearbook"), in 51 yearly volumes which Bode compiles and issues. (1801 publishes catalog of star positions.)
| Berlin, Germany |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2293) Abraham Gottlob Werner (VRNR or VARNR) (CE 1750-1817), German geologist, publishes "Vonden äusserlichen Kennzeichen der Fossilien" (1774, "On the External Characters of Fossils, or of Minerals"), the first modern textbook of descriptive mineralogy.
Although Werner recognizes that a true and final classification of minerals should be based on their chemical composition, Werner emphasized that this classification should be preceded by identifying minerals by their external characters and physical properties.
| Leipzig, Germany |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2664) Swiss Mathematician, Georges-Louis Lesage (CE 1724-1803) constructs the first known electrostatic telegraph, using the design of C.M.. Lesage uses 24 pith balls (pith is the spongy material inside plants used, like cork, to make lightweight hats) over 24 wires connected with a frictional electricity machine to communicate between two adjacent rooms. For use between separate buildings, Lesage proposes putting the 24 (uninsulated) wires in ceramic tubes with 24-hole separating disks at regular intervals.
| Switzerland (presumably) |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2841) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) German-English astronomer, builds a 6.5-inch speculum an alloy of bronze (which is an alloy of copper and tin) metal mirror reflector telescope with a 7-foot (tube), in an altazimuth stand.
| Bath, England |
226 YBN
[1774 AD]
| 2982) William Henley sends electric current through evacuated tubes to try and determine direction of current, concluding that the bright emission from the negative conductor is the entry of electric particles. The modern view is that electric particles move from the negative conductor to the positive conductor.
| London?, England |
225 YBN
[06/10/1775 AD]
| 2246) Volta invents the electrophorus, the first induction based electrostatic generator.
Alessandro Giuseppe Antonio Anastasio, Count Volta (VOLTo) (CE 1745-1827) Italian physicist, constructs an electrophorus, a rubber (ebonite) covered metal plate is rubbed and given a negative charge, a plate with a (insulated) handle is placed over the charged plate, which causes a positive charge to be attracted to the lower plate, and a negative charge repelled to the upper plate. The upper negative charge is drawn off by grounding the upper plate, and by repeating the process a (large positive) charge is built up on the plate with the handle. This charge accumulating machine replaces the Leyden jar and is the basis of electrical condensers still used today.
The electrophorus is the first "induction machine", an electrostatic generator that uses induction instead of friction to accumulate electricity.
The operation depends on the facts of electrostatic induction discovered by John Canton in 1753, and, independently, by J. K. Wilcke in 1762. Volta, in a letter to Joseph Priestley on June 10, 1775 (see Collezione dell' opere, ed. 1816, vol. i. p. 118), describes the invention of a device Volta calls an "elettroforo perpetuo", based on the fact that a conductor held near an electrified body and touched by the finger is found, when withdrawn, to have an electric charge of opposite sign to that of the electrified body. The elettroforo perpetuo "electrified but once, briefly and moderately, never loses its electricity and although repeatedly touched, obstinately preserves the strength of its signs" (Opere, III 96).
Volta announces the "elettroforo perpetuo" in a June 10, 1775 letter to Joseph Priestley. Volta publishes this letter, with plates and supplementary instructions, in "Scelta di opuscoli interessanti" (Milan) for 1775.
The principle of the electrophorus maybe summed up in this sense. A conductor if touched while under the influence of a charged body acquires a charge of opposite sign.
The electrophorus is made of two parts: a round cake of resinous material cast in a metal dish (or sole) about 12 inches in diameter, and a round disk of slightly smaller diameter made of metal, or of wood covered with tinfoil, and provided with a glass handle. Shellac or sealing wax may be used to make the cake. To use the electrophorus the resinous cake is rubbed with a warm piece of woolen cloth, or fur. The disk or cover is then placed on the cake, touched briefly with a finger and then lifted up by the glass handle, at which point the top metal is electrified with a positive charge, which can yield a spark when presented with a finger. The cover may be replaced, touched and once more removed and will yield any number of sparks. The original charge on the resinous plate remains practically as strong as before. When charged the top metal plate can then give its charge to the hook of a Leyden jar, and by repeated charging, the Leyden jar condenser (capacitor) can be moderately charged. If the original charge on the resin declines, it can be reinvigorated by lightly rubbing the cake with the coating of a Leyden jar that the top metal plate had charged through the hook. The theory of the electrophorus is currently explained in this way. The resinous cake is rubbed and its surface is negatively electrified. When the metal disk is placed down on the resinous cake, the top metal plate actually rests really only on three or four points of the surface and may be viewed as an insulated conductor in the presence of an electrified body. The negative electrification of the cake therefore acts by influence on the metallic disk or cover, the electrons in it being displaced upwards causing the upper side to become negatively electrified and leaving a positive charge on the under side. If now the cover is touched for an instant with the finger the negative charge of the upper surface will flow away to the earth through the hand and body. The attracted positive charge however remains being bound by its attraction towards the negative charge on the cake. If finally the cover is lifted by its handle, the remaining positive charge is no longer bound on the lower surface by attraction but will distribute itself on both sides of the cover and may be used to give a spark. It is clear then that no part of the original charge has been consumed in the process, which may be repeated as often as desired. The charge on the cake slowly dissipates in particular if the air is damp. The labor of touching the cover with the finger at each operation can be replaced by having a pin of brass or a strip of tinfoil projecting from the metallic bottom plate to the top surface of the cake so that it touches the plate each time, and thus neutralizes the negative charge by allowing electrons to flow away to the earth.
The electrophorus is the most interesting electrical device since the Leyden jar. Volta combines the insight that resin retains its electricity longer than glass with the fact, emphasized by Cigna and Beccaria, that a metal plate and a charged insulator can produce many flashes without losing electric charge. In 1772, Beccaria published an updated version of "Elettricismo artificiale", which emphasizes the view that the two electricities destroy one another in the union of a charged insulator with a momentarily grounded conductor, only to reappear, "revindicated" in later separations.
Some people credit the electrophorus to Swedish professor Johan Carl Wilcke in 1762 or 1764, and others to Gianfrancesco Cigna in 1762.
Beccaria claims that he and Cigna had already described the "perpetuity" of the charge of the electrophore. Other claiments are Stephan Gray, Aepinus, Wilcke and the Jesuits of Peking. Volta recognizes the role of Cigna, but insists that he alone has made a usable instrument, had developed the cake, the armatures, and the play with the bottle. Wilcke who had understood the theory, had not embodied it in an apparatus.
EX: Does the electrophorus work for both negative and positive charge? In other words, do positive particles exit the Earth to add to the charge on the electroscope? If yes, I think this argues that there are two different kinds of particles, possibly that attach (through orbit or physical connection) to each other but not to other similar particles of the same kind. Another view is that the negative particles exit to the Earth (however if the electrical repulsion of the gold leaves or pith balls is from collision this seems doubtful to me). If no, perhaps the Earth has a surplus of negative particles.
| Como, Italy |
225 YBN
[1775 AD]
| 1227) Alexander Cummings invents the "S-trap", still used today in modern toilets. The "S-trap" uses standing water to seal the outlet of the bowl, preventing the escape of foul air from the sewer. Water remains in the bowl after each flush to stop the sewer gases from leaking into the house and creating an unpleasant odor. Cummings' design has a sliding valve in the bowl outlet above the trap.
The water closet is still emptied in to a cesspit, which is emptied once a year, put into the nearest river, lake or ocean. The sewage flows into and contaminates well water. Some sewers even empty directly into rivers, lakes and oceans.
| London, England |
225 YBN
[1775 AD]
| 2143) Torbern Olof Bergman (CE 1735-1784), Swedish mineralogist classifies substances on chemical characteristics instead of appearance alone, and makes tables of "affinities", based on chemicals that react with each other.
Bergman reports this in his "Disquisitio de Attractionibus Electivis" (1775; "A Dissertation on Elective Attractions", tr. 1785), probably his most important paper (MIP), in which Bergman includes tables listing the elements in the order of their affinity (that is their ability to react and displace other elements in a compound). These tables will be widely used and included in chemical literature as late as 1808.
Bergman carries out many quantitative analyses, especially of minerals, and extends the chemical classification of minerals devised by Axel Cronstedt. Bergman introduces many new reagents and devises analytical methods for chemical analysis.
Bergman compiles extensive tables listing relative chemical affinities of acids and bases.
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
225 YBN
[1775 AD]
| 2296) Johann Blumenback (BlUmeNBoK) (CE 1752-1840) classifies humans into 5 races based on cranium measurements, marking the beginning of anthropology.
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (BlUmeNBoK) (CE 1752-1840) German anthropologist, publishes "De generis humani varietate nativa" (1775, "On the Natural Varieties of Mankind", tr: 1865, repr. 1969) which describes five divisions of humans that are the basis of all later racial classifications.
Blumenbach is the founder of anthropology and the first to view humans as an object of study similar to the other species.
Blumenbach uses comparative anatomy to try and understand early human history. Blumenbach divides humans into 5 racial "American", "Caucasian", "Ethiopian", "Malayan", and "Mongolian".
Unfortunately this racial identification will be taken by racist people to try to legitimize racism. Blumenbach speaks out against the idea that black people are somehow less human that white people. (Clearly genetic racial differences exist and should not be denied, and all humans of any race should have equal rights under the laws.)
| Göttingen, Germany{2 presumably} |
224 YBN
[07/04/1776 AD]
| 1532) The Declaration of Independence openly rejects the claim of supremacy by heredity in stating in its Preamble: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, (modern: United States) |
224 YBN
[1776 AD]
| 2109) Otto Friedrich Müller (CE 1730-1784), Danish biologist publishes "Zoologiae Danicae Prodromus" (1776), the first survey of the fauna of Norway and Denmark, and classifies over three thousand local species. Müller is one of the first to study microorganisms, and establishes the classification of several groups of animals, including Hydrachnellae, Entomostraca and Infusiora.
In this work Müller is the first to catagorize microorganisms into genera and species after the tradition of Linnaeus, and uses the words "bacillum" and "spirillum" to describe two kinds of microorganisms.
| Copenhagen, Denmark (published) |
224 YBN
[1776 AD]
| 2176) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) German-English astronomer, builds a 24" reflector telescope with an 20-foot (tube), in an altazimuth mounting using a speculum metal mirror.
| Bath, England |
223 YBN
[1777 AD]
| 2165) Charles Augustin Coulomb (KUlOM) (CE 1736-1806), French physicist, invents a torsion balance that measures a quantity of force by the amount of twist the force produces on a suspended thread or wire. Michell had invented a similar device earlier.
Central to Coulomb's 1777 essay on magnetic compasses is his decision to suspend the compass needle from a thread, instead of mounting the needle on a pivot, as is traditionally done. This leads Coulomb into an investigation of torsion in threads and wires which will result in the invention of his torsion balance.
| Paris?, France |
223 YBN
[1777 AD]
| 2182) Like Bradley, William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) tries to observe the parallax of stars but cannot.
Also in this year Herschel attempts to calculate the height of the mountains on the Moon (of Earth).
| Bath, England |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 1204)
| England |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 2102) James Cook (CE 1728-1779), English navigator , lands on the islands of Hawaii.
| Hawaii |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 2203) Scheele demonstrates that the mineral molybdaina (now molybdenite), for a long time thought to be a lead ore or graphite, contains sulfur and possibly a previously unknown metal. Scheele can distinguish molybdenite from graphite by seeing that molybdenite forms a white powder when treated with nitric acid, and graphite does not. At Scheele's suggestion, Peter Jacob Hjelm, another Swedish chemist, will successfully isolate the metal (in 1782) and name it molybdenum, from the Greek molybdos, "lead".
| Köping, Sweden (presumably) |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 2218) Lavoisier shows that the residual air after metals have been calcined (heating a substance to a high temperature but below the melting or fusing point, causing loss of moisture, reduction or oxidation) does not support combustion or respiration and that approximately five volumes of this air added to one volume of the dephlogisticated air gives common atmospheric air. Common air is then a mixture of two distinct chemical materials with different properties. Lavoisier revises his April 26, 1775 memoir no longer stating that the principle that combines with metals on calcination is just common air but "nothing else than the healthiest and purest part of the air", the "eminently respirable part of the air".
Scheele and others had only dimly suspected this.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 2236) Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829), French naturalist, publishes a three-volume book, "Flore française" ("French Flora", 1778) on the flora (plants) of France.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 2237) Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) publishes "Hydrogéologie" (1802, "Hydrogeology") in which Lamarck understands that the type of fossil occurring in a deposit can be used to determine if the deposit was built up as deep-marine or coastal sediments.
In this book Lamarck describes the history of the earth as a series of flooding by a global sea, followed by organic material building up the continents. (What is interesting is that much of the top of the crust of earth must be the remains of past life, certainly all the oil is, and no doubt much of the soil. However, probably most of the earth's crust is abiotic in origin, although all matter is the same and part of one system in the universe.) Lamarck believes that the earth is much older than the biblical account indicates.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 2248) Alessandro Volta (VOLTo) (CE 1745-1827) discovers and isolates methane gas.
Alessandro Volta (VOLTo) (CE 1745-1827) is the first to discover and isolate the compound methane, a major part of natural gas.
Volta distinguished methane from hydrogen by methane's different-color flame, its slower rate of combustion, and the larger volume of air and larger electric spark required for detonation.
| Como, Italy |
222 YBN
[1778 AD]
| 5960) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous Piano Sonata No. 8 in A minor, K. 310. (verify)
| Paris, France (verify) |
221 YBN
[1779 AD]
| 2106) Lazzaro Spallanzani (SPoLoNTSonE) (CE 1729-1799), Italian biologist, using amphibians, shows that actual contact between egg and semen is needed for the development of a new animal and that filtered semen becomes less and less effective as filtration becomes more and more complete.
| Pavia, Italy (presumably) |
221 YBN
[1779 AD]
| 2112) Jan Ingenhousz (iNGeNHoUZ) (CE 1730-1799), Dutch physician and plant physiologist, describes photosynthesis by showing that green plants take in carbon dioxide but only in the light (therefore the name "photosynthesis", "formation in light " is the name given to this process), and shows that in the dark, plants, like animals, give off carbon dioxide and absorb oxygen. Ingenhousz therefore clarifies the work done by Hales and Priestley.
Ingenhousz publishes this work in "Experiments Upon Vegetables, Discovering Their Great Power of Purifying the Common Air in Sunshine, and of Injuring It in the Shade and at Night"
The English chemist Joseph Priestley had already shown that plants restore to the air a property (oxygen) that is necessary and also destroyed by animal life. Ingenhousz finds that (1) light is necessary (for this restoring of air process by plants,) (photosynthesis); (2) only the green parts of the plant actually perform photosynthesis; and (3) all living parts of the plant "damage" the air (that is respire (in today's terms "consume oxygen")), but that the quantity of air restoration ((emitting oxygen into the air)) by a green plant far exceeds its damaging effect ((consuming oxygen)).
The Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet (BOnA) (CE 1720-1793) had described how bubbles of air are emitted from plant leaves in water during the day but not at night, but wrongly supposes that the bubbles come from the water. By submerging leaves in an upside-down jar placed in a tub of water, Ingenhousz collects the "air" emitted from the leaves, correctly identifies the air bubbles to be "phlogisticated air" (Lavoisier will show that these so-called "air" bubbles are actually a gas Lavoisier names "oxygen"), and correctly explains that this "air" is not from the water itself.
Ingenhousz also invents an improved device for generating large amounts of static electricity (in 1766) and makes the first quantitative measurements of heat conduction in metal rods (in 1789).
A noted physician, Ingenhousz is among the first to inoculate against smallpox; unlike the safer method later developed by Edward Jenner, however, Ingenhousz uses live smallpox viruses taken from patients with mild cases of the disease.
| London, England |
221 YBN
[1779 AD]
| 2166) Charles Augustin Coulomb (KUlOM) (CE 1736-1806), publishes "Théorie des machines simples, en ayant égard au frottement de leurs parties et à la roideur des cordages" (Theory of simple machines with regard for the friction of their parts and the tension of the ropes, 1779), which is a compilation of his early experiments on statics and mechanics. In this work Coloumb makes the first formal statement of the laws governing friction. Coloumb us the first to show that the force of friction is always proportional to the pressure exerted at 90° to the surface.
| Paris?, France (presumably) |
221 YBN
[1779 AD]
| 2188) Horace Bénédict de Saussure (SoSYUR) (CE 1740-1799) publishes the first volume of his "Voyages dans les Alpes" (1779-96; "Travels in the Alps"), a work that contains the results of more than 30 years of geologic studies, and which introduces the word "geology" into scientific nomenclature.
This is the first systematic study of the Alps.
| Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
221 YBN
[1779 AD]
| 2219) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) names the gas that can support combustion "oxygen" (from Greek words meaning "to give rise to acids", because Lavoisier incorrectly believes that all acids contain oxygen), the gas in the air that does not support combustion Lavoisier named "Azote" (from Greek words meaning "no life"), but in 1790 this gas will be named "Nitrogen" by Chaptal.
Lavoisier knows that the combustion products of nonmetals such as sulfur, phosphorus, charcoal, and nitrogen (when mixed with water) are acidic, and therefore wrongly believes that all acids contain oxygen and that oxygen is the acidifying principle. (? will show that acidity is cause by Hydrogen in ?)
Lavoisier studies animals in air and by measuring heat he shows that life is very like combustion (measuring heat is not exact, need more specifics)
Isolating oxygen allows Lavoisier to explain both the quantitative and qualitative changes that occur in combustion, respiration, and calcination.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
221 YBN
[1779 AD]
| 3251) Johann Heinrich Lambert (LoMBRT) (CE 1728-1777) German mathematician, publishes "Pyrometrie oder vom Maase des Feuers und der Wärme" (Berlin, 1779) in which Lambert discusses William Cullen's and Johann Arnold's work in the change in temperature of air as the air enters or leaves the receiver of an air pump.
| Berlin, Germany |
220 YBN
[1780 AD]
| 1208)
| Switzerland? |
220 YBN
[1780 AD]
| 2053) Jean Étienne Guettard (GeToRD) (CE 1715-1786), French geologist , is the first to geologically map France.
| France |
220 YBN
[1780 AD]
| 2062) Jean le Rond D'Alembert (DoloNBAR) (CE 1717-1783) French mathematician, completes the eight volume "Opuscules mathématiques" (1761-1780). (more detail)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
220 YBN
[1780 AD]
| 2274) Pierre Simon, marquis de Laplace (loPloS) (CE 1749-1827) French astronomer and mathematician, with Lavoisier shows that the quantity of heat required to decompose a compound into its elements is equal to the heat (emitted) when that compound is formed from its elements. This anticipates the conservation of energy law.
It seems logical to think that the heat that goes into breaking two atoms apart would be equal to the heat that is emitted when two atoms combine, but I have some doubts about this theory, because heat is not easy to measure. I think they may have presumed, or that the difference was too minute to measure. I want to get the details of the exact experiment if possible. I am keeping an open mind, if true maybe there is some very clean and orderly adding and subtracting of photons to atoms, for example exactly 1e4 photons always go into or come out of the bond between two atoms. There has to be some loss of heat to atoms of air and surrounding objects such as containers, heat cannot be applied only to some specific group of atoms, clearly Lavoisier and Laplace did some rough estimating. The idea of heat is thought to be the average velocity of particles, and I think heat depends on how many photons are in a volume of space but may only have meaning at the atomic level.
In terms of the concept of "energy". I am still debating the existence and usefulness of energy as a concept. I can see, for example, a photon colliding with a group of photons stuck together because of not having space to move, being perhaps similar to billiard balls, and the velocity is transferred from one photon to the last photon which then moves from standstill to 3e8. I am currently of the opinion that energy is simply a human made concept that has use, but clearly does not apply to any physical matter, and one important point is that a photon (light/radiation) is not energy in my opinion; photons are matter and the basic component of all matter. This seems to me to be a clear mistake of the past. In addition, I think the idea of conservation of energy must be reduced to the idea of conservation of mass and conservation of velocity, since matter and velocity cannot be transformed into each other in my opinion. I see the somewhat abstract concept of energy as only applying to the transfer of velocity that we observe when two or more objects collide. But I think we need to think about this more and do more simulations.] Lavoisier and Laplace develop a theory of chemical and thermal phenomena based on the (inaccurate) assumption that heat is a substance, called "caloric" and deduce the notion of "specific heat", which they express in terms of the heat absorbed in raising one pound of water one degree.
Laplace and Lavoisier go on to determine the specific heats of numerous substances. Specific heat is currently defined as the ratio of the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of a body one degree to that required to raise the temperature of an equal mass of water one degree. Clearly some photons which cause heat must be lost to empty space and surrounding objects making such measurement somewhat inaccurate. Heat to me seems difficult to accurately measure. However, knowing how much heat relative to uniform experiments using the same equipment might be useful to understand the nature of how molecules and atoms absorb, reflect, and transmit photons.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
220 YBN
[1780 AD]
| 2286) James Six (CE 1731-1793) invents a maximum minimum thermometer (also called "Six's thermometer"), a thermometer that records both maximum and minimum temperatures over a given time.
| Canterbury, England |
219 YBN
[03/13/1781 AD]
| 2840) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) identifies the planet Uranus.
This is the first new planet to be discovered since prehistoric times.
Herschel finds Uranus when recording double stars. Seeing that the position of a "nebulous star or comet" has moved four days later, he tracks the position of the object. Hershel and Laplace find that the orbit is nearly circular like a planet instead of elongated like a comet. In addition the orbit of the object is located far outside of Saturn. Herschel then understands that he has found a new planet.
| Bath, England |
219 YBN
[1781 AD]
| 2123) Erasmus Darwin (CE 1731-1802) and friends form the Lunar Society of Birmingham. This society includes uch eminent people as Joseph Priestley, Josiah Wedgwood, James Watt, and Matthew Boulton.
Members will come to be called "lunatiks", and this is the origin of the label of a "lunatic" as a derisive antiscience term to support a psychological theory that science and those who enjoy science are delusional.
Members of the society discuss scientific and technological issues, inventions, and theories.
| Derby, England (presumably) |
219 YBN
[1781 AD]
| 2147) Using the "sun-and-planet" gear, a shaft produces two revolutions for each cycle of the engine.
Watt is the first to use the steam engine for more than a pump. Watt connects attachments to the steam engine piston to convert the back and forth motion into the rotary movement of a wheel. Iron makers use this to power bellows to keep the air blast going in their furnaces and to power hammers to crush the ore. Steam engines can be used anywhere, as opposed to water power where factories need to be near a fast moving stream. Asimov cites this as the beginning of the industrial revolution where large factories and cities form.
| Birmingham, England (presumably) |
219 YBN
[1781 AD]
| 2196) Lexell finds that the orbit or the object (Uranus) is at all points outside the orbit of Saturn, and therefore must be a new planet. Lexell points out the difficulty in establishing an accurate orbit for Uranus might be from the interference of an unknown planet beyond Uranus. This will lead to the identification of Neptune 50 years later.
Although Lexell does not predict the position of Neptune, as Adams and Le Verrier do, Lexell's initial calculations of the orbit of Uranus show that it is being perturbed and Lexell deduces that the perturbations are due to another more distant planet.
| St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
219 YBN
[1781 AD]
| 2204) Karl Wilhelm Scheele (sAlu) (CE 1742-1786) Scheele discovera tungstic acid in a mineral now known as scheelite, and his countryman Torbern Bergman concludea that a new metal can be prepared from the acid. Tungsten metal will be first isolated in 1783 by the Spanish chemists and mineralogists Juan José and Fausto Elhuyar from the mineral wolframite.
| Köping, Sweden (presumably) |
219 YBN
[1781 AD]
| 2208) René Just Haüy (oYUE) (CE 1743-1822), French mineralogist, recognizes that the shape of crystals as shown by the way they always break into the same shapes (for example rhombohedral) implies their chemical composition.
With Lavoisier Haüy determines the density of water to set up a standard system of mass for the metric system.
Haüy also conducted work in pyroelectricity.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
219 YBN
[1781 AD]
| 2263) Peter Jacob Hjelm (YeLM) (CE 1746-1813), Swedish mineralogist, isolates molybdenum, at the suggestions of Scheele using methods similar to Gahn's in isolating manganese. (detail)
Hjelm names the metal "molybdenum", from the Greek molybdos, "lead".
| Uppsala, Sweden (presumably) |
219 YBN
[1781 AD]
| 2321) Jean Antoine Claude, comte de Chanteloup Chaptal (soPToL) (CE 1756-1832), French chemist, establishes the first commercial production of sulfuric acid in France. (detail of process)
| Montpellier, France |
218 YBN
[11/??/1782 AD]
| 2348) John Goodricke (CE 1764-1786) explains that some variable stars (stars for which the intensity of light varies) have periodic variations in intensity. In addition Goodricke explains these periodic variations as the star being eclipsed by a darker companion body.
John Goodricke (CE 1764-1786), English astronomer explains that some variable stars (stars for which the intensity of light varies) have periodic variations in intensity. In addition Goodricke explains these periodic variations as the star being eclipsed by a darker companion body. Goodricke finds that the brightest variable star Algol's variations are regular, and suggests that Algol has an invisible dark companion periodically eclipsing it.
Vogel will show this identification of a companion to be true a century later.
Algol or beta Perseï is a multi star system 96 lightyears away with two main components, where the central star is a massive, bright, white blue main class star (B8) with 3.7 solar masses at 2.9 times solar diameter and has 100 times higher absolute brightness than our Sun. The orbiting secondary star is a yellow red undersize giant star (K2) with 0.8 solar masses at 3.5 times the solar diameter and a an absolute brightness 3x higher than our Sun. Both stars are separated by eight solar diameters. This double star system is orbited by a third main class star (F1) at around two astronomical units. The nature of the Algol system will be discovered through spectroscopic analysis of Algol's light (by making use of) the Doppler effect.
These kinds of stars will come to be the class of stars known as eclipsing variables (or eclipsing binaries).
Variable stars may be classified into three types according to the origin and nature of their variability: (1) eclipsing, (2) pulsating, and (3) explosive. In an eclipsing variable, one member of a double star system partially blocks the light of a companion as it passes in front of the star, as observed from Earth (which must be a precise direction). The other two types of variable stars, "pulsating" and "explosive" variable stars will (be thought to be) intrinsically variable; their own output of (light particles varies) with time. Pulsating variables expand and contract cyclically, causing them to pulsate rhythmically in brightness and size. (If true these pulsating stars must be very interesting to see up close. I have doubts about this explanation, clearly stars change brightness when exploding. Visually seeing such stars collapse and expand up close would probably end my doubts.) The Cepheids and RR Lyrae stars are typical examples of pulsating variable stars. The explosive (or eruptive) variable stars include novas, supernovas, and similar stars that undergo sudden outbursts of (photons and collective photon-based matter). This increase in brightness lasts only for a short period of time, followed by relatively slow dimming.
Besides these three major classes of variable stars; eclipsing, pulsating, and explosive, there are also several miscellaneous variables: R Coronae Borealis stars, T Tauri stars, flare stars, pulsars (neutron stars), spectrum and magnetic variables, X-ray variable stars, and radio variable stars. Tens of thousands of variable stars are now known.
Currently, most of the planets around other stars are too small to be seen with telescopes with the exception one planet (a planet of star other than the Sun is called an "exoplanet").
| York Minster, England |
218 YBN
[1782 AD]
| 2134) English chemist Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804) publishes "History of the Corruptions of Christianity" (1782) which will be officially burned in 3 years. In this book, Priestley claims that the doctrines of materialism, determinism, and Socinianism (Unitarianism) are consistent with a rational reading of the Bible and insists that Jesus Christ was a mere man who preached the resurrection of the body rather than the immortality of a nonexistent soul (in other words, Priestley explicitly rejects the inaccurate ancient idea of a soul, still believed by many people even today 300 years later).
| Birmingham, England |
218 YBN
[1782 AD]
| 2148) This new engine requires a new method of rigidly connecting the piston to the beam. Watt will solve this problem in two years (1784) with his invention of the parallel motion, connected rods that guide the piston rod in a perpendicular motion.
| Birmingham, England (presumably) |
218 YBN
[1782 AD]
| 2149) James Watt (CE 1736-1819) Scottish engineer invents the "parallel motion" device for his steam engine. This is an arrangement of connected rods that guide the piston rod in a perpendicular motion.
| Birmingham, England (presumably) |
218 YBN
[1782 AD]
| 2190) Franz Joseph Müller (mYylR) (CE 1740-1825), Austrian mineralogist, working with gold ore identifies a new element, Klaproth confirms this and names the element "tellurium".
Müller isolates a material from an ore called "German gold" that defies his attempts at analysis which Müller calls metallum problematicum. In 1798 Martin Heinrich Klaproth confirms Müller's observations and establishes the elemental nature of the substance (detail) and names the element after man's "heavenly body" Tellus, or Earth.
Tellurium is atomic number 52, has an atomic weight of 127.60, and a relative density (specific gravity) of 6.24 at 20°C, m.p. 450°C; b.p. 990°C; valence −2, +4, or +6. There are eight stable isotopes of natural tellurium with the masses 120, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 128, 130. Tellurium is a semimetallic chemical element in the oxygen family (Group VIa of the periodic table), closely allied with the element selenium in chemical and physical properties. This is the same chemical family as oxygen, sulfur, selenium, and polonium (the chalcogens). Tellurium is one of the nine rarest elements on earth.
Tellurium is a lustrous, brittle, crystalline, silver-white metalloid. A powdery brown form of the element is also known. (there can be different solid forms of the same element? I guess it may depend on the pressure when the solid is formed, for example the difference between coal and diamond for carbon?)
Tellurium burns in air or in oxygen with a blue-green flame, forming the dioxide (TeO2).
| Transylvania, Romania (was Hungary at time) |
218 YBN
[1782 AD]
| 2202) Karl Wilhelm Scheele (sAlu) (CE 1742-1786) prepares the highly poisonous hydrogen cyanide from the pigment Prussian blue. Hydrogen cyanid (HCN) is also known as prussic acid when dissolved in water.
Scheele even recording the taste of hydrogen cyanide which in small amounts can kill a human.
Scheele prepares three highly poisonous gases: hydrogen fluoride, hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen cyanide.
| Köping, Sweden (presumably) |
218 YBN
[1782 AD]
| 2220) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) with assistance from Laplace from 1782-1784 tries to measure the heats of combustion and work out the details of what happens in living tissue, and in the process attempts to identify the composition of living tissue. Liebig will develop this successfully 50 years later.
Chemists understand that air plays a role in both combustion and respiration, and so Lavoisier extends his new theory of combustion to include the area of respiration physiology. Lavoisier's first memoirs on this topic are read to the Academy of Sciences in 1777, but his most significant contribution to this field is made in the winter of 1782/1783. Lavoisier publishes the results this work in a famous memoir, "On Heat", which describes how Lavoisier and Laplace designed an ice calorimeter apparatus for measuring the amount of heat given off during combustion or respiration. By measuring the quantity of carbon dioxide and heat produced by confining a live guinea pig in this apparatus, and comparing the amount of heat produced the same amount of carbon dioxide as the guinea pig exhaled is produced by burning carbon in the ice calorimeter, they conclude that respiration is a slow combustion process. This continuous slow combustion, which they suppose takes place in the lungs, enables the living animal to maintain its body temperature above that of its surroundings, which accounts for the unexplained phenomenon of animal heat.
Lavoisier continues these respiration experiments in 1789-1790 using Armand Seguin as a subject to understand human respiration. (Lavoisier) designs (numerous) experiments to study the entire process of (human) metabolism and respiration. The Revolution disrupts this work when only partially completed, however this work will inspire similar research on physiological processes.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
218 YBN
[1782 AD]
| 3387) Oliver Evans (CE 1755-1819) builds the first automated mill.
A "mill" is a building equipped with machinery for grinding grain into flour and other cereal products, but also can mean simply a factory for certain kinds of manufacture, such as paper, steel, or textiles.
One of the first U.S. patents granted is to Oliver Evans in 1790 for his automatic gristmill. The mill produces flour from grain in a continuous process that requires only one laborer to set the mill in motion.
| Red Clay Creek, Delaware, USA |
217 YBN
[05/26/1783 AD]
| 2076) John Michell (MicL) (CE 1724-1793) states explicitly that light particles are subject to the force of gravity, that gravity must change the velocity of light, and speculates on the possibility of a mass so large that light particles cannot escape it.
Michell reports these views in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society under the title "On the Means of Discovering the Distance, Magnitude, &c. of the Fixed Stars, in Consequence of the Diminution of the Velocity of Their Light, in Case Such a Diminution Should be Found to Take Place in any of Them, and Such Other Data Should be Procured from Observations, as Would be Farther Necessary for That Purpose. By the Rev. John Michell, B. D. F. R. S. In a Letter to Henry Cavendish, Esq. F. R. S. and A. S."
Michell states explicitly (as Newton did not to my knowledge) that light particles are, as matter, subject to the force of gravity in writing: "Let us suppose the particles of light to be attracted in the same manner as all other bodies with which we are acquainted; that is, by forces bearing the same proportion to their vis. inertiae, of which there can be no reasonable doubt, gravitation being, as far as we know, or have any reason to believe, an universal law of nature. Upon this supposition then, if any one of the fixed stars, whose density was known by the above-mentioned means, should be large enough, sensibly to affect the velocity of light issuing from it, we should have the means of knowing its real magnitude, etc."
Later in the same paper, Michell theorizes about a star so massive that particles of light would fall back to it, writing: "Hence, according to article 10, if the semi-diameter of a sphere of the same density with the Sun were to exceed that of the Sun in the proportion of 500 to 1, a body falling from an infinite height towards it, would have acquired at its surface a greater velocity than that of light, and consequently, supposing light to be attracted to the same force in proportion to its vis inertiae, with other bodies, all light emitted from such a body would be made to return towards it, by its own proper gravity."
Michell goes on to hypothesize about a gravity not large enough to make a light particle fall back, but large enough to slow the velocity of a light particle writing: "But if the semi-diameter of a sphere of the same density with the Sun, was of any other size less than 497 times that of the Sun, thought the velocity of light emitted from such a body, would never be wholly destroyed, yet would it always suffer some diminution, more or less, according to the magnitude of said sphere;" I should note that if this is true than particles of light from stars would not all have the same velocity, but if light of different stars all have the same velocity, that which people on earth have measured at being near 2.99e8m/s, than the velocity of light particles being slowed by gravity is probably not true. To my knowledge, the speed of light from other stars or galaxies has never been publicly measured and people should do this, even if only to verify that the speed of light is the same from stars as from our own sources, but they should not fake the result for the sake of the secret Pupin camera-thought network, and they should not, dismiss the very minute accuracy required for such a measurement.
Michell uses a similar analogy as Huygens did to estimate that the Sun would look like the star Sirius at 400,000 times its current distance.
After the fall of the corpuscular interpretation of light around the year 1800, this view of gravity changing the velocity of light is lost until 1907 and 1911 when Albert Einstein revists it. Then in 1960 Cranshaw, Schiffer and Whitehead, and Pound and Rebka will experimentally confirm that frequency of light is changed by gravitation and so confirming that light particles have mass and gravity changes the velocity of light particles.
(Note that this is before Thomas Young determined that color is the result of light frequency, and Michell apparently says nothing about the result in the change in frequency that would occur to light if gravity changes the velocity of light particles.)
| Thornhill, Yorkshire, England |
217 YBN
[06/04/1783 AD]
| 2192) Like many people before them, the Montgolfier brothers notice how pieces of paper thrown into the fire often rise in a column of hot air. The Montgolfiers test to see if paper bags filled with hot smoke rise before building a larger balloon.
Joseph Michel Montgolfier (moNGoLFYA) (CE 1740-1810) and Jacques Étienne Montgolfier (CE 1745-1799), French inventors, fill a large linen bag (36 feet in diameter and weighs 500 pounds) with heated air by burning straw and wool under the opening at the bottom of the bag (in what kind of container?). The balloon lifts to about 3,000 feet (1,000 meters) floats a distance of a mile and a half in ten minutes and settles to the ground.
The Montgolfiers are called to Versailles where they demonstrate their balloon, this time carrying a sheep, a cock, and a duck, before Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. The balloon lands two miles away in a wood with the animals unharmed.
| Annonay, France |
217 YBN
[07/15/1783 AD]
| 2206) Steamboat.
Marquis Claude de Jouffroy d'Abbans (CE 1751-1832) travels upstream on the Saône River near Lyon, France in his "Pyroscaphe", the first successful steamboat.
| Saône River, near Lyon, France |
217 YBN
[08/27/1783 AD]
| 2264) Jacques Alexandre César Charles (soRL) (CE 1746-1823), French physicist, constructs the first hydrogen balloon. (how is hydrogen produced, stored, and put into the balloon?)
Charles with Nicolas Robert, are the first to ascend in a hydrogen balloon. Charles goes up several times, making an ascent to over 3000 meters (1.9 mi).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN
[10/15/1783 AD]
| 2193) The first tethered balloon flight with a human passenger is made by François de Rozier (CE 1754-1785) in Paris.
| Paris, France |
217 YBN
[11/21/1783 AD]
| 2194) Human flight by balloon. The first untethered balloon flight with a human passenger is made by Jean François Piltre de Rozier (CE 1754-1785) and the Marquis d'Arlandes in Paris.
| Paris, France |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 1207)
| England |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2114)
| London, England |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2173) Baron Louis Bernard Guyton De Morveau (GEToN Du moURVo) (CE 1737-1816), is one of the pioneers in the construction and trial of hydrogen balloons in France.
During a time of war, Morveau helps to construct military balloons, which are used as observation posts to see enemy positions on the battlefield.
| France |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2183) Herschel uses the motion of other stars to recognize that the Sun is moving towards the constellation Hercules.
Herschel notes the (so-called) proper motions of seven bright stars and shows that their movement seems to converge on a fixed point, which he interprets correctly as the point from which the sun is receding.
Hershel is the first to suggest that the sun is moving towards the constellation Hercules, after (seeing a uniform motion or trend in) looking at the proper motions of other stars.
Herschel reports this find in his paper "Motion of the Solar System in Space" (1783).
Interpreting "proper-motion" to me seems tricky because how does a person know how much of the observed motion of other stars is due to the motion of the Sun? In addition, a 3 dimensional motion must be estimated, which means that distance (z in 3D rectangular triordinates or r in 3D polar triordinates) must be estimated for an accurate position and motion over time. I'm not sure why people use the term "proper", since the motion of other stars should probably be viewed as simple their "motion" relative to our Sun, to the Earth, or some other fixed point or piece of matter in the universe.
| Slough, England |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2189) Horace Bénédict de Saussure (SoSYUR) (CE 1740-1799) builds an improved hygrometer (a device to measure humidity) which uses a human hair for this purpose.
Saussure also performs early laboratory experiments on the origin of granite. (detail)
Saussure publishes this in the influential work "Essais sur l'hygrométrie" (Neuchâtel, 1783). (verify) Also in this work Saussure investigates the change in temperature of air entering or exiting a air pump receiver first described by William Cullen.
| Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2221) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) repeats the experiment of Cavendish by burning his inflammable gas in air to form water, and names the inflammable gas "Hydrogen" (from Greek "to give rise to water").
Lavoisier understands that animals use the oxygen they breathe to breakdown food they eat, usually made of carbon and hydrogen, to produce carbon dioxide and water, both which appear in breath.
Other chemists have experimented with combining "inflammable air" (hydrogen) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen) by electrically sparking mixtures of the two gases noting the production of water and explaining the reaction in varying ways within the framework of the phlogiston theory. With the mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace, Lavoisier synthesizes water by burning jets of hydrogen and oxygen in a bell jar over mercury, and quantitatively shows that water is not an element, as was believed for over 2,000 years, but a compound of two gases, hydrogen and oxygen.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2227) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) reads to the academy his famous paper entitled "Reflections of Phlogiston," a full-scale attack on the current phlogiston theory of combustion.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2242) Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) starts publishing "Dictionnaire de botanique" (3 vols., 1783-1789, "(Dictionary) of Botany") for the "Encyclopédie méthodique" ("Methodic Encyclopaedia"), the successor of Diderot's famous "Encyclopédie".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2287) Caroline Lucretia Herschel (CE 1750-1848), German-English astronomer, identifies 3 nebulae (galaxies).
| Datchet, England |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2311) Louis-Sébastien Lenormand of France is the first person to demonstrate the use of a parachute..
Early parachutes are made of canvas or silk and have frames that hold them open (like an umbrella). Not until the 1800s will soft, foldable parachutes of silk be used.
| ?, France |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 2320) Fausto D'elhuyar (DeLUYoR) (CE 1755-1833), Spanish mineralogist with his brother Juan José D'elhuyar, isolate tungsten (also known as wolfram).
The D'elhuyar's obtain the new metal called wolfram from a mineral called wolframite (extracted) from a tin mine. This same metal is called tungsten from the Swedish words meaning "heavy stone". In 1788 Fausto D'elhuyar is appointed supervisor of the Mexican mining industry, and must leave Mexico after Mexico gains its independence in the 1800s(specific).
| Vergara, Spain |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 5962) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous Piano Sonata No. 11 "Turkish March" in A major, K. 331. (verify)
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
217 YBN
[1783 AD]
| 5964) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous 3 German Dances, K. 605.
| Vienna, Austria (verify) |
216 YBN
[01/15/1784 AD]
| 2115) Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810), shows that water is produced by burning "inflammable air" (hydrogen) in "dephlogisticated air" (oxygen). In this way water is shown to be a combination of two gases.
This casts doubt on the ancient Greek idea of the (4) elements.
| London, England |
216 YBN
[1784 AD]
| 2152) James Watt (CE 1736-1819) Scottish engineer uses steam pipes to heat his office, this is called "steam heat". (I can see how this can be used more effectively to distribute heat than a fire. Perhaps blowing hot air is the best way to distribute heat.)
| Birmingham, England (presumably) |
216 YBN
[1784 AD]
| 2180) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) argues that all nebulae are formed of stars and that there is no need to view nebulae as being composed of a mysterious luminous fluid.
Herschel finds that his most powerful telescope can resolve several nebulae into stars. Herschel explains that nebulae that can not be resolved into stars will eventually be resolved with more powerful instruments. Herschel also concludes that these nebulae must be very distant systems and since they appear large to the observer, their true size must be very large, possibly larger than the star system that the Sun is a member of.
Herschel (correctly) speculates that these "nebulae" may be other huge star collections like the collection our own Sun belongs to (the "island universes" of Kant).
Herschel will retreat somewhat from this correct view after studying so-called planetary nebulae, (the remains of exploded stars), which are true clouds of gas and not galaxies of stars.
| Datchet, England |
215 YBN
[02/12/1785 AD]
| 2878) Spark passed through vacuum tube, producing X-Rays.
William Morgan (1750-1833) observes changes in the color of light when passing sparks through an evacuated tube by connecting an electric spark device (Leyden jar or friction machine?) to a wire attached to a brass cap inside an evacuated glass tube across the space inside the tube to the liquid mercury on the other side.
William Watson (CE 1715-1787) had performed similar experiments reported in 1752.
Morgan describes his experiments in a February 12, 1785 paper "Electrical Experiments made in order to ascertain the nonconducting Power of a perfect Vacuum, &c.". Reverend Richard Price communicates Morgan's paper writing: "The non-conducting power of a perfect vacuum is a fact in electricity which has been much controverted among philosophers. The experiments made by Mr. Walsh, F.R.S. in the double barometer tube clearly demonstrated the impermeability of the electric light through a vacuum; nor was it, I think precipitate to conclude from them the impermeability of the electric fluid itself. But this conclusion has not been universally admitted, and the following experiments were made with the view of determining its truth or fallacy. When I first attended to the subject, I was not aware that any other attempts had been made besides those of Mr. Walsh; and though I have since found myself to have been in part anticipated in one of my experiments, it may not perhaps be improper to give some account of them, not only as they are an additional testimony in support of this fact, but as they led to the observation of some phaenomena which appear to be new and interesting." Morgan describes his experiment: "A mercurial gage B (see tab. IX. fig. 1.) about 15 inches long, carefully and accurately boiled till every particle of air was expelled from the inside, was coated with tin-foil five inches down from its sealed end (A), and being inverted into mercury through a perforation (D) in the brass cap (E) which covered the mouth of the cistern (H), the whole was cemented together, and the air was exhausted from the inside of the cistern through a valve (C) in the brass cap (E) just mentioned, which producing a perfect vacuum in the gage (B) afforded an instrument peculiarly well adapted for experiments of this kind. Things being thus adjusted (a small wire (F) having been previously fixed on the inside of the cistern to form a communication between the brass cap (E) and the mercury (G) into which the gage was inverted) the coated end (A) was applied to the conductor of an electrical machine, and notwithstanding every effort, neither the smallest ray of light, not the slightest charge, could ever be procured in this exhausted gage. I need not observe, that if the vacuum on its inside had been a conductor of electricity, the latter at least must have taken place, for it is well known (and I have myself often made the experiment) that if a glass tube be exhausted by an air-pump, and coated on the outside, both light and a charge may very readily be procured. If the mercury in the gage be imperfectly boiled, the experiment will not suceed; but the colour of the electric light, which, in air rarefied by an exhauster, is always violet or purple, appears in this case of a beautiful green, and what is very curious, the degree of the air's rarefaction may be nearly determined by this means; for I have known instances, during the course of these experiments, where a small particle of air having found its way into the tube (B), the electric light became visible, and as usual of a green colour; but the charge being often repeated, the gage has at length cracked at its sealed end, and in consequence the external air, by being admitted into the inside, has gradually produced a change in the electric light from green to blue, from blue to indigo, and so on to violet and purple, till the medium has at last become so dense as no longer to be a conductor of electricity. I think there can be little doubt from the above experiments of the non-conducting power of a perfect vacuum; and this fact is still more strongly confirmed by the phaenomena which appear upon the admission of a very minute particle of air into the inside of the gage. In this case the whole becomes immediately luminous upon the slightest application of electricity, and a charge takes place, which continues to grow more and more powerful in proportion as fresh air in admitted, till the density of the conducting medium arrives at its maximum, which it always does when the colour of the electric light is indigo or violet. Under these circumstances the charge may be so far increased as frequently to break the glass..."
Morgan concludes by writing: "Indeed, if we reason a priori, I think we cannot suppose a perfect vacuum to be a perfect conductor without supposing an absurdity: for if this were the case, either our atmosphere must have long ago been deprived of all its electric fluid by being every where surrounded by a boundless conductor, or this fluid must pervade every part of infinite space, and consequently there can be no such thing as a perfect vacuum in the universe. If, on the contrary, the truth of the preceding experiments be admitted, it will follow, that the conducting power of our atmosphere increases only to a certain height, beyond which this power begins to diminish, till at last it entirely vanishes; but in what part of the upper regions of the air these limits are placed, I will not presume to determine. ...."
This is also the earliest record I know of that tries to determine the conductivity of a gas and/or empty space. In 1848 William Robert Grove will publish a paper stating that neither static electricity or electricity from a voltaic battery appear to conduct electricity. (Interesting that gas and empty space are clearly poor conductors of electricity, however electric particle can definitely jump the space. Perhaps there is less resistance in empty space and so the spark goes through the empty space as opposed to through the glass to the Earth or to the side. Possibly there is some connection to the other side, perhaps particles from the other electrode have an effect. For the voltaic battery, the voltage must have been too low to create a spark allowing current to flow.)
This experiment involves creating a potential difference in a vacuum and slowly reducing the completeness of the vacuum by introducing mercury vapor into it. This progression of change in colors is the result of the frequency of the light caused by the electric current increasing beyond the visible range and into X-ray range. (What causes this increase in frequency of light?)
| (Chatham-Place) London, England (presumably) |
215 YBN
[02/17/1785 AD]
| 3463) First "Diffraction" Grating (made with wires).
David Rittenhouse (CE 1732-1796) constructs the earliest known wire diffraction grating.
In "An Optical Problem, proposed by Mr. Hopkinson and Solved by Mr. Rittenhouse.", read on February 17, 1786: F. Hopkinson writes "Dear Sir, I take the liberty of requesting your attention to the following problem in optics/ It is I believe entirely new, and the solution will afford amusement to you and instruction to me. Setting at my door one evening last summer, I took a silk handkerchief out of my pocket, and stretching a portion of it tight between my two hands, I held it up before my face and viewed, through the handkerchief, one of the street lamps which was about one hundred yards distant; expecting to see the threads of the handkerchief much magnified to the size of very course wires; but was much surprised to find that, although I moved the handkerchief to the right and left before my eyes, the dark bars did not seem to move at all, but remained permanent before the eye. If the dark bars were occasioned by the interposition of the magnified threads between the eye and the flame of the lamp, I should have supposed that they would move and succeed each other, as the threads were made to move and pass in succession before the eye; but the fact was otherwise. To account for this phenomenon exceeds my skill in optics. You will be so good as to try the experiment, and if you find the case truly stated, as I doubt not you will, I shall be much obliged by a solution on philosophical principles. ...". Mr. Rittenhouse write in answer: "Dear Sir, The experiment you mention, with a silk handkerchief and the distant flame of a lamp, is much more curious than one would at first imagine. For the object we see is not the web of the handkerchief magnified, but something very different, as appears from the following considerations. 1st. A distinct image of any object, placed close to the eye, cannot be formed by parallel rays, or such as issue from a distant luminous point: for all such rays, passing through the pupil, will be collected at the bottom of the eye, and there form an image of the luminous point. The threads of the handkerchief would only intercept part of the rays, and render the image less brilliant. 2dly. If the cross bars we see were images of the silk threads, they must pass over the retina, whilst the threads are made to pass over the pupil; but this, as you observe, does not happen; for they continue stationary. 3dly. If the image on the retina was a picture of the object before the eye, it must be fine or coarse, according to the texture of the handkerchief. But it does not change with changing the silk, nor does it change on removing it farther from the eye. And the number of apparent threads remains the fame, whether 10, 20, or 30 of the silk threads pass across the pupil at the same time. The image we see must therefore be formed in some different manner; and this can be no other than by means of the inflexion of light in passing near the surfaces of bodies, as described by NEWTON. It is well known in optics that different images of the different points of objects without the eye are formed on the retina by pencils of rays, which, before they fall on the eye, are inclined to each other in sensible angles. And the great use of telescopes is to encrease these angles, regularly, in a certain ratio; suffering such rays as were parallel before they enter the telescope to proceed on, parallel, after passing through it. The extended image which we see in this experiment must therefore be formed by pencils of rays, which before they entered the eye, had very considerable degrees of inclination with respect to each other. But coming from a small distant flame of a lamp, they were nearly parallel before they passed through the silk handkerchief. It was therefore the threads of silk which gave them such different directions. Before the silk is placed to the eye, parallel rays of light will form a single lucid spot, as at A, Plate III. Figure 16. And this spot will still be formed afterwards by such rays as pass through the little meshes uninfluenced by the threads. But suppose the perpendicular threads by their action on the rays, to bend a part of them one degree to the right and left, another part two degrees; there will now be four new images formed, two on each side of the original one at A. By a similar action of the horizontal threads, this line of five lucid points will be divided into five other lines, two above and two below, making a square of twenty-five bright spots, separated by four perpendicular dark lines and four horizontal ones; and these lucid spots and dark lines will not change their places on moving the web of silk over the eye parallel to any of its threads. For the point of the retina on which the image shall fall is determined by the incidence of the rays, with respect to the axis of the eye, before they enter, and not by the part of the pupil through which they pass. In order to make my experiments with more accuracy, I made a square of parallel hairs about half an inch each way. And to have them nearly parallel and equidistant, I got a watchmaker to cut a very fine screw on two pieces of small brass wire. In the threads of these screws, 106 of which made one inch, the hairs were laid 50 or 60 in number. Looking through these hairs at a small opening in the window shutter of a dark room, 1/30 of an inch wide and three inches long, holding the hairs parallel to the slit, and looking toward the sky, I saw three parallel lines, almost equal in brightness, and on each side four or five others much fainter and growing more faint, coloured and indistinct, the farther they were from the middle line, which I knew to be formed by such rays as pass between the hairs uninfluenced by them. Thinking my apparatus not so perfect as it might be, I took out the hairs and put in others, something thicker, of these 190 made one inch, and therefore the spaces between them were about the 1/250 part of an inch. The three middle lines of light were now not so bright as they had been before, but the others were stronger and more distinct, and I could count six on each side of the middle line, seeming to be equally distant from each other, estimating the distance from the centre of one to the centre of the next. The middle line was still well defined and colourless, the next two were likewise pretty well defined, but something broader, having their inner edges tinged with blue and their outer edges with red. The others were more indistinct, and consisted each of the prismatic colours, in the same order, which by spreading more and more, seemed to touch each other at the fifth or sixth line, but those nearest the middle were separated from each other by very dark lines, much broader than the bright lines. Finding the beam of light which came through the window shutter divided into so many distinct pencils, I was desirous of knowing the angles which they made with each other. For this purpose I made use of a small prismatic telescope and micrometer, with which I was favoured by Dr. Franklin. I fastened the frame of parallel hairs before the object glass, so as to cover its aperture entirely. Then looking through the telescope, I measured the space between the two first side lines, and found the angular distance between their inner edges to be 13', 15"; from the middle of one to the middle of the other 15', 30", and from the outer edge of one, to the outer edge of the other 17', 45". In the first case I had a fine blue streak in the middle of the object, and in the last a red streak. The other lines were too faint, when seen through the telescope, to measure the angles they subtended with accuracy, but from such trials as I made I am satisfied that from the second line on one side to the second on the other side, and so on, they were double, triple, quadruple, &c. of the fisft angles. It appears then that a very considerable portion of the beam of light passed between the hairs, without being at all bent out of its fisft course; that another smaller portion was bent at a medium about 7',45" each way; the red rays a little more, and the blue rays a little less; another still smaller portion 15', 30"; another 23', 15", and so on. But that no light, or next to none, was bent in any angle less than 6', nor any light of any particular colour, in any intermediate angle between those which arise from doubling, tripling, &c. of the angle in which it is bent in the first side lines. I was surprized to find that the red rays are more bent out of their first direction, and the blue rays less; as if the hairs acted with more force on the red than on the blue rays, contrary to what happens by refraction, when light passes obliquely through the common surface of two different mediums. It is, however, consonant to what Sir Isaac Newton observes with respect to the fringes that border the shadows of hairs and other bodies; his words are, " And therefore the hair in causing these fringes, " acted alike upon the red light or least refrangible rays "at a greater distance, and upon the violet or most refrangible rays at a less distance, and by those actions " disposed the red light into larger fringes, and the violet " into smaller fringes." By pursuing these experiments it is probable that new and interesting discoveries may be made, respecting the properties of this wonderful substance, light, which animates all nature in the eyes of man, and perhaps above all things disposes him to acknowledge the Creator's bounty. But want of leisure obliges me to quit the subject for the present."
Thomas Young and Joseph Fraunhofer are many time mistakenly credited with the first diffraction grating.
(Notice how Rittenhouse addresses the direction of the light rays, this I think an important point that many people ignore. For example, I think direction of light beam plays an important role in polarization and double refraction. I think it is possible that this is not inflexion or as first named by Grimaldi, "diffraction", bending of light rays, but is reflection. My videos show how reflection of particles creates similar orders of patterns, the first order once reflected, the second order, twice reflected, etc. How do these angles (which also increase, since the larger the angle of incidence the more reflections off the two inner sides of the slit) relate to Rittenhouse and modern measurements? The second and later orders are smaller in these simulations which do not agree with observation - except with monochromatic light. My simulation does not yet account for the frequency or color dispersion, but I think a model with light particles reflecting off each other might account for color dispersion. In this example, particles that reflect off a side of a slit collide with other particles passing straight through, a higher frequency of particles implies higher chance of collision, but it can be seen how frequency of photons might cause reflection at progressively larger angles. It is an interesting phenomenon how the spectrum does not move even if the grating moves. Important points are that neither the light source nor viewer position change, and another key point is that the angle of dispersion of light is apparently the same for any given slit, so the direction of reflection remains constant.)
[t This seems a smart statement " I was surprized to find that the red rays are more bent out of their first direction, and the blue rays less; as if the hairs acted with more force on the red than on the blue rays, contrary to what happens by refraction, when light passes obliquely through the common surface of two different med iums. " This issue I think is important. From a light as a particle perspective, one interpretation is that the photon collides with particles in the slit, the higher the frequency the less time there is for the reflecting particle to recoil, and as a result, the angle of reflection is larger. Without knowing the angle of the source beam, knowing how much a beam is reflected (or refracted) is unknown - I think that it seems that the >0 orders come from angled light, as opposed to light entering with an angle of incidence near 0 degrees - if the source is at 30 degrees - perhaps the red at 29 degrees is angled less than the blue at 20 degrees on the inside. The opposite view is that the source is at 20 and the red has the highest angle of reflection.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
215 YBN
[04/??/1785 AD]
| 2184) This must expand the known universe in size, and the distance to the farthest seen "nebulae" (although I am not aware of any universe size or nebulae distance estimates made around this time).
This catalog is the first of three that Hershel (with help from his sister Caroline) will produce.
Before this only 100 deep space objects were identified (the Messier objects).
| Datchet, England |
215 YBN
[06/02/1785 AD]
| 2116) Air is shown to be a mixture of gases, and not a single element.
Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) shows, by sparking air to make nitric acid, that air is a mixture of gases, not a single element as was thought. Cavendish is the first to recognize that air is composed of around 4 parts nitrogen (at the time called "phlogisticated air") to 1 part oxygen (at the time called "dephlogisticated air"). The current estimate is 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen. In addition Cavendish observes that air contains a small volume of gas (1/120) that is not nitrogen or oxygen. This will be shown to be argon and other inert gases over 100 years later in 1895 by Rayleigh and Ramsay. Cavendish observes that, when he had determined the amounts of phlogisticated air (nitrogen) and dephlogisticated air (oxygen), there remained a volume of gas amounting to 1/120 of the original volume of common air.
Cavendish writes "In Dr. Priestley's last volume of experiments is related an experiment of Mr. Warltire's in which it is said that, on firing a mixture of common and inflammable air by electricity in a closed copper vessel holding about three pints, a loss of weight was always perceived, on an average about two grains, though the vessel was stopped in such a manner that no air could escape by the explosion. (ULSF: Perhaps this could be explained as mass lost from photons emitted from the reaction in infrared and radio frequency.) It is also related, that on repeating the experiment in glass vessels, the inside of the glass, though clean and dry before, immediately became dewy; which confirmed an opinion he had long entertained, that common air deposits its moisture by phlogistication. As the latter experiment seemed likely to throw great light on the subject I had in view ("throw great light" may hint at the private view that all matter is made of light- and "subject" of the monarchy which may limit the flow of truth to the public), I thought it well worth examining more closely. The first experiment also, if there was no mistake in it, would be very extraordinary and curious; but it did not succeed with me; for though the vessel I used held more than Mr. Warltire's namely, 24,000 grains of water, and though the experiment was repeated several times with different proportions of common and inflammable air, I could never perceive a loss of weight of more than one-fifth of a grain, and commonly none at all. It must be observed, however, that though there were some of the experiments in which it seemed to diminish a little in weight, there were none in which it increased. (*Dr. Priestley, I am informed, has since found the experiment not to succeed)" Cavendish uses inflammable air (hydrogen) from zinc for these experiments and goes on to find no change in weight from inflammable air produced from iron. Cavendish starts from an experiment, narrated by Joseph Priestley, in which John Warltire uses electrolysis (passing an electric current through a substance to cause a chemical change), by (burning) a mixture of common air and hydrogen by electricity, with the result that there the volume of air is lowered and moisture is deposited. Cavendish fires, by electric spark, a mixture of hydrogen and oxygen (dephlogisticated air), and finds that the resulting water contained nitric acid, which he argued must be due to the nitrogen present as an impurity in the oxygen ("phlogisticated air with which it {the dephlogisticated air} is debased"). {ULSF: Does electrode material not contaminate the reaction?} Cavendish then proves this theory correct by passing sparks through (plain) air forcing (in modern terms) the nitrogen to combine with the oxygen and dissolving the resulting oxide {ULSF: on the electrode?} in water. Cavendish proves that air is made of nitrogen by showing that when electric sparks are passed through common air there is a shrinkage of volume because of the nitrogen uniting with the oxygen to form nitric acid. Cavendish therefore understands the composition of nitric acid. Adding more oxygen, Cavendish expects to use up all the nitrogen, however a small bubble of gas, amounting to less than 1 per cent of the whole, always remains uncombined. Cavendish speculates that air contains a small quantity of a gas that is very inert and resistant to reaction. We now know that this remaining part of air contains Argon (and the other inert gases). This experiment will not be used for a century until Ramsey repeats it in the 1890s. Michael Faraday will create laws that describe electrolysis in 1832.
One way of describing this is that Cavendish performs the opposite of "electrolysis" (using electricity to split a molecule into two or more parts), which might be called "electrofusion", and defined as using electricity to join two or more parts to form a molecule.
In showing both air and water not to be single elements, as was believed around the time of Pythagoras, Cavendish takes science a large step forward in improving on a theory that is more than two thousand years old. This work helps to pull science away from an ancient and traditional mind-set.
| London, England |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 1239) William Horrocks would eventually perfect the Power Loom. The power loom initially can only be operated by water power, which requires workshops equipped with power looms to be located near a source of running water. But by the start of the 1800s, the advanced steam engines of James Watt and others enable the use of power looms anywhere that steam power can be installed. Cartwright himself profits greatly from this, selling hundreds of his looms to Manchester firms.
| England |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 1240)
| England |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2083) Hutton puts forward this idea is papers presented to the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1785.
This view of slow uniform changes is set in contrast to the theory of people like Bonnet who support "catastrophism", the idea that the history of earth is one of sharp catastrophic changes. To me that changes on the earth happen slowly over thousands of years and that there are also catastrophes seems obvious. It's amazing that to me that there could even be two separate schools on such an obvious point.
Hutton theorizes that the earth is infinity old and may continue to exist infinitely into the future. Those who believe the Biblical account of creation strongly object (to the earth being older than 6000 years old). At this time the majority of people believe that the Earth was created only about 6,000 years ago, according to the narrative in the biblical book of Genesis. The sedimentary rocks of Earth were believed by some geologists to have been formed when immense quantities of minerals precipitated out of the waters of the biblical flood.
Hutton recognizes that the amount of moisture the air can hold rises with temperature. So when a hot air mass meets a cold air mass water in the cooled hot air mass precipitates as rain. (which work?)
Two of Hutton's papers will be published in 1788 in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh under the title "Theory of the Earth; or an Investigation of the Laws Observable in the Composition, Dissolution, and Restoration of Land Upon the Globe." Hutton's work is now referred to simply as "Theory of the Earth".
Hutton explains in these papers that all geologic phenomena on the Earth can be explained by observable processes, and that these processes at work have operated with general uniformity over immensely long periods of time. These two papers mark a turning point in geology; from this time on, geology will be a science founded on the principle of uniformitarianism.
Hutton does not recognize the idea of large plates of land pushing against each other to form mountain ranges such as the Himalaya or Sierra Nevada mountain ranges.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2107) Lazzaro Spallanzani (SPoLoNTSonE) (CE 1729-1799), Italian biologist, performs some of the first successful artificial insemination (impregnating an organism by injecting semen into the vagina) experiments on lower animals and on a dog.
Also around this time, interested in how animals can navigate in the dark, Spallanzani blinds some bats (pulls or cuts out the eyes?) and finds that they can still fly. Spallanzani dissects some of the bats and finds that their stomachs are filled with insect remains indicating that they caught insects. He then moves onto the other senses, and finds that when he plugs the bat's ears they are helpless. (can't fly?). Spallanzani has no explanation for this. More than a century will pass until ultrasonic sound will be understood.
Spallanzani also studies the electric charge of the torpedo fish.
| Pavia, Italy (presumably) |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2132) "History of the Corruptions of Christianity" (1782), a book by English chemist Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804) is officially burned.
| Birmingham, England |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2167) Franz Aepinus had theorized an inverse distance law for electricity in 1759.
Coloumb suspends a magnetic needle from his torsion balance a fixed distance from a stationary needle positioned on a stand. The torsion arm is then deflected (explain how for both electric and magnetic) and the oscillations timed. This measurement is repeated for various distance between the oscillating and fixed needle. With this method Coulomb shows that the oscillations are related to the inverse period squared, and that the period varies directly with the distance between magnetic bodies.
Coulomb publishes this result in his second of seven memoirs to the Royal Academy of Sciences in Paris entitled: "Oû l'on détermine suivant quelles lois le fluide magnétique ainsi que le fluide électrique agissent" (1785).
Coulomb's presents seven "memoirs" before the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1785 to 1789. The first Memoir "Construction et usage d'une balance electrique" (1785) , contains Coulomb's measurement of the electrical forces of repulsion between electrical charges.
It is in the second memoir "Oû l'on détermine suivant quelles lois de fluide magnétique ainsi que le fluide électrique agissent soit par répulsion, soit par attraction" ((translate title),1785), that Coulomb extends this measurement to the forces of attraction.
Apparently in this second paper Coulomb only understands that the attraction and repulsion of electric and magnetic charge is related by inverse distance squared, but does not explicitly state that the force of electricity or magnetism is directly proportional to the product of the charge on each object. Coulomb will state this in his 4th? or 5th? memoir.
The remaining papers deal with the loss of electricity of bodies and the distribution of electricity on conductors.
Coulomb supports the idea of both electricity and magnetism as being made of two fluids (as opposed to Franklin's single fluid theory), and this theory will be popular throughout the 1800s.
| Paris?, France (presumably) |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2168) Charles Augustin Coulomb (KUlOM) (CE 1736-1806) shows that electrical and magnetic attraction and repulsion are both proportional to amount of charge and inversely proportional to distance squared.
This will eventually lead to the famous equation now called Coulomb's law: F=kq1q2/r^ 2 (state who is the first to formally state this equation)
| Paris?, France (presumably) |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2197) William Withering (CE 1741-1799) English physician, is the first to report on the effectiveness of the plant "foxglove" as a treatment for edema (also called dropsy, edema is an abnormal accumulation of watery fluid in the intercellular spaces of connective tissue). Later people will find that the drug "digitalis" extracted from the foxglove leaves is the molecule that provides relief from edema. Digitalis will become a central element in the treatment of cardiac disease.
Withering reports this in "An Account of the Foxglove, and Some of Its Medical Uses" (1785), which summarizes the results of his extensive clinical trials of the drug and the safest doses to use.
| |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2259) Gaspard Monge (moNZ) (CE 1746-1818), French mathematician, is the first to liquefy a substance that ordinarily is a gas, liquefying sulfur dioxide, that (at average pressure) has a boiling point of -72.7 C. (how through just cooling? gas expansion method?)
Monge founds the study of the mathematical principles (which at the time is called "descriptive geometry") of representing three-dimensional objects in a two-dimensional plane, involving a method of using geometry to quickly work out constructional details that otherwise would take a long time. Monge shows how to describe a structure fully by plane projections from each of three directions. Projection geometry is important in mechanical drawing and architectural drawing.
| |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2271) Comte Claude-Louis Berthollet (BRTOlA) (CE 1748-1822) shows that ammonia is composed of nitrogen and hydrogen, and that chlorine gas in a solution of alkali can be used as a bleach.
Comte Claude-Louis Berthollet (BRTOlA) (CE 1748-1822), French chemist, shows how chlorine gas in a solution of alkali can be used as a bleach. This find will revolutionize the bleaching industry.
Berthollet publishes this work in an important paper entitled "Mémoire sur l'acide marin déphlogistique" (1785)
In this work Berthollet is the first French chemist to accept Antoine Lavoisier's new system of chemistry based on the oxidation theory of combustion.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2275) Pierre-Simon Laplace (loPloS) (CE 1749-1827) finds that the attractive force of a mass on a particle, regardless of direction, can be obtained directly by differentiating a single function. (I have doubts about this, I think direction of force needs to be taken into account.)
Laplace explains this in "Théorie des attractions des sphéroides et la figure des planètes", reformulates the theory of gravitating bodies around a function V, the "integral of the quotients of the gravitational mass dm divided by their respective distances from the point P at which V is to be computed. The function V simplifies the calculations by allowing work with a scalar, additive quantity, instead of with force". Laplace also encourages his theory's application to electricity. (more detail, I don't understand fully) Using computers, using Newton's equation is easy for many masses.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 2983) Martinus van Marum (CE 1750-1827) builds the largest electrostatic generator on Earth. This generator can produce sparks two feet long. Branches connected with the main line appear at acute angles in the direction from positive to negative conductor. Many people conclude that this is proof of the Franklin single-fluid theory, however the dualists who view electricity as being made of two parts, interpret this phenomenon by explaining that air resists the passage of negative electricity more than the passage of positive electricity. In his publication Van Marum does not include a picture of a discharge from a negative prime conductor. This will be done by William Nicholson in 1789 who shows that negative discharges have a characteristic non-branching appearance.
| Haarlam, Netherlands |
215 YBN
[1785 AD]
| 5968) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous Piano Concerto in C k.467.
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
214 YBN
[12/07/1786 AD]
| 2960) Abraham Bennet (CE 1750-1799) invents the gold leaf electroscope(Phil. Trans., 1787, 77, p. 26).
Bennet discovers that gold foil is much more sensitive than cork or pith.
Inside a glass shade Bennet fixes to an insulated wire a pair of strips of gold-leaf (fig. 3). The wire terminates in a plate or knob outside the vessel. When an electrified body is held near or in contact with the knob, the gold leaves are repulsed. Volta adds the condenser (Phil. Trans., 1782), which greatly increases the power of the instrument.
Bennet comments that without the glass bottle the gold leaf would be moved by the air.
Note the earthed metal foil on the interior walls to prevent accumulation of charge that otherwise might be brought by the leaves to the glass.
| London, England (probably) |
214 YBN
[1786 AD]
| 1209) Some claim that Meikle may have only improved an earlier design of thrasher and may not be the initial inventor. According to his tombstone, Meikle was "descended from a line of ingenious mechanics" and his father had invented a winnowing (threshing) machine in 1710, but was not well received because of the suspician people had towards mechanical machines. The thrasher machine will contibute to the Swing Riots in 1830 in the UK.
| East Lothian, Scotland, United Kingdom |
214 YBN
[1786 AD]
| 1987) Benjamin Franklin (CE 1706-1790) is the first to study and map the circulating belt of warm water in the North Atlantic now called the Gulf Stream.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
214 YBN
[1786 AD]
| 2135) English chemist Joseph Priestley (CE 1733-1804) publishes "History of Early Opinions concerning Jesus Christ" (1786).
| Birmingham, England |
214 YBN
[1786 AD]
| 5965) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous "Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata" (The Marriage of Figaro, or The Day of Madness), K. 492, is an opera buffa (comic opera) composed in four acts, with Italian libretto (the text of a dramatic musical work) by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro (1784).
| Vienna, Austria (verify) |
213 YBN
[05/10/1787 AD]
| 2988) Abraham Bennet (CE 1750-1799) constructs an electrostatic "doubler", a device that can double electric charge using the principle of the electrophorus.
This process will be mechanized most successfully by Nicholson, whose doubler anticipates the influence machines of the 1800s.
| London, England (probably) |
213 YBN
[08/22/1787 AD]
| 2205) John Fitch (CE 1743-1798) American inventor, successfully operates a steam powered boat.
| |
213 YBN
[08/27/1787 AD]
| 2265) Charles repeats the work of Amontons who had shown in 1699 that each gas changes in volume by the same amount for a given change in temperature. Charles works with working with oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and hydrogen.
Charles finds that for each degree Centigrade rise in temperature, the volume of a gas expands by 1/273 of its volume at 0 degrees, and for each degree of fall, the volume contracts by 1/273 of that volume. This implies that at a temperature of -273˚ Celsius the volume of a gas would reach 0, and that there can be no lower temperature. (verify the 1/273 is actually stated by Charles)
Charles does not publish his results, but does communicates his results to Joseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, who will publish his own experimental results in 1802, six months after Dalton had also deduced the law. Gay-Lussac states that the priority belongs to Charles but Gay-Lussac's figures are more accurate and so the law is sometimes also referred to as Gay-Lussac's law.
According to the Oxford University Press this law is true only for ideal gases but is true for real gases at low pressures and high temperatures.
Boyle had shown in 1662 that the pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related (Boyle's Law).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN
[12/13/1787 AD]
| 3252) Erasmus Darwin (CE 1731-1802) publishes "Frigorific Experiments on the mechanical expansion of Air" in which Darwin describes the cooling temperature change effect of expanded air.
Darwin states that his experiments are performed as early as 1773 or 1775, and states in an 1784 letter to Josiah Wedgwood that Darwin "can prove from some experiments, that air when it is mechanically expanded always attracts heat from the bodies in its vicinity.".
Darwin describes how the expansion of a few drops of ether into vapor causes a thermometer to be lowered much below freezing point, and compares this to the large quantity of heat necessary to evaporate to steam a few ounces of boiling water. Darwin suspects that fluids when expanded will attract or absorb heat from the bodies around them and when condensed that the fluid matter of heat will be pressed out of them and diffused among adjacent bodies.
| Derby, England (presumably) |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 2171) Lavoisier, Claude-Louis Berthollet, Guyton De Morveau, and Antoine-François Fourcroy collaborate to publish "Méthode de nomenclature chimique" ("Method of Chemical Nomenclature"), which is a complete and definitive reform of names in inorganic chemistry.
In this book every substance is assigned a definite name based on the elements it is composed of. This system still forms the basis of chemical nomenclature.
This chemical nomenclature is soon widely accepted, because of the authority of Lavoisier, Paris and the Academy of Sciences.
Before this there is no systematic chemical nomenclature. This book supports Lavoisier's new oxygen theory of chemistry. The Aristotelian elements of earth, air, fire, and water are discarded, and instead some 55 substances which can not be decomposed into simpler substances by any known chemical means are listed as elements. These elements included light; caloric (matter of heat); the principles of oxygen, hydrogen, and azote (nitrogen); carbon; sulfur; phosphorus; the yet unknown "radicals" of muriatic acid (hydrochloric acid), boracic acid, and "fluoric" acid; 17 metals; 5 earths (mainly oxides of yet unknown metals such as magnesia, barite, and strontia); three alkalies (potash, soda, and ammonia); and the "radicals" of 19 organic acids. The acids are viewed in this new system as compounds of various elements with oxygen, and are given names which indicate the element involved together with the degree of oxygenation of the element, for example sulfuric and sulfurous acids, phosphoric and phosphorus acids, nitric and nitrous acids, the "ic" termination indicating acids with a higher proportion of oxygen than those with the "ous" ending. Similarly, salts of the "ic" acids are given the suffix "ate," as in copper sulfate, whereas the salts of the"ous" acids are ended with the suffix "ite," as in copper sulfite. In this book, "vitriolic acid" is renamed sulfuric acid, and many other modern names are made more systematic, for example "vitriol of Venus" is renamed to "copper sulfate".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 2178) These moons are named after (characters?) in Shakespeare plays.
| Old Windsor, England (presumably) |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 2272) Comte Claude-Louis Berthollet (BRTOlA) (CE 1748-1822) discovers potassium chlorate.
Lavoisier thinks potassium chlorate's explosive qualities might make it a good substitute for gunpowder. But when two men die in a potassium chlorate explosion Lavoisier abandons the project.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 2276) Pierre-Simon Laplace (loPloS) (CE 1749-1827) explains the (gradual) acceleration of Jupiter, deceleration of Saturn, and the acceleration of the Moon of Earth.
Pierre-Simon Laplace (loPloS) (CE 1749-1827) explains that the observed (gradual) acceleration of the average velocity of Jupiter and the deceleration in the velocity of Saturn, known as "the great inequality" can be accounted for by the gravitational attraction of each planet on the other as ordinary periodic perturbations and therefore that Jupiter will not eventually fall into the sun and that Saturn will not eventually leave the solar system.
In addition Laplace explains the Moon's (gradual) accelerating (velocity) as being related to the eccentricity of the Earth orbit (around the Sun). Eccentricity is the amount an orbit deviates from a circle.
As far as the acceleration of Jupiter and deceleration of Saturn I think I would like to verify this phenomenon. I had never heard of this fact before. I have doubts, when and how often are the changes in velocity balanced so that Jupiter's velocity slows down and Saturn increases velocity? (more detail about actual calculations and claims) I think possibly that Laplace's claims are true, however I think this question of the stability of the planets and orbiting matter of our star system should be of great importance to we humans. There are so many pieces of matter that we can only generalize the mass of a planet as a point which is far from accurate. Clearly all the swirling gas and liquid (and possibly moving solid core) of the Jovian planets must change their orbits very slightly over long periods of time. Even though the Earth has apparently held a stable orbit for 4.6 billion years, there is no guarantee that at some time the orbit of the Earth might be changed from the gravitational effects of other matter. The mass of the Sun continues to decrease, the planets and Sun cannot be viewed as point masses and are complex collections of countless pieces of moving matter. In my opinion caution and doubt about the future positions and orbits of the planets is a smarter view.
Laplace and Lagrange working separately but cooperatively show that the total eccentricity of the planetary orbits have to stay constant as long as all planets revolve around the Sun in the same direction (which they do). If one planet increases in eccentricity the others must decrease in eccentricity to balance the system. This shows that as long as the star system remains isolated and the Sun does not change its nature drastically the system will remain the same as it is now for an indefinite period in the future.
I have doubts about this. Show the actual math explanation. Clearly the mass of a gradually (over the course of many rotations) accelerating or decelerating body must be accounted for in the conservation of eccentricity. A change in eccentricity might mean that the planet took on a temporary increase in velocity. Clearly velocity is conserved around the Sun, but there are so many tiny particles, velocity changes must be widely distributed. I think there is a possibility of a planet being pulled into an unstable orbit, perhaps due to collective gravitational influence of other planets or moons over long periods of time. I think possibly Laplace, Lagrange and other contemporaries may have wanted to give people a sense of security and possibly extended over physical truth, being a little too overly certain. We should certainly run simulations of all the matter in this part of the Milky Way as far forward as possible, under many variations. It is important to run the model of the solar system and other stars into the future to see if there are any major problems where the orbit of the Earth might be changed drastically.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 2288) Caroline Lucretia Herschel (CE 1750-1848), identifies 8 comets (from 1786 to 1797).
| Datchet, England |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 2325) Chladni develops Hooke's method of using particles of flour to form patterns on surfaces vibrating from sound.
Chladni measures the velocity of sound in gases other than air by filling organ pipes with the gas and measuring the change in pitch (from a standard initial striking force?).(detail, method, speed values, how is velocity measured from frequency)
There may be an unbroken link from the vibration images of Hooke and Chladni to the sound recordings and drawings of Leon Scott's Telautograph and Duhamel's Vibrograph (two of the earliest known sound recording cylinders), and the telephone of Reiss. This may work by include Wheatstone and Weber.
Ernst Florens Friedrich Chladni (KloDnE) (CE 1756-1827), German physicist develops the work done by Robert Hooke at Oxford University. On July 8, 1680 Hooke put flour on a glass plate, and bowed on the edge of glass. Hooke then observes that glass vibrates perpendicularly to its surface, and that (from this bowing) the flour changed into an oval in one direction, and on the reciprocating (bowing) the oval changed into the other (direction). Chladni repeats these experiments by taking thin metal plates and covering them with sand and then causing them to vibrate. The sand collects in nodal lines producing symmetrical patterns similar to Hookes flour on the glass plate.
The sand on the vibrating plate forms complex patterns. Some lines are formed that retaining sand shaken onto them by neighboring areas that are vibrating. These patterns are still called Chladni figures.
Chladni's technique is first published in 1787 his book, "Entdeckungen über die Theorie des Klanges" ("Discoveries in the Theory of Sound"). In the 1900s a more common technique is to place a loudspeaker driven by an electronic signal generator over or under the plate to achieve a more accurate adjustable frequency.
Variations of this technique are commonly used in the design and construction of acoustic instruments such as violins, guitars, and cellos.
Chladni designs two musical instruments: the euphonium and the clavicylinder.
Gassendi was the first to measure the speed of sound in 1631.
| Wittenberg, Germany (presumably) |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 2665) Spanish engineer, Augustin de Bethencourt y Mollina (CE 1758-1826), uses static electricity to send telegraphic message between Madrid and Aranjuez in Spain, a distance of 42 km.
| Madrid (y Aranjuez), Spain |
213 YBN
[1787 AD]
| 5966) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous "Eine Kleine Nachtmusik" k 525, in G.
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
212 YBN
[06/05/1788 AD]
| 2989) William Nicholson (CE 1753-1815) constructs a mechanical electrostatic "doubler", a crank-turned electrostatic generator.
(See image) The doubler consists of two fixed metal disks A and C, a movable disk B, and a metal ball D. A small charge Q is given to A and B is brought opposite; at that instant the pins E and F touch the protruding wires at G and H, connecting A and C, and B comes in contact with D via the wire at I. Because of the great capacity of the plates A and B, the result of their (contact) is that most of Q remains on A and -Q is induced on B. bring B opposite C, breaking the first contacts and connecting C and D via the pin at Kl C obtains a charge Q by induction. When B returns to A, the connections between it and D, and between A and C are restored; A charges to almost 2Q at the expense of C and B charges to almost -2Q by induction. The charges may be doubled again at the next complete rotation.
In modern influence machines two principles are embodied: 1) the principle of influence, namely that a conductor touched while under influence acquires a charge of the opposite kind and 2) the principle of reciprocal accumulation. Reciprocal accumulation is how an insulated conductor can transfer current between two other insulated conductors. For example, let there be two insulated conductors A and B electrified ever so little one positively the other negatively. Let a third insulated conductor C be arranged to move so that it first approaches A and then B and so forth. If touched while under the influence of the small positive charge on A, C will acquire a small negative charge. Suppose that C then moves on and gives this negative charge to B (through physical contact - why does the charge move to B? Perhaps the charge on C is larger than on B and so they even out which results in a larger charge on B?). Then let C be touched while under the influence of B therefore acquiring a small positive charge. When C returns towards A let C give up this positive charge to A thereby increasing A's positive charge. Then A will act more powerfully and on repeating the former operations both B and A will become more highly charged. Each accumulates the charges derived from influence from the other.
| London, England (presumably) |
212 YBN
[06/21/1788 AD]
| 1529) The United States Government will begin operations on March 4, 1789. This constitution is the oldest written national constitution in use (except possibly for San Marino's Statutes of 1600). This Constitution creates a Congress, a Presidency, and a court system. This is a progressive step away from rule over a nation by a single person towards a full democracy ruled completely by the people of a nation.
| New Hampshire, USA |
212 YBN
[06/26/1788 AD]
| 5961) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545. (verify)
| Vienna, Austria (verify) |
212 YBN
[06/26/1788 AD]
| 5963) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous Piano Sonata No. 16 in C major, K. 545. (verify)
| Vienna, Austria (verify) |
212 YBN
[1788 AD]
| 2015) Albrecht von Haller (HolR) (CE 1708-1777), Swiss physiologist, finishes publishing "Bibliothecae Medicinae Practicae", in 4 volumes (1776-88) which lists 52,000 publications on anatomy, botany, surgery, and medicine.
This is an encyclopedic summery of health science.
| Bern, Switzerland (presumably) |
212 YBN
[1788 AD]
| 2150) James Watt (CE 1736-1819) Scottish engineer invents the "centrifugal governor", a device that automatically controls the output of steam and therefore the speed of the engine. Steam spins the governor around a vertical rod, two metal spheres are attached to the governor, and so the faster it spins the farther out the spheres are thrown, the farther the balls are thrown the smaller the steam opening, the governor then spins more slowly, the spheres drop and the outlet is widened allowing more steam to exit. In this way the steam engine output is never too large or small.
| Birmingham, England (presumably) |
212 YBN
[1788 AD]
| 2163) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), Italian-French astronomer and mathematician, publishes Mécanique analytique (1788; "Analytic Mechanics"), in which Lagrange attempts to establish that all mechanical problems can be defined and solved by a series of general equations by using the calculus of variations.
This work leads to independent coordinates that are necessary for specifying a system of a finite number of particles, or "generalized coordinates", and also leads to the so-called Lagrangian equations for a classical mechanical system in which the kinetic energy of the system is related to the generalized coordinates, the corresponding generalized forces, and the time. (explain more clearly, show example)
Instead of simply calculating 3 dimensional positions by summing up all the combined accelerations due to the gravity of a number of masses, mathematicians and astronomers try to generalize this model into a single equation, such as that for an ellipse, using other quantities instead of the x,y,z,t and mass. People appear to have worked off the equation of an ellipse, developing it into more complex forms to accommodate the imperfections caused by other masses. Before computers the so-called "three-body" problem was a massive undertaking, now three masses moving from the force of gravity can be modeled with ease on a typical computer.
The Encyclopedia Britannica, describes this complex and unwieldy process: the variables used are (see image) the orbital semimajor axis a, the orbital eccentricity e, and, to specify position in the orbit relative to the perihelion, either the true anomaly f, the eccentric anomaly u, or the mean anomaly l. Three more orbital elements are necessary to orient the ellipse in space (x,y,z?), since that orientation will change because of the perturbations. The most commonly chosen of these additional parameters (see image),choose the reference plane arbitrarily to be the plane of the ecliptic, which is the plane of the Earth's orbit defined by the path of the Sun on the sky. (For motion of a near-Earth artificial satellite, the most convenient reference plane is that of the Earth's Equator.) Angle i is the inclination of the orbital plane to the reference plane. The line of nodes is the intersection of the orbit plane with the reference plane, and the ascending node is that point where the planet travels from below the reference plane (south) to above the reference plane (north). The ascending node is described by its angular position measured from a reference point on the ecliptic plane, such as the vernal equinox; the angle W is called the longitude of the ascending node. Angle w (called the argument of perihelion) is the angular distance from the ascending node to the perihelion measured in the orbit plane.
(Again on a computer the two body problem is very easy to model simply by iterating the mutual force of gravity on all masses in a for or while loop. However, generalizing with a single equation,) for the two-body problem, all the orbital parameters a, e, i, W, and w are constants. A sixth constant T, the time of perihelion passage (any date at which the object in orbit is known to be at perihelion), may be used to replace f, u, or l, and the position of the planet in its fixed elliptic orbit can be determined uniquely at subsequent times. These six constants are determined uniquely by the six initial conditions of three components of the position vector and three components of the velocity vector relative to a coordinate system that is fixed with respect to the reference plane. When small perturbations are taken into account, it is convenient to consider the orbit as an instantaneous ellipse whose parameters are defined by the instantaneous values of the position and velocity vectors, since for small perturbations the orbit is approximately an ellipse. In fact, however, perturbations cause the six formerly constant parameters to vary slowly, and the instantaneous perturbed orbit is called an osculating ellipse; that is, the osculating ellipse is that elliptical orbit that would be assumed by the body if all the perturbing forces were suddenly turned off.
First-order differential equations describing the variation of the six orbital parameters can be constructed for a mass (for example a planet, star or moon) from the second-order differential equations that result by equating the mass times the acceleration of a body to the sum of all the forces acting on the body (Newton's second law). These equations are sometimes called the Lagrange planetary equations after their derivation by the Italian-French mathematician Joseph-Louis Lagrange (1736–1813) (show equations). The concept of potential and kinetic energy is fundamental to the equations used. As long as the forces do not depend on the velocities, in other words there is no loss of (kinetic) energy (1/2mv2) through such processes as friction, the forces (between all bodies?) can be derived from partial derivatives of a function of the spatial coordinates (triordinates?) only, called the potential energy, (explain more the equation for the potential energy) whose magnitude depends on the relative separations of the masses. (Remember that the derivative of a line of points or positions is the slope of the line at any point, and can be used to represent the velocity of a point moving on the line for some given time.) The total energy of a system of any number of particles, that is, the kinetic energy plus the potential energy, is constant. The kinetic energy of a single particle is one-half its mass times the square of its velocity, and the total kinetic energy is the sum of such expressions for all the particles being considered. The conservation of energy principle is therefore expressed by an equation relating the velocities of all the masses to their positions at any time. The partial derivatives of the potential energy with respect to spatial coordinates are transformed into particle derivatives of a disturbing function with respect to the orbital elements in the Lagrange equations, where the disturbing function vanishes if all bodies perturbing the elliptic motion are removed. (So a "disturbing function" is used to account for the change in the equation of an ellipse for a mass because of the gravity of other masses.) Like Newton's equations of motion, Lagrange's differential equations are exact, but they can be solved only numerically on a computer or analytically by successive approximations. In the latter process, the disturbing function is represented by a Fourier series, with convergence of the series (successive decrease in size and importance of the terms) depending on the size of the orbital eccentricities and inclinations. Clever changes of variables and other mathematical tricks are used to increase the time span over which the solutions (also represented by series) are good approximations to the real motion. These series solutions usually diverge, but they still represent the actual motions remarkably well for limited periods of time. One of the major triumphs of celestial mechanics using these perturbation techniques was the discovery of Neptune in 1846 from its perturbations of the motion of Uranus.
| Paris, France |
212 YBN
[1788 AD]
| 5969) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous Symphony 40 in G (k. 550).
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
211 YBN
[06/25/1789 AD]
| 2984) William Nicholson (CE 1753-1815) demonstrates that negatively charged sparks are characteristically non branching, and like positive sparks spread farther and wider in vacuum than in air. Heilbron states that this agrees nicely with the supporters of a dual fluid electricity that experiences different resistance in air.
(See fig 1,2 and 3) Nicholson writes "26. When two equal balls were presented to each other, and one of them was rendered strongly positive, while the other remained in connection with the earth, the positive brush or ramified spark was seen to pass from the electrified ball: when the other ball was electrified negatively, and the ball, which before had been positive, was connected with the ground, the electricity (passing the same way according to Franklin) exhibited the negative flame, or dense straight and more luminous spark, from the negative ball; and when the one ball was electrified plus and the other minus, the signs of both electricities appeared. If the interval was not too great, the long zig-zag spark of the plus ball struck to the straight flame of the minus ball, usually at the distance of about one-third of the length of the latter from its point, rendering the other two-thirds very bright. Sometimes, however, the positive spark struck the ball at a distance from the negative flame.".
Nicholson continues "27. Two conductors of three-quarters of an inch diameter, with spherical ends of the same diameter, were laid parallel to each other, at the distance of about two inches, in such a manner as that the ends pointed in opposite directions, and were six or eight inches asunder. There, which may be distringuished by the letters P and M, were successively electrified as the balls were in the last paragraph. When one conductor P was positive, fig. 5. it exhibited the spark of that electricity at its extremity, and struck the side of the other conductor M. When the last mentioned conductor M was electrified negatively, (figure 4) the former being in its turn connected with the earth, the sparks ceased to strike as before, and the extremity of the electrified conductor M exhibited negative signs, and struck the side of the other conductor. And when one conductor was electrified plus and the other minus, figure 6, both signs appeared at the same time, and continual streams of electricity passed between the extremities of each conductor to the side of the other conductor opposed to it. In each of these three cases, the current of electricity, on the hypothesis of a single fluid, passed the same way.".
| London, England (presumably) |
211 YBN
[08/28/1789 AD]
| 2181) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) completes his largest telescope. A telescope with a mirror made of speculum metal (a very hard white alloy of four parts copper to one part tin), with a diameter of 122 centimetres (48 inches or 4 feet) and a focal length of 12 meters (40 feet). This telescope is one of the technical wonders of the 1700s.
Hershel times the period of rotation of Saturn and shows that Saturn's rings rotate too.
Herschel identifies these two moons on the first night of observation with his new telescope.
| Slough, England |
211 YBN
[1789 AD]
| 2177) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) establishes the existence of double (or binary) stars, stars that orbit each other.
Many double stars are seen together just because they happen to be in a straight line as seen from the earth. Herschel reasons that if one member of a double-star system is much brighter than the other this must be the result of such a coincidence, the brighter star of the pair being closer than the other.
Herschel will go on to identify some 800 double stars or "binary stars" as he calls them. Double stars will be shown to also obey Newton's laws, and will be the first objects outside of the solar system to be shown to obey Newton's laws of gravitation.
| Slough, England |
211 YBN
[1789 AD]
| 2185) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) publishes a second catalog with 1000 more previously unknown "nebulae" (galaxies) and star clusters.
This catalog is the second of three that Hershel (with help from his sister Caroline) will produce.
| Slough, England |
211 YBN
[1789 AD]
| 2222) Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (loVWoZYA) (CE 1743-1794) publishes the textbook "Traité élémentaire de chimie" ("Elementary Treatise on Chemistry") which describes a unified picture of his new theories and clearly states the law of conservation of mass.
In this book Lavoisier applies the chemical nomenclature established in 1787.
This is the first modern chemical textbook, revises Boyle's idea of an element, and contains a list of all the elements known, in other words all substances that had not yet been broken down into simpler substances. Lavoisier lists light and heat as elements, Asimov comments that these are now known to be non material. t: this is an obvious mistake in my opinion, clearly light/photons is material, and in some way the photon is the ultimate base element of all matter in the universe, in this view I currently support) Lavoisier believes heat to be an "imponderable fluid" called "caloric". Asimov comments that ironically Lavoisier removes one imponderable fluid phlogiston, but created another. The theory of caloric will remain for 50 more years.
In addition Lavoisier describes the precise methods chemists should use.
Lavoisier is the the first to list the known elements. This book unites the reformed nomenclature with the principles of closure-determined experimental observation and Lavoisier's definition of the chemical element.
Lavoisier clarifies the distinction between elements and compounds.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
211 YBN
[1789 AD]
| 2230) Martin Heinrich Klaproth (KloPrOT) (CE 1743-1817) German chemist, identifies uranium. Klaproth obtains a yellow compound from a heavy black ore called "pitchblende". Klaproth obtains the oxide of the metal from a precipitate, and mistakenly thinks the oxide is the metal itself. Klaproth names the (compound) "Uranium" after the tradition of the alchemists who named metals after planets. (name other metals named after planets, was mercury known at this time?). Uranus was found 8 years before this by Hershel.
| Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
211 YBN
[1789 AD]
| 2231) Klaproth names a new oxide he obtains from the semi-precious jewel the zircon, "zirconium".
| Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
211 YBN
[1789 AD]
| 2269) Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (jUSYu) (CE 1748-1836) French botanist , advances the idea of relative values of characters in classifying plants.
This system distinguishes relationships between plants by considering a large number of characters, unlike the artificial Linnean system, which relies on only a few characters.
| Paris, France |
211 YBN
[1789 AD]
| 2270) Antoine Laurent de Jussieu (jUSYu) (CE 1748-1836), classifies many different families of plants. Jussieu distinguishes 15 classes and 100 families, 76 of his 100 families remain in botanical nomenclature today.
Jussieu publishes "Genera Plantarum Secundum Ordines Naturales Disposita, Juxta Methodum in Horto Regio Parisiensi Exaratam, Anno 1774" (1789, "Genera of Plants Arranged According to Their Natural Orders, Based on the Method Devised in the Royal Garden in Paris in the Year 1774") which extends Jussieu's method of classification, based on the relative value of characters, to the entire plant kingdom.
Jussieu has access to a number of collections, including Linnaeus's herbarium, some of Joseph Banks's Australian specimens, and tropical angiosperm families from a collection made by Philibert Commesson.
In this book Jussieu stresses the significance of the internal organization of organisms.
| Paris, France |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 1198) First iron train rails. These early metal rails are made mostly from cast iron which is a brittle material that can break easily. The first steel rails will be made in England in 1857.
| England |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2077) | Thornhill, Yorkshire, England (presumably) |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2151) James Watt (CE 1736-1819) Scottish engineer invents a pressure gauge for his steam engine.
| Birmingham, England (presumably) |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2191) John Frere (FrER) (CE 1740-1807), English archeologist, finds (Acheulian) Stone Age flint handaxes and associated fossilized bones of extinct animals at Hoxne in Suffolk, England. These finds will be reported in the "Archaeologia" of 1800, along with the arguments for the early dating of the material. However this finding will be ignored for the next 50 years because of the then popular belief that the Earth had been created in 4004 BCE and is only 6000 years old.
| Hoxne, Suffolk, England |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2198) Nicolas Leblanc (luBloNK) (CE 1742-1806) creates a process for converting salt (sodium chloride) into soda ash (sodium carbonate).
In the Leblanc process, sea salt is treated with sulfuric acid to obtain salt cake (sodium sulfate). This is then calcinating (heating at a high temperature) with limestone (or chalk) and coal to produce black ash, which is made primarily of sodium carbonate and calcium sulfide. The sodium carbonate is dissolved in water and then crystallized.
Nicolas Leblanc (luBloNK) (CE 1742-1806), French surgeon and chemist, creates a process for converting salt (sodium chloride) into soda ash (sodium carbonate).
Leblanc's goal is to win a prize offered in 1775 by the French Academy of Sciences for a practical method of manufacturing sodium hydroxide and sodium carbonate out of salt (sodium chloride). Because scientists know at the time that salt and soda ash are simple compounds of sodium, they correctly reason that such a transformation is possible.
The Leblanc process, together with the work of Chevreul will make soap manufacture on a large scale possible which has an important effect on personal hygiene. This is the first chemical find that has immediate commercial use. This process will ultimately be replaced by a process created by Solvay.
Before this sodium carbonate (soda ash) was extracted by crude methods from wood or seaweed ashes. Soda ash is used in making paper, glass, soap, and porcelain.
Leblanc also develops the use of animal waste to create ammonia, which is a useful fertilizer.
| Paris, France |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2297) Johann Blumenback (BlUmeNBoK) (CE 1752-1840) publishes "Collectionis suae Craniorum Diversarum Gentium Illustratae Decades", (1790-1828, "Illustrated Parts of His Collection of Craniums of Various Races") which is an analysis of an extensive skull collection and establishes craniometric study.
| Göttingen, Germany{2 presumably} |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2305) William Nicholson (CE 1753-1815) English chemist invents the hydrometer to measure the density of liquids.
| London, England (presumably) |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2322) Jean Antoine Claude, comte de Chanteloup Chaptal (soPToL) (CE 1756-1832), suggests the name "Nitrogen" for the element Lavoisier had called "azote".
Chaptal publishes a textbook, "Elémens de chimie" (1790-1803). (this contains name "Nitrogen"?)
| Montpellier, France (presuambly) |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 2876) Friedrich Albrecht Carl Gren (CE 1760-1798) founds the "Journal der Physik", which in 1799 is renamed "Annalen der Physik" by Ludwig Wilhelm Gilbert (1769-1824). Today this journal is the oldest and one of the best-known journals on physics.
| Halle, Germany (presumably) |
210 YBN
[1790 AD]
| 3269) English cabinetmaker Thomas Saint obtains the first patent for a sewing machine in 1790. Leather and canvas can be stitched by this heavy machine, which uses a notched needle and awl to create a chain stitch. Like many early machines, it copies the motions of hand sewing.
(give more details of design and show graphically)
| England |
209 YBN
[05/03/1791 AD]
| 1530) The Constitution introduced political equality between townspeople and nobility (szlachta) and placed the peasants under the protection of the government. Acting as guarantor of the old Polish regime, The Empress of Russia, Catherine the Great, orders her armies to invade Poland in 1792. There they fight the outnumbered Polish troops. The king and the government capitulate, the May constitution is abolished, and leading patriots emigrate.
| |
209 YBN
[12/15/1791 AD]
| 1531) This freedom of religion right will greatly reduce the power of people in the powerful Christian religion to force people's allegiance to the cult of Jesus, and therefore opens the door to freedom of thought,stops punishment of scientists challenging the inaccurate interpretations of the universe by the religious majority and greatly advances science on earth.
| Virginia, USA |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2175) Remote neuron activation (remote neuron writing). Muscle contracted remotely by using an electric spark and metal connected to a nerve.
Galvani makes an electric pendulum using a frog leg, brass hook and silver box.
Imagine Galvani's scalpel reduced in size to the size of a dust fiber, about 1 micrometer, and capable of photon communication can can be swallowed or even breathed in, and then remotely communicated with, and moved around inside a body, made to activate a neuron, or to attach to a bacterium, perhaps to enter a cell and function as the first human-made cellular organelle.
Although the use of the scalpel might be interpreted as direct neuron activation, this is a very similar process to a small electronic device inside a body that receives remotely produced photons to directly activate a neuron.
Jan Swammerdam had made frog muscle contracted using two different metals in 1678. Early, in Bologna, Floriano Caldani in 1756 and Giambattista Beccaria in 1758 had demonstrated electrical excitability in the muscles of dead frogs. Later an unknown person will focus this principle of remote nerve stimulation to individual nerves without the need for a metal conductor attached to the nerve. When this happens is also unknown, perhaps this invention must wait for the laser. The earliest evidence I am aware of for this remote conductor-less stimulation, is probably the use of the word "suggest" by Felix Savery in 1826, and Andre Ampere in 1827, who uses the French form of "suggest" and "muscle contraction" in the same sentence. This remote neuron activation may advance to making an individual neuron fire even as far back as the 1800s, and still is a secret from the public.
Luigi Galvani (GoLVonE) (CE 1737-1798) publishes the results of his using electricity to make frog leg muscles contract in "De Viribus Electricitatis in Motu Musculari Commentarius" ("Commentary on the Effect of Electricity on Muscular Motion").
Luigi Galvani (GoLVonE) (CE 1737-1798) finds that twitching of frog muscles can occur during a lightning storm or with the aid of an electrostatic machine, but can also occur with only a metallic contact between leg muscles and the nerves leading to them. Galvani finds that two different specific kinds of metals connected together connecting the nerves and the muscle connected to the nerve can serve as a substitute for the electrostatic machine.
Galvani has found the basic design of an electrical battery, but wrongly concludes that the electricity comes from the from leg as "animal electricity". Alessandro Volta will prove that the electricity comes from the metal several years later.
This find will form the basis of and lead directly to the first electric battery (voltaic pile) by Volta in 1800 and to the remote contraction of muscles, by whom, when and where is still unknown to the public.
Galvani wrongly concludes that animal tissue contains an "animal electricity", that activates nerve and muscle when metal probes connect nerve and muscle causing muscle to contract. Galvani supposes that this electricity is different from the "natural" electricity of lightning or eels, and the "unnatural" electricity from static electricity generating machines.
Galvani and Volta enter into a friendly disagreement, Galvani supporting his view of animal electricity, with Volta holding the view that the two different metals are the source of electricity, calling it "metallic electricity".
Galvani and Volta will be shown to be both partly right and partly wrong. Galvani is correct in attributing muscular contractions to an electrical stimulus but wrong in identifying it as an "animal electricity." Volta is correct in denying the existence of an "animal electricity" but is wrong in implying that every electrophysiological effect requires two different metals as sources of current.
Galvani is influenced by Franklin's "one fluid theory", where electrical phenomena are thought to be caused by an electric fluid that results in positive electricity, while negative electricity is the absence of this fluid. Franklin explained the Leyden jar as accumulating positive electricity on the inner conductor while the outer conductor becomes negatively charged.
Galvani views the brain as the most important organ which secretes "electric fluid" and views the nerves as conductors of the fluid to the nerve and muscle. Galvani views the tissues of nerves and muscles as being analogous to the outer and inner surfaces of the Leyden jar.
Galvani writes in "De Viribus Electricitatis" (translated from Latin): " In my desire to make that which, with no inconsiderable expenditure of pains, after many experiments, I have succeeded in discovering in nerves and muscles, so far useful that both their concealed properties might be revealed, if possible, and we might be able more surely to heal their diseases, nothing seemed more suitable for fulfilling such a wish than if I should simply publish my results, just as they are, for general judgment. For learned and eminent scholars, by reading my discoveries, will be able, through their own meditations and experiments, not only to amplify and extend them, but also to attain that which I indeed have attempted, but perhaps have not fully achieved. It was also my desire not to publish this work in a crude and barely incipient form, even though not perfect and complete, which perhaps I should never have been able to do. But since I realized that I had neither time nor leisure nor ability sufficient to accomplish that, I preferred rather to fall short of my own very reasonable desire than to fail the practical value of the work. I thought, therefore, that I should be doing something worth while, if I reported a brief and accurate account of my discoveries and findings in the order and relation in which partly chance and fortune presented and partly diligence and industry revealed them to me; not so much lest more be attributed to me than to fortune, or more to fortune than to me, but that either I might hand on a torch to those who had wished to enter this same pathway of experiment, or might satisfy the honest desire of scholars who are wont to be interested in things which contain some novelty either in origin itself or in principle. But to the description of the experiments I will add some corollaries, and some conjectures and hypotheses, primarily with this purpose, that I may smooth the way for understanding new experiments, whereby, if we cannot attain the truth, at least a new approach thereto may be opened. The affair began at first as follows: Part One THE EFFECTS OF ARTIFICIAL ELECTRICITY ON MUSCULAR MOTION I dissected and prepared a frog, as in Fig. 2, Tab. I, and placed it on a table, on which was an electrical machine, Fig. 1, Tab. 1, widely removed from its conductor and separated by no brief interval. When by chance one of those who were assisting me gently touched the point of a scalpel to the medial crural nerves, DD, of this frog, immediately all the muscles of the limbs seemed to be so contracted that they appeared to have fallen into violent tonic convulsions. but another of the assistants, who was on hand when I did electrical experiments, seemed to observe that the same thing occurred whenever a spark was discharged from the conductor of the machine, (Fig. I, B). He, wondering at the novelty of the phenomenon, immediately apprised me of the same, wrapped in thought though I was and pondering something entirely different, Hereupon I was fired with incredible zeal and desire of having the same experience, and of bringing to light whatever might be concealed in the phenomenon. Therefore I myself also applied the point of a scalpel to one or other crural nerve at a time when one or other of those who were present elicited a spark. The phenomenon always occurred in the same manner: violent contraction in individual muscles of the limbs, just as if the prepared animal had been seized with tetanus, were induced at the same moment of time in which sparks were discharged. But fearing lest these very motions arose rather from the contact of the point, which perchance acted as a stimulus, than from the spark, I again tested the same nerves in the same way in other frogs, and even more severely, but without any spark being elicited at that time by anyone; but no motions were seen at all. Hence it occurred to me that perhaps for the induction of the phenomenon both the contact of some body and the passage of a spark were simultaneously required. Wherefore I applied the edge of the scalpel again to the nerves and held it motionless, both at the time when a spark was being elicited and when the machine was perfectly quiet. but the phenomenon appeared only when the spark was produced. We repeated the experiment, always employing the same scalpel; but not without our surprise, sometimes, when the spark was produces, the aforesaid motions occurred, sometimes they were lacking. Aroused by the novelty of the circumstance, we resolved to test it in various ways, and to experiment, employing nevertheless the same scalpel, in order that, if possible, we might ascertain the causes of the unexpected difference; nor did this new labor prove vain; for we found that the whole thing was to be attributed to the different part of the scalpel by which we held it with our fingers: for since the scalpel had a bone handle, when the same handle was held by the hand, even though a spark was produced, no movements resulted, but they did ensue, if the fingers touched either the metallic blade or the iron nails securing the blade of the scalpel. Now, since dry bones possess a non-conductile, but the metallic blade and the iron nails a conductile nature, we came into this suspicion, that perhaps it happened that when we held the bony handle with our fingers, then all access was cut off from the electric current, in whatever way it was acting on the frog, but that it was afforded when we touched the blade or the nails communicating therewith. Therefore, to place the matter beyond all doubt, instead of a scalpel we used sometimes a slender glass cylinder H, Fig. 2, wiped clean from all moisture and dust, and sometimes an iron cylinder G. With the glass cylinder we not merely touched but rubber the crural nerves, when the spark was elicited, but with all our effort, the phenomenon never appeared, though innumerable and violent sparks were elicited from the conductor of the machine, and at a short distance from the animal; but it appeared when the iron cylinder was even lightly applied to the same nerves and scanty sparks elicited. ...". Galvani goes on to describe numerous other experiments. Having tested positive electricity, they test negative electricity, concluding "...the same contractions were obtained, whether the spark was elicited from the crook of the Leyden jar at the same time when the said jar, as they say, was being charged, or in the same place in which it was charged, or elsewhere, and far removed from the machine.". Galvani finds that "These phenomena, moreover, occurred when the frogs were equipped not only with a nerve-conductor, but merely with a muscle-conductor...". They contract the frgo muscle through glass by containing the frog and conductor in a jar. They test the crural nerve with a live frog exposing the crural nerve in the thigh with the conductor applied and find that "...contractions ensued on the passage of the spark in the corresponding leg alone, only less, as it seemed to us, than in the dead animal.". Galvani confirms that the contraction works when the frog is contained in a airless vacuum jar. Galvani writes "These experiments were all performed in animals wihch are called cold-blooded. These things having been tested and discovered, nothing was more in my desires than to perform the same or similar experiments in warm-blooded animals, as for example in hens and in sheep. The experiment having been tried, the result was the same in the latter as in the former. but there was need of a different preparation in the latter; for it was necessary first to expose the crural nerve, not inside the abdomen, but externally in the thigh itself, and to separate it from the other parts and bring it to the surface, than apply the conductor to it, and then elicit the spark from the conductor of the machine, with the leg either attrached to the living animal or resected from it as soon as possible; for otherwise, if the customary manner of preparing frogs were employed, the phenomenon was wholly lacking, perhaps because the power of self-contraction of the muscles was lacking beforehand, which that long and complex preparation can release.". Galvani concludes this section by writing: " but indeed, in this kind of experiments, whether in warm or in cold animals, there are some things at the end, and these peculiar and, as I think, not unimportant to note, which never presented themselves to us. One was that prepared animals were more suitable for these phenomena, the more advanced they were in age, and also the whiter their muscles were and the more they were deficient in blood, and therefore perhaps the muscular contractions were propter and easier and could be excited much longer in cold than in warm animals; for the former, in comparison with the latter, have more dilute blood, more difficult to coagulate, and therefore flowing much more easily from the muscles: another was that prepared animals, in whom these electric experiments were undertaken, decay and rot much more quickly than those who have suffered no electric force: finally that even if the phenomena which we have described thus far as occurring did so in the way we stated, animals prepared for experiment fail differently. For if the conductors are applied not to the dissected spinal cord or to the nerves, as we have been accustomed, but are applied or even attached to the brain or the muscles, or if nerve conductors are extended or prolonged, or if nerves according to custom are in the least detached from surrounding parts, the contractions are wither none or very slight. Many accepted things certainly, which we have discovered from these experiments, we refer chiefly to this method of preparing and separating nerves.".
Galvani then writes "Part Two THE EFFECTS OF ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY ON MUSCULAR MOTION Having discovered the effects of artificial electricity on muscular contractions which we have thus far explained, there was nothing we would sooner do than to investigate whether atmospheric electricity, as it is called, would afford the same phenomena, or not: whether, for example, by employing the same devices, the passage of lightning, as of sparks, would excite muscular contractions. Therefore we erected, in the fresh air, in a lofty part of the house, a long and suitable conductor, namely an iron wire, and insulated it, Fig. 7, and to it, when a storm arose in the sky, attached by their nerves either prepared frogs, or prepared legs of warm animals, as in Fig. 20, 21, Tab. IV. Also we attached another conductor, namely another iron wire, to the feet of the same, and this as long as possible, that it might extend as far as the waters of the well indicated in the figure. Moreover, the thing went according to our desire, just as in artificial electricity; for as often as the lightning broke out, at the same moment of time all the muscles fell into violent and multiple contractions, so that, just as the splendor and flash of the lightning are wont, so the muscular motions and contractions of those animals preceded the thunders, and, as it were, warned of them; nay, indeed, so great was the concurrence of the phenomena that the contractions occurred both when no muscle conductor was also added, and when the nerve conductor was not insulated, nay it was even possible to observe them beyond hope and expectation when the conductor was placed on lower ground, Fig. 8, particularly if the lightnings either were very great, or burst from clouds nearer the place of experimentation, or if anyone held the iron wire F in his hands at the same time when the thunderbolts fell. ...". Galvani concludes by noting that northern lights produces no contractions.
Galvani continues with "Part Three THE EFFECTS OF ANIMAL ELECTRICITY ON MUSCULAR MOTION The effects of stormy atmospheric electricity having been tested, my heart burned with desire to test also the power of peaceful, everyday electricity. Wherefore, since I had sometimes seen prepared frogs placed in iron gratings which surrounded a certain hanging garden of my house, equipped also with bronze hooks in their spinal cord, fall into the customary contractions, not only when the sky was lightning, but also sometimes when it was quiet and serene, I thought these contractions derived their origin from the changes which sometimes occur in atmospheric electricity. hence, not without hope, I began diligently to investigate the effects of these changes on these muscular motions in various ways. Wherefore at different hours, and for many days, I inspected animals, appropriately adjusted therefor; but there was scarceley any motion in their muscles. Finally, weary with vain expectation I began to press the bronze hooks, whereby their spinal cords were fixed, against the iron gratings, to see whether by this kind of device they excited muscular contractions, and in various states of the atmosphere, and of electricity whatever variety and mutation they presented; not infrequently, indeed, I observed contractions, but bearing no relation to varied state of atmosphere or of electricity. Nevertheless, since I had not inspected these contractions except in the fresh air, for I had not yet experimented in other places, I was on the point of seeking such contractions from electricity of the atmosphere, which had crept into the animal and accumulated in him and gone out rapidly from him in contact of the hook with the iron grating; for it is easy in experimentation to be deceived, and to think one has seen and discovered what we desire to see and discover. But when I had transported the animal into a closed chamber and placed him on an iron surface, and had begun to press against it the hook fixed in his spinal cord, behold the same contractions and the same motions! Likewise continuously, I tried using other metals, in other places, other hours and days; and the same result; except that the contractions were different in accordance with the diversity of metals, namely more violent in some, and more sluggish in others. Then it continually occurred to me to employ for the same experiment other bodies, but those which transmit little or no electricity, glass for example, gum, resin, stone, wood, and those which are dry; nothing similar occurred, it was not possible to observe any muscular motions or contractions. Results of this sort both brought us no slight amazement and began to arouse some suspicion about inherent animal electricity itself. Moreover both were increased by the circuit of very thin nervous fluid which by chance we observed to be produced from the nerves to the muscles, when the phenomenon occurred, and which resembled the electric circuit which is discharged in the Leyden jar. ...". Galvani prepares the frog on a hook fixed to its spinal cord and its feet rest on a silver box. In this way, Galvani finds that, with one hand on the frog and the other a metal object touching the silver box, the frog leg contracts. Galvni then gets an assistant, and finds that with the assistant holding the frog while Galvani touched the box again, there is no contraction. However, a contraction does occur if their other hands are connected. Galvani then describes his electric pendulum: " ...if a frog is held in the fingers so suspended by one leg that a hook fixed in the spinal cord touches a silver surface and the other leg freely falls into the same plane, Fig. 11, Tab. III, as soon as this same leg touches the surface itself immediately the muscles contract, wherefore the leg rises and is drawn up, but soon relaxes of its own accord and again falls to the surface, and as soon as it comes into contact with it, is again elevated for the same reason, and so it continues thereafter to rise and fall alternatively, so that, like an electric pendulum, the same leg seems to imitate the other, not without admiration and pleasure on the part of the beholder. ...". Galvani describes how using an arc or hook of iron and conducting surface of iron, contractions either fail or are very scanty, but if one is iron and the other bronze, or much more for silver, contractions will occur continuously and far greater and far longer. Galvani confirms that contractions occur even when the frog is immersed in water, but fails immersed in oil. Galvani covers nerves with metal foil, "preferably of tin, no less than the physicists are accustomed to accomplish in their magic square and Leyden jar", Fig. 9, Tab. III, and finds that the muscular contractions grow much stronger, so that even without an arc, but with a single contact of a body either conducting or even non-conducting, these "armatured nerves", as Galvani calls them contract the connected muscle. However, covering muscle in metal foil causes no difference in contraction, nor for covering the denuded spinal cord. Galvani finds that with the nerve and muscle removed from the body, that far fewer contractions take place, however, that contractions arise far more easily and promptly if the arc is applied to an armatured nerve. Galvani finds that wrapping the nerves in insulation such as silk and then touching the nerve with the arc causes no contraction. Galvani describes the way nerves share electricity, finding that two nerves with the arc applied to one each cause both connected muscles to contract. Galvani writes "...But perhaps nothing is more suitable for demonstrating powers of cooperation than if the crural nerves are prepared according to custom, and the spinal cord and head remain intact, and the upper limbs intact in nature and position. For then, if either the crural nerve or the vertebral column is armatured, and the arc aplied partly to the armatured part of the crural nerve and partly to the corresponding limb, not only the lower limbs contract, but the upper ones move also, the eyelids move, and other parts of the head move, so that on this account, the electric fluid, aroused by nervous contact of the arc, for the most part flows from the indicated place of the nerves to the muscles, but partly also through the nerves seeks the higher regions and is carried as far as the brain, and seems to carry such effect into it that thence, for whatever reason, motions of other muscles are excited. Galvani writes: " moreover, the experiments having been performed, in birds and quadrupeds, not once but again and again, not only the principal phenomena appeared, according to desire, as in cold-blooded animals, namely frogs and turtles, but they both appeared more easily and were far more conspicuous. it was possible also to observe this peculiarity in both the living and the dead animal, Figs. 20 and 21, for example that in a lamb or a chick, with a crural nerve dissected and covered with metal foil and extended on an armatured glass surface, contractions were obtained without the device of an arc, but solely by the contact of some conducting body with the same surface; but they are never obtained when the nerve is extended on a metallic surface, unless an arc is applied to the animal according to custom.".. Galvani states his belief that "animal electricity, discovered by us, ... corresponds not a little with common electricity.", and "...those who have devoted themselves to this kind of experiments may the better recognize the use and utility of the arc...".
Galvani dedicates his last chapter, part 4 to "CONJECTURES AND SOME CONCLUSIONS". In this part, Galvani states numerous conjectures, theories and ideas for future research. In particular Galvani argues in favor of "animal electricity" as being different from common electricity. Volta is credited with disproving this theory. Galvani writes: "From what is known and explored thys far, I think it is sufficiently established that there is electricity in animals, which, with Bartholinus and others, we may be permitted to call by the general name of animal electricity.". Galvani then goes on to theorize that two kinds of electricity, positive and negative, cause muscle contraction. Galvani writes "...it would perhaps be a not inept hypothesis and conjecture, nor altogether deviating from the truth, which should compare a muscle fibre to a small Leyden jar, or other similar electric body, charged with two opposite kinds of electricity; but should liken the nerve to the conductor, and therefore compare the whole muscle with an assemblage of Leyden jars.". Galvani theorizes on the three different methods of contracting muscles: 1) from the internal surface of a Leyden jar, 2) by an arc, and 3) by the production of a spark from an electric machine. Galvani discusses the torpedo fish and how it can kill or stupefy other bodies. Galvani writes "...but already we have shown above that electric fluid is carried through the nerves of muscles; therefore it will be carried through all: therefore from one common source, namely the cerebrum, they will drain it, from the source and origin of all: for otherwise there would be as many sources as there are parts in which nerves terminate; and although these are very different in nature and construction, they do not seem suited for the elaboration and secretion of one and the same fluid. Therefore we believe it equally true that electricity is prepared by action of the cerebrum, and that it is extracted from the blood, and that it enters the nerves, and that it runs through them within, whether they are hollow and free, or whether, as seems more probable, they carry a very thin lymph, or some other peculiar similar thin fluid, secreted, as many think, by the cortical cerebrum.". Galvani distinguishes between voluntary and involuntary motions. Galvani tries to explain how a spark can cause a muscle contraction writing: "For at the passage of a spark, electricity breaks out both from the layers of air surrounding the conductor of the machine and from the nerve-conductors communicating with the same layers; and negative electricity results on account of them. Hence the intrinsic positive electricity of muscles runs to the nerves both with its own strength and with strength from extrinsic electricity, more abundant whether you borrow it from artificial or natural, as received from their conductors, and flowing through them, failing both in them and in the shortly hirtherto mentioned layers of air, it will renew the electricity and establish itself at equilibrium therewith; not otherwise than as, in a Leyden jar, the positive electricity of the internal surface in the production of a spark flows more abundantly to the conductor of the former, for the same reasons, and goes out therefrom, just as the form of a luminous electric pencil openly declares.". Galvani suggests that just as electricity can damage a nerve, possibly self generated electricity might damage a nerve. Galvani does not explicitly mention the possibility of a person remotely causing a muscle to move without having to touch the nerve directly, for example with a piece of metal.
This work of Galvani's is really an epochal work. There are many sciences that grow from this work. In particular, the very interesting science, of the difference between life and death, and in particular the role of electricity in living objects. Related to this, is the science of resuscitation and reviving back to living a body that has been dead for a period of time. Beyond this is the major science of using electricity to cause remote muscle contraction, which develops secretly - it seems very likely, around the early 1800s. In addition, is the science of radio communication - which involves his use of electric induction which may be simply the photoelectric effect.
This technology of moving (human muscles) is the focus of much secret research. Some time, perhaps around 1912, some person figured out how to remotely cause neurons to fire. Who figured this out first is publicly not known, nor is the location on earth where this was first found publicly known, not is the precise method known. Possibly molecules in a neuron absorb certain frequencies of photons, by making the molecule (which could be even the water molecule, but may be more specific to neurons) absorb photons, the neuron may be made to fire. Perhaps the neurons of squid were first used being much larger than the neurons of other species. When this process of making neurons fire remotely was understood, many new possibilities were realized. In particular by remotely causing the correct neuron to fire, any muscle in any body with a muscular system can be made to contract.
Sadly, this technology is being terribly abused by the people, mostly conservative military people who control it, to cause people's muscles to move in ways which may cause them damage, for example, to cause a person to drive off a road, or simply to murder people by stopping their lung or heart muscle. Clearly the amazing potential of being able to control muscles from a distance is a very powerful tool. This technology could be used to stop pain felt in surgery without having to use anesthesia, to send images, sounds, and smells to each other just by thought, to stop a person in the act of violence, for example, many useful purposes. Ultimately this movement of muscles is a way a person can possibly completely control all the thoughts and muscles of another body. A person's body may be made to think and/or move in a way without any choice. This secret technology opens many new ideas previously never thought about. Sadly, as will be the case for seeing thought in 1910, and hearing thought in 1911, uneducated, greedy, powerhungry wealthy people that control the government and media will usurp this technology for themselves, continually giving the excuse of "national security", and the advantage keeping the technology secret from other people gives them. In addition, other major excuses involve the financial panic or collapse that might happen if information is freely exchanged by all people, that people will not be able to "handle" the new reality of the machines and may seek to destroy or otherwise limit the use of the technology. This remote neuron activation, image, sound and muscle moving technology is probably one of the most important scientific advances in the history of earth, and is one of the major science and technology secrets of the early 1900s. Those include: 1: Detecting status of neurons 1) Seeing the images the eyes see (October 25?, 1910, Michael I Pupin, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA) 2) Seeing the images the brain generates (October 25?, 1910, Michael I Pupin, Columbia University, New York City, New York, USA) 3) Hearing the sounds the ears hear (1911?, DP?, Columbia University?) 4) Hearing the sounds the brain generates (1911?, DP?, Columbia University?) 5) Detecting smells being smelled 6) Detecting tastes being tasted 7) Detecting touches being felt 8) Detecting feelings of heat 9) Detecting feelings of pain (from neuron receptors of pain sensors in skin) 10) Detecting movement of muscles 11) Detecting gland activity 12) Detecting sexual stimulation
2: Remote Neuron activation (1912?, CIP?, Columbia? California?) 1) Sending images to appear in front of eyes 2) Sending images to appear on internal thought screen (the thought screen, a second screen used in the brain, where dreams are seen, and internal visualizations are drawn, used to plant suggestions in people's minds such as an image of a food product) 3) Sending sounds to be heard as if outside body 4) Sending sounds to be heard as if from thoughts (used {many times as their own voice} to plant suggestions in people's minds) 5) Sending smells 6) Sending tastes (same neurons as smell?) 7) Sending touches (remotely activating nerve receptors in brain that receive signals from touch sensors in skin) 8) Sending feeling of heat (one of the few remote stimulations I have not felt to my knowledge) 9) Sending pain 10) Sending muscle moves (to neurons that control muscle contraction) 11) causing glands to secret hormones 12) causing sexual stimulation
3: public but used secretly: causing cancer with photons in microwave
4: secret networks of hidden microphones and cameras by telephone companies, which must have developed to be microscopic perhaps even as early as 1920.
5: transmutation: forming different atoms, building atoms up using particles to convert H to He, He to Li, Li, Be, C, N, ...Au, Ag, Converting common atoms into useful atoms such as hydrogen and oxygen. Potentially making gold from mercury through particle accelerators.
(State who is the first to clearly publish the possibility of a person moving the muscles of another body remotely without having to touch the other body. State any for both science publication, or science fiction.)
This will lead to the development of technology that can read from and write to neurons, which will enable the remote recording of images of thought, the sounds of thought, the images a brain sees, the sounds a brain hears, smells, touches, tastes, and even the writing to neurons, perhaps with roentgen rays (x-rays, or X particles), which allow a muscle to be contracted from a remote distance using invisible particle beams.
This is one of the earliest reports of the phenomenon of the electric radiation which will be the basis of wireless communication using light particles (one form of which is radio).
| Bologna, Italy |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2243) Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) starts publishing "Illustration des genres" (1791-1800, "Illustrations of the Genera") for the "Encyclopédie méthodique" ("Methodic Encyclopaedia"), the successor of Diderot's famous "Encyclopédie".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2289) Dieudonné de Gratet de Dolomieu (DolomYU) (CE 1750-1801), French geologist, describes dolomite (which is named after Dolomieu, as are the Dolomite Alps, mountains for which dolomite is responsible for the characteristic shapes and color of the mountains). Dolomite is a common mineral made of calcium magnesium carbonate.
| Alps, Northern Italy |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2290) Dieudonné de Gratet de Dolomieu (DolomYU) (CE 1750-1801) writes "Sur la philosophie minéralogique et sur l'espèce minérale " (1801, "On Mineralogical Philosophy and on the Mineral Class") a treatise on mineralogy.
| Alps, Northern Italy |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2295) Pierre Prévost (PrAVO) (CE 1751-1839) explains that all objects emit heat, rejects the "frigoric" theory by explaining that heat always moves from a hot body to the cold.
Pierre Prévost (PrAVO) (CE 1751-1839), Swiss physicist, explains that all objects emit heat, rejects "frigoric" theory explaining that heat always moves from a hot body to the cold.
Although Prévost accepts Lavoisier's caloric theory of heat as a fluid, however Prévost (correctly) rejects the theory of the existence of a second fluid for cold, "frigoric", which is thought to flow from cold bodies to warmer ones.
Prévost claims that there is only the one fluid, caloric that flows from hot to cold, showing that cold does not flow from snow to a hand, but that heat moves from a hand to the snow.
Prévost introduces the idea of dynamic equilibrium in which all bodies are radiating and absorbing heat. When one body is colder than another that colder body absorbs more heat than it radiates. According to Prévost, a body that maintains a constant temperature is still emitting heat but is also absorbing heat from its surroundings that just matches its heat loss. The idea is known as the Prévost theory of exchanges.
Maxwell will explain heat as motion in a "kinetic theory" of heat 70 years later.
Prévost publishes (these results in) "Sur l'equilibre du feu" (1792, "On the Equilibrium of Heat") (a year later in 1792).
(It seems in practice that objects seem to hold their atomic shape, for example, the ice cube melts into liquid and then into vapor, but yet, why would not solids such as a metal table, glass window, or tree eventually dissipate into gas? This presumes that heat is average velocity of atoms and/or molecules.)
(Clearly atomic and molecular bonding for many atoms holds together no matter how low the temperature goes. Perhaps each molecule has a certain quantity of resistance against separation into component atoms (or photons) that varies for each molecule and atom.)
(Perhaps ultimately all objects (clusters of photons themselves, even protons, neutrons and larger atoms) are destined to decay back to free moving photons, however it appears that this process takes a very long time, in addition, the formation of new stars reveals a process (gravity) that appears to be working against equilibrium.)
(The rate an objects absorbs heat also varies on the atomic structure, for example the "color" in the spectrum of light that the molecule absorbs, black color objects heat faster because they absorb more light particles per second than white or mirror objects.)
(Clearly with heat, the more photons the hotter the temperature, so that seems to contradict Maxwell's claim that heat is strictly the average velocity of molecules since more photons causes more heat, although if photons were packed together and could not move I don't know if that would represent a higher temperature, but clearly those photons would escape at the border of empty space into a very hot space.)
| |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2342) William Gregor (CE 1761-1817), English minerologist identifies a new element that will be named "titanium" by Klaproth four years later.
Gregor finds a strange black sand in Manaccan (then spelled Menacchan), Cornwall. This black sand contains iron and manganese plus an additional substance that Gregor can not identify. Gregor calls this substance menacchanine and extracts its reddish-brown oxide which when dissolved in acid forms a yellow solution. Martin Klaproth will isolate the same oxide from a different source in 1795 and demonstrate that it is a new element, naming it titanium.
| Cornwall, England |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2343) Jeremias Benjamin Richter (riKTR) (CE 1762-1807) German chemist, demonstrates that acids and bases neutralize each other to form salts in fixed proportions. The study of the proportions of chemical combination Richter calls "stoichiometry" in 1792.
(Richter finds that) it takes 615 parts by weight of magnesia (MgO) to neutralize 1000 parts by weight of sulfuric acid.
In 1799 Joseph Proust shows that elements combine in definite proportions and these two findings will contribute to the formulation of the law of definite proportions and the atomic theory of Dalton.
| ?, Germany |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 2908) Wolfgang von Kempelen (CE 1734-1804) invents a talking machine that makes sounds that approximate human speech.
In his book "Mechanismus der menschlichen Sprache nebst Beschreibung einer sprechenden Maschine" (1791) von Kempelen includes a detailed description of his speaking machine - in order for others to reconstruct it and make it more perfect.
The use of air to reproduce human speech (and perhaps even other species) must be perfected by now, but is part of a technology kept secret from an apathetic public.
A reconstruction of the machine, demonstrated by Wheatstone (in 1835) in Dublin, differs from the version described in the book by having a flexible oral cavity and active voicing control, but it lacks the pitch control mechanism included in Kempelen's final version.
| Pressburg (Bratislava), Slovakia |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 3380) Gas engine designed.
This is the earliest known gas engine design.
John Barber (1734-1801), patents (No. 1833) a gas engine in 1791.
Barber invents "an engine for using INFLAMMABLE AIR for the purpose of procuring motion.". Barber heats coal, wood, oil, or any other combustible substance in a metallic retort, and conveys the vapour or product to a receiver, where it is collected and cooled by a surrounding cistern of water. By means of an air pump and compresser, this inflammable gas and atmospheric or common air, in proper proportions, are forced through separate pipes into another vessel called the exploder (see image). The mixture is here ignited and "rushes out with amazing force and velocity" against the vanes of a paddle-wheel, which then rotate rapidly, working the pumps, and communicating motion to any machinery. "The fluid stream is considerably augmented, both in quantity and velocity, by water injected" or pumped into the exploder through a small pipe. This water is also intended to cool the pipes and mouth of the exploder. He also mentions in his patent that the fluid stream issuing from the mouth of the exploder may be injected into furnaces for smelting ores, or passed out at the stern of a ship, which then propels the ship by the reaction against the water.
Water is also injected into the explosive mixture to cool the mouth of the vessel, and, by producing steam, to increase the volume of the charge. Barber's engine exhibits in an elementary form, the principle of what is now known as combustion at constant pressure, but it has neither piston nor cylinder.
There is no evidence that this engine was ever built although at least one source states that a working engine was constructed, which would make this the first gas engine.
| ?, England |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 5954) (Franz) Joseph Haydn (CE 1732-1809), Austrian composer, composes his Symphony 94 referred to as "The Surprise" Symphony.
In his life, Haydn is immensely prolific: some of his music remains unpublished and little known. Although his operas have never succeeded in holding the stage, Haydn is regarded, as father of the symphony and the string quartet, because he sees both genres from their beginnings to a high level of sophistication and artistic expression, even if not originating them.
Haydn passes through the musical transition from Baroque to the Classical period (around 1750), and is generally viewed as being in the Classical era.
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
209 YBN
[1791 AD]
| 5970) (Johann Chrysostom) Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (CE 1756-1791), Austrian composer, composes his famous Requiem in D Minor (k.626).
Mozart's final works include the Clarinet Concerto and some pieces for masonic lodges (Mozart had been a freemason since 1784 and masonic teachings no doubt affected his thinking, and his compositions, in his last years). At his death from a feverish illness whose precise nature has given rise to much speculation (he was not poisoned), he left unfinished the Requiem, his first large-scale work for the church since the C minor Mass of 1783, also unfinished. Mozart was buried in a Vienna suburb, with little ceremony and in an unmarked grave, in accordance with prevailing custom.
(It may be that neuron owners murdered Mozart to associate a mystical symbolism to the Requiem Mozart was composing. There are other reasons why powerful and wealthy violent neuron owners would take pleasure in murdering somebody like Mozart. For one, out of jealously or anger at Mozart being the most watched person all the time - and having such large influence - a common antidemocratic - anti-most-popular person phenomenon. Another reason might be that perhaps the "Jupiter" symphony was seen as atheistic. Perhaps Mozart's talent, and skills as a young person caused narrow-minded people to view Mozart as a "freak" of nature or somehow "unnatural" or unusual - not like them and so wanted to kill the unusual eye-sore or non-conforming problem in the machinery. Perhaps it was a neuron sexual thrill - for one of more males to use the vast wealth of the neuron owners to pay young see-Mozart-laid-'er women for sex, and these women are coerced in the paid-for "passion" to condone the murder the focus of their desire which they reject because the neuron payer has much more money and provides them with direct-to-brain windows which they are addicted to and refuse to live without. This approval of murder is then used as an excuse by the neuron owners to justify a murder - to shift blame to the poor paid female. But because of the antisexuality of these centuries many neuron murders may have no sexual component at all, but be mystical, or simply the result of violent aggression, greed, etc. This is speculation, and simply a virus or some other natural cause could have been the reason Mozart dies at so young an age.)
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
208 YBN
[09/21/1792 AD]
| 1534) The French Revolution brings a massive shifting of power from the Roman Catholic Church to the state. Earlier, on December 2, 1789, the Assembly had take over the property of the Church (while taking on the Church's expenses). Legislation on February 13, 1790 abolished monastic vows (of celibacy). The "Civil Constitution of the Clergy", passed on July 12, 1790 (although not signed by the King until December 26, 1790), turned the remaining clergy into employees of the State and required that they take an oath of loyalty to the constitution. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy also made the Catholic church an arm of the secular state.
| Paris, France |
208 YBN
[1792 AD]
| 2164) Mary Wollstonecraft (CE 1759-1797) anonymously publishes "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman" (1792) which calls for women and men to be educated equally.
| London, England (presumably) |
208 YBN
[1792 AD]
| 2232) Martin Heinrich Klaproth (KloPrOT) (CE 1743-1817) does experiments to confirm Lavoisier's new view of combustion.
| Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
208 YBN
[1792 AD]
| 2251) Alessandro Volta (VOLTo) (CE 1745-1827) creates electrical current (by creating a voltage potential) by submerging two different metals in an liquid (electrolyte) and connecting them.
Volta finds that not only will two dissimilar metals in contact produce a small electrical (current), but metals in contact with certain fluids also produces electrical .
Volta bends a metal bar with one end copper and the other tin or zinc with each end in a bowl of salt water, and this produces a steady flow of electrical current. (more detail) This is the first useful electric battery (although Galvani is the first to discover the battery principle) and it was Volta's disagreement with Galvani's theory of (animal electricity) that leads Volta to build the voltaic pile to prove that electricity does not come from the animal tissue but from the different metals (with wet tissue between).
| Pavia, Italy |
208 YBN
[1792 AD]
| 2254) Philippe Pinel (PEneL) (CE 1745-1826), as chief physician at the Paris asylum for men, Bicêtre, Pinel unchains the patients, many of whom have been physically restrained for 30 to 40 years. (detail: chained to wall?)
| Paris, France |
208 YBN
[1792 AD]
| 2282) Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre (DuloMBR) (CE 1749-1822), French astronomer publishes new tables of the motions of Jupiter, its satellites, Saturn and Uranus in the book "Tables du Soleil, de Jupiter, de Saturne, d'Uranus et des satellites de Jupiter" ("Tables of the Sun, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Jupiter's Satellites").
| Pairs, France |
208 YBN
[1792 AD]
| 2312) William Murdock (CE 1754-1839) Scottish inventor heats coal (also peat and wood) in the absence of air and stores the gases that are emitted. These gases are flammable and can be piped from place to place. The gas can be lit to make a flame that is easily controlled by the rate of gas flow. (Does the coal separate into gas, or is gas simply trapped in the pores of the coal?)
Murdoch lights his cottage and offices with coal gas.
Coal gas is a mixture mainly of hydrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide formed by the destructive distillation (heating in the absence of air) of bituminous coal. Coal tar and coke are obtained as by-products.
| Redruth, Cornwall, England |
208 YBN
[1792 AD]
| 2442) Johann Karl Friedrich Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) German mathematician shows that a regular polygon of 17 sides can be constructed by ruler and compass alone. A regular polygon is a polygon with all sides and all angles equal.{9 words} Gauss then generalizes this result by showing that any polygon with a prime number of sides of the form 22m + 1 can be constructed with these instruments.
(It is interesting to think of how many 2D and 3D shapes can be formed starting with a line and drawing the next line of equal length at an angle.) Gauss goes on to show that only polygons of certain numbers of sides can be constructed with a straightedge and compass alone. (need more specific info). A polygon with seven sides (a heptagon) can not be constructed in this way. This is the first case of a geometric construction being proved impossible. After this the importance of proving something impossible will have more importance.
This is the first (new geometrical construction) since ancient Greece, over 2000 years ago. (Apparently not many people draw shapes.) (I would think people would have systematically describes each possible regular polygon up to a 20 sides by this time, perhaps they did but it was lost during the domination of the religion centered around Jesus.)
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the significance of this find is (apparently) in the proof, which rests on a profound analysis of the factorization (the operation of resolving a quantity into its factors) of polynomial equations (any algebraic equation) and opens the door to later ideas of Galois theory (Évariste Galois 1811-1832 French mathematician). Galois theory is the part of algebra concerned with the relation between solutions of a polynomial equation and gives conditions under which the solutions can be expressed in terms of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and of the extraction of roots.
| Brunswick, Germany |
207 YBN
[04/??/1793 AD]
| 2359) Eli Whitney (CE 1765-1825), American inventor, invents the cotton gin (engine) which makes separating cotton fibers from their attached seeds easier.
Whitney invents the cotton gin (gin is short for engine).
In this time cotton is in high demand by English mills. The South USA exports a small amount of a black-seeded variety of cotton named "long-staple". This cotton can be easily cleaned of its seed by passing it through a pair of rollers, however this black-seed cotton can only be grown on the coast. A green-seed variety of cotton called "short-staple" that grows inland cannot be cleaned because its fiber is attached to the seed. So Whitney understands that inventing a machine to clean the green-seed cotton could make the inventor rich and increase cotton production. Whitney's cotton gin has four parts: (1) a hopper to feed the cotton into the gin; (2) a revolving cylinder studded with hundreds of short wire hooks, closely set in ordered lines to match fine grooves cut in (3) a stationary breastwork that strains out the seed while the fiber flows through; and (4) a clearer, which is a cylinder set with bristles, turning in the opposite direction, that brushes the cotton from the hooks and causes the cotton to fly off.
One gin can produce 50 pounds of cleaned cotton per day.
| Mulberry Grove, Georgia (presumably) |
207 YBN
[05/30/1793 AD]
| 2403) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) English physicist and physician, is the first to recognize the way the lens of the eye changes shape in focusing on objects as different distances.
Young explains this theory in a paper before the Royal Society at age 19 entitled "Observations on Vision".
Young contributes to understanding of surface tension of liquids and the nature of elastic substances. A constant used in equations defining the behavior of elastic substances is called Young's modulus in Young's honor.
Young contributes many and varied articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
| London, England |
207 YBN
[1793 AD]
| 2291) Christian Konrad Sprengel (sPreNGL) (CE 1750-1816) (is the first to?) describes insect fertilization of flowers.
Christian Konrad Sprengel (sPreNGL) (CE 1750-1816) German botanist, publishes "Das entdeckte Geheimnis der Natur im Bau und in der Befruchtung der Blumen" (1793, "The Newly Revealed Mystery of Nature in the Structure and Fertilization of Flowers") which describes Sprengel's findings on fertilization in flowers. Sprengel writes that some plants are fertilized by insects and some by the wind. Sprengel discovers that the nectaries (nectar-producing organs in flowers) are indicated by special colors, and reasons that the color attracts insects. Sprenger finds that the insects are the method of conveying pollen from the stamen (male part) of one flower to the pistil (female part) of another. Sprengel notes that in many bisexual flowers the stamen and pistil mature at different times and so self-fertilization cannot occur. Instead fertilization can only be accomplished by the transfer of pollen from a different flower. The process of maturation of the male and female parts at different periods Sprengel calls dichogamy, a term that is still used.
| Spandau, Germany |
207 YBN
[1793 AD]
| 2372) John Dalton (CE 1766-1844), English chemist writes "Meteorological Observations and Essays", and is therefore one of the pioneers in meteorology. (As applied to other planets weather prediction might be a more important science. Predicting the movement of atmosphere and weather far into the future is very difficult because of all the particles involved.)
This work marks the transition of meteorology from a topic of general folklore to a serious scientific pursuit.
Dalton is the first to measure the rise in temperature of air when compressed and to show that the amount of water vapor the air can hold rises with temperature.
Dalton maintains that the atmosphere is a mixture of approximately 80 percent nitrogen and 20 percent oxygen instead of a (single) specific compound of elements, which is not the popular belief at the time.
| Manchester, England |
206 YBN
[08/15/1794 AD]
| 1895) Long distance communication using reflected photons begins with the first message transmitted on the Paris-Lille optical telegraph line developed by Claude Chappe (CE 1763-1805). Chappe develops one of the first practical optical telegraph or semaphore in 1794. Chappe employs a set of arms that pivot on a post; the arms are mounted on towers spaced 5 to 10 miles (8 to 16 km) apart. Messages are read by telescopic sightings.
| France |
206 YBN
[1794 AD]
| 2086) James Hutton (CE 1726-1797) Scottish geologist publishes "A Dissertation upon the Philosophy of Light, Heat and Fire" in which he supports a theory in which light is an active substance but lacks momentum, arguing against the corpuscular (or projectile) theory of light giving evidence that smoke and dust particles do not move in the direction of the light beam in which they are suspended. Corpuscular/projectile theorists explain this null result by claiming that the light particles are of too small a mass to move the particles of dust and smoke. Hutton complains that this strategy is "unphilosophical". Another argument in favor of the light particles as projectile theory is that the amount of movement of smoke molecules by the light particles reflecting off of them is too small to be observed. In addition, it seems clear that light from the Sun focused from a lens or mirror can push objects in the direction of light (see video of metal plate moving from focused light).
Hutton points out that the motion imparted to a balance or smoke particles, involves not one but many particles, probably, millions of particles per second. Hutton hypothesizes that the momentum of a beam of light is given by the product of the number of particles it contains and the mass of the individual particle.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
206 YBN
[1794 AD]
| 2249) Alessandro Volta (VOLTo) (CE 1745-1827) shows that the electric current Galvani found comes from the metals and not the frog legs.
In 1780 Volta's friend Luigi Galvani discovered that contacting the muscle of a frog with two different metals results in the generation of an electric current. Volta experimenting with metals alone finds that animal tissue is not needed to produce an electric current.
Galvani write that the metals "are in a real sense the exciters of electricity, while the nerves themselves are passive", and calls this electricity "metallic" or "contact" electricity ((as opposed to Galvani's "animal electricity")).
This causes much controversy between those who support Galvani's animal-electricity and those who support Volta's "metallic-electricity". After the demonstration of the first electric battery in 1800, Volta's view will prevail. (However, Franklin's idea of a single electrical fluid is more accurate than separate forms of electricity, although there are atoms and molecules that can form a current (ions), and other charged particles besides electrons, such as positrons, muon and pions (mu and pi mesons).)
| Pavia, Italy |
206 YBN
[1794 AD]
| 2255) Philippe Pinel (PEneL) (CE 1745-1826), as director of the psychiatric prison "Salpêtrière", unchains the female inmates. (detail: chained to wall?)
| Paris, France |
206 YBN
[1794 AD]
| 2298) Adrien Marie Legendre (lujoNDR) (CE 1752-1833) French mathematician publishes "Éléments de géométrie" (1794, tr. 1867, "Elements of Geometry"), in which Legendre reorganizes and simplifies the propositions in Euclid's "Elements".
Legendre shows that pi is irrational (that is that pi cannot be represented as a ratio of two numbers), and then that the square of pi is also irrational {this pi squared proof I think falls under the more general proof of the theorem 'any multiple of an irrational number is irrational too'].
Legendre conjectures that pi is transcendental (the number does not terminate in a constantly repeating cycle of numbers), which Lindemann will show is true a century later.
| Paris, France(presumably) |
206 YBN
[1794 AD]
| 2336) Johan Gadolin (GoDOlEN) (CE 1760-1852), Finnish chemist is shown a new black mineral from Ytterby, a quarry in Sweden that will eventually produce around a dozen new elements.
Gadolin performs tests on the mineral and thinks that it contains a new "earth", which is a word applied to any oxide that is insoluable in water and resistant to the action of heat (iron oxide is an example of very common earths). This new earth is less common than others and so it becomes known as a "rare earth". There are now over a dozen "rare earth" elements (now called "Lanthanides").
Gadolin names this new oxide "yttria". The element will be named "gadolinium" (the current name) after Gadolin in 1886 by Lecoq de Boisbaudran.
| (was Åbo is now)Turku, Finland |
206 YBN
[1794 AD]
| 2373) John Dalton (CE 1766-1844), is the first to describe color blindness, and is color blind himself.
| Manchester, England |
206 YBN
[1794 AD]
| 3376) Gas combustion direct-acting engine with cylinder and piston is designed.
John Barber in 1791 had patented the earliest known gas engine.
The Encyclopedia Britannica of 1911 groups all these engine designs as "explosion engines" which is a concise way of describing them. Of these there are two kinds 1) the matter of the explosion physically pushes a piston inside a cylinder and 2) the explosion creates a vacuum which draws a piston into a cylinder. This is the first known proposal made in Great Britain, found in (Robert) Street's Patent No. 1983 of 1794, where an explosion engine is suggested. The explosion is to be caused by vaporizing spirits of turpentine on a heated metal surface, mixing the vapour with air in a cylinder, firing the mixture, and driving a piston by the explosion produced.
Robert Street obtains a patent for (an explosion or internal combustion engine). The bottom of a cylinder, containing a piston, is heated by a fire, a few drops of spirits of turpentine are introduced and evaporated by the heat, the piston is drawn up, and air entering mixes with the inflammable vapor. A light is applied at a touch hole, and the explosion drives up the piston, which, working on a lever, forces down the piston of a pump for pumping water. Robert Street adds to his description a note: "The quantity of spirits of tar or turpentine to be made use of is always proportional to the confined space, in general about 10 drops to a cubic foot." This engine is quite a workable one, although the arrangements described are very crude.
In this engine many modern ideas are foreshadowed, especially the ignition by an external flame, and the admission of air by the suction of the piston during the up-stroke.
Also in 1794 Thomas Mead obtains a patent for an engine using the internal combustion of gas; however the description is not a clear one, and his ideas seem confused.
This is the earliest known direct-acting gas engine designed.
| ?, England |
205 YBN
[1795 AD]
| 2084) James Hutton (CE 1726-1797) Scottish geologist publishes his revised and more developed theory of uniformitarianism in "Theory of the Earth, with Proofs and Illustrations" (2 vols., 1795). A projected third volume will remain incomplete in 1797 at the time of Hutton's death and will be published by the Geological Society of London in 1899. Hutton revises and develops his original theory in more detail as a result of his paper being criticized in 1793.
Hutton's writing style is difficult to understand and his close friend John Playfair will help to establish the truth of the uniformitarian theory by writing a clear and concise condensation of Hutton's work, which includes additional observations of his own, published in 1802 as "Illustrations of the Huttonian Theory of the Earth".
| Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
205 YBN
[1795 AD]
| 2085) At the time of his death, Scottish geologist, James Hutton (CE 1726-1797) is working on a book in which he expresses a belief in evolution by natural selection, a view that will be made famous in 60 years by Charles Darwin, but this manuscript will not be examined until 1947.
Hutton writes (from "Investigation of the Principles of Knowledge", volume 2): ""... if an organised body is not in the situation and circumstances best adapted to its sustenance and propagation, then, in conceiving an indefinite variety among the individuals of that species, we must be assured, that, on the one hand, those which depart most from the best adapted constitution, will be the most liable to perish, while, on the other hand, those organised bodies, which most approach to the best constitution for the present circumstances, will be best adapted to continue, in preserving themselves and multiplying the individuals of their race."
| Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
205 YBN
[1795 AD]
| 2233) Martin Heinrich Klaproth (KloPrOT) (CE 1743-1817) rediscovers and names the element "titanium".
Klaproth isolates the oxide of a new metal he names "titanium" (after the Titans of Greek mythology). Unlike Lavoisier, Klaproth gives full credit to Gregor for the initial finding of this metal. Klaproth rediscovered titanium in the ore rutile. (show products)
| Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
205 YBN
[1795 AD]
| 2645) George Murray devises a visual telegraph system devices in England. In Murray's device, characters are sent by opening and closing various combinations of six shutters. This system rapidly catches on in England and in the United States, where a number of sites bearing the name Telegraph Hill or Signal Hill can still be found, particularly in coastal regions. Visual telegraphs are completely replaced by the electric telegraph by the middle of the 1800s.
| England |
204 YBN
[07/01/1796 AD]
| 2280) In the 1700s occasional outbreaks of small pox with unusual intensity result in a very high death rate.
Smallpox is a terrible disease killing 1 in 3 and leaving many with pock-marked and scarred faces.
The only known method of combating smallpox is a process called variolation which is intentionally infecting a healthy person with "matter" taken from (the wound of) a person sick with a mild case of the disease. This practice originated in China and India. Some people go so far as to try and get a mild case of smallpox from a person with an apparently mild case. One problem with this approach is that the transmitted disease does not always remain mild, and infected people sometimes die, in addition to spreading the virus. It is rumored that people that get cowpox, a mild disease resembling smallpox, are then immune to smallpox.
On May 14, using matter from Sarah's lesions, he inoculated an eight-year-old boy, James Phipps, who had never had smallpox. Phipps became slightly ill over the course of the next 9 days but was well on the 10th. On July 1 Jenner inoculated the boy again, this time with smallpox matter.
Jenner tests this by finding a milkmaid who has cowpox, Sarah Nelmes, and takes some fluid from a blister on her hand and on May 14, injects it into an eight-year-old boy named James Phipps, who then got cowpox. Phipps became slightly ill for 9 days, but is well on the 10th. Two months later, on July 1, Jenner inoculates the boy again, this time with smallpox. (This kind of human experimentation if done with consent is fine, but without consent is obviously illegal being similar to poisoning or drugging). Asimov comments that had the boy died Jenner would have been a criminal. The boy does not get the smallpox disease.
| Berkeley, England (presumably) |
204 YBN
[1796 AD]
| 2124) Erasmus Darwin (CE 1731-1802), English physician, publishes "Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life" (1794-96) in which Darwin argues similarly to Buffon and anticipates Lamarck by arguing that evolutionary changes are brought about by the direct influence of the environment on an organism.
In this book Darwin discusses the nature of sleep and instinct.
| Derby, England (presumably) |
204 YBN
[1796 AD]
| 2126) Erasmus Darwin (CE 1731-1802), English physician, publishes a long poem, "The Botanic Garden" (1789-91), which is inspired by his translations of the botanical writings of Swedish botanist Linnaeus into English.
| Derby, England (presumably) |
204 YBN
[1796 AD]
| 2277) Pierre-Simon Laplace (loPloS) (CE 1749-1827) published "Exposition du système du monde" (1796, "The System of the World") which includes Laplace's "nebular hypothesis", that the origin of the solar system was due to the cooling and contracting of a gaseous nebula.
This is the basic outline of the currently accepted theory of solar system origin.
Since all the planets rotate around the sun in the same plane, Laplace suggests that the Sun originated as a giant nebula or cloud of gas that was in rotation. As the gas contracted, the rotation would have to accelerate and an outer rim of gas would be left behind (by centrifugal force). (I doubt centrifugal force, I think it is due to the velocity of an object in rotation having it's direction changed by an attached object {for example an object on a string, or water in a container}. But I am keeping an open mind and want to think about it more. I can accept using the idea of centrifugal or centripetal force understanding that it is the result of conservation of velocity.) The (outer) rim of gas would then condense into a planet. Over time this continued contraction happens until all the planets are formed and moving in the same direction as the nebula. The core of the nebula finally condenses into the Sun. Kant had advanced a similar suggestion, although less detailed, forty years earlier. (this question of how the planets and moons formed is interesting; terrestrial planets and moons in particular. For example, can terrestrial moons form around a Jovian planet? If yes, then that shows that this kind of compression can happen even with a mass one thousandth the mass of the Sun. If no, then the moons may have been formed in stellar orbit and were captured later {I doubt this, but the density of the moons might indicate if they are made of heavy or lighter atoms. Are they of similar mass, etc. these questions may determine if they were formed as planets or moons}. In particular for the moon of earth, was the moon a planet or did it form from debris in orbit or earth as is currently thought? If the moon of earth formed around the earth then this compression of a terrestrial sphere can be done around a mass one millionth the mass of the sun. What is involved in this star system compression? For example, is there actually atomic fusing? or are all the atoms preformed in the gas cloud? Clearly the denser atoms must gravitate towards the center {a simulation I made implies this is true}, and the sun must contain all the heaviest atoms, with the inner terrestrial planets containing the next heaviest atoms, followed by the outer planets that have mostly lighter atoms.) This theory of the origins of the solar system is (sometimes referred to as) the Kant-Laplace theory.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
204 YBN
[1796 AD]
| 2330) Franz Joseph Gall (GoL) (CE 1758-1828) German physician understands that different parts of the brain control different parts of the body.
The first concept was proved correct when Paul Broca located the brain's speech centre in 1861.
Gall recognizes (a difference between gray and white matter in the brain), and that the gray matter in the brain is the active part and that the white matter is connecting material.(more detail:specific wording of "connecting material" and "active part") Gray areas of brain and spinal cord are mostly made of cell bodies and dendrites of nerve cells ((neurons)) instead of the myelinated axons (of neurons) which compose the white matter.(verify that neurons are that large and organized like this) In the cerebellum the gray matter is outside of the white matter, while the opposite is true for the cerebrum and spinal cord where gray matter is surrounded by white matter. (Perhaps there is some reason for this, for example the direction of electrical current signals?)
In 1811 Gall replies to a charge of Spinozism or atheism, strongly urged against him, by a treatise titled "Des dispositions innees de fame et de l'esprit", in which Gall will incorporate into a larger work.
Gall originates the pseudoscience of phrenology, the attempt to predict individual intelligence and personality from skull shape.
| Vienna, Germany |
204 YBN
[1796 AD]
| 2339) Smithson Tennant (CE 1761-1815) shows that diamond is made only of carbon by measuring the (volume of? how?) carbon dioxide produced by burning the diamond.
Smithson Tennant (CE 1761-1815), English chemist, shows that diamond is made only of carbon by measuring the (volume of? how?) carbon dioxide produced by burning the diamond. Tennant's assistant Wollaston actually completes the experiment.
Tennant conducts experiments fertilizing soil with lime.
| London, England (presumably) |
204 YBN
[1796 AD]
| 2390) Georges Cuvier (KYUVYAY) (CE 1769-1832) shows that an extinct South American animal, the Megatherium, is a ground sloth, related to the much smaller sloths of today.
| Paris, France |
204 YBN
[1796 AD]
| 5953) (Franz) Joseph Haydn (CE 1732-1809), Austrian composer, composes "Trumpet Concerto in E flat".
Anton Weidinger reputably had developed a keyed trumpet which could play chromatically throughout its entire range. Before this, the trumpet was commonly valveless and could only play a limited range of harmonic notes by altering lip pressure. These harmonic notes were clustered in the higher registers, so previous trumpet concertos could only play melodies at very high pitches (e.g., Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 2). Haydn's concerto includes melodies in the lower register, exploiting the capabilities of the new instrument. (verify)
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
203 YBN
[06/15/1797 AD]
| 3839) Henry Brougham theorizes that double refraction is due to the fractures in calcite. However, does not explain the two images as a result of reflection.
(I support the view that one beam is transmitted through the crystal (the ordinary image) and another is reflected off fractured planes (the extraordinary image). In this way, the angle the extraordinary and ordinary images make should relate exactly to the angle of cleavage. The simple experiment is how a laser light beam is both transmitted and reflected by a glass slide - forming two images - one which follows the cleavage as the crystal is turned, the other does not.)
| (read aloud in:) London, England |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2159) Joseph Louis, Comte de Lagrange (loGroNZ) (CE 1736-1813), publishes "Théorie des fonctions analytiques" (1797) which is the most important of several attempts made around this time to provide a logical foundation for the calculus. To avoid the concept of limits and infinitesimals, which Lagrange views as including errors, he attempts to develop the calculus by purely algebraic processes. Lagrange derived by algebra the Taylor series, with remainder, for the function f(x + h), and then defines the derived functions f(x), f'(x), etc, in terms of the coefficients of the powers of h. However, Lagrange is mistaken in thinking that this procedure avoids the concepts of limits and infinitesimals (because these ideas enter into the question of convergence), and Lagrange is mistaken in supposing that all continuous functions can be expanded in Taylor series.
| Paris, France |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2306) William Nicholson (CE 1753-1815) English chemist founds a chemical journal, "Journal of Natural Philosophy, Chemistry and the Arts" which is the first independent scientific journal.
| London, England (presumably) |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2331) Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (oLBRS or OLBRZ) (CE 1758-1840), German astronomer, works out a new method of determining the orbits of comets.(explain and show)
Olbers identifies 5 comets, including "Olbers comet" (1815), over the course of his life. Olbers is known for stating "Olbers' paradox" which is: if there are an infinite number of stars uniformly distributed, then the sky should be filled with light, but is instead black.(in what document?) This paradox was originally mentioned by Kepler and was also discussed (in 1744) by J. P. L. Chesaux. Some people explain this by saying that the universe is expanding, or the red shift weakens light, however a more obvious and simple fact is that stars do not emit photons in every possible direction but in a finite number of directions, and so the farther an observer is from a star, the less chance the observer will be in the precise direction of a beam of light from a distant source. In addition, it seems clear that there is far more space than matter in the universe.(see video of observers in between light beams http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3853208171301606423) This is the first satisfactory method for calculating the orbits of comets. (It seems that people use geometrical solutions to calculate the observed locations of objects instead of simply applying Newton's law and transforming the triordinates to the celestial sphere?)
| Bremen, Germany |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2338) James Hall (CE 1761-1832), Scottish geologist and chemist, produces marble by heating limestone (calcium carbonate). Hall finds that when heated in a closed container under pressure the limestone melts and when cooled produces marble. (describe furnace and containers used, how is pressure produced?) Hall melts rock in a furnace and shows that if cooled quickly, it forms a glassy solid, but if cooled slowly it forms an opaque and crystalline solid. Hall shows that igneous rocks from Scotland are produced by intense heat and then slow cooling of the molten material.
Hall shows that coal was recrystallized next to dikes (igneous rock that has been injected into a fissure while molten) of whinstone (which is dark, fine-grained rock such as dolerite or basalt). Hall establishes the composition of whinstone and basalt lava.
Hall is therefore the founder of experimental geology and geochemistry.
Hall's work supports the theories of Hutton, that most rocks were formed deep within the earth, over Werner and the Neptunists, who believe all rocks were deposited from an (initial) ocean.
| |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2344) Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (VoKloN) (CE 1763-1829), French chemist, identifies Chromium. Vauquelin identifies a new metal, from a red lead mineral from Siberia known as crocolite, which will be named Chromium by Fourcroy from the Greek word for color because of the many colors of its compounds. Klaproth repeats this work independently only months later.
From the crocolite, Vauquelin produces chromium oxide (there are a variety, this particular oxide is CrO3), by mixing crocolite with hydrochloric acid. In 1798, Vauquelin will isolate metallic chromium by heating the oxide in a charcoal oven.
Vauquelin also discovers quinic acid, asparagine (the first amino acid to be isolated), camphoric acid, and other naturally occurring compounds.
| Paris, France |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2385) (Baron) Georges Léopold Chrétien Frédéric Dagobert Cuvier (KYUVYAY) (CE 1769-1832), French anatomist publishes "Tableau élémentaire de l'histoire naturelle des animaux" ("Elementary Survey of the Natural History of Animals"), a popular introductory textbook in natural history based on his lectures at the Museum of Natural History in Paris.
| Paris, France |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2398) Richard Trevithick (TreVitiK) (CE 1771-1833), English inventor developed high-pressure, non-condensing steam engines that are smaller and lighter than but just as powerful as the low-pressure engines of James Watt (who thinks that "strong steam" is too dangerous to harness).
| Cornwall, England (presumably) |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2443) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) gives a proof of the fundamental theorem of algebra: that every polynomial equation with real or complex coefficients has as many roots (solutions) as its degree (the highest power of the variable).
Another interpretation of the fundamental theorem of algebra is that every algebraic equation has a root of the form a + bi where a and b are real numbers and i is the square root of minus one. Numbers in the form a + bi are now called complex numbers, and Gauss shows that these can be represented as analogous to the points on a plane.
Over the course of his life Gauss will give three proofs of this (theorem).
Albert Girard was the first to guess that every algebraic equation has at least one root in 1629, but was unable to prove this.
In this first proof Gauss assumes that a continuous function which takes positive and negative values is necessarily zero for some value of the variable.
| Göttingen, Germany |
203 YBN
[1797 AD]
| 2666) Under the title of "Electrical telegraphy" the 1797 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica predicts: "The capitals of distant nations might be united by chains of posts, and the settling of disputes which at present takes up months or years might then be accomplished in as many hours. An establishment of telegraphs might then be made like that of the post; and instead of being an expense, it would produce a revenue."
| London, England (presumably) |
202 YBN
[01/25/1798 AD]
| 2234) Martin Heinrich Klaproth (KloPrOT) (CE 1743-1817) helps to recognize that tellurium is a new element, and gives credit to the original finder of tellurium, Müller.
| Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
202 YBN
[05/14/1798 AD]
| 2281) Edward Jenner (CE 1749-1823), English physician, publishes his results from his "vaccinations" in "An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae".
It takes Jenner two years to find another person with active cowpox. Jenner repeats his experiment of {injecting cowpox into a healthy person and then injecting them with small pox} with the same results and then publishes his findings. The Latin work for cow is vacca and for cowpox vaccinia. Jenner uses the word "vaccination" to describe his use of cowpox inoculation to create immunity to smallpox. With this Jenner founds the science of immunology. Vaccination is accepted quickly, (no doubt even involuntary vaccination) showing how dreaded smallpox is. In 18 months 12,000 people are (voluntarily?) vaccinated in England, and the number of deaths from smallpox is reduced by two-thirds. By 1800 100,000 people are vaccinated (against smallpox) on earth. The cause of (smallpox and many other diseases) will be understood in half a century by Pasteur.
| Berkeley, England (presumably) |
202 YBN
[06/02/1798 AD]
| 1233)
| Egypt |
202 YBN
[07/14/1798 AD]
| 2360) Eli Whitney (CE 1765-1825) develops the idea of mass production and interchangeable parts.
On this day, the US Government gives Whitney a contract to produce 10,000 muskets using what Whitney promises is a new process to make the various parts of the weapons interchangeable.
Whitney invents a modified lathe that turns out irregularly shaped parts.
Whitney introduces the division of labor in his factories and this is the beginning of mass production.
| Hamden, Connecticut, USA |
202 YBN
[07/25/1798 AD]
| 1234)
| Egypt |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 1935) A catalog of star position measured by James Bradley (CE 1693-1762), is published posthumously and involves 60,000 observations.
| Oxford, England |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2117) The gravitational constant, and the mass, and density of the Earth is measured.
Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) indirectly measures Newton's gravitational constant by using a torsion balance created by John Michell and calculate the density of the Earth. Cavendish the mass of Earth to be 6.6e21 tons, the density being 5.48 times that of water. Using this constant Cavendish calculates the mass and density of the planet Earth.
| London, England |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2253) Philippe Pinel (PEneL) (CE 1745-1826), French physician, publishes "Nosographie philosophique" (1798, "Philosophical Classification of Diseases") in which Pinel classifies various (supposed mental diseases). Pinel describes hallucination, withdrawal, and a variety of other symptoms of (unusual human behavior).
Pinel is the first to keep well documented case histories of so-called "mental" diseases ((sadly many of these people are lawful nonviolent people simply with minority or controversial opinions)).
At the time so-called "insanity" ((inaccurate opinions or unusual behavior)) is wrongly thought to be caused by people being possessed by demons. Pinel rejects this theory.
Pinel rejects (common) treatments such as bleeding, purging, and blistering in favor of therapy that includes close and friendly contact and discussion of personal difficulties with the patient prisoner.
This work on clinical medicine will be a standard textbook for 20 years.
| Paris, France |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2278) Pierre-Simon Laplace (loPloS) (CE 1749-1827) starts publishing his five-volume work "Traité de mécanique céleste" (1799-1825,"Celestial Mechanics"), which summarizes (Newtonian) gravitational theory.
In this book Laplace summarizes his results from his mathematical development and application of Newton's law of gravitation. Laplace gives a complete mechanical interpretation of the solar system by calculating the motions of the six known planets, their satellites and their perturbations.
Laplace calculates the masses of the satellites of Jupiter and the period of revolution of the rings of Saturn which corresponds to William Herschel's measurements. (in this work?)(what masses and how are masses estimated?)
In volume 2, Laplace contributes to understanding the (Earth ocean) tidal oscillations. Laplace first derived the dynamical equations for the motion of the oceans caused by the attraction of the Sun and Moon in a memoir of 1775. In this work Laplace elaborates his theory, which is the first that can truly be called dynamical. Laplace analyzes the tidal oscillation into its main harmonic constituents, the long-term inequalities, the daily inequality, and the main twice-daily oscillation. Laplace is the first to take into account the attraction of the ocean, the effect of the earth's rotation, and the depth of the ocean. Laplace demonstrates that the stability of the tidal oscillations depends on the condition that the density of the ocean be less than the average density of the earth. I think we should be skeptical about these claims, but they may very well be shown clearly to be true.
One truth that I have never heard acknowledged is that it is impossible to exactly predict the future positions of any planet or moon because there are too many pieces of matter, and therefore too many variables. This is true whether Newtonian gravity, the theory of relativity, or quantum mechanics is used.
Surprisingly, Newton had concluded that divine intervention is periodically required to preserve the (star) system in equilibrium, (but Laplace never supports this idea) using a mathematical basis only (to explain motions of masses of the star system).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2279) Pierre-Simon Laplace (loPloS) (CE 1749-1827) publishes "Théorie analytique des probabilités" (1812, "Analytic Theory of Probability") on the theory of probability (which) gives probability its modern form.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2303) Benjamin Thompson, (Count Rumford) (CE 1753-1814) American-British physicist, makes an early measurement of how much heat is produced by a given quantity of mechanical energy.
This theory will eventually overturn the theory that heat is a fluid (caloric) with the theory that heat is a form of motion.
I think heat may be possibly simply number of photons per second per volume of space. Although the temperature of a volume of photons compressed together to completely occupy the volume of space does not have enough empty space to allow a measuring device to record a temperature. Possibly the number of moving photons is a volume of space is heat.
While boring cannon in Munich in 1798, Thompson notices that the blocks of metal grow very hot as the boring tool gouges them out, so hot that the blocks of metal have to be cooled constantly with water. The current explanation is that caloric is being loosened from the metal as the metal is broken into shavings. Thompson speculates that more heat was released than could possibly have been contained in the metal, feeling that enough caloric must have been removed from the brass to have melted the metal if poured back in.
Thompson uses a blunt borer to maximize the heat produced and is able to boil large quantities of water with the resultant heat. Thompson notes the seemingly endless supply of heat that can be produced in this way.(In theory such a friction device can be used as a mechanical heat producing stove although unlike heating metal directly with electricity the metal would have to be periodically replaced and would make noise). According to the caloric theory, the boring tool produces heat by squeezing the caloric fluid out of the bodies rubbed together, but Thompson thinks that heat that can be produced without limitation can not be a material substance such as caloric fluid.
The amount of photons in matter is much larger than many people think, as nuclear fission and even simple combustion is proof of. There may be 1000 photons per proton. Moving photons may be the equivalent of "caloric". The photons are not the heat itself, but their absorption is recorded as heat. Thomp son concludes that the mechanical motion of the borer is being converted to heat and that heat is therefore a form of motion.
I think heat of the cannon metal being bored is from the photons released from friction which scraps free layers of atoms freeing many photons in the process. Heat is a collective phenomenon, for example just looking at a single photon, there is no temperature measured. A measurement of temperature (and therefore of heat) requires a volume of space, for example there may be a small volume of space, in theory where the temperature is low, but when looking at a larger volume the temperature is much higher.
Thompson tries to calculate how much heat is produced by a given quantity of mechanical (movement).
The measurement of mechanical movement clearly depends on the mass and kind of material moved, and the amount of heat that results also depends on the materials used. For example Thompson finds that using the same materials, a duller boring tool produces more heat than a sharpened boring tool. So clearly the quantity of heat depends on the surface volume of the matter colliding.
According to Asimov, Thompson's estimate (of the ratio of mechanical energy to heat) is too high and Joule will measure (the value more accurately).
Thompson produces numerous experiments to disprove the caloric theory but the theory of heat as a mode of motion will not be the most popular explanation until the 1800s ((after James Clerk Maxwell explains heat as the average velocity of molecules)).
I have doubts about the theory of heat as motion, because heat is difficult to accurately measure, photons are lost to surrounding space and atoms. In addition, temperature depends entirely on the size of the temperature measuring device, and the volume of space in which temperature is measured. Clearly more photons produces more heat, less photons produce less heat.
Thompson brings James Watt's steam engine into common use in Europe. Thompson also introduces the potato as a staple food in to Europe.
Thompson weighs a quantity of water both as liquid and as ice and detects no change in weight with the most sensitive balance. Since water loses heat when it freezes and gains heat when it melts, it follows that caloric if it exists must be weightless.
Clearly the photons which as mass are clearly lost (seen and felt) when a substance cools, and gained (absorbed) when a substance is heated have a mass that is too small to measure on the scale of most and perhaps all current weight measuring devices.
Thompson invents a double-boiler, a drip coffeepot, and a kitchen range, all of which he does not patent.
Thompson publishes his results in "An Experimental Enquiry Concerning the Source of the Heat which is Excited by Friction" (1798).
In 1799, with Joseph Banks, Thompson helps establish the Royal Institution of Great Britain and gets (Thomas) Young and Humphry Davy to lecture there. Thompson endows the Rumford professorship in applied science at Harvard College, the Rumford medals of the Royal Society (London) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, in Boston.
| Bavaria, Germany (presumably) |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2337) Johan Gadolin (GoDOlEN) (CE 1760-1852) publishes the first chemistry textbook in the Swedish language to teach the new chemistry of Lavoisier.
| (was Åbo is now)Turku, Finland |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2345) Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (VoKloN) (CE 1763-1829), French chemist, identifies beryllium. Vauquelin identifies the existence of the element beryllium in the gems beryl and emerald, although Vauquelin does not isolate beryllium, only isolating the Beryllium oxide ("beryllia"). Wöhler will isolate the metal beryllium.
Vauquelin identifies beryllium as an oxide, and beryllium the metal will be isolated in 1828 independently by Friedrich Wöhler and A. Bussy by reacting potassium and beryllium chloride.
| Paris, France |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2353) Lithography works because of the repulsion of oil and water. In the process of lithography an image is drawn with oil-based (or hydrophobic) medium such as a crayon, and the printing surface is fixed, moistened, and inked in preparation for printing. When ink is applied to the nonimage (blank) areas, which hold water, repel the lithographic ink (while the oil-based drawing retains the ink).
Senefelder wants to publish his own plays but cannot afford expensive engraving of printing plates, and so tries to engrave himself. In 1796, Senefelder writes down a laundry list with grease pencil on a piece of Bavarian limestone (therefore the name "lithography", from Greek lithos, "stone"). Senefelder will experiment for two years resulting in the process of flat-surface printing (modern lithography).
To overcome the difficulty of writing in reverse, Senefelder writes on paper and transfers this to the stone face down, therefore in reverse.
Senefelder keeps his process secret until 1818 when Senefelder documents his discovery in "Vollständiges Lehrbuch der Steindruckerey" (1818; A Complete Course of Lithography,Eng tr 1819).
Experimenting with lithography will help Joseph Nicéphore Niepce (nYePS) (CE 1765-1833) to produce the first photograph in 1822.
| Munich, {Bavaria, now} Germany |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2361) Thomas Robert Malthus (maLtuS or moLTHuS) (CE 1766-1834), English economist, publishes a pamphlet "Essay on Population" anonymously in which Malthus maintains that population will always be larger than the food supply and so (as a result of nature) human numbers are kept down by famine, disease, or war. These ideas in some part inspire Darwin and Wallace to developing a theory of evolution by natural selection.
The Malthusian theory of population becomes included into theoretical systems of economics.
Malthus argues that relief measures for the poor should be strictly limited since they tended to encourage the growth of excess population and therefore an overall negative effect on the happiness of poor people.
| Surrey, England (presumably) |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2421) Christian Leopold von Buch (BvK or BwK?) (CE 1774-1853), German geologist, rejects the erroneous idea of Werner that coal beds supply the heat of volcanoes, and shows that Italian volcanoes rest on granite. Buch thinks that both basalt and granite are formed by volcanoes and crystallize out of the molten state instead of Werner's theory of Neptunism where all rocks are formed by sedimentation (settling out at the bottom of the sea).
From studying the Alps, Leopold concludes that the Alps resulted from vast upheavals of the Earth's crust.
| Mount Vesuvius, Italy |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 2877) "Philosophical Magazine" is founded by Richard Taylor (CE 1781-1858) in 1798 and published continuously by Taylor & Francis ever since. This journal may be the Earth's oldest commercially published scientific journal. Philosophical Magazine is the journal of choice for such luminaries as Faraday, Joule, Maxwell, J.J. Thomson, Rayleigh and Rutherford. The development of science over more than 200 years can be comprehensively traced in its pages.
| London, England (presumably) |
202 YBN
[1798 AD]
| 3253) Marc-Auguste Pictet (PEKTA) (CE 1752–1825) describes the cooling effect of a high pressure mining pump on which frost forms(verify) in "Note sur un froid considérable produit par la sortie prompte de l'air atmosphérique, fortement comprimé" (Jounal de physique, 1798, 47: 186). The editor Jean-Claude Delatméetherie describes Pictet's observations and compares the cooling effect with the that produced by evaporating ether.
| Geneva, Switzerland (presumably) |
201 YBN
[06/??/1799 AD]
| 2392) (Baron von) Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander Humboldt (CE 1769-1859), German naturalist accompanied by Aimé Boupland, a French botanist, starts a 5 year scientific exploration of South America and Mexico.
This exploration will produce new material on volcanoes and on the structure of the Andes, with a vast array of data on climate and on plant geography.
On this journey Humboldt collects many botanical and geological specimens from America.
Humboldt measures the decline in magnetic intensity as a person moves from the poles towards equator. Humboldt measures the rate of temperature drop with altitude.
Humboldt correctly understands that altitude sickness is caused by lack of oxygen. Humboldt studies the oceanic current off the western coast of South America which is now called the Peru Current.
Humboldt introduces Europe to the fertilizing powers of Peruvian guano (bat feces). Humboldt is the first to see the value of a canal through Panama. Humboldt observes a rich meteor shower.
Humboldt publishes a book "Kosmos" in which he describes the earth as one piece.
| South America |
201 YBN
[08/??/1799 AD]
| 1237) D'Hautpoul, under the direction of Bouchard working in the ruins of Fort Rashid in Rashid (Rosetta), a coastal town 43 miles to east of Alexandria, digs up piece of black basalt 3'9" by 2'4.5" wide, one side covered with inscriptions. The stone has a damaged section with 14 lines of heiroglyph, 32 lines of "demotic" (a Greek word, demo means "people", and this means "of the country" or local), and 54 lines of Greek. The value of the Rosetta Stone, is recognized in seconds, and Bouchard has the stone taken to Cairo for more study. Plaster copies of the Rosetta Stone are sent to Paris. People in Germany, Italy, England, and France try to decipher the hieroglyphs.
| Rashid, Egypt |
201 YBN
[1799 AD]
| 2283) Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre (DuloMBR) (CE 1749-1822) with Pierre Méchain, measures (1792-1799) an arc of the meridian between Dunkirk and Barcelona to establish the official length of the meter (means "measure" in Greek) for the new metric system.
Delambre publishes a detailed account of the operations in "Base du système métrique" (3 vol., 1806, 1807, 1810; "Basis of the Metric System").
| France |
201 YBN
[1799 AD]
| 2315) Joseph Louis Proust (PrUST) (CE 1754-1826) French chemist, shows that elements combine in definite proportions. This will be known as the "law of definite proportions" (or "Proust's law").
| Segovia, Spain |
201 YBN
[1799 AD]
| 2451) Louis Jacque Thénard (TAnoR) (CE 1777-1857), French chemist, creates a blue pigment used in the coloring of porcelain.
Thénard makes this pigment to answer a request for a blue color that can withstand the heat of the furnaces used to prepare porcelain.
This pigment contains an aluminum-cobolt oxide and is called "Thénard blue".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
201 YBN
[1799 AD]
| 2483) (Sir) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), English chemist does an experiment which shows that when two pieces of ice (or other substance with a low melting point) are rubbed together they can be melted without any other addition of heat. This experiment provides evidence that helps to disprove the caloric theory of heat. (Photons are put into the system in the form of the object that cause the motion.)
Davy developed the method for the decomposition of silicates into silica by treatment with hot HCl. SiO44- + 4 H+ ------> SiO2 + 2 HOH (chronology)
Davy is the first to note the catalytic ability of platinum, observing that platinum induces the oxidation of alcohol vapor in air.
Davy designs a method so copper-clad ships can be protected by having zinc plates connected to them.
| Bristol, England |
200 YBN
[03/20/1800 AD]
| 2250) Alessandro Volta (VOLTo) (CE 1745-1827) builds an electric battery.
This battery provides a continuous source of electrical current.
| Pavia, Italy |
200 YBN
[03/27/1800 AD]
| 2179) Invisible light recognized. William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) recognizes that an invisible portion of the spectrum of light beyond the color red (later named infrared) heats up a thermometer more than any other color.
Herschel tests portions of the sun's spectrum by thermometer to find any difference in heat the different colors deliver. Herschel finds that the temperature rise is highest in no color at all, but in a place beyond the red end of the spectrum. Hershel concludes that sunlight contains invisible light beyond the red. This is now called infrared radiation.
| Slough, England |
200 YBN
[05/02/1800 AD]
| 2307) Nicholson has reversed Cavendish's find that hydrogen and oxygen gas can unite to form water, by showing that water can be separated into hydrogen and oxygen gas.
Electrolysis is the reverse of Volta's find which showed that a chemical reaction can produce electricity, by showing that electricity can cause a chemical reaction.
Nicholson and Carlisle discover that the amount of hydrogen and oxygen set free by the current is proportional to the amount of current used.
| London, England (presumably) |
200 YBN
[06/27/1800 AD]
| 3254) John Dalton (CE 1766-1844) is the first to measure accurately the change in temperature caused by compressing and expanding air. Dalton measures that compressing a quantity of air to half its volume increases temperature by 50° (Fahrenheit?) and that expanding a gas to twice its volume decreases the temperature by the same 50°.
Dalton publishes this in "Experiments and Observations on the Heat and Cold produced by the Mechanical Condensation and Rarefaction of Air" (1802).
| Manchester, England |
200 YBN
[06/??/1800 AD]
| 3597) William Cruickshank (c1740/50-1810/11), finds that electricity can discolor litmus in water solution. This principle will be the basis for the first electric dot printer of Dyer in 1827.
Cruickshank writes "Experiment 2. The glass tube was now filled with distilled water, to which a little tincture of litmus was added, when the communication was made by the wires as in the former experiment, a quantity of gas arose from both wires, but in the greatest quantity from that connected with the silver. In a few minutes a fine red line, extending some way upwards, was perceived at the extremity of the zinc wire; this increased, and in a short time the whole fluid below the point of this wire became red; the fluid, however above the silver wire, looked of a deeper blue than before, the slight tinge of purple being destroyed. Experiment 3. I next filled the tube with distilled water, tinged with the tincture of Brazil wood; it was no sooner placed in the circle of communication, than the fluid surrounding the silver wire, particularly towards its extremity, became purple, and this tinge increased so fast, that the whole fluid surrounding this wire, and occupying the upper part of the tube, soon assumed as deep a colour, as could be produced by ammonia."
The historian John Fahie writes: "By employing silver terminals, or electrodes, and passing the current through water tinged with litmus, he found that the wire connected with the zinc end of the pile imparted a red tinge to the fluid contiguous to it; and that, by using Water tinged with Brazil wood, the wire connected with the silver end of the pile produced a deeper shade of colour in the surrounding fluid; whence it appeared that an acid was formed in the former, and an alkali in the latter, case. He next tried the effects of the wires on solutions of acetate of lead, sulphate of copper, and nitrate of silver, with the result that, in each case, the metallic base was deposited at the negative, and the acid at the positive pole. In the latter case he observes, "the metal shot into fine needles, like crystals articulated, or jointed, to each other, as in the Arbor Dianae." Muriate of ammonia and nitrate of magnesia were next decomposed, the acid, as before, going to the positive, and the alkali to the negative, pole.".
Litmus is the oldest and most-used indicator of whether a substance is an acid or a base. The Columbia Encyclopedia states that litmus is an organic dye, naturally pink in color, that turns blue in alkali solutions and red in acids. Commonly, paper is treated with the coloring matter to form so-called litmus paper. Litmus is extracted, chiefly in the Netherlands, from certain lichens, which are mashed, treated with potassium carbonate and ammonia, and allowed to ferment. The resulting product is mixed with various colorless substances, such as chalk or gypsum, and is sold in dark blue lumps, masses, or tablets. The active component of litmus, i.e., the part sensitive to acids or bases, is called erythrolitmin.
A tincture is defined as a coloring or dyeing substance; a pigment, but can also be used in the sense of an alcohol solution of a nonvolatile medicine: such as a tincture of iodine. So it's not clear to me if "a tincture of litmus", is a quantity of litmus in powder form, or dissolved in alcohol. It seems most likely that "tincture of litmus" is a solution, perhaps with ethyl alcohol.
(The historian Fahie states that Cruickshank is the first to find that electricity can discolor litmus paper, however this is not explicitly stated in Crankshaft's September 1800 paper. The litmus being used in solutions only.)
William Cruickshank is not to be confused with the contemporary doctor William Cumberland Cruikshank (notice the different last name spellings).
| (Royal Military Academy at Woolwich) Woolwich, England |
200 YBN
[09/17/1800 AD]
| 2436)
| Jena, Germany (presumably) |
200 YBN
[09/??/1800 AD]
| 3598) William Cruickshank (c1740/50-1810/11), builds the first "flooded battery", which improves the voltaic pile by joining zinc and copper plates in a wooden box filled with electrolyte. The advantage of this method over Volta's disks is that the liquid does not dry out.
Cruickshank arranges square sheets of copper, soldered at their ends, together with sheets of zinc of equal size. These sheets are placed into a long rectangular wooden box that is sealed with cement. Grooves in the box hold the metal plates in position. The box is then filled with an electrolyte of salt water, or watered down acid.
| (Royal Military Academy at Woolwich) Woolwich, England |
200 YBN
[11/??/1800 AD]
| 2437) Ritter announces that a current passed through a solution of copper sulfate, metallic copper can be made to plate out (that is plate on an electrode). (In this way a metal object to be covered with a metal (electroplated) serves as an electrode in electrolysis in a solution containing the metal desired to plate with.) This is the beginning of electroplating. (A very cool process to see, and very cool experiment)
Ritter observes that the amount of metal deposited and the amount of oxygen produced during an electrolytic process depends on the distance between the electrodes, and that the closer the electrodes, the stronger the effects.[
| Jena, Germany (presumably) |
200 YBN
[1800 AD]
| 2386) Georges Cuvier (KYUVYAY) (CE 1769-1832) publishes "Leçons d'anatomie comparée" (5 vols, 1800-05,"Lessons on Comparative Anatomy"). In this book Cuvier wrongly believes that the functions and habits of an animal determine its anatomical form, in contrast to his colleague at the Museum of Natural History in Paris, Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who holds the reverse theory- that anatomical structure preceded and made necessary a particular mode of life.
| Paris, France |
200 YBN
[1800 AD]
| 2401) Marie François Xavier Bichat (BEso) (CE 1771-1802), French physician, publishes "Traité des membranes" (1800, "Treatise on Membrane"") in which he describes 21 types of "tissues" (a term Bichat introduces because the tissues are generally flat and delicately thin layers) that form the different organs of the body. Bichat is the first to view organs of the body as a complex of simpler functional units (tissues) for which Bichat gives due credit to Pinel who had moved in this direction. This is an important step in the cell theory of life, which will come with Schleiden and Schwann.
Without knowing that the cell is the functional unit of living things, Bichat is among the first to visualize the organs of the body as being formed through the differentiation of simple, functional units, or tissues.
Bichat is considered the founder of histology (the branch of biology concerned with the composition and structure of plant and animal tissues in relation to their specialized functions. (Histology sounds like something between dermatology and physiology)
Also in this year Bichat publishes "Recherches physiologiques sur la vie et la mort" (1800, "Physiological Researches on Life and Death") in which Bichat (wrongly) rejects the reductionist philosophy, according to which all biological phenomena are reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry.
Bichat publishes "Anatomie générale" (1801) in 1801.
| Paris, France |
200 YBN
[1800 AD]
| 2473) (Sir) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), English chemist reports on the effects of nitrous oxide (N2O) (also known as "laughing gas").
The Pneumatic Institution is investigating the idea that certain diseases might be cured by the inhalation of gases, and so Davy inhales many gases and reports that nitrous oxide causes giddy and intoxicating feeling, that inhibitions are lowered so that subjects laugh easily, cry, and easily amplify emotional suggestions. Nitrous oxide parties become popular, and Robert Southey one of Davy's poet friends writes about his experiences of being "turned on". Davy inhales nitrous oxide in order to test a claim that the gas is the "principle of contagion", in other words causes diseases.
Nearly 50 years pass before nitrous oxide is used as an anesthetic. Nitrous oxide was discovered by the English chemist Joseph Priestley in 1772. Davy names the gas nitrous oxide and shows the gases physiological effect.
Nitrous oxide is the first chemical anesthetic (people used opium in ancient Alexandria I think).(Can you imagine surgery before anesthetic? Even now people could be using neuron activation technology to stop a person's pain but brutally choose not to.) (what about ether? - see id3171)
| Bristol, England |
200 YBN
[1800 AD]
| 3233) Edward Charles Howard (CE 1774-1816), English chemist, discovers the highly explosive mercury fulminates.
Edward Charles Howard (CE 1774-1816), English chemist, discovers the highly explosive mercury fulminates. Fulminates are a group of unstable, explosive compounds derived from fulminic acid, especially the mercury salt of fulminic acid, which is a powerful detonating agent.
Apparently the word "fulminates" is also used to describe any substance that is explosive, because Howard writes "The mercurial preparations which fulminate, when mixed with sulphur, and gradually exposed to a gentle heat, are well known to chemists: they were discovered, and have been fully described by Mr. Bayen.
MM. Brugnatelli and Van Mons have likewise produced fulminations by concussion, as well with nitrate of mercury and phosphorus, as with phosphorus and most other nitrates. Cinnabar likewise is amongst the substances which, according to MM. Fourcroy and Vauquelin, detonate by concussion with oxymuriate of potash. Mr. Ameilon had, according to Mr. Berthollet, observed, that the precipitate obtained from nitrate of mercury by oxalic acid, fuses with a hissing noise. But mercury, and most if not all its oxides, may, by treatment with nitric acid and alcohol, be converted into a whitish crystallized powder, possessing all the inflammable properties of gunpowder, as well as many peculiar to itself.". Howard then goes on to describe how he produced fulminate of mercury and how he compares fulminate of mercury's explosive power to gunpowder.
Fulminates are chemical compounds which include the fulminate ion. The fulminate ion is a pseudohalic ion, acting like a halogen with its charge and reactivity. Due to the instability of the ion, they are friction-sensitive explosives. The best known is mercury fulminate which has been used as a primary explosive in detonators. Fulminates can be formed from metals, like silver and mercury, dissolved in nitric acid and reacted with alcohol. The chemical formula for the fulminate ion is O−N+C−. It is largely the presence of the weak single nitrogen-oxygen bond which leads to its instability. Nitrogen very easily forms a stable triple bond to another nitrogen atom, forming gaseous nitrogen.
Their use in firearms in a fulminating powder was first demonstrated by a Scottish minister, A. J. Forsyth, who was granted a patent in 1807. Joshua Shaw then made the transition to their use in metallic encapsulations, to form a percussion cap, but did not patent his invention until 1822.
In the 1820s, the organic chemist Justus Liebig discovered silver fulminate (Ag-CNO) and Friedrich Wöhler discovered silver cyanate (Ag-NCO). The fact that these substances have the same chemical composition led to an acrid dispute, which was not resolved until Jöns Jakob Berzelius came up with the concept of isomers.
Comparable fulminating compounds are not obtainable, however, from a whole series of other metals (including platinum, gold, copper, tin etc.). Silver is the only exception, and gives a fulminate even more dangerously explosive than its mercury counterpart.
(Perhaps the photons freed from the heat of rubbing the powder initiates the chain combustion or perhaps static electricity particles.)
(Many of these explosive materials may be low cost alternatives to fossil fuels to power engines and electricity generators.)
| London, England (presumably) |
200 YBN
[1800 AD]
| 4121) Francis Maitland Balfour (CE 1851-1882), Scottish biologist proposed the term "Chordata" for all animals possessing a notochord at some stage in their development, the Vertebrata (backboned animals) being a subphylum of the Chordata.
Balfour does a comparison of the embryonic growth of different organisms to reach this conclusion.
Balfour publishes this in "A Treatise on Comparative Embryology" (1880–81).
| (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
200 YBN
[1800 AD]
| 4541)
| unknown |
200 YBN
[1800 AD]
| 4542)
| unknown |
199 YBN
[01/01/1801 AD]
| 2261) Giuseppe Piazzi (PYoTSE) (CE 1746-1826), Italian astronomer, finds the first known minor planet (asteroid) Ceres.
Piazzi loses the planetoid but Karl Gauss calculates the orbit from only three positions, and finds the orbit of Ceres to be between Mars and Jupiter. The object is very dim and so has to be very small. Hershel estimates a diameter of 200 miles {units}, and the modern estimate is 485 miles. This is the first of thousands of planetoids (or asteroids) that will be found.
Piazzi proposes that these small orbiting objects should be called "planetoids" but Herschel's alternative suggestion of "asteroid" will prevail for years. (My own preference is for "planetoid" as more accurate.)
| Palermo, Sicily |
199 YBN
[06/??/1801 AD]
| 2368) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) shows that frictional and galvanic electricity are identical.
In a paper before the Royal Society, Wollaston shows that the pile of Volta is electrical and has less tension (later called volts), but more quantity (later called current) than that of frictional electricity.
| London, England |
199 YBN
[11/12/1801 AD]
| 2405) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) determines frequencies and wavelengths (particle intervals) of light, uses glass diffraction gratings, and puts forward a theory of light interference.
Young puts forward the theory of light wave interference (to explain lines of diffraction). This theory states that two (or more) light waves interfere with each other, where light waves can add together and subtract or cancel each other out, similar to the way two sound waves can add to or cancel each other out to produce silence.
Young supports the theory of light as a wave in an aether medium (aether being like air for sound), and refers to this theory as the "undulatory" theory.
Young proposes that instead of the retina containing an infinite number of particles each capable of vibrating in unison with every possible color, there is only a need for one sensor for each principle color red, yellow and blue.
| London, England |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2127) Jérôme Lalande (loloND) (full name: Joseph Jérôme Le Français de Lalande) (CE 1732-1807), French astronomer publishes "Histoire céleste française" (1801; "French Celestial History"), a catalog of 47,000 stars.
One of the stars Lalande 21185 identifies will be found to be the fourth closest star to the sun, and Peter Van de Kamp (and George Gatewood) will observe the effect of a planet around this star (although many astronomers apparently reject all of the planets identified by Van de Kamp, Gatewood's claim is not rejected to my knowledge). There is something unusual in the silence of astronomers, in particular as included elites, about looking for planets around the closest stars, and it is a mysterious silence. Why are they not looking for planets around the most obvious choice of the closest stars? Is this yet another of the many "science secrets of the 21st century"?
Lalande records the position of Neptune without realizing it is a planet and not a star. (In 50 years Leverrier will recognize that Neptune is a planet). Lalande writes all astronomical articles for Diderot's Encyclopedia.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2169) Charles Augustin Coulomb (KUlOM) (CE 1736-1806), publishes a paper in which he presents the results of allowing a cylinder to oscillate in a liquid, which provides a method to find relative liquid viscosities. Viscosity is the resistance of a fluid, liquid or gas, to a change in shape. Viscosity can be thought of as internal friction between the molecules; this friction opposes velocity differences within a fluid.
| Paris?, France (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2209) René Just Haüy (oYUE) (CE 1743-1822), publishes "Traité de mineralogie" (Treatise on Mineralogy, 1801) in five volumes.
Haüy reports that his interest in crystallography resulted from the accidental breaking of a piece of calcite. In examining the fragments Haüy finds that they cleaved along straight planes that met at constant angles. Haüy breaks more pieces of calcite and finds that, regardless of the original shape, the broken fragments are consistently rhombohedral. Haüy concludes that all the molecules of calcite have the same form and it is only how they are joined together that produces different (larger) structures. Haüy creates a theory of crystal structure and applies this theory to the classification of minerals.
Haüy thinks that there are six different primitive forms from which all crystals can be derived by being connected in different ways.
Eilhard Mitscherlich will reject Haüy's theory in 1819 when Mitscherlich discovers isomorphism, two substances of different composition that have the same crystalline form. Haüy will reject Mitscherlich's arguments.
Haüy is regarded as the founder of the science of crystallography through his discovery of the geometrical law of crystallization.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2238) Jean Baptiste Pierre Antoine de Monet, chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) publishes "Systéme des animaux sans vertébres, ou table général des classes" (1801, "System of Invertebrate Animals, or General Table of Classes"),
Linnaeus left all the invertebrates into a group called "worms". Lamarck separates the eight-legged arachnids (spiders, ticks, mites and scorpions) from the six-legged insects. Lamarck establishes the "Crustaceans" (crabs, lobsters, etc), and echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, etc). Lamarck suggests the invertebrate classes Infusoria, Annelida, Crustacea, Arachnida, and Tunicata. Lamarck is the first to use the word invertebrata ("invertebrate"). (in this work?)
Lamarck has at his disposal the collections of the Museum and his own collection made over nearly 30 years of work. Much of the work established in this book is still accepted.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2256) Philippe Pinel (PEneL) (CE 1745-1826), publishes "Traité médico-philosophique sur l'aliénation mentale ou la manie" (1801, "Medico-Philosophical Treatise on Mental Alienation or Mania").
Pinel publishes his views on "mental alienation" which refers to a brain alienated from its proper function. Pinel advocates talking to patient prisoners instead of (assaulting or restraining them from the most basic movement).(Asimov has this for a book from 1791)
| Paris, France |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2268) Johann Elert Bode (BoDu) (CE 1747-1826), German astronomer, publishes "Uranographia" (1801), a collection of star maps and a catalog of 17,240 stars and nebulae, 12,000 more than had appeared in earlier charts.
| Berlin, Germany |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2349) Andrès Manuel Del Rio (DeLrEO) (CE 1764-1849), Spanish-Mexican mineralogist, identifies a new metal in a lead ore and names if erythronium, after the red color of one of its chemical compounds (Greek erythros, "red").
In 1802 Del Rio gives samples containing the new element to Humboldt, who sends them to Hippolyte Victor Collet-Descotils in París for his analysis. Collet-Descotils's analysis mistakenly finds that the samples only contain chromium.
In 1830 a Swedish chemist, Nils Gabriel Sefström, will rediscover the element and name it "vanadium", after Vanadis, the Scandinavian goddess of beauty, because of the beautiful colors of Vanadium's compounds in solution.
In 1831 Friedrich Wöhler will show that vanadium is identical to erythronium, but vanadium is still the name of the element.
The metal vanadium will not be isolated until 1867 when the English chemist Henry Enfield Roscoe isolates vanadium by using hydrogen reduction of vanadium dichloride.
In Mexico City, Del Rios publishes "Elementos de orictognosia" (1795, "Principles of the Science of Mining"), which (is probably) the first mineralogical textbook published in the Americas.
| Mexico City, Mexico (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2350) Charles Hatchett (CE 1765-1847) English chemist, Charles Hatchett (CE 1765-1847) identifies the new element Niobium. Since Hatchett's mineral sample comes from New England, Hatchett names the new element "columbium" (Cb) and the mineral it came from "columbite" (Ferrocolumbite), after Columbia, another name for America. In 1844 Heinrich Rose, a German chemist, announced his discovery of an element that he named niobium However Columbium will eventually be renamed "Niobium" after Niobe, the mythical daughter of Tantalus (the element tantalum is named after Tantalus. Niobium (Columbium) always occurs with tantalum because of the similarity in their atomic size.
| |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2357) Robert Fulton (CE 1765-1815), American inventor, builds his best submarine which he calls the "Nautilus", a name that will inspire Jules Verne 70 years later.
| |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2374) John Dalton (CE 1766-1844), creates Dalton's law of partial pressures. This states that each component of a mixture of gases exerts the same pressure that it would if it alone occupied the whole volume of the mixture, at the same temperature.
| Manchester, England |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2399) Richard Trevithick (TreVitiK) (CE 1771-1833) builds a steam engine powered carriage.
Trevithick drives the carriage up a hill in Camborne, Cornwall, on December 24, 1801. Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot probably built the first steam engine wheeled vehicle in 1769.
| Cornwall, England (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2404) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) English physicist and physician, describes the reason for astigmatism: the fuzziness of vision is caused from the irregularities of the curvature of the cornea (the transparent, dome-shaped tissue located in front of the iris and pupil).
| London, England |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2438) Ritter identifies ultraviolet light by (using a prism to separate Sun? light) and observing that an invisible part of the spectrum of light causes the silver chloride chemical reaction faster than any other part of the spectrum.
Ritter knows that silver chloride breaks down in the presence of light, releasing metallic silver which turns the white silver chloride black. This reaction is the basis of pre-digital photography. (Is this the principle still used even in modern film? including color film?) Ritter repeats Scheele's finding that light in the blue end of the spectrum is more efficient at causing this reaction than light with a red frequency, and goes on to show that light beyond the blue end of the visible spectrum is even more efficient in producing this reaction than visible blue light, and so concludes, like Hershel the year before, that light exists that is invisible to the eye. This part of the spectrum immediately next to violet light is called "ultraviolet" light (or radiation).
Also in 1801 Ritter observes thermoelectric currents and anticipates the discovery of thermoelectricity by Thomas Johann Seebeck.
| Jena, Germany (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2444) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) publishes the first systematic textbook on algebraic number theory, "Disquisitiones Arithmeticae".
Gauss proves the fundamental theorem of arithmetic: that every natural number can be represented as the product of primes in one and only one way. (more specific info, I don't see the importance of this.) (in this work?)
| Göttingen, Germany |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2445) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) uses his "least squares" approximation method to find the best equation for a curve fitting a group of observations, in order to calculate the orbit of Ceres from Piazzi's few ((3)) observations.
| Göttingen, Germany |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 2508) Robert Hare (CE 1781-1858) builds the first oxygen-hydrogen torch.
Robert Hare (CE 1781-1858), US chemist, builds the first oxygen-hydrogen torch. Hare builds the first oxygen-hydrogen torch by making a beer keg a two compartment container for hydrogen and oxygen gas. Hare works a sheet of tin into two tubes (which are used as the torch handle). This blowpipe is the ancestor of all welding torches.
This torch provides the highest degree of heat known at the time. With this blowpipe, Hare is the first able to melt sizable quantities of platinum (melting point 1,772°C, iron has a melting point of 1,535°C). Later it will be found that the blowpipe flame produces a brilliant white light when lime (calcium oxide) is burned with it. This is used to illuminate theater stages and is the origin of the phrase "limelight" for publicity. (Is a voltaic pile used to produce the gases? What voltage is needed to keep the flame continuous? What is the rate of water consumed? How is hydrogen gas collected? Is the hydrogen compressed?)
Hare describes his invention in a small pamphlet, "Memoir on the Supply and Application of the Blow-Pipe" (Philadelphia: Chemical Society, 1802), which brings Hare international renown when republished in the prestigious English Philosophical Magazine and the French "Annales de Chimie". The elder Silliman, who was engaged with him in a series of experiments with this instrument in 1802-3, subsequently name the torch the "compound blow-pipe".
This is an instrument in which oxygen and hydrogen, taken from separate reservoirs, in the proportions of two volumes of hydrogen to one of oxygen, are burned in a jet, under pressure. The torch produces enough heat to consume diamond, fuse platinum, and dissipate in vapor, or in gaseous forms, most known substances. Hare is able to melt sizeable quantities of platinum with this blowpipe. Hare's invention included a calorimeter (for measuring heat) (1819), a "deflagrator" (1821) a voltaic battery having large plates, used for producing rapid and powerful combustion, and an improved electric furnace for producing artificial graphite and other substances.
Hare is the author of a process for de-narcotizing laudanum (z tincture, or alcoholic solution from opium), and also of a method for detecting minute quantities of opium in solution.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 3382) Philip Lebon (CE 1767-1804), designs a gas engine very similar to Lenoir's engine.
The earliest gas engine to be designed is by John Barber in 1791. Lenoir's engine (patented 59 years later) is practically a reproduction of Lebon's patent.
PHILIP LEBON, an ingenious French artisan, devises and patents a gas engine which is practically identical, in principle and construction, with one of the most successful of pioneer gas engines- the Lenoir. Lebon had already patented a gas retort or furnace for the production of illuminating gas. Lebon distils the carburetted hydrogen and other gases from coal, and stores them in a reservoir. By means of two pumps he compresses a measured charge of this gas with a charge of atmospheric air, separately into a recipient; here the constituents get mixed, and the mixture is introduced into the cylinder alternately on each side of the piston, and fired by the electric spark. The combustion products expand, driving the piston backwards and forwards, doing work on both sides, as in a double-acting steam engine cylinder. Both the pumps and the electric machine are driven by the engine. This gas engine compares well with modern engines. This engine is entirely self-regulating, and- mechanically as well as theoretically- a success. It is found to work well, but at that time coal gas has not been introduced as an industrial product for lighting purposes, and the expense of preparing it specially for the engine renders the scheme a practical failure; besides, the only source of the electric spark known at that time is static electricity, which is uncertain and dependent on atmospheric conditions.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 3388) Oliver Evans (CE 1755-1819) builds the first steam engine in the USA.
| Philadelphia, PA, USA |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 4543)
| unknown |
199 YBN
[1801 AD]
| 5973) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his famous Piano Sonata op.27 no.2, "Moonlight" in C#.
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
198 YBN
[03/??/1802 AD]
| 2332) Olbers suggests that the asteroid belt was made by a planet in this orbit that had broken apart. This is an interesting debate: Is the matter in the planetoid belt in between Mars and Jupiter a planet that never formed, a planet that broke apart, or is there some reason no planet but only smaller bodies formed there? My own view is that this volume of space contains a planet that can not form because of the influence of the gravity of the other planets or a natural result of the quantity of matter distributed around a star. It may be that this torus-shape of smaller bodies around the Sun exists as the result of the density of matter there and the size of the orbit around the Sun, in other words, not enough matter ended up in this orbit to form a planet. Perhaps the gravity around a central mass in this orbit never became large enough to compete with the pull from the masses of Jupiter and Mars. The must be many collisions in this belt of matter, which could potentially send dangerous large masses at the Earth Moon system.
| Bremen, Germany |
198 YBN
[07/01/1802 AD]
| 3296) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) publishes his second paper on light "An Account of Some Cases of the Production of Colours, not Hitherto Described".
In this paper Young does not use the word "wavelength" but states instead "The law is, that 'wherever two portions of the same light arrive at the eye by different routes, either exactly or very nearly in the same direction, the light becomes most intense when the difference of the routes is any multiple of a certain length, and least intense in the intermediate state of the interfering portions; and this length is different for light of different colours."'.
| London, England |
198 YBN
[08/03/1802 AD]
| 2845) In my opinion, Romagnosi's account is not clear enough to prove that he observed the effect of a current on a magnetic needle. If only Romagnosi had not mentioned his use of a glass insulator under the compass, I could understand how connecting the circuit with the ground through the compass pivot metal device could deflect the needle, but that is not explicitly stated. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that "The magnetic effect of a current had been observed earlier (1802) by an Italian jurist, Gian Domenico Romagnosi, but the announcement was published in an obscure newspaper." Romagnosi did claim priority of finding a connection between electricity and magnetism in a letter in 1827. Romagnosi does not give a clear description of the closed circuit allowing for the flow of the current, does not mention the transverse nature of the force generated by the current, and that touching the magnetic needle to deflect it is not necessary.
Romagnosi publishes two papers in 1802. The first on August 3 in the Gazetta di Trento, and a second on August 13 in the Gazzetta di Rovereto. Both are similar, however the second report has more detail.
In a tract of 16 pages, published in 1859, Zantedeschi defends the claims of Romagnosi to the discovery in 1802 of the magnetic effect of electric current.
| Trento, Italy |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2186) William Herschel (CE 1738-1822) publishes a catalog with 500 more "nebulae" (previously unknown) (galaxies) and star clusters for a total of 2,500 "deep space" objects.
This catalog is the last of three catalogs that Hershel (with help from his sister Caroline) produces.
This catalog contains 500 new objects. The final 8 objects found in 1802 will remain unpublished until 1847, when John Herschel publishes them in an appendix to his catalog of observations made in South Africa (John Herschel, 1847).
Caroline and William need 14 years for this final catalog, leaving significant areas of the sky "unswept", in particular around the North Celestial Pole.
| Slough, England |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2239) Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) is the first to use the term "biology".
Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) publishes Recherches sur l'organisation des corps vivants (1802; "Research on the Organization of Living Bodies") (in which Lamarck is the first to use the word "biology"?).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2245) Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) publishes "Mémoires sur les fossiles des environs de Paris" (1802-1806, "Memoirs on the Fossils of the Paris Area") which lays the foundation of invertebrate paleontology.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2365) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) identifies dark spectral lines in the spectrum of light from the Sun.
| London, England |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2377) Anders Gustaf Ekeberg (IKuBRG) (CE 1767-1813), Swedish chemist identifies a new metal from Ytterby in Finland, he names tantalum (because it had been a tantalizing task to find it, according to a different story he names the metal after Tantalus in the Greek myths, who could not drink though he stood up to his chin in water, because the new metal is resistant to the action of acid and did not dissolve in it even when surrounded by it. )
There are conflicting stories about why Ekeberg chose the name Tantalum. The name supposedly comes from its failure to dissolve in acid, looking like Tantalus in the waters of (Hades) in the Greek myths, who could not drink though he stood up to his chin in water or named after Tantalus because of the tantalizing problem of dissolving the oxide in acids.
| Uppsala, Sweden |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2439) Ritter develops the dry cell battery from his efforts with electrolytic cells. (describe dry cell design)(needs more sources: apparently this cell is not totally dry and does require moisture)
| Gotha, Germany |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2464) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850), publishes that different gases all expand by equal amounts with rise in temperature. Charles found this in 1787 is but did not publish.
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850), French chemist, shows that different gases all expanded by equal amounts with rise in temperature provided the pressure remains constant(stated pressure must remain constant?).
To ensure more accurate experimental results, Gay-Lussac uses dry gases and pure mercury. Gay-Lussac develops a method of drying the gases.(more detail)(Is this to remove water molecules from gases? Other molecules?) He showed that all gases expand by the same fraction of their volume for a given temperature increase over the temperature range 0-100 °C (32-212 °F). (more detail.) Gay-Lussac measures the coefficient of expansion of gases between 0°C and 100°C, and this forms the basis for the idea of the absolute zero of temperature. This fins is viewed as complimentary to Boyle's law ({that pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related}). Gay-Lussac's and Boyle's laws will be shown to apply exactly only to a hypothetical "ideal gas" while real gases obey the law approximately.
Charles discovered this in 1787 but did not publish it. This law is known as "Charles' Law" and "Gay-Lussac's law" ((perhaps it should be called "gas-temperature law")). Avogadro will use this to formulate his long neglected hypothesis that equal volumes of different gases at equal temperatures contain equal numbers of particles. (It seems counterintuitive to think that two gases can have the same volume and different mass, but yet it must be true.)
| Arcueil, France (presumably) |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2484) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), and Thomas Wedgwood publish a paper entitled "An Account of a Method of Copying Paintings on Glass, and Making Profiles, by the Agency of Light upon Nitrates of Silver". The pictures made by this process are very temporary. As soon as the negatives are removed the pictures turn black. (Perhaps this inspires others to try more methods of preserving the image, and surprisingly that a chemist with the skill of Davy did not recognize the idea of trying to preserve the image chemically.)
| London, England |
198 YBN
[1802 AD]
| 2819) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) accepts Herschel's work and writes: "At present, it seems highly probable that light differs from heat only in the frequency of its undulations or vibrations ; those undulations which are within certain limits, with respect to frequency, being capable of affecting the optic nerve, and constituting light ; and those which are slower, and probably stronger, constituting heat only" . Later Young describes Herschel's discovery of these less refrangible invisible heat rays as one of the greatest since the time of Newton.
| London, England |
197 YBN
[02/27/1803 AD]
| 3599) Giovanni Aldini (CE 1762-1834) demonstrates the power of the earth to complete an electric circuit, by sending a current from a battery of eighty silver and zinc plates through a wire that is made to return through 200 feet of water.
(What is the longest distance the earth has been used to complete a circuit?) (Is this the first purposeful use of the Earth to complete a circuit?)
| Calais, France |
197 YBN
[10/21/1803 AD]
| 2375) John Dalton (CE 1766-1844) shows that atoms of different elements vary in size and mass, and makes the first table of elements by atomic mass, assigning to Hydrogen a value of 1.
Dalton creates the "Law of Multiple Proportions" which states that when two elements form more than one compound, the masses of one element that combine with a fixed mass of the other are in a ratio of whole numbers.
| Manchester, England |
197 YBN
[11/24/1803 AD]
| 2406) Young shows that light beyond the violet is the same as visible light in experiencing interference.
Young publishes this work in "Experiments and Calculations Relative to Physical Optics". Young writes: "In making some experiments on the fringes of colours accompanying shadows, I have found so simple and so demonstrative a proof of the general law of the interference of two portions of light, which I have already endeavoured to establish, that I think it right to lay before the Royal Society, a short statement of the facts which appear to me so decisive. The proposition on which I mean to insist at present, is simply this, that fringes of colours are produced by the interference of two portions of light; and I think it will not be denied by the most prejudiced, that the assertion is proved by the experiments I am about to relate, which may be repeated with great ease, whenever the sun shines, and without any other apparatus than is at hand to every one. Exper. 1. I made a small hole in a window-shutter, and covered it with a piece of thick paper, which I perforated with a fine needle. For greater convenience of observation, I placed a small looking glass without the window-shutter, in such a position as to reflect the sun's light, in a direciton nearly horizontal, upon the opposite wall, and to cause the cone of diverging light to pass over a table, on which were several little screens of card-paper. I brought into the sunbeam a slip of card, about one-thirtieth of an inch in breadth, and observed its shadow, either on the wall, or on other cards held at different distances. Besides the fringes of colours on each side of the shadow, the shadow itself was divided by similar parallel fringes, of smaller dimensions, differing in number, according to the distance at which the shadow was bserved, but leaving the middle of the shadow always white. Now these fringes were the joint effects of the portions of light passing on each side of the slip of card, and inflected, or rather diffracted, into the shadow. For, a little screen being placed a few inches from the card, so as to receive either edge of the shadow on its margin, all the fringes which had before been observed in the shadow on the wall immediately disappeared, although the light inflected on the other side was allowed to retain its course, and although this light must have undergone any modification that the proximity of the other edge of the slip of card might have been capable of occasioning. When the interposed screen was more remote from the narrow card, it was necessary to plunge it more deeply into the shadow, in order to extinguish the parallel lines; for here the light, diffracted form the edge of the object, had entered further into the shadow, in its way towards the fringes. Nor was it for want of a sufficient intensity of light, that one of the two portions was incapable of producing the fringes alone; for, when they were both uninterrupted, the lines appeared, even if the intensity was reduced to one-tenth or one-twentieth. Exper. 2. The crested fringes describes by the ingenious and accurate GRIMALDI, afford an elegant variation of the preceding experiment, and an interesting example of a calculation grounded on it. When a shadow is formed by an object which has a rectangular termination, besides the usual external fringes, there are two or three alternations of colours, beginning from the line which bisects the angle, disposed on each side of it, in curves, which are convex towards the bisecting line, and which converse in some degree towards it, as they become more remote from the angular point. These fringes are also the joint effect of the light which is inflected directly towards the shadow, from each of the two outlines of the object. For, if a screen be placed within a few inches of the object, so as to receive only one of the edges of the shadow, the whole of the fringes disappear. If, on the contrary, the rectangular point of the screen be opposed to the point of the shadow, so as barely to receive the angle of the shadow on its extremity, the fringes will remain undisturbed. II. COMPARISON OF MEASURES, DEDUCED FROM VARIOUS EXPERIMENTS. if we now proceed to examine the dimensions of the fringes, under different circumstances, we may calculate the differences of the lengths of the paths described by the portions of light, which have thus been proved to be concerned in producing those fringes; and we shall find, that where the lengths are equal, the light always remains white; but that, where either the brightest light, or the light of any given colour, disappears and reappears, a first, a second, or a third time, the differences of the lengths of the paths of the two portions are in arithmetical progression, as nearly as we can expect experiments of this kind to agree with each other. I shall compare, in this point of view, the measures deduced from several experiments of NEWTON, and from some of my own. In the eighth and ninth observations of the third book of NEWTON'S Optics, some experiments are related, which, together with the third observation, will furnish us with the data necessary for the calculatoin. Two knives were placed, with their edges meeting at a very acute angle, in a beam of the sun's light, admitted through a small aperture; and the point of concourse of the two first dark lines bordering the shadows of the respective knives, was observed at various distances. ... ...
IV. ARGUMENTATIVE INFERENCE RESPECTING THE NATURE OF LIGHT. The experiment of GRIMALDI, on the crested fringes within the shadow, together with several others of his observations, equally important, has been left unnoticed by NEWTON. Those who are attached to the NEWTONIAN theory of light, or to the hypotheses of modern opticians, founded on views still less enlarged, would do well to endeavour to imagine any thing like an explanation of these experiments, derived from their own doctrines; and, if they fail in the attempt, to refrain at least from idle declamation against a system which is founded on the accuracy of its application to all these facts, and to a thousand others of a similar nature. From the experiments and calculations which have been premised, we may be allowed to infer, that homogeneous light, at certain equal distances in the direction of its motion, is possessed of opposite qualities, capable of neutralising or destroying each other, and of extinguishing the light, where they happen to be united; that these qualities succeed each other alternatively in successive concentric superficies, at distances which are constant for the same light, passing through the same medium. From the agreement of the measures, and from the similarity of the phenomena, we may conclude, that these intervals are the same as are concerned in the production of the colours of the thin plated; but these are shown, by the experiments of NEWTON, to be the smaller, the denser the medium; and, since it may be presumed that their number must necessarily remain unaltered in a given quantity of light, it follows of course, that light moves more slowly in a denser, than in a rarer medium: and this being granted, it must be allowed, that refraction is not the effect of an attractive force directed to a denser medium. The advocates for the projectile hypothesis of light, must consider which link in this chain of reasoning they may judge to be the most feeble; for, hitherto, I have advanced in this Paper no general hypothesis whatever. but, since we know that sound diverges in concentric superficies, and that musical sounds consist of opposite qualities, capable of neutralising each other, and succeeding at certain equal intervals, which are different according to the difference of the note, we are fully authorised to conclude, that there must be some strong resemblance between the nature of sound and that of light. I have not, in the course of these investigations, found any reason to suppose the presence of such an inflecting medium in the neighborhood of dense substances as I was formerly inclined to attribute to them; and, upon considering the phenomena of the aberration of the stars, I am disposed to believe, that the luminiferous ether pervades the substance of all material bodies with little or no resistance, as freely perhaps as the wind passes through a grove of trees. ..."
Young sends light through very narrow openings and shows that separate bands of light appear where there should be nothing but the sharply shadowed boundary of the edge of the opening. The view initiated by Grimaldi, and accepted by Newton is that these bands of light are the result of the bending of light, called "diffraction" by Grimaldi. This phenomenon is thought to provide evidence against a particle theory of light. I explain Grimaldi's results as reflected light from the inside of the slit (see photo). Neither Grimaldi nor Young refer to this reflected light, and neither draws the path of this reflected light in their slit diagrams (see photo). When looking at a graphical 3 dimensional models, reflected light beams clearly can account for the apparent extension of light outside the main central beam (see videos). The important question still remains as to why light particles are spread out according to their frequency by scratches and prisms. I think this may have to do with different frequencies of photons colliding with and reflecting off atoms and or other photons in different angles depending on their frequency, or possibly photons temporarily orbiting or bending around atoms or other photons by an amount that relates to their frequency because of gravity. Since in my 3D computer simulations the diffraction patterns for white light appear, perhaps the various separation by frequency is a result of a progressive angle change of reflection of source light. I think these experiments and theories need to be openly and vigorously explored and explained because this debate between light as a particle, as a wave with a medium, or as both needs to be examined more, and I think that more examination will reveal that light is most likely a particle, without a medium, without amplitude, not in a sine wave shape, but straight-line beams with frequency defined by space between photons (or quanta, which was the original name Planck gave to particles of energy, and which some may interpret as a name for a particle of light).
Young shows that two pitches of sound produce periods of intensified sound and periods of silence, explaining that two waves might be temporarily in step and the two wave peaks reinforce each other to produce a doubled sound, but as the two sounds fall out of step the molecules of air are pushed in one direction by one wave, and in another direction by the other, and this results in a net effect of no motion, and therefore no sound. (Is Young the first to explain this?) Young then applies this as an analogy to two light waves passed through two narrow openings. The light beams spread out and are overlapped. The overlapping region forms a striped pattern of alternating light and darkness, an interference pattern exactly analogous to sound.
This change from a particle theory of light to a wave theory, although contributing the truth about color being determined by frequency, in my opinion results in a backwards mistaken step which continues to this day, the current majority and official view of light is that of a traverse sine wave, with the concession of a wave-particle duality. However, I think the more accurate view is that light is strictly a particle, although light particles are usually emitted in beams of regular spacing or frequency and therefore the idea of wavelength (perhaps more accurately called photon interval, or photon spacing) can be applied to beams of photons. Michelson, for example, writes about the "coherence" of a frequency of monochromatic light, indicating that various light beam emitting objects do not emit beams with frequency that stays constant over long periods of time, and I think that is evidence that the frequency of light beams is probably the product of some natural emission of photons that can result in variable emission and so variable, inconsistent frequencies of light beams. I reject the idea that light beams have amplitude, have a sine wave shape, or are propagated through a medium, aether or otherwise. Even Newton made the mistake of believing in an aether, although Newton correctly viewed light as a particle. I also reject the theory of light as being an electromagnetic wave of energy, or light being energy itself. In addition, I think that the light particle is the basis of all matter. This wave view of light will be supported and developed by James Clerk Maxwell who creates the light as a dual electric and magnetic wave in aether, which further establishes the official weight of this erroneous theory. Michelson will provide evidence against an aether medium for light. Planck and then Einstein will revive the light as a particle theory. However Einstein will introduce Fitzgerald's aether-based wave-theory-for-light concept of space dilation which is a continuing 100+ year inaccurate mistake and dogma, and Einstein does not think of the idea of the light particle as being the basis of all matter, instead, viewing the photon as massless, as a form of radiation, with a constant velocity. The idea of light as being immaterial, or massless, may even in fact go back to Aristotle, as Joseph Priestley comments, perhaps with some humor in 1772, that "the professed object of Father Grimaldi's whole book, is to determine the great question of those times, viz. whether light be a substance, or a quality; and after discussing it very largely, in a close printed quarto, consisting of 535 pages, he concludes, with the Aristotelians, that light is no real substance, but only a modeor(sic/ea-error ack) property of bodies; or, rather in his own words, it is not a substantial, but an accidental quality. But it is not my business to note the mistakes of great men, but to record their useful labours."
The wavelengths Young calculates are less than a millionth of a meter which must be a startling realization. The question of what kind of wave light is remains. Huygens thought light is a longitudinal wave (moving in the same direction as the wave), like sound waves, but according to Asimov, longitudinal waves cannot explain the double refraction first noted by Bartholin. In 1817 Young will write to Arago that light waves must be transverse (like the waves on a water surface, moving at right angles to the direction of the movement of the wave) and that this explains double refraction. (show letter, and more detail) This view is still the current most popular interpretation.
In addition Young examines the frequency of solar rays beyond the violet (whose chemical effects were first observed by Ritter). Young uses a paper soaked in nitrate of silver placed about nine inches from a solar microscope through which an image of the rings is projected. After an hour, parts of the three dark rings are visible, much smaller than the brightest rings of the coloured image and slightly smaller (1/30 or 1/40 the diameter) than the violet rings. So Young concludes "The experiment, however, in its present state, is sufficient to complete the analogy of the invisible with the visible rays, and to show that they are equally liable to the general law which is the principal subject of this Paper." (that is the law of interference). Young then addresses the light beyond the red writing "If we had thermometers sufficiently delicate, it is probable that we might acquire, by similar means, information still more interesting, with respect to the ray of invisible heat discovered by Dr. HERSCHEL; but at present there is great reason to doubt of the practicability of such an experiment.".
In my own opinion, double refraction can be explained by refraction and reflection. Even refraction may be a product of particle collision in other words reflection.
As an aside on the topic of so-called double refraction of calcite (or Iceland spar) I find that with light coming mainly from one side of the crystal, for example from a lit monitor, there is no double refraction (except when held at a diagonal). Double refraction may only to be a phenomenon of light coming in from the side of the viewer and reflecting back through the crystal a second time. But perhaps the LCD light overpowers the double refraction effect. In addition, there is another effect, and that is an effect of displacement (depending on viewer angle). The image is shifted by some amount, perhaps the amount of the crystal angle. The second (extraordinary) image appears to relate to the angle of cleavage; when the cleavage goes left and up, the second image is found to the left and up above the permanent image. Its like one beam is going straight through and one is following the grain of the crystal.
An experiment might be: 1) Is the light of either image delayed? Another question is: 2) Is the angle of refraction the same as the angle of cleavage or are the two identical?
I think that the phenomenon of double-refraction may be similar to polarity, that is that only certain directions of incoming light are transmitted, the rest reflected. There is a possibility of refracted light reflecting off the sides and crack in the crystal and so then being reflected in a different angle.
Another point is that the two images are parallel light, in other words they do not grow farther apart as the viewer moves more distant, they always remain the same distance apart.
| London, England |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2125) Erasmus Darwin's (CE 1731-1802) "The Temple of Nature", published after Darwin's death, expresses his belief that life originate in the sea and can be traced back to a single common ancestor. Darwin had titled this work "The Origin of Society" (so similar to the more famous "Origin of Species" of his grandson Charles Darwin), a title the publisher considers too inflammatory because it might be interpreted as being antireligious.
| Derby, England (presumably) |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2235) Martin Heinrich Klaproth (KloPrOT) (CE 1743-1817) identifies the element Cerium independently of Swedish chemist Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) working together with Swedish mineralogist, Wilhelm Hisinger (CE 1766-1852).
Like Klaproth's identification of uranium, zirconium, and chromium, Klaproth only isolates the oxide, ceria and not the actual pure metal.
| Berlin, (was Prussia) Germany (presumably) |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2244) Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) publishes "Histoire naturelle des végétaux" (1803, "Natural History of Vegetables") which shows the influence of Lamarck's theory of evolution.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2273) Comte Claude-Louis Berthollet (BRTOlA) (CE 1748-1822) publishes "Essai de statique chimique" (1803, "Chemical Equilibria"), in which Berthollet tries to establish the general laws of chemical reactions.
In this work, Berthollet puts forward his (erroneous) theory of "indefinite proportions", in which affinities do not have absolute values but are modified by physical conditions of the reaction, in particular the concentration of reagents. The theory of indefinite proportions will be decisively rejected by 1808 because of the work of John Dalton, Jöns Berzelius, and Gay-Lussac.
However, Berthollet's idea that mass influences the course of chemical reactions will be shown to be true by the "law of mass action" of Cato Guldberg and Peter Waage in 1864. The law of mass action states that the rate, or velocity, of any simple chemical reaction is proportional to the product of the masses of the reacting substances, each raised to a certain power. (Isn't the rate of a single molecular reaction the same with no regard to quantity of reagents? Perhaps this law is saying that since there are more molecules reacting each second, the rate of reaction is increased? For example, if there are 100 times the molecules reacting per second, even though the molecular rate of reaction is the constant, there are 100 times the reactions going on and therefore the reaction is 100 times as fast {when it seems that the reaction is the same constant rate, but more molecules are reacting per second}. Perhaps my interpretation is incorrect.)
Berthollet is puzzled over the natural formation of natron (a hydrated sodium carbonate) from a mixture of limestone (calcium carbonate) and seawater (which contains sodium chloride ((salt))) in a valley near Cairo, because in the lab, reactions with the same components (limestone and seawater) yield an inverse product (they do not react?). This suggests to Berthollet that the concentration of chemicals is a key factor in determining how a reaction ends, this idea goes against the popular view of elective affinities. (One important note is that one chemical reagent is a liquid, salt water, and so this concept may be more relevant to liquid mixtures.)
Berthollet claims that properties such as the rate and reactions of chemical reactions depends on more than just the attraction of one substance to another, in other words that the "affinity" idea of Bergman is not enough. According to Berthollet a substance in greater quantity can react instead of a substance of lesser quantity with a greater affinity.
| Arcueil, France |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2314) William Murdock (CE 1754-1839) Scottish inventor In 1803, Murdock constructs a steam gun (that uses compressed air to propel a bullet).
| England |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2400) Richard Trevithick (TreVitiK) (CE 1771-1833) builds the first steam (powered) railway locomotive. Also in this year Trevithick builds a second carriage, which he drives through the streets of London.
Trevithick's high-pressure stream engine pulls a passenger train. Trevithick proves that smooth metal wheels on smooth metal rails does supply enough friction to pull trains.
Trevithick abandons his steam locomotive projects, because the cast-iron rails are too brittle for the weight of his engines.
| South Wales, England |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2490) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848), Swedish chemist, publishes a textbook on chemistry that goes through 5 editions before his death and is considered the authority on chemistry. (title)
Berzelius runs 2000 analyses to determine the exact elementary constitution of various compounds, over a period of 10 years. (chronology)
Berzelius advances the law of definite proportions first found by Proust. {chronology}
Using the law of combining volumes by Gay-Lussac, in addition to advances made by Dulong, Petit and Mitscherlich, Berzelius prepares a list of atomic weights that is the first reasonably accurate list in history. (State other findings that support the idea that atoms combine by volume, and that mass does not matter, in addition to the idea that atoms and molecules in gas are spaced equidistant and exert the same force on each other and other atoms.)
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
197 YBN
[1803 AD]
| 2502) Hisinger and Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) report on a series of experiments that proves that the discharge of the galvanic pile exerts on the majority of salts dissolved in water an effect similar to that in water,; whereby the different components are separated, each to its pole, acids in the one direction and alkalies in the other. Some fifteen experiments are performed with a variety of solutions and metal conductors using several types of cells, including U- and V-tubes. (Verify still true)
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
196 YBN
[01/01/1804 AD]
| 1533)
| Haiti |
196 YBN
[04/??/1804 AD]
| 2551) John James Audubon (oDUBoN) (CE 1785-1851), French-American ornithologist, makes the first banding experiments on the young of an American wild bird. Audubon finds that banded birds return to the region in later years. This initiates the study of bird migration.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
196 YBN
[1804 AD]
| 2362) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828), English chemist and physicist, invents a process to produce pure malleable platinum, which can be welded and made into vessels.(welded how with a gas flame? heated in an oven? fully describe Wollaston's process.)
Wollaston is the first to observe ultraviolet light. Ritter will do more thorough research in this area.
After a few years of research Wollaston completes a chemical process for converting inexpensive granular platinum ore smuggled out of New Granada (now Colombia) into platinum powder of high purity, and then (compressing) the powder into malleable ingots, which Wollaston sells for a large profit over the next 20 years. Pure platinum metal has properties similar to gold but in these years sells at only one-quarter the price (now platinum is more expensive than gold). Platinum will be shown to have many uses. Wollaston purchases all of the available platinum ore and becomes wealthy as the only supplier of pure platinum in England.
Wollaston is reported to have received about £30,000 from his discovery, as he kept the process secret until shortly before his death, not even allowing anybody to enter his laboratory.
Wollaston identifies the need of viewing molecular structure in three dimensions, but leaves it for Van't Hoff 75 years later to develop this idea.
| London, England |
196 YBN
[1804 AD]
| 2363) Careful chemical analysis of the metals that dissolve with platinum in the first step of Wollaston's purification process lead Wollaston to identify and isolate two new metallic elements, palladium and rhodium.
Tennant performs the analysis of the less-soluble components of the platinum ore and discovers two other new metals, osmium and iridium.
Wollaston names palladium after the planetoid Pallas recently identified by Olbers, continuing Klaproth's method of naming a new metal after a new planet.
Wollaston's secret process to isolate palladium is to dissolve crude platinum ore from South America in aqua regia, neutralize the solution with sodium hydroxide, and precipitate platinum as ammonium chloroplatinate with ammonium chloride. Wollaston then adds mercuric cyanide to form the compound palladium cyanide, which is heated to extract palladium metal.
Many methods have been devised for the isolation of the metal from platinum ore.
| London, England |
196 YBN
[1804 AD]
| 2417) Jean Baptiste Biot (BYO) (CE 1774-1862) and Joseph Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) make the first balloon flight for scientific purposes showing that the Earth's magnetic field does not vary noticeably with altitude and establishes that the Earth's magnetic field extends into the atmosphere. In addition Biot and Gay-Lussac find no change in the composition of air of the upper atmosphere. (more detail: method used, results)
Biot and Gay-Lussac use a Hydrogen filled balloon. (Coulomb found in 1785 that magnetic force is inversely proportional to distance, Biot restated this in 1820 , as did Ampère in 1827, so the magnetic field must become weaker the more distance from the Earth.) (verify) The view I support is that all magnetic fields are the result of electric current, and so the Earth's so-called magnetic field, is the Earth's electric field, which reveals that electric currents must run through the Earth. (show image of Earth's magnetic field)
Biot and Gay-Lussac reach a height of 4,000 meters (about 13,000 feet, around 2.5 miles).
In a following solo flight, Gay-Lussac reaches 7,016 meters (more than 23,000 feet, over 4 miles, far above the highest peak of the Alps), setting a record for the highest balloon flight for 50 years. (How is elevation of the balloon measured?)
What about the possibility of using earth magnetic field for electrical generation? Maybe not strong enough?
| Paris, France (presumably) |
196 YBN
[1804 AD]
| 2440) French chemist Bernard Courtois (KURTWo) (CE 1777-1838) and (independently?) German chemist Friedrich Sertürner (SeRTYURnR) (CE 1783-1841) isolate morphine from opium. Sertürner chooses the name "morphium" after Morpheus, the Greek god of dreams. This is the first alkaloid to be obtained in pure form.
| {France and}Paderborn, Germany |
196 YBN
[1804 AD]
| 3767) Giovanni Aldini (CE 1762-1834), Luigi Galvani's nephew, performs electrical experiments on human cadavers.
Aldini publishes this work (which he performed in Bologna in 1802), in Paris as "Essai théorique et expérimental sur le galvanisme." ("Theoretical and Experimental Essay on Galvanism") in 1804.
This work inspires the gothic romance "Frankenstein, or Modern Prometheus", published in 1818, by writer, Englishwoman Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (CE 1797-1851). Shelley, impressed with the possibility of generating life in dead tissues by means of electrical stimulation, in discussions with husband-poet Percy Shelley (1792-1822) and famous writer and poet Lord Byron (1788–1824), famously says "Perhaps, a corpse would be reanimated; galvanism had given token of such things.".
(Electricity will be found to be able to restart the heart. State when and by whom.) (It is still unknown how electricity might be able to bring life into a single or multicellular object that has died, but this is clearly an interesting line of research.)
| Calais, France |
195 YBN
[10/??/1805 AD]
| 2411) Robert Brown (CE 1773-1858), Scottish botanist returns the approximately 3,900 species of plants to England from Australia, almost all of which are new to science. Brown uses a microscope to examine plants. Brown is the first to separate the higher plants into gymnosperms and angiosperms.
| London, England (presumably) |
195 YBN
[1805 AD]
| 2364) Wollaston isolates Rhodium from crude platinum. Wollaston names Rhodium from the Greek rhodon ("rose") for the red color of a number of Rhodium's compounds.
| London, England |
195 YBN
[1805 AD]
| 2468) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) establishes that hydrogen and oxygen combine by volume in the ratio 2:1 to form water. (Some mass, and therefore perhaps volume or size is lost to photons in Hydrogen combustion which forms water.)
Gay-Lussac explodes given volumes of hydrogen and oxygen together to find that one volume of oxygen combines with two volumes of hydrogen to form water.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
195 YBN
[1805 AD]
| 3223) Alexander John Forsyth, a Scottish clergyman, invents the first percussion ignition gun. The percussion ignition system explodes a priming compound with a sharp blow, which avoids the need for priming powder and free, exposed sparks of the flintlock system. Forsyth initially uses a small charge of potassium chlorate (to ignite the gun powder).
Several people in Germany experimented with detonating fulminates in the late 1600s, as did people in France in the 1700s.
By 1830, percussion caps (attributed to the Philadelphian Joshua Shaw in 1815) will become the accepted system for igniting firearm powder charges.
Breech-loading guns that use cartridges that contain the primer and the propellant in a single case and are ignited by percussion with a hammer will replace muzzle loaded guns. The breech is the part of a firearm behind the barrel and the muzzle is the forward, discharging end of the barrel of a firearm.
| Belhelvie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland (presumably) |
195 YBN
[1805 AD]
| 3389) Oliver Evans (CE 1755-1819) builds the first steamboat and car in the USA. Evans names this vehicle the "Orukter Amphibolos".
| Philadelphia, PA, USA |
195 YBN
[1805 AD]
| 6249) Oliver Evans (CE 1755-1819) designs the first refrigeration machine, and the first machine to compress and condense a recycled gas to lower the temperature of water.
After expanding into a vacuum and removing the heat from the surrounding environment, vaporized refrigerant (ether) moves through a compressor, and then a condenser, where it is converted back into a liquid to begin the process again.
Evans writes in his 1805 book "The abortion of the young steam engineer's guide": "A description of a Machine, and its principles, for making Ice and cooling water in large quantities, in hot countries, to make it palatable and wholesome for drinking, by the power of Steam: ... These principles may probably be applicable to useful purposes. For instance, to cool wholesome water, such as that of the Mississippi, rendering it palatable for drinking, to supply the city of New-Orleans; or of the Schuylkill to supply the citizens of Philadelphia. A steam engine may work a large air-pump, leaving a perfect vacuum behind it on the surface of the water at every stroke. If ether be used as a medium for conducting the heat from the water into the vacuum, the pump may force the vapour rising from the ether, into another pump to be employed to compress it into a vessel immersed in water; the heat will escape into the surrounding water, and the vapour return to ether again; which being let into the vessel in the vacuum, it may thus be used over and over repeatedly. Thus it appears possible to extract the latent heat from cold water and apply it to boil other water; and to make ice in large quantities in hot countries by the power of a steam engine. I suggest these ideas merely for the consideration of those who may be disposed. posed to investigate the principles, or wish them put in operation. And, lest I should be thought extravagant, as was the case with the Marquis of Worcester, I give a...
DESCRIPTION OF THE MACHINE.
Make an air-pump and close the lower end of the cylinder by connecting it with a globular glass vessel, if metal will not answer as well: fix the lower end of the cylinder of this pump, so that the glass vessel shall be immersed in the water that is to be cooled, and which is to be contained in a tight vessel. Near to this pump fix another much smaller, called the condensing pump, and connect it with a small vessel, called the condenser, immersed in water, fixing a valve between them. Connect the upper end of these working cylinders by a pipe with a valve therein at the top of the exhausting pump, and connect the bottom of the condenser with the glass globe, by a small pipe, in which insert a cock1 called the ether-cock. The piston rods of the pumps must work through stuffing boxes made air-tight, and each piston must have a valve fixed in it, one to shut downward and the other upward: work these pistons by a lever that is to be put in motion by a steam engine or any other power.
THE OPERATION.
Fill the glass globe with ether, so that the piston will touch its surface at every stroke; expel the air from the pumps and condenser, making a complete vacuum in them. Set the machine in motion and every time the piston rises the exhausting piston leaves a perfect vacuum behind it: the ether then begins to boil and carry off the latent heat from the water; the steam of the ether fills the vacuum, which is again exhausted by the pump, and driven into the condensing pump which compresses it in the condenser, forcing out the heat which robs the vapour of its essential constituent part, and reduces it to ether again; the ether-cock being opened just sufficient to let the ether return to the glass globe to undergo the same operation; and so on ad infinitum. The machine might be simplified by connecting the top of the exhausting cylinder with the condenser, dispensing with the condensing cylinder and piston. The condensation might be sufficiently effected by the exhausting cylinder and piston alone forcing the vapour into the condenser. If the air be not expelled it will be forced into the condenser, and remain above the ether formed there without injuring the working or the effect of the engine: but I presume the condensing pump would be necessary to carry the principle to such extent as to boil water by the heat extracted from cold water. A small pump may be fixed so as to be worked by the same
lever, to extract the water from the vessel as fast as 'necessary after it is cooled. The vessel may be kept full by the pressure of the atmosphere forcing the water through a valve at the bottom. ...".
In 1755, William Cullen (CE 1710-1790), Scottish physician, had published the fact that an expanded gas lowers temperature.
| Philadelphia, PA, USA |
194 YBN
[1806 AD]
| 2299) Adrien Marie Legendre (lujoNDR) (CE 1752-1833) publishes "Nouvelles méthodes pour la détermination des orbites des comètes" (1806, "New Methods for the Determination of Comet Orbits") which contains the first comprehensive treatment of the method of least squares.
The method of least squares is a method of determining the curve that best describes the relationship between expected and observed sets of data by minimizing the sums of the squares of deviation between observed and expected values.
The discovery of the method of least squares is shared with Carl Friedrich Gauss although Legendre is the first to publish.
| Paris, France(presumably) |
194 YBN
[1806 AD]
| 2301) Adrien Marie Legendre (lujoNDR) (CE 1752-1833) publishes "Théorie des nombres", (1830, 2 vol. "Theory of Numbers") which includes Legendre's flawed proof of the law of quadratic reciprocity ((a mathematical law relating to the remainders of two primes divided by each other)). Gauss will give the first rigorous proof of the law of quadratic reciprocity.
| Paris, France(presumably) |
194 YBN
[1806 AD]
| 2346) Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (VoKloN) (CE 1763-1829), isolates the compound asparagine from asparagus. Eventually this will be recognized as the first amino acid (building blocks of proteins) to be identified.
| Paris, France |
194 YBN
[1806 AD]
| 2474) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), gives a lecture "On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity", in which Davy concludes that the production of electricity in simple electrolytic cells results from chemical action and that chemical combination occurs between substances of opposite charge. Davy then reasons that electrolysis, the interactions of electric currents with chemical compounds, is the most likely method of decomposing all substances to their elements.
Davy proposes that the elements of a chemical compound are held together by electrical forces writing: "In the present state of our knowledge, it would be useless to attempt to speculate on the remote cause of the electrical energy...; its relation to chemical affinity is, however, sufficiently evident. May it not be identical with it, and an essential property of matter?" (in this work?) (Interesting to try and understand what role gravity and electricity both have in holding atoms together with themselves and together with other atoms.)
| London, England |
194 YBN
[1806 AD]
| 2491) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848), in a book on animal chemistry, notes that muscle tissues contain lactic acid, previously found by Scheele in milk. (book title)
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
193 YBN
[03/29/1807 AD]
| 2333) Vesta is the largest and the brightest asteroid of the asteroid belt and the fourth asteroid to be discovered. Vesta is named for the ancient Roman goddess of the hearth.
Vesta revolves around the Sun once in 3.63 years in a nearly circular, moderately inclined (7.1°) orbit at a mean distance of 2.36 astronomical units (AU; about 353 million km {219 million miles}).
| Bremen, Germany |
193 YBN
[08/17/1807 AD]
| 2358) A paddle-wheel steam ship made by American inventor Robert Fulton (CE 1765-1815), called the "Clermont" 150 feet long completes a trip up the Hudson from New York City to Albany in 32 hours, going 5 miles an hour, saving 64 hours from the usual time for sailing ships.
| Albany, New York, USA |
193 YBN
[10/06/1807 AD]
| 2476) Davy uses the largest battery built at the time to isolate metallic potassium using electrolysis of molten potash.
After Nicholson had broken up the water molecule by using an electric current, Davy wonders about the effect of electricity on other substances. Many substances such as lime, magnesia, potash, and soda are suspected of containing metals as part of their structure.
Perhaps Davy knows of Lavoisier's suggestion that the alkali earths are oxides of unknown metals.
The problem is that the metals hold on to oxygen so strongly that they cannot be separated by strong heat or the counteractions of other metals. (It is interesting that many elements on Earth may be combined with oxygen, since oxygen is in the air and is so reactive, so it is no wonder that one method of isolating elements is to somehow remove the oxygen.)(Perhaps as opposed to photons that heat, there are many more photons in a large electrical current (which also heats) which causes the chemical bond separation.)
Davy builds a giant battery in the basement of the Royal Society building, which contains more than 2,500 electrical plates and occupies nearly 900 square feet.(verify) (more details, how many volts and amps?) This is the largest battery built at the time.
At first, Davy tries to separate the metals by electrolyzing aqueous solutions of the alkalis, but this only yields hydrogen gas. Davy then tries passing current through molten compounds (how heated?), and using this technique is able to separate globules of pure metal.
Davy passes current through molten potash (how heated) which liberates a metal. Davy names this metal potassium (from potash). (again these experiments are very interesting to me.) The little globules of shining metal tears the water molecule apart as it eagerly recombines with oxygen, the liberated hydrogen bursting into lavender flame. Potash is various potassium compounds, mainly crude potassium carbonate. The names caustic potash, potassa, and lye are frequently used for potassium hydroxide. (show formulas)
Davy describes potassium as particles which, when thrown into water, "skimmed about excitedly with a hissing sound, and soon burned with a lovely lavender light". (How put in water, interesting to see) Dr. John Davy, Humphry's brother, says that Humphry "danced around and was delirious with joy" at his discovery. These results are presented in the Bakerian lecture of November, 1807.
| London, England |
193 YBN
[10/13/1807 AD]
| 2477) A week after isolating the metal potassium, Davy isolates sodium from soda.
| London, England |
193 YBN
[11/23/1807 AD]
| 2407) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) is the first to use the word "energy" to describe the product mv2 (called "vis-visa", living force by Leibniz) and that energy is proportional to the concept of work (which Young defines as force times distance).
Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) supports his 1801 theory of light wave interference (addition and subtraction) with the example of double-slit wave interference.
(DOUBLE SLIT) Young allows light to pass through two closely set pinholes onto a screen and finds that the light beams spread apart and overlap. In the area of overlap, bands of bright light alternate with bands of darkness.
This demonstration of the interference of light serves a evidence in favor of the view of light as a wave, (and helps to establish the popularity of the wave theory of light).
Young first describes the double-slit experiment in his famous "A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and Mechanical Arts". Young describes double-slit interference of water waves in Lecture 28 "On the Theory of Hydraulics" refering to figures (see images 1-5) which include double slit water wave interference. Lecture 39 is "On the Nature of Light and Colours." which describes the dual competing theories of light as a particle or light as a wave, and describes the phenomenon of light interference including the example of light interference through a double slit.
Young begins: "THE nature of light is a subject of no material importance to the concerns of life or to the practice of the arts, but it is in many other respects extremely interesting, especially as it tends to assist our views both of the nature of our sensations, and of the constitution of the universe at large. The examination of the production of colours, in a variety of circumstances, is intimately connected with the theory of their essential properties, and their causes; and we shall find that many of these phenomena will afford us considerable assistance in forming our opinon (known error) respecting the nature and origin of light in general. It is allowed on all sides, that light either consists in the emission of very minute particles from luminous substances, which are actually projected, and continue to move with the velocity commonly attributed to light, or in the excitation of an undulatory motion, analogous to that which constitutes sound, in a highly light and elastic medium pervading the universe; but the judgments of philosophers of all ages have been much divided with respect to the preference of one or the other of these opinions. There are also some circumstances which induce those, who entertain the first hypothesis, either to believe, with Newton (Ph. Tr. vii. 5087), that the emanation of the particles of light is always attended by the undulations of an etherial medium, accompanying it in its passage, or to suppose, with Boscovich (Dissertatio de Lumine, Part II. 1748; and Theoria Philosophia Naturalis, 410, Venice, 1763, p. 230.), that the minute particles of light themselves receive, at the time of their emission, certain rotatory and vibratory motions, which they retain as long as their projectile motion continues. These additional suppositions, however necessary they may have been thought for explaining some particular phenomena, have never been very generally understood or admitted, although no attempt has been made to accommodate the in any other manner to those phenomena. We shall proceed to examine in detail the manner in which the two principal hypotheses respecting light may be applied to its various properties and affections; and in the first place to the simple propagation of light in right lines through a vacuum, or a very rare homogeneous medium. In this circumstance there is nothing inconsistent with either hypothesis; but it undergoes some modifications, which require to be noticed, when a portion of light is admitted through an aperture, and spreads itself in a slight degree in every direction. In this case it is maintained by Newton that the margin of the aperture possesses an attractive force, which is capable of inflecting the rays: but there is some improbability in supposing that bodies of different forms and of various refractive powers should possess an equal force of inflection, as they appear to do in the production of these effects; effects and there is reason to conclude from experiments, that such a force, if it existed, must extend to a very considerable distance from the surfaces concerned, at least a quarter of an inch, and perhaps much more, which is a condition not easily reconciled with other phenomena. In the Huygenian system of undulation, this divergence or diffraction is illustrated by a comparison with the motions of waves of water and of sound, both of which diverge when they are admitted into a wide space through an aperture, so much indeed that it has usually been considered as an objection to this opinion, that the rays of light do not diverge in the degree that would be expected if they were analogous to the waves of water. But as it has been remarked by Newton, that the pulses of sound diverge less than the waves of water, so it may fairly be inferred, that in a still more highly elastic medium, the undulations, constituting light, must diverge much less than either. (Plate XX. Fig. 266.) ..."
Young estimates the size of the diameter of an atom by a ratio of 1/140,000 times smaller than the distance to the next nearest atom.
Young goes on stating: "The chemical process of combustion may easily be imagined either to disengage the particles of light from their various combinations, or to agitate the elastic medium by the intestine motions attending it : but the operation of friction upon substances incapable of undergoing chemical changes, as well as the motions of the electric fluid through imperfect conductors, afford instances of the production of light in which there seems to be no easy way of supposing a decomposition of any kind. (Notice that this text implies that all matter might be made of particles of light that "disengage" in combustion from their "various combinations".)
Young continues: " It is not, however, merely on the ground of this analogy that we may be induced to suppose the undulations constituting red light to be larger than those of violet light : a very extensive class of phenomena leads us still more directly to the same conclusion; they consist chiefly of the production of colours by means of transparent plates, and by diffraction or inflection, none of which have been explained upon the supposition of emanation, in a manner sufficiently minute or comprehensive to satisfy the most candid even of the advocates for the projectile system; while on the other hand all of them may be at once understood, from the effect of the interference of double lights, in a manner nearly similar to that which constitutes in sound the sensation of a beat, when two strings forming an imperfect unison, are heard to vibrate together. Supposing the light of any given colour to consist of undulations of a given breadth, or of a given frequency, it follows that these undulations must be liable to those effects which we have already examined in the case of the waves of water and the pulses of sound. It has been shown that two equal series of waves, proceeding from centres near each other, may be seen to destroy each other's effects at certain points, and at other points to redouble them ; and the beating of two sounds has been explained from a similar interference. We are now to apply the same principles to the alternate union and extinction of colours. (Plate XX. Fig. 267.) In order that the effects of two portions of light may be thus combined, it is necessary that they be derived from the same origin, and that they arrive at the same point by different paths, in directions not much deviating from each other. This deviation may be produced in one or both of the portions by diffraction, by reflection, by refraction, or by any of these effects combined ; but the simplest case appears to be, when a beam of homogeneous light falls on a screen in which there are two very small holes or slits, which may be considered as centres of divergence, from whence the light is diffracted in every direction. In this case, when the two newly formed beams are received on a surface placed so as to intercept them, their light is divided by dark stripes into portions nearly equal, but becoming wider as the surface is more remote from the apertures, so as to subtend very nearly equal angles from the apertures at all distances, and wider also in the same proportion as the apertures are closer to each other. The middle of the two portions is always light, and the bright stripes on each side are at such distances, that the light coming to them from one of the apertures, must have passed through a longer space than that which comes from the other, by an interval which is equal to the breadth of one, two, three, or more of the supposed undulations, while the intervening dark spaces correspond to a difference of half a supposed undulation, of one and a half, of two and a half, or more. From a comparison of various experiments, it appears that the breadth of the undulations constituting the extreme red light must be supposed to be, in air, about one 36 thousandth of an inch, and those of the extreme violet about one 60 thousandth; the mean of the whole spectrum, with respect to the intensity of light, being about one 45 thousandth. From these dimensions it follows, calculating upon the known velocity of light, that almost 500 millions of millions of the slowest of such undulations must enter the eye in a single second. The combination of two portions of white or mixed light, when viewed at a great distance, exhibits a few white and black stripes, corresponding to this interval: although, upon closer inspection, the distinct effects of an infinite number of stripes of different breadths appear to be compounded together, so as to produce a beautiful diversity of tints, passing by degrees into each other. The central whiteness is first changed to a yellowish, and then to a tawny colour, succeeded by crimson, and by violet and blue, which together appear, when seen at a distance, as a dark stripe; after this a green light appears, and the dark space beyond it has a crimson hue; the subsequent lights are all more or less green, the dark spaces purple and reddish; and the red light appears so far to predominate in all these effects, that the red or purple stripes occupy nearly the same place in the mixed fringes as if their light were received separately. The comparison of the results of this theory with experiments fully establishes their general coincidence; it indicates, however, a slight correction in some of the measures, on account of some unknown cause, perhaps connected with the intimate nature of diffraction, which uniformly occasions the portions of light proceeding in a direction very nearly rectilinear, to be divided into stripes or fringes a little wider than the external stripes, formed by the light which is more bent. (Plate XXX Fig. 442, 443.) When the parallel slits are enlarged, and leave only the intervening substance to cast its shadow, the divergence from its opposite margins still continues to produce the same fringes as before, but they are not easily visible, except within the extent of its shadow, being overpowered in other parts by a stronger light; but if the light thus diffracted be allowed to fall on the eye, either within the shadow or in its neighbourhood, the stripes will still appear; and in this manner the colours of small fibres are probably formed. Hence if a collection of equal fibres, for example a lock of wool, be held before the eye when we look at a luminous object, the series of stripes belonging to each fibre combine their effects, in such a manner, as to be converted into circular fringes or coronae. This is probably the origin of the coloured circles or coronae sometimes seen round the sun and moon, two or three of them appearing together, nearly at equal distances from each other and from the luminary, the internal ones being, however, like the stripes, a little dilated. It is only necessary that the air should be loaded with globules of moisture, nearly of equal size among themselves, not much exceeding one two thousandth of an inch in diameter, in order that a series of such coronae, at the distance of two or three degrees from each other, may be exhibited. (Plate XXX. Fig. 444.) If, on the other hand, we remove the portion of the screen which separates the parallel slits from each other, their external margins will still continue to exhibit the effects of diffracted light in the shadow on each side; and the experiment will assume the form of those which were made by Newton on the light passing between the edges of two knives, brought very nearly into contact; although some of these experiments appear to show the influence of a portion of light reflected by a remoter part of the polished edge of the knives, which indeed must unavoidably constitute a part of the light concerned in the appearance of fringes, wherever their whole breadth exceeds that of the aperture, or of the shadow of the fibre. The edges of two knives, placed very near each other, may represent the opposite margins of a minute furrow, cut in the surface of a polished substance of any kind, which, when viewed with different degrees of obliquity, present a series of colours nearly resembling those which are exhibited within the shadows of the knives: in this case, however, the paths of the two portions of light before their incidence are also to be considered, and the whole difference of these paths will be found to determine the appearance of colour in the usual manner: thus when the surface is so situated, that the image of the luminous point would be seen in it by regular reflection, the difference will vanish, and the light will remain perfectly white, but in other cases various colours will appear, according to the degree of obliquity. These colours may easily be seen, in an irregular form, by looking at any metal, coarsely polished, in the sunshine; but they become more distinct and conspicuous, when a number of fine lines of equal strength are drawn parallel to each other, so as to conspire in their effects. (Young's Introduction to Medical Literature, 1813, p. 559.) It sometimes happens that an object, of which a shadow is formed in a beam of light, admitted through a small aperture, is not terminated by parallel sides; thus the two portions of light, which are diffracted from two sides of an object, at right angles with each other, frequently form a short series of curved fringes within the shadow, situated on each side of the diagonal, which were first observed by Grimaldi, (Physico-Mathesis de Lumine, Coloribus et Iride, Bonon. 1665.) and which are completely explicable from the general principle, of the interference of the two portions encroaching perpendicularly on the shadow. (Plate XXX. Fig. 445.)".
Young concludes this lecture with " It is presumed, that the accuracy, with which the general law of the interference of light has been shown to be applicable to so great a variety of facts, in circumstances the most dissimilar, will be allowed to establish its validity in the most satisfactory manner. The full confirmation or decided rejection of the theory, by which this law was first suggested, can be expected from time and experience alone; if it be confuted, our prospects will again be confined within their ancient limits, but if it be fully established, we may expect an ample extension of our views of the operations of nature, by means of our acquaintance with a medium, so powerful and so universal, as that to which the propagation of light must be attributed.".
(Notice too that Young never accounts for light reflected off the insides of the slit(s) which should be accounted for.)
(ENERGY) Young writes this in Lecture 8, entitled "On Collision", published in "A Course of Lectures on Natural Philosophy and Mechanical Arts".
In "On Collision", Young writes: " It follows immediately from the properties of the centre of inertia {gravity} that in all cases of collision, whether of elastic or inelastic bodies, the sum of the momenta of all the bodies of the system, that is of their masses or weights multiplied by the numbers expressing their velocities, is the same, when reduced to the same direction, after their mutual collision, as it was before their collision. When the bodies are perfectly elastic, it may also be shown that the sum of their energies or ascending forces, in their respective directions, remains also unaltered. The term energy may be applied, with great propriety, to the product of the mass or weight of a body, into the square of the number expressing ita velocity. Thus, if a weight of one ounce moves with the velocity of a foot in a second, we may call its energy 1; if a second body of two ounces have a velocity of three feet in a second, its energy will be twice the square of three, or 18. This product has been denominated the living or ascending force {the vis viva}, since the height of the body's vertical ascent is in proportion to it; and some have considered it as the true measure of the quantity of motion; but although this opinion has been very universally rejected, yet the force thus estimated well deserves a distinct denomination. After the considerations and demonstrations which have been premised on the subject of forces, there can be no reasonable doubt with respect to the true measure of motion; nor can there be much hesitation in allowing at once, that since the same force, continued for a double time, is known to produce a double velocity, a double force must also produce a double velocity in the same time. Notwithstanding the simplicity of this view of the subject, Leibnitz (Acta Erudit. Lips. 1686), Smeaton (Ph Tr 1776, p450 and 1782 p 337. See Desaguliers's Exp Ph. ii. 92; and Ph. Tr. 1723, xxxii. 269, 285. Eames on the Force of Moving Bodies, Ph. Tr. 1726, xxxiv. 188. Clarke in Ph. Tr. 1728, xxxv. 381. Zendrini, Sulla Inutilita della Questione Intorno alla Misura delle Forze Vivi, 8vo, Venezia, 1804.), and many others have chosen to estimate the force of a moving body by the product of its mass into the square of its velocity; and though we cannot admit that this estimation of force is just, yet it may be allowed that many of the sensible effects of motion, and even the advantage of any mechanical power, however it may be employed, are usually proportional to this product, or to the weight of the moving body, multiplied by the height from which it must have fallen, in order to acquire the given velocity. Thus a bullet, moving with a double velocity, will penetrate to a quadruple depth in clay or tallow: a ball of equal size, but of one fourth of the weight, moving with a double velocity, will penetrate to an equal depth: and, with a smaller quantity of motion, will make an equal excavation in a shorter time. This appears at first sight somewhat paradoxical: but, on the other hand, we are to consider the resistance of the clay or tallow as a uniformly retarding force, and it will be obvious that the motion, which it can destroy in a short time, must be less than that which requires a longer time for its destruction. Thus also when the resistance, opposed by any body to a force tending to break it, is to be overcome, the space through which it may be bent before it breaks being given, as well as the force exerted at every point of that space, the power of any body to break it is proportional to the energy of its motion, or to its weight multiplied by the square of its velocity. In almost all cases of the forces employed in practical mechanics, the labour expended in producing any motion, is proportional, not to the momentum, but to the energy which is obtained; since these forces are seldom to be considered as uniformly accelerating forces, but generally act at some disadvantage when the velocity is already considerable. For instance, if it be necessary to obtain a certain velocity, by means of the descent of a heavy body from a height to which we carry it by a flight of steps, we must ascend, if we wish to double the velocity, a quadruple number of steps, and this will cost us nearly four times as much labour. In the same manner, if we press with a given force on the shorter end of a lever, in order to move a weight at a greater distance on the other side of the fulcrum, a certain portion of the force is expended in the pressure which is supported by the fulcrum, and we by no means produce the same momentum as would have been obtained by the immediate action of an equal force on the body to be moved. An elastic ball of 2 ounces weight, moving with a velocity of 3 feet in a second, possesses an energy, as we have already seen, which may be expressed by 18. If it strike a ball of 1 ounce which is at rest, its velocity will be reduced to 1 foot in a second, and the smaller ball will receive a velocity of 4 feet: the energy of the first ball will then be expressed by 2, and that of the second by 16, making together 18, as before. The momentum of the larger ball after collision is 2, that of the smaller 4, and the sum of these is to the original momentum of the first ball. Supposing the magnitude of an elastic body which is at rest to be infinite, it will receive twice the momentum bf a small body that strikes it; but its velocity, and consequently its energy, will be inconsiderable, since the energy is expressed by the product of the momentum into the velocity. And if the larger body be of a finite magnitude, but still much greater than the smaller, its energy will be very small; that of the smaller, which rebounds with a velocity not much less than its original velocity, being but little diminished. It is for this reason that a man, having a heavy anvil placed on his chest, can bear, without much inconvenience, the blow of a large hammer striking on the anvil, while a much slighter blow of the hammer, acting immediately on his body would have fractured his ribs, and destroyed his life. The anvil receives a momentum nearly twice as great as that of the hammer; but its tendency to overcome the strength of the bones and to crush the man, is only proportional to its energy, which is nearly as much less than that of the hammer, as four times the weight of the hammer is less than the weight of the anvil. Thus if the weight of the hammer were 5 pounds, and that of the anvil 100, the energy of the anvil would be less than {only} one fifth as great as that of the hammer, besides some further diminution, on account of the want of perfect elasticity, and from the effect of the larger surface of the anvil in dividing the pressure occasioned by the blow, so as to enable a greater portion of the chest to cooperate in resisting it. ..."
Young's famous two-volume "Lectures on Natural Philosophy" (1807) contains the 60 lectures Young gave at the Royal Institution while professor of natural philosophy there (1801-1803). The first volume contains the lectures and almost 600 drawings; the second volume includes several of his papers and about 20,000 references to the literature.
Young is the first to use the word "energy" in its modern sense, as a property of a system that makes it capable of doing work and as proportional to the product of the mass of a body and the square of its velocity. Young does not explicitly state the equation E=mv2, but does equate the word energy with mass times velocity squared.
We can make a concept of Massergy=m2v, but is it useful? (State who defined work as force x distance.) Energy and momentum are slightly different, mometum=mv. People can easily create new equations and concepts such as massmentum=m2v, Tri-energy=mv^3, DiTri-energy=m2v3, etc, but the concept of these quantities is probably useless. In addition the idea that momentum and energy are conserved in collisions, reactions, etc, I think can be reduced to conservation of mass and velocity. For example, if m is conserved and v is conserved, than mv is also conserved, as is m2v and mv2, and any multiple of those quantities.
The future of the concept of energy, in my own opinion, is uncertain. In some sense, I think that since energy does not apply to any matter, it may be viewed as an unnecessary addition, but as a combination of mass and velocity perhaps it will serve as a useful concept. One clear mistake is the view that mass and velocity can be exchanged. Possibly this creation of the concept of energy, like the wave theory for light, could potentially be viewed as a major erroneous branch of science too, in which case Young would be the initiator of one and popularizer of two major inaccurate theories. In any event, the determination of frequency of different colors of light appears to be a lasting contribution to science, and may offset the delay of the public finally seeing the truth of the theory of light as a particle.
Young argues against the "caloric" theory of heat citing Thompson's (Rumford's) experiments. To me this debate comes down to, clearly the photon is responsible for heat, and the interpretation is either, the photon is heat, or the movement of the photon is heat, or both, in other words some volume of empty space is temperature 0, adding a single photons, I suppose, raises the temperature of that volume of space, certainly 2 photons in some volume of space raises the temperature of the volume of space. So the idea of heat as caloric (with caloric as a light particle) versus heat as movement, for me, comes down to, is heat the photon, the movement of the photon, or both. Even with the idea of heat being the average velocity of atoms and or molecules as defined by Maxwell, still, the cause of this movement is dependent on the quantity of photons in some volume of space.
| London, England |
193 YBN
[1807 AD]
| 2313) Some London streets begin using gas lighting.
| London, England |
193 YBN
[1807 AD]
| 2323) Jean Antoine Claude, comte de Chanteloup Chaptal (soPToL) (CE 1756-1832), publishes one of the first books specifically on industrial chemistry, "Chimie appliquée aux arts" (1807; Chemistry Applied to the Arts).
| Montpellier, France (presuambly) |
193 YBN
[1807 AD]
| 2352) Joseph Nicéphore Niépce (nYePS) (CE 1765-1833) and his brother Claude invent an internal-combustion engine which initially uses lycopodium powder for fuel. The Niepce brothers call this engine "the Pyréolophore". The Niepce brothers work on a piston-and-cylinder system similar to 1900s gasoline-powered engines. (Joseph) Niépce claims to have used (this motor) to power a boat.
| Chalon-sur-Saône, France (presumably) |
193 YBN
[1807 AD]
| 2366) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) patents the "camera lucida", a device with an adjustable prism inside that reflects light from the object to be drawn and light from the paper into the viewer's eye. This produces the illusion of the image on the paper which allows the viewer to trace the object on the paper.
| London, England |
193 YBN
[1807 AD]
| 2380) (Baron) Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (FURYAY) (CE 1768-1830), French mathematician announces "Fourier's theorem", the theorem that any periodic oscillation (any variation which eventually repeats itself exactly over and over again), however complex can be broken into a series of simple regular wave motions, the sum of which will be the original complex periodic variation. In other words it can be expressed as a mathematical series in which the terms are made up of trigonometric functions (sine, cosine, etc). This theorem has a very wide spread value, and is used in the study of any wave phenomena. The use of Fourier's theorem is called harmonic analysis. (The Fourier transform is the principle behind jpeg and mpeg compression of sound and images, a sound or light frequency is broken into more simple waves and a sound or image can be reconstructed from a set of parameters without having to store each original value of the original recording.)
Fourier invents the formula for a trigonometric series in which any repeated physical event can be defined by its phase and its amplitude and represented as a set of simple wave forms. As (an infinite series) is incapable of expressing initial conditions in infinite bodies, Fourier also creates an integral theorem. Today these are known as Fourier series and Fourier integrals.
In mathematics, the Fourier series is one of the specific forms of Fourier analysis. In particular, the Fourier series allows periodic functions to be represented as a weighted sum of much simpler sinusoidal component functions sometimes referred to as normal Fourier modes, or simply modes for short. The weights, or coefficients, of the components, arranged in order of increasing frequency, form a sequence (or function) called Fourier series. Therefore Fourier analysis is often said to transform the original function into another, which is called the frequency domain representation of the original function (which is often a function in the time-domain). And the mapping between the two functions is one-to-one, so the transform is reversible.
Fourier series serve many useful purposes, as manipulation and conceptualization of the modal coefficients are often easier than with the original function. Areas of application include electrical engineering, vibration analysis, acoustics, optics, signal and image processing, and data compression. Using the tools and techniques of spectroscopy, for example, astronomers can deduce the chemical composition of a star by analyzing the frequency components, or spectrum, of the star's emitted light. Similarly, engineers can optimize the design of a telecommunications system using information about the spectral components of the data signal that the system will carry.
Fourier submits a first draft of his work on the mathematical theory of heat conduction (which includes the Fourier transform - check) to the Paris Academy of Sciences in 1807. A second expanded version submitted in 1811 entitled "Théorie des mouvements de la chaleur dans les corps solides" receives the award of the academy in 1812. The first part of this work is printed in book form in 1822 under the title "Théorie analytique de la chaleur".
The Fourier transform transforms one function into another. The original function is often a function in the time-domain, while the transform of the original function is called the frequency domain representation of the original function. In this specific case, both domains are continuous and unbounded ((notice the integral goes from negative infinite to positive infinity)). The term Fourier transform can refer to either the frequency domain representation of a function or to the process/formula that "transforms" one function into the other.
There are several common conventions for defining the Fourier transform of a function X. In communications and signal processing, for instance, the Fourier transform is often the function:
(see equation 1)
When the independent variable t, represents time (unit of seconds), the transform variable f, represents ordinary frequency (in hertz). If x, is Hölder continuous, then it can be reconstructed from X, by the inverse transform:
(see equation 2)
Other notations for X(f), are: (see equation 3)
The interpretation of X, expressed in polar coordinate form is: (see equation 4) Then the inverse transform can be written: (see equation 5)
which is a recombination of all the frequency components of x(t). Each component is a complex sinusoid of the form ei2πft whose amplitude is A(f) and whose initial phase angle (at t = 0) is φ(f).
In mathematics, the Fourier transform is commonly written in terms of angular frequency: (see equation 6) whose units are radians per second.
The substitution (see equation 7), into the formulas above produces this convention: (see equation 8) which is also a bilateral Laplace transform evaluated at s = iω.
The 2π factor can be split evenly between the Fourier transform and the inverse, which leads to another popular convention: (see equation 9)
The Fourier series is an infinite series used to solve special types of differential equations. The Fourier series consists of an infinite sum of sines and cosines, and because it is periodic (its values repeat over fixed intervals), it is a useful tool in analyzing periodic functions. Although this series was investigated by Leonhard Euler, among others, the idea is named for Joseph Fourier, who fully explored its consequences, including important applications in engineering, particularly in heat conduction.
| Grenoble, France |
193 YBN
[1807 AD]
| 3270) William and Edward Chapman in England patent the important innovation of a sewing machine that uses a needle with an eye in the point of the needle instead of at the top.
(give more details of design and show graphically)
| England |
193 YBN
[1807 AD]
| 3385) Francois Isaac de Rivaz (CE 1752-1828) designs a gas engine that uses hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, and a car that uses the engine.
(evidence that engine and car are actually built?)
| ?, Switzerland |
192 YBN
[06/21/1808 AD]
| 2465) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) and Thénard announce that by treating boron oxide with potassium that they liberated boron, for the first time, in elemental form. This is 9 days ahead of Davy. (Did they know that Boron oxide was somehow different from other known elements? Perhaps they were unable to identify the elements in boron oxide?)
Gay-Lussac and Thenard heat boron oxide (B2O3) with potassium metal. The impure, amorphous product, a brownish black powder, is the only form of boron that will be known for more than a century.
Davy also isolates Boron by heating borax with potassium.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
192 YBN
[06/??/1808 AD]
| 2393) Alexander Humboldt (CE 1769-1859) starts to publish the 23 volume "Voyage de Humboldt et Bonpland" (23 vol., 1808-1834) in French, often cited by the title of Part I, "Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent" which describes his exploration of South America and Mexico.
Humboldt sees that excessive tree felling can be followed by soil erosion, and documents the relics of the Inca and Aztec civilizations.
| Paris, France |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 1224) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his famous 5th Symphony (in C opus67).
This symphony is one of the most popular and best-known compositions in all of classical music, and one of the most often played symphonies.
| Vienna, Austria |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2308) William Nicholson (CE 1753-1815) compiles a "Dictionary of Practical and theoretical Chemistry" (1808).
| London, England (presumably) |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2371) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) finds multiple combining proportions in acid salts which supplies support for the the atomic theory (revived) by John Dalton.
| London, England |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2376) John Dalton (CE 1766-1844), publishes "New System of Chemical Philosophy" (2 vol., 1808-27) in which Dalton explains his expanded atomic theory in detail. This view is accepted by most chemists with surprisingly little opposition, considering its revolutionary nature. Wollaston accepts Dalton's atomic theory immediately, but Davy holds out for a few years.
| Manchester, England |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2378) Alexis Bouvard (BOVoR) (CE 1767-1843), French astronomer, publishes "Tables astronomiques" (1808) of Jupiter and Saturn which correctly (to the precision possible) predict the orbital positions of Jupiter and Saturn.
Bouvard finding and calculating the orbit of 8 new comets.
(state units orbital positions are given it, is r.a. and dec.?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2382) Joseph Fourier (FURYAY) (CE 1768-1830) oversees the publication of the "Description de l'Egypte" (1808-25, "Description of Egypt"), a massive compilation of the (historical) and scientific materials brought back to France from Egypt.
| Paris, France |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2428) Étienne Louis Malus (molYUS) (CE 1775-1812), French physicist, finds that a light source behind calcite (Iceland spar) is not double refracted and names the phenomenon of light "polarization".
This implies that the phenomenon of double refraction seen in calcite only happens for light that passes through the crystal at least twice.
Malus recognizes that light from the other side of calcite only shows a single image but does not recognize that double refraction is a property only of light such as from in front of the crystal that passes through the crystal at least twice.
When looking through a calcite crystal at sunlight reflected from a window, Malus notices that only one image (instead of two) is emerging from the crystal.
Malus believes in the corpuscular theory of Newton and argues that light particles have sides or poles and (in his report) uses for the first time the word "polarization" to describe the phenomenon (of his mistaken belief that reflected light only produces a single image from calcite). Perhaps instead of "polarized" a better name is "single plane", "same plane", "same direction", or "single direction" light.
So, for example, when looking at text under the crystal, the text will appear as two images because the source light is coming from the front, passing through the crystal, reflecting off the text, and passing through the crystal a second time back to the viewer's eye. Light that originates from the other side of the crystal only passes through the crystal once and so only one image is seen. This shows possibly that the double refraction phenomenon only happens for light that passes through the crystal at least twice. However, I find that with a laser I can see a double image if the laser is reflected off a paper and the crystal is held close to the paper. But only if the crystal is close to the reflected laser on the paper. So I am still unsure about why a second images appears, but I think it is definitely a particle phenomenon.
Malus publishes a paper in 1809 ("Sur une propriete de la lumiere reflechie par les corps diaphanes") which contains the discovery of the polarization of light by reflection, and in 1910 Malus wins a prize from the Institute with his memoir, "Theorie de la double refraction de la lumiere dans les substances cristallines" which contains Malus' theory of double refraction (bending) of light in crystals.
Malus concludes that the two refracted rays transmitted through Iceland spar are polarized perpendicularly to each other, because as the crystal is rotated, one ray becomes less intense and the other more intense (I do not observe this with my own calcite crystal, but perhaps), the two fading out completely but alternately with each 90 degree turn of the crystal. Asimov claims that all this is neatly explained by Fresnel's theory of transverse waves, however I think a particle explanation is probably more accurate and likely. For example, a gradual change in intensity can be explained by reflection from a plane, whose angle changes relative to the source light beam as the crystal is turned. Malus finds that when Sun light reflects off a nonmetallic surface, the light is partially polarized. (Malus finds that ) the degree of polarization depends on the angle of incidence and the index of refraction of the reflecting material. Malus' law says that when a perfect polarizer is placed in a polarized beam of light, the intensity, I, of the light that passes through is given by I = I0cos2θi where I0 is the initial intensity, and θi is the angle between the light's initial plane of polarization and the axis of the polarizer.
At one extreme, when the tangent of the incident angle of light in air equals the index of refraction of the reflecting material, the reflected light is 100 percent linearly polarized; this is known as Brewster's law after its discoverer, the Scottish physicist David Brewster.
| Paris, France |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2446) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) publishes "Theoria motus corporum coelestium in sectionibus conicis solem ambientum" which contains Gauss' presentation of the least squares method and methods of determining an orbit from at least three observations.
| Göttingen, Germany |
192 YBN
[1808 AD]
| 2478) Davy isolates and names barium, strontium, calcium, and magnesium using a modified method suggested by Berzelius. Davy isolates Boron but Guy-Lussac and Thenard had isolated Boron nine days before. (more detail for each, separate record for each)
| London, England |
191 YBN
[11/16/1809 AD]
| 6341) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) theorizes that muscular contraction is not constant but is vibratory in nature. In this lecture Wollaston possibly hints about remote neuron reading and writing and draws attention to causing sounds in the ear by mechanical vibration.
| London, England |
191 YBN
[1809 AD]
| 2240) Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) publishes "Philosophie zoologique" (1809, "Zoological Philosophy"), in which Lamarck puts forward a theory of evolution in which characteristics are acquired or lost depending on use and passed on through reproduction.
Lamarck puts forward the idea that more complex life evolved from simpler forms and were not initially created by a Deity and that the most simple forms of life originated spontaneously from the action of heat, light, electricity, and moisture on certain inorganic materials.
The popular belief at this time is that a deity had created all the living bodies on earth. These living bodies formed a hierarchy with the simplest forms at the bottom, above them plants, then animals, and finally humans as the most complex objects of creation. Lamarck transforms this static chain into an evolutionary one by maintaining that the complex organisms were not created but have evolved from simpler organisms over a very long period of time.
Lamarck describes two laws control the ascent of life to higher stages: 1) that organs are improved by repeated use and weakened by disuse and 2) that these acquisition, determined by environment, "are preserved by reproduction to the new individuals". Lamarck gives as an example the theory that the forelegs and neck of giraffes have become lengthened because of repeated stretching of the neck to eat leaves on high trees(is from repeated use or repeated stretching?)
One obvious problem with this theory was the example of protective coloration, which is clearly not controlled by the organism. (who states first?) In addition all experimental evidence shows that acquired characteristics are not passed on. (detail)
This theory of "inheritance of acquired characteristics" is wrong, but the theory stimulates others, and serves as a starting point for other theories of evolution.
Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species" 50 years later will put Lamarck's theory in the center of focus and controversy. Darwin's explanation of natural selection will replace Lamarck's theory of acquired characteristics. (Larmarck's theory of acquired characteristics) will be discredited by most geneticists after the 1930s, except in the Soviet Union, where, as Lysenkoism, (in a frightening example like religion of a popular belief that is openly opposed to the most obvious physical facts), the theory of acquired characteristics will dominate Soviet genetics until the 1960s.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
191 YBN
[1809 AD]
| 2302) Nicolas (François) Appert (oPAR or APAR) (CE 1752-1841) invents a method of preserving food for several years.
Appert also develops the bouillon cube and a nonacid method to extract gelatin.
Nicolas (François) Appert (oPAR or APAR) (CE 1752-1841), French chef and inventor, publishes his technique of heating food and then keeping the food in air-tight sealed containers in "L'Art de conserver, pendant plusieurs années, toutes les substances animales et végétales" ("The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years"). Appert's work is an application of Spallanzani's experiment (of boiling food) to disprove spontaneous generation. Pasteur will explain that this process (Spall and/or Appert?) will lead him to invent the pasteurization process in 50 years. Appert is inspired by Napoleon's offer through the French Directory in 1795 of a prize for a way to preserve food for transport. After 14 years of experimentation Appert wins the prize of 12,000 francs. Appert uses corked-glass containers reinforced with wire and sealing wax and kept in boiling water for varying lengths of time to preserve various foods such as soups, fruits, vegetables, juices, dairy products, and syrups. The award requires that Appert publish his method which he does in "L'Art de conserver, pendant plusieurs années, toutes les substances animales et végétales" ("The Art of Preserving All Kinds of Animal and Vegetable Substances for Several Years").
| Paris, France (presumably) |
191 YBN
[1809 AD]
| 2367) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) invents the reflective goniometer, an instrument to measure the angles between the faces of crystals.
| London, England |
191 YBN
[1809 AD]
| 2466) Gases shown to combine in small whole number ratios by volume.
Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) describes the "Law of combining volumes", that gases combine in small whole number ratios by volume as long as temperature and pressure are constant(Gay-Lussac stated that temperature and pressure must be constant?). For example, two parts of hydrogen unite with one part nitrogen to form ammonia.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
191 YBN
[1809 AD]
| 2481) This electric arc lamp is the start of electric lighting.
Davy invents an arc lamp, the first attempt to use electricity to illuminate. (More details: Does this lamp use current in air between electrodes as a source of photons? Perhaps this uses too much electricity to be efficient?)
| London, England |
191 YBN
[1809 AD]
| 2529) François Magendie (mojoNDE) (CE 1783-1855), French physiologist, begins experiments with various drugs on the human body. Magendie introduces the use of strychnine and morphine in addition to compounds with bromine and iodine. Magendie is (therefore) the founder of experimental pharmacology. (Is Magendie the first to experiment with drugs on people?) (Much of experimental pharmacology is found now in clinical psychology, for which there are many thousands of psychiatric disorders and related experimental drugs. Experimenting with drugs on people is fine as long as consensual and when people are made aware of known risks.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
190 YBN
[1810 AD]
| 2369) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) identifies the second amino acid, cystine, in a bladder stone, although the identification of cystine as an amino acid will not happen for nearly a century.
| London, England |
190 YBN
[1810 AD]
| 2370) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) fails to reverse Oersted's finding of an electric current produces a magnetic field (that can deflect a compass needle), by creating a magnetic field that produces an electric current. Wollaston discusses this idea with Humphry Davy and Davy's assistant Michael Faraday who is also present will succeed in creating an electric current from a magnetic field (creating the first electrical generator and electric motor).
He missed a similar chance in 1820 when he failed to pursue the full implications of Hans Oersted's 1820 demonstration that an electric current could cause a deflection in a compass needle. Although he performed some experiments it was left to Michael Faraday in 1821 to discover and analyze electromagnetic rotation.
| London, England |
190 YBN
[1810 AD]
| 2388) Georges Cuvier (KYUVYAY) (CE 1769-1832) publishes "Rapport historique sur les progrès des sciences naturelles depuis 1789, et sur leur état actuel" (1810, "Historical Report on the Progress of the Sciences") which (give a historical account) of European science of the time.
| Paris, France |
190 YBN
[1810 AD]
| 2412) Robert Brown (CE 1773-1858), publishes partial results of his Australian trip in "Prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae et Insulae Van Diemen" (1810) ((in Latin and apparently with no illustrations)) in which Brown lays the foundations for classifying the plants of Australian and refines the popular systems of plant classificationby adding his own modifications and using microscopic characters to help (distinguish) species. Brown uses the natural (taxonomy) system of Jussieu and Candolle, and not the artificial system of Linnaeus.
Brown describes 2200 species, over 1700 of which are new (including 140 new genera).
| London, England (presumably) |
190 YBN
[1810 AD]
| 2480) After having discovered sodium and potassium by using a powerful current from a galvanic battery (voltaic pile?) to decompose oxides of these elements, Davy turns to the decomposition of muriatic (now hydrochloric) acid, one of the strongest acids known. The products of the decomposition are hydrogen and a green gas that supports combustion and that, when combined with water, produces an acid. Davy concludes that this gas is an element.
Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), shows that "oxymuriatic acid gas" is not the oxide of an unknown element, murium, and contains no oxygen, which proved Lavoisier's theory that oxygen is what makes an acid wrong. Davy shows that this acid is composed of a new element Davy names "chlorine" from a Greek word for "green", because of the greenish color of the gas. Davy renames "oxymuriatic acid" to "hydrochloric acid". Davy finds that chlorine can support combustion as oxygen does. This is the first indication that oxygen is not the only chemically active gas. (I think there are still mysteries as to what it is about oxygen and chlorine that make them so reactive.)(What are the differences between chlorine and oxygen combustion? Are more photons {mass, volume} released with oxygen or chlorine? what elements can combust with oxygen and/or chlorine?) Gay-Lussac will find that Prussic acid also contains no oxygen 5 years later in 1815.(verify chronology) Chlorine was first isolated by the Swedish chemist Carl Wilhelm Scheele (1742-1786) in 1774.
Davy attempts to explain the bleaching action of chlorine as chlorine's liberation of oxygen from water, (however this is inaccurate). (Has the bleaching action of chlorine been explained. Isn't this more accurate chlorinated water? What is the chmical composition of bleach?)
Davy performs many experiments to try and find oxygen in "oxymuriatic acid" (hydrochloric acid). Davy reacts "oxymuriatic acid" (chlorine gas) with ammonia, and finds only muriatic acid and nitrogen in the products:
3 Cl2 + 2 NH3 -> 6 HCl + N2 Davy exposes the gas to white-hot carbon to try to remove the oxygen as carbon dioxide. Davy is never able to produce oxygen or any compound known to contain oxygen, and so finally concludes that this green gas is an element which he names "chlorine" after the Greek "chloros" meaning yellow-green.
Davy also shows that muriatic acid contains no oxygen, only containing hydrogen and chlorine. For example, Davy finds that two volumes of muriatic acid react with mercury to give calomel and one volume of hydrogen: 2 HCl + 2 Hg ------> Hg2Cl2 + H2
Davy concludes that acidity is not the result of the presence of an acid-forming element but instead the result of the physical form of the acid molecule itself. Davy suggests that chemical properties are determined not by specific elements alone but also by the ways in which these elements are arranged in molecules. In arriving at this view Davy is influenced by an atomic theory that was also to have important consequences for Faraday's thought. This theory, proposed in the 1700s by Ruggero Giuseppe Boscovich, argues that atoms are mathematical points surrounded by alternating fields of attractive and repulsive forces. (This implies that Davy did not recognize that hydrogen is characteristic of acids.) Acids are molecules that contain hydrogen that can be replaced by a metal or an electropositive group to form a salt, or that contain an atom that can accept a pair of electrons from a base.
| London, England |
190 YBN
[1810 AD]
| 2482) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), "Elements of Chemical Philosophy" (London: Johnson and Co., 1812).
In this work Davy puts forward a theory of heat as the immaterial movement of particles writing: "Since all matter may be made to fill a smaller volume by cooling, it is evident that the particles of matter must have space between them; and since every body can communicate the power of expansion to a body of a lower temperature, that is, can give an expansive motion to its particles, it is a probable inference that its own particles are possessed of motion; but as there is no change in the position of its parts as long as its temperature is uniform, the motion, if it exist, must be a vibratory or undulatory motion, or a motion of the particles round their axes, or a motion of particles round each other. It seems possible to account for all the phenomena of heat, if it be supposed that in solids the particles are in a constant state of vibratory motion, the particles of the hottest bodies moving with the greatest velocity, and through the greatest space; that in fluids and elastic fluids, besides the vibratory motion, which must be conceived greatest in the last, the particles have a motion round their own axes, with different velocities, the particles of elastic fluids moving with the greatest quickness; and that in etherial substances the particles move round their own axes, and separate from each other, penetrating in right lines through space. Temperature may be conceived to depend upon the velocities of the vibrations; increase of capacity on the motion being performed in greater space; and the diminution of temperature during the conversion of solids into fluids or gasses, may be explained on the idea of the loss of vibratory motion, in consequence of the revolution of particles round their axes, at the moment when the body becomes fluid or aeriform, or from the loss of rapidity of vibration, in consequence of the motion of the particles through greater space. If a specific fluid of heat be admitted, it must be supposed liable to most of the affections which the particles of common matter are assumed to possess, to account for the phenomena; such as losing its motion when combining with bodies, producing motion when transmitted from one body to another, and gaining projectile motion, when passing into free space: so that many hypotheses must be adopted to account for its mode of agency, which renders this view of the subject less simple than the other. Very delicate experiments have been made which shew that bodies when heated do not increase in weight. This, as far as it goes, is an evidence against a specific subtile elastic fluid producing the calorific expansion; but it cannot be considered as decisive, on account of the imperfection of our instruments; a cubical inch of inflammable air requires a good balance to ascertain that it has any sensible weight, and a substance bearing the same relation to this, that this bears to platinum, could not perhaps be weighed by any methods in our possession.".
| London, England |
190 YBN
[1810 AD]
| 5976) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his famous Bagatelle, "Für Elise".
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
189 YBN
[06/??/1811 AD]
| 2396) Alexander Humboldt (CE 1769-1859) publishes "Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain" (1811) in which includes material on the geography and geology of Mexico, including descriptions of its political, social, and economic conditions, and population statistics. Humboldt writes against slavery in this work.
| Paris, France |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 658) Secret: Images that the brain sees are seen and recorded by measuring the electricity the images produce in the human nerves.
| London, England (presumably) |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2334) Heinrich Olbers (oLBRS or OLBRZ) (CE 1758-1840), describes the theory that the tail of a comet always points away from the Sun because of pressure from Sun (light).
In the 1900s, pressure from light will be demonstrated in the laboratory. (more specifics, doesn't this imply that particles of light are material?)
| Bremen, Germany |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2432) The concept of molecules.
Avogadro claims that equal volumes of all gases at the same temperature and pressure contain the same number of molecules. (Does Avogadro explicitly state that pressure must also be equal?)
Avogadro describes the correct molecular formula for water, ammonia, carbon monoxide and other compounds.
| Vercelli, Italy |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2441) Courtois burns seaweed to get potassium carbonate. But this also produces sulfur compounds which Courtois removes by heating in acid. Once Courtois accidentally adds too much acid and on heating obtains a vapor of "superb violet color" (This must be interesting to see). The vapor condenses on cold surfaces and produces dark, lustrous crystals. Courtois suspects that this is a new element but lacks the confidence and the laboratory equipment to establish this and asks Charles Bernard Désormes (CE 1777-1862), the discoverer in 1801 of carbon dioxide, to continue his researches. By 1814 Davy and Gay-Lussac show that this is a new element and Davy suggests the name "iodine" from the Greek word for violent. Seaweed is still a major source of iodine.
Davy uses a small portable laboratory and the help of various institutions in France and Italy and identifies that iodine's properties are similar to chlorine.
Both Guy-Lussac and Davy show that the iodine found by Courtois is an element. (How can they be sure that iodine is not a compound? I guess at some point, when no process can break down some substance any further, the substance is presumed to be an element.)
| Dijon, France |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2467) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) and Thénard determine the elementary composition of sugar (glucose?). Together Gay-Lussac and Thénard identify a class of substances (later called carbohydrates) including sugar and starch.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2510) Henri Braconnot (BroKunO) (CE 1781-1855), French chemist, discovers chitin in mushrooms, the earliest known polysaccharide.
| Nancy, France |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2519) Simeon Denis Poisson (PWoSON) (CE 1781-1840), French mathematician, publishes "Traité de mécanique" (1811 and 1833, "Treatise on Mechanics") which is the standard work in mechanics for many years.
| Paris, France |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2522) (Sir) David Brewster (CE 1781-1868), Scottish physicist proposes "Brewster's Law", which states that the index of refraction is the tangent of the angle of polarization of reflected light and that when a ray of light is polarized by reflection, the reflected ray forms a right angle with the refracted ray.
Brewster finds that a beam of light can be split into a reflected portion and a refracted portion, at right angles to each other and that both would then be completely polarized. This is called Brewster's law. (a this law can easily be explained by supposing light to consist of transverse waves, but neither the longitudinal wave, or particle theory can explain it.) (of course the specifics need to be explained.) (I have doubts, and want to reproduce this phenomenon. Perhaps some interesting nature of surfaces is revealed, for example, light the reflects off transparent objects is only reflected at specific angles, light of other angles being transmitted into the transparent object. Perhaps the shape of the openings at the surface only allow for a certain plane of light to be reflected. Perhaps some truth about refraction is revealed too. But I'm skeptical about the claim. State how this phenomenon is tested. Test if this phenomenon works for different kinds of glass. It's almost as if the part of the beam that is refracted removes beams that are not in a single plane. Of course in a beam of light there are many millions of tiny particle rays.)
Brewster's most important finds are: (1) the connection between the refractive index and the polarizing angle, (2) of biaxial crystals (the discovery of crystals with two axes of double refraction, and many of the laws of their phenomena, including the connection of optical structure and crystalline forms), and (3) of the production of double refraction by irregular heating.
Brewster finds a simple law that enables the polarizing angle of any substance whose refractive index is known. (presumably all refracting substances polarize or perhaps "plane-ize" light by way of the separation of one part of a beam of light by reflection and the other part by refractive transmission through the material.)
Brewster first reports this finding to Philosophical Transactions as "On the laws which regulate the polarisatino of light by reflexion from transparent bodies." in 1815 citing experiments he performed in the summer of 1811. He writes: " DEAR SIR, THE discovery of the polarisation of light by reflexion, constitutes a memorable epoch in the history of optics; and the name of MALUS, who first made known this remarkable property of bodies, will be for ever associated with a branch of science which he had the sole merit of creating. By a few brilliant and comprehensive experiments he established the general fact, that light acquired the same property as one of the pencils formed by double refraction, when it was reflected at a particular angle from the surfaces of all transparent bodies: he found that the angle of incidence at which this property was communicated, was greater in bodies of a high refractive power, and he measured, with considerable accuracy, the polarising angles for glass and water. In order to discover the law which regulated the phenomena, he compared these angles with the refractive and dispersive powers of glass and water, and finding that there was no relation between these properties of transparent bodies, he draws the following general conclusion. 'The polarising angle neither follows the order of the refractive powers, nor that of the dispersive forces. It is a property of bodies independent of the other modes of action which they exercise upon light.' This premature generalisation of a few imperfectly ascertained facts, is perhaps equalled only by the mistake of Sir ISAAC NEWTON, who pronounced the construction of an achromatic telescope to be incompatible with the known principles of optics. Like NEWTON, too, MALUS himself abandoned the enquiry; and even his learned associates in the Institute, to whom he bequeathed the prosecution of his views, have sought for fame in the investigation of other properties of polarised light. In the summer of 1811, when my attention was first turned to this subject, I repeated the experiments of MALUS, and measured the polarising angles of a great number of transparent bodies. I endeavoured, in vain, to connect these results by some general principle: the measures for water and the precious stones afforded a surprising coincidence between the indices of refraction and the tangents of the polarising angles; but the results for glass formed an exception, and resisted every method of classification. Disappointed in my expectations, I abandoned the enquiry for more than twelve months, but having occasion to measure the polarising angle of topaz, I was astonished at its coincidence with the preceding law, and again attempted to reduce the results obtained from glass under the same principle. The piece which I used had two surfaces excellently polished. The polarising angle of one of these surfaces almost exactly accorded with the law of the tangents, but with the other surface there was a deviation of no less than two degrees. Upon examining the cause of this anomalous result, I found that one of the surfaces had suffered some chemical change, and reflected less light than any other part of the glass. This artificial substance acquires an incrustation, or experiences a decomposition by exposure to the air, which alters its polarising angle without altering its general refractive power. The perplexing anomalies which BOUGUER observed in the reflective power of plate glass, were owing to the same cause, and so liable is this substance to these changes, that by the aid of heat alone, I have produced a variation of 9° on the polarising angle of flint glass, and given it the power of acting upon light like the coloured oxides of steel. Having thus ascertained the cause of the anomalies presented by glass, I compared the various angles which I had measured, and found that they were all represented by the following simple law. The index of refraction is the tangent of the angle of polarisation." Brewster defines a number of propositions, and in this way states other relations such as: "When a ray of light is polarised by reflexion, the reflected ray forms a right angle with the refracted ray.".
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2536) (Sir) Charles Bell (CE 1774-1842), Scottish anatomist, publishes "New Idea of Anatomy of the Brain" (1811) which contains Bell's view that the anterior (front) roots of the spinal nerves are motor in function, while the posterior (rear) roots are sensory. This observation will be experimentally confirmed and more fully elaborated 11 years later by François Magendie. In this work Bell distinguishes between sensory nerves that conduct impulses to the central nervous system and motor nerves that send impulses from the brain or from other nerve centers to a peripheral organ of response.
| London, England |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2548) Pierre Louis Dulong (DYULoUNG) (CE 1785-1838) French chemist, is the first to identify nitrogen trichloride, a spontaneously explosive oil.
Nitrogen trichloride is a powerful explosive and during Dulong's investigations Dulong loses an eye and nearly a hand on two explosions. Davy also nearly accidentally kills himself while working with nitrogen trichloride.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2558) Dominique François Jean Arago (oroGO) (CE 1786-1853) French physicist, discovers chromatic polarization. Arago also observes that a portion of the light reflected from the blue sky is polarized.
Arago holds a sheet of mica up to a clear sky and examines (the mica) through an Iceland spar crystal. The crystal's birefringence produces a double image of the mica disc, and Arago finds the (two) images are tinted in complementary colors; the frequencies present in one image are absent in the other. Arago also finds that where the two images overlap, they combine to to produce white light. This leads Arago to the conclusion that the blue sky is polarized (no colors are seen against clouds) and becomes the basis of the polariscope which Arago uses to find no evidence of polarization in the Sun's photosphere. (more info, the blue light from the sky is polarized? How is the polariscope made and what does the polariscope do?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
189 YBN
[1811 AD]
| 2564) Michel Eugéne Chevreul (seVRuL) (CE 1786-1889) French chemist identifies the fatty acids. From this work, Chevreul recognizes that fats are combinations of glycerol and fatty acids.
Chevreul's analysis of a soap made from pig fat leads to a 12-year study of a variety of animal fats.
Chevreul treats soap (usually produced from fat) with hydrochloric acid, and finds that insoluble organic acids rise to the top of the watery solution. From this Chevreul isolates oleic acid, margaric acid (a mixture of stearic and palmitic acids), butyric acid, capric and caproic acids, and valeric acid. Stearic acid, palmitic acid, and oleic acid are the three most common and important constituents of fats and oils. (Fats and oils are both lipids.) Chevreul shows that spermaceti treated in the same way, (mixed with hydrochloric acid,) does not behave similarly and is a wax and not a fat.
Before this chemists thought that a soap was the product of the entire fat reacting with an alkali. However, Chevreul shows that an alkali splits a fat into an alcohol, which Chevreul names "glycerin" (now named "glycerol"), and a soap, which is the salt of an organic acid. Therefore, Chevreul shows that fats are glycerides of organic acids.
Chevreul recognizes that fats are esters of glycerol and fatty acids and that saponification produces salts of the fatty acids (which are soaps) and glycerol. At the time esters are called "ethers".
Esters are compounds formed by condensation between an acid and an alcohol, for example ethyl alcohol and acetic acid make the ester ethyl acetate. Fats are esters of the alcohol glycerol, and long-chain fatty acids. Many esters are used as synthetic flavors.
Saponification is a reaction in which an ester is heated with an alkali, such as sodium hydroxide, producing a free alcohol and an acid salt, especially alkaline hydrolysis of a fat or oil to make soap. (So in a sense, esterification and saponification are opposites?)
Chevreul will publish these results in 1823 in "Recherches chimiques sur les corps gras d'origine animale" (1823, "Chemical Research on Animal Fats").
| Paris, France (presumably) |
188 YBN
[03/09/1812 AD]
| 2520) Siméon-Denis Poisson (PWoSON) (CE 1781-1840) publishes "Sur la distribution de l'électricité à la surface des corps conducteurs" (1812), in which Poisson finds Laplace's integral V function "by expressing the integrands as series. (this will later be called the 'potential function'). Poisson's V is the analytic form of Cavendish's 'electrification' and Volta's 'tension', and goes further, by permitting the statement of the classical problems of electrostatics-finding the distribution of electricity and the resultant forces-in full generality". Poisson attributes the material properties of actual fluids to electricity.
(In this work) Poisson provides an extensive treatment of electrostatics, based on Laplace's methods from planetary theory, by postulating that electricity is made up of two fluids in which like particles are repelled and unlike particles are attracted with a force that is inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them.(I don't think we should rule out a two fluid theory for electricity. It may be that when an electron moves, it displaces some other particle which moves in the opposite direction. Even the single fluid model has unresolved questions, for example, do electrons move through empty space without colliding? do they orbit other particles on the way from one location to another? Does a single electron move through a metal or like billiard balls, do electrons simply knock other electrons forward as if in a long first-in-first-out line? Without really seeing the electrons, we should keep an open mind to all the possibilities.)
Historian Edmund Whittaker writes in 1910: "In spite of the advances which have been recounted, the mathematical development of electric and magnetic theory was scarcely begun at the close of the eighteenth century; and many erroneous notions were still widely entertained. In a Report which was presented to the French Academy in 1800, it was assumed that the mutual repulsion of the particles of electricity on the surface of a body is balanced by the resistance of the surrounding air; and for long afterwards the electric force outside a charged conductor was confused with a supposed additional pressure in the atmosphere. Electrostatical theory was, however, suddenly advanced to quite a mature state of development by Simeon Denis Poisson (b. 1781, d. 1840), in a memoir which was read to the French Academy in 1812. As the opening sentences show, he accepted the conceptions of the two-fluid theory. "The theory of electricity which is most generally accepted,", he says, "is that which attributes the phenomena to two different fluids, which are contained in all material bodies. It is supposed that molecules of the same fluid repel each other and attract the molecules of the other fluid; these forces of attraction and repulsion obey the law of the inverse square of the distance; and at the same distance the attractive power is equal to the repellent power; whence it follows that, when all the parts of a body contain equal quantities of the two fluids, the latter do not exert any influence on the fluids contained in neighbouring bodies, and consequently no electrical effects are discernible. This equal and uniform distribution of the two fluids is called the natural state; when this state is disturbed in any body, the body is said to be electrified, and the various phenomena of electricity begin to take place. Material bodies do not all behave in the same way with respect to the electric fluid; some, such as the metals, do not appear to exert any influence on it, but permit it to move about freely in their substance; for this reason they are called conductors. Others, on the contrary- very dry air, for example - oppose the passage of the electric fluid in their interior, so that they can prevent the fluid accumulated in conductors from being dissipated throughout space.". In this memoir Poisson makes use of V function which Legrange and Laplace had used to describe the force of gravity to apply to the force of electricity. The V function is the sum of the masses of all the particles in an attracting system, each divided by its distance from the point where the cumulative force is being determined. Laplace had shown in 1782 that the sum of the second derivatives of the V function in each of the three dimensions equals zero in a space free from attracting matter. (In theory there is no space free from a force exerted by matter - although perhaps at some distance the force or velocity or acceleration exerted by gravitation can be treated as zero.) Poisson theorizes that the value of the V function over the surface of any conductor must be constant. (I think this may have more to do with particles distributing evenly - similar to a dye in water dispersing.)
| Paris, France |
188 YBN
[1812 AD]
| 2316) James Parkinson (CE 1755-1824), English physician, is the first to write a medical report on a perforated appendix and recognize it as a cause of death. Parkinson correctly identifies that coal is of plant origin (Can coal be of animal origin too?)
Parkinson writes in favor of better treatment of mental patients.
| London, England |
188 YBN
[1812 AD]
| 2347) Gottlieb Kirchhof (KRKHuF) (CE 1764-1833) isolates glucose.
Gottlieb Sigismund Constantin Kirchhof (KRKHuF) (CE 1764-1833), German-Russian chemist (not to be confused with the later German chemist Gustav Kirchhoff) isolates glucose by treating starch with sulfuric acid.
Kirchhof studies the conversion of starches to sugar in the presence of strong acids when he notices that when starch is boiled in water no change in the starch occurs, however, when a few drops of concentrated acid are added before boiling, the suspension (that is, particles of starch suspended in water), the starch breaks down to form glucose, a simple sugar, while the acid which clearly had helped the reaction was not changed.{2 every}
This adding of sulfuric acid causes the hydrolysis (a double decomposition reaction with water as one of the reactants) of the large starch molecule into its small glucose units. (water must be an intermediate reactant for their to by hydrolysis.)
Glucose is the most common of the simple sugars.
This is the first use of a controlled catalytic reaction, since sulfuric acid is not consumed in the process, something Berzelius will name "catalysis". (I find it hard to believe that no part of the sulfuric acid is absorbed. Maybe the sulfuric acid has a temporary reaction that falls back into sulfuric acid and some other product. Perhaps the sulfuric acid simply pulls the molecular bonds farther apart or something.)
Kirchhof establishes a large factory using a method Kirchhof develops for refining vegetable oil. This factory produces two tons of refined oil a day.
| St Petersburg?, Russia? |
188 YBN
[1812 AD]
| 2389) Georges Cuvier (KYUVYAY) (CE 1769-1832) publishes "Recherches sur les ossements fossiles de quadrupèdes" (1812, "Researches on the Bones of Fossil Vertebrates") which summarizes Cuvier's systematic study of fossils that he had excavated.
In this year Cuvier exhibits the fossil of a flying creature, a reptile with true wings which he names "pterodactyl" ("wing finger") because the membrane of its wing was stretched out along one enormous finger.(This species is now called "pterosaur".)
Cuvier reconstructs complete skeletons of unknown fossil quadrupeds and these (skeletons) provide evidence that entire species of animals had become extinct.
Cuvier notices that the deeper strata contain animal remains such as giant salamanders, flying reptiles, and extinct elephants that are far less similar to animals now living than those found in the more recent strata.
Cuvier wrongly identifies dinosaur teeth as mammalian and belonging to an extinct species of rhinoceros.
Cuvier (wrongly) argues that the anatomical characteristics distinguishing groups of animals are evidence that species had not changed since the Creation, and that each species is so well coordinated, functionally and structurally, that it could not survive significant change. Cuvier also argues that each species was created for its own special purpose and each organ for its special function. In rejecting the idea of evolution, (that species evolved changes slowly over time), Cuvier is set in opposition with the views of his colleague Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, who published his theory of evolution in 1809, and eventually with Geoffroy, who in 1825 will publish evidence concerning the evolution of crocodiles.
Rejecting evolution, Cuvier favors instead the catastrophism of Bonnet and neptunism of Werner. (According to Cuvier) the last catastrophe was the Flood described in Genesis, through which, by divine intervention, some living things had survived. So (according to Cuvier) the vast age of the earth can be explained as the Bible only explaining the last postcatastrophic age.
Cuvier suggests only four catastrophes, and this number has grown to 27.(Clearly there were catastrophes in the history of Earth, mainly impacts from orbiting matter, but other catastrophe kinds (viruses, bacteria, geological/environmental disasters such as lava from the Earth inside covering the Earth, etc) cannot be ruled out.)
Cuvier classifies all animals into four main branches (embranchements) (primarily) according to the construction of their nervous system.
Cuvier's reconstruction of the soft parts of fossils deduced from their skeletal remains greatly advance the science of paleontology.
| Paris, France |
188 YBN
[1812 AD]
| 2402) Friedrich Mohs (mOS) (CE 1773-1839) German mineralogist builds Mohs scale, the standard by which the hardness of minerals can be expressed. The smooth surface of the mineral is scratched by the sharp edge of a series of substances of graded hardness. A substance that can be scratched by one harder than itself and can in turn scratch one softer than itself. The scale ranges from 1 for the soft mineral, talc, to 10 for diamond. The numbers do not measure equal differences in hardness.
| Graz, (Austria now:) Germany |
188 YBN
[1812 AD]
| 2518) John Blenkinsop (CE 1783-1831) builds the first practical and successful railway locomotive.
Blenkinsop's two-cylinder, geared steam locomotive utilizes the tooth-rack rail system of propulsion.
| Yorkshire, England |
188 YBN
[1812 AD]
| 5979) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his famous 7th Symphony in A (opus 92).
| Vienna, Austria |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2453) Louis Jacque Thénard (TAnoR) (CE 1777-1857) publishes a four volume standard text on chemistry "Traité de chimie élémentaire" (4 vol, 1813-16).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2458) Augustin Pyrame de Candolle (KonDOL) (CE 1778-1841), Swiss-French botanist, publishes "Théorie élémentaire de la botanique", in which Candolle argues that plant anatomy, not physiology, must be the only basis of classification. Candolle invents the word "taxonomy" to describe the science of classification.
Candolle introduces the concept of homologous parts (of common ancestry, although different in structure) for plants as Cuvier had done for animals. This is evidence in favor of evolution, however Candolle, like Cuvier, retains a firm belief in the constancy of species.
Candolle maintains that relationships between plants can be established through similarities in the plan of symmetry of their sexual parts.
| Montpellier, France (presumably) |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2460) Augustin Pyrame de Candolle (KonDOL) (CE 1778-1841), publishes "Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis" (17 vol, 1824-73, "Guide to Natural Classification for the Plant Kingdom"), a large plant encyclopedia of all known seed plants in 7 volumes, Candolle's son, Alphonse de Candolle publishes the remaining 10 volumes.
Candolle makes a number of mistakes for example including gymnosperms with dicotyledons, and ferns with monocotyledons, but does create extensive subdivision of flowering plants, describing 161 families of dicotyledons.
This is written in Latin and appears to have no images.
| Montpellier, France (presumably) |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2475) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), publishes "Elements of Agricultural Chemistry" (1813), the only systematic work on the application of chemistry to agriculture available for many years.
| London, England |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2492) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848), suggests that each element be represented using the first letter of the Latin name (and potentially a second letter). Therefore oxygen can be written as O, nitrogen N, carbon, C, sulfur S, calcium Ca, etc. These abbreviations can be used to describe chemical compounds, for example ammonia is NH3, calcium carbonate CaCO3, etc. (Dalton opposes this system preferring his own system of pictographs, which are circles with different markings for each element. The symbols are difficult to draw and as is remembering which symbol is associated to which element.) This system is still in use today. (I think humans will eventually adopt a phonetic alphabet for all languages, and then element symbols will probably be abbreviated with letters that can only represent a single sound.)
Berzelius extends the chemical nomenclature that Lavoisier had introduced to cover the bases (mostly metallic oxides). Berzelius uses Latin to apply to a wide group of languages as opposed to the French names that Lavoisier and his colleagues created, and their translations into Swedish Berzelius's colleagues at Uppsala, Pehr Afzelius and Anders Gustav Ekeberg.
Berzelius' new system of notation can describe a compound both qualitatively (by showing its electrochemically opposing ingredients) and quantitatively (by showing the proportions in which the ingredients are united).
Berzelius' system abbreviates the Latin names of the elements with one or two letters and applies superscripts (not subscripts) to designate the number of atoms of each element present in both the acidic and basic ingredient.
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2503) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) proposes the dualistic theory (two-component chemistry) in which all compounds are composed of 2 electrically opposite parts.
Berzelius proposes a classification of matter according to behavior in electrolysis. The two major categories are imponderable and ponderable. Imponderable included phenomena such as positive and negative electricity, light, caloric, and magnetism. Ponderable bodies are first divided into simple and composite bodies and then into two classes, electropositive and electronegative, according to whether during electrolysis they appear at the negative or positive pole. Berzelius follows Davy's convention of designating electropositive substances as those attracted to the negative pole, and vice versa. The only exception is oxygen, the most electronegative element. All other substance can be arranged in order so that they are electropositive to those above and electronegative to those below.
Water decomposes into electropositive hydrogen and electronegative oxygen, and salts degrade into electronegative acids and electropositive bases. Based upon this evidence, Berzelius revises and generalizes the acid/base chemistry promoted mainly by Lavoisier. For Berzelius, all chemical compounds contain two electrically opposing constituents, the acidic, or electronegative, and the basic, or electropositive. To Berzelius, all chemicals, whether natural or artificial, mineral or organic, can be described by identifying their electrically opposing parts.
(I think there is reason to argue that neutrons are an electrically neutral combination of a positive and negative particle, and that all atoms are made of these two particles. Although this is different from Berzelius theory because Berzelius is dealing with the combination of atoms, as opposed to the composition of the components of a single atom.)
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2596) David Brewster (CE 1781-1868) discovers two-axis double-refracting crystals.
These are also called "biaxial crystals" (crystals with two axes of double refraction). Brewster describes many of the laws of their phenomena, including the connection of optical structure and crystalline forms.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2818) Jacques Etienne Bérard (1789-1869) and Louis Malus (molYUS) (CE 1775-1812) observe that infrared rays from the Sun are polarized like visible light rays.
Berthollet requests that Bérard and Malus repeat Herschel's experiments. Bérard and Malus use a heliostat (describe) to produce a stationary beam of sunlight. The heliostat mirror projects a beam of sunlight into a darkened room through a small circular hole. This light is decomposed by an equilateral flint glass prism, with its axis vertical and turned in order to produce the greatest refraction. The heat in the spectrum is measured by five small Centigrade thermometers suspended with their small blackened bulbs about 20 cm. apart in a horizontal line, separated from each other's influence by blackened cards. The thermometers are always exposed for 5 minutes. These measurements confirm three of Herschel's results: (a) no heat can be detected beyond the violet light (b) the heat increases from the violet up to the limit of the red light (c) beyond the red rays, invisible heat rays are found to exist, the effect of which diminishes as the distance from the red increases. Berard finds that rays that induce heat extend 26mm beyond the last visible red light.
Bérard uses a small prism of Iceland spar to produce two spectra, and in each of these the red rays gave over 1 degree of heat more than the violet rays, which leads Bérard to think that the heat rays can be doubly refracted like light rays. Moreover, when the beam of sunlight is reflected from a plane glass surface at the polarizing angle and then from a second parallel glass on to a metal concave mirror at the focus of which an air thermometer is placed, heat is reflected with the light. When the light is not reflected, and the second glass is turned through 90°, no heat can be detected at the focus. Therefore solar heat can apparently be polarized by reflection.
Bérard also tests the radiant heat from a copper ball, first red-hot and then invisible in the dark, and shows that these heat rays are subject to the same effect, the heat being concentrated on to the first glass by a metal concave mirror. The glasses are first placed so as to polarize the light of a candle, and in this experiment the thermometer bulb is blackened. When the plane glass surfaces are replaced by metal ones, the effect no longer takes place. (not entirely clear) So Bérard concludes that, with respect to the property of polarization by reflection, radiant heat, light and solar rays of heat are similar in character.
Claude-Louis Berthollet (BRTOlA) (CE 1748-1822) , Jean Chaptal (soPToL) (CE 1756-1832), and Jean Baptiste Biot (BYO) (CE 1774-1862) commenting on Bérard's memoir discuss two hypotheses (for the three kinds of light {visible, infrared and ultraviolet}). Either there are three entirely different sets of rays in the solar beam, producing heat, light and chemical action respectively, or else these effects are produced by one set of differently refrangible rays, of which only those between certain limits of refrangibility could affect our eyes. In this case the calorific and chemical powers of the rays would vary with refrangibility according to different functions. While certainty was impossible, they prefer this second and more simple hypothesis.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 2846) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) rediscovers the divergence theorem, which will later be called "Gauss' theorem" or "Gauss' Law". (verify)
In vector calculus, the divergence theorem, also known as Gauss' theorem, Ostrogradsky's theorem, or Gauss-Ostrogradsky theorem is a result that relates the flow (that is, flux) of a vector field through a surface to the behavior of the vector field inside the surface.
Gauss' law in modern form is defined as either of two statements describing electric and magnetic fluxes. Gauss's law for electricity states that the electric flux across any closed surface is proportional to the net electric charge enclosed by the surface. The law implies that isolated electric charges exist and that like charges repel one another while unlike charges attract. Gauss's law for magnetism states that the magnetic flux across any closed surface is zero; this law is consistent with the observation that isolated magnetic poles (monopoles) do not exist. (it seems clear that electricity is defined by a two pole requirement, and that both a magnetic and electric field are composed of material particles.)
Mathematical formulations for these two laws-together with Ampère's law (concerning the magnetic effect of a changing electric field or current) and Faraday's law of induction (concerning the electric effect of a changing magnetic field)-are collected in a set that is known as Maxwell's equations (q.v.), which provide the foundation of unified electromagnetic theory.
More precisely, the divergence theorem states that the outward flux of a vector field through a surface is equal to the triple integral of the divergence on the region inside the surface. Intuitively, it states that the sum of all sources minus the sum of all sinks gives the net flow out of a region.
The divergence theorem is an important result for the mathematics of engineering, in particular in electrostatics and fluid dynamics.
The divergence theorem was first discovered by Joseph Louis Lagrange in 1762, (verify) then later independently rediscovered by Carl Friedrich Gauss in 1813, by George Green in 1825 and in 1831 by Mikhail Vasilievich Ostrogradsky, who also gave the first proof of the theorem. Subsequently, variations on the Divergence theorem are called Gauss's Theorem, Green's theorem, and Ostrogradsky's theorem.
| Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 3235) Edward Charles Howard (CE 1774-1816), English chemist, invents the vacuum pan sugar refining process.
Before this the open pan method is used. The raw sugar (`Muscovado’ ) arrives in hogsheads from the West Indies is a yellow to brown sticky mass which contains by-products of uncrystallizable syrupy sugar, gums and pectins (the 'molasses'), as well as gross impurities such as crushed cane fibers, earth, and dirt. In the existing cleaning process, the crude sugar is dissolved in hot water and the liquid clarified by the addition of lime and the white of egg or fresh bull’ s blood. The lime neutralizes the acidity, while the coagulation of the albumin of the egg white on heating envelopes the impurities as a dark oily scum, rising to the surface, where it is skimmed off. The cleared liquor is evaporated in shallow pans over open fires to the point where crystallization sets in. When this granulation is complete, the sugar is separated, drained and dried.
Howard's improved method evaporates the purified solution to the point of crystallization in a vacuum pan under lower pressure which required less temperature (50 degrees C) and therefore less fuel, a faster rate, and no sugar decomposed from high temperature. The vacuum pan consists of a lens-shaped boiler which is heated by steam through its double bottom. The reduced pressure is maintained (neat 25 mm of mercury) by a vacuum pump (Figure 5). A thermometer and pressure gauge indicates the progress of the evaporation. When the concentrated liquid is ready for crystallization, it is run into the granulating pans, and the separated pure sugar isolated as usual. Howard has a plant built to produce sugar using this new process.
| London, England |
187 YBN
[1813 AD]
| 3323) Thomas Young (CE 1773-1829) uses light "diffraction" (alternatively reflection or dispersion) to measure the size of small objects.
Young publishes this work in "REMARKS ON THE MEASUREMENT OF MINUTE PARTICLES ESPECIALLY THOSE OF THE BLOOD AND OF PUS" in his "Introduction to Medical Literature" (1813).
In this work Young describes a measuring device he calls an eriometer: " Description of the Eriometer The rings of colours, which are here employed to discover the existence of a number of equal particles, may also be employed for measuring the comparative and the real dimensions of these particles, or of any pulverised or fibrous substances, which are sufficiently uniform in their diameters. Immediately about the luminous object, we see a light area, terminating in a reddish dark margin, then a ring of bluish green, and without it a ring of red : and the alternations of green and red are often repeated several times, where the particles or fibres are sufficiently uniform. I observed some years ago that these rings were the larger as the particles or fibres affording them were smaller, but that they were always of the same magnitude for the same particles. It is therefore only necessary to measure the angular magnitude of these rings, or of any one of them, in order to identify the size of the particles which afford them; and having once established a scale, from an examination of a sufficient number of substances of known dimensions, we may thus determine the actual magnitude of any other substances which exhibit the colours. The limit between the first green ring, and the red which surrounds it, affords the best standard of comparison, and its angular distance may be identified, by projecting the rings on a dark surface, pierced with a circle of very minute holes, which is made to coincide with the limit, by properly adjusting the distance of the dark substance, and then this distance, measured in semidiameters of the circle of points, gives the corresponding number of the comparative scale. Such an instrument I have called an Eriometer, from its utility in measuring the fibres of wool, and I have given directions for making it, to Mr Fidler in Foley Street. The luminous point is afforded by a perforation of a brass plate, which is surrounded by the circle of minute holes; the substance to be examined is fixed on some wires, which are carried by a slider, the plate being held before an Argand lamp, or before two or three candles placed in a line; the slider is drawn out to such a distance as to exhibit the required coincidence, and the index then shows the number representing the magnitude of the substance examined. ...". Young goes on to compare measurements of small objects such as blood cells to determine the scale of the eriometer, which Young finds to be around 1/30,000 of an inch.
| London, England (presumably) |
186 YBN
[03/27/1814 AD]
| 2485) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), with Faraday's assistance, in a series of experiments starting on Sunday March 27, succeed in using Sun light to ignite diamond, and prove that diamond is composed of pure carbon.
| Florence, Italy |
186 YBN
[1814 AD]
| 2262) Giuseppe Piazzi (PYoTSE) (CE 1746-1826) shows that most stars appear to be moving. Piazzi finds that the star 61 Cygni has an unusually fast motion.
Piazzi shows that proper motions for the stars, first measured by Halley, are the rule and not the exception. Piazzi recognizes that the double star 61 Cygni has an unusually rapid proper motion. Piazzi publishes a catalog of 7,646 stars in 1814.
| Palermo, Sicily |
186 YBN
[1814 AD]
| 2433) In a supplementary paper sent to the "Journal de physique" in 1814, Avogadro publishes the correct molecular formulas for COCl2, H2S, and CO2, and by postulating an analogy between carbon and silicon Avogadro deduces the correct composition of silica, SiO2.
Avogadro also applied his hypothesis to metals and assigns atomic weights to 17 metallic elements based on analysis of compounds they form. From the available data Avogadro calculates approximately correct atomic weights for carbon, chlorine, and sulfur.
Avogadro's references to "gaz métalliques" may delay chemists' acceptance of his theory. (more detail: what are gas metalliques?)
This paper is titled "Mémoire sur les masses relatives des molécules des corps simples, ou densités présumées de leur gaz, et sur la constitution de quelques-uns de leur composés, pour servir de suite à l'Essai sur le même sujet, publié dans le Journal de Physique, juillet 1811".
| Vercelli, Italy |
186 YBN
[1814 AD]
| 2571) Joseph von Fraunhofer (FroUNHoFR or HOFR?) (CE 1787-1826) uses a telescope (in his "theodolite" spectroscope) to map nearly 600 spectral lines.
Fraunhofer measures the wavelength of the spectral lines and understands that the spectra of elements are constant no matter what the source. (Fraunhofer never appears to calculate any wavelengths in this 1814 paper. Does he later?) (equates position of spectral line with specific wavelength of light - how is wavelength measured? and how is ratio of line position to wavelength (interval) determined?)
Fraunhofer recognizes that the dark lines in the light emitted by stars do not match those dark lines in the light from the Sun.
Fraunhofer examines (and maps?) the spectra of light from the Sun, the star Sirius, the planet Venus, candle-light and electric light (from a glass fiber between two electrodes). Fraunhofer finds that the spectra of the light from the planets is basically the same as that from the Sun, but different from the spectra of other stars.
(Is Fraunhofer the first to examine the spectrum of other stars?)
(Show any images from Fraunhofer of the spectra of other stars if any exist)
| Benedictbeuern (near Munich), Germany |
186 YBN
[1814 AD]
| 2609) (Baron) Augustin Louis Cauchy (KOsE) (CE 1789-1857), French mathematician publishes a memoir on definite integrals that becomes the basis of the theory of complex functions. (more detail)
| Paris, France |
185 YBN
[01/03/1815 AD]
| 3837) (Sir) David Brewster (CE 1781-1868), Scottish physicist finds that applying pressure on a dried cake of isinglass (a transparent gelatin from fish) produces double refraction (two oppositely polarized images) and exhibits the complimentary colors, when exposed to a beam of polarized light.
Brewster had reported on October 22, 1814, his finding that some materials depolarize polarized light when compressed by pressure.
Brewster finds that calves' foot jelly when left to harden depolarizes light when pressure is applied.
Brewster reports this in Philosophical Transactions as "On the effects of simple pressure in producing that species of crystallization which forms two oppositely polarised images, and exhibits the complimentary colours by polarised light.". Brewster writes: " DEAR SIR, IN prosecuting the experiments on the depolarisation of light, which you lately did me the honour to lay before the Royal Society, I have been led to the discovery of a remarkable property of soft transparent solids, in virtue of which they exhibit, by simple pressure, all the optical qualities of doubly polarising crystals. In the paper on depolarisation to which I have now alluded, it has been shown that a mixture of bees' wax and rosin, when melted and cooled between two plates of glass, depolarises a ray which falls upon it at a vertical incidence, while the same substance, pressed between two plates of glass, without the aid of heat produces no effect when the polarised ray falls perpendicularly upon it, but depolarises it at an oblique incidence. In this experiment the crystallization was not produced by pressure, as the unmelted bees' wax was already crystallized; but it is obvious, either that the pressure had modified the natural crystallization of the bees' wax, so as to enable it to depolarise only at an oblique incidence, or that its liquefaction between two plates of glass had produced such a change, as to communicate to it the property of perpendicular depolarisation. In whatever manner this difference of action was produced, the effects of pressure seemed to require farther investigation, and in order to be able to apply a sufficient force, without injuring the structure of the substance, I employed animal jellies which could be brought to any degree of tenacity without losing their transparency. Having cut out of newly made calves' feet jelly, a cylindrical portion, about half an inch broad and half an inch high, I placed it between two plates of glass, and observed that it did not possess, in the slightest degree, the property of depolarising light. After standing some days, it began to depolarise light at its circumference, and in the course of fifteen days this property gradually extended to its central parts. The cylinder of jelly had at first such a slight degree of tenacity, that it quivered with the gentlest motion; it was now however considerably indurated, and though it formed a plate exactly parallel, yet it diverged the incident rays like a concave lens, from the external parts having a greater degree of induration, and consequently a higher refractive power than the parts towards the centre. At the end of three weeks it began to lose its transparency, and at the same time its depolarising structure; and in the course of a few days more, it had no more action upon light than a mass of water. Its thickness was now reduced, by contraction, to about one seventh of an inch, and it possessed a degree of tenacity, approaching to that of caoutchouc, which enabled it to sustain, without injury, a very considerable degree of pressure. In this state, I exposed the plate of jelly to the light of a candle polarised by reflection, and employ ing a prism of Iceland spar, one of the images of the candle vanished at every quadrant of its circular motion, just as if the jelly had not been interposed. I now pressed together the two plates of glass, that inclosed the cake of jelly, and was surprised to find that the vanished image was restored, the light being depolarised in every position of the cake. Upon removing the pressure, the image again vanished, and the cake resumed its uncrystallized state. ... Instead of calves' feet jelly, I next employed isinglass, brought nearly to the consistency of caoutchouc. After standing a day, the isinglass had, of its own accord acquired the depolarising structure, even when cut into very thin films, either parallel or perpendicular to the surface; but upon placing a cake of it, about a quarter of an inch thick, between two plates of glass, and exposing it to polarised light, I found that the complementary colours were developed in a most beautiful manner by hard pressure, and I often saw a portion of a red and a blue ring upon one of the images of the candle, while the colours complementary to these occupied the other image. By varying the pressure new colours arose, and when the pressure was removed, the complementary tints gradually disappeared. As these changes of colour might be ascribed to the pressure, only in so far as it reduced the cake of isinglass to the degree of thickness necessary for their production, I brought the cake to the same thickness which it possessed when exposed to the pressure that developed the most lively colours. No colours, however, were now visible, but they were instantly reproduced, as before, by the application of pressure. I now melted the isinglass between two plates of glass, and allowed it to stand till it coagulated, which took place in less than a quarter of an hour. Upon transmitting through it a polarised ray, I saw that it did not in the least degree depolarise it. I then exposed the included jelly to a considerable pressure, and it instantly restored the evanescent image, and exhibited, in a faint degree, the complementary colours. This plate was not more than 1/20th of an inch thick. From these experiments and others, which have been repeated under various modifications, it follows: 1st. That soft animal substances which have no particular action upon light acquire, from simple pressure, that peculiar structure which enables them to form two images polarised in an opposite manner, like those produced by all doubly refracting crystals, and to exhibit the complementary colours produced by regularly crystallized minerals. 2d That soft animal substances, which already possess the property of depolarising light, receive from simple pressure such a modification in their structure as to enable them to exhibit, in a very brilliant manner, the complementary colours produced by crystallized minerals. {ulsf: Is this still true or only for certain substances?} 3d. That soft animal substances which only depolarise a portion of the inc1dent ray, have their depolarising structure completed by simple pressure.
The extension of these experiments to other soft substances to hard bodies when in a fluid state and to fluids themselves may probably lead to still more interesting results.".
Brewster follows this up with later reports, including a report in 1815 and another in 1830.
(I think I need to be sure that Brewster has found that pressure causes double refraction - this is apparently only for polarized light - and not just depolarization. Does this hardened material doubly refract unpolarized light?)
(I think that this is perhaps because the pressure causes a changing of angles in either the molecules of the glass or hardened jelly. The angle at which the portion of the beam reflected changes {while the transmitted beam retains the same angle}. )
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
185 YBN
[07/08/1815 AD]
| 2597)
| Paris, France |
185 YBN
[10/??/1815 AD]
| 2589) Fresnel's Memoirs, which contain the results of Fresnel's experiments and Fresnel's wave theory of light, entitled "La Diffraction de la lumiere" are deposited at the Academy of Sciences in October 1815.
(It is a surprise to me that particle interpretations of light polarization are not more popular, nor even published alongside the wave interpretation. I am not aware of any single popular particle theory for double refraction, polarization, and diffraction. Particle explanation given by Newton, Biot, Brewster and others have not been carried forward into modern education as alternative explanations to a wave interpretation.) (My own opinion of optical phenomenon as described with light as a particle theories are: Polarization: may be the result of reflection of only certain beams off an atomic surface. In other words of a group of beams, only beams at a certain spacing between each other are reflected off atoms in a polarizing surface. For example for a square of 100 beams {10 beams by 10 beams} to collide with a surface with only the 4 beams at the corners being reflected, the other 96 being absorbed by or transmitted through the surface. Those 4 beams may be spaced exactly to reflect off the atom spacing of some other polarizing object to be completed reflected. These claims can easily be tested by careful measuring of the quantity of light transmitted and reflected from polarizing surfaces, and this is a good experiment to perform, and I think people that are part of the Pupin secret must performed this. In fact, beams of light that reflect off atomic lattices will automatically take the shape of the matter they collide with and reflect off, if the shape is rows, the beams will be rows, if sine wave shape the rays will be arranged, sideways, in a sine wave shape. If matter in the reflected material is moving, the shape of the light beams reflecting off that material would also reflect that shape, which opens the possibility of set of beams forming a sine {or any other kind of} wave in the direction of propagation.) (Experiment: Model in 3D static and moving reflection surfaces and the reflected photon patterns they create, for example differently spaced horizontal rows, a grid of dots, sine wave shape, triangle shape, and moving shapes: an object orbits another, an object moves positions with each collision, etc.) (Experiment: Using a light sensitive electronic component, of a given quantity of light, how much is passed through a polarizer material? How much is reflected? Is there a measurable difference depending on the angle of the polarizer material?) ( Diffraction: A particle explanation is that particles reflect off the inside surface of the first opening in Francesco Grimaldi's experiment, and those are the beams of light seen outside the unreflected light passing through the hole. So the light beams are not bent, in this view, but are reflected. This possibly can be observed by blocking the path of the reflected light. In addition, Priestley mentions that a spectrum is produced by scratches in the metal as opposed to "bending" of the light, and these scratches form the basis of diffraction gratings. The color separation by frequency that results from what was called "diffraction", such as from a thin hole and scratches in glass or metal should also have a particle interpretation. The explanation of a prism and diffraction grating, I think, has not been correctly and clearly explained and should be fully explored and explained in a simple way that is factual. Clearly the beams of light collide with atoms on both sides of the scratch. Perhaps the recoil of the atoms collided with sends beams of different frequencies in different directions, because the more frequently an atom is collided with, the more time is needed to return to the original position. One thing is clear, that the "bands" of light are due to reflection of photons off the sides of the scratch. {see video} This does not explain the spreading out by color {wavelength}, but does account for the bands of light. Each band is a photon that has been reflected once for band 1, twice for band 2, three times for band 3, etc.) (Experiment: Repeat Francesco Grimaldi's experiment and block the path of Sun light that would be reflected off the inside of the metal surrounding the first hole.) ( Double refraction: I think the first image is of unreflected light, while the second image is light that is reflected off atoms in the angled plane. A similar phenomenon can be seen by sending a laser beam through a tilted glass slide, some rays in the beam are transmitted through the glass slide, and some rays are reflected. When the tilted glass slide is turned, the transmitted rays do not move but the reflected rays follow the surface of the glass slide. Possibly, like the Fresnel rhomb, light is reflected off the inside edge of the calcite rhombus which reflects light beyond a critical angle.)
(One of the reasons it is of great importance to tell the story of science, is so people can hear how, many times, a very simple mistake was made in the past, but kept as a tradition without later questioning and analysis. We need to go over the story of science and explore every step to verify the conclusions were correct. Many times, looking back at the actual notes of the past scientist you see many obviously inaccurate beliefs and claims. Many times it forces people to try and explain the exact work, experiment, claims of some specific person, whose theory or finding might never otherwise be examined or questioned.) (I was taught that light is a wave {to my recollection}. The claim of ether had been disproved for years, but still people have light as a transverse wave and promoted that as fact, when it appears obvious to me that it is false and has many obvious flaws. ) (This work of Fresnel, in conjunction with Thomas Young, and Huygens, the wave theory of light, will set back science on earth for 200 years and counting, as people shockingly step backwards in preferring the transverse wave theory explanation of double refraction as opposed to a particle theory explanation. The only redeemable feature being that beams of light carry photons with spaces between which form a wave although in a straight line with no amplitude. ) (this theory of light as a transverse wave, as created by Fresnel, is surprisingly still the majority view, even though belief in an ether medium is not the majority view.) (I think people should not have hostility to people who disagree with them about a theory. The most important thing for me is the truth. When people disagree, generally, the physical evidence suggests a different theory for them. I try to keep an open mind, and try to produce arguments and experiments that will win over people who disagree. Many times, in a person's belief in a different theory there are solid reasons why they believe what they do, and it may be useful to understand why they hold so strongly onto a belief or theory, because that reason may be enough to change your own mind, or may help to understand how better to change their mind by addressing those strongly held beliefs you feel are mistaken.) (Certainly the corpuscular theory of light, and light particles as the basis of all matter should not be simply dismissed or banned from print or video, in my opinion.) (I definitely think the corpuscular theory of light needs much more physical evidence to explain the dispersion of light in a prism and off a grating, in addition to more experimental evidence and explanation for polarization, double refraction, single refraction, reflection, absorption and even transmission.)
(Show Fresnel's math)
(There are problems with the idea of light as a wave: 1) A wave usually needs a medium, otherwise what is the sine wave shape composed of? 2) light focused to a point by a lens would indicate that the beams of light have no amplitude, if the amplitude is changed, does the wavelength then change too? 3) the photoelectric effect implies single units 4) that light appears to cause sharp shadows, where sound spreads around corners- in particular since Grimaldi's experiment appears potentially to be a phenomenon of reflection.) (The only problems I can see with the particle explanation of light is that all light phenomena has mysteriously not even been attempted to be publicly explained with a particle explanation by anybody other than me since the early 1800s. There should be a "light as a particle" group of supporters that promote equal time for the particle explanation of polarization and all other phenomena currently only attributed to a wave description.)
| Paris, France |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2241) Chevalier de Lamarck (CE 1744-1829) publishes "Histoire naturelle des animaux sans vertébres" (1815-1822,"Natural History of Invertebrate Animals") a seven-volume major work which is the start of invertebrate biology.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2324) Scottish engineer, John Loudon McAdam (CE 1756-1836) applies his invention of the "macadam" road surface.
| Bristol, England |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2419) Jean Baptiste Biot (BYO) (CE 1774-1862), shows that some organic compounds have two chemically identical forms that (in solution (only?)) rotate polarized light in different directions, correctly speculating that this is caused by differences in the shape of the molecules. Biot finds that the plane of polarization of the light is rotated by an amount that depends on the color of the light.(chronology)
Biot shows that some substances rotate the plane of polarization left and others rotate it right.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2469) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) experimentally demonstrates that prussic acid, hydrocyanic acid, a compound of carbon, hydrogen and nitrogen contains no oxygen. This shows that Lavoisier was wrong and that oxygen is not a requirement to be an acid. (? will show that ) hydrogen is the essential element of acids.
Guy-Lussac describes cyanogen ((CN)2 or C2N2) as a compound radical and prove that prussic acid (hydrogen cyanide) is made up of this radical and hydrogen. Gay-Lussac recognition of compound radicals lays the basis of modern organic chemistry. (Gay-Lussac is the first to describe or identify the concept of compound radicals?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2470) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) publishes a paper on commercial soda (sodium carbonate, 1820), in which Gay-Lussac identifies the weight of a sample required to neutralize a given amount of sulfuric acid, using litmus as an indicator.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2471) Joseph Louis Gay-Lussac (GAlYUSoK) (CE 1778-1850) estimates the strength (and quantity) of bleaching powder (1824), using a solution of indigo to indicate when the reaction is complete.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2479) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), invents the "Davy lamp" which produces lighting without risk of causing a gas explosion in a mine.
The Davy lamp has an open flame surrounded by a cylinder of metallic gauze (mesh or ?). Oxygen can get through the gauze and feed he flame (but other gases cannot?). The heat of the flame, is dissipated by the metal and explosive gases outside the lamp are not ignited. This allows miners to be safer from explosions. Davy refuses to patent his invention, and profit from this humanitarian invention. (Can't explosive gases go past the gauze and start a chain reaction? Perhaps the mesh stops a chain reaction.)
The basic principle of the safety lamp is, that the flame is covered by a gauze with certain meshes per square inch. On November 1, 1816 Davy writes in a letter to the Royal Society: "This invention consists in covering or surrounding the flame of a lamp or a candle by a wire sieve". The wire sieve is fitted with 625 apertures in a square inch and the wire is 1/70 inch thick.
| London, England |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2515) George Stephenson (CE 1781-1848), English inventor, invents a miner's safety lamp around the same time that Davy did.
The lamp embodies some features of the Davy lamp and is considered by some to have antedated Davy's invention.
| Newcastle, England (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2532) François Magendie (mojoNDE) (CE 1783-1855), explores the field of nutrition and discovers mammals' reliance on protein to live and that not all proteins are equally life sustaining. Magendie shows that nitrogen is required to sustain life. Nitrogen is found in proteins (although some proteins such as gelatin are insufficient (do not have enough or any nitrogen?)). (How is this protein requirement proven? Did people/other species develop nitrogen deficiency and die?) This lays the groundwork for the science of nutrition. (I would describe nutrition as what atoms are required for each organism to live.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2544) William Prout (CE 1785-1850), English chemist and physiologist publishes an anonymous article in the Annals of Philosophy entitled "On the Relation between the Specific Gravities of Bodies in Their Gaseous State and the Weight of Their Atoms" that explains that the atomic weights of the elements are all exact multiples of hydrogen which is the lightest element known. This is called Prout's hypothesis. Only because of the determination of atomic weights is this view plausible. This hypothesis implies that elements are themselves "compounds" of hydrogen, and Prout suggests that hydrogen is the "prima materia" (basic substance) that ancient people had written about.
Proust writes "...the observations about to be offered are chiefly founded on the doctrine of volumes as first generalized by M. Gay-Lussac; and which, as far as the author is aware at least, is now universally admitted by chemists.".
Prout uses the specific gravity, which is more accurately the relative density, which is the mass of some object divided by its volume. Prout then bases all specific gravities on the specific gravity of air which is taken to be 1.0. So Prout gives hydrogen a specific gravity of .0694. Prout goes on to show that oxygen with a specific gravity of 1.1111 divided by .0694, the specific gravity of hydrogen=16.01 (very close to 16 times the specific gravity of hydrogen). Similarly for nitrogen (which Prout refers to with Lavoisier's title of "Azote"), Prout gives a specific gravity of .9722 which is 14.008, very close to 14 times the specific gravity of hydrogen. These two values are the popularly accepted values for the atomic mass of oxygen and nitrogen. Prout also correctly estimates chlorine to by 36 times Hydrogen. However, Prout's other estimates are different from those accepted today. Prout's estimates for the gases are correct, but for elements that are liquid or solid at average Earth temperature, Prout's values are different than those accepted today. The method Prout uses, is to combine the liquid or solid element with other elements to compare how much of each substance combines. For example, Prout combines iodine with zinc to find that iodine is 124 times hydrogen, the current value is around 127, and if atomic number is a guide the value would be only 106, iodine having only 53 protons. Prout correctly estimates carbon to be 12, also twice the number of protons. But sulfur at 16 is half the weight of 32, sulfur being atomic number 16. For other elements Prout uses sulfuric acid to determine the quantity of atoms that combine. Prout finds 24x for sodium, atomic number 11, the current value is around 23. For iron, atomic number 26, Prout estimates 28 times, the current value being around 56.
Prout suggests that the atoms of all elements are made of various numbers of hydrogen atoms.
However, more accurate determinations of atomic weight, particularly by Jean Stas, show that many are not whole number (multiples of the weight of hydrogen).
The atomic weight of chlorine is shown to be 35.5, magnesium 24.25 and so people doubt Prout's hypothesis, but these weights will be shown later to be from isotopes which vary in weight by Soddy and Aston. (It is interesting that isotopes are found together Probably because free neutrons create isotopes in what is otherwise some pure material. This argument applies for all states of matter: solids, liquids and gases.)(So this view of heavier atoms being "compounds" of hydrogen is eventually shown to be true. Although the current popular view is that protons are all grouped in a central area, the idea that larger atoms are actually just hydrogen atoms, grouped together, is interesting. For that view, electrons would be in orbit not around the entire nucleus but around each proton.) (How is the issue of the neutron weight understood? I guess the weights would have to appear that they are in multiples of two hydrogens.)
Prout's theory concerning the relative densities and weights of gases is in agreement with Avogadro's law (1811), which is not generally accepted until the 1850s.
| London, England (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2565) Michel Eugéne Chevreul (seVRuL) (CE 1786-1889) isolates sugar from the urine of a person with diabetes and shows that it is identical to grape sugar (glucose). This is the first step in recognizing diabetes as a disease of sugar metabolism.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 2784) Anselme Payen (PIoN) (CE 1795-1871), French chemist produces borax from boric acid. The Dutch have a monopoly on Borax which they obtain from the East Indies (modern Indonesia). Boric acid is a mineral available from Italy. With his new method, Payen is able to sell borax for a third of the Dutch price and ends the Dutch monopoly on Borax.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
185 YBN
[1815 AD]
| 3224) Joshua Shaw invents the first percussion cap.
A percussion cap is a truncated cone of metal (preferably copper) that contains a small amount of fulminate of mercury inside its crown, protected by foil and shellac. This cap is fitted onto a steel nipple mounted at the weapon's breech (rear), and a small channel in the nipple (directs) the flash from the cap to the powder chamber. In the final form of this mechanism, a hollow-nosed percussion hammer comes down over the percussion cap, therefore eliminating the danger of flying copper when the powder detonates.
The introduction of the percussion cap leads to the invention of numerous machine guns in the United States, several of which are used in the US Civil War. In all of these either the cylinder or a cluster of barrels is hand-cranked. The most successful is the Gatling gun, which in its later version incorporates the modern cartridge, containing bullet, propellant, and means of ignition.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (presumably) |
184 YBN
[02/29/1816 AD]
| 3838) (Sir) David Brewster (CE 1781-1868), Scottish physicist finds that compression and dilation of various substances like glass and fluorspar, cause them to become "doubly refracting".
Brewster reports this as "On the communication of the structure of doubly refracting crystals to glass, muriate of soda, fluor spar, and other substances, by mechanical compression and dilation." in Philosophical Transactions in 1816. Brewster writes: " DEAR SIR, NOTWITHSTANDING the numerous discoveries which have lately been made relative to the polarisation of light, and the optical phenomena of crystallized bodies, not a single step has yet been made towards the solution of the great problem of double refraction. What is the mechanical condition of crystals that form two images and polarise them in different planes; and what are the mechanical changes which must be induced on uncrystallized bodies in order to communicate to them these remarkable properties, are questions which are as difficult to be answered at the present moment, as they were in the days of HUYGHENS and NEWTON. In the frequent attempts which I have made to obtain a solution of these difficulties, the polarisation of light by oblique refraction was the only phenomenon that seemed to connect itself with the inquiry; but the hopes of success which this fact inspired, were soon found to be delusive, and the subject resumed its former impregnable aspect. A new train of experiments, however has enabled me not only to give a satisfactory answer to the questions which have been stated, but to communicate to glass, and many other substances, by the mere pressure of the hand, all the properties of the different classes of doubly refracting crystals. The method of producing these effects, and the consequences to which it leads, will be briefly explained in the following letter.
SECT. I. On the communication of double refraction to glass, muriate of soda, and other hard solids.
PROPOSITION I
If the edges of a plate of glass, which has no action upon polarised light, are pressed together or dilated by any kind of force, it will exhibit distinct neutral and depolarising axes like all doubly refracting crystals, and will separate polarised light into its complementary colours. The neutral axes are parallel and perpendicular to the direction in which the force is applied, and the depolarising axes are inclined to these at angles of 45°. I took a plate of glass about 1 inch broad, 2 1/2 inches long, and 0.28 of an inch thick, and having compressed its edges by the force of screws, I found that it polarised a white of the first order in every part of its breadth. ...". Proposition 2 is: "When a plate of glass is under the influence of a compressing force its scructure is the same as that of one class of doubly refracting crystals, including calcareous spar, beryl, &c.; but when it is under the influence of a dilating force, its structure is the same as that of the other class of doubly refracting crystals, including sulphate of lime, quartz, &c.". Proposition 3 is: "If a long plate or slip of glass is bent by the force of the hand, it exhibits at the same time, the two opposite structures described in the preceding Proposition. The convex, or dilated side of the plate affords one set of coloured fringes, similar to those produced by one class of doubly refracting crystals; and the concave or compressed side, exhibits another set of fringes similar to those produced by the other class. These two sets of fringes are separated by a deep black line where there is neither compression nor dilatation.". Proposition 12 is: "Muriate of soda, fluor spar, diamond, obsidian, semi-opal, horn, tortoise-shell, amber, gum copal, caoutchouc, rosin, phosphorus, the indurated ligament of the chama gigantea, and other substances, that have not the property of double refraction, or that have it in an imperfect manner, are capable of receiving it by compression or dilatation.. Of all the substances mentioned in the Proposition, obsidian, muriate of soda, and gum copal, receive from pressure the greatest polarising force. Gum copal, in particular, exhibited a greater number of fringes than a piece of glass subjected to the same pressure.
PROPOSITION XIII
Calcareous spar, rock crystal, topaz, beryl, and other minerals that already possess in a high degree the doubly refracting structure, suffer no change by compression or dilatation. The state of compression or dilatation in which the particles of these crystals are already placed, according to the class in which they belong, is so great as not to experience any change from the application of ordinary forces. I have applied in the direction both of their neutral and depolarising axes, forces so great as to break the shoulders of all the clamps that were employed.". Brewster concludes his paper writing: " Upon reviewing the general principles contained in the preceding Propositions, I cannot but allow myself to hope that they will be considered as affording a direct solution of the most important part of the Problem of double refraction. The mechanical condition of both classes of doubly refracting crystals, and the method of communicating to uncrystallized bodies the optical properties of either class, have been distinctly ascertained, and the only phenomenon which remains unaccounted for, is the division of the incident light into two oppositely polarised pencils. How far this part of the subject will come within the pale of experimental inquiry, I do not presume to determine; but without wishing to damp that ardour of research which ha s been so happily directed towards this branch of optics, I fear that, as in the case of electrical and magnetical polarity, we must remain satisfied with referring the polarisation of the two pencils to the operation of some peculiar fluid. The new property of radiant heat which enables it to communicate double refraction to a distant part of a plate of glass, where the heat does not reside in a sensible state;- the existence of a moveable polarity in glass, whether the doubly refracting structure is communicated transiently or permanently;- and the appearance of regular cleavages varying with the direction of the axes of double refraction, are facts which render it more than probable that a peculiar fluid is the principal agent in producing all the phenomena of crystallization and double refraction. There is one fact, however, which forms a fine connection between the aberration of the extraordinary ray and the principles established in this Paper. It has been demonstrated by an eminent English philosopher, that every undulation must assume a spheroidal form when propagated through a minutely stratified substance, in which the density is greater in one direction than another, and I have proved by experiment that such a substance actually possesses the property of double refraction. This singular coincidence will no doubt be regarded as an argument in favour of the undulatory system.".
(Is Brewster saying that light is the peculiar fluid, or something else perhaps an aether?)
(In terms on changing the double refraction angle of double refracting crystals, it would require, in my view, changing their cleavage planes - it might be possible near the edges or by simply bending a thin, flexible piece of calcite.)
EXPERIMENT: Does bending a thin slide of calcite change any aspect of the double refraction?
| Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
184 YBN
[1816 AD]
| 2351) Joseph Nicéphore Niepce (nYePS) (CE 1765-1833), French inventor, creates the first photograph on paper sensitized with silver chloride which Niepce can only fix partially with nitric acid.
| Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
184 YBN
[1816 AD]
| 2384) William Smith (CE 1769-1839), English geologist, recognizes that strata layers can be recognized by the kinds of fossils in them.
Smith publishes a geologic map of England and Wales titled "A Delineation of the Strata of England and Wales, with Part of Scotland".(map contains fossil to strata identification?)
(Smith understands that) the fossils from lower layers of strata represent species from an older time, and so the history of life can be read from the fossils in the layers of strata. The older the layer the less the fossils look like modern species. (verify)
Smith makes a systematic study of the geological strata of England and identifies the fossils peculiar to each layer. In this way Smith introduces the method of estimating, from the fossils present, the age of geological formations.
Many of the colorful names Smith applies to the strata are still in use today.
Surveying for canal builders Smith suspects that the strata of Somerset can be traced far northward across England and confirms this when the familiar beds are encountered again and again during his journey. Smith follows tracts of strata over large distances of England, and finds that each stratum contains "fossils peculiar to itself".
| |
184 YBN
[1816 AD]
| 2487) Lorenz Oken (oKeN) (CE 1779-1851), German naturalist, founds the biological journal "Isis" ((not to be confused with the science history journal)) and encourages annual meetings of biologists, physicians and natural historians.
| Rudolstadt, Germany |
184 YBN
[1816 AD]
| 2509) Théophile René Hyacinthe Laënnec (loeNneK) (CE 1781-1826), invents a stethoscope.
Théophile René Hyacinthe Laënnec (loeNneK) (CE 1781-1826), French physician, invents a stethoscope ("to view the chest"), by initially using a rolled-up paper notebook to listen to a person's heart. Laënnec goes on to construct more cylinders out of wood. Laënnec publishes the details of his invention in 1819. For three years (after his invention) Laënnec studies patients' chest sounds ((from heart and lungs)) and correlates these sounds with the diseases found in autopsy. Laënnec describes his methods and findings in his classic book "De l'auscultation médiate" (2 vol, 1819, tr. 1821, "On Mediate Auscultation"). Laënnec uses the term "mediate auscultation" to refer to the use of an instrument, or mediator to hear sounds within the human body.
Laënnec fights against the common practice of "bleeding" (usually by the application of leeches).
Laennec publishes thousands of pages and gives hundreds of lectures reflecting his lesser-known findings. Among other things, Laennec shows the existence of the skin tumors now called melanomas, describes the role that organ tissues play in disease, names the liver disease we now know as cirrhosis, and shows that tuberculosis is marked by lesions called tubercles that can be found in any of the body's organs.
| (Hospital Necker) Paris, France |
184 YBN
[1816 AD]
| 2611) (Baron) Augustin Louis Cauchy (KOsE) (CE 1789-1857), is the first to work out a mathematical basis for the properties of aether, (the solid-but-gas that lets both light waves and planets pass through it). (According to Asimov, Cauchy's work makes it possible for scientists to accept the ether without loss of respectability, but the theory is not entirely satisfactory (and far from intuitive).) (Show and explain math in more detail)
This memoir on wave-propagation "Mémoire sur la théorie la propagation des ondes a la surface d'un fluide pesant d'une profondeur indéfinie" (1827, "Theory of the wave propagation at the surface of a heavy fluid of an indefinite depth.") wins the Grand Prix (grand prize) of the Institut in 1816. (In retrospect perhaps this contribution prolongs the wave theory for light and delays understanding of the more probable theory of light as a particle without any aether in empty space. In any event all arguments for and against a theory should be weighed against the actual physical phenomena. The aether theory will be proven false by Michelson and Morley, however the theory of light as a wave instead of a particle will hold on even to the present day and maybe for many centuries to come.)
| Paris, France |
184 YBN
[1816 AD]
| 2668) English merchant, Francis Ronalds (CE 1788-1873), invents the pith-ball telegraph which Ronalds sends over 13km of wire. A dial spins and the operator closes the circuit between a Leyden jar and the wire when the letter wanted appears. The receiving station is synced with a similar dial that rotates and two pith balls are pushed closer together when the sent letter comes into view. On July 11, Ronalds writes to Chief Admiral Melville who rejects Ronalds idea. John Barrow, Secretary to the Admiralty, replied that "Telegraphs of any kind are now wholly unnecessary; and no other than the one now in use will be adopted." (Presumably Barrow is referring to the semaphore system, or possibly a secret electrical telegraph - which is typical of the language of insiders who want to try to sound "honest" by stating a truth, that is not explicit but that may have more than one meaning, one of the meanings being accurate or true). The 1824 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica changes tone to pessimism stating "..that electricity might convey intelligence...the experiments...are not likely to ever to become practically useful." (Perhaps this technology was being secretly developed after the optimistic report of 1797, and leaders in government and military, perhaps thinking developments in this technology could lead to a military advantage, demand that the development be kept secret from the public. This would fit the story of a secret history, which includes the story of the phone company and government employees recording phone call audio, secretly planting microphones and cameras in many houses, Pupin seeing eyes and the later development of hearing thought, and remotely stimulating neurons has been kept secret from 1910 until now 100 years later. So this would be an example, common through a secret history of a society divided between included and excluded of one or more major secrets - the phenomenon of excluded rediscovering secrets included have already found but then reject given dishonest reasons why if any. However, without seeing and hearing the secret archives, perhaps this is a case of ignorance of the value of an idea.)
| London, England |
184 YBN
[1816 AD]
| 5984) Gioachino (Antonio) Rossini (CE 1792-1868), Italian composer, composes his famous Italian comic opera "Il barbiere di Siviglia" ("The Barber of Seville").
"The Barber of Seville" may be considered the greatest of all Italian comic operas. Initially the opera is a failure, but it quickly becomes the most loved of his comic works, admired by both Beethoven and Verdi.
| Naples, Italy |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2284) Jean Baptiste Joseph Delambre (DuloMBR) (CE 1749-1822) writes a six-volume "Histoire de l'astronomie" (1817-27, "History of Astronomy").
| Pairs, France |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2294) Abraham Gottlob Werner (VRNR or VARNR) (CE 1750-1817) divides minerals into four main classes - earthy, saline, combustible, and metallic which is a mix between the two schools of chemical versus external mineral classification.
Among 1700s mineralogists, there is a major split between whether to classify minerals according to their external form (the natural method) or by their chemical composition (the chemical method).
| Leipzig, Germany |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2317) James Parkinson (CE 1755-1824), writes a description of a condition he calls "the shaking palsy", but which others will call "Parkinson's disease".
The French doctor, Jean Martin Charcot will recognize Parkinson's work around 60 years later and call the condition "Parkinson's disease".
| London, England |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2387) Georges Cuvier (KYUVYAY) (CE 1769-1832) publishes "Le Règne animal distribué d'après son organisation..." (4 vol, 1817; repub 5 vol, 1829-1830, "The Animal Kingdom, distributed according to structure, in order to form a basis for zoology, and as an introduction to comparative anatomy") becomes a standard zoological reference throughout the Earth.
Cuvier groups the classes of Linnaeus, (the highest classification Linnaeus created), into phlya. Cuvier divides the animal kingdom into four phyla Vertebrata, Mollusca, Articulata (all jointed animals) and Radiata (everything else). Currently there are more than 20 animal phyla recognized. Cuvier's assistant Candolle will apply this classification to plants. Cuvier is the first to extend the classification to fossils.
This book represents a significant advance over the systems of classification established by Linnaeus.
Cuvier rejects the 1700s idea that all living things are arranged in a continuous series from the simplest up to humans believing in four distinct phyla he had defined. Both Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire support the idea, which Cuvier (wrongly) rejects. In addition Cuvier rejects the change (or mutability) of species over time, also supported by Lamarck and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire. (Ironically) much of the evidence Cuvier assembles prepared the ground for the evolutionary theory of Darwin.
In 1830, Étienne Geoffroy and Cuvier will have a public debate in the Academy of Sciences over the degree to which the animal kingdom shared a uniform type of anatomical organization, in particular, whether vertebrates and mollusks belong to the same (group). Geoffroy (correctly) argues they do and Cuvier argues that his four phyla are completely distinct. Darwin will show that animals (and all organisms) are descended from a (single) common ancestor and that diversity is the result of hereditary changes.
| Paris, France |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2408) Young proposes that light waves were transverse (oscillate at right angles to the direction of travel) sine waves that move through an aether medium, as opposed to longitudinal (oscillating in the direction of travel) sine waves that move through an aether medium as (Huygens has presumed). Young uses this theory to explain the phenomenon of polarization which Young explains is the alignment of light waves (oscillating) in the same plane.
I think that polarization is a particle phenomenon and is the result of the atomic lattice of polarizing materials filtering beams of different directions, passing only beams of light angled in a specific plane or angle. (see videos)
Young writes this first in a letter to Arago.
| London, England |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2431) Friedrich Strohmeyer (sTrOmIR) (CE 1776-1835), German chemist identifies cadmium in zinc carbonate. Strohmeyer finds a bottle of zinc oxide that actually contains zinc carbonate. Strohmeyer becomes interested in zinc carbonate, which turns yellow on strong heating as though it contains iron but yet contains no iron (how does Strohmeyer know this?). Strohmeyer traces the yellow to an oxide not of zinc but of a new unknown metal he names cadmium from the Latin name "cadmia", for calamine (zinc carbonate), the zinc ore which cadmium is usually found with.
In the same year, K.S.L. Hermann and J.C.H. Roloff find cadmium in a specimen of zinc oxide. Both zinc compounds (zinc carbonate and zinc oxide) are being examined because their purity as pharmaceuticals is suspect. (People take zinc?)
| Göttingen, Germany |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2493) Berzelius and his colleague Johann Gottlieb Gahn (1745-1818) are studying a method of producing sulphuric acid in lead cameras when they observe residues of a substance with a very strong smell in the bottom of the camera. At first, they think it is Tellurium. However, a more careful analysis reveals that there are no residues of Tellerium, in spite of its identical properties. Berzelius names this new substance "Selenium", a word that derives from the Greek Σεληνη (Moon). Since Klaproth had named Tellurium for the Earth, Berzelius names Tellurium's sister element for the Earth's satellite.
In 1873 two English telegraph engineers, Willoughby Smith (1828-1891) and his assistant Joseph May will experiment with Selenium and light. They note that when selenium is exposed to light, its electrical resistance decreases. This allows a method to transform images into electric signals, and an electric camera. Selenium becomes the basis for the manufacture of photoelectric cells, and the television. In addition selenium may enable the seeing of thought. However, terribly, the invention of the electric camera will be kept secret for many years, and kept from the public for decades while secretly miniaturized and developed by wealthy elitists through their governments. (Notice how the two work for the telegraph company, already immersed in wiring up hidden microphones, collecting and storing tons of information. It implies that 1873 is just when they told the public possibly. Willoughby Smith works with Wheatstone who is the head of the telegraph operations in England, which must include massive secret electronic spying on other people.)
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2533) François Magendie (mojoNDE) (CE 1783-1855), publishes the first modern physiology textbook, "A Summary of Physiology".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2537) Around this time, Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (CE 1784-1846), German astronomer, creates "Bessel functions". Functions which are applicable to many problems in astronomy and other sciences.)
| Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2584) Pierre Joseph Pelletier (PeLTYA) (CE 1788-1842) and Bienaimé Caventou (KoVoNTU (1795-1877), isolate and name chlorophyll.
Pelletier and Caventou isolate a green compound from plants and call it chlorophyll (from Greek meaning "green leaf").
Chlorophyll is the green pigment in plants that traps light necessary for photosynthesis.
Also in this year Pelletier and Caventou isolate Emetine from the Ipecacuanha root (a plant native to Brazil).
| Paris, France |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2590) Augustin Jean Fresnel (FrAneL) (CE 1788-1827) devises a method of producing circularly polarized light by using a rhombus of glass, known as a Fresnel rhomb, having obtuse angles of 126° and acute angles of 54°.
In the current view according to the Encyclopedia Britannica (due to James Clerk Maxwell), light is a transverse wave (apparently without a medium) made of (an electromagnetic field), in which a vibrating electric vector associated with each wave is perpendicular to the direction of propagation. In circular polarization the electric vector is rotated about the direction of propagation (in other words the plane of polarization is rotated 90 degrees around the direction of the light beam). (A constantly changing polarizing plane can probably be made by simply rotating a polarizer surface.)
The rhomb is shaped such that light entering one of the small faces is internally reflected twice: once from each of the two sloped faces before exiting through the other small face. The angle of internal reflection is the same in each case, and each reflection produces a 45° (π/4 radians) phase delay (for particle interpretation phase delay is ) between the two linearly polarized components of the light. Hence on the first reflection, a linearly polarized beam will be elliptically polarized, and will emerge as circularly polarized on the second reflection. (Apparently the source beam is supposed to be linearly polarized, and the plane of polarization is rotated 90 degrees.)
In my view, the rotation does not cause a spiral but apparently only changes the plane of polarization by 90 degrees (similar to diagonally polarized light simply reflecting off a polarizing surface at 90 degrees such as an LCD light reflecting off a plane polarizing glass table).
| Paris, France |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2600) Leopold Gmelin (GumAliN) (CE 1788-1853), German chemist, publishes "Handbuch der Chemie" (1st ed (3 vol) 1817-1819, 4th ed (9 vol) 1843-1855, "Handbook of Chemistry"). This is an encyclopedic textbook in 3 volumes, that is the first systemization of the field of chemistry after the Lavoisier revolution.
This first edition in 1817 has three volumes, with one volume for organic chemistry (substances from living or once-living tissue). In 1843 Gmelin publishes a fourth edition in nine volumes, six of which are dedicated to organic chemistry. This demonstrates the growth of organic chemistry in the early 1800s. In the sixth edition organic chemistry will not be continued, and Beilstein will eventually take up the organic chemistry textbook.
Gmelin's book contains a surprisingly complete account of the known types of luminescence, based largely on the work of Heinrich and Dessaignes, and the later book of F. Tiedemann (1830). Gmelin recognizes that matter may be made of light writing (translated from German): " Hydrate of potash or soda produces light in combining with sulphuric, nitric, or concentrated acetic acid dropt upon it; baryta or lime with water or one of the acids just mentioned; magnesia with sulphuric or nitric acid.... The light must either have existed ready formed in one or both of the combining bodies, and be merely separated by the act of combination, or it must be evolved during the combination of the ponderable bodies out of imponderable elements contained in them.". Sadly, the majority of people in science will not develop the option that chemical reactions that emit light are made of light, in particular particles of light, and try to quantify how many particles of light are absorbed or emitted as part of chemical equations until modern times, neglecting even to theorize a mass of a photon. (Must be separate from "sponge" theory of Bolognese stone, where light particles are held and released but are they a component of matter?)
Gmelin makes "Gmelin's test" for bile pigments. (chronology)
Gmelin is the first to use the word "ester" and "ketone" as names for two common classes of organic compounds.
| Heidelberg, Germany |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 2783) Christian Heinrich Pander (PoNDR) (CE 1794-1865) Russian zoologist, describes three layers that form in the early development of chicken embryos. Pander uses chicken embryos which are easier to study since they are contained outside of the mother. (These are the layers Baer had thought were 4 parts.)
Pander publishes (his findings in two papers) "Dissertatio inauguralis sistens historiam metamorphoseos, quam ovum incubatum prioribus quinque diebus subit" (1817a, Nitribitt, Würzburg) and "Beiträge zur Entwicklungsgeschichte des Hühnchens im Eye", (1817b, Brönner, Würzburg). The science of embryology is founded with this paper and the later work of Baer.
| Carnikava (near Riga), Latvia |
183 YBN
[1817 AD]
| 3307) Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (DRBurInR) (CE 1780-1849) German chemist, notes that the combining weight of strontium lies midway between those of calcium and barium. (explain combining weight)
In 1829, Döbereiner shows that such "triads" occur in other cases too. This leads to the development of the periodic table.
| Jena, Germany |
182 YBN
[11/26/1818 AD]
| 2340) Jean Louis Pons (PoNS) (CE 1761-1831), French astronomer, rediscovers a comet that has the shortest period (3.3 years) of any yet found (Comet Encke).
Comet Encke was first observed in 1786 by Pierre Méchain.
Pons identifies 27 comets over the course of his life. This comet will be named "Encke" after the person who calculates it's orbit the next year.
| Marseilles, France |
182 YBN
[11/26/1818 AD]
| 2341) Pierre François André Méchain (CE 1744-1804), French astronomer and surveyor, identifies the comet with the shortest period (3 years) known, Encke.
Mechai n discovers 11 comets (over the course of his lifetime) and calculates the orbits of these and other known comets.
| Marseilles, France |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2391) Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (CE 1772-1844), French naturalist, publishes "Philosophie anatomique" (1818, "Anatomical Philosophy")
In this book Geoffroy announces the principle of anatomical connection claiming that the same anatomical structural plan can be identified in all vertebrates.
Geoffroy studies embryos which provides him with evidence to support his view of the unity of composition of vertebrates.
Geoffroy had shown in 1807 that pectoral fins in fish and the bones of the front limbs of other vertebrates are morphologically and functionally similar.
Geoffroy speculates on how one species can be transformed into another by supposing that if birds and reptiles are built to the same plan, then "an accident that befell one of the reptiles...could develop in every part of the body the conditions of the ornithological type", and therefore late in his life, Geoffroy is moving to some form of evolutionary theory.
Geoffroy founds teratology, the study of animal malformation.
| Paris, France |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2447) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) invents a heliotrope, an instrument that reflects the Sun's rays in a focused beam that can be observed from several miles away, used to make precise trigonometric measures of the planet's shape.
| Hannover, Germany |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2452) Louis Jacque Thénard (TAnoR) (CE 1777-1857) identifies hydrogen peroxide.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2512) Among other (acids), Henri Braconnot (BroKunO) (CE 1781-1855), discovers gallic and ellagic acids and pyrogallic acid (pyrogallol) which later enable the (developing photographs in) photography.
| Nancy, France |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2538) Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (CE 1784-1846), German astronomer, publishes "Fundamenta Astronomiae" (1818) a star catalog with 50,000 stars.
| Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2547) William Prout (CE 1785-1850), extracts pure urea from urine. (state method)
| London, England (presumably) |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2549) Pierre Louis Dulong (DYULoUNG) (CE 1785-1838) and Alexis Thérèse Petit show that the specific heat (the heat in calories required to raise the temperature of one gram of a substance one degree Celsius) of an element is inversely related to its atomic weight. Dulong and Petit write "the atoms of all simple bodies have exactly the same capacity for heat". This is known as the law of constant atomic heats.(I have doubts about this because it seems more likely to me that different atoms absorb different frequencies of light and so therefore heat at different rates, but perhaps all atoms absorb the same frequencies of light.) Therefore once the specific heat on an element is known (which is easy to do), it is easy to find the atomic weight (which to determine otherwise might be difficult). (Measuring heat is not easy because many photons are lost to space, and photons from various frequancies are absorbed in different quantities.)
Dulong and Petit publish this in "Recherches sur quelques points importante de la théorie de la chaleur".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2585) Pierre Joseph Pelletier (PeLTYA) (CE 1788-1842) and Bienaimé Caventou (KoVoNTU (1795-1877), isolate strychnine, a poisonous alkaloid from Saint-Ignatius'-beans (S. ignatii), a woody vine of the Philippines.
| Paris, France |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2593) Jean Baptiste Biot (BYO) (CE 1774-1862), publishes a complete treatment of rotatory polarization. Using monochromatic light of different colors Biot shows that the angles of rotation of the plane of polarization of the colors are proportional to the thickness of the crystal and "reciprocally proportional to the square of their fits or to the length of their vibrations in the undulatory system". This inverse square law is known today as "Biot's law". Biot devises a rigorous method for determining the relative contributions of each color to the two beams in the analyser using an integral form of Malus's sine-squared law and a color-mixing formalism derived by Newton. Biot shows that optical rotation is produced by liquids like turpentine and various sugar solutions, and that some substances rotate the plane of polarization to the left (relative to the direction of the light ray), while others rotate it to the right. Finally, Biot demonstrates that optical rotation is a property of the molecules of matter themselves, independent of their state of aggregation, and that optical rotation can therefore be used to determine the nature of unknown compounds, especially of organic solutions.
(Perhaps if Biot had substituted "corpuscular interval" for "fits" Biot could have moved forward. One key missing component is that the corpuscularians fail to fully describe the idea of most of matter being empty space, and how only a few light particles reflect off an atomic surface, most are absorbed, and the possible complexities of reflection of light within an atomic lattice.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
182 YBN
[1818 AD]
| 2790) Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (IreNBRG) (CE 1795-1876), German naturalist, shows that fungi originate from spores. This is evidence against the theory of spontaneous generation (for example that molds are created from decaying wood).
| Berlin, Germany |
181 YBN
[12/??/1819 AD]
| 2768) Eilhardt Mitscherlich (miCRliK) (CE 1794-1863), German chemist, identifies isomophism, the similarity of crystal structure between two or more distinct substances, and that isomorphous substances have similar chemical formulas.
Eilhardt Mitscherlich (miCRliK) (CE 1794-1863), German chemist, identifies that compounds of similar composition tend to crystallize together, as though the atoms of one (connect) with the atoms of the other because of similar design of their structure. This theory is called isomophism. In reverse, if two compounds crystallize together, they are (probably) of similar structure. So if the structure of one is known, the structure of the other is (most likely) the same.
Mitscherlich finds this as a result of working with arsenates and phosphates.
In the Berlin laboratory of H. F. Link (1767-1851) Mitscherlich makes analyses of phosphates and arsenates, confirming the conclusions of J. J. Berzelius as to their composition; and Mitscherlich's observation that corresponding phosphates and arsenates crystallize in the same form is the germ from which grows the theory of isomorphism which Mitschelich communicates to the Berlin Academy in December 1819.
| Berlin, Germany |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2429) John Kidd (CE 1775-1851) British chemist and physician obtains naphthalene from coal tar. Perkin will use coal tar as a source for synthetic molecules, the phenomenal plastics.
| London, England (presumably) |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2430) Sophie Germain (jRmANG or jARmANG) (CE 1776-1831), French Mathematician, proves Fermat's last theorem for any prime number under 100 where certain conditions are met.
In 1816 Germain (annoymously) wins an award for a mathematical model to explain the vibrations on a flat plate phenomena described by the German physicist Ernst F.F. Chladni (and Hooke before Chladni).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2513) Among other (acids), Henri Braconnot (BroKunO) (CE 1781-1855), publishes a memoir describing for the first time the conversion of wood, straw or cotton into a sugar by a sulfuric acid treatment.
Braconnot boils various plants products such as sawdust, linen and bark with acid, and from the process obtains glucose, a simple sugar. Glucose was previously obtained by the boiling of starch with acid. The name glucose is proposed 24 years later by Dumas for a sugar similarly obtained from starch, cellulose, or honey. By the same acid process, Braconnot obtains a "gelatin sugar" (named later glycocolle, now glycine) from gelatin and leucine from muscle fibers.
| Nancy, France |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2574) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), Czech physiologist, finds the Purkinje effect (as light intensity decreases, red objects are perceived to fade faster than blue objects of the same brightness).
Purkinje introduces the word "protoplasm" to describe the living embryonic material in an egg (probably taking this word from "protoplast" the Greek word meaning "first formed" in the Bible used to describe Adam). Mohl will use this word to describe the living material within the cell. (chronology)
Purkinje is the first to use a mechanical microtome (a mechanical device for slicing thin tissue sections) to prepare thin tissue slices for the microscope instead of a simple razor by hand.
| Prague, (now:) Czech Republic |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2598) Also in this year Fresnel wins the French Academy of Sciences award for an explanation of diffraction with a paper that supports a wave theory for light.
Fresnel describes the method of seeing interference patterns first found by Thomas Young (translated in English): "Brighter and sharper fringes may be produced by cutting two parallel slits close together in a piece of cardboard or a sheet of metal, and placing the screen thus prepared in front of the luminous point. We may then observe, by use of a magnifying-glass between the opaque body and the eye, that the shadow is filled with a large number of very sharp colored fringes so long as the light shines through both openings at the same time, but these disappear whenever the light is cut off from one of the slits."
Fresnel writes (translated in English): "I cut a sheet of copper into the shape represented in Figure 15, and placed it in a dark room about four meters in front of a luminous point, and examined its shadow with a magnifying glass. What I observed, on slowly receding, was as follows: When the large fringes produced by each of the very narrow openings CEE'C' and DFF'D' had spread out into the geometrical shadow of CDFE, which received practically only white light from each separate slit, the interior fringes produced by the meeting of these two pencils of light showed colors much sharper and purer than the interior fringes of the shadow of ABDC, and we, at the same time, much brighter."
(I think people need to be sure that the interference {apparently a different effect than diffraction?} does not happen for a single opening, and is not the result of the lens, or an eye lash.) (Experiment: repeat Fresnel's experiments, using a copper sheet, tin foil, and other thin metals using just a magnifying glass, and also using a cardboard box camera with two holes, one for the light and a second for your eye. Is the light reflected off the inside of the hole or does the light originate from somewhere else?)
| Paris, France |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2719) Johann Franz Encke (CE 1791-1865), German astronomer, computes the orbit of a comet observed the year before by Pons. The comet has a period of only 3 and a third years, and is the closest comet to the sun ever found. This comet is now called comet Encke.
Encke calculates the distance of the Sun, from observations of the transits of Venus recorded in 1761 and 1769, 95,300,000 miles (km), 2% too large, but the most accurate estimate up to this time. Encke also deduces (1822-1824) a solar parallax of 8" 57. (Describe how this measurement is made.)
| (Seeberg Observatory near) Gotha, Germany |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2720) Alexis Thérèse Petit (PuTE) (CE 1791-1820), French physicist, working with Pierre Louis Dulong (DYULoUNG) (CE 1785-1838) , creates the law of Dulong and Petit, that specific heat of an element is inversely related to its atomic (mass) (weight).
The Dulong-Petit law states that the gram-atomic heat capacity (specific heat times atomic weight) of an element is a constant which is the same for all solid elements, about six calories per gram atom.
If the specific heat of an element is measured, its atomic weight can be calculated using this empirical law; and many atomic weights are originally calculated using this method. However, later this law will be modified to apply only to metallic elements, and later still low-temperature measurements show that the heat capacity of all solids tends to become zero at sufficiently low temperature. The Dulong-Petit law is now used only as an approximation at intermediately high temperatures.
Petit and Dulong publish this in "Recherches sur quelques points importante de la théorie de la chaleur".
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 2728) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, discovers that hyposulfite of soda (now called "sodium thiosulfate", and simply "hypo" by photographers) can dissolve the otherwise insoluble salts of silver, which will lead to sodium thiosulfate's use as a fixing agent ((to stop he development of the image and) fix the image permanently) in photography even to this day.
| London, England (presumably) |
181 YBN
[1819 AD]
| 3682) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867), describes light-emiting matter in a vacuum tube under high electric potential as a fourth state of matter. William Crookes will support this view in 1879, and Irving Langmuir will name this state "plasma" in 1928.
(I think a strong argument can be made that this state of matter should be grouped with "gas", since, as opposed to "solid" or "liquid", the particles are not attached, but only collide with each other in unconnected motions, but it is a minor point. In particular since atoms in a gas state emit photons just as they do in this so-called fourth state of matter. In fact, that Faraday defines this as "radiant matter", implies that he is unaware that all matter is radiant matter. In addition Faraday clearly labels this distinction of a radiant state as "purely hypothetical".)
| (Royal Institution in) London, England (presumably) |
180 YBN
[04/21/1820 AD]
| 2454) Hans Christian Ørsted (RSTeD) (CE 1777-1851), Danish physicist, finds that electric current running through a wire causes a magnetic compass needle to move. This establishes a connection between electricity and magnetism.
This is the first electromagnet, a magnet created by electric current, although William Sturgeon will produce far stronger electromagnets by shaping wire in a helix around a soft iron cylinder.
| Copenhagen, Denmark |
180 YBN
[07/21/1820 AD]
| 2457) Hans Christian Ørsted (RSTeD) (CE 1777-1851) publishes his finding that electricity moves a magnetic compass needle in a four-page essay written in Latin, "Experimenta circa effectum conflictus electrici in acum magneticam" ("Experiments about the Effects of an Electrical Conflict {Current} on the Magnetic Needle").
| Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
180 YBN
[09/18/1820 AD]
| 2423) French mathematician and physicist, André Marie Ampère (oMPAR) (CE 1775-1836) relates direction of current in a wire to magnetic force.
Ampère (oMPAR) creates the "right hand screw rule". The right hand is imagined holding the wire with the thumb pointing in the direction of the current. The fingers then indicate the direction in which the north pole of a magnet will be deflected. One can imagine a magnetic force circling the wire. This is the beginning of the concept of "lines of force" that Faraday will generalize. The direction of current had to be determined and Ampère decides wrongly to use Franklin's guess of an excess of "electrical fluid" moving from positive to negative, which is now known to be backward; electrical fluid (electrons) moves from negative to positive. So technically in terms of current, this rule should be the "left hand screw rule".
| Paris, France |
180 YBN
[09/25/1820 AD]
| 2424) André Marie Ampère (oMPAR) (CE 1775-1836) observes that two parallel wires attract each other when carrying current in the same direction and repel each other when carrying current in opposite directions.
Ampère shows that a wire free to rotate will rotate 180 degrees and stop so that current is aligned between itself and a stationary wire. (chronology) (Are these wires part of the same circuit or different circuits? Same of different battery?)
Ampère and Arago understand the principle behind the inductor. Ampère and Arago both recognize that in theory, wire in a spiral (helix, or spring) shape will behave like a bar magnet. (make more exact chronology)
André Marie Ampère (oMPAR) (CE 1775-1836) understands that a magnetic field is actually an electric field caused by a current within the metal of the magnet, in other words that all magnetism can be attributed to electric currents.
Ampere is the first to differentiate between the rate of the movement of current from the driving force that moves the current (voltage).
(ex: what is the current in an electromagnet that equals the theoretical current in a permanent magnet of the same size?)
| Paris, France |
180 YBN
[10/30/1820 AD]
| 2418) (I think Coulomb may have proved this. In addition, the intensity of current must contribute to the strength of the magnetic field. Should the intensity of the current be divided by the distance squared?.)(Perhaps Biot is the first to relate this law to current, since Coulomb, being before Oersted did not associate magnetic field with current.) (Coulomb found in 1785 that permanent magnetic force is inversely proportional to distance, so Biot and Savart restate this but for electromagnetic fields created by electricity in conductors, in 1820 with the Biot-Savart law, and Ampère refines this to include 3 dimensional direction of current in 1827.) (How are Biot-Savart law and Ampere law different? Does Coulomb understand that the strength of the magnetic field is proportionally related to the force?)
In the Annales des Chimie et des Physique, is a "Note on the Magnetism of Volta's Battery" which describes the presentation of Biot and Savart like this (translated from French): " At the Academie des Sciences in its session of 30 October 1820, MM. Biot and Savart presented a dissertation on the determination by precise measurement of the physical laws governing the action on magnetized bodies, of metal wires when in contact with the two poles of a voltaic apparatus. For the experiments, tempered steel rectangular plates or cylindrical wires, magnetized by the method of double contact, were suspended from cocoon threads, and their oscillation time and equilibrium position were observed when suspended at various distances in different directions relative to the metal wire connecting the two poles of the battery. Sometimes the action of terrestrial magnetism was combined with that of the wire and other times it was compensated and destroyed by the opposing action of an artificial magnet placed at some distance away. A trough type of apparatus was used with ten pairs of troughs 1 dm2 in surface area. Alternative observations were made which corrected any progressive variations that might have occurred. Time was measured by an excellent half-second double-stop Breguet chronometer. By these procedures MM. Biot and Savart arrived at the following result which rigorously represents the action experienced by a molecule of austral or boreal magnetism when placed at some distance from a fine and indefinite cylindrical wire which is made magnetic by voltaic current. Drawing a perpendicular to the axis of the wire from the point where the magnetic molecule resides, the force influencing the molecule is perpendicular to this line and to the axis of the wire. Its intensity is inversely proportional to the distance. The nature of the actino is the same as that of a magnetized needle which is placed on the contour of a wire in a certain constant direction in relation to the directino of the current; thus the molecule of boreal magnetism and the molecule of austral magnetism are influenced in opposite directions, through always in the same straight line, as determined by the foregoing construction. By this law one can predict and calculate all the motions imparted to magnetized needles by a connecting wire, whatever the relative direction of the wire. The direction of the type of magnetism which can be imparted to steel or iron wires when the action if sustained in a given direction in relation to its length can also be deduced from the ordinary laws of magnetic action.".
Later in 1824, Biot publishes more details in his book "Precis Elementaire de Physique" writing: " ... The first thing which had to be discovered was the law governing the decrease of the force of a conducting wire with increasing distance from its axis. This was the object of the work which I undertook with M. Savart, whose ingenious discoveries in acoustics I have already reported. We took a magnetized steel needle in the form of a very short parallelogram, such as AB in Fig. 41, and to make it perfectly mobile, we suspended it in the horizontal position in a glass cage on a single silkworm thread. To make it quite free to obey the force of the connecting wire, we eliminated the force of terrestrial magnetism by placing a bar magnet A'B' at a distance and in a direction to balance this force exactly. ... If at first the bar is far from the needle, the resultant of the forces which it exerts is very faint, or even imperceptible; this can be checked by making the needle oscillate, because the rate of oscillation will be almost the same as for terrestrial influence alone; but by bringing the bar closer, little by little, the oscillations of the needle become slower, and gradually a position is reached where the oscillation is such that the total resultant still influencing it is altogether negligible. This can readily be seen from the oscillation, at least when the energy of the bar is very great compared with the length of the needle, as recommended. In this condition each pole of the needle is noticeably acted upon in the same way by the bar in parallel directions wherever the oscillatory motion may take it. Now this parallelism of direction takes place equally for the terrestrial force, and in an infinitely more rigorous way. The oscillatory motion due to the difference between these two actions is therefore like that which would be obtained by the influence of a single very faint directing force acting always in apparently parallel directions; this is what makes the squares of the oscillation times inversely proportional to the intensities of the force when the oscillations are very low in amplitude. The residue of the force which persists in any position that one might put that bar, is this known and the position where the oscillation becomes slow enough for the terrestrial force to be regarded as zero is selected. ... Such was the state of equilibrium to which we brought the small magnetized needle which we used in the experiment. When we had satisfied ourselves on this, we passed current through the cylindrical copper connecting wire ZC. This wire had been placed vertically in front of the needle at a sufficient distance away. It was long enough for its extremities to be bent back and connected to the poles of the battery and still only exert such a feeble effect on the needle that it could be confidently ignored. This arrangement represented the effect of an infinite vertical wire acting on a free and horizontal magnetized needle. As soon as the current began to flow, the needle turned transversally to the axis of the wire, in conformity with the rotary behavior indicated by M. Oersted; it then began to oscillate about this direction, just as the stem of a pendulum will oscillate about the vertical due to the effect of the weight; finally, it settled in this direction when the excursions had been stopped by the resistance of the air. The progressive gradual approach of the needle to this definite position was sufficient to indicate that the state of equilibrium was of the type which is called stable; in fact, if it was moved only ever such a little and then left free to swing, it returned to the same place after its oscillations. To determine the nature of the resultant force which returned it, we set the needle slightly in motion and, using a Breguet half-second chronometer, we counted the time required to complete a certain number of oscillations, twenty for example, and then counted on in sets of twenty for as long as the excursions were large enough to be observable. We satisfied ourselves by these tests that their duuration was noticeably independent of their amplitude within the limits under consideration. Now, when a solid body of primatic shape, such as our needle, is free to turn about the axis passing through its centre and oscillates about a certain equilibrium position, if it behaves with regular periodicity in the oscillations which return it, it may be inferred that the force which makes it turn is exactly, or almost exactly, proportional in all its successive positions to the angle through which it is moved from the direction; hence the isochronism (regular periodicity) of the motions, since it is constantly called to its point of rest with energy which is noticeably proportional to the angle which remains for it to describe in order to arrive there. The motion of a solid body at these low amplitudes may be rigorously likened tothe motion of a simple pendulum which oscillates about an equilibrium position due to gravity. Now the oscillations of such a pendulum, if of constant length, vary in duration according to the intensity of the weight influencing it, and this intensity is reciprocally proportional to the squares of the times taken by the pendulum to complete a number of very low amplitude oscillations. Likewise, if the squares of the times for different distances between the wire and the needle are compared, assuming that the condition of isochronism is fulfilled, the ratios of the component forces exerted by the wire parallel to the direction of equilibrium about which the needle oscillates become known. These ratios, and the possibility of equilibrium, are therefore all conditions which the total force of the wire must satisfy; consequently, the absolute law governing this force can be discovered for these conditions to hold. ...". Biot then lists tables with the wire at various distances from the needle with acolumn for the duration of ten oscillations and the ratio of the observed forces with the force observed at 30mm. Biot reports " The numbers in the last column show that the ratios of the observed forces are almost exactly inverse to the ratios of the distances to the connecting wire...."
(Now I think the challenge is to see how to equate the two ratios of gravitation and electromagnetism in terms of quantity of masses, collective distances, and using some standard mass of 1 photon, or 1 unit. Can electromagnetism be explained as a cumulative effect of gravitation, inertia, and particle collision?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 2455) Hans Christian Ørsted (RSTeD) (CE 1777-1851) is the first to isolate the organic compound piperidine.
Piperdine one of the pungent components of pepper.
| Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 2486) After hearing of Oersted's find of current in a wire deflecting a needle, Schweigger realizes that this principle can be used to measure the strength of current, since the stronger the current the greater the deflection. Schweigger makes the effect more sensitive by winding wire many times in a coil around a magnetic needle.
Oersted used in his experiments a single straight wire passing close to the compass; Schweigger, a few months later, shows that if the wire is formed into a vertical coil of several turns around the compass, the effect is greatly increased.
| Halle, Germany |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 2505) Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen (BeLliNGZHoUZeN) (CE 1779-1852), Russian explorer, sights the continent of Antarctica.
Bellingshausen leads the second expedition to circumnavigate Antarctica from 1819 to 1821. Bellingshausen is one of three people to sight the continent of Antarctica (the other two being Nathaniel Palmer of the USA and the Edward Bransfield of England). Bellingshausen is the first to see islands south of the Antarctic Circle, naming them Peter I Island and Alexander I Island (now Alexander Island). The Bellingshausen Sea is named in his honor.
| Antarctica |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 2559) Dominique François Jean Arago (oroGO) (CE 1786-1853) French physicist, demonstrates that copper wire exhibits magnetism when current runs through it, and therefore that iron is not needed to produce the magnetic force.
Elaborating on the work of Han Christian Ørsted of Denmark, Arago shows that an electric current moving through a cylindrical spiral of copper wire causes the copper wire to attract iron filings as if the wire is a magnet and that the filings fall off when the current stops.
(What other metals show magnetism? Do all? Probably anything that can conduct electricity can be used to create an electric field (which appears as a so-called magnetic field).)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 2587) Pierre Joseph Pelletier (PeLTYA) (CE 1788-1842) and Bienaimé Caventou (KoVoNTU (1795-1877), isolate the alkaloids cinchonine, colchicine, and quinine. These have powerful effects on the animal body and Magendie introduces some of them into medical practice.
| Paris, France |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 2591) Augustin Jean Fresnel (FrAneL) (CE 1788-1827) invents the "Fresnel lens", which is used to concentrate light into a narrow beam using less material than a lens.
Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon (1748) originated the idea of dividing a lens surface into concentric rings in order to reduce the weight significantly. In 1820 this idea is adopted by Augustin-Jean Fresnel in the construction of lighthouse lenses.
The "Fresnel lens" is a succession of concentric rings, each consisting of an element of a simple lens, assembled in proper relationship on a flat surface to provide a short focal length. The Fresnel lens is used particularly in lighthouses and searchlights to concentrate the light into a relatively narrow beam. The Fresnel lens replaces the heavy metal mirrors that are in use at the time.(What the Fresnel lens accomplish is not proven to me, and should be shown on video.) Fresnel's lenses are built from annular rings, the centers of curvature of which varied progressively and consequently eliminate spherical aberration. (I think this should be proven clearly if true.) A one-piece molded-glass Fresnel lens is used for spotlights, floodlights, railroad and traffic signals, and decorative lights in buildings. Cylindrical Fresnel lenses are used in shipboard lanterns to increase visibility. Fresnel's Memoirs, which contain the results of Fresnel's experiments and Fresnel's wave theory of light, are deposited at the Academy of Sciences in October 1815. (title of work)
| Paris, France |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 2698) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867), English physicist and chemist, produces the first known compounds of carbon and chlorine, C2Cl6 and C2Cl4.
Faraday produces these compounds by substituting chlorine for hydrogen in "olefiant gas" (ethylene), the first substitution reactions induced. Substitution reactions will later serve to challenge the dominant theory of chemical combination proposed by Jöns Jacob Berzelius.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
180 YBN
[1820 AD]
| 3374) In 1791, John Barber (1734-1801), patented a gas engine which uses coal-gas but has no cylinder or piston.
In 1801, Philip Lebon (CE 1767-1804) had designed and some claim built a gas engine.
In 1820, Reverend William Cecil constructs an engine that uses the vacuum created by hydrogen combustion in air.
Cecil reads a paper read at the Cambridge Philosophical Society in 1820 entitled, "On the Application of Hydrogen Gas to produce a Moving Power in Machinery, with a description of an Engine which is moved by the pressure of the Atmosphere upon a Vacuum caused by Explosions of Hydrogen Gas and Atmospheric Air." In that paper the Rev. W. Cecil describes an engine of his invention constructed to operate on the explosion vacuum method. Hydrogen combusts in air, and allows the nitrogen in air to expand into the newly emptied space. This engine was stated to run with perfect regularity at 60 revolutions per minute, consuming 17.6 cub. ft. of hydrogen gas per hour. The hydrogen explosion, however, does not seem to have been noiseless, because Mr Cecil states that in building a larger engine, to remedy the noise which is occasioned by the explosion, the lower end of the cylinder A, B, C, D may be buried in a well or it may be enclosed in a large air-tight vessel." Mr Cecil also mentions previous experiments at Cambridge by Prof. Farish, who exhibited at his lectures on mechanics an engine actuated by the explosion of a mixture of gas and air within a cylinder, the explosion taking place from atmospheric pressure. Professor Farish is also stated to have operated an engine by gunpowder. These engines of Farish and Cecil appear to be the very earliest in actual operation on Earth.
Cecil writes "The general principle of this engine is founded upon the property, which hydrogen gas mixed with atmospheric air possesses, of exploding upon ignition, so as to produce a large imperfect vacuum. If two and a half measures by bulk of atmospheric air be mixed with one measure of hydrogen, and a flame be applied, the mixed gas will expand into a space rather greater than three times its original bulk. The products of the explosion are, a globule of water, formed by the union of the hydrogen with the oxygen of the atmospheric air, and a quantity of azote (Nitrogen), which, in its natural state, (or density 1), constituted .556 of the bulk of the mixed gas. The same quantity of azote is now expanded into a space somewhat greater than three times the original bulk of the mixed gas; that is, into about six times the space which it before occupied: its density therefore is about 1/6th, that of the atmosphere being unity. If the external air be prevented, by a proper apparatus, from returning into this imperfect vacuum, the pressure of the atmosphere may be employed as a moving force, nearly in the same manner as in the common steam-engine: the difference consists chiefly in the manner of forming the vacuum."
Cecil later writes: " An engine upon this principle is found in practice to work with considerable power, and with perfect regularity. The advantages of it are; that it may be kept, without expense, for any length of time in readiness for immediate action: that the engine, together with the means of working it, may easily be transferred from one place to another: that it may be worked in many places where a steam engine is inadmissible, from the smoke and other nuisances connected with it: a gas engine may be used in any place where a gas light may be burnt: in places which are already supplied with hydrogen for the purpose of illumination, the convenience of such an engine is sufficiently obvious: it may be added, that it requires no attention so long as it is freely supplied with hydrogen. The supply of hydrogen is obtained, either from a large gazometer, which may be at any distance from the engine, or from a number of long copper cylinders filled with condensed hydrogen. (By this time hydrogen is compressed, explain how.) In the latter case, the engine, with the apparatus for working it, will be transferable from one place to another. For pure hydrogen may perhaps be substituted carburetted hydrogen, coal gas, vapour of oil, turpentine, or any ardent spirit: but none of these have been tried; nor is it expected that any of them will be found so effective as pure hydrogen. Before the hydrogen enters the engine it is received into a small gazometer, containing about two gallons, and placed at a distance of about twenty inches from the engine. The gazometer has three pipes, each furnished with a stop-cock. Through one of them, the hydrogen passes from the reservoir into the small gazometer, and is regulated by the stop-cock, which is connected with the moveable part of the gazometer, after the manner of a ball and stop-cock. The other two pipes are placed on the opposite side of the gazometer, parallel to each other, and about three inches asunder. One of them supplies the gas light, which burns before the touch-hole e; the other is a continuation of the hydrogen pipe lm, which enters the small cylinder UV. The two pipes must not communicate with each other, but each must enter the small gazometer by a separate aperture; otherwise the gas light will be extinguished by the absorption from the other pipe when open to the engine. The use of the small gazometer, is to supply these two pipes separately with pure hydrogen, under a moderate but uniform pressure.- A column of water three inches in altitude will occasion sufficient pressure for the supply of the gas light.".
Cecil concludes: " In the description of a gas engine, the power is shewn to arise from the pressure of the atmosphere upon an imperfect vacuum; and is therefore quite independent of the exploding force of the mixed gas. But an engine might be constructed to work by the exploding force only; or by the exploding force and the pressure of the atmosphere jointly. A small model of this kind was exhibited, about three years ago, at the Philosophical Lectures of Professor Farish. Not to enter into the construction of such engines, which would exceed these limits, it will be sufficient to add, in conclusion, a few remarks upon exploding forces in general, and the manner of applying them, with the least danger, to produce moving force. It may be laid down as a principle, that any explosion may be safely opposed by an elastic force, (the force of condensed air for example,) if the elastic force opposed has little or no inertia connected with it. On the contrary, the smallest quantity of inertia, opposed to an exploding mixture fully ignited, is nearly equivalent to an immoveable obstacle. Thus a small quantity of gunpowder, or a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen may be safely ignited in a large close vessel filled with air; for the pressure of the exploding substance, against the sides of the vessel, can never be much greater than the elasticity of the air which it condenses. Again, if a small quantity of earth, or a piece of paper, be inserted in the muzzle of a gun, charged with powder only, the gun will commonly burst upon being fired; for in this case the powder, after being fully ignited, comes to act upon a body at rest, having inertia; and such a body cannot be moved out of the way, in an indefinitely small time, without a force indefinitely great; or it is equivalent to an immoveable obstacle. Of all exploding mixtures, therefore, having the same field of expansion, those are the most dangerous, and the least adapted to produce moving force, which are ignited with the greatest rapidity. Thus a mixture of oxygen and hydrogen, of which the ignition is extremely rapid, is far less adapted for such purposes than a mixture of common air and hydrogen, which is ignited more slowly. There is scarcely any exploding mixture which is ignited so slowly as gunpowder. This therefore, notwithstanding its great force and large field of expansion, is peculiarly adapted to produce either momentum or, moving force; and, when opposed by a moderate quantity of inertia, is attended with less danger than some other mixtures, which explode with less force, but which are ignited with greater rapidity. But great care must be taken that the mass opposed be placed in close contact with the powder; so that the exploding force may begin to act upon it the instant the ignition commences, and that the action may cease before the ignition is completed. Thus in a common musket, if the ball be placed at a small interval, so that the powder may be fully ignited before it begins to move it, the ball in this case becomes an immoveable obstacle, and the gun will burst. It is here supposed, that the exploding mixture has itself no inertia; or that it is capable of following up the body upon which it acts, with a velocity incomparably greater than that body can acquire. Upon these principles an engine was constructed which was moved by the exploding force of gunpowder. The gunpowder was employed to contract a very strong but light spring, by a regular series of explosions: and the elastic force of the spring in recovering its former position, formed the moving power of the engine. The danger to be apprehended from an explosion, thus resisted, depends not upon the strength of the spring so much as upon the weight of it. An engine of this kind may be made to work with regularity for a short time; and the power of it, compared with its whole weight, is extremely great. It is not however proposed with any view to practical utility, being liable to great and obvious objections: particularly from the corrosion of the metals by the sulphur contained in the gunpowder, and by the sulphuric acid which is produced during combustion. It is here noticed merely to illustrate the foregoing principle."
| (Magdalen College) Cambridge, England |
179 YBN
[06/??/1821 AD]
| 2595) Augustin Jean Fresnel (FrAneL) (CE 1788-1827), French physicist, describes light as a transverse wave with an ether medium.
Thomas Young had described light as a transverse wave in 1817 while others before Young (such as Euler, Hooke, Huygens, Grimaldi (verify)) had presumed light to be a longitudinal wave form like sound.
According to Fresnel, ordinary light is made of waves oscillating equally in all possible planes at right angles to the line of propagation, but light with oscillations unequally distributed among the planes is polarized light. When the oscillations are restricted to a single plane, as in the case of the light rays passing through Iceland spar, the light is said to be plane polarized.
Fresnel publishes his transverse wave theory in "Considerations mecaniques sur la polarisation de la lumiere" in "Annales de chimie et de physique" in June of 1821.
Fresnel explains the double refraction of Iceland spar by showing that light, if a transverse wave, (moves at 90 degrees to direction of motion) like water wave can be refracted through two different angles because one ray consists of waves oscillating in a particular plane, and another ray consists of waves oscillating in a plane perpendicular to the first plane.
Fresnel offers a model of an ether whose atoms are loosely bound by weak forces offering little resistance to large displacements or the motion of macroscopic bodies, but capable of transmitting infinitesimal transverse vibrations from atom to atom. Arago rejects the idea of transverse waves and Young states in 1827 that Fresnel's ether resembles an elastic solid as opposed to a fluid.
Fresnel predicts that the speed of light changes in moving media. (There is a difference between the actual speed of a photon versus the apparent speed which might be seen from a larger view after the photon collides around in an atom lattice.)
In the current view according to the Encyclopedia Britannica (due to James Clerk Maxwell), light is a transverse wave (apparently without a medium) made of (an electromagnetic field), in which a vibrating electric vector associated with each wave is perpendicular to the direction of propagation.
| Paris, France |
179 YBN
[07/05/1821 AD]
| 2883) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), finds that electrical current in air and in a vacuum is moved by a magnet.
| London, England |
179 YBN
[09/03/1821 AD]
| 2607) William C. Redfield (CE 1789-1857), American meteorologist, describes the spiral nature of a hurricane (which I think is the same phenomenon as a tornado but much larger.)
On this day, Redfield notices that after a hurricane, from the way the trees have fallen, that the storm spiraled and is what Redfield calls a gigantic "progressive whirlwind".
| New York, USA |
179 YBN
[09/07/1821 AD]
| 1535) The Republic of Gran Colombia is a federation covering much of presentday Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, and Ecuador. Founding vice president is Francisco de Paula Santander.
| |
179 YBN
[09/11/1821 AD]
| 2701) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) invents the first electric motor, which creates sustained mechanical motion from electricity.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
179 YBN
[12/20/1821 AD]
| 2882) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829), experiments with passing electricity from a Leyden jar through a vacuum tube with a platinum wire sealed through one end of the tube.
Davy does use a magnet, but only reports the effects of the magnet are observed on metal spheres in a vacuum.
Davy concludes that "...space, where there is no appreciable quantity of this matter, is capable of exhibiting electrical phenomena"
Davy publishes his findings in "On the Electrical Phenomena Exhibited in Vacuo" (1821).
| London, England |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2379) Alexis Bouvard (BOVoR) (CE 1767-1843), French astronomer, publishes "Tables astronomiques" (1821) for Uranus, however Bouvard finds that the orbital positions he calculates for Uranus does not match past observations, or even later observations. This leads Bouvard to hypothesize that irregularities in Uranus' motion are caused by the influence of an unknown celestial body. In 1846, three years after Bouvard's death, Bouvard's hypothesis will be confirmed by the discovery of (a new planet) Neptune by John Couch Adams and Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier.
(It is important to verify that the gravitational influence of the planets on each other are periodic (repeat) so that there is no point in the future at which the planets in the star system might be disrupted, in particular the orbit of planet Earth. Even if periodic, which seems likely given 4 billion years of relative uniformity, there are clearly tiny fluctuations in the masses, mass distribution and positions of the planets over the years that could easily, in my opinion, cause a problem for people on Earth. This reality also greatly adds value to the idea that in order to survive humans need to sustain independent colonies on other planets, in orbit around the Sun, and in particular in orbit around other stars in order to lower the risk of our extinction.)
(state units orbital positions are given it, is r.a. and dec.?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2397) Thomas Johann Seebeck (ZABeK) (CE 1770-1831), Russian-German physicist , finds the "Seebeck effect" (also known as thermoelectricity, that an electric current flows between different conductive materials ((for example metal)) that are kept at different temperatures, known as the Seebeck effect.
Seebeck finds that if a copper strip is joined to a strip of bismuth to form a closed circuit, heating one junction causes a current of electricity to flow around the circuit as long as the difference in temperature exists (between junctions). This current production is true of any pair of metals, and his original experiment revealed that merely holding one junction by hand is enough produce a measurable current.
When Seebeck joins two wires of different metals to form a closed circuit and applies heat to one of the junctions a nearby magnetic needle moves as if an electric current is flowing around the circuit. Seebeck calls this effect "thermomagnetism" (and later objects to the term "thermoelectricity"). Seebeck wrongly argues that the temperature gradient causes the direct magnetization of the metals.
Another way of describing this is the the heat difference produces an electric potential (voltage) which can drive an electric current in a closed circuit.
The Seebeck effect will form the basis for the thermocouple and will be made use of (more than a century later) in semiconductor devices produced by Shockley and others.
Seebeck was searching for a connection between electricity and heat.
Seebeck publishes his findings about thermomagnetism in 1822-1823 as "Magnetische Plarisation der Matalle und Erze durch Temperatur-Differenz. Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akad, Wissenschaften, pp 265-373".
(Galvani had showed how two different metals cause a current to flow, is this aspect unnecessary for the Seebeck effect? Is this really a conversion of heat into electricity or some other phenomenon?) (What reasoning led Seebeck to try his experiment?)
| Berlin, Germany |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2427) William Hyde Wollaston (WOLuSTuN) (CE 1766-1828) explains the interactions of Ampère's wires as "an electromagnetic current passing round the axis of {each}". Davy adopts Wollaston's interpretation. In other words that the magnetic field is actually made of electrical curernt, which is what I think is true. One common point that is not even defined in the story of science is the question of: what particles is an electric field (and therefore magnetic field) made out of? I think the answer to this has to be clearly that an electric field is composed of electrons. The speculation remains that electrons are actually photons, one problem being how to explain the apparent electrical neutrality of photons when not in metal.
| London, England |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2434) Avogadro publishes this is "Nouvelles considérations sur la théorie des proportions déterminées dans les combinaisons, et sur la détermination des masses des molécules des corps and also Mémoire sur la manière de ramener les composès organiques aux lois ordinaires des proportions déterminées" (1821).
| Turin, Italy (presumably) |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2534) François Magendie (mojoNDE) (CE 1783-1855), founds the "Journal of Experimental Physiology", the first publication of its kind. (first experimental physiology journal?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2572) Joseph von Fraunhofer (FroUNHoFR or HOFR?) (CE 1787-1826) uses gratings (in the form of closely spaced thin wires) to serve as a refracting device that form a spectrum from white light. Since this time much smaller gratings of fine parallel scratches on glass or metal have replaced the prism to produce spectra for the most part.
Fraunhofer also finds lines in spectra produced by reflection from a grating (1821-22), therefore proving the lines to be a characteristic of the light, not the glass of the prism.
In 1674 Claude Dechales (CE 1621-1678) noticed that colors are produced by light reflected from small scratches made in metal. Robert Boyle had noticed that scratches on glass give rise to color in reflected light. (cite Boyle work) Young describes using a glass diffraction grating in 1801.
Fraunhofer publishes this as (translated from German) "New Modification of light by the Mutual Influence and the Diffraction of the Rays and the Laws of this modification.".
Fraunhofer writes "ALL experiments in which the eye of the investigator is provided with good optical instruments are distinguished, as is well known, by a high degree of precision; and some of the most important discoveries could not have been made without these instruments. Up to the present time, in experiments on diffraction there has been no instrument, except a magnifying-glass, which could be used with profit; and this may perhaps be one of the reasons why in this field of physical optics we are so backward, and why we know so little of the laws of this modification of light. Since at small angles of inclination refraction and reflection of light are altered by diffraction, and since in many other cases diffraction plays an important part, which may often be unnoticed, it is most to be desired that these laws should be exactly known; and this is specially so because a knowledge of them makes the nature of light itself better known at the same time, If sunlight is admitted into a darkened room through a small opening and falls upon a dark screen some distance away, which has a narrow aperture, and if the light which passes through this slit is allowed to fall upon a white surface or a piece of ground-glass placed a short distance behind the screen, one sees, as is well known, that the illuminated portion of the white surface is larger than the narrow slit in the screen, and that it has colored edges- in short, that the light through the slit is inflected or diffracted. The narrower the openings, so much the greater is the inflection. The shadow of every body which is placed in a beam of sunlight entering a darkened room through a small opening is bounded by fringes of color which are, moreover, for any given distance of the surface on which the shadow is received, of the same size for bodies of all kinds of matter. The shadow of a narrow object, such as a hair, has, in addition to the outer fringes, others within the shadow, which change with the thickness of the hair, but in other respects are similar to the outer ones. Since the colored fringes are very small, and since most of the light is lost through absorption at the surface on which the shadow is cast, no great accuracy could be expected with the methods which have been used up to this time to observe diffraction phenomena; and this is all the more true because by these methods it is impossible to measure the angles of inflection of the light which alone can make us acquainted with the laws of diffraction. Up to the present, these angles from which the path of the diffracted light can be learned have been calculated from the dimensions of the colored bands and their distance from the diffracting body; but assumptions have been made which, as we shall see, do not agree with the truth, and which, therefore, give false results. The number of different optical phenomena has become in our time so great that caution must be taken so as to avoid being deceived, and also to refer the phenomena always to the simple laws. This is more necessary in the case of diffraction, as we shall see, than in all the other phenomena. I shall, therefore, report the experiments which I have made for the determination of the laws of diffraction of light in an order which is different from that in which I actually performed them, by which procedure many experiments become superfluous and a better understanding will be reached. DIFFRACTION OF LIGHT THROUGH A SINGLE OPENING In order to receive in the eye all the light diffracted through a narrow opening, and to see the phenomena strongly magnified; still more, in order to directly measure the inflection of the light, I placed in front of the objective of a theodolite-telescope a screen in which there was a narrow vertical opening which could be made wider or narrower by means of a screw. By means of a heliostat I threw sunlight into a darkened room through a narrow slit so that it fell upon this screen, through whose opening the light was therefore diffracted. I could then observe through the telescope the phenomena produced by the diffraction, magnified, and yet seen with sufficient brightness; and at the same time I could measure the angles of inflection of the light by means of the theodolite. The colors which are produced by the diffraction of light through a single opening are arranged in an order similar to that of the colors of Newton's rings, which are produced by the contact of two slightly convex pieces of glass; with this difference, that with the latter a black spot is seen in the centre, while it is not with the former. Fig III Table I will help the description. If the telescope of the theodolite is so adjusted that on removing the screen which has the diffraction-slit the slit at the heliostat is focused on the micrometer cross-hairs, and if then the screen- whose slit must be very narrow- is placed in front of the objective, there will be seen in the centre of the field a white band LILI; and the cross-hairs will be in the middle of this band at K. This band becomes yellow near each side, and finally red. In the space LI LII there is a vivid color-spectrum, which is indigo near LI, then blue, green, yellow, and near LII red. The color-spectrum in the space LIILIII is much less intense than that in LILII; the arrangement of its colors is as follows: Near LII blue, then green, yellow, and near LIII red. The spectrum in the space LIIILIV is still weaker than the last; near LIII it is green; near LIV ,red. There then follow a great number of spectra which grow continually weaker until they can be no longer distinguished, and then can be seen only a horizontal strip of light which is, however, stretched out through a great distance. The spectra just described are exactly the same on the two sides of K- i.e., they are symmetrical. The transitions from one color into another are not sharply defined, but imperceptible, and the same thing is true of the spectra." Fraunhofer goes on to say "Since it is impossible to find a fixed point of reference in the color-spectrum arising from diffraction through a single narrow opening, I took, in order to measure the angles of deflection, the transition from one spectrum into another- that is, LI, LII, LIII, etc., or the red end of each spectrum. ...". Fraunhofer finds that "With single openings of different widths the angles of of the light are inversely proportional to the widths the opening.". Fraunhofer then describes his diffraction grating which is a wire on a threaded screw, concluding a similar law that: "With two different gratings constructed of wires of uniform thickness and having a constant width of opening, the size of the spectra which arise owing to the mutual action of a great number of beams diffracted through the narrow openings and their distances from the axis, vary inversely as the distance between the centres of two openings, or, what is the same thing as gamma + delta."
| Benedictbeuern (near Munich), Germany (presumably) |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2583) Ignaz (also Ignace) Venetz (VeneTS) (CE 1788-1859), Swiss geologist, publishes his finding that glaciers leave striations (scratches) which extend for many miles.
| Switzerland |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2588) Pierre Joseph Pelletier (PeLTYA) (CE 1788-1842) and Bienaimé Caventou (KoVoNTU (1795-1877), isolate caffeine. (from what plant?)
| Paris, France |
179 YBN
[1821 AD]
| 2610) (Baron) Augustin Louis Cauchy (KOsE) (CE 1789-1857) publishes "Cours d'analyse de l'École Royale Polytechnique" (1821, "Courses on Analysis from the École Royale Polytechnique") which establishes the calculus as an analytic function, apart from any reference to geometrical figures or magnitudes and stating that higher order infinitesimals must always have a limit of zero.
In these years Cauchy clarifies the principles of calculus, and develops them with the aid of limits and continuity, concepts now considered vital to analysis. Also around this time Cauchy develops the theory of functions of a complex variable (a variable involving a multiple of the square root of minus one).
| Paris, France |
178 YBN
[03/??/1822 AD]
| 3535) Peter Barlow (CE 1776-1862) constructs an electric motor, now called "Barlow's wheel".
Barlow, Sturgeon and others show that a copper disk can be made to rotate between the poles of a horseshoe magnet when a current is passed through the disk from the center to the circumference, the disk circumference making contact with mercury in a trough. These experiments provide the first elementary forms of electric motor, since it is then seen that rotatory motion can be produced in masses of metal by the mutual action of conductors conveying electric current and magnetic fields.
Electric current passes through the wheel from the axle to a mercury contact on the rim. The interaction of the current with the magnetic field of a U-magnet laid flat on the baseplate causes the wheel to rotate. Note that the presence of serrations on the wheel is unnecessary.
| London, England (presumably) |
178 YBN
[06/14/1822 AD]
| 2757) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, presents his "difference engine" to the Royal Astronomical Society in a paper entitled "Note on the application of machinery to the computation of astronomical and mathematical tables". Babbage's Difference Engine is (designed) to calculate (the values of variables in) polynomial (equations) by using a numerical method called the differences method. The (Astronomical) Society approves the idea, and the (British) government will grant Babbage £1500 to construct it in 1823.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
178 YBN
[07/??/1822 AD]
| 2354) Joseph Niepce (nYePS) (CE 1765-1833) creates a photographic copy of an engraving superimposed on glass using "bitumen of Judea", a kind of asphalt which hardens on exposure to light.
This image on glass is a negative contact print on bitumen-coated glass from an etching of Pope Pius VII. The glass negative is later destroyed during an attempt to produce a positive image.
| Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
178 YBN
[09/01/1822 AD]
| 1251) Champollion deciphers the hieroglyph language of the Egyptian language. Champollion gets a copy of inscriptions found on the unbroken obelisk (1 of 2 Bankes found on island of Phillae), inscribed with hieroglyhs, on the base is Greek (this is a second rosetta stone). In seconds Champollion finds a cartouche for Ptolomios. The greek inscription also refers to kleopatra, and champollion finds the cartouche for the name Kleopatra. Within months Champollion will translate over 80 cartouches including the names "Alexander", "Berenice", "Tiberius", "Domitian", and "Trajan". Champollion find that his system can even also translate older hieroglyphs, when in September, 1822 he gets copies of text from a temple between the first and second cataracts (?) of the Nile, the temple of Abu Simbel where Champollion finds the name of Ramesses.
| France |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 1246) The first hot wire detonator is produced by Robert Hare, using one strand separated out of a multistrand wire as the hot bridge wire, this blasting cap ignites a pyrotechnic mixture (thought to be potassium chlorate/arsenic/sulphur) and then a charge of tamped black powder.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 2210) René Just Haüy (oYUE) (CE 1743-1822), publishes Traité de cristallographie (Treatise on Crystallography, 1822) in three volumes.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 2381) Joseph Fourier (FURYAY) (CE 1768-1830) publishes "Théorie analytique de la chaleur (1822, "The Analytical Theory of Heat"), which inspires Ohm to similar thoughts on the flow of electricity.
In this work Fourier shows how the conduction of heat in solid bodies may be analyzed in terms of infinite trigonometric mathematical series now called by his name, the Fourier series. ("series" is apparently also plural)
Leonhard Euler and other 1700s mathematicians had used Fourier series, however, Fourier establishes such series in modern mathematics.
Fourier's work will form a branch of mathematical analysis, the theory of harmonic analysis.
Fourier will express the conduction of heat in two-dimensional objects (for example very thin sheets of material) in terms of the differential equation (see image), where u is the temperature at any time t at a point (x, y) of the plane and k is a constant of proportionality called the diffusivity of the material.
In this book Fourier expands his 1811 paper and makes numerous additions, including time-dependent equations for heat flow and the formulation of physical problems as boundary-value problems in linear partial differential equations. A boundary-value problem is a condition applied to a differential equation in the solution of physical problems. For example, a derivative f(x) = 2x for any x between 0 and 1 has the boundary value of 2 when x = 1. The function f(x) = x2 is a satisfactory i(ntegral for this) differential equation but does not satisfy the boundary condition. The function f(x) = x2 + 1, on the other hand, (as the integral equation) satisfies both the differential equation and the boundary condition.
| Paris, France |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 2530) François Magendie (mojoNDE) (CE 1783-1855), French physiologist, confirms and elaborates the observation by the Scottish anatomist Charles Bell (1811) that the anterior (front) nerve roots of the spinal cord are motor; they carry impulses to the muscles and lead to motion, and that the posterior (rear) nerve roots (of the spinal cord) are sensory; they carry impulses to the brain that are interpreted as sensation. This is confirmed by J.P. Müller.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 2601) Leopold Gmelin (GumAliN) (CE 1788-1853), identifies potassium ferrocyanide.
| Heidelberg, Germany |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 2621) Gideon Algernon Mantell (maNTeL) (CE 1790-1852), English geologist finds a large tooth with a worm smooth surface belonging to an extinct species Mantell names "Iguanodon" ("iguana tooth").
The tooth obviously belongs to a large herbivore and initially reminds Mantell of an elephant's tooth. However, mammals did not exist in the Cretaceous while reptiles, which were common, did not masticate food. Baffled by this, Mantell sends the tooth to the great Baron Cuvier in Paris for identification. But Cuvier's judgment that the tooth was the upper incisor of a rhinoceros Mantell knows is false. In the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons Mantell finds a smaller but identical tooth belonging to the South American iguana and concludes that the large tooth came from a lizard after all, a giant toothed lizard Mantell names Iguanadon (iguana tooth).
Owen will later recognize these as dinosaur fossils.
(Over the course of his life), Mantell discovers four of the five genera of dinosaurs known during this time.
| Sussex, England (presumably) |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 2785) Anselme Payen (PIoN) (CE 1795-1871), French chemist uses activated carbon to remove the colored impurities from beet sugar in the process of extracting sugar from sugar beets. Activated carbon is a form of carbon having very fine pores: used chiefly for adsorbing gases or solutes, as in various filter systems for purification, deodorization, and decolorization. The absorptive properties of charcoal, first put to use by Payen will eventually be used in the gas masks of World War I.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
178 YBN
[1822 AD]
| 3467) David Brewster (CE 1781-1868) notices that some of the dark lines in the solar spectrum become darker when the sun is near the horizon, when the light has a longer path through the earth's atmosphere.
| Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
177 YBN
[03/06/1823 AD]
| 3534) Humphry Davy (CE 1778-1829) causes liquid mercury to rotate using an electric current and magnet. This is based on the principle of the electric motor.
Davy writes "... Immediately after Mr. Faraday had published his ingenious experiments on electro-magnetic rotation, I was induced to try the action of a magnet on mercury connected in the electrical circuit, hoping that, in this case, as there was no mechanical suspension of the conductor, the appearances would be exhibited in their most simple form; and I found that when two wires were placed in a basin of mercury perpendicular to the surface, and in the voltaic circuit of a batter with large plates; and the pole of a powerful magnet held either above or below the wires, the mercury immediately began to revolve round the wire as an axis, according to the common circumstances of electro-magnetic rotation, and with a velocity exceedingly increased when the opposite poles of two magnets were used, one above, the other below. Masses of mercury of several inches in diameter were set in motion, and made to revolve in this manner, whenever the pole of the magnet was held near the perpendicular of the wire; but when the pole was held above the mercury between the two wires, the circular motion ceased; and currents took place in the mercury in opposite directions, one to the right, and the other to the left of the magnet. These circumstances, and various others which it would be tedious to detail, induced me to believe that the passage of the electricity through the mercury produced motions independent of the action of the magnet; and that the appearances which I have describes were owing to a composition of forces. ....".
(EXPERIMENT: Does this work with salt water, and other liquid electrical conductors?)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
177 YBN
[03/13/1823 AD]
| 2699) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) liquefies chlorine gas.
Faraday finds that pure chlorine in liquid state is a yellow liquid.
It was thought before 1810 that exposing chlorine gas to low temperatures which then forms a solid was solid chlorine, however Davy showed that the solid is a hydrate (containing water), the pure gas not being condensible even at -40 degrees F. Faraday uses the cold weather to produce crystals of the hydrate of chlorine and finds it to be composed 10 to 1 of water and chlorine. Faraday heats the hydrate of chlorine. At 60 degrees there is no change, however at 100 degrees F Faraday finds that the tube fills with a bright yellow gas, and two liquids. One liquid fills 3/4 of the tube with a faint yellow color, and another liquid the remaining fourth is a bright yellow color. Faraday uses a bent tube to distill the yellow liquid. When allowed to cool, neither fluid solidifies at temperatures above 34F, the yellow portion not solidifying even at 0F. When Faraday cuts the tube in the middle the yellow part disappears leaving a yellow gas, and the pale liquid which Faraday finds to be a weak solution of chlorine in water with a little muriatic acid (modern name). This gas Faraday recognizes as chlorine gas. Faraday realizes that the chlorine has been entirely separated from the water by the heat, and condensed into a dry fluid just from the mere pressure of its own vapor. It follows that when condensed chlorine gas should form this same fluid. As the atmosphere in the tube at 60F is not very yellow, Faraday concludes that the pressure required might not be beyond that obtainable with a pressure syringe. Therefore, Faraday uses a long tube with a cap and stop-cock which is evacuated of air, and filled with chlorine gas while held vertically with the syringe pointed upward. Air is then pushed in which thrusts the chlorine to the bottom of the tube and produces about 4 atmospheres of pressure. When cooled, a film is deposited which appears to be water and the yellow liquid. To remove the water from the chlorine gas, Faraday leaves the chlorine gas over a bath of sulfuric acid for some time. This time there is no film formed but the clear yellow fluid is deposited and more so when cooled. Faraday then examines the properties of the yellow fluid from the hydrate which he now considers to be pure chlorine. The chlorine is very volatile at common pressure. A portion is cooled in a tube to 0F and remains fluid, The tube is opened at 50F, where a part of the chlorine flies out (volatized) and cools the tube so much that atmospheric vapor condenses on the tube as ice. Faraday measures the density (specific gravity) of chlorine as 1.33 which appears correct because of the liquid chlorines appearance in (under?) water.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
177 YBN
[04/1/1823 AD]
| 2709) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) condenses several gases besides chlorine into liquids including hydrogen sulfide (sulphuretted hydrogen), carbon dioxide (from carbonic acid), nitrous oxide, cyanogen, ammonia, and hydrochloric acid.
Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867), devises methods (describe) for liquefying gases such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, hydrogen bromide, and chlorine under pressure. Faraday is the first to produce temperatures in the laboratory below 0 degrees Fahrenheit and is therefore the pioneer of the branch of physics called cryogenics (the study of the extreme cold).
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
177 YBN
[06/14/1823 AD]
| 3297) Fraunhofer is the first to calculate wavelength (or particle-interval) of light using a diffraction grating using the equation nλ=Dsinθ which equates wave-length of spectral line to spacing between grating grooves and the angle between spectral line and grating.
According to historian E. Newton Harvey, although Fraunhofer determines the wave-lengths of his lines in 1821 and 1823 (I could only find evidence for 1823), the wave-length scale is not generally adopted until after the independent measurements of J. Muller, E. Mascart, and A. J. Angstrom, all in 1863. Before this comparison of spectra was made to Fraunhofer lines.
In 1912, (Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971) will use a similar equation to explain x-ray diffraction as a particle phenomenon, and this equation is perhaps better called the "Fraunhofer equation" as opposed to the "Bragg equation", but apparently Fraunhofer did not connect grating spacing and wavelength with angle of incident light.
Joseph von Fraunhofer (FroUNHoFR or HOFR?) (CE 1787-1826) publishes (translated from German) "Short Account of the Results of New Experiments on the Laws of Light and Their Theory" which summarizes the use of the grating and spectral lines until 1823.
In this work, Franhofer states his equation (see image) for calculating wavelength from angle of diffraction and writes "I have deduced this equation, without any approximation, from the principles of Interference which were proposed in 1802 by Dr Thomas Young, and afterwards fully justified by the painstaking labors of Arago and Fresnel. In this formula w denotes the length of a light wave. Although this quantity is extremely small, we can deduce it with a high degree of accuracy from the experiments which are described in my memoir, New Modification of Light, etc.; and the results of which for the different colored rays are given in general formulas on page 30. From the experiments with glass gratings we learn this quantity so exactly that, for the bright colors, hardly one-thousandth portion of w can be uncertain. From the experiments with the finer gratings we obtain, by means of the angles for the first spectrum with normal incidence of the light, if (Cw) denotes the length of a light-wave for the ray C, (Dw) for the ray D, etc., Cw 0.00002422 Dw 0.00002175
Ew 0.00001945 Fw 0.00001794 Gw 0.00001587 Hw 0.00001464 {in fractions of a Paris inch, Reduced to centimetres this gives for D the wave length 0.00005888 cm 1 Paris incli 2 70700 cm.} ".
Fraunhofer writes a long note defending the wave-theory of light against other theories.
(See image) Fraunhoffer's equation uses the variables simga is the angle of incidence, T is the angle made with the plane of the grating by a colored beam after diffraction, y a straight line drawn perpendicular to the plane of the grating from the micrometer threads of the observing telescope, w is wavelength, epsilon distance apart from parallel line of grating, v=order of spectrum 0,1,2. if sigma the angle of incidence is perpendicular to the grating, sin(sigma)=0, this then reduces to: cos T (+-v) = +-vw/E
(Determine who is the first to connect angle of incidence to frequency of light - it seems like Fraunhofer is the logical choice - but it is not explicitly stated in his 1823 work.)
(Determine if there is any question that includes distance to source and to observation plane wihch clearly shows that changing distance of light source changes position of spectral line.)
| Benedictbeuern (near Munich), Germany (presumably) |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 2335) Heinrich Wilhelm Matthäus Olbers (oLBRS or OLBRZ) (CE 1758-1840) discusses what will be called "Olbers' paradox", which asks 'why is the sky dark at night?' Olbers assumes that the universe is infinite in size and that the stars are evenly distributed. The amount of light reaching the Earth from very distant stars is very small, the number of light rays going in our direction decreases with the square of the distance. On the other hand, this is compensated for by the increased number of stars, the average number of stars at a given distance increases with the square of the distance. The result is that the entire sky should be about as bright as our Sun. Olbers's solution to this problem is that the light is absorbed by dust in space. The current explanation is that the universe if finite in size. In addition, the red shift of light rays from distant galaxies moves the light frequency to be less than visible frequencies of light.
Johannes Kepler first advanced the problem in 1610 as an argument against the notion of a limitless universe with infinite stars. And J. P. L. Chesaux had also discussed this paradox in 1744.
(My own view is that light particles are collided with by other particles in between here and there, what has been interpreted as gravity - so distant light particles inevitably have their directions changed as they move through the universe - it seems rare that any particle would move without colliding over many light years. In fact, at some distance probably the percentage is 0% that a particle will not have collided by this time. So particles are colliding into large particle centers such as galaxies, stars, planets, etc. leaving most of space filled with very low frequencies of particles. Since there is much more space than matter in the universe, matter cannot completely fill space - there will always be more empty space than matter-filled space - which is the nature of this distribution.)
| Bremen, Germany[1 (presumably) |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 2506) Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (DRBurInR) (CE 1780-1849) German chemist, discovers that hydrogen ignites spontaneously in air over a platinum sponge.
Döbereiner finds that heated platinum in powdered form is more effective in oxidizing organic vapors mixed with air as Davy found in 1816 with heated platinum or palladium wire. (chronology better than 1820s) (Distinguishing between a vapor and gas is important. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, a vapor is matter suspended in air, but can also mean the gaseous state of a substance that is liquid or solid under ordinary conditions. I think gas and vapor should not be viewed as the same thing. Is a gas a liquid that is spread out? At what atomic separation or density does a liquid become a gas? Can water molecules in the air, be called water gas?)
Döbereiner identifies the organic compound furfural. (chronology)
Döbereiner identifies the catalytic effect of manganese dioxide on the decomposition of potassium chlorate, which produces oxygen (and ...). (It is interesting that one way to separate atoms is to mix compounds together so that atoms with greater affinity for each other combine. On Earth most compounds are in a very low reactive, stable state, in particular to oxygen being exposed to oxygen and nitrogen for long periods of time.)
| Jena, Germany (presumably) |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 2566) Michel Eugéne Chevreul (seVRuL) (CE 1786-1889) publishes "Recherches chimiques sur les corps gras d'origine animale" (1823, "Chemical Research on Animal Fats"), which describes Chevreul's 10 years of work with fats in which Chevreul identified the fatty acids and that fats are a combination of glycerol and fatty acids.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 2769) Eilhardt Mitscherlich (miCRliK) (CE 1794-1863), German chemist, discovers the monoclinic crystal form of sulfur.
Allotropy, the existence of a substance and especially an element in two or more different forms usually in the same phase ((such as) crystals, diamond and graphite being two allotropes of carbon). In sulfur, allotropy arises from two sources: (1) the different modes of bonding atoms into a single molecule and (2) packing of polyatomic sulfur molecules into different crystalline and amorphous forms. Some 30 solid allotropic forms of sulfur have been reported, but some of these probably represent mixtures. Only eight of the 30 seem to be unique; five contain rings of sulfur atoms and the others contain chains.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 2917) Janos Bolyai (Bo lYOE) (CE 1802-1860), Hungarian mathematician independently understands non-Euclidean geometry. This is published as a 26 page appendix in a mathematics book his father publishes in 1832. Gauss and Lobachevski had already independently figured out non-Euclidean geometry.
Basically I think non-Euclidean geometry can be summed up as simply making space limited to some non-planer surface. The main advance is the idea of limiting space to a geometrical surface. In addition is the new concept of geometrical shapes made with curved lines as opposed to straight lines, for example a triangle made of curved lines on the surface of a sphere, which results in angles that do not equal pi (180 degrees). Euclid explicitly states "straight" lines in the fifth (parallel) postulate which I view as excluding curved lines. Beyond this, any dimensional space, such as three dimensional space, viewed as Euclidean space, is still the same, using a surface only limits the use of that infinite space. This concept is used to create relativity theory, which stands in opposition to Newtonian gravity theory for a century and counting. One problem with a universe placed on a sphere is that there needs to be thickness, since all objects have a thickness, so that sphere must have a depth to contain matter such as galaxies, stars, planets, etc.
Bolyai publishes this non-Euclidean geometry in "Appendix Scientiam Spatii Absolute Veram Exhibens" ("Appendix Explaining the Absolutely True Science of Space"), as an appendix to his father's book on geometry, "Tentamen Juventutem Studiosam in Elementa Matheseos Purae Introducendi" (1832, "An Attempt to Introduce Studious Youth to the Elements of Pure Mathematics").
Frakas Bolyai sends a copy of his son's manuscript to his lifelong friend Carl Friedrich Gauss in Germany, who expresses surprise and delight to find complete agreement with his own thoughts. In a famous letter Gauss replies that he had discovered the main results some years before and this is a profound blow to Bolyai, even though Gauss has no claim to priority because of never publishing his findings. Bolyai's essay goes unnoticed by other mathematicians. In 1848 Bolyai discovers that Nikolay Ivanovich Lobachevsky had published an account of virtually the same geometry in 1829.
| Temesvár, Romania (presumably) |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 3383)
| London, England |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 3464) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, describes the use of spectral lines to detect small amounts of chemicals.
Herschel presents this to the Royal Society of Edinburgh as "On the absorption of light by coloured media".
| London, England (presumably) |
177 YBN
[1823 AD]
| 3684) Peter Barlow (CE 1776-1862) modifies Faraday's motor by mounting a wheel between the poles of a permanent magnet and passing current from the axis to the periphery of the wheel always along a direction of right angles to the magnetic field. (see also )
Historian and physics professor Henry Crew writes "...electricians have taught us that the fundamental principles of the electric generator and of the electric motor are identical; and so they certainly are. One's curiosity is, therefore, aroused to learn why the invention of Barlow's motor preceded the invention of Faraday's disk generator by eight years, especially since the two machines are identical in structure as well as in principle. The answer clearly is that, during this long interval of time, no one was aware of the fact that the spokes of Barlow's wheel were generating what we now call a 'back-electromotive force."'.
(Perhaps this is evidence of electric particles colliding, and their velocities being transfered. In this example, the particles in the magnetic field, presumably electrons extending from an electric current, colliding with the particles, presumably of the same or similar kind, in the electric current in the conductor. The particles in the conductor then distributing this velocity into the rest of the disk. Basically the particles in the magnetic field pushing the disk around by collision. But if true, this would require that these collisions only produce a larger transfered velocity when particles in an electric current occupy the conductor.).
| London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN
[12/09/1824 AD]
| 4022) Peter Mark Roget (CE 1779-1869) submits a paper describing the persistance of vision.
Rogets begins with the initials "ACO" which could be "echo", and ends with "...The velocity of the apparent motion of the visible portions of the spokes is proportionate to the velocity of the wheel itself; but it varies in different parts of the curve: and might therefore, if accurate estimated, furnish new modes of measuring the duration of the impressions of light on the retina.".
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 2494) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848), isolates silicon and describes silicon as an element.(how?)
Berzelius prepares a fairly pure amorphous silicon.
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 2501) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) isolates zirconium in impure form.
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 2545) William Prout (CE 1785-1850), identifies the acid in the stomach as hydrochloric acid which is separable by distillation. This is surprising because hydrochloric acid corrodes metal and burns flesh.
| London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 2560) Dominique François Jean Arago (oroGO) (CE 1786-1853) demonstrates that a rotating copper disk produces rotation in a magnetic needle suspended above it. Michael Faraday will show that this is because of induction. (More detail. Does copper have current running through it?)(This phenomenon deserves to be fully shown on video.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 2729) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, with James South publishes a star catalog of double stars.
| London, England (presumably) |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 2797) Nicolas Léonard Sadi Carnot (KoRnO) (CE 1796-1832) founds the science of thermodynamics by describing that the quantity of work done by a heat engine (such as a steam engine) depends on the difference of temperature created as described by the equation T1-T2/T1, where T1 is the temperature of the steam and T2 is the temperature of the cooling water of a steam engine..
In this work, Carnot derives an early form of the second law of thermodynamics, stating that heat always flows from hot to cold.
Carnot is the earliest known person to calculate (between 1824 and 1832) the constant (Joule's constant) that represents the quantity of work performed to quantity of heat emitted, although this is only in Carnot's notes and not formally published by Carnot.
Carnot publishes this theory in a book titled "Réflexions sur la puissance motrice du feu et sur les machines propres à développer cette puissance" (1824,"Reflections on the Motive Power of Fire and on Machines Fitted to Develop That Power"). In this book, Carnot defines work as "weight lifted through a height". The concept of work will be generalized by Coriolis as "force acting through a distance against resistance". Carnot also describes an internal combustion engine in this book. (earliest description of an internal combustion engine?) In this book, Carnot devises an ideal engine in which a gas is allowed to expand to do work, absorbing heat in the process, and is expanded again without transfer of heat but with a temperature drop. The gas is then compressed, heat being given off, and finally it is returned to its original condition by another compression, accompanied by a rise in temperature. This series of operations, known as Carnot's cycle, shows that even under ideal conditions a heat engine cannot convert all the heat energy supplied to it into mechanical energy; some of the heat energy must be rejected. Carnot tries to calculate the maximum efficiency possible for a steam engine. Carnot demonstrates that the maximum efficiency depends only on the temperature difference in the engine. (Although in my mind, I think size, quantity of steam, friction, and gravity must be variables too.) Carnot determines that the temperature of the steam, T1, is the hottest temperature, and the temperature of the water, T2, is the coldest temperature. The maximum fraction of the heat energy that can be converted into work, even if the machine operates at perfect efficiency, is then T1-T2/T2. (So by making the steam hotter, and/or the water colder, more work can be done because a larger change in pressure results from a larger change in temperature.) Carnot is the first to consider quantitatively how heat and work are converted, and is therefore the founder of the science of thermodynamics ("heat movement"). This work is the the beginning of the science of thermodynamics.
Sadi Carnot calculates the work to heat conversion constant (Joule's constant) between 1824 and 1832.
| Paris, France |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 2912) Niels Henrik Abel (oBL) (CE 1802-1829), Norwegian mathematician publishes a proof of the impossibility of solving fifth degree equations by algebraic methods.
Abel is the first person to formulate and solve an integral equation, an equation where the unknown function is (part of an integral notation, as opposed to not being part of an integral).(chronology)
Abel extends the binomial theorem developed by Newton and Euler into a general form. Abel provides the first general proof of the binomial theorem, which until then had only been proved for special cases. (chronology)
Abel's greatest work is in the theory of elliptic and transcendental functions. Mathematicians had previously focused their attention on problems associated with elliptic integrals. Abel shows that these problems could be immensely simplified by considering the inverse functions of these integrals - the so-called 'elliptic functions'.
Abel also proves a fundamental theorem, Abel's theorem, on transcendental functions.
| (University of Kristiania (Oslo) )Oslo, Norway (presumably) |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 3390) David Gordon patents a steam-driven machine with legs which imitates the action of a horse's legs and feet which is not successful.
Walking leg vehicles, in particular walking two leg robots, must be made at some time, but for some unknown reason, my feeling is that these inventions were not made public before 1980s. The published history of two leg walking robots is sparse and very doubtful given seeing thought in 1910.
| ?, England |
176 YBN
[1824 AD]
| 5980) Ludwig van Beethoven (CE 1770-1827), German composer, composes his famous 9th Symphony "Choral" in D, (opus 125).
This symphony is the final complete symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven. Completed in 1824, the symphony is one of the best known works of the Western classical repertoire. This symphony is the first example of a major composer using voices in a symphony (making it a choral symphony). The words are sung during the final movement by four vocal soloists and a chorus and are taken from the "Ode to Joy", a poem written by Friedrich Schiller in 1785 and revised in 1803, with additions made by the composer. (verify)
When, early in 1827, Beethoven dies, 10,000 people are said to have attended the funeral. Beethoven had become a public figure, as no composer had done before.
(It may be that the 1800s which sees the rise of the "light as a wave" theory promoted by Thomas Young and August Fresnel and the collapse of the more logical view of light as a material particle, is a characteristic of the early 1800s and the continuing collapse of the basic logic of light as a particle of Newton's time. The 1900s will see a small revival with the quantum theory, but the compromise of time dilation and non-Euclidean geometry will delay the truth for another century or two, if not more. In addition, this may signal the rise or amplification of the level of dishonesty, violent activity, and general corruption on the part of the owners of secret technology - like micrometer sized cameras, neuron writers, etc, using the technology to promote and bring in the world wars, and the effects of which we still live with in the 2000s.)
| Vienna, Austria |
175 YBN
[03/17/1825 AD]
| 4838) (Sir) Everard Home (CE 1756-1832) publishes his measurements of heat from the nerves of a variety of animals. This relates to neuron reading, for example seeing the image a person sees or the sounds a person hears. The first word is "In" so Home was probably aware of thought reading and writing.
| London, England (presumably) |
175 YBN
[04/14/1825 AD]
| 3533) Peter Barlow (CE 1776-1862) recognizes that rotating an iron cylinder subject to the magnetic field of the earth produces a magnetic field in the cylinder that is reversed depending on the direction of rotation and which stops when rotation stops. This is explained by Faraday with the invention of the first electrical generator which produces electric current from the motion of a conductor through a magnetic field, by stating that the wheel is cutting through the earth's magnetic lines of force so that electric currents are created in it, these currents in turn create a second magnetic field.
Christie had found a permanent change in the magnetic state of an iron plate by a mere change of position on its axis.
(It is interesting that an electric generator actually just takes electric particles from a different electric current which exists in a magnet - or in some sense completes a second circuit using electricity from a magnet - diverting some of that electricity. One requirement seems to be that unoccupied space is required - this may be why movement, or a row of insulated wires is needed - so that there is a distance between the absorbed electric particles.)
| London, England (presumably) |
175 YBN
[07/??/1825 AD]
| 2461) Pierre Fidèle Bretonneau (BreTunO) (CE 1778-1862), French physician performs the first successful tracheotomy (incision of and entrance into the trachea through the skin and muscles of the neck).
To prevent the fatal asphyxia that the membrane that forms as a result of laryngeal diphtheria, Bretonneau performs a tracheotomy on a four-year-old girl, cutting an opening into the windpipe through the skin and muscles of the neck. This is the first tracheotomy and is successful. (Is simply making a hole in the membrane possible?)
Bretonneau distinguishes between typhus fever and typhoid ("typhyslike") fever.
Bretonneau speculates on the communicability of disease, which foreshadows the germ theory of Pasteur.
| Tours, France (presumably) |
175 YBN
[09/27/1825 AD]
| 2516) The first successful passenger train is in operation.
A steam engine made by George Stephenson (CE 1781-1848) pulls passenger cars along rails from Darlington to Stockton, carrying 450 people at 15 miles (24 km) per hour. This is the first successful practical railway.
Stephenson is the first to make use of flanged wheels. Trevithick had built a steam locomotive that pulled passenger trains in 1801, but Stephenson is the first to be successful. Thirty-eight cars are drawn at 12-16 miles per hour, for the first time, land transportation is faster than a galloping horse. In an effort to improve his locomotive's power Stephenson introduces the "steam blast": exhaust steam is redirected up the chimney, pulling air after it and increasing the draft. This new design makes the locomotive truly practical. (This allows more air to reach the heat source, burning coal?)
| Darlington (and Stockdon), England |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 1243) Marc Isambard Brunel (April 25, 1769 - December 12, 1849), A French-born engineer who settles in the United Kingdom, builds the first "tunnelling shield", a moving framework which protects workers from tunnel collapses when working in water-bearing ground. The shield serves as a temporary support structure for the tunnel while it is being excavated.
| England |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2300) Adrien Marie Legendre (lujoNDR) (CE 1752-1833) publishes "Traité des fonctions elliptiques" (1825-37, 3 vols, "Treatise on Elliptic Functions"), in which Legendre reduces elliptic integrals to three standard forms now known by his name.
| Paris, France(presumably) |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2413) Robert Brown (CE 1773-1858), distinguishes between gymnosperms and angiosperms.
Brown finds that in conifers and related plants the ovary around the ovule is missing, therefore establishing the basic difference between these plants and flowering plants or between the gymnosperms and the angiosperms, as the two groups of seed-bearing plants will later be named.
Brown establishes the gymnospermy of these seed-bearing classes as distinct from the angiospermy of the monocotyledons and dicotyledons.
| London, England (presumably) |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2456) Hans Christian Ørsted (RSTeD) (CE 1777-1851) is the first to isolate crude or impure metallic aluminum.
Ørsted reduces aluminum chloride with potassium amalgam. Humphry Davy had prepared (1809) an iron-aluminum alloy by electrolyzing fused alumina (aluminum oxide) and had already named the element aluminum.
| Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2526) William Sturgeon (CE 1783-1850), English physicist builds the first practical electromagnet. This is the first electromagnet is capable of supporting more than its own weight. Sturgeon puts Ampére's idea of a solenoid into practice, and makes an addition by wrapping the wire around an iron core ((rod or cylinder)), making 18 turns or so. The wires become magnetic when a current runs through them. Each coil reinforces the rest because they form a set of parallel wires with current running through them in the same direction.
The magnetic force seems to be focused in (or originate from) the iron core and so Sturgeon varnishes the iron core to insulate it and keep it from short circuiting with the (uninsulated) wires, and then uses a metal core bent into the shape of a horseshoe. (Does this make a difference? If yes why?) (Does using an iron core produce a stronger magnetic field? If yes, does the iron core provide a source of more photons for the electric field? Or perhaps the larger gravity of the iron bar causes photons to move faster around the coil than without an iron bar in the center?) Sturgeon's first electromagnet is a 7-ounce (200-gram) magnet and is able to support 9 pounds (4 kilograms) of iron (20 times it's own weight) using the current from a single cell. (how large a current?) When the current is turned off, the magnetic properties stop. (It seems like this phenomenon would go a long way to explaining what a magnetic (electric) field is, which I think is from a current moving through metal. If a current is running through a permanent magnet, can this current somehow be used directly for electricity, for example for an electric light? )
Sturgeon varnishes the iron core, and using uninsulated wire to wrap around the core, separating the turns of wire to keep them from touching and short circuiting. The illustration of Sturgeon's magnet shows only 18 loose turns. Henry will insulate the wire itself with silk thread and so can apply a large number of tight turns making a more powerful magnet.
This device leads to the invention of the telegraph, the electric motor, and numerous other devices.
In 1836, Sturgeon founds the monthly journal "Annals of Electricity", the first English journal dedicated entirely to electricity.
Soft iron is iron that when exposed to a magnetic field become a magnet but loses this magnetism when the magnetic field is removed. Nails are made of soft iron. Hard iron is iron that when exposed to a magnetic field becomes a magnet, but remains a magnet when the magnetic field is removed. A compass needle is an example of hard iron. Soft iron is used to make temporary magnets and hard iron to make permanent magnets. The physical difference between hard and soft iron is ... (perhaps the name "magnetic memory" iron or something is more accurate.) Only certain metals can be magnets and are called "ferromagnetic". Besides iron are nickel, cobalt, and alnico, an aluminum-nickel-cobalt alloy (list all others, so iron is not the only element that can produce and retain a magnetic field. Presumably any metal and electrical conductor that can carry current can produce an electric (and magnetic) field.). At first a piece of lodestone was used as a compass needle, then hard iron was used.(state when and add record) To re-magnetize a permanent magnet, for example in opposite polarity, I presume a stronger magnetic field than the magnetic field that exists in the magnet must be applied.
(Why must insulated wire be used to make an electromagnet? What effect does the insulation have? Can it be presumed that there is some insulating material in permanent magnets that serves the same role? is there a static electrical influence within the nonconducting wire insulation? Does this cause the inside and outside of the insulation to have oppositely charged particles?)
| Surrey, England (presumably) |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2568) Michel Eugéne Chevreul (seVRuL) (CE 1786-1889) and Gay-Lussac take out a patent on the manufacture of candles from the newly isolated fatty acids. These candles are harder than the old tallow candles, give a brighter light, look better, need less care and do not smell as bad.
| Paris, France |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2700) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867), isolates and describes Benzene.
Faraday first isolates and identifies benzene from the oily residue derived from the production of illuminating gas from whale oil, giving it the name bicarburet of hydrogen.
Benzene will be named in 1845 by A.W. von Hofmann, the German chemist, who will detect benzene in coal tar.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2788) Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (IreNBRG) (CE 1795-1876), German naturalist completes a scientific expedition (1820-25) to Egypt, Libya, the Sudan, and the Red Sea under the (authority) of the University of Berlin and the Prussian Academy of Sciences. Ehrenberg is the expedition's only survivor, and collects about 34,000 animal and 46,000 plant specimens.
| Berlin, Germany |
175 YBN
[1825 AD]
| 2886) Johannes Peter Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1801-1858), German physiologist, identifies the Müllerian duct.
This is a tube found in vertebrate embryos, which develops into the oviduct in females and is found only vestigially in males.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
174 YBN
[03/??/1826 AD]
| 3454) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, understands that the spectrum of a flame can be used to detect the presence of chemical compounds.
| London, England |
174 YBN
[07/05/1826 AD]
| 3440) Félix Savary (CE 1797-1841) (not to be confused with Félix Savart (CE 1791-1841) reports that the electric spark drawn when a Leyden jar is discharged is likely to be oscillatory, in other words, that the flow of current takes place alternately in one direction and the other.
This will lead to alternating current. Helmholtz and Hertz will use oscillating circuits which leads to the invention of photon communication also known as wireless.
(It is important to note that Savary does not recognize that the Leyden jar connected to the inductor coil is what causes the electrical oscillation. Henry also misses this fact. Helmholtz may be the first to understand this principle. Verify.)
Savary publishes this as "Mémoire sur l'aimentation" (Memoire on Magnetization), in the 1827 "Annales de Chimie et de Physique". At the end of this 50 page paper Savary writes (poorly translated from adapting translations from google and altavista) in a section entitled "Of magnetization by the voltaic currents", "An electric discharge is a phenomenon of movement. This movement is a transport of matter, continuous, in a given direction? Then the alternatives of magnetisms oppose that it is observed for various distances of a rectilinear conductor, or in a helix for the gradually increasing discharge, would be due only to the mutual reactions of magnetic particles in the steel needles, the way in which the action of a wire changes with length I exclude from this assumption. The electric movement during the discharge is composed, to the contrary, of a succession of oscillations of the wire (1) in the environmental mediums, and is deadened by resistances which rise quickly with the absolute velocity of the agitated particles? All the phenomena lead to this assumption, which makes depend, not only on the intensity, but the direction of the magnetism of the laws whereby small movements diminish in the wire, in the medium which surrounds it, in the substance which receives and preserves magnetization. The oscillations in the wire will have a absolute velocity of much less, they will die out much more quickly when this wire will be more long, more thin, that the proper resistance will be more considerable. One explains thus how there is, for a rectilinear driver and a given discharge, a length of wire that produces the strongest magnetization: if the length is less, the small movements decrease too slowly; more large, their intensity is weakened too much. Because the metallic substances can, as one saw, sometimes increase, sometimes weaken magnetization, it is enough that they deaden, in the two cases of the small movements propagated by the wire, and that their action is not simply proportional to the absolute speed of these movements. It sufficient to admit, for infinitely small displacements, in that discovery due to M Arago which met with evidence for oscillations of a finite amplitude. Under the influence of the pile, the relative phenomena, either has direct magnetization, or has the action of metallic envelopes, are similar to that presented by ordinary electric discharges. When the communication is destroyed while the needles are subjected to the action of the wire conductor, it is natural to think that balance is restored in this wire by a suite of small movements similar to those which a discharge would excite there. But when the needles are withdrawn from the voltaic action, without there being an abrupt interruption of the circuit, the influence of a metallic envelope has several times augmented magnetization that would seem to indicate in the closed circuit, the existence of two contrary currents animated by very different speeds, or rather of small movements of which the duration and speed in the two opposite directions would be extremely inequal. An oscillating pendulum in a medium of which the density decreases continuously from one end to the other which it traverses, would be an example of this kind of movement. The contact of two metals does not offer passing in such a medium? Some hypothesis, which can give birth to some research suitable to confirm it or destroy it, can acquire some weight only by new facts. In applying to the experiments contained in this Memoire the considerations that I limit myself has to indicate that, I do not find any simple reason for their return. It would be too long and I fear to enter, on the subject of a first work, in this theoretical discussion. Of new research, that this suggests, will provide me, I hope for, the occasion to return there and the means of developing it.
(Here the use of the word "suggest" so close to the end is a strong indication that even sending images to brains may have been happening secretly by 1826. If true, which is uncertain for we excluded from such technology, it implies that this paper might be revealing some find more distant in the past, or more developed secretly. "Suggest" is a powerful word, given the many thousands who have been murdered by beaming images to suggest bad decisions.)
| (Bureau des Longitudes) Paris, France (presumably) |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 2355) Joseph Niepce (nYePS) (CE 1765-1833) creates the first permanent photo, a view from his workroom on a pewter plate using "bitumen of Judea".
Niepce calls these photographs "heliographs" and photograph "heliography" (sundrawing) with a camera.
This photograph is still preserved sealed within an atmosphere of inert gas at the University of Texas at Austin.
| Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 2422) Christian Leopold von Buch (BvK or BwK?) (CE 1774-1853), publishes s huge geologic map of Germany, composed of 42 sheets, which is the first of its kind.
| Berlin?, Germany |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 2462) Pierre Fidèle Bretonneau (BreTunO) (CE 1778-1862), writes a treatise (title) distinguishing between scarlet fever and diphtheria (which Bretonneau names).
Bretonneau names "diphtheria" from the Greek word for "leather" or "parchment" because of the parchment like membrane that forms in the course of the disease.
| Tours, France (presumably) |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 2524) Wilhelm Freiherr von Biela (BElu) (CE 1782-1856), Austrian astronomer, observes "Biela's comet", a comet which had been seen before, but is named after Biela because he calculated its orbit. This comet has a period of 7 years and is therefore the comet with the second shortest period after Encke. In 1846 this comet will split in two, and the two parts are widely separated when seen in 1852. Biela's comet will never return after this and is the first member of the solar system that has ever dissipated. When Biela's comet should appear there is a crowd of meteors called the Bielids (also Andromedids), which are the first evidence of a close connection between comets and meteors.
| |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 2847) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist creates a method for measuring vapor density. Using this method of determining the vapor density of substances, Dumas can determine their relative molecular masses. (more detail: describe method) Dumas would be more accurate if he applied Avogadro's hypothesis, (by understanding) the difference between an atom and a molecule.
Dumas will publish a new list of the weights of some 30 elements in 1858-1860.
(I still think there is something unusual about this, or reason to doubt, because this presumes that molecules are all equidistant in a vapor and molecules having different masses argues against that. But perhaps on the large scale any difference in distance is too small to be important.)
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 2887) Johannes Peter Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1801-1858), German physiologist, describes a "law of specific nervous energies", in which Müller claims that nerves are not merely passive conductors but that each particular type of nerve has its own special qualities. For example, the visual nerves, however they may be stimulated, are only capable of transmitting visual data. More specifically, if such a nerve is stimulated, whether by pressure, electric current, or a flashing light, the result will always be a visual experience.
(1830s writes textbook on physiology)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 2915) Antoine Jérôme Balard (BoloR) (CE 1802-1876), French chemist discovers the element Bromine.
Balard analyzes the ashes of seaweed as Thénard had done in finding Iodine.
Balard notices that sometimes the ashes turn the liquid he uses brown. Balard tracks this color to a substance that seems to have properties in between those of chlorine and iodine. At first Balard thinks that this may be a compound of the two elements, an iodine chloride, but further investigation convinces him it is a new element.
Ballard discovers bromine after crystallizing sodium chloride and sodium sulfate from the seawater, saturating the residue with chlorine, and distilling the product.
Liebig had found the same element years before, and viewed it as a compound he called iodine chloride.
Balard proposed the name "muride" but the editors of "Annales de chimie" preferred "brome" (because of the element's strong odor, from the Greek for "stink") and the element came to be called bromine.
Later Balard proves the presence of bromine in sea plants and animals.
Balard also creates a method of extracting various salts from the sea, such as sodium sulfate. (chronology)
| (Montpellier École de Pharmacie) Montpellier, France |
174 YBN
[1826 AD]
| 3384) Like almost all engines of this time, the combustion of gas and air is used to produce a vacuum, the piston being driven by atmospheric pressure.
In some experiments on the Thames from Blackfriars Bridge, the ship with Brown's engine reaches a speed of seven or eight miles an hour.
A company is formed and hydrogen gas used, but the expense of procuring gas is found to entirely prevent its application to gas motors instead of steam and so the company is dissolved.
| London, England |
173 YBN
[04/07/1827 AD]
| 6242) Earliest friction match.
In 1860 Robert Boyle (CE 1627-1691) had discovered that phosphorus and sulfur burst into flame instantly if rubbed together.
Before the invention of matches, it was common to use specially made splinters tipped with some combustible substance, such as sulfur, to transfer a flame from one combustible source to another. An increased interest in chemistry led to experiments to produce fire by direct means on this splinter. In 1805, Jean Chancel discovered in Paris that splints tipped with potassium chlorate, sugar, and gum can be ignited by dipping them into sulfuric acid. Later workers refined this method, which culminated in the "promethean match" patented in 1828 by Samuel Jones of London. This consisted of a glass bead containing acid, the outside of which was coated with igniting composition. When the glass is broken using a small pair of pliers, or even with the user’s teeth, the paper in which it is wrapped is set on fire. Other early matches, which could be both inconvenient and unsafe, involve bottles containing phosphorus and other substances. An example is François Derosne’s briquet phosphorique (1816), which used a sulfur-tipped match to scrape inside a tube coated internally with phosphorus.
The first friction matches are invented by John Walker, an English chemist and apothecary, whose ledger of April 7, 1827, records the first sale of such matches. Walker’s "Friction Lights" have tips coated with a potassium chloride–antimony sulfide paste, which ignites when scraped between a fold of sandpaper. Walker never patents these matches.
| England |
173 YBN
[05/01/1827 AD]
| 2606) Georg Simon Ohm (OM) (CE 1789-1854), German physicist, defines the concept of electrical resistance and describes the simple relationship between electric potential, the amount of electrical current and resistance, V=IR, where voltage (electric potential) equals current (I, in Amps) times resistance (R in Ohms).
This law (V=IR or I=V/R) comes to be called "Ohm's law" and is expresses as "The flow of current through a conductor is directly proportional to the potential difference and inversely proportional to the resistance." Cavendish had found this relationship 50 years earlier but never published it.
Ohm applies the ideas of Fourier on the flow of heat to the flow of electricity. Just as rate of heat flows depends on the temperature difference between two points and the conductivity of the medium between them, so the rate of flow of electric current should depend on the difference in electric potential between two points, and on the electrical conductivity of the material between. Using wires of different thickness and different length Ohm finds that the amount of current transmitted is proportional to the cross-sectional area of the wire and inversely proportional to its length. In this way Ohm is able to define the resistance of the wire. (Ohm defining/isolating the concept of resistance is perhaps a separate major contribution.) (Clearly for many years before this, people were not putting resistors in their electrical circuits, running what are called "short circuits".) (Interesting that even for the same voltage, the current will be less for a wire of smaller diameter=true? actually I think the resistance is higher for a thicker wire. At some voltage and current, small wires simply melt, so there is a limit on how much current a wire of a certain diameter can sustain without melting. It seems logical to me that electric current is like a chain of moving particles, perhaps that move in a spiral through metal. Initially, one particle is displaced and a hole is created for the next particle to fall into. This chain continues. Perhaps, at one end, from a chemical reaction in a battery, some photons are released at one end into space, and this creates the displacement current as particle fill the newly created spaces. A larger reaction, or reaction of a larger quantity would result in a larger current. The current view is that the voltage differential is "felt" between two areas separated by long distances. In the other view, all that matters is the strength of the initial point of reaction and the conductivity of the material replacement current is then moved from. Clearly a source of free particles is needed since both sides of a battery need to be physically connected, and no amount of wire apparently will provide particles to fill the empty space created by a chemical reaction.)
The most important aspect of Ohm's law is summarized in his pamphlet "Die galvanische Kette, mathematisch bearbeitet" (1827, "The Galvanic Circuit Investigated Mathematically"). Although Ohm publishes this work in 1827, Ohm receives no recognition or promotion for more than twenty years.
This work contains the now familiar formula I = V/R written in the notation S = A/L, which is followed by the historic statement, "The magnitude of the current in a galvanic circuit is directly proportional to the sum of all tensions (potentials) and indirectly to the total reduced length of the circuit.". By "reduced" Ohm means the appropriate resistances of all parts of the circuit.
Ohm discovers that the ratio of the potential difference between the ends of a conductor and the current flowing through the conductor is constant, and is the resistance of the conductor.
Ohm writes in this paper which extends beyond 200 pages: " The design of this Memoir is to deduce strictly from a few principles, obtained chiefly by experiment, the rationale of those electrical phaenomena which are produced by the mutual contact of two or more bodies, and which have been termed Galvanic:-its aim is attained if by means of it the variety of facts be presented as unity to the mind. To begin with the most simple investigations, I have confined myself at the outset to those cases where the excited electricity propagates itself only in one dimension. They form, as it were, the scaffold to a greater structure, and contain precisely that portion, the more accurate knowledge of which may be gained from the elements of natural philosophy, and which, also on account of its greater necessibility, may be given in a more strict form. To answer this especial purpose, and at the same time as an introduction to the subject itself, I give, as a forerunner of the compressed mathematical investigation, a more free, but not on that account less connected, general view of the process and its results. Three laws, of which the first expresses the mode of distribution of the electricity within one and the same body, the second the mode of dispersion of the electricity in the surrounding atmosphere, and the third the mode of appearance of the electricity at the place of contact of two heterogeneous bodies, form the basis of the entire Memoir, and at the same time contain everything that does not lay claim to being completely established. The two latter are purely experimental laws; but the first, from its nature, is, at least partly, theoretical. With regard to this first law, I have started from the supposition that the communication of the electricity from one particle takes place directly only to the one next to it, so that no immediate transition from that particle to any other situate at immediate transition from that particle to any other situate at a greater distance occurs. The magnitude of the transition between two adjacent particles, under otherwise exactly similar circumstances, I have assumed as being proportional to the difference of the electric forces existing in the two particles; just as, in the theory of heat, the transition of caloric between two particles is regarded as proportional to the difference of their temperatures. It will thus be seen that I have deviated from the hitherto usual mode of considering molecular actions introduced by Laplace; and I trust that the path I have struck into will recommend itself byu its generality, simplicity, and clearness, as well as by the light which it throws upon the character of former methods. With respect to the dispersion of electricity in the atmosphere, I have retained the law deduced from experiments by Coulomb, according to which, the loss of electricity, in a body surrounded by air, in a given time, is in proportion to the force of the electricity, and to a coefficient dependent on the nature of the atmosphere. A simple comparison of the circumstances under which Coulomb performed his experiments, with those at present known respecting the propagation of electricity, showed, however, that in galvanic phaenomena the influence of the atmosphere may almost always be disregarded. In Coulomb's experiments, for instance, the electricity driven to the surface of the body was engaged in its entire expanse in the process of dispersion in the atmosphere; while in the galvanic circuit the electricity almost constantly passes through the interior of the bodies, and consequently only the the smallest portion can enter into mutual action with the air; so that, in this case, the dispersion can comparatively be but very inconsiderable. This consequence, deduced from the nature of the circumstances, is confirmed by experiment; in it lies the reason why the second law seldom comes into consideration. The mode in which electricity makes its appearance at the place of contact of two different bodies, or the electrical tension of these bodies, I have thus expressed: when dissimilar bodies touch one another, they constantly maintain at the point of contact the same difference between their electroscopic forces. With the help of these three fundamental positions, the conditions to which the propagation of electricity in bodies of any kind and form is subjected may be stated. The form and treatment of the differential equations thus obtained are so similar to those given for the propagation of heat by Fourier and Poisson, that even if there existed no other reasons, we might with perfect justice draw the conclusion that there exists an intimate connexion between both natural phaenomena; and this relation of identity increases, the further we pursue it. These researches belong to the most difficult in mathematics, and on that account can only gradually obtain general admission; it is therefore a fortunate chance, that in a not unimportant part of the propagation of electricity, in consequence of its peculiar nature, those difficulties almost entirely disappear. To place this portion before the public is the object of the present memoir, and therefore so many on only of the complex cases have been admitted as seemed requisite to render the transition apparent. ..."
Historian Henry Crew writes: "...the fundamental law which Ohm enunciated in 1826, and which he published in a separate memoir in the year following, must always be considered as an analogue of Fourier's law governing the flow of heat, which was announced in 1822, some four years earlier. ...to reduce the flow of heat and the flow of electricity to one general principle was an achievement of high order; it is an example of the process of simplification which is always going on in the development of physics along with the opposite process, the multiplication of new facts ever tending towards greater complexity. ...Ohm's law...proved itself, some years later, to have especial value as the defining equation for the quantity which Ohm called 'reduced length,' and which we now call 'electrical resistance;' but this was, of course, not possible until both current and E. M. F. had received independent definitions, something which was not accomplished until about twenty years after the enunciation of Ohm's law.".
The unit of resistance is named in honor of Ohm. When a current of 1 ampere passes through a substance under a potential difference of one volt, that substance has a resistance of one ohm. The unit of conductance (the reciprocal of resistance) is named the mho by Kelvin, which is Ohm's named spelled backward.
Ohm also makes studies in acoustics and in crystal interference.
(I wonder if there isn't a different speed of propagation of electric particles in different mediums. It seems logical that more particle collisions would appear to delay the electric particles. Perhaps they move at a constant velocity but are bounced around so much that their undirect path is what causes a delay.)
| Berlin, Germany (written in Cologne?) |
173 YBN
[12/08/1827 AD]
| 2356) Joseph Niépce (nYePS) (CE 1765-1833) submits a memorandum reporting his making solar images accompanied by samples of his work to the Royal Society in London.
In January 1828, the memorandum is returned to Niépce with the explanation that it could not be received by the Society because the process Niépce uses are not revealed.
It seems hard to believe that scientists in the Royal Society of London would not see the value instantly of photography and start developing their own processes.
| Chalon-sur-Saône, France |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2415) Brown publishes this discovery in a pamphlet, "A Brief Account of Microscopical Observations...". Brown writes that after having noticed moving particles suspended in the fluid within living pollen grains of Clarkia pulchella, he examined both living and dead pollen grains of many other plants and observed a similar motion in the particles of all fresh pollen. Initially Brown believes that this movement is caused by some life force in the pollen, but when he extends these observations to inanimate particles suspended in water, Brown finds this same effect (of particles constantly moving unpredictably). Brown experiments with many biotic and abiotic substances (for example dye particles) which Brown reduces to a fine powder and suspends in water which reveal this (constant) motion to be a general property of (powder in water).
This motion has been called "Brownian motion" ever since. This effect will be evidence that water is made of particles.
This phenomenon will remained unexplained until the kinetic theory is developed (by James Maxwell).
In 1905, Albert Einstein will suggest that Brownian motion is the result of the particles colliding with (water) molecules. (Another) Nobel Prize winner, Jean Perrin, proves that Einstein's thesis of Brownian motion is correct.(more detail: how)
| London, England (presumably) |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2425) In addition to understanding that a magnetic field is a form of electric field, Ampère also creates an equation (Ampère's law) to describe the phenomenon of how wires move together or apart depending on the direction of the current, based on the Coulomb's inverse distance squared law for the force of static electricity.
Ampère invents an instrument utilizing a free-moving (astatic) needle to measure the flow of electricity. This instrument will later be refined into the galvanometer (also known by many names such as ampmeter, ohmmeter, voltmeter, multimeter)]. The more current, the more the needle is deflected, adding a scale, will allow the needle to point to a number indicating the quantity of current.
In his 1820 papers, Ampere had viewed a magnet similar to a voltaic pile, but in this set of papers Ampere views the current as being around each molecule in a magnet. This view is similar to the modern view of electrons orbiting an atom.
Coulomb had found in 1785 that magnetic force is inversely proportional to distance.
Ampère's work and his equation are published in "Théorie mathématique des phénomènes électro- dynamiques uniquement déduite de l'expérience." ("On the mathematical theory of electrodynamic phenomena, experimentally deduced.") This work, dated 1823, is not published until 1827. It is somewhat shocking that this 1823 paper has not been fully translated to English yet.
The method Ampere uses to determine the relationship of force between two wires is to use two different circuits (a straight and crooked circuit (more details)) which exert their forces on a third body which is free to move. By making the two forces equal so the third body remains stationary, Ampere can draw important conclusions. Ampere derives the following four laws: 1) The force of a current is reversed when the direction of the current is reversed. 2) The force of a current flowing in a circuit crooked into small sinuosities is the same as if the circuit were smoother out. (needs more explanation) 3) The force exerted by a closed circuit of arbitrary form on an element of another circuit is at right angles to the element. 4) The force between two elements of circuits is unaffected when all the linear dimensions are increased proportionately, the current-strengths remaining unaltered. (This shows that the force is probably derived from the current as opposed to something that is dependent on size of conductor.)
From this experimentation, Ampere creates an equation to describe the force between two wires with moving electric current. (See image 1 for one form of this equation)
(See Plate 1 figures 1-5) In this equation i and i' are (units of charge) in the electrodynamic system of units. The force is acting along the line joining the elements ds and ds', respectively. Repulsion or attraction occurs when this expression is positive or negative. The distance between the current elements is r. θ is the angle between the vectors ds and r, ds being the direction of current in the first wire section, and r representing the direction and magnitude of the line segment connecting the two circuit segments. θ' is this angle for the second segment. ε is the angle made by ds and ds' - that is the angle between the two circuit segments themselves. (I am not sure why Ampere uses rn instead of r2.) h is a constant equal to k-1, where k is the constant that represents the ratio of the force of the first element on the second element (AD on a'd' in Plate 1, figure 5), with that of the second on the first (a'd' on AD) independent of the distance R, the intensities i, i', and of the lengths ds, ds' of the two elements.
Grassman will create a different expression for Ampere's law in 1845, which has become the standard form. However, there is a difference between the two, in particular, they provide different answers for the force of two parts of a closed circuit on each other.
Ampere writes in this paper issued in 1827 (translated from French): "On the mathematical theory of electrodynamic phenomena, experimentally deduced, collecting the papers delivered at the Academie Royale des Sciences by M. Amper on the 4 and 26 December 1820, 10 June 1822, 22 December 1823 and 12 September and 21 November 1825. The new era in the history of science marked by the works of Newton, is not only the age of man's most important discovery in the causes of natural phenomena, it is also the age in which the human spirit has opened a new highway into the sciences which have natural phenomena as their object of study. Until Newton, the causes of natural phenomena had been sought almost exclusively in the impulsion of an unknown fluid which entrained particles in the impulsion of an unknown fluid which entrained particles of materials in the same direction as its own particles; wherever rotational motion occurred, a vortex in the same direction was imagined. Newton taught us that motion of this kind, like all motions in nature, must be reducible by calculation to forces acting between two material particles along the straight line between them such that the action of one upon the other is equal and opposite to that which the latter has upon the former and, consequently, assuming the two particles to be permanently associated, that no motion whatsoever can result from their interaction. It is this law, now confirmed by every observation and every calculation, which he represented in the three axioms at the beginning of the Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica. But it was not enough to rise to the conception, the law had to be found which governs the variation of these forces with the positions of the particles between which they act, or, what amounts to the same thing, the value of these forces had to be expressed by a formula. Newton was far from thinking that this law could be discovered from abstract considerations, however plausible they might be. He established that such laws must be deduced from observed facts, or preferably, from empirical laws, like those of Kepler, which are only the generalized results of very many facts. To observe first the facts, varying the conditions as much as possible, to accompany this with precise measurement, in order to deduce general laws based solely on experience, and to deduce therefrom, independently of all hypothesis regarding the nature of the forces which produce the phenomena, the mathematical value of these forces, that is to say, to derive the formula which represents them, such was the road which Newton followed. This was the approach generally adopted by the leaned men of France to whom physics owes the immense progress which has been made in recent times, and similarly it has guided me in all my research into electrodynamic phenomena. I have relied solely on experimentation to establish the laws of the phenomena and from them I have derived the formula which alone can represent the forces which are produced; I have not investigated the possible cause of these forces, convinced that all research of this nature must proceed from pure experimental knowledge of the laws and from the value, determined solely by deduction from these laws, of the individual forces in the direction which is, of necessity, that of a straight line drawn through the material points between which the forces act. That is why I shall refrain from discussing any ideas which I might have on the nature of the cause of the forces produced by voltaic conductors, though this is contained in the notes which accompany the "Expose somaire des nouvelles experiences electromagnetiques faites par plusieurs physiciens depuis le mois de mars 1821," which I read at the public session of the Academie des Sciences, 8 April 1822; my remarks can be seen in these notes on page 215 of my collection of "Observations in Electrodynamics". It does not appear that this approach, the only one which can lead to results which are free of all hypothesis, is preferred by physicists in the rest of Europe like it is by Frenchmen; the famous scientist who first saw the poles of a magnet transported by the action of a conductor in directions perpendicular to those of the wire, concluded that electrical matter revolved about it and pushed the poles along with it, just as Descartes made "the matter of his vortices" revolve in the direction of planetary revolution. Guided by Newtonian philosophy, I have reduced the phenomenon observed by M. Oerstedt, as has been done for all similar natural phenomena, to forces acting along a straight line joining the two particles between which the actions are exerted; and if I have established that the same arrangement, or the same movement of electricity, which exists in the conductor is present also round the particles of the magnets, it is certainly not to explain their action by impulsion as with a vortex, but to calculate, according to my formula, the resultant forces acting between the particles of a magnet and those of a conductor, or of another magnet, along the lines joining the particles in pairs which are considered to be interacting, and to show that the results of the calculation are completely verified by (1) the experiments of M. Pouillet and my own into the precise determination of the conditions which must exist for a moving conductor to remain in equilibrium when acted upon, whether by another conductor, or by a magnet, and (2) by the agreement between these results and the laws which Coulomb and M. Biot have deduced by their experiments, the former relating to the interaction of two magnets, and the latter to the interaction between a magnet and a conductor. The principal advantage of formulae which are derived in this way from general facts gained from sufficient observations for their certitude to be incontestable, is that they remain independent, not only of the hypotheses which may have aided in the quest for these formulae, but also independent of the hypotheses which some writers have advanced to justify the mechanical cause to which they would ascribe it. The theory of heat is founded on general facts which have been obtained by direct observation; the equation deduced from these facts, being confirmed by the agreement between the results of calculation and of experiment, must be equally accepted as representative of the true laws of heat propagation by those who attribute it to the radiation of calorific molecules as by those who take the view that the phenomenon is caused by the vibration of a diffuse fluid in space; it is only necessary for the former to show how the equations results from their way of looking at heat and for the others to derive it from general formulae for vibratory motion; doing so does not add anything to the certitude of the equation, but only substantiates the respective hypotheses. The physicist who refrains from committing himself in this respect, acknowledges the heat equation to be an exact representation of the facts without concerning himself with the manner in which it can result from one or other of the explanations of which we are speaking; and if new phenomena and new calculations should demonstrate that the effects of heat can in fact only be explained in a system of vibrations, the great physicist who first produced the equation and who created the methods of integration to apply it in his research, is still just as much the author of the mathematical theory of heat, as Newton is still the author of the theory of planetary motion, even though the theory was not as completely demonstrated by his works as his successors have been able to do in theirs. It is the same with the formula by which I represented electrodynamic action. Whatever the physical cause to which the phenomena produced by this action might be ascribed, the formula which I have obtained will always remain the true statement of the facts. If it should later be derived from one of the considerations by which so many other phenomena have been explained, such as attraction in inverse ratio to the square of the distance, considerations which disregard any appreciable distance between particles between which forces are exerted, the vibration of a fluid in space, etc., another step forward will have been made in this field of physics; but this inquiry, in which I myself am no longer occupied, though I fully recognize its importance, will change nothing in the results of my work, since to be in agreement with the facts, the hypothesis which is eventually adopted must always be in accord with the formula which fully represents them. From the time when I notices that two voltaic conductors interact, now attracting each other, now repelling each other, ever since I distinguished and described the actions which they exert in the various positions where they can be in relation to each other, and after I had established that the action exerted by a straight conductor is equal to that exerted by a sinuous conductor whenever the latter only deviates slightly from the direction of the former and both terminate at the same points, I have been seeking to express the value of the attractive or repellent force between two elements, or infinitesimal parts, of conducting wires by a formula so as to be able to derive by the known methods of integration the action which takes place between two portions of conductors of the shape in question in any given conditions. The impossibility of conducting direct experiments on infinitesimal portions of a voltaic circuit makes it necessary to proceed from observations of conductors of finite dimension and to satisfy two conditions, namely that the observations be capable of great precision and that they be appropriate to the determination of the interaction between two infinitesimal portions of wires. It is possible to proceed in either of two ways: one is first to measure values of the mutual action of two portions of finite dimension with the greatest possible exactitude, by placing them successively, one in relation to the other, at different distances and in different positions, for it is evident that the interaction does not depend solely on distance, and then to advance a hypothesis as to the value of the mutual action of two infinitesimal portions, to derive the value of the action which must result for the test conductors of finite dimension, and to modify the hypothesis until the calculated results are in accord with those of observation. It is this procedure which I first proposed to follow, as explained in detail in the paper which I read at the Academie des Sciences 9 October 1820; though it leads to the truth only by the indirect route of hypothesis, it is no less valuable because of that, since it is often the only way open in investigations of this kind. A member of this Academie whose works have covered the whole range of physics has aptly expressed this in the "Notice on the Magnetization of Metals by Electricity in Motion", which he read 2 April 1821, saying that prediction of this kind was the aim of practically all physical research. However, the same end can be reached more directly in the way which I have since followed: it consists in establishing by experiment that a moving conductor remains exactly in equilibrium between equal forces, or between equal rotational moments, these forces and these moments being produced by portions of fixed conductors of arbitrary shape and dimension without equilibrium being disturbed in the conditions of the experiment, and in determining directly therefrom by calculation what the value of the mutual action of the two infinitesimal portions must be for equilibrium to be, in fact, independent of all variations of shape and dimension compatible with the conditions. This procedure can only be adopted when the nature of the action being studied is such that cases of equilibrium which are independent of the shape of the body are possible; it is therefore of much more restricted application than the first method which I discussed; but since voltaic conductors do permit equilibrium of this kind, it is natural to prefer the simpler and more direct method which is capable of great exactitude if ordinary precautions are taken for the experiments. There is, however, in connection with the action of conductors, a much more important reason for employing it in the determination of the forces which produce their action: it is the extreme difficulty associated with experiments where it is proposed, for example, to measure the forces by the number of oscillations of the body which is subjected to the actions. This difficulty is due to the fact that when a fixed conductor is made to act upon the moving portion of a circuit, the pieces of apparatus which are necessary for connection to the battery act on the moving portion at the same time as the fixed conductor, thus altering the results of the experiments. I believe, however, that I have succeeded in overcoming this difficulty in a suitable apparatus for measuring the mutual action of two conductors, one fixed and the other moving, by the number of oscillations in the latter for various shapes of the fixed conductor. I shall describe this apparatus in the course of this paper. It is true that the same obstacles do not arise when the action of a conducting wire on a magnet is measured in the same way; but this method cannot be employed when it is a question of determining the forces which two conductors exert upon each other, the question which must be out first consideration in the investigation of the new phenomena. It is evident that if the action of a conductor on a magnet is due to some other cause than that which produces the effect between two conductors, experiments performed with respect to a conductor and magnet can add nothing to the study of two conductors; if magnets only owe their properties to electric currents, which encircle each of their particles, it is necessary, in order to draw definite conclusions as to the actino of the conducting wire on these currents, to be sure that these currents are of the same intensity near to the surface of the magnet as within it, or else to know the law governing the variation of intensity; whether the planes of the currents are everywhere perpendicular to the axis when at a greater distance from the axis, which is what I have since concluded from the difference which is noticeable between the position of the poles on a magnet and the position of the points which are endowed with the same properties in a conductor of which one part is helically wound. ...".
Ampere then goes on to describe his experiments: " The various cases of equilibrium which I have established by precise experiment provide the laws leading directly to the mathematical expression for the force which two elements of conducting wires exert upon each other, in that they first make the form of this expression known and then allow the initially unknown constants to be determined, just as the laws of Kepler first show that the force which holds the planets in their orbits tends constantly towards the centre of the sun, since it varies for a particular planet in inverse ratio to the square of its distance to the solar centre, so that the constant coefficient which represents its intensity has the same value for all planets. These cases of equilibrium are four in number: the first demonstrates the equality in absolute value of the attraction and repulsion which is produced when a current flows alternately in opposite directions in a fixed conductor the distance to the body on which it acts remaining constant. This equality results from the simple observation that two equal portions of one and the same conductor which are covered in silk to prevent contact, whether both straight, or twisted together to form round each other two equal helices, in which the same electric current flows, but in opposite direction, exert no action on either a magnet of a moving conductor; this can be established by the moving conductor which is illustrated in Plate I, Fig. 9 of Annles de Chimie et de Physique vol. XVIII, relating to the description of the electrodynamic apparatus of mine which is introduced here (Plate I, Fig. 1). A horizontal straight conductor AB, doubled several times over, is placed slightly below the lower part dee'd' such that its mid-point in length and thickness is in the vertical line through the points x,y about which the moving conductor turns freely. It is seen that this conductor stays in the position where it is placed, which proves that there is equilibrium between the actions exerted by the fixed conductor on the two equal and opposite portions of the circuit bcde and b'c'd'e which differ only in that the current flows towards the fixed conductor in the one, and away from it in the other, whatever the angle between the fixed conductor and the plane of the moving conductor: now, considering first the two actions exerted between each portion of the circuit and the half of the conductor AB which is the nearest, and then the two actions between each of the two portions and the half of the conductor which is the furthest away, it will be seen without difficulty (1) that the equilibrium under consideration cannot occur at all angles except in so far as there is equilibrium separately between the first two actions and the last two; (2) that if one of the first two actions is attractive because current flows in the same direction along the sides of the acute angle formed by the portions of the conductors, the other will be repellent because the current flows in opposite directions along the two sides of the equal and opposite angle at the vertex, so that, for there to be equilibrium, the first two actions which tend to make the moving conductor turn, the one in one direction, and the other in the opposite direction, must be equal to each other; and the last two actions, the one attractive and the other repellent, between the sides of the two obtuse and opposite angles at the vertex and the complements of those about which we have just been speaking, must also be equal to each other. needless to say, these actions are really sums of products of forces which act on each infinitesimal portion of the moving conductor multiplied by their distance to the vertical about which this conductor is free to turn; however, the corresponding infinitesimal portions of the two arms bcde and b'c'd'e' always being at equal distances from the vertical about which they turn, the equality of the moments makes it necessary for the forces to be equal. The second of the three general cases of equilibrium was indicated by me towards the end of the year 1820; it consists in the equality of the actions exerted on a moving straight conductor by two fixed conductors situated the same distance away from it, of which one is also straight, but the other bent in any manner. This was the apparatus by which I verified the equality of the two actions in the precise experiments, the results of which were communicated to the Academie in the session of 26 December 1820. The two wooden posts PQ, RS (fig. 2) are slotted on the sides which mutually face each other, the straight wire bc being laid in the slot of PQ, and the wire kl in that of RS; over its entire length this wire is twisted in the plane perpendicular to that joining the two axes of the posts, such that the wire at no point departs more than a very short distance from the mid-point of the slot. These two wires serve as conductors for the two portions of a current which is made to repel the part GH of a moving conductor consisting of two almost closed and equal rectangular circuits BCDE, FGHI in which the current flows in opposite directions so that the effect of the earth on these two circuits cancels out. At the two extremities of this moving conductor there are two points A and K which are immersed in the mercury-filled cups M and N and soldered to the extremities of the copper arms gM, hN. These arms make contact via the copper bushings g and h, the first with the copper wire gfe, helically wound around the glass tube hgf, the other with the straight wire hi which goes through the inside of this tube to the trough ki made in the piece of wood vw which is fixed at the desired height against the pillar z with the set screw o. In view of the experiment to which I referred above, the portion of the circuit composed of the helix gf and the stright wire hi can exert no action on the moving conductor. For current to flow in the fixed conductors are continued by cde, lmn in two glass tubes attached to the cross-piece xy, finally terminating, the fist in cup e and the other in cup n. The current flows through the conductors of the apparatus in the following order: p a b c d e f g M A B C D E F G H I J K N h i k l m n q; as a result, the current flows up the two fixed conductors and down that part, GH, of the moving conductor which is acted upon in its position midway between the two fixed conductors and lies in the plane which passes through their axes. The part GH is thus repelled by bc and kl, whence it follows that if the action of these two conductors is the same at equal distances, GH must remain midway between them; this is, in fact, what happens.".
Ampere describes his third experiment: " The third case of equilibrium is that a closed circuit of any arbitrary shape cannot produce movement in a portion of conducting wire which is in the form of an arc of a circle whose centre lies on a fixed axis about which it may turn freely and which is perpendicular to the plane of the circle of which the arc forms part. On the base table TT' (Plate I, fig. 3) two columns EF and E'F' are erected which are joined by the cross-pieces LL', FF'; an upright GH is held in the vertical position between these two cross-pieces. ... When the arc AA' ispositioned so that its centre is on the upright the conductors MN, M'N' exert equal, but opposite, repulsion on the arc BB' with the result that no effect is produced; since no movement occurs, it is certain that no moment of rotation is produced by the closed circuit. When the arc AA' moves in the other situation which we envisaged, the actions of the conductors MN and M'N' are no longer equal; it could be thought that the movement was due solely to this difference if the movement did not increase, or decrease, according as the curvilinear circuit from R' to S comes nearer or moves further away, which leaves no doubt that the closed circuit plays a prominent part in the effect. This result, occurring for any length of the axis AA', will necessarily occur for each of the elements of which the arc is composed. The general conclusion may therefore be drawn that the action of a closed circuit, or of an assembly of closed circuits, on an infinitesimal element of an electric current is perpendicular to this element.".
Ampere then describes his fourth apparatus. Then Ampere discusses his theory of current elements writing: " I will now explain how to deduce rigorously from these cases of equilibrium the formula by which I represent the mutual action of two elements of voltaic current, showing that it is the only force which, acting along the straight line joining their mid-points, can agree with the facts of the experiment. First of all, it is evident that the mutual action of two elements of electric current is proportional to their length; for, assuming them to be divided into infinitesimal equal parts along their lengths, all the attractions and repulsions of these parts can be regarded as directed along one and the same straight line, so that they necessarily add up. This action must also be proportional to the intensities of the two currents. To express the intensity of a current as a number, suppose that another arbitrary current is chosen for comparison, that two equal elements are taken from each current, and that the ratio is required of the actions which they exert at the same distance on a similar element of any other current if it is parallel to them, or if its direction is perpendicular to the straight lines which join its mid-point with the mid-points of two other elements. This ratio will be the measure of the intensity of one current, assuming that the other is unity. Let us put i and i' for the ratios of the intensities of two given currents to the intensity of the reference current taken as unity, and put ds and ds' for the lengths of the elements which are considered in each of them; their mutual action, when they are perpendicular to the line joining their mid-points, parallel to each other and situated a unit distance apart, is expressed by i i' ds ds'; we shall take the sign + when the two currents, flowing in the same direction, attract, and the sign - in the other case. If it is desired to relate the action of the two elements to gravity, the weight of a unit volume of suitable matter could be taken for the unit of force. But then the current taken as unity would no longer be arbitrary; it would have to be such that the attraction between two of its elements ds, ds', situated as we have just said, could support a weight which would bear the same relation to the unit of weight as ds, ds' bears to 1. Once this current were determined, the product i i' ds ds' would denote the ratio of the attraction of two elements of arbitrary intensity, still in the same situation, to the weight which would have been selected as the unit of force. Suppose we now consider two elements placed arbitrarily; their mutual action will depend on their lengths, on the intensities of the currents of which they are part, and on their relative position. This position can be determined by the length r of a straight line joining their mid-points, the angles θ and θ' between a continuation of this line and the directions of the two elements in the same direction as their respective currents, and finally by the angle ω between the planes drawn through each of these directions and the straight line joining the mid-points of the elements. Consideration of the diverse attractions and repulsions observed in nature led me to believe that the force which I was seeking to represent, acted in some inverse ratio to distance; for greater generality, I assumed that it was in inverse ratio to the nth power of this distance, n being a constant to be determined. Then, putting ρ for the unknown function of the angles θ, θ', ω, I had ρ i i' ds ds'/rn as the general expression for the action of two elements ds, ds' of the two currents with intensity i and i' respectively. It remained to determine the function ρ.". Ampere then goes on to detail the steps taken to create his final force equation by examining the simple cases (see Fig. 5) when two elements (or currents) are in the same plane as the line connecting their midpoints (ω=0), and are parallel and then perpendicular to each other. In addition, (see Fig. 6) Ampere separates the two dimensional current element vectors ds and ds' into their one dimensional x and y components using ds*sinθ and ds*cosθ, ds'*sinθ' and ds'*cosθ. Ampere then accounts for three dimensional current elements by projecting the elements onto the two dimensional plane that connects their midpoints (which introduces the angle ω). In adding the four different one dimensional force vectors, two are zero because they are perpendicular to each other. The remaining two components are added together. Ampere performs more mathematical calculations to create equations to describe the forces exerted by two current elements on each other (see Tricker and original paper for the details). Ampere then goes on to describe the forces of curved currents. In particular, Ampere explains the forces between two electromagnets or as he calls them "solenoids". Ampere writes: "Until now we have considered the mutual action of currents in the same plane and rectilinear currents situated arbitrarily in space; it still remains to consider the mutual action of curvilinear currents which are not in the same plane. First we shall assume that these currents describe planar and closed curves with all their dimensions infinitesimal. As we have seen, the action of a current of this kind depends on the three integrals: ...". Ampere goes on to describe the math of the apparent attractive and repulsive forces of currents in curved shapes. In this part Ampere coins the word "solenoid" for an electromagnet, writing: "...By integrating over the arc s from the one extremity L' to the other L", values of A, B, C are obtained for the set of circuits which encircle it, an assembly which I have called an electrodynamic solenoid, from the Greek word σωληωνοειδηζ, which means that which is a canal (pipe), that is to say, it connotes the cylindrical form of the circuits. ...". Ampere concludes by writing his equation for the force between two solenoids (see Tricker or original work for equation) which Ampere explains "...is in inverse ratio to the square of the distance l. When one of the solenoids is definite, it can be replaced by two indefinite solenoids and the action is them made up of two forces, one attractive and the other repellent, along the straight lines which join the two extremities of the first solenoid to the extremity of the other. Finally, if two definite solenoids L'L" and L, L interact (fig. 33), there are four forces along the respective straight lines L'L1, L'L2, L"L1, L"L2 which join the extremities in pairs; and if, for example, there is repulsion along L'L1, there will be attraction along L"L2.". Ampere then writes more about his view of magnets as being the result of electric currents (we should be reminded that this simple and logical view of magnetism as a result of electrical current only - that is the theory that all magnetic fields are no different from electric fields, whether stationary or moving {static or dynamic}, will not be accepted/recognized by Maxwell, and by many people even to this day). In addition, the shape and form of these electric currents is still open to debate. Notice that there is a debate about the motion of the electric currents to determine if they are around the entire conductor, or only around the particles in the conductor - similar to the modern view of electric particles, or a combination of both. Ampere writes: " In order to justify the manner in which I have conceived magnetic phenomena, regarding magnets as assemblies of electric currents forming minute circuits round their particles, it should be shown from consideration of the formula by which I have represented the interaction of two elements of current, that certain assemblies of little circuits result in forces which depend solely on the situation of two determinate points of this system. These are endowed with all the properties of the forces which may be attributed to what are called molecules of austral fluid and of boreal fluid, whenever these two fluids are used to explain magnetic phenomena, whether in the mutual action of magnets, or in the action of a magnet on a conductor. Now the physicists who prefer explanations based on the existence of such molecules to the explanation which I have deduced from the properties of electric currents, are known to admit that each molecule of austral fluid always has a corresponding molecule or boreal fluid of the same intensity in each particle of the magnetized body. In saying that the assembly of these two molecules, which may be regarded as the two poles of the element, is a magnetic element, an explanation of the phenomena associated with the two kinds of action in question requires: (1) that the mutual action of magnetic elements should be made up of four forces, two attractive and two repellent, acting along straight lines joining the two molecules of one of these elements to the two molecules of the other, with intensity in inverse ratio to the squares of these lines; (2) that when one of these elements acts on an infinitesimal portion of conducting wire, two forces result, perpendicular to the planes passing through the two molecules of the element and the small portion of wire, and proportional to the sines of the angles between the wire and the straight lines joining the wire to the two molecules, and which are in inverse ratio to the squares of these distances. So long as my concept of the behavior of a magnet is disputed and so long as the two types of force are attributed to molecules of austral and boreal fluid, it will be impossible to reduce them to a single principle; yet no sooner than my way of looking at the constitution of magnets is adopted, it is seen from the foregoing calculations that the actions of these two kinds and the values of the resulting forces are deducible directly from my formula. To determine their values it is sufficient to replace the assembly of two molecules, the one of austral and the other of boreal fluid, by a solenoid with extremities that are the two determinate points on which the forces in question depend, and which are situated at precisely the same points where it is assumed that the molecules of the two fluids are placed. Two systems of very small solenoids then act on each other, according to my formula, like two magnets composed of as many magnetic elements as there are assumed to be solenoids in the two systems. One of these systems will also act on an element of electric current in the same way as a magnet. In consequence, in as much as all calculations and explanations are based either on the attractive and repellent forces of the molecules in inverse ratio to the squares of the distances, or on the rotational forces between a molecule and an element of electric current the law governing which I have just indicated as accepted by physicists who do not accept my theory, they are necessarily the same whether the magnetic phenomena in these two cases is explained in my way by electric currents, or whether the hypothesis of two fluids is preferred. Objections to my theory, or proofs in its favour, therefore, are not to be found in such calculations or explanations. The demonstration on which I rely results all from the fact that my theory explains in a single principle three sorts of actions that all the associated phenomena proves are due to one common cause. This cannot be done otherwise. In Sweden, Germany and England it has been thought possible to explain the phenomena by the interaction of two magnets as determined by Coulomb. Experiments which produce continuous rotational motion are manifestly at variance with this idea. In France, those who have not adopted my theory, are obliged to regard the three kinds of action which I have interrelated, as though absolutely independent. The law which Coulomb established in respect of the action of two magnets could be deduced from the law proposed by M. Biot for the mutual action of a portion of conducting wire and a "magnetic molecule"; but if it is admitted that one of these magnets is composed of small electric currents, like those which I have suggested, how can it be objected that the other is not likewise composed, thereby accepting all of my view? Moreover, though M. Biot determined the value and direction of the force when an element of conducting wire acts on each particle of a magnet and defined this as the elementary force, it is clear that a force cannot be regarded as truly elementary which manifests itself in the action of two elements which are not of the same nature, or which does not act along the straight line which joins the two points between which it is exerted. In the memoire which this gifted physicist communicated to the Academie the 30 October and 18 December 1820, he still regarded the force which an element of conducting wire exerts on a molecule of austral or boreal fluid as elementary, that is to say, the action exerted on the pole of a magnetic element is regarded as elementary. When M. Oersted discovered the action which a conductor exerts on a magnet, it really ought to have been suspected that there could be interaction between two conductors; but this was in no way a necessary corollary of the discovery of this famous physicist. A bar of soft iron acts on a magnetized needle, but there is no interaction between two bars of soft iron. Inasmuch as it was only known that a conductor deflects a magnetized needle, could it have been concluded that electric current imparts to wire the property to be influenced by a needle in the same way as soft iron is so influenced without requiring interaction between two conductors when they are beyond the influence of a magnetized body? Only experiments could decide the question; I performed these in the month of September 1820, and the mutual action of voltaic conductors was demonstrated. It was of little value that I should merely have discovered the action of the earth on a conductor and the interaction of two conductors and verified them by experiments; it was more important: (1) To find the formula for the interaction of two elements of current. (2) To show by virtue of the law thus formulated (which governs the attraction of currents in the same direction and the repulsion of currents in the opposite direction, whether the currents are parallel or at an angle), that the action of the earth on conducting wires is identical in all respects, to the action which would be exerted on the same wires by a system, (fasces, Latin) of electric currents flowing in the east-west direction, when situated in the middle of Europe where the experiments which confirm this action were performed. (3) To calculate first, from consideration of my formula and the manner in which I have explained magnetic phenomena associated with electric currents forming very small closed round particles of a magnetized body, the interactions between two particles of magnets regarded as two little solenoids each equivalent to two magnetic molecules, the one of austral and the other of boreal fluid, and the action which one of these particles exerts on an element of conducting wire; then to check that these calculations give exactly, in the first case the law established by Coulomb for the action of two magnets, and in the second case, the law which M. Biot has proposed for the forces which develop between a magnet and a conducting wire. It is thus that I reduced both kinds of action to a single principle and also that which I discovered exists between two conducting wires. Doubtless it was simple, having assembled all the facts, to conjecture that these three kinds of action depended on a single cause. But it was only by calculation that this conjecture could be substantiated, and this is what I have done. I draw no premature conclusion as to the nature of the force which two elements of conducting wires exert on each other, for I have sought only to obtain the analytical expression of this force from experimental data. By taking this as my starting point I have demonstrated that the values of the other two forces given by the experiment (the one between an element of conducting wire and what is called a magnetic molecule, the other between two of these molecules) can be deduced purely mathematically by replacing, in one of the other case, as is necessary, according to my conception of the constitution of magnets, each magnetic molecule by one of the two extremities of an electrodynamic solenoid. Thereafter, all that can be deduced from these values of the forces is necessarily contained in my manner of considering the effects which are produced and it becomes a corollary of my formula, and that alone should be sufficient to demonstrate that the interaction of two conductors is, in fact the simplest case and that from which it is necessary to proceed in order to explain all other cases. The following considerations seem to finish a complete confirmation of these general results of my work; they are founded on the simplest of notions about the composition of forces in reference to the interaction of two systems of infinitely close points in the various cases which can arise- whether these systems only contain points of the same type, that is to say, points which attract or repel similar points of the other system, or whether one of the systems, or both, contains points of the two opposite types of which those of one type attract what those of the other repel, and repel what they attract. Throughout history, whenever hitherto unrelated phenomena have been reduced to a single principle, a period has followed in which many new facts have been discovered, because a new approach in the conception of causes suggests {ULSF: notice very early use of "suggest" "suggère"} a multitude of new experiments and explanations. It is thus that Volta's demonstration of the identity of galvanism and electricity was accompanied by the construction of the electric battery with all the discoveries which have sprung from this admirable device. Judging from the important results of the work of M. Becquerel on the influence of electricity in chemical compounds, and that of MM. Prevost and Dumas on the causes of muscular contraction {ULSF: Again "muscular contraction", "contractions musculaires" coupled with "suggestion" is an early hint at the secret science of remote neuron activation}, it may be hoped that their discovery of new knowledge over the past four years and its reduction to a single principle of the laws of attractive and repellent forces between electric conductors, will also lead to a host of other results which will establish the links between physics, on the one hand, and chemistry and even physiology, on the other, for which there has been a long-felt need, though we cannot flatter ourselves for having taken so long to realize it. It still remains to consider the actions exerted by a closed circuit of arbitrary shape, magnitude and position; the principal result from such inquires is the similarity which exists between the forces produced by a circuit, whether acting on another closed circuit or a solenoid, and the forces which would have been exerted by points whose action were precisely that which is attributed to molecules of what is called austral and boreal fluid. Let us assume that these points are distributed in the manner which I have just explained over surfaces terminated by circuits, and that the extremities of the solenoid are replaced by two magnetic molecules of opposite types. The analogy seems at first to be so complete that all electrodynamic phenomena appear to be reduced to the theory associated with these two fluids. it is soon seen, however, that this only applies to conductors which form solid and closed circuits, that it is only phenomena which are produced by conductors forming such circuits that may be explained in this way, and that in the end it is only the forces which my formula represents that fit all the facts. Indeed, it is the same analogy that I deduce from the demonstration of an important theorem one can state as follows: the mutual action of two solid and closed circuits, or of a solid and closed circuit and a magnet, can never produce a continuous movement with a velocity that accelerates indefinitely as resistance and friction of the apparatus render this velocity constant.". There is no clearly stated conclusion, Ampere ending the memoir with explanation of equations, perhaps because this paper is a combination of multiple papers.
(Can Ampere's equation be reduced to using only the angle between the two wires?)
(Does Ampere's equation mean that the static force is the strongest the force between two wires of moving current can get? Where the cosine expression=1 - can the cosine expression ever be >1 or <-1?)
| Paris, France |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2450) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) publishes a memoir in which the geometry of a curved surface is developed in terms of intrinsic, or Gaussian, coordinates. Instead of considering the surface as embedded in a three-dimensional space, Gauss set up a coordinate network on the surface itself. This is the principle of non-Euclidean geometry where a triangle's angles may not add up to 180 degrees, a line may intersect itself, and a parallel lines may intersect. I view non-Euclidean geometry as interesting, but I doubt that non-Euclidean geometry applies to the physical universe, in particular in the way that the General Theory of Relativity describes. One thing to remember is that any non-euclidean geometry under 4 dimensions is just a subset of 3 dimensional so-called "Euclidean" space. The only difference being a limit on the 3 dimensional points that can be used. This work results from Gauss' survey work.
| Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2546) William Prout (CE 1785-1850), divides food (objects) into carbohydrates, fats and proteins.
| London, England (presumably) |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2614) Richard Bright (CE 1789-1858), English physician publishes "Reports of Medical Cases" (1827) which include the results of Bright's wide-ranging researches. in this work Bright establishes edema (swelling) and proteinuria (the presence of albumin in the urine) as the primary clinical symptoms of the serious kidney disorder named after Bright, Bright's disease, or nephritis. (What is the cause of Bright's disease?: bacteria? genetic? virus? aging?)
Bright writes this health textbook with Thomas Addison (CE 1793-1860), English physician.
Bright excels at making meticulous clinical observations and correlating these observations with careful postmortem examinations.
| London, England |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2724) Karl Ernst von Baer (BAR) (CE 1792-1876), Prussian-Estonian embryologist, discovers the mammal ovum (egg).
Baer publishes this find in his "De Ovi Mammalium et Hominis Genesi" ("On the Mammalian Egg and the Origin of Man",1827).
Baer shows that the mammalian follicle (what Graaf, who first identified it, thought was the egg) contains a smaller microscopic structure which is actually the egg. Baer is the first to see this tiny yellow spot floating in the follicular fluid of a dog, under a microscope. This establishes that mammals, including human beings, develop from eggs.
Baer's work on the embryological development of animals leads him to frame four laws which involve comparative embryology, comparing various embryonic stages on one animal with the embryonic and adult stages of other animals.
Baer opposes the popular idea that embryos of one species pass through stages comparable to adults of other species. Instead, Baer emphasizes that embryos of one species can resemble embryos, but not adults of another, and that the younger the embryo the greater the resemblance. This is in line with Baer's epigenetic idea, which is basic to embryology ever since, that development proceeds from simple to complex, from homogeneous to heterogeneous.
Herbert Spencer will use Baer's law (later known as the biogenetic law) to support (Spencer's) theory that the world is becoming increasingly differentiated and complicated. (I doubt this, and lean more towards well adapted, but not necessarily more complex cell arrangements surviving into the future.)
| (Königsberg now) Kaliningrad, Russia |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2770) Eilhardt Mitscherlich (miCRliK) (CE 1794-1863), German chemist, discovers selenic acid.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2774) Jacques Babinet (BoBinA) (CE 1794-1872), French physicist suggests (1829) that the wavelength (what I call particle interval) of a given spectral line can be used as a fundamental standard of length.
This idea is adopted in 1960, 133 years later when wavelength can be more precisely measured, and the meter is then defined as 165,076,373 wavelengths of the radiation emitted by an atom of kryptonâ"86 in a transition between specified energy levels(voltages?). (The krypton is stimulated to emit photons by absorbing electrical current.) This definition is changed in 1983 to the distance traveled by light in a certain fraction of a second.
Babinet's principle states that the diffraction pattern from an opaque body is identical to the diffraction pattern from a hole of the same size. (chronology)
| Paris, France |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2856) Friedrich Wöhler (VOElR) (CE 1800-1882), German chemist, isolates metallic aluminum by creating a new method. Wöhler isolates aluminum by mixing anhydrous aluminium chloride with potassium.(more details about method)
| (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2892) (Sir) George Biddell Airy (CE 1801-1892), English astronomer and mathematician, designs an eyeglass lens that corrects astigmatism in the human eye.
| Greenwich, England (presumably) |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 2999) (Sir) William Rowan Hamilton (CE 1805-1865) introduces the "characteristic function" in "Theory of Systems of Rays" (1828, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy).
All of Hamilton's work in optics and dynamics depends on a single central idea, that of the characteristic function. This is one of Hamilton's two great discoveries, the other being quaternions.
In this work Hamilton focuses on rays of light emitted from a point source and reflected from a curved mirror.
| (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 3391) Goldsworthy Gurney (CE 1793-1875) builds a steam powered car and drives people from London to Bath.
Following the success of George Stephenson’s Rocket locomotive in 1829, Gurney builds a steam-powered road vehicle. Gurney builds a carriage that he drives from London to Bath and back at a speed of 24 km (15 miles) per hour. Gurney builds several more and opened a passenger service. Powerful opposition to his invention arises at once among the horse-coach interests and Gurney's vehicles are soon taxed out of existence.
| London, England |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 3591) Electronic printer. The first publicly known electric printer uses electricity to print dots.
Harrison Gray Dyar (CE 1805-1875) constructs an electrochemical telegraph that is the first recording telegraph. This telegraph uses static electricity, to pass a spark through a rotating strip of litmus paper which, by the formation of nitric acid, leaves a red dot where each spark passes through the paper. This is also the first record of an electronic "dot" printer. (Was there any public effort to make multi-color printing using this method?)
| New York City NY (presumably) |
173 YBN
[1827 AD]
| 4001) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), coins the word "microphone" for a stethoscope he builds. The first stethoscope was invented by Rene Theophile Hyacinthe Laennec in France in 1816.
(In the first sentence Wheatstone uses the phrase "have added to our stock of information", which implies that they store information such as images and sound recordings and then people pay them to see and hear these recordings like a library perhaps.)
| London, England (presumably) |
172 YBN
[02/??/1828 AD]
| 2857) Friedrich Wöhler (VOElR) (CE 1800-1882), is the first to produce an "organic" (or biotic) compound {molecule} from an "inorganic" (or abiotic) compound, the compound "urea", which forms crystals when ammonium cyanate is heated.
| (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany |
172 YBN
[06/??/1828 AD]
| 2805) Joseph Henry (CE 1797-1878), US physicist, greatly increases the strength of an electromagnet, by insulating the wire instead of the iron core which allows the winding of more coils of wire around the core. Henry is the first known human to insulate the outside of metal wires.(verify)
Henry's magnet weights 21 pounds and can life 35 times its own weight (750 pounds).
Henry demonstrates an electromagnet in June 1828, which combines Schweigger's multiplier with Sturgeon's electromagnet to obtain an extremely powerful magnet. While Sturgeon loosely wrapped a few feet of uninsulated wire around a horseshoe magnet, Henry tightly winds his horseshoe with several layers of insulated wire.
Henry realizes that the more coils of conducting wire a person can wrap around an (insulated) iron core, the greater the reinforcement of the magnetic field and therefore the stronger the magnet. But when adding more and more wires around the iron core, the wires touch each other and therefore short circuit. Henry realizes that it is necessary to insulate the wires (as opposed to the core). Henry tears up one of his wife's silk petticoats to wrap around wire as insulation. Much of Henry's time is spent slowly wrapping silk thread insulation around wire. The electromagnet Henry makes is far more powerful than Sturgeon's.
With the assistance of a colleague, Philip Ten Eyck, Henry builds a 21-pound "experimental magnet on a large scale". With a modest battery, this "Albany magnet" supports 750 pounds, making it, Henry claims, "probably, therefore, the most powerful magnet ever constructed." Henry's paper describing these experiments and his magnet-winding principle is published by Benjamin Silliman, Professor of Chemistry and Natural History at Yale College in the "American Journal of Science" in the issue of January, 1831.
Nine pounds is the best that Sturgeon's electromagnet could do. Henry finds that only with both poles connected can the magnet lift more than 700 pounds, while one pole can lift no more than 6 pounds.
Henry finds that as he increases the turns beyond a certain length of wire, magnetic power drops off, due to the increased resistance of the circuit. To investigate ways of maximizing the magnetic power of a battery, Henry winds a series of shorter coils, instead of one long coil, around the iron core in order to find the optimal configuration for obtaining magnetic power. Henry tests two methods. Henry connects the coils in parallel in order to reduce the resistance of the circuit; this allows "a greater quantity", or higher current, of electricity "to circulate around the iron". Henry also connects the coils in series and employs a battery connected in series so as to increase voltage, or "the projectile force of the electricity".
The first method, connecting the coils in parallel, maximizes the magnetic force obtained from a battery consisting of one element with a large plate area, a low voltage and high current battery. Henry terms this a "quantity" magnet, because it is well suited for operation with a "quantity" battery. Henry calls the second method, connecting the coils in series, an "intensity" magnet, because it obtains the most magnetic force from an "intensity" battery, or a high voltage and low current battery consisting of several elements connected in series. Henry finds that a "quantity" magnet, a large current low voltage magnet, is well-suited to provide great mechanical power at short distances from the battery. However, an "intensity" magnet, a high voltage low current magnet, does not generate as much lifting power, but works quite well at long distances from the battery.
| Albany, NY, USA |
172 YBN
[1828 AD]
| 2383) William Nicol (CE 1768-1851), Scottish physicist, invents a polarizing prism made from two calcite crystals (calcium carbonate, also called Iceland spar, crystals that exhibit double refraction). The Nicol prism opens up the technique of polarimetry which will be used in connection with molecular structure.
Nicol also develops methods for preparing thin slices of minerals and fossil wood in order to make microscopic examination possible. These techniques allow samples to be viewed through the microscope by transmitted light instead of by reflected light, which only reveals surface features.
The Nicol prism makes use of the phenomenon of double refraction discovered by Erasmus Bartholin. The crystal is split (in the dimension of) its shorter diagonal and the two halves cemented together in their original position by a transparent layer of Canada balsam. The ordinary ray is totally reflected at the layer of Canada balsam while the extraordinary ray, striking the cement at a slightly different angle, is transmitted. Nicol prisms make producing polarized light easy. For a long time the Nicol prism is the standard instrument in the study of polarization and plays a part in the formation of theories of molecular structure.
| Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
172 YBN
[1828 AD]
| 2725) Karl Ernst von Baer (BAR) (CE 1792-1876), Prussian-Estonian embryologist, publishes Über Entwickelungsgeschichte der Thiere (vol. 1, 1828; vol. 2, 1837; "On the Development of Animals"), a two-volume textbook on embryology, which with the work of Pander, may be considered the founding of modern embryology.
In this work Baer surveys all existing knowledge on vertebrate development.
Baer shows that a developing egg forms several layers of tissue, each undifferentiated, out of which specialized organs develop, a different specific set of organs for each layer. Baer calls these germ layers. Baer thinks there are 4 layers but Remak will show that the two middle layers form a single structure and that only 3 layers exist. Baer shows that the early stages of development of vertebrate embryos are similar even among organisms that grow to be very different, for example the same structure might develop into an arm, wing, flipper, or something else. Baer believes that relationships among animals can be deduced more accurately by comparing the embryos of each animal.
Baer goes on to identify the neural folds as precursors of the nervous system, discovers the notochord, describes the five primary brain vesicles, and studies the functions of the extra-embryonic membranes.
Baer shows that the early vertebrate embryo has a notochord, a stiff rod running the length of the back, which some fish-like animals retain throughout their life, but in vertebrates this notochord is replaced by a spinal chord. (replaced or grows into?) Those vertebrates with a notochord at some stage in their development are now grouped in the phylum Chordata.
Baer describes the notochord as a rod of cells which runs the length of the vertebrate embryo and around which the future backbone is laid down. This pioneering work established embryology as a distinct subject of research.
| (Königsberg now) Kaliningrad, Russia (presumably) |
172 YBN
[1828 AD]
| 2859) Friedrich Wöhler (VOElR) (CE 1800-1882), German chemist, isolates beryllium and yttrium, using his new method. Wöhler isolates Beryllium by reacting potassium and beryllium chloride.
Wöhler isolates yttrium as an impure extract of yttria through the reduction of yttrium anhydrous chloride (YCl3) with potassium.
| (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany |
172 YBN
[1828 AD]
| 6028) (Joseph-)Maurice Ravel (CE 1875-1937), French composer of Swiss-Basque descent, composes "Boléro".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
172 YBN
[1828 AD]
| 6246) Some historians credit Anianus Jedlik (CE 1800-1895), Hungarian priest and teacher, with the first electromagnet armature motor and commutator by 1828.
Joseph Henry will publish the idea of using an electromagnet for an electric motor armature in 1831.
William Sturgeon will build a motor with a commutator in 1832.
(verify birth-death dates.)
| Pannonhalma, Hungary (presumably) |
172 YBN
[1828 AD]
| 6256) Anianus Jedlik (CE 1800-1895), Hungarian priest and teacher, builds a model electric motor car.
(verify birth-death dates.)
| Pannonhalma, Hungary (presumably) |
171 YBN
[03/27/1829 AD]
| 2844) Francesco Zantedeschi (CE 1797-1873), Italian physicist, uses a permanent magnet to produce electrical current.
Zantedeschi publishes this as "Nota sopra l' azione della calamita e di alcuni fenomeni chimici" (1859. ("Note about the action of the magnet and some chemical phenomenon"), describing moving the magnet to cause an induced current as a postscript at the end of the paper in the Biblioteca Italiana volume 53.
In a tract of 16 pages, published in 1859, Zantedeschi defended the claims of Romagnosi, a physician of Trent, to the discovery in 1802 of the magnetic effect of the electric current, a discovery which is usually accredited to Oersted of Copenhagen in 1820.
Zantedeschi's experiments and papers on the repulsion of flames by a strong magnetic field (discovered by Padre Bancalari of the Pious Schools in 1847) attracted general attention at the time. (Is this true? This is very interesting if true, and would be very nice to see.)
This is the important principle of dynamic electromagnet induction, how moving electrical particles can induce other electrical particles to move in an unconnected conductor. Static electric induction was first described in 1753 by John Canton (CE 1718-1772). Electrostatic induction is how an electrified object can induce an opposite charge in a second object without touching by being close to the electrified object.
| Pavia, Italy |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 2495) | Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 2507) Johann Wolfgang Döbereiner (DRBurInR) (CE 1780-1849) recognizes that some elements have similar properties, which Döbereiner calls the "law of triads".
Döbereiner recognizes that chlorine, bromine and iodine posses a smooth gradation of properties in terms of color, atomic weight, reactivity (combines in same proportions to similar elements?), and other properties (more specifics). The same is true for calcium, strontium, and barium, in addition to sulfur, selenium, and tellurium. Döbereiner calls this the law of triads, and this will lead to the periodic table first formed by Mendeléev. (This must be the first time that chemists are able to produce and study these elements.)
L. Gmelin tries to apply this idea to all elements, but realizes that in many cases more than three elements have to be grouped together.
In 1817 Döbereiner had recognized that the combining weight of strontium lies midway between those of calcium and barium.
| Jena, Germany (presumably) |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 2575) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), recognizes fingerprints as a means of identification.
| (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 2735) Gustave Gaspard de Coriolis (KOrYOlES) (CE 1792-1843), French physicist, introduces and defines the terms "kinetic energy" and "work" in their modern form.
Coriolis defines the kinetic energy of an object as half its mass times the square of its velocity (E=½mv²), while the work done on an object is equal to the force upon it multiplied by the distance it is moved against resistance (W=Fd).
Coriolis publishes this in his first major book, "Du calcul de l'effet des machines" (1829; "On the Calculation of Mechanical Action"), in which Coriolis attempts to adapt theoretical principles to applied mechanics. E=1/2mv^2 is equal to m*integral(v), so in some sense, since Distance=integral(velocity), Kinetic energy is defined as the mass times the distance moved, where Work also multiplies in the acceleration since F=ma. (Perhaps the concept of energy is useful for some applications, but I think people need to remember and publicly confirm that the concept of "energy" is purely a human made quantity since in my opinion matter and velocity cannot be exchanged. In this sense, a person can equally define other cumulative quantities, such as Mattergy=½m²v, but there is apparently little or no value or use in the concept of mattergy. There can be many other quantities of no value, such as 1/4mv^3 the integral of distance covered by some object in terms of the object's velocity (D=1/2v^2), and 3/4m^3v^2, just some made up quantity.) (I can see that "work", W=fd, might be a useful concept to determine how many motors a person might need to push an object some distance.)
| Paris, France |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 2767) Nikolay Ivanovich Lobachevsky (also Nikolai Lobachevski) (luBuCAFSKE) (CE 1793-1856), Russian mathematician, is the first to publish a non-Euclidean geometry. Lobachevsky implies that since the surface of an circle of infinite size appears by all measurements to be a straight line, a person cannot be sure if measurements made that appear to be on a straight line are actually on a very large curved line. Lobachevsky shows that a triangle made of curved lines may have angles that add to less than pi (for example on a hyberbola) or more than pi (for example on a sphere).
As a result, Lobachevsky introduces the idea of limiting three dimensional space to the surface of an object. I define these two kinds of geometry as "total space geometry" versus "partial space geometry". In a "total space" geometry, all points are available and space is infinite in size, and a "partial space" geometry is any subset of a total space, where not all points are available or space is limited as a finite space, such as a space defined by a surface.
Lobachevsky develops, independently of János Bolyai, a self-consistent system of geometry (hyperbolic geometry) in which Euclid's parallel postulate is replaced by one allowing more than one parallel through the fixed point.
Gauss had designed a non-Euclidean geometry decades before but was afraid to publish because of the defiance of the sainted Euclid.
Lobachevski starts by taking Euclid's fifth postulate, that for a point not on a given line, there is one and only one line that is parallel to the given line. Lobachevsky then presumes that for a point not on a given line there are at least two parallel lines to the given line. If the surface of a sphere is the only available space, the angles of a triangle, for example, may not equal 180 degrees as they do in Euclidean geometry. (It is interesting that people can still imagine a curved triangle in the usual 3D space so that the angles do not add to 180 degrees, there is no need to limit the 3D space to the surface of a sphere. The key principle is that a line may be curved.) A Lobachevskian geometry is found on the surface of a curve called a pseudosphere, which is shaped like a two trumpet ends joined at the wide end with thinning ends stretching out to infinity. A second kind of non-Euclidean geometry will be invented by Reimann 25 years later. Reimann's geometry is similar to that found on the surface of a sphere.(Is spheroid or ellipsoid?) 75 years later Einstein will use non-euclidean geometry to create the basis (of an equivalent system to Newton's).
János Bolyai independently publishes on non-Euclidean geometry in 1832 and Carl Gauss never published his ideas on non-Euclidean geometry.
Lobachevsky first publishes this work as "On the principles of geometry", in a minor Kazan periodical, the Kazan Herald.
In February 1826 Lobachevsky presents to the physico-mathematical college the manuscript of an essay devoted to "the rigorous analysis of the theorem on parallels", in which Lobachevsky may propose either a proof of Euclid's fifth postulate (axiom) on parallel lines or an early version of his non-Euclidean geometry, however the contents of the manuscript remain unknown. The lecture title is "A brief exposition of the principles of geometry including a rigorous proof of the theorem on parallels". Lobacevskii notes that he draws on this lecture for the first part of his (famous) memoir "On the principles of geometry".
After introducing the basic concepts of geometry
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Lobachevsky's (disproof of Euclid's fifth postulate for curved lines) finally resolves an issue that occupied the minds of mathematicians for over 2,000 years.
Lobachecsky's work paves the way for the systematic study of different kinds of non-Euclidean geometry in the work of Bernhard Riemann and Felix Klein. (verify if Riemann and Klein go beyond 3D and 4D space.)
(Much of the truth of the fifth postulate depends on how "line" and "parallel" are defined. For example, if by parallel, each point on both lines must have the values of all but one dimension in common, or only the planes must be in common.)(Clearly curved lined triangles disproves the angles of all triangles add to 180 degrees theorem.)
The complexity of this line of mathematics will possibly help to prolong the popularity of the theories that arise from this spacial geometry including relativity (with time dilation), the big bang, expanding universe. The perceived complexity of this geometry causes most average people to accept the word of a few authorities without taking the time to investigate, verify, and or challenge the claims themselves. Eventually, the few people who challenge the claims of relativity and time dilation are harshly suppressed with a total iron curtain party line echoed by all major media companies.
Possibly the more accurate translation of Euclid's fifth postulate from the original Greek (see image) is: "That if a straight line falling on two straight lines make the interior angles on the same side less than two right angles the two straight lines if produced indefinitely meet on that side on which are the angles less than the two right angles.". In this translation, the key word, I think, is "straight". In the original Greek there appears to be no mention of the adjective "straight" in describing the lines, which leaves open the possibility of curved lines, for which a line might intersect two curved lines that do not intersect with angles (determined perhaps by drawing a line tangent to the curved line) on the same side that are less than two right angles. An apparently adapted parallel postulate given by the Columbia Encyclopedia is: that one and only one line parallel to a given line can be drawn through a fixed point external to the line. According to this translation, this theorem might possibly be true even for curved lines in 3D space (in addition to all geometrical surfaces that are subsets of 3D space).
In my view, the important change made by the so-called "non-Euclidean" geometries is that people did not realize that curved lines can be used to form triangles and other shapes whose angles do not add to 180 degrees, in other words that there was an implicit assumption made that all lines are straight (have slopes with variables that are exponential order 1), in addition the creation of the idea of using limits or subsets of 3 dimensional space to define a space. In some sense, calling this geometry "non-Euclidean" is not entirely accurate, because 4 of the 5 Euclidean postulates still are true and even "Euclidean space" (named for supposedly obeying Euclid's fifth postulate) has this flaw of curved lines violating the strict translation of the 5th postulate. So I think so-called non-Euclidean geometry can be called a new geometry, however, people should recognize that this geometry is a subset of the traditional "whole" view of any dimensional space (in other words that people generally include all points in a dimensional space, where this geometry limits the points allowed to a surface). Perhaps different names might be "entire space geometry" and "limited space geometry", or alternatively "total space geometry" versus "partial space geometry".
Since Euclid's fifth (parallel) postulate clearly states that it applies only to "straight lines", in my opinion the postulate is still true. A more inclusive postulate (one that includes curved lines too) is one which states that through any line, straight or curved, there is a fixed point not on that line for which only one line parallel to the first line passes. This does not make use of the definition of "angle". I think this definition works for any number of dimensions.
As a disproof of Lobachevsky's claim, 1) any large curved surface is a subset of an infinite space and so can never be straight, and 2) if tools were sufficiently small enough to measure any part of the curved line, some quantity of curvature would always be measured. As an example of (2), take examples such as y=x-large numbers and see that for any line segment, such as that between x1=1.0 and x1=1.1, there is always a difference measured in y1 and y2.
In my view, the rise of so-called non-Euclidean geometry is a mistake in the history of science, in light of the view that any curved line no matter how large is always a subset of an infinite space, and so can never be straight. Even if a small part of the curved line is measured as a straight line, such a measure would never be exactly accurate, since there must be some tiny fraction of curvature to the line which should be measurable if tools where small enough. Beyond that, it is somewhat shocking that so much of modern science is based on this theory, that appears at first to be a minor technicality, nothing to support strongly, but on closer examination, at least in my own opinion, is simply a mistake.
| Kazan, Russia |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 2898) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist invents the concertina, a small accordion-like instrument.
Wheatstone has all the ingredients to be a key inventor and participant in seeing thought: 1) owns telegraph in England 2) publishes paper on spectral lines of light emitted from metals (but not living objects) 3) publishes papers on physiology of eye. Is it just coincidence that Charles Wheatstone was so actively involved in the two principle areas of seeing thought and eyes? An obituary for Charles Wheatstone, towards the last few sentences, quotes a person who uses the word "tenement", in 1876 which is evidence of 1810 being the year of first seeing thought. This last sentence is quoted from Dumas, the perpetual Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, quoting a different person tends to remove the accusation of "leaker" or "rat" and protect the current author, Dumas states "'The friends that he has left among us, unable to avert destiny, hope that they were at least able to soothe the last hours of his life- of that life which, alas! was closed away from his beloved home, from that family circle the sweet recollection of which animated his last hours, and to which the eye of the dying one turned once more, before his soul, quitting its earthly tenement, took its flight to a better world."'.
| London, England |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 2946) Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (YoKOBE) (CE 1804-1851), German mathematician develops elliptic functions independently of Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (oBL) (CE 1802-1829).
An elliptic function is, roughly speaking, a function defined on the complex plane which is periodic in two directions (a doubly-periodic function). A complex plane (see image) is two dimensional Cartesian plane with the real part of a complex number represented by a displacement along the x-axis, and the imaginary part by a displacement along the y-axis. The elliptic functions can be seen as analogs of the trigonometric functions (which have a single period only). Historically, elliptic functions were discovered as inverse functions of elliptic integrals; these in turn were studied in connection with the problem of the arc length of an ellipse, which is where the name derives from. Any complex number ω such that f(z + ω) = f(z) for all z in C is called a period of f. If the two periods a and b are such that any other period ω can be written as ω = ma + nb with integers m and n, then a and b are called fundamental periods. Every elliptic function has a pair of fundamental periods, but this pair is not unique.
Jacobi formulates a theory of elliptic functions based on four theta functions.
The quotients of the theta functions yield the three Jacobian elliptic functions: sn z, cn z, and dn z. Jacobi work on elliptic functions is published in "Fundamenta Nova Theoriae Functionum Ellipticarum" (1829, "New Foundations of the Theory of Elliptic Functions"). (More explanation)
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 3009) Thomas Graham (CE 1805-1869) Scottish physical chemist, creates the law of diffusion, which states that the rate of diffusion of a gas at constant temperature and pressure is inversely proportional to the square root of its density.
Joseph Priestley and Johann Döbereiner had made observations on this subject, but Graham creates the law of diffusion. To find this, Graham follows up on a find by Döbereiner that hydrogen diffuses out of a bottle with a small crack in it faster than the surrounding air diffuses into the body to replace it. Döbereiner had found that when the bottle of hydrogen with the small crack is turned upside down with its mouth under water, and the crack above water in the air, the bottle loses hydrogen faster than it gains air (through the above water crack), so that the water level rises (in the bottle). Graham slows the escape of Hydrogen by using smaller openings in the bottle (by using objects such as a plaster of Paris plug, fine tubes, and a tiny hole in a platinum plate). Graham measures the rate of passage due to the escape of gas through fine tubes, in which the ratios appear to be in direct relation, therefore hydrogen has exactly double the diffusion rate of nitrogen, the relation of those gases to density being 1:14. (note: square root of 14 is 3.74. See original paper.)
Graham compares the rates at which various gases diffuse through porous pots, and also the rate of effusion (the flow of a fluid into a body) through a small aperture, and concludes that the rate of diffusion (or effusion) of a gas at constant pressure and temperature is inversely proportional to the square root of its density.
In other words, Graham shows that the rate of diffusion of a gas is inversely proportional to the square root of its molecular weight. For example, since oxygen molecules are 16 times as massive as hydrogen molecules, hydrogen diffuses four times as quickly as oxygen. This law of diffusion is also called Graham's law.
In his 1829 paper, Graham writes "Fruitful as the miscibility of gases has been in interesting speculations, the experimental information we possess on the subject amounts to little more than the well-established fact that gases of a different nature when brought into contact do not arrange themselves according to their density, but they spontaneously diffuse through each other so as to remain in an intimate state of mixture for any length of time.".
Graham publishes this in "A Short Account of Experimental Researches on the Diffusion of Gases Through Each Other, and Their Separation by Mechanical Means.".
(I am surprised that the size of the opening isn't part of the equation. Apparently, if kept constant for all gases, the size of the opening makes no difference. Perhaps Graham used the same opening for a variety of gases, but clearly the size of the opening clearly speeds up the diffusion/release.)
| (Mechanics' Institute) Glasgow, Scotland |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 3107) Evariste Galois (GolWo) (CE 1811-1832), French mathematician, creates "group theory" when trying to solve the general equation of the fifth degree unaware that Abel had shown this to be impossible.
Mathematicians had found solutions (that is find a simple equation for finding the roots, the variable values for an equation, based on the coefficients) for up to fourth degree equations using explicit formulas, involving only rational operations and extractions of roots, however, no solution is found for fifth and higher degree equations. In 1770 Lagrange tried the new idea of treating the roots of an equation as objects in their own right and studying permutations (a change in an ordered arrangement) of them. In 1799 the Italian mathematician Paolo Ruffini attempted, not entirely successfully, to prove the impossibility of solving the general quintic equation by radicals, but in 1824 the Norwegian mathematician Niels Abel gave a correct proof.
Galois' important discovery is that solvability by radicals is possible if and only if the group of automorphisms (functions that take elements of a set to other elements of the set while preserving algebraic operations) is solvable. This means that the group can be broken down into simple "prime-order" constituents (order 1 equations?) that always have an easily understood structure.
In this definition of radical (also used to describe the symbol of a square or higher root of a number), a class of groups is called radical if it is closed under homomorphic images and also under "infinite extension" , that is, if the class contains every group having an ascending normal series with factors from the given class.
Although Galois uses the concept of group and other associated concepts, such as coset and subgroup, Galois does not actually define these concepts, and does not construct a rigorous formal theory.
(show example and make clearer)
| Paris, France |
171 YBN
[1829 AD]
| 5985) Gioachino (Antonio) Rossini (CE 1792-1868), Italian composer, composes his famous opera "Guillaume Tell" ("William Tell").
| Paris, France |
170 YBN
[09/15/1830 AD]
| 2517) A railway using 8 engines built by George Stephenson (CE 1781-1848) and co-workers is opened between Liverpool and Manchester.
| Liverpool (and Manchester), England |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 1210)
| |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2527) William Sturgeon (CE 1783-1850) (uses) zinc alloyed with mercury to produce a battery of longer life than Volta's which rapidly diminishes in current.(more detail)
The cell devised by Alessandro Volta has certain inherent weaknesses - any impurity in the zinc plates used causes erosion of the electrode. (Interesting that pure zinc has no erosion?) Sturgeon finds that (alloying) the plate with mercury makes it resistant to the electrolyte.
| Surrey, England (presumably) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2535) François Magendie (mojoNDE) (CE 1783-1855), establishes the first medical-school laboratory.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2556) Joseph Jackson Lister (CE 1786-1869), English optician, invents the first achromatic lens for the microscope (as Dolland had done for the telescope). (It seems to me that the only difference between a telescope and a microscope is the object looked at. They both are basically magnifying devices, spreading a small area of light out, and looking at a small portion of the spread out light. By all means somebody correct me if I am wrong.) (Why are there no big lenses for microscopes as there are for telescopes, since the principle of spreading light out is the same in both devices. ) (A good experiment is to build a simple reflecter microscope.)
| london, England (presumbly) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2562) Giovanni Battista Amici (omECE) (CE 1786-1686) Italian physicist, traces the growth of the pollen tube down through the 'style' and into the ovule of the flower.
| Modena, Italy (presumably) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2573) Nils Gabriel Sefström (SeVSTreRM) (CE 1787-1845), Swedish chemist, rediscovers vanadium.
Sefström identifies a new metal in a powder that results from iron treated with hydrochloric acid (a process used to determine if an iron is brittle or not). Sefström calls this metal vanadium (after the Norse goddess Vanadis). Eventually people realize that vanadium is identical to the metal found by Del Rio in 1801, which Del Rio called erythronium from the red color of some of its salts.
| |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2624) Marshall Hall (CE 1790-1857), English physician and physiologist, denounces the practice of blood-letting in "Observations on Blood-Letting" (1830).
(Blood letting is used, in particularly in psychiatric hospitals. *verify)
| London, England (presumably) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2779) Johann Heinrich Mädler (meDlR) (CE 1794-1874), German astronomer (with Wilhelm Beer (BAYR) (CE 1797-1850)) publish the first systematic chart of the surface features of the planet Mars.
Beer (and Mädler) are the first to show lighter and darker areas of Mars.
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2802) (Sir) Charles Lyell (CE 1797-1875), Scottish geologist, publishes "The Principles of Geology" (3 vol., 1830-1833) in which he supports uniformitarianism, the view first put forward by the Scottish geologist James Hutton (CE 1726-1797), that the slow processes of heat and erosion gradually change the earth as opposed to the theory of catastrophism of Swiss naturalist Charles Bonnet (BOnA) (CE 1720-1793) in which catastrophe's explain fossils of extinct species. This will help to end the theory of catastrophism, although most people accept that catastrophes do occasionally happen on earth.
Lyell estimates some of the oldest fossil-bearing rocks are 240 million years old, far older than any other estimates. (In this book?) (Now the oldest fossil bearing rocks known are on Greenland and are dated 3,850 million years old. )
Lyell's purpose in writing this book is to stress that there are natural (as opposed to supernatural) explanations for all geologic phenomena, that the ordinary natural processes of today and their products do not differ in kind or magnitude from those of the past, and that the Earth must therefore be very ancient because these everyday processes work so slowly.
Lyell also describes the idea that all processes (i.e., biological and geological) are delicately balanced.
(At the time many people accept the Biblical creationist catastrophic short term "flood" view, which Hutton and Lyell replace by the longer term evolutionary view more representative of the geological strata and fossils.)
This book sells so well that new editions are frequently required. This book goes through 12 editions in Lyell's lifetime.
| London, England (presumably) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 2848) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist synthesizes oxamide (1830).
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 3271) French tailor, Bartheleémy Thimmonier patents a sewing machine (1830). This machine stitches fabric together by chain stitching with a curved needle. Thimmonier's factory produces uniforms for the French Army and has 80 machines at work by 1841. A mob of tailors displaced by the factory riot, destroy the machines, and nearly kill Thimmonier. (give more details of design and show graphically)
| France |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 4003) Wilhelm Eduard Weber (CE 1804-1891), German physicist records sound vibrations onto a glass plate. Weber attaches a pig's whisker to a leg of a tuning fork, when the tuning fork is struck and vibrates, the vibrations are recorded by the whisker onto a sooted glass plate.
In 1864, Melde writes that Weber, in fact, used a pen to engrave to a surface the tuning fork vibration in order to determine frequency (pitch).
(todo: find original 1830 Weber article, and English translation)
| (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
170 YBN
[1830 AD]
| 4699) The electric motor is made 1 millimeter in size, developed to fly microphone transceivers (light particle transmitters and receivers) around without being detected. This marks the beginning of a massive secret effort to develop and produce microscopic electronic devices that can be flown in air inside houses to send and receive sounds, images and neuron reading and writing commands. These devices probably use the effect reported in 1820 by Ampere that electric current in a wire can move a current in a second wire. Tiny low-mass conductors can be rotated by controlling electricity through them. The microscopic devices are already so small, like a piece of dust, that they can already easily float in the air of earth. These devices can be powered, controlled and held in a three dimensional position in space by using light particle beams with invisible frequencies. So incredibly, the first motorized flying object was probably this miniature flying radio tranceiver.
| London, England (guess) |
169 YBN
[01/03/1831 AD]
| 2806) Electromagnet used as rotating armature in electric motor.
Joseph Henry (CE 1797-1878), US physicist, builds a reciprocating (back and forth moving) electric motor that performs 75 vibrations a minute for an hour.
Henry reports these findings as "On a Reciprocating motion produced by Magnetic Attraction and Repulsion" in the "American Journal of Science and Arts" (Jan 3, 1831. Vol. 20, Iss. 2; p. 340-344)
Henry writes: "It is well known that an attractive or repulsive force is exerted between two magnets, according as poles of different names, or poles of the same name, are presented to each other.
In order to understand how this principle can be applied to produce a reciprocating motion, let us suppose a bar magnet to be supported horizontally on an axis passing through the center of gravity, in precisely the same manner as a dipping needle is poised; and suppose two other magnets to be placed perpendicularly, one under each pole of the horizontal magnet, and a little below it, with their north poles uppermost; then it is evident that the south pole of the horizontal magnet will be attracted by the north pole of one of the perpendicular magnets, and its north pole repelled by the north pole of the other: in this state it will remain at rest, but if, by any means, we reverse the polarity of the horizontal magnet, its position will be changed and the extremity, which was before attracted, will now be repelled ; if the polarity be again reversed, the position will again be changed, and so on indefinitely: to produce, therefore, a continued vibration, it is only necessary to introduce, into this arrangement, some means by which the polarity of the horizontal magnet can be instantaneously changed, and that too by a cause which shall be put in operation by the motion of the magnet itself; how this can be effected, will not be difficult to conceive, when I mention that, instead of a permanent steel magnet, in the moveable part of the apparatus, a soft iron galvanic magnet is used.
The change of polarity is produced simply by soldering to the extremities of the wires which surround the galvanic magnet, two small galvanic batteries in such a manner that the vibrations of the magnet itself may immerse these alternately into vessels of diluted acid; care being taken that the batteries are so attached that the current of galvanism from each shall pass around the magnet in an opposite direction.
Instead of soldering the batteries to the ends of the wires, and thus causing them at each vibration to be lifted from the acid by the power of the machine; they may be permanently fixed in the vessels, and the galvanic communication formed by the amalgamated ends of the wires dipping into cups of mercury. ...".
In 1821 Faraday had shows a simple case of rotation produced between a magnet and a current of electricity.
Some historians credit Anianus Jedlik (CE 1800-1895), Hungarian priest and teacher, with the first electromagnet armature motor and commutator by 1928.
| Albany, NY, USA |
169 YBN
[02/17/1831 AD]
| 2702) After Oersted's 1820 demonstration of producing magnetic force from an electric current, many people try to reverse the phenomenon by producing an electric current from a magnetic force.
In 1829 Francesco Zantedeschi (CE 1797-1873) publishes the first account of a permanent magnet producing a current.
Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) also produces a current from the movement of a permanent magnet, in addition to producing an electric current from the magnetic field of an electromagnet. Faraday also is the first to publish the use of a secondary coil in which to induce a current.
Faraday winds a thick iron ring on one side with insulated wire that is connected to a battery. This circuit can be opened or closed by a key (which is a switch). (This is (presumably) a short circuit, with only the resistance from the wire slowing the current.)
If Faraday closes the circuit a magnetic field is created in the coil as Amp�re had shown. Sturgeon (had theorized) that this magnetic field will be focused (or centered?) in the iron ring. If a second coil is then wrapped around the opposite side of the iron ring and connected to a galvanometer (which measures current), the magnetic field created in the iron ring by the first coil might create (by reverse action) a current in the second coil, and the galvanometer would indicate that current.
({see image} So the circular bar of iron has a separate insulated wire wrapped on each side, with one coiled wire attached to a battery and switch while the other coiled wire is attached to a galvanometer.)
Faraday closes the primary circuit and, to his delight see the galvanometer needle (briefly move). A current was induced in the secondary coiled wire by a current in the primary coil.
The experiment works and this is the first transformer, but it doesn't work in the way that Faraday expects it to. There is no steady flow of electricity in the second coil to match the steady magnetic force created in the iron ring (or the steady current in the first coil). Instead there is a momentary flash of current in the galvanometer when Faraday closes the circuit and another when Faraday opens (or breaks) the circuit.
When Faraday opens the circuit, he is surprised to see the galvanometer (needle again move briefly but this time) in the opposite direction. Ten years before Amp�re observed the same fact but it didn't fit with his theories and he dismissed it.
Somehow, turning off the current also created an induced current in the secondary circuit, equal and opposite to the original (pulse of) current.
(Perhaps a very fast pulsed current is one way of getting a relatively constant current.)(yes, I think this creates an alternating current in the secondary coil and is the basis of modern AC generators if I am not mistaken.) (EX: Does fast switching on and off of current cause a constant current? Is there some switching speed for which there is a maximum current (for example 1 THz, or 1GHz etc)?)
This phenomenon (of a flash of current in the second coiled wire in opposite directions when an electric current in the first wire is turned on and off) leads Faraday to propose what he called the "electrotonic" state of particles in the wire, which he considered a state of tension. According to Faraday, a current appears to be the creation of such a state of tension or the collapse of such a state. Although he could not find experimental evidence for the electrotonic state, Faraday never entirely abandoned the concept, and it shapes most of Faraday's later work.
Faraday draws "lines of force" from observing the regular patterns metal fillings form on paper above various magnets when the paper is tapped (as Peter Peregrinus has 600 years before). With these lines it is possible to visualize the magnet field around a bar magnet, horseshoe magnet, or even a sphere like the earth. This is the beginning of the view of the universe as consisting of fields of various types, as opposed to the purely mechanical picture of Galileo and Newton. (Basically gravity and electricity, but somehow people expand this into a more complex picture, and the fields are mechanical too. One big mystery is what particles if any are in an electric field? Are these photons, electrons or are there no particles at all but just some effect?) Maxwell and Einstein will make use of the "field universe". When a circuit is closed magnetic lines of force spring outward into space, and when the circuit is broken they collapse inward again. (EX: Do they in fact collapse inward? Perhaps that can be measured, it must happen quickly, and then EX: How quickly can a magnetic field be created and destroyed?) Faraday decides that an electric current is induced in a wire only when lines of force cut across it. In his transformer when the current starts in the first coil of wire, the expanding lines of force cut across the wire of the second coil and account for the short burst of current. Once the original current is established, the lines of force no longer move and there is no current in the second coil. When the circuit is broken the collapsing lines of force cut across the second coil in the opposite direction and a burst of current results again but in the opposite direction of the first. (so actually the current in coil2 of a high frequency current in coil1 would go back and forth at the same frequency while the current in coil1 only goes in one direction.)
Faraday demonstrates his theory of lines of force creating current by inserting a (bar) magnet into a coil of wire attached to a galvanometer. While the magnet is being inserted or removed, current flows through the wire. If the magnet is held stationary and the coil moved over it one way or the other there is a current in the wire. (I want to repeat this simple experiment myself. And here the magnetic lines of force are moving up and down, not out and in, and so this is different from the idea of the electromagnet where presumably the lines of force are moving in to out, perhaps in all 3 dimensions this effect happens.) In either case the magnetic lines of force of the magnet are cut by the wire. There is no current if the magnet and coil are not moving. Therefore Faraday recognizes the principle of electrical induction, a principle Joseph Henry, a physicist in the USA recognizes around the same time. (this is how a magnetic field can make a current in a coil, does it work only if the magnet is in the center of the coil or can the magnet be next to the coil?)
(Perhaps a very fast pulsed current is one way of getting a relatively constant current. Although do the currents neutralize each other because they must travel back and forth? Perhaps by switching fast enough one direction would prevail? Clearly this is the principle of alternating current, and that can move in one direction.) (EX: Can a wire induce a current in a second wire that is parallel and very close to but not touching the first wire? Theoretically when the two wires touch the current is shared and divided equally between them.)
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
169 YBN
[06/01/1831 AD]
| 2835) (Sir) James Clark Ross (CE 1800-1862), Scottish explorer reaches the North Magnetic Pole.
This North Magnetic Pole, the pole that compasses point to, is different from the geographic North Pole. The magnetic North Pole is steadily moving northwest.
The Earth's internal magnetic field reverses, on average, about every 300,000 to 1 million years. This reversal is very sudden on a geologic time scale, apparently taking about 5,000 years. The time between reversals is highly variable, sometimes less than 40,000 years and at other times as long as 35 million years. No regularities or periodicities have yet been discovered.
It is thought that reversals occur when the circulation of liquid nickel/iron in the Earth's outer core is disrupted and then reestablishes itself in the opposite direction. It is not known what causes these disruptions. Evidence of geomagnetic reversals can be seen at mid-ocean ridges where tectonic plates move apart and the sea bed is filled in with magma. As the magma seeps out of the mantle the magnetic particles contained within it are oriented in the direction of the magnetic field at the time the magma cools and solidifies.
| Boothia Peninsula,Nunavut, Canada |
169 YBN
[08/??/1831 AD]
| 2525) Samuel Guthrie (CE 1782-1848), American chemist and physician, invents chloroform (tri-chloromethane), which is used as an anesthesia by distilling chloride of lime with alcohol in a copper barrel.
Guthrie invents percussion powder which explodes on impact, and without use of a flame. (chronology) Percussion or priming powder for firearms will make flintlock muskets obsolete.
Guthrie introduces Jenner's vaccination procedure to the United States.
| Sackets Harbor, NY, USA |
169 YBN
[09/??/1831 AD]
| 2705) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) invents the dynamic electric generator, (or "dynamo") by mechanically moving a conductor near a magnet to produce a constant electric current.
In September of 1831 Faraday invents the first electrical generator. Faraday wants to generate continuous electricity and not just in short spurts and he accomplishes this by adapting the reverse of an experiment first described by Arago. Arago had shown that a rotating copper wheel can deflect a magnet suspended over it. Faraday understands that the wheel is cutting through the magnetic lines of force so that electric currents are being created in it, these in turn create a magnetic field that deflects the magnet. Where Arago had used an electric current to create a magnetic field, Faraday uses a magnetic field to create an electric current, by turning a copper wheel so that its edge passes between the poles of a permanent magnet. An electric current is created in the copper disc and it continues to flow as long as the wheel continues to turn. That current can be led off and put to work, and Faraday had therefore has invented the first electrical generator. (Interesting how by cutting the magnetic lines, Faraday creates a constant current, how does voltage relate? Where is the voltage being created? Interesting that the metal needs to move in between the two poles of a magnet, why not simply next to a magnet? That probably works too, anywhere in the magnetic field.) Asimov argues that Faraday's invention of the first electrical generator is probably the greatest single electrical discovery in history. (This invention enables coal to be transformed into electricity, large electrical generators that burn coal will allow many people to have electricity in their houses, and electricity will eventually cover and light the planet Earth.) A steam engine or water power can be used to turn the copper disc and the heat of burning fuel or force of falling water can be converted into electricity. Until Faraday the only source of electricity was the chemical battery, which is expensive and small scale. Now there is for the first time the possibility of a large and cheap supply of electric current.
This is the first dynamo and is also the direct ancestor of electric motors, because reversing the flow of electricity, to feed an electric current to the disk, causes the disk to rotate.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2414) Robert Brown (CE 1773-1858) identifies and names the cell "nucleus".
While dealing with the fertilization of flowers, Brown notes the existence of a structure within the cells of orchids as well as many other plants that brown terms the "nucleus" of the cell (from the Latin word meaning "little nut").
This description is embedded in a pamphlet which focuses on the sexual organs of orchids.
| London, England (presumably) |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2496) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) proposes the name "isomerism" for different compounds with same chemical composition, such as that discovered by Wöhler.
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2625) Marshall Hall (CE 1790-1857) is the first to show that the capillaries bring the blood into contact with the tissues, in his "Experimental Essay on the Circulation of the Blood" (1831). (more detail)
| London, England (presumably) |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2809) Joseph Henry (CE 1797-1878), US physicist, makes a telegraph that uses electric current from a battery which travels over a mile of wire and rings a bell.
Henry uses small battery and an "intensity" magnet connected through a mile of copper bell-wire strung throughout a lecture hall. In between the poles of this horseshoe electromagnet Henry places a permanent magnet. When the electromagnet is energized, the permanent magnet is repelled from one pole and attracted to the other; on reversing battery polarity, the permanent magnet returns to its original position. By using a pole-changer to cycle the electromagnet's polarity, Henry causes the permanent magnet to tap a small office bell. Henry consistently demonstrates this arrangement to his classes at Albany during 1831 and 1832. (source=court testimony?)
Asimov describes Henry's telegraph as using a small electromagnet at one end of a mile of wire, and a battery at the other end, using a key to close the circuit, the electromagnet at the end is made to attract a small iron bar, when the key is released, opening the circuit, the electromagnet field stops and a spring pulls the small iron bar back to its original position. In this way the electromagnet at the far end of the wire can be made to open and close in the same way as the hand powered key.
(The telegraph will be utilized on a large scale first by Samuel Morse in the USA and Wheatstone and Cooke in England. This technology is really the beginning of the telephone system, the Internet, the secret camera-thought net, and all wired communication. Part of this great achievement is understanding the new idea that wire can used to connect houses and people over great distances. In addition, the idea of using electricity to switch on and off a mechanical force.) There are a number of people who invent telegraphs around this time including Karl Gauss in Germany. The static electricity telegraph was invented at least as early as 1753 by a person known only by the initial "CM" and a static electricity telegraph was built in 1787 by Spanish engineer, Augustin de Bethencourt y Mollina (CE 1758-1826). An electrochemical, constant current telegraph was invented in 1809 by German inventor Samuel Thomas von Sömmering (CE 1755-1830)
In 1833 Karl Gauss in Germany with Wilhelm Weber also invents a working battery telegraph after seeing Schilling who saw Sömmering's electrochemical telegraph).
Samuel Morse will patent a telegraph similar to Henry's in 1837, 6 years later.
Apparently Henry never publishes this fact, but students of Henry's testify that this is true.
In 1832, at Princeton Henry reconstructs his telegraph prototype stringing a wire between two campus buildings.
| Albany, NY, USA |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2889) Johannes Peter Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1801-1858), German physiologist, confirms the law of Charles Bell and François Magendie, which first clearly distinguished between motor and sensory nerves. Using frogs and dogs, Müller cuts through the posterior roots of nerves as they entered the spinal cord from a limb. The limb is shown to be insensible but not paralyzed (from muscle contraction). When Müller cuts the anterior root he finds that the limb is paralyzed but has not lost its sensibility. (This sensibility includes different sensors such as feeling touch, heat and pain, among other possible stimulations.)
(1830s writes textbook on physiology)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2895) Jean Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault (BUSoNGO) (CE 1802-1887), French agricultural chemist recommends iodization of salt for prevention of goiter.
Boussingault, acting on a statement by Humboldt that South American native people think that certain salt deposits can cure goiter, Boussingault analyzes these salts, finds iodine and correctly suggests that iodine compounds might be the cure for goiter, although this advice is ignored for 50 years.
| Lyon, France (presumably) |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2919) (Baron) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist creates a method to determine the quantity of carbon contained in a chemical compound to greater precision than known.
Liebig makes use of the method Gay-Lussac and Thénard created to measure the quantity of carbon dioxide and water from burning organic (carbon-based) compounds to determine the proportion of each atom in the compound.
Liebig burns an organic compound with copper oxide and identifies the oxidation products (water vapor and carbon dioxide) by weighing them, directly after absorption, in a tube of calcium chloride and in a specially designed five-bulb apparatus containing caustic potash.
This technique is simple and quick allowing six or seven analyses a day.
This work is the result of a crisis in organic chemistry: how to deal with the sheer size and complexity of the molecules. Molecules of inorganic compounds tend to be relatively small and straightforward and so present fewer problems. Together Liebig and Wöhler develop a method of analyzing the amounts of carbon and hydrogen present in organic compounds.
| (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
169 YBN
[1831 AD]
| 2992) Giuseppe Belli (CE 1791-1860) builds an electrostatic doubler.
Belli's doubler consists of two curved metal plates between which rotate a pair of balls carried on an insulating stem.
| Pavia, Italy (possibly) |
168 YBN
[01/03/1832 AD]
| 2808) In Henry's paper on induction which includes the first explanation of "self induction", Henry explains that the electric current in a coil can induce a current not only in another coil, but in itself too (when the magnetic field is created or destroyed.). The actual current observed in the coil is then the combination of the original current and the induced current. (more detail) Faraday will find this independently in 1834. Lenz will find this independently and will develop this further than either Henry or Faraday.
Henry discovers the induction of a current on itself, in a long helical wire, that give an largely increased intensity of discharge (Sill. Journ., 1832, 22, p. 408).
Henry reports these findings as "On the Production of Currents and Sparks of Electricity from Magnetism", "American Journal of Science and Arts (1820-1879)" (New Haven: Jan 3, 1832. Vol. 22, Iss. 2; p. 403-409).
Henry writes "when a small battery...poles, ... terminated by cups of mercury, ...are connected by a copper wire not more than a foot in length, no spark is perceived when the connection is either formed or broken: but if a wire thirty or forty feet long be used, instead of the short wire, though no spark will be perceptible when the connection is made, yet when it is broken by drawing one end of the wire from its cup of mercury a vivid spark is produced. ... The effect appears somewhat increased by coiling the wire into a helix; it seems also to depend in some measure on the length and thickness of the wire; I can account for these phaenomena only be supposing the long wire to become charged with electricity which by its reaction on itself projects a spark when the connection is broken." (In my view, when disconnected, there are still excess electrons in the wire and they exit the wire restoring a neutral charge to the wire. I think there is a mistaken notion that a coil is necessary for this effect, a long wire being enough to trap enough particles in the time taken to disconnect a wire from a battery.) (EX: Try this experiment with a 40 foot wire.)
In this work Henry describes his finding of electric induction using an electromagnet starting in August 1830. According to Asimov, Henry must teach and only has the month of August to do research, and so is unable to complete his experiments.
Henry writes "Before having any knowledge of the method given in the above account, (Faraday's Feb 17, 1831 not on induction) I had succeeded in producing electrical effects in the following manner, which differs from that employed by Mr. Faraday, and which appears to me to develope some new and interesting facts. A piece of copper wire, about thirty feet long and covered with elastic varnish, was closely coiled around the middle of the soft iron armature of the galvanic magnet, described in Vol. XIX of the American Journal of Science, (the armature is the piece of metal accross the poles of the horseshoe magnet), and which, when excited, will readily sustain between six hundred and seven hundred pounds. The wire was wound upon itself so as to occupy only about one inch of the length of the armature which is seven inches in all. The armature thus furnished with the wire, was placed in its proper position across the ends of the galvanic magnet, and there fastened so that no motion could take place. The two projecting ends of the helix were dipped into two cups of mercury, and there connected with a distant galvanometer by means of two copper wires, each about forty feet long. This arrangement being completed, I stationed myself near the galvanometer and directed an assistant at a given word to immerse suddenly, in a vessel of dilute acid, the gavanic batter attached to the magnet. At the instant of immersion, the nort end of the needle was deflected 30 degrees to the west, indicating a current of electricity from the helix surrounding the armature. The effect, however, appeared only as a single impulse, for the needle, after a few oscillations, resumed its formed undisturbed position in the magnetic meridian, although the galvanic action of the battery, and consequently the magnetic power was still continued. I was, however, much surprised to see the needle suddenly deflected from a state of rest to about 20 degrees to the east, or in a contrary direction when the battery was withdrawn from the acid, and again deflected to the west when it was reimmersed. This operation was repeated many times in succession, and uniformly with the same result, the armature, the whole time, remaining immoveably attached to the poles of the magnet, no motion being required to produce the effect, as it appeared to take place only in consequence of the instantaneous development of the magnetic action in one, and the sudden cessation of it in the other. This experiment illustrates most strikingly the reciprocal action of the two principles of electricity and magnetism, if indeed it does not establish their absolute identity. In the first place, magnetism is developed in the soft iron of the galvanic magnet by the action of the currents of electricity from the battery, and secondly the armature, rendered magnetic by contact with the poles of the magnet, induces in its turn, currents of electricity in the helix which surrounds it; we have thus as it were electricity converted into magnetism and this magnetism again into electricity."
Regarding the observation that a changing magnetic field also causes induced current to flow Henry writes "But the most surprising effect was produced when instead of passing the current through the long wires to the galvanometer, the opposite ends of the helices were held nearly in contact with each other, and the magnet suddenly excited; in this case a small but vivid spark was seen to pass between the ends of the wires and this effect was repeated as often as the state of intensity of the magnet was changed." (EX: Repeat this experiment. Presumably this means that as the electromagnet was made stronger or weaker by connected or disconnected helices, the current flowed producing a spark each time. Interesting that a constantly changing current might produce a constant induced current, verify with a variable resister controlled electromagnet.)
| Albany, NY, USA |
168 YBN
[07/??/1832 AD]
| 2807) Joseph Henry (CE 1797-1878), US physicist, builds an electromagnet that can lift 2063 pounds.
Henry reports these findings as "An account of a large Electro-Magnet, made for the Laboratory of Yale College" in the "American Journal of Science and Arts" (New Haven: Jul 1831. Vol. 20, Iss. 1; p. 201-205).
| Albany, NY, USA |
168 YBN
[10/??/1832 AD]
| 3002) (Sir) William Rowan Hamilton (CE 1805-1865) reads a third supplement to his "Theory of Systems of Rays" (1837, Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy).
This work explains the theory of Hamilton's characteristic function V (a function of the coordinates of both the initial and final point of a ray of light) and the auxiliary functions W (first introduced in the Supplement to an Essay on the "Theory of Systems of Rays") and T. This is followed by a detailed discussion of aberration. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relationship between Hamilton's theory of the characteristic function and the wave theory of light. The theory is applied to the refraction of light in biaxal crystals (such as arragonite) (so-called double refraction), further developing the theory of refraction in such crystals formulated by Fresnel, and Hamilton predicts the occurrence of the phenomenon of conical refraction, a prediction that is subsequently verified experimentally by Humphrey Lloyd.
This is an important work in optics that helps to establish the wave theory of light.
In applying his methods in 1832 to the study of the propagation of light in anisotropic (exhibiting properties with different values when measured in different directions) media, in which the speed of light is dependent on the direction and polarization of the ray, Hamilton is led to the prediction that: if a single ray of light is incident at certain angles on a face of a biaxial crystal (such as aragonite) then the refracted light will form a hollow cone.
Optically biaxial crystals are crystals that exhibit three principal refractive indices, one along each of the mutually perpendicular optical axes, in which the three optical axes correspond to the three crystallographic axes.
Hamilton applies his characteristic function to the study of Fresnel's wave surface and discovers that for the case of biaxial crystals there exist four conoidal cusps on the wave surface. From this discovery Hamilton predicts that a single ray incident in the correct direction on a biaxial crystal should be refracted into a cone in the crystal and emerge as a hollow cylinder. Hamilton also predicts that if light is focused into a cone incident of the crystal, it will pass through the crystal as a single ray and emerge as a hollow cone. According to the Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Humphrey Lloyd's verification of this conical refraction causes a sensation, and causes a dispute with James MacCullagh who had come very close to the discovery in 1830.
(A theory based on the wave math seems open to error to me, but perhaps there is a particle explanation if true.)
(So in my view Hamilton is probably inaccurate in the view of light as a wave, like many people who believe light to have a medium, similar to sound. However, viewing light beams as having frequency defined by particles, in other words, as point "waves", although I think the word "wave" should probably be avoided, in favor of the more accurate "interval". Perhaps there is some value to Hamilton's optical work, whatever that may be.)
| (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
168 YBN
[12/15/1832 AD]
| 2448) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) devises a set of units for measurement of magnetic phenomena. The unit of magnetic flux density is eventually named the Gauss.
Gauss's paper is written in Latin and is titled "Intensitas vis magneticae terrestris ad mensuram absolutam revocata" ("The Intensity of the Earth's Magnetic Force Reduced to Absolute Measurement" (1832). Another translation has this as "Intensity of Terrestrial Magnetic Force Referred to an Absolute Standard".
The great advance of this paper is the referral of all measurement to three basic quantities: mass, length, and time. This work introduces the replacement of the free movement of a needle method of measurement with a mirror method.
Gauss writes "For the complete determination of the Earth's magnetic force at a given location, three elements are necessary: the deviation (declination) or the angle between the planes, in which it acts, and the meridian plane; the inclination of the direction of the horizontal plane; finally, third, the strength (intensity). ..." (I would add a fourth variable in altitude, to complete a three as opposed to two dimensional position.)
(The current view is that magnetism cannot originate from a point (for example there can never be an isolated magnetic pole), while an electric field can.) The exact relationship between electricity and magnetism, I think, has yet to be fully explained. Are they identical? In fact I think magnetic flux is actually electric flux, and that is probably change in the quantity or size of the electric field. The value of the concept of "flux" is not clear to me. It is important to determine what if any kind of matter occupies the invisible volume of space in an electric and/or magnetic field. Perhaps magnetism is the result of an electric current that moves in a magnetic material (such as iron) differently from other materials.] Gauss calculates the location of the magnetic poles from geomagnetic observations and his calculations are accurate. (chronology) Gauss shows that once a few fundamental units are established, such as those for length, mass and time, many other units can be expressed in those fundamental units, for example those for volume, density, energy, viscosity, power, etc.) In Faraday's terms, flux is represented by all the lines of force passing through a surface. Gauss' law states that for any closed surface, the total flux is proportional to the net electric charge inside. If there is no net charge inside a surface, any positive flux outward through it, must be balanced by an equal amount of inner, or negative flux. (This is for the special condition when a surface has no net charge. The concept of "charge" is somewhat abstract to me. For example, how do we know that an electron and proton have equal charge and different mass, as opposed to different charge and equal mass? Only by measuring mass of particles using gravity without any influence of charge can mass be measured.) Gauss' law, is a mathematical definition to Faraday's intuitive idea about the electric field, is actually an expression of the geometric meaning of any inverse squared law. In the specific form, it applies not only to electric fields (Fe=Keq1q2/r2 ^r), but magnetic (Fm=Kmp1p2/r2 ^r) and gravitational fields (Fg= -Gm1m2/r2 ^r) too. (Show video that shows how given different masses, from a distant view, the gravitational constant might look larger, but in reality, it is the result of groupings of mass and/or collision. Interesting that at some distance some point cannot be seen although in 3D modeling this point is usually not acknowledged or perhaps is as a positive z clip - actually, but should be more like a magnification point/object clip. This is a clip not of distance but of scale. Using this principle, a magnetic field might appear invisible, but be occupied by atoms, or other particles, so larger objects appear to be repelled or attracted because of the movement or shape of physical, although invisible structure.) (State equivalent voltage and current of Earth magnetic field to have measured strength.)
| Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2514) Plastic. (Nitrocellulose).
Henri Braconnot (BroKunO) (CE 1781-1855), prepares "xyloidine" (what Schonbein will name cellulose nitrate also know as nitrocellulose) the first polymer or plastic.
| Nancy, France |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2528) William Sturgeon (CE 1783-1850) invents the commutator, an integral part of most modern electric motors.
A commutator is the part of a dc motor or generator which serves the dual function, in combination with brushes, of providing an electrical connection between the rotating armature winding and the stationary terminals, and of permitting the reversal of the current in the armature windings.
Some historians credit Anianus Jedlik, Hungarian priest and teacher, with the first electromagnet armature motor and commutator by 1928.
In 1831, Joseph Henry had published the idea of using an electromagnet for an electric motor armature.
(Find original paper, show images and read relevant parts. I searched for hours but could not clearly identify either the 1832 paper of any figure of a commutator.)
(Describe how the commutator is different from the mercury conductor mechanism Faraday had used.)
Also in this year, Sturgeon makes improvements to the design of the galvanometer, inventing the moving-coil galvanometer.
| Surrey, England (presumably) |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2623) Gideon Mantell (maNTeL) (CE 1790-1852) discovers the first armored dinosaur, Hylaeosaurus (HI lE O SoR uS).
| Tilgate Forest, England |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2659) (Baron) Pavel L'vovitch Schilling, (Paul Schilling) (also Shilling) (CE c1780-1836) links the Summer Palace of the Tsar in St Petersburg to the Winter Palace using a telegraph with rotating magnetized needles.
When Baron Pavel Schilling first saw Samuel Thomas von S�mmering's (CE 1755-1830) telegraph, Schilling was inspired by it and began to study electricity and its uses. Then a Russian diplomat working at the Munich embassy, Schilling becomes a regular visitor at Sommering's house, and introduces friends from across Europe to the device.
(uses a battery and key?)
| St. Petersburg, Russia |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2704) In 1832, Faraday announces what are now called "Faraday's laws of electrolysis". In modern terminology these laws are: 1) The mass of substance liberated at an electrode during electrolysis is proportional to the quantity of electricity driven through the solution. 2) The mass liberated by a given quantity of electricity is proportional to the atomic weight ((mass)) of the element liberated and inversely proportional to the valence of the element liberated. (Interesting, so for example a given quantity of electricity releases 4 times less mass of carbon with a valence of 4 than Chlorine with a valence of 1). Valence is the combining power of an element. For example, an atom of sodium or silver (some of the transition elements have variable valences) will each combine with only one atom of chlorine, but a copper atom will combine with two atoms of chlorine. Sodium and silver therefore have a valence of 1, where copper has a valence of 2. Since sodium has an atomic weight of 23, silver of 108, and copper of 64 (using whole numbers). The quantity of electricity that will liberate 23 grams of sodium will liberate 108 grams of silver, but will only liberate 32 grams of copper (the atomic weight divided by the valence). These laws establish a connection between electricity and chemistry. These laws are easily interpreted using the atom theory, in addition, they strongly favor the theory that electric current is made of particles (which Franklin suggested a century earlier). (Arrhenius will develop this particle theory of electricity.)
Faraday names "electrolysis", the process of passing electric current through solutions. He names a compound or solution that can carry an electric current an "electrolyte". The metal rods inserted into the melt or solution Faraday calls "electrodes", the positive electrode being the "anode" and the negative electrode the "cathode". British scholar Whewell corresponds with Faraday and suggests the names "ion", "anode", "cathode".(chronology)
Faraday finds that electrical force does not appear to act at a distance on chemical molecules to cause them to dissociate as was popularly believed, but that the passage of electricity through a conducting liquid medium causes the molecules to dissociate. Even when the electricity merely discharges into the air and does not pass into a "pole" or "center of action" in a voltaic cell. (The view I have is that the particles are very small, and so the gravitational force is distributed over space, because of the many particles, and not averaged from some central mass.) Faraday finds secondly that the amount of the chemical decomposition is related to the amount of electricity that passes through the solution. These findings lead Faraday to a new theory of electrochemistry. Faraday argues that the electric force causes the molecules of a solution into a state of tension (Faraday's electrotonic state). When the force is strong enough to distort the fields of forces that hold the molecules together, which allows the interaction of these fields with neighboring particles, the tension is relieved by the movement of particles along the lines of tension, the different types of atoms moving in opposite directions. The amount of electricity that passes is related to the chemical affinities of the substances in solution. These experiments lead directly to Faraday's two laws of electrochemistry: (1) The amount of a substance deposited on each electrode of an electrolytic cell is directly proportional to the quantity of electricity passed through the cell. (2) The quantities of different elements deposited by a given amount of electricity are in the ratio of their chemical equivalent weights (masses).
This works helps Faraday to understand that since the amount of electricity that is passed through a conducting medium of an electrolytic cell determines the amount of material deposited at the electrodes, the amount of electricity induced in a nonconductor must be dependent on the material the nonconductor is made of? From this, Faraday understands that every material must have a specific inductive capacity, (which is confirmed). (In his paper on the electric generator, Faraday states that this capacity relates to their conductance, however it may relate also to their mass and valence. Interesting if true, because I thought electrons all have the same mass and only depend on valence, not on mass. Perhaps mass doesn't matter for induction.)
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2717) Antoine-Hippolyte Pixii (CE 1808-1835), French instrument maker, builds the first alternating electric current (AC) generator.
In 1832, after the publication of Faraday's experiments in his famous "Experimental Researches into Electricity", Hippolyte Pixii, an electrical instrument maker in Paris, constructs with the aid of William Ritchie a device in which a rotating permanent magnet induces an alternating current in the field coils of a stationary horseshoe electromagnet.
This machine contains a permanent magnet which is rotated by a hand crank. The spinning magnet is positioned so that its north and south poles pass by a piece of iron wrapped with wire. Pixii finds that the spinning magnet produces a pulse of current in the wire each time a pole passed the coil. In addition, the north and south poles of the magnet induce currents in opposite directions. This is the first practical device for producing an electric current by mechanical means. Pixii calls the device a "magnetoelectric" machine. This machine is able to produce an "uninterrupted series of sparks by means of a magnet".
| Paris, France |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2718) Antoine-Hippolyte Pixii (CE 1808-1835), French instrument maker, builds the first direct current (DC) electric generator.
Pixii builds a second machine, at Ampère's suggestion, with a commutator to rectify the alternative current currents. (more specific, I think it is the position of the commutator that causes current to flow in the same direction) Pixii's first device will be improved on in 1833 by Joseph Saxton of Philadelphia who uses a rotating electromagnet, the inverse of Pixii's design. The resulting magneto-electric "shock machine" is regarded for many years as a toy, but later finds widespread use as the crank telephone bell ringer.
All DC motors and generators in the world today are direct descendants of the machinery developed by Pixii from Faraday's first electromagnetic induction principles.
| Paris, France |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2740) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, demonstrates his "Difference Engine" which is the first automatic digital computer. The Difference Engine is designed to compute logarithms and other functions.(more specific info) This model works to some degree, and Babbage's plans are later used to create fully functioning versions.
The machine produces mathematical tables, and since the operation of the machine is based on the mathematical theory of finite differences, Babbage calls the machine a "difference engine". In this time numerical tables are calculated by humans called "computers", meaning "one who computes", (similar to a conductor is "one who conducts"). At Cambridge Babbage sees the high error rate of this human-driven process and starts his life"s work of trying to calculate the tables mechanically. By using the method of finite differences, it was possible to avoid the need for multiplication and division. (Babbage recognizes that the cost of collecting and stamping a letter for various sums depending on the distance it is to travel costs more in labor than using some small sum charged independently of distance. The British government establishes this practice in 1840. )
Calculating machines had been built by Pascal and Leibniz before.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2773) Eilhardt Mitscherlich (miCRliK) (CE 1794-1863), German chemist synthesizes nitrobenzene.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2849) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist discovers the terpene cymene (1832) and anthracene in coal tar (1832).
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 2860) German chemists, Friedrich Wöhler (VOElR) (CE 1800-1882), and Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873) show that a number of substances contain a common group or "radical".
After the two chemists demonstrate that the oil of bitter almonds can be oxidized to benzoic acid (benzenecarboxylic acid), thy postulate that both substances, as well as a large number of derivatives, contain a common group, or "radical", which they name "benzoyl". This research, based on Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius's electrochemical and dualistic model of inorganic composition, proves to be a landmark in classifying organic compounds according to their constituent radicals.
Wöhler shows that when benzoic acid is swallowed, hippuric acid (benzoic acid combined with glycine) appears in the urine. This is the beginning of the study of chemical changes in the body (metabolism).
This classic "benzoyl radical" (1832) paper is regarded as one of the foundations of the emergent theory of organic radicals and one of the first successful efforts to determine the interior construction of molecules.
Therefore, to the benzoyl radical, C6H5CO-, can be added OH to make benzoic acid, H to make oil of bitter almonds (benzaldehyde), Cl for benzoyl chloride, Br for benzoyl bromide, (among others).
Between 1837 and 1838 Wöhler and Liebig identify, analyze, and classify many of the constituents and degradation products of urine, including urea (carbamide), uric acid, allantoin, and uramil.
From this discovery Liebig is led to the discovery of the ethyl radical (C2H5), which is found in such compounds as alcohol and ether.
| (Berlin Gewerbeschule (trade school)) Berlin, Germany (and (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany) |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 3343) Joseph Plateau (CE 1801-1883) invents the phenakistoscope, a spinning cardboard disk that created the illusion of movement when viewed in a mirror.
| (Institut Gaggia) Brussels, Belgium |
168 YBN
[1832 AD]
| 3910) Bartolomeo Bizio publishes a study of "blood spots" on communion wafers, caused by Serratia marcescens, which used bread as a growth medium.
| Padua, Italy (verify) |
167 YBN
[07/07/1833 AD]
| 2931) Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz (leNTS) (CE 1804-1865), Russian physicist finds that resistance in a metallic conductor increases with temperature.
Lenz publishes this as "On the Conductivity of Metals at Different Temperatures for Electricity".
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
167 YBN
[11/29/1833 AD]
| 2932) Heinrich Friedrich Emil Lenz (leNTS) (CE 1804-1865), Russian physicist describes "Lenz's law", which states that the electrodynamic action of an induced current opposes equally the mechanical action inducing it.
(this needs a clearer explanation and to be explained at the particle level)
This is Lenz's law and is a general description of the phenomenon of self induction. Lenz's law is a consequence of the, more general, law of conservation of energy ((or alternatively, of the law of conservation of mass and velocity)).
The current induced in a circuit due to a change in a magnetic field opposes the flux, or exerts a mechanical force to oppose the motion.{4 elec}
Lenz publishes this law in "On the Direction of Galvanic Currents Which Are Excited through Electrodynamic Induction".
Lenz writes (translated) "The electrodynamic action of an induced current opposes equally the mechanical action inducing it" and also "To each phenomenon of movement by electromagnetism, there must correspond an electrodynamic distribution. Consequently it is only necessary to produce motion through other means in order to induce a current in the moveable conductor, which shall be opposed in direction to that so produced in the induced conductor of the electromagnetic tests"."
Moving a pole of a permanent bar magnet through a coil of wire induces an electric current in the coil. The current, in turn, sets up a magnetic field around the coil, making it a magnet. Lenz's law indicates the direction of the induced current. Because like magnetic poles repel each other, Lenz's law states that when the north pole of the bar magnet is approaching the coil, the induced current flows in the coil to make the coil nearest the magnet a north pole to oppose the approaching bar magnet. When the bar magnet is moved out of the coil, the induced current reverses itself, and the coil end near the magnet becomes a south pole to produce an attracting force on the receding bar magnet.
Work is done in moving the magnet into and out of the coil against the magnetic effect of the induced current. The small amount of energy represented by this work translates into a small heating effect (in the coil). (The heat in the coil is the result of) the induced current encountering resistance in the material of the coil.
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 2449) Carl Gauss (GoUS), (CE 1777-1855) constructs a working electric telegraph with his Göttingen colleague, the physicist Wilhelm Weber (CE 1804-1891).
Gauss and Weber see Baron Schilling's needle telegraph in an 1832 demonstration a year before (Schilling saw Samuel Thomas von Sömmering's (CE 1755-1830) telegraph). A year after in 1833 Gauss and Weber send signals over a distance of more than two kilometres using a form of two-wire single-needle telegraph.
Gauss develops five different telegraph codes for the characters of the alphabet, using combinations of one to six mirror movements to the left or to the right.
(This uses a battery or Leyden jar?)
| (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 2578) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), identifies the sweat glands of the skin.
| (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 2786) Anselme Payen (PIoN) (CE 1795-1871), French chemist discovers and isolates "diastase", the first enzyme (organic (carbonic or biotic) catalyst) to be obtained in concentrated form. Payen separates a substance from malt extract that has the property of speeding the conversion of starch to sugar. Payen calls the substance "diastase", from a Greek word for "separate", because, the substance separates the building blocks of starch into the individual glucose units. Diastace is an example of an organic catalyst within living tissue which will eventually be named "enzymes" by Kühne 50 years later. Diastace, is the first enzyme to be prepared in concentrated form and therefore starts the tradition of ending enzyme names with "ase".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 2850) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist discovers urethane (1833) in coal tar.
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 2901) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist invents the stereoscope, a device for observing pictures in three dimensions still used in viewing X-rays and aerial photographs.
Wheatstone describes this device in a long paper on the subject.
Wheatstone shows that our impression of solidity is gained by the combination in the mind of two separate pictures of an object taken by both of our eyes from different points of view. Therefore, in the stereoscope, an arrangement of lenses and mirrors, two photographs of the same object taken from different points are so combined as to make the object stand out with a solid aspect. Wheatstone will introduce the 'pseudoscope' in 1850, and is in some sort the reverse of the stereoscope, since it causes a solid object to seem hollow, and a nearer one to be farther off; therefore, a bust appears to be a mask, and a tree growing outside of a window looks as if it were growing inside the room. (This I have to see to believe.)
| (King's College) London, England |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 2906) Samuel Hunter Christie (CE 1784-1865) publishes his "diamond" method, the forerunner of the Wheatstone bridge, in a paper on the magnetic and electrical properties of metals, as a method for comparing the resistances of wires of different thicknesses. However, the method goes unrecognized until 1843, when Charles Wheatstone proposes it, in another paper for the Royal Society, for measuring resistance in electrical circuits. Although Wheatstone presents it as Christie's invention, it is Wheathstone's name, instead of Christie's, that is now associated with the device.
| Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, England |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 3003) Humphrey Lloyd (CE 1800-1881) reports observing both confirming both external and internal cylindrical refraction, confirming William Hamilton's two theoretical predictions based on Fresnel's interpretation of light as a transverse wave in an aetherial medium.
(I think this needs to be verified on video and Hamilton's claim clearly explained, in addition to alternate and opposing interpretations.)
| (Trinity College) Dublin, Ireland |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 3014) Thomas Graham (CE 1805-1869) Scottish physical chemist, working with various forms of phosphoric acid, shows that they differ in hydrogen content. In metaphosphoric acid, one hydrogen atom per molecule can be replaced by a metal, where in pyrophosphoric acid, two can, and in orthophosphoric acid, three can. This is the introduction to polybasic acids, those acids with molecules in which more than one hydrogen atom can be replaced by metals.
Graham publishes this work in "Researches on the Arseniates, Phosphates, and Modifications of Phosphoric Acid". In this work, Graham makes clear the differences between the three phosphoric acids. The polybasicity of these acids provides Justus Liebig with a clue to the modern concept of polybasic acids.
Graham's symbols are inaccurate because of the wrong (Daltonian) formula for water as HO, but translating them into modern terms they become 3H2O.P2O5, 2H2O.P2O5 and H2O.P2O5 for ortho-, pyro- and meta-phosphoric (also known as phosphate of water) acids respectively.
| (Andersonian Institution) Edinburgh, Scotland |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 3026) Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (aGuSE) (CE 1807-1873), Swiss-American naturalist, publishes "Recherches sur les poissons fossiles" (1833-1843; "Researches on Fossil Fishes"), a five volume work on fossil fishes which raises the number of known fossil fishes to over 1,700.
| (University of Neuch�tel) Neuch�tel, Switzerland |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 3027) Jean Louis Rodolphe Agassiz (aGuSE) (CE 1807-1873), Swiss-American naturalist, publishes "Etudes sur les glaciers" (1840; Studies on Glaciers), in which Agassiz shows that in a geologically recent period Switzerland had been covered by a large sheet of ice, concluding that "great sheets of ice, resembling those now existing in Greenland, once covered all the countries in which unstratified gravel (boulder drift) is found.".
In 1836 and 1837 Agassiz studies glaciers (large moving ice) and finds at the ends and sides of the glaciers, accumulations of rocks. In addition, Agassiz finds rocks that are scraped and grooved as though by rocks embedded in a moving glacier. Agassiz finds these grooved rocks in places where no glacier had ever been known to exist.
In 1839 Agassiz drives a straight line of stakes across a glacier, and in 1841 finds that the straight line has moved into a "u" shape, the stakes in the center moving faster because of friction the glacier sides have with the mountain wall.
In 1840 Agassiz finds evidence of glaciation in the British Isles. Agassiz finds signs on an ice age in North America, and is able to trace out an ancient lake that had once covered North Dakota, Minnesota, and Manitoba, which is called Lake Agassiz in his honor.
One major contribution by Agassiz is revealing the Ice Age to people. Now people understand that there were many ice ages in the past of earth. The most recent ice age fills the last 500,000 years, the ice has advanced and retreated four times, the last retreat only 10,000 years ago.
| (University of Neuch�tel) Neuch�tel, Switzerland |
167 YBN
[1833 AD]
| 5989) (Jakob Ludwig) Felix Mendelssohn (-Bartholdy) (CE 1809-1847), composes his famous Symphony number 4, "Italian" in A.
| London, England |
166 YBN
[01/01/1834 AD]
| 1247) Mechanical reaper.
A reaper is any farm machine that cuts grain. Early reapers simply cut the crop and drop it unbound, but modern machines include harvesters, combines, and binders, which also perform other harvesting operations.
Cyrus McCormick builds a practical mechanical harvester.
| Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2539) Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (CE 1784-1846), finds that Sirius and Procyon show tiny displacements in their movement. In 1841, Bessel will attribute these displacements to unseen companions rotating around these stars. Alvan Clark will later prove this correct (how).
| Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2557) Joseph Jackson Lister (CE 1786-1869) is the first to see the true biconcave form of red blood cells.
| london, England (presumbly) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2570) Johann von (French: Jean de) Charpentier (soRPoNTYA) (CE 1786-1855), German-Swiss geologist, theorizes that large, immovable boulders in the Rhône River valley (a major river that runs through Switzerland and France) were placed there by immense glaciers as opposed to the popular belief that such rocks were moved by floods and icebergs. In addition Charpentier concludes that glaciers covered more of the earth in the past.
The theory that these boulders are meteorites is ruled out because of their composition being identical to other Alpine rocks. Charles Lyell supported a flood theory, supposing that these boulders had been distributed frozen in icebergs (floating in the water of a flood). However, this raises the problem of where the water had to come from and had gone to.
Charpentier's interpretation attracts the attention of the Swiss naturalist Louis Agassiz, who in 1840 published "Studies on Glaciers", a few months before Charpentier publishes his own "Essai sur les glaciers" (1841, "Essay on Glaciers").
(There is a subtle difference between a big piece of ice moving on land versus a big piece of ice moving on water. I could see that perhaps water could carry and deposit large frozen pieces of ice, but the water would have to be cold at such latitudes to stop the ice from melting. Another question is how are the boulders formed, since clearly they were formed somewhere. Perhaps the boulders are pieces of mountain that crumbled off, and over years of rolling form spherical shapes. The marks of sliding glaciers, and temperature history from ice cores on the poles are more evidence that ice covered much of the earth and when melting glaciers leave large boulders. It is interesting that clearly an ice sheet implies that water covers more of the land. Perhaps a colder average planetary temperature of Earth freezes more ocean water, which is less dense than liquid water and so needs more space and expands onto the land.)
| Rhône River valley, Switzerland |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2622) An Iguanadon skeleton is discovered in a Maidstone quarry.
| Sussex, England (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2741) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, designs an "Analytical Engine" which is the first general-purpose programmable digital computer designed on Earth.
Babbage designs a programmable mechanical calculating machine Babbage calls the "Analytical Engine" that can carry out arithmetic operations specified on punch cards and choose the sequence of operations. Although the design is never built, Augusta Ada Byron wrote programs to demonstrate the machine's potential power.
This machine is intended to use several features subsequently used in modern computers, including sequential control, branching, and looping.
The analytical engine is proposed to use loops of Jacquard's punched cards to control a mechanical calculator, which can produce results based on the results of preceding computations.
Between 1833 and 1842 Babbage tries to build a machine that is programmable to do any kind of calculation, not just ones relating to polynomial equations. The first breakthrough comes when Babbage redirects the machine's output to the input for further equations. Babbage describes this as the machine "eating its own tail". Soon after this Babbage defines the main points of his analytical engine.
The developed analytical engine uses punched cards adapted from the Jacquard loom to specify input and the calculations to perform. The engine consists of two parts: the mill and the store. The mill, analogous to a modern computer's CPU, executes the operations on values retrieved from the store, which is the equivalent of memory. This is the first general-purpose computer on Earth.
A design for this machine emerges by 1835. The scale of the work is (very large). Babbage and a handful of assistants create 500 large design drawings, 1000 sheets of mechanical notation, and 7000 sheets of scribbles. The completed mill would measure 15 feet tall and 6 feet in diameter. The 100 digit store stretches to 25 feet long. Babbage constructs only small test parts for his new engine; a full engine is never completed (in the time Babbage is alive).
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2758) Ada Lovelace (CE 1815-1852), publishes the first known "computer program" for Charles Babbage's (CE 1792-1871) prototype of a digital computer.
Ada King, countess of Lovelace (CE 1815-1852), creates a "computer program" for Charles Babbage's (CE 1792-1871) prototype of a digital computer.
Lovelace becomes interested in Babbage's machines as early as 1833. In 1842 Luigi Federico Menabrea (CE 1809-1896), an Italian mathematician and military engineer, summarizes the concept behind Babbage's more advanced calculating machine, the Analytical Engine in "Notions sur la machine analytique de Charles Babbage" (1842, "Elements of Charles Babbage's Analytical Machine"). Lovelace translates Menabrea's article into English and adds her own notes as well as diagrams and other information. Lovelace's adds detailed and elaborate annotations, in particular a description of how the proposed Analytical Engine can be programmed to compute Bernoulli numbers. Lovelace's accompanying notations are published in the prestigious "Taylor's Scientific Memoirs".
Biographers debate the extent of Lovelace's original contributions, with some holding that the programs were written by Babbage himself. Babbage writes in his "Passages from the Life of a Philosopher" (1846): "I then suggested that she add some notes to Menabrea's memoir, an idea which was immediately adopted. We discussed together the various illustrations that might be introduced: I suggested several but the selection was entirely her own. So also was the algebraic working out of the different problems, except, indeed, that relating to the numbers of Bernoulli, which I had offered to do to save Lady Lovelace the trouble. This she sent back to me for an amendment, having detected a grave mistake which I had made in the process."
Lovelace states that "the Analytical Engine, ...weaves algebraic patterns, just as the Jacquard-loom weaves flowers and leaves".
Lovelace predicts that a machine such as Babbage's, would have many applications beyond arithmetic calculations, from scientific research to composing music and producing graphics.
The Bernoulli numbers are a sequence of rational numbers.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2787) Anselme Payen (PIoN) (CE 1795-1871), French chemist discovers, isolates and names cellulose.
While studying the chemical composition of wood Payen obtains a substance isolated from plant cell walls that can be broken down to glucose units just as starch can. Because this substance exists in the cell wall, Payen names it "cellulose", and this (starts the tradition) of naming carbohydrates with the "-ose" suffix.
This starts the tradition of ending the names of carbohydrates with "ose".
Payen obtains cellulose from many different kinds of wood.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2822) Benoit Pierre Émile Clapeyron (CloPirON) (CE 1799-1864), French engineer, making use of Carnot's principles, finds an important relationship involving the heat of vaporization of a fluid, its temperature, and the increase in volume involved in its vaporization. Clausius will generalize this relationship, and it will be known as the Clapeyron-Clausius equation.
The Clapeyron-Clausius equation is an equation that governs phase transitions of a substance, dp/dT = ΔH/(TΔV), in which p is the pressure, T is the temperature at which the phase transition occurs, ΔH is the change in heat content (enthalpy), and ΔV is the change in volume during the transition. (Explain with examples)
Clapeyron publishes this in "Driving force of the heat" ("Puissance motrice de la chaleur").
Clapeyron, in his memoir, presents Carnot's work in a more accessible and analytic graphical form, showing the Carnot cycle as a closed curve on an indicator diagram, a chart of pressure against volume.
| Paris, France |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2851) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist and Eugène Peligot discover methyl alcohol (methanol) by distilling wood. Dumas and Peligot propose the existence of the methyl radical (a molecule with at least one unpaired electron) and recognize that methanol differs from ethyl alcohol (ethanol) by one -CH2 group. However, the search for more hydrocarbon radicals leads to difficulties.
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2853) It had been noticed that candles bleached with chlorine give off fumes of hydrogen chloride when they burn. Dumas discovers that during bleaching the hydrogen in the hydrocarbon oil of turpentine becomes replaced by chlorine. This seems to contradict Jöns Berzelius's electrochemical theory and the Berzelius is bitterly opposed to the substitution theory.
(Perhaps this shows that electricity may have more to do with matter filling spaces than a concept of a stronger two-part electromagnetic fundamental force in addition to the force of gravity.)
(This is very interesting, that the theory of positive and negative pairings appears to be violated for the example of hydrogen and chlorine substitution. Were these experiments performed in vacuum? Perhaps more experimenting might show if there are other products involved such as oxygen and or nitrogen gases in the air, or atoms from the container that interfere with the reactions. Perhaps there is some rearranging of the positive and negative particles in the chlorine atom in these reactions. Perhaps this shows that molecules hold together for other reasons besides electrical force, such as from gravitation, from collision, or other phenomena.)
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2896) Jean Baptiste Joseph Dieudonné Boussingault (BUSoNGO) (CE 1802-1887), French agricultural chemist shows that legumes (peas, beans, etc) obtain their nitrogen from the air, because such plants grow in nitrogen free soil and nitrogen free water. (50 years later, it will be shown that bacteria growing in nodules around the roots "fix" the nitrogen (from the air.))
In this way Boussingault demonstrates the use of atmospheric nitrogen by legumes but not cereals. Boussingault proves that the only nitrogen incorporated into animal bodies comes from the nitrogen of the food. (how?)
| Lyon, France (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 2899) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875) uses a revolving mirror to measure the speed of electricity in a conductor.
Wheatstone measures the speed of electricity to be 576,000 miles in a second (one fluid theory) or 288,000 miles in a second (two fluid theory), and concludes that "...the velocity of electricity through a copper wire exceeds that of light through the planetary space.".
The great velocity of electrical transmission suggests the possibility of utilizing electricity for sending messages.
The mirror's rotation is powered by a cord and pulley in order to count the exact rate of mirror turning.
In order to measure the velocity of electricity through a wire, Wheatstone uses 0.8km (half a mile) of wire. Wheatstone cuts the wire at the middle, to form a gap which a spark leaps across, and connects the ends of the wire to the poles of a Leyden jar filled with electricity. Three sparks are therefore produced, one at either end of the wire (when the Leyden jar discharges to the two ends of the wire), and another at the middle (when the electric current has passed through each of the two segments of wire). (needs visual) Wheatstone mounts a tiny mirror on the works of a watch, so that the mirror revolves at a high velocity (800 rotations per second), and observes the reflections of the three sparks in it. The points of the wire are so arranged that if the sparks are instantaneous, their reflections appear in one straight line; but the middle one is seen to lag behind the others, because it is an instant later. The electricity takes a certain time to travel from the ends of the wire to the middle. This time is found by measuring the amount of lag, and comparing it with the known velocity of the mirror. Any difference in time between the sparks is converted into an angular separation, since the mirror turns slightly during the tiny interval between the sparks, resulting in slightly displaced reflections. The smearing of light in the reflected images indicate the duration of the sparks and their relative displacement gives a value for the speed of electricity. Having the time, Wheatstone can compare that with the length of half the wire, and he can find the velocity of electricity. However experimental or calculation error leads Wheatstone to conclude that this velocity is 288,000 miles per second, an impossible value as it is faster than the speed of light.
Until this time, many people had considered the electric discharge to be instantaneous; but it was afterwards found that its velocity depended on the nature of the conductor, its resistance, and its electro-static capacity.
| (King's College) London, England |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 3000) Hamilton publishes two major papers "On a General Method in Dynamics" in 1834 and 1835 (Philosophical Transactions in 1834-1835). In these works, drawing on his earlier work in optics, Hamilton associates a characteristic function with any system of attracting or repelling point particles. If the form of this function is known, then the solutions of the equations of motion of the system can easily be obtained. In the second of these works the equations of motion of a dynamical system are called Hamilton's equations of motion.
Hamilton's equations are a set of equations (similar to equations of Joseph Lagrange) describing the positions and momenta of a collection of particles. The equations involve the Hamiltonian function, which is used extensively in quantum mechanics. Hamilton's principle is the principle that the integral with respect to time of the kinetic energy minus the potential energy of a system is a minimum.
The classical Hamiltonian expresses the energy of a dynamical system in terms of coordinates q and momenta p, and therefore takes on a continuous set of values. It cannot lead to discrete energy levels. For this reason, the Hamiltonian H is replaced in quantum theory by the Hamiltonian operator Hop.
Before this Hamilton had written a detailed study of the three-body problem using the characteristic function, which was not published. (Here is a possible`example of how an equation is supposed to represent an alternative to simply iterating and summing the gravitational influence of each mass, by creating a geometrical function which will stand theoretically as a periodic function through an infinity of time, which, in my view, does not apply as accurately to physical phenomena as iterating into a future time. A classic example is that planets follow ellipses, which does not account for the change in position of the ellipse over time, or minor variations due to other masses, all of which the inverse distance gravity equation and iteration into a future time account for.)
The first essay is mainly devoted to methods of approximating the characteristic function in order to apply it to the perturbations of planets and comets. (Here, my view is that iterating with a computer using the inverse distance equation, makes this work obsolete, but perhaps still useful or educational. My feeling is that iterating the mutual attractions of millions of masses may be a constant duty of every group of advanced life living around stars.)
In the second essay, Hamilton deduces equations of motion (show) from his characteristic function and shows that the same function is equal to the time integral of the Lagrangian between fixed points. The statement that the variation of this integral must equal zero is now called "Hamilton's principle". Jacobi finds a more useful form of Hamilton's equation, which is difficult to find a solution for, by reducing the solution to a single partial differential equation, referred to as the Hamilton-Jacobi equation. (needs to be clearer and show)
| (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 3061) Gabriel Gustav Valentin (VoleNTEN) (CE 1810-1883), German-Swiss physiologist, and Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869) find that certain cells in the inner surface of the oviduct contain cilia, tiny thread-like structures, that beat in coordinated motion independently of the nervous system (is true?) and therefore force the ovum to move along the tube.
| (Breslau now:) Wrocław, Poland (presumably) |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 3076) Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, finds an antidote to arsenic poisoning in freshly precipitated, hydrated ferric oxide (1834). This antidote is still used today.
| (University of Göttingen), Göttingen, Germany |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 3085) Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, publishes "Studies in the Cacodyl Series" (1837–42).
Cacodyl (from the Greek kakodhs - "stinking", now named tetra-methyldiarsine) is also known as alkarsine or "Cadet's liquid," a product made from arsenic distilled with potassium acetate. At the time the chemical composition of this liquid is unknown, but Cacodyl and Cacodyl's compounds are known to be poisonous, highly flammable and have an extremely nauseating odor even in minute quantities. Bunsen's daring experiments show that cacodyl is an oxide of arsenic that contains a methyl radical.
After this study, Bunsen abandons organic for analytical and inorganic chemistry. During this research on the highly toxic cacodyl compound Bunsen loses sight in one eye in an explosion (1836) of the compound which sends a sliver of glass into his eye. Bunsen twice nearly kills himself through arsenic poisoning. Bunsen prepares various derivatives of cacodyl (tetramethylarsine, (CH3)2As2(CH3)2), including the chloride, iodide, fluoride, and cyanide, and Bunsen's work is viewed by Jöns Berzelius as confirmation that his "radical" theory is the same for organic chemistry as for inorganic chemistry.
| (University of Göttingen), Göttingen, Germany |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 3272) Walter Hunt (CE 1796-1859) in New York City makes a sewing machine (1834) with an eye-pointed needle that creates a locked stitch with a second thread from underneath. Hunt never patents his machine. (give more details and show graphically)
Walter Hunt also invents the safety pin.
| New york City, NY, USA |
166 YBN
[1834 AD]
| 3453) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, explains that different substances have different spectra when illuminated.
Talbot publishes this in Philosophical Transactions writing "...The strontia flame exhibits a great number of red rays well separated from each other by dark intervals, not to mention an orange, and a very definite bright blue ray. The lithia exhibits one single red ray. Hence I hesitate not to say that optical analysis can distinguish the minutest portions of these two substances from each other with as much certainty, if not more than, any other known method.".
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
165 YBN
[01/29/1835 AD]
| 3459) James D. Forbes uses the thermo-multiplier of Nobili to confirm that infrared light (so-called "heat") can be reflected, refracted, and polarized by both refraction and reflection and doubly refracted.
| (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
165 YBN
[02/06/1835 AD]
| 2810) This invention will enable Henry's telegraph system to work over long distances. In experimenting with his telegraph system, Henry finds that as the length of wire is increased, the greater the resistance, and by Ohm's law, the smaller the current flowing through it. A current just strong enough to activate an electromagnet lifts a small iron key. This key when lifted closes a second circuit to a nearby battery which provides more current. This in turn can activate another more distinct relay. In this way, current can travel from relay to relay over huge distances. (What is the cause of this increased resistance for increased length of wire? Does current change over distance or is the current constant throughout the wire? If the analogy of water in a longer tube, a loss would result in more leakage and so would start stronger and get weaker by the end. If the analogy of the battery making many holes and a chain of particles then starts to move in linked fashion successively filling a hole and creating a new hole, perhaps the initial number of holes is reduced as they move down the wire {perhaps filled by electrons in other directions in the wire or from other sources than the wire}. This seems true because a stronger current is measured with a meter at shorter lengths of a wire. EX: Possibly equal strength resistors could measure current from different parts of a wire to verify that the current actually is reduced as the current moves through the wire from the source.) (show publication)
Henry uses an "intensity" magnet, which works well at low power over great distances, to control a much larger "quantity" magnet supporting a load of weights. By breaking the "intensity" circuit, Henry also de-energizes the "quantity" circuit, causing the weights to crash to the floor, while Henry remains at a safe distance. Students remember that Henry describes the arrangement as a means to control mechanical effects at long range, such as the ringing of distant church bells.
At Princeton, Henry builds a second telegraph line from his house, behind Nassau Hall, to Philosophical Hall. Henry shows that a "quantity" current can induce an "intensity" current, that is, that voltage can be stepped up and down. This is the theoretical basis for the modern transformer.
In addition to the invention of the electromagnetic relay, a crucial development for the telegraph, with which a weak line signal can be boosted along through a circuit, Henry also develops the basic form of the telegraph receiver. This is not a galvanometer or a magnetized needle, which European telegraphs are employing, but a magnet operating a movable armature which makes rapid signaling and audible reception possible. With this work Henry completes the development of the four component parts of the telegraph: the electromagnet, the series circuit, the relay, and the receiver.
According to the Smithsonian Institute, Henry's "intensity" magnet is the basis of Morse's repeater, which allows signals to travel great distances; Henry's "quantity" magnet forms the heart of Morse's (paper and ink) recording instrument; and Henry's "intensity" to "quantity" relay becomes with some modification Morse's arrangement for connecting his local receiving circuit to a long-distance telegraph line. But Henry never seeks to commercialize his system, or even to demonstrate it on a larger scale. Henry sees his telegraph as a particularly effective lecture-hall demonstration of the principles of electromagnetism. Princeton students vividly recall Henry's telegraphic demonstrations just as they remembered him electrocuting chickens and shocking classmates.
Henry never patents any of his inventions believing that science is for the benefit of all humanity. As a result Samuel Morse is the first to put the telegraph to practical use nine years later in 1844. Henry freely helps Morse who is completely ignorant of science. In England, Wheatstone after a long conference with Henry builds a telegraph in 1837. Henry, an idealist, does not mind not sharing in the financial reward of the telegraph, but it does bother him that neither person ever publicly acknowledges Henry's help. (Not acknowledging Henry's help is so devious and dishonest.) (Identify sources of this story.) (Pupin take many patents out on his inventions, which AT&T buys. Clearly Pupin has some secret patents, which the public should make an effort to make public as part of the process of creating a government free of secrecy and dishonesty.)
On a trip to England in 1837, Henry describes this arrangement to Charles Wheatstone, who is searching for a repeating arrangement for his needle telegraph.
Apparently Henry did not publish any information about his invention of the electrical relay or telegraph, and the only evidence of Henry's work is his testimony and that of his students, and possibly Henry's correspondence.
Edward Davy, in London, invents a relay, a short time later in 1836.
| Princeton, NJ, USA |
165 YBN
[08/12/1835 AD]
| 2900) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist proves that sparks from different metals give distinctive spectra, which allow a method of distinguishing between them.
Wheatstone demonstrates how minute quantities of metals can be detected from the spectral lines produced by electric sparks, writing in a paper "On The Prismatic Decomposition of Electrical Light" (1835): "We have here a mode of discriminating metallic bodies more readily than that of chemical examination, and which may hereafter be employed for useful purposes.".
According to Angstrom, Wheatstone observes that when electrodes are made of two different metals, the spectrum contains the lines of both metals and that an electrode made of a compound of the same metals exhibits the lines of both metals. The only difference observed being that certain lines are absent or not as bright, but that those that appear are always in the same places corresponding to the single metals. (Chronology - which paper? Not this one.)(Does this explanation imply that Wheatstone, and Angstrom understand that the spectrum of light from substances reveals the substances' atomic composition? Although this seems obvious, it is not clearly stated by either that I have seen. I currently have Bunsen and Kirchhoff being the first to publish this fact.)
Wheatstone explains that light emitted that results from electricity is not from combustion (chemical combination of atoms, typically with oxygen) writing "...These experiments leave no ground for supposing that the electric light is in any case a consequence of combustion..." and "...There is, therefore, a marked difference in the physical properties of light obtained from the same metal by combustion and the action of electricity...."
Wheatstone writes "...I next proceeded to observe the prismatic analysis of the electro magnetic spark taken from different metals while in a fluid state. For this purpose I employed the following metals in the purest state I coul obtain them:- Zinc, cadmium, bismuth, tin, and lead. I placed the metal intended to be the subject of experiment in the cup formed in the iron plate, and melted it by the application of a spirit-lamp placed beneath; the spark was then taken as above described. Not having at my disposal an instrument like that which Frauenhofer employed in his experiments, by which the degrees of refrangibility might be absolutely measured, I was oblidged to content myself with an ordinary telescope-prism, furnished with a micrometer eye-piece, which affords only comparative results. The eye-piece was graduated with parallel lines, in one direction only, the fortieth of an inch apart. The spark was taken precisely at the same point, and the telescope remained in the same position during the whole of the experiments with the different metals; the spark was also obtained under exactly similar circumstances from carefully distilled mercury. None of these metals gave an uninterrupted spectrum, but each presented a few bright, definite lines, widely separated from each other; the number, position, and colour of these lines differ in each of the metals employed. These differences are so obvious that any one metal may instantly be distinguished from the others by the appearance of its spark; and we have here a mode of discriminating metallic bodies more ready even than a chemical examination, and which may be hereafter employed for useful purposes. ..." and later ... "...I have examined with the prism the light of different metals while undergoing ordinary combustion. Iron, copper, bismuth, lead and tin were successively burned on charcoal by directing a stream of oxygen upon them. Examined by the prism they all presented bright uninterrupted spectra, in which no redundant or defective lines were visible, the same thing was observed when zinc foil was burned in the flame of a spirit lamp. There is, therefore, a marked difference in the physical properties of light obtained from the same metal by the prism presented spectra perfectly uninterrupted, and destitute of lines.". Wheatstone summarizes the various popular explanations for the light emitted from voltaic electricity, concluding by rejecting all in favor of his own. Wheatstone writes "Seeing the insufficiency of all these theories to account for the observed phenomena of electric light, I am strongly induced to believe that it results solely from the volatilization and ignition of the ponderable matter of the conductor itself. The difference between the appearance of the prismatic spectra of the same metal electrically ignited and ignited by ordinary combustion, I conceive to consist in this,- in the first case the particles are by volatilization attenuated to the highest possible degree; while in the second, that of ordinary combustion, the light is occasioned by incandescent particles of sensible magnitude. ... The peculiar luminous effects produced by electrical action on different metals, depend, no doubt, on their molecular structure; and we have hence a new optical means of examining the internal mechanism of matter; in addition to those which Sir D. Brewster and other philosophers have already placed at our disposal.". So Wheatstone does not recognize that all matter is made of particles of light, and that composite particles combining cause the release of many photons. Bohr and others will later explain that light is absorbed and emitted from the electrons in atoms at specific frequencies, but do not explain that atoms are made of light particles.
This paper is not published until 1861. (There is no public record of any examination of the spectra of living objects performed by Wheatstone.)
| (King's College) London, England |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2420) Jean Baptiste Biot (BYO) (CE 1774-1862), shows how the hydrolysis of sucrose (a double decomposition reaction with water as one of the reactants (how sugar dissolves in water?)) can be followed by changes in optical rotation.
While studying polarized light (in the wave interpretation, light having all its waves in the same plane, in a particle interpretation light having all ray directions in the same place), Biot finds that sugar solutions, among others, rotate the plane of polarization when a polarized light beam passes through. Further research reveals that the angle of rotation is a direct measure of the concentration of the solution. This fact becomes important in chemical analysis because it provides a simple, nondestructive way of determining sugar concentration.
In this way Biot founds the science of polarimetry.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2498) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) suggests the name "catalysis" for reactions that occur only in the presence of a third substance. Berzelius classifies fermentation as a catalyzed reaction.
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2550) Adam Sedgwick (CE 1785-1873), English geologist, names the oldest strata (that contains fossils) the Cambrian (after Cambria, the ancient name for Wales).
| Cambridge, England |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2638) Samuel Finely Breese Morse (CE 1791-1872) American artist and inventor builds his first working telegraph.
Morse constructs his first electrical writing telegraph in his classroom. Morse's telegraph is constructed on an old portrait frame, on which is mounted a triangular electromagnetic writing device with a pencil that tilts to write on a moving paper tape driven by a clock mechanism. (because of the motion of the paper), the pencil makes a series of V's across the paper. Morse uses a voltaic pile as the electricity source. Morse demonstrates his device to his friends, one of which is Leonhard Gale, professor of Chemistry and Geology who, from experience gained by Gale's friend Joseph Henry, suggests to Morse to use a battery of voltaic piles, and that the windings on the coil of each arm of the magnet should be increased to many hundred turns each.
| New York City, New York, USA |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2673) Samuel Thomas von Sömmering (CE 1755-1830) demonstrates the Earth's first needle telegraph with five needles.
| Bonn, Germany |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2738) Gustave Gaspard de Coriolis (KOrYOlES) (CE 1792-1843), French physicist, describes the "Coriolis effect", how air moving away from the equator retains a higher horizontal velocity and so moves ahead of the land above or below the equator.
Coriolis, studying motion on a spinning surface, understands that a point on the surface of the Earth at the equator must move 25,000 miles relative to the center of the earth, every 24 hours, while a point at the latitude of New York City moves 19,000 miles in a day. From this Coriolis explains that air moving from the equator northward must retain this sideways velocity and therefore moves eastward compared to the more slowly moving surface under it. The same is true for water currents. The forces that appear to push air and water eastward when moving away from the equator and westward when moving toward the equator are called Coriolis forces. These forces cause the circling motions of hurricanes and tornadoes. (All these phenomena, tornadoes, hurricanes, etc are basically the same cyclone phenomenon.) These forces must be taken into account in artillery fire and satellite launchings.
Also known as the Coriolis force, and described more generally as an effect of motion on a rotating body, important to astrophysics, meteorology, ballistics, and oceanography.
Coriolis describes this effect in a paper, "Sur les équations du mouvement relatif des systèmes de corps" ("On the Equations of Relative Motion of Systems of Bodies", 1835), in which Coriolis shows that on a rotating surface, in addition to the ordinary effects of motion of a body, there is an inertial force acting on the body at right angles to its direction of motion. This force results in a curved path for a body that would otherwise travel in a straight line. The Coriolis force on Earth determines the general wind directions and is responsible for the rotation of (all cyclone phenomena).
| Paris, France |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2829) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, invents the paper negative, which allows numerous copies of a photograph to be created.
Talbot's process is described in "Some account of the art of photogenic drawing on his photographic methods" to the Royal Society on February 21, 1839.
Talbot uses a two part process. The first part is making the sensitized paper, and the second part is fixing the image. Talbot dips writing paper into a weak solution of common salt and then spreads a solution of silver nitrate on one side and dries it at the fire. The solution should be not saturated but six or eight times diluted by water. This paper is then exposed to sunlight covered by a leaf, or in a camera obscura, (for approximately 30-40 minutes). In the example of the leaves, the light passing through the leaves shows every detail of their "nerves". For the second part of fixing the image, Talbot uses a strong solution of common salt (and alternatively a diluted solution of iodide of potassium). Then wiping off the solution and drying the paper. If the picture is then placed in Sun light, the white parts color themselves with a pale lilac tint after which they become insensitive.
Talbot produced a negative image using paper coated with silver nitrate or silver chloride exposed to light. Talbot "fixes" the image, makes it permanent, by washing away the residual silver with a salt bath of sodium hyposulphate. "Hypo" is still in use today to fix images. The negative images produced can then be printed as positive photographs by placing a negative in contact with another sensitized piece of paper and exposing both to light, making it possible to achieve multiple copies from one source image. Talbot calls these photographs "photogenic drawings" but as practiced by other photographers they become known as calotypes or talbotypes. (The light goes through the paper? or a glass negative is used?)
Talbot patents this process in 1841 as the Talbotype, which is analogous to the daguerrotype but introduces important improvements, including the first production of a photographic negative, which can be used to make any number of positive prints on paper. (how?) According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Talbot is reluctant to share his knowledge with others, which loses him many friends and much information.
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2864) Félix Dujardin (DYUjoRDiN) (CE 1801-1860) French zoologist observes the substance that exudes out through openings in the calcareous shell of the group Foraminifera, and names the substance sarcode, later known as protoplasm.
Dujardin proposes a new group of one-celled animals he names "Rhizopoda" (meaning "rootfeet"). This name is later changed to "Protozoa".
| Paris?, France (verify) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2865) Félix Dujardin (DYUjoRDiN) (CE 1801-1860) French zoologist rejects the theory (reintroduced by Christian Ehrenberg) that microscopic organisms have the same organs as higher animals.
Dujardin does not find any of the organ systems Ehrenberg and Cuvier claimed were in microscopic organisms (then known as infusoria). For example, Dujardin finds no digestive system with oral and anal openings, but instead only vacuoles that form and disappear.
| Paris?, France (verify) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 2939) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist describes "Trichina spiralis" (1835), the parasite that Leuckart will show causes trichinosis in humans.
| (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 3017) Thomas Graham (CE 1805-1869) Scottish physical chemist, reports on the properties of the water of crystallization in hydrated salts, and also obtains definite compounds of salts and alcohol, the "alcoholates", the analogs of the hydrates. (make clearer, with diagrams)
| (Andersonian Institution) Edinburgh, Scotland |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 3028) Auguste Laurent (lOroN) (CE 1807-1853), French chemist, extends the work of Dumas (who Laurent works under), of chlorine-hydrogen substitution and formulates his "nucleus" theory of molecules.
Dumas had expressed his results in terms of the then-dominant theory (by Berzelius) of electrochemical dualism, in which combination is thought to be due to attraction between an electropositive component (the "radical") and an electronegative component (in this case, chlorine). Radicals were seen as existing as stable units within organic substances.
Laurent examines chlorine substitution further, particularly in the case of naphthalene, whose substitution derivatives he investigates between 1830 and 1835. Laurent rejects the stable hydrocarbon radicals of Dumas, and sees substitution as involving the successive replacement of hydrogen by chlorine in the hydrocarbon "nucleus" of the molecule. Therefore, the fundamental nucleus naphthalene, C10H8 in modern notation, yields the seven derived nuclei C10H7Cl, C10H6Cl2, ..., and C10HCl7, as well as (the substitution of other atoms and molecules such as) C10H7Br, C10H7NO2, and C10H6(NO2)2, and others.
Laurent generalizes that all organic (that is carbon based) compounds can be understood as derivatives of hydrocarbons. (is this still accepted?)
This work provides evidence against Berzelius' view that all atoms can be separated as positive and negative, by showing, (as Dumas had,) that a supposedly positive charged Hydrogen atom can be replaced with a supposedly negative chlorine atom with almost no change in properties. This unpopular view is thought to be why Laurent could not find employment in Paris in 1846.
Laurent believes that compounds are built around certain atomic groupings and that electric charge has nothing to do with atomic groupings. Laurent groups organic compounds according to the characteristic groupings of atoms within the molecule.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this work helps to bring about the downfall of the theory of electrochemical combination in organic molecules, and Asimov comments that Laurent's view ultimately wins over Berzelius'. I think the current view of atomic combination based on stable valence is similar to Berzelius' view of opposite electrical attraction.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 3226) Joseph Montigny develops the mitrailleuse gun.
The mitrailleuse is also a multibarreled weapon, but uses a loading plate that contains a cartridge for each of its 25 barrels. The barrels and the loading plate remain fixed, and a mechanism (operated by a crank) strikes individual firing pins simultaneously or in succession. As used in the French army, the mitrailleuse fires 11-millimetre Chassepot rifle ammunition. The mitrailleuse weighs more than 2,000 pounds and is mounted on a wheeled carriage. The mitrailleuse is usually fired with all barrels discharging at once. The mitrailleuse is used by French people in the Franco-German War.
| Belgium |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 3300) (Baron) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist describes a silvering process in which silver is deposited by the chemical reduction of silver nitrate solution. This process leads to the modern process of glass silvering for magnifying mirrors.
Liebig notices that aldehydes reduce silver salts to metallic silver, and Liebig recommends this as a test for aldehydes.
| (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 3781) "Comptes rendus" of the Academy of Sciences is created, which is an important source for the diffusion of French and foreign scientific works. Comptes Rendus is started due to the influence of François Arago (CE 1786-1853).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 3896) Agostino Maria Bassi (CE 1773-1856) reports his discovery of the microscopic parasitic fungus that causes muscardine, the silkworm disease. Bassi demonstrates that the disease is contagious and that the microscopic fungus is spread among the silkworms by contact and infected food.
Bassi precedes both Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch in formulating a germ theory of disease.
Bassi reports his experiments and conclusions in "Del mal del segno..." (1835-1836).
| Lodi, Italy (verify) |
165 YBN
[1835 AD]
| 5993) Frédéric François Chopin (CE 1810-1849) Polish-French composer and pianist, composes his famous "Fantaisie-Impromptu" in C-sharp minor Opus 66 (published after his death). (verify)
| Paris, France |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2579) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), notes the protein-digesting power of pancreatic extracts.
| (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2605) Christian Jürgensen Thomsen (CE 1788-1865), Danish archaeologist, divides early history into the Stone Age, the Bronze Age, and the Iron Age based on the predominant tools from different periods.
This division agrees with the suggestion of Lucretius (BCE 95-55) (which shows how science fell dramatically under Christianity).
This model, the three-age system, has formed the basic chronological scheme used in (prehistory or prewritten history?) studies to the present day.
From 1816-1865 Thomsen is the curator of the National Museum of Denmark and arrives at his nomenclature in the course of classifying and arranging the museum's large collection of Scandinavian artifacts. Thomsen's scheme, based on 20 years of work, is published in "Ledetraad til nordisk Oldkyndighed" (1836, "A Guide to Northern Antiquities").
| Copenhagen, Denmark |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2670) Carl August von Steinheil (CE 1801-1870) makes the first telegraph that writes using the design from Gauss and Weber's telegraph.
Small needles are deflected and cause a dot of ink to be printed on a paper strip driven by a clock. Steinheil develops a telegraphic code for letter and numbers and achieves a transmission speed of 40 letters or numbers a minute.
| Göttingen, Germany |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2703) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) builds a "Faraday cage", an enclosure or mesh cage built of conducting material, which blocks out external static electric fields. An external static electric field will cause the electrical charges within the conducting material to redistribute themselves and in this way cancel the field's effects in the cage's interior.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2780) Johann Heinrich Mädler (meDlR) (CE 1794-1874), German astronomer (with Wilhelm Beer (CE 1797-1850)) publish "Mappa Selenographica", (4 vol., 1834-36), the most complete map of the Moon of the time.
In 1837, the "Mappa Selenographica" is accompanied by a volume containing (telescopic micrometer) measurements of the diameters of 148 craters and the elevations of 830 mountains on the Moon's surface.
With the help of Mädler, Beer spends 600 nights observing the moon, locating the principle features with great accuracy, measuring the heights of a thousand mountains with the technique of Galileo, by measuring the length of their shadows, finding four of the lunar mountains over 20,000 feet above the surrounding plains. Through 8 years of observations, no change is ever detected, which is evidence that the moon is dead and static.
Beer speculates about the usefulness of an astronomical observatory on the earth moon.
(Are these mountains only the result of meteor impact or are there plate tectonics?)
| Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2813) The inductor, insulated wire wound in helical coils, usually around an iron core, is often used in a transformer. A transformer is two coils with different lengths of wire positioned next to each other, a primary coil connected in which electric current flows, and a secondary coil in which which a current (and voltage) are then induced. Using more coils of wire on the secondary coil than on the primary coil will create a higher voltage in the secondary coil, while using less coils results in a lower voltage. In this way a voltage can be raised or lowered.
This invention will allow much higher voltages than possible with a voltaic pile to be obtained. This coil can reach an estimated 600,000 volts, the highest voltage created at the time, far above any voltage that can be generated with a voltaic pile.
Callan is influenced by the work of his friend William Sturgeon (1783-1850) who invented the first electromagnet in 1825, and by the work of Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry with the induction coil. Callan develops his first induction coil in 1836, taking a horseshoe shaped iron bar and winding it with thin insulated wire and then winding thick insulated wire over the windings of the thinner wire. Callan finds that when a current sent by battery through a "primary" coil (with a small number of turns of thick copper wire around a soft-iron core) is interrupted, a high voltage current was produced in an unconnected "secondary" coil (a large number of turns of fine wire). Callan's autotransformer is similar to that of Charles Grafton Page (CE 1812-1868) except that Callan used wires of different sizes in the windings.
Callan's induction coil also uses an interrupter that consists of a rocking wire that repeatedly dipped into a small cup of mercury (similar to Page (and Henry's motor)). Because of the action of the interrupter, which can make and break the current going into the coil, Callan calls this device the "repeater". This is an early transformer. Callan induces a high voltage in the second wire, starting with a low voltage in the adjacent first wire. And the faster Callan interrupts the current, the bigger the spark. In 1837 Callan produces this giant induction machine: using a mechanism from a clock to interrupt the current 20 times a second, which generates 15-inch sparks, an estimated 600,000 volts and the largest artificial bolt of electricity then seen.
This invention is often wrongly attributed to a German-born Parisian instrument maker, Heinrich Ruhmkorff (1803-1877). Ruhmkorff's coils will be used by W. R. Groves, John P. Gassiot, and Julius Plücker.
A variation of this induction coil will be used in the Crookes tube by Roentgen to identify light with X-ray frequencies. So as Leyden jars are used to kill chickens by Franklin and others, so high voltage will find another application as a weapon inducing genetic mutation by releasing photons with X-ray frequency.
| Maynooth, Ireland |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2852) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist finds that Chevreul's 'ethal' is "cetyl alcohol" (more) and this leads Dumas to create the idea of a series of compounds of the same type. This idea is formalized into the concept of a homologous series by Charles Gerhardt.
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2863) Edmund Davy (CE 1785-1857), English chemist, discovers acetylene, a flammable gas.
Acetylene (also called Ethyne), is the simplest and best-known member of the hydrocarbon series containing one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked by triple bonds, called the acetylenic series, or alkynes. Acetylene is a colorless, inflammable gas widely used as a fuel in oxyacetylene welding and cutting of metals and as raw material in the synthesis of many organic chemicals and plastics.
The combustion of acetylene produces a large amount of heat, and, in a properly designed torch, the oxyacetylene flame attains the highest flame temperature (about 6,000° F, or 3,300° C) of any known mixture of combustible gases.
Edmund Davy discovers a gas which he recognises as "a new carburet of hydrogen". It is an accidental discovery while attempting to isolate potassium metal. By heating potassium carbonate with carbon at very high temperatures, Davy produces a residue of what is now known as potassium carbide, (K2C2), which reacts with water to release the new gas. (A similar reaction between calcium carbide and water is widely used for the manufacture of acetylene.)
This gas is forgotten until Marcellin Berthelot rediscovers this hydrocarbon compound in 1860, and gives the gas the name "acetylene".
| (Royal Dublin Society) Dublin, Ireland (presumably) |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2867) Édouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte Lartet (loRTA) (CE 1801-1871), French paleontologist discovers the bones of Pliopithecus, the ancestor of the gibbon.
| Auch?, France |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 2926) John Ericsson (CE 1803-1889), Swedish-American inventor, invents a screw propeller which replaces the paddle wheel.
John Ericsson (CE 1803-1889), Swedish-American inventor invents a screw propeller for propulsion in steam powered ships, which replaces the paddle wheel. The screw propeller is less vulnerable than the paddle wheel, and so steam propulsion is applied for the first time in war ships.
In 1841, Captain Robert F. Stockton, has Ericsson design the USS Princeton, the first screw‐propelled naval steamer. All of its propulsion machinery is below the waterline, safe from enemy shot.
| London, England (presumably) |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 3070) Schwann prepares a precipitate using mercuric chloride that proves to be the active molecule, which he calls "pepsin" from the Greek word meaning "to digest". At the time this is called a "ferment", but is now called an enzyme.
At Müller's suggestion, Schwann also performs researches on muscle contraction and discovers striated muscles in the upper portion of the esophagus. Schwann also identifies the myelin sheath covering peripheral axons of nerve cells, now named schwann cells, the sheath of schwann, or neurilemma cells.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 3071) Schwann examines the question of spontaneous generation, which he greatly helps to disprove, and in the course of his experiments discovers the organic nature of yeast.
Between 1834 and 1838 (at the University of Berlin) Schwann undertakes a series of experiments designed to settle the question of the truth or falsity of the concept of spontaneous generation. Schwann exposes sterilized (boiled) broth to heated air in a glass tube only with the result that no micro-organisms are detectable and no chemical change (putre-faction) occurs in the broth. From this Schwann is convinced that the idea of spontaneous generation is false. Schwann's sugar fermentation studies of 1836 also lead to this discovery that yeast originates the chemical process of fermentation.
In 1838, Schwann finds that yeast is made of tiny plantlike organisms and correctly holds that fermentation of sugar and starch is the result of a life process. This view is ridiculed by Berzelius, Wöhler, and Liebig. Pasteur will establish that Schwann is correct.
(state publication)
According to the Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Schwann splits from the teaching of Joannes Müller by abandoning the notion of vital force instead forcusing on the the study of molecular mechanisms. The work of Schwann's successors in Berlin, du Bois-Reymond and Helmholtz make this distinction clear. (This demystification of living objects leads to the mechanical view of the brain which stimulates the work of Pupin {who studied under Helmholtz} in seeing the images produced by brains.)
| (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium (verify) |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 3590) Edward Davy (CE 1806-1885) develops the electromagnetic repeater (he calls "electric renewer"), which consists of a relay to pick up and magnify electrical signals.
| London, England (presumably) |
164 YBN
[1836 AD]
| 3897) Alfred Donné (CE 1801-1878) describes the protist Trichomonas Vaginae.
Interesting that Trichomonas is distinguished from similar looking male sperm cells because of its larger head and smaller flagellum. (It shows how closely related sperm and therefore humans are to protists. In some sense, humans are protists that grow large appendages.)
| (Charite Hospital) Paris, France |
163 YBN
[06/12/1837 AD]
| 2647) The British inventors Sir William Fothergill Cooke and Sir Charles Wheatstone applies for a patent on a telegraph system that uses six wires and (moves) (actuates) five needle pointers attached to five (galvanoscopes) (amp-meters) at the receiver. If currents are sent through the proper wires, the needles are made to point to specific letters and numbers on their mounting plate.
George Wilhelm Muncke (1772-1847) professor of physics at Heidelberg University saw a demonstration of Shilling's needle telegraph at a congress of the Physical Society in Frankfurt in 1835, and had Valentin Albert, a mechanic in Frankfurt produces a true copy of Schilling's five needle telegraph which Muncke uses for his lectures. Cooke attended a lecture by Muncke and together with Charles Wheatstone builds an improved version of Schilling's telegraph and obtains a patent on it.
In addition Wheatstone has a long visit from Henry (and may learn about the relay from Henry (a device which makes sending long distance signals possible)).
(Later in this year), in conjunction with the new London and Birmingham Railway Company, Cooke and Wheatstone install a demonstration line about one mile long. Improvements rapidly follow and, with the needs of the railroads providing the impetus and finance, by 1852 more than 4000 miles of telegraph (wire) lines are in operation throughout Britain.
| England (presumably) (more specific) |
163 YBN
[07/??/1837 AD]
| 3995) Charles Grafton Page (CE 1812-1868) observes that an iron bar can emit sounds when rapidly magnetised and demagnetised (by electric current), and that these sounds correspond to the number of currents which produce them. This is the principle behind the electric speaker.
This finding is published as "The Production of Galvanic Music" in the American Science Journal, it reads: "The following experiment was communicated by Dr. C. G. Page of Salem, Mass., in a recent letter to the editor. From the well known action upon masses of matter, when one of those masses is a magnet, and the other some conducting substance, transmitting a galvanic current, it might have been safely inferred (a priori,) that if this action were prevented by having both bodies permanently fixed, a molecular derangement would occur, whenever such a reciprocal action should be established or destroyed. This condition is fully proved by the following singular experiment. A long copper wire covered with cotton was wound tightly into a flat spiral. After making forty turns, the whole was firmly fixed by a smearing of common cement, and mounted vertically between two upright supports. The ends of the wire were then brought down into mercury cups, which were connected by copper wires with the cups on the battery, which was a single pair of zinc and lead plates, excited by sulphate of copper. When one of the connecting wires was lifted from its cup a bright spark and loud snap were produced. When one or both poles of a large horse shoe magnet, are brought by the side or put astride the spiral, but not touching it, a distinct ringing is heard in the magnet, as often as the battery connexion with the spiral is made or broken by one of the wires. ...".
The speaker part of the first telephone of Philip Reiss are based on this vibrating principle. The use of electricity to produce sound dates back at least to Andrew Gordon's electric chimes first reported in 1745.
| Salem, Massachusetts, USA |
163 YBN
[10/17/1837 AD]
| 4008) Moritz Herman von Jacobi (CE 1801-1874) invents the process of galvanoplasty (also called electrotyping), in which successive layers of gutta-percha are applied to a stone, such as a petrified fossil fish, so that a mold is obtained, which is then submitted to the action of a galvanic battery and quickly covered with coatings of copper, forming a plate on which all the marks of the fish are reproduced in relief, and which, when printed gives a result on the paper identical with the object itself.
| St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
163 YBN
[11/16/1837 AD]
| 3663) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) introduces the specific inductive capacity of insulators.
Davy, in his explanation of the voltaic pile had supposed that at first before chemical decompositions take place, the liquid plays a part analogous to that of the glass in a Leyden jar, and that in this is involved an electric polarization of the liquid molecules. This hypothesis is now developed by Faraday.
Cavendish had discovered specific inductive capacity long before but his papers are still unpublished at the time.
Historian Edmund Taylor Whittaker tells the story like this: "In the interval between Faraday's earlier and later papers on the cell, some important results on the same subject were published by Frederic Daniell (b. 1790, d. 1845), Professor of Chemistry in King's College, London. Daniell showed that when a current is passed through a solution of a salt in water, the ions which carry the current are those derived from the salt, and not the oxygen and hydrogen ions derived from the water; this follows since a current divides itself between different mixed electrolytes according to the difficulty of decomposing each, and it is known that pure water can be electrolysed only with great difficulty. Daniell further showed that the ions arising from (say) sodium sulphate are not represented by Na2O and S03 but by Na and S04; and that in such a case as this, sulphuric acid is formed at the anode and soda at the cathode by secondary action, giving rise to the observed evolution of oxygen and hydrogen respectively at these terminals. The researches of Faraday on the decomposition of chemical compounds placed between electrodes maintained at different potentials led him in 1837 to reflect on the behaviour of such substances as oil of turpentine or sulphur, when placed in the same situation. These bodies do not conduct electricity, and are not decomposed; but if the metallic faces of a condenser are maintained at a definite potential difference, and if the space between them is occupied by one of these insulating substances, it is found that the charge on either face depends on the nature of the insulating substance. If for any particular insulator the charge has a value ε times the value which it would have if the intervening body were air, the number ε may be regarded as a measure of the influence which the insulator exerts on the propagation of electrostatic action through it: it was called by Faraday the specific inductive capacity of the insulator. The discovery of this property of insulating substances or dielectrics raised the question as to whether it could be harmonized with the old ideas of electrostatic action. Consider, for example, the force of attraction or repulsion between two small electrically-charged bodies. So long as they are in air, the force is proportional to the inverse square of the distance; but if the medium in which they are immersed be partly changed-e.g., if a globe of sulphur be inserted in the intervening space - this law is no longer valid: the change in the dielectric affects the distribution of electric intensity throughout the entire field. The problem could be satisfactorily solved only by forming a physical conception of the action of dielectrics: and such a conception Faraday now put forward."
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2435) Amedeo Avogadro (oVOGoDrO) (CE 1776-1856) publishes a four-volume work "Fisica de' corpi ponderabili, ossia trattato della constituzione generale de' corpi" (1837-1841).
This book contributes to an understanding of the properties and reactions of the new and "changerous" element fluorine. This book influences Michael Faraday.
| Turin, Italy (presumably) |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2521) Siméon-Denis Poisson (PWoSON) (CE 1781-1840) creates the "Poisson distribution" which deals with events that are themselves improbable but that take place because of the large number of chances for them to occur (like automobile deaths).
The Poisson distribution appears for the first and only time in Poisson's "Recherches sur la probabilité des jugements en matiére criminelle et en matiére civile" (1837, "Research on the Probability of Criminal and Civil Verdicts").
| Paris, France |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2580) Neuron cells seen. (find more sources)
Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), identifies large nerve cells (neurons) with many branching extensions (dendrites) found in the cortex of the cerebellum of the brain now called Purkinje cells.
Purkinje obtained an achromatic compound microscope in 1832, and began examining nervous tissue and other biological samples. Purkinje was the first person to use a microtome (an instrument that is used to cut a specimen, as of organic tissue, into thin sections for microscopic examination) to prepare thin sections of nervous tissue for examination under the microscope.
Pukinje cells are located in the cerebellum and because these cells are among the largest in the vertebrate brain, they are the first neurons to be identified.
Purkinje presents this image (see image 1) at the Congress of Physicians and Scientists in Prague, and gives this description: " Corpuscles surrounding the yellow substance {editor: the junction between gray and white matter} in large numbers, are seen everywhere in rows in the laminae of the cerebellum. Each of these corpuscles faces the inside {ed: of the organ}, with the blunt, roundish endings towards the yellow substance, and it displays distinctly in its body the central nucleus together with its corona; the tail-like ending faces the outside, and, by means of two processes, mostly disappears into the gray matter which extends close to the outer surface which is surrounded by the pia mater.". Purkinje’s speculates on the functions of these cells writing: "With reference to the importance of the corpuscles...they are probably central structures...because of their whole organization in three concentric circles {ed: i.e. cytoplasm, nuclear membrane and nucleolus} which may be related to the elementary brain and nerve fibres...as centres of force are related to the conduction pathways of force, or like the ganglia to the nerves of the ganglion, or like the brain substance to the spinal cord and cranial nerves. This means they would be collectors, generators and distributors of the neural organ.". (Purkinje uses the term "ganglia"? Who had identified and named the ganglion?)
(State original work, and quote first paragraph)
The seeing of a neuron may be an important event linked to the sending of images and specific isolated muscle movements and sensory stimulations - such as making a person feel or smell a sensation. It is possible that sending images and sounds to neurons did not require the understanding of the existence of individual cells that the nerves are composed of - for example, people may have just found that sending an image in a certain frequency causes the image to be seen, and the same for sounds - they only needed to find the response frequencies of some general areas in the brain. Isolating some 3 dimensional location in a brain may require the invention of the maser possibly - to narrowly focus a beam of photons onto one point, although perhaps a lens could be used. That 1837 is so far after 1810 coupled with Ampere's and the other evidence of muscle moving suggestion before 1827 implies that either neurons were seen earlier and this is simply the first published record, or that seeing and knowledge of neurons is not necessary to remotely moving muscles.
| (University of Bresslau) Bresslau, Prussia (now: Wroclaw, Poland)|Delivered before the Congress of Physicians and Scientists in Prague |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2602) Jacques Boucher de Crévecoeur de Perthes (BUsA Du KreVKUR Du PeRT) (CE 1788-1868), French archaeologist, digs up flint hand axes and other stone tools, some tools embedded with the bones of extinct mammals near Abbeville, which from their position in the strata, gravels deposited during the Pleistocene Epoch, or Ice Age (ended around 10,000 years before now) can only be many thousands of years old, like those found years before by Frere.
In 1838 the tools Boucher de Perthes presents before the scientific society of Abbeville are met with disbelief, and Perthes' monograph on primitive toolmaking (1846) is ignored, because many people still believe that 4004 BC is the year of the creation.
| Abbeville, France |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2626) Marshall Hall (CE 1790-1857) provides a scientific explanation of reflex action in his "On the Functions of the Medulla Oblongata and Medulla Spinalis, and on the Excito-motory System of Nerves" (1837).
Hall discovers that a headless newt moves when the newt's skin is pricked which leads to a series of experiments that are summarized in this book.
| London, England (presumably) |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2630) John Frederic Daniell (CE 1790-1845) invents the Daniell cell, a battery that yields a constant current over a longer time than the batteries of Volta or Sturgeon. Daniell makes his battery of copper and zinc (this is the same as Volta and Sturgeon, how is this battery different?) This is the first reliable source of electric current.
In the Daniell cell a zinc rod is immersed in a dilute solution of sulfuric acid contained in a porous pot, which stands in a solution of copper sulfate surrounded by copper. Hydrogen (which zinc replaces in the sulfuric acid passes through the porous pot and) reacts with the copper sulfate. The porous pot prevents the two electrolytes from mixing, and at the positive (copper) electrode, copper is deposited from the copper sulfate.
| London, England (presumably) |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2646) Samuel Morse (CE 1791-1872) is granted a patent in the USA for an electromagnetic telegraph.
Morse's original transmitter uses a device called a portarule, which uses a molded type with built-in dots and dashes. The type can be moved through a mechanism so that the dots and dashes make and break the contact between the battery and the wire to the receiver. The receiver, or register, embosses the dots and dashes on an unwinding strip of paper that passes under a stylus. The stylus is (moved) (actuated) by an electromagnet turned on and off by the signals from the transmitter.
Morse forms a partnership with Alfred Vail, who is a clever mechanic and is credited with many contributions to the Morse system. Among them are the replacement of the portarule transmitter by a simple make-and-break key, the refinement of the Morse Code so that the shortest code sequences are assigned to the most frequently occurring letters, and the improvement of the mechanical design of all the system components.
This and the electric telegraph invented by William Cooke and Charles Wheatstone appear at almost the same time.
| New York City, New York, USA |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2765) Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (sTrUVu) (CE 1793-1864), German-Russian astronomer publishes "Stellarum Duplicium Mensurae Micrometricae" (1837, "Micrometric Measurement of Double Stars"), a catalog of 3,112 double stars three-fourths of which are previously unknown. Struve uses a refracting telescope with an achromatic objective lens of 24 cm (9.6 inches) (diameter), at that time the largest ever built. This book is a classic of binary-star astronomy. (Does Struve directly observe the two stars? Is that possible with only a 10 inch telescope lens?)
From November 1824 to February 1827, Struve spends 320 hours in the course of 138 nights, observing roughly 400 stars per hour, for a total of 120,000 stars, of which 2,200 are doubles.
This book proves that double stars are not exceptional and that star systems are governed by the laws of gravity.
| Pulkovo, Russia |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 2777) William Whewell (HYUuL) (CE 1794-1866), English scholar publishes "History of the Inductive Sciences" (3 vol., 1837). (Note this is not about electrical induction but logical induction.)
In volume 2, Whewell talks about "Inflexion" writing: "The fringes of shadows were one of the most curious and noted of such classes of facts. These were first remarked by Grimaldi1 (1665), and referred by him to a property of light which he called Diffraction. When shadows are made in a dark room, by light admitted through a very small hole, these appearances are very conspicuous and beautiful. Hooke, in 1672, communicated similar observations to the Royal Society, as "a new property of light not mentioned by any optical writer before;" by which we see that he had not heard of Grimaldi's experiments. Newton, in his Opticks, treats of the same phenomena, which he ascribes to the inflexion of the rays of light. He asks (Qu. 3), 'Are not the rays of light, in passing by the edges and sides of bodies, bent several times backward and forward with a motion like that of an eel? And do not the three fringes of colored light in shadows arise from three such bendings?' It is remarkable that Newton should not have noticed, that it is impossible, in this way, to account for the facts, or even to express their laws; since the light which produces the fringes must, on this theory, be propagated, even after it leaves the neighborhood of the opake body, in curves, and not in straight lines. Accordingly, all who have taken up Newton's notion of inflexion, have inevitably failed in giving anything like an intelligible and coherent character to these phenomena. This is, for example, the case with Mr. (now Lord) Brougham's attempts in the Philosophical Transactions for 1796. The same may be said of other experimenters, as Mairan and DuFour, who attempted to explain the facts by supposing an atmosphere about the opake body. Several authors, as Maraldi, and Comparetti, repeated or varied these experiments in different ways.".
Whewell is the first to use the terms "scientist" and "physicist". (chronology) (Whewell gives a name to those involved in the rising phenomenon of scientific research. Now there needs to be a name for the believer not in the theories of religions but those of science, which I would call either a "sciencer", "sciencian", simply "truther", or "scientist" as one who believes in the philosophy of science, not necessarily an expert or person immersed in scientific research.) Whewell invents an anemometer for measuring direction and pressure of the winds.
| Cambridge, England |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 3029) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, formulates the theory of evolution by natural selection in 1837-39, after returning from a voyage around the world aboard HMS Beagle (1831-1836), but not until 20 years pass will this bold theory be fully announced to the public in "On the Origin of Species" (1859).
Darwin writes in his "Notebook on Transmutation of Species" (begun 1837) that descent from a common ancestor would explain the similarity of certain bones across species; similarity of embryos; useless organs, as opposed to random distribution of forms from the entire field of possibilities.
Darwin had taken Charles Lyell's "Principles of Geology" (1830) with him on the Beagle. In this work Lyell challenges the popular theory in geology of catastrophism.
Darwin reads Malthus' "Essay on the Principle of Population" in September 1838 which influences Darwin's views of evolution. Malthus had said that there would always be too many mouths to feed and so population (is limited by) food production, and so charity is useless. Darwin realizes that a population explosions would lead to a struggle for resources and that the ensuing competition would weed out the unfit. Darwin calls this modified Malthusian mechanism "natural selection".
Darwin views life as a branching tree as opposed to separated lines. (see tree image)
Darwin takes an interest in the development of fourteen species of finches on the Galápagos islands off the coast of Ecuador and how these birds are different from the mainland species and from each other. Darwin is aware of a primitive version of evolution advanced by Empedocles (who stated that people descended from fish). Darwin's method of natural selection is different than Lamarck's method of acquired characteristics. Lamarck believed that giraffes stretched their necks for food on the tree tops and so their necks became longer, but Darwin believes that some giraffes are born with longer necks and so can reach food on the tops of trees more than others, and so they are therefore the giraffes that survive and reproduce. The Lamarck method does not explain the splotched coats of giraffes, since giraffes could not possibly be trying to have spots, but Darwin's theory explains this easily by showing that those giraffes that are born with spots on their coats are more likely to blend into the forest and therefore not be seen by predators and live longer with a better chance to leave offspring. One criticism of the theory of evolution is that traits must be inherited for natural selection to work. Mendel will show this to be true within 10 years, but his work will go unrecognized until De Vries identifies it.
| London, England (presumably) |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 3055) (Sir) Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (CE 1810-1895), English archaeologist publishes a translation of the first two paragraphs of the Old Persian text in the inscription of Darius I the Great at Behistun, Iran.
The Behistun Inscription is a trilingual cuneiform inscription created by Darius I the Great at Behistun, Iran made in 500 BCE in the Old Persian, Assyrian and Elamitic (also known as Susian, the Iranian language of Elam) languages. The inscription is placed on a cliffside by Darius I, ruler of a vast Persian Empire, which describes the circumstances of how he gained the throne.
The decipherment of this cuneiform text is the key to all cuneiform script and opens to scholars the study of the written works of ancient Mesopotamia. The inscription in Old Persian, in Susian (the Iranian language of Elam), and in Assyrian is chiseled on the face of a mountainous rock c.300 ft (90 m) above the ground at Behistun, Persia (modern Western Iran). A bas-relief (a low relief, (carved set of pictures) that projects very little from the background) depicting Darius I with a group of captive chiefs is carved together with the inscription. Although the rock is known in ancient times (Diodorus attributes the carvings to Semiramis), it is not until 1835 that Sir Henry Rawlinson scales the rock and copies the inscriptions.
After two years of work, in 1837, Rawlinson published his translations of the first two paragraphs of the inscription (1837).
| Behistun, (Persia now) Iran (and England) |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 3056) (Sir) Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (CE 1810-1895), English archaeologist publishes "Persian Cuneiform Inscription at Behistun" (1846–51) which contains a complete translation (of the Old Persian text of the Behistun Inscription of Darius), in addition to analysis of the grammar, and notes.
The Behistun Inscription is a trilingual cuneiform inscription created by Darius I the Great at Behistun, Iran made in 500 BCE in the Old Persian, Assyrian and Elamitic (also known as Susian, the Iranian language of Elam) languages. The inscription is placed on a cliffside by Darius I, ruler of a vast Persian Empire, which describes the circumstances of how he gained the throne.
With other scholars Rawlinson succeeds in deciphering the other (Elamite and Babylonian) cuneiform script by 1857(see ). This achievement opens up the history of ancient Persia, Babylonia, Assyria and much of recorded history.
Rawlinson publishes this in the "Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society" (1846).
This inscription is to cuneiform what the Rosetta Stone is to Egyptian hieroglyphs: the document most crucial in the decipherment of a previously lost script.
| Behistun, (Persia now) Iran (and England) |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 3998) J. W. Bailey, Professor of Chemistry at the US Military Academy at West Point reports that the legs muscles of grasshoppers work as a substitute for the frog legs preparation of Galvani. Bailey reports that the method of preparing is more simple, by simply removing a portion of the skin, and butting the leg between a piece of moisened zinc, and copper. The muscle contractions last for five or ten minutes after preparation. Bailey ends a paragraph with the initials "ESP" and "BOTM" which may be a hint about the secret of seeing and hearing thought, in addition to walking robots at this time.
| (US Military Academy) West Point, NY, USA |
163 YBN
[1837 AD]
| 6257) In 1837, Robert Davidson of Scotland appears to have been the builder of the first electric car, but it is not until the 1890s that electric cars were manufactured and sold in Europe and America.
| |
162 YBN
[02/22/1838 AD]
| 2885) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) experiments with passing current through gases in evacuated vessels.
Faraday relates that a larger spark is seen when a larger of two metal balls is negative, and describes a glow discharge that is favored in less dense (rarefied) air.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
162 YBN
[07/??/1838 AD]
| 3618) Carl August von Steinheil (CE 1801-1870) finds that the earth can be used to complete a long distance electric circuit, and so that a telegraph only needs a single wire, as long as both ends are grounded for a complete circuit.
Steinheil reports that Gauss had suggested that the metal rails of train tracks could be used as conductors for the electronic telegraph, however Steinheil finds that the earth is too great a conductor and so a current cannot be sent over long distances.
(Is there a problem when there are many currents flowing through the Earth, for example from many telegraph lines grounded?)
Steinheil writes
| (tested on railroad tracks from Nüremburg to Fürth) (Munich University) Munich, Germany |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2499) Gerardus Johannes Mulder publishes Berzelius' (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) term "protein".
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2500) Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) suggested the name "allotropy" for the occurrence of different forms of the same element.
Allotropy is the existence of a chemical element in two or more forms, which may differ in the arrangement of atoms in crystalline solids or in the occurrence of molecules that contain different numbers of atoms. (In a similar way), the existence of different crystalline forms of compounds is called polymorphism.
| Stokholm, Sweden (presumably) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2540) Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (CE 1784-1846), is the first to measure the parallax of a different star (and therefore the distance to a star). Bessel measures the parallax of the star 61 Cygni, a star barely visible to the naked eye and known to have a very large proper motion and therefore presumed to be very close compared to other stars. Parallax is the difference in the direction of an object as seen by two widely separated points; a measurement used to find the distance to an object. Bessel measures a tiny parallax by comparing the position of 61 Cygni, to two other more distant stars (state star names). Bessel shows that, after correcting for the proper motion, the star appears to move in an ellipse every year. This back and forth motion, is caused by the motion of the Earth around the Sun. Using this parallax, Bessel estimates that 61 Cygni is 35e12 miles away (km) (actual units measured?). The velocity of light is 186,282 miles/second , so this star is around 6 light years away. The size of the universe is therefore enlarged in the minds of people. Kepler had thought the entire sphere of stars to be .1 light year away, Newton had increased this to 2 light-years. This is the final confirmation of the moving earth first postulated by Aristarchos, and shows that the earth does move relative to the other stars, although they are so far away that their apparent change in position is very small.
| Königsberg, (Prussia now:) Germany |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2639) Alfred Vail replaces Samuel Morse's (CE 1791-1872) "V"'s producing signal sender, with a more simple lever-transmitter making and breaking the circuit when moved up and down. This will come to be known as the "Morse key". With this key, the telegraph receiver produces discrete dots and dashes of different lengths instead of the V's. Vail then creates the dots and dashes code which replaces Morse's code of numbers.
| New York City, New York, USA |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2753) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, invents the pilot (also called a cow-catcher), the metal frame attached to the front of locomotives that clears the tracks of obstacles.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2766) Friedrich Georg Wilhelm von Struve (sTrUVu) (CE 1793-1864), German-Russian astronomer measures the parallax of the star Vega. Parallax is the apparent change in position (of an object compared to a more distant object) when viewed from two widely separated points.
Struve chooses Vega, a bright star with a larger-than-normal proper motion and does measure a parallax which is, however, too high.
Friedrich Bessel was the first to detect steller parallax, working with 61 Cygni. This was closely followed by Thomas Henderson, working with Alpha Centuri, in 1839, and Struve is third, working with Vega, in 1840. At this point, the isolation of (this star) System (from the other neighboring star systems) is realized.
| Pulkovo, Russia |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2791) Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (IreNBRG) (CE 1795-1876), German naturalist, publishes "Die Infusionsthierchen als volkommene Organismen" (1838, "The Infusoria as Complete Organisms").
Although Antoni van Leeuwenhoek had discovered microorganisms, at the time they are still very poorly understood. Ehrenberg had studied the microorganisms in many different waters the River Spree, the Mediterranean, the Nile, the Red Sea, and the rivers of Russia and the Sudan and recognizes that although varied in form, there is an overall unity in the (form) of the microscopic organisms of these different waters which allows Ehrenberg to formulate an overall classification for them. Ehrenberg is impressed by the structural complexity of the protists, (known only) as "animalcules" or "Infusoria". Many scientists of the time believe that unicellular organisms have an "atom or monadlike" structure, but Ehrenberg demonstrates that their cosntruction is extremely complicated and that the microorganisms perform all the basic functions of higher organisms such as movement, feeding, excretion, reproduction. Ehrenberg's monograph stresses this interpretation that the microorganisms are complete organisms.
Ehrenberg puts forward the theory that all animals, from the smallest to largest, possess complete organ systems, such as muscles, sex organs, and stomachs. Ehrenberg thinks that this concept disproves both the theory of spontaneous generation and the validity of the traditional arrangement of animals in a simple-to-complex series.
Ehrenberg's establishment of a first classification for the Infusoria is a major step forward in biology.
| Berlin, Germany |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2799) Jean Léonard Marie Poiseuille (PWoZOEYu) (CE 1797-1869), French physician and physiologist formulates a mathematical expression for the flow rate for the laminar (nonturbulent) flow of fluids in circular tubes. Discovered independently by Gotthilf Hagen, a German hydraulic engineer, this relation is also known as the Hagen-Poiseuille equation.
(Perhaps this law is similar to Ohm's law?)
Interest in the circulation of the blood leads Poiseuille to conduct a series of experiments on the flow of liquids in narrow tubes. From these experiments Poiseuille determines an equation that states that the velocity of a liquid is determined by the viscosity of the fluid, the drop in pressure between the two tube ends, and the tube diameter and length.
The Hagen-Poiseuille law may be expressed in the following form (see image), where V is a volume of the liquid, poured in the time unit t, v the mean fluid velocity along the length of the tube (given in meters/second), x the direction of flow, R the internal radius of the tube (given in meters), Î"P the pressure difference between the two ends (given in mmHg), η the dynamic fluid viscosity (given in cPs, or centi-Poisseuille's), and L the total length of the tube in the x direction (given in meters). In standard fluid dynamics notation the equation is (see image). Where: Î"P is the pressure drop μ is the dynamic viscosity Q is the volumetric flow rate r is the radius d is the diameter Ï is the mathematical constant, approximately 3.1415.
Gotthilf Heinrich Ludwig Hagen (1797-1884) performed his experiments in 1839.
The velocity of a liquid depends on the viscosity of the liquid and the unit of viscosity is the poise, named for Poiseuille.
This equation can be successfully applied to blood flow in capillaries and veins, to air flow in lung alveoli, for the flow through a drinking straw or through a hypodermic needle.
| Paris, France (presumably) (Berlin, Germany for Hagen) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2814) Nicholas Joseph Callan (CE 1799-1864) uses an electric motor to drive a small trolley around his lab.
Callan constructs electric motors and may have built one of the Earth's first electric vehicles. Callan proposes using batteries instead of steam locomotives on the new railways. Callan later realises his batteries are not powerful enough. Another hundred years will pass before battery-powered trains invented by another Irishman, James Drumm, are used on Dublin railways.
| Maynooth, Ireland |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2815) Nicholas Joseph Callan (CE 1799-1864) describes an electrical generator that uses the Earth's magnetic field.
Also known as the self-exciting dynamo, Callan finds that by simply moving his electromagnet in Earth's magnetic field, he can produce electricity without a battery. In his words, Callan finds that "by moving with the hand some of the electromagnets, sparks are obtained from the wires coiled around them, even when the engine is no way connected to the voltaic battery". The effect was feeble so he does not pursue it, and the discovery is generally credited to Werner Siemens in 1866.
| Maynooth, Ireland |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2854) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist prepares trichloroacetic acid and shows that its properties are similar to those of the parent acetic acid (which supports Dumas' theory of substitution). This convinces Liebig but not Berzelius (of the truth of the theory of substitution).
The discovery of trichloroacetic acid by Jean-Baptiste Dumas in 1840 delivers a striking example to the slowly evolving theory of organic radicals and valences. The theory is against the beliefs of Jöns Jakob Berzelius, and starts a long dispute between Dumas and Berzelius.
Trichloroacetic acid (also known as trichloroethanoic acid) is an analogue of acetic acid in which the three hydrogen atoms of the methyl group have all been replaced by chlorine atoms. It is a strong acid, comparable to sulfuric acid.
Trichloroacetic acid is prepared by the reaction of chlorine with acetic acid in the presence of a suitable catalyst. CH3COOH + 3Cl2 → CCl3COOH + 3HCl
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2918) Gerardus Johannes Mulder (mOELDR) (CE 1802-1880), Dutch chemist uses the name "protein" for the nitrogenous constituents of all living tissue, to show that they are "of first importance".
Mulder works with "fibrin" (describe), egg albumin and gelatin. Mulder gets helpful correspondence from Berzelius. Mulder calculates that, albumin, contains 400 atoms of carbon, 620 atoms of hydrogen, 100 atoms of nitrogen, 120 atoms of oxygen, and a single atom of phosphorus and sulfur.
Mulder writes (translated) "The organic substances which is present in all constituents of the animal body, also as we shall soon see, in the plant kingdom, could be named protein from πρωτειος, primarius.".
Mulder also writes that (translated) "It appears that animals draw their most essential nutrient ingredients directly from the plant kingdom.".
| Rotterdam?, Netherlands (presumably) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 2934) Matthias Jakob Schleiden (slIDeN) (CE 1804-1881), German botanist theorizes that all plants are made of cells. Schwann will extend this concept to animals in the next year. Schleiden states that different parts of the plant organism are composed of cells or derivatives of cells in his "Contributions to Phytogenesis" (1838).
Schleiden recognizes the significance of the nucleus in the propagation of cells. The cell nucleus was discovered in 1831 by the Scottish botanist Robert Brown.
Schleiden also finds that certain fungi live on or within the roots of some plants. This relationship between fungi and plants, called mycorrhiza ("fungi roots"), has since been shown to be very common and extremely beneficial to both organisms.
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 3006) Johann von Lamont (lomoNT) (CE 1805-1879), Scottish-German astronomer, determines the mass of Uranus from observations of its satellites (Mena. Astron. Soc. xi. 51, 1838).
In addition to the mass of Uranus, Lamont determines the orbits of Saturn's satellites Enceladus and Tethys, and the periods of Uranus' satellites Ariel and Titan. (chronology, and separate each into records)
Lamont also measures nebulae and (star?) clusters. (chronology)
| (Royal Observatory) Bogenhausen, Germany |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 3067) Asa Gray (CE 1810-1888), US botanist with John Torrey, publish "Flora of North America", 2 vol. (1838–43). This work firmly establishes the new natural system of classification in American botany. Publication of the first volume makes John Torrey and Asa Gray the leading botanists of North America and brings them international attention.
| New York City, NY, USA |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 3157) Robert Remak (rAmoK or rAmaK?) (CE 1815-1865), German physician, shows that nerves are not hollow tubes, but are solid and flat, disproving an ancient myth, probably dating back to Alcmaeon of Croton.
Remak identifies the gray nonmedullated (or non-myelinated) nerve fibers, nerve cells with no myelin sheath that are part of the sympathetic nervous system.
People before this had described nerves as being filled with fluids, or airs.
Also in this year, Remak discovers nonmedullated (or non-myelinated) nerve fibers (1838). A nonmedullated nerve is a nerve fiber not covered by an insulating medullary (or myelin) sheath, and is therefore exposed to other tissue fluids and their respective electric potentials. In nonmedullated fibers, the impulse is relayed from point to contiguous point. Most of the nonmedullated fibers are within the substance of the central nervous system, and the distances between the cells are short. Remak notes that certain fibers of the nervous system, the sympathetic fibers, have a gray color as opposed to the more common white colored nerve fibers. These cells lack the myelin sheath that encloses other nerve fibers. In 1796, Franz Joseph Gall (GoL) (CE 1758-1828) had distinguished between gray and white matter in the brain and spinal cord. The sympathetic nervous system is the part of the autonomic nervous system originating in the thoracic (the chest) and lumbar (the part of the back and sides between the lowest ribs and the pelvis) regions of the spinal cord that in general inhibits or opposes the physiological effects of the parasympathetic nervous system, as in tending to reduce digestive secretions, speeding up the heart, and contracting blood vessels. (who first names autonomic, sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems?)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 3386) Compressed gas engine.
William Barnett improves the gas engine by compressing the mixture of gas and air in the motor cylinder before ignition and by a method of igniting the compressed charge.
To Barnett belongs the credit of being the first to realize clearly the great idea of compression before explosion in gas engines. In addition, Barnett provides a new solution to the problem of transferring a flame to the interior of a cylinder when the pressure is much in excess of that of the external air by using a hollow plug cock having a gas jet burning within the hollow part.
In Barnett's igniting cock, the mixture is fired by means of a hollow conical plug within which a flame is maintained. As this plug turns to the cylinder, the compressed charge is ignited, and the explosion puts out the flame, which is relighted by a constant external flame as the plug turns further round (see image).
(Presumably coal-gas.)
| ?, England |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 3509) German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (GoLu) (CE 1812-1910) identifies the inner C or "crepe" ring of Saturn.
| Berlin, Germany |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 3589) Edward Davy (CE 1806-1885) builds an electric dot printer (also known as an "electrochemical" or "chemical" telegraph").
Davy proposes a method of recording signals in the Morse code, using a method where a paper ribbon is soaked in a solution of iodide of potassium and a light contact spring made to press continuously on its surface as it is pulled forward by the mechanism. Then, a current is sent from the spring to the roller through the paper, a brown mark is made by the spring by the liberation of iodine.
Harrison Gray Dyar (CE 1805-1875) builds the earliest dot printer known, in 1827.
| London, England |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 6003) Frédéric François Chopin (CE 1810-1849) Polish-French composer and pianist, composes his famous "Funeral March".
(This sounds similar to the Imperial March of "Star Wars".)
| Paris, France (verify) |
162 YBN
[1838 AD]
| 6213) John Thomas Perceval, son of murdered Prime Minister of England Spencer Perceval, argues for laws that require consent for treatments performed on humans locked in psychiatric hospitals. Perceval's writing contain apparent hints and masked protests involving the, at the time, possibly 500 year secret of direct-to-brain windows.
Perceval was apparently, like all young people, initially excluded, had some kind of outburst or unpopular or unusual beliefs or claims, and was held in 2 psychiatric buildings for about 4 years. After being released Perceval published two books (1838,1840), and spent his life working to grant people locked in hospitals better protection against wrongful confinement and medical experiments; safeguards on invasive treatment without consent; abolition of private asylums; greater rights for patients; more say for patients in decisions about their treatment; a better class of attendants in asylums; freedom of correspondence for patients; and greater involvement of clergy in asylums.- Basic freedoms which are still not granted to modern people event today. I have lumped all my views into "consent-only health care"- people are still electrocuted involuntarily, held for years without any trial, without any charge, without any sentence, tied to tables with 4-point restraints (Perceval states this in his book too) with less room to move than a dog on a leash. Perceval later found a mate and they had 4 daughters together. Apparently Perceval was also later included, and a became a regular receiver of direct-to-brain windows, because like many classical English wordsmiths, he drops numerous hints in his writings. Or perhaps Perceval was always a receiver of d2b windows, or somehow figured it out as a lifelong excluded - either way - he clearly hints and uses double-meaning words to promote the "end the neuron lie" platform. For example: On 11/27/1846 Perceval writes in the Visitors' Book of Bethlem Hospital: "Amongst the most painful of these circumstances was the constant sight of heavy bars to my window, ...I think the Committee might safely remove these bars, and substitute windows with small sashes in iron frames-or adopt in some cases, the plan pursued in many private asylums, of having Venetian blinds to the windows. ...". Note the double meaning of "bars to my window" - like something barring the way to receiving direct-to-brain windows - even then in 1846 they were called "windows" - long before Windows 3.1 or X-Windows. Note also "blinds to the window" - those who don't get d2b windows are many times referred to as the "blind". "...I consider that society or the Legislature, who shut up patients not only for their own benefit ... but for the benefit of society as well . . . in a manner are compelled, in doing so, to violate the liberty of the subject...". We all recognize "shut up" from the modern Nazi movement - most clearly demonstrated by sources like Fox News. Here, notice again, "shut up" has multiple meanings - being locked up, but also shutting up about talking about direct-to-brain windows and the neuron secret- then at the ripe old age of perhaps 500 years. It's obvious that the owners of the neuron technology, want to preserve their monopoly on thought images, sounds and information- there is no possibility of shutting up your information circulating around their eyes- but plenty of chance of their info being shut off from your eyes. Also, the idea that the psych establishment is used to shut up or lessen the popularity of people with views contrary to those in power. Other hints are minor but "That he knew all my thoughts, ..." and "my necessities, were not once consulted, I may say, thought of." - note "I may say" - like he does or does not have permission to reveal some information. Later he writes "I cannot say ...".
| |
161 YBN
[01/09/1839 AD]
| 2617) Louis Jacques Mandé Daguerre (DoGAR) (CE 1789-1851), French artist and inventor, makes public his daguerreotype process, a process that reduces the time to make a photograph from 8 hours to 30 minutes.
| Paris, France |
161 YBN
[01/31/1839 AD]
| 2834) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, lowers the exposure time for his photographic process from an hour to a few minutes by discovering the phenomenon of the latent image.
In September 1840 Fox Talbot discovers the phenomenon of the latent image. It is said that this was a chance discovery, when Talbot attempts to re-sensitize some paper which failed to work in previous experiments; as the chemical is applied, an image, previously invisible, began to appear. This was a major breakthrough which leads to drastically lowered exposure times, from around one hour to 1-3 minutes. Talbot calls the improved version the "calotype" (from the Greek "Kalos", meaning beautiful) and on January 31, 1839 Talbot gives a paper to the Royal Society of London entitled "Some account of the Art of Photogenic drawing, or the process by which natural objects may be made to delineate themselves without the aid of the artist's pencil."
In "Note respecting a new kind of Sensitive Paper" (03/21/1839) Talbot describes his method of preparing the paper which "consists in washing it over with nitrate of silver, then with bromide of potassium, and afterwards again with nitrate of silver; drying it at the fire after each operation. This paper is very sensitive to the light of the clouds, and even to the feeblest daylight."
Talbot describes fully his faster process, which Talbot gives the name "Calotype" to, in a paper to the Royal Society entitled "An account of some recent improvements in Photography" read at the June 10, 1841 meeting and published in Proceedings of the Royal Society (v. 4 no. 48, 1841, pp. 312-316. Talbot describes preparing the paper: "Dissolve 100 grains of crystallized nitrate of silver in six ounces of distilled water. Wash the paper with this solution, with a soft brush, on one side, and put a mark on that side whereby to know it again. Dry the paper cautiously at a distant fire...When dry, or nearly so, dip it into a solution of iodide of potassium containing 500 grains of that salt dissolved in one pint of water, and let it stay two or three minutes in this solution. Then dip it into a vessel of water, dru it lightly with blotting-paper, and finish drying it at a fire ... All this is best done in the evening by candlelight. The paper so far prepared the author calls iodized paper, because it has a uniform pale yellow coating of iodide of silver....It may be kept for any length of time without spoiling ... if protected from light. ... shortly before the paper is wanted...take a sheet of the iodized paper and wash it with a liquid prepared in the following manner:- Dissolve 100 grains of crystallized nitrate of silver in two ounces of distilled water; add to this solution one-sixth of its volume of strong acetic acid. Let this mixture be called A. Make a saturate solution of crystallized gallic acid in cold distilled water. ... Call this solution B. When a sheet of paper is wanted for use, mix together the liquids A and B in equal volumes, but only mix a small quantity of them at a time, because the mixture does not keep long without spoiling. ... call this mixture the Gallo-nitrate of silver. Then take a sheet of iodized paper and wash it over with this gallo-nitrate of silver, with a soft brush, taking care to wash it on the side which has been previously marked. This operation should be performed by candlelight. Let the paper rest half a minute, and then dip it into water. Then dry it lightly with the blotting-paper, and ...cautiously at a fire... When dry, the paper is fit for use. The author has named the paper thus prepared Calotype paper, on account of its great utility in obtaining the pictures of objects with the camera obscura. Use of the Paper.- The Calotype paper is sensitive to light in an extraordinary degree...Take a piece of this paper, and having covered hald of it, expose the other half to daylight for the space of one second in dark cloudy weather in winter. This brief moment suffices to produce a strong impression upon the paper. But the impression is latent and invisible, and its existence would not be suspected by any one who was not forewarned of it by previous experiments. The method of causing the impression to become visible is extremely simple. It consists of washing the paper once more with the gallo-nitrate of silver...and warming it gently before the fire. In a few seconds the part of the paper upon which the light has acted begins to darken, and finally grows entirely black, while the other part of the paper retains its whiteness. Even a weaker impression than this may be brought out by repeating the wash of gallo-nitrate of silver and again warming the paper. On the other hand, a stronger impression does not require the warming of the paper, for a wash of the gallo-nitrate suffices to make it visible, without heat, in the course of a minute or two. ...When the paper is quite blank, as is generally the case, it is a highly curious and beautiful phenomenon to see the spontaneous commencement of the picture, first tracing out the stronger outlines, and then gradually filling up all the numerous and complicated details. The artist should watch the picture as it developed itself, and when in his judgement it has attained the greatest degree of strength and clearness, he should stop further progress by washing it with the fixing liquid. The fixing process.- To fix the picture, it should be first washed with water, then lightly dried with blotting paper, and then washed with a solution of bromide of potassium, containing 100 grains of that salt dissolved in eight or ten ounces of water. After a minute of two it should be again dipped in water and then finally dried. The picture is in this manner very strongly fixed, and with this great advantage, that it remains transparent, and that, therefore, there is no difficulty in obtaining a copy from it. The Calotype picture is a negative one, in which the lights of nature are represented by shades; but the copies are positive, having the lights conformable to nature. They also represent the objects in their natural position with respect to right and left. The copies may be made upon Calotype paper in a very short time, the invisible impressions being brough out in the way already described. But the author prefers to make the copies upon photographic paper prepared in the way which he originally described in a memoir read to the Royal Society in February 1839, and which is made by washing the best writing paper, first with a weak solution of common salt, and next with a solution of nitrate of silver. Although it takes a much longer time to obtain a copy upon this paper, yet when obtained, the tints appear more harmonious and pleasing to the eye; it requires in general from 3 minutes to 30 minutes of subshine, according to circumstances, to obtain a good copy on this sort of photographic paper. The copy should be washed and dried, and the fixing process...is the same as that already mentioned. The copies are made by placing the picture upon the photographic paper, with a board below and a sheet of glass above, and pressing the papers into close contact by means of screws or otherwise." (Perhaps it is not entirely clear, but my understanding is that the paper negative is placed against a sensitized paper, the two are fastened together as described, and then light is shown through the paper of the negative onto the sensitized paper. Talbot does not explicitly state that the light must pass through the back of the paper negative. Later a method is developed so that the silver salt can be dried on a glass plate and light more is more easily transmitted through a glass plate negative.)
Talbot patents his invention on February 8, 1841, an act which considerably slows the development of photography at the time. The patent (a separate one being taken out for France) applied to England and Wales. Talbot chooses not to extend his patent to Scotland, and this paves the way for some outstanding photographs to be produced in Edinburgh by Hill and Adamson.
Daguerre's process becomes more widespread because Daguerre makes his process freely available while Talbot charges a fee for anyone to use his, and secondly Daguerre's process produces much sharper image. (Ultimately, Daguerre's process will be more costly and time consuming than an exposing, developing a negative, exposing again and developing a positive photo, the process similar to that used by Talbot.)
A claim in 1854 that the Collodion process is also covered by his calotype patent is lost in court, and from then onwards, the faster and better collodion process is free for all to use and photography develops faster.
There is something unusual in the lack of information involved in the details of photography. Why have none of us ever learned these simple facts?
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
161 YBN
[01/??/1839 AD]
| 3103) Christian Friedrich Schönbein (sOENBIN) (CE 1799-1868), German-Swiss chemist, describes the basis of a hydrogen-oxygen (fuel cell) battery, the chemical union of hydrogen and oxygen in acidulated water caused by platinum.
The German/Swiss Christian Friedrich Schönbein publishes his article about the hydrogen-oxygen Fuel Cell in the "Philosophical Magazine" in January 1839. In the post-script to his article published also in the "Philosophical Magazine", February 1839, Sir Grove describes the hydrogen-oxygen-acid-platinum reaction to generate electricity. William Grove will build the first fuel cell in 1839. In 1842 Grove presents the Fuel Cell in all its details.
Schönbein describes the reaction of platinum with hydrogen and oxygen gases writing: "The chemical combination of oxygen and hydrogen in acidulated (or common) water is brought about by the presence of platina in the same manner as that metal determines the chemical union of gaseous oxygen and hydrogen." and "...platina being known to favour the union of hydrogen and oxygen, whilst gold and silver do not possess in any sensible degree that property, we are entitled to assert that the current in question is caused by the combination of hydrogen with (the) oxygen (contained dissolved in water) and not by contact."
(This is an interesting reaction, because clearly since other metals do not react, what is it about platinum that combines with oxygen or hydrogen? What other metals also cause this reaction? Does it relate to their ability to oxidize? There must be a chain reaction, which passes an electron through the platinum atoms, and which combines with hydrogen on the other side. The opposite would be platinum combines with hydrogen, the proton of hydrogen being passed in a chain reaction through the platinum to the oxygen where the proton bonds with oxygen to form water. Describe modern popular explanation of this reaction.)
| (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
161 YBN
[02/21/1839 AD]
| 2833) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, submits his paper "Some account of the art of photogenic drawing on his photographic methods" to the Royal Society.
In January 1839 Talbot was shocked to read an announcement by Arago and Daguerre claiming that Daguerre had developed a means of obtaining permanent images from a camera obscura. Talbot quickly moves to publicize his own work sending examples of his photographs to the Royal Institution in London less than a week after he hears of the French announcement, and writes to Arago claiming priority a couple of days later. At this time Talbot is not aware that Daguerre's process is entirely different. One of Arago's fellow-scientists replies that Daguerre had, in fact, devised a number of processes over fourteen years.
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
161 YBN
[02/??/1839 AD]
| 3100) (Sir) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist, builds a "gas battery" (the first "fuel cell"), which uses hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity.
Christian Friedrich Schönbein had described a hydrogen-oxygen-acid-platinum reaction, and Grove is the first to actually build a hydrogen-oxygen battery.
Grove arranges two platinum electrodes with one end of each immersed in a container of sulfuric acid and the other ends separately sealed in containers of oxygen and hydrogen, a constant electrical current flows in the wire between the electrodes.
The German/Swiss Christian Friedrich Schönbein describes the chemical union of hydrogen and oxygen in acidulated water by platinum (the basis of the fuel cell) in an article in the "Philosophical Magazine" in January 1839. In the post-script to his article published also in the "Philosophical Magazine", February 1839, Sir Grove indicates the possibility of the hydrogen-oxygen reaction to generate electricity.
The sealed containers hold water as well as the gases, and Grove notes that the water level rises in both tubes as the electric current flows.
In 1760, Giovanni Beccaria (CE 1716-1781), Italian physicist, was the first of record to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen gases using electricity created with a static generator. In 1785, Henry Cavendish (CE 1731-1810) shows that air is a mixture of gases by using static electricity electrolysis. In 1800, British scientists William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle had described the process of using electricity to decompose water into hydrogen and oxygen. But Grove reverses this by combining hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity and water is, which Grove describes as "a step further that any hitherto recorded.". Grove realizes that by combining several sets of these electrodes in a series circuit he might "effect the decomposition of water by means of its composition.". Grove accomplishes this with the device he names a "gas battery", which is the first fuel cell.
This cell oxidizes hydrogen, to produce electricity. This might cost less than the electric cells (batteries) that use more expensive metals such as zinc, lead and nickel.
Grove's gas battery has inconsistent cell performance. Grove searches for an electrolyte that can produce a more constant current. Grove also notes the potential commercially if hydrogen can replace coal and wood as electricity sources.
Christian Schönbein (1799 -1868) and Johann Poggendorff (1796 -1877) are among a number of scientists who debate the question of exactly how Grove's gas battery works. They question what causes current to flow between some substances but not others? Alessandro Volta had proposed "contact theory", that a physical contact between materials is how his 1799 battery works. A rival "chemical theory" supposed that a chemical reaction generates the electricity. Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (1853 -1932), will provide much of the theoretical understanding of how fuel cells operate. In 1893, Ostwald experimentally determines the interconnected roles of the various components of the fuel cell: electrodes, electrolyte, oxidizing and reducing agents, anions, and cations.
(see image) Oxygen and hydrogen in the tubes react in sulfuric acid solution to form water. This is the (electricity) producing chemical reaction. The electrons produced electrolyze water to oxygen and hydrogen in the upper tube that is actually used as a voltmeter (but why not electrolyze the water just created or the water in the tubes?).
This scheme is published by Grove in one of the first accounts of an operating fuel cell in Philosophical Magazine, Series 3, (1839), vol14, p127. Grove proves that this gas battery (fuel cell) works, but this invention will wait for more than 130 years to be put to use.
(Give first few paragraphs that describe results, and Grove theory that hydrogen and oxygen move through the wires.) Grove publishes a second report (see image) "On the Gas Voltaic Battery" in Philosophical Transactions (1843). In this paper Grove writes "Soon after my original publication i received a letter from Dr. Shoenbein, the substance of which has since appeared in print (Philosophical Magazine, March 1843, p105). Dr. Schoenbein there expresses an opinion, that in the gas battery oxygen does not immediately contribute to the production of current, but that it is produced by the combination of hydrogen with water. I have recently heard a similar opinion to that of Dr. Schoenbein expressed by other philosophers, but I must take liberty of dissenting from it and of adhering to that which I expressed in my original paper. ". Grove goes on to describe 30 gas cell experiments. In Experiment 28, Grove explains that hydrogen combines with oxygen from the air dissolved in the liquid, writing "In order farther to test the opinion expressed, p. 105, six cells of this battery were charged with pure hydrogen and dilute acid in the alternate tubes, When first charged they decomposed water freely, but after the circuit had been closed for a short time, to exhaust the oxygen of the atmospheric air in solution, they produced no voltaic effect; the whole series of six would not decompose iodide of potassium; when, however, a little air was allowed to enter any one of the tubes containing liquid, that single cell instantly decomposed the iodide..." One of the gas battery configurations used in Grove's experiments is seen here. "In figure 6, a battery of five cells ... is represented as when charged {filled} with oxygen and hydrogen, and having been for some time connected with the voltmeter (figure 7), the tubes of which are of the same size as those of the battery." These are labeled "o" and "h" in the drawing.
Grove describes experiment 1 writing: "ten cells charged to a given mark on the tube with dilute sulphuric acid, specific gravity 1.2, oxygen and hydrogen, were arranged in circuit with an interposed voltameter, as in figs. 6 and 7, and allowed to remain so for thirty-six hours. At the end of that time 2.1 cubic inches of mixed gas were evolved in the voltameter; the liquid had risen in each of the hydrogen tubes of the battery to the extent of 1.5 cubic inch, and in the oxygen tubes 0.7 cubic inch, equalling altogether 2.2 cubic inches; there was therefore 0.1 cubic inch more of hydrogen absorbed in the battery tubes than was evolved in the voltameter. This experiment was repeated several times with the same general results...".
Grove also raises questions about the production of heat and "novel gaseous and liquid products".
This is different from using hydrogen and oxygen gas in a (hydrogen) combustion engine, where hydrogen is exploded with oxygen to form water.
In 1832, British engineer Francis Bacon will develop the first practical hydrogen-oxygen fuel cells, which convert air and fuel directly into electricity through electrochemical processes.
(EXPER: It would be interesting to see if other gases also can join in this separated method, for example other combustible gases and oxygen, or two gases {or liquids} that readily combine with each other.)
(I think clearly that the hydrogen and or oxygen have to be combining with the electrolyte, and the platinum metal - perhaps just free electrons are conducted in the metal instead of breaking apart the water just created or other water molecules nearby.)
(I think many people are very hopeful that hydrogen can be used as a primary fuel, because it is the most basic element being only a single proton. The separation of hydrogen into its source photons seems like a logical basis for heat, light and electricity, as opposed to larger atoms and molecules. In addition, there are no complex products in particular compound products of combustion or other separating processes such as carbon that are difficult to process. Ultimately all atoms are made of hydrogen so it is logical to want to separate waste products and raw materials into hydrogen and ultimately into photons or perhaps to build them together into other atoms if possible.)
(I think it is important to understand how electrons enter the platinum. Does this work with other metals? Since charged particles appear to need an host carrier atom to move over space in a vacuum, what might a host be for movement in metal?)
| London, England |
161 YBN
[07/29/1839 AD]
| 3308) Alexandre Edmond Becquerel (BeKreL) (CE 1820-1891), French physicist, shows that light is converted to electricity (photoelectric or photovoltaic effect) and invents the first photovoltaic cell.
The development of solar cell technology stems from the work of the French physicist Antoine-César Becquerel in 1839. Becquerel discovered the photovoltaic effect while experimenting with a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution; he observed that voltage developed when light contacts the electrode. About 50 years later, Charles Fritts constructed the first true solar cells using junctions formed by coating the semiconductor selenium with an ultrathin, nearly transparent layer of gold. The silicon solar cell developed by Russell Ohl in 1941 will lead to more efficient solar cells. Solar cells will be improved by the development of orbiting vehicles because access to light particles is continuous in orbit and unlike batteries, solar cells never wear out. Solar cells are standard equipment on all modern satellites.
Edmond Becquerel appears to have been the first to demonstrate the photovoltaic effect (Becquerel, 1841a, , 1841b). Working in his father's laboratory as a nineteen year old, he generated electricity by illuminating an electrode with different types of light, including sunlight (see the figure below). Best results were obtained with blue or ultraviolet light and when electrodes were coated with light sensitive material such as AgCl or AgBr. Although he usually used platinum electrodes, he also observed some response with silver electrodes. He subsequently found a use for the photovoltaic effect by developing an "actinograph" which was used to record the temperature of heated bodies by measuring the emitted light intensity.
The actinograph can measure the heat of objects hot enough to give off visible light by determining the intensity of that light. (However, the visible light does not necessarily represent heat, unless heat is defined by all photon movements, not just the ones absorbed by mercury, or the measuring substance. Interesting that the device measure the intensity of the light, not the frequency. This device could only record one side of an incandescent object, and so would be a partial estimate that would then have to be interpolated depending on the size and density of the object.)
Becquerel publishes this as (translated from French) "Research on the effects of the chemical radiation of solar light by means of the electric currents". Becquerel writes (translated with BabelFish and Google)
"In the last report that I presented to the Academy, in the meeting of Monday July 29, 1839, I had the honor to present evidence of the aid of electrical current, by the chemical reactions which take place in contact with two liquids, under the influence of solar light. The process that I employed required the use of two platinum foils, connected to the two ends of the wire of a very sensitive multiplier and which are plunged each one in one of superposed solutions. However as these two foils receive the effects of radiation, it has to result from which this phenomenon is composed, of which I will occupy myself with in this new Report. In this memoire will be shared each produced effect."
Becquerel writes in his report "One studied until now particular radiation emanations of a beam of light which react on the elements of the bodies to cause their combination or their separation, only on a small number of substances like silver chloride, resin of gaiac and some others. It is known that these radiations, known under the name of chemical radiations, chemical rays, are subjected to the same physical laws of reflexion, refraction, and of polarization which the luminous rays of which they form part of are. These radiations can exist in all the parts of the spectrum, and in each experiment we will name chemical radiations, those which affect the substances of which we will make use. Among the bodies that are affected by light, it was noticed that many contain chlorine, bromine or iodine. The action of these bodies on hydrogen is such, and primarily that of chlorine, that anywhere an unstable compound of chlorine is combined with a hydrogen under the influence of chemical rays, the chlorine tends to seize the hydrogen to form hydrochloric acid. But in general, one fails to recognize the physical processes of the action of the two substances, one on the other, under the influence of light, because in many cases this combination is engaged for a very long time and without change of color. We can not recognize the influence of rays after chemical products form. These various reactions engage molecule for molecule, and we have not yet been able to obtain electric currents in the combination or the separation of two elements under the influence of chemical rays; however, if one could observe these currents, one would have a means of recognizing and of studying the reaction of various substances, the ones on the others, under the influence of these rays. Such is the problem that I solved with the aid of the following process: Two liquids of unequal density, conductors of electricity, being superimposed the one on the other in a vase, if one of the liquids contains a substance able to react on another that is in the second liquid, under the influence of the light, that instant or when the chemical radiation enters the mass, they will react the one on the other, separating to the surface, by producing an electric current which will show by a galvanometer, whose two ends are terminated by two platinum foils plunged in each liquid. One knows very well that the ether, dissolved in equal amounts with iron perchloride, is faded on in the light; while allowing the action to continue for a certain time, there is production of yellowish crystals which were not yet examined; I wanted to also know how a solution of iron perchloride in alcohol behaves under the influence of light: this solution, after several days, is faded and a precipitate of the iron oxide forms. By examining the liquid, one finds that the iron perchloride is past the state of protochloride, and that a portion of chlorine reacted consequently on the hydrogen of alcohol, under the influence of the chemical rays. The iron perchloride reacting on alcohol, I took for the two liquids of unequaled density, a concentrated solution of iron perchloride in water, and of commercial alcohol that I put in a blackened cylindrical vase outside, which was placed in a garden surrounded by walls. Platinum wire established the communication between the metal foils, plunging each one into one of the two liquids, and the two ends of a galvanometer, very sensitive, placed in a room some distance from the apparatus. In the first moment there was a current produced by the simple reaction of the two solutions one on the other: the perchloride took positive electricity, and alcohol the negative one; but, little by little the current decreased and it needle became again stationary at the end of some time. There had been the care to place in front of the apparatus, an opaque screen in order to prevent the access of radiation in the interior. Once this screen was removed, the chemical radiation which accompanies the light penetrated in the liquid mass, and the reaction started immediately. But as chlorine, in its reaction on hydrogen, takes the electricity positive, and that already the perchloride was positive in the first current, the intensity of this last was changed at once; the deviation of the needle moves 10 to 12 degrees from influences of direct solar rays. In general, we have remarked that all the chlorides which can pass to a lower state of chlorination, like iron perchloride, the bichloride of copper, bichloride of tin, chloride of lime, act on alcohol under the influence of the light, while we could not have any sensible currents with protochlorides. One can, by means of the electric currents, render sensible the action of perchlorides on the methyl alcohol and hard ether. The decomposition of water by the bromine and the formation of the hydrobromic acid under the influence of the chemical rays, also gives birth to an electric current. As for chlorine, it is not the same; the initial current is so energetic that one can directly observe the effect of the chemical radiation. It is necessary before to run in the galvanometer an equal current and in opposite direction of that which is produced by the action of the solution of chlorine on water; then the galvanometer being switched to zero, under the influence of the chemical rays, chlorine reacts on water and the increase in the current can be recognized. Having noticed that while placing in front of the opening of the vase in which the liquids were placed, screens of various nature in order to force the chemical radiation to cross them, the deviation of the magnetized needle, by first impulse, was never the same, and was more or less large according to the nature of these same screens; we seek to determine their influence on chemical radiation by operating with screens of comparable nature, but different thickness. We recognized that chemical radiation, just as calorific radiation, after having crossed a screen of a certain substance, more easily crosses a screen of the same substance, or in other terms that from a certain thickness, different probably for each body, chemical radiation does not experience change, whatever the thickness of the screen. It was important to recognize how the colors modify the chemical radiation; we have operated consequently with screens of colored glass. Here is the order of the screens that pass chemical radiation: Screen Colored rays that cross the glasses Number of chemical rays that cross the screens, represented per 100 the number of incident rays White glass (a) white 60.5 Violet glass (E) reds, violets, little rays {oranges, yellows, blues) 41.4 Blue glass (D) reds, greens, blues, little rays {indigo, violet} 25.8 Green glass (C) green, little rays {oranges, yellows, blues} insensible Yellow glass (B) red, orange, yellow, green 0 Red glass (A) red 0
We have also researched in which ratio chemical radiation was arrested while crossing screens of different nature; we arrived at the following results: Name of screen numbers of chemical rays which cross them smoked rock crystal 79.4 White glass (a) 58.6 Thick plate and striped white lime sulfate 58.5 Colourless mica {of which the thickness is 0.07mm 76.9 {of which the thickness is 0.52mm 37 Gelatine paper 42.5 One should not look at the number 58.5 found for lime sulfate, like that relating to the limpid lime sulfate, because the plate which we employed was filled with scratches and was not that translucent; for a limpid plate this number would would have been more considerable. Madam de Sommerville first, then Mr. Biot, had seen that the sensitized paper prepared with the silver chloride was unequally influenced when one presented it to solar light under various screens; but currently, the aid of the previous process indicates, one not will need more to compare the various colors of the silver chloride to judge the effect by chemical means, since this effect will be the measurement of the intensity of the electric current produced in the action of the light on the constituent parts of the bodies. Of another dimension, work of my father and Mr. Biot, has shown that the phosphorogenic radiation of the electric light and solar light, different from calorific and luminous radiation, could be partly stopped by screens of nature different. It is recognized, by the inspection of the preceding tables, that the order of the substances which are let to cross by chemical radiation is the same as that for phosphorogenic radiation; but their intensity of action does not appear to be the same as for phosphorogenic radiation emanating from electric light, it was expected that glass stopped a very great portion of the latter, while the rock crystal lets some pass the most part. No matter what it is, there appears to exist a relationship between phosphorogenic radiation and chemical radiation, a relationship that I studied and that I will make known in forthcoming Memoirs.".
Becquerel goes on to study the spectra of luminescent bodies. (chronology)
The next step forward happens in 1876, when Adams and Day investigate the photoelectric effects in selenium.
Becquerel also discovers the paramagnetism of liquid oxygen. (chronology) Paramagnetic substances are substance s in which an induced magnetic field is parallel and proportional to the intensity of the magnetizing field but is much weaker than in ferromagnetic materials. Paramagnetism is contrasted with diamagnetism, a phenomenon exhibited by materials like copper or bismuth that become magnetized in a magnetic field with a polarity opposite to the magnetic force; unlike iron they are slightly repelled by a magnet.
The photoelectric effect is the same phenomenon as the photovoltaic effect, and some might argue that Becquerel was the first to observe the photoelectric effect, however, Becquerel appears to not identify that light can also increase existing electric current, nor does Becquerel identify that light colliding with the metal produces the electric current, but the phenomenon Becquerel observes and the photoelectric effect are the same phenomenon.
Much of the work surrounding the conversion of light to electricity must have been kept secret for many years, if remote neuron reading actually first occurred in the 1200s. Notice Becquerel's use of the words "very sensitive", which implies that he is releasing classified information, so Becquerel is clearly heroic in this effort to inform and educate the public.
| (University of Paris) Paris, France |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2581) Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869), identifies the fibers in the wall of the heart that are used today to transmit the stimulus of a pacemaker, now called "Purkinje fibers".
| (Breslau, Prussia now:)Wroclaw, Poland |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2660) The Wheatstone telegraph links Liverpool with Manchester in England.
The Electric Telegraph Company moves forward as the first telegraph line links Liverpool and Manchester. This starts the growth of the telegraph network, which will shortly span the globe (and infiltrate every house with micrometer cameras and microphones initially to be seen and heard only by wealthy insiders, many in the government police and military, but eventually for an larger elitist secret greedy society which use the technology to abuse those excluded. Finally far in the future, the majority of people may finally see and know the truth about this part of history kept secret by greedy dishonest people).
(Is this the first large scale government telegraph?)
(Telegraph communications are a digital communication in that they are not wave but on/off in nature. With the invention of the Baudet code in 1871, telegraph devices will be using binary digital communication, although digital in this era usually refers to microchips which switch depending on a certain voltage such as 5v (TTL) or 3.3V (CMOS) as opposed to analog which means a varying voltage.)
(Presumably this is a copper wire without insulation. { has some info})
(Initially there are only a few stations where people go to send and receive telegraphs, and then phone calls, eventually public pay phones will be available, and then there is a systematic wiring of individual houses, so that all people can use the phone from their own houses. Eventually the telegraph is replaced by multiplexed audio signals, then audio and video signals {although video is not made available for the public for many torturous and decrepit years}. People can now use the phone lines by using a personal computer to place phone calls and even video phone calls without the need for a telephone.)
| Liverpool (and Manchester), England |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2684) The British physician (Sir) William Brooke O'Shaughnessy installs an electrical telegraph near Calcutta using the Hugli River as a conductor in place of wire. O'Shaughnessy sends messages by (applying) a series of small electric shocks onto the (receiving) operator.
| Calcutta, India |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2721) (Sir) Roderick Impey Murchison (mRKiSuN) (CE 1792-1871), Scottish geologist, names the Silurian era, for an old Celtic tribe in Wales that had lived in the area where Murchison found the rocks.
Murchison publishes this in "The Silurian System" (1839).
In this same year, following the establishment of the Silurian System, Murchison and Adam Sedgwick found the Devonian System, based on their research on the geology of southwestern England and the Rhineland.
| London, England (presumably) |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2730) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, invents the process of photography on sensitized paper and glass (as opposed to the metal plates of the daguerrotype) independently of Fox Talbot.
Herschel suggests the name "photography" to replace Talbot's awkward "photogenic drawing". Herschel is the first person to apply the now well-known terms "positive" and "negative" to photographic images. (chronology)
Hershel is one of the first to apply the new invention of photography to astronomy.
Herschel invents the gold-based chrysotype photography method.
| London, England (presumably) |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2755) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, invents the first speedometer (for trains).
The Great Western Railway lets Babbage use a steam power engine and second-class carriage to fit with machinery. Babbage removes the internal parts of the carriage and puts a table on which slowly roll sheets of paper, each 1000 feet long. Several inking pens trace curves on this paper which express measures of: force of traction, shaking in each of the 3 dimensions for the middle and back of carriage, and a chronometer that ticks each 1/2 second on the paper. The velocity of the paper is the same as the velocity of the wheels of the carriage, and so the comparative frequency of dots on the paper give the rate of traveling at the time. Babbage ends his experiments with more than 2 miles of paper.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2762) Thomas Addison (CE 1793-1860), English physician with Richard Bright (CE 1789-1858), publishes the first description of appendicitis (inflammation of the appendix) in "Elements of the Practice of Medicine" (1839).
| (Guy's Hospital) London, England |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2800) Mosander studies the rare earth minerals found in Sweden by Gadolin, and Mosander, more than anybody else, shows the complexity of the rare earth elements. In 1825, Berzelius asks Mosander to prepare Cerium sulphide and during the course of this work Mosander becomes convinced that this oxide contains another earth (oxide). Mosander identifies a new element in a compound of cerium. Berzelius suggests the name "Lathanaum", writing on February 12, 1839 to Friedrich Wöhler: "Mosander seems willing to take my suggestion to name it {the new element} Lanthanum and the oxide (the new soluble salt) lanthanum oxide or lanthana. Lanthano (Greek) means to hide or to escape notice. Lanthana lay hidden in the mineral cerite for 36 years after ceria (containing element Cerium) was discovered in the mineral cerite in 1803."
Lanthanum is discovered by Mosander, when he partially decomposes a sample of cerium nitrate by heating and treating the resulting salt with dilute nitric acid.
| (Caroline Medical Institute) Stockholm, Sweden |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2820) Thomas Henderson (CE 1798-1844), Scottish astronomer, measures the parallax of Alpha Centauri, the third brightest star as seen from Earth, to be 0.75 of a second, which puts Alpha Centauri at 4 light years away, making Alpha Centauri the closest known star to the Sun.
The Centauri system (now known to contain three stars) is still the closest star system known.
Henderson had measured the larger displacements of Alpha Centauri at the Cape in 1832, but delayed until 1839 to publish his result. By this time Friedrich Bessel had already observed and published, in 1839, the parallax of 61 Cygni.
In 1831 Henderson accepted an appointment as director of a new observatory at the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. While observing Alpha Centauri Henderson finds a large proper motion. Henderson realizes that this probably means that the star is comparatively close and a good candidate for the measurement of parallax, the apparent change in position of a (celestial) body when viewed from two spatially separate points. (published in)
| (University of Edinburgh)Edinburgh, Scotland (and observation in Cape Town, South Africa) |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2862) Charles Goodyear (CE 1800-1860), American inventor, creates the first "vulcanized" rubber by heating rubber with sulfur. This makes possible the commercial use of rubber by solving the problem of rubber melting in warmth and cracking in cold.
Goodyear is interested in rubber, which is waterproof and had already been used in the manufacturing of raincoats. The problem with rubber is that in hot weather it becomes soft and sticky, and in cold weather rubber becomes hard and unbendable. Goodyear buys the process of Nathaniel M. Hayward (1808-65), a former employee of a rubber factory in Roxbury, Mass., who had discovered that rubber treated with sulfur is not sticky. Goodyear accidentally drops some India rubber mixed with sulfur on a hot stove and finds that the resulting rubber retains it's flexibility in the cold and it's dryness in warmth. Goodyear heats the sulfur and rubber mixture to temperatures higher than anybody else had, and creates "vulcanized" rubber, named after Vulcan, the Roman god of fire.
Goodyear writes an account of his discovery entitled "Gum-Elastic and Its Varieties" (2 vol.; 1853-55).
| Woburn, Massachussetts, USA (presumably) |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 2866) William Hallowes Miller (CE 1801-1880), English mineralogist creates a system of reference axes for crystals so that different crystal forms can be expressed with three whole numbers which he describes in his book "A Treatise on Crystallography". These Millerian indices have been used ever since.
If each atom in the crystal is represented by a point and these points are connected by lines, the resulting lattice may be divided into a number of identical blocks, or unit cells. The intersecting edges of one of the unit cells defines a set of crystallographic axes, and the Miller indices are determined by the intersection of the plane with these axes. The reciprocals of these intercepts are computed, and fractions are cleared to give the three Miller indices (hkl).
| Cambridge, England |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3030) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes "Journal of Researches into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H.M.S. Beagle" (1839) which is his diary from the 5 year journey aboard the H.M.S. Beagle.
(In this work) Darwin advances a theory on the slow formation of coral reefs by the gradual accumulation of the skeletons of coral. He imagines (correctly) that these reefs grew on sinking mountain rims. The delicate coral built up, compensating for the drowning land, so as to remain within optimal heat and lighting conditions.
This view is accepted by most naturalists. This theory opposes the theory of Lyell, but Lyell accepts and is friends with Darwin.
From 1831-1836 Darwin is the ship's naturalist on the H.M.S. (Her/His Majesty's Service/Ship) "Beagle", a voyage of scientific exploration. (a calls this the most important voyage in the history of biology.)
Asimov describes Darwin's voyage on the Beagle the most important voyage in the history of biology.
At the Royal College of Surgeons, anatomist Richard Owen determines that a skull returned by Darwin from the Uruguay River belongs to Toxodon, a hippotamus-sized antecedent of the South American capybara. The Pampas fossils are nothing like rhinoceroses and mastodons; they are huge extinct armadillos, anteaters, and sloths, which suggests that South American mammals had been replaced by (similar forms) according to some unknown "law of succession".
| London, England (presumably) |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3063) Henri Victor Regnault (renYO) (CE 1810-1878), French chemist and physicist, is the first to prepare carbon tetrachloride.
Regnault studies the action of chlorine on ethers (now in it's free form from electrolysis?) and discovers vinyl chloride, dichloroethylene, trichloroethylene, and carbon tetrachloride. (chronology for each) Much of this work is the result of the chlorine-hydrogen substitution process.
Initially Regnault synthesizes Carbon tetrachloride in 1839 by reaction of chloroform with chlorine, from the French chemist Henri Victor Regnault, but now it is mainly synthesized from methane and chlorine.
The production of carbon tetrachloride has steeply declined since the 1980's due to environmental concerns and the decreased demand for chlorofluorocarbons, which are derived from carbon tetrachloride. In 1992, production in the U.S.-Europe-Japan was estimated at 720,000,000 kg.
| (University of Lyons) Lyons, France |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3072) Theodor Schwann (sVoN) (CE 1810-1882) extends the cells theory to include all animals in addition to all plants. Schwann describes embryonic development as a succession of cell divisions. Schwann understands cellular differentiation (the series of events involved in the development of a specialized cell having specific structural, functional, and biochemical properties).
| (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3099) (Sir) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist invents the constructed the platinum-zinc voltaic cell (battery), called the "Grove cell". This is a two-fluid electric cell, consisting of amalgamated zinc in dilute sulfuric acid and a platinum cathode in concentrated nitric acid, the liquids being separated by a porous pot. Grove uses a number of these batteries to exhibit an electric arc light (using platinum filaments) in the London Institution, Finsbury Circus.
The Grove cell is able to generate about 12 amps of current at about 1.8 volts. This cell has nearly double the voltage of the first Daniell cell. Grove's nitric acid cell is the favorite battery of the early American telegraph (1840-1860), because it offers strong current output. As telegraph traffic increases, people find that the Grove cell discharges poisonous nitric dioxide gas. Large telegraph offices are filled with gas from rows of hissing Grove batteries. As telegraphs become more complex, the need for constant voltage becomes critical and the Grove device is limited because as the cell discharges, nitric acid is depleted and voltage is reduced. By the time of the US Civil War, Grove's battery is replaced by the Daniell battery.
(cite publication if any)
Bunsen will replace the positive electrode of platinum with (less expensive) carbon.
| London, England |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3102) (Sir) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist, describes decomposing water into hydrogen and oxygen from intensely heated platinum. Grove is also the first to show that electrolysis, with a high-tension (voltage) current, can take place through thin glass. (chronology)]
Grove publishes these findings as "On Certain Phenomena of Voltaic Ignition and the Decomposition of Water into Its Constituent Gases by Heat", in Philosophical Transactions, vol 137, (1847). Grove writes "It now appeared to me that it was possible to effect the decomposition of water by ignited platinum; that, supposing the atmosphere of steam in the immediate vicinity of ignited platinum were decomposed, or the affinities of its constituents loosened, if there were any means of suddenly removing this atmosphere I might get the mixed gases; or secondly, if, as appeared by the last two experiments, quantity had any influence, that it might be possible so to divide the mixed gases by a quantity of a neutral ingredient as to obtain them by subsequent separation (or as it were filtration) from the neutral substance. Both these ideas were realized. ...It now occurred to me that by narrowing the glass tube above the platinum wire I had the result at my command, as the narrow neck might be made of any diameter and length, so as just to allow the water to drop or run down as the steam forced its way up; a rube was so formed, and is shown with its accompaniments at fig. 5. The result of this experiment was very striking: when two cells of the nitric-acid battery were applied the air was first expanded and expelled, the water then soon boiled, and at a certain period the wire became ignited in the steam. At this instant a tremulous motion was perceptible, and separate bubbles of permanent gas of the size of pin-heads ascended, and formed a volume in the bend of the tube. it was not a continuous discharge of gas as in electrolysis, but appeared to be a series of rapid jerks; the water, returning through the narrow neck, formed a natural valve which cut off by an intermitting action portions of the atmosphere surrounding the wire; the experiment presented a novel and indescribably curious effect. The gas was oxyhydrogen. It will occur at the first to many of those who hear this paper read, that this effect might be derived from electrolysis. No one seeing it would think so for a moment; and although I shall by my subsequent experiments, I trust, abundantly negative this supposition, yet as this was my first successful experiment on this subject, and is per se an interesting and striking method of showing the phenomenon of decomposition by heat, I will mention a few points to prove that the phenomenon could not be occasioned by electrolysis. In the first place, the experiment was performed with distilled water, and only two cells of the battery employed, which will not perceptibly decompose distilled water. 2ndly. No decomposition took place until the instant of ignition of the wire, though there was a greater surface of boiling water exposed to the wire before than after the period of ignition. 3rdly. A similar experiment was made, but with the wire divided in the centre so as to form two electrodes, and the water boiled by a spirit-lamp; here the current had no wire to conduct any part of it away, but the whole was obliged to pass across the liquid, and yet no decomposition took place, or if there were any it was microscopic. 4thly. When, instead of oil, distilled water was used in the outer vessel, even the copper wires, one of which would form an oxidable anode, gave no decomposition across the boiling water outside, while the ignited wire inside was freely yielding mixed gases. ... The experiment was repeated as at first and the bubble transferred to another tube; the wire was then again ignited in vapour, another bubble was instantly formed and transferred, and so on, until after about ten hours' work sufficient gas was collected for analysis; this gas was now placed in an eudiometer (an instrument for measuring changes in volume during the combustion of gases, consisting of a graduated tube that is closed at one end and has two wires sealed into it, between which a spark may be passed), it detonated and contracted to 0.35 of its original volume; the residue being nitrogen. ... After a few failures I succeeded perfectly by the following experiment. The extremity of a stout platinum wire was fused into a globule of the size of a peppercorn, by a nitric-acid battery of 30 cells; prepared water was kept simmering by a spiritlamp, with a tube filled with water inverted in it; charcoal being the negative terminal, the voltaic arc was taken between that and the platinum globule until the latter was at the point of fusion; the circuit was now broken, and the highly incandescent platinum plunged into the prepared water: separate pearly bubbles of gas rose into the tube, presenting a somewhat similar effect to experiment (fig 5). The process was repeated, the globule being frequently plunged into the water in a state of actual fusion; and when a sufficient quantity of fas was collected it was examined, it detonated, leaving 0.4 residue; this was a usual nitrogen with a trace of oxygen. ... the apparatus shown in fig. 10 was constructed: a and b are two silver tubes 4 inches long by 0.3 inches diameter; they are joined by two platinum caps to a platinum tube c, formed of a wire one-eigth of an inch diameter drilled through its entire length, with a drill of the size of a large pin; a is closed at the extremity, and to the extremity of b is fitted, by means of a coiled strip of bladder, the bent glass tube d. The whole is filled with prepared water, and having expelled the air from a by heat, the extremity of the glass tube is placed in a capsule of simmering water. heat is now applied by a spirit-lamp, first to b and then to a, until the whole boils; as soon as ebullition takes place, the flame of an oxyhydrogen blowpipe is made to play upon the middle part of the platinum tube c, and when this has reached a high point of ignition, which should be as nearly the fusing-point of platinum as is practicable, gas is given off, which, mixed with steam, very soon fills the whole apparatus and bubbles up from the open extremity, either into the open air or into a gas collector. Although by the time I had devised this apparatus I was from my previous experiments tolerably well assured of its success, yet I experienced a feeling of great gratification when on applying a match to one of the bubbles which were ascending, it gave a sharp detonation; I collected and analysed some of it; it was 0.7 oxyhydrogen gas, the residue nitrogen with a trace of oxygen."". (Clearly, if the gas combusts, it must be hydrogen and oxygen. Perhaps there is a connection between photons and electrons in this, since they appear to be causing the same effect.) (Since current runs through the wire, perhaps there are electrons that electrolyze water molecules around the wire. . Does this happen only for heated platinum metal or other heated metals too? If for iron, when we boil water are we getting hydrogen and oxygen? get the specifics.) (I have doubts, but perhaps this shows that quenching a red hot metal may cause the separation of hydrogen and oxygen. Possibly heat causes electric current, through thermoelectric effect. Find people who repeated this.)
| London, England |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3106) William Budd (CE 1811-1880), English physician, understands the nature of contagious disease although Budd does not identify the "germ theory" that Pasteur does.
In an era when other physicians are "noncontagionists" and believe that infectious diseases are either "atmospheric" (airborne), arise from filth and neglect, or develop spontaneously in the soil, William Budd is a firm believer that infectious diseases, particularly cholera and typhoid, are contagious; that they are transmitted from one person to another through excrement. This theory is a forerunner to Louis Pasteur's germ theory.
In 1839 Budd unsuccessfully submits an essay in a medical competition, entitled "The investigation of the sources of the common continued fevers of Great Britain and Ireland, and the ascertaining of the circumstances which may have a tendency to render them communicable from one person to another".
Even after publishing a compilation of his years of study in a classic monograph called "Typhoid Fever" (1873), many of Budd's contemporaries continue to insist his theory is incorrect.
| Bristol, England (presumably) |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3137) The plastic polystyrene is discovered. This is the first recorded instance of polymerization.
Eduard Simon, German apothecary (pharmacist), discovers polystyrene. Simon reports styrene's conversion into solid styrol, later renamed metastyrol.
Simon distills storax resin obtained from the "Tree of Turkey" (liquid ambar orientalis) with a sodium carbonate solution and obtains an oil which Simon names "styrol" (now called "styrene"). Simon writes: "that with old oil the residue which cannot be vaporised without decomposition is greater than with fresh oil, undoubtedly due to a steady conversion of the oil by air, light and heat to a rubberlike substance". Simon believes he has oxidised the material and calls the product styrol oxide.
(replace from non wiki sources:) By 1845 English chemist John Blyth and German chemist August Wilhelm von Hofmann show that the same transformation of styrol takes place in the absence of oxygen. They called this substance metastyrol. Analysis later shows that it was chemically identical to Styroloxyd. In 1866 Marcelin Berthelot correctly identifies the formation of metastyrol from styrol as a polymerization process. About 80 years go by before it was realized that heating of styrol starts a chain reaction which produces macromolecules, following the thesis of German organic chemist Hermann Staudinger (1881–1965). This eventually leads to the substance receiving its present name, polystyrene.
The first commercial production of polystyrene is by BASF in 1931.
| Berlin, Germany |
161 YBN
[1839 AD]
| 3469) Christian Friedrich Schönbein (sOENBIN) (CE 1799-1868), German-Swiss chemist, shows that the polarization of electrodes (how after electrolysis electrodes act as a voltaic pile battery) is due to the formations on the surfaces of the electrodes of thins sheets of the products of the electrolysis.
| (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
160 YBN
[03/12/1840 AD]
| 3875) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, creates "thermographs" of spectral lines in the infrared part of the solar spectrum.
Herschel uses thin paper coated with Indian ink, or smoked in the flame of oil of turpentine. Those parts of the paper which dry first appear lighter than the rest. This method is used to created a visible picture of the "thermic spectrum". Herschel comments "...The most singular and striking phenomenon exhibited is the thermic spectrum thus visibly impressed, is its want on continuity. It obviously consists of several distinct patches, of which α, β are the most conspicuous and intense, but are less distinctly separated, and of which when the sun is very strong and clear it is even difficult to trace the separation. ...".
| London, England (presumably) |
160 YBN
[12/17/1840 AD]
| 3238) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, creates a formula for the amount of heat created by an electrical current, finding the heat created to be proportional to the square of the current intensity multiplied by the resistance of the circuit.
Joule describes (what will be called) "Joule's law" in a paper, "On the Production of Heat by Voltaic Electricity" (1840), stating that the heat produced in a wire by an electric current is proportional to the product of the resistance of the wire and the square of the current.
This law is still in use in the form of Power=Current2*Resistance (P=I2*R). Using Ohm's law, V=IR, this may also take the form of Power=Voltage2/Resistance (P=V2/R) in terms of voltage.
This paper is very brief and simply states the relationship Joule found between current, resistance and heat.
(Although perhaps the theory of heat as a massless form of motion may not be accurate, the experimental measurements of Joule represent good and useful information. Verify: Is there some constant that varies for each substance in terms of a conversion constant of work to heat? Because it seems to me that since heat is measured as the release of photons that are absorbed by mercury, denser materials would emit more, so the same amount of work, would release variable quantities of heat for different substances. For example, the heat released by a rare gas would be less than a dense gas, the same must be true for a less dense liquid versus a denser liquid, and for solid, for example, the same movement of an arm and metal file over wood produces far less heat than the same work done over wood. What is the name of this variable constant? Perhaps a more accurate equation would add initial velocities of all changed matter. For example velocity of photons released from wood (or metal and from file) before release => velocity after, in viewing this, it seems simply that the quantity of photons released is more important than the quantity of initial motion, but clearly the quantity of initial motion is proportional too. Specific heat is one quantity that varies for each substance. This indicates that the quantity of heat relates to the density of the matter perhaps less, equally, or more than the quantity of motion input into the reaction. In addition, how much an object emits photons in frequencies that are absorbed as heat by the thermometer may be a variable too.)
| Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 2827) Christian Friedrich Schönbein (sOENBIN) (CE 1799-1868), German-Swiss chemist, identifies and names ozone.
Schönbein identifies and names the O3 molecule ozone, an allotrope of oxygen. Schönbein studies a peculiar odor identified around electrical equipment and shows that he can produce the same odor by electrolyzing water or by allowing phosphorus to oxidize. Schönbein traces the odor to a gas he calls "ozone" from the Greek word for "smell". (The tradition of naming new objects is very clearly centered on Greek and Latin, perhaps because the roots of most European languages are Latin and Greek, or perhaps out of respect for the scientific tradition that rose from Greek civilization.)
Andrews will prove this to be a high energy form of oxygen, its molecule containing three oxygen atoms instead of two atoms as found in an ordinary oxygen molecule.
| (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 2855) Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), French chemist creates the "theory of types". In this theory not only can single atoms substitute but compounds can substitute.(verify) (is this the beginning of the theory of "radicals"? see ) The theory of types is similar to the modern concept of functional groups. (more detail) Credit for this theory is disputed between Dumas and Auguste Laurent.
This theory clearly contradicts (Berzelius') electrochemical (or dualistic) theory of structure.
Dumas compares atoms to a planetary system and believes that the atoms are held together by affinity.
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 2902) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist patents an alphabetical telegraph, or, "Wheatstone A B C instrument", which moves with a step-by-step motion, and shows the letters of the message n a dial. The same principle is utilized in Wheatstone's type-printing telegraph.
| (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 2904) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist, invents an electrical chronoscope, for measuring minute intervals of time This device is used in determining the speed of a bullet. In this apparatus an electric current moves (actuates) an electro-magnet, which notes the instant of an occurrence by means of a pencil on a moving paper. This device is said to have been capable of distinguishing 1/7300 part of a second (137 microsecond), and the time a body takes to fall from a height of one inch (25 mm). Babbage uses a similar instrument to measure the speed of trains.
| (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 2914) Germain Henri Hess (CE 1802-1850), Swiss-Russian chemist, shows that the amount of heat involved in producing one chemical from another is always the same, no matter what chemical route the reaction takes or how many stages are taken.
This is called the "law of constant heat summation", also known as "Hess's law", and is the foundation of thermochemistry.
A century before, Lavoisier and Laplace had measured heats of combustion. Hess measures the heats involved in various reactions in more detail.
This phenomenon is, in fact a special case of the law of conservation of energy (which I think is more accurately described as the law of conservation of mass and velocity).
Hess's law prepares the way for the development of chemical thermodynamics in the late 1800s by the American physicist Josiah Willard Gibbs.
| (University of Saint Petersberg) Saint Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 2921) (Baron) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist publishes "Die organische Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Agricultur und Physiologie" (1840, "Chemistry in Its Applications to Agriculture and Physiology").
In this work by analyzing soils, Liebig shows that the prevailing "humus theory" in which a plant's carbon content is thought to originate from humus, the organic part of the soil, and not from atmospheric photosynthesis, is false.
Liebig demonstrates the falsity of this by showing that some crops leave the soil richer in carbon than they found it, claiming (correctly instead,) that plants obtain carbon from the air.
On burning plants Liebig finds various minerals present and argues that these must be obtained from the soil.
Liebig correctly identifies the loss of soil fertility with the consumption by plants of the mineral content of the soil necessary for life such as sodium, potassium, calcium and phosphorus. (These atoms, apparently can only come from the soil, or water.) (in this work?)
Liebig wrongly thinks that all plants obtain their nitrogen from the air as Boussingault had shown legumes do, and so does not add nitrogen compounds to his chemical fertilizers.
By 1848 this book will have gone through 17 editions and appears in 8 languages.
| (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 3051) Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle (HeNlu) (CE 1809-1885), German pathologist and anatomist, supports the microorganism theory of contagion (germ theory) of disease in "Von den Miasmen und Contagien und von den miasmatisch-contagiösen Krankheiten" (1840; "On Miasmas and Contagions and on the Miasmatic-Contagious Diseases").
At this time, the microorganism theory of contagion is unpopular. Girolamo Fracastoro (CE 1478–1553) had put forward a microorganism theory of contagion. Henle writes, "The material of contagions is not only an organic but a living one and is indeed endowed with a life of its own, which is, in relation to the diseased body, a parasitic organism.".
Henle's work draws on the work of Agostino Bassi (CE 1773–1856), who showed that the muscardine of silkworm (a very destructive disease in silk worms) is attributable to a specific fungus. Henle also draws on Schwann and Schleiden's discovery that all life has a cellular structure; Schwann and Cagniard-Latour's proof that fermentation by yeast is the work of a live organism; and the evident ability of certain "morbid matters" (death causing materials), such as vaccinia (cowpox) and variola lymph (smallpox), to experimentally produce systemic effects in animals even when greatly diluted.
The microorganism causing disease theory is resisted for decades. Pasteur will prove the microorganism theory of contagion is true (for many diseases) 20 years later using silkworms. (Many times in science there are 4 people involved with a single concepts, the first to theorize it, to prove it, to actually build it, to popularize/be successful with it.)
Henle lives to see his student Robert Koch (1843–1910) demonstrate conclusively the role of specific bacteria in anthrax, tuberculosis, and cholera.
In this work Henle introduces the concepts of (infectious disease) causation. Robert Koch will develop this idea and present what are called the Henle-Koch postulates in lectures in 1884 and 1890.
| (University of Zürich) Zürich, Germany |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 3091) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882), English-US chemist takes the earliest photograph of the moon of Earth.
This is the first astronomical photograph.
| (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 3123) Jean Servais Stas (CE 1813-1891), Belgian chemist with Jean Baptiste André Dumas (DYUmo) (CE 1800-1884), shows that the atomic weight (relative atomic mass) of carbon is 12 not 6 as others had claimed.
Stas does chemical research on apple tree roots, isolating a crystalline glucoside, phlorizin. With Dumas, Stas splits phlorizin into phloretin and glucose.
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 3230) Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond (DYUBWA rAmON) (CE 1818-1896), German physiologist invents a specially sensitive galvanometer to measure instruments to detect tiny currents in nerve and muscle (therefore founding the science of electrophysiology). (more detail, show device, explain how device connects to nerve and muscle)
In 1791 Luigi Galvani discovered that muscle has electrical properties. During the same period Alessandro Volta had shown that muscles can be made to contract continuously by rapidly repeated electrical stimulation. (date?)
Du Bois-Reymond shows that a nerve impulse changes the electrical condition of a nerve (the charge?) and must have a measurable velocity. This shows nerves to be similar to metal wires that carry electrical current.
Du Bois-Reymond uses a "slide inductor", an electromagnetic device used for nerve and muscle stimulation. The instrument has two separate circuits, each made of a copper wire wound in a coil. The wire wound in the smaller diameter, is the primary circuit, is fed by a battery and two solenoids with movable iron cores are arranged in series with the circuit. When activated by an electric current, the solenoid attracts a metal plate which works as a swith. As soon as the plate is attracted by the upper tip of the solenoids, the electric current is interrupted; no longer attracted, the plate is immediately raised by a spring allowing the passage of current once again. In this way, the plate adjusts the frequency with which the current running through the primary circuit is interrupted. This pulsating current generates an electromagnetic field which is transmitted by induction to the secondary coil which emits a much higher voltage than the primary coil as it has more spirals. The amplitude of this voltage can be adjusted by using a slide to run the secondary coil over the primary circuit. The current is then passed to electrodes for tissue stimulation. (chronology)
Du Bois-Reymond develops the first biotechnological device where a mechanical part is coupled to a biological part and the mechanical action is triggered by the biological input. Du Bois-Reymond builds a Froschwecker (frog alarm). When the frog leg reacts to an electrical discharge from an electric fish the frog leg contracts, moving a lever, and ringing a bell.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 3360) Gustav Theodore Fechner (FeKnR) (CE 1801-1887), German physicist, puts forward a theory of afterimages, persistent images seen after staring at some image.
After looking at a bright object, and then exposing the eye to complete darkness, a positive after-image first appears, the bright parts of the object appear bright, and the dark parts are dark, however the afterimage is mostly negative; the bright spots of the image appear dark, and the dark spots appear bright. Fechner's explanation is that positive after-images result from persistent excitation of the points of the retina that had been excited by light, negative after images from fatigue of the same points rendering them less sensitive to new impacts of light; the strength of illumination of any surface required in order to turn the positive after-image that appears on a dark ground into a negative image, diminishes with the time. Helmholtz will confirm this theory in 1859.
| Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
160 YBN
[1840 AD]
| 4004) Jean-Marie-Constant Duhamel (CE 1797-1872) publishes experiments with a (translated from French to English:) "Vibration of a flexible cord, carrying a cursor", in which a vibrating cord . A cursor is named after a courier, that is a messenger, and is the name of the pointer on a slide rule.
One source credits Duhamel with using a sooted cylinder to record sound vibrations in 1840.
Leon Scott is credited with the first sound vibrations recorded to paper using a rotating cylinder in 1857. Scott apparently is unaware of Duhamel’s work when he invents the phonautograph.
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
159 YBN
[01/11/1841 AD]
| 3600) Alexander Bain (CE 1811-1877), machinist, invents an electric clock. This clock has a electro-magnet pendulum; electric current being used to keep the pendulum going instead of springs or weights.
| London, England |
159 YBN
[11/02/1841 AD]
| 3246) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, demonstrates that "the quantities of heat which are evolved by the combustion of the equivalents of bodies are proportional to the intensities of their affinities for oxygen".
Joule publishes this as "On the Electric Origin of the Heat of Combustion" (1841).
| Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 2722) (Sir) Roderick Impey Murchison (mRKiSuN) (CE 1792-1871), Scottish geologist, after explorations in Russia with French colleagues, proposes establishing the Permian System (strata 245 to 286 million years old), based on Murchison's exploration of Russia.
Murchison names the Permian era, from the city of Perm in the Urals (Ural Mountains in Russia).
| London, England (presumably) |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 2781) Johann Heinrich Mädler (meDlR) (CE 1794-1874), German astronomer publishes "Populäre Astronomie" ("Popular Astronomy", 1841) intended for average people, which will go through 6 editions while Mädler is alive.
| (Dorpat Observatory) Dorpat (Tartu), Estonia |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 2903) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist constructs the first printing telegraph.
This is the first device that prints a telegram in type. The device works by two circuits. As the type revolves, a hammer, actuated by the current, presses the required letter on the paper.
| (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 2948) Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (YoKOBE) (CE 1804-1851), German mathematician is one of the early founders of the theory of determinants.
In particular, Jacobi invents the functional determinant formed of the n2 differential coefficients of n given functions of n independent variables, now called the Jacobian, and which has played an important part in many analytical investigations. The Jacobian is a certain type of determinant arising in connection with partial differential equations.
Jacobi uses determinants, a useful technique in (handling) simultaneous equations. (of matrix math?)
Jacobi publishes this work in "De Formatione et Proprietatibus Determinantium" (1841, "Concerning the Structure and Properties of Determinants").
A determinant is the value that is computed from a square matrix of numbers (a matrix having the same number of rows as columns) by a rule of combining products of the matrix entries and that characterizes the solvablitity of simultaneous linear equations. A determinant's absolute value can be interpreted as an area or volume.
A determinant is particularly useful in solving systems of (linear) equations and in the study of vectors. For a two-by-two matrix, the determinant is the product of the upper left and lower right terms minus the product of the lower left and upper right terms.
According to David E. Smith the theory of determinants may be said to have begun with the Chinese and for Western civilization with Leibniz in 1693 who like the Chinese considered these forms (matrices?) only with reference to simultaneous equations. Wih Jacobi the word "determinant" receives its final form.
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3023) William George Armstrong (Baron Armstrong) (CE 1810-1900), publishes several papers (1841-1843) on the electricity of steam. Armstrong is led to study the electricity caused by steam because of the experience of a colliery (KolYRE) (coal mine) engineman, who noticed that he received a sharp shock on exposing one hand to a jet of steam exiting from a boiler which his other hand was in contact with. Armstrong follows this study (in 1842) with the invention of the "hydro-electric" machine, a powerful generator of electricity, which Michael Faraday thinks worthy of careful investigation.
Wet steam which is pressed through a nozzle causes (the accumulation of static electricity). Although these machines cause good results, they are difficult to maintain. Because they are expensive, comparatively few are built and have survived in museum collections.
(I think this is interesting, because what causes the accumulation of electrical particles? Is it friction with air, or with metal, or both? Are atoms in the air and/or metal being knocked loose, perhaps separating into component parts?)
| Newcastle, England |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3052) Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle (HeNlu) (CE 1809-1885), German pathologist and anatomist, publishes "Allgemeine Anatomie "(1841; "General Anatomy"), the first systematic treatise of histology (a branch of anatomy that deals with the minute structure of animal and plant tissues as discernible with the microscope).
| (University of Zürich) Zürich, Germany |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3053) Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle (HeNlu) (CE 1809-1885), German pathologist and anatomist, publishes "Handbuch der rationellen Pathologie", (1846–53; 2 vols., "Handbook of Rational Pathology"). The Handbuch, describes diseased organs in relation to their normal physiological functions, and represents the beginning of modern pathology (the study of the essential nature of diseases and especially of the structural and functional changes produced by them).
This is the first time the study of diseased tissue is unified with the physiology of normal tissue. (Virchow will carry this down to the cellular stage.)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3077) Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, invents a carbon-zinc battery.
Instead of the expensive platinum electrode used in Grove's battery, Bunsen makes a carbon electrode. This leads to large scale use of the "Bunsen battery" in the production of arc-light and in electroplating.
Bunsen first uses this batter to produce an electric arc, and shows that from 44 cells a light equal to 1171.3 candles can be obtained with the consumption of one pound of zinc per hour.
(See image) Bunsen's battery is: Ceramic cell (V) contains a sulfuric acid solution (10%) in which an amalgamated zinc sheet wrapped to open ring (Z) is immersed. Another ceramic cell (D) containing nitric acid solution is inside of the zinc electrode. A carbon electrode (C) is inside of this nitric acid solution. Electrical contact (K) provides connection of the cathode. (explain flow of electrons and ions if any.)
| (University of Marburg), Marburg, Germany |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3128) Alexander Parkes (CE 1813-1890), English chemist, patents an electrometallurgical process that can electroplate delicate objects.
Parkes also gets a patent for an improved process in 1843. Parkes first dips the object to be electroplated in a solution of phosphorus contained in bisulfide of carbon, and then places it in nitrate of silver. Once covered with the nitrate of silver, the object is placed in yet another solution, which is connected to a battery. The result is a process by which a layer of copper, silver, or gold can be deposited on the object in varying amounts. When Prince Albert visits Elkingtons (the electroplating company Parkes works at, owned by George Elkington who had patented the first commercial electroplating process) Parkes presents Albert with a spider's web coated with a layer of silver. (How does the web stay intact, does this use metal in gas?)
Johann Wilhelm Ritter (CE 1776-1810) had discovered electroplating in 1800.
| Birmingham, England |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3158) Robert Remak (rAmoK or rAmaK?) (CE 1815-1865), German physician, first fully describes the process of cell division. Remak goes on to insist that the nucleus is a permanent feature of the cell even though the nucleus becomes less noticeable after cell division.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3159) Robert Remak (rAmoK or rAmaK?) (CE 1815-1865), German physician, in collaboration with Johannes Peter Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1801-1858), reduce Karl von Baer's four germ layers of embryos to three, by taking the two middle layers as only one, and name these layers "ectoderm" (outer skin), "mesoderm" (middle skin), and "endoderm" (inner skin).
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
159 YBN
[1841 AD]
| 3190) Rudolf Albert von Kölliker (KRLiKR) (CE 1817-1905), Swiss anatomist and physiologist demonstrates that the spermatozoa of invertebrates are cells.
Kölliker also suggests that the nucleus transmits inherited characteristics.
| (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
158 YBN
[03/30/1842 AD]
| 3171) First use of anesthesia (ether) for surgery. Crawford Williamson Long (CE 1815-1878), US physician, is the first to use an anesthetic in surgery. Long administers ether on a person before surgery in which Long removes a neck tumor. However, Long does not publish until 1849 after Morton and Jackson had already used anesthetic in surgery.
| Jefferson, Georgia |
158 YBN
[06/17/1842 AD]
| 2812) Joseph Henry (CE 1797-1878) describes (capacitor-inductor) electrical oscillation (the basis of alternating current and photon or wireless communication) in addition to reporting the basis of radio: that a spark can magnetize a needle over a distance of 7 or 8 miles, by electrical induction.
In 1827, Félix Savart had first described electrical oscillation of a Leyden jar connected to an inductor.
This will lead to alternating current and all photon or wireless communication. (state when and how)
Helmholtz and Hertz will use oscillating circuits which leads to the invention of photon communication also known as wireless.
Henry publishes this in "On Induction from Ordinary Electricity; and on the Oscillatory Discharge" in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. The full report reads as follows: " Professor henry, of Princeton, presented the record of a series of experiments on induction from ordinary electricity, as the fifth number of his Contributions ito Electricity and magnetism, which was referred to a Committee. Of these experiments he gave a verbal account, of which the following is the substance. In the third number of his Contributions he had shown on this subject: 1. That the discharge of a Leyden battery through a conductor developed, in an adjoining parallel conductor, an induced current, analogous to that which, under similar circumstances, is produced by a galvanic current. 2. That the direction of the induced current, as indicated by the polarity given to a steel needle, changes its sign with a change of distance of the two conductors, and also with a change in the quantity of the discharge of electricity. 3. That, when the induced current is made to act on a third conductor, a second induced current is delveoped, which can again develope another, and so on through a series of successive inductions, 4. That, when a plate of metal is interposed between any two of the consecutive conductors, the induced current is neutralized by the adverse action of a current in the plate.
The direction of the induced currents in all the author's experiments was indicated by the direction the polarity given to steel needles inclosed in a spiral, the wire of which formed part of the circuit. But some doubts were reasonably entertained of the true indications of the direction a current by this means; since M. Savary had published, in 1826, that, when several needles are placed at different distances above a wire through which the discharge of a Leyden battery is passed,they are magnetized in different directions, and that by constantly increasing increasing the discharge through a spiral, several reversions of the polarity of the contained needles are obtained. It was,therefore, very important, that the results obtained by M. Savary should be carefully studied; and accordingly the first experiments of the new series relate to the repetition of them. The author first attempted to obtain them by using needles of a larger size, Nos. 3 and 4, such as he had generally employed in all his previous experiments; but, althought nearly a thousand needles were magnetized in the course of the experiments, he did not succees in getting a single change in polarity. The needles were always magnetized in a direction confomable to the direction of the electrical discharge. When, however, very fine needles were employed, he did obtain several changes in the polarity in the case of the spiral by merely increasing the quantity of the electricity, while the direction of the discharge remained the same. This anomaly, which has remained so long unexplained, and which at first sight appears at variance with all our theoretical ideas of the connection of electricityh and magnetism, was, after considerable study, satisfactorily referred by the author to an action of the discharge of thee Leyden jar, which had never before been recognised. The discharge, whatever may be its nature, is not correctly represented (employing for simplicity the theory of Franklin) by the single tranfer of an imponderable fluid from one side of the jar to the other; the phenomena require us to admit the existence of a principal discharge in one direction, and then several reflex actions backward and forward, each more feeble than the preceding, until the equilibrium is obtained. All the facts are shown to be in accordance with this hypothesis, and a ready explanation is afforded by it of a number of phenomena which are to be found in the older works on electricity, but which have, until this time, remained unexplained. The same action is evidently connected with the induction of a current on its own conductor, in the case of an open circuit, such as that of the Leyden jar, in which the two ends of the conductor are separated by the thickness of the glass. And hence, if an induced current could be produced in this case, one should also be obtained in that of a second conductor, the ends of which are separated; and this was detected by attaching to the eneds of the open circuit, a quantity of insulated metal, or by connecting one end with the earth. The next part of the research relates relates to a new examination of the phenomena of the change in the direction of the induced currents with a change of distance, &c. These are shown to be due to the fact that the discharge from a jar does not produce a single induced current in one direction, but several successive currents in opposite directions. The effect on the needle is principally produced by two of these: the first is the most powerful, and in the adverse direction to that of the jar; the second is less powerful, and in the same direction with that of the jar. To explain the change of polarity, let us suppose the capacity of the needle to receive magnetism to be represented by +-10, while the power of the first induced current to produce magnetism is represented by -15, and that of the second by +12; then the needle will be magnetized to saturation or to -10 by the first induced current, and immediately afterwards all this magnetism will be neutralized by the adverse second induction, and a power of +2 will remain; so that the polarity of the needle in this case will indicate an induced current in the same direction as that of the jar. Next, let the conductors be so far separated, or the charge so much diminsihed, that the power of the first current to develope magnetism may be reduced to -8, while that of the second current is reduced to +6, the magnetic capacity of the needle remaining the same. It is evident, then, that the first current will magnetize the needle to -8, and that the second current will immediately afterwards neutralize 6 of this; and consequently the needle will retain a magnetism of -2, or will indicate an induced current in an opposite direction to that of the jar. In extending the researches relative to this part of the investigation, a remarkable result was obtained in regard to the distance at which inductive effects are produced by a very small quantity of electricity; a single spark from the prime conductor of the machine, of about an inch long, thrown on the end of a circuit of wire in an upper room, produced an induction sufficiently powerful to magnetize needles in a parallel circuit of wire placed in the cellar beneath, at a distance of thirty feet perpendicular, with two floors and ceiling each fourteen inches thick, intervening. The author is disposed to adopt the hypothesis of an electrical plenum, and from the foregoing experiment it would appear, that the transfer of a single spark is sufficient to disturb perceptibly the electricity of space throughout at least a cube of 400,000 feet of capacity; and, when it is considered that the magnetism of the needle is the result of the difference of two actions, it may be further inferred, that the diffusion of motion in this case is almost comparable with that of a spark from a flint and steel in the case of light. The author next alludes to a proposition which he advanced in the second number of his Contribution, namely, that the phenomena of dynamic induction may be referred to the known electrical laws, as given by the common theories of electricity; and he gives a number of experiments to illustrate the connection between statical and dynamical induction. The last part of the series of experiments relates to induced currents from atmospheric electricity. By a very simple arrangement, needle are strongly magnetized in the author's study, even when the flash is at the distance of seven or eight miles, and when the thunder is scarcely audible. On this principle, he proposes a simple self-registering electrometer, connected with an elevated exploring rod.".
(Notice that Henry explains the way that the Leyden jar is not an open circuit although conductors are separated by an insulator, the glass, by explaining that an induced current is produced in the conductor on the other side of the glass. Henry verifies this by connecting a piece of insulation and metal to the outside metal of a Leyden jar and measuring an induced current in the metal. Is this still the explanation for how current moves from one side to the other of a conductor? I was thinking that the current eventually reaches the other side when enough has accumulated in the insulated inside. Note also, that this transmitting of a spark, or induction over a long distance is exactly the principle of photon or radio communication, also known as wireless communication, and strong evidence that electrons may be photons or combinations of photons. Strictly speaking, Henry does not understand the principle that a Leyden jar and inductor connected together cause this oscillation. This will be first explained, possibly by Helmholtz 1847?)
| Princeton, NJ, USA |
158 YBN
[07/04/1842 AD]
| 5837) Jean-Daniel Colladon first describes the "light fountain" or "light pipe". This is the basis of fiber optic communication.
John Tyndall will include a demonstration of the light fountain in his public lectures in London 12 years later. Tyndall also will write about the property of total internal reflection in an introductory book about the nature of light in 1870: "When the light passes from air into water, the refracted ray is bent towards the perpendicular... When the ray passes from water to air it is bent from the perpendicular... If the angle which the ray in water encloses with the perpendicular to the surface be greater than 48 degrees, the ray will not quit the water at all: it will be totally reflected at the surface.... The angle which marks the limit where total reflection begins is called the limiting angle of the medium. For water this angle is 48°27', for flint glass it is 38°41', while for diamond it is 23°42'."
| Paris, France (presumably) |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 2733) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, invents the iron-based cyanotype method of photography.
| London, England (presumably) |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 2734) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, is first to photograph the spectra. (chronology)
This extends the pre-photographic work of Herschel's father William.
| London, England (presumably) |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 2798) Anders Adolf Retzius (reTSEuS) (CE 1796-1860), Swedish anatomist invents the cranial (or cephalic) index, the ratio of the skull width to skull height multiplied by 100.
Retzius uses this index for a (quick) preliminary indication of the race to which an individual belongs. A cranial index of less than 80 is called dolichocephalic ("long head"), one of over 80 he calls brachycephalic ("wide head"). In this way Retzius divides Europeans into Nordics (who are tall and dolichocephalic), Mediterraneans (short and dolichocephalic), and Alpines (short and brachycephalic). This is not a satisfactory criterion of race, but it is a starting point for other attempts to understand objectively differences between humans, important to understanding, for example the history of life.
Retzius also describes convolutions of the cerebral cortex ("gyri of Retzius"), a ligament in the ankle, and the veins running from the wall of the small intestine to the branches of the inferior vena cava. The inferior vena cava is the large vein that carries de-oxygenated blood from the lower half of the body and empties into the right atrium of the heart.
| Stockholm, Sweden |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 2923) Liebig examines the topic of animal heat and performs experiments concerning the heat emitted by animals. Helmholtz will pick up this line of research into the heat emitted by animals. This examination of the heat emitted by living objects will lead through Helmholtz to Pupin seeing thought in 1910.
(Baron ) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist attempts to explain the chemistry of digestion and tissue synthesis.
Liebig publishes "Die organische Chemie in ihrer Anwendung auf Physiologie und Pathologie" (1847, "Animal Chemistry or Organic Chemistry in Its Applications to Physiology and Pathology").
In this work Liebig speculates about how food is transformed into flesh and blood, and how tissues are degraded into animal heat, muscular work, secretions and excretions.
Liebig understands that carbohydrates and fats are the source of fuel for the body (most species/humans), and not carbon and hydrogen as Lavoisier had thought. (in this book?)
Liebig also understands that body heat arises from the oxidation of food.
Although many details are later shown to be wrong, this new approach of examining metabolism from a chemical viewpoint leads to decades of research.
Liebig claims that fermentation and putrefaction are the result of different organizations of the chemical components of substances, and so does not understand that fermentation only done by living organisms, mainly prokaryotes and protists. (chronology) Pasteur will demonstrate that vinegar produced by wine souring on contact with air results from the action of yeast.
| (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 2929) Christian Johann Doppler (DoPlR) (CE 1803-1853), Austrian physicist describes how the observed frequency of light and sound is affected by the relative motion of the source and the detector. This phenomenon will come to be called the "Doppler effect".
In 1842 Doppler publishes "Über das farbige Licht der Doppelsterne" (1842, "Concerning the Colored Light of Double Stars"), which contains Doppler's first statement of the Doppler effect.
(Get translation of work to determine what mistake if any Doppler makes about the shifting of light frequency that Fizeau corrects.)
Dopppler theorizes that since the pitch of sound from a moving source varies for a stationary observer, the color of the light from a star should change, according to the star's velocity relative to Earth.
Doppler describes the mathematical relationship between the pitch of a sound and the relative motion of the source and observer. A common example of the Doppler effect is the sound a car makes when driving by, which is a high pitch to a low pitch. When the source is approaching the sound waves include the motion of the source and so are closer together, and therefore the pitch is higher, and when the source is moving away, the sound waves are farther apart, and therefore the pitch is lower. Doppler's principle is tested experimentally in 1843 by Christoph Buys Ballot, who uses a train to pull trumpeters at different speeds past musicians who have perfect pitch.
Armand Fizeau (CE 1819-1896) will be the first in 1848 to suggest that this effect be used to determine the relative velocity of stars.
The fact that light from the most distant galaxies is red-shifted will imply to the majority of people that the red-shift is due completely from the relative velocity of source and observer, implying that all the distant galaxies are moving away from the Earth. My own opinion is that red-shift that results from the effect of gravity on particles of light is the reason why light from the more distant galaxies are all red-shifted, in particular when we see that there are galaxies like M31 whose light is blue-shifted, which implies that a similar situation must exist for the most distant galaxies too. Beyond that, there are problems with the physical interpretation of an expanding non-Euclidean space. For one thing, any curved surface must have thickness to accommodate galaxies. Beyond this the claims of infinite 4 dimensional space being curved and time-dilation are very doubtful in my opinion.
| (Prague Polytechnic, now Czech Technical University)Prague, Czech Republic |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 2937) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist is the first to use the word "dinosaur" ("terrible lizard").
| (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 3150) Julius Robert Mayer (MIR) (CE 1814-1878), German physicist, equates mechanical movement and the production of heat identifying the principle of "conservation of energy".
Mayer calculates the conversion coefficient of work to heat ("Joule constant").
Mayer finds that a weight of 1 gram falling 365 meters corresponds to heating 1 gram of water 1°C. This is equivalent to a value of 3.56 joules per calorie; the modern conversion factor is 4.18 joules per calorie.) In this way Mayer anticipates James Joule and Hermann von Helmholtz in their describing the law of conservation of energy.
Mayer publishes his value for the conversion coefficient of work to heat ("Joule's constant") in his first published paper "Bemerkungen über die Kräfte der unbelebten Natur" (Annalen der Chemie and Pharmacie, 1842, 42: 233-240), and the method Mayer uses to compute this constant is explained in his "Die organische Bewgung in ihrem Zusammenkange mil dem Stoffwechsel" (Heilbronn, 1845). Sadie Carnot was the earliest known to calculate this constant between 1824 and 1835.
(Conservation of energy is more specifically described as the conservation of mass and velocity of photons in my opinion. Another way of describing this is the "conservation of the force of gravity", although this is not as specific as conservation of mass and velocity.)
| Heilbronn, Germany |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 3152) (Sir) John Bennett Lawes (CE 1814-1900), English agricultural scientist, experiments with artificial fertilizers and patents the manufacture of superphosphate, by adding sulfuric acid to crushed bones.
Lawes shows that the phosphate in bones needs to be made more readily soluble in the soil for absorption by plants. Lawes achieves this by adding sulfuric acid to the crushed bones.
Lawes puts Liebig's chemical findings on the use of phosphorus to help plants grow into practice.
Lawes disproves Liebig's view that nitrogen is unnecessary in action of manures.
(Is this the first use of a chemically treated fertilizer?)
| Rothamsted, England |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 3156) Edward Forbes (CE 1815-1854), British naturalist, dredges a starfish from a quarter-mile depth of the Mediterranean Sea and this shows that life (may live) in the depths of the oceans on earth.
| Mediterranean Sea |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 3179) Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (lUDViK) (CE 1816-1895), German physiologist puts forward his theory that urine is formed by a filtration process in the kidneys. Later (1870) Ludwig modifies the original theory to give the basis of the modern theory of the formation of urine.
Ludwig's paper (1844) (1842?) on urine secretion, postulates that the surface layer, or epithelium, of the kidney tubules (known as glomeruli) serves as a passive filter in urine production, and that the rate of urine production is controlled by blood pressure.
Ludwig also introduces the measurement of nitrogen in the urine as an indication of the approximate rate of protein metabolism in the entire animal. (chronology)
At age twenty five Ludwig gives out the theory which becomes so famous that the urine is filtered through the walls of the glomerulus and is concentrated and modified by the absorption of water and some of the salts by osmosis. This purely physical theory is vigorously opposed by Heidenhain and other defenders of the Bowman-Wittish theory that the cells of the kidneys play an active part in secretion. Ludwig's view finds support in the researches of many of his pupils.
| (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 3284) The French optician Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours photographes the Sun for the first time in 1842, but no details are visible. Foucault and Fizeau will capture the first photograph of the Sun that shows detail, in particular sun spots in 1845.
| France (presumably) |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 3475) (Baron) William Thomson Kelvin (CE 1824-1907), Scottish mathematician and physicist, applies Fourier's theory of the motion of heat to the motion of electricity in "On the Uniform Motion of Heat in Homogeneous Solid Bodies, and its Connexion with the Mathematical Theory of Electricity" (1842).
Ohm had applied Fourier's theory of the motion of heat to electricity earlier in 1827. How do the two works compare?
Thomson attempts to envision the physical characteristics of the electrical fluid, and finds that if electricity is thought of as a fluid the parts of which exert only inverse-square forces on one another, then the electrical layer at the surface of a conductor can have no physical thickness at all. This result implies that electricity must be a set of point centers of force. Thomson attempts to restate the action-at-a-distance theory of Coloumb and Poisson and the theory of Faraday's, in which electrical induction occurs in curved lines of force without addressing the physical unobservable objects of electricity. This difference between action-at-a-distance and lines of force, I think is resolved by taking the Newtonian corpuscular view (and later that of Ernest Rutherford) of electric current as particles which exert and inverse distance squared force of attraction to each other, in addition to physical collisions with other particles. I view electric current as the result of particle collision: the chemical reaction of a battery creates a molecular chain reaction. The battery creates a hole in which particles from a medium such as a metal or gas are drawn in to replace and fill the hole. The resistance between the electrodes inside the battery is higher than the circuit medium metal or gas outside the battery, so the molecules in the medium separate and fill the space. In this chain reaction molecules are separated, one stream of particles moves one way, and the other moves the other way or one stream of particles moves one way and the other particles remain stationary relative to the stream. Static electrical repulsion at both positive and negative electrodes I think is the best argument in favor of two particles that, like acid and base (like Davy or Priestley had supposed - verify), they can combine with the opposite particles but only bounce off each other. When they combine they, release photons, and create a larger center of mass which gravitationally attracts other combined molecules, and a chain reaction occurs. In my opinion the physical phenomena involved are only gravity, physical structural molecule combination, and collision. But this is pure speculation and this and all other promising theories needs to be modeled and developed.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
158 YBN
[1842 AD]
| 5991) Frédéric François Chopin (CE 1810-1849) Polish-French composer and pianist, composes his famous "Polonaise in A-flat major" ("Heroic" or "Drum") Opus 53. Chopin is one of the creators of the typically romantic character piece. All of Chopin's works include the piano.
| Nohant, France |
157 YBN
[02/03/1843 AD]
| 2641) The United States Congress appropriates $10,000 to Samuel Morse (CE 1791-1872) to lay a telegraph wire from Washington, D.C. to Baltimore, Maryland (passing through and available to other cities on the way) which is a distance of 60 kilometers (35 miles).
Wires are attached by glass insulators to poles alongside a railroad.
(Notice, how the US citizens own this telegraph wire since this wire is funded by government.)
(Is this the first major and systematic telegraph network?) Very quickly after the development of the telegraph, a massive secret system will grow based on the storage of telegrams. Although much of this is speculation. All telegrams are secretly stored by the telegraph companies and filed by sender, and receiver. Friends of the telegraph owners are then allowed, for a price probably, to view the telegraph messages of people they are interested in. In addition, employees in the government, in particular military and police, probably routinely demand access to the telegraph messages libraries. Eventually these telegraphs will be stored electronically on plastic tape. With the telephone, this electronic plastic tape film library will grow and the telephone companies will store all audio messages in electronic format on plastic film. Eventually, the insider group of viewers of these messages, all connected by great wealth and friendship, will want to grow the recording of phone calls into recording the audio of people's conversations in their houses. And so the phone company expands this massive data collection effort, placing microphones in people's houses, perhaps together with employees of the government, and large construction companies. Many detail are unknown to we outsiders. This audio recording quickly adapts to electronic wired and wireless image recording, and in 1910 to thought image recording, 1911 thought sound recording, and possibly as early as 1912 image and sound sending devices, however the origin date of this last technology, remote wireless neuron activation, is not entirely clear.
| Washington DC, USA |
157 YBN
[06/??/1843 AD]
| 2394) Alexander Humboldt (CE 1769-1859) publishes "Asie Centrale" (1843) which describes Humboldt's exploration of Russia and Siberia, where Humboldt made geographic, geologic, and meteorologic observations of Central Asia.
| Paris, France |
157 YBN
[06/??/1843 AD]
| 2395) Alexander Humboldt (CE 1769-1859) publishes "Kosmos" (5 vol., 1845-1862; tr. 1849-1858) in German, which describes the structure of the universe as known at the time.
| Paris, France |
157 YBN
[08/21/1843 AD]
| 3239) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, publishes (1843) his value for the amount of work required to produce a unit of heat, called the mechanical equivalent of heat.
Joule writes that "I thus obtained one degree of heat per lb. of water from a mechanical force capable of raising about 770 lb. to the height of one foot".
Sadi Carnot had calculated this work-heat constant between 1824 and 1832. Robert Mayer had published a work-heat constant in 1842.
Joule publishes his results in "On the Calorific Effects of Magneto-electricity and on the Mechanical Value of Heat." (1843). Joule measures the heat from an inductor coil as being the same as the heat from a straight wire stating "the experiments afford decisive evidence that the heat evolved by the magneto-electrical machine is governed by the same laws as those which regulate the heat evolved by the voltaic apparatus, and exists also in the same quantity under comparable circumstances.". Even though the current through an inductor is pulsed as opposed to continuous in these experiments.
Joule measures the electric current and heat produced by an electrically rotated electromagnet between the poles of a powerful permanent magnet, the entire apparatus placed in a closed container of water. A battery composed of Daniell's cells rotates the electromagnet 600 rotations per minute for 15 minutes. Gain and loss in the temperature of water is then measured. Joule demonstrates that "the heat evolved by a bar of iron revolving between the poles of a magnet is proportional to the square of the inductive force.". Joule shows experimentally that "the heat evolved by a revolving bar of iron is proportional to the square of the magnetic influence to which it is exposed." Joule continues "After the preceding experiments there can be no doubt that heat would be evolved by the rotation of non-(permanent-)magnetic substances in proportion to their conducting power.". (I think this is saying that the heat is from the current through the wire not from the actual rotation - but verify). It seems to me as a novice, that Joule calculates the heat produces strictly from the current using a mathematical equation, as opposed to actually measuring it. Then the actual heat is subtracted from the quantity calculated as being due to the heat from the current.
In another experiment, Joule uses weights on a scale turned by the electromagnet rotated by electricity, and shows that "The quantity of heat capable of increasing the temperature of a pound of water by one degree of Fahrenheit's scale is equal to, and may be converted into, a mechanical force capable of raising 838 lb. to the perpendicular height of one foot.
As a post script to this work, Joule states that he has measured that "heat is evolved by the passage of water through narrow tubes.". Joule writes "My apparatus consisted of a piston perforated by a number of small holes, working in a cylindrical glass jar containing about 7 lb. of water. I thus obtained one degree of heat per lb. of water from a mechanical force capable of raising about 770 lb. to the height of one foot". Joule summarizes the conservation of energy concept stating "...whatever mechanical force is expended, an exact equivalent of heat is always obtained.". Joule theorizes in his conclusion: "I now venture to state more explicitly, that it is not precisely the attraction of affinity, but rather the mechanical force expended by the atoms in falling towards one another, which determines the intensity of the current, and consequently the quantity of heat evolved".
Joule spends 10 years of measuring the heat of many various processes, for example, the temperature of water at the top and bottom of a waterfall, thinking the movement of falling water should be converted to heat making the water at the bottom have a higher temperature than at top. Joule churns water and mercury with paddles and passes water through small holes to heat it by friction. Joule reports, as Thompson (Rumform) had stated 50 years before, that a quantity of work always produces the same quantity of heat. 41,800,000 ergs of work produce 1 calorie of heat (Joule's terms?), and is called the "mechanical equivalent of heat". Joule uses thermometers that can measure to 0.02ºF and eventually to 0.005ºF. Although Rumford and Mayer had tried to estimate the mechanical equivalent of heat, Joule's estimate is the most accurate for this time. In Joule's honor a unit of work in equal to 10,000,000 ergs and is called the "Joule" (4.18 Joules of work equal 1 calorie of heat). (I think equating movement and temperature is kind of abstract, and the particle moving and how temperature is measured need to be clearly defined, since temperature is measured by photons absorbed by mercury, for example, then is heat the velocity of those photons absorbed? the velocity of the photons only in the mercury? the velocity of the atoms of mercury relative to each other? How does quantity of photons and mercury atoms relate to temperature measured {which is the space occupied by atoms of mercury}? Clearly the coefficient of friction of two objects affects how much heat is produced. As is the question for Thompson's work, is the heat the velocity of the photons released or the quantity of photons released? or both?)
In the scientific theory duel between the theory of heat as a particle that cannot be created or destroyed, initiated by Lavoisier (date) and the theory of heat as movement (the velocity of particles), Joule takes the side of heat as movement which is currently the popular view. There are many classic scientific duels, light as a particle or wave, electricity as one fluid or two, etc. Some times the answer is a third apparently unrelated theory, but many times, new experiments lead to a new theory, which creates a duel with the existing theory, and slowly the new theory gains evidence for or against and overtakes the earlier theory in popularity. In my view, we live in a time, where classic mistakes have been accepted as true for a centuries, such as light is a wave, time dilation, and others.
(It's interesting that, theoretically, anything that is a heat source can be converted into work, and everything is a heat source since all matter emits photons. The key is using or converting the heat to mechanical turning or to electricity.)
| (read in Cork, Ireland experiments done in:) Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
157 YBN
[10/16/1843 AD]
| 3001) (Sir) William Rowan Hamilton (CE 1805-1865) discovers quaternions.
For many years Hamilton tries to construct a theory of triplets, analogous to the couplets of complex numbers, that would be applicable to the study of three-dimensional geometry. Then, on October 16, 1843, while walking with his wife beside the Royal Canal on his way to Dublin, Hamilton suddenly realizes that the solution does not lay in triplets but in quadruplets, which can produce a noncommutative four-dimensional algebra, the algebra of quaternions.
Hamilton publishes "Lectures on Quaternions" (1853) and a longer treatment, "Elements of Quaternions", remains unfinished at the time of his death.
Gauss had used imaginary numbers with real numbers as representing points on a plane. Hamilton extends this into three dimensions, but finds that he is unable to work out a self-consistent method, until realizing that the commutative law of multiplication (a x b = b x a) (simply) does not apply in this method.
Hamilton raised two questions: 1) Is there any other algebraic representation of complex numbers (a number of the form x + yi, in which x and y are real numbers and i is the imaginary unit so that i2 = -1) that will reveal all valid operations on them? and 2) Is it possible to find a complex number that is related to three-dimensional space just as a regular complex number is related to two-dimensional space? If such a complex number exists, there might be an alternative method of working with (for example transforming) points in three dimensional space.
Hamilton creates numbers of the form x + iy + jz with i2 = j2 = -1, calling these "triplets", and taking as its modulus x2 + y2 + z2. A modulus is the absolute value of a complex number, for example, for the number z = a + bi, the modulus is defined as |z| = (a2 + b2)0.5, and is equivalent to the calculation of the length of a two dimensional line with its second point at the origin (0,0). The product of two such moduli can be expressed as the sum of squares; but it is the sum of four squares not the sum of three squares, as would be the case if it were the modulus of a triplet. (show and explain more clearly) Obtaining four squares may have indicated to Hamilton that possibly ordered sets of four numbers, or "quaternions" might work where the triplets fail. Therefore Hamilton tests complex numbers of the form (a + ib + jc + kd) and finds that these do satisfy the law of the moduli, but only by sacrificing the commutative law. Hamilton realizes that commutativity is not necessary to still have a meaningful and consistent algebra. (This may be the first formulation of the equation for a three dimensional plane. An equation important for three dimensional modeling, in particular for light ray tracing to calculate where and at what angle a line of light intersects with a three dimensional object. Generally these equations now take the form of (Ax + By + Cz + D). If no, determine first written plane equation.) From this, Hamilton then creates the laws for multiplication of quaternions: ij = k = -ji, jk = i = -kj, ki = j = -ik, i2 = j2 = k2 = ijk = -1
Hamilton first publishes this discovery of quaternions as "On a new Species of Imaginary Quantities connected with a theory of Quaternions" in the "Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy" in 1844.
Hamilton and A. Cayley independently show that the quaternion operator rotates a vector around a given axis. P. G. Tair will publish "Elementary Treatise on Quaternions" (in 1867).
(Quaternions form an alternative to matrix multiplication in three and four dimensional (variable) graphical computer programs such as three dimensional games and modeling of matter in the universe. Quaternions are useful in doing three dimensional transforms such as rotation, translation, and scaling, in particular when animating a three dimensional model using three dimensional matrices to transform the points of the model. Unlike the technique of adding different rotations together by multiplying a number of rotation matrices together, for example, multiplying an x-axis rotation matrix with a y-axis rotation matrix, with quaternions, infinities and divisions by zero can be avoided. However, quaternions are less intuitive to use than regular matrix multiplication.)
| (Trinity College, at Dunsink Observatory) Dublin, Ireland |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 1614) Dominique François Jean Arago (oroGO) (CE 1786-1853) attempts to measure a difference in the speed of light through water and air using a rotating mirror.
| Paris, France |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 2615) Heinrich Samuel Schwabe (sVoBu) (CE 1789-1875), German astronomer, announces that sunspots increase and decrease in number according to a ten-year cycle (people since find that this cycle is actually eleven years). Schwabe announces this after 17 years of almost daily observations. Schwabe makes his observations in the hope of discovering a new planet between Mercury and the sun.
This sun spot cycle observation is ignored until Humboldt mentions it in his book "Kosmos" in 1851. (I have doubts about this claim, in particular after only 17 years of sunspot counts (not seeing the pattern repeat once) although apparently this has been confirmed as is accepted as true according to . I have heard since, that this is related to a regular periodic reversal of the Sun's magnetic poles.)
| Dessau, Germany (presumably) |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 2616) Heinrich Samuel Schwabe (sVoBu) (CE 1789-1875), makes (1831) the first known detailed drawing of the Great Red Spot on Jupiter.
| Dessau, Germany (presumably) |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 2801) Yttria (Y2O3) is the oxide of yttrium and was discovered by Johan Gadolin in 1794 in a gadolinite mineral from Ytterby. From Yttria, Mosander identifies four unique substances: yttrium, erbium, terbium, and didymium. The first three are named after Ytterby, the quarry the minerals are first located in, and the last element is named from the Greek word for "twin" because it is so like lanthanum. Didymium will be shown to actually be a mixture of two elements by Auer 40 years later.
Mosander shows that yttria, after all the ceria, lanthana, and didymia have been removed, still contains at least three other oxides (or earths), a colorless oxide, (which also happens to comprise the bulk of the crude mixture, typically about two-thirds) for which Mosander keeps the name "yttria", a yellow earth which Mosander names "erbia," and a rose-colored earth which Mosander names "terbia". (Later in the 1800s, both Erbia and Terbia are shown to be complex, although the names are retained for the most characteristic component of each.) So Mosander isolates yttrium, but erbia and terbia are two impure fractions.
A quarry is located near the village of Ytterby that yields many unusual minerals that contain rare earths and other elements. The elements erbium, terbium, ytterbium, and yttrium have all been named after this same small village.
Because of confusion arising from the similarity in the properties of the rare-earth elements, the names of two, terbium and erbium, will became interchanged (c. 1860). In addition the element names will be changed to the singular "erbium" and "terbium".
| (Caroline Medical Institute) Stockholm, Sweden |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 2924) (Baron) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist speculates that organic acids, such as malic, tartaric, and oxalic, are intermediates in a plant's production of carbohydrates.
| (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3092) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882), English-US chemist makes the first photographic plate of the solar spectrum.
Draper shows that spectral lines exist in the ultraviolet and infrared as well as the visible portion of the spectrum.
Draper also shows that some of the lines in the spectrum of sun light are from the earth's atmosphere. (more detail, how?)
| (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3133) Dr. William Montgomerie introduces gutta percha to the West. Gutta percha is a yellowish or brownish leathery material derived from the latex of certain trees in Malaysia, the South Pacific, and South America.
In Singapore in 1822 Montgomerie sees the use of gutta percha by workers to make handles for their machetes. Montgomerie sees that knife handles and medical devices can be made from the substance. In 1843, Montgomerie sends samples and refers his work to the Medical Board of Calcutta in India and The Royal Society of Arts in London. The Royal Society of Arts' awards him a gold medal in recognition of his discovery. The Royal Society of Arts holds an exhibition in London in 1843 displaying various local items made out of gutta percha from Malaysia, in order to make people realize the potential of gutta percha. Health science instruments are successfully manufactured from gutta percha in Paris around the mid-19th century.
Gutta percha, being made of latex, is an early plastic.
The formation of the Gutta-Percha Company, which begins producing cables in 1847, is a leap forward for submarine cables. Experiments in London demonstrate that the material can be molded after heating in hot water and that it retains its tough state on cooling. Michael Faraday discovers that gutta-percha is an excellent electrical insulator in water. The company uses a new machine that allows gutta-percha to be molded into sheaths wrapped around copper cores, so insulated metal wires are possible.
| Singapore (and London, England) |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3153) (Sir) John Bennett Lawes (CE 1814-1900), English agricultural scientist, opens a factory for the production of superphosphate (crushed bones treated by sulfuric acid), and starts the Rothamsted Experimental Station, the first agricultural research station in the world. Also in 1843, Lawes is joined by Joseph Henry Gilbert (CE 1817-1901), beginning a lifelong collaboration. Experiments are conducted on different fertilizers; crops which were normally grown in rotation are grown here year after year on the same plot using a variety of manures and fertilizers. Animal feed is also examined and varied to find the most economical and efficient. Well over 100 papers are produced by Lawes and Gilbert on their Rothamsted work.
By the 1870s Lawes is producing 40,000 tons of superphosphates a year using phosphate rock instead of bones.
| Rothamsted, England (factory at Deptford Creek, England |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3194) Hermann Franz Moritz Kopp (KuP) (CE 1817-1892), German physical chemist publishes "Geschichte der Chemie", 4 vol. (1843–47; "History of Chemistry"). This is the first complete, accurate, and readable history of chemistry.
Kopp measures boiling points, specific gravities (relative densities) and specific heats of organic (carbon based) substances. Kopp shows how these properties change in similar compounds when the length of the carbon atoms are increased. (chronology)
| (University of Giessen) Geissen, Germany |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3201) August Wilhelm von Hofmann (HOFmoN) (CE 1818-1892), German chemist establishes that many substances obtainable from coal tar naphtha and its derivatives are all of a single nitrogenous base, aniline.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3231) Emil Heinrich Du Bois-Reymond (DYUBWA rAmON) (CE 1818-1896), German physiologist finds that a stimulus applied to the electropositive surface of the nerve membrane causes a decrease in electrical potential at the point of stimulus and that this "point of reduced potential", the impulse, travels along the nerve as a "wave of relative negativity". Du Bois-Reymond demonstrates that this phenomenon of "negative variation" also occurs in striated muscle and is the primary cause of muscular contraction.
(So in this way), the action current (nerve impulses) are viewed as an "electrical impulse wave" which propagates at a fixed and relatively slow speed along the nerve fiber. In 1852, Hermann von Helmholtz (1821-1894) measures the speed of frog nerve impulses to be around 27 meters/s. Du Bois-Reymond, and later his pupil Julius Bernstein, continue this study.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3301) Thomas Drayton, English chemist, patents a process for silvering glass. Silver is precipitated by adding an alcoholic solution of oil of cassia to ammonia and silver nitrate. Foucault will use this to silver mirrors for telescopes. In 1834 Liebig had found that aldehydes can reduce silver salts to metallic silver. Drayton states in his patent: "eighteen grains of nitrate of silver are used for each square foot of glass.". This corresponds to a silver layer average of 760nm thick.
| London, England |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3326) Arthur Cayley (KAlE) (CE 1821-1895), English mathematician, with friend James Joseph Sylvester, establish "invariant theory", the study of various properties of forms that are unchanged (invariant) under some transformation, such as rotating or translating the coordinate axes.
Applying the theory of invariance to analytic geometry, showing that the order of points formed by intersecting lines is always invariant, regardless of any spatial transformation.
Cayley establishes invariant theory alongside work produced by his friend James Joseph Sylvester.
| London, England (presumably) |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3329) Arthur Cayley (KAlE) (CE 1821-1895), English mathematician, examines the properties of determinants formed around points in n-space (some number "n" of dimensions, or variables).
Cayley develops n-dimensional geometry which was initiated by Grassman.
Cayley avoids the highly physical interpretation of geometry typical of this time, which leads him to examination of an n-dimensional geometry.
| London, England (presumably) |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 3899) David Gruby (CE 1810-1898) discovers Microsporum, and other various microscopic fungi that produce skin diseases. Microsporum causes tinea (ring-worm) in humans.
Also in 1843 Gruby discovers and names Trypanosoma in the blood of the frog.
| (private practice) Paris, France |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 5990) (Jakob Ludwig) Felix Mendelssohn (-Bartholdy) (CE 1809-1847), composes his famous "Wedding March" from "Ein Sommernachtstraum" ("A Midsummer Night's Dream") opus 21/61, movement 10. (verify German title, opus numbers)
"A Midsummer Night’s Dream" is a comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written about 1595–96 and published in 1600 in a quarto edition from the author’s manuscript.
| Leipsig, Germany (presumably) |
157 YBN
[1843 AD]
| 6240) Remote controlled explosive.
Samuel Colt devises an electrically discharged naval mine which is the first publicly known device to use a remotely controlled explosive. Colt is famous for perfecting the revolver, a repeating firearm in 1835.
(Clearly both visible and invisible particle communication goes back many years, although much of this technology has been developed secretly.)
(Remotely controlled explosives will be used infamously to murder thousands of innocent people and destroy the World Trace Center buildings in 2001 by the Republicans in the United States.)
| Paterson, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
156 YBN
[05/01/1844 AD]
| 2643) The first official telegraph signal-announcing that Henry Clay is nominated by the Whig Party Convention (in Baltimore) as its candidate for President is sent along the incomplete Washington-Baltimore line from Annapolis Junction to the Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.. (Is this the first telegraph message of Earth?)
| Annapolis, Maryland, USA |
156 YBN
[05/24/1844 AD]
| 2644) Surrounded by an audience of Congressmen, Samuel Morse sends the first official telegraph from the Supreme Court Chamber, then located in the Capitol, to his partner, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore. Morse taps the message, "What hath God wrought!".
| Washington DC, USA |
156 YBN
[06/20/1844 AD]
| 3245) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889) performs experiments to measure the change in temperature of compressed and expanded air.
Joule publishes the results in a short paper "On the Changes of Temperature produced by the Rarefaction and Condensation of Air" in 1844, and a much larger paper under the same title in 1845.
In the second 1845 paper, Joule writes "Dr Cullen and Dr Darwin appear to have been the first who observed that the temperature of air is decreased by rarefaction and increased by condensation. Other philosophers have subsequently directed their attention to the subject. Dalton was however the first who succeeded in measuring the change of temperature with some degree of accuracy. By the employment of an exceedingly ingenious contrivance, that illustrious philosopher ascertained that about 50° of heat are evolved when air is compressed to one half of its original bulk, and that, on the other hand, 50° are absorbed by a corresponding rarefaction.".
| (Oak Field Whalley Range near) Manchester, England (presumably) |
156 YBN
[12/31/1844 AD]
| 3602) Alexander Bain (CE 1811-1877), machinist, invents an electric temperature alarm. This is a popular design in which mercury expands and completes an alarm-sounding circuit.
| London, England |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 2642) Samuel Morse (CE 1791-1872) builds a telegraph line over a 40 mile distance from Baltimore to Washington.
(These wires and telegraphs are the predecessor of the telephone, cable television, the Internet and all wired communication. Much of the later development of communication tools will be greedily and selfishly kept secret from the public, in particular the development of the electric movie camera in what must be the early 1900s, Michael Pupin's camera that can see thought, the cameras that decode the hearing of thought, the remote firing of neuron cells which leads to the development of sending images, sounds, and muscle movements remotely, and the miniaturization of these cameras and microphones, to only name a few major developments kept secret by an immoral and greedy elite.) (This single wire will grow to connect many millions of houses all together into a vast electrical circuit that covers the Earth. Initially dot and dash sounds are transmitted by a person tapping closed a circuit with the noise heard on the other end by a person listening to a speaker, spelling out letters and words, eventually sound is converted to an electrical signal, and signals of sounds will be sent over the very same wires and decoded back into sound again by a speaker at the destination, then images will be converted to electrical signals and decoded back into images by screens, and eventually neuron stimulation beams where the image and sound can be played directly onto the brain.)
(Presumably this is copper wire with no insulation.)
| Washington DC, USA |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 2676) Royal Earl House (CE 1814-1895), one of the founders of Western Union Telegraph Company, presents his letter printing telegraph machine.
Houses uses a sending machine with 28 piano-like keys. The black keys correspond to the letters A-N, and the white keys to the letters O-Z, the period and the hyphen ((-)). A revolving cylinder under the keyboard which catches on a tooth connected to the key which holds the cylinder until other parts revolve in alphabetical order until the correct letter is reached. The receiving machine has magnets that move an equal number of times, and when the letter arrives on the type wheel, a blackened silk ribbon and a paper tape are pressed against the letter, printing the letter on the tape. This device can transmit an average of 43 words per minute.
| New York City, New York, USA |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 2707) Faraday favors the atomic theory of Boscovich over that of Newton in "A Speculation Touching Electrical Conduction and the Nature of Matter".
Faraday expresses doubts about the traditional atomic theory based on the idea that in Faraday's view empty space cannot act as an insulator in insulators and a conductor in conductors. Faraday shows that conductivity is not related to density. Faraday writes explicitly: "the safest course appears to be to assume as little as possible, and in that respect the atoms of Boscovich appear to me to have a great advantage over the more usual notion. (Notice Faraday uses "more usual notion" and does not mention the name "Newton", whose model Boscovich's model is set against.) His atoms, if I understand aright, are mere centres of forces or powers, not particles of matter, in which the powers themselves reside. If in the ordinary view of atoms, we call the particle of matter away from the powers a, and the system of powers or forces in and around it m, then in Boscovich's theory a disappears, or is a mere mathematical point, whilst in the usual notion it is a little, unchangeable, impenetrable piece of matter, and m is an atmosphere of force grouped around it. In many of the hypothetical uses made of atoms, as in crystallography, chemistry, magnetism, &c, this difference in the assumption makes little or no alteration in the results, but in other cases, as of electric conduction, the nature of light (clearly here, Faraday does not recognize light as being corpuscular or particulate), the manner in which bodies combine to produce compounds, the effects of forces, as heat or electricity, upon matter, the differences will be very great."
(I argue that matter is the source of force, but collision also influences movement, so insulators are probably arranged so that particles cannot easily flow through them from one side to another, where conductors probably have empty space in an atomic lattice that allows particles to flow through. So in my view, conductor and insulator is determined more by atomic configuration and less by density. )
I think Faraday makes an unintuitive choice in supporting the wave theory lineage as opposed to the particle lineage, and being the pivotal person Faraday is, this choice may have in part if not entirely set the theme of erroneous rejection of all matter (including those in electric fields) as particles which continues even to this day.
Possibly some of this misunderstanding is from the lack of emphasis by Newton and later supporters of Newton's gravitational theory on the idea of collisions and a stronger defense of light as a particle made of matter. To me, stars and planets are a good analogy to atoms and photons. Clearly the Earth and stars are not simply matter-less "points". Another key is that Faraday doesn't recognize that an electric field is made of particles. Rutherford will define the electron.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 2795) Carl Ernst Claus (KloWZ) (CE 1796-1864), Russian chemist (of German origin), isolates a new metal he names "ruthenium" from the Latin name of Russia. Tennant and Wollaston had recognized dense, inert metals related to platinum in properties, of which only five were identified: platinum, osmium, iridium, palladium, and rhodium. From 900 grams of residue which remained from the process of extracting these known metals from ore, Clause isolates 6 grams of ruthenium, the sixth of these most dense of all atoms, inert metals.
Klaus showed that ruthenium oxide contains a new metal and obtains 6 grams of ruthenium from the part of crude platinum that is insoluble in aqua regia.
| St. Petersberg, Russia |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 2832) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, publishes the first book illustrated with photographic illustrations (photographs). The book, "The Pencil of Nature" (1844-46), is published in six installments, with 24 (of a proposed 50) plates.
One of the 24 photographs is a famous view of the boulevards in Paris.
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3047) Joseph Liouville (lYUVEL) (CE 1809-1882), French mathematician, shows that there are "transcendental numbers", numbers that cannot be the solution of any polynomial equation.
A polynomial is a mathematical expression in which each term is a constant times a product of one or more variables raised to powers. With only one variable the general form of a polynomial is a0xn+a1xn-1+a2xn-2+...+an-1x+an where n is a positive integer and a0, a1, a2,..., an are any numbers. An example of a polynomial in one variable is 11x4-3x3+7x2+x-8. The degree of a polynomial in one variable is the highest power of the variable appearing with a nonzero coefficient; in the example given above, the degree is 4.
Polynomials are sums of monomials of the form axn, where a (the coefficient) can (or must?) be any real number and n (the degree) must be whole numbers. Polynomials may contain any number of variables, provided that the power of each variable is a nonnegative integer. Polynomials are the basis of algebraic equation solving. Setting a polynomial equal to zero results in a polynomial equation; equating the polynomial expression to a variable results in a polynomial function, which is a particularly useful tool in modeling physical phenomena. Polynomial equations and functions can be analyzed completely by methods of algebra and calculus.
A transcendental number is an irrational number that is not algebraic, in the sense that a transcendental number is not the solution of an algebraic equation with rational-number coefficients. In other words, a transcendental number is an irrational number that is the root (the value of a variable) of no polynomial with rational-number coefficients. The numbers e and pi, as well as any algebraic number raised to the power of an irrational number, are transcendental numbers, (because they cannot be the solution, that is the value of the variable that provides a solution for any algebraic equation with rational-number coefficients, such as f=1.5x2+5.4). (verify: how are transcendental numbers different from irrational numbers? - irrational numbers cannot be represented as a ratio of two numbers, but how is that different from an irrational number that cannot be represented as the result of some equation?)
Liouville shows that e, an irrational number with a value of approximately 2.71828, and e2, cannot be the solution to any polynomial equation of the second degree. (Hermite will go on to show that e and all expressions containing e cannot be the solution of any polynomial equation of any degree.)
(What about simple equations such as e=x2 - x +e? Perhaps the view is that an irrational number cannot be used in a polynomial expression, although they can in similar non-polynomial irrational number accepted expressions.)
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3048) Hermann Günther Grassmann (CE 1809-1877), German mathematician, develops a general calculus of vectors, in his book "Die lineale Ausdehnungslehre, ein neuer Zweig der Mathematik" (1844; "The Theory of Linear Extension, a New Branch of Mathematics").
In this book, Grassman lays the foundation of vector analysis, and also initiates the study of spaces of any number of dimensions, called n-dimensional geometry.
Also in this work, Grassmann develops Gottfried Leibniz' idea of an algebra in which symbols representing geometric entities (such as points, lines, and planes) are manipulated according to certain rules. In certain circumstances this calculus is more powerful than earlier methods of coordinate geometry.
The Columbia Encyclopedia describes this new algebra of vectors as being somewhat similar to quaternions.
In this book modern scalar and vector products appear clearly defined for the first time.
Who introduces the word "metric" to describe a surface, and is the use of "metric" exactly identical to the use of the word "surface" or perhaps a so-called "continuous surface"? Encyclopedia Britannica defines a "metric space" as "In mathematics, a set of objects equipped with a concept of distance. The objects can be thought of as points in space, with the distance between points given by a distance formula, such that: (1) the distance from point A to point B is zero if and only if A and B are identical, (2) the distance from A to B is the same as from B to A, and (3) the distance from A to B plus that from B to C is greater than or equal to the distance from A to C (the triangle inequality). Two- and three-dimensional Euclidean spaces are metric spaces, as are inner product spaces, vector spaces, and certain topological spaces.". Encyclopedia Britannica catagorizes non-euclidean geometry under the title "topology".
| (Gymnasium in) Stettin, (Prussia now) Poland |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3062) Gabriel Gustav Valentin (VoleNTEN) (CE 1810-1883), German-Swiss physiologist, is the first person to describe the digestive activity of pancreatic juice. Valentin publishes this in "Lehrbuch der Physiologie des Menschen" (1844). (verify in this work)
| (University of Bern) Bern, Switzerland |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3078) Robert Wilhelm Eberhard Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, invents the grease-spot photometer (1844), in order to measure the quantity of light produced by his newly invented carbon-zinc electric cell.
Bunsen contributes to the foundations of photochemistry, in collaboration with H. E. Roscoe, determining the effect of light on the combining reactions of hydrogen and chlorine. This leads Bunsen to the first effort to estimate the radiant energy (perhaps quantity of light emitted per second?) of the sun.
A ten year collaboration with Sir Henry Roscoe began in 1852. Bunsen and Roscoe take equal volumes of gaseous hydrogen and chlorine and study the formation of HCl (hydrochloric acid), which occurs in specific relationship to the amount of light received. Their results show that the light radiated from the sun per minute is equivalent to the chemical energy of 25 x 1012 m3 of a hydrogen-chlorine mixture forming HCl.
| (University of Marburg), Marburg, Germany |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3185) Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli (nAGulE) (CE 1817-1891), Swiss botanist discovers the antheridia (reproductive structures in which male sex cells develop) and the spermatozoids of the fern.
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3236) Max Joseph von Pettenkofer (CE 1818-1901), German chemist, discovers the Pettenkofer color reaction for bile.
| (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3237) Max Joseph von Pettenkofer (CE 1818-1901), German chemist, identifies creatine, a nitrogenous component of muscle tissue, in human urine.
| (University of Geissen) Geissen, Germany |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3294) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), French physicist, is one of the first to make microphotographs.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 3898) Alfred Donné (CE 1801-1878) describes leukaemia, a condition in which large numbers of abnormal white cells accumulate. The causes of leukemia are unknown, an infection by an unknown virus is thought to be a likely cause.
Donné writes (translated from French) "There are conditions in which white cells seem to be in excess in the blood. I found this fact so many times, it is so evident in certain patients, that I cannot conceive the slightest doubt in this regard. One can find in some patients such a great number of these cells, that even the least experienced observer is greatly impressed. I had an opportunity of seeing these in a patient ...the blood of this patient showed such a number of white cells that I thought his blood was mixed with pus, but in the end, I was able to observe a clear-cut difference between these cells, and the white cells.".
| (Hotel dieu) Paris, France (verify) |
156 YBN
[1844 AD]
| 6243) First public demonstration of anesthesia (nitrous oxide) for surgery.
Crawford Williamson Long (CE 1815-1878), US physician, was the first to use an anesthetic (ether) in surgery but US dentist, Horace Wells (1815-1848), is the first to give a public demonstration of the use of anesthesia for surgery, when he extracts a tooth extraction under anesthesia, using nitrous oxide. US surgeon William Morton will witness this and go on to use ether as an anesthetic during surgery to remove a jaw tumor at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.
| Hartford, Connecticut, USA (presumably) |
155 YBN
[04/02/1845 AD]
| 3279) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), and Louis Fizeau (1819-1896), French physicists, capture the first photograph of the Sun that shows sunspots.
The exposure is 1/60 of a second. This image shows the umbra/penumbra structure of sunspots, as well as limb darkening.
(What filter is used if any? Perhaps just a fast exposure.)
The French optician Noël Marie Paymal Lerebours photographed the Sun for the first time in 1842, but no details were visible.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
155 YBN
[04/??/1845 AD]
| 2839) William Parsons, (Third Earl of Rosse) (CE 1800-1867), Irish astronomer recognizes the spiral shape of spiral galaxies (thought at the time to be nebulae).
In the year 1845, Parsons completes his 72 inch reflector telescope, the largest on Earth until the 100-inch reflector is installed in 1917 at the Mt. Wilson Observatory, California.
In April 1845, when Parsons points his new telescope to M51 for the first time, he discovers that the nebula has a spiral structure. Parsons creates the term "spiral nebula" and concludes (that the nebula is) an inner rotation of a large system "pretty well studded with stars".
| (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
155 YBN
[08/06/1845 AD]
| 3248) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, measures the heat from the friction of a paddle-wheel in water turned by rope on a pulley connected to a weight dropped to the ground.
Joule publishes this as "On the Existence of an Equivalent Relation between Heat and the ordinary Forms of Mechanical Power" (1845).
| (Oak Field, Whalley Range near) Manchester, England |
155 YBN
[09/18/1845 AD]
| 2713) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) finds that plane polarized light is rotated when passing through glass that is subjected to an electric (magnetic) field (now called the "Faraday effect").
Faraday passes a beam of plane-polarized light through the optical glass of high refractive index that Faraday had developed in the 1820s, and turns on an electromagnet so that its lines of force run parallel to the light ray. Faraday finds that the plane of polarization is rotated, which Faraday interprets as indicating a strain in the molecules of the glass. Faraday finds an unexpected result when he changes the direction of the ray of light, the rotation remains in the same direction, a fact that Faraday interprets as meaning that the strain is not in the molecules of the glass but in the magnetic lines of force. In Faraday's view, the direction of rotation of the plane of polarization depends only on the polarity of the lines of force and the glass serves only to detect the effect. (Perhaps the magnet orients the atoms of glass like iron filings align in a magnetic field, which changes their angle, and therefore the angle at which light reflects. I think this is evidence for polarization being a reflection phenomenon.) (Another simple classic experiment that would be fun to reproduce.)
This discovery leads Faraday to the theory that all matter must exhibit some response to a magnetic field, which leads to Faraday's finding of diamagnetic materials (molecules align perpendicular to lines of force) and paramagnetic materials (molecules align parallel to lines of force).
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
155 YBN
[09/??/1845 AD]
| 3266) John Couch Adams (CE 1819-1892), English astronomer submits a solution for the orbit of a new planet (Neptune) based on the perturbations in the orbit of Uranus, to James Challis, the director of the Cambridge Observatory, however Airy the astronomer royal does not immediate verify the claim. Twenty years before Bouvard had not accurately described the path of Uranus. In June 1846, the French astronomer, Urbain Leverrier, also announced the position of a new planet that is within one degree of the position predicted by Adams the previous year. Johann Gottfried Galle (GoLu) (CE 1812-1910) in the Berlin Observatory is the first to observe the planet Neptune on 09/23/1846.
| (Cambridge Observatory) Cambridge, England |
155 YBN
[12/24/1845 AD]
| 2714) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) discovers the property of paramagnetic material (objects whose molecular structures are parallel to lines of force) and diamagnetic material (objects who molecular structures are perpendicular to lines of force). Faraday finds that diamagnetic materials in powder form, such as bismuth, are repelled by magnetic poles (as opposed to materials like iron that are attracted to both magnetic poles) and as powder diamagnetic materials such as bismuth form diamagnetic lines of force, which are everywhere at 90 degrees to magnetic lines of force.
Michael Faraday finds that some substances, such as iron, nickel, cobalt, and oxygen, line up in a magnetic field so that the long axes of their crystalline or molecular structures are parallel to the lines of force; others lined up perpendicular to the lines of force. Those that are parallel to the lines of force move toward more intense magnetic fields while those perpendicular move toward regions of less magnetic force. Faraday names the parallel group paramagnetics and the perpendicular group diamagnetics. After more research Faraday concludes that paramagnetics are bodies that conduct magnetic lines of force better than the surrounding medium, where diamagnetics conduct lines of force less well than the surrounding medium.
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 2828) Christian Friedrich Schönbein (sOENBIN) (CE 1799-1868), German-Swiss chemist, invents nitrocellulose (guncotton), the first smokeless explosive.
Schönbein accidentally spills mixture of nitric and sulfuric acid in the kitchen of his house and quickly uses his wife's cotton apron to soak up the spilled acid. Schönbein then hangs the apron over the stove to dry. When the apron is dry it (explodes and) disappears. Experimenting further Schönbein finds that the acid mixture adds nitro groups (NO2) to the cellulose in the apron, forming nitrocellulose, and that this compound is very inflammable ((explosively or quickly flammable, quickly and easily separated in oxygen gas)), burning without smoke or residue. (Another way of describing this, is that the molecule is easily separated into its source photons, and in the chemical combustion reaction leaves very little mass in any other form. EX: This may be a good experiment to determine how much mass remains after the photons exit. One interesting property with this reaction is the very rapid speed of the chemical chain reactions.) Ordinary gunpowder is so smoky that it blackens gunners, fouls the cannon, and raises a dark cloud that hides the battlefield. So Schönbein recognizes the potential value of nitrocellulose and quickly patents it giving exclusive rights of manufacture to John Hall and Sons in Britain. However, nitrocellulose is very explosive and John Hall and Sons' factory at Faversham blows up in July 1847, killing 21 workers. Similar lethal explosions occur in France, Russia, and Germany. The properties of nitrocellulose are too valuable to abandon altogether: it is smokeless and four times more powerful than gunpowder; if properly controlled nitrocellulose is an ideal propellant. (Perhaps for rockets too?) Nitrocellulose will be finally modified by Frederick Abel and James Dewar later in the century in the forms of Poudre B and cordite, the first practical smokeless powder, and this will end the reign of gunpowder. (In addition, control of this new explosive will put a new powerfully destructive weapon into the hands of the owners.)
In 1838, Théophile Pelouze discovered that cotton could be made explosive by dipping the cotton in concentrated nitric acid, but failed to follow it up.
The introduction of smokeless powder in the 1880s makes it possible to convert the hand-cranked machine gun into an automatic weapon, primarily because smokeless powder's even combustion makes it possible to harness the recoil so as to work the bolt, expel the spent cartridge, and reload. Hiram Stevens Maxim of the United States is the first inventor to incorporate this effect in a weapon design.
| (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 2838) William Parsons, (Third Earl of Rosse) (CE 1800-1867), Irish astronomer builds a 36-inch reflector telescope, using a Speculum metal mirror.
| (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 2922) (Baron) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist experiments with chemical fertilizers.
Liebig is the first to experiment with fertilization by using chemical fertilizers instead of manure and other natural products.
Liebig experiments on a plot of land from 1845 until 1849 but has disappointing results. Fearful of his additives being leached away he uses a fertilizer too insoluble for the plants to absorb. Once this is corrected, Liebig demonstrates the power of minerals and nitrates in increasing crop yield.
Asimov states that the use of chemical fertilizers has greatly multiplied the food supply and has reduced epidemics by eliminating the use of manure. Understanding how to supply the needs of plants is helpful in particular when the necessary atoms can be processed from manure, feces, etc. and recycled.
| (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 2933) Karl Theodor Ernst von Siebold (ZEBOLT) (CE 1804-1885), German zoologist with Friedrich Hermann Stannius (CE 1808-1883) publishes "Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Anatomie" (1845-1848, "Textbook of Comparative Anatomy"). Siebold does the work on invertebrates and Stannius does the work on vertebrates.
Sielbold is the first to study cilia, showing that protists can use cilia (to move). 1845 Siebold describes protists as being single cells in his book on comparative anatomy. This view supports the cell theory advanced by Schleiden and Schwann.
| (University in) Freiburg, Germany |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3202) August Wilhelm von Hofmann (HOFmoN) (CE 1818-1892), German chemist derives analine from benzene and therefore creates one of the foundations of the synthetic dye industry.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3227) Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (KOLBu) (CE 1818-1884), German chemist synthesizes acetic acid (an organic molecule) from starting materials that are inorganic. This removes doubt about the truth of Wöhlers synthesis of urea (1828) and that the theory of vitalism is wrong.
Kolbe has the view that organic compounds can be derived from inorganic ones, directly or indirectly, by substitution processes. Kolbe confirms this theory by converting carbon disulfide (considered as an inorganic material), in several steps, to acetic acid (a typical organic compound). Before this organic chemistry had been devoted to compounds that occur only in living organisms.
Most chemists of the 1840s adhere to theories of organic radicals, according to which organic molecules are thought to be constructed of, and therefore resolvable into, subcomponent parts ("radicals") that can also exist independently. Kolbe is one of the early synthesizers of organic compounds. Kolbe introduces the word "synthesis" into chemistry.
Kolbe discovers trichloromethanesulfonic acid and nitromethane; predicts the existence of secondary and tertiary alcohols; synthesizes taurine, malonic acid, and potassium formate; and determines the composition of lactic acid, alanine, and glycocol. With Sir Edward Frankland Kolbe finds that nitriles can be hydrolyzed to the corresponding acids.
| (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3295) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), and Alfred Donné build a photo-electric microscope.
| Paris, France |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3362) Rudolph Carl Virchow (FiRKO) (CE 1821-1902), German pathologist, reports one of the two earliest descriptions of leukemia.
| (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3363) Rudolph Carl Virchow (FiRKO) (CE 1821-1902), German pathologist, publishes "Die Cellularpathologie in ihrer Begründung auf physiologische und pathologische Gewebenlehre" ("Cellular Pathology as Based upon Physiological and Pathological Histology"). In this book, Virchow makes the theory of cellular pathology of primary importance. This book is the result of 20 lectures Virchow gives.
Virchow explains that cell theory extends to diseased tissue, showing that cells of diseased tissue are descended from normal cells of ordinary tissue. Virchow therefore founds cellular pathology.
In this work Virchow coins the phrase "omnis cellula e cellula" ("every cell is derived from a cell") which was originally coined by François Vincent Raspail in 1825.
| (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3401) Robert William Thomson (CE 1822-1873), Scottish engineer patents an air filled (also inflatable or pneumatic) leather tire.
(Thomsen makes air-filled rubber tire?)
Robert William Thomson (CE 1822-1873), Scottish engineer patents a hollow leather tire filled with air. These "Aerial Wheels" run for 1,200 miles on an English brougham, however Thomson's solid-rubber tires are more popular. So for almost 50 years air-filled tires will be forgotten. During the growing popularity of the bicycle in the late 1800s John Boyd Dunlop in 1888 obtains patents on a pneumatic tire for bicycles. Pneumatic tires are first applied to motor vehicles by the French rubber manufacturer Michelin & Cie. For more than 60 years, pneumatic tires have inner tubes with compressed air and outer casings to protect the inner tubes. However, in the 1950s, tubeless tires reinforced by alternating layers (plies), of cord become standard on new automobiles.
This air-filled tire will change riding in a road vehicle from a constant stream of uncomfortable bumps to a quiet smooth ride by providing a cushion of air between the road and vehicle itself.
(State when the inflatable rubber tire is used for airplanes)
| London, England (presumably) |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3451) Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887), German physicist announces Kirchhoff's laws, which allows calculation of the currents, voltages, and resistances of electrical networks.
Kirchhoff's laws are two statements about multi-loop electric circuits are the product of the conservation of electricity, and are used to determine the value of the electric current in each branch of a circuit. Kirchoff's Current Law, the first rule, also known as the junction theorem, states that the sum of the currents into a specific junction in the circuit equals the sum of the currents out of the same junction. This is the result of the principle that electricity is conserved, (never being created or destroyed from empty space). This rule can be expressed as the summation of the currents for each junction. Kirchhoff's Voltage Law, the second rule, also known as the loop equation, states that around each loop in an electric circuit the sum of the emf's (electromotive forces, or voltages, of electricity sources such as batteries and generators) is equal to the sum of the potential drops, or voltages across each of the resistances, in the same loop. The voltage (also referred to as the energy) of the electricity sources given to the particles that carry the current is just equivalent to that lost by the charge carriers in useful work and heat dissipation around each loop of the circuit. This principle can be described by the equation where the sum of the voltage sources in a complete circuit equals the sum of the product of the current times resistance of a circuit. On the basis of Kirchhoff's two circuit rules, equations can be written involving each of the currents so that their values may be determined by an algebraic solution (for any given electrical circuit). Kirchhoff's circuit rules are also applicable to complex alternating-current circuits and with modifications to complex magnetic circuits.
Kichhoff extends the theory of the German physicist Georg Simon Ohm, generalizing the equations describing current flow to the case of electrical conductors in three dimensions.
This is the first paper by Kirchhoff and is the first in a series which treats plane current sheets. In this paper Kirchhoff deduces and applies the now well-known equations for the distribution of electric currents in conductors which are not linear. A nonlinear circuit component is an electrical device for which a change in applied voltage does not produce a proportional change in current. A nonlinear components is also known as nonlinear device or nonlinear element. Non-linear circuit objects (or elements) include inductors, capacitors, where resistors and wire are viewed as being linear (having resistance that increases linearly with distance).
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Prussia (now Germany) (presumably) |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3519) Nicolaus-Théodore Gobley (CE 1811-1876) discovers a fatty substance containing phosphorus in egg yolk and names this lecithin in 1850.
| (School of Pharmacy) Paris, France |
155 YBN
[1845 AD]
| 3660) Hermann Günther Grassmann (CE 1809-1877), German mathematician, gives a new expression for Ampere's force. This form of Ampere's equation is the most used to explain the phenomena of the attraction or repulsion of two wires with moving electric current. Grassmann defines the second derivative of this force as the cross product of current times the derivative of the length vector with the derivative of the magnetic field vector. (Note: There is no vector notation in the original paper.) (see image 1). There is some debate about the case when current in one part of a wire moves a second part of the same wire, for which Ampere's equation works, but Grassman's does not.
Grassmann writes (translated from German) in "A New Theory of Electrodynamics": " it is well known that the dynamic effects exerted by electric currents of magnets on other electric currents or magnets, as far as our observations have gone, may be explained on the basis of a single principle. but the extent of these observations, as I shall show, leaves room for discussion as to the basis on which the mutual interaction of two portions of a current is to be explained. When I submitted the explanation offered by Ampere for the interaction of two infinitely small current-sections on one another to a more exacting analysis, this explanation seemed to me a highly improbable one; and when I then tried to eliminate the arbitrary element in this explanation, another explanation occurred to me which was able to elucidate electrodynamic phenomena (in so far as they have at present been observed) with the same exactitude, and which seemed particularly likely to be correct in view of the simplicity of the fundamental formulae and of the complete similarity which it showed to all other dynamic forces. I have already indicated that this new explanation, when applied to all phenomena observed up to now, gives the same results as that of Ampere; but there exists a range of phenomena, on the other hand, for which the two explanations give diametrically opposed results: it is therefore these phenomena which must constitute the decisive ones as to which of the two explanations is to be regared as correct. The field in which such phenomena lie is that in which opposite electric charges are imposed (as by an electric machine) at the ends of a conductor, and so produce a current-flow. Experiments hitherto made in this field, in which the dynamic effects were expected to reveal themselves by deflection of a magnetic needle, for example, are entirely inadequate to reveal the difference between the two hypotheses; while other experiments which might be made for this purpose have up to now been confronted with serious difficulties. It seems to me, however, important to indicate the predictions which the two explanations offer, so that finer instruments and more accurate observations may subsequently indicate which is to be regarded as the more probable. ... ...". Grassmann describes Ampere's equation and then writes: " (3) The complicated form of this formula arouses suspicion, and the suspicion is heightened when an attempt is made to apply it. If, for example, the simplest case is considered, in which the circuit elements are parallel, so that ε=0 and α=β, the Ampere expression becomes (2-3cos2.ab/r2 from which it appears that, when cos2α is qual to 2/3 or, which comes to the same thing, cos 2α is equal to 1/3, that is if the position of the mid-point of the attracted element lies on the surface of a cone whose apex is at the attracting element, and who apex angle is arccos 1/3, there is no interaction; while for smaller angles there is repulsion, and for larger ones attraction. This is such an unlikely result, that the principle from which it is deriverd must come under the gravest suspicion and with it the supposition that the force in question must show an analogyu with all other forces. It must be concluded that there is little reason to apply this analogy to our present field. Since in the case of all other forces it is originally point elements, without any definite direction, which interact with each other, so that the mutual interaction must a priori be regarded as necessarily operating along the line connecting them, it is hard to see any justification for transferring this analogy to an entirely foreign field in which the elements are arranged in definite directions. The formula itself, which in no way resembles that for gravitational attraction, also indicates that there is no real analogy. ...". Grassmann then describes a circuit in which his and Ampere's equations produce opposite needle movement.
(I can't visualize the 3D orientation of currents that Grassmann is describing ... show in 3D.) (has anybody performed the experiment Grassmann suggests?)
| (Gymnasium in) Stettin, (Prussia now) Poland |
154 YBN
[05/??/1846 AD]
| 3298) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), and Louis Fizeau (1819-1896), French physicists, make a spectral map of the "caloric emission" (infrared) of the Sun using a tiny alcohol thermometer seen through a microscope (telescope) or magnified by projection onto a screen. This work shows that calorific rays are able to interfere like visible rays. The bulb of Foucault's and Fizeau's best thermometer has a diameter of only 1.1mm with the diameter of the expansion channel only .01mm. The alcohol rises by about 8 mm per degree centigrade. The liquid level is read using a microscope in which one division of the eyepiece scale corresponded to about 1/400 degree Celsius. A candle half a meter away causes a seven-division change in the thermometer. This scientific examination of detecting remote spectral lines in the infrared (heat), micro and radio frequencies will lead to the remote seeing of eyes and brain-generated images by Michael Pupin, by a number of accounts happening in 1910.
| Paris, France |
154 YBN
[09/03/1846 AD]
| 3101) (Sir) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist, publishes "On the Correlation of Physical Forces" (1846) which describes the principle of conservation of force, a year before the German physicist Hermann von Helmholtz does in his famous paper "Über die Erhaltung der Kraft" ("On the Conservation of Force").
This idea of conservation or correlation of force is similar to the later idea of conservation of energy which I view as more accurately described as two phenomena: the conservation of mass and the conservation of velocity. Many sources make an error in the view of presuming that Grove talks about conservation of energy, since the word "energy" does not appear in this book. Although, the concept of conservation of energy is the common term used for the same concept of conservation of force.
The main ideas of conservation of energy, Grove had already put forward in his lectures. Grove's main idea in this work is that each of the (so-called) forces of nature, light, heat, electricity, etc, (these are pieces of matter as opposed to forces) are definitely and equivalently convertible into any other, and that where experiment does not give the full equivalent, this is because the initial force has been dissipated, not lost, by conversion into other unrecognized forces.
According to Asimov, Grove is an early believer in the conservation of energy.
Thomas Young was the first person to use the word "energy" to describe the quantity mv2. (Energy is an abstract concept, when applied to mass and velocity, I see it as a composite quantity, the product of the conservation of mass and conservation of velocity, and as applied to potential energy, it seems to me to be purely a human-made concept, for example as applied to a ball on top of a hill, since there is no physical difference with the ball on the top or the bottom of a hill, any added "energy" is purely a human made concept. (In this example, perhaps the gravitational force felt by an object can be viewed as the equivalent of an objects potential energy). Another example is the idea that hot water has more energy than cold water, which in my view is more precisely stated that the matter in hot water has more velocity than an equal quantity of matter in the cold water. Perhaps the concept of energy has use, as does work, momentum and other cumulative products, but we should recognize the fundamental basis of these quantities.)
Grove writes: "Electricity and Magnetism afford us a very instructive example of the belief in secondary causation. Subsequent to the discovery by Oersted of Electro Magnetism and prior to that by Faraday of Magneto Electricity. Electricity and Magnetism were believed by the highest authorities to stand in the relation of cause and effect, ie electricity was regarded as the cause and magnetism as the effect, and where magnets existed without any apparent electrical currents to cause their magnetism, hypothetical currents have been supposed for the purpose of carrying out the causative view; but magnetism may now be said with equal truth to be the cause of electricity, and electrical currents may be referred to hypothetical magnetic lines; again if electricity cause magnetism and magnetism cause electricity, why then electricity causes electricity, which is absurd.
To take another instance which may render these positions more intelligible. By heating two bars of Bismuth and Antimony in contact a current of electricity is produced, and if their extremities be united by a fine wire the wire is heated. Now here the electricity in the metals is said to be caused by heat, and the heat in the wire to be caused by electricity and in a concrete sense this is true, but can we thence say abstractedly that heat is the cause of electricity or that electricity is the cause of heat? Certainly not, for if either be true both must be so, and the effect then becomes the cause of the cause or in other words a thing causes itself. If you will put any other proposition on this subject you will find it involve similar difficulties until at length your minds will become convinced that abstract secondary causation does not exist and that a search after essential causes is vain. The position which I seek to establish in this Essay is that the various imponderable agencies or the affections of matter which constitute the main objects of experimental physics viz Heat, Light, Electricity, Magnetism, Chemical Affinity, and Motion are all Correlative, or have a reciprocal dependence. That neither taken abstractedly can be said to be the essential or proximate cause of the others, but that either may as a force produce or be convertible into the other; thus heat may mediately or immediately produce electricity, electricity may produce heat, and so of the rest. The term Force although used in very different senses by different authors in its limited sense, may be defined as that which produces or resists Motion. Although strongly inclined to believe that the five other affections of matter which I have above named are and will ultimately be resolved into modes of motion, it would be going too far at present to assume their identity with it. I therefore use the term Force in reference to them as meaning that active principle inseparable from matter which induces its various changes."
(Here I think Groves mistakes light as being a motion. I view light, heat, and electricity {and therefore magnetism} as particles of matter with velocity that is the result of gravity, and/or collision - so I view the universe as having the singular force of gravity, with a collective multiparticle effect of heat and electricity. Still, the velocities obtained from gravity cancel out in the sense that any velocity that arises as a result of gravity is directly oppositely matched in the exact same quantity of matter elsewhere, although the absolute magnitude {absolute value} of those velocities {summed together} is added to the universe {is not 0}, being set in exactly opposite directions, makes the summed velocities equal zero. If the universe is viewed as matter obtaining constantly added {absolute} velocities from the force of gravity, which I reject since each velocity is set against an exactly negative velocity {just as the Sun attracts the Earth, so the Earth applies an exactly opposite velocity to the Sun}, velocities would tend to increase, but because there is a limit on the force of gravity between two photons that collide or orbit from some closest distance, there is a finite top velocity for any photon or group of photons.)
This phenomenon of cause and effect, in other words reversible operations, appears to be a central theme in the thoughts of Grove.
| London, England |
154 YBN
[09/23/1846 AD]
| 3073) German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle (GoLu) (CE 1812-1910) finds the planet Neptune after only only an hour of searching, using the predicted location given to Galle by Le Verrier. Galle finds Neptune within 1 degree of the position calculated by Le Verrier.
| Berlin, Germany (and Paris, France) |
154 YBN
[09/??/1846 AD]
| 3268) Elias Howe (CE 1819-1867) patents a sewing machine.
English cabinetmaker Thomas Saint obtained the first patent for a sewing machine in 1790. In 1807, William and Edward Chapman in England patent a sewing machine that uses a needle with an eye in the point of the needle instead of at the top. In the USA, Walter Hunt makes a machine with an eye-pointed needle that creates a locked stitch with a second thread from underneath in 1834 but does not patent it.
Howe demonstrates the value of his machine by racing against 5 people sewing by hand and winning. Howe fights through the courts and his patent is established in 1854, and others pay a licensing fee. Howe leaves an estate of two million dollars.
| Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
154 YBN
[10/10/1846 AD]
| 2824) The name "Triton" is suggested by Flammarion. 339] In 1844, interested in astronomy, Lassell begins construction of a 24-inch reflecting telescope, using a machine of his own design for polishing the mirror. This telescope, is the first of its size to be set in an equatorial mounting. Lassell adds improvements in design learned from grinding his own lenses. Knowing that Lassell would never be able to work the 24 inch mirror-weighing nearly 500 pounds by hand, Lassell devises a steam-driven grinding and polishing machine. This machine, which was built by Lassell's fellow amateur astronomer, and professional ironmaster, James Nasmyth of Patricroft, Manchester, is the ancestor of all subsequent large-scale optical polishing machines. Lassell finds Triton only 17 days after Neptune itself has been discovered.
Lassell also discovers 4 NGC objects.
| (Starfield Observatory) Liverpool, England |
154 YBN
[10/??/1846 AD]
| 3022) Augustus De Morgan (CE 1806-1871), English mathematician creates "De Morgan's Laws", a pair of related theorems that make possible the transformation of statements and formulas into alternate, and often more convenient, forms. Known verbally by William of Ockham in the 1300s, the laws are investigated thoroughly and expressed mathematically by De Morgan. These two laws are: (1) the negation (or contradictory) of a disjunction is equal to the conjunction of the negation of the alternates. In other words: not (p or q) equals not p and not q and (2) the negation of a conjunction is equal to the disjunction of the negation of the original conjuncts. in other words: not (p and q) equals not p or not q
De Morgan publishes these in "Transactions of the Cambridge Philosophical Society" (vol. viii. No. 29). (verify)
Beyond this De Morgan develops the field of logic, in particular in the use of statements, of "some" as opposed to "all" or "none", for example, statements such as "some x's are y's", as in "some stars are yellow". This serves as a foundation for Boole who makes a wider and more systematic development of what will be called symbolic logic.
De Morgan's work leads to the development of the theory of relations and the rise of modern symbolic, or mathematical, logic.
| (University College) London, England |
154 YBN
[12/12/1846 AD]
| 3601) The Morse and other telegraph instruments in use are comparatively slow in speed because of the mechanical movement of the parts. Bain understands that if the signal currents are made to pass through a band of traveling paper, soaked in a solution, which then decomposes leaving a legible mark, a very high speed can be obtained. The chemical Bain uses to saturate the paper is a solution of nitrate of ammonia and prussiate of potash, which leaves a blue stain on being decomposed by the current from an iron contact or stylus. The signals are the short and long, or "dots" and "dashes" of the Morse code. The speed of marking is so fast that hand signaling can not keep up with it and so Bain devises a plan of automatic signaling by using a running band of paper on which the signals of the message are represented by holes punched through it. When this tape is passed between the contact of a signaling key the current only flows when the perforations allow the contacts of the key to touch. This principle will be later applied by Wheatstone in the construction of his automatic sender. This chemical telegraph is tried between Paris and Lille before a committee of the Institute and the Legislative Assembly. The speed of signaling attained is 282 words in fifty two seconds, a marvelous advance on the Morse electro-magnetic instrument which only gives about forty words a minute. In the hands of Edison the neglected method of Bain will be seen by Sir William Thomson in the Centennial Exhibition, Philadelphia, recording at the rate of 1057 words in fifty seven seconds. In England the telegraph of Bain is used on the lines of the old Electric Telegraph Company to a limited extent, and in the USA, around the year 1850, this chemical telegraph is taken up by the energetic Mr Henry O'Reilly and widely introduced. But this incurs the hostility of Morse who obtains an injunction against the telegraph on the slender ground that the running paper and alphabet used are covered by his patent. (As a note, this is absurd, since Morse did not invent the first electro-magnetic telegraph, Babbage had already used running paper, and O'Reilly could simply use the baudot or some other code. But then it is clear that these devices were used secretly, perhaps it was some paid-for scam by Morse to trick the public as he corned the market on image sending and receiving. Morse simply buys the company, files a frivolous court case he will drop, and then pays for newspaper stories telling this story of patent infringement. This case went to the US supreme court. Clearly the courts and other system run mainly on money and philosophical connections with corrupt camera insider networks, which Morse must have dominated with, because he obviously has no claim to the telegraph - although does for the code.) By 1859, Taliaferro Shaffner reports, that there is only one line in the US using the Bain system, that from Boston to Montreal. Since those days of rivalry, the apparatus has never become in general use, (notice the military connotation of 'general') and it is not easy to understand why considering its very high speed the chemical telegraph does not become used publicly by Morse. (It seems clear that Morse wants to slow down the public's access to technology, perhaps in conjunction with people in the military. They clearly must use this image sending and printing device, but they keep it from the public's use - to be used, perhaps only by a select group of people.)
So the perforated message is moved vertically while the pendulum swings horizontally. The transmitting device and receiving device are synced together to start at the top left of the sending and receiving image.
Bain is credited with the idea of scanning an image, so it can be broken up into small parts for transmission. His invention also draws attention to the need for synchronisation between the transmitter and the receiver in order for the transmission system to work.
The apparatus which Bain has earned most credit is the device that Leverrier and Lardner show before the committees of the Institute and Legislative Assembly at Paris [t chronology], in which a band of paper, punched with groups of holes forming letters, is passed between a metal roller and contact-so that the point falls through the holes and comes in contact with the top of the cylinder, thereby closing the line. The messages are received on a strip of chemically prepared paper passed between a style and metal cylinder.
This device is also known as a "chemical telegraph". Another advantage to these machines is that they are more quiet than the electro-magnet telegraphs, although they need an alarm to notify the operator. Harrison Gray Dyar (CE 1805-1875) had constructed a similar electrochemical telegraph in 1827, the first known electronic dot printer, which discolors paper.
The earliest known use of a roll of perforated paper is 1725 by Basile Bouchon to control textile looms in France.
In theory low resolution images could be perforated into paper. But were lo resolution drawings sent? It is hard to believe that this same passing current method could use the conducting of silver of photographs to transmit copies of photographs. EXPERIMENT: Can a gelatino-silver-bromide photo pass and block electricity? Or perhaps complete a tiny circuit between two metal points?[t]
It may very well be that this record belongs to more of a "re-inventing", and/or "telling the public about secret technology" than actual scientific innovation. It is hard to know for sure. Possibly Bain is an outsider who re-invented a device that had been secretly used decades before by wealthy people. It makes sense in that Bain is a poor mechanist as opposed to a wealthy connected person like Wheatstone.[t]
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 2603) Jacques Boucher de Crévecoeur de Perthes (BUsA Du KreVKUR Du PeRT) (CE 1788-1868) publishes his findings axes in 10,000 year old gravels. This book causes a lot of excitement. In England the work of Lyell has displaced the views of Cuvier, but in France the followers of Cuvier, catastrophists, cannot accept that human fossils and artifacts might be many thousands of years old, to be more than 6000 years old is to reject the story of Creation from the Bible.
In 1859, the year that Darwin's "Origin of Species" is published. Several English scientists, including Lyell travel to France, visit the places Boucher found the axes and support Boucher's story. The Royal Society then officially accepts the antiquity of humans as established. This find will contribute to the the most controversial area of evolutionary theory, the descent of humans.
| Abbeville, France (presumably) |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 2716) Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) gives a lecture "Thoughts on Ray Vibrations", in which he questions if gravity propagates with a finite velocity, and theorizes about a connection between light and electromagnetism. specifically referring to point atoms and their infinite fields of force (this theory is similar to the alternative theory of gravitation put forward by Ruggero Boscovich in 1745), Faraday suggests that the lines of electric and magnetic force associated with these atoms might serve as the medium by which light waves were propagated. Many years later, Maxwell will build his electromagnetic field theory on this speculation. (In my view Maxwell and Faraday have the idea backward, presuming light to be produced from electricity and magnetism, as opposed to electricity and magnetism being produced by particles of light.) (But what material if any is the medium made of?)
Unlike his contemporaries, Faraday is not convinced that electricity is a material fluid that flows through wires like water through a pipe. Instead, Faraday thinks of electricity as a vibration or force that is somehow transmitted as the result of tensions created in the conductor.(citation?)
James Clerk Maxwell will write in "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" that "The conception of the propagation of transverse magnetic disturbances to the exclusion of normal ones is distinctly set forth by Professor Faraday in his 'Thoughts on Ray Vibrations.' The electromagnetic theory of light, as proposed by him, is the same in substance as that which I have begun to develope in this paper, except that in 1846 there were no data to calculate the velocity of propagation.".
(Notice also the prominent use of the word "Thoughts" in the title "Thoughts on Ray Vibrations" - perhaps a clue that eye and thought images were already being seen by 1846, which is tenable with the estimated date of 1810 for seeing eyes and brain images.)
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 2944) Wilhelm Eduard Weber (CE 1804-1891), German physicist introduces a logical system of units for electricity (just as Gauss had introduced a logical system of units for magnetism). Weber also establishes a theory for electricity summarized with what will be called "Weber's Law", which is a force equation with the goal of unifying Coulomb's equation for static electrical force (1785), Ampere's equation for moving electric force (1826), and Faraday's law of induction (1831) into a single theory and equation. Weber theorizes that the electrical force between two electrical particles reduces as the relative velocity between the particles increases.
Weber's electrical units will be officially accepted at an international congress in Paris in 1881. Gauss had introduced a logical arrangement of units for magnetism involving the basic units of mass, length, and time. Weber repeats this for electricity.
Weber publishes this in "Elektrodynamische Maasbestimmungen: über ein allgemeines Grundgesetz der elektrischen Wirkung" ("Determinations of Electrodynamic Measure, Concerning a Universal Law of Electrical Action", 1846).
Weber begins: "The electrical fluids, when they are moved in ponderable bodies, cause reciprocal actions on the part of the molecules of these ponderable bodies, from which all galvanic and electrodynamic phenomena arise. These reciprocal actions of the ponderable bodies, which are dependent upon the motions of the electrical fluids, are to be divided into two classes, whose differentiation is essential to the more precise investigation of the laws, namely, (1) such reciprocal actions which those molecules exert upon one other, when the distance between them is immeasurably small, and which one can designate galvanic or electrodynamic molecular forces, because they occur in the interior of the bodies through which the galvanic current flows; and (2) such reciprocal actions which those molecules exert upon one another, if the distance between them is measurable, and which one can designate galvanic or electrodynamic forces acting at a distance (in inverse proportion to the square of the distance). These latter forces also operate between the molecules which belong to two different bodies, for instance, two conducting wires. One may easily see, that for a complete investigation of the laws of the first class of reciprocal actions, a more precise knowledge is required of molecular relationships inside the ponderable bodies than we currently possess, and that without it, one could not hope to bring the investigation of this class of reciprocal actions to a full conclusion by establishing complete and general laws. The case is different, on the other hand, with the second class of galvanic or electrodynamic reciprocal actions, whose laws can be sought in the forces which two ponderable bodies, through which the electrical fluids are moving, exert upon each other in a precisely measurable position and distance with respect to one another, without it being necessary to presuppose that the internal molecular relationships of those ponderable bodies are known. From these two classes of reciprocal actions, which were discovered by Galvani and Ampère, a third class must meanwhile be fully distinguished, namely, the electromagnetic reciprocal actions, discovered by Oersted, which take place between the molecules of two ponderable bodies at a measurable distance from each other, when in the one the electrical fluids are put into motion, while in the other the magnetic fluids are separated. This distinction between electromagnetic and electrodynamic phenomena is necessary for presenting the laws, so long as Ampère's conception of the essence of magnetism has not fully supplanted the older and more customary conception of the actual existence of magnetic fluids. Ampère himself gave expression to the essential distinction to be made between these two classes of reciprocal actions in the following way: "As soon as Mr. Oersted had discovered the force which the conducting wire exerted on the magnet," he said on page 285 of his Treatise, {fn: Mémoire sur la théorie mathématique des phénomènes électrodynamiques uniquement déduite de l'expérience. Mémeoires de l'académie royale des sciences de l'institut de France, 1823.} "one could in fact suspect that a reciprocal action might exist between two conducting wires. But this was not a necessary consequence of that famous physicist's discovery: for a soft iron bar also acts upon a magnetic needle, without, however, any reciprocal action occurring between two soft iron bars. As long as one knew simply the fact of the deflection of the magnetic needle by the conducting wire, could one not assume, that the electrical current simply imparted to this conducting wire the property of being influenced by the magnetic needle, in a way similar to that in which the soft iron was influenced by the same needle, for which it sufficed that it {the wire} acted on the needle, without any sort of effect resulting thereby between two conducting wires, if they were withdrawn from the influence of magnetic bodies? Simple experimentation could answer the question: I carried it out in September 1820, and the reciprocal action of the voltaic conductors was proven." Ampère rigorously develops this distinction in his Treatise, declaring that it is necessary for the laws of reciprocal action discovered by himself and Oersted to be separately and completely derived, each by itself, from experimental evidence. After he has spoken of the difficulties of precisely observing the reciprocal action of the conducting wires, he says on page 183, loc. cit.: "It is true that one meets with no such difficulties, when one measures the effect of a conducting wire on a magnet; however, this method cannot be used when it is a matter of determining the forces which two voltaic conductors exert upon each other. In fact, it becomes clear, that if the action of a conducting wire on a magnet, proceeds from a cause other than that which occurs between two conducting wires, the experiments made on the former would prove nothing at all with respect to the latter." From this, it becomes clear, that even if many fine experiments have been conducted more recently in further pursuit of Oersted’s discovery, nothing has directly occurred yet toward further pursuit of Ampère's discovery, and that this requires specific and unusual experiments which hitherto have been sorely lacking. Ampère's classic work itself is concerned only in a lesser way with the phenomena and laws of the reciprocal action of the conducting wires vis-à-vis each other, while the larger part is devoted to the development and application of his conception of magnetism, based on those laws. Nor did he consider his work on the reciprocal action between two conducting wires as in any way complete and final, either from an experimental or theoretical standpoint, but on the contrary, repeatedly drew attention to what remained to be done in both connections. He states on page 181 of the cited Treatise, that in order to derive the laws of reciprocal action between two conducting wires from experimental evidence, one can proceed in two different ways, of which he could pursue only one, and presents the reasons which kept him from attempting the other way, the most essential being the lack of precise measuring instruments, free of indeterminable foreign influences. "There is, moreover," he says on page 182 f., loc. cit., "a far more decisive reason, namely, the limitless difficulties of the experiments, if, for example, one intended to measure these forces by means of the number of vibrations of a body subjected to their influence. These difficulties arise from the fact that, when one causes a fixed conductor to act on a moveable part of a voltaic circuit those parts of the apparatus, which are necessary to connect it to the dry battery, have an effect on this moveable part as well as the fixed conductor, and thus destroy the results of the experiments." Likewise, Ampère repeatedly drew attention to what remains to be done from the theoretical standpoint. For example, he says on page 299, after showing that it is impossible to account for the reciprocal action of the conducting wires on each other, by means of a certain distribution of static electricity in the conducting wires: "If one assumes, on the contrary, that the electrical particles in the conducting wires, set in motion by the influence of the battery, continually change their position, at every moment combining in a neutral fluid, separating again, and immediately recombining with other particles of the fluid of the opposite kind, then there exists no contradiction in assuming that from the influences which each particle exerts in inverse proportion to the square of the distance, a force could result, which did not depend solely upon their distances, but also on the alignments of the two elements, along which the electrical particles move, combine with molecules of the opposite kind, and instantly separate, in order to combine again with others. The force which then develops, and for which the experiments and calculations discussed in this Treatise have given me the quantitative data, depends, however, directly and indeed exclusively, on this distance and these alignments." "If it were possible," Ampère continued on page 301, "to prove on the basis of this consideration, that the reciprocal action of two elements were in fact proportional according to the formula with which I have described it, then this account of the fundamental fact of the entire theory of electrodynamic phenomena would obviously have to be preferred to every other theory; it would, however, require investigations with which I have had no time to occupy myself, any more than with the still more difficult investigations which one would have to undertake in order to ascertain whether the opposing explanation, whereby one attributes electrodynamic phenomena to motions imparted by the electrical currents of the ether, could lead to the same formula." Ampère did not continue these investigations, nor has anyone else published anything to date, from either the experimental or theoretical side, concerning further investigations, and since Ampère, science has come to a halt in this area, with the exception of Faraday's discovery of the phenomena of galvanic currents induced in a conducting wire when a nearby galvanic current is increased, weakened, or displaced. This neglect of electrodynamics since Ampère, is not to be considered a consequence of attributing less importance to the fundamental phenomenon discovered by Ampère, than to those discovered by Galvani and Oersted, but rather it results from dread of the great difficulty of the experiments, which are very hard to carry out with present equipment, and no experiments were susceptible of such manifold and exact determinations as the electromagnetic ones. To remove these difficulties for the future, is the purpose of the work to be presented here, in which I will chiefly confine myself to the consideration of purely galvanic and electrodynamic reciprocal actions at a distance. Ampère characterized his mathematical theory of electrodynamic phenomena in the title of his Treatise as derived solely from experimental results, and one finds in the Treatise itself the simple, ingenious method developed in detail, which he used for this purpose. In it, one finds the experiments he selected and their significance for the theory discussed in detail, and the instruments for carrying them out fully and precisely described; but an exact description of the experiments themselves is missing. With such fundamental experiments, it does not suffice to state their purpose and describe the instruments with which they are conducted, and add a general assurance that they were accompanied by the expected results, but it is also necessary to go into the details of the experiments more precisely, and to state how often each experiment was repeated, what changes were made, and what influence those changes had, in short, to communicate in protocol form, all data which contribute to establishing a judgment about the degree of reliability or certainty of the result. Ampère did not make these kinds of more specific statements about the experiments, and they are still missing from the completion of an actual direct proof of the fundamental electrodynamic law. The fact of the reciprocal action of conducting wires has indeed been generally placed beyond doubt through frequently repeated experiments, but only with such equipment and under such conditions, that quantitative determinations are out of the question, not to speak of the possibility that these determinations could achieve the rigor required to consider the law of those phenomena as empirically proven. Now, Ampère, of course, more frequently made use of the absence of electrodynamic effects which he observed, similar to the use of measurements which yield the result = 0, and, by means of this expedient, he attempted, with great acuity and skill, to obtain the most necessary basic data and means of testing for his theoretical conjectures, which, in the absence of better data, was the only method possible; we cannot, however, in any way ascribe to such negative experimental results, even if they must temporarily take the place of the results of positive measurements, the entire value and the full force of proof which the latter possess, if the negative results are not obtained with the use of such techniques, and under such conditions, where true measurements can also be carried out, which was not possible with the instruments used by Ampère.". Weber goes on to describe some of Ampere's experiments, the devices used in these kinds of measurements, then to a section describing Weber's own devices and experiments.
Weber describes his equation which will be called "Weber's Law" in one form as:
(see image 1)
In this equation e and e' are electrical masses, t is time, r is their relative distance between each other, and a is a constant that Weber and Kohlrausch will measure 10 years later (in 1855). This constant is used to make the units apply to human-made standard measures of space and time such as meter, second, etc.
By 1856 Weber writes this equation with c instead of 4/a. But Weber's c is not the present day value of c=3x108 m/s, being √2 of this quantity. Weber's work is the origin of the use of the letter c to represent the velocity of light. The letter c first represents an electric constant.
Weber explains that this equation can be "... verbally expressed in the following way: The decrease, caused by the motion, in the force with which two electrical masses would act upon each other, if they were not in motion, is proportional to the square of their reduced relative velocity."
(Was there a constant used by Coulomb? For example, where did the k in F=kq1q2/r^2 originate?)
So in Weber's equation the force due to electricity depends on the relative velocity and acceleration of the two particles. Here c is the so-called Weber's constant, which is defined as a velocity. In 1855 Weber and Kohlrausch will measure this to be 439450 x 106 mm/sec. This law will stand as a theoretical explanation for electricity for 30 years until the theory defined by Maxwell becomes more popular.
In this equation, if there is no motion between point charges, the law is reduced to Coulomb's force.
Ampère's 1826 work had not included the new phenomena of electrical and magnetic induction. So there exists at this time, three different descriptions of electrical interaction: (1) the Coulomb-Poisson law, describing the interaction of two electrical masses at rest; (2) the Ampère law, describing the interaction of elements of moving electricity, and: (3) a description of the laws of induction, elaborated by Emil Lenz and Franz Neumann. In his Fundamental Electrical Law, Weber unifies these three phenomena under a single concept. As opposed to the current elements of Ampère, Weber supposes the existence within the conductor of positive and negative electrical particles. Weber then assumes that the presence of an electrical tension causes these particles to move at equal velocities in opposite directions. With this theory a moving current, at any given instant, has no force as defined by Coulomb since the two opposite charges cancel out. However, Ampère had shown that a motion is produced between the wires, implying the existence of a force not described by the Coulomb law. Two parallel wires with moving current attract each other when the current flows in the same direction in both conductors, and repel each other when the current flows in opposite directions. Ampère force law explains this motion by using the angular relationship of the respective current elements. However, Weber tries to unify the static and moving phenomena by assuming that the velocities of the electrical particles relative to each other changes the Coulomb electrostatic force. Weber formulates an equation describing the force of interaction of two electrical particles, which depends on the relative velocities and accelerations of the particles. The Coulomb electrostatic law is therefore a special case of Weber's general law, when the particles are at rest relative to each other.
In the Weber Electrical Law, there is a relative velocity, corresponding to the constant c in his formula, at which the force between a pair of electrical particles becomes zero. The Weber-Kohlrausch experiment, carried out at Göttingen in 1854, is designed to determine this value. This constant is found to be experimentally equal in electrodynamic units to the velocity of light in vacuo, times the square root of 2. That value, becomes known as the Weber constant. For electromagnetic units, (thought to be different than electrodynamic units), this constant is equal to the velocity of light. This unexpected link between electricity and light will become central to James Clerk Maxwell's development of electromagnetic field theory.
(Interesting that this may relate to the famous experiment of a spinning static charge causing a so-called magnetic field.)
(This constant appears to represent the rate at which the electric force is supposed to diminish as electric particles move. Although I need to verify this. It seems that there are only two velocities used in the determining of this value, v=0 which is static electricity, and v=3e8 the speed of moving electricity. I guess these two velocities are used and then the difference in force measured between two unmoving charges and two moving charges compared. I have to wonder how the measure of electrostatic masses is made equal between a group of static particles and a moving current. Perhaps if there was some way to slow down electric particles, the force between them could be measured to see if velocity does change the intensity of the force between them. It does seem intuitive that a force would have more time to act when two particles have more time near each other and less the faster they move apart. In some sense, the current view of electricity, in which light is supposed to be an electromagnetic wave without any medium, depends on the accuracy of Weber's theory that the force between two particles becomes less as the velocity between the two particles gets higher, which Maxwell accepted as true.)
Weber explains his logic in trying to unify the three known electric phenomena into one equation: "18. Since the fundamental law of electrodynamics put forward by Ampère is found to be fully confirmed by precise measurements, the foundations of electrodynamics could perhaps be considered as definitively established. This would be the case, if all further research consisted of nothing but developing the applications and results which can be based on that law. For, granted that we could inquire into the connection, which exists between the fundamental laws of electrodynamics and electrostatics, yet, however interesting it may be, and however important for a more precise acquaintance with the nature of bodies, to have investigated this connection, nothing further would have been yielded for the explanation of electrodynamic phenomena, if these phenomena have really found their complete explanation in Ampère's law. In short, essential progress for electrodynamics itself would not be achieved by reducing its fundamentals to the fundamentals of electrostatics, however important and interesting such a reduction might be in other respects. This view of the conclusions which the fundamentals of electrodynamics has reached through Ampère's basic law and its confirmation, essentially presupposes, however, that all electrodynamic phenomena are actually explained by that law. If this were not the case, if there existed any class of electrodynamic phenomena, which it does not explain, then that law would have to be considered merely as a provisional law, to be replaced in future by a truly universally valid, definitive law applicable to all electrodynamic phenomena. And in that case it could well occur, that this definitive law would be arrived at, by first seeking to reduce Ampère's law to a more general one, encompassing electrostatics. Namely, it would be possible that, under different conditions, the law of the remaining electrodynamic phenomena, which could not be directly traced to Ampère's law, would emerge out of the same sources from which both the electrostatic law and Ampère's law were derived, and that the foundation of electrodynamics in its greatest generality, would then be represented, not in isolation per se, but solely as dependent on the most general law of electricity, subsuming the foundation of electrostatics. Now, in fact, there does exist such a class of electrodynamic phenomena, which, as we assume throughout this Treatise, depend on the reciprocal actions which electrical charges exert on each other at a distance, and which are not included in Ampère's law and cannot be explained by it, namely, the phenomena of Volta-induction discovered by Faraday, i.e., the generation of a current in a conducting wire through the influence of a current to which it is brought near; or the generation of a current in a conducting wire, when the intensity of the current in another nearby conducting wire increases or decreases. Ampère's law leaves nothing to be desired, when it deals with the reciprocal actions of conducting wires, whose currents posses a constant intensity, and which are fixed in their positions with respect to one another; as soon as changes in the intensity of the current take place, however, or the conducting wires are moved with respect to one another, Ampère's law gives no complete and sufficient account; namely, in that case, it merely makes known the actions which take place on the ponderable wire element, but not the actions which take place on the imponderable electricity contained therein. Therefore, from this it follows, that this law holds only as a particular law, and can be only provisionally taken as a fundamental law; it still requires a definitive law with truly general validity, applicable to all electrodynamic phenomena, to replace it. We are now in a position, to also predetermine in part the phenomena of Volta-induction; however, this determination is based, not on Ampère's law, but on the law of magnetic induction, which can be directly derived from experience, and which up to now has had no intrinsic connection with Ampère's law. And that predetermination of Volta-induction is in fact able to proceed, not through a strict deduction, but according to a mere analogy. Since such an analogy can indeed give an excellent guideline for scientific investigations, but as such must be deemed insufficient for a theoretical explanation of phenomena, it follows that the phenomena of Voltainduction are still altogether lacking theoretical explanation, and in particular have not received such explanation from Ampère's law. In addition, that predetermination of the phenomena of Voltainduction merely extends to those cases, where the inductive operation of a current, by analogy with its electrodynamic operation, can be replaced by the operation of a magnet. This, however, presupposes closed currents whose form is invariable. We can, however, claim, with the same justification as Ampère did for his law with respect to the reciprocal action of constant current elements, that the law of Volta- induction holds true for all cases, in that it gives a general determination for the reciprocal action of any two smallest elements, out of which all measurable effects are composed and can be calculated. Thus, if we take up the connection between the electrostatic and electrodynamic phenomena, we need not simply be led by its general scientific interest to delve into the existing relations between the various branches of physics, but over and above this, we can set ourselves a more closely defined goal, which has to do with the measurement of Volta-induction by means of a more general law of pure electrical theory. These measurements of Volta-induction then belong to the electrodynamic measurements which form the main topic of this Treatise, and which, when they are complete, must also include the phenomena of Volta-induction. It is self-evident, however, that establishing such measurements is most profoundly connected with establishing the laws, to which the phenomena in question are subject, so that the one can not be separated from the other. 19. In order to obtain for this investigation the most reliable possible guideline based on experience, the foundation will be three special facts, which are in part based indirectly on observation, in part contained directly in Ampère's law, which is confirmed by all measurements. The first fact is, that two current elements lying in a straight line which coincides with their direction, repel or attract each other, according to whether the electricity flows through them in the same or opposite way. The second fact is, that two parallel current elements, which form right angles with a line connecting them, attract or repel each other, according to whether the electricity flows through them in the same or opposite way. The third fact is, that a current element, which lies together with a wire element in a straight line coinciding with the directions of both elements, induces a like- or opposite-directed current in the wire element, according to whether the intensity of its own current decreases or increases. These three facts are, of course, not directly given through experience, because the effect of one element on another can not be directly observed; yet they are so closely connected with directly observed facts, that they have almost the same validity as the latter. The first two facts were already comprehended under Ampère's law; the third was added by Faraday's discovery. The three adduced facts are considered as electrical, viz., we consider the indicated forces as actions of electrical masses on each other. The electrical law of this reciprocal action is still unknown, however; for, even if the first two facts are comprehended under Ampère's law, nevertheless, even apart from the third fact, which is not comprehended by it, Ampère's law is itself, in the strict sense, no electrical law, because it identifies no electrical force, which an electrical mass exerts on the other. Ampère's law merely provides a way to identify a force acting on the ponderable mass of the conductor. Ampère did not deal with the electrical forces which the electrical fluids flowing through the conductor exert on one another, though he repeatedly expressed the hope that it would be possible to explain the reciprocal effect of the ponderable conductors identified by his law, in terms of the reciprocal actions of the electric fluids contained in them. If we now direct our attention to the electrical fluids in the two current elements themselves, we have in them like amounts of positive and negative electricity, which, in each element, are in motion in an opposing fashion. This simultaneous opposite motion of positive and negative electricity, as we are accustomed to assume it in all parts of a linear conducting wire, admittedly can not exist in reality, yet can be viewed for our purposes as an ideal motion, which, in the cases we are considering, where it is simply a matter of actions at a distance, represents the actually occurring motions in relation to all the actions to be taken into account, and thereby has the advantage, of subjecting itself better to calculation. The actually occurring lateral motion through which the particles encountering each other in the conducting wire (which latter forms no mathematical line) avoid each other, must be considered as without influence on the actions at a distance, hence it seems permissible for our purpose, to adhere to the foregoing simple view of the matter (see Section 31). We have, then, in the two current elements we are considering, four reciprocal actions of electrical masses to consider, two repulsive, between the two positive and between the two negative masses in the current element, and two attractive, between the positive mass in the first and the negative mass in the second, and between the negative mass in the first and the positive mass in the second. Every two repulsive forces would have to be equal to these two attractive forces, if the recognized laws of electrostatics had an unconditional application to our case, because the like, repulsive masses are equal to the unlike, attractive masses, and act on one another at the same distance. Whether those recognized electrostatic laws, however, find an unconditional application to our case, can not be decided a priori, because these laws chiefly refer only to such electrical masses, which are situated in equilibrium and at rest with respect to one another, while our electrical masses are in motion with respect to one another. Consequently, only experience can decide, whether that electrostatic law permits such an enlarged application to our case as well. The two first facts adduced above refer, of course, chiefly to forces, which act on the ponderable current carriers; we can, however, consider these forces as the resultants of those forces, which act on the electrical masses contained in the ponderable carrier. Strictly speaking, that way of considering these forces is, to be sure, only permissible, when these electrical masses are bound to their common ponderable carrier in such a way, that they cannot be put in motion without it, and because this is not the case in the galvanic circuit, but on the contrary, the electrical masses are also in motion when their carrier is at rest, Ampère, as is stated in the introduction on page 3, particularly called attention to this circumstance, with the consideration that the force acting on the ponderable carrier could thereby be essentially modified. Although, however, the electrical masses are susceptible of being displaced in the direction of the conducting wire, they are in no way freely moveable in this direction; otherwise they would have to persist in the motion once it were transmitted to them in this direction, without a new external impetus (that is, without ongoing electromotive force), which is not the case. For no galvanic current persists of itself, even with a persistent closure of the circuit. Rather, its intensity at any moment corresponds only to the existing electromotive force, as determined by Ohm's law; thus it stops by itself, as soon as this force disappears. From this it follows, that not simply those forces, which act on the electrical masses in such directions (perpendicular to the conducting wire) that the masses can only be moved in tandem with the ponderable carrier, have to be transmitted to the latter, but that this very fact also holds true even of such forces, which act in the direction of the conducting wire and which move the electrical masses in the carrier, only with the difference, that the latter transmission requires an interval of time, although a very short one, which is not the case for the former. The direct action of the forces parallel to the conducting wire consists, to be sure, simply of a motion of the electrical masses in this direction; the effect of this motion is, however, a resistance in the ponderable carrier, by means of which, in an immeasurably short time, it is neutralized once more. Through this resistance, during the time interval in which this motion is neutralized, all forces, which had previously induced this motion, are indirectly transmitted to the ponderable bodies which exercise the resistance. Finally, since we are dealing with the effects of forces, which have the capacity to communicate a measurable velocity to the ponderable carrier itself, then on the other hand, those effects of forces, which only momentarily disturb the imponderable masses a little, can be disregarded with the same justification with which we disregard the mass of the electricity compared with the mass of its ponderable carrier. From this, however, it follows, that the force acting on the current carrier acts, as stated above, as the resultant of all forces acting on the electrical masses contained in the current carrier. This presupposes, as shown by the first two facts stated above, that the resultant of those four reciprocal actions of the electrical masses contained in the two current elements under consideration, which, according to the electrostatic laws, ought to be zero, departs more from zero, the greater the velocity, with which the electrical masses flow through both current elements, that is, the greater the current intensities. From this it follows, therefore, that the electrostatic laws have no unconditional application to electrical masses which are in motion with respect to one another, but on the contrary, they merely provide for the forces, which these masses reciprocally exert upon each other, a limiting value, to which the true value of these forces approximates more closely, the slighter the reciprocal motions of the masses, and from which, on the contrary, the true value is more divergent, the greater the reciprocal motions. To the values, which the electrostatic laws give for the force exerted by two electrical masses upon one another, must thus be added a complement dependent upon their reciprocal motion, if this force is to be correctly determined, not simply for the case of mutual rest and equilibrium, but universally, including any arbitrary motion of the two masses with respect to one another. This complement, which would confer upon the electrostatic laws a more general applicability than they presently possess, will now be sought. The first fact stated above further shows, not simply that the sum of the repulsive forces of like electrical masses in the current elements under consideration diverges from the sum of the attractive forces of unlike masses, but also shows, when the first sum is greater and when it is smaller than the latter, and all determinations resulting therefrom can be unified in the simple statement, that the electrical masses, which have an opposite motion, act upon one another more weakly, than those which have a like motion.
For, 1) if the direction of the current is the same in the two elements, then repulsion occurs, consequently the attractive force of the unlike masses must be weaker than the repulsive forces of the like masses. In this case, however, it is the unlike masses, which are in opposite motion. If, however, 2) the direction of the current in the two elements is opposite, then attraction occurs; consequently the repulsive forces of the like masses must be weaker than the attractive forces of the unlike masses. In this case, however, it is the like masses, which are put into opposite motion. In both cases it is thus the masses in opposite motion, which act more weakly upon one another, confirming the statement above. {ULSF As a note- since a current is presumably filled with electric particles - the distance between two positive charge particles, for example, moving in two adjacent wires being repelled by force, can never be large - and so it must be for velocity too - since current is theoretically a chain of particles. One particle is always behind the other - but perhaps there are examples of two isolated single particles - certainly when current is started and stopped - at the very beginning and end of flow.} The first fact, to which the statement above was referred, further permits the following, more precise, determination to be added,
that two electrical masses (repulsive or attractive, according to whether they are like or unlike) act more weakly upon one another, the greater the square of their relative velocity.". Weber then goes on to show the math which explains his theory.
Weber concludes this 1846 work by writing: "Another still undecided question is, however, whether the knowledge of the transmitting medium, even if it is not necessary for the determination of forces, would nevertheless be useful. That is, the general rule for determination of forces could perhaps be expressed still more simply, when the transmitting medium were taken into consideration, than was otherwise possible in the fundamental electrical law presented here. However, investigation of the transmitting medium, which perhaps would elucidate many other things as well, is itself necessary in order to decide this question. The idea of the existence of such a transmitting medium is already found in the idea of the all-pervasive neutral electrical fluid, and even if this neutral fluid, apart from conductors, has up to now almost entirely evaded the physicists' observations, nevertheless there is now hope that we can succeed in gaining more direct elucidation of this all-pervasive fluid in several new ways. Perhaps in other bodies, apart from conductors, no current s appear, but only vibrations, which can be observed more precisely for the first time with the methods discussed in Section 16. Further, I need only recall Faraday's latest discover of the influence of electrical currents on light vibrations, which make it not improbable, that the all-pervasive neutral electrical medium is itself that all-pervasive ether, which creates and propagates light vibrations, or that at least the two are so intimately interconnected, that observations of light vibrations may be able to explain the behavior of the neutral electrical medium. Ampere has already called attention to the possibility of an indirect action of electrical masses on each other, as cited in the introduction on page 3, "namely, according to which, the electrodynamic phenomena" would be ascribed "to the motions communicated to the ether by electrical currents." Ampere himself, however, pronounced the examination of this possibility an extraordinary difficult investigation, which he would have no time to undertake. If, in addition, new empirical data, such as, for example, those which will perhaps emerge from further pursuit of the experiments to be carried out in accordance with Section 16 on electrical vibrations, and from Faraday's discovery, should appear to be particularly appropriate for gradually eliminating the difficulties not overcome by Ampere, then the fundamental electrical law in the form given here, independent of the transmitting medium, may aafford a not insignificant basis for expressing this law in other forms, dependent upon the transmitting medium.".
(Another important question is: How can all forces and phenomena be unified - in particular the supposed electrical force with gravity? I think the more accurate view involves many particles under gravity, inertia and with particle collision, but can this explain all observed phenomena? Can even gravity or inertia be reduced to one principle?)
(The view I have, which I think is more simple and clear, is that all bodies are ponderable, that is are matter with mass, including the remaining so-called imponderable or mass-less quantity, that being the particle of light {ruling out the graviton}. In addition, it seems clear that all forces - whether within a conductor or outside of a conductor should be reduced to a single force or concept, which for me is the combination of inertia {which include collision} and gravity.)
(I think it is important to identify who, if anybody measured the force between dynamic and static electricity, the time delay, if any of this force in addition to the speed of induction, both for movement and current.)
According to physics professor, Andre Assis, historically, Weber derives his force from Ampere's force utilizing Fechner's hypothesis of 1845 in which the positive and negative charges in metallic wires move in opposite directions with equal velocities. But the discovery of the Hall effect in 1879, supports the theory that current in metallic wires is due to the motion of negative charges only, so that the positive ions are fixed in the lattice. This theory is strengthened by the discovery of the electron in 1897 by J. J. Thomson. Weber's force may still reflect physical observation if neutrality of current elements is presumed. In my own view, the phenomenon of positive and negative clouds of static electricity - so called static repulsion of like positive charge objects, implies that the positive part of the neutral pair does move, at least in the case of static electricity. The Hall effect seems a lot like the effect of electrical induction, however, when a potential {or current} is created without motion of the object current is induced in.
(There is a similarity in Ampere's equation and Weber's equation for force. Ampere uses the traditional Coulomb equation, as does Weber, but the expression Ampere multiplies this with is all in spacial variables, while Weber's multiplied expression has a spacial and time variable.)
Maxwell rejects Weber's theory in his "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field" as an action-at-a-distance theory, stating: "The mechanical difficulties, however, which are involved in the assumption of particles acting at a distance with forces which depend on their velocities are such as to prevent me from considering this theory as an ultimate one, though it may have been, and may yet be useful in leading to the coordination of phenomena.". Although Maxwell, never openly rejects the action-at-a-distance theory of Newton's gravitation, which is so similar to the electrical theories of Coulomb, Ampere and Weber.
Helmholtz also never accepts Weber's electrodynamics. (state reasons why)
(Perhaps the difference in force between static and moving electric particles is not a difference in force, but a difference in the time interval that the force exists between two particles. In this view the force is constant, with no regard to velocity, however, the longer the two particles are close together the more change in position occurs - and this can be interpreted as a higher velocity resulting in a lower force, when in reality it is the same force applied for a smaller time. My own view is that describing electric phenomena as particle phenomena with only gravitation, inertia and collision is probably the more accurate interpretation. In this sense, I would view forces of electrical attraction as being the result of gravitation, and those of repulsion as being from either inertial {existing} velocities from particle collisions, or the result of gravitation - for example in the case where two particles orbit each other for 180 degrees and as a result of gravity are sent in opposite directions from their original direction.)
| (University of) Leipzig, Germany |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 2950) Hugo von Mohl (mOL) (CE 1805-1872), German botanist describes 'chloroplasts' as discrete bodies within the cells of green plants.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 2951) Hugo von Mohl (mOL) (CE 1805-1872), German botanist names the granular, colloidal material that is the main substance of the cell, "protoplasm", a word that had been invented by the Czech physiologist Jan Evangelista Purkinje with reference to the embryonic material found in eggs.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 3084) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, proves that geysers are the result of boiling water by creating a human-made geyser in the laboratory.
In goes to Iceland to examine the eruption of Mount Hekla. Bunsen discovers that the water in the geyser tube is hot enough to boil. Due to pressure differentials caused by the moving column of water, boiling occurs in the middle of the tube and throws the mass of water above it into the sky above. (I wonder if this heating is due instead to heat within the Earth.) To confirm his theory, Bunsen makes an artificial geyser. Bunsen uses a basin of water with a long tube extending below it. Bunsen then heats the tube at the bottom and in the middle. As the water at the middle reaches its boiling point, all of the phenomena of geysers are shown, including the preliminary thundering. Bunsen's theory of geyser action is still generally accepted by geologists.
| (University of Marburg), Marburg, Germany |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 3108) Ascanio Sobrero (SOBrArO) (CE 1812-1888), Italian chemist, slowly adds glycerine to a mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids to produce nitroglycerine.
Ascanio Sobrero (SOBrArO) (CE 1812-1888), Italian chemist, slowly stirs drops of glycerine into a cooled mixture of nitric and sulfuric acids to produce nitroglycerine. Sobrero observes and reports on the explosive power of a single drop heated in a test tube.
Nitroglycerine is more powerful than nitrocellulose but is an unpredictable explosive. Sobrero calls the substance pyroglycerin, however it soon comes to be known as nitroglycerin, or blasting oil. The risks in the manufacturing of nitroglycerin and the lack of dependable means for its detonation, slow development. Unlike Schönbein, Sobrero does not exploit the commercial value of his discovery. As nitroglycerin might explode on the slightest vibration there seems to be no way to develop it, and being a liquid makes nitroglycerin difficult to use as a blaster. Not until 1866, when Alfred Nobel mixes nitroglycerine with the earth kieselguhr to produce a compound that can be transported and handled without too much difficulty is nitroglycerine put to use in this form, called dynamite.
Sobrero publishes his results as "Sopra alcuni nuovi composti fulminanti ottenuti col mezzo dell'azione dell'acido nitrico sulle sostanze organiche vegetali" in "Memorie della Reale accademia delle scienze di Torino", series 2, volume 10, 02/21/1847. The chemical formula for nitroglycerine is C3H5(N03)3 (and is also known as) glyceryl trinitrate. The reaction proceeds in several stages, mono-, di- and finally tri-nitrate being produced, the final stage requiring sulphuric acid as a dehydrator.
Nitroglycerin is valuable as a preventive in cases of cardiac pain, such as angina pectoris, and it is also used in other conditions where it is desirable to reduce the arterial tension.
Nitroglycerin is also used with nitrocellulose in some propellants, especially for rockets and missiles.
(Was Sobrero working from Schönbein's writings? in same year, before or after)
(notice there is a lot of oxygen trapped/stuck in the molecule, perhaps the more oxygen in the molecule the more explosive, a possible area for future research and experiments.)
(Show the chemical equation for a nitroglycerine explosion including photons released. Is this a molecular combining with oxygen, a combustion?)
(I think that there may be a good use for the nitroglycerine reaction, for motors, star ship propulsion, to produce electricity from garbage. Any explosive reaction that uses common materials could be useful source of photons, heat, mechanical movement, electricity, etc.)
| Torino, Italy (presumably) |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 3129) Alexander Parkes (CE 1813-1890), English chemist, discovers the cold vulcanization process (1841), a method of waterproofing fabrics by using a solution of rubber and carbon disulfide.
In cold vulcanization materials can be coated with rubber using a cold solution, which replaces the need for natural rubber to be treated in sulfur at high temperatures. Using this vulcanization process, material such as cloth can be rubberized by using a solution of (natural) rubber in bisulfide of carbon, which produces a thin, waterproof piece of clothing.
| Birmingham, England (presumably) |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 3132) Louis-Nicolas Ménard (CE 1822-1901) invents collodion, an early plastic.
Collodio n is discovered independently in 1848 by Dr J. Parkers Maynard in Boston.
Collodion is a colorless, viscid fluid, made by dissolving nitrocellulose (also known as cellulose nitrate and gun-cotton, made from cotton wool soaked in nitric acid) in a mixture of alcohol and ether.
Cellulose nitrate becomes soluble when mixed with ether and alcohol. The liquid, named collodion, shrinks and hardens as it dries and so is marketed for use in health care to seal minor wounds.
Collodion will be used for photography by Archer in 1851. Collodion is used in surgery since, when painted on the skin, collodion rapidly dries and covers the skin with a thin film which contracts as it dries and therefore provides both pressure and protection.
| Paris, France |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 3240) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, (verifies) the phenomenon of magnetostriction, where an iron bar changes its length when magnetized. This effect is used in connection with ultrasonic sound-wave formation. (I have never heard of this, and it's interesting. A metal bar actually changes shape by a measurable amount when magnetized? Perhaps atoms are collided closer together?)
Joule writes in "On the Effects of Magnetism upon the Dimensions of Iron and Steel Bars", "About the close of the year 1841, Mr. F. D. Arstall, an ingenious mechanist of Manchester, suggested to me a new form of electro-magnetic engine. He was of opinion that a bar of iron experienced an increase of bulk by receiving the magnetic condition, and that, by reversing its polarity rapidly by meas of alternating currents of electricity, an available and useful motive power might be realized." and then "I made evident the fact that an increase of length of a bar of iron was produced by magnetizing it.". Joule concludes "the elongation is proportional, in a given bar, to the square of the magnetic intensity.". Joule finds that "the shortening effect is proportional to the magnetic intensity of the bar multiplied by the current traversing the coil."
(It would be nice to see this verified on video.)
| Salford, England (presumably) |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 3327) Arthur Cayley (KAlE) (CE 1821-1895), English mathematician, introduces the idea of covariance.
(more info and title of paper)
| London, England (presumably) |
154 YBN
[1846 AD]
| 3476) (Baron) William Thomson Kelvin (CE 1824-1907), Scottish mathematician and physicist, announces his calculation of the age of the earth, presuming that the earth originated from the sun and was originally at the sun's temperature and has been cooling ever since. Thomson calculates this time to be 100 million years, which seems too short to geologists. Many sources state that this measurement is in error only because Thomson does not account for heat from radioactivity. What rate of cooling does Thomson use? The Sun must also be heated by radioactivity, and radioactivity is only photons (and other composite particles) emitted from atoms. Probably the largest part of Thomson's error is in an estimation of the rate of cooling of the Sun and the Earth, because there is no known measurement of this rate ever made for Earth, and any equation is only an estimated guess. The cooling of the Sun must be a different rate than that of the Earth and other planets. Does Thomson account for heat from the Sun? There is heat from reflected light of other planets and the light emitted by other stars which can probably be ignored. I think the radioactivity argument is probably a minor argument, because the majority of heat on earth is from the molten interior which, like the Sun, must be the product of compressed photons, under high pressure, collision (friction), and gravity. Part of this error of viewing radioactivity as the only source of error might be from the current erroneous view of the photons emitted from the Sun and other planets. The view is that the source of the heat of the sun is strictly hydrogen to helium nuclear fusion, as opposed to being similar to the result of particle collision, the same as the source of photons emitted from the centers of the earth and other planets. In other words, the Sun, like the other planets has a molten iron center, formed exactly like the other planets did and in my view the only difference is one of mass. I have doubt about hydrogen to helium fusion, because the hydrogen and helium, being less dense, must be in the outer layer of the sun, where there may not be enough pressure to cause fusion. In addition this is a somewhat complex calculation that depends on the distance of the Earth from the Sun which changes over time, the portion of light emitted from the sun that reaches the earth (minus that reflected off the moon), through that continuous time, and many other factors.
Does Thomson calculate the rate of the Sun burning down?
Thomson publishes this first in "De Caloris distributione in Terra Corpus". No translation of this work has ever been published. Thomson returns to this subject in 1865, in a paper made to the Royal Society of Edinburgh entitled "The Doctrine of Uniformity in Geology briefly refuted".
EX: I think we need to add up the amount of photons reaching the earth, and the amount given off by the earth, and calculate what the overall gain or loss may be.
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
153 YBN
[05/05/1847 AD]
| 3255) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, gives the lecture and publishes "On Matter, Living Force, and Heat", in which Joule describes the popular interpretation of the universe, and gives an early description of "vis-viva" what will be called "energy" of matter. Joule describes gravity, repulsion (presumably electrical), inertia, and then vis-viva, what will eventually be called "energy". Joule writes: "From these facts it is obvious that the force expended in setting a body in motion is carried by the body itself, and exists with it and in it, throughout the whole course of its motion. This force possessed by moving bodies is termed by mechanical philosophers vis viva, or living force. The term may be deemed by some inappropriate, inasmuch as there is no life, properly speaking, in question; but it is useful, in order to distinguish the moving force from that which is stationary in its character, as the force of gravity. When therefore, in the subsequent parts of this lecture I employ the term living force, you will understand that I simply mean the force of bodies in motion. The living force of bodies is regulated by their weight and by the velocity of their motion. You will readily understand that if a body of a certain weight possess a certain quantity of living force, twice as much living force will be possessed by a body of twice the weight, provided both bodies move with equal velocity. But the law by which the velocity of a body regulates its living force is not so obvious. At first sight one would imagine that the living force would be simply proportional to the velocity, so that if a body moved twice as fast as another, it would have twice the impetus or living force. Such, however, is not the case; for if three bodies of equal weight move with the respective velocities of 1, 2, and 3 miles per hour, their living forces will be found to be proportional to those numbers multiplied by themselves, viz to 1 x 1, 2 x 2, 3 x 3, or 1, 4, and 9, the squares of 1, 2, and 3. This remarkable law may be proved in several ways. A bullet fired from a gun at a certain velocity will pierce a block of wood to only one quarter of the depth it would if propelled at twice the velocity. Again, if a cannon-ball were found to fly at a certain velocity when propelled by a given charge of gunpowder, and it were required to load the cannon so as to propel the ball with twice that velocity, it woul dbe found necessary to employ four time the weight of powder previous used. Thus, also, it will be found that a railway train going at 70 miles per hour possesses 100 times the impetus, or living force, that it does when travelling at 7 miles per hour. A body may be endowed with living force in several ways. It may receive it by the impact of another body. Thus, if a perfectly elastic ball be made to strike another similar ball of equal weight at rest, the striking ball will communicate the whole of its living force to the ball struck, and, remaining at rest itself, will cause the other ball to move in the same direction and with the same velocity that it did itself before the collision. here we see an instance of the facility with which living force may be transferred from one body to another. A body may also be endowed with living force by means of the action of gravitation upon it through a certain distance. If I hold a ball at a certain height and drop it, it will have acquired when it arrives at the ground a degree of living force proportional to its weight and the height from which it has fallen. We see, then, that living force may be produced by the action of gravity through a given distance or space. We may therefore say that the former is of equal value, or equivalent, to the latter. Hence, if I raise a weight of 1 lb. to the height of one foot, so that gravity may act on it through that distance, I shall communicate to it that which is of equal value or equivalent to a certain amount of living force; if I raise the weight to twice the height, I shall communicate to it the equivalent of twice the quantity of living force. Hence, also, when we compress a spring, we communicate to it the equivalent to a certain amount of living force; for in that case we produce molecular attraction between the particles of the spring through the distance they are forced asunder, which is strictly analogous to the production of the attraction of gravitation through a certain distance. You will at once perceive that the living force of which we have been speaking is one of the most important qualities with which matter can be endowed, and, as such, that it would be absurd to suppose that it can be destroyed, or even lessened, without producing the equivalent of attraction through a given distance of which we have been speaking. You will therefore be surprised to hear that until very recently the universal opinion has been that living force could be absolutely and irrevocably destroyed at any one's option. Thus, when a weight falls to the ground, it has been generally supposed that its living force is absolutely annihilated, and that the labour which may have been expended in raising it to the elevation from which it fell has been entirely thrown away and wasted, without the production of any permanent effect whatever. We might reason, a priori, that such absolute destruction of living force cannot possible take place, because it is manifestly absurd to suppose that the powers with which God has endowed matter can be destroyed any more than that they can be created by man's agency; but we are not left with this argument alone, decisive as it must be every unprejudiced mind. The common experience of every one teaches him that living force is not destroyed by the friction or collision of bodies. We have reason to believe that the manifestations of living force on our globe are, at the present time, as extensive as those which have existed at any time since its creation, or, at any rate, since the deluge-that the winds blow as strongly, and the torrents flow with equal impetuosity now, as at the remote period of 4000 or even 6000 years ago; and yet we are certain that, through the vast interval of time, the motions of the air and of the water have been incessantly obstructed and hindered by friction. We may conclude, then, with certainty, that these motions of air and water, constituting living force, are not annihilated by friction. We lose sight of them, indeed, for a time; but we find them again reproduced. Were it not so, it is perfectly obvious that long ere this all nature would have come to a dead standstill. What, then, may we inquire, is the cause of this apparent anomaly? How comes it to pass that, thought in almost all natural phenomena we witness the arrest of motion and the apparent destruction of living force, we find that no waste or loss of living force has actually occurred? Experiment has enabled us to answer these questions in a satisfactory manner; for it has shown that, wherever living force is apparently destroyed, an equivalent is produced which in process of time may be reconverted into living force. This equivalent is heat. Experiment has shown that wherever living force is apparently destroyed or absorbed, heat is produced. ..."
Just going over this text and giving my own opinions. This view Joule expresses, is that a piece of matter has a velocity (relative to all other matter) due to gravity, but also may have a velocity in addition to that, due to collision with other objects. I think the example of a projectile needing four times the powder to have twice the velocity is because the powder exerts a force in a spherical direction. A similar experiment might have an object moving at one velocity colliding with another object of the same mass, and the resulting velocity measured, and then the two are collided again with the first object having twice the velocity, and the second object velocity measured. My estimate is that the velocity is conserved and that the second object takes on a proportional velocity. I think that this concept of vis-viva or energy, may be the creation of an extra force. Strictly adhering to force as being mass times acceleration, we should not create a secondary force outside of an objects mass times an objects acceleration. So energy (or vis-viva) is now viewed as something besides force, being viewed now as a property of matter. On other points. I don't think that people believed that the velocity was not conserved when an object lands on the ground. Applying the basic rules of particle collisions (cite who first identified these, Newton, Galileo?), the view would be that the velocity of the dropped object is transferred and dispersed into the particles on the ground. Perhaps the idea of conservation of acceleration and velocity was lost, or never clearly stated. Because I can't believe that people would think that an objects velocity would just be destroyed as opposed to dissipated by particles in the ground. The view on heat, I think is not exact either, because, heat is only a portion of the photons moving, in infrared, and does not include the movement of all photons, for example, those reflected off mercury which are not absorbed. In addition, when photons are released from friction in the form of infrared, causing the sensation of heat, those photons may be retaining the same velocity they have always had while they were trapped in atoms, only when released they move in a straight line. So in this sense, the apparent return of velocity (detected as heat) would be far larger than the velocity that went into the event, because the many millions of particle velocities trapped in atoms were released (not created). I want to try to really understand where the concept of "energy" came from, and it is a mystery to me still. I think it came from the integration of velocity and the thinking that this integral must have some meaning, when in reality, I don't know if it does. But in any event, if people find the concept useful, then the idea of energy certainly has a place in science. More questions are: who are those "mechanical philosophers" that Joule mentions have named vis-viva? I think mechanical refers to those with the view that heat is a form of movement as opposed to the caloric theory, but perhaps it goes back father. I think its a stretch but there is a sense of a kind of anti-Newtonian thread, but maybe that is overstretching. Because Joule quotes Leibniz's definition of force "The force of a moving body is proportional to the square of its velocity or to the height to which it would rise against gravity.", which contradicts Newton's definition of force as a body's mass times acceleration - the first distinction between mass and weight - Newton's second law of motion in 1687. In 1656 Huygens, who rejected the corpuscular theory for light, had showed that mv^2 is conserved in addition to mv, as John Wallis had shown. Perhaps this is the starting point of this concept of energy. Leibniz (also rejected corpuscular theory for light?) also picks up this idea of conservation of mechanical energy mv^2 (1/2mv^2 is now interpreted as kinetic energy) in 1693. Leibniz was the first to use the term "vis-viva" and this concept was opposed by those following Newton and Descartes in thinking that momentum is the guiding principle. It was largely engineers such as John Smeaton, Peter Ewart, Karl Hotzmann, Gustave-Adolphe Hirn and Marc Séguin who objected that conservation of momentum alone was not adequate for practical calculation and who made use of Leibniz's principle. The principle was also championed by some chemists such as William Hyde Wollaston.
Joule and Thomson adopt the concept calling it "vis-visa". In some sense there may be an appeal to vitalist beliefs by using vis-viva, as if there was a living force, which was probably believed only by the more conservative thinkers.
| Broom Hill (near Manchester), England |
153 YBN
[07/23/1847 AD]
| 3331) Helmholtz establishes the principle of the conservation of energy.
Huygens was the first to describe how the quantity of weight time velocity squared is conserved in pendulums in 1673. Leibniz names this quantity "vis-viva" in 1695, Julius von Mayer calculates the conversion constant (Joule's constant) of work to heat in 1842 , and James Joule calculates this constant and describes the concept of conservation of vis-viva (energy) in 1843.
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894), German physiologist and physicist, publishes "Über die Erhaltung der Kraft" (1847; "On the Conservation of Force") in which he shows that the total energy of a collection of interacting particles is constant.
Helmholtz refers to "vis viva" only as "lebendigen Kräfte" the living forces, and does not refer to Leibniz, but does describe the work of Joule in calculating the work-to-heat constant.
In this work Helmholtz clearly states the equations of motion for a body falling to the Earth: v=sqrt(2gh), and 1/2mv2 = mgh.
In "On the Conservation of Force" Helmholtz writes (translated into English by John Tyndall): " We will set out with the assumption that it is impossible, by any combination whatever of natural bodies, to produce force continually from nothing. By this proposition Carnot and Clapeyron have deduced theoretically a series of laws, part of which are proved by experiment and part not yet submitted to this test, regarding the latent and specific heats of various natural bodies, The object of the present memoir is to carry the same principle, in the same manner, through all branches of physics; partly for the purpose of showing its applicability in all those cases where the laws of the phaenomena have been sufficiently investigated, partly, supported by the manifold analogies of the known cases, to draw further conclusions regarding laws which are as yet but imperfectly known, and thus to indicate the course which the experimenter must pursue. The principle mentioned can be represented in the following manner:- Let us imagine a system of natural bodies occupying certain relative positions towards each other, operated upon by forces mutually exerted among themselves, and caused to move until another definite position is attained; we can regard the velocities thus acquired as a certain mechanical work and translate them into such, If now we wish the same forces to act a second time, so as to produce again the same quantity of work, we must, in some way, by means of other forces placed at out disposal, bring the bodies back to their original position, and in effecting this a certain quantity of the latter forces will be consumed. In this case our principle requires that the quantity of work gained by the passage of the system from the first position to the second, and the quantity lost by the passage of the system from the second position back again to the first, are always equal, it matters not in what way or at what velocity the change has been effected. For were the quantity of work greater in one way than another, we might use the former for the production of work and the latter to carry the bodies back to their primitive positions, and in this way procure an indefinite amount of mechanical force. We should thus have built a perpetuum mobile which could not only impart motion to itself, but also to exterior bodies. If we inquire after the mathematical expression of this principle, we shall find it in the known law of the conservation of vis viva. The quantity of work which is produced and consumed may, as is known, be expressed by a weight m, which is raised to a certain height h; it is then mgh, where g represents the force of gravity. To rise perpendicularly to the height h, the body m requires the velocity v=sqrt(2gh), and attains the same by falling through the same height. Hence we have 1/2mv2=mgh; and hence we can set the half of the produce mv2, which is known in mechanics under the name of the vis viva (die Quantität der lebendigen) of the body m, in the place of the quantity of work. For the sake of better agreement with the customary manner of measuring the intensity of forces, I propose calling the quantity 1/2mv2 the quantity of vis viva, by which it is rendered identical with the quantity of work. For the applications of the doctrine of vis visa which have been hitherto made this alteration is of no importance, but we shall derive much advantage from it in the following. The principle of the conservation of vis viva. as is known, declares that when any number whatever of material points are set in motion, solely by such forces as they exert upon each other, or as are directed against fixed centres, the total sum of the vires vivae, at all times when the points occupy the same relative position, is the same, whatever may have been their paths or their velocities during the intervening times. Let us suppose the vires vivae applied to raise the parts of the system of their equivalent masses to a certain height, it follows from what has just been shown, that the quantities of work, which are represented in a similar manner, must also be equal under the conditions mentioned. This principle however is not applicable to all possible kinds of forces in mechanics it is generally derived from the principle of virtual velocities, and the latter can only be proved in the case of material points endowed with attractive or repulsive forces. We will now show that the principle of conservation of vis viva is alone valid where the forces in action may be resolved into those of material points which act in the direction of the lines which unite them, and the intensity of which depends only upon the distance. In mechanics such forces are generally named central forces. Hence, conversely, it follows that in all actions of natural bodies upon each other, where the above principle is capable of general application, even to the ultimate particles of these bodies, such central forces must be regarded as the simplest fundamental ones. ..." Helmholtz goes on to describe the equations that describe the three dimensional position (x,y,z), velocity (dx/dt, dy/dt, dz/dt), for a mass m, and then multiplies the velocities by the mass to get the forces acting on a mass. Helmholtz goes on to show how "the increase in vis viva of a material point during its motion under the influence of a centrral force is equal to the sum of the tensions which correspond to the alteration of its distance.". Helmholtz then dedicates a section on the force equivalent of heat, then a section on the force equivalent of electrical processes, and finally a section on the force equivalent of magnetism and electro-magnetism.
(I think this statement "To rise perpendicularly to the height h, the body m requires the velocity v=sqrt(2gh), and attains the same by falling through the same height." needs to be verified, because this example, mentioned by Leibniz, does not include the force of gravity working against the mass to attain the height. In addition, on the way up, the force of g is negative, working against any initial velocity a mass has. But just looking at velocity, not connected to earth, the velocity, without being obstructed would continue on forever, presuming the law of inertia is true, and therefore cover far more distance than h. So it is not entirely accurate, but I think this needs to be examined more closely.)
| (Physikalische Gesellschaft) Berlin, Germany |
153 YBN
[10/01/1847 AD]
| 3215) Maria Mitchell (CE 1818-1889), US astronomer, identifies a comet.
Mitchell is the first to observe that sunspots are whirling vertical cavities instead of clouds, as had been earlier believed. (Is this still believed?)
| Nantucket, Massachusetts, USA |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 2731) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, publishes "Results of Astronomical Observations, Made During the Years 1834â"38 at the Cape of Good Hope" (1847), which contains catalogs and charts of southern-sky nebulae and star clusters, a catalog of the relative positions and magnitudes of southern double stars, and his observations on the variations and relative brightness of the stars. Herschel records the relative locations of 68,948 (Southern Hemisphere) stars.
These stars seen only from the southern hemisphere Herschel had observed from 1834-1838 in Cape Colony, South Africa. This completes the work that Halley started. Hershel sees that the Magellanic Clouds are thick clusters of stars (as Galileo had showed the Milky Way to be 225 years before).
| London, England (presumably) |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 2754) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, invents an ophthalmoscope which can be used to study the retina of the eye. Four years later Helmholtz will invent a similar instrument. (Maybe Helmholtz saw Babbage's invention through a camera or heard about it through telegraph or microphone net, or vice versa.)
No actual example survives, but in 1854 Wharton Jones' gives a written description.
"Dr. Helmholtz, of Konigsberg, has the merit of specially inventing the ophthalmoscope. It is but justice that I should here state, however, that seven years ago Mr. Babbage showed me the model of an instrument which he had contrived for the purpose of looking into the interior of the eye. It consisted of a bit of plain mirror, with the silvering scraped off at two or three small spots in the middle, fixed within a tube at such an angle that the rays of light falling on it through an opening in the side of the tube, were reflected into the eye to be observed, and to which the one end of the tube was directed. The observer looked through the clear spots of the mirror from the other end. This ophthalmoscope of Mr Babbage, we shall see, is in principle essentially the same as those of Epkens and Donders, of Coccius and of Meyerstein, which themselves are modifications of Helmhotlz's." Wharton-Jones, T., 1854, 'Report on the Ophthalmoscope', Chronicle of Medical Science (October 1854).
In 1847 when showing the ophthalmoscope to the eminent ophthalmologist Thomas Wharton Jones Babbage is unable to obtain an image with it and, discouraged, does not proceed further. Little did Babbage know that his instrument will work if a minus lens of about 4 or 5 dioptres is inserted between the observer's eye and the back of the plano mirror from which two or three holes have been scraped. Some seven years later it was his design and not that of Helmholtz which had been adopted.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3064) Henri Victor Regnault (renYO) (CE 1810-1878), French chemist and physicist, shows that the true increase or decrease in volume of a gas for 1 degree Celsius is 1/273.
In 1802 Joseph Gay-Lussac had observed that a gas will increase by 1/266 of its volume for each increase of temperature of 1°C but in 1847 Regnault shows that the true increase is 1/273.
Regnault investigates the expandability of gases by heat, determining the coefficient for air as 0.003665, and shows that, contrary to previous opinion, no two gases have precisely the same rate (coefficient) of expansion.
Regnault proves that Boyle's (and Charles') law of the elasticity of a "perfect gas" (that pressure and volume of a gas are inversely related) is only approximately true for real gases and that those gases which are most readily liquefied diverge most widely from the Boyle-Charles law. Van der Waals will go on to modify the Boyle-Charles law.
In addition, Regnault carefully measures the specific heats of all the elements obtainable, and of many compounds - solids, liquids and gases. (I view specific heat as how much of an absorber of photons a material is, in other words what the rate of photons/second is that a material can absorb.) Regnault shows that the law of Pierre Dulong and Alexis Petit (that that specific heat of an element is inversely related to its atomic mass) is only approximately true when pure samples are taken and temperatures carefully measured.
| (College de France) Paris, France |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3094) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882) shows that all substances become incandescent at the same temperature, that with rising temperature they emit rays of increasing refrangibility, and that incandescent solids produce a continuous spectrum.
John William Draper (CE 1811-1882), English-US chemist publishes his experiments that show that all substances at about 525ºC glow a dull red (this is called the Draper point) and as the temperature is raised, more and more of the visible light region is added until the glow is white. Wien will continue this study in 50 years.
(White is a combination of frequencies, or if reduced to a single frequency would be viewed as non-periodic {the pattern of photons does not repeat at regular intervals}, and possibly of varying intensity {the quantity of photons per second varies, presuming the detector can detect more than a single beam line of photons}. My view is that the color white can only be detected with a detector that detects more than a single light beam at any given moment, and is presumably a combination of individual light beams that are highly periodic in terms of the space between photons {or wave maxima in the light as a wave without medium view}. On a computer screen, the color white contains large amounts of r,g,b frequencies {for example r,g and b are set to 0 for black and to the maximum value for white}, smaller equal amounts of r,g,b values results in the color gray. Perhaps the eye sees white when the frequency of the photon detection from the many beams spread out over the neuron detector is non-uniform? It's interesting that white is no specific frequency...it's not part of the spectrum of light. White, gray and brown are definitely a combination of primary frequencies {although these colors may be the result of many distinct frequencies of single beams landing on a large photon detector in the brain}.)
| (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3098) (Sir) James Young Simpson (CE 1811-1870), Scottish obstetrician (obstetrics is a branch of health science that deals with birth, and all issues in the period before and after), is the first to use anesthesia (on the mother) during childbirth to relieve pain during labor. After news of the use of ether in surgery reaches Scotland in 1846, Simpson uses ether for childbirth the following January. Later in 1847 Simpson substitutes chloroform for ether and publishes his classic "Account of a New Anaesthetic Agent".
Despite the rapid popularity of chloroform, the use of chloroform in childbirth leads to intense criticism from obstetricians and the clergy until Queen Victoria's delighted approbation after the delivery of her ninth child (1853).
Simpson is the first to use chloroform in obstetrics and the first in Britain to use ether.
| (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3110) John Snow (CE 1813-1858), English physician, invents a mask to administer chloroform.
John Snow (CE 1813-1858), English physician, studies the use of ether as an anesthetic, first introduced by Morton in 1846, and becomes the most skilled anesthetist in England. While Simpson favors the use of chloroform by dropping it on a handkerchief, Snow favors a more careful technique that controls the level of (chloroform) anesthetic by mixing it with air.
Snow invents a new kind of mask to administer chloroform, which he uses on Queen Victoria to assist at the births of her two youngest children. (What kind of container?)
| London, England |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3172) George Boole (CE 1815-1864), English mathematician and logician, mathematizes logic.
In this year Boole publishes "Mathematical Analysis of Logic" (1847), a small book on logic.
This book initiates modern symbolic logic. In it Boole shows how all the ponderous verbalism of Aristotelian logic can be rendered in a crisp algebra that is remarkably similar to the ordinary algebra of numbers. (Boole writes) "We ought no longer to associate Logic and Metaphysics, but Logic and Mathematics".
Another English logician Augustus De Morgan, publishes "Formal Logic" this same year and admires Boole's work.
Boole is the first to apply a set of symbols to logical operations. In Boolean algebra the symbols can be used according to fixed rules to yield results that are logically true. (An example is "all a are b", "all b are c", and so therefore all "a are c") Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (LIPniTS) (CE 1646-1716), German philosopher and mathematician, publishes "Dissertatio de arte combinatoria", with subtitle "General Method in Which All Truths of the Reason Are Reduced to a Kind of Calculation" in which Leibniz tries to work out a symbolism for logic, but does not complete this effort.
With the exception of Augustus de Morgan, Boole was probably the first English mathematician to write on logic since the time of John Wallis who had also written on logic.
The Concise Dictionary of Scientists states "Attempts at the reduction of Aristotelian logic to an algebraic calculus had already been made; Boole succeeded where others had failed by recognizing the need for a new set of rules, in effect, a new algebra. In the symbolism of the Boolean algebra of logic (an algebra of sets) U, the universal set, is denoted by 1. Subsets are specified by elective operators x,y,...; (variables) these operators may be applied successively. Many of the rules of the algebra of real numbers are thus value: yx=xy, x(yz)=(xy)z, x+y=y+x, etc.; but, by definition, x2=x. This is the idempotent law, also expressed as x(1-x)=0. Boole used the sign + in the exclusive sense, with the sign = as its inverse; he did not write x+y unless the sets x,y were mutually exclusive. Much of the 1847 book is devoted to symbolic expressions for the forms of the classical Aristotelian propositions and the moods of the syllogism (a form of argument that has two categorical propositions as premises and one categorical proposition as conclusion. An example of a syllogism is the following argument: Every human is mortal; every philosopher is human; therefore, every philosopher is mortal. Such arguments have exactly three terms {human, philosopher, mortal}). For particular propositions he introduced the elective symbol v for a subset of indefinite membership.".
Much of Booles book focuses on applying math to statements. Boole identifies the principle of assigning a variable to a proposition. In addition, Boole identifies relationships between statements, applying mathematical equations for each. In particular, Booles describes: a universal-affirmative (All x's are y'), universal negative (No x's are y's), particular-affirmative (some x's are y's), particular negative (some x's are not y's), syllogisms (all x's are y's, all y's are z's, therefore all x's are z's), conditionals ("If A is B, then C is D"), disjunctives (either X is true or Y is not true) and hypotheticals (two categoricals {conditionals, propositions, etc} connected by a conjunction such as 'and' or 'but').
Boole popularizes the binary numeral system, a numbering system that only contains the numbers 0 and 1. The binary numeral system and binary math is the basis of all digital electric machines such as computers and walking robots.
Boole helps to establish modern symbolic logic and Boole's algebra of logic, now called Boolean algebra, is basic to the design of digital computer circuits.
Boole's scientific writings include some fifty papers, two textbooks, and two volumes on mathematical logic. (which may be interesting given Boole's logical mind.)
(give more examples from the book)
| Lincoln, England (presumably) |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3180) Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (lUDViK) (CE 1816-1895), German physiologist invents a "kymograph", a rotating drum on which blood pressure can be continuously recorded (on paper). (explain how this works and the difference between heart rate and blood pressure) (Is this the precursor of the electrical blood pressure recording machine, the electrocardiograph (EKG) machine.) (show image of writing from machine)
This is the first instance of the use of a graphic method in physiological inquiries. The detailed examination of blood pressure shows that ordinary mechanical forces can move blood. This disproves the theory of vitalism in terms of the mechanical portions (the circulatory and muscular system) of the body. Du Bois-Reymond will disprove vitalism for the electrical portions of the body. And 50 years later Buchner will prove that the chemical activity of the body are also to be free of vitalism.
This vitalistic doctrine is combated and for a time at least overthrown through the scientific work of four pupils of Johannes Müller: Helmholtz, du Bois Reymond, Ludwig, and Brücke.
Does the heart muscle contraction push the blood all the way back into the heart, or does a muscle contraction cause blood to be pulled into the heart or both?
| (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3213) Ignaz Philipp Semmelweiss (ZeMeLVIS) (CE 1818-1865), Hungarian physician, recognizes that a cause of puerperal ("childbed") fever is spread by doctors and introduces antisepsis (washing hands in strong chemicals) into the health practice.
Puerperal fever is an infection of the female reproductive system after childbirth or abortion, with fever over 100 °F (38 °C) in the first 10 days. The inner surface of the uterus is most often infected, but lacerations (cuts or tears) of any part of the genital tract can allow bacteria (often Streptococcus pyogenes) access to the bloodstream and lymphatic system to cause septicemia, cellulitis (cellular inflammation), and pelvic or generalized peritonitis (inflammation of the membrane that lines the inside of the abdomen).
In 1843, Oliver Wendell Holmes (CE 1809-1894), in the USA had advocated that doctors wash their hands and changing their clothes between handling corpses and patients (people seeking health care).
At the First Obstetrical Clinic of the Vienna General Hospital, Semmelweis is distressed by puerperal fever. Within a few hours after delivery, numerous mothers are afflicted with high fever, rapid pulse, distended abdomen, and excruciating pain. One out of 10 die as a result of this infection. One observation stays with Semmelweis. The hospital is divided into two clinics: the first for the instruction of medical students, the second for the training of midwives. The mortality due to puerperal fever is significantly greater in the clinic to train doctors. In 1847 Semmelweis's colleague J. Kolletschka unexpectedly dies of an overwhelming infection following a wound he sustained while performing an autopsy. Semmelweis realizes that the course of the disease in his friend is remarkably similar to the sequence of events in puerperal fever. Semmelweis then realizes a difference between the two clinics: the medical students and teachers dissect corpses, where the midwives do no autopsies. The germ theory of disease is gaining popularity at the time and Semmelweis theorizes that the teachers and pupils can carry infectious particles from the cadavers to the natural wounds of a woman in childbirth.
So Semmelweiss forces doctors to wash their hands in a solution of chlorinated lime between autospy work and examining people seeking health care (so called "patients").
As a result of these procedures, the mortality (death) rates in the first division drop from 18.27 to 1.27 percent, and in March and August of 1848 no woman dies in childbirth in Semmelweis' division. The younger medical men in Vienna recognize the significance of Semmelweis' discovery and gave him all possible assistance. However, Semmelweis' superior (supervisor?) is critical because he fails to understand Semmelweis.
According to Asimov, this procedure of washing hands is unpleasant to doctors, in particular older doctors who are proud of the "hospital odor" of their hands.
In 1849 when Hungary unsuccessfully revolts against Austria, the Vienna doctors force the Hungarian Semmelweiss out and the deaths by childbed fever rise to record heights.
Semmelweis is put in charge of the obstetrics department at St. Rochus Hospital in Pest, where his measures promptly reduce the mortality rate, which the years under Semmelweis averages only 0.85 percent while in Prague and Vienna, the rate is still from 10 to 15 percent.
Even after the Hungarian government addresses a circular to all district authorities ordering the introduction of the (cleaning) methods of Semmelweis, many in Vienna remains hostile toward Semmelweis, an example being the editor of the "Wiener Medizinische Wochenschrift" who writes that it is time to stop the nonsense about the chlorine hand wash.
Lister will acknowledge Semmelweiss as being the first to implement the hand washing procedure.
| (Vienna General Hospital) Vienna, (Austria now:) Germany |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3225) Benjamin Houllier, a Paris gunsmith, patents the first gun cartridge, capable of being fired by the blow of the gun's hammer.
In one type of design, a pin is driven into the cartridge by the hammer action; in the other, a primer charge of fulminate of mercury is exploded in the cartridge rim. Later improvements change the point of impact from the rim to the center of the cartridge, where a percussion cap is inserted.
| Paris, France |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3303) William Edward Staite makes an automatic electric arc light, an electric light in which the carbon electrodes automatically are moved closer as they are used up.
This is an early form of arc-lamp mechanism which uses a system of clock-work driven by a spring or weight, which is started and stopped by the action of an electromagnet.
| Paris, France |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3473) Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt Hofmeister (HoFmISTR or HOFmISTR) (CE 1824-1877), German botanist, describes in detail how a plant ovule develops into an embyro.
Hofmeister publishes this as "Die Entstehung des Embryo der Phanerogamen" ("The Genesis of the Embryo in Phanerogams"). In this paper he describes in detail the behaviour of the nucleus in cell formation and proves that the origin of the plant embyro is from an ovum, disproving Schleiden's theory that the embryo develops from the tip of the pollen tube. Hofmeister shows that the pollen-tube does not itself produce the embryo, but only stimulates the ovum already present in the ovule.
Hofmeister shows that the nucleus does not disappear during the process of cell division. (In this work?)
| Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3605) Alexander Bain (CE 1811-1877) devises an automatic method of playing on wind instruments by moving a strip of perforated paper which controls the supply of air to the pipes. Bain also proposes to play a number of keyed instruments at a distance by means of the electric current.
The perforated paper is drawn between the openings of the wind chest. Whenever and as long as there is a hole in the paper between the wind chest and the pipe the note of the pipe sounds. When there is a blank space between the wind chest and pipe the pipe is silent.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 3606) Frederick Bakewell (CE 1800-1869) builds a facsimile machine (chemical telegraph) which improves Bain's design by replacing the pendulums with synchronized rotating cylinders. Bakewell's facsimile system is publicly demonstrated in 1851 at the World's Fair in London. Where Bain's system uses perforated paper and so can only transmit dots and dashes, Bakewell's system of writing in shellac on tinfoil allows drawn images to be send and received.
At the transmitter, the image to be scanned is written using varnish or some other nonconducting material on tinfoil, wrapped around the transmitter cylinder, and then scanned by a conductive stylus that, like Bain’s stylus, is mounted to a pendulum. The cylinder rotates at a uniform rate by means of a clock mechanism. At the receiver, a similar pendulum-driven stylus marks chemically treated paper with an electric current as the receiving cylinder rotates.
Bakewell calls this a "copying-telegraph". Bakewell explains a method of brushing the paper with dilute acid only, iron is deposited on the paper, but is invisible until brushed over with a solution of prussiate of potash, which makes it visible, and so the message is not seen until delivered to the person for whom it is intended.
Later, in 1861, Bakewell's system is improved by an Italian priest, Abbe Caselli's "Pantelegraph".
(Theoretically, this same principle of using shellac could be used to transmit a photo. I wonder if the actual silver of a photo could not be used to pass a current through a photograph. In particular, the shellac takes time to dry, so a faster method would be better. Bain had used perforated paper.)
| London, England |
153 YBN
[1847 AD]
| 5992) Frédéric François Chopin (CE 1810-1849) Polish-French composer and pianist, composes his famous "Waltz in D flat major", Op. 64, No. 1, the "Minute Waltz". (verify title)
(That Chopin died so young and so close to the French revolution implies possible particle or other murder.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
152 YBN
[03/11/1848 AD]
| 2843) William Parsons, (Third Earl of Rosse) (CE 1800-1867), Irish astronomer recognizes the spiral shape of the second known spiral galaxies (thought at the time to be nebulae) M99.
Parsons writes "Spiral with a bright star above; a thin portion of the nebula reaches across this star and some distance past it. Principal spiral at the bottom and turning toward the right.".
Parsons also observes and draws the M97, the Owl Nebula, an exploded star. Parsons describes M97 as "Two stars considerably apart in the central region: dark penumbra around each spiral arrangements. (On many occasions only one star seen and spiral form doubtful.)".
| (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
152 YBN
[05/22/1848 AD]
| 3411) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist discovers optical isomers with left-handed and right-handed structure in the tartrates and paratartrates, one rotating a plane polarized light to the right (or clockwise), and the other to the left (or counterclockwise).
Pasteur studies tartaric acid and paratartaric (or racemic) acid. Jean Baptiste Biot and Eilhard Mitscherlich established that aqueous solutions or tartaric acid and its derivatives rotate the plane of polarized to the right, but that paratartrates are optically inactive. Pasteur is convinced that the molecular asymmetry of optical active liquids should be reflected in an asymmetry (or hemihedralism, exhibiting only half the faces required for complete symmetry) in their crystalline form. In sodium ammonium paratartrate Pasteur finds that the substance includes right and left handed crystals, that is, crystals that incline in opposite direction. (Similar to the way crystal cleavage is observed.) Pasteur separates the crystals (into right and left handed portions) by hand (with tweezers), and tests them separately in solution. Pasteur finds that one solution rotates the plane of polarization clockwise, and the other solution rotates it counterclockwise. Pasteur measures the rotation using the prism invented by Nicol years before. When the solutions are mixed together there is no optical activity. Pasteur and Biot go on to confirm that when mixed, the opposite optical activities cancel or compensate for each other. I think that the two molecules must bond with each other alone or together with one or more water molecules to lose asymmetry.
This is called molecular dissymmetry, or chirality.
Tartaric acid is an acid formed in grape fermentation that is widely used commercially, and racemic acid is a new, previously unknown acid that had been discovered in certain industrial processes in the Alsace region. Both acids have identical chemical compositions but show differences in properties.
Pasteur finds optical activity because of asymmetry in crystals, but also in solutions with no crystals, and concludes that asymmetry exists in the molecules themselves. (chronology)
(See video models of polarized plane rotation as a result of photon reflection.) (Does this also show that some crystals retain their physical form when mixed with water?)
| Paris, France |
152 YBN
[08/10/1848 AD]
| 2879) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist applies a constant voltage through empty space in an evacuated tube, and tests the electrical conductance of various gases. (Check if Faraday does this earlier)
William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist performs experiments that indicate that gases do not conduct electricity.
Grove publishes experiments in a paper "On the Effect of Surrounding Media on Voltaic Ignition", in which Grove states: "I think I am entitled to conclude from this, that we have no experimental evidence that matter in the gaseous state conducts voltaic electricity; probably gases do not conduct Franklinic (static) electricity, as the experiments which would seem prima facie to lead to that conclusion, are explicable as resulting from the disruptive discharge."
(Interesting that gas and empty space are clearly poor conductors of electricity, however electric particle can definitely jump the space. Perhaps there is less resistance in empty space and so the spark goes through the empty space as opposed to through the glass to the Earth or to the side. Possibly there is some connection to the other side, perhaps particles from the other electrode have an effect. For the voltaic battery, the voltage must have been too low to create a spark allowing current to flow. It's not clear what "disruptive discharge" is, but in the case of a high voltage spark, clearly a spark can be passed through empty space.)
(Grove refers to experiments performed by Faraday of a slight conduction through a flame of a spirit-lamp, in Philosophical Magazine, vol 9, p176. Make a record for this.)
Also in this paper Grove measures the heat given off from various gases surrounding a heated platinum wire, finding that different gases emit different quantities of heat into water, the temperature being measured with a thermometer in the water.
In this paper, Grove gives priority to Dr. Andrews of Belfast, who published in 1840 in the Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy (For which I cannot find electronically or anywhere in the University of California Libraries).
This is one of the earliest application of a constant voltage through empty space in an evacuated tube, and through various gases in an evacuated tube. In 1785 William Morgan had applied a static electric differential (voltage) through an evacuated tube although not testing a variety of different gases.
| London, England (presumably) |
152 YBN
[08/??/1848 AD]
| 3241) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, publishes (1848) a paper on the kinetic theory of gases, in which he estimates the speed of gas molecules of hydrogen to be 6225 feet per second.
In "On the Mechanical Equivalent of Heat, and on the Constitution of Elastic Fluids.", Joule writes "Thus it may be shown that the particles of hydrogen gas at the barometrical pressure of 30 inches and temperature 60° must move with a velocity of 6225.54 feet per second in order to produce the observed pressure of 14.714 pounds on the square inch." and "since oxygen is sixteen times as heavy in the same space as hydrogen, its particles must move at one quarter the velocity in order to produce the same amount of pressure. Its specific heat (the temperature change in a substance from a given quantity of heat) will be therefore 0.09473, being, as in the case of all elastic fluids, inversely as the specific gravity (relative density).".
| (read at) Swansea, Wales, England |
152 YBN
[09/16/1848 AD]
| 2612) William Cranch Bond (CE 1789-1859), American astronomer, in collaboration with his son George Phillips Bond (CE 1825-1865) discover Hyperion, the eighth moon of Saturn on the same night with the English astronomer William Lassell (CE 1799-1880).
| Harvard, Massachussetts, USA ((Starfield Observatory) Liverpool, England) |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 2648) The Associated Press is formed in the United States when six New York City daily newspapers pool telegraph expenses to finance a telegraphic relay of foreign news brought by ships to Boston.
| New York City, NY, USA |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 2679) Louis Napoleon Bonaparte orders the construction of a national electrical telegraph network.
| France |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 2811) Joseph Henry (CE 1797-1878), US physicist, allows sunlight to project onto a white screen and by sensitive measurements of heat using a thermogalvanometer, shows that sunspots are cooler than the rest of the sun (Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 4, pp. 173-176). A thermogalvanometer is a thermoammeter for measuring small currents, consisting of a thermocouple connected to a direct-current galvanometer.
The thermo-electrical apparatus used in these experiments, was made by Ruhmkorff of Paris.
A 4 inch (lens) telescope with a 4.5 foot focal length is used to enlarge the image of the Sun and Sun spots, which is projected onto a screen.
(This is similar to what Michael Pupin does to see an image of a low frequency of light from brains, basically to visualize a two dimensional image of light in the form of heat or radio.) (What temperature sensors does Henry use? This supports the claim that sunspots are cooled areas where non-light-emitting material, perhaps liquid or solid may be. It could be areas where tiny crust forms from the cold of space. The current popular view is that magnetic fields create sunspots. The magnetic field of the sun reverses over the course of every 11 years which causes an 11 year sun spot cycle.)
| Princeton, NJ, USA |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 2842) William Parsons, (Third Earl of Rosse) (CE 1800-1867), Irish astronomer names the Crab Nebula, the irregular foggy patch Messier first listed in his catalog of nebulae, because to Rosse it looks like a crab.
| (Birr Castle) Parsonstown, Ireland |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3018) Matthew Fontaine Maury (CE 1806-1873), American oceanographer, publishes maps of the main wind and current flows of the Earth.
Maury publishes this information in "Wind and Current Chart of the North Atlantic". (Are these the first air and water current maps published?)
Maury's "Wind and Current" pilot charts of the North Atlantic can shorten sailing times dramatically. This knowledge is acquired by the study of specially prepared logbooks and the collection of data in a systematic way from a growing number of organized observers.
Ocean voyages are shortened (in time) when captains start to take advantage of these (air and water) currents instead of fighting them.
This work leads to an international conference at Brussels in 1853, which produces the greatest benefit to navigation as well as indirectly to meteorology. Maury attempts to organize co-operative meteorological work on land, but the (United States) government does not take any steps in this direction.
| Washington, DC, USA |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3068) Asa Gray (CE 1810-1888), US botanist publishes "Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, from New England to Wisconsin and South to Ohio and Pennsylvania Inclusive" (1848), commonly called "Gray's Manual". This in successive editions has remained a standard work of botany.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3191) Rudolf Albert von Kölliker (KRLiKR) (CE 1817-1905), Swiss anatomist and physiologist, is the first to isolates cells of smooth muscle.
| (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3289) Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (FEZO) (CE 1819-1896), French physicist shows that the lines in a spectrum should shift toward the red if a light source is moving away from the observer, and toward the violet if a light source is moving towards an observer. Doppler had understood this effect for sound six years earlier in 1842, but came to erroneous conclusions for light. (verify erroneous conclusions, and remind again what those were).
Twenty years will pass before instruments are advanced enough to take advantage of this observation. Huggins will be the first to be able to measure the velocity at which a star is approaching or receding from the earth (by using the Doppler shift).
| Paris, France (presumably) |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3302) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868) makes an automatic electric arc light, an electric light in which the carbon electrodes automatically are moved closer as they are used up.
| Paris, France |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3333) Helmholtz shows that the muscles are the main source of animal heat.
Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) develops Liebig's research on animal heat, which ultimately will lead to the seeing of thought by Pupin who studies under Helmholtz.
Helmholtz is the first to show that heat from animals is produced by contracting muscle, and that an acid (now known to be lactic acid) is formed in the contracting muscle. (In this paper?)
| (Physikalische Gesellschaft) Berlin, Germany |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3405) Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart (lOEKoRT) (CE 1822-1898), German zoologist, distinguishes between the Coelenterata (jellyfish) and Echinodermata (starfish), and shows that even though both have radial symmetry they are not closely related. (Starfish are bilaterian and so have bilateral symmetry.) This changes Cuvier's subkingdom of Radiata. Leuckart publishes this in a little book called "Die Morphologie und Verwandtschaftsverhältnisse niederer Thiere" (Eng: "The morphology and relationships of lower animals").
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3477) (Baron) William Thomson Kelvin (CE 1824-1907), Scottish mathematician and physicist explains that at -273°C all molecules stop moving, and this can be considered absolute zero, a temperature below which no temperature can be. (The modern estimate for absolute zero is -273.18°C.) kelvin invents a new temperature scale with the same units as Celsius but with 0 at -273°C. It is now accepted that at absolute zero, the energy of motion (or kinetic energy, a term introduced by Thompson in 1856), of molecules is virtually zero. (I would state that the velocity of all particles is zero at this temperature.) Thompson gains this insight from exploring Charles' find that gases lose 1/273 of their 0°(C) volume for every drop of 1 centigrade degree in temperature. (photons must enter closed vessels to increase the heat by a tiny perhaps unmeasurable quantity.) Thompson corrects Charles' theory, showing that the energy of motion of the gas' molecules reach zero at -273°C, and not the volume of the gas as Charles suggested. Maxwell carries this idea of kinetic energy of molecules further, interpreting temperature in terms of that concept for a kinetic theory of gases, in which heat is interpreted as a form of motion.
Amontons was the first person to discuss the concept of an absolute zero of temperature in 1699. Bernoulli established the basis for the kinetic theory of gases and heat in 1738.
This absolute temperature scale is published as "On an Absolute Thermometric Scale Founded on Carnot's Theory of the Motive Power of Heat and Calculated from Regnault's Observations on Steam" in the Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Thomson writes "THE determination of temperature has long been recognized as a problem of the greatest importance in physical science. It has accordingly been made a subject of most careful attention, and, especially in late years, of very elaborate and refined experimental researches; and we are thus at present in possession of as complete a practical solution of the problem as can be desired, even for the most accurate investigations. The theory of thermometry is however as yet far from being in so satisfactory a state. The principle to be followed in constructing a thermometric scale might at first sight seem to be obvious, as it might appear that a perfect thermometer would indicate equal additions of heat, as corresponding to equal elevations of temperature, estimated by the numbered divisions of its scale. It is however now recognized (from the variations in the specific heats of bodies) as an experimentally demonstrated fact that thermometry under this condition is impossible, and we are left without any principle on which to found an absolute thermometric scale. Next in importance to the primary establishment of an absolute scale, independently of the properties of any particular kind of matter, is the fixing upon an arbitrary system of thermometry, according to which results of observations made by different experimenters, in various positions and circumstances, may be exactly compared. This object is very fully attained by means of thermometers constructed and graduated according to the clearly defined methods adopted by the best instrument-makers of the present day, when the rigorous experimental processes which have been indicated, especially by Regnault, for interpreting their indications in a comparable way, are followed. The particular kind of thermometer which is least liable to uncertain variations of any kind is that founded on the expansion of air, and this is therefore generally adopted as the standard for the comparison of thermometers of all constructions. Hence the scale which is at present employed for estimating temperature is that of the air thermometer; and in accurate researches care is always taken to reduce to this scale the indications of the instrument actually used, whatever may be its specific construction and graduation. The principle according to which the scale of the air-thermometer is graduated, is simply that equal absolute expansions of the mass of air or gas in the instrument, under a constant pressure, shall indicate equal differences of the numbers on the scale; the length of a 'degree' being determined by allowing a given number for the interval between the freezing- and the boiling-points. Now it is found by Regnault that various thermometers, constructed with air under different pressures, or with different gases, give indications which coincide so closely, that, unless when certain gases, such as sulphurous acid, which approach the physical condition of vapours at saturation, are made use of, the variations are inappreciable. This remarkable circumstance enhances very much the practical value of the air-thermometer; but still a rigorous standard can only be defined by fixing upon a certain gas at a determinate pressure, as the thermometric substance. Although we have thus a strict principle for constructing a definite system for the estimation of temperature, yet as reference is essentially made to a specific body as the standard thermometric substance, we cannot consider that we have arrived at an absolute scale, and we can only regard, in strictness, the scale actually adopted as an arbitrary series of numbered points of reference sufficiently close for the requirements of practical thermometry. In the present state of physical science, therefore a question of extreme interest arises: Is there any principle on which an absolute thermometric scale can be founded? It appears to me that Carnot's theory of the motive power of heat enables us to give an affirmative answer. The relation between motive power and heat, as established by Carnot, is such that quantities of heat, and intervals of temperature, are involved as the sole elements in the expression for the amount of mechanical effect to be obtained through the agency of heat; and since we have, independently, a definite system for the measurement of quantities of heat, we are thus furnished with a measure for intervals according to which absolute differences of temperature may be estimated. To make this intelligible, a few words in explanation of Carnot's theory must be given; but for a full account of this most valuable contribution to physical science, the reader is referred to either of the works mentioned above (the original treatise by Carnot, and Clapeyron's paper on the same subject. In the present state of science no operation is known by which heat can be absorbed, without either elevating the temperature of matter, or becoming latent and producing some alteration in the physical condition of the body into which it is absorbed; and the conversion of heat (or caloric) into mechanical effect is probably impossible {fn:This opinion seems to be nearly universally held by those who have written on the subject. A contrary opinion however has been advocated by Mr Joule of Manchester; some very remarkable discoveries which he has made with reference to the generation of heat by the friction of fluids in motion, and some known experiments with magneto electric machines, seeming to indicate an actual conversion of mechanical effect into caloric. No experiment however is adduced in which the converse operation is exhibited; but it must be confessed that as yet much is involved in mystery with reference to these fundamental questions of natural philosophy.}, certainly undiscovered. In actual engines for obtaining mechanical effect through the agency of heat, we must consequently look for the source of power, not in any absorption and conversion, but merely in a transmission of heat. Now Carnot, starting from universally acknowledged physical principles, demonstrates that it is by the letting down of heat from a hot body to a cold body, through the medium of an engine (a steam engine, or an air engine for instance) that mechanical effect is to be obtained; and conversely, he proves that the same amount of heat may, by the expenditure of an equal amount of labouring force, be raised from the cold to the hot body (the engine being in this case worked backwards); just as mechanical effect may be obtained by the descent of water let down by a water-wheel, and by spending labouring force in turning the wheel backwards, or in working a pump, water may be elevated to a higher level. The amount of mechanical effect to be obtained by the transmission of a given quantity of heat, through the medium of any kind of engine in which the economy is perfect, will depend, as Carnot demonstrates, not on the specific nature of the substance employed as the medium of transmission of heat in the engine, but solely on the interval between the temperature of the two bodies between which the heat is transferred. Carnot examines in detail the ideal construction of an air engine and of a steam-engine, in which, besides the condition of perfect economy being satisfied, the machine is so arranged, that at the close of a complete operation the substance (air in one case and water in the other) employed is restored to precisely the same physical condition as at the commencement. He thus shews on what elements, capable of experimental determination, either with reference to air, or with reference to a liquid and its vapour, the absolute amount of mechanical effect due to the transmission of a unit of heat from a hot body to a cold body, through any given interval of the thermometric scale, may be ascertained. In M. Clapeyron's paper various experimental data, confessedly very imperfect, are brought forward, and the amounts of mechanical effect due to a unit of heat descending a degree of the air thermometer, in various parts of the scale, are calculated from them, according to Carnot's expressions. The results so obtained indicate very decidedly, that what we may with much propriety call the value of a degree (estimated by the mechanical effect to be obtained from the descent of a unit of heat through it of the air-thermometer depends on the part of the scale in which it is taken, being less for high than for low temperatures. {fn: This is what we might anticipate, when we reflect that infinite cold must correspond to a finite number of degrees of the air-thermometer below zero; since, if we push the strict principle of graduation, stated above, sufficiently far, we should arrive at a point corresponding to the volume of air being reduced to nothing, which would be marked as -273° of the scale (- 100/.366, if .366 be the coefficient of expansion); and therefore -273° of the air-thermometer is a point which cannot be reached at any finite temperature, however low.} The characteristic property of the scale which I now propose is, that all degrees have the same value; that is, that a unit of heat descending from a body A at the temperature T° of this scale, to a body B at the temperature (T-1)°, would give out the same mechanical effect, whatever be the number T. This may justly be termed an absolute scale, since its characteristic is quite independent of the physical properties of any specific substance. To compare this scale with that of the air-thermometer, the values (according to the principle of estimation stated above) of degrees of the air-thermometer must be known. Now an expression, obtained by Carnot from the consideration of his ideal steam engine, enables us to calculate these values, when the latent heat of a given volume and the pressure of saturated vapour at any temperature are experimentally determined. The determination of these elements is the principal object of Regnault's great work, already referred to, but at present his researches are not complete. In the first part, which alone has been as yet published, the latent heats of a given weight, and the pressures of saturated vapour, at all temperatures between 0° and 230° (Cent. of the air-thermometer). have been ascertained; but it would be necessary in addition to know the densities of saturated vapour at different temperatures, to enable us to determine the latent heat of a given volume at any temperature. M Regnault announces his intention of instituting researches for this object; but till the results are made known, we have no way of completing the data necessary for the present problem, except by estimating the density of saturated vapour at any temperature (the corresponding pressure being known by Regnault's researches already published) according to the approximate laws of compressibility and expansion (the laws of Mariotte and Gay-Lussac or Boyle and Dalton). Within the limits of natural temperature in ordinary climates, the density of saturated vapour is actually found by Regnault (Etudes Hygro me triques in the Annales de Chimie) to verify very closely these laws; and we have reason to believe from experiments which have been made by Gay-Lussac and others, that as high as the temperature 100° there can be no considerable deviation; but our estimate of the density of saturated vapour, founded on these laws, may be very erroneous at such high temperatures as 230°. Hence a completely satisfactory calculation of the proposed scale cannot be made till after the additional experimental data shall have been obtained; but with the data which we actually possess, we may make an approximate comparison of the new scale with that of the air-thermometer, which at least between 0° and 100° will be tolerably satisfactory. The labour of performing the necessary calculations for effecting a comparison of the proposed scale with that of the air-thermometer, between the limits 0° and 230° of the latter, has been kindly undertaken by Mr William Steele, lately of Glasgow College, now of St Peter's College, Cambridge. His results in tabulated forms were laid before the Society, with a diagram, in which the comparison between the two scales is represented graphically. In the first table, the amounts of mechanical effect due to the descent of a unit of heat through the successive degrees of the air-thermometer are exhibited. The unit of heat adopted is the quantity necessary to elevate the temperature of a kilogramme of water from 0° to 1° of the air-thermometer; and the unit of mechanical effect is a metre-kilogramme; that is, a kilogramme raised a metre high. In the second table, the temperatures according to the proposed scale, which correspond to the different degrees of the air-thermometer from 0° to 230°, are exhibited. (The arbitrary points which coincide on the two scales are 0° and 100°). Note.- If we add together the first hundred numbers given in the first table, we find 135.7 for the amount of work due to a unit of heat descending from a body A at 100° to B at 0°. Now 79 such units of heat would, according to Dr Black (his result being very slightly corrected by Regnault), melt a kilogramme of ice. Hence if the heat necessary to melt a pound of ice be now taken as unity, and if a metre-pound be taken as the unit of mechanical effect, the amount of work to be obtained by the descent of a unit of heat from 100° to 0° is 79 x 135.7 or 10,700 nearly. This is the same as 35,100 foot pounds, which is a little more than the work of a one-horse-power engine (33,000 foot pounds) in a minute; and consequently, if we had a steam-engine working with perfect economy at one-horse-power, the boiler being at the temperature 100° and the condenser kept at 0° by a constant supply of ice, rather less than a pound of ice would be melted in a minute."
(I accept this idea, that heat is a measure of molecular movement. Is heat molecular velocity, or quantity of molecules moving? For example what happens when photons are added (as in heating) or removed (as in cooling) some object? Perhaps the photons collide more often (for heating up) and less often (for cooling down), but is there velocity changed?) (Possibly the value of 273 may be inaccurate, because this temperature is measured with mercury or some other atom, which only absorbed a certain frequency of photons, and so all movement may not be measured, but only those photons absorbed by mercury atoms. Since absolute zero is the stopping of all movement, this includes photons emitted in other frequencies. Perhaps since at cold temperatures there are only photons of low frequency emitted, temperature measurements are relatively accurate. Then too, a thermometer does not measure every photon but only samples photons from a specific direction. So perhaps a different scale of average velocity per volume of space, or photons emitted per second, might apply more fully to a volume of space and the concept of a stopping of all matter movement relative to each other.)
(I think it is safe to say that temperature is not equal to average velocity of particles in particular because the measuring material only absorbs certain frequencies of photons. One example is that the boiling of water indicates the same temperature even though increased heat is causing the molecules to have higher average velocity - if the pressure on a container was to be the indication of temperature we would see this increase in velocity as an increase in the size of the expanded barrier, but then that is viewed as a measure of pressure, and not a measure of temperature. Perhaps both could be encompassed in a measure of absolute average velocity of the matter in some volume of space.)
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3478) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) publishes a paper on the "Theory of Electric Images", which is a method of solving electrical problems, however, the name "electric image", must refer to the secret processing of electronic images - exactly like storing sound in electronic format, as is done for the telephone, so image information can be stored. Shockingly and sadly, this technology is kept from the public even to this day. So Thomson is to be credited with leaking a tiny clue to the vast majority or people who are excluded from this truth. So it is probably likely that images were being captured, transmitted over wire, and stored by 1848. By 1848 that this is going to be kept secret is already established.
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3497) Henry Walter Bates (CE 1825-1892), English naturalist, in Brazil, collects over 14,000 animal species (mostly insects), more than 8,000 of which are previously unknown.
| Brazil, South America |
152 YBN
[1848 AD]
| 3658) Wilhelm Eduard Weber (CE 1804-1891), German physicist publishes a different version of "Elektrodynamische Maassbestimmungen" ("On the Measurement of Electro-dynamic Forces.") in "Annalen der Physik" and translated to English in "Scientific Memoirs". According to the title, this was originally published in the "Abhandlungen" in 1846 (verify).
Weber writes (translated from German): "A QUARTER of a century has elapsed since Ampere laid the foundation of electro-dynamics, a science which was to bring the laws of magnetism and electro-magnetism into their true connexion and refer them to a fundamental principle, as has been effected with Kepler's laws by Newton's theory of gravitation. But if we compare the further development which electrodynamics have received with that of Newton's theory of gravitation, we find a great difference in the fertility of these two fundamental principles. Newton's theory of gravitation has become the source of innumerable new researches in astronomy, by the splendid results of which all doubt and obscurity regarding the final principle of this science have been removed. Ampere's electro-dynamics have not led to any such result; it may rather be considered, that all the advances which have since been really made have been obtained independently of Ampere's theory,-as for instance the discovery of induction and its laws by Faraday. If the fundamental principle of electro-dynamics, like the law of gravitation, be a true law of nature, we might suppose that it would have proved serviceable as a guide to the discovery and investigation of the different classes of natural phaenomena which are dependent upon or are connected with it; but if this principle is not a law of nature, we should expect that, considering its great interest and the manifold activity which during the space of the last twenty-five years that peculiar branch of natural philosophy has experienced, it would have long since been disproved. The reason why neither the one nor the other has been effected, depends upon the fact, that in the development of electro-dynamics no such combination of observation with theory has occurred as in that of the general theory of gravitation. Ampere, who was rather a theorist than an experimenter, very ingeniously applied the most trivial experimental results to his system, and refined this to such an extent, that the crude observations immediately concerned no longer appeared to have any direct relation to it. Electro-dynamics, whether for their more secure foundation and extension, or for their refutation, require a more perfect method of observing; and in the comparison of theory with experiment, demand that we should be able accurately to examine the more special points in question, so as to provide a proper organ for what might be termed the spirit of theory in the observations, without the development of which no unfolding of its powers is possible. The following experiments will show that a more elaborate method of making electro-dynamic observations is not only on importance and consideration in proving the fundamental principle of electro-dynamics, but also because it becomes the source of new observations, which could not otherwise have been made. DESCRIPTION OF THE INSTRUMENT The instrument about to be described is adapted for delicate observations on, and measurements of, electro-dynamic forces; and its superiority over those formerly proposed by Ampere depends essentially upon the following arrangement. The two galvanic conductors, the reciprocal action of which is to be observed, consist of two thin copper wires coated with silk, which, like multipliers, are coiled on the external part of the cavities of two cylindrical frames. One of these two coils incloses a space which is of sufficient size to allow the other coil to be placed within it and to have freedom of motion. When a galvanic current passes through the wires of both coils, one of them exerts a rotatory action upon the other, which is of the greatest intensity when the centres of both coils correspond, and when the two planes to which the convolutions of the two coils are parallel form a right angle with each other. The composition of the two coils constitutes the normal position, which they obtain in the instrument. Hence also the common diameter of the two coils, or their axis of rotation, has a vertical position, in order that the rotation may be performed in a horizontal plane. That coil which is to be rotated, to allow of the onward transmission and return of the current, must be brough into connexion with two immoveable conductors; and the main object of the instrument is to effect these combinations in such a manner that the rotation of the coil is not in the least interfered with even when the impulse is the least possible, as occurs when these connexions are effected by means of two points dipping into two metallic cups filled with mercury in which the two immoveable conductors terminate, as in Ampere's arrangement. Instead of these combinations, which on account of the unacoidable friction do not allow of the free rotation of the coil, in the present arrangement two long and thin connecting wires are used, which are fastened at their upper extremities to two fixed metallic cups filled with mercury in which the two immoveable conductors terminate, and at their lower extremities to the frame of the coil, and are there firmly united to the ends of the wires of the coil. The coil hangs freely suspended by these two connecting wires, and each wire supports half the weight of the coil, whereby both wires are rendered equally tense.". Weber goes on to describe in detail this instrument called an "electro-dynamometer" (see figs. 1-10). Weber then states that "...One important modification only requires to be mentioned, viz. that the multiplier, which in the above description assumes an invariable position, in which its centre coincides with the centre of the bifilarly-suspended reel, was left moveable, so that it could be placed in any position as regards the vibrating reel, for the purpose of extending the observations to all relative positions of the two galvanic conductors, which act upon each other. Now as these two conductors form two coils, one of which can enclose the other, and in the instrument described above the inner and smaller coil was suspended by two threads, to serve as it were as a galvanometer-needle, whilst the outer and larger coil was fixed and formed the multiplier; it was requisite for the object in question to reverse the arrangement, and to suspend the outer and larger coil by two threads so as to use the inner and smaller coil as a multiplier, because it was only by this means that the position of the multiplier could be altered at pleasure without interfering with the bifilar suspension. It is at once seen that the external reel, on account of its size, has a freater momentum from inertia,nts of the dyna which produces a longer duration of its vibration; this indluence however may be easily compensated for when necessary by altering the arrangement of the bifilar suspension. As regards the observations themselves, it remains to be remarked, that to render the results comparable, the intensity of the current transmitted by the two conductors of the dynamometer was, simultaneously with the observation on the dynamometer, accurately measured by a second observer with a galvanometer.". Weber records 3 measurements of the dynamometer and galvanometer deflections finding a very close relationship of: γ=5.15534·√δ (γ=galvanometer deflection, δ=dynamometer deflection) and so Weber concludes:
" The electro-dynamic force of the recirprocal action of two conducting wires, through which currents of equal intensity are transmitted, is therefore in proportion to the square of this intensity, which is exactly what is required by the fundamental principle of electro-dynamics.". Weber then writes: " A more extended series of experiments was then made for the purpose of ascertaining the dependence of the electro-dynamic force, with which the two conducting wires of the dynamometer react upon each other, upon the relative position and distance of these wires. For this purpose the arrangement was effected in such a manner, that one conducting wire, i.e. the multiplier, could be placed in any position as regards the other, i.e. as regards the bifilarly-suspended coil, the latter forming the larger coil, which inclosed the former smaller one. Both coils were always placed in such a position that their axes were in the same horizontal plane, and formed a right angle with each other. The distance of the two coils was determined by the distance of their centres from each other, and was thus assumed as = 0 when the centres of the two coils coincided. {ULSF: This seems a source of error, since clearly the distance of different parts of each coil varies.} When the latter was not the case, in addition to the magnitude of the distance of the two centres, it was also requisite to measure the angle which the line uniting the two central points formed with the axis of the bifilarly-suspended coil, whereby the direction in which the centre of the multiplier was removed from the centre of the bifilarly-suspended coil was defined. For this purpose the four cardinal directions were selected at which the former angle had the value 0°, 90°, 180°, 270°, i.e. when the axis of the bifilarly-suspended coil, like the axis of the needle of a magnet, was arranged in the magnetic meridian, the centre of the multiplier was removed from the centre of the above coil, sometimes in the direction of the meridian, north or south, and sometimes in the direction at right angles to the magnetic meridian, east and west. In each of these different directions the multiplier was placed successively at different distances from the suspended coil. This arrangement of different positions and distances of the two conducting wires of the dynamometer accurately corresponds, as is seen at a glance, to the arrangement of different positions and distances of the two magnets, upon which Gauss based his measurements, in demonstrating the fundamental principle of magnetism. The bifilarly-suspended coil here occupied the place of Gauss's magnetic needle and the multiplier the place of Gauss's deflection-rod. The only important difference is, that the mutual action of the magnets could only be observed from a distance; consequently in the magnetic observations that case was excluded in which the centres of the two magnets coincided; whilst in the electro-dynamic measurements of which we are now speaking, the system could moreover be rendered complete by the case, in wihch the centre of the two coils coincided. Simultaneously with the observations made on the dynamo-meter, the intensity of the current which was transmitted through the two coils of the dynamometer was measured by another observer with a galvanometer. By these auxiliary observations I was enabled to reduce all the observations made on the dynamometer in accordance with the law shown above, (that the electro-dynamic force is in proportion to the square of the intensity of the current,) to an equal intensity of the current, and thus to render the results obtained comparable.". Weber lists the observations of distance between the centers of the two dynamometer coils and the direction formed by the line uniting the two centers with the axis of the bifilarly-suspended coil directed towards the magnetic meridian. Weber finds that when the centers of the two coils are aligned the direction of the multiplier makes no difference in any of the four directions, while the direction with centers at equal distance in opposite directions is the same at each point 180 degrees apart. Weber translates these values into degrees, minutes and seconds which is the same notation used by Gauss in his "Intensitas Vis Magneticae, &c." in the comparison of magnetic observations. Weber concludes this experiment by stating " Thus in this agreement of the calculated values with those obtained by observation, we have a confirmation of one of the most universal and most important consequnces of the fundamental principle of electro-dynamics, viz. that the same laws apply to electro-dynamic forces exerted at a distance as to magnetic forces.". Weber then concludes that "the electro-dynamic momentum of rotation which the multiplying coil exerts upon the bifilarly-suspended coil, when a current of the intensity i passes through both coils, is determined with sufficient accuracy to be ...
427.45 . ππii.". Weber then examines the phenomenon of induction writing: "OBSERVATIONS TENDING TO ENLARGE THE DOMAIN OF ELECTRO-DYNAMIC INVESTIGATIONS A. Observation of Voltaic Induction. If the bifilarly-suspended coil of the dynamometer be made to oscillate whilst a current is transmitted through it, or through the coil of the multiplier, or through both simultaneously, this motion is inductive, and excites a current in the conductor, through which no current was passing, or alters the current passing through this conductor. This mode of excitation of the current is called voltaic induction. The inducing motion, i.e. the velocity of the oscillating coil, is on each occasion diminished or checked by the antagonism of the currents excited by the voltaic induction and those conducted through the coil. This check to the vibrating coil effected by the voltaic induction may be accurately observed; and at the same time the motion of the oscillating coil itself, which produces the voltaic induction, may be accurately determined; and this twofold use of the dynamometer affords the data necessary for the more accurate investigation of the laws of voltaic induction. The bifilarly-suspended coil closed in itself was made to oscillate to the greatest extent at which the scale permitted observations to be made, and its oscillations from 0 were counted until they became too minute for accurate observation. During the counting, the magnitude of the arc of oscillation was measured from time to time. These experiments were first made under the influence of voltaic induction, a current from three Grove's elements being conducted through the multiplying coil; the same experiments were next repeated, after the removal of the elements, without voltaic induction:-" {ULSF I am presuming that the rotation was with and without current flowing through the turning coil - so this is a difference of with and without an added current producing extra self-induction.} Weber lists a table with enumeration of the oscillations and arcs of oscillations for both with and without voltaic induction, writing: "it is evident on comparison, that the diminution of the magnitude of the arc, which without the influence of induction from one oscillation to another amounted on an average to 1/180th, with the cooperation of the induction rose to 1/77th part. When for the multiplying coil with the current transmitted through it, a magnet equivalent in an electro-magnetic point of view is substituted, the diminution of the arc is found to be equally great, i.e. the magnetic induction of this magnet is equal to the voltaic induction of the current in the multiplier. The velocity which the inducing motion must possess for the intensity of the induced current to be equal to that of the inducing current, may also be deduced from these experiments.". Weber talks about determining the duration of momentary currents. Then Weber has a section: " Repetition of Ampere's fundamental Experiment with common Electricity and measurement of the duration of the Electric Spark on the discharge of a Leyden jar. It is evident from the preceding remarks, that the action of a current upon the dynamometer depends more upon the intensity of the current, to the square of which it is proportionate, than upon the duration of the current, to which it is simply proportional. {ULSF note proportionate must mean in a squared relation} Hence it follows that even a small quantity of electricity, when passed through the dynamometer within a very short period, so that it forms a current of very short duration but very great intensity, will produce a sensible effect. This is, in fact, the cvase when the small quantity of electricity which can be collected in a Leyden jar or battery is transmitted during its discharge through the dynamometer. By this means it was found that Ampere's fundamental experiment, which had previously been made only with powerful galvanic batteries, could also be made with common electricity. When the same electricity, collected in Leyden jars, after having been transmitted through the dynamometer, was also conducted through a galvanometer and the deflection thus produced in both instruments was measured, in accordance with the above rules, the duration of the current, i.e. the duration of the electric spark on the discharge of the Leyden jar, and at the same time the intensity of the current could be determined, admitting that the current might be considered as uniform during its brief duration. It is well known that in experiments of this kind the discharge of the Leyden jar is effected by means of a wet string, to prevents its taking place through the air instead of through the fine wires of the two instruments. In this manner a series of experiments was made: a battery of eight jars being discharged through a wet hempen string, 7 millimetres in thickness and of different lengths, .... Hence the duration of the spark was nearly in proportion to the length of the string;...". (It is not clear how the time units which are as small as 9.5ms were determined. It seems interesting that length of conductor would affect duration of electric spark.) (I was expecting at this point, for Weber to describe the difference in force between the charge in the Leyden jar in static form versus its force in moving {dynamic} form.) Weber describes an interesting method of producing electrical oscillation from mechanical oscillation: "..an electric vibration may be readily produced in a conducting wire by a magnetized steel bar vibrating so as to produce a musical sound, when one portion of the conducting wire, forming at it were the inducing coil, surrounds the free vibrating end of the bar, so that the direction of the vibration is at right angles to the plane of the coils of the wire. All vibrations of the bar on one side then produce positive currents in the wire, and all the vibrations on the other side produce negative currents, which follow each other as rapidly as the sonorous vibrations themselves. When the ends of the wire of the inducing coil are united to the ends of that of the dynamometer, a deflection of the latter during the vibration of the bar is observed, which can be accurately measured. This deflection remains unaltered so long as the intensity of the sonorous vibrations remains unaltered, but speedily diminishes when the intensity of the sonorous vibrations diminishes; and when the amplitude of the sonorous vibrations has fallen to a half, it then amounts to the fourth part only. The dynamometer thus presents a means of estimating the intensity of sonorous vibrations, which is of importance, because methods adapted to these measurements are still much required.". Weber then explains the math behind his adaption of Ampere's law of force by changing Ampere's angle's into velocities of particles, that is cosθ= dr/ds." Weber describes the difference between the view of static electricity of Coulomb and dynamic electricity of Ampere. Weber then shows the math to explain how he changes Ampere's equation into terms of current velocities as opposed to current directions by realizing that Ampere's term for cosine can also be describes as being equal to a distance over a time. Weber writes: "ON THE CONNEXION OF THE FUNDAMENTAL PRINCIPLE OF ELECTRO-DYNAMICS WITH THAT OF ELECTRO-STATICS. The fundamental principle of electro-statics is, that when two electric (positive or negative) masses, denoted by e and e', are at a distance r from each other, the amount of the force with which the two masses act reciprocally upon each other is expressed by
ee' ---- rr'
and that repulsion or attraction occurs accordingly as this expression has a positive or negative value. On the other hand, the fundamental principle of electro-dynamics is as follow:-- When two elements of a current, the lengths of which are α and α', and the intensities i and i', and which are at the distance r from each other, so that the directions in which the positive electricity in both elements moves, form with each other the angle s, and with the connecting right line the angles θ and θ', the magnitude of the force with which the elements of the current reciprocally act upon each other is determined by the expression
αα'ii' - ------(cos ε - 3/2cosθcosθ') rr
and repulsion and attraction occurs according as this expression has a positive or negative value. The expressions of the rotatory momentum exerted by one coil of the dynamometer upon the other, developed at p.502 and 503, are all deduced from this fundamental principle. The former of the two fundamental principles mentioned refers to two electric masses and their antagonism, the latter to two elements of a current and their antagonism. A more intimate connexion between the two can only be attrained by recurring, likewise in the case of the elements of the current, to the consideration of the electric magnitudes existing in the elements of the current, and their antagonism. Thus the next question is, what electric magnitudes are contained in the two elements of a current, and upon what mutual relations of these masses their reciprocal actions may depend. If the mass of the positive electricity in a portion of the conducting wire equal to a unit length of which is = α, by α e, and if u indicates the velocity with which the mass moves, the product e u expresses that mass of positive electricity which in a unit of time passes through each section of the conducting wire, to which the intensity of the current i must be considered as proportional; hence, when a expresses a constant factor, a e u = i.
If now α e represent the mass of positive electricity in the element of the current α, and u its velocity, -αe represents the mass of negative electricity in the same element of the current, and -u its velocity. We have also, when
ae'u'=i',
α'e' as the mass of positive electricity in the second element of the current α', and u' its velocity, and lastly, -α'e' as the mass of negative electricity, and -u' as its velocity. If now for i and i', in the expression of the force which one element of a current exerts upon another, their values i=aeu, and i'=ae'u' are substituted, we then obtain for them
αe.α'e' - ------- . aauu' . (cos ε - 3/2cosθcosθ') rr If now we first consider in this expression αe.α'e' as the product of the positive electric masses αe and α'e' in the two elements of the current, and uu' as the product of their velocities u and u', and if we denote by r the variable distance of these two masses in motion; and lastly, by s1 and s1' the length of a portion of each of the two conducting wires, to which the elements of the current α and α' just considered belong, estimated from a definite point of origin and proceeding in the direction of the positive electricity, as far as the element of the current under consideration, we then know that the cosines of the two angles θ and θ', which the two conducting wires in the situation of the elements of the current mentioned form with the connecting right line r1, may be represented by the partial differential coefficients of r1 with respect to s1 and s1; thus dr1 cos θ = ----, ds1
dr1 cos θ' = - ---- ds1
we have then ..." (see image 3)
Weber then transforms these dr/ds values, which are space/space quantities into dr/dt, which are space/time units. And after a few pages of equations produces the familiar form of his adapted equation (see image 1). Weber concludes by writing "The diminution arising from motion of the force with which two electric masses would act upon each other when they are at rest, is in proportion to the square of their reduced relative velocity.". Weber's final section is titled "THEORY OF VOLTAIC INDUCTION". Here Weber explains induction as the result of forces induced in a conductor from the relative movement of current in the primary conductor. Weber writes " It has already been mentioned that the principle of electrodynamics laid down by Ampere refers merely to the special case, where four electric masses occur under the conditions premised to exist where two invariable and undisturbed elements of a current are concerned. Under conditions where these premises do not exist, the new fundamental principle only can be applied for the a priori determination of the forces and phaenomena and it is exactly in this way that the greater advantage of the new principle, arising from its more general application, wil be exhibited. The case in which the principle of electro-dynamics laid down by Ampere is inapplicable, thus occurs even when one element of a current is disturbed or its intensity varies; in addition to which it may also happen, that instead of the other element of the current, one element only of the conductor of a current may be present, without however any current being present in it. In fact, we know from experience that currents are then excited or induced, and the phaenomena of these induced currents are comprised under the name of voltaic induction; but none of these phaenomena could be predicted or estimated a priori either from the principle of electro-statics or the pricniple of electro-dynamics laid down by Ampere. It will now however be shown, that by means of the new fundamental principle as laid down here, the laws for the a priori determination of all the phaenomena of voltaic induction may be deduced. It is evident that the laws of voltaic induction deduced in this manner are correct, so far only as we are in possession of definite observations.". Webere goes on to explain induced current as the result of conservation of force. Weber describes the application of his equation to the two cases of induction, first the case in which one of the wires is moved towards or away from another, and secondly in the case when neither wire is moved, but a change in current in a wire induces a current in a secondary wire. Weber writes: " Just as the particular law of the first kind of voltaic induction was at once found from the general laws of voltaic induction deduced above by the conditional equation di ---- = 0, dt
so we also find the peculiar law of the latter kind of voltaic induction by the conditional equation v = 0.". So Weber views v=0 as meaning there is no motion of the conductors relative to each other. Weber concludes with: "Lastly, if we return from the consideration of these two distinct kinds of voltaic induction to the general case, where at the same time the intensity of the inducing current is variable and the two conductors are in motion as regards each other, the electromotive force exerted by the variable element of a current upon the moved element of a conductor is found to be simply as the sum of the electromotive forces which would occur- 1. If the element of the conductor were not in motion at the moment under consideration; 2. If the element of the conducto were in motion, but the intensity of the current of the induced element did not alter at the moment under consideration.".
(I think one reason for the success of Newton's gravity and failure of Coulomb's electricity to describe all phenomena is because Coloumb's law is a generalization of a multi-particle collision phenomenon, and not an intrinsic force. It might be thought that gravitation might suffer a similar problem - but so far no model of an all inertial universe can explain the apparent attraction of matter to itself - for example as the result of particle collision only. There are some truly hard to understand phenomena in the universe: I would cite the apparently infinite size, scale and age of the universe as being difficult to quantity or work with in terms of a physical model, in addition, all the complex phenomena that occurs with living objects. Are we to attribute all the processes of life to multiparticle phenomena that only use the laws of gravitation, collision and inertia? Should humans attempt to quantity of generalize the movements of intelligent living objects? For example, if life does assemble globular clusters of stars by using gravitation, how do we describe this inevitable process mathematically? )
(In terms of the verification of an inverse distance of force based on quantity of current. Possibly this can be interpreted as the dynamometer deflection as being related to the overall transfer of velocity {and possibly mass} from particles of electricity which collide. This finding is then that the velocity transferred by particle collision is proportional to the square of the quantity of electrical particles divided by 25. Perhaps this is because the area of the electricity {and volume?} per unit time increases by the square root. Adding more current does not simply increase the quantity of particles in the x dimension {with the wires in the z direction}, but it means more particles in the y dimension too. Like a growing circle, the area increases by pi*r^2 - units of radius comparable to units of particles. So, an average, force, and velocity of particles before and after an average collision might be estimated, possibly even independent of mass -presuming equal mass for all particles. So these equations can be put in terms of quantities, masses, and velocities as opposed to an abstract notion of charge - although as I understand - quantity of charge is actually quantity of particles - and does not imply necessarily an electromagnetic force - any force being interpreted as exchanged movement and/or mass from inertial velocity and mass.)
(It's interesting that apparently, initially coulomb's expression of ii' {or ee' or qq' in the modern version of: Fq1q2/r^2} initially represented quantity of particles as opposed to an abstract view that exists now of "strength of electric charge" for many people. Viewing ii' as "number of electrons", may be equivalent to "mass of electrons", and so be identical to Newton's equation - as opposed to some abstract extra "electromagnetic" force in addition to gravity.)
(It is interesting - the form Weber presents for Ampere's equation: Presumably Coulomb's equation can be extended over a length. For example adding the products of αα', the length of some charged object.)
(Interesting that induced current as a result of motion contains a summing of the motion of the current relative to the induced wire, and of the moving wire relative to the unmoved induced wire.)
| (University of) Leipzig, Germany |
151 YBN
[01/20/1849 AD]
| 3280) Foucault publishes this in L'Institut as "Note sur la Lumière sur L'Arc Voltaique" ("Note on the Light of the Voltaic Arc").
Foucault describes the spectrum of the voltaic arc formed between charcoal poles (translated) "Its spectrum is marked, as is known, in its whole extent by a multitude of irregularly grouped luminous lines; but among these may be remarked a double line situated at the boundary of the yellow and orange. As this double line recalled by its form and situation the line D of the solar spectrum, I wished to try if it corresponded to it; and in default of instruments for measuring the angles, I had recourse to a particular process. I caused an image of the sun, formed by a converging lens, to fall on the arc itself, which allowed me to observe at the same time the electric and the solar spectrum superposed; I convinced myself in this way that the double bright line of the arc coincides exactly with the double dark line of the solar spectrum. This process of investigation furnished me matter for some unexpected observations. it proved to me in the first instance the extreme transparency of the arc, which occasions only a faint shadow in the solar light. it showed me that this arc, placed in the path of a beam of solar light, absorbs the rays D, so that the above-mentioned line D of the solar light is considerably strengthened when the two spectra are exactly superposed. When, on the contrary, they jut out one beyond the other, the line D appears darker than usual in the solar light, and stands out bright in the electric spectrum, which allows one easily to judge of their perfect coincidence. Thus the arc presents us with a medium which emits the rays D on its own account, and which at the same time absorbs them when they come from another quarter. To make the experiment in a manner still more decisive, I projected on the arc the reflected image of one of the charcoal points, which, like all solid bodies in ignition, gives no lines; and under these circumstances the line D appeared to me as in the solar spectrum."
Many times, Angstrom, or Bunsen and Kirchhoff are wrongly credited with this initial discovery. This line confuses me: "this (charcoal) arc, placed in the path of a beam of solar light, absorbs the rays D, so that the above-mentioned line D of the solar light is considerably strengthened when the two spectra are exactly superposed.". This presumes that there are some "rays D" in the Sun, but these frequencies do not exist in he Sun light. Perhaps Foucault is suggesting that some rays are not absorbed and still transmitted but only dimly seen, and that those rays are absorbed making the solar lines darker. But it is still a mystery as to how an object that emits light originating from the back of the arc, in the frequency of these two lines, would be absorbed by sun light, presumably, which comes from in front of it. Is the electric arc made with charcoal electrodes in air?
Kirchhoff will explain that this absorption is because of sodium in the charcoal electrodes which emits and absorbs the same frequencies of light.
I think many of these kinds of experiments need to be performed for the public on video, with many different substances, showing how the material absorbs and emits the same exact spectral lines, for visible, and invisible frequencies. One question is that, Foucault uses an electric arc to absorb the light from a the charcoal point of an electric arc, so both are light sources. Wouldn't an unilluminated group of sodium (although in what form, vapor?) be a better test that sodium absorbs those frequencies of light, and then, how can light emitted from the sodium flame be blocked when it must reach the prism or grating? Beyond this, how can we see, for example, light from electrified oxygen in a evacuated tube, when those frequencies would be absorbed by oxygen in the air in between the tube and viewer? Is it necessary for the sodium to be illuminated?
Foucault uses a concave mirror to focus the image of one of the carbon electrodes onto the arc. The incandescent electrode gives a continuous spectrum uninterrupted by any emission or absorption lines (which seems unusual since doesn't carbon have a unique set of lines?), but where the light from the electrode overlaps with the arc, dark D lines are seen. Foucault had expected the opposite, that the light from the arc would add to the light from the incandescent electrode rather than dimming it. Foucault finds that the D lines are present with varying brightness in the light given by different metal electrodes and are considerably brightened if the electrodes are touched with potash, soda or chalk. Foucault writes "Before concluding anything from the nearly universal presence of the D line, it is no doubt necessary to be sure that its appearance does not derive from some material which is present in all our conductors.". Now it is known that sodium is responsible for the D lines. In 1856 it will be shown (state by who) less than one ten-millionth of a gram of common salt is enough to give a flame bright D lines. Fox Talbot, Charles Wheatstone and others suggest that the spectral lines are characteristic of different substances and can be used in chemical analysis. Foucault goes on to note that the arc spectrum of silver is dominated by a single very intense green line that can be used for optics experiments involving only a single frequency of light, which before this was only imagined in theory. In 1859 the D lines' reversal is rediscovered by Heidelberg physicist Gustav Kirchhoff, and unlike Foucault, Kirchhoff deduces why the reversal occurs. In equilibrium, the atoms must emit as much D light as they absorb, this is known as Kirchhoff's Law of Emission and Absorption, and it requires emission to happen at the same time as absorption. in Foucault's experiment, the light comes from only one side. The sodium atoms in the arc absorb the D wavelengths from this beam but re-emit them in all directions. Because of this geometrical dilution, the strength of the D lines relative to adjacent wavelengths is reduced, even though their strength is increased, compared to the arc alone. In the Sun, light from the hotter, brighter inner layers is absorbed by the cooler layers above. In 1860 Kirchhoff and Bunsen publish a landmark paper comparing solar spectral lines, concluding that iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, nickel and chromium are all present in the Sun's photosphere, while the common terrestrial elements aluminum and silicon are undetectable. After Kirchhoff's and Bunsen's work, new elements will be identified by the spectrum of light associated with them.
(One important distinction is the light from the arc and that from the charcoal electrode which emit different spectra.)
Bunsen and Kirchhoff will write in 1859, that Foucault's observation "is not influenced by the peculiarity of the electric light, which is still, from many points of view, so enigmatical, but arises from a sodium compound which is contained in the carbon and is transformed by the current into incandescent gas.". In 1860 Kirchhoff writes (translated from German): "M. Foucault's observation appears to be regarded as essentially the same as mine; and for this reason i take the liberty of drawing attention to the difference between the two. The observation of M. Foucault relates to the electric arch between charcoal points, a phaenomenon attended by circumstances which are in many respects extremely enigmatical. My observation relates to ordinary flames into which vapours of certain chemical substances have been introduced. By the aid of my observation, the other may be accounted for on the ground of the presence of sodium in the charcoal, and indeed might even have been foreseen. M. Foucault's observation does not afford any explanation of mine, and could not have led to its anticipation. My observation leads necessarily to the law which I have announced with reference to the relation between the powers of absorption and emission; it explains the existence of Fraunhofer's lines, and leads the way to the chemical analysis of the atmosphere of the sun and the fixed stars. All this M. Foucault's observations did not and could not accomplish, since it related to a too complicated phaenomenon, and since there was no means of determining how much of the result was due to electricity, and how much to the presence of sodium. If I had been earlier acquanted with this observation, I should not have neglected to introduce some notice of it into my communication, but I should nevertheless have considered myself justified in representing my observation as essentially new.". (The use of the word "enigmatic" - the postscript does not appear in the Annalen version.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
151 YBN
[01/23/1849 AD]
| 1252) Elizabeth Blackwell (February 3, 1821 - May 31, 1910) becomes the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States.
| Geneva, New York, USA |
151 YBN
[03/29/1849 AD]
| 3507) Thomas Henry Huxley (CE 1825-1895), English biologist, publishes "On the Anatomy and the Affinities of the Family of Medusae" in which he groups sea anemones, hydras, jellyfishes, and sea nettles (like the Portuguese man-of-war) as "Nematophora" (named for their stinging cells), although they are later classified as the phylum "Cnidaria" (or "Coelenterata"). Huxley also demonstrates that they are all composed of two "foundation membranes" (shortly to be called endoderm and ectoderm), even suggesting that these membranes are related to the two original cell layers in the vertebrate embryo.
To repay his (school) debts, Huxley enters the navy and serves (1846–50) as assistant surgeon on HMS Rattlesnake surveying Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and New Guinea. Using a microscope Huxley examines the structure and growth of the Nematophora (Cniderians), which decompose too quickly to be studied anywhere except on the ocean.
| (Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
151 YBN
[05/27/1849 AD]
| 3299) Armand Fizeau (FEZO) (CE 1819-1896) and Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868) measure no change in the speed of light due to the movement of Earth through an aether.
Foucault and Fizeau worked together to detect the Earth's orbital motion optically. The underlying theory is the light waves are vibrations of a medium, the luminiferous ether, analogous to the way sound waves are vibrations of air. If true, one consequence is that, just like sound, the observed velocity and wavelength of light will change because of the motion of the source and observer through the ether, as Doppler and Fizeau had stated before. The ether is presumed to be at rest relative to the motion of the Earth. People expect annual variations in terrestrial experiments because of the Earth's changing direction of motion through the ether as the Earth orbits around the Sun, but no such changes have ever been seen.
Foucault and Fizeau use the "double-tube" devised decades earlier by Arago to search for the partial drag Fresnel's wave theory predicted. This device is a simple application of Young's interference, but with the two light beams passing through separate tubes before they interfere. Arago had put humid air in one tube and dry air in the other, with the resulting differences in wavelength because of the different refractive indices producing a slight shift of the fringe pattern. Foucault and Fizeau pass oppositely flowing air currents through the two parallel tubes so that the drags will oppose each other, but do not measure a convincing fringe shift. Foucault deposits a report at the Academy describing trials made in his laboratory writing "The impossibility of noting any aberration phenomenon due to the translation of the Earth other than on the stars led M. Fizeau and myself to the idea that the ether is dragged along by ponderable matter...".
Michelson and Morley will perform a similar experiment, spliting a beam of light into two beams, sending them through air at perpendicular directions and recombining them to reveal any interference, for which Michelson and Morley do not detect.
| Paris, France |
151 YBN
[06/21/1849 AD]
| 3247) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889), English physicist, publishes the results of five series of experiments on measuring the heat from the friction of paddle-wheels between water, mercury and cast iron.
Joule concludes: "1st. That the quantity of heat produced by the friction of bodies, whether solid or liquid, is always proportional to the quantity of force expended. And, 2nd. That the quantity of heat capable of increasing the temperature of a pound of water (weighed in vacuo, and taken at between 55° and 60°) by 1° Fahr. requires for its evolution the expenditure of a mechanical force represented by the fall of 772 lb. through the space of one foot.". Joule then states a third conclusion which was criticized by the referee Michael Faraday writing: "A third proposition, suppressed in accordance with the wish of the Committee to whom the paper was referred, stated that friction consisted in the conversion of mechanical power into heat.". Among other criticisms, Faraday criticizes that there is no mention of the heat evolved from the pivot of the paddle, and not just from the friction of the paddle against the water. Faraday rejects as "untenable" the idea that just because the amount of heat evolved from a given quantity of work is always the same, that heat is convertible to force, and force convertible to heat.
| (Oak Field, Whalley Range near) Manchester, England |
151 YBN
[07/23/1849 AD]
| 3290) Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (FEZO) (CE 1819-1896), French physicist, is the first to measure the speed of light with a terrestrial method. The velocity of light had only been measured by Roemer (in 1676 ) and Bradley (in 1729 ) both using an astronomical method. Fizeau refines Galileo's method of flashing lights back and forth from adjacent hills. Fizeau puts a rapidly turning toothed disc on one hilltop and a mirror on another 8,633 meters (5 miles) away. Light passes through one gap between the teeth of the disc to the mirror and is reflected. If the disc turns rapidly enough the reflected light passes through the next gap. From the speed of rotation at which light is successfully reflected (and blocked by the next tooth), the time required for light to travel ten miles can be calculated. The experiment is a success but the value Fizeau calculates is 5 percent higher (than the modern estimate). Foucault makes a more accurate measurement of the velocity of light in 1862 using a rotating mirror.
Historian William Tobin describes Fizeau's experiment "Fizeau's experiment is represented schematically in Figure 8.8 (see image 1). The heart of the apparatus was a spinning wheel cut with very fine teeth in its rim. A beam of light was brought into the apparatus by reflection off an inclined glass plate located just in front of the rim. This thin plate cannot be seen in Fig. 8.8 because it lies within the telescope tubing, as does a lens which focused he bream into a tiny spot on the eyepiece side of the rim, where the teeth and the equally sized spaces between them chopped the beam into a series of pulses. The objective or front lens of the telescope projected the pulses out from Fizeau's home station in a roof lantern in his father's house in Suresnes, west of Paris, towards a second station 8633 metres away in a telegraph building on the Montmartre hills to the north of Paris. There a second telescope objective focused the pulses onto a mirror from which they reflected back along the same path through the two telescopes to form another tiny spot on the rear side of the wheel teeth in Suresnes. Fizeau observed this reflected pinprick of light using an eyepiece focused through the inclined glass plate. If the wheel was stationary or turning very slowly, as illustrated in the upper left view in Figure 8.9 (see image 2), the pulse of light transmitted by the gap between any particular pair of teeth would return to the same point before the gap had moved, and a bright spot appeared in the eyepiece. If the wheel was turning faster, however, the adjacent tooth began to move into the position previously occupied by the gap and some of the returning light was blocked, as shown in the upper right view in Fig. 8.9 (image 2). When the wheel speed was great enough, the tooth exactly filled the gap, completely eclipsing the light (bottom view). At a greater wheel speed yet, the next gap replaced the first one, and light could be seen once more through the eyepiece. At ever greater wheel speeds, there was an alternating succession pf transmissions by gaps and eclipses by teeth. From the wheel speeds at which these occurred, the time taken for light to travel the known round-trip distance between Suresnes and Montmartre could be calculated, and hence the speed of light determined. It took Fizeau only six months to complete a prototype apparatus and demonstrate the practicability of the method. The apparatus was built by Froment with helicoidal teeth on the final gears (Fig. 8.8) {image 1}. Experiments were carried out in the evening 'when the atmosphere is pure and calm'. A Drummand lamp was the actual luminous source. The occulting wheenl carried 720 teeth and the first eclipse occured when the wheel was turning at 12.6 r.p.s. On J1849 July 23, Fizeau reported to the Academy that based on a series of twenty-eight observations he had found the speed of light to be '70 948 leagues {per second} of 25 to the degree', or in modern terms, 315 300 km/s, close to the astronomically determined value. Sunlight and artificial light were thus found to propagate at essentially the same rate.".
Fizeau publishes this as "Sur une expérience relative à la vitesse de propagation de la lumière" ("On an Experiment Relating to the Speed of Light Propagation."). Fizeau writes "I have tried to make sensible the speed of propagation of light by a method which seems to provide a new way to study with precision this important phenomenon. This method is based on the following principles: When a disc turns in its place revolves around the central figure with a great rapidity, one can consider time employed by a point of the circumference to traverse a very-small angular space, 1/1000 of the circumference, for example. When the number of revolutions is rather large, this time is generally very small; for one hundred and ten turns a second, it is only 1/10000 and 1/100000 of a second. If the disc is divided along the circumference, in the manner of gears, in equal intervals alternatively empty and full, one will have, for the duration of the passage of each interval by a single point in the space, the same very small fractions. During such short times the light traverses rather limited spaces, 31 kilometers for the first fraction, 3 kilometers for the second. By considering the effects produced when a ray of light traverses the division of such a disk movement, one arrives at this consequence, that if the ray, after its passage, is reflected through a mirror and returned to the disk, so that it meets again in the same point of space, the speed of propagation of light may intervene so that the ray will cross or be intercepted according to the speed of the disc and the distance to which the reflection will take place. ...(translate rest) The first glasses were placed in the view-point of a house situated in Suresnes, the second on the height of Montmartre, which has an approximate distance of 8,633 meters. The disc carrying seven hundred and twenty teeth goes up on a wheel driven by weights and built by Mr. Froment; a meter permits me to measure the number of revolutions. The light was borrowed from a lamp laid out so as to offer a very-sharp source of light. These first tests provide a value speed of light little different from that which is accepted by astronomers. The average deduced from the twenty-eight observations which could be made until now gives, for this value, 70,948 leagues of 25 to the degree." In modern terms, 315,300 km/s, close to the astronomically determined value. Sun light and artificial light are shown, therefore, to propagate at the same velocity.
(Is there a method of spinning some object (mirror or toothed wheel) fast enough to change the frequency of a beam of light by removing/reflecting every other photon, or some frequency of photons? to create a spectral line perhaps.) (I want to use an electronic and/or computer method of rapid photon detection. State when electronic method is first performed)
(How are the gears speeds adjusted for the perfect speed rotation? Is there a gear that can be quickly and easily adjusted? Electric motor gear speeds can be adjusted by (digital) current pulse.)
| Paris, France |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 1026) From 1849 to 1854 Austen Henry Layard and Hormuzd Rassam recover 30,000 cuneiform tablets and fragments at the Assyrian site of Nineveh in northern Iraq, most in the great mound of Kuyunjik.
| |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 2649) Paul Julius Reuters (rOETR) (CE 1816-1899) in Paris creates a telegraphic press service.
| Paris, France |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 2732) (Sir) John Frederick William Herschel (CE 1792-1871), English astronomer, publishes "Outlines of Astronomy" (1849), an (astronomy) book for the educated average person, which will be very successful reaching 12 editions before his death, including Arabic and Chinese editions.
| London, England (presumably) |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 2763) Thomas Addison (CE 1793-1860), English physician describes Addisonian (pernicious) anemia.
In 1849 Addison reads to a London medical society a paper on anemia (a condition characterized by abnormally low levels of healthy red blood cells or hemoglobin (the component of red blood cells that delivers oxygen to tissues throughout the body)) with disease of the suprarenal bodies (suprarenal means located on or above the kidney). This type of anemia is unlike the anemias then known (it was always fatal) and at autopsy Addison had sometimes found disease of the suprarenals.
Addisonian anemia occurs in persons past middle age and is almost always fatal. As Addicon does not know the cause of the anemia, he calls it "idiopathic anaemia".
Addison does not use a microscope to look at the blood, and some of these and other features are first described in 1872 by Anton Biermer of Zurich, who calls the disease "pernicious anaemia".
In this year, Addison also gives a preliminary description of the other disease named after him, "Addison's disease".
| (Guy's Hospital) London, England |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 3065) Henri Victor Regnault (renYO) (CE 1810-1878), French chemist and physicist, improves on the work of Lavoisier when determining the ratio of oxygen taken in by animals with the amount of carbon dioxide they release. This ratio will be called the respiratory quotient.
| (College de France) Paris, France |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 3114) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, shows that the main processes of digestion take place in the small intestine, not in the stomach as is previously believed, and that pancreatic juice is important in the digestion of fat.
Bernard uses fistulas (small openings from the outside of the body into the digestive tract of animals) to learn that the digestive process does not end in the stomach. By introducing food directly into the small intestine, Bernard shows that the main process of digestion takes place through the length of the small intestine and that the secretions from the pancreas gland are important in digestion, breaking down fat molecules in particular. Bernard demonstrates the role of the role of the pancreas in the first phase of fat metabolism, that the secretions of the pancreas break down fat molecules into fatty acids and glycerin.
Bernard discovers a difference between the urine of herbivores (plant-eating species) and carnivores (meat-eating species). Bernard notices that some rabbits are passing clear urine instead of cloudy urine, just like meat-eating animals. Bernard supposes that the rabbits have not been fed and are subsisting on their own tissues. Bernard confirms this hypothesis by feeding meat to the animals. (Is this true {for all species}? I have doubts.)
While operating on the abdomen of a rabbit, Bernard notices a milky chyle in its lacteal vessels indicative of a high content of emulsified fat; yet only in the lacteal vessels that leave the bowel below the rabbit's unusually low point of entry of the pancreatic duct. This finding suggests that pancreatic juice is important in the digestion of fat, and Bernard goes on to confirm this. (Chyle is the milky fluid which travels in the lymphatic vessels draining the small intestine. Chyle contains most of the products of digestion of the fat content of a meal, which are absorbed into the microscopic lacteals in the villi that project from the intestinal lining. Chyle is a particular type of lymph — the general term for fluid drained from body tissues; it flows into progressively larger channels to join lymph from other parts of the body in the thoracic duct in the chest, and there reaches the bloodstream.)
Bernard publishes this as "Du suc pancreatique et de son rôle dans les phénomènes de la digestion", Mém. Soc. Biol. t.1 1849 (1850), p. 99-115. (finding of digestion in small intestine also in this work?)
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 3195) Charles Adolphe Wurtz (VURTS) (CE 1817-1884), French chemist, introduces the ammonia chemical type (or radical) and synthesizes the first organic derivative of ammonia, ethylamine.
Wurtz is the first important chemist in France to support the structural views (the type theory) of Laurent against the older views of Berzelius (who grouped atoms into negative and positive charge). Using this new view, Wurtz finds that organic derivatives of ammonia exist and prepares the first "amine", which such derivatives are called at this time. Wurtz contributes to the development of the type theory of Charles Gerhardt and Auguste Laurente by introducing the ammonia type in 1849. Wurtz comes to understand that organic radicals can replace hydrogen without destroying the basic structure or type (of the host molecule). Wurtz synthesizes ethylamine from ammonia and constructs his ammonia type by substituting the carbon radical C2H5 for one or more of the hydrogen atoms in ammonia (NH3). Wurtz therefore produces the series ammonia (NH3); ethylamine (C2H5NH2); diethylamine ((C2H5)2NH); triethylamine ((C2H5)3N). Other types are added by Gerhardt.
Wurtz investigates the cyanic ethers (1848) and this yields the class of substances which opens a new field in organic chemistry. By treating the cyanic ethers with caustic potash, Wurtz obtains methylamine, the simplest organic derivative of ammonia (1849), and later (1851) the compound ureas.
| (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 3199) Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville (SoNT KLAR DuVEL) (CE 1818-1881), French chemist, synthesizes nitrogen pentoxide.
Nitrogen pentoxide is also known as "anhydrous nitric acid" and is interesting as the first of the so-called "anhydrides" of the monobasic acids obtained. The formula for Nitrogen pentoxide is N2O5. Nitrogen pentoxide are colorless crystals, soluble in water (which form HNO3, nitric acid); and decompose at 46°C.
| (University of Besançon) Besançon, France |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 3229) Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (KOLBu) (CE 1818-1884), German chemist describes the "Kolbe electrolysis", in which alkyl radicals dimerize to symmetric compounds and identifies carbonyl as a radical.
Kolbe is the first to apply electrolysis to organic compounds.
The Kolbe method is a technique for making hydrocarbons by electrolysis of solutions of salts of fatty acids.
The Kolbe reaction is formally described as a "decarboxylative dimerisation" and proceeds by a radical reaction mechanism.
In this way, using electrolysis Kolbe synthesizes "double acids".
In 1834, Faraday, was the first to report electrochemical production of a gas now known as ethane, during electrolysis of aqueous acetate solutions. In 1849, Kolbe investigates this and this is the origin of the name "The Kolbe Reaction". "The Kolbe reaction" (or "Kolbe electrolysis"), in general, refers to anodic oxidation of a carboxylate structure with subsequent decarboxylation and coupling to yield a hydrocarbon or a substituted derivative corresponding to the alkyl function in the carboxylate reactant. The best known example is the electrolysis of acetic acid which yields ethane and carbon dioxide: 2CH3COO- + C2H6 + 2C02 + 2e
| Braunschweig, Germany |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 3319) Édouard Albert Roche (ROs) (CE 1820-1883), French astronomer, calculates that if a satellite and the planet it orbits are of equal density then the satellite can not lie within 2.44 radii, the Roche limit, of the larger body without breaking up under the effect of gravity. As the radius of Saturn's outermost ring is 2.3 times that of Saturn it is thought that the rings may be the fragments of a former satellite that entered in the limit. However, the modern view is that the Roche limit has prevented the fragments from aggregating into a satellite.
(These "tidal forces" of gravity need to be explained. There must be minimum and maximum sizes for the objects. The law needs to be adjusted for different density objects. More than one object also may have an effect. It needs to be shown mathematically and graphically. A moon is made of a lot of matter, I find it hard to believe that the matter holding together can be calculated with such precision. Perhaps the idea is somehow that the bonds of molten iron typical of a moon, would somehow not hold a sphere so close to a large body. Lateral velocity of the orbiting object is important too. Does this apply to planets of a star too?)
| (University of Montpellier) Montpellier, France |
151 YBN
[1849 AD]
| 3479) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) coins the word "thermodynamics".
(Now thermodynamics, I think is really a subset of photon dynamics, or matter dynamics, the movement of matter.)
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
150 YBN
[02/??/1850 AD]
| 3364) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (KLoUZEUS) (CE 1822-1888), German physicist, states the second law of thermodynamics in the well known form: "Heat cannot of itself pass from a colder to a hotter body".
(and first law?)
Clausius publishes this in his first memoir, "Über die bewegende Kraft der Wärme" ("On the Motive Power of Heat and on the Laws Which Can Be Deduced from It for the Theory of Heat", 1850). In this work Clausius rejects the fundamental assumptions of the caloric theory, based on the first law of thermodynamics, that whenever work is produced by heat, a quantity of the heat equivalent to the work is consumed. Clausius gives a new mechanical explanation for free and latent heat, free heat having the only real existence, being defined as the vis visa (kinetic energy) of the fundamental particles of matter and determiner of temperature, with latent heat being the heat destroyed by conversion into work. (I doubt this definition of latent heat, because latent heat, to me has more to do with quantity of photons contained in an atom, but I'm not sure, it's complex because heat is dependent on the frequencies of photons absorbed by a detector.)
(There must be constants for each material in the conversion of work to heat, because clearly, some objects emit more or less heat for the same quantity of work, this should be an indication that the number of photons released are more related to the heat released, and less with the work put in. Just that the same amount of work must result in different quantities of heat for different substances should be a clue that there is no universal constant of work to heat for all substances. Verify that Joule must find that work to heat is different for different substances. Clearly liquids must be the main molecules measured. A typical example is: run an iron file over different substances - clearly the amount of heat released depends on the solid material, wood producing less heat than iron, because more photons are released from the denser iron. By the same logic, a denser liquid might produce more heat for the same work than a less denser liquid, and the same may be true for different gases. So in the debate of heat as caloric versus movement, I think that the more accurate answer is a third answer of heat as quantity of photons absorbed in a temperature detector, while the larger concept of "average velocity" or "quantity of motion", which is the quantity and velocity of free photons in a volume of space {as revealed by a detector - although I don't know a detector that can detect photons of all frequencies}.)
Another interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics is that a system moves from ordered to disordered, however, this is wrong, in my view, because the concept of "order" is strictly a human interpretation. The claim that heat cannot pass from a colder to a hotter body may be true, although, it can also be viewed as cold moving to a hotter body, since the temperature of the hotter body is reduced. Clearly two objects, of different temperatures, if composed of numerous particles will exchange particles. Many of the conclusions drawn from this theory are inaccurate in my view. I think there was a classic mistake in separating heat and temperature. For example with boiling water, the added heat from the heat source is no longer recorded on the mercury thermometer, but definitely is being added to the system, and the molecules of water are moving more rapidly. The movement of all matter involved is increasing, but simply not emitting photons in frequencies that increase the mercury. This is a debate between is temperature only what makes mercury expand, or is it a measure of the average velocity of particles in some volume of space?
Some describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics as being defined by Clausius' claim that the ratio of heat content in a system and its absolute temperature, which he will call "entropy" in 1865, always increases in any process taking place in a closed system. A closed system, a system that gains and loses no energy to the outside, is impossible to achieve in reality, (because other particles in the universe can never be removed from any volume of space), although many consider the universe to be a closed system, and so this suggests to some people that the universe, in which entropy is steadily rising and the availability of energy for conversion into work steadily falling, eventually entropy will be at a maximum and the universe will be at complete temperature equilibrium, with no more heat flow, and no more change and no more time (although time continues without motion in my opinion). This is called the "heat-death" of the universe. I reject the idea of entropy. In my view, the universe is infinite in size, and has an average temperature over its volume, but because of gravity, there is never a total equilibrium, instead there are heat centers such as galaxies and cold spaces in between, the same is true up and down the magnification scale, planets and atoms are heat (mass) centers the surrounding spaces are cold spaces. There is only heat where the is mass. In my view heat should be interpreted as average velocity of particles, or perhaps number of free photons that pass a detector. It's hard to imagine a universe where photons are not moving. In addition, I think that measurements of temperature and heat are subsets of the overall movement of particles, since not all movement is measured as heat. In terms of particle velocities, there is no difference between temperature and heat, everything depends on the volume of space where the detector is located. In my view, ultimately the velocity of all matter is conserved at all times.
James Clerk Maxwell, years later will write that Clausius "first stated the principle of Carnot in a manner consistent with the true theory of heat.", that is the theory of heat as a mechanical process.
Clausius begins his paper writing: "THE steam-engine having furnished us with a means of converting heat into a motive power, and our thoughts being thereby led to regard a certain quantity of work as an equivalent for the amount of heat expended in its production, the idea of establishing theoretically some fixed relation between a quantity of heat and the quantity of work which it can possibly produce, from which relation conclusions regarding the nature of heat itself might be deduced, naturally presents itself. Already, indeed, have many successful efforts been made with this view; I believe, however, that they have not exhausted the subject, but that, on the contrary, it merits the continued attention of physicists; partly because weighty objections lie in the way of the conclusions already drawn, and partly because other conclusions, which might render efficient aid towards establishing and completing the theory of heat, remain either entirely unnoticed, or have not as yet found sufficiently distinct expression. The most important investigation in connexion with this subject is that of S. Carnot. Later still, the ideas of this author have been represented analytically in a very able manner by Clapeyron. Carnot proves that whenever work is produced by heat and a permanent alteration of the body in action does not at the same time take place, a certain quantity of heat passes from a warm body to a cold one; for example, the vapour which is generated in the boiler of a steam-engine, and passes thence to the condenser where it is precipitated, carries heat from the fireplace to the condenser. This transmission Carnot regards as the change of heat corresponding to the work produced. He says expressly, that no heat is lost in the process, that the quantity remains unchanged; and he adds, "This is a fact which has never been disputed; it is first assumed without investigation, and then confirmed by various calorimetric experiments. To deny it, would be to reject the entire theory of heat, of which it forms the principal foundation." I am not, however, sure that the assertion, that in the production of work a loss of heat never occurs, is sufficiently established by experiment. Perhaps the contrary might be asserted with greater justice; that although no such loss may have been directly proved, still other facts render it exceedingly probable that a loss occurs. If we assume that heat, like matter, cannot be lessened in quantity, we must also assume that it cannot be increased; but it is almost impossible to explain the ascension of temperature brought about by friction otherwise than by assuming an actual increase of heat. The careful experiments of Joule, who developed heat in various ways by the application of mechanical force, establish almost to a certainty, not only the possibility of increasing the quantity of heat, but also the fact assuming an actual increase of heat. The careful experiments of Joule, who developed heat in various ways by the application of mechanical force, establish almost to a certainty, not only the possibility of increasing the quantity of heat, but also the fact that the newly-produced heat is proportional to the work expended in its production. It may be remarked further, that many facts have lately transpired which tend to overthrow the hypothesis that heat is itself a body, and to prove that it consists in a motion of the ultimate particles of bodies. If this be so, the general principles of mechanics may be applied to heat; this motion may be converted into work, the loss of vis viva in each particular case being proportional to the quantity of work produced. These circumstances, of which Carnot was also well aware, and the importance of which he expressly admitted, pressingly demand a comparison between heat and work, to be undertaken with reference to the divergent assumption that the production of work is not only due to an alteration in the distribution of heat, but to an actual consumption thereof; and inversely, that by the expenditure of work heat may be produced. ..." Clausius goes on to say: "Deductions from the principle of the equivalence of heat and work. We shall forbear entering at present on the nature of the motion which may be supposed to exist within a body, and shall assume generally that a motion of the particles does exist, and that heat is the measure of their via viva. Or yet more generally, we shall merely lay down one maxim which is founded on the above assumption :- In all cases where work is produced by heat, a quantity of heat proportional to the work done is consumed; and inversely, by the expenditure of a like quantity of work, the same amount of heat may be produced. ..."
An interesting phenomenon is how dissolved particles uniformly distribute in a liquid, like tea mix powder. I think this is more of a physical phenomenon of space filling, in other words the particles tend to attach where there is a space (some things do not mix well like oil and water). Perhaps each tea molecule attaches to a water molecule.
(Sometimes there is the replacing of a less accurate theory with a more accurate theory, and the second theory holds its place until a more refined understanding and new theory replaces it, and perhaps this is the case for Carnot's and then Clausius' theories.)
(I think possibly that the so-called first law of thermodynamics may be absorbed by the conservation of velocity theory. Because work is velocity, so-called "heat" causing work, is actually particle collision, and a transfer of velocity from particles, fundamentally photons, but also atoms, molecules, and larger groupings of photons.)
| (Royal Artillery and Engineering School) Berlin, Germany |
150 YBN
[05/06/1850 AD]
| 3281) Jean Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), measures that the light moves more slowly in water than in air, and that the speed of light is inversely proportional to the index of refraction of the medium.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
150 YBN
[08/28/1850 AD]
| 5996) The first performance of German composer, (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner's (CE 1813-1883), romantic opera "Lohengrin" which contains the famous "Treulich geführt" ("Bridal chorus"). (verify bridal chorus name)
| Weimar, Germany |
150 YBN
[08/??/1850 AD]
| 3893) Pierre François Olive Rayer observes organisms in the blood of diseased animals. Rayer describes the blood of a sheep that died from anthrax: (translated from French) "Examined under the microscope, the blood was identical to that of a sheep infected by "spleen-blood" which had been used for inoculation. The globules, instead of remaining individualized as in a healthy animal were packed together irregularly ... there were also small filiform bodies in the blood, about twice as long as a blood corpuscle".
Casimir Joseph Davaine (CE 1812-1882) will claim the observation of the anthrax organism as his own and extends the experimentation with anthrax in 1863.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 1134) Jean Servais Stas (CE 1813-1891), Belgian chemist works out a method for the detection of the vegetable alkaloids, which, modified by Friedrich Julius Otto (1809-1870), professor of chemistry at Brunswick, has been widely used by toxicologists in cases of poisoning as the Stas-Otto process.
| (Military School) Brussels, Belgium |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 2613) William Cranch Bond (CE 1789-1859) photographs (a daguerreotype) the bright star Vega, the first star to be photographed.
| Harvard, Massachussetts, USA |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 2663) A telegraph wire is established in Calcutta, India between the center of Calcutta and Diamond Harbor.
In 1834 the Indian Telegraph Act will give the government exclusive control over the telegraph.
| Calcutta, India |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 2817) Macedonio Melloni (CE 1798-1854), Italian physicist, makes lenses and prisms out of rock salt and shows that infrared light behaves just as visible light does as far as reflection, refraction, polarization and interference are concerned. In the process Melloni shows that rock salt is transparent to infrared light. (more specifics how interference shown? Was diffraction?)
Melloni's experiments are especially concerned with the power of transmitting (infrared light) possessed by various substances and with the changes produced in the rays by passage through different materials. Melloni names substances that are comparatively transparent to heat (and those that absorb or reflect it?).
Melloni's most important book, "La thermocrose ou la coloration calorifique" (vol. i., Naples, 1850), is unfinished at his death.
If a beam of light which a frequency low enough so that any wavelength can be physically measured, is focused to a point, the size of which is smaller than the supposed wavelength for that frequency of light, I think this is clear evidence against the transverse wave theory of light, since the amplitude of a beam of light should remain constant even through a lens. Perhaps the absence of a medium for a light wave is the strongest argument in favor of a particle-only theory for light, however light with a measurable supposed amplitude which is not measured in the focus of a lens offers another piece of evidence against.
| Naples, Italy |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 2942) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist describes the mollusk Spirula (1850).
| (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3008) Johann von Lamont (lomoNT) (CE 1805-1879), Scottish-German astronomer, finds that the intensity of the earth's magnetic field rises and falls in a ten-year period. This coincides with Schwabe's sunspot cycle announced a few years earlier.
A year before in 1849, Lamont publishes his most noteworthy work "Handbuch des Erdmagnetismus" (1849, "Handbook of Terrestrial Magnetism").
| (Royal Observatory) Bogenhausen, Germany |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3019) Matthew Fontaine Maury (CE 1806-1873), American oceanographer, creates a map of ocean depths to facilitate the laying of the transatlantic cable. Maury notes that the Atlantic ocean is shallower in the center than on either side. This is the first indication of the Atlantic Ridge (Maury calls this shallow region "Telegraphic Plateau").
Including connected bodies of water, such as the Mediterranean Sea, Hudson Bay, the Black Sea, Gulf of Mexico, the average depth of the Atlantic Ocean is 10,925 ft (3,330 m) (only just over 2 miles deep). The Atlantic Ocean's maximum depth is 27,493 feet (8,380 m) in the Puerto Rico Trench (about 5.2 miles deep).
(Did they have rope and perhaps an anchor that actually could reach the ocean floor? That rope would need to stretch 2 to 6 miles {3 to9 km})
| Washington, DC, USA |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3115) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, shows that glucose is not just stored in the liver, but is synthesized there too. This shows that the liver has at least two functions and ends the "one organ, one function" theory, and the theory that only plants, and not animals, can synthesize nutrients.
In 1848 using the copper reduction method developed by Barreswill, Bernard is surprised to find glucose in blood samples from many different species that are eating a diet completely free of carbohydrate, even those that have been fasting for several days. Bernard finds particularly large amounts of glucose in the hepatic vein leaving the liver. Bernard knows that during fasting there should be no nutrient in the portal vein tributaries draining the intestine, and so he theorizes that the liver is the source of that glucose, entering the portal vein by reverse flow. This theory is supported by finding that the portal vein glucose level is still high after placing a ligature around that vein between intestine and liver. Bernard find glucose in every liver he examines, from every species of mammal, bird, reptile and fish. There was no glucose in any other organ. Until this time the function of the liver is thought to be to secrete bile only. Xavier Bichat and others before him had stated that each organ has only one function. The chemists Dumas and Boussingault had insisted that only plants can synthesize nutrients. Bernard tries to cut the vagus nerves which result in less glucose leaving the liver through the hepatic veins. However, when he stimulates the vagus nerves electrically glucose release from the liver does not increase. (This shows that around 1850 there is active health science research into the role of electricity and the animal nervous system.) In 1849 Bernard uses a needle (and electricity) to stimulate the floor of the fourth brain ventricle, from where the vagus (as well as other) nerve fibers originate. This time, blood glucose does rise substantially. Bernard cuts the spinal cord just above the exit of the splanchnic nerves which carry sympathetic nerve fibers which does block the glucose rise. It will be shown many decades later, however, that sympathetic nerves have no effect on the liver, and that sympathetic stimulation results in release of adrenaline from its nerve endings, which secondarily promotes glucose discharge from the liver.
Bernard injects water into the portal vein as it enters the liver and at the same time takes samples from the hepatic vein leaving the liver, until he can no longer detect any glucose in them. One day later, Bernard repeats this procedure on the same liver. After this, Glucose again appears in the hepatic veins, and in even greater amounts than before. This is proof that glucose is synthesized and not stored in the liver. Glucose is produced in one organ, secreted into the (blood) circulation and then acts in other parts of the body. Bernard sees this as a model for the larger idea that other organs such as the thyroid, spleen, suprarenal and thymus gland might be shown to be 'glands of internal secretion'. Even though glucose is not a hormone, Bernard's concept of internal secretion is the first step in defining the endocrine system. Bernard then goes on to identify the unknown chemical precursor of glucose in the liver, which Bernard gives the name glycogène (glycogen).
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3116) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, shows that the effect of the poison curare (used on poison arrows from South America given to Bernard) is exclusively on motor nerves; the sensory nerves remain perfectly intact. Bernard also discovers that if an animal can be kept alive by artificial respiration, the curare effect will wear off, and muscle function will fully recover. This work leads to the use of curare as a muscle relaxant in tetanus and in severe epilepsy; and then also for abdominal surgery. This work also prompts Bernard to propose that poisons might be used more systematically "...to analyze the most delicate phenomena of the living mechanism". Bernard goes on to experiment on strychnine, as well as on other poisons.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3130) Alexander Parkes (CE 1813-1890), English chemist, invents the "Parkes process", a method of extracting silver from lead ore (1850). Zinc is added to lead the two are melted together. When stirred, the molten zinc reacts and forms compounds with any silver and gold present in the lead. These zinc compounds are lighter than the lead and, on cooling, form a crust that can be easily removed.
| (Elkington and Mason copper smelting plant) Pembrey, South Wales, England |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3265) Samuel Martin Kier (CE 1813–1874) builds the first commercial oil refinery in America.
Kier has more oil than he can sell, from the seeps and salt wells on his father's property. Oil is used for illumination, but in pure form is smelly and smoky. Kier thinks that overcoming these problems could increase the use of the oil. After consulting with a chemist in 1850, Keir builds a crude one-barrel still in Pittsburgh and begins distilling crude oil into "carbon oil", or kerosene. Because kerosene is a cheaper, safer, better illuminant than other fuels on the market, such as whale oil, "carbon oil" comes into general use in western Pennsylvania and New York City. The price of kerosene more than doubles. Kier adds a five-barrel still to his operation, which is the first commercial refinery in America.
| Tarentum, Pennsylvania, USA |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3291) Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (FEZO) (CE 1819-1896), with E. Gounelle, measures the velocity of electricity.
Fizeau measures a speed of 101,710 km/s in 4 millimeter diameter (iron?) wire, and 177,722 km/s in 2.5mm diameter copper wire.
Fizeau publishes this as "Recherches sur la vitesse de propagation de l'électricité" ("Research on the speed of propagation of electricity").
Fizeau writes: (translated with help from Babelfish and Google) "The experiments which we have made by this method lead to the following conclusions: 1) In a wire, whose diameter is 4 millimetres, the electricity is propagated with a speed of 101,710 kilometers a second, that is to say 100,000 kilometers 2) In a copper wire, whose diameter is 2.5mm, this speed is 177,722 kilometers, that is to say 180,000 kilometers; 3) Two electricities are propagated with the same speed; 4) The number and nature of the elements whose pile is formed, and consequently the tension of the electricity and intensity of the current, do not have any influence on the propagation velocity; 5) In different conductors, speeds are not proportional to electric conductibility. 6) When the discontinuous currents spread in a conductor, they disseminated into a space larger at the point of arrival than at the point of departure; (for 6: translation is unclear) 7) The speed of propagation seems not to vary with the conductors; our experiences make us take this principle as very likely; 8) If this principle is true, the speed of propagation does not change with the nature o the conductor, and the numbers that we give represent absolute speeds in iron and copper.".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3332) Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894), German physiologist and physicist, invents a device, a myograph, for measuring the speed of electricity in nerves, and measures this speed as 26.4 meters per second (90 ft/s).
Helmholtz will measure this speed again in 1852 to be 27.5 confirming his earlier measurement.
Müller had used the nerve impulse as an example of a vital function that would never be submitted to experimental measurement, and so this experiment contributes to the end of the theory of vitalism. The slowness of the nerve impulse supports the view that nerve impulse must involve the rearrangement of ponderable molecules, not the mysterious passage of a vital force.
Helmholtz is the first to measure the speed of the nerve impulse. He stimulates a nerve connected to a frog muscle, stimulating it first near the muscle, then farther away and sees that there is a delay from when the muscle contracts. Helmholtz announces this speed as a tenth the speed of sound. Helmholtz publishes this as (translated from German) "Of the methods of measuring very small intervals of time and their application to physiological purposes". This work is translated into English for Philosophical Magazine, and Helmholtz writes (translated from German): "...The invention of the rortating mirror is due to Wheatstone, who made an experiment with it to determine the velocity of propagation of the discharge of a Leyden battery. The most striking application of the idea was made by Fizeau and Foucault during the present year, incarrying out a proposition made by Arago soon after the invention of the mirror; we have here detmined in a distance of 12 feet no less than the velocity with which light is propagated, this is known to be nearly 200,000 miles a second; the distance mentioned corresponds therefore to the 77 millionth part of a second. The object of these measurements was to compare the velocity of light in air with tits velocity in water, which, when the length is greater, is not sufficiently transparent. The most complete optical and mechanical aids are here necessary; the mirror of Foucault made from 600 to 800 revolutions in a second, while that of Fizeau performed 1200 to 1500 in the same time. Finally, I have to mention a method of measuring time which depends upon a totally different principle. I have already inficated it by saying, that the time to be calculated from the effect which a force of known magnitude is able to produce during the time. This force is the electro-magnetic action of a spiral of copper wire upon a magnet suspended by a fibre. I merely remind my hearers that a spiral composed of covered copper wire acts as a magnet, having a south pole at one end and a north pole at the other, as long as a voltaic current circulates through it. In the neighbourhood of this spiral let a magnet be freely suspended. As long as no current is present, the magnet performs smaller or larger oscillations under the directing influence of the earth's magnetism, which diminish with the extreme slowness and never entirely cease, inasmuch as feeble currents of air and alterations of the earth's magnetic force constitute ever-new sources of motion. Let a current pass through the spiral. As long as it continues, one pole of the magnet is attracted by the adjacent end of the spiral and the other pole repelled. The motion of the pole will be thus changed; and according as its direction coincides with, or is opposed to that of the electromagnetic force, it will be accelerated or retarded, or perhaps reversed. As soon as the current has ceased, the magnet once more makes regular oscillations, the magnitude of which changes very slowly, and hence can be determined with case. These oscillations, however, on account of the motion imparted by the voltaic current to the magnet, will not be the same magnitude as the former. As the laws of the motion of such a magnet are accurately known, it may be calculated with precision how much the velocity of the magnet must have been altered by the current in order to produce the observed change in the oscilations, and from this again may be determined how long the force must have acted in order to produce this effect. The best mode of observatgion is to permit the current to act when the magnet is passing the meridian, and when the direction of its motion coincides with that produced by the electro-magnetic force. In this case the calculation of the time is very simple; it is only necessary to multiply the difference between the arcs of oscillation before and after the operation of the electro-magnet with a constant factor. The magnitude of the latter depends only upon the strength of the current and the time of oscillation of the magnet. As the electro-magnetic force may be increased at pleasure by increasing the number of coils and of voltaic elements, it is possible in any time, however small, to produce a sensible effect upon the magnet. In applying this method, it is necessary so to arrange matter that the commencement and the end of the galvanic current mentioned above shall exactly coincide with the beginning and end of the process whose duration is to be measured, which of course may be effected in different ways, dependent upon the special object of the measurement. This procedure possesses the great advantage, that it renders the clockwork with constant rotation unnecessary. Up to the present time, indeed, the problem of constructing such instruments is only approximately solved, and all of them require constant control. In short, simpler and more easily managed apparatus are necessary here. The first invention of such is due to Pouillet, in the year 1844; he made a proposition for artillery purposes which was applied practically in some cases, but has not been used further, on account of certain specialities which detract considerably from the accuracy of the instrument. After him I have been the first to make use of the method for physiological purposes. By observing the magnet in the highly convenient and delicate manner introduced by Gauss and Weber, which consists in attaching a mirror to the magnet, and determining the constant factor necessary to convert the difference of scillation into differences of time, in a more accurate manner than Pouillet, Ihave been able with comparatively simple apparatus to make accurate determinations up to 1/10,000dth part of a second. To extend the delicacy of the measurement beyond this was of no interest to me, and would simply have unnecessarily increased the difficulty. I now come to my measurements of the physiological processes (Completely described in Müller's Archives, 1850). You see the methods are here for making infinitely finer measurements than we need at present. The difficulty now is to apply the method to the special cases, to construct the connecting links between the process whose duration is to be determined, and the apparatus to be used for the determination. Indeed, the method must depend upon the object sought. in general I have found Pouillet's electro-magnetic method most advantageous, but for certain purposes the rotating cylinder is to be preferred. The measurements which I have hitherto made refer partly to the duration of muscular contractions, partly to the velocity which which an impression made upon the nervous fibres is propagated through these fibres. The living muscles in the human and animal body are to be conceived of as strong elastic bands, which stretched between certain portions of the bony scaffolding, in tranquil position are either quite lax, or else their tensions completely neutralize each other. The elastic forces of these bands, however, possess the remarkable property that they can be suddenly changed by the influence of the nerves. The state thus brought about by the the operation of the nerves is called the state of muscular activity. The active muscle behaves also as an elastic band, but ist strives to shorten itself with far greater force than the inactive one. The consequence of this change in the living body is, that the force of the active muscle overpowers that of the inactive, the equilibrium of the members is destroyed, and the points at which the muscle is attached to the bones are caused to approach each other. in the living body the muscle reveives the excitation to activity from the threads of nerves which ramify through it; these , in thei turn, from the brain. Here the mysterious influence of the will imparts an excitation whose nature is unknown, which propagates itself through the entire length of the fibres, and arriving at the muscle excites it to action. If we modernise the the comparison of Menenius Agreippa, who pacified the starving plebeians by wisely likening the state to the human body, then the nervous fibres might be compared with the wires of the electric telegraph, which in an instant transmit intelligence from the extremities of the land to the governing centre, and then in like manner communicate the will of the ruling power to every distinct portion of the land. The principal question which I have sought to answer is the following:-In the transmission of such intelligence, is a measurable time necessary for the ends of the nerves to communicate to the brain the impression made upon them; and on the other hand, is time required for the conveyance of the commands of the will from the brain to a distinct muscle? ... I must commence with the simplest case of the investigation. i chose the muscle of a frog connected with the nerves proceeding from it, but severed from the body of the animal. Such a muscle retains its vitality long enough to premit of two or three hours' continuous experiment without any considerable change, which is not at all the case with the detached muscles of warm-blooded animals. When any point of the nervous thread is injured by cutting, burning, or what is more effectual, when an electric current is sent through a portion of the nerve, this excitation produces the same effect as that which, in ordinary circumstances, is produced by the will. The muscle contracts, that is, it becomes active for a moment. The contraction passes so quickly, that its single states cannot be observed. The problem to be decided is, whether the contraction takes place later when a distant portion of the nerve is excited than when the excited portion is nearer to the brain. To resolve this, we must measure the time which passes between the excitation and the contraction of the muscle. Experiment, however, soon showed that the activity of the muscle is by no means instantaneous, but appears some time after the excitation of the muscle, increases gradually to a maximum and then sinks, first quickly and afterwards by slow degrees; so that the greatest part disappears in about one-third of a second, but the remaining portion requires several seconds afterwards. This cannot be recognized in the muscles which act in obedience of the will, on account of the quickness of the contraction; but we may have observed it in the involuntary muscles, such as those of the entrails, the iris, the fibres which are diffused over the surfaces of the vessels, of the glands, &c. In these cases, the process, as is known, occupies from 100 to 1000 times the interval necessary in the former cases, so that we can conveniently observe the single stages. As, however, the commencement of the contraction is, according to this, not shapley defined, we cannot make use of it as the limit of the time to be measured, but we must avail ourselves of the occurrence of a certain stage of the contraction, that is, the moment when the activity of the muscle attains a certain measurable value. We must, however, at the same time assure ourselves that the differences of time, which it is our object to determine, must not be the consequences of an irregular muscular activity; that, on the contrary, the strength and direction of the contraction shall be exactly the same, whatever portion of the nerve may be excited. Out object therefore can only be attained by series of observations, which shall establish that all the stages of activity take place later when the excitation has to proceed through a greater length of nerve. This is, in point of fact, the case. The measurements were performed by the electro-magnetic method. Their conditions require that the time-measuring current shall commence at the moment when an instantaneous excitement of the nerve takes place- the excitation was effected by a second electric current of vanishing duration- and that the time-measuring current shall end at the moment when a certain definite stage of the contraction is attained, that is, at a point when the tension of the muscle has increased to a certain degree. It is so arranged, that the muscle itself by its contraction interrupts the current, and must at the same time overcome the resistance of a certain weight, the current being thus broken at the moment when the tension of the muscle is sufficient to overpower the gravity of the mass attached to it. The place of interruption is formed by two pieces of metal which are connected with the two poles of a galvanic battery. As long as they are in contact, the current circulates without hindrance; as soon, however, as they are separated buy the smallest conceivable space, the current ceases instantaneously. Hence it is not necessary to produce a motion of measurable extent, which would incur the loss of time; the time-measuring current, on the contrary, is interrupted as soon as the muscle commences to move one of the bits of metal, and this occurs as soon as the indicated degree of tension has been attained. That this theoretical deduction corresponds to the reality, i have convinced myself byu particular controlling experiments. The series of measurements of the interval between excitation and contraction showed all the regularity that could be expected in a case of the kind. The probable error of the mean value of successful series amounted to only 1/400dth part of the whole value. The difference between the measurements in which different points of the nerve were excited was, on account of the shortness of the nerve, also very small, from one to two thousandths of a second; it was, however, ten times as great as the probable error of the results of the measurements. The most probable value of the velocity of propagation in the motor nerves of the frog I found to be 26.4 metres, about eighty feet per second. This quantity is indeed unexpectedly small, more than ten times less than the velocity of sound in the air. For warm-blooded animals the method described is not applicable, because it requires series of measurements which occupy from one to two hours, during which the state of the body experimented with must remain constant. I have therefore had an apparatus with a rotating cylinder constructed by M. E. Rekoss, with which I have made the first trial experiments on frogs, and which may perhaps be made us of with warm-blooded animals. The principle of the instrument is not quite the same as in the apparatus of Siemens. The glass cylinder, constructed with great exactness, stands vertical; for the purposes of experiment its surface is covered with a thin coating of lampblack; against this a point can be made to press; the point is attached to a lever which is connected with the muscle, and when the latter contracts, the point is elevated. As long as the point remains at the same elevation, it simply describes a horizontal circle round the rotating cylinder. If the cylinder stand still and the muscle contract, a vertical line is drawn upon the surface of the cylinder; but if the cylinder rotates during the contraction of the muscle, a curve which first ascends afterwards descends is produced, which, however, appear moved towards each other in a horizontal direction. The magnitude of the displacement corresponds to the time of propagation in the length of nerce between the two points of excitation. In this case, also, each single experiment shows whether the duration and strength of the contraction were equal in both instances. If this be the case, the two curves are congruent; if not, incongruent. Thus each single experiment here takes the place of a whole series of experiments according to the former process; but it must be confessed, that, up to the present time, I have not attained the same degree of exactness and agreement in the results. How stands the question in the case of man? We must experiment on man under much more complicated conditions than with the frog. Not only can we not remove the still unknown influence of the nervous conduction in the brain and the spinal column, but we must actually make use of them in the course of experiment. After, however, having established by rigorous experiments that in the nerves of the frog a sensible time is required for the propagation of an impression, I believe I need not hesitate to indicate the results of the experiments which up to the present time I have made upon the human subject. The intelligence of an impression made upon the ends of the nerves in communication with the skin is transmitted to the brain with a velocity which does not vary in different individuals, nor at different times, of about 60 metres (195 feet) per second. Arrived at the brain, an interval of about one-tenth of a second passes before the will, even when the attention is strung to the uttermost, is able to give the command to the nerves that certain muscles, is able to give the command to the nerves that certain muscles shall execute a certain motion. This interval variest in different persons, and depends chiefly upon the degree of attention; it caries also at different times in the case of the same person. When the attention is lax, it is very irregular; but when fixed, on the contrary, very regular. The command travels probably with the above velocity towards the muscle. Finally, about 1/100dth of a second passes after the receipt of the command before the muscle is in activity. In all, therefore, from the excitation of the sensitive nerves till the moving of the muscle 11/4 to 2 tenths of a second are consumed. The measurements are effected similarly to those on the frog. A slight electric shock is given to a man at a certain portion of the skin, and he is directed the moment he feels the stroke to make a certain motion as quickly as he possibly can, with the hands or with the teeth, by which the time-measuring current is interrupted. We are therefore only able to measure the sum of the intervals above indicated. When, however, the impression is caused to proceed from different spots of the skin, some nearer to the brain and others more distant, we change only the first member of the above sum, that is, the velocity of propagation in the nerves. At all events, we may, I think, assume that the duration of the processes of perceiving and willing in the brain does no depend upon the place on the skin at which the impression is made. I must, however, confess that this is not a strictly proved fact; it can only be proved that the duration does not depend upon the sensitiveness of the place of excitement, or on any particular physiological relations between it and the moving muscle. Our indication is rendered probable by the fact, that the numerical values of the velocity of propagation, deduced from observations in which the impression was received by the ear, the skin of the face, the neck, the hands, the loins and the feet, exhibit a sufficient agreement. It is found, for example, that intelligence from the great tow arrives about 1/30th of a second later than from the ear or the face. If from the measured sum of the single intervals be subtracted that which belongs to the conduction in the sensitive and motor nerves, and also the time, determined by other experiments, during which the muscle puts itself in motion, the remainder is the time which passes while the brain is transferring the intelligence received through the sensitive nerves to the motore ones. Other experiments on man which correspond to those on the frog, inasmuch as the motor nerves were directly excited, have up to the present time given no exact results, but they suggest other interesting relations connected with the subject. It is possible, for example, to cause the muscles of the fore-arm to contract exactly like those of the frog by means of very feeble electric shocks imparted to the nerves through the skin. In this case both hand and fingers are contracted; and it is shown that these motions are totally independent of the influence of the will, because the will, informed of the shocks by the sensible nerves, cannot exert itself sufficiently soon upon the muscles. Such a series of experiments, in which the hand fell back very speedily, and when the very object sought was to retain it in the bent position which it was caused to assume through the contractions produced by the electric shocks, failed totally, because the influence of the will first reached the muscle after the hand had fallen back again, and simply raised it a second time. If we reflect on what has been said at the commencement of this discourse regarding the inaccuracy of our impressions of time, we see that the differences of time in the nervous impressions, which we are accustomed to regard as simultaneous, lie near the limits of our capaility of perception, and that finer differences cannot be appreciated simply because the nerves cannot operate more quickly. We are taught by astronomy, that on account of the time taken to propagate light, we now see what has occurred in the spaces of the fixed stars years ago; that, owing to the time required for the transmission of sound, we hear after we see, is a matter of daily experience. Happily the distances are short which have to be traversed by our sensuous perceptions before they reach the brain, otherwise out self-consciousness would lag far behind the present, and even behind the perceptions of sound; happily, therefore, the distances are so short that we do not observe their influence, and are therefore unprejudiced in our practical interest. With an ordinary whale the case if perhaps more dubious; for in all probability the animal does not feel a wound near its tail until a second after it has been inflicted, and requires another second to send the command to the tail to defend itself.".
(Note that Helmholtz directly stimulates the the nerve not the actual muscle cells, what device does Helmholtz use for this? Explain device used to measure the time interval. This may be the first experimenting with trying to contract muscle from a distance {although Helmholtz only stimulates nerves directly, clearly the nerve or muscle can be stimulated remotely}. This muscle-moving from a distance will be developed to its current state, where unseen people in the millions casually flick a person's eye muscle, make them fall down stairs, move their finger muscles, and other abuses of this still completely secret technology. Part of the problem is the secrecy of the inventors and developers, coerced by those wealthy people in power, but part of the problem is the public's lack of interest in science and their obsession with other things like religion, and sports, in addition to their revulsion of human nudity, and pleasure and tolerance of violence. How far away can a muscle be stimulated? Does Helmholtz, like Duchenne, stimulate human muscles? Perhaps Helmholtz and others recognized the value of muscle moving, because in theory a person's muscles could be completely frozen to stop them from committing a violent crime, as a defensive tool. A person's heart, which is a muscle, could be stopped from a distance, or made to fibrillate, that is be given a heart attack. {EXPER duplicate Galvani's experiments, duplicate Helmholtz's experiments. Perhaps the muscles of chikens or other readily available muscle can be used. How far away can a muscle be made to contract?} Helmholtz and others must have been naturally fascinated by the way muscles can be controlled with electricity. When does this technology enter into the secret realm? )
(Helmholtz's description of how the telegraph is used by the government to gather information about the public, with the other direction being government handing down their instructions, like a brain to muscles. This may hint that already by this time, the telegraph is used to gather information about the public without their permission or knowledge. In my view, a more healthy relationship is both sides gathering each other's information, and communicating with each other as equal humans with equal rights and privileges under a law that applies to all humans.)
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3471) Alexander William Williamson (CE 1824-1904), English chemist determines the difference between ethers and alcohols: in ethers the oxygen atom links two hydrocarbon groups (chains?), but in alcohols the oxygen is bonded to a (single) hydrocarbon group and a hydrogen atom.
This is called the theory of etherization. Williamson states that the relationship between alcohol and ether is not one of the loss or addition of water as had been thought, but instead one of substitution, since ether contains two ethyl radicals but the same quantity of oxygen as alcohol.
Williamson introduces the water-type for classification of chemical compounds. Williamson views both ether and alcohol as substances analogous to and built up on the same type as water. Type theory was developed by Charles Gerhardt and Auguste Laurent and is based on the idea that organic compounds are produced by replacing one or more hydrogen atoms of inorganic compounds (which form the types) by radicals. Using the correct formula for alcohol (which he had recently established) Williamson represented the water type as: H2O (water); C2H5OH (alcohol); C2H5OC2H5 (ether), where the H of water is progressively replaced by C2H5. Williamson begins to classify organic (or carbon based) compounds into types according to structure.
In a paper on the theory of the formation of ether, Williamson states that in an aggregate of molecules of any compound there is an exchange constantly going on between the elements which are contained in it; for instance, in hydrochloric acid each atom of hydrogen does not remain quietly next to the atom of chlorine, but changes places with other atoms of hydrogen. A somewhat similar hypothesis is put forward by Rudolf Clausius around the same time.
Also in this year (1850) Williamson is the first to describe a dynamic equilibrium chemical reaction, a reaction where a substance reaction is reversible and so even though chemical reactions may be constantly occuring, the overall concentration of each of the two substances does not change.
| (University College, London) London, England |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3488) (Sir) Edward Frankland (CE 1825-1899), English chemist, is the first to prepare organo-metallic compounds (carbon metal compounds).
Most carbon-based atoms do not contain any metal atoms. Frankland prepares small carbon-based compounds with metallic zinc.
In 1847 Frankland dealt with the isolation of the alcohol radicles, the hypothetical hydrocarbon groups supposed to be contained in the alcohols and their derivatives. He succeeded in obtaining compounds of the expected composition; but the discovery lost much of its interest when it was recognised, by the application of Avogadro's law to these compounds, that they had twice the molecular weight which Frankland originally assigned to them- thus his isolated radicle methyl proved to be identical with the hydrocarbon ethane. Incidentally, however in the course of this work, he discovered the compounds of the alcohol radicles with zinc- zinc-methyl and its homologues- analogous to Bunsen's cacodyl. {ULSF note: cacodyl is a poisonous oil, As2(CH3)4, with an strong garlicky odor that undergoes spontaneous combustion in dry air.} The method employed in their preparation is a general application, and numerous members of this class of organo metallic compounds, containing tin, lead, mercury and similar metals, are therefore obtained by Frankland and other investigators. These substances are of great scientific interest not merely on account of their remarkable physical properties and the numerous applications of which they show themselves capable in chemical synthesis but because the study of them leads Frankland in 1852 to the enunciation of the law of valency. This law, which states that the affinity of each atom is fully satisfied by combination with a fixed number of other atoms of a given kind, forms one of the foundation-stones of modern chemical theory.
| (Queenwood school) Hampshire, England |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3561) Ferdinand Julius Cohn (CE 1828-1898), German botanist, shows that cytoplasm of plant and animal cells are, for the most part, identical, and that therefore there is only one physical basis for life.
Cohn determines that the protoplasm in plants and the "sarcode" in animals are very similar through his work on the unicellular algae, Protococcus pluvialis.
| (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 3580) Norman Robert Pogson (CE 1829-1891), English astronomer, changes the six magnitude system of Hipparchos, by realizing that an average first magnitude star is about 100 times as bright as an average sixth-magnitude star. Pogson creates a new scale, suggesting that this 100 times difference should be defined as representing a 5 magnitude difference, Therefore, 1 magnitude unit would equal the fifth root of 100 or 2.512. With this new scale the sun (somewhat intuitively in my opinion) has a magnitude of -26.91, Sirius -1.58 and Barnard's Star 9.5. (It seems clear that this system of magnitude will fall, at least to an "all positive" system. A better system may use a photons/second count. It's interesting to compare intensity to frequency, because the two are related (depending on the interpretation of light chosen). For example, a red star may emit less photons per second in frequency, but may emit far more beams of light compared to smaller white stars. Perhaps there should be a difference in measurement of beams with no regard to frequency. Perhaps only size of the light received should be measured, in number of pixels on some standard photon detector. A star might have a magnitude of 100 pixels on a detector with some constant magnification, while a distant star might only have 1 pixel. This would be a constantly changing scale, because it's based on the most distant object detectable. Presumably that would be 1 pixel. Perhaps people should work backwards from a full bright screen (say 1000x1000), then the sun would have a magnitude of 1 million pixels, while a planet would only have a few hundred thousand. It's interesting that the magnitude of a planet periodically changes for Mars, being sometimes closer and therefore brighter. In addition, the magnitude must change depending on where in orbit each planet is. But clearly, a beams, pixels or dots system is going to be better than the current system. Ultimately, we want to know: the size of the star or object (perhaps in meters, dots), the frequencies {quantities/time, rates} of light it emits and absorbs, the intensity {overall quantity over some period of time} of that light (which again appears to me to simply be the number of beams emitted), the frequency shift of that light, and no doubt other quantities. One interesting note is that I presume that individual frequency beams occupy a single line in space, in other words, although the human eye sees white, as a grating or prism reveal, at the microscopic magnification, each frequency occupies a unique space. Can the angle of viewing affect the color of some beam because the rate of photons received might change? It seems clear that 2 beams can be added into the same space to form a higher frequency beam, or subtracted from space {for example using a device like Fizeau's gear wheel} to form lower frequency beams.)
Pogson also identifies 9 previously unknown asteroids in his lifetime. At Radcliffe observatory in Oxford Pogson discovers the asteroids "Amphitrite" in 1854, "Isis" in 1856, and "Ariadne" and "Hestia" in 1857. Pogson discovers the first asteroid observed from the continent of Asia and consequently called "Asia" (1891).
| |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 4544) The walking robot has been kept secret and denied from the public for hundreds of years. Evidence to look for: use of words like "step".
| unknown |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 4700) The electric motor is made 1 micrometer in size. Already by now, tiny sub-millimeter electric motors have been in production, although secretly for years. These tiny motors are part of microscopic microphones, cameras, and neuron reading and writing devices which are mass produced and fly, powered and controlled by light particle beams with invisible frequencies, all over the earth to secretly capture images and sounds and do neuron reading and writing without being detected.
| London, England (guess) |
150 YBN
[1850 AD]
| 5995) Franz Liszt (CE 1811-1886), Hungarian composer and pianist, composes his famous "Liebesträume. Drei Notturnos" (S.541). (verify)
| Weimar, Germany (presumably) |
149 YBN
[02/03/1851 AD]
| 3282) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), proves the Earth rotates around its axis by showing that a pendulum keeps the same motion while the Earth turns around its axis, making the pendulum appear to change direction, where actually the pendulum frame is rotating relative to the motion of pendulum which remains in the same original direction.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
149 YBN
[03/??/1851 AD]
| 2680) The first (consumer) telegrams are sent in France.
| France |
149 YBN
[03/??/1851 AD]
| 3112) Frederick Scott Archer (CE 1813-1857), English inventor, describes the wet collodion process which is the first practical photographic process in which more than one copy of a picture can be made.
Archer puts the negative on a glass plate as opposed to the paper negative of the calotype method, which allows for many positive prints to be made by allowing a light to pass through the glass negative onto a silver-nitrate covered paper.
Archer is trained in the calotype process, but is unsatisfied with the texture and unevenness of the paper negative. In 1849, after experimenting, Archer makes a breakthrough when he coats a glass plate with a collodion solution and exposes the plate while it was still wet. Images created using the collodion wet plate process are sharp like the daguerreotype, easily reproducible like the calotype, and enable photographers to dramatically reduce exposure times.
When the collodion dries, it can be peeled from the glass. The sheet is transparent and can hold an image. Collodion is therefore the precursor to film.
Gustave Le Gray, R. J. Bingham, and Archer all have the idea of coating glass-plate negatives with a layer of collodion around the same time. Of the three, Archer is the first to publish practical directions for the process, in "The Chemist" in March 1851.
In 1852 Archer publishes: "A Manual of the Collodion Photographic Process".
Archer adds a soluble iodide to a solution of collodion (cellulose nitrate) and coats a glass plate with the mixture. In the darkroom the plate is immersed in a solution of silver nitrate to form silver iodide. The plate, still wet, is exposed in the camera. The plate is then developed by pouring a solution of pyrogallic acid over it and is fixed with a strong solution of sodium thiosulfate, for which potassium cyanide is later substituted. Immediate developing and fixing are necessary because, after the collodion film dries, the collodion film became waterproof and (the developer, (pyrogallic acid)) can not penetrate it.
When exposed still wet, the glass plate has a light sensitivity around twenty times that of daguerreotype or calotype materials, and with the advantage of being on clear glass.
After developed and fixed, the glass plate negative can then be stored for a long period of time, and by allowing light to pass through the negative onto a paper covered with dried silver-nitrate, any number of photos can be produced from the glass negative. Archer writes "When dry, or nearly so, the (positive print) paper can be placed in the pressure frame, the sensitive side in contact with the surface of the negative drawing (glass plate), and exposed to the light (which is sent through the glass negative). No definite time can be stated, generally from three to fifteen seconds are required. A slight colour on the margin of the paper will roughly indicate the necessary exposure."
Collodion is a colourless, viscid fluid, made by dissolving nitrocellulose (also known as gun-cotton, made from cotton wool soaked in nitric acid) and the other varieties of pyroxylin in a mixture of alcohol and ether. It was discovered in 1846 by Louis Nicolas Menard in Paris.
In 1851, F. Scott Archer describes a collodion binder for silver iodide on glass for the production of wet-plate negatives and, in 1852, collodion positives (called ambrotypes). From 1853, collodion positives are made on metal plates as tintypes. Cellulose nitrate, a substance closely related to collodion, provides the first film support, as 'nitrate' roll-film (J. Carbutt, 1884), from 1889 until the 1950s, when it is replaced by the much less flammable cellulose acetate.
Together with Peter Fry, Archer also devises the Ambrotype process, a modification of the wet collodion process, in which an underexposed negative is backed with black paper or velvet. This process becomes very popular. in 1852, collodion positives (ambrotypes).
Because the glass plate needs to be wet when exposed and developed, a dark room must be everywhere a photo is captured to develop the image on the glass plate negative. A dry process, a gelatin silver halide emulsion (silver bromide), invented by Richard Leach Maddox (CE 1816-1902) in 1871, will replace the wet collodion process.
| Bloomsbury, London, England (presumably) |
149 YBN
[03/??/1851 AD]
| 3480) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) deduces a form of the second law of thermodynamics from the work of Sadi Carnot, that energy (the combination of mass and velocity) in a closed system tends to dissipate itself as heat and therefore become unusable (to do work). From this Thompson concludes that the entire universe is (cooling down). This is similar to the concept of entropy advanced more precisely by Clausius around the same time. However there is an error in this view, in my opinion, because these photons are absorbed by other atoms which heat them up. Velocity (and mass) and therefore heat is conserved. I reject this idea that the universe is cooling down, because I think even if the universe was finite (although I think it is infinite), the matter, in the form of photons appears just to be moving around according to the laws of gravity. As an interesting note, Faraday stated his belief that gravitation is not a conserved force since velocity can be created where none existed, although it can be argued that velocity between two particles is always opposing and so cancels, however the debate remains open in my opinion. In addition, there is the phenomenon of advanced life using gravity and particle collision to move matter. But in terms of the universe cooling, there is never more space or matter being added, so, the overall potential lowest or highest temperature is a finite quantity. There is a ratio of space to matter. I think this ratio is maybe 1 million to 1, if not larger, maybe 1 billion photon sized spaces for every 1 photon of matter. This relates to there being so few galaxies in a universe mostly of space. There is no clear reason to think that matter would take on a uniform distribution, or that the universe would become any colder or hotter, in particular presuming velocity and mass are always conserved. I think the main mistake made by the founders of the so-called second law of thermodynamics, is not recognizing the fact that velocity is conserved throughout the universe, so that heat lost in one place is gained in another.
Thomson publishes this as "On the Dynamical Theory of Heat, With Numerical Results Deduced From Mr Joule's Equivalent of a Thermal unit, and M. Regnault's Observations on Steam." in the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. In this work Thomson writes "The demonstration of the second proposition is founded on the following axiom:- It is impossible, by means of inanimate material agency, to derive mechanical effect from any portion of matter by cooling it below the temperature of the coldest of the surrounding objects. with the footnote: If this axiom be denied for all temperatures, it would have to be admitted that a self-acting machine might be set to work and produce mechanical effect by cooling the sea or earth, with no limit but the total loss of heat from the earth and sea, or, in reality, from the whole material world." (As an aside, to use the word "world" instead of universe shows perhaps the ignoring of the larger picture of the universe as opposed to just the tiny planet we live on. As I stated the principle that velocity and matter are conserved indicate that one space losing heat always results in another space gaining heat. It is true that there are perpetual motion machines, the earth for example has moved around the Sun for many years, photons appear to only stop moving when colliding. I think much of the focus is trying to invent perpetual motion machines to do the work for humans, and humans are 100 year perpetual motion machines, but walking robots, that are good at being self-sustaining will be good examples of motion machines that continue as long as there is a source of photons. Much of the source of work is photons, and an end to work getting done would require an end to intercepting photons, which seems unlikely in a universe so filled with photons. There is still a large amount of work to do to uncover the best mechanical designs, new sciences, the secrets of the universe, to understand the universe and see more of the unknown spaces within the universe.)
Thomson writes in 1852 "1. There is at present in the material world a universal tendency to the dissipation of mechanical energy. 2. Any restoration of mechanical energy, without more than an equivalent of dissipation, is impossible in inanimate material processes, and is probably never effected by means of organized matter, wither endowed with vegtable life or subjected to the will of an animated creature. 3. Within a finite period of time past, the earth must have been, and within a finite period of time to come the earth must again be, unfit for the habitation of man as at present constituted, unless operations have been, or are to be performed, which are impossible under the laws to which the known operations going on at present in the material world are subject.".
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
149 YBN
[05/06/1851 AD]
| 6250) Dr. John Gorrie builds a refrigeration system for ice making.
This is the first refrigeration system operated for practical use. However, Gorrie only installs this machine at his own hospital. This machine is an air-cycle compression machine instead of a vapor-compression machine. The refrigerant in an air-cycle compression machine, air, remains as a gas through the compression and expansion cycles. Gorrie's machine compresses air that is next cooled with water. The cooled air is then routed into an engine cylinder, and, as it re-expands, its temperature drops enough so that ice can be made.
(Determine if this is the "first practical refrigerator".)
| New Orleans, Lousiana, USA |
149 YBN
[09/29/1851 AD]
| 3292) Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (FEZO) (CE 1819-1896), measures a drag on light in moving water thought to be due to aether, in accord with Fresnel's predicted partial drag theory. Fizeau shows that a beam of light split and sent through two tubes in which water is moving in opposite directions, when brought back together show a measurable interference showing that the velocity of light through each tube is different. The speed of light can apparently be decreased or increased by the velocity of the moving water. Fizeau shows that the light passed through the two tubes of water, when the water is not moving do not interfere, in other words are moving with an equal velocity. However, Fizeau reports: " When the water is set in motion the fringes are displaced, and according as the water moves in the one direction or the other, the displacement takes place towards the right or the left. The fringes are displaced towards the right when the water is running from the observer in the tube situated to his right, and towards the observer in the tube situated to his left. The fringes are displaced towards the left when the direction of the current in each tube takes place in a direction opposed to that which has just been described.".
Fizeau's test is designed to evaluate the prediction by Augustin Fresnel in 1821 that a moving dispersive medium should create a partial offset in the speed of any light moving through it.
This result is mysterious since no change in speed is measured from the motion of the Earth through the supposed aether. Tobin explains that this is explained fifty years later by the theory of relativity, however I think the explanation may be either the result of an increase in photon water molecule collisions in the direction against versus direction with, or minute experimental errors.
Fizeau writes in "Sur les Hypotheses Relatives a l'Ether Lumineux, Et sur une expérience qui parait démontrer que le mouvement des corps change la vitesse avec laquelle la lumiere se propage dans leur intérieur" ("On the Hypotheses Relating to the Luminous Aether, and an experiment which appears to demonstrate that the motion of bodies alters the velocity with which light propagates itself in their interior."): (translated from French) "Many hypotheses have been proposed to account for the phenomena of aberration in accordance with the doctrine of undulations. Fresnel in the first instance, and more recently Doppler, Stokes, Challis and many others, have published memoirs on this important subject; but it does not seem that any of the theories proposed have received the entire assent of physicists. In fact, the want of any definite ideas as to the properties of the luminous aether and its relations to ponderable matter, has rendered it necessary to form hypotheses, and among those which have been proposed, there are some which are more or less probable, but none which can be regarded as proven. These hypotheses can be reduced to three principal ones and they refer to the state in which the aether existing in the interior of transparent bodies may be considered to be. This aether is either adherent, and as it were attached to the molecules of bodies, and consequently participates in the motions to which the bodies may be subjected; Or the aether is free and independent, and is not influences by the motion of the bodies; Or lastly, according to a third hypothesis, which includes both the former ones, only a portion of the aether is free, the other portion being attached to the molecules of bodies and participating in their motion. This latter hypothesis was proposed by Fresnel, and constructed for the purpose of equally satisfying the phenomena of aberration, and a celebrated experiment of M. Arago, buy which it has been proved that the motion of the earth has no influence upon the refraction which the light of the stars suffers in a prism. We may determine the value which in each of these hypotheses it is necessary to attribute to the velocity of light in bodies when the bodies are supposed to be in motion. If the aether is supposed to be wholly carried along with the body in motion, the velocity of light ought to be increased by the whole velocity of the body, the ray being supposed to have the same direction as the motion. If the aether is supposed to be free and independent, the velocity of light ought not to be changed at all. Lastly, if only one part of the aether is carried along, the velocity of light would be increased, but only by a fraction of the velocity of the body, and not, as in the first hypothesis, by the whole velocity. This consequence is not so obvious as the former, but Fresnel has shown that it may be supported by mechanical arguments of great probability. Although the velocity of light is enormous comparatively to such as we are able to impart to bodies, we are at the present time in possession of means of observation of such extreme delicacy, that it seems to me to be possible to determine by a direct experiment what is the real influence of the motion of bodies upon the velocity of light. We are indebted to M. Arago for a method based upon the phenomena of interference, which is capable of indicating the most minute variations in the indexes of refraction of bodies. The experiments of MM. Arago and Fresnel upon the difference between the refractions of dru and moist air, have proved the extraordinary sensibility of that means of observation. It is by adopting the same principle, and joining the double tube of M. Arago to the conjugate telescopes which I employed for determining the absolute velocity of light, that I have been able to sudy directly in two mediums the effects of the motion of a body upon the light which traverses it. I will now attempt to describe, without the aid of a diagram, what was the course of the light in the experiment. From the focus of a cylinder lens the solar rays penetrated almost immediately into the first telescope by a lateral opening very neat to its focus. A transparent mirror, the plane of which made an angle of 45° with the axis of the telescope, reflected the rays in the direction of the object-glass. On leaving the object-glass, the rays having become parallel among themselves, encountered a souble slit, each opening of which corresponded to the mouth of one of the tubes. A very narrow bundle of rays thus penetrated into each tube, and traversed its entire length, 1.487 meters. The two bundles, always parallel to each other, reached the object-glass of the second telescope, were then refracted, and by the effect of the refraction reunited at its focus. There they encountered the reflecting plane of a mirror perpendicular to the axis of the telescope, and underwent a reflection back again towards the object-glass; but by the effect of this reflection the rays had changed their route in such a way that that which was to the right before, was to the left after the reflection, and vise versa. After having again passed the object-glass, and been thus rendered parallel to each other, they penetrated a second time into the tubes; but as they were inverted, those which had passed through one tube in going passed through the other on returning. After their second transit through the tubes, the two bundles again passed the double chinks, re-entered the first telescope, and lastly intersected at its focus in passing across the transparent mirror. There they formed the fringes of interference, which were observed by a glass carrying a graduated scale at its focus. It was necessary that the fringes should be very large in order to be able to measure the small fractions of the width of a fringe. i have found that that result is obtained, and a great intensity of light maintained, by placing before one of the slits, a thick mirror which is inclined in such a way as to see the two slits by the effect of refraction, as if they were nearer to each other than they really are. it is in this way possible to give various dimensions to the fringes, and to choose that which is the most convenient for observation. The double transit of the light was for the purpose of augmenting the distance traversed in the medium un motion, and further to compensate entirely any accidental difference of temperature or pressure between the two tubes, from which might result a displacement of the fringes, which would be mingled with the displacement which the motion alone would have produced; and thus have rendered the observation of it uncertain. It is, in fact, easy to see that in this arrangement all the points situated in the path of one ray are equally in the path of the other; so that any alteration of the density in any point whatever of the transit acts in the same manner upon the two rays, and cannot consequently have any influence upon the position of the fringes. The compensation may be satisfactorily shown to be complete by placing a thick mirror before on eof the tgwo slits, or as well by filling only one of the tubes with water, the other being full of air. neither of these two experiments gives rise to the least alteration in the position of the fringes. By making water move inthe two tubes at the same time and in contrary directions in each, it will be seen that the effects should be added. This double current having been produced, the direction may be again reversed simultaneously in the two tubes, and the effect would again be double. All the movements of the water were produced in a very simple manner, each tube being connected by two conduits situated near their extremities, with two reservoirs of glass, in which a pressure is alternately exercised by means of compressed air. By means of this pressure the water passes from one reservoir to the other by traversing the tube, the two extremities of which are closed by the mirrors. The interior diameter of the tubes was 5.3mm, their length 1,487m. They were of glass. The pressure under which the flowing of the water took place might have exceeded two atmospheres. The velocity was calculated by diving the volume of water running in one second by the area of the section of the tube. I ought to mention, in order to prevent an objection which might be made, that great care was taken to obviate the effects of the accidental motions which the pressure of the shock of the water might produce. Therefore the two tubes, and the reservoirs in which the motion of the water was made, were sustained by supports independent of the other parts of the apparatus, and especially of the two lunettes; it was therefore only the two tubes which could suffer any accidental movement; but both theory and practice have shown that the motion or flexions of the tubes alone were without influence upon the position of the fringes. The following are the results obtained. When the water is set in motion the fringes are displaced, and according as the water moves in the one direction or the other, the displacement takes place towards the right or the left. The fringes are displaced towards the right when the water is running from the observer in the tube situated to his right, and towards the observer in the tube situated to his left. The fringes are displaced towards the left when the direction of the current in each tube takes place in a direction opposed to that which has just been described. With a velocity of water eqaul to 2 meters a second, the displacement is already very sensible; with a velocity of 4 to 7 meters it is perfectly measurable. After having demonstrated the existence of the phenomenon, I endeavoured to detmine its numerical value with all the exactitude which it was possible to attain. By calling that the simple displacement which was produced when the water at rest in the commencement was set in mkotion, and that the double displacement which was produced when the motion was changed to a contrary one, it was dounf that the average deduced from nineteen observations sufficiently concurring, was 0.23 for the simple displacement, which gives 0.46 for the double displacement, the width of a fringe being taken as unity. The velocity of the water was 7.069 meters a second. This result was afterwards compared with those which have been deduced by calculation from the different hypotheses relative to the aether. According to the supposition that the aether is entirely free and independent of the motion of bodies, the displacement ought to be null. According to the hypothesis which considers the aether united to the molecules of matter in such a way as to particpate in its motions, calculation gives for the double displacement the value 0.92. Experiment gave a number only half as great, or 0.46. According to the hypothesis by which the aether is partially carried along, the hypothesis of Fresnel, calculation gives 0.40, that is to say, a number very near to that which was found by experiment; and the difference between the two values would very probably be still less if it had been possible to introduce into the calculation of the velocity of the water a correction which had to be neglected from the want of sufficiently precise data, and which refers to the unequal velocity of the different threads of fluid; by estimating the value of that correction in the most probable manner, it has been seen that it tends to augment a little the theoretical value and to approach the value of the observed result. An experiment similar to that which I have just described had been made previously with air in motion, and I havfe demonstrated that the motion of the air does not produce any sensible displacement in the fringes. In the circumstances in which that experiment was made, and with a velocity of 25 meters a second, which was that of the motion of the air, it is found that according to the hypothesis by which the aether is considered to be carried along with the bodies, the double displacement ought to be 0.82. According to the hypothesis of Fresnel, the same displacement ought to be only 9,999465, that is to say, entirely imperceptible. Thus the apparent immobility of the fringe in the experiment made with air in motion is completely in accordance with the theory of Fresnel. It was after having demonstrated this negative fact, and while seeking for an explanation by the different hypotheses relating to the aether in such a way as to satisfy at the same time the phenomenoa of aberration and the experiment of M. Arago, that it appeared to me to be necessary to admit with Fresnel that the motion of a body occasions an alteration in the velocity of light, and that this alteration of velocity is greater or less for different mediums, according to the energy with which those mediums refract light, so that it is considerable in bodies which are strongly refractive and very feeble in those which refract but little, as the air. it dollows from this, that if the fringes are not displaced when light traverses air in motion, there should, on the contrary, be a sensible displacement when the experiment is made with water, the index of refractino of which is very much greater than that of air. An experiment of M. Babinet, mentioned in the ninth volume of the Comptes Rendus, seems to be opposed to the hypothesis of an alteration of velocity in conformity with the law of Fresnel. But on considering the circumstances of that experiment, I have remarked a cause of compensation which must render the effect of the motion imperceptible. This cause consists in the reflexion which the light undergoes in that experiment; in fact it may be demonstrated, that when two rays have a certain difference of course, that difference is changed by the effect of the reflexion upon a mirror in motion. On calculating separately the two effects in the experiment of M. Babinet, it is found that they have values sensibly equal with contrary signs. This explanation renders still more probably the hypothesis of an alteration of velocity, and an experiment made with water in motion appears to me completely appropriate to decide the question with certainty. The success of the experiment seems to me to render the adoption of Fresnel's hypothesis necessary, or at least the law which he found for the expression of the alteration of the velocity of light by the effect of motion of a body; for although that law being found true may be a very strong proof in favor of the hypothesis of which it is only a consequence, perhaps the conception of Fresnel may appear so extraordinary, and in some respects so difficult, to admit, that other proofs and a profound examination on the part of geometricians will still be necessary before adopting it as an expression of the real facts of the case. -Comptes Rendus, Sept. 29, 1851". (How can this result of light apparently delayed or increased by the movement of water moving in the opposite direction be explained without aether? Notice Fizeau does not address any particle explanations. Perhaps the collisions slow the light. I think this is good evidence that refraction involves physical collisions of photons with the particles in the refracting medium. If the photons simply pass through some empty space untouched, the velocity of the water would not matter. Has this experiment been repeated? Perhaps Michelson did.)
The biographer William Tobin states that this "Fresnel drag", can be measured in moving water, but can not be measured from the Earth's motion relative to the light of a distant star, will be explained fifty years later by Einstein's Theory of Relativity. (see also ). However, I think this "Fresnel drag" is because of photon, as matter, colliding with water atoms, while in space there are far fewer atoms to collide with and be slowed by. This slowing may only be the result of small changes in direction and not with actual velocity, although change to actual velocity may be a possibility too.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
149 YBN
[10/22/1851 AD]
| 2726) Faraday publishes his theory of lines of force in "On lines of Magnetic Force, their definite character; and their distribution within a Magnet and through space".
Faraday writes: "The emission (corpuscular) and the aether theories present such cases in relation to light. The idea of a fluid or two fluids is the same for electricity; and there the further idea of a current has been raised...The same is the case with the idea of a magnetic fluid or fluids (note that Faraday rejects magnetism as electricity), or with the assumption of magnetic centres of action of which the resultants are at the poles. How the magnetic force is transferred through bodies or through space we know not:- whether the result is merely action at a distance, as in the case of gravity, or by some intermediate agency, as in the case of light, heat, the electric current, and (as I believe) static electric action. (Here Faraday fails to consider the possibility of lines of force made of particles, and automatically supports the aether wave theory for light.) The idea of magnetic fluids, as applied by some, or of magnetic centres of action, does not include that of the latter kind of transmission, but the idea of lines of force does (presuming they are not made of particles). Nevertheless because a particular method (I presume this means "particle-based") of representing the forces does not include such a mode of transmission (in my opinion particles with gravity and collision may explain lines of force), the latter (particle explanation) is not therefore disproved; and that method of representation which harmonizes with it may be the most true to nature. The general conclusion of philosophers seems to be , that such cases (cases where a particle method does not include a mode of transmission?) are by far the more numerous, and for my own part, considering the relation of a vacuum to the magnetic force and the general character of magnetic phenomena external to the magnet, I am more inclined to the notion that in the transmission of the force there is such as action, external to the magnet than that the effects are merely attraction and repulsion at a distance. (Again, this does not consider the possibility of those forces extended outside the visible magnet around particles of electric current in the field.) Such an action may be a function of the aether; for it is not at all unlikely that, if there be an aether, it should have other uses than simply the conveyance of radiations.". (So clearly, Faraday suggests that lines of force may be transmitted by an aether, probably without "aether" particles. Maxwell will develop this idea, and Einstein and his theories of relativity also adopt this concept of an electric field not made of particles, but Einstein rejects the aether as a medium theory - although I need to verify this.)
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
149 YBN
[11/25/1851 AD]
| 6258) Earliest "zipper". Elias Howe (CE 1819-1867), inventor of a sewing machine, patents an early clothing fastener (zipper).
| Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
149 YBN
[11/??/1851 AD]
| 3544) Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (rEmoN) (CE 1826-1866), German mathematician, in his doctoral thesis (1851) defines what will be called a Riemann surface, defined by two complex variables.
Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (rEmoN) (CE 1826-1866), German mathematician, in his doctoral thesis (1851), introduces a way of generalizing the study of polynomial equations in two real variables to the case of two complex variables. In the real case a polynomial equation defines a curve in a plane. Because a complex variable z can be thought of as a pair of real variables x + iy (where i = √(−1) ), an equation involving two complex variables defines a real surface, now known as a Riemann surface. This is one of the first significant uses of topology in mathematics.
In this way, Riemann introduces a non-Euclidean geometry different from those of Lobachevski and Bolyai. Reimann's geometry is restricted to the surface of a sphere. Reimann drops Euclid's axiom that through a given point not on a given line, no line parallel to the given line can be drawn, and Euclid's axiom that through two different points, one and only one straight line can be drawn. In Reimann's geometry any number of straight lines can be drawn through two points. In Reimann's geometry there are no lines of infinite length. One consequence of Riemann's geometry is that the sum of the angles of a triangle is always more than 180°.
Reimann will formally present his thesis in 1854. The elderly Gauss is an examiner and is greatly impressed. Riemann argues that the fundamental ingredients for geometry are a space of points (called today a manifold (I think for clarity perhaps this should be called something else, such as a space of n-dimensions or n-{spacial} variables)) and a way of measuring distances along curves in the space. Reimann argues that the space is not required to be ordinary Euclidean space and that the space can have any dimension (including spaces of infinite dimensions).
Riemann’s ideas will provide the mathematical foundation for the four-dimensional geometry of space-time in Einstein’s theory of general relativity. The Encyclopedia Britannica writes that Riemann is possibly led to these ideas in part by his dislike of the concept of action at a distance in contemporary physics and by his wish to endow space with the ability to transmit forces such as electromagnetism and gravitation.
Riemann's doctoral dissertation is titled "Grundlagen für eine allgemeine Theorie der Functionen einer veränderlichen complexen Grösse" ("Foundations for a general Theory of Functions of a variable complex Size."). It is interesting that I can find no translation to English of this paper, being an important paper in the history of science in particular as relates to the general theory of relativity, the dominant paradigm of this time.
Gauss examined surface (non-Euclidean) geometry but didn't publish until 1827. Lobechevskii in 1829 and Bolyai in 1832 had published non-euclidean geometries. Riemann's work helps to solidify the concept of non-Euclidean geometry as a focus of popular mathematical research. By the time of Riemann it is clear that the non-Euclidean theory is accepted as an important line of mathematical research, although clearly this centers around Gauss at Göttingen before branching out to the rest of the Earth.
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 2681) The St. Petersburg-Moscow telegraph line is established.
| St Petersburg, Russia |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 2756) Charles Babbage (CE 1792-1871), English mathematician, invents skeleton keys. (chronology) (verify: Babbage does not mention this is enumerating his inventions, and it is not found anywhere in any volume of )
A skeleton key is a key that has been altered in such a way as to bypass the security measures placed inside any warded lock.
A warded lock (also called a ward lock) is a type of lock that uses a set of obstructions, or wards, to prevent the lock from opening unless the correct key is inserted. The correct key has notches or slots corresponding to the obstructions in the lock, allowing it to rotate freely inside the lock. Warded locks are commonly used in inexpensive padlocks, cabinet locks, and other low-security applications, since they are among the most easily circumvented by lock picking. A well-designed skeleton key can successfully open a wide variety of warded locks.
| Cambridge, England (presumably) |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 2816) Heinrich D. Ruhmkorff (CE 1803-1877), German mechanic commercializes the induction coil.
Ruhmkorff invents the Ruhmkorff coil, a type of induction coil that can produce sparks more than 1 foot (30 centimetres) in length.
The coils are used for the operation of Geissler and Crookes tubes as well as for detonating devices. Ruhmkorff's doubly wound induction coil later evolves into the alternating-current transformer.
The electomagnetic inductor replaces electrostatic disk machines for producing high voltages.
| |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 2825) Lassell finds these while observing in Malta where he moves to escape the increasing smoky atmosphere of the industrializing English midlands, which make astronomical observations virtually impossible.
| Malta |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 2830) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, invents "photolyphic engraving" (patented in 1852 and 1858), a method of using printable steel plates and muslin screens to achieve quality middle tones of photographs on printing plates, is the precursor to the development in the 1880s of the more successful halftone plates.
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 2952) Mohl publishes this theory in a short work "Die vegetabilische Zelle" (1851, tr. Eng 1852, "The Vegetable Cell").
Mohl also proposes the view that the secondary walls of plant cells have a fibrous structure. (same year, in this work?)
Mohl gives the first clear explanation of osmosis, where a liquid moves from a less concentrated side across a membrane to a more concentrated side in the physiology of a plant. (same year, same work?)
Mohl reaches his understanding of osmosis while theorizing on the nature and function of plastids. Mohl is one of the first to investigate the phenomenon of the movement of stomatal openings in leaves. (chronology)
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3025) Robert Mallet (1810-1881) designs a seismometer.
Mallet uses dynamite explosions to measure the speed of elastic waves in surface rocks (Mallet, 1852, 1862a). Mallet wants to obtain approximate values for the velocities with which earthquake waves are likely to travel. To detect the waves from the explosions, Mallet looks through an eleven-power magnifier at the image of a cross-hairs reflected in the surface of mercury in a container (see image). A slight shaking causes the image to blur or disappear. Transit velocities are measured over distances of the order of a thousand feet. (more clear description) For granite, Mallet obtains velocities of about 1600 feet per second, although expected to find velocities of 8000 feet per second.
Mallet advocates the use of fallen objects and cracks in buildings as aids in the study of earthquakes. Mallet makes a detailed investigation of the Neapolitan earthquake of 1857, and pays particular attention to the way buildings are cracked, walls overthrown, and soft ground fissured (Mallet, 1862b). Mallet believed that an earthquake consists primarily of a compression followed by a dilatation. For such a shaking, Mallet suggested, the resulting cracks in structures would be transverse to the direction of wave propagation. (Is this true? Are they transverse or longitudinal? Earth vibrations resulting from a collapse seem more likely to be like sound, longitudinal.) Overturned objects would fall along the horizontal projection of the direction of wave propagation. By observing the directions of arrival from a number of different points, Mallet plots an origin from which the wave seemed to spread. Mallet also publishes a set of formulas for calculating the velocities necessary to overturn structures of various simple shapes. From these, and observations of overturned objects, Mallet estimated the velocity of particle motion at different sites.
The results of Mallet's study of the effects of an earthquake in Naples, are published in "The Great Neapolitan Earthquake of 1857: the First Principles of Observational Cosmology" (1862).
Mallet is responsible for coining the word "seismology" and other related "seismo" words.
| Dublin, Ireland (presumably) |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3154) Warren De La Rue (CE 1815-1889), British astronomer, invents the first envelope-making machine.
| London, England (presumably) |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3182) Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (lUDViK) (CE 1816-1895), German physiologist is the first to show that human digestive glands may be influenced by secretory nerves.
The investigations of Ludwig on the secretion of the saliva first reported in 1851 and continued under various phases with the aid of his pupils during many years, begins a new era in our knowledge of the secretion process. Ludwig's experiments show that the secretion of the saliva is not dependent on the blood pressure, that the gland cells respond like muscle cells to special nerves and undergo chemical change when they become active, becoming hotter and giving off materials other than those brought by the blood.
Ludwig shows that if the nerves are appropriately stimulated (electronically?) the salivary glands continue to secrete, even though the animal is decapitated.
| (University of Zürich) Zürich, Germany |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3204) August Wilhelm von Hofmann (HOFmoN) (CE 1818-1892), German chemist discovers the Hofmann reaction, a method of converting an amide into an amine. The Hoffman reaction is also known as the "Hoffman degradation" process, and is a reaction in which amides are degraded by treatment with bromine and alkali (caustic soda) to amines containing one less carbon. The Hoffman reaction is used commercially in the production of nylon.
This process causes the successive reduction of the length of a carbon chain through treating the amides of fatty acids with bromine and alkali.
| (Royal College of Chemistry) London, England |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3208) Pietro Angelo Secchi (SeKKE) (CE 1818-1878), Italian astronomer, takes photographs of the sun during various phases of an eclipse.
Secchi is one of the first, with Del la Rue and W.C. Bond, to apply the new photography to astronomy.
Secchi is one of the first to draw the yellow and darker areas of Mars. (chronology)
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3273) (Sir) George Gabriel Stokes (CE 1819-1903), British mathematician and physicist creates "Stokes' law", a mathematical equation that expresses the settling velocities of small spherical particles in a fluid medium.
Stokes' law is derived by examining the forces acting on a particular particle as the particle sinks through a liquid under the influence of gravity. The force acting in resistance to the fall is equal to 6pirhv, in which r is the radius of the sphere, h is the viscosity of the liquid, and v is the velocity of fall. The force acting downward is equal to 4/3pi*r3 (d1 - d2)g, in which d1 is the density of the sphere, d2 is the density of the liquid, and g is the gravitational constant. At a constant velocity of fall the upward and downward forces are equal, so equating the two above expressions and solving for v results in the required velocity, expressed by Stokes's law as v = 2/9(d1 - d2)gr2/h.
Stokes's law finds application in modeling the settling of sediment in fresh water and in measurements of the viscosity of fluids. Because Stokes' law does not consider turbulence in the fluid caused by the particle, various modifications to the theorem will be made.
This equation can be used to explain how clouds can float in air and how waves dissipate in water. Millikan will use Stokes' law to help determine the electric charge on (of?) a single electron.
| Cambridge, England |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3275) (Sir) George Gabriel Stokes (CE 1819-1903), British mathematician and physicist, publishes a paper on the conduction of heat in crystals (1851).
| Cambridge, England |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3334) Helmholtz invents an ophthalmoscope, a device used to look into the eye's interior.
Babbage had invented a similar instrument 3 years earlier.
Helmholtz publishes a paper on the ophthalmoscope entitled "Beschreibung eines Augenspiegels zur Untersuchung der Netzhaut im lebenden Auge" ("Description of an eye mirror for the investigation of the retina of the living eye").
(How does this finding relate, if at all, to Pupin seeing eyes in 1910? Pupin must have been familiar with this process of looking into people's eyes with an opthalmoscope. Perhaps this helped create questions of seeing light from the back of the head.) Helmholtz writes (translated from German): "The present treatise contains the description of an optical instrument by which it is possible in the living to see and recognize exactly the retina itself and the images of luminous objects which are cast upon it.".
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3341) William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877), English inventor, records the first use of high speed photography.
In this time only slow shutters and small aperture lenses are available, which only allow photography of still subjects but not moving objects. Talbot searches for a method to capture photos of moving objects. Talbot uses a Leyden jar (the early capacitor) as a short duration high intensity light source to illuminate an object for high speed photography. In a demonstration to the Royal Society, Fox Talbot sets up a page of the Times newspaper on a wheel which is turned at high speed. Talbot uses a spark to briefly illuminate the newspaper page and photographs a few square inches of the fast moving print. On development of the negative, the print can be clearly read. The photograph captures an image faster than the rate a subject moves. This is the beginning of high speed photography.
Talbot reports "the conclusion is inevitable that it is in our power to obtain the pictures of all moving objects, no matter in how rapid motion they may be, provided we have the means of sufficiently illuminating them with a sudden electric flash. . . . What is required is, vividly to light up a whole apartment with the discharge of a battery:—the photographic art will then do the rest, and depict whatever may be moving across the field of vision. ... the transmitted or negative image is not strong enough to be visible unless the electric flash producing it be an exceedingly bright one".
High speed image capture will allow the direction of sparks, the movement of a drop of water, the wings of high speed insects, and other important high speed images to be observed.
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3404) Heinrich Ludwig d' Arrest (ore) (CE 1822-1875), German astronomer publishes a book on the 13 known asteroids.
Over the course of his life d'Arrest discovers 321 objects in the universe, most are galaxies, with others being stars and nebulae.
Arrest also discovers a comet this year that will be later named after him.
| (Leipzig Observatory) Pleissenburg, Germany (presumably) |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 3474) Wilhelm Hofmeister (HoFmISTR or HOFmISTR) (CE 1824-1877), describes the "alternation of generations" life cycle, the alternating of a sexual and an asexual generation in mosses, ferns, and seed plants. This is alternation of generations between sporophyte and gametophyte. (Also later named a haplodiploid species)
Wilhelm Friedrich Benedikt Hofmeister (HoFmISTR or HOFmISTR) (CE 1824-1877), German botanist, identifies the relationships among various cryptogams (e.g., ferns, mosses, algae) and establishes the position of the gymnosperms (e.g., conifers) between the cryptogams and the angiosperms (flowering plants). Hofmeister publishes this as "Vergleichende Untersuchungen..." (1851; "On the Germination, Development, and Fructification of the Higher Cryptogamia and on the Fructification of the Coniferae", 1862).
Alternation of generations is demonstrated for Liverworts, Mosses, Ferns, Equiseta, Rhizocarps, Lycopodiaceae, and even Gymnosperms.
| Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
149 YBN
[1851 AD]
| 5998) Giuseppe (Fortunino Francesco) Verdi (CE 1813-1901), Italian composer, composes the opera "Rigoletto" with the famous aria "La Donna È Mobile" ("Woman is fickle"). (verify)
| Venice, Italy |
148 YBN
[01/07/1852 AD]
| 2880) William Robert Grove (CE 1811-1896), British physicist, applies an induction coil high voltage through an evacuated tube with various gases, and performs electrolysis on gases.
| London, England (presumably) |
148 YBN
[05/10/1852 AD]
| 3489) (State who first uses word "valence".)
This will lead to the Kekulé structures and to the periodic table of Mendeléev.
This law states that the affinity of each atom is fully satisfied by combination with a fixed number of other atoms of a given kind forms one of the foundation stones of modern chemical theory.
Valence is the number of chemical bonds that a given atom or group can make with other atoms or groups in forming a compound. In 1852 Frankland notices that coordination with an alkyl group can change the combining power of a metal. Frankland then shows that the concept of valence can reconcile the radical and type theories. In 1866 he elaborates the concept of a maximum valence for each element.
Frankland writes in conclusion: "Imperfect as our knowledge of the organo-metallic bodies may yet appear, I am unwilling to close this memoir without directing attention to some peculiarities in the habits of these compounds, which promise to throw light upon their rational constitution, if they do not lead to extensive modifications of our views respecting chemical compounds in general, and especially that interesting class termed conjugate compounds.
That stanethylium, zincmethylium, hydrargyromethylium, &c. are perfectly analogous to cacodyl there can be no reasonable doubt, inasmuch as, like that body, they combine directly with the electro-negative metalloids, forming true salts; from which, in most cases, and probably in all, the original group can be again separated unaltered; and therefore any view which may be taken of the new bodies must necessarily be extended to cacodyl. The discovery and isolation of this so-called organic radical by Bunsen was certainly one of the most important steps in the development of organic chemistry, and one, the influence of which upon our theoretical views of the constitution of certain classes of organic compounds, can scarcely be too highly estimated. It was impossible to consider the striking features in the behaviour of this body, without finding in them a most remarkable confirmation of the theory of organic radicals, as propounded by Berzelius and Liebig.
The formation of cacodyl, its habits, and the products of its decomposition, have for some time left no doubt of the existence of methyl ready formed in this body; and Kolbe, in developing his views on the so-called conjugate compounds, has proposed to regard it as arsenic conjugated with two atoms of methyl ((C2H3)2As). So long as cacodyl was an isolated example of an organo-metallic body, this view of its rational composition, harmonizing as it did with the facts elicited during the route of cacodyl through its various combinations and decompositions, could scarcely be contested; but now, since we have become acquainted with the properties and reactions of a considerable number of analogous bodies, circumstances arise which I consider militate greatly against this view, if they do not render it absolutely untenable. According to the theory of conjugate radicals just alluded to, cacodyl and its congeners, so far as they are at present known, would be thus represented:-- (see image 1 )
It is generally admitted that when a body becomes conjugated, its essential chemical character is not altered by the presence of the conjunct: thus for instance, the series of acids CnHnO4, formed by the conjunction of the radicals CnH(n+1) with oxalic acid, have the same neutralizing power as the original oxalic acid; and, therefore, if we assume the organo-metallic bodies above mentioned to be metals conjugated with various hydrocarbons, we might reasonably expect, that the chemical relations of each metal to oxygen, chlorine, sulphur, &c. would remain unchanged; a glance at the formulae of these compounds will however suffice to show us that this is far from being the case: it is true that cacodyl forms protoxide of cacodyl and cacodylic acid, corresponding the one to a somewhat hypothetical protoxide of arsenic, which, if it exist, does not seem to possess any well-defined basic character, and the other to arsenious acid{fn}; but no compound corresponding to arsenic acid can be formed, and yet it cannot be urged that cacodylic acid is decomposed by the powerful reagents requisite to procure further oxidation, for concentrated nitric acid may be distilled from cacodylic acid without decomposition or oxidation in the slightest degree; the same anomaly presents itself even more strikingly in the case of stanethylium, which, if we are to regard it as a conjugate radical, ought to combine with oxygen in two proportions at least, to form compounds corresponding to protoxide and peroxide of tin; now stanethylium rapidly oxidizes when exposed to the air, and is converted into pure protoxide, but this compound exhibits none of that powerful tendency to combine with an additional equivalent of oxygen, which is so characteristic of protoxide of tin; nay, it may even be boiled with dilute nitric acid without evincing any signs of oxidation: I have been quite unable to form any higher oxide than that described; it is only when the group is entirely broken up and the ethyl separated, that the tin can be induced to unite with another equivalent of oxygen. Stibethyl also refuses to unite with more or less than two equivalents of oxygen, sulphur, iodine, &c., and thus forms compounds which are not at all represented amongst the combinations of the simple metal antimony.
When the formulae of inorganic chemical compounds are considered, even a superficial observer is impressed with the general symmetry of their construction. The compounds of nitrogen, phosphorus, antimony and arsenic {ULSF note: notice these elements are all in the same column in the periodic table} especially exhibit the tendency of these elements to form compounds containing 3 to 5 equivs. of other elements, and it is in these proportions that their affinities are best satisfied; thus in the ternal group we have thus in the ternal group we have NO3, NH3, NI3, NS3, PO3, PH3, PCl3, SbO3, SbH3, SbCl3, AsO3, AsH3, AsCl3, &c.; and in the five-atom group, NO5, NH4O, NH4I, PO5, PH4I, &c. Without offering any hypothesis regarding the cause of this symmetrical grouping of atoms, it is sufficiently evident, from the examples just given, that such a tendency or law prevails, and that, no matter what the character of the uniting atoms may be, the combining-power of the attracting element, if I may be allowed the term, is always satisfied by the same number of these atoms. {ULSF note: This is a clear statement of the concept of valence} It was probably a glimpse of the operation of the law amongst the more complex organic groups, which led Laurent and Dumas to the enunciation of the theory of types; and had not those distinguished chemists extended their views beyond the point to which they were well supported by then existing facts,--had they not assumed, that the properties of an organic compound are dependent upon the position and not upon the nature of its single atoms, that theory would undoubtedly have contributed to the development of the science to a still greater extent than it has already done; such an assumption could only have been made at a time when the data upon which it was founded were few and imperfect, and, as the study of the phenomena of substitution progressed, it gradually became untenable, and the fundamental principles of the electro-chemical theory again assumed their sway. The formation and examination of the organo-metallic bodies promise to assist in effecting a fusion of the two theories which have so long divided the opinions of chemists, and which have too hastily been considered irreconcilable; for, whilst it is evident that certain types of series of compounds exist, it is equally clear that the nature of the body derived from the original type is essentially dependent upon the electro-chemical character of its single atoms, and not merely upon the relative position of those atoms. Let us take, for instance, the compounds formed by zinc and antimony; by combination with 1 equiv. of oxygen the electro-positive quality of the zinc is nearly annihilated; it is only by the action of the highly oxidizing peroxide of hydrogen that the metal can be made to form a very unstable peroxide; but when zinc combines with 1 equiv. of methyl or ethyl, its positive quality, so far from being neutralized, is exalted by the addition of the positive group; and the compound now exhibits such intense affinity for the electro-negative elements as to give it the property of spontaneous inflammability. Teroxide of antimony has also little tendency to pass into a higher state of oxidation; but when its three atoms of oxygen are replaced by electro-positive ethyl, as in stibethine, that affinity is elevated to the intense degree which is so remarkable in this body.
Taking this view of the so-called conjugate organic radicals, and regarding the oxygen, sulphur, or chlorine compounds of each metal as the true molecular types of the organo-metallic bodies derived from them by the substitution of an organic group for sulphur, oxygen, &c., the anomalies above mentioned entirely disappear, and we have the following inorganic types and organo-metallic derivatives:--
(see image 2)
The only compound which does not harmonize with this view is ethostibylic acid, to which Löwig assigns the formula C4H5SbO5; but as that chemist has not yet fully investigated this compound, it is possible that further research may satisfactorily elucidate its apparently anomalous composition.
It is obvious that the establishment of this view of the constitution of the organo-metallic bodies will remove them from the class of organic radicals, and place them in the most intimate relation with ammonia and the bases of Wurtz, Hofmann, and Paul Thenard; indeed, the close analogy existing between stibethine and ammonia, first suggested by Gerhardt, has been most satisfactorily demonstrated by the behaviour of stibethine with the haloid compounds of methyl and ethyl. Stibethine furnishes us, therefore, with a remarkable example of the operation of the law of symmetrical combination above alluded to, and shows, that the formation of a five-atom group from one containing three atoms, can be effected by the assimilation of two atoms, either of the same or of opposite electro-chemical character; this remarkable circumstance suggests the following question:-- Is this behaviour common also to the corresponding compounds of arsenic, phosphorus and nitrogen; and can the position of each of the five atoms, with which these elements respectively combine, be occupied indifferently by an electro-negative or electro-positive element? This question, so important for the advance of our knowledge of the organic bases and their congeners, connote now long remain unanswered.
If the views I have just ventured to suggest should be as well borne out by future researches as they are by the facts already known, they must occasion a profound change in the nomenclature of the extensive series of compounds affected by them: I have not, however, ventured to introduce this new system of nomenclature, even in the case of the new bodies described in this memoir, since hasty changes of this kind, unless absolutely necessary, are always to be deplored. In accordance with the suggested view of the constitution of the organo-metallic compounds, the following plan of nomenclature would probably be found most convenient.
(see image 3)
In naming the new bodies described in the present paper, I have, in conformity with the nomenclature of the organic bases, adopted the principle of employing the termination "ium" when the body unites with one equivalent of oxygen, chlorine, sulphur, &c., like ammonium, and the terminal "ine" when, like ammonia, it combines with two additional atoms.".
| (Queenwood school) Hampshire, England |
148 YBN
[05/11/1852 AD]
| 3274) (Sir) George Gabriel Stokes (CE 1819-1903), British mathematician and physicist, publishes a paper in which he describes the finding that some materials emit a different frequency of light than they absorb. Stokes goes on to describe what will come to be known as Stokes' law (for fluorescent phenomena) which states that the emited light is always of longer wavelength than the exciting light. Stokes also introduces the word "fluorescence" to describe a phenomena different from luminescence..
Fluorescence describes phosphorescence that lasts only as long as the material is exposed to light. Edmond Becquerel considers that there is no difference between fluorescence and phosphorescence and develops the phosphoroscope to determine if all luminescence lasts longer than source light. This is method of fluorescence can be used to study the ultraviolet segment of the spectrum. (Can an object emit a higher frequency of light even though subjected to a lower frequency, for example in heating an object with infrared? For example, possibly if absorbing photons from many different directions might produce a sum absorption and emission of a higher frequency by some atom.)
(Do luminescense, phosphorescence and fluorescence all use the same basic photon absorb, photon emit process?)
Stokes also claims that, in addition to phosphorescence always having duration, phosphorescent light from material spread in a thin film and sharply illuminated actually spread sideways, where fluorescent light does not.
Stokes publishes these results in "On the Change of Refrangibility of Light", a 100 page paper followed by a second part a year later. In this work Stokes describes how John Herschel had noticed a blue luminescence emitted from the top of a solution of sulfate of quinine when a beam of sun light passes through it, but after the beam of sun light, although still strong, could then not be made to produce the same effect. At first Stokes thinks that the blue light is light of the same refrangibility (frequency) in the incident light. Stokes writes: "27. In those bodies, whether solid or liquid, which possess in a high degree the power of internal dispersion, the colour thence arising may be seen by exposing the body to ordinary daylight, looking at it in such a direction that the regularly reflected light does not enter the eye, and exclusing transmitted light by placing a piece of black cloth or velvet behind, or by some similar contrivance. It has been usual to speak of the colour so exhibited as displayed by reflexion. As however the cause now appears to be so very different from ordinary reflexion, it seems objectionable to continue to use that term without qualification, and I shall accordingly speak of the phenomenon as dispersive reflexion. Thus dispersive reflexion is nothing more than internal dispersion considered as viewed in a particular way. 28. The tint exhibited by dispersive reflexion is modified in a perculiat manner by the absorbing power of the medium. In the first place, the light which enters the eye in a given direction is made up of portinos which have been dispersed by particles situated at different distances from the surface at which the light emerges. The word particle is here used as synonymous, not with molecule, but with differential element. If we consider any particular particle, the light which it sends into the eye has had to traverse the medium, first in reaching the particle, and then in proceeding towards the eye. On account of the change of refrangibility which takes place in dispersion, the effect of the absorption of the medium is different for the two portions of the whole path within the medium, so that this effect may be regarded as a function of two independent variables, namely, the lengths of the path before and after dispersion; whereas, had the light been merely reflected from coloured particles held in suspension, the effect of absorption would have been a function of only one independent variable, namely, the length of the entire path within the medium.". In Part II, which Stokes publishes a year later he writes "In my former paper I suggested the term fluoresence, to denote the general appearance of a solution of sulphate of quinine and similar media. I have been encouraged to give this expression a wider signification, and henceforth, instead of true internal dispersion, I intend to use the term fluorescence, which is a single word not implying the adoption of any theory.".
Stokes shows how fluorescence is exhibited by fluorspar and uranium glass, materials which Stokes views as having the power to convert invisible ultra-violet light rays into rays of lower periods which are visible.
Stokes shows that quartz is transparent to ultraviolet light (photons with ultraviolet frequency) where ordinary glass is not. Stokes studies ultraviolet light by using the fluorescence it produces. (In this paper?) (Using only fluorspar and uranium glass? It is a smart idea to see what objects absorb, transmit, and reflect various kinds of light. This leads to the examination of what specific frequencies of light are emitted by the human body, in particular the human brain).
Fluorescence is a type of luminescence in which a substance absorbs radiation and almost instantly begins to re-emit the radiation. The delay is 10−6 seconds, or a millionth of a second. Fluorescent luminescence stops within 10−5 seconds after the energy source is removed. Usually, the wavelength (or interval) of the re-emitted radiation is longer than the wavelength of the radiation the substance absorbs. Stokes is the first to discover this difference in wavelength. However, in a special type of fluorescence known as resonance fluorescence, the wavelengths absorbed and emited are the same.
Fluorescence is the first of 3 new kinds of luminescence identified in the 1900s. Julius Plucker will describe radioluminescence from bombardment of new kinds of "rays" (or particles) in 1858, and B. Radziszewski will identify chemiluminescence of organic solutions in 1877.
This phenomenon of the bichromatic, or two color appearance of certain solutions depending on if they are viewed seen from the side or by transmitted light was known since the description of an extract of "lignum nephriticum" by Athaneus Kircher in 1646. During the 1700s almost no research is done in this are except for the occasional description of new liquids with the peculiar property of "lignum nephriticum" extract. In the 1800s interest is revived mainly because a number of crystalline minerals, such as fluorspar are found to produce the same effect as the solutions. David Brewster (1838, 1846, 1848) and John Herschel (1845) both attempt to explain the color of a beam of light passing through a crystal or liquid by "scattering", calling the phenomenon "epibolic dispersion" or "internal dispersion". However, this interpretation is incorrect, and Stokes characterizes this phenomenon as a true emission, actually a phosphorescence of very short duration, finally settling on the term "fluorescence". In 1875, a generalization often associated with E. Lommel (CE 1837-1899) is that a body only fluoresces by virtue of those rays which it absorbs, just as a photochemical reaction is only possible as a result of absorption of certain frequencies of light.
(It is interesting that the theory of fluorescence implies, to me at least, that the luminescent light is undelayed, and is basically passed through unreflected, but perhaps losing photons from the original beam. If regular, this would mean that the resulting light could only be a multiple of 2x or incoherent {being a nonregular frequency - but perhaps measurement devices might not be able to measure a missing photon for every 5 photons, for example.})
| Cambridge, England |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 2604) (Sir) Edward Sabine (SABin) (CE 1788-1883), British physicist finds that the frequency of disturbances in earth's magnetic field parallel the rise and fall of sunspot numbers on the sun.
Sabine announces that he has detected a periodicity of about 10-11 years in the occurrence of magnetic perturbations, in which the magnetic needle deviates abnormally from its average position. This is also discovered by Johann von Lamont around the same time but Sabine goes beyond Lamont in correlating the variations in magnetic activity with the sunspot cycle discovered by Heinrich Schwabe in 1843.
In 1863 William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) calculates that the Sun's magnetism would need to be 120 times as strong as the Earth's for even a complete reversal of the solar field (of the Sun) to cause a small change in magnetic declination at Earth.
In 1868, Airy, the English Astronomer Royal, suggests that sudden variations in the Earth's magnetic field are caused by the superposed magnetic fields of the transient Earth currents. (I tend to think that Airy's explanation is probably the more accurate one, that changes in the Earth's magnetic field and direction are probably mostly due to variations in the electric currents running through the structure of Earth.)
(State how the Earth's magnetic field is measured. The only things I can think of is location, direction and strength.)
| London, England (presumably) |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 2920) (Baron) Justus von Liebig (lEBiK) (CE 1803-1873), German chemist creates a simple method to determine the quantity of urea in a sample of urine.
| (University of Giessen), Giessen, Germany |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 2938) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist identifies the parathyroid gland while dissecting a rhinoceros.
The parathyroid glands occur in all vertebrate species starting from amphibia, and are usually located close to and behind the thyroid gland. The parathyroid glands secrete parathyroid hormone, which functions to maintain normal serum calcium and phosphate concentrations. Humans usually have four parathyroid glands, each composed of closely packed epithelial cells separated by thin fibrous bands and some fat cells.
| (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 3086) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, improving on his earlier work on batteries, uses chromic acid instead of nitric acid (in the battery and is then) is able to produce pure metals such as chromium, magnesium, aluminum, manganese, sodium, aluminum, barium, calcium and lithium by electrolysis.
Bunsen is the first to produce magnesium in (large) quantity, and to show how magnesium can be burned to produce an extremely bright light that proves useful in photography.
Later Bunsen pressed magnesium into wire and this element will come into general use as an outstanding illuminating agent.
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 3104) Practical passenger elevator with safety device.
Elisha Graves Otis (CE 1811-1861), American inventor, invents a "safety hoist", the first elevator that will not fall even if the cable holding it is cut, which makes the passenger elevator possible.
Otis' device incorporates a clamping arrangement that grips the guide rails on which the car moves when tension is released from the hoist rope. The first passenger elevator is put into service in the Haughwout Department Store in New York City in 1857; driven by steam power, it climbs five stories in less than a minute and is a pronounced success.
Roman architect-engineer Vitruvius in the 1st century bc described lifting platforms that used pulleys and capstans, or windlasses, operated by human, animal, or water power. Steam power was applied to such devices in England by 1800. In the early 1800s a hydraulic lift was introduced.
| Yonkers, NY, USA |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 3117) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, proposes that the sympathetic nervous system controls blood flow and is therefore a major regulator of body heat. This establishes the existence of vaso-motor nerves, nerves that relax or constrict vascular smooth muscle walls of the blood vessels to increase or decrease their diameter.
This establishes the existence of vaso-motor nerves, both vaso-dilatator and vaso-constrictor. Vaso-dilators chemically relax the smooth muscle walls of the blood vessels and increases their diameter, while vaso-constrictors contract the smooth muscle walls of blood vessels to decrease their diameter. (Are blood vessels actually muscles? Descended from muscles? or only partially muscles, or have muscles woven in at some parts?)
Smooth muscle has a uniform appearance that lacks the striping characteristic of striated muscle. Vascular smooth muscle shortens 50 times slower than fast skeletal muscle.
Later drugs will be developed to dilate or constrict blood vessels to control blood pressure.
In 1727, Pourfour de Petit had described a dilatation of the pupil of the eye (mydriasis) in a man whose side of the neck had been severely damaged by a gunshot wound. Petit had shown the reverse phenomenon (miosis) when he cut the sympathetic nerve on one side of the neck. In 1851, Bernard repeats Petit's experiment and finds that in addition to the pupillary constriction, the eyelid droops (ptosis), and there is recession of the eye in the orbit (enophthalmos). Bernard also observes that skin temperature on that side of the head gets higher, a phenomenon which he Bernard shows is the result of an increased blood flow.
As part of his counterproof concept, Bernard electrically stimulates the sympathetic (nerve): the animal's pupil dilates, the eyelid retracts and skin temperature falls, accompanied by reduced blood flow to that side of the head. Galvani was the first to show the connection between electricity and the nervous system in 1791. The rare clinical syndrome which corresponds to this counterproof experiment in animals is referred to as the Pourfour de Petit Syndrome or the Claude Bernard Syndrome. (From electrical stimulation?) From these observations, Bernard proposes that the sympathetic nervous system controls blood flow and is therefore a primary regulator of body heat.
On a hot day when heat needs to be released the blood vessels are opened (dilated), but on a cold day when heat needs to be conserved the blood vessels are constricted. This is why people are red when hot, but pale when cold.
Bernard shows that the red corpuscles (cells) of the blood transport oxygen from the lungs to the tissues.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 3283) The gyroscope.
Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868) builds the first gyroscope. A massive sphere in rotation has a tendency to maintain the direction of its axis of spin, as the earth does. Foucault demonstrates this point, by setting a wheel with a heavy rim into rapid rotation. The wheel not only maintains its axial direction (and can be used to demonstrate the rotation of the earth), but if it is tipped, the effect of gravity creates a motion at right angles that is equivalent to the precession of the equinoxes. (Find better explanation)
Foucault names the rotor and gimbals the "gyroscope" from the Greek words gyros and skopien meaning "rotation" and "to view".
In the second half of the 19th century, with the invention of the electrically driven rotor, the gyroscope's uses multiply. It becomes possible to rotate the gyroscope's wheel at desired speeds without interfering with the precession. Large gyroscopes are used in ship stabilizers to counteract rolling. The gyroscope is the nucleus of most automatic steering systems, such as those used in airplanes, missiles, and torpedoes. The gyroscope is also used in the gyrocompass, a directional instrument used on ships. Unaffected by magnetic variations, the gyroscope's spinning axis, when brought in line with the north-south axis of the earth, provides an accurate line of reference for navigation.
(It is a good idea to own a pendulum and gyroscope for scientific experimenting.)
Foucault publishes this as "Instruction sur les Expériences du Gyroscope" ("Instructions on the Experiments of the Gyroscope"). (Text needs to be translated.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 3335) Helmholtz invents the ophthalmometer, an instrument that can be used to measure the eye's curvature. The ophthalmometer is also known as a keratometer.
In this same year Helmholtz invents the phakoscope. (see image 1) This instrument is employed in studying the changes that take place in the curvature of the lens during accommodation (adjusting the lens to different focal lengths). The phakoscope is to be used in a dark room. A candle is placed in front of the two prisms P P. The observer looks through the hole B, the observed eye is placed at a hole opposite the hole A. The candle, or the observed eye, is moved till the observer sees three pairs of images, one pair the brightest of all, reflected from the anterior surface on the cornea, another, the largest of the three, but dim, reflected from the anterior surface of the lens, and a third pair, the smallest of all, reflected from the posterior surface of the lens (see image 2). The last two pairs can, of course, only be seen within the pupil. The observed eye is now focussed, first, for a distant object, (it is enough that the person should simply leave his eye at rest, or imagine he is looking far away), and then for a near object (an ivory pin at A). During accommodation, for a near object, no change takes place in the size, brightness, or position, of the first or third pair of images, therefore the cornea and the posterior surface of the lens are not altered. The middle images become smaller, somewhat brighter, approach each other, and also come nearer to the corneal images. This proves (a) that the anterior surface of the lens undergoes a change (b) that the change is increase of curvature (diminution of the radius of curvature), for the virtual image reflected from a convex mirror is smaller the smaller is its radius of curvature.
Also in 1852 Helmholtz publishes the results of his experiments in mixing two colors, by using two slits at right angles to one another, these form two spectra, whose lines cross one another as seen from a telescope viewer. The colors of these spectra are combined in every possible way. The proportion of the components is changed by turning thr combined slits around in their own plane.(Not entirely clear, draw visual or give more detail) This is in "Ueber die Theorie der zusammengesetzten Farben" (On the Theory of Compound Colors").
(This shows a clear focus of Helmholtz research on the eye, and a full examination and understanding of the anatomical components involved with vision. A clear relation to Pupin's hypothesized secret work of figuring out how to see what eyes see, and images generated by the brain from outside the body.)
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
148 YBN
[1852 AD]
| 3413) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist finds that a microorganism can completely remove only one of the crystal forms from the solution, the levorotary, or left-handed, molecule.
It had long been known that molds grow readily in solutions of calcium paratartrate. It occurred to Pasteur to ask if organisms show a preference for one isomer or another.
Pasteur goes on to show that one component of the racemic acid (that identical with the tartaric acid from fermentation) can be utilized for nutrition by micro-organisms, but the other, now termed its optical antipode, is not assimilable by living organisms. On the basis of these experiments, Pasteur elaborates his theory of molecular asymmetry, showing that the biological properties of chemical substances depend not only the nature of the atoms in their molecules but also on orientation of these atoms in space.
| (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, France |
147 YBN
[01/19/1853 AD]
| 3482) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) creates equations to describe the movement of electrical current when oscillating in a Leyden jar - inductor circuit, which is the basis of the frequency tuned circuit, and therefore all photon (so-called wireless) communication.
Thomson bases his theory on the theory of kinetic energy (also known as vis-visa).
Thomson reports this work in "On Transient Electric Currents", in the Glasgow Philosophical Society Proceedings.
The abstract begins "THE object of this communication is to determine the motion of electricity at any instant after an electrified conductor of given capacity is put in connexion with the earth by means of a wire or other linear conductor of given form and given resisting power. The solution is founded on the equation of energy (corresponding precisely to the equation of vis viva in ordinary dynamics) which is sufficient for the solution of every mechanical problem involving only one variable element to be determined in terms of the time.".
Félix Savary (CE 1797-1841) was the first to report the phenomenon of electrical oscillation between a Leyden jar and inductor in 1826.
(Show and explain math with an example.)
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
147 YBN
[02/16/1853 AD]
| 3143) Angström (oNGSTruM) (CE 1814-1874) theorizes that a gas absorbs and emits light of the same frequencies.
Foucault had observed this in 1849.
Anders Jonas Angström (oNGSTruM) (CE 1814-1874), Swedish physicist, deduces from Euler's theory of resonance that that incandescent gas emits light of the same refrangibility (or perhaps more clearly refract-ability) as the gas can absorb.
Angström explains that an electric spark creates two superposed spectra, one from the metal of the electrode and the other from the gas through which the spark passes. In addition Ångström is also able to show the composite nature of the spectra of alloys (two or more metals melted together). (in this work?)
Angström's reports these two findings in his optical researches, "Optiska Undersökningar" (1853; "Optical Investigations"), which he presents to the Stockholm Academy in 1853.
In theorizing that a cool gas absorbs the same frequencies of light the gas emits when hot, Angström anticipates the experimental proof of Gustav Kirchhoff. (Is this absorption/emission equality true for all frequencies?)
In addition, Angström creates a method of measuring thermal conductivity, showing that thermal conductivity is proportional to electrical conductivity. (chronology) (Interesting that thermal conductivity, which is photon absorption is proportional to electrical conductivity which relates to how easily electrons can move through a material (gas, liquid, or solid). Has this been proven true since?)
(What is interesting to me is that this theory came from Euler's longitudinal aether wave theory. Another interesting thing is that Angstrom appears to not to simply confirm this experimentally. Although I accept this theory as probably true, I think this principle needs to be demonstrated clearly for a variety of atoms and molecules on video.)
(I think this needs to be demonstrated for all to see. If true, I think this may imply that photons are captured and emitted into atoms at the same rate, in fact, the distance between photons may determine how close they are in their orbit of an atom at the time they were separated. Or perhaps these characteristic frequencies are the rate at which an atom can absorb a photon, otherwise reflecting or not absorbing a photon. It seems amazing that an atom or perhaps even a subatomic particle would separate, losing photons at the same rate they were absorbed.)
(Atoms (and perhaps subatomic particles) whether in gas, liquid or solid are heated by absorbing photons. Heated atoms emit photons more frequently than when cool. Photon sources used by people to heat atoms enough to emit light higher than low radio and infrared frequency include: 1) heating (or separating) the atoms in a chemical reaction which emits photons from the source atoms (such as combustion with oxygen or other reactive atoms, or fission), 2) heating an object by influence from the photons emitted by a chemical reaction (combustion, or fission) of other objects, and 3) passing electricity (charged particles) through the object.) (EX: Does combustion with a different gas {other than oxygen} produce the same spectral lines? Since the gas combusts {is separated} to emit photons, those spectral lines should be present too. How are the gases made to emit photons? EX: Are the spectral lines the same with electrical stimulation as with chemical combustion? I think that many times an atom is destroyed, reduced or recombines with other atoms when photons are released. One way of thinking about this process is imagining that there is a single photon for each atom. If that is true, the rate of photons is actually the rate atoms of the gas are being destroyed or created. Then apply this idea to atoms with millions of photons. Then the spectral lines would indicate how often an atom is created or destroyed. It's like putting together or pouring out a basket of balls. There is a finite rate that the balls can be put into the basket or tub, and they exit at a finite rate. The same is true for bottle of water with a small neck. It would seems in a fluorescent light that no gas is ever destroyed, but it could be a constant replacement; an atom is destroyed and then created. Alternatively it may be a molecule created and destroyed. The current view of photon (or heat) emitting molecular reactions is that the photons mass is created from velocity (energy), where I view this photon mass to be accounted for only by mass of the source atoms. In my view there must be some matter lost from electrons, protons or neutrons in combustion. There still is a large amount of room for speculation it seems to me. How did Angström heat the gas?) (Also to be aware of is: How do Plank's black body curve and specific frequencies, for example from a fluorescent light mix together? Do the specific frequencies follow the black body curve? If no, is Plank's black-body theory not completely true? I think the accepted answer to this is that higher frequency light is emitted only when there is enough heat (which is proportional to density of photons), however, photons are not emitted in every possibly frequency, but only in specific frequencies depending on the physical atomic structure, so for any given atom, the curve is not continuous and does not follow a smooth curve, but each atom has individual characteristic frequencies that generally form the black-body curve.)
Angstrom writes "...Now, as according to the fundamental principle of Euler, a body absorbs all the series of oscillations which it can itself assume, it follows from this that the same body, when heated so as to become luminous, must emit the precise rays which, at its ordinary temperature, is absorbed. The proof of the correctness of this proposition is, however, surrounded with great difficulties; for the condition of the heated body, as regards elasticity, is altogether different from the state in which the light is supposed to be absorbed. An indirect proof of the truth of the proposition is furnished by the connexion, discovered by M. Niepce de Saint Victor, between the colour imparted by a body to the flame of alcohol, and that developed by light upon a disc of silver which has been chlorinized by the body under consideration. As the disc of silver, treated with chlorine alone, assumes all the tints of the solar spectrum, and, when treated at the same time with a colouring body, exhibits almost exclusively the colour of the latter, this cannot occur otherwise than by the exclusive absorption on the part of the so-prepared silver disc of the precise tint which belongs to the colouring body....". Angstrom also writes "...I have found that the spectrum of the electric spark must really be regarded as consisting of two distinct spectra; one of which belongs to the gas through which the spark passes, and the other to the metal or the body which forms the conductor." and also "...The analogy between the two spectra may, however, be more or less complete when abstraction is made from all the minuter details. Regarded as a whole, they produce the impressino that one of them is a reversion of the other. I am therefore convinced that the explanation of the dark lines in the solar spectrum embraces that of the luminous lines in the electric spectrum, whether this explanation be based upon the interference of light, or the property of the air to take up only certain series of oscillations."
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 2655) Julius Wilhelm Gintl in Vienna, Austria develops a method to send two telegraph messages in opposite directions down the same wire. This allows the same line to be used simultaneously for sending and receiving, thus doubling its capacity. This technology is not commercially successful until 1871, when it is improved by the duplex system of inventor J. B. Stearns in the USA.
(More technical details. Does a transmitter sends part of its message and a transmitter on the receiving end then sends part of its message?)
| Vienna, Austria |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 2689) In Sweden the "Royal Electric Telegraph Administration" is founded and the first electric telegraph line connecting Stockholm with Uppsala is opened to the public.
| Stockholm (and Uppsala), Sweden |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 2894) Gail Borden (CE 1801-1874), American inventor and food technologist, produces condensed milk which allows milk to be preserved for longer periods of time.
Bordon extracts 75 percent of the water from milk and adds sugar to the residue.
Bordon discovers that he can prevent milk from souring by evaporating it over a slow heat in a vacuum. Believing that the milk resists spoilage because its water content has been removed, Bordon calls this new product "condensed milk". Louis Pasteur will later demonstrate, in 1864, however, that the heat Borden uses in the evaporation process is what keeps the milk from spoiling because it kills the bacteria in fresh milk.
later Borden prepares concentrates of fruit juices. (chronology)
Asimov comments that Bordon starts the instant food market.
| New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 3186) Karl Wilhelm von Nägeli (nAGulE) (CE 1817-1891), Swiss botanist names the "meristem", the region on a plant where division of cells (and hence growth) occurs. Usually, meristems are found in the shoots and root tips, and places where branches meet the stem. In trees, growth occurs in the cambium — the layer just beneath the bark.
Nägeli uses the term meristem to mean a group of plant cells always capable of division.
This leads Nägeli to the first accurate account of apical cells (the initial point of longitudinal growth).
Nägeli describes the meristem in his book "Beiträge zur Wissenschaftlichen Botanik" in 1858. The word meristem is derived from the Greek word "merizein", meaning to divide in recognition of its inherent function. (verify)
Meristems are classified by their location in the plant as apical (located at root and shoot tips), lateral (in the vascular and cork cambia), and intercalary (at internodes, or stem regions between the places at which leaves attach, and leaf bases, especially of certain monocotyledons—e.g., grasses). Apical meristems are also known as primary meristems because they give rise to the primary plant body. Lateral meristems are secondary meristems because they are responsible for secondary growth, or increase in stem thickness. Meristems are created from other cells in injured tissues and are responsible for wound healing.
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg im Bresigau, Germany |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 3293) Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau (FEZO) (CE 1819-1896), describes the use of the condenser (capacitor) to increase the efficiency of the induction coil.
Fizeau suggests connecting a condenser across the contacts. Whenthe contact is broken current flows into the condenser which reduces the tension and sparks between the contact hammer and anvil. With less sparking the magnetic field decays faster and which induces larger tensions in the secondary winding producing sparks 8-10mm long. Foucault will increase the spark length ever further. Foucault doubles the output by connecting the secondaries of two Ruhmkorff coils in series, connects both primary coils with a battery (serial or parallel?), and connects both circuit breaker switches. With this design Foucault obtains sparks 16 to 18 mm long. With improved insulation, Foucault wires four coils together to obtain sparks 7 or 8 cm long, corresponding to a tension of 150,000 volts. (more info and image)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 3309) Edmond Becquerel (BeKreL) (CE 1820-1891) reports that only a few volts are required to drive electric current through the air between high-temperature platinum electrodes. This is part of the history of thermionic devices. A thermionic power converter is any of a class of devices that convert heat directly into electricity using thermionic emission.
| (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) Paris, France |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 3312) William John Macquorn Rankine (raNGKiN) (CE 1820-1872), Scottish engineer, develops a general theory of energy distinguishing between "actual" and "potential" energy. Rankine founds the science of energetics, in which energy and its transformations, rather than force and motion, are regarded as basic.
Rankine publishes this theory in "On the General Law of Transformation of Energy" (1853).
Rankine writes: "ACTUAL, or SENSIBLE ENERGY, is a measurable, transmissible, and transformable condition, whose presence causes a substance to tend to change its state in one or more respects. By the occurrence of such changes, actual energy disappears, and is replaced by POTENTIAL or LATENT ENERGY; which is measured by the product of a change of state into the resistance against which that change is made. (The vis viva of matter in motion, thermometric heat, radiant heat, light, chemical action, and electric currents, are forms of actual energy; amongst those of potential energy are the mechanical powers of gravitation, elasticity, chemical affinity, statical electricity, and magnetism.) (as a note you can see clearly the modern view, which I think is mistaken, that light is non-material.) The law of the Conservation of Energy is already known, viz. :-that the sum of all the energies of the universe, actual and potential, is unchangeable. The object of the present paper is to investigate the law according to which all transformations of energy, between the actual and potential forms, take place. Let V be the magnitude of a measurable state of a substance; U, the species of potential energy which is developed when the state V increases; P, the common magnitude of the tendency of the state V to increase, and of the equal and opposite resistance against which it increases; so that- dU= PdV; and P=dU/dV ... (A.)
Let Q be the quantity which the substance possesses, of a species of actual energy whose presence produces a tendency of the state V to increase. It is required to find how much energy is transformed from the actual form Q to the potential form U, during the increment dV; that is to say, the magnitude of the portion of dU, the potential energy developed, which is due to the disappearance of an equivalent portion of actual energy of the species Q. The development of this portion of potential energy is the immediate effect of the presence in the substance of the total quantity Q of actual energy. Let this quantity be conceived to be divided into indefinitely small equal parts dQ. As those parts are not only equal, but altogether alike in nature and similarly circumstanced, their effects must be equal; therefore, the effect of the total energy Q must be equal simply to the effect of one of its small parts dQ, multiplied by the ratio Q/dQ. ... GENERAL LAW OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY:- The effect of the whole Actual Energy present in a substance, in causing Transformation of Energy, is the sum of the effects of all its parts. ... The details of the application of these principles to the theory of heat are contained in the sixth section of a memoir read to the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 'On the Mechanical Action of Heat.' The actual energy produced by an electric pile in unity of time is expressed by- Q = Mu where M is the electro-motive force, and u, the strength of the current. The actual energy of an electric circuit is expressed by- Ru2 where R is the resistance of the circuit. This energy is immediately and totally transformed into sensible heat. The proportion of the actual energy produced in the pile which is transformed into mechanical work by an electro-dynamic machine is represented by- (Q1 - Q2)/Q2 - (M - Ru)/M The strength of the current is known to be found by means of the equation- u=(M-N)/R where N is the negative or inverse electro-motive force of the apparatus by means of which electricity is transformed into mechanical work. Hence Q1-Q2/Q1 = N/M The above particular forms of the general equation, agree with formulae already deduced from special researches by Mr. Joule and Professor William Thomson."
(I think ultimately conservation of matter and motion are separately conserved, however both momentum and energy may be useful concepts. )
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 3468) Johann Wilhelm Hittorf (CE 1824-1914), German chemist and physicist, suggests that ions travel with unequal speeds so that more ions reach one electrode than the other which explains why the concentration of a dissolved salt accumulates more around one electrode than around the other electrode. Hitt orf creates the concept of "transport number", which is the relative electric current carrying capacity of an ion. Hittorf works on ion movement between 1853 and 1859. During this time, he measures the changes in the concentration of electrolyzed solutions, and from these concentrations calculates the transport numbers of many ions. Arrhenius will go on to create a comprehensive theory of ionization.
(This is evidence that the speed of electricity depends on the medium, or carriers of electricity.) (Could these unequal quantities on each electrode be the result of a difference in size and mass of each ion too? Might this have to do with the bonding ability of particular ions and electrode atoms? Is it presumed that in electrolysis, neutral molecules in the medium between electrodes each separate into a positive and negative ion which move in opposite directions? If true, wouldn't the rate of reaction depend on a 1:1 ratio of ion creation? Perhaps the ion creation ratio is 1:1 but the movement of the velocity of those ions is then different, perhaps the velocity depends on their mass.)
(give brief history of ion theory.) Davy had shown the practical value of electrolysis in separating the metals of alkalies and alkaline earths. Faraday founded the laws of electrolysis. What remained was to explain the method of electrolysis. In 1806 Grotthuss had theorized that decomposition (of molecules of electrolyte into electric pairs) is caused by the attraction of the electrodes or by the passage of the current, and that a definite electromotive force, different for each eletrolyte, is required in order for decomposition to take place, however Faraday shows (date) that an a measurable current can exist for days without any production of bubbles of gas on the electrodes. In 1839 Schoenbein had found that the polarization of electrodes after electrolysis (how they can then act as a voltaic pile battery) is due to the formation on the surfaces of the electrodes of thin sheets of the products of the electrolysis. This and the fact that in the decomposition of water, hydrogen and oxygen appear to separate at electrodes separated by large distance and the belief that Ohm's law must apply to conduction in electrolysis as well as in metals, cast doubt on Grotthuss' 1802 theory of electromotive force as the cause of decomposition. This theory was replaced by that of Clausius in 1857. Clausius had theorized that the electric pairs of molecules of electrolyte periodically separate from collision, and are then attracted to the electrodes based on the kinetic theory of gases. In 1844 Daniell and Miller, using a diaphragm in an electrolytic cell had found that the quantity of matter (attached) to either side of the diaphragm is not equal, and so hypothesis of equivalent transfer of the ions is not true. Historian A. Crum brown explains in 1902 "As the anions and the cations are separated at their respective electrodes in equivalent quantity, that is, in the case where the valency of anion and cation is the same, in equal numbers, it never occurred to any one to doubt that they traveled towards the electrodes at the same rate, until Daniell and Miller showed that this hypothesis is erroneous."
In 1869 Hittorf publishes his laws governing the migration of ions.
(In terms of the diaphragm experiment, perhaps size of ion plays a role in clogging or adhering to the diaphragm?) (I think that since anion and cathode are separated at the electrode in equal quantity (presuming equal valence), if arriving at the electrode at different speeds, the reaction would proceed only at the slower of the two speeds. I have doubts about this theory. I think the different accumulation might be due to different mass and/or size of ions.)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany (presumably) |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 3525) Hans Peter Jørgen Julius Thomsen (CE 1826-1909), Danish chemist, creates a method of manufacturing sodium carbonate from a mineral called cryolite, found only on the Danish island Greenland. Thomsen becomes wealthy as a result of manufacturing sodium carbonate. At the time cryolite has no other use, but will be used by Hall to manufacture cheap aluminum.
| (Polytekniske Laereanstalt) Copenhagen, Denmark |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 3538) Stanislao Cannizzaro (KoNnEDZorO) (CE 1826-1910), Italian chemist, creates a method of converting a type of organic compound called an aldehyde into a mixture of an organic acid and an alcohol. This is known today as the Cannizzaro reaction.
Cannizzaro discovers that when benzaldehyde is treated with potassium hydroxide (concentrated base), both benzoic acid and benzyl alcohol are produced.
| (Collegio Nazionale in Alessandria) Piedmont (now part of Italy), Italy |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 5999) Giuseppe (Fortunino Francesco) Verdi (CE 1813-1901), Italian composer, composes the opera "Il Trovatore" ("The Troubadour") with the famous "Anvil Chorus".
| Rome, Italy |
147 YBN
[1853 AD]
| 6247) Aspirin.
The compound from which the active ingredient in aspirin is first derived, salicylic acid, was found in the bark of a willow tree in 1763 by Reverend Edmund Stone of Chipping-Norton, England. The bark from the willow tree—Salix Alba—contains high levels of salicin, the glycoside of salicylic acid. Hippocrates of ancient Greece had used willow leaves to reduce fever and relieve the aches of a variety of illnesses. During the 1800s, various scientists extracted salicylic acid from willow bark and produced salicylic acid synthetically. In 1853, French chemist Charles F. Gerhardt (CE 1816-1856) synthesizes a primitive form of aspirin, which is a derivative of salicylic acid. In 1897 Felix Hoffmann, a German chemist working at the Bayer division of I.G. Farber, will discover a better method for synthesizing the drug. Hoffman recognizes that aspirin is an effective pain reliever that does not have the side effects of salicylic acid (which burns throats and causes upset stomach). Bayer will market aspirin beginning in 1899.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
146 YBN
[11/08/1854 AD]
| 2682) The electrical telegraph wire connecting Madrid-Zaragoza-Navarra-Irun, 603km is established and connected at Irun to Biaritz, France.
| Madrid, Spain |
146 YBN
[11/08/1854 AD]
| 2683) The first electrical telegram is sent from Madrid to Paris.
| Madrid, Spain |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 2693) The first electric telegraph wire is put into operation between Melbourne, Victoria and its harbor town Sandridge (now Port Melbourne). This line is constructed by Samuel McGowan, a Canadian engineer who had studied under Samuel Morse in the USA.
| Melbourne (and Victoria), Australia |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 2792) Christian Gottfried Ehrenberg (IreNBRG) (CE 1795-1876), German naturalist, is the first to study fossils of microorganisms in rocks.
Ehrenberg publishes his examination of the fossils of microorganisms in "Mikrogeologie" (2 vols. fol., Leipzig,. 1854, ("Microgeology")).
Ehrenberg examines waters and sediments of ponds and rivers, deep-sea samples, collected at depths of up to 12,000 feet on the early oceanographic expeditions, soils and sedimentary rocks, and specimens collected by himself in walks around Berlin and samples sent by others from other parts of Earth. Ehrenberg is one of the first to study the dissemination of cysts and spores of unicellular and multicellular organisms by the wind. Ehrenberg shows how marine phosphorescence and colored snows ("red tides" and "blood-snows") are caused by the presence of microorganisms.
Ehrenberg discovers that various geologic formations contain microscopic fossil organisms and that certain rock layers are composed (primarily) of single-cell fossils.
Ehrenberg's work adds largely to the public knowledge of the microscopic organisms of certain geological formations, especially of the chalk, and of the modern marine and freshwater accumulations.
| Berlin, Germany |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 2893) (Sir) George Biddell Airy (CE 1801-1892), English astronomer and mathematician, measures (the force of) gravity by swinging the same pendulum at the top and bottom of a deep mine and then computes the mean density of the Earth.
| Greenwich, England (presumably) |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 2940) (Sir) Richard Owen (CE 1804-1892), English zoologist prepares the first full-sized reconstructions of dinosaurs for display at the crystal palace in London.
| (Hunterian museum of the Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 2945) Wilhelm Eduard Weber (CE 1804-1891), German physicist with Rudolph H. A. Kohlrausch (CE 1809-1858) measure the ratio between static and dynamic units of electric charge. This ratio they equate with the speed of light in accordance with Weber's equation which presumes that velocity decreases charge. Kohlrausche and Weber describe (translated from German) "the constant c represents that relative velocity, which the electrical masses e and e’ have and must retain, if they are not to act on each other any longer at all.". This link between electricity and (light) becomes central to James Clerk Maxwell's development of electromagnetic field theory.
(This is measuring the difference between the force exerted by a charge of static electricity versus the same quantity of charge in the form of moving electricity?)
The measurement of the delay or speed of electromagnetic induction, as being related to the concept of objects moving at the speed of light over the given distance, although not explicitly stated, implies that light (either particle or wave in aether) is the body that causes movement and the creation of electric current in electromagnetic induction. This important find, put in simple terms, implies that particles of light cause the mechanical movement and creation of electric current in distant objects and that electric current itself may be particles of light or may be composed of particles of light.
This work introduces the constant "c" to represent the ratio of electromagnetic and electrostatic units of charge.
In this paper the variable "c" is used as opposed to the earlier "a" to represent a constant used in Weber's equation which theorizes that force of electricity changes with velocity between two electric masses. Here c is clearly defined as representing the "relative velocity, which the electrical masses e and e' have and must retain, if they are not to act on each other". This velocity, presumed to be a constant, is thought to be independent of distance, velocity and electric charge of the two electric masses. This theory probably tends to suggest the theory that electric particles are slowed down light particles, stopped light particles being responsible for static electricity. When Wheatstone measured the speed of electricity to be similar to the speed of light, this conclusion of electric particles as light particles must have seemed logical.
The Weber-Kohlrausch experiment, is designed to determine the value of the variable "c" which is the velocity at which the force between two electrical particles becomes 0. (Is this the origin of the association of the letter c with the variable that represent the velocity of light?) The value of c is found to be experimentally equal to the velocity of light in a vacuum multiplied by the square root of 2. This value becomes known as the "Weber constant". In electromagnetic units, it is equal to the velocity of light. Bernhard Riemann, who participates in the experiment, then writes on the obvious conclusion of a connection between light, electrodynamic, and electromagnetic phenomena. Unfortunately, Weber fails to comment on this fact. This unexpected link between electricity and light becomes central to James Clerk Maxwell's development of electromagnetic field theory.
Maxwell cites this paper in his famous Part 3 of "On Physical Lines of Force." in January of 1862. Maxwell is sometimes mistaken as being the first to obtain the speed of light by dividing electric constants, however, Weber created the constant, referred to using the letter "c" in his 1846 theory that electric charge becomes less as the relative velocity between two electric masses increases, "c" being the velocity at which there is no electric force between the two masses. Maxwell even cites Kohlrausch and Weber's work, however, translations of these works into English has only happened recently over 100 years later.
Weber and Kohlrausch publish this as: "Elektrodynamische Massbestimunngen insbesondere Zurückführung der Stromintensitätsmessungen auf mechanisches Maass" ("Electrodynamic Mass determinations, particularly Back leadership of the current intensity measurements on mechanical Mass").
Riemann, in 1858 in a note to the "Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften" (See Riemann's "Werke", 2nd edition, pp288), writes about a deep connection between light and the electromagnetic phenomena. But because of a small computational error, Riemann withdraws his paper and it becomes known only after his death.
(This constant of c is described differently by other people as being the ratio of the constant of static electricity divided by the constant of electromagnetism. Here, the measure of c represents the speed two particles need to experience no force between them, presuming increased velocity relative to each other equals decreased force between two particles. This must presume some finite distance between the two particles - and that the particles can be no closer than some distance to each other. Is there a problem in that electricity appears to move at the same speed no matter what voltage {Electric potential} or resistance? Who first showed this? Wheatstone? Does electricity move at different velocities in different materials? Again who showed this first? How does the speed of electricity in a vacuum/empty space compare to the speed of light in a vacuum?)
Surprisingly an English translation of this important paper of Weber's and Kohlrausch's has not yet been published.
In a summary for Annalen der Physik, Weber and Kohlrausch write: "Problem The comparison of the effects of a closed galvanic circuit with the effects of the discharge-current of a collection of free electricity, has led to the assumption, that these effects proceed from a movement of electricity in the circuit. We imagine that in the bodies constituting the circuit, their neutral electricity is in motion, in the manner that their entire positive component pushes around in the one direction in closed, continuous circles, the negative in the opposite direction. The fact that an accumulation of electricity never occurs by means of this motion, requires the assumption, that the same amount of electricity flows through each cross-section in the same time-interval. It has been found suitable to make the magnitude of the flow, the so-called current intensity, proportional to the amount of electricity which goes through the cross-section of the circuit in the same time-interval. If, therefore, a certain current intensity is to be expressed by a number, it must be stated, which current intensity is to serve as the measure, i.e., which magnitude of flow will be designated as 1. Here it would be simplest, as in general regarding such flows, to designate as 1 that magnitude of flow which arises, when in the time-unit the unit of flow goes through the cross-section, thus defining the measure of current intensity from its cause. The unit of electrical fluid is determined in electrostatics by means of the force, with which the free electricities act on each other at a distance. If one imagines two equal amounts of electricity of the same kind concentrated at two points, whose distance is the unit of length, and if the force with which they act on each other repulsively, is equal to the unit of force, then the amount of electricity found in each of the two points is the measure or the unit of free electricity. In so doing, that force is assumed as the unit of force, through which the unit of mass is accelerated around the unit of length during the unit of time. According to the principles of mechanics, by establishing the units of length, time, and mass, the measure for the force is therefore given, and by joining to the latter the measure for free electricity, we have at the same time a measure for the current intensity. This measure, which will be called the mechanical measure of current intensity, thus sets as the unit, the intensity of those currents which arise when, in the unit of time, the unit of free positive electricity flows in the one direction, an equal amount of negative electricity in the opposite direction, through that cross-section of the circuit. Now, according to this measure, we cannot carry out the measurement of an existing current, for we know neither the amount of neutral electrical fluid which is presen t in the cubic unit of the conductor, nor the velocity, with which the two electrici ties displace themselves {translator: sich verschieben} in the current. We can only compare the intensity of the currents by means of the effects which they produce. One of these effects is, e.g., the decomposition of water. Sufficient grounds converge, to make the current intensity proportional to the amount of water, which is decomposed in the same time-interval. Accordingly, that current intensity will be designated as 1, at which the mass-unit of water is decomposed in the time-unit, thus, e.g., if seconds and milligrams are taken as the measure of time and mass, that current intensity, at which in one second one milligram of water is decomposed. This measure of current intensity is called the electrolytic measure. The natural question now arises, how this electrolytic measure of current intensity is related to the previously established mechanical measure, thus the question, how many (electrostatically or mechanically measured) positive units of electricity flow through the cross-section in one second, if a milligram of water is decomposed in this interval of time. Another effect of the current is the rotational moment it exerts on a magnetic needle, and which we likewise assume to be proportional to the current intensity, conditions being otherwise equal. If a current intensity is to be measured by means of this kind of effect, then the conditions must be established, under which the rotational moment is to be observed. One could designate as 1 that current intensity which under arbitrarily established spatial conditions exerts an arbitrarily established rotational moment on an arbitrarily chosen magnet. When, then, under the same conditions, an m-fold large rotational moment is observed, the current intensity prevailing in this case would have to be designated as m. Precisely the impracticability of such an arbitrary measure, however, has led to the absolute measure, and thus in this case the electromagnetic measure of current intensity is to be joined to the absolute measure for magnetism. This occurs by means of the following specification of normal conditions for the observation of the magnetic effects of a current: The current goes through a circular conductor, which circumscribes the unit of area, and acts on a magnet, which possesses the unit of magnetism, at an arbitrary but large distance = R; the midpoint {translator: center} of the magnet lies in the plane of the conductor, and its magnetic axis is directed toward the center of the circular conductor. – The rotational moment D, exerted by the current on the magnet, expressed according to mechanical measure, is, under these conditions, different according to the difference in the current intensity, and also according to the difference in the distance R; the product R3D depends, however, simply on the curren t intensity, and is hence, under these conditions, the measurable effect of the current, namely, that effect by means of which the current intensity is to be measu red, according to which one therefore obtains as magnetic measure of current intensity the intensity of that current, for which R3D = 1. – The electromagnetic laws state, that this measure of current intensity is also the intensity of that current which, if it circumscribes a plane of the size of the unit of area, everywhere exerts at a distance the effects of a magnet located at the center of that plane, which possesses the unit of magnetism and whose magnetic axis is perpendicular to the plane; – or also, that it is the intensity of that current, by which a tangent boussole with simple rings of radius = R is kept in equilibrium, given a deflection from the magnetic meridian
2π ϕ=arctan ----- RT
if T denotes the horizontal intensity of the terrestrial magnetism. Here, too, arises the natural question about the relation of the mechanical measure of current intensity to this magnetic measure, thus the question, how many times the electrostatic unit of the volume of electricity must go through the cross-section of the circuit during one second, in order to elicit that current intensity, of which the justspecified deflection, ϕ , is effected by the needle of a tangent boussole. The same question repeats itself in considering a third measure of current intensity, which is derived from the electrodynamic effects of the current, and is therefore called the electrodynamic measure of the current intensity. The three measures drawn from the effect of the currents have already been compared with one another. It is known that the magnetic measure is √2 larger than the electrodynamic, but 106 2/3 times smaller than the electrolytic, and for that reason, in order to solve the question of how these three measures relate to mechanical measure, it is merely necessary to compare the later with one of the others. This was the goal of the work undertaken, which goal was to be attained through the solution of the following problem: Given a constant current, by which a tangent boussole with a simple multiplier circle or radius = Rmm is kept in equilibrium at a deflection 2π ϕ = arctan --- RT
if T is the intensity of the horizontal terrestrial magnetism affecting the boussole: Determine the amount of electricity, which flows in such a current in one second through the cross-section of the conductor, relates to the amount of electricity on each of two equally charged (infinitesimally) small balls, which repel one another at a distance of 1 millimeter with the unit of force. The unit of force is taken as that force, which imparts 1 millimeter velocity to the mass of 1 milligram in 1 second.
2. Solution of this Problem
If a volume E of free electricity is collected at an insulated conductor and allowed (by inserting a column of water) to flow to earth through a multiplier, the magnetic needle will be deflected. The magnitude of the first deflection depends, given the same multiplier and the same needle, solely on the amount of discharged electricity, since the discharge time is so short, compared with the oscillation period of the needle, that the effect must be considered as an impulse. If a constant current is put through a multiplier for a similarly short time, the needle receives a similar impulse, and in this case as well, the magnitude of the first deflection depends solely on the amount of electricity which moves through the cross-section of the multiplier wire during the duration of the current. Now, if in the same multiplier, exactly the same deflection were to occur, the one time, when the known amount of free electricity E was discharged, the other time, when one let a constant current act briefly, then, as can be proven, the amount of positive electricity, which flows during this short time-interval in the constant current, in the direction of this current, through the cross-section, equals E/2. Accordingly, the problem posed requires the solution of the following two problems: a) measuring the collected amount E of free electricity with the given electrostatic measure, and observing the deflection of the magnetic needle when the electricity is discharged; b) determining the small time-interval τ , during which a constant current of intensity = 1 (according to magnetic measure) has to flow through the multiplier of the same galvanometer, in order to impart to the needle the same deflection.
If next we multiply E/2 by the number which shows how often τ is contained in the second, then the number E/2τ expresses the amount of positive electricity, which, in a current whose intensity = 1 according to magnetic measure, passes through the cross-section of the conductor in the direction of the positive current in 1 second.
Problem a is treated in the following way: First, with the help of the sine-electrometer, the conditions are determined with greater precision, in which the charge of a small Leyden jar is divided between the jar itself and an approximately 13-inch ball coated with tin foil, which was suspended, by a good insulator, away from the walls of the room, so that from the amount of electricity flowing on the ball, as soon as it was able to be measured, the amount remaining in the little jar could also be calculated down to a fraction of a percent.
The observation consisted of the following: The jar was charged, the large ball put in contact with its knob; three seconds later, the charge remaining in the jar was discharged through a multiplier {fn: 1 The mean diameter of the windings was 266 mm; the almost 2/3-mile-long wire, very well coated with silk, was previously drawn through collodium along its entire length, while the sides of the casing were strongly coated with sealing wax. A powerful copper damper moderated the oscillation s. } consisting of 5635 windings, by the insertion of two long tubes filled with water, and the first deflection ϕ of the magnetic needle, which was equipped with a mirror in the manner of the magnetometer, was observed. At the same time, the large ball was now put in contact with the approximately 1-inch fixed ball of a torsion balance {fn: The frame of the torsion balance, in whose center the balls were located, was in the shape of a parallelepiped 1.16 meters long, 0.81 meters wide, and 1.44 meters high. The long shellac pole {translator: Stange}, to which the moveable bass was affixed by means of a shellac side-arm, allowed the observation of the position of the ball under a mirror, and then dipped into a container of oil, by means of which the oscillations were very quickly halted.} constructed on a very large scale. This fixed ball, brought to the torsion balance, shared its received charge with {translator: gave half its received charge to} the moveable ball, which made it possible to measure the torsion which was required, to a decreasing extent over time, in order to maintain the two balls at a fully determinate, pre-ascertained distance. – From the torsion coefficients of the wire, found in the manner well known from oscillation experiments, and the precisely determined dimensions, the amount of electricity occurring at each moment in the torsion balance could be measured in the required absolute measure, taking into consideration the non-uniform distribution of electricity in the two balls (which consideration was advisable because of the not insignificant size of the balls compared with the distance between them). The observed decrease in torsion also yielded the loss of electricity, so that it was possible, by means of this consideration, to state how large these amounts would be, if they could already have been in the torsion balance at the moment at which the large ball was charged by the Leyden jar. From the precisely measured diameter of these balls, the proportion of the distribution of electricity between them could be determined (according to Plana’s work), so that, by means of the measurement in the torsion balance, without further ado, it was known what amount of electricity remained in the Leyden jar after charging the large ball, and what amount was discharged 3 seconds later by the multiplier. Only one small correction was still required on account of the loss of available discharge, which occurred during these 3 seconds from leakage into the air and through residue formation.". Weber and Kohlsrausch then go on to list a table with values of 5 successive measurements, giving E (discharged electricity), s, the corresponding deflections of the magnetic needle in scale units, and ϕ that same deflection in arcs for radius=1. Addressing problem b, they write: "Problem b requires knowing the time-intervals τ , during which a current of that intensity denoted 1 in magnetic current measure, must flow through the same multiplier, in order to elicit the deflections ϕ observed in the five experiments. The rotational moment, which is exerted by the just-designated currents on a magnetic needle, which is parallel to the windings of the multiplier, is developed in the second part of the Electrodynamische Maassbestimmungen of W. Weber. This rotational moment is proportional to the magnetic moment of the needle and the number of windings, but moreover is a function of the dimensions of the multiplier and the distribution of magnetic fluids in the needle, for which it suffices, to determine the distance of the centers of gravity of the two magnetic fluids, which, in lieu of the actual distribution of magnetism, can be thought of as distributed on the surface of the needle. The needle always remaining small compared with the diameter of the multiplier, for this distance a value derived from the size of the needle could be posited with sufficient reliability, so that the designated rotational moment D contains only the magnetic moment of the needle as an unknown. – If this rotational moment acts during a time-intervalτ , which is very short compared with the oscillation period of the needle, then the angular velocity imparted to the needle is expressed by
E ---τ, K
where K signifies the inertial moment. The relationship between this angular velocity and the first deflection ϕ then leads to an equation between τ and ϕ,
τ =ϕ A,
in which A consists of magnitudes to be truly rigorously measured, thus signifies known constants, namely A = 0.020915 for the second as measure of time. Thus, if it is asked how long a time-interval τ a constant current of magnetic current intensity = 1 has to flow through the multiplier, in order to elicit the abovecited five observed deflections, one need only insert their values for τ into this equation.". The authors then report their measurements for τ, which all are around 1ms. They then divide E/2 in the five experiments by τ to obtain E/2τ, which as an average they give as:
E/2τ = 155370x106. The authors then conclude section 2 by stating: "The mechanical measure of the current intensity is thus proportional to magnetic as 1:155370 × 106, to electrodynamic as 1:109860 × 106 (= 1:155370 × 106 × √1/2), to electrolytic as 1: 16573 × 109 (= 1:155370 × 106 × 106 2/3). ". Then the authors describe the applications of this mechanical measure of the current intensity in a section: "3. Applications Among the applications, which can be made by reducing the ordinary measure for current intensity to mechanical measure, the most important is the determination of the constants which appear in the fundamental electrical law, encompassing electrostatics, electrodynamics, and induction. According to this fundamental law, the effect of the amount of electricity e on the amount e’ at distance r with relative velocity dr/dt and relative acceleration ddr/dt2 equals" (see image 1) "and the constant c represents that relative velocity, which the electrical masses e and e’ have and must retain, if they are not to act on each other any longer at all. In the preceding section, the proportional relation of the magnetic measure to the mechanical measure was found to be = 155370 × 106 :1; in the second treatise on electrical determination of measure, the same proportion was found = c√2 : 4 ; the equalization of these proportions results in c = 439450 × 106 units of length, namely, millimeters, thus a velocity of 59,320 miles per second. The insertion of the values of c into the foregoing fundamental electrical law makes it possible to grasp, why the electrodynamic effect of electrical masses, namely" (see image 2) compared with the electrostatic ee'/rr
always seems infinitesimally small, so that in general the former only remains significa nt, when, as in galvanic currents, the electrostatic forces completely cancel each other in virtue of the neutralization of the positive and negative electricity. Of the remaining applications, only the application to electrolysis will be briefly described here:
It was stated above, that in a current, which decomposes 1 milligram of water in 1 second,
106 2/3 x 155370x106
positive units of electricity go in the direction of the positive current in that second through the cross-section of the current, and the same amount of negative electricity in the opposite direction. The fact that in electrolysis, ponderable masses are moved, that this motion is elicited by electrical forces, which only react on electricity, not directly on the water, leads to the conception, that in the atom of water, the hydrogen atom possesses free positive electricity, the oxygen atom free negative electricity. Many reasons converge, why we do not want to think of an electrical motion in water without electrolysis, and why we assume that water is not in a state of allow electricity to flow through it in the manner of a conductor. Therefore, if we see in the one electrode just as much positive electricity coming from the water, as is delivered to the other electrode during the same time-interval by the current, then this positive electricity which manifests itself is that which belonged to the separated hydrogen particles. If we take this standpoint, so that we thus link the entire electrical motion in electrolytes to the motion of the ponderable atoms, then it additionally emerges from the numbers obtained above, that the hydrogen atoms in 1 millimeter of water possess
106 2/3 x 155370x106
units of free positive electricity, the oxygen atoms an equal amount of negative electricity. From this it follows, secondly, that these amounts of electricity together signify the minimum of neutral electricity, which is contained in a milligram of water.". (see link for full translated text)
The authors conclude: " It is natural, to seek the basis for this force of resistance in the chemical forces of affinity. Even though the concept of chemical affinity remains too indeterminate, for us to be able to derive from it, how the forces proceeding from this affinity increase with the velocity of the separation, nevertheless, it is interesting to see what colossal forces enter into operation, as are easily elicited by electrolysis.".
(Perhaps the easiest and most accurate measure of the change in electric force is by accelerating a statically charged object away from a second object, and also the mutual force between two charged objects with no acceleration but a constant velocity. However, the electric force is so small, that I wonder if this is possible. It would have to be small time scales and over a small space.) (I have many questions about the experiments conducted by Weber and Kohlrausch. First I think they need to be visually shown to be understood. How are the tubes of water used? Another question is that the distance between the magnet and . As I understand it presumes that the same quantity of positive and negative particles are freed in electrolysis of water, when the current view is a ratio of 2 H to 1 O. There seems like many sources for error, because there are many movements and objects. For example, presuming the distribution of charge around a sphere is equal in every part of the surface. Then a correction for change lost to air adds more estimation. There must be more simple ways to connect the force measured by Coulomb for static electricity, and the force measured by Ampere for moving electricity. I think the experiment of the spinning statically charged disk is a good effort - cite who did this. Then, is the conclusion that the electric force changes, or that the time allowed for a constant electric force to act changes with velocity? But then, could these attractions be due to gravity, and/or particle collision? Are electric phenomena the result of the collective movements of many millions of particles? The current view is that the charge on an electron is constant with no regard to velocity - I have to verify this. One interesting issue about this paper is how E/2t equals the quantity of positive electricity passing through a conductor in 1 second- but this quantity is measured as around 150,000x10^6 only half of the quantity that would pass through a conductor in 1 second if moving at the speed of light, even presuming a two particle theory for electricity. But then quantity may be variable independent of velocity. I can see the use in generalizing and trying to quantify electrical phenomena - in an effort to get closer to the more accurate truth, but we should recognize that these theories are probably generalizations of large scale multi-particle movements. One hope is to reduce the concept of electrical charge to be in terms of mass or some other physical quantity such as 3 dimensional structure. It's not clear what is being measured and what these constants represent. They conclude that "the mechanical measure of the current intensity is proportional to magnetic" - presumably magnetic current intensity? as 1 to 155370 x 10^6 .)
(It still is my current view, that there is no good theory for electric (and so-called magnetic) current aside from flowing particles similar to water, and no video computer 3 dimensional simulation through time that I have seen.)
(Angular "moment" is unclear to me, perhaps this means the time required for the needle to move in some way.) (The authors presume the electric charge to be centered in the conductor, so this is another generalization. It's not clear what the claim of "reducing the ordinary measure for current intensity to mechanical measure" - perhaps converting electricity to force.) (It seems logical that if you think that electric force is reduced by relative velocity, and moving current is viewed as exhibiting no electrostatic force, that since moving current always has the same constant speed, which is close to the speed of light, there is only two velocities to compare - v=0 and v=speed of light. So it is no wonder that the speed of light is thought to be precisely the velocity at which electrostatic charge is 0. What is needed are inbetween velocities - perhaps from ions, or rotating static charge on a disk. Another issue is the measurement of the speed of electromagnetic influence - that is induction. Who measured this velocity first, Faraday? This appears to be what Weber and Kohlrausch measure in milliseconds - but it is not entirely clear to me. To find that this delay is expected for particles of light conveying electromagnetic induction {movement or even induced current} is a major find because it implies that light is conveying - causing, this movement or current.)
In 1868, James Clerk Maxwell describes the measurement of the electrostatic and electromagnetic constants like this: " In the electrostatic system we have a force equal to the product of two quantities of electricity divided by the square of the distance. The unit of electricity will therefore vary directly as the unit of length, and as the square root of the unit of force. In the electromagnetic system we have a force equal to the product of two currents multiplied by the ratio of two lines. The unit of current in this system therefore varies as the square root of the unit of force; and the unit of electrical quantity, which is that which is transmitted by the unit current in unit of time, varies as the unit of time and as the square root of the unit of force. The ratio of the electromagnetic unit to the electrostatic unit is therefore that of a certain distance to a certain time, or, in other words, this ratio is a velocity; and this velocity will be of the same absolute magnitude, whatever standards of length, time, and mass we adopt.". Maxwell describes this experiment saying that Weber and Kohlrausch "measured the capacity of a condenser electrostatically by comparison with the capacity of a sphere of known radius, and electromagnetically by passing the discharge from the condenser through a galvanometer.".
(It may be natural that, there is a physical difference between particles around two statically electric objects colliding with each other, or bonding with each other, and a moving stream of electric objects which are moving and colliding with a second stream of moving particles going in the same or opposite direction. Another case, where the moving objects are colliding with static objects I have yet to find measurements for. When moving, the particles have a z value (z being the direction of the wire), theoretically, which is larger than the x, or y value. In the case where the streams are going the same direction these z's can only add, while in the opposite direction they can only subtract - or in collisions the same direction - the z's add, opposite directions they are reversed - for a perfect head on collision.)
| (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3111) John Snow (CE 1813-1858), English physician, determines that an epidemic of cholera is due to a transmissible agent in drinking water, and speculates that the cholera agent is a self-reproducing cell.
Some people might consider this the earliest known germ theory of disease.
John Snow (CE 1813-1858), English physician, determines that an epidemic of cholera is due to a transmissible agent in drinking water, and speculates that the cholera agent is a self-reproducing cell.
Snow first determines that the cholera can not be due to a "miasma", a theory then popular. Snow concludes that the cholera can only be caused, by a transmissible agent, most probably in drinking water and so Snow conducts two important epidemiological investigations in the great cholera epidemic of 1853 to 1854. One was a study of a severe, localized epidemic in Soho, using analysis of descriptive epidemiological data and spot maps to demonstrate that the cause was polluted water from a pump in Broad Street. Snow's investigation of the more widespread epidemic in South London leads him to an inquiry into the source of drinking water used in some seven hundred households. Snow compares the water source in houses where cholera had occurred with that in houses where cholera had not occurred. His analysis shows beyond doubt that the cause of the epidemic is water that is being supplied to houses by the Southwark and Vauxhall water company, which draws its water from the Thames downriver, from London, where many discharges pollute the water. Snow finds that very few cases occur in households supplied with water by the Lambeth company, which collects water upstream from London, where there is little or no pollution. Snow publishes this work in a monograph, "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera" (1855).
Snow refers to the agent of disease as the "cholera poison". Although Snow fails to recognize the carriers of disease, his work inspires others and the germ theory later to be proven by Pasteur. Snow's work is completed thirty years before Robert Koch identifies the cholera bacillus.
According to the Concise Encyclopedia of Scientific Biography Snow argues that chlorea is propagated by a specific living, water-borne, self-reproducing cell or germ (note: I do not find the word "germ" in Snow's text, although Snow does use the word "cell").
Snow writes: "For the morbid matter of cholera having the property of reproducing its own kind, must necessarily have some sort of structure, most likely that of a cell. It is no objection to this view that the structure of the cholera poison cannot be recognized by the microscope, for the matter of smallpox and of chancre can only be recognized by their effects, and not by their physical properties. The period which intervenes between the time when a morbid poison enters the system, and the commencement of the illness which follows, is called the period of incubation. It is, in reality, a period of reproduction, as regards the morbid matter; and the disease is due to the crop or progeny resulting from the small quantity of poison first introduced. In cholera, this period of incubation or reproduction is much shorter than in most other epidemic or communicable diseases. From the cases previously detailed, it is shown to be in general only from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. It is owing to this shortness of the period of incubation, and to the quantity of the morbid poison thrown off in the evacuations, that cholera sometimes spreads with a rapidity unknown in other diseases.
The mode of communication of cholera might have been the same as it is, even if it had been a disease of the blood; for there is a good deal of evidence to show that plague, typhoid fever, and yellow fever, diseases in which the blood is affected, are propagated in the same way as cholera. ".
| London, England |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3167) Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (VYRsTroS) (CE 1815-1897), German mathematician publishes a solution to the problem of inversion of the hyperelliptic integrals, which Weiestrauss accomplishes by representing Abelian functions as the quotients of constantly converging power series. (explain clearly)
| (Catholic Gymnasium) Braunsberg, East Prussia |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3173) George Boole (CE 1815-1864), English mathematician and logician, publishes "An Investigation of the Laws of Thought on Which Are Founded the Mathematical Theories of Logic and Probabilities" (1854) an elaboration of Boole' 1847 booklet on logic.
Boole regards this book as a mature statement of his ideas. Boole's method of logical inference can be used to draw logical conclusions from any propositions involving any number of terms.
In this book analyzes the theory of probability. Boole attempts a general method of logic in probability solving for resulting probabilities from the initial probabilities of any system of events.
(give examples from book)
| (Queen's College) Cork, Ireland |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3352) Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) tries to understand the source of solar "energy" (heat/photon output). From the amount of light (radiation energy) emitted by the sun, Helmholtz works backward to estimate a time when the sun was much larger, larger than the orbit of the earth, and that the maximum time the earth can have existed is 25 million years. (Asimov states that Helmholtz and others are unaware of radioactivity and nuclear energy, how radioactive atoms {in addition to when split} emit large quantities of photons, electrons, and helium nuclei, but I think Helmholtz may have been inaccurate in his estimate of the amount of "energy" (I would use number of photons/second) emitted by the sun. Clearly Helmholtz had no rate in the decrease of size of the sun as observed over centuries. But beyond this, it is a complex phenomenon, there is a large amount of friction because of the pressure of many particles pushed together by gravity, in my opinion. The center of stars, planets and many moons appears to be red hot liquid iron, which emits many photons/second. In my view, stars have two stages, accumulation and disintegration. Our star is in the second stage, the process of cooling, in my opinion, stars like the Sun, without matter clouds, are losing more photons than they are taking in, in the form of matter. The process of how a star collects matter (which the sun still is doing now) is interesting. Stars still absorb matter even while burning as a red hot liquid iron sphere, collecting most of the matter from a condensing star system. I question the theory of H to He fusion as a source of photons, because it is doubtful that H and He as light as they are, are in the dense centers of stars, or planets for that matter. But perhaps on the surface. It seems to me, that the phenomenon is of a red hot liquid metal, heated from friction due to gravity, photons emit from many different kinds of atoms, similar to melting iron in an iron factory, but the source of initial heat is gravity. How can a person explain the red hot liquid iron in the center of the earth, without the nuclear fusion hypothesis used for the sun then? What is the earth's source of energy? fusion? However that is explained, so it may apply to a star.) (a simple equation can be used, taking the initial mass of the sun, and the rate the mass is being emitted, how long will the sun last?) Using the value of 2e30kg mass for the Sun, and the Sun emits 5e9 kg of matter each second. Simply dividing 2e30 by 5e9 gives 4e20 seconds, which is around 1.3e13 earth years, actually not a huge time, 13 trillion years, which is only 1 trillion Jupiter years (1 Jupiter year =11.86 earth years).
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3365) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (KLoUZEUS) (CE 1822-1888), German physicist, publishes (translated) "On a Modified Form of the Second Fundamental Theorem in the Mechanical Theory of Heat." (Clausius' "fourth memoir"), in which Clausius attempts to make Sadi Carnot's theorem a particular form of a more general theorem. Sadi Carnot's explanation of the steam engine presumes that no heat is lost, Clausius takes a different view that when work is done by heat, some heat is lost, being transformed into work. Clausius shows that the Carnot cycle corresponds to the integral ∫ (dQ/T) (where dQ/T is change in heat over time), the value of which is zero for a reversible, or ideal, process. For an irreversible, or real, process the corresponding value can only be positive. Clausius will develop this concept as the basis for his new theory of "entropy" 10 years later. (I argue that movement {velocity, acceleration, etc} is always conserved and so no new motion is added or destroyed in the universe. With this integral, the concept of heat does not include all motion, but only that detected as heat, and so even if heat is lost, motion is conserved in my opinion. So this integral does not include all particle movement, but only a subset that is identified as heat. In a volume there can be many moving photons, not all of which are absorbed as heat.)
| (Royal Artillery and Engineering School) Berlin, Germany |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3423) Alfred Russel Wallace (CE 1823-1913), English naturalist, collects 125,000 specimens from the Malay peninsula and the East Indian islands.
| Malaysia |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3472) Alexander William Williamson (CE 1824-1904), English chemist explains the chemical interactions of a catalytic reaction. Williamson explains catalytic action based on the formation of an intermediate compound, explaining that sulfuric acid is needed in the formation of ether from alcohol because first alcohol and sulfuric acid combine to form ethyl sulfate, the ethyl sulfate combines with additional alcohol to form ether, liberating sulfuric acid in the process.
Williamson is the first to produce a mixed ether, an ether in which the oxygen atom is attached to two different hydrocarbon groupings. The chemical reaction Williamson uses to do this is still called the Williamson synthesis. The Williamson's synthesis is a method of making ethers by reacting a sodium alcoholate with a haloalkane. (chronology)
| (University College, London) London, England |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3545) Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (rEmoN) (CE 1826-1866), German mathematician, submits a paper which contains a criterion for a function to be represented by its Fourier series and also the definition of the Riemann integral, the first integral definition that applies to very general discontinuous functions. This paper is "Ueber die Darstellbarkeit einer Function durch eine trigonometrische Reihe." ("On the Representation of a trigonometric function through a series").
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3546) Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (rEmoN) (CE 1826-1866), German mathematician, mathematically defines what is now called a "Riemann space", a surface geometry in which the square of the arc element is a positive definite quadratic form in the local differentials: ds2 = Σgijdxidxj. This contains shortest lines, now called geodesics.
Riemann's work is titled "Ueber die Hypothesen, welche der Geometrie zu Grunde liegen." ("On the Hypotheses which lie at the Bases of Geometry.").
According to the Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, this work makes a strong impact on the philosophy of space. Riemann is philosophically influenced by Johann F. Herbart (CE 1776-1851) rather than by Immanuel Kant (CE 1724-1804), in viewing space as topological rather than metric. The topological structure of space for Reimann is the n-dimensional manifold- Riemann is probably the first to define the n-dimensional manifold. (verify - n-dimensional surface geometry, clearly n-dimensional {Euclidean} space had been examined before - state by who). In this view, the metric structure can only be understood by experience. Although there are other possibilities, Riemann decides to examine the simplest: to describe the metric such that the square of the arc element is a positive definite quadratic form in the local differentials: ds2 = Σgijdxidxj. The structure this formula describes is now called a "Riemann space", and contains shortest lines, now called geodesics, which resemble ordinary straight lines in a similar way that a curved surface may appear like its tangent surface for a very small curvature in one dimension over large distances in another. In this view people living on the surface may compute the curvature of their planet and compute it at any point as a deviation from Pythagoras' theorem. In a similar way, a person can define the curvature of a dimensional Riemann space by calculating the higher order deviations that the ds2 shows from a Euclidean space. The reception of Riemann's ideas is slow. Riemann spaces become an important source of tensor calculus. Covariant and contravariant differentiation will be added in G. Ricci's absolute differential calculus starting in 1877.
(Is this the first formal expression of a metric space, and tensor? Explain history and details of equations more thoroughly.)
The "Riemann space" is different from the "Riemann surface", Riemann space being defined by the squared arc element expression above, Riemann surface being the surface created by Riemann using complex variables in 1851.
(As a note, I claim that surface geometry is a subset of n-dimensional Euclidean space, and so to exclude all other points appears, to me, unlikely to reflect the actual physics of the universe. In addition, I think that the basis of non-Euclidean geometry, in particular as defined by Lobachevskii, that a curve may appear to be a straight line is false, because given a theoretical measuring device of enough precision a curve would always be measured with no regard to how small any measurement of a curved line is.)
(I think historians will investigate why physicists fell off into the apparently erroneous non-Euclidean theory. I think that the idea of a geometry based only on a spherical surface arose around Gauss' and perhaps others working with surveying the spherical Earth. In addition, I think possibly university mathematicians were searching for more complexity, not satisfied with plain Euclidean n-dimensional space. In terms of the popular acceptance of non-Euclidean geometry to explain the geometry of the universe: in many people there is an uneasy feeling with simplicity, there is the feeling that science should be difficult to understand. Beyond that, there is the natural selection of ideas: a concept that gains popularity, that is complex, is more difficult to explain and therefore to disprove to a majority of people.)
(There are some unintuitive conclusions in this paper, for example the use of the word "manifoldness" {Mannigfaltigkeit} as opposed to simply "surface" or "space". Perhaps a manifold may not be a continuous surface, or only contains a subset of points available in the usual Euclidean space. Then the feeling that the microscopic universe is somehow different from the macroscopic universe. Lobechevskii had the belief that at the very small a curve could not be measured. Possibly this inaccurate belief may relate to the modern belief that curvature of space is only measurable when particles have high relative velocities, and that there may be many extra dimensions reduced to a small part of space. Another interesting point, Riemann actually mentions the case where the curvature of space is measured as zero. Helmholtz had argued for this in one of his few mathematical papers. But ultimately this view lost to the general theory of relativity. It seems clear that surface geometry or so-called non-Euclidean geometry needs to be made clear and simple for average people, and I hope that effort is successful.)
In 1853 Riemann submits a list of three possible subjects for his Habilitationsvortrag (lecture given at Göttingen University to obtain the right to be an {unpaid} lecturer at that institution). Against Riemann's expectations, Gauss chooses the third subject for the lecture.
Riemann generalizes geometry in any number of dimensions in which measurements change from point to point in space in such a way that a person can transform one set of measurements into another according to a fixed rule. Fifty years later, Einstein will make use of Reimann's geometry in his effort to explain the universe. (in this work?)
(This is complete work - minus synopsis - possibly edit down) Riemann writes (translated from German): " Plan of the Investigation.
It is known that geometry assumes, as things given, both the notion of space and the first principles of constructions in space. She gives definitions of them which are merely nominal, while the true determinations appear in the form of axioms. The relation of these assumptions remains consequently in darkness; we neither perceive whether and how far their connection is necessary, nor a priori, whether it is possible.
From Euclid to Legendre (to name the most famous of modern reforming geometers) this darkness was cleared up neither by mathematicians nor by such philosophers as concerned themselves with it. The reason of this is doubtless that the general notion of multiply extended magnitudes (in which space-magnitudes are included) remained entirely unworked. I have in the first place, therefore, set myself the task of constructing the notion of a multiply extended magnitude out of general notions of magnitude. It will follow from this that a multiply extended magnitude is capable of different measure-relations, and consequently that space is only a particular case of a triply extended magnitude. But hence flows as a necessary consequence that the propositions of geometry cannot be derived from general notions of magnitude, but that the properties which distinguish space from other conceivable triply extended magnitudes are only to be deduced from experience. Thus arises the problem, to discover the simplest matters of fact from which the measure-relations of space may be determined; a problem which from the nature of the case is not completely determinate, since there may be several systems of matters of fact which suffice to determine the measure-relations of space - the most important system for our present purpose being that which Euclid has laid down as a foundation. These matters of fact are - like all matters of fact - not necessary, but only of empirical certainty; they are hypotheses. We may therefore investigate their probability, which within the limits of observation is of course very great, and inquire about the justice of their extension beyond the limits of observation, on the side both of the infinitely great and of the infinitely small.
I. Notion of an n-ply extended magnitude.
In proceeding to attempt the solution of the first of these problems, the development of the notion of a multiply extended magnitude, I think I may the more claim indulgent criticism in that I am not practised in such undertakings of a philosophical nature where the difficulty lies more in the notions themselves than in the construction; and that besides some very short hints on the matter given by Privy Councillor Gauss in his second memoir on Biquadratic Residues, in the Göttingen Gelehrte Anzeige, and in his Jubilee-book, and some philosophical researches of Herbart, I could make use of no previous labours.
§ 1. Magnitude-notions are only possible where there is an antecedent general notion which admits of different specialisations. According as there exists among these specialisations a continuous path from one to another or not, they form a continuous or discrete manifoldness; the individual specialisations are called in the first case points, in the second case elements, of the manifoldness. Notions whose specialisations form a discrete manifoldness are so common that at least in the cultivated languages any things being given it is always possible to find a notion in which they are included. (Hence mathemati cians might unhesitatingly found the theory of discrete magnitudes upon the postulate that certain given things are to be regarded as equivalent.) On the other hand, so few and far between are the occasions for forming notions whose specialisations make up a continuous manifoldness, that the only simple notions whose specialisations form a multiply extended manifoldness are the positions of perceived objects and colours. More frequent occasions for the creation and development of these notions occur first in the higher mathematic.
Definite portions of a manifoldness, distinguished by a mark or by a boundary, are called Quanta. Their comparison with regard to quantity is accomplished in the case of discrete magnitudes by counting, in the case of continuous magnitudes by measuring. Measure consists in the superposition of the magnitudes to be compared; it therefore requires a means of using one magnitude as the standard for another. In the absence of this, two magnitudes can only be compared when one is a part of the other; in which case also we can only determine the more or less and not the how much. The researches which can in this case be instituted about them form a general division of the science of magnitude in which magnitudes are regarded not as existing independently of position and not as expressible in terms of a unit, but as regions in a manifoldness. Such researches have become a necessity for many parts of mathematics, e.g., for the treatment of many-valued analytical functions; and the want of them is no doubt a chief cause why the celebrated theorem of Abel and the achievements of Lagrange, Pfaff, Jacobi for the general theory of differential equations, have so long remained unfruitful. Out of this general part of the science of extended magnitude in which nothing is assumed but what is contained in the notion of it, it will suffice for the present purpose to bring into prominence two points; the first of which relates to the construction of the notion of a multiply extended manifoldness, the second relates to the reduction of determinations of place in a given manifoldness to determinations of quantity, and will make clear the true character of an n-fold extent.
§ 2. If in the case of a notion whose specialisations form a continuous manifoldness, one passes from a certain specialisation in a definite way to another, the specialisations passed over form a simply extended manifoldness, whose true character is that in it a continuous progress from a point is possible only on two sides, forwards or backwards. If one now supposes that this manifoldness in its turn passes over into another entirely different, and again in a definite way, namely so that each point passes over into a definite point of the other, then all the specialisations so obtained form a doubly extended manifoldness. In a similar manner one obtains a triply extended manifoldness, if one imagines a doubly extended one passing over in a definite way to another entirely different; and it is easy to see how this construction may be continued. If one regards the variable object instead of the determinable notion of it, this construction may be described as a composition of a variability of n + 1 dimensions out of a variability of n dimensions and a variability of one dimension.
§ 3. I shall show how conversely one may resolve a variability whose region is given into a variability of one dimension and a variability of fewer dimensions. To this end let us suppose a variable piece of a manifoldness of one dimension - reckoned from a fixed origin, that the values of it may be comparable with one another - which has for every point of the given manifoldness a definite value, varying continuously with the point; or, in other words, let us take a continuous function of position within the given manifoldness, which, moreover, is not constant throughout any part of that manifoldness. Every system of points where the function has a constant value, forms then a continuous manifoldness of fewer dimensions than the given one. These manifoldnesses pass over continuously into one another as the function changes; we may therefore assume that out of one of them the others proceed, and speaking generally this may occur in such a way that each point passes over into a definite point of the other; the cases of exception (the study of which is important) may here be left unconsidered. Hereby the determination of position in the given manifoldness is reduced to a determination of quantity and to a determination of position in a manifoldness of less dimensions. It is now easy to show that this manifoldness has n - 1 dimensions when the given manifold is n-ply extended. By repeating then this operation n times, the determination of position in an n-ply extended manifoldness is reduced to n determinations of quantity, and therefore the determination of position in a given manifoldness is reduced to a finite number of determinations of quantity when this is possible. There are manifoldnesses in which the determination of position requires not a finite number, but either an endless series or a continuous manifoldness of determinations of quantity. Such manifoldnesses are, for example, the possible determinatio ns of a function for a given region, the possible shapes of a solid figure, &c.
II. Measure-relations of which a manifoldness of n dimensions is capable on the assumption that lines have a length independent of position, and consequently that every line may be measured by every other.
Having constructed the notion of a manifoldness of n dimensions, and found that its true character consists in the property that the determination of position in it may be reduced to n determinations of magnitude, we come to the second of the problems proposed above, viz. the study of the measure-relations of which such a manifoldness is capable, and of the conditions which suffice to determine them. These measure-relations can only be studied in abstract notions of quantity, and their dependence on one another can only be represented by formulæ. On certain assumptions, however, they are decomposable into relatio ns which, taken separately, are capable of geometric representation; and thus it becomes possible to express geometrically the calculated results. In this way, to come to solid ground, we cannot, it is true, avoid abstract considerations in our formulæ, but at least the results of calculation may subsequently be presented in a geometric form. The foundations of these two parts of the question are established in the celebrated memoir of Gauss,
Disqusitiones generales circa superficies curvas.
§ 1. Measure-determinations require that quantity should be independent of position, which may happen in various ways. The hypothesis which first presents itself, and which I shall here develop, is that according to which the length of lines is independen t of their position, and consequently every line is measurable by means of every other. Position-fixing being reduced to quantity-fixings, and the position of a point in the n-dimensioned manifoldness being consequently expressed by means of n variables x1, x2, x3,...,
xn, the determination of a line comes to the giving of these quantities as functions of one variable. The problem consists then in establishing a mathematical expression for the length of a line, and to this end we must consider the quantities x as expressible in terms of certain units. I shall treat this problem only under certain restrictions, and I shall confine myself in the first place to lines in which the ratios of the increments dx of the respective variables vary continuously. We may then conceive these lines broken up into elements, within which the ratios of the quantities dx may be regarded as constant; and the problem is then reduced to establishing for each point a general expression for the linear element ds starting from that point, an expression which will thus contain the quantities x and the quantities dx. I shall suppose, secondly, that the length of the linear element, to the first order, is unaltered when all the points of this element undergo the same infinitesimal displacement, which implies at the same time that if all the quantities dx are increased in the same ratio, the linear element will vary also in the same ratio. On these suppositions, the linear element may be any homogeneous function of the first degree of the quantities dx, which is unch anged when we change the signs of all the dx, and in which the arbitrary constants are continuous functions of the quantities x. To find the simplest cases, I shall seek first an expression for manifoldnesses of n - 1 dimensions which are everywhere equidistant from the origin of the linear element; that is, I shall seek a continuous function of position whose values distinguish them from one another. In going outwards from the origin, this must either increase in all directions or decrease in all directions; I assume that it increases in all directions, and therefore has a minimum at that point. If, then, the first and second differential coefficients of this function are finite, its first differential must vanish, and the second differential cannot become negative; I assume that it is always positive. This differential expression, of the second order remains constant when ds remains constant, and increases in the duplicate ratio when the dx, and therefore also ds, increase in the same ratio; it must therefore be ds2 multiplied by a constant, and consequently ds is the square root of an always positive integral homogeneous function of the second order of the quantities dx, in which the coefficients are continuous functions of the quantities x. For Space, when the position of points is expressed by rectilinear co-ordinates,
ds = ; Space is therefore included in this simplest case. The next case in simplicity includes those manifoldnesses in which the line-element may be expressed as the fourth root of a quartic differential expression. The investigation of this more general kind would require no really different principles, but would take considerable time and throw little new light on the theory of space, especially as the results cannot be geometrically expressed; I restrict myself, therefore, to those manifoldnesses in which the line element is expressed as the square root of a quadric differential expression. Such an expression we can transform into another similar one if we substitute for the n independent variables functions of n new independent variables. In this way, however, we cannot transform any expression into any other; since the expression contains ½ n (n + 1) coefficients which are arbitrary functions of the independent variables; now by the introduction of new variables we can only satisfy n conditions, and therefore make no more than n of the coefficients equal to given quantities. The remaining ½ n (n - 1) are then entirely determined by the nature of the continuum to be represented, and consequently ½ n (n - 1) functions of positions are required for the determination of its measure-relations. Manifoldnesses in which, as in the Plane and in Space, the line-element may be reduced to the form
, are therefore only a particular case of the manifoldnesses to be here investigated; they require a special
name, and therefore these manifoldnesses in which the square of the line-element may be expressed as the sum of the squares of complete differentials I will call flat. In order now to review the true varieties of all the continua which may be repr esented in the assumed form, it is necessary to get rid of difficulties arising from the mode of representation, which is accomplished by choosing the variables in accordance with a certain principle.
§ 2. For this purpose let us imagine that from any given point the system of shortest limes going out from it is constructed; the position of an arbitrary point may then be determined by the initial direction of the geodesic in which it lies, and by its distance measured along that line from the origin. It can therefore be expressed in terms of the ratios dx0 of the quantities dx in this geodesic, and of the length s of this line. Let us introduce now instead of the dx0 linear functions dx of them, such that the initial value of the square of the line-element shall equal the sum of the squares of these expressions, so that the independent varaibles are now the length s and the ratios of the quantities dx. Lastly, take instead of the dx quantities
x1, x2, x3,..., xn proportional to them, but such that the sum of their squares = s2. When we introduce these quantities, the square of the line-element is
for infinitesimal values of the x, but the term of next order in it is equal to a homogeneous function of the second order of the ½ n (n - 1) quantities (x1 dx2 - x2 dx>1), (x1 dx3 - x3 dx>1),... an infinitesimal, therefore, of the fourth order; so that we obtain a finite quantity on dividing this by the square of the infinitesimal triangle, whose vertices are (0,0,0,...), (x1, x2, x3,...), (dx1, dx2, dx3,...). This quantity retains the same value so long as the x and the
dx are included in the same binary linear form, or so long as the two geodesics from 0 to x and from 0 to dx remain in the same surface-element; it depends therefore only on place and direction. It is obviously zero when the manifold represented is flat, i.e., when the squared line-element is reducible to , and may therefore be regarded as the measure of the deviation of the manifoldness from flatness at the given point in the given surface-direction. Multiplied by -¾ it becomes equal to the quantity which Privy Councillor Gauss has called the total curvature of a surface. For the determination of the measure-relations of a manifoldness capable of representation in the assumed form we found that ½ n (n - 1) place-functions were necessary; if, therefore, the curvature at each point in ½ n (n - 1) surface-directions is given, the measure-relations of the continuum may be determined from them - provided there be no identical relations among these values, which in fact, to speak generally, is not the case. In this way the measure-relations of a manifoldness in which the line-element is the square root of a quadric differential may be expressed in a manner wholly independent of the choice of independent variables. A method entirely similar may for this purpose be applied also to the manifoldness in which the line-element has a less simple expression, e.g., the fourth root of a quartic differential. In this case the line-element, generally speaking, is no longer reducible to the form of the square root of a sum of squares, and therefore the deviation from flatness in the squared line-element is an infinitesimal of the second order, while in those manifoldnesses it was of the fourth order. This property of the last-named continua may thus be called flatness of the smallest parts. The most important property of these continua for our present purpose, for whose sake alone they are here investigated, is that the relations of the twofold ones may be geome trically represented by surfaces, and of the morefold ones may be reduced to those of the surfaces included in them; which now requires a short further discussion.
§ 3. In the idea of surfaces, together with the intrinsic measure-relations in which only the length of lines on the surfaces is considered, there is always mixed up the position of points lying out of the surface. We may, however, abstract from external relations if we consider such deformations as leave unaltered the length of lines - i.e., if we regard the surface as bent in any way without stretching, and treat all surfaces so related to each other as equivalent. Thus, for example, any cylindrical or conical surface counts as equivalent to a plane, since it may be made out of one by mere bending, in which the intrinsic measure-relations remain, and all theorems about a plane - therefore the whole of planimetry - retain their validity. On the other hand they count as essentially different from the sphere, which cannot be changed into a plane without stretching. According to our previous investigation the intrinsic measure-relations of a twofold extent in which the line-element may be expressed as the square root of a quadric differential, which is the case with surfaces, are characterised by the total curvature. Now this quantity in the case of surfaces is capable of a visible interpretation, viz., it is the product of the two curvatures of the surface, or multiplied by the area of a small geodesic triangle, it is equal to the spherical excess of the same. The first definition assumes the proposition that the product of the two radii of curvature is unaltered by mere bending; the second, that in the same place the area of a small triangle is proportional to its spherical excess. To give an intelligible meaning to the curvature of an n-fold extent at a given point and in a given surface-direction through it, we must start from the fact that a geodesic proceeding from a point is entirely determined when its initial direction is given. According to this we obtain a determinate surface if we prolong all the geodesics proceeding from the given point and lying initially in the given surface-direction; this surface has at the given point a definite curvature, which is also the curvature of the n-fold continuum at the given point in the given surface-dir ection.
§ 4. Before we make the application to space, some considerations about flat manifoldness in general are necessary; i.e., about those in which the square of the line-element is expressible as a sum of squares of complete differentials.
In a flat n-fold extent the total curvature is zero at all points in every direction; it is sufficient, however (according to the preceding investigation), for the determination of measure-relations, to know that at each point the curvature is zero in ½ n (n - 1) independent surface directions. Manifoldnesses whose curvature is constantly zero may be treated as a special case of those whose curvature is constant. The common character of those continua whose curvature is constant may be also expressed thus, that figures may be viewed in them without stretching. For clearly figures could not be arbitrarily shifted and turned round in them if the curvature at each point were not the same in all directions. On the other hand, however, the measure-relations of the manifoldness are entirely determined by the curvature; they are therefore exactly the same in all directions at one point as at another, and consequently the same constructions can be made from it: whence it follows that in aggregates with constant curvature figures may have any arbitrary position given them. The measure-relations of these manifoldnesses depend only on the value of the curvature, and in relation to the analytic expression it may be remarked that if this value is denoted by
, the expression for the line-element may be written
§ 5. The theory of surfaces of constant curvature will serve for a geometric illustration. It is easy to see that surface whose curvature is positive may always be rolled on a sphere whose radius is unity divided by the square root of the curvatur e; but to review the entire manifoldness of these surfaces, let one of them have the form of a sphere and the rest the form of surfaces of revolution touching it at the equator. The surfaces with greater curvature than this sphere will then touch the sphere internally, and take a form like the outer portion (from the axis) of the surface of a ring; they may be rolled upon zones of spheres having new radii, but will go round more than once. The surfaces with less positive curvature are obtained from spheres of larger radii, by cutting out the lune bounded by two great half-circles and bringing the section-lines together. The surface with curvature zero will be a cylinder standing on the equator; the surfaces with negative curvature will touch the cylinder externally and be formed like the inner portion (towards the axis) of the surface of a ring. If we regard these surfaces as locus in quo for surface-regions moving in them, as Space is locus in quo for bodies, the surface-regions can be moved in all these surfaces without stretching. The surfaces with positive curvature can always be so formed that surface-regions may also be moved arbitrarily about upon them without bending, namely (they may be formed) into sphere-surfaces; but not those with negative-curvature. Besides this independence of surface-regions from position there is in surfaces of zero curvature also an indepe ndence of direction from position, which in the former surfaces does not exist.
III. Application to Space.
§ 1. By means of these inquiries into the determination of the measure-relations of an n-fold extent the conditions may be declared which are necessary and sufficient to determine the metric properties of space, if we assume the independence of line-leng th from position and expressibility of the line-element as the square root of a quadric differential, that is to say, flatness in the smallest parts.
First, they may be expressed thus: that the curvature at each point is zero in three surface-directions; and thence the metric properties of space are determined if the sum of the angles of a triangle is always equal to two right angles.
Secondly, if we assume with Euclid not merely an existence of lines independent of position, but of bodies also, it follows that the curvature is everywhere constant; and then the sum of the angles is determined in all triangles when it is known in one.
Thirdly, one might, instead of taking the length of lines to be independent of position and direction, assume also an independence of their length and direction from position. According to this conception changes or differences of position are complex magnitudes expressible in three independent units.
§ 2. In the course of our previous inquiries, we first distinguished between the relations of extension or partition and the relations of measure, and found that with the same extensive properties, different measure-relations were conceivable; we then investigated the system of simple size-fixings by which the measure-relations of space are completely determined, and of which all propositions about them are a necessary consequence; it remains to discuss the question how, in what degree, and to what extent these assumptions are borne out by experience. In this respect there is a real distinction between mere extensive relations, and measure-relations; in so far as in the former, where the possible cases form a discrete manifoldness, the declarations of experience are indeed not quite certain, but still not inaccurate; while in the latter, where the possible cases form a continuous manifoldness, every determination from experience remains always inaccurate: be the probability ever so great that it is nearly exact. This consideration becomes important in the extensions of these empirical determinations beyond the limits of observation to the infinitely great and infinitely small; since the latter may clearly become more inaccurate beyond the limits of observation, but not the former.
In the extension of space-construction to the infinitely great, we must distinguish between unboundedness and
infinite extent, the former belongs to the extent relations, the latter to the measure-relations. That space is an unbounded three-fold manifoldness, is an assumption which is developed by every conception of the outer world; according to which every instant the region of real perception is completed and the possible positions of a sought object are constructed, and which by these applications is for ever confirming itself. The unboundedness of space possesses in this way a greater empirical certainty than any external experience. But its infinite extent by no means follows from this; on the other hand if we assume independence of bodies from position, and therefore ascribe to space constant curvature, it must necessarily be finite provided this curvature has ever so small a positive value. If we prolong all the geodesics starting in a given surface-element , we should obtain an unbounded surface of constant curvature, i.e., a surface which in a flat manifoldness of three dimensions would take the form of a sphere, and consequently be finite.
§ 3. The questions about the infinitely great are for the interpretation of nature useless questions. But this is not the case with the questions about the infinitely small. It is upon the exactness with which we follow phenomena into the infinitely small that our knowledge of their causal relations essentially depends. The progress of recent centuries in the knowledge of mechanics depends almost entirely on the exactness of the construction which has become possible through the invention of the infinitesimal calculus, and through the simple principles discovered by Archimedes, Galileo, and Newton, and used by modern physic. But in the natural sciences which are still in want of simple principles for such constructions, we seek to discover the causal relations by following the phenomena into great minuteness, so far as the microscope permits. Questions about the measure-relations of space in the infinitely small are not therefore superfluous questions.
If we suppose that bodies exist independently of position, the curvature is everywhere constant, and it then results from astronomical measurements that it cannot be different from zero; or at any rate its reciprocal must be an area in comparison with which the range of our telescopes may be neglected. But if this independe nce of bodies from position does not exist, we cannot draw conclusions from metric relations of the great, to those of the infinitely small; in that case the curvature at each point may have an arbitrary value in three directions, provided that the total curvature of every measurable portion of space does not differ sensibly from zero. Still more complicated relations may exist if we no longer suppose the linear element expressible as the square root of a quadric differential. Now it seems that the empirical notions on which the metrical determinations of space are founded, the notion of a solid body and of a ray of light, cease to be valid for the infinitely small. We are therefore quite at liberty to suppose that the metric relations of space in the infinitely small do not conform to the hypotheses of geometry; and we ought in fact to suppose it, if we can thereby obtain a simpler explanation of phenomena.
The question of the validity of the hypotheses of geometry in the infinitely small is bound up with the question of the ground of the metric relations of space. In this last question, which we may still regard as belonging to the doctrine of space, is found the application of the remark made above; that in a discrete manifoldness, the ground of its metric relations is given in the notion of it, while in a continuous manifoldness, this ground must come from outside. Either therefore the reality which underli es space must form a discrete manifoldness, or we must seek the gound of its metric relations outside it, in binding forces which act upon it.
The answer to these questions can only be got by starting from the conception of phenomena which has hitherto been justified by experience, and which Newton assumed as a foundation, and by making in this conception the successive changes required by facts which it cannot explain. Researches starting from general notions, like the investigation we have just made, can only be useful in preventing this work from being hampered by too narrow views, and progress in knowledge of the interdependence of things from being checked by traditional prejudices.
This leads us into the domain of another science, of physic, into which the object of this work does not allow us to go to-day.
"
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3551) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, synthesizes naturally occuring fats by combining glycerol and fatty acids.
In addition, Berthelot is the first to synthesize organic (carbon) compounds that do not occur naturally, by combining glycerol with fatty acids that do not naturally occur in fats. (in this paper?, chronology)
In addition to synthesizing animal fats, Berthelot shows their analogy with esters. He also prepares other salts of glyceryl by submitting it to the action of acids. The action of hydriodic acid yields isopropyl iodide and allyl iodide. From allyl iodide Berthelot prepares for the first time, artificial oil of mustard. Also around this time the analogy of sugars with glycerine leads Berthelot to investigate the action of acids on sugars and this results in the synthesis of many of their esters.
Berthelot publishes this in his doctoral dissertation (1854) entitled "Sur les combinaisons de la glycerine avec les acides," ("The Combinations of Glycerin with Acids and the Synthesis of Immediate Principles of Animal Fats."). Berthelot follows Michel-Eugène Chevreul’s finding that fats are chemically composed of organic acids combined with glycerin, by guessing that fats might be formed of one, two, or three parts of fatty acids. This guess leads Berthelot to synthesize many new fats, and to coin the terms "monoglyceride", "diglyceride", and "triglyceride" (presumably for the number of glycerin molecules in each fat molecule).
Charles-Adolphe Wurtz interprets Berthelot’s results in terms of type theory, which implies a distinction between atoms and molecules, however Berthelot defends an older dualistic theory that represents organic compounds as oxides and salts.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3552) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, synthesizes benzene by heating acetylene in a glass tube. This opens the path to the production of aromatic compounds.
Bertelot gives one of the first examples of the use of the word "synthesis", defined as the production of organic compounds from their elements.
By heating acetylene in a glass tube, polymerization takes place, forming benzene with some toluene. This is the first demonstration of a simple conversion of an aliphatic to an aromatic compound. Bertholet reject Kekule's formula for benzene (1865-66) and does not accept modern structural formulas until 1897.
This establishes the first link between the fatty and the aromatic series.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
146 YBN
[1854 AD]
| 3671) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist with John Spiller devises the first dry collodion process of photography.
| (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
145 YBN
[01/04/1855 AD]
| 3650) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, explains color blindness as one of three primary color sensors being absent. In addition Maxwell describes a primary-color triangle using red, green and violet at the 3 corners, and the use of attaching 3 primary colored papers on a spinning top and spinning the top to determine composite colors.
Maxwell writes: " Let v,r,g be the angular points of a triangle, and conceive the three sensations as having their positions at these points. ... In this way, every possible colour may have its position and intensity ascertained; ... The idea of this geometrical method of investigating colours is to be found in Newton's Opticks (Book I., Part 2, Prop. 6), but I am not aware that it has been ever employed in practive, except in the reduction of the experiments which I have just made. ... Every possible colour must be included within the triangle rgv. White will be found at some poiint, w, within the triangle. ... Through the homogeneous rays of the prismatic spectrum are absolutely pure in themselves, yet they do not give rise to the "pure sensations" or which we are speaking. Every ray of the spectrum gives rise to all three sensations though in different proportions; hence the position of the colours of the spectrum is not at the boundary of the triangle, but in some curve C R Y G B V considerably within the triangle. The nature of this curve is not yet determined, but may form the subject of a future investigation. ... All natural colours must be within this curve, and all ordinary pigments do in fact lie very much within it. The experiments on the colours of the spectrum which I have made are not brought to the same degree of accuracy as those on coloured papers. i therefore proceed at once to describe the mode of making those experiments which I have found most simple and convenient. The coloured paper is cut into the form of discs, each with a small hole in the centre, and divided along a radius, so as to admit of several of them being placed on the same axis, so that part of each is exposed. By slipping one disc over another, we can expose any given portion of each colour. These discs are placed on a little top or teetotum, consisting of a flat disc of tin-plate and a vertical axis of ivory. This axis passes through the centre of the discs, and the quantity of each colour exposed is measured by a graduation on the rim of the disc, which is divided into 100 parts. by spinning the top, each colour is presented to the eye for a time proportional to the angle of the sector exposed, and I have found by independent experiments, that the colour produced by fast spinning is identical with that produced by causing the light of the different colours to fall on the retina at once. By properly arranging the discs, any given colour may be imitated... ...I now proceed to state the results of experiments on Colour-Blind vision. If we find two combinations of colours which appear identical to a Colour-Blind person, and marke their position on the triangle of colours, then the straight line passing through these points will pass through all points corresponding to other colors, which, to such a person, appear identical with the first two. We may in the same way find other lines passing through the series of colours which appear alike to the Colour-Blind. All these lines either pass through one point or are parallel, according to the standard colours which we have assumed, and the other arbitrary assumptions we may have made. Knowing this law of Colour-Blind vision, we may predict any number of equations which will be true for eyes having this defect. The mathematical experssion of the difference between Colour-Blind ansion is, that colour to the former is a function of two independent variables, but to an ordinary eyd ordinary vie, of three; and that the relation of the two kinds of vision is not arbitrary, but indicates the absence of a deteminate sensation, depending perhaps upon some undiscovered structure or organic arrangement, which forms one-third of the apparatus by which we receive sensations of colour. Suppose the absent structure to be that which is brought most into play when red light falls on our eyes, then to the Colour-blind red light will be visible only so dar as it affects the other two sensations, say of blue and green. ... ...I have put down many things simply to indicate a way of thining about colours which belongs to this theory of triple sensation. We are indebted to Newton for the original design; to young for the suggestion of the means of working it out; to Prof. Forbes {fn: Phil. Mag 1848} for a scientific history of its application to practice; to Helmholtz for a rigorous examination of the facts on which it rests; and to Prof. Grassman (in the Phil. Mag. for 1852), for an admirable theoretical exposition of the subject. ...".
(Some notes are: I think the view of primary colors, or more specifically, that three specific frequencies of monochromatic light can be added to form all other frequencies seems mathematically impossible without some kind of frequency changing phenomenon, and that the effects of composite colors observed must be due to frequency mixing, and/or how the detectors in the eye interpret color. It's not clear to me yet, but it seems impossible to produce a wide variety of coherent - that is regular interval light beams using only 3 specific regular interval light beams. Possibly, if the beams were offset from each other, it might be possible to produce a large variety of different frquency beams - but then they would not have regular intervals. Notice the view that the curve of the spectrum must exist in the triangle, and the distinction between natural and presumably unnatural colors. Maxwell must consider unnatural colors as any color not produced in the spectrum - which is white, grays, various light/dark shadings of the spectral colors, for example the color brown. Perhaps white is a color in which the three color detectors in our eye (presuming there are 3) have received so many photons per second that they are at maximum value - this interval can be coherent or irregular. Clearly there are incoherent beams of light, and the human eye detectors are so large that many beams are detected on a single detector. Another interesting point to me is the spinning tops. There is an interesting physical effect that, in theory, if a colored surface was moved fast enough, the beam of light reflected from some point into the eye would appear to be a beam of changed frequency - clearly it would not have a homogenius frequency - in aprticular if the movement was faster than the frequency of light. Simply imagine a beam that only reflects 1 photon/second which spins, and half the time a surface which reflects 2 photons/second appears in the same location - light reflected will be a mixing of 1 and 2 photons per second -and then a mixing which may be incoherent. The same is true for moving (including spinning) light emitting objects. Imagine a point on a sphere that emits 100 photons a second on a sphere. If the sphere is spun 100 times a second - the frequency of light in any direction is only 1 photon/second.)
Later in the Spring of 1855 Maxwell presents a paper "Experiments on colour as perceived by the eye, with remarks on colour-blindness" to the Royal Society of Edinburgh. The full text is published 2 years later in 1857. Maxwell describes his experiments of fastening three discs of colored paper onto a rotating circular platform of a top. Each paper having one radial slit so that all three can be interleaved, and then adjusted to vary the fractions, by area, of the different colors comprising the resulting multicoloured circular disc. On top of these three layers, in the center, Maxwell attaches two smaller diameter interleaved papers. When the top is spun fast enough, the colors from the outer three segments are seen as a single color which can be compared with the color seen at the inner segments. Usually, but not always the inner papers are white and black which causes the inner circle to be gray.
Also in this paper, Maxwell describes 7 methods of mixing colors: 1) Mechanical Mixture of Coloured Powders 2) Mixture of differently-coloured Beams of Light by Superposition on an Opaque Screen 3) Union of Coloured Beams by a Prism so as to form one beam. 4) Union of two beams by means of a transparent surface, which reflects the first and transmits the second. 5) Union of two coloured beams by means of a doubly-refracting Prism. 6) Successive presentration of the different Colours to the Retina. 7) Presentation of the Colours to be mixed one to each Eye.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
145 YBN
[01/04/1855 AD]
| 3651) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, uses a color box to combine and filter specific colors (which is an early double pass spectrometer), to provide evidence for the "three primary colors" theory of color. Maxwell publishes this as "On the theory of compound colours and the relations of the colours of the spectrum".
By this time key contributions in the field of color have already been made by Helmholtz.
Light from the Sun is filtered to white light by reflecting off a white paper and enters the colour box through an entrance slit, E in Fig. 8. (This light is split into two, one half going unfiltered to opening BC, the other half), is dispersed through two 45° prisms, the light is then reflected back through the two prisms after reflecting off a long focal length front surfaced mirror (radius of curvature 34 in). Maxwell had experimented with a much simpler double pass system a few years earlier and noted the use of the method, for producing spectra, by Porro. A set of slits in the end panel of the box (X, Y, Z) cover the length of the spectrum produced, about 10 cm in length. So the various components of red, green and blue can be seen in the slits X, Y and Z, the original color at BC. This process can be reversed so the source of light enters at the slits and opening BC, while the observer views through opening E.
Maxwell describes using the box in this reversed method: "Light from a sheet of paper illuminated by sunlight is admitted at the slits X, Y, Z (fig. 8, Plate VII, p. 444), {ULSF and into opening BC,} falls on the prisms P and P' (angles=45°), then on a concave silvered glass, S, radius 34 inches {ULSF Note that radius is what the radius of a sphere with the same curvature of the lens would be). The light, after reflexion, passes again through the prisms P' and P {ULSF Note, the light passes backwards through the same two prisms}, and is reflected by a small mirror, e, to the slit E, where the eye is placed to receive the light compounded of the colours corresponding to the positions and breadths of the slits X, Y, and Z. At the same time, another portion of the light from the illuminated paper enters the instrument at BC, is reflected at the mirror M, passes through the lens L, is reflected at the mirror M', passes close to the edge of the prism P, and is reflected along with the coloured light at e, to the eye-slit at E. {ULSF: So the two light sources form a left and right half at the eyepiece.} In this way the compound colour is compared with a constant white light in optical juxtaposition with it {ULSF the combined portions of light from the RGB directions are combined by the prisms to form a compound color that is compared to the color of the original light}. The mirror M is made of silvered glass, that at M' is made of glass roughened and blacked at the back, to reduce the intensity of the constant light to a convenient value for the experiments. This instrument gives a spectrum in which the lines are very distinct, and the length of the spectrum from A to H is 3.6 inches. The outside measure of the box is 3 feet 6 inches, by 11 inches by 4 inches, and it can be carried about, and set up in any position without readjustment. It was made by Messrs Smith and Ramage of Aberdeen.".
Maxwell writes in his "Introduction": " According to Newton's analysis of light {fn: Optics, Book I, Part 2, Prop. 7}, every colour in nature is produced by the mixture, in various proportions, of the different kinds of light into which white light is divided by refraction. By means of a prism we may analyse any coloured light, and determine the proportions in which the different homogeneous rays enter into it; and by means of a lens we may recombine these rays, and reproduce the original coloured light. Newton had also shewn {fn: Lectiones Opticae, Part2 section 1, pp100 to 105; and Optics, Book I. Part 2, Prop. 11.} how to combine the different rays of the spectrum so as to form a single beam of light, and how to alter the proportions of the different colours so as to exhibit the result of combining them in any arbitrary manner. The number of different kinds of homogeneous light being infinite, and the proportion in which each may be combined being also variable indefinitely, the results of such combinations could not be appreciated by the eye, unless the chromatic effect of every mixture, however complicated, could be expressed in some simpler form. Colours, as seen by the human eye of the normal type, can all be reduced to a few classes, and expressed by a few well-known names; and even those colours which have different names have obvious relations among themselves. Every colour, except purple, is similar to some colour of the spectrum {fn: Optics, book I, Part 2, Prop. 4.}, although less intense; and all purples may be compounded of blue and red, and diluted with white to any required tint. Brown colours, which at first slight seem different, are merely red, orange or yellow of feeble intensity, more or less diluted with white. It appears therefore that the result of any mixture of colours, however complicated, may be defined by its relation to a certain small number of well-known colours. Having selected our standard colours, and determined the relations of a given colour to these, we have defined that colour completely as to its appearance, though its optical constitution, as revealed by the prism may be very different. We may express this by saying that two compounds colours may be chromatically identical, but optically different. The optical properties of light are those which have reference to its origin and propagation through media, till it falls on the sensitive organ of vision; the chromatical properties of light are those which have reference to its power of exciting certain sensations of colourk perceived through the organ of vision. The investigation of the chromatic relations of the rays of the spectrum must therefore be founded upon observations of the apparent identity of compound colours, as seen by an eye either of the normal or of some abnormal type; and the results to which the investigation leads must be regarded as partaking of a physiological, as well as of a physical character, and as indicating certain laws of sensation, depending on the constitution of the organ of vision, which may be different in different individuals. We have to determine the laws of the composition of colours in general, to reduce the number of standard colours to the smallest possible, to discover, if we can, what they are, and to ascertain the relation which the homogeneous light of different parts of the spectrum bears to the standard colours.". Maxwell then describes the history of the theory of compound colors describing the work of Newton, Young, Brewster, Helmholtz, and Grassmann. Maxwell describes his color-box apparatus. Maxwell describes the method of observation: " The instrument is turned with the end AB {ULSF See figure 1} towards a board, covered with white paper, and illuminated by sunlight. The operator sits at the end AB, to move the sliders, and adjust the slits; and the observer sits at the end E, which is shaded from any bright light. The operator then places the slits so that their centres correspond to the three standard colours, and adjusts their breadths till the observer sees the prism illuminated with pure white light of the same intensity with that reflected by the mirror M. In order to do this, the observer must tell the operator what difference he observes in the two halves of the illuminated field, and the operator must alter the breadth of the slits accordingly, always keeping the centre of each slit at the proper point of the scale. The observer may call for more or less red, blue or green; and then the operator must increase of diminish the width of the slits X, Y, and Z respectively. If the variable field is darker or lighter than the constant field, the operator must widen or narrow all the slits in the same proportion. When the variable part of the field is nearly adjusted, it often happens that the constant white light from the mirror appears tinged with the complementary colour. This is an indication of what is required to make the resemblance of the two parts of the field of view perfect. When no difference can be detected between the two parts of the field, either in colour or in brightness, the observer must look away for some time, to relieve the strain on the eye, and then look again. If the eye thus refreshed still judges the two parts of the field to be equal, the observation must be considered complete, and the operator must measure the breadth of each slit by means of the wedge, as before described, and write down the result as a colour-equation, thus- Oct. 18, J. 18.5(24)+27(44)+37(68)=W *....... This equation means that on the 18th of October the observer J. (myself) made an observation in which the breadth of the slit X was 18.5, as measured by the wedge, while its centre was at the division (24) of the scale; that the breadths of Y and Z were 27 and 37, and their positions (44) and (68); and that the illumination produced by these slits was exactly equal, in my estimation as an observer, to the constant white W. ...".
Maxwell determines specific wavelengths for red, green and blue primary colors, interpolating their wavelength (in units?) from Fraunhofer's determination of wavelengths of specific lines. Maxwell writes: " All the other colours of the spectrum may be produced by combinations of these; and since all natural colours are compounded of the colours of the spectrum, they may be compounded of these three primary colours. i have strong reason to believe that these are the three primary colours corresponding to three modes of sensation in the organ of vision, on which the whole system of colour, as seen byu the normal eye, depends.".
Maxwell summarizes his conclusions writing: "Neither of the observers whose results are given here shew any indications of colour-blindness, and when the differences arising from the absorption of the rays between E and F {ULSF see fig 6, 7 and 9} are put out of account, they agree in proving that there are three colours in the spectrum, red, green, and blue, by the mixtures of which colours chromatically identical with the other colours of the spectrum may be produced. The exact position of the red and blue is not yet ascertained; that of the green is 1/4 from E towards F. The orange and yellow of the spectrum are chromatically equivalent to mixtures of red and green. They are neither richer nor paler than the corresponding mixtures, and the only difference is that the mixture may be resolved by a prism, whereas the colour in the spectrum cannot be so resolved. This result seems to put an end to the pretension of yellow to be considered a primary element of colour. In the same way the colours from the primary green to blue are chromatically identical with mixtures of these; and the extreme ends of the spectrum are probably equivalent to mixtures of red and blue, but they are so feeble in ilumination that experiments on the same plan with the rest can give no result, but they must be examined by some special method. When observations have been obtained from a greater number of individuals, including those whose vision is dichromatic, the chart of the spectrum may be laid down indpendently of accidental differences, and a more complete discussion of the laws of the sensation of colour attempted.".
Later work will show that the human eye contains three classes of cone photoreceptors that differ in the photopigments they contain and in their neural connections. Some species such as the zebra fish have four color sensors and therefore have tetrachromacy, seeing extra colors in the ultraviolet range.
(How the color box functions is that each of the three slits is opened wider to represent more intensity, and this is inaccurate, obviously, as this increases intensity, not of a single frequency of light, but by including many other nearby frequency light beams. So the experiment remains to use single frequencies that vary in intensity. However, I think this must work too, since, the only requirement is that the three sensors be stimulated. Light has no color, only frequency. The sensors in the human eye create color based on how much three sensors are activated - so obviously with a different detector the universe looks very different. How amazing that the pretty effect of the different frequencies being an effect which to us is interpreted as different colors has evolved to be to our advantage in survival. It's interesting to think what the physical phenomenon of color in the human brain is, how the pixels we see as, for example green, are electrically charged or chemically change shape - get more details, and what makes them different from an unelectrified neuron which would appear as a black pixel to a human.)
(EXPERIMENT: look at the math of combining various frequencies. How does period change? For example, two 1 fps (fotons per second) beams can be added in many ways, in one way they could cause a detector to record a 2 fps signal, but only when perfectly spaced, when synced they can cause a 1fps signal which is twice as strong as a single beam. Apply this model for color combinations. Clearly there are two kinds of periods at the detector: coherent (regular) and incoherent (irregular). How do detectors in the eye respond to coherent and incoherent light beam combinations? In particular how do eyes and brain record incoherent beam combinations? Do we observe a color frequency, even when the beam is far from coherent? Can a group of beams be made to oscillate between different shades of color by having incoherent combinations? For example, a beam with period=2sec, and a beam with period=3 sec, will cause this pattern: x x x x x x x x -> x x x x x x -> the detector sees an oscillating beam that changes frequency and intensity. However, why is this changing of frequency not observed? Or is it observed? Red light has a period of (1 photon every) 2.325 femtoseconds, 480 photons each 10-12 of a second, while blue has a period of (1 photon every) 1.492 femtoseconds, 670 photons per 10-12 of a second. Perhaps a slower beam mixed in, for example, only an infrared beam of 400 THz (400 photons each 10-12 of a second would cause a detectable oscillation at a detector. Can infrared beams be added to create visible beams? The question remains of why people do not see ultraviolet beams, as opposed to seeing white light, the eyes detectors maxed out. Perhaps any frequency above or below the visible frequencies does not cause the vision electric cellular effect.)
(It is pretty amazing that all frequencies of light are blocked, perhaps reflected, except for the specific frequency, for example a frequency of blue light, when white light enters a prism from the direction of where a blue beam would be emitted in the reverse direction. It seems unintuitive since the angles are different - for example light is being spread out in the spectrum, but in the other way it is going in straight. Perhaps the angles are so small that they are virtually identical. Still, interesting that all other frequencies are somehow reflected to a different direction, so that only the frequency positions with white light add up to form some color at the eyepiece. This kind of device would be very interesting as a learning device, but I have never seen one for sale. EXPERIMENT: build a colorbox and confirm the color effects seen when combining different RGB components.)
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
145 YBN
[09/??/1855 AD]
| 3285) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868) discovers that the force required for the rotation of a copper disk becomes greater when it is made to rotate with its rim between the poles of a magnet, the disk at the same time becoming heated by the eddy or "Foucault currents" induced in its metal, although these currents are induced, and were first understood by Michael Faraday and Joseph Henry.
Foucault witnesses the rapid deceleration of a metal block or plate dropped into the field of a powerful electromagnet at Ruhmkorff's workshop, and applying the new doctrine of the conversion of work to heat, judges that this movement should appear as heat. Foucault uses Mayer's value for the conversion rate between heat and mechanical energy, and calculates that significant temperature rises should be achievable in practice. Foucault then puts the spinning (metal?) torus of his gyroscope between the poles of a strong electromagnet and finds that within a few seconds the torus stops rotating. Foucault then uses a hand-crank to keep the torus spinning, and measures that the torus temperature rises from 16 degree Celsius to 34 degrees Celsius. (I think the heat may be a natural emission of moving electrons in electrical current, but still the concept of conservation of velocity is accurate I think, but many velocities are preserved within atoms only to be released to move in new directions, so mechanical movement converted to heat is a complex issue I think, but ultimately is the conservation of motion.)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
145 YBN
[12/10/1855 AD]
| 3641) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, extends William Thomson's treatment of the analogy between lines of force and streamlines in an incompressible fluid, by considering the resistive medium through which the fluid moves. Maxwell applies this analogy with fluids such as water and heat, to magnetism and electricity. In applying the analogy of fluid mechanics to electricity and magnetism, Maxwell creates the variables for the concept of magnetic quantity and magnetic intensity, which are parallel quantities with current density and electromotive intensity (current and voltage). This is an important mathematical distinction between two kinds of (concepts): "quantities" (later "fluxes") and "intensities" (later "forces"). In Part 2 of this paper Maxwell develops a new formal theory of electromagnetic processes, creating a complete set of equations between the four vectors E, I, B, H and going on to derive a new vector function, A, the electrotonic function. This function provides equations to represent ordinary magnetic action, electromagnetic induction, and the forces between closed currents. This electrotonic function is later identified as a generalization of Neumann's electrodynamic potential. (This is a critical branch where, magnetism is treated differently from electricity. Maxwell could treat magnetism as a phenomenon of electricity, however, chooses to create two identical mathematical systems, one, the traditional view developed by Ohm and others of electricity, and a new application of this math to magnetism as a similar but different fluid.)
Maxwell publishes this work in his first paper on his electrical researches, "On Faraday's Lines of Force" (1855-1856). This is presented in two parts to the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
The 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica states that Maxwell's goal, as was the goal of Faraday, is to overturn the idea of action at a distance. The researches of S. D. Poisson and K. F. Gauss had shown how to reduce all the phenomena of statical electricity to only attractions and repulsions exerted at a distance by particles of an imponderable (aether) on one another. Lord Kelvin (Sir W. Thomson) had, in 1846, shown that a totally different assumption, based on other analogies, led (by its own special mathematical methods) to precisely the same results. Kelvin treated the resultant electric force at any point as analogous to the flux of heat from sources distributed in the same manner as the supposed electric particles. This paper of Thomson's, whose ideas Maxwell afterwards develops in an extraordinary manner, seems to have given the first hint that there are at least two perfectly distinct methods of arriving at the known formulae of statical electricity (basically Coulomb's positive/negative inverse distance law). The step to magnetic phenomena is comparatively simple; but it is different from electromagnetic phenomena, where current electricity is involved. An exceedingly ingenious, but highly artificial, theory had been devised by W. E. Weber, which was found capable of explaining all the phenomena investigated by Ampere as well as the induction currents of Faraday. But this was based on the assumption of a distance-action between electric particles, the intensity of which depended on their relative motion as well as on their position. This was, of course, even more repugnant to Maxwell's mind than the statical distance-action developed by Poisson. (I think electric field effects, for example electrical induction, is more complicated than simply force from particles, because it involves many particle collisions. I think modeling iteratively in 3D on a computer may be the best view at the real microscopic phenomena. Weber's scheme is interesting - that the force changes depending on the velocity of the particle, but that seems unintuitive. In any event, an interpretation without particle collision, inertia, and possibly gravitation too, I don't think is going to be accurate.)
Maxwell begins this paper writing: "THE present state of electrical science seems peculiarly unfavourable to speculation. The laws of the distribution of electricity on the surface of conductors have been analytically deduced from experiment; some parts of the mathematical theory of magnetism are established, while in other parts the experimental data are wanting; the theory of the conduction of galvanism and that of the mutual attraction of conductors have been reduced to mathematical formulae, but have not fallen into relation with the other parts of the science. No electrical theory can now be put forth, unless it shews the connexion not only between electricity at rest and current electricity, but between the attractions and inductive effects of electricity in both states. Such a theory must accurately satisfy those laws, the mathematical form of which is known, and must afford the means of calculating the effects in the limiting cases where the known formulae are inapplicable. In order therefore to appreciate the requirements of the science, the student must make himself familiar with a considerable body of most intricate mathematics, the mere retention of which in the memory materially interferes with further progress. The first process therefore in the effectual study of the science, must be one of simplification and reduction of the results of previous investigation to a form in which the mind can grasp them. The results of this simplification may take the form of a purely mathematical formula or of a physical hypothesis. In the first case we entirely lose sight of the phenomena to be explained; and though we may trace out the consequences of given laws, we can never obtain more extended views of the connexions of the subject. If on the other hand, we adopt a physical hypothesis, we see the phenomena only through a medium, and are liable to that blindness to facts and rashness in assumption which a partial explanation encourages. We must therefore discover some method of investigation which allows the mind at every step to lay hold of a clear physical conception, without being committed to any theory founded on the physical science from which that conception is borrowed, so that it is neither drawn aside from the subject in pursuit of analytical subtleties, nor carried beyond the truth by a favourite hypothesis. In order to obtain physical ideas without adopting a physical theory we must make ourselves familiar with the existence of physical analogies. By a physical analogy I mean that partial similarity between the laws of one science and those of another which makes each of them illustrate the other. Thus all the mathematical sciences are founded on relations between physical laws and laws of numbers, so that the aim of exact science is to reduce the problems of nature to the determination of quantities by operations with numbers. Passing from the most universal of all analogies to a very partial one, we find the same resemblance in mathematical form between two different phenomena giving rise to a physical theory of light. The changes of direction which light undergoes in passing from one medium to another, are identical with the deviations of the path of a particle in moving through a narrow space in which intense forces act. This analogy, which extends only to the direction, and not to the velocity of motion, was long believed to be the true explanation of the refraction of light; and we still find it useful in the solution of certain problems, in which we employ it without danger, as an artificial method. The other analogy, between light and the vibrations of an elastic medium, extends much farther, but, though its importance and fruitfulness cannot be overestimated, we must recollect that it is founded only on a resemblance in form between the laws of light and those of vibrations. By stripping it of its physical dress and reducing it to a theory of "transverse alternations," we might obtain a system of truth strictly founded on observation, but probably deficient both in the vividness of its conceptions and the fertility of its method. I have said thus much on the disputed questions of Optics, as a preparation for the discussion of the almost universally admitted theory of attraction at a distance. {ULSF note: This paragraph compares the particle and wave theory for light. The view that light does not change velocity, but only changes direction upon entering a different medium may be technically correct if photons are delayed by reflection or orbit, but on a larger scale, the delay of a photon is larger the higher the index of refraction as demonstrated by Foucault in 1850.} We have all acquired the mathematical conception of these attractions. {ULSF note: that is attractions at a distance} We can reason about them and determine their appropriate forms or formulae. These formulae have a distinct mathematical significance, and their results are found to be in accordance with natural phenomena. There is no formula in applied mathematics more consistent with nature than the formula of attractions, and no theory better established in the minds of men than that of the action of bodies on one another at a distance. The laws of the conduction of heat in uniform media appear at first sight among the most different in their physical relations from those relating to attractions. The quantities which enter into them are temperature, flow of heat, conductivity. The word force is foreign to the subject. Yet we find that the mathematical laws of the uniform motion of heat in homogeneous media are identical in form with those of attractions varying inversely as the square of the distance. We have only to substitute source of heat for centre of attraction, flow of heat for accelerating effect of attraction at any point, and temperature for potential, and the solution of a problem in attractions is transformed into that of a problem in heat. This analogy between the formulae of heat and attraction was, I believe, first pointed out by Professor William Thomson in the Cambridge Math. Journal, Vol. III. Now the conduction of heat is supposed to proceed by an action between contiguous parts of a medium, while the force of attraction is a relation between distant bodies, and yet if we knew nothing more than is expressed in the mathematical formulae, there would be nothing to distinguish between the one set of phenomena and the other. It is true, that if we introduce other considerations and observe additional facts, the two subjects will assume very different aspects, but the mathematical resemblance of some of their laws will remain, and may still be made useful in exciting appropriate mathematical ideas. It is by the use of analogies of this kind that I have attempted to bring before the mind, in a convenient and manageable form, those mathematical ideas which are necessary to the study of the phenomena of electricity. The methods are generally those suggested by the processes of reasoning which are found in the researches of Faraday {fn: See especially Series XXXVIII of the Experimental Researches and Phil Mag 1852.}, and which, though they have been interpreted mathematically by Prof. Thomson and others, are very generally supposed to be of an indefinite and unmathematical character, when compared with those employed by the professed mathematicians. By the method which I adopt, I hope to render it evident that I am not attempting to establish any physical theory of a science in which I have hardly made a single experiment, and that the limit of my design is to shew how, by a strict application of the ideas and methods of Faraday, the connexion of the very different orders of phenomena which he has discovered may be clearly placed before the mathematical mind. I shall therefore avoid as much as I can the introduction of anything which does not serve as a direct illustration of Faraday's methods, or of the mathematical deductions which may be made from them. In treating the simpler parts of the subject I shall use Faraday's mathematical methods as well as his ideas. When the complexity of the subject requires it, I shall use analytical notation, still confining myself to the development of ideas originated by the same philosopher. I have in the first place to explain and illustrate the idea of "lines of force." When a body is electrified in any manner, a small body charged with positive electricity, and placed in any given position, will experience a force urging it in a certain direction. If the small body be now negatively electrified, it will be urged by an equal force in a direction exactly opposite. The same relations hold between a magnetic body and the north or south poles of a small magnet. If the north pole is urged in one direction, the south pole is urged in the opposite direction. In this way we might find a line passing through any point of space, such that it represents the direction of the force acting on a positively electrified particle, or on an elementary north pole, and the reverse direction of the force on a negatively electrified particle or an elementary south pole. Since at every point of space such a direction may be found, if we commence at any point and draw a line so that, as we go along it, its direction at any point shall always coincide with that of the resultant force at that point, this curve will indicate the direction of that force for every point through which it passes, and might be called on that account a line of force. We might in the same way draw other lines of force, till we had filled all space with curves indicating by their direction that of the force at any assigned point. We should thus obtain a geometrical model of the physical phenomena, which would tell us the direction of the force, but we should still require some method of indicating the intensity of the force at any point. If we consider these curves not as mere lines, but as fine tubes of variable section carrying an incompressible fluid, then, since the velocity of the fluid is inversely as the section of the tube, we may make the velocity vary according to any given law, by regulating the section of the tube, and in this way we might represent the intensity of the force as well as its direction by the motion of the fluid in these tubes. This method of representing the intensity of a force by the velocity of an imaginary fluid in a tube is applicable to any conceivable system of forces, but it is capable of great simplification in the case in which the forces are such as can be explained by the hypothesis of attractions varying inversely as the square of the distance, such as those observed in electrical and magnetic phenomena. In the case of a perfectly arbitrary system of forces, there will generally be interstices between the tubes; but in the case of electric and magnetic forces it is possible to arrange the tubes so as to leave no interstices. The tubes will then be mere surfaces, directing the motion of a fluid filling up the whole space. It has been usual to commence the investigation of the laws of these forces by at once assuming that the phenomena are due to attractive or repulsive forces acting between certain points. We may however obtain a different view of the subject, and one more suited to our more difficult inquiries, by adopting for the definition of the forces of which we treat, that they may be represented in magnitude and direction by the uniform motion of an incompressible fluid. {ULSF: Here is a clear statement of the replacing the idea of individual particles exerting forces, to the motion of a fluid. Notice that the view of "certain points" attaches the forces to space, as opposed to masses. Perhaps the view is that the forces originate in the center of a magnet as opposed to from each particle in and around a magnet.} I propose, then, first to describe a method by which the motion of such a fluid can be clearly conceived; secondly to trace the consequences of assuming certain conditions of motion, and to point out the application of the method to some of the less complicated phenomena of electricity, magnetism, and galvanism; and lastly to shew how by an extension of these methods, and the introduction of another idea due to Faraday, the laws of the attractions and inductive actions of magnets and currents may be clearly conceived, without making any assumptions as to the physical nature of electricity, or adding anything to that which has been already proved by experiment. By referring everything to the purely geometrical idea of the motion of an imaginary fluid, I hope to attain generality and precision, and to avoid the dangers arising from a premature theory professing to explain the cause of the phenomena. If the results of mere speculation which I have collected are found to be of any use to experimental philosophers, in arranging and interpreting their results, they will have served their purpose, and a mature theory, in which physical facts will be physically explained, will be formed by those who by interrogating Nature herself can obtain the only true solution of the questions which the mathematical theory suggests.".
Maxwell goes on to describe: I.) the theory of the motion of an incompressible fluid, II.) the theory of the uniform motion of an imponderable incompressible fluid through a resisting medium (Here the view of an imponderable fluid must clearly be a mistake, since in the universe there is only matter (which is so-called ponderable) and space. The claim of "imponderable" or matter-less objects still exists in the mistaken belief that light is a massless particle.) In "Application of the Idea of lines of Force" Maxwell writes " I have now to shew how the idea of lines of fluid motion as described above may be modified so as to be applicable to the sciences of statical electricity, permanent magnetism, magnetism of induction, and uniform galvanic currents, reserving the laws of electro-magnetism for special consideration. I shall assume that the phenomena of statical electricity have been already explained by the mutual action of two opposite kinds of matter. If we consider one of these as positive electricity and the other as negative, then any two particles of electricity repel one another with a force which is measured by the product of the masses of the particles divided by the square of their distance. {ULSF note: actually the force of gravity is the product of mass divided by square of distance, electric force is the product of charge divided by square of distance.} Now we found in (18) that the velocity of our imaginary fluid due to a source S at a distance r varies inversely as r2. {ULSF: visualizing a fluid such as water - the velocity of particles slows the farther they are from the source in an inverse distance relation} Let us see what will be the effect of substituting such a source for every particle of positive electricity. {ULSF: interesting idea of implying that inverse distance force is the result of each particle being a source or sink of fluid. This seems to violate the idea of conservation of matter.} The velocity due to each source would be proportional to the attraction due to the corresponding particle, and the resultant velocity due to all the sources would be proportional to the resultant attraction of all the particles. Now we may find the resultant pressure at any point by adding the pressures due to the given sources, and therefore we may find the resultant velocity in a given direction from the rate of decrease of pressure in that direction, and this will be proportional to the resultant attraction of the particles resolved in that direction. ...". The next part is entitled "Theory of Dielectrics", writing: " The electrical induction exercised on a body at a distance depends not only on the distribution of electricity in the inductric, and the form and position of the inducteous body, but on the nature of the interposed medium, or dielectric. Faraday {fn: Series XI.} expresses this by the conception of one substance having a greater inductive capacity or conducting the lines of inductive action more freely than another. If we suppose that in our analogy of a fluid in a resisting medium the resistance is different in different media, then by making the resistance less we obtain the analogue to a dielectric which more easily conducts Faraday's lines. ..." The next section is "Theory of Permanent Magnets." in which Maxwell writes " A magnet is conceived to be made up of elementary magnetized particles, each of which has its own north and south poles, the action of which upon other north and south poles is governed by laws mathematically identical with those of electricity. Hence the same application of the idea of lines of force can be made to this subject, and the same analogy of fluid motion can be employed to illustrate it. ..." Next is "Theory of paramagnetic and Diamagnetic Induction" in which Maxwell writes: " Faraday {fn: Experimental Researches 3252?} has shewn that the effects of paramagnetic and diamagnetic bodies in the magnetic field may be explained by supposing paramagnetic bodies to conduct the lines of force better, and diamagnetic bodies worse, than the surrounding medium. By referring to (23) and (26), and supposing sources to represent north magnetic matter, and sinks south magnetic matter, then if a paramagnetic body be in the neighbourhood of a north pole, the lines of force on entering it will produce south magnetic matter, and on leaving it they will produce an equal amount of north magnetic matter. Since the quantities of magnetic matter on the whole are equal, but the southern matter is nearest to the north pole, the result will be attraction. If on the other hand the body be diamagnetic, or a worse conductor of lines of force than the surrounding medium, there will be an imaginary distribution of northern magnetic matter where the lines pass into the worse conductor, and of southern where they pass out, so that on the whole there will be repulsion. ...". (The diamagnetic phenomenon has so far only been observed as a very small effect. I think a particle collision explanation should be tried, for example, that particles, perhaps photons constantly exit bismuth, which collide with particles in an electric field, while other metals do not emit as many photons.) Next is a section on "Theory of Magnecrystallic Induction.", Maxwell writing: " The theory of Faraday {fn: Exp. Res. (2836?), &c.} with respect to the behavior of crystals in the magnetic field may be thus stated. In certain crystals and other substances the lines of magnetic force are conducted with different facility in different directions. The body when suspended in a uniform magnetic field will turn or tend to turn into such a position that the lines of force shall pass through it with least resistance. It is not difficult by means of the principles in (28) to express the laws of this kind of action, and even to reduce them in certain cases to numerical formulae. The principles of induced polarity and of imaginary magnetic matter are here of little use; but the theory of lines of force is capable of the most perfect adaptation to this class of phenomena. (It may be that the molecular structure of different crystals moves in a way that collisions occur less often, the collisions of the stream of particles against the atomic structure pushing or turning the crystal.) Maxwell continues with "Theory of Conduction of Current Electricity.", in which he writes: " It is in the calculation of the laws of constant electric currents that the theory of fluid motion which we have laid down admits of the most direct application. In addition to the researches of Ohm on this subject, we have those of M. Kirchhoff, Ann. de Chim XLI. 496, and of M Quincke, XLVII. 203, on the Conduction of Electric Currents in Plates. According to the received opinions we have here a current of fluid moving uniformly in conducting circuits, which oppose a resistance to the current which has to be overcome by the application of an electro-motive force at some part of the circuit. On account of this resistance to the motion of the fluid the pressure must be different at different points in the circuit. This pressure, which is commonly called electrical tension, is found to be physically identical with the potential in statical electricity, and thus we have the means of connecting the two sets of phenomena. If we knew what amount of electricity, measured statically, passes along that current which we assume as our unit of current, then the connexion of electricity of tension with current electricity would be completed.{fn: See Exp. Res. (371).} This has as yet been done only approximately, but we know enough to be certain that the conducting powers of different substances differ only in degree, and that the difference between glass and metal is, that the resistance is a great but finite quantity in glass, and a small but finite quantity in metal. Thus the analogy between statical electricity and fluid motion turns out more perfect than we might have supposed, for there the induction goes on by conduction just as in current electricity but the quantity conducted is insensible owing to the great resistance of the dielectrics.{fn: Exp. Res. Vol. III. p. 313.} (Interesting, as I understand it, that Maxwell is saying that static electricity can be viewed as moving electricity, but with a current so small moving through a non-conductor, as to create a very large voltage difference, or electric potential between two points in the non-conductor. Although static electricity seems to me more like simply a build up of particles of one kind of a matching pair to me, similar to an acid-base reaction - as Davy had described.) Then is "On Electro-motive Forces." Maxwell writing: " When a uniform current exists in a closed circuit it is evident that some other forces must act on the fluid besides the pressures. For if the current were due to difference of pressures, then it would flow from the point of greatest pressure in both directions to the point of least pressure, whereas in reality it circulates in one direction constantly. {ULSF in both directions perhaps is more easily understood to be 'in all directions'.} We must must therefore admit the existence of certain forces capable of keeping up a constant current in a closed circuit. {ULSF Interesting the creation of a force, as opposed to the natural geometrical effect of atomic diffusion because of newly opened spaces and natural diffusion.} Of these the most remarkable is that which is produced by chemical action. A cell of a voltaic battery, or rather the surface of separation of the fluid of the cell and the zinc, is the seat of an electro motive force which can maintain a current in opposition to the resistance of the circuit. If we adopt the usual convention in speaking of electric currents, the positive current is from the fluid through the platinum, the conducting circuit, and the zinc, back to the fluid again. If the electro-motive force act only in the surface of separation of the fluid and zinc, then the tension of electricity in the fluid must exceed that in the zinc by a quantity depending on the nature and length of the circuit and on the strength of the current in the conductor. In order to keep up this difference of pressure there must be an electro-motive force, whose intensity is measured by that difference of pressure. If F be the electro-motive force, I the quantity of the current or the number of electrical units delivered in unit of time, and К a quantity depending on the length and resistance of the conducting circuit, then F= IK = p - p',
where p is the electric tension in the fluid and p' in the zinc. If the circuit be broken at any point, then since there is no current the tension of the part which remains attached to the platinum will be p, and that of the other will be p'. p-p', or F affords a measure of the intensity of the current. This distinction of quantity and intensity is very useful, {fn: Exp. Res. Vol. III. p 519?} but must be distinctly understood to mean nothing more than this:- The quantity of a current is the amount of electricity which it transmits in unit of time, and is measured by I the number of unit currents which it contains. The intensity of a current is its power of overcoming resistance, and is measured by F or IK, where К is the resistance of the whole circuit. The same idea of quantity and intensity may be applied to the case of magnetism. {fn: Exp. Res. (2870?),(3293?).} The quantity of magnetization in any section of a magnetic body is measured by the number of lines of magnetic force which pass through it. {ULSF a more simplified view would reduce magnetism to electricity and electric particles only.} The intensity of magnetization in the section depends on the resisting power of the section, as well as on the number of lines which pass through it. If k be the resisting power of the material, and S the area of the section, and I the number of lines of force which pass through it, then the whole intensity throughout the section
= F = Ik/S.
When magnetization is produced by the influence of other magnets only, we may put p for the magnetic tension at any point, then for the whole magnetic solenoid
F=I∫k/S dx = IK = p - p'. {ULSF: notice the identical relation of number of magnetic lines to number of electric particles, that is electric current.}
When a solenoidal magnetized circuit returns into itself, the magnetization does not depend on difference of tensions only, but on some magnetizing force of which the intensity is F. {ULSF another way of describing F might be, the resulting force of the inherent tension.} If i be the quantity of the magnetization at any point, or the number of lines of force passing through unit of area in the section of the solenoid, then the total quantity of magnetization in the circuit is the number of lines which pass through any section I=Σidydx, where dydx is the element of the section, and the summation is performed over the whole section. The intensity of magnetization at any point, or the force required to keep up the magnetization, is measured by ki=f, and the total intensity of magnetization in the circuit is measured by the sum of the local intensities all round the circuit,
F=Σ(fdx),
where dx is the element of length in the circuit, and the summation is extended round the entire circuit. In the same circuit we have always F=IK, where К is the total resistance of the circuit, and depends on its form and the matter of which it is composed.
On the Action of closed Currents at a Distance.
The mathematical laws of the attractions and repulsions of conductors have been most ably investigated by Ampère, and his results have stood the test of subsequent experiments. From the single assumption, that the action of an element of one current upon an element of another current is an attractive or repulsive force acting in the direction of the line joining the two elements, he has determined by the simplest experiments the mathematical form of the law of attraction, and has put this law into several most elegant and useful forms. We must recollect however that no experiments have been made on these elements of currents except under the form of closed currents either in rigid conductors or in fluids, and that the laws of closed currents only can be deduced from such experiments. Hence if Ampere's formulae applied to closed currents give true results, their truth is not proved for elements of currents unless we assume that the action between two such elements must be along the line which joins them. Although this assumption is most warrantable and philosophical in the present state of science, it will be more conducive to freedom of investigation if we endeavour to do without it, and to assume the laws of closed currents as the ultimate datum of experiment. {ULSF this appears to be saying that Ampere's laws for closed currents do not apply when attributed to individual particles in electric current.} Ampere has shewn that when currents are combined according to the law of the parallelogram of forces, the force due to the resultant current is the resultant of the forces due to the component currents, and that equal and opposite currents generate equal and opposite forces, and when combined neutralize each other. He has also shewn that a closed circuit of any form has no tendency to turn a moveable circular conductor about a fixed axis through the centre of the circle perpendicular to its plane, and that therefore the forces in the case of a closed circuit render Xdx+Ydy+Zdz a complete differential. Finally, he has shewn that if there be two systems of circuits similar and similarly situated, the quantity of electrical current in corresponding conductors being the same, the resultant forces are equal, whatever be the absolute dimensions of the systems, which proves that the forces are, caeteris paribus, inversely as the square of the distance. From these results it follows that the mutual action of two closed currents whose areas are very small is the same as that of two elementary magnetic bars magnetized perpendicularly to the plane of the currents. The direction of magnetization of the equivalent magnet may be predicted by remembering that a current travelling round the earth from east to west as the sun appears to do, would be equivalent to that magnetization which the earth actually possesses, and therefore in the reverse direction to that of a magnetic needle when pointing freely. {ULSF The right hand rule is also a useful tool.} If a number of closed unit currents in contact exist on a surface, then at all points in which two currents are in contact there will be two equal and opposite currents which will produce no effect, but all round the boundary of the surface occupied by the currents there will be a residual current not neutralized by any other; and therefore the result will be the same as that of a single unit current round the boundary of all the currents.
From this it appears that the external attractions of a shell uniformly magnetized perpendicular to its surface are the same as those due to a current round its edge, for each of the elementary currents in the former case has the same effect as an element of the magnetic shell. If we examine the lines of magnetic force produced by a closed current, we shall find that they form closed curves passing round the current and embracing it, and that the total intensity of the magnetizing force all along the closed line of force depends on the quantity of the electric current only. The number of unit lines {fn: Exp Res (3122?). See Art. (6) of this paper.} of magnetic force due to a closed current depends on the form as well as the quantity of the current, but the number of unit cells {fn: Art (13).} in each complete line of force is measured simply by the number of unit currents which embrace it. The unit cells in this case are portions of space in which unit of magnetic quantity is produced by unity of magnetizing force. The length of a cell is therefore inversely as the intensity of the magnetizing force and its section is inversely as the quantity of magnetic induction at that point. The whole number of cells due to a given current is therefore proportional to the strength of the current multiplied by the number of lines of force which pass through it. If by any change of the form of the conductors the number of cells can be increased, there will be a force tending to produce that change, so that there is always a force urging a conductor transverse to the lines of magnetic force, so as to cause more lines of force to pass through the closed circuit of which the conductor forms a part. The number of cells due to two given currents is got by multiplying the number of lines of inductive magnetic action which pass through each by the quantity of the currents respectively. Now by (9) the number of lines which pass through the first current is the sum of its own lines and those of the second current which would pass through the first if the second current alone were in action. Hence the whole number of cells will be increased by any motion which causes more lines of force to pass through either circuit, and therefore the resultant force will tend to produce such a motion, and the work done by this force during the motion will be measured by the number of new cells produced. All the actions of closed conductors on each other may be deduced from this principle. (To me this is simply that, as opposed to lines of force, particles add up to produce a larger force like two streams of water joining.)
On Electric Currents produced by Induction
Faraday has shewn {fn: Exp. Res. (2077?), &c.} that when a conductor moves transversely to the lines of magnetic force, an electro-motive force arises in the conductor, tending to produce a current in it. If the conductor is closed, there is a continuous current, if open, tension is the result. If a closed conductor move transversely to the lines of magnetic induction, then, if the number of lines which pass through it does not change during the motion, the electro motive forces in the circuit will be in equilibrium, and there will be no current. Hence the electro-motive forces depend on the number of lines which are cut by the conductor during the motion. {ULSF Another interpretation is to replace lines with streams of particles - so if moving across the direction of the stream, there is current for a circular wire, and voltage for an open wire, while if moving in the direction of the stream there is no current or voltage.} If the motion be such that a greater number of lines pass through the circuit formed by the conductor after than before the motion, then the electro-motive force will be measured by the increase of the number of lines, and will generate a current the reverse of that which would have produced the additional lines. When the number of lines of inductive magnetic action through the circuit is increased, the induced current will tend to diminish the number of the lines, and when the number is diminished the induced current will tend to increase them.(Another interpretation might be that: When the current is increased in a conductor, it increases the particles in the electric field. A stream of current is created in a second conductor, the second conductor being subject to collision with this increased field. This stream moves in a direction opposite the stream in the first {increased current} conductor.) That this is the true expression for the law of induced currents is shewn from the fact that, in whatever way the number of lines of magnetic induction passing through the circuit be increased, the electro-motive effect is the same, whether the increase take place by the motion of the conductor itself, or of other conductors, or of magnets, or by the change of intensity of other currents, or by the magnetization or demagnetization of neighbouring magnetic bodies, or lastly by the change of intensity of the current itself. In all these cases the electro-motive force depends on the change in the number of lines of inductive magnetic action which pass through the circuit. {fn: The electro-magnetic forces, which tend to produce motion of the material conductor, must be carefully distinguished from the electro-motive forces, which tend to produce electric currents. Let an electric current be passed through a mass of metal of any form. The distribution of the currents within the metal will be determined by the laws of conduction. Now let a constant electric current be passed through another conductor near the first. If the two currents are in the same direction the two conductors will be attracter towards each other, and would come nearer if not held in their positions. but though the material conductors are attracter, the currents (which are free to choose any course within the metal) will not alter their original distribution, or incline towards each other. For, since no change takes place in the system, there will be no electro-motive forces to modify the original distribution of currents. In this case we have electro-magnetic forces on the material conductor, without any electro-motive forces tending to modify the current which it carries. Let us take as another example the case of a linear conductor, not forming a closed circuit, and let it be made to traverse the lines of magnetic force, with by its own motion, or by changes in the magnetic firld. An electro-motive force will act in the direction of the conductor, and, as it cannot produce a current, because there is no circuit, it will produce electric tension at the extremities. There will be no electromagnetic attraction on the material conductor, for this attraction depends on the existence of the current within it, and this is prevented by the circuit not being closed. Here then we have the opposite case of an electro-motive force acting on the electricity in the conductor, but no attraction on its material particles.}. (I am not sure this idea of a linear conductor, for example a wire, only having a voltage at both extremities, while a closed loop of wire has a current but no voltage. Because, clearly a current implies a voltage, as a voltage implies a current. There cannot be one without the other - except possibly in static electricity - although possibly that could be looked at as a immeasurably small current - facing high resistance in every direction.)". Maxwell addresses Faraday's theory of an electrotonic state, how Faraday then rejected it as unnecessary, but that there may be some physical truth to it. Maxwell concludes Part I with "By a careful study of the laws of elastic solids and of the motions of viscous fluids, I hope to discover a method of forming a mechanical conception of this electro-tonic state adapted to general reasoning.".
Next in the paper is: "Part II. On Faraday's "Electro-tonic State." " which contains more complex math, including triple integrals, integrals over three spacial dimensions - that is calculating a 4 dimensional volume, a volume of 3 dimensional space over time, which is equivalent to a calculation of work, using Helmholtz's math from his "Conservation of Force" as a basis. Maxwell writes "...Considerations of this kind led professor Faraday to connect with his discovery of the induction of electric currents, the conception of a state into which all bodies are thrown by the presence of magnets and currents. ... To this state he gave the name of the "Electro-tonic State,". (In my own opinion, electric induction should be viewed as a particle collision phenomenon, as opposed to a "state" of matter.)
Maxwell writes "...If we conceive of the conductor as the channel along which a fluid is constrained to move, then the quantity of fluid transmitted by each section will be the same, and we may define the quantity of an electric current to be the quantity of electricity which passes across a complete section of the current in unit of time. ... ...".
Maxwell then goes on to use the three dimensional variables x,y,z to determine the electro-motive force that results from electric tension at any point in a conductor, in addition to the quantity of current at any point in a conductor. Maxwell raises the question of resistance being different in different directions in a conductor. Maxwell then performs similar calculations for magnetism. Maxwell states that "...Since the mathematical laws of magnetism are identical with those of electricity, as far as we now consider them, we may regard αβγ as magnetizing forces, p as magnetic tensionm and ρ as real magnetic density, k being the coefficient of resistance to magnetic induction. (Again, here clearly, simply reducing magnetism to electricity would be more accurate I think. The main difference being the "permanent magnetic" properties of the medium, that is to sustain a constant current. Perhaps that feature of a material, being able to maintain a constant current with no external source should be added to the equations.)
Maxwell writes: "Let us now call Q the total potential of the system on itself. The increase of decrease of Q will measure the work lost or gained by any displacement of any part of the system, and will therefore enable us to determine the forces acting on that part of the system. ...".
Summarizing the triple integral equation (over 3d space, that is dx,dy,dz) of Q:
Q = ∫∫∫{p1ρ1 - (1/4π) * (α0a2 β0b2 γ0c2)}dxdydz. Maxwell writes "We have now obtained in the functions α0 β0 γ0 the means of avoiding the consideration of the quantity of magnetic induction which passes through the circuit. Instead of this artificial method we have the natural one of considering the current with reference to quantities existing in the same space with the current itself. To these I give the name of Electro-tonic functions, or components of the Electro-tonic intensity.".
In his "Summary of the Theory of the Electro-tonic State" Maxwell writes: " We may conceive of the electro-tonic state at any point of space as a quantity determinate in magnitude and direction, and we may represent the electro-tonic condition of a portion of space by any mechanical system which has at every point some quantity, which may be a velocity, a displacement, or a force, whose direction and magnitude correspond to those of the supposed electro-tonic state. This representation involves no physical theory, it is only a kind of artificial notation. In analytical investigations we make use of the three components of the electro-tonic state, and call them electro-tonic functions. We take the resolved part of the electro-tonic intensity at every point of a closed curve, and find by integration what we may tonic round the curve, and find by integration what we may call the entire electro-tonic intensity round the curve. ...".
Maxwell defines six laws: "LAW I. The entire electro-tonic intensity round the boundary of an element of surface measures the quantity of magnetic induction which passes through that surface, or, in other words, the number of lines of magnetic force which pass through that surface. ... LAW II. The magnetic intensity at any point is connected with the quantity of magnetic induction by a set of linear equations, called the equations of conduction {fn: See Art. (28)}. ... LAW III. The entire magnetic intensity round the boundary of any surface measures the quantity of electric current which passes through that surface. LAW IV. The quantity and intensity of electric currents are connected by a system of equations of conduction. ... LAW V. The total electro-magnetic potential of a closed current is measured by the product of the quantity of the current multiplied by the entire electro-tonic intensity estimated in the same direction round the circuit. ... LAW VI. The electro-motive force on any element of à conductor is measured by the instantaneous rate of change of the electro-tonic intensity on that element, whether in magnitude or direction. ...". Maxwell then summarizes some of Weber's electrical theories and writes: ...What is the use then of imagining an electro-tonic state of which we have no distinctly physical conception instead of a formula of attraction which we can readily understand? I would answer, that it is a good thing to have two ways of looking at a subject, and to admit that there are two ways of looking at it. Besides, I do not think that we have any right at present to understand the action of electricity, and I hold that the chief merit of a temporary theory is, that it shall guide experiment, without impeding the progress of the true theory when it appears. There are also objections to making any ultimate forces in nature depend on the velocity of the bodies between which they act. {ULSF Which Weber's theory presumes.} If the forces in nature are to be reduced to forces acting between particles, the principle of the Conservation of Force requires that these forces should be in the line joining the particles and functions of the distance only. ...".
and writes "...With respect to the history of the present theory, I may state that the recognition of certain mathematical functions as expressing the "electro-tonic state" of Faraday, and the use of them in determining electro-dynamic potentials and electro-motive forces, is, as far as I am aware, original; but the distinct conception of the possibility of the mathematical expressions arose in my mind from the perusal of Prof. W. Thomson's papers "On a Mechanical Representation of Electric, Magnetic and Galvanic Forces, " Cambridge and Dublin mathematical Journal, January, 1847, and his "Mathematical Theory of magnetism," Philosophical Transactions, Part I. 1851, Art. 78, &c...".
Maxwell then gives 12 examples of how equations apply to physical phenomena: "Examples. I. Theory of Electrical images. ... II. On the effect of a paramagnetic or diamagnetic sphere in a uniform field of magnetic force. ... III. Magnetic field of variable Intensity. ... IV. Two Spheres in uniform field. ... V. Two Spehres between the poles of a Magnet. ... VI. On the Magnetic Phenomena of a Sphere cut from a substance whose coefficient of resistance is different in different directions. ... VII. Permanent magnetism in a spherical shell. ... VIII. Electro-magnetic spherical shell. ... IX. Effect of the core of the electro-magnet. ... X. Electro-tonic functions in spherical electro-magnet. ... XI. Spherical electro-magnetic Coil-Machine. ... XII. Spherical shell revolving in magnetic field.".
Historian Edmund Whittaker writes that this "... first memoir may be regarded as an attempt to connect the ideas of Faraday with the mathematical analogies which had been devised by Thomson.".
(I think Maxwell's equations need to be reworked to replace magnetism with electricity.) (The comparison of heat and action at a distance as using the same math is interesting. Ultimately, in my view, the more accurate equations, describe groups of particles with 3 dimensional spacial location, 1 dimensional time location, and a velocity which describes the change in spacial locations over time; the particles moving, theoretically only from inertia and gravity, although larger scale products of smaller scale activity may be described as new, although collective, forces or phenomena. In heat, the movement is photons, atoms, just as in electricity the movement is particles, the flow of water, etc...all particles moving from inertia, and gravity with other concepts being explained as combined products. But clearly, there are difficulties in modeling this, how to explain the collective effects of living objects, for example, which work as large scale molecular bodies to move other large scale molecular bodies? Is this activity, simply ultimately the result of gravity and inertia? If not, what other scientific forces or properties can explain this large scale phenomenon? Obviously I rule out the theory of gods. Perhaps humans and their molecules are expresses some larger scale product of gravity, which seeks to unite itself with other matter.) (Interestingly, there are at least 3 cases with electricity: 1) an uncharged conductor is attracted to a charged conductor of either relative positive or negative charge, 2) a charged conductor or nonconductor is attracted to an opposite charged conductor or nonconductor, 3) a charged conductor or nonconductor is repulsed by a conductor or nonconductor of the same charge. - I presume that both conductors and nonconductors can hold a charge - is this not true? verify.) (I view magnetism as identical to electricity, any differences resulting from physical differences in the conductor in which the particles move in. I view the force resulting from electricity and magnetism as due to particle collision. For example, at the North pole particles are ejected - so particles emiting from two North Poles collide off each other and appear to repel the two sources, while two South Poles repel at the sides from particles turning to enter the pole, and opposite poles attract because particles emited at the north pole can enter the south pole current. I may have the poles reversed in terms of exiting and entering particle streams.)
(Interesting to view a magnetic or electric field as being a set of tubes. It seems unlikely to me, but it is a nice visualization. The obvious problem that comes to mind is that there are no physical tube structures around magnet in space. There is no container for an electric field, and theoretically, particles moving as a result of the electric reaction in a conductor are not in containers, although, perhaps there is some structural property of conductors which allow easier movement as opposed to non-conductors.) (There is an interesting idea of comparing electrical current to other chemical reactions. EXPERIMENT: Are there chemical reactions that resemble electric current? There are acid+base reactions, but other reactions where the chain reaction moves over a space, perhaps only in conductors or special materials. One simple one is two cups, one with water, another with salt water, are then connected by a straw. The movement of sodium atoms to the pure water cup might represent a current - can they perform work in their motion as electric current does? This might be viewed as the force of chemical combination, or equilibrium, and so perhaps electricity is a subset of this force of chemical or atomic or structural equilibrium.)
(I think this paper is somewhat important to go over and understand, in that it is an early view of Maxwell's theories, and possibly the most simple and easy to understand.)
(Is Maxwell the first to apply math to magnetism? Did Ohm? How similar is Maxwell's math for both electricity and magnetism, to Ohms and Helmholtz's for electricity?)
(To me the concept of "lines of force", perhaps envisioned by the lines made by iron filings around electro and permanent magnets, is perhaps not as accurate as describing this quantity in "particles per second", or in other words in current, that is in "amps". If we can accept that the theory of more lines of force is equivalent with a larger number of particles around a magnet.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 2463) Pierre Fidèle Bretonneau (BreTunO) (CE 1778-1862), speculates on the communicability of disease in a doctrine of specific causes of infectious diseases, which foreshadows the germ theory of Pasteur.
| Tours, France (presumably) |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 2632) The "Gravity battery" (also known as" Callaud's battery") is invented. This is a variation of the Daniell cell (John Frederic Daniell (CE 1790-1845)) of 1837. Callaud, Meidinger, and Varley all develop variations of gravity batteries. In the gravity battery the porous jar is removed, leaving the zinc and copper sulfate liquids to separate by density, similar to oil and water, with the copper sulfate being the denser settling to the bottom.
To work the battery must be kept stationary.
| London, England (presumably) |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 2764) Thomas Addison (CE 1793-1860), English physician is the first to give an accurate description of the hormone deficiency disease that results from the deterioration of the adrenal cortex. This condition is called Addison's disease. Addison's disease is the first time a disease is shown to be associated with changes in one of the endocrine glands.
The endocrine glands are any of various glands producing hormonal secretions that pass directly into the bloodstream. The endocrine glands include the thyroid, parathyroids, anterior and posterior pituitary, pancreas, adrenals, pineal, and gonads. The endocrine glands are also called ductless glands. Exocrine glands are externally secreting glands, such as a salivary gland or sweat gland that release its secretions directly or through a duct.
Addison publishes a description of this disease in "On the Constitutional and Local Effects of Disease of the Supra-renal Capsules".
This book is entirely dedicated to his description of a new disease characterized by "anaemia, general languor and debility, remarkable feebleness of the heart's action, irritability of the stomach, and a peculiar change of colour in the skin, occurring in connection with a diseased condition of the 'supra-renal capsules."'. Addison's also notes the peculiar bronze color of the skin. Addison describes 11 cases, with an autopsy in each. In each Addison finds a lesion in the suprarenal glands, and three-quarters of these lesions are due to tuberculosis.
Before 1855 no disease of any other endocrine gland had been discovered, so Addison is therefore the founder of clinical endocrinology.
| (Guy's Hospital) London, England |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3020) Matthew Fontaine Maury (CE 1806-1873), American oceanographer, publishes the first first modern oceanographic text, "Physical Geography of the Sea" (1855).
However, in this work, Maury insists on accepting the literal words of the Bible, and rejects any evolutionary aspect of oceanography.
This work is received enthusiastically in general and religious publications, but critically in scientific journals because of Maury's tendency to place his theories in religious language.
Also in this year Maury's "Sailing Directions" include a section recommending that eastbound and westbound steamers travel in separate lanes in the North Atlantic to prevent collisions.
| Washington, DC, USA |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3021) Matthew Fontaine Maury (CE 1806-1873), American oceanographer, attempts to invent an electric torpedo. (battery powered propeller?)
At the start of the United States Civil War, Maury became head of coast, harbor and river defenses, and (attempts) to invent an electric torpedo for harbor defence. In 1862 Maury is ordered to England to purchase torpedo material.
| Washington, DC, USA |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3024) Luigi Palmieri (PoLmYerE) (CE 1807-1896), Italian physicist designs a seismometer, an instrument that measures the amount of ground motion. Palmieri's seismometer consists of several U-shaped tubes filled with mercury and oriented toward the different points of the compass. When the ground shakes, the motion of the mercury makes an electrical contact that stops a clock and simultaneously starts a recording drum on which the motion of a float on the surface of mercury is recorded. This device therefore indicates time of occurrence, the relative intensity, and duration of the ground motion.
This invention is the beginning on the path to the first seismograph.
| (Vesuvius Observatory) Naples, Italy |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3082) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, introduces the Bunsen burner.
Bunsen is generally credited with the invention of the Bunsen burner, however a similar burner, used by Michael Faraday, did exist before Bunsen and the regulating collar is a later refinement.
Bunsen is well known for this burner that he first uses this year (1855). The burner is perforated at the bottom so that air is drawn in by the gas flow. The resulting gas-air mixture burns with steady heat and little light, without smoke or flickering. A similar (but more primitive) burner had been used by Faraday, but Bunsen is remembered for using this and it is still called a Bunsen burner. (Did Faraday invent this burner?)
Bunsen devises this when a simple means of burning ordinary coal gas with a hot smokeless flame is required for the new laboratory at Heidelberg.
An article published by Bunsen and Kirchhoff in 1860 states: "The (spectral) lines show up the more distinctly the higher the temperature and the lower the luminescence of the flame itself. The gas burner described by one of us has a flame of very high temperature and little luminescence and is, therefore, particularly suitable for experiments on the bright lines that are characteristic for these substances.".
Three years before this, as a condition of his coming to the University of Heidelberg, Bunsen insists on a new laboratory building and also gas piping included. The city of Heidelberg had just acquired a gas works to light the city streets and Bunsen's requests are fulfilled.
Bunsen has the simple idea of mixing the gas (methane) with the air before combustion as opposed to mixing the gas and air right at the point of combustion. Bunsen then goes to the university mechanic, Peter Desaga, who designs and builds the burner according the Bunsen's specifications. Desaga's son, Carl Desaga, founds the C. Desaga Factory for Scientific Apparatus to handle the demands for burners that begin flowing in from all the Earth. Although no records exist, it is probably Peter Desaga who contributes the modern design of two large holes with a rotatable, perforated ring. Bunsen and Desaga do not apply for patent protection on their burner.
The Bunsen burner is the forerunner of the gas-stove burner and the gas furnace. (see image) The Bunsen burner consists of a metal tube on a base with a gas inlet at the lower end of the tube, which may have an adjusting valve; openings in the sides of the tube can be regulated by a collar to admit as much air as desired. The mixture of air and gas (optimally about 1 part gas to 3 parts air) is forced by gas pressure to the top of the tube, where it is ignited with a match. The gas burns with a light blue flame, the primary flame, seen as a small inner cone, and a secondary, almost colorless flame, seen as a larger, outer cone, which results when the remaining gas is completely oxidized by the surrounding air. The hottest part of the Bunsen flame, which is found just above the tip of the primary flame, reaches around 1,500 C (2,700 F). With too little air, the gas mixture will not burn completely and will form tiny carbon particles that are heated to glowing, making the flame luminous. With too much air, the flame may burn inside the burner tube.
Two years later in 1857, Bunsen describes his burner in an article co-authored by Henry Roscoe. They write: "... which one of us has devised and introduced in place of the wire gauze burners in the the laboratory here, and which is better suited than any other appliance for producing steady flames of different luminosity, color, and form. The principle of this burner is simply that city gas is allowed to issue under such conditions that by its own movement it carries along and mixes with itself precisely enough air so that the resulting air-bearing gas mixture is just at the limit where it has not yet acquired the ability to propagate the flame through itself. In the figure a is an ordinary cross cut burner rising in the center of the cylindrical space b to the same height as the cube cccc. The cylindrical space b, which is 15 mm deep and has a diameter of 10 mm, communicates with the outside air through the four holes d, which are 7 mm. in diameter. If the tube ee, which is 8.5 mm wide and 75 mm long is screwed into the cylinder, it sucks in so much air through the openings d that it burns at the mouth of the tube e with a nonluminous, perfectly soot-free flame. The brightness of the gas thus mixed with air hardly exceeds that of a hydrogen flame. After the openings d are closed, the bright and sooting illuminating gas flame reappears."
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3131) Alexander Parkes (CE 1813-1890), English chemist, makes an early plastic. Parks finds that pyroxylin (partly nitrated cellulose), when dissolved in alcohol and ether in which camphor had been dissolved will produce a hard solid after evaporation, which will soften and become malleable when heated. Parkes finds no way of successfully marketing the substance. Hyatt will bring this to the public's attention 15 years later.
Parkes wants to find a substance that can replace ivory, which is getting rarer because ivory can only be obtained from an expensive and small supply of elephant tusks. Parkes notices when a jar of collodion is exposed to air for a period of time, the collodion turns into a moldable form. Working from collodion, Parkes develops a substance he calls "xylonite" or "parkesine" and later "celluloid". Parkes uses cellulose nitrate in the form of cotton fiber or wood flour dissolved in nitric and sulfuric acids, and mixes it with vegetable oils such as castor oil and wood naphtha. The combination makes a dough that can simulate ivory and can be textured and painted. Parkes realizes the potential of this discovery and exhibits a few molded household goods (knife handles, combs, plaques, and medallions) at the 1862 International Exhibition in London, where Parkes receives a bronze medal. Parkes also receives recognition in 1867 at a similar exhibition in Paris.
Parkesine is softened by heat and placed in molds or carved by hand. Parkesine can be painted and have objects inlaid. Parkesine is much less expensive to produce than leather or rubber.
Henri Braconnot (BroKunO) (CE 1781-1855), prepared "xyloidine" (what Schonbein will name cellulose nitrate also know as nitrocellulose) the first polymer or plastic in 1832 which Braconnet shaped into objects and used as a varnish. Parkes recognizes that expensive objects, from limited natural resources, can be replaced by lower cost synthetic objects produced from other less expensive more abundant raw materials. Parkes lists all the devices he thinks can be replaced by products made of parkesine which include brush backs, shoe soles, whips, walking sticks, buttons, brooches, buckles, decorative work with inlay and piercings, tubes, umbrellas, treated cloth, counters, and balls (in particular billiard balls). Parkes also adds dye to parkesine and creates brightly colored products that still are colorful over 150 years later.
| (Elkington and Mason copper smelting plant) Pembrey, South Wales, England |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3139) Heinrich Geissler (GISlR) (CE 1814-1879), German inventor, invents an air pump (the "Geissler pump") that uses liquid mercury to create a vacuum in containers.
These vacuum tubes will be called "Geissler tubes" by his friend Plücker.
Two hundred years before, in 1643 Evangelista Torricelli (TORriceLlE) (CE 1608-1647) had created a vacuum using liquid mercury. In 1650, Otto von Guericke had invented the first air pump, which Guericke used to produce a vacuum by pumping air out of a vessel. The Geissler pump is an air pump that uses the principle of the Torricellian vacuum, and in which the vacuum is produced by the flow of mercury back and forth between a vertically adjustable and a fixed reservoir. (A person moving the mercury chamber and the force of gravity are the mechanical forces that create the vacuum, in addition to the seal made by the liquid mercury with the wall of the glass mercury chamber. (verify))
Geissler uses Toricelli's method to make an air pump without moving mechanical parts. He moves a column of liquid mercury up and down. The vacuum above the column is used to suck out the air in an enclosed vessel little by little until the vacuum in the vessel approaches that above the mercury. In this way Geissler evacuates chambers more thoroughly than anyone ever before. In addition, as opposed to Torricelli's vacuum, with Geissler's method the mercury is in a separate vessel (verify). (explain how the vessels are separated without air going in.)
In most mercury pumps the parts are made of glass, the connections being made with rubber tubing. (see image) In the diagram A is a large bulb B is a tube about 3 feet long, С a rubber tube uniting the lower end of B with the vessel D which is open on top. A can be connected with either of the tubes G or F but not with both at once, or it can be shut off from both. The receiver to be exhausted is connected with G, and F leads to the open air. Enough mercury is used to fill A, B, C and D, as shown, and the vessel D is capable of being raised or lowered. The operation of the pump is as follows: Suppose the vessel D is raised a little higher than A, as in the figure. The mercury will flow into the bulb A which it fills if the cock E is turned so as to connect A with the outside air. The cock is then turned so as to connect A through the tube G with the vessel to be exhausted, the air in which at this stage is at atmospheric pressure. D is then lowered and the level of the mercury in A is lowered in consequence, the mercury running down B and С to D. As the mercury in A descends, air is drawn from the receiver through G into A, so when the mercury has descended below A the whole space is filled with the air drawn through G, which having expanded from the receiver attached to G is at less than atmospheric pressure. The cock E is then turned so as to cut off communication between A and G. D is then slowly raised, and the mercury flows gradually back into A, compressing the air above it until it is at atmospheric pressure. At this point the cock E should be turned to connect A with the outside air F, and as D continues rising, the mercury continues to drive out all the air at F, until the bulb A is filled with mercury to the cock E, which is then closed so as to cut off all communication with A. When D is again lowered the mercury does not begin to fall in A until D is about 30 inches below A. It then begins to descend leaving a Torricellian vacuum above it, and D is lowered until A is empty. The cock is then turned so as to connect A with the receiver through G, and the remaining air in that vessel expands and fills A. The cock E is next turned off, D is raised, and the mercury rising in A compresses the air above it until it is let out at F by turning the cock. By repeating this operation a sufficient number of times, a vacuum is gradually produced in the receiver connected to G. When the operation is nearly finished great care must be taken not to raise the vessel D too rapidly, or the impact of the mercury against the top of the bulb A will break the apparatus. It will also be seen that when the vacuum is nearly reached the mercury in A will be at the top of the bulb when D is about 30 inches below. If the valve should be turned to F at this point the inrush of air would drive the mercury down. Therefore no communication between A and F must be made until D has been raised on a level with K and no communication between G and A must be made until D is lowered 30 inches again otherwise mercury will run through G into the receiver which is exhausted.
Physicists had been trying to send electric charges through evacuated vessels. In 1785 William Morgan was the first to note the flourescence of a spark passed through a vacuum tube. Faraday had also noted this flourescence. The Geissler tubes are better vacuums then any before and allow progress in physics which will lead to the identification of the electron by J. J. Thompson 40 years later.
With the Geissler pump air is exhausted by the alternate emptying and filling with mercury of a vessel which forms the upper part of a barometric column, and is simply an application of the Torricellian vacuum (the only difference being that a tube connects to a separate tube that can be detached from the pump (verify)). Geissler uses this pump in the production of his vacuum tubes and since his time it has been modified and improved by many inventors. Sprengel will produce an improved version of this mercury pump in 1865. The Geissler tube, like earlier vacuum tubes, has two electrodes at opposite ends, and is used to demonstrate and study the light emitting effects of electricity passing through various gases at low pressures (rarefied gases). The color of the glow depends on the gas used. The tubes are made in a variety of shapes and are especially useful in spectroscopy. These tubes lead to all fluorescent lights, neon lights, xray machines, the cathode ray tube (which is television and computer monitors) electronic image displays including the display that show the first images generated by the brain known as thought images by Pupin in 1910.
This is not the first sealed vacuum tube with a wire passing through the glass on each side, however the vacuum in these tubes is more complete than any before.
In England, William Crookes will develop a modification of the Geissler tube into what is known as the Crookes tube.
In addition the vacuum pump is used for food preservation and storage.
Later, using an apparatus of his own invention, Geissler in collaboration with Julius Plücker demonstrate that water reaches its maximum density at 3.8 °C (later determined to be 3.98 °C).
| Bonn, Germany |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3160) Robert Remak (rAmoK or rAmaK?) (CE 1815-1865), German physician, states that the production of nuclei or cells is really only division of preexisting nuclei or cells.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3163) Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne (GEYOM BoNZomiN omoN DYUsEN) (CE 1806–75) publishes "De L'Electrisation Localisée et de son application à la pathologie et à la thérapeutique par courants induits et par courants galvani ques interrompus et continus" (1855; "Localized electrisation and its application to the pathology and therapeutics, by induced currents and by galvanic currents interrupted and continuous").
This work summarizes the results of Duchenne's work to classify the electrophysiology of the entire muscular system, studying the functions of isolated muscles in relation to bodily movements. Duchenne starts with the observation that a current from two electrodes applied to the wet skin can stimulate the muscles without affecting the skin. (describe how and what voltage) (Is this the first application of galvani's find to a species other than frogs?) Duchenne's application of this principle in the diagnosis of nervous disorders and makes Duchenne the founder of electrotherapy in which Duchenne is followed by Remak, Ziemssen, and Erb.
This work is on the path that leads to the remote stimulation of muscles and a massive secret surveillance society at least by 1922, and still secret from most people to this day.
Duchenne uses an induction coil to apply a high voltage over a nerve fiber of neurons. (verify)
Duchenne in France and Remak in Germany lay the foundation of applying the battery (galvanism) and the induction coil (faradism) to the health science of the nervous system.
Beginning in the 1840s, Guillaume Duchenne uses the induction coil to study muscles and paralysis. Duchenne notes that by varying the interrupter rate on the induction coil (and therefore varying the frequency of the high voltage pulses) he can cause muscles to either twitch (slow interrupter rate) or be in a tetanic or constant contraction state (fast interrupter rate). Duchenne extensively studies the muscles of the hand, arm, foot and face. Duchenne does this by passing the high voltage from the induction coil through a muscle (which he calls "localized faradization") and seeing what sort of movement the muscle's contraction causes. Duchenne discovers that a movement such as raising a fingeris not usually caused by the contraction of only one muscle but instead requires coordination between a number of (contracting) muscles. Duchenne also studies paralysis and develops a technique for determining its various causes. Duchenne determines that if a paralyzed muscle contracts due to localized faradization then the cause of the paralysis is in the brain. In other words, the muscle is fine but the control mechanism is damaged. If the muscle does not contract due to localized faradization, then the muscle or nerve is damaged. Duchenne also uses the induction coil for therapy in certain cases of paralysis. Duchenne notes that in the case of nerve injuries if some electrical contractility remains in the muscle (he can get the muscle to contract by putting high voltage through it) that recovery with localized faradization is rapid but if there are no contractions the recovery is very slow. Duchenne's study of muscles and paralysis through the use of the induction coil lays the groundwork for the field of neurology.
The key important development will be figuring out how to remotely make muscle contract. How this is first done is a secret from the public, however, a guess places this at 1912, by a person with the initials CP, at Columbia University working with Pupin, and is the result, again hypothesizing, of causing neurons to fire by tuning in on frequencies of photons that molecules in the neurons absorb. When enough photons are absorbed by a specific neuron, the neuron cell must fire causing the sensation in the brain, which may be seeing light, hearing sound, smell, feeling an itch, and even causing a muscle to contract.
In 1840 Jacob von Heine of Canstatt had described infantile paralysis as a spinal lesion, but people still usually regard infantile paralysis as an atrophic myasthenia from inactivity. Duchenne points out that such a profound disorder of the loco motor system can only come from a definite lesion which Duchenne locates in the anterior horns of the spinal cord (1855) this view being afterward confirmed by Gull, Charcot, Cornil and Vulpian.
| Paris, France |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3196) Charles Adolphe Wurtz (VURTS) (CE 1817-1884), French chemist, creates a method for synthesizing long-chain hydrocarbons by reacting hydrocarbon iodides with metallic sodium. This process is called the Wurtz reaction.
(Show reaction equations and images if possible)
The Wurtz reaction synthesizes hydrocarbons by reacting alkyl halides with sodium.
A similar reaction is adapted by the German chemist Rudolf Fittig for synthesizing mixed aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons (Wurtz-Fittig reaction).
Wurtz is the first to prepare phosphorus oxychloride, and a compound, ethylene glycol, that has two alcohol groups, and many other substances. (chronology)
Wurtz develops evidence supporting the theory that each molecule of hydrogen might comprise two equivalents or atoms of hydrogen, therefore supporting Avogadro's long-neglected molecular hypothesis. (chronology)
| (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3200) Sainte-Claire Deville (SoNT KLAR DuVEL) (CE 1818-1881) produces less expensive aluminum by substituting sodium for potassium in Wöhler's method.
Henri Étienne Sainte-Claire Deville (SoNT KLAR DuVEL) (CE 1818-1881), French chemist, produces aluminum by using Wöhler's method of reacting aluminum compounds with metallic potassium, but changes to using sodium with is safer and less expensive. Sainte-Claire Deville's process lowers the price of aluminum from $30,000 francs/kg in 1855 to 300 francs/kg in 1859, still too expensive to compete with steel. Hall and Héroult will lower the cost of aluminum production using electrolysis in 1886.
Deville developes a commercially successful process involving reduction of aluminum chloride by sodium. The first ingot of aluminum is produced in 1855.
Deville is an expert on the purification of metals and produces (among others) crystalline silicon (1854) and boron (1856), pure magnesium (1857), and pure titanium (1857; with Wöhler) and much of the work in isolating pure platinum.
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3553) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, synthesizes ethyl alcohol from ethylene by treatment with sulfuric acid.
This production of a natural substance in the laboratory convinces Berthelot that chemistry will destroy the metaphysical belief in a vital force, and leads Berthelot to a large program of "total synthesis", with the goal of synthesizing all organic compounds. (Synthesis is a good method to verify a chemical formula. It must be a good feeling to see that the synthesized product is in every way exactly the same as the naturally occuring molecule.)
Berthelot publishes this in a memoir to the French Academy of Sciences.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3564) Ferdinand Julius Cohn (CE 1828-1898), German botanist, demonstrates two cases of sexuality in algae (1855-1856).
Cohn establishes the existence of sexual processes in the algae Sphaeroplea and also reforms the classification of algae.
| (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
145 YBN
[1855 AD]
| 3565) Ferdinand Julius Cohn (CE 1828-1898), German botanist, shows that like animal cells, plant cell can also contract (have contractility).
| (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 2868) Édouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte Lartet (loRTA) (CE 1801-1871), French paleontologist finds remains of Dryopithecus, thought to be the ancestor of modern apes including humans.
| Aurignac?, France |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3095) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882) publishes "Human Physiology, Statistical and Dynamical" (1856), which is one of the first to produce photomicrographs, photographs of what a person can see under a microscope.
| (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3096) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882) publishes "The History of the Intellectual Development of Europe" (Harper Brothers, 1862), a two volume history of science.
| (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3097) John William Draper (CE 1811-1882) publishes "History of the Conflict between Religion and Science" (New York: D. Appleton, 1874), a rationalistic classic that arouses great controversy.
| (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3109) The "Bessemer process", a steel making process of burning away impurities by blowing air through molten metal.
(Sir) Henry Bessemer (CE 1813-1898), English metallurgist announces the "Bessemer process" for making steel. This begins the era of low cost steel. This will lead to giant ocean liners, steel-framed skyscrapers and huge suspension bridges. At this time there are only two types of iron, "cast iron" and "wrought iron". The iron that comes out of smelting furnaces is "cast iron", rich in carbon, very hard, but also brittle. The carbon can be removed to form practically pure iron called "wrought iron" which is tough (not brittle) but is soft. Steel is iron with a carbon content in between the brittle cast iron and the soft wrought iron, but in order to make steel, people have to convert cast iron to wrought iron and then add carbon. To convert the cast iron into wrought iron, iron ore (which is iron oxide) is added in precise amounts with the cast iron. The mixture is heated to the molten stage and the oxygen atoms in the iron ore combine with the carbon atoms in the cast iron to form carbon monoxide gas which bubbles out leaving pure iron. Bessemer theorizes that oxygen could be added directly in the form of a blast of air to burn off carbon. It seems that cold air would cool and solidify the molten iron, but Bessemer finds the exact opposite. The blast of air burns off the carbon and the heat of that burning (combustion with oxygen in air,) actually raises the temperature (so no external source of fuel is needed). By stopping the process at a certain time Bessemer finds that he has steel without having to make wrought iron first, and in addition spend less money on fuel. Steel can now be made at a fraction of the usual cost.
The Bessemer converter that he invented is a cylindrical vessel mounted in such a way that it can be tilted to receive a charge of molten metal from the blast furnace. It is then brought upright for the ‘blow’ to take place. Air is blown in through a series of nozzles at the base and the carbon impurities are oxidized and carried away by the stream of air.
Bessemer announces this this discovery in 1856. At first Bessemer's idea is accepted enthusiastically and within weeks Bessemer receives £27,000 in license fees and steel makers invest in "blast furnaces". However, though the process had worked for Bessemer, it fails for others because of excess oxygen trapped in the metal, and because of the presence of phosphorus in the ores. The ore Bessemer used had been phosphorus-free.
Around 1856, Robert Mushet solves the problem of the excess oxygen by the addition of an alloy of iron, manganese, and carbon to the melt. In 1878, the problem of phosphorus impurities is solved by Sydney Gilchrist Thomas and Percy Carlyle Gilchrist.
| Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England (announcement) |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3118) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, shows that carbon monoxide replaces oxygen in combining with hemoglobin causing death by oxygen starvation.
Bernard shows that the poisonous action of carbon monoxide is in the way that carbon monoxide replaces oxygen in combining with hemoglobin. The body cannot counter this fast enough to stop death by oxygen starvation. This is the first successful explanation of how a drug acts on the body.
Bernard carries out a number of experiments which show that carbon monoxide prevents red blood cells from taking up, and therefore delivering oxygen to the tissues, showing that animals poisoned with carbon monoxide die from a different form of asphyxia ("Analyse physiologique des propriétés des systèmes musculaire et nerveux au moyen du curare.", (C. R. hebd. Acad. Sci., t. 43, 1856, p. 825-829).
Bernard in using carbon monoxide to displace oxygen from red blood cells in the test tube, he develops a method for measuring the oxygen content of blood ("Sur la quantité d'oxygène que contient le sang veineux des organes glandulaires à l'état de fonction et à l'état de repos, et sur l'emploi de l'oxyde de carbone pour déterminer les proportions d'oxygène du sang." - C. R. hebd. Acad. Sci. t. 47, 1858, p. 393-400.).
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3119) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, identifies glycogen in animals, and shows that glycogen serves as a reserve of carbohydrate that can be broken down into sugar again when necessary.
Unknown to Bernard, the German scientist Victor Hensen from the University of Kiel had been following his earlier discoveries closely, and had identified the starch-like nature of glycogen just ahead of Bernard.
In 1857 Barnard observes that one of the liver extracts had a milky appearance: a type of opalescence seen only in starch-containing solutions. Yet starch is understood to be present only in plants. Bernard finds that although these extracts do not contain glucose, when he dries an alcohol precipitate and then moistened it again, it tests positive for glucose. Barnard is therefore sure that these milky extracts contain the parent compound of glucose, he named glycogéne. Barnard and Pelouze rapidly confirm analytically the presence of "animal starch", with a structure almost identical to its plant equivalent.
Barnard shows that glycogen (its name in English) is made of sugar in the blood and serves as a reserve of carbohydrate that can be broken down into sugar again when necessary. The glycogen quantity is changed so that the sugar content in the blood remains constant. This is the first indication that the animal body does not only break down molecules (catabolism), but can also build them up (anabolism) as plants do (glycogene being an example of this molecular synthesis). (How and where is glycogen is built up/synthesized from glucose?)
Bernard finds that glycogen (quantity) is reduced, even absent, in the livers of people dying from diabetes, and proposes that excessive glucose production from glycogen is likely to be the major determinant of raised glucose levels in diabetes. This will be verified a century later.
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3168) Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (VYRsTroS) (CE 1815-1897), German mathematician publishes a solution of the Jacobian inversion problem for hyperelliptic integrals. (explain clearly)
| (Industry Institute) Berlin, Germany |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3181) Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (lUDViK) (CE 1816-1895), German physiologist is the first to keep animal organs alive in vitro (outside the animal's body) by pumping (perfusing) frog hearts with a solution similar to the composition of blood plasma. Ludwig initiates the method of experimenting with excised (cut out) organs.
By this means it becomes possible to study the respiratory changes in individual organs, the effect of special substances on the vessels of the kidneys, the effect of activity and of drugs on the metabolism of the heart, and of the skeletal muscles, the conditions exciting peristalsis in the intestines, et cetera. Peristalsis is the progressive wave of contraction and relaxation of a tubular muscular system, esp. the alimentary canal, by which the contents are forced through the system.
| (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria, Germany |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3350) Helmholtz publishes "Handbuch der physiologische Optik" ("Handbook of Physical Optics",1856,2nd ed: 1867) in which Helmholtz revives Young's theory of three-color vision and expands it, so that it is now known as the Young-Helmholtz theory. Young views Youngs theory of color vision as a special case of Müller's law of specific nerve energies. (more detail of 3 color receptor theory)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3425) (Sir) William Siemens (SEmeNZ) (CE 1823-1883), German-British inventor, and younger brother younger brother Friedrich (CE 1826–1904) introduce a regenerator furnace in which the hot combustion gases are not simply discharged into the air but used to heat the air supply to the chamber. This furnace used in the open-hearth method will eventually be more popular than the Bessemer method.
This regenerator oven captures the heat of the escaping waste gases to heat the air supplied to the furnace.
This process is first used in the manufacture of steel by an open-hearth process known as the Siemens–Martin process (after the French engineer Pierre Blaise Emile Martin, CE 1824–1915) in the 1860s and will overtake the Bessemer process as the preferred method of steel production.
Among William Siemens' important inventions are a water meter (1851) and a device for reproducing printing that remains standard until the development of photography, and Siemens is one of the first to apply (1883) electric power to railways.
| London, England (presumably) |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3442) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) publishes drawings of Jupiter.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3457) William Swan (CE 1818-1894), uses a Bunsen burner to show that the bright D lines are attributed to sodium, the widespread occurrence of the D lines being due to the contamination of small amounts of sodium.
| Edinburgh, Scotland |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3554) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, synthesizes formic acid (1856) from caustic soda and carbon monoxide.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3607) Giovanni Caselli (CE 1815-1891), Italian physicist, invents the first commercial facsimile system, between Lyon and Paris, France.
Caselli's pantelegraph solves a problem faced by the Englishmen Alexander Bain and Frederick Bakewell. In 1846 Bain electrochemically reproduced Morse code using perforated paper and printing by passing electricity through paper soaked in potassium ferrocyanide. Bain's idea was improved by Bakewell, in 1847, who writes in shellac on aluminum which enables writing to be transmitted and printed. Caselli improves on the system of syncronizing transmitter and receiver with his pantelegraph or Universal Telegraph, by included a "synchronizing apparatus" to help two machines work together. A "Pantelegraph Society" is created promote the use of this device.
The sender wrote a message on a sheet of tin in non-conducting ink.The sheet was then fixed to a curved metal plate and scanned by a needle, three lines to the millimetre. The signals were carried by telegraph to the marked out the message in Prussian blue ink, the colour produced by a chemical reaction, as the paper was soaked in potassium ferro-cyanide. To ensure that both needles scanned at exactly the same rate, two extremely accurate clocks were used to trigger a pendulum which, in turn, was linked to gears and pulleys that controlled the needles. The pantelegraph system transmits nearly 5,000 faxes in the first year.
Caselli's device is 2 meters high and made of cast iron. (It is almost like it is made unnecessarily large.)
In 1865 two of these instruments are made to work between Paris and Lyons.
It is ironic that images are send over long distances before they are copied locally, in the form of a copying machine. Clearly, Caselli and later inventors of the long distance image sending must have tested their machines locally over short distances, duplicating hand writing. Perhaps wealthy copyright owners, book publishers and printing press owners protested making such machines public. Still, an original book would need to be printed in shellac on tin foil. So this device is also an early "writing copier". It's hard to believe the benefits of copying images - books or photographs would not be instantly recognized. Clearly something was going on around the 1850s, but it apparently stopped - perhaps the inventors were bought up and no new outside inventors figured out about earlier designs - or learned the history of science. Perhaps the wealthy encourage keeping the history of science secret, because independent inventors must be viewed as troublesome to their monopoly on advanced secret technology.
| (University of Florence, Florence, Italy demonstrates in Froment's workshop) Paris, France |
144 YBN
[1856 AD]
| 3774) (Sir) William Henry Perkin (CE 1838-1907), English chemist produces the first synthetic dye (aniline dyes).
(Sir) William Henry Perkin (CE 1838-1907), English chemist (at age 18) produces the first synthetic dye, "mauveine", derived from aniline.
In 1855 Perkin is made assistant to August Wilhelm von Hofmann at the Royal College of Chemistry in London, and in 1856 is given the task of synthesizing quinine. In 1856, quinine is a medical treatment for malaria. Derived from the bark of the cinchona tree native to South America, demand for the drug is surpassing the available supply. Perkin ultimately fails to synthesize quinine, but quinine will be synthesized, but not until 1944 by Robert Burns Woodward and William von Eggers Doering. Perkin starts from the coal-tar derivative allyltoluidine, which has a formula very similar to that of quinine. Perkin thinks that the conversion can happen by removing two hydrogen atoms and adding two oxygen atoms. (by what reaction?) Although no quinine was formed by this reaction, a reddish-brown precipitate is produced. Perkin decides to treat a more simple base in the same manner and tries aniline (an inexpensive and readily available coal tar waste product) and potassium dichromate. This time a black precipitate is produced. Addition of alcohol to this precipitate yields a rich purple color. Perkin soon realizes that this coloring matter has the properties of a dye and resists the action of light very well. Perkins sends some specimens of dyed silk to a dyeing firm in Perth, Scotland, which expresses great interest. Finding this Perkin patents his dye. Perkin's father and older brother help finance him in mass producing his dye. In 1857 Perkins builds a dye factory at Greenford Green, near Harrow, for mass production of this, the first synthetic dye, mauveine.
Initially there are difficulties, aniline is unavailable on the open market, and so Perkin has to buy benzene and make aniline out of it. For this he needs strong nitric acid, which he has to manufacture himself. Perkin designs and builds special equipment, and it takes him 6 months to produce his new dye. English dyers are conservative, but French dyers buy the new dye and name the color "mauve". The new dye is so popular that this period is known as the "Mauve Decade". Before this, all dyes were derived from living objects such as insects, plants, and mollusks. Purple had traditionally come from a Mediterranean shellfish and could be produced only at great cost, so that it was used only by royalty. Apart from the difficulty of supply there was also the problem of the quality of the dyes: vegetable and animal dyes do not attach well and tend to fade in light.
This find initiates the great synthetic dye industry and stimulates the development of synthetic organic chemistry. With the work of Kekulé as a guide, hundreds and then thousands of new chemicals not found in nature are synthesized and studied. In 1868 Graebe synthesizes the natural dye alizarin, in 1879 Baeyer synthesizes indigo.
In 1874 Perkin sells his factory and retires, a wealthy man, at the age of 35, devoting the rest of his life to research in pure science.
Aniline is one of the most important organic bases, and is a parent substance for many dyes and drugs. Pure aniline is a highly poisonous, oily, colourless liquid with a distinctive odor. First obtained in 1826 from indigo, aniline is now prepared synthetically. Aniline is a weakly basic primary aromatic amine and participates in many reactions with other compounds. Aniline is used to make chemicals used in producing rubber, dyes and intermediates, photographic chemicals, urethane foams, pharmaceuticals, explosives, herbicides, and fungicides as well as to make chemicals used in petroleum refining.
Synthetic dyes are also very important in health science research, being used to stain previously invisible microbes and bacteria, allowing researchers to identify such bacteria as tuberculosis, cholera, and anthrax.
| (Royal College of Chemistry) London, England |
143 YBN
[01/26/1857 AD]
| 4005) Leon Scott (Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, (CE 1817–1879)) records the vibrations of sound onto sooted glass plates.
Leon Scott (Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, (CE 1817–1879)) records the vibrations of sound onto sooted glass plates.
Although Scott claims that he had the idea for the phonautograph in 1853 or 1854, he first records this invention in January 1857 by depositing a paper entitled "Principles de Phonautographie" in a sealed packet with the French Academy of Siences. In this paper, Scott describes how to record sound waves on lampblacked (sooted) glass plates, using a mechanism based on the human ear: a funnel, two membranes separated by an airtight space, and a stylus attached to a second membrane. Scott includes two plates of phonautograms which date back three years.
In March, Scott will deliver a paper to the Academy which shows the first publicly known cylinder sound recording device.
Scott writes (translated from French to English): "Mr. President,
Here are the motives that led me to ask you to accept, in the name of the Academy, the deposite of a sealed packet.
My researches on acoustic writing, long interrupted, date back three years. Not being able to conduct alone the practical tests necesary to reach a complete solution to the question and to build precision apparatuses, I very recently communicated my principle to a skilful and learned manufacturer. It appears right to me, in order that our respective share might be taken in the success, if success there is, carefully to establish the precise point I have reached today.
Is there a possibility of reaching in the case of sound a result analogous to that attained at present for light by photographic processes? Can one hope that the day is near when the muscial phrase, escaped from the singer's lips, will be written by itself and as if without the muscician's knowledge on a docile paper and leave an imperishable trace of those fugitive melodies which the memory no longer finds when it seeks them? Will one be able to have placed between two men brought together in a silent room an automatic stenographer that preserves the discussion in its minutest details while adapting to the speed of the conversation? Will one be able to preserve for the future generation some features of the diction of one of those eminent actors, those grand artists who die without leaving behind them the faintest trace of their genius? Will the improvisation of the writer, when it emerges in the middle of the night, be recoverable the next day with its freedom, this complete independence from the pen, an instrument so slow to represent a thought always cooled in its struggle with written expression?
I believe so. The principle is found. Nothing more remains but difficulties of application, undoubtedly great but not insurmountable in the current state of the physical and mechanical arts.
At present the rudimentary apparatus which I will describe can furnish data useful for the progress of all branches of natural sciences.
Indeed, to succeed in gaining full knowledge of aerial vibrations; to submit them to study by sight, to measurement by instruments of precision; to compensate thus for the insufficiency of our principal organ which does not permit us to count the vibrations, often even to see them - is this not to take a great step?
What do we know, indeed, of the laws that govern the timbre particular to eac sounding body? What clear explanation can we give of the modifications imparted to the aerial waves by the articulated voice? Here are the objects of investigation approachable as of this moment by the process which I shall have the honor of submitting to you. I am engaged in studying by sight the difference of sounds and noises, raising one part of the mystery of the numerical harmony of agitations which is estsablished in animate and inanimate bodies under the influence of prolonged sound.
Here are the theoretical principles upon which my discovery is based.
The motion that produces sound is always a motion of vibration (cf. all physicists).
When a body resonates, whether this be a rough body, an instrument or a voice, this is the siege of molecular vibrations; its oscillations propagate themselves in any imaginable surrounding matter which carries out vibrations synchronous with those of the body originally agitated (Longet and Masson).
Aerieal vibrations do not transmit themselves to solid bodies without losing therefrom considerably in their intensity. Contrariwise, they are communicated thereto without being reduced and the more easily the more one thins down these bodies and reduces them to a very slight thickness (physiologists, J Mueller inter alia).
Not only are thin plates and stretched membranes susceptible to vibrating by influence, but they also find themselves under conditions which render them apt to be influenced by any number of vibrations (Savart).
The air alone conducts voices and articulations well (Mueller).
The membrane of the typanum and even the whole organ of hearing carries out in a unit of time a number of vibrations equal to the vibrations of the sounding body (Longet and Masson).
The intensity of the sound grows with the density of the medium in which its production takes place (all physicists).
It was a matter of constructing, in accordance with these principles, an apparatus that would reproduce by a graphic trace the most delicate details of the motion of the sound waves. I had them to manage, with the help of mathematical means, to decipher this natural stenography.
To solve the problem, I did not believe it possible to do better than to copy in part the human ear, in its physical apparatus only, adapting it therefrom for the goal I propose; for this admirable sense is the prototype of instruments suitable for being impressed with sound vibrations.
As precendents, I had before me the siren of Cagniard-Latour, the toothed wheel of Savart, both suitable for counting the vibrations of a sounding body; Wertheim's process for writing the vibrations of a tuning fork; the electromagnetic tour described by M. Pouillet for the same object. I tool one step further: I write not only the vibrations of the bodies that originally vibrate, but those transmitted mediately by a fluid - that is, by the surrounding air.
Here is how I proceed: I cover a strip of crystal with an even, opaque but exceedingly thin film of lampblack. Above, I arrange in a fixed position a soundproof acoustic trumpet having at its small end the diameter of a five franc piece. This lower end consists of a covering part with friction, impermeable to the air. The body of my trumpet is provided with a membrane at its small end. - This is the physiological tympanum. The instrument's covering part is fitted with another membrane, analogous {to that} of the oval window.
These two membranes each possess a gripper ring with screw to govern the tautness thereof at will. In methodically compressing, by the aid of a millimetric scale traced on the covered part of the trutmpet, the air shut up in the box contained between the two membranes, I give them the desirable degree of sensitivity without them going crazy.
At the center of the exterior membrane I fix with a bit of special modeling wax a boar's bristle a centimeter or even more in length, fine but suitably rigid.
Then making my crystal plate slide horizontally at a speed of one meter per second in a well formed groove, I present to it the lower part of the trumpet, the stylus grazing the film of lampblack without pressing the crystal. I carefully fix the trumpet in this position.
one speaks in the vicinity of the pavillion, the membranes vibrate, the stylus describes the pendulum movements; it traces figures, large if the sound is intense, small if it is weak, well separated if it is low, close together if it is high; shaky and uneven if the timbre is husky; even and clear if it is pure.
I make prints, positive or negative, of this new writing-rather crude prints still, but easily perfectible.
My apparatus demonstrative of the principle of phonautography consists, then, of four principal parts.
1. An acoustic concha, suitable for conducting and condensing aerial vibrations. A system of suspension analogous to the lens-holder, but held up near the trumpet by a support with screw. This system is intended to allow for all sorts of positions of the instrument.
2. A tympanum of English goldbeater's skin, strong but very flexible and very thin; then an external membrane. The distance between the two membranes increases or decreases at my will; consequently, the enclosed box of air find itself more or less compressed between them according to need.
3. A stylus responsible for writing and placed suitably to touch the plane of the sensitive film a little obliquely.
4. A mobile crystal table following certain laws of regularity, covered above with a good film of lampblack, underneath with a paper provided with millimetric divisions in both directions.
properly built, this apparatus seems to me suitable as of today to furnish a universal tuner.
When it will be a question of stenographing vocalises or the sound of an instrument, I believe on will therein be able to apply, instead of membranes, a system of plates forming a keyboard and provided with a tuning wire and styli.
For collecting speech at a distance, one will be able to augment the system with an apparatus for reinforcing the vibrations, the principle of which would be borrowed from the experiment like Pelisow's.
For these last two uses it will, however, be necessary to apply to one of the parts of the instrument - table or trumpet- a movement similar to that of the electromagnetic dividing machine of M. Froment, in order to take only the number of vibrations ncessary for the appreciation of a sound; that is to say that the stylus will need to be presented ten times only in the space of a second to the sensitive film. Moreover, after each line the table will advance breadthwise by the interval of a scale so that the marks traced by the stylus do not overlap.
For very weak or distant sounds, I also think there will be benefit in giving the concha the form of a conic section of which the tympanum, placed obliquely, will occupy the focus.
I ask you, Mr. President, to be so kind as to bring these facts to the attention of the Academy. here as proof of my assertions are some prints of my first attempts, obtained with two piece of glass and from membranes of paper. The figures are still uneven, the glass table being driven by hand. Within a few days I shall have the honor of presenting you with more significant prints. ..."
(It is interesting that there must be parallels to the process of decoding images and sounds of thought from the brain. The comparison to an instant stenographer raises the point that court proceedings should simply be recorded in video and transcribed to text by computer software, the text perhaps only checked and corrected by a human if necessary.)
| Paris, France |
143 YBN
[03/24/1857 AD]
| 3999) Sound recorded mechanically by the sound vibrating a stylus that draws onto paper.
The phonautograph, an early cylinder sound recording device that records sound mechanically by drawing the sound vibration shape onto paper. Scott is the first to record sound using a membrane instead of directly attaching a stylus to a string, tuning fork or bell.
Leon Scott (Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, (CE 1817–1879)) invents the phonautograph, the earliest known mechanical device for recording and reproducing sounds including music and speech. This device consists simply of an ellipsoidal barrel. The sound receiver is open at one end and closed at the other. From the closed end projects a small tube, with a stretched flexible membrane across it. In the center of the membrane is a bristle which acts as a stylus and vibrates with the membrane. In front of the membrane is a horizontal cylinder wrapped with a sheet of paper and covered with a layer of lampblack (carbon) which the bristle rests lightly against. Any sound vibrations entering the ellipsoid are transmitted by the membrane to the stylus, which, when the cylinder is made to revolve and to advance slowly, describes on the lampblack surface a wavy line which is a phonographic record of whatever vibrations have been produced. In 1870 Fleeming Jenkin and Ewing record sounds onto a tin foil phonograph. The physicist and instrument maker Konig of Paris builds a device based on Leon Scott's invention, but nothing practical is created until Thomas Edison constructs a machine in which a receiving funnel is substituted for the ellipsoid, an iron diaphragm for the membrane, a sharp metallic point for the bristle, and a tin-foil-covered cylinder in place of the cylinder coated with lamp-black. With the sound vibrations indented as opposed to traced on the surface of the cylinder, the machine can be reversed which causes the stylus to travel over the spiral line indented by the recording point, and the original sonud is reproduced by the diaphragm.
In January, Scott had deposited his first paper to the Academy of Sciences on recording sound vibrations to sooted glass plates.
Now in March 1857, Scott deposits the paperwork for a patent on the phonautograph-the same basic design described in the "Principes de Phonautographie", but now lays out in greater detail with drawings and a sample phonautogram and instead of plates of glass uses a hand-cranked cylinder.
This patent is the first to publicly introduce a rotating cylinder to record sound vibrations. Scott writes: "The process I have invented-hitherto completely unknown, and for which I am requesting a patent- consists of fastening a simple or composite stylus near the center of a thin membrane placed at the end of any acoustic conduit. This stylus light grazes a substance sensitive to the lightest friction, such as for example a film of lampblack - a substance deposited on a glass, a metal, or even a piece of paper or fabric. The sensitive film passes under the stylus at a regular and determined speed. When one speaks, sings, or plays an instrument in the presence of the acoustic conduit, the stylus traces figures or drawings in keeping with the sounds produced. Afterwards I fix this novel writing by immersion in a liquid carburet, followed by a bath of albuminous water. I then make prints called negatives directly, or positive prints indirectly by photography or transfer to stone, etc.
With the aid of this process and the interchangeable parts of the phonautograph (fig. 2,3,4,5 of the supporting drawing). I collect the acoustic trace of speech at a distance- of the song of the coice and of various instruments. I propose to apply my process to the construction of a divider instrument; to that of a mathematical tuner for all instruments, of a stenographer for the voice and of instruments; to the study of the conditions of sonority of various commercial substances and alloys; and to produce industrial designs for embroideries, filigrees, jewelry, shades, illustration of books of an entirely new kind.
The first figure of the plate clearly shows my process in its most extreme simplicity - a process which is in my mind roughly independent of the number of thin membranes, of their size, of the form and dimensions of he conduit to which they have been applied, of the manner of suspension of the phonautograph, and of the nature of the motor which imparts speed to the sensitive film.". Scott then goes on to explain each part in particular the addition of the cylinder. Scott writes: "dir.-stylus director - Small cylinder of very light material performated along its axis and glued firmly to the membrane. It is intended to receive the stylus and to maintain it in a fixed and determined direction.". Scott describes the use of a motor too writing: "fig. 6 -sensitive film that passes under the stylus set in motion by the action of a trumpet at a distance, at a speed determined by the movement of a pendulum and made uniform by means of a motor borrowed from clockwork or from the electromagnet - a motor not represented in the figure.". Scott concludes writing "For greater clarity, I am appending to the drawing of my apparatuses a print in duplicate of the acoustic figures of the voice, or the cornet- of drawings I obtain before any construction of apparatuses and by the only use of the process of figure 1.". Scott describes the process: "The manner of proceeding to obtain phonautographic prints is very simple. A strip of paper is rolled up on the cylinder while being stretched. This paper, which turns with a nearly uniform speed, is charged with an even, opaque, exceedingly thin film of lampblack. Towards the center of the membrane is placed the stylus, of which the end that does the tracing is taken from a feather of certain birds. This point, so very thin, obeys all the simple or complex movements of the membrane. In this state the stylus is introduced to the cylinder in such a manner that it grazes it while remaining fixed in the direction of its shadt. One makes the sound heard at the opening of the tub or conduit, the membrane begins vibrating, the stylus follows its movements and its end traces upon the cylinder, which describes a continuous helix, the figures of the vibration of the sound produced. They show the number of the timbre thereof. These figures are large when the sound is intense, microscopic if it is very weak, spread out if it is low, squeezed together if it is high, of a regular and straightforward pattern if the timbre is pure, uneven and somewhat shaky if it is bad or clouded.
Here now is the series of interesting experiments for physicists, physiologists, instrument makers, {and} lovers of the sciences, which can already be carried out with the apparatus built as represented in the present certificate:
1. To write the vibratory movement of any solid to be used as a term of comparison with the movements of a fluid; to count the number of vibrations carried out by the solid in a unit of time by means of the marking chronometer.
2. A tuning fork having been calibrated by means of the preceding experiment to a determined number of vibrations in a unit of time (500 or 1000 for example), to count, by causing them to write simultaneously, the number of vibrations achieved by any agent capable of vibrating 9solid or fluid) in a space of time as short as one might wish (a few thousandths of a second). Example: to count and measure the various phases of a noise and the intervals of time contained between rapid and successive sound phenomena; to test the relative sonority of metals, alloys, wood, etc.
3. To write the vibrations produced in a membrane by one of more pipes sounding sumultaneously, to count the number thereof, to show the phases thereof; to obtain the acoustic figure or diagram of each chord and dissonance; to write likewise the song of any wind instrument; to show the characteristic timbre of these instruments; to write the composite movement resulting from the sounds of two or more instruments playing simultaneously.
4. To write the song of a voice, to measure the extent thereof with the marking chronometer or the calibrated marking tuning fork; to write the scale of a singer, to measure the accuracy thereof with the marking tuning fork; to show the purity or isochronism of the vibrations thereof, as well as the timbre; to write a melody and transcribe it with the aid of the marking tuning fork; to write the simultaneous song of two voices and to show the harmony or discord thereof.
5. To study acoustically the physiological or pathological movements of the vocal apparatus and of its parts during the various emissions of sound, the shout, etc; to mark down the characteristic timbre of a given voice;
6. To study the articular voice, the declamation (see in the appended plates a first application to ordinary writing); to show the syllabic diagrams.
7. To inscribe by the combination of the second method (the flexible stylus) and the third (the fixing) the movements of the pendulum, of the teetotum or top, of the magnetized needle, the manner of locomotion of an insect, etc."
Scott describes plate 2 writing: "...For noting declamation exactly it does not suffice to mark down above or below the line the longs and the shorts, the fortes and the pianos, the raisings and lowerings of pitch, the inalations, the breathing, and the pauses and the explosions; it is necessary to represent clearly and easily the quantum or mathematical value of each of these modifications.
The phoautographic trace furnishes at present-without one having to be occupied with articulation- a very simple means of objectively representing the artist's diction. This trace is a kind of reptile, the coils of which follow all the modulations or inflections of discorse. It suffices for translating by sight- except for the articulation - to make the following remarks: the horizontal distance of the foot of the curves indicates the pitch or tonality; the height of the same curves the intensity of the voice; the detail of the curves the timbre; the absence of curves the pauses or silences. The few natural expressions opposite suffice for understanding this page.
represents the deep voice the high-pitched voice a high-pitched voice descending to a deep one a deep voice rising to the high-pitched on an intense voice an average voice a weak voice the tremolo on the letter r the cadence on a vowel the outburst of the voice
So to this rival faithless Hedelmone must have given this diadem! In their cruel rage, our lions of the desert, beneath their burning laei, sometimes tear apart the trembling traveler- It would be better for him for their devouring hunger to scatter the scraps of his palpitating flesh than to fall alive into my terrible hands!". Scott describes plate 3 as the "calibration of a sound by means of the chronometer".
Notice that playing these recordings on paper out loud is not claimed. Playing recorded - that is permanently stored - sounds out loud will only be known publicly with the phoneograph of Thomas Edison in 1877 which records the sounds as impressions into tin foil - although playing live sounds from a microphone through a wire and out a speaker will be first done publicly by Philip Reiss in 1861.
A recording made on April 9, 1860 of a person singing the words, "Au clair de la lune, Pierrot repondit" is currently the oldest known sound recording. This soot-covered paper is converted to audio in 2008, replayed from a digital scan.
It is disappointing that so few people know about Leon Scott, and so few have a biography on Scott and the telautograph. It is a combination of the evilness and fear of those who want to keep technology and science secret together with the underinformed and/or easily fooled who believe and follow the outlandish claims of religions and pseudosciences.
There is some confusion about the history of sound recording between Hooke and Chladni's sand drawings and this first rotating cylinder.
THere is a claim that Wilhelm Weber recorded the sound vibrations of a tuning fork onto a sooted glass plate in 1830. There is also a claim that Duhamel was the first to record sound to a sooted glass cylinder in 1840.
Note that this is the first public record of at least the technical possibility of people, in particular, governments, and telegraph and telephone companies, accumulating data records of sound, before this, could only be paper records on which a person wrote or typed the sounds, and of course, photographs, and text information. It seems very likely that people in governments, in particular military, and in the telegraph and telephone companies were secretly recording and playing back sounds before this time, in particular presuming they saw and heard thought and were doing remote neuron activation in 1810. Is Arthur Korn the first to apply this pressure writing method to record the intensity of each dot in an image?
According to one source, Scott succeeds in causing the phonautograph to render back faint sounds from the blast of two huge organ pipes, three feet from the instrument.
| Paris, France |
143 YBN
[04/??/1857 AD]
| 3354) Faraday publishes "On the Conservation of Force" in which Faraday writes "This idea of gravity appears to me to ignore entirely the principle of the conservation of force; and by the terms of its definition, if taken in an absolute sense 'varying inversely as the square of the distance,' to be in direction opposition to it; and it becomes my duty now to point out where this contradiction occurs, and to use it in illustration of the principle of conservation. Assume two particles of matter, A and B, in free space, and a force in each or in both by which they gravitate towards each other, the force being unalterable for an unchanging distance, but varying inversely as the square of the distance when the latter varies. Then at the distance of 10 the force may be estimated as 1; whilst at the distance of 1, i.e. one-tenth of the former, the force will be 100; and if we suppose an elastic spring to be introduced between the two as a measure of the attractive force, the power compressing it will be a hundred times as much in the latter case as in the former. But from whence can this enormous increase of the power come? If we sat that it is the character of this force, and content ourselves with that as a sufficient answer, then it appears to me we admit a creation of power, and that to an enormous amount;... The usual definiteion of gravity as an attractive force between the particles of matter VARYING inversely as the square of the distance, whilst it stands as a full definition of the power, is inconsistent with the principle of the conservation of force. ... The principle of the conservation of force would lead us to assume, that when A and B attract each other less because of increasing distance, then some other exertion of power either within or without them is proportionately growing up; and again, that when their distance is diminished, as from 10 to 1, the power of attraction, now increased a hundredfold, has been produced out of some other form of power which has been equivalently reduced. ... There is one wonderful condition of matter, perhaps its only true indication, namely intertia; but in relation to the ordinary definition of gravity, it only adds to the difficulty. "
Faraday quotes from Newton's Fourth (Faraday mistakes it as the third) Letter to Bentley: "That gravity should be innate, inherent, and essential to matter, so that one body may act upon another at a distance, through a cavuum, without the mediation of anything else, by and threough which their action and force may be conveyed from one to another, is to me so great an absurdity that I believe no man who has in philosophical matters a competent faculty of thinking, can ever fall into it. Gravity must be caused by an agent acting constantly according to certain laws; but whether this agent be material or immaterial I have left to the consideration of my readers.".
(My own view is that the force of gravity is conserved in when increased between two pieces of matter, the velocities are identical and opposed to each other. Beyond that, two particles getting closer always results in other particles becoming more distant, and so in this way force is conserved. in terms of particles conveying the force of gravity, I think that is open to speculation. I think its fine to speculate and model universes with only inertia, or with only gravity and no inertia, or both added together. The most important thing is that the models fit the observed phenomena.)
| (Royal Institution in) London, England |
143 YBN
[08/08/1857 AD]
| 3412) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, proves that fermentation is caused by a living microorganism, yeast.
At Lille, Pasteur is asked to devote some time to the problems of the local industries. A producer of vinegar from beet juice requests Pasteur's help in determining why the product sometimes spoils. Pasteur collected samples of the fermenting juices and examines them microscopically. Pasteur notices that the juices contain yeast. Pasteur also finds that the contaminant, amyl alcohol, is an optically active compound, and by Pasteur's thinking this is evidence that the amyl alcohol is produced by a living organism ("living contagion").
So in this analysis Pasteur again finds new "right" and "left" compounds, although in liquid form. From studying the fermentation of alcohol Pasteur examines lactic fermentation, and shows yeast to be an organism capable of reproducing itself, even in artificial media, without free oxygen.
By 1857, Pasteur concludes definitely that microorganisms feed on the fermenting medium, and that a specific organism is responsible for each fermentation.
Liebig and Berzelius had wrongly insisted that fermentation was purely a chemical reaction and does not involve living organisms.
Pasteur reports this in "Mémoire sur la fermentation appelée lactique" ("Memoir on lactic acid fermentation").
One of the ferments most in use, and known as early as the leavening of dough, or the turning of milk, is the deposit formed in beer barrels, which is commonly called yeast. Repeating an observation of the naturalist Leuwenhoeck, Cagniard-Latour saw this yeast which is composed of cells multiplying itself by budding and Cagniard-Latour proposed to himself the question whether the fermentation of sugar is not connected with this act of cellular vegetation. Dumas also had recognized that in the budding of yeast globules there must be some clue to the phenomenon of fermentation.
In a memoir presented to the Academy of Sciences in 1857 Pasteur states that there are "cases where it is possible to recognise in lactic fermentation, as practised by chemists and manufacturers, above the deposit of chalk and the nitrogenous matter, a grey substance which forms a zone on the surface of the deposit. Its examination by the microscope hardly permits of its being distinguished from the disintegrated caseum or gluten which has served to start the fermentation. So that nothing indicates that it is a special kind of matter which had its birth during the fermentation. It is this, nevertheless, which plays the principal part.".
To isolate this substance and to prepare it in a state of purity, Pasteur boils a little yeast with around fifteen to twenty times its weight of water. Pasteur then carefully filters the liquid, dissolves about fifty grammes of sugar, and adds some chalk. Pasteur then uses a tube to extract a small sample of the grey matter that results from ordinary lactic fermentation and placed this sample as the seed of the ferment in the limpid saccharine solution. By the next day a lively and regular fermentation is observed, the liquid becoming cloudy and the chalk disappearing. A deposit which progresses continually as the chalk dissolves can be distinguished. This deposit is the lactic ferment. Pasteur reproduces this experiment by substituting for the water, a mix of nitrogenous substances. The ferment always performs the same fermentation and multiplication.
In a second experiment Pasteur demonstrates that the little particles of lactic ferment are alive and that they are the only cause of lactic fermentation. Pasteur mixes with some water, sweetened with sugar, a small quantity of a salt of ammonia, some alkaline, and earthy phosphates, and some pure carbonate of lime. At the end of twenty four hours the liquid begins to get cloudy and to give off gas. The fermentation continues for some days. The ammonia disappears leaving a deposit of phosphates and calcareous salt. Some lactate of lime is formed and at the same time a deposition of the little lactic ferment is noticeable. The germs of the lactic ferment have in this case been derived from particles of dust adhering to the substances themselves of which the mixtures are made or to the vessels used or from the surrounding air.
Pasteur shows that the process of fermentation and the process of putrefaction (the decay of living objects) are similar in being caused by microorganisms. Liebig rejects the connection of living microorganisms causing putrefaction writing in "Familiar Letters on Chemistry": "Those who pretend to explain the putrefaction of animal substances by the presence of animalculae, reason very much like a child who would explain the rapidity of the Rhine by attributing it to the violent motions imparted to it in the direction of Bingen by the numerous wheels of the mills of Mayence.".
(The possibility of bacteria producing useful molecules is a major related field. Bacteria and protists, unlike most non-living chemicals never stop working, constantly processing other "food/fuel" molecules. Microorganisms might be used to convert human waste into hydrogen gas, or other useful combustible gases. In addition, with the understanding of DNA, microorganisms are commonly used to mass produce important molecules in the health industries which save many lives and cure pain and suffering. So understanding the anatomy and physiology of microorganisms will probably contribute vastly to science.)
| (University of Lille) Lille, France |
143 YBN
[12/10/1857 AD]
| 3325) Arthur Cayley (KAlE) (CE 1821-1895), English mathematician, formalizes the theory of matrices.
In his "Memoir on the theory of matrices", Cayley defines a "matrix", shows that the coefficient arrays studied earlier for quadratic forms and for linear transformations are special cases of his general concept (of matrices), and gives an explicit construction of the inverse of a matrix in terms of the determinant of the matrix.
Cayley further develops the algebra of matrices, introduced by Jacobi.
Cayley establishes the associative and distributive laws, the special conditions under which a commutative law holds, and the principles for forming general algebraic functions of matrices. Cayley and Bejamin Peirce are often regarded as cofounders of the theory of matrices. Cayley understands the value of matrices and quaternions more clearly than his contemporaries. Cayley chooses coordinates instead of quaternions in the math controversy (between the two methods of transforming points).
| London, England (presumably) |
143 YBN
[12/27/1857 AD]
| 2873) Davy had reported on moving an electric arc in air and in a vacuum with a magnet in 1821, but does not explicitly describe the florescent appearance of the electron beam in a vacuum tube. Davy used a voltaic pile of 2000 copper and zinc pairs, where Gassiot and Plucker use an induction coil to produce a high voltage.
Plücker publishes this in (Poggendorff's) Annalen der Physik in 1858 (Annalen der Physik, 1858, vol. 103) as "Ueber die Einwirkung des Magnets auf die elektrischen Entladungen in verdünnten Gasen" ("About the influence of magnets on the electrical discharges in rarefied gases").
From 1854 on, Geissler is glassblower at the university of Bonn, and Julius Plücker (1801-1868) is professor at the same institution. Plücker becomes interested in Geissler's tubes and suggests a modified form where the luminous discharge could be confined to a capillary part in the middle. These modified tubes are often called "Plücker tubes", although Plücker himself originates the name "Geissler tubes" and makes them famous. By means of these tubes and the accessory instruments (Geissler pump, Ruhmkorff coil) Plücker institutes a long series of experiments the results of which are published in the (Poggendorff'S) "Annalen der Physik und Chemie" (vols. 103 to 116, 1858-62). Reprinted in Plücker's "Gesammelte wissenschaftliche Abhandlungen" (vol. 2, 475-656, 1896). The first five papers are promptly translated in the Philosophical Magazine (vols. 16 and 18, 1858-9) and an English summary of the whole series, up to that time, appears in the Proceedings of the Royal Society (vol. 10, 256-69, 1860). Plücker investigations are therefore known to other physicists. These papers appear under various titles, the first being "Ueber die Einwirkung des Magneten auf die elektrischen Entladungen in verdiinnten Gasen" (published in 1858), but their unity is evidenced by the fact that they are divided into 294 consecutively numbered chapters. Plücker takes far more interest in the spectra which he can observe in his Geissler tubes than in anything else, and is therefore one of the founders of spectral analysis. However, Plücker already notices in his first paper (dated Bonn, 27 Dec. 1857, published 1858) that particles of the platinum cathode are carried to the glass of the tube, that the light streams can be deflected by magnetic force, that a part of the glass wall near the cathode becomes phosphorescent during the discharges and that the position of the phosphorescent spot varies when the magnetic field is modified. In other words Plücker is the first to observe cathodic rays (without identifying them), and their deflection under magnetic influence.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 2831) Henry Creswicke Rawlinson (CE 1810-1895), Edward Hincks, Jules Oppert, and William Henry Fox Talbot (CE 1800-1877) independently produce identical translations of a text from Ashur, and confirm the decipherment of Akkadian.
This is the first deciphering of the cuneiform inscriptions of Nineveh.
| Wiltshire, England (presumably) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 2858) Friedrich Wöhler (VOElR) (CE 1800-1882), German chemist, recognizes the similarity of carbon and silicon and is the first to prepare silane (SiH4) the silicon analog of methane (CH4).
Silane is a chemical compound with chemical formula SiH4. It is the silicon analogue of methane. At room temperature, silane is a gas, and is pyrophoric - it undergoes spontaneous combustion in air, without the need for external ignition (a quantity of free photons to start the combustion chain reaction).
Siklanes are any of a series of compounds of silicon and hydrogen with covalent bonds and the general chemical formula SinH(2n + 2), where n=1,2,3,etc. Silanes are structural analogs of saturated hydrocarbons but are much less stable. All burn or explode when exposed to air and react readily with halogens or hydrogen halides to form halogenated silanes and with olefins to form alkylsilanes, products used as water repellents and as starting materials for silicones. (Does SiO4 oxygen combustion result in SiO2+H2O as Hydrocarbons result in CO2+H2O? Can the Silicon in sand be used to produce these flammable gases? Silicon is a very abundant atom on many planets and moons.)
Industrially, silane is produced from metallurgical grade silicon in a two-step process. In the first step, powdered silicon is reacted with hydrogen chloride at about 300°C to produce trichlorosilane, HSiCl3, along with hydrogen gas, according to the chemical equation:
Si + 3HCl → HSiCl3 + H2
The trichlorosilane is then boiled on a resinous bed containing a catalyst which promotes its disproportionation to silane and silicon tetrachloride according to the chemical equation:
4HSiCl3 → SiH4 + 3SiCl4
The most commonly used catalysts for this process are metal halides, particularly aluminium chloride.
Silane has a repulsive smell.
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 2910) (Sir) Charles Wheatstone (WETSTON) (CE 1802-1875), English physicist builds an automatic transmitter for the telegraph. The signals of the message are first punched out on a strip of paper, which is then passed through the sending-key, and controls the signal currents.
By substituting a mechanism for the hand in sending the message, Wheatstone is able to telegraph about 100 words a minute, or five times the ordinary rate.
| (King's College) London, England (presumably) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3034) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, explains the evolution of sterile worker bees. These bees cannot be selected (directly from reproduction) because they do not breed, so Darwin chooses "family" selection (kin selection, as it is known today) which is when the entire colony benefits from their survival.
| London, England (presumably) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3148) Daniel Kirkwood (CE 1814-1895), US astronomer, shows that the asteroids (or planetoids) are not evenly distributed between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, but that there are regions relatively free of asteroids.
| (Indiana University) Indiana, USA |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3218) Richard Jordan Gatling (CE 1818-1903), US inventor, invents a steam engine powered plow.
| Indianapolis, Indiana (presumably) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3286) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868) develops the modern technique for silvering glass to make mirrors for reflecting telescopes. This means glass can be used instead of metal, making mirrors much lighter, less likely to tarnish (to dull the luster of a metallic surface, in particular by oxidation), and easier to renew if tarnished. This allows reflecting telescopes to become more popular than refracting telescopes.
Newton, Airy and others had tried making glass mirrors quicksilvered on their back in telescopes, but crystallization of the mercury causes distortion of the image. Because of this Lord Rosse and Lassell used speculum metal. Foucault finds that metal mirrors give unsatisfactory images under the microscope, but does obtain quality images from polished glass which indicates a quality spherical surface. With glass, most light is not reflected so it is good enough for testing, but cannot be used as well for viewing stars. Silver is more reflective than speculum metal, and Rosse had tried to make mirrors out of solid silver, and by preserving a silver precipitate in shellac. In addition mercury is poisonous and so dangerous to work with. In 1835 Liebig had discovered that silver is deposited by the chemical reduction of silver nitrate solution. But Liebig's reaction requires boiling. In 1843, Thomas Drayton patented a silvering process that does not require heating. The process has been refinined, and is basically that an alkaline, ammoniacal solution of silver nitrate is prepared, a reducing agent is mixed in, and the cleaned, wetted glass surface immersed in the solution. Numerous reduction agents are popular such as oil of cloves; grape, milk and invert sugar; aldehydes; and tartaric, saccharic and glyceric acids. Foucault's first silvered-glass mirror is complete around the beginning of 1857.
(This is interesting, I wonder if this process would be too difficult for an amateur to silver their own glass. I'm surprised that there is no electrical method, but then glass is an insulator, but perhaps aluminum or some other material could be used. It's interesting why plastic cannot be used, apparently there is something about the grain or molecules of glass that provide better images than other lighter materials. Perhaps the photographic reaction could be used?)
| Paris, France (presumably) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3366) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (KLoUZEUS) (CE 1822-1888), German physicist, publishes "Über die Art der Bewegung, welche wir Wärme nennen", ("On the Kind of Motion Which We Call Warmth", 1857) on the kinetic theory of gases.
This paper establishes the kinetic theory of heat on a mathematical basis and explains how evaporation occurs.
Clausius also gives a new theory of electrolysis based on this theory in which the electric pairs of atoms periodically break free, and are attracted to the electrodes. (verify this paper has electrolysis theory)
In this paper Clausius describes rotatory and vibrational motions in addition to translational motion to molecules. Clausius demonstrates that non-translation motions must exist by showing that translational motions alone cannot account for all the heat in a gas. Clausius therefore establishes the first significant connection between thermodynamics and the kinetic theory of gases, and the first physical, non-chemical argument for Avogadro's hypothesis.
Clausius also puts forward a new theory of electrolysis based on the kinetic theory of gases. Clausius supposes that the molecules of the electrolyte move through the solution as the molecules of a gas move, that they collide with one another as the gas molecules do, and from time to time ions must get separated and remain separated for a time, cation and anion uniting when the two meet again. So there are always detached ions. These loose ions retain the charges of electricity, the cations being positively charged and the anions negatively charged. When two electrodes are placed in the electrolyte with a difference of electric potential, the cathode, being negative will attract the positively charged cations, and the positive anode will attract the negatively charged anions. Those ions near the electrode are drawn to the electrode and discharge their electric charge. The difference between this and previous theories is that Clausius does not attribute the decomposition (of the molecules of electrolyte) to the current or to the attraction of the electrodes; the electrodes attract the already separated ions. Clausius gives this as the reason why the speed of the reaction increases with rise in temperature, because of the faster movement of the (electrolyte) particles.
(It seems like the number of ions naturally separated might be relatively small. Could it be possible that the electricity also causes some molecules of electrolyte to separate at the electrode? Another idea is that like so-called Franklin's bells, perhaps an electron attaches to a molecule of electrolyte, the electrolyte is the repelled and delivers the electron to the other electrode.)
| (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3367) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (KLoUZEUS) (CE 1822-1888), German physicist, is the first to suggest that electric current passed through a solution might pull molecules apart (dissociation) into electrically charged fragments.
Clausius puts forward the idea that molecules in electrolytes are continually interchanging atoms, the electric force not causing, but merely directing, the interchange. This view is not popular until 1887, when it is taken up by S.A. Arrhenius, who makes it the basis of the theory of electrolytic dissociation.
| (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3455) Gustav Robert Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887), German physicist mathematically connects the speed of light to the speed of electricity. Kirchhoff calculates that the rate of propagation of electric waves is c/√2, which is independent of the cross section, the coefficient of conductivity of the wire, and the electric density. This is a clue that electromagnetism is connected to light.
Kirchhoff fails to see a unity of light and electromagnetic waves which Maxwell will deduce by claiming that light is an electromagnetic wave. I think the truth of this unity is closer to the opposite, not that light is a form of electricity, but that electricity is made of light particles. Light and electromagnetic waves can also be viewed as streams, or beams of particles. (Does Maxwell refer to Kirchhoff's work?)
I have doubts about electricity moving at the same speed through all materials with no regard to density or electrical conductivity. This needs to be shown in videos to the public. The importance of this finding is not entirely clear now.
Kirchhoff publishes this as "Ueber die Bewegung der Elektricitat in Leitern" in Poggendorff's "Annalen der Physiks".
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3508) George Phillips Bond (CE 1825-1865), US astronomer recognizes that stellar magnitude (perhaps more accurately, photons emitted per unit time) can be measured by the size and length of exposure of a photographic plate. This basic fact is used by the compilers of the Astrographic Catalog to record measurements of stellar magnitudes.
Bond explains that the brighter a star, the larger the image it makes on a photographic plate (because of the effect of light from the star on the silver bromide grains over a larger area), and shows that estimates of stellar magnitude can be made from such photographs.
Also in 1857 Bond captures the first photograph of a double star, photographing both stars of Mizar.
| (Harvard U) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA (presumably) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3562) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, synthesizes methyl alcohol from marsh-gas (methane) by chlorination and hydrolysis.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3628) Eduard Suess (ZYUS) (CE 1831-1914), Austrian geoloist argues that horizontal movements of the Earth's crust creates mountain ranges as opposed to vertical uplift.
Suess publishes this statement in a small book entitled "Die Enstehung der Alpen" ("The Origin of the Alps", 1857). At the time most people believe that volcanism (in particular the activity of magma {rock hot enough to be in liquid form}) causes mountain building. Seuss views volcanism as a result of mountain building.
| (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3640) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, proves mathematically that the rings of Saturn cannot be solid objects. Maxwell shows that if the rings of Saturn are solid, the gravitational and mechanical forces on the rings, as they rotate would break them up, but if the rings are made of numerous small solid particles, they would be dynamically stable, and give the appearance of being solid from a distance. (Cassini had guess this a 150 years earlier.) The first Voyager to reach Saturn will confirm this truth visually by showing clearly the individual ice chunks in the rings of Saturn, which form a dense asteroid belt around Saturn.
The French mathematician Pierre Simon de Laplace had shown that if Saturn's ring were a solid it could not be stable. Maxwell also proves that a solid ring is untenable and applied his analysis to nonrigid, semirigid, and other gaseous and liquid rings, concluding that the only stable structure is concentric circles of small satellites, each moving at a speed appropriate to its distance from Saturn. Such rings attract one another, and Maxwell presents a lengthy investigation of mutual perturbations. Maxwell estimates the rate of loss of energy and deduces that the entire system of rings will slowly spread out. The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography states that this spreading out has been proven by observation. (I doubt the theory of the rings spreading out. In addition, there are occasionally new masses that enter the system. I think the theory that the masses must maintain a velocity proportional to the distance is interesting - their must be tiny exceptions which cause collisions. I am sure that modeling with computers must make more of this kind of physics understandable.)
This paper foreshadows Maxwell's later investigations of heat and the kinetic theory of gases.
(I think the theory of rings of liquid around planets might actually work. It would probably have to be a relatively low density liquid. The definition of liquid in my opinion requires that molecules be physically connected to each other in large groups, but not rigidly so that they are free to move while still attached to each other. It is interesting that a certain density, for example, photons/space, can not be used to define between solid, liquid and gas, because, for example ice is less dense than water. Perhaps velocity of particles needs to be included in the definition. Can average velocity alone be used to define state of matter? There are many particles to calculate the gravitational interactions, and I don't think this iteration forward into time can be generalized or avoided.)
(Show mathematical proof.) (Title of paper)
| (Marischal College) Aberdeen, Scotland |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3670) Barsanti and Matteucci propose a free-piston engine, in which the explosion propels a free piston against the atmosphere, and the work is done on the return stroke by the atmospheric pressure, a partial vacuum being produced under the piston. The engine never comes into commercial use, but Otto will make a similar design commercially successful.
Otto and Langen's free-piston engine of 1867 (not to be confused with the first four-stroke engine of 1876) is identical in principle, and the same in general construction as this engine, invented ten years earlier by Barsanti and Matteucci, but the details of Otto and Langen's engine will be worked out and made a practical commercial success by its ingenious clutch gear flame ignition and centrifugal governor.
In their patent 1857 these two Italians describe an ATMOSPHERIC ENGINE with a free piston - the first of this type. In the first plan, besides the free piston, an auxiliary counter-piston works a slide-valve to draw in the charge of air and gas into the cylinder between the pistons, and drives out the products of combustion. The charge is fired by a series of electric sparks, and the free piston is projected upward, being out of connection with the shaft. The full energy of the explosion is thus expended in doing work, by rapidly driving up the piston, overcoming frictional resistance, its own weight, and the pressure of the external air, until the piston stops. A partial vacuum is formed in the cylinder below the piston by the water-jacket, which rapidly cools the products of combustion, and the piston, being also acted upon by the atmospheric pressure and gravity, begins to descend. It is then made to do the actual work by means of a rack on the piston-rod which gears into a spur-wheel on the fly-wheel shaft, with ratchet and clutch gear to actuate the shaft only during the descent of the piston, and which allows the latter to fly perfectly free during its ascent. Some idea of this engine may be gathered from Fig. 88, (see image 1) given in the original patent, No. 1655, in 1857. A is the cylinder, open at the upper end and containing the principal working piston P, with rack on the rod R gearing into the spur wheel L, which runs loose on the main shaft K, but carries the click C, pressed by the spring s into the teeth of the ratchet-wheel B, which is keyed on the shaft K. When P moves upwards, the wheel L, carrying s and C, turns to the left freely on the shaft K; when P falls, L is turned to the right (clockwise) and, gearing into B, causes the main shaft K to rotate.
| (Ximenian Institute)Florence, Italy |
143 YBN
[1857 AD]
| 3791) Edmond Becquerel (BeKreL) (CE 1820-1891) builds a phosphoroscope to measure the duration of luminescence in a variety of material, io particular small durations.
A-E Becquerel developes the phosphoroscope to measure the time between the excitation of the phosphorescent material and the extinction of the glow. The sample is placed between two rotating disks with a series of holes spaced at equal angles a given distance out from the center. The holes in one disk do not line up with the holes in the other disk. The sample is excited by light coming in through one hole, and viewed by the phosphorescent light coming out of the other hole. Varying the speed of rotation makes it possible to measure the short time interval during which the phosphorescent light is emitted.
Becquerel's phosphoroscope of 1858 measures time delays as short as 10-4 seconds. In modern times, time intervals of 1 nanosecond (10-9) can be measured.
Becquerel reports this in "Recherches sur divers effets lumineux" (1858).
In 1852 Stokes had distinguished between phosphorescence and his new term fluorescence, in that fluorescence lasts only as long as the source light lasts. Becquerel uses his phosphoroscope to determine if there is a difference between phosphorescence and fluorescence by measuring the duration of stimulated luminescence.
Becquerel is unable to observe an afterglow in quartz, sulphur, phosphorus, metals, or liquids. The duration of fluorescence in solutions is later found to be of the order of one-hundred millionths of a second (10-8).
| (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) Paris, France |
142 YBN
[01/06/1858 AD]
| 2881) John Peter Gassiot (CE 1797-1877) uses a magnetic field to change the direction of the beam caused by a high voltage through a vacuum tube.
Davy had reported on moving an electric arc in air and in a vacuum with a magnet in 1821, but does not explicitly describe the florescent appearance of the electron beam in a vacuum tube. Davy used a voltaic pile of 2000 copper and zinc pairs, where Gassiot and Plucker use an induction coil to produce a high voltage.
Using magnets to change the direction of charged particles is the basis of the cathode ray tube (CRT), the first known device to display an image transmitted or stored electronically from an electric camera, the florescent (neon) light, and also particle accelerators.
| London, England (presumably) |
142 YBN
[03/12/1858 AD]
| 3539) Stanislao Cannizzaro (KoNnEDZorO) (CE 1826-1910), Italian chemist, writes a letter to his friend Sebastiano de Luca, professor of chemistry at Pisa, and subsequently published as "Sunto di un corso di filosofia chimica fatto nella R. Università de Genova" ("Sketch of a Course in Chemical Philosophy at the Royal University of Genoa"), that will be presented at the first international chemical congress in 1860. In this letter Cannizzaro restates Avogadro's hypothesis, supplies new evidence for it, and clearly distinguishes between atoms and molecules. At this time there are no agreement on values for atomic, molecular, or equivalent weights, and no possibility of systematizing the relationship of the elements.
Cannizzaro recognizes that Avogadro's hypothesis can be used to determine the molecular weight of various gases. From the molecular weight, the (atomic composition) of the gases can be determined. From that and the law of combining volumes of Gay-Lussac, the atomic weights as determined by Berzelius can be fully justified and clarified. Canizzaro writes in this 55 page paper (translated from Italian) "I believe that the progress of science made in these last years has confirmed the hypothesis of Avogadro, of Ampère, and of Dumas on the similar constitution of substances in the gaseous state; that is, that equal volumes of these substances, whether simple, or compound, contain an equal number of molecules: not however an equal number of atoms, since the molecules of the different substances, or those of the same substance in its different states may contain an equal number of atoms, whether the same or of diverse nature. In order to lead my students to the conviction which I have reached myself, I wish to place them on the same path as that by which I have arrived at it- the path, that is, of the historical examination of chemical theories. I commence, then, in the first lecture by showing how, from the examination of the physical properties of gaseous bodies, and from the law of Gay-Lussac on the volume relations between components and compounds, there arose almost spontaneously the hypothesis alluded to above, which was first of all enunciated by Avogadro, and shortly afterwards by Ampère. Analysing the conception of these two physicists, I show that it contains nothing contradictory to known facts, provided that we distinguish, as they did, molecules from atoms; provided that we do not confuse the criteria by which the number and the weight of the former are compared, with the criteria which serve to deduce the weight of the latter; provided that, finally, we have not fixed in our minds the prejudice that whilst the molecules of compound substances may consist of different numbers of atoms, the molecules of the various simple substances must all contain either one atom, or at least an equal number of atoms. In the second lecture I set myself the task of investigating the reasons why this hypothesis of Avogadro and Ampère was not immediately accepted by the majority of chemists. I therefore expound rapidly the work and the ideas of those who examined the relationships of the reacting quantities of substances without concerning themselves with the volumes which these substances occupy in the gaseous state; and I pause to explain the ideas of Berzelius, by the influence of which the hypothesis above cited appeared to chemists out of harmony which the facts. I examine the order of the ideas of Berzerlius, and show how on the one hand he developed and completed the dualistic theory of Lavoisier by his own electro-chemical hypothesis, and how on the other hand, influenced by the atomic theory of Dalton (which had been confirmed by the experiments of Wollaston), he applied this theory and took it for his guide in his later researches, bringing it into agreement with the dualistic electro-chemical theory, whilst at the same time he extended the laws of Richter and tried to harmonise them with the results of Proust. I bring out clearly the reason why he was led to assume that the atoms, whilse separate in simple bodies, should unite to form the atoms of a compound of the first order, and these in turn, uniting in simple proportions, should form composite atoms of the second order, and why (since he could not admit that when two substances give a single molecule, should change into two molecules of the same nature) he could not accept the hypothesis of Avogadro and of Ampère, which in many cases leads to the conclusion just indicated. I then show how Berzelius, being unable to escape from his own dualistic ideas, and yet wishing to explain the simple relations discovered by Gay-Lussac between the volumes of gaseous compounds and their gaseous components, was led to formulate a hypothesis very different from that of Avogadro and of Ampère, namely, that equal volumes of simple substances in the gaseous state contain the same number of atoms, which in combination unite intact; how, later, the vapour densities of many simple substances having been determined, he had to restrict this hypothesis by saying that only simple substances which are permanent gases obey this law; how, not believing that composite atoms even of the same order could be equidistant in the gaseous state under the same conditions, he was led to suppose that in the molecules of hydrochloric, hydriodic, and hydrobromic acids, and in those of water and sulphuretted hydrogen, there was contained the same quantity of hydrogen, although the different behaviour of these compounds confirmed the deductions from the hypothesis of Avogadro and of Ampère. I conclude this lecture by showing that we have only to distinguish atoms from molecules in order to reconcile all the experimental results known to Berzelius, and have no need to assume any difference in constitution between permanent and coercible, or between simple and compound gases, in contradiction to the physical properties of all elastic fluids. In the third lecture I pass in review the various researches of physicists on gaseous bodies, and show that all the new researches from Gay-Lussac to Clausius confirm the hypothesis of Avogadro and of Ampère that the distances between the molecules, so long as they remain in the gaseous state, do not depend on their nature, nor on their mass, nor on the number of atoms they contain, but only their temperature and on the pressure to which they are subjected. In the fourth lecture I pass under review the chemical theories since Berzelius: I pause to examine how Sumas, inclining to the idea of Ampère, had habituated chemists who busied themselves with organic substances to apply this idea in determining the molecular weights of compounds; and what were the reasons which had stopped him half way in the application of this theory. I then expound, in continuation of this, two different methods - the one due to Berzelius, the other to Ampère and Dumas- which were used to determine formulae in inorganic and in organic chemistry respectively until Laurent and Gerhardt sought to bring both parts of the science into harmony. I explain clearly how the discoveries made by Gerhardt, Williamson, Hofmann, Wurtz, Berthelot, Frankland, and others, on the constitution of organic compounds confirm the hypothesis of Avogadro and Ampère, and how that part of Gerhardt's theory which corresponds best with the facts and best explains their connection, is nothing but the extension of Ampère's theory, that is, its complete application, already begun by Dumas. I draw attention, however, to the fact that Gerhardt did not always consistently follow the theory which had given him such fertile results; since he assumed that equal volumes of gaseous bodies contain the same number of molecules, only in the majority of cases, but not always. I show how he was constrained by a prejudice, the reverse of that of Berzelius, frequently to distort the facts. Whilst Berzelius, on the one hand, did not admit that the molecules of simple substances could be divided in the act of combination, Gerhardt supposes that all the molecules of simple substances are divisible in chemical action. This prejudice forces him to suppose that the molecule of mercury and of all the metals consists of two atoms, like that of hydrogen, and therefore that the compounds of all the metals are of the same type as those of hydrogen. This error even yet persists in the minds of chemists, and has prevented them from discovering amongst the metals the existence of biatomic radicals perfectly analogous to those lately discovered by Wurtz in organic chemistry. From the historical examination of chemical theories, as well as from physical researches, I draw the conclusion that to bring into harmony all the branches of chemistry we must have recourse to the complete application of the theory of Avogadro and Ampère in order to compare the weights and the numbers of the molecules; and I propose in the sequel to show that the conclusions drawn from it are invariably in accordance with all physical and chemical laws hitherto discovered. I begin in the fifth lecture by applying the hypothesis of Avogadro and Ampère to determine the weights of molecules even before their composition is known. On the basis of the hypothesis cited above, the weights of the molecules are proportional to the densities of the substances in the gaseous state. If we wish the densities of vapours to express the weights of the molecules, it is expedient to refer them all to the density of a simple gas taken as unity, rather than to the weight of a mixture of two gases such as air. hydrogen being the lightest gas, we may take it as the unit to which we refer the densities of other gaseous bodies, which in such a case express the weights of the molecules compared to the weight of the molecule of hydrogen=1. Since I prefer to take as common unit for the weights of the molecules and for their fractions, the weight of a hald and not of a whole molecule of hydrogen, I therefore refer the densities of the various gaseous bodies to that of hydrogen=2. If the densities are referred to air=1, it is sufficient to multiply by 14.438 to change them to those referred to that of hydrogen=1; and by 28.87 to refer them to the density of hydrogen=2. ..."
Cannizzaro concludes by writing (translated from Italian): " In the succeeding lectures I speak of the oxides with moatomic and biatomic radicals, afterwards I treat of the other classes of polyatomic radicals, examining comparatively the chlorides and the oxides; lastly, I discuss the constitution of acids and of salts, returning with new proofs to demonstrate what I have just indicated. but of all this I will give you an abstract in another letter."
| (Collegio Nazionale in Alessandria) Piedmont (now part of Italy), Italy |
142 YBN
[03/15/1858 AD]
| 3460) Balfour Stewart (CE 1828-1887) theorizes that "the absorption of a plate equals its radiation, and that for every description of heat", which is similar to Prevost's basic theory of exchanges.
Foucault was the first to describe the emission and absorption of the same spectral line in 1849. In 1853 Anders Angström (oNGSTruM) (CE 1814-1874) had described a similar theory. Gustav Kirchhoff will explain a similar theory in describing the light emited by a black body in 1859.
Stewart extends Pierre Provost's "Law of Exchanges", and establishes that radiation is not a surface phenomenon, but takes place throughout the interior of the radiating body. In addition, Stewart explains that the radiative and absorptive powers of a substance must be equal, not only for the radiation as a whole, but also for every part of the substance.
Stewart bases his theory entirely on the assumption that in an enclosure that cannot absorb heat and contains no source of heat, not only will the contents be the same temperature but the radiation at all points and in all directions will ultimately be the same in character and in intensity. From this it follows that the radiation is throughout, that of a black body at the temperature of the enclosure. From this by the simplest reasoning it follows that the radiating and absorbing powers of any substance must be exactly proportional to one another, not merely for the radiation as a whole but for each part of the body. (I am not sure that a body measured at a certain temperature has the same temperature throughout.)
One contemporary criticism of this theory is that it does not explain the phenomenon or fluorescence or phosphorescence. (Question: Is so-called radioactive decay common in all elements, but the frequency is so low that atoms only emit infrared and radio frequencies of photons? is this basically the same phenomenon of atoms separating into their source photons or are the two different? For example one simply being free photons finally finding an exit which results in infrared while the other is a full separation of an atom.)
| (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland |
142 YBN
[03/16/1858 AD]
| 3581) Friedrich August Kekule (von Stradonitz) (KAKUlA) (CE 1829-1896), German chemist, creates a new way of representing chemical formulas using the valence theory of Frankland.
In 1852 Edward Frankland had pointed out that each kind of atom can combine with only so many other atoms. According to this theory, hydrogen can combine with only one other atom at a time, oxygen can combine with two, nitrogen with three, and carbon with four. This combining power soon became known as the valency (valence) of an atom. Each atom is either uni-, bi-, tri-, quadrivalent, or some higher valence.
In 1858, both Kekulé and Archibald Couper understand that carbon is quadrivalent and that one of the four bonds of the carbon atom could join with another carbon atom.
Couper will add dashes to these, and Kekulé structures will become popular (and useful in describing the geometric structure of molecules). The diagrams of carbon compounds used today come not from Kekulé but from Alexander Crum Brown in 1865. Kekulé's own notation, known as 'Kekulé sausages', in which atoms were represented by a cumbersome system of circles, is soon dropped.
This is a refining of the initial chemical symbols, for example water is H2O, sodium chloride is NaCl, ammonia NH3, etc. to include geometrical location of each atom, for example water is H-O-H, and ammonia: H-N-H | H (Explain and show chemical formulas before this.) (This is a two dimensional representation, with orthogonal {90 degree} connections, and does not represent the true 3 dimensional structure, which is 3 dimensional with bonds that may not be 90 degrees.) Van't Hoff and Le Bel will extend Kekulé's structures into 3 dimensions, Gilbert Lewis will elaborate Kekulé's structures into an electronic theory (describe), Linus Pauling will elaborate on Kekulé structures through quantum mechanics. (describe clearly how.) With this new system, isomers can be easily understood as molecules made of the same atoms, but with atoms arranged differently. For example C2H6O represents both ethanol and dimethyl ether. If the rules of valence are observed these are the only two ways in which two carbon, six hydrogen, and one oxygen atom can be combined and indeed these are the only two compounds of the formula ever observed.
ethyl alcohol and dimethyl alcohol are: ethyl alcohol: dimethyl alcohol: H H H H | | | | H-C-C-O-H H-C-O-C-H | | | | H H H H These structural formulas serve as guides for chemists interested in synthesizing new compounds.
Kekule publishes his results in his paper "Ueber die Konstitition und die Metamorphosen der chemischen Verbindungen und uber die chemische Natur des Kohlenstoffs", (1858; "On the Constitution and the Metamorphoses of Chemical Compounds and the Chemical Nature of Carbon") and in the first volume of his "Lehrbuch der organische Chemie" (1859; "Textbook of Organic Chemistry").
According to the 2008 Encyclopedia Britannica the Scottish chemist Archibald Scott Couper publishes a substantially similar theory nearly simultaneously, and the Russian chemist Aleksandr Butlerov does much to clarify and expand structure theory, but mostly Kekule’s ideas prevail in the chemical community.
Kekulé demonstration of how organic compounds can be constructed from carbon chains is successful, one set of compounds, the aromatics, cannot be explained. Benzene, discovered by Michael Faraday in 1825, has the formula C6H6, cannot be represented as any kind of chain. However Kekulé will show in 1865 how benzene is a ring, (which can be explained with the valence theory and drawn).
(show actual images of Kekule's notation) (what is the nature of Kekule's 1857 paper?)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
142 YBN
[03/30/1858 AD]
| 2874) Julius Plücker (PlYUKR) (CE 1801-1868), German mathematician and physicist analyzes the spectra of various gases in evacuated tubes illuminated by a high voltage from an induction coil.
Plücker writes "I convinced myself ... that such tubes show beautiful spectra of the most varied kind, according to the nature of the traces of gases or vapours which they contain. All these spectra have this in common, that the colours do not merge into one another as in the ordinary solar spectrum. They are, on the contrary, sharply demarcated; and the separate spaces of colour again are also divided into well-defined lighter and darker strips. Each gas, moreover, has a characteristic spectrum."
EX: What is the spectrum of photons from sparks? (update: in air the spectrum appears to fill the visible range similar to an incandescent bulb) In particular in a vacuum? What element or molecule does the light originate from? atoms of the electrode? (Apparently the spectra of the electrode ends. EX: perhaps other metal in the middle of the wire change the infrared spectra emitted from the wire? Did Plücker examine the spectra of light of sparks in a vacuum? Is Plücker the first to examine the light of electricity through a spectrum?)
Plücker writes "These spectra are essentially different from those belonging to the electrical arch of light in the air, and from metals glowing or burning in it. I doubt whether the particles carried off from the electrodes exert any influence upon the spectra above described: I think rather that these spectra belong entirely to the rarefied gases. On the other hand, the electric arch of light in the air is never free from matter, which is carried over (carbon and metal), whose incandescence gives rise to new bright lines in the spectrum, peculiar to each substance."
Plücker goes on to describe the spectrum of hydrogen gas, gaseous fluoride of boron, and oxygen gas. Plücker concludes with "In connection with the chemical question, I propose recurring to the question of the spectra. The subject is one belonging, if I may use the expression, to Micro-chemistry. Conditions occur in it which differ from those under which chemical actions usually take place. it is only on the successful solution of these questions, that many not unimportant points for the molecular theory will be satisfactorily solved, such as- How may the spectrum of a mixed gas be derived from the spectra of its constituents? How are the spectra of a compound gas related to one another before and after its chemical decomposition by the current? How does the chemical combination which the gas effects with the electrode influence the spectrum? Do isomeric gases give rise to similar spectra?"
Plücker shows that when light is produced by electricity in mixed gases the spectra produced is a combination of the spectrum of both gases and that when a compound gas is capable of being decomposed by electrical current, that this decomposition is indicated by the appearance of the spectra of the separated parts. (Chronology)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN
[07/01/1858 AD]
| 3033) Alfred Wallace had independently of Charles Darwin speculated about evolution by natural selection, because of his conclusion that the animals of Australia are more primitive than those of Asia, and that they lived on Australia when the continent separated from the Asian mainland before the more advanced Asian species had developed. Like Darwin, Wallace has read Malthus. Wallace writes out his theory in two days and sends the manuscript to Darwin for his opinion, not knowing that Darwin is working on the same theory.
On June 18, 1858, Darwin receives the letter from Alfred Russel Wallace, an English socialist and specimen collector working in the Malay Archipelago, sketching a similar-looking theory. Darwin sees such a similarity to his own theory that he consults his closest colleagues, the geologist Charles Lyell and the botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker. The three men decide to present two extracts of Darwin’s previous writings, along with Wallace’s paper, to the Linnean Society on July 1, 1858. Darwin is absent grieving for a son who died of scarlet fever.
The resulting set of papers, with both Darwin’s and Wallace’s names, is published as a single article entitled “On the Tendency of Species to Form Varieties; and on the Perpetuation of Varieties and Species by Natural Means of Selection” in the Proceedings of the Linnean Society in 1858.
The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography describes the formal theory of evolution by natural selection like this: 1) The numbers of individuals in species remain more or less constant. 2) There is an enormous overproduction of pollen, seeds, eggs, larvae. 3) Therefore, there must be a high (death rate). 4) Individuals in species differ in innumerable anatomical, physiological, and behavioral (traits), 5) Some are better adapted to their available ecological niches (how they fit into their surroundings), will survive more frequently, and will leave more offspring. 6) Hereditary resemblances between parents and offspring is a fact. 7) Therefore, successive generations will not only maintain but improve their degree of adaption, and as the environment varies, successive generations will not only differ from their parent but also from each other, giving rise to divergent stocks from common ancestors.
Many religious people are shocked because if humans and apes have a common ancestor, humans no longer have a privileged position as created by a god in his own image. In addition if all organisms originate by natural selection, the argument for the existence of a god based on the idea that a god designed the organisms is destroyed.
Some people had identified the process of natural selection (although not explicitly common ancestry) such as Malthus (1798, for humans), Lamarck had understood common ancestry (1809 ), William Charles Wells (CE 1757 – 1817), a physician and printer, described natural selection for skin color in 1813, Patrick Matthew (CE 1790–1874) a Scottish landowner and fruit grower, described the concept of natural selection (without a clear statement of common ancestry) in the appendix of an 1831 book "On Naval Timber and Arboriculture", Edward Blyth (CE 1810-1873), an English zoologist and chemist, published papers on artificial and natural selection in "The Magazine of Natural History" between 1835 and 1837.
Wallace does not believe that humans evolved from lower animals as Darwin does, and tries to differentiate between body and (the backward erroneous theory of) soul.
| (Linnean Society), London, England |
142 YBN
[08/16/1858 AD]
| 3305) Completion of the first successful Atlantic cable, an electricity carrying metal insulated wire 1,852 miles (2980km) long.
This cable extends from to Bull Arm, Trinity Bay, Newfoundland.
The manufacture of the cable, begun early in 1857 is finished in June, and before the end of July it was stowed partly in the US ship "Niagara" and partly in the British "Agamemnon". The two ships start in mid-ocean and after splicing together the ends of the cable they have on board, sail away from each other in opposite directions.
After many breaks and patches, the "Niagara" lands one end of the cable in Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, on the 5th of August, while on the same day the "Agamemnon" lands the other end at Valentia Harbor, Ireland. The electrical condition of the cable is excellent, but unfortunately the electrician in charge, Wildman Whitehouse, conceives the wrong idea that the cable should use currents of high potential. For nearly a week futile attempts are made to send messages by his methods, and then a return is made to the weak currents and the mirror galvanometers of Sir William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) which had been employed for testing purposes while the cable was being laid. In this way communication was established from both sides on August 16th, but it did not continue long, because the insulation had been ruined by Whitehouse's treatment, and after the 20th of October no signals could be got through.
(State length, width, stranded or solid, materials, insulation, method of repairing and testing cable)
| (Newfoundland to Ireland) Atlantic Ocean |
142 YBN
[08/25/1858 AD]
| 2974) Julius Plücker (PlYUKR) (CE 1801-1868), German mathematician and physicist, states that the spectra of light from high voltage applied to rarefied gases comes only from the gas and not the electrode, that these spectra are specific for each gas, that particles come only from the negative electrode, and that no current can flow in a vacuum. (It seems clear that photons can flow in a vacuum, and electrons can, since they move through space, so perhaps this last statement is wrong?)
Later on in July 1858 Plücker writes "88. I believe that I was the first to declare positively that the luminous appearance which accompanies electrical discharge through long tubes of rarefied gases, is (without considering the special phenomena in the neighborhood of the two electrodes) entirely and completely attributable to the traces of gas remaining in the tubes; futher, that the beauty and great diversity of such spectra for various gases offer a new characteristic for distinguishing them, and that any chemical alteration in the nature of the gas may be thereby at once recognized, This seemed to me to be the most important part of the subject, pointing, as it does, to a method of physico-chemical investigations of a new kind. 89. I find that my opinion, that no particles of metal are transferred from one electrode to the other, has been supported by Mr. Gassiot. Metal is transported from one electrode alone - the negative one - to the portion of the inner surface of glass immediately surrounding it; and such transportation occurs whatever be the nature of the metal forming the electrode. (This is evidence in favor of electricity as a single particle, since no positive analogy is known.) The surrounding surface of the glass is gradually blackened by the finely divided metal; when the deposit becomes thicker, a beautiful metallic mirror is formed. "
..."91. The following observation supports in a manner, and independently, the opinion that in tubes of rarified gases the metal is not the bearer of the electrical discharge, and consequently the cause of the phaenomenon of light. ... 92. before proceeding to the analysis of the light of the different gas-vacua, we must briefly consider the question whether an absolute vacuum bars the passage of the electric current, and, by doing so, extinguishes the light. An absolute vacuum, like a mathematical pendulum, is a fiction; and the practical question is only whether no electric discharge passes through the nearest possible approximation to an absolute vacuum which we can procure. ... The best of these tubes allow the passage of the direct discharge of Ruhmkorff's apparatus. This discharge, which is accompanied by a white light (what spectra?), soon, however, becomes intermittent, and after one or two minutes it completely ceases. If, in accordance with the analogy of an experiment before described (73), we are justified in forming an opinion as to what takes place in such a tube, we must assume that the oxygen of the immeasurably small quantity of air which has remained behind goes to the electrode, and that the residual nitrogen no longer suffices to convey the current.(Interesting that nitrogen gas cannot be illuminated?) I agree with the opinion that ponderable matter (as opposed to the supposed aether) is necessary for the formation of an electric current. Such matter is, however, in general a gas, and not as (at least partly) in Davy's luminous arc, metal or carbon passing over in the extremest state of division."
(Plucker observes that no current flows from reversing the connections?)
(That electric particles (current) does not flow in a vacuum, shows possibly that these electric particles need a host particle to attach to, in order to move to other locations. In addition, it seems logical that this host particle must be able to move to transport the electrical particle to a different location, certainly for gases and liquids, however is this the case for solids too? Is the different between a conductor and insulator the fact that the electrical particle carrier hosts cannot move in an insulator but can move in a conductor?)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 2826) William Lassell (CE 1799-1880), English astronomer, builds a 48-inch reflecting telescope.
| (Starfield Observatory) Liverpool, England |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3120) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, shows that the "chorda tympani" nerve stimulates (electrically?) the flow of saliva, and an increased blood flow through the salivary glands. Bernard shows that stimulating the sympathetic nerve (some fibers which terminate in the salivary glands), result in reduced salivary secretion and blood flow. Bernard therefore identifies the important principle that organ function is modulated by the opposing effects of the somatic (the part of the nervous system involved with control of voluntary muscle in addition to those involved in touch, hearing, and sight) and autonomic nervous systems (the part of the nervous system that regulates involuntary action, as of the intestines, heart, and glands, and that is divided into the sympathetic nervous system and the parasympathetic nervous system), and that these actions are mediated by corresponding alterations of nutrient blood flow. In this way, Bernard defines one of the most important actions of the vasomotor system.
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3155) Warren De La Rue (CE 1815-1889), British astronomer, invents a photoheliograph, a telescope adapted to take photographs of the sun.
De La Rue carries out the proposal of the British astronomer Sir John Herschel to photograph the Sun daily.
| (Kew Observatory) Surrey, England |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3164) Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne (GEYOM BoNZomiN omoN DYUsEN) (CE 1806–75) gives the first account of "tabes dorsalis", or "locomotor ataxia", a muscular atrophy caused by a degeneration of the dorsal columns of the spinal cord and sensory nerve trunks.
| Paris, France |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3203) August Wilhelm von Hofmann (HOFmoN) (CE 1818-1892), German chemist prepares rosaniline. This forms the first of a series of investigations on coloring matters which ends with quinoline red in 1887.
| (Royal College of Chemistry) London, England |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3205) Franciscus Cornelis Donders (DoNDRZ or DxNDRZ) (CE 1818-1889) Dutch physiologist finds that hypermetropia (farsightedness) is caused by a shortening of the eyeball, so that light rays refracted by the lens of the eye converge behind the retina.
| (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3211) Pietro Angelo Secchi (SeKKE) (CE 1818-1878), Italian astronomer, draws one of the early maps of Mars.
Secchi calls Syrtis Major the "Atlantic Canal". (give Italian)
In 1863 Secchi makes color sketches of Mars, and refers to channels on Mars as "canali". Emmanuel Liais in 1860 proposes that the dark regions are not seas but vegetation.
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3288) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), develops simple and accurate methods for testing and correcting the figure of both mirrors and lenses.
Foucault develops three tests to determine if a mirror is misshaped. The first test is to examine with a microscope of the quality of the image of a point-like source close to the center of curvature. For a point source Foucault uses a pinhole in a screen with a light a light from a lamp passed through a lens and a prism. If the image from the mirror is round, the mirror is rotationally symmetric. The second test uses an illuminated square grid of wires, placed close to the mirror's center of curvature. Foucault then observes the mirror through a small aperture to detect curves in the mirror's reflection of the lines. The third test is more sensitive and is known as Foucault's shadow or knife-edge test. Again a small-hole light source is used. Looking at the mirror, which seems bright, the viewer passed a sharp edge into the focus of the reflected image from the pinhole. When the focus is perfect, a knife edge cuts all rays simultaneously and the mirror dims uniformly, but if the mirror is misshapen, the rays from some parts of the mirror still reach the eye.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3358) Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) publishes "On the Integrals of Hydrodynamic Equations to Which Vortex Motions Conform." (1858) which describes mathematical analysis of vortices of an ideal fluid. Helmholtz shows mathematically that vortices of an ideal fluid are amazingly stable and can collide elastically with one another, intertwine to form complex knot-like structures, and undergo tensions and compressions, all without losing their identities. In 1866 William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin) proposes that these vortices, if composed of the ether that is presumed to be the basis for optical, electrical, and magnetic phenomena, can act exactly like atoms of solid matter, and therefore the ether would become the only substance in the cosmos, and all physical phenomena can be accounted for in terms of its static and dynamic properties. (perhaps a similar view can be attributed to photons as the ultimate atom of matter.)
This paper is highly mathematical and understandable mainly to mathematical physicists.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3359) Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) reads "On Subjective After-Images of the Eye", in which Helmholtz examones Fechner's theory of the subjective after-images of the eye. After looking at a bright object, and then exposing the eye to complete darkness, a positive after-image first appears; the bright parts of the object appear bright, and the dark parts are dark; however, the afterimage is mostly negative; the bright spots of the image appear dark, and the dark parts bright. Helmholtz confirms Fechner's theory (see ) and examines an interesting phenomenon of viewing a single frequency of light from a prism and viewing its after image of the complementary color.
This also shows that Helmholtz and others around this time are fascinated by the process of the eye and brain, and the phenomena of sight. This interest leads to the seeing of thought by Pupin, a pupil of Helmholtz's in 1910.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3368) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (KLoUZEUS) (CE 1822-1888), German physicist, publishes "On the Average Length of Paths Which Are Traversed by Single Molecules in the Molecular Motion of Gaseous Bodies" (1858). From the assumption that molecules move in a straight path Clausius calculates the average velocity of hydrogen molecules at normal temperature and pressure. Because the value, around 2,000 meters per second, seems to contradict the low rate of gas diffusion, Clausius explains this with the important idea of the average path of molecules. The average or mean length of path of a moving molecule is reduced by 3/4 because the relative velocity is 4/3 the actual average velocity. (This needs to be explained: why is the relative velocity of a molecule compared to other molecules 4/3 of the actual average velocity of the molecule?) From this fact, an important relationship exists: the ratio between the mean length of path of a molecule, and the radius of the collision sphere is equal to the ratio of the the average space between molecules and the volume of a collision sphere for each molecule. However, Clausius fails to understand this which Maxwell will understand. (Does this presume a spherical inelastic container?)
James Clerk Maxwell calls Clausius the principal founder of the kinetic theory of gases.
| (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3395) Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier (luVerYA) (CE 1811-1877) publishes "Théorie du Mouvement apparent du Soleil" ("Theory of the Apparent Solar Movement") in which Leverrier analyzes the apparent movement of the Sun relative the the Earth, and "Tables du Soleil" ("Solar Tables", 1858) which represent those apparent movements. Leverrier goes on to provide the same analysis for the other planets publishing "Théorie de Mercuré" ("Theory of Mercury", 1859) and "Tables de Mercuré" ("Tables of Mercury",1861), "Théorie de Vénus" ("Theory of Venus, 1861) and "Tables de Vénus" (1861), "Théorie de Mars" (1861) and "Tables de Mars" (1861), Jupiter (1876), Saturn (1876), Uranus (1876, tables: 1877), Neptune (1876). (These tables are predictions of future locations of the planets.)
Le Verrier finds that Newtonian gravity can explain the Sun's (apparent) motion if relative to the Sun, the mass of the Earth is 1/10th larger, and Mars 1/10th smaller than accepted, and that the solar parallax is 8.95 arcsecond, more than 4 per cent bigger than Encke's value. Le Verrier's later analysis of Venus and Mars in 1861 support these conclusions. Le Verrier gave an initial report on his analysis of Newtonian gravity to predict the observations of planets, moons and the Sun.
Le Verrier's equationd involve almost 500 terms. The masses in these equations are always multiplied by Newton's gravitational constant, G, but G is poorly known. Henry Cavendish had calculated G in 1797-98 with 7 oer cent uncertainty. However, the product of GMEarth is well known because it is set by two accurately measured quantities: the rate that a falling body accelerates, and the radius of the Earth. So Le Verrier uses this quantity to determine the distances and the products GMSun, and the GM of the other planets. These products can be divided to obtain the masses of the individual planets relative to the Sun because G cancels, leaving MMercury/MSun, MVenus/MSun, etc. Relative distances are given by Kepler's laws, so Le Verrier only needs to write his equations in terms of only one absolute distance, which he uses the Sun-Earth distance, represented by solar parallax. After creating these lengthy perturbation equations, Le Verrier uses planetary observations from the previous 100 years. le Verrier first examines the apparent position of the Sun as seen through Earth's sky, because if this motion is evaluated inaccurately the locations of the planets will be in error too. Le Verrier applies mathematical methods to the perturbation equations which yield the solar parallax value and planetary mass ratios which predict wobbles in the Sun's motion that best match the observed wobbles.
Delambre had computed tables of planetary positions "Tables du Soleil", "de Jupiter", "de Saturne", "d'Uranus et des satellites de Jupiter" which were published in 1792. However discrepancies began to arise in the predicted position of Uranus. Bouvard (1767-1843), a French astronomer who was director of the Paris Observatory, had already published accurate tables of the orbits of Jupiter and Saturn in 1808 tried to correct Delambre's tables for Uranus, but fails. Bouvard publishes his new tables of Uranus in 1821 but wrote "... I leave it to the future the task of discovering whether the difficulty of reconciling is connected with the ancient observations, or whether it depends on some foreign and unperceived cause which may have been acting upon the planet." However, Uranus starts to clearly deviate from the positions given in Bouvard's tables.
| Paris, France |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3408) Charles Hermite (ARmET) (CE 1822-1901), French mathematician publishes a solution of 5th degree (quintic) equations in "Sur la résolution de l’équation du cinquième degré" (1858; "On the Solution of the Equation of the Fifth Degree").
In this work on the theory of functions, Hermite applies elliptic functions to provide the first solution to the general equation of the fifth degree, the quintic equation.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3415) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, shows that Penecillium, a plant mold, growing in crystals of racemic acid, uses only one optical isomer of two available in racemic acid.
Pasteur reports that Penicillium molds ferment only dextrotartaric acid and do not attack the levo isomer. Pasteur therefore develops a practical method for separating compounds which are identical except for their spatial arrangement.
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3481) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) invents the mirror galvanometer (1858). (What was wrong with the usual Schweigger galvanometer?)
Thompson also invents improvements in cables which make the Atlantic cable being installed by Field possible.
(Show image and explain how it works)
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3501) Thomas Henry Huxley (CE 1825-1895), English biologist, publishes "The Theory of the Vertebrate Skull" which revives studies done by von Baer and Rathke showing the improbability of the theory of the origin of the skull from the vertebre, a theory originated by Goethe, elaborated by Oken, and developed by Owen. (State actual origin of skull)
Huxley demonstrates that the skull is built up of cartilaginous pieces. In 1871, Gegenbaur will support this view by showing that "in the lowest (gristly) fishes, where hints of the original vertebrae might be most expected, the skull is an unsegmented gristly brain-box, and that in higher forms the vertebral nature of the skull cannot be maintained, since many of the bones, notably those along the top of the skull, arise in the skin.".
| (University of London) London, England (presumably) |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3555) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, synthesizes methane (1858). Berthelot synthesizes methane by the action of a mixture of hydrogen sulfide (H2S, also known as sulphuretted hydrogen, and stinkdamp, a clear and extremely poisonous gas that smells like rotten eggs) with carbon disulphide on copper.
Also in 1858 Berthelot recognizes cholesterine, trehalose, meconine, and camphol as alcohols.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3557) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, publishes "Chimie organique fondée sur la synthèse" (1860) which reviews his ten years of work in organic chemistry.
Berthelot's favored techniques are reduction using red-hot copper and the silent electric discharge (how different from regular discharge?). According to Oxford's Dictionary of Scientists, Bethelot's methods are somewhat crude and the yields (of sythesized products) are low. In chemistry, reduction is defined as: 1. A decrease in positive valence or an increase in negative valence by the gaining of electrons. 2. A reaction in which hydrogen is combined with a compound. and 3. A reaction in which oxygen is removed from a compound.
Berthelot's last major research in organic chemistry is the application, (in 1867,) of hydrogen iodide as a reducing agent, which he calls "une methode universelle d'hydrogenation". He finds that a concentrated solution of hydriodic acid is a universal reducing agent at high temperatures.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3627) Archibald Scott Couper (KUPR) (CE 1831-1892), Scottish chemist, uses dashes to represent the chemical bond in similar structures to Kekulé notation.
Couper, in this paper, is the first to depict a molecule in the shape of a ring (cyanuric acid {see image}).
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Couper proposed the tetravalency of carbon and the ability of carbon atoms to bond with one another independently of August Kekule.
Couper had submitted his paper to the Paris Academy of Science through Wurtz, but because Wurtz was not a member of the academy, the presentation of the paper is delayed until June 14, 1858, about two months after Kekule’s paper containing the same revolutionary theory had been presented. A different version states that Wurtz simply delays taking any steps, and in the interim August Kekulé's paper "On the Constitution and Metamorphoses of Chemical Compounds and on the Chemical Nature of Carbon" appears, containing essentially similar proposals. Couper protests to Wurtz about his procrastination but, it is said, is shown out of the laboratory. Couper's paper is, however, finally presented by Jean Baptiste Dumas to the academy on June 14, 1858, and published in the Comptes rendus; fuller versions are subsequently published in English and French. (see also Kekule addresses the similarities of the two papers.) (If true, it looks bad for Wurtz and Kekule. It could be unintentional on the part of Wurtz and/or Kekule. But could be camera-thought net insider injustice. It seems to me a minor scientific contribution anyway.)
(I am sure the long delayed release of the camera-thought images will completely revise the public's understanding of history.)
Couper's paper is published as "Sur une nouvelle théorie chimique" ("On a New Chemical Theory") in the "Annales de chimie et de physique" for 1858.
Couper isolates two new compounds bromobenzene, and p-dibromobenzene.
| (Wurtz's Paris laboratory) Paris, France |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3635) Karl von Voit (CE 1831-1908), German physiologist, demonstrates that the nitrogen in the excreta of an animal can be used as a measure of an animal's protein metabolism.
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany (presumably) |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 3775) (Sir) William Henry Perkin (CE 1838-1907), English chemist, and B.F. Duppa synthesize glycine in the first laboratory preparation of an amino acid.
| (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England |
142 YBN
[1858 AD]
| 6001) Jacques Offenbach (CE 1819-1880), French composer of German origin, composes the operetta "Orphée aux enfers" (1858; Orpheus in the Underworld) which contains the famous "galop infernal" ("Infernal Galop"). (verify)
Offenbach creates a type of light burlesque French comic opera known as the "opérette", which becomes one of the most characteristic artistic products of the period.
"Orphée aux enfers" is said to be the first classical full-length operetta.
Offenbach features the "can-can" in his operas (a dance invented by Monsieur Masarié in 1830) most notably in Orpheus in the Underworld.
| (Bouffes-Parisiens theater) Paris, France |
141 YBN
[02/21/1859 AD]
| 3747) Heinrich D. Ruhmkorff (CE 1803-1877), Heinrich Geissler (GISlR) (CE 1814-1879), Edmond Becquerel (BeKreL) (CE 1820-1891) and Julius Plücker (PlYUKR) (CE 1801-1868), observe cathodoluminescence, a luminescence around the cathode in evacuated tubes which will lead to image display screens.
Edmond Becquerel (BeKreL) (CE 1820-1891) in experiments with highly evacuated glass tubes with sealed-in electrodes, notices that double cyanides of platinum or sulfides of calcium and barium placed in the tubes luminesces most brightly in the area around the cathode. Becquerel also observes that the glass of the tube fluoresces green when a high tension current is passed through, which is probably an indication of cathode rays. In 1859 Julius Plucker also observes the green fluorescence of the glass of vacuum tubes. Becquerel and Plucker are the first to observe this phenomenon called "cathodoluminescence" which leads to the electric image screen known as television. In 1879 William Crookes will perform exhaustive experimentation and observation of a variety of luminescences excited by cathode rays, canal rays, X-rays, radium rays, and other kinds of radiation. However, it seems likely that the electric image screen was made earlier around the time of seeing eyes in 1810.
Becquerel writes (translated from French): "ON THE PHOSPHORESCENCE OF GASES BY THE ACTION OF ELECTRICITY IN the Memoirs presented by me to the Academy on the 16th of November, 1857, and 24th of May, 1858, relative to the luminous effects presented by bodies after having received the influence of light, I made use of tubes containing rarefied air, and in which were placed phosphorescent substances which became luminous after the passage of electrical discharges. Some time afterwards, M. Ruhmkorff, who arranged these apparatus in accordance with my directions, called my attentioa to the fact that in certain tubes containing only rarefied gases, which had been sent to him by M. Geissler, there were to be seen, after the passage of discharges, luminous traces persisting only for a few seconds, and analogous to those diffused by the phosphorescent substances employed in my investigations. I have since studied the passage of electrical discharges through rarefied gases and vapours, which gives rise, as is well known, to effects of colour depending on their nature, with the view of ascertaining what are the gases which present the effect of persistence of light, and whether the phenomenon be analogous to the phaenomenon of phosphorescence observed with solid bodies. In most tubes containing such gases as hydrogen, sulphuretted hydrogen, protoxide of nitrogen and chlorine, we observe faint gleams persisting after the passage of induction electricity, or even of a simple discharge of an electric battery, but the action appears to be limited to the internal surface of the glass tube. It is not due to phosphorescence of the glass; for tubes exposed to the action of a brilliant light, and then carried again into the dark, give rise to no action of this kind, and the phosphoroscope must be employed to observe the effects of persistence upon the glass, the duration of which is shorter than that which follows the action of electricity; the effect presented by tubes containing these gases would therefore appear to be the result of an electrization of the glass, or of the adherent gaseous stratum. With oxygen a different effect is observed; when the discharges of a strongly excited induction apparatus are passed through a tube containing this gas in a rarefied state, and the passage of the electricity is suddenly stopped, the tube appears to be illuminated with a yellow tint, which persists for several seconds after the interruption, and decreases more or less rapidly according to conditions which I have not yet been able to ascertain. In order that the effect may be very manifest, the electricity transmitted into the gas must have a certain tension; it is therefore preferable to interpose a condenser in the circuit, and to excite sparks at a distance in the air between one of the conductors of the induction apparatus, and one of the platinum-wires penetrating into the tube. A simple discharge of an electrical battery of several jars produces the same effect. In order to observe the persistent luminous action, the operations must be carried on in the dark; care must also be taken to keep the eyes shut whilst the discharges are going on, and only to open them immediately afterwards, so that the retina may not he impressed at the moment of the passage of the electricity. The part of the tube in which the discharge takes place must be at least 15 to 20 centims. in length. The peculiar action which illuminates the tube takes place between the actual molecules of the oxygen gas, and does not pass along the walls of the tube; for by making use of spheres of a capacity of 200 to 300 centims., the entire mass of the gas becomes opaline. By prolonging the tubes beyond the platinum-wires, it also appears that the rarefied oxygen beyond the part which directly receives the discharge, gives rise to an emission of light. On the other hand, this opalescence of the gas indicates that the effect does not result from electrical discharges due to the electrization of the glass and which would traverse the space illuminated after the cessation of the inductive discharge, as it may be produced by friction of the outside of the tube. When a tube is to give rise to an effect of persistent luminosity, there is produced, at the moment of the passage of the electricity, a yellow tint, which illuminates the mass of gas in the tube, and that independently of the different tints of the electric rays due to the intermixed gases; when this yellow tint disappears, the effect of persistence entirely ceases to be appreciable. It is even possible that gases mixed with oxygen may augment the duration of the persistence; for tubes, prepared apparently in similar conditions, furnished variable results as to intensity and duration. If we operate with a small tube containing rarefied oxygen, after the electricity has passed for some time, the effect of persistence ceases to be appreciable; this result appears to show that the peculiar property in question disappears in the gas at the end of some time. Is it connected with the formation of ozone, which, in a determinate volume, cannot exceed a certain limit? This I have been unable to ascertain. Sulphurous-acid gas sometimes presents an action analogous to that of oxygen; but the effect not being always exhibited, I have thought that it might depend on a partial decomposition of the gas and on a mixture of oxygen; the same is the case with rarefied air in the presence of phosphorus. However, I am at present following out these researches, and hope to ascertain, by means of an arrangement analogous to that which I have employed in the phos phoroscope, whether other gases and vapours besides oxygen would not give rise to effects of luminous persistence of shorter duration than that observed with the latter. The phaenomenon presented by oxygen, and perhaps in different degrees by other gases, probably depends on a peculiar action produced by electricity; for solar light, and even electric light itself does not give rise to any phosphorescence of this kind. Is it the result of vibrations impressed upon the molecules of the gases, or of a peculiar state of electrical molecular tension persisting for a few moments, or of some other physical or chemical cause?".
| (Conservatoire des Arts et Métiers) Paris, France |
141 YBN
[08/10/1859 AD]
| 3754) Wilhelm (Willy) Friedrich Kühne (KYUNu) (CE 1837-1900), German physiologist working with the sartorius muscle, demonstrates that nerve fibers can conduct impulses in both directions, and also shows that chemical and electrical stimuli can be used to excite muscle fibers directly.
(Presumably this paper ) (More details - what chemicals contract muscles, see )
| (University of ?) Paris, France |
141 YBN
[08/27/1859 AD]
| 3264) Edwin Laurentine Drake (CE 1819-1880), US petroleum engineer drills the first productive oil well in the United States. (on Earth too?)
The Seneca Oil Company collects ground-level seepage of oil near Titusville (Pennsylvania) and sells it. Chemist Benjamin Silliman, Jr. analyzes oil from the site and determines that, after refining, the oil can be used as an illuminant, as well as for other purposes. Working for Seneca Oil, Drake finds that the main seep supplies only three or four gallons of oil a day. So Drake attempts mining for oil, hiring workmen to dig a shaft, but water fills the shaft. Drake had discussed drilling with a lawyer George H. Bissell. Salt drillers often find that oil pollutes their wells. Bissell reasons that oil can be extracted using salt well drilling methods. Drake chooses a drilling site on an artificial island between the creek and the lumber company's water race and has the lumber company's boss, Jonathon Watson, build a house for the 6 horse-power "Long John" stationary, wood-fired engine and boiler that will power the drilling tools, and to erect a derrick for hoisting the drilling tools. Drake hires William "Uncle Billy" A. Smith, a blacksmith and experienced salt well driller, to make the tools and do the drilling. Drake is prepared to drill down 1000 feet. When the hole at 16 feet deep keeps caving in, Drake conceives the idea to use a "drive pipe", also called a "conductor". The drive pipe is made of joints of cast iron ten feet long. The drive pipe is driven down to bedrock at thirty-two feet depth (9.75 m). The tools can be safety lowered through the pipe which protected the upper part of the hole. Drake then can drill an average of three feet a day through the bedrock which is mostly shale. On August 27, 1859, the drill slips into a crevice six inches below the 69-foot depth of the drilled hole. Uncle Billy pulls up the tools and heads home. The next day when Billy goes back to the well, he finds oil floating on the water just a few feet from the derrick floor. A pitcher pump is used to bring up the oil in the Drake Well and the oil is put into a washtub, before being transfered to whiskey barrels. The initial production of 10 to 35 barrels a day nearly doubles the earth's output of oil. Many new related businesses are created around Titusville when the supply of barrels runs out. Within days of Drake's success, Samuel M. Kier, the first to build a commercial oil refinery in America, buys the oil and pays 60 cents per gallon delivered. Another Pittsburgh refiner, W. Mackeown, also buys Drake Well oil.
Oil will dominate the earth for at least a century as a fuel for engines. (Kerosene replaces coal and wood as a fuel for steam and electricity generating engines.). Other people flock to the site at Titusville, Pennsylvania and Northwestern Pennsylvania becomes the first oil field on earth, and a boom town springs up.
| (near) Titusville, Pennsylvania, USA |
141 YBN
[09/23/1859 AD]
| 3074) Urbain Jean Joseph Leverrier (luVerYA) (CE 1811-1877), French astronomer finds that the perihelion of Mercury advances 38 seconds of arc per century.
Karl Schwarzschild will explain in 1916 that an advance of 43 seconds per century is predicted by Einstein's general relativity theory. I have doubts about the truth of this claim.
At the time the positions of the planets are calculated using equations to describe periodic motions of the planets. This is different from using a computer to calculate the position and velocity of each mass for each instant of time into the future. In other words, before computers, Laplace and others used equations to create a positions that repeat indefinitely into the future. The problem with this approach is that it ignores the force of gravity of all the masses on each other, and other equations have to be added to compensate for those effects.
Leverrier predicts the existence of a large quantity of circulating matter between Mercury and the Sun (Comptes rendus, 1859, ii. 379). (Same work for perihelion?)
Leverrier is convinced that this advance of Mercury's orbit is caused by an undiscovered planet between Mercury and the Sun. Leverrier is so confident of its existence that he names the supposed planet "Vulcan".Leverrier supposes "Vulcan" to have a diameter of 1000 miles (units) and a distance from the sun of 19 million miles (an orbit inside the orbit of Mercury) would just account for the advance of the Mercury elliptical orbit. No such planet has yet been found although the neighborhood of the Sun is inspected at every subsequent eclipse. (There is a lot of light coming from the Sun, could it be that there are other small piece of matter too small to be seen so close to the Sun?) Arago is the person that initially points out that the motion of Mercury needs careful analysis to Leverrier.
I think the true story of the advance of the orbit or Mercury is because of the difference between modeling the movements of the planets by iteration versus modeling the movement of the planets from periodic equations such as the equation for an ellipse. Although I have not confirmed this, and I do plan on confirming this, my belief is that the orbits of all of the planets do not hold the same elliptical orbit over the centuries, but that their orbit moves, and that this can be shown by calculating the mutual force of gravity on each major mass of the planets, using a time interval of 1 second, into the future on a computer. Each planet is given a mass and initial velocity for some fixed time in the past, for example their observed positions on 01/01/2000 and the simulation is run into the future to verify future positions. I think this simulation will show that the future positions of the planets and moons are not easily predictable into the far future, much like weather here on Earth, because of small variations in the distribution of the many millions of pieces of matter that the planets and moons are composed of. However, I think even given this increased adding of error the farther the model is run in to the future, that any advance of the perihelion will be observed for Mercury and the other planets and even moons too. This model is very simple to run and only requires the initial 3 dimensional positions and initial time, and a transform from 2D earth centered coordinates with the addition of an estimated distance value for each planet and moon at that given time. The truth about the massive number of variables involved in and uncertainty about the stability of any star system should send a strong message to humans of Earth to create and populate stable ships with well-fueled engines in orbit around the Sun to sustain life of this star system in the event that the orbit of the Earth-Moon system is changed in a way that poses a danger to life on Earth, for example tiny cumulative effects add to sending the Earth and Moon into each other, or out to an orbit beyond Pluto.
There are other things to think about too, for example perhaps the mass or distance of either Mercury, or the Sun is inaccurate. In addition, total accuracy is impossible because of tiny fluctuations in the distribution of matter in planets and the sun. In particular the swirling of the liquids and gases of the Sun and the other planets and moons. Although I can accept that Mercury, and probably the other planets orbits do not remain the same relative to a fixed point over the centuries, Laplace carefully studied the planetary orbit history data, as did others before Laplace, and none ever noticed this advance of Mercury's perihelion, so far as I know. I think this historical data needs to be carefully examined, made electronic, and clearly made available and shown to all. In addition, I think it is important to allow other possibilities besides the contraction of space, to explain the advance of the perihelion. It seems unlikely that the law of gravity would apply to all matter, but then have an exception when two pieces of matter have a high velocity relative to each other. While I accept that no particles move faster than the speed of a photon, I doubt that time has any dependence on this maximum velocity. Beyond that, the theory of relativity does not accept the idea of photons as pieces of mass, and this is an error in my view. EX: I think an important, low cost, and relatively simple experiment is: View past data for the orbit of Mercury to see if this 38 seconds or arc per century is clearly observed. I think this is possibly the difference between using a static ellipse, as opposed to an iterative process, since planets do not follow ellipses, but instead follow the inverse distance squared law, which does not require the orbit to be a perfect unmoving ellipse. Do the orbits of the other planets advance or retreat? I would be surprised if the other orbits do not change, but supposedly end at exactly the same point, relative to the center of Earth, each century. In addition, using a geometrical method, any change in the Earth's orbit over the centuries has to be subtracted. It is better to reconstruct the past using an iterative process, but that takes a large amount of time for the computer to simulate, however, the inaccuracy of this modeling makes estimates of the far future mostly meaningless. Even if sped up by using computers modeling the future movement of the planets takes time (what is the current fastest ratio of real-time to modeled time?). There have only been recorded positions for mercury for ? many years? What are oldest recorded positions? and then oldest periodic recorded positions? I would look closely at long term observations of Mercury's position, are they consistent? What is the range of difference? Now with computers calculating the motion of the planets must be much easier and faster. In addition, what are the initial velocities the planets must be given to follow their orbits? Why is this never mentioned? To my knowledge a person cannot simply start a planet with 0 x,y,z velocity and it falls into the correct motion.
Mercury with the fastest rotating perihelion is perhaps the most noticeable. Since Mercury is the fastest moving, perhaps fluctuations accumulate more rapidly. Perhaps fluctuations of movement in Mercury are due to sun flare activity (if the motion is consistently 1.5 minutes of arc off this would not be the correct answer.) I think it's highly doubtful that Newton's equations do not hold for planet mercury too.
| Paris, France |
141 YBN
[10/20/1859 AD]
| 3087) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), and Gustav Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887) understand that the spectra of light relates to and can be used to determine the atomic (chemical) composition of a substance and develop the technique of spectroscopy.
Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), and Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887) build a spectroscope and develop the technique of spectroscopy.
Bunsen and Kirchhoff (confirm clearly Fraunhofer's view that) each pure substance has its own characteristic spectrum.
Kirchhoff supports the theory that each element emits and absorbs frequencies of light at the same specific frequencies.
Kirchhoff recognizes that sodium and potassium exist in the sun's atmosphere, while lithium does not or does in undetectably small quantity.
Kirchhoff recognizes that temperature of source and absorbing material makes a difference in absorption of spectral lines.
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
141 YBN
[11/22/1859 AD]
| 3035) This book, known as the "Origin of Species" is published 15 years after Darwin starting it. Darwin describes it as an abstract, only a fifth as long as planned. The first edition of 1,250 are sold out on the first day, and this book is still in print today and is one of the classics of science. Many view Darwin's theory of evolution as contrary to the statements in the Bible and destructive of religion.
Darwin's book and the theory of evolution start a major controversy over the truth about the theory of evolution shockingly even to this day, when evolution has been proven true with more than sufficient evidence. Yet, disappointingly, currently only 33% of people (in the USA) believe the theory of evolution to be true. However, the majority of those in science (and education) accept the theory of evolution as accurate.(verify)
After this introduction of the theory of a common ancestor, leading anatomists, like Ernst Heinrich Haeckel, reorient their work to the tracing of evolutionary relationships among animal groups.
| London, England (presumably) |
141 YBN
[11/24/1859 AD]
| 2928) The first iron warship, "La Gloire" ("The Glory") is built for the French Navy.
This ship is designed by the French naval architect Dupuy de Lôme.
| Mourillon, Toulon, France |
141 YBN
[12/11/1859 AD]
| 3456) Kirchhoff puts forward the theory that: a) a body at constant temperature emits and absorbs heat at the same rate, b) that energy (or in modern terms light) emitted by a body is lost in heat, and energy (again or light) absorbed by a body can only be gained as heat, and c) the idea of a perfectly black body, one which absorbs rays of all wavelengths and reflects none.
Kirchhoff states that "for rays of a given wavelength, and at a given temperature, all bodies have the same ratio of emissive to absorptive powers".
(It is important to state clearly if this concept of an atom emitting and absorbing photons of the same frequencies is true for all temperatures, is partially true, etc. My current view is that it is only true when the atom has similar temperatures. State clearly how Planck changes this concept if he does.)
(An important concept is that each atom has an emission spectrum and also an absorption spectrum. The absorption spectrum is deduced from light that is not found in the reflection of a source light.) (Who is the first to examine the emission and/or absorption spectrum of a living object?)
Gustav Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887) states a general law that "for rays of a given wavelength, and at a given temperature, all bodies have the same ratio of emissive and absorptive powers." Kirchhoff gives a mathematical proof using similar reasoning to Balfour Stewart for infrared light.
Kirchhoff theorizes that a perfect black body, one that absorbs all frequencies of light falling on it, would if heated to incandescence, emit all wavelengths. (Balfour Stewart reaches this same conclusion for heat independently).
Resolving contradictions between Kirchhoff's black-body theory and experiment lead to the development of quantum theory (by Maxwell Planck).
Foucault was the first to observe the absorption of the solar spectral lines later understood by Kirchhoff to be from Sodium.
I know of no translation of this paper into English. In 1928 science historian Henry Crew summarizes the paper writing: "In his second paper, presented to the Berlin Academy in December, 1859, Kirchhoff proceeds to a more rigid demonstration of his law. The proof is based upon the three following fundamental ideas: (a) The first is that a body which is in a region of constant temperature and has attained thermal equilibrium emits heat at the same rate at which it receives it. (b) Secondly, the assumption is made that the energy radiated by any body is radiated entirely at the expense of its own heat; and that whatever energy is absorbed by a body is transformed into heat only and not into any other form of energy. (c) The third is the idea of a perfectly black body, that is, one which is capable of absorbing rays of all wavelengths and reflecting none. Such a body, at that time, existed only in the imagination of Kirchhoff and was first realized in the laboratory by W. Wien and O. Lummer (Annalen der Physik, 56, p.453, 1895). Building upon this foundation and the ordinary definitions of absorption and emissive power, Kirchhoff shows, with less than a page of simple algebra, that, for any body whatever the ratio of its emissive power to its absorption for any particular wavelength at any particular temperature is the same as the corresponding ratio for a black body. Or if e denotes the emissive power of any given body and a its absorption; E the emissive power of a black body and A its absorption, then Kirchhoff's law crystallizes into the following form: e E --- --- a A It will be readily understood that, for a black body, A is always unity and E/A is a function of the temperature of the body. Hence the ratio e/a, numerically equal to E, is, for any given temperature, a definite and constant ratio. "
Kirchhoff publishes a third paper with a more rigid demonstration of this result.
Crew continues "The general principle thus rigidly established explains not only the reversal of the D lines observed by Foucault and later by Kirchhoff but also a host of ordinary phenomena, such as one observes on looking into a heated furnace where there may be pieces of iron, glass, and other objects besides red-hot coals. It is almost impossible to tell them apart. The glass, for example, transmits from hot coal the very rays which it alone is unable to emitl and it emits precisely those rays which glass absorbs. The consequence is that the glass presents to the eye almost the same appearance as the iron; and each resembles the hot coal. Kirchhoff thus made it perfectly clear once for all that opaque bodies, such as a copper wire, will glow at a moderate temperature while transparent bodies, such as gases, must be heated to vastly higher temperature; and when a heated gas gives a bright line spectrum, its only possibilities in the way of absorption are at those particular wavelengths which it emits. Here we have a law which holds not only for every particular wavelength, but also for every particular kind of absorbing and emitting mechanism, including molecules, atoms, and free electrons. The force of Kirchhoff's argument lies in the fact that he proved that this relation between absorption and radiation must be so if the assumptions upon which he starts are justifiable. Other observers, such as Herschel, Swan, Stokes, Balfour Stewart and others, rendered the principle highly probable and deserve credit accordingly; but Kirchhoff clinched the matter, and thus established the science of spectroscopy upon a firm foundation."
Henry Crew writes in 1828: "We can now consider the science of spectroscopy firmly established upon the general principle that any body emits the same radiations (light frequencies) which it absorbs, provided these radiations are also emitted by a black body at the same temperature. (Does Planck change this view? What is the answer to why we see photons from oxygen under high voltage? Who showed that temperature and pressure changes emission and absorption frequencies? )
DeWitt Brace explains in a 1901 book "The Laws of Radiation and Absorption": "...the most important advance was made by Balfour Stewart in establishing, not only a quantitative relation, but also a qualitative or selective one. By the introduction of his ingenious idea of an impervious radiating inclosure he demonstrated the equality between the emissive and the absorptive power of any wave length. We owe to Kirchhoff, however, the first rigorous proof of the celebrated law (usually designated on the Continent as kirchhoff' law) of the emission and absorption of light and heat, and the application of the same by both Kirchhoff and Bunsen to Spectrum Analysis. The radiation of solids and liquids and gases follows the law exactly when the conditions upon which he founded it are rigorously fulfilled, namely, the complete transformation from one to the other of radiant energy and their intrinsic heat. We now know that most radiations from gases are not exclusively thermal, but that the substances, cited by Kirchhoff and bunsen, also give off so called chemical and electrical and fluorescent radiations which Kirchhoff excluded in the proof of his law. In fact none of the gases giving line spectra at temperatures heretofore used do so by simple thermal radiation, but essentially by luminescent actions (chemical, electrical, and photogenic), so that we cannot in general, apply the law of Kirchhoff of the proportionality between radiation and absorption to either terrestrial or celestial substances. in these cases the principle of resonance usually holds, since in luminescence the radiation of line spectra is accompanied by selective absorption of the same spectral lines, so that the law may be used qualitatively, which is in fact the way Kirchhoff and bunsen actually attempted to confirm it. The formulation of the complete law for radiations of a black body is only given in part by Kirchhoff. The formula of Wien, and more particularly the most recent one of Planck, deduced on theoretical grounds, approximates closely the latest observations on a black body at different temperatures and over different wave lengths.". (Here clearly is the distinction between photons emitted or absorbed as heat versus those that are thought to not contribute to heat such as those with higher frequencies. Some might define heat as the average velocity of particles over a volume of space, and state that not all of this "heat" can be detected by a human sensor cell, or liquid mercury, since there is not perfectly absorbing black-body atom. The most simple view is that photons are the basis of all matter and are absorbed or emitted from clusters of photons which are atoms.)
(As some comments, since gases like oxygen emit and absorb different frequencies depending on their temperature, perhaps this explains why we see the photons emitted from oxygen under high voltage: because that oxygen is at a very high temperature, and only at that temperature does it emit and absorb light in those specific frequencies to which at lower temperatures it is transparent. Perhaps those beams of light do not collide with oxygen atoms spread out in the volume outside the vacuum tube. I don't know. This changes the theory to: an atom absorbs and transmits the same frequencies of photons only when at the same temperature. Temperature is somewhat difficult to define because it relates to the movement of particles in an atom, and not just the emission of photons in the infrared which are detected as heat. There needs to be, perhaps, a new term, as opposed to "temperature" which describes the total average velocity of particles in some volume of space or in some atom. It seems unusual to say that an atom absorbs and transmits the same frequency of photons for any given average velocity of all the particles in the atom. One interesting hypothesis, in relation to the fire with glass and incandescent metals is that perhaps in some way, we can view the universe as photons moving freely in all directions, getting captured and released in specific frequencies from various collections of matter. In this way atoms all grow and dissipate in only a few hundred or perhaps a few thousand specific ways, building up from the addition of photons, passing photons, neutrons, electrons and other particles, all of which I view as combinations of photons. For principle b), which in modern terms I would describe as the photons emitted or gained by an atom can only represent heat, I think this is not exactly accurate, because the photons also represent mass, if the view is that heat is strictly velocity. So the photons gained or lost, represent both a gain or loss in average mass and average velocity for any atom. In terms of c) a perfectly black body, a body that absorbs all photons and emits and reflects none, I think this is only a theoretical atom (or mass) as is the so-called white body which emits and reflects all frequencies and absorbs none. No atom known absorbs all frequencies of light, nor emits photons in all frequencies for any duration of time. In addition, there is an interesting requirement that measuring frequency requires a period of time. For very low frequencies, how long is a person to wait to measure the photon interval? For example for a theoretical frequency of 1e-100 Hertz or CPS, or a beam with wavelength of 1e100 meters, waiting for this would take too long. So there are practical limits on this issue. The "absorptive power" or "emissive power", for example of a black body, is too abstract, and is not clearly defined, so I think this needs to be made more clear. It's not clear what e/a=E/A represents. Can we equate the emission and absorption frequencies (power) of average atoms with those of a black body? I think this may be wrong, because clearly some frequencies are not absorbed (or emitted) in average atoms which would be in a black body - or perhaps the view is that average atoms somehow skip that temperature, so no comparison can be made between average atoms and a black-body atom, for some temperatures.)
Historian Robert James writes "The proposition which Kirchhoff wished to prove was that 'for rays of the same wavelength at the same temperature, the ratio of emissivity (e) to the absorptivity (a) is the same for all bodies'. The ratio of emissivity to absorptivity, e/a, is a function, for all bodies, of wave-length and temperature. From this proposition Kirchhoff dediced, that if a body, at a given temperature, emitted light of particular wave-lengths, as in the case of a flame spectrum, then the body could only absorb light at those particular wave-lengths at that temperature. From this the reversal phenomenon must necessarily be a consequence.". To prove this proposition Kirchhoff imagined, for the sake of simplicity in proof, the existence of two infinite plates, the outer faces of which were covered with perfect mirrors 9see image). This ensured a closed system to which energy arguments could be applied. One of the places C, could emit and absorb radiation (in modern terms: photons) only at one particular wave-length A, while the other plate, c, could emit and absorb radiation at all wave-lengths. After dismissing the case of all wave-lengths not equal to A by saying that all such rays emitted by c would eventually be reabsorbed by c, he considered those rays emitted by both plates which were of wave-length A. Kirchhoff showed what portion of a ray emitted by C would be absorbed by c, and it followed, by the principle of conservation of energy, since the system was closed, that the remained would be returned to C and so on. Kirchhoff derived expressions for the amount of radiation absorbed by each body if the process was assumed to continue for an infinite time (since this involved summing geometric progressions to infinity). he then proceeded to apply a similar treatment to a ray of wave-length A, emitted by c. When the exchange of radiation had been completed, both plates, he argued, must have reached the same temperature, and therefore, by the second law of thermodynamics, the flow of heat must have ceased. The thermodynamic condition for the heat flow to have ceased was that the amount of radiation emitted by one plate, say c, was equal to the total amount of radiation which had been absorbed by C, plus that which had been reabsorbed by c; a similar argument applied to radiation emitted by C. From this condition it followed that e/a was identical for both plates at the same temperature and wave-length. He then argued that if c was replaced by another body the same result would still follow, he therefore maintained that the law held for all bodies."
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 2823) Friedrich Wilhelm August Argelander (oRGuloNDR) (CE 1799-1875), German astronomer publishes the giant "Bonner Durchmusterung" (1859-63, 3 vols, "Bonn Survey") in four volumes, which lists the position and magnitudes of over 324,000 stars.
Under Bessel Argelander had begun a survey of the sky from 15°S to 45°N (declination) in Königsberg. This is extended at Bonn to an area from 90°N to 2°S (declination). The catalog is the result of 25 years of labor and when complete lists the positions of 324,198 stars down to the ninth magnitude. Argelander's work is continued by his successor, E. Schonfeld, who in the "Southern Bonner Dorchmusterung" (1886) adds an additional 133,659 stars located in the southern skies (2°S-23°S).
This is the last star map to be compiled without the aid of photography, is the largest and most comprehensive of pre-photographic catalogs, and is still reprinted as late as 1950.
Argelander is the first to begin the detailed study of variable stars. Only 6 stars are known when he starts. Argelander introduces the system of naming variable stars, using letter prefixes beginning with the letter R for rot (red) because many variable stars are red. (chronology)
Argelander follows up Hershel's theory that the sun is moving and gains the first rough idea of the sun's direction of motion.
The accompanying charts, published in 1863, were the most complete and accurate made until that time.
The catalog is listed by declination, giving tables which list magnitude, right ascension in hours, arc minutes and seconds, followed by a letter describing magnitude. (It is interesting as to why the same system, degree or clock based scale is not used for both latitutde and longtidue, perhaps to make clear which value is which.)
Positions are given to the nearest 0.1 sec in right ascension and 0.1 arcmin in declination.
| Bonn, Germany |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3183) Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (lUDViK) (CE 1816-1895), German physiologist with Setschenow invents a blood gas mercury pump.
This is a new application of the Torricelli vacuum that opens the way for many researches. The original mercury pump is eventually replaced by improved forms.
Ludwig shows when blood is put in a vacuum, gas can be made to bubble out of it.
| (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria, Germany |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3209) Pietro Angelo Secchi (SeKKE) (CE 1818-1878), Italian astronomer, (takes) a complete set of photographs of the (earth) moon. (how many photos, magnified?)
All of Secchi's studies on the planets are included in his book, "Il quadro fisico del sistema solare secondo le piu recenti osservazioni" (Rome, 1859).
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3228) Adolph Wilhelm Hermann Kolbe (KOLBu) (CE 1818-1884), German chemist synthesizes salicylic acid and shows its value as a preservative. The process is named Kolbe synthesis (or Kolbe-Schmitt reaction), which works by heating sodium phenolate (the sodium salt of phenol) with carbon dioxide under pressure (100 atm, 125°C), then treating it with sulfuric acid.
"The Kolbe reaction" makes producing salicyclic acid in quantity possible. Since salicyclic acid is a building block of aspirin, this leads to the low cost production of aspirin (acetylsalicylic).
| (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3311) William John Macquorn Rankine (raNGKiN) (CE 1820-1872), Scottish engineer, describes the "Rankine Cycle", which is used with heat engines to describe the ideal cyclical sequence of changes of pressure and temperature of a fluid, such as water, used in an engine, such as a steam engine. The Rankine Cycle is used as a thermodynamic standard for rating the performance of steam power plants.
In the Rankine cycle the working substance of the engine undergoes four successive changes: heating at constant pressure, converting the liquid to vapor; reversible adiabatic expansion, performing work (for example by driving a turbine); cooling at constant pressure, condensing the vapor to liquid; and reversible adiabatic compression, pumping the liquid back to the boiler.
Rankine publishes this in his "Manual of the Steam Engine", which introduces working engineers to thermodynamics for which Rankine introduces much of the modern terminology and notation. Rankine popularizes the use of the word "energy", first introduced by Young 50 years before. Now the word "energy" is integrated into the interpretation of human movement, for example in the phrase "I don't have the energy to do that".
In 1841 Rankine invents what are called Rankine;'s method for laying out circular curves on railways.
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland, UK |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3313) John Tyndall (CE 1820-1893), Irish physicist studies how gases conduct heat (their specific heats?), and publishes papers starting in 1859, which detail his measurements of the transmission of radiant heat through gases and vapors.
Tyndall's studies of the transmission of infrared radiation through gases and vapors do much to clarify the nature of the absorption process. Unexpectedly Tyndall finds that while elementary gases offer practically no obstacle to the passage of infra-red, some of the compound gases absorb more than 80 per cent of the incident radiation. Allotropic elements also obey the same rule, ozone for example being a much better absorbent of heat than oxygen. The temperature of the source of heat is found to be important: heat of a higher temperature is much more penetrative than heat of a lower temperature. Tyndall explains these differences in terms of atomic structure, molecules having more degrees of freedom to vibrate than single atoms. (Perhaps photons are more easily trapped in larger molecules than smaller ones. Perhaps the frequency of infrared photons is slow enough so that they can be absorbed without destroying a molecule as higher frequency photons might, which results in more photon emission interpreted as heat.)
Tyndall finds that water vapor in particular is an extremely powerful radiator and absorber (of infrared). Tyndall observes that water vapor absorbs much more radiant heat than the gases of the atmosphere and argues the importance of atmospheric water vapor in moderating the Earth's climate (in modern terminology as producing a natural greenhouse effect).
Tyndall shows how infra-red radiation, focused by means of a rock salt lens, can be used to heat and ignite or cause luminescence in various substances. Tyndall sees this phenomenon of 'calorescence' as the opposite of Stokes's fluoresence. Much of this work is reported in two Bakerian lectures (1861, 1864) and leads to the award of the Rumford medal in 1869.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3328) Arthur Cayley (KAlE) (CE 1821-1895), English mathematician, shows that affine geometry is just a special case of projective geometry.
This is in the sixth of ten influential "Memoirs on Quantics" (1854-78).
A quantic, known today as an algebraic form, is a polynomial with the same total degree for each term; for example, every term in the following polynomial has a total degree of 3:
x3 + 7x2y - 5xy2 + y3.
| London, England (presumably) |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3373) This is the earliest known working direct-acting gas engine, direct-acting means that instead of creating a vacuum, the explosion directly pushes the piston in the cylinder. Samuel Brown had built the first known gas vacuum engine to be used in 1823.
Jean Joseph Étienne Lenoir (lunWoR) (CE 1822-1900), Belgian-French inventor invents the first successful gas (internal) combustion engine. For 150 years before now, the steam engines of Savery, Watt and others made use of heat outside the (engine) cylinder. The steam formed by the heat then enters the cylinder and moves the piston.
In 1791, John Barber (1734-1801), patented a gas engine which uses coal-gas but has no cylinder or piston.
In 1801, Philip Lebon (CE 1767-1804) had designed and some claim built a gas engine. Lenoir's engine is very similar to Lebon's.
In 1820, Reverend W. Cecil constructed an engine that uses the vacuum created by hydrogen combustion in air. Cecil also mentions previous experiments at Cambridge by Professor Farish, who exhibits, at his lectures on mechanics, an engine actuated by the explosion of a mixture of gas and air within a cylinder, the explosion taking place from atmospheric pressure. These engines of Farish and Cecil appear to be the very earliest in actual operation on Earth.
In 1823 Samuel built the first gas combustion vacuum engine to be used around a city.
In 1824, Carnot discusses a gas combustion engine in his book on heat.
Mass produced combustible gases are not in production until after 1850. These engines are smaller than a steam engine, and can be started and stopped quickly, since all that is needed is a spark to ignite the gas, while the initial boiling of water over a coal fire (in a steam engine) is slow. Lenoir uses illuminating gas as a fuel. Illuminating gas, is hydrogen and other gases distilled from coal, also known as coal gas.
E. Lenoir, whose patent is dated 1860, is the inventor of the first gas engine that is brought into general use. The piston, moving forward for a portion of its stroke by the energy stored in the fly-wheel, draws into the cylinder a charge of gas and air at the ordinary atmospheric pressure. At about half stroke the valves close, and an explosion, caused by an electric spark, propels the piston to the end of its stroke. On the return stroke the burnt gases (what are the burnt gases?) are discharged, just as a steam engine exhausts. These operations are repeated on both sides of the piston, and the engine is therefore a double-acting engine. Four hundred of these engines are said to be at work in Paris in 1865, and the Reading Iron Works Company Limited builds and sells one hundred of them in Great Britain. They are quiet, and smooth in running; the gas consumption, however, is excessive, amounting to about 100 cubic ft. per indicated horse-power per hour. The electrical ignition also causes trouble.
| ?, France |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3536) Richard Christopher Carrington (CE 1826-1875), English astronomer, observes the first recorded observation of a solar flare, describing a star-like point of light bursting out of the sun's surface, lasting 5 minutes and subsiding. Hale will invent the spectrohelioscope 75 years later, and will use it to show that these flares are part of the sun's own turbulence.
| (Redhill Observatory) Surrey, England |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3543) Karl Gegenbaur (GAGeNBoUR) (CE 1826-1903), German anatomist publishes "Grundzüge der vergleichenden Anatomie" (1859; "Elements of Comparative Anatomy") which becomes the standard textbook of evolutionary morphology. In this book Gegenbaur stresses the importance of identifying anatomical homologies, for example, the similar bones in a bird wing, horse leg, and human arm.
Gegenbaur shows that embryonic structures that in fish eventually form gills, form other organs in land vertebrates such as Eustachian tubes, and the thymus gland. (In this work?)
| (U of Jena) Jena, Germany |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3547) Georg Friedrich Bernhard Riemann (rEmoN) (CE 1826-1866), German mathematician, defines what will be called the "Riemann zeta function" and creates the "Riemann hypothesis".
The Riemann zeta function is written as ζ(x), it was originally defined as the infinite series ζ(x) = 1 + 2−x + 3−x + 4−x + ⋯.When x = 1, this series is called the harmonic series, which increases without bound—i.e., its sum is infinite. For values of x larger than 1, the series converges to a finite number as successive terms are added. If x is less than 1, the sum is infinite. The zeta function was known to the Swiss mathematician Leonhard Euler in 1737, but Bernhard Riemann is the first to study the zeta function extensively.
In this 1859 paper "Ueber die Anzahl der Primzahlen unter einer gegebenen Grösse" ("On the Number of Prime Numbers under a given Size") gives an explicit formula for the number of primes up to any preassigned limit, an improvement over the approximate value given by the prime number theorem. (The prime number theorem is described like this: a function with the variable π, which is determined by the number of prime numbers between 0, for example π(10)=4 because there are 4 prime numbers between 0 and 10. The prime number theorem predicts that for large n, the proportion π(n)/n is roughly equal to 1/ln(n)). However, Riemann’s formula depends on knowing the values at which a generalized version of the zeta function equals zero. The Riemann zeta function is defined for all complex numbers (numbers in the form x + iy, where i = √(−1)), except for the line x = 1. The function equals zero for all negative even integers −2, −4, −6, … (so-called trivial zeros), has an infinite number of zeros in the critical strip of complex numbers between the lines x = 0 and x = 1, and that all nontrivial zeros are symmetric with respect to the critical line x = 1/2 so Riemann conjectures that all of the nontrivial zeros are on the critical line, a conjecture that will later be called the "Riemann hypothesis".
In 1915 the English mathematician Godfrey Hardy proves that an infinite number of zeros occur on the critical line, and by 1986 the first 1,500,000,001 nontrivial zeros are all shown to be on the critical line. The current proofs are enough to show that the number of prime numbers less than any number x is approximated by x/ln x. The Riemann hypothesis is one of the 23 problems that Hilbert challenges mathematicians to solve in his famous 1900 address, "The Problems of Mathematics".
(Explain more clearly. Is this an effort at a function that will produce the series of prime numbers? That itself is an interesting problem. I would add to this any pattern or function that can describe or enumerate all integer divisions that result in irrational numbers, and irrational number numerical sequence repeats.)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
141 YBN
[1859 AD]
| 3714) Gaston Planté (PloNTA) (CE 1834-1889), French physicist, invents the first rechargeable battery, based on lead plates immersed in sulfuric acid.
This battery is fundamentally the same battery used in automobiles now. Volta's (Daniell and other earlier) batteries are all one-use batteries only.
In 1859 Planté begins experiments with batteries. His first model contains two sheets of lead, separated by rubber strips, rolled into a spiral, and immersed in a solution of about 10 percent sulfuric acid. A year later Plante presents a battery to the Academy of Sciences made of nine of these lead-rubber spiral elements, in a box with the terminals connected in parallel. This battery can deliver remarkably large currents.
The lead-acid battery uses dilute sulfuric acid for an electrolyte, lead for the anode, and lead oxide, PbO2, for the cathode. The sulfuric acid dissociates into two hydrogen ions and a sulfate group. The sulfate group reacts with the lead anode to form lead sulfate and releases two electrons through the external circuit. This is the oxidation reaction. At the cathode, the two electrons cause a reaction to create lead sulfate and water. This is the reduction reaction. The half-cell reactions are:
(see image for different equations)
Pb + SO42-=PbSO42- (solution) + 2 e-
PbO2 + 4 H+ + 2 e- + SO42-=PbSO42-(solution)
After fully discharged, both anode and cathode are covered with lead sulfate, and the electrolyte is mostly water. Since the sulfuric acid solution is denser than water, a "densitometer", consisting of no more than a dropper with pellets of varying densities, can be used to examine the battery's charge level. Reversing the current flow reverses the reactions, recharging the battery.
Note that both electrodes dissolve into the electrolyte during the discharge reaction. When charged the reverse reactions occur, although overcharge will lead to the electrolysis of water and consequent production of (hazardous) H2 (g) at the cathode. (interesting that somehow the lead electrodes form a solid again)
The electrodes in a standard automotive battery are built as sets of interleaved plates to provide the maximum surface area for the electrochemical reaction. As the vast majority of lead-acid batteries have multiple cells in series, the battery casing contains divider walls to isolate the cells.
Each cell in a lead-acid battery provides about two volts. Lead-acid batteries usually have large capacities, though they tend to run down quickly, and can be recharged hundreds of times until their electrodes are too eroded to allow the battery to hold a charge. Like most most batteries, that use heavy-metal electrodes and toxic electrolytes these batteries must be properly recycled or disposed of.
No large-capacity rechargeable battery has been developed that offers vastly greater capabilities, and no such batteries approach the lead-acid cell for its low cost.)
| (Conservatory of Arts and Crafts) Paris, France |
140 YBN
[01/??/1860 AD]
| 3461) Kirchhoff states that a light source can only reverse the spectrum of another light source when it has a higher temperature. (Kirchhoff may have stated this earlier, but I cannot find it anywhere.)
Kirchhoff explicitly defines a "black body", defined as a body in which all radiation contacting it is absorbed by the body by conversion into heat, so that when enough radiation has been absorbed, the black body then emits a continuous spectrum. In Helmholtz's paper of 12/1859 he had explained this concept using plates and mirrors.
Kirchhoff shows that when a temperature is constant, that the "function I {e/a} can have no strongly marked maxima and minima for waves of different lengths. Hence it follows that if the spectrum of a red-hot body presents discontinuities or strongly marked maxima or minima, the power of absorption of the body, regarded as a function of the waves, must present similar discontinuities or strongly marked maxima and minima.". This, however, does not explain the lines (for example why the lines are emitted and absorbed at specific frequencies).
The study of this "black-body radiation" is to lead to Planck's quantum theory.
Kirchhoff makes a closed container with inner walls and a tiny hole, so that any light that enters the hole will have little chance to return out through the same hole. So if this box is heated to incandescence, all wavelengths of light should emerge from the hole. (In this paper?) (One problem is that photons cannot be contained in a container, because all objects emit photons with infrared frequency.) (Clearly not all objects emit a black body curve of radiation, for example, elements with individual lines do not follow a black body rule of emitting only frequencies of lowest frequency.) (I want to see videos of as many elements as possible, being heated to incandescence, and the public getting to see each of their spectra, both emission and absorption, and the major lines explained. In addition the natural emission spectra of as many objects as possible.) (I think this phenomenon needs to be shown and understood. It's a very interesting find. I suppose there is no difference whether atoms are heated to incandescence by combustion or electricity. Interesting too that photons are emitted in combustion and electrically stimulated emission, but according to the current popular theory, no atoms are ever destroyed, they only form different molecules, although this is not the case for fission.)
(I think more specifically a black body could be more precisely defined as a "black atom", an atom which absorbs all frequency of light, but this is strictly theoretical, since there are physical limits to photon absorption, and measurement of frequency can only happen over time, so there is, in theory an infinite time interval between photons in an infinitely large wavelength that cannot be measured. An interesting truth is that there may be photon beams with very very large photon interval, two photons very distant, but with velocity in exactly the same direction with no photons in between moving in the same direction. But then, how long could that situation possibly last? Eventually one of the photons would have its direction changed from the gravitational influence of some other photon (or composite mass). In this way, beams of photons, in particular long wavelength, must constantly fall apart into different individual directions.)
On the reversal of spectra Kirchhoff writes "If the source of light employed is an incandescent body, the intensity of the light it emits depends on its temperature,-the intensity, for the same temperature, being greatest when the body is perfectly black. If this condition be fulfilled in the case of two sources of light, and if their temperature be the same, the spectrum of the one will be unaffected by the interposition of the other. The more remote source of light can therefore only reverse the spectrum of the other when it possess a higher temperature, and the reversed spectrum will be more distince the greater the excess of the temperature of the former source of light over that of the latter.".
Also in this paper Kirchhoff writes "The observation of M. Foucault relates to the electric arch between charcoal points, a phaenomenon attended by circumstances which are in many respects extremely enigmatical. my observation relates to the ordinary flames into which vapours of certain chemical substances have been introduced. By the aid of my observation, the other may be accounted for on the ground of the presence of sodium in the charcoal, and indeed might even have been foreseen. M. Foucault's observation does not afford any explanation of mine, and could not have led to its anticipation. My observation leads necessarily to the law which I have announced with reference to the relation between the powers of absorption and emission; it explains the existence of Fraunhofer's lines, and leads the way to the chemical analysis of the atmosphere of the sun and the fixed stars. All this M. Foucault's observation did not and could not accomplish, since it related to a too complicated phaenomenon, and since there was no means of determining how much of the result was due to electricity, and how much to the presence of sodium. ...".
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
140 YBN
[04/16/1860 AD]
| 3088) Bunsen names Cesium for the unique blue lines in the (visible) spectrum of cesium (Latin caesius, "sky-blue"). Bunsen announces the identification of Cesium on 05/10/1860 as "Über ein neues dem Kalium nahestehendes Metall". There is no English translation of this important paper I am aware of.
Bunsen writes: (translated from German) "Supported by unambiguous results of the spectral-analytical method, we believe we can state right now that there is a fourth metal in the alkali group besides potassium, sodium, and lithium, and it has a simple characteristic spectrum like lithium; a metal that shows only two lines in our apparatus: a faint blue one, almost coinciding with Srd, and another blue one a little further to the violet end of the spectrum and as strong and as clearly defined as the lithium line."
Historian Frank James writes "Not only did spectrum analysis greatly simply the process of qualitative chemical analysis, it was also much more sensitive in that by this method extremely small quantities of chemical elements could be detected which otherwise could not have been done by the ordinary method of analysis. In view of the extreme sensitivity of this method Bunsen decided to investigate the possibility that there might exist unknown chemical elements which has previously escaped detection because of their rarity. Bunsen directed his research towards investigating the content of various mineral waters from a number of German spa towns: Kreuznach, Durkheim, Baden-Baden. he already knew by ordinary methods of analysis which elements occurred in the waters; after identifying the spectra of each of these elements, he was left with a blue line in the mineral water spectrum which did not appear to belong to any element he had so far investigated. He probably detected this blue line in March 1860 and by May he had established that the substance that caused this line had chemical reactions which were unlike those of any known element and that this was thus a new element which he named caesium. An indication of the sensitivity of the method may be gained by the fact that bunsen had to distill forty-four thousand kilogrammes of Durkheim mineral water to obtain a chemically useful sample of caesium."
Bunsen evaporates large quantities of the Durkheim mineral water, using 40 tons of the water to get about 17 grams of the mixed chlorides of cesium and rubidium, and that with about one-third of that quantity of caesium chloride is able to prepare the most important compounds of the element and determine their characteristics, even (later) making goniometrical measurements of their crystals. (There are no diagrams in this initial paper, and the crystal diagram appears in Bunsen and Kirchhoff's report "Chemische Analyse durch Spectralbeobachtungen" {Chemical Analysis by spectrum-observations} in Annalen der Physik (1861).)
Bunsen mentions the new element 3 times in April 1860, for example in a letter to Roscoe on April 16. (What is Kirchhoff contribution to the finding of Cesium if any?)
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
140 YBN
[04/??/1860 AD]
| 3458) Bunsen and Kirchhoff report that the spectral lines are the same for a variety of metals, independent of the molecular compound the metal is in, the heat source used, and enormous differences of temperature.
Bunsen and Kirchhoff identify Na, Li, K, CA and Sr in various minerals by spectral analysis.
They recognize that not only potassium and sodium, but also lithium and strontium must be counted among the substances of the earth most widely scattered.
They reverse the sodium bright line using only sodium vapor that is below the point of incandescence. Bunsen and Kirchhoff experimentally reverse the bright lines of K, Sr, Ca, Ba by passing sunlight through these ignited materials.
Bunsen and Kirchhoff (KRKHuF) (CE 1824-1887) publish "Chemische Analyse durch Spectralbeobachtungen" ("Chemical Analysis by Observation of Spectra") in Annalen der Physik (1860).
They write: (translated to English from German): "IT is well known that many substances have the property when they are brought into a flame of producing in the spectrum certain bright lines. We can found on these lines a method of qualitative analysis which greatly enlarges the field of chemical reactions and leads to the solution of problems unsolved heretofore. We shall confine ourselves here only to the extension of the method to the detection of the metals of the alkalis and the alkali earth and to the illustration of their value in a series of examples. The lines referred to show themselves the more plainly, the higher the temperature and the weaker the natural illuminating power of the flame. The gas lamp {Bunsen, Pogg. Ann. Vol 100 p.83} described by one of us gives a flame of very high temperature and very small luminosity; this is consequently especially adapted to investigations on those substances characterized by bright lines. In Figure 1 the spectra are represented which the flames referred to give when the salts, as pure as possible, of potassium, sodium, lithium, strontium, calcium, and barium are vaporized in it. The solar spectrum is annexed in order to facilitate the comparison. The potassium compound used for the investigation was obtained by heating chlorate of potassium which had been six to eight times recrystallized beforehand. The chloride of sodium was obtained by combining pure carbonate of sodium and hydrochloric acid and purifying the same by repeated crystallization. The lithium salt was purified by precipitating fourteen times with carbonate of ammonium. For the production of the calcium salt a specimen of marble as pure as possible, and dissolved in hydrochloric acid, was used. From this solution the carbonate of calcium was thrown down by a fractional precipitation with carbonate of ammonium in two portions, of which only the latter, precipitated in calcium nitrate, was used. The calcium salt thus obtained we dissolved several times in absolute alcohol and converted it finally into the chloride by evaporating the alcohol and by precipitation with carbonate of ammonium in hydrochloric acid." They go on to describe more purification operations and then describe their spectroscope: "Figure 2. represents the apparatus which we have used mainly in the observation of the spectra. A is a box blackened on the inside the bottom of which has the form of a trapezium and rests on three feet; the two inclined sides of the same form an angle with one another of about 58° and carry the two small telescopes B and C. The ocular of the first is removed and replaced by a plate in which is a slit formed of two brass cheeks which are placed at the focus of the objective. The lamp D is so placed before the slit that is intersected by the axis of the tube B. Somewhat beneath the point where the axis meets the mantle the end of a very fine platinum wire bent into a small hook and carried by the holder E passes into the same; on this hook is melted a globule of the chloride previously dried. Between the objective of the telescopes B and C is placed a hollow prism F with a reflecting angle of 60° and filled with carbon disulphide. The prism rests on a brass plate which can be rotated on a vertical axis. This axis carries on its lower end the mirror G and above it the arm H which serves as the handle to rotate the prism and the mirror. A small telescope is adjusted before the mirror which gives an image of a horizontal scale placed at a short distance. By rotating the prism we can cause to pass before the vertical thread of the telescope C the entire spectrum of the flame and bring every portion of the spectrum into coincidence with this thread. To every reading made on the scale there corresponds a particular portion of the spectrum. If the spectrum is very weak the cross hair of the telescope C is illuminated by means of a lens which throws some of the rays from a lamp through a small opening which is placed laterally in the ocular of the telescope C. The spectra in Fig. 1 obtained by means of the pure chloride above mentioned we have compared with those which we obtained if we introduce the bromides, iodides, hydrated oxides, sulphates, and carbonates of the several metals into the following flames:- into the flame of sulphur, into the flame of carbon disulphide, into the flame of aqueous alcohol, into the non luminous flame of coal gas, into the flame of carbonic oxide, into the flame of hydrogen, into the oxyhydrogen flame.
From these comprehensive and lengthy investigations whose details we maybe permitted to omit, it appears that the difference in the combinations in which the metals were used, the multiplicity of the chemical processes in the several flames, and the enormous differences of temperatures of the latter exert no influence on the position of the spectral lines corresponding to the individual metals."
They go on to state: "In order to obtain a further proof that each of the severally mentioned metals always give the same bright lines in the spectrum, we have compared the spectra referred to with those which an electric spark produces which passes between electrodes made from these metals. Small pieces of potassium, sodium, lithium, strontium, and calcium were fastened on a fine platinum wire and so melted in pairs within glass tubes that they were separated by a distance of 1 to 2mm from one another the wires piercing the sides of the tubes. Each of these tubes was placed before the slit of the spectroscope; by means of a Ruhmkorff's induction apparatus, we caused electric sparks to pass between the metal pieces mentioned and compared the spectrum of the same with the spectrum of a gas flame in which the chloride of the corresponding metal was brought. The flame was placed behind the glass tube. When the Ruhmkorff apparatus was thrown alternately in and out of action it was easy to be convinced, without any accurate measurement, that, in the brilliant spectrum of the spark, the bright lines of the spectrum of the flame were present undisplaced. In addition to these there appeared other bright lines in the spark spectrum a part of which must be attributed to the presence of foreign metals in the electrodes, others to nitrogen which filled the tubes after the oxygen had partly oxidized the electrodes. It appears accordingly, beyond a question that the bright lines of the spectra indicated maybe considered as certain proof of the presence of the metal in consideration. They can serve as reactions by means of which this material may be detected more certainly, and quickly and in smaller quantities than by any other analytical method. The spectra, represented, refer to case wide enough so that only the most prominent of the dark lines of the solar spectrum are visible, the magnifying power of the observing telescope being small (about four-fold) and the intensity of the light moderate. These conditions seem to us most advantageous when it is necessary to carry out a chemical analysis by spectral observations. The appearance of the spectrum may under other conditions be quite different. If the purity of the spectrum is increased, many of the lines appearing as single, resolve themselves into several, the sodium line, for example, into two; if the intensity is increased new lines appear in many of the spectra shown and the relation of the brightness of the old ones becomes different. In general the brightness of a darker line increases with greater luminosity more rapidly than the brighter ones, but not so much that the former exceed these. A clear example of this is given by the two lithium lines. We have observed only one exception to this rule, namely, with the line Baη, which, with low luminosity, is barely visible while Baγ appears very distinct, and, with greater luminosity, much brighter than the former. This fact appears of importance, and we shall make a further study of the same. We will now consider more closely the characteristics of the several spectra, the knowledge of which is of importance from a practical standpoint, and indicate the advantage which the chemical analytical method founded upon it furnishes." They go on to describe the spectrum of various elements here summarized: " Sodium. Of all the spectral reactions that of sodium is the most sensitive. ...Swan has already called attention to the minuteness of the quantity of common salt which can produce the sodium line clearly. ... Lithium. The incandescent vapors of the lithium compound give two sharply defined lines, one a very weak yellow Liβ and a red a brilliant line Liα. Potassium. The volatile potassium compounds produce in the flame a very extended continuous spectrum which only show two characteristic lines; the first Kα, in the outermost red bordering on the ultra red rays falls exactly on the dark line A of the solar spectrum; the second Kβ far in the violet toward the other end of the spectrum, corresponds likewise to a Fraunhofer's line. Strontium. The spectra of the alkali earths are not so simple as those of the alkalis. That of strontium is characterized, particularly, by the absence of green bands. Eight lines of the same are quite remarkable namely six red, one orange and one blue. Calcium. The spectrum of calcium can be immediately distinguished at the first observation from the four spectra already considered in that a very characteristic and intense line Caβ is present in the green. Also a second not less characteristic feature is the very brilliant orange line Caα which lie considerably farther toward the red end of the spectrum than the sodium line Naα and the orange line of strontium Srα. ...1. A drop of ser-water evaporated on a platinum wire showed a strong sodium reaction, and after volatizing the chloride of sodium a weak calcium reaction which, by moistening the wire with hydrochloric acid, became for a moment very brilliant. ... 2. Mineral waters often show at once the potassium, sodium, lithium, calcium, and strontium reactions. ... 3. The ash of a cigar moistened with some HCL and held in the flame give the lines Naα, Kα, Liα, Caα, Caβ. 4. Potash glass of a combustion tube gave, both with and without hydrochloric acid, Naα and Kα, and treated with fluoride of ammonium and sulphuric acid Caα, Caβ and traces of Liα..." They go on to describe the atomic composition of various minerals. They write: "In this way the lines Naα, Liα, Kα, Caα, Caβ, Srδ were found in the following limestones:- Silurian limestone from Kugelbad near Prague, Shell limestone from Rohrbach near Heidelberg, Lias limestone from Malsch in Baden, Chalk from England. The following limestones showed the lines Naα, Liα, Kα, CAα, CAβ, without the blue strontium line:- Marble from the granite of Auerbach, Devonian limestone from Gerolstein in the Eifel, Carboniferous limestone from Planite in Saxony, Dolimite from Nordhausen in the Hartz, Jura limestones from the Streitberg in Franconia. We now see from these few experiments that extended and careful spectral analysis of the lithium, potassium, sodium, and strontium content of various limestone formations are of the greatest geological interest with respect to their order of formation and their local disposition and may possibly lead to unexpected conclusions on the nature of the earlier ocean and sea basins in which the formation of these minerals took place.
Barium. The spectrum of barium is the most complicated of the spectra of the alkalis and alkaline earths. It is distinguished at the first glance from those heretofore examined by the green lines Baα and Baβ, which exceed all the others in brilliancy, appearing first and disappearing last in weak reactions.
... ...Already the few investigations, which this memoir contains, lead to the unexpected conclusion that not only potassium and sodium but also lithium and strontium must be counted among the substance of the earth most widely scattered, though only in minute quantities. Spectrum analysis will also play a not less important part in the discoveries of elements not yet detected. For if there are substances which are so sparsely scattered in nature that the methods of analysis heretofore used in observing and separating them fail, we may hope to detect and determine many of them, by the simple examination of their spectra in flames, which would escape the ordinary method of chemical analysis. That there are actually such elements heretofore unknown we have already had an opportunity of showing. ... On the one hand spectrum analysis offers, as we believe we have already shown, a means of wonderful simplicity for detecting the slightest traces of certain elements in terrestrial substances, and on the other, it opens up to chemical investigation a field heretofore completely closed, which extends far beyond the limit of the earth even to our solar system itself. Since, by the analytical method under discussion, it is sufficient simply to see the gas in an incandescent state in order to make an analysis, it at once follows that the same is also applicable to the atmosphere of the sun and the brighter fixed stars. A modification with respect to the light which the nucleus of these heavenly bodies radiate must be introduced here. In a memoir "On the Relation between the Emission and the Absorption of Bodies for Heat and Light" one of us has proven, by theoretical considerations, that the spectrum of an incandescent gas is reversed that is, that the bright lines are transformed into dark ones when a source of light of sufficient intensity, which gives a continuous spectrum, is placed behind the same. From this we may conclude that the sun's spectrum, with its dark lines, is nothing else than the reversal of the spectrum which the atmosphere of the sun itself would show. Hence the chemical analysis of the sun's atmosphere requires only the examination of those substances which, when brought into a flame, produce bright lines which coincide with the dark lines of the solar spectrum. In the article mentioned, the following examples are given as experimental proof of the theoretically deduced law referred to: The bright red line in the spectrum of a flame in which a bead of chloride of lithium is introduced is changed into a black line when we allow full sunlight to pass through the flame. If we substitute for the bead of lithium one of sodium chloride, the dark double line D (which coincides with the bright sodium line) shows itself in the sun's spectrum with unusual brilliancy. The dark double line D appears in the spectrum of the Drummond's light if we pass its rays through the flame of aqueous alcohol, into which we have introduced chloride of sodium. It will not be without interest to obtain still further confirmations of this remarkable theoretical law. We may arrive at this by the investigation which will now be described. We made a thick platinum wire incandescent in a flame and by means of an electric current brought it nearly to its melting point. The wire gave a brilliant spectrum without any trace of bright or dark lines. If a flame of very aqueous alcohol in which common salt was dissolved were introduced between the wire and the slit of the apparatus, the dark line D showed itself with great distinctness. We can produce the dark line D in the spectrum of a platinum wire which has been made incandescent by a flame if we merely hold before it a test tube into which some sodium amalgam has been introduced, and then heat it to boiling. This investigation is important, on this account in that it shows that far below the point of incandescence of sodium vapor, its absorbent effect is exercised exactly in the same parts of the spectrum as with the highest temperatures which we are able to produce and at which that of the solar atmosphere exists. We have been able to reverse the bright lines of the spectra of K, Sr, Ca, Ba by the employment of sunlight and mixtures of the chlorates of these metals with milk sugar. Before the slit of the apparatus a small iron trough is placed; into this the mixture was introduced, and the full sunlight passed along the trough to the slit and the mixture ignited on one side by an incandescent wire. The telescope was set with the intersection of its cross hairs, which were mounted at an acute angle with one another, on the bright line of the flame spectrum, the reversal of which was to be tested; the observer concentrated his attention on this point in order to judge whether at the moment of ignition a dark line was visible, passing through the intersection of the cross hairs. In this way it was quite easy with the proper proportion of the mixture, to be burnt, to establish the reversal of the lines Baα and Baβ and the line Kβ. The last of these coincided with one of the most distinct lines of the solar system, although not indicated by Fraunhofer; this line appeared much more distinctly at the moment of ignition of the potash salt than otherwise. In order to observe the reversal of the bright lines of the strontium spectrum in the way described, the chlorate of strontium must be dried in the most careful manner; a slight trace of moisture causes the sun's rays to be weakened and produces the positive spectrum of strontium on account of the flame becoming filled with salt which have been spattered about by the ignition. We have limited ourselves in this memoir to the investigation of the spectra of the metals of the alkalis and alkaline earths and these only in so far as was necessary for the analysis of terrestrial matter We reserve for ourselves the further extension of these investigations which are desirable in connection with the analysis of terrestrial substances and the analysis of the atmospheres of the stars. "
In this paper Kirchhoff and Bunsen recognize Foucault's earlier finding. They write "In the March number of the Philosophical Magazine for 1860 Stokes calls attention to the fact that Foucault had made already an observation in 1849 which is similar to that mentioned above. In the examination of the electric arc between two carbon points he observed (1, Institut 1849 p 45) that in the spectrum the same bright lines were present in the position of the double line D of the solar spectrum, and that the dark line D of the arc is intensified, or produced, if we allow the rays of the sun or one of the incandescent points to pass through it and then resolve them in the spectrum. The observation mentioned in the text gives the explanation of this interesting phenomena already observed by Foucault eleven years before and shows that the same is not influenced by the peculiarity of the electric light, which is still, from many points of view, so enigmatical, but arises from a sodium compound which is contained in the carbon and is transformed by the current into incandescent gas.
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
140 YBN
[09/??/1860 AD]
| 3540) First International Chemical Congress. Stanislao Cannizzaro (KoNnEDZorO) (CE 1826-1910), Italian chemist, reads his 1858 paper which will help to make Avogadro's hypothesis accepted by the majority of chemists.
Stanislao Cannizzaro (KoNnEDZorO) (CE 1826-1910), Italian chemist, reads his 1858 paper introducing Avogadro's hypothesis, describing how to use it, and the importance of distinguishing between atoms and molecules. Before this, there was no agreement on the atomic weights of the different elements. A simple compound like acetic acid (CH3COOH) has 19 different formulas by various groups of chemists. Chemists will eventually come to accept Avogadro's hypothesis and this method of measuring atomic weights. It is the recognition of true atomic weights that permits Lothar Meyer and Mendeleev to formulate the periodic law at the end of the 1860s. This logic also opens the way for the full development of the structural theory by Butlerov and others.
The First International Chemical Congress meets in Karlsruhe in the little kingdom of Baden, just across the Rhine from France.
The English scientist John Dalton had published his atomic theory in 1808, and this idea is adopted by most chemists. However, uncertainty persists for half a century about how the atomic theory is applied. With no method of directly weighing particles as small as atoms and molecules, and therefore no method to clearly determine the formulas of compounds, chemists in different countries develop several different incompatible atomistic systems. In 1811 Italian physicist Amedeo Avogadro published a paper in which he used vapor densities to infer the relative weights of atoms and molecules, and suggests that elementary gases must consist of molecules with more than one atom. But Avogadro's theory is no quickly accepted by chemists.
(I still think the idea of atoms and molecules combining by volume and not by mass needs to be thoroughly explained publicly, and people should keep an open mind. It seem unintuitive that mass (or size) of atom or molecule should make no difference in how atoms and molecules combine. The classic example is how a 2:1 ratio of H to O is released in electrolyzing water, if joined by volume there is 2 H to 1 O, but if by mass (or weight), it is 16H to 1 O or something. Avogadro's hypothesis implies that there is a unity of two different gases given equal mass, temperature, and container, which is they both have an equal quantity of photons, but how those photons are distributed among atoms and molecules is different, so that they while they both have the same quantity of photons, they have different quantities of atoms because of how photons are grouped into atoms - each atom having different mass. An important underlying truth is that equal masses of any two objects equals equal quantity of photons.)
Cannizzaro later proposes the name of "hydroxyl" for the OH- radical. (chronology)
German chemist Friedrich August Kekule (von Stradonitz) (KAKUlA) (CE 1829-1896) organizes this First International Chemical Congress at Karlsruhe.
According to the Oxford University Press, Kekulé's notation with the new methods introduced by Stanislao Cannizzaro at Karlsruhe in 1860 for the determination of atomic weight begin a new age of chemistry in which the conflicts and uncertainties of the first half of the 1800s are replaced by a unified chemical theory, notation, and practice.
| Karlsruhe, Baden |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 2694) A 30km telegraph wire is installed by the "Cape of Good Hope Telegraph Company Ltd." between Cape Town and Simon's Town. A year later this same company installs a 50km (wire) between East London and King Williams Town, and a year after that in 1862, a 100km wire between Port Elizabeth and Grahamstown. (This is the first known electric telegraph in Africa.)
| Cape Town (and Simon's Town), South Africa |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 2990) Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (CE 1828-1883) builds an influence machine (electrostatic generator).
The influence machine is a rotating electrophorus.
In Varley's influence machine, the field plates are sheets of tin-foil attached to a glass plate. In front of the field plates, a disk of ebonite or glass, having carriers of metal fixed to its edge, is rotated by a winch. In the course of their rotation two diametrically opposite carriers touch against the ends of a neutralizing conductor to form one conductor for a moment, and the moment afterwards these two carriers are insulated, one carrying away a positive charge and the other a negative. Continuing their rotation, the positively charged carrier gives up its positive charge by touching a little knob attached to the positive field plate, and similarly for the negative charge carrier. In this way the charges on the field plates are continually replenished and reinforced. Varley also constructs a multiple form of influence machine having six rotating disks, each having a number of carriers and rotating between field plates. With this apparatus Varley obtains sparks 6 inches long, the initial source of electrification being a single Daniell cell.
(see image) A typical influence machine has two fixed field plates A and B which are to become respectively + and - and a set of carriers attached to a rotating disk, or armature. In this image, for convenience, the metal field plates A and B are shown to be on the outside of an outer stationary cylinder of glass, the six carriers p q T s t and u, being attached to the inside of an inner rotating cylinder. The essential parts then are as follows: 1) A pair of field plates A and B 2) A set of rotating carriers p q r s t and u 3) A pair of neutralizing brushes ni n2 made of flexible metal wires the function of which is to touch the carriers while they are under the influence of the field plates They are connected together by a diagonal conductor which need not be insulated
4) A pair of appropriating brushes a a which reach over from the field plates to appropriate the charges that are conveyed around by the carriers and impart them to the field plates. 5) In addition to the above which are sufficient to constitute a complete self exciting machine it is usual to add a discharging apparatus consisting of two combs c1, c2 to collect any unappropriated charges from the carriers after they have passed the appropriating brushes these combs being connected to the adjustable discharging balls at D. The operation of the machine is as follows: The neutralizing brushes are set so as to touch the moving carriers just before they pass out of the influence of the field plates. Suppose the field plate A to be charged ever so little positively then the carrier p, touched by i, just as it passes, will acquire a slight negative charge which it will convey forward to the appropriating brush a and will thus make B slightly negative. Each of the carriers as it passes to the right over the top will do the same thing. Similarly each of the carriers as it passes from right to left at the lower side will be touched by n2 while under the influence of the charge on B, and will convey a small charge to A through the appropriating brush a2. In this way, A will rapidly become more and more, and B more and more, and the more highly charged they become the more do the collecting combs c1 and c2 receive of unappropriated charges. Sparks will snap across between the discharging knobs at D. The machine will not be self exciting unless there is a good metallic contact made by the neutralizing brushes and by the appropriating brushes. If the discharging apparatus is fitted at c1 c2 with contact brushes instead of spiked combs the field plates of the machine would be liable to lose their charges or even to have the charges reversed in sign whenever a large spark is taken from the knobs (interesting that the combs only take some of the charge and leave some for future charge accumulation). There are two panes of glass between the fixed field plates and the rotating carriers. The glass serves not only to hold the metal parts but prevents the possibility of back discharges by sparks or winds from the carriers to the field plates as they pass.
| London, England |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3124) Jean Servais Stas (CE 1813-1891), Belgian chemist, shows that the atomic weights (masses) of some elements are far from integral values and this casts doubt on Prout's hypothesis that all atoms larger than hydrogen are composed of hydrogen. Soddy will show that atoms have isotopes of different atomic mass.
Stas had spent a decade determining atomic weights more accurately then had been done before. Stas uses oxygen=16 as an atomic weight standard to compare the weight of all other atoms and this become the standard practice for 100 years.
Stas publishes this as "Recherches sur les rapports reciproques des poids atomiques" ("Researches on the Mutual Relations of Atomic Weights", in the Bulletin de l'Académie Royale de Belgique v10, 1860, pp208-336.
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France (presumably) |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3125) Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov (BUTlYuruF) (CE 1828-1886), Russian chemist, synthesizes formaldehyde and the first example of the synthesis of a carbohydrate from relatively simple substances.
Butlerov obtains the polymer of formaldehyde which Butlerov calls dioxymethylene. Butlerov then uses this compound to react with ammonia which leads to the first isolation of hexamethylene tetramine. He then treats the formaldehyde polymer with lime water and obtains a sugar-like substance, the first synthesis of a carbohydrate from relatively simple substances. (chronology)
| (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3166) Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne (GEYOM BoNZomiN omoN DYUsEN) (CE 1806–75) describes the paralysis now known as "Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy", the most common form of muscular dystrophy, caused by a recessive gene on the X chromosome that affects only males.
Muscular dystrophy is a hereditary disease that causes progressive weakness and degeneration of the skeletal muscles.
| Paris, France |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3174) Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (CE 1816-1892), American astronomer, builds the first telescope adapted for photographic use only.
Rutherfurd is not satisfied with taking pictures (using a camera) through a regular telescope and so creates a lens system that converts a telescope into a photographic telescope (essentially a camera that uses a telescope as a lens). Rutherfurd successfully tests his invention in 1860, photographing a solar eclipse from Labrador.
Rutherfurd also builds a micrometer to measure stellar positions on photographs. (chronology) Rutherfurd works out a method to make photographic negatives more stable. (chronology)
In a letter dated July 28, 1862, Rutherfurd confirms Clark's discovery, with his new 18-inch object-glass, of the companion of Sirius and giving measures of its position on seven dates, from March 11 to April 10 of that year. At the time people do not know if the companion of Sirius emits its own light or reflects light from Sirius. (It seems like reflected light could only contain frequencies of light found in the light of the light source, I think in all measurable frequencies it has never been observed that atoms somehow can absorb photons of one frequency and emit them at a different frequency, however it would seem that putting a light with visible frequency would cause an object to emit photons in infrared frequencies that in theory were not in the visible light source, however, it must be that there cannot be a light beam with visible frequency that does not contain photons at the lower infrared frequency too, however, are we too believe that the photons of the higher frequencies are not absorbed too, but that only the infrared photons are? If absorbed, does that not imply that an object might emit a frequency of light that is different from the source? Must that emitted light be the same frequency of some multiple of the source light frequency? It seems that the light emitted has only to do with the atomic and molecular composition of the object emitting and less to do with the source light frequency (apparently only absorbing certain frequencies of source light photons). Since most planets and moons are not mirrors, clearly light is not perfectly reflected but is reflected in many different directions, and many frequencies of photons are absorbed and re-emitted. This seems a key question: is the spectra reflected from objects a subset of the source spectrum? It may be difficult to separate photons reflected versus those emitted towards the infrared and radio frequencies.)
| (invented: New York City, NY, USA) (tested:) Laborador, Canada |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3177) Giovanni Battista Donati (DOnoTE) (CE 1826-1873), classifies stellar spectra.
| Florence, Italy |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3416) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, provides evidence against spontaneous generation.
Pasteur provides evidence against spontaneous generation by showing that boiled meat exposed to air, but only by a long, narrow neck bent down and then up, does not spoil (eventually it has to, perhaps by bacteria, or mold that is pushed in by wind). Pasteur (as Tyndall had) explains that dust in air contains spores of living organisms (perhaps like bacteria or fungi spores), and that these spores will not develop if dust does not settle on the meat. This proves wrong the theory that heating the air was the reason no organisms grew in the Spallanzani's broth (vitalists like Haeckel maintain that Spallanzani, by heating the air above the broth had ruined some vital principle in it).
Pasteur describes this swan-necked flask in a paper "Memoire sur les corpuscules organises qui existent dans l'atmosphere" ("Memoire on the Organized Corpuscules Existing in the Air", 1861) which win the Academie of Sciences prize for the best experimental work on the subject of spontaneous generation.
This work inspires Joseph Lister to use carbolic acid to successfully prevent infection of wounds.
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3532) Antonio Pacinotti (CE 1841-1912), electrophysicist invents the ring-winding electrical generator, in which an iron ring is wrapped with wire making it an electromagnet which turns between another outer stationary electromagnet. This device is an improved generator (when the iron ring {armature} is mechanically turned and an electrical current taken from the wires), and is also an electric motor (if current is sent through the wire which will cause the metal ring {armature} to rotate).
Pacinotti publishes this in the journal "Il Nuovo Cimento" (1864).
Pacinotti writes (translated from Italian): "IN 1860 I had occasion to construct for the Cabinet of Technological Physics of the University of Pisa a model of an electromagnetic machine designed by me and which now I intend to describe. My special aim is to make known an electromagnet of a particular kind used in the construction of this machine, and which, besides the novelty which it presents, seems to me to be adapted to give greater regularity and constancy of action in such electromagnetic machines. Its form also seems to me convenient for collecting the sum of the induced currents in a magneto-electric machine. In ordinary electromagnets, even when there is a commutator fitted to them, the magnetic poles are accustomed to appear always in the same positions, while on the contrary in the electromagnet which I am about to describe, by making use of the commutator which is joined to it, the poles may be caused to move in the iron subjected to magnetization. The form of the iron of such an electromagnet is that of a circular ring. In order to conceive easily the operation and the mode of action of the magnetizing current, let us suppose that there is wound upon our ring of iron a copper wire covered with silk, and that, when the first layer has been completed, instead of continuing the coil by winding over that already wound, the metallic wire is closed on itself by soldering together the two ends which are near one another; we shall thus have covered over the ring of iron with a spiral, closed and insulated, having its turns wound always in one direction. Now if we put into communication with the two poles of the battery two points of the metallic wire of this coil sufficiently distant from one another, the current will divide itself into two parts and will traverse the coil, in one part and in the other, between the two points of communication; and the directions which they take are such that the iron will become magnetized, presenting its two poles at the two points where the junctions of the current are. The straight line which joins these poles may be called the magnetic axis; and we shall be able, by changing the points of communication with the battery, to cause this axis to assume any position whatever transversely to the figure or circle of iron of the electromagnet, which for this reason 1 am pleased to designate as a transverse electromagnet. The two pieces of the magnet, at the two sides of the straight line (in our machine it is a diameter) drawn between the two junctions with the battery, may be considered as two opposed curved electromagnets, with their poles of the same name set facing one another. To construct on this principle the electromagnet with which I have furnished the little electromagnetic machine, I took a ring of iron, turned having in the fashion of a wheel, 16 equal teeth as indicated in Figure 1, (See the Plate). This ring is supported by four brass spokes a a a a (fig 4), which unite it to the axle of the machine. Between tooth and tooth some little triangular prisms of wood m (figs 1 & 4) leave spaces. By winding copper wire covered with silk in these spaces I have succeeded in forming between the teeth of this iron wheel as many insulated coils or electrodynamic bobbins as there are teeth. In all these coils some of which are marked with r (figs 3 & 4), the wire is wound in the same direction, and each one of them contains nine turns. Every two consecutive coils, like those two marked r r, are separated from one another by an iron tooth of the wheel and by the triangular piece or prism of wood m m (figs 1, 3, 4). In passing from one of these coils to wind the succeeding one, I left free a loop of the copper wire by fixing it to the piece of wood m which separates the two coils. To the axle M M (fig 3), on which the wheel thus constructed is mounted, I brought down all the loops which constitute the end of one coil and the beginning of the next, making them pass through convenient holes pierced in a wooden collar fixed round the same axle, and each of them is then attached to the commutator e (fig 3) mounted also on the same axle. This commutator consists of a short cylinder of boxwood with two ranges of hollows, around the ends of the cylindrical surface, in which there are inlaid sixteen pieces of brass, eight above and as many below, the first alternating with the second, all concentric with the wooden cylinder, slightly projecting, and separated from one another by the wood. In figure с of the commutator the pieces of brass are indicated by the dark spaces. Each of these pieces of brass is soldered to the corresponding loop between two of the bobbins. Thus all the coils communicate with one another, each one being joined to the next by a conductor of which one of the brass pieces of the commutator forms a part; and hence by putting two of these pieces into communication with the poles of the battery by means of two metallic rollers, k k (figs 3, 4) the current will divide itself, and will traverse the windings at both sides of the points whence the loops lead that are joined to the communicating pieces; and magnetic poles will be formed in the iron of the circle at N S. The poles of a fixed electromagnet A B act on these poles N S, and determine the rotation of the transverse electromagnet around its axis M M; since in it, even when in movement, the poles are always produced in the same positions N S, which correspond to the points of communication with the battery. This fixed electromagnet, as figures 3 and 4 show, is composed of two cylinders of iron A B joined together by a yoke of iron F F to which one of them is fixedly screwed, while the other is fastened by a screw G, which permits them to be shifted along a groove, in order to move the poles of the cylinders A B nearer towards, or further from the teeth of the wheel. The current from the battery, entering by the terminal h, passes by a metallic wire to the support l and from thence to the roller k, circulates through all the coils of the wheel and returns by the support l' which carries it by another copper wire to the coil which surrounds the cylinder A. Emerging from this it passes to the coil of cylinder B, and is brought back by another copper wire to the second terminal h'. I have found it very advantageous to join to the two poles of the fixed electromagnet two pole pieces of soft iron AAA, BBB, each of which embraces, over more than a third of the circumference, the wheel which constitutes the transverse electromagnet; putting them sufficiently near to the teeth of the same, and bracing them together with brass yokes ЕЕ, FF, as may be seen in the horizontal projection (fig 4). These pole-pieces are not shown in the vertical projection (fig 3) of the machine, as they would have hidden too much the coils and teeth of the wheel. The machine works even when the current is passed only through the circular electromagnet, but it has less force than when the current passes also through the fixed electromagnet. I made some experiments in measuring the mechanical work which the machine produced and the corresponding consumption of the battery. These experiments were arranged in the following way: The shaft of the machine carried a pulley QQ (fig. 3) which was surrounded by a cord which passed around a rather large wheel, and caused it to turn when the electromagnetic machine was in motion. The axle of this wheel was horizontal and a cord winding round it lifted a weight. At one end of the axle of this windlass was a brake loaded in such a way that the weight which was to be raised was almost sufficient to set in motion the whole apparatus including the little electromagnetic machine when not supplied with current. By this arrangement, when the machine works, the mechanical work absorbed by the friction is equal to that employed to raise the weight; and to have the total work done by the electromagnetic machine it sufficed to double that obtained by multiplying the weight lifted by the height to which it was raised. The mechanical work produced being thus evaluated, in order to know the consumption which took place in the battery in the production of this work, there was interposed in the circuit of the current a voltameter, containing sulphate of copper, the copper plates of which were weighed before and after the experiment. I will give the numbers obtained in one of these experiments on the little machine with transverse electromagnet. This little machine, which had a wheel with a diameter of 13 centimetres, was moved by a battery of 4 small Bunsen elements, and it raised to 8.66 metres a weight of 3.2812 kilogrammes, including friction. Thus it accomplished a mechanical work of 28.415 kilogrammetres. The positive copper of the voltameter diminished in weight by 0.224 grammes; the negative copper increased by 0.235, so that, in the mean the chemical work in the voltameter may be represented by 0.229 grammes. This number, multiplied by the ratio of the equivalent of zinc to that of copper, and by the number of elements of the battery, gives for the weight of zinc consumed 0.951 grammes. Hence to produce one kilogrammetre of mechanical work there are consumed in the battery 33 milligrammes of zinc. In another experiment made with 5 elements, the consumption was 36 milligrammes for every kilogrammetre. Although these results do not place the new model much above other small electromagnetic machines, nevertheless they do not seem to me bad when I reflect that in it there are defects of construction which do not ordinarily occur in other small machines of this class. Amongst these imperfections I ought to indicate that the commutator is made in brass, and is badly centred, so that the contacts do not all act sufficiently well. The reasons which induced me to construct the little electromagnetic machine with the system described were the following: (1) In the disposition adopted the current never ceases to circulate in the coils and the machine does not move by a series of impulses following one another more or less rapidly, but by a couple of forces which act continuously. (2) The circular construction of the rotating magnet contributes, together with the aforesaid mode of successive magnetization, to give regularity of movement and minimum loss of vis-viva due to shocks or friction. (3) In this machine it is not sought to bring about an istantaneous {ulsf typo} magnetization or demagnetization of the iron of the electromagnets, an operation which is opposed by the extra-currents and by the coercive force from which the iron can never be completely freed; but the only requirement is that every portion of the iron of the transverse electromagnet, exposed of course to suitable electrodynamic forces, should pass through the various degrees of magnetization successively. (4) The expanded pole-pieces of the fixed electromagnet, serving to act upon the teeth of the magnetic wheel, and embracing a sufficiently great number of them, do not cease to perform their actions so long as magnetism remains in them. (5) The sparks are increased in number but are much diminished in intensity, since there are no strong extra-currents at the opening of the circuit which remains always closed; and only while the machine is working is an induced current continuously directed in a sense opposed to the current of the battery. It seems to me that the value of this model is enhanced by the fact that the machine can be readily transformed from an electromagnetic machine into a magneto-electric machine, yielding continuous currents. If in place of the electromagnet А B (figs. 3, 4) there were put a permanent magnet, and the transverse electromagnet were made to revolve, there would be in fact a magneto electric machine which would give an induced current continuously directed in the same sense. To find the most convenient position of the contacts upon the commutator, whereby to collect the induced current, we observe that on the movable electromagnet opposite poles are formed by influence at the extremities of a diameter in presence of the poles of the fixed electromagnet. These poles N S maintain a fixed position, even when the transverse electromagnet rotates about its axis: hence, as respects the magnetism, and consequently also as respects the induced currents, we may consider or suppose the copper wires to spin round in rows upon the circular magnet while the latter remains motionless. To study the induced currents which are developed in such coils let us take into consideration one of these in the various positions which it can assume. When going from the pole N towards the pole S, there will be developed in the coil a current directed in one sense until it has arrived at the middle point a; from this point forward the current will take an inverse direction. Then proceeding from S towards N, until we have arrived at the middle point b the currents will maintain the same direction as they had between a and S: after b again they will be inverted in direction, resuming the direction which they had between N and a. Now since all the coils communicate with one another, the electromotive forces in one given direction will be added together, and will give to the total current the disposition indicated by the arrows in figure 2; and to collect it the most convenient positions for the contacts will be а, b: or rather the contacts should be placed on the commutator at right-angles to the line corresponding to the magnetism of the electromagnet. The induced current varies its direction, changing its sense with the sense of the rotation. And as respects the commutator, when the contacts are upon the diameter corresponding to the line of magnetism, they will collect no current which ever way the electromagnet revolves. Starting from this position, on displacing them to one side there will be produced a current directed in a sense contrary to that which would be obtained by displacing them to the other side. To develope an induced current by the machine so constructed I placed the opposite poles of two permanent magnets near to the magnetic wheel, or I magnetized by a current the fixed electromagnet which is there, and I caused the transverse electromagnet to revolve about its axis. Equally in the first or in the second mode I obtained an induced current, continually directed in the same sense, which showed on a galvanometer a considerable intensity even after having traversed some sulphate of copper or some water acidulated with sulphuric acid. Although it is understood that the second mode may not be convenient, it remains an easy matter to place a permanent magnet in lieu of the temporary magnet AFFB; and then the magneto-electric machine which results will have the advantage of giving induced currents, all directed in the same sense, and added together, without need of any mechanical organs to separate them from others which are opposed to them, or to bring them into concordance with one another. And this model shows well how the electromagnetic machine is the converse of the magneto electric machine; since in the former by passing through the coils an electric current, introduced through the terminals 1 1, there is obtained rotation of the wheel and mechanical work; and in the latter by employing mechanical work to make the wheel revolve one obtains by agency of the permanent magnet a current which circulates through the coils, and passes to the terminals to be supplied to the bodies on which it ought to act."
Zénobe Théophile Gramme reintroduces this design in 1869.
| (University of Pisa) Pisa, Italy |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3573) (Sir) Joseph Wilson Swan (CE 1828-1914), English physician and chemist builds an electric lamp with a carbon filament.
The carbon filament is formed by packing pieces of paper or card with charcoal powder in a crucible and subjecting this object to a high temperature. The carbonized paper obtained is then mounted in the form of a fine strip in a vacuumable glass vessel and connected to a battery of Grove's cells. The Grove cells are not strong enough to raise the carbon strip to light emission higher than red-hot. Swan can not obtain a vacuum good enough to keep the bulb working for a long enough time. This is basically the method used by Edison nearly twenty years later, after various fruitless efforts to make a practical lamp with a platinum filament.
Swan had began using thin strips of carbonized paper in evacuated bulbs as early as 1848. Swan realizes that carbon withstands heat better than platinum which some inventors had tried to use in the quest to produce light from electricity. Platinum can heat to incandescence but does not last (and is very expensive). Swan understands that carbon will burn quickly when heated unless it is enclosed in a vacuum. (What is Swan's role, if any, in the development of the electric image? Was Swan included in seeing, hearing and sending thought images and sounds?)
| Newcastle, England (presumably) |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3642) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, develops the study of the statistical movement of molecules in a gas, now known as the Maxwell-Boltzmann statistics. Austrian physicist, Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (BOLTSmoN) (CE 1844-1906) will develop a statistical model of atomic motions in 1868.
Maxwell publishes this kinetic theory of gases in his "Illustrations of the Dynamical Theory of Gases" (1860), which developed from his study of Saturn's rings, by papers of Clausius (1857, 1858) that contain the ideas of probability and free path, and from early reading on statistics. The first five propositions in this work lead to a statistical formula for the distribution of velocities in a gas at uniform pressure. Maxwell's idea of describing actual physical processes by a statistical function marks the beginning of a new epoch in physics in which statistical functions are used to describe physical processes.
(This use of statistical or probability functions is central to the modern math describing quantum mechanics. Albert Einstein rejects this view of being able to generalize using probability. I think such equations may be useful, however, I reject the later popular interpretation that particles do not follow real paths, and only exist on observation. In addition, to me there seems the more accurate approach is to calculate the motion of all masses, as opposed to generalizing these motions. This work of Maxwell and Boltzmann occurs before modern computers, and so it is natural that people would be locking for methods and equations to generalize the thousands of calculations necessary to determine the motion and forces of many particles.)
The kinetic theory of gases originated with Daniel Bernoulli in 1738. This theory is advanced by the successive labors of John Herapath, John James Waterston, James Joule, and particularly Rudolf Clausius.
Though Maxwell did not originate the modern kinetic theory of gases, he is the first to apply the methods of probability and statistics in describing the properties of an assembly of molecules. Maxwell therefore demonstrates that the velocities of molecules in a gas, previously assumed to be equal, actually follow a statistical distribution (known subsequently as the Maxwell-Boltzmann distribution law).
(Maxwell and Boltzmann) create an equation that shows the distribution of velocities among the molecules of a gas at a particular temperature. A few molecules move slowly, and a few quickly, but larger percentages move at intermediate velocities, with a most common velocity in the middle. A rise in temperature causes an increase in the average velocity of molecules, while a decrease in temperature causes a decrease in the average velocity of molecules. This describes temperature and heat as involving molecular movement and nothing else, and ends the popularity of the theory that heat is an imponderable fluid. This establishes the idea of heat as a form of motion, which was first put forward by Rumford. Bernoulli had understood the increase in velocity of particles of gas in a container with an increase in temperature. Maxwell views the molecules in a gas as moving not only in (different) directions but at velocities, and as bouncing off each other and off the walls of the container with perfect elasticity.
The second law of thermodynamics (that heat cannot pass from a colder to a hotter body) is then explained in terms of heat as the average velocity of molecules.
(This ends the idea of heat as a fluid, although I think heat is proportional to quantity of particles in addition to particle velocity. In the example of the bored cannon - is the velocity of the atoms increased, or are more photons allowed to escape? Or both?)
Maxwell begins "On the Motions and Collisions of Perfectly Elastic Spheres. So many of the properties of matter, especially when in the gaseous form, can be deduced from the hypothesis that their minute parts are in rapid motion, the velocity increasing with the temperature, that the precise nature of this motion becomes a subject of rational curiosity. Daniel Bernoulli, Herapath, Joule, Krönig, Clausius, &c. have shewn that the relations between pressure, temperature, and density in a perfect gas can be explained by supposing the temperature, and density in a perfect gas can be explained by supposing the particles to move with uniform velocity in straight lines, striking against the sides of the containing vessel and thus producing pressure. It is not necessary to suppose each particle to travel to any great distance inthe same straight line; for the effect in producing pressure will be the same if the particles strike against each other; so that the streaight line described may be very short. M. Clausius has determined the mean length of path in terms of the average distance of the particles, and the distance between the centres of two particles when collision takes place. We have at present no means of ascertaining either of these distances; but certain phenomena, such as the internal friction of gases, the confuction of heat through a gas, and the diffusion of one gas through another, seem to indicate the possibility of determining accurately the mean length of path which a particle describes between two successive collisions. In order to lay the foundation of such investigations on strict mechanical principles, I shall demonstrate the laws of motion of an indefinite number of small, hard, and perfectly elastic spheres acting on one another only during impact.". (Notice this ignores any effects of gravity.)
In 1892, Kelvin publishes "On a Decisive Test-Case Disproving the Maxwell-Boltzmann Doctrine regarding Distribution of Kinetic Energy" in which he gives an example of which kelvin claims 'disposes of the assumption that the temperature of a solid or liquid is equal to its average kinetic energy per atom, which Maxwell pointed out as a consequence of the supposed theorem...". Kelvin summarizes that Maxwell's law is true "...only for an approximately 'perfect' gas, which is an assemblage of molecules in which each molecule moves for comparatively long times in lines very approximately straight and experiences changes of velocity and direction in comparatively very short times of collision, and it is only for the kinetic energy of the translatory motions of the molecules of the 'perfect has,' that the temperature is equal to the average kinetic energy per molecule, as first assumed by Waterston, and afterwards by Joule, and first proved by Maxwell.". (Just looking at this briefly, I don't know for sure, but it may have to do with the flaws in the concept of potential energy - this appears to be a model that uses only inertial forces and ignores all other forces such as gravity. In my view, ultimately, energy, either potential or kinetic can only be equal to the sum velocity of any matter. These issues need to be more closely examined and debated in the hope of simplifying the explanations so they are easy for many people to understand.)
| (King's College) London, England |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3720) Simon Newcomb (CE 1835-1909), Canadian-US astronomer shows that the orbits of several asteroids do not intersect and that therefore they are not the fragments of a former larger planet. Newcomb rejects the idea that the asteroids in the radius between Mars and Jupiter are the remains of a broken up planet as Olbers had suggested 50 years before.
(Possibly in a breakup or collision, the pieces took different velocities and orbits. But I think perhaps the forces of Mars and Jupiter might make smaller masses choose either planet leaving not enough mass to form a planet in between. Simply put, perhaps there cannot ever accumulate enough mass, of the masses still in non-circular orbits, to form a larger mass such as a planet.)
| (Nautical Almanac Office) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3776) (Sir) William Henry Perkin (CE 1838-1907), English chemist, and B. F. Duppa synthesize tartaric acid.
| (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England (presumably) |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3894) Casimir Joseph Davaine (CE 1812-1882) describes locating intestinal worms by looking for the eggs in stools, a procedure still followed.
| (Hopital de le Charite) Paris, France |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 3900) Henri-Mamert-Onésime Delafond (CE 1805–1861) grows (cultures) anthrax in blood. Delafond observes that the rod-shaped bodies in blood and tissues of infected cattle multiply as chains outside of the animal's body in samples of their blood kept in the laboratory. This is a precursor of the important microbiological technique of in vitro cultivation of bacteria.
(Is this the first reported culturing of a bacteria?)
| |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 4545) This will rapidly lead to very low-mass walking, running and flying robots, although all kept secret from the public.
| unknown |
140 YBN
[1860 AD]
| 4546)
| unknown |
139 YBN
[02/25/1861 AD]
| 3089) Rubidium is discovered (1861) spectroscopically by Robert Bunsen and named after the two prominent red lines of its spectrum. Rubidium occurs combined in such minerals as lepidolite, pollucite, and carnallite.
Historian Frank James writes "Bunsen's diligence in distilling the large amount of mineral water which he had done was well rewarded with the discovery, sometime during the first two months of 1861, of another emission line, this time lying in the red, which did not belong to any known element. Bunsen being, by now, very familiar with line spectra was able with some confidence to say that he had discovered yet another new element, as indeed he had, later namring it rubidium. But those other scientists who thought that there were other chemical elements waiting to be discovered had little practical experience of working with spectra and could only use for guidance the spectral maps which bunsen and kirchhoff had provided with their paper.". (Having electronic and standard listings of all spectral lines in terms of position (frequency), {and perhaps including relative brightness, pressure, temperature} for both emission and absorption should be made freely available to the public and shown to all. These must be standardized for modern spectrometer machines.) Only a few months following their cesium discovery, Bunsen and Kirchhoff announce the discovery of yet another new alkali metal. Two previous unknown violet spectral lines in an alkali of the mineral lepidolite are attributed to a new element, rubidium (Latin rubidus, "darkest red colour") (notice that Latin is used instead of Greek).
The existence of cesium and rubidium are quickly confirmed by Reich, Richter and Crookes.
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
139 YBN
[03/??/1861 AD]
| 3652) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, publishes Part 1 of "On Physical Lines of Force", in which he examines magnetic phenomena from a mechanical point of view, taking the view that magnetic influence is some kind of stress in a medium.
(The idea of magnetism and electricity as a stress, pressure or tension in a medium originates with Faraday, which Faraday had called an "electrotonic" state. Maxwell appears to interchange the idea of a solid medium, such as a metal conductor, and an aether medium.)
Maxwell begins: "Part I. The Theory of Molecular Vortices Applied to magnetic Phenomena. IN all phenomena involving attractions or repulsions, or any forces depending on the relative position of bodies, we have to determine the magnitude and direction of the force which would act on a given body, if placed in a given position. In the case of a body acted on by the gravitation of a sphere, this force is inversely as the square of the distance, and in a straight line to the centre of the sphere. In the case of two attracting spheres, or of a body not spherical, the magnitude and direction of the force vary according to more complicated laws. In electric and magnetic phenomena, the magnitude and direction of the resultant force at any point is the main subject of investigation. {ULSF: Note at this point that Maxwell openly doubts Coulomb's inverse distance theory and equations for electricity and magnetism.} Suppose that the direction of the force at any point is known, then, if we draw a line so that in every part of its course it coincides in direction with the force at that point, this line maybe called a line of force, since it indicates the direction of the force in every part of its course. By drawing a sufficient number of lines of force, we may indicate the direction of the force in every part of the space in which it acts. Thus if we strew iron filings on paper near a magnet, each filing will be magnetized by induction, and the consecutive filings will unite by their opposite poles, so as to form fibres, and these fibres will indicate the direction of the lines of force. The beautiful illustration of the presence of magnetic force afforded by this experiment, naturally tends to make us think of the lines of force as something real, and as indicating something more than the mere resultant of two forces, whose seat of action is at a distance, and which do not exist there at all until a magnet is placed in that part of the field. {ULSF Coulomb had applied Newton's theory of gravitation to electricity and magnetism, but substituting charge in place of mass. The popular interpretation of this view must have been that the force eminates from the electrical or magnetic center out. However, was there at this time, also the view that the many particles each exert a force, similar to atoms with gravity, but atoms with electricity? In this case, the stronger force near the pole of a magnet or center of electric charge is due to the larger quantity of electric particles there. So Maxwell appears to echo the view that the force at a distance concept applies to the pole of a magnet as opposed to applying to in the metal particles forming lines around a magnet, in which case there are not two forces, but many millions of forces, from the many particles, both moving around the magnet and in the iron filings themselves. But was that atomic/particulate view that of Coulomb's and others? In viewing the center of the magnet as the center of a single force, did they understand that this is a generalization of the force of all atoms or particles that compose, for example a sphere?} We are dissatisfied with the explanation founded on the hypothesis of attractive and repellent forces directed towards the magnetic poles, even though we may have satisfied ourselves that the phenomenon is in strict accordance with that hypothesis, and we cannot help thinking that in every place where we find these lines of force, some physical state or action must exist in sufficient energy to produce the actual phenomena. {ULSF: Notice the reliance on the concept of energy - clearly the concept of energy, formerly vis-visa, as opposed to conservation of velocity and mass only, is fully accepted by this time. In addition, note that Maxwell appears to question the idea that lines of magnetic force suddenly appear in space as a result of the presence of a magnet. In my view, the force is definitely the result of particles moving around the magnet.} My object in this paper is to clear the way for speculation in this direction, by investigating the mechanical results of certain states of tension and motion in a medium, and comparing these with the observed phenomena of magnetism and electricity. By pointing out the mechanical consequences of such hypotheses, I hope to be of some use to those who consider the phenomena as due to the action of a medium, but are in doubt as to the relation of this hypothesis to the experimental laws already established, which have generally been expressed in the language of other hypotheses. I have in a former paper {fn: See a paper "On Faraday's Lines of Force," Cambridge Philosophical Transactions, Vol. X. Part I} endeavoured to lay before the mind of the geometer {ULSF possible reference to seeing thought} a clear conception of the relation of the lines of force to the space in which they are traced. By making use of the conception of currents in a fluid, I shewed how to draw lines of force, which should indicate by their number the amount of force, so that each line may be called a unit-line of force (see Faraday's Researches, 3122); and I have investigated the path of the lines where from one medium to another. In the same paper I have found the geometrical significance of the "Electrotonic State," and have shewn how to deduce the mathematical relations between the electrotonic state, magnetism, electric currents, and the electromotive force, using mechanical illustrations to assist the imagination, but not to account for the phenomena. I propose now to examine magnetic phenomena from a mechanical point of view, and to determine what tensions in, or motions of, a medium are capable of producing the mechanical phenomena observed. If, by the same hypothesis, we can connect the phenomena of magnetic attraction with electromagnetic phenomena and with those of induced currents, we shall have found a theory which, if not true, can only be proved to be erroneous by experiments which will greatly enlarge our knowledge of this part of physics. The mechanical conditions of a medium under magnetic influence have been variously conceived of, as currents, undulations, or states of displacement or strain, or of pressure or stress. Currents, issuing from the north pole and entering the south pole of a magnet, or circulating round an electric current, have the advantage of representing correctly the geometrical arrangement of the lines of force, if we could account on mechanical principles for the phenomena of attraction, or for the currents themselves, or explain their continued existence. Undulations issuing from a centre would, according to the calculations of Professor Challis, produce an effect similar to attraction in the direction of the centre; but admitting this to be true, we know that two series of undulations traversing the same space do not combine into one resultant as two attractions do, but produce an effect depending on relations of phase as well as intensity, and if allowed to proceed, they diverge from each other without any mutual action. {ULSF This is presumably undulations of electrical particles - that is electricity as a fluid?} In fact the mathematical laws of attractions are not analogous in any respect to those of undulations,, while they have remarkable analogies with those of currents, of the conduction of heat and electricity, and of elastic bodies. In the Cambridge and Dublin Mathematical Journal for January 1847, Professor William Thomson has given a "Mechanical Representation of Electric, Magnetic, and Galvanic Forces," by means of the displacements of the particles of an elastic solid in a state of strain. In this representation we must make the angular displacement at every point of the solid proportional to the magnetic force at the corresponding point of the magnetic field, the direction of the axis of rotation of the displacement corresponding to the direction of the magnetic force. The absolute displacement of any particle will then correspond in magnitude and direction to that which I have identified with the electrotonic state; and the relative displacement of any particle, considered with reference to the particle in its immediate neighbourhood, will correspond in magnitude and direction to the quantity of electric current passing through the corresponding point of the magneto-electric field. The author of this method of representation does not attempt to explain the origin of the observed forces by the effects due to these strains in the elastic solid, but makes use of the mathematical analogies of the two problems to assist the imagination in the study of both. We come now to consider the magnetic influence as existing in the form of some kind of pressure or tension, or, more generally, of stress in the medium. Stress is action and reaction between the consecutive parts of a body, and consists in general of pressures or tensions different directions at the same point of the medium. The necessary relations among these forces have been investigated by mathematicians; and it has been shown that the most general type of a stress consists of a combination of three principal pressures or tensions, in directions at right angles to each other. When two of the principal pressures are equal, the third becomes an axis of symmetry, either of greatest or least pressure, the pressures at right angles to this axis being all equal. When the three principal pressures are equal, the pressure is equal in every direction, and there results a stress having no determinate axis of direction, of which we have an example in simple hydrostatic pressure. The general type of a stress is not suitable as a representation of a magnetic force, because a line of magnetic force has direction and intensity, but has no third quality indicating any difference between the sides of the line, which would be analogous to that observed in the case of polarized light {fn: See Faraday's 'Researches,'3252}. We must therefore represent the magnetic force at a point by a stress having a single axis of greatest or least pressure, and all the pressures at right angles to this axis equal. It may be objected that it is inconsistent to represent a line of force, which is essentially dipolar, by an axis of stress, which is necessarily isotropic; but we know that every phenomenon of action and reaction is isotropic in its results, because the effects of the force on the bodies between which it acts are equal and opposite, while the nature and origin of the force may be dipolar, as in the attraction between a north and a south pole. Let us next consider the mechanical effect of a state of stress symmetrical about an axis. We may resolve it, in all cases, into a simple hydrostatic pressure, combined with a simple pressure or tension along the axis. When the axis is that of greatest pressure, the force along the axis will be a pressure. When the axis is that of least pressure, the force along the axis will be a tension. If we observe the lines of force between two magnets, as indicated by iron filings, we shall see that whenever the lines of force pass from one pole to another, there is attraction between those poles; and where the lines of force from the poles avoid each other and are dispersed into space, the poles repel each other, so that in both cases they are drawn in the direction of the resultant of the lines of force. It appears therefore that the stress in the axis of a line of magnetic force is a tension like that of a rope. If we calculate the lines of force in the neighbourhood of two gravitating bodies, we shall find them the same in direction as those near two magnetic poles of the same name; but we know that the mechanical effect is that of attraction instead of repulsion. The lines of force in this case do not run between the bodies, but avoid each other, and are dispersed over space. In order to produce the effect of attraction, the stress along the lines of gravitating force must be a pressure. Let us now suppose that the phenomena of magnetism depend on the existence of a tension in the direction of the lines of force, combined with a hydrostatic pressure; or in other words, a pressure greater in the equatorial than in the axial direction: the next question is, what mechanical explanation can we give of this inequality of pressures in a fluid or mobile medium? The explanation which most readily occurs to the mind is that the excess of pressure in the equatorial direction arises from the centrifugal force of vortices or eddies in the medium having their axes in directions parallel to the lines of force. {ULSF So is this saying that the force of gravitation and electricity are the same, but that the difference in magnitude between them is simply that electricity is in the direction of centrifugal force of a vortex, presumably of particles?} This explanation of the cause of the inequality of pressures at once suggests the means of representing the dipolar character of the line of force. Every vortex is essentially dipolar, the two extremities of its axis being distinguished by the direction of its revolution as observed from those points. We also know that when electricity circulates in a conductor, it produces lines of magnetic force passing through the circuit, the direction of the lines depending on the direction of the circulation. Let us suppose that the direction of revolution of our vortices is that in which vitreous electricity must revolve in order to produce lines of force whose direction within the circuit is the same as that of the given lines of force. We shall suppose at present that all the vortices in any one part of the field are revolving in the same direction about axes nearly parallel, but that in passing from one part of the field to another, the direction of the axes, the velocity of rotation, and the density of the substance of the vortices are subject to change. We shall investigate the resultant mechanical effect upon an element of the medium, and from the mathematical expression of this resultant we shall deduce the physical character of its different component parts.". Maxwell then goes on to express these views mathematically. Of note is Maxwell's labeling of "imaginary magnetic matter" within a magnet. Also important is Maxwell's visual explanation of magnetic vortices (see figure 6): "To illustrate the action of the molecular vortices, let sn be the direction of magnetic force in the field, and let C be the section of an ascending magnetic current perpendicular to the paper. {ULSF Note that Maxwell here appears to describe electric current in a metal wire as causing a magnetic field, as opposed to the modern view of creating an electric field.} The lines of force due to this current will be circles drawn in the opposite direction from that of the hands of a watch; that is, in the direction nwse. At e the lines of force will be the sum of those of the field and of the current, and at w they will be the difference of the two sets of lines; so that the vortices on the east side of the current will be more powerful than those on the west side. Both sets of vortices have their equatorial parts turned towards C, so that they tend to expand towards C, but those on the east side have the greatest effect, so that the resultant effect on the current is to urge it towards the west.
Maxwell ends with "We shall next consider the nature of electric currents and electromotive forces in connexion with the theory of molecular vortices.".
I think there is the possibility of electric particles moving in a vortex (whirlpool) in conductors, perhaps like water in a drain, because of some kind of queue or buildup at an opening that not all matter can go through at once.
(One theory is that in moving towards a mechanical explanation of electricity and magnetism, Maxwell gives a more specific accurate explanation that the generalized Coulomb interpretation, clearing the path for a more accurate theory which describes electricity and magnetism using gravitation and inertia, and or an electrical force at the particle level without an aether or the generalization of many individual particles as a "field".)
(An interesting point is that Maxwell categorizes his view of electricity and magnetism as a "mechanical" interpretation, which I think is a forward progress sense - although electricity and magnetism as the result of an imponderable, massless, aether is not going to fulfill that sense. So the claim is a progressive claim, but the actual theory is a traditional aether massless theory.)
(EXPERIMENT: create a sealed clear box with a magnet {either permanent or electromagnetic} then shake or blow around tiny iron dust to see a 3d shape, in particular shake the box around in zero or low gravity to see the 3d shape of the field or particle flow around the magnet.)
| (King's College) London, England |
139 YBN
[04/26/1861 AD]
| 3726) Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (SKYoPorelE) (CE 1835-1910), Italian astronomer identifies the asteroid Hesperia.
| (Brera Observatory) Milan, Italy |
139 YBN
[04/??/1861 AD]
| 3653) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, publishes Part 2 of "On Physical Lines of Force", in which he describes his theory of molecular vortices applied to electric currents.
Maxwell begins: "PART II The Theory of Molecular Vortices applied to Electric Currents. We have already shown that all the forces acting between magnets, substances capable of magnetic induction, and electric currents, may be mechanically accounted for on the supposition that the surrounding medium is put into such a state that at every point the pressures are different in different directions, the direction of least pressure being that of the observed lines of force, and the difference of greatest and least pressures being proportional to the square of the intensity of the force at that point. Such a state of stress, if assumed to exist in the medium, and to be arranged according to the known laws regulating lines of force, will act upon the magnets, currents, &c. in the field with precisely the same resultant forces as those calculated on the ordinary hypothesis of direct action at a distance. This is true independently of any particular theory as to the cause of this state of stress, or the mode in which it can be sustained in the medium. We have therefore a satisfactory answer to the question, "Is there any mechanical hypothesis as to the condition of the medium indicated by lines of force, by which the observed resultant forces may be accounted for?" The answer is, the lines of force indicate the direction of minimum pressure at every point of the medium. The second question must be, "What is the mechanical cause of this difference of pressure in different directions?" We have supposed, in the first part of this paper, that this difference of pressures is caused by molecular vortices, having their axes parallel to the lines of force. We also assumed, perfectly arbitrarily, that the direction of these vortices is such that, on looking along a line of force from south to north, we should see the vortices revolving in the direction of the hands of a watch. We found that the velocity of the circumference of each vortex must be proportional to the intensity of the magnetic force and that the density of the substance of the vortex must be proportional to the capacity of the medium for magnetic induction. We have as yet given no answers to the questions, "How are these vortices set in rotation?" and "Why are they arranged according to the known laws of lines of force about magnets and currents?" These questions are certainly of a higher order of difficulty than either of the former; and I wish to separate the suggestions I may offer by way of provisional answer to them, from the mechanical deductions which resolved the first question, and the hypothesis of vortices which gave a probable answer to the second. We have, in fact, now come to inquire into the physical connexion of these vortices with electric currents, while we are still in doubt as to the nature of electricity, whether it is one substance, two substances, or not a substance at all, or in what way it differs from matter, and how it is connected with it. We know that the lines of force are affected by electric currents, and we know the distribution of those lines about a current; so that from the force we can determine the amount of the current. Assuming that our explanation of the lines of force by molecular vortices is correct, why does a particular distribution of vortices indicate an electric current? A satisfactory answer to this question would lead us a long way towards that of a very important one, "What is an electric current?" I have found great difficulty in conceiving of the existence of vortices in a medium, side by side, revolving in the same direction about parallel axes. The contiguous portions of consecutive vortices must be moving in opposite directions; and it is difficult to understand how the motion of one part of the medium can coexist with, and even produce, an opposite motion of a part in contact with it. The only conception which has at all aided me in conceiving of this kind of motion is that of the vortices being separated by a layer of particles, revolving each on its own axis in the opposite direction to that of the vortices, so that the contiguous surfaces of the particles and of the vortices have the same motion. In mechanism, when two wheels are intended to revolve in the same direction, a wheel is placed between them so as to be in gear with both, and this wheel is called an "idle wheel." The hypothesis about the vortices which I have to suggest is that a layer of particles, acting as idle wheels, is interposed between each vortex and the next, so that each vortex has a tendency to make the neighbouring vortices revolve in the same direction with itself. In mechanism, the idle wheel is generally made to rotate about a fixed axle; but in epicyclic trains and other contrivances, as, for instance, in Siemens's governor for steam-engines {fn: See Goodeve's Elements of mechanism}, we find idle wheels whose centres are capable of motion. In all these cases the motion of the centre is the half sum of the motions of the circumferences of the wheels between which it is placed. Let us examine the relations which must subsist between the motions of our vortices and those of the layer of particles interposed as idle wheels between them.". Maxwell goes on to describe the math of this theory. Part 2 contains a number of drawings which provide the images in his mind that he draws to describe his theory. Maxwell describes figure 1 (see figure 1): " In Plate V., fig 1, let the vertical circle E E represent an electric current flowing from copper C to zinc Z through the conductor EE', as shewn by the arrows. Let the horizontal circle MM' represent a line of magnetic force embracing the electric circuit, the north and south directions being indicated by the lines SN and NS. Let the vertical circles V and V' represent the molecular vortices of which the line of magnetic force is the axis. V revolves as the hands of a watch, and V' the opposite way. It will appear from this diagram, that if V and V' were contiguous vortices, particles placed between them would move downwards; and that if the particles were forced downwards by any cause, they would make the vortices revolve as in the figure. We have thus obtained a point of view from which we may regard the relation of an electric current to its lines of force as analogous to the relation of a toothed wheel or rack to wheels which it drives.". (In my own view, instead of vorteces, which apparently are not defined by moving particles but by some other matter or matterless objects, it is more intuitive and simple to have a vortex of actual particles moving in a spiral around the wire in the direction of current in and outside of the wire. Notice also that Maxwell views the electric field as a magnetic field with north and south pole.)
Maxwell describes figures 2 and 3 (see figure 2): " Let AB, Plate V, figure 2, represent a current of electricity in the direction from A to B. Let the large spaces above and below AB represent the vortices, and let the small circles separating the vortices represent the layers of particles placed between them, which in our hypothesis represent electricity. Now let an electric current from left to right commence in AB. The row of vortices gh above AB will be set in motion in the opposite direction to that of a watch. (We shall call this direction +, and that of a watch -.) We shall suppose the row of vortices kl still at rest, then the layer of particles between these rows will be acted on by the row gh on their lower sides, and will be at rest above. If they are free to move, they will rotate in the negative direction, and will at the same time move from right to left, or in the opposite direction from the current, and so form an induced electric current. If this current is checked by the electrical resistance of the medium, the rotating particles will act upon the row of vortices kl, and make them revolve in the positive direction till they arrive at such a velocity that the motion of the particles is reduced to that of rotation, and the induced current disappears. If, now, the primary current AB be stopped, the vortices in the row gh will be checked, while those of the row kl still continue in rapid motion. The momentum of the vortices beyond the layer of particles pq will tend to move them from left to right, that is, in the direction of the primary current; but if this motion is resisted by the medium, the motion of the vortices beyond pq will be gradually destroyed. It appears therefore that the phenomena of induced currents are part of the process of communicating the rotatory velocity of the vortices from one part of the field to another. {ULSF see figure 3) As an example of the action of the vortices in producing induced currents, let us take the following case:- Let B, PL V, fig. 3, be a circular ring, of uniform section, lapped uniformly with covered wire. It may be shewn that if an electric current is passed through this wire, a magnet placed within the coil of wire will be strongly affected, but no magnetic effect will be produced on any external point. The effect will be that of a magnet bent round till its two poles are in contact. {ULSF The word "affected" is not clear - I think this means "is moved" or "feels a force". In these coils, perhaps the current does not complete the circuit through the center as a bar magnet is supposed to but completes the circuit around the outside. What the path of current is, in various shaped permanent magnets has never been clearly publicly shown and should be. It cannot be ruled out that the circuit is completed through some path inside the metal, or that the circuit is completed only in the outside of all magnets- although poles which appear inside a bar magnet imply that the circuit moves through at least some portion of the inside of the bar.} If the coil is properly made, no effect on a magnet placed outside it can be discovered, {ULSF I think this needs to be verified.} whether the current is kept constant or made to vary in strength; but if a conducting wire C be made to embrace the ring any number of times, an electromotive force will act on that wire whenever the current in the coil is made to vary; and if the circuit be closed, there will be an actual current in the wire C. This experiment shews that, in order to produce the electromotive force, it is not necessary that the conducting wire should be placed in a field of magnetic force, or that lines of magnetic force should pass through the substance of the wire or near it. All that is required is that lines of force should pass through the circuit of the conductor, and that these lines of force should vary in quantity during the experiment. In this case the vortices, of which we suppose the lines of magnetic force to consist, are all within the hollow of the ring, and outside the ring all is at rest. If there is no conducting circuit embracing the ring, then, when the primary current is made or broken, there is no action outside the ring, except an instantaneous between the particles and the vortices which they separate. If there is a continuous conducting circuit embracing the ring, then, when the primary current is made, there will be a current in the opposite direction through C; and when it is broken, there will be a current through C in the same direction as the primary current. We may now perceive that induced currents are produced when the electricity yields to the electromotive force,- this force, however, still existing when the formation of a sensible current is prevented by the resistance of the circuit. The electromotive force, of which the components are P, Q, R, arises from the action between the vortices and the interposed particles, when the velocity of rotation is altered in any part of the field. It corresponds to the pressure on the axle of a wheel in a machine when the velocity of the driving wheel is increased or diminished. The electrotonic state, whose components are F, G, H, is what the electromotive force would be if the currents, &c. to which the lines of force are due, instead of arriving at their actual state by degrees, had started instantaneously from rest with their actual values. It corresponds to the impulse which would act on the axle of a wheel in a machine if the actual velocity were suddenly given to the driving wheel, the machine being previously at rest. If the machine were suddenly stopped by stopping the driving wheel, each wheel would receive an impulse equal and opposite to that which it received when the machine was set in motion. This impulse may be calculated for any part of a system of mechanism, and may be called the reduced momentum of the machine for that point. In the varied motion of the machine, the actual force on any part arising from the variation of motion may be found by differentiating the reduced momentum with to the time, just as we have found that the electromotive force may be deduced from the electrotonic state by the same process.".
Maxwell describes figures 4 and 5 and summarizes his theory: (Possibly trim down - perhaps remove 6 and others) " Let A, fig. 4, represent the section of a vertical wire moving in the direction of the arrow from west to east, across a system of lines of magnetic force running north and south. The curved lines in fig. 4 represent the lines of fluid motion about the wire, the wire being regarded as stationary, and the fluid as having a motion relative to it. It is evident that, from this figure, we can trace the variations of form of an clement of the fluid, as the form of the element depends, not on the absolute motion of the whole system, but on the relative motion of its parts. In front of the wire, that is, on its east side, it will be seen that as the wire approaches each portion of the medium, that portion is more and more compressed in the direction from east to west {ULSF: Note this more accurately describes figure 5, as opposed to figure 4}, and extended in the direction from north to south; and since the axes of the vortices lie in the north and south direction, their velocity will continually tend to increase by Prop. X. unless prevented or checked by electromotive forces acting on the circumference of each vortex. {ULSF This is a cloudy explanation - it appears that the circle is a wire, perpendicular to the page, extending vertically into and out of the page, lines of magnetic force are not shown, but exist perhaps presumably are going from S to N? The wire is moving towards the East because of the magnetic force, and the lines represent the magnetic field around the wire - although this appears inaccurate since the field forms a complete circle around a wire as I understand the electric field around a wire with current. Notice too, that here the word medium appears to apply to a substance such as an aether or perhaps air.} We shall consider an electromotive force as positive when the vortices tend to move the interjacent particles upwards perpendicularly to the plane of the paper. The vortices appear to revolve as the hands of a watch when we look at them from south to north; so that each vortex moves upwards on its west side and downwards on its east side. In front of the wire, therefore, where each vortex is striving to increase its velocity the electromotive force upwards must be greater on its west than on its east side. There will therefore be a continual increase of upward electromotive force from the remote east, where it is zero, to the front of the moving wire, where the upward force will be strongest. Behind the wire a different action takes place. As the wire moves away from each successive portion of the medium, that portion is extended from east to west, and compressed from north to south, so as to tend to diminish the velocity of the vortices, and therefore to make the upward electromotive force greater on the east than on the west side of each vortex. The upward electromotive force will therefore increase continually from the remote west, where it is zero, to the back of the moving wire, where it will be strongest. It appears, therefore, that a vertical wire moving eastwards will experience an electromotive force tending to produce in it an upward current. If there is no conducting circuit in connexion with the ends of the wire, no current will be formed, and the magnetic forces will not be altered; but if such a circuit exists, there will be a current, and the lines of magnetic force and the velocity of the vortices will be altered from their state previous to the motion of the wire. The change in the lines of force is shewn in fig. 5. The vortices in front of the wire, instead of merely producing pressures, actually increase in velocity, while those behind have their velocity diminished, and those at the sides of the wire have the direction of their axes altered; so that the final effect is to produce a force acting on the wire as a resistance to its motion. We may now recapitulate the assumptions we have made, and the results we have obtained. (1) Magneto-electric phenomena are due to the existence of matter under certain conditions of motion or of pressure in every part of the magnetic field, and not to direct action at a distance between the magnets or currents. The substance producing these effects may be a certain part of ordinary matter, or it may be an aether associated with matter. {ULSF Note that Maxwell leaves open the possibility of electricity and magnetism as composed of matter - although does not explicitly use the word particle.} Its density is greatest in iron, and least in diamagnetic substances; but it must be in all cases, except that of iron, very rare, since no other substance has a large ratio of magnetic capacity to what we call a vacuum. (2) The condition of any part of the field, through which lines of magnetic force pass, is one of unequal pressure in different directions, the direction of the lines of force being that of least pressure, so that the lines of force may be considered lines of tension. (3) This inequality of pressure is produced by the existence in the medium of vortices or eddies, having their axes in the direction of the lines of force, and having their direction of rotation determined by that of the lines of force. We have supposed that the direction was that of a watch to a spectator looking from south to north. We might with equal propriety have chosen the reverse direction, as far as known facts are concerned, by supposing resinous electricity instead of vitreous to be positive.{ULSF Note, that even in 1861 the two fluid theory of electricity is still debated.} The effect of these vortices depends on their density, and on their velocity at the circumference, and is independent of their diameter. The density must be proportional to the capacity of the substance for magnetic induction, that of the vortices in air being 1. The velocity must be very great, in order to produce so powerful effects in so rare a medium. The size of the vortices is indeterminate, but is probably very small as compared with that of a complete molecule of ordinary matter. {fn: The angular momentum of the system of vortices depends on their average diameter; so that if the diameter were sensible, we might expect that a magnet would behave as if it contained a revolving body within it, and that the existence of this rotation might be detected by experiments on the free rotation of a magnet. I have made experiments to investigate this question, but have not yet fully tried the apparatus.} {ULSF: The theory of individual vortices inside conductors seems less likely to me than a single vortex in which many particles of electricity flow - in a spiral around a conductor in the direction of current - similar to water down a drain. So I doubt smaller vortices next to each other.} (4) The vortices are separated from each other by a single layer of round particles, so that a system of cells is formed, the partitions being these layers of particles, and the substance of each cell being capable of rotating as a vortex. {ULSF: To me this seems comparable to the Ptolemaic system, in light of a more simple single current flow, or so called vortex, theory.} (5) The particles forming the layer are in rolling contact with both the vortices which they separate, but do not rub against each other. They are perfectly free to roll between the vortices and so to change their place, provided they keep within one complete molecule of the substance; but in passing from one molecule to another they experience resistance, and generate irregular motions, which constitute heat. These particles, in our theory, play the part of electricity. Their motion of translation constitutes an electric current, their rotation serves to transmit the motion of the vortices from one part of the field to another, and the tangential pressures thus called into play constitute electromotive force. The conception of a particle having its motion connected with that of a vortex by perfect rolling contact may appear somewhat awkward. I do not bring it forward as a mode of connexion existing in nature, or even as that which I would willingly assent to as an electrical hypothesis. {ULSF Even Maxwell admits that this configuration seems awkward, and I think unlikely - the electron-proton-neutron atom theory will replace this view with electricity defined as electrons moving freely in space - but still a good explanation of electricity and magnetism are missing.} It is, however, a mode of connexion which is mechanically conceivable, and easily investigated, and it serves to bring out the actual mechanical connexions between the known electro-magnetic phenomena; so that I Venture to say that any one who understands the provisional and temporary character of this hypothesis, will find himself rather helped than hindered by it in his search after the true interpretation of the phenomena. The action between the vortices and the layers of particles is in part tangential; so that if there were any slipping or differential motion between the parts in contact, there would be a loss of the energy belonging to the lines of force, and a gradual transformation of that energy into heat. Now we know that the lines of force about a magnet are maintained for an indefinite time without any expenditure of energy; {ULSF I think there must be a loss of matter and velocity from photons emitted by the moving current in permanent magnets - as may be possibly seen in the radio and infrared. EXPERIMENT: Does a permanent magnet emit more photons in the radio and infrared than the same and other unmagnetized material? This is an obvious experiment - but where are the public results?} so that we must conclude that wherever there is tangential action between different parts of the medium, there is no motion of slipping between those parts. We must therefore conceive that the vortices and particles roll together without slipping; and that the interior strata of each vortex receive their proper velocities from the exterior stratum without slipping, that is, the angular velocity must be the same throughout each vortex. The only process in which electro-magnetic energy is lost and transformed into heat, is in the passage of electricity from one molecule to another. In all other cases the energy of the vortices can only be diminished when an equivalent quantity of mechanical work is done by magnetic action. (6) The effect of an electric current upon the surrounding medium is to make the vortices in contact with the current revolve so that the parts next to the current move in the same direction as the current. The parts furthest from the current will move in the opposite direction; and if the medium is a conductor of electricity, so that the particles are free to move in any direction, the particles touching the outside of these vortices will be moved in a direction contrary to that of the current, so that there will be an induced current in the opposite direction to the primary one. If there were no resistance to the motion of the particles, the induced current would be equal and opposite to the primary one, and would continue as long as the primary current lasted, so that it would prevent all action of the primary current at a distance. If there is a resistance to the induced current, its particles act upon the vortices beyond them, and transmit the motion of rotation to them, till at last all the vortices in the medium are set in motion with such velocities of rotation that the particles between them have no motion except that of rotation, and do not produce currents. In the transmission of the motion from one vortex to another, there arises a force between the particles and the vortices, by which the particles are pressed in one direction and the vortices in the opposite direction. We call the force acting on the particles the electromotive force. The reaction on the vortices is equal and opposite, so that the electromotive force cannot move any part of the medium as a whole, it can only produce currents. When the primary current is stopped, the electromotive forces all act in the opposite direction. (7) When an electric current or a magnet is moved in presence of a conductor, the velocity of rotation of the vortices in any part of the field is altered by that motion. The force by which the proper amount of rotation is transmitted to each vortex, constitutes in this case also an electromotive force, and, if permitted, will produce currents. (8) When a conductor is moved in a field of magnetic force, the vortices in it and in its neighbourhood are moved out of their places, and are changed in form. The force arising from these changes constitutes the electromotive force on a moving conductor, and is found by calculation to correspond with that determined by experiment. We have now shewn in what way electro-magnetic phenomena may be imitated by an imaginary system of molecular vortices. Those who have been already inclined to adopt an hypothesis of this kind, will find here the conditions which must be fulfilled in order to give it mathematical coherence, and a comparison, so far satisfactory, between its necessary results and known facts. Those who look in a different direction for the explanation of the facts, may be able to compare this theory with that of the existence of currents flowing freely through bodies, and with that which supposes electricity to act at a distance with a force depending on its velocity, and therefore not subject to the law of conservation of energy. {ULSF The modern view is that an electric force is caused by photons. Is there ever a time where the view is that electric particles themselves, like gravitation, emit a second force of electricity? My own view is that electricity is the result of gravitation and inertia - which includes collisions.} The facts of electro-magnetism are so complicated and various, that the explanation of any number of them by several different hypotheses must be interesting, not only to physicists, but to all who desire to understand how much evidence the explanation of phenomena lends to the credibility of a theory, or how far we ought to regard a coincidence in the mathematical expression of two sets of phenomena as an indication that these phenomena are of the same kind. We know that partial coincidences of this kind have been discovered; and the fact that they are only partial is proved by the divergence of the laws of the two sets of phenomena in other respects. We may chance to find, in the higher parts of physics, instances of more complete coincidence, which may require much investigation to detect their ultimate divergence.".
On March 16, 1861 Professor J. Challis submits "On Theories of Magnetism and other Forces, in reply to Remarks by Professor Maxwell" in which Challis states that the three explanations Maxwell gives for the phenomena of galvanism and magnetism are given by Challis' own theory. Challis goes on to discuss the theory of atoms and aether, stating his view that "...the theory which proposes to account for the phenomena of light by the oscillations of the discrete atoms of a medium having axes of elasticity, is contradicted by facts, and must therefore be abandoned.".
| (King's College) London, England |
139 YBN
[05/10/1861 AD]
| 3490) (Sir) Edward Frankland (CE 1825-1899), English chemist, finds that the brightness of gas flames is directly proportional to atmospheric pressure, the less pressure the less bright the light emitted by the flame. Frankland concludes that the luminosity (quantity of light emited) depends mainly if not entirely on the availability of atmospheric oxygen to the interior of the flame. However, Frankland wrongly concludes that the rate of combustion is unchanged by atmospheric pressure, not realizing the relationship of increased quantity of light released as a result of a higher quantity of combustion reactions occuring because of a greater quantity of oxygen available (higher air pressure = higher density of oxygen). In some sense, this goes to show the lack of clear understanding in 1861 of light as a particle and of combustion as being just a chemical reaction between oxygen which releases particles of light.
These observations prove that the light emited from flames is connected with their density and lead Frankland to support the view that the light emited by hydro-carbon flames is due to the presence of ignited, very dense, vaporous hydro-carbons in the flame, instead of, as taught by Davy, to ignited particles of solid carbon. (Even now, the exact course of the chain reaction of combustion is not clearly described, in particular the role of photons in communicating the reaction.)
| (St Bartholomew's hospital) London, England (presumably) |
139 YBN
[06/??/1861 AD]
| 3462) Kirchhoff publishes a map of the solar spectrum, and from matching solar dark lines to the bright lines emitted by elements, explains that the atmosphere of the sun contains iron, chromium, nickel, barium, copper, and zinc but does not contain gold, silver, mercury, aluminum, cadmium, tin, lead, antimony, arsenic, strontium, lithium, and silicon.
Kirchhoff uses an arbitrary scale and the prisms are occasionally shifted and so this map will be superseded by Angstrom's, in which the lines are directly connected to wave lengths.
Wolcott Gibbs at Harvard writes in 1866: "The well known chart of Kirchhoff, through executed with great care and labor, is not, properly speaking, normal, since it only represents a spectrum formed by four flint glass prisms, the angles of which, it is true, are given, but of which the indices of refraction are not stated. Moreover the prisms were not placed accurately in the positions of least deviation for each of the spectral lines. The scale of millimeters adopted by Kirchhoff is therefore a purely arbitrary one. A standard or normal map of the spectrum must be wholly independent of perculiarities in the form of apparatus, in the number of prisms, their refractive and dispersive powers and their positions. Such a map can only be based upon the wave lengths of the spectral lines, since these do not, like the indices of refraction, vary with the material of which the prisms are composed.".
Kirchhoff publishes this as (translated from German) "Investigations on the solar spectrum and spectra of the chemical elements" ("Untersuchungen über das Sonnenspektrum und Spektren der chemischen Elemente").
Kirchhoff describes "reversing" emission lines: "The sodium flame is characterized beyond that of any other coloured flame by the intensity of the lines in its spectrum. Next to it in this respect comes the lithium flame. It is just as easy to reverse the red lithium line, that is, to turn the bright line into a dark one, as it is to reverse the sodium line. if direct sunlight be allowed to pass through a lithium flame, the spectrum exhibits in the place of the red lithium band a black line which in distinctness bears comparison with the most remarkable of Fraunhofer's lines, and disappears when the flame is withdrawn. It is not so easy to obtain the reveral of the spectra of the other metals; nevertheless bunsen and I have succeeded in reversing the brightest lines of potassium, strontium, calcium, and barium, by exploding mistures of the chlorates of these metals and milk-sugar in front of the slit of our apparatus while the direct solar rays fell on the instrument. {The spectra of intermittent electric sparks, such as I have employed in this investigation for the purpose of obtaining the lines of many metals, cannot be reversed by sunlight passing through them, because the duration of each spark is very small in comparison to the length of time which elapses between two consecutive sparks.} These facts would appear to justify the supposition that each incandescent gas diminishes by absorption the intensity of those rays only which posses degrees of refrangibility equal to those of the rays which it emits; or, in other words, that the spectrum of every incandescent gas must be reversed, which it is penetrated by the rays of a source of light of sufficient intensity giving a continuous spectrum.".
Kirchhoff restates his earlier theorem "The theorem considers rays of heat in general; not merely those rays of heat which produce an impression on the eye, and which we therefore call rays of light. It affirms that for each sort of ray the relation between the power of emission and the power of absorption is, at the same temperature, constant for all bodies. in this theorem, however, I suppose that the bodies only emit rays in consequence of the temperature to which they are heated, and that all the rays which are absorbed are transformed to heat; thus the phenomena of phosphorescent bodies are excluded from consideration. From this theorem it follows that an incandescent gas in whose spectrum certain colours are wanting, which are present in the spectrum of another body is perfectly transparent for such colours; and that such a gas is, therefore, only able to exert an absorption upon the rays occurring in its spectrum, an absorption which increases according to the degree of brightness of this colour in its spectrum. We see also that the supposition to which the observations lead is true as long as the theorem itself is true, that is, as long as the gas emits rays only by virtue of its temperature, and exerts no absorptive action except such a one as causes heat to be liberated. Another consequence of this theorem, to which I shall presently revert, may here be noticed. If the source of light giving a continuous spectrum, by means of which the spectrum of a glowing gas is to be reversed, be an incandescent body, its temperature must be higher than that of the glowing gas.".
Kirchhoff writes (translated from German) "It is especially remarkable that, coincident with the positions of all the bright iron lines which I have observed, well-defined dark lines occur in the solar spectrum....about 60 bright iron lines appeared to me to coincide with as many dark solar lines...The observed phenomenon may be explained by the supposition, that the rays of light which form the solar spectrum have passed through a vapour of iron, and have thus suffered the absorption which the vapour of iron must exert"...These iron vapours might be contained either in the atmosphere of the sun or in that of the earth... it is very probable that elementary bodies which occur in large quantities on the earth, and are likewise distinguished by special bright lines in their spectra, will, like iron, be visible in the solar atmosphere. This is found to be the case with calcium, magnesium, and sodium. The number of the bright lines in the spectrum of each of these metals is, indeed, small, but those lines, as well as the dark ones in the solar spectrum with which they coincide, are so uncommonly distinct that the coincidence can be observed with very great accuracy. ... The lines produced by chromium also form a very characteristic group, which likewise coincides with a remarkable group of Fraunhofer's lines; hence I believe that I am justified in affirming the presence of chromium in the solar atmosphere. ... All the brighter lines of nickel appear to coincide with dark solar lines; the same was observed with respect to some of the cobalt lines, but was not seen to be the case with other equally bright lines of this metal. From my observations I consider that I am entitled to conclude that nickel is visible in the solar atmosphere; I do not, however, yet express an opinion as to the presence of cobalt. Barium, copper, and zinc appear to be present in the solar atmosphere, but only in small quantities; the brightest of the lines of these metals correspond to distinct lines in the solar spectrum, but the weaker lines are not noticeable. The remaining metals which I have examined, viz. gold, silver, mercury, aluminum, cadmium, tin, lead, antimony, arsenic, strontium, and lithium, are, according to my observations, not visible in the solar atmosphere....as far as I have been able to determine, silicium is not visible in the solar atmosphere.".
With heavy metals in the atmosphere, it implies that the average density of the solar atmosphere is much higher than the earth's since metal atoms would, presumably, fall to the surface being much denser than the air and perhaps just denser than top of the earth crust.st probable supposition which can be made respecting the Sun's constitution is, that is consists of a solid or liquid nucleus, heated to a temperature of the brightest whiteness, surrounded by an atmosphere of somewhat lower temperature. This supposition is in accordance with Laplace's celebrated nebular-theory respecting the formation of our planetary system. If the matter, nowbo concentrated in the several heavenly bodies, existed in formed times as an extended and continuous mass of vapour, by the contraction of which sun, planets, and moons, have been formed, all these bodies must necessarily posses mainly the same constitution. Geology teaches us that the Earth once existed in a state of fusion; and we are compelled to admit that the same state of things has occurred in the other members of our solar system. The amount of cooling which the various heavenly bodies have undergone, in accordance with the laws of radiation of heat, differs greatly, owing mainly to difference in their masses. Thus whilst the moon has become cooler than the Earth, the temperature of the surface of the Sun has not yet sunk below a white heat. Our terrestrial atmosphere in which now so few elements are found, must have possessed, when the Earth was in a state of fusion, a much more complicated composition, as it then contained all those substances which are volatile at a white heat. The solar atmosphere at this present time possesses a similar constitution."
Kirchhoff theorizes about the physical composition of the sun writing "In order to explain the occurence of the dark lines in the solar spectrum, we must assume that the solar atmosphere incloses a luminous nucleus, producing a continuous spectrum, the brightness of which exceeds a certain limit. The mo
| (University of Heidelberg), Heidelberg, Germany |
139 YBN
[09/??/1861 AD]
| 3568) Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov (BUTlYuruF) (CE 1828-1886), Russian chemist, states his concept of chemical structure: that the chemical nature of a molecule is determined not only by the number and type of atoms but also by their arrangement. Butlerov reads this in "The Chemical Structure of Compounds.", which is the first use in organic chemistry of the term "chemical structure". In this work Butlerov shows the difficulties that arise in the application of the unitary theory of Gerhardt and Laurent (descended from Dumas' substitution theory, see id3028) and advocates a return to the older electrochemical ideas of Berzelius. The basic ideas for his structural theory are in the form of a theory of valence and the concept of chemical bonding.
(The value of this work is not clear to me. How does this differ from Dalton, Berzelius, Dumas, Laurent, the valence theory?)
| (Scientific Congress) Speyer, Germany |
139 YBN
[10/26/1861 AD]
| 3997) Microphone, speaker, and telephone. Sound converted to electricity and back to sound again. Sound can be sent farther as electric current in a wire than mechanically in air and travels silently.
(Note that if remote neuron reading and writing is centuries old, then probably the telephone, microphone, speaker, recording and playing back of sound happened earlier but was kept secret from the public.)
Johann Philipp Reis (CE 1834-1874) explains the first microphone, speaker and telephone publicly. These devices convert variations in sound (air pressure) into variations in electric current, which can be carried over long distances using metal wire, and then convert the electric current back into sound. The electromagnet made possible the sending of electric current over long distances.
Before 1840, the attempts to transmit signals over large distances were not very successful.
The first microphone, or device that transfers variations in sound to variations in electric current is demonstrated on October 26, 1861 by Philip Reiss of Friedrichsdorf, Germany, although it seems very likely that the microphone was invented earlier but like seeing eyes and thought-images kept secret from the public for a long time.
Reis, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Friedrichsdorf, neat Frankfort, demonstrates his apparatus in a meeting room before members of the Physical Society. Reiss causing melodies to be sung in one part of his apparatus in the Civic Hospital, a building about 300 feet away with doors and windows closed, and the same sounds to be reproduced and heard in the meeting room through a second part of his apparatus.
Reiss models his first telephone transmitter (microphone) after the human ear (see image). Silvanus Thompson describes Reiss' ear this way: "The end of the aperture a was closed by a thin membrane b, in imitation of the human tympanum. Against the centre of the tympanum rested the lower end of a little curved lever c d, of platinum wire, which represented the " hammer " bone of the human ear. This curved lever was attached to the membrane by a minute drop of sealing-wax, so that it followed every motion of the same. It was pivoted near its centre by being soldered to a short cross-wire which served as an axis; this axis passing on either side through a hole in a bent strip of tin-plate screwed to the back of the wooden ear. The upper end of the curved lever rested in loose contact against the upper end g of a vertical spring, about one inch long, also of tin-plate, bearing at its summit a slender and resilient strip of platinum foil. An adjusting-screw, h, served to regulate the degree of contact between the vertical spring and the curved lever. The conducting-wires by which the current of electricity entered and left the apparatus were connected to the screws by which the two strips of tin-plate were fixed to the ear. In order to make sure that the current from the upper support of tin should reach the curved lever, another strip of platinum foil was soldered on the side of the former, and rested lightly against the end of the wire-axis, as shown in magnified detail in Fig. 6. If now any words or sounds of any kind were uttered in front of the ear the membrane was thereby set into vibrations, as in the human ear. The little curved lever took up these motions precisely as the " hammer "-bone of the human ear does; and, like the " hammer "-bone, transferred them to that with which it was in contact. The result was that the contact of the upper end of the lever was caused to vary. With every rarefaction of the air the membrane moved forward and the upper end of the little lever moved backward and pressed more firmly than before against the spring, making better contact and allowing a stronger current to flow. At every condensation of the air the membrane moved backwards and the upper end of the lever moved forward so as to press less strongly than before against the spring, thereby making a less complete contact than before, and by thus partially interrupting the passage of the current, caused the current to flow less freely. The sound waves which entered the ear would in this fashion throw the electric current, which flowed through the point of variable contact, into undulations in strength. It will be seen that this principle of causing the voice to control the strength of the electric current by causing it to operate upon a loose or imperfect contact, runs throughout the whole of Reis's telephonic transmitters. In later times such pieces of mechanism for varying the strength of an electric current have been termed current-regulators or sometimes "tension regulators" {ULSF note: this kind of device is also called a "pressure regulator" and "pressure relay").". Reis goes on to develop and improve a variety of different models of telephone.
Sylanus Thompson describes Reis' first receiver (or "speaker"): "The first form of apparatus used by Reis for receiving the currents from the transmitter, and for reproducing audibly that which had been spoken or sung, consisted of a steel knitting-needle, round which was wound a spiral coil of silk- covered copper-wire. This wire, as Reis explains in his lecture " On Telephony," was magnetised in varying degrees by the successive currents, and when thus rapidly magnetised and demagnetised, emitted tones depending upon the frequency, strength, etc., of the currents which flowed round it. It was soon found that the sounds it emitted required to be strengthened by the addition of a sounding-box, or resonant- case. This was in the first instance attained by placing the needle upon the sounding-board of a violin. At the first trial it was stuck loosely into one of the /-shaped holes of the violin (see Fig. 19) : subsequently the needle was fixed by its lower end to the bridge of the violin. These details were furnished by Herr Peter, of Friedrichsdorf, music-teacher in Garnier's Institute, to whom the violin belonged, and who gave Ileis, expressly for this purpose, a violin of less value than that used by himself in his profession. Reis, who was not himself a musician, and indeed had so little of a musical ear as haidly to know one piece of music from another, kept this violin for the purpose of a sounding-box. It has now passed into the possession of Garnier's Institute. It was in this form that the instrument was shown by Reis in October 1861 to the Physical Society of Frankfort.". Later a cigar box will substitute for the violin, and then an electro-magnet receiver. Reis writes " The apparatus named the 'Telephone,' constructed by me, affords the possibility of evoking sound- vibrations in every manner that may be desired. Electro-magnetism affords the possibility of calling into life at any given distance vibrations similar to the vibrations that have been produced, and in this way to give out again in one place the tones that have been produced in another place.". This electromagnet receiver or speaker is the basis of the telephones of the later receivers of Yates, Asa Gray, and Alexander Bell.
Reis builds his telephone in a workshop behind his house in Friedrichsdorf and runs a wire to a cabinet in Garnier's Institute. Reis names the instrument "telephon".
Reiss first publishes a description of his telephone delivered verbally on October 26 and in writing in December 1861, for the 1860-1861 Annual Report of the Physical Society of Frankfur-am-Main, in a paper entitled (translated to English from German) "On Telephony by the Galvanic Current". Reiss writes: "The surprising results in the domain of Telegraphy, have already suggested the question whether it may not also be possible to communicate the very tones of speech direct to a distance. Researches aiming in this direction have not, however, up to the present time, been able to show any tolerably satisfactory result, because the vibrations of the media through which sound is conducted, soon fall off so greatly in their intensity that they are no longer perceptible to our senses. A reproduction of tones at some distance by means of the galvanic current, has perhaps been contemplated; but at all events the practical solution of this problem has been most doubted by exactly the very persons who by their knowledge and resources should have been enabled to grasp the problem. To one who is only superficially acquanted with the doctrines of Physics, the problem, if indeed he becomes acquainted with it, appears to offer far fewer points of difficulty because he does not foresee most of them. Thus did I, some nine years ago (with a great penchant for what was new, but with only too imperfect knowledge in Physics), have the boldness to wish to solve the problem mentioned; but I was soon obliged to relinquish it, because the very first inquiry convinced me firmly of the impossibility of the solution. Later, after further studies and much experience, I perceived that my first investigation had been very crude and by no means conclusive: but I did not resume the question seriously then, because I did not feel myself sufficiently developed to overcome the obstacles of the path to be trodden. Youthful impressions are, however, strong and not easily effaced. i could not, in spite of every protest of my reason, banish from my thoughts that first inquiry and its occasion; and so it happened that, half without intending it, in many a leisure hour the youthful project was taken up again, the difficulties and the means of vanquishing them were weighed,- and yet not the first step towards an experiment taken. How could a single instrument reproduce, at once, the total actions of all the organs operated in human speech ? This was ever the cardinal question. At last I came by accident to put the question another way: How does our ear take cognizance of the total vibrations of all the simultaneously operant organs of speech? Or, to put it more generally: How do we perceive the vibrations of several bodies emitting sounds simultaneously? In order to answer this question, we will next see what must happen in order that we may perceive a single tone. Apart from our ear, every tone is nothing more than the condensation and rarefactino of a body repeated several times in a second (at least seven to eight times). If this occurs in the same medium (the air) as that with which we are surrounded, then the membrane of our ear will be compressed toward the drum-cavity by every condensation, so that in the succeeding rarefaction it moves back in the oposite direction. These vibrations occasion a lifting-up and falling-down of the "hammer" (malleus bone) upon the "anvil" (incus bone) with the same velocity, or, according to others, occasion an approach and a recession of the atoms of the auditory ossicles, and give rise, therefore, to exactly the same number of concussions in the fluid of the cochlaea, in which the auditory nerve and its terminals are spread out. The greater the condensation of the sound-conducting medium at any given moment, the greater will be the amplitude of vibration of the membrane and of the "hammer," and the more powerful, therefore, the blow on the "anvil" and the concussion of the nerves through the intermediary action of the fluid. The function of the organs of hearing, therefore, is to impart faithfully to the auditory nerve, every condensation and rarefaction occuring in the surrounding medium.The function of the auditory nerve is to bring to our consciousness the vibrations of matter resulting at the given time, both according to their number and their magnitude. Here, first certain combinations acquire a distinct name: here, first the vibrations become musical tones or discords. ...". Reiss goes on to write: "As soon, therefore, as it shall be possible at any place and in any prescribed manner, to set up vibrations whose curves are like those of any given tone or combination of tones, we shall receive the same impression as that tone or combination of tones would have produced upon us.
{Silvanus Thompson comments: This is the fundamental principle, not only of the telephone, but of the phonograph ; and it is wonderful with what clearness Reis had grasped his principle in 1861.}
Taking my stand on the preceding principles, I have succeeded in constructing an apparatus by means of which I am in a position to reproduce the tones of divers instruments, yes, and even to a certain degree the human voice. It is very simple, and can be clearly explained in the sequel, by aid of the figure: {ULSF: see image, figure 25} In a cube of wood, r s t u v w x, there is a conical hole, a, closed at one side by the membrane b (made of the lesser intestine of the pig), upon the middle of which a little strip of platinum is cemented as a conductor of the current {or electrode}. This is united with the binding-screw, p. From the binding-screw n there passes likewise a thin strip of metal over the middle of the membrane, and terminates here in a little platinum wire which stands at right angles to the length and breadth of the strip.
From the binding-screw, p, a conducting-wire leads through the battery to a distant station, ends there in a spiral of copper-wire, overspun with silk, which in turn passes into a return-wire that leads to the binding-screw, n.
The spiral at the distant station is about six inches long, consists of six layers of thin wire, and receives into its middle as a core a knitting-needle, which projects about two inches at each side. By the projecting ends of the wire the spiral rests upon two bridges of a sounding-box. (This whole piece may naturally be replaced by any apparatus by means of which one produces the well-known "galvanic tones.")
If now tones, or combinations of tones, are produced in the neighbourhood of the cube, so that waves of sufficient strength enter the opening a, they will set the membrane b in vibration. At the first condensation the hammer-shaped little wire d will be pushed back. At the succeeding rarefaction it cannot follow the return-vibration of the membrane, and the current going through the little strip {of platinum} remains interrupted so long as until the membrane, driven by a new condensation, presses the little strip (coming from p) against d once more. In this way each sound-wave effects an opening and a closing of the current.
But at every closing of the circuit the atoms of the iron needle lying in the distant spiral are pushed asunder from one another. (Muller-Pouillet, ' Lehrbuch der Physik,' see p. 304 of vol. ii. 5th ed.). At the interruption of the current the atoms again attempt to regain their position of equilibrium. If this happens then in consequence of the action and reaction of elasticity and traction, they make a certain number of vibrations, and yield the longitudinal tone of the needle. {Silvanus Thompson comments that at any single demagnetisation of the needle, it vibrates and emits the same tone as if it had been struck or mechanically caused to vibrate longitudinally} It happens thus when the interruptions and restorations of the current are effected relatively slowly. But if these actions follow one another more rapidly than the oscillations due to the elasticity of the iron core, then the atoms cannot travel their entire paths. The paths travelled over become shorter the more rapidly the interruptions occur, and in proportion to their frequency. The iron needle emits no longer its longitudinal tone, but a tone whose pitch corresponds to the number of interruptions (in a given time). But this is saying nothing less than that the needle reproduces the tone which was imparted to the interrupting apparatus.
Moreover, the strength of this tone is proportional to the original tone, for the stronger this is, the greater will be the movement of the drum-skin, the greater therefore the movement of the little hammer, the greater finally the length of time during which the circuit remains open, and consequently the greater, up to a certain limit, the movement of the atoms in the reproducing wire {the knitting needle}, which we perceive as a stronger vibration, just as we should have perceived the original wave.
Since the length of the conducting wire may be extended for this purpose, just as far as in direct telegraphy, I give to my instrument the name "Telephon."
As to the performance attained by the Telephone, let it be remarked, that, with its aid, I was in a position to make audible to the members of a numerous assembly (the Physical Society of Frankfort-on-the-Main) melodies which were sung (not very loudly) into the apparatus in another house (about three hundred feet distant) with closed doors. Other researches show that the sounding-rod {i.e. the knitting needle} is able to reproduce complete triad chords (" Dreiklange ") of a piano on which the telephone {i.e. the transmitter} stands; and that, finally, it reproduces equally well the tones of other instruments—harmonica, clarionet, horn, organ-pipes, &c., always provided that the tones belong to a certain range between F and f. {Silvanus Thompson comments that this range is simply due to the degree of tension of the tympanum ; another tympanum differently stretched, or of different proportions, would have a different range according to circumstances}
It is, of course, understood that in all researches it was sufficiently ascertained that the direct conduction of the sound did not come into play. This point may be controlled very simply by arranging at times a good shunt-circuit directly across the spiral {i.e. to cut the receiving instrument out of circuit by providing another path for the currents of electricity}, whereby naturally the operation of the latter momentarily ceases.
Until now it has not been possible to reproduce the tones of human speech with a distinctness to satisfy everybody. The consonants are for the most part tolerably distinctly reproduced, but the vowels not yet in an equal degree. Why this is so I will endeavour to explain. ..." Reiss then concludes: "... Whether my views with respect to the curves representing combinations of tones are correct, may perhaps be determined by aid of the new phonautograph described by Duhamel. (See Vierordt's ' Physiology,' p. 254.)
There may probably remain much more yet to be done for the utilisation of the telephone in practice (zur praktischen Verwerthung des Telephons). For physics, however, it has already sufficient interest in that it has opened out a new field of labour." Note that there is some confusion about whether Leon Scott was the first to record to a cylinder, or Duhamel' with the "Vibrograph". Wilhelm Weber recorded the sound vibrations of a tuning fork onto a sooted glass plate in 1830. There is a claim that Duhamel was the first to record sound to a sooted glass cylinder in 1840. It seems clear that Reiss may be referring to Duhamel to take pressure off of himself for talking about what might be technology classified as secret by the government military by referring to Duhamel - it seems clear from the words of Silvanus Thompson that Reiss was murdered by galvanization at the age of 40. Perhaps Reiss is hinting about the possibility of recording the sounds for permenant storage. (see for full translation in English) (The use of "suggested" in the first sentence and "opened out" in the last sentence indicate that Reiss clearly understood in 1860 about the secret of remote muscle movement suggested images and sounds and the massive aparteid of insiders and outsiders, or included and excluded. Was Reiss an insider or outsider? Most insiders are not complete insiders, and certainly must be excluded from seeing many important recordings.)
In 1862, Reis sends Professor Poggendorff a paper on the telephone for the Annalen Der Physiks and Poggendorff rejects the paper. before this in 1859, Reis sent a paper to Poggendorff entitled "On the Radiation of Electricity" which is now lost.
Edison admits in court that he started his investigation into the carbon telephone by having a translation of Legat's report on Reis' telephone. Alexander Graham Bell also refers to Reis in his "Researches in Electric Telephony" read before the American Academy of Sciences and Arts in May 1876, and the Society of Telegraph Engineers in November 1877, refering to the original paper in Dingler's 'Polytechnic Journal', and to Kuhn's volume in Karsten's 'Encyclopaedia' in which diagrams and descriptions of two forms of Reis's telephone are given. In addition, in his British patent, Bell only claims "improvements in electric telephony (transmitting or causing sounds for Telegraphing Messages) and Telephonic Apparatus.".
Reis only lives to 40 years which is a very short life, Silvanus Thompson writes that a portrait of Reis is "...modelled by the sculptor, A. C. Rumpf, and "executed galvanoplastically" by G. v. Kress." which implies that Reis was executed by galvanization. Possibly Reis was an excluded or outsider who duplicated technology already discovered by insiders, and rather than include or negotiate with Reis insiders just murdered Reis by galvanization which stopped Reis' possible capitalization on the telephone, microphone, and/or speaker. In this way, the insiders already in control of the distribution and sales of microphones, and speakers could maintain their monopoly or oligopoly which still exists to this day with the seeing of eyes and hearing of thoughts.
Some people credit Antonio Meucci, in New York City in 1854.
It seems unusual that Reiss did not also report on the idea of adding a feature to record sound using the telautograph, and then simply play back recorded sounds out loud with his receiver/speaker.
Still at the time there is no known method of storing electric current for a duration of time in wire, and the first permanent storage of electrical information does not occur at least until Edison's tin foil phonograph. The recording of the strength of an electronic current will be recorded on to plastic tape by recording the varying intensity of light in 1923 by Lee De Forest, and then magnetic tape and disk, and burned by laser into compact disks and DVDs.
| (built in workshop behind Reis's house and cabinet in Garnier's Institute, Friedrichsdorf, demonstrated before Physical Society) Frankfort, Germany |
139 YBN
[11/07/1861 AD]
| 3493) (Sir) Edward Frankland (CE 1825-1899), English chemist, proves that the spectrum of an element may change with change in temperature, showing that at high temperatures a blue line appears for lithium.
This is in a letter to Tyndall published in "Philosophical Magazine".
| (St. Bartholomew's Hospital) London, England |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 2651) The Western Union Telegraph Company completes the first transcontinental telegraph line, connecting San Francisco to the East Coast.
| USA |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3015) Thomas Graham (CE 1805-1869) Scottish physical chemist, invents the process of dialysis to separate different substances.
Initially, in 1860 Graham examined liquids and noticed that a colored solution of sugar placed at the bottom of a glass of water gradually extends its color upwards. Graham called this spontaneous process "diffusion". Graham also noticed that substances such as glue, gelatin, albumen, and starch diffuse very slowly. So Graham classifies substances into two types: colloids (from Greek kolla, glue), which diffuse only slowly, and crystalloids, which diffuse quickly.
(In 1863) Graham also finds that substances of the two types have very different rates in their ability to pass through a membrane, such as parchment, and Graham develops the method of dialysis to separate them.
Using a sheet of parchment to diffuse various substances, Graham finds that salt, sugar, and copper sulfate, materials that are easy to crystalize (and dissolve) diffuse quickly and Graham calls these crystalloids, but glue, gum arabic, and gelatin diffuse very slowly through the parchment, and Graham calls these colloids ("glue" is "kolla" in Greek). Graham shows that a colloidal substance can be purified and crystalloid contamination removed by putting the material inside a container made of a porous material and placing the container under pouring water. The crystalloids pass through (dissolve?) and are washed away while the colloids remain behind. Graham names this process "dialysis" and the passage through such a membrane Graham names "osmosis" (osmosis not named by Nollet or von Mohl?). Now people recognize that the difference between crystalloids and colloids is mainly determined by particle size. The diffusing crystalloids are made of small molecules, while colloids are made of large molecules, or large aggregates of small molecules. Graham is considered the founder of colloid chemistry, which is important in biochemistry because most important proteins and nucleic acids in living tissue are of colloidal size.
Graham invents many terms still used in modern colloid science, such as sol, gel, peptization, and syneresis.
Graham develops a "dialyzer" which he uses to separate colloids, which dialyze slowly, from crystalloids, which dialyze rapidly.
| (Mint) London, England |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3193) Rudolf Albert von Kölliker (KRLiKR) (CE 1817-1905), Swiss anatomist and physiologist, demonstrates that eggs and sperm are cells, showing that sperm are formed from the tubular walls of the testis, just as pollen grains are formed from cells of the anthers. (In this book?)
Kölliker publishes "Entwicklungsgeschichte des Menschen und der höheren Tiere" (1861; "Embryology of Man and Higher Animals"), an important book on embryology in which he is the first to interpret the developing embryo in terms of the cell theory. This becomes a classic text in embryology.
| (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3214) Ignaz Philipp Semmelweiss (ZeMeLVIS) (CE 1818-1865), Hungarian physician, publishes "Die Ätiologie, der Begriff und die Prophylaxis des Kindbettfiebers" ("Etiology, Understanding and Preventing of Childbed Fever"), his principle work, which includes his discovery (of the significant effect of hand cleaning with a solution of chlorinated lime).
Semmelweis sends his book to all the prominent obstetricians and medical societies abroad, however the general reaction is bad because the weight of authority stands against his new method. Semmelweis sends several open letters to professors of medicine in other countries, but has little effect. At a conference of German physicians and natural scientists, most of the speakers—including the pathologist Rudolf Virchow—reject Semmelweis' doctrine.
| (University of Pest) Pest, (Hungary since 1873 is:)Budapest |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3320) In 1852 Edward Frankland had created the valence theory, in which each kind of atom can combine with only a certain number of other atoms.
Johann Joseph Loschmidt (lOsmiT) (CE 1821-1895), Austrian chemist published a small book, "Chemische Studien" ("Chemical Studies", 1862), in which he lists 368 chemical formulas. Like most chemists of the time, Loschmidt is looking for a system to express chemical composition and structure accurately and graphically. In his system, atoms are represented by circles, with a large circle for carbon and a smaller circle for hydrogen. Loschmidt represents the benzene molecule by a single large ring (the carbon) with six smaller circles (hydrogen) around the rim, four years before Kekulé announces his own results. Few people appear to pay attention to Loschmidt's book at the time.
In this book Loschmidt is the first to represent double and triple bonds in molecular structures by two and three lines.
Loschmidt shows that when a molecule contains more than one alcohol group, each one is attached to a different carbon atom. (chronology)
Loschmidt recognizes that certain "aromatic compounds" (called this because of their pleasant odor), all have the benzene ring as part of their molecular structure. After this the term "aromatic" is applied to any molecule containing a benzene ring with no regard to its aroma (smell). (Perhaps they should be called "benzene compounds" or something similar to avoid confusion.)
(Is this the first description of multiple bonds between two atoms? What evidence is there that multiple bonds exist other than the requirement to fit the valence theory?)
| (Vienna RealSchul) Vienna, (now:) Germany |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3324) Loschmidt is the first to calculate the actual size of atoms and molecules, using the equations of Maxwell and Clausius, in their work on the kinetic theory of gases. Loschmidt's estimate of a diameter of less than a ten-millionth of a centimeter (1e-9 m 1nm) for the molecules in air is slightly too large, the current estimate being 0.5 x 10-7 cm (.5nm or 500um).
Thomas Young estimated the size of atoms in 1807 and had measured small objects with light interference in 1813.
| (Vienna RealSchul) Vienna, (now:) Germany |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3417) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, identifies that some microorganisms are anaerobic (do not need oxygen) and others are aerobic (need oxygen).
In November 1860, Pasteur returns to his studies on fermentations in general, and lactic fermentation in particular.
The light shed by his earlier experiments quickly allows Pasteur to discover a new ferment, that of butyric acid. Pasteur examines butyric fermentation, with the product butyric acid, which causes the bad smell in rancid butter.
Pasteur shows that the ferment of butyric acid is different, contrary to the general belief, from other ferments such as the lactic ferment, and that there exists a butyric fermentation having its own special ferment. This ferment consists of a species of vibrio. Little transparent cylindrical rods, rounded at their extremities, isolated, or united in chains of two, or three, or sometimes even more, form these vibrios. They move by gliding the body straight or bending and undulating. They reproduce themselves by fission and because of this mode of generation, their frequent arrangement in the form of a chain occurs.
Pasteur is interested in the coincidence between the then called "infusory animalculae" and the production of butyric acid.
In the course of systematically studying the products of lactic acid fermentation, Pasteur notices that the microorganisms associated with the formation of butyric acid behave differently from the infusoria familar to him from a other fermentations. Pasteur can see that the infusoria of the lactic acid ferment move to the edges of the coverslip in a drop of liquid, but the butyric acid infusoria appear to avoid the edges of the coverslip. Pasteur follows this observation with experiments which demonstrate that the butyric acid ferment can live in the absence of free oxygen, and that, in fact, oxygen kills the tiny microbes. Pasteur then (erroneously) concludes that "fermentation is life without air".
Pasteur publishes this in (translated from French) "Animal infusoria living in the absence of free oxygen, and the fermentations they bring about." ("Animalcules infusoires vivant sans gaz oxygene libre et determinant des fermentations.").
Pasteur writes in February 1861, that "the most constantly repeated tests" "have convinced me that the transformation of sugar mannite and lactic acid into butyric acid is due exclusively to those Infusories, and they must be considered as the real butyric ferment." Pasteur puts these vibriones in a medium and Pasteur states that these infusory animalculae "live and multiply indefinitely without requiring the least quantity of air. And not only do they live without air but air actually kills them. It is sufficient to send a current of atmospheric air, during an hour or two, through the liquor, where those vibriones, were multiplying to cause them all to perish, and thus to arrest butyric fermentation, whilst a current of pure carbonic acid gas passing through that same liquor hindered them in no way. Thence this double proposition" concludes Pasteur "the butyric ferment is an infusory, that infusory lives without free oxygen."
Pasteur designated this new class of organisms by the name of anaerobies that is to say beings which can live without air He reserves the designation aerobies for all the other microscopic beings which like the larger animals cannot live without free oxygen. (state when Pasteur first uses "anaerobies" and "aerobies")
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3486) Pierre Paul Broca (CE 1824-1880), French surgeon and anthropologist, demonstrates through postmortem examination that damage to a certain location on the cerebrum (the third convolution of the left frontal lobe) is associated with the loss of the ability to speak (aphasia). This left frontal region of the brain has since been called the convolution of Broca. This is the first anatomical proof of the localization of brain function, in other words, the first connection between a specific ability and a specific point of control (within the brain).
According to Asimov within 20 years much of the cerebrum will be mapped out and associated with portions of the body.
(Clearly at this time, people are starting to understand which parts of the brain control which nerve, muscle, gland, etc cells. Much of this research must be done secretly and results in the technology to remotely make neurons fire, which enables people to remotely send images, sounds, smells, touch sensations, and even move muscles of any organism with a brain remotely.)
| (University of Paris) Paris, France (presumably) |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3498) Henry Walter Bates (CE 1825-1892), English naturalist, gives a comprehensive explanation for the phenomenon he labels "mimicry", the imitation by a species of other life forms or inanimate objects, which supports the theory of evolution.
Bates publishes this in "Contributions to an Insect Fauna of the Amazon Valley, Lepidoptera: Heliconidae" (1861).
Bates noticed similarities between certain butterfly species, and attributes this to natural selection, since good-tasting butterflies that closely resemble bad-tasting species are left alone by predators and therefore tend to survive. This provides strong supportive evidence for the Darwin–Wallace evolutionary theory published three years earlier.
| London, England (presumably) |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3499) Max Johann Sigismund Schultze (sUTSu) (CE 1825-1874), German anatomist publishes a famous paper in which he emphasizes the role of protoplasm (also know as cytoplasm) in the workings of the cell. He establishes that the cells of all organisms are composed of protoplasm and contain a nucleus. Schultze argues that cells are "nucleated protoplasm" focusing on the protoplasm and not the cell wall as being the important part of the cell. Schultze illustrates this point by showing that some cells, for example those of the embryo, do not have bounding membranes.
Schultze also shows that protoplasm has nearly identical properties in all kinds of cells. (in this paper?)
Uniting F. Dujardin's conception of animal sarcode with H. von Mohl's of vegetable protoplasma, Schultze recognizes that they are the same, and includes them under the common name of protoplasm, defining the cell in 1863, as "a nucleated mass of protoplasm with or without a cell-wall" (Das ProtoTheorie der Zelle, 1863).
German botanist Ferdinand Cohn had shown in 1850 how the cytoplasm of plant and animal cells are basically identical.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3511) Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (RleNmIR) (CE 1825-1909), German chemist invents the conical flask that bears his name.
| Heidelberg, Germany (presumably) |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3541) Karl Gegenbaur (GAGeNBoUR) (CE 1826-1903), German anatomist confirms German zoologist Theodor Schwann’s hypothesis that all eggs and sperm are single cells. Gegenbaur extends the work of his teacher Kölliker, to show that not only are mammalian eggs and sperm single cells, but all eggs and sperm are single cells, even the giant eggs of birds and reptiles.
| (U of Jena) Jena, Germany |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3582) Friedrich August Kekule (von Stradonitz) (KAKUlA) (CE 1829-1896), German chemist, publishes the first volume of a textbook of organic chemistry (1861; "Lehrbuch der organischen Chemie") in which he (aware of the work done by Berthelot) is the first to define organic chemistry as merely the chemistry of carbon compounds, with no mention of the living or once-living organisms of Berzelius' original definition (of organic chemistry).
| (University of Ghent) Ghent, Belgium |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3636) Karl von Voit (CE 1831-1908), German physiologist, shows that proteins are broken down at the same rate whether muscles do work or do not.
Most chemists (including Liebig) had believed that various molecules contribute to specific purposes in the human body, for example, wrongly thinking that proteins are used for muscle (contraction).
Also in 1861, Voit with his former teacher Pettenkofer, begin the first combined feeding-respiration experiments.
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3645) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, projects the first color image projection.
In 1868, Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron will invent the first color photograph by simply superimposing 3 different color transparent images.
The Autochrome process, introduced in France in 1907 by Auguste and Louis Lumière, will be the first practical colour photography process. (The history of the first physical color photograph is not easy to find.)
Maxwell began his experiments on color mixing in 1849 in Forbes' laboratory. Maxwell proves that all colors can be matched by mixtures of three spectral stimuli, provided subtraction as well as addition of stimuli is allowed, revives Thomas Young's three-receptor theory of color vision, and performs experiments which tend to confirm the theory that color blindness is due to the ineffectiveness of one or more receptors.
Maxwell creates this color photograph by making separate negatives through red, green, and blue filters and projecting the images in register through similar filters. Although the experiment is flawed (the 'red' record is actually ultraviolet, his plates being insensitive to red), it leads to the development of genuine three-colour additive and subtractive colour photography.
Maxwell theorizes that that a colour photograph could be produced by photographing through filters of the three primary colours and then recombining the images, and demonstrates this in a lecture to the Royal Institution of Great Britain in 1861 by projecting through filters a colour photograph of a tartan ribbon that had been taken by this method.
The original process used by Clark Maxwell in his famous lecture at the Royal Institution in 1861 is an additive process (as opposed to subtractive process). Maxwell projects on a screen three lantern slides made from three negatives taken from a colored ribbon by means of three lanterns, in front of which were glass troughs, these containing, respectively, sulpho-cyanide of iron, which is red; chloride of copper, which is green and ammonio-copper sulphate, which is blue-violet in color. The lantern slide taken by red light is projected by red light, that from the negative taken by green light is projected by green light, and that taken by blue light is projected by blue light, the three pictures being super-posed on one another, so that a colored image was seen on the screen, of which the report says: "If the red and green images had been as fully photographed as the blue, it would have been a truly colored image of the ribbon." This imperfection of Maxwell's result was undoubtedly due to his lack of photographic material appreciably sensitive to any colors other than blue violet.
The projection of the resulting three slightly different sized images from three slightly different positions means that a perfect overlap is not possible.
| (King's College, exhibit at the Royal Institution) London, England |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3672) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist identifies, isolates and names the element thallium from its light emission spectrum.
Crookes uses spectroscopy on selenium-containing ores and identifies a new element which he names "Thallium", from Greek meaning "green twig", because Thallium produces a green line in its spectrum that fits no known element.
In 1873 Crookes will determine the atomic mass (weight) of thallium.
This discovery brings Crookes fame and election into the Royal Society (1863).
Thallium is simultaneously isolated on a larger, more obviously metallic scale by C. A. Lamy.
(Do molecules give a different spectrum than the atoms they are made of? If yes, how can anybody be sure they have an atom or molecule? Huggins had hypothesized that thick blurry lines represent the spectra of molecules, while thin distinct lines represent the emissions of atoms. Since molecules are combinations of atoms, ultimately the atom is emitting the photons. However, perhaps the combination of atoms causes interference or reflection causing different frequencies based on the original atom frequencies.)
Thallium is a metallic chemical element; symbol Tl; atomic number 81; atomic weight 204.383; melting point 303.5°C; boiling point about 1,457°C; relative density (specific gravity) 11.85 at 20°C; valence +1 or +3. Thallium is a soft, malleable, lustrous silver-gray metal with a hexagonal close-packed crystalline structure. A member of Group 13 of the periodic table, it resembles aluminum in its chemical properties. In its physical properties it resembles lead. Thallium forms univalent compounds similar to those of the alkali metals. It tarnishes (oxidizes, bonds with oxygen) rapidly in dry air, forming a heavy oxide coating; in moist air or water the hydroxide is formed. It dissolves in nitric or sulfuric acid.
Thallium is a soft, malleable, highly toxic metallic element, used in photocells, infrared detectors, low-melting glass, and formerly in rodent and ant poisons.
Thallium occurs in the Earth's crust to the extent of 0.00006%, mainly as a minor constituent in iron, copper, sulfide, and selenide ores. Minerals of thallium are considered rare. Thallium compounds are extremely toxic to humans and other forms of life.
(Cite original paper.) (Show image of visible spectrum.)
| (private lab) London, England (presumably) |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 3779) Ernest Solvay (SOLVA) (CE 1838-1922), Belgian chemist, finds a new method for making sodium bicarbonate at far less cost from salt water, ammonia and carbon dioxide.
An uncle of Solvay owns a gasworks (gas producing? with what sources? what kind of gases?), and Solvay works with methods for purifying gas. Solvay finds that water used to wash the gas picks up ammonium and carbon dioxide. Solvey tries to concentrate this ammonia into a possible by-product. Gentle heating boils off the ammonia, and this ammonia can then be dissolved in fresh water. For some reason, instead of water, Solvay decides to use salt solution (NaCl and H2O) and finds that the ammonia and carbon dioxide entering the solution form a precipitate that is sodium bicarbonate. Sodium bicarbonate is a useful product (why) that before this can only be produced from applying a large amount of heat to sodium chloride which is expensive because of the fuel consumed. By 1913 Solvay is producing nearly the entire earth's supply of sodium bicarbonate.
The process involves mixing salt-water (NaCl+H2O) with ammonium carbonate (NH4)2CO3, which produces sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) and ammonium chloride (NH4Cl). The sodium carbonate yields soda on being heated and the ammonium chloride, when mixed with carbon, regenerates the ammonium carbonate the process started from. Solvay's innovation is to introduce pressurized carbonating towers.
Sodium bicarbonate, is a white powdery compound, Na2CO3, used in the manufacture of baking soda, sodium nitrate, glass, ceramics, detergents, and soap.
Because seaweed ashes were an early source of sodium carbonate, sodium bicarbonate is often called soda ash or, simply, soda.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Solvay is unaware that the reaction itself has been known for 50 years at the time. In 1811 Augustin Fresnel had proposed an ammonia–soda process. However, although chemists succeeded in the laboratory, they failed in translating their results onto an industrial scale.
Solvay solves the practical problems of large-scale production by his invention of the Solvay carbonating tower, in which an ammonia-salt solution can be mixed with carbon dioxide. In 1861 he and his brother Alfred found their own company and in 1863 have a factory built. Production of sodium bicarbonate starts in 1865, and by 1890 Solvay has established companies in several foreign countries. Solvay's method is gradually adopted throughout much of Europe and elsewhere and by the late 1800s will have largely replaced the Leblanc process, which had been used for converting common salt into sodium carbonate since the 1820s.
This success brings Solvay considerable wealth, which he uses for various philanthropic purposes. In Brussels Solvay founds the Solvay institutes of physiology (1893) and sociology (1901) and makes large gifts to European universities. The Solvay conferences on physics are recognized for their role in the development of theories on quantum mechanics and atomic structure.
| (Solvay factory) Charleroi, Belgium |
139 YBN
[1861 AD]
| 4547)
| unknown |
138 YBN
[01/31/1862 AD]
| 3685) First observation of Sirius B.
Alvan Graham Clark (CE 1832-1897), US astronomer, observes a tiny spot of white light near Sirius, which proves to be a companion star to Sirius. Clark makes this observation while testing an 18 1/2-inch objective lens. This star is Sirius B, the famous companion predicted by Friedrich Bessel in 1844.
Sirius A has a large proper motion, which shows recurrent undulations having a 50-year period. From this Bessel surmised the existence of a satellite or companion, for which C. A. F. Peters and A. Auwers computed the elements. T. H. Safford determined its position for September 1861; and on the 31st of January 1862, Alvan G. Clark telescopically observes it as a barely visible, dull yellow star of the 9th to 10th magnitude.
Sirius B is thought be a white dwarf star, a theory that will be developed by S. Chandrasekhar. (I have doubts about the white dwarf theory, all the evidence needs to be made available and debated.)
Professor G. Bond ,Director of the Observatory of Harvard College, writes the article in the American Journal of Science. Bond writes: "On the Companion of Sirius The companion of Sirius, discovered by Mr. Clark on the 31st of January, with his new achromatic objectglass of eighteen and one-half inches aperture, I have succeeded in observing with our refractor as follows:
Angle of position, 85° 15' ± 1°.1
Distance, 10" 37 ± 0".2
The low altitude of Sirius in this latitude, even when on the meridian, makes it very difficult to catch sight of the companion, on account of atmospheric disturbances; when the images are tranquil, however, it is readily seen. It must be regarded as the best possible evidence of the superior quality of the great object-glass, that it has served to discover this minute star so close to the overpowering brilliancy of Sirius. A defect in the material or workmanship would be very sure to cause a dispersion of light which would be fatal to its visibility.
It remains to be seen whether this will prove to be the hitherto invisible body disturbing the motions of Sirius, the existence of which has long been surmised from the investigations of Bessel and Peters upon the irregularities of its proper motion in right ascension.
A discussion of the declinations of Sirius, establishing a complete confirmation of the results of Bessel and Peters, has been recently completed and published by Mr. Safford. The following passage is extracted from the last Annual Report of the President of Harvard College. Alluding to the operations at the Observatory, the Report gives, as the conclusion of this discussion, "an interesting confirmation of Bessel's hypothesis that the star revolves around an invisible companion in its near vicinity;—the period of revolution is about fifty years."
It will require one, or at the most, two years to prove the physical connection of the two stars as a binary system. For the present we know only that the direction of the companion from the primary accords perfectly with theory. Its faintness would lead us to attribute to it a much smaller mass than would suffice to account for the motions of Sirius, unless we suppose it to be an opaque body or only feebly self-luminous.". (Notice that the prevailing view is that the companion of Sirius is a star, but there is still the public possibility of Sirius being an "opaque body", which must relate to the companion being a planet. It seems unusual to refer to Sirius as an "opaque body" instead of simply saying "a planet", which implies the possibility of a bizarre religious taboo in the idea of a photo of a planet of a different star, similar to a photo of a thought-image. Or possibly Bond views the companion as a dead star.)
(is there any original image or drawing)
(It may be a mistake in viewing Sirius B as a star instead of a planet. Later in )
| Cambridgeport, Massachusetts, USA |
138 YBN
[01/??/1862 AD]
| 3654) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879) theorizes that there is an additional "displacement" current in addition to ordinary conduction current that results from moving charge in non-conductors under an electric potential and associates light with electricity.
Maxwell introduces a "displacement current" in addition to conduction current, explaining that the movement (polarization or displacement) of electric charge in a non-conductor (dielectric) between two conductors with an electric potential, is a current, and therefore produces the same magnetic effect as a flowing current. Maxwell calls this movement of electric charge in a non-conductor under an electric potential a "displacement current". Maxwell then corrects the equation of electric currents for the effect die to the elasticity of the medium, since a variation of displacement is equivalent to a current.
James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, publishes Part 3 of "On Physical Lines of Force", in which he associates light with electricity. This paper deals with static electricity. In this paper, Maxwell mistakenly concludes that light is a transverse undulation in an aether. Michelson and Morley will provide evidence that no aether can be detected against the motion of the Earth relative to the Sun. Although perhaps the idea of light as an electromagnetic wave or of light emanating from electromagnetism can be presumed from Maxwell's writings, however, Maxwell only explicitly claims that light is a transverse undulation of an aether medium, the aether being the source of electricity and magnetism. In a later paper, Maxwell will state explicitly his view that light is an electromagnetic wave.
In Maxwell's famous claim that "light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena", he is saying that, as opposed to two different ether's, one for light and one for electromagnetism, both light and electromagnetism have the same ether medium.
There are 4 related major contributions to science, and I want to figure out who clearly stated each first, because I think Maxwell is sometime implicitly and wrongly, at least in my view, credited with some: 1) light is emited from all matter. 2) light is emited from electricity. 3) light is what conveys electrical induction - that is how an electric current from one conductor causes an electric current in a second conductor which is not directly connected to the first conductor. 4) The frequency of electric current oscillation determines and can be used to vary the frequency of the light emited. from the electric current.
Maxwell begins Part III by writing: "The Theory of Molecular Vortices applied to Statical Electricity. IN the first part of this paper {fn: Phil. Mag. March 1861} I have shown how the forces acting between magnets, electric currents, and matter capable of magnetic induction may be accounted for on the hypothesis of the magnetic field being occupied with innumerable vortices of revolving matter, their axes coinciding with the direction of the magnetic force at every point of the field. The centrifugal force of these vortices produces pressures distributed in such a way that the final effect is a force identical in direction and magnitude with that which we observe. In the second part {fn: Phil. Mag. April and May 1861} I described the mechanism by which these rotations may be made to coexist, and to be distributed according to the known laws of magnetic lines of force. I conceived the rotating matter to be the substance of certain cells, divided from each other by cell-walls composed of particles which are very small compared with the cells, and that it is by the motions of these particles, and their tangential action on the substance in the cells, that the rotation is communicated from one cell to another. I have not attempted to explain this tangential action, but it is necessary to suppose, in order to account for the transmission of rotation from the exterior to the interior parts of each cell, that the substance in the cells possesses elasticity of figure, similar in kind, though different in degree, to that observed in solid bodies. The undulatory theory of light requires us to admit this kind of elasticity in the luminiferous medium, in order to account for transverse vibrations. We need not then be surprised if the magneto-electric medium possesses the same property. According to our theory, the particles which form the partitions between the cells constitute the matter of electricity. The motion of these particles constitutes an electric current; the tangential force with which the particles are pressed by the matter of the cells is electromotive force, and the pressure ol the particles on each other corresponds to the tension or potential of the electricity. If we can now explain the condition of a body with respect to the surrounding medium when it is said to be "charged" with electricity, and account for the forces acting between electrified bodies, we shall have established a connexion between all the principal phenomena of electrical science. We know by experiment that electric tension is the same thing, whether observed in statical or in current electricity; so that an electromotive force produced by magnetism may be made to charge a Leyden jar, as is done by the coil machine. When a difference of tension exists in different parts of any body, the electricity passes, or tends to pass, from places of greater to places of smaller tension. If the body is a conductor, an actual passage of electricity takes place; and if the difference of tensions is kept up, the current continues to flow with a velocity proportional inversely to the resistance, or directly to the conductivity of the body. The electric resistance has a very wide range of values, that of the metals being the smallest, and that of glass being so great that a charge of electricity has been preserved {fn: By Professor W. Thomson} in a glass vessel for years without penetrating the thickness of the glass. Bodies which do not permit a current of electricity to flow through them are called insulators. But though electricity does not flow through them, the electrical effects are propagated through them, and the amount of these effects differs according to the nature of the body; so that equally good insulators may act differently as dielectrics {fn: Faraday, Experimental Researches, Series XI.}. {ULSF: a dielectric is defined simply as an insulator, however I think this may refer to the use of insulators in capacitors which store electric charge.} Here then we have two independent qualities of bodies, one by which they allow of the passage of electricity through them, and the other by which they allow of electrical action being transmitted through them without any electricity being allowed to pass. {ULSF - "electrical action" probably refers to "voltage" in the modern sense}. A conducting body may be compared to a porous membrane which opposes more or less resistance to the passage of a fluid, while a dielectric is like an elastic membrane which may be impervious to the fluid, but transmits the pressure of the fluid on one side to that on the other. As long as electromotive force acts on a conductor, it produces a current which, as it meets with resistance, occasions a continual transformation of electrical energy into heat, which is incapable of being restored again as electrical energy by any reversion of the process. Electromotive force acting on a dielectric produces a state of polarization of its parts similar in distribution to the polarity of the particles of iron under the influence of a magnet {fn: See Prof. Mossotti, "Discussione Analiticam," Memorie della Soc. Italiana (Modena), Vol. XXIV.}, and, like the magnetic polarization, capable of being described as a state in which every particle has its poles in opposite conditions. In a dielectric under induction, we may conceive that the electricity in each molecule is so displaced that one side is rendered positively, and the other negatively electrical, but that the electricity remains entirely connected with the molecule, and does not pass from one molecule to another. The effect of this action on the whole dielectric mass is to produce a general displacement of the electricity in a certain direction. This displacement does not amount to a current, because when it has attained a certain value it remains constant, but it is the commencement of a current, and its variations constitute currents in the positive or negative direction, according as the displacement is increasing or diminishing. The amount of the displacement depends on the nature of the body, and on the electromotive force; so that if h is the displacement, R the electromotive force, and E a coefficient depending on the nature of the dielectric, R=-4πE2h; and if r is the value of the electric current due to displacement, dh r=-- dt
These relations are independent of any theory about the internal mechanism of dielectrics; but when we find electromotive force producing electric displacement in a dielectric, and when we find the dielectric recovering from its state of electric displacement with an equal electromotive force, we cannot help regarding the phenomena as those of an elastic body, yielding to a pressure, and recovering its form when the pressure is removed. According to our hypothesis, the magnetic medium is divided into cells, separated by partitions formed of a stratum of particles which play the part of electricity. When the electric particles are urged in any direction, they will, by their tangential action on the elastic substance of the cells, distort each cell, and call into play an equal and opposite force arising from the elasticity of the cells. When the force is removed, the cells will recover their form, and the electricity will return to its former position. In the following investigation I have considered the relation between the displacement and the force producing it, on the supposition that the cells are spherical. The actual form of the cells probably does not differ from that of a sphere sufficiently to make much difference in the numerical result. I have deduced from this result the relation between the statical and dynamical measures of electricity, and have shewn, by a comparison of the electro-magnetic experiments of MM. Kohlrausch and Weber with the velocity of light as found by M. Fizeau, that the elasticity of the magnetic medium in air is the same as that of the luminiferous medium, if these two coexistent, coextensive, and equally elastic media are not rather one medium. {ULSF: Here clearly, Maxwell is found in the school of thought that views light as a wave with a luminiferous aether as a medium. Although Maxwell left open the possibility that the medium of electricity and magnetism is material in Part 2. Then this relation of air and aether being one medium is hard to imagine - since we know certainly that air does not extend outside of the thin gas atmosphere of earth - where the aether was supposed to extend throughout the entire universe. The Michelson-Morley experiment, unable to detect a change in velocity of light relative to the motion of the Earth around the Sun, will cast serious doubts on the wave theory for light, and therefore should cast doubts on the accuracy of Maxwell's claims. Here Maxwell comments on the "elasticity" of the supposed medium for magnetism being the same as the supposed medium for light - perhaps with the knowledge of Wheatstone's finding that the speed of electricity is the same as that of light. Elasticity is defined as: the property of a substance that enables it to change its length, volume, or shape in direct response to a force effecting such a change and to recover its original form upon the removal of the force.} It appears also from Prop. XV. that the attraction between two electrified bodies depends on the value of E2, and that therefore it would be less in turpentine than in air, if the quantity of electricity in each body remains the same. If however the potentials of the two bodies were given, the attraction between them would vary inversely as E2, and would be greater in turpentine than in air.".
Maxwell goes on to examine the math of an elastic sphere whose surface is exposed to normal and tangential forces. Then a section on the relation between electromotive force and electric displacement when a uniform electromotive force acts parallel to the z axis.
In this section Maxwell reaches the equation:
R=-4πE2h (105)
where R is the electromotive force acting parallel to the z axis, this apparently simplifies the math, since the electromotive force aligns with a single axis as opposed to being spread over two or three. E is not explicitly stated, but is presumed to be the potential energy of a body. Here, since energy is a product of mass and velocity, it is not as accurate as using the actual mass and velocity terms in my view. h is the electric displacement per unit of volume - that is the distance that a single volume unit of the medium moves. Maxwell differentiates this equation in the next section.
This next section is a section correcting earlier equations of electric currents for the effect due to the elasticity of the medium.
Maxwell writes: "We have seem that electromotive force and electric displacement are connected by equation (105). Differentiating this equation with respect to t, we find
dR/dt = -4πE2dh/dt
shewing that when the electromotive force caries, the electric displacement also varies. But a variation of displacement is equivalent to a current, and this current must be taken into account in equations (9) and added to r. The three equations then become
1 dγ dβ 1 dP p =--- (--- - --- - --- ---) 4π dy dz E2 dt
1 dα dγ 1 dQ q =--- (--- - --- - --- ---) (112) 4π dy dx E2 dt
1 dβ dα 1 dR r =--- (--- - --- - --- ---) 4π dx dy E2 dt
where p, q, r are the electric currents in the directions of x, y, and z; α, β, γ are the components of magnetic intensity; and P, Q, R are the electromotive forces. {ULSF: Notice that in the above equations, Maxwell connects variables for electric current, magnetic intensity and electromotive force into a single equation. Magnetic intensity could possibly be labeled "intensity of particles in an electric field" although does this represent density, velocity, rate or some combination of those quantities? There is a difference between a so-called electromagnetic field and a static electricity field. I view a so-called electromagnetic field as simply an electric field - the difference being possibly just the speed of the flow of electric current - a static electric field moving much slower than a so-called electromagnetic electric field. Or possibly, a static electric field is different in having particles that are not in motion, where particles in an electromagnetic field are in motion. Maxwell continues:} Now if e be the quantity of free electricity in unit of volume, then the equation of continuity will be dp dq dr de --- + --- + --- + --- = 0 (113) dx dy dz dt
{ULSF This is presumably true since the quantity of electricity supposedly equals the displacement of current.}
Differentiating (112) with respect to x, y, and z respectively, and substituting {ULSF into 113}, we find de 1 d dP dQ dR --- = --- ---(--- + --- + ---) (114) dt 4πE2 dt dx dy dz
whence
1 dP dQ dR e = --- (--- + --- + ---) (115) 4πE2 dx dy dz
the constant being omitted, because e=0 when there are no electromotive forces.
{ULSF It appears that Maxwell takes 113, and isolates de/dt on one side. Then differentiates 112 which results in -1/4πE2 = d/dt(dP/dx), etc. In differentiating, any constants are reduced to 0 - although it is not clear to me why 1/E2, dP, dQ and dR are retained. Then in the integration, constants remain the same - any with respect to the integrated variable gain that variable in accordance with the integration rule - for example if integrating with respect to t xt integrates to 1/2xt2, etc.}
Next, is a section to find the force acting between two electrified bodies. In this section, Maxwell gives the equations that result in Coulomb's inverse distance equation: -η1η2 F=------ r2
Where η1 and η2 are defined as quantity of electricity measured statically. Maxwell derives this from the initial view of two electrified bodies, using an equation which describes a distribution of electricity and electric tension, as opposed to using a single point in the center of the body as Coulomb had. Instead, Maxwell creates an equation in which the energy in the medium arising from electric displacements is set equal to the sum of the forces times the displacements. Maxwell starts with this equation:
U=-Σ1/2(Pf + Qg + Rh)δV
where P,Q,R are the forces, and f, g, h the displacements. V is not explicitly stated but appears to represent a unit of volume?
(am still trying to identify who was the first to formally state Coulomb's law in the famous F=kq1q2/r^2 form.)
(This argument of equivalence with Coulomb's law is more accurately argued using variables for mass and velocity, as opposed to energy, in my opinion. In particular a computer 3D simulation through time in which forces are defined as gravity and inertia modeling electric particles as spheres with collisions that includes model atoms would be more accurate and easier to visualize and accept as true. A theory that can reduce the phenomena of electricity to an all mass phenomenon, with the forces of gravitation and inertia- including collision physics between masses, if not inertia only, would seem more simple and likely in my opinion.)
Maxwell writes: " That electric current which, circulating round a ring whose area is unity, produces the same effect on a distant magnet as a magnet would produce whose strength is unity and length unity placed perpendicularly to the plane of the ring, is a unit current; and E units of electricity, measured statically, traverse the section of this current in one second,- these units being such that any two of them, placed at unit of distance, repel each other with unit of force. We may suppose either that E units of positive electricity move in the positive direction through the wire, or that E units of negative electricity move in the negative direction, or, thirdly, that 1/2E units of positive electricity move in the positive direction, while 1/2E units of negative electricity move in the negative direction at the same time. The last is the supposition on which MM. Weber and Kohlrausch {fn: Abhandlungen der König. Sächsischen Gesellschaft, Vol. III., (1857), p. 260.} proceed, who have found
1/2E=155,370,000,000 {ULSF units are = units of electricity crossing 1mm/s similar to particles crossing 1mm/s}
the unit of length being the millimetre, and that of time being one second, whence
E=310,740,000,000".
(Here, it is interesting that Maxwell allows a two fluid theory for electricity. In fact, the single fluid theory, due to Franklin consists of two particles, but the difference is that the non-electric particles are thought to be stationary in the movement of the electric particle. My own feeling is that two particles moving in opposite directions seems more likely, because in a spark of static electricity, it seems unlikely that both particles would be present on both sides - but perhaps the view of a surplus of electric particles on one side and a deficit on the other, and the movement of that surplus through the unmoving deficit particles is true. In a static electricity spark, since the cloud apparently disappears after the spark, I think it is almost as if two different puzzle piece objects which cannot bond with objects identical to themselves, but can form a physical bond with objects of a second kind, contact, bond with each other, and the combined gravitation pulls them and other particles to the electrodes. In Weber and Kohlrausch's view, which Maxwell makes use of, this speed of light measurement, represents the quantity of electricity that moves over 1 mm in 1 second, and is viewed as half going one way and half going the other way. This view of only 1/2 the quantity of negative electricity moving over 1mm in 1 second is interesting, because the issue of particle spacing comes into effect. Any velocity is possible, presuming the distance between particles is variable. So I think the presumption of this measurement is that E is actually the velocity of electricity, which simply measures velocity without quantity - an electric current presumed to be a large quantity of particles. But viewing 1/2 as the velocity of the half of the particles moving one direction is wrong, because this velocity would be E - the negative direction would be E too, but in the opposite direction - since presumably like Wheatstone, Weber and Kohlrausch measure the speed of an electric current to be E.} {ULSF In this topic, there is the allusion that electric current is composed of light - but that is not explicitly stated. This conclusion that because the speed of electricity and light are similar that perhaps electricity is light must have been an obvious conclusion, but yet who states it publicly first? Fizeau? Since the speed of light came only after the speed of electricity by Wheatstone.)
Next is a section entitled "To find the rate of propagation of transverse vibrations through the elastic medium of which the cells are composed, on the supposition that its elasticity is due entirely to forces acting between pairs of particles.". It is in this section that Maxwell makes his famous conclusion that light is a transverse undulation of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena. This section in its entirety is: " By the ordinary method of investigation we know that V = √m/ρ
where m is the coefficient of transverse elasticity, and ρ is the density. By referring to the equations of part I., it will be seen that if ρ is the density of the matter of the vortices, and μ is the "coefficient of magnetic induction," μ=πρ whence πm=V2μ and by (108) {ULSF: E2=πm} E=V√μ In air or vacuum μ=1, and therefore V=E =310,740,000,000 millimetres per second =193,088 miles per second
The velocity of light in air, as determined by M. Fizeau {fn: Comptes Rendus, Vol. xxix (1849), p. 90. In Galbraith and Haughton's Manual of Astronomy M. Fizeau's result is stated at 169,944 geographical miles of 1000 fathoms, which gives 193,118 statute miles; the value deduced from aberration is 192,000 miles.} is 70,843 leagues per second (25 leagues to a degree) which gives V=314,858,000,000 millimetres =195,647 miles per second (137) The velocity of transverse undulations in our hypothetical medium, calculated from the electro-magnetic experiments of MM. Kohlrausch and Weber, agrees so exactly with the velocity of light calculated from the optical experiments of M. Fizeau, that we can scarcely avoid the inference that light consists in the transverse undulations of the same medium which is the cause of electric and magnetic phenomena.".
(The interpretation is not explicitly clear: First presumably V stands for "velocity of transverse vibrations through an elastic medium", since Maxwell does not explicitly state this. Then Maxwell uses this simple equation: The velocity of transverse vibrations equals the square root of "m", the coefficient of transverse elasticity of the medium, divided by rho, the density of the medium. Maxwell then substitutes in order to put this velocity V, in terms of the coefficient of magnetic induction of a material, and of E, the quantity of electricity that passes 1mm in 1 second. So Maxwell claims that the velocity of transverse vibrations through an elastic medium changes depending on how well the medium transmits magnetic induction. In some way perhaps the view is that electricity and magnetism are light, but slowed because of being in a denser medium, that being a conductor such as a metal. However, in a less dense medium such as air, the particles are the same, however, they travel faster because of the difference in medium. Maxwell never explicitly states that electricity is light, and in his next series of papers on electromagnetism, Maxwell states his view that light is an electromagnetic wave as opposed to electromagnetism being a product of light - that is particles of electricity are particles of light that cover less ground in more absorbing medium than in a less light absorbing medium. However one problem with this theory is that, there are many black colored insulators that conduct electricity poorly. So how well an object absorbs photons, I think, does not relate to how good of an electrical conductor it is.) (I think one important point is that Maxwell starts by presuming that there are transverse vibrations in an elastic medium. A particle equivalent could be simply presuming V is equal to the velocity of particles in some medium. Then the "coefficient of transverse elasticity" can be substituted with conductivity - that is how well the medium allows the particles to move. Then rho, the density of the medium can stay the same. Ultimately Maxwell reduces the equations to V=E/√μ. So in a particle interpretation, the velocity of particles in electricity equals the velocity of electric particles as measured in some medium, divided by the coefficient of magnetic induction for that medium - that is, how well the medium transfers electric particles. This is only saying that the velocity of electric particles depends only on how well a medium transfers electric particles. In this way, air and empty space having the highest coefficient of magnetic induction {1}, the speed of electricity is fastest there. But this is simply saying that the speed of electricity depends on the conductivity of the object. Has this ever been tested? EXPER: What is the velocity of electric particles through different mediums, including conductors and nonconductors. EXPER: What are the various coefficients of electric induction for various mediums including conductors and nonconductors? )
(One opinion is that light-as-a-wave supporters, for example Fresnel and Maxwell, start from the presumption that light is a transverse wave in an aether medium, and then try to assemble mathematical equations to support their belief. There is nothing wrong with this method of science in my view. The important part is to verify that the mathematical equations represent the physical truth. Another natural method of science is to presume some theory to be true and then search for proof of other phenomena that would result if such a theory were true.)
Maxwell's final proposition of the paper is "To find the electric capacity of a Leyden jar composed of any given dielectric placed between two conducting surfaces.". Maxwell explains mathematically how the inductive power of a dielectric between two conductors, such as a Leyden jar, or capacitor, varies directly as the square of the index of refraction, and inversely as the magnetic inductive power. Has anybody ever done a systematic examination to see if a relationship exists between density and index of refraction? If this relation exists, this is like saying that how well an insulator transmits electricity relates to the square of its density divided by how well it transmits magnetic induction. This raises a key apparent mistake that Maxwell makes: he presumes that constants for electric induction and magnetic induction are different. This implies that one force, electricity or magnetism is stronger than the other - that they are not the same force. This error probably originates from the equating of a static electricity field to an electromagnetic field by measuring their attractive and repulsive strengths. The mistake probably occurs in thinking that some quantity of work or energy that goes into both a static electric object and an electromagnetic object are equal, because objects may differ in their ability to transfer movement into electric charge - what they are probably measuring is - for a given amount of velocity- what objects can produce the most electricity? There are many variables - in particular the physical structure of objects - which affects how well, for example, photons may be absorbed. Perhaps Joule did these experiments. Clearly Maxwell did some of these experiments too. Basically how are the "coefficient of magnetic induction" and
This implies that a so-called magnetic field is Maxwell clearly shows his belief in the transverse theory for light, including the theory that polarization is the result of part of this transverse wave being blocked, when he writes "...It seems probable, however, that the value of E, for any given axis depends upon the velocity of light whose vibrations are parallel to that axis or whose plane of polarization is perpendicular to that axis.". Maxwell explains how a spherical crystal will rotate suspended in a field of electric force.
(Another interesting idea is that a higher voltage, or electric potential equals a higher density or frequency of electric particles. The speed remains constant through all voltages, what changes with voltage is the density which is equivalent to the rate of electric particles. Voltage is intertwined with resistance and current, so the higher the resistance the less particles that can pass, resulting in a lower current, the lower the resistance the more current that can flow. Voltage is apparently the quantity of particles moving over a time period. This is why more battery cells create higher voltage, because each battery cell creates a new stream from source to destination, in other words a thicker stream of particles. Given two circuits of the same resistance, but different voltage is equal to two circuits of the same resistance with different currents. Either way, more voltage or more current, when resistance stays the same, is simply a higher density of particles per second. But yet, why is this not explained? In some part because the material has been frowned upon, material views of light and electricity are unwelcome among mainstream science in my view. It's almost as if, the material explanation is too simple and science must be complex, or an inherited distaste for simple material explanations from religious beliefs in many immaterial theories held by the majority of people on Earth.)
(Perhaps a person might say that Maxwell provides a mathematical proof, although incorrect, that electricity and light are the same thing. However, Maxwell later claims that light is produced by electromagnetism - not that they are the same.)
(On the view that electricity is light, but in a different medium, I think there may be a problem in this view, in that, in electricity there is a chemical chain reaction, as opposed to light in air or empty space which appears to move simply from inertia. In electricity, there is a chemical reaction which results in a driving force, although perhaps it is the result of matter filling empty spaces - or diffusion. Electricity seems to be a two particle phenomenon, and a collective phenomenon of many particles working together. In electricity, two particles appear to bond together, where this does not appear to happen to photons in empty space - although perhaps it has not been observed. The particles of electricity may be light particles. So I think it comes down to - if electricity is simply photons moving by inertia, that is, by diffusion, and gravitation, like light particles in space, the analogy is correct.)
(I think the idea of electricity as light particles in a denser medium and therefore slower is possible.)
(In a historical perspective, in 1801 Thomas Young raised popularity for the wave theory of light with an aetherial medium, by correctly recognizing that color is determined by frequency. Michael Faraday preferred the wave theory for light. Following Faraday, Maxwell adopted a preference for the wave theory with aether medium. What I think history will reveal is that this change to a wave theory with aether medium was an error, and with the exception of an explanation for color, we need to go back all the way to the corpuscularists of the 1700s to pick up the more accurate branch on the tree of science. This will be done in part by Michelson and Morley in the early 1900s. Planck will continue this revival of the corpuscular theory with the quantum theory in the 1900s. However, the general theory of relativity will adopt the space dilation theory George Fitzgerald used to save the aether, and although without supporting an aether, general relativity will view light as a massless particle, as a form of energy. So, I think we need to find more evidence in favor of the corpuscular theory and against the theory of time dilation. One of the big arguments against the corpuscular theory was that Newton had predicted that light would speed up in a medium with a larger index of refraction such as that of water to air, while the wave theory camp predicted that light would slow down. Foucault found that light moves slower in water than in air and this was viewed as proof against the corpuscular theory. However, a corpuscular theory can easily still account for this slow down as due to a higher rate of particle collision delaying the passage of light particles. This argument has simply not been made to my knowledge.)
(One mistake a number of English speaking people that tell the story of science make, is to state that Maxwell found the speed of light by dividing the electrostatic constant and the electromagnetic constant. Kohlrausch and Weber were the first to use the constant "c" and measure this quantity. For Kohlrausch and Weber, the value of c, is based on the theory that electrical force is less the higher the velocity between two charged particles. In this view, c is the velocity necessary so that there is no force between two charged particles. One of the confusions is that much of Weber's writings were not fully translated until only recently. Maxwell, himself cites the experiment of Kohlrausch and Weber in part 3 of his "On Physical Lines of Force".)
According to Andre Assis, at this time those who work in ether models have one ether to transmit light, the luminiferous ether, another to transmit electric and magnetic effects, the electromagnetic ether, and another ether to transmit gravitational force. With this model Maxwell claims to unify the luminiferous and electromagnetic ethers into one and the same ether.
Historian Edmund Taylor Whittaker writes in 1910: "It was inevitable that a theory so novel and so capacious as that of Maxwell should involve conceptions which his contemporaries understood with difficulty and accepted with reluctance. Of these the most difficult and unacceptable was the principle that the total current is always a circuital vector; or, as it is generally expressed, that 'all currents are closed.' According to the older electricians, a current which is employed in charging a condenser is not closed, but terminates at the coatings of the condenser, where charges are accumulating. Maxwell, on the other hand, taught that the dielectric between the coatings is the seat of a process - the displacement-current- which is proportional to the rate of increase of the electric force in the dielectric; and that this process produces the same magnetic effects as a true current, and forms, so to speak, a continuation, through the dielectric, of the charging current, so that the latter may be as in a closed circuit.".
Whittaker also writes that the theory of displacement-currents, on which everything else depends, is not favourably received by the most distinguished of Maxwell's contemporaries. Helmholtz ultimately will accept it, but only after many years. William Thomson (Kelvin) seems never to thoroughly believe it to the end of his long life. (Kind of unusual to mention 'long life' here - perhaps as contrast to Maxwell's short life) In 1888 Thomson refers to the displacement-current hypothesis as a "curious and ingenious, but not wholly tenable hypothesis". (Notice "tenable" perhaps to say that secret inside science - perhaps that of seeing eyes, etc has shown us that the theory is false.)
(In terms of the displacement current and associated extension of particles or field, it seems logical that this current must only exist in the non-conductor portion and does not travel past the borders of the non-conductor. So this quantity, for example Total current=Conduction current + Displacement current must only exist in a capacitor, unless conductors experience the same phenomenon. It would seem that the current in the conductor would not have this term added.)
| (King's College) London, England |
138 YBN
[02/??/1862 AD]
| 3655) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, publishes Part 4 of "On Physical Lines of Force", in which he applies the theory of molecular vortices on the action of magnetism on polarized light.
Maxwell writes "...It appears from all these instances that the connexion between magnetism and electricity has the same mathematical form as that between certain pairs of phenomena, of which one has a linear and the other a rotatory character. Professor Challis {fn: Phil. Mag. December, 1860, January and February, 1861.} conceives magnetism to consist in currents of a fluid whose direction corresponds with that of the lines of magnetic force; and electric currents, on this theory, are accompanied by, if not dependent, on a rotatory motion of the fluid about the axes of the current. {ULSF: Note that mathematically explaining the rotational motion of, for example, water down a drain, or electric particles in electric current moving in a spiral, is perhaps difficult, since this involves many particle collisions.} Professor Helmholtz {fn: Crelle, Journal, Vol. LV. (1858), p. 25} has investigated the motion of an incompressible fluid, and has conceived lines drawn so as to correspond at every point with the instantaneous axis of rotation of the fluid there. He has pointed out that the lines of fluid motion are arranged according to the same laws with respect to the lines of rotation, as those by which the lines of magnetic force are arranged with respect to electric currents. On the other hand, in this paper I have regarded magnetism as a phenomenon of rotation, and electric currents as consisting of the actual translation of particles, thus assuming the inverse of the relation between the two sets of Phenomena. Now it seems natural to suppose that all the direct effects of any cause which is itself of a longitudinal character, must be themselves longitudinal, and that the direct effects of a rotatory cause must be themselves rotatory. A motion of translation along an axis cannot produce a rotation about that axis unless it meets with some special mechanism, like that of a screw, which connects a motion in a give n direction along the axis with a rotation in a given direction round it; and a motion of rotation, though it may produce tension along the axis, cannot of itself produce a current in one direction along the axis rather than the other. Electric currents are known to produce effects of transference in the direction of the current. They transfer the electrical state from one body to another, and they transfer the elements of electrolytes in opposite directions, but they do not {fn: Faraday, Experimental Researches, 951-954, and 2216-2220.} cause the plane of polarization of light to rotate when the light traverses the axis of the current. {ULSF: verify: Here I think a mistake Maxwell makes is to view electricity and magnetism as two different phenomena, when this view seems unintuitive. Does Faraday use electromagnets to produce rotation of light particles? If yes, this is an moving electric field as opposed to a static electric field in my view. A permanent magnet, in this view, contains an electric current.} On the other hand, the magnetic state is not characterized by any strictly longitudinal phenomenon. The north and south poles differ only in their names, and these names might be exchanged without altering the statement of any magnetic phenomenon; whereas the positive and negative poles of a battery are completely distinguished by the different elements of water which are evolved there. {ULSF This I disagree with. I think magnetic poles are identical or analogous to electrodes, that is, the points of chemical reaction, in an electric battery. Negative particles flow from the North Pole and enter the South Pole just like electrodes.} The magnetic state, however, is characterized by a well-marked rotatory phenomenon discovered by Faraday {fn: Faraday, Experimental Researches, Series XIX.} - the rotation of the plane of polarized light when transmitted along the lines of magnetic force. {ULSF Again, Maxwell is comparing a static electric field to the field produced by an electromagnet and permanent magnet which has moving electric current.} {ULSF verify Faraday's experiments and explain} When a transparent diamagnetic substance has a ray of plane-polarized light passed through it, and if lines of magnetic force are then produced in the substance by the action of a magnet or of an electric current, the plane of polarization of the transmitted light is found to be changed, and to be turned through an angle depending on the intensity of the magnetizing force within the substance. The direction of this rotation in diamagnetic substances is the same as that in which positive electricity must circulate round the substance in order to produce the actual magnetizing force within it; or if we suppose the horizontal part of terrestrial magnetism to be the magnetizing force acting on the substance, the plane of polarization would be turned in the direction of the earth's true rotation, that is, from west upwards to east. In paramagnetic substances, M. Verdet {fn: Comptes Rendus, Vol. XLIII. p. 529; Vol. XLIV. p. 1209.} has found that the plane of polarization is turned in the opposite direction, that is, in the direction in which negative electricity would flow if the magnetization were effected by a helix surrounding the substance. In both cases the absolute direction of the rotation is the same, whether the light passes from north to south or from south to north,- a fact which distinguishes this phenomenon from the rotation produced by quartz, turpentine, &c., in which the absolute direction of rotation is reversed when that of the light is reversed. The rotation in the latter case, whether related to an axis, as in quartz, or not so related, as in fluids, indicates a relation between the direction of the ray and the direction of rotation, which is similar in its formal expression to that between the longitudinal and rotatory motions of a right-handed or a left-handed screw; and it indicates some property of the substance the mathematical form of which exhibits right-handed or left-handed relations, such as are known to appear in the external forms of crystals having these properties. {ULSF I think this rotation may involve reflection off atomic or molecular planes, whose position changes because of particle collision by particles in an electric field - similar to how a gate changes angles when pushed by moving water.} In the magnetic rotation no such relation appears, but the direction of rotation is directly connected with that of the magnetic lines, in a way which seems to indicate that magnetism is really a phenomenon of rotation. The transference of electrolytes in fixed directions by the electric current, and the rotation of polarized light in fixed directions by magnetic force, are the facts the consideration of which has induced me to regard magnetism as a phenomenon of rotation, and electric currents as phenomena of translation, instead of following out the analogy pointed out by Helmholtz, or adopting the theory propounded by Professor Challis. {ULSF This implies to me, that Helmholtz's and Challis' theories might be more accurate - in viewing magnetism as identical to electricity, and electricity as the moving water model as opposed to being two different phenomena- one linear and the other rotational.} The theory that electric currents are linear, and magnetic forces rotatory phenomena, agrees so far with that of Ampere and Weber; and the hypothesis that the magnetic rotations exist wherever magnetic force extends, that the centrifugal force of these rotations accounts for magnetic attractions, and that the inertia of the vortices accounts for induced currents, is supported by the opinion of Professor W. Thomson {fn: See Nichol's Cyclopaedia, art. "Magnetism, Dynamical Relations of," edition 1860; {Proceedings of Royal Society, June 1856 and June 1861; and Phil. Mag. 1857.} In fact the whole theory of molecular vortices developed in this paper has been suggested to me by observing the direction in which those investigators who study the action of media are looking for the explanation of electro-magnetic phenomena.". Maxwell then goes on to explore his theory of magnetic rotation in more detail.
All four parts totaled, contain 165 numbered equations.
(Even if Maxwell's theories are inaccurate, it helps and inspires others to explore his logic, and create alternative equations, explanations and models.)
(It's interesting that Maxwell states his interest in a "mechanical" explanation for electricity as opposed to action-at-a-distance, which I think many people can agree with, but then, misses I think, in going for an aether medium, and light as a wave phenomenon. I guess in some sense the mechanical view could be explained if the aether was made of particles. I support a mechanical explanation for electricity, but to me, that involves particles and particle collision, without any medium such as aether.)
| (King's College) London, England |
138 YBN
[02/??/1862 AD]
| 3743) Alexander Mitschelich reports that the spectra of metallic compounds are different than the spectra of the metals themselves.
Mitscherlich writes (translated from German) writes: "It follows from these experiments that metallic compounds do not always give a spectrum, and that in the case of those that do, the spectra are not always the same; and, further, that the spectra are different when they are due to a metal or its combinations. We have also the right to conclude that each binary compound which gives a spectrum gives one peculiar to itself, excepting always of course when the combination is destroyed by the flame. up to the present time we are acquainted with little beyond the spectra of the metals themselves, by reason of the facility with wihch the flame reduces their combinations. Up to the present time also it has been admitted that metals always give the same spectra with whatever they are combined. {Lockyer, notes that this is a reference to Kirchhoff's and Bunsen's paper translated in Philosophical Magazine in 1860, vol xx, pp91-93} As in the above experiments this was not found to be the case, it became necessary to determine whether the ordinary spectra are due to the metals or their oxides, since according to my experiments all compounds which contain the metal in the form of oxide give the same spectra.". As a result of his experiments on sodium, Mitscherlich states that in the flames which give the line of socium the spectrum is due to the metals and not to the oxide. hence he concludes that in the case of oxides the spectrum is the spectrum of the metals. {Lockyer, notes that Mitscherlich corrects this mistake in his next communication of 1864.} He then state that the new lines which had then lately been discovered without corresponding elemental lines were probably due to binary compounds.
| (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
138 YBN
[07/19/1862 AD]
| 3242) James Prescott Joule (JoWL or JUL) (CE 1818-1889) and William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) (CE 1824-1907) measure the temperature difference on the two sides of a porous plug in which gas was forced through. Joule and Thomson find that in the case of hydrogen the temperature after passing through the plug was slightly higher than on the high pressure side while air, nitrogen, oxygen, and carbon dioxide show a drop of temperature.
Joule and Thomson publish the results of these experiments in "On the Thermal Effects of Fluids in Motion".
In 1848, Joule writes "It had long been known that air, when forcibly compressed, evolves heat, and that on the contrary, when air is dilated, heat is absorbed.". (state the first published account of this heating and/or cooling effect)
This work results in this effect of compressed gas increasing temperature and expanded gas decreasing pressure being called the "Joule-Thomson effect", although as Joule states, this effect has been known for a long time before this. William Cullen (CE 1710-1790), Scottish physician, was the first to recognize that an expanded gas lowers temperature in 1755, and John Dalton was the first to measure the temperature difference from gas expansion. This effect is the basis of refrigeration. The earliest recorded description of this cooling effect I am aware of is from William Richman in 1747.
The "Joule–Thomson effect" or "Joule–Kelvin effect" describes the increase or decrease in the temperature of a real gas when it is allowed to expand freely at constant enthalpy (which means that no heat is transferred to or from the gas, and no external work is extracted).
At ordinary temperatures and pressures, all real gases except hydrogen and helium cool upon such expansion, This phenomenon is often used in liquefying gases.
Much of this work was inspired by trying to understand the theory behind the steam engine.
The caloric theory of heat put forward by Lavoisier had viewed heat as being material, while the heat as movement view (or dynamical theory of heat) supported by Joule, Thomson and others views heat as being non-material. Joule credits Davy as making the first experiment that proves the immateriality of heat.
Thompson is one of the first to strenuously support Joule's (theories on heat as motion).
| Salford, England (presumably- verify) |
138 YBN
[09/22/1862 AD]
| 3287) Jean Bernard Léon Foucault (FUKo) (CE 1819-1868), using a rotating mirror, determines the velocity of light to be 298,000 kilometres (about 185,000 miles) a second.
Foucault publishes his results as "Dètermination Expérimentale de la Vitesse de la Lumière" ("Experimental Determination of the Speed of Light").
Foucault writes in a different paper a few months later on 11/24/1862 (translated from Google and babelfish): "Calling V speed of light, N the number of revolutions of the mirror, L the length of the broken line ranging between the revolving mirror and the last concave mirror, R the distance from the test card with the revolving mirror, and D the deviation one finds by the discussion of the apparatus. V=8pi*n*l*r/d
is the expression which gives speed of light by means of quantities for which it is necessary to measure the quantities separately. The distances l and r are measured directly with the rule or by a ribbon paper that one reports then on the unit of length. The deviation d is observed micrometrically, but it remains to be shown how one measures the number of n turnturns of the mirror a second."
| Paris, France (presumably) |
138 YBN
[11/04/1862 AD]
| 3219) Richard Jordan Gatling (CE 1818-1903), US inventor, invents the first machine gun. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Gatling turns his attention to developing fire-arms. In 1861 Gatling conceives the idea of the rapid fire machine-gun which is associated with his name.
After early experiments with a single barrel using paper cartridges (which require a separate percussion cap), Gatling sees that the newly invented brass cartridge (which has its own percussion cap) can be used for a rapid-fire weapon.
The Gatling gun can fire 200 bullets per minute (around 3 bullets a second). The gun consists of ten breach-loading rifle barrels (bullet loaded in rear), cranked by hand, that rotate around a central axis. A lock cylinder contains six strikers which revolves with six gun barrels, powered by the hand crank. The gun uses separate .58 caliber paper cartridges and percussion caps, which results in gas leakage. Ordnance experts advise Gatling to adapt his gun to handle the recently developed self-contained metallic cartridge which Gatling does in all subsequent models. Each individual rifle barrel is loaded by gravity feed and fired while the entire assembly (rotates). Cartridges are automatically ejected as the other barrels fire. The barrels are loaded by gravity and the camming action of the cartridge container, located directly above the gun. Each barrel is loaded and fired during a half-rotation around the central shaft, and the spent cases are ejected during the second half-rotation. A cam is a disk or cylinder having an irregular form such that its motion, usually rotary, gives to a part or parts in contact with it a specific rocking or reciprocating motion.
The gun is operated by two people: one who feeds the ammunition that enters from the top, and the other who turns the crank that rotates the barrels.
Later improvements raise the firing rate and extend the range to 1 1/2 miles. The US Union army chief of ordnance is not interested in Gatling's gun, so the gun was little used during the US Civil War. A few are purchased by commanders, sometimes with private funds. Union naval officer David D. Porter used some, and three Gatlings guard the New York Times building during the draft riots in 1863. In 1864 General Benjamin Butler uses 12. Not until 1866 does the Army Ordnance Department order 100 Gatling guns. Gatling founds the Gatling Gun Company in Indianapolis, Indiana in 1862 and the company will merge with Colt in 1897.
The gun is not used officially during the war, partly because of Gatling's affiliation with the "Copperheads", a group of antiwar Democrats who opposes Lincoln's policies and are suspected of treason. Also, Gatling offers to sell the gun to anyone, including the Confederacy and foreigners. Many Gatlings are sold to England, Austria, Russia and to South American nations. Until about 1900 Gatling guns are used in small wars. The U.S. Army uses Gatling guns against the Native Americans.
"Gat" is slang for gun.
This gun is the forerunner of the automatic handgun. The machine gun will be the fastest and most dangerous weapon until the laser.
In 1879 the British use Gatling guns against the Zulus, and in one encounter a single gun mows down 473 tribesmen in a few minutes. And in 1882, when British troops invade Egypt after the massacre of foreigners at Alexandria, 370 men armed with a few Gatling guns capture and hold the city.
In 1718 James Puckle in London had patented a machine gun that was actually produced; a model of it is in the Tower of London. Its chief feature, a revolving cylinder that feeds rounds into the gun's chamber, is a basic step toward the automatic weapon. The clumsy and undependable flintlock ignition is what stops this guns success. The introduction of the percussion cap in the 1800s leads to the invention of numerous machine guns in the United States.
The Gatling gun and all other hand-operated machine guns are made obsolete by the development of recoil- and gas-operated guns that follow the invention of smokeless gunpowder. Most modern machine guns use the gas generated by the explosion of the cartridge to drive the mechanism that introduces the new round in the chamber (or barrel). The machine gun therefore requires no outside source of power, instead using the energy released by the burning propellant in a cartridge to feed, load, lock, and fire each round and to extract and eject the empty cartridge case.
(Clearly the light particle from remote controlled microscopic devices is the most effective weapon known on earth, in terms of quantity and speed of destruction.)
| Indianapolis, Indiana (presumably) |
138 YBN
[12/04/1862 AD]
| 3175) Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (CE 1816-1892), American astronomer, publishes an early classification of stellar spectra.
Professor Donati at Florence, had published the earliest classification of stellar spectra in the "Annali del Museo Fiorentino" in August 1860.
Rutherfurd's classification fundamentally agrees with the one later published by Angelo Secchi of Italy.
(see image) Rutherfurd publishes this (his second scientific paper) in the American Journal of Science (January 1863, vol 35, p72). Initially Rutherfurd has trouble because the slit greatly reduces the light from the star, however after reading Fraunhofer's memoir, Rutherfurd uses a cylindrical lens between the prism and the objective (lens) of the telescope, and moves the slit to the focus point so no light is lost. In this paper Rutherfurd gives the results of the spectrum of the Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Mars, and also for seventeen fixed stars and accounts of six others. Rutherfurd concludes "The star spectra present such varieties that it is difficult to point out any mode of classification. For the present I divide them into three groups: First, those having many lines and bands and most nearly resembling the sun, viz., Capella, B Geminorus, a Orionis, Aldebaran, G Leonis, Arcturus, and B Pegasi. These are all reddish or golden stars. The second group, or which Sirius is the type, presents spectra wholly unlike that of the sun, and are white stars. The third group, comprising a Virginis, Rigel, etc., are also white stars, but show no lines; perhaps they contain no mineral substances or are incandescent without flame. It is not my intention to hazard any conjectures based upon the foregoing observations- this is more properly the province of the chemist- and a great accumulation of accurate data should be obtained before making the daring attempt to proclaim any of the constituent elements (of) the stars. One thought I cannot forbear suggesting: We have long known that 'one star differeth from another star in glory;' we have now the strogest evidence that they also differ in constituent materials- some of them perhaps having no elements to be found in some other. What, then, becomes of that homogeneity of original diffuse matter which is almost a logical necessity of the nebular hypothesis? Taking advantage of past experience, I propose to remodel and improve my spectroscope and continue to observe the stars, noting particularly the relations which may exist between the spectra revelations and the color, magnitude, variability, and duplicity of the objects." (Notice in the image how the planets emit photons with frequencies that do not exist in the light of the Sun. I think this is evidence that photons are absorbed and re-emitted by most objects, as opposed to bounced off in reflection. Judging from the differences between the spectrum of light reflected off the Moon and planets and that emitted from the Sun, it would seem from my novice view, that determining if light is reflected or emitted would be difficult just looking at the spectra, in particular for distant objects such as Sirius B. Perhaps spectra should only be seen as emission lines. Clearly light reflected from a mirror would have the identical spectrum as the source. I think this issue of: are frequencies preserved needs to be clearly shown on video with numerous examples of source lights and different kinds of reflecting objects, for all frequencies of light. In addition Doppler shift, and gravitational shift change the frequency of light.)
| New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 2861) Friedrich Wöhler (VOElR) (CE 1800-1882), German chemist, discovers calcium carbide and finds that calcium carbide reacts readily with water to make the inflammable gas acetylene.
This reaction is described with the equation: CaC2 + 2 H2O → C2H2 + Ca(OH)2 This reaction is the basis of the industrial manufacture of acetylene, and is the major industrial use of calcium carbide.
(It's interesting how a flammable gas can be produced by water and a simple solid like calcium carbide. The Calcium moves from the double carbon to an OH and the double carbon combines with two hydrogen atoms. Perhaps other similar materials react in the same way, such as manganese carbide or strontium carbide. They key is creating a similar reaction with water, which is a common product, to convert to the combustible H2, or H2C2, in particular H2 would be useful. For this something needs to bond with the Oxygen while not bonding with the H2 of water. Perhaps other molecules, like calcium silicate can produce the same effect.)
The carbides are any of a class of chemical compounds in which carbon is combined with a metallic or semimetallic element.
Calcium carbide is a grayish-black crystalline compound, CaC2, obtained by heating pulverized limestone or quicklime with carbon, and used to generate acetylene gas, as a dehydrating agent, and in the manufacture of graphite and hydrogen.
Acetylene (also called Ethyne), is the simplest and best-known member of the hydrocarbon series containing one or more pairs of carbon atoms linked by triple bonds, called the acetylenic series, or alkynes. Acetylene is a colorless, inflammable gas widely used as a fuel in oxyacetylene welding and cutting of metals and as raw material in the synthesis of many organic chemicals and plastics.
The combustion of acetylene produces a large amount of heat, and, in a properly designed torch, the oxyacetylene flame attains the highest flame temperature (about 6,000° F, or 3,300° C) of any known mixture of combustible gases.
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 2884) Julius Plücker (PlYUKR) (CE 1801-1868), German mathematician and physicist points out that the same element may exhibit different spectra at different temperatures.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3146) Anders Jonas Angström (oNGSTruM) (CE 1814-1874), Swedish physicist, announces the existence of hydrogen, among other elements, in the sun's atmosphere.
Angström publishes this in "Recherches sur le spectre solaire" (1868; "Researches on the Solar Spectrum").
Also in this work, Angström publishes a map of the spectrum of light emitted from the Sun, locating the wavelength of about 1000 lines.
Angström measures wavelengths in units equal to a ten billionth of a meter (10-10m.), where Kirchhoff (and Fraunhofer) use an arbitrary measure, (not the meter {which unit?}). This unit will be called the Angström in 1905.
Angström's measurements are inexact to around 1 in 7000 parts because the meter he uses is slightly too short.
Thomas Young had measured the frequency of light in 1801.
(How does Angström equate measurements with wavelength/interval? He must measure the relative distances of the spectrum spread out over a large surface and then use the color-to-frequency mapping of Thomas Young and others. Perhaps Angström just measures in 10e-10m units from left to right, with some left-most point being 0.)(In terms of using the Angström for measurement, I think the micrometer, millimeter, etc is probably the better standard.)
Apparently, relating spectral line to wavelength, causes the violent end to be more compressed, and the red end more expanded than the spectrum actually appears with a typical prism or grating. Perhaps this is because refraction and diffraction must not be linear in terms of wavelength, the shorter violet wavelength more refracted than the middle wavelengths, while the longer red wavelength is less refracted than the middle wavelengths.
Notice how some lines of calcium and manganese have the same wavelength as those of iron. (see image)
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3165) Guillaume Benjamin Amand Duchenne (GEYOM BoNZomiN omoN DYUsEN) (CE 1806–75) publishes "Mécanisme de la physionomie humaine" (1862). This book is a comprehensive and influential study of the muscles of the face, and their relationship with the expression of emotion (Darwin uses his copy as a source for his "Expression of the Emotions in Man and the Animals", 1872). Duchenne produces photographs of his experimental methods for activating individual muscles by using small electric shocks on patients, images which are directly linked to a scientific text.
Duchenne makes these images by using a voltaic pile battery and induction coil to create a high voltage (perhaps 10,000 volts?), two electrodes are then applied to the wet skin, which can stimulate the muscles without affecting the skin.
(TODO: Find the earliest book that shows all human muscles contracted electronically, if such a book exists.)
| Paris, France |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3187) Jean Charles Galissard de Marignac (morEnYoK) (CE 1817-1894), Swiss chemist, prepares silicotungstic acid, one of the first examples of a complex inorganic acid.
Silicotungstic acid has the molecular formula: H4{W12SiO40} (verify)
| (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3206) Franciscus Cornelis Donders (DoNDRZ or DxNDRZ) (CE 1818-1889) Dutch physiologist, discovers that the blurred vision of astigmatism is caused by uneven and unusual surfaces of the cornea and lens, which diffuse light beams (in different directions) instead of focusing them. This initiates the analysis of the refraction of light in the eye.
Astigmatism is the result of an inability of the cornea to properly focus an image onto the retina. The result is a blurred image. The cornea is the outermost part of the eye, and is a transparent layer that covers the colored part of the eye (the iris), pupil (the black circular hole or opening in the center of the iris of the eye, through which light passes to the retina), and lens. The cornea bends light and helps to focus it onto the retina where specialized cells (photo receptors) detect light and transmit nerve impulses via the optic nerve to the brain where the image is formed.
(This field is closely related to the interest shared by Michael Pupin's and others in trying to see what the eye sees from behind the head in other frequencies of light.)
| (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3306) Béguyer de Chancourtois proposes a pattern of twenty-four elements on a cylindrical table with periodicity of properties.
Alexandre-Émile Beguyer de Chancourtois (BuGEA Du soNKORTWo) (CE 1820-1886), French geologist, arranges the elements in order of atomic weights. He plots them around a cylinder, finding that similar elements fall in vertical lines. He publishes a paper, but uses geological terms and the journal fails to reproduce his drawing of the elements wound around the cylinder (or "telluric helix" as he calls it). This is fundamentally the first periodic table (perhaps Mendeléev made other changes). John Newlands in England also will order the elements by order of atomic weight, but Mendeléev usually is credited with creating the first periodic table, although a strong case can be made for Beguyer de Chancourtois (and then Newlands).
| (École Nationale Supérieure des Mines de Paris) Paris, France |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3375) Samuel Brown had built the first known gas vacuum engine powered car in 1826 in London.
In 1862 Lenoir builds the first automobile with an (direct-acting) internal-combustion engine. Lenoir adapts his engine to run on liquid fuel and with his vehicle makes a 6-mile (10-kilometre) trip that requires two to three hours (This is 2 to 3 miles per hour). Lenoir's other inventions include an electric brake for trains (1855), a motorboat using his engine (1886), and a method of tanning leather with ozone.
Lenoir (lunWoR) (CE 1822-1900) connects his gas engine to a conveyance (conveyor) and this is the first "horseless carriage" to be powered by an internal (or gas) (direct-acting) combustion engine. Lenoir also builds a boat powered by his engine. Lenoir sells some 300 of these engines in five years. The Lenoir engine is very inefficient and wastes fuel. Otto will improve the internal combustion engine and this will lead to the development of a practical automobile.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3517) Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (HOPuZIlR) (CE 1825-1895), German biochemist, prepares hemoglobin in crystalline form.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3521) Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (HOPuZIlR) (CE 1825-1895), German biochemist, describes the spectrum of oxyhemoglobin. (Is this the first spectrum of a biological molecule examined?)
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3556) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, synthesizes acetylene (1862).
Berthellot obtains ethylene and acetylene by heating marsh gas to redness. His direct synthesis of acetylene from carbon and hydrogen in 1862 and the formation of alcohol by hydrolysing ethyl sulphuric acid obtained by absorbing ethylene in sulphuric acid taken in conjunction with his synthesis of hydrocyanic acid in 1868 point the way to the formation from the elements of innumerable complicated compounds of carbon.
| (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3574) (Sir) Joseph Wilson Swan (CE 1828-1914), English physician and chemist patents the first commercially practicable process for carbon printing in photography. This depends on the fact that when gelatin is exposed to light in the presence of bichromate salts the gelatin is rendered insoluble and non-absorbent of water. Swan takes a surface of gelatin, dusts it with lampblack, sensitizes it with bichromate of ammonium, and exposes it to light below a photographic negative; the result is to make the gelatin from the surface downwards insoluble to a depth depending on the intensity, and therefore penetration, of the light which reached it through the negative. In this operation the surface of the gelatin is also rendered insoluble, and so it is necessary to get at the back of the gelatin in order to be able to wash away the portions that still remain soluble; this is done by cementing the insoluble surface to a fresh sheet of paper by means of indiarubber solution, and then detaching the original support. The soluble portions can then be reached with water to obtain a representation of the picture, though with reversed right and left, in relief on the pigmented gelatin.
| Newcastle, England (presumably) |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3664) Charles Friedel (FrEDeL) (CE 1832-1899), French chemist, prepares a secondary propyl alcohol. This verifies Hermann Kolbe's prediction of its existence.
| Ecole des Mines, Paris, France (presumably) |
138 YBN
[1862 AD]
| 3686) Wilhelm Max Wundt (VUNT) (CE 1832-1920), German psychologist, initiates the first university course in scientific psychology.
(Can this be viewed as the birth of modern psychology as a part of science? I think psychology needs to be defined, and I would say that it perhaps fits best with behavioral science. Another aspect to psychology, I think is its experimental nature - in particular the use of drugs and other methods to try and cure a perceived problem of the brain. In addition, part of psychology, is perhaps taking the place of what might be categorized as a health science which provides basic consensual social services such as a free room, food, clothes, shower and soap to those who cannot or refuse to work and have no money to care for themselves. The central issue of concern to me is that there must always be consent, and no clear objection in any physical health science treatment performed on living humans, such as surgery, restraint and/or forced drugging. In addition, this event is noteworthy because of the unusual popularity that comes to surround psychology, the large portion of which is clearly pseudoscience and used to justify torture and violent crimes against nonviolent people and around existing law and court systems - the Nazi's use of psychology being a well known example. Another important aspect of psychology, is the stigma that grew - it may be that this stigma of labeling people with psychiatric disorders largely fills the space left from the stopping of punishments for blasphemy, witchcraft and other religious-based "crimes". I think historical there was a rising in popularity of labeling other people, and a much larger concern over the popularity, regularity and accuracy of a person's beliefs that perhaps did not exist to such a large extent when oppression for religious reasons was more popular.)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
137 YBN
[02/07/1863 AD]
| 3760) John Alexander Reina Newlands (CE 1837-1898), English chemist, announces his "law of octaves", which notes a pattern in the atomic structure of elements with similar chemical properties which contributes to the development of the periodic law.
Newlands arranges the elements in order of atomic weights (unaware that Beguyer de Chancourtois had done the same thing 2 years before). Finding that chemical properties seem to repeat themselves in each group of seven elements, Newlands announces this as the law of octaves, referring to the musical scale.
Newlands announces this at a meeting of chemists and is laughed at. George Carey Foster suggests that Newlands might get better results if he lists the elements in alphabetical order, although Foster is a capable scientist, Foster is only remembered for this remark.
Newlands' paper is rejected for publication by the Chemical Society, and the matter is forgotten until 5 years later when Mendeléev publishes his periodic table.
Newlands' does publish a paper in "The Chemical News" in 1864 and another in 1865.
In his "On the Discovery of the Periodic Law", Newlands writes: "To sum up: I claim to have been the first to publish a list of the elements in the order of their atomic weight, and also the first to describe the periodic law, showing the existence of a simple relation between them when so arranged. I have applied this periodic law to the following among other subjects:- 1. Prediction of the atomic weight of missing elements, such as the missing element of the carbon group = 73, since termed eka-silicium by M. Mendelejeff. 2. Predicting the atomic weight of an element whose atomic weight was then unknown, viz., that of indium. 3. Selection of Cannizzarro's atomic weights, instead of those of Gerhardt, or the old system, which do not show a periodic law (Chemical News, vol. xiii. p. 113) 4. Predicting that the revision of atomic weights, or the discovery of new elements, would not upset the harmony of the law- since illustrated by the case of vanadium. 5. Explaining the existence of numerical relations between the atomic weights (Chemical News, vol. xiii. p. 130). 6. Where two atomic weights were assigned to the same element selecting that most in accordance with the periodic law: for instance, taking the atomic weight of beryllium as 9.4 instead of 14. 7. Grouping certain elements so as to conform to the periodic law instead of adopting the ordinary groups. Thus, mercury was placed with the magnesium group, thallium with the aluminium group, and lead with the carbon group (Chemical News, vol. xiii. p. 113). Tellurium, on the other hand, I have always placed above iodine, from a conviction that its atomic weight may ultimately prove to be less than that of iodine. 8. Relation of the periodic law to physical properties- showing that similar terms from different groups, such as oxygen and nitrogen, or sulphur and phosphorus, frequently bear more physical resemblance to each other than they do to the remaining members of the same chemical group (Chemical News, vol. x. p. 60).".
| (Royal Agricultural Society) London, England |
137 YBN
[02/18/1863 AD]
| 3427) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910), English astronomer, uses the spectra from stars to show the stars are composed of known elements occurring on the Earth and in the Sun.
Also in this year Huggins records the first photographs of the spectra of stars.
Aristotle had claimed that the heavens were made of a unique substance not found on earth. Huggins is one of the first to apply spectroscopy as worked out by Kirchhoff to astronomy.
Huggins studies the spectra of nebulae, of stars, planets, comets, the sun, anything of which the light can be passed through a telescope and prism.
Huggins with William Allen Miller publish this finding as "Note on the Lines in the Spectra of Some of the Fixed Stars" in February 1863 and follow this up with a more detailed report in April 1864.
The abstract of this lecture reads as follows: "The recent detailed examination of the solar spectrum, and the remarkable observations of Kirchhoff upon the connexion of the dark lines of Fraunhofer with the bright lines of artificial flames, having imparted new interest to the investigation of spectra, it has appeared to the authors of the present note that the Royal Society may not consider a brief account of their recent inquiry upon the spectra of some of the self-luminous bodies of the heavens unworthy of attention, although the investigation is as yet far from complete. After devoting considerable time to the construction of apparatus suitable to this delicate branch of inquiry, they have at length succeeded in contriving an arrangement which has enabled them to view the lines in the stellar spectra in much greater detail than has been figured or described by any previous observer. The apparatus also permits of the immediate comparison of the stellar spectra with those of terrestrial flames. The accompanying drawing shows with considerable accuracy the principle lines which the authors have seen in Sirius, Betelgeux, and Aldebaran, and their position relatively to the chief solar lines. Without at present describing in detail, as they propose to do when the experiments are completed, the arrangements of the special apparatus employed, it may be sifficient to state that it is attached to an achromatic telescope of 10 feet focal length, mounted in the observatory of Mr. Huggins at Upper Tulse Hill. The object-glass, which has an aperture of 8 inches, is a very fine one by Alvan Clark of Cambridge, U.S.; the equatorial mounting is by Cooke of York, and the telescope is carried very smoothly by a clock motion. It may further be stated that the position in the stellar spectra corresponding to that of Fraunhofer's line D, from which the others are measured, has been obtained by coincidence with a sodium line, the position of which in the apparatus was compared directly with the line D in the solar spectrum. The lines in the drawings against which a mark is placed have been measured.".
In a much longer later paper on April 28, 1864, Huggins and Miller detail the chemical composition of a number of stars in more detail. Briefly summarizing, they write: "The recent discovery by Kirchhoff of the connexion between the dark lines of the solar spectrum and the bright lines of terrestrial flames, so remarkable for the wide range of its application, has placed in the hands of the experimentalist a method of analysis which is not rendered less certain by the distance of the objects the light of which is to be subjected to examination. The great success of this method of analysis as applied by Kirchhoff to the determination of the nature of some of the constituents of the sun, rendered it obvious that it would be an investigation of the highest interest, in its relations to our knowledge of the general plan and structure of the visible universe, to endeavour to apply this new method of analysis to the light which reaches the earth from the fixed stars. hitherto the knowledge possessed by man of these immensely distant bodies has been almost confined to the fact that some of them, which observation shows to be united in systems, are composed of matter subjected to the same laws of gravitation as those which rule the members of the solar system. To this may be added the high probability that they must be self-luminous bodies analogous to our sun, and probably in some cases even transcending it in brilliancy. Were they not self-luminous, it would be impossible for their light to reach us from the enormous distances at which , the absence of sensible parallax in the case of most of them shows, they must be placed from our system. ... 2. Previously to january 1862, in which month we commenced these experiments, no results of any investigation undertaken with a similar purpose had been published. With other objects in view, two observers had described the spectra of a few of the brighter stars, viz. Fraunhofer in 1823, and Donati, ...in...1862. Fraunhofer recognized the solar lines D, E, b, and F in the spectra of the Moon, Venus, and Mars; he also found the line D in Capella, Betelgeux, Procyon, and Pollux; in the two former he also mentions the presence of b. Castor and Sirius exhibited other lines. Sonati's elaborate paper contains observations upon fifteen stars; but ...the positions which he ascribes to the lines of the different spectra relatively to the solar spectrum do not accord with the results obtained either by Fraunhofer our ourselves. ... After the note was sent to the Society, we became acquainted with some similar observations on several other stars by Rutherfurd, in Silliman's Journal for 1863. About the same time figures of a few stellar spectra were also published by Secchi.... The moon was examined by us ... The solar lines were perfectly well seen, appearing exceedingly sharp and fine. The line D was well divided, and its components were observed to coincide with those of sodium. Coincidence of the magnesium group with the three lines forming b was also observed. The lunar spectrum is indeed full of fine lines, and they were well seen from B to about halfway between G and H. On all these occasions no other strong lines were observed than those which are visible in the solar spectrum when the sun has a considerable altitude. ... With the exception of these bands in the orange and the red, the spectrum of Jupiter appeared to correspond exactly with that of the sky. ... The spectrum of Saturn was observed... Bands in the red and orange were seen similar to those in the spectrum of jupiter, and by measurement these bands were found to occupy positions in the spectrum corresponding to those of the bands of Jupiter. ... The spectrum of Mars was observed... The principal solar lines were seen, and no other strong lines were noticed....but in the extreme red, ... two or three strong lines were seen.
The light of Venus gives a spectrum of great beauty. Lines other than (those of the Sun) ... were carefully looked for, but no satisfactory evidence of any such lines has been obtained. ...
The number of fixed stars which we have, to a greater or less extent, examined amounts to nearly 50. We have, however, concentrated our efforts upon three or four of the brighter stars, and two only othese have been mapped with any degree of completeness. These spectra are, indeed, as rich in lines as that of the sun, and even with these it may be advantageous to compare the spectra of additional metals when the season is again favourable. ... Aldebaran (see Plate XI) - The light of this star is of a pale red. When viewed in the spectroscope, numerous strong lines are at once evident, particularly in the orange, the green, and the blue portions. The positions of about seventy of these lines have been measured, and their places have been given in the Table. ... We have compared the spectra of sixteen of the terrestrial elements by simultaneous observation with the spectrum of Aldebaran, of course selecting those in which we had reason, from the observations, to believe coincidence was most likely to occur. Nine of these spectra exhibited lines coincident with certain lines in the spectrum of the star. They are as follows:- sodium, magnesium, hydrogen, calcium, iron, bismuth, tellurium, antimony, and mercury. 1) Sodium. - The double line at D was coincident with the double line in the stellar spectrum. 2) Magnesium.- The three components of the group at b, from electrodes of the metal, were coincident with three lines in the star-spectrum. 3) Hydrogen.- The line in the red corresponding to C, and the line in the green corresponding to F in the solar spectrum, were coincident with strong lines in the spectrum of Aldebaran. 4) Calcium.- Electrodes of the metal were used; four lines in its spectrum were observed to coincide with four of the stellar lines. 5) Iron.- The lines in the spectrum of this metal are very numerous, but not remarkable for intensity. There was a double line corresponding to E in the solar spectrum, and three other more refrangible well-marked lines coincident with lines in the star. 6) Bismuth.- Four strong lines in the spectrum of this metal coincided with four in the star-spectrum. 7) Tellurium.- In the spectrum of this metal also four of the strongest lines coincided with four in the spectrum of the star. 8) Antimony.- Three of the lines in the spectrum of antimony were observed to coincide with stellar lines. 9) Mercury.-Four of the brightest lines in the mercury-spectrum correspond in position with four lines of the star. ... In no case, in the instances above enumerated, did we find any strong line in the metallic spectrum wanting in the star-spectrum, in those parts where the comparison could be satisfactorily instituted. Seven other elements were compared with this star, viz. nitrogen, cobalt, tin, lead, cadmium, lithium, and barium. No coincidence was observed.
12. Orionis (Betelgeux) (Plate XI).- The light of this star has a decided orange tinge. None of the stars which we have examined exhibits a more complex or remarkable spectrum than this. Strong groups of lines are visible, especially in the red, the green, and the blue portions. ...
(They find lines that match with lines of Sodium, Magnesium, Calcium, Iron, Bismuth, Thallium, Hydrogen (although no line coincident with the red line C of hydrogen). None of the lines tested for nitrogen, tin, lead or gold were matched.)
B Pegasi.- The colour of this star is a fine yellow. ...this spectrum, though much fainter, is closely analogous with the spectrum of a Orionis, as figured in the Plate.
14. Sirius.- The spectrum of this brilliant white star is very intense; but owing to its low altitude, even when most favourably situated, the observation of the finer lines is rendered very difficult by the motions of the earth's atmosphere.
(They find in Sirius, sodium, magnesium, hydrogen, and Iron.)
The whole spectrum of Sirius is crossed by a very large number of faint and fine lines. It is worthy of notive that in the case of Sirius, and a large number of the white stars, at the same time that the hydrogen lines are absnormally strong as compared with the solar spectrum, all the metallic lines are remarkably faint.
... 15. a Lyrae (Vega).- This is a white star having a spectrum of the same class as Sirius, and as full of fine lines as the solar spectrum. ... ...sodium,... magnesium...hydrogen...
16.- Capella.-This is a white star with a spectrum closely resembling that of our sun. The lines are very numerous; we have measured more than twenty of them, and ascertained the existence of the double sodium line at D... 17. Arcturus (a Bootis).- This is a red star the spectrum of which somewhat resembles that of the sun. ...sodium...
(They list details of other stars) General Observations 20. On the Colours of the Stars.- From the earliest ages it has been remarked that certain of the stars, instead of appearing to be white, shine with special tints; and in countries where the atmosphere is less humid and hazy than our own, this contrast in the colour of the light of the stars is said to be much more striking. Various explanations of the contrast of colours, bu Sestini and others, founded chiefly on the difference of the wave-lengths corresponding to the different colours, have been attempted, but as yet without success. Probably in the constitution of the stars as revealed by spectrum analysis, we shall find the origin of the differences in the colour of stellar light. Since spectrum analysis shows that certain of the laws of terrestrial physics prevail in the sun and stars, there can be little doubt that the immediate source of solar and stellar light must be solid or liquid matter marintained in an intensely incandescent state, the result of an exceedingly high temperature. For it is from such a source alone that we can produce light even in a feeble degree comparable with that of the sun. The light from incandescent solid and liquid bodies affords an unbroken spectrum containing rays of light of every refrangibility within the portion of the spectrum which is visible. As this condition of the light is connected wsith the state of solidity or liquidity, and not with the chemical nature of the body, it is highly probable that the light when first emitted from the photosphere, or light-giving surface of the sun and of the stars, would be in all cases identical. The source of the difference of colour, therefore, is to be sought in the difference of the consituents of the investing atmospheres. The atmosphere of each star must vary in nature as the constituents of the star vary; and observation has shown that the stars do differ from the sun and from each other in respect of the elements of which they consist. The light of each star therefore will be diminished by the loss of those rays which correspond in refrangibility to the bright lines which the constituents of each atmosphere would, in the incandescent state, be capable or emitting. In proportion as these darks lines preponderate in particular parts of the spectrum, so will the colours in which they occur be weaker, and consequently the colours of other refrangibilities will predominate....
". One interesting aspect about spectral lines and the other stars is that, since the theory is that stars each use the same process to emit light, but that stars are colored differently depending on their size and temperature, this implies that either a single atom has a variety of different spectra depending on its temperature (for example the hydrogen atom separated into source photons has no blue lines in a yellow star, but does in a blue star), or that color may have more to do with photons emitted per second and less to do with the atoms emitting the photons. It seems likely that only a single atom could emit a beam of photons in a single direction, and so the frequency of any individual single beam would represent photons emitted from a single atom. Still perhaps somewhere in the universe two beams of photons superimpose if only briefly, or even collide with each other. Can the photons emitted from different kinds of atoms add to the frequency of a beam of light to make it appear like some other or unknown atom? Or does the same element have more than one spectrum depending on how excited is (its temperature)? Another question is can the frequency of photons be changed by collision (both increased and decreased)?
(Another interesting question is how finely divided can spectral lines be?) (Do some elements share exact spectral lines?) (The question of: can photon beams mix with each other is interesting. For example, if some atom disintegrates into photons before an atom behind it also disintegrates, do the photons from each atom form a beam of some frequency that represents their space apart as observed from some specific direction in front of them? If an atom separates at the surface of a star some photons go back into the star and others out into the empty space of the universe. In a typical hydrogen oxygen combustion, the spectrum of the photons released may represent the reaction as opposed to either rHydrogen or oxygen.)
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
137 YBN
[05/22/1863 AD]
| 3731) Johannes Wislicenus (VisliTSAnUS) (CE 1835-1902), German chemist finds two isomers of lactic acid that differ only in their reaction to polarized light. (verify) (see also )
| (Zurich University) Zurich, Switzerland |
137 YBN
[11/05/1863 AD]
| 3443) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) publishes spectra of elements.
Huggins finds that the superior heat (perhaps more accurately, the higher current) of the (high voltage) voltaic arc produces more vivid spectra of the elements, and exhibits lines in the violet portion not usually seen with the induction coil. Tyndall will use a voltaic arc to detect a blue line in the spectrum of lithium in addition to the orange line Bunsen had detected with a Rhumkorff coil.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 2804) (Sir) Charles Lyell (CE 1797-1875), Scottish geologist, publishes the controversial book "The Geological Evidence of the Antiquity of Man" (3 eds., 1863-1873), in which Lyell gives a general survey of the arguments for an early appearance of humans on the earth, based on the discoveries of flint implements in post-Pliocene strata in the Somme valley and elsewhere. In addition, Lyell tentatively accepts evolution by natural selection.
Lyell bases his evidence for the antiquity of humans on old artifacts of the type found by Boucher de Perthes.
Lyell publishes this book after reading Darwin's "Origin of Species".
This book runs through three editions in one year.
| London, England (presumably) |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 2869) Édouard Armand Isidore Hippolyte Lartet (loRTA) (CE 1801-1871), French paleontologist finds found a piece of ivory in a cave at La Madelaine with a woolly mammoth clearly engraved on it. Excluding forgery, there seems no other explanation than that an (extinct) animal of the ice age and a human, that had clearly seen a mammoth, had coexisted.
This is one of the most powerful evidence yet against the traditionally chronology of the Bible.
| (In a cave ) La Madelaine, Perigord, France |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3016) Thomas Graham (CE 1805-1869) Scottish physical chemist, describes the effects of graphite membranes in "On the molecular mobility of gases" (1863). Graham shows how gases like hydrogen and oxygen might be separated in this way, a process used in the second world war on UF6 (Uranium hexafluoride) to separate the fissionable isotope uranium 235 from the nonfissionable isotope uranium 238.
In an appendix titled "Speculative ideas respecting the constitution of matter", Graham suggests that differences in atomic motion may be due to differences in what would be called sub-atomic particles in modern terms.
Graham studies the way palladium absorbs large quantities of hydrogen and in (this?) Graham's final paper, he describes palladium hydride, the first known instance of a solid compound formed from a metal and a gas.
Graham discovers what he calls the 'occlusion' of hydrogen by palladium and wonders if hydrogen might not be some kind of metal.
| (Mint) London, England |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3212) Pietro Angelo Secchi (SeKKE) (CE 1818-1878), Italian astronomer, produces the first color drawings of Mars.
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3351) Helmholtz creates a theory of hearing in which the fibers of the basilar membrane in the cochlea resonate at different frequencies.
(Verify this date and not 1869)
(This theory of resonance may be important to detecting images and/or sounds received or produced by brains.)
It is known that some objects resonate at natural frequencies of sounds, and that these resonators will only oscillate for a single specific tone (frequency) given a source signal that is a combination of many single tones (or frequencies). There are similar "resonators" for frequencies of light. Helmholtz chooses a tuning-fork (as a source sound emitter), and as resonator uses the string of a monochord, or an air-chamber formed of cylindrical tubes made of pasteboard, closed at both ends with a round opening in the center of one end. Helmholtz uses this arrangement to experiment with simple tones (the equivalent of single frequencies), analogous to simple colors of the spectrum, and combination tones. (the text is not simple enough to understand - make clearer, needs image)
Helmholtz starts with the theory made by Ohm in 1843 that auditory sensation is explained by the ear analyzing the motions of th air into simple vibrations, in the same way that Fourier's series for each periodic function is composed of the sum of periodic sine-functions, or that any wave-form may be composed of a number of simple waves of different length. Helmholtz gives the name of compound tone (Klang) to the composite tone of a musical instrument, and confines the term tone to simple tones.
Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) publishes "Die Lehre von den Tönemfindungen als physiologische Grundlage für die Theorie der Musik" ("The Sensation of Tone as a Physiological Basis for the Theory of Music",1863).
In this work Helmholtz tries to trace sensations through the sensory nerves and anatomical structures to the brain in an attempt to explain the complete mechanism of hearing sound.
Helmholtz advances the theory that the ear detects differences in pitch through the action of the cochlea, a spiral organ in the inner ear. Helmholtz explains that the cochlea contains a series of progressively smaller resonators, each that responds to a sound wave of progressively higher frequency. The pitch we detect depends on which resonator responds. (show what resonators look like.) Helmholtz points out that the quality of a tone depends on the nature, number and relative intensities of the overtones (vibrations more rapid than the basic vibration related by simple ratios). In this way, the same note sounded by two different instruments can be distinguishable by ear because resonators react in a specific pattern due to the basic tone plus the overtones. Helmholtz explains that the combination of notes sounds harmonious or discordant because of the wavelengths and the production of beats (superposition?) at particular rates. Helmholtz develops a theory explaining how musical pitch is interpreted by the eart. In the first edition of this work published in 1863, Helmholtz states that the fibres of Corti are the origin of the sense of pitch, but afterwards no fibres of Corti are found in birds and amphibia, and Helmholtz concludes that probably the breadth of the membrana basilaris of the cochlea determine the tuning. Helmholtz examines a bright point on a vibrating violin string under a microscope. Helmholtz constructs a well-known apparatus for synthesizing vowel sounds.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3396) (Sir) Francis Galton (CE 1822-1911), English anthropologist publishes "Meteorographica" (1863; "Weather Mapping"), in which he founds the modern technique of weather mapping. Galton identifies that pressure highs usually bring fair calm weather, while pressure lows usually bring storms. Galton identifies and names "anticyclones", a circulation of winds around a central region of high atmospheric pressure, clockwise in the Northern Hemisphere, counterclockwise in the Southern Hemisphere.
| London, England (presumably) |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3406) Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart (lOEKoRT) (CE 1822-1898), German zoologist, publishes "Die menschlichen Parasiten" (2 vol, 1863, 1876, Eng. trans., "The Parasites of Man", 1886), a textbook on the parasites on humans.
Leuckart demonstrates, by a study of their embryology, that the worm-like parasites known as "Linguatulidaa Pentastoma" found in the body cavity of (snakes) and other Vertebrata are degenerate Arthropoda, probably related to the Arachnida. Leuckart's memoir on the anatomy and reproduction of the remarkable Diptera, the Pupipara is a valuable contribution to the knowledge of insect morphology.
Leuckart describes the complicated life (cycle)(or histories) of various parasites including tapeworms and the liver fluke.
Leuckart makes clear that human diseases can be caused by multicellular organisms and not just by bacteria (single cell species).
| (University of Giesen) Giesen, Germany (presumably) |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3414) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, discovers the microorganism responsible for the souring of wine and shows how heating (pasteurization) stops the souring of fermented substances.
(verify date of pasteurization)
Pasteur finds two kinds of yeast cells, one which is spherical in wine and beer that ages properly, and a second kind of yeast cell that is elongated found in wine and beer that turned sour. Pasteur correctly concludes that the spherical yeast cells produce alcohol (ethanol?), and that the elongated yeast cells produce lactic acid which is responsible for the sour wine and beer. So Pasteur shows that the lactic acid yeast must not be allowed to remain in the fermenting wine. Pasteur is the first to show that the correct organism must be used to produce the correct type of fermentation.
At the request of a Lille industrialist (wine business owner? funder?) Pasteur tries to try to stop wine and beer from going sour. In the early 1860s Pasteur works out an answer to the lactic acid producing yeast. Once the wine or beer is formed it must be heated at about 120ºF. This will kill any yeast still alive, including the lactic acid yeast that otherwise would continue to do their souring while the wine is aging. The wine makers (vintners) are frightened by the idea of heating wine. But Pasteur heats some samples of wine, and leaves other unheated, and after some months when the wines are opened the heated samples are all fine, while the unheated sample contains bottles that have soured. Ever since, heating substances to kill microscopic organisms will be called "pasteurization". Nicolas (François) Appert (oPAR or APAR) (CE 1752-1841) had invented a method of preserving food for several years by heating.
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3487) Ferdinand Reich (riKHe) (CE 1799-1882) and Hieronymus Theodor Richter (riKTR) (CE 1824-1898), German mineralogists, discover the element indium.
Reich and Richter examine zinc ore samples. Under Reich's direction, Richer identifies the indigo-colored line in a spectrum that leads to the discovery of indium. The presence of a predominant indigo spectral line suggest the name. (notice "suggest t(e)n" from EB2008)
Indium is a metallic chemical element, symbol In, atomic number 49, atomic weight 114.82, melting point 156.6°C, boiling point about 2,080°C, relative density (specific gravity) 7.31 at 20°C, valence +1, +2, or +3. Indium is a soft, malleable, ductile, lustrous, silver-white metallic element and crystallizes in a face-centered tetragonal structure. Indium's properties are similar to those of gallium, the element directly above it in Group 13 of the periodic table. Like gallium, indium remains in the liquid state over a wide range of temperatures. Indium wets glass and can be used to form a mirror surface that is more corrosion-resistant than, and reflects as well as, a mirror surface of silver. Indium is also used in low-melting fusible alloys and as a protective plating for bearings and other metal surfaces. Although indium resists oxidation at room temperature, when heated above its melting point it ignites and burns with a violet flame; the oxide that is formed is used in glassmaking to give glass a yellow color. Indium reacts readily with the halogens and (when warm) with other nonmetals, e.g., phosphorus, selenium, and sulfur. It has trivalent compounds that are similar to those of gallium and aluminum. Indium salts color the Bunsen flame a deep blue-violet. Indium phosphide, arsenide, and antimonide are semiconductor materials used in photocells, thermistors, and rectifiers.
| (Freiberg University) Freiberg, Saxony, Germany |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3537) Richard Christopher Carrington (CE 1826-1875), English astronomer, discovers that the sun does not rotate as a single piece but that sun spots at the equator rotate faster in slightly less than 25 days while those of latitudes 50° rotate in 27.5 days.
From 1853-1861 Carrington measures the rotation of the sun, (as Galileo had done 250 years before), and finds that the sun does not rotate all in one piece, but that a spot on its equator rotates in 25 days, while a point at 45° latitude on the sun takes 27.5 days to complete a rotation. The sunspots are therefore not fixed to any solid solar body.
Scheiner pointed out in 1630 that different spots give different periods adding the significant remark that one at a distance from the solar equator revolved more slowly than those nearer to it. But this hint is forgotten for two centuries.
Carrington publishes this in his "Observations on the Spots on the Sun from Nov 9 1853 to March 24 1861 made at Redhill" Carrington indicates that the spots travel at different rates depending on their distance from the equator either north or south and that the different rates are bound together by the law: period=865 -165'sin(7/4)latitude. Carrington states that the views of Thomson on the Mechanical Energies of the Solar System are supported by his discovery, supposing that the Sun itself travels more slowly than the equatorial photosphere. Carrington writes "In the absence of an impressed motion from some such external force it would be expected that the currents of the surface of the Sun would resemble those of the Earth's ocean and atmosphere and be westerly and toward the poles in the tropical latitudes and easterly in the higher latitudes the direction of rotation in such cases being the same and the equatorial region in each the hottest."
In this work by Carrington also measures the inclination of the sun's axis to the ecliptic at 82°45'.
| (Redhill Observatory) Surrey, England |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3563) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, adds thymol, phenol, and cresol to the list of alcohols and shows how to detect alcohols by acetylation.
| (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3587) Étienne Jules Marey (murA) (CE 1830-1904), French physiologist, invents the sphygmograph to record the pulse rate and blood pressure.
The "Handbook of the Sphygmograph: Being a Guide to its Use in Clinical Research" by J. Burdon Sanderson, M.D. F.R.S., published 1867 states: "In the sphygmograph of Marey, the movements recorded are not those of the artery, but those of an elastic tongue of steel which presses upon it. This spring is screwed, at the end opposite to that which is applied to the artery, to a frame of brass, which is maintained in a fixed position as regards the radius, so that the pressure exerted by the spring is continuous and constant. It is manifest that, inasmuch as the spring depresses the surface of the artery, its movements are not identical with those of the arterial wall; hence the extent of motion is inaccurately measured. As, however the duration of each motion can be determined with extreme precision by Marey’s instrument, it must be regarded as superior to any other which has been proposed, notwithstanding the defect above referred to.".
| Paris, France (presumably) |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3665) Charles Friedel (FrEDeL) (CE 1832-1899), French chemist, with James Mason Crafts (b. 1839) (Professor MIT, Boston), obtainsvarious organometallic compounds of silicon. A few years later further work, with Albert Ladenburg, on the same element yields silicochloroform and leads to a demonstration of the close analogy existing between the behaviour in combination of silicon and carbon.
| Ecole des Mines, Paris, France (presumably) |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3693) Alfred Bernhard Nobel (CE 1833-1896), Swedish inventor, invents a detonator which is a wooden plug filled with a small quantity of black powder, which is inserted into a larger quantity of nitroglycerin held in a metal container. The explosion of the plug detonates the much more powerful charge of liquid nitroglycerin.
Joshua Shaw had invented the first percussion cap in 1815 using mercury fulminate.
In 1862, Nobel is the first to produce nitroglycerine on a commercial scale at his factory in Helenaborg near Stockholm in Sweden.
| Paris, France (guess) |
137 YBN
[1863 AD]
| 3734) Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (BAYR) (CE 1835-1917), German chemist, synthesizes barbituric acid (the main compound of many "sleeping pills").
Barbituric acid is a derivative of uric acid, and is the parent compound of the sedative-hypnotic drugs known as barbiturates.
Baeyer names barbituric acid after a girlfriend named Barbara.
Emil Fischer will work out the chemistry (atomic and molecular composition?) of the barbiturate compounds.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
136 YBN
[02/23/1864 AD]
| 3466) Julius Plücker (PlYUKR) (CE 1801-1868) and J. Hittorf discover that gases exhibit different spectra, depending on the manner in which they are excited. Plücker and Hittorf introduce an important distinction between band spectra and line spectra, defining them as first-order and second-order spectra, later to be interpreted as the distinction between the spectra of molecules and the spectra of atoms.
Plücker and Hittorf find that "There is a certain number of elementary substances, which, when differently heated, furnish two kinds of spectra of quite a different character, not having any line or any band in common.". This change takes place abruptly and the two can be switched between simply by changing temperature. They find this for nitrogen, sulphur, selenium and manganese. Plücker and Hittorf interpret these two spectra as being from allotropes of nitrogen.
(Could these be isotopes too?)
Plücker and Hittorf explain that there are two methods to obtain the spectra of all the elementary bodies, by either flame or electric current. For most elementary substances the temperature of the flame is too low. Either these substances are not reduces to vapour by the flame or if reduced, the vapour does not reach the temperature necessary to render it luminous enough to obtain its characteristic rays. The electric current, the heating power of which may be indefinitely increased by increasing its intensity does produce the peculiar spectra of all elementary bodies. There are two methods of using electric current. In one mode the substance to be examined is at the same time, from the electric current, transformed into vapour and rendered luminous. In the other mode the substance is either in the gaseous state, or if not, has been converted into it by means of a lamp, and the electric current ignites the substance in passing through. The first method (passing electricity through the material) is used for materials which cannot, by themselves or combined with other substances, be vaporized without altering the glass. If the substance to be examined is a metal, the outer ends of the conducting wires are made of the material and placed at a short distance from one another. When the strong spark of a large Leyden jar, charged by a Ruhmkorff's powerful induction-coil, is sent through the space between the two extremities of the conducting wires, minute particles of the metal starting off from them, are volatized: even in the gaseous state they conduct the electric current from point to point, and exhibit, while heated by it, the characteristic spectral lines of the metal. In all experiments made in this way, either air or another permanent gas occupied the space between the two ends of wire, which results in the gas in between conducting the electric current and so two spectra are obtained at the same time, the spectrum of the metal and the spectrum of the gaseous medium in between. If the substance is not a metal or charcoal, the ends of the metallic wires are covered with it and then the spectrum of the non-conducting substance is seen at the same time as the spectrum of the metal underneath it. Plücker and Hittorf comment that "the spectra are obtained the most beautifully and are the most suitable for examination in their minute details, if the substance be in the gaseous state before the electric discharge is sent through it. The spectral tubes for enclosing gas, first proposed and employed by one of us, were in most cases, with some modifications, adopted for out recent researches. Our tubes, as represented by the diagram (see image), generally consist of a capillary middle part 30-40 miims. long and 1.5-2 millims. in diameter, forming a narrow channel, by which two larger spheres, with platinum electrodes traversing the glass, communicate with one another. The small tube starting from one of the spheres serves to establish the communication with the exhauster, to which it is either attached by means of a cement or soldered by the blowpipe...The gas arrives directly from the apparatus into the tube, which...may be alternately filled and exhausted again.... Generally the spectral tube was blown off and hermetically sealed at the extremity of the narrow tube starting from one of the spheres. ... After having introduced into it a small quantity of the substance, the last traces of air were expelled from the tube, which was finally blown off. Put before the slit of the spectroscope, the enclosed substance was, by means of a lamp, reduced into vapour and, if necessary, kept in the gaseous state (see image)... If, in the usual way, a Leyden jar be intercalated into the current of Ruhmkorff's large induction coil, we must conclude, from the powerful charge of the jar, as proved by flashes of light, that with the spectral tube the tension of electricity, before it effects its passage, is very high. In this case the electric light is more bright, and of a fine colour like that of blue steel. When analyzed by the prism, it shows the spectral lines of hydrogen and oxygen, mixed with other spectra lines, among which those of sodium and silicium are the brightest. At the same time the interior surface of the capillary part of the tube tarnishes. Hence we conclude that the decomposed glass partly conducts the current. By means of our tubes, therefore, the theoretical conclusions of Dr. Faraday, that electricity being merely a perculiar condition of ponderable matter cannot exist without it, and cannot move without being carried by it, are confirmed and supported in a striking way. As soon as the tube encloses perceptible traces of air, the spectral lines resulting from the ingredients of the glass entirely disappear. Though the temperature of the gas be raised by the passing current to an immense height, bnevertheless, on account of its great tenuity and the short durection of the discharge, the gas is not able to heat the surface of the glass sufficiently to volatize it. In this case also no spectral lines owing to particles starting from the platinum electrodes appear in the capillary part of the tube. Those lines are to be seen only near the electrodes, namely, in the aureola surrounding the negative pole. The temperature of the particles of air seized by the weakest electric spark by far surpass the temperature of the hottest obtainable flame. For no flame whatever shows the spectral lines of air, which are constantly seen in the spark. In order to raise the temperature of the discharge of the Ruhmkorff's induction coil, you may either increase the power of the inducing current, or diminish the duration of the induced one. ...The heat excited in a given conductor by a current sent through it increases in the ratio of the square of the intensity, but decreases in the ratio of the duration of the current. Admitting, therefore, that the conductibility is not altered by elevatino of temperature, and that the quantity of induced electricity remains the same, we conclude that the heating-power of the induced current is in the inverse ratio of the duration. But the resistance opposed by gases to the passage of electricity depends essentially on their temperature. At the ordinary temperature it is rather too great to be measured, but, according to hitherto unknown laws, it rapidly decreases when the temperature rises beyond that of red heat. The law above mentioned is therefore not strictly applicable in the case of gaseous conduction. ... The first fact which we discovered in operating with our tubes, guided by the above explained principles, was the following one:- There is a certain number of elementary substances, which, when differently heated, furnish two kinds of spectra of quite a different character, not having any line or any band in common. The fact is important, as well with regard to theoretical conceptions as to practical applications- the more so as the passage from one kind of spectra to the other is by no means a continuous one, but takes place abruptly. by regulating the temperature you may repeat the two spectra in any succession ad libitum. ... When we send through out nitrogen-tube the direct discharge of Ruhmkorff's large induction coil, without making use of the Leyden jar, we observe a beautiful richly coloured spectrum. This spectrum is not a continuous one, but divided into bands, the character of which differs essentially at its two extremeities; its middle part is in most cases less distinctly traced. Towards the more refracted part of the spectrum, the bands, illuminated by the purest blue or violet light, present a channeled appearance. ... Now, instead of the direct discharge of the Ruhmkorff's large induction coil, let us send through the very same spectral tubes the discharge of the interposed Leyden jar. The spectrum then obtained (Plate II.) has not the least resemblance to the former one. The variously shaded bands which we have hitherto described are replaced by brilliant lines on a more or less dark ground. Neither the distribution of these new lines nor their relative brightness gives any indication whatever of a law. Nevertheless the place occupied by each of them remains under all circumstances invariably the same. if exactly determined, not only does each line undoubtedly announce the gas within the tube, but the gas may even, without measuring, be recognized at first sight by characteristic groups into which the lines are collected. ... By these an other experiments it is evidently proved that the ignited nitrogen shows two quite distinct spectra. Each bright line of one of these spectra, each of the most subtle lines into which, by means of the telescope, the bands of the other are resolved, finally depends upon the molecular condition of the ignited gas, and the corresponding modification of the vibrating ether within it. Certainly, in the present state of science, we have not the least indication of the connexion of the molecular constitution of the gas with the kind of light emitted by it; but we may assert with confidence that, if one spectrum of a given gas be replaced by quite a different one, there must be an analogous change of the constitution of the ether, indicating a new arrangement of the gaseous molecules. Consequently we must admit either a chemical decomposition or an allotropic state of the gas. Conclusions derived from the whole series of our researches led us finally to reject the first alternative and to adopt the other. The same spectral tube exhibits, in any succession whatever, as often as you like, each of the two spectra. You may show it in the most striking way by effecting the intercalation of the Leyden jar by means of a copper wire immersed in mercury. As often as the wire is taken out of the mercury we shall have the spectrum of bands; as soon as the communication is restored, the spectrum of bright lines. Hence we conclude that the change of the molecular condition of nitrogen which takes place if the gas be heated beyond a certain temperature by a stronger current, does not permanently alter its chemical and physical properties, but that the gas, if cooled below the same limit of temperature, returns again to its former condition. The essentially different character of the two extremities of the first spectrum of nitrogen...and the indistinctness of its middle part, suggest to us the idea that, in reality, the observed spectrum might originate from the superposition of two single spectra. ... Hence it follows that there is another allotropy of nitrogen, which, like the former, is not a stable and permanent one, but depends only upon temperature. The modification in which nitrogen becomes yellow corresponds to the lower, the modification in which it becomes blue to the higher temperature. When we send the firect discharge of Tuhmkorff's coil through one of Geissler's wider tubes enclosing very rarefied nitrogen or air (the oxygen of air becomes not visible here), we see the negative pole surrounded by blue light, the light at the positive pole being reddish yellow... We may explain now in a satisfactory way the appearance, hitherto mysterious, of this golden light. Both the yellow and the blue light are owing to the nitrogen of the air, reduced by the heat of the current into the two allotropic states which echibit the spectra of channeled spaces and of bands. ...was progressing towards a continuous one.
...by increasing the density of the gas, or if the gas be less dense, by intercalating at the same time a large jar and a stratum of air, the bright lines of the spectrum, at the highest obtainable temperature, will expand the spectrum ...In recapitulating... Those spectra which are composed of larger bands showing various appearances according to their being differently shaded by subtle dark lines, we generally call spectra of the first order. In the same spectrum the character of the bands is to a certain extent the same, the breadth of the bands varies in a more or less regular way. On the contrary, those spectra in which brilliant coloured lines rise from a more or less dark ground, we call spectra of the second order. Ignited nitrogen therefore exhibits, if its temperature increase, successively two spectra of the first and one of the second order. In the case of sulphur, which we may select as another instance, there are two different spectra, one of the first and one of the second order. ...Like sulphur, selenium has two spectra-one of the first, another of the second order. ... When a jet of cyanogen mixed with oxygen is kindled, in the interior part of the flame a most brilliant cone of a whitish-violet light is seen, the limit between the ignited and the cold part of the jet. This cone exhibiting the spectrum of vapour of carbon best developed, we conclude that the cyanogen must be decomposed into carbin and nitrogen, the carbon being in the gaseous condition a moment before its combination with oxygen takes place. "
| (University of Bonn) Bonn (and Münster), Germany |
136 YBN
[02/??/1864 AD]
| 3742) Alexander Mitschelich confirms and expands his 1862 view that metal compounds of the first order (bonded only with one other element?) that remain undecomposed when adequately heated, always exhibit spectra which completely differ from those of the metals.
Mitscherlich states that this fact appears to him to be of great importance, because by the observation of the spectra a new method is found of recognizing the internal structure of the hitherto unknown elements, and of chemical compounds.
Norman Lockyer will refer to this finding stating that Mitcherlich finds in 1864 "that every compound of the first order heated to a temperature adequate for the production of light, which is not decomposed, exhibits a spectrum peculiar to this compound.".
Mitscherlich heats various substances: 1. In the flame of a Bunsen burner. 2. In the flame of coal-gas burning in oxygen. 3. In the flame of hydrogen burning in chlorine. 4. In the flame of mixtures of hydrogen and bromine or iodine-vapour burning in air or oxygen. 5. In the case of combustible gases they are allowed to emerge out of the middle aperture of an oxyhydrogen burner, and are burnt in air or oxygen. In the case of non-combustible gases they are mixed with a combustible gas, such as carbonic oxide or hydrogen. 6. in the case of solid substances they are introduced into a tube one end of which is connected with a Rose's hydrogen-apparatus; the substance was then volatilized, and the gas kindled at the other end of the tube. 7. Or the spark is taken between poles containing the metal or compound in any gas; or between. 8. Liquid electrodes, in which the temperature is much lower than in 7. From this series of researches, Mitscherlich concludes "that every compound of the first order which is not decomposed, and is heated to a temperature adequate for the production of light, exhibits a spectrum peculiar to this compound, and independent of other circumstances.".
(Perhaps quote more of this paper - there are interesting details.) (This is, to me, something of a science history mystery - in that - there is so little info about this basic truth about the spectrum of compounds versus atoms.)
| (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
136 YBN
[03/11/1864 AD]
| 3691) Peter Waage (VOGu) (CE 1833-1900), Norwegian chemist, and Cato Maximilian Guldberg (GULBRG) (CE 1836-1902) Norwegian chemist and mathematician formulate the law of "mass action" which states the chemical substitution force, other conditions being equal, is directly proportional to the product of the masses provided each is raised to a particular exponent. If the quantities of the two substance which act on each other are designated M and N, then the substitution force (that is the rate of reaction) for these are α(MaNb). The coefficients α, a, and b, are constants which, other condition being equal, depend only on the nature of the substances. In addition Waage and Guldberg define an "action of volume" law, which states: If the same masses of the interacting substances occur in different volumes, then the action of these masses is inversely proportional to the volume.
"chemical action" is the term given to any process in which change in chemical composition occurs.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica the law of mass action is now only of historical interest, useful for obtaining the correct equilibrium equation for a reaction, but the rate expressions it provides are now known to apply only to elementary reactions. (define elementary reactions - reactions between single atoms?)
Waage and Guldberg write in "Studies Concerning Affinity": " The theories which previously prevailed in chemistry regarding the mode of action of the chemical forces are recognized by all chemists to be unsatisfactory. This applies to the electrochemical as well as the thermochemical theories; it must generally be regarded as doubtful that one will ever, with the aid of the electricity and heat evolution which accompany chemical processes, be able to find the laws by which chemical forces operate. We have therefore sought to find a more direct method for determining the mode of action of these forces, and we believe that, by a quantitative investigation of the mutual interaction of different substances, we have hit upon a way which will most surely and naturally lead to the goal. We should point out that Mssrs. Berthelot and S. Giles in the summer of 1862 published work concerning etherification {esterification} which, to an important degree, has led us to choose this particular method. Our work, which was begun in the autumn of 1862 and includes about 300 quantitative investigations, has led us to a definite opinion of chemical processes and to advance a new theory and particular laws which we shall present briefly and demonstrate by experiments, in part our own and in part those of other chemists.". Waage and Guldberg go on to talk about how chemical compounds are divided into perfect and imperfect. They then divide chemical processes into simple and complex. Simple processes involve either a direct combination of two molecules to a new molecule and in reverse, the splitting of a molecule into two other or a mutual exchange or substitution of the parts of two molecules and, in reverse, the creation of the original molecule by a backwards substitution. Complex processes they regard as "a sequence of several simple processes". After more discussion, Waage and Guldberg write: "Relying partly on earlier experiments carried out by other chemists and partly on our own and guided by the course of chemical processes developed above, we set forth the following two laws, namely the law of mass action and the law of volume action, from which the equilibrium condition for the forces acting in the system is derived. (1) The Action of Mass The substitution force, other conditions being equal, is directly proportional to the product of the masses provided each is raised to a particular exponent. If the quantities of the two substance which act on each other are designated M and N, then the substitution force for these are α(MaNb) The coefficients α, a, and b, are constants which, other condition being equal, depend only on the nature of the substances. (2) The Action of Volume If the same masses of the interacting substances occur in different volumes, then the action of these masses is inversely proportional to the volume. If, as above, M and N designate the amount of the two substances, and V and V' the total volume of the system in two different cases, then the substitution force in the one case is expressed by α(M/V)a(N/V)b and in the other by α(M/V')a(N/V')b.
(3) The Equilibrium Equation If one begins with the general system wihch contains the four active substances in a variable relationship and designates the amounts of these substances, reduced to the same volume, according to the first law by p, q, p', and q', then when the equilibrium state has occurred, a certain amount of x of the two first substances will be transformed. The amounts which keep each other in equilibrium are consequently p - x, q - x, and p' + x, q' + x. According to the law of mass action, the actino force for the first two substances is α(p-x)a(q-x)b and the reaction force for the last two is α'(p'+x)a'(q'+x)b'. Since there is equilibrium I. α(p-x)a(q-x)b = α'(p'+x)a'(q'+x)b'
From this, x is then found, and one can thus calculate the amounts of the given substances which are changed for any system whatever. As one sees from the equation, only 4 of the 6 coefficients are independent; these remain to be determined by experiment, as one determines the changed amount x for different amounts of the substances when the equilibrium is reached.". Waage and Guldberg then examine some examples and write: " In conclusion, we should briefly compare our theory with the opinions which have prevailed earlier concerning chemical forces. the first theory about chemical affinity was advanced by the Swede Bergman in 1780, thus at a time when the atomic theory was not yet developed. He assumes that each substance has its particular affinity, whose magnitude is independent of the mass of the substance, toward every other substance. This point of view, which in individual cases appears to be correct, has long since been refuted by many chemical processes and is also totally in conflict with the theory presented by us. In contrast, Berthollet in 1801-1803 developed in his affinity theory the view that affinities of substances, in addition to being dependent on their specific nature, also-and the important thing- are modified by the original amount of the substances as well as by their physical character, for example volatility and insolubility. As one sees, we have adopted as part of our theory Berthollet's theory about the effective chemical forces in a chemical process being dependent on the masses. on the other hand, the law of mass action advanced by Berthollet, according to which the affinity is always proportional to the mass, is most decisively refuted by our experiments. Furthermore, our experiments show that berthollet's view of the inactivity of insoluble and volatile substances in chemical processes is incorrect, a view which was already expressed by Berthelot concerning organic substances. One has tried even earlier to apply our view, developed above, of the equilibrium state for every chemical process, although not quantitatively proven it, for a single group of chemical processes, namely for mixtures of two different soluble salts from which no precipitation occurs. One has namely, partly with the help of certain color reactions, partly with the help of the rotation of the plane of polarization (Gladstone) and partly with the help of diffusion experiments (Graham and Gladstone), sought to demonstrate that a partial substitution of the soluble salts occurs. With respect to the relationship in which our theory stands to the work of Berthelot and St. Giles on etherification and to Rose's experiments with sulfate of baryta and potash, you are directed to that we have presented in experimental series I and II.". Apparently this experimental data is lost.
This leads to the first general mathematical and exact formulation of the role of the amounts of reactants in chemical equilibrium systems.
Gibbs will show how the law of mass action follows naturally from the basic principles of chemical thermodynamics. (explain)
(I think the word "action" needs to be more clearly defined, is this "rate of reaction"? In addition, clearly part of a reaction depends on two reagents being in physical contact with each other - how can this represented mathematically? Perhaps the state of the reactants makes a significant different whether solid, liquid or gas. Does the valence theory replace these earlier theories completely? It seems that mass of molecule and/or atom might affect rate of reaction, but physical structure must affect the equation and/or physical 3d description of atoms and molecules bonding and separating.)
Guldberg and Waage also investigate the effects of temperature (on rate of reaction).
Guldberg discovers and correctly explains cryohydrates. (more details)
| (Academy of Sciences) Cristiania (now Oslo), Norway |
136 YBN
[08/05/1864 AD]
| 3178) Giovanni Battista Donati (DOnoTE) (CE 1826-1873) is the first to describe the spectrum of a comet. (show image) (find )
Donati shows that the spectrum of a comet at a distance from the sun shows only the spectrum of reflected light from the sun, but when the comet gets closer to the sun the spectrum changes (because light is emitted from the comet).
This observation indicates correctly that comet tails contain luminous gas and do not shine merely by reflected sunlight. (However, it seems to me that clearly that light emitted from the luminous gas are initiated by photons from the Sun. Perhaps the light is combusting gas or chemical reaction where atoms separate into photons, the reaction starting with photons from the Sun.)
Spectroscopic observation of the 1864 comet produce a line spectrum with three lines named alpha, beta, and gamma by Donati. The three lines are also seen in an 1866 comet by Secchi. The lines are shown in 1868 by Huggins to belong to carbon-containing substances. This is the start of trying to understand the composition of comets.
| Florence, Italy |
136 YBN
[09/08/1864 AD]
| 3428) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) and William Miller describe the spectra of nebula (of exploded stars, perhaps exo-nebulae), and the spectra of what are now known to be galaxies and globular clusters.
Huggins and Miller write in "On the Spectra of some of the Nebulae": "The concluding paragraphs of the preceding paper ('On the Spectra of Some of the Fixed Stars') refer to the similarity of essential constitution which our examination of the spectra of the fixed stars has shown in all cases to exist among the stars, and between them and our sun. It became therefore an object of great importance, in reference to our knowledge of the visible universe, to ascertain whether this similarity of plan observable among the stars, and uniting them with our sun into one great group, extended to the distinct and remarkable class of bodies known as nebulae. prismatic analysis, if it could be successfully applied to objects so faint, seemed to be a method of observation specially suitable for determining whether any essential physical distinction separates the nebulae from the stars, either in the nature of the matter of which they are composed, or in the conditions under which they exist as sources of light. The importance of bringing analysis by the prism to bear upon the nebulae is seen to be greater by the consideration that increase of optical power alone would probably fail to give the desired information; for, as the important researches of Lord Rosse have shown, at the same time that the number of the clusters may be increased by the resolution of supposed nebulae, other nebulous objects are revealed, and fantastic wisps and diffuse patches of light are seen, which it would be assumption to regard as due in all cases to the united glare of suns still more remote. Some of the most enigmatical of these wondrous objects are those which present in the telescope small round of slightly oval disks. For this reason they were placed by Sir William Herschel in a class by themselves under the name of Planetary nebulae. They present but little indication of resolvability. The colour of their light, which in the case of several is blue tinted with green, is remarkable, since this is a colour extremely rare amongst single stars. These nebulae, too, agree in showing no indication of central condensation. By these appearances the planetary nebulae are specifically marked as objects which probably present phenomena of an order altogether different from those which characterize the sun and the fixed stars. On this account, as well as because of their brightness, I selected these nebulae as the most suitable for examination with the prism. ... No. 4373...A planetary nebula; very bright; pretty small; suddenly brigher in the middle, very small nucleus. In Draco. On August 29, 1864, I directed the telescope armed with the spectrum apparatus to this nebula. At first I suspected some derangement of the instrument had taken place; for no spectrum was seen, but only a short line of light perpendicular to the direction of dispersion. I then found that the light of this nebular, unlike any other ex-terrestrial light which had yet been subjected by me to prismatic analysis, was not composed of light of different refrangibilities, and therefore could not form a spectrum. A great part of the light from this nebula is monoschromatic, and after passing through the prisms remains concentrated in a bright line occupying in the instrument the position of that part of the spectrum to which its light corresponds in refrangibility. A more careful examination with a narrower slit, however, showed that, a little more refrangible than the bright line, and separated from it by a dark interval, a narrower and much fainter line occurs. Beyond this, again, at about three times the distance of the second line, a third, exceedingly faint line was seen. The positions of these lines in the spectrum were determined by a simulataneous comparison of them in the instrument with the spectrum of the induction spark taken between electrodes of magnesium. The strongest line coincides in position with the brightest of the air lines. This line is due to nitrogen, and occurs in the spectrum about midway between b and F of the solar spectrum. Its position is seen in Plate XI. The faintest of the lines of the nebula agrees in position with the line of hydrogen corresponding to Fraunhofer's F. The other bright line was compared with the strong line of barium 2075: this line is a little more refrangible than that belonging to the nebula. Besides these lines, an exceedingly faint spectrum was just perceived for a short distance on both sides of the group of bright lines. I suspect this is not uniform, but is crossed with dark spaces. Subsequent observations on other nebulae induce me to regard this faint spectrum as due to the solid or liquid matter of the nucleus, and as quite distinct from the bright lines into which nearly the whole of the light from the nebula is concentrated. In the diagram (fig. 5 Plate X) the three principal lines only are inserted, for it would be scarcely possible to represent the faint spectrum without greatly exaggerating its intensity. The colour of this nebula is greenish blue. No. 4390 ... A planetary nebula; ...In Taurus Poniatowskii. The spectrum is essentially the same as that of No. 4373. ...this nebula does not posses a distinct nucleus... No. 4514...A planetary nebula with a central star...In Cygnus. The same bright three lines were seen. ... No. 4510. ... A planetary nebula...in Sagittarius. ...The two brighter of the lines were well defined, and were directly compared withthe induction spark. The third line was seen only by glimpses. ...No. 4628 .. Planetary ... In Aquarius. The three bright lines very sharp and distinct. ... No. 4447...An annular nebula .. In Lyra. ... The brightest of the three lines was well seen. ... No indication whatever of a faint spectrum. The bright line looks remarkable, since it consists of two bright dots corresponding to sections of the ring, and between these was not darkness, but an excessively faint line joining them. ...
... No. 4964. ... Planetary... In the spectrum of this nebula, however, in addition to three bright lines, a fourth bright line, excessively faint, was seen. ...
No. 4294 ... In Hercules. Very bright globular cluster of stars. ... A faint spectrum similar to that of a star. ... No. 116 ... The brightest part of the great nebula in Andromeda was brough upon the slit. ... The light appears to cease very abruptly in the orange...No indication of the bright lines. No. 117 ... This small but very bright companion of the great nebula in Andromeda presents a spectrum apparently exactly similar to that of 31 M. ... No. 428 55 Androm. ... Fine nebulous star with strong atmopshere. The spectrum apparently similar to that of an ordinary star.
No. 826 ...Very bright cluster. in Eridanus. ... no indication of the bright lines.
Several other nebulae were observed, but of these the light was found to be too faint to admit of satisfactory examination with the spectrum apparatus. ... Sir john Herschel remarks of one of this class, in reference to the absence of central condensation, 'Such an appearance would not be presented by a globular space uniformly filled with stars or luminous matter, which structure would necessarily give rise to an apparent increase of brightness towards the centre in proportion to the thickness traversed by the visual ray. We might therefore be inclined to conclude its real constitution to be either that of a hollow spherical shell or of a flat disk presented to us (by a highly improbably coincidence) in a plane precisely perpendicular to the visual ray'. This absence of condensation admits of explanation, without recourse to the supposition of a shell or of a flat disk, if we consider them to be masses of glowing gas. For supposing, as we probably must do, that the whole mass of the gas is luminous, yet it would follow, by the law which results from the investigations of Kirchhoff, that the light emitted by the portions of gas beyond the surface visible to us, would be in great measure, if not wholly, absorbed by the portion of gas through which it would have to pass, and for this reason there would be presented to us a luminous surface only. (Sir William herschel in 1811 pointed out the necessity of supposing the matter of the planetary nebulae to have the powere of intercepting light. He wrote:- 'Admitting that these nebulae are globular collections of nebulous matter, they could not appear equally bright if the nebulosity of which they are composed consisted only of a luminous substabce perfectly penetrable to light.....Is it not rather to be supposed that a certain high degree of condensation has already brought on a sufficient consolidation to prevent the penetration of light, which by this means is reduced to a superficial planetary appearance?') Sir John Herschel further remarks, 'Whatever idea we may form of the real nature of the planetary nebulae, which all agree in the absence of central condensation, it is evidence that the intrinsic splendour of their surfaces, if continuous, must be almost infinitely less than that of the sun. A circular portion of the sun's disk, subtending an angle of 1', would give a light equal to that of 780 full moons, while among all the objects in question there is not one which can be seen with the naked eye.' The small brilliancy of these nebulae is in accordance with the conclusions suggested by the observations of this paper; for, reasoning by analogy from terrestrial physics, glowing or luminous gas would be very inferior in splendour to incandescent solid or liquid matter. Such gaseous masses would be doubtless, from many causes, unequally dense in different portions; and if matter condensed into the liquid or solid state were also present, it would, from its superior splendour, be visible as a bright point of points within the disk of the nebula. These suggestions are in close accordance with the observations of Lord Rosse. Another consideration with opposes the notion that these nebulae are clusters of stars is found in the extreme simplicity of constitution which the three bright lines suggest, whether or not we regard these lines as indicating the presence of nitrogen, hydrogen, and a substance unknown. It is perhaps of importance to state that, except nitrogen, no one of thirty of the chemical elements the spectra of which I have measured has a strong line very near the bright line of the nebulae. If, however, this line were due to nitrogen, we ought to see other lines as well; for there are specially two strong double lines in the spectrum of nitrogen, one at least of which, if they existed in the light of the nebulae, would be easily visible. In my experiments on the spectrum of nitrogen, I found that the character of the brightest of the lines of nitrogen, that with which the line in the nebulae coincides, differs from that of the two double lines next in brilliancy. This line is more nebulous at the edges, even when the slit is narrow and the other lines are thin and sharp. The same phenomenon was observed with some of the other elements. We do not yet know the origin of this difference of character observable among lines of the same element. May it not indicate a physical difference in the atoms, in connexion with the vibrations of which the lines are probably produced? The speculation presents itself, whether the occurrence of this one line only in the nebulae may not indicate a form of matter more elementary than nitrogen, and which our analysis has not yet enabled us to detect. Observations on other nebulae which I hope to make, may throw light upon these and other considerations connected with these wonderful objects. ...".
Since Kirchhoff had demonstrated that only gaseous bodies yield emission-line spectra, Huggins concludes that these nebulae must consist of "enormous masses of luminous gas or vapour" as opposed to clusters of stars.
(Does Huggins use vacuum tubes with the induction coil, as reference lines?) (It seems that the nitrogen is perhaps being destroyed, or is clearly losing mass to photons. And so the question is what process is causing the nitrogen to emit photons? Nitrogen alone does not combust with oxygen (although Nitrogen does easily assist combustion when combined with other atoms such as hydrocarbons like in nitrocellulose), is this a chain reaction of photons or electrons unraveling nitrogen atoms? Nitrogen emits photons when subjected to a voltage differential; is this the result of a voltage difference? it is not enough to say, these photons fit the frequency of photons emitted from nitrogen under high electric potential in a vacuum tube. An explanation of how nitrogen is emitting photons where there apparently is no voltage differential is necessary. It is pretty amazing to imaging that there is a massive body of gas just floating in empty space that is slowly emitting photons for millions of years. It is as if, perhaps a massive cloud of gasoline and oxygen was slowly burning in empty space, not exploding all at once as a person might expect. Looking at the image below, is there a large mass of transparent gas that serves as the fuel for the constant emission of photons? Can we presume that the transparent parts are filled with some kind of transparent gas? Seeing refraction of light might indicate that, but that would take being on both sides of the nebula. Perhaps the gas was densely packed in the star, and when the star unwound or fell apart, the gas was freed or expanded into the surrounding space, no longer held to the star by the large mass of the inner core of the star. But still why the gas emits photons is unclear to me. What kind of chain reaction is this that is slowly emitting a regular quantity of light, converting some gas fuel into its source photons at a regular rate? Perhaps a small photon emitting star is at the center, and photons and/or electrons from the central star cause the photon emissions of the surrounding gas.) (Then what explains that all nitrogen lines are not there. Is this gas nitrogen or some other gas? Do some gases have the same spectral lines? )
(Huggins takes first photographs of exo-nebula?)
(I don't think the explanation of the light emited from nebulae has been definitely explained. Is this a phenomenon of an atom separating into its source photons? Why does the entire gas cloud simply separate into photons all at once, why the very slow separation? Is nebula light an example of an atom simply absorbing photons of characteristic frequencies from stars and then re-emiting those photons at characteristic frequencies? If yes, this should be easy to duplicate in a laboratory - wouldn't we see gases often luminesce in this way simply from sun light?)
EXPERIMENT: Reproduce the emission of photons from hydrogen, nitrogen and other gases from a light and/or electron beams source - ie make a small test model of a light emiting nebulae stimulated into light emission from photon and/or electron collision. Show this in a video to the public for free on the Internet.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
136 YBN
[10/27/1864 AD]
| 3657) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879) creates the electromagnetic theory of light, as part of a theory of an electromagnetic field which is based on actions in a surrounding aether medium.
Maxwell publishes this theory as "A Dynamical Theory of the Electromagnetic Field".
In this work, Maxwell first explicitly states his theory that light is an electromagnetic disturbance in an aether medium. Maxwell writes "we have strong reason to conclude that light itself, (including radiant heat, and other radiations if any) is an electromagnetic disturbance in the form of waves propagated through the electromagnetic field...". This theory of light as an electromagnetic wave will hold popularity even to this day more than 140 years later, even after evidence of no aether will be found in the early 1900s by Michelson and Morley. In my view, the claim needs to be reversed, electromagnetism is probably a product of light. In this view, light is a particle, and is the basis of all matter. Maxwell can be credited with associating light and electricity, as Weber had, but it appears that Maxwell never explicitly states that light emits from electrical sources, or that oscillating electrical sources produce low frequency light waves which will come to be called "Hertzian" waves and then "radio".
Maxwell theorizes that light, including radiant heat, is the only disturbance in the aether that can be propagated through a non-conducting field, and is always in a transverse direction to the direction of propagation (of the magnetic field in a conducting field). To put in simple terms, Maxwell theorizes that there is an aether medium in which electricity and magnetism are disturbances in conducting materials and that these disturbances in nonconducting material are light and are always in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field in the conductor. I view electric particles to either be photons, or certainly made of photons, and so as they move through a conductor they may be broken apart themselves by collision or break apart other photons groups within conductors. These collisions release photons which maintain their inertial velocity in exiting in all directions. So these emissions are in all directions around an electric current - not just perpendicularly. Much of the problem with the theory of light as an electromagnetic wave comes from the problem of there being no aether medium. (verify this claim, in particular where I have filled in the blanks for Maxwell's claim.)
By this time, it is clear that infrared, ultraviolet and visible light are all various frequencies of light (more commonly referred to as different wavelengths of light in the prevailing wave model for light- which is equivalent to the concept of "particle interval" in the less popular particle model for light). It is also clear by this time that electricity emits light with visible frequency in the form of incandescent metals and gases in vacuum tubes. What is not yet understood is that 1) electrical inductance is conveyed by light (?), 2) that electrical oscillation can be used to create different frequencies of light (Hertz), and 3) that there are very low frequencies of light which will be called "radio" frequencies (Hertz).
Note: Maxwell, wrongly views magnetism and electricity as two different and separate phenomena as opposed to Ampere who viewed magnetism strictly as a result of electricity, which in my view is more probable. So, in principle, Ampere had unified electricity and magnetism by stating that magnetism is the result of electric current. However, we have yet to see 3D modeling and a correct representation mathematically of how a so-called magnetic field is composed of electri particles from an electric current. In fact, the idea that a magnetic field is an electric field around moving electric current, made of electric particles, is not offered as a possible theory by most educational sources when discussing magnetism. Many people credit Maxwell with unifying electricity and magnetism, but in my view Maxwell's sine wave aether medium theory for light is absolutely and provably false, and so, the concept of light as composed of electric and magnetic waves is also false.
In Part III of this work the term "electromagnetic field" is introduced. This is the beginning of the "electromagnetic wave theory of light". This theory is still accepted by a majority of people. The spectrum of light is still called the "electromagnetic spectrum".
Maxwell displays 20 major equations in this paper (another way of describing them is 8 equations, 6 of which are made of 3 separate equations, 1 for each of 3 dimensions {x,y,z}). (is this the first time these equations are written?) Oliver Heaviside will reduce these 20 equations to 4 equations in a 1893 paper. Heaviside makes 3 changes: 1) Heaviside uses rationalized units (as opposed to cgs units?), 2) he uses vector notation similar to contemporary notation, with "curl", "div" and boldface (Clarendon) type, and 3) he writes the equations in "the duplex form I introduced in 1885, whereby the electric and magnetic sides of electromagnetism are symmetrically exhibited and connected...".
A Div (see image 14), the divergence operator, is a differential operator applied to a three-dimensional vector function. The result is a function that describes a rate of change. (see equation) The divergence operator measures the magnitude of a vector field's source or sink at a given point; the divergence of a vector field is a (signed) scalar. For example, for a vector field that denotes the velocity of air expanding as it is heated, the divergence of the velocity field would have a positive value because the air expands. If the air cools and contracts, the divergence is negative. In this specific example the divergence could be thought of as a measure of the change in density. A vector field that has zero divergence everywhere is called solenoidal.
A curl (see image) is a differential operator that can be applied to a vector-valued function (or vector field) in order to measure its degree of local spinning. It consists of a combination of the function's first partial derivatives. A curl shows a vector field's "rotation"; that is, the direction of the axis of rotation and the magnitude of the rotation. It can also be described as the circulation density. A vector field which has a zero curl everywhere is called irrotational. The alternative terminology "rotor", rot(F) is often used.
(Trace history of these two operators Div and Curl.)
EXPERIMENT: Clearly demonstrate that all magnetic fields are composed of electric particles. This may involve using electron and other charge particle detectors. Examine both electro and permanent magnetic fields in the infrared, are there photons emited (sic) in specific frequencies? Is the permanent magnet warmer than an equivalent unmagnetized piece of iron?
(In separating a magnetic "field" from an electric current (dynamic electric field) and static electric field, Maxwell greatly confuses the common understanding of electric and magnetic phenomena. The mistaken belief that a magnetic field is not the extension of an electric current continues to this day. The simple truth to me appears to be that all magnetic fields, electromagnetic or permanent, are simply electric currents which extend outside of the visible conductor, they are made out of electric particles and are identical to the particles moving within the visible portion of the conductor.)
Augusto Righi explains clearly in his "Modern Theory of Physical Phenomena" in 1904: "Following the example of Fresnel, light vibrations were considered for a long while to be true mechanical vibrations of the ethereal and material particles, but later it was recognized, especially in consequence of the work of Maxwell, that light wave could be considered as electromagnetic waves; thus two distinct classes of physical phenomena were united.".
| (King's College) London, England |
136 YBN
[1864 AD]
| 2994) August Joseph Ignaz Töpler (Toepler) (CE 1836-1912) develops a technique to image differences in liquid or gas density which can show liquid and gas flows by using the fact that light bends (refracts) in different amounts in different densities of a material.
Töpler uses the Schlieren technique was originally developed for testing lenses (L. Foucault 1859), A. Toepler( 1864) was the first scientist to develop the technique for observation of liquid or gaseous flow.
"Schlieren" are regions or stria in a medium that is surrounded by a medium of different refractive index.
Schlieren photography is sensitive enough to record the pattern of warm air rising from a human hand.
| (Polytechnic Institute of Riga) Riga, Latvia (presumably) |
136 YBN
[1864 AD]
| 3207) Franciscus Cornelis Donders (DoNDRZ or DxNDRZ) (CE 1818-1889) Dutch physiologist, publishes "On the Anomalies of Accommodation and Refraction" (1864), which is the first important work in the field of ophthamology and summarizes Donders' work. After this it is possible to design and make lenses that correct imperfect vision with greater accuracy.
| (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
136 YBN
[1864 AD]
| 3410) Charles Hermite (ARmET) (CE 1822-1901), French mathematician creates what will be called "Hermite polynomials", which are a set of orthogonal polynomials over the domain (-infinity,infinity) with weighting function e(-x2) (presumably published first in ).
The Hermite polynomials may be defined as (see image 5).
This work is important in quantum physics.
| (Collège de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
136 YBN
[1864 AD]
| 3492) (Sir) Edward Frankland (CE 1825-1899), English chemist, working with B. F. Duppa, points out that the carboxyl group (–COOH, which he calls 'oxatyl') is a constant feature of the series of organic acids.
(find original paper)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
136 YBN
[1864 AD]
| 3502) Tyndall, Hirst, Huxley, Frankland, Joseph Hooker, G. Busk, J. Lubbock, Herbert Spencer, and W. Spottiswoode form the X Club, an informal pressure group that becomes actively involved in lobbying for an improved organization of science and for the creation of a powerful scientific profession.
| London, England |
136 YBN
[1864 AD]
| 3569) Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov (BUTlYuruF) (CE 1828-1886), Russian chemist, obtains the first known tertiary alcohol, tertiary-butyl alcohol. Butlerov studies the reaction zinc dimethyl has on phosgene; which produces alcohols, and then the reaction in which acetyl chloride replaces phosgene which results in tertiary-butyl alcohol.
| (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
136 YBN
[1864 AD]
| 3757) Wilhelm (Willy) Friedrich Kühne (KYUNu) (CE 1837-1900), German physiologist isolates and names the protein myosin in muscle. (see also )
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
135 YBN
[01/11/1865 AD]
| 3429) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) and William Miller describe the spectra of the Orion nebula (a nebula of newly formed stars, which should perhaps be referred to as a novi-nebula or some popular identifying name to distinguish from exploded or exo-nebulae). Huggins and Miller show that the Orion nebula has the typical three spectral lines which indicate it is a gas, while the stars in the Orion nebula have spectra fulled with bright lines like ordinary stars.
Huggins writes in "On the Spectrum of the Great Nebula in the Sword-Handle of Orion": "... I then examined the Great nebula in the Sword-handle of Orion. The results of telescopic observation on this nebula seem to show that it is suitable for observation as a crucial test of the correctness of the usually received opinion that the resolution of a nebula into bright steller points is a certain and trustworthy indication that the nebula consists of discrete stars after the order of those which are bright to us. Would the brighter portions of the nebula adjacent to the trapezium, which have been resolved into stars, present the same spectrum as the fainter and outlying portions? in the brighter parts, would the existence of closely aggregated stars be revealed to us by a continuous spectrum, in addition to that of the true gaseous matter? ... The light from the brightest parts of the nebula near the trapezium was resolved by the prisms into three bright lines, in all respects similar to those of the gaseous nebulae, and which are described in my former paper. These three line, indicative of gaseity, appeared (when the slit of the apparatus was made narrow) very sharply defined and free from nebulosityl the intervals between the lines were quite dark. When either of the four bright stars, α, β, γ, δ Trapezii was brough upon the slit, a continuous spectrum of considerable brightness, and nearly linear (the cylindrical lens of he apparatus having been removed) was seen, together with the bright lines of the nebula, which were of considerable length, corresponding to the length of the opening of the slit. ... The part of the continuous spectra of the stars α, β, γ, near the position in the spectrum of the brightest of the bright lines of the nebula, appeared on a simultaneous comparison to be more brilliant than the line of the nebula, but in the case of γ the difference in brightness was not great. The corresponding part of δ was perhaps fainter. In cconsequence of this small difference of brilliancy, the bright lines of the adjacent nebula appeared to cross the continuous spectra of γ and δ Trapezii. Other portions of the nebula were then brough successively upon the slit; but throughout the whole of those portions of the nebula which are sufficiently bright for this method of observation the spectrum remained unchanged, and consisted of the three bright lines only. The whole of this Great Nebula, as far as it lies within the power of my instrument, emits light which is identical in its characters; the light from one part differs from the light of another in intensity alone. ... The evidence afforded by the largest telescopes appears to be that the brighter parts of the nebula in Orion consist of a 'mass of stars'; the whole, or the greater part of the light from this part of the nebula, must therefore be regarded as the united radiation of these numerous stellar points. now it is this light which, when analyzed by the prism, reveals to us its gaseous source, and the bright lines indicative of gaseity are free from any trace of a continnuous spectrum, such as that exhibited by all the brighter stars which we have examined. The conclusion is obvious, that the detection in a nebula of minute closely associated points of light, which has hitherto been considered as a certain indication of a stellar constitution, can no longer be accepted as a trustworthy proof that the object consists of true stars. These luminous points, in some nebulae at least, must be regarded as themselves gaseous bodies, denser portions, probably, of the great nebulous mass, since they exhibit a constitution which is identical with the fainter and outlying parts which have not been resolved. These nebulae are shown by the prism to be enormous gaseous systems; and the conjecture appears probable that their apparent permanence of general form is maintained by the continual motions of these denser portions which the telescope reveals as lucid points. ... My observations, as far as they extend at present, seem to be in favour of the opinion that the nebulae which give a gaseous spectrum, are systems possessing a structure, and a purpose in relation to the universe, altogether distinct and of another order from the great group of cosmical bodies to which our sun and the fixed stars belong. The nebulous star i Orionis was examined, but no peculiarity could be detected in its continuous spectrum."
(This shows that nebulae gas emit their own spectral lines which are the same as gas excited by a high voltage in a vacuum tube, or burned in oxygen.{verify} What causes the gas to emit photons? Perhaps they are separated by photons or other particles from the stars, or perhaps they fluoresce from photons from stars.)
(Huggins takes first photographs of endo-nebula?)
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
135 YBN
[02/??/1865 AD]
| 3465) Anders Jonas Angström (oNGSTruM) (CE 1814-1874), Swedish physicist, and R. Thalen publish a comparison of the solar spectrum to the violet portion of the spectra of elements seen with a voltaic battery (as opposed to an induction coil) in "Proceedings of the Stockholm Academy".
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
135 YBN
[04/24/1865 AD]
| 3370) Rudolf Julius Emmanuel Clausius (KLoUZEUS) (CE 1822-1888), German physicist, reads before the Philosophical Society of Zurich his best-remembered paper, Clausius' ninth memoir, "Ueber verschiedene für die Anwendung bequeme Formen der Hauptgleichungen der mechanischen Wärmetheorie" ("On Several Convenient Forms of the Fundamental Equations of the Mechanical Theory of Heat."). In this paper the word "entropy" is used for the first time. Clausius explains that he created the word from the Greek "τροπὴ", or "transformation", writing "I have intentionally formed the word entropy so as to be as similar as possible to the word energy; for the two magnitudes to be denoted by these words are so nearly allied in their physical meanings, that a certain similarity in designation appears to be desirable.".
In common language entropy is the inevitable transformation of some part of the energy in any real physical process into a form which is no longer utilizable. Clausius describes the cosmic consequences his analysis of thermodynamics writing: (translated from German) "If for the entire universe we conceive the same magnitude to be determined, consistently and with due regard to all circumstances, which for a single body I have called entropy, and if at the same time we introduce the other and simpler conception of energy, we may express in the following manner the fundamental laws of the universe which correspond to the two fundamental theorems of the mechanical theory of heat (1) The energy of the universe is constant. (2) The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.". In German "Die Energie der Welt ist constant; die Entropie strebt einen Maximum zu".
Clausius defines entropy as the claim that the ratio of heat content in a system and its absolute temperature always increases in any process taking place in a closed system. Some interpret this as the definition of the second law of thermodynamics in addition to the definition: heat can never move from a colder object to a hotter object.
The American Heritage Dictionary gives 5 definitions of Entropy: 1. (Symbol S) For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work. 2. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system. 3. A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message. 4. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity. 5. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes entropy like this: Entropy is the "Measure of a system's energy that is unavailable for work, or of the degree of a system's disorder. When heat is added to a system held at constant temperature, the change in entropy is related to the change in energy, the pressure, the temperature, and the change in volume. (Entropy's) magnitude varies from zero to the total amount of energy in a system. The concept, first proposed in 1850 by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius (1822 – 1888), is sometimes presented as the second law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy increases during irreversible processes such as spontaneous mixing of hot and cold gases, uncontrolled expansion of a gas into a vacuum, and combustion of fuel. In popular, nontechnical use, entropy is regarded as a measure of the chaos or randomness of a system.".
One example given to explain the concept of entropy is this (given by the Columbia Encyclopedia): a system is composed of a hot body and a cold body; this system is ordered because the faster, more energetic molecules of the hot body are separated from the less energetic molecules of the cold body. If the bodies are placed in contact, heat will flow from the hot body to the cold one. This heat flow can be utilized by a heat engine (device which turns thermal energy into mechanical energy, or work), but once the two bodies have reached the same temperature, no more work can be done. Furthermore, the combined average temperature bodies cannot unmix themselves into hot and cold parts in order to repeat the process. Although no energy has been lost by the heat transfer, the energy can no longer be used to do work. Therefore the entropy of the system has increased. According to the second law of thermodynamics, during any process the change in entropy of a system and its surroundings is either zero or positive. In other words the entropy of the universe as a whole tends toward a maximum. This means that although energy cannot be destroyed because of the law of conservation of energy, it tends to be degraded from useful forms to useless ones.
Clausius begins his ninth memoir (translated from German): "IN my former Memoirs on the Mechanical Theory of Heat, my chief object was to secure a firm basis for the theory, and I especially endeavoured to bring the second fundamental theorem, which is much more difficult to understand than the first, to its simplest and at the same time most general form, and to prove the necessary truth thereof. I have pursued special applications so far only as they appeared to me to be either appropriate as examples elucidating the exposition, or to be of some particular interest in practice. The more the mechanical theory of heat is acknowledged to be correct in its principles, the more frequently endeavours are made in physical and mechanical circles to apply it to different kinds of phenomena, and as the corresponding differential equations must be somewhat differently treated from the ordinarily occurring differential equations of similar forms, difficulties of calculation are frequently encountered which retard progress and occasion errors. Under these circumstances I believe I shall render a service to physicists and mechanicians by bringing the fundamental equations of the mechanical theory of heat from their most general forms to others which, corresponding to special suppositions and being susceptible of direct application to different particular cases, are accordingly more convenient for use. 1. The whole mechanical theory of heat rests on two fundamental theorems,- that of the equivalence of heat and work, and that of the equivalence of transformations. In order to express the first theorem analytically, let us contemplate any body which changes its condition, and consider the quantity of heat which must be imparted to it during the change. If we denote this quantity of heat by Q, a quantity of heat given off by the body being reckoned as a negative quantity of heat absorbed, then the following equation holds for the element dQ of heat absorbed during an infinitesimal change of condition,
dQ=dU+AdW.....(I)
Here U denotes the magnitude which I first introduced into the theory of heat in my memoir of 1850, and defined as the sum of the free heat present in the body, and of that consumed by interior work. Since then, however, W. Thomson has proposed the term energy of the body for this magnitude, which mode of designation I have adopted as one very appropriately chosen; nevertheless, in all cases where the two elements comprised in U require to be separately indicated, we may also retain the phrase thermal and ergonal content, which as already explained on p. 255, expresses my original definition of U in a rather simpler manner. W denotes the exterior work done during the change of condition of the body, and A the quantity of heat equivalent to the unit of work, or more briefly the thermal equivalent of work. According to this AW is the exterior work expressed in thermal units, or according to a more convenient terminology recently proposed by me, the exterior ergon (See Appendix A. to Sixth Memoir.) If, for the sake of brevity, we denote the exterior ergon by a simple letter, w=AW,
we can write the foregoing equation as follows,
dQ=dU + dw..... (1a)
In order to express analytically the second fundamental theorem in the simplest manner, let us assume that the changes which the body suffers constitute a cyclical process, whereby the body returns finally to its initial condition. By dQ we will again understand an element of heat absorbed, and T shall denote the temperature, counted from the absolute zero, which the body has at the moment of absorption, or, if different parts of the body have different temperatures, the temperature of the part which absorbs the heat element dQ. If we divide the thermal element by the corresponding absolute temperature and integrate the resulting differential expression over the whole cyclical process, then for the integral so formed the relation
Integral dQ/T <= 0
holds, in which the sign of equality is to be used in cases where all changes of which the cyclical process consists are reversible, whilst the sign < applies to cases where the changes occur in a non-reversible manner. ..." Clausius goes on to define the word entropy: "...we obtain the equation:
IntegraldQ/T=S-S0
We might call S the transformational content of the body, just as we termed the magnitude U its thermal and ergonal content. But as I hold it to be better to borrow terms for important magnitudes from the ancient languages, so that they may be adopted unchanged in all modern languages, I propose to call the magnitude S the entropy of the body, from the Greek word τροπὴ, transformation. I have intentionally formed the word entropy so as to be as similar as possible to the word energy; for the two magnitudes to be denoted by these words are so nearly allied in their physical meanings, that a certain similarity in designation appears to be desirable. Before proceeding further, let us collect together, for the sake of reference, the magnitudes which have been discussed in the course of this Memoir, and which have either been introduced into science by the mechanical theory of heat, or have obtained thereby a different meaning. They are six in number, and possess in common the property of being defined by the present condition of the body, without the necessity of our knowing the mode in which the body came into this condition: (1) the thermal content, (2) the ergonal content, (3) the sum of the two foregoing, that is to say the thermal and ergonal content, or the energy, (4) the transformation-value of the thermal content, (5) the disgregation, which is to be considered as the transformation-value of the existing arrangement of particles, (6) the sum of the last two, that is to say, the transformational content, or the entropy. ..." Clausius concludes by writing: " In conclusion I wish to allude to a subject whose complete treatment could certainly not take place here, the expositions necessary for that purpose being of too wide a range, but relative to which even a brief statement may not be without interest, inasmuch as it will help to show the general importance of the magnitudes which I have introduced when formulizing the second fundamental theorem of the mechanical theory of heat. The second fundamental theorem, in the form which I have given to it, asserts that all transformations occurring in nature may take place in a certain direction, which I have assumed as positive, by themselves, that is, without compensation; but that in the opposite, and consequently negative direction, they can only take place in such a manner as to be compensated by simultaneously occurring positive transformations. The application of this theorem to the Universe leads to a conclusion to which W. Thomson first drew attention, and of which I have spoken in the Eighth Memoir. In fact, if in all the changes of condition occurring in the universe the transformations in one definite direction exceed in magnitude those in the opposite direction, the entire condition of the universe must always continue to change in that first direction, and the universe must consequently approach incessantly a limiting condition. The question is, how simply and at the same time definitely to characterize this limiting condition. This can be done by considering, as I have done, transformations as mathematical quantities whose equivalence-values may be calculated, and by algebraical addition united in one sum. In my former Memoirs I have performed such calculations relative to the heat present in bodies, and to the arrangement of the particles of the body. For every body two magnitudes have thereby presented themselves- the transformation-value of its thermal content, and its disgregation; the sum of which constitutes its entropy. But with this the matter is not exhausted; radiant heat must also be considered, in other words, the heat distributed in space in the form of advancing oscillations of the aether must be studied, and further, our researches must be extended to motions which cannot be included in the term Heat. The treatment of the last might soon be completed, at least so far as relates to the motions of ponderable masses, since allied considerations lead us to the following conclusion. When a mass which is so great that an atom in comparison with it may be considered as infinitely small, moves as a whole, the transformation-value of its motion must also be regarded as infinitesimal when compared with its vis-viva; whence it follows that if such a motion by any passive resistance becomes converted into heat, the equivalence-value of the uncompensated transformation thereby occurring will be represented simply by the transformation-value of the heat generated. Radiant heat, on the contrary, cannot be so briefly treated, since it requires certain special considerations in order to be able to state how its transformation-value is to be determined. Although I have already, in the Eighth Memoir above referred to, spoken of radiant heat in connexion with the mechanical theory of heat, I have not alluded to the present question, my sole intention being to prove that no contradiction exists between the laws of radiant heat and an axiom assumed by me in the mechanical theory of heat. I reserve for future consideration the more special application of the mechanical theory of heat, and particularly of the theorem of the equivalence of transformations to radiant heat. For the present I will confine myself to the statement of one result. If for the entire universe we conceive the same magnitude to be determined, consistently and with due regard to all circumstances, which for a single body I have called entropy, and if at the same time we introduce the other and simpler conception of energy, we may express in the following manner the fundamental laws of the universe which correspond to the two fundamental theorems of the mechanical theory of heat. 1. The energy of the universe is constant. 2. The entropy of the universe tends to a maximum.".
(Interesting that entropy is viewed to be a property of a single body, as is energy. before reading this, I had viewed entropy as being defined as more of a collective phenomenon. Interesting also, the admission that this theory does not include all motion, in particular the motion that is not heat (for example, perhaps photons in frequencies that are reflected by thermometer materials such as mercury, and the important possibility of photons and other particles in orbit of atoms). So without including that other motion, isn't the theory of entropy incomplete?)
(I view this concept of entropy as inaccurate because I think the view is that there is some finite quantity of fuel to be used to do work, and in my view, I see the use of fuel to do work as simply a redistribution of matter and velocity. Humans can harness the photons in atoms for ship propulsion, for example, however, the photons simply move out into the universe and reform atoms under gravity. In some sense, perhaps the equation has to do with, how long does it take for free photons to accumulate into protons and larger atoms, versus how quickly can life separate atoms into free photons? But beyond that, using gravity for work, does not result in the separation of atoms into photons, for example in the work done by water or wind moving a wheel, there is no loss of fuel, although some photons are freed from friction {far fewer than through atomic separation}. It seems relatively clear to me that the concept of entropy is most likely inaccurate, but I am the only person I know who rejects the concept of entropy. It's most simple to say motion {velocity} is conserved throughout the universe, and therefore, it seems doubtful that there is some process where velocity is used up or destroyed, and if velocity cannot be destroyed, it seems unlikely that matter could ever be statically distributed unmoving in space, in particular give the current ratio of matter to space that is observed. EXPER: what is this ratio? I think this depends on how small a space and a matter is defined, but simply looking out into space, a rough estimate is 1 to 1 million matter to space, if not larger. This concept of entropy is accepted by most people in science. Perhaps it is the complexity that causes people to accept it, or perhaps the unpleasantness of rejecting the theory of a fellow scientist, and/or rejecting traditional popular scientific theories once they become accepted as accurate. Without trying to sound harsh but stating what I think is historical fact: like time dilation, the expanding universe, the ether, and earth centered universe theories, so there is entropy which has tricked the majority.)
(This concept of non-reversible reactions, I think is inaccurate, because all of these reactions are reversible. The key concept is the theory that free photons combine to form atoms, so that all reactions are completely reversible. Free photons combine to form higher temperature stars, so in this sense, a hotter object is created from colder objects. As an aside, this discussion about heat, reminds me of an article in Discover magazine about how humans could be harnessing the heat from inside the Earth to do work, for example provide electricity for those living on the surface and in orbit, so-called geothermal energy or heat. In a heat engine, is it hot air molecules doing the work, or photons directly?)
(So i think that the concept and work "entropy" is not really a good word to use for myself to describe anything in the universe. I think a better word is "diffusion", but perhaps entropy will be eventually defined as being equated to the concept of diffusion. I think this is a phenomenon of matter moving into available space because of collision and gravity. My goal is not to make people feel bad, but to fully understand what the claims of popular science theories are. We owe it to ourselves to try and fully understand and explain in the simplest terms possible popular theories of science.) Currently, the popular view among the majority of those in science is that there are 4 laws of thermodynamics. (State origin of each) 0) The zeroth law of thermodynamics is a generalized statement about thermal equilibrium between bodies in contact. It is the result of the definition and properties of temperature. A common enunciation of the zeroth law of thermodynamics is: If two thermodynamic systems are in thermal equilibrium with a third, they are also in thermal equilibrium with each other.
1) The first law of thermodynamics is an expression of the more universal physical law of the conservation of energy. The first law of thermodynamics states: "The increase in the internal energy of a system is equal to the amount of energy added by heating the system, minus the amount lost as a result of the work done by the system on its surroundings."
2) The second law of thermodynamics is an expression of the universal law of increasing entropy, stating that the entropy of an isolated system which is not in equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value at equilibrium. There are many versions of the second law, but they all have the same effect, which is to explain the phenomenon of irreversibility in nature.
3) The third law of thermodynamics is a statistical law of nature regarding entropy and the impossibility of reaching absolute zero of temperature. The most common enunciation of third law of thermodynamics is: "As a system approaches absolute zero, all processes cease and the entropy of the system approaches a minimum value." It can be concluded as 'If T=0K, then S=0' where T is the temperature of a closed system and S is the entropy of the system.
In addition, there is the fundamental thermodynamic relation: The fundamental thermodynamic relation is a mathematical summation of the first law of thermodynamics and the second law of thermodynamics subsumed into a single concise mathematical statement as shown below: dE= TdS - PdV Here, E is internal energy, T is temperature, S is entropy, P is pressure, and V is volume.
(Simply put: the sum total of all heat gained and lost in the universe must equal zero, presuming the laws of conservation of mass and conservation of velocity to be true. So, any heat lost is one space always gained in some other adjacent space. So therefore, in my opinion, the law of entropy, the second law of thermodynamics is false.)
| (New Polytechnicum) Zurich, Germany |
135 YBN
[08/12/1865 AD]
| 3548) (Baron) Joseph Lister (CE 1827-1912), English surgeon, successfully uses carbolic acid (phenol, C6H5OH, a weak acid derived from benzene) to disinfect wounds.
In 1865, Thomas Anderson, a professor of chemistry at Glasgow introduces Lister to the work of Louis Pasteur and the theory of diseases being caused by microorganisms.
In 1867 Lister published two short but revolutionary papers, which introduce the principles of antiseptic surgery into health science. In March 1867 Lister reports his results in "On a new method of treating compound fracture, abscess, etc. : with observations on the conditions of suppuration" in the Lancet. Between 1861 and 1865, between 45 and 50 percent of people with amputations in his Male Accident Ward died from sepsis. However, after this new antiseptic procedure between 1865 and 1869, the death rate, in his Male Accident Ward, falls from 45 to 15 percent.
Carbolic acid, had already been used to clean bad-smelling sewers, and was advised as a wound dressing in 1863 (by whom?). Eventually less irritating and more effective chemicals will be used.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Lister’s work is largely misunderstood in England and the United States. Opposition is directed against his germ theory rather than against his "carbolic treatment". However the Encyclopedia of Public Health reports that unlike Ignaz Semmelweiss and Oliver Wendell Holmes, who preceed Lister in recognizing the importance of cleanliness in preventing infection during childbirth, Lister offers a method that does not imply that doctors are dirty, and so his message is accepted as opposed to being rejected.
Lister writes "PART I. ON COMPOUND FRACTURE. THE frequency of disastrous consequences in compound fracture, contrasted with the complete immunity from danger to life or limb in simple fracture, is one of the most striking as well as melancholy facts in surgical practice. If we inquire how it is that an external wound communicating with the seat of fracture leads to such grave results, we cannot but conclude that it is by inducing, through access of the atmosphere, decomposition of the blood which is effused in greater or less amount around the fragments and among the interstices of the tissues, and, losing by putrefaction its natural bland character, and assuming the properties of an acrid irritant, occasions both local and general disturbance. We know that blood kept exposed to the air at the temperature of the body, in a vessel of glass or other material chemically inert, soon decomposes ; and there is no reason to suppose that the living tissues surrounding a mass of extravasated blood could preserve it from being affected in a similar manner by the atmosphere. On the contrary, it may be ascertained as a matter of observation that, in a compound fracture, twenty-four hours after the accident the coloured serum which oozes from the wound is already distinctly tainted with the odour of decomposition, and during the next two or three days, before suppuration has set in, the smell of the effused fluids becomes more and more offensive. This state of things is enough to account for all the bad consequences of the injury. ... Turning now to the question how the atmosphere produces decomposition of organic substances, we find that a flood of light has been thrown upon this most important subject by the philosophic researches of M. Pasteur, who has demonstrated by thoroughly convincing evidence that it is not to its oxygen or to any of its gaseous constituents that the air owes this property, but to minute particles suspended in it, which are the germs of various low forms of life, long since revealed by the microscope, and regarded as merely accidental concomitants of putrescence, but now shown by Pasteur to be its essential cause, resolving the complex organic compounds into substances of simpler chemical constitution, just as the yeast-plant converts sugar into alcohol and carbonic acid. ... Carbolic acid proved in various way well adapted for the purpose. it exercises a local sedative influence upon the sensory nerves; and hence is not only almost painless in its immediate action on a raw surface, but speedily renders a wound previous painful entirely free from uneasiness. When employed in compound fracture its caustic properties are mitigated so as to be unobjectionable by admixture with the blood, with which it forms a tenacious mass that hardens into a dense crust, which long retains its antiseptic virtue, and has also other advantages, as will appear from the following cases which I will relate in the order of their occurrence, premising that, as the treatment has been gradually improved, the earlier ones are not to be taken as patterns. ...".
| (University of Glasgow) Glagow, Scotland |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 2991) Wilhelm Holtz (CE 1836-1913) invents an influence machine (electrostatic generator).
This machine consists of two varnished glass disks one a little larger than the other and placed three millimeters apart. The one is made to revolve, and the other remains stationary.
| Berlin, Germany (possibly) |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 2993) August Joseph Ignaz Töpler (Toepler) (CE 1836-1912) builds an influence machine (electrostatic generator).
| (Polytechnic Institute of Riga) Riga, Latvia |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3122) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, publishes "Introduction à la médecine expérimentale" (1865; "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine"), which discusses the importance of the constancy of the internal environment, rejects the theory of the "vital force" to explain life, that vivisection is necessary for physiological research, and the need to plan experiments around a clear hypothesis which may then be either proved or disproved.
In this work Bernard states that the internal environment (of any living body) is balanced or self-correcting, that disease states are often extreme manifestations of normal processes, and that, between living matter and the physical world, the difference is in the degree of complexity, which is greater in living systems.
; and (4) biology depends on recognizing that the processes of life are mechanistically determined by physico-chemical forces. Still germane for modern science is his presentation of the concept of the milieu intérieur, or “internal environment,” of the body..
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3126) Claude Bernard (BRnoR) (CE 1813-1878), French physiologist, publishes "Introduction à la médecine expérimentale" (1865; "An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine"), which discusses the importance of the constancy of the internal environment, rejects the theory of the "vital force" to explain life, that vivisection is necessary for physiological research, and the need to plan experiments around a clear hypothesis which may then be either proved or disproved.
; and (4) biology depends on recognizing that the processes of life are mechanistically determined by physico-chemical forces. Still germane for modern science is his presentation of the concept of the milieu intérieur, or “internal environment,” of the body..
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3141) Hermann Sprengel (CE 1834-1906) invents the "Sprengel pump", improving on the Geissler mercury pump.
(See image) The Sprengel pump is a general type of what are classified as downward driving pumps. A is a funnel having a stop cock C, and В is a tube of small bore called the shaft or fall tube. The receiver to be exhausted is connected to the tube C which branches off from near the top of the shaft. The tube H terminates very close to the bottom of the vessel D which is provided with a spout F as shown leading to the cup H. The distance from the branch G to the top of the mercury in the vessel F must be at least three feet. A is filled with mercury which flows down the shaft B, the rate of flow being regulated by the cock C, so that a very small stream is allowed to fall. This mercury in falling breaks up into short lengths between which are small columns of air which flow in at the junction of G, with the shaft B. The weight of the mercury forces these short columns of air down the shaft В to the mercury in D from the surface of which they escape. The mercury as it runs into the cup E must be poured back into the funnel A. This operation continues until no more air is carried down with the mercury. When the vacuum is nearly completed the mercury in the fall tube will fall with a sharp rattling noise showing that there is not enough air carried down with it to act as a cushion. With all kinds of mercury pumps, however, it is necessary to continue the operation for a considerable time after the receiver is apparently exhausted. Even when no more air appears to be carried on by the pump the vacuum will improve as the operation continues. The reason for this is (explained as being) that air sticks to the surface of the glass forming a sort of coating which is swept off the surface by the pump, but very slowly. The simple form of Sprengel pump is better than the simple Geissler pump but is not well suited to factory because of its slowness. However, later multiple tubes speed the process up, in addition to putting the pump in a vacuum so mercury is working against less pressure than air.
| London, England |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3403) Gregor Johann Mendel (CE 1822-1884), Austrian botanist, teacher and monk describes the law of inheritance (the 1:2:1 ratio of inheritance of a trait).
Mendel is the first to follow specific characteristics through generations. Mendel shows that characteristics are inherited in an all or none fashion, and are particulate as opposed to the blending of traits in offspring, or "blending inheritance" generally accepted at the time.
Mendel creates the mathematical foundation of the science of genetics, in what comes to be called Mendelism.
Before this time, people had observed that offspring of fertile hybrids tends to revert to the originating species, and had concluded that hybridization can not be used by nature to multiply species, although in some cases some fertile hybrids appear not to revert and are called "constant hybrids". In addition, those breeding plants and animals had shown that crossbreeding can produce many new forms. In 1854, the Abbot Cyril Napp permits Mendel to perform a major experimental program of tracing the transmission of hereditary characters in successive generations of hybrid offspring. Mendel chooses the edible pea (Pisum sativum) to conduct his experiments. Mendel carefully self pollinates the plants, wrapping them to guard against pollination by insects. In this way, Mendel can be sure that any characteristics are inherited from a single parent only.
From 1854 to 1856 Mendel tests 34 varieties for constancy of their traits. Mendel chooses seven distinct traits, such as plant height (short or tall) and seed color (green or yellow) and refers to these pairs as contrasted characters, or character-pairs. Mendel crosses varieties that differ in one trait, for example fertilizing (crossing) tall with short. In all the experiments reciprocal crossings are performed so that both varieties are used both as seed-bearer and pollen plant.
The first generation of hybrids (F1) only display the character of one variety but not that of the other. Mendel explains "In the case of each of the 7 crosses the hybrid-character resembles that of one of the parental forms so closely that the other either escapes observation completely or cannot be detected with certainty. This circumstance is of great importance in the determination and classification of the forms under which the offspring of the hybrids appear. Henceforth in this paper those characters which are transmitted entire, or almost unchanged in the hybridization, and therefore in themselves constitute the characters of the hybrid, are termed the dominant, and those which become latent in the process recessive. The expression 'recessive' has been chosen because the characters thereby designated withdraw or entirely disappear in the hybrids, but nevertheless reappear unchanged in their progeny, as will be demonstrated later on." In the second generation (F2), the offspring of these hybrids (fertilized between themselves), the recessive character reappears, and the ratio of offspring having the dominant to recessive is very close to a 3 to 1 ratio.
Mendel describes the second generation of hybrids "Those forms which in the first generation exhibit the recessive character do not further vary in the second generation as regards this character; they remain constant in their offspring.
It is otherwise with those which possess the dominant character in the first generation. Of these two-thirds yield offspring which display the dominant and recessive characters in the proportion of 3:1, and thereby show exactly the same ratio as the hybrid forms, while only one-third remains with the dominant character constant.". So of the first generation, 1/4 has recessive breeding true, 1/4 has dominant breeding true, and 2/4 have dominant not breeding true.
Mendel summarizes: "The ratio 3:1, in accordance with which the distribution of the dominant and recessive characters results in the first generation, resolves itself therefore in all experiments into the ratio of 2:1:1, if the dominant character be differentiated according to its significance as a hybrid-character or as a parental one. Since the members of the first generation spring directly from the seed of the hybrids, it is now clear that the hybrids form seeds having one or other of the two differentiating characters, and of these one-half develop again the hybrid form, while the other half yield plants which remain constant and receive the dominant or the recessive characters in equal numbers."
Mendel writes "The proportions in which the descendants of the hybrids develop and split up in the first and second generations presumably hold good for all subsequent progeny. ... The offspring of the hybrids separated in each generation in the ratio of 2:1:1 into hybrids and constant forms.
If A be taken as denoting one of the two constant characters, for instance the dominant, a the recessive, and Aa the hybrid form in which both are conjoined, the expression
A + 2Aa + a
shows the terms in the series for the progeny of the hybrids of two differentiating characters.
The observation made by Gärtner, Kölreuter, and others, that hybrids are inclined to revert to the parental forms, is also confirmed by the experiments described. It is seen that the number of the hybrids which arise from one fertilization, as compared with the number of forms which become constant, and their progeny from generation to generation, is continually diminishing, but that nevertheless they could not entirely disappear. If an average equality of fertility in all plants in all generations be assumed, and if, furthermore, each hybrid forms seed of which one-half yields hybrids again, while the other half is constant to both characters in equal proportions, the ratio of numbers for the offspring in each generation is seen by the following summary, in which A and a denote again the two parental characters, and Aa the hybrid forms. For brevity's sake it may be assumed that each plant in each generation furnishes only 4 seeds.
Ratios Generation A Aa a A : Aa : a ---------------------------------------------------- 1 1 2 1 1 : 2 : 1 2 6 4 6 3 : 2 : 3 3 28 8 28 7 : 2 : 7 4 120 16 120 15 : 2 : 15 5 496 32 496 31 : 2 : 31 n n n 2 - 1 : 2 : 2 - 1
In the tenth generation, for instance, 2^n - 1 = 1023. There result, therefore, in each 2048 plants which arise in this generation 1023 with the constant dominant character, 1023 with the recessive character, and only two hybrids."
Mendel’s approach to experimentation comes from his training in physics and mathematics, especially combinatorial mathematics. The 1:2:1 ratio recalls the terms in the expansion of the binomial equation: (A + a)2 = A2 + 2Aa + a2. Mendel goes on to test his expectation that the seven traits are transmitted independently of one another. Crosses involving first two and then three of his seven traits yields categories of offspring in proportions following the terms produced from combining two binomial equations, indicating that their transmission is independent of one another. Mendel’s successors have called this conclusion the law of independent assortment.
Mendel also verifies this 1:2:1 relationship with hybrids of other species of plants, Phaseolus vulgaris and Phaseolus nanus (bean plants).
In his conclusion Mendel states "In Pisum it is placed beyond doubt that for the formation of the new embryo a perfect union of the elements of both reproductive cells must take place.".
Mendel first presents his results in two separate lectures in 1865 to the Natural Science Society in Brünn. Mendel's paper (translated from German) "Experiments on Plant Hybrids" ("Versuche über Pflantenhybriden") is published in the society’s journal, (translated from German) "Transactions of the Brünn Natural History Society ("Verhandlungen des naturforschenden Vereines") in Brünn in 1866.
Those who read Mendel's paper overlook the potential for variability and the evolutionary implications of Mendel's work (in showing the dual nature of inheritance of traits), instead viewing Mendel's work as confirmation that hybrid offspring eventually breed back to their original forms.
In 1869 Mendel publishes his second and last paper, a short paper on Hieracium hybrids.
Mendel sends his paper to Nägeli, but Nägeli is apparently repelled by the mathematics. Nägeli offers to grow some of Mendel's seeds, but never does, and does not answer Mendel's later letters.
Mendel's important scientific contribution is not recognized in the time he lives.
In 1900, Dutch botanist and geneticist Hugo de Vries, German botanist and geneticist Carl Erich Correns, and Austrian botanist Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg independently report results of hybridization experiments similar to Mendel’s. In Great Britain, biologist William Bateson became the leading proponent of Mendel’s theory. However, Darwinian evolution is presumed to be based chiefly on the selection of small, blending variations, where Mendel works with nonblending variations, and so the Darwinians oppose Bateson. Bateson and his supporters are called Mendelians, and their work is considered irrelevant to evolution. Only three decades later will Mendelian theory be included into evolutionary theory. The synthesis of the Darwinian and Mendelian theories is first proved by S. S. Tchetverikoff in 1926. Mendelism will be merged with Darwinism in the 1930s to form the "New Synthesis", which explains evolutionary theory in modern genetic terms.
| (Natural Science Society) Brünn, Austria (now: Brno, the Czech Republic) |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3514) Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (RleNmIR) (CE 1825-1909), German chemist synthesizes isobutyric acid (1865).
| (U of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3558) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, defines the terms "exothermic" for reactions that give off heat, and "endothermic" for reactions that absorb heat.
Berthelot's major summary will be published as "Essai de mécanique chimique fondée sur la thermochimie" (2 vols., 1879).
Bethelot also introduces the "bomb calorimeter" for the determination of heats of reaction and investigates the kinetics of explosions. (In this work?)
(Interesting that I see this as perhaps evolving into including a term for "photons" released or absorbed in a chemical reaction. Instead of ergs of heat and light emited or absorbed - which is generally not quantified as far as I know.)
(I think this naming scheme should be adapted for nebulae, by naming blown up star nebulae "exonebulae" and star forming clouds "endonebulae", but I am sure the distinction may not be clear on some celestial objects.)
(In some sense thermochemistry is a subset of photochemistry in that heat is a subset of the many photon frequencies.)
| (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3583) Friedrich August Kekule (von Stradonitz) (KAKUlA) (CE 1829-1896), German chemist, is the first to understand that benzene C6H6 is a ring of carbon atoms.
(show original Kekulé structure and abbreviated image).
Understanding the structure of Benzene is important because of Benzene's value in making synthetic dyes. (Do benzene rings fit together? Benzene is a liquid.)
While Kekulé successfully demonstrates how organic compounds can be constructed from carbon chains, the aromatic compounds, can not be explained by the valence theory. Benzene with the formula C6H6 cannot be explained with the valence theory. The best that can be done with alternating single and double carbon bonds still violates the valence rules, because at the end of the chain the carbon atoms both have an unfilled bond. Kekulé solves this problem in 1865 be realizing that connecting both ends of the carbon chain can explain the formula. In 1890 Kekulé will give a description of how the solution of the puzzle came to him: while working on his textbook in 1865, "I dozed off. Again the atoms danced before my eyes. This time the smaller groups remained in the background. My inner eye … now distinguished bigger forms of manifold configurations. Long rows, more densely joined; everything in motion, contorting and turning like snakes. And behold what was that? One of the snakes took hold of its own tail and whirled derisively before my eyes. I woke up as though I had been struck by lightning; again I spent the rest of the night working out the consequences.".
So from this Kekulé understands the ring nature of benzene, in which the two ends of the benzene chain are joined to each other. With this configuration the valence rules are all observed. The rewards in understanding are immediate: It is then easy to understand why substitution for one of benzene's hydrogen atoms always produces the same compound. The mono-substituted derivative C6H5X is completely symmetrical whichever H atom it replaces. Each of the hydrogen atoms are replaced by NH2 and in each case the same compound, aniline C6H5.NH2, is obtained.
The snake with its tail in its mouth is an ancient alchemical symbol and is named Ouroboros.
Kekulé publishes this in French as "Sur la constitution des substances aromatiques" in "Bulletin de la Societe Chimique de Paris", and a fuller account is given written in German in Liebig's "Annalen der Chemie" in 1866.
In his German paper of 1866, Kekule writes: "The theory of the atomicity {ulsf: valency} of the elements, and especially the knowledge of carbon as a tetratomic {ulsf: valence of 4} element, has made possible in recent years in a very satisfactory way the explanation of the atomistic {ulsf: molecular} constitution of a great many carbon compounds, particularly those which I have called fatty bodies {ulsf: the alkanes, alkenes, etc, now called aliphatic compounds}. Until now; so far as I know, no one has attempted to apply these views to the aromatic compounds. When I developed my views on the tetratomic nature of carbon seven years ago, I indicated in a note that I had already formed an opinion on this subject, but I had not considered it suitable to develop the idea further. Most chemists who have since written on theoretical questions have left this subject untouched; some stated directly that the composition of aromatic compounds could not be explained by the theory of atomicity; others assumed the existence of a hexatomic group formed by six carbon atoms, but they did not try to find the method of combination of these carbon atoms, nor to give an account of the conditions under which this group could bind six monatomic atoms.
In order to give an account of the atomistic constitution of aromatic compounds, it is necessary to take into consideration the following facts:
1. All aromatic compounds, even the simplest, are proportionally richer in carbon than the analogous compounds in the class of the fatty bodies.
2. Among the aromatic compounds, just as in the fatty bodies, there are numerous homologous substances, i.e., those whose differences of composition can be expressed by n CH2.
3. The simplest aromatic compound contains at least six atoms of carbon.
4. All alteration products of aromatic substances show a certain family similarity, they belong collectively to the group of "aromatic compounds." In more deeply acting reactions, it is true, one part of carbon is often eliminated, but the chief product contains at least six atoms of carbon (benzene, quinone, chloranil, carbolic acid, hydroxyphenic acid, picric acid, etc.). The decomposition stops with the formation of these products if complete destruction of the organic group does not occur.
These facts obviously lead to the conclusion that in all aromatic substances there is contained one and the same atom group, or, if you wish, a common nucleus which consists of six carbon atoms. Within this nucleus the carbon atoms are certainly in close combination or in more compact arrangement. To this nucleus, then, more carbon atoms can add and, indeed, in the same way and according to the same laws as in the case of the fatty bodies.
It is next necessary to give an account of the atomic constitution of this nucleus. Now this can be done very easily by the following hypothesis, which, on the now generally accepted view that carbon is tetratomic, explains in such a simple manner that further development is scarcely necessary.
If many carbon atoms can unite with one another, then it can also happen that one affinity unit of one atom can bind one affinity unit of the neighbouring atom. As I have shown earlier, this explains homology and in general the constitution of the fatty bodies.
It can now be further assumed that many carbon atoms are thus linked together, that they are always bound through two affinity units; it can also be assumed that the union occurs alternately through first one and then two affinity units. The first and the last of these views could be expressed by somewhat the following periods:
1/1, 1/1, 1/1, 1/1 etc. 1/1, 2/2,1/1, 2/2 etc.
The first law of symmetry of union of the carbon atoms explains the constitution of the fatty bodies, as already mentioned; the second leads to an explanation of the constitution of aromatic substances, or at least of the nucleus which is common to all these substances.
If it is accepted that six carbon atoms are linked together according to this law of symmetry, a group is obtained which, if it is considered as an open chain, still contains eight nonsaturated affinity units. If another assumption is made, that the two carbon atoms which end the chain are linked together by one affinity unit, then there is obtained a closed chain (a symmetrical ring) which still contains six free affinity units.
From this closed chain now follow all the substances which are usually called aromatic compounds. The open chain occurs in quinone, in chloranil, and in the few substances which stand in close relation to both. I leave these bodies here without further consideration; they are proportionately easy to explain. It can be seen that they stand in close relation with the aromatic substances, but they still cannot truly be counted with the group of aromatic substances.
In all aromatic substances there can be assumed to be a common nucleus; it is the closed chain C6A6 (where A means an unsaturated affinity or affinity unit).
The six affinity units of this nucleus can be saturated by six monatomic elements. They can also all, or at least in part, be saturated by an affinity of a polyatomic element, but this latter must then be joined to other atoms, and so one or more side chains are produced, which can be further lengthened by linking themselves with other elements.
A saturation of two affinity units of the nucleus by an atom of a di-atomic element or a saturation of three affinity units by an atom of a triatomic element is not possible in theory. Compounds of the molecular formula C6H4O, C6H4S, C6H3N are thus unthinkable; if bodies of these compositions exist, and if the theory is correct, the formulas of the first two must be doubled, that of the third tripled.".
| (University of Ghent) Ghent, Belgium |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3637) Karl von Voit (CE 1831-1908), German physiologist, shows that food does not combine directly with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water, but instead goes through a long chain of reactions before intermediate products combine with oxygen to form carbon dioxide and water. (more details - what molecules does oxygen combine with?)
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3638) Karl von Voit (CE 1831-1908), German physiologist, with German chemist Max Pettenkofer (CE 1818-1901) builds a calorimeter large enough to enclose a human. With this device the quantity of oxygen consumed, carbon dioxide freed, and heat produced can be measured. Voit is able to measure the overall rate of metabolism in humans under various conditions. The resting or basal metabolic rate can be measured in this way, and is useful in diagnosing abnormal thyroid activity.
Metabolism is the chemical processes occurring within a living cell or organism that are necessary for the maintenance of life. So the rate of metabolism is how fast food is processed into other molecules useful to the body.
(The quantity of heat emited by a body must be difficult to measure. Only a measurement of temperature at various places and over a duration of time can be done, and then only of those photons absorbed by the measuring material, not those reflected or transmitted through. Perhaps through a standard of measuring device, some kind of standard measurement of heat emited can be obtained.)
From 1866-1873 Voit (and Pettenkofer) develop the basal metabolism test. (Is this container still used?)
Through 11 years of intensive experimentation, Voit and Pettenkofer make the first accurate determination of the required caloric for a human, and demonstrate the validity of the laws of conservation of energy (or in my view, of mass and velocity) in living animals.
In the 1870s Voit measures the state of nitrogen balance in a body, whether a body is storing, losing, or keep even the quantity of nitrogen, by matching the quantity of nitrogen in the protein eaten with the amount of urea excreted in urine. By limiting a diet to one particular protein as the only source of nitrogen, Voit finds that a body starts to excrete more nitrogen than taken in, and concludes that this particular protein cannot be used to build tissue and instead is broken down for energy (muscle contraction), the nitrogen part being excreted (Voit measures nitrogen content in feces too?).
This work shows that a body cannot build cells even though eating a large quantity of food, if the food eaten only contains proteins which cannot be used to build tissues. Voit shows that gelatin is one of these "incomplete proteins", a protein in which the nitrogen atom in it, cannot be used by a body to build cells. (I am not sure what the modern view on the idea of a body suffering from nitrogen deficit is. Perhaps the body adapts to take nitrogen from some other source, such as RNA? What are the results of nitrogen deficit?)
This work concerns the issue of which molecules are required by the body to survive. This line of research will eventually lead to the finding of the essential amino acids and the work of William Rose 50 years later.
Pettenkofer and Voit determine the amount of metabolism in a healthy person on various diets during fasting and during work and also the metabolism in people suffering from diabetes and leukaemia. These experiments establish the principles of nutrition on a scientific basis.
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3689) Julius von Sachs (ZoKS) (CE 1832-1897), German botanist, proves that chlorophyll is confined to discrete bodies within the cell, later named chloroplasts (also plastids) and that chlorophyll is the key compound that turns carbon dioxide and water into starch while releasing oxygen.
Sachs understands that the formation of starch grains in the chloroplasts of plants is dependent on exposure to light. Von Mohl and others had recognized the almost universal occurrence of starch grains in the chloroplasts. At this time, exposure to light is already known to be essential for the absorption and decomposition of carbon dioxide by the green parts of plants. Sachs brings these facts together to conclude that the formation of starch grains is the first visible product of the absorption of carbon dioxide. This adds the final piece to the picture of plant nutrition. Helmont, Priestly and Ingenhousz had shown that green plants convert carbon dioxide and water into tissue components, liberating oxygen in the process. Sachs shows that the process is catalyzed by chlorophyll, within the chloroplasts, in the presence of light. Sachs also shows that, like animals, plants also respire, consuming oxygen and producing carbon dioxide. The details of this process have to wait 100 years for the work of Calvin and others who use radioactive isotopes (to trace the movements of molecules in plants).
Sachs' first published volume is published in 1865 and is the "Handbuch der Experimentalphysiologie der Pflanzen" (1865) ("Handbook of Experimental Physiology of Plants") (This finding is first documented in this work?)
Sachs also documents plant tropisms, the way a plant's parts move in response to light, water, gravity and other stimuli. (chronology)
Sachs describes the process of plant transpiration, where water moves from the roots, up the stem and (as a vapor) out of the leaves.
| (Agricultural Academy) Poppelsdorf, Germany |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3694) Alfred Bernhard Nobel (CE 1833-1896), Swedish inventor, invents a blasting cap which is a small metal cap containing a quantity of mercury fulminate that can be exploded by either shock or moderate heat.
The invention of the blasting cap begins the modern use of high explosives.
| Paris, France (guess) |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3702) Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeléev (meNDelAeF) (CE 1834-1907), Russian chemist publishes a thesis "On the Compounds of Alcohol With Water" in which he develops the view that solutions are chemical compounds and that dissolving one substance in another is no different from other forms of chemical combination.
This theory that solutions are chemical combinations in fixed proportions is subsequently discredited.
| (St. Petersburg Technological Institute) St. Petersburg, Russia (presumably) |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3709) William Odling (CE 1829-1921), English chemist, publishes a table of elements ordered by atomic weight (mass) and periodically grouped. Odling publishes this in his second edition of "A Course of Practical Chemistry".
This table is not ordered as the table of Mendeleev in that the column starting with Potassium (K) is not to the right of the column starting with Sodium (Na), However Mendeleev's initial table has many mistakes too, such as Calcium (Ca) not appearing to the right of Magnesium (Mg).
| (St. Bartholomew's Hospital) London, England |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3800) Alexander Onufriyevich Kovalevski (KOVoleVSKE) (CE 1840-1901), Russian embryologist, shows that the three germ layers in vertebrate embryos Remak had identified also appear among invertebrates.
Fritz Muller, had theorized in 1863, that the larval stages of crustaceans can be interpreted as a recapitulation of the evolution of the race. Kovalevsky shows (in this work) that the early stages of Amphioxus, the lowest known living vertebrate at the time and of the invertebrate order of Tunicata are identical. He also demonstrates that all animals pass through the so called gastrula stage which leads Haeckel to his "Gastraea Theory (1884) which states that the two layered gastrula is the analogue of the hypothetic ancestral form of all multicellular animals (gastraea).
Kovalevski publishes this in his "Development of Amphioxus lanceolatus" (1865). (verify)
(Does Kovalevski verify this in other invertebrates? Are there any found not to have this three germ layer?)
Kovalevski more than anybody else introduces Darwinism to Russia.
Kovalevski suggests using a phylum based on those species with a notochord at some stage in their development. Balfour makes the same suggestion independently and suggests the name Chordata for the phylum. Since some invertebrates form a notochord in the larval stage (such as nonvertebrates amphioxus, tunicates, acorn worms {balanoglossus}), this is evidence of slow change over a long period of time, and not as separate unrelated and unchangeable species (and so favors the theory of natural selection from a common ancestor). (chronology)
Kovalevsky establishes that many organisms develop from a bilaminar (two thin plates) sac (gastrula) produced by invagination (the infolding of a portion of the outer layer of a blastula in the formation of a gastrula).
Another of Kovalevski's important works is (translated from Russian) "Anatomy and Development of Phoronis" (1887).
| (St. Petersburg University) St. Petersburg, Russia |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 3870) Otto Friedrich Carl Dieters (CE 1834-1863) describes neurons and refers to the axon as the "axis cylinder" and the dendrites as the "protoplasmic processes".
Dieters writes: "The central ganglion cell is an irregular shaped mass of granular protoplasm... the body of the cell is continuous uninterruptedly with a more or less large number of processes which branch frequently {editor: and} have long stretches in between...these ultimately become immeasurably thin and lose themselves in the spongy ground substance...these processes {ed: the dendrites}...will hereafter be called protoplasmic processes. A single process which originates either in the body of the cell or in one of the largest protoplasmic processes, immediately at its origin from the cell, is distinguishable from these at a glance.".
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
135 YBN
[1865 AD]
| 4548)
| unknown |
134 YBN
[01/11/1866 AD]
| 3431) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) identifies nitrogen in spectra from a comet.
Donati was the first to study the spectra of comets.
Huggins writes in "On the Spectrum of Comet 1, 1866": " ... M. Donati succeeded in making an examination of the spectrum of this comet. 'It resembles,' says M. Donati, 'the spectra of the metals; in fact the dark portions are broader than those which are more luminous, and we may say these spectra are composed of three bright lines'. yesterday evening, January 9, 1866, I observed the spectrum of Comet 1, 1866. ... The appearance of this comet in the telescope was that of an oval nebulous mass surrounding a very minute and not very bright nucleus. The length of the slit of the spectrum-apparatus was greater than the diameter of the telescopic image of the comet. ...As we cannot suppose the coma to consist of incandescent solid matter, the continuous spectrum of its light proabbly indicates that it shines by reflected solar light. ...It does not seem probable that matter inthe state of extreme tenuity and diffusion in which we know tht ematerial of the comae and tails of comets to be, could retain the degree of heat necessary for the incandescence of solid or liquid matter within them. We must conclude, therefore, that the coma of this comet reflects light received from without; and the only available foreign source of light is the sun....If the continuous spectrum of the coma of Comet 1, 1866, be interpreted to inducate that it shines by reflecting solar light, then the prism gives no information of the state of the matter which forms the coma, whether it be solid, liquid, or gaseous. Terrestrial phenomena would suggest that the parts of a comet which are bright by reflecting the sun's light, are probably in the condition of fog or cloud.
(verify: I think that the current view is that a comet reflects light, until getting close to the Sun, and then emits light from ions (atoms with excess electrons that release photons when the electrons fall to lower orbits).)
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
134 YBN
[05/17/1866 AD]
| 3430) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) and William Miller show that the spectra of a nova (exploded star) is surrounded by hydrogen gas.
Huggens and Miller write in "On the Spectrum of a New Star in Corona Borealis": " Yesterday, May the 16th, one of us received a note from Mr. john birmingham of Tuam, stating that he had observed on the night of May 12, a new star in the constellation Corona Borealis. ... last night, May 16, we observed this remarkable object. The star appeared to us considerably below the 3rd magnitude, but brighter than e Coronae. in the telescope it was surrounded with a faint nebulous haze, extending to a considerable distance, and gradually fading away at the boundary. A comparative examination of neighboring stars showed that this nebulosity really existed about the star. When the spectroscope was placed on the telescope, the light of this new star formed a spectrum unlike that of any celestial body which we have hitherto examined. The light of the star is compooind, and has emanated from two different sources. Each light forms its own spectrum. in the instrument these spectra appear superposed. The principal spectrum is analogous to that of the sun, and is evidently formed by the light of an incandescent solid or liquid photosphere, which has suffered absorption by the vapours of an envelope cooler than itself. The second spectrum consits of a few bright lines, which indicate that thelight by which it is formed was emitted byu matter in the state of luminous gas. These spectra are represented with considerable approximative accuracy in a diagram which accompanies this paper. General Conclusions.- It is difficult to imagine the present physical constitution of this remarkable object. There must be a photosphere of matter in the solid or liquid state emitting light of all refrangibilities. Surrounding this must exist also an atmosphere of cooler vapours, which give rise by absorption to the groups of dark lines. besides this constitution, which it possesses in common with the sun and the stars, there must exist the source of the gaseous spectrum. That this is not produced by the faint nebulosity seen about the star is evident by the brightness of the lines, and the circumstance that they do not extend in the instrument beyond the boundaries of the continuous spectrum. The gaseous mass from which this light emanates must be at a much higher temperature than the photosphere of the star; otherwise it would appear impossible to explain the great brilliancy of the lines compared with the corresponding parts of the continuous spectrum of the photosphere. The position of two of the bright lines suggests that this gas may consist chiefly of hydrogen. If, however, hydrogen be really the source of some of the bright lines, the conditions under which the gas emits the light must be different from those to which it has been submitted in terrestrial observations; for it is well known that the line of hydrogen in the green is always fainter and more expanded than the brilliant red line which characterizes the spectrum of this gas. on the other hand, the strong absorption indicated by the line F of the solar spectrum, and the still stronger corresponding lines in some stars, would indicate that under suitable conditions hydrogen may emit a strong luminous radiation of this refrangibility. The character of the spectrum of this star, taken together with its sudden outburst in brilliancy and its rapid decline in brightness, suggest to us the rather bold speculation that, in consequence of some vast convulsion taking place in this object, large quantities of gas have been evolved from it, that the hydrogen present is burning by combination with some other element and furnishes the light represented by the bright lines, also that the flaming gas has heated to vivid incandescence the solid matter of the photoscphere. As the hydrogen becomes exhausted, all the phenomena diminish in intensity, and the star rapidly wanes. ...".
(Notice that Huggins speculates that Hydrogen combines with some other atom, without mentioning oxygen, as a chemical reaction to produce the light, but then goes on to state that the flaming gas is heated to incandescence, which to me, implies that the atoms of the hydrogen gas absorb so many photons from the inner star, that they must emit photons, and then they do release these photons at characteristic frequency. But it needs to be reproduced here and shown to all on video before any explanation should be strongly supported.)
In 1862, Ångström had detected Hydrogen gas in the sun.
According to Asimov, this is the first indication that the universe and the stars in particular are made mostly of hydrogen. (I can accept that in terms of atoms, the universe is probably mostly hydrogen, but I think people may be underestimating the quantity of other atoms because of the theory that hydrogen is fused to helium in the center of stars, which I think must be erroneous, because, the inside of stars is probably more dense atoms such as iron, similar to a terrestrial planet. We should look at the Sun's density, which is just under that of water. Clearly there has to be a heavy metal core like that presumed to be in the earth and other planets. To claim that hydrogen is at the center to me sounds highly unlikely. In terms of quantifying the types of particles in the universe. The composition of all particles in my view is photons, but in terms of composite particles made of photons, which collection is the most common? Then at what point do you draw the line in terms of size? In terms of subatomic, atomic, molecular, etc...? It seems like most of the matter in the universe is either in free photons, and then in subatomic composite particles, perhaps protons or electrons, and in terms of atoms, since most of the matter is in stars and planets, the atomic distribution of stars and planets might be proportional to that in the rest of the universe. I can accept that Hydrogen is perhaps the most common atom, but I think there may be more of the larger atoms than previously thought, because of the erroneous assumption, in my opinion, that the center of stars is composed of primarily hydrogen atoms. In addition, each atom can be viewed as containing only hydrogen atoms.)
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
134 YBN
[07/??/1866 AD]
| 3304) Completion of the an Atlantic cable, an electricity carrying metal insulated wire 1,852 miles (2980km) long.
Cyrus West Field (CE 1819-1892), US financier and businessman completes the first Atlantic cable, an electric cable connecting the United States and Europe. (what kinds of voltages and currents are sent on this cable? How many and what size relay are needed to overcome the resistance of the long cable. What is diameter? stranded? What kind of insulation?)
From the British and US governments Field obtains charters and receives promises of financial subsidies and naval ships to lay the cable. Field gets financial backing from New York and London capitalists. Field hires the services of Charles Tilson Bright, the great engineer, and William Thomson (later Lord Kelvin), the distinguished physicist and authority on electricity. Thomson's invention of the reflecting galvanometer and the siphon recorder (which records telegraphic messages in ink that come from a siphon) assures the operation of the cable once it is laid.
| Atlantic Ocean |
134 YBN
[09/??/1866 AD]
| 3570) Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov (BUTlYuruF) (CE 1828-1886), Russian chemist, synthesizes isobutane.
| (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 2949) Carl Gustav Jacob Jacobi (YoKOBE) (CE 1804-1851), German mathematician publishes "Vorlesungenüber Dynamik" (1866, "Lectures on Dynamics") in which Jacobi describes his work with differential equations and dynamics.
Jacobi applies partial differential equations of the first order to the differential equations of dynamics. The Hamilton-Jacobi equation is important in quantum mechanics.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3140) Gabriel Auguste Daubrée (DOBrA) (CE 1814-1896), French geologist, finds that many meteorites are almost pure nickel-iron, and suggests that nickel-iron is a common component of planetary structure.
Gabriel-August Daubree suggests that the center of the Earth is a core of iron and nickel.
| (Ecole des Mines {Imperial School of Mines}) Paris, France |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3149) Daniel Kirkwood (CE 1814-1895), US astronomer, shows that if asteroids (planetoids) existed in the regions where there are none, the now-called "Kirkwood gaps", they would have annual periods of rotation around the sun that would be in simple ratio to that of Jupiter, and the perturbations, or gravitational attraction of Jupiter would eventually move the asteroid out of the gap.
Similarly, Kirkwood explain that the gaps in the rings of Saturn (the Cassini division) is caused by the satellite Mimas. Kirkwood explains that if a mass is orbiting in the Cassini gap in the rings of Saturn, its period would be just half of the innermost satellite Mimas, and perturbations from constant closeness to Mimas would force the mass out of the gap. (Possibly any mass near the orbit of a moon might be swept into or away from the moon.)
| (Indiana University) Indiana, USA |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3162) Carl Reinhold August Wunderlich (VUNDRliK) (CE 1815-1877), German physician recognizes that fever (high body temperature) is not a disease itself, but only a symptom of disease. Wunderlich advocates making careful records of the (temperature during the) fever's progress. Wunderlich introduces the fever (temperature versus time) graph.
Wunderlich also measures the average body temperature of the human body. Using a foot-long thermometer that takes more than 15 minutes to give a reading, Wunderlich takes the underarm temperature of 25,000 patients several times over, a total of more than a million readings reaching the conclusion of average human body temperature of 37 °C (99 °F). Allbutt will invent the small and accurate clinical thermometer.
| (Leipzig University) Leipzig, Germany |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3267) John Couch Adams (CE 1819-1892), English astronomer calculates the path of the Leonid meteor swarm, showing the meteor swarm to have a comet-like orbit.
(is this the first connection between a meteor shower and an orbiting object?)
| (Cambridge Observatory) Cambridge, England |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3357) Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) publishes a paper on mathematics, stating that if the universe extends to infinity in all directions, it must be Euclidean, that is with space curvature equal to 0, however Helmholtz retracts this two years later.
This is Helmholtz's first mathematical work "Über die thatsächlichen Grundlagen der Geometrie" ("On the Fundamentals of Geometry" (verify), 1866) and is a short, general paper on the nature of space and perception of space. The themes of this paper are expanded and developed with greater mathematical precision in a second paper: "Über die Thatsachen, die der Geometrie zum Grunde liegen' ("On the Facts Which Underlie Geometry", 1868), and an addendum (Zusatz) correcting what he viewed as a mistake in his 1866 work.
According to a 1906 biography of Helmholtz, Helmholtz astonishes the scientific and mathematical world by this essay which he sends to the Gottingen Scientific Society.
(This may be a good source to understand the rise and early opponents or critics of non-Euclidean theory)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3491) (Sir) Edward Frankland (CE 1825-1899), English chemist, defines the word "bond" for the atom fixing power, (in other words the quantity of other atoms that can attach to any particular atom) and elaborates the concept of a maximum valence for each element.
Frankland writes "By the term bond, I intend merely to give a more concrete expression to what has received various names from different chemists, such as an atomicity, an atomic power, and an equivalence. A monad is represented as an element having one bond, a dyad as an element possessing two bonds, &c. It is scarcely necessary to remark that by this term I do not intend to convey the idea of any material connection between the elements of a compound, the bonds actually holding the atoms of a chemical compound being, in all probability, as regards their nature, much more like those which connect the members of our solar system. The number of bonds possessed by an element, or its atomicity, is, apparently at least, not a fixed and invariable quantityl thus nitrogen is sometimes equivalent to five atoms of hydrogen, as in ammonic chloride (NvH4Cl), sometimes to three atoms, as in nitrous oxide (ON2). ..."
(Does Frankland suppose multiple bonds (double, triple, etc bonds) between two atoms? Who is the first to suppose this?)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3496) (Sir) Edward Frankland (CE 1825-1899), English chemist, attributes the movement of muscles to the combustion of carbohydrates as opposed to the oxidation or combustion of muscle tissue.
| (Royal College) London, England |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3679) Theodore Sidot, French chemist, prepares Zinc Sulfide (ZnS) and recognizes that it is a phosphor. Zinc sulfide will be used in Cathode Ray Tubes, and possibly in screens that see eyes and thought images.
This may mark the earliest public information about a phosphor that can be used to draw and update an electric image, in other words, a television screen. With the electric screen, the electric camera, and recording electronic image storage device forming a basic triplet, all three of which, in a very unusual group decision, are apparently kept secret from the public for many years, and kept off the public market for an even longer period of time.
Sidot prepares Zinc Sufide by heating zinc oxide in a stream of hydrogen sulfide.
Later in 1888, Verneuil will discover that this luminescence is due to a "foreign luminogen impurity".
William Crookes will show in 1903 how zinc sulfide emits visible light near radioactive material. Crookes uses Zinc Sulfide in his spinthariscope.
(There is not a lot of information about Theodore Sidot. For example, I could not find a photograph or birth and death dates for Sidot.)
Possibly a zinc sulfide screen can be used to see any electron of high frequency photon beams sent to a person's brain, which might make such screens a useful tool in determining the source and stopping such beams.
| (Sorbonne laboratory) Paris, France |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3695) Alfred Bernhard Nobel (CE 1833-1896), Swedish inventor, invents dynamite, an explosive based on nitroglycerine, but which is much safer to handle because it cannot be exploded without a detonating cap, and in addition, once detonated the nitroglycerine maintains all its explosive force.
In 1845, Christian Friedrich Schönbein (sOENBIN) (CE 1799-1868), German-Swiss chemist had invented nitrocellulose (the first smokeless explosive). In 1846, Italian chemist Ascanio Sobrero had invented nitroglycerin.
Some historians state that Nobel's find is an accident, Nobel finding a cask of nitroglycerine that had leaked and was absorbed by the packing, which was diatomaceous earth, made from the siliceous skeletons of many microscopic diatoms.
Other historians state that the find was not by accident, the idea first occurring to Nobel when he is mixing nitroglycerin with ordinary gunpowder. Nobel first selects charcoal as an absorbent but ultimately prefers the infusorial earth known as Kieselgohr found in the north of Germany which was then used at his Krümmel factory for packing the tins of nitroglycerin securely into wooden boxes. Dynamite, the plastic explosive, consisting of 75 per cent of nitroglycerin, and 25 per cent of kieselguhr.
The nitroglycerin is absorbed to dryness by this porous siliceous earth named "kieselguhr". Experimenting with this nitroglycerine diatomaceous earth combination, Nobel finds that the nitroglycerine cannot be exploded without a detonating cap, and is therefore much safer to handle than liquid nitroglycerine. In addition, once set off the nitroglycerine maintains all its explosive force. Nobel names this combination "dynamite" from the Greek word "dynamis" which means "power".
Nobel is granted patents for dynamite in Great Britain (1867) and the United States (1868). Dynamite establishes Nobel's fame worldwide. Sticks of dynamite replace the dangerous nitroglycerine as a blasting compound, and dynamite is soon put to use in blasting tunnels, cutting canals, and building railways and roads.
(Show the chemical equation for dynamite, including explosion and photons released. Is this a molecular combining with oxygen, a combustion?)
| Paris, France (guess) |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3707) Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (heKuL) (CE 1834-1919), German naturalist, publishes "Generelle Morphologie der Organismen" (1866; "General Morphology of Organisms") which is one of the earliest Darwinian treatises. This work popularizes the incorrect theory that ontology recapitulates phylogeny, that is that the embyro goes through all the stages of evolution from the beginning of life to the present species.
In this year, Haeckel is the first to use the word "ecology" ("Oecologie" in German).
Haeckel thinks that life evolved from nonlife by a sort of crystallization. (Is the first? Weismann also accepted this.) Haeckel portrays the lowest creatures as mere protoplasm without nuclei and speculates that they had arisen spontaneously through combinations of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, and sulfur. (chronology)
Haeckel thinks that psychology is merely a branch of physiology, so that the mind fits into the scheme of evolution. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica: as a consequence of his views Haeckel is led to deny the immortality of the soul, the freedom of the will, and the existence of a personal God.
Haeckel is the first German biologist to support Darwin and meets Darwin in 1866. Haeckel takes the side of Larmarck in supporting the erroneous theory of acquired characteristics, which is opposed by the "neo-Darwinianism" of August Weismann.
(Clearly the development of stages in the process of aging is a deeply mysterious process. The examination of the aging process I think will ultimately result in the greatly lengthening of life span, and perhaps the elimination of aging altogether - an organism simply developing to some genetic stage, and holding that stage indefinitely. But do the stages represent past living organisms? My own novice opinion is that perhaps much of the code is the same - shared with past ancestors, but that changes to the nucleotide sequences happen over the course of many years.)
As a field naturalist Haeckel displays extraordinary power and industry. Among his monographs are those on Radiolaria (1862), Siphonophora (1869), Monera (1870) and Calcareous Sponges (1872), as well as several reports: Deep-Sea Medusae (1881), Siphonophora (1888), Deep-Sea Keratosa (1889) and Radiolaria (1887), the last being accompanied by 140 plates and enumerating over four thousand new species.
| (Zoological Institute) Jena, Germany |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3728) Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (SKYoPorelE) (CE 1835-1910), Italian astronomer demonstrates that meteor showers have orbits similar to certain comets and concludes that the showers are the parts of comets. In particular, he calculates that the Perseid meteors are remains of Comet 1862 III and the Leonids of Comet 1866 I.
| (Brera Observatory) Milan, Italy |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3736) (Sir) Joseph Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920), English astronomer, is the first to study the spectra of sunspots.
| (at home, employed at War Office) Wimbledon, England |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3744) (Sir) Thomas Clifford Allbutt (CE 1836-1925), English physician, invents the short clinical thermometer. This is a thermometer only 6 inches long that reaches equilibrium in only 5 minutes, and replaces much longer thermometers that require 20 minutes to reach equilibrium. Only with this invention is it possible to follow the progress of a fever, as Wunderlich maintained is important.
(Describe how the thermometer is mainly used - in mouth, armpit, or rectum or all three.)
| (General Infirmary) Leeds, England |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 3792) August Adolph Eduard Eberhard Kundt (KUNT) (CE 1839-1894), German physicist, develops a method which allows the measurement of the (frequency?) velocity of sound in the material a tube is composed of, or in a gas contained in a tube, by dusting the interior of tubes with a fine powder, which is shaped by the moving waves of air that are interpreted by the human brain as sound. The finely dusted powder on the interior of the tube shows the position of the nodes of the sound waves and so their wavelength can be determined. An extension of this method makes possible the determination of the velocity of sound in different gases.
Chladni had used particles of flour to form patterns on surfaces vibrating from sound, and had measured the velocity of sound in gases other than air by filling organ pipes with the gas and measuring the change in pitch.
Kundt also carries out many experiments in magneto-optics, and succeeds in showing, what Faraday had failed to detect, the rotation under the influence of magnetic force of the plane of polarization in certain gases and vapors.
Kundt publishes this as "Nachtrag zum Aufsatz".
(Sound is an interesting phenomenon, in particular, in that at the initiation of sound, all that is happening, is that there is a set of particle collisions - that pushes atoms of the gas, which then collide with other atoms of gas. But what is interesting is that there are these nodes that represent lines where groups of atoms are bouncing back and forth like a pendulum or tennis balls, they apparently move in ordered groups the velocity of the initial push determining how large the spaces between the regular collisions are. It would fun to model this is slow motion with a few thousand 3D particles on a computer.)
EXPERIMENT: Model sonud in various gases as particles that bounce off each other creating standing wave patterns. Use a transparent 3D cylinder model as a boundary. Can there be larger real models? Perhaps cloudy gases, liquids, and particulate solids, exhibit similar patterns when subject to regular oscillating pushes.
| (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
134 YBN
[1866 AD]
| 6013) Franz (von) Suppé (CE 1819-1895), Austrian composer, composes his famous "Leichte Kavallerie".
| Vienna, Austria |
133 YBN
[12/19/1867 AD]
| 3439) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) develops a hand spectrum telescope.
Huggins publishes this as "Description of a Hand Spectrum-Telescope".
(This seems a natural progression, then an electronic photographic spectroscope, and a handheld electric camera that can also look at spectra - but this is the place in history where must of the technology continues to be developed and minuaturized, but it branches away from showing the public, to being seen and used by a small but growing group of powerful people who greedily choose to exclude the public from participation with these devices.)
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 2821) Ferdinand Reich (riKHe) (CE 1799-1882), German mineralogist, isolates the element indium.
Like tin, pure indium emits a high-pitched "cry" when bent. Indium is about as rare as silver.
| (Freiberg University) Freiberg, Saxony, Germany |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3147) Anders Jonas Angström (oNGSTruM) (CE 1814-1874), Swedish physicist, is the first to examine the spectrum of the Aurora Borealis and to detect and measure the characteristic bright line in its yellow-green region (from what element?), but is mistaken in supposing that this same line is also to be seen in the zodiacal light (a faint light seen in the west just after sunset or in the east just before sunrise, apparently caused by the reflection of sunlight from meteoric particles in the plane of the ecliptic {the plane planets and other matter occupy in moving around the Sun}.).
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3176) Lewis Morris Rutherfurd (CE 1816-1892), American astronomer, makes a machine to rule diffraction gratings.
rules diffraction gratings with (17,000 lines per inch), the most precise at the time.
Rutherfurd obtains the best spectrographs obtained at this time. Rutherfurd builds a machine for ruling gratings (devices for separating light into its component colors) better and more accurate than anything before. By 1877 Rutherfurd is ruling 6,700 lines per cm (17,000 lines per inch).
Being a trustee of Columbia and donating all his equipment to Columbia, perhaps Pupin uses some of these diffraction gratings in seeing the first thought.
| New York City, NY, USA |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3184) Karl Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig (lUDViK) (CE 1816-1895), German physiologist, invents a "stromuhr", or flowmeter to measure the rate of blood flow through the arteries and veins.
(explain how it works)
| (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3210) Pietro Angelo Secchi (SeKKE) (CE 1818-1878), Italian astronomer, proposes four spectral classes of stars.
Class 1 has a strong hydrogen line and includes blue and white stars; class 2 has numerous lines and includes yellow stars; class 3 had bands instead of lines, which are sharp toward the red and fuzzy toward the violet and includes both orange and red (stars); finally, class 4 has bands that are sharp toward the violet and fuzzy toward the red and includes only red . Secchi's classification is extended and modified by Edward Pickering and Annie Cannon. Secchi's divisions are later expanded into the Harvard classification system, which is based on a simple temperature sequence.
Between 1864-1868 Secchi studies the spectra of 4000 stars. Secchi with Huggins are the first to adapt spectroscopy to astronomy in a systematic manner. This is the first spectroscopic survey of other stars and planets. Secchi shows that the spectra of stars differ with each other. From this stars are known to be different not only in position, brightness and color but by their spectra too. Since Kirchhoff has established the meaning of spectral lines, it is understood that different spectra means that stars are made of different material.
This classification is soon adopted almost universally.
Secchi also classifies nebulae according to spectrum into planetary, elliptical and irregular forms. (What are the similarities and differences in the spectra of nebulae and mortolae?) (chronology show images of spectra)
Secchi concludes from the spectra of Jupiter and Saturn that their atmopsheres contain elements different from terrestrial planets. (chronology)
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3424) Alfred Russel Wallace (CE 1823-1913), English naturalist, explains his theory of "warning coloration" to Charles Darwin as the explanation of why caterpillars are brightly colored, which is later proven true.
| (around London) ?, England |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3434) Pietro Angelo Secchi (SeKKE) (CE 1818-1878), Italian astronomer, describes the spectrum of Uranus.
Secchi finds two very large and black lines in the green and blue.
| (Collegio Romano) Rome, Italy |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3446) Pierre Jules César Janssen (joNSeN) (CE 1824-1907), French astronomer, announces water vapor in the atmosphere of Mars.
| (Possibly) Azores {archepelago in Atlantic} or Trani {Apulia, Italy} (verify) |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3485) William Thomson (CE 1824-1907) invents the siphon recorder for telegraphy (1867). This is a recorder in which a small siphon discharges ink to make the record (similar to a modern inkjet printer); used in submarine telegraphy.
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3506) Thomas Henry Huxley (CE 1825-1895), English biologist, theorizes that all birds are descended from small carnivorous dinosaurs. Huxley unites a class of extinct fossil reptiles and birds under the title of "Sauropsida".
After reclassifying birds according to their palate bones, Huxley shows that all birds are descended from small carnivorous dinosaurs.
| (Royal College of Surgeons) London, England |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 3530) Zénobe Théophile Gramme (GroM) (CE 1826-1901), Belgian-French inventor, builds the first commercially practical electric generator (dynamo) for producing alternating current.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
133 YBN
[1867 AD]
| 6004) Johann Strauss II (CE 1825-1899), Austrian composer, conductor, and violinist, composes his famous "An der schönen blauen Donau" ("On the Beautiful Blue Danube") (Opus 314).
Strauss is the eldest son of Johann Strauss I, and known as "the Waltz King".
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
132 YBN
[03/24/1868 AD]
| 5834) Motorized two leg (bipedal) walking robot that pulls cart.
Zadoc P Dederick and Isaac Grass build a steam powered walking two-leg robot the pulls a carriage. (verify)
| Newark, New Jersey, USA |
132 YBN
[04/23/1868 AD]
| 3435) Huggins writes in "Further Observations on the Spectra of the Sun, and of some of the Stars and Nebulae, with an attempt to determine therefrom whether these Bodies are moving towards or from the Earth.": "The author states that at the time of the publication of the 'Observations on the Spectra of the Fixed Stars,' made jointly by himself and Dr. W. A. Mikller, Treas. R. S., they were fully aware that the direct comparisons of the bright lines of terrestrial substances with the dark lines in the spectra of the stars, which they had accomplished, were not only of value for the more immediate purpose for which they had been undertaken, namely, to obtain information of the chemical constitution of the investing atmospheres of the stars, but that they might possibly serve to reveal something of the motions of the stars relatively to our system. If the stars were moving towards or from the earth, their motion, compounded with the earth's motion, would alter to an observer on the earth the refrangibility of the light emitted by them, and consequently the lines of terrestrial substances would no longer coincide in position in the spectrum with the dark lines produced by the absorption of the vapours of the same substances existing in the stars. The method employed by them would certainly have revealed an alteration of refrangibility as great as that which separates the lines D. They had, therefore, proof that the stars which they had examined, among other Aldebaran, a Orionis, B pegasi, Sirius, a Lyrae, Capella, Arcturus, Castor, Pollux, were not moving with a velocity which would be indicated by such an amount of alteration of position in a line. Since, however, a change of refrangibility corresponding to that which separates the components of D would require a velocity of about 196 miles per second, it seemed to them premature to refer to this bearing of their observations. The earth's motion, and that of the few stars of which the parallax has been ascertained, would make it probable that any alteration in position would not exceed a fraction of the change which would have been observed by them. The author has since, for several years, devoted much time and labour to this investigation, and believes that he has obtained a satisfactory result. he refers to Doppler, who first suggested that the relative motion of the luminous object and the observer would cause an alteration of the wave-length of the light; and to Ballot, Klinkerfues, Sonnche, Fizeau, and Secchi, who have written on the subject. The author is permitted to enrich his paper with a statement of the influence of the motions of the heavenly bodies on liht, and of some experiments made in an analogous direction, which he received in June 1867 from Mr. j. C. Maxwell, F.R.S. it is shown that if the light of the star is due to the luminous vapour of sodium or any other element which gives rise to vibrations of definite period, or if the light of the star is absorbed by sodium-vapour, so as to be deficient in vibrations of a definite period, then the light, when it reaches the earth, will have an altered period of vibration, which is to the period of sodium as V + v is to V, when V is the velocity of light and v is the velocity of approach of the star to the earth. Equal velocities of separation or approach give equal changes of wave-length. ... Description of Apparatus A new spectroscope is described, consisting in part of compound prisms, which gives dispersive powere equal to nearly seven prisms of 60° of dense flint glass. Various methods were employed for the purpose of ensuring perfect accuracy of relative position in the instrument between the star spectrum and he terrestrial spectrum to be compared with it. A new form of apparatus, which appears to be trustworthy in this respect, was contrived. Many of the observations were made with vacuum-tubes or electrodes of metal, placed before the object-glass of the telescope. Observations of Nebulae The autho states that he has examined satisfactorily the general characters of the spectra of about seventy nebulae. About one-third of these give a spectrum of bright lines; all these spectra may be regarded as modifications of the typical form, consisting of three bright lines, described in his former papers. Some of these nebulae have been reexamined with the large spectroscope described in this paper, for the purpose of determining whether any of them were possessed of a motion that could be detected by a change of refrangibility, and whether the coincidence which had been observed of the first and the third line with a line of hydrogen and a line of nitrogen would be found to hold good when subjected to the test of a spreading out of the spectrum three or four times greater than that under which the former observations were made. The spectrum of the Great nebula in Orion was very carefully examined by several different methods of comparison of its spectrum with the spectra of terrestrial substances. The coincidence of the lines with those of hydrogen and nitrogen remained apparently perfect with an apparatus in which a difference in wave-length of 0.0460 millionth of a millimetre would have been detected. These results increase greatly the probability that these lines are emitted by nitrogen and hydrogen. It was found that when the intensity of the spectrum of nitrogen was diminished by removing the induction-spark in nitrogen to a greater distance from the slit, the whole spectrum disappeared with the exception of the double line, which agrees in position with the line in the nebulae, so that, under these circumstances, the spectrum of nitrogen resembled the monochromatic spectra of some nebulae. It is obvious that if the spectrum of hydrogen were greatly reduced in intensity, the strong line in the blue, which corresponds to one of the lines of the nebular spectrum, would remain visible after the line in the red and the lines more refrangible than F had become too feeble to affect the eye. It is a question of much interest whether the few lines of the spectra of these nebulae represent the whole of the light emitted by these bodies, or whether these lines are the strongest lines only of their spectra which have succeeded in reaching the earth. Since these nebulae are bodies which have a sensible diameter, and in all probability present a continuous luminous surface, we cannot suppose that any lines have been extinguished by the effect of the distance of the objects from us. If we had reason to believe that the other lines which present themselves in the spectra of nitrogen and hydrogen were quenched on their was to us, we should have to regard their disappearance as an indication of a power of extinction residing in cosmical space, similar to that which was suggested from theoretical considerations by Chesaux, and was afterwards supported on other grounds by Olbers and the elder Struve. It is also shown that at the time of the observations this nebula was not receding from us with a velocity greater than 10 miles per second; for this motion, added to the earth's orbital velocity, would have caused a want of coincidence of the lines that could have been observed. If the nebula were approaching our system, its velocity might be as much as 20 or 25 miles per second, for part of its motion of approach would be masked by the effect of the motion of the earth in the contrary direction. Observations of Stars A detailed description is given of the comparisons of the line in Sirius corresponding to F, with a line of the hydrogen spectrum, and of the various precautions which were taken against error in this difficult and very delicate inquiry. The conclusions arrived at are:- that the substance in Sirius which produces the strong lines in the spectrum of that star is really hydrogen; further, that the aggregate result of the motions of the star and the earth in space at the time the observations were made, was to degrade the refrangibility of the dark line in Sirius by an amount of wave-length equal to 0.109 millionth of a millimetre. (in other words to lower - shift into the red the dark line of Sirius the equivalent of .109 nanometers of wavelength) if the velocity of light be taken at 185,000 miles per second, and the wave-length of F at 486.50 millionths of a millimetre, the observed alteration in period of the line in Sirius will indicate a motion of recession between the earth and the star of 41.4 miles per second. At the time of observation, that part of the earth's motion which was in the direction of the visual ray, was equal to a velocity of about 12 miles per second from the star. There remains unaccounted for a motion of recession from the earth amounting to 29.4 miles per second, which we appear to be entitled to attribute to Sirius. Reference is made to the inequalities in the proper motion of Sirius; and it is state that at the present time the proper motion in Sirius in declination is less than its average amount by nearly the whole of that part of it which is variable, which circumstance may show that a part of the motion of the star is now in the direction of the visual ray. independently of the variable part of its proper motion, the whole of the motion which can be directly observed by us is only that portion of its real motion which is at right angles to the visual ray. Now it is precisely the other portion of it, which we could scarcely hope to learn from ordinary observations, which is revealed to us by prismatic observations. By combining both methods of research, it may be possible to obtain some knowledge of the real motions of the brighter stars and nebulae. Observations and comparisons, similar to those on Sirius, have been made on a Canis Minoris, Castor, Betelgeux, Aldebaran, and some other stars. The author reserves the results until these objects have been reexamined. It is but seldom that the atmosphere is favourable for the successful prosecution of this very delicate research. ..."
So Huggins measures a small "red shift" in one of the hydrogen lines of Sirius. From this he determines the velocity at which Sirius is moving away from earth in the line of sight.
(It is important to understand that Doppler shifted light only determines the z dimensional component of velocity of a light source relative to the earth, and the x and y components relative to the Earth must be determined by proper motion over the course of a period of time. So Sirius is calculated to be receeding 41 miles per second from the Earth at that time, and 29 miles per second from the Sun (after the velocity of the Earth relative to the Sun is removed). Beyond this there may be other possible effects that shift light such as gravitational red-shift, and those found by Raman and the Braggs. Show graphically. )
Hubble will use the shift of spectral lines to show that the universe is much larger scale than previously thought.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
132 YBN
[06/23/1868 AD]
| 6252) First practical typewriter.
Writing machines were built as early as the fourteenth century. The first patented writing machine was made in England in 1714 but never built. The first manufactured typewriter appeared in 1870 and was the invention of Malling Hansen. It was called the Hansen Writing Ball and used part of a sphere studded with keys mounted over a piece of paper on the body of the machine. Christopher L. Sholes and Carlos Glidden developed a machine with a keyboard, a platen made of vulcanized rubber, and a wooden space bar. E. Remington & Sons purchased the rights and manufacture began in 1874. To avoid jamming typebars with adjacent and commonly used pairs of letters, Sholes and Glidden arranged the keyboard with these first six letters on the left of the top row and other letters distributed based on frequency of use. Their "QWERTY" system is still the standard for arranging letters.
The first Remington typewriter only printed capital letters, but a model made in 1878 uses a shift key to raise and lower typebars. The shift key and double-character typeface produces twice as many characters without changing the number of typebars.
George Blickensderfer will produce the first electric typewriter in 1902, but practical electric typewriters are not manufactured until about 1925. By the 1990s personal computers will become more popular than typewriters.
Note the first sentence in the 1867 "Scientific American" article "Type Writing Machine": "A machine by which it is assumed that a man may print his thoughts twice as fast as he can write them...". Little did that author, and no doubt, direct-to-brain windows consumer know that the typewriter would have a long live of over 100 years, all that time, millions of humans denied the simple service of direct-to-brain windows. To this day, printing a copy of a thought-image is still forbidden and unrealized publicly.
The article goes on to state: "...The subject of type writing is one of the interesting aspects of the near future. Its manifest feasibility and advantage indicate that the laborious and unsatisfactory performance of the pen must sooner or later become obsolete for general purposes. 'Printed copy' will become the rule, not the exception, for compositors, even on original papers like the SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN. Legal copying and the writing and delivery of sermons and lectures, not to speak of letters and editorials, will undergo a revolution as remarkable as that effected in books by the invention of printing, and the weary process of learning penmanship in schools will be reduced to the acquirement of the art of writing one's own signature and playing on the literary piano above described, or rather on its improved successors.".
| Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA |
132 YBN
[07/02/1868 AD]
| 3432) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) identifies carbon (in the form of ethylene {olefiant gas}) in spectra from a comet.
In "On the Spectrum of Comet II., 1868", Huggins writes in an abstract: "The author found this cometic spectrum to agree exactly with a form of the spectrum of carbon which he had observed and measured in 1864. When an induction spark, with Leyden jars intervalated, is taken in a current of olefiant gas, the highly heated vapour of carbon exhibits a spectrum with is somewhat modified from that which may be regarded as typical of carbon. The light is of the same refrangibilities, but the separate strong lines are not to be distinguished. The shading, composed of numerous fine lines, which accompanies the lines appears as an unresolved nebulous light. On June 23 the spectrum of the comet was compared directly in the spectroscope with the spectrum of the induction spark taken in a current of olefiant gas. (ethylene) The three bands of the comet appeared to coincide with the corresponding bands of the spectrum of carbon. In addition to an apparent identity of position, the bands in the two spectra were very similar in their general characters and in their relative brightness. ... The great fixity of carbon seems, indeed, to raise some difficulty in the way of accepting the apparently obvious inference from these prismatic observations. Some comets have approached sufficiently neat the sun to acquire a temperature high enough to convert even carbon into vapour. ...".
(What is going to be wonderful is when average people can buy a device, perhaps integrated into walking robots, that quickly examines the full spectrum (beyond even visible) of the surroundings and quickly determines the exact chemical composition around it. Or even when telescope are fully automated to produce automatic maps of and recognize spectra of celestial and land-based objects.)
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
132 YBN
[07/02/1868 AD]
| 4020) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) measures the heat of stars using a thermopile.
Huggins writes: ".... The great sensitiveness of this instrument was shown by the needles turning through 90° when two pieces of wire of different kinds of copper were held between the finger aud thumb. For the stars, the images of which in the telescope are points of light, the thermopiles consisted of one or of two pairs of elements; a large pile, containing twenty-four pairs of elements, was also used for the moon. A few of the later observations were made with a pile of which the elements consist of alloys of bismuth and antimony.
The thermopile was attached to a refractor of eight inches aperture. I considered that though some of the heat-rays would not be transmitted by the glass, yet the more uniform temperature of the air within the telescope, and some other circumstances, would make the difficulty of preserving the pile from extraneous influences less formidable than if a reflector were used. .... ...precautions were necessary, as the approach of the hand to one of the binding-screws, or even the impact upon it of the cooler air entering the observatory, was sufficient to produce a deviation of the needle greater than was to be expected from the stars. .... The apparatus was fixed to the telescope so that the surface of the thermopile would be at the focal point of the object-glass. ...... The image of the star was kept upon the small pile by means of the clock-motion attached to the telescope. The needle was then watched during five minutes or longer ; almost always the needle begau to move as soon as the image of the star fell upon it. The telescope was then moved, so as to direct it again to the sky near the star. Generally in one or two minutes the needle began to return towards its original position.
In a similar manner twelve to twenty observations of the same star were made. These observations were repeated on other nights.
The mean of a number of observations of Sirius, which did not differ greatly from each other, gives a deflection of the needle of 2°.
The observations of Pollux 1 1/2°.
No effect was produced on the needle by Castor.
Regulus gave a deflection of 3°.
In one observation Arcturus deflected the needle 3° in 15 minutes.
The observations of the full moon were not accordant. On one night a sensible effect was shown by the needle; but at another time the indications of heat were excessively small, and not sufficiently uniform to be trustworthy.".
The government astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope, Mr. Stone, will observe the heat of some stars, reporting to the Royal Society in January 1870 that the heat received from Arcturus, is about equal to a three-inch cube containing boiling water 400 years away, and the heat from alpha Lyrae to be equal to a similar cube 600 yards away.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England (presumably) |
132 YBN
[09/??/1868 AD]
| 3571) Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov (BUTlYuruF) (CE 1828-1886), Russian chemist, discovers that unsaturated organic compounds contain multiple bonds. Unsaturated refers to an organic compound, especially a fatty acid, containing one or more double or triple bonds between the carbon atoms. In addition unsaturated may refer to a molecule that is capable of dissolving more of a solute at a given temperature. (more detail)
(Is this the first description of multiple bonds between two atoms?)
| (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
132 YBN
[10/08/1868 AD]
| 3922) Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (BOLTSmoN) (CE 1844-1906), Austrian physicist extends Maxwell's theory of the statistical distribution of energy among colliding gas molecules, treating the case when external forces are present. The result is a new exponential equation for molecular distribution, now known as the "Boltzmann factor".
The Boltzmann factor is e-E/kT, and expresses the probability of a state of energy E relative to the probability of a state of zero energy.
Boltzmann publishes this as "Studien ueber das Gleichgewicht der lebendigen Kraft zwischen bewegten materiellen Punkte." ("Studies on the balance of the living force between moving material points"). The problem had been previously attacked by Maxwell but Boltzmann soon found difficulties and objections arising out of Maxwell's treatment and it was one of the objects of the paper to place the theory on a more satisfactory basis.
Bolzmann arrives at a generalization of Maxwell's velocity-distribution law for the case of particles affected by forces, which is the so-called "Boltzmann factor", now used in statistical mechanics. Boltzmann replaces Maxwell's conservation of kinetic energy with the condition of conservation of kinetic plus potential energy. The Boltzmann factor is an exponential function of the total energy of a particle at a given point in space with a given velocity, that is, the sum of its potential energy (which usually depends only on position) and its kinetic energy (which depends only on velocity).
In 1859 Maxwell gave the distribution of velocities among molecules of a gas on the basis of probability, and Boltzmann expresses the distribution in terms of energies (as opposed to velocities) among the molecules. (note that EB2009 has Boltzmann doing this in 1871 not 1868)
(This explanation needs more description with visual drawings.)
Can the kinetic theory of gases be extended to a kinetic theory of all matter?
(I think there are probably flaws in this generalization because the concept of potential energy is flawed because in my view mass does not have any potential energy, but instead only a velocity relative to all other masses. In addition, the concept of energy holds the view that mass and velocity can be exchanged which I reject.)
| (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
132 YBN
[11/23/1868 AD]
| 3648) Louis Ducos du Hauron (CE 1837-1920) invents the first permanent color photograph by superimposing (and fastening together) 3 different colored transparent images. Also in this year Hauron identifies the additive and subtractive systems of color. Both systems use red, green, and blue negatives. The difference occurs in the positive image, which can be made by either the additive or subtractive primary colors. The subtractive primaries are (cyan (aqua or sky-blue), magenta (pink), and yellow), and are the complements of the additive primaries ((red, green and blue)). These three subtractive primaries are produced by subtracting, respectively, red, green, and blue from white. Subtracting all three additive primaries yields black while adding all three produces the color white.
On November 23, 1868, Hauron is granted a patent on a process for making color photographs. Hauron photographs a scene through green, orange, and violet filters, then prints the three negatives on thin sheets of bichromated gelatin containing carbon pigments of red, blue, and yellow, the complementary colors of the negatives (green, orange and violet). When the three positives, usually in the form of transparencies (material?), are superimposed, (and fastened together) a full-color photograph is the result. Another French experimenter, Charles Cros, discovers the process independently but publishes his findings just 48 hours after Ducos du Hauron has received his patent. Ducos du Hauron describes his results in "Les Couleurs en photographie: Solution du problème" (1869; "Colours in Photography: Solution of the Problem") and "Les Couleurs en photographie et en particulier l’héliochromie au charbon" (1870; "Colours in Photography: Colour Reproduction with Carbon Pigments").
(I think the primary color concept is more complex than currently thought. For example, what is the particle interpretation? Clearly the photon interval is changed at the eye receptor. But at the same time, these frequencies cannot be coherent - that is evenly spaced. Then, since white and gray do not have coherent photon intervals - what is the change to frequency in adding white - again it cannot result in a coherent set of beam intervals when summed by the eye detectors. How do all the colors mix together? Hauron uses orange for example - are there other colors? Maxwell states that any 3 colors can be used so long as they add to white. Also, perhaps mixing specific frequencies of red, green and blue produces many colors, but not all - because they can be aligned to many photon frequencies - but perhaps miss some. There is also the issue of why the intensity of r,g or b changes the resulting frequency of photons, since increasing intensity of a coherent monochromatic frequency of light beam does not change frequency in any way. Maxwell makes a curious statement in "The Theory of Colours in relation to colour-blindness": on the rgb triangle, there must be a curve that represents the spectrum (ie roygbiv) of all "natural" colors - as if there are unnatural colors - perhaps he is refering to composite colors such as gray, white, brown, which do not appear in the spectrum -these colors may be the result of the incoherent/unregular interval of light on the human eye detectors - an have no regular frequency. It comes from the flawed view that any frequency of light can be made from 3 distinct frequencies.)
| ?, France |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 2677) Royal Earl House (CE 1814-1895), obtains a patent for an electrophonetic telegraph. Bell uses this to argue for Bell's own patent by explaining how telephony (sending audio?) was possible with House's device. (Doesn't this invalidate Bell's patent?)
| New York City, New York, USA |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3080) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, invents the filter pump (1868).
This filter pump is worked out in the course of a research on the separation of the platinum metals.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3418) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, isolates the bacteria of two distinct diseases and reports methods of detecting and preventing the spread of diseased organisms.
In 1865 Pasteur undertakes a government mission to investigate the diseases of the silkworm, which are about to put an end to the production of silk, at the time a major part of France’s economy.
Pasteur discovers that the cause of the diseased silkworms has two causes, first a parasitic disease (pebrine) and secondly a disorder (flacherie) caused by a susceptibility to certain intestinal bacteria which, under special circumstances, become (damaging) to silkworms. Pasteur explains this in "Etudes sur la maladie des vers a soie" (1870).
Three years later Pasteur reports locating a parasite infesting silkworms and the mulberry leaves that are fed to the silkworms. Pasteur's advice is to destroy all invested worms and trees. Although drastic, this is done and the silk industry is saved.
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3447) Pierre Jules César Janssen (joNSeN) (CE 1824-1907), French astronomer, discovers lines in the solar spectrum that he can not identify. Janssen sends his results to English astronomer Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920). Lockyer works with Frankland looking at the spectra of hydrogen, sodium, and iodine under various temperatures and pressures. Lockyer soon recognizes from these experiments that the yellow line in the chromosphere and prominances cannot be due to hydrogen or sodium, and therefore represents some new element found only on the Sun, which he names helium (from the Greek word for Sun). In 1895 William Ramsay will discover a substance on Earth that matches exactly with Janssen's spectral lines.
Some sources state that Janssen sends Ramsay the spectral line, and other sources state that Ramsay independently identifies the spectral line.
(State Lockyer's paper and quote.)
Asimov reports that many lines have been attributed to new elements, but all turn out to be just old elements under unusual conditions, the one exception being helium.
Also during this stay in India Janssen finds that the hydrogen lines visible in the solar prominences during a solar eclipse are still visible the day after the eclipse, and so this means that while photography and observation still depend on an eclipse (to observe solar prominences), the spectroscope can be used almost anywhere and anytime (to observe the spectrum of solar prominences). (Some sources describe this as a new method.)
| (?), India |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3495) (Sir) Edward Frankland (CE 1825-1899), English chemist, and J. Norman Lockyer, theorize that spectral lines become thicker because of increased pressure. (Is this true?)
Frankland shows that the spectrum of a dense ignited gas resembles that of an incandescent liquid or solid, and Frankland traces a gradual change in the spectrum of an incandescent gas under increasing pressure, the sharp lines observable when it is extremely attenuated (in low density space/air?) broadening out to nebulous bands as the pressure rises, until the spectral lines merge into a continuous spectrum as the gas approaches a density comparable with that of the liquid state. (not clearly documented in this paper)
| (Royal College) London, England |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3510) Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (RleNmIR) (CE 1825-1909), German chemist synthesizes guanidine and is the first to give its correct formula (1868).
| (Munich Polytechnic) Munich, Germany |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3523) George Johnstone Stoney (CE 1826-1911), Irish physicist, distinguishes between the motion of molecules in a gas relative to other molecules (which Stoney excludes as the cause of spectra), and the internal motion of the molecule (which according to Stoney produces spectral lines).
Stoney tries to determine an exact formula for the numerical relationship between the lines in the hydrogen spectrum. Niels Bohr will use quantum theory to find a solution to this relationship.
| (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3737) (Sir) Joseph Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920), English astronomer, shows that the spectrum of the solar prominences (the huge flames that are thrown out of the sun's outer layer), usually only seen during a full eclipse can actually be observed without an eclipse by allowing light from the edge of the sun to pass through a prism. (Janssen, the French astronomer, makes this same observation on the same day.)
Lockyer finds that the solar prominences are projected from a layer that completely envelopes the photosphere of the Sun, which Lockyer names the chromosphere.
| (at home, employed at War Office) West Hampstead, England |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3803) Karl James Peter Graebe (GreBu) (CE 1841-1927), German chemist, assisted by Carl Liebermann synthesizes the orange-red dye alizarin.
Under the instruction of Baeyer, Graebe and a fellow student show that alizarin has a molecular structure based on anthracene, a compound made of 3 joined rings of carbon atoms. Knowing this, it is a simple process to reverse the process, starting with anthracene from coal tar, and make alizarin out of it. By 1869 a practical method for this is found by accident when a mixture is left over a flame and forgotten until charred. (kind of funny, that they decided to analyze the charred remains.)
Graebe and Liebermann find that on heating with zinc dust, alizarin is converted into anthracene. In order to synthesize alizarin, they convert anthracene into anthraquinone and then brominate the quinone. The dibrominated product is then fused with caustic potash, the melt dissolved in water, and on the addition of hydrochloric acid to the solution, alizarin is precipitated. This process, owing to its expensive nature, is not in use very long, being superseded by another process, discovered simultaneously by the above-named chemists and by William Perkin; the method being to sulphonate anthraquinone, and then to convert the sulphonic acid into its sodium salt and fuse this with caustic soda.
Alizarin occurs naturally as a coloring matter of the madder-root. Synthetic alizarin quickly supplants the natural dye "madder" in the textile industry.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3808) Josef Breuer (BROER) (CE 1842-1925), Austria physician, with Ewald Hering demonstrate the reflexes involved in respiration. Breuer and Hering describe a reflex regulation of respiration, one of the first "feedback" mechanism to be demonstrated in the mammal. This underlying reflex is still known as the Hering-Breuer reflex.
The Hering-Breuer reflex is initiated by lung expansion (state which muscles control this and show visually), which excites stretch receptors in the airways. When these receptors are stimulated, they send signals to the medulla by the vagus nerve, which shorten inhaling times as the volume of air inhaled (tidal volume) increases, accelerating the frequency of breathing. When lung inflation is prevented, the reflex allows inhaling time to be lengthened, helping to preserve tidal volume. (It is not clear to me. Does this reflex control frequency of a inhale-exhale cycles or the course {duration} of a single inhale-exhale cycle?)
The Hering-Breuer reflexes are inflation and deflation reflexes that help regulate the rhythmic ventilation of the lungs, thereby preventing overdistension and extreme deflation. These reflexes arise outside the respiratory center in the brain; that is, the receptor sites are located in the respiratory tract, mainly in the bronchi and bronchioles. They are activated by either a stretching or a nonstretching and compression of the lung; the impulses are transmitted from the receptor sites through the vagus nerve to the brainstem and from there to the respiratory center. The inflation reflex acts to inhibit inspiration and thereby prevents further inflation. When the lung tissue is stretched by inflation, the stretch receptors respond by sending impulses to the respiratory center, which in turn slows down inspiration. As the expiratory phase begins, the receptors are no longer stretched, impulses are no longer sent, and inspiration can begin again.
(I have doubts. State what the physical evidence is. I don't think a mammal could overextend the lung - it seems physically and muscularly impossible.)
| (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) (presumably) |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 3984) George Westinghouse (CE 1846-1914) US engineer, invents an "air brake" which uses compressed air to apply a brake to stop a moving train.
In this device, compressed air applies the brakes instead of muscle power. (more explanation - people would pull and hold some object against the wheel before the air brake?)
Westinghouse takes his invention to Cornelius Vanderbilt the railroad magnate, but Vanderbilt views the idea of stopping a train with air as nonsense.
In 1872 Westinghouse invents the automatic air-brake which is quickly adopted by railways in America and gradually in Europe. Westinghouse also develops a system of railway signals, operated by compressed air with the assistance of electricity.
In 1865, Westinghouse had invented a device for placing derailed freight cars back on their tracks.
Westinghouse later applies the same principle of the air brake to develop a water meter. (Are there other methods like electric motors and gears, gas motors, a hydraulic device - compare to the method in automobiles and other vehicles?)
| (Westinghouse Air Brake Company) Pittsburg, PA, USA |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 4049) Paul Langerhans (CE 1847-1888), German physician, using the gold chloride techniques of Julius Cohnheim, describes the dendritic, non-pigmentary cells in the epidermis that Langerhans mistakenly regards as intra-epidermal receptors for signals of the nervous system. These cells are not understood by dermatologists for over a century until the recognition of their importance and function to the immune system. The discoveries that these cells are not confined to skin with other evidence, suggest that they play an immunologic role in protecting against environmental antigens.
Langerhans publishes this as "Uber die nerven der menschlichen haut." (in English "On the Nerves of the Human Skin").
Langerhans cells should not be confused with the islets of Langerhans, identified later by Langerhans in the pancreas.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
132 YBN
[1868 AD]
| 6005) Johannes Brahms (CE 1833-1897), German pianist and composer of the Romantic era, composes the lullaby "Lied Wiegenlied" ("Cradle Song") (Op. 49 No. 4) popularly known as simply "Brahms' Lullaby".
| Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
131 YBN
[01/15/1869 AD]
| 3315) John Tyndall (CE 1820-1893), Irish physicist, provides experimental evidence that the blue color of the earth sky is due to small particles that reflect (or scatter) light.
Tyndall describes what will be called the "Tyndall effect", the scattering of light by particles of matter in its path which therefore makes the light beam visible from the side.
Tyndall theorizes: "Of all the visual waves emitted by the sun, the shortest and smallest are those which correspond to the colour blue. On such waves small particles have more power than upon large ones, hence the predominance of blue colour in all light reflected from exceedingly small particles.". Tyndall views light as a transverse vibration of an aether. The alternative view is that light are made of particles of different frequencies that move in a straight line.
Tyndall provides explanations for the color of the sun at the horizon and of clear skies, around 2 years later Lord Rayleigh will provide a theory to explain this phenomenon (see and ).
Tyndall also finds that clouds of various materials created by sunlight polarize light, similar to the way that a portion of Sun light is polarized by the sky of earth.
Tyndall writes this in "On Chemical Rays, and the Light of the Sky." published in Philosophical Magazine. Tyndall describes his apparatus and experiments: "... We will now commence our illustrative experiments. I hold in my hand a little flask, F, which is stopped by a cork, pierced in two places. Through one orifice passes a narrow glass tube, a, which terminates immediately under the cork; through the other orifice passes a similar tube, b, descending to the bottom of the little flask, which is filled to a height of about an inch with a transparent liquid. The name of this liquid is nitrate of amyl, in every molecule of which we have 5 atoms of carbon, 11 of hydrogen, 1 of nitrogen, and 2 of oxygen. Upon this group the waves of our electric light will be immediately let loose. The large horizontal tube that you see before you is what I have called an "experimental tube;" it is connected with our small flask, a stop-cock, however, intervening between them, by means of which the passage between the flask and the experimental tube can be opened or closed at pleasure. The other tube, passing through the cork of the flask and descending into the liquid, is connected with a U-shaped vessel, filled with fragments of clean glass, covered with sulphuric acid. In front of the U-shaped vessel is a narrow tube stuffed with cotton-wool At one end of the experimental tube is our electric lamp; and here, finally, is an air-pump, by by {sic} means of which the tube has been exhausted. We are now ready for experiment. Opening the cock cautiously, the air of the room passes, in the first place, through the cotton-wool, which holds back the numberless organic germs and inorganic dust-particles floating in the atmosphere. The air, thus cleansed, passes into the U-shaped vessel, where it is dried by the sulphuric acid. It then descends through the narrow tube to the bottom of the little flask, and escapes there through a small orifice into the liquid. Through this it bubbles loading itself to some extent with the nitrite of amyl vapour, and then the air and vapour enter the experimental tube together. The closest scrutiny would now fail to discover anything within this tube; it is, to all appearance, absolutely empty. The air and the vapour are both invisible. We will permit the electric beam to play upon this vapour. The lens of the lamp is so situated as to render the beam slightly convergent, the focus being formed in the vapour at about the middle of the tube. You will notice that the tube remains dark for a moment after the turning on of the beam; but the chemical action will be so rapid that attention is requisite to mark this interval of darkness. I ignite the lamp; the tube for a moment seems empty; but suddenly the beam darts through a luminous white cloud, which has banished the preceding darkness. It has, in fact, shaken asunder the molecules of the nitrite of amyl, and brought down upon itself a shower of liquid particles which cause it to flash forth in your presence like a solid luminous spear. It is worth while to mark how this experiment illustrates the fact, that however intense a luminous beam may be, it remains invisible unless it has something to shine upon. Space, though traversed by the rays from all suns and all stars, is itself unseen. Not even the aether which fills space, and whose motions are the light of the universe, is itself visible. You notice that the end of the experimental tube most distant from the lamp is free from cloud. Now the nitrite of amyl vapour is there also, but it is unaffected by the powerful beam passing through it. Let us make the transmitted beam more concentrated by receiving it on a concave silver mirror, and causing it to return by reflection into the tube. It is still powerless. Though a cone of light of extraordinary intensity now traverses the vapour, no precipitation occurs, no trace of cloud is formed. Why? Because the very small portion of the beam competent to decompose the vapour is quite exhausted by its work in the frontal portions of the tube. The great body of the light which remains, after this sifting out of the few effectual rays, has no power over the molecules of nitrite of amyl. We have here, strikingly illustrated, what has been already stated regarding the influence of period, as contrasted with that of strength. For the portion of the beam which is here ineffectual has probably more than a million times the absolute energy of the effectual portion. It is energy specially related to the atoms that we here need, which specially related energy being possessed by the feeble waves, invests them with their extraordinary power. When the experimental tube is reversed so as to bring the undecomposed vapours under the action of the unsifted beam, you have instantly this fine luminous cloud precipitated. The light of the sun also effects the decomposition of the nitrite of amyl vapour. A small room in the Royal Institution, into which the sun shone, was partially darkened, the light being permitted to enter through an open portion of the window-shutter. In the track of the beam was placed a large plano-convex lens, which formed a fine convergent cone in the dust of the room behind it. The experimental tube was filled in the laboratory, covered with a black cloth, and carried into the partially darkened room. On thrusting one end of the tube into the cone of rays behind the lens, precipitation within the cone was copious and immediate. The vapour at the distant end of the tube was shielded by that in front; but on reversing the tube, a second and similar splendid cone was precipitated. ...". Tyndall explains this as the effect explained by Kirchhoff of how waves are absorbed and explain the lines of Frauenhofer. Tyndall then writes: " Instead of employing air as the vehicle by which the vapour is carried into the experimental tube, we may employ oxygen, hydrogen, or nitrogen. With hydrogen curious effects are observed, due to the sinking of the clouds through the extremely light gas in which they float. They illustrate, without proving, the argument of those who say that the clouds of our own atmosphere could not float if the cloud particles were not little bladders, instead of full spheres. Before you is a tube filled with the nitrite of amyl vapour, which has been carried into the tube by hydrogen gas. On sending the beam through the tube a delicate bluish-white cloud is precipitated. A few strokes of the pump clear the tube of this cloud, but leave a residue of vapour behind. Again turning in the beam we have a second cloud, more delicate than the first, precipitated. This may be done half-a-dozen times in succession. A residue of vapour will still linger in the tube suflicient to yield a cloud of exquisite delicacy, both as regards colour and texture. Besides the nitrite of amyl a great number of other substances might be employed, which, like the nitrite, have been hitherto not known to be chemically susceptible to light. But I confine myself at present to this representative case. ... The experimental tube now before you contains a quantity of a different vapour from that which we have hitherto employed. The liquid from which this vapour is derived is called the nitrite of butyl. On sending the electric beam through the vapour, which has been carried in by air, the chemical action is scarcely sensible. I add to the vapour a quantity of air which has been permitted to bubble through hydrochloric acid. When the beam is now turned on, so rapid is the action and so dense the clouds precipitated, that you could hardly by an effort of attention observe the dark interval which preceded the precipitation of the cloud. This enormous augmentation of the action is due to the presence of the hydrochloric acid. Like the chlorophyl in the leaves of plants, it takes advantage of the loosening of the molecules of nitrite of butyl, by the waves of the electric light. In these experiments we have employed a luminous beam for two different purposes. A small portion of it has been devoted to the decomposition of our vapours, while the great body of the light has served to render luminons the clouds resulting from the decomposition. It is possible to impart to these clouds any required degree of tenuity, for it is in our power to limit at pleasure the amount of vapour in our experimental tube. When the quantity is duly limited, the precipitated particles are at first inconceivably small, defying the highest microscopic power to bring them within the range of vision. Probably their diameters might then be expressed in millionths of an inch. They grow gradually, and as they augment in size, throw from them, by reflexion, a continually increasing quantity of wave-motion, until, finally, the cloud which they form becomes so luminous as to fill this theatre with light. During the growth of the particles the most splendid iridescences are often exhibited. Such I have sometimes seen with delight and wonder in the atmosphere of the Alps, but never anything so gorgeous as those which our laboratory experiments reveal. It is not, however, with the iridescences, however beautiful they may be, that we have now to occupy our thoughts, but with other effects which bear upon the two great standing enigmas of meteorology- the colour of the sky and the polarization of its light.". Tyndall mentions that John Herschel interested him in explaining the blue color of the sky. Tyndall continues: " First, then, with regard to the colour of the sky; how is it produced, and can we not reproduce it? This colour has not the same origin as that of ordinary colouring matter, in which certain portions of the white solar light are extinguished, the colour of the substances being that of the portion which remains. A violet is blue because its molecular texture enables it to quench the green, yellow, and red constituents of white light, and to allow the blue free transmission. A geranium is red because its molecular texture is such as quenches all rays except the red. Such colours are called colours of absorption; but the hue of the sky is not of this character. The blue light of the sky is all reflected light, and were there nothing in our atmosphere competent to reflect the solar rays we should see no blue firmament, but should look into the darkness of infinite space. The reflection of the blue is effected by perfectly colourless particles. Smallness of size alone is requisite to ensure the selection and reflexion of this colour. Of all the visual waves emitted by the sun, the shortest and smallest are those which correspond to the colour blue. On such waves small particles have more power than upon large ones, hence the predominance of blue colour in all light reflected from exceedingly small particles. The crimson glow of the Alps in the evening and in the morning is due, on the other hand, to transmitted light; that is to say, to light which in its passage through great atmospheric distances has its blue constituents sifted out of it by repeated reflexion. It is possible, as stated, by duly regulating the quantity of vapour, to make our precipitated particles grow from an infinitesimal and altogether ultra-microscopic size to masses of sensible magnitude; and by means of these particles, in a certain stage of their growth, we can produce a blue which shall rival, if it does not transcend, that of the deepest and purest Italian sky. Let this point be in the first place established. Associated with our experimental tube is a barometer, the mercurial column of which now indicates that the tube is exhausted. Into the tube I introduce a quantity of the mixed air and nitrite of butyl vapour sufficient to depress the mercurial column one-twentieth of an inch that is to say, the air and vapour together exert a pressure of one six-hundredth of an atmosphere. I now add a quantity of air and hydrochloric acid sufficient to depress the mercury half-an-inch further, and into this compound and highly attenuated atmosphere I discharge the beam of the electric light. The effect is slow; but gradually within the tube arises this splendid azure, which strengthens for a time, reaches a maximum of depth and purity, and then, as the particles grow larger, passes into whitish blue. This experiment is representative, and it illustrates a general principle. Various other colourless substances of the most diverse properties, optical and chemical, might be employed for this experiment. The incipient cloud in every case would exhibit this superb blue; thus proving to demonstration that particles of infinitesimal size, without any colonr of their own, and irrespective of those optical properties exhibited by the substance in a massive state, are competent to produce the colour of the sky. ". Tyndall then goes on to address the mystery of why light from the sky is polarized writing: " But there is another subject connected with our firmament, of a more subtle and recondite character than even its colour. I mean that 'mysterious and beautiful phenomenon,' the polarization of the light of the sky. The polarity of a magnet consists in its two endedness, both ends, or poles, acting in opposite ways. Polar forces, as most of you know, are those in which the duality of attraction and repulsion is manifested. And a kind of two-sidedness- noticed by Huygens, commented on by Newton, and discovered by a French philosopher, named Malus, in a beam of light which had been reflected from one of the windows of the Luxembourg Palace in Paris- receives the name of polarization. We must now, however, attach a distinctness to the idea of a polarized beam, which its discoverers were not able to attach to it. For in their day men's thoughts were not sufficiently ripe, nor optical theory sufficiently advanced, to seize upon or express the physical meaning of polarization. When a gun is fired, the explosion is propagated as a wave through the air. The shells of air, if I may use the term, surrounding the centre of concussion, are successively thrown into motion, each shell yielding up its motion to that in advance of it, and returning to its position of equilibrium. Thus, while the wave travels through long distances, each individual particle of air concerned in its transmission performs merely a small excursion to and fro. In the case of sound, the vibration of the air particles are executed in the direction in which the sound travels. They are therefore called longitudinal vibrations. In the case of light, on the contrary, the vibrations are transversalacross the direction in which the light is propagated. In this respect waves of light resemble ordinary water-waves, more than waves of sound. In the case of an ordinary beam of light, the vibrations of the aether particles are executed in every direction perpendicular to it; but let the beam impinge obliquely, upon a plane glass surface, as in the case of Malus, the portion reflected will no longer have its particles vibrating in all directions round it. By the act of reflexion, if it occur at the proper angle, the vibrations are all confined to a single plane, and light thus circumstanced is called plane polarized light. A beam of light passing through ordinary glass executes its vibrations within the substance exactly as it would do in air, or in aether-filled space. Not so when it passes through many transparent crystals. For these have also their two-sidedness, the arrangement of their particles being such as to tolerate vibrations only in certain definite directions. There is the well-known crystal tourmaline, which shows a marked hostility to all vibrations executed at right angles to the axis of the crystal. It speedily extinguishes such vibrations, while those executed parallel to the axis are freely propagated. The consequence is, that a beam of light, after it has passed through any thickness of this crystal, emerges from it polarized. So also as regards the beautiful crystal known as Iceland spar, or as double doubly refracting spar. In one direction, but in one only, it shows the neutrality of glass; in all other directions it splits the beam of light passing through it into two distinct halves, both of which are perfectly polarized, their vibrations being executed in two planes, at right angles to each other. It is possible by a suitable contrivance to get rid of one of the two polarized beams into which Iceland spar divides an ordinary beam of light. This was done so ingeniously and effectively by a man named Nicol, that the Iceland spar, cut in his fashion, is now universally known as Nicol's prism. Such a prism can polarize a beam of light; and if the beam, before it impinges on the prism, be already polarized, in one position of the prism it is stopped, while in another position it is transmitted. Our way is now, to some extent, cleared towards an examination of the light of the sky. Looking at various points of the blue firmament through a Nicol's prism, and turning the prism round its axis, we soon notice variations of the brightness of the sky. {ULSF: notice not all of the light is polarized, only a part of it} In certain positions of the spar, and from certain points of the firmament, the light appears to be wholly transmitted; while, looking at the same points, it is only necessary to turn the prism round its axis through an angle of ninety degrees to materially diminish the intensity of the light. On close scrutiny it is found that the difference produced by the rotation of the prism is greatest when the sky is regarded in a direction at right angles to that of the solar rays through the air. Let me describe a few actual observations made some days ago on Primrose Hill. The sun was near setting, and a few scattered neutral-tint clouds, which failed to catch the dying light, were floating in the air. When these were looked at across the track of the solar beams, it was possible by turning the Nicol round, to see them either as white clouds on a dark ground, or as dark clouds on a bright ground. In some of its positions the sky-light was in great part quenched by the Nicol, and then the clouds, projected against the darkness of space, appeared white. Turning the Nicol ninety degrees round its axis, the brightness of the sky was restored, and then the clouds became dark through contrast with this brightness. Experiments of this kind prove that the blue light sent to us by the firmament is polarized, and that the direction of most perfect polarization is perpendicular to the solar rays. Were the heavenly azure like the ordinary light of the sun, the turning of the prism would have no effect upon it; it would be transmitted equally during the entire rotation of the prism. The light of the sky is in great part quenched, because it is in great part polarized. When a luminous beam impinges at the proper angle on a piano glass surface it is polarized by reflexion. It is polarized, in part, by all oblique reflexions; but at one particular angle, the reflected light is perfectly polarized. An exceedingly beautiful and simple law, discovered by Sir David Brewster, enables us readily to find the polarizing angle of any substance whose refractive index is known. {ULSF: Apparently, all refractive materials polarize light. See for more info.} This law was discovered experimentally by Brewster; but the Wave Theory of light renders a complete reason for the law. A geometrical image of it is thus given. When a beam of light impinges obliquely upon a plate of glass it is in part reflected and in part refracted. At one particular incidence the reflected and the refracted portions of the beam are at right angles to each other. The angle of incidence is then the polarizing angle. It varies with the refractive index of the substance being for water 52 1/2, for glass 57 1/2, and for diamond 68 degrees. And now we are prepared to comprehend the difficulties which have beset the question before us. It has been already stated that in order to obtain the most perfect polarization of the firmamental light, the sky must be regarded in a direction at right angles to the solar beams. This is sometimes expressed by saying that the place of maximum polarization is at an angular distance of 90° from the sun. This angle, enclosed as it is between the direct and reflected rays, comprises both the angles of incidence and reflexion. Hence the angle of incidence, which corresponds to the maximum polarization of the sky is half of 90° or 45°. This is the atmospheric polarizing angle, and the question is, what known substance possesses an index of refraction to correspond with this polarizing angle? If we know this substance, we might be tempted to conclude that particles of it, scattered in the atmosphere, produce the polarization of the sky. "Were the angle of maximum polarization," says Sir John Herschel, "76° (instead of 90°),C we should look to water, or ice, as the reflecting body, however inconceivable the existence in a cloudless atmosphere, and a hot summer day, of unevaporated particles of water." But a polarizing angle of 45° corresponds to a refractive index of 1; this means that there is no refraction at all, in which case we ought to have no reflexion. Brewster and others came to the conclusion that the reflexion was from the particles of air themselves. ... ....But to satisfy the law of Brewster, as Sir John Herschel remarks, 'the reflexion would have to be made in air upon air!' ...
... I shall now seek to demonstrate in your presence, firstly, and in conformation of our former experiments, that sky-blue may be produced by exceedingly minute particles of any kind of matter; secondly, that polarization identical with that of the sky is produced by such particles; and thirdly, that matter in this fine state of division, where its particles are probably small in comparison with the height and span of a wave of light, releases itself completely from the law of Brewster; the direction of maximum polarization being absolutely independent of the polarizing angle as hitherto defined. Why this should be the case, the wave theory of light, to make itself complete, will have subsequently to explain. Into this experimental tube, in the manner already described, I introduce a vapour which is decomposable by the waves of light. The mixed air and vapour are sufficient to depress the mercurial column one inch. I add to this mixture air, which has been permitted to bubble through dilute hydrochloric acid, until the column is depressed thirty inches: in other words, until the tube is full. And now I permit the electric beam to play upon the mixture. For some time nothing is seen. The chemical action is doubtless progressing, and condensation going on; but the condensing molecules have not yet coalesced to particles sufficiently largo to reflect sensibly the waves of light. As before stated- and the statement rests upon an experimental basis- the particles hero generated are at first so small that their diameters would probably have to be expressed in millionths of an inch; while to form each of these particles whole crowds of molecules are probably aggregated. Helped by such considerations, the intellectual vision plunges more profoundly into atomic nature, and shows us, among other things, how far we are from the realization of Newton's hope that the molecules might one day be seen by microscopes. While I am speaking, you observe this delicate blue colour forming and strengthening within the experimental tube. No sky-blue could exceed it in richness and purity; but the particles which produce this colour lie wholly beyond our microscopic range. A uniform colour is here developed, which has as little breach of continuity- which yields as little evidence of the particles concerned in its production- as that yielded by a body whose colour is due to true molecular absorption. This blue is at first as deep and dark as the sky seen from the highest Alpine peaks, and for the same reason. But it grows gradually brighter, still maintaining its blueness, until at length a whitish tinge mingles with the pure azure; announcing that the particles are now no longer of that infinitesimal size which reflects the shortest waves alone. The liquid here employed is the iodide of allyl, but I might choose any one of a dozen substances here before me to produce the effect. You have seen what may be done with the nitrite of butyl. With nitrite of amyl, bisulphide of carbon, benzol, benzoic aether, &c. the same blue colour may be produced. In all cases where matter slowly passes from the molecular to the massive state, the transition is marked by the production of the blue. More than this:- you have seen me looking at the blue colour (I hardly like to call it a blue 'cloud,' its texture and properties are so different from ordinary clouds) through this bit of spar. This is a Nicol's prism, and I could wish one of them to bo placed in the hands of each of you. Well, this blue that I have been regarding turns out to be, if I may use the expression, a bit of more perfect sky than the sky itself. When I look across the illuminating beam exactly as we look across the solar rays in the atmosphere, I obtain not only partial polarization, but perfect polarization. In one position of the Nicol the blue light seems to pass unimpeded to the eye; in the other it is absolutely cut off, the experimental tube being reduced to optical emptiness. Behind the experimental tube it is well to place a black surface, in order to prevent foreign light from troubling the eye. In one position of the Nicol this black surface is seen without softening or qualification; for the particles within the tube are themselves invisible, and the light which they reflect is quenched. If the light of the sky were polarized with the same perfection, on looking properly towards it through a Nicol we should meet, not the mild radiance of the firmament, but the unillumined blackness of space. ... Our incipient blue cloud is a virtual Nicol's prism, and between it and the real Nicol, we can produce all the effects obtainable between the polarizer and analyzer of a polariscope. When, for example, a thin plate of selenite, which is crystallized sulphate of lime, is placed between the Nicol and the incipient cloud, we obtain the splendid chromatic phenomena of polarized light. The colour of the gypsum plate, as many of you know, depends upon its thickness. If this be uniform, the colour is uniform. If, on the contrary, the plate be wedge-shaped, thickening gradually and uniformly from edge to back, we have brilliant bands of colour produced parallel to the edge of the wedge. ... We have thus far illuminated our incipient cloud with ordinary light, and found the portion of this light reflected laterally from the cloud in all directions round it to be perfectly polarized. We will now examine the effects produced when the light which illuminates the cloud is itself polarized. In front of the electric lamp, and between it and the experimental tube, is placed this fine Nicol's prism, which is sufficiently large to embrace and to polarize the entire beam. The prism is now placed so that the plane of vibration of the light emergent from it, and falling upon the cloud, is vertical. How does the cloud behave towards this light? This formless aggregate of infinitesimal particles, without definite structure, shows the two-sidedness of the light in the most striking manner. It is absolutely incompetent to reflect upwards or downwards, while it freely discharges the light horizontally right and left. I turn the polarizing Nicol so as to render the plane of vibration horizontal; the cloud now freely reflects the light vertically upwards and downwards, but it is absolutely incompetent to shed a ray horizontally to the right or left. ...".
In 1869 (Tyndall describes the "Tyndall effect", the way light is scattered by particles in a colloid solution, but apparently not by particles in a crystalloid solution.) Tyndall shows that light passes through solutions Graham called crystalloid, because light cannot be seen from the side, but that a beam of light passing through a solution of a colloid is visible from the side. The particles of the colloid are just large enough to scatter (that is to reflect) the light. (I think that the other crystals perhaps are too small to reflect enough light that our eye can detect, but perhaps a more sensitive detector can detect. Perhaps the dissolved crystals take on or join the transparent shape {if there is such a thing} that the liquid has.) Rayleigh will show that the efficiency with which light is scattered varies inversely as the fourth power of the wavelength. So a light beam with half the wavelength will scatter 2^4, 16 times the amount, the larger wavelength light beam will. (I find this unusual, but if true perhaps it means that there are more photons in blue beams and therefore more photons reflecting. It is interesting that supposedly photons in red beams pass through without reflecting off the particles. I think this is a very interesting phenomenon I want to think about and that experiments should be shown to verify that the scattering is related to the fourth power of the wavelength for a variety of materials, in addition to all the various frequencies of specific frequencies and composite frequencies (white, gray).). Tyndall uses this theory of light scattering from particles to explain why the sky is blue. Sunlight is scattered by the dust particles (of colloidal size) always present in the atmosphere. It is the light waves at the blue end of the spectrum that are most scattered. (I think there is more to the story potentially. Definitely scattered photons with blue frequency, interesting that other frequencies pass through unscattered. EX: Can this blue sky be duplicated in a lab? Is it dust or some molecule, for example ozone? Why don't we see blue in between long distances? I can't see you over there through the blue light scattering.) When sunlight passes through a greater thickness of atmosphere such as at sunrise or sunset (particularly when there is a large amount of dust, for example from a volcano eruption), the sun is seen only by the unscattered light at the red end of the spectrum. (So when directly above, the yellow light passes through the few miles of air, but when passing through many thousands of miles of air, even the yellow light is scattered. If that yellow light is scattered, why don't people see it? ) (Clearly frequencies of light are being filtered out of sunlight at sunrise and sunset and not shifted, although that should be verified experimentally. Are they reflected or absorbed (or transmitted)?)
Tyndall performs a series of striking experiments on the decomposition of vapors by light, in the course of which the blue of the firmament and the polarization of sky light—illustrated on skies artificially produced in the lecture theater of the Royal Institution—are shown to be due to excessively fine particles floating in the atmosphere. This awe-inspiring demonstration stimulates J. W. Strutt (Lord Rayleigh) in 1871 to develop a quantitative and mathematical explanation of why the sky is blue.
Amyl nitrite is a volatile yellow liquid used as a vasodilator and as an antidote in cyanide poisoning. Vasodilators are medicines that act directly on muscles in blood vessel walls to make blood vessels widen (dilate).
Amyl nitrate is the chemical compound with the formula CH3(CH2)4ONO2. This molecule consists of the 5-carbon amyl group attached to a nitrate functional group. It is the ester of amyl alcohol and nitric acid (verify). Amyl nitrate is added to diesel fuel.
Butyl nitrate is a flammable chemical compound similar to nitric acid with the formula C4H9NO3.
In 1889, Walter Hartley announces that ozonized oxygen (ozone) is highly fluorescent, and that the color of the fluorescence is blue. Hartley goes on to reject Tyndall's particle-size-equals-amplitude-reflection explanation for the blue color of the sky giving as an alternative explanation the fluorescence of ozone.
(I think a classic question of science is: what are the differences between a diatomic hydrogen molecule h2 and a single helium atom? Both have 2 protons and 2 neutrons, but yet have a different distribution. I'm not sure He1 has ever been isolated.)
(I think the hypothesis that the size of the molecule physically gets larger or smaller with quantity is not correct. However, I can accept that the more molecules, the more reflection and so perhaps a change in frequency of reflected light particles. In addition, I think the idea of the blue from colorless particles is debatable- Is color not the result of reflected light? If transparent there could be no color since all light would be transmitted through unreflected. Notice too that Tyndall does not actually test other materials for this blue color effect, which should be done. How can we be sure that the molecules themselves do not reflect with this frequency. I think my main objection is against the theory that light is a transverse sine wave - so this theory, in my view, falls apart if the sine wave for light is false. The particle explanation has to be explored too. Perhaps higher frequencies of light are reduced by periodic collisions, or perhaps this color of blue is the color of these molecules made by O2 N2 HCl and butyl nitrate at that temperature and pressure. Perhaps reflected red frequencies are absorbed in directions other than directly in line with the sun while the blue frequencies cannot be absorbed. The blue light of the earth atmosphere is a wonderful mystery. Why for Neptune too? But not Jupiter, Venus, Mars, Triton, and other spherical bodies? I don't think this theory is going to stand the test of time because 1) its based on light moving in a sine wave, and 2) colorless particles that reflect light seems impossible. But I appreciate Tyndall's efforts in opening up and exploring these questions and answers.)
(Tyndall's cloud formation experiments are nice examples of how specific frequencies of light are absorbed and emited. Presumably the absorption frequencies from sun light are also absorbed in the process of cloud formation and would not be reabsorbed to form clouds on the opposite side of the tube - but Tyndall did not publish this.)
(In terms of the polarization of light from the sky - I need to examine this more, but my feeling is that, this is light which is reflected - basically the blue light. But I think that this is not all the light - in other words looking at the sky through a polarizing filter/screen does not result in total darkness - but only a dimmer image depending on the orientation of the polarizing filter. So I think some light is polarized. To me, the phenomenon of polarization is the result of light beams being filtered so that only beams in the plane (0,1,1) pass through some substance- all other directions being reflected or absorbed. Perhaps these many polarized beams, which are the result of light reflecting off planer surfaces of atoms and/or molecules in the air. I think it needs more modeling and examination.)
EXPERIMENT: What are the spectral lines from the blue of the sky - do they match the sunlight reflection spectrum (that is the color) of any known material, such as liquid oxygen, liquid ozone, other molecules? I think this color blue, is simply the color of the molecules located in the upper atmosphere - so I think Dewar was probably closer to the truth - but let us perform more experimentation to figure out the truth. This seems so simple, I find it hard to believe that this has not been done since the time of Dewar and Tyndall. Perhaps those questions are thought to be answered and not reopened for investigation or such investigations would appear to challenge the claims of esteemed previous scientists as opposed to honoring them through a shared interest in the same topic. Simply stated - match that reflection spectrum lines with some blue colored molecule(s).
(Even as late as the 1980s Carl Sagan in the movie 'Cosmos' gives the Tyndall/Rayleigh explanation of 'transverse sine wavelength of light equals particle size of dust in air' explanation, this theory lasting over 100 years and counting.)
(Tyndall explains in typical Royal Society Lecture style, perhaps just of that time before and after Faraday - which is, I think, the best style - simple and explanatory - giving a concise history and going through the known facts for all the beginners and novices.)
(In terms of a particle - reflection explanation of so-called 'double refraction' which I explain as reflection - see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufGUtiDCLvg )
(In terms of the index of refraction which relates to the angle of polarization, I think that the orientation of the particles are varied and so the flat surface of the particles forms different angles with the incident light from the Sun. But beyond that, I argue that reflection of light from an array of flat surfaces results in polarization - because the only particles of light reflected are reflected in a plane position - refraction is not a necessarily component for polarization.)
EXPERIMENT: Make a large scale set of rows - one vertical, one horizontal and one diagonal (in particular of mirrors if possible, or glass, or some reflective material - perhaps aluminum foil over cardboard), then show how light can be filtered by crossing them, but unfiltered with the diagonal rows placed in between horizontal and vertical rows. I think this is a larger scale example or what light polarization is.
(I disagree that any substance can produce the blue effect. For example, chlorine gas is green, and other molecules in gas form reflect different colors. I think this has to do with the color of the particles - although I can accept that like luminescence, light particles might be trapped in clouds of material, and emitted at regular frequencies.)
EXPERIMENT: Match the reflection spectrum of the sky to molecules on earth. Which molecules at which temperatures show similar reflection lines?
EXPERIMENT: Reproduce this Tyndall experiment with different materials thought to be of similar particle size and show how different colors are dispersed besides just blue, if this is true.
TO DO: Find any recordings of the spectrum of the blue sky. Who first recorded this spectrum?
(Although I disagree with this theory as unlikely because I don't think light has amplitude or medium, still this is a creative idea, and perhaps there is some phenomenon in which the size of particles in a gas and their density plays a role in the frequencies of light that are emited or that can pass through. Obviously the larger the particles, the less photons that will pass through unreflected or unabsorbed.)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
131 YBN
[01/30/1869 AD]
| 4839) A letter to the editor of "The Spectator" by James Thomas Knowles (CE 1831-1908), describing the possible existence of brain-waves radiating from the brain which might allow images of thought to be captured on a photograph is printed and distributed.
This paper is strong proof of the existance of neuron reading and writing as early as 1869.
This paper is full of word play hints. The paper reads as follows:
"Brain-Waves.-A Theory. Sir,-A collection of authenticated ghost stories relating to contemporary persons and events would not only be curious and interesting, but might serve to throw light on one of the darkest fields of science, a field, indeed, hardly yet claimed by science. The mere collocation might bring out features suggestive of a law. If to such a collection were added so many of the "manifestations" of mesmerists, spiritualists, electro-biologists, and clairvoyants as have a clear residuum of facts (and after a sweeping deducation of professional contributinos), the indication of a common action of force through them all might probably become still more obvious. ... To come now to my crude hypothesis of a Brain-Wave as explanatory of them and of kindred stories. Let it be granted that whensoever any action takes place in the brain, a chemical change of its substance takes place also; or, in other words, an atomic movement occurs; for all chemical change involves-perhaps consists in- a change in the relative positions of the constituent particles of the substance changed. {An electric manifestation is the likeliest outcome of any such chemical change, whatever other manifestations may also occur.} Let it be also granted that there is, diffused throughout all known space, and permeating the interspaced of all bodies, solid, fluid, or gaseous, an universal, impalpable, elastic, "Ether," or material medium of surpassing and inconceivable tenuity. {The undulations of this imponderable ether, if not of substances submerged in it, may probably prove to be light, magnetism, heat, &c.} But if these two assumptions be granted, and the present condition of discovery seems to warrant them, should it not follow that no brain action can take place without creating a wave or undulation (whether electric or otherwise) in the ether; for the movement of any solid particle submerged in any such medium must create a wave? If so, we should have as one result of brain action an undulation or wave in the circumambient, all-embracing ether,-we should have what I will call Brain-Waves proceeding from every brain when in action. Each acting, thinking brain then would become a centre of undulations transmitted from it in all directions through space. Such undulations would vary in character and intensity in accordance with the varying nature and force of brain actions, e.g., the thoughts of love or hate, of life or death, of murder or rescue, of consent or refusal, would each have its corresponding tone of intensity of brain action, and consequently of brain-wave (just as each passion has its corresponding tone of voice). Why might not such undulations, when meeting with a falling upon duly sensitive substances, as if upon the sensitized paper of the photographer, produce impressions, dim portraits of thoughts, as undulations of light produce portraits of objects? The sound-wave passes on through myriads of bodies, and among a million makes but one thing shake, or sound to it; a sympathy of structure makes it sensitive, and it alone. A voice or tone may pass unnoticed by ten thousand ears, but strike and vibrate one into a madness of recollection. ... Such exceptionally sensitive and susceptible brains-open to the minutest influences-would be the ghost-seers, the "mediums" of all ages and countries. The wizards and magicians-true or false-the mesmerists and biologizers would be the men who have discovered that their brains can and do (sometimes even without speech) predispose and compel the brains of these sensitive ones, so as to fill them with emotions and impressions more or less at will. It will but be a vague, dim way, at the best, of communicating thought, or the sense of human presence, and proportionally so as the receiving brain is less and less highly sensitive. Yet, though it can never take the place of rudest articulation, it may have its own place and office other than and beyond speech. It may convey sympathies of feeling beyond all words to tell,-groanings of the spirit which cannot be uttered, visions of influences and impressions not elsehow communicable, may carry one's living human presence to another by a more subtle and excellent way of sympathy. "Star to star vibrates light: may soul to soul Strike thro' a finer element of her own? So, from afar, touch us at once? {ULSF: no end quote} The application of such a theory to such narratives as I have given above is obvious. In Mr. Browning's case, his brain, full of the murder-thought, and overflowing with its correspondent brain-wave, floods the sensitive brain of the Count, who feels it directly. His attempt to read the second transfer of ownership is almost as illustrative as his closer success with the first. The death-bed thought and its correspondent brain-wave were sufficiently strong and striking in Mr. Browning's mind to have a character of their own; the rest of the complicated picture was too minute and ordinary, did not burn itself into or out of his brain with enough distinctness. The prominent notes of the music were alone caught by the listener. In Mr. Woolner's case,-the death-convulsion of the emigrant's brain, and the correspondent brain-wave flooded space with the intensity and swiftness of a flash of actual light or magnetism, and wheresoever it happened to find the sympathetic substane, the substance accustomed to vibrate to it, and not too violently preoccupied with other action to be insensible to such fine impressions, shook it with the terrible vague subtle force of association described. The intervening space and matter need be no more an obstacle than the 3,000 miles of Atlantic wire are to the galvanic current, or the countrless distances of its travel to the light from Sirius. A similar explanation holds good for Mr. Tennyson's story, in which the less distances seem somehow less staggering at first sight. In such a manner, too, the answers given by the so-called "spirit-rapping" (when not imposture) seem explicable. These are made by the spelling-out of words letter by letter, the questioner alone knowing the reply, and the letter which would be right to help it. The character of his thought, and consequent brain-wave, changes from denial to consent, when, letter after letter being pointed to in vain, the right letter is reached at last. That change of thought-state is reflected in a change of brain-action and wave-movement, which the sensitive medium feels, and at once acts upon. Many ghost and dream stories seem to yield also to some such m ode of interpretation, and much might be added in illustration and expansion of it, as touching rumours, presentiments, panics, revivals, epidemic-manias, and so forth; but I have said enough to put the suggestion before better minds, whether for correction or disproof.-I am, Sir, &c., J.T.K.".
Initially, here in January 30, 1869, Knowles only uses his initials, but 30 years later in 1899, Knowles reprints his paper with a forward and ends by acknowledging his name.
(Notice first words spell out possible "echo" ACO, "serve" may imply walking robots. Notice "suggestive" in "suggestive of a law" early on, and the idea of some kind of neuron law, or perhaps the comic idea that the concept of law is needed for the neuron writing and reading elites. Who are "electro-biologists"? The "as to fill them" paragraph clearly implies some kind of sexual reference - perhaps the way an excluded female might be tricked into having sex by a person that could see and write to her thoughts with neuron reading and writing.)
Another article a few pages before this article titled "The Hypothesis of Brain Waves" also talks about the theory of brain waves and communication by thought.
(Get portrait)
| London, England (presumably) |
131 YBN
[02/12/1869 AD]
| 3356) Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) measures electrical oscillation by measuring the muscle contractions of a frog thigh muscle connected to an induction coil whose terminals are connected with the coating of a Leyden jar (which is a capacitor, a device that stores electricity).
In 1827 Felix Savart reported to the Paris Academie des Sciences that the electric spark drawn when a Leyden jar is discharged is likely to be oscillatory. In 1842 Joseph Henry had reported that the discharge from a Leyden jar (through an inductor?) is oscillatory to the American Philosophical Society.
Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) gives a lecture to the Naturhistorisch-medizinischen Vereins (Natural History-Medical Association) at Heidelberg entitled "Ueber die physiologische Wirkung kurz dauernder elektrischer Schläge im Innern von ausgedehnten leitenden Massen." ("On the Physiological Action of Brief Electrical Shocks within Extended Conductors" in which Helmholtz describes the experiments made on the thigh of a frog. But the explanation of these phenomena involve a certain knowledge of the oscillation frequency of the currents in an induction coil whose terminals are connected with the coatings of a Leyden jar.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
131 YBN
[02/18/1869 AD]
| 4050) Paul Langerhans (CE 1847-1888), German physician, identifies a group of cells in the pancreas, which under the microscope appear to be different from the cells in the body of the pancreas.
Paul Langerhans makes the first careful and detailed description of the microscopic structure of the pancreas. Langerhans describes nine different types of cells including small, irregularly shaped, polygonal cells without granules, which form numerous "zellhaufen"—in English "cell heaps"—measuring 0.1 to 0.24 mm in diameter, throughout the gland. Langerhans makes no hypothesis about the nature of these cells. In 1893, the French histologist GE Languesse will name these areas "ilots de Langerhans". Banting will be the first to understand that these "islets of Langerhans" secrete insulin, and will show how to prepare insulin from them.
The normal human pancreas contains about 1,000,000 islets. The islets consist of four distinct cell types, of which three (alpha, beta, and delta cells) produce important hormones; the fourth component (C cells) has no known function.
According to the 2009 Encyclopedia Britannica: "The most common islet cell, the beta cell, produces insulin, the major hormone in the regulation of carbohydrate, fat, and protein metabolism. Insulin is crucial in several metabolic processes: it promotes the uptake and metabolism of glucose by the body's cells; it prevents release of glucose by the liver; it causes muscle cells to take up amino acids, the basic components of protein; and it inhibits the breakdown and release of fats. The release of insulin from the beta cells can be triggered by growth hormone (somatotropin) or by glucagon, but the most important stimulator of insulin release is glucose; when the blood glucose level increases—as it does after a meal—insulin is released to counter it. The inability of the islet cells to make insulin or the failure to produce amounts sufficient to control blood glucose level are the causes of diabetes mellitus."
and "the alpha cells of the islets of Langerhans produce an opposing hormone, glucagon, which releases glucose from the liver and fatty acids from fat tissue. In turn, glucose and free fatty acids favour insulin release and inhibit glucagon release." and "the delta cells produce somatostatin, a strong inhibitor of somatotropin, insulin, and glucagon; its role in metabolic regulation is not yet clear. Somatostatin is also produced by the hypothalamus and functions there to inhibit secretion of growth hormone by the pituitary gland."
(show original drawings)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
131 YBN
[03/06/1869 AD]
| 3703) Periodic table of elements.
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
131 YBN
[04/30/1869 AD]
| 3353) Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) explains the details of his creation of electrical oscillations between an inductor and capacitor (Leyden jar) and measures them using a frog leg muscle that contracts with the electrical oscillation.
Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) reports this is a lecture to the Natural History and Medical Association, entitled "Ueber elektrische Oscillationen" ("On Electrical Oscillations"). Helmholtz describes how a frog's nerve is used as current-indicator for the detection of the electrical movements, and in which the electrical oscillations take place between the coatings of a Leyden jar, in a complete and uninterrupted circuit which has no spark gap. Helmholtz finds that in using a Grove's cell for the primary current, the total duration of the perceptible electrical oscillations in a coil joined with a Leyden jar is about 1/50 of a second.
In addition to the natural oscillation created by the inductor and Leyden jar capacitor, Helmholtz apparently uses a falling pendulum to complete two circuits at times separated by a small interval.
I know of no English translation of these two important papers on electrical oscillation. Helmholtz refers to Kirchhoff's and William Thomson's theory.
Heinrich Hertz, one of Helmholtz' students will use these electrical oscillating circuits to transmit photons, and use the phenomenon of natural frequency resonance to receive and detect the photons. It seems likely that Mijalo Pupin, another student of Helmholtz also makes use of the phenomenon of resonance to see eyes and thought in 1910.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
131 YBN
[06/01/1869 AD]
| 4006) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor patents his first invention, a device to record votes mechanically. Edison describes this experience: "Roberts was the telegraph operator who was the financial backer to the extent of $100. The invention when completed was taken to Washington. I think it was exhibited before a committee that had something to do with the Capitol. The chairman of the committee, after seeing how quickly and perfectly it worked, said 'Young man, if there is any invention on earth that we don't want down here, it is this. One of the greatest weapons in the hands of a minority to prevent bad legislation is filibustering on votes, and this instrument would prevent it.' I saw the truth of this, because as press operator I had taken miles of Congressional proceedings, and to this day an enormous amount of time is wasted during each session of the House in foolishly calling the members' names and recording and then adding their votes, when the whole operation could be done in almost a moment by merely pressing a particular button at each desk. For filibustering purposes, however, the present methods are most admirable.". The future of government seems clearly to be instant voting, not by representatives of the people, but by the people themselves.
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
131 YBN
[12/??/1869 AD]
| 3626) Julius Lothar Meyer (CE 1830-1895), German chemist publishes his table in which atomic weight (mass) is plotted against atomic volume, explaining how the similar chemical and physical properties are repeated at periodic intervals.
Meyer notes as did J. A. R. Newlands in England, that if the elements are arranged in the order of their atomic weights (technically atomic mass) they fall into groups in which similar chemical and physical properties are repeated at periodic intervals; and in particular Meyer shows that if the atomic weights are plotted on the y-axis and the atomic volumes on the x-axis, the curve obtained presents a series of maxima and minima, the most electro-positive elements appearing at the peaks of the curve in the order of their atomic weights (mass).
(It is interesting, that we do not hear often that the atomic volume and mass are related. It is a simple idea, that larger mass atoms take up more space. In other words, the larger the mass of an atom the more space the are contained in.)
This is a year after Mendeléev publishes his finding of the same phenomenon in connection with valence. Meyer will admit that he did not predict the existence of yet unknown elements.
Meyer's 1864 book "Die modernen Theorien der Chemie" (1864; "Modern Chemical Theory"), contains a preliminary scheme for the arrangement of elements by atomic weight and discusses the relation between the atomic weights and the properties of the elements.
Meyer publishes his work in 1870 ("Die Natur der chemischen Elemente als Function ihrer Atomgewichte") in Justus Liebigs Annalen der Chemie, describing the evolution of his work since 1864. This paper is particularly famous for its graphic display of the periodicity of atomic volume plotted against atomic weight.
| (Karlsruhe Poltechnic Institute) Karlsruhe, Baden |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 2685) The first telegraph wire is built in Japan.
| Yokohama, Japan |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 2997) Wilhelm Holtz (CE 1836-1913) builds a sectorless Wimshurst influence machine.
(In this design there are no metal sectors, but only the two insulator plates, ) and combs (which do not make physical contact with the insulator plate surface) are used instead of brushes (that touch the surface). Another difference is that output is taken at the front disk only.
| Berlin, Germany (possibly) |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3127) Thomas Andrews (CE 1813-1885), Irish physical chemist, identifies the "critical temperature" of a gas, the temperature above which no increase in pressure will liquefy the gas.
This helps to establish the principles of critical temperature and critical pressure of a gas.
Andrews shows that a gas will pass into the liquid state, and vice versa, without any discontinuity, or abrupt change in physical properties. (Interesting that the only difference, apparently between a gas and liquid is the distance between molecules. Clearly Andrews is not first to liquefy a gas.)
Andrews finds that above a certain temperature, no amount of increased pressure can change a gas into a liquid. Andrews calls this temperature the "critical point". Mendeléev had observed this two years earlier but his report went unnoticed. Andrews had been experimenting with carbon dioxide which liquefies under pressure at room temperature. Above 31° C, the CO2 is completely gas and no amount of added pressure can make any liquid. Faraday had pioneered the field of liquefying gases by placing the gases under pressure. (how?) Some gases such as hydrogen, (helium) nitrogen and oxygen resist liquefaction despite all the pressure that can be placed on them. People wonder if these gases can be liquefied. Andrew's work shows the necessity of dropping the temperature below the critical point before adding pressure. Within 50 years all known gases will be liquefied with the help of Dewar and Kamerling-Onnes.
Andrews publishes this as "On the Continuity of the Liquid and Gaseous States of Matter" (1869).
(How do we know that there is not some higher pressure than our equipment can produce that converts gases at temperatures above the critical point into liquids? Show how pressure on a gas is increased. What machines are used?)
| (Queen's College) Belfast, Ireland |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3397) (Sir) Francis Galton (CE 1822-1911), English anthropologist, publishes "Hereditary Genius" (1869), in which, inspired by his cousin Charles Darwin's "Origin of Species", Galton speculates that the human race could be improved by controlled breeding. Galton makes detailed studies of families conspicuous for inherited ability over several generations and then advocated the application of scientific breeding to human populations. Galton shows that mental ability varies among humans in a bell-shaped curve, as Quetelet had shown is true of physical characteristics. By comparing mental abilities of families Galton shows evidence that high mental ability is inherited. These studies lay the foundation for the science of eugenics (a term Galton invents).
(In my own opinion, mental ability is an abstract idea, if talking about math skills, for example, then I can see a recognizable standard. I think it's clear that non-genetic learning plays a large role in such skills. Beyond that popular interpretations of what is true and false affect appraisals of wisdom.)
| London, England (presumably) |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3470) Johann Wilhelm Hittorf (CE 1824-1914), German chemist and physicist, publishes his laws governing the migration of ions.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany (presumably) |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3494) (Sir) Joseph Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920), English astronomer, founds the journal "Nature" and edits it for 50 years until his death.
Nature, remains to this day a major resource for international scientific knowledge. ("Nature" is viewed as the most recognized journal of science, with the journal "Science" as perhaps a close second, although the journal is somewhat conservative. I think that the future of informing the public about science advances will probably include more color videos, in particular with the fall of the camera-thought secrets and barriers to free information.)
| (at home, employed at War Office) West Hampstead, England |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3503) Thomas Henry Huxley (CE 1825-1895), English biologist, introduces the word "agnostic" to describe his religious beliefs. Agnostic, describes Huxley's own view that since knowledge rests on scientific evidence and reasoning (and not blind faith) knowledge of the nature and certainty about the existence of God is impossible.
(Clearly by now many educated people are not attending Christian church regularly. This probably starts when mandatory church attendance is not illegal.)
Also in this year Huxley publishes "On the Physical Basis of Life" (1869) in which he insists that life and even thought are molecular phenomena.
| London, England |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3504) Thomas Henry Huxley (CE 1825-1895), English biologist, publishes "Evidences as to Man's Place in Nature" (1863) in which Huxley demonstrates that the differences in the foot, hand, and brain between humans and the higher apes are no more than the differences between those of the higher and lower apes.
| (University of London) London, England (presumably) |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3531) Zénobe Théophile Gramme (GroM) (CE 1826-1901), Belgian-French inventor, builds the first commercially practical generator for producing direct current.
Gramme builds an improved dynamo for the production of direct current. These devices are useful in industry, unlike the devices of Faraday and Henry which are laboratory devices.
The ring-winding, was invented by Dr Antonio Pacinotti of Florence' in 1860, and was subsequently and independently reintroduced and so is called a "Gramme winding".
The first electrical generator was the static electricity generator of Guericke in 1663, Volta invented the first constant electricity generator, the electric battery (voltaic pile) which creates electricity from molecular combination, in 1800, and Faraday had built the first electrical generator, which creates constant electricity from mechanical motion in 1831. The electrical generator allows any source of mechanical movement, such as the force of wind, water, or a steam (coal burning), or gas burning engine to create a constant stream of electricity.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3718) Charles Augustus Young (CE 1834-1908), US astronomer is the first identify the "reversing layer" of the Sun. Young notes that the dark lines in the spectrum of the sun lines brighten just before total eclipse. Young then proves the gaseous nature of the sun's corona.
| (Dartmouth College) Hanover, New Hampshire, USA |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3761) John Wesley Hyatt (CE 1837-1920), US inventor, invents celluloid a transparent, colorless synthetic plastic.
In 1855, Alexander Parkes (CE 1813-1890) created parkesine plastic.
Hyatt combines nitrocellulose, camphor, and alcohol, heats the mixture under pressure to make it pliable for molding, and allows it to harden under normal atmospheric pressure.
Hyatt patents a method of manufacturing billiard balls using a material he calls celluloid. Celluloid will be used in baby rattles, shirt collars, photographic film, and other products, however, celluloid is very flammable and it is not until the invention of less flammable plastics, such as Bakelite by Baekeland, that plastics become popular. Hyatt is attracted by a prize of $10,000 offered by the New York firm of Phelan and Collender for the best substitute for ivory for billiard balls, since ivory is expensive. Hyatt hears about a new English method of molding pyroxylin, by dissolving the pyroxylin in a mixture of alcohol and ether, and adding camphor to make it softer and more malleable. Hyatt improves the techniques and patents a method for making billiard balls out of this material. Pyroxylin is a partially nitrated cellulose, a material Chardonnet will later use in manufacturing rayon.
Some historians have Hyatt learning about adding camphor from an English process other sources have Hyatt originating the process by treating cellulose nitrate with camphor and alcohol.
One of the first uses of the new plastic material is for making denture plates - previously made from hard rubber - and Hyatt forms the Albany Dental Plate Company in 1870. In 1872 its name is changed to the Celluloid Manufacturing Company and in 1873 the company moves to larger premises in Newark, New Jersey.
Celluloid becomes famous as the first flexible photographic film used for still photography and motion pictures. Hyatt creates celluloid in a strip format for movie film. From 1888 on, celluloid starts to replace paper as the base for roll-film. (Which plastic is the first moving image film plastic?)
In his life Hyatt will receive more than 200 patents for a wide range of inventions. In 1891 he invents a ball bearing that is still used in manufacturing. He also developed the Hyatt filter, a water purification device that is more efficient than previous filters of the time. This device separates solid particles from water by directing the water through a porous filtration substance of sand or charcoal. Hyatt also invents a sugarcane mill superior to any previously used; and a sewing machine for making machine belting.
Although largely replaced, celluloid is still manufactured today.
Cellulose is highly flammable, however, and this limits its use, especially after the development of less flammable plastics. One product still made of celluloid is table tennis (also known as ping pong) balls.
(It is amazing that plastic is similar to the material in plant cells.)
(Celluloid and the other plastics are a very important invention for storage of images. It seems likely that the telegraph and telephone companies and governments of earth used plastic tape to record the many many millions and millions of secret images and sounds for many years.)
(Had the public been more interested in science and technology instead of religion and sports, they could have had handheld plastic movie cameras in the 1860s, but the development of consumer cameras is much much slower.)
(Perhaps one of the science achievements is knowing to apply pressure to make the material easier to mold - similar to the invention of the vacuum pan sugar refining process see , and the cathode ray tube which is a large source of science and products.)
| Albany, NY, USA |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3763) Vladimir Vasilevich Markovnikov (CE 1837-1904), Russian chemist identifies the "Markovnikov Rule", that when hydrogen halides (sulfuric acid, water, ammonia, etc.) are added to an unsymmetrical alkene, the hydrogen attaches to the carbon with more hydrogens, while the halogen attaches to the carbon with fewer hydrogens attached. This is known as the Markovnikov Rule. From this rule, hydrogen chloride (HCl) adds to propene, CH3-CH=CH2 to produce 2-chloropropane CH3CHClCH3 rather than the isomeric 1-chloropropane CH3CH2CH2Cl. (Show in 3D or in 2D that can be visualized.) Markovnikov shows how atoms of chlorine and bromine attach themselves to carbon chains containing double bonds, these additions are said to follow the Markovnikov rule. The reason behind this will be explained by the resonance theory by Pauling 50 years later. This rule is useful in predicting the molecular structures of products of addition reactions.
Why hydrogen bromide exhibited both Markovnikov as well as reversed-order, or anti-Markovnikov, addition, however, will not be understood until Morris Selig Kharasch offers an explanation in 1933.
Markovnikov shows that butyric and isobutyric acids have the same chemical formula but different structures (are isomers). (chronology)
| (Kazan University) Kazan, Russia |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3804) Karl James Peter Graebe (GreBu) (CE 1841-1927), German chemist, introduces the terms "ortho", "meta" and "para" used to describe the structure of aromatic compounds. The chemical prefixes ortho-, meta-, and para- indicate the structures of the three possible isomers of compounds in which two chemical groups are attached to the benzene ring. (chronology)
(There are a large number of molecules that produce a pattern in the human neurons (and the neurons of other species), hydrocarbon molecules in alcohols and perfumes are one example, but also molecules like ozone, water - for example from a sprinkler, sulphur, many different foods and drinks. Perhaps there are a large variety of atoms and molecules that bond with the smell sensors.)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 3927) Johann Friedrich Miescher (mEsR) (CE 1844-1895), Swiss biochemist discovers nucleic acids.
Working under Ernst Hoppe-Seyler at the University of Tübingen, Miescher isolates a substance containing both phosphorus and nitrogen in the nuclei of white blood cells found in pus.
At the time people think that pus cells are made mostly of protein, but Miescher finds something that "cannot belong among any of the protein substances known hitherto". Miescher shows that this substance is not protein because it is unaffected by the protein-digesting enzyme pepsin. Miescher also shows that the new substance is derived from the nucleus of the cell alone and so names it "nuclein". Miescher then goes on to show that nuclein can be obtained from many other cells and is unusual in containing phosphorus in addition to the usual ingredients of organic molecules – carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and hydrogen.
Miescher's teacher Hoppe-Seyler is surprised to find another substance besides the one he found, lecithin, to contain both nitrogen and phosphorus, and so makes Miescher wait 2 years to publish until Hoppe-Seyler can confirm the result.
Miescher publishes this as "Ueber die chemische Zusammensetzung der Eiterzellen." ("About the chemical composition of pus cells") Miescher uses hydrochloric acid to isolate the nuclei of the pus cells which settle to the bottom of the container and form a fine powder.
Later people will find that nucleic acids exist outside of the nucleus in the cytoplasm too. In 1874, Miescher separates nuclein into protein and acid components. Nuclein will be renamed "nucleic acid" by Richard Altmann in 1889, and is now known as deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). By 1893 Albrecht Kossel will recognize four nucleic acid bases. The important role of nucleic acids will not be known until announced by James Watson and Francis Crick in 1953.
Miescher goes on to find that nucleic acid and a simple protein called protamine exist in salmon sperm. (chronology)
Miescher also will find that the concentration of carbon dioxide in the blood and not the concentration of oxygen controls respiration rate. (needs more explanation.)
(Since nucelic acids can "live" or at least stay together in cytoplasm, perhaps nucleic acids can live outside the cell too.)
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
131 YBN
[1869 AD]
| 6008) Pyotr Il′yich Tchaikovsky (CE 1840-1893), Russian composer, composes the popular "Romeo and Juliet" Fantasy Overture.
Tchaikovsky is the most popular Russian composer of all time.
| Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
130 YBN
[04/28/1870 AD]
| 3766) German physiologists, Julius Eduard Hitzig (HiTSiK) (CE 1838-1907) and Gustav Fritsch (CE 1838-1927) show that the cerebral cortex has different compartments for different functions, and study the brain by electrical stimulation.
Hitzig and Fritsch show that by stimulating definite portions of the cerebral cortex causes the contraction of certain muscles, and that damaging these portions of the brain leads to the weakening or paralysis of those same muscles. In this way, drawing a distorted map of the body on the brain as Ferrier and other did is possible. (This demonstrates clearly that the brain controls the nerves which contract muscles.) This destroys the phrenology theories that grew from the work of Gall 75 years before.
Fritsch and Hitzig, by passing galvanic currents through parts of the brains of dogs, obtain various movements of the limbs. They therefore discover an important method of research but do not pursue their experiments.
Before this, it was generally believed by Broca and others that the cerebrum is reserved for higher functions of the mind. This changes with this 1870 work when Fritsch and Hitzig that the cerebral cortex is connected to sensory motor (muscle) activity. Not only do Fritsch and Hitzig find that applying electrical currents in the brains of dogs causes movements of the muscles in the body, but that specific regions of the brain are responsible for specific movements. This work suggests that sensory (inputs from sensors such as touch, smell, heat, etc.) connections might exist in the cerebrum too. English neurologist David Ferrier will go on to experiment on use electricity to stimulate and also cause paralysis by destroying parts of the brain of living animals including monkeys and apes to create maps of the brain.
Their main work was published as an article. This classic work of neuroscience was named "Über die elektrische Erregbarkeit des Grosshirns" ("On the Electrical Excitability of the Brain"). In this work, Fritsch and Hitzik write "Physiology ascribes to all nerves as a necessary condition the property of excitability, that is to say, the ability to answer by its specific energy all influences by which its properties are changed with a certain speed. Only for the central parts of the nervous system we have different although in very few respects generally accepted opinions. It would lead too far and would not serve the specific goal of the present work if we wanted to cite from the enormous literature even only the more reliable results which were gathered by stimulating all the various parts of the central nervous system. While there are the greatest diversities of opinion as far as the excitability by other than organic stimuli of the parts composing the brain stem goes, while there recently has been a hectic dispute over the excitability of the spinal cord, since the beginning of the century we were quite generally convinced that the hemispheres were completely inexcitable for all modes of excitation generally used in physiology. Haller and Zinn stated that they saw convulsive movements after lesions of the white matter of the brain.". The authors then recount a short history of the experiments of Longet, the vivisections of Magendie, the work of Flourens, Matteucci, Van Deen, Eduard Weber, Budge, and finally Schiff, writing "Finally, we cite Schiff, one of the most experienced vivisectors 'that the excitations of the lobes of the brain, of the corpus striatum and of the cerebellum provokes no movement in any muscle of the body, I can confirm after the constatation by many authors. The intestines too remain quiescent after excitation of these parts if, as is absolutely necessary in these experiments, the circulation is left intact'. ... Only one author besides Haller and Zinn, so far as we know, has seen something different... Before we go on with our own experiments, it behooves us to explain the ideas on the motor processes in the central organs which were elaborated as a consequence of the experiments given above and the famous decerebrations by Flourens. This gifted and lucky observer by using as clean a method as possible came to results which deserve to be considered as a basis for all later experiments in this field. After many ablations of the brain which was mostly done on birds but also on mammals Flourens saw all signs of will and consciousness of sensations disappear, while nevertheless, by stimuli coming from the outside, quiet engine-like movements could be produced in all parts of the body. Such animals stay very well on their feet, they run when one pushes them, birds fly if one throws them in the air, they react when one teases them, they swallow objects brought in the mouth, also the iris contracts on light. however, these movements never occur without an external stimulus. Animals without a forebrain always sit as thogh they were asleep and one would not change anything if one put them on a mountain of food even if they were close to inanition. Flourens concluded that the cerebral hemispheres were not the sear of the immediate principle of muscular movements but only the seat of volition and sensation. Although these experiments and the conclusions drawn from them seem to be satisfying, it is nonetheless difficult to harmonize the further results and conclusions of Flourens which will be given in a moment, with experiences gained in other ways". They go on to describe other experiments where the bird recovers completely from large portions of cerebrum removal. ... According to these and later, more elaborated work roughly the following ideas about the central places of muscular movement have been worked out. in most parts of the brain stem, even down into the spinal cord there are a number of preformed mechanisms which on the whole can be excited normally in two ways. Excitation can come from the periphery, by way of the reflex, or it can come from the center, by way of volition or of the impulse of the soul. This center is probably in the ganglionic substance of the cerebral hemispheres, without however, the parts of the psychic center being localizable on the parts of the organic center. ... In the meantime, by the results of our own investigations, the premises for many conclusions about the basic properties of the brain are changed not a little. These experiments started out from observations which I had occasion to make on man which concerns the first movements of voluntary muscles elicited by direct stimulation of the central organ in man. I found that one obtains easily, by conducting galvanic currents through the posterior part of the head, movements of the eyes which according to their nature can only be brought about by direct stimulation of cerebral centers. Since there movements only occur after galvanizing the temporal region, if certain tricks are employed which heighten the excitability, the question arose whether in the latter case, loops which went as far as the base gave rise to ocular movements or whether the cerebral hemispheres in contrast to the general assumption were after all electrically excitable. When a preliminary experiment in the rabbit gave a positive result, I tried to solve the question definitely in collaboration with Mr. Fritsch in the following way. In dogs which at first were not narcotized by were narcotized in later experiments the skull was opened at a place which was as plane as possible by a trephine. Then, by means of a cutting, anteriorly rounded bone forceps, either the whole half of the skull cap, or only the part covering the frontal lobe was removed. In most cases, we did the same thing to the second half after finishing with the first hemisphere. Always, however, we left a median bone bridge intact to cover the sagittal sinus since one a dog had bled to death from a slight lesion of this sinus. Now, the dura which so far was left intact was slightly incised, grasped with the forceps and completely removed up to the margin of the bone. At this stage the dog showed vivid pain by crying and by characteristic reflex movements. {ULSF: See image 2. There are three membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord, they are called the three layers of the meninges: they are from the outside in: the dura mater, arachnoid, and the pia mater. Cerebrospinal fluid fills the ventricles of the brain and the space between the pia mater and the arachnoid. The primary function of the meninges and of the cerebrospinal fluid is to protect the central nervous system.} Later however, when exposed to the air for awhile, the remnants of the dura are still more painful which has to be considered most carefully in arranging the stimulating experiments. The pia on the other hand we could injure mechanically or in any other way as much as we wanted without the animal showing any reactions. The electrical stimulations were done in the following manner: The poles of a chain of 10 Daniell went over a commutator to two screws of a Pohl's switch from which the cross had been removed. To the two opposite screws came the wires which led the current of a secondary induction spiral. From the middle pair of screws two wires went to a rheostat which was in parallel and had a resistance of 0-2100 S. E. The main line went on to a key of DuBois and then to two small insulated culindrical screws which on the other side carried electrodes in the shape of very fine platinum wires which ended in two very small heads. These platinum wires went through two pieces of cork, by means of which one could change the distance of the two heads very easily. It was generally 2-3 mm. It was necessary to give them these heads since otherwise every unsteadiness of the hand, even the respiratory movements of the brain itself, would invariably have led to injuries of the soft mass of the central organ. The chain which we used consisted of paper elements by Siemens-Halske, which after experiments done previously did not have the full electromotive force of the Daniell, and a resistance each of about five S.E. Generally, the parallel resistance was low, about 30 to 40 S.E. The intensity of the current was so low that metallic closing of the circuit produced just a sensation on the tongue when it was touched by the heads. ... In this way we arrived at the following results which we give in general terms since the very large number of experiments on the brain of the dog seemed to be uniform even to the smallest details. Having described the method in detail, and if one takes into account the moments which still will be mentioned, it will be easy to repeat our experiments so that confirmations will soon be forthcoming. A part of the convexity of the hemisphere pf the brain of the dog is motor (this used in the sense of Schiff), another part if not motor. The motor part, in general, is more in front, the nonmotor part more behind. By electrical stimulation of the motor part, one obtains combined muscular contractions of the opposite side of the body. These muscle contractions can be localized on certain very narrowly delimited groups by using very weak currents. If stronger currents are used then other muscles will immediately come in even, if the same of a closely neighboring place is stimulated, and these are always muscles of the corresponding side of the body. The possibility to stimulate narrowly delimited groups of muscles is restricted to very small foci which we shall call centers. Minute shifting of electrodes generally leave the movements in the same extremity; if, however, first stretching ensues, shifting leads to flexion or rotation. Those parts of the cortical surface which were between the centers were found inexcitable by our method, using minimal intensity. However, if we increased the distance of the electrodes or the intensity of the current, twitches could be evoked. But these muscular contractions got hold of the whole body in such a way that it could not even be told if they were on one side or on both sides. In the dog, the location of the centers, which will soon be given in detail, is very constant. To show this fact exactly, was at first a little difficult. We removed these difficulties however, by first finding that place which with minimal intensity gave the strongest twitch of the group in question. Then we stuck a pin between the two electrodes into the brain of the living animal, and compared after taking out the brain the various points thus marked with those of alcohol preparations of previous experiments. How constant these centers are, is probably shown best by the fact, that repeatedly we could find a centrum in the middle of a single trephine hole without further opening the skull. When the dura was taken away the muscles, depending from this focus, contracted with the same regularity as thought the whole hemisphere had been laid bare. In the beginning we had difficulties even when the field of operation was quite free. For although the various gyri are quite constant, nonetheless their development in different parts and their location to each other show quite important difference. As a matter of fact, it is the rule rather than the exception, that the corresponding gyri of both hemispheres of the same animal differ in their various parts. Sometimes, it is the middle part of the convexity which is more developed and other times it is the anterior or posterior part. If one adds to this the necessity to leave the brain in its envelopes to a fairly large extent, furthermore the screeening of the picture by the distribution of the vessels which differs each time but can make the gyri very indistinct, one will not be surprised by our initial difficulties. In order to make it easier to repeat our experiments we give now more exact data about the location of the different motor centers by using the nomenclature of Owen. The center for the muscles of the neck {ULSF see triangle, in image 1} is in the lateral part of the prefrontal gyrus, where the surface of this gyrus falls off steeply. The outermost end of the postfrontal gyrus encloses in the region of the lateral end of the frontal fissure {ULSF see + in image 1} the center for the extensors and adductors of the anterior leg. A little behind and a little nearer to the coronal fissure {ULSF see + in image 1} are the centers guiding flexion and rotation of this member. The place for the posterior leg {ULSF see # in image 1} is also the postfrontal gyrus but medial to that of the anterior and a little more posteriorly. The facial nerve {ULSF see diamond, image 1} is innervated from the middle part of the second basis convolution. That place is frequently larger than 0.5 cm and extends from the main bend of the Sylvian fissure forward and downward. We must add that it was not always possible to move the muscles of the neck from the focus named first. The muscles of the back, tail, and belly were frequently brought to contraction from places between the marked foci. However, isolated foci from which they alone could be stimulated could not be found with certainty. The part of the convexity behind the center for the facial nerve we found quite inexcitable, even with high intensities. Even when there was no current in parallel, that is to say, when we had the current of 10 Daniells completely on the cortex, no muscular twitch was seen. The character of the twitches brought about by stimulating motor centers depends on the kind of stimulus. The stimulation by a simple metallic closing of the current leads only to a simple twitch which passes quite rapidly. If, however, instead of closing the chain in the metallic part one does this by putting on the electrodes, one needs higher intensities for the same effect. Here, too, the law of DuBois-Raymond is valid. The metallic turning gives ceteris paribus a greater effect than mere closing, without hwoever leading to two twitches (the second for the opening). Not rarely this kind of stimulation leads to a tetanus of the muscle group in question, particularly when these were flexors of the tows, without further stimuli occurring. If one electrode had stimulated even for a short time, immediately afterwards the second one led to a larger effect at the same place than it did before and even soon afterwards. ...". The authors relate how only the anode gives rise to twitches, finding that when the current is reversed without electrodes being moved, no twitching occurred, but that a larger twitch was then observed when current is reversed again, and they can repeat this. They then go through a number of common objections to the claims they make. They find that "...when bleeding the excitability of the brain decreases very rapidly to be almost completely gone already before death. Immediately after death, it is at once lost for even the strongest current, while muscles and nerves still react very well. This makes it necessary to conduct experiments on the excitability of the central organs with unimpaired circulation. ...". Hitzig and Fritsch then describe experiments in which they cut out small pieces of brain material at the focus from two dogs, and find that both animals retain all their functions with no paralysis. In conclusion they write "This shows clearly, that in the former colossal destructions of the brain, either other parts had been chosen or that the final mechanism of movements were not particularly noticed. it further appears, from the sum of all our experiments that the soul is not, as Flourens and other after him had thought, a function of the whole of the hemispheres, the expression of which one might destroy by mechanical means in the whole, but not in its various parts, but that on the contrary, certainly some psychological functions and perhaps all of them, in order to enter matter or originate from it need certain circumscript centers of the cortex.".
(Interesting how the mind is referred to as the soul. Clearly at some point, the ancient concept of soul must have been replaced with 'mind' or 'consciousness'.) (This work may form the basis of the "muscle-moving" technology now widely, although still secretly in use. Somehow muscles are made to contract by stimulating individual or groups of neurons even deep within the brain, remotely, by using electron or photon beams. When and who first invents this remote muscle moving technology is unclear to we excluded, but clearly, this photon or electrical? stimulation of nerve cells causing muscles to contract serves as the basis of such technology, and this is in 1870. Galvani had shown in 1791 that a distant spark can cause muscle contractions in a variety of species if a metal is placed against the nerve connected to the muscle. The goal must have been to try to make muscles move by remote stimulation, but this goal has apparently never been publicly published. However, there is some evidence that remote muscle movement was already happening secretly very early in the 1800s, in which case, this would be an example of an outsider repeating earlier work independently and publicly reporting it for the first time, or an insider repeating earlier work but reporting it publicly for the first time.)
| (University of Berlin?) Berlin, Germany |
130 YBN
[08/28/1870 AD]
| 5997) (Wilhelm) Richard Wagner (CE 1813-1883), German composer, composes his famous "Die Walküre" ("The Valkyrie").
| Munich, Germany |
130 YBN
[10/05/1870 AD]
| 3951) Cromwell Fleetwood Varley (CE 1828-1883) demonstrates a new method of obtaining electricity from mechanical movement.
Varley writes: "In 1860, having need of condensers of enormos capacity, the author found that platinum plates immersed in a solution of sulphuric acid and water had enormous capacity, and could, under certain conditions, be used as condensers with potentials below than necessary for decomposing water. When one of the platinum plates was replaced by mercury, and a powerful battery, was applied as to make the mercury negative, the latter flattened out and increased its surface. When a pasty amalgam was employed of the proper consistency on a flat surface, this flattening out was sometimes increased to more than double the original surface. The reversion of the current immediately brought the amalgam to its original dimensions. This experiment suggested a means of obtaining dynamic electricity by reversing this process.". Varley continues: "...after having polarized the mercury surface......the contraction of the surface concentrated the polarization until it had power enough to evolve the hydrogen as gas...This evolution of gas is better shown by floating a minute piece of fine platinum wire on the mercury, which gives off the gas as the surface of mercury becomes reduced.... In this experiment the piece of platinum wire...was floated on the mercury by a small lump of shallac...".(see image)
(Notice the use of "suggested" - Varley was connected to the telegraph company and so no doubt had access to secret advanced electrical science research.)
Gabriel Lippmann will develop this conversion of mechanical movement to electricity more in 1873, and this leads to the finding of piezoelectricity, the phenomenon of electricity produced by an object's change in shape.
| |
130 YBN
[12/30/1870 AD]
| 3835) John William Strutt 3d Baron Rayleigh (CE 1842-1919), English physicist explains the blue color of the sky of earth as the result of scattering of sunlight by small particles in the atmosphere. The Rayleigh scattering law evolves from this theory and describes the dispersion of electromagnetic radiation (that is, light) by particles that have a radius less than approximately 1/10 the wavelength of the radiation.
Rayleigh creates an equation which accounts for the variation of light-scattering with wavelength basing his explanation of the theory that light is a transverse sine wave vibration that moves through an aether medium.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines "Rayleigh scattering" as the "dispersion of electromagnetic radiation by particles that have a radius less than approximately 1/10 the wavelength of the radiation. ... The angle through which sunlight in the atmosphere is scattered by molecules of the constituent gases varies inversely as the fourth power of the wavelength; hence, blue light, which is at the short wavelength end of the visible spectrum, will be scattered much more strongly than will the long wavelength red light. This results in the blue colour of the sunlit sky, since, in directions other than toward the Sun, the observer sees only scattered light. The Rayleigh laws also predict the variation of the intensity of scattered light with direction, one of the results being that there is complete symmetry in the patterns of forward scattering and backward scattering from single particles. They additionally predict the polarization of the scattered light.".
Strutt's work is published in Philosophical Magazine as "On the Light from the Sky, its Polarization and Colour.". Strutt writes: "IT is now, I believe, generally admitted that the light which we receive from the clear sky is due in one way or another to small suspended particles which divert the light from its regular course. On this point the experiments of Tyndall with precipitated clouds seem quite decisive. Whenever the particles of the foreign matter are sufficiently fine, the light emitted laterally is blue in colour, and, in a direction perpendicular to that of the incident beam, is completely polarized. About the colour there is no prima facie difficulty; for as soon as the question is raised, it is seen that the standard of linear dimension, with reference to which the particles are called small, is the wave-length of light, and that a given set of particles would (on any conceivable view as to their mode of action) produce a continually increasing disturbance as we pass along the spectrum towards the more refrangible end; and there seems no reason why the colour of the compound light thus scattered laterally should not agree with that of the sky. On the other hand, the direction of polarization (perpendicular to the path of the primary light) seems to have been felt as a difficulty. Tyndall says '...the polarization of the beam by the incipient cloud has thus far proved itself to be absolutely independent of the polarizing-angle. The law of Brewster does not apply to matter in this condition; and it rests with the undulatory theory to explain why..."'. Strutt claims that Brewster's law does not apply in the case where particles are of extreme fineness. Strutt writes "...the foreign matter, if optically denser than air, may be supposed to load the aether so as to increase its inertia without altering its resistance to distortion, ...". Strutt then goes on to apply the theory of light as a transverse sine wave in an aether to explain the color and polarization of light from the sky, using Fresnel's interpretation of polarization in which rays vibrating in certain planes are filtered out. Strutt writes: "Suppose, for distinctness of statement, that the primary ray is vertical, and that the plane of vibration is that of the meridian. The intensity of the light scattered by a small particle is constant, and a maximum for rays which lie in the vertical plane running east and west, while there is no scattered ray along the north and south line. If the primary ray is unpolarized, the light scattered north and south is entirely due to that component which vibrates east and west, and is therefore perfectly polarized, the direction of its vibration being also east and west. Similarly any other ray scattered horizontally is perfectly polarized, and the vibration is performed in the horizontal plane. In other directions the polarization becomes less and less complete as we approach the vertical, and in the vertical direction itself altogether disappears.". So in this way, Strutt appears to explain polarization as an additive phenomenon going from particle to particle. Then Strutt moves onto examine how the intensity of the scattered light varies from one part of the spectrum to another. Strutt states that the object is to compare the intensities of the incident and scattered ray, and uses the variable i to express the ratio of the two amplitudes as a function of the quantities T, the volume of the disturbing particle; r, the distance of the point under consideration from it; λ the wavelength; b, the velocity of propagation of light; D and D', the original and altered densities. Strutt puts forward the law: "When light is scattered by particles which are very small compared with any of the wave-lengths, the ratio of the amplitudes of the vibrations of the scattered and incident light varies inversely as the square of the wave-length, and the intensity of the lights themselves as the inverse fourth power.". Strutt uses the traditional math of sine waves, using variables for amplitude, wavelength, and time in addition to use of the conservation of energy. Strutt endeavours to observe the actual prismatic composition of the blue of the sky and obtains some preliminary results. Strutt explains: "By many physicists, from Newton downwards, the light of the sky has been supposed to be reflected from thin plates, and the colour to be the blue of the first order in Newton's scale. Such a view is fundamentally different from that adopted in this paper, though it might not at first seem so.". Strutt creates an equation to describe the various ratio of the dispersed intensity of light compared to the source light for various wavelengths, and concludes: "An approximate idea of the character of these lights {ULSF: the light dispersed} may be obtained by subtracting the successive curves of fig. 2. Thus the difference of the curves marked 2 and 4 represents a light having its maximum brightness (of course relatively to the primary light) in the blue-green portion of the spectrum. I find by calculation that, if the maximum intensity be at b and be taken as unity, the intensities at G and C are given by the numbers 713, 710 respectively. The colour would be greenish; but whether the green of the sky is to be accounted for in this way I am not able to say. Some, I believe, consider it to be entirely a contrast effect.". There is also an appendix which contains three dimensinal math, using the divergence operator (the double derivative of a vector relative to each spacial dimension x,y,z), and examines the rotation of the light.
For Rayleigh's equation see image 1. In this equation A=amplitude of light wave (presumably), β is the angle between incident and resultant (or scattered) light ray, m=number of particles, T is the volume of the disturbing particle, r = the distance of the point under consideration from the disturbing particle, D and D'=the original and altered densities.
Strutt follows up this article with a second in March of 1871 that contains no math, but discusses other competing theories. In addition Strutt makes the prediction that the particles that scatter light resulting in the blue color of the sky are probably common salt.
Carl Sagan wrote that this effect is visible in blue cigarette smoke, but clearly smoke looks different than blue sky.
In 1838, E. O. Hulburt describes experimental confirmation of the Rayleigh scattering phenomenon but then later, after rockets return data from the upper atmosphere, Hulburt finds that the twilight sky is too bright and a different color from what the formula for Rayleigh scattering predicts. Hulburt concludes "Calculation showed that during the day the clear sky is blue according to Rayleigh, and that ozone has little effect on the color of the daylight sky. But near sunset and throughout twilight ozone affects the sky color profoundly. For example, in the absence of ozone the zenith sky would be a grayish green-blue at sunset becoming yellowish in twilight, but with ozone the zenith sky is blue at sunset and throughout twilight (as is observed), the blue at sunset being due about ⅓ to Rayleigh and ⅔ to ozone, and during twilight wholly to ozone.". This is also the explanation given in a recent analysis of the question of why the Earth sky is blue, the 1999 book "Blau: Die Farbe des Himmels" ("Blue: The Color of the Sky"), by Götz Hoeppe, in which the author concludes that both Rayleigh scattering (Tyndall effect) and the absorption of ozone cause the blue of the sky. (For myself I cannot accept the truth of Rayleigh scattering as based on a theory that light moves in a medium as a sine wave, and so view this blue as most likely due to phosphorescence by ozone or absorption of other frequencies by ozone - and the red at the horizon due to what I am calling "Fizeau lowering" in which the frequencies of light particles are reduced because of reflection and absorption. But I am still open minded and I don't think any known theory is close to being thoroughly proven and demonstrated.)
People have appeared to neglect Tyndall as the originator of the "particle size is the same as amplitude of transverse wavelength of light" theory (see for example).
Abney and Festing will verify Rayleigh's equation using a thermopile in 1886. (People should examine the light as a particle that moves in a straight line theory as an alternative to the idea that a transverse sine wave of light, in a supposed aether, or even somehow without an aether, has the same amplitude as particles in the air do. We should at least explore light as a particle explanations.)
(I can accept that the blue light is scattered by particles in the air, but I reject the idea that this is a result of the transverse sine wave shape of light. I view light as moving in a straight line, the wavelength defined by the particle interval. If scattered, this is presumably reflection, as opposed to a temporary absorption then emission such as a luminescence, and so as a reflection, this implies that the particles do not absorb this frequency of light, and that light reflected off the particles reflects in all directions, perhaps after being reflected many times between reflecting particles.)
(It seems clear to me that reflection off of transparent matter, as an idea sounds unlikely. The closest thing I can think of is a piece of glass which appears transparent but which does reflect some light.)
(As is the case with Tyndall's theory, this theory, seems to be probably inaccurate primarily because it is based on the theory of light as a transverse wave with an aether medium.)
(TODO: Obtain the spectrum of blue light from the sky, does this match the reflection of sun light from liquid oxygen?)
(Like many basic phenomena, a mathematical explanation for a particle interpretation of the phenomena of color of atmosphere waits being publicly made and understood.)
(It is difficult to follow Strutt's writing, and to visualize it without clear images. Perhaps this theory could be explained more clearly. This is another example of where, like Maxwell's writing, few people probably feel the courage to object, or have the time to try and follow the mathematical analysis through many pages. This requires a person skilled at mathematics and physics, to visually explain, in particular, where these theories go wrong. )
(Although this theory which Tyndall created, and Rayleigh created a theory for, depends entirely on the concept of light as a transverse sine wave with an aether medium, a medium the experiment of Michelson and Morley proved wrong, this theory is still accepted as true today, with a number of papers written in modern times which accept this theory as accurate. Perhaps there is an analog theory where the wavelength can be viewed as a particle interval.)
(That the sky can be orange colored at sunset, while blue colored during the day is evidence that this color does not necessarily reflect the color of the molecules in the atmosphere, which presumably do not change color depending on angle of incident light. For this reason, the idea that the red of the air at sunset, and blue during the day is probably not due to simple reflection such as the green of grass. I think the probable truth has more to do with particle reflection. A beam of light can be lowered in frequency using the method of Fizeau which is a rotating disk with holes. Just as this disk can reduce the frequency of a beam of light, so could a molecule. In terms of why the sky appears red at the horizon at sunrise and sunset, I think this may be the result of many particles of light being absorbed and reflected and then re-emited. Another aspect of this debate is that the sky appears blue from the surface of the Earth, but not from outside where the atmosphere appears transparent - perhaps this is light from the surface that is reflected back which would not be seen from above the atmosphere? This also relates to the issue of the "red-shift" of light beams from distant galaxies. Could this light be absorbed and re-emitted by particles in between the source and viewer, as may be the case for luminescence and the sky of Earth?)
EXPERIMENT: Is the spectrum of sunlight at sunset identical to sunlight that does not pass through atmosphere, or are there different spectral lines? In particular, are the red frequencies the same or do they originate from emissions of molecules in the atmosphere?
(So I think that there may be some truth to the idea of light scattering off molecules in the atmosphere, but I reject as unlikely the idea of an aether, and sine-wave theory for light. This scattering, in my opinion, has more to do with photons being trapped in gas and then re-released in a similar method as luminescence. It seems like there is a clear phenomenon of objects absorbing one frequency of light and emiting frequencies that are not found in the source light - phosphorescence of materials illuminated with fluorescent lights are a prime example - how can so many more frequencies be emited than are contained in the source light if this is not absorption and emission?)
Experiment: I think the scattering is due more to quantity of gas molecules the light passes through, as opposed to frequency. How does quantity of gas or liquid effect the frequency of a full spectrum of light? Are some frequencies filtered do new frequencies appear?
(Some light clearly is reflected off the earth, and then back off the sky - looking at the sky might be like looking at a cloudy mirror - because clearly we see light reflected off the earth in orbit and as far away as Jupiter, etc. Perhaps the polarized light is light that was first reflected off the surface of the earth - this would explain why only some of the light is polarized.)
| (private laboratory) Terling Place, England |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 2687) Australia and Great Britain are electrically connected by an underwater (copper? metal) wire cable (from Philippines to Port Darwin).
| |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3081) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, invents the ice calorimeter (1870).
Bunsen invents various calorimeters, used for measuring heat. (how do they work?)
Bunsen's ice calorimeter measures the volume instead of the mass of the ice melted. This allowed Bunsen to measure the metals' specific heat to find their true atomic weights. The ice calorimeter of Bunsen finds the number of melted grams of ice by measuring volumes. 1 g of ice occupies 1.0908 cm3, 1 g of water 1.0001 cm3. When 1 g of ice melts it reduces its volume by 0.0907 cm3. The measured reduction in volume of melting ice indicates the number of grams which have melted. (See image) The calorimeter is completely blown out of glass. The U-tube C, the wider part g of which ends above in a small test tube for the body to be examined, contains water and ice above b and mercury from b into the calibrated capillary S. The instrument has protection against external heat effects by being surrounded by a mixture of ice and water (Although this seems to me to impossible to keep heat from not entering or escaping from the vessel.).
Bunsen devises this sensitive ice calorimeter to measure the specific heats of the rare elements of the cerium group.
Bunsen uses his calorimeters to explain how geysers work. (more detail)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3361) Hermann von Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) publishes (translated from German) "On the Equations of Motion of Electricity in Conductors at Rest", which describes a theory of electricity (or electro-dynamics) which consists of two current elements.
The majority of physicists in Germany deduce the laws of electrodynamics from the hypotheses of Wilhelm Weber, which refer the phenomena of electricity and magnetism to Newton's theory of gravity and Coulomb's theory of static electricity.
Helmholtz's conclusions can be summarized like this: Both longitudinal and transversal electric disturbances can be propagated in unmagnetisable dielectrics. The velocity of the transversal undulations in air depends on the absolute susceptibility of the medium. If this is very large, the velocity is the same as that of light. The velocity of the longitudinal waves is equal to that of the transversal waves multiplied by the factor 1/sqrt(k) and by a constant which depends on the magnetic constitution of the air. In conductors the waves are rapidly damped. If the insulator is magnetisable, the magnetic longitudinal oscillations have an infinite velocity, the transversal magnetic oscillations are perpendicular to the transversal electrical oscillations, and are propagated with the same velocity.
Maxwell describes this work as very powerful. Helmholtz develops a theory of electromagnetism in which Maxwell's equations are derived from an action at a distance.theory.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3634) Othniel Charles Marsh (CE 1831-1899), US paleontologist, finds a bird fossil still with reptilian teeth. This bird is the Hesperornis ("western bird").
| Smoky Hill River, (Western) Kansas, USA |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3643) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879), Scottish mathematician and physicist, publishes a textbook "Theory of Heat" which goes through several editions with extensive revisions. This book mainly explains standard results, but does contain "Maxwell relations" between thermodynamical variable such as pressure, volume, entropy, and temperature, and their partial derivatives. Conceptually they resemble Maxwell's field equations in electricity. Also in the "Theory of Heat", Maxwell creates a theoretical device, where two containers of gas at the same average temperature are connected by a door through which only slower moving particles may pass from left to right, while only faster moving particles may pass from right to left. So in this way, the gas in the left side would heat up, while the gas on the right side would cool down, in this way, fast molecules would be moving from a colder gas into a hotter gas, in defiance of the second law of thermodynamics which claims that heat flows from hot to cold. William Thomson calls this concept Maxwell's "sorting demon". The problem with such a device is, that while it explains the temperature and heat as the velocity of particles of matter theory, no such device has ever been built, and so this principle has not been observed (demonstrated shown) in anything other than theory. Perhaps such a device will be built some time, or perhaps some other method of proof will show that the average velocity of particles of matter defines temperature. (But this theory is more intuitive and logical than the theory that heat is, as an imponderable {that is, a massless} fluid, although I think possibly a case can be made for heat and temperature as a ponderable {that is, a mass of} fluid {perhaps of photons, for example photons with infrared spacing}.)
(In terms of building a device with Maxwell's demon: I don't see why a very low pressure door would not work, because the force of only faster moving particles would push open the door {although they would be slowed in the process, but perhaps not too much}, where slower particles simply bounce off the one-way door. Perhaps like a tea pot boiling in one container with a movable lid into a second container which is at a higher average temperature. It would seem that the higher temperature of the second chamber would create a higher pressure to stop the door from opening. Another problem is that there are always photons entering containers - there simply can never be a volume of space free of all matter for any duration of time. A simple disproof of temperature as strictly velocity with no regard to quantity, might be - that a smaller object produces less heat than a larger object - both heated to the same temperature - the quantity of heat produced by the larger object is larger than by that of the smaller. This shows that, in terms of quantity of heat, temperature (velocity) and quantity of material must be multiplied together. Since temperature must be taken over a volume of space - quantity of mass is important. Another idea is that two objects are heated to the same temperature, but they emit different spectra, - since a thermometer only absorbs specific frequencies can it be shown that although they emit the same quantity of photons, and have the same average velocity (temperature), and size, one produces more heat? ) (EXPERIMENT: perhaps electrical particles could be sped up, and temperature measured at various places...along a linear particle accelerator...do the faster electrical particles represent a higher temperature? perhaps colliding electrons with a container of gas which expands. Is the expansion higher depending on speed of electron beam?)(EX: perhaps a detector can be used to measure collisions of various molecules, or other particles in a cold gas, and in the same gas at a higher temperature. More collisions per second would represent higher velocity. But then unless measuring photons, even in atoms, the theory of photon quantity/distribution determining temperature would go unresolved.)(look for other experiments that confirmed this theory.) (So what about photons, with supposed constant velocity. How can there be differences in temperature with particles of constant velocity? Perhaps temperature is only a phenomenon of larger collections of photons. One question is: do photons maintain a constant velocity in atoms, have a variable velocity {such as planets...actually the velocity of planets might actually be constant in magnitude. Clearly, objects lose velocity when captured by a large mass object and may then gain velocity like a slingshot.}, or have no velocity in atoms relative to other particles in the atom? Temperature in terms of photons, as I explain above may simply be quantity of photons at some single point, and velocity is only indirectly responsible for temperature, mainly it is quantity of photons moving past some single photon sized point. The more photons, the higher the temperature, it would seem to be an effect of quantity less than velocity. However, this is only over a unit space, as opposed to many unit spaces. There is the case of photons packed together, like perhaps inside a star, and the question of how to describe that temperature - very cold since no movement or very hot but simply not realized because of lack of space? One idea is to view a large volume of space with faster moving particles than a small volume of space with slower moving particles but higher average temperature. The particles in the large space are moving faster, but the average temperature is colder. There are many examples of where the quantity of particles effects temperature because temperature is a measure over a volume of space.)
| (family estate) Glenlair, England |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3735) Johann Friedrich Wilhelm Adolf von Baeyer (BAYR) (CE 1835-1917), German chemist, produces an indigo dye by treating isatin with phosphorus trichloride, followed by reduction.
In 1883 Baeyer will show this dye's exact structre.
This indigo dye will lead to the synthesis of the dye (very similar to Baeyer's indigo), that the people of Tyre had once manufactured for the use of royalty. (state name and both molecular formulas and structures.)
Baeyer's pupils Graebe and Liebermann, with the help of the zinc-dust distillation developed by Baeyer, clarify the structure of alizarin and work out the synthesis that is used industrially.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3777) (Sir) William Henry Perkin (CE 1838-1907), English chemist, discovers a chemical process for preparing unsaturated acids. This reaction becomes known as the "Perkin reaction". In the following year Perkin uses this process to synthesize coumarin, the first artificial perfume.
Unsaturated in chemistry relates to a chemical compound in which all (valences are not filled), so that still other atoms or radicals may be added to it.
(Describe Perkin reaction)
| (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England (presumably) |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3778) (Sir) William Henry Perkin (CE 1838-1907), English chemist, creates the first synthetic perfume (coumarin).
(first synthetic flavoring?)
Perkin synthesizes coumarin, a while, crystalline substance with a pleasant vanilla-like odor. This marks the beginning of the synthetic perfume industry.
Coumarin is a scent and flavoring used in foods until 1954, when it is found to cause liver poisoning.
Coumarin is a fragrant crystalline compound, C9H6O2, extracted from several plants, such as tonka beans and sweet clover, or produced synthetically and widely used in perfumes.
| (Perkin factory) Greenford Green, England (presumably) |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 3909) Joseph Schröter (CE 1837-1894), German biologist, grows and isolates pigmented bacteria on slices of potato in a moist environment.
Schröter works under Ferdinand Cohn.
| (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
130 YBN
[1870 AD]
| 4701) The electric motor is made 1 nanometer in size. Tiny micrometer electric motors have been in production for decades, although secretly. These tiny motors are part of microscopic microphones, cameras, and neuron reading and writing devices which are mass produced and fly, directed and powered by particle beams, all over the earth to secretly capture images and sounds and do neuron reading and writing without being detected.
| London, England (guess) |
129 YBN
[01/07/1871 AD]
| 3704) Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeléev (meNDelAeF) (CE 1834-1907), Russian chemist publishes a periodic table which leaves gaps in the table in order to make the elements fit, and explains that the gaps represent elements not yet found. Mendeléev describes the properties the element ought to have based on its position on the table. These three elements Mendeleev calls ekaboron, ekaaluminium, and ekasilicon ((in Sanskrit the prefix eka means one); and this theory is proven true within fifteen years by the discovery of gallium by Lecoq de Boisbaudran in 1875 (which matches all the properties Mendeleev describes), scandium by Nilson and Cleve in 1879, and germanium by Winkler in 1886. The periodic table will help to guide people in figuring out the structure of atoms.
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
129 YBN
[01/??/1871 AD]
| 3659) Wilhelm Eduard Weber (CE 1804-1891), German physicist defends his theory by arguing against the claim that action-at-a-distance theories violate the law of conservation of energy. This may represent the rising popularity of Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism.
Weber writes (translated from German): " THE law of electrical action announced in the First Memoir on Electrodynamic Measurements (Elektrodynamische Maassbesiimmungen, Leipzig, 1846) has been tested on various sides and been modified in many ways. It has also been made the subject of observations and speculations of a more general kind; these, however, cannot by any means be regarded as having is yet led to definite conclusions. The First Part of the following Memoir is limited to a discussion of the relation which this law bears to the Principle of the Conservation of Energy, the great importance and high significance of which have been brought specially into prominence in connexion with the Mechanical Theory of Heat. In consequence of its having been asserted that the law referred to is in contradiction with this principle, an endeavour is here made to show that no such contradiction exists. On the contrary, the law enables us to make an addition to the Principle of the Conservation of Energy, and to alter it BO that its application to each pair of particles is no longer limited solely to the time during which the pair does not undergo either increase or diminution of vis viva through the action of other bodies, but always holds good independently of the manifold relations to other bodies into which the two particles can enter. Besides this, in the Second Part the law is applied to the development of the equations of motion of two electrical particles subjected only to their mutual action. Albeit this development does not lead directly to any comparisons or exact control by reference to existing experience (on which account it has hithertc received little attention), it nevertheless leads to various results which appear to be of importance as furnishing clues for the investigation of the molecular conditions and motions of bodies which have acquired such special significance in relation to Chemistry and the theory of Heat and to offer to further investigation interesting relations in these still obscure regions.".
| (University of) Göttingen, Germany |
129 YBN
[05/10/1871 AD]
| 3433) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) identifies hydrogen in spectrum of Uranus.
Secchi had observed the spectrum of Uranus in 1869. Huggins writes in "Note on the Spectrum of Uranus and the Spectrum of Comet I., 1871": "...The spectrum of Uranus is continuous... On account of the small amount of light received from this planet, I was not able to use a slit sufficiently narrow to bring out the Fraunhofer lines. ... The remarkable absorption taking place at uranus shows itself in six strong lines, which are drawn in the diagram. The least refrangible of these lines occurs in a faint part of the spectrum, and could not be measured... The strongest of the lines is that which has a wave-length of about 544 millionths of a millimetre. ... ...The light from a tube containing rarefied hydrogen, rendered luminous by the induction spark, was then compared directly with that or Uranus. The band in the planet's spectrum appeared to be coincident with the bright line of hydrogen. ... There is no strong line in the spectrum of Uranus in the position of the strongest of the lines of air, namely, the double line of nitrogen. ...".
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
129 YBN
[08/??/1871 AD]
| 3814) Hermann Carl Vogel (FOGuL) (CE 1841-1907), German astronomer shows that the solar rotation can be measured using spectroscopic Doppler effects, obtaining identical results to those achieved using sunspots as markers.
Vogel also examines the spectrum of lightning in "Ueber die Spectra der Blitze" ("On the Spectra of Lightning", 1871).
Vogel publishes this as "Resultate spectralanalytischer Beobachtungen, angestellt auf der Sternwarte zu Bothkamp." ( "Spectroanalytical Observation Results, employed at the observatory of Bothkamp.").
| (private observatory) Bothkamp, Germany |
129 YBN
[09/08/1871 AD]
| 3113) Richard Leach Maddox (CE 1816-1902), English physician and amateur photographer, invents the first practical gelatin silver halide photographic emulsion.
This will be used in and make possible film-rolls and hand cameras.
Maddox is concerned about the health risks of the collodion process (which includes ether and cyanide). There had been numerous unsuccessful attempts made to find a dry substitute for collodion to carry sensitive silver salts. Maddox publishes the details of a gelatin bromide emulsion he devised in an 1871 article in the "British Journal of Photography". Others will improve this idea, and within ten years gelatin bromide dry plates are being mass produced and a giant new industry is established. Dry emulsions revolutionize photography, being more convenient to use and more sensitive than wet collodion plates. The shorter exposure time they allow lead to the introduction of hand cameras; and they make film-rolls possible. Modern sensitized materials continue to be based on gelatin silver halide emulsions. Like his predecessor Scott Archer, Maddox refuses to patent his discovery.
The electronic camera will surpass the film camera in popularity, however, it seems clear, that for some terrible reason, the electronic capture and storage of images, which must have happened at the latest by 1910 is not shown to the public or publicly published until decades later and then kept from the public free market even to this day, although electronic digital cameras such as USB-computer web cameras are sold publicly.
The "electronic camera" and the "wireless camera". This title "electronic camera" appears to me to be the most logical name for a camera that captures an image which is stored in electronic format, just as a sound recording is captured, and "wireless camera" for a camera that sends an image pixel by pixel in photons with radio frequency. But where is the "electronic camera" and "wireless camera" in history? They must have been kept secret. It seems clear that the electronic camera must have been invented at the earliest around 1897 with the invention of the CRT (the CRT is almost like an answer to an unasked question - clearly the goal was to display an image - but where is the camera?) at least by 1910, since Pupin probably used a similar camera. Why keep it secret from the public? Clearly the television camera is the first publicly known electronic camera. Why not open the market to the public - electronic camera, plastic tape storage (the big issue is: could plastic tape store more electronic dots than light dots?) But also a "wireless camera", a camera that send the image in AM or FM, etc. to a radio receiver display, or plastic film recording radio receiver device. Wireless (radio) microphones must have quickly led to wireless (radio) image sending. The key is really electronic storage. Was plastic optical tape and magnetic wire all there was? (possibly belongs in electronics record, such as electronic microphone, wireless microphone)
| Woolston, Southhampton, England |
129 YBN
[11/17/1871 AD]
| 4160) (Sir) George Biddell Airy (CE 1801-1892), English astronomer and mathematician, uses a water filled telescope to measure the change in aberration of light from a star that passes through a denser medium and finds that there is no difference between the aberration of star light passing through air or water.
Airy writes: "A discussion has taken place on the Continent, conducted partly in the ' Astronomische Nachrichten,' partly in independent pamphlets, on the change of direction which a ray of light will receive (as inferred from the Undulatory Theory of Light) when it traverses a refracting medium which has a motion of translation. The subject to which attention is particularly called is the effect that will be produced on the apparent amount of that angular displacement of a star or planet which is caused by the Earth's motion of translation, and is known as the Aberration of Light. It has been conceived that there may be a difference in the amounts of this displacement, as seen with different telescopes, depending on the difference in the thicknesses of their object-glasses. The most important of the papers containing this discussion are :—that of Professor Klinkerfues, contained in a pamphlet published at Leipzig in 1867, August; and those of M. Hoek, one published 1867, October, in No. 1669 of the ' Astronomische Nachrichten,' and the other published in 1869 in a communication to the Netherlands lloyal Academy of Sciences. Professor Klinkerfues maintained that, as a necessary result of the Undulatory Theory, the amount of Aberration would be increased, in accordance with a formula which he has given ; and he supported it by the following experiment:—
In the telescope of a transit-instrument, whose focul length was about 18 inches, was inserted a column of water 8 inches in length, carried in a tube whose ends were closed with glass plates; and with this instrument he observed the transit of the Sun, and the transits of certain stars whose north-polar distances were nearly the same as that of the Sun, and which passed the meridian nearly at midnight. In these relative positions, the difference between the Apparent Right Ascension of the Sun and those of the stars is affected by double the coefficient of Aberration ; and the merely astronomical circumstances are extremely favourable for the accurate testing of the theory. Professor Klinkerfues had computed that the effect of the 8-inch column of water and of a prism in the interior of the telescope would be to increase the coefficient of Aberration by eight seconds of arc. The observation appeared to show that the Aberration was really increased by 7".1. It does not appear that this observation was repeated.
A result of physical character so important, and resting on the respectable authority of Professor Klinkerfues, merited and indeed required further examination. Having carefully considered the astronomical means which would be most accurately employed for the experiment, I decided on adopting a vertical telescope, the subject of observation being the meridional zenith distance of γ Draconis, the same star by which the existence and laws of Aberration were first established. The position of this star is at present somewhat more favourable than it was in the time of Bradley, its mean zenith-distance north at the Royal Observatory being about 100" and still slowly diminishing. With the sanction of the Government, therefore, I planned an instrument, of which the essential part is, that the whole tube, from the lower surface of the object-glass to a plane glass closing the lower end of the tube, is filled with water, the length of the column of water being 35.3 inches. The curvatures of the surfaces of the two lenses constituting the object-glass, adapted, in conjunction with the water, to correct spherical and chromatic aberration, were investigated by myself and verified by my friend Mr. Stone (now Astronomer at the Cape Observatory). The micrometer is constructed on a plan arranged by myself, by which the double observation in reversed positions of the instrument can be made with great case. The reference to the vertical is given by two spirit-levels, both to be read at every single observation. The work of construction was intrusted to Mr. James Simms, who carried it out with great ability. Distilled water was supplied by H. W. Chisholm, Esq., Warden of Standards.
Had the result of the observations been confined to the determination of an astronomical constant, or the variation of its value for different telescopes, I should not have thought it worthy of communication to the Royal Society. But it is really a result of great physical importance, not only affecting the computation of the velocity of light, but also influencing the whole treatment of the Undulatory Theory of Light. In this view I have thought that an informal statement of the conclusions may be acceptable to the Society, reserving for publication in one of the annual Greenwich Volumes the details of the observations. ...". Airy then describes his apparatus, lists his table of results and writes:
"Remarking that the mean results for Geographical Latitude of the Instrument (determined from observations made when the Aberration of the star had respectively its largest + value and its largest — value) agree within a fraction of a second, I think myself justified in concluding that the hypothesis of Professor Klinkerfues is untenable. Had it been retained, the Aberrations to be employed in the corrections would have been increased by+15" and—15" respectively, and the two mean results would have disagreed by 30". ...".
Albert Michelson and Edward Morley will write in 1887: "The discovery of the aberration of light was soon followed by an explanation according to the emission theory. The effect was attributed to a simple composition of the velocity of light with the velocity of the earth in its orbit. The difficulties in this apparently sufficient explanation were overlooked until after an explanation on the undulatory theory of light was proposed. This new explanation was at first almost as simple as the former. But it failed to account for the fact proved by experiment that the aberration was unchanged when observations were made with a telescope filled with water. For if the tangent of the angle of aberration is the ratio of the velocity of the earth to the velocity of light, then, since the latter velocity in water is three-fourths in velocity in a vacuum, the aberration observed with a water telescope should be four-thirds of its true value.".
| Greenwich, England |
129 YBN
[12/??/1871 AD]
| 3876) M. S. Lamansky makes a thermograph of the solar spectrum (and of lime light) by using a thermopile which deflections are a measure the heating effect on lampblack.
| (Helmholtz Lab, U of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 2657) Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot (CE 1845-1903) invents a system for multiplexing (switching) a single telegraph wire among a number of simultaneous users.
This major new concept is introduced by Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot in France. Baudot devises a system for multiplexing (switching) a single line among a number of simultaneous users. The heart of the system is a distributor consisting of a stationary face plate containing concentric circular copper rings that are swept by brushes mounted on a rotating assembly. The face plate is divided into sectors depending on the number of users. Each sector can produce a sequence of five on or off connections that represented a transmitted letter or symbol. The on/off connections are referred to as marks or spaces-in modern terminology, binary digits, or bits, consisting of ones or zeros-and the 32 possible symbols that they encode come to be known as the Baudot Code. In the Baudot system, the transmitter and receiver have to be operated in synchrony so that the correct transmitter and receiver are connected at the same time. The first systems use manual transmission, but this is soon replaced with perforated tape. Variations of this system are used well into the 1900s; and this is the forerunner of what is now known as time-division multiplexing.
This is a major concept (that will ultimately allow many different microphones and cameras to all use a single wire, allowing the phone company to use a single wire for many devices such as microphones and electric video cameras beyond just a telephone which are secretly placed in people's houses, in addition to allowing many telephones to simultaneously use a single wire.).
(This is the start of binary digital communication, communication using a series of on or off values, where the Morse Code devices, use a 3-signal digital communication system, with the 3 symbols: dot, dash and space.)
| France |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 2662) The Great Northern Telegraph Company (大北電報公司 / 大北电报公司 Dàběi Diànbào Gōngsī) introduces the telegraph to China.
| |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 2686) The first telegraph wire is built in China.
An underwater cable is laid by the Great Northern Telegraph China and Japan Extension (are two companies?) are connected to Amoy (now Xiamen, Fujian Province), Hong Kong, and Shanghai.
| Yokohama, Japan |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3169) Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (VYRsTroS) (CE 1815-1897), German mathematician demonstrates (1871) a function that is continuous throughout an interval but that possesses no derivative anywhere in the interval. (This is find hard to believe - give more info)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3355) Hermann Helmholtz (CE 1821-1894) determines a minimum rate of propagation of electromagnetic induction of 314,400 meters/second.
Blaserna had published some experiments from which he concluded that in air this velocity was only 550 meters per second. Helmholtz modifies his oscillating frog leg experiment apparatus of 1869 to determine the speed at which electromagnetic induction propagates. It is evident that if the time interval between the breaking of the two currents were adjusted to give the maximum effect, the same result can only obtained when the distance between the two circuits is increased, if the time interval is changed by an amount equal to that required for the induction to travel across the additional space. (make clearer) Helmholtz finds that the same adjustment is equally good at all distances and concludes that the velocity of propagation must exceed 314,400 meters/second. The author of the obituary for Hermann von Helmholtz in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London writes "These experiments acquire an additional interest when we remember that Hertz was a pupil of von Helmholtz, and was thus brought up in a laboratory in which electrical oscillations had been the subject of careful study. The seed sown by the earlier efforts of the master brought forth fruit a hundred fold.".
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3518) Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (HOPuZIlR) (CE 1825-1895), German biochemist, identifies invertase, an enzyme that speeds the conversion of sucrose (table sugar) into two more simple sugars, glucose and fructose.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3526) George Johnstone Stoney (CE 1826-1911), Irish physicist, notes that the wavelengths of three lines in the hydrogen spectrum are found to have simple ratios, an anticipation of Balmer's formula, an important step towards understanding the structure of the atom.
| (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3542) Karl Gegenbaur (GAGeNBoUR) (CE 1826-1903), German anatomist gives supporting evidence that the skull is not formed from the vertebrae. Huxley demonstrates that the skull is built up of cartilaginous pieces. In 1871, Gegenbaur supports this view by showing that "in the lowest (gristly) fishes, where hints of the original vertebrae might be most expected, the skull is an unsegmented gristly brain-box, and that in higher forms the vertebral nature of the skull cannot be maintained, since many of the bones, notably those along the top of the skull, arise in the skin.".
(interesting that bones arise in skin, presumably from skin cells, is this still accepted? How could this be: bone cells from skin cells? I would presume that the skeleton forms as a single piece around the same time in the development of a fetus.)
| (U of Jena) Jena, Germany |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3560) Pierre Eugène Marcellin Berthelot (BARTulO or BRTulO) (CE 1827-1907), French chemist, publishes "Sur la force des matieres explosives d'apres la thermochemie" (1871; 3rd ed., 2 vols, 1883) which describes the results of a detailed study on the strength of explosives in a two-volume book. (How many explosives reactions are then known?)
In 1882, Berthelot researches the velocity of the explosive wave in gases. (tries to measure this velocity?)
| (Ecole Superieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3575) (Sir) Joseph Wilson Swan (CE 1828-1914), English physician and chemist, invents the "dry plate method" of photography.
Working with wet photographic plates, Swan notices that heat increases the sensitivity of the gelatino-bromide of silver emulsion. This greatly simplifies the process of making photographic plates, which before involved a solution being smeared on the plates in liquid form, a process that is very messy. This dry plate photography will lead to Eastman's further developments 15 years later. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, this begins the age of convenience in photography.
| Newcastle, England (presumably) |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3633) S. W. Williston (working under) Othniel Charles Marsh (CE 1831-1899), US paleontologist, finds fossils of the first pterosaur (also known as "pterodactyl") found in America.
| (Upper Jurasic) Wyoming, USA |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3666) Charles Friedel (FrEDeL) (CE 1832-1899), French chemist, with R. D. da Silva (b. 1837) synthesizes glycerin, starting from propylene.
| Ecole Normal, Paris, France (presumably) |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 3924) Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (BOLTSmoN) (CE 1844-1906), Austrian physicist, describes "ergodic" systems, systems in which the positions and velocities of all the mass points (representing atoms) will eventually take every possible value consistent with the total energy of the system. Maxwell also examines ergodic systems.
Boltzmann first uses the word "Ergoden" in 1884.
| (University of Graz) Graz, Austria (presumably) |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 4059) Viktor Meyer (CE 1848-1897), German organic chemist finds that molecules of bromine and iodine, made of two atoms each (diatomic) break into single atoms on heating.
(verify paper is and translate)
Meyer finds this in the process of devising a method of determining the vapour densities of inorganic substances at high temperatures.
(I think the diatomic bonding of atoms is interesting an deserves more historical and physical examination, since this involves the difference in physical structure between an atom and a molecule {more than a single atom})
| (University of Stuttgart), Stuttgart, Germany (presumably) |
129 YBN
[1871 AD]
| 4069) Christian Felix Klein (CE 1849-1925), German mathematician, systematizes the non-Euclidean geometries of Lobachevski, Bolyai, and Riemann. By using projective geometry Klein shows how forms of both non-Euclidean geometry and Euclidean geometry itself can be viewed as special cases of a more general view. (more specific, with examples)
This work brings non-Euclidean geometry into the mainstream of mathematical thinking.
Klein publishes this in two works, both with the title: "Über die sogenannte Nicht-Euklidische Geometrie" (in English "On the so-called Non-Euclidean Geometry", 1871, 1873). In these works Klein establishes that hyperbolic, elliptic, and Euclidean geometries can be constructed purely projectively. (translate works to English)
In this work Klein writes (translated from German):
"The basis of general projective metric in space is provided by an arbitrary fundamental surface of the second order. To define the distance between two points one joins them by a straight line. It intersects the fundamental surface in two new points that are in a definite cross ratio with the two given points. The logaritm of this cross ratio multiplied by an arbitray constant c yields what one should call the distance between the two given points.". Klein then gives a similar definition of the angle between two planes. (I don't see why the distance itself could not be multiplied by c to determine the surface distance between two points on a surface.)
One simple thing to understand is that all non-Euclidean geometry, as I understand it, is mathematics that describes a surface, or perhaps that limits the possible points to a surface.
(I think most non-Euclidean geometries are subsets of Euclidean spaces.)
(This era is one of the rise of complex math which really started with LaPlace and has continued through Joule, Kelvin, Maxwell and into modern times with the non-Euclidean theories of the universe - the math involves almost always integrals and differentials. This is before the public use of computers and with the invention of computers brings the realization that most modeling requires many variables - points, polygons, etc, iterations, logical and arithmetical operations which cannot be easily printed on an equation on paper. In some cases, there may be an effort to impress others with complex mathematical equations and theories, or a mistaken set of properties that are assigned variables {the claim of "entropy" by Clausius being a classic example}. I think where something in science is difficult to understand, every effort should be made to make it simple and understandable to all.)
(Another aspect of this work may be that just because some mathematical expression may be reduced to a Euclidean geometry, that expression may still have nothing to do with the universe or any physical phenomena in the universe other than the phenomenon of mathematical theory. )
(I should emphasize that, of course, that any and all mathematical theory and work is perfectly fine and acceptable, and mathematical thought, theory and publication should never be restricted in any way.)
Historian B. A. Rosenfeld describes Klein's reduction of a parabolic surface to a Euclidean space, writing: "...we have the parabolic case of Euclidean geometry (the imaginary conic is the imaginary spherical circle at infinity. ...". I'm not sure but simply flattening a conic and then explaining that the flat surface is Euclidean (if this is what is being done) doesn't seem like a major accomplishment, but perhaps there is something noteworthy in the mathematical equations. In the view I support, even a conic surface is Euclidean since all points must belong, as a subset, to the Euclidean dimensional space which extends infinity in all given dimensions. I think that so-called non-euclidean geometry is better called "Surface Geometry" mathematics or "Limited to Surface-space geometry".
| ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
128 YBN
[01/01/1872 AD]
| 1249) Withington's original binder uses wire to tie the bundles. There are various problems with using wire and it was not long before William Deering will invent a binder that uses twine and a knotter (invented 1858 by John Appleby).
Early binders are horse-drawn and have a reel and a sickle bar, like a modern grain head for a combine harvester, or combine. The cut stems fall onto a canvas, which conveys the crop to the binding mechanism. This mechanism bundles the stems of grain and ties a piece of twin around the bundle. Once this is tied, it is discharged from the back of the binder.
With the replacement of the threshing machine by the combine, the binder will become almost obsolete. Some grain crops such as oats are now cut and formed into windrows (a row of cut hay or small grain crop) with a swather (cuts hay or small grain crops). With other grain crops such as wheat, the grain is now mostly cut and threshed by a combine in a single operation, while the binder is still in use at small fields or outskirts of mountain areas.
| ? |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3197) Charles Adolphe Wurtz (VURTS) (CE 1817-1884), French chemist, discovers aldol (and aldol condensation), pointing out its double character as both an alcohol and an aldehyde. (more info)
| (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3198) Charles Adolphe Wurtz (VURTS) (CE 1817-1884), French chemist, publishes "La Théorie atomique" (1879; "Atomic Theory") which includes the idea of a characteristic combining power of the atoms; this, when applied to the elements, precipitates the notion of valence.
| (Ecole de Médicine, School of Medicine) Paris, France |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3317) John Tyndall (CE 1820-1893), Irish physicist shows that some of the dust in air consists of microorganisms. This explains why broths so easily become filled with life forms.
Tyndall observes that a luminous beam, passing through the dust free air of his experimental tube, is invisible. It occurs to Tyndall that such a beam might be utilized to detect the presence of living germs in the atmosphere. Louis Pasteur had postulated that germs are a cause of animal and human diseases, therefore air incompetent to scatter light, through the absence of all floating particles must be free from bacteria and their germs. Numerous experiments made in 1871–2 show that optically pure air is incapable of developing bacterial life. In properly protected vessels infusions of fish, flesh, and vegetable, freely exposed, after boiling, to air cleared by settling or by flame treatment, and shown to be clear by the invisible passage of a powerful electric light, remains permanently pure and unaltered; whereas the identical liquids, exposed afterwards to ordinary dust-filled air, soon swarms with bacteria. Three extensive investigations into the organisms that destroy food are made by Tyndall, mainly with the view of removing once and for all the possibility of spontaneous generation. Tyndall shows that although bacteria are killed below 100 °C, their desiccated germs—those of the hay bacillus in particular—can retain their vitality after several hours of boiling.
(chronology + paper titles)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3566) Ferdinand Julius Cohn (CE 1828-1898), German botanist, classifies bacteria into genera and species.
Ferdinand Julius Cohn (CE 1828-1898), German botanist, publishes a 3 volume treatise on bacteria, which founds the science of bacteriology. Cohn publishes this treatise in his journal as "Untersuchungen über Bacterien" ("Researches on Bacteria"). In this work Cohn defines bacteria, uses the similarities of their external form to divide them into four groups, and describes six genera under these groups. This widely accepted classification is the first systematic attempt to classify bacteria and its fundamental divisions are still used in today's nomenclature. Up to this time, Louis Pasteur and others used a somewhat arbitrary and confusing system of nomenclature. Cohn's four grouips are sphaerobacteria (round), microbacteria (short rods or cylinders), desmobacteria (longer rods or threads), and spirobacteria (screw or spiral). Cohn recognizes six genera of bacteria, with at least one genus belonging to each group. In addition, Cohn reiterates his conclusion of 1854 that bacteria belong to the plant kingdom because of their similarity to algae.
Cohn finds that bacteria can be frozen without being killed, returning to their former state when thawed. Cohn also discovers that most bacteria die if heated to 80 degrees Celsius. (In this work?)
| (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3630) Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (DADeKiNT) (CE 1831-1916), German mathematician, creates the method now called the "Dedekind cut", which helps to create a logical picture of irrational numbers.
Dedekind develops the idea that both rational and irrational numbers form a continuum (with no gaps) of real numbers, provided that the real numbers have a one-to-one relationship with points on a line. An irrational number is then viewed as a boundary value that separates two collections of rational numbers.
Such a cut, which corresponds to a given value, defines an irrational number if no largest or no smallest is present in either part; whereas a rational is defined as a cut in which one part contains a smallest or a largest. For example, the irrational square root of 2 is the unique number dividing the continuum into two groups of numbers such that one group contains all the numbers larger than the square root of 2 and the other contains all the numbers smaller than the square root of 2.
In this way, a line maybe cut at a rational number or an irrational number, but the same rules of manipulation are true in either case.
Dedekind publishes this work as "Stetigkeit und Irrationale Zahlen" (Eng. trans., "Continuity and Irrational Numbers", 1872, published in "Essays on the Theory of Numbers").
In the same work Dedekind gives the first precise definition of an infinite set.
| (Technical High School in Braunschweig) Braunschweig, Germany |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3732) Johannes Wislicenus (VisliTSAnUS) (CE 1835-1902), German chemist establishes that the three lactic acids, two of them optically active from biological sources, and the third an inactive form synthesized in his laboratory are indeed stereoisomeric and puts forward the opinion that this isomerism can be explained by the grouping of the atoms in space and by the use of solid model formula. Wislicenus writes "Since {constitutional} formulae only represent the manner in which atoms are connected we must admit that if two different substances have the same {constitutional} formulae, their differing properties must arise from differences in the spatial arrangements of atoms within the molecule".
Wislicenus's findings and similar work lead Jacobus van't Hoff and Joseph Le Bel to establish the new discipline of stereochemistry a few years later.
In 1874 when Van't Hoff proposes a method for arranging organic atoms (or carbon-based molecules) in three dimensions, Wislicenus sees that this applies to substances such as the lactic acid pair. Wislicenus is therefore an early supporter of Van't Hoff's method.
Wislicenus goes on to study "geometrical isomerism", which is the existence of isomers because of different arrangements of groups or atoms around a double bond in the molecule.
(Give more details about the appearance under polarized light - apparently one lactic acid rotates the plane, while the other does not. In my view this is from physical reflections of light particles off the crystalline or atomic structure.)
| (Zurich University) Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3748) Henry Draper (CE 1837-1882), US physician and amateur astronomer, is the first to photograph the spectrum of a star, the star Vega (α Lyrae), which shows distinct lines.
William Huggins was the first to photograph a stellar spectrum in 1863. (Many sources apparently wrongly credit Draper as the first {for example: })
Draper writes "In the photograph of α Lyrae, bands or broad lines are visible in the violet and ultra-violet region unlike anything in the solar spectrum". (Curiously the photo is not published with Draper's article.)
(TODO: find copy of photo.)
| (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3770) Ernst Mach (moK) (CE 1838-1916), Austrian physicist, elaborates the idea that all knowledge is a matter of sensation.
Another way of stating this is that all knowledge is a conceptual organization of the data of sensory experience (or observation).
Following strictly empirical principles, Mach strives to rid science of all metaphysical and religious assumptions.
George Berkeley had theorized that everything except the spiritual exists only as it is perceived by the senses.
Mach claims that what we call time is only the comparison of one set of movements with a standardized set of movements, for example the hands of a clock.
The modern philosopher Karl Popper compares Mach's view with Berkeley's writing: " ...What is perhaps most striking is that Berkeley and Mach, both great admirers of Newton, criticize the ideas of absolute time, absolute space, and absolute motion, on very similar lines. Mach's criticism, exactly like berkeley's, culminates in the suggestion that all arguments for Newton's absolute space (like Foucault's pendulum, the rotating bucket of water, the effect of centrifugal forces upon the shape of the earth) fail because these movements are relative to the system of the fixed stars. To show the significance of this anticipation of Mach's criticism, I may cite two passages, one from Mach and one from Einstein. Mach wrote (in the 7th edition of the Mechanics, 1912, ch. ii, section 6, § 11) of the reception of his criticism of absolute motion, propounded in earlier editions of his Mechanics: 'Thirty years ago the view that the notion of 'absolute motion' is meaningless, without any empirical content, and scientifically without use, was generally felt to be very strange. Today this view is upheld by many well-known investigators.' And Einstein said in his obituary notice for Mach ('Nachruf auf Mach', Physikalische Zeitschr., 1916), referring to this view of Mach's: 'It is not improbable that Mach would have found the Theory of Relativity if, at a time when his mind was still young, the problem of the constancy of velocity of light had agitated the physicists.' This remark of Einstein's is no doubt more than generous. Of the bright light it throws upon Mach some reflection must fall upon Berkeley. A few words may be said about the relation of Berkeley's philosophy of science to his metaphysics. It is very different indeed from Mach's. While the positivist Mach was an enemy of all traditional, that is non-positivistic, metaphysics, and especially of all theology, Berkeley was a Christian theologian, and intensely interested in Christian apologetics. While Mach and Berkeley agreed that such words as 'absolute time', 'absolute space' and 'absolute motion' are meaningless and therefore to be eliminated from science, Mach surely would not have agreed with Berkeley on the reason why physics cannot treat of real causes. Berkeley believed in causes, even in 'true' or 'real' causes; but all true or real causes were to him 'efficient or final causes' (S, 231), and therefore spiritual and utterly beyond physics (cf. HP., ii). He also believed in true or real causal explanation (S, 231) or, as I may perhaps call it, in 'ultimate explanation'. This, for him, was God. All appearances are truly caused by God, and explained through God's intervention. This for Berkeley is the simple reason why physics can only describe regularities, and why it cannot find true causes. It would be a mistake, however, to think that the similarity between Berkeley and Mach is by these differences shown to be only superficial. on the contrary, Berkeley and Mach are both convinced that there is no physical world (or primary qualities, or of atoms; cf. Pr, 50; S, 232, 235) behind the world of physical appearances (Pr, 87, 88). Both believd in a form of the doctrine nowadays called phenomenalism - the view that physical things are bundles, or complexes, or constructs of phenomenal qualities, of particular experienced colours, noises, etc.; Mach calls them 'complexes of elements'. The difference is that for Berkeley, these are directly caused by God. For Mach they are just there. While Berkeley says that there can be nothing physical behind the physical phenomena, Mach suggests that there is nothing at all behind them.".
(To me, time is represented by the way any matter moves at all. Without time, there would be no matter motion, and time represents, not the comparison of motions, since a motion already implies the use of time, but the comparison of positions {of matter}. But I can see, that humans can observe time, even when nothing appears to be moving, and my view is that time does not depend on the existence of humans.)
(I accept that human knowledge is a product only of our senses, but my own opinion is that the more logical view is that the universe exists whether there are humans to describe it or not.)
During the 1860s, in Graz, Mach discovered the physiological phenomenon that has come to be called Mach's bands, the tendency of the human eye to see bright or dark bands near the boundaries between areas of sharply differing illumination. (chronology and visual example, original paper.)
| (Charles University) Prague, Czech Republic |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3911) Gelatin used to grow and isolate organisms.
The German botanist Julius Oscar Brefeld (CE 1839-1925) reports growing fungal colonies from single spores on gelatin surfaces.
Brefeld publishes this in the first of 18 volumes of his life's work (translated from German) "Botanical investigations in the areas of Mycology" ("Botanische Untersuchungen aus dem Gessammtgebiete der Mykologie").
| Berlin, Germany |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3923) Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (BOLTSmoN) (CE 1844-1906), Austrian physicist, Boltzmann forms a statistical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics and shows that Clausius' idea of increasing entropy can be interpreted as increasing degree of disorder.
This paper includes the H-theorem (also known as Boltzmann's "minimum theorem") and Boltzmann transport equation (also known as the Maxwell-Boltzmann equation) (see image 1 for equations) and provides the first probabilistic expression of the entropy of an ideal gas.
Maxwell and Boltzmann both think that the kinetic theory should also be able to show that a gas will actually tend to equilibrium if it is not there already. Boltzmann achieves this by showing how thermodynamic entropy is related to the statistical distribution of molecular configurations, and how increasing entropy corresponds to increasing randomness on the molecular level. Maxwell started by assuming that thermal equilibrium already exists, while Boltzmann starts out by assuming that the gas is not in equilibrium, and tries to show that the effect of collisions will be to cause equilibrium. Boltzmann defines the equation E=flogf, and shows that, under certain conditions, E must decrease as a result of collisions between particles unless f is the Maxwell distribution function. This equation will come to be called Boltzmann's H=theorem.
Boltzmann publishes this in "Weitere Studien über das Wärmegleichgewicht unter Gasmolekülen" ("Further Studies on the Thermal Equilibrium of Gas Molecules").
The Boltzmann transport equation (or Boltzmann-Maxwell equation) is an equation used to study the nonequilibrium behavior of a collection of particles; it states that the rate of change of a function which specifies the probability of finding a particle in a unit volume of phase space is equal to the sum of terms arising from external forces, diffusion of particles, and collisions of the particles.
Lord Kelvin and later Loschmidt point out that if molecular collisions are governed by Newtonian mechanics, then any given sequence of collisions can run backwards just as well as forwards. In 1874, Strutt, in "The Kinetic Theory of the Dissipation of Energy," points out this 'reversibility paradox' resulting from Boltzmann's H -function: the "apparent contradiction between...the reversibility of individual collisions and the irreversibility predicted by the theorem itself for a system of many molecules".
(In my view, this theory may be possibly useless, because, the concept of "order" is strictly a human concept. but the idea that matter tends to move to less dense areas seems to me a natural result of inertia, collision, gravitation, matter, space and time. Clausius' belief that energy dissipates or is somehow lost after use, may seem intuitive to some since a steam engine appears to constantly lose heat, but it is wrong in my opinion and to me seems unintuitive, because the heat leaving any object will always be absorbed in some other part of the universe. The basis of conservation of mass and of velocity, if true, requires that no particles or velocity are ever lost or disappear in the universe.)
(This application of probability to physics will develop into a major component of quantum dynamics. But beyond the view that the concept of entropy is doubtful, as a violation of the conservation of mass and velocity, the idea of probability as applied to the movement of matter may be useful, but seems to me not to answer the specific questions and estimates of position - and seems to me to be an unlikely physical description of how matter in the universe moves - that is that probability determines the course of matter, as opposed to a physical explanation in which the course of matter is already set, however the quantities of mass, space and time are too large to possibly calculate or accurately predict. Although this view of all movement being the result of unchangeable, unavoidable fated physics, seems unintuitive for a human that feels that we can make choices. So I think humans need to keep an open mind, and these questions are questions that may never be answered, or whose answers may never be known by any living organism in the universe.)
(This time-reversability is an interesting theory. Theoretically speaking can any sequence of events physically happen backwards? I kind of side on the possible truth of this idea - not that any physical collision, or other phenomenon does happen, but simply that they are all physically possible (not impossible). An example is one particle collides into an orbiting group of particles, sending them all flying - playing this backwards, particles would simply fall together from some initial velocity and direction, until one collides with another, causing a chain of collisions, in which only one particle is ejected from the orbiting group.)
| (University of Graz) Graz, Austria (presumably) |
128 YBN
[1872 AD]
| 3930) Georg Cantor (CE 1845-1918), German mathematician defines irrational numbers in terms of convergent sequences of rational numbers (quotients of integers).
Cantor also shows that any positive real number can be represented through a series known today as the Cantor Series.
| (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
127 YBN
[02/12/1873 AD]
| 3336) In 1839, French physicist Alexandre Edmond Becquerel (BeKreL) (CE 1820-1891) had discovered the photovoltaic (or photoelectric) effect and invented the first photovoltaic cell, while experimenting with a solid electrode in an electrolyte solution; he observed that voltage developed when light contacted the electrode.
English telegraph engineers, Willoughby Smith (CE 1828-1891) and his assistant Joseph May show that Selenium also converts light into electricity (photoelectric effect).
In 1872, while investigating materials for use in the transatlantic cable, English telegraph worker Joseph May realizes that a selenium wire is varying in its electrical conductivity. Further investigation shows that the change occurs when a beam of sunlight falls on the wire, which by chance had been placed on a table near the window. This finding provides the basis for changing light into an electric signal.
Smith and May experiment with Selenium and light and note that when selenium is exposed to light, its electrical resistance decreases. This discoverery makes possibly transforming images into electric signals. Selenium becomes the basis for the manufacture of photoelectric cells, television, the first electric camera, and possibly seeing thoughts.
Smith's letter reads: "My Dear Latimer Clark
Being desirous of obtaining a more suitable high resistance for use at the Shore Station in connection with my system of testing and signalling during the submersion of long submarine cables, I was induced to experiment with bars of selenium - a known metal of very high resistance. I obtained several bars, varying in length from 5 cm to 10 cm, and of a diameter from 1.0 mm to 1.5 mm. Each bar was hermetically sealed in a glass tube, and a platinum wire projected from each end for the purpose of connection.
The early experiments did not place the selenium in a very favourable light for the purpose required, for although the resistance was all that could be desired - some of the bars giving 1,400 megs. absolute - yet there was a great discrepancy in the tests, and seldom did different operators obtain the same result. While investigating the cause of such great differences in the resistance of the bars, it was found that the resistance altered materially according to the intensity of light to which they were subjected. When the bars were fixed in a box with a sliding cover, so as to exclude all light, their resistance was at its highest, and remained very constant, fulfilling all the conditions necessary to my requirements; but immediately the cover of the box was removed, the conductivity increased from 15 to 100 per cent, according to the intensity of the light falling on the bar. Merely intercepting the light by passing the hand before an ordinary gas-burner, placed several feet from the bar, increased the resistance from 15 to 20 per cent. If the light be intercepted by glass of various colours, the resistance varies according to the amount of light passing through the glass.
To ensure that the temperature was in no way affecting the experiments, one of the bars was placed in a trough of water so that there was about an inch of water for the light to pass through, but the results were the same; and when a strong light from the ignition of a narrow band of magnesium was held about 9 in above the water the resistance immediately fell more than two-thirds, returning to its normal condition immediately the light was extinguished.
I am sorry that I shall not be able to attend the meeting of the Society of Telegraph Engineers tomorrow evening. If, however, you think this communication of sufficient interest, perhaps you will bring it before the meeting. I hope before the close of the session that I shall have an opportunity of bringing the subject more fully before the Society in the shape of a paper, when I shall be better able to give them full particulars of the results of the experiments which we have made during the last nine months.
I remain Yours faithfully Willoughby Smith".
This effect to me, appears to be identical to the photoelectric effect, however, many sources credit Hertz as the first to observe the photoelectric effect in 1888. But then this has been two millenia of massive lies about gods, messiahs, neuron reading and writing and many millions of unstopped and unpunished murders.
| Valentia, Ireland |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 2782) Johann Heinrich Mädler (meDlR) (CE 1794-1874), German astronomer publishes a massive two-volume history of astronomy.
| (Dorpat Observatory) Dorpat (Tartu), Estonia |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3371) Heinrich Schliemann (slEmoN) (CE 1822-1890), German archaeologist, excavates (parts of Greece) and finds many valuable artifacts, much of these objects in gold. Schliemann claims to have found the ancient city of Troy, described in Homer's "Iliad". Although Schliemann uses cruder methods than those used today, his work encourages future archaeologists. This is the beginning of archeology in the modern sense.
In 1862, the French geologist Ferdinand Fouqué had dug and found fresco-covered walls of houses and painted pottery beneath 26 feet (8 metres) of pumice, the result of the great eruption that divided the original island into Thera (modern Thira) and Therasis (modern Thirasia).
The English archaeologist Frederick Calvert had dug at Hisarlık, and in 1871 Schliemann continues Clvert's work at this large human-made mound. Thinking that the Homeric Troy must be in the lowest level of the mound, Schlieman digs uncritically through the upper levels and in 1873 uncovers fortifications and the remains of a city of great antiquity. Schlieman also discovers a treasure of gold jewelry, which he smuggles out of Turkey.
Schlieman believes the city is Homeric Troy and identifies the treasure as that of Priam. Schlieman publishes his artifacts and theories in "Trojanische Altertümer" (1874; "Trojan Antiquity"). The majority view is apparently that Schliemann did find ancient Troy.
| Hisarlik, Turkey |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3409) Charles Hermite (ARmET) (CE 1822-1901), French mathematician publishes the first proof that e is a transcendental number; that is that e is not the root of any algebraic equation with rational coefficients.
Hermite proves that "e", the base of the Napierian logarithms, cannot be a root of a rational algebraical equation of any degree, and that e is therefore not an algebraic number (a number that can be solutions to polynomial equations such as 2x3 + x2=0), but is a "transcendental number", a number that transcends (goes beyond) the algebraic. In 1882, Ferdinand von Lindemann proves that pi is also a transcendental number.
Asimov comments that there are infinitely more transcendental numbers than algebraic numbers. (Is this an exaggeration or error?)
Hermite publishes this in "Sur la fonction exponentielle" ("On the exponential function").
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines a transcendental number like this: "Number that is not algebraic, in the sense that it is not the solution of an algebraic equation with rational-number coefficients. The numbers e and pi, as well as any algebraic number raised to the power of an irrational number, are transcendental numbers.".
The Sci-Tech dictionary defines transcendental number as "An irrational number that is the root of no polynomial with rational-number coefficients.".
(is it possible that some transcendental numbers can be added to result in an algebraic number? but then would they not be algebraic numbers, since they can be used in an arithmetic equation?)
(There must be equations, although perhaps not polynomial, for which e must be the root for. For example, X2-e2=0. Is a constant a coefficient?) (Is there an irrational number that is not transcendental? If yes, perhaps the discovery is simply that all irrational numbers cannot be the roots of any algebraic equation with rational coefficients. The opposite would be, can any rational number be the root of an equation with irrational coefficients?) (Can an irrational number be the root of an equation? Similarly to above I see no reason why not.)
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France (presumably) |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3586) (Sir) Charles Wyville Thomson (CE 1830-1882), Scottish zoologist reports the find of organisms living in depths of Ocean.
In 1868-1869, Thomson leads two deep-sea dredging expeditions north of Scotland in which Thomson discovers a wide variety of invertebrate organisms, many thought to be extinct and many unknown, to a depth of 650 fathoms (1.19 km). Thomson also finds that deep-sea temperatures are not as constant as previously thought, indicating the presence of oceanic circulation.
Thomson reports this in "The Depths of the Sea" (1873).
It was in 1860 when a cable from a depth of a mile in the Atlantic ocean is pulled up, on which living organisms are found attached to. Before this people presume that ocean life is confined to the surface layer, and that the depths are too cold, dark and with too large pressure to support living objects.
In 1872 Thomson starts an exploration aboard HMS "Challenger". The crew makes soundings (depth measurements) of the three great ocean basins at 362 stations during a circumnavigation of 68,890 nautical miles (127,600 kilometres). Using temperature variations as indicators, Thomson produced evidence to suggest the presence of a vast mountain range in the depths of the Atlantic – the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. This finding is later confirmed by a German expedition in 1925–27.
| (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland (presumably) |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3662) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879) publishes "Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism." in 2 volumes.
This work contains Maxwell's first explicit explanation and actual drawing of light as divided into an two sine wave shapes which are perpendicular to each other, one being electric displacement and the other being magnetic force (see image).
This is a large 2 volume work that applies calculus, integrals and differentials in an effort to explain a large number of known electrical and magnetic phenomena.
The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography describes this work by saying that in the "Treatise" "Maxwell's eight equations describing the electromagnetic field embody the principle that electromagnetic processes are transmitted by the separate and independent action of each charge (or magnetized body) on the surrounding space rather than by direct action at a distance. Formulas for the forces between moving changed bodies may indeed be derived from his equations, but the action is not along the line joining them and can be reconciled with dynamical principles only by taking into account the exchange of momentum with the field.".
In this work Maxwell argues that the believe of a "molecule of electricity" is "gross...and out of harmony with the rest of this treatise", because the idea of electricity as a molecule implies that electricity is a substance as opposed to a motion.
Interestingly, the last chapter in Maxwell's book is "The idea of a medium cannot be got rid of", in which Maxwell defends the theory of an aether, what will be in my view the fatal flaw of Maxwell's still widely accepted light as an electromagnetic wave theory. Perhaps because the strongest opposition from contemporary colleagues is the theory of an aether, or perhaps Maxwell himself has strong doubts. Maxwell's last paragraphs are: "866. We have seen that the mathematcial expressions for electrodynamic action led, in the mind of Gauss, to the conviction that a theory of the propagation of electric action in time would be found to be the very keystone of electrodynamics. Now we are unable to conceive of propagation in time, except either as the flight of a material substance through space, or as the propagation of a condition of motion or stress in a medium already existing in space. In the theory of Neumann, the mathematical conception called Potential, which we are unable to conceive as a material substance, is supposed to be projected from one particle to another, in a manner which is quite independent of a medium, and which, as Neumann has himself pointed out, is extremely different from that of the propagation of light. in the theories of Riemann and Betti it would appear that the action is supposed to be propagated in a manner somewhat more similar to that of light. But in all of these theories the question naturally occurs:- If something is transmitted from one particle to another at a distance, what is its condition after it has left the one particle and before it as reached the other? If this something is the potential energy of the two particles, as in Neumann's theory, how are we to conceive this energy as existing in a point of space, coinciding neither with the one particle nor with the other? In fact, whenever energy is transmitted from one body to another in time, there must be a medium or substance in which the energy exists after it leaves one body and before it reaches the other, for energy, as Toricelli remarked, 'is a quintessence of so subtile a nature that it cannot be contained in any vessel except the inmost substance of material things.' Hence all these theories lead to the conception of a medium in which the propagation takes place, and if we admit this medium as an hypothesis, I think it ought to occupy a prominent place in our investigations, and that we ought to endeavour to construct a mental representation of all the details of its action, and this has been my constant aim in this treatise.
(Is this the work where the theory is explicitly stated that light has electric and magnetic transverse waves are at 90 degrees to each other and in the direction of motion?)
Historian Edmund Whittaker, in 1910, describes this work this way: " In this celebrated work is comprehended almost every branch of electric and magnetic theory; but the intention of the writer was to discuss the whole as far as possible from a single point of view, namely, that of Faraday; so that little or no account was given of the hypotheses which had been propounded in the two preceding decades by the great German electricians. So far as Maxwell's purpose was to disseminate the ideas of Faraday, it was undoubtedly fulfilled; but the Treatise was less successful when considered as the exposition of its author's own views. The doctrines peculiar to Maxwell - the existence of displacement-currents, and of electromagnetic vibrations identical with light- were not introduced in the first volume, or in the first half of the second volume; and the account which was given of them was scarcely more complete, and was perhaps less attractive, than that which had been furnished in the original memoirs.".
| Glenlair, England |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3753) Richard Anthony Proctor (CE 1837-1888), English astronomer is the first to suggest that the craters on the moon were made by meteor bombardment. (Until then, people thought that the crators had been made by volcanic action.)
| London, England (presumably) |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3758) Johannes Diderik Van Der Waals (VoN DR VoLS) (CE 1837-1923), Dutch physicist, develops an equation, (p+a/v2) (v - b) =R(1+αt), (the van der Waals equation) that improves the accuracy of the PV/T=R gas law of Boyle and Charles, which does not apply with complete accurateness to gases.
Boyle had shown the relationship of pressure and volume, Charles had shown the relationship of temperature and volume. The two relationships are combined into a single equation: PV/T=R where R is a constant that remains the same, so that any change to pressure, volume, or temperature changes the other two variables. This equation holds true, but not exactly for gases.The equation becomes more accurate as the temperature of a gas is raised and pressure lowered. This equation is thought to only work for an "ideal" or "perfect" gas.
Avogadro's law states that different gases, at the same temperature and pressure, contain equal numbers of molecules per unit volume. So adding the total number of molecules N of a homogenous mass of gas, the combined laws of Boyle and Charles Laws state that if p is pressure, v is the volume, pv=NRT, where the constants T (temperature) and R (a constant R =1.35 X 10-16 units?) are given. When the temperature of a gas is kept constant, the pressure varies inversely as the volume, and when the volume is kept constant, the pressure varies as the temperature. Since the volume at constant pressure is exactly proportional to the absolute temperature, it follows that the coefficients of expansion of all gases should have the same value, 1/273. This law, pv=NRT is obeyed very approximately, but not with perfect accuracy, by all gases of which the density is not too great or the temperature too low.
Van der Waals, in his famous 1873 monograph, shows that the imperfections of this equation may be traced to two_causes: 1) the calculation has not allowed for the finite size of the molecules, and their consequent interference with one another's motion, and 2) the calculation has not allowed for the inter-molecular force between the molecules, which, although small, is known to have a real existence. The presence of this force results in the molecules, when they reach the boundary, being acted on by forces in addition to those originating in their impact with the boundary. To allow for the first of these two factors, Van der Waals finds that v in this equation must be replaced by v - b, where b is four times the total space occupied by all the molecules, while to allow for the second factor, p must be replaced by p + a/v2. Thus the pressure is given by the equation (p+a/v2) (v - b) =RNT, which is known as Van der Waals's equation. This equation is found experimentally to be capable of representing the relation between p, v, and T over large ranges of values. Apparently, Van Der Waals states this equation in the form: (p+a/v2) (v - b) =R(1+αt) In this equation a is a measure of the attraction between particles, and b is the average colume excluded from v by a particle. On the introduction of Avogadro's constant NA, the number of moles n, and the number of particles nNA, the equation takes the second, better known, form: (p+n2a/V2)(V - nb) = nRT where p is pressure, V is the total volume of the container, a is the measure of attraction between particles, b is the volume excluded by a mole of particles, n is the number of moles and R is the gas constant.(verify)
Van Der Waals applies the kinetic theory of gases of Maxwell and Boltzmann and sees that this theory can by made to yield the perfect gas equation, if the attractive force between gas molecules is 0 and the gas molecules are of zero size. So Van Der Waals works out a new equation with 2 new constants, which have to be determined for each different gas.
In 1880, by using the temperature, pressure and volume of a gas at its critical point (where the gas and liquid become equal in density and cannot be distinguished from each other), Van Der Waals creates another equation in which no new constants are needed.
Van Der Waals presented this new equation in his influential doctoral thesis, "Over de continuiteit van den gas-en vloeistoftoestand" ("On the Continuity of the Liquid and Gaseous States") (Leiden, 1873). In an English translation (translated from a German translation from 1881 which includes later material of Van Der Waals- I know of no English translation of the 1873 original), Van Der Waals writes in a preface: "THE choice of the subject which furnished the material for the present treatise arose out of a desire to understand a magnitude which plays a special part in the theory of Capillarity as developed by Laplace. It is the magnitude which represents the molecular pressure exerted by a liquid, bounded by a plane surface, on the unit of this surface. Although there are sufficient reasons for introducing it into the equations, it is always eliminated in the final equations. Not that it is so small as to be negligible in comparison with the other magnitudes which are retained; on the contrary, it is a million times as great. The constant disappearance of this important magnitude indicates that it need not unconditionally be introduced into the theories of capillarity; and that follows also from later methods in which it no longer occurs. Yet it cannot be denied that its value must be established for various liquids; it is a measure of the cohesion. It appeared to me impossible to determine by experiment the value of this constant, and it was therefore necessary to deduce it from theoretical considerations. These latter led me to establish the connexion between the gaseous and liquid condition, the existence of which, as I afterwards learned, had already been suspected by others. The expression, "continuity of the gaseous and liquid state," is perhaps the most suitable, because the considerations are based on the idea that we can proceed continuously from one state of aggregation to the other; geometrically expressed, both portions of the isotherm belong to one curve, even in the case in which these portions are connected by a part which cannot be realized. I have, strictly speaking, desired to prove more; that is, the identity of the two states of aggregation. For if the supposition which is partly established, that in the liquid state the molecules do not merge into each other to form greater atomic complexes- if this supposition should be fully confirmed- there would then only be a difference of greater or smaller density in the two states, and thus only a quantitative difference. That there is a continuity may now be regarded as a fact, the identity, however, requires further confirmation. Although the existence of the latter also can scarcely be doubted, the views of physicists are very divergent. That my conception has shown itself to be a fruitful one cannot be denied, and it may be the incentive to further inquiry and experimental investigation."
Van der Waals writes numerous chapters in this work, starting Chapter I, "General Considerations" with: "THE doctrine according to which the molecules of a body in molecular equilibrium remain at rest, and according to which the invariability of the distances of the molecules from one another depends on a repulsive force, has been generally abandoned. Such a doctrine is in fact in direct opposition to certain consequences drawn from the principle of the conservation of energy, and is in consequence untenable. Although the mechanical theory of heat, in order to be free from hypothesis, does not approach the question of the ultimate constitution of matter on which its laws depend, yet the assumption of a repulsive force between molecules, especially of gases, is neither in accordance with the above principle, with the conception of work, of potential and kinetic energy, nor with the doctrine of the equivalence of heat and work. Let one particle be attracted by another with a force = f(r), then, if the distance increases from r0 to r1, the work done against the forces of attraction is r1 ∫ f(r)dr. r0
This is expressed by the statement that potential energy to this amount is gained; and mechanics teaches that the same amount of kinetic energy disappears. Conversely, if a particle moves away under the influence of a repulsive force, a certain amount of potential energy is lost, and a corresponding amount of kinetic energy makes its appearance. Finally, we learn from physics that where work is spent and does not completely and explicitly reappear as potential and kinetic energy, the excess produces an equivalent quantity of heat. If we examine the experiments of Joule and Thomson by the light of the above considerations, we shall find that they are opposed to the doctrine of repulsive forces. For if the so-called permanent gases expand without overcoming external pressure, so far from their temperature being raised, it is in general lowered. But if we had to deal with a system kept in equilibrium by repulsive forces, there would be a diminution of potential energy corresponding to the increased space taken up by the gas after expansion, and the gas would rise in temperature. On the other hand, if the volume of a gas diminishes under an external pressure always equal to its own tension the potential energy must increase, and the temperature fall in consequence. The mechanical theory of heat could not under these circumstances establish the development of a quantity of heat equivalent to the external work done. Thus, the elasticity of a gas must be looked upon as a consequence of something other than molecular repulsion. If, however, there is no repulsive force between the particles of a gas, we need not assume the existence of such a force to explain the properties of matter in its solid or liquid condition. Investigation also shows that in these states resistance to diminution of volume is not to be ascribed to the action of a repulsive force in its proper sense. In liquid and solid bodies which expand by warming, heat is developed by compression, and indeed more heat than corresponds to the external work expended. Furthermore, if, in addition to the attraction of separate particles for one another, there is also a repulsion, and if an external pressure serves to overcome the excess of the repulsion over the attraction, then in this case also the work done would be wholly or partially recovered in the increase of the potential energy. Less heat would therefore be developed than that corresponding to the external work expended. We have therefore to explain why it is that particles attracting one another and only separated by empty space do not fall together: and to do this we must look round for other causes. These we find in the motion of the molecules themselves, which must be of such a nature that it opposes a diminution of vohnne and causes the gas to act as if there were repulsive forces between its particles. With regard to the nature of this motion, more or less elaborate theories have been constructed for the different states of aggregation of matter. Especially for the so-called permanent gases, the researches of Clausius and Maxwell have resulted in the theory of molecular motion. Before we attempt to consider the nature of this motion in detail we will establish a theory of Clausius (1870), as to the relation between the kinetic energy of motion and the molecular attraction. Clausius gives this investigation in order to prove the Second Law of Thermodynamics by propositions borrowed from mechanics. We will follow his method, keeping in view the above-mentioned object.".
Chapter 2 is "Derivation of the Fundamental equation of the Isothermals". In this chapter van Der Waals describes more his view of this attractive force between molecules writing: " An hypothesis exactly opposite to that made in the treatment of gases may be similarly used as a basis for the treatment of liquids. In this case we may neglect the external pressure; while, on the other hand, we must take into account the molecular forces. These forces balance the continual tendency to separation which results from the molecular motion. We may consider it as proved that molecular forces act at very small distances only, and that their intensity diminishes so rapidly with increase of distance as to become insensible when the distance itself becomes measurable. Researches on the distance at which molecular forces become insensible have not so far yielded concordant results; they agree, however, in showing that this distance is very small. In fact the generally received opinion that the molecular attraction is insensible in gases amounts to an admission of the narrow range of molecular forces. We may also consider that experiment has fully proved that when a liquid is of the same temperature throughout it is os a rule of the same density at every point. But the density of a very thin layer at the surface may differ from the density within the liquid; though as far as experiments have yet been made the thickness of the layer has proved itself too small for measurement. Moreover if we treat the elementary parts of a liquid as "particles," a treatment which we have already applied to gases, we can bring equation (6) referring to the case of liquids into a form exactly corresponding to equation (10), which we deduced as referring to gases. Since we assume that there is no external pressure, X, Y, Z, will refer to those forces alone which are due to the mutual action of the particles. It follows from our first remark as to the narrowness of range of these molecular forces, that we need only take into account (in considering the force on any given particle) those other particles which are within a sphere of very small radius having the particle as centre, and termed the "sphere of action," the forces themselves becoming insensible at distances greater than the radius of the sphere. From our second remark as to the constancy of density throughout a liquid it follows that all those points will be in equilibrium about which we can describe a sphere of action without encroaching on the boundary. By this of course is meant that the particles will be in equilibrium as far as attraction alone is concerned; not necessarily so when the molecular motion is also taken into account- though this will actually be the case for the mass taken as a whole. In other words, the forces X, Y, Z are zero for all points within the mass. Consequently the expression Σ(Xx+Yy+Zz) vanishes. We thus find a great similarity between the relations we have discovered for the particles of a liquid and for the particles of a gas. On the particles of a gas no forces act; on the particles within a liquid the forces neutralize each other. In both cases the motion will go on undisturbed so long as no collisions occur. ..."
Chapter 3 "Analytical Expression for the Molecular Pressure", Chapter 4 "On the Potential Energy of a Liquid", Chapter 5 "Influence of the Structure of Molecules", In this chapter Van Der Waals writes: "HITHERTO we have treated molecules as points of mass, and have thus been led to a simplification of our problem, which, however, does not in any way agree with the phenomena exhibited by matter. We must now, therefore, proceed to apply corrections to our theory in two different directions. In the first place, molecules must be considered not as mere points of mass, but as aggregates built up of atoms just as larger masses of matter are built up of molecules. Most probably the molecule must be considered as belonging to the solid condition of matter in order to enable us to carry our investigation further from this point of view. ...". Van Der Waals concludes this chapter apparently in support of the action-at-a-distance theory of gravity writing "Now Maxwell considers the problem of a small body rotating about an axis, and his treatment introduces into the calculation the moments of inertia of this body about three principal axes. We see that this method of regarding a molecule probably does not sufficiently meet the case. As a preliminary hypothesis, we may regard the atoms as points having mass, and for the moment of inertia of the molecule we may take the sum of the products of the masses into the squares of the distance of each atom from the centre of gravity." Chapter 6 is "Influence of the Extension of the Molecule", Chapter 7 "Relations between the Molecular Pressure and the Volume", Chapter 8 is "Applications of the Isothermals", Chapter 9 "Values of K", Chapter 10 "Molecular Dimensions", Chapter 11, "Applications of Thermodynamics". (Chapter 12 and 13 contain later papers by ).
The intermolecular forces which Van Der Waals accounts for, are now generally called "Van der Waals forces". The Oxford "Dictionary of Scientists" states that "the weak electrostatic attractive forces between molecules and between atoms are called van der Waals forces in his honor. (I think this force needs to be examined more closely, for example, if electrostatic, is repulsion also accounted for? Why not then call it electrostatic force? Is this electrostatic force in addition to gravitational force or a combined result of gravity, inertia and collision?)
(van der Waals does not appear to describe this attractive force as being from gravitation or electricity, but simply as a force. So I have doubts about the reality of an attractive force other than gravity - in particular some new "van der Waals" force which operates in addition to gravity and inertia. Search for any people who publish or express similar doubts. It may be that the equation is a better fit to observed data - which I did not verify - but perhaps there are other explanations why. However, I don't think van der Waals explicitly states that this attractive force is not gravity. How does van der Waals define this attractive force? as electrostatic? He clearly rejects a repulsive force - what was the origin of the repulsive force?)
(Who unites the Boyle and Charles laws into pv=NRT?)
(I think perhaps there may be an equation that is a generalization of temperature, pressure and volume, however, I think a good approach is to model molecules to examine in 3D and through time the actual phenomenon.) (in terms of volume, does kind of container atoms have an effect?)
(Just as a personal note, mathematical theory is fine and does lead to new understandings and findings, but my own preference is for real experimental accomplishments, such as a walking robot that can clean dishes, or rocket ships that can land on the moon, etc. I don't have the mind for deep mathematical analysis, although I think 3 dimensional modeling on computers of matter in time can be a worthwhile use of some time.)
(I think also that, the concept of energy, is to combine velocity and mass into a product, but that while velocity and mass are always conserved, they are never exchanged, as might be suggested by the concept of energy.)
| (University of Leyden) Leyden, Netherlands |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3809) Josef Breuer (BROER) (CE 1842-1925), Austria physician, develops the theory (simultaneously with Mach and Grum Brown) that the semicircular canals detect motion from the angular accleration of the endolymph within them, and supposed this theory with the evidence of many experiments. In addition, Breuer calls attention to the importance of the otoliths and hair cells of the utricle as static position receptors.
| (in his own home) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) (presumably) |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3850) (Sir) David Ferrier (CE 1843-1928), Scottish neurologist publishes the results of his experiments on directly electrically stimulating the brains of a variety of species.
Ferrier publishes these results as "Experimental Researches in Cerebral Physiology and Pathology" in 1873, "The Localization of Function in the Brain" (1874).
In 1873, Ferrier began a detailed and systematic exploration of the cerebral cortex in different vertebrates, ranging from the lowest to the highest (including apes), in particular to confirm or prove false the theory of specific areas of the cerebrum dedicated to specific functions, a suggestion made by Hughlings Jackson.
Ferrier duplicates the work of Hitzig in contracting muscles by applying (electrical) (faradic) stimulation on the brain cerebral cortex in dogs, and primates. Ferrier shows that in the brain's cerebral cortex there are both motor regions that control the responses of muscles and other organs, and sensory regions, which receive sensations from muscles and other organs. Ferrier maps out the location of various parts of the body affected on both (motor and sensory) regions. (Add more, for example, what kind of sensory info does Ferrier activate, how does he know? )
In "The Localization of Function in the Brain" Ferrier writes: "The chief contents of this paper are the results of an experimental investigation tending to prove that there is a localization of function in special regions of the cerebral hemispheres.". (Notice the use of the "tending" as in 1810)
(This part of science involves the widely used secret muscle moving networks. These networks are based on devices that can contract a muscle from a remote distance using particle beams, but in addition, as Ferrier may have been the first to find through direct stimulation, even memories of smells, tastes, feeling such as water, heat can all be stimulated remotely. Although at this stage the stimulation appears to be only directly on the brain. Much of this science was popularized by Luigi Galvani in the late 1700s. )
(One question is: how much of this experimentation was necessary if people had already figured out how to make neurons fire remotely? Perhaps Ferrier was simply excluded from this secret club and so perhaps duplicated the work of earleir research done secretly?)
| (King's College Hospital and Medical School) London, England |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3863) Camillo Golgi (GOLJE) (CE 1843-1926), Italian physician and cytologist, uses silver nitrate to stain cells. This stain allows neurons to be seen clearly. Golgi distinguishes between sensory (Golgi Type 1) and motor neuron cells (Golgi Type 2). (chron and cite paper)
Jan (also Johannes) Evangelista Purkinje (PORKiNYA or PURKiNYA) (CE 1787-1869) identified neuron cells in 1837.
This stain enables Golgi to demonstrate the existence of nerve cells (which will come be called Golgi cells). Golgi's stain, stains the nerve cells and their processes in black and so the cells stand out against the white or yellow background, and pictures can be obtained with great clearness.
Other people such as Flemming, Koch and Erlich use dyes to stain cells, but they use carbon dyes.
Silver nitrate is a light-sensitive molecule that is the basis of photography.
Golgi originally fixes small pieces of the central nervous system in bichromate solutions and then treats them with 0.5 to 1 per cent silver nitrate, which turns the nerve cells black.
Golgi publishes this in a small note in the "Gazzetta Medica Italiana" entitled "Sulla struttura della sostanza grigia del cervello" (translated from Italian:) "On the structure of the gray substance of the brain". In this Golgi writes (translated from Italian) "Using a method I had discovered of the coloration of the brain elements, obtained by means of lengthy immersion of the pieces, previously hardened with potassium dichromate and ammonia, in a solution of 0.50 or 1 percent of silver nitrate, i was led to discover certain facts about the strcutre of the cerebral gray matter, which I believe merit immediate communication.".
Golgi staining is absorbed by a limited number of neurons for reasons that are still mysterious, and permits for the first time a clear visualization of a nerve cell body with all its processes in its entirety.
Golgi correctly theorizes that cells of Type I are motor cells, and that cells of Type II are sensory cells. Golgi will reject the neuron theory of Ramon y Cajal, opting instead for a view of the nervous system as a continnuous system. Golgi argues that, because there are so many connections between the nerve cells seen in his samples, a law for transmission between nerve cells could not be formulated, and that nervous tissue must be composed of a continuous network rather that discrete units. Golgi also wrongly believes that the dendrites deliver nutrients from the blood vessels to neurons. Knowledge of the fine structure of the nervous system starts with this work and that of Ramón y Cajal who continue Golgi's techniques.
Little attention is paid to Golgi's paper by investigators in other countries until more than twelve years later when Golgi pubilshes his voluminous article (translated from Italian) "Concerning the Finer Anatomy of the Central Organs of the Nervous System".
| (Home for Incurables) Abbiategrasso, Italy |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3931) Georg Cantor (CE 1845-1918), German mathematician founds set theory (the branch of mathematics that deals with the properties of well-defined collections of objects, which may or may not be of a mathematical nature, such as numbers or functions).
Canton defines a set as a collection of definite, distinguishable objects of perception or thought conceived as a whole. The objects are called elements or members of the set. (which paper?)
Cantor shows that the rational numbers, though infinite, are countable because they may be placed in a one-to-one correspondence with the natural numbers (the integers, 1, 2, 3, ...). Cantor then shows that the set ("aggregate") of real numbers (composed of irrational and rational numbers) is infinite and uncountable.
Cantor also proves that transcendental numbers (those that are not algebraic, for example pi, e, square root of 2), which are a subset of the irrationals (numbers that cannot be represented as a ratio of two whole numbers/integers), are uncountable and are therefore more numerous than integers although both infinite.
With the aid of one-to-one correspondence Cantor shows that difference between infinite sets can be seen. In this way Cantor introduces the concept of "transfinite" numbers (and sets), indefinitely large but distinct from one another.
Cantor's paper, in which he first put forward these results, is refused for publication in Crelle's Journal by one of its referees, Kronecker, who strongly opposes Cantor's work. On Dedekind's intervention, however, Cantor's paper is published in 1874 as "Über eine Eigenschaft des Inbegriffes aller reellen algebraischen Zahlen" ("On a Characteristic Property of All Real Algebraic Numbers").
Zeno was the first in history to mention the concept of infinity 2300 years earlier. (I think there needs to be a certain amount of doubt when dealing with infinities - because it seems like an unknowable quantity, but yet, the concept of infinity clearly presents itself in the quanties of space, matter and time in the universe - it is difficult to imagine a beginning or end to space or time.)
(Find English translation)
| (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 3950) Gabriel Jonas Lippmann (lEPmoN) (CE 1845-1921), French physicist shows that mechanical movement can be translated into electricity by producing electric current by changing the surface area of mercury in acid water (Varley had shown this in 1870), demonstrates an "electrocapillary motor" (a circuit that opens and closes a cicuit because of the contraction and expansion of liquid mercury), invents the a capillary electrometer ("Lippmann capillary electrometer") which (by 1875) can measure a change as small as a thousandth of a volt.
Lippmann publishes these three findings in "Annalen Der Physik" which is later translated to English in "Philosophical Magazine". In this paper Lippmann has a section on "The Capillary Electrometer", "Electrocapillary Engine", and "Polarisation by Capillary Forces" in which Lippmann writes "If by mechanical means the surface of contact between mercury and acid water be increased, the mercury thereby becomes polarized with hydrogen.".
The editor of Philosophical Magazine states that some of the results in this paper have been anticipated by Varley in a January 12, 1871 paper read before the Royal Society.
In this earlier paper Varley describes an apparatus in which two funnels of mercury act as electrodes in dilute sulphuric acid. One of these electrodes is polarized by hydrogen, and the two connected through a galvanometer. After the polarization current disappears the rocking of the apparatus causes the mercury to flow higher in one funnel and lower in the other. This gives rise, according to Varley, to a current, "the diminishing surface acting as the zinc plate, and the increasing surface as the copper plate of a voltaic couple.". This current is in the opposite direction to the current observed by Lippmann and Quincke. Varley further states that if the mercury is made the positive pole of a weak battery the motion of the electrodes will no longer give rise to such currents.
Kühne had demonstrated an experiment to Lippmann in which a drop of mercury is covered with diluted sulfuric acid. When the mercury is touched with a piece of iron wire, the mercury balls up but then returns to its original shape when the wire is taken away. Lippmann theorizes that the wire changes an electrical current between the acid and the mercury, which caused it to contract. Lipmann is allowed to conduct experiments in Kirchhoff's laboratory on this, and his ideas are published in 1873.
From these experiments Lippmann goes on to build his first important invention, an early voltometer called the capillary electrometer. Its narrow tube, or "capillary," is placed at a horizontal angle, and holds mercury covered with diluted acid. The change in the electric charge between the two liquids causes a shudder at the point where they meet, and moves up the tube. This capillary electrometer is the first highly sensitive voltometer, able to measure 1/1,000 of a volt, and is widely used before the invention of solid-state electronics.
Lippmann concludes his 1873 paper, describing the iron wire in the surfuric acid and mercury phenomenon by hypothesizing that (translated) "...the surface of mercury behaves like an ordinary elastic membrane, the tension of which increases when the membrane is stretched.".
This instrument (see image 1) consists of a thin glass tube with a column of mercury beneath sulphuric acid. The mercury meniscus (the convex or concave upper surface of a column of liquid, the curvature of which is caused by surface tension) moves with varying electrical potential and is observed through a microscope. This extremely sensitive instrument is used by Waller to make the first electrocardiograph.
If the mercury in the acid is made to break the circuit when the iron wire is inserted, an oscillating motor is created as the mercury contracts, breaking the electrical circuit, resulting in it flattening out to complete the circuit, then contracting to break the circuit again. Joseph Henry had first observed this phenomenon in 1800. (cite Henry publication)
Is this the first realization of piezoelectricity?
This study of piezoelectricity is a precursors of Pierre Curie's work. Pierre Curie is a pupil of Lippmann.
In 1878 Lippmann, with A. Breguet and Cornelius Roosevelt will patent a telephone-device based on the piezoelectric principle. In this electro-capillary telephone, the voice imparts motion to contact surfaces of mercury and dilute sulphuric acid, which produces corresponding currents of electricity which travel along the wire, and reproduce the sounds on a similar apparatus at the distant end.
| University of Heidelberg, Germany |
127 YBN
[1873 AD]
| 4233) Gerhard Armauer Hansen, Norwegian physician, identifies the bacterium "Mycobacterium leprae" responsible for leprosy.
Leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease after Gerhard Hansen.
By 1879 Hansen shows how large numbers of the rodshaped bodies collect in parallel cells by using improved staining methods, and believes that the bacillus is the causative agent of leprosy.
In 1880 German physician Albert Neisser will also connect the bacteria as the cause of leprosy.
The bacillus has not yet been cultivated in vitro.
| Norway |
126 YBN
[09/05/1874 AD]
| 4134) Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff (VoNT HoF) (CE 1852-1911), Dutch physical chemist theorizes that the four valences of the carbon atom (which Couper had drawn toward the four angles of a square) exist three dimensionally in the shape of a tetrahedron, which results in an asymmetry, where two carbon compounds are mirror images of each other. In this way van't Hoff relates optical activity to molecular structure. Van't Hoff claims that these asymmetric compounds can rotate a plane of polarized light and the others can not. (need visual to show).
In 1873 the German chemist Wislicenus published an article on lactic acids, in which he reiterated the view that the only difference between the two optically active forms of the acid must be in the spatial arrangements of the atoms. After van’t Hoff had studied this theory, van't Hoff publishes a twelve–page pamphlet, "Voorstel tot uitbreiding der tegenwoordig in de scheikunde gebruikte structuur–formules in de ruimte" ("Proposal for the Extension of the Formulas Now in Use in Chemistry Into Space: Together with a Related Remark on the Relation Between the Optical Rotating Power and the Chemical Constitution of Organic Compounds"), which includes a page of diagrams.
Van't Hoff writes (translated from Dutch): "I Desire to introduce some remarks which may lead to discussion and hope to avail myself of the discussion to give to my ideas more definiteness and breadth. Since the starting point for the following communication is found in the chemistry of the carbon compounds, I shall for the present do nothing more than state the points having reference to it.
It appears more and more that the present constitutional formulas are incapable of explaining certain cases of isomerism; the reason for this is perhaps the fact that we need a more definite statement about the actual positions of the atoms.
If we suppose that the atoms lie in a plane, as for example with isobutyl alcohol (Figure 1.) where the four affinities are represented by four lines in this plane occupying two directions perpendicular to one another, then methane (CH4) (to start with the simplest case) will give the following isomeric modifications (the different hydrogen atonis being replaced one after the other by univalent groups R' R" etc.): .... The theory is brought into accord with the facts if we consider the affinities of the carbon atom directed toward the corners of a tetrahedron of which the carbon atom itself occupies the center. .... When the four affinities of the carbon atom are satisfied by four univalent groups differing among themselves, two and not more than two different tetrahedrons are obtained, one of which is the reflected image of the other, they cannot be superposed; that is, we have here to deal with two structural formulas isomeric in space. ..... Submitting the first result of this hypothesis to the control of facts, I believe that it has been thoroughly established that some combinations which contain a carbon atom combined with four different univalent groups (such carbon atoms will henceforth be called asymmetric carbon atoms) present some anomalies in relation to isomerism and other characteristics which are not indicated by the constitutional formulas thus far used. ....". Van't Hoff summarizes his views writing: "(a) All of the compounds of carbon which in solution rotate the plane of polarized light possess an asymmetric carbon atom. ... (b) The derivatives of optically active compounds lose their rotatory power when the asymmetry of all of the carbon atoms disappears ; in the contrary case they do not usually lose this power. ... (c) If one makes a list of compounds which contain an asymmetric carbon atom it is then seen that in many cases the converse of (a) is not true, that is, not every compound with such an atom has an influence upon polarized light. ...". Van't Hoff then gives reasons to explain why a compound with an asymmetric carbon atom may not rotate the plane of polarized light.
Both van’t Hoff and Le Bel show that arrangements of four different univalent groups at the corners of a regular tetrahedron (which van’t Hoff defines as an asymmetric carbon atom) will produce two structures, one of which is the mirror-image of the other. This asymmetry is a condition for the existence of optical isomers, already realized in 1860 by Pasteur, who found that optical rotation arises from asymmetry in the molecules themselves. Van’t Hoff states that when the four affinities of one carbon atom are represented by four mutually perpendicular directions lying in the same plane, then two isomeric forms from derivatives of methane of the type CH2(R1)2 may be expected. Beacuse such isomertic types do not occur in nature, van’t Hoff supposes that the affinities of the carbon atom are directed to the corners of a tetrahedron and that the carbon atom is at the center. In such a tetrahedron a compound of the type CH2(R1)2 cannot exist in two isomeric forms, but for compounds of the type CR1R2R3R4 it is possible to construct two spatial models that are nonsuperimposable images of one another. In this case there is no center or plane of symmetry for the tetrahedron. (Make clearer)
Van't Hoff's theory is today one of the fundamental concepts in organic chemistry and the foundation of stereochemistry, or the study of the three-dimensional properties of molecules. This idea is also published independently, in a slightly different form, by the French chemist Joseph Achilles Le Bel, whom van't Hoff had met during his stay in Wurtz's laboratory earlier in the year.
Kolbe disagrees with van't Hoff's theory, viewing actual directions for carbon bonds to be too literal an interpretation, and Helmholtz has doubts about the popularity of the structural formula. Van't Hoff's theory will eventually be accepted until the work of people such as Pauling in the 1930s. (When it comes to explaining light, expect mistakes, because many reject the particle theory.)
(Is this the first three dimensional representation of any atom?)
(There is a difference between the view of molecules {and also atoms} as statically held in place, or dynamic - in having moving parts, the most popular view being the molecule and atom as analogous to a star and orbiting matter.)
| (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
126 YBN
[11/??/1874 AD]
| 3992) Joseph Achille Le Bel (CE 1847-1930), French chemist, announces the theory that there is a relationship between optical activity and molecular structure. (state the relationship)
In 1873 Wislicenus had announced that the difference between the active lactic acid from meat and the inactive lactic acid from milk must be accounted for by a difference in the arrangement of their atoms in space. van't Hoff had published the first definite suggestions of what this atomic arrangement might be in a pamphlet in Dutch in September 1784. Now in Novemeber, Le Bel publishes his paper, developing, independently, essentially the same views. Not until Wislicenus applies the theory of van't Hoff and LeBel to explain a series of puzzling chemical relationships does the theory gain popular recognition.
Le Bel's conclusion is independently arrived at, but is not as precise as Van't Hoff's explanation.
(It is important and interesting to see that the physical structure of atoms and molecules is determined from processes like substitution {substituting one atom or a group of atoms for another}, and visual phenomena like the rotation of polarized light beams. So there is actually a visible and observational connection between the hypothetical drawings of atoms and molecules which exist invisibly {for the most part, currently, but hopefully not forever} at the the microscopic scale and what is visible at the larger scale that we humans can observe.)
Le Bel writes (translated from French to English) in "On the relations which exist between the atomic formulas of organic compounds and the rotatory power of their solutions": {ULSF: Note that "rotatory power, means that they can rotate polarized light"} "Up to the present time we do not possess any certain rule which enables us to foresee whether or not the solution of a substance has rotatory power. We know only that the derivatives of an active substance iiru in general also active ; nevertheless we often see the rotatory power suddenly disappear in the most immediate derivatives, while in other cases it persists in very remote derivatives. By considerations, purely geometrical, I have been able to formulate a rule of a quite general character.
Before giving the reasoning which has led me to this law I shall give the facts upon which it rests, and then shall conclude with a discussion of the confirmation of the law offered by the present state of our chemical knowledge.
The labors of Pasteur and others have'completely established the correlation which exists between molecular asymmetry and rotatory power. If the asymmetry exists only in the crystalline molecule, the crystal alone will be active; if, on the contrary, it belongs to the chemical molecule the solution will show rotatory power, and often the crystal also if the structure of the crystal allows us to perceive it, as in the case of the sulphate of strychnine and the alum of amylamine.
There are, moreover, mathematical demonstrations of the necessary existence of this correlation, which we may consider a perfectly ascertained fact.
In the reasoning which follows, we shall ignore the asymmetries which might arise from the arrangement in space possessed by the atoms and univalent radicals ; but shall consider them as spheres or material points, which will be equal if the atoms or radicals are equal, and different if they are different. This restriction is justified by the fact, that, up to the present time, it has been possible to account for all the cases of iso- merism observed without recourse to such arrangement, and the discussion at the end of the paper will show that the appearance of the rotatory power can be equally well foreseen without the aid of the hypothesis of which we have just spoken."
Le Bel goes on to define some general principles:
"First general principle.—Let us consider a molecule of a chemical compound having the formula M A4; M being a simple or complex radical combined with four univalent atoms A, capable of being replaced by substitution. Let us replace three of them by simple or complex univalent radicals differing from one another and from M; the body obtained will be asymmetric.
Indeed, the group of radicals E, R', R", A when considered as material points differing among themselves form a structure which is enantimorphous with its reflected image, and the residue, M, cannot re-establish the symmetry. In general then it may be stated that if a body is derived from the original type M A.4 by the substitution of three different atoms or radicals for A, its molecules will be asymmetric, and it will have rotatory power.
But there are two exceptional cases, distinct in character.
(1) If the molecular type has a plane of symmetry containing the four atoms A, the substitution of these by radicals (which we must consider as not capable of changing their position) can in no way alter the symmetry with respect to this plane, and in such cases the whole series of substitution products will be inactive.
(2) The last radical substituted for A may be composed of the same atoms that compose all of the rest of the group into which it enters, and these two equal groups may have a neutralizing effect upon polarized light, or they may increase the activity ; when the former is the case the body will be inactive. Now this arrangement may present itself in a derivative of an active asymmetric body where there is but slight difference in constitution, and later we shall see a remarkable instance of this.
Second general principle.—If in our fundamental type we substitute but two radicals R, R', it is possible to have symmetry or asymmetry according to the constitution of the original type M A4. If this molecule originally had a plane of symmetry passing through the two atoms A which have been replaced by R and R', this plane will remain a plane of symmetry after the substitution ; the body obtained will then be inactive. Our knowledge of the constitution of certain simple types will enable us to assert, that certain bodies derived from them by two substitutions will be inactive.
Again, if it happens not only that a single substitution furnishes but one derivative, but also that two and even three substitutions give only one and the same chemical isomer, we are obliged to admit that the four atoms A occupy the angles of a regular tetrahedron, whose planes of symmetry are identical with those of the whole molecule M A4 ; in this case also no bisubstitution product can have rotatory power."
Le Bel goes on to apply this second principle to the saturated bodies of the fatty series, such as the lactic group, the tartaric group, the amylic group, the sugar group, fatty bodies with two free valences, and to the Aromatic series, including examination of the hexagon ring structure Kekule found for turpentine. Le Bel goes on to propose the theorem: "When an asymmetric body is formed in a reaction where there are present originally only symmetrical bodies, the two isomers of inverse symmetry will be formed in equal quantities."
(Note that Le Bel is talking about how methane is taken, and different molecules are attached to it by substitution - that is substituting the Hydrogen atoms with other atoms and molecules, to form a molecule other than methane. It would be nice to see the implications of this. For example, can methane be converted into many other molecules very simply in large quantity? Has this been happening for a long time? Why has this process not been shown publicly? What molecules can be created from gas molecules like methane and in what quantity and with what ease?) Le Bel is best known for his account of the asymmetric carbon atom, but this achievement is overshadowed by the almost simultaneous account given by Jacobus van't Hoff. Le Bel wants to explain the molecular asymmetry of Louis Pasteur while van't Hoff is more focused on understanding the quadrivalent carbon atom recently introduced by August Kekulé.
Le Bel is regarded as the cofounder of stereochemistry, with J. H. van't Hoff for this contribution, that optical activity, the presence of two forms of the same organic molecule, one a mirror image of the other, is due to an asymmetric carbon atom bound to four different groups.
Van't Hoff views the carbon as a regular tetrahedron, where Le Bel does not have the direction of carbon valency in statically fixed position.
Le Bel extends his stereochemical theory to quinquevalent (valency of 5) nitrogen compounds and announces in 1891 that he has produced optically active ammonium salts, but this observation is not confirmed. However the theory of the existance of asymetrical optical isomers of nitrogen will be confirmed by William Pope in 1899 when the first optically active substituted ammonium salts containing an asymmetric nitrogen atom (with no asymmetric carbon atom) are prepared.
| (Ecole de Médecine) Paris, France |
126 YBN
[12/08/1874 AD]
| 3855) (Sir) David Gill (CE 1843-1914), Scottish astronomer observes the transit of Venus. Gill uses a heliometer, a telescope that uses a split image to measure the angular separation of celestial bodies. A heliometer can measure small angular distances between celestial bodies. (Gill's description of how to use the heliometer is here.)
Gill brings 47 chronometers with him to observe the correct time.
Gill calculates a parallax for Juno of 8.82".
Gill estimates distance to the Sun from this Juno measurement to be 93 3/10 million miles.
(State the measurements made, find letter in "Times")
(State who invented heliometer, and show what it looks like.)
| Mauritius |
126 YBN
[12/08/1874 AD]
| 3856) (Sir) David Gill (CE 1843-1914), Scottish astronomer uses a helioscope to determine solar parallax by measurements of the opposition of planet Mars.
Opposition, in astronomy, is the alignment of two celestial bodies on opposite sides of the sky as viewed from earth. Opposition of the moon or planets is often determined in reference to the sun. Only the superior planets, whose orbits lie outside that of the earth, can be in opposition to the sun.
In 1881 Gill announces the parallax of the Sun to be 8.78" giving a distance of 93,080,000 miles to the Sun.
(Describe more clearly what is measured to determine distance.)
(Interesting that Gill describes the Sun as having a 5 1/2 inch diameter as seem from Earth.)
| Ascension Island |
126 YBN
[12/08/1874 AD]
| 3857) (Sir) David Gill (CE 1843-1914), Scottish astronomer captures the first photograph of a comet. (verify is first photo of comet, may be first scientific photo of comet)
Capturing this photo requires moving the telescope with attached camera over a period of time to compensate against the movement of the Earth.
The number and sharp definition of the star images on these photographic plates of this Comet lead Gill to suggest the use of photography for star charting in general and in particular for extending the Bonn Durchmusterung from 23° to the South Pole.
As royal astronomer at the Cape of Good Hope from 1879 to 1907, Gill photographes the sky within 19° of the south celestial pole in great detail. From these pictures, J.C. Kapteyn compiles the "Cape Photographic Durchmusterung", a catalog of nearly 500,000 stars which extends Argelander's star chart (in the southern celestial hemisphere).
| (Royal Observatory) Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
126 YBN
[12/12/1874 AD]
| 3872) New method of using dyes with collodion allows infrared light to be photographed. This leads to three-color process of color photography and color sensitive plates.
(See if Vogel made any photographs of infrared spectral lines) (Is this different from using a color filter in front of the plate?)
Hermann Carl Vogel (FOGuL) (CE 1841-1907), German astronomer announces a method of using dyed collodion films which contain silver bromide which enable the yellow and green rays of the solar spectrum to be captured in a photograph. before this, people had presumed that these rays have only a little chemical effect.
This finding leads to the first publicly known color photograph. (verify)
Vogel finds that when collodon films containing silver bromide are dyed, by flowing over them with alcoholic or aqueous solutions of certain dyes, and exposed to the solar spectrum, the resulting curve of chemical action is changed to a large degree, and corresponds to the combination of the absorption curve of silver bromide and the absorption curve of the dye used. William Abney will explain this as the dye blocking light from reaching the silver bromide.
James S. Waterhouse (CE 1842-1922) will use this method with an aniline dye to produce a photo of the infrared lines in the solar spectrum.
| (Astrophysical observatory) Potsdam, Germany |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 2656) Thomas Alva Edison, patents a quadraplex telegraph system that permits the simultaneous transmission of two signals in each direction on a single line. (more details)
Edison accomplishes this by having one message consist of an electric signal of varying (current) strength, while the second is a signal of varying polarity (voltage?).
| New Jersey, USA |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 2661) Jean-Maurice-Émile Baudot (CE 1845-1903) receives a patent on a telegraph code. Baudot's code by the mid 1900s replace Morse Code as the most commonly used telegraphic alphabet.
In Baudot's code, each letter is represented by a five-unit combination of current-on or current-off signals of equal duration; this (binary (0 or 1 system)) is more economical than the Morse system of short dots and long dashes. With Baudet's system 32 permutations are provided, sufficient for the Roman alphabet, punctuation signs, and control of the machine's mechanical functions. Baudot also invents distributor system for simultaneous (multiplex) transmission of several messages on the same telegraphic circuit or channel.
Modern versions of the Baudot Code usually use groups of seven or eight "on" and "off" signals. Groups of seven permit transmission of 128 characters; with groups of eight, one member may be used for error correction or other function.
The Baudot code is a character set that predate EBCDIC and ASCII, and is the root predecessor to International Telegraph Alphabet No 2 (ITA2), the teleprinter code in use until the advent of ASCII. Each character in the alphabet is represented by a series of bits, sent over a communication channel such as a telegraph wire or a radio signal.
| France |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 3450) Pierre Jules César Janssen (joNSeN) (CE 1824-1907), French astronomer, observes the transit of Venus and develops a photographic revolver which uses revolving disks to photograph successive positions of Venus in transit across the Sun.
| (?), Japan |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 3527) George Johnstone Stoney (CE 1826-1911), Irish physicist, estimates the charge of the smallest quantity of electric charge to be 10-20 coulomb, close to the modern value of 1.6021892 x 10-19.
| (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 3780) Paul Émile Lecoq De Boisbaudran (luKOK Du BWoBODroN or BWoBoDroN) (CE 1838-1912), French chemist, spends 15 years, starting in 1859 to find unknown spectral lines in various minerals.
While examining a sample of zinc ore from the Pyrenees, Boisbaudran notices some new spectral lines and discovers a new element, which he names "gallium", after Gaul, the earlier name of France. .
On hearing of the new element in 1875 Dmitri Mendeleev claims this to be his long-predicted eka-aluminum. When gallium is studied , it is shown to fit into this position, so this element provides the first dramatic confirmation of his periodic table.
(Gallium is one proton more than Zinc and in a position under Aluminum).
The metal is obtained from zinc blende (which only contains Gallium in very small quantity) by dissolving the mineral in an acid, and precipitating the gallium by metallic zinc. The precipitate is dissolved in hydrochloric acid and foreign metals are removed by sulphuretted hydrogen; the residual liquid being then fractionally precipitated by sodium carbonate, which throws out (bonds with and solidifies?) the gallium before the zinc. This precipitate is converted into gallium sulphate and finally into a pure specimen of the oxide, from which the metal is obtained by the electrolysis of an alkaline solution.
Gallium has atomic number 31; atomic mass 69.72; melting point 29.78°C; boiling point 2,403°C; relative density 5.907; valence 2, 3.
Gallium is a rare metallic element that is liquid near room temperature, expands on solidifying, and is found as a trace element in coal, bauxite, and other minerals. Gallium is used in semiconductor technology and as a component of various low-melting alloys.
(how interesting to work with unusual elements)
((Find original paper(s)[7))
| (home lab) Cognac, France (presumably) |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 3795) Cleve concludes that didymium is actually two elements. This is proved in 1885 and the two elements are named neodymium and praseodymium.
In organic chemistry, Cleve also discovers 6 of the 10 possible forms of dichloro-naphthalene and discovers the aminonaphthalenesulfonic acids, sometime known as Cleve's acids. (chronology)
Cleve develops a method of determining the age and order of late glacial and postglacial deposits from the types of diatom fossils in the deposits. (Is cleve the first to do this?) Cleve's work on diatoms, "The Seasonal Distribution of Atlantic Plankton Organisms" (1900), is a basic text on oceanography in this time.
| (Technological Institute in Stockholm) Stockholm, Sweden (presumably) |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 3816) Hermann Carl Vogel (FOGuL) (CE 1841-1907), German astronomer publishes "Spectra der Planeten" (1874; "Spectra of the Planets").
Vogel finds that Mercury has the C, D, E, b and F solar lines. On Venus, 30 lines could be measured, agreeing exactly with the lines of the solar spectrum. Vogel finds that the lines during daylight are slightly displaced toward the violet. Vogel finds a widening of the sodium lines and concludes that this is from the atmosphere of Venus. Vogel finds about 20 of the principal solar lines in the spectrum of Mars. It differs from the solar spectrum in having a remarkably dark band in the red. The spectrum of Jupiter is found to resemble the solar spectrum, about 30 lines being determined by measurement. Some visible lines in the red are thought to be due to very powerful absorption of the atmosphere of Jupiter and are similar to the dark bands seen in the solar spectrum when the sun is near the horizon, which are supposed to be produced by absorption in the earth atmosphere. The spectrum of Uranus is most remarkable of all, a dark F line coincides with the bright line Hβ of a Geissler tube filled with hydrogen.
(Apparently Vogel does not show photographs, but only lists specific lines and then using Fraunhofer lines as reference.)
Also in this year, Vogel revises Secchi's classification of stellar spectra (and further improves on it in 1895). Vogel divides Secchi's first type into three classes. The first type Ia (Type I is the "gas type"), represented by Sirius and Vega, in which the metallic lines are "very faint and fine", and the hydrogen lines are conspicuous. In Ib no hydrogen lines are visible (Is this true? If there are stars with no hydrogen lines, that seems unusual.), while in Ic the hydrogen lines are bright. In 1895, after the recognition of helium in the stars, Vogel separates the stars of class Ib from the first type altogether. These stars are sometimes designated as "Type O" and sometimes as helium stars and Orion stars, as the majority of the stars in Orion are of that type. The solar type is divided into two classes, IIa represented by the Sun, Capella, and others, while IIb includes the Wolf-Rayet stars. Vogel moves Secchi's third and fourth types into a third type. These are red stars (Was there at this time no distinction between giants and dwarfs? Is there a clear difference in the spectra of a red giant and a red dwarf beside one of intensity?). Vogel's classification of spectra is generally adopted by astronomers, although others are proposed by Lockyer and Edward Charles Pickering. (In this same work?)
| (private observatory) Bothkamp, Germany |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 3869) (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney (CE 1843-1920), English astronomer, invents a dry photographic emulsion and makes quantitative measurements of the action of light on photographic materials.
Dry emulsions can be stored for a long time until needed to expose and are easier to handle than a wet emulsion.
An emulsion is a photosensitive coating, usually of silver halide grains in a thin gelatin layer, on photographic film, paper, or glass.
Abney uses this dry emulsion to photograph a transit of Venus across the sun in December 1874.
Richard Leach Maddox (CE 1816-1902), English physician and amateur photographer, had invented the first practical gelatin silver halide photographic emulsion ("dry plate photography") in 1871.
(describe more about this process, does Abney use collodion as the gellifying chemical?)
| (School of Military Engineering) Chatham, England |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 4079) Sonya Kovalevsky (KOVuleFSKE) (CE 1850-1891), (Russian mathematician) presents three papers, one on partial differential equations, another on Saturn's rings, and a third on elliptic integrals, to the University of Göttingen as her doctoral dissertation and is awarded the degree, summa cum laude, in absentia. Her paper on partial differential equations, the most important of the three papers, wins Kovalevsky valuable recognition within the European mathematical community. It contains what is now commonly known as the Cauchy-Kovalevskaya theorem, which gives conditions for the existence of solutions to a certain class of partial differential equations.
Kovalevsky is the first woman to receive a German University doctorate.
Kovalevsky improves on the work of Cauchy on partial differential equations, on Abel's work on integrals, and on Laplace and Maxwell's work on the math of Saturn's rings. (need specifics)
(examine paper, and explain in the most simple terms possible with graphical images to help in understanding exactly what Kovalevsky did and its context in the history of math and science.)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 4087) Crystal diode (rectifier).
1899 Karl Ferdinand Braun (BroUN) (CE 1850-1918), German physicist, notices that some crystals transmit electricity much more easily in one direction than in the other. Such crystals can be used as rectifiers, converting an alternating current into a direct current. These crystals will be used in crystal-set radios until they are replaced by De Forest's triodes. However improved crystals will come back into use in solid=state systems designed by Shockley.
(It is interesting that a crystal passes electronic current better in one direction than in another. What explains this? Perhaps the crystal molecular structure has an angled geometry that reflects particles from one direction more than from another direction - only because of physical position. For example, two planes that form a V shape - would tend to pass particles with a direction entering the V and reflect away particles with a direction from the opposite direction, toward the bottom of the V.)
(Cite original work)
| (Würzburg University) Würzburg, Germany |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 4146) Emil Hermann Fischer (CE 1852-1919), German chemist identifies phenylhydrazine, a compound that will later be the key for Fischer to unlock the structures of the sugars.
Fischer’s first publications (1875) deal with the organic derivatives of hydrazine. Fischer finds this new group of compounds, considering them to be derivatives of the as yet unknown compound N2 H4, which he names hydrazine to indicate its relation to nitrogen (azote).
| (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, Germany |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 5994) Franz Liszt (CE 1811-1886), Hungarian composer and pianist, composes his famous "Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" (S. 621).
| Weimar, Germany (presumably) |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 6000) Giuseppe (Fortunino Francesco) Verdi (CE 1813-1901), Italian composer, composes the opera "Requiem" with the famous "Dies Irae".
(This sound is similar to Wagner's "Die Walkure", and the "Dies Irae" of Mozart's Requiem because of the female voices and loud kettle drums.)
| Milan, Italy |
126 YBN
[1874 AD]
| 6010) Pyotr Il′yich Tchaikovsky (CE 1840-1893), Russian composer, composes his famous "Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor" (opus 23).
The concerto premieres successfully in Boston in October 1875.
| (Moscow Conservatory) Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
125 YBN
[03/03/1875 AD]
| 6007) Georges (Alexandre César Léopold) Bizet (CE 1838-1875), French composer, composes the famous opera "Carmen".
The realism of the work caused a scandal when it was first produced in 1875. The scandal caused by Carmen was only beginning to yield to enthusiastic admiration when Bizet suddenly died.
(It's interesting that there is a definite phenomenon of musicians who die younger than average - more than other professions. Perhaps because they anger wealthy powerful violent people with their popular works that plea for justice and equality, etc. Many that gain popularity hold counter-religious views and have progressive minds.)
| (Opéra-Comique) Paris, France (verify) |
125 YBN
[03/20/1875 AD]
| 3674) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist invents an improved vacuum tube ("Crookes tube") in which the air pressure is 1/75,000 that in a Geissler tube. Crookes makes improvements to the Sprengel pump method.
In this "Crookes tube" the luminescence that appears around the cathode (the negative electrode) when the tube in put under a strong electric potential (a high voltage) can be more efficiently studied. The new techniques for producing a vacuum (explain new techniques) make Edison's incandescent bulb practical to produce in large quantity. Crookes shows that objects placed in the radiation (photons, electrons, ions) from the cathode make sharp shadows and concludes that the radiation, Goldstein had recently named "cathode rays", moves in straight lines. Crookes shows that the cathode radiation can turn a small wheel when it collides with one side. After this Crookes thinks that the cathode radiation must be electromagnetic radiation, since the electromagnetic radiation from the sun turns the radiometer. (Light and other particle beams are refered (sic) to as "electromagnetic radiation" after the electromagnetic theory of Maxwell is popular - verify that Crookes supports Maxwell's interpretation of light). Crookes shows that the cathode radiation can be deflected by a magnet (did Crookes see the bending? Was the light bent? Perhaps he used photographic paper, and only detected the bending of electron beams. This is really interesting, does a cathode under high voltage produce photon beams and electron beams? describe how Crookes detected this bending of the cathode radiation, and identify if the cathode radiation is both beams of electrons and photons.) Crookes is then convinced that the cathode rays are charged particles moving in straight lines and not electromagnetic radiation (which in this time they refer to any frequencies of light as). Roentgen will use a Crookes tube to identify x-rays (photons with small interval that penetrate much farther than photons with larger intervals) which according to some historians initiates a second scientific revolution. (Seeing eyes and thought in 1810 must have caused a major impetus for science research.)
Crookes writes: "82. I have introduced two important improvements into the Sprengel pump which enable me to work with more convenience and accuracy. instead of trusting to the comparison between the barometric gauge and the barometer to give the internal rarefaction of my apparatus, I have joined a mercurial siphon-gauge to one arm of the pump. This is useful for measuring very high rarefactions in experiments where a difference of pressure equal to a tenth of a millimetre of mercury is important. By its side is an indicator for still higher rarefactions; it is simply a small tube having platinnum wires sealed in, and intended to be attached to an induction-coil. This is more convenient than the plan formerly adopted, of having a separate vacuum-tube forming an integral part of each apparatus. At exhaustions beyond the indications of the siphon-gauge I can still get valuable indications of the nearness to a perfect vacuum by the electrical resistance of this tube. I have frequently carried exhaustions to such a point that an induction-spark will prefer to strike its full distance in air rather than pass across the 1/4 inch separating the points of the wires in the vacuum-tube. A pump having these pieces of apparatus attrached to it was exhibited in action by the writer before the Physical Society, June 20th, 1874. 83. The cement which I have found best for keeping a vacuum is made by fusing together 8 parts by weight of resin and 3 parts of bees-wax. For a few hours this seems perfect, but at the highest exhaustions it leaks inthe course of a day or two. Ordinary or vulcanized india-rubber joints are of no use in these experiments, as when the vacuum is high they allow oxygenized air to pass through as quickly as the pump will take it out. Whenever possible the glass tubes should be united by fusion, and where this is impracticable mercury joints should be used. The best way to make these is to have a well-made conical stopper, cut from plain india-rubber, fitting into the wide funnel-tube of the joint and perforated to carry the narrow tube. before fitting the tubes in the india-rubber, the latter is to be heated in a spirit-flame until its surface is decomposed and very sticky; it is then fitted into its place, mercury is poured into the upper part of the wide tube so as to completely cover the india-rubber, and oil of vitriol is poured on the surface of the mercury. When well made this joint seems perfect; the only attention which it subsequently requires is to renew the oil of vitriol when it gets weakened by absorption of aqueous vapour. Cement has to be used when flat glass or crystal windows are to be cemented on to pieces of apparatus, as subsequently described.".
Crookes uses these vacuum tubes to view the spectra of emitted from various materials used as the positive electrode inside the tube under a high voltage. The positive electrode many times emits light from being bombarded with electrons from the negative electrode. (Logic would presume that there is some carrier for the electrons to complete the chain, and this carrier must be received on the negative electrode, but perhaps electrons can move through empty space without any carrier and chain reaction needed but simply by emission from internal collisions within the negative electrode.)
(Can electrons and other particles be separated by prisms, gratings, or other methods into different frequencies? Perhaps the case for light as particles is supported by this kind of analogy.)
| (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
125 YBN
[04/27/1875 AD]
| 3851) (Sir) David Ferrier (CE 1843-1928), Scottish neurologist publishes the results of his directly applying electricity and physically destroying parts of the brains of living monkeys.
Ferrier publishes this work as "Experiments on the Brains of Monkeys" (1875) in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. "Experiments on the Brains of Monkeys" describes Ferrier's extensive experimentation on the brains of monkeys which includes the electrical stimulation and destruction of various portions of the brain of living monkeys.
Ferrier writes: "... The circles marked on the woodcuts indicate the regions stimulation of which is followed by the same results. Several applications of the electrodes (which do not cover a larger diameter than a quarter of an inch) in or near the same region are necessary to mark off the area. ... ...Besides describing the results of stimulation by reference to the figures, I have indicated the position of the electrodes, as far as possible, in relation to the individual convolutions, so that comparison may be made with those of the human brain. For this reason the results are classified, and not related in the order in which they were obtained during the course of experiment.". (This may imply that some of his work and results are classified, that is being kept secret. This may relate to the secret remote neuron firing "suggestion" technology, or perhaps experiments on humans which perhaps may have included unconsenting and/or objecting humans in the psychiatric hospital, West Riding Lunatic Asylum.)
Ferrier describes the results of stimulation for each circled area. For example in area 1 he finds that stimulating the right hemisphere results in: "The left foot is flexed on the leg, and the toes are spread out and extended." and in area 1 on the left hemisphere "The right thigh is slightly flexed on the pelvis, the leg is extended, the foot flexed on the leg, and the toes are extended.". Stimulating circle 2 results in a similar reaction, Ferrier writes "In this case also the movements were very distinct, consisting in rapid combined muscular action, bringing the foot and toes inward as if to scratch the body.". Stimulating circle 3 results in "Twisting of the trunk to the left, along with some not well-defined movements of the right leg and tail.". Circle 4 stimulates on the right side "The left humerous is adducted, the hand pronated, the whole arm straightened out and drawn backwards. The action is such as is attributed to the latissimus dorsi, viz. a sort of swimming-action of the arm, with the palm of the hand directed backwards. " and on the left side "A similar extension and retraction backwards of the right arm.". Area 5 for the left side results in "The right arm and hand are extended forwards, as if to touch or reach something in front." and for the right side "The left arm is outstretched, as if to touch some object in front.". Stimulation of circle 6 results in "Supination of the hand and flexion of the forearm on the humerus, the hand being also more or less clenched. The action is such as may be attributed to the biceps, along with action of the flexors of the fingers. Long-continued stimulation brings the hand up to the mouth, and at the same time the angle of the mouth is retracted and elevated. ...". Circle 7 on the left hemisphere results in "Retraction and elevation of the right angle of the mouth." and on the right hemisphere "retraction (with elevation) of the left angle of the mouth. Occasionally in stimulation the action was conjoined with that of the biceps.". For area 8 left hemisphere "The action is similar to that resulting from stimulation of the former centre, but seems especially to cause elevation of the lip and ala of the nose on the right side.". For area 9 "The lips pout, mouth gradually opens, and the tongue is protruded.". Area 10 causes an "Action similar as to the mouth, but the tongue is retracted. Longer stimulation causes movements of the mouth and tongue, as in mastication.". Circle 11 on the left hemisphere causes the "right angle of the mouth retracted. ". Circle 12 causes "Elevation of the eyebrows and the upper eyelids, turning of the eyes and head to the opposite side, and great dilation of both pupils. ...". In circle 13 in the left hemisphere, "Both eyes are directed to the right ... The pupils became contracted.". Stimulating circle 14 on the left hemisphere results in "Eyes opened and head turned to the right. Nothing observed as to the state of the pupils or ear." and on the right hemisphere "Eyes open; eyeballs directed to the left, pupils dilate.". Stimulating circle 15 in the left hemisphere results in "Spasmodic contraction of the left lip and ala of the nose. The result was a sort of torsion or closure of the nostril, as when an irritant is applied to it. The action was on the same side, not crossed, as usual.", and in the right hemisphere "Spasmodic torsion of the right lip and nostril, also on the same side as stimulation.". Ferrier also experiments on the cerebellum in five monkeys and finds that the areas of stimulation are the same as those which he described previously for rabbits. In part 2 of this paper Ferrier writes: " This paper contains the details of experiments on the brain of monkeys, supplementary to those already laid before the Society by the author. They relate chiefly to the effects of destruction, by means of the cautery, of localized regions previously explored by electrical stimulation. Twenty-five experiments are recorded in detail, and the individual experiments are illustrated by appropriate drawings. The results are briefly summed up as follows:- 1. Ablation of the frontal regions, which give no reaction to electrical stimulation, is without effect on the powers of sensation or voluntary motion, but causes marked impairment of intelligence and of the faculty of attentive observation. 2. Destruction of the grey matter of the convolutions bounding the fissure of Rolando causes paralysis of voluntary motion on the opposite side of the body; while lesions circumscribed to special areas in these convolutions, previously localized by the author, cause paralysis of voluntary motion, limited to the muscular actions excited by electrical stimulation of the same parts. 3. Destruction of the angular gyrus (pli courbe) causes blindness of the opposite eye, the other senses and voluntary motion remaining unaffected. This blindness is only of temporary duration provided the angular gyrus of the other hemisphere remains intact. When both are destroyed, the loss of visual perception is total and permanent. 4. The effects of electrical stimulation, and the results of destruction of the superior temporo-sphenoidal convolutions, indicate that they are the centres of the sense of hearing. (The action is crossed.) 5. Destruction of the hippocampus major and hippocampal convolution abolishes the sense of touch on the opposite side of the body. 6. The sense of smell (for each nostril) has its centre in the subiculum cornu ammonis, or tip of the uncinate convolution on the same side. 7. The sense of taste is localized in a region in close proximity to the centre of smell, and is abolished by destructive lesion of the lower part of the temporo-sphenoidal lobe. (The action is crossed.) 8. Destruction of the optic thalamus causes complete anaesthesia of the opposite side of the body. 9. Ablation of the occipital lobes produces no effect on the special senses or on the powers of voluntary motion, but is followed by a state of depression and refusal of food, not to be accounted for by mere constitutional disturbance consequent on the operation. The function of these lobes is regarded as still obscure, but considered to be in some measure related to the systemic sensations. Their destruction does not abolish the sexual appetite. 10 After removal both of the frontal and occipital lobes, an animal still retains its faculties of special sense and the powers of voluntary motion.".
| (King's College Hospital and Medical School) London, England |
125 YBN
[04/27/1875 AD]
| 3852) (Sir) David Ferrier (CE 1843-1928), Scottish neurologist publishes "The Function of the Brain" (1876) which is one of the most significant publications in the field of cortical localization.
| (King's College Hospital and Medical School) London, England |
125 YBN
[08/28/1875 AD]
| 5575) Earliest known "direct neuron reading" (verify) and the earliest published recording of sensory evoked electric potentials measured on the brain.
This is the earliest known direct neuron reading, that is, measuring the electrical potential of nerve cells by directly touching the nerve cell. (verify) In 1887 Augustus Desire Waller (CE 1856-1922) will measure the electric potentials of the heart muscle and find them to coincide with each heart muscle contraction, and will publish the first electrocardiograph images.
Richard Caton, M. D. (CE 1842–1926) reports in the "British Medical Journal": "The Electric Currents of the Brain. By RICHARD CATON, M.D., Liverpool.-After a brief resume of previous investigations, the author gave an account of his own experiments on the brains of the rabbit and the monkey. The following is a brief summary of the principal results. In every brain hitherto examined, the galvanometer has indicated the existetice of electric currents. The external surface of the grey matter is usually positive iin relation to the surface of a section through it. Feeble currents of varying direction pass through the multiplier when the electrodes are placed on two points of the external surface, or one electrode on the grey matter, and one on the surface of the skull. The electric currents of the grey matter appear to have a relation to its function. When any part of the grey matter is in a state of functional activity, its electric cturrent usually exhibits negative variation. For example, on the areas shown by Dr. Ferrier to be related to rotation of the head and to mastication, negative variation of the current was observed to occur whenever those two acts respectively were performed. Impressions through the senses were found to influence the currents of certain areas; e. g., the currents of that part of the rabbit's brain which Dr. Ferrier has shown to be related to movements of the eyelids, where found to be markedly influenced by stimulation of the opposite retina by light.".
(One important step many people are waiting and looking for is the recoding of sound in electrical signal, evoked from external sounds of the same frequency in the ear, in particular signals that reflect thought-audio.)
(Verify brith and death dates)
(Determine if Galvani, Swammerdam or anybody before this measured the electricity from a living nerve cell.)
| Liverpool, England |
125 YBN
[10/07/1875 AD]
| 5332) Douglas Alexander Spalding (CE c1840–1877) describes impriting, a rapid learning process by which a newborn or very young animal establishes a behavior pattern of recognition and attraction to another animal of its own kind or to a substitute or an object identified as the parent.
Heinroth will describe imprinting in 1911.
Konrad Lorenz (lOreNTS) (CE 1903-1989) Austrian zoologist is the first to use the term "imprinting".
In 1935 Lorenz describes imprinting, the way that at a certain point after hatching, young birds learn to follow a parent, a foster parent, even a human or inanimate object. Once this imprinting takes place, this will affect their behavior to some extent for all of their life.
| Bristol, England |
125 YBN
[10/??/1875 AD]
| 3788) Josiah Willard Gibbs (CE 1839-1903), US physicist, creates the "phase rule", which is a simple equation that describes how temperature, pressure, or concentration are varied in fixed amounts in systems where one component is in more than one phase (such as in two stages like salt in salt water, or in three stages such as ice in water with water vapor).
Gibbs begin with the known thermodynamic theory of homogeneous substances and works out the theory of the thermodynamic properties of heterogeneous substances.
Gibbs publishes this "phase rule" in his most important work, the famous paper "On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances" (in two parts, 1876 and 1878). This work is translated into German by W. Ostwald (who describes Gibbs as the "founder of chemical energetics") in 1891 and into French by H. le Chatelier in 1899.
In 1866, Gibbs receives a patent for an improved type of railroad brake. (Is this design used?)
Gibbs' first contributions to mathematical physics are two papers published in 1873 in the "Transactions of the Connecticut Academy" on "Graphical Methods in the Thermodynamics of Fluids", and "Method of Geometrical Representation of the Thermodynamic Properties of Substances by means of Surfaces".
Gibbs writes: " 'Die Energie der Welt ist constant. Die Entropie der Welt strebt einem Maximum zu.' CLAUSIUS.
THE comprehension of the laws which govern any material system is greatly facilitated by considering the energy and entropy of the system in the various states of which it is capable. As the difference of the values of the energy for any two states represents the combined amount of work and heat received or yielded by the system when it is brought from one state to the other, and the difference of entropy is the limit of all the possible values of the integral ∫dQ/t, (dQ denoting the element of the heat received from external sources, and t the temperature of the part of the system receiving it,) the varying values of the energy and entropy characterize in all that is essential the effects producible by the system in passing from one state to another. For by mechanical and thermodynamic contrivances, supposed theoretically perfect, any supply of work and heat may be transformed into any other which does not differ from it either in the amount of work and heat taken together or in the value of the integral ∫dQ/t. But it is not only in respect to the external relations of a system that its energy and entropy are of predominant importance. As in the case of simply mechanical systems, (such as are discussed in theoretical mechanics,) which are capable of only one kind of action upon external systems, viz, the performance of mechanical work, the function which expresses the capability of the system for this kind of action also plays the leading part in the theory of equilibrium, the condition of equilibrium being that the variation of this function shall vanish, so in a thermodynamic system, (such as all material systems actually are,) which is capable of two different kinds of action upon external systems, the two functions which express the twofold capabilities of the system afford an almost equally simple criterion of equilibrium.
Criteria of Equilibrium and Stability The criterion of equilibrium for a material system which is isolated from all external influences may be expressed in either of the following entirely equivalent forms:- I. For the equilibrium of any isolated system it is necessary and sufficient that in all possible variations of the state of the system which do not alter its energy, the variation of its entropy shall either vanish or be negative. If ε denote the energy, and η the entropy of the system, and we use a subscript letter after a variation to indicate a quantity of which the value is not to be varied, the condition of equilibrium may be written
δ(η)ε <= 0. (1)
II. For the equilibrium of any isolated system it is necessary and sufficient that in all possible variations in the state of the system which do not alter its entropy, the variation of its energy shall either vanish or be positive. This condition may be written:
δ(ε)η <= 0. (2)
That these two theorems are equivalent will appear from the consideration that it is always possible to increase both the energy and the entropy of the system, or to decrease both together, viz, by imparting heat to any part of the system or by taking it away. For, if condition (1) is not satisfied, there must be some variation in the state of the system for which
δη>0 and δε=0;
therefore, by diminishing both the energy and the entropy of the system in its varied state, we shall obtain a state for which (considered as a variation from the original state)
δη=0 and δε<0;
therefore condition (2) is not satisfied. Conversely, if condition (2) is not satisfied, there must be a variation in the state of the system for which
δε<0 and δη=0;
hence there must also be one for which
δε=0 and δη>0;
therefore condition (1) is not satisfied.". Gibbs goes on with more details. The next section is "The Conditions of Equilibrium for Heterogeneous Masses is Contact when Uninfluenced by Gravity, Electricity, Distortion of the Solid Masses, or Capillary Tensions.". Gibbs writes: " Let us first consider the energy of any homogeneous part of the given mass, and its variation for any possible variation in the composition and state of this part. (By homogeneous is meant that the part in question is uniform throughout, not only in chemical composition, but also in physical state.) If we consider the amount and kind of matter in this homogeneous mass as fixed, its energy ε is a function of its entropy η, and its volume ν, and the differentials of these quantities are subject to the relation dε=tdη-pdν,
t denoting the (absolute) temperature of the mass, and p its pressure. For tdη is the heat received, and pdν the work done, by the mass during its change of state.". Gibbs goes on to apply this equation to a series of variable masses. The paper goes on with more mathematical analysis. Gibbs then talks about coexistant phases of matter, and applies matrices and matrix math to the analysis of a body with multiple masses using three masses (m1, m2, m3) only in matrix form. Gibbs concludes in a part about the stability of a phase: "we see that the stability of any phase in regard to continuous changes depends upon the same conditions in regard to the second and higher differential coefficients of the density of energy regarded an a function of the density of entropy and the densities of the several components, which would make the density of energy a minimum, if the necessary condition in regard to the first differential coefficients were fulfilled.". Gibbs then has a part "Surfaces and Curves in which the Composition of the Body represented is Variable and its Temperature and Pressure are Constant.". Gibbs writes: "When there are three components, the position of a point in the X-Y plane may indicate the composition of a body most simply, perhaps, as follows. The body is supposed to be composed of the quantities m1, m2, m3, of the substances S1, S2, S3, the value of m1+m2+m3 being unity. Let P1, P2, P3 be any three points in the plane, which are not in the same straight line. If we suppose masses equal to m1, m2, m3 to be placed at these three points, the center of gravity of these masses will determine a point which will indicate the value of these quantities. If the triangle is equiangular and has the height unity, the distances of the point from the three sides will be equal numerically to m1, m2, m3. Now if for every possible phase of the components, of a given temperature and pressure, we lay off from the point in the X-Y plane which represents the composition of the phase a distance measured parallel to the axis of Z and representing the value of ζ (when m1+ m2+m3=1), the points thus determined will form a surface, which may be designated us the m1-m2-m3-ζ surface of the substances considered, or simply as their m-ζ surface, for the given temperature and pressure. ...". Gibbs then describes and draws figures of these kinds of two dimensional surfaces, examining change of temperature and pressure.". Gibbs then examines critical phases writing: "It has been ascertained by experiment that the variations of two coexistent states of the same substance are in some cases limited in one direction by a terminal state at which the distinction of the coexistent states vanishes. ... In general we may define a critical phase as one at which the distinction between coexistent phases vanishes.". Gibbs examines "The Conditions of Equilibrium for Heterogeneous Masses under the Influence of Gravity.". Gibbs examines the ideal gas laws and theory of capillarity. Gibbs also includes analysis of Equilibrium by Electromotive Force.
The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography describes Gibbs stating: "He assumed from the outset that entropy is one of the essential concepts to be used in treating a thermodynamic system, along with energy, temperature, pressure, and volume. In his first paper he limited himself to a discussion of what could be done with geometrical representations of thermodynamic relationships in two dimensions, ... in his second paper, ... Gibbs extended his geometrical discussion to three dimensions by analyzing the properties of the surface representing the fundamental thermodynamic equation of a pure substance. The thermodynamic relationships could be brought out most clearly by constructing the surface using entropy, energy, and volume as the three orthogonal coordinates. ... 'On the Equilibrium of Heterogeneous Substances' contains Gibbs's major contributions to thermodynamics. In the single memoir of some 300 pages he vastly extended the domain covered by thermodynamics, including chemical, elastic, surface, electromagnetic, and electrochemical phenomena in a single system. ... In the abstract for his memoir he formulated the criterion for thermodynamic equilibrium in two alternative and equivalent ways. He indicates that thermodynamic equilibrium is a natural generalization of mechanical equilibrium, both being characterized by minimum energy under appropriate conditions. ... Gibbs first and probably most significant application of this approach was to the problem of chemical equilibrium. ...Gibbs's memoir showed how the general theory of thermodynamics equilibrium could be applied to phenomena as varied as the dissolving of a crystal in a liquid, the temperature dependence of the electromotive force of an electrochemical cell, and the heat absorbed when the surface of discontinuity between two fluid is increased.".
In later works Gibbs will defend the electromagnetic theory of light over the purely mechanical theories of William Thompson.
(In my experience, 300 pages is large even or theoretical dynamics papers.)
(Notice that the popular trend of physicists in this time is not to examine velocities, but instead to examine energy and cumulative products of mass and velocity, the end result not indicating any change in the position or velocity of any single piece of matter.)
(In my view, entropy is an obviously inaccurate theory, based on conservation of velocity (and even energy), and it is not a good indication that Gibbs quotes Clausius' theory of entropy at the beginning of his paper. In fact, this is one of the nice things about science, in that when a new theory, is created that happens to be inaccurate, such as entropy, aether, space-dilation, etc., generally speaking all the work and theories of all later scientists based on these ideas must logically be inaccurate too, and so large branches of inaccurate science often fall, invalidating the work of dozens, hundreds, many times even the works and supposed contributions of thousands of scientists. If there is no aether, or space-dilation, all the papers and theories that presume there is, can only be obviously wrong. )
(One aspect of this work, is the aspect of "pre-computer" work. The tendency of this work, is to find a method to generalize phenomena - because iteration is perhaps too labor intensive, or appears too unstylistic, non-mathematical or simple. But with the invention of computers, iteration is possible, and so large simulations, perhaps unimaginable before the computer are possible. Most of these attempts at generalization all center on and make use of the concept of "energy" (and momentum to a far less extent, movement over time), "work" (movement over distance), which combine mass, velocity and space (distance) into a more general quantity (a product). Integration and differentiation are the main mathematical devices, tools, or method used - integration to calculate a sum or product quantity, and differentiation to calculate a rate. - I need to refine this and make the use of integrals and derivatives clearer.)
(I think much of this is resolved by understanding that entropy does not exist, and energy, being mass and velocity, is always conserved, so any inequality between energy and entropy can't exist because entropy does not exist, and energy is always conserved. In a similar way, a made up property of rotatability, or compressiveness, which tends to decrease over time in violation of conservation of energy cannot be set unequal to energy, etc. )
(It's rare, for example, to see any use of the concept of gravity to enter into thermodynamic papers, which is ironic, since gravity is such a basic principle. So in some sense, Gibbs' work is different from earlier therodynamic works.)
(I think this may be an example of matter is viewed as having intrinsic energy which I think may be mistaken - it goes all the way back to Leibniz's formulation of vis viva. Beyond that, the idea that energy is kept to a minimum I question because, velocities are simply exchanged - there is no requirement for some kind of 'least action'.)
| (Yale College) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
125 YBN
[11/12/1875 AD]
| 3873) James S. Waterhouse (CE 1842-1922) photographs spectral lines beyond the red on a collodion glass plate prepared with silver bromide stained with an aniline blue dye.
Waterhouse mentions Hermann Vogel's finding of dye's changing the sensitivity of dry silver bromide plates
| (Surveyor-General's Office) Calcutta, India |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 2871) The results of Édouard Lartet (loRTA) (CE 1801-1871) and English banker-ethnologist Henry Christy's researches are published posthumously in "Reliquiae Aquitanicae" (1875; "Aquitanian Remains"). This work does much to establish the prime importance of the archeological sites of southern France.
| Paris?,France |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 3436) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) uses gelatin dry plate photography which enables long exposures.
The wet collodion process (can not be used for long exposures).
Huggins devises a method to photograph spectra and is one of the first to experiment with photography in astronomy. The advantage of photography is that through long term exposures, spectral lines that are too faint to be seen with the naked eye can be seen, (spectral lines in part of the infrared and ultraviolet region are recorded). In addition, a spectrum can be recorded permanently, and so measurement on them can be done later.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 3520) Ernst Felix Immanuel Hoppe-Seyler (HOPuZIlR) (CE 1825-1895), German biochemist, suggests a system of classifying proteins still in use today. (more details)
| (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, Germany |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 3567) Ferdinand Julius Cohn (CE 1828-1898), German botanist, describes bacterial spores and their survival after being in boiling water.
Cohn discovers the formation and germination of spores (called endospores) in certain bacteria, particularly in Bacillus subtilis. Cohn publishes this in his second "Untersuchungen über Bacterien" ("Researches on Bacteria") (1875). Also in this work Cohn defends his classification by external form with supporting physiological activities, in particular that specific forms are associated with certain fermentation activities.
Cohn is the first to note the resistance of endospores to high temperatures.
Cohn includes a long section on Bastian's experiments on turnip-cheese infusions. Bastian discovered that some bacteria survive boiling after ten minutes in a closed flask. Cohn theorizes that a germ might have a special developmental stage which allows it to survive the boiling. The bacteria that appear after boiling in cheese infusions are not the common putrefactive bacteria, (B. terma), but instead, are bacillus rods or threads, which Cohn calls Bacillus subtilis. After a short time (in heat) many of the rods swell at one end and become filled with oval, strongly refractive little bodies that multiply continuously. Cohn believes that these bodies represented a stage in the life cycle of the bacilli and suggests that they are "real spores, from which new Bacilli may develop". Cohn concludes the bacteria within the heated flasks form heat-resistant spores that are then able to survive the boiling, after which the spores change to their normal reproductive stages. So this ends one of the last arguments in favor of spontaneous generation which presumed that all bacteria were killed by the heat of boiling water. John Tyndall will use these results to argue against spontaneous generation in his work on sterilization by discontinuous heating. Cohn will conclusively prove that thermoresistant endospores in Bacillus subtilis are capable of surviving strong heat and germinating to form new bacilli in an 1876 paper.
Cohn shows that growth, development, and spore formation are dependent on the presence of air. (still true?)
| (University of Breslau) Breslau, Lower Silesia (now Wroclaw, Poland) |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 3673) Crookes invents a radiometer.
(Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist invents the radiometer (or "light mill"), a set of vanes in a partial vacuum (a container of nearly atom-free space). One side of each vane is black and the other side white. When sunlight contacts the black side, the vane spins. Since the vane will not spin in a well evacuated container, but will spin in a poorly evacuated container, Crookes concludes that air in front of the black vane is heated and air molecules rebound from the heated side of each vane more strongly than from the white side, therefore pushing the set of vanes around its axis. This supports Maxwell's theory that heat and temperature are based on molecular velocity. Maxwell works out the (mathematical basis of the) theory of the radiometer based on his kinetic theory of gases.
While determining the atomic weight of Thallium, Crookes thinks for the sake of accuracy, to weigh thallium in a vacuum. So Crookes uses an Oertling balance in a vacuum. But even with a vacuum Crookes finds that the balance has a problem in that the metal appears to be heavier when cold than when hot.
Crookes also finds that if a large mass is brought close to lighter mass suspended in an evacuated space, the movement of the lighter mass would increase with decreased pressure. In 1873, Crookes wrongly concludes that this movement is from the "pressure of light" postulated by Maxwell's as yet unaccepted electromagnetic theory of light. This belief leads Crookes to devise the radiometer. Eventually Crookes accepts in 1876, the explanation of Johnstone Stoney that the motion of the vanes is due to the internal movements of molecules in the residual gas. Crookes then goes on to show that the radiometer confirms Maxwell's prediction that the viscosity of a gas is independent of its pressure except at the highest exhaustions (1877-1881).
Crookes names and describes the radiometer in "On Repulsion Resulting from Radiation".
| (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 3798) Edward Drinker Cope (CE 1840-1897), US paleontologist publishes "Relation of Man to Tertiary Mammalia (1875)" which contains the first comprehensive description of vertebrates from the early Eocene (54.8 to 33.7 mybn). This pushes the origin of mammals back in time.
Over the course of his life, Cope finds about 1000 species of extinct vertebrates in the United States.
This speech is published as an article in the Penn Monthly, without any images. Cope appears to support the concept of natural selection and survival of the fittest writing in conclusion: "The relation of man to this history is highly interesting. Thus in all general points his limbs are those of the primitive type so common in the eocene. He is plantigrade, has five toes, separate carpals and tarsals; short heel, rather flat astragalus, and neither hoofs nor claws, but something between the two. The bones of the fore-arm and leg are not so unequal as in the higher types, and remain entirely distinct from each other, and the ankle-joint is not so perfect as in many of them. In his teeth his character is thoroughly primitive. He possesses in fact the original quadrituberculate molar with but little modification. his structural superiority consists solely in the complexity and size of his brain. ... So 'the race has not been to the swift nor the battle to the strong;' the 'survival of the fittest' has been the survival of the most intelligent, and natural selection proves to be, in its highest animal phase, intelligent selection.".
| (Read before the American Association for the advancement of Science) Detroit, Michegan, USA |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 4172) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, refines Maxwell's theory of electromagnetic radiation from over 10 years before, by taking into account the reflection and refraction of light.
Lorentz presents this theory in his doctoral thesis at the University of Leiden.
(Cite and quote from original work)
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 6009) Pyotr Il′yich Tchaikovsky (CE 1840-1893), Russian composer, composes the "Swan Lake" ballet, Opus 20.
(Determine the first ballet and give the history of ballet.)
| Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
125 YBN
[1875 AD]
| 6016) Edvard (Hagerup) Grieg (CE 1843-1907), Norwegian composer, composes his famous "Peer Gynt".
| Troldhaugen, Norway |
124 YBN
[02/14/1876 AD]
| 4036) Alexander Graham Bell (CE 1847-1922), Scottish-US inventor patents a telephone. Bell is the first to successfully commercialize the telephone and bring telephone service to the public.
Phillip Reis gave the first known public demonstration of a telephone in 1861.
Edison had invented a microphone containing carbon powder which transmits electricity with more or less efficiency as it is compressed of uncompressed by the moving air made by sound. This creates a current that changes in perfect time to sound waves and greatly improves the quality of the sound for the listener.
The telephone is a feature of the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Declaration of independence. The visiting Brazilial emperor, Pedro II, drops the instrument in surprise saying "it talks!". Bell becomes famous and wealthy at age 30.
Where the telegraph wires only connected different stations in each city, the telephone wires extend directly into people's houses - view people even had telegraphs in their houses, but many have telephones. The natural evolution of the telephone wires is to transistion into the Internet wihch is connected to many houses. How long the internet had existed before being available to the public is a science history question. It is interesting that, unlike Reiss' telephone, the value of Bell's telephone is recognized.
Bell is many times mistakenly credited with inventing the telephone. Silvanus Thompson wrote in 1883: "...Professor Graham Bell has not failed to acknowledge his indebtedness to Reis, whose entry ' into the field of telephonic research' he explicitly draws attention to by name, in his 'Researches in Electric Telephony,' read before the American Academy of Sciences and Arts, in May 1876, and repeated almost verbatim before the Society of Telegraph Engineers, in November 1877. In the latter, as printed at the time, Professor Bell gave references to the researches of Reis, to the original paper in Dingler's 'Polytechnic Journal' ... to the particular pages of Kuhn's volume in Karsten's 'Encyclopaedia' ... in which diagrams and descriptions of two forms of Reis's Telephone are given; and where mention is also made of the success with which exclamatory and other articulate intonations of the voice were transmitted by one of these instruments; and to Legat's Report, mentioned above .... Professor Bell has, moreover, in judicial examination before one of the United States Courts expressly and candidly stated, that whilst the receivers of his own early tone-telephones were constructed so as to respond to one musical note only, the receiver of Reis's instrument, shown in Legat's Rsport (as copied in Prescott's 'Speaking Telephone,' p. 10), and given on p. 109 of this work, was adapted to receive tones of any pitch, and not of one tone only. It is further important to note that in Professor Bell's British Patent he does not lay claim to be the inventor, but only the improver of an invention: the exact title of his patent is, 'Improvements in Electric Telephony (Transmitting or causing sounds for Telegraphing Messages) and Telephonic Apparatus.'...". In addition Reiss had called his device a "telephon" (was this the first use of the word "telephone"?) in 1861.
Beyond Reiss' priority, is Elisha Gray's patent caveat of Febuary 14, 1876 which has an image clearly similar to a March 8 drawing in Bell's lab notebook. (see image). (verify autheticity) It seems beyond coincidence that the two would be unaware of each other and submit a patent for the same device on the same day - they must have known about each other from secret technology - perhaps microphones or remote neuron activition - perhaps even two teams of insiders were beaming strong suggestions to each, both of whom are outsiders. Only the eye images will show the true story. So much of the story of the growth of the electrical network is secret and not taught to the public, and this is the same for the history of science.
By accident, Bell sends the first sentence, "Watson, come here; I want you," on March 10, 1876. The first demonstration of Bell's telephone occurrs at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences convention in Boston 2 months later. Bell's display at the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition a month later gains more publicity, and Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil orders 100 telephones for his country. The telephone, which occupies only 18 words in the official catalog of the exposition, suddenly becomes the "star" attraction. This is an important pattern for inventors in the history of science - the pattern of demonstrating your invention at an "exposition" and perhaps gaining large numbers of sales, a distributor, etc from there. In particular of cameras that see thought images, that hear thought, or send images and sounds directly to brains to appear before the eyes or in the brain.
Repeated demonstrations overcome public skepticism. The first reciprocal outdoor conversation with Bell's telephone is between Boston and Cambridge, Massachussets, by Bell and Watson on Oct. 9, 1876. In 1877 the first telephone is installed in a private home and a conversation is conducted between Boston and New York, using telegraph lines. In May 1877 is the the first switchboard, devised by E. T. Holmes in Boston, which is a burglar alarm connecting five banks. In July the first organization to commercialize the invention, the Bell Telephone Company, is formed. That year, while on his honeymoon, Bell introduces the telephone to England and France.
The first commercial switchboard is set up in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1878, and Bell's first subsidiary, the New England Telephone Company, is organized that year. Switchboards are improved by Charles Scribner, with more than 500 inventions. Thomas Cornish, a Philadelphia electrician, has a switchboard for eight customers and publishes a one-page directory in 1878.
Aside from Professor Elisha Gray, Professor Amos E. Dolbear, insists that Bell's telephone is only an improvement on Reiss' "telephon". In 1879, Western Union, with its American Speaking Telephone Company, ignores Bell's patents and hires Thomas Edison, along with Dolbear and Gray, as inventors and improvers. Later that year Bell and Western Union form a joint company, with Bell getting 20 percent for providing wires, circuits, and equipment. Theodore Vail, organizer of Bell Telephone Company, consolidates six companies in 1881. The modern transmitter evolves mainly from the work of Emile Berliner and Edison in 1877 and Francis Blake in 1878. Blake's transmitter is later sold to Bell for stock.
Altogether, the Bell Company is involved in 587 lawsuits, of which 5 go to the United States Supreme Court; Bell wins every case (although clearly Bell has no right to monopolize the invention of the telephone since Reiss invented it, which is clear - and there must be corrupt decisions).
From this time on (copper?) wire will connect many houses together, in addition to the wires for electricity. The telephone wires grow on top of the telegraph wires and will connect millions of people over most of surface of the tiny earth. Sadly, the massive money and unheaval of wiring the planet results in only a single massive company controlling all telegraphs, telephones and telephone service (verify).
It seems very likely that the telegraph companies stored and recorded all of their telegraphs, and this tradition was most likely adopted by the telephone companies, in particular Bell's Bell telephone, which becomes AT&T, perhaps the single largest telephone company on earth. Bell's telephone company, almost certainly records the audio of many if not all telephone calls transmitted over their wires, systematically. This infomation is incredibly important and records some of the most intimate and personal information, in addition, to admissions to murder and other crimes. In this way, Bell and other phone companies accumulate vast tremendously valuable information - which they keep in a secret market. At some time, having a telephone in every house was not enough, and cameras were developed, very small microscopic cameras, which are placed on streetlights, buildings, and inside the houses of interesting and important people, and then systematically in all houses. In addition, this massive telegraph, and then phone - and no doubt government company database of recorded images and sounds - recorded perhaps as light or magnetically on plastic reels of tape included recordings of the images from people's eyes which record what they see, the images of their thoughts, that is images they visualize in their mind, (for example think of an orange square or green triangle - these images are captured and recorded - just like images the eye sees by external light), the sounds a person hears and thinks - that is the recordings of the sounds people think (for example think of a song in your mind - this is captured and stored on plastic tape). Beyond these reading devices are writing devices which remotely cause neurons to fire. This amazing invention of remote neuron activation, may have occured in late 1810, but this is not entirely clear. This invention allows any neuron in the brain to be made to fire, which can cause muscles to contract - including vital muscles like those that control the lungs, the heart and other processes required for life, in addition to allowing images and sounds to be sent directly to the brain to be seen, not only in the mind, but outside the eyes and ears - even totally replacing the image or sounds an organism might otherwise usually see or hear. This neuron "writing" technology is so precise at some time that even single touch, heat or pain sensors can be activated - a single dot in the field of view of human vision which may be 10,000 x 10,000 dots can be changed. This technology gives those who own and control it, an unmatchable superiority over average people - although most major nations must probably realize and develop these basic tools by 1900.
Clearly, the telephone is not kept secret as seeing thought was in 1810. The telephone, and the phonograph begin the great public uncovery and exploration of recording, relaying and replaying sensory information electronically. But sadly, seeing, hearing, and sending images and sounds directly to and from brains and remote muscle movement will be kept secret, and in one of the terrible tragedies of history will be removed from public knowledge for 200 years and counting.
People should credit Bell with helping to bring the telephone to the poor public and certainly for his work as an educator. However, in keeping seeing, hearing and sending thought images and sounds and remote muscle movement a secret, Bell at least has this flaw as do a great many other humans.
Suspecting strongly that thought was seen and remote muscle movement figured out in 1810, it makes the story of those scientists of the 1800s, 1900s and 2000s a puzzle - what was the true picture behind the scenes? Were the inventors outsiders who forced the insiders to go public by re-inventing technology insiders had discovered decades earlier - or were they insiders bringing secret insider technologies to the public decades after they were first secretly used?
| Salem, Massachusetts, USA |
124 YBN
[02/14/1876 AD]
| 4037) Elisha Gray (CE 1835-1901) files a patent caveat on a telephone.
On Feb. 14, 1876, the day that Bell filed an application for a patent for a telephone, Gray applies for a caveat announcing his intention to file a claim for a patent for the same invention within three months. When Bell first transmits the sound of a human voice over a wire, he used a liquid transmitter of the microphone type previously developed by Gray and unlike any described in Bell's patent applications to that date, and an electromagnetic metal-diaphragm receiver of the kind built and publicly used by Gray several months earlier. In court, Bell is awarded the patent. Alexander Graham Bell's final patent had been registered just a few hours before Gray's caveat.
| Chicago, Illinois, USA |
124 YBN
[02/15/1876 AD]
| 4065) Henry Rowland shows that rapidly rotating static electricity acts like an electric current and produces a magnetic field.
Henry Augustus Rowland (rolaND) (CE 1848-1901), US physicist, shows that rapidly rotating static electricity acts like an electric current and produces a magnetic field.
Rowland attaches pieces of tin foil to a glass disc, places an electric charge on the tin, and rapidly rotates the disc. This system deflects a magnet showing Maxwell's theory that a piece of electrically charged matter moving rapidly will behave like an electric current and create a magnetic field to be true. Helmholtz had suggested this experiment. Twenty years later an electric current will be shown to be accompanied by electrically charged matter in motion (in the form of electrons? - provide name).)
Rowland performs this work in the laboratory of Berlin University through the kindness of Professor Helmholtz, and publishes this as "On the Magnetic Effect of Electric Convection" in the American Journal of Science. Rowland writes: "The experiments described in this paper were made with a view of determining whether or not an electrified body in motion produces magnetic effects. There seems to be no theoretical ground upon which we can settle the question, seeing that the magnetic action of a conducted electric current may be ascribed to some mutual action between the conductor and the current Hence an experiment is of value. Professor Maxwell, in his " Treatise on Electricity," Art 770, has computed the magnetic action of a moving electrified surface, but that the action exists has not yet been proved experimentally or theoretically.
The apparatus employed consisted of a vulcanite disc 21'1 centimeters in diameter and "5 centimeter thick which could be made to revolve around a vertical axis with a velocity of 61- turns per second. On either side of the disc at a distance of -6 cm. were fixed glass plates having a diameter of 38'9 cm. and a hole in the center of 7'8 cm. The vulcanite disc was gilded on both sides and the glass plates had an annular ring of gilt on one side, the outside and inside diameters being 24'0 cm. and 8-9 cm. respectively. The gilt sides could be turned toward or from the revolving disc but were usually turned toward it so that the problem might be calculated more readily and there should be no uncertainty as to the electrification. The outside plates were usually connected with the earth; and the inside disc with an electric battery, by means of a point which approached within one-third of a millimeter of the edge and turned toward it As the edge was broad, the point would not discharge unless there was a difference of potential between it and the edge. Between the electric battery and the disc, a commutator was placed, so that the potential of the latter could be made plus or minus at will. All parts of the apparatus were of non-magnetic material.
Over the surface of the disc was suspended, from a bracket in the wall, an extremely delicate astatic needle, protected from electric action and currents of air by a brass tube. The two needles were 1'5 cm. long and their centers 17'98 cm. distant from each other. The readings were by a telescope and scale The opening in the tube for observing the mirror was protected from electrical action by a metallic cone, the mirror being at its vertex. So perfectly was this accomplished that no effect of electrical action was -apparent either on charging the battery or reversing the electrification of the disc. The needles were so far apart that any action of the disc would be many fold greater on the lower needle than the upper. The direction of the needles was that of the motion of the disc directly below them, that is, perpendicular to the radius drawn from the axis to the needle. As the support of the needle was the wall of the laboratory and revolving disc was on a table beneath it, the needle was reasonably free from vibration.
In the first experiments with this apparatus no effect was observed other than a constant deflection which was reversed with the direction of the motion. This was finally traced to the magnetism of rotation of the axis and was afterward greatly reduced by turning down the axis to *9 cm. diameter. On now rendering the needle more sensitive and taking .several other precautions a distinct effect was observed of several millimeters on reversing the electrification and it was separated from the effect of magnetism of rotation by keeping the motion constant and reversing the electrification. As the effect of the magnetism of rotation was several times that of the moving electricity, and the needle was so extremely sensitive, numerical results were extremely hard to be obtained, and it is only after weeks of trial that reasonably accurate results have been obtained. But the qualitative effect, after once being obtained, never failed. In hundreds of observations extending over many weeks, the needle always answered to a change of electrification of the disc. Also on raising the potential above zero the action was the reverse of that when it was lowered below. The swing of the needle on reversing the electrification was about 10' or 15' millimeters and therefore the point of equilibrium was altered 6 or 7^- millimeters. This quantity varied with the electrification, the velocity of motion, the sensitiveness of the needle, etc.
The direction of the action may be thus defined. Calling the motion of the disc + when it moved like the hands of a watch laid on the table with its face up, we have the following, the needles being over one side of the disc with the north pole pointing in the direction of positive motion. The motion being + , on electrifying the disc + the north pole moved toward the axis, and on changing the electrification, the north pole moved away from the axis. With — motion and + electrification, the north pole moved away from the axis, and with — electrification, it moved toward the axis. The direction is therefore that in which we should expect it to be.
The direction of the action may be thus defined. Calling the motion of the disc + when it moved like the hands of a watch laid on the table with its face up, we have the following, the needles being over one side of the disc with the north pole pointing in the direction of positive motion. The motion being + , on electrifying the disc + the north pole moved toward the axis, and on changing the electrification, the north pole moved away from the axis. With — motion and + electrification, the north pole moved away from the axis, and with — electrification, it moved toward the axis. The direction is therefore that in which we should expect it to be.
To prevent any suspicion of currents in the gilded surfaces, the latter, in many experiments, were divided into small portions by radial scratches, so that no tangential currents could take place without sufficient difference of potential to produce sparks. But to be perfectly certain, the gilded disc was replaced by a plane thin glass plate which could be electrified by points on one side, a gilder induction plate at zero potential being on the other. With this arrangement, effects in the same direction as before were obtained, but smaller in quantity, seeing that only one side of the plate could be electrified.
The inductor plates were now removed, leaving the disc perfectly free, and the latter was once more gilded with a continuous gold surface, having only an opening around the axis of 3'5 cm. The gilding of the disc was connected with the axis and so was at a potential of zero. On one side of the plate, two small inductors formed of pieces of tin-foil on glass plates, were supported, having the disc between them. On electrifying these, the disc at the points opposite them was electrified by induction but there could be no electrification except at points near the inductors. On now revolving the disc, if the inductors were very small, the electricity would remain nearly at rest and the plate would as it were revolve through it Hence in this case we should have conduction without motion of electricity, while in the first experiment we had motion without conduction. I have used the term " nearly at rest "in the above, for the following reasons. As the disc revolves the electricity is being constantly conducted in the plate so as to retain its position. Now the function which expresses the potential producing these currents and its differential coefficients must be continuous throughout .the disc, and so these currents must pervade the whole disc.
To calculate these currents we have two ways. Either we can consider the electricity at rest and the motion of the disc through it to produce an electromotive force in the direction of motion and proportional to the velocity of motion, to the electrification, and to the surface resistance; or, as Professor Helmholtz has suggested, we can consider the electricity to move with the disc and as it comes to the edge of the inductor to be set free to return by conduction currents to the other edge of the inductor so as to supply the loss there. The problem is capable of solution in the case of a disc without a hole in the center but the results are too complicated to be of much use. Hence scratches were made on the disc in concentric circles about '6 cm. apart by which the radial component of the currents was destroyed and the problem became easily calculable.
For, let the inductor cover - the part of the circumference of any one of the conducting circles; then, if C is a constant,
Q
the current in the circle outside the inductor will be H — , and
(n-1) B
inside the area of the inductor — C -- . On the latter is su
n
perposed the convection current equal to +C. Hence the motion of electricity throughout the whole circle is — , what it
would have been had the inductor covered the whole circle.
In one experiment n was about 8. By comparison with the other experiments we know that had electric conduction alone produced effect we should have observed at the telescope — 5' mil. Had electric convection alone produced magnetic effect we should have had +5-7 mil. And if they both had effect it would have been +-7 mil., which is practically zero in the presence of so many disturbing causes. No effect was discovered, or at least no certain effect, though every care was used. Hence we may conclude with reasonable certainty that electricity produces nearly if not quite the same magnetic effect in the case of convection as of conduction, provided the same quantity of electricity passes a given point in the convection stream as in the conduction stream.
The currents in the disc were actually detected by using inductors covering half the plate and placing the needle over the uncovered portion ; but the effect was too small to be measured accurately. To prove this more thoroughly numerical results were attempted, and. after weeks of labor, obtained. I give below the last results which, from the precautions taken and the increase of experience, have the greatest weight.".
{ULSF: perhaps go on and read entire paper showing equations and online text}
Rowland then describes the equations to calculate the expected magnetic effect and the electric potential on the disks, given the constant velocity of the disks (61 rotations per minute) and the ratio of the force caused by moving to that caused by static electricity first determined by Weber and then Maxwell.
Rowland writes "In such a delicate experiment, the disturbing causes, such as the changes of the earth's magnetism, the changing temperature of the room, &c., were so numerous that only on few days could numerical results be obtained, and even then the accuracy could not be great. ...".
Rowland then gives the data for 3 experiments varying the parameters of the experiment each time. The value they obtain for the magnetic force of the moving static electric charge to be around .00000355 which is around 1/50000 of the horizontal force of the earth's magnetism. {ULSF: State what the horizontal component of the earth's magnetism is at the surface.}. Rowland concludes:
"The error amounts to 3, 10 and 4 per cent respectively in the three series. Had we taken Webers value of v the agreement would have been still nearer. Considering the difficulty of the experiment and the many sources of error, we may consider the agreement very satisfactory. The force measured is,
we observe, about 1/50000 of the horizontal force of the earth's magnetism.
The difference of readings with + and — motion is due to the magnetism of rotation of the brass axis. This action is eliminated from the result.
It will be observed that this method gives a determination of ν, the ratio of the electromagnetic to the electrostatic system of units, and if carried out on a large scale with perfect instruments might give good results. The value ν= 300,000,000 meters per second satisfies the first and last series of the experiments the best.".
Three years after this, with improved thermometric and calorimetric methods, Rowland redetermines the mechanical equivalent of heat and also redetermines the standard value of electrical resistance, the ohm.
(How fast does the disk spin? How strong is the magnetic field? What is the equivalent strength of the current? In this technique low frequency radio photons could be sent by mechanical oscillation - although I don't know what the value of this would be.)
(It is interesting that this experiment is somewhat similar to the earlier experiments of Arago and Faraday which led to the realization of the first electric motor and generator. The difference being that the spinning disk then was a conductor {copper disk}, while here it is a non-conductor {rubber surrounded by two plates of glass} surrounded by 2 conductors {gold}.)
(One major difference is that the speed of electricity is much faster in an electromagnet with moving current - should there not be a noticable effect to the magnetic needle movement produced by the same quantity of moving electricity because the speed of the current is less in this experiment? This is a reason to show all the equations - because apparently the rotation is scaled against the ratio of moving to static electric charged particles. People should remember that all this is based on Weber's theory that the electric charge from a particle decreases when it is moving relative to the measuring device as far as I understand.)
(With the battery connected, is this a moving current? Shouldn't the battery be disconnected after the static charge is accumulated? Could possibly electricity go from the rubber to move through the gold and be a current? Was a current measured? I think the battery should be clearly disconnected and a static charge maintained - perhaps that was done, but it isn't clear to me.)
(If this effect if real, I think this may possibly be a particle collision phenomenon. Static electric particles collide with the magnetic needle and deflect it.)
(Listening to Rowland's doubts about the variable measurements - doesn't it seem that he may have just picked 3 readings that happened to be what was expected?)
| (working for Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore) (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
124 YBN
[05/01/1876 AD]
| 3656) Friedrich Kohlrausch (CE 1840-1910) theorizes that in a dilute solution, every electrochemical element (e.g., hydrogen, chlorine, or a radical such as NO3) has a definite resistance pertaining to it, independent of the compound from which it is electrolyzed.
In this work, Kohlrausch states clearly the popular view that the electric current conduction in water is due, not by conduction by the water, but by dissolved particles, such as sodium ions.
Kohlrausch states that the high conductivity of acids is due to the fact that hydrogen is one of their migrating components, and that possibly the same remark applies to the good conduction of the alkalies in solution.
(It seems clear that resistance of moving particles would not only relate to the physical 3 dimensional geometry of the particles (obstacles) the moving particles collide with through time, but also the 3 dimensional geometry of the moving particle itself.)
| (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
124 YBN
[09/??/1876 AD]
| 3572) Alexander Mikhailovich Butlerov (BUTlYuruF) (CE 1828-1886), Russian chemist, presents the theory of tautomerism, the reversible interconversion of structural isomers of organic chemical compounds. Such interconversions usually involve transfer of a proton.
Tauterism is where a compound can have two structures by the shift of a hydrogen atom. (This seems to me that tauterism is a subset of isomerism.) From tert.-butyl alcohol, Butlerov obtains by the action of sulfuric acid, two isomeric diisobutylenes. He explains their formation by assuming an equilibrium between the two hydrocarbons, water, and the corresponding alcohols. He then goes on to discuss the possible existence of an equilibrium between isomers, even in the absence of any reagent. Butlerov states his idea this way, "In this case, in every study of the chemical structure of a substance, the molecule will always behave in two or more isomeric forms. It is clear that the chemical reactions of such a substance must occur in accordance with sometimes one, sometimes the other structure, depending on the reagent and on the experimental conditions." As a possible example, he suggests hydrocyanic acid. This work does not receive the consideration it deserves at the time, and not until the work of Laar in 1885 will the fact of tautomerism be generally recognized.
| (work done at St. Peterburg University, paper presented at) Warsaw, Poland |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 2688) In Germany the telegraph and postal services are united as the "Imperial Post and Telegraph Administration". The telegraph network has a length of about 40,000 km, with a circuit length of about 149,000 km made primarily of overhead lines.
| ((Berlin or Frankfurt?)) |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3038) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes "The Effects of Cross and Self Fertilization in the Vegetable Kingdom" (1876). This is the result of twelve years of experiments on fifty-seven species. Darwin discovers and demonstrates the fact of hybrid vigor.
| Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3040) Charles Robert Darwin (CE 1809-1882), English naturalist, publishes "The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex" (1871, 2 vol.).
In publishing this, Darwin stands at the side of Lyell (author of "Antiquity of Man" ), in which Darwin argues that humans have descended from subhuman forms of life, showing that humans have vestigial organs, for example points on the ear that show that the ear was once pointed, and now useless muscles that were designed to move those ears, (which some people still can). In addition, there are four bones at the bottom of the spine which are remnants of a tail, and numerous examples of other evidence.
In this work Darwin argues that female birds choose mates for their gaudy plumage and that this kind of "sexual selection" happens among humans too. The large and pretty displays of male Peacocks are another example of the result of females selecting males for sex and passing on the males characteristics.
(Comparative anatomy of all species over time has not been fully explored and explained, for example, how the sexual organs have grown larger and changed, how the brain has grown, how the buttocks has become rounder and fatter, and then a prediction into the future has been completely ignored by people. For example, will genitals continue to grow larger? Will the brain continue to grow larger? Will larger and rounder breasts and buttocks be selected? What about the millions of our human descendants living in low gravity orbit in between the planets and stars? Will they replace legs with arms? Will they look more like ocean living organisms that live in lower gravity? Why the silence on this topic of sexual selection, past and future comparative adaption?)
| Downe, Kent, England (presumably) |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3069) Asa Gray (CE 1810-1888), US botanist publishes "Darwiniana" (1876, reprinted 1963), which contains Gray's writings in support of the Darwin's theory of evolution.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3669) four-stroke gas engine.
Nikolaus August Otto (CE 1832-1891), German inventor, is the first to build a four-stroke gasoline engine.
This is the first successful "gas-compression engine", and can be operated with both coal-gas and oil-gas (petroleum).
In 1791, John Barber (CE 1734-1801), had patented a gas engine which uses coal-gas but has no cylinder or piston. In 1859 Lenoir had built the first successful direct-acting gasoline combustion engine.
Otto thinks that the Lenoir engine would be more flexible if it runs on fuel in a liquid state instead of fuel in a gaseous state.
William Barnett had designed a compressed gas engine in 1838.
The four-stroke cycle was patented in 1862 by the French engineer Alphonse Beau de Rochas, but since Otto builds the first four-stroke engine, the four-stroke cycle is commonly known as the Otto cycle. In this engine there are four strokes of the piston for each ignition. In 1886 Otto's patent is revoked when Beau de Rochas' earlier patent is brought to light.
In a four-stroke engine in the first stage (or stroke) a cylinder moves out and a mixture of gas (gasoline: chemical formula?) and air is drawn in (what causes the cylinder to initially go out? Perhaps some initial gas and air in the cylinder is ignited.). Next, in the second stage, the cylinder moves back in and compresses this mixture of gas and air. At the height of compression a spark will ignite the explosion which drives the piston out resulting in the third stroke, and finally in the fourth stroke the piston moves back in forcing exhaust gas (which is=?) out of the cylinder.
Because of its reliability, its efficiency, and its relative quietness, Otto's engine is an immediate success, and more than 30,000 of these engines are built during the next 10 years.
By 1890 the Otto engines are virtually the only internal combustion engines is use. The Otto engine makes possible the automobile and airplane and is widely adopted for automobile, airplane, and other motors.
This gas engine offers the first practical alternative to the steam engine as a power source.
This engine uses four strokes or two revolutions of the shaft to complete the Otto cycle, the cylinder being used alternately as a pump and a motor. The engine, when working at full load, therefore gives one impulse for every two revolutions. There are four valves, all of the conical-seated lift type. These are the charge inlet valve, gas inlet valve, igniting valve, and exhaust valve. The igniting valve is usually termed the timing valve, because it determines the time of the explosion. This engine is patent number 2081. (See Image 5) The working parts are as follows: - A the piston, B the connecting rod, C the crank shaft, D the side or valve shaft, E the skew gearing, F the exhaust valve, G the exhaust valve lever, H the exhaust valve cam, I the charge inlet valve, J the charge inlet valve lever, K the charging valve cam, L the gas inlet valve, M the gas valve cam, N lever and link operating gas valve, 0 igniting or timing valve, P timing valve cam, Q timing valve lever or tumbler, R igniting tube, S governor, T water jacket and cylinder, U Bunsenburner for heating ignition tube. On the first forward or charging stroke the charge of gas and air is admitted by the inlet valve I, which is operated by the lever J from the cam K, on the valve shaft D. The gas supply is admitted to the inlet valve I by the lift valve L, which is also operated by the lever and link N from the cam M, controlled, however, by the centrifugal governor S. The governor operates either to admit gas wholly, or to cut it off completely, so that the variation in power is obtained by varying the number of the explosions.
| (Gasmotoren-Frabrik Deutz AG) Deutz, Cologne, Germany |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3696) Alfred Bernhard Nobel (CE 1833-1896), Swedish inventor, invents blasting gelatin, a transparent, jelly-like substance which is a more powerful explosive than dynamite. Nobel makes this by combining nitroglycerin with another high explosive, gun-cotton.
(Nitroglycerine based) explosives are used in war, and become the backbone of all explosives until the invention of the nuclear bomb.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3755) Wilhelm (Willy) Friedrich Kühne (KYUNu) (CE 1837-1900), German physiologist isolates the ferment (enzyme) trypsin in pancreatic juice, which is shown to have a digestive action on protein (outside of cells). Kühne suggests that substances that are isolated from digestive juices be called "enzymes" (from the Greek for "in yeast", because they resemble the ferments in living cells such as yeast), and the word "ferment" for substances inside cells. Twenty years later Buchner will show that the ferments in yeast cells also work outside yeast cells without life, and the word "enzyme" is applied to all ferments.
Asimov states that Kühne shows a "vitalist" tendency in making this distinction between enzyme and ferment.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3819) Karl Paul Gottfried von Linde (liNDu) (CE 1842-1934), German chemist, builds the first practical refrigerator, basing it on liquid ammonia as a coolant.
(TODO Get image of refrigerator.)
Linde had developed a methyl ether refrigerator in 1874.
Linde's refrigerator is a much more efficient cooler than the compression machine introduced by Jacob Perkins in 1834. By 1908 the Linde Company will have sold 2600 machines, of which just over half are purchased by breweries.
(Describe history of block ice. Before refrigerators large blocks of ice are used to keep objects cold.)
| (Technische Hochschule) Munich, Germany |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3892) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist describes the complete life cycle of the anthrax bacterium.
Pierre Rayer had described the anthrax bacterium and infects healthy sheep with blood of diseased sheep in 1850 and Casimir Davaine extended this work in 1863. Koch defends the thesis supported by Davaine that the rods are necessary for the disease. Delafond had noticed that the rod-shaped bodies of anthrax multiply in stored blood from infected animals.
Koch publishes this as (translated from German) "The etiology of anthrax, based on the life history of Bacillus anthracis.".
In this work, Koch describes how he injects mice with infected material and passes the infection from mouse to mouse, and recovering the same bacteria through as many as 20 mice. Koch cultivates the bacteria outside the living body, using blood at body temperature, and is able to follow the entire life cycle of the anthrax bacteria and to study its method of forming resistant spores. Koch describes how oval shaped spores form and describes his method of culturing the spores. The spores are dried on a cover glass, a drop of aqueous humor placed on the microscope slide, and the cover glass laid on the slide, the spores are wetted by the fluid and then incubated at 35°. After 3 or 4 hours, under high magnification the spores can be seen to lengthen on one side and become a long oval.
| (District Medical Officer) Wollstein, Germany |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3972) Otto Lehmann (CE 1855-1922) identifies that at temperatures above 146 degrees (Celsius), although in a liquid state, silver iodide exhibits several properties characteristic of crystals. Lehmann will later name molecules with this property "liquid crystals". Liquid crystals are molecules that have a state of organization in between solid and liquid. Molecules that have this liquid crystal property will form the basis of all liquid crystal display screens (LCDs).
A priority dispute occurs between Lehmann and Reinitzer about who was the first to recognize the liquid crystal property.
Some sources credit Reinitzer with the first finding of a liquid crystal and others Lehmann.
Friedrich Reinitzer will report (1888) that cholesteryl benzoate exhibits this liquid crystal phenomenon, as will L. Gattermann in 1890 for p-azoxyznisole and p-azoxyphenetole, and Otto Lehmann for ammonium oleate. If the temperature of these substances is gradually raised, while they are on the stage of a microscope, called a crystallization microscope, it will be observed that double refraction indicates that the molecules have a definite alignment at temperatures above their melting point when the crystals, if touched with a needle, wobble like jellies, for they are then soft, compressible, elastic, more or less viscid, turbid, anisotropic liquids. Otto Lehmann proposes the term "liquid crystals" ("flüssige Kristalle") in 1889, although some prefer the term "anisotropic liquids, or birefringent liquids.
(give important parts of translated work)
How a liquid crystal display works is that polarized light (in the tradition view light waves with electric and magnetic fields aligned in the same direction, but in my view light particles all moving in the direction of a single plane) is sent through a polarizing filter sheet, and through liquid crystal material and then through a second polarizaing filter sheet rotated at 90 degrees. So the liquid crystal is in between these two polarizing filter sheets which are at 90 degrees to each other. An electromagnetic field is applied between the two filters which cause the liquid crystal material to all align themselves. In this way, polarized light can be blocked or not blocked by the second filter because of the change in the polarizing angle of the light that the liquid in between the two filters causes. (probably move to the first LCD screen record)
Lehmann invents the "crystallization microscope", also known as the heating stage microscope. (Having images sent directly to the brain to appear in a person's mind, or in front of their eyes, is the most convenient method of image displaying, however, the LCD is useful for those that find direct image sending to the brain too intrusive, or for whatever reason prefer the image to be externally produced. There is a big mystery about when and who first performed remote neuron activation, and sending the first image to a brain. It seems to be possibly in the year 1810, but the person is unknown to most people.)
| University of Strasbourg, Strasbourg, Alsace, Germany(now in France) |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 3986) James Clerk Maxwell (CE 1831-1879) publishes "Matter and Motion" which may imply an understanding of the great mistake of combining matter and motion into "momentum", "energy", etc, although Maxwell never explicitly states this view. To explain farther this theory: there is a conservation of matter and a conservation of motion (velocity, acceleration, etc) in all parts of the universe, matter can never be destroyed, and motion can never be stopped. In addition, there can never be matter converted into motion, or motion into matter, so quantities which are products of mass and motion; mass times velocity (momentum), for example, or mass times acceleration (force) can only be viewed as generalizations of physical phenomena and cannot apply to a real physical phenomenon since mass and motion can never be converted into each other. This is a simple principle, but I have never heard it formally stated before until realizing the possible truth of it myself.
| Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University, Cambridge, England (presumably) |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 4094) Eugen Goldstein (GOLTsTIN) (CE 1850-1930), German physicist, applies the name "cathode-rays" to the luminescence produced at the cathode in an evacuated tube (under high voltage/electric potential), and shows that cathode rays can cast sharp shadows.
Julius Plücker was the first to identify cathode-rays.
Goldstein demonstraets that cathode-rays are emitted perpendicularly to the cathode surface, a discovery that makes it possible to design concave cathodes to produce concentrated or focused rays, which are useful in a wide range of experiments. This discovery casts some doubt on the idea then popular among German physicists that the rays consisted of some form of electromagnetic radiation (in modern terms: light).
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
124 YBN
[1876 AD]
| 6022) Amilcare Ponchielli (CE 1834-1886), Italian composer composes "La Gioconda" ("The Joyful Girl") which includes the famous ballet "Dance of the Hours".
| Milan, Italy (presumably) |
123 YBN
[04/14/1877 AD]
| 4111) Émile Berliner (BARlENR) (CE 1851-1929), German-US inventor patents a version of the modern telephone mouthpiece and microphone. This is a "loose-contact" transmitter, a type of microphone, which increases the volume of the transmitted voice.
Berliner files a caveet two weeks before Edison patents, what according to Asimov, is virtually the same thing (the carbon microphone ). (Determine if the two microphones use the same principle - the variable resistance of carbon grains packed toegether that results from vibrations changing the quality of the electrical contact.)
Being in need of cash, Berliner sells the rights to his telephone transmitter (microphone) to the Bell Telephone Company of Boston three months later for $75,000 (some sources report $50,000). Berliner also takes a salaried position at Bell as an engineer. In 1881, Berliner returns to Germany and joined his brother, Joseph, in founding the first European telephone company—the Telephon-Fabrik Berliner.
Edison will retain the patent rights but only after 15 years of litigation. (Is this an example of Edison purposely copying a patent? or an independent find? only the government and phone company neuron reading and microcamera net might reveal.)
| (own apartment) Washington, DC, USA |
123 YBN
[04/27/1877 AD]
| 3994) "Carbon microphone" (carbon-button transmitter).
Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor invents the carbon-button transmitter (carbon microphone), which varies electric current in proportion to the pressure caused by sound. The carbon-button transmitter makes the telephone practical. The carbon-button transmitter is the same as the "pressure relay", in using carbon instead of the usual magnet to vary electric current. The carbon-button transmitter is still used in telephone speakers and microphones. (The telephone will eventually be surpassed by the more popular and convenient method of sending and receiving sounds and images directly to and from brains.) (Is the carbon relay still used in most microphones? If yes, this might be the first practical microphone made public.)
The first microphone, or device that transfers variations in sound to variations in electric current was in 1861 by Philip Reiss of Friedrichsdorf, Germany, although it seems very likely that the microphone was invented earlier but like seeing eyes and thought-images kept secret from the public for a long time.
In 1856 Theodore Du Moncel published the observation that variations in the resistance of a circuit can be produced by varying the pressure on metallic surfaces in contact. Silvanus P. Thompson will show in Februay 1882, that the change in resistance is not due to pressure placed on carbon, but changes in response to pressure placed on the metal contacts because there is more or less physical connection between metal contact and a solid carbon rod.
In 1873 Edison states that he independently discovered "the peculiar property which semi-conductors have of varying their resistance with pressure while constructing some rheostats for artificial cables, in which were employed powdered carbon, plumbago, and other materials in glass tubes.". Plumbago (PluMBAGO) is graphite, a soft, steel-gray to black, hexagonally crystallized allotrope of carbon with a metallic luster and a greasy feel, used in lead pencils, lubricants, paints, and coatings, that is fabricated into a variety of forms such as molds, bricks, electrodes, crucibles, and rocket nozzles, also called "black lead". Edison state that it was not until January 1877 that he first applied the effect of pressure on carbon to telephonic purposes. (Notice the use of the word "semiconductor" - a hint about the now massive semiconductor transistor-based industry or just coincidence?)
In his April 27, 1877 patent application, Edison calls his device a "speaking-telegraph", but by his December 13 patent is also refering to this device as a "telephone". In this patent Edison claims as his invention: "1. ïn a speaking-telegraph transmitter, the combination of a metallic diaphragm and disk of plumbago or equivalent material, the contiguous faces of said disk and diaphragm being in contact, substantially as described. 2. As a means for effecting a varying surface contact in the circuit of a speaking-telegraph transmitter, the combination of two electrodes, one of plumbago or similar material, and both having broad surfaces in vibratory contact with each other, substantially as described.". In his August 28, 1877 patent, "improvements in speaking-telegraphs", Edison patents a different form of microphone that uses silk fibers coated with graphite and rolled with loose graphite into a cigar shape. Edison calls these "articulators" or "electric tension-regulators". Edison writes "This tension-regulator may be employed in various electric instruments-such as rheostats-to regulate the electric current passing at a given place according to the pressure exerted upon the mass of fiber.". Note that a rheostat (rEuStis a variable resistor, the word rheostat was coined by Charles Wheatstone in 1843. This tension regulator, which uses the same principle as the carbon microphone, is a "pressure relay", using carbon instead of the usual magnet to vary electric current.
In 1861 Philip Reiss had used membrane and spring as a microphone, or transmitter for his telephone.
Émile Berliner had patented a similar microphone a few weeks earlier.
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN
[04/27/1877 AD]
| 4294) "Scientific American" reports that Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931) had noticed that a magnetic vibrator relay of the kind used in electric bells produces sparks all over the armature, and that when one end of a wire is tied to the armature a spark can be drawn by touching the other end with a piece of iron, or even by turning the wire back on itself so that the free end touches the middle. Edison finds that sparks can be drawn from any metallic object placed in the vicinity of the vibrator, without any connection whatsoever between the object and the vibrator. Edison concludes that this phenomenon is not of an electrical nature and claims to have found a new force which he names "etheric force". Edison is quoted as saying that the observed phenomena attest new "principles, until now buried in the depths of human ignorance". This phenomenon is the basis of wireless communication using light particles one form of which is radio communication. (Funny, how Edison may be refering to why neuron reading and writing has been kept secret for 65 years by that time - little could Edison have realized that this idiotic and terrible secret would last for a stupifying longer time - currently at the 200 year mark and showing no signs of being publically shown, explained, and taught any time soon.)
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN
[06/??/1877 AD]
| 3879) P. L. Chastaing finds that both red and violet rays oxidize organic compounds which continuously increases from red to violet, while red rays generally oxidize and violet rays reduce inorganic compounds.
Oxidation is a reaction in which oxygen is combined with a compound, and reduction is a chemical reaction where hydrogen is combined with a compound or oxygen is removed.
| (Sorbonne laboratory) Paris, France (verify) |
123 YBN
[07/??/1877 AD]
| 3749) Henry Draper (CE 1837-1882), US physician and amateur astronomer, discovers oxygen in the spectrum of the Sun by photography.
| (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
123 YBN
[08/11/1877 AD]
| 3584) Asaph Hall (CE 1829-1907), US astronomer identifies a moon of Mars (the smaller outer moon, Deimos).
In 1877, Mars is very close to the Earth, reaching only 35 million miles away. Hall uses a 26-inch refracting telescope at the Naval Observatory in Washington D.C., the largest telescope (refracting or reflecting) on earth at the time and until 1880.
(How does Hall report this?) (Interesting that Hall does not capture a photograph of the moon, since the technology clearly existed and would not be an expensive addition to a telescope. Perhaps since the electronic camera was secret and far easier and faster to use in obtaining images, that was used, and since it was secret, the images had to be kept secret too.)
| (Naval Observatory) Washington, DC, USA |
123 YBN
[08/17/1877 AD]
| 3585) Asaph Hall (CE 1829-1907), US astronomer identifies a second moon of Mars (the larger inner, Phobos).
Both these moons are very small, having diameters of 17 miles (27 km) and 9 miles (15 km) only. He named the larger ‘Phobos’ and the smaller ‘Deimos’ (Fear and Terror), after the sons of Mars. (Who estimates mass, size and when? how is size determined?)
Professor Newcomb calculates the orbit of the two moons to be for the inner Phobos, 7 hours 38 minutes, and the outer Deimos, 30 hours 14 minutes. "The Observatory" reports in 1877 "The rapidity of these movements is without precedent; for though Mimas revolves in 22h.6, the Saturnian day is less than hald this, viz. 10h.2, whilst in the case of Mars the day is 24h.6 and the outer satellite revolves once in less than a day and a quarter, and inner 3 1/4 times in one day. The phenomena presented to an inhabitant of Mars must be very remarkable, for the outer satellite will remain above the horizon for two and a half days and nights, and the inner will rise in the west and set in the east twice in the course of the night". In the process Newcomb estimates the mass of Mars to be 1/3,090,000 the mass of the Sun where Le Verrier had estimated 1/3,000,000 the mass of the Sun.
Hall names the satellites Phobos ("fear") and Deimos ("terror") after the two sons of the war-god Ares in the Greek myth. (equiv of Roman Mars?)
The existence of two Martian moons was predicted around 1610 by Johannes Kepler, the astronomer who derived the laws of planetary motion. In this case, Kepler's prediction was not based on scientific principles, but his writings and ideas were so influential that the two Martian moons are discussed in works of fiction such as Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, written in 1726, over 150 years before their actual discovery. According to the Oxford University Press, not only did Swift get their number correct but also spoke accurately of their size and orbital period. (With these kinds of coincidences, I think perhaps people should look for more moons, because of mysticism, many errors have been made.)
| (Naval Observatory) Washington, DC, USA |
123 YBN
[08/28/1877 AD]
| 4000) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor invents a form of "pressure relay". Edison refers to this as an "electric tension regulator", electric tension being the name for voltage at the time.
An electromagnetic relay converts electricity into mechanical motion to complete a circuit using the principle of electromagnetism - in this way as a current which becomes weak from traveling over a long metal wire can be used to complete another circuit with a large current to go over another long streth of metal wire - and so an electric current can be sent over long distances. This pressure relay, converts, in exact proportion, air pressure into electric current. The pressure relay can also be viewed as a variable resistor whose resistance depends on the pressure placed on it.
Edison describes this carbon-based pressure-based variable resistor in his August 28, 1877 patent entitled "Improvement in Speaking-Telegraphs" (an early name for the telephone, in a similar way that the word "telephone" will probably be replaced simply by "network" or "internet", "videophone" and "thought-phone").
In his earlier April patent, Edison used a carbon disk to use the changes in air pressure of sound to change in electric current, here Edison uses packed graphite around a piece of silk. Edison writes: ".... I have discovered that if any fibrous material—such as silk, asbestus, cotton, wool, sponge, or feathers—be coated, by rubbing or otherwise, with with a semi-conducting substance, such as plumbago, carbon in its conducting form, metallic oxides, and other conducting material, and snch fiber be gathered into a tuft arid placed in a circuit, it is very sensitiv 3 to the slightest movement. I am enabled not only to obtain the regulation by the greater or less pressure, but also to increase or decrease the extent of surface-contact between the particles of conducting orsenri-condueting material that is associated with the fiber. It is best to use fibers that are springy, such as sponge or silk, so as to prevent the materials packing and the regulator losing its elasticity.
I prefer to use uuspun silk fiber, cut in lengths of about one-sixteenth of an inch, which, are then coated with plumbago by thorough rubbing, or by using a mucilaginous paste of plumbago, rubbing and thoroughly drying, after which the fiber, with a little loose plumbago, is rolled into a cigar shape, and retained by a binding-fiber of silk. I propose to call these 'articulators' or 'electric tension - regulators'. ...".
In 1861 Philip Reiss had used a pressure relay for his telephone.
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN
[09/??/1877 AD]
| 3729) Giovanni Virginio Schiaparelli (SKYoPorelE) (CE 1835-1910), Italian astronomer, makes maps of Mars (1877-90). Schiaparelli is the first to classify features as "seas" and "continents". He uses the term "canali", which Secchi had used in his observations of 1859, and which means "channels", but the work is mistranslated into English as "canals", which combined with the straightness of the lines makes many people start to believe that Mars is inhabited by advanced life.
In this year Mars and the earth reach within 35 million miles of each other.
Schiaparelli
| (Brera Observatory) Milan, Italy |
123 YBN
[10/11/1877 AD]
| 3925) Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (BOLTSmoN) (CE 1844-1906), Austrian physicist, publishes his statistical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics ("heat cannot of itself pass from a colder to a hotter body"). In this work Boltzmann theorizes that the entropy of a state is proportional to the probability of the configuration of its component particles. Boltzmann creates the equation: ∫(dq/T) = 2Ω/3, which is better known in the form S = k log W, which Max Planck gives it in 1901. Planck bases the derivation of his black body radiation formula on this equation. This equation connects entropy S to the logarithm of the number of microstates, W, that a given macroscopic state of the system can have, with k now called the "Boltzmann constant". The Boltzmann constant is 1.3806505× 10−23JK−1. The Boltzmann constant, relates the average total energy of a molecule to its absolute temperature.
Clausius first used the word "entropy" in 1865, to describe the theory that energy is always converted into an unusable form. Boltzmann applies a statistical explanation to this theory. The mathematical interpretation of the second law of thermodynamics is dS/dt >= 0, in which the entropy S always increases through time in any physical process. Boltzmann gives a statistical explanation for this theory. Boltzmann views the supposed increase in entropy in a system to mean that the particles of the system are moving from a less probable to more probable arrangement. The state of maximum probability is the equilibrium state, and in this state the entropy is a maximum.
Boltzmann publishes this in "Über die Beziehung eines allgemeine mechanischen Satzes zum zweiten Hauptsatze der Wärmetheorie." ("On the Relation between the Second Law of the Mechanical Theory of Heat and the Probability Calculus with respect to the Propositions about Heat-Equivalence.").
Boltzmann applies the theory of probability to the problem of energy-partition. Boltzmann starts by considering a system of molecules in which the energy of each molecule can only have one of a series of discrete values, such as 1, 2, 3 ...and he investigates the most probable distribution of energy for a number of them drawn at random. From this simple case, Boltzmann is lead to describe a gas with generalized coordinates.
Earlier on Jan. 11, 1877, Boltzmann had presented ("Remarks on Some Problems of the Mechanical Theory of Heat"), to the Academy of Sciences in Vienna, in which Boltzmann used Clausius' equation ∫(dQ/T) ≥ 0 and argues that any distribution of mass, however improbable, can theoretically occur as time goes on stating: "The calculus of probabilities teaches us precisely this: any non-uniform distribution, unlikely as it may be, is not strictly speaking impossible.".
(In my opinion, since the theory of entropy is inaccurate, because it implies that velocity is not conserved in the universe, that energy dissipates, and so with that as the basis, Boltzmann's equation, in both forms, and the Boltzmann constant, seem to me to represent an inaccurate interpretation of the universe - although perhaps mathematically they are useful to describe observable phenomena.)
| (University of Graz) Graz, Austria |
123 YBN
[12/02/1877 AD]
| 3688) Louis Paul Cailletet (KoYuTA) (CE 1832-1913), French physicist and ironmaster, liquefies oxygen and hydrogen into a mist.
From 1877 to 1878 Cailletet succeeds in liquefying nitrogen, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and acetylene for the first time.
Cailletet produces a liquid mist of hydrogen (Dewar will be the first to produce large quantities of liquid hydrogen).
Gaspard Monge was the first to liquefy a gas when he liquefies sulfur dioxide in 1785.
Cailletet produces small quantities of liquid oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide, by compressing a gas as much as possible and then allowing it to expand (Joule-Thompson effect) causes the temperature of the gas to decrease drastically.
Cailletet's letter reads (translated to English): " I hasten to tell you, you first, and without losing a moment, that I have liquefied to-day both carbon monoxide and oxygen. I am, perhaps, wrong in saying liquefied, for at the temperature obtained by the evaporation of sulphurous acid, say —29° and 200 atmospheres, I do not see the liquid, but a mist so dense that I can infer the presence of a vapor very near to its point of liquefaction. I write to-day to M. Deleuil to ask of him some, nitrogen protoxide, with the aid of which I will be able, doubtless, to see carbon monoxide and oxygen flow. P. S.—I have just performed an experiment which gives my mind great peace. I have compressed some hydrogen to 300 atmospheres, and, after cooling to —28°, I have released it suddenly. There was no trace of mist in the tube. My gases (CO and O) are then on the point of liquefying, this mist not being produced except with the vapors near liquefaction. The (previsions) prophecies of M. Berthelot are completely realized. Louis Cailletet. December 2, 1877.".
Swiss physician Raoul-Pierre Pictet (1846–1929), working independently around the same time, also liquefies gases in a similar way, and there is considerable discussion as to which of the two had succeeded first.
Cailletet adopts Colladon's well known compression apparatus for the purpose of his investigations, then connects a valve to the hydraulic press which allows the sudden release of the compressed gas from pressure.
Both Pictet's work "Mémoire sur la liquéfaction de l’oxygène" and Cailletet's work "Recherches sur la liquéfaction des gaz" are published in "Annales de chimie et de physique" in 1878.
Cailletet writes (translated from French) (verify is original 1877 paper): "The Liquefaction of Oxygen Liquid ethylene, the use of which I have already explained to the Academie des sciences, furnishes, when boiled in the open air, a cold sufficient to cause oxygen, if compressed and reduced to this temperature, to present, when the pressure is diminished, a hard boiling appearance, which continues for an appreciable time. by evaporating the ethylene by the air pump, the temperature is sufficiently lowered to reduce the oxygen to a liquid state. I have endeavored to avoid the inconvenience and complication which result from working in a vacuum, and to this end have already suggested the use of liquid methane, by means of which the liquefaction of oxygen and nitrogen may be easily brought about. I thought, however, that, notwithstanding these advantages, ethylene, which is so easily prepared and handled, ought to be prefferred to methane; and, by means of ethylene boiled in open jars, I have succeeded in reducing the temperature sufficiently to cause the complete liquefaction of oxygen. The process I use is very simple, and consists in evaporating the ethylene by forcing into it a current of air or of hydrogen at a very low temperature. In my apparatus, the steel receiver R, which contains the liquid ethylene, is attached to a copper worm three or four millimetres in diameter, closed by a screw-tap arranged in a glass jar, S. On turning into this jar some chloride of methyl, the temperature falls to -25°; but if we blow into this air which we have dried by passing it through a flask, C, containing chloride of calcium, we soon have a cold of -70°. The ethylene thus cooled condenses, and fills the worm. When the tap is opened at the base of the jar S, the ethylene flows under a slight pressure, and without apparent loss, into the glass gauge V, set, as shown in the figure, in a jar containing pumice-stone saturated with sulphuric acid, to absorb the water-vapor. It is indispenable to work in absolutely dr "y air; for otherwise the moisture of the air will condense in the form of an icy film on the walls of the gauge, which will become perfectly opaque. It is then only necessary to evaporate the ethylene by means of a rapid current of air or of hydrogen cooled in a second worm, placed in the jar of chloride of methly, S, to cause the oxygen compressed in the glass tube attached to the upper part of the reservoir O to be resolved into a colorless, transparent liquid separated from the gas above it by a perfectly clear meniscus. By working the pump P, the water acts on the mercury in the receiver O, and forces it into the gauge which contains the oxygen. The gas thus compressed liquefies in the branch of the rube in the gauge V. This tube dips into the ethylene at a temperature of -125°. The mass of liquefied oxygen, which is as limpid as ether, is figured in black in the figure in order that it may be visible. By means of a hydrogen thermometer, I have measured the temperature of the ethylene, which in one of my experiments I found to be -123°. I am in hope, that, by cooling the current of hydrogen more carefully, the temperature may be still further reduced. The copper worms in which the air and ethylene circulate are dipped into the chloride of methyl, which is rapidly evaporated by a current of air previously cooled. In conclusion, by evaporating liquid ethyl by a current of air or hydrogen much reduced in temperature, its temperature may be reduced below the critical point of oxygen, which in this way liquefies in the clearest form. This experiment is so simple and easy to perform, that it may enter into the regular course in a laboratory.".
Historian Thomas Sloane writes that on December 31, 1877, Cailletet tries to liquefy hydrogen in presence of MM. Berthelot, Sainte-Claire Deville and Mascart, obtaining evidences of the liquefaction of the gas, and repeating the experiment a great many times. Cailletet compresses hydrogen to 280 atmospheres, and, on sudden release, the hydrogen forms an exceedingly fine mist which suddenly disappears. Air purified from carbon dioxide and from water produce the mist without difficulty. Berthelot, comments on the liquefaction of hydrogen, writing (translated from French to English):" The extreme tenuity of the liquefied particles which form this mist of hydrogen, a sort of disseminated glimmer (lueur), as well as their more rapid return to the gaseous state, are in perfect accord with the comparative properties of hydrogen and of the other gases."
The rival claims of Pictet and Cailletet are com-pared by Sainte-Claire Deville, who writes that Cailletet's experiments were repeated in the Ecole Normale on December 16, and succeeded perfectly. The priority of discovery is awarded to Cailletet. (notice Bethellot use of "tenuite" as possible relating that most of this story may be behind the secret camera-thought 1810 curtain.)
Cailletet is also the inventor of the altimeter and the high-pressure manometer. (chronology, verify)
(Interesting that expansion decreases temperature. Presuming velocity of particles remains the same, this implies that less collision or density equals lower temperature. But yet, this creates a liquid which implies a higher density of matter.)
| (father's ironworks) Chatillon, France |
123 YBN
[12/22/1877 AD]
| 3961) Raoul Pierre Pictet (PEKTA) (CE 1846-1929), Swiss chemist, liquefies oxygen.
One source claims that: on this day, Pictet sends a telegram to the French academy announcing that he has liquefied oxygen. Just two days later the French physicist Louis Cailletet makes a similar announcement. However, the earlier December 2, 1877 letter from Cailletet does claim to have liquefied oxygen.
The methods used by Pictet and Cailletet are different.
Using a method similar to that of Cailletet, but with more elaborate equipment, Pictet produces larger quantities of liquified gases.
The method Pictet uses to liquefy oxygen, is a cascade process" with sulfur dioxide in the first cycle, carbon dioxide in the second, and oxygen in the last. (more detail)
Pictet was first interested in the production of artificial ice before becoming interested in liquifying gases.
Pictet claims to have liquefied and solidified Hydrogen in a similar paper on June 11, 1878. However, many sources claim James Dewar is the first to liquefy hydrogen on 05/10/1898.
| University of Geneva, Switzerland |
123 YBN
[12/24/1877 AD]
| 4002) (note that if thought images were first seen in 1810, that playing recorded sound out loud probably happened much earlier but was kept secret from the public.)
Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, invents a phonograph which not only records sound (as the telautograph of Leon Scott had in 1855) but allows the recorded sound to be played back and heard out loud.
A phonograph is a cylinder with tin foil, which is turned while a free-floating needle skims over it, and is connected to a receiver to carry sound waves to the needle. The needle vibrates with the sound waves and impresses a wavering track on the tin. After this, following this track, the needle (connected to a megaphone which amplifies the sound) reproduces the recorded sound waves in a distorted but recognizable way.
The 1922 New International Encyclopaedia writes about the difference between the phonautograph of Leon Scott and Edison's phonograph stating: "...There was, however, the essential difference that the sound vibrations were now indented rather than traced on the surface of the cylinder. By reversing the machine -i.e., by causing the stylus to travel over the spiral line indented by the recording point- the original sound was reproduced by the diaphragm. Mr. Edison at this time also filed patents for a disk phonograph, but did not put this idea into practice until many years afterward, when disk machines long had been manufacturered by other persons.".
Edison improves on this device. Berliner will make a flat (plastic?) disc (what many people call "a record"). (who invents?) Eventually the sound will be electronically amplified.
In 1855 French scientist, Leon Scott (Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, (CE 1817–1879)) had invented the phonautograph, so far the earliest known cylinder device for recording and reproducing sounds including music and speech.
In 1877 another French scientist, Charles Cros (CE 1842-1888) invented an instrument his friend the Abbe Leblanc called the "phonograph", coining the word "phonograph" but Cros' phonograph does not make indentations in a soft substance as Edison's does.
Edison takes his new invention to the offices of "Scientific American" in New York City and shows it to staff there. The December 22, 1877, issue reports, "Mr. Thomas A. Edison recently came into this office, placed a little machine on our desk, turned a crank, and the machine inquired as to our health, asked how we liked the phonograph, informed us that it was very well, and bid us a cordial good night." According to the Library of Congress, interest in the phonograph is great, and the invention is reported in several New York newspapers, and later in other American newspapers and magazines.
The Edison Speaking Phonograph Company is established on January 24, 1878, to promote the new machine by exhibiting it. Edison receives $10,000 for the manufacturing and sales rights and 20% of the profits. According to the Library of Congress, as a novelty, the machine is an instant success, but is difficult for inexperienced people to operate, and the tin foil only lasts for a few playings.
Edison patents this as "Improvements in Phonograph or Speaking Machines." on December 24, 1877.
In Edison's patent describes a revolving plate phonograph, in addition to a continuous roll-fed phonograph writing: "... It is obvious that many forms of mechanism may be used to give motion to the material to be indented. For instance, a revolving plate may have a volute spiral cut both on its upper and lower surfaces, on the top of which the foil or indenting material is laid and secured in a proper manner. A two-part arm is used with this disk, the potion beneath the disk having a point in the lower groove, and the portion above the disk carrying the speaking and receiving diaphragmic devices, which arm is caused, by the volute spiral groove upon the lower surface, to swing gradually from near the center to the outer circumference of the plate as it is revolved, or vice versa. ... A wide continuous roll of material may be used, the diaphragmic devices being reciprocated by proper mechanical devices backward and forward over the roll as it passes forward; or a narrow strip like that in a Morse register may be moved in contact with the indenting point, and from this the sounds may be reproduced. The material employed for this purpose may be soft paper saturated or coated with paraffine or similar material, with a sheet of metal foil on the surface thereof to receive the impression from the indenting-point. ...".
In 1878 Edison writes an article in the North American review entitled "The Phonograph and Its Future" in which he writes: "Of all the writer's inventions, none has commanded such profound and earnest attention throughout the civilized world as has the phonograph. This fact he attributes largely to that peculiarity of the invention which brings its possibilities within range of the speculative imaginations of all thinking people, as well as to the almost universal applicability of the foundation principle, namely, the gathering up and retaining of sounds hitherto fugitive, and their reproduction at will. ...". Edison goes on to pose questions and present answers. Edison claims that a record from the phonograph can be removed and replaced on a second phonograph without multilation or loss of power and also that records can be sent through mail. Question 5 is "What as to durability?" to which Edison replies "Repeated experiments have proved that the indentation posses wonderful enduring power, even when the reproduction has been effected by the comparatively rigid plate used for their production. It is proposed, however, to use a more flexible plate for reproducing, which, with a perfectly smooth stone point - diamond or sapphire - will render the record capable of from 50 to 100 repetitions, enough for all practical purposes. 6. What as to duplication of a record and its permanence ? Man y experiments have been made with more or less success, in the effort to obtain electrotypes of a record. This work has been done by others, and, though the writer has not as yet seen it, he is reliably informed that, very recently, it has been successfully accomplished. He can certainly see no great practical obstacle in the way. This, of course, permits of an indefinite multiplication of a record, and its preservation for all time.". Note that electrotyping is a process of electroplating a block of type or other engraving on wax, or some other substance with metal. Electrotyping is also called Galvanoplasty. Edison describes the features of the phonograph: "1. The captivity of all manner of sound-waves heretofore designated as 'fugitive,' and their permanent retention.
2. Their reproduction with all their original characteristics at will, without the presence or consent of the original source, and after the lapse of any period of time.
3. The transmission of such captive sounds through the ordinary channels of commercial intercourse and trade in material form, for purposes of communication or as merchantable goods.
4. Indefinite multiplication and preservation of such sounds, without regard to the existence or non-existence of the original source.
5. The captivation of sounds, with or without the knowledge or consent of the source of their origin.
The probable application of these properties of the phonograph and the various branches of commercial and scientific industry presently indicated will require the exercise of more or less mechanical ingenuity. Conceding that the apparatus is practically perfected in so far as the faithful reproduction of sound is concerned, many of the following applications will be made the moment the new form of apparatus, which the writer is now about completing, is finished. These, then, might be classed as actualities; but they so closely trench upon other applications which will immediately follow, that it is impossible to separate them: hence they are all enumerated under the head of probabilities, and each specially considered. Among the more important may be mentioned : Letter-writing, and other forms of dictation books, education, reader, music, family record; and such electrotype applications as books, musical-boxes, toys, clocks, advertising and signaling apparatus, speeches, etc., etc. Letter-writing.—T he apparatus now being perfected in mechanical details will be the standard phonograph, and may be used for all purposes, except such as require special form of matrix, such as toys, clocks, etc., for an indefinite repetition of the same thing. The main utility of the phonograph, however, being for the purpose of letter-writing and other forms of dictation, the design is made with a view to its utility for that purpose.
The general principles of construction are, a fiat plate or disk, with spiral groove on the face, operated by clock-work underneath the plate; the grooves are cut very closely together, so as to give a great total length to each inch of surface—a close calculation gives as the capacity of each sheet of foil, upon which the record is had, in the neighborhood of 40,000 words. The sheets being but ten inches square, the cost is so trifling that but 100 words might be put upon a single sheet economically. Still, it is problematical whether a less number of grooves per inch might not be the better plan—it certainly would for letters—but it is desirable to have but one class of machine throughout the world; and as very extended communications, if put upon one sheet, could be transported more economically than upon two, it is important that each sheet be given as great capacity as possible. The writer has not yet decided this point, but will experiment with a view of ascertaining the best mean capacity.
The practical application of this form of phonograph for communications is very simple. A sheet of foil is placed in the phonograph, the clock-work set in motion, and the matter dictated into the mouth-piece without other effort than when dictating to a stenographer. It is then removed, placed in a suitable form of envelope, and sent through the ordinary channels to the correspondent for whom designed. He, placing it upon his phonograph, starts his clock-work and listens to what his correspondent has to say. Inasmuch as it gives the tone of voice of his correspondent, it is identified. As it may be filed away as other letters, and at any subsequent time reproduced, it is a perfect record. As two sheets of foil have been indented with the same facility as a single sheet, the " writer " may thus keep a duplicate of his communication. As the principal of a business house, or his partners now dictate the important business communications to clerks, to be written out, they are required to do no more by the phonographic method, and do thereby dispense with the clerk, and maintain perfect privacy in their communications.
The phonograph letters may be dictated at home, or in the office of a friend, the presence of a stenographer not lieing required. The dictation may be as rapid as the thoughts can be formed, or the lips utter them. The recipient may listen to his letters being read at a rate of from 150 to 200 words per minute, and at the same time busy himself about other matters. Interjections, explanations, emphasis, exclamations, etc., may be thrown into such letters, ad libitum. ... The advantages of such an innovation upon the present slow, tedious, and costly methods are too numerous, and too readily suggest themselves, to warrant their enumeration, while there are no disadvantages which will not disappear coincident with the general introduction of the new method.
Dictation.—All kinds and manner of dictation which will permit of the application of the mouth of the speaker to the mouth-piece of the phonograph may be as readily effected by the phonograph as in the case of letters. If the matter is for the printer, he would much prefer, in setting it up in type, to use his ears in lieu of his eyes. He has other use for them. It would be even worth while to compel witnesses in court to speak directly into the phonograph, in order to thus obtain an unimpeachable record of their testimony.
The increased delicacy of the phonograph, which is in the near future, will enlarge this field rapidly. It may then include all the sayings of not only the witness, but the judge and the counsel. It will then also comprehend the utterances of public speakers.
Books.—Books may be read by the charitably-inclined professional reader, or by such readers especially employed for that purpose, and the record of such book used in the asylums of the blind, hospitals, the sick-chamber, or even with great profit and amusement by the lady or gentleman whose eyes and hands may be otherwise employed; or, again, because of the greater enjoyment to be had from a book when read by an elocutionist than when read by the average reader. The ordinary record-sheet, repeating this book from fifty to a hundred times as it will, would command a price that would pay the original reader well for the slightly-increased difficulty in reading it aloud in the phonograph.
Educational Purposes.—As an elocutionary teacher, or as a primary teacher for children, it will certainly be invaluable. By it difficult passages may be correctly rendered for the pupil but once, after which he has only to apply to his phonograph for instructions. The child may thus learn to spell, commit to memory, a lesson set for it, etc., etc.
Music.—The phonograph will undoubtedly be liberally devoted to music. A song sung on the phonograph is reproduced with marvelous accuracy and power. Tims a friend may in a morning-call sing us a song which shall delight an evening company, etc. As a musical teacher it will be used to enable one to master a new air, the child to form its first songs, or to sing him to sleep.
Family Record.—For the purpose of preserving the sayings, the voices, and the laxt words of the dying member of the family —as of great men—the phonograph will unquestionably outrank the photograph. In the field of multiplication of original matrices, and the indefinite repetition of one and the same thing, the successful electrotyping of the original record is an essential. As this is a problem easy of solution, it properly ranks among the probabilities. It comprehends a vast field. The principal application of the phonograph in this direction is in the production of
Phonographic Books.—A book of 40,000 words upon a single metal plate ten inches square thus becomes a strong probability. The advantages of such books over those printed are too readily seen to need mention. Such books would be listened to where now none are read. They would preserve more than the mental emanations of the brain of the author; and, as a bequest to future generations, they would be unequaled. For the preservation of languages they would be invaluable.
Musical Boxes, Toys, etc.—The only element not absolutely assured, in the result of experiments thus far made—which stands in the way of a perfect reproduction at will of Adelina Patti's voice in all its purity—is the single one of quality, and even that is not totally lacking, and will doubtless be wholly attained. If, however, it should not, the musical-box, or cabinet, of the present, will be superseded by that which will give the voice and the words of the human songstress.
Toys.—A doll which may speak, sing, cry, or langh, may be safely promised our children for the Christmas holidays ensuing. Every species of animal or mechanical toy—such as locomotives, etc. — may be supplied with their natural and characteristic sounds.
Clocks.—The phonographic clock will tell you the hour of the day ; call you to lunch ; send your lover home at ten, etc.
Advertising, etc.—This class of phonographic work is so akin to the foregoing, that it is only necessary to call attention to it.
Speech and other Utterances.—It will henceforth be possible to preserve for future generations the voices as well as the words of our Washingtons, our Lincolns, our Gladstones, etc., and to have them give us their " greatest effort " in every town and hamlet in the country, upon our holidays.
Lastly, and in quite another direction, the phonograph will perfect the telephone, and revolutionize present systems of telegraphy. That useful invention is now restricted in its field of operation by reason of the fact that it is a means of communication which leaves no record of its transactions, thus restricting its use to simple conversational chit-chat, and such unimportant details of business as are not considered of sufficient importance to record. Were this different, and our telephone-conversation automatically recorded, we should find the reverse of the present status of the telephone. It would be expressly resorted to aw a means of perfect record. In writing our agreements we incorporate in the writing the summing up of our understanding— using entirely new and different phraseology from that which we used to express our understanding of the transaction in its discussion, and not infrequently thus begetting perfectly innocent causes of misunderstanding. Now, if the telephone, with the phonograph to record its sayings, were used in the preliminary discussion, we would not only have the full and correct text, but every word of the whole matter capable of throwing light upon the subject. Thus it would seem clear that the men would find it more advantageous to actually separate a half-mile or so in order to discuss important business matters, than to discuss them verbally, and then make an awkward attempt to clothe their understanding in a new language. The logic which applies to transactions between two individuals in the same office, applies with the greater force to two at a distance who must discuss the matter between them by the telegraph or mail. And this latter case, in turn, is reiinforced by the demands of an economy of time and money at every mile of increase of distance between them.
"How can this application be made ?" will probably be asked by those unfamiliar with either the telephone or phonograph.
Both these inventions cause a plate or disk to vibrate, and thus produce sound-waves in harmony with those of the voice of the speaker. A very simple device may be made by which the one vibrating disk may be made to do duty for both the telephone and the phonograph, thus enabling the speaker to simultaneously transmit and record his message. "What system of telegraphy can approach that ? A similar combination at the distant end of the wire enables the correspondent, if he is present, to hear it while it is being recorded. Thus we have a mere passage of words for the action, but a complete and durable record of those words as the resnlt of that action. Can economy of time or money go further than to annihilate time and space, and bottle up for posterity the mere utterance of man, without other effort on his part than to speak the words ?
In order to make this adaptation, it is only requisite that the phonograph shall be made slightly more sensitive to record, and the telephone very slightly increased in the vibrating force of the receiver, and it is accomplished. Indeed, the " Carbon Telephone," invented and perfected by the writer, will already well- nigh effect the record on the phonograph; and, as he is constantly improving upon it, to cause a more decided vibration of the plate of the receiver, this addition to the telephone may be looked for coincident with the other practical applications of the phonograph, and with almost equal certainty.
The telegraph company of the future—and that no distant one—will be simply an organization having a huge system of wires, central and sub-central stations, managed by skilled attendants, whose sole duty it will be to keep wires in proper repair, and give, by switch or shunt arrangement, prompt attention to subscriber No. 923 in New York, when he signals his desire to have private communication with subscriber No. 1001 in Boston, for three minutes. The minor and totally inconsequent details which seem to arise as obstacles in the eyes of the groove-traveling telegraph-man, wedded to existing methods, will wholly disappear before that remorseless Juggernaut—" the needs of man;" for, will not the necessities of man surmount trifles in order to reap the full benefit of an invention which practically brings him face to face with whom he will; and, better still, doing the work of a conscientious and infallible scribe?".
Notice that Edison's text has numerous keywords "suggestion", "the eyes", "as rapid as the thoughts can be formed", the idea of recording telephone calls, logic, and "commercial intercourse". Notice an early appeal to the freedom of recording without permission in Edison's: "The captivation of sounds, with or without the knowledge or consent of the source of their origin.", and possibly "the captivity of ...fugitive..and their permanent retention" as a suggestion about using the phonograph to solve and prove crimes?
"Nature" of May 30, 1878, and the "Telegraphic Journal" of July 1, 1878 reprints Edison's article and appends this paragraph: "Mr. Edison is certainly very hopeful of the future of the wonderful instrument he has invented, but we think, not too hopeful; for, after the invention itself and its most recent development, the microphone, it would be rash to say that any application of it is impossible. Certainly some substitute or substitutes for the clumsy mode of recording our thoughts by pen and ink, so inconsistent with the general rapidity of our time, must be close at hand ; and what form one of these substitutes may take seems pretty clearly pointed out by the actual uses to which Mr. Edison's invention has been put. ". Notice "recording our thoughts".
Before this, recorded sounds could not be played back out loud, but could only be transmitted in real-time by a telephone using a microphone and speaker. So sound could be converted temporarily into an electronic signal but not yet stored.
Later sound (images and all other data) will be recorded mechanically by using photons onto plastic tape, electromagnetically onto plastic tape, and then using photons in a laser to change the surface of silicon disks, which is the principle behind hard disks and DVD disks.
Clearly, there must be a lung and tongue and lips device that reproduces the human voice by moving air in a way that sounds more accurate, in particular for letters like "B" and "P" that require a better shaping of air than a speaker can accomplish. It seems likely that such devices have already been made, but probably are being kept secret, but will be public soon.
How were these tin foil recordings stored? It seems unlikely that tinfoil cylinders could be unpeeled and then wrapped around again and replayed. When did people start to apply storage of images to the phonograph - making it perhaps the electric-photograph or vibrophotograph or perhaps pressure photograph - the recorded intensity of each dot in a photograph or live image?
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
123 YBN
[12/??/1877 AD]
| 3619) Professor E. Sacher, measuring the inductive effects in telephone circuits reports finding the signal from three Smee cells sent through one wire, 120 meters long, can be distinctly heard in the telephone on another parallel wire 20 meters away from it.
Joseph Henry had reported that a spark can magnetize a needle over a distance of 7 or 8 miles in 1842.
| Veinna |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3138) Edmond Frémy (FrAmE) (CE 1814-1894), French chemist, produces the first gem-quality crystals (emeralds) of reasonable size.
Frémy goes on to produce synthetic rubies by heating aluminum oxide with potassium chromate and barium fluoride in a crucible.
These are the first gem-quality crystals of reasonable size grown (by a human).
Frémy creates the "flux-melt technique" which is still used to make emeralds. The powdered ingredients are melted and fused in a solvent (flux) in a crucible. The material must be kept at a very high temperature for months, before being left to cool very slowly.
Edmond Frémy and A. Verneuil obtain artificial rubies by reacting barium fluoride on amorphous alumina containing a small quantity of chromium at a red heat. The rubies obtained in this manner are described by Fremy and Verneuil like this: "Their crystalline form is regular; their luster is adamantine (luster is how an crystal reflects light, and adamantine is like that of a diamond); they present the beautiful color of the ruby; they are perfectly transparent, have the hardness of the ruby, and easily scratch topaz. They resemble the natural ruby in becoming dark when heated, resuming their rose-colour on cooling.".
Frémy discovers hydrogen fluoride and a series of its salts. Frémy also discovers anhydrous hydrofluoric acid (a colorless, fuming, corrosive, dangerously poisonous aqueous solution of hydrogen fluoride, HF, used to etch or polish glass, pickle certain metals, and clean masonry. Carl Scheele had discovered the aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid in 1771 by decomposing fluor-spar with concentrated sulphuric acid, a method still used for the commercial preparation of the aqueous solution of hydrofluoric acid). Chemists have known for a long time that there is an element in the flourides that resembles chlorine but is even more active. This unknown element is so active that it cannot be torn away from other elements with which it has combined, and so will not be produced as a free element until Moissan. Frémy makes an attempt to isolate free fluorine (by electrolysis of fused fluorides) but fails. Frémy had almost succeeded in making the electrolysis of fused calcium and potassium using a platinum positive electrode. Frémy observes that this electrode is attacked during the electrolysis due to the reactivity of a gas which cannot be collected. (chronology)
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3318) John Tyndall (CE 1820-1893), Irish physicist by a process which he called discontinuous heating, succeeds in sterilizing nutrition-filled liquids containing the most resistant germs. This method (later termed tyndallization in France, but pasteurization in Britain) is of great practical value in bacteriology.
Tyndall's researches lead to an extensive correspondence with Pasteur.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3342) Eadweard Muybridge (CE 1830-1904) takes a sequence of high speed photographs that show the movement of a horse galloping.
Before this the photographer removing a lens covering and then quickly replacing it to expose the film to light. however, Muybridge uses an automated shutter mechanism which allows for a row of 12 cameras to be triggered by a galloping horse, tripping a wire connected to the shutters and creating a series of photos capturing the different phases of the animal's motion. Muybridge will go on to improve shutter speed by devising a system of magnetic releases which creates an exposure every 1/500 of a second.
By 1892, fifteen years later, Edison and WK Laurie Dickson debut their Kinetoscope, allowing the public their first glimpse at a recorded moving image.
| Sacramento, CA, USA |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3349) Eadweard Muybridge (CE 1830-1904) invents the zoopraxiscope, a primitive motion-picture machine which recreates movement by displaying individual photographs in rapid succession. This machine is similar to a Zoetrope, but that projects the images so the public could see realistic motion.
| Sacramento, CA, USA |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3667) Charles Friedel (FrEDeL) (CE 1832-1899), French chemist, with the US chemist James Mason Crafts, discovers the chemical process known as the Friedel-Crafts reaction.
In the Friedel-Crafts reaction, hydrogen chloride gas is formed from the effect of metallic aluminum on certain chlorine containing carbon compounds. This reaction takes place only after a period of inactivity, and is caused by aluminum chloride which is a versatile catalyst for reactions connecting a chain of carbon atoms to a ring of carbon atoms.
This is the first publication of the fruitful and widely used method for synthesizing benzene homologues. It is based on an accidental observation of the action of metallic aluminium on amyl-chloride, and consists in bringing together a hydrocarbon and an organic chloride in presence of aluminium chloride, when the residues of the two compounds unite to form a more complex body.
Another source describes this as a method of synthesizing hydrocarbons or ketones from aromatic hydrocarbons using aluminum chloride as a catalyst.
| Sorbonne, Paris, France |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3756) Wilhelm (Willy) Friedrich Kühne (KYUNu) (CE 1837-1900), German physiologist and Franz Christian Boll (CE 1849-1879), show that the light-sensitive pigment, discovered by Boll in frog retinas in 1876, is reddish-purple in dark-adapted retinas (visual purple) but when exposed to light "bleaches" to a yellowish-orange color (visual yellow) and then fades over time to a colorless substance (visual white). Kühne also extracts visual purple (which Boll had named rhodopsin) into aqueous solution with bile salts and shows it is a protein. This pigment is bleached out of the retina by light and resynthesized in the dark. Kühne realizes that this can be used to photograph the eye, to take what he terms an "optogram" by the process of "optography". To achieve this Kühne places a rabbit facing a barred window after having its head covered with cloth to allow the rhodopsin to accumulate. After three minutes it is decapitated and the retina removed and fixed in alum, clearly revealing a picture of a barred window. (original paper: )
Alum is any of various double sulfates of a trivalent metal such as aluminum, chromium, or iron and a univalent metal such as potassium or sodium, especially aluminum potassium sulfate. (This shows clearly an interest in the eye, and eye images, although chemically as opposed to spectroscopically from the heat a body emits.)
This eyeball is basically a hollow sphere, similar to an egg, filled with clear fluid. The retina is a screen layer on the inside back of the eyeball which light that has passed through and is focused by the lens is projected onto. Nerve cells connect to the retina which send the signal formed by light to the brain.
It may be that an invisible frequency of light particles can be written directly to the retina causing images, like windows and movies to be seen by a person without any actual object being in front of the eyes and without the need for a screen. Similarly sensors of hearing can be remotely and wirelessly stimulated to cause sounds to be heard by the brain without any actual sound being heard.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3901) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist publishes a paper which describes techniques for dry-fixing thin films of bacterial culture on glass slides, for staining these with aniline dyes and for using microphotography to record the structure of the bacteria.
Koch uses aniline dyes to stain bacteria for easier study, unstained bacteria are semitransparent and therefore hard to see.
Koch publishes this as (translated from German) "Methods for Studying, Preserving and Photographing Bacteria." ("Verfahren zur Untersuchung, zum Conservieren und Photographieren der Bakterien.")
(show images from paper)
| Wollstein, Germany |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3928) (Sir) Patrick Manson (CE 1844-1922), Scottish physician demonstrates conclusively that certain diseases are transmitted by insects, by linking the mosquito Culex fatigans with the presence of the parasite Filaria sanguinis hominis (FSH) in many people suffering from elephantiasis.
Manson publishes this as "On the development of Filaria sanguinis hominis, and on the mosquito considered as a nurse" in 1879.
Manson introduces vaccination to people of China.
In 1883 Manson founds the Medical School of Hong Kong, which develops into the University of Hong Kong in 1911.
In 1899 Manson founds the London School of Tropical Medicine. Manson's textbook "Tropical Diseases" (1898) becomes a standard work.
(To me, "tropical medicine" sounds kind of overly specific, and perhaps "topical disease" or "tropical health science" is a more accurate description, but perhaps there are specific diseases in tropical nations.)
| Hong Kong (presumably) |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 3934) Wilhelm Pfeffer (FeFR) (CE 1845-1920), German botanist describes "osmosis", the diffusion of water or other solvents through a semipermeable membrane which blocks the passage of dissolved substances (solutes).
Pfeffer constructs a Pfeffer-Zellen ("Pfeffer-Cells"), which are unglazed, porous porcelain pots in which he uses to precipitate membranes of copper ferrocyanide.
Pfeffer uses semi-permeable membranes to study osmosis, and to measure osmotic pressure. Pfeffer finds that osmotic pressure is related to concentration and temperature. In addition, he shows that pressure depends on the size of the molecules too large to pass through the membrane. In this way Pfeffer is able to measure the size (molecular weight) of giant molecules. Pfeffer publihes this work as "Osmotische Untersuchungen, Studien sur Zellmechanik" (1877; "Osmotic Research Studies on Cell Mechanics").
Pfeffer publishes "Pflanzenphysiologie. Ein Handbuch des Stoffwechsels und Kraftwechsels in der Pflanze" (1881; "The Physiology of Plants; A Treatise upon the Metabolism and Sources of Energy in Plants", 1900–06), which, for a long time is a standard handbook.
| |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 4039) In 1877 the first telephone is installed in a private home and a conversation is conducted between Boston and New York, using telegraph lines.
| Boston and New York, USA |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 4051) Hugo Marie De Vries (Du VRES) (CE 1848-1935), Dutch botanist describes the contraction of the protoplasm away from the plant cell wall when the cell is immersed in a salt solution.
Using solutions of various salts, especially of saltpetre and common salt, De Vries describes the effects not only on the protoplasm but also on the cell-wall. Varying in rate with the strength of the solution, de Vries finds that when under the influence of the salt the watery cell sap is withdrawn, the protoplasm contracts away from the cell wall (the cell wall also shrinking) into a rounded lump, which De Vries describes as lying free in the cell cavity.
A vegetable cell consists of a membrane, which is permeable to salts and to water. This membrane is in contact by its inner surface with the adjacent cell-protoplasm, which likewise is permeable to water, but not to salts. If fresh vegetable cells are placed in distilled water, water passes through the cell-membrane and through the cell-protoplasm, and causes the cells to swell. If, however, the cells are placed in a strong saline solution, the cell-contents shrink, because water is taken from them. The shrinking of the cellular protoplasm is shown by the fact that the protoplasm contracts on all sides and becomes detached from the cell-membrane. This detachment of the shrunken cell-body from the cell-wall in consequence of loss of water is called "plasmolysis" by de Vries.
De Vries' work on the isotonic coefficients of solutions leads van't Hoff to his formula for the osmotic pressure in plant cells. Isotonic (also called isosmotic) describes solutions that have equal osmotic pressure.
| The Haag, Netherlands (work possibly done at University of Halle-Wittenberg, Germany) |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 4055) Otto Lilienthal (liLENtoL) (CE 1848-1896), German aeronautical engineer, builds his first glider, with arched wings like a bird, and shows that these are better than flat wings.
| (Weber Company and C. Hoppe machine factory) Berlin, Germany |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 4056) Lilenthal successfully glides 80 feet (24.4 meters) in a glider.
Otto Lilienthal (liLENtoL) (CE 1848-1896), German aeronautical engineer,lauches himself on his first glide and sustains a flight of approximately 80 feet (24.4 meters). This is the first glider that can rise above height of takeoff.
Lilienthal's glider is essentially a hang glider.
To Lilienthal goes the credit of making gliding flight a regular practice. Gliding becomes a popular aeronautical sport of the 1890s as ballooning had been 100 years earlier.
The first properly authenticated account of an artificial wing was given by G. A. Borelli in 1670.
The invention of artificial muscle may make bird-like flapping wing human flight a possibility in the near future, if not already secretly.
| Derwitz/Krilow (near Potsdam), Germany |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 4167) (Sir) William Matthew Flinders Petrie (PETrE) (CE 1853-1942), (English archaeologist) attempts to determine ancient units of measurement by examining the dimensions of ancient monuments.
| Bromley, Kent, England |
123 YBN
[1877 AD]
| 4194) Paul Ehrlich (ArliK) (CE 1854-1915), German bacteriologist, creates a method to stain white blood, and using this stain identifies a new variety of blood cell.
Ehrlich publishes this finding in his doctoral dissertation, "Beiträge zur Theorize and Praxis der histologischen Färbung", which is approved at Leipzig University in 1878. These two works included descriptions of large, distinctively stained cells containing basophilic granules, for which Ehrlich coins the term "mast cells", differentiating them from the rounded "plasma cells" observed in connective tissue by Waldeyer.
(find original paper and english translation if any exists)
| (Leipzig University) Leipzig, Germany |
122 YBN
[01/11/1878 AD]
| 3962) Raoul Pierre Pictet (PEKTA) (CE 1846-1929), Swiss chemist, claims to have liquefied and solidified hydrogen.
Olszewski cannot confirm Pictet's liquefaction of hydrogen and doubts the accuracy of Pictet's claim.
Historian Thomas O'Conor Sloane writes that ten years later Olszewski will try to throw some doubt on the method followed in the hydrogen experiment of Pictet by publishing a long article in the Philosophical Magazine for February, 1895, in which Olszewski criticises Pictet's hydrogen experiment, saying that hydrogen made as Pictet made it would be contaminated with water and carbon dioxide.
As a piston works in a pump cylinder, what is termed clearance occurs. This is the failure of the piston to expel everything from the cylinder. It is mechanically impossible to do this with steel or iron parts, as the piston cannot well be so accurately made as to just touch the cylinder on its completion of a stroke. Even if it could, the valve passages would be left.
As all gases are elastic by nature, it follows that, when a pump is caused to operate upon a gas, the clearance of the piston is a great obstacle to its operation. As the piston of a pump cannot absolutely touch the cylinder end at each stroke, some gas must always remain in the cylinder, and during certain conditions of tension and compression, when the suction is of high degree, and the delivery is against a high pressure, the piston may work back and forth without any result whatever. The gas remaining in the cylinder ends may be enough in amount to prevent any movement of the suction or inlet valve, or to admit other gas if it were opened, and not enough, on the other hand, to open the outlet valve, or, if it were opened, to go through it.
This difficulty, inherent in all ordinary piston air pumps, Pictet avoids by coupling his pumps two in a set. So when one pump is aspirating from the cooler jacket or other source of gas, it is delivering, not against a high pressure, but into the suction pipe of the other pump. The other pump takes this partly compressed gas through its suction pipe as delivered by the first and gives it its second compression.
By this arrangement the difficulties are suppressed and the four pumps working in sets of two each operate perfectly. They are driven by band wheels at from 80 to 100 revolutions per minute.". (Using electric motors?)
| University of Geneva, Switzerland |
122 YBN
[04/29/1878 AD]
| 3419) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, gives evidence in favor of and popularizes the germ theory of disease.
Pasteur reports this in "The Germ Theory and Its Applications to Medicine and Surgery".
Pasteur explains the "germ theory of disease", the theory that some diseases are communicable. and that the disease might by communicated by tiny organisms, spread by bodily contact, sprayed droplets of mucus from a sneeze, by infected excreta, Semmelweiss fought disease successfully with chemical disinfection, but did not understand that dangerous microscopic organisms were being destroyed as the cause of the success. Lister will use Pasteur's germ theory as a basis for chemical disinfection, and is successful in this effort. During the Franco-Prussian war, Pasteur forces doctors to boil their instruments and steam their bandages in order to kill germs and prevent death by infection. The results are overwhelmingly beneficial and in 1873 Pasteur is made a member of the French Academy of Medicine (although he does not have a medical degree). (wh ere does the name "germ" come from?)
Pasteur is not the first to propose germ theory (Girolamo Fracastoro was the first of record in 1546, Agostino Bassi, Friedrich Henle and others had suggested it earlier), however Pasteur develops it and conducts experiments that support it enough to convince most of Europe that the germ theory of disease is true. Today Pasteur is often regarded as the father of germ theory and bacteriology, together with Robert Koch.[]
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
122 YBN
[04/??/1878 AD]
| 4275) Alfred Marshall Mayer (CE 1836-1897) models atoms and molecules using floating magnets. Joseph John Thompson will refer to these models in creating Thomson's model of the atom based on corpuscles.
Mayer writes in his April 1878 paper: "For one of my little books of the Experimental Science Series I have devised a system of experiments which illustrate the action of atomic forces, and the atomic arrangement in molecules, in so pleasing a manner, that I think these experiments should be known to those interested in the study and teaching of physics.
A dozen or more of No. 5 or 6 sewing needles are magnetized with their points of the same polarity, say north. Each needle is run into a small cork, 1/4 in long and 3/16 in. in diameter, which is of such size that it just floats the needle in an upright position. The eye end of the needle just comes through the top of the cork.
Float three of these vertical magnetic needles in a bowl of water, and then slowly bring down over them the N. pole of a rather large cylindrical magnet The mutually repellant needles at once approach each other and finally arrange themselves at the vertices of an equilateral triangle, thus .•. . The needles come nearer together or go further away as the magnet, above them, approaches them or is removed from them. Vibrations of the magnet up and down cause the needles to vibrate; the triangle formed by them alternately increasing and diminishing in size. On lifting the magnet vertically to a distance the needles mutually repel and end by taking up positions at the vertices of a triangle inscribed to the bowl. Four floating needles take these two forms
{ULSF: see image 1} ...
I have obtained the figures up to the combination of twenty floating needles. Some of these forms are stable ; others are unstable, and are sent into the stable forms by vibration. These experiments can be varied without end. It is certainly interesting to see the mutual effect of two or more vibrating systems, each ruled more or less by the motions of its own superposed magnet; to witness the deformations and decompositions of one molecular arrangement by the vibrations of a neighboring group, to note the changes in form which take place when a larger magnet enters the combination, and to see the deformation of groups produced by the side action of a magnet placed near the bowl. In the vertical lantern these exhibitions are suggestive of much thought to the student. Of course they are merely suggestion's and illustrations of molecular actions and forms; for they exhibit only the results of actions in a plane; so the student should be careful how he draws conclusions from them as to the grouping and mutual actions of molecules in space. I will here add that I use needles floating vertically and horizontally in water as delicate and mobile indicators of magnetic actions ; such as the determination of the position of the poles in magnets, and the displacement of the lines of magnetic force during inductive action on plates of metal, at rest and in motion. The vibratory motions in the lines of force in the Bell-telephone have been studied from the motions of a needle (floating vertically under the pole of the magnet), caused by moving to and fro through determined distances, the thin iron plate in front of this magnet. These experiments are worth repeating by those who desire clearer conceptions of the manner of action of that remarkable instrument.".
Mayer writes experimental science books for the public.
(I think this physical structural model is one of the more accurate views of the atom. I think the dual structure shown on the periodic table {2,8,8,10,10,etc...}, indicates the possibility of two centers of focus in each atom.)
| |
122 YBN
[07/22/1878 AD]
| 3949) (Sir) George Howard Darwin (CE 1845-1912), English astronomer, theorizes that tidal friction from interference from land barriers, and with the ocean floor cause the earth to slow its speed of rotation, and to decrease its angular momentum.
Darwin states that the effect of the tides have slowed the Earth's rotation, lengthening the day and, causing the Moon to recede from the Earth. Darwin gives a mathematical analysis of this phenonenon, and extrapolates into both the future and the past, arguing that around 4.5 billion years ago the Moon and the Earth would have been very close, with a day being less than five hours. Before this time the two bodies would actually have been one, with the Moon residing (as part of the molten Earth) in what is now the Pacific Ocean. The Moon would have been torn away from the Earth by powerful solar tides that would have deformed the Earth every 2.5 hours. Darwin's theory, worked out in collaboration with Osmond Fisher in 1879, explains both the low density of the Moon as being a part of the Earth's mantle, and also the absence of a granite layer on the Pacific floor. However the origin of the Earth moon is uncertain. This Earth-moon "fission theory" is not currently widely accepted by astronomers, one reason given is because the Roche limit claims that no satellite can come closer than 2.44 times the planet's radius without breaking up. Astronomers today favor the view that the Moon has formed by processes of condensation and accretion.
Darwin explains that the slowing frictional effect of the tides will slow the earth to a time when the day is 55 times the current day of 24 hours. One side of the earth would always face the sun, and the lunar tides would be frozen in place. This also would lessen the solar tides. (It seeems likely that in the far future, humans will control the speed of rotation of the earth and moon. Humans may move the moon into orbit of our star (which would stop the lunar tides if the oceans were not already completely controlled by humans).)
Darwin's theory is important as being the first real attempt to work out a cosmology on the principles of mathematical physics.
(There are many factors that must influence the rotation of the earth, including changes in the distance from the Sun and other planets, and masses that collide into the Earth, increasing the mass of Earth, to name a few.)
| (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
122 YBN
[07/??/1878 AD]
| 4158) Albert Abraham Michelson (mIKuLSuN) or (mIKLSuN) (CE 1852-1931), German-US physicist improves Foucault's revolving mirror method to measure the speed of light (particles).
In 1882, Michelson will measure the speed of light as 299,853 kilometers a second (186,320 miles a second). This is the most accurate measurement for a generation.
(Particles of light have an enormously fast velocity. What causes photons to maintain that velocity is a mystery. Is it simply a velocity they have always had, with collisions only being with other photons and perfectly elastic which results in no loss of velocity? Is it a limit on the velocity that can be achieved from the force of gravity - in other words the minimum distance that two particles get get to each other, which produces the maximum force possible?).
| (U.S. Naval Academy) Annapolis, Maryland |
122 YBN
[08/01/1878 AD]
| 4019) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, invents the tasimeter, a device which uses a strip of rubber to detect heat and is reported to be more sensitive than a thermopile. Substituting rubber with gelatine creates a detector, Edison calls an "odoroscope" that is sensitive to water molecules.
An 1878 Nature article reports: "... The strip of the substance to be tested is put under a small initial pressure, which deflects the galvanometer needle a few degrees from the neutral point. When the needle comes to rest its position is noted. The slightest subsequent expansion or contraction of the strip will be indicated by the movement of the galvanometer needle. A thin strip of hard rubber, placed in the instrument, exhibits extreme sensitiveness, being expanded by heat from the hand, so as to move through several degrees the needle of a very ordinary galvanometer, which is not affected in the slightest degree by a thermopile facing and near a red-hot iron. The hand, in this experiment, is held a few inches from the rubber strip. A strip of mica is sensibly affected by the heat of the hand, and a strip of gelatin, placed in the instrument, is instantly expanded by moisture from a dampened piece of paper held two or three inches away.
For these experiments the instrument is arranged as in Fig. 2, but for more delicate operations it is connected with a Thomson's reflecting galvanometer, and the current is regulated by a Wheatstone's bridge and a rheostat, so that the resistance on both sides of the galvanometer is equal, and the light-pencil from the reflector falls on 0° of the scale. This arrangement is shown in Fig. 1, and the principle is illustrated by the diagram, Fig. 4. Here the galvanometer is at g, and the instrument which is at i is adjusted, say, for example, to ten ohms resistance. At a, b, and с the resistance is the same. An increase or diminution of the pressure on the carbon button by an infinitesimal expansion or contraction of the substance under test is indicated on the scale of the galvanometer.
The carbon button may be compared to a valve, for when it is compressed in the slightest degree its electrical conductivity is increased, and when it is allowed to expand it partly loses its conducting power.
The heat from the hand held six or eight inches from a strip of vulcanite placed in the instrument—when arranged as last described—is sufficient to deflect the galvanometer mirror so as to throw the light-beam completely off the scale. A cold body placed near the vulcanite strip will carry the light-beam in the opposite direction.
Pressure that is inappreciable and undiscoverable by other means is distinctly indicated by this instrument.
Mr. Edison proposes to make application of the principle of this instrument to numberless purposes, among which are delicate thermometers, barometers, and hygrometers. He expects to indicate the heat of the stars and to weigh the light of the sun.".
A person reports in 1882 that the Tasimeter is unreliable - but it seems likely that this may be to try and possibly stop people from experimenting with detecting heat from the hand...and then from the head and eyes.
One source has the rubber as a bar of vulcanite which rests on a metal plate, on top of a carbon button, on top of another metal plate. The carbon and metal plates are connected to a battery and galvanometer. It seems logical that rubber would be sensitive and greatly expand or contract depending on heat, because of it's black color - perhaps other black colored objects show similar expansion and contraction. Sylvanus Thompson shows that the expansion of carbon does not change the resistance of the carbon but only improves the contact to the metal which lowers the resistance to flow of electric current.
Another historian describes Edison's invention also of an "odoroscope" writing: "...The principle of the odoroscope is similar to that of the tasimeter, but a strip of gelatine takes the place of the hard rubber. Besides being affected by heat, it is exceedingly sensitive to moisture, a few drops of water thrown on the floor of the room being sufficient to give a very decided indication on the galvanometer in circuit with the instrument. Barometers, hygrometers, and similar instruments of great delicacy can be constructed on the principle of the odoroscope, and it may be employed in determining the character or pressure of gases and vapor in which it is placed. (Notice a possible relation to using water to detect frequencies of heat emitted from the brain - also made of water - if the theory that some molecules emit and absorb the same frequencies of light, perhaps water is a good detector of those frequencies - perhaps by changing resistance - but then also "very decided" - which may imply the power of suggestion in controlling a person's neurons, and then notice "delicacy" - perhaps relating to a secret eating of human muscle or some other unusual camera-thought net eating. Anytime there is discussion about heat detection there is usually a large amount of hinting because it so closely relates to seeing eyes and this two hundred years and counting massive set of lies and secrets.)
(find patent number)
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
122 YBN
[10/10/1878 AD]
| 3878) Professors Walter Noel Hartley (CE 1846-1913) and Alfred Kirby Huntington (CE 1852-1920) report the absorption spectra of ultra-violet rays by organic substances.
In 1863 W. A. Miller had found that prisms of rock-crystal produce transmit a larger spectra than glass and other prisms, and Stokes had reported discovering that certain solutions show light and dark bands on a fluorescent screen which are otherwise invisible. (The mysterious "fluorescent screens" - these are in all CRTs but they are not often sold separately.)
Hartley and Huntington use an induction coil and Leyden jar connected to five Grove cells, which produces a 6 or 7 inch spark in air between two metal points as a light source, and photographic gelatin dry plates to record the spectral lines. In addition, they use a collimator tube 3 feet long with a slit, a quartz lens, and quartz prism connected to the camera. The liquid is placed in a wooden box behind the slit. They find that Canada balsam, and other kinds of optical glass block the ultraviolent rays and cannot be used, however, Fluor spar is transparent to the ultraviolet. Hartley and Huntington examine the absorption spectrum of some alcohols, fatty acids, "ethereal salts" and hydrocarbons. They conclude: "(1.) The normal alcohols of the series CnH2n-1OH, are remarkable for transparency to the ultra-violet rays of the spectrum, pure methylic alcohol being nearly as much so as water. (2.) The normal fatty acids exhibit a greater absorption of the more refrangible rays of the ultra-violet spectrum than the normal alcohols containing the same number of carbon atoms. (3.) There is an increased absorption of the more refrangible rays corresponding to each increment of CH2 in the molecule of the alcohols and acids. (4.) Like the alcohols and acids the ethereal salts derived from them are highly transparent to the ultra-violet rays, and do not exhibit absorption bands.". In Part 2 they examine substances containing benzene, including benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and trimethylbenzene, Phenol, Benzoic Acid, Aniline, among others. They summarize the chief points of interest pertaining to benzene and its derivatives:- "(1.) Benze and the hydrocarbons, alcohols, acids, and amines derived therefrom are remarkable-first, for their powerful absorption of the more refrangible rays; secondly, for the absorption bands made visible by dissolving them in water or alcohol; and thirdly, for the extraordinary intensity of these absorption bands: that is to say, their power of resisting dilution. (2.) Isomeric bodies containing the benzene nucleus exhibit widely different spectra, inasmuch as their absorption bands vary in position and in intensity. (3.) The photographic absorption spectra can be employed as a means of identifying organic substances and as a most delicate test of their purity. The curves obtained by co-ordinating the extent of dilution, or in other words the quantity of substance, with the position of the rays of the spectrum transmitted by the solution, form a strongly marked and highly characteristic feature of very many substances.".
In 1881 Abney and Festing will report on the infrared absorption of organic substances.
(The absorption diagrams appear to show that the spectrum is continuous until some point at which all lines are absorbed. Is this true?)
| (King's College and Institute of Chemistry) London, England |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 2995) James Wimshurst (CE 1832-1903) invents an influence machine (electrostatic generator). Earlier influence machines are replaced by this improved design.
The Wimshurst influence machine is the most widely used of influence machines. In this machine there are no fixed field plates. In its simplest form it consists of two circular plates of varnished glass which are geared to rotate in opposite directions. A number of sectors of metal foil are cemented to the front of the front plate and to the back of the back plate. These sectors serve both as carriers and as inductors. Across the front is fixed an uninsulated diagonal conductor carrying at its ends neutralizing brushes which touch the front sectors as they pass. Across the back, but sloping the other way, is a second diagonal conductor with brushes that touch the sectors on the back plate. Nothing more than this is needed for the machine to excite itself when set in rotation. But for convenience there is added a collecting and discharging apparatus. This consists of two pairs of insulated combs each pair having its spikes turned inwards toward the revolving disks but not touching them; one pair being on the right, the other pair on the left, each mounted on an insulating pillar of ebonite (a relatively inelastic rubber, made by vulcanization with a large amount of sulfur and used as an electrical insulating material). These collectors are furnished with a pair of adjustable discharging knobs overhead; ans sometimes a pair of Leyden jars are added, to prevent the sparks from passing until considerable quantities of charge have been collected.
Wimshurst machines are frequently used (as a high voltage source) to power X-ray tubes until the distribution of electromagnetic inductors by Ruhmkorff (after 1851) which replace the electrostatic disk machines.
| (Clapham) London, England (presumably) |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3188) Marignac extracts ytterbia from what was thought to be be pure erbia.
Georges Urbain and Carl Auer von Welsbach independently demonstrate (1907–08) that Marignac's earth is composed of two oxides, which Urbain calls neoytterbia and lutetia. The metals are now known as ytterbium and lutetium.
Marignac speculates about smaller particles that are in atoms that create deviations in atomic masses from integer values as Prout hypothesized. (chronology)
| (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3189) Credit for the discovery of gadolinium is shared by J.-C.-G. de Marignac and P.-É. Lecoq de Boisbaudran. In 1880, Marignac separates a new rare earth (metallic oxide) from the mineral samarskite and in 1886 Lecoq de Boisbaudran obtains a fairly pure sample of the same earth, which, with Marignac's approval, Boisbaudran names "gadolinia", after a mineral in which gadolinia occurs that had been named for the Finnish chemist Johan Gadolin.
| (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3372) Heinrich Schliemann (slEmoN) (CE 1822-1890), German archaeologist, describes valuable artifacts he excavates at Mycenae (Greek: Μυκῆναι), once Agamemnon's capital.
Schliemann moves his focus from Hisarlik (ancient Troy), to start excavation at Mycenae. In August 1876, Schliemann begin work in the tholoi, digging by the Lion Gate and then inside the citadel walls, where he finds a double ring of slabs and, within that ring, five shaft graves (a sixth is found immediately after his departure). Buried with 16 bodies in this circle of shaft graves is a large treasure of gold, silver, bronze, and ivory objects. Schliemann had hoped to find—and believed he had found—the tombs of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, and he publishes his finds in his Mykenä (1878; "Mycenae").
| Mycenae, Greece |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3576) (Sir) Joseph Wilson Swan (CE 1828-1914), English physician and chemist, constructs the first practical electric light bulb. The first practical incandescent lamps become possible after the invention of good vacuum pumps. Thomas Alva Edison in the following year independently produces lamps with carbon filaments in evacuated glass bulbs. Edison will receive most of the credit because of his development of the power lines and other equipment needed to establish the incandescent lamp in a practical lighting system.
In 1883 Edison and Swan settle their differences out of court and form a joint company in Great Britain.
Electrical lighting will be the main form of illumination by the end of the 1800s in the industrialized parts of earth.
In 1801 Sir Humphrey Davy demonstrated the incandescence of platinum strips heated in the open air by electricity, but the strips did not last long.(see also ) Frederick de Moleyns of England was granted the first patent for an incandescent lamp in 1841, in which he used powdered charcoal heated between two platinum wires.
Much of the dark side of Earth will become more and more visibly lit by electric lights into the future, revealing the growth and development of humans on Earth.
| Newcastle, England (presumably) |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3692) Paul Bert (BAR) (CE 1833-1886), French physiologist, explains that "the bends" (decompression sickness) is caused when high external pressures force large quantities of atmospheric nitrogen to dissolve in the blood which during rapid decompression form gas bubbles that obstruct capillaries.
Paul Bert (BAR) (CE 1833-1886), French physiologist, explains decompression sickness (also known as "the bends"), which is suffered by deep-sea divers when they are brought too quickly to the surface from the higher pressures in deep water. Bert demonstrates that high external pressures force large quantities of atmospheric nitrogen to dissolve in the blood. During rapid decompression the nitrogen forms gas bubbles that obstruct capillaries. Bert explains that to prevent bends a person simply needs to lower the air pressure in slow stages.
Bert publishes this in his classic "La Pression barométrique, recherches de physiologie expérimentale" (1878; "Barometric Pressure: Researches in Experimental Physiology", 1943).
Bert recognizes that mountain sickness and altitude sickness are the result of the low pressure of oxygen, and introduces an oxygen device to solve this problem. (chronology)
Francois Viault will prove Bert's theory that people living in high altitudes might have more red corpuscles (modern "cells").
Bert discovers and describes oxygen poisoning, differentiating it from suffocation from lack of oxygen, and explains the cause and mechanism of caisson disease. (chronology)
Bart also shows that the spontaneous movements of the "sensitive plant" (Mimosa pudica) depend on differences of osmotic pressure, regulated by light and darkness.
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3716) Samuel Pierpont Langley (CE 1834-1906), US astronomer, invents the bolometer, an instrument capable of detecting minute differences in temperature.
The bolometer is an instrument for accurately measuring tiny quantities of heat (differences of a hundred thousandth of a degree) from the size of the minute electric currents made by heat in a blackened platinum wire. Using this bolometer, Langley extends knowledge of the solar spectrum into the far infrared for the first time.
Using the bolometer, Langley is able to measure lunar and solar radiation, study the transparency of the atmosphere to different solar rays, and determine their greater intensity at high altitudes.
The imperfections of the thermopile, with which Langley begins his work, leads him to the invention of the bolometer, an instrument of extraordinary precision, which in its most refined form is believed to be capable of detecting a change of temperature amounting to less than one-hundred-millionth of a degree Centigrade. The bolometer depends on the fact that the electrical conductivity of a metallic conductor is decreased by heat. The bolometer consists of two strips of platinum, arranged to form the two arms of a Wheatstone bridge; one strip being exposed to a source of radiation from which the other is shielded, the heat causes a change in the resistance of one arm, the balance of the bridge is destroyed, and a deflection is marked on the galvanometer. The platinum strips are exceedingly minute. By the aid of this instrument, Langley, working on Mount Whitney, 12,000 ft. above sea-level, discovers in 1881 an entirely unsuspected extension of the invisible infra-red rays, which he called the "new spectrum". The importance of his achievement may be judged from the fact that, no invisible heat-rays were known before 1881 having a wave-length greater than 1.8 A (verify 1911 OCR), he detected rays having a wave-length of 5.3 A. In addition, taking advantage of the accuracy with which the bolometer can determine the position of a source of heat by which it is affected, Langley maps out in this infra-red spectrum over 700 dark lines or bands resembling the Fraunhofer lines of the visible spectrum.
Langley reports the details of the bolometer in an article "The Bolometer and Radient Energy" in the Proceedings of the American Academy of Sciences in 1881. Langley writes: "OUR knowledge of the distribution of heat in the solar spectrum really begins with this century and the elder Herschel, and, since his time, great numbers of determinations have been made, all with scarcely an exception, by means of the prism, the early ones through the thermometer, the later ones by the thermopile and galvanometer. It was very soon seen that the prism exercised a selective absorption, and that the form of the heat-curve varied with the material of the refracting substance, but a far more important and more subtle error was left almost unnoticed. The elder Draper, I believe, long since pointed out that the prism, contracting as it does the red end, and still more the ultra-red, gives false values for the heat, from this latter cause alone, and displaces the maximum ordinate of the heat-curve toward the lower or ultra-red end. Dr Müller (Poggendorff's Ann. CV.), indeed gives a construction showing how we may, from the incorrect curve of the prism-spectrum, obtain such as a grating would give could we use one; but he despairs of being able to get measurable heat from the grating itself, whose spectra are so much weaker than that from the prism, while even the latter are very hard to measure with any exactness by the pile. No one, so far as I know, has hitherto succeeded in measuring the heat from a diffraction grating except in the gross, or by concentrating, for instance, like Draper, the whole upper half and the whole lower half of its spectrum upon the pile, and thus reaching some results, not without value, even as thus obtained, but of quite other value than those which may be expected svben we become able to measure with close approximation the separate energy of each wave length. I have tried at intervals for the past four years to do this, and having long familiarity with the many precautions to be used in delicate measures with the thermopile, and a variety of specially sensitive piles, had flattered myself with the hope of succeeding better than my predecessors. I found, however, that though I got results, they were too obscure to be of any great value, and that science possessed no instrument which could deal successfully with quantities of radiant heat so minute. I have entered into these preliminary remarks as an explanation of the necessity for such an instrument as that which I have called the Bolometer (Βολή, μέτρον), or Actinic Balance, to the cost of whose experimental construction I have meant to devote the sum the Rumford Committee did me the honor of proposing that the Academy should appropriate. Impelled by the pressure of this actual necessity, I therefore tried to invent something more sensitive than the thermopile, which should be at the same time equally accurate,- which should, I mean, be essentially a "meter" and not a mere indicator of the presence of feeble radiation. This distinction is a radical one. It is not difficult to make an instrument far more sensitive to radiation than the present, if it is for use as an indicator only; but what the physicist wants, and what I have consumed nearly a year of experiment in trying to supply, is something more than an indicator, - a measurer of radiant energy. The earliest design was to have two strips of thin metal, virtually forming arms of a Wheatstone's Bridge, placed side by side in as nearly as possible identical conditions as to environment, of which one could be exposed at pleasure to the source of radiation. As it was warmed by this radiation and its electric resistance proportionally increased over that of the other, this increased resistance to the flow of the current from a battery would be measured (by the disturbance of the equality of the "bridge" currents) by means of a galvanometer. In order to test the feasibility of this method, various experiments were made. To secure a radiating body which will not vary from one experiment to another, or from day to day, is no easy matter. The source employed during the preliminary trials has been commonly the flame of a petroleum lamp within a glass chimney, the radiation being limited by a circular opening of 1 cm. diameter in a triple cardboard screen. In these first trials a single thin metallic strip, being stretched between appropriate metal clamps connected with the bridge by coarse insulated wires, was enclosed in a cylindrical wooden case, which being pointed to the aperture in the screen could be opened or closed at pleasure, and the resistance of the strip measured, as it varied through the effect of the radiant heat. In this way were examined various metals such as gold-foil, platinum-foil and various grades of platinum wire, including some 1/1000 cm. in thickness; gold-leaf gummed on glass; extremely thin sheet-iron, both blackened with camphor-smoke and without such treatment, etc. The lamp-black augmented the heat registered, but, if too thick, produced anomalies of its own, due to its hygroscopic properties, which doubtless exist when it is used on the thermopile, but are not so obvious there. For example, the warm breath on such a lamp-blacked strip gave the indication of cold at the first moment, possibly owing to the decreased resistance from absorbed moisture. Metals deposited on films of glass are found not to answer our purpose, because of the great amount of heat conducted away by the glass, however thin. The requirements include, as was seen both from these preliminary trials and from obvious theoretical considerations, considerable electric resistance, great change of that resistance by temperature, laminability, sufficient tenacity in the thin metal to enable it to support its own weight, and freedom from oxidation. (notice "tenacity") Iron would fulfil {sic} these conditions very well except the last, but it is liable to rust. This tendency can be partly overcome by the application of a thin coat of oil. Gold-leaf produced by the ordinary gold-beater's process lacks continuity, being filled with minute rents, and other metals are disqualified by other objections, such for instance as low melting-points. That the temperature of metallic strips of the thickness used may be very high, in spite of their great radiating surface and even when the battery is feeble, is seen from such an example as the following:- An iron strip 7 mm. long. 0.088 mm. broad, 0.003 mm. thick, having the resistance of about 2 3/4 ohms, was subjected to a current of about 0.6 Weber which had before produced a uniform cherry-red glow throughout the same length of platinum wire 1/250 cm. thick. The iron glowed more brightly, but only for about 2 mm. at the centre, and was melted at that point in about five seconds. A number of experiments were tried to determine the proper excess of temperature of the strips used in the Bolometer over that of the surrounding case, for this excess (due to the heating by the battery current) must always exist; and the amount to give the best effect depends on many circumstances, and can only be determined by trial. For instance, an iron strip 7mm. long, 0.176 mm. wide, and 0.004 mm. thick, was made one arm of a Wheatstone's Bridge, and, with a battery of one gravity cell, the successive resistances of the strip were measured as its temperature altered, while the currents through it were made to vary by introducing definite resistances in the circuit. Then having the measured resistances of the strip, from the approximate formula t = R-r/.004r (where R is resistance of iron at temperature t in Centigrade degrees, r the resistance at 0°) we obtain the temperatures which are given below in the fourth column. The temperature of the room was 27° C. (see image of table) We see from the above that, when the temperature of the strip is raised very little above its surroundings, a change of one-hundredth Weber in the absolute current will raise its temperature less than half a degree; but that when it is raised more than two or three degrees above the surrounding temperature by the current, such a small increase of that current is accompanied by a greater rise in the temperature of the strip, and when the temperature of the strip is considerable, though not excessive, the same change of .01 Weber will raise this temperature by eight or ten times the former quantity; and hence (as it is important to notice) strong currents, and consequent high temperature in the strip, though giving larger galvanometer deflections, involve a yet greater increase of the probable-error of an observation on the galvanometer, caused apparently by air-currents about the heated strip. A number of experiments with a similar iron strip (resistance 0.9 ohm) in a Wheatstone's Bridge (whose other arms were 0.9, 0.4, and 0.4 ohms) showed that with a half-ohm galvanometer a deflection of about 204 divisions could be obtained by exposure to lamp radiation as before described. The total current was 0.58 Weber; and as one division of the galvanometer scale corresponded to about .0000002 Weber, the differential current was .0000408 Weber, which allowing an increase of .004 in resistance for each added degree of temperature indicates that the strip had been heated somewhat less than 0° 15 c. by the lamp radiation. A small (spherical-bulb) mercury thermometer placed at the same point rose six times this amount. Evidently only a small portion of the energy conveyed to the strip is retained as increased temperature. The immensely greater part is lost by re-radiation, conduction, and convection. This happens to the mercury thermometer to a very much smaller extent, since the comparatively slow conveyance of heat between its outer and inner layers enables it to retain a larger amount. The conduction from front to back of the thin strip is practically instantaneous, and the equilibrium between heat received and heat radiated is so soon established that the effect upon the galvanometer is not increased perceptibly by prolonging the exposure after the needle has reached the end of its swing. Hence the time of exposure will, in general, be regulated by the sensitiveness of the galvanometer, and will very rarely exceed eight to ten seconds. The strip itself takes up and parts with (sensibly) all its heat in a fraction of one second. This promptness in the action of the metal strip gives it a great advantage over the thermopile for measures of precision. But, beside this, the deflection produced by the single strip and bridge is greater than that from the thermopile, if the element of time enter into the comparison, and still more if the relative areas exposed to radiation be considered. Although (for the reasons just cited) far from as sensitive as we can make it, such a strip then is yet more sensitive than the pile. A number of thermopiles, selected as the most sensitive in the writer's collection, have been exposed to the same source of radiation, placed at the same distance as in the previous experiments. They were directly connected with the unshunted galvanometer and enclosed in various cases as follows:-". Langley goes on to describe testing a variety of thermopiles, and writes: " After nearly a year's labor (I began these researches systematically in December, 1879), I have procured a trustworthy instrument. It aims, as will have been inferred from the preceding remarks, to use the radiant energy, not to develop force directly as in the case of the pile, but indirectly, by causing the feeble energy of the ray to modulate the distribution of power from a practically unlimited source. To do this I roll steel, platinum, or palladium into sheets of from 1/100 yp 1/500 of a millimetre thickness; cut from these sheets strips one millimetre wide and one centimetre long, or less; and unite these strips so that the current from a battery of one or more Daniell's cells passes through them. The strips are in two systems, arranged somewhat like a grating; and the current divides, one half passing through each, each being virtually one of the arms of a Wheatstone's Bridge. The needle of a delicate galvanometer remains motionless when the two currents are equal. But when radiant heat (energy) falls on one of the systems of strips, and not on the other, the current passing through the first is diminished by the increased resistance; and, the other current remaining unaltered, the needle is deflected by a force due to the battery directly, and mediately to the feeble radiant heat, which, by warming the strips by so little as 1/10000 of a degree Centigrade, is found to produce a measurable deflection. A change in their temperature of 1/100000 degree can, I believe, be thus noted; and it is evident that from the excessive thinness of the strips (in English measure from to 1/2000 to 1/12500 inches thick) they take up and part with the heat almost instantly. The instrument is thus far more prompt than the thermopile; and it is also, I believe, more accurate, as under favorable circumstances the probable error of a single measure with it is less than one per cent. When the galvanometer is adjusted to extreme instability, the probable error of course is larger; but I have repeated a number of Mefloni's measurements with the former result. I call the instrument provisionally the "Bolometer," or "Actinic Balance," because it measures radiations and acts by the method of the "bridge" or "balance," there being always two arms, usually in juxtaposition, and exposed alike to every similar change of temperature arising from surrounding objects, air-currents, etc., so that the needle is (in theory at least) only affected when radiant heat, from which one balance-arm is shielded, falls on the other. Its action, then, bears a close analogy to that of the chemist's balance, than which it is less accurate, but far more sensitive. The sensitiveness of the instrument depends, as has been explained, upon the amount of current used. With the current which experience has recommended, as leaving a very steady galvanometer needle, this sensitiveness appears to be from ten to thirty times that of my most delicate thermopiles, area for area; but I consider this quality valuable only in connection with its trustworthiness as a measurer, always repeating the same indications under like conditions. The working face of the instrument, as I have used it, exposes about one half of one square centimetre to the source of radiant heat (it can easily be made of any other size, larger or smaller); and the strips are shielded from extraneous radiations by the most efficient precaution which a rather long and painful experience in guarding against them has taught me.". Langley then goes on to describe the 3 figures in the paper. (note: figure 3 is missing from Google books)
(Describe frequencies reached and mapped. Show actual mappings. State frequency and interval range for light that causes heat in most objects.)
(It seems clear that people who saw thought, perhaps William Wollaston, in 1810 and after, must have been able to detect photons in the frequencies that cause heat. In particular, being able to detect heat, enables a person to see the stronger signal of heat emiting from any object, such as the human brain.)
(Langley makes an interesting comparison between mercury and and iron strip as a thermometer.)
| (Western University of Pennsylvania now the University of Pittsburg) Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA (presumably) |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3721) Simon Newcomb (CE 1835-1909), Canadian-US astronomer publishes new tables for the moon.
Newcomb finds that the moon has departed from its predicted position and this leads to investigations on the variations in the rate of rotation of the earth.
Newcomb publishes "Researches on the Motion of the Moon made at the US Naval Observatory Washington. Part I Reductions and discussion of the moon before 1750". (these are new tables and predicted position changes?)
(State the format of the data. These are the positions in ra and dec of the moon over some period of time?)
| (Nautical Almanac Office) Washington, DC, USA |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3790) In 1665 Robert Hooke had suggested the possibility of making artificial silk. In 1734, the entomologist Reaumur, suggests that artificially silky texture could be produced.
Louis Marie Hilaire Bernigaud, comte de Chardonnet (soRDOnA) (CE 1839-1924), French chemist, invents "rayon" a synthetic plastic fiber resembling silk. Rayon is the first synthetic fiber to come into common use. Chardonnet is an assistant to Pasteur and is influenced by Pasteur's work on the silkworms. Chardonnet produces fibers by forcing (extruding) solutions of cellulose nitrate through very tiny holes in glass and allowing the solvent to evaporate. Chardonnet obtains a patent for this process in 1884, as Swan had a year before. (Perhaps Swan's patent motivated Chardonnet to patent too?))
The nitrocellulose used in not fully nitrated (explain), and so it is not explosive, however rayon is initially dangerously flammable. Swan shows how the nitro groups can be removed from the rayon after fiber formation to make the material far less flammable although not as strong.
At the Paris Exposition in 1891 "Chardonnet silk" is a sensation. It is called rayon because it is so shiny that is seems to emit rays of light. Soon after this Exposition Chardonnet opens a factory in Besançon, which in 1891 begins to produce the world's first commercially made synthetic fibre, sometimes called "Chardonnet silk" to distinguish it from other forms of rayon.
This is also referred to as "Chardonnet's collodion silk". Rayon is only modified cellulose, but it points the way toward completely synthetic fibers that will be developed by Carothers and others 50 years later.
Chardonnet's process is described like this: Chardonnet's " is the best known of the pyroxylin silks. In the manufacture of Chardonnet silk, pure cellulose is converted into collodion, which is forced through fine capillary tubes by a pressure of from 40 to 50 atmospheres. As soon as the fine threads of collodion come in contact with air they solidify and can be rolled on bobbins. The fine threads are kept moist until after the formation of coarser threads suitable for weaving. The coarser threads are made by twisting together from 12 to 20 of the finer threads. Since pyroxylin is very inflammable it is not suitable for use as clothing and must be converted into a substance much less easily ignited. This is brought about by treating the nitrocelluloses with some substance, for example, a solution of calcium sulphide that will change the nitrocelluloses cellulose but will leave the cellulose in a form which closely resembles silk in appearance.".
| |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3864) Camillo Golgi (GOLJE) (CE 1843-1926), Italian physician and cytologist, finds and describes the "Golgi tendon organ" (or "Golgi tendon spindle") where sensory nerve fibers end in many branchings enclosed within a tendon.
| (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3902) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist describes his experiments in which animals are injected (inoculated) with material from various sources, and six different types of infection are caused, each caused by a specific microorganism. Koch transfers these infections through several kinds of animals through injection, reproducing the original six types. Koch observes the differences in the pathology (path of the disease) in each different species of hosts and demonstrates that the animal body is an excellent apparatus for the cultivation of bacteria.
| (District Medical Officer) Wollstein, Germany |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 3964) Edward Charles Pickering (CE 1846-1919), US astronomer, invents a "meridian photometer" which reflects the image of a star crossing the meridian on the same photographic plate with a pole star of known brightness which are always visible. The use of this device culminates in the "Revised Harvard Photometry" (1908) listing magnitudes (using Pickering's standard) of more than 45,000 stars. (State the current standard and when implemented.)
The meridian is a great circle passing through the two poles of the celestial sphere and the zenith of a given observer. A great circle is a circle on a spherical surface such that the plane containing the circle passes through the center of the sphere.
It is interesting that the current system of star brightness seems less logical than a measure of photons/second, and/or some standard measure of pixels/cm^2. It seems clear that the current standard will probably change with the changing technology and scientific interpretation of matter in the universe. Pickering talks about the various methods of brightness measurement in a 1917 paper "Standard photographic magnitudes of bright stars".
| Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 4041) The first commercial switchboard.
| New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 4063) Viktor Meyer (CE 1848-1897), German organic chemist, perfects a vapor density measurement method. A vapor of a weighed substance displaces an equal volume of air, which in turn is measured using a burette. Meyer's apparatus is still found in most chemical laboratories at the present time.
| (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 4083) Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schäfer (CE 1850-1935), English physiologist, supports the neuron theory that the nervous system is made of discrete units. (Any publication on neurons after 1810 indicates a very brave person.)
| (University College) London, England |
122 YBN
[1878 AD]
| 4195) Paul Ehrlich (ArliK) (CE 1854-1915), German bacteriologist, Ehrlich creates a useful method of staining the tubercle bacterium (which had been discovered by Koch). Tuberculosis is a common and often deadly infectious disease caused by mycobacteria, usually Mycobacterium tuberculosis in humans.
| (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
121 YBN
[03/24/1879 AD]
| 3797) Lars Fredrik Nilson (CE 1840-1899), Swedish chemist, identifies the element scandium (named in honor of Scandinavia). Nilson finds scandium in a rare earth mineral (which one?).
Nilson's colleague Cleve shows that this element is the element predicted by Mendeléev that he called eka-boron.
Nilson publishes this in a paper "Sur le poids atomique et sur quelques sels caractéristiques du scandium", ("About Scandium, a New Element" in which he writes: "The preparation of ytterbine, described in the foregoing note, had furnished me with an earth that was deposited as an insoluble basic nitrate; by extracting the heated mass with boiling water, the molecular weight was found to be 127.6, and not 131, as it should have been according to Marignac. I concluded that the analyzed product should be a mixture with an earth of a lower molecular weight than 131. Thalén, who examined its spectrum, found that its chloride gave some rays not occurring in the known elements. In order to isolate this substance, I carried out several partial decompositions and determinations of the molecular weight of the earth deposited in the insoluble residues containing the new substance.
After the last series of decompositions, the molecular weight had dropped 26 units below 132, the weight of ytterbine; nevertheless, the examined product still contained this earth as an impurity. It was impossible for me to carry out any more partial decompositions of nitrates so as to obtain the new substance, perhaps, in perfect purity. Actually, I did not need to have it for demonstrating that a hitherto unknown element was mixed with ytterbine, because the spectrum of this substance, like that of impure ytterbine, sufficiently showed the character of a new element . . . .
For the element thus characterized I propose the name "scandium," which will bring to mind its presence in gadolinite or euxenite, minerals that have so far been found only in the Scandinavian Peninsula.
About its chemical properties, I know at present only this: It forms a white oxide and its solutions show no bands of light absorption. When calcined, it dissolves only slowly in nitric acid, even at boiling, but more readily in hydrochloric acid. It is completely precipitated from the solution of the nitrate by oxalic acid. This salt is very easily and completely decomposed at the temperature at which ytterbium nitrate is partially decomposed. With sulphuric acid it forms a salt that is as stable on heating as the sulphates from gadolinite or cerite and, like these, can be completely decomposed by heating with ammonium carbonate. The atomic weight of scandium = Sc is less than 90, calculated for the formula ScO. . . .
It would certainly be premature to discuss the affinities of the new substance or its place among the other elements; nevertheless, I cannot refrain from making some observations on this subject, guided by the chemical properties that are now known.
Since scandium nitrate decomposes so easily on heating that an almost pure ytterbine was obtained in the decompositions 13-21 of the preceding note, while scandine remained completely in the insoluble residues, it is not possible that the oxide has the formula ScO.
. . . The composition Sc2O3 for the earth material is supported by the following facts:
1. Scandine is present in the minerals, together with other rare earths R2O3
2. Solutions of scandium and ytterbium (salts) behave in the same way to oxalic acid.
3. There is much analogy between the behavior of the nitrates of scandium and ytterbium at high temperatures.
4. The double salt of sandium sulphate with potassium sulphate shows that scandium belongs to the same group of metals as those of gadolinite and cerite; all give salts of the same composition.
5. The insolubility of the same salt in potassium sulphate saturated solution indicates that scandium belongs to the cerite group.
6. In the composition of the selenites, the new earth shows much analogy with Y2O3, Er2O3, Yb2O3, on the one hand, giving neutral selenites, and on the other hand Al2O3, In2O3, Ce2O3, La2O3, which give very analogous acidic salts, as I have previously shown; I have also obtained a selenite of the same composition from Gl2O3
7. The atomic weight of scandium is 44; this is the value Mendeleev assigned to the predicted eka-boron. . .
8. The specific heat and the molecular volumes of the earth and of the sulphate place scandium between glucine and yttria.".
Scnadium has atomic number 21; atomic mass 44.956; melting point 1,540°C; boiling point 2,850°C; relative density 2.99; valence 3. Scandium is a soft silver-white metal. It is a member of Group 3 of the periodic table; because of its chemical and physical properties, its scarcity, and the difficulty in extracting the metal, it is sometimes regarded as one of the rare-earth metals. At ordinary temperatures it crystallizes in a hexagonal close-packed structure. It tarnishes slightly when exposed to air. It reacts with many acids. It forms an oxide and a number of colorless salts. Its compounds are found widely distributed in minute amounts in nature. It is a major component of the rare Norwegian mineral thortveitite. It is found in many of the rare-earth minerals and in certain tungsten and uranium ores. Scandium is found in relatively greater abundance in the sun and certain stars than on earth. The metal has little commercial importance. In 1970 pure scandium cost several thousand dollars per pound (state price now).
(state how many isotopes and the longest half-life.) (Interesting that Scandium is so low in mass and on the table, but yet so rare, at least on earth.)
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden. |
121 YBN
[05/15/1879 AD]
| 3847) Marie Alfred Cornu (CE 1841—1902) observes that the ultraviolet spectrum of the sun as seen on Earth abruptly stops at 300 nanometers, and no rays can be detected below this wavelength (alternatively interval), and that the wavelength at which the ultraviolet spectrum stops increases as the length of the path of sunlight increases - that is that this discontinuity is not in the solar spectrum but indicates that ultraviolet light is absorbed inside the atmosphere of Earth.
In the 1940s humans will use V2 rockets to examine the solar spectrum above the solar atmosphere and confirm that the spectrum does extend into the ultraviolet, and that the atmosphere of Earth does block light beams with ultraviolet frequencies.
| Paris, France |
121 YBN
[07/22/1879 AD]
| 3690) Nils Adolf Erik Nordenskiöld (nORDeNsULD) (CE 1832-1901), Swedish geologist, is the first person to navigate the Northeast Passage penetrating the seas north of Asia to reach the Pacific Ocean, achieving the long sought after northeastern passage to the Orient.
Nordenskiöld had made many other Arctic expeditions before this voyage. This voyage takes place aboard the ship "Vega" from 1878 to 1879. Nordenskiöld travels on the ship the "Vega" from Norway to Alaska. From the end of September until July 18, 1879, the ship is frozen in near the Bering Strait, but then resumes its course reaching Port Clarence, Alaska, on July 22 and returning to Europe by way by way of Canton (China), Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), and the Suez Canal.
Nordenskiöld is responsible for making scientific work an integral part of Arctic exploration and after this journey issues a five-volume report of the Vega voyage which marks the beginning of serious polar studies.
(trace on a 3d globe map with elevation included. Add nation identifiers? Perhaps just relevant nations as place markers.)
| Port Clarence, Alaska |
121 YBN
[08/22/1879 AD]
| 3681) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist revives Faraday's 1819 interpretation of radiant matter, the light emitting matter in a vacuum tube under high electric potential, as a fourth state of matter, different from solid, liquid or gas. Crookes delivers this is a lecture and includes examples of how force delivered by collisions with radiant matter can turn wheels in vacuum tubes.
This fourth state of matter will later be named "plasma" by Irving Langmuir in 1928.
| (British Association for the Advancement of Science)Sheffield, England |
121 YBN
[11/22/1879 AD]
| 5653) "Hall effect" discovered by Edwin Herbert Hall. The Hall effect is the generation of an electric potential perpendicular to both an electric current and an external magnetic field applied at right angles to the current.
While working for his thesis, Edwin Herbert Hall (CE 1855–1938), US physicist begins to consider a problem first posed by Maxwell concerning the force on a conductor carrying a current in a magnetic field. Does the magnetic force act on the conductor or the current? Hall argues that if the current is affected by the magnetic field then there should be "a state of stres...the electricity passing toward one side of the wire." Hall uses a thin gold foil and in 1879 detectes for the first time an electric potential acting perpendicularly to both the current and the magnetic field. The effect has since been known as the Hall effect. A simple interpretation is that the charge carriers moving along the conductor experience a transverse force and tend to drift to one side. The sign of the Hall voltage gives information on whether the charge carriers are positive or negative.
Hall publishes this in the "American Journal of Mathematics" as "On a New Action of the Magnet on Electric Currents", Hall writes: SOMETIME during the last University year, wlhile I was reading Maxwell's Electricity and Magnetism in connection with Professor Rowland's lectures, my attention was particularly attracted by the following passage in Vol. II, p. 144: "It must be carefully remembered, that the mechanical force which urges a conductor carrying a current across the lines of magnetic force, acts, not on the electric current, but on the conductor whiclh carries it. If the conductor be a rotating disk or a fluid it will move in obedience to this force, and this motion miiay or may not be accompanied wvith a change of position of the electric current which it carries. But if the current itself be free to choose any path through a fixed solid coniductor or a network of wires, theil, when a constant magnetic force is made to act on the system, the path of the current through the conductors is not permanently altered, but after certain transienit phenomenia, called induction currents, have sulsided, the distribution of the current will be found to be the same as if no magnetic force were in action. The only force which acts on electric currents is electromotive force, which must be disting,uished froml the mechanical force which is the subject of this chapter." This staternent seemed to mne to be contrary to the most natural supposition in the case considered, taking into account the fact tlhat a wire not bearing a current is in general not affected by a mag,net and that a wire bearing a current is affected exactly in proportion to the strengrth of the current, while the size and, in general, the material of the wire are matters of indifference. Moreover in explaining the phenomena of statical electricity it is customriary to say that charged bodies are attracted towvardel ach other or the contrary solely by the attraction or repulsion of the clharges for each otlher. Soon after reading the abovTe statement in Maxwell I read an article by Prof. Edlund, entitled " Unijpolar ]IdnCtion" (Phil. Mag., Oct., 1878, or Aninales de Chemie et de Physique, Jan., 1879), in which the author evi- dently assumes that a magnet acts upon a current in a fixed condluctor just as it acts upon the conductor itself when free to move. Finding these two authorities at variance, I brought the question to Prof. Rowland. He toldl me he doubted the truth of Maxwell's statemeiit and had sonmetime before miiade a hasty experiment for the purpose of detecting, if possible, some action of the magnet on tlhe current itself, though without success. Being very busy with other mnatters however, he had no immediate initention of carrying the investigation further. I now began to give the matter more attention and hit upon a method that seemed to promiise a solution of the problem. I laid my plan before Prof. Rowland and asked whether he had any objection to my mnaking the experiment. He approved of my method in the inain, though suggesting some very important changes in the proposed form ancd arrangement of the apparatus. The experiment proposed was suggeste(d by the following reflection : If the current of electrieity in a fixed conductor is itself attracted by a nagnet , the current should be drawn to one side of the wire, and therefore the resistance experienced should be increased. To test this theory, a flat spiral of German silver wire was inclosed between two thin disks of hard rubber and the whole placed between the poles of an electromagnet in suclh a position that the lines of magnetic force would pass through the spiral at right ang,les to the current of electricity. The wire of the spiral was about i mrn. in diaineter, and the resistance of the spiral was about two ohms. The nmagnet was worked by a battery of twenty Bunsen cells joined four in series and five abreast. The strength of the magnetic field in which the coil was placed was probably fifteen or twenty thousand times II, the horizontal intensity of the earth's magnetism. Making the spiral one arm of a Wheatstone's bridge and using a low resistance Th-omson galvanometer, so delicately adjusted as to betray a change of about one part in a million in the resistance of the spiral, I made, from October 7th to October 11th inclusive, thirteen series of observations, each of forty readings. A reading would first be made with the magnet active in a certain direction, then a reading with the magnet inactive, then one with the magnet active in the direction opposite to the first, then with the magnet inactive, and so on till the series of forty readings was completed. Some of the series seemed to show a sligoht increase of resistance due to the action of the inagnet, some a slight decrease, the greatest chang,e indicated by any complete series being a decrease of about one part in a hundred and fifty thousand. Nearly all the other series indicated a very much smaller change, the average change shown by the thirteen series being, a decrease of about one part in five millions. Apparently, then, the mnag,net'asc tion caused no change in the resistance of the coil. But thotugh concltusive, apparently, in respect to any change of resistance, the above experimnents are not sufficient to prove that a magnet cannot affect an electric current. If electricity is assumed to be an incompressible fluid, as some suspect it to be, we mnay conceive that the current of electricity flowing in a wire cannot be forced into one side of the wire or made to flow in any but a symmetrical manner. The magnet may tend to deflect the current without being able to do so. It is evident, however, that in this case there would exist a state of stress in the conductor, the electricity pressing, as it were, toward one side of the wire. Reasoning thnus, I thought it necessary, in order to make a thoroug,h investigation of the matter, to test for a difference of potential between points on opposite sides of the conductor. This could be done by repeating the experiment formnerly made by Prof. Rowland, anid wvhich was the following: A disk or strip of inetal, formiing part of an electric circuit, was placed between the poles of an electro-magnet, the disk cutting across the lines of force. The two poles of a sensitive galvanometer were then placed in connection with different parts of the disk, througlh which an electric current was passing, until two nearly equipotential points were found. The mag,net current was then turned on and the galvanometer was observed, in order to detect any indication of a change in the relative potential of the tNvo poles. Owing probably to the fact that the metal disk used had considerable thickness, the experimrlenat t that tiine failed to give any positive result. Prof. Rowlanid now advised me, in repeating this experiment, to use gold leaf mounted on a plate of glass as my mnetasl trip. I did so, and, experimentiing as indicated above, succeeded on the 28th of October in obtainingy, as the effect of the inagnet's action, a decided deflection of the galvanomneter needle. This deflection was mnuch too large to be attributed to the direct action of the magnet on the galvanomieter needle, or to any sinmilar cause. It was,
moreover, a permnanent deflection, and therefore not to be accounted for by inducti on. The effect was reversed when the magnet was reversed. It was not reversed by transferring the poles of the galvanometer froml one end of the strip to the other. In short, the phenomena observed were just such as we should expect to see if the electric current were pressed, but not mioved, toward one side of the conductor. In regard to the direction of this pressure or tendency as dependent on the direction of the current in the gold leaf and the direction of the lines of magnetic force the following stateinent may be made: If we reg,ard an electric current as a single stream flowing from the positive to the negative pole, i. e. from the carbon pole of the battery through the circuit to tlhe zinc pole, in this case the phenomena observed indicate that two currents, parallel and in the same direction, tend to repel each other. If, on the other hand, we regard the electric current as a stream flowing from the negtive to the positive pole, in this case the phenomena observed indicate that two currents parallel and in the same direction tend to attract each other. It is of course perfectly well known that two condtctors, bearing currents parallel and in the same direction, are drawn toward each other. Wlhether this fact, taken in connection witlh what has been said above, hias any bearing upon the question of the absolute direction of the electric current, it is perhaps too early to decide. In order to make soine rough quantitative experiments, a new plate was prepared consisting of a strip of gold leaf about 2 crn. wide and 9 cm. long mounted on plate glass. Good contact was insured by pressing firnmly dlown on each encd of the strip of gold leaf a thick piece of brass polished on the under side. To these pieces of brass the wires from a single Bunsen cell were soldered. The portion of the gold leaf strip not covered by the pieces of brass was about 52 cm. in length and had a resistance of atbout 2 ohm-s. The poles of a high resistance Thomilson galvanometer were placed in connection with points opposite each other on the edges of the strip of gold leaf and midway between the pieces of brass. The glass plate bearing the gold leaf was fastened, as the first one liad been, by a soft cement to the flat end of one pole of the magnet, the otlier pole of the magnet being brought to within about 6 min. of the strip of gold leaf. HALL, On a New Action of th7eM agnet on Electric COrrents. 291 The apparatus being arranged as above described, on the 12th of November a series of observations was made for the purpose of determining the variations of the observed effect with known variations of the magnetic force and the strength of current through the gold leaf. The experiments were hastily and roughly made, but are sufficiently accurate, it is thought, to determine the law of variation above mentioned as well as the order of maognitude of the current through the Thomson galvanometer conmparedw ith the current through the gold leaf and the intensity of the magnetic field. The results obtained are as follows: {ULSF: see table}
f is the horizontal intensitv of the earth's magnetism -=.19 approximately. Though the greatest difference in the last columni above amnounltsto about 8 per cent. of the mean quotient, yet it seeins safe to conclude that with a given form and arrangement of apparatus the action oni the Thomson galvanoineter is proportional to the product of the magnetic force by the current through the gold leaf. This is not the samte as saying that the effect on the Thomson galvanomneter is under all circumstances proportional to the current whiclh is passing between the poles of the magnet. If a strip of copper of the samne length and breadth as the gold leaf but 4- mm. in thickness is substituted for the latter, the galvanomieter fails to detect any current arising from the action of the magnet, except an induction current at the momrent of making or breaking the Tnagnet circuit. It has been stated above that in the experimnents thus far tried the current apparently tends to move, without actually nmoving, toward the side of the conductor. I have in m1ind a form of apparatus whiclh will, I think, allow the current to follow this tendency and move across the lines of magnetic force. If this experiment succeeds, one or two others immwlediately suggest themselves. To make a more complete and accurate study of the phenomenon described in the preceding pages, availing, myself of the advice and assistance of Prof. Rowland, will probably occupy me for some months to conie. BALTIMORE, Nov. 19th, 1879. It is perhaps allowable to speak of the action of the magnet as setting up in the strip of gold leaf a new electromotive force at right angles to the primary electromaotive force. This new electromotive force cannot, under ordinary conditions, mnanifest itself, the circuit in which it might work being incomplete. When the circuit is completed by-means of the Thomson galvanometer, a current flows. The actual current through this galvanometer depends of course upon the resistance of the galvanometer and its connections, as well as upoIn the distance between the two points of the gold leaf at which the ends of the wires from the galvanometer are applied. We cannot therefore take the ratio of C and c above as the ratio of the primary and the transverse electromotive forces just mentioned. If we represent by E' the difference of potential of two points a centimeter apart on the transverse diameter of the strip of gold leaf. and by E the the difference of potential of two points a centimeter apart on the longitudinal diameter of the same, a rough and hasty calculation for the experiments already made shows the ratio E to have varied from about 3000 to about 6500. The transverse electrormotive force E' seemns to be, under ordinary circumnstances, proportional to Xv, where 111 is the intensity of the magnetic field and v is the velocity of the electricity in the gold leaf. Writing for v the equivalent c expression - where C is the primary current through a strip of the gold leaf 1 cm. wide, and s is the area of section of the same, we have E'oc- . November 22d, 1879.".
(I think that the hall effect is evidence that there are particles in an electromagnetic field that collide with the electrons and push the electrons in one direction.)
(Notice the powerful influence of AT&T even in 1879 with Hall using the words "particularly attracted", "attention", and "I have in mind a form of apparatus which will, I think, allow the current to follow this tendency and move across the lines of magnetic force. If this experiment succeeds, one or two others immediately suggest themselves."- notice "mind", "tendancy", "suggest")
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
121 YBN
[12/11/1879 AD]
| 3441) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) publishes the photographic spectra of some stars.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
121 YBN
[12/17/1879 AD]
| 3874) (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney (CE 1843-1920), English astronomer, makes a photographic emulsion which can record infrared light as far as 10,750 wavelength (Angstroms, 1x10-10m).
This emulsion is different from the dye emulsions used before this by Vogel and Waterhouse to capture images of infrared spectral lines. This emulsion consists of a collodion made of Pyroxyline, Ether, and Alcohol, in addition to zinc bromide, nitric acid, silver nitrate, and water.
This emulsion extends to a wavelength of 12,000 (nm?). This emulsion makes it possible (mip-Michael I. Pupin?) to determine how sunlight is altered in passing through the atmosphere since some of the infrared is absorbed by air.
John Herschel had captured an image of spectral lines in the infrared by India ink on thin paper.
Abney notes that Lord Rayleigh had repeated Herschel's experiments and reported that the thermographs obtained were not comparable with those of Herschel's, however Abney's thermographs are very similar to those of Herschel's.
With Lieutenant-Colonel (later Major General) Festing, Abney uses this infrared emulsion to determine the absorption spectra of organic bodies, reporting their results in an 1882 paper. (This field of imaging the heat absorbed and emited from living bodies is almost completely missing from the science literature - the reason this may be is if eyes and potentially even thought images can be easily seen in specific frequencies of infrared, micro, and or radio light. So this is an unusual find, as is any report on infrared, microwave, or radio spectroscopy of living objects.)
Interestingly Abney and other refer to the "ultrared", which is now called "infrared", although "ultrared" seems consistent with "ultraviolet".
(It is clear that recording pictures of infrared light, in particular frequencies that are associated with heat, is very closely related to seeing eyes - which is probably done by capturing specific frequencies, "thermographs" as Herschel called them, from behind the brain. But how do these pieces fit into the secret-unpublished happenings?)
(Is there a relation between Abney's military association, rank of Captain, and the releasing of photos of the infrared? Perhaps defeating the phone company reign of secrecy required military intervention or only a group of people, which included Abney, in the military had the courage or power to reveal infrared photography - which must have been happening far earlier around 1810. Perhaps the saying might be: it took an army to free the secret of seeing eyes and hearing thought.)
(Perhaps people could see eyes and thought images long before they could record them on photographs and film.)
(This emulsion, if the longest periodic space between photons is 14um, seems very small, microwaves being from .3 to 30cm.)
(It is interesting how seeing the infrared light from the back of a brain compares with examination of organic molecules. To some extent, the light from a brain is from molecules, and the signature is from the molecule, but yet the larger image is from the eyes, apparently. I guess, the spectral signature is from the molecules, but the image from the eyes and brain is a two dimensional image over a variety of frequencies or spectral lines. This field as published only appears to examine the molecular absorption - not even the emission spectra, apparently, and does not examine the two dimensional image of different objects in particular frequencies and over a range of frequencies.)
(State who first examines the ir emission spectrum of any atom or molecule - possibly Vogel noticing that Jupiter has red {ir too?} emission lines that do not match sunlight is related.)
| (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3550) (Sir) Frederick Augustus Abel (CE 1827-1902), English chemist creates the Abel test to determine the flash-point of petroleum.
Flash-point is the lowest temperature at which the vapor of a combustible liquid can be made to ignite momentarily in air. (Does this depend on density of gases, and/or quantity of photons used in the ignition?)
Abel's earlier first instrument, the open-test apparatus, is found to possess certain defects, and is superseded in 1879 by the Abel close-test instrument.
| (Royal Arsenal at Woolwich) Woolwich, England |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3687) Wilhelm Max Wundt (VUNT) (CE 1832-1920), German psychologist, establishes, at the University of Leipzig, the first laboratory entirely devoted to experimental psychology.
This laboratory is the precursor of many similar institutes.
The contents of Wundt's journal reveals a focus on physiology of the senses; optical phenomena are most popular with 46 articles; audition is second in importance. Sight and hearing, which Helmholtz had already carefully studied, are the main themes of Wundt's laboratory.
(Verify if there experiments on human without consent. State more detail about the nature of work there.)
(It is interesting that psychology as a science, in this case, comes out of physiology. How does this relate to the secret camera thought network? How does this relate to the growth of the psychiatric hospital industry?)
| (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3719) Charles Augustus Young (CE 1834-1908), US astronomer accurately measures the diameter of Mars.
(Explain details.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3730) Josef Stefan (sTeFoN) (CE 1835-1893), Austrian physicist states that the rate of loss of heat in an object is proportional to the fourth power of the absolute temperature.
Another way of stating this is that the total radiation of a hot body is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature. In other words if the temperature is doubled, the rate of radiation increases sixteen times. This is Stefan's fourth-power law and is important in understanding the evolution of stars.
Stefan refines Newton's law (state which one) so that it agrees with measurements in all temperature ranges.
After examining the heat losses from platinum wire Stefan concludes that the rate of loss of heat is proportional to the fourth power of the absolute temperature; i.e., rate of loss of heat = σT4. In 1884 one of Stefan's students, Ludwig Boltzmann, will show that this law is exact only for black bodies (ones that radiate all wavelengths of light) and can be deduced from theoretical principles. The law is now known as the Stefan–Boltzmann law; the constant of proportionality, σ, as Stefan's constant. (Is this constant different for different materials? If yes, I think what explains the differences?)
(Show exact equation.) It appears Stefan uses the equation E(T)=AT4, and so is equating energy {also called power, the rate at which work is done} to temperature.
This law is one of the first important steps toward the understanding of blackbody radiation, from which springs the quantum idea of radiation.
The average temperature of the radiating layers of the Sun may be estimated from Stefan's law, by computing the intensity of the radiation at the surface from that observed on Earth, on the basis of the law of inverse squares; the result is about 6500 C.
Stefan publishes this as "Über die Beziehung zwischen der Wärmestrahlung und der Temperatur". (find original and translation).
Dulong and Petit had published in 1817 experimental results of what they thought was purely radiation heat transfer between a spherical bulb and a spherical chamber. Both bare and silvered bulbs were heated only up to about 573 K, while the chamber temperature was kept around 273 K. Various gases filled the gap between the two, and they measured the rate of change of temperature of the bulb over a range of pressures. Dulong and Petit use the model: E(T)=μaT where E is the radiative power, μ is a constant depending on the material and size of the body, a is an empiracle constant for all materials=1.0077, and T is the temperature in degrees Centigrade. Stefan reformulates this model to better match the observed data. Stefan finds that the fourth power of the temperature matches more accurately Dulong's and Petit's experimental values.
It is widely known at the time that the rate of cooling is much higher at higher temperatures, so Stefan wants to test his model in that range. Stefan uses Tyndall's results, which report heat transfer data for a platinum wire over a wide temperature range. Stefan finds a close relation to the T4 hypothesis. Stefan then applies his T4 model to the experimental results of Provostaye and Desains , Draper , and Ericsson and finds that his model is more accurate than the Dulong–Petit model, especially at higher temperatures.
(First, I think we need to replace the word "radiation" with the word "light" and in particular "light particles"? That seems much more accurate. Does this include combinations of light particles such as electrons and atoms emited too? It seems unusual that the quantity or rate of light emited is a fourth power of temperature and not a third or second power. Perhaps each of the four variables x, y, z and t are the reason for this relationship. I think these experiments should be verified and shown in video. Is this a measure of quantity, quantity over volume and/or over time? How is the quantity or rate of "radiation" measured? Over all frequencies and particle kinds? Perhaps at a very fast frequency, perhaps just with a thermometer, but then that would be only infrared radiation (or light). Does this work for all different shaped objects? Does this law work for subatomic particles and atoms?)
(I think it is important to remember that true temperature, can never be measured accurately, because no material ever absorbs all frequencies of light or other particles. So in some volume there could be many moving particles, but since they are not absorbed they do not expand the measuring liquid, gas or solid.)
| (Physical Institute, University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3764) Vladimir Vasilevich Markovnikov (CE 1837-1904), Russian chemist, prepares molecules with four carbon atom rings. Carbon rings of 6 carbon atoms are the most stable and easiest to form. Before this people thought that all carbon-based molecules could rings of 6 atoms only.
| (Moscow University) Moscow, Russia |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3782) Paul Émile Lecoq De Boisbaudran (luKOK Du BWoBODroN or BWoBoDroN) (CE 1838-1912), French chemist, identifies the element samarium by spectroscopy.
Samarium is a metallic chemical element; symbol "Sm"; atomic number 62; atomic mass 150.36; melting point 1,072°C; boiling point 1,791°C; relative density 7.54 at 20°C; valence +2 or +3. Samarium is a lustrous silver-white metal. It is one of the rare-earth metals of the lanthanide series in Group 3 of the periodic table. It has two crystalline forms (allotropy). The metal does not oxidize at room temperature but ignites when heated above 150°C (presumably in air). Samarium is found widely distributed in nature; it is obtained commercially from the minerals monazite and bastnasite. Naturally occurring samarium is a mixture of seven isotopes, three of which are radioactive with extremely long half-lives. The metal is not isolated in relatively pure form until recently. A samarium-cobalt compound, SmCo5, is used to make magnets for use in computer memories. The oxide, samaria, is used in special infrared absorbing glass and cores of carbon arc-lamp electrodes. One isotope of samarium is a good neutron absorber and so is used in nuclear reactor control rods.
| (home lab) Cognac, France (presumably) |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3796) Per Teodor Cleve (KlAVu) (CE 1840-1905), Swedish chemist and geologist, from a sample of erbia in which he removed all traces of scandia and ytterbia, finds two new earths, which he names holmium, after Stockholm (Cleve's native city), and thulium, after the old name for Scandinavia. Holmium will be shown to be a mixture of two elements when, in 1886, Lecoq de Boisbaudran discovers that it also contained an element he names dysprosium.
Thulium and holmium are among the rare earth minerals.
Cleve publishes this as (translated from French?) "On Two New Elements in Erbia" (September 1, 1879).
Holmium has atomic number 67; atomic mass 164.930; melting point 1,461°C; boiling point 2,600°C; relative density 8.803; valence 3. Holmium is a soft, malleable, lustrous, silvery metal of the lanthanide series in Group 3 of the periodic table. It is prepared by reduction of a holmium halide with calcium metal. Holmium is stable in dry air at room temperature but is rapidly oxidized in moist air or when heated. Holmia, the oxide, is found in nature, with other rare earths, in the minerals gadolinite and monazite. Holmium, its oxide, and its salts have no commercial uses.
(describe method in more detail.) (Interesting that a trend develops to name elements after nations, Gallium, Germanium, Thulium, Holmium, Americanum, etc)
Also in this year, Cleve shows that the element scandium, newly discovered by the Swedish chemist Lars Nilson (CE 1840–1899), is in fact the eka-boron predicted by Dmitri Mendeleev in his periodic table. (Interesting that Sc is not under Boron {group IIIA} but is to the left in group IIIB. are there similarities between the A and B groups? Perhaps future periodic tables will be represented as three dimensional shapes, spherical or other shapes with each symbol on each proton or within the 3D model.)
Cleve publishes this as (translated from Swedish or French?) "On Scandium". (State original paper names)
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden. |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3853) Walther Flemming (CE 1843-1905), German anatomist uses dyes to identify a thread-like material in the nucleus of cells (later named chromosomes by Heinrich Waldeyer).
Flemming is a pioneer in the use of the newly discovered aniline dyes to see structures in cells and will use these stains to identify and name the process of mitosis, the primary method of cell division in eukaryote cells.
| (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 3958) US chemist Ira Remsen (CE 1846-1927) and a visiting research fellow, Constantine Fahlberg(CE 1850-1910) synthesize orthobenzoyl sulfimide, saccharin, the first commercially available artificial sweetener.
While Remsen and Fahlberg were investigating the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide. Fahlberg notices an unaccountable sweet taste to his food and finds that this sweetness is present on his hands and arms, despite his having washed thoroughly after leaving the laboratory. Checking over his laboratory apparatus by taste tests, Fahlberg is led to the discovery of the source of this sweetness: saccharin. Saccharin becomes the first commercially available artificial sweetener. Saccharin is still made by the oxidation of o-toluenesulfonamide, as well as from phthalic anhydride.
Rensen and Fahlberg write: "Benzoic sulfinide (or anhydrosulfaminebenzoic acid) is difficultly soluble in cold water. It is much more soluble in hot water, and can be obtained in crystallized form from its aqueous solution. It crystallizes in short thick prismatic forms, which are not well developed. Alcohol and ether dissolve it very easily. It fuses at 220° (uncorr.), but undergoes at the same time partial decomposition. It possesses a very marked sweet taste, being much sweeter than cane-sugar. The taste is perfectly pure. The minutest quantity of the substance, a bit of its powder scarcely visible, if placed upon the tip of the tongue, causes a sensation of pleasant sweetness throughout the entire cavity of the mouth. As stated above, the substance is soluble to only a slight extent in cold water, but if a few drops of the cold aqueous solution be placed in an ordinary goblet full of water, the latter then tastes like the sweetest syrup. Its presence can hence easily be detected in the dilutest solutions by the taste. Orthonitro-benzoic acid has this same property, but the sweetness is by no means as intense as in the case of benzoic sulfinide. ...".
Saccharin has no caloric value and does not promote tooth decay, is not metabolized by the body and is excreted unchanged. Saccharin is widely used in the diets of humans with diabetes and others who must avoid sugar intake. Saccharin is also used in diet soft drinks and other diet foods, and is useful in foods and pharmaceuticals in which the presence of sugar might lead to spoilage.
Toxicological studies have shown that saccharin induces a greater incidence of bladder cancer in rats that have been fed the sweetener at high levels (5 to 7.5 percent of the diet). At the same time, epidemiological studies have failed to show a link between human bladder cancer and the use of saccharin at normal levels, and the sweetener is approved for addition to foods in most countries of the world.
The pair published their findings in the February 1880 issue of the American Chemical Journal, with Dr. Remsen as lead author. Four years later, when they are no longer working together, Dr. Fahlberg patents the discovery, which he calls saccharin, for the Latin word saccharum, or sugar. Dr. Remsen is not mentioned on the patent. Dr. Fahlberg gets rich, and Dr. Remsen, one of the first of five faculty members named university professors at Hopkins in 1875, becomes angry wanting credit for the discovery.
Remsen does not object to Fahlberg patenting saccharin, but he becomes angry when Fahlberg tries to alter the account of the discovery. Fahlberg first omits mention of Remsen as a participant in the research, then tries to make it appear that he, not Remsen, was the senior investigator.
| Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 4064) Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege (FrAGu) (CE 1848-1925), German mathematician, improves on Boole's system of logic, by expanding the system to include symbols not already used in mathematics. Frege creates a symbol for "or", and one for the conditional ("if then"). Frege publishes this in his "Begriffsschrift" ("Conceptscript") which contains a system of mathematical logic in the modern sense.
(more details)
(People must remember that there is growing evidence that electronic computers were invented years before reaching the public - keywords to look for are "bit" and "steps" {walking robot}, ...{give others}) (The conditional {if then} is a very basic and fundamental property of computers, and so perhaps this is a release of previous secret information or a rediscovery of secret information used by those in the secret neuron reading and writing network.)
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 4106) Charles Édouard Chamberland (sonBRLoN) (CE 1851-1908), French bacteriologist brings the autoclav into use. An autoclav is an airtight device that can be heated above the boiling point of water, and is used to kill bacterial spores to make sure solutions and equipment are completely sterile. This device will later become a standard piece of equipment in bacteriology labs and hospitals. Chamberland is an associate of Pasteur.
In 1679 Denis Papin invented the steam digester, a prototype of the autoclave that is still used in cooking and is called a pressure cooker.
(Needs image)
| (École Normale) Paris, France |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 4183) Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (KoSuL) (CE 1853-1927) German biochemist shows that nuclein, a substance isolated 10 years before by Miescher, contains a protein portion and a nonprotein portion which is "nucleic acid" (Kossel names?), and so nuclein can be referred to as a nucleoprotein.
In 1869 Hoppe-Seyler announced the separation of a nuclear substance from the pus cell, which Miescher gave the name "nuclein".
The nucleic acid portion is unlike any other natural product known at this time. When the nucleic acids are broken down Kossel finds that among the products are purines and pyrimidines, nitrogen containing compounds with the atoms arranged in two rings for purines and one ring for pyrimidines. (Fischer had worked on the purines.) Kossel isolates 2 different purines, adenine and guanine, and 3 different pyrimidines, thymine (which Kossel is the first to isolate), cytosine, and uracil. Kossel also recognizes a carbohydrate in the products, but the identification of this carbohydrate will wait until Levene (40 years later).
Kossel correctly concludes that the function of nuclein is neither to act as a storage substance nor to provide energy for muscular contraction; but must be associated with the formation of fresh tissue. Kossel finds embryonic tissue to be especially rich in nuclein. Also from physiological studies shows that uric acid is more closely associated with the breakdown of nucleins than with that of proteins.
| (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg , Germany |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 4196) Paul Ehrlich (ArliK) (CE 1854-1915), German bacteriologist, defines and named the eosinophil cells of the blood.
| (Leipzig University) Leipzig, Germany (presumably) |
121 YBN
[1879 AD]
| 4231) Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser (nISR) (CE 1855-1916), German physician, identifies the small bacterium that causes gonorrhea (and is named "gonococcus" by Ehrlich).
Neisser uses Koch’s smear tests for the identification of bacteria, staining techniques, including those with methylene blue, and a Zeiss microscope that uses Abbe’s condenser and oil-immersion system.
| (Oskar Simon’s clinic) Breslau, Germany |
120 YBN
[01/01/1880 AD]
| 4009) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, electrically illuminates the main street of Menlo Park before three thousand people.
A group of leading financiers, including J.P. Morgan and the Vanderbilts, had established the Edison Electric Light Company and had advanced Edison $30,000 for research and development. Edison proposes to connect his lights in a parallel circuit by subdividing the current, so that, unlike arc lights, which were connected in a series circuit, the failure of one light bulb will not cause all bulbs to go out. Some eminent scientists predict that this kind of circuit cannot be feasible, but their findings are based on systems of lamps with low resistance, the only successful type of electric light at the time. Edison determines that a bulb with high resistance will work and began his search for a useable bulb.
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
120 YBN
[02/09/1880 AD]
| 3420) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, creates a successful vaccine by growing the agent of disease on an artificial media to create a milder form.
Pasteur announces to the French Academy of Sciences that he has found a method of reducing the virulence of a disease germ to produce only a mild form of the disease which however then protects against the usual virulent form, exactly as vaccinia protects against small pox. The particular disease experimented with is that infectious disease of (chicken) known familiarly as chicken cholera. In October of the same year Pasteur announces the method he used to weaken the virus as he termed it. Pasteur grew the disease germs in artificial media exposed to the air.
This is the first time that immunization is observed in a (bacterial) disease as opposed to viral disease.
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
120 YBN
[05/??/1880 AD]
| 3750) Henry Draper (CE 1837-1882), US physician and amateur astronomer, finds lines in the spectrum of Jupiter that are not in the solar spectrum and concludes that Jupiter does emit its own light in the visible spectrum.
Draper writes: "A casual inspection will satisfy any one that such modifications in the intensity of the background are readily perceptible in the original negative. They seem to me to point out two things that are occurring: first, an absorption of solar light in the equatorial regions of the planet; and second, a production of intrinsic light at the same place. We can reconcile these apparently opposing statements by the hypothesis that the temperature of the incandescent substances producing light at the equatorial regions of Jupiter did not suffice for the emission of the more refrangible rays, and that there were present materials which absorbed those rays from the sunlight falling on the planet. If the spectrum photograph exhibited only the absorption phenomenon above h, the interest attached to it would not be great because a physicist will readily admit from theoretical considerations that such might be the case owing to the colored belts of the planet. But the strengthening of the spectrum between h and F in the portions answering to the vicinity of the equatorial regions of Jupiter bears so directly on the problem of the physical condition of the planet as to incandescence that its importance cannot be overrated.".
(TODO: scan better quality image.)
| (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
120 YBN
[06/03/1880 AD]
| 4038) Bell calls this device a photophone.
This is the earliest publicly known communication of sound information using light particles. In theory, dots of an image could be transmitted and received - and any electrical signal could be transmitted and received using this visible light method.
Bell believed that the photophone was his most important invention. The device allowed the transmission of sound on a beam of light. Of the eighteen patents granted in Bell's name alone, and the twelve that he shared with his collaborators, four were for the photophone.
Bell's photophone works by projecting the voice through an instrument toward a mirror. Vibrations in the voice cause similar vibrations in the mirror. Bell directs sunlight into the mirror, which captures and projects the mirror's vibrations. The vibrations are transformed back into sound at the receiving end of the projection. The photophone functions similarly to the telephone, except that the photophone uses light as a means of projecting the information and the telephone relies on electricity.
Edison will use light particles of lower frequency (a form of radio: electro-static induction) to transmit and receive text (telegrams, Morse code?) in 1885, however, not until 1922 will C. Francis Jenkins wirelessly transmit and receive a photographic image using photons in 1922.
Bell publishes an article in August 1880 in "The American Journal of Science". Bell writes: "In bringing before you some discoveries made by Mr. Sum- nerTainter and myself, which have resulted in the construction of apparatus for the production and reproduction of sound by means of light, it is necessary to explain the state of knowledge which formed the starting point of our experiments.
I shall first describe that remarkable substance "selenium," and the manipulations devised by previous experimenters; but the final result of our researches has widened the class of substances sensitive to light vibrations, until we can propound the fact of such sensitiveness being a general property of all matter.
We have found this property in gold, silver, platinum, iron, steel, brass, copper, zinc, lead, antimony, german-silver, Jenk- in's metal, Babbitt's metal, ivory, celluloid, gutta-percha, hard rubber, soft vulcanized rubber, paper, parchment, wood, mica, and silvered glass; and the only substances from which we have not obtained results, are carbon and thin microscope glass.* {* Later experiments hare shown that these are not exceptions. Am. Jour. Boi.—Third Series, Vol. XX, No. 118.—Oct., 1880.}
We find that when a vibratory beam of light falls upon these substances they emit sounds, the pitch of which depends upon the frequency of the vibratory change in the light. We find farther, that when we control the form, or character of the light, vibrations on selenium (and probably on the other substances), we control the quality of the sound, and obtain all varieties of articulate speech. We can thus, without a conducting wire as in electric telephony, speak from station to station wherever we can project a beam of light. We have not had the opportunity of testing the limit to which this photo-phonic effect may be extended, but we have spoken to and from points 213 meters apart: and there seems no reason to doubt that the results will be obtained at whatever distance a beam of light can be flashed from one observatory to another. The necessary privacy of our experiments, hitherto, has alone prevented any attempts at determining the extreme distance at which this new method of vocal communication will be available.
I shall now speak of selenium.
Selenium.—In the year 1817, Berzelius and Gottlieb Gahn made an examination of the method of preparing sulphuric acid in use at Gripsholm. During the course of this examination they observed in the acid a sediment of a partly reddish, partly clear brown color, which under the action of the blowpipe gave out a peculiar odor, like that attributed by Klaproth to tellurium.
As tellurium was a substance of extreme rarity, Berzelius attempted its production from this deposit, but he was unable after many experiments to obtain farther indications of its presence. He found plentiful signs of sulphur mixed with mercury, copper, tin, zinc, iron, arsenic and lead, but no trace of tellurium.
It was not in the nature of Berzelius to be disheartened by this result . In science every failure advances the boundary of knowledge as well as every success ; and Berzelius felt that if the characteristic odor that had been observed did not proceed from tellurium, it might possibly indicate the presence of some substance then unknown to the chemist. Urged on by this hope he returned with renewed ardor to his work.
He collected a great quantity of the material and submitted the whole mass to various chemical processes. He succeeded in separating successively the sulphur, the mercury, the copper, the tin and the other known substances, whose presence bad been indicated by his tests; and after all these had been eliminated, there still remained a residue, which proved upon examination to be what he had been in search of—a new elementary substance.
The chemical properties of this new element were found to resemble those of tellurium in such a remarkable degree that Berzelius gave to the substance the name of " selenium," from the Greek word σελήνη the moon, ("tellurium," as is well known, being derived from tellus, the earth). Although tellurium and selenium are alike in many respects, they differ in their electrical properties; tellurium being a good conductor of electricity, and selenium, as Berzelius showed, a non-conductor.
Knox discovered in 1837, that selenium became a conductor when fused ; and Hittorff in 1851, showed that it conducted at ordinary temperatures when in one of its allo-tropic forms.
When selenium is rapidly cooled from a fused condition it is a non-conductor. In this, its "vitreous" form, it is of a dark brown color, almost black by reflected light, having an exceedingly brilliant surface. In thin films it is transparent, and appears of a beautiful ruby red by transmitted light.
When selenium is cooled from a fused condition with extreme slowness, it presents an entirely different appearance, being of a dull lead color, and having throughout a granular or crystalline structure and looking like a metal. In this form it is opaque to light even in verv thin films. This variety of selenium has long been known as "granular" or "crystalline" selenium ; or as Regnault called it, "metallic" selenium. It was selenium of this kind that Hittorff found to be a conductor of electricity at ordinary temperature.
He also found that its resistance to the passage of an electrical current diminished continuously by heating up to the point of fusion ; and that the resistance suddenly increased in passing from the solid to the liquid condition.
It was early discovered that exposure to sunlight hastens the change of selenium from one allotropic form to another; and this observation is significant in the light of recent discoveries.
Although selenium has been known for the last sixty years, it has not yet been utilized to any extent in the arts, and it is still considered simply as a chemical curiosity. It is usually supplied in the form of cylindrical bars. These bars are sometimes found to be in the metallic condition, but more usually they are in the vitreous or non-conducting form.
It occurred to Willoughby Smith that; on account of the high resistance of crystalline selenium, it might be usefully employed at the shore-end of a submarine cable, in his system of testing and signaling during the process of submersion. Upon experiment the selenium was found to have all the resistance required; some of the bars employed measuring as much as 1400 megohms—a resistance equivalent to that which would be offered by a telegraph wire long enough to reach from the earth to the sun! But the resistance was found to be extremely variable. Efforts were made to ascertain the cause of this variability, and it was discovered that the resistance was less when the selenium was exposed to light than when it was in the dark!
This observation was first made by Mr. May —(Mr. Willoughby Smith's assistant, stationed at Valentia)—was soon verified by a careful series of experiments, the results of which were communicated by Mr. Willoughby Smith to the Society of Telegraph Engineers, on the 17th of February, 1873. Platinum wires were inserted into each end of a bar of crystalline selenium, which was then hermetically sealed in a glass tube through the ends of which the platinum wires projected for the purpose of connection. One of these bars was placed in a box, the lid of which was closed so as to shade the selenium, and the resistance of the substance was measured.
Upon opening the lid of the box the resistance instantaneously diminished. When the light of an ordinary gas burner (which was placed at a distance of several feet from the bar,) was intercepted by shading the selenium with the hand, the resistance again increased; and upon passing the light through rock salt, and through glasses of various colors, the resistance was found to vary according to the amount of light transmitted. In order to be certain that temperature had nothing to do with the effect, the selenium was placed in a vessel of water so that the light had to pass through a considerable depth of water in order to reach the selenium. The effects, however, were the same as before. When a strong light from the ignition of a narrow band of magnesium was held about nine inches above the water, the resistance of the selenium immediately fell more than two-thirds, returning to the normal condition upon the removal of the light.
The announcement of these results naturally created an intense interest among scientific men, and letters of enquiry regarding the details of the experiment soon appeared in the columns of Nature, from Harry Napier Draper and Lieut . M. L. Sale, which were answered in the next number by Willoughby Smith. ...". Bell goes on to describe more work with Selenium concluding with the work of Professor W. G. Adams of Kings College who "found that the maximum effect was produced by the greenish-yellow rays, and showed that the intensity of the action depended upon the illuminating power of the light, being directly as the square root of that illuminating power.". Bell then writes: "Without dwelling further upon the researches of others I may say that all observations concerning the effect of light upon the conductivity of selenium have been made by means of the galvanometer, but it occurred to me that the telephone, from its extreme sensitiveness to electrical influences, might be substituted with advantage. Upon consideration of the subject, however, I saw that the experiments could not be conducted in the ordinary way, for the following reasons: The law of audibility of the telephone is precisely analogous to the law of electric induction. No effect is produced during the passage of a continuous and steady current. It is only at the moment of change from a stronger to a weaker state, or, -vice versa, that any audible effect is produced; and the amount of effect iS exactly proportional to the amount of variation in the current.
It was, therefore, evident that the telephone could only respond to the effect produced in selenium at the moment of change from light towards darkness, or, vice versa, and that it would be advisable to intermit the light with great rapidity so as to produce a succession of changes in the conductivity of the selenium, corresponding in frequency to musical vibrations within the limits of the sense of hearing. For I had often noticed that currents of electricity, so feeble as hardly to produce any audible effects from a telephone when the circuit was simply opened and closed, caused very perceptible musical sounds when the circuit was rapidly interrupted ; and that the higher the pitch of the sound the more audible was the effect. I was much struck by the idea of in this way producing sound by the action of light.
I proposed to pass a bright light through one of the orifices in a perforated screen consisting of a circular disc or wheel with holes near the circumference. Upon rapidly rotating the disc an intermittent beam of light would fall upon the selenium and a musical tone should be produced from the telephone, the pitch of which would depend upon the rapidity of the rotation of the disc.
Upon further consideration it appeared to me that all the audible effects obtained from variations of electricity could also be produced by variations of light, acting upon selenium. I saw that the effect could not only be produced at the extreme distance at which selenium would normally respond to the action of a luminous body, but that this distance could be Indefinitely increased by the use of a parallel beam of light, so that we might telephone from one place to another without the necessity of a conducting wire between the transmitter and receiver.
It was evidently necessary in order to reduce this idea to practice, to devise an apparatus to be operated by the voice of a speaker, by which variations could be produced in a parallel beam of light, corresponding to the variations in the air produced by the voice. I proposed to pass light through a perforated plate containing an immense number of small orifices.
Two similarly perforated plates were to be employed. One was to be fixed and the other to be attached to the center of a diaphragm actuated by the voice; so that the vibration of the diaphragm would cause the movable plate to slide to and fro over the surface of the fixed plate, thus alternately enlarging and contracting the free orifices for the passage of light . In this way the voice of a speaker could control the amount of light passed through the perforated plates without completely obstructing its passage. This apparatus was to be placed in the path of a parallel beam of light, and the undulatory beam emerging from the apparatus could be received at some distant place upon a lens, or other apparatus by means of which it could be condensed upon a sensitive piece of selenium placed in a local circuit, with a telephone and galvanic battery.
The variations in the light produced by the voice of the speaker should cause corresponding variations in the electrical resistance of the selenium at the distant place, and the telephone in circuit with the selenium should reproduce audibly the tones and articulations of the speaker's voice.
I obtained some selenium for the purpose of trying the apparatus described; but found upon experiment that its resistance was almost infinitely greater than that of any telephone that had been constructed; and I was therefore unable at that time to obtain audible effects in the way desired. I believed, however, that this obstacle could be overcome by devising mechanical arrangements for reducing the resistance of the selenium, and by constructing special telephones for the purpose.
I felt so much confidence in this that in a lecture delivered before the Royal Institution of Great Britain, on the 17th of May, 1878, I announced the possibility of hearing a shadow by means of interrupting the action of light upon selenium. A few days afterwards my ideas upon this subject received a fresh impetus by the announcement made by Mr. Willoughby Smith,* before the Society of Telegraph Engineers, that he had heard the action of a ray of light falling upon a bar of crystalline selenium by listening to a telephone in circuit with it.
It is not unlikely that the publicity given to the speaking telephone during the last few years, may have suggested to many minds, in different parts of the world, somewhat similar ideas to my own; ....". Bell continues: "Although the idea of producing and reproducing sound by the action of light, as described above, was an entirely original and independent conception of my own, I recognize the fact that the knowledge necessary for its conception has been disseminated throughout the civilized world, and that the idea may therefore have occurred, independently, to many other minds.
I have stated above the few facts that have come under my observation bearing upon the subject.
The fundamental idea, on which rests the possibility of producing speech by the action of light, is the conception of what may be termed an undulatory beam of light in contra-distinction to a merely intermittent one. .... It is greatly due to the genius and perseverance of my friend, Mr. Sumner Tainter, of Watertown, Mass., that the problem of producing and reproducing sound by the agency of light has at last been successfully solved. For many months past we have been devoting ourselves to the solution of this problem and I have great pleasure in presenting to you to-night the results of our labors.... We now simply heat the selenium over a gas stove and observe its appearance. When the selenium attains a certain temperature, the beautiful reflecting surface becomes dimmed. A cloudiness extends over it, somewhat like the film of moisture produced by breathing upon a mirror.
This appearance gradually increases and the whole surface is soon seen to be in the metallic, granular, or crystalline condition. The cell may then be taken off the stove and cooled in any suitable way. When the heating process is carried too far, the crystalline selenium is seen to melt.
Our best results have been obtained by heating the selenium until it crystallizes as stated above, and by continuing the heating until signs of melting appear, when the gas is immediately put out.
The portions that had melted instantly re-crystallize, and the selenium is found upon cooling to be a conductor, and to be sensitive to light. The whole operation occupies only a few minutes. This method has not only the advantage of being expeditious, but it proves that many of the accepted theories on this subject are fallacious.
Early experimenters considered that the selenium must be " cooled from a fused condition with extreme slowness." Later authors agree in believing that the retention of a high temperature—short of the fusing point—and slow cooling—are essential, and the belief is also prevalent that crystallization takes place only during the cooling process.
Our new method shows that fusion is unnecessary, that conductivity and sensitiveness can be produced without long heating and slow cooling; and that crystallization takes place during the heating process. We had found that on removing the source of heat, immediately on the appearance of the cloudiness above referred to, distinct and separate crystals can be observed under the microcsope, which appear like leaden snow flakes on a ground of ruby red.
Upon removing the heat when crystallization is further advanced, we perceive under the microscope masses of these crystals arranged like basaltic columns, standing detached from one another—and at a still higher temperature the distinct columns are no longer traceable, but the whole mass resembles metallic pudding-stone with here and there a separate snow flake, like a fossil on the surface. Selenium crystals formed during slow cooling after fusion, present an entirely different appearance, showing distinct facets.
I must now endeavor to explain the means by which a beam of light can be controlled by the voice of a speaker.
Photophonic Transmitters. We have devised upwards of fifiy forms of apparatus for varying a beam of light in the manner required, but only a few typical varieties need be described.
(1st.) The source of light may be controlled, or (2nd) a steady beam may be modified at any point in its path.
In illustration of the first method we have devised several forms of apparatus founded upon Koenig's manometric capsule, operating to cause variations in the pressure of gas supplicd to a burner, so that the light can be vibrated by the voice.
In illustration of the second method I have already shown one form of apparatus by which the light is obstructed in a greater or less degree, in its passage through perforated plates. But the beam may be controlled in many other ways. For instance, it may be polarized, and then affected by electrical or magnetical influences in the manner discovered by Faraday and Dr. Kerr.
Let a polarized beam of light be passed through a solution of bisulphide of carbon contained in a vessel inside a helix of insulated wire, through which is passed an undulatory current of electricity from a microphone or telephonic transmitter operated by the voice of a speaker.
The passage of the polarized beam should be normally partially obstructed by a Nicols prism, and the varying rotation of the plane of polarization would allow more or less of the light to pass through the prism, thus causing an undulatory beam of light capable of producing speech.
The beam of polarized light, instead of being passed through a liquid could be reflected from the polished pole of an electromagnet in circuit with a telephonic transmitter.
5. Another method of affect
ing a beam of light is to pass it through a lens of variable focus* formed of two sheets of thin glass or mica containing between them a transparent liquid or gas. The vibrations of the voice are communicated to the gas or liquid, thus causing a vibratory change in the convexity of the glass surfaces and a corresponding change in the intensity of the light received upon the sensitive selenium. We have found that the simplest form of apparatus for producing the effect consists of a plane mirror of flexible material, such as silvered mica or microscope-glass, against the back of which the speaker's voice is directed, as shown in the diagram (fig. 5).
Light reflected from such a mirror is thrown into vibrations corresponding to those of the diaphragm itself. In its normal condition a parallel beam of light falling upon the diaphragm mirror would be reflected parallel. Under the action of the voice the mirror becomes alternately convex and concave, and thus alternately scatters and condenses the light.
When crystalline selenium is exposed to the undulatory beam reflected from such an apparatus, the telephone connected with the selenium audibly reproduces the articulation of the person speaking to the mirror.
In arranging the apparatus for the purpose of reproducing sound at a distance, any powerful source of light may be used, but we have experimented chiefly with sun-light.
For this purpose, a large beam is concentrated by means of a lens upon the diaphragm mirror and after reflection is again rendered parallel by means of another lens. The beam is received at a distant station upon a parabolic reflector, in the focus of which is placed a sensitive selenium cell, connected in a local circuit with a battery and telephone. We have found it advisable to protect the mirror by placing it out of the focal point, and by passing the beam through an alum cell, as shown in fig. 6. . A large number of trials of this apparatus have been made with the transmitting and receiving instruments so far apart that sounds could not be heard directly through the air. In illustration I shall describe one of the most recent of these experiments.
Mr. Tainter operated the transmitting instrument, which was placed on the top of the Franklin School House in Washington, and the sensitive receiver was arranged in one of the windows of my laboratory, 1325 L Street, at a distance of 213 meters.
Upon placing the telephone to my ear, I heard distinctly from the illuminated receiver the words:—"Mr. Bell, if you hear what I say, come to the window and wave your hat."
In laboratory experiments the transmitting and receiving instruments are necessarily within ear-shot of one another, and we have therefore been accustomed to prolong the electric circuit connected with the selenium receiver, so as to place the telephones in another room.
By such experiments we have found that articulate speech can be reproduced by the oxyhydrogen light, and even by the light of a kerosene lamp. The loudest effects obtained from light are produced by rapidly interrupting the beam.
A suitable apparatus for doing this is a perforated disc which can. be rapidly rojated. The great advantage of this form of apparatus for experimental work is the noiselessness of its operation, admitting of the close approach of the receiver without interfering with the audibility of the effect heard from the latter—for it will be understood that musical tones are emitted from the receiver when no sound has been made at the transmitter. A silent motion thus produces a sound. In this way musical tones have been heard even from the light of a candle.
When distant effects are sought the apparatus can be arranged as shown in fig. 7.
By placing an opaque 8.
screen near the rotating disk the beam can be entirely cut off by a slight motion of the hand, and musical signals, like the dots and dashes of the Morse telegraph code, can thus be produced at the distant receiving station. Such a screen operated by a key like a Morse telegraph key is shown in fig. 8, and has been operated very successfully.
Experiments to ascertain the nature of the rays that affect selenium.
We have made experiments with the object of ascertaining the nature of the rays that affect selenium. For this purpose we have placed in the path of an intermittent beam various absorbing substances.
Prof. Cross has been kind enough to give his assistance in conducting these experiments.
When a solution of alum, or bisulphide of carbon, is employed, the loudness of the sound produced by the intermittent beam is very slightly diminished, but a solution of iodine in bisulphide of carbon cuts off most, but not all, of the audible effect . Even an apparently opaque sheet of hard rubber does not entirely do this.
This observation, which was first made in Washington, D. C., by Mr. Tainter and myself, is so curious and suggestive that I give in full the arrangement for studying the effect.
When a sheet of hard rubber, A, was held as shown in the diagram (fig. 9) the rotation of the disc or wheel B interrupted what was then an invisible beam, which passed over a space of several meters before it reached the lens C, which finally concentrated it upon the selenium cell, D.
A faint but perfectly perceptible, musical tone was heard from the telephone connected with the selenium that could be interrupted at will by placing the hand in the path of the invisible beam.
It would be premature without further experiments to speculate too much concerning the nature of these invisible rays; but it is difficult to believe that they can be heat rays, as the effect is produced through two sheets of hard rubber having between them a saturated solution of alum.
Although effects are produced, as above shown, by forms of radiant energy which are invisible, we have named the apparatus for the production and reproduction of sounds in this way " the Photophone," because an ordinary beam of light contains the rays which are operative.
Non-Electric Photophonic Receivers.
It is a well known fact that the molecular disturbance, produced in a mass of iron by the magnetizing influence of an intermittent electrical current, can be observed as sound by placing the ear in close contact with the iron, and it occurred to us that the molecular disturbance produced in crystalline selenium by the action of an intermittent beam of light should be audible in a similar manner without the aid of a telephone or battery. Many experiments were made to verify this theory, but at first without definite results.
The anomalous behavior of the hard rubber screen alluded to above suggested the thought of listening to it also.
This experiment was tried with extraordinary success. I held the sheet in close contact with my ear while a beam of intermittent light was focussed upon it by means of a lens. A distinct musical note was immediately heard. We found the effect intensified by arranging the sheet of hard rubber as a diaphragm, and listening through a hearing tube, as shown in fig. 10.
We then tried crystalline selenium in the form of a thin disc and obtained a similar but less intense effect.
The other substances, which I enumerated at the commencement of my address, were now successively tried in the form of thin discs, and sounds were obtained from all but carbon and thin glass.* (*We have since obtained perfectly distinct tones from carbon and thin glass.)
In our experiments, one interesting and suggestive feature was the different intensities of the sounds produced from different substances under similar conditions. We found hard rubber to produce a louder sound than any other substance we tried, excepting antimony and zinc; and paper and mica to produce the weakest sounds.
On the whole, we feel warranted in announcing as our conclusions that sounds can be produced by the action of a variable light from substances of all kinds when in the form of thin diaphragms. The reason why thin diaphragms of the various materials are more effective than masses of the same substances, appears to be that the molecular disturbance produced by light is chiefly a surface action, and that the vibration has to be transmitted through the mass of the substance in order to affect the ear.
On this account we have endeavored to lead to the ear air that is directly in contact with the illuminated surface, by throwing the beam of light upon the interior of a tube; and very promising results have been obtained. Fig. 11 shows the arrangement we have tried. We have heard from interrupted sunlight very perceptible musical tones through tubes of ordinary vulcanized rubber, of brass, and of wood. These were all the materials at hand in tubular form, and we have had no opportunity since of extending the observations to other substances.* (*A musical tone can be heard by throwing the intermittent beam of light into the ear itself. This experiment was at first unsuccessful on account of the position in which the ear was held.)
I am extremely glad that I have the opportunity of making the first publication of these researches before a scientific society, for it is from scientific men that my work of the last six years has received its earliest and kindest recognition. I gratefully remember the encouragement which I received from the late Professor Henry, at a time when the speaking telephone existed only in theory. Indeed, it is greatly due to the stimulus of his appreciation that the telephone became an accomplished fact.
I cannot state too highly also the advantage I derived in preliminary experiments on sound vibrations in this building from Professor Cross, and near here from my valued friend Dr. Clarence J. Blake. When the public were incredulous of the possibility of electrical speech, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Philosophical Society of Washington, and the Essex Institute of Salem, recognized the reality of the results and honored me by their congratulations. The public interest, I think, was first awakened by the judgment of the very eminent scientific men before whom the telephone was exhibited in Philadelphia, and by the address of Sir William Thomson before the British Association for the Advancement of Science. At a later period, when even practical telegraphers considered the telephone as a mere toy, several scientific gentlemen, Professor John Pierce, Professor Eli W. Blake, Dr. Channing, Mr. Clark and Mr. Jones, of Providence, R. L, devoted themselves to a series of experiments for the purpose of assisting me in making the telephone of practical utility ; and they communicated to me, from time to time, the results of their experiment with a kindness and generosity I can never forget. It is not only pleasant to remember these things and to speak of them, but it is a duty to repeat them, as they give a practical refutation to the often repeated stories of the blindness of scientific men to unaccredited novelties, and of their jealousy of unknown inventors who dare to enter the charmed circle of science.
I trust that the scientific favor which was so readily accorded to the Telephone may be extended by you to this new claimant—"The Photophone."".
(Note that particles that reach the selenium to cause the lowering of the resistance, presumably from Sun light, that penetrate two sheets of hard rubber may be x-particles or alternatively x-ray frequencies of photons, or some other very penetrative particle. This was before Roentgen's acknowledgement of x-rays - so is this an early report of x-rays without naming or identifying them? This has increased importance when realizing that it must be a penetrative particle, like an X particle which can make neurons fire deep within a brain.)
(Notice the first word is "in", and "extreme slowness" in italics, "vice versa" - perhaps a play on "vis viva" but also the idea of the frog and Galvani changing places. This report is printed in October 1880 - perhaps a 70 year anniversary to the month of seeing thought? Notice "light can be flashed from one observatory to another" - the image I have is of Bell in an overcoat 'flashing' nude signals - perhaps Bell is making comedy there - and there may be a double meaning with "flash" memory.)
The 2009 Encyclopedia Britannica only mentions the photophone in passing - understating the importance of the use of photon communication by Bell and the phone company. Probably all the cameras, microphones, and neuron devices use photon communication but in invisible frequencies.
It seems likely that the x-particle (or alternatively x-ray) was kept secret until this tiny hint by Bell and then the public display of x-ray images by Roentgen in 1895, which shows clearly that those who kept the secret delayed the use of x-rays for health purposes, but that is minor in comparison to all the unpunished secret murders, galvanic remote neuron activation or otherwise.
| (top of Franklin School) Washington, D. C., USA |
120 YBN
[06/17/1880 AD]
| 3829) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923) and George Downing Liveing identify spectral lines of water.
In "On the Spectrum of Water" they write "...The same spectrum is given by the electric spark taken, without condenser, in moist hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and carbonic acid gas, but it disappears if the gas and apparatus be thoroughly dried. We are led to the conclusion that the spectrum is that of water. .... In writing of this and other spectra which we have traced to be due to compounds, we abstain from speculating upon the particular molecular condition or stage of combination or decomposition, which may give rise to such spectra. ...".
They follow this up with another report "On the Spectrum of Water. No. II" in 1882 which confirms the production of these spectral lines in coal-gas and hydrogen flames, and by the arc of De Meritens machine when a current of steam is passed into a crucible of magnesia.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
120 YBN
[07/03/1880 AD]
| 4045) Science Magazine is started using $10,000 from Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931).
"Science" brings many truths about science to the public, and is a major advance for public education. At the same time, however, Bell and many others routinelly see free videos of people in their houses and their thoughts before their eyes and in their ears - and greedily and selfishly keep this technology to themselves - the public has to pay for a paper copy of text, while Bell and others watch and write into their minds without paying a dollar. It shows that the copyright suffers when there is not absolute freedom of all information - because the poor have no possible way of seeing those wealthy who have an unmatched technical advantage and will never have to pay any copyright claim - and have seen and heard thought for over a century without telling the public or paying any kind of copyright fee to those victims. Perhaps they rationalize by setting aside some ridiculously small quantity of money for some kind of "insider services" such as protection from violence, from particle beam molestation, or imprisonment for petty or made-up crimes, to those excluded most popular victims whose copyrights and privacy are the most violated.
Perhaps there was some unhappiness or lack of fulfillment with the American Journal of Sciences, or simply a feeling that there should be more effort to promote science in America?
| (229 Broadway) New York City, New York, USA |
120 YBN
[09/20/1880 AD]
| 3845) Paul Hautefeuille (CE 1836-1902) and James Chappuis liquefy ozone, find that the color of liquid ozone is blue, and that ozone is an explosive gas.
Hautefeuille and Chappuis publish this as "Sur la liquefaction de l'ozone et sur sa couleur a l'etat gazeux" ("On the Liquefaction of Ozone, and on its Color in the Gaseous State.") in Comptes rendus. They write: (translated from French) " ... The mixture of oxygen and ozone, being an explosive gas, should always be compressed slowly and refrigerated. If these conditions are not observed the ozone is decomposed with the liberation of heat and light, and there is a strong detonation attended with a yellowish flash. M. Berthelot has shown that the transformation of oxygen into ozone absorbs 14.8 cals. per equivalent (O3= 24 grms.). Ozone therefore ranks among the explosive gases, and our experiments show that like them it is capable of a sudden decomposition. ... ...We observe then almost as distinctly as in the former experiment, which is more difficult to perform, that ozone is a gas of a beutiful sky-blue. Its color at a tenfold density is so intense that we have been able to see it in a tube of 0.001 metre in diameter when operating in a very badly lighted room of the laboratory of the Ecole Normale. It is therefore ascertained that under a strong pressure ozone is a colored gas, but is it the same with ozone at the tension of a few millimetres? The blue color is as characteristic of ozone as its odor, for at all tensions it is recognized on examining a stratum of the gas of sufficient depth. In order to render it apparent it is merely needful to interpose between the eye and a white surface a tube of 1 metre long traversed by the current of oxygen which has passed through Berthelot's effluve apparatus. The color of the gas then resembles that of the sky, and is deeper or lighter according as the oxygen has remained a longer or shorter time in the apparatus, and is consequently more or less rich in ozone. As soon as the effluve is interrupted the blue color disappears, the ozonized oxygen being replaced by pure oxygen.".
Hautefeuille and Chappuis find that ozone is much easier to liquefy than oxygen. Ozone only requires sudden removal of pressure at 95 atmospheres and -23°, where oxygen requires compression under 300 atmospheres at around -29° before sudden removal of pressure succeeds in producing liquefaction.
Hautefeuille and Chappuis go on to examine other properties of ozone. Chappuis will examine the absorption spectrum of ozone and match absorption lines to those found in the solar spectrum as seen through the earth atmosphere.
| (Academy of Sciences) Paris, France |
120 YBN
[09/30/1880 AD]
| 3751) Henry Draper (CE 1837-1882), US physician and amateur astronomer, is the first to photograph a nebula (the Orion nebula). Draper photographs the Orion nebula, first with a 50-minute exposure in 1880 and then, using a more accurate clock-driven telescope, with a 140-minute exposure in 1882.
| (City University) New York City, NY, USA |
120 YBN
[09/??/1880 AD]
| 3759) Johannes Diderik Van Der Waals (VoN DR VoLS) (CE 1837-1923), Dutch physicist, creates a new equation ("Law of Corresponding States") describing the temperature, pressure, volume and quantity of gases based on his 1873 equation for gases, but in which no new constants are necessary. Van Der Waals uses the temperature, pressure and volume of a gas at its critical point (where the gas and liquid become equal in density and cannot be distinguished from each other) to remove the two gas-specific constants of his 1873 equation. (see also )
(t I think the equation is image 1, which appears to be translated in , but am not sure, show and explain equation)
This equation is published in 1880, and is called the "Law of Corresponding States". This showed that if pressure is expressed as a simple function of the critical pressure, volume as one of the critical volume, and temperature as one of the critical temperature, a general form of the equation of state is obtained which is applicable to all substances, since the three constants a, b, and R in the equation, which can be expressed in the critical quantities of a particular substance are not necessary.
As a result of this work it is found (by whom?) that the Joule-Thompson effect, how a gas cools when allowed to expand, only holds below a certain temperature, one that is characteristic for each gas. For most gases this characteristic temperature is high enough for the Joule-Thompson effect to work for people to cool gases. However, for hydrogen and helium the characteristic temperature is very low. Liquefying these gases can not be done by gas expansion until the temperature is first lowered to a required point.
It is this law that serves as a guide during experiments which ultimately lead to the approach to a volume of space with a temperature of absolute zero, and the liquefaction of hydrogen by J. Dewar in 1898 and of helium by H. Kamerlingh Onnes in 1908.
(See image 1) Van Der Waals writes in "Ueber die übereinstimmenden Eigenschaften der Normallinien des gesättigten Dampfes und der Flüssigkeit" ("On the matching characteristics of the normal lines of the saturated vapor and liquid"): "Contributions to knowledge of the law of the matching conditions
"
(The idea that some gases need to have their temperature lowered in order to decrease temperature on expansion is interesting to me. Perhaps H and He are not being compressed {identify what methods of compression are used}, and so then they are not expanding into a vacuum. Perhaps the temperature loss is too small to be measured. Perhaps the vacuum is not empty enough. It's interesting that it seems clear that any expansion of gas should result in lower temperatures throughout that volume of space. Another idea is that there could be an expansion of gas but the velocity of gas molecules increases. But generally, I think the velocity of gas molecules on entering some volume remains constant no matter how many collisions.)
(Does empty space have absolute 0 temperature? Can empty space have a temperature? It seems impossible for their to be an empty space without even a single photon passing through. Perhaps there is the view that there needs to be a few atoms in the volume for there to be a temperature.)
| (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
120 YBN
[10/10/1880 AD]
| 3577) (Sir) Joseph Wilson Swan (CE 1828-1914), English physician and chemist, improves the electric lamp further by using cotton thread "parchmentized" by the action of sulphuric acid. Using these new carbon filaments Swan gives the first public exhibition on a large scale of electric lighting by use of glow lamps in Newcastle.
| Newcastle, England (presumably) |
120 YBN
[11/23/1880 AD]
| 3948) Laveran finds the cause of malaria to be a protist, which shows that disease can be caused by a protist too and not only by a bacterium.
Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (loVRoN), (CE 1845-1922), French physician, finds that malaria is not caused by a bacterium but by a protist. This is the first example of a disease caused by a protist (which are all single cells but which have a nucleus) and not a bacterium (also single cells but have no nucleus).
While serving as a military surgeon in Algeria in 1880, Laveran identifies the cause of malaria from doing many autopsies on malaria victims. Laveran confirms that the internal organs of malaria victims are discolored. Laveran also notes that the malaria victims have numerous pigmented bodies in their blood. Although some of these bodies are in the red blood cells, Laveran also notes other free bodies, with moveable filaments or flagella on their edge. The extremely rapid and varied movements of these flagella indicate to Laveran that they must be parasites. Laveran presented his discovery at a meeting at the Académie de Médecine in Paris a few weeks later on November 23, 1880. (state paper title) Laveran finds these parasites in 148 out of 192 cases and so presumes that these parasites are the cause of malaria. He names the parasite "Oscillaria malariae" but the Italian name "Plasmodium" later wins favor. Laveran also speculates (in 1884) that mosquitoes might play a part in transmitting malaria. But it will be the work of Patrick Manson, Giovanni Grassi, and Ronald Ross which elucidate the life cycle of the parasite and the transmission of malaria by the anopheles mosquito. Ross, will discover the malaria protozoa in the stomach wall and salivary glands of the anopheles mosquito in 1897.
Laveran's first communications on the malaria parasites are received with much scepticism, but gradually researches confirming this theory are published by scientists of every country.
| (Académie de Médecine) Paris, France |
120 YBN
[12/12/1880 AD]
| 3846) James Chappuis recognizes absorption bands in the absorption spectrum of ozone that match absorption bands in the solar spectrum as seen on Earth and concludes that ozone may have a role in the color blue of the sky of Earth.
Chappuis publishes this in Comptes Rendus as "Sur Le Spectre d'absorption de l'ozone" ("On the Spectrum of absorption of ozone").
| (Academy of Sciences) Paris, France |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 3512) Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (RleNmIR) (CE 1825-1909), German chemist formulates the "Erlenmeyer rule": All alcohols in which the hydroxyl group (OH-) is attached directly to a double-bonded carbon atom become aldehydes or ketones.
Another explanation of the Erlenmeyer rule is that it states the impossibility of two hydroxy groups occurring on the same carbon atom or of a hydroxy group occurring adjacent to a carbon–carbon double bond (chloral hydrate is an exception to this rule).
According to this law unsaturated alcohols: >C:CH-OH and >C:C(OH)-C<- are incapable of existence, and are converted, at the instant of formation, into aldehydes and ketones by intramolecular change, a law which does not now hold true in all cases.
| (Munich Polytechnic School) Munich, Germany |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 3646) The principle of mechanical television is created: a photodetector capturing one dot of light at a time, and persistence of vision used to create a temporary image.
In 1880 a French engineer, Maurice LeBlanc, published an article in the journal "La Lumière électrique" that formed the basis of all subsequent television. LeBlanc proposed a scanning mechanism that takes advantage of the retina’s temporary retaining of a visual image. Starting at the upper left corner of the picture, a photoelectric cell would proceed to the right-hand side and then jump back to the left-hand side, only one line lower, until the entire picture is scanned, similar to the eye reading a page of text. A synchronized receiver reconstructs the original image line by line.
| ?, France |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 3768) Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (BILsTIN) (CE 1838-1906), Russian chemist publishes the first edition in two volumes, of a giant "Handbuch der organischen Chemie", (1880-1883, 2 vol. "Handbook of Organic Chemistry"), in which he attempts to list all the organic compounds known including all pertinent information about each. This book is an indispensable tool for the organic chemist.
The first edition of Beilstein's Handbuch gives a full account of the physical and chemical properties of 15,000 organic compounds. Beilstein publishes a second volume in 1882.
(Being in the German language, must have given an advantage to the education of young German speaking people learning chemistry.)
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 3810) Josef Breuer (BROER) (CE 1842-1925), Austria physician, finds that verbalizing unconscious traumatic memories under hyponosis helps a person to relieve unpleasant perceived problems.
In the summer of 1880 Breuer finds that one of his patients ("Anna O") begins to suffer psychological disturbances.(State what these disturbances are specifically.) Breuer finds by using hypnosis and having Anna recall her memories until she reached a traumatic episode, that this gradually succeeds in relieving all of her symptoms over a period of two years. From this case Breuer draws two important conclusions: 1) that the symptoms of his patient were the result of "affective ideas, deprived of the normal reaction" which remained embedded in the unconscious, and 2) that the symptoms vanished when the unconscious causes of them became conscious through being verbalized. These two observations form the foundation on which psychoanalysis will be later built.
Breuer does not initially publish this case, but does discuss it with Sigmund Freud. Freud starts to use this "cathartic method" in 1888 or 1889 under Breuer's guidance, and for several years, they jointly explore this form of psychotherapy. They publish their practical and theoretical conclusions as an article in 1893 and as a book ("Studien über Hysterie") in 1895.
(To me this theory of solving problems by verbalizing sounds doubtful, but it can't be ruled out and so long as consensual, it is certainly in the realm of free speech and movement. i can see the value of talking through problems, and that relief might be gained from openly talking about childhood trauma and memories. This is all within the realm of "talking cures", or "psychosomatic" cures, for problems that are somewhat trivial in my view. Psychology is a lightweight field, many times for wealthy people, for the easily duped in particular by medical authority, for people that want attention by creating pretend important sounding diseases, and more sinisterly as a way of jailing and ruining the popularity of perfectly healthy and lawful people.)
(In my view, labels such as "dissociated personality" and "psychological disturbances" sound too abstract to be an actual phenomenon ...many times if specifics are given it is revealed to be a normal response, or at least lawful, but if not lawful enforce the law, and study the phenomena from a humane prison. In terms of "Anna O", what form do the "fantasies" take?, perhaps this should be described as perceived "problems", or "theories/beliefs".)
(These "diseases" seem to me to be somewhat trivial, and are certainly not life-threatening in a physical sense. So the real value of this kind of finding, I think is very minor, and no where near as large as it is currently viewed.)
(There is a frustrating cloudiness surrounding stories about people with "psychiatric disorders", because this label is too abstract to know what specifically the person did or does that is unusual. This abstraction allows people to not ask what specifically a person did, and simply presume that they have an illness.)
(I think its important to document also the first use of physical restraint as a "treatment", in addition to unconsensual surgery, electrocution, and drugging in the psychology/psychiatric industry. These routine procedures are generally not discussed publicly.)
| (in his own home?) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) (presumably) |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 3871) (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney (CE 1843-1920), English astronomer, discovers the photographic developing properties of hydroquinone.
| (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 3914) Eduard Adolf Strasburger (sTroSBURGR) (CE 1844-1912), German botanist, states that new nuclei can arise only from the division of other nuclei.
Strasburger writes this in his third edition of "Über Zellbildung und Zelltheilung" (1876; "On Cell Formation and Cell Division").
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4012) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, builds a large steam electric generator (dynamo). This dynamo is direct-connected with a Porter-Allen engine designed to run at 600 revolutions per minute. The dyanamo and engine are mounted on the same cast iron bed-plate to form a self-contained generating unit. A massive (electro) magnet for ecnomically producing a very powerful magnetic field, and an armature of extremely low resistance for obtaining a small rationof internal generator-resistance to the external resistance of the full load of lamps are in this steam dynamo. The field magnet has six (iron) cores, 42.5 inches long and 7.5 inches in diameter, each wound with 1,860 turns, in six layers, of Num 12 BWG insulated copper wire, and having a resistance of 3.825 ohms. The laminated armature core of thin iron disks is mounted on a 4.5 inch shaft and has an internal diameter of 10 inches, an external diameter of 19.46 inches and a length of 28 inches. The field poles are 28 inches long, and 20.5 inches in diameter..
| (private lab) Menlo Park, NJ, USA |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4095) Eugen Goldstein (GOLTsTIN) (CE 1850-1930), German physicist, shows that cathode rays can be bent by magnetic fields.
This discovery gives comfort to those physicists, predominantly British, who believe that the rays are streams of negative particles.
Over a span of many years Goldstein publishes several papers on other aspects of cathode rays, showing (1895–1898) that cathode rays can make certain salts change color, that they can be "reflected" diffusely from anodes (1882), and that there is some evidence for electrostatic deflection of parallel beams.
(Why was there a large delay in observing that cathode rays can be bent by magnetic fields? It would seem a simple observation to make. Perhaps testing magnetic deflection was not initially thought of.)
(Show original paper) Is this a translation to English of the original paper?
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4100) John Milne (CE 1850-1913), English geologist designs one of the first reliable seismographs, and travels widely in Japan to establish 968 seismological stations for a survey of Japan's widespread earthquakes. This marks the beginning of the science of seismology. The velocity of earthquake vibrations through the earth will provide information about the interior of the earth.
This seismograph is like a horizontal pendulum with one end connected to the ground, so that when the ground vibrates a pen or beam of light records the movement on a drum.
In 1906 Milne tries to determine the velocity of earthquake waves, but has only limited success. (Three years later Mohorovičić will get better results.)
Many of Milne's findings are published in his books Earthquakes (1883) and Seismology (1898).
(It is interesting to me how much the seismograph record, is similar to a phonograph or sound recording record - simply recording a push and pull motion caused, for sound, by air, and for a seismograph by movements of the matter the seismograph is connected to.)
| (Imperial College of Engineering) Tokyo, Japan |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4232) Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser (nISR) (CE 1855-1916), German physician, identifies the bacterium responsible for leprosy, from secretion smears brought back to Germany from more than 100 people with leprosy Neisser examined in Trondheim, Molde, and Bergen, Norway.
Leprosy is also known as Hansen's disease after G.A. Hansen who in 1878 identified the bacillus Mycobacterium leprae that caused the disease.
Norwegian bacteriologist Gerhard Armauer Hansen, had identified similar microorganisms in leprosy secretions as early as 1873, and believes the bacteria to be the causative agent of leprosy in 1879.
Neisser describes the bacteria as "small, thin rods, whose length amounts to about half the diameter of a human red blood corpuscle and whose width I estimate at one-fourth the length".
(Is the bacteria that causes leprosy easily transmitted from person to person?)
| (Oskar Simon’s clinic) Breslau, Germany (presumably) |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4348) Piezoelectricity identified: when pressure is applied to certain crystals, an electric potential is created, and in the opposite effect, when an electric potential is applied, these crystals vibrate at a regular rate.
Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906), French chemist and older brother Paul-Jacques (CE 1856-1941) observe the phenomenon of piezoelectricity, how an electric potential (voltage) is created when applying pressure to crystals of quartz and crystals of Rochelle salt. The brothers show that the potential (voltage) changes directly with the pressure, and they name this phenomenon "piezoelectricity" from a Greek word that means "to press".
Piezoelectricity is a property of nonconducting crystals that have no center of symmetry. These crystals, including zinc sulfide, sodium chlorate, boracite, tourmaline, quartz, calamine, topaz, sugar, and Rochelle salt, are cited in the Curie brothers first publication (1880). These so-called hemihedral crystals may possess axes of symmetry which are polar; in quartz, which the Curie brothers study extensively, the polar axes are the three binary axes perpendicular to the ternary axis; and in tourmaline the polar axis is the ternary axis. By compressing a thin plate cut perpendicular to a binary axis in quartz (still called the electric axis) or perpendicular to the ternary axis in tourmaline, the two faces on which two tin sheets are fastened become charged with equal amounts of electricity of opposite signs, these amounts being proportional to the pressure exerted. For a decrease in pressure of the same value the two faces are charged with the same amounts of electricity but with opposite signs. The amounts of electricity are proportional to the surface of the plates. The Curie brothers use Kelvin's electrometer to make accurate measurements of charge. As soon as this research is published, Lippmann observes that the inverse phenomenon should exist, in other words that under the action of an electric field the piezoelectric crystals should experience physical strain. In 1881 the two brothers prove, with quartz and tourmaline, that the piezoelectric plates of these two substances do undergo either contraction or expansion, depending on the direction of the electrical field applied. (Interesting that tin is used - and so in some way the crystal/mineral is like a dielectric and with the tin a capacitor/condensor.)
The Curies write (translated from French by translate.google.com): "Development, from pressure, of the electrical polarity given to hemihedral crystals with inclined faces.
1. The crystals having one or more axes whose ends are dissimilar, that is to say hemihedral crystals with inclined faces, have a special physical property, that of giving birth to two electric poles of opposite ends of the aforementioned areas, when subjected to temperature change is the phenomenon known to pyroelectricity.
We found a new mode of development of electricity in these polar crystals, which is to submit them to variations in pressure along their axes of hemihedron.
The effects produced are entirely analogous to those caused by heat: during compression, the ends of the axis on which this acts charge with opposite electric charge, once the crystal is returned to the neutral state, if it is decompressed, the phenomenon is reproduced, but with a reversal of signs; the end that becomes charged positively by compression is negative during decompression, and the reciprocal is also true.
"To do an experiment, we cut two faces parallel to each other and perpendicular to an hemihedral axis in substance that we want study, two sheets of tin surround the outside with two plates of hard rubber, the whole being placed between the jaws a vice, for example, one can exert pressure on the two faces, that is to say along the hemihedral axis itself. To measure the electricity, we used the electrometer of Thomson. We can show the difference in tension by placing each tinfoil end in communication with two couples of sectors of the instrument, the needle being charged with a known power. Can also collected separately each of the electrics it can be done by connecting a tinfoil in communication with the ground, the other being in communication with the needle and the two pairs of sectors being loaded with a stack.
Although not yet addressed, the study of laws governing the phenomenon, we can say that it exhibits characteristics identical to those of the pyroelectricity such as a set in his beautiful Gaugain Working tourmaline.
2. We made a comparative study of two developmental pathways of electrical polarity on a series of non-conducting substances, hemihedral inclined faces, which includes nearly all those known as pyroelectric.
The action of heat has been studied using the method described by Friedel, a process which is such a great convenience.
These experiments were carried out on blende, sodium chlorate, the boracite, tourmaline, quartz, carbon, topaz, tartaric acid right, sugar, Rochelle salt.
For all these crystals, the effects of compression are in the same direction as those produced by cooling and those due to decompression are consistent with those caused by heating.
There is an obvious relationship that can solve both phenomenon to a single cause and bring them together in the following statement:
The determining cause, whenever a crystal with hemihedral inclined faces, is non-conductive, and contracts, there is the formation of electrical poles in a sense; whenever the crystal expands, the de-engagement of electricity occurs in the opposite direction.
If this view is correct, the effects of compression to us must be the same direction as those due to heating in a substance with the following hemihedral axis coefficient of expansion being negative.". (Get better translation)
(This needs a graphical explanation to show the asymmetry of the crystal, and how particles move and collect.) (Find English translation of work if any exist - is a two page work.)
At first the discovery of piezoelectricity is of only speculative interest, in particular understanding the phenomenon of piezoelectricity permits removal of the contraditions found in pyroelectric observations. For example, quartz is found to be piezoelectric and not pyroelectric as was earlier thought. The industrial uses of piezoelectricity will occur much later. During World War I. Constatin Chilovsky and Paul Langevin, a student of Pierre Curie’s, had the idea of placing piezoelectric quartz in an alternating electric field; under the effect of inverse piezoelectricity, predicted by Lippmann and verified by the Curies in 1881, the crystal expands and contracts, vibration is especially intense when the frequency of the field is the same as that of one of the natural vibration modes of the quartz, i.e. when there is resonance. This is a convenient method of producing high-frequency sound waves, first used to locate submarines and later for underwater depth measurement and object detection. In modern times there are numerous applications of piezoelectric crystals; one of the most important is their use in frequency stabilization of oscillating electromagnetic circuits - in particular for wireless communication. Piezoelectric crystals are used in most piezometers for measuring with great precision pressure variations - from very large pressures, like that of a cannon at the moment of firing to very weak pressures, like those exhibited by artery pulses. At least one crystal used to produce a high frequency electric current oscillations are found in the form of a clock in every computer and robot. The crystal is what allows all computer components to perform a series of instructions and to be syncronized with each other.
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4549) The resolution is probably 320x240 dots or perhaps 160x120 dots.
| unknown |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4550) The resolution of this device may be very large, like 10,000 x 10,000 dots. This resolution reaches a maximum which is equal to the resolution of the human eye.
| unknown |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4551)
| unknown |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 4552)
| unknown |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 5839) Röntgen publishes this in "Annalen der Physik" as (translated from German) "About the changes in shape and volume of dielectrics caused by electricity".
(This is a strong hint that artificial muscle robots were already in development by 1880. Rontgen was either one of two people - a person who was excluded or included from direct-to-brain windows. If excluded - then he must have realized the secrets of x-rays and artificial muscles - which seems to be beyond coincidence but possible. If included - he was a person who released hints at well developed secret technology.)
(It seems likely that individual muscle fibers that contract, similar to muscle fibers, would be very useful, in particular to simply add on more pulling or pushing power to some device.)
(Artificial muscles better fit some applications than electromagnetic motors, for example, reproducing the air shaping structures in humans, and contracting a lens. One key advantage to artificial muscles over metal motors is that many artificial muscles are less dense and lighter to equivalently sized electromagnetic motors.)
(This is the earliest known use of electricity to contract any flexible material to my knowledge. However, there is also the "equivalent" artificial muscle, which has a similar performance as a regular muscle.)
| (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany |
120 YBN
[1880 AD]
| 6011) Pyotr Il′yich Tchaikovsky (CE 1840-1893), Russian composer, composes his famous "1812 Overture".
The 1812 Overture commemorates Russia's defense of Moscow against Napoleon's advancing Grande Armée at the Battle of Borodino in 1812. The overture debutes in the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow on August 20, 1882. The overture is best known for its climactic volley of cannon fire and ringing chimes.
| Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) (verify) |
119 YBN
[01/05/1881 AD]
| 3608) Shelford Bidwell (CE 1848-) uses selenium and a chemical telegraph similar to that of Bakewell, to copy an image of a gas flame. This is the basic principle of the facsimile and photocopying machine. Bakewell calls this "tele-photography".
Here is the complete short article. Bidwell writes "While experimenting with the photophone {ulsf: the first device to transmit messages by light, invented by Alexander Graham Bell the year before} it occurred to me that the fact that the resistance of crystalline selenium varies with the intensity of the light falling upon it might be applied in the construction of an instrument for the electrical transmission of pictures of natural objects in the manner to be described in this paper. In order to ascertain whether my ideas could be carried out in practice, I undertook a series of experiments, and these were attended with so much success that although the pictures hitherto actually transmitted are of a very rudimentary character, I think there can be little doubt that if it were worth while to go to further expense and trouble in elaborating the apparatus excellent results might be obtained. The nature of the process may be gathered from the following account of my first experiment. To the negative (zinc) pole of a battery was connected a flat sheet of brass, and to the positive pole a piece of stout platinum wire; a galvanometer was interposed between the battery and the brass, and a set of resistance-coils between the battery and the platinum-wire (see Fig. 1, where B is the battery, R the resistance, P the wire, M the brass plate, and G the galvanometer). A sheet of paper which had been soaked in a solution of potassium iodide was laid upon the brass, and one end of the platinum wire previously ground to a blunt point across the paper was marked by a brown line, due, of course, to the liberation of iodine. When the resistance was made small this line was dark and heavy; when the resistance was great the line was faint and fine; and when the circuit was broken the point made no mark at all. {ulsf: This implies clearly, that this is not just black and white, but that many different shades may be produced depending on the resistance - however the image Bidwell displays does not show this graytone shading effect.} If we drew a series of these brown lines parallel to one another, and very close together, it is evident that by regulating their intensity and introducing gaps in the proper places any design or picture might be represented. This is the system adopted in Bakewell's well-known copying telegraph. To ascertain if the intensity of the lines could be varied by the action of light, I used a second battery and one of my selenium cells, made as described in NATURE, vol. xxiii. p. 58. These were arranged as shown in Fig. 1, the negative pole of the second battery, B', being connected through the selenium cell S with the platinum wire P, and the positive pole with the galvanometer G. The platinum point being pressed firmly upon the sensitized paper and the selenium exposed to a strong light, the resistance R was varied until the galvanometer needle came to rest at zero. if the two batteries were similar this would occur when the resistance of R was made about equal to that of the selenium cell in the light. The point now made no mark when drawn over the paper. The selenium cell was then darkened, and the point immediately traced a strong brown line; a feeble light was next thrown upon the selenium, and the intensity of the receiver, the resistance R is adjusted so as to bring the galvanometer to zero. When this is accomplished the two cylinders are screwed back as far as they will go, the the cylinder of the receiver is covered with sensitised paper, and all is ready to commence operations. The two cylinders are caused to rotate slowly and synchronously. The pin-hole at H in the course of its spiral path will cover successively every point of the picture focussed upon the cylinder, and the amount of light falling at any moment upon the selenium cell will be proportional to the illumination of that particular spot of the projected picture which for the time being is occupied by the pin-hole. During the greater part of each revolution the point P will trace a uniform brown line; but when H happens to be passing over a bright part of the picture this line is enfeebled or broken. The spiral traced by the point is so close as to produce at a little distance the appearance of a uniformly0coloured surface, and the breaks in the continuity of the line constitute a picture which, if the instrument were perfect, would be a monochromatic counterpart of that projected upon the transmitter. An example of the performance of my instrument is shown in Fig. 4, which is a very accurate representation of the manner in which a stencil of the form of Fig. 3 is reproduced when projected by a lantern upon the transmitter. I have not been able to send one of its actual productions to the engraver, for the reason that they are exceedingly evanescent {ulsf: vanishing, fading away, barely perceptible}. In order to render the paper sufficiently sensitive, it must be prepared with a very strong solution (equal parts of iodide and water), and when this is used the brown marks disappear completely in less than two hours after their formation. There is little doubt that a solution might be discovered which would give permanent results with equal or even greater sensitiveness, and it seems reasonable to suppose that some of the unstable compounds used in photography might be found suitable; but my efforts in this direction have not yet been successful. In case any one should wish to repeat the experiments here described a few practical hints may be useful. In order that as large a portion as possible of the current from the battery B' (which is varied by the selenium cell) may pass through the sensitised paper, the resistance R must be high; the EMF of the battery B must therefore be great, and several cells should be used. An electromotive force is produced by the action of the platinum point, and the metal cylinder upon the sensitised paper, and the resulting current is for many reasons very annoying. I have got rid of this by coating the surface of the cylinder with platinum foil. {ulsf: this must be from the different metals and the paper creating a voltaic cell} Stains are apt to appear upon the under-surface of the paper, which sometimes penetrate through and spoil the picture. They may be prevented by washing the surface of the cylinder occasionally with a solution of ammonia. Slow rotation is essential in order both that the decomposition may be properly effected and that the selenium may have time to change its resistance. The photophone shows that some alteration takes place almost instantaneously with a variation of the light, but for the greater part of the change a very appreciable period of time is required. The distance between the two instruments might be a hundred miles or more, one of the wires, M, N, being replaced by the earth, and for practical use the two cylinders would be driven by clockwork, sychronised by an electromagnetic arrangement. For experimental purposes it is sufficient to connect the two spindles by a kind of Hooke's joint (some part of which must be an insulator), and drive one of them with a winch-handle. The instrument might be greatly improved by the use of two, four, or six similar selenium cells and a corresponding number of points. If two such cells were used the transmitting cylinder would have two holes, diametrically opposite to each other, with a selenium cell behind each. A second point would press upon the under surface of the receiving cylinder, and be so adjusted that the lines traced by it would come midway between those traced by the upper point. Four or six selenium cells could be similarly used. The adjacent lines of the picture might thus be made absolutely to touch each other, and moreover the screw upon the spindles might be coarser, which for obvious reasons would be advantageous. A self-acting switch or commutator in each instrument would render additional line-wires unnecessary.".
In 1907, another Bidwell article is published in "Nature", which gives more details of his work. Bidwell writes, "...The earliest achievement of the apparatus consisted inthe reproduction of the image of a hole cut in a piece of black paper; after some improvements simple black and white pictures painted upon glass were very perfectly transmitted, as was demonstrated upon several occasions when the apparatus was exhibited in operation. It was, however, unable to cope with half-tones, and owing to pressure of work the experiments were shortly afterwards discontinued.".
(This device uses mechanical motion of the selenium light detector to sweep each dot, however, eventually, an image will be captured with no mechanical movement necessary.)
(Did Bidwell develop the idea of capturing sequences of electronic images and printing them? For example, a kind of motion picture telegraph?)
| London, England (presumably) |
119 YBN
[02/05/1881 AD]
| 3877) (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney (CE 1843-1920), English astronomer, and Lieut.-Colonel Festing photograph the infrared spectrum of various substances.
This infrared film allows Abney to be the first person to correlate spectroscopic absorption with the structure of carbon based molecules. This will lead to the determination of the molecular structure in distant interstellar clouds of dust and gas 100 years later. Working in the infrared makes it possible (mip), to detect absorption region caused by molecules instead of by individual atoms. (This is very interesting. I don't quite understand. This suggests that the spectrum lines emitted and absorbed by molecules differs from those of the atoms molecules are made of. But what is special about the infrared that allows people to distinguish between the spectral lines of atoms and molecules? Perhaps it just provides more info, more spectral lines.)
Abney and Festing use a carbon electric arc light as a source light which produces a continuous spectrum with no absorption lines in the red and ultra-red area. Then tubes of various substances are put in front of the light and the spectrum, now with absorption lines, photographed. Abney and Festing separate the different kinds of absorption into general absorption and special absorptions. They find that heavier hydrocarbons in the same series have less absorption than lighter hydrocarbons. Special absorptions include: lines (fuzzy and sharp) and bands (both edges sharply defined, one edge sharply defined, both edges not sharply defined). They examine chloroform which contains only one atom of carbon and one atom of hydrogen and find that the absorption spectra contain only lines, some fine and some broad. They find only general absorption for carbon tetrachloride and carbon disulphide. They find a few lines in hydrochloric acid, and water, two of the lines being the same in both. They obtain sharply-marked lines in ammonia, nitric acid, sulphuric acid, and benzene - with nearly every line mapped matching the chloroform spectrum and conclude that hydrogen is the only atom common to all these different compounds and must be the cause of the linear absorption spectrum. The authors write "...In what manner the hydrogen annihilates the waves of radiation at these particular points is a question which is at present, at all events, an open one, but that the linear absorptions, common to the hydrocarbons and to those bodies in which hydrogen is in combination with oxygen and nitrogen, is due to hydrogen there can be no manner of doubt. ...of the hydrogen lines and edges of bands to be found in the hydrocarbons lying between 900 and 972 of our empiric scale, more than half are to be found coincident with lines in the non-carbon bodies. ... It must distinctly be understood that in all the absorptions in which bands, lines, or both appear, the position of the whole of the known hydrogen lines will not be found, each weighted radical making a selection of them.". (It may be that this absorption of infrared/heat light by hydrogen could be used to detect light with those frequencies - John Logie Baird had mentioned that hydrogen is a good detector for infrared light.) Abney and Festing find "...that in every case where oxygen is present otherwise than as a part of the radical it is attached to some hydrogen atom in such a way that it obliterates the radiation between two of the lines which are due to that hydrogen.". The authors finds that an increase in length of the absorbing medium results in one of two things "either general absorption creeps up further towards the more refrangible end, or the absorption features are more marked.". In "Detection of the radical" they write "The clue to the composition of a body, however, would seem to lie between λ700 and λ1000. Certain radicals have a distinctive absorption about λ 700 together with others about λ 900, and if the first be visible it almost follows that the distinctive mark of the radical with which it is connected will be found. Thus in the ethyl series we find an absorption at 740, and a characteristic band one edge of which is at 892, and the other at 920. If we find a body containing the 740 absorption and a band with the most refrangible edge commencing at 892, or with the least refrangible edge terminating at 920, we may be pretty sure that we have an ethyl radical present. So with any of the aromatic group; the crucial ilne is at 867. If that line be connected with a band we may feel certain that some derivative of benzine is present. Abney and Festing match some bands and lines in sun light with those of benzene.
Professors Hartley and Huntington had examined the absorption spectra of liquids in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum.
(Is this the first use of the word "infrared"?)
| (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
119 YBN
[02/??/1881 AD]
| 3421) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, creates a successful vaccine for anthrax by gently heating the anthrax causing bacteria.
Pasteur also weakens agents of disease by passing them through different species.
(Is this the first time heat is used to weaken an agent of disease?)
Anthrax is a deadly disease that kills herds of domestic animals (such as cows, pigs and sheep). Pasteur proves that anthrax is a bacterium and not a virus by showing that filtered liquid with the anthrax agent does not cause anthrax. Pasteur then confirms Koch's suggestion that anthrax is transmitted through food, and discovers that anthrax spores are brought from animal graves to the surface of the earth by earthworms. (One reason perhaps to not put dead bodies in the ground, but perhaps only a minor reason.) Pasteur shows that the germs are also sometimes present as heat-resistant spores that can survive long periods in the ground, and so therefore, even the soil walked on by infected animals can infect uninfected animals. Pasteur recommends killing the infected animals, burning their bodies and burying them deep. In developing the anthrax vaccine, Pasteur finds that with "saliva microbe" (a pneumococcus) and "horse typhoid", that successive passages through one species can reduce the virulence of a microbe toward another species. Pasteur creates a "vaccine" for anthrax by heating anthrax germs. An animal that survived an attack of anthrax is immune after. 50 years before Jenner had forced immunity to a disease by injecting a milder version of the disease. There is no mild form of anthrax, so Pasteur makes his own by heating anthrax germs which causes them to lose their virulence, but still are capable of causing an immune response to the original germs. In this year, Pasteur injects some sheep with his weakened germs, and does not inject other sheep. After some time, all the sheep are injected with deadly anthrax germs. Every sheep that has not been treated with the weakened germs catches anthrax and dies, but every sheep that was injected with the weakened germs is not affected by the anthrax at all. Pasteur recognizes his debt to Jenner by referring to the new type of inoculation as "vaccination" even though in this case the disease vaccinia is not involved.
(It is amazing that Pasteur never because ill from all the exposure to disease. This sentence written by Pasteur may sound unusual to many people: "I was able to present to the Academy a tube containing some spores of anthrax bacteria produced four years ago...". Pasteur must have been careful enough to distinguish between harmful and weakened organisms of disease.)
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
119 YBN
[02/??/1881 AD]
| 3422) Louis Pasteur (PoSTUR or possibly PoSTEUR) (CE 1822-1895), French chemist, creates a successful vaccine for rabies.
In trying to create a vaccine for rabies Pasteur gets help from many assistants. This is the first true virus disease that Pasteur tries to defeat. A virus cannot be grown like a bacterium, and Pasteur needs to use living organisms as the culture medium. By March 1886 Pasteur had injected 350 people thought to be infected with rabies, of which only 1 died who only arrived 37 days after being attacked. In the 1900s, people will find that a dead virus is just as effective and less dangerous than a live virus at curing rabies. Because of Pasteur rabies was being conquered.
Pasteur shows that a weakened germ can be manufactured by passing a rabies infection through different species, until its virulence is reduced. In the case of rabies Pasteur is puzzled because he is not able to locate (see) the actual germ. He correctly concludes that the germ is too small to be seen in the microscope. (These germs will be shown to be viruses. by ?)
After experimenting with inoculations of saliva from infected animals, Pasteur concludes that the virus is also present in the nerve centers, and demonstrates that a portion of the medulla oblongata of a rabid dog, when injected into the body of a healthy animal, produces symptoms of rabies. By further work on the dried tissues of infected animals and the effect of time and temperature on these tissues, Pasteur is able to obtain a weakened form of the virus that can be used for inoculation. Having detected the rabies virus by its effects on the nervous system and attenuated its virulence, Pasteur applies his procedure to a human; on July 6, 1885, Pasteur saves the life of a nine-year-old boy, Joseph Meister, who had been bitten by a rabid dog. The experiment is an outstanding success, opening the road to protection from a terrible disease. (I don't think it can be certain that the boy's own immune system did not kill any invading rabies, or that the rabies virus was passed through the bite, but perhaps.)
| (École Normale Supérieure) Paris, France |
119 YBN
[04/??/1881 AD]
| 4256) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist deduces from Maxwell's equations that the mass of an object increases when electrically charged.
Thomson's logic, in Maxwellian fashion, is somewhat abstract, highly mathematical with triple integrals, and hard to visualize, Thomson writes: "In the interesting experiments recently made by Mr. JL Crookes (Phil. Trans. 1879, parts 1 and 2) and Dr. Goldstein (Phil. Mag. Sept. and Oct. 1880) on "Electric Discharges in High Vacua," particles of matter highly charged with electricity and moving with great velocities form a prominent feature in the phenomena; and a large portion of the investigations consists of experiments on the action of such particles on each other, and their behaviour when under the influence of a magnet. It seems therefore to be of some interest, both as a test of the theory and as a guide to future experiments, to take some theory of electrical action and find what, according to it, is the force existing between two moving electrified bodies, what is the magnetic force produced by such a moving body, and in what way the body is affected by a magnet. The following paper is an attempt to solve these problems, taking as the basis Maxwell's theory that variations in the electric displacement in a dielectric produce effects analogous to those produced by ordinary currents flowing through conductors.
The first case we shall consider is that of a charged sphere moving through an unlimited space filled with a medium of specific inductive capacity K.
The charged sphere will produce an electric displacement throughout the field; and as the sphere moves the magnitude of this displacement at any point will vary. Now, according to Maxwell's theory, a variation in the electric displacement produces the same effect as an electric current; and a field in which electric currents exist is a seat of energy; hence the motion of the charged sphere has developed energy, and consequently the charged sphere must experience a resistance as it moves through the dielectric. But as the theory of the variation of the electric displacement does not take into account any thing corresponding to resistance in conductors, there can be no dissipation of energy through the medium; hence the resistance cannot be analogous to an ordinary frictional• resistance, but must correspond to the resistance theoretically experienced by a solid in moving through a perfect fluid. In other words, it must be equivalent to an increase in the mass of the charged moving sphere, which wo now proceed to calculate. ..."
Historian Henry Crew writes "...Thomson had shown that a sphere, moving with any given velocity, has its kinetic energy definitely increased when it receives an electric charge, thus indicating as he puts it {ULSF:7 years later in an 1888 work} "that electricity behaves in some respects very much as if it had mass.".
To me, it apears that much of this is Thomson's effort to smoothly transistion from Maxwell's wave-based theories to particle-based, mass, atomic theories - all this in the context of the many science facts learned but kept secret from neuron reading and writing.
(Has this been shown to be true experimentally? Perhaps this is from the addition of particles, but what about electrification from the subtraction of particles?)
| (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
119 YBN
[10/??/1881 AD]
| 4010) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, exhibits a large steam-driven electric generator (also called "dynamo") at the Paris International Electrical Exposition.
| (Paris International Exhibition) Paris, France |
119 YBN
[12/15/1881 AD]
| 3738) (Sir) Joseph Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920), English astronomer, announces that certain spectrum lines produced in the laboratory become broader when an element is strongly heated.
This will lead to the theory that ions produce different spectra than neutral atoms. (State who first asserts the ion theory.)
Lockyer describes the differences in the radiations given by an element according to its vaporization by the flame, the electric arc, or the electric spark. In particular, he draws the important distinctions between the lines which appear in the arc alone and those which are strengthened in passing from the excitation of the arc to that of the spark. The latter lines he names "enhanced" lines.
On January 13, 1881, Lockyer confirms "The observations put forward with reserve in my last communication to the Society have now been confirmed. In the fine spots visible on December 24th, January 1st and 6th, many lines in the spectrum of iron were seen contorted, while others were steady.". Lockyer then lists the iron lines indicating motion and those that are steady. Lockyer states that he favours the "view first put forward by Sir B. Brodie, ...that the constituents of our terrestrial elements exist in independent forms in the sun.". Later on November 29, 1881 Lockyer lists a number of results including "we have reason to believe, from experiments made here, that most of the lines seen in the spectrum of iron volatised in the oxy-hydrogen blowpipe flame are amongst the most widened lines." and "The spectrum of iron in the solar spectrum is more like that of the arc than that of the spark.". Lockyer notes "The lines of iron, cobalt, chromium, manganese, titanium, calcium, and nickel seen in the spectra of spots and flames are usually coincident with lines in the spectra of other metals, with the dispersion employed, whilst the lines of tungsten, copper, and zinc seen in spots and storms are not coincident with lines in other spectra.".
| (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 3330) Louis Laurent Gabriel de Mortillet (moURTEA) (CE 1821-1898), French anthropologist, divides the Stone Age into periods based on the level of skill of stone tools uncovered.
Mortillet subdivides the four-age system (Paleolithic, Neolithic, Bronze, and Iron) into periods and the periods into epochs in his work "Musée préhistorique" which lasts until the 1920s.
| (School of Anthropology) Paris, France |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 3715) John Venn (CE 1834-1923), English mathematician and logician, uses uses overlapping circles used to express logical statements. These are now called "Venn diagrams" although according to the Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Leibniz was the first to use logical diagrams.
Venn publishes first this in his book "Symbolic Logic".
This work and his "Logic of Chance" (1866) are highly esteemed text books of the late 1800s and early 1900s.
| (Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 3793) (Sir) Hiram Stevens Maxim (CE 1840-1916), US-English inventor exhibits a "electric pressure regulator" (a self-regulating electric generator).
| Paris, France |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 3907) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist uses gelatin as a medium to growing and isolating pure cultures of bacteria and other organisms.
In 1832 Bartolomeo Bizio published a study of "blood spots" on communion wafers, caused by Serratia marcescens, which used bread as a growth medium.
In 1870, German biologist, Schroeder had grown and isolated pigmented bacteria on slices of potato in a moist environment.
In 1872 German botanist Brefeld reported growing fungal colonies from single spores on gelatin surfaces
Koch tries media such as egg albumen, starch paste and a cut slice of a potato (as used by the German biologist Schroeter), but then moves to a meat extract with added gelatin. The resulting "nutrient gelatin" is poured onto flat glass plates which are inoculated and placed under a bell jar.
Gelatin has two major disadvantages as a gelling agent: 1) Gelatin turns from a gel to a liquid at 25°C which prevents plates from being incubated at higher temperatures. 2) Gelatin is hydrolysed by gelitinase an enzyme produced by most proteolytic organisms.
In 1882 Fannie Hesse, wife of Koch laboratory employee Walter Hesse will suggest agar, which solves these problems.
Although meat extract contains many growth molecules for bacteria, meat extract does not have enough amino-nitrogen for optimal growth of a range of micro-organisms. For this reason, in 1884 Fredrick Loeffler adds peptone and salt to Koch’s basic meat extract formulation.
Originally Koch uses flat slides to grow bacteria, but an assistant, Julius Richar Petri, substitutes shallow glass dishes with covers in 1887, and these Petri dishes have been used for this purpose ever since. In a gell, as opposed to a liquid, bacteria cannot move and so form a patch of multiplying bacteria which can be easily isolated. Koch's solid media marks the beginning of a bacterial culturing and the final victory of Pasteur's germ theory. Using these methods, Koch isolates the specific bacteria of a number of diseases.
| (International Medical Congress) London, England |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 4040) Alexander Graham Bell (CE 1847-1922), Scottish-US inventor, invents a metal detector (using the induction balance of Professor Hughes).
This device is used to find the bullet in the body of President Garfield (this is before the xray is made public) (nobody removed the steel-springed mattress and therefore made finding the bullet difficult.).
The Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences reports in 1889 "In the form employed by him {ULSF: Bell}, one coil, which was a closely wound flat copper band, was made to slide over a similar one by means of a screw, one coil being placed in the telephone circuit and the other in a circuit containing a current-breaker. The induction arising from a similar pair of coils moved over a mass of metal like a bullet could thus be nentralized by this sliding coil arrangement. In no form, however, of Hughes's induction apparatus can one obtain a satisfactory minimum of tone in the telephone. There is never absolute silence, and no two observers can obtain the same point at which the sound seems to be a minimum. The failure to obtain this minimum is thus a radical defect in the instrument. It is doubtless very sensitive, but it cannot be called a quantitative instrument.".
(for more details see )
| (Volta Lab) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 4136) William Stewart Halsted (CE 1852-1922) US surgeon discovers that oxygen in aerated blood which is reinjected into a body can be used by the body.
| New York City, NY, USA |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 4157) Michelson constructs an "interferometer" (with funding from Alexander Bell), a device designed to split a beam of light in two, send the parts on different paths and then bring them back together again, an experiment suggested by Maxwell 6 years before. The theory is that if the two beams travel different distances at the same velocity, or equal distances at different velocities, the two beams would be out of phase with each other and produce bands of light and dark, as Thomas Young observed when two rays of light met which resulted in the rise in popularity of the theory of light as a wave in an ether medium. Asimov writes "At that time it was considered that light, being a wave, had to be waves of something (just as the ocean waves are waves of water). Consequently it was supposed that all space was filled with a luminiferous ether. (The word "luminiferous" means "light carrying", and "ether" is a hark-back to the fifth element that Aristotle supposed to be the component of all objects outside the earth's atmosphere.) It was believed that ether was motionless and that the earth traveled through it.
It was Michelson's intention to use the interferometer to measure the Earth's velocity against the "ether" medium which is at the time thought to be the medium filling the universe. If the Earth is traveling through the light-conducting ether, then the speed of the light from a light source connected to the earth traveling in the same direction is expected to be equal to the velocity of light plus the velocity of the Earth, whereas the speed of light traveling at right angles to the Earth's path is expected to travel only at the velocity of light. If traveling at different speeds, the two beams of light ought to fall out of phase and show interference fringes. By measuring the width of the fringes it would then be possible to show the earth's exact velocity when compared with the ether. In this way the earth's 'absolute motion' could be determined and the absolute motion of all bodies of the universe whose motions relative to the earth were known would also be determined." Michelson's first experiments, which he performs in Helmholtz's laboratory in Berlin show no interference fringes.
Michelson uses his interferometer to determine the widths of astronomical objects by comparing the light rays from both sides and from the nature of the interference fringes, determining how far apart their points of origin are (more specific plus visual). Using this method Michelson measures the angular width of the larger moons of Jupiter. (This width can be also be measured by direct observation).
As a result of Michelson's results, the hypotheses of Augustin-Jean Fresnel of a universal stationary ether and of George Stokes of astronomical aberration are therefore called into question.
Michelson reports his results in "The relative motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous ether" in the American Journal of Science. Michelson writes: "The undulatory theory of light assumes the existence of a medium called the ether, whose vibrations produce the phenomena of heat and light, and which is supposed to fill all space. According to Fresnel, the ether, which is enclosed in optical media, partakes of the motion of these media, to an extent depending on their indices of refraction. For air, this motion would be but a small fraction of that of the air itself and will be neglected.
Assuming then that the ether is at rest, the earth moving through it, the time required for light to pass from one point to another on the earth's surface, would depend on the direction in which it travels.
Let V be the velocity of light. v = the speed of the earth with respect to the ether. D = the distance between the two points. d = the distance through which the earth moves, while light travels from one point to the other. dt = the distance earth moves, while light passes in the opposite direction.
Suppose the direction of the line joining the two points to coincide with the direction of earth's motion, and let T = time required for light to pass from the one point to the other, and T1 = time required for it to pass in the opposite direction. Further, let T0 = time required to perform the journey if the earth were at rest.
Then T=(D+d)/V= d/v; and T1=(D-d)/V = d1/v
From these relations we find d=D(v/V-v) and d1=D(v/V+v)
whence T=D/(V-v) and T1=D/V+v' T-T1=2T0n/V nearly, and v=V(T-T1)/2T0.
If now it were possible to measure T — T1 since V and T0 are known, we could find v the velocity of the earth's motion through the ether.
In a letter, published in "Nature" shortly after his death, Clerk Maxwell pointed out that T — T, could be calculated by measuring the velocity of light by means of the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites at periods when that planet lay in different directions from earth; but that for this purpose the observations of these eclipses must greatly exceed in accuracy those which have thus far been obtained. In the same letter it was also stated that the reason why such measurements could not be made at the earth's surface was that we have thus far no method for measuring the velocity of light which does not involve the necessity of returning the light over its path, whereby it would lose nearly as much as was gained in going.
The difference depending on the square of the ratio of the two velocities, according to Maxwell, is far too small to measure.
The following is intended to show that, with a wave-length of yellow light as a standard, the quantity— if it exists — is easily measurable.
Using the same notation as before we have T = D/(V-v) and T1=D/(V+v). The whole time occupied therefore in going and returning T + T1=2D(V/V2-v2. If, however, the light had traveled in a direction at right angles to the earth's motion it would be entirely unaffected and the time of going and returning would be, therefore, 2D/V==2T0. The difference between the times T-T1 and 2T0 is 2DV(1/(V2-v2) - 1/V2)=r; r=2DV(v2/(V2(V2-v2))
or nearly 2T0(v2/V2). In the time t the light would travel a distance Vt=2VT0(v2/V2).
That is, the actual distance the light travels in the first case is greater than in the second, by the quantity 2D(v2/V2).
Considering only the velocity of the earth in its orbit, the ratio = v/V=1/10000 approximately, and v2/V2=1/100 000 000. If D=1200 millimeters, or in wave-lengths of yellow light, 2 000 000, then in terms of the same unit, 2D(v2/V2)=4/100.
If, therefore, an apparatus is so constructed as to permit two pencils of light, which have traveled over paths at right angles to each other, to interfere, the pencil which has traveled in the direction of the earth's motion, will in reality travel 4/100 of a wave-length farther than it would have done, were the earth at rest. The other pencil being at right angles to the motion would not be affected.
If, now, the apparatus be revolved through 90° so that the second pencil is brought into the direction of the earth's motion, its path will have lengthened 4/100 wave-lengths. The total change in the position of the interference bands would be 8/100 of the distance between the bands, a quantity easily measurable. The conditions for producing interference of two pencils of light which had traversed paths at right angles to each other were realized in the following simple manner.
Light from a lamp a, fig. 1 {ULSF: see image}, passed through the plane parallel glass plate b, part going to the mirror c, and part being reflected to the mirror d. The mirrors c and d were of plane glass, and silvered on the front surface. From these the light was reflected to b, where the one was reflected and the other refracted, the two coinciding along be. The distance bc being made equal to bd, and a plate of glass g being interposed in the path of the ray bc, to compensate for the thickness of the glass b, which is traversed by the ray bd, the two rays will have traveled over equal paths and are in condition to interfere.
The instrument is represented in plan by fig. 2, and in perspective by fig. 3. The same letters refer to the same parts in the two figures.
The source of light, a small lantern provided with a lens, the flame being in the focus, is represented at a. b and g are the two plane glasses, both being cut from the same piece; d and c are the silvered glass mirrors; m is a micrometer screw which moves the plate b in the direction bc. The telescope e, for observing the interference bands, is provided with a micrometer eyepiece, w is a counterpoise.
In the experiments the arms, bd, bc, were covered by longpaper boxes, not represented in the figures, to guard against changes in temperature. They were supported at the outer ends by the pins k, l, and at the other by the circular plate o. The adjustments were effected as follows:
The mirrors c and d were moved up as close as possible to the plate b, and by means of the screw m the distances between a point on the surface of b and the two mirrors were made approximately equal by a pair of compasses. The lamp being lit, a small hole made in a screen placed before it served as a point of light; and the plate b, which was adjustable in two planes, was moved about till the two images of the point of light, which were reflected by the mirrors, coincided. Then a sodium flame placed at a produced at once the interference bands. These could then be altered in width, position, or direction, by a slight movement of the plate b, and when they were of convenient width and of maximum sharpness, the sodium flame was removed and the lamp again substituted. The screw m was then slowly turned till the bands reappeared. They were then of course colored, except the central band, which was nearly black. The observing telescope had to be focussed on the surface of the mirror d, where the fringes were most distinct. The whole apparatus, including the lamp and the telescope, was movable about a vertical axis.
It will be observed that this apparatus can very easily be made to serve as an "interferential refractor," and has the two important advantages of small cost, and wide separation of the two pencils.
The apparatus as above described was constructed by Schmidt and Haensch of Berlin. It was placed on a stone pier in the Physical Institute, Berlin. The first observation showed, however, that owing to the extreme sensitiveness of the instrument to vibrations, the work could not be carried on during the day. The experiment was next tried at night. When the mirrors were placed half-way on the arms the fringes were visible, but their position could not be measured till after twelve o'clock, and then only at intervals. When the mirrors were moved out to the ends of the arms, the fringes were only occasionally visible.
It thus appeared that the experiments could not be performed in Berlin, and the apparatus was accordingly removed to the Astrophysicalisches Observatorium in Potsdam. Even here the ordinary stone piers did not suffice, and the apparatus was again transferred, this time to a cellar whose circular walls formed the foundation for the pier of the equatorial.
Here, the fringes under ordinary circumstances were sufficiently quiet to measure, but so extraordinarily sensitive was the instrument that the stamping of the pavement, about 100 meters from the observatory, made the fringes disappear entirely!
If this was the case with the instrument constructed with a view to avoid sensitiveness, what may we not expect from one made as sensitive as possible!
At this time of the year, early in April, the earth's motion in its orbit coincides roughly in longitude with the estimated direction of the motion of the solar system—namely, toward the constellation Hercules. The direction of this motion is inclined at an angle of about +26° to the plane of the equator, and at this time of the year the tangent of the earth's motion in its orbit makes an angle of — 23 1/2° with the plane of the equator; hence we may say the resultant would lie within 25° of the equator.
The nearer the two components are in magnitude to each other, the more nearly would their resultant coincide with the plane of the equator.
In this case, if the apparatus be so placed that the arms point north and east at noon, the arm pointing east would coincide with the resultant motion, and the other would be at right angles. Therefore, if at this time the apparatus be rotated 90°, the displacement of the fringes should be twice 8/100 or 0.16 of the distance between the fringes.
If, on the other hand, the proper motion of the sun is small compared to the earth's motion, the displacement should be 6/15 of .08 or 0.048. Taking the mean of these two numbers as the most probable, we may say that the displacement to be looked for is not far from one-tenth the distance between the fringes.
The principal difficulty which was to be feared in making these experiments, was that arising from changes of temperature of the two arms of the instrument. These being of brass whose coefficient of expansion is 0.000019 and having a length of about 1000 mm. or 1 700 000 wave-lengths, if one arm should have a temperature only one one-hundredth of a degree higher than the other, the fringes would thereby experience a displacement three times as great as that which would result from the rotation. On the other hand, since the changes of temperature are independent of the direction of the arms, if these changes were not too great their effect could be eliminated.
It was found, however, that the displacement on account of bending of the arms during rotation was so considerable that the instrument had to be returned to the maker, with instructions to make it revolve as easily as possible. It will be seen from the tables, that notwithstanding this precaution a large displacement was observed in one particular direction. That this was due entirely to the support was proved by turning the latter through 90°, when the direction in which the displacement appeared was also changed 90°.
On account of the sensitiveness of the instrument to vibration, the micrometer screw of the observing telescope could not be employed, and a scale ruled on glass was substituted. The distance between the fringes covered three scale divisions, and the position of the center of the dark fringe was estimated to fourths of a division, so that the separate estimates were correct to within 1/12.
It frequently occurred that from some slight cause (among others the springing of the tin lantern by heating) the fringes would suddenly change their position, in which case the series of observations was rejected and a new series begun.
In making the adjustment before the third series of observations, the direction in which the fringes moved, on moving the glass plate b, was reversed, so that the displacement in the third and fourth series are to be taken with the opposite sign.
At the end of each series the support was turned 90°, and the axis was carefully adjusted to the vertical by means of the foot-screws and a spirit level. ...". Michelson then displays a table giving the distances between the fringes from all directions using a 45 degree interval. The results indicate that the displacement of the interference lines measured -0.004 and -0.015 is much smaller than the expected displacement of 0.05. Michelson writes: "The small displacements —0.004 and — 0.015 are simply errors of experiment.
The results obtained are, however, more strikingly shown by constructing the actual curve together with the curve that should have been found if the theory had been correct. This is shown in figure 4. {ULSF: see image}
The dotted curve is drawn on the supposition that the displacement to be expected is one-tenth of the distance between the fringes, but if this displacement were only 1/100, the broken line would still coincide more nearly with the straight line than with the curve.
The interpretation of these results is that there is no displacement of the interference bands. The result of the hypothesis of a stationary ether is thus shown to be incorrect, and the necessary conclusion follows that the hypothesis is erroneous.
This conclusion directly contradicts the explanation of the phenomenon of aberration which has been hitherto generally accepted, and which presupposes that the earth moves through the ether, the latter remaining at rest.
It may not be out of place to add an extract from an article published in the Philosophical Magazine by Stokes in 1846.
"All these results would follow immediately from the theory of aberration which I proposed in the July number of this magazine: nor have I been able to obtain any result admitting of being compared with experiment, which would be different according to which theory we adopted. This affords a curious instance of two totally different theories running parallel to each other in the explanation of phenomena. I do not suppose that many would be disposed to maintain Fresnel's theory, when it is shown that it may be dispensed with, inasmuch as we would not be disposed to believe, without good evidence, that the ether moved quite freely through the solid mass of the earth. Still it would have been satisfactory, if it had been possible to have put the two theories to the test of some decisive experiment."
In conclusion, I take this opportunity to thank Mr. A. Graham Bell, who has provided the means for carrying out this work, and Professor Vogel, the Director of the Astropliysicalisches Observatorium, for his courtesy in placing the resources of his laboratory at my disposal."
In July of 1887 Michelson and Morley will repeat this experiment over a longer area and will again find no displacement in the interference pattern. This second measurement will apparently get much more publicity.
In May of 1889, Irish physicist George Francis Fitzgerald (CE 1851-1901) will publish an article in the journal "Science" suggesting as an explanation for the Michelson-Morley experiment, that "the length of material bodies changes, according as they are moving through the ether or across it, by an amount depending on the square of the ratio of their velocity to that of light.". Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (CE 1853-1928) will apparently independently publish the same theory in 1892, in (translated from Dutch) "The Relative Motion of the Earth and the Ether".
In his book "Studies in Optics", in 1927, Michelson writes on p156: "Lorentz and Fitzgerald have proposed a possible solution of the null effect of the Michelson-Morley experiment by assuming a contraction in the material of the support for the interferometer just sufficient to compensate for the theoretical difference in path. Such a hypothesis seems rather artificial, and it of course implies that such contractions are independent of the elastic properties of the material.*" "*This consequence was tested by Morley and Miller by substituting a support of wood for that of stone. The result was the same as before.". So Michelson basically publicly doubts the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction which relativity is based on.
Michelson's quote "The result of the hypothesis of a stationary ether is thus shown to be incorrect, and the necessary conclusion follows that the hypothesis is erroneous." I think shows that, given the secret of reading and writing from/to neurons, probably, given the confidence of this statement, that this experiment was probably designed to prove the theory that there is no ether, which Michelson probably personally believed - but only recorded thought-images will show for sure. Usually, if this story is told at all, it is told apparently inaccurately - although I need to verify - perhaps Michelson lied publicly to appear more conservative, it is told from the perspective that Michelson truly believed that there was an ether - and was somehow surprised and lived the rest of his life in disbelief - not at all doubting the concept of an ether - but instead doubting other aspects of the results. But clearly, this experiment and paper mark a clear beginning of the end of the ether theory.
The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography writes that "Michelson boldly denied the validity of this hypothesis of a stationary ether, but he always maintained the need for some kind of ether to explain the phenomena of the propagation of light.".
(In his book "Light Waves and Their Uses", Michelson describes the phenomenon of light beams with non-uniform wavelength {state Michelson's word to describe this phenomenon}, commenting (in an early chapter) that over a great distance no interference pattern can be seen, and that, for example, the regular wavelength of the spectral line for ... cesium? is very consistent. And this is a fundamental limit on the math to describe beams which presumes a constant wavelength.)
(interesting that the interferometer has somehow come to mean (usually radio) telescopes from different locations synchronizing to produce a single image, which is different, as far as I understand, from the idea of comparing light from both sides of a star and using the interference fringes to determine how far apart their points of origin are.).
(EX: Does this same experiment work for two sounds sent at 90 degrees from each other? For other kinds of waves, like water waves? Is it possible that a wave could travel at the same velocity in either 90 degree direction because theoretically the ether does not move relative to itself?)
(The view of light having a constant velocity seems to me, in viewing light bouncing off a mirror, similar to drops of water colliding into a pool, to be doubtful. But this is interesting how Relativity makes use of the save-the-ether theory of space dilation. In this sense it appears to be two opposite ideas pasted together: 1) space dilation and 2) no ether. Update: The Pound-Rebka experiment, I think is confirmation of the variable velocity of light particles.)
(Given the secret of seeing eyes and hearing ears, etc. it may be that Michelson-Morley already suspected that no ether would be detected, and simply publicly pretended that they believed in an ether- in order to advance science into a more accurate light as a particle direction. And this change was happening in other places - like the work of Planck and Einstein who reintroduce the light as a particle - formerly corpuscular theory - for light. This experiment may represent the possibly continued division of two schools of thought, the particle and the wave explanation for light, although perhaps this is overgeneralizing or simply inaccurate. But the reason being that the space dilation required in relativity is descended from the traditional ether theory, which is supported by the traditionalists/conservatives perhaps, being more comfortable with the ether theory, while Michelson and Morley's view represents a split from the ether theory in the more progressive light as a particle etherless theory. It's curious that the ether is rejected in the theory of Relativity, but yet, the space dilation concept used to save the ether theory is retained. It is, I think, to his credit that Michelson rejects relativity. Find Michelson's arguments against Relativity as he may be one of the few people with public comments against Relativity which was quickly accepted and all opposition silenced.)
(In some way, Michelson's experiment is a brave break with the traditional view of the ether. It seems almost like, the experiment itself is almost trivial and that the important thing is the theoretical conclusion. But the experiment is clearly important. He did the experiment in 1881, then again in 1887 (perhaps enlisting Morley for added weight to the conclusion?) with the same results. Somehow in 1887 they were recognized or given some credit, only then taken seriously. )
(I think that the interference patterns of light are due to the various reflected directions of the beams of light particles. As Newton showed, one requirement of producing a spectrum with two pieces of glass, at least one must be curved. This to me indicates that the difference in directions of various beams create a linear distribution of photon frequencies. Another aspect is if the light source emits light in the shape of a sphere (or a curve), and then is reflected, a higher frequency beam is created at a larger angle, while a lower frequency beam is created at a smaller incident angle of reflection.)
Interesting that Michelson invokes the powerful name of Graham Bell - in particular in view of the power of the neuron reading and writing that AT&T is immersed in - in some way it may be some kind of stamp of a large power - large business and wealth - and of course, Bell himself, behind this paper.
Michelson himself in his last years still spoke of "the beloved old ether (which is now abandoned, though I personally still cling a little to it)." and advises in 1927 in his last book, that relativity theory should be accorded a "generous acceptance", although he remains personally skeptical.
In 1922, Dayton Miller will report measuring a "definite displacement, periodic in each half revolution of the interferometer, of the kind to be expected, buut having an amplitude of one tenth the presumed amount.". In 1929 Michelson will report a reconfirmation of the null result. That people report measuring an effect due to ether and others do not measure any effect, implies that one group is potentially very dishonest.
(As an interesting note: Chandrasekhar was asked or felt it necessary to add a note in the beginning of the book and a footnote to Michelson's chapter on relativity in the 1968 (also in 1962 reprint?) reprint of Michelson's "Studies in Optics" (1927) which reads: "In describing these ideas bearing on special relativity, Professor Michelson adopts a cautious attitude, sometimes giving the impression of skepticism. Such an attitude was justifiable at the time in view of the revolutionary character of the theory. However, at the present time the experimental basis for special relativity is so wide and the theoretical ramifications so many that there can no longer be any doubt about its validity. In chapter xiv reference is also made to the 'generalized theory of relativity.' However, this theory represents a development along somewhat different lines and except in a very general way does not bear on the subject matter of these two chapters. The foundations of the general theory (unlike those of the special theory) are still in the process of change and evolution." My view is that Michelson actually appears to be supportive of relativity, although doubts the FitzGerald-Lorentz theory as "artificial". In addition, at the time of the creation of this last book of Michelson's in 1927, already Michelson knows about the perihelion of Mercury, the increasing of the mass of accelerated electrons, displacement of light around the eclipsed sun, the displacement of solar spectral lines (which seems to me more like confirmation of the Doppler shift as applied to light emitted from the sun). This is similar to the note inserted by the publisher before the work of Copernicus stating that the sun-centered theory was merely a mathematical convenience and does not apply to the actual truth. Why the need to hammer through belief in relativity and crush any skepticism? Perhaps there are other inaccurate updated theories by Michelson in this book, why are they not addressed in a similar way? In my view, this shows that publishing in the USA and no doubt on earth is far too corrupt. This small comment, my own, serves as one of the only (contemporary) public statements even remotely skeptical of relativity or the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction.)
I think a potentially accurate historical appraisal of this experiment and paper is that it represents an important historical turning point in the history of science, in being the first attack on the light as a wave with an ether medium theory, and implicitly, therefore, allowing support for the rebirth of a corpuscular (or particle) theory for light with no medium, and this first attack is led by Alexander Graham Bell and Albert Michelson - it seems possible that that Bell and others, already seeing, hearing and sending thought-images and sounds for many years, perhaps felt some frustration at the backwards views of the public, and the corrupted and obvious false theories of science that were mainstream at the time, the most noticeable being the light-as-a-wave theory which had replaced Newton's corpuscular theory for light in the early 1800s after the work of Thomas Young and August Fresnel. It should be noted that, unfortunately, Newton accepted the concept of an ether - and Young capitalized on this fact, and Newton failed to correctly explain how refraction could be explained with a light-as-a-particle theory - which Fizeau and Foucault took advantage of in disproving Newton's claim that the speed of light would increase when refracted - the better and more obvious particle theory being that particles of light are delayed when refracted because of particle collision with other particles that change their paths - making their paths longer. But I think one of the most curious aspects of this first attack, is that, instead of what would seem natural to me - calls for a "re-examination" of the corpuscular theory for light - to explain the phenomena of diffraction, refraction, interference, double-refraction, etc with new particle theories - will not happen publicly until even now in the 2000s - over 100 years after this 1881 effort. However, it seems very likely that many people that routinely seeing and hear thought videos in their eyes already knew the truth about light as a particle in the 1800s but viciously, callously, and stupidly left the public unenlightened and thoroughly mislead. Instead of a public call to revisit and public examination of the corpuscular theory and new explanations for the phenomenon of so-called "diffraction", and interference, etc. the Michelson ether experiments result in the rise of the theory of relativity which has a lineage mostly in the wave theory - following Maxwell's acceptance of light as an electromagnetic wave in an ether medium - Maxwell lived in the wake of Young and Fresnel's successful transition to a wave theory for light - and shockingly, and incredibly intolerantly, in that time even mentioning the corpuscular theory for light was taboo and unheard of. Beyond the theory of relativity, is the rise of quantum dynamics which is more of a descendent and is more connected to a light as a particle lineage. I would view Planck's theory of light coming in "quanta" as perhaps a second attack on the light-as-a-wave theory in favor of a light-as-a-particle theory (followed by Einstein using a quantum explanation for the photoelectric effect - Einstein's only connection to a light-as-a-particle theory - ironically Einstein's acceptance of space dilation - which was born as an excuse to try and save the ether after Michelson's experiment-shows that the theory of relativity generally descends from the light-as-a-wave theory). But both Michelson and Planck represent very weak attacks, far removed from a total victory for light-as-a-particle - to such an extreme - that light being described as a particle is still not popular or common today. In my view, every phenomenon of light can be explained with a particle explanation as I have shown in my many graphical model videos of polarization, diffraction gratings, etc. It's somewhat comical perhaps, that this kind of obvious conclusion - the 'hey since there appears to be no ether - let's go back and re-examine the corpuscular theory' was totally absent for a century and counting. But it's more than coicidence and is most likely corruption on the part of those that read and write to and from neurons. This experiment marks a clear split between two theories - basically there is an ether or there is not an ether. So many pro-light-as-a-particle theory supporters come to support Michelson's interpretation and later the theory of Relativity which is viewed by many as being a "no ether" theory - although this can be debated - in particular because of the unusual inclusion of the theory of space dilation. So, on the other side, the light-is-a-wave-in-a-medium group, try to maintain the ether theory - this continues even through the 1900s, for example after WW2, Paul Dirac suggests that the ether still exists, and the view that light is a wave is still popular in modern times - the Encyclopedia Britannica still defines light as "an electromagnetic wave". So it is unusual that those people who initially supported Michelson and the effort against ether - found themselves as early supporters of relativity - Herbert Dingle is one example, however unlike most other early anti-ether supporters, Dingle later saw the inaccuracy and corruption surrounding the theory of relativity and opposed it - while most others simply accepted it without even the tiniest historical examination. So it seems clear that the theories of relativity and space dilation will probably fall, being replaced by particle theories - probably theories realized a century before by those who could read from and write to neurons - relativity serving, possibly, as a device to slow scientific progress and education among those, the vast majority of people, who are excluded from seeing thoughts in front of their eyes. In addition, relativity is possibly a compromise between particle and wave schools - the ether is supposedly excluded, but space dilation which depends on the theory of an ether is included to keep both groups happy. As far as I know, nobody ever bothered to ask Einstein if the theory of relativity requires light to be a particle or wave, both or neither. As a result, even now in the 2000s, I and others are left to put forward the first public models and computer graphical animations of how various supposed phenomena like so-called "diffraction", single and double refraction, polarization, etc. are explained using a light-as-a-particle explanation. It is shocking that we are the first and that not since the time of Newton has a public examination of various optical effects been explained as a result of particle dynamics. In particular the wonderful and amazing finding that the spectrum nodes that result from a diffraction grating may be the same as the number of times a light particle is reflected. That we are only now giving even theoretical explanations for the 1600s concept of diffraction is evidence that the entire 3 centuries following Newton were downward in the science theory direction.
(Does Michelson calculate distance knowing the speed of light?)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
119 YBN
[1881 AD]
| 4349) Inverse piezoelectricity proven: how an electric field applied to certain crystals can result in a contraction or expansion of the crystal.
Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906), French chemist and older brother Paul-Jacques (CE 1856-1941) prove inverse piezoelectricity: how an electric field applied to certain crystals can result in a contraction or expansion of the crystal and invent the piezoelectric balance. (chronology on piezoelectric balance and earliest paper.)
As soon as the Curies had announced the phenomenon of piezoelectricity Lippmann had observed that the inverse phenomenon should exist, that is that piezoelectric crystals should show strain under the action of an electric field.
The two brothers prove, with quartz and tourmaline, that the piezoelectric plates of these two substances undergo either contraction or expansion, depending on the direction of the electrical field applied. They show this extremely slight deformation, indirectly at first, by using the strain to compress another quartz, which exhibits the direct piezoelectric effect, and then directly, with a microscope, amplifying the strain by using a lever.
In understanding and establishing the experimental laws of piezoelectricity, the Curie brothers will then build a piezoelectric quartz balance, which supplies quantities of electricity proportional to the weights suspended from it.
The Curies write numerous papers on piezoelectricity.
Paul Langevin, a student of Pierre Curie's, will find that inverse piezoelectricity causes piezoelectric quartz in alternating electric fields to emit high-frequency sound waves, which are used to detect submarines and explore the ocean's floor.
In this way, by making the crystal rapidly vibrate, a crystal can be made to create beams of ultrasonic sound (sound waves with frequencies too high for humans to hear).
These crystals form the timing chip which create the clock signal for the CPUs in most computers, and oscillate at very high speeds. The crystal may oscillate in a range of megahertz (millions of cycles per second), even higher harmonic higher frequency voltage may be used. Interesting, that inverse piezoelectricity, in being used for every CPU, is perhaps more beneficial than piezoelectricity.
(Get translations of all piezoelectricity papers. and quote relevant and interesting parts)
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
118 YBN
[01/12/1882 AD]
| 4011) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, opens the first central station for incandescent electric lighting. This station is in London, England and consists of two and later three Edison "Jumbo" direct-connected steam dynamos (generators). These machines weigh from 23 to 30 tons each and employ bar armatures weighing 4 1/2 tons, revolving at 350 rotations a minute, the field magnet consisting of 12 magnet cores placed horizontally, 8 above and 4 below the armature. Babcock & Wilcox boilers are employed and one of the dynamos is driven by a Porter-Allen steam engine, the other two by Armington & Sims steam engines, all direct-connected. The plane supplies some 3,000 lights, which are placed in various hotels, churches, stores, and houses, in addition many streets are also lighted. The Holborn Viaduct station is started in practical operation on April 11, 1882, with about 1,000 incandescent lamps installed along Holborn Viaduct and in several buildings. The lamps are supplied with current by underground wires.
| (57 Holborn Viaduct) London, England |
118 YBN
[01/14/1882 AD]
| 4013) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, demonstrates the largest isolated electric lighting plant, which uses 12 dynamos (electric generators) driven by 3 steam engines.
| (Crystal Palace) Syndenham, England |
118 YBN
[02/??/1882 AD]
| 3996) Silvanus P. Thompson (CE 1851-1916) shows that the change in resistance in carbon is not due to pressure placed on carbon, but is due to pressure placed on the metal contacts because there is more or less physical connection between metal contact and a solid carbon rod.
| (University College) Bristol, England |
118 YBN
[03/24/1882 AD]
| 3903) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist announces identifying and culturing the tubercle bacteria.
The search for the tubercule bacillus is more difficult that anthrax. Koch finally isolates the bacteria using the stain "methylene blue" which results in blue colored rods with bends and curves.
Koch then establishes the presence of this bacteria in the tissues of animals (including humans) suffering from the disease. Initially growing the bacteria was not possible, but eventually Koch succeeds in isolating the organism in a succession of media and causes tuberculosis in animals by injecting them with the organism.
Koch publishes his identification of the tubercle bacteria in "Die Aetiologie der Tuberculose.". In this brief journal article, Koch first states the actual cause of tuberculosis to be the tubercle bacillus and not nutritional deficiencies as is widely believed at the time. Koch publishes another article on Tuberculosis in 1884.
In 1890 Koch will announce that he has found a cure for tuberculosis, however finds out later that he is wrong.
Tuberculosis (TB), is a contagious, wasting disease caused by any of several mycobacteria. The most common form of the disease is tuberculosis of the lungs (pulmonary consumption, or phthisis), but the intestines, bones and joints, the skin, and the genital-urinary, lymphatic, and nervous systems may also be affected. There are three major types of tubercle bacteria that affect humans. There is currently no known vaccine.
| (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany |
118 YBN
[03/??/1882 AD]
| 3752) Henry Draper (CE 1837-1882), US physician and amateur astronomer, photographs the spectrum of the Orion Nebula.
William Huggins also publishes a photo of the spectrum of Orion in April 1882.
(Who is first to capture a permanent image of endo-nebulae spectrum?)
| (City University) New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
118 YBN
[05/25/1882 AD]
| 4066) Henry Rowland makes improved metal and glass gratings and introduces concave gratings which eliminate the need for a telescope to view the spectrum.
Henry Augustus Rowland (rolaND) (CE 1848-1901), US physicist, introduces concave gratings which eliminate the need for a telescope to view the spectrum. In addition Roland makes improved diffraction gratings by making an improved ruling machine. Rowland decides that a screw cut on a lathe contains too many irregularities and uses a method which uses a long nut split along its length into several parts (perhaps similar to a dye which cuts threads). Rowland makes a grating with 43,000 lines to the inch.
At this time prisms are giving way to ruled gratings of the type Fraunhofer began to use.
Rowland writes: "...All gratings hitherto made have been ruled on flat surfaces. Such gratings require a pair of telescopes for viewing the spectrum. These telescopes interfere with many experiments, absorbing the extremities of the spectrum strongly ; besides, two telescopes of sufficient size to use with six-inch gratings would be very expensive and clumsy affairs. In thinking over what would happen were the grating ruled on a surface not flat, I thought of a new method of attacking the problem; and soon found that if the lines were ruled on a spherical surface, the spectrum would be brought to a focus without any telescope. This discovery of concave gratings is important for many physical investigations, such as the photographing of the spectrum both in the ultra-violet and the ultra-red, the determination of the heating-effect of the different rays, and the determination of the relative wave-lengths of the lines of the spectrum. Furthermore it reduces the spectroscope to its simplest proportions, so that spectroscopes of the highest power may be made at a cost which can place them in the hands of all observers. With one of my new concave gratings I have been able to detect double lines in the spectrum which were never before seen.
The laws of the concave grating are very beautiful on account of their simplicity, especially in the case where it will be used most. Draw the radius of curvature of the mirror to the centre of the mirror, and from its central point, with a radius equal to half the radius of curvature draw, a circle ; this circle thus passes through the centre of curvature of the mirror and touches the mirror at its centre. Now, if the source of light is anywhere in this circle, the image of this source and the different orders of the spectra are all brought to focus on this circle. The word focus is hardly applicable to the case, however; for if the source of light is a point, the light is not brought to a single point on the circle, but is drawn out into a straight line with its length parallel to the axis of the circle. As the object is to see lines in the spectrum only, this fact is of little consequence provided the slit which is the source of light is parallel to the axis of the circle. Indeed it adds to the beauty of the spectra, as the horizontal lines due to dust in the slit are never present, as the dust has a different focal length from the lines of the spectrum. This action of the concave grating, however, somewhat impairs the light, especially of the higher orders; but the introduction of a cylindrical lens greatly obviates this inconvenience.
The beautiful simplicity of the fact that the line of foci of the different orders of the spectra are on the circle described above, leads immediately to a mechanical contrivance by which we can move from one spectrum to the next and yet have the apparatus always in focus; for we only have to attach the slit, the eye-piece, and the grating to three arms of equal length, which are pivoted together at their other ends, and the conditions are satisfied. However we move the three arms, the spectra are always in focus. The most interesting case of this contrivance is when the bars carrying the eye-piece and grating are attached end to end, thus forming a diameter of the circle, with the eye-piece at the centre of curvature of the mirror, and the rod carrying the slit alone movable. In this case the spectrum as viewed by the eye-piece is normal; and when a micrometer is used, the value of a division of its head in wave-lengths does not depend on the position of the slit, but is simply proportional to the order of the spectrum, so that it need be determined once only. Furthermore, if the eye-piece is replaced by a photographic camera, the photographic spectrum is a normal one. The mechanical means of keeping the focus is especially important when investigating the ultra-violet and ultra-red portions of the solar spectrum.
Another important property of the concave grating is that all the superimposed spectra are in exactly the same focus. When viewing such superimposed spectra, it is a most beautiful sight to see the lines appear coloured on a nearly white ground. By micrometric measurement of such superimposed spectra, we have a most beautiful method of determining the relative wave-lengths of the different portions of the spectrum, which far exceeds iu accuracy any other method yet devised. In working in the ultra-violet or ultra-red portions of the spectrum, we can also focus on the superimposed spectrum, and so get the focus for the portion experimented on.
The fact that the light has to pass through no glass iu the concave grating makes it important in the examination of the extremities of the spectrum, where the glass might absorb very much.
There is one important research in which the concave grating in its present form does not seem to be of much use; and that is in the examination of the solar protuberances ; an instrument can only be used for this purpose in which the dust in the slit and the lines of the spectrum are in focus at once. It might be possible to introduce a cylindrical lens in such a way as to obviate this difficulty. But for other work on the sun the concave grating will be found very useful. But its principal use will be to get the relative wave-lengths of the lines of the spectrum, and so to map the spectrum ; to divide lines of the spectrum which are very near together, and so to see as much as possible of the spectrum; to photograph the spectrum so that it shall be normal; to investigate the portions of the spectrum beyond the range of vision ; and, lastly, to put into the hands of any physicist at a moderate cost such a powerful instrument as could only hitherto bo purchased by wealthy individuals or institutions. ...".
(State how the work is held while the dye is moved to thread the cylinder.)
(Note that diffraction gratings may be useful in isolating the frequencies of light {frequencies that may be in the range felt as heat} in seeing thought images.)
| (Johns Hopkins University), Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
118 YBN
[07/17/1882 AD]
| 4825) (Sir) William Fletcher Barrett (CE 1844-1925), professor of physics at the Royal College of Dublin, Ireland, reports that telepathy might be explained by electrical induction and that the brain might radiate like a glowing body.
Barrett writes: "We may ... conceive of nervous energy acting by induction across space as well as by conduction along the nerve fibres. In fact, the numerous analogies between electricity and nervous stimuli would lead to some such inference as the above. Or the brain might be regarded as the seat of radiant energy like a glowing or a sounding body. In this case, the reception of the energy would depend upon a possibility of synchronous vibration in the absorbing body; which, moreover, may be constituted like a sensitive flame, in a state of unstable equilibrium, so that a distant mental disturbance might suddenly and profoundly agitate particular minds, whilst others might remain quiescent. Further, we may conceive that, just as a vibrating tuning fork or string spends its 'energy most swiftly when it is exciting another similar fork or string in unison with itself, so the activity of the brain may be more speedily .exhausted by the presence of other brains capable of sympathetic vibration with itself.".
Note that this is 6 years (1881) before the report of Heinrich Hertz which reveals radio communication using the phenomenon of inductive electrical resonance (1887).
Barrett was John Tyndall's assistant, and is credited with discovering the sensitivity of a large flame from a Bunsen burner to distant tiny sounds in the air. It is an interesting possibility that a very sensitive microphone similar to the gas flame picking up tiny sound, wihch is vibration in the air, from the sounds of thought. It may be that the actual thought sounds move air, although in an extremely minute quantity, enough to be detected. Of course, it seems to me the more simple method would be to examine the particles emitted from the electricity of the brain created by the playing back of internal sounds.
Barrett uses the word "beg" and "I cannot say" which implies that Barrett is aware of neuron reading and writing. So, from an excluded perspective, this hints that Barrett is either an insider whistleblower or point of dissemination, that is, an insider informing outsiders as opposed to an outsider informing other outsiders.
Interesting that Barrett and others, in particular Crookes, never take the next step, in working with physiologists to try and read or write such "brain waves" - even if only to report failed experiments.
If the Society for Psychical Research were mostly composed of outsiders, that really indicates a heroic and monumental effort in terms of talking publicly about telepathy - and it would indicate that the secret use of neuron writing was reaching many people - but only at the level of a few images a year - enough that many excluded noticed and gave prolonged thought to such images and/or sounds. But more likely, the Society for Psychical Research was founded by peple who were already aware of neuron reading and writing and took the role of trying to make it go public. If this is true, then they did good in trying to inform the public about telepathy, but at the same time, the focus on spirits, communicating with the dead, and endless telepathic stories tends to make all information appear to be pseudoscience - it masks the actual educating the public about the real science of neuron reading and writing - and casts telepathy into a light of pseudoscience which it still exists in - however, this view is changing because of the images produced by Kamatani, et al.
(Give more background on the history of recognizing that the nervous system is analogous to metal wires in conducting and moving around electricity.)
| (Royal College of Science) Dublin, Ireland |
118 YBN
[09/04/1882 AD]
| 4014) First permanent commericial central electrical system on Earth.
The Edison Electric Illuminating Company of New York was incorporated on December 17, 1880, to develop and install a central generating station. Edison's system would consist of the large central power plant with its generators (called dynamos); voltage regulating devices; copper wires connecting the plant to other buildings; the wiring, switches, and fixtures in the interiors of those buildings; and the light bulbs themselves. The method of supplying electricity from a central station to illuminate buildings in a surrounding district had already been demonstrated by Edison in London in 1881, and self-contained plants were in place in some of Edison's buildings and in a few private residences in New York, like that of J. P. Morgan.
Edison received more than two hundred patents between 1879 and 1882 as he solved numerous problems in the generation, distribution, and metering of electric current. He had to develop even the most basic equipment — fuses, sockets, fixtures, switches, meters — and he had to build and test each part. Following the model for gas and water distribution, Edison was an early proponent of underground electric mains (pipe and duct system) and services, and the first street mains were installed in New York during the summer of 1881.
The laying of the underground system of wires in the streets (which are 2-wire, so-called "feeder-and-main" system), the wiring of buildings for the lamps and the work of constructing foundations for the generators all start in the fall of 1881. In July 1881, laying of over 80,000 feet of underground wires is practically complete.
With the opening of Pearl Street, homes and businesses can purchase electric light at a price that could compete with gas. By October 1, 1882, less than a month after the opening of the station, Edison Electric has 59 customers. By December 1, there are 203, and a year later, 513. Pearl Street is a model that leads the way for electrification in cities and towns across the United States. The plant remains in operation until 1895.
In 1882 an Edison Santa Radegonda station will be opened in Milan, Italy.
In 1883 Edison "Jumbo" generators will be sold to an illuminating company in Santiago, Chili.
As the distribution of electricity spreads throughout the surface of earth, the side of the earth not lit by the light from the Sun shows many tiny lights, in particular in large cities which can be seen from a distance, a clear sign of the growth of life.
Edison should be credited, with Alexander Bell (and indirectly those who funded them including JP Morgan and the Vanderbilts) as a person who brought technology to much of the public.
| (Edison Electric illuminating Company, 255 and 257 Pearl Street), New York City, NY, USA |
118 YBN
[12/??/1882 AD]
| 3620) Professor A. E. Dolbear sends and receives wireless telegraph signals. This is before the work of Hertz and Marconi, and so many people at the time describe this as electro-static induction (which it is, in the same sense that electro-static induction, the photoelectric effect, and radio or photon communication all use the basic principle of photons emitted from electric current causing current in other conductors).
| (Tuft's College) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3513) Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (RleNmIR) (CE 1825-1909), German chemist with Lipp synthesizes tyrosine, an important amino acid.
| (Munich Polytechnic School) Munich, Germany |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3515) Richard August Carl Emil Erlenmeyer (RleNmIR) (CE 1825-1909), German chemist, determines the structural formula for naphthalene, which is a double benzene ring holding one side of the hexagon in common.
| (Munich Polytechnic School) Munich, Germany |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3528) Hans Peter Jørgen Julius Thomsen (CE 1826-1909), Danish chemist, publishes the heat emited or absorbed by 3,500 different chemical reactions and is the first to measure the relative strengths of different acids.
Hans Peter Jørgen Julius Thomsen (CE 1826-1909), Danish chemist, publishes the results of 13 years (1869-1882) of numerous determinations of the heat emited or absorbed in chemical reactions, such as the formation of salts, oxidation and reduction, and the combustion of organic compounds. This is published in Thomsen's "Thermochemische Untersuchungen" (4 vols, 1882-1886), and also in English under the title "Thermochemistry" in 1908.
Thomsen makes 3,500 calorimetric measurements, and like Berthollet wrongly considers the heat evolution of a reaction to be its driving force. (what is the driving force of a chemical reaction? Particle contact/collision?) Thomsen thinks that the heat emited from a chemical reaction is in exact proportion to the chemical affinity of the reaction, a theory also advanced later by Berthollet. Thomsen later admits that this theory is only an approximation.
Thomsen's observation that the heat of neutralisation is the same for a long series of inorganic acids, such as hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, hydriodic acid, chloric acid, nitric acid, etc., supports the theory of electrical ionisation, because this requires that the heat of neutralisation of the strong acids must be independent of the nature of the acid, because the process of neutralisation for all of them is the combination of the ion of hydrogen in the acid with the ion of hydroxyl of the base to form water. These investigations also lead to the important thermochemical result that the heat of neutralisation of acids (or the heat of their dissociation) is not a measure of their strength.
Thomsen makes the first table of the relative strengths of the various acids. The numbers in this table have been found to agree with the results obtained by examining the electrical conductivity of the acids.
Thomsen is the first to verify experimentally the correctness of the Guldberg-Waage theory that the rate of chemical reactions is proportional to the mass of the products.
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3579) Balfour Stewart (CE 1828-1887), Scottish physicist, suggests that the daily variation in the magnetic field could be explained by air currents in the upper atmosphere, which act as conductors and generate electrical currents as they pass through the Earth’s magnetic field (similar to a metal conductor passing through a magnetic field creates an electric current). Stewart suggests this, based on a theory of Gauss. From this Kennelly and Heaviside will find the ionosphere, where electric charges are found in the upper air.
(Asimov states that this is proven true by Kennelly and Heaviside. I accept that moving air particles which are conductors can produce current from the Earth's magnetic field, but I wonder if this is the cause of the changing magnetic field on Earth, or if changes in the magnetic field of Earth are due to changes in the molten iron core. It seems unlikely that changes to the magnetic field on the surface would result from the upper atmosphere, but perhaps.)
| (Owens College) Manchester, England (presumably) |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3588) Étienne Jules Marey (murA) (CE 1830-1904), French physiologist, is the first to take a series of photographs with a single instrument. Marey uses a shutter that opens 12 times a second, and each time for only 1/720th of a second.
Marey follows Muybridge's example, however unlike Muybridge's (multiple camera technique of 1847 ), Marey's photographic systems makes sequential images on a single plate over space in real time (using a single camera). Marey calls his method chronophotography. The rifle's portability allows a new image to be captured while keeping the subject within the frame, (unlike Muybridge's technique in which each image must be in an adjacent space). Using this camera, Marey analyzes the mechanics of human and animal movement, trajectories of projectiles, geometric forms created by strings and wires moving around an axis, and the movements of water and air.
This is an important forerunner in the invention of motion pictures. Marey's motivation for this is understanding animal locomotion. For example, Marey shows that the old diagrams that show horses with two legs extended forward and two extended backwards are inaccurate.
Marey called his "rifle" a "Fusil Photographique". Marey's chronophotographic gun, is a camera shaped like a rifle that recorded 12 successive photographs per second, in order to study the movement of birds in flight. These images are imprinted on a rotating glass plate (later, paper roll film), and Marey subsequently attempts to project them. Like Muybridge, however, Marey is interested in deconstructing movement and does not extend his experiments beyond the realm of high-speed, or instantaneous, series photography.
Marey describes his camera in the French version of Nature, "Natura", and an article is also printed in the English "Nature" for May 25, 1882.
In 1887 in Newark, New Jersey, an Episcopalian minister named Hannibal Goodwin first used celluloid roll film as a base for photographic emulsions. Within the year Goodwin's idea is used by industrialist George Eastman, who begins to mass-produce celluloid roll film for still photography at his plant in Rochester, New York in 1888. 1888 is also the year in which Marey replaces his glass plate with roll-film.
(By this time 1882, it seems clear that the electronic image capturing camera must have been invented. The question remains as to why such an invention would be kept secret and from the public? The two processes must have been similar, whether the image is captured photographically on plastic film, or electronically written to plastic film. Either way the image must be stored on plastic tape coated with gelatin silver bromide. The electric image was probably developed by the telegraph and later phone companies since mechanical parts could not be placed in houses without people knowing where electronic image capturing requires no moving parts.)
| (College de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3854) Walther Flemming (CE 1843-1905), German anatomist describes chromosomes (for the first time?) and names mitosis, a form of eukaryote cell division, or reproduction, in which a cell changes into two genetically identical daughter cells.
Flemming and Ehrlich pioneer the use of applying synthetic dyes to identify the anatomy of cells, since some dyes only adhere to certain parts in a cell.
In 1879 Flemming had found that in the nucleus of cells is a thread-like material that strongly absorbs a particular dye, and Flemming calls this absorptive material "chromatin", from the Greek word for color.
Flemming applies this stains to cells killed at different stages in reproduction and by examining these cells with a microscope, can see the sequence of changes the threads go through in the different stages of cell division.
Flemming describes the process of mitosis in his classic book "Zell-substanz, Kern und Zelltheilung" (1882; "Cell-Substance, Nucleus, and Cell-Division").
As the process of cell division begin, the chromatin changes into short threadlike objects, later named chromosomes by Heinrich Waldeyer ("colored bodies"). Flemming shows that the shortened threads split longitudinally into two halves and then the chromosomes double in number. After this, the chromosomes, connected in the fine threads of a structure Fleming names "aster" ("star"), are pulled apart, half going to one end of the cell, half going to the other end. Flemming names this process centered around cell division "mitosis" from the Greek for "thread". The cell then divides and two daughter cells remain with an equal supply of chromatin. because of the doubling of the chromosomes before the division, each daughter cell has as much chromatin as the original undivided cell.
At the time Fleming does not understand the genetic significance of his observations and is unaware of Mendel's work.
Twenty years will pass before the significance of Flemming's work is truly realized with the rediscovery of Gregor Mendel's rules of heredity and Beneden will prove the physical basis for the rules of inheritance Mendel identified.
(It seems likely that mitosis evolved directly from binary cell division.)
| (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3908) Agar used to make a solid media on which to grow and isolate organisms.
Fannie Hesse, wife of Walther Hesse, works in Koch’s laboratory as her husband’s technician and had previously used agar to prepare fruit jellies after hearing about its gelling properties from friends. Agar is a polysaccharide derived from red seaweeds, and proves to be a better gelling agent than gelatin. Agar has remarkable physical properties: it melts when heated to around 85°C, and yet when cooled doesn’t gel until 34-42°C. Agar is also clearer than gelatin and it resists digestion by bacterial enzymes. The use of agar allows the creation of a medium that can be inoculated at 40°C in its cooled molten state and yet incubated at 60°C without melting.
| (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3947) Mechnikov describes phagocytes, and the "theory of phagocytosis", that certain cells engulf and destroy harmful substances such as bacteria. Mechnikov identifies white blood cells and their role of destroying foreign objects in the immune system of animals.
Ilya Ilich Mechnikov (meKniKuF or possibly meCniKuF) (CE 1845-1916), Russian-French bacteriologist, identifies white blood cells, and coins the term "phagocyte" to describe these cells. Mechnikov discovers that these amoeba-like cells are found in animals and engulf foreign bodies such as bacteria, this phenomenon is known as "phagocytosis" and is a fundamental part of the immune response.
In Messina, Italy (1882–86), while studying the origin of digestive organs in bipinnaria starfish larvae, Metchnikov sees that cells not related to digestion surround and engulf carmine dye particles and splinters that Metchnikov had put into the bodies of the larvae. Metchnikov calls these cells phagocytes (from Greek words meaning "devouring {or eating} cells") and names the process "phagocytosis".
Later, at the Bacteriological Institute, in Odessa (1886–87), and at the Pasteur Institute, in Paris (1888–1916), Mechnikov will show that the phagocyte is the first line of defense against infection in most animals, including humans. Phagocytes in humans are one type of leukocyte (white blood cell). This work forms the basis of Metchnikoff's cellular (phagocytic) theory of immunity (1892), a hypothesis that many oppose, particularly scientists who claim that only body fluids and soluble substances in the blood (antibodies), and not cells, destroy invading microorganisms (this is the "humoral theory" of immunity). Although the humoral theory will hold popularity for the next 50 years, eventually Metchnikoff's theory of cellular immunity will be shown to be true.
Metchnikoff finds that any damage that is caused to the animals causes these phagocyte cells to instantly move to the location of damage. Mechnikov shows that the white corpuscles (cells) in animal blood (including human blood) corresponds to these cells, and that their function is to injest bacteria. They move to the site of any infection and then there is a battle between these phagocyte cells, and bacteria cells. When the phagocytes lose heavily, their disintegrated structure makes up pus. (explain more, the cell changes into molecules which form pus? what is pus molecularly? Is this another way these cells defeat invaders besides injestion? interesting the comparison to war). Mechnikov correctly maintains that these white corpuscles (cells), are an important factor in resistance to infection and disease.
Mechnikov injects carmine into starfish larvae and is able to watch, hour by hour, "intracellular digestion" {note: intracellular is within a cell} by the wandering "amoeboid" cells. The fact that carmine is not a nutrient seemed a conflict in his mind. Mechnikov describes his initial finding this way: "One day when the whole family had gone to a circus to see some extraordinary performing apes, I remained alone with my microscope, observing the motile cells, when a new thought suddenly flashed across my brain. It struck me that similar cells might serve in the defence of the organism against intruders. Feeling that there was in this something of surpassing interest, I felt so excited that I began striding up and down the room and even went to the seashore in order to collect my thoughts.
I said to myself that, if my supposition was true, a splinter introduced into the body of a star-fish larva, devoid of bloodvessels or of a nervous system, should soon be surrounded by mobile cells as is to be observed in a man who runs a splinter into his finger. This was no sooner said than done.
There was a small garden to our dwelling, in which we had a few days previously organised a " Christmas tree " for the children on a little tangerine tree; I fetched from it a few rose thorns and introduced them at once under the skin of some beautiful star-fish larvae as transparent as water.
I was too excited to sleep that night in the expectation of the result of my experiment, and very early the next morning I ascertained that it had fully succeeded.
That experiment formed the basis of the phagocyte theory, to the development of which I devoted the next twenty-five years of my life.".
After explaining his ideas to Claus, Professor of Zoology in Vienna, Claus suggests the term "phagocyte" for the mobile cells which act in this way. In 1883, Mechnikov gives his first paper on phagocytosis, and later reads his first paper at a Congress in Odessa.
(Interesting, the comparison and confusion between digestion and immune activity - perhaps in some sense immunity is similar or a part of the digestion system. Are phagocyte cells specialized from cell division, or are they acquired some other way. Probably all phagocyte cells are descended from zygote, but maintain an apparently amoeba or protist-like free-wandering nature. Are phagocyte cells motile? What is their method of movement?)
| (In his own private laboratory) Messina, Italy |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3956) Granville Stanley Hall (CE 1846-1924), US psychologist, establishes the first experimental psychology laboratory in the USA at Johns Hopkins. (was there unconsensual experimental "treatment" there? It is important to determine who argued, if anybody, that psychiatric, and all other health care should not be performed involuntarily, in addition to those who questioned the accuracy of the psychiatric disorder theories/diagnoses.)
| Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 3965) Edward Charles Pickering (CE 1846-1919), US astronomer, creates a method of capturing multiple steller spectra on a photographic plate.
Instead of placing a small prism at the focus of a telescope's objective (large lens), to capture the light of a single star, Pickering puts a large prism in front of the objective (large lens), which captures a spectrogram (in visible light) of all the stars in the field bright enough to affect the emulsion. This makes possible the massive surveys Pickering wants to organize and enables the publication in 1918 of the Henry Draper Catalogue, compiled by Annie Cannon, giving the spectral types of 225,300 stars. In this way many spectra can be studied at one time.
Show photo: Are lines, such as Hydrogen lines visible?.
| Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 4015) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor patents a three wire system for transporting electricity that is still in use today. The first commercial Edison electric lighting station on the two-wire system was started in Appleton, Wisconsin around August 15, 1882. The first three-wire central station started and put into operation is in Sunbury, Pennsylvania started July 4, 1883.
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 4061) Viktor Meyer (CE 1848-1897), German organic chemist, identifies and names a compound called thiophene.
Meyer discovers thiophene in commercial coal-tar benzene, which in spite of its large contents of sulphur, had been previously overlooked on account of the close resemblance of its properties to the properties of benzene.
Meyer finds that a color test for benzene did not work on a sample of benzene obtained from benzoic acid, instead of from petroleum, and finds the reason is that the color test detects thiophene, a compounds that always accompanies benzene isolated from petroleum, but not when isolated from benzoic acid.
Following this came a long series of articles by Meyer and his pupils, giving full accounts of thiophene and its derivatives.
| (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 4126) Carl Louis Ferdinand von Lindemann (liNDumoN) (CE 1852-1939), German mathematician proves that the number pi is transcendental, which means that the number pi does not satisfy any algebraic equation with rational coefficients. This proof establishes that the classical Greek construction problem of squaring the circle (constructing a square with an area equal to that of a given circle) by compass and straightedge is impossible.
Lindemann's proof that p is transcendental is made possible by fundamental methods developed by the French mathematician Charles Hermite during the 1870s. In particular Hermite's proof of the transcendence of e, the base for natural logarithms, which was the first time that a number was shown to be transcendental.
Lindemann publishes his proof in an article entitled "Über die Zahl π" (1882; "Concerning the Number π").
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 4130) Friedrich August Johannes Löffler (lRFlR) (CE 1852-1915), German bacteriologist with Wilhelm Schütz, identifies the causative organism of glanders, Pfeifferella (Malleomyces) mallei (1882). Glanders is also called Farcy, and is a specific infectious and contagious disease of solipeds (the horse, ass, and mule); secondarily, humans may become infected through contact with diseased animals or by inoculation while handling diseased tissues and making laboratory cultures of the causal bacillus.
| (Imperial Health Office) Berlin, Germany |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 4805) Frederic William Henry Myers (CE 1843-1901) coins the word "telepathy" to describe, and helps to found the "Society for Psychical Research" in which William Crookes in 1897 will explain that Rontgen rays (x-rays) may be used to penetrate the brain for possible brain to brain wireless communication.
Myers writes "...Clearly then the analogy of Thought-transference, which seemed to offer such a convenient logical start, cannot be pressed too far. Our phenomena break through any attempt to group them under heads of transferred impression; and we venture to introduce the words Telaesthesia and Telepathy to cover all cases of impression received at a distance without the normal operation of the recognised sense organs. These general terms may, we think, be found of permanent service; but as regards what is for the present included under them, we must limit and arrange our material rather with an eye to convenience, than with any belief that our classification will ultimately prove a fundamental one. No true demarcation, in fact, can as yet be made between one class of those experiences and another; we need the record of as many and as diverse phenomena as we can get, if we are to be in a position to deal satisfactorily with any one of them. ...".
| London, England |
118 YBN
[1882 AD]
| 6029) (Charles) Emil Waldteufel (CE 1837-1915), French (Alsatian) pianist and waltz composer composes "Les Patineurs" waltz op. 183 ("The Skaters"). (verify name)
| Paris, France (guess) |
117 YBN
[01/??/1883 AD]
| 3733) Sydney Ringer (CE 1835-1910), English physician, finds that small amounts of potassium and calcium added to a salt-water (sodium chloride) solution will keep heart cells, and the heart itself beating longer, in addition to keeping other isolated organs functioning for a longer time.
Ringer describes the experiments this way: "After the publication of a paper in the Journal of Physiology, vol. III, No. 5, I discovered that the saline which I had used had not been prepared with distilled water, but with pipe water supplied by the New River Water Company. As this water contains minute traces of various inorganic substances, I at once tested the action of saline solution made with distilled water and found that I did not get the effects described in the paper referred to...".
(does this mean organs outside of a body?) As a result Ringer's solution is in great demand by physiological laboratories, (and the study of the non-carbon based content (molecules) of body fluids is accelerated.)
| (University College Hospital) London, England |
117 YBN
[03/05/1883 AD]
| 3880) (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney (CE 1843-1920), English astronomer, and Lieutenant-Colonel Festing report that infrared light is absorbed by the atmosphere of Earth, and conclude that some of this absorption is due to water.
Abney and Festing write: " A study of the map of the infra-red region of the solar spectrum, and more especially a new and much more complete one, which is being prepared for presentation to the Royal Society by one of us, shows that the spectrum in this part is traversed by absorption lines of varying intensity. Besides these linear absorptions, photographs taken on days of different atmospheric conditions, show banded absorptions superposed over them. These latter are step by step absorptions increasing in intensity as they approach the limit of the spectrum at the least refrangible end. In the annexed diagram, fig. 4 shows the general appearance of this region up to λ 10,000 on a fairly dry day: the banded absorption is small, taking place principally between λ 9420 and λ 9800: a trace of absorption is also visible between λ 8330 and λ 9420. On a cold day, with a north-easterly wind blowing, and also at a high altitude on a dry day, these absorptions nearly if not quite disappear. If we examine photographs taken when the air is nearly saturated with moisture (in some form or another) we have a spectrum like fig. 1. Except with very prolonged exposure no trace of a spectrum below λ 8330 can be photographed. Fig. 2 shows the absorption bands, where there is a difference of about 3° between the wet and dry bulb, the latter standing at about 50°. It will be noticed that the spectrum extends to the limit of about λ 9430, when total absorption steps in and blocks out the rest of the spectrum. Fig. 3 shows the spectrum where the difference between the wet and the dry bulb is about 6. Figs. 5 and 6 show the absorption of thicknesses of 1 foot and 3 inches of water respectively, where the source of light gives a continuous spectrum; 1/8 inch water merely shows the absorption bands below 9420. It will be seen that there is an accurate coincidence between these "water bands" and the absorption bands seen in the solar spectrum, and hence we cannot but assume that there is a connexion one with the other. In fact, on a dry day it is only necessary to place varying thicknesses of water before the slit of the spectroscope and to photograph the solar spectrum through them, in order to reproduce the phenomena observed on days in which there is more or less moisture present in the atmosphere. It is quite easy to deduce the moisture present in atmosphere at certain temperatures by a study of the photographs. ...". In an addendum added later on March 24, 1883, Abney and Festing write: " In the above paper we have described the absorption due to 'water stuff' in the atmosphere to λ 9800, as it is only to that wave-length to which the normal spectrum has been as yet published. We wish, however, to add that there are bands commencing at λ 9800, λ 12200, and λ 15200, giving step by step absorption from the one wave-length to the next, as in the diagram, which also correspond with cold water bands. The absorption in the locality from 12200 downwards is usually total, and it is only on dry cold days or at high altitudes that we have noticed that rays of sufficient amplitude can penetrate to cause photographic impression to be made.".
Later in this year, Abney and Festing use a thermopile to measure radiation of different parts of the spectrum of various incandescent lamps at different potential and current, and describe equations that relate potential and current with quantity of radiation as measured by a thermopile. One issue of measuring "radiation" with a thermopile is that the metal of a thermopile only absorbs certain frequencies of photons, and many photons are reflected.
In 1884 Abney and Festing publish "Absorption-Spectra Thermograms" in which they use a thermopile to measure how different materials absorb the infrared. The most noteworthy thing is the use of the word "thermogram", which is similar to the possible images of "eyes", that is, images that show what people see, and it may be, if not already, thermoimages that see images a brain thinks of.
| (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England |
117 YBN
[03/??/1883 AD]
| 4070) Johann Gustav Christoffer Kjeldahl (KeLDoL) (CE 1849-1900), Danish chemist creates a simple method for indentifying the nitrogen content of organic material. Dumas had already created a method, but Kjeldahl's method is much more simple and fast. Kjeldahl uses consentrated sulfuric acid, which causes the nitrogen in organic molecules to be released in the form of ammonia, the quantity of the ammonia can easily be measured.
The Kjeldahl method is widely used for estimating the nitrogen content of foodstuffs, fertilizers, and other substances. The method consists essentially of transforming all nitrogen in a weighed sample into ammonium sulfate by digestion with sulfuric acid, alkalizing the solution, and determining the resulting ammonia by distilling it into a measured volume of standard acid, the excess of which is determined by titration. Titration is the process or method of determining the concentration of a substance in solution by adding to it a standard reagent of known concentration in carefully measured amounts until a reaction of definite and known proportion is completed, as shown by a color change or by electrical measurement, and then calculating the unknown concentration.
In 1888 a specially designed Kjeldahl flask is used for this purpose.
(interesting that the Nitrogen atom prefers some of a group of the sulfuric acid atoms more than carbon or oxygen.)
| (laboratory of brewer Carl Jacobsen) Kopenhagen, Denmark |
117 YBN
[04/09/1883 AD]
| 3955) Polish physicist, Zygmunt Florenty von Wróblewski (VrUBleFSKE) (CE 1845-1888) improves on the technique of expanding ethylene described by Cailletet, by expanding liquid etheylene in a vacuum, and with Karol Stanislaw Olszewski (CE 1846-1915) uses this technique to liquefy air, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon monoxide in greater quantities than can be done with the method of Cailletet.
On March 29, 1883 the two use this new method of condensing oxygen, and on April 13 of the same year nitrogen.
Wroblewski and Olszewski write in (translated to English) "On the Liquefaction of Oxygen and the Congelation of Carbon Disulphide and Alcohol.": "The results at which Cailletet and Baoul Pictet arrived in their beautiful investigations on the liquefaction of gases permitted the hope that the time was not distant when liquid oxygen would be observed in a glass tube as easily as liquid carbonic acid now is. The only condition for this was the attainment of a sufficiently low temperature. In a memoir published twelve months since, Cailletet recommended liquid ethylene as a means for attaining a very low temperature; for the liquefied gas boils at —105° C. under the pressure of the atmosphere, the temperature being measured with a carbon-disulphide thermometer. Cailletet himself compressed the oxygen in a very narrow glass tube which was cooled in that liquid to —105° C. At the moment of the expansion he saw "a tumultuous ebullition, which persists during an appreciable time and resembles the projection of a liquid into the cooled portion of the tube. This ebullition takes place at a certain distance from the bottom of the tube. I have not been able to ascertain," he continues, " if this liquid preexists, or if it is formed at the moment of the expansion; for I have not yet been able to see the plane of separation of the gas and liquid."
As one of us had recently constructed a new apparatus for high pressures, with which comparatively large quantities of gas can be subjected to the pressure of 200 atmospheres, we employed it to study the temperatures at the moment of the expansion. These experiments soon led to the discovery of a temperature at which carbon disulphide and alcohol congeal and oxygen is with great facility completely liquefied. This temperature is reached when liquid ethylene is permitted to boil in a vacuum. The boiling-temperature in this case depends on the goodness of the vacuum obtained. With the greatest rarefaction which it has hitherto been possible for us to attain, the temperature descended to —136° C. This, as well as all the other temperatures, we measured with the hydrogen thermometer.
The critical temperature of oxygen is lower than that at which liquid ethylene boils under the pressure of one atmosphere. The latter is not —105° C. (as has hitherto been assumed), but lies between —102° and —103° C. (as we have found with our thermometer).
...
Liquid oxygen, like liquid carbonic acid, is colourless and transparent. It is very movable, and forms a fine meniscus.
Carbon disulphide congeals at about —116° C. Absolute alcohol at —129° C. becomes viscid like oil, and congeals to a solid mass at about —130°-5 C. ..."
and in a second article entitled: "On the Liquefaction of Nitrogen and Carbonic Oxide.", they write: "Having succeeded in completely liquefying oxygen, we tried in the same manner to bring nitrogen and carbonic oxide into the liquid state. The liquefaction of both these gases is considerably more difficult than that of oxygen, and takes place under conditions so similar that it is at present impossible for us to say which of the two gases liquefies more readily.
At the temperature of about —136° C., and under the pressure of about 150 atmospheres, neither nitrogen nor carbonic oxide liquefies -. the glass tube containing the gas remains perfectly transparent, and not a trace of liquid can be perceived. If the gas is suddenly released from the pressure, in the nitrogen-tube is seen a violent effervescence of liquid, comparable only to the effervescence of the liquid carbonic acid in Natterer's tube when the latter is put into a glass containing hot water. With the carbonic oxide the ebullition is not so strong.
But if the expansion is not effected too suddenly and the pressure is not allowed to fall below 50 atmospheres, both nitrogen and carbonic oxide are liquefied completely; the liquid shows a distinct meniscus, and evaporates very briskly. Therefore neither of the two gases can be kept more than a few seconds as liquids in the static condition; to retain them longer in that state a somewhat loner temperature would be necessary than the minimum which up to the present it has been possible for us to attain.
Nitrogen and carbonic oxide in the liquid state are colourless and transparent."
| Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Austria (now Poland) |
117 YBN
[05/24/1883 AD]
| 3683) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist examines the spectra of the light from various substances "struck by the molecular discharge from the negative pole in a highly exhausted tube". Crookes writes: "a large number of substances emit phosphorescent light, some faintly and others with great intensity. On examining the emitted light in the spectroscope most bodies give a faint continuous spectrum, with a more or less decided concentration in one part of the spectrum....Sometimes, but more of the phosphorescent light is discontinuous, and it is to bodies manifesting this phenomenon that my attention has been specially directed.".
| (Bakerian Lecture, Royal Society) London, England |
117 YBN
[05/26/1883 AD]
| 4076) Sir John Ambrose Fleming (CE 1849-1945), English electrical engineer describes the phenomenon of molecular radiation in incandescent lamps. This leads to the first diode.
In 1896 Fleming produces a report on the Edison Effect, explaining it it more details.
(It seems very likely that many technological advances reported to the public, certainly after 1900 may have taken place decades earlier, and for some unknown reason, were only being released to the public in scientific journals much later. This renders the history of science beyond 1900 to be very dubious and uncertain, and science history divides into the public record, and the currently secret actual accurate record.)
| (Edison Electric Light Company) London, England |
117 YBN
[06/06/1883 AD]
| 4339) Theory of ionic dissociation, how molecules that are electrolytes separate in a liquid to form two or more charged "ions".
Svante August Arrhenius (oRrAnEuS) (CE 1859-1927), Swedish chemist presents his theory of ionic dissociation; how molecules that are electrolytes separate in a liquid such as water to form two or more charged "ions". Davy experimented with passing electricity through solutions, electrolysis. ((was the first to experiment with passing electricity through solutions?)) Faraday had worked out the laws of electrolysis, and from these laws, electricity might be viewed as having a particle form. Faraday spoke of "ions" (from a Greek word for "wanderer") as particles that carry electricity through the solution, but what the ions were was unknown. Williamson, Clausius and others suggested that ions might be atoms or groups of atoms. Arrhenius knows that some substances such as salt (sodium chrloide) conduct electricity when in solution (that is, when dissolved in water, and possibly in other liquids), and are therefore called "electrolytes", while others, for example sugar (sucrose) do not and are called "non-electrolytes". In addition, Raoult had shown that the quantity of a substance dissolved in water, lowers the freezing point of water by a proportional amount, for example, doubling the quantity of solvent doubles the lowering of the freezing temperature of water. The lowering of the freezing point of water is inversely proportional to the molecular weight of the different substances dissolved in the water. Sugar (sucrose) is twice the molecular weight of glucose (grape sugar) and so a gram of glucose dissolved in a liter of water lowers the freezing point twice as much as a gram of sucrose does. Since the glucose molecule is half the size of the sucrose molecule, a gram of glucose contains twice as many molecules as a gram of sucrose. From this it is simple to conclude that the amount of lowering of the freezing point of water is proportional to the number of particles present in the solution, no matter what dissolved substance. (interesting that molecule size does not matter, only quantity of molecules)(this is an important find, who identified this?). This is true for non-electrolytes, but with electrolytes, for example, sodium chloride, the amount of lowering of the freezing point of water is double what was expected (from the molecular weight of sodium chloride?). One explanation for this is that the molecule divided into two separate particles. This is also true for other electrolytes such as potassium bromide and sodium nitrate. (Interesting that in some way H2O must break bonds, or somehow replaces bonds.) Other electrolytes such as barium chloride and sodium sulfate produce three times the lowering of the freezing point of water than expected. The logical conclusion is that each molecule must separate into 3 particles. This finding for electrolytes also holds for other properties that depend on number of particles, such as osmotic pressure (the pressure forcing liquid through a semipermeable membrane such as those Graham used to separate crystalloids from colloids). (any other particle properties?) Arrhenius concludes that these molecules do split, and since the water does not contain metallic sodium, or gaseous chlorine, atoms like sodium and chloride must carry charges, and this is why sodium chloride solutions can transmit an electric current. The positively charged sodium ion and the negatively charged chloride ion would have different properties from uncharged atoms. In the same way barium chloride splits into three particles, a doubly charged positive barium ion and two singly charged negative chlorine ions. This idea is somewhat radical to many traditional people in chemistry. Cleve dismisses Arrhenius when Arrhenius tries to explain the theory. Mendeléev opposes the theory. However Van't Hoff, Ostwald, Clausius and J. L. Meyer are interested in the new theory. After 1890 when J. J. Thomson identifies the electron and Becquerel identifies radioactivity, and the atom is viewed as made of electrically charged particles, Arrhenius' theory of ionic dissociation becomes more popular. A negative ion can now be seen as an atom that obtains one more electron than it's neutral balance or usual electrically neutral and most stable configuration, and a positive ion as a atom with an electron missing.
This work is published as "Recherches sur la conductibilité galvanique des electrolytes" (1884; "Researches on the Electrical Conductivity of Electrolytes") and Arrhenius submits this as his doctoral dissertation.
This work contains Arrhenius' findings on the conductivity of many extremely dilute solutions. Instead of measuring the conductivities with the exact alternating-current method, which Kohlrausch had introduced in 1876, Arrhenius uses a “depolarizer,” devised by Edlund in 1875, which corresponds roughly to a hand-driven rotating commutator.
Arrhenius measures the resistance of many salts, acids, and bases at various dilutions to 0.0005 normal concentrations, and gives his results to show in what ratio the resistance of an electrolyte solution is increased when the dilution is doubled. Heinrich Lenz and Kohlrausch had made similar measurements, but not with such large dilutions. Like Kohlrausch, Arrhenius finds that for very dilute solutions the specific conductivity of a salt solution is in many cases nearly proportional to the concentration (thesis 1) when the conditions are identical. The conductivity of a dilute solution of two or more salts is always equal to the sum of the conductivities that solutions of each of the salts would have at the same concentration (thesis 2). Arrheius also finds that the conductivity of a solution equals the sum of the conductivities of salt and solvent (thesis 3). Arrhenius decides that if these three laws are not observed, the reason must be because of chemical action between the substances in the solution (theses 4 and 5). The electrical resistance of an electrolytic solution rises with increasing viscosity (thesis 7), complexity of the ions (thesis 8), and the molecular weight of the solvent (thesis 9). Thesis 9 is not correct because in addition to the viscosity of the solvent, its dielectric constant, not the molecular weight, is important. Arrhenius works with solvents (water, several alcohols, ether) in which the dielectric constant decreases approximately as the molecular weight rises.
Arrhenius concludes writing (translated from French): "In the present part of this work we have first shown the probability that electrolytes can assume two different forms, one active, the other inactive, such that the active part is always, under the same exterior circumstances (temperature and dilution), a certain fraction of the total quantity of the electrolyte. The active part conducts electricity, and is in reality the electrolyte, not so the inactive part.".
(Interesting that water allows some atoms to separate but an electron is completely removed from one atom and added to the other. So in this view the ions form the electric current. How are extra electrons attached to ions?)
(What about the properties of liquids cause many atoms to fall apart?)
| (Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
117 YBN
[11/15/1883 AD]
| 4016) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, finds the "Edison effect", now explained as the thermionic emission of electrons from a hot to a cold electrode.
This will become the basis of the electron tube or rectifier which can convert oscillating or alternating current into direct current.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, in 1881 to 1882, William J. Hammer, a young engineer in charge of testing the light globes, noted a blue glow around the positive pole in a vacuum bulb and a blackening of the wire and the bulb at the negative pole. This phenomenon was first called "Hammer's phantom shadow", but when Edison patents the bulb in 1883 the effect becomes known as the "Edison effect".
While improving the light bulb, Edison seals a metal wire into a light bulb near the hot filament. Edison finds that electricity flows from the hot filament to the metal wire across the gaps of empty space between them.
In his patent, Edison writes "I have discovered that if a conducting substance is connected outside of the lamp with one terminal, preferably the positive one, of the incandescent conductor, a portion of the current will, when the lamp is in operation, pass through the shunt-circuit thus formed, which shunt includes a portion of the vacuous space within the lamp. This current I have found to be proportional to the degree of incandescence of the conductor or candle-power of the lamp.". In electronics, to shunt means to divert (a part of a current) by connecting a circuit element in parallel with another.
William Henry Preece will examine this effect in more detail in 1885.
John A. Fleming will publish more details about his experiments with this thermionic effect in 1890, and 1896. This work will result in Fleming's 1904 patent which uses the Edison effect to rectify high frequency alternating currents and so detecting the feeble electric oscillations in a wireless telegraph receiving circuit using a galvanometer or by a telephone, known as the Fleming valve.
This finding anticipates the British physicist J.J. Thomson's discovery of the electron 15 years later.
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3400) (Sir) Francis Galton (CE 1822-1911), English anthropologist, names the study of increasing desirable human characteristics through breeding "eugenics".
The Encyclopedia Britannica writes that Galton's aim is not the creation of an aristocratic elite but of a population consisting entirely of superior men and women. Asimov comments that our understanding of inheritance of various human abilities is not well understood, we might be breeding in one ability and breeding out some others of equal value. With Mendel's finding of recessive genes, and understanding spontaneous mutation, undesirable characteristics take centuries to select out with no guarantee (clearly people are going to start to remove undesirable DNA directly from zygotes, ova and/or sperm if they do not already.) Asimov actually says the ends of eugenics are desirable (presumably breeding smarter people, more beauty, etc...not restricting reproduction of the lives of anybody. These things happen naturally anyway, people with more beauty, as defined by humans have a better chance or reproducing, etc.) But the loudest advocates of eugenics are nonscientists whose goal is mainly racism. (A defines eugenics, as Galton did, as simply the pursuit of breeding desirable qualities, but the word eugenics has taken on the meaning of exterminating poor, unemployable, non-white, and other bad practices. Probably the word will never recover because of the bad connotations attached to it. I think it is a mistake to think that eugenics has a goal of racial purity, but instead the goal of promoting desired inherited attributes beyond race. Clearly, breeding desired characteristics is not new, and I see nothing wrong with people examining the traits they as individual people want to pass on. The main injustice is when eugenics is used as an excuse to restrict the rights (for example to have sex or reproduce) for a group of people, or to do violence to other people.)
| London, England (presumably) |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3407) A. P. Thomas and then Karl Georg Friedrich Rudolf Leuckart (lOEKoRT) (CE 1822-1898), German zoologist, independently discover that the intermediate host of the liver fluke is the small water snail known as Lymnceus periger.
| (University of Liepzig) Liepzig, Germany (presumably) |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3578) (Sir) Joseph Wilson Swan (CE 1828-1914), English physician and chemist, invents a method for the manufacture of electric light bulb filaments in which collodion (nitrocellulose dissolved in alcohol or ether) is squirted into a coagulating solution, creating tough threads which are then carbonized by heat.
In 1885 Swan exhibits his equipment and some articles made from the artificial fibers. The textile industry uses this process. This paves the way for Chardonnet and the development of artificial fibers.
| Newcastle, England (presumably) |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3629) Eduard Suess (ZYUS) (CE 1831-1914), Austrian geoloist publishes "Das Antlitz der Erde" (1883–1909; "The Face of the Earth"), a four-volume book on the geological structure of the entire planet, which includes his theories of the structure and evolution of the lithosphere through history. Suess introduces many terms still in use such as Gondwanaland (an earlier supercontinent) and Tethys (an earlier equatorial ocean). Suess recognizes that major rift valleys such as those in East Africa are caused by the extending of the lithosphere.
| (University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (now Germany) |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3699) August Friedrich Leopold Weismann (VISmoN) (CE 1834-1914), German biologist presents an essay in which he argues against the inheritance of acquired characteristics.
Weismann is an enthusiastic supporter of Darwin, but unlike Darwin, Weismann firmly opposed the idea of inheritance of acquired characters.
Also in this year, Weismann published "Die Entstehung der Sexualzellen bei den Hydromedusen" (1883), a study of the origins of sexual cells through generations of Hydromedusae.
In the Hydra Weismann observes that only certain predetermined cells are capable of giving rise to the germ line and to daughter individuals. Weismann extends the idea to the contents of these cells and proposes that there is a certain substance, or "germ plasm", which can never be formed anew but only from preexisting germ plasm. Weismann theorizes that this germ plasm is transmitted unchanged from generation to generation and controls all the characters of the individual animals. (Interesting theory - I think clearly that the actual matter of the DNA must change, certainly for those species with a large quantity of sex cells. One question I have is, where does the large variety in sex cells come from? Clearly all sperm or ova are not identical copies. Is this all simply from mutation in copying or from external particles? Or are there a variety of different cells that produce different kinds of sex cells?)
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3710) Gottlieb Wilhelm Daimler (DIMlR) (CE 1834-1900), German inventor, produces the first small engine which rotates at high speeds.
Until the year 1883 the different gas and oil engines constructed are of a heavy type rotating at about 150 to 250 revolutions per minute. In that year Daimler conceives the idea of constructing very small engines with light moving parts, in order to enable them to be rotated at such high speeds as 8oo and 1000 revolutions per minute. At that time engineers did not consider it practicable to run engines at such speeds; it was supposed that low speed was necessary to durability and smooth running. Daimler showed this idea to be wrong by producing his first small engine in 1883.
| (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3771) Ernst Mach (moK) (CE 1838-1916), Austrian physicist, challenges the concepts of absolute space, time and motion in "Die Mechanik in ihrer Entwicklung" ("The mechanics in their development") (1883; tr. "The Science of Mechanics", 1893), which is a historical examination of physics with the objective to rid science of concepts that are not experienced. Mach believes that what humans perceive are sensations and that the so-called objects of experience (things, bodies, matter, etc) are thought symbols for combinations of sensations. according to what is some times called "Mach's criterion", a theory should use only those propositions from which only statements about observable phenomena can be deduced, In this sense, proofs must be tied to experience. In this work Mach also challenges Newton's view of absolute space, time, and motion. Mach suggests redefining inertia in terms of the body's relationship to all observable matter in the universe.
Mach argues that inertia (a body's velocity which remains through time), applies only as a function of the interaction between one body and other bodies in the universe, even at enormous distances. Mach's inertial theories are cited by Einstein as one of the inspirations for his theories of relativity.
Mach writes in (translated to English): "NEWTON'S VIEWS OF TIME, SPACE, AND MOTION.
1. In a scholium which he appends immediately to his definitions, Newton presents his views regarding time and space- views which we shall now proceed to examine more in detail. We shall literally cite, to this end, only the passages that are absolutely necessary to the characterisation of Newton's views. "So far, my object has been to explain the senses in which certain words little known are to be used in the sequel. Time, space, place, and motion, being words well known to everybody, I do not define. Yet it is to be remarked, that the vulgar conceive these quantities only in their relation to sensible objects. And hence certain prejudices with respect to them have arisen, to remove which it will be convenient to distinguish them into absolute and relative, true and apparent, mathematical and common, respectively. I. Absolute, true, and mathematical time, of itself, and by its own nature, flows uniformly on, without regard to anything external. It is also called duration. Relative, apparent, and common time, is some sensible and external measure of absolute time (duration), estimated by the motions of bodies, whether accurate or inequable, and is commonly employed in place of true time; as an hour, a day, a month, a year... The natural days, which, commonly, for the pur pose of the measurement of time, are held as equal, are in reality unequal. Astronomers correct this inequality, in order that they may measure by a truer time the celestial motions. It may be that there is no equable motion, by which time can accurately be measured. All motions can be accelerated and re tarded. But the flow of absolute time cannot be changed. Duration, or the persistent existence of things, is always the same, whether motions be swift or slow or null." 2. It would appear as though Newton in the remarks here cited still stood under the influence of the mediaeval philosophy, as though he had grown unfaithful to his resolve to investigate only actual facts. When we say a thing A changes with the time, we mean simply that the conditions that determine a thing A depend on the conditions that determine another thing B. The vibrations of a pendulum take place in time when its excursion depends on the position of the earth. Since, however, in the observation of the pendulum, we are not under the necessity of taking into account its dependence on the position of the earth, but may compare it with any other thing (the conditions of which of course also depend on the position of the earth), the illusory notion easily arises that all the things with which we compare it are unessential. Nay, we may, in attending to the motion of a pendulum, neglect entirely other external things, and find that for every position of it our thoughts and sensations are different. Time, accordingly, appears to be some particular and independent thing, on the progress of which the position of the pendulum depends, while the things that we resort to for comparison and choose at random appear to play a wholly collateral part. But we must not forget that all things in the world are connected with one another and depend on one another, and that we ourselves and all our thoughts are also a part of nature. It is utterly beyond our power to measure the changes of things by time. Quite the contrary, time is an abstraction, at which we arrive by means of the changes of things; made because we are not restricted to any one definite measure, all being interconnected. A motion is termed uniform in which equal increments of space described correspond to equal increments of space described by some motion with which we form a comparison, as the rotation of the earth. A motion may, with respect to another motion, be uniform. But the question whether a motion is in itself uniform, is senseless. With just as little justice, also, may we speak of an "absolute time"-of a time independent of change. This absolute time can be measured by comparison with no motion; it has therefore neither a practical nor a scientific value; and no one is justified in saying that he knows aught about it. It is an idle metaphysical conception.".
George Berkeley had criticized Newton's view of absolute space and time, with similar arguments, in his (translated from Latin) "Principles of Human Knowledge", 1710 and "De Moto", 1721.
Karl Popper writes: "What is perhaps most striking is that Berkeley and Mach . . . criticize the ideas of absolute time, absolute space, and absolute motion, on very similar lines. Mach's criticism, exactly like Berkeley's, culminates in the suggestion that all arguments for Newton's absolute space . . . fail because these movements are relative to the system of the fixed stars.". (I would add that they both also explicitly appeal to the sensory-only argument, which seems beyond coincidence. But it can be argued that the truth is simply emerging and many people state it in the same way.)
(I can accept the concept of absolute space and time, in that the position and motion of a body can be measured compared to some point in space; a point that may not be occupied with matter, generally an origin (0,0,0,0) of a frame of reference for 4 variables, a frame that does not necessarily represent some actual beginning of space or time, but simply a point of reference set to (0,0,0,0).)
(One criticism of a sense-only absolutism is the addition of logical conclusion based on sensory information. For example, in the visible universe we see matter, but it is logical to conclude that matter extends beyond the matter we can see. Even if we cannot see this matter, it seems likely that such matter exists. So, I think I would add, theory based on the logical extension of sensory information.)
(One interesting truth is revealed when people see eye images, and see how all species with brains use stored images from their eyes and other senses in basic living tasks such as deciding where to move, what to eat, etc. Thinking, in a large sense is simply moving around various memories which take the form of images, sounds, temperature, taste, and smell sensations in front of the main screen sensor, the "current pointer" in computer terms, in the brain. This current pointer is like the current instruction the CPU is looking at and processing.)
(Examine Mach's criticism of absolute space. In my view, this is not accurate because any point in space can be used as a point of reference - other pieces of matter are not necessary. This also accepts that there is no privileged frame of reference in the universe, any origin (0,0,0), etc, is set only as a frame of reference, not as an actual center of space and or time.)
| (Charles University) Prague, Czech Republic |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3794) (Sir) Hiram Stevens Maxim (CE 1840-1916), US-English inventor, invents the first fully automatic machine gun. This gun uses the recoil of the barrel for ejecting the spent (empty) cartridges and reloading the chamber. This gun can fire 666 projectiles per minute (10/second).
1883 Maxim invents the first fully automatic machine gun. This gun is an advance over the machine gun of Gatling because it makes use of the energy (movement/velocity) of the recoil of a fired bullet to eject the spent (empty/used) cartridge and load the next. This gun works better after the invention of smokeless powder. The use of this gun gives European armies an advantage over people in Africa and Asia. In World War I, generals let soldiers be mowed down by the hundreds of thousands before machine guns. (Asimov claims the invention of the tank neutralized the offensive power of the machine gun. (In addition, perhaps the machine gun contributed to trench warfare where people shoot at each other from dug out trenches.)
Maxim writes in "My Life"" "It was necessary to make a series of experiments before I could make a working drawing of the gun, so I first made an apparatus that enabled me to determine the force and character of the recoil, and find out the distance that the barrel ought to be allowed to recoil in order to do the necessary work. All the parts were adjustable, and when I had moved everything about so as to produce the maximum result, I placed six cartridges in the apparatus, pulled the trigger, and they all went off in about half a second. I was delighted. I saw certain success ahead, so I worked day and night on my drawings until they were finished and went into the shop and worked myself until I had made a gun. It was finished in due time, and on trying it with a belt of cartridges I found that it fired rather more than ten a second. Several of these guns were made, and when it was reported in the press that Hiram Maxim, the well-known American electrician in Hatton Garden, had made an automatic machine gun with a single barrel, using service cartridges, that would load and fire itself by energy derived from the recoil over six hundred rounds in a minute, everyone thought it was too good to be true- a bit of Yankee brag, and so forth; but the little gun was very much in evidence. The first man to come and see it, other than those interested, was Sir Donald Currie. A day or two later Mr. Matthey, the dealer in precious metals in Hatton Garden, brought H.R.H. the Duke of Cambridge to see the new gun. The old Duke was delighted and congratulated me on what he considered to be a great achievement. This was the signal for everybody in London interested in such matters to visit Hatton Garden, see the inventor, and fire his gun. I found that I could not obtain reliable cartridges in Birmingham; many of them were faulty, some with only half charges of powder, and some with no powder at all; so I applied to the Government for service cartridges, and these were supplied, I, of course, paying a rather high price for them. After a time, the Government could not understand why I required so many cartridges. I had to explain. Finally, they let me have all that I would pay for, and I used over two hundred thousand rounds in showing the gun to visitors.".
(It has to feel scary, perhaps similar to standing at a large drop, to stand next to a machine gun being test fired. To know that you are only a few feet from potential death. But then with lasers mounted in every living room, people will live for many centuries, if not forever, with the barrel of a loaded gun pointed at them.)
(The next more dangerous weapon developed will be the photon gun, or "laser", whose projectiles are the fastest known in the universe. In addition, other particle guns may be developed, such as ion and tiny mass projectile guns. It's interesting that particles of light, ions, and perhaps even more massive clusters of particles, are not slowed by atoms of air, while particles of sand, although very small are slowed by air and the force of gravity from earth. I guess, using the velocity that exists in the atom is far faster than any velocity that can be physically pushed through explosion or physical contact.)
| (Maxim's shop, Hatton Garden) London, England |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3815) Hermann Carl Vogel (FOGuL) (CE 1841-1907), German astronomer publishes the first spectroscopic star catalog. This catalog lists the spectra of 4051 stars.
(state name of catalog)
| (Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam) Potsdam, Germany |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3865) Camillo Golgi (GOLJE) (CE 1843-1926), Italian physician and cytologist, describes a kind of nerve cell which will come to be called "Golgi cells".
Golgi cells have many short, branching extensions (dendrites) and serves to connect many other nerve cells.
The discovery of Golgi cells leads the German anatomist Wilhelm von Waldeyer-Hartz to theorize that the nerve cell is the basic structural unit of the nervous system, which Waldeyer-Hartz names the "neuron". This theory is called the "neuron theory". Ramón y Cajal will establish the truth of this theory, although Golgi is strongly opposed to the neuron theory.
The public identification of the neuron is key to informing the public about reading from and writing to neurons, a terrible secret that has been kept for nearly 200 years.
| (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3904) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist identifies the bacteria that causes conjunctivitis.
conjunctivitis (commonly called "pink-eye") is an inflammation or infection of the membrane that covers the eyeball and lines the eyelid, usually acute, caused by a virus or, less often, by a bacteria, an allergic reaction, or an irritating chemical.
| (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3916) Edouard Van Beneden (CE 1846-1910), identifies meiosis in animal cells, the process in which cell division results in cells with half the original number of chromosomes.
Beneden shows that fertilization is the union of two half-nuclei, one male (from the sperm cell) and one female (from the egg cell) that each have only half the number of chromosomes that the body cells of each species have. This union produces a cell that contains the full number of chromosomes.
| (University of Liege) Liege, Belgium |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 3959) Édouard Joseph Louis-Marie van Beneden (CE 1846-1910), Belgian cytologist describes meiosis (mIOSiS).
Benden identifies the basis of meiosis describing that in the formation of the sex cells (gametes), ova and spermatozoa, the division of chromosomes during one of the cell divisions is not preceded by a doubling of chromosomes, and so each egg and sperm cell have only half the usual number of chromosomes, these cells then merge to form a cell with the full number of chromosomes.
Meioisis is the process of cell division in sexually reproducing organisms that reduces the number of chromosomes in reproductive cells from diploid to haploid, leading to the production of gametes in animals and of spores in plants.
This merging of two cells with half the chromosome count to form a cell with the full number of chromosomes with two halves from each parent fits perfectly with Mendel's theories of inheritance, and this will become clear when De Vries uncovers Mendel's work.
Beneden publishes his study on the egg of Ascaris megalocephala, a parasitic round worm found in the intestines of horses, and shows that fertilization is essentially the union of two half-nuclei: one male (from the sperm cell) and one female (from the egg cell)—each containing only half the number of chromosomes found in the body cells of the species. This union produces a cell containing the full number of chromosomes.
Van Beneden reveals the individuality of single chromosomes in his study of a subspecies of Ascaris (A. megalocephala univalens) which has only two chromosomes in its body cells.
In the Ascaris megalocephala, the various stages of egg development take place simultaneously at the different levels of the genital tract: by cutting half a cm of the oviduct or the uterus thousands of eggs showing the same stage of development can be obtained.
Beneden shows that the virgin egg is a living cell detached from the maternal organism and made capable of multiplication through fertilization. (In this paper?)
| University of Liège, Liège, Belgium |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 4044) Alexander Graham Bell (CE 1847-1922), Scottish-US inventor, founds the American journal "Science".
"Science" brings many truths about science to the public, and is a major advance for public education. At the same time, however, Bell and many others routinelly see free videos of people in their houses and their thoughts before their eyes and in their ears - and greedily and selfishly keep this technology to themselves - the public has to pay for a paper copy of text, while Bell and others watch and write into their minds without paying a dollar. It shows that the copyright suffers when there is not absolute freedom of all information - because the poor have no possible way of seeing those wealthy who have an unmatched technical advantage and will never have to pay any copyright claim - and have seen and heard thought for over a century without telling the public or paying any kind of copyright fee to those victims. Perhaps they rationalize by setting aside some ridiculously small quantity of money for some kind of "insider services" such as protection from violence, from particle beam molestation, or imprisonment for petty or made-up crimes, to those excluded most popular victims whose copyrights and privacy are the most violated.
| (Volta Lab) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 4072) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (PoVluF) (CE 1849-1936), Russian physicologist shows that cardiac (heart) function is controlled by four nerves, which respectively inhibit, accelerate, weaken and intensity the heart muscle contraction rate. One source claims that it is now generally accepted that the vagus and sympathetic nerves produce the effects on the heart that Pavlov noticed. (Pavlov is first to show this?)
This is reported in Pavlov's thesis entitled "The Centrifugal Nerves of the Heart". (verify)
| (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 4203) Max Rubner (ruB or rUB?) (CE 1854-1932), German physiologist describes his "law of isodynamics", which he uses to calculate the quantity of each constituent (fats, proteins, starch) required to produce an equal amount of energy when consumed in the body. In 1885 Rubner will publish the exact caloric values of nutritive substances.
Rubner finds that the human body can convert carbohydrates, fats and proteins for use as energy.Rubner finds this by carefully measuring the input and output of humans in large calorimeters. In addition Rubner shows that the nitrogen portion of proteins is split away before the protein is used for fuel.
[t Get and quote English translation of work.]
(I think energy is more accurately described in terms of mass and velocity, since the two cannot mix. This needs to be more specific, for example, are sugar and fat molecules converted somehow to ATP, or other molecules, or separated into photons, etc.)
| (Physiology Institute) München, Germany |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 4245) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer invents an alternating current motor (induction motor).
Tesla does not patent his invention until May 1888. (presumably ) Tesla describes the insight that leads to the alternating current motor and generator. Tesla was walking in a park with a friend, Antony Szigety, and while reciting a passage from Goethe’s Faust Tesla states "...the idea came like a lightning flash. In an instant I saw it all, and drew with a stick on the sand the diagrams which were illustrated in my fundamental patents of May, 1888, and which Szigety understood perfectly.". (Perhaps the phone company nanocameras and neuron recording devices show if this is true.)
In inventing the alternating current motor and generator, Tesla makes use of the idea of a rotating magnetic field. One advantage of the AC motor over the tradition DC motor which uses a "commutator" and "brushes", is that the AC motor does not need a commutator or brushes which are a source of sparking and loss of electricity. The commutator is the part of a dc motor or generator which serves the dual function, in combination with brushes, of providing an electrical connection between the rotating armature winding and the stationary terminals, and of permitting the reversal of the current in the armature windings. (see image)
In May 1885, George Westinghouse, head of the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh, will buy the patent rights to Tesla's polyphase system of alternating-current dynamos, transformers, and motors. This transaction leads to a large scale power struggle between Edison's direct-current systems and the Tesla–Westinghouse alternating-current approach, which eventually wins. Tesla’s system will be used in the first large-scale harnessing of Niagara Falls and to provide the basis for the entire modern electric-power industry.
In 1832, Antoine-Hippolyte Pixii (CE 1808-1835), French instrument maker, had built the first alternating electric current (AC) generator.
(possibly read text of patent 391,968)
| Strasbourg, France |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 4304) Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (TSYULKuVSKE) (CE 1857-1935), Russian physicist, publishes "Svobodnoe prostranstvo" ("Free Space") which contains the first formulation of the principle of reactive motion for flight in a vacuum, which is the basis of a rocket and space ship. This work examines the motion of a body not under the influence of a gravitational field or some medium that offered resistance to its movement; the paper also contains a drawing of a rocket-powered space ship.
Tsiolkovsky proposes that liquid fuel rockets can be used to propel vehicles in space. (in this same work?)
| Borovsk, Russia |
117 YBN
[1883 AD]
| 4336) Manganese steel, a stronger steel alloy.
(Sir) Robert Abbott Hadfield (CE 1858-1940), British metallurgist patents a new alloy of steel with 12 percent manganese which is heated to 1000°C and quenched (cooled with water), which makes a very hard steel. This manganese alloy can be used for rock-breaking machinery and metal working. Ordinary steel in railroad rails has to be replaced every nine months, but manganese-steel rails last twenty-two years. Manganese-steel will also be used for steel helmets in World War I. Initially the addition of manganese made the steel brittle, however, Hadfield added more than previous metallurgists thought advisable (or perhaps thought would matter or would make a useful steel). This steel marks the beginning of the popularity of "alloy steel". Other metals such as chromium, tungsten, molybdenum and vanadium will be added to give steel new and useful properties. After this people will make nonrusting "stainless steel" by adding chromium and nickel to steel. Honda will develop new magnetic alloys.
Hadfield's publications include more than 220 technical papers and a book, "Metallurgy and Its Influence on Modern Progress: With a Survey of Education and Research" (1925), which becomes a standard reference work.
| (Steel Works Company) Sheffield, England (presumably) |
116 YBN
[01/06/1884 AD]
| 3621) Mechanical television (2D image of light captured, converted to electricity, and back to light projected on a display).
Paul Nipkow (CE 1860–1940) invents a rotating disk (Nipkow disk) with one or more spirals of tiny holes that sequentially pass successively over a picture. This disk makes the mechanical television system possible.
In 1880 a French engineer, Maurice LeBlanc, published an article in the journal La Lumière électrique that formed the basis of all subsequent television. LeBlanc proposed a scanning mechanism that takes advantage of the retina’s temporary retaining of a visual image. Starting at the upper left corner of the picture, a photoelectric cell would proceed to the right-hand side and then jump back to the left-hand side, only one line lower, until the entire picture is scanned, similar to the eye reading a page of text. A synchronized receiver reconstructs the original image line by line.
In 1873 the photoconductive properties of the element selenium were discovered, the fact that selenium's electrical conduction varies with the amount of illumination it receives. The Nipkow disk is a rotating disk with holes arranged in a spiral around its edge. Light passes through the holes as the disk rotates. Each moving hole produces a horizontal line of light, which passes through a lens to focus on a selenium cell. The lens focuses the light coming from different angles as a hole spins in front of the light, to a point at the selenium cell. The number of scanned lines was equal to the number of perforations and each rotation of the disk produced a television frame. The image has only 18 (horizontal) lines of resolution. In the receiver, the brightness of the light source is varied by the signal voltage from the selenium cell. The light is then passed through a synchronously rotating perforated disk and forms a square image on a projection screen.
(The curve of the circle must cause a flattening of the image, a constantly circulating strip would solve this, but might introduce other problems.)
In 1934, the Nipkow disk (mechanical television) will be replaced by electronic scanning devices.
(Not many sources explain the principle of the Nipkow disk well. For example, they don't mention the lenses which are important to focus the light which moves in different directions from the hole as it spins around.)
Nipkow's patent is: German Patent D. R. P. 30105, 01/06/1884.
| Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN
[01/11/1884 AD]
| 3859) (Sir) David Gill (CE 1843-1914), Scottish astronomer, and W. L. Elkin, report the parallax of stars seen only in the Southern Hemisphere.
α Centauri has the largest parallax at +0.75, followed by Sirius, and ε Indi (see image 1 for full table).
Gill estimates the distance of Sirius to be 550,000 units (astronomical units) away. At 93 million miles, this puts Sirius around 50 trillion miles away.
In 1839, Thomas Henderson, had determined the first parallax for Alpha Centuri. Is this the first calculation of parallax for any of these stars (Sirius, etc.)?
(State distances for all stars and show how this is calculated.)
Gill and Elkin use different diameter wire to block out the image of the star to determine its size.
| (Royal Observatory) Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
116 YBN
[03/07/1884 AD]
| 4209) George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor patents photo-sensitized gelatin coated paper photographic film which is much easier to work with than traditional glass plates.
Before Eastman, the photographic plate is glass, and an emulsion of chemicals has to be smeared on it before a photograph can be taken. The emulsion cannot be kept for long and has to be made, smeared over the plate and the photograph taken all at once. This keeps photography as a hobby only for a small number of professionals.
Eastman is the first American to contribute to photographic technology by coating glass plates with gelatin and silver bromide. In 1879 his coating machine is patented in England, in 1880 in the United States.
"The idea gradually dawned on me," he later said, "that what we were doing was not merely making dry plates, but that we were starting out to make photography an everyday affair." Or as he described it more succinctly "to make the camera as convenient as the pencil.".
Eastman's experiments were directed to the use of a lighter and more flexible support than glass. His first approach was to coat the photographic emulsion on paper and then load the paper in a roll holder. The holder was used in view cameras in place of the holders for glass plates.
Eastman's first film advertisements in 1885 state that "shortly there will be introduced a new sensitive film which it is believed will prove an economical and convenient substitute for glass dry plates both for outdoor and studio work.". Eastman's system of photography using roll holders is immediately successful. However, paper is not entirely satisfactory as a carrier for the emulsion because the grain of the paper may be reproduced in the photo. Eastman's solution is to coat the paper with a layer of plain, soluble gelatin, and then with a layer of insoluble light-sensitive gelatin. After exposure and development, the gelatin bearing the image is stripped from the paper, transferred to a sheet of clear gelatin, and varnished with collodion, a cellulose solution that forms a tough, flexible film.
So Eastman coats paper with gelatin and photographic emulsion. The developed film is then stripped from the paper to make a negative. This film is rolled on spools. Eastman and William Walker devise a lightweight roll holder to fit any camera.
| (Eastman Dry Plate Company) Rochester, NY, USA |
116 YBN
[04/23/1884 AD]
| 4206) (Sir) Charles Algernon Parsons (CE 1854-1931), British engineer improves the steam engine and makes it more practical.
Parsons builds the first practical steam turbine, a steam engine that uses steam to turn a wheel (with blades around the rim) directly as opposed to indirectly using coupling such as one used by Watt a century before. This increases the speed of rotation. Parsons has to solve many design problems in order to make this engine practical, including making a wheel from a metal that can withstand the heat and rapid motion, and in which steam cannot be allowed to escape prematurely.
At the time electric generators turn at about 1,500 revolutions per minute (rpm), while Parsons' turbine turns at 18,000 rpm. The steam turbines rotate very quickly and are good for generating electricity, connected to a propeller they are too fast, and Parsons develops devices to gear down the rotation. The turbine Parsons invented in 1884 uses several stages in series.
In the next year, 1885 a Chilean battleship is the first to be turbine-equipped. Soon turbine engines will be powering warships and merchant vessels. [t verify - other sources claim Parsons does not start until 1894]
In 1891, Parsons' turbine will be fitted with a condenser capacitor[t]) for use in electric generating stations.
| (Clarke, Chapman and Company) Gateshead, England |
116 YBN
[08/10/1884 AD]
| 4047) Otto Wallach (VoLoK) (CE 1847-1931), German organic chemist, identifies the compounds known as "terpenes" and finds that many hydrocarbons given different names relating to their origin, but are actually probably the same.
In this Wallach's first publication (1884) he raises the question of the diversity of the various members of the C10H16 group, which in current practice at that time contain many different names ranging from terpene to camphene, citrene, carvene, cinene, cajuputene, eucalyptine, hesperidine, etc. Utilizing common reagents such as hydrogen chloride and hydrogen bromide, Wallach succeeds in characterizing the differences between the structure of these compounds. A year later he establishes that many of these are indeed identical.
Terpenes are any of various unsaturated hydrocarbons, C10H16, found in essential oils and oleoresins of plants such as conifers. Terpenes are used in organic syntheses.
For example, turpentine, which is a thin volatile essential oil, C10H16, obtained by steam distillation or other means from the wood or exuded material (exudate) of certain pine trees and used as a paint thinner, solvent, and medicinally as a liniment. Also called oil of turpentine, spirit of turpentine.
While at Bonn, Wallach becomes interested in the molecular structure of a group of essential oils that are widely used in pharmaceutical preparations. Many of these oils are thought at the time to be chemically distinct from each another, since they are found in a variety of different plants. Kekule virtually denies that they can be analyzed, however, Wallach is able by repeated distillation to separate the components of these complex mixtures. Then, by studying their physical properties, Wallach finds that among the compounds, many are quite similar to one another. Wallach is able to isolate from the essential oils a group of fragrant substances that he named terpenes, and he showed that most of these compounds belong to the class of molecules now called isoprenoids. Wallach's work lays the scientific basis for the modern perfume industry.
In 1887, Wallach will show that terpenes are derived from isoprene and therefore have molecular formulas that are multiples of isoprene.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 3398) (Sir) Francis Galton (CE 1822-1911), English anthropologist, invents the dog (or Galton's) whistle which he uses to measure the threshold of human hearing to be 18khz, and establishes a system of fingerprinting.
In this year Galton creates and equips a laboratory, the Biometric Laboratory at University College, London, where the public is tested. Dalton measures sight and hearing capacity, color sense, reaction time, strength of pull and of squeeze, and height and weight. The system of fingerprints in universal use today derives from this work.
Galton demonstrates the permanence and individuality of fingerprints. Purkinje had studies finger prints in 1823 but Galton makes a system of fingerprint identification. By the end of Galton's life, fingerprint identification will have proven its use in solving crime cases in Great Britain and the USA.
Galton is interested in establishing the threshold levels of human hearing and produces a whistle that generated sound of known frequencies. using this whistle Galton is able to determine that the normal limit of human hearing is around 18kHz. Galton's whistle is constructed from a brass tube with an internal diameter of about two millimetres (see image) and operated by passing a jet of gas through an opening into a resonating cavity. On moving the plunger the size of the cavity can be changed to alter the "pitch" or frequency of the sound emitted. An adaptation of this early principle is to be found in some dog whistles that have adjustable pitch.
Galton invents the high pitched whistle that dogs can hear but which human cannot hear.
| London, England |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 3787) Clemens Alexander Winkler (VENKlR) (Ce 1838-1904), German chemist describes his invention of a three-way stop cock, now a standard piece of laboratory equipment. winkler publishes this in his (translated from German) "Handbook Of Technical Gas Analysis" (1887, tr: 1902).
| (Freiberg School of Mining) Freiberg, Germany |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 3831) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923) and George Downing Liveing report spectroscope findings in "Spectroscopic Studies on Gaseous Explosions. No. I" using an iron tube, closed on one end with a plate of quartz, in which two perpendicular brass tubes, one connected to an air pump and the other to gas, which is sparked with a platinum wire to produce a brief explosion which releases light. They find that spectral lines of iron appear, which they conclude can only be from particles of oxide shaken off the tube by the explosion. They find that once lithium carbonate is introduced into the iron pipe, they see the characteristic lines of lithium, and these lines appear even after the tube has been repeatedly washed. In addition, they report on the reversal (absorption) of spectral lines within the iron tube when the spark that ignites the gas is at the far end of the tube.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 3905) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist identifies the bacteria that causes cholera.
| Egypt|India (more specific) |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 3906) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist presents what are called the Henle-Koch postulates: 1. The parasite occurs in every case of the disease in question and under circumstances which can account for the pathological changes and clinical course of the disease. 2. It occurs in no other disease as a fortuitous and nonpathogenic parasite. 3. After being fully isolated from the body and repeatedly grown in pure culture, it can induce the disease anew.
| (Imperial Department of Health) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 3926) Ludwig Edward Boltzmann (BOLTSmoN) (CE 1844-1906), Austrian physicist, provides a theoretical explanation for Josef's Stefan's experimental finding that the total radiation of a hot body is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature.
In 1879, Josef Stefan had shown that the total radiation of a hot body is proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature. Boltzmann, a student of Stefan, creates a mathematical explanation for Stefan's observation. This law is sometimes called the Stefan-Boltzmann law.
Boltzmann publishes this as "Über eine von Hrn. Bartoli entdecke Beziehung der Wärmestrahlung zum zweiten Hauptsatze" (roughly "About one of Mr. Bartoli explorations of the relationship of heat radiation to the second main theorems") and "Ableitung des Stefan'schen Gesetzes, betreffend die Abhängigkeit der Wärmestrahlung von der Temperatur aus der electromagnetischen Lichttheorie" ("Derivation of Stefan's law concerning the temperature dependence of thermal radiation from the electromagnetic theory of light"). (look for translations of 2 works) (give more info - not probability based?)
Using the radiation pressure of light, Boltzmann derives the equation: E(T)=σT4, now known as the "Stefan-Boltzmann law". T4, now called the Stefan-Boltzmann constant is 5.67x10-8 W/m2K4, which is 11% higher than Stefan estimated. (Boltzmann states this equation as ψ=ct4.)
(How does this compare to the idea of radiation emiting in squared proportion, for example in gases in vacuum tubes that current passes through? Does the fact that different atoms and molecules emit photons and other particles with different frequencies affect this theory?)
(Radiation needs to be more clearly defined as particles of light, which includes heat, light, radio, etc. How could Stefan measure all the light without knowing about xrays for example? Although xrays may not be emitted, still perhaps there are radio frequencies of photons that are which Stefan could not measure. )
| (University of Graz) Graz, Austria |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4042) The Bell Company connects a long-distance telephone wire from Boston and New York. By 1889 when insulation is perfected, there will be 11,000 miles of underground wires in New York City.
| Boston and New York (City?), USA |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4080) Gaffky isolates and cultures a bacterium which he demonstrates to be the cause of typhoid fever.
(cite original paper and original images if any).
Georg Theodor August Gaffky (GofKE), (CE 1850-1918), German bacteriologist, isolates and cultures a bacterium which he demonstrates to be the cause of typhoid fever.
| (Imperial Health Office) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4097) Henri Louis Le Châtelier (lusoTulYA) (CE 1850-1936), French chemist explains a general principle now known as "La Chatelier's principle", which states that "any system in stable chemical equilibrium, subjected to the influence of an external cause which tends to change either its temperature or its condensation (pressure, concentration, number of molecules in unit volume), either as a whole or in some of its parts, can only undergo such internal modifications as would, if produced alone, bring about a change of temperature or of condensation of opposite sign to that resulting from the external cause.".
La Chatelier publishes this as a note in 1884 which contains a generalisation of a principle enunciated by van't Hoff for the effects of temperature only, extended to cover all variations of conditions.
La Chatelier summarizes this principle in a memoir of 126 pages in the Annales des Mines for 1888, in a form which is much more simple and comprehensive: "Every change of one of the factors of an equilibrium occasions a rearrangement of the system in such a direction that the factor in question experiences a change in a sense opposite to the original change.".
In other words, every change of one of the factors of an equilibrium brings about a rearrangement of the system in such a direction as to minimize the original change. For example, if a system is placed under increased pressure, it rearranges itself to take up as little space as possible. If the temperature is raised, the system changes to absorb some of the additional heat so that the temperature does not go up as much as would be indicated.
Asimov states that Le Châtelier's principle forecasts the direction taken by a chemical reaction under a particular change of condition, and helps guide chemists in producing desired products with a minimum of waste.
La Chatelier suggests increasing the output of industrial ammonia production by using low heat and high pressure, as indicated by his principle of chemical equilibrium. Similarly, his interest in industrial applications of chemistry leads him to perfect the oxyacetylene torch, which achieves the extremely high temperatures required for welding and cutting metals.
La Chatelier believes that this law applies to human nature too.
This general statement includes the law of mass action enunciated by Guldberg and Waage, and fits well with Gibb's chemical thermodynamics.
Encyclopedia Britannica writes that Le Chatelier later recognizes that the American mathematician Josiah Willard Gibbs had partially provided this mathematical formalization between 1876 and 1878 and so in 1899 Le Chatelier spends a year studying these issues and translates Gibb's original work about chemical equilibrium systems.
For example, knowledge of this principle will help Haber device his reaction that forms ammonia from atmospheric nitrogen. (specifically how?)
(I think is kind of an abstract principle, and I think it's too general. I don't think any system consciously changes in opposition to some change, but simply that photons rearrange themselves under the law of gravity, within the confines of the existing space. I don't know, I think it seems too general to be used as anything other than an abstract guide, or intuitive hint at some result, not a systematic, or mathematical quantifiable phenomenon. However, it appears that it was useful in production of ammonia.)
(The science of thermodynamics, that is the science of heat, is somewhat abstract. Heat is a difficult phenomenon to describe, because it involves a finite volume of space, in addition to the idea that photons are the basis of all matter, so temperature depends on quantity of mass and velocity of mass in addition to size of volume space and time.)
(I just have the feeling that I may be describing an old outdated set of theories/concepts here. Possibly they are only just too abstract in their current form.)
(In terms of people reacting to maintain status quo, I don't know, again it's abstract, many times change is welcomed and amplified).
(State original paper and translate to English)
| (École des Mines) Paris, France |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4107) Charles Édouard Chamberland (sonBRLoN) (CE 1851-1908), French bacteriologist creates the "Chamberland filter", which is a filter of unglazed porcelain, more effective at filtering bacteria than anything then in use. These Chamberland filters will make possible the identification of viruses by Ivanovsky and Beijerinck.
Because the filter makes possible the purification of drinking water, it was of great value to public health.
(Needs image)
| (École Normale) Paris, France |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4131) Friedrich August Johannes Löffler (lRFlR) (CE 1852-1915), German bacteriologist, with Edwin Klebs, discovers the organism that causes diphtheria, Corynebacterium diphtheriae, commonly known as the Klebs–Löffler bacillus and shows that a natural immunity to diptheria exists in some animals, which will lead to Behring's preparing an antitoxin.
The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography describes Löffler's work well: This is the first time bacteriologists can work with single microbial species even though the original specimen taken from the throat of a patient, for instance, might be filled with many different species of organisms.
Diphtheria, a disease known since antiquity, is particularly feared because it produced a false membrane in the throat that could suffocate its victims, especially children. In 1871 Max Oertel, of Munich, showed that the false membrane can be produced in rabbits by swabbing their throats with secretions from human patients. In 1875 Edwin Klebs postulates a fungus as the cause, but at the German Medical Congress of 1883 Klebs presents new information pointing to a specific bacterium that can be seen, after staining, in the throat membranes of diphtheria patients. The task remains to differentiate the several bacteria that are implicated in the disease and to grow in pure culture the one responsible for causing it.
One of the difficulties Loeffler faces in isolating the agent of diphtheria is that the throats of diphtheria patients carried many microorganisms, one of which, the Streptococcus, had already led to much confusion. In a series of twenty-seven cases of fatal throat inflammation, twenty-two had been diagnosed as diphtheria, five as scarlatinal diphtheria. In the scarlatinal diphtheria case, Loeffler finds that the Streptococcus is the dominant organism. It is now known that scarlet fever is accompanied or preceded by a streptococcal throat infection. In the case of diphtheria, Loeffler reasons that these chains of cocci played a secondary role.
In the case of typical diphtheria Loeffler observes that the bacteria described by Klebs are easily demonstrated in about half the cases he studies. Loeffler finds these bacilli, which stain markedly with methylene blue, in the deeper layers of the false membrane but never in the deeper tissues or other internal organs, although these organs may have been greatly damaged. Loeffler still has to culture both the Klebs bacillus, never grown before, as well as the Streptococcus to prove or disprove either one as the cause of diphtheria. The Streptococci are easily grown on the solid medium of peptone and gelatin devised by Koch. Inoculation into animals produces generalized infections but never a disease resembling human diphtheria.
The bacillus implicated by Klebs—and now strongly suspected by Loeffler as well—as the diphtheria-causing organism is difficult to culture on the usual gelatin plates because it will not grow at the low temperatures required to keep the gelatin solid. The Streptococci, on the other hand, grow well at temperatures below 24°C, needed to keep the medium from liquefying. Loeffler’s innovative and experimental skills show clearly in that he develops a new solid medium using heated blood serum rather than gelatin as the means of solidifying. This medium can now be incubated at 37°C, or body temperature. The Klebs bacilli grow well under these conditions. When they were injected into animals, Loeffler finds that the guinea pig develops tissue lesions very similar to those of human diphtheria. Bacilli can be easily recovered from the infection produced at the site of inoculation, but they are never recovered from the damaged internal organs. Loeffler thus postulates that this, too, is similar to human diphtheria, in which the bacteria are confined to the throat membrane. He reasons that perhaps the bacteria released a poisonous substance that reaches other parts of the body through the bloodstream. This supposition is soon proved correct by the work of Émile Roux and Yersin, who do much to reveal the nature of the diphtheria toxin. This toxin theory bears fruit in the work of Behring and others who develop an effective antitoxin to counter the effects of the soluble poison produced by the bacillus.
One further test carried out by Loeffler in this series of experiments to identify and isolate the agent of diphtheria is an attempt to culture the organisms from healthy children. Much to his surprise he is able to isolate the bacillus from one of the twenty subjects under study. Löffler therefore calls attention to the fact that not all people infected by the diphtheria bacillus or the tubercle bacillus have the disease diphtheria or tuberculosis. This concept of a healthy carrier has immense public health significance, especially in the period when health science is making a headlong rush to ascribe all diseases to bacterial agents and when physicians too often simply equate the presence of a bacillus with a particular disease. The host factors therefore had to come under study as well.
| (Imperial Health Office) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4182) Hans Christian Joachim Gram (GroM) (CE 1853-1938), Danish bacteriologist creates the "Gram stain" method which stains certain kinds of bacteria.
Gram follows the method of Paul Ehrlich, using aniline-water and gentian violet solution. After further treatment with Lugol's solution (iodine in aqueous potassium iodide) and ethanol he finds that some bacteria (such as pneumococcus) retain the stain while others do not. Those cells that retain the stain are called "Gram-positive" and those cells that do not retain the stain are called "Gram-negative". This discovery is of great use in the identification and classification of bacteria, and is also useful in deciding the treatment of bacterial diseases, since penicillin is active only against Gram-positive bacteria; the cell walls of Gram-negative bacteria will not take up either penicillin or Gram's stain.
Gram-positive bacteria remain purple because they have a single thick cell wall that is not easily penetrated by the solvent; gram-negative bacteria, however, are decolorized because they have cell walls with much thinner layers that allow removal of the dye by the solvent.
Penicillin will be shown to be active against Gram-positive bacteria for the most part, while streptomycin will be shown to attack Gram-negative bacteria.
In modern times, a counterstain, such as safranin, is added and stains the gram-negative cells red.(cite who found this)
| (lab of microbiologist Karl Friedländer ) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4184) Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (KoSuL) (CE 1853-1927) German biochemist identifies the essential amino acid histidine, which Kossel isolates from the red blood cells of birds.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4185) Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (KoSuL) (CE 1853-1927) German biochemist isolates the amino acid adenine from a pancreas, and from yeast nuclein.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
116 YBN
[1884 AD]
| 4315) Cocaine used as a local anesthetic.
Carl Koller (CE 1857-1944), Austrian-US physician successfully uses cocaine as a local anesthetic for an eye operation. This makes it unnecessary to make a person unconscious (to put under), and eliminates the complicated procedure of protecting lung and heart action, by simply stopping the activity of nerve endings in the location of the operation, and so represents an important step forward. This procedure is particularly useful in dentistry.
Koller was an intern and house surgeon at the Vienna General Hospital when his colleague Sigmund Freud, attempting to cure a friend of morphine addiction, asked him to review and investigate the general physiological effects of cocaine as a possible remedy. His experimental results convinced Koller that cocaine could be used as a local anesthetic in eye surgery, for which general anesthesia had proved to be unsuitable. (is this the first use of a local anethestic? I don't think so.)
Asimov states that Freud suggests that cocaine can be used as a pain-relieving agent, like a modern aspirin. (Asimov possibly hints that there was a walking robot, "most important step", which would put this around 1884, but that sounds possibly early, but then the electric motor was public in 1821.)
| (General Hospital in Vienna) Vienna, Austria |
115 YBN
[01/30/1885 AD]
| 3500) Johann Jakob Balmer (CE 1825-1898), Swiss mathematician and physicist, discovers a simple mathematical formula that gives the wavelengths of the (visible and ultraviolet) spectral lines of hydrogen – the Balmer series.
The spectral lines in the visible spectrum of glowing hydrogen are spaced more and more closely with decreasing wavelength.
Balmer's formula is λ=hm2/(m2−n2) and predicts the (visible and) UV spectral lines of Hydrogen for values of n>2. h = 3645.6(mm /107) Other series' based on this formula will be found to correspond to spectral lines by varying integer values for n and m. Balmer's discovery gives a great impetus to spectral theory and all subsequent investigations into the origin of atomic spectra begin with the presumption that the wavelengths of the spectral lines of all atoms can be represented by simple numerical relationships involving the squares of integers. Ritz will introduce in 1908 the "Ritz combination principle" which states that the frequency of any line in the spectrum of an atom is equal to the difference of two of the terms of the sequence, and so the frequency of lines can be expressed in terms of the frequencies of other lines in the spectrum.
Balmer publishes this as "Notiz über die Spectrallinien des Wasserstoffs" ("Note on the Spectral Lines of Hydrogen").
Balmer later extends his work to other elements in 1890. (Find paper title, and translation)
Bohr will use this formula to explain his theory of the internal structure of the hydrogen atom.
Balmer is unable to explain why the formula produces correct wavelengths. Why this formula is true is not explained until 1913, when Niels Bohr finds that the Balmer series fits Bohr's theory of discrete energy states within the hydrogen atom.
Balmer's paper reads: "Using measurements by H. W. Vogel and by Huggins of the ultraviolet lines of the hydrogen spectrum I have tried to derive a formula which will represent the wavelengths of the different lines in a satisfactory manner. I was encouraged to take up this work by Professor E. Hagenbach. Ångström's very exact measurements of the four hydrogen lines enable one to determine a common factor for their wavelengths which is in as simple a numerical relation as possible to these wavelengths. I gradually arrived at a formula which, at least for these four lines, expresses a law by which their wavelengths can be represented with striking precision. The common factor in this formula, as it has been deduced from Ångström's measurements, is h = 3645.6(mm /107). We may call this number the fundamental number of hydrogen; and if corresponding fundamental numbers can be found for the spectral lines of other elements, we may accept the hypothesis that relations which can be expressed by some function exist between these fundamental numbers and the corresponding atomic weights.
The wavelengths of the first four hydrogen lines are obtained by multiplying the fundamental number h = 3645.6 in succession by the coefficients 9/5; 4/3; 25/21; and 9/8. At first it appears that these four coefficients do not form a regular series; but if we multiply the numerators in the second and the fourth terms by 4 a consistent regularity is evident and the coefficients have for numerators the numbers 32, 42, 52, 62 and for denominators a number that is less by 4.
For several reasons it seems to me probable that the four coefficients which have just been given belong to two series, so that the second series includes the terms of the first series; hence I have finally arrived at the present formula for the coefficients in the more general form: m2/(m2-n2) in which m and n are whole numbers.
For n = 1 we obtain the series 4/3, 9/8, 16/15, 25/24, and so on, for n = 2 the series 9/5, 16/12, 25/21, 36/32, 49/45, 64/60, 81/77, 100/96, and so on. In this second series the second term is already in the first series but in a reduced form.
If we carry out the calculation of the wavelengths with these coefficients and the fundamental number 3645.6, we obtain the following numbers in 10-7 mm.
According to the formula | Ångström gives | Difference
|
---|
Hα (C-line) = 9/5 h = 6562.08 | 6562.10 | +0.02
| Hβ (F-line) = 4/3 h = 4860.8 | 4860.74 | -0.06
| Hγ (near G) = 25/21 h = 4340 | 4340.1 | +0.1
| Hδ (h-line) = 9/8 h = 4101.3 | 4101.2 | -0.1 |
The deviations of the formula from Ångström's measurements amount in the most unfavorable case to not more than 1/40000 of a wavelength, a deviation which very likely is within the limits of the possible errors of observation and is really striking evidence for the great scientific skill and care with which Ångström must have worked.
From the formula we obtained for a fifth hydrogen line 49/45.3645.6 = 3969.65.10-7 mm. I knew nothing of such a fifth line, which must lie within the visible part of the spectrum just before HI (which according to Ångström has a wavelength 3968.1); and I had to assume that either the temperature relations were not favorable for the emission of this line or that the formula was not generally applicable.
On communicating this to Professor Hagenbach he informed me that many more hydrogen lines are known, which have been measured by Vogel and by Huggins in the violet and the ultraviolet parts of the hydrogen spectrum and in the spectrum of the white stars; he was kind enough himself to compare the wavelengths thus determined with my formula and to send me the result.
While the formula in general gives somewhat larger numbers than those contained in the published lists of Vogel and of Huggins, the difference between the calculated and the observed wavelengths is so small that the agreement is striking in the highest degree. Comparisons of wavelengths measured by different investigators show in general no exact agreement; and yet the observations of one man may be made to agree with those of another by a slight reduction in an entirely satisfactory way.
These measurements are all arranged together in the accompanying table, and the resulting wavelengths according to the formula compared with them. The figures of Vogel and Huggins lie close to the formula but always a bit lower, as though the fundamental number for hydrogen were reduced to 3645.10-7 mm.{CJG translated and reinserted this paragraph and the following table, omitted by Boorse & Motz.}
Table of Wavelengths for Hydrogen lines in 10-7 mm.
(See image 1, and the English translation is image 2)
These comparisons show that the formula also holds for the fifth hydrogen line, which lies just before the first Fraunhofer H-line (which belongs to calcium). It also appears that Vogel's hydrogen lines and the corresponding Huggins lines of the white stars can be represented by the formula very satisfactorily. We may almost certainly assume that the other lines of the white stars which Huggins found farther on in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum will be expressed by the formula. I lack knowledge of the wavelengths. Using the fundamental number 3645.6, we obtain according to the formula for the ninth and following hydrogen lines up to the fifteenth:
121/117 h = 3770.24
| 36/35 h = 3749.76
| 169/165 h = 3733.98
| 49/48 h = 3721.55
| 225/221 h = 3711.58
| 64/63 h = 3703.46
| 289/285 h = 3696.76 |
Whether the hydrogen lines of the white stars agree with the formula to this point or whether other numerical relations gradually replace it can only be determined by observation.
I add to what I have said a few questions and conclusions.
Does the above formula hold only for the single chemical element hydrogen, and will not other fundamental numbers in the spectral lines of other elements be found which are peculiar to those elements? If not, we may perhaps assume that the formula that holds for hydrogen is a special case of a more general formula which under certain conditions goes over into the formula for the hydrogen lines.
None of the hydrogen lines which correspond to the formula when n = 3, 4, and so on, and which may be called lines of the third or fourth order, is found in any spectrum as yet known; they must be emitted under entirely new relations of temperature and pressure if they are to become perceptible.
If the formula holds for all the principal lines of the hydrogen spectrum with n = 2, it follows that these spectral lines on the ultraviolet sides approach the wavelength 3645.6 in a more closely packed series, but they can never pass this limiting value, while the C-line also is the extreme line on the red side. Only if lines of higher orders are present can lines be found on the infrared side.
The formula has no relation, so far as can be shown, with the very numerous lines of the second hydrogen spectrum which Hasselberg has published in the Mémoires de l'Academie des Sciences de St. Petersbourg, 1882. For certain values of pressure and temperature hydrogen may easily change in such a way that the law of formation of its spectral lines becomes entirely different.
There are great difficulties in the way of finding the fundamental numbers for other chemical elements, such as oxygen or carbon, by means of which their principal spectral lines can be determined from the formula. Only extremely exact determinations of wavelengths of the most prominent lines of an element can give a common base for these wavelengths, and without such a base it seems as if all trials and guesses will be in vain. Perhaps by using a different graphical construction of the spectrum a way will be found to make progress in such investigations."
33 lines of the Balmer series for hydrogen can be seen in celestial spectra, while only 12 appear in terrestrial vacuum tube spectra.
Balmer's equation serves as a model for the more generalized formulas of Rydberg, Kayser and Runge.
(According to the current interpretation, due to Bohr, when hydrogen is burned in oxygen (combusted), the hydrogen is not separated into photons, but combines with oxygen, and this combination results in photons being emitted when electrons fall into lower orbits closer to the nucleus of the atom. An alternative theory is that perhaps some hydrogen and/or oxygen atoms are separated into source photons. In any event the lost mass due to released photons must be accounted for. Clearly photons, if matter, are exiting, so in theory mass is being lost somewhere, is it from an electron, proton, neutron? The most popular theory, based on Bohr's model, is that, in Hydrogen-Oxygen combustion the electrons in Hydrogen and Oxygen are losing mass in the form of freed photons.)
| (Secondary School) Basel, Switzerland |
115 YBN
[05/23/1885 AD]
| 4017) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, invents a system of wireless communication (telegraph).
This method of low frequency wireless communication is identical to the form Hertz will describe in 1887, light particles emitted from metal wires containing moving electricity, however with the difference of Hertz using regular oscillation of electric current instead of a telegraph key as a system of signaling. The method Edison uses is referred to as "Electrostatic Induction", not to be confused with an "inductor" which is a spiral of metal wire, "static induction" is the passing of electric current from one circuit to another by the photoelectric effect of light particles emitted at low frequencies invisible to the human eye from metal wires in which electric particles are moving through (electric current is induced in one circuit from a distant circuit through air). The observation of so-called electrostatic induction (which is the same exact process of the current form of wireless communication - but without a regular oscillating current and therefore frequency of light particles) dates back at least to John Canton in 1753.
The phenomenon of electrical oscillation between a capacitor (Leyden jar) and inductor is reported in 1826 by Félix Savary (CE 1797-1841) in France. This oscillation is the basis of regular frequency (syncronous) photon communication, as opposed to irregular frequency (asyncronous) photon communication associated with so-called "electrostatic induction" and wireless telegraphy.
In 1842, Joseph Henry had reported that a spark can magnetize a needle over a distance of 7 or 8 miles.
In 1877 Professor E. Sacher, measuring the inductive effects in telephone circuits reports finding the signal from three Smee cells sent through one wire, 120 meters long, can be distinctly heard in the telephone on another parallel wire 20 meters away from it.
In his 1885 patent, which is not approved until December 29, 1891, Edison writes: "The present invention consists in the signaling system having elevated induction plates or devices, as hereinafter described and claimed.
I have discovered that if sufficient elevation be obtained to overcome the curvature of the earth's surface and to reduce to the minimum the earth's absorption electric telegraphing or signaling between distant points can be carried on by induction without the use of wires connecting such distant points. This discovery is especially applicable to telegraphing across bodies of water, thus avoiding the use of submarine cables, or for communicating between vessels at sea, or between vessels at sea and points on land; but it is also applicable to electric communication between distant points on land, it being necessary, however, on land (with the exception of communication over open prairie) to increase the elevation in order to reduce to the minimum the induction-absorbing effect of houses, trees, and elevations in the land itself. At sea from an elevation of one hundred feet I can communicate electrically agreat distance, and since this elevation or one sufficiently high can be had by utilizing the masts of ships signals can be sent and received between ships separated a considerable distance, and by repeating the signals from ship to ship communication can be established between points at any distance apart or across the largest seas and even oceans. The collision of ships in fogs can be prevented by this character of signaling, by the use of which, also, the safety of a ship in approaching a dangerous coast in foggy weather can be assured. In communicating between points on land poles of great height can be used or captive balloons, At these elevated points, whether upon the masts of ships, upon poles or balloons, condensing-surfaces of metal or other conductor of electricity are located. Each condensing-surface is connected with earth by an electrical conducting-wire. On land this earth connection would be one of usual character in telegraphy. At sea the wire would run to one or more metal plates on the bottom of the vessel where the earth connection would be made with the water. The high-resistance secondary circuit of an induction-coil is located in circuit between the condensing-surface and the ground. The primary circuit of the induction-coil includes a battery and a device for transmitting signals, which may be a revolving circuit-breaker operated continually by a motor of any suitable kind, either electrical or mechanical, and a key normally short-circuiting the circuit-breaker or secondary coil. For receiving signals I locate in said circuit between the condensing-surface and the ground a diaphragm-sounder, which is preferably one of my electro-motograph telephone-receivers. The key normally short-circuiting the revolving circuit-breaker, no impulses are produced in the induction-coil until the key is depressed, when a large number of impulses are produced in primary, and by means of the secondary corresponding impulses or variations in tension are produced at the elevated condensing-surface, producing thereat electrostatic impulses. These electrostatic impulses are transmitted inductively to the elevated condensing-surface at the distant point and are made audible by the electro- motograph connected in the ground-circuit with such distant condensing-surface. The intervening body of air forms the dielectric of the condenser, the condensing-snrfaces of which are connected by the earth. The effect is a circuit in which is interposed a condenser formed of distantly-separated and elevated condensing-surfaces with the intervening air as a dielectric.
In the accompanying drawings, forming a part hereof, Figure 1 is a view showing two vessels placed in communication by my discovery;. Fig. 2, a view showing signaling-stations on opposite banks of a river; Fig. 3, a separate view, principally in diagram, of the apparatus; Fig. 4, a diagram of a portion of the earth's surface, showing communication by captive balloons; Fig. 5, a view of a single captive balloon constructed for use in signaling.
A and B-are two vessels, each having a metallic condensing-surface C, supported at the heads of the masts. This condensing-surface may be of canvas covered with flexible sheet metal or metallic foil secured thereto in any suitable way. From the condensing-surface C a wire 1 extends to the hull of each vessel and through the signal receiving and transmitting apparatus to a metallic plate a on the vessel's bottom. This wire extends through an elcetro-motograph telephone-receiver or other suitable receiver, and also includes the secondary circuit of an induction-coil F. In the primary of this induction-coil is a battery b and a revolving circuit-breaker G. This circuit-breaker is revolved rapidly by a motor, (not shown,) electrical or mechanical. It is short-circuited normally by a back point-key H, by depressing which the short circuit is broken and the circuit-breaker breaks and makes the primary circuit of the induction- coil with great rapidity. This apparatus is more particularly shown in Fig. 3.
In Fig. 2, J K are stations on land, having poles I, supporting condensing-surfaces C, which may be light cylinders or frames of wood covered with sheet metal. These drums are adapted to be raised and lowered by block and tackle and are connected by wires with earth-plates through signal receiving and transmitting apparatus, such as has already been described.
In Fig. 5, M is a captive balloon having condensing-surfaces C of metallic foil. The ground-wire 1 is carried down the rope c, by which the balloon is held captive. In Fig. 4 three of these captive balloons are represented in position to communicate from one to the other and to repeat to the third, the curvature of the earth's surface being represented.
What I claim as my discovery is—
1. Means for signaling between stations separated from each other, consisting of an elevated condensing surface or body at each station, a transmitter operatively connected to one of said condensing-surfaces for varying its electrical tension in conformity to the signal to be transmitted, and thereby correspondingly varying the tension of the other condensing-surface, and a signal-receiver operatively connected to said other condensing- surface, substantially as described.
2. Means for signaling between stations separated from each other, consisting of a condensing-surface at each station at such an elevation that a straight line between said surfaces will avoid the curvature of the earth's surface and intervening induction-absorbing obstacles, a signal - transmitter operatively connected to one of said surfaces for varying its electrical tension and thereby correspond- 60 ingly varying the electrical tension of the other surface, and a signal-receiver operatively connected to the latter surface, substantially as described.
3. Means for signaling between stations separated from each other, consisting of an elevated condensing surface or body at each station, an induction-transmitter operatively connected to one of said condensing-surfaces for varying its electrical tension in conformity to the signal to be transmitted and thereby correspondingly varying the tension of the other condensing-surface, and a signal-receiver operatively connected to said other condensing-surface, substantially as described.
4. Means for signaling between stations separated from each other, consisting of an elevated metallic condensing-surface at each station, a conductor from the surface at one station, including the secondary of an induction-coil, a primary coil including a source of current and a transmitting key or device for changing the primary circuit for signaling, and a conductor from the condensing-surface at the other station, including a telephone-receiver, substantially as described.
5. Means for signaling between stations separated from each other, consisting of an elevated metallic condensing-surface at each station, a conductor from the surface at one station, including a signal-receiver and the secondary of an induction-coil, a primary coil including a source of current and means for making and breaking or varying the primary circuit for signaling, and a conductor from the condensing-surface at the other station, including similar receiving and transmitting instruments, substantially as described. ...".
(Notice the reference to the circuit making and breaking the circuit at a high rate of speed, the combination of capacitor (condensor) and inductor-coil which could allows regular oscillation of current for syncronous communication like modern photon communication and then also the metallic conducting plates serving as an antenna - flatter and larger than modern traditional receiving antennas.
It seems very likely that wireless communication by low frequencies of photons emitted from electric wires probably was figured out much earlier than this but kept secret. It is interesting that wireless radio communication is so similar to the very early forms of light semaphores used to transmit signals by line of sight, the particle of communication being the same, a light particle, the only difference being between a human eye detector and an electronic detector.
(What text does Edison transmit, using Morse code?)
Alexander Graham Bell will transmit sound information using photons with the higher visible frequencies in 1880
(It seems likely that invisible particle (or radio) communication may go back many centuries if remote neuron reading goes back to 1200 as may be hinted to by William Byrd in the 1300s.)
| (private lab) Menlo Park, New Jersey, USA |
115 YBN
[07/27/1885 AD]
| 4078) Sir John Ambrose Fleming (CE 1849-1945), English electrical engineer describes the "right-hand rule" for helping to visualize and understand the direction of electric current and the magnetic field it produces. Fleming reports this in a paper describing electrical networks. Fleming simplifies Maxwell's equations. (verify and explain more).
(Some changed this to left-hand rule, where left 1st finger points in the direction of current, 3rd finger in direction of magnetic field, and thumb in direction of motion. - verify who and when)
(Perhaps the word "network" is used to describe the massive images and sounds inside people houses, and of their thoughts that is growing even larger at this time in history.)
(In some way this might serve to popularize Maxwell's electromagnetic theory of light, which is obviously inaccurate, certainly since the theory of an aether is in doubt because of the Michelson-Morley experiment. The idea of the electric and magnetic fields in an electromagnet being at 90 degree angles to each other seems obviously inaccurate too to me.)
| (University College) London, England |
115 YBN
[07/??/1885 AD]
| 3827) Louis Paul Cailletet (KoYuTA) (CE 1832-1913) and Bouty observe that the electrical resistance of various metals is decreased with a decrease of temperature. Wroblewski also performs similar measurements in the same year.
(Is this the first notice of this decrease in temperature?)
(Find original paper and translate)
From 1892-1893 Dewar and Fleming measures the electrical resistance of metals under very cold temperatures and confirm that the resistance of many metals is decreased by a decrease in temperature.
| (father's ironworks) Chatillon, France (presumably) |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 3711) First practical gasoline (petrol) engine. First gas motor boat.
Daimler and Maybach develop a carburetor that makes possible the use of gasoline as fuel. Daimler builds a high-speed 4-stroke combustion engine, that is lighter and more efficient than any before, and adapts this engine to use gasoline vapor as fuel.
This engine is what makes the horseless carriage practical. The "energy" (or contained velocity) of burning gas replacing that of a horse.
Daimler fits this engine to a boat, the first gas motor boat.
| (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 3712) First motorbike.
Daimler installs one of his engines on a bicycle (adding a small pair of guide wheels to prevent tipping over), and drives it over the roads of Mannheim, Baden.
| (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 3866) Camillo Golgi (GOLJE) (CE 1843-1926), Italian physician and cytologist, and others describe the asexual life cycle of the malaria parasite, the Plasmodium, in red blood cells.
(state paper title and show images from)
| (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 3967) Beginning in 1885, Edward Pickering (CE 1846-1919) starts to compile a photographic library, by routinely photographing as large a portion of the visible sky as possible on every clear night. This Harvard Photographic Library contains around 300,000 glass plates of stars down to the eleventh magnitude. From such plates the past record of the stars may be studied; Pickering, for example, was able to plot the path of Eros in the sky from photographs taken 4 years before this asteroid was discovered.
| Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 3985) Edward Charles Pickering (CE 1846-1919), US astronomer, his brother William Henry Pickering (CE 1858-1938), and others publish information about "thought-transference", "mind reading", telepathy, including experiments of guessing what color a card is, William Pickering finds success with experiments, popular in English society, in which a drawing thought by one person is reproduced by another. These raise the question of, were the members already aware of seeing, hearing and sending thought - ie "included" with video in front of their eyes, causally hearing the thoughts of their neighbors, or were they simply aware that they were excluded? Then, did beaming thought images and sounds affect the experiments?
The American Society for Psychical Research was formed the year before in 1884, in Boston with branch societies in New York and Philadelphia.
This may be 74 years after what eyes see were first seen in heat in 1810 and what must have been a secret revolution involving remote muscle contraction stemming from Galvani's 1791 publication, including not only seeing and hearing thought images and sounds, but transmitting them directly to the brain to appear in the mind and before the eyes. These experiments of guessing cards, dice, and reproducing pictures represent soft-science, and have all been surpassed by the actual seeing, hearing and sending of images and sounds to and from brains (although only for an extremely elitist, selfish and greedy minority). The importance is that these people are talking publicly and openly about seeing, hearing and sending thought images and sounds to and from brains - a science that already existed secretly - with great threat of murder by galvanization or other means by those who profit from the secrecy.
There may be many good hints in these papers, for example, Edward Pickering's paper "Erors in Scientific Researches..." starts with "If the theory" which is "ITT" - similar to AT&T.
| Bostom, Massachusetts, USA |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 4132) Friedrich August Johannes Löffler (lRFlR) (CE 1852-1915), German bacteriologist, discovers the cause of swine erysipelas and swine plague.
| (hygienic laboratory at the First Garrison Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 4137) William Stewart Halsted (CE 1852-1922) US surgeon uses cocaine injections as a local anesthesia, called "conduction, or block, anesthesia": the production of insensibility of a body part by interrupting the conduction of a sensory nerve leading to that region of the body, brought about by injecting cocaine into nerve trunks. Halsted is the first to use cocaine injections for a local anesthesia, following the work of Freud and Koller.
| New York City, NY, USA |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 4329) (Baron von Welsback) Karl Auer (oWR) (CE 1858-1929), Austrian chemist shows that the supposed rare earth element "didymium" (from the Greek word for "twin") is actually two separate rare earth elements, which he names "praseodymium" ("green twin", from the prominent green spectral line) and neodymium ("new twin").
Praseodymium is a soft, silvery, malleable, ductile rare-earth element that develops a characteristic green tarnish in air. Praseodymium occurs naturally with other rare earths in monazite and is used to color glass and ceramics yellow, as a core material for carbon arcs, and in metallic alloys. Praseodymium has atomic number 59; atomic mass 140.908; melting point 935°C; boiling point 3,127°C; density 6.8; valence 3, 4.
Neodymium is a bright, silvery rare-earth metal element, found in monazite and bastnaesite and used for coloring glass and for doping some glass lasers. Neodymium has atomic number 60; atomic mass 144.24; melting point 1,024°C; boiling point 3,027°C; density 6.80 or 7.004 (depending on allotropic form); valence 3.
(cite original paper, and quote from paper translated to english)
| (University of Vienna) Vienna |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 4330) (Baron von Welsback) Karl Auer (oWR) (CE 1858-1929), Austrian chemist patents the "Welsbach mantle", which is a cylindrical fabric with thorium nitrate and a small percentage of cerium nitrate to create a bright white glow in a gas flame. Auer theorizes that gas flames might give more light if they heat up some compound that itself glows brightly without melting at high heat. This lamp would probably have been a better gas light, however, Edison's electric lights will replace gas lights.
The Welsbach mantle greatly improved gas lighting and, although largely replaced by the incandescent lamp, is still widely used in kerosene and other lanterns.
According to Wikipedia: "The mantle is made from oxides that, when heated, glow brightly in the visible spectrum while emitting little infrared radiation. The rare earth oxides (cerium) and actinide (thorium) in the mantle have a low emissivity in the infrared (in comparison with an ideal black body), but have high emissivity in the visible spectrum. Hence, when heated by a kerosene or liquified petroleum gas flame, the mantle emits radiation that is weighted less heavily in the infrared and more heavily in the visible spectrum, leading to an enhanced output of useful light.
Modern mantles are made by saturating a ramie-based artificial silk or rayon fabric with rare earths. When the mantle, which resembles a small net bag, is placed in the flame for the first time, the fabric burns away, leaving a residue of metal oxide, which glows brightly.
The mantle shrinks and becomes very fragile after this first use.". (verify)
| (University of Vienna) Vienna |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 4388) William Bateson (CE 1861-1926), English biologist, states that chordates evolved from primitive echinoderms, providing evidence from embryo studies.
Bateson finds gill slits, a small part of a notochord and a dorsal nerve chord, in a Balanoglossus, a wormlike organism with a larval stage similar to an echinoderm (such as starfish), and this small notochord establishes the Balanoglossus as a chordate, the phylum created by Kovalevski and Balfour that includes humans. This is the first indication that chordates are descended from a primitive echinoderm.
This view is now widely accepted.
| (St. John’s College) Cambridge, England |
115 YBN
[1885 AD]
| 4461) Charles Fievez (CE 1844-1890) (FEAVA?), Belgium astronomer, identifies the widening of spectral emission lines when subjected to an electromagnetic field. This effect will be developed more by Dutch physicist, Pieter Zeeman (ZAmoN) (CE 1865-1943) and will be called the "Zeeman effect".
(find photo of Fievez) (translate original paper)
Fievez describes light emission lines under the magnetic field as undergoing a "reversal" and a "double reversal" - which may imply that a bright line and dark line reversed to be dark and bright - the modern interpretation is that the bright line moved position.
Faraday had tried to change the position of spectral lines using a magnetic field, but failed to detect any change.
Zeeman acknowledges Fievez's work in an appendix, but states that Fievez fails to mention widening of absorption lines (only describing widening of emission lines), and polarization of emitted light. In addition, Zeeman states that Fievez may have not been observing the same phenomenon.
| (Royal Observatory of Brusells) Bruselles, Belgium |
114 YBN
[02/23/1886 AD]
| 4431) Charles Martin Hall (CE 1863-1914), US chemist creates a low cost method of producing pure aluminum metal.
Hall dissolves aluminum oxide in a molten mineral called cryolite and uses carbon electrodes and electrolysis (first used by Davy) using homemade batteries and at age 22, 8 months after graduation from college. Aluminum is very common in the earth's crust, and in metallic form is light, strong, and a good conductor of electricity. On this day Hall shows his teacher the little globules of aluminum he had formed, and these globules are still preserved by the Aluminum Company of America. This method is called the Hall- Héroult method and forms the foundation of the huge aluminum industry. In seven years the price of aluminum drops from $5 a pound to $.70 a pound. By 1914 aluminum will be down to $.18 a pound. Aluminum is now the second most used metal after steel. Aluminum permeates the earth and is used in modern airplanes, house siding, canoes, power lines, storm windows, robot bodies and for many other purposes.
(what voltage does Hall use? How is the cryolite heated to be molten?)
Paul-Louis-Toussaint Héroult of France independently discovers the identical process at about the same time.
In 1859 Sainte-Claire Deville had described a means of plating aluminum on copper by electrolysis using fused cryolite (a double fluoride of aluminum and sodium) as an electrolyte. Almost thirty years later, Hall himself experiments with electrolysis using fused cryolite, but as a solvent for alumina, which he hopes to electrolyze. With a crucible of clay Hall’s experiment fails, but after Hall lines the clay with carbon, the alumina dissolves like sugar in water and globules of aluminum collect at the cathode. Hall's major patent (No. 400,766, issued 2 April 1889) is challenged unsuccessfully on the grounds that Sainte-Claire Deville anticipated him.
(it seems too coincidental, perhaps this is evidence for a secret microphone science new network?)
(It seems interesting that aluminum is useful, and is such a basic simple thing, being made of a single atom. Perhaps aluminum is used throughout the universe, but maybe more complex molecules will become more popular, like the plastics.)
| (Oberlin (Ohio) College Hall) Oberlin, Ohio, USA |
114 YBN
[04/??/1886 AD]
| 4415) Paul Louis Toussaint Héroult (ArU or IrU) (CE 1863-1914), French metallurgists patents the electrolytic method of producing aluminum greatly increasing the quantity and lowering the price of pure aluminum.
Paul Louis Toussaint Héroult (ArU or IrU) (CE 1863-1914), French metallurgists patents the electrolytic method of producing aluminum and this results in the development of Europe's aluminum industry.
Héroult patents a method for the electrolysis of melted cryolite at approximately 1000° C, in a crucible lined with carbon and serving as a cathode; the melted aluminum accumulates at the bottom of the crucible. An anode of pure carbon is plunged into the bath and is burned by the oxygen liberated at its surface. This is exactly the procedure followed today.
Cryolite (also called Greenland spar) is an uncommon, white, vitreous natural fluoride of aluminum and sodium, with molecular formula Na3AlF6, and was once used as a source of metallic sodium and aluminum, but now is used chiefly as a flux in the electrolytic process in the production of aluminum from bauxite.
(This will make the price of aluminum become much lower and bring aluminum into popular use. )
Charles M. Hall develops an identical process in the USA aruond the same time.
| (family tannery) Gentilly, France |
114 YBN
[05/03/1886 AD]
| 3881) (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney (CE 1843-1920), English astronomer, and Lieutenant-Colonel Festing confirm Rayleigh's equation for a "turbid medium" of mastic dissolved in a half-inch thick container of alcohol and water, using a thermopile to measure intensity of radiation.
(also see )
This is 16 years after Rayleigh published his equation. (To me, the interesting aspect of this scattering, is - do the spectral lines match the original lines? Because Vogel had found that the lines moved around, which implies that there is some kind of absorption and emission, or reflection that results in a different frequency than the original frequency.)
(A light-as-a-particle interpretation would interpret this relation to wavelength as applying to photon interval. In this interpretation, a higher ratio of photons in a beam of higher frequency are transmitted through a cloudy, or turbid medium than photons in a beam of lower frequency.)
| (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England (verify) |
114 YBN
[06/26/1886 AD]
| 4139) Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan (mWoSoN) (CE 1852-1907), French chemist is the first to isolate fluorine gas, by passing an electric current through a solution of potassium fluoride in hydrofluoric acid cooled to -50°C to reduce the activity of the fluorine. Fluorine is very difficult to isolate. Davy, Gay-Lussac, and Thénard all had failed and many had suffered the poisoning effects of fluorine or fluorine compounds as a result. Moissan himself is only 54 when he dies, stating that he thought he had shortened his life by 10 years from fluorine. When Fluorine is broken loose from a molecule, it quickly bonds with many other kinds of atoms, platinum being one exception. Moissan isolates a pale yellow gas that bonds quickly with anything brought near it except platinum. This is fluorine, the most active of all elements. Since the time of Davy people in chemistry knew this element existed and must be similar in properties to chlorine, but even more active. Moissan's chemistry teacher Frémy in the 1870s had been interested in isolating fluorine.
Fluorine is a pale-yellow, highly corrosive, poisonous, gaseous halogen element, the most electronegative and most reactive of all the elements, used in a wide variety of industrially important compounds. Atomic number 9; atomic weight 18.9984; freezing point −219.62°C; melting point −223°C; boiling point −188.14°C; relative density (specific gravity) of liquid 1.108 (at boiling point); valence 1.
(interesting that fluorine will not bond with platinum. Platinum is one of the most dense atoms. EX: Perhaps Osmium and Iridium might show a similar property. Probably all atoms and even molecules should be identified to find which atoms bond with which and which do not, and massive tables/books made, probably this is being done already but what are they called?)
(how is fluorine identified, spectral?)
| (École Supérieure de Pharmacie) Paris, France |
114 YBN
[07/27/1886 AD]
| 4096) Eugen Goldstein (GOLTsTIN) (CE 1850-1930), German physicist, discovers "Kanalstrahlen" ("channel rays") which will be later identified as composed of protons. by Ernest Rutherford.
Eugen Goldstein (GOLTsTIN) (CE 1850-1930), German physicist, uses a perforated cathode and finds that there are rays going through the channels in the direction opposite to that of the cathode rays. Golstein calls these rays "Kanalstrahlen" ("channel rays", although they are commonly called "canal rays" in this time). In 1895 Perrin will show that these rays are made of positively charged particles. In 1907 J. J. Thompson calls them "positive rays". The study of these rays will lead to these particles being labeled protons by Ernest Rutherford.
(How does Goldstein detect and measure these rays since they are invisible? What first makes him think there may be such rays? Why does he try a perforated cathode?). (They are seen by the photons they emit apparently - see images.)
(Get translation of original paper into English - there is apparently no English translation yet.) There is "On the Canal Ray Group" by Goldstein in 1908.
| (University of Berlin - verify) Berlin, Germany |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3170) Karl Theodor Wilhelm Weierstrass (VYRsTroS) (CE 1815-1897), German mathematician publishes "Abhandlungen aus der Funktionenlehre" (1886) which describes his development of the modern theory of functions. Weierstrass gives the first truly rigorous definitions of such fundamental analytical concepts as limit, continuity, differentiability, and convergence. Weierstrass also does important work in investigating the precise conditions under which infinite series converge. Tests for convergence that Weierstrass devises are still in use. (First published in this work?)
Weierstrass views that intuition cannot be trusted and seeks to make the bases of his analysis as rigorous and formal as possible. To accomplish this Weierstrauss tries to establish the calculus (and the theory of functions) on the concept of number alone, therefore separating it completely from geometry
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3426) Leopold Kronecker (KrOneKR) (CE 1823-1891), German mathematician tries to reinterpret all of mathematics in terms of integers alone.
There may be some value to this, in that, in the universe, a person may view there only being single photons, and single units of space, never half a photon, or a third of a space that a photon might occupy. In this way, a person could say the universe is integer, having a size of 1 at it's smallest measurement.
In this year, Kronecker publicly argues against the theory of irrational numbers. Kronecker states "...the introduction of various concepts by the help of which it has frequently been attempted in recent times (but first by Heine) to conceive and establish the 'irrationals' in general. Even the concept of an infinite series, for example one which increases according to definite powers of variables, is in my opinion only permissible with the reservation that in every special case, on the basis of the arithmetic laws of constructing terms (or coefficients), ... certain assumptions must be shown to hold which are applicable to the series like finite expressions, and which thus make the extension beyond the concept of a finite series really unnecessary.". Lindemann had proved that π is transcendental in 1882, and in a lecture given in 1886 Kronecker complimented Lindemann on a beautiful proof but claims that this proof proves nothing since transcendental numbers do not exist.
Kronecker is remembered for a famous remark he makes during an after-dinner speech: "God made the integers, all else is the work of man.".
I take the view that the concept of infinity does apply tot he physical universe, although it is difficult to justify. I can accept that irrational numbers exist. Transcendental numbers I accept can exist, but these kinds of labels can go on forever. People can create all kinds of number groups that fit or do not fit certain equations. For example, those numbers which cannot be the root of the equation x-1=9, etc. I think the important aspect of all integer math is the application to the universe. I am not sure an only integer universe is possible. In an integer universe, even accelerations, and velocities must be integer values. Geometry implies that there are some distances that are fractional, for example a line connecting two lines of 3 photons each to form a triangle has length sqrt(18) which is 4.2. It's possible that space has smaller units than the size of photons, in which case, photons might not align with integer spacing. In mathematics, people can create any concept they want. For me, the interesting question is: Should the geometry of space be viewed as integer only? Perhaps the importance of this question, in addition to doubts or lack of understanding about the concepts of infinity and irrational numbers, is why Kronecker is remembered.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3625) François Marie Raoult (roU) (CE 1830-1901), French physical chemist, creates "Raoult's law", which states that the changes in certain related properties of a liquid (e.g., vapour pressure, boiling point, or freezing point) that occur when a substance is dissolved in the liquid are proportional to the number of molecules of dissolved substance (solute) present for a given quantity of solvent molecules.
This law makes it possible to determine the molecular (mass) of dissolved substances.
Raoult initially shows this for dissolved substances, and later shows a similar effect for the vapor pressure of solutions. Measurement of freezing-point depression becomes an important technique for determining molecular weights.
Raoult's first paper on the depression of the freezing-points of liquids by the presence of substances dissolved in them was published in 1878. Around 1886 Raoult finds that the freezing point of an aqueous solution is lowered in proportion to the amount of a nonelectrolytic substance dissolved.
Few real solutions behave strictly in accordance with this law. A solution that conforms to Raoult’s law is called an ideal solution.
(Possibly the intricate geometries of molecules also plays a role, in which case, there would be no linear change in, for example, boiling temperature. At the small scale there must be molecules that combine with each other better than others, or that have more solid surfaces which cause more collisions.)
Also of significance is Raoult's observation that the depression of the freezing point of water caused by an inorganic salt is double that caused by an organic solute (with the same molecular (mass)). This is one of the anomalies whose explanation will lead Sven Arrhenius to formulate his theory of ionic dissociation.
| (University of Grenoble) Grenoble, France |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3632) Hermann Hellriegel (HeLrEGL) (CE 1831-1895), German chemist, announces his find that certain leguminous plants (peas, beans, etc) are capable of making use of atmospheric nitrogen, something most plants cannot do. This means that planting legumes puts nitrogen back into the soil.
Whether the nitrogen of the air can be utilized by plants or not has been long and strenuously discussed, Boussingault first, and then Lawes, Gilbert and Pugh, maintaining that there was no evidence of this utilization. But it was always recognized that certain plants, clover for example, enriched the land with nitrogen to an extent greater than could be accounted for by the mere supply of nitrates in the soil.
As director of agricultural research for the dukedom of Anhalt-Bernburg, Germany, Hellriegel performs experiments on the requirements of growing sugar beets and finds that certain legumes absorb nitrogen from the air and convert it into a utilizable bound form in the soil in which beets are grown.
| Anhalt-Bernburg, Germany |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3741) (Sir) Joseph Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920), English astronomer, states that stars with increasing temperature should be distinguished from stars with decreasing temperature.
(I think it may take centuries before we measure if a star is increasing or decreasing in temperature {and mass}.)
| (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England (presumably) |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3769) Friedrich Konrad Beilstein (BILsTIN) (CE 1838-1906), Russian chemist publishes his second edition of "Handbook of Organic Chemistry" in 3 volumes (1886-1889).
The fourth edition (27 volumes) of the Handbuch (commonly known as Beilstein) appears in 1937 and is kept up to date by periodic supplements.
Even after 27 volumes and 27 supplementary volumes, "Beilstein" is still far out of date, with thousands of new organic (or carbon) compounds being synthesized each year.
Because of the rapid growth of organic chemistry, in 1900 Beilstein turns over the task of maintaining the "Handbuch" over to the Deutsche Chemische Gesellschaft ("German Chemical Society") which still labors on it.
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersburg, Russia |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3783) Paul Émile Lecoq De Boisbaudran (luKOK Du BWoBODroN or BWoBoDroN) (CE 1838-1912), French chemist, identifies the element Dysprosium by spectroscopy.
Dysprosium has atomic number 66; atomic weight 162.50; melting point 1,407°C; boiling point 2,600°C; relative density 8.536; valence 3.
Dysprosium is a lustrous silvery metal; it is very soft and can be cut with a knife. Dysprosium is in Group 3 of the periodic table and is a member of the lanthanide series; all members of this series are rare-earth metals and resemble one another in their chemical properties. Dysprosium is stable in air at room temperature. It dissolves in both dilute and concentrated mineral acids; forms a white oxide known as dysprosia; and, with other elements, forms several brightly colored salts. It is commonly found with other rare-earth metals in several minerals, including gadolinite and euxenite. Dysprosium and its compounds are among the most highly susceptible to magnetization of all substances and are used in special magnetic alloys. A cermet (SRMeT, a material consisting of processed ceramic particles bonded with metal and used in high-strength and high-temperature applications. Also called ceramal) of dysprosium oxide and nickel is used in nuclear reactor control rods. Dysprosium is used with argon in mercury-vapor lamps to give a higher light output and balance the color spectrum.
Dysprosium does not become available in relatively pure form until the 1950s.
(TODO: Show original paper: )
(It is interesting how all the atoms are mixed together, and how special techniques are needed to group them together, and connect them into a single solid piece.)
(Interesting how Dysprosium is the most easily magnetized of all elements - and materials?, how is this measured?)
| (home lab) Cognac, France (presumably) |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3786) In 1885 a new ore, argyrodite, is discovered in the local mines and Clemens Alexander Winkler (VENKlR) (Ce 1838-1904), German chemist is asked to examine it. Winkler finds that all the elements he identifies in this silver ore amount to only 93 percent of the entire amount. Winkler finds that this is due to the presence of a new element, which, after several months, he isolates and names germanium after Germany. The properties of germanium match those of the eka-silicon whose existence had been predicted in 1871 by Dmitri Mendeleev, so Germanium fits onto the periodic table in a position under Silicon. The finding of Germanium completes the detection of the three new elements predicted by Mendeleev nearly 20 years before.
Germanium has atomic number 32; atomic mass 72.59; melting point 937.4°C; boiling point 2,830°C; relative density 5.323 (at 25°C); valence 2, 4.
Pure germanium is a lustrous, gray-white, brittle metalloid with a diamondlike crystalline structure. It is similar in chemical and physical properties to silicon, below which it appears in Group 14 of the periodic table. Germanium is very important as a semiconductor. Transistors and integrated circuits provide the greatest use of the element; they are often made from germanium to which small amounts of arsenic, gallium, or other metals have been added. Numerous alloys containing germanium have been prepared. Germanium forms many compounds. Germanium occurs in a few minerals, e.g., argyrodite (with silver and sulfur), zinc blende (with zinc and sulfur), and tantalite (with iron, manganese, and columbium). The chief ore of germanium is germanite, which contains copper, sulfur, about 7% germanium, and 20 other elements. Germanium is produced as a byproduct of the refining of other metals; considerable quantities of germanium are recovered from flue dusts and from ashes of certain coals with high germanium content.
Two oxides of germanium are known: germanium dioxide (GeO2, germania) and germanium monoxide, (GeO). Germane (GeH4) is a compound similar in structure to methane. Polygermanes—compounds that are similar to alkanes—with formula GenH2n+2 containing up to five germanium atoms are known. The germanes are less volatile and less reactive than their corresponding silicon analogues.
Germanium is insoluble in hydrochloric acid, but dissolves in aqua regia, and is also soluble in molten alkalis.
Germanium has five naturally-occurring isotopes.
(Interesting that Germanium in glass increases the refractive index, what explains this? In addition, that glass is usually made of silicon, so perhaps the replacement with germanium with a valence of 4 is geometrically stable - and transparent to most directions of photons beams.)
(It seems clear that all these new elements must produce many new interesting combinations of molecules of gases, liquids and solids.)
Winkler publishes this as "Germanium, Ge, ein neues, nichtmetallisches Element" ("Germanium, Ge, a new, nonmetallic element").
(Identifies spectroscopically? Describe how isolated.)
Winkler also develops new techniques for analyzing gases. (see ) (more detail)
| (Freiberg School of Mining) Freiberg, Germany |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 3799) (Baron) Richard von Krafft-Ebing (KroFT IBiNG) (CE 1840-1902), German neurologist publishes "Psychopathia Sexualis" (1886, tr. 1892), case histories of sexual abnormality, and introduces the words "paranoia", "sadism", and "masochism".
This book is a groundbreaking examination of sexual aberrations. This work is popular and goes through many editions. This work will influence Freud's theories 20 years later. In his life Krafft-Ebing is recognized as an authority on deviant sexual behavior.
Chapters of "Psychopathia Sexualis" are (translated from 12th German edition): (find translation of first edition if possible) "Fragments of a System of Psychology of Sexual Life" which contains: "Force of sexual instinct 1 Sexual instinct the basis of ethical sentiments 2 Love as a passion 2 Historical development of sexual life 3 Chastity 3 Christianity 3 Monogamy 4 Position of woman in Islam 5 Sensuality and morality 5 Cultural demoralisation of sexual life 5 Episodes of the moral decay of nations 6 Development of sexual desire puberty 7 Sensuality and religious fanaticism 7 Relation between religious and sexual domains 8 Sensuality and art 11 Idealisation of first love 12 True love 12 Sentimentality 12 Platonic love 13 Love and Friendship 13 Difference between the love of the man and that of the woman 14 Celibacy 15 Adultery 15 Matrimony 16 Fondness of dress 16 Facts of physiological fetichism 17 Religious and erotic fetichism 18 Hair hand foot of the female as fetiches 21 Eye smell voice psychical qualities as fetich 22." Chapter 2 is "PHYSIOLOGICAL FACTS": " Puberty 25 Time limit of sexual life 26 Sexual instinct 26 Localisation 27 Physiological development of sexual life 28 Erections Centre of erection 28 Sphere of sexuality and olfaction 32 Flagellation as a stimulant for sexual life 34 Sect of flagellants 35 Flagel lum Salutis of Paulini 36 Erogenous hyperses thetic zones 38 Control of sexual instinct 40 Coitus 40 Ejaculation 41." Some interesting section titles are: "Sadism, an attempted explanation of sadism, Sadistic lust murder, Flogging of boys, Maltreatment and humiliation invited for the purpose of sexual gratification, Ideal masochism, hand fetichism, Mania for (theft of) femal handkerchiegs, Shoe fetichism, homosexuality, Satyriasis and nymphomania, hysteria, paranoia, Sexual crimes classified, exhibitionists, rape and lust-murder, masochism and sexual bondage, immorality with persons under the age of fourteen, causes of vice, reasons why legal proceedings against homosexual acts should be stopped, necophilia, incest".
The term paranoia appears to have been first applied by R. von Krafft-Ebing in 1879 to all forms of systematized delusional insanity. (Interesting - it did not originally mean excessive fear?)
Krafft-Ebing also establishes the relationship between syphilis and general paresis (slight or partial paralysis). (chronology)
(Clearly, any book talking openly about the science of sexuality has to be progress.)
(With human sexuality, clearly an antisexual bias has existed for many centuries. For example, there is clearly nothing unhealthy with any consensual touching, whether different or same gender, married or unmarried, between one or more humans, of unusual fetishes - so long as nonviolent and consensual, of different ages, even between different species - for money or for free, as much or as little as a human wants, ...all healthy or certainly should be legal and not punished in my opinion...but yet, all of these consensual nonviolent touching events are viewed negatively, and many are illegal even today. I think the trend is clear, however consensual anal sex has changed to legal as has homosexuality, adultery, seduction, prostitution, public nudity and sex, in some places - that people are starting to embrace logic and physical consensual pleasure - to remove the illogical and pasts value on self-denial and rigid controls on what kind of nonviolent consensual pleasure and sexuality is tolerated.)
(I am interested in the origin of the abstract theories of neurosis and psychosis, since these appear to apply to nothing more specific than delusion, inaccurate or unusual opinion. By the time of this work both "neurosis" and "psychosis" are already in use.)
(It sounds interesting to hear about human's and even other species' interests in sex that are unusual. Sadly, though, probably a million inaccurate labels and pretend diseases are created, in an effort to categorize such unusual interests, and then unconsensually and experimentally "treated" with tortures and drugs. But explaining how people have sex, what activities they like to do (including crimes and violence they do), (informing the public) I think is all included in science.)
(Another interesting point is that possibly Krafft-Ebing mistakes non-sexual violence for being sex related in sections such as mutilation of corpses, sadistic acts against animals,
I think a modern view would be nice, in particular in looking at the science of nonviolent-consensual sex. it seems clear that many people like a variety of interesting things: voyeurism, catching a person in the act, uniforms, same gender touching, interest in younger people is popular - probably because their bodies are in better shape, of course the usual large breasts, genitals, round buttocks, pretty face, muscular, .. there are many aspects to consensual sexuality - but yet almost none have been openly and logically explored and discussed. Much of sexuality is masked behind a wall of abstraction in psychology.)
| Graz, Austria |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 4099) Hans Ernst Angass Buchner (CE 1850-1902), German bacteriologist identifies what is later called a "complement", one of a number of proteins in blood that work together to eliminate infectious organisms frmo the body.
In 1888 George Nuttall had shown that the ability of blood to destroy invading bacteria lay in the serum. Buchner follows up Nuttall's work and goes on to demonstrate that the bacteriolytic power is lost when the serum is heated to 56°C. Buchner therefore concludes that serum possesses a heat labile substance that he proposes to name alexin. This work is soon extended by Jules Bordet. Alexins are later renamed "complement" by the immunologist Paul Ehrlich, and are now known to be part of the complement system, which consists of about 20 proteins that act together to eliminate infectious organisms from the body.
Buchner is one of the first to study gamma globulings, proteins which antibodies are produced from. (chronology) (needs more specific info)
Buchner devises methods for studying anaerobic bacteria (bacteria that grow in the absence of air).
(interesting that they could possibly grow in the empty space between planets, this should be tested).
(Cite original paper if any)
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 4135) Jacobus Henricus van't Hoff (VoNT HoF) (CE 1852-1911), Dutch physical chemist shows from quantitative experiments on osmosis that dilute solutions of cane sugar obey the same laws of Boyle, Gay-Lussac, and particularly Avogadro. So in this way van't Hoff shows that molecules dissolved in liquid move much like gas molecules.
Van't Hoff publishes this in "L’équilibre chimique dans les systèmes gazeux, ou dissous à l’état dilué" ("The chemical equilibrium in gaseous systems, or dissolved in the dilute state", 1886).
| (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 4168) (Sir) William Matthew Flinders Petrie (PETrE) (CE 1853-1942), (English archaeologist) determines that history can be reconstructed by a comparison of pottery fragments at various levels of an excavation.
Petrie uncovers sites of Greek settlements at Naucratis (1885) and Daphnae (1886) in Egypt.
| Nile River Delta, Egypt |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 4197) Paul Ehrlich (ArliK) (CE 1854-1915), German bacteriologist, describes methylene blue as a selective vital stain for ganglionic cells, axis cylinders, and nerve endings.
| (Charité Hospital) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
114 YBN
[1886 AD]
| 4359) Theobald Smith (CE 1859-1934), US pathologist finds that pigeons develop immunity to hog cholera after inoculated with heat-killed cultures. At the time the causative bacterium is thought to be Salmonella choleraesuis but hog cholera is later shown to be caused by a virus. Smith's discovery points the way to the preparation of other vaccines using killed disease-causing microorganisms.
| (Columbian University, now George Washington University), Washington, D.C, USA |
113 YBN
[02/21/1887 AD]
| 4122) Herman Frasch (Fros) (CE 1851-1914), German-US chemist, patents a method to remove sulfur compounds from oil (which would otherwise be worthless) by using lead oxide and other metallic oxides. This will increase the amount of usable oil and contribute to making the gasoline automobile practical.
Frasch finds that Canadian oil which has a bad smell (called "skunk oil") can dissolve lead oxide, while other oils cannot. In addition Frasch writes that the lead oxide removes the smell and makes the oil usable.
| London, Ontario, Canada |
113 YBN
[03/04/1887 AD]
| 3713) Four wheel automobile propelled by gasoline combustion engine. Daimler installs one of his engines on a bicycle (adding a small pair of guide wheels to prevent tipping over), and drives it over the roads of Mannheim, Baden.
On March 8, 1886, Daimler takes a stagecoach (made by Wilhelm Wimpff & Son) and adapts it so that it can hold his engine.
This vehicle is capable of a top speed of 18 kilometers (11 miles) per hour.
(Detail steering and brake design)
Henry Ford will apply engineering principles to humans and make the automobile practical and popular.
| (factory) Stuttgart, Germany |
113 YBN
[03/??/1887 AD]
| 4285) Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (CE 1857-1894), German physicist, publishes more details about electrical induction, in particular, how electrical oscillations in one circuit can excite the same electrical oscillations to flow (causing a spark) in a second distant circuit by the phenomenon of resonance. Resonance is obtained by adjusting the self-induction and capacity in the primary circuit, and the capacity of the second circuit.
Hertz explains this principle writing: "... According to the principle of resonance, a regularly alternating current must (other things being similar) act with much stronger inductive effect upon a circuit having the same period of oscillation than upon one of only slightly different period. If, therefore, we allow two circuits, which may be assumed to have approximately the same period of vibration, to react on one another, and if we vary continuously the capacity or coefficient of self-induction of one of them, the resonance should show that for certain values of these quantities the induction is perceptibly stronger than for neighbouring values on either side. The following experiments were devised in accordance with this principle, and, after a few trials, they quite answered my intention. ...".
Communication by light particle beams with low frequency is made public by Heinrich Hertz. (The use of radio communication made more public.)
(Possibly remove most for the 5.0 version - and just leave the intro+resonance+conclusion and any other important parts.)
In March of 1887 Hertz publishes "Ueber sehr schnelle electrische Schwingungen" ("On Very Rapid Oscillations") in Annalen der Physik. Hertz writes: " The electric oscillations of open induction-coils have a period of vibration which is measured by ten-thousandths of a second. The vibrations in the oscillatory discharges of Leyden jars, such as were observed by Feddersen, follow each other about a hundred times as rapidly. Theory admits the possibility of oscillations even more rapid than these in open wire circuits of good conductivity, provided that the ends are not loaded with large capacities; but at the same time theory does not enable us to decide whether such oscillations can be actually excited on such a scale as to admit of their being observed. Certain phenomena led me to expect that oscillations of the latter kind do really occur under certain conditions, and that they are of such strength as to allow of their effects being observed. Further experiments confirmed my expectation, and I propose to give here an account of the experiments made and the phenomena observed. The oscillations which are here dealt with are about a hundred times as rapid as those observed by Feddersen. Their period of oscillation—estimated, it is true, only by the aid of theory—is of the order of a hundred-millionth of a second. Hence, according to their period, these oscillations range themselves in a position intermediate between the acoustic oscillations of ponderable bodies and the light-oscillations of the ether. In this, and in the possibility that a closer observation of them may be of service in the theory of electrodynamics, lies the interest which they present.
Preliminary Experiments
If, in addition to the ordinary spark-gap of an induction-coil, there be introduced in its discharging circuit a Riess's spark-micrometer, the poles of which are joined by a long metallic shunt, the discharge follows the path across the air-gap of the micrometer in preference to the path along the metallic conductor, so long as the length of the air-gap does not exceed a certain limit. This is already known, and the construction of lightning-protectors for telegraph-lines is based on this experimental fact. It might be expected that, if the metallic shunt were only made short and of low resistance, the sparks in the micrometer would then disappear. As a matter of fact, the length of the sparks obtained does diminish with the length of the shunt, but the sparks can scarcely be made to disappear entirely under any circumstances. Even when the two knobs of the micrometer are connected 'by a few centimetres of thick copper wire sparks can still be observed, although they are exceedingly short. This experiment shows directly that at the instant when the discharge occurs the potential along the circuit must vary in value by hundreds of volts even in a few centimetres ; indirectly it proves with what extraordinary rapidity the discharge takes place. For the difference of potential between the knobs of the micrometer can only be regarded as an effect of self-induction in the metallic shunt. The time in which the potential of one of the knobs is appreciably changed is of the same order as the time in which such a change is transmitted to the other knob through a short length of a good conductor. The potential difference between the micrometer-knobs might indeed be supposed to be determined by the resistance of the shunt, the current-density during the discharge being possibly large. But a closer examination of the quantitative relations shows that this supposition is inadmissible; and the following experiment shows independently that this conjecture cannot be put forward. We again connect the knobs of the micrometer by a 'good metallic conductor', say by a copper wire 2 mm. in diameter and 0.5 metre long, bent into rectangular form; we do not, however, introduce this into the discharging-circuit of the induction-coil, but we simply place one pole of it in communication with any point of the discharging circuit by means of a connecting wire. (Fig. 6 shows the arrangement of the apparatus; A represents diagrammatically the induction-coil, B the discharger, and M the micrometer.) Thereupon we again observe, while the induction-coil is working, a stream of sparks in the micrometer which may, under suitable conditions, attain a length of several millimetres. Now this experiment shows, in the first place, that at the instant when the discharge takes place violent electrical disturbances occur, not only in the actual discharging-circuit, but also in all conductors connected with it But, in the second place, it shows more clearly than the preceding experiment that these disturbances run on so rapidly that even the time taken by electrical waves in rushing through short metallic conductors becomes of appreciable importance. For the experiment can only be interpreted in the sense that the change of potential proceeding from the induction-coil reaches the knob 1 in an appreciably shorter time than the knob 2. The phenomenon may well cause surprise when we consider that, as far as we know, electric waves in copper wires are propagated with a velocity which is approximately the same as that of light. So it appeared to me to be worth while to endeavour to determine what conditions were most favourable for the production of brilliant sparks in the micrometer. For the sake of brevity we shall speak of these sparks as the side-sparks (in order to distinguish them from the discharge proper), and of the micrometer discharging-circuit as the side-circuit (Nebenkreis).
First of all it became evident that powerful discharges are necessary if side-sparks of several millimetres in length are desired. I therefore used in all the following experiments a large Ruhmkorff coil, 52 cm. long and 20 cm. in diameter, which was provided with a mercury interrupter and was excited by six large Bunsen cells. Smaller induction-coils gave the same qualitative results, but the side-sparks were shorter, and it was therefore more difficult to observe differences between them. The same held good when discharges from Leyden jars or from batteries were used instead of the induction-coil. It further appeared that even when the same apparatus was used a good deal depended upon the nature of the exciting spark in the discharger (B). If this takes place between two points, or between a point and a plate, it only gives rise to very weak side-sparks; discharges in rarefied gases or through Geissler tubes were found to be equally ineffective. The only kind of spark that proved satisfactory was that between two knobs (spheres), and this must neither be too long nor too short. If it is shorter than half a centimetre the side-sparks are weak, and if it is longer than 1 1/2 cm. they disappear entirely. In the following experiments I used, as being the most suitable, sparks three-quarters of a centimetre long between two brass knobs of 3 cm. diameter. Even these sparks were not always equally efficient; the most insignificant details, often without any apparent connection, resulted in useless sparks appearing instead of active ones. After some practice one can judge from the appearance and noise of the sparks whether they are such as are able to excite side-sparks. The active sparks are brilliant white, slightly jagged, and are accompanied by a sharp crackling. That the spark in the discharger is an essential condition of the production of shuntsparks is easily shown by drawing the discharger-knobs so far apart that the distance between them exceeds the sparking distance of the induction-coil; every trace of the side-sparks then disappears, although the differences of potential now present are greater than before.
The length of the micrometer-circuit naturally has great influence upon the length of the sparks in it. For the greater this distance, the greater is the retardation which the electric wave suffers between the time of its arrival at the one knob and at the other. If the side-circuit is made very small, the side-sparks become extremely short; but it is scarcely possible to prepare a circuit in which sparks will not show themselves under favourable circumstances. Thus, if you file the ends of a stout copper wire, 4-6 cm. long, to sharp points, bend it into an almost closed circuit, insulate it and now touch the discharger with this small wire circuit, a stream of very small sparks between the pointed ends generally accompanies the discharges of the induction-coil. The thickness and material (and therefore the resistance) of the side-circuit have very little effect on the length of the side-sparks. We were therefore justified in declining to attribute to the resistance the differences of potential which arise.) And according to our conception of the phenomenon, the fact that the resistance is of scarcely any importance can cause us no surprise; for, to a first approximation, the rate of propagation of an electric wave along a wire depends solely upon its capacity and self-induction, and not upon its resistance. The length of the wire which connects the side-circuit to the principal circuit has also little effect, provided it does not exceed a few metres. We must assume that the electric disturbance which proceeds from the principal circuit travels along it without suffering any real change of intensity.
On the other hand, the position of the point at which contact with the side-circuit is made has a very noteworthy effect upon the length of the sparks in it. We should expect this to be so if our interpretation of the phenomenon is correct. For if the point of contact is so placed that the paths from it to the two knobs of the micrometer are of equal length, then every variation which passes through the connecting wire will arrive at the two knobs in the same phase, so that no difference of potential between them can arise. Experiment confirms this supposition. Thus, if we shift the point of contact on the side-circuit, which we have hitherto supposed near one of the micrometer-knobs, farther and farther away from this, the spark-length diminishes, and in a certain position the sparks disappear completely or very nearly so; they become stronger again in proportion as the contact approaches the second micrometer-knob, and in this position attain the same length as in the first. The point at which the spark-length is a minimum may be called the null-point. It can generally be determined to within a few centimetres. It always divides the length of the wire between the two micrometer-knobs into very nearly equal parts. If the conductor is symmetrical on the right and left of the line joining the micrometer and the null-point, the sparks always disappear completely, the phenomenon can be observed even with quite short side-circuits. Fig. 7 shows a convenient arrangement of the experiment ; a b c d is a rectangle of bare copper wire 2 mm. in diameter, insulated upon sealing-wax supports; in my experiments it was 80 cm. broad and 125 long. When the connecting wire is attached to either of the knobs 1 and 2, or either of the points a. and b, sparks 3-4 mm. long pass between 1 and 2 ; no sparks can be obtained when the connection is at the point e, as in the figure; shifting the contact a few centimetres to right or left causes the sparks to reappear. It should be remarked that we consider sparks as being perceptible when they are only a few hundredths of a millimetre in length.
The following experiment shows that the above is not a complete representation of the way in which things go on. For if, after the contact has been adjusted so as to make the sparks disappear, we attach to one of the micrometer-knobs another conductor projecting beyond it, active sparking again occurs. This conductor, being beyond the knob, cannot affect the simultaneous arrival of the waves travelling from e to 1 and 2. But it is easy to see what the explanation of this experiment is. The waves do not come to an end after rushing once towards a and b; they are reflected and traverse the side-circuit several, perhaps many, times and so give rise to stationary oscillations in it. If the paths e c a 1 and e d b 2 are equal, the reflected waves will again arrive at 1 and 2 simultaneously. If, however, the wave reflected from one of the knobs is missing, as in the last experiment, then, although the first disturbance proceeding from e will not give rise to sparks, the reflected waves will. We must therefore imagine the abrupt variation which arrives at e as creating in the side-circuit the oscillations which are natural to it, much as the blow of a hammer produces in an elastic rod its natural vibrations. If this idea is correct, then the condition for disappearance of sparks in M must substantially be equality of the vibration-periods of the two portions e 1 and e 2. These vibration-periods are determined by the product of the coefficient of self-induction of those parts of the conductor into the capacity of their ends; they are practically independent of the resistance of the branches. The following experiments may be applied to test these considerations and are found to agree with them:—
If the connection is placed at the null-point and one of the micrometer-knobs is touched with an insulated conductor, sparking begins again because the capacity of the branch is increased. An insulated sphere of 2-4 cm. diameter is quite sufficient. The larger the capacity which is thus added, the more energetic becomes the sparking. Touching at the null-point has no influence since it affects both branches equally. The effect of adding a capacity to one branch is annulled by adding an equal capacity to the other. It can also be compensated by shifting the connecting wire in the direction of the loaded branch, i.e. by diminishing the self-induction of the latter. The addition of a capacity produces the same effect as increasing the coefficient of self-induction. If one of the branches be cut and a few centimetres or decimetres of coiled copper wire introduced into it, sparking begins again. The change thus produced can be compensated by inserting an equal length of copper wire in the other branch, or by shifting the copper wire towards the branch which was altered, or by adding a suitable capacity to the other branch. Nevertheless, it must be remarked that when the two branches are not of like kind, a complete disappearance of the sparks cannot generally be secured, but only a minimum of the sparking distance.
The results are but little affected by the resistance of the branch. If the thick copper wire in one of the branches was replaced by a much thinner copper wire or by a wire of German silver, the equilibrium was not disturbed, although the resistance of the one branch was a hundred times that of the other. Very large fluid resistances certainly made it impossible to secure a disappearance of the sparks, and short air-spaces introduced into one of the branches had a like effect.
The self-induction of iron wires for slowly alternating currents is about eight to ten times as great as that of copper wires of equal length and thickness. I therefore expected that short iron wires would produce equilibrium with longer copper wires. This expectation was not confirmed; the branches remained in equilibrium when a copper wire was replaced by an iron wire of equal length. If the theory of the observations here given is correct, this can only mean that the magnetism of iron is quite unable to follow oscillations so rapid as those with which we are here concerned, and that it, therefore, is without effect. A further experiment which will be described below appears to point in the same direction.
Induction-Effects of unclosed Currents
The sparks which occur in the preceding experiments owe their origin, according to our supposition, to self-induction, but if we consider that the induction-effects in question are derived from exceedingly weak currents in short, straight conductors, there appears to be good reason to doubt whether these do really account satisfactorily for the sparks. In order to settle this doubt I tried whether the observed electrical disturbances did not manifest effects of corresponding magnitude in neighbouring conductors. I therefore bent some copper wire into the form of rectangular circuits, about 10-20 cm. in the side, and containing only very short spark-gaps. These were insulated and brought near to the conductors in which the disturbances took place, and in such a position that a side of the rectangle was parallel to the conductor. When the rectangle was brought sufficiently near, a stream of sparks in it always accompanied the discharges of the induction-coil. These sparks were most brilliant in the neighbourhood of the discharger, but they could also be observed along the wire leading to the side-circuit as well as in the branches of the latter. The absence of any direct discharge between the inducing and induced circuits was carefully verified, and was also prevented by the introduction of a solid insulator. Thus it is scarcely possible that our conception of the phenomenon is erroneous. That the induction between two simple straight lengths of wire, traversed by only small quantities of electricity, can yet become strong enough to produce sparks, shows again the extraordinary shortness of the time in which these small quantities of electricity must pass backwards and forwards along the conductors.
In order to study the phenomena more closely, the rectangle which at first was employed as the side-circuit was again brought into use, but this time as the induced circuit. Along the short side of this (as indicated in Fig. 8) and at a distance of 3 cm. from it was stretched a second copper wire g h, which was placed in connection with any part of the discharger. As long as the end h of the wire g h was free, only weak sparks appeared in the micrometer M, and these were due to the dischargecurrent of the wire g h. But if an insulated conductor C—one taken from an electrical machine — was then attached to h, so that larger quantities of electricity had to pass through the wire, sparks up to two millimetres long appeared in the micrometer. This was not caused by an electrostatic effect of the conductor, for if it was attached to g instead of to h, it was without effect; and the action was not due to the charging-current of the conductor, but to the sudden discharge brought about by the sparks. For when the knobs of the discharger were drawn so far apart that sparks could no longer spring across it, then the sparks disappeared completely from the induced circuit as well. Not every kind of spark produced a sufficiently energetic discharge; here, again, only such sparks as were before found to occasion powerful side-sparks were found to be effective in exciting the inductive action. The sparks excited in the secondary circuit passed not only between the knobs of the micrometer but also from these to other insulated conductors held near. The length of the sparks was notably diminished by attaching to the knobs conductors of somewhat large capacity or touching one of them with the hand; clearly the quantities of electricity set in motion were too small to charge conductors of rather large capacity to the full potential. On the other hand, the sparking was not much affected by connecting the two micrometer-knobs by a short wet thread. No physiological effects of the induced current could be detected; the secondary circuit could be touched or completed through the body without experiencing any shock.
Certain accessory phenomena induced me to suspect that the reason why the electric disturbance in the wire g h produced such a powerful inductive action lay in the fact that it did not consist of a simple charging-current, but was rather of an oscillatory nature. I therefore endeavoured to strengthen the induction by modifying the conditions so as to make them more favourable for the production of powerful oscillations. The following arrangement of the experiment suited my purpose particularly well. I attached the conductor C as before to the wire g h and then separated the micrometer-knobs so far from each other that sparks only passed singly. I then attached to the free pole of the discharger k (Fig. 8) a second conductor C' of about the same size as the first. The sparking then again became very active, and on drawing the micrometer-knobs still farther apart decidedly longer sparks than at first could be obtained. This cannot be due to any direct action of the portion of the circuit i k, for this would diminish the effect of the portion g h; it must, therefore, be due to the action of the conductor C' upon the discharge-current of C. Such an action would be incomprehensible if we assumed that the discharge of the conductor C was aperiodic. It becomes, however, intelligible if we assume that the inducing current in g h consists of an electric oscillation which, in the one case, takes place in the circuit C—wire g h—discharger, and in the other in the system C—wire g h, wire i k—C'. It is clear in the first place that the natural oscillations of the latter system would be the more powerful, and in the second place that the position of the spark in it is more suitable for exciting the vibration.
Further confirmation of these views may be deferred for the present. But here we may bring forward in support of them the fact that they enable us to give a more correct explanation of the part which the discharge of the Ruhmkorff coil plays in the experiment. For if oscillatory disturbances in the circuit C—C' are necessary for the production of powerful induction-effects, it is not sufficient that the spark in this circuit should be established in an exceedingly short time, but it must also reduce the resistance of the circuit below a certain value, and in order that this may be the case the current-density from the very start must not fall below a certain limit. Hence it is that the inductive effect is exceedingly feeble when the conductors C and C' are charged by means of an electrical machine (instead of a Ruhmkorff coil) and then allowed to discharge themselves; and that it is also very feeble when a small coil is used, or when too large a spark-gap is introduced; in all these cases the motion is aperiodic. On the other hand, a powerful discharge from a Ruhmkorff coil gives rise to oscillations, and therefore to powerful disturbances all round, by performing the following functions:—In the first place, it charges the ends C and C' of the system to a high potential; secondly, it gives rise to a disruptive discharge; and thirdly, after starting the discharge, it keeps the resistance of the air-gap so low that oscillations can take place. It is known that if the capacity of the ends of the system is large—if, for example, they consist of the armatures of a battery of Leyden jars—the dischargecurrent from these capacities is able of itself to reduce the resistance of the spark-gap considerably; but when the capacities are small this function must be performed by some extraneous discharge, and for this reason the discharge of the induction-coil is, under the conditions of our experiment, absolutely necessary for exciting oscillations.
As the induced sparks in the last experiment were several millimetres long, I had no doubt that it would be possible to obtain sparks even when the wires used were much farther apart; I therefore tried to arrange a modification of the experiment which appeared interesting. I gave the inducing circuit the form of a straight line (Fig. 9). Its ends were formed by the conductors C and C'. These were 3 metres apart, and were connected by a copper wire 2 mm. thick, at the centre of which was the discharger of the induction-coil. The induced circuit was the same as in the preceding experiment, 120 cm. long and 80 cm. broad. If the shortest distance between the two systems was now made equal to 50 cm., induced sparks 2 mm. in length could still be obtained; at greater distances the spark-length decreased rapidly, but even when the shortest distance was 1/5 metres, a continuous stream of sparks was perceptible. The experiment was in no way interfered with if the observer moved between the inducing and induced systems. A few control-experiments again established the fact that the phenomena observed were really caused by the current in the rectilinear portion. If one or both halves of this were removed, the sparks in the micrometer ceased, even when the coil was still in action. They also ceased when the knobs of the discharger were drawn so far apart as to prevent any sparking in it. Inasmuch as the difference of electrostatic potential at the ends of the conductors C and C' are now greater than before, this shows that these differences of potential are not the cause of the sparks in the micrometer. Hitherto the induced circuit was closed; it was, however, to be supposed that the induction would take place equally in an open circuit. A second insulated copper wire was therefore stretched parallel to the straight wire in the preceding arrangement, and at a distance of 60 cm. from it. This second wire was shorter than the first; two insulated spheres 10 cm. in diameter were attached to its ends and the spark-micrometer was introduced in the middle of it. When the coil was now started, the stream of sparks from it was accompanied by a similar stream in the secondary conductor. But this experiment should be interpreted with caution, for the sparks observed are not solely due to electromagnetic induction. The alternating motion in the system C C' is indeed superposed upon the Ruhmkorff discharge itself. But during its whole course the latter determines an electrification of the conductor C, and an opposite electrification of the conductor C'. These electrifications had no effect upon the closed circuit in the preceding experiment, but in the present discontinuous conductor they induce by purely electrostatic action opposite electrifications in the two parts of the conductor, and thus produce sparks in the micrometer. In fact, if we draw the knobs of the discharger so far apart that the sparks in it disappear, the sparks in the micrometer, although weakened, still remain. These sparks represent the effect of electrostatic induction, and conceal the effect which alone we desired to exhibit.
There is, however, an easy way of getting rid of these disturbing sparks. They die away when we interpose a bad conductor between the knobs of the micrometer, which is most simply done by means of a wet thread. The conductivity of this is obviously good enough to allow the current to follow the relatively slow alternations of the discharge from the coil; but in the case of the exceedingly rapid oscillations of the rectilinear circuit it is, as we have already seen, not good enough to bring about an equalisation of the electrifications. If after placing the thread in position we again start the sparking in the primary circuit, vigorous sparking begins again in the secondary circuit, and is now solely due to the rapid oscillations in the primary circuit. I have tested to what distance this action extended. Up to a distance of 1.2 metres between the parallel wires the sparks were easily perceptible; the greatest perpendicular distance at which regular sparking could be observed was 3 metres. Since the electrostatic effect diminishes more rapidly with increasing distance than the electromagnetic induction, it was not necessary to complicate the experiment by using the wet thread at greater distances, for, even without this, only those discharges which excited oscillations in the primary wire were attended by sparks in the secondary circuit.
I believe that the mutual action of rectilinear open circuits which plays such an important part in theory is, as a matter of fact, illustrated here for the first time.
Resonance Phenomena
We may now regard it as having been experimentally proved that currents of rapidly varying intensity, capable of producing powerful induction-effects, are present in conductors which are connected with the discharge circuit. The existence of regular oscillations, however, was only assumed for the purpose of explaining a comparatively small number of phenomena, which might perhaps be accounted for otherwise. But it seemed to me that the existence of such oscillations might be proved by showing, if possible, symphonic relations between the mutually reacting circuits. According to the principle of resonance, a regularly alternating current must (other things being similar) act with much stronger inductive effect upon a circuit having the same period of oscillation than upon one of only slightly different period. If, therefore, we allow two circuits, which may be assumed to have approximately the same period of vibration, to react on one another, and if we vary continuously the capacity or coefficient of self-induction of one of them, the resonance should show that for certain values of these quantities the induction is perceptibly stronger than for neighbouring values on either side.
The following experiments were devised in accordance with this principle, and, after a few trials, they quite answered my intention. The experimental arrangement was very nearly the same as that of Fig. 9, excepting that the circuits were made somewhat different in size. The primary conductor was a perfectly straight copper wire 2.6 metres long and 5 mm. thick. This was divided in the middle so as to include the spark-gap. The two small knobs between which the discharge took place were mounted directly on the wire and connected with the poles of the induction-coil. To the ends of the wire were attached two spheres, 30 cm. in diameter, made of strong zinc-plate. These could be shifted along the wire. As they formed (electrically) the ends of the conductor, the circuit could easily be shortened or lengthened. The secondary circuit was proportioned so that it was expected to have a somewhat smaller period of oscillation than the primary; it was in the form of a square 75 cm. in the side, and was made of copper wire 2 mm. in diameter. The shortest distance between the two systems was made equal to 30 cm., and at first the primary current was allowed to remain of full length. Under these circumstances the length of the biggest spark in the induced circuit was 0.9 mm. When two insulated metal spheres of 8 cm. diameter were placed in contact with the two poles of the circuit, the spark-length increased, and could be made as large as 2.5 mm. by suitably diminishing the distance between the two spheres. On the other hand, if two conductors of very large surface were placed in contact with the two poles, the spark-length was reduced to a small fraction of a millimetre. Exactly similar results followed when the poles of the secondary circuit were connected with the plates of a Kohlrausch condenser. When the plates were far apart the spark-length was increased by increasing the capacity, but when they were brought closer together the spark-length again fell to a very small value. The easiest way of adjusting the capacity of the secondary circuit was by hanging over its two ends two parallel bits of wire and altering the length of these and their distance apart. By careful adjustment the sparking distance was increased to 3 mm., after which it diminished, not only when the wires were lengthened, but also when they were shortened. That an increase of the capacity should diminish the spark-length appeared only natural; but that it should have the effect of increasing it can scarcely be explained excepting by the principle of resonance.
If our interpretation of the above experiment is correct, the secondary circuit, before its capacity was increased, had a somewhat shorter period than the primary. Resonance should therefore have occurred when the rapidity of the primary oscillations was increased. And, in fact, when I reduced the length of the primary circuit in the manner above indicated, the sparking distance increased, again reached a maximum of 3 mm. when the centres of the terminal spheres were 1.5 metres apart, and again diminished when the spheres were brought still closer together. It might be supposed that the spark-length would now increase still further if the capacity of the secondary circuit were again, as before, increased. But this is not the case; on attaching the same wires, which before had the effect of increasing the spark-length, this latter falls to about 1 mm. This is in accordance with our conception of the phenomenon; that which at first brought about an equality between the periods of oscillation now upsets an equality which has been attained in another way. The experiment was most convincing when carried out as follows:—The spark-micrometer was adjusted for a fixed sparking distance of 2 mm. If the secondary circuit was in its original condition, and the primary circuit 1.5 metres long, sparks passed regularly. If a small capacity is added to the secondary circuit in the way already described, the sparks are completely extinguished; if the primary circuit is now lengthened to 2.6 metres they reappear; they are extinguished a second time if the capacity added to the secondary circuit is doubled; and by continuously increasing the capacity of the already lengthened primary circuit they can be made to appear and disappear again and again. The experiment shows us quite plainly that effective action is determined, not by the condition of either of the circuits, but by a proper relation (or harmony) between the two.
The length of the induced sparks increased considerably beyond the values given above when the two circuits were brought closer together. When the two circuits were at a distance of 7 cm. from one another and were adjusted to exact resonance, it was possible to obtain induced sparks 7 mm. long; in this case the electromotive forces induced in the secondary circuit were almost as great as those in the primary.
In the above experiments resonance was secured by altering the coefficient of self-induction and the capacity of the primary circuit, as well as the capacity of the secondary circuit. The following experiments show that an alteration of the coefficient of self-induction of the secondary circuit can also be used for this purpose. A series of rectangles a b c d (Fig. 9) were prepared in which the sides a b and c d were kept of the same length, but the sides a c and b d were made of wires varying in length from 10 cm. to 250 cm. A marked maximum of the sparking distance was apparent when the length of the rectangle was 1.8 metres. In order to get an idea of the quantitative relations I measured the longest sparks which appeared with various lengths of the secondary circuit. Fig. 10a shows the results. Abscissae represent the total length of the induced circuit and ordinates the maximum sparklength. The points indicate the observed values. Measurements of sparking distances are always very uncertain, but this uncertainty cannot be such as to vitiate the general nature of the result. In another set of experiments not only the lengths of the sides a b and c d, but also their distance apart (30 cm.), and their position were kept constant; but the sides a c and b d were formed of wires of gradually increasing length coiled into loose spirals. Fig. 10b shows the results obtained. The maximum here corresponds with a somewhat greater length of wire than before. Probably this is because the lengthening of the wire in this case increases only the coefficient of self-induction, whereas in the former case it increased the capacity as well.
Some further experiments were made in order to determine whether any different result would be obtained by altering the resistance of the secondary circuit. With this intention the wire c d of the rectangle was replaced by various thin copper and German silver wires, so that the resistance of the secondary circuit was made about a hundred times as large. This change had very little effect on the sparking distance, and none at all on the resonance ; or, in other words, on the period of oscillation.
The effect of the presence of iron was also examined. The wire c d was in some experiments surrounded by an iron tube, in others replaced by an iron wire. Neither of these changes produced a perceptible effect in any sense. This again confirms the supposition that the magnetism of iron cannot follow such exceedingly rapid oscillations, and that its behaviour towards them is neutral. Unfortunately we possess no experimental knowledge as to how the oscillatory discharge of Leyden jars is affected by the presence of iron.
Nodes
The oscillations which we excited in the secondary circuit, and which were measured by the sparks in the micrometer, are not the only ones, but are the simplest possible in that circuit. While the potential at the ends oscillates backwards and forwards continually between two limits, it always retains the same mean value in the middle of the circuit. This middle point is therefore a node of the electric oscillation, and the oscillation has only this one node. Its existence can also be shown experimentally, and that in two ways. In the first place, it can be done by bringing a small insulated sphere near the wire. The mean value of the potential of the small sphere cannot differ appreciably from that of the neighbouring bit of wire. Sparking between the knob and the wire can therefore only arise through the potential of the neighbouring point of the system experiencing sufficiently large oscillations about the mean value. Hence there should be vigorous sparking at the ends of the system and none at all near the node. And this in fact is so, excepting, indeed, that when the nodal point is touched the sparks do not entirely disappear, but are only reduced to a minimum. A second way of showing the nodal point is clearer. Adjust the secondary circuit for resonance and draw the knobs of the micrometer so far apart that sparks can only pass by the assistance of the action of resonance. If any point of the system is now touched with a conductor of some capacity, we should in general expect that the resonance would be disturbed, and that the sparks would disappear; only at the node would there be no interference with the period of oscillation. Experiment confirms this. The middle of the wire can be touched with an insulated sphere, or with the hand, or can even be placed in metallic connection with the gaspipes without affecting the sparks; similar interference at the side-branches or the poles causes the sparks to disappear.
After the possibility of fixing a nodal point was thus proved, it appeared to me to be worth while experimenting on the production of a vibration with two nodes. I proceeded as follows:—The straight primary conductor C C' and the rectilinear secondary a b c d were set up as in the earlier experiments and brought to resonance. An exactly similar rectangle e f g h was then placed opposite to a b c d as shown in Fig. 11, and the neighbouring poles of both were joined (1 with 3 and 2 with 4). The whole system forms a closed metallic circuit, and the lowest or fundamental vibration possible in it has two nodes. Since the period of this vibration must very nearly agree with the period of either half, and therefore with the period of the primary conductor, it was supposed that vibrations would develop having two antinodes at the junctions 1-3 and 2-4, and two nodes at the middle points of c d and g h. These vibrations were always measured by the sparking distance between the knobs of the micrometer which formed the poles 1 and 2. The results of the experiment were as follows:—Contrary to what was expected, it was found that the sparking distance between 1 and 2 was considerably diminished by the addition of the rectangle e f g h. From about 3 mm. it fell to 1 mm. Nevertheless there was still resonance between the primary circuit and the secondary. For every alteration of e f g h reduced the sparking distance still further, and this whether the alteration was in the direction of lengthening or shortening the rectangle. Further, it was found that the two nodes which were expected were actually present. By holding a sphere near c d and g h only very weak sparks could be obtained as compared with those from a e and b f. And it could also be shown that these nodes belonged to the same vibration which, when strengthened by resonance, produced the sparks 1-2. For the sparking distance between 1 and 2 was not diminished by touching along c d or g h, but it was by touching at every other place.
The experiment may be modified by breaking one of the connections 1-3 or 2-4, say the latter. As the current-strength of the induced oscillation is always zero at these points, this cannot interfere much with the oscillation. And, in fact, after the connection has been broken, it can be shown as before that resonance takes place, and that the vibrations corresponding to this resonance have two nodes at the same places. Of course there was this difference, that the vibration with two nodes was no longer the deepest possible vibration; the vibration of longest period would be one with a single node between a and e, and having the highest potentials at the poles 2 and 4. And if we bring the knobs at these poles nearer together we find that there is feeble sparking between them. We may attribute these sparks to an excitation, even if only feeble, of the fundamental vibration; and this supposition is made almost a certainty by the following extension of the experiment:—We stop the sparks between 1 and 2 and direct our attention to the length of the sparks between 2 and 4, which measures the intensity of the fundamental vibration. We now increase the period of oscillation of the primary circuit by extending it to the full length and adding to its capacity. We observe that the sparks thus increase to a maximum length of several millimetres and then again become shorter. Clearly they are longest when the oscillation of the primary current agrees with the fundamental oscillation. And while the sparks between 2 and 4 are longest it can be easily shown that at this time only a single nodal point corresponds to these sparks. For only between a and e can the conductor be touched without interfering with the sparks, whereas touching the previous nodal points interrupts the stream of sparks. Hence it is in this way possible, in any given conductor, to make either the fundamental vibration or the first overtone preponderate.
Meanwhile, there are several further problems which I have not solved; amongst others, whether it is possible to establish the existence of oscillations with several nodes. The results already described were only obtained by careful attention to insignificant details; and so it appeared probable that the answers to further questions would turn out to be more or less ambiguous. The difficulties which present themselves arise partly from the nature of the methods of observation, and partly from the nature of the electric disturbances observed. Although these latter manifest themselves as undoubted oscillations, they do not exhibit the characteristics of perfectly regular oscillations. Their intensity varies considerably from one discharge to another, and from the comparative unimportance of the resonance-effects we conclude that the damping must be rapid; many secondary phenomena point to the superposition of irregular disturbances upon the regular oscillations, as, indeed, was to be expected from the complex nature of the system of conductors. If we wish to compare, in respect of their mathematical relations, our oscillations with any particular kind of acoustic oscillations, we must not choose the long-continued harmonic oscillations of uniform strength which are characteristic of tuning-forks and strings, but rather such as are produced by striking a wooden rod with a hammer, —oscillations which rapidly die away, and with which are mingled irregular disturbances. And when we are dealing with oscillations of the latter class we are obliged, even in acoustics, to content ourselves with mere indications of resonance, formation of nodes, and similar phenomena.
For the sake of those who may wish to repeat the experiments and obtain the same results I must add one remark, the exact significance of which may not be clear at first. In all the experiments described the apparatus was set up in such a way that the spark of the induction-coil was visible from the place where the spark in the micrometer took place. When this is not the case the phenomena are qualitatively the same, but the spark-lengths appear to be diminished. I have undertaken a special investigation of this phenomenon, and intend to publish the results in a separate paper.
Theoretical It is highly desirable that quantitative data respecting the oscillations should be obtained by experiment. But as there is at present no obvious way of doing this, we are obliged to have recourse to theory, in order to obtain at any rate some indication of the data. The theory of electric oscillations which has been developed by Sir W. Thomson, v. Helmholtz, and Kirchhoff has been verified as far as the oscillations of open induction-coils and oscillatory Leyden jar discharges are concerned; we may therefore feel certain that the application of this theory to the present phenomena will give results which are correct, at least as far as the order of magnitude is concerned.
To begin with, the period of oscillation is the most important element. As an example to which calculation can be applied, let us determine the (simple or half) period of oscillation T of the primary conductor which we used in the resonance-experiments. Let P denote the coefficient of self-induction of this conductor in magnetic measure, expressed in centimetres; C the capacity of either of its ends in electrostatic measure (and therefore expressed also in centimetres); and finally A the velocity of light in centimetre/seconds. Then, assuming that the resistance is small, T = π √PC/A. In our experiments the capacity of the ends of the conductor consisted mainly of the spheres attached to them. We shall therefore not be far wrong if we take C as being the radius of either of these spheres, or put C = 15 cm. As regards the coefficient of self-induction P, it was that of a straight wire, of diameter d= 0.5 cm., and of which the length L was 150 cm. when resonance occurred. Calculated by Neumann's formula P =∫∫cos e/r ds ds', the value of P for such a wire is 2L{log nat (4L/d) — 0.75} and therefore in our experiments P=1902 cm. At the same time we know that it is not certain whether Neumann's formula is applicable to open circuits. The most general formula, as given by v. Helmholtz, contains an undetermined constant k, and this formula is in accordance with the known experimental data. Calculated according to the general formula, we get for a straight cylindrical wire of length L and diameter d the value P = 2L{log nat (4L/d) — 0.75 + 1/2(1 — k)}. If in this we put k = 1, we arrive at Neumann's value. If we put k= 0, or k = — 1, we obtain values which correspond to Maxwell's theory or Weber's theory. If we assume that one at any rate of these values is the correct one, and therefore exclude the assumption that it may have a very large negative or positive value, then the true value of k is not of much moment. For the coefficients calculated with these various values of k differ from each other by less than one-sixth of their value; and so if the coefficient 1902 does not exactly correspond to a length of wire of 150 cm., it does correspond to a length of our primary conductor not differing greatly therefrom. From the values of P and C it follows that the length π √CP is 531 cm. This is the distance through which light travels in the time of an oscillation, and is at the same time the wave-length of the electromagnetic waves which, according to Maxwell's view, are supposed to be the external effect of the oscillations. From this length it follows that the period of oscillation itself (T) is 1.77 hundredmillionths of a second; thus the statement which we made in the beginning as to the order of magnitude of the period is justified.
Let us now turn our attention to what the theory can tell us as to the ratio of damping of the oscillations. In order that oscillations may be possible in the open circuit, its resistance must be less than 2A√P/C. For our primary conductor √P/C = 11.25 : now since the velocity A is equal to 30 earth-quadrant/seconds, or to 30 ohms, it follows that the limit for r admissible in our experiment is 676 ohms. It is very probable that the true resistance of a powerful discharge lies below this limit, and thus from the theoretical point of view there is no contradiction of our assumption of oscillatory motion. If the actual value of the resistance lies somewhat below this limit, the amplitude of any one oscillation would bear to the amplitude of that immediately following the ratio of 1 to e-(rT/2p). The number of oscillations required to reduce the amplitude in the ratio of 2.71 to 1 is therefore equal to 2P/rT or 2A √P/C/πr. It therefore bears to 1 the same ratio that 1/π of the calculated limiting value bears to the actual value of the resistance, or the same ratio as 215 ohms to r. Unfortunately we have no means of even approximately estimating the resistance of a spark-gap. Perhaps we may regard it as certain that this resistance amounts to at least a few ohms, for even the resistance of strong electric arcs does not fall below this. It would follow from this that the number of oscillations we have to consider should be counted by tens and not by hundreds or thousands. This is in complete accordance with the character of the phenomena, as has already been pointed out at the end of the preceding section. It is also in accordance with the behaviour of the very similar oscillatory discharges of Leyden jars, in which case the oscillations of perceptible strength are similarly limited to a very small number.
In the case of purely metallic secondary circuits the conditions are quite different from those of the primary currents to which we have confined our attention. In the former a disturbance would, according to theory, only come to rest after thousands of oscillations. There is no good reason for doubting the correctness of this result; but a more complete theory would certainly have to take into consideration the reaction upon the primary conductor, and would thus probably arrive at higher values for the damping of the secondary conductor as well.
Finally, we may raise the question whether the induction-effects of the oscillations which we have observed were of the same order as those which theory would lead us to expect, or whether there is here any appearance of contradiction between the phenomena themselves and our interpretation of them. We may answer the question by the following considerations:— We observe, in the first place, that the maximum value of the electromotive force which the oscillation induces in its own circuit must be very nearly equal to the maximum difference of potential at the ends, for if the oscillations were not damped, there would exist complete equality between the two magnitudes ; inasmuch as the potential difference of the ends and the electromotive force of induction would in that case be in equilibrium at every instant. Now in our experiments the potential difference between the ends was of a magnitude corresponding to a sparking distance of 7-8 mm., and any such sparking distance fixes the value of the greatest inductive effect of the oscillation in its own path. We observe, in the second place, that at every instant the induced electromotive force in the secondary circuit bears to that induced in the primary circuit the same ratio as the coefficient of mutual induction p between the primary and secondary circuits bears to the coefficient of self-induction P of the primary circuit. There is no difficulty in calculating according to known formulae the approximate value of p for our resonance-experiments. It was found to vary in the different experiments between one-ninth and one-twelfth of P. From this we may conclude that the maximum electromotive force which our oscillation excites in the secondary circuit should be of such strength as to give rise to sparks of 1/2 to 2/3 mm. in length. And accordingly the theory allows us, on the one hand, to expect visible sparks in the secondary circuit under all circumstances, and, on the other hand, we see that we can only explain sparks of several millimetres in length by assuming that several successive inductive effects strengthen each other. Thus from the theoretical side as well we are compelled to regard the phenomena which we have observed as being the results of resonance.
Further application of theory to these phenomena can only be of service when we shall have succeeded by some means in determining the period of oscillation directly. Such measurement would not only confirm the theory but would lead to an extension of it. The purpose of the present research is simply to show that even in short metallic conductors oscillations can be induced, and to indicate in what manner the oscillations which are natural to them can be excited.".
In 1826, Félix Savary (CE 1797-1841) described the phenomenon of electrical oscillation in a circuit with an inductor and Leyden jar. Dynamic or moving electrical induction, the phenomenon of inducing electric current in a distant unconnected conductor was first described by Francesco Zantedeschi (CE 1797-1873) in 1829 and used to produce a transformer by Michael Faraday (CE 1791-1867) in 1831.
(It is interesting that particles of any frequency can be detected in space using a conductor by simply sampling at some regular frequency, however, this sampling might or might not be in sync with particles colliding with a conductor like a wire antenna. The phenomenon of electric resonance allows detecting colliding particles with a specific frequency with no regard to their initial collision - since particles of a specific frequency cause a high voltage and current response in the receiving circuit - while particle beams of other frequencies do not, sampling at regular intervals does not need to be performed.)
This wireless or electrical inductance communication may have become well developed long before these experiments of Hertz, and it is unclear if Hertz was aware of this progress, or not. This wireless technology will grow and develop with many nanometer sized cameras and nanophone audio recording and transmitting devices placed throughout the earth. In addition, even images and sounds of thought will be captured and transmitted, all based on this similar idea of detecting different frequencies of particles emitted and absorbed.
The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography describes the state of electrical theory at the time writing: "In Germany the leading theories were those of Weber and F. E. Neumann. Although both theories shared the fundamental physical assumption that electrodynamic actions are instantaneous actions at a distance, they differed in their formulations and in their assumptions about the nature of electricity. Neumann’s theory was one of electrodynamic potential, mathematically abstract and physically independent of atomistic assumptions. Weber’s, by contrast, was above all an atomistic theory, according to which electricity consisted of fluids of particles of two signs and possessed mechanical inertia. Any pair of Weberian particles interacted through a force or potential modeled in part after Newtonian gravitational attraction; Weberian interaction differed from the Newtonian in that it depended not only on the separation of the particles but also on their relative motion.". These theories descend from Coulomb's Newtonian inverse distance squared Newtonian-based theory applied to electric charge. In measuring the finite speed of propagation of the electromagnetic effect, Hertz proves clearly that this effect is not instantaneous.
Only after Hertz had published his first experiments on waves does he drop Helmholtz’ action-at-a-distance viewpoint, in 1889, when Hertz announces that he can describe his results better from Maxwell’s contiguous action viewpoint.
Luigi Galvani's famous frog-leg experiments started in 1780 are one of the earliest known public reports of electromagnetic wave propagation. Galvani observed that sparking from an electrostatic generator can cause convulsions in a dead frog at some distance frmo the machine, and also that a Leyden jar could be made to spark from a distance. In 1842 Joseph Henry had reported that a 1-inch spark can magnetize needles over 30 feet away, and compares the effect with that of light from a spark made by flint and steel. The journal "Scientific American" reported in 1875 that Thomas Edison had noticed that a magnetic vibrator relay, the kind used in electric bells, produced sparks all over the armature, and that sparks can also be drawn from any metallic object placed in the vicinity of the vibrator without any connection whatsoever between the object and the vibrator. Edison claims that this is a new force he names "etheric force". This report caused Elihu Thomson, at the time a young instructor at the technical academy in Philadelphia to remember his observations in 1871 of using a Ruhmkorff coil connected to an array of Leyden jars that he can draw sparks by holding a knife near a table top, a water pipe, the frame of a steam engine 30 feet away and is even able to light a gas burner by touching the burner with the knife. Sylvanus Thompson concludes that this effect is due to electrostatic induction in a report of 1876 (Notice the difference between electrostatic and electrodynamic induction which are perhaps physially the same phenomenon except that in one, the current is moving}.) It seems likely that these people are probably one of two kinds: either those who were excluded from neuron reading and writing - but as outsiders somehow stumbled or gravitated towards reproducing the secret research that led to photon communication, and to neuron read and writing, or they were fully aware of neuron reading and writing and were releasing previously secret information to the public.
Hertz's scientific papers have been translated into English and are published in three volumes: "Electric Waves" (1893), "Miscellaneous Papers" (1896), and "Principles of Mechanics" (1899).
The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography explains: "...Hertz knew of Helmholtz’ attempt in 1871 to measure the velocity of propagation of transient electromagnetic inductive effects in air by the delay time between transmission and reception; ... and he had been able to establish only a lower limit on the velocity of about forty miles per second. Hertz did not know of G. F. FitzGerald’s theoretical discussion of the possibility of producing nontransient electric waves in the ether; nor did he know of the attempts to detect electromagnetic waves in wires by O. J. Lodge, another early follower of Maxwell. It is not certain if Hertz knew of the many observations by Edison, G. P. Thompson, D́avid Hughes, and others of the communication of electromagnetic actions over considerable distances; in any case, the observations were generally interpreted as ordinary inductions and therefore not of fundamental significance. The influence of distance in the communication of electromagnetic actions was not significant until a theory was worked out to show its significance. ...".
(The transition from calling electric effect over large distances "induction" to "radiation" is a very interesting transition.)
(Radio will form a major part of cameras, microphones, and thought seeing and hearing device networks, as will wired connections. But not before Marconi, but no doubt very quickly after wireless communication spread secretly for spying (watching people without their knowledge, and/or watching them with their knowledge inside buildings in an illegal agreement or toleration.)) Hertz is a Lutheran, although his father’s family is Jewish. At the time Hertz moved to Karlsruhe he complained of toothaches; and early in 1888, in the midst of his electric wave researches, he has his teeth operated on. Early in 1889 Hertz has all his teeth pulled out. In the summer of 1892 Hertz's nose and throat hurt so badly that he must stop work. On 7 December Hertz gives his last lecture; on 1 January In 1894 Hertz dies of blood poisoning at age thirty-six. Hertz leaves behind his wife and two daughters, Johanna and Mathilde, all of whom emigrate from Nazi Germany in 1937 to settle in Cambridge, England.
Hertz's last letter to his parents is on December 9, 1893, and reads: " If anything should really befall me, you are not to mourn; rather you must be proud a little and consider that I am among the especially elect destined to live for only a short while and yet to live enough. I did not desire or choose this fate, but since it has overtaken me, I must be content; and if the choice had been left to me, perhaps I should have chosen it myself." On January 1, 1894 Heinrich Hertz died of septicemia which is a systemic disease caused by pathogenic organisms or their toxins in the bloodstream. Also called blood poisoning. On January 16, 1894 after Hertz's death, Helmholtz writes "In the appointment of a successor to H. Hertz there can surely be no thought of finding someone who could replace this unique man, nor would there be any reason in my opinion to seek to replace him in his special field.".
(That Hertz was apparantly a major whistleblower, half-Jewish, and died at age 36, to me indicated neuron written or poison, or viral/bacterial kind of murder.) (Clearly Hertz is a hero for bringing what must have been the well developed secret of radio, more accurately, invisible lower frequency light particle communication.) (What was Hertz's motivation in exposing the truth about radio? Was Hertz excluded from neuron reading and writing - and somehow duplicate what the insiders had done decades before? Did Hertz lose his life in the cause to deliver the secret of radio to excluded people everywhere? If yes, then excluded people should be perhaps more grateful. Two facts argue against Hertz being excluded: 1) he did find a mate and was able to reproduce, and 2) being employed in a university as a professor would probably imply being included. But perhaps being part-Jewish may have caused Hertz to be excluded.) (Apparently, according to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, when Hertz was in Karlsruhne: "all the time he was in close touch with Helmholtz, sending him his papers to communicate to the Berlin Academy for quick publication before sending them later to Annalen der Physik." - so this implies that possibly Helmholtz was was either guiding Hertz, and/or the permission switch above Hertz for releasing the secret of radio communication. Perhaps Helmholtz then instructed Hertz to abandon all radio publications. This is similar to Roentgen's lack of microwave publications after releasing the secret. Like Roentgen, excluded people everywhere can thank the science in Germany for the many benefits of public x-rays and radio. What explains this whistleblowing from Germany? Why not from England, France, Italy, the USA? Perhaps the rejection of the traditional christian religion which has a focus in Germany, centered on the Pope in Rome allows some freedom, and perhaps nutures some independence, and contempt of tradition.)
(Hertz adopts and supports Maxwell's theory of light as an electromagnetic wave, and supports the concept of an aether medium, in addition to Faraday's theory that forces are somehow part of space, as opposed to the Newtonian action-at-a-distance concept. So Hertz's work, while bringing radio communication to the public is heroic and a tremendous contribution to life of earth, the preference for a wave theory for light sets the public back in terms of understanding radio as a particle phenomenon.)
Hertz is the first to report publicly the observation of radio waves (light particle groups with longer interval/wavelength than those in visible light). Hertz is also the first to recognize the phenomenon of electrical resonance: how the creation of an electrical current in a secondary circuit is maximized by adjusting the capacitance and induction of the second circuit to be the same - in resonance- as that of the primary electric current producing circuit. According to Maxwell's equations, electromagnetic radiation should be generated by oscillating electrical current. Hertz uses a single loop of wire with a small air gap at one point to detect the possible presence of such long-wave radiation. (I doubt there is a difference between magnetic field produced and radio signal produced by a moving current - both being made of particles.) Hertz is able to detect small sparks jumping across the gap in his detector coil. In later papers Hertz will describe how by moving the detectors around the room, the size of a wave can be measured, and measures these waves to be on the order of 66 centimeters (2.2 feet) (presumably by aligning each loop so that they spark at the same time - but this is not exactly clear when reading Hertz's original works at least as translated into English.) This is a million times larger than the wavelength of visible light (as first measured by Thomas Young). Hertz, using Maxwell's theory as a basis, also beliefs that the waves involve both an electric and a magnetic field and are therefore electromagnetic in nature. So this is an influential support and apparent confirmation of Maxwell's claim that light contains both a magnetic and electric sine wave in an aether at 90 degrees to each other. So Hertz confirms the usefulness of Maxwell's equations. These experiments are quickly (reported publicly presumably and) confirmed by Lodge in England. Righi in Italy (shows that the "Hertzian waves" can be reflected, refracted?, absorbed?) like visible light. In Italy Marconi will develop a practical form of wireless communication using these waves, and they will come to be called "radio waves" which is short for "radiotelegraphy", telegraphy by radiation as opposed to telegraphy by electric currents. (More accurately in modern terms: communication by particles {photons} in empty space as opposed to particles {electrons} in a wire.).
Hertz supports the concept of an aether, and Maxwell's electromagnetic theory for light with an aether medium. Was Hertz aware of Michelson's rejction of the aether theory in 1881?If so, Hertz apparently was not convinced in showing support for an aether medium and light as an electromagnetic wave.
There is a debate about whether Maxwell really knew that light would be emitted from an oscillating current and did he actually explain this principle publicly.
Radio waves will be called "Hertzian waves" until renamed by Marconi who calls them "radiotelegraphy waves".
(I think a good explanation of radio, is that they are particles emitted from collisions by any moving current. Oscillating the particles in the current simply sends wave after wave of photons {in fact the wave must take the shape of a diagonal line - or cone - that echoes the shape of the current as it moves in the wire and/or the gap}. Does a constant current produce a distant detectible signal - for example - like a radio light incandescent bulb? Clearly an incandescent bulk with constant current can be used for visible light communication. Perhaps a constant spark can produce a constant spark in a distant spark gap? If not, that is interesting - what about the periodic nature explains this? Perhaps that a constant-unchanging voltage current is not actually moving?).
(This method of communication using light particles is a universal method of communication which enables communication over very large distances - we see light particles from distant galaxies and so information in the form of a message - for example an image can be sent over many millions of light-years, for example from one star to another, or from one galaxy to another galaxy. Particles of light are absorbed and reflected by matter in between two distant points, so the larger the distance a communication must go, the larger the number of source particles which must be initially sent at the source. For example, we see distant stars clearly when the earth is turned away from our star, but only because there are so many light particles emitted from distant stars - there are not enough light particles reflected off the matter orbitting those stars for us to see without magnification. So for all we know, there are many messages, perhaps in the form of images, throughout the universe, including our galaxy. Like a gold mine, there may be hidden treasure anywhere in the form of invisible messages which might reveal images of distant living objects and massive civilizations, far more numerous than the population of our species. This problem of loss of light particles over distance must put limits on how far a message can be communicated. For example, stars are extremely large, and emit many millions more photons than, for example, any practical device that our species would construct to transmit a message. Then if a message is can be emitted directed to some other location - for example a different star, or just emitted in a spherical direction. If a person wants to send a message using particles with radio or any other frequency directly to some other location - like a ship orbiting a distant star, the message would have to be sent to a future location - where that star is calculated to be in the far future - and that adds problems because, like predicting the weather, there are so many variables - and all masses cannot be accounted for. The chances of a message connecting exactly at some distant star at some specific time seems low. So any transmission we receive, probably was sent over a large volume of space, and with a very large number of particles - that is a very high voltage and physically large transmitter, or is from a very close location. For example, television images are sent at kilovolts from antennae that are certainly smaller than a mile is diameter. So the quantity of particles emitted is finite - I don't know how many -probably many trillions per second - but by the time those particles reach Centauri, Sirius, and the other closest stars, they must be spaced very far apart, and the quantity that collide with the actual star, and or planets around a star, must be even smaller - in particular since the quantity of particles becomes less by the distance squared. Probably then, the search for messages in particle beams might be more likely to intercept messages emitted from around the closest stars. In addition, since globular clusters may be constructed by living objects, and are very advanced to be assembling stars, globular clusters are probably a good place to search for images being sent using particles - but those transmitters would have to be very large to reach us from a globular cluster - perhaps on the scale of a star which would be a massive construction.)
(Light-years should be put in terms of spacial measurement - I would say perhaps many trillions of meters. There needs to be a unit like light-year-space, the earth year is perhaps not the best unit to use as a reference point. )
(There is an interesting distinction between an electronic detector and, for example, a photosensitive detector. Although the particles of communication are light particles, for an electronic detector to work, there must be a distinct frequency, as opposed to a photosensitive detector which can detect particles with no specific frequency, or light particle groups with irregular frequency. So a photosensitive detector can detect the constant current light from an LED or incandescent light bulb filament, but electrical induction can only cause a detectable current in a receiver, for example, a secondary inductor, when the source current is not constant.)
Because Hertz publicly believes in a wave theory for light with an aether medium, adopting Maxwell's interpretation who also believed in an aether, modern people are left with the view of low frequency light particle communication as being thought of as a sine-wave phenomenon as opposed to a particle phenomenon. For example, Hertz also rejected Joseph John Thomson's interpretation of electricity as being composed of corpuscles.
(Imagine if Hertz had not published his results: the possibility of photon communication being kept secret until even now like neuron reading and writing - no cell phones, no television, no radio with talk, music, news, etc. for the public - only for a group of insiders who would have to pay a premium price to the few radio providers and keep all radio devices and information hidden.)
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
113 YBN
[05/02/1887 AD]
| 3762) Hannibal Goodwin (CE 1822-1900), Episcopalian minister, uses and patents a form of celluloid transparent roll film as a base for photographic emulsions.
This the first publicly known use of plastic roll film on earth.
Photo-sensitized plastic film greatly increases the ability to store large quantities of image, sound, and any data, previously stored on glass plates.
John Wesley Hyatt (CE 1837-1920) had invented celluloid in 1869.
George Eastman also patents and mass-produces a form of celluloid roll film, using a different chemical formula, for still photography at his plant in Rochester, New York in 1888. In September 1889 Hannibal Goodwin files an interference against Eastman for the use of transparent, flexible film. According to the "Encyclopedia of World Biography", the long patent dispute between Goodwin and Eastman is the most important legal controversy in photographic history. A Federal court decision on Aug. 14, 1913, favors Goodwin. Goodwin's heirs and Ansco Company, owners of his patent, receive $5,000,000 from Eastman in 1914.
Étienne-Jules Marey uses celluloid roll film in 1890.
(It's interesting how the story of film shifts from Europe to the USA, but clearly similar inventions and developments happen all over the earth in most developed nations. English speaking people probably read mostly about this parallel development in English-speaking nations.)
| Newark, New Jersey |
113 YBN
[05/??/1887 AD]
| 4286) Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (CE 1857-1894), German physicist, finds that ultraviolet light causes electric current to flow in certain metals and finds that obstacles in between the primary and secondary wires prevent the electrical induction from occuring.
In addition, Hertz more fully examines electrical induction, describing the effect of inducing a spark in a secondary inductor from a primary inductor, that this effect is non-electrical since both non-conducting screens and metal plates can prevent a spark in the secondary coil, that this action is propagated in straight lines, like light, and may be reflected from polished surfaces, and refracted with a refrangibility much greater than that of violet rays of light.
Hertz observes what will be called the "photoelectric effect", that current flows when ultraviolet light contacts certain metals (not all metals?). Experimenting with an electrical circuit that oscillates. Hertz sends current back and forth as a spark between two metal spheres separated by a gap of space. When the voltage (electric potential) reaches a peak in either direction, a spark is sent across the gap. Hertz finds that shining ultraviolet light on the negative electrode causes the spark to be more easily emitted.
Early in the course of his Karlsruhe experiments Hertz notices that the spark of the detector circuit is stronger when exposed to the light of the spark of the primary circuit. After meticulous investigation in which he interposed over sixty substances between the primary and secondary sparks, Hertz publishes his conclusion in 1887 that the ultraviolet light alone is responsible for the effect—the photoelectric effect.
Einstein will be awarded a Nobel prize for explaining this effect.
(I think that a simple explanation is that particles of light are the particles of electricity, and so adding photons that get absorbed by the metal, simply increases the electric current.)
In 1872, English telegraph worker Joseph May realized that a selenium wire varying in its electrical conductivity when a beam of sunlight falls on the wire. English telegraph engineers, Willoughby Smith (CE 1828-1891) and his assistant Joseph May then reported that when selenium is exposed to light, its electrical resistance decreases. (An obvious question now is, does this produce an electrical current? It seems likely to me that this must be the photoelectric effect and not a separate phenomenon.)
Perhaps the difference between May and Smith's report and Hertz's finding is that Hertz could measure an actual electrical current in the metal light collided with. Presumably the resistance of the metal from ultraviolet light must be lowered to, to increase the current.
Hertz writes in (an English translation) "On An Effect of Ultra-Violet Light Upon The Electric Discharge": "In a series of experiments on the effects of resonance between very rapid electric oscillations which I have carried out and recently published, two electric sparks were produced by the same discharge of an induction-coil, and therefore simultaneously. One of these, the spark A, was the discharge-spark of the induction-coil, and served to excite the primary oscillation. The second, the spark B, belonged to the induced or secondary oscillation. The latter was not very luminous; in the experiments its maximum length had to be accurately measured. I occasionally enclosed the spark B in a dark case so as more easily to make the observations; and in so doing I observed that the maximum spark-length became decidedly smaller inside the case than it was before. On removing in succession the various parts of the case, it was seen that the only portion of it which exercised this prejudicial effect was that which screened the spark B from the spark A. The partition on that side exhibited this effect, not only when it was in the immediate neighbourhood of the spark B, but also when it was interposed at greater distances from B between A and B. A phenomenon so remarkable called for closer investigation. The following communication contains the results which I have been able to establish in the course of the investigation :—
1. The phenomenon could not be traced to any screening effect of an electrostatic or electromagnetic nature. For the effect was not only exhibited by good conductors interposed between A and B, but also by perfect non-conductors, in particular by glass, paraffin, ebonite, which cannot possibly exert any screening effect. Further, metal gratings of coarse texture showed no effect, although they act as efficient screens.
...
7. The relation between the two sparks is reciprocal. That is to say, not only does the larger and stronger spark increase the spark-length of the smaller one, but conversely the smaller spark has the same effect upon the sparklength of the larger one.
......
9. Most solid bodies hinder the action of the active spark, but not all; a few solid bodies are transparent to it. All the metals which I tried proved to be opaque, even in thin sheets, as did also paraffin, shellac, resin, ebonite, and india-rubber; all kinds of coloured and uncoloured, polished and unpolished, thick and thin glass, porcelain, and earthenware; wood, pasteboard, and paper; ivory, horn, animal hides, and feathers; lastly, agate, and, in a very remarkable manner, mica, even in the thinnest possible flakes. Further investigation of crystals showed variations from this behaviour. Some indeed were equally opaque, e.g. copper sulphate, topaz, and amethyst; but others, such as crystallised sugar, alum, calc-spar, and rock-salt, transmitted the action, although with diminished intensity; finally, some proved to be completely transparent, such as gypsum (selenite), and above all rock-crystal, which scarcely interfered with the action even when in layers several centimetres thick. .... 10. Liquids also proved to be partly transparent and partly opaque to the action. In order to experiment upon them the active spark was brought about 10 cm. vertically above the passive one, and between both was placed a glass vessel, of which the bottom consisted of a circular plate of rock-crystal 4 mm. thick. Into this vessel a layer, more or less deep, of the liquid was poured, and its influence was then estimated in the manner above described for solid bodies. Water proved to be remarkably transparent; even a depth of 5 cm. scarcely hindered the action. In thinner layers pure concentrated sulphuric acid, alcohol, and ether were also transparent. Pure hydrochloric acid, pure nitric acid, and solution of ammonia proved to be partially transparent. Molten paraffin, benzole, petroleum, carbon bisulphide, solution of ammonium sulphide, and strongly coloured liquids, e.g. solutions of fuchsine, potassium permanganate, were nearly or completely opaque. The experiments with salt solutions proved to be interesting. A layer of water 1 cm. deep was introduced into the rock-crystal vessel; the concentrated salt solution was added to this drop by drop, stirred, and the effect observed. With many salts the addition of a few drops, or even a single drop, was sufficient to extinguish the passive spark; this was the case with nitrate of mercury, sodium hyposulphite, potassium bromide, and potassium iodide. When iron and copper salts were added, the extinction of the passive spark occurred before any distinct colouring of the water could be perceived. Solutions of sal-ammoniac, zinc sulphate, and common saltl exercised an absorption when added in larger quantities. On the other hand, the sulphates of potassium, sodium, and magnesium were very transparent even in concentrated solution.
11. It is clear from the experiments made in air that some gases permit the transmission of the action even to considerable distances. Some gases, however, are very opaque to it. In experimenting on gases a tube 20 cm. long and 2.5 cm. in diameter was interposed between the active and passive sparks; the ends of this tube were closed by thin quartz plates, and by means of two side-tubes any gas could at will be led through it. A diaphragm prevented the transmission of any action excepting through the glass tube. Between hydrogen and air there was no noticeable difference. Nor could any falling off in the action be perceived when the tube was filled with carbonic acid. But when coal-gas was introduced, the sparking at the passive spark-gap immediately ceased. When the coal-gas was driven out by air the sparking began again; and this experiment could be repeated with perfect regularity. Even the introduction of air with which some coalgas had been mixed hindered the transmission of the action. Hence a much shorter stratum of coal-gas was sufficient to stop the action. If a current of coal-gas 1 cm. in diameter is allowed to flow freely into the air between the two sparks, a shadow of it can be plainly perceived on the side remote from the active spark, i.e. the action of this is more or less completely annulled. A powerful absorption like that of coal-gas is exhibited by the brown vapours of nitrous oxide. With these, again, it is not necessary to use the tube with quartz-plates in order to show the action. On the other hand, although chlorine and the vapours of bromine and iodine do exercise absorption, it is not at all in proportion to their opacity. No absorptive action could be recognised when bromine vapour had been introduced into the tube in sufficient quantity to produce a distinct coloration; and there was a partial transmission of the action even when the bromine vapour was so dense that the active spark (coloured a deep red) was only just visible through the tube.
12. The intensity of the action increases when the air around the passive spark is rarefied, at any rate up to a certain point. The increase is here supposed to be measured by the difference between the lengths of the protected and the unprotected sparks. In these experiments the passive spark was produced under the bell-jar of an air-pump between adjustable poles which passed through the sides of the bell-jar. A window of rock-crystal was inserted in the bell-jar, and through this the action of the other spark had to pass. The maximum sparklength was now observed, first with the window open, and then with the window closed; varying air-pressures being used, but a constant current. The following table may be regarded as typical of the results :— {ULSF: table omitted} It will be seen that as the pressure diminishes, the length of the spark which is not influenced only increases slowly; the length of the spark which is influenced increases more rapidly, and so the difference between the two becomes greater. But at a certain pressure the blue glow-light (Glimmlicht) spread over a considerable portion of the cathode, the sparking distance became very great, the discharge altered its character, and it was no longer possible to perceive any influence due to the active spark.
... In the more accurate experiments the active spark was again fixed vertically; at some distance from it was placed a vertical slit, and behind this a prism. By inserting a Leyden jar the active spark could be made luminous, and the space thus illuminated behind the prism could easily be determined. With the aid of the passive spark it was possible to mark out the limits of the space within which was exerted the action here under investigation. Fig. 19 gives (to a scale of 1/2) the result thus obtained by direct experiment. The space a b c d is filled with light; the space a' b' c' d' is permeated by the action which we are considering. .... The visible light was then spread out into a short spectrum, and the influence of the active spark was found to be exerted within a comparatively limited region which corresponded to a deviation decidedly greater than that of the visible violet. Fig. 2 0 shows the positions of the rays as they were directly drawn where the prism was placed, r being the direction of the red, v of the violet, and w the direction in which the influence of the active spark was most powerfully exerted.
I have not been able to decide whether any double refraction of the action takes place. My quartz-prisms would not permit of a sufficient separation of the beams, and the pieces of calc-spar which I possessed proved to be too opaque.
17. After what has now been stated, it will be agreed (at any rate until the contrary is proved) that the light of the active spark must be regarded as the prime cause of the action which proceeds from it. Every other conjecture which is based on known facts is contradicted by one or other of the experiments. And if the observed phenomenon is an effect of light at all it must, according to the results of the refraction-experiments, be solely an effect of the ultra-violet light. That it is not an effect of the visible parts of the light is shown by the fact that glass and mica are opaque to it, while they are transparent to these. On the other hand, the absorption-experiments of themselves make it probable that the effect is due to ultra-violet light. Water, rock-crystal, and the sulphates of the alkalies are remarkably transparent to ultra-violet light and to the action here investigated; benzole and allied substances are strikingly opaque to both. Again, the active rays in our experiments appear to lie at the outermost limits of the known spectrum. The spectrum of the spark when received on a sensitive dry-plate scarcely extended to the place at which the most powerful effect upon the passive spark was produced. And, photographically, there was scarcely any difference between light which had, and light which had not, passed through coal-gas, whereas the difference in the effect upon the spark was very marked. Fig. 21 shows the extent of some of the spectra taken. In a the position of the visible red is indicated by r, that of the visible violet by v, and that of the strongest effect upon the passive spark by w. The rest of the series give the photographic impressions produced—b after simply passing through air and quartz, c after passing through coal-gas, d after passing through a thin plate of mica, and e after passing through glass.
18. Our supposition that this effect is to be attributed to light is confirmed by the fact that the same effect can be produced by a number of common sources of light. It is true that the power of the light, in the ordinary sense of the word, forms no measure of its activity as here considered; and for the purpose of our experiments the faintly visible light of the spark of the induction-coil remains the most powerful source of light. Let sparks from any induction-coil pass between knobs, and let the knobs be drawn so far apart that the sparks fail to pass; if now the flame of a candle be brought near (about 8 cm. off) the sparking begins again. The effect might at first be attributed to the hot air from the flame; but when it is observed that the insertion of a thin small plate of mica stops the action, whereas a much larger plate of quartz does not stop it, we are compelled to recognise here again the same effect. The flames of gas, wood, benzene, etc., all act in the same way. The nonluminous flames of alcohol and of the Bunsen burner exhibit the same effect, and in the case of the candle-flame the action seems to proceed more from the lower, non-luminous part than from the upper and luminous part. From a small hydrogen flame scarcely any effect could be obtained. The light from platinum glowing at a white-heat in a flame, or through the action of an electric current, a powerful phosphorus flame burning quite near the spark, and burning sodium and potassium, all proved to be inactive. So also was burning sulphur; but this can only have been on account of the feebleness of the flame, for the flame of burning carbon bisulphide produced some effect. Magnesium light produced a far more powerful effect than any of the above sources ; its action extended to a distance of about a metre. The limelight, produced by means of coalgas and oxygen, was somewhat weaker, and acted up to a distance of half a metre; the action was mainly due to the jet itself: it made no great difference whether the lime-cylinder was brought into the flame or not. On no occasion did I obtain a decisive effect from sunlight at any time of the day or year at which I was able to test it. When the sunlight was concentrated by means of a quartz lens upon the spark there was a slight action; but this was obtained equally when a glass lens was used, and must therefore be attributed to the heating. But of all sources of light the electric arc is by far the most effective; it is the only one that can compete with the spark. If the knobs of an induction-coil are drawn so far apart that sparks no longer pass, and if an arc light is started at a distance of 1, 2, 3, or even 4 metres, the sparking begins again simultaneously, and stops again when the arc light goes out. By means of a narrow opening held in front of the arc light we can separate the violet light of the feebly luminous arc proper from that of the glowing carbons; and we then find that the action proceeds chiefly from the former. With the light of the electric arc I have repeated most of the experiments already described, e.g. the experiments on the rectilinear propagation, reflection, and refraction of the action, as well as its absorption by glass, mica, coal-gas, and other substances.
According to the results of our experiments, ultra-violet light has the property of increasing the sparking distance of the discharge of an induction-coil, and of other discharges. The conditions under which it exerts its effect upon such discharges are certainly very complicated, and it is desirable that the action should be studied under simpler conditions, and especially without using an induction-coil. In endeavouring to make progress in this direction I have met with difficulties. Hence I confine myself at present to communicating the results obtained, without attempting any theory respecting the manner in which the observed phenomena are brought about.".
(Note that an arc light may be so effective at producing current in the secondary, because of the quantity of light particles emitted in other {visible, microwave, radio, etc} frequencies too, which is the basis of radio reception.)
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
113 YBN
[07/07/1887 AD]
| 4046) Improved phonograph using a wax cylinder or disk.
Charles Sumner Tainter (CE 1854-1940), working in the Volta Lab of Alexander Graham Bell (CE 1847-1922), with Bell's cousin, Chichester A. Bell, invents the "Graphophone", which uses an engraving stylus, wax cylinders and disks, and has controllable speeds. The Graphophone represents a practical approach to sound recording.
This invention greatly improves the phonograph by devising a wax-coated cardboard cylinder and a flexible recording stylus, both better than the tinfoil surface and rigid stylus used by Thomas A. Edison's phonograph.
(Clearly the phone company is at this time recording phone calls, and so the interest in sound recording devices is obvious, however, it seems at least possible that there are more advanced sound recording machines by this time.)
| (Volta Lab) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
113 YBN
[07/??/1887 AD]
| 4159) German-US physicist, Albert Abraham Michelson (mIKuLSuN) or (mIKLSuN) (CE 1852-1931), and US chemist, Edward Williams Morley (CE 1838-1923), repeat Michelson's 1881 experiment over a larger area, and again, fail to measure any shift in the interference pattern of light due to a theoretical ether.
The Michelson-Morley experiment apparently gains much more attention than the earlier 1881 experiment done by Michelson alone. This experiment will overturn all theories involving the ether. Ernst Mach says at once that the ether does not exist. The Michelson-Morley experiment forces believers in the 'light is a transverse wave in an ether medium' theory, in particular George FitzGerald and Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, to create explanations that explain the result. Asimov writes that the climax of this experiment comes in 1905 when Einstein announces his special theory of Relativity, which begins by assuming that the velocity of light in a vacuum is a fundamental and unchanging constant, and which will remove any need for ether by making use of the quantum theory that Planck will advance in 1900. Michelson never accepts the theory of Relativity as true. Asimov describes the Michelson-Morley experiment as the starting point for the theoretical second scientific revolution just as the identification of X rays by Roentgen in 1895 starts the experimental aspects of the second scientific revolution.
Michelson and Morley write in "On the Relative Motion of the Earth and the Luminiferous Ether": "The discovery of the aberration of light was soon followed by an explanation according to the emission theory. The effect was attributed to a simple composition of the velocity of light with the velocity of the earth in its orbit. The difficulties in this apparently sufficient explanation were overlooked until after an explanation on the undulatory theory of light was proposed. This new explanation was at first almost as simple as the former. But it failed to account for the fact proved by experiment that the aberration was unchanged when observations were made with a telescope filled with water. For if the tangent of the angle of aberration is the ratio of the velocity of the earth to the velocity of light, then, since the latter velocity in water is three-fourths in velocity in a vacuum, the aberration observed with a water telescope should be four-thirds of its true value. {original footnote: It may be noticed that most writers admit the sufficiency of the explanation according to the emission theory of light; while in fact the difficulty is even greater than according to the undulatory theory. For on the emission theory the velocity of light must be greater in the water telescope, and therefore the angle of aberration should be less; hence, in order to reduce it to its true value, we must make the absurd hypothesis that the motion of the water in the telescope carries the ray of light in the opposite direction!}
On the undulatory theory, according to Fresnel, first, the ether is supposed to be at rest, except in the interior of transparent media, in which, secondly, it is supposed to move with a velocity less than the velocity of the medium in the ratio (n2 - 1)/n2, where n is the index of refraction. These two hypotheses give a complete and satisfactory explanation of aberration. The second hypothesis, notwithstanding its seeming improbability, must be considered as fully proved, first, by the celebrated experiment of Fizeau, and secondly, by the ample confirmation of our own work. The experimental trial of the first hypothesis forms the subject of the present paper.
If the earth were a transparent body, it might perhaps be conceded, in view of the experiments just cited, that the intermolecular ether was at rest in space, notwithstanding the motion of the earth in its orbit; but we have no right to extend the conclusion from these experiments to opaque bodies. But there can hardly be any question that the ether can and does pass through metals. Lorentz cites the illustration of a metallic barometer tube. When the tube is inclined, the ether in the space above the mercury is certainly forced out, for it is incompressible. But again we have no right to assume that it makes its escape with perfect freedom, and if there be any resistance, however slight, we certainly could not assume an opaque body such as the whole earth to offer free passage through its entire mass. But as Lorentz aptly remarks: "Quoi qui'l en soit, on fera bien, a mon avis, de ne pas se laisser guider, dans une question aussi importante, par des considerations sur le degre de probabilite ou de simplicite de l'une ou de l'autre hypothese, mais de s'addresser a l'experience pour apprendre a connaitre l'etat, de repos ou de mouvement, dans lequel se trouve l'ether a la surface terrestre." {ULSF: translation: In any event, we will do well, in my opinion, not be guided in such an important issue, with considerations on the degree of probability or simplicity of one or the other hypothesis, but address the experiment in order to learn about the state of rest or motion, where the ether is found in a terrestrial surface.}
In April, 1881, a method was proposed and carried out for resting the question experimentally.
In deducing the formula for the quantity to be measure, the effect of the motion of the earth through the ether on the path of the ray at right angles to this motion was overlooked. The discussion of this oversight and of the entire experiment forms the subject of a very searching analysis by H. A. Lorentz, who finds that this effect can by no means be disregarded. In consequence, the quantity to be measured had in fact but half the value supposed, and as it was already barely beyond the limits of errors of experiment, the conclusion drawn from the result of the experiment might well be questioned; since, however, the main portion of the theory remains unquestioned, it was decided to repeat the experiment with such modifications as would insure a theoretical result much too large to be masked by experimental errors. The theory of the method may be briefly stated as follows:
Let sa, (Fig. 1), be a ray of light which is partly reflected in ab and partly transmitted in ac, being returned by the mirrors b and c along ba and ca. ba is partly transmitted along ad, and ca is partly reflected along ad. If then the paths ab and ac are equal, the two rays interfere along ad. Suppose now, the ether being at rest, that the whole apparatus moves in the direction sc, with the velocity of the earth in its orbit, the directions and distances traversed by the rays will be altered thus:- The ray sa is reflected along ab, Fig. 2; the angle bab, being equal to the aberration = a1 is returned along ba1, (aba1 = 2a), and goes to the focus of the telescope, whose direction is unaltered. The transmitted ray goes along ac, is returned along ca1, and is reflected at a1, making ca1e, equal 90 - a, and therefore still coinciding with the first ray. It may be remarked that the rays ba1 and ca1 do not now meet exactly in the same point a1, though the difference is of the second order; this does not affect the validity of the reasoning. Let it now be required to find the difference in the two paths aba1, and aca1.
Let: V = velocity of light. v = velocity of the earth in its orbit. D = distance ab or ac, Fig. 1. T = time light occupies to pass from a to c. T1 = time light occupies to return from c to a1, (Fig. 2.)
Then T = D / (V - v) and T1 = D / (V + v)
The whole time going and coming is T + T1 = 2D (V / (V2 - v2)),
and the distance traveled in this time is 2D (V2 / (V2 - v2)) = 2D (1 + (v2 / V2))
neglecting the terms of the fourth order.
The length of the other path is evidently 2D (1 + (v2 / V2))1/2,
or to the same degree of accuracy, 2D (1 + (v2 / 2V2)).
The difference is therefore D(v2/V2). If now the whole apparatus be turned through 90°, the difference will be in the opposite direction, hence the displacement of the interference fringes should be 2D (v2 / V2). Considering only the velocity of the earth in its orbit, this would be 2D x 10-8. If, as was the case in the first experiment, D = 106 waves of yellow light, the displacement to be expected would 0.04 of the distance between the interference-fringes.
In the first experiment, one of the principal difficulties encountered was that of revolving the apparatus without producing distortion; and another was its extreme sensitiveness to vibration. This was so great that it was impossible to see the interference-fringes except at brief intervals when working in the city, even a two o'clock in the morning. Finally, as before remarked, the quantity to be observed, namely, a displacement of something less than a twentieth of the distance between the interference-fringes, may have been too small to be detected when masked by experimental errors.
The first-named difficulties were entirely overcome by mounting the apparatus on a massive stone floating on mercury; and the second by increasing, by repeated reflection, the path of the light to about ten times its former value.
The apparatus is represented in perpective in fig. 3, in plan in fig. 4, and in vertical section in fig. 5. The stone a (fig. 5) is about 1.5 metre square and 0.3 metre thick. It rests on an annular wooden float bb, 1.5 metre outside diameter, 0.7 metre inside diameter, and 0.25 metre thick. The float rests on mercury contained in the cast-iron trough cc, 1.5 centimetre thick, and of such dimensions as to leave a clearance of about one centimetre around the float. A pin d, guided by arms gggg, fits into a socket e attached to the float. The pin may be pushed into the socket or be withdrawn, by a lever that is pivoted at f. This pin keeps the float concentric with the trough, but does not bear any part of the weight of the stone. The annular ring trough rests on a bed of cement on a low brick pier built in the form of a hollow octagon.
At each corner of the stone were placed four mirrors d d, e e, fig. 4. Near the center of the stone was a plane parallel glass b. These were so disposed that the light from an argand burner a passing through the lens fell on b so as to be in part reflected to d; the two pencils followed the paths indicated in the figure, bdedbf and bd,e,d,bf respectively, and were observed by the telescope f. Both f and a revolved with the stone. The mirrors were of speculum metal carefully worked to optically plane surfaces five centimetres in diameter, and the glasses b and c were plane parallel and of the same thickness, 1.25 centimetre; their surfaces measured 5.0 by 7.5 centimetres. The second of these was placed in the path of one of the pencils to compensate for the passage of the other through the same thickness of glass. The whole of the optical portion of the apparatus was kept covered with a wooden cover to prevent air currents and rapid changes of temperature.
The adjustment was effected as follows: The mirrors having been adjusted by screws in the castings which held the mirrors, against which they were pressed by springs, till light from both pencils could be seen in the telescope, the lengths of the two paths were measured by a light wooden rod reaching diagonally from mirror to mirror, the distance being read from a small steel scale to tenths of millimetres. The difference in the lengths of the two paths was then annulled by moving mirror e1. This mirror had three adjustments: it had an adjustment in altitude and one in azimuth, like all the other mirrors, but finer; it also had an adjustment in the direction of the incident ray, sliding forward or backward, but keeping very accurately parallel to its former plane. The three adjustments of this mirror could be made with the wooden cover in position.
The paths now being approximately equal, the two images of the source of light or of some well-defined object placed in front of the condensing lens, were made to coincide, the telescope was now adjusted for distinct vision of the expected interference bands, and sodium light was substituted for white light, when the interference bands appeared. These were now made as clear as possible by adjusting the mirror e1; then white light was restored, the screw altering the length of path was very slowly moved (one turn of a screw of one hundred threads to the inch altering the path nearly 1000 wave-lengths) till the coloured interference-fringes reappeared in white light. These were now given a convenient width and position, and the apparatus was ready for observation.
The observations were conducted as follows: Around the cast-iron trough were sixteen equidistant marks. The apparatus was revolved very slowly (one turn in six minutes) and after a few minutes the cross wire of the micrometer was set on the clearest of the interference-fringes at the instant of passing one of the marks. The motion was so slow that this could be done readily and accurately. The reading of the screw-head on the micrometer was noted, and a very slight and gradual impulse was given to keep up the motion of the stone; on passing the second mark, the same process was repeated, and this was continued till the apparatus had completed six revolutions. It was found that by keeping the apparatus in slow uniform motion, the results were much more uniform and consistent than when the stone was brought to rest for observation; for the effects of strains could be noted for at least half a minute after the stone came to rest, and during this time effects of change of temperature came into action.". Michelson and Morley then list tables of their results and then write:
"The results of the observations are expressed graphically in fig. 6. The upper is the curve for the observations at noon, and the lower that for the evening observations. The dotted curves represent one-eigth/i> of the theoretical displacements. It seems fair to conclude from the figure that if there is any displacement due to the relative motion of the earth and luminiferous ether, this cannot be much greater than 0.01 of the distance between the fringes.
Considering the motion of the earth in its orbit only, this displacement should be 2Dv2/V2=2Dx108?. The distance D was about eleven meters, or 2x107 wave-lengths of yellow light; hence the displacement to be expected was 0.4 fringe. The actual displacement was certainly less than the twentieth part of this, and probably less than the fortieth part. But since displacement is proportional to the square of the velocity, the relative velocity of the earth and the ether is probably less than one sixth the earth's orbital velocity, and certainly less than one-fourth.
In what precedes, only the orbital motion of the earth is considered. If this is combined with the motion of the solar system, concerning which but little is known with certainty, the result would have been modified; and it is just possible that the resultant velocity at the time of the observations was small, though the chances are against it. The experiment will therefore be repeated at intervals of three months, and thus all uncertainty will be avoided.
It appears, from all that precedes, reasonably certain that if there be any relative motion between the earth and the luminiferous ether, it must be small; quite small enough entirely to refute Fresnel's explanation of aberration. Stokes has given a theory of aberration which assumes the ether at the earth's surface to be at rest with regard to the latter, and only requires in addition that the relative velocity have a potential; but Lorentz shows that these conditions are incompatible. Lorentz then proposes a modification which combines some ideas of Stokes and Fresnel, and assumes the existence of a potential, together with Fresnel's coefficient. If now it were legitimate to conclude from the present work that the ether is at rest with regard to the earth's surface, according to Lorentz there could not be a velocity potential, and his own theory also fails.". A Supplement follows this in which Michelson and Morley discuss the possibility of measuring the relative motion of the earth through an ether at different altitudes.
In 1920 Einstein expresses the view that light is a wave with an ether medium when he says in a lecture given in Leiden: "Recapitulating, we may say that according to the general theory of relativity space is endowed with physical qualities; in this sense, therefore, there exists an ether. According to the general theory of relativity space without ether is unthinkable; for in such space there not only would be no propagation of light, but also no possibility of existence for standards of space and time (measuring-rods and clocks), nor therefore any space-time intervals in the physical sense.".
Note that the "emission" theory is the 1800s name for the particle theory of light, similarly in the 1700s the particle theory for light was called the "corpuscular" theory. In addition, Michelson's claim that the emission theory of light, that is a particle theory of light requires light to move faster through a denser medium dates back to Newton and is, to me, so obviously inaccurate - because, absolutely yes, even with a particle theory for light, the apparent velocity of light particles may be slower due to particle collision with particles in the medium. This seems so obvious to me, that it can only be corruption that the 1800s people in science did not appear to publicly understand this extremely simple point.
(Determine the age of the "ether" theory - that is that an ether fills the universe.)
| (Case School of Applied Science) Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
113 YBN
[09/26/1887 AD]
| 4112) Émile Berliner (BARlENR) (CE 1851-1929), German-US inventor, invents a cylinder sound recording and playing device (grammophone) in which the needle vibrates from side to side as opposed to up and down as in Edison's cylinder phonograph.
In two months Berliner will patent this horizontal vibrating inscribing needle sound recorder to a flat plate, making the photo-engraving process easier since the surface does not need to be flattened and straightened and the flat copy bent again into the cylindrical form.
| (own lab) Washington, DC, USA |
113 YBN
[10/12/1887 AD]
| 4246) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer patents his alternating current motor (induction motor) which also serves as an alternating current generator (dynamo). Tesla also files a patent for "electrical transmission of power" which describes a method of distributing electricity using alternating current at high voltage.
(possibly read text of patent 382280) Tesla's motor shows that brushes and commutators can be eliminated. Using a transformer (which only produces current with an alternating or intermittent current) at high voltage lowers the loss of electricity when moving electricity in wires over long distances compared to using lower voltage and direct or constant current. Electricity at high voltage can be transported more efficiently than electricity at low voltage. A transformer can be used to create a very high voltage to transport electricity, and then another transformer can be used to reduce the voltage for use at it's destination in distant buildings. So Tesla therefore makes alternating current practical. Tesla’s system will be used in the first large-scale harnessing of Niagara Falls to provide electricity and is the basis for the entire modern electric-power industry.
(Kind of interesting I thought it was that AC gives less loss, but apparently the high voltage is what is efficient, which is logical since a lower voltage makes the current stay in the wire longer, current moves faster under a higher voltage? EX: Is that true that current moves faster under a higher voltage? I think current moves the same speed, but at a higher rate - the quantity of particles per second. DC motors turn faster with a higher voltage). (who finds this that high voltage is lower loss?) (What explains why a higher voltage would produce less loss than a lower voltage? Presuming the same velocity for the current. Perhaps the answer is that: at a higher voltage more particles are moving at once and so less are collided into other directions which represent loss. I think it needs to be explored and explained more.)
| (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA |
113 YBN
[11/07/1887 AD]
| 4114) Émile Berliner (BARlENR) (CE 1851-1929), German-US inventor, invents a flat disk sound recording device (improving his earlier cylinder grammophone).
This is presumably the first publicly known flat disk sound recording device.
Two moths earlier Berliner had patented the horizontal vibrating inscribing needle cylinder sound recorder.
The flat disk makes the photo-engraving process easier since the surface does not need to be flattened and straightened and the flat copy bent again into the cylindrical form.
Berliner's flat disk uses basically the same principal of recording suond that the phonograph uses. A large horn collects the sound, which translates via a diaphragm to a needle, but instead of pressing indentations into the record, moves the needle from side to side in a spiral groove. An inside-out mould is then taken from the original recorded disc (master), which is then nickel plated. Shellac records can then be pressed out between two plates. These Shellac records are recorded at a fixed 78 rpm and are played on wind-up gramophones that amplify the sound using only mechanical vibrations from the needle through the large horn, similar to Edison's phonograph. By modern standards the sound reproduced is poor, but capable of producing enjoyable music. The records are prone to wear from the metal needles that are used, and Shellac is very easy to break. Due to the speed of rotation of these records, the playing time per side is relatively small, so it isn't uncommon for a single opera or symphony to be sold as a book of several records.
| (own lab) Washington, DC, USA |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 3083) Robert Bunsen (CE 1811-1899), German chemist, invents a vapour calorimeter (1887). (more detail)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 3697) Alfred Bernhard Nobel (CE 1833-1896), Swedish inventor, invents ballistite, a nearly smokeless blasting powder.
This powder contains in its latest forms about equal parts of gun-cotton and nitroglycerin. This powder is a precursor of cordite, and Nobel claims that his patent covers cordite in law-suits between him and the British Government in 1894 and 1895, which Nobel ultimate loses.
| Paris, France(presumably) |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 3739) (Sir) Joseph Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920), English astronomer, theorizes that subatomic particles produce spectra.
In 1881, Lockyer had found that some spectral lines produced in the laboratory become broader when heated. He concludes that at very high temperatures atoms break down into smaller substances and that this accounts for the change in the lines. So after Proust, Ramsay is one of the first to think that atoms are divisible. (Figure out exact chronology of this hypothesis - the closest I can get is that it is first in "The Chemistry of the Sun".)
The various changes notices in the spectra of the elements under varying conditions of temperature, pressure, and electrical excitation, in experiments in the laboratory, suggest to Lockyer the idea that with the high temperatures, or the electric stresses used, are breaking up the substances into various "molecular groupings". With regard to the sun, Lockyer theorizes that the elements are broken up or dissociated in the lower hotter layers of the sun rising up to be identified in their usual form in the cooler upper regions of the sun. Lockyer works out this hypothesis fully in his book "The Chemistry of the Sun". ("The Chemistry of the Sun" is a well written and valuable resource for the history of spectroscopy.)
Lockyer compares the dissociation of compound molecules into atomic parts, with the idea that atoms might decompose or dissociate in a similar way. Lockyer writes in "Chemistry of the Sun" (1887): "A compound body, such as a salt of calcium, has as definite a spectrum as that given by the so-called elements; but while the spectrum of the metallic element itself consists of lines, the number and thickness of some of which increase with increased quantity, the spectrum of the compound consists in the main of flutings and bands, which increase in like manner. ... The heat required to act upon such a compound as a salt of calcium, so as to render its spectrum visible, dissociates the compound according to its volatility; the number of true metallic lines which thus appear is a measure of the quantity of the metal resulting from the dissociation, and as the metal lines increase in number, the compound bands thin out.". Lockyer explains that "fluted spectra" as opposed to line spectra, were observed by Plucker, Hittorf and Mitscherlich. The fluted spectra exhibit a rhythm or pattern (see images). Lockyer writes "With ordinary compounds, such as chloride of calcium and so on, one can watch the precise moment at which the compound is broken up- when the calcium begins to come out; and we can then determine the relative amount of dissociation by the number and brightness of the lines of calcium which are produced. Similarly with regard to these flutings we can take iodine vapour, which gives us a fluted spectrum, and we can then increase the temperature suddenly, in which case we no longer get the fluted spectrum at all; or we may increase it so gently that the true lines of iodine come out one by one in exactly the same way that the lines of calcium become visible in the spectrum of the chloride of calcium. We end by destroying the compound of calcium and its spectrum in the one case, and by destroying the fluted spectrum of iodine in the other, leaving, as the result in both cases, the bright lines of the constituents- in the one case calcium and chlorine: in the other case iodine itself.".
In "The Chemistry of the Sun" (1887) Lockyer maintains that the H and K lines are due to a dissociation product of calcium, pointing our that they tend to replace more and more completely the ordinary spectrum as the strength of the electric discharge (in a vacuum tube?) is increased. An obituary in the Royal Astronomical states "Neither his criterion nor his theoretical view of dissociation is sensibly altered when translated in terms of the modern theory of ionization. This view that the atom is broken up when the element passes into the state necessary for the emission of enhanced lines is now regarded as literally true; an electron has been detached, and the remaining "proto-element," as Lockyer called it, is from the spectroscopic point of view an essentially different atom. Where Lockyer wrote pCa we now write Ca++, indicating the nature of the change more particularly, but recognizing the far-reaching importance of the distinction which he was the first to point out and insist on. If any criterion is to be made on this pioneer work, it is that he attached too exclusive an importance to temperature in breaking up the atom; recent theory has shown that low density is also a very potent factor favourable to ionisation.".
Lockyer had first theorized that atoms might be compounds in his 1878 work "Studies in Spectrum Analysis", stating "It is abundantly clear that if the so-called elements, or more properly speaking their finest atoms-those that give us line spectra-are really compounds, the compounds must have been formed at a very high temperature.". Lockyer refers to Dalton who said "We do not know that any one of the bodies denominated elementary is absolutely indecomposable.".
Asimov states that in the next 20 years atoms can gain electric charge through the gradual chipping off of electrons with increasing heat. It is these mutilated atoms, (ions), and not new varieties of atoms, that give rise to all the false spectrum lines that led to the inaccurate identification of new elements (such as chromium, geocoronium, and nebulium).
(State origins of the theory that ions emit different frequencies of light than neutral atoms. I think the theory that ions have a different spectrum than neutral atoms needs to be clearly proved with video evidence.)
(To me the idea that subatomic particles produce spectra is a logical theory, in particular in view of the theory that all matter is made of photons. Do subatomic particles emit characteristic spectra of photons? Is there a difference in the spectra emitted when they are emiting while moving uncollided, or when they collide and emit. In particular what frequencies and durations of photons are emited when they are destroyed?)
| (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England (presumably) |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 3772) Ernst Mach (moK) (CE 1838-1916), Austrian physicist, establishes ("the Mach number") the ratio of the velocity of an object to the velocity of sound.
Mach shows that the angle α, which the shock wave (define better) surrounding the envelope of an advancing gas cone (such as the air in front of a projectile) makes with the direction of its motion, is related to the velocity of sound ν and the velocity of the projectile ω as sin α = ν/ω when ω>ν. The ratio ω/ν is now called the "Mach number". (Has this been verified for many velocities of projectiles over the speed of sound? Perhaps a better way of saying this might be that when an object moves at or above the speed of sound in air, relative to surrounding air molecules, a double or perhaps larger? amplitude {or density} of air molecule vibration occurs at this angle. Describe in terms of physical molecular/atomic description.)
In this work Mach publishes his studies in air flow in which he is the first to describe the sudden change in the nature of airflow over a moving object as it reaches the speed of sound. (describe change). An object that moves at the speed of sound relative to the air, under given conditions of temperature, is called Mach 1, twice the speed of sound is Mach 2, and so on.
Mach and photographer Peter Salcher (CE 1848-1928) publish this work as "Photographische Fixierung der durch Projectile in der Luft eingeleiteten Vorgänge" ("Photographic fixation by Projectile launched into the air operations").
(TODO: English translation of this paper.)
| (Charles University) Prague, Czech Republic |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 3960) Édouard Joseph Louis-Marie van Beneden (CE 1846-1910), Belgian cytologist, recognizes that the number of chromosomes is constant in the various cells of the (human) body, and that each species has a characteristic number of chromosomes in their cells. Van Benden also identifies the centrosome and shows that the centrosome is a permanent cell organ.
Beneden expands on the work of Fleming.
Van Beneden publishes this work in two papers which follow 3 years after his famous 1883 paper which first describes the halving of chromosome number in the division of a diploid (double) cell to a haploid (single) cell, now called meiosis. Van Benden publishes this with Neyt who is an expert in photography.
| University of Liège, Liège, Belgium |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 4027) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931) invents the wax cylinder phonograph.
| (private lab) East Newark, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 4048) Otto Wallach (VoLoK) (CE 1847-1931), German organic chemist, formulates the isoprene rule. Isoprene, with the formula C5H8, had been isolated from rubber in the 1860s by C. Williams. Wallach shows that terpenes are derived from isoprene and therefore have the general formula (C5H8)n; so limonene is (n=2) C10H16. Terpenes are of importance not only in the perfume industry but also as a source of camphors. Later the fact that vitamins A and D are related to the terpenes will be established. The formation of the isoprene rule is described by one source as Wallach's greatest achievement.
(More about techniques used, fractional distillation, crystallization, substitution, chemical combination, etc)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 4098) Henri Louis Le Châtelier (lusoTulYA) (CE 1850-1936), French chemist proposes the use of a thermocouple composed of one wire of pure platinum and another of an alloy of platinum containing 10% of rhodium.
Gas thermometers are inaccurate above 500°C. Platinum-iron and platinum-palladium thermocouples had been introduced, but Regnault, after careful study, had concluded that they gave widely varying results and should not be considered in any accurate work. Le Châtelier saw that the difficulty lay in the diffusion of one metal into the other at high temperatures and in lack of uniformity of the wires. After a series of studies he was able to show that a thermocouple consisting of platinum and a platinum-rhodium alloy gives accurate and reproducible results. He also introduced the custom of using the boiling points of naphthalene and sulfur and the melting points of antimony, silver, copper, gold, and palladium as standard fixed point in the calibration of his thermocouples. Since that time these thermocouples have been used successfully in all high-temperature work.
The thermocouple is based on the principle shown by Thomas Seebeck in 1826 that if a circuit is made from two different metals and heated, a current will flow, and that the current is proportional to the temperature difference between the junctions.
(I find it amazing that heating a metal produces a current...perhaps this relates to the photoelectric effect with infrared, or is some other effect?)
| (École des Mines) Paris, France |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 4219) Hendrik Willem Bakhuis Roozeboom (roZuBOM) (CE 1854-1907), Dutch physical chemist, studies the relationship among the three states of matter (solid, liquid, gas) at different temperatures and pressures, and does many experiments to prove J. W. Gibbs’s phase rule (1876), which defines the conditions of equilibrium as a relationship between the number of components of a system C and the number of coexisting phases P, according to the equation:
F = C + 2 − P,
where F is the degrees of freedom or variability of the system. (explain in more specific detail - not clear)
In "Sur les différentes formes de l’équilibre chimique hétérogène" (1887), Roozeboom systematically arranges all the known dissociation equilibriums on the basis of the phase rule according to the number of components and the number and nature of the phases.
Although it seems abstract to me, Asimov explains that the modern chemisty of alloys can not exist without an understanding of the phase rule. Gibbs' work is abstract and is almost purely expressed in complex integrals.
I view the phases of matter as very interesting, and wonder how much is a real major physical transition and how much is simply a difference in molecular spacing?
| (Leiden University) Leiden, Netherlands |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 4224) German physicists, Johann Phillipp Ludwig Julius Elster (CE 1854-1920), and Hans Geitel (CE 1855-1923) discover the electrification of gases by means of incandescent bodies, a finding significant in thermionics.
In 1883 Thomas Edison had sealed a metal wire into a light bulb near the hot filament and found that electricity flows from the hot filament to the metal wire across the gaps of empty space between them. This "Edison effect", is now explained as the thermionic emission of electrons from a hot to a cold electrode.
| (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 4341) Svante August Arrhenius (oRrAnEuS) (CE 1859-1927), Swedish chemist shows that unexpected differences in van't Hoff's application of the gas law (pV=RT) to osmotic pressure of solutions is because of molecule dissociation.
In 1887 van't Hoff showed that although the gas law (pV = RT) can be applied to the osmotic pressure of solutions, certain solutions produce results as if there were more molecules than expected. Arrhenius shows that this is from dissociation and confirms this with further experimental work.
The idea that electrolytes are dissociated even without a current being passed through is difficult for many chemists to accept, but this theory is still accepted as accurate today.
Arrhenius publishes this in "Über die Dissociation der in Wasser gelösten Stoffe" (1887; "On the Dissociation of Substances in Water").
| (Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
113 YBN
[1887 AD]
| 4369) Electricity of heart beat measured and recorded.
Augustus Desire Waller (CE 1856-1922) measures the electric potentials of the heart muscle, finds them to coincide with each heart muscle contraction, and publishes the first electrocardiograph images.
Waller publishes his findings with images in an 1887 report, "A Demonstration on Man of Electromotive Changes Accompanying the Heart's Beat". This is the first published account of human electrocardiography.
Waller uses zinc covered by leather and moistened with salt-water to measure the electricity.
Waller records the electrical activity of the living mammalian heart from the body surface and in some of the recordings associates that recording with the mechanical apex beat. While some of the recording devices are of Waller's own devising Waller primarily uses the Lippmann capillary electrometer which consists largely of a mercury column supporting a column of dilute sulphuric acid. With the passage of minute electric currents through the instrument, the mercury column fluctuates. A light transilluminating the fluctuating level of the mercury meniscus surface projects the mercury column's movements. This discovery that cardiac mechanical activity is associated with the generation of minute electrical currents which Waller names "electrogram" defines the remainder of Waller's career, as well as being the beginning of a search in the physiologic community for better techniques for their detection and recording. To record the light beam photographically Waller devises a technique of slowly moving a glass photographic plate past the light beam at a constant speed, using a spring motor driven toy train. Willem Einthoven will improve on the Waller electrograms with a more robust and sensitive string galvanometer. Einthoven initially drops the photographic plates at a controlled speed, in a gravity and then later in a motor driven track.
Waller writes: "IF a pair of electrodes (zinc covered by chamois leather and moistened with brine) are strapped to the front and back of the chest, and connected with a Lippmann's capillary electrometer, the mercury in the latter will be seen to move slightly but sharply at each beat of the heart'. If the movements of the column of mercury are photographed on a travelling plate simultaneously with those of an ordinary cardiographic lever a record is obtained as under (fig. 1) in which the upper line h.h. indicates the heart's movements and the lower line e.e. the level of the mercury in the capillary. Each beat of the heart is seen to be accompanied by an electrical variation.
The first and chief point to determine is whether or no the electrical variation is physiological, and not due to a mechanical alteration of contact between the electrodes and the chest wall caused by the heart's impulse. To ascertain this point accurate time-measurements are necessary; a physiological variation should precede the movement of the heart, while this could not be the case if the variation were due to altered contact. Fig. 2 is an instance of such time-measurements taken at as high a speed of the travelling surface as may be used without rendering the initial points of the curves too indeterminate. It shews that the electrical phenomenon begins a little before the cardiographic lever begins to rise. The difference of time is however very small, only about .025", and this amount must further be diminished by .01" which represents the "lost time" of the cardiograph. The actual difference is thus no greater than .015", and the record is therefore, although favourable to the physiological interpretation, not conclusively satisfactory.
We know, from the experiment of the secondary contraction made by Helmholtz' on voluntary muscle, by Kolliker and Muller and by Donders on the heart, that the negative variation of muscle begins before its visible movement, and the current of action of the heart begins before the commencement of the heart's contraction. For muscle the time-difference given is 1/200", for the heart (rabbit) 1/70"; for the frog's heart the rheotome observations of Marchand are to the effect that the variation begins .01" to .04" after excitation, while the contraction does not begin until .11" to .33". The capillary electrometer may with advantage be employed to measure this time-difference, the electrical and the mechanical events being simultaneously recorded. This I carried out on voluntary and upon cardiac muscle with the same instrument as that which I employed for the human heart, and thus ascertained that its indications are trustworthy in this capacity.
In all these cases the antecedence of the electrical variation is clear and measurable. In the case of the excised kitten's heart the time-difference is about .05" with a length of contraction of about 2", i.e. the interval between the electrical and the mechanical event is increased in the sluggishly acting organ. In the case of the human heart the time difference appears to be about .015" with a length of systole of .35"-a value which corresponds with that obtained by Donders for the rabbit's heart in situ by the method of the secondary contraction, viz. 1/70" (the length of systole being presumably about 1/3").
That a true electrical variation of the human heart is demonstrable, may further be proved beyond doubt by leading off from the body otherwise than from the chest wall. If the two hands or one hand and one foot be plunged into two dishes of salt solution connected with the two sides of the electrometer, the column of mercury will be seen to move at each beat of the heart, though less than when electrodes are strapped to the chest. The hand and foot act in this case as leading off electrodes from the heart, and by taking simultaneous records of these movements of the mercury and of the movements of the heart it is seen that the former correspond with the latter, slightly preceding them and not succeeding them, as would be the case if they depended upon pulsation in the hand or foot. This is unquestionable proof that the variation is physiological, for there is here of course no possibility of altered contact at the chest wall, and any mechanical alteration by arterial pulsation could only produce an effect .15" to .20" after the cardiac impulse. A similar result is obtained if an electrode be placed in the mouth while one of the extremities serves as the other leading off electrode. The electrical variation precedes the heart's beat as in the other cases mentioned.
In conclusion it will be well to allude to the difficulties which arise in the interpretation of the character of the electrical variation of the human heart.
By mere inspection of the electrometer it is often most difficult to determine the direction of very rapid movements of the mercury, and photography must be employed. But even then, owing to the small amplitude of movement, it is still difficult to say whether the variation consists of two movements, and whether each movement indicates a single or a double variation in the same direction. Differences in the position of the electrodes also give rise to differences of the apparent variation. Thus with the following position of the electrodes (Hg electrode over the apex beat, H2So4 electrode on the right side of the back) the variation as watched through the microscope appears usually nN, and changes to SN if the Hg electrode be shifted to the sternum. If the Hg electrode is on the back and the H2So4 electrode over the apex beat, the variation appears to be sS and to become nS when the H2So4 electrode is shifted away from the apex beat. The variations accompanying the heart's beat observed as carefully as possible (without the aid of photography) on a healthy person with different positions of the leading off electrodes were as follows. It is to be remarked that the direction of variation as observed in this series is not such as to indicate negativity of the cardiac electrode but the reverse.
{ULSF: table omitted}
It is on account of these sources of doubt that I have not thought it advisable at this stage to attempt a definite interpretation of the character of the variation, which although as shewn, especially by the experiments illustrated in figs. 6 and 7, is certainly physiological, may nevertheless be physically complicated by the conditions of demonstration on the human body.".
| (St. Mary's Hospital) London, England |
112 YBN
[01/10/1888 AD]
| 4023) Perforated paper film played on sprocket-wheeled projector.
Louis Aime Augustin Le Prince (CE 1841-1890?), French photographer, patents a camera which uses from 1 to 16 lenses, and resulting sequences of photos are cur up and mounted in sequence on a perforated band and passed through a sprocket-wheeled projector.
| New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
112 YBN
[02/02/1888 AD]
| 3840) John William Strutt 3d Baron Rayleigh (CE 1842-1919), English physicist, measures that the ratio of atomic weight (more accurately, atomic mass) of oxygen to the atomic weight of hydrogen is not 16:1 exactly, as Prout's hypothesis requires, but is 15.912:1. The year before J. P. Cooke had calculated this ratio to be 15.953 to 1.
Rayleigh revisits Prout's hypothesis, that all atoms are built up out of hydrogen atoms, so that all atomic weights (masses) should be exact multiples of hydrogen, even though Stas and others had shown that the atomic weights of atoms are not exact multiples of the atomic weight of hydrogen. Rayleigh measures the densities of gases and shows that the ratio of the atomic weights of oxygen and hydrogen is not 16:1 as the hypothesis requires but is 15.912:1.
Rayleigh initially mentions Proust's law in an 1882 "Address to the Mathematical and Physical Science Section of the British Association", and publishes this measurement of atomic weight (more accurately, mass) in 1888. Rayleigh writes: " The appearance of Professor Cooke's important memoir upon the atomic weights of hydrogen and oxygen induces me to communicate to the Royal Society a notice of the results that I have obtained with respect to the relative densities of these gases. My motive for undertaking this investigation, planned in 1882, was the same as that which animated Professor Cooke, namely, the desire to examine whether the relative atomic weights of the two bodies really deviated from the simple ratio 1:16, demanded by Prout's Law. For this purpose a knowledge of the densities is not of itself sufficient; but it appeared to me that the other factor involved, viz., the relative atomic volumes of the two gases, could be measured with great accuracy by eudiometric methods, and I was aware that Mr. Scott had in view a redetermination of this number, since in great part carried out.". Rayleigh describes the method used and reports his measurements for the weight (atomic mass) of hydrogen and oxygen. Rayleigh then calculates the ratio of the densities to be 15.844. Rayleigh then adjusts this ratio to account for the ratio of atomic volumes which results in a ratio of atomic weight for oxygen to hydrogen of 15.912 to 1. J. P. Cooke had measured a ratio of 15.953.
Rayleigh follows this up in February 1892, with a measurement of the ratio of atomic densities equal to 15.822 and ratio of atomic weights 15.880.
In 1901, Strutt's son, Robert John Strutt will write an article describing how Prout's law is contradicted by experiment.
(Interesting that they measure atomic weight which I think is atomic mass, but then they measure atomic density by dividing by ratio of volume. Equal volumes of gas contain equal molecules, but may have different mass. Do they multiply the mass by the acceleration of gravity to get the weight or is it presumed to be a mass? I guess the ratio of mass can be different from the ratio of density between two elements.)
| (Strutt Laboratory) Terling, England |
112 YBN
[02/02/1888 AD]
| 4288) Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (CE 1857-1894), German physicist, measures the speed of electrical induction (also known as radio waves or light particles with radio interval) as 320,000 km/s by measuring the time in between sparks from a primary and a distant resonantly tuned secondary circuit. This proves that electromagnetic actions propagate with a finite velocity, and a velocity near the speed of light as Maxwell, and Weber had determined. In addition, Hertz finds that the velocity of electricity in air is faster than the speed of electricity in wire (which Hertz measures as 200,000 km/s) by a ratio of 45 to 28. In addition, Hertz measures the wavelength of the inductive effect (in modern terms the interval of particle groups) to be 2.8 meters - much larger than the wavelength (interval) for visible light.
(Is this still thought to be true - that electricity in empty space is 45/28 times faster than in wire?)
(Perhaps just summarize and then give entire text in ULSF 5) Hertz publishes this initially in Annalan der Physik as (translated to English) "On the Finite Velocity of Electromagnetic Actions". Hertz writes: "When variable electric forces act within insulators whose dielectric constants differ appreciably from unity, the polarisations which correspond to these forces exert electromagnetic effects. But it is quite another question whether variable electric forces in air are also accompanied by polarisations capable of exerting electromagnetic effects. We may conclude that, if this question is to be answered in the affirmative, electromagnetic actions must be propagated with a finite velocity.
While I was vainly casting about for experiments which would give a direct answer to the question raised, it occurred to me that it might be possible to test the conclusion, even if the velocity under consideration was considerably greater than that of light. The investigation was arranged according to the following plan:—In the first place, regular progressive waves were to be produced in a straight, stretched wire by means of corresponding rapid oscillations of a primary conductor. Next, a secondary conductor was to be exposed simultaneously to the influence of the waves propagated through the wire and to the direct action of the primary conductor propagated through the air; and thus both actions were to be made to interfere. Finally, such interferences were to be produced at different distances from the primary circuit, so as to find out whether the oscillations of the electric force at great distances would or would not exhibit a retardation of phase, as compared with the oscillations in the neighbourhood of the primary circuit. This plan has proved to be in all respects practicable. The experiments carried out in accordance with it have shown that the inductive action is undoubtedly propagated with a finite velocity. This velocity is greater than the velocity of propagation of electric waves in wires. According to the experiments made up to the present time, the ratio of these velocities is about 45 : 28. From this it follows that the absolute value of the first of these is of the same order as the velocity of light. Nothing can as yet be decided as to the propagation of electrostatic actions.
The Primary and Secondary Conductors
The primary conductor A A' (Fig. 25) consisted of two square brass plates, 40 cm. in the side, which were connected by a copper wire 60 cm. long. In the middle of the wire was a spark-gap in which oscillations were produced by very powerful discharges of an induction-coil J. The conductor was set up 1.5 metre above the floor, with the wire horizontal and the plane of the plates vertical. We shall denote as the base-line of our experiments a horizontal straight line r s passing through the spark-gap and perpendicular to the direction of the primary oscillation. We shall denote as the zeropoint a point on this base-line 45 cm. from the spark-gap. The experiments were carried out in a large lecture-room, in which there were no fixtures for a distance of 12 metres in the neighbourhood of the base-line. During the experiments this room was darkened. The secondary circuit used was sometimes a wire C in the form of a circle of 35 cm. radius, sometimes a wire B bent into a square of 60 cm. in the side. The spark-gap of both these conductors was adjustable by means of a micrometer-screw ; and in the case of the square conductor the spark-gap was provided with a lens. Both conductors were in resonance with the primary conductor. As calculated from the capacity and coefficient of self-induction of the primary, the (half) period of oscillation of all three conductors amounted to 1.4 hundred-millionths of a second. Still it is doubtful whether the ordinary theory of electric oscillations gives correct results here. But inasmuch as it gives correct values in the case of Leyden jar discharges, we are justified in assuming that its results in the present case will, at any rate, be correct as far as the order of magnitude is concerned. Let us now consider the influence of the primary oscillation upon the secondary circuit in some of the positions which are of importance in our present investigation. First let us place the secondary conductor with its centre on the base-line and its plane in the vertical plane through the base-line. We shall call this the first position. In this position no sparks are perceived in the secondary circuit. The reason is obvious : the electric force is at all points perpendicular to the direction of the secondary wire. Now, leaving the centre of the secondary conductor still on the base-line, let it be turned so that its plane is perpendicular to the base-line; we shall call this the second position. Sparks now appear in the secondary circuit whenever the spark-gap lies above or below the horizontal plane through the base-line ; but no sparks appear when the spark-gap lies in this plane. As the distance from the primary oscillator increases, the length of the sparks diminishes, at first rapidly but afterwards very slowly. I was able to observe the sparks along the whole distance (12 metres) at my disposal, and have no doubt that in larger rooms this distance could be still farther, extended. In this position the sparks owe their origin mainly to the electric force which always acts in the part of the secondary circuit opposite to the spark-gap. The total force may be split up into the electrostatic part and the electromagnetic part; there is no doubt that at short distances the former, at greater distances the latter, preponderates and settles the direction of the total force. Finally, let the plane of the secondary conductor be brought into the horizontal position, its centre being still on the base-line. We shall call this the third position. If we use the circular conductor, place it with its centre at the zeropoint of the base-line, and turn it so that the spark-gap slowly moves around it, we observe the following effects:— In all positions of the spark-gap there is vigorous sparking. The sparks are most powerful and about 6 mm. long when the spark-gap faces the primary conductor; they steadily diminish when the spark-gap is moved away from this position, and attain a minimum value of about 3 mm. on the side farthest from the primary conductor. If the conductor was exposed only to the electrostatic force, we should expect sparking when the spark-gap was on the one side or the other in the neighbourhood of the base-line, but no sparking in the two intermediate positions. Indeed, the direction of the oscillation would be determined by the direction of the force in the portion of the secondary conductor lying opposite to the spark-gap. But upon the oscillation excited by the electrostatic force is superposed the oscillation excited by the electromagnetic force; and here the latter is very powerful, because the electromagnetic force when integrated around the secondary circuit (considered as being closed) gives a finite integral value. The direction of this integrated force of induction is independent of the position of the spark-gap; it opposes the electrostatic force in the part of the secondary conductor which faces A A', but reinforces the electrostatic force in the part which faces away from A A'. Hence the electrostatic and electromagnetic forces assist each other when the spark-gap is turned towards, but they oppose each other when it is turned away from the primary conductor. That it is the electromagnetic force which preponderates in the latter position and determines the direction of the oscillation, may be recognised from the fact that the change from the one state to the other takes place in any position without any extinction of the sparks. For our purpose it is important to make the following observations:—If the spark-gap is rotated to the right or left through 90° from the base-line, it lies at a nodal point with respect to the electrostatic force, and the sparks which appear in it owe their origin entirely to the electromagnetic force, and especially to the fact that the latter, around the closed circuit, is not zero. Hence, in this particular position, we can investigate the electromagnetic effect, even in the neighbourhood of the primary conductor, independently of the electrostatic effect. A complete demonstration of the above explanations will be found in an earlier paper. Some further evidence in support of these explanations, and of the results arrived at in my earlier paper, will be found in what follows.
The Waves in the Straight Wire
In order to excite in a wire with the aid of our primary oscillations waves suitable for our purpose, we proceed as follows:—Behind the plate A we place a plate P of the same size. From the latter we carry a copper wire 1 mm. thick to the point m on the base-line; from there, in a curve 1 metre long, to the point n, which lies 3 0 cm. above the sparkgap, and thence in a straight line parallel to the base-line for a distance sufficiently great to prevent any fear of disturbance through reflected waves. In my experiments the wire passed through the window, then went about 60 metres freely through the air, and ended in an earth-connection. Special experiments showed that this distance was sufficiently great. If now we bring near to this wire a metallic conductor in the form of a nearly closed circle, we find that the discharges of the induction-coil are accompanied by play of small sparks in the circle. The intensity of the sparks can be altered by altering the distance between the plates P and A. That the waves in the wire have the same periodic time as the primary oscillations, can be shown by bringing near to the wire one of our tuned secondary conductors ; for in these the sparks become more powerful than in any other metallic circuits, whether larger or smaller. That the waves are regular, in respect to space as well as time, can be shown by the formation of stationary waves. In order to produce these, we allow the wire to end freely at some distance from its origin, and bring near to it our secondary conductor in such a position that its plane includes the wire, and that the spark-gap is turned towards the wire. We then observe that at the free end of the wire the sparks in the secondary conductor are very small; they increase in length as we move towards the origin of the wire; at a certain distance, however, they again decrease and sink nearly to zero, after which they again become longer. We have thus found a nodal point. If we now measure the wavelength so found, make the whole length of the wire (reckoned from the point n) equal to a complete multiple of this length, and repeat the experiment, we find that the whole length is now divided up by nodal points into separate waves. If we fix each nodal point separately with all possible care, and indicate its position by means of a paper rider, we see that the distances of these are approximately equal, and that the experiments admit of a fair degree of accuracy.
The nodes can also be distinguished from the antinodes in other ways. If we bring the secondary conductor near to the wire, in such a position that the plane of the former is perpendicular to the latter, and that the spark-gap is neither turned quite towards the wire nor quite away from it, but is in an intermediate position, then our secondary circle is in a suitable position for indicating the existence of forces which are perpendicular to the direction of the wire. Now, when the circle is in such a position, we see that sparks appear at the nodal points, but disappear at the antinodes. If we draw sparks from the wire by means of an insulated conductor, we find that these are somewhat stronger at the nodes than at the antinodes; but the difference is slight, and for the most part can only be perceived when we already know where the nodes and antinodes respectively are situated. The reason why this latter method and other similar ones give no definite result is that the particular waves under consideration have other irregular disturbances superposed upon them. With the aid of our tuned circle, however, we can pick out the disturbances in which we are interested, just as particular notes can be picked out of confused noises by means of resonators. If we cut through the wire at a node, the phenomena along the part between it and the origin are not affected : the waves are even propagated along the part which has been cut off if it is left in its original position, although their strength is diminished.
The fact that the waves can be measured admits of numerous applications. If we replace the copper wire hitherto used by a thicker or thinner copper wire, or by a wire of another metal, the nodal points are found to remain in the same positions. Thus the rate of propagation in all such wires is the same, and we are justified in speaking of it as a definite velocity. Even iron wires are no exception to this general rule; hence the magnetic properties of iron are not called into play by such rapid disturbances. It will be of interest to test the behaviour of electrolytes. The fact that the electrical disturbance in these is bound up with the disturbance of inert matter might lead us to expect a smaller velocity of propagation. Through a tube of 10 mm. diameter, filled with a solution of copper sulphate, the waves would not travel at all; but this may have been due to the resistance being too great. Again, by measuring the wave-lengths, we can determine the relative periods of oscillation of different primary conductors; it should be possible to compare in this way the periods of oscillation of plates, spheres, ellipsoids, etc.
In our particular case the nodal points proved to be very distinct when the wire was cut off at a distance of either 8 metres or 5.5 metres from the zero-point of the base-line. In the former case the positions of the paper riders used for fixing the nodal points were—0.2 m., 2.3 m., 5.1 m., and 8 m.; in the latter case—O.1 m., 2.8 m., and 5.5 m., the distances being measured from the zero-point. From this it appears that the (half) wave-length in the free wire cannot differ much from 2.8 metres. We can scarcely be surprised at finding that the first wave-length, reckoned from P, appears smaller than the rest, when we take into consideration the presence of the plate and the bending of the wire. A period of oscillation of 1.4 hundred-millionths of a second, and a wave-length of 2.8 metres, gives 200,000 km./sec. as the velocity of electric waves in wires. In the year 1850 Fizeau and Gounelle, making use of a very good method, found for this velocity the value 100,000 km./sec. in iron wires, and 180,000 km./sec. in copper wires. In 1875 W. Siemens, using discharges from Leyden jars, found velocities from 200,000 to 260,000 km./sec. in iron wires. Other determinations can scarcely be taken into consideration. Our result comes in well between the above experimental values. Since it was obtained with the aid of a doubtful theory, we are not justified in publishing it as a new measurement of this same velocity; but, on the other hand, we may conclude, from the accordance between the experimental results, that our calculated value of the period of oscillation is of the right order of magnitude.
Interference between the direct Action and that propagated through the Wire
Let us place the square circuit B at the zero-point in our second position, and so that the spark - gap is at the highest point. The waves in the wire now exert no influence; the direct action gives rise to sparks 2 mm. long. If we now bring B into the first position by turning it about a vertical axis, it is found conversely that the primary oscillation exercises no direct effect; but the waves in the wire now induce sparks winch can be made as long as 2 mm. by bringing P near to A. In intermediate positions both causes give rise to sparks, and it is thus possible for them, according to their difference in phase, either to reinforce or to weaken each other. Such a phenomenon, in fact, we observe. For, if we adjust the plane of B so that its normal towards A A' points away from that side of the primary conductor on which the plate P is placed, the sparking is even stronger than it is in the principal positions; but if we adjust the plane of B so that its normal points towards P, the sparks disappear, and only reappear when the spark-gap has been considerably shortened. If, under the same conditions, we place the spark-gap at the lowest point of B, the disappearance of the sparks takes place when the normal points away from P. Further modifications of the experiment—e.g. by carrying the wire beneath the secondary conductor—produce just such effects as might be expected from what has above been stated. The phenomenon itself is just what we expected; let us endeavour to make it clear that the action takes place in the sense indicated in our explanation. In order to fix our ideas, let us suppose that the spark-gap is at the highest point, and the normal turned towards P (as in the figure). At the particular instant under consideration let the plate P have its largest positive charge. The electrostatic force, and therefore the total force, is directed from A towards A'. The oscillation induced in B is determined by the direction of the force in the lower part of B. Positive electricity will therefore be urged towards A' in the lower part, and away from A' in the upper part. Let us now consider the action of the waves. As long as A is positively charged, positive electricity flows away from the plate P. At the instant under consideration this flow reaches its maximum development in the middle of the first half wavelength of the wire. At a quarter wave-length farther from the origin—that is, in the neighbourhood of our zero-point— it is just beginning to take up this direction (away from the zero-point). Hence at this point the electromagnetic induction urges positive electricity in its neighbourhood towards the origin. In particular, positive electricity in our conductor B is thrown into a state of motion in a circle, so that in the upper part it tends to flow towards A, and in the lower part away from A'. Thus, in fact, the electrostatic and electromagnetic forces act against one another, and are in approximately the same phase; hence they must more or less annul one another. If we rotate the secondary circle through 90° (through the first position) the direct action changes its sign, but the action of the waves does not; both causes reinforce one another. The same holds good if the conductor B is rotated in its own plane until the spark-gap lies at its lowest point. We now replace the wire m n by longer lengths of wire. We observe that this renders the interference more indistinct; it disappears completely when a piece of wire 250 cm. long is introduced; the sparks are of the same length whether the normal points away from P or towards it. If we lengthen the wire still more the difference of behaviour in the various quadrants again exhibits itself, and the extinction of the sparks becomes fairly sharp when 400 cm. of wire is introduced. But there is now this difference — that extinction occurs when the spark-gap is at the top, and the normal points away from P. Further lengthening of the wire causes the interference to disappear once more; but it reappears in the original sense when about 6 metres of wire are introduced. These phenomena are obviously explained by the retardation of the waves in the wire, and they also make it certain that the state of affairs in the progressive waves changes sign about every 2.8 metres.
If we wish to produce interference while the secondary circle C lies in the third position, we must remove the rectilinear wire from the position in which it has hitherto remained, and carry it along in the horizontal plane through C, either on the side towards the plate A, or on the side towards the plate A'. In practice it is sufficient to stretch the wire loosely, grasp it with insulating tongs, and bring it alternately near one side or the other of C. What we observe is as follows :— If the waves are carried along the side on which the plate P lies, they annul the sparks which were previously present; if they are carried along the opposite side they strengthen the sparks which were already present. Both results always occur, whatever may be the position of the spark-gap in the circle. We have seen that at the instant when the plate A has its strongest positive charge, and when, therefore, the primary current begins to flow away from A, the surging at the first nodal point of the rectilinear wire begins to flow away from the origin of the wire. Hence both currents flow round C in the same sense when the rectilinear wire lies on the side of C which is remote from A; in the other case they flow round C in opposite senses, and their actions annul one another. The fact that the position of the spark-gap is of no importance confirms our supposition that the direction of the oscillation is here determined by the electromagnetic force. The interferences which have just been described also change their sign when 400 cm. of wire, instead of 100 cm., is introduced between the points m and n.
I have also produced interferences in positions in which the centre of the secondary circle lay outside the base-line; but for our present purpose these are only of importance inasmuch as they throughout confirmed our fundamental views.
Interference at Various Distances
Interferences can be produced at greater distances in the same way as at the zero-point. In order that they may be distinct, care must be taken that the action of the waves in the wire is in all cases of about the same magnitude as the direct action. This can be secured by increasing the distance between P and A. Now very little consideration will show that, if the action is propagated through the air with infinite velocity, it must interfere with the waves in the wire in opposite senses at distances of half a wave-length (i.e. 2.8 metres) along the wire. Again, if the action is propagated through the air with the same velocity as that of the waves in the wire, the two will interfere in the same way at all distances. Lastly, if the action is propagated through the air with a velocity which is finite, but different from that of the waves in the wire, the nature of the interference will alternate, but at distances which are farther than 2.8 metres apart.
In order to find out what actually took place, I first made use of interferences of the kind which were observed in passing from the first into the second position. The sparkgap was at the top. At first I limited myself to distances up to 8 metres from the zero-point. At the end of each half-metre along this position the secondary conductor was set up and examined in order to see whether any difference could be observed at the spark-gap according as the normal pointed towards P or away from it. If there was no such difference, the result of the experiment was indicated by the symbol 0. If the sparks were smaller when the normal pointed towards P, then this showed an interference which was represented by the symbol +. The symbol — was used to indicate an inter ference when the normal pointed towards the other side. In order to multiply the experiments I frequently repeated them, making the wire m n 50 cm. longer each time, and thus lengthening it gradually from 100 cm. to 600 cm. The results of my experiments are contained in the following summary which will easily be understood:—
{ULSF: see image of table}
According to this it might almost appear as if the interferences changed sign at every half wave-length of the waves in the wire. But, in the first place, we notice that this does not exactly happen. If it did, then the symbol O should recur at the distances 1 m., 3.8 m., 6.6 m., whereas it obviously recurs less frequently. In the second place, we notice that the retardation of phase proceeds more rapidly in the neighbourhood of the origin than at a distance from it. All the rows agree in showing this. An alteration in the rate of propagation is not probable. We can with much better reason attribute this phenomenon to the fact that we are making use of the total force (Gesammtkraft), which can be split up into the electrostatic force and the electromagnetic. Now, according to theory, it is probable that the former, which preponderates in the neighbourhood of the primary oscillation, is propagated more rapidly than the latter, which is almost the only factor of importance at a distance. In order first to settle what actually happens at a greater distance, I have extended the experiments to a distance of 12 metres, for at any rate three values of the length m n. I must admit that this required rather an effort. Here are the results:—
{ULSF: see image of table}
If we assume that at considerable distances the electromagnetic action alone is effective, then we should conclude from these observations that the interference of this action with the waves in the wires only changes its sign every 7 metres.
In order now to investigate the electromagnetic force in the neighbourhood of the primary oscillation (where the phenomena are more distinct) as well, I made use of the interferences which occur in the third position when the spark-gap is rotated 90° away from the base-line. The sense of the interference at the zero-point has already been stated, and this sense will be indicated by the symbol —, whereas the symbol + will be used to denote an interference by conducting the waves past the side of C which is remote from P. This choice of the symbols will be in accord with the way in which we have hitherto used them. For since the electromagnetic force is opposed to the total force at the zero-point, our first table would also begin with the symbol —, provided that the influence of the electrostatic force could have been eliminated. Now experiment shows, in the first place, that interference still takes place up to a distance of 3 metres, and that it is of the same sign as at the zero-point. This experiment, repeated often and never with an ambiguous result, is sufficient to prove the finite rate of propagation of the electromagnetic action. Unfortunately the experiments could not be extended to a greater distance than 4 metres, on account of the feeble nature of the sparks. Here, again, I repeated the experiments with variable lengths of the wire m n, so as to be able to verify the retardation of phase along this portion of the wire. The results are given in the following summary:—
{ULSF: See image of table}
A discussion of these results shows that here, again, the phase of the interference alters as the distance increases, so that a reversal of sign might be expected at a distance of 7-8 metres.
But this result is much more plainly shown by combining the results of the second and third summary—using the data of the latter up to a distance of 4 metres, and of the former for greater distances. In the first of these intervals we thus avoid the action of the electrostatic force by reason of the peculiar position of our secondary conductor; in the second this action drops out of account, owing to the rapid weakening of that force. We should expect the observations of both intervals to fit into one another without any break, and our expectation is confirmed. We thus obtain by collating the symbols the following table for the interference of the electromagnetic force with the action of the waves in the wire:—
{ULSF: see image of table}
From this table I draw the following conclusions:—
1. The interference does not change sign every 2.8 metres. Therefore the electromagnetic actions are not propagated with infinite velocity.
2. The interference, however, is not in the same phase at all points. Therefore the electromagnetic actions do not spread out in air with the same velocity as the electric waves in wires.
3. A gradual retardation of the waves in the wire has the effect of shifting any particular phase of the interference towards the origin of the waves. From the direction of this shifting it follows that of the two different rates of propagation that through air is the more rapid. For if by retardation of one of the two actions we bring about an earlier coincidence of both, then we must have retarded the slower one.
4. At distances of every 7.5 metres the sign of the interference changes from + to —. Hence, after proceeding every 7.5 metres, the electromagnetic action outruns each time a wave in the wire. While the former travelled 7.5 metres, the latter travelled 7.5 — 2.8 = 4.7 metres. The ratio of the two velocities is therefore as 75:47, and the half wave-length of the electromagnetic action in air is 2.8 x 75/47 = 4.5 metres. Since this distance is traversed in 1.4 hundred-millionths of a second, it follows that the absolute velocity of propagation in air is 320,000 km. per second. This result only holds good as far as the order of magnitude is concerned; still the actual value can scarcely be greater than half as much again, and can scarcely be less than two-thirds of the value stated. The actual value can only be determined by experiment when we are able to determine the velocity of electricity in wires more accurately than has hitherto been the case.
Since the interferences undoubtedly change sign after 2.8 metres in the neighbourhood of the primary oscillation, we might conclude that the electrostatic force which here predominates is propagated with infinite velocity. But this conclusion would in the main depend upon a single change of phase, and this one change can be explained (apart from any retardation of phase) by the fact that, at some distance from the primary oscillation, the amplitude of the total force undergoes a change of sign. If the absolute velocity of the electrostatic force remains for the present unknown, there may yet be adduced definite reasons for believing that the electrostatic and electromagnetic forces possess different velocities. The first reason is that the total force does not vanish at any point along the base-line. Since the electrostatic force preponderates at small distances, and the electromagnetic force at greater distances, they must in some intermediate position be equal and opposite, and, inasmuch as they do not annul one another, they must reach this position at different times.
The second reason is derived from the propagation of the force throughout the whole surrounding space. In a previous paper it has already been shown how the direction of the force at any point whatever can be determined. The distribution of the force was there described, and it was remarked that there were four points in the horizontal plane, about 1.2 metre before and behind the outer edges of our plates A and A', at which no definite direction could be assigned to the force, but that the force here acts with about the same strength in all directions. The only apparent interpretation of this is that the electrostatic and electromagnetic components here meet one another at right angles, and are about equal in strength but differ notably in phase; thus they do not combine to produce a resultant rectilinear oscillation, but a resultant which during each oscillation passes through all points of the compass.
The fact that different components of the total force possess different velocities is also of importance, inasmuch as it provides a proof (independent of those previously mentioned) that at least one of these components must be propagated with finite velocity.
Conclusions More or less important improvements in the quantitative results of this first experiment may result from further experiments in the same direction; but the path which they must follow may be said to be already made, and we may now regard it as having been proved that the inductive action is propagated with finite velocity. Sundry conclusions follow from the results thus obtained, and to some of these I wish to draw attention.
1. The most direct conclusion is the confirmation of Faraday's view, according to which the electric forces are polarisations existing independently in space. For in the phenomena which we have investigated such forces persist in space even after the causes which have given rise to them have disappeared. Hence these forces are not simply parts or attributes of their causes, but they correspond to changed conditions of space. The mathematical character of these conditions justifies us then in denoting them as polarisations, whatever the nature of these polarisations may be.
2. It is certainly remarkable that the proof of a finite rate of propagation should have been first brought forward in the case of a force which diminishes in inverse proportion to the distance, and not to the square of the distance. But it is worth while pointing out that this proof must also affect such forces as are inversely proportional to the square of the distance. For we know that the ponderomotive attraction between currents and their magnetic actions are connected by the principle of the conservation of energy with their inductive actions in the strictest way, the relation being apparently that of action and reaction. If this relation is not merely a deceptive semblance, it is not easy to understand how the one action can be propagated with a finite and the other with an infinite velocity.
3. There are already many reasons for believing that the transversal waves of light are electromagnetic waves; a firm foundation for this hypothesis is furnished by showing the actual existence in free space of electromagnetic transversal waves which are propagated with a velocity akin to that of light. And a method presents itself by which this important view may finally be confirmed or disproved. For it now appears to be possible to study experimentally the properties of electromagnetic transversal waves, and to compare these with the properties of light waves.
4. The hitherto undecided questions of electromagnetics which relate to unclosed currents should now be more easily attacked and solved. Some of these questions, indeed, are directly settled by the results which have already been obtained. In so far as electromagnetics only lacks certain constants, these results might even suffice to decide between the various conflicting theories, assuming that at least one of them is correct.
Nevertheless, I do not at present propose to go into these applications, for I wish first to await the outcome of further experiments which are evidently suggested in great number by our method.".
Hertz also describes his work in an 1888 article written in English for the "Electrical Review" entitled "On the Speed of Diffusion of Electrodynamic Actions".
At this stage, Hertz has not described clearly yet how wavelength (or particle group interval) can be determined by syncronizing different spaced detectors, which Hertz describes in his next paper of 1888. In this paper Hertz just briefly touches upon the wavelength, the focus of the paper being the finite speed of the propagation. (Note that Hertz theorizes that the "nodes" are created by an interference of electrostatic and electromagnetic forces, not by what may seem more obvious - the nodes being created by different particle groups, like wave fronts, colliding with the regularly spaced secondary receivers at the same time. Hertz concludes that the speed of electrostatic and the speed of electrodynamic force, must be different. Interesting that Hertz recognizes that the distance of electrostatic and electrodynamic forces are different - this is true, simply because moving particles collide/dislodge, other particles in moving current where they don't in static current.)
(It seems beyond coicidence, and knowing about neuron writing, that Phillip Reis, and Heinrich Hertz all released important science secrets, and then died at very young ages - should we presume, that these two people were murdered?)
(I doubt all of Hertz's talk about an electrostatic versus electromagnetic force being responsible for the electric induction effect - thinking instead that these are all particle collision phenomena. In particular, I doubt there being any distinction to be drawn between an electromagnet and electro-static force - but yet the apparent differences between the two are very interesting.)
(It seems clearly that Hertz has made a potential mistake in describing how a spark becomes weaker and then stronger as the secondary is being brought towards the primary. Perhaps Hertz adjusted the wire length {and therefore the inductance and capacitance} as he moved the secondary. Perhaps there was a need to lie because of the neuron network - to suggest that light moves in waves - to accomodate an aether theory - in particular as Maxwell hypothesized. Because, although I have not directly observed this yet, it seems clear that a spark is caused in an inverse distance relationship - with no breaks in between - the spark constantly appears at any distance. What, in my mind, must be timed is when the spark happens relative to the distance - perhaps this is what Hertz was trying to describe - that at larger distances the spark appears at a later time. It seems clear that the syncronization is that the spark occurs at the same time at different distances - each spark being a different pulse from the primary - this seems like the method used to measure velocity. Clearly, the translation into English, or Hertz's original writing does not describe the phenomena accurately or in clear terms. Because what is happening is that different groups or waves of electric particles are sent through a wire, and empty space, and that the spark is caused when these groups intersect a secondary wire. So the goal is to position the distance of each secondary wire progressively more distant from the primary electric source wire so that the spark occurs at the same time in each secondary wire. Each spark then represents a different particle or wave front. So the closest spark is the primary, the second spark that is produced at the same time as the first spark but some distance away is the earlier particle {wave} front, and the the third simultaneous spark in an even more distance wire was the particle front that exited the primary before the other two, closer simultaneous sparks. Notice, for example, the use of the word "lies" in the English translation at the end of a discussion of balancing electrostatic and electromagnetic forces at a 90 degree angle.)
(With Hertz's statements: "For in the phenomena which we have investigated such forces persist in space even after the causes which have given rise to them have disappeared. Hence these forces are not simply parts or attributes of their causes, but they correspond to changed conditions of space." - this seems somewhat abstract - but I think it suggests that the effects of the cause are seen after the initial cause - the initial spark - but the conclusion that there is some property of space that maintains these later effects, seems obviously wrong in view of a particle interpretation - where particles take time to reach the later effect taking time to travel from the initial cause/spark - not that some property of space has some inherent property waiting to be activated. So this seems like trying to confirm Faraday's view - while missing the more obvious particle explanation.)
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN
[02/??/1888 AD]
| 4287) Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (CE 1857-1894), German physicist, reports that dynamic (moving) electric induction phenomenon is not communicated when the primary conductor spark-gap (transmitter) lies in the horizontal plane, and the secondary conductor spark-gap (receiver) lies in the vertical plane and explains this result, not by a light-as-a-particle and particle-collision theory, but instead by Maxwell's theory of light as an electromagnetic wave which has a magnetic force in a vertical plane and an electric force in the horizontal plane. This may mark a strong turning point in the acceptance of Maxwell's erroneous electromagnetic theory for light, in which light is a wave made of an electrical and magnetic sine wave at 90 degrees to each other, in an aether medium. This theory of light as electromagnetic waves is still accepted even to this day - for example in the article for "Light" in the Encyclopedia Britannica. This theory may be popular because it may help to keep many other people in the public from figuring out how to see, hear and send thought images and sounds - in particular by thinking that science is illogical and/or too complex to understand for an average person like themselves.
In addition Hertz reports the possibility of a finite rate of propagation for either the electrostatic or the electromagnetic force.
Hertz writes in (translated to English) "On the Action of a Rectilinear Electric Oscillation Upon A Neighbouring Circuit": " In an earlier paper I have shown how we may excite in a rectilinear unclosed conductor the fundamental electric oscillation which is proper to this conductor. I have also shown that such an oscillation exerts a very powerful inductive effect upon a nearly closed circuit in its neighbourhood, provided that the period of oscillation of the latter is the same as that of the primary oscillation. As I intended to make use of these effects in further researches, I examined the phenomenon in all the various positions which the secondary circuit could occupy with reference to the inducing current. The total inductive action of a current-element upon a closed circuit can be completely calculated by the ordinary methods of electromagnetics. Now since our secondary circuit is closed, with the exception of an exceedingly short spark-gap, I supposed that this total action would suffice to explain the new phenomena; but I found that in this I was mistaken. In order to arrive at a proper understanding of the experimental results (which are not quite simple), it is necessary to regard the secondary circuit also as being in every respect unclosed. Hence it is not sufficient to pay attention to the integral force of induction; we must take into consideration the distribution of the electromagnetic force along the various parts of the circuit: nor must the electrostatic force which proceeds from the charged ends of the oscillator be neglected. The reason of this is the rapidity with which the forces in these experiments alter their sign. A slowly alternating electrostatic force would excite no sparks in our secondary conductor, even if its intensity were very great, since the free electricity of the conductor could distribute itself, and would distribute itself, in such a way as to neutralise the effect of the external force; but in our experiments the direction of the force alters so rapidly that the electricity has no time to distribute itself in this way.
For the sake of convenience I will first sketch the theory and then describe the phenomena in connection with it. It would indeed be more logical to adopt the opposite course; for the facts here communicated are true independently of the theory, and the theory here developed depends for its support more upon the facts than upon the explanations which accompany it.
The Apparatus
Before we proceed to develop the theory, we may briefly describe the apparatus with which the experiments were carried out, and to which the theory more especially relates. The primary conductor consisted of a straight copper wire 5 mm. in diameter, to the ends of which were attached spheres 30 cm. in diameter made of sheet-zinc. The centres of these latter were 1 metre apart. The wire was interrupted in the middle by a spark-gap 3/4 cm. long; in this oscillations were excited by means of the most powerful discharges which could be obtained from a large induction-coil. The direction of the wire was horizontal, and the experiments were carried out only in the neighbourhood of the horizontal plane passing through the wire. This, however, in no way restricts the general nature of the experiments, for the results must be the same in any meridional plane through the wire. The secondary circuit, made of wire 2 mm. thick, had the form of a circle of 35 cm. radius which was closed with the exception of a short spark-gap (adjustable by means of a micrometer-screw). The change from the form used in the earlier experiments to the circular form was made for the following reason. Even the first experiments had shown that the spark-length was different at different points of the secondary conductor, even when the position of the conductor as a whole was not altered. Now the choice of the circular form made it easily possible to bring the spark-gap to any desired position. This was most conveniently done by mounting the circle so that it could be rotated about an axis passing through its centre, and perpendicular to its plane. This axis was mounted upon various wooden stands in whatever way proved from time to time most convenient for the experiments.
With the dimensions thus chosen, the secondary circuit was very nearly in resonance with the primary. It was tuned more exactly by soldering on small pieces of sheet-metal to the poles so as to increase the capacity, and increasing or diminishing the size of these until a maximum spark-length was attained.
...". Hertz goes on to describe how the force is stronger at different points because of the circular shape of the secondary wire, and gives math which describes the sum of this force for the secondary wire. Then Hertz describes moving the receiving secondary wire into a vertical plane: "... The Plane of the Secondary Circuit is Vertical
Let us now place our circle anywhere in the neighbourhood of the primary conductor, with its plane vertical and its centre in the horizontal plane which passes through the primary conductor. As long as the spark-gap lies in the horizontal plane, either on the one side or the other, we observe no sparks; but in other positions of the spark-gap we perceive sparks of greater or less length. The disappearance of the sparks occurs at two diametrically opposite points; it follows that the a of our formula is here always zero, and that θ becomes zero when the spark-gap lies in the horizontal plane. From this we draw the following conclusions:—In the first place, that the lines of magnetic force in the horizontal plane are everywhere vertical, and therefore form circles around the primary oscillation, as indeed is required by theory. Secondly, that at all points of the horizontal plane the lines of electric force lie in this plane itself, and therefore, that everywhere in space they lie in planes passing through the primary oscillation— which is also required by theory. If while the circle is in any one of the positions here considered, we turn it about its axis so as to remove the spark-gap out of the horizontal plane, the spark-length increases until the sparks arrive at the top or the bottom of the circle, in which positions they attain a length of 2-3 mm. It can be proved in various ways that the sparks thus produced correspond, as our theory requires, to the fundamental oscillation of our circle, and not, as might be suspected, to the first overtone. By making small alterations in the circle, for example, we can show that the oscillation which produces these sparks is in resonance with the primary oscillation ; and this would not hold for the overtones. Again, the sparks disappear when the circle is cut at the points where it intersects the horizontal plane, although these points are nodes with respect to the first overtone. ...". Hertz concludes by refering to figure 23 writing: "... Fig. 23 shows on a reduced scale a portion of the diagram thus made; with reference to it we note:- 1. At distances beyond 3 metres the force is everywhere parallel to the primary oscillation. This is clearly the region in which the electrostatic force has become negli gible, and the electromagnetic force alone is effective. All theories agree in this—that the electromagnetic force of a current-element is inversely proportional to the distance, whereas the electrostatic force (as the difference between the effects of the two poles) is inversely proportional to the third power of the distance. It is worthy of notice that, in the direction of the oscillation, the action becomes weaker much more rapidly than in the perpendicular direction, so that in the former direction the effect can scarcely be perceived at a distance of 4 metres, whereas in the latter direction it extends at any rate farther than 12 metres. Many of the elementary laws of induction which are accepted as possible will have to be abandoned if tested by their accordance with the results of these experiments.
2. As already stated, at distances less than a metre the character of the distribution is determined by the electrostatic force.
3. Along one pair of straight lines the direction of the force can be determined at every point. The first of these straight lines is the direction of the primary oscillation itself; the second is perpendicular to the primary oscillation through its centre. Along the latter the magnitude of the force is at no point zero; the size of the sparks induced by it diminishes steadily from greater to smaller values. In this respect also the phenomena contradict certain of the possible elementary laws which require that the force should vanish at a certain distance.
4. One remarkable fact that results from the experiment is, that there exist regions in which the direction of the force cannot be determined; in our diagram each of these is indicated by a star. These regions form in space two rings around the rectilinear oscillation. The force here is of approximately the same strength in all directions, and yet it cannot act simultaneously in these different directions; hence it must assume in succession these different directions. Hence the phenomenon can scarcely be explained otherwise than as follows:—The force does not retain the same direction and alter its magnitude; its magnitude remains approximately constant, while its direction changes, passing during each oscillation round all the points of the compass. I have not succeeded in finding an explanation of this behaviour, either in the terms which have been neglected in our simplified theory, or in the harmonics which are very possibly mingled with our fundamental vibration. And it seems to me that none of the theories which are based upon the supposition of direct action-at-a-distance would lead us to expect anything of this kind. But the phenomenon is easily explained if we admit that the electrostatic force and the electromagnetic force are propagated with different velocities. For in the regions referred to these two forces are perpendicular to one another, and are of the same order of magnitude; hence if an appreciable difference of phase has arisen between them during the course of their journey, their resultant—the total force—will, during each oscillation, move round all points of the compass without approaching zero in any position.
A difference between the rates of propagation of the electrostatic and electromagnetic forces implies a finite rate of propagation for at least one of them. Thus it seems to me that we probably have before us here the first indication of a finite rate of propagation of electrical actions.
In an earlier paper I mentioned that trivial details, without any apparent reason, often interfered with the production of oscillations by the primary spark. One of these, at any rate, I have succeeded in tracing to its source. For I find that when the primary spark is illuminated, it loses its power of exciting rapid electric disturbances. Thus, if we watch the sparks induced in a secondary conductor, or in any auxiliary conductor attached to the discharging circuit, we see that these sparks vanish as soon as a piece of magnesium wire is lit, or an arc light started, in the neighbourhood of the primary spark. At the same time the primary spark loses its crackling sound. The spark is particularly sensitive to the light from a second discharge. Thus the oscillations always cease if we draw sparks from the opposing faces of the knobs by means of a small insulated conductor; and this even though these sparks may not be visible. In fact, if we only bring a fine point near the spark, or touch any part of the inner surfaces of the knobs with a rod of sealing-wax or glass, or a slip of mica, the nature of the spark is changed, and the oscillations cease. Some experiments made on this matter seem to me to prove (and further experiments will doubtless confirm this) that in these latter cases as well the effective cause of the change is the light of a side-flash, which is scarcely visible to the eye. These phenomena are clearly a special form of that action of light upon the electric discharge, of which one form was first decribed by myself some time ago, and which has since been studied in other forms by Herren E. Wiedemann, H. Ebert , and W. Hallwachs.".
(It seems clear that a simple and potentially valid explanation for this lack of spark in a vertical secondary wire from a horizontal primary wire is simply that far fewer particles collide with the secondary wire when in the vertical plane relative to the horizontal primary conductor. This is a very simple geometrical problem - particles are dispersed in a cylindrical shape - actually a conical shape when including time of propagation - but to simplify the particles spread out in the direction of a three-dimensional cylinder over time, and the quantity that collide is the proportion of the secondary wire that intersects the expanding cylinder path - although the particles spread out, and so it is more detailed. There is math that can describe it, but simply modeling particles in 3D using simply inertial motion would show this very clearly. TODO: Model this phenomenon. This is very similar to how light is "polarized" - in the interpretation of polarization that I support - which is that beams of particles are filtered by their direction.)
(Notice that Hertz nowhere refers to an aether. This to me reflects an experimenter-mind, and a person with a distaste for dishonesty and/or stupidity. )
(Notice the English translation uses the word "lies" as I have seen others do in science books about radio.)
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN
[04/??/1888 AD]
| 4289) Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (CE 1857-1894), German physicist, reports that electromagnetic waves (radio) can be reflected.
Hertz reflects the signals off a sandstone wall covered with a sheet of zinc in a lecture hall. At this point Hertz still refers to this effect as the "propagation of induction". Later in December 1888, Hertz will refer to this effect as "electric radiation". In addition, Hertz states clearly that "These new phenomena also admit of a direct measure of the wave-length in air. The fact that the wave-lengths thus obtained by direct measurement only differ slightly from the previous indirect determinations (using the same apparatus), may be regarded as an indication that the earlier demonstration was in the main correct". Hertz compares this reflection as analogous to how when a tuning-fork is brought near a wall, the sound is strengthened at certain distances and weakened at others.
Hertz concludes his paper (translated into English) by writing: "... I have described the present set of experiments, as also the first set on the propagation of induction, without paying special regard to any particular theory; and, indeed, the demonstrative power of the experiments is independent of any particular theory. Nevertheless, it is clear that the experiments amount to so many reasons in favour of that theory of electromagnetic phenomena which was first developed by Maxwell from Faraday's views. It also appears to me that the hypothesis as to the nature of light which is connected with that theory now forces itself upon the mind with still stronger reason than heretofore. Certainly it is a fascinating idea that the processes in air which we have been investigating represent to us on a million-fold larger scale the same processes which go on in the neighbourhood of a Fresnel mirror or between the glass plates used for exhibiting Newton's rings.
That Maxwell's theory, in spite of all internal evidence of probability, cannot dispense with such confirmation as it has already received, and may yet receive, is proved—if indeed proof be needed—by the fact that electric action is not propagated along wires of good conductivity with approximately the same velocity as through air. Hitherto it has been inferred from all theories, Maxwell's included, that the velocity along wires should be the same as that of light. I hope in time to be able to investigate and report upon the causes of this conflict between theory and experiment. ...". Notice "...forces itself upon the mind..." much like a neuron writing particle beam, and the ominous "...a million-fold..." as if a million people might have their lives ended in a fraction of a second using particles, this phrase is also used in "The Incredible Machine" video of the 1970s.
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN
[05/03/1888 AD]
| 3971) Friedrich Reinitzer (CE 1857-1927) identifies that cholesteryl benzoate has a similar "in between solid and liquid" state (later called "liquid crystal") as silver iodide does as found by Otto Lehmann in 1876.
This "Liquid Crystal" state leads to the development of Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs).
A priority dispute occurs between Lehmann and Reinitzer about who was the first to recognize the liquid crystal property.
Austrian chemist Friedrich Reinitzer (CE 1857-1927) finds the principle of liquid crystals. These molecules are the basis of liquid crystal displays.
In 1876, Otto Lehmann found that at temperatures above 146 degrees, silver iodide can flow like a viscous solid, and that although it is actually in the liquid condition, it still exhibits several properties characteristic of crystals. Reinitzer observes that when he heats a solid organic compound, cholesteryl benzoate, it appears to have two distinct melting points. The cholesteryl benzoate becomes a cloudy liquid at 145°C and turns clear at 179°C.
In the process of Reinitzer conducting experiments on a cholesteryl based substance, cholesteryl benzoate, trying to figure out the correct formula and molecular weight of cholesterol, Reinitzer finds that when he tries to precisely determine the melting point, which is an important indicator of the purity of a substance, that cholesteryl benzoate appears to have two melting points. At 145.5°C the solid crystal melts into a cloudy liquid which exists until 178.5°C where the cloudiness suddenly disappears, giving way to a clear transparent liquid. At first Reinitzer thinks that this might be a sign of impurities in the material, but further purification does not bring any changes to this phenomenon.
Puzzled by this discovery, Reinitzer turns for help to the German physicist Otto Lehmann, who is an expert in crystal optics. Lehmann becomes convinced that the cloudy liquid had a unique kind of order. In contrast, the transparent liquid at higher temperature has the characteristic disordered state of all common liquids. Eventually Lehmann realizes that the cloudy liquid is a new state of matter and coins the name "liquid crystal"(in ), illustrating that this substance is something between a liquid and a solid, sharing important properties of both. In a normal liquid the properties are isotropic, that is, the same in all directions. In a liquid crystal the properties are not isotropic, and strongly depend on direction even if the substance is fluid.
This new idea is challenged by the scientific community, and some scientists claim that the newly-discovered state probably is just a mixture of solid and liquid components. But between 1910 and 1930 conclusive experiments and early theories support the liquid crystal concept at the same time that new types of liquid crystalline states of order are discovered.
At the time of Reinitzer and Lehmann, people only know about three states of matter. The general idea is that all matter has one melting point, where it turns from solid to liquid, and a boiling point where it turns from liquid to gas, a prime example being water, however, thanks to Reinitzer, Lehmann and those that followed them, people know that there are thousands of substances that have a variety of other states.
Reinitzer publishes this as "Beiträge zur Kenntniss des Cholesterins", (English translation: "Contributions to the knowledge of cholesterol"). Reinitzer writes (translated from German to English): "... During the cooling process of the molten cholesteryl acetate a peculiar, very splendi d colour phenomenon occurs before solidification (not after it as reported by Rayma nn). The phenomenon can already be observed in a wide capillary tube, as is used to de1.ermine the melting point. However it can be observed much better if the subst ance is melted on an object glass covered with a cover glass, one then sees, when viewed in reflected light, in one place a strong emerald green colour appears, which rapidly spreads over the entire sample, then becomes blue-green, in places also deep blue, then changes to yellow-green, yellow, orange-red, and finally bright red. From the coldest places, the sample then hardens into spherocrystals which, spreading quite rapidly, suppress the colour phenomenon at which time the colour simultaneously turns pale. In transmitted light, the phenomenon takes place in the supplementary colours which, however, are unusually pale and scarcely perceptible. Similar colour phenomen,a appear to occur in several cholesterol derivatives. Thus, Planar (op. cit.) reports that cholesteryl chloride displays a violet colour during cooling from the melt which vanishes again upon solidifying. Raymann (op. cit.) reports similar observations on the same substance. Lobisch (op. cit.) reports that cholesterylamine when melted displays a bluish-violet ‘fluorescence’ and also mentions the occurrence of the same phenomenon in the case of cholesteryl chloride. I myself observed a similar phenomenon in cholesteryl benzoate (see below), and Latschinoff reports for the silver salt of cholestenic acid, which is formed by oxidation of cholesterol, that it turns steel blue when melted, which fact is probably to be explained in the same way. An accompanying phenomenon occurring in cholesteryl benzoate, to be described below, as well as the perceptible changes observed under the microscope during the occurrence of the colour phenomenon suggested to me that perhaps physical isomerism was present here, and therefore I requested Professor 0. Lehmann in Aachen, who is probably presently the most familiar with these phenomena, to make a more detailed investigation of the acetate and benzoate along this line. He was kind enough to perform the investigation and indeed found that trimorphism was present in both compouncls. The cause of the colour phenomenon, however, has not yet been satisfactorily explained. It is only known that it is closely related to the precipitation and redissolution of a presently still completely enigmatic substance. Whether this substance formed and disappears as a result of a physical or chemical change cannot be decided at present. ..."
Reinitzer goes on to write: "... Professor Lehmann’s study of the colour phenomenon has shown that it is produced by the precipitation of a substance whose structure resembles an aggregate of spherocrystals, as polygonal areas can be recognized, each of which displays a bla ck cross between crossed nicols. Upon closer study, however, one sees that this substance consists of drops which acquire a jagged outline due to very fine crystals perceptible only at strong magnifications. In other words, the substance is quite liquid, and the shape of the drops can usually be changed by moving the cover glass. If the finest distribution and most uniform mixing possible of the precipitated substance with the remaining liquid is brought about by shaking movements, the brightness and beauty of the colour phenomenon is significantly enhanced. The colour producing substance also displays a strong rotation of the plane of polarization of light which varies with temperature and which varies in intensity of the individual colours and is directed toward the right at higher temperatures and to the left at lower temperatu res. If the colour phenomenon vanishes upon further cooling and gives way to crystallization, then the precipitated substance redissolves by suddenly being set into peculiar motion and gradually disappears. The nature of the colour-producing substance has not been determined to date. No impurities can be present, because the phenomenon occurs in different cholesterol derivatives and I have also already observed it in a derivative of hydrocarotene. Cholesteryl acetate decomposes when heated above the melting point with yellow and brown coloration and evolution of pungent burnt-smelling vapours.... The acetate when partially decomposed by heating has the peculiarity that it is brought into a state by rapid cooling in which it displays the above-mentioned colour phenomenon, permanently, at ordinary temperature. ...".
Liquid crystals like cholesteryl benzoate are now known as "thermotropic liquid crystals"; as the temperature is raised, their state changed from solid crystal to liquid crystal. Another liquid crystal type are lyotropic liquid crystals, which exhibit liquid-crystal properties when mixed with water or some other specific solvent.
(I think there is a high probability that the liquid crystal display was realized in the 1800s and kept secret from the public, but it is not clear. Clearly, remote neuron activation enabled the sending of images to people's minds and before their eyes, which is the most convenient of all displays. From this story, it seems clear that, the discovery of cholesterols producing colors happened before this paper. Reinitzer cites the earlier work of Planar, Raymann and Lobisch.)
| Institute of Plant Physiology at the University of Prague, Prague, Austria |
112 YBN
[09/08/1888 AD]
| 6260) Oberlin Smith (CE 1840-1926) publishes details of a magnetic recording device in 1888, but whether he constructs a magnetic recording device is unknown.
Notice here in 1888, Smith, friend of Edison, uses the word "thought" prominently in the first sentence of his article "" writing: "There being nowadays throughout the scientific world great activity of thought regarding listening and talking machines, the reader of THE ELECTRICAL WORLD may be interested in a description of two or three possible methods of making phonograph which the writer contrived some years ago, but which were laid aside and never brought to completion on account of a press of other work. ...". It shows that Smith was clearly aware of the development and secret technology of seeing, hearing and sending thought images and sounds to and from brains (remote neuron reading and writing, that is direct-to-brain windows or videos).
| Bridgeton, New Jersey, USA |
112 YBN
[09/??/1888 AD]
| 3833) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923) and George Downing Liveing examine the spectrum of oxygen and find that some visible frequencies of light are that many ultraviolet frequencies are absorbed. The visible absorption lines match the solar absorption lines A and B. They find that oxygen is transparent in the violet and ultraviolet up to a wavelength of 2745 (Angstroms? nm?), and that oxygen completely absorbs all lines recorded with wavelengths lower than 2664 (Angstroms? nm?). They find that the absorption bands are weakened when the pressure is lowered. They write "...In fact we see the anomalies of the selective absorption by compounds as compared with that of their elements when we take the case of water which has a remarkable transparency for those ultra violet rays for which oxygen is opaque.". They conclude "These observations show that all stellar spectra observed in our atmosphere, irrespective of the specific ultra-violet radiation of each star, must be limited to wave-lengths not less than λ 2700, unless we can devise means to eliminate the atmospheric absorption by observations at exceedingly high altitudes."
They publish another paper "Notes on the Absorption-Spectra of Oxygen and Some of Its Compounds" in 1889. Egoroff, Janssen, and Olszewski also examine the absorption spectra of oxygen.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
112 YBN
[11/??/1888 AD]
| 4290) Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (CE 1857-1894), German physicist, supports Maxwell's theory of light as an electromagnetic wave with an aether medium as superior to others to explain electrical induction (radio).
(This support for Maxwell's theory of light as an electromagnetic wave is a setback for truth in my view, since this theory seems inaccurate in view of a theory of light as a material particle without any aether medium.)
(This is the first paper where Hertz examines theory with mathematics which include integrals and derivatives, most of Hertz's papers describe experiments.)
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN
[12/13/1888 AD]
| 4291) Hertz describes his experiments in a December 1888 paper writing: " As soon as I had succeeded in proving that the action of an electric oscillation spreads out as a wave into space, I planned experiments with the object of concentrating this action and making it perceptible at greater distances by putting the primary conductor in the focal line of a large concave parabolic mirror. These experiments did not lead to the desired result, and I felt certain that the want of success was a necessary consequence of the disproportion between the length (4-5 metres) of the waves used and the dimensions which I was able, under the most favourable circumstances, to give to the mirror. Recently I have observed that the experiments which I have described can be carried out quite well with oscillations of more than ten times the frequency, and with waves less than one-tenth the length of those which were first discovered. I have, therefore, returned to the use of concave mirrors, and have obtained better results than I had ventured to hope for. I have succeeded in producing distinct rays of electric force, and in carrying out with them the elementary experiments which are commonly performed with light and radiant heat. The following is an account of these experiments:—
The Apparatus
The short waves were excited by the same method which we used for producing the longer waves. The primary conductor used may be most simply described as follows:— Imagine a cylindrical brass body, 3 cm. in diameter and 26 cm. long, interrupted midway along its length by a sparkgap whose poles on either side are formed by spheres of 2 cm. radius. The length of the conductor is approximately equal to the half wave-length of the corresponding oscillation in straight wires; from this we are at once able to estimate approximately the period of oscillation. It is essential that the pole-surfaces of the spark-gap should be frequently repolished, and also that during the experiments they should be carefully protected from illumination by simultaneous side-discharges ; otherwise the oscillations are not excited. Whether the spark-gap is in a satisfactory state can always be recognised by the appearance and sound of the sparks. The discharge is led to the two halves of the conductor by means of two gutta-percha-covered wires which are connected near the spark-gap on either side. I no longer made use of the large Ruhmkorff, but found it better to use a small induction-coil by Keiser and Schmidt; the longest sparks, between points, given by this were 4.5 cm. long. It was supplied with current from three accumulators, and gave sparks 1-2 cm. long between the spherical knobs of the primary conductor. For the purpose of the experiments the spark-gap was reduced to 3 mm.
Here, again, the small sparks induced in a secondary conductor were the means used for detecting the electric forces in space. As before, I used partly a circle which could be rotated within itself and which had about the same period of oscillation as the primary conductor. It was made of copper wire 1 mm. thick, and had in the present instance a diameter of only 7.5 cm. One end of the wire carried a polished brass sphere a few millimetres in diameter; the other end was pointed and could be brought up, by means of a fine screw insulated from the wire, to within an exceedingly short distance from the brass sphere. As will be readily understood, we have here to deal only with minute sparks of a few hundredths of a millimetre in length; and after a little practice one judges more according to the brilliancy than the length of the sparks.
The circular conductor gives only a differential effect, and is not adapted for use in the focal line of a concave mirror. Most of the work was therefore done with another conductor arranged as follows :—Two straight pieces of wire, each 50 cm. long and 5 mm. in diameter, were adjusted in a straight line so that their near ends were 5 cm. apart. From these ends two wires, 15 cm. long and 1 mm. in diameter, were carried parallel to one another and perpendicular to the wires first mentioned to a spark-gap arranged just as in the circular conductor. In this conductor the resonance-action was given up, and indeed it only comes slightly into play in this case. It would have been simpler to put the spark-gap directly in the middle of the straight wire; but the observer could not then have handled and observed the spark-gap in the focus of the mirror without obstructing the aperture. For this reason the arrangement above described was chosen in preference to the other which would in itself have been more advantageous.
The Production of the Ray
If the primary oscillator is now set up in a fairly large free space, one can, with the aid of the circular conductor, detect in its neighbourhood on a smaller scale all those phenomena which I have already observed and described as occurring in the neighbourhood of a larger oscillation. The greatest distance at which sparks could be perceived in the secondary conductor was 1.5 metre, or, when the primary spark-gap was in very good order, as much as 2 metres. When a plane reflecting plate is set up at a suitable distance on one side of the primary oscillator, and parallel to it, the action on the opposite side is strengthened. To be more precise :—If the distance chosen is either very small, or somewhat greater than 30 cm., the plate weakens the effect; it strengthens the effect greatly at distances of 8-15 cm., slightly at a distance of 45 cm., and exerts no influence at greater distances. We have drawn attention to this phenomenon in an earlier paper, and we conclude from it that the wave in air corresponding to the primary oscillation has a half wave-length of about 30 cm. We may expect to find a still further reinforcement if we replace the plane surface by a concave mirror having the form of a parabolic cylinder, in the focal line of which the axis of the primary oscillation lies. The focal length of the mirror should be chosen as small as possible, if it is properly to concentrate the action. But if the direct wave is not to annul immediately the action of the reflected wave, the focal length must not be much smaller than a quarter wavelength. I therefore fixed on 12 1/2 cm. as the focal length, and constructed the mirror by bending a zinc sheet 2 metres long, 2 metres broad, and 1/2 mm. thick into the desired shape over a wooden frame of the exact curvature. The height of the mirror was thus 2 metres, the breadth of its aperture 1.2 metre, and its depth 0.7 metre. The primary oscillator was fixed in the middle of the focal line. The wires which conducted the discharge were led through the mirror; the induction-coil and the cells were accordingly placed behind the mirror so as to be out of the way. If we now investigate the neighbourhood of the oscillator with our conductors, we find that there is no action behind the mirror or at either side of it; but in the direction of the optical axis of the mirror the sparks can be perceived up to a distance of 5-6 metres. When a plane conducting surface was set up so as to oppose the advancing waves at right angles, the sparks could be detected in its neighbourhood at even greater distances—up to about 9-10 metres. The waves reflected from the conducting surface reinforce the advancing waves at certain points. At other points again the two sets of waves weaken one another. In front of the plane wall one can recognise with the rectilinear conductor very distinct maxima and minima, and with the circular conductor the characteristic interference-phenomena of stationary waves which I have described in an earlier paper. I was able to distinguish four nodal points, which were situated at the wall and at 33, 65, and 98 cm. distance from it. We thus get 33 cm. as a closer approximation to the half wave-length of the waves used, and 1.1 thousand-millionth of a second as their period of oscillation, assuming that they travel with the velocity of light. In wires the oscillation gave a wave-length of 29 cm. Hence it appears that these short waves also have a somewhat lower velocity in wires than in air; but the ratio of the two velocities comes very near to the theoretical value —unity— and does not differ from it so much as appeared to be probable from our experiments on longer waves. This remarkable phenomenon still needs elucidation. Inasmuch as the phenomena are only exhibited in the neighbourhood of the optic axis of the mirror, we may speak of the result produced as an electric ray proceeding from the concave mirror.
I now constructed a second mirror, exactly similar to the first, and attached the rectilinear secondary conductor to it in such a way that the two wires of 50 cm. length lay in the focal line, and the two wires connected to the spark-gap passed directly through the walls of the mirror without touching it. The spark-gap was thus situated directly behind the mirror, and the observer could adjust and examine it without obstructing the course of the waves. I expected to find that, on intercepting the ray with this apparatus, I should be able to observe it at even greater distances; and the event proved that I was not mistaken. In the rooms at my disposal I could now perceive the sparks from one end to the other. The greatest distance to which I was able, by availing myself of a doorway, to follow the ray was 16 metres; but according to the results of the reflection-experiments (to be presently described), there can be no doubt that sparks could be obtained at any rate up to 20 metres in open spaces. For the remaining experiments such great distances are not necessary, and it is convenient that the sparking in the secondary conductor should not be too feeble; for most of the experiments a distance of 6-10 metres is most suitable. We shall now describe the simple phenomena which can be exhibited with the ray without difficulty. When the contrary is not expressly stated, it is to be assumed that the focal lines of both mirrors are vertical.
Rectilinear Propagation
If a screen of sheet zinc 2 metres high and 1 metre broad is placed on the straight line joining both mirrors, and at right angles to the direction of the ray, the secondary sparks disappear completely. An equally complete shadow is thrown by a screen of tinfoil or gold-paper. If an assistant walks across the path of the ray, the secondary spark-gap becomes dark as soon as he intercepts the ray, and again lights up when he leaves the path clear. Insulators do not stop the ray—it passes right through a wooden partition or door; and it is not without astonishment that one sees the sparks appear inside a closed room. If two conducting screens, 2 metres high and 1 metre broad, are set up symmetrically on the right and left of the ray, and perpendicular to it, they do not interfere at all with the secondary spark so long as the width of the opening between them is not less than the aperture of the mirrors, viz. 1.2 metre. If the opening is made narrower the sparks become weaker, and disappear when the width of the opening is reduced below 0.5 metre. The sparks also disappear if the opening is left with a breadth of 1.2 metre, but is shifted to one side of the straight line joining the mirrors. If the optical axis of the mirror containing the oscillator is rotated to the right or left about 10° out of the proper position, the secondary sparks become weak, and a rotation through 15° causes them to disappear.
There is no sharp geometrical limit to either the ray or the shadows; it is easy to produce phenomena corresponding to diffraction. As yet, however, I have not succeeded in observing maxima and minima at the edge of the shadows.
Polarisation
From the mode in which our ray was produced we can have no doubt whatever that it consists of transverse vibrations and is plane-polarised in the optical sense. We can also prove by experiment that this is the case. If the receiving mirror be rotated about the ray as axis until its focal line, and therefore the secondary conductor also, lies in a horizontal plane, the secondary sparks become more and more feeble, and when the two focal lines are at right angles, no sparks whatever are obtained even if the mirrors are moved close up to one another. The two mirrors behave like the polariser and analyser of a polarisation apparatus.
I next had made an octagonal frame, 2 metres high and 2 metres broad; across this were stretched copper wires 1 mm. thick, the wires being parallel to each other and 3 cm. apart. If the two mirrors were now set up with their focal lines parallel, and the wire screen was interposed perpendicularly to the ray and so that the direction of the wires was perpendicular to the direction of the focal lines, the screen practically did not interfere at all with the secondary sparks. But if the screen was set up in such a way that its wires were parallel to the focal lines, it stopped the ray completely. With regard, then, to transmitted energy the screen behaves towards our ray just as a tourmaline plate behaves towards a plane-polarised ray of light. The receiving mirror was now placed once more so that its focal line was horizontal; under these circumstances, as already mentioned, no sparks appeared. Nor were any sparks produced when the screen was interposed in the path of the ray, so long as the wires in the screen were either horizontal or vertical. But if the frame was set up in such a position that the wires were inclined at 45° to the horizontal on either side, then the interposition of the screen immediately produced sparks in the secondary spark-gap. Clearly the screen resolves the advancing oscillation into two components and transmits only that component which is perpendicular to the direction of its wires. This component is inclined at 45° to the focal line of the second mirror, and may thus, after being again resolved by the mirror, act upon the secondary conductor. The phenomenon is exactly analogous to the brightening of the dark field of two crossed Nicols by the interposition of a crystalline plate in a suitable position.
With regard to the polarisation it may be further observed that, with the means employed in the present investigation, we are only able to recognise the electric force. When the primary oscillator is in a vertical position the oscillations of this force undoubtedly take place in the vertical plane through the ray, and are absent in the horizontal plane. But the results of experiments with slowly alternating currents leave no room for doubt that the electric oscillations are accompanied by oscillations of magnetic force which take place in the horizontal plane through the ray and are zero in the vertical plane. Hence the polarisation of the ray does not so much consist in the occurrence of oscillations in the vertical plane, but rather in the fact that the oscillations in the vertical plane are of an electrical nature, while those in the horizontal plane are of a magnetic nature. Obviously, then, the question, in which of the two planes the oscillation in our ray occurs, cannot be answered unless one specifies whether the question relates to the electric or the magnetic oscillation. It was Herr Kolacek who first pointed out clearly that this consideration is the reason why an old optical dispute has never been decided.
Reflection
We have already proved the reflection of the waves from conducting surfaces by the interference between the reflected and the advancing waves, and have also made use of the reflection in the construction of our concave mirrors. But now we are able to go further and to separate the two systems of waves from one another. I first placed both mirrors in a large room side by side, with their apertures facing in the same direction, and their axes converging to a point about 3 metres off. The spark-gap of the receiving mirror naturally remained dark. I next set up a plane vertical wall made of thin sheet zinc, 2 metres high and 2 metres broad, at the point of intersection of the axes, and adjusted it so that it was equally inclined to both. I obtained a vigorous stream of sparks arising from the reflection of the ray by the wall. The sparking ceased as soon as the wall was rotated around a vertical axis through about 15° on either side of the correct position; from this it follows that the reflection is regular, not diffuse. When the wall was moved away from the mirrors, the axes of the latter being still kept converging towards the wall, the sparking diminished very slowly. I could still recognise sparks when the wall was 10 metres away from the mirrors, i.e. when the waves had to traverse a distance of 20 metres. This arrangement might be adopted with advantage for the purpose of comparing the rate of propagation through air with other and slower rates of propagation, e.g. through cables.
In order to produce reflection of the ray at angles of incidence greater than zero, I allowed the ray to pass parallel to the wall of the room in which there was a doorway. In the neighbouring room to which this door led I set up the receiving mirror so that its optic axis passed centrally through the door and intersected the direction of the ray at right angles. If the plane conducting surface was now set up vertically at the point of intersection, and adjusted so as to make angles of 45° with the ray and also with the axis of the receiving mirror, there appeared in the secondary conductor a stream of sparks which was not interrupted by closing the door. When I turned the reflecting surface about 10° out of the correct position the sparks disappeared. Thus the reflection is regular, and the angles of incidence and reflection are equal. That the action proceeded from the source of disturbance to the plane mirror, and hence to the secondary conductor, could also be shown by placing shadow-giving screens at different points of this path. The secondary sparks then always ceased immediately; whereas no effect was produced when the screen was placed anywhere else in the room. With the aid of the circular secondary conductor it is possible to determine the position of the wave-front in the ray; this was found to be at right angles to the ray before and after reflection, so that in the reflection it was turned through 90°.
Hitherto the focal lines of the concave mirrors were vertical, and the plane of oscillation was therefore perpendicular to the plane of incidence. In order to produce reflection with the oscillations in the plane of incidence, I placed both mirrors with their focal lines horizontal. I observed the same phenomena as in the previous position ; and, moreover, I was not able to recognise any difference in the intensity of the reflected ray in the two cases. On the other hand, if the focal line of the one mirror is vertical, and of the other horizontal, no secondary sparks can be observed. The inclination of the plane of oscillation to the plane of incidence is therefore not altered by reflection, provided this inclination has one of the two special values referred to; but in general this statement cannot hold good. It is even questionable whether the ray after reflection continues to be plane-polarised. The interferences which are produced in front of the mirror by the intersecting wave-systems, and which, as I have remarked, give rise to characteristic phenomena in the circular conductor, are most likely to throw light upon all problems relating to the change of phase and amplitude produced by reflection.
One further experiment on reflection from an electrically eolotropic surface may be mentioned. The two concave mirrors were again placed side by side, as in the reflection-experiment first described; but now there was placed opposite to them, as a reflecting surface, the screen of parallel copper wires which has already been referred to. It was found that the secondary spark-gap remained dark when the wires intersected the direction of the oscillations at right angles, but that sparking began as soon as the wires coincided with the direction of the oscillations. Hence the analogy between the tourmaline plate and our surface which conducts in one direction is confined to the transmitted part of the ray. The tourmaline plate absorbs the part which is not transmitted; our surface reflects it. If in the experiment last described the two mirrors are placed with their focal lines at right angles, no sparks can be excited in the secondary conductor by reflection from an isotropic screen; but I proved to my satisfaction that sparks are produced when the reflection takes place from the eolotropic wire grating, provided this is adjusted so that the wires are inclined at 45° to the focal lines. The explanation of this follows naturally from what has been already stated.
Refraction
In order to find out whether any refraction of the ray takes place in passing from air into another insulating medium, I had a large prism made of so-called hard pitch, a material like asphalt. The base was an isosceles triangle 1.2 metres in the side, and with a refracting angle of nearly 30°. The refracting edge was placed vertical, and the height of the whole prism was 1.5 metres. But since the prism weighed about 12 cwt, and would have been too heavy to move as a whole, it was built up of three pieces, each 0.5 metre high, placed one above the other. The material was cast in wooden boxes which were left around it, as they did not appear to interfere with its use. The prism was mounted on a support of such height that the middle of its refracting edge was at the same height as the primary and secondary spark-gaps. When I was satisfied that refraction did take place, and had obtained some idea of its amount, I arranged the experiment in the following manner:—The producing mirror was set up at a distance of 2.6 metres from the prism and facing one of the refracting surfaces, so that the axis of the beam was directed as nearly as possible towards the centre of mass of the prism, and met the refracting surface at an angle of incidence of 25° (on the side of the normal towards the base). Near the refracting edge and also at the opposite side of the prism were placed two conducting screens which prevented the ray from passing by any other path than that through the prism. On the side of the emerging ray there was marked upon the floor a circle of 2.5 metres radius, having as its centre the centre of mass of the lower end of the prism. Along this the receiving mirror was now moved about, its aperture being always directed towards the centre of the circle. No sparks were obtained when the mirror was placed in the direction of the incident ray produced; in this direction the prism threw a complete shadow. But sparks appeared when the mirror was moved towards the base of the prism, beginning when the angular deviation from the first position was about 11°. The sparking increased in intensity until the deviation amounted to about 22°, and then again decreased. The last sparks were observed with a deviation of about 34°. When the mirror was placed in a position of maximum effect, and then moved away from the prism along the radius of the circle, the sparks could be traced up to a distance of 5-6 metres. When an assistant stood either in front of the prism or behind it the sparking invariably ceased, which shows that the action reaches the secondary conductor through the prism and not in any other way. The experiments were repeated after placing both mirrors with their focal lines horizontal, but without altering the position of the prism. This made no difference in the phenomena observed. A refracting angle of 30° and a deviation of 22° in the neighbourhood of the minimum deviation corresponds to a refractive index of 1.69. The refractive index of pitch-like materials for light is given as being between 1.5 and 1.6. We must not attribute any importance to the magnitude or even the sense of this difference, seeing that our method was not an accurate one, and that the material used was impure.
We have applied the term rays of electric force to the phenomena which we have investigated. We may perhaps further designate them as rays of light of very great wave-length. The experiments described appear to me, at any rate, eminently adapted to remove any doubt as to the identity of light, radiant heat, and electromagnetic wave-motion. I believe that from now on we shall have greater confidence in making use of the advantages which this identity enables us to derive both in the study of optics and of electricity.
Explanation of the figures.—In order to facilitate the repetition and extension of these experiments, I append in the accompanying Figs. 35, 36a, and 36b, illustrations of the apparatus which I used, although these were constructed simply for the purpose of experimenting at the time and without any regard to durability. Fig. 35 shows in plan and elevation (section) the producing mirror. It will be seen that the framework of it consists of two horizontal frames (a, a) of parabolic form, and four vertical supports (b, b) which are screwed to each of the frames so as to support and connect them. The sheet metal reflector is clamped between the frames and the supports, and fastened to both by numerous screws. The supports project above and below beyond the sheet metal so that they can be used as handles in handling the mirror. Fig. 36a represents the primary conductor on a somewhat larger scale. The two metal parts slide with friction in two sleeves of strong paper which are held together by india-rubber bands. The sleeves themselves are fastened by four rods of sealing-wax to a board which again is tied by india-rubber bands to a strip of wood forming part of the frame which can be seen in Fig. 35. The two leading wires (covered with gutta-percha) terminate in two holes bored in the knobs of the primary conductor. This arrangement allows of all necessary motion and adjustment of the various parts of the conductor; it can be taken to pieces and put together again in a few minutes, and this is essential in order that the knobs may be frequently repolished. Just at the points where the leading wires pass through the mirror, they are surrounded during the discharge by a bluish light. The smooth wooden screen s is introduced for the purpose of shielding the spark-gap from this light, which otherwise would interfere seriously with the production of the oscillations. Lastly, Fig. 36b represents the secondary spark-gap. Both parts of the secondary conductor are again attached by sealing-wax rods and india-rubber bands to a slip forming part of the wooden framework. From the inner ends of these parts the leading wires, surrounded by glass tubes, can be seen proceeding through the mirror and bending towards one another. The upper wire carries at its pole a small brass knob. To the lower wire is soldered a piece of watch-spring which carries the second pole, consisting of a fine copper point. The point is intentionally chosen of softer metal than the knob; unless this precaution is taken the point easily penetrates into the knob, and the minute sparks disappear from sight in the small hole thus produced. The figure shows how the point is adjusted by a screw which presses against the spring that is insulated from it by a glass plate. The spring is bent in a particular way in order to secure finer motion of the point than would be possible if the screw alone were used.
No doubt the apparatus here described can be considerably modified without interfering with the success of the experiments. Acting upon friendly advice, I have tried to replace the spark-gap in the secondary conductor by a frog's leg prepared for detecting currents ; but this arrangement which is so delicate under other conditions does not seem to be adapted for these purposes.".
Later Hertian electrical oscillator circuits will extend the transmitting and receiving of radio signals to under a millimeter interval (wavelength) (300 GHz), by W. Möbius in 1920, and E. F. Nichols and J. D. Tear in 1923. The space between electromagnetically produced light and thermal (microwave/heat) light will be closed and overlapped by as much as an octave.
(It is interesting that I am not aware of any x-ray frequency light being stimulated by electricity like in a maser/laser and it seems unusual that particles with x-ray frequency penetrate so much deeper than particles with lower frequencies. Have there ever been x-ray frequencies produced electronically which produced x-ray light? I have doubts and think the x-ray is probably more like a smaller particle than light - perhaps even that a photon may be composed of more than one x-particle.)
(I doubt Hertz's claim that the radiation is split into a vertical magnetic component and horizontal electric component. This was Maxwell's theory. EX: Is there any kind of radial non-symmetry to the polarization of radio waves? The interpretation of polarization I use is where rays of particles are filtered based on their direction. So this can be tested by mostly filtering one plane and then a plane at 90 degree to that plane, using a similar polarizer as the polarizer used by Hertz. Note the use of the word "lies" in the English translation.)
(Notice the final sentence refering to Galvani's frog legs - really out of nowhere - clearly an indication of neuron network secret doings, or perhaps a last note to the many excluded victims to think about and realize the truth and importance of remote muscle movement and the terrible trajedy of how it was and still is kept secret from the public.)
The radio reflecting telescope, such as that used by Hertz, opens the door, I think, to an important piece of evidence for or against the light-as-a-particle or light-as-a-wave-in-an-aether controversy. Because if light is a transverse wave, the amplitude of a 1 meter wavelength wave should clearly protrude outside of the cone of the reflecting radio mirror - there is no way the amplitude of a 1 meter wave could not extend outside of the cone of a 1/2 meter diameter reflector - so such signals could be detected - and if such signals are not detected, then it seems like this is a very solid piece of evidence that light moves in a straight line - and is more like a point wave made of particles.
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3402) John Boyd Dunlop (CE 1840-1921) patents an air filled (also inflatable or pneumatic) rubber tire.
(earliest air filled rubber tire?)
Robert William Thomson had patented the first known inflatable tire, a leather tire, in 1845.
Dunlop wraps the wheels in thin rubber sheets, glues them together, and inflates them with a football pump. Ten years later, the air tire will have almost entirely replaced solid tires.
Pneumatic tires are first applied to motor vehicles by the French rubber manufacturer Michelin & Cie. For more than 60 years, pneumatic tires have inner tubes with compressed air and outer casings to protect the inner tubes. However, in the 1950s, tubeless tires reinforced by alternating layers (plies), of cord become standard on new automobiles.
| Belfast, Ireland |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3631) Julius Wilhelm Richard Dedekind (DADeKiNT) (CE 1831-1916), German mathematician, demonstrates how arithmetic can be derived from a set of axioms in his work "Was sind und was sollen die Zahlen?" ("What numbers are and should be", 1888). A simpler, but equivalent version, formulated by Peano in 1889, is much better known.
| (Technical High School in Braunschweig) Braunschweig, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3745) Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz (VoLDIRHARTS) (CE 1836-1921), German anatomist, gives the name "chromosome" to the threads of material that Flemming observed to form during cell division. Waldeyer-Hartz designates the name "chromosome" to the nuclear elements that are known to split longitudinally during mitosis.
Waldeyer-Hartz publishes this as "Über Karyokinese und ihre Beziehungen zu den Befruchtungsvorgängen" ("About karyokinesis (nucleus division) and its relation to the fertilization process")
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3801) Emile Hilaire Amagat (omoGo?) (CE 1841-1915), French physicist, attains a presure of 3,000 atmospheres, which is the record for the 1800s, and points the way for Bridgman 20 years later.
Amagat publishes this work as "Compressibilite des gaz: oxygene, hydrogene, azote et air jusqu'a 3000 atm" ("Compressibility of gases: oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen and air to 3000 atmospheres") in Comptes Rendus. (Note: This paper is the only evidence I could find of a device that can reach a pressure of 3000atm for some gas - it may have been created or even documented earlier.)
Amagat's work deals with fluid statics. Amagat devotes the active phase of his career to the search for the laws of the coefficients of compressibility, the coefficients of expansion under constant pressure and constant volume (the rate that they expand of van der Waals' coefficients?), the coefficients of pressure when both pressure and temperature are varied, and the limits toward which these laws tend when matter is more and more condensed by pressure.
(These are various gases in containers in which they are physically pressed to a small volume of space. High pressure is interesting, because how is it achieved? Explain in detail how this high pressure is created. Interesting that at high pressures, the atoms in the gas must be thrown against the sides of the container with such force as to blow open holes or break the molecular/atomic lattice of the container. I think the container is physically compressed using a mechanical device such as a hand turned gear which uses mechanical advantage to use a large force to slowly push down a surface. This handle may be turned by hand or by electric motor. Or perhaps liquid mercury is used to reduce or add gas pressure. Verify how these devices are constructed.)
(It seems clear that pressure must also depend on quantity of gas in a container. How is this quantity represented in equations? The higher the quantity of gas atoms or molecules the higher the pressure for a given contained volume.)
| (faculte Libre des Sciences of Lyons) Lyons, France |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3817) Hermann Carl Vogel (FOGuL) (CE 1841-1907), German astronomer makes the first spectrographic measurements of the radial velocities of stars.
In 1887, Vogel, working at Potsdam Astrophysical Observatory, applies photography to the measurement of radial motion. Assisted by Julius Scheiner (CE 1858-?) he determines the radial motions of fifty one bright stars by photographing the stellar spectra and measuring the photographs. Vogel finds 10 miles a second to be the average velocity of stars in the line of sight. The fastest of the stars measured by Vogel is Aldebaran with a velocity of recession of 30 miles a second.
(Radial velocity is only the 3 dimensional component of their velocity that is moving away from us. if the z axis is viewed as a line connecting our star to a distant star, this velocity describes the velocity component of that star on that line only - the other two dimensions x and y, relative to the position of our sun, must be measured relative to the position of other stars, which also are moving.)
| (Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam) Potsdam, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3826) Dewar opposes the theory of Norman Lockyer of elementary decompositions at high temperatures (according to one obituary ). (Find Dewar's writings on this subject)
(Find more interpretations of why and how specific spectra are produced in terms of the model of the atom and chemical/electrical reactions.)
In 1888 Dewar writes "Mr. Lockyer has directly connected the appearance in nebulae of these bands, namely, "the magnesium fluting at 500" with the temperature of the Bunsen burner ('Roy. Soc. Proc.,' vol. 43, p. 133). That the bands are persistent through a large range of temperatures there is no doubt, but we cannot help thinking that Mr. Lockyer is mistaken in supposing them to be produced at the temperature of a Bunsen burner. It does not follow because the bands are seen when magnesium is burnt in a Bunsen burner that the molecules which emit them are at the temperature of the flame. In the combustion of the magnesium the formation of each molecule of magnesia is attended with a development of kinetic energy which, if it all took the form of heat and were all concentrated in the molecule, must raise its temperature to very nearly the point at which magnesia is completely dissociated. The persistence of the molecule of magnesia when formed will depend upon the dissipation of some of this energy, and one of the forms in which this dissipation occurs is the very radiation which produces the bands. The character of the vibration depends on the motions of the molecules, which in the case in question are not derived from the heat of the flame, but from the stored energy of the separated elements, which becomes kinetic when they combine. The temperature of complete dissociation of magnesia is very far higher than any temperature which can reasonably be assigned to the Bunsen burner.".
In my mind, this is a classic question: Is the characteristic light emited by an atom the result of the atom separating into its source photons (dissociates), the result of an atom only throwing off a portion of photons (dissipates), both, or neither? The Bohr model apparently only accounts for dissipation and not for dissociation - in particular of neutrons and protons. Some relevant questions are - what is the spectrum of photons emited from collided or decaying subatomic particles such as neutrons, protons and electrons? Without being able to quantitatively measure precise quantities of atoms, people need to keep an open mind. One example, fission, reveals that atoms can be split into parts. The logical conclusion of the theory that all matter is made of photons implies that atoms can be put together and taken apart into source photons. I think a key would be looking at the radio and infrared emissions of hydrogen gas over time. I would check to see if, over time, the mass decreases from loss of photons - that atoms separate into photons or only emit and absorb photons are difficult theories to prove because photons cannot be prevented from entering or exiting any container. I think possibly both atom separation and absorption+emission happen. There are numerous example phenomena that might give clues to the truth. One example is phosphorescent molecules. Clearly photons are trapped in or around these molecules for a long time after they entered. The singular frequency of some stimulated molecules implies a regular process of photons escaping. To me, the big questions are: are the photons trapped around atoms and molecules or between atoms and molecules or both? At some point the issue arises of 'is there some a-tom?' that is some particle what ultimately cannot be divided into small pieces of mass. I think that the photon is the only candidate at this scale that I can accept is indivisible, but even then, I have to have doubts about even sub-photon masses which are too small to measure - it seems entirely possible.
(Verify what happens when hydrogen gas is liberated from induction spark. Is this a dissipation {molecular only} or dissociation change?)
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3915) Eduard Adolf Strasburger (sTroSBURGR) (CE 1844-1912), German botanist, shows that, the sex (germ) cells in angiosperms (flowering plants), like those in animals, have only half the number of chromosomes that cells in the rest of the body have.
Strasburger establishes that the nuclei of the germ cells of angiosperms undergo meiosis, which is a reduction division resulting in nuclei with half the number of chromosomes of the original nuclei.
Edouard Van Beneden (CE 1846-1910) had shown that the number of chromosomes are halved for animal cells in 1883.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 3935) Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (ruNTGeN) (rNTGeN) (CE 1845-1923), German physicist measures the magnetic field produced in a dielectric (insulator) when moved between two electrically charged condenser (capacitor) plates.
Roentgen shows experimentally that a magnetic field is produced when an uncharged dielectric is in motion at right angles to the lines of force of a constant electrostatic field. Roentgen's experiment consists in rotating a dielectric disk between the plates of a condenser; a magnetic field is produced equivalent to that which would be produced by the rotation of the charges on the two faces of the dielectric.
This magnetic field was predicted by Maxwell.
(I think a magnetic field is made of electrons, and is an electric current, and that this current does penetrate and pass through or around so-called non-conducting material. So in this view, the nonconductor is exactly like a very high resistance resistor - current moves through it, which extends to a very weak electromagnetic field - the field is made of streams of current in this view.)
| (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4025) Moving images captured and stored onto rolls of sensitized paper. Marey also uses an electromagnet to stop the film for 1/5000 of a second to capture an image without blur.
Étienne Jules Marey (murA) (CE 1830-1904), French physiologist, uses a roll of sensitized paper to capture photographs of moving object.
Marey writes in the Comptes Rendus of 1888: "To complete the researches which I have communicated to the Academy at recent sessions, I have the honour to present today a band of sensitized paper upon which a series of images has been obtained, at the rate of twenty per second. The apparatus which I have constructed for this purpose winds off a band of sensitized paper with a speed which may reach 1m, 60 per second, as this speed exceeds my actual needs I have reduced it to 0m, 80. If the images are taken while the paper is in motion, no clearness will be obtained, and only the changes of position of the subject experimented upon, will be apparent. But if, by means of a special device, based upon the employment of an electro-magnet, the paper is arrested during the period of exposure, 1/5000 of a second, the impression will possess all the clearness that is desirable. This method enables me to obtain the successive impressions of a man or of an animal in motion, while avoiding the necessity of operating in front of a black background. It seems moreover destined to greatly facilitate the studies of the locomotion of men and animals.". (verify)
(describe feeding system, are sprockets used?)
(How are the images viewed in motion - is the paper somewhat transparent?)
| (College de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4067) Henry Augustus Rowland (rolaND) (CE 1848-1901), US physicist, publishes "Photographic Map of the Normal Solar Spectrum" (1888) which is a spectrogram more than 35 feet (11 m) long made with a concave grating.
This map has some 14,000 lines.
In 1895 Rowland publishes a table of solar spectrum wavelengths (Astrophysical Journal, vol. 1–6, 1895–97) which is a standard reference for many years.
(In my view a diffraction grating is actually a reflection grating. I view diffraction as more accurately reduced to simple reflection of light particles - as shown in my videos using three dimensional models. In addition, the dispersion of different frequencies of light particle may result from the initial direction of the light beam, as demonstrated simply by passing a finger in front of a grating - which reveals that different portions of the spectrum on the other side are blocked depending on the position of the grating covered by the finger. This implies that the angle from source light to grating determines what directions the photons will be distributed by reflection and/or absorption.)
(Why does Rowland not publish any star spectra? That seems unusual to have improved gratings but then not to use them to examine star spectra, in addition to the spectra of many other objects on earth.)
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4073) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (PoVluF) (CE 1849-1936), Russian physicologist discovers the secretory nerves of the pancreas.
(It seems clear that many nervous system health science finds are not properly reported to the public, perhaps because of the secrecy surrounding reading from and writing to neurons.)
| (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4108) Martinus Willem Beijerinck (BIRiNK) (CE 1851-1931), Dutch botanist identifies bacteria that live in the nodules of leguminous plants that convert atmospheric nitrogen into molecules with nitrogen in a form that plants can use. Beijerinck cultivates and isolates the Rhizobium leguminosarum bacteria, the bacteria that "fixes" free nitrogen and causes the formation of nodules on the roots of Leguminosae.
Beijerinck, simultaneously with Winogradsky, develops the technique of enrichment culture. Beijerinck had observed that most microorganisms occur in most natural materials, but in numbers too small to be studied. By transferring these materials to an artificial medium adapted to the specific nutritional requirements of the microorganism under study, he can accumulate the microorganism in large enough numbers to be isolated in pure culture. Using enrichment cultures, Beijerinck is able to isolate numerous highly specialized microorganisms, many for the first time: sulfate-reducing bacteria, urea bacteria, oligonitrophilous microorganisms, denitrifying bacteria, lactic and acetic acid bacteria. Of note is Beijerinck's characterization of a new group of nitrogen-fixing bacteria, Azotobacter, which Winogradsky had previously isolated but had failed to recognize as nitrogen-fixing. In addition Beijerinck names a new genus, Aerobacter, of which he distinguishes four different species, and also writes several papers on microbial variation.
| (Dutch Yeast and Spirit Factory) Delft, Netherlands |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4118) (Sir) Oliver Joseph Lodge (CE 1851-1940), English physicist tries to produce light from electrical oscillation.
Lodge reports: "The author has been endeavouring to manufacture light by direct electric action without the intervention of heat, utilizing for this purpose Maxwell's theory that light is really an electric disturbance or vibration.
The means adopted is the oscillatory discharge of a Leyden jar whose rate of vibration has been made as high as 100 million complete vibrations per second.
The waves so obtained are about three yards long, and are essentially light in every particular except that they are unable to affect the retina. To do this they must be shortened to the hundred-thousandth of an inch. All that has yet been accomplished, therefore, is the artificial production of direct electrical radiation differing in no respect from the waves of light except in the one matter of length.
The electrical waves travel through space with the same speed as light, and are refracted and absorbed by material substances according to the same laws. It only wants to be able to generate waves of any desired length in order to entirely revolutionise our present best systems of obtaining artificial light by help of steam engines and dynamos, which is a most wasteful and empirical process.
The author measures the waves bv converting them into stationary ones by the interference of direct and reflected pulses at the free ends of a long pair of wires attached as appendages to a discharging Leyden-jar circuit. The circuit and its appendages are adjusted till a recoil kick observed at the far end of the wires is a maximum, and the length of each resonant wire is then taken to be half a wave-length. The length so measured agrees with theory.".
| (University College) Liverpool, England |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4179) Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (oSTVoLT) (CE 1853-1932) Russian-German physical chemist shows that the nature of catalysis is not in the induction of a reaction but in its acceleration, and creates his "dissolution law", which allows the degree of ionization of a weak electrolyte to be calculated with reasonable accuracy.
In 1884 Swedish chemist Svante Arrhenius had published a thesis which contained the bold claim that salts, acids, and bases dissociate into electrically charged ions when dissolved in water. Ostwald is an early supporter of this theory.
From the ion theory of Arrhenius, Ostwald recognizes that if all acids contain the same active ion (which, for acids are freed hydrogen ions -state who proved this), then the differing chemical activities of various acids would simply be due to the concentration of active ions in each acid. In turn, the concentration of active ions in each acid would be dependent on the differing degrees of dissociation of the acids. In addition, if the law of mass action is applied to the dissociation reaction, a simple mathematical relation can be derived between the degree of dissociation (a), the concentration of the acid (c), and an equilibrium constant specific for each acid (k):
a2/(1 - a)c = k.
This is Ostwald's famous dissolution law (1888), which he tests by measuring the electrical conductivities of more than 200 organic acids, which substantiates the dissociation theory.
This law is also referred to as the "dilution law".
Ostwald recognizes catalysis as a change in reaction velocity by a foreign compound.
In 1835 Jöns Jakob Berzelius (BRZElEuS) (CE 1779-1848) suggested the name "catalysis" for reactions that occur only in the presence of a third substance.
Ostwald defines a catalyst as "the acceleration of a chemical reaction, which proceeds slowly, by the presence of a foreign substance".
According to Asimov, Ostwald shows that the theory of Gibbs (explain) shows that it is necessary to conclude that catalysts speed up the reaction without altering the energy relationships of the substances involved in comments on a paper in his journal whose conclusions Ostwald disagrees with. (more specifics) {ULSF: note that the concept of energy can only be a generalization having the problem of exchanging mass and velocity} Ostwald also recognizes that ions, postulated by Arrhenius as electrically charged atoms, can also serve as catalysts (after acceptance of atom theory? It seems unusual that Ostwald can accept ions but not atoms.). This is particularly true of hydrogen ions freed by acids in solution, therefore accounting for the acid catalysis of starch breakdown to sugar. (make clearer) This view of catalysis makes it useful in industry and in understanding the chemistry in living tissue.
Several interesting general characteristics of catalysis are experimentally known at this time and these are summarized by Ostwald in 1888. For example that the catalyst is unchanged chemically at the end of the reaction, although its physical state may change and that a very small amount of catalyst was generally found to be sufficient to effect a reaction. Although the role of catalyst in accelerating a reaction suggested by Ostwald is generally accepted, H E Armstrong (1885-1903) and later T M Lowry (1925-26) point out that there are certain reactions which occur only if a catalyst is present.
(Are these both in the same paper?)
| (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4193) Pierre Paul Émile Roux (rU) (CE 1853-1933), French bacteriologist, with Alexandre Yerson demonstrates that the symptoms of diphtheria are caused by a toxin secreted by the diphtheria bacterium (the bacterium identified by Löffler), and that the disease is therefore, not caused by the actual bacterium itself. Bacteriologiest Emil von Behring and Kitasato Shibasaburo will later find that the diphtheria bacterium causes the production of an antitoxin (antibody) which leads to the development of diphtheria immunization and serum therapy.
(name molecule of toxin and antitoxin.)
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4210) George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor sells the "Kodak" camera which brings the ability to capture and develop photographs to average people.
The Kodak camera which uses Eastman's new film weighs only 2 pounds. The owner presses buttons to take pictures, then sends the camera to Rochester and eventually gets a single photograph and the camera back with a freshly loaded film.
Eastman coins the slogan, "you press the button, we do the rest".
Eventually the owner will only need to give away the roll of film to be developed. In 50 years Land will make developing the photograph as automatic and fast as taking the photograph.
| (Eastman Dry Plate Company) Rochester, NY, USA (presumably) |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4350) Piezoelectric balance-can measure very small quantities of electricity.
Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906), French chemist and older brother Paul-Jacques (CE 1856-1941) invent the piezoelectric balance.
In understanding and establishing the experimental laws of piezoelectricity, the Curie brothers then build a piezoelectric quartz balance, which supplies quantities of electricity proportional to the weights suspended from it.
The piezoelectric quartz electrometer (or balance) helps people to measure the very small amounts of electricity. This device will be very useful for electrical researchers and will prove to be very valuable to Marie Curie in her studies of radioactivity.
(Get translations for papers and quote text of interesting parts.)
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4412) Theodor Boveri (CE 1862-1915), German cytologist shows that chromosomes do not form at the time of cell division and then disappear but are there the entire time.
The nuclei of the roundworm Ascaris show fingershaped lobes at early cleavage stages. By using these lobes as landmarks, Boveri demonstrates the individuality of the chromosomes.
| (Würzburg University) Würzburg, Germany |
112 YBN
[1888 AD]
| 4448) Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (PoseN) (CE 1865-1947), German physicist establishes "Paschen’s law": that the sparking voltage depends only on the product of the gas pressure and the distance between the electrodes.
| (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg , Germany |
111 YBN
[01/20/1889 AD]
| 4057) Roland, Baron von Eötvös (OETVOIs) (CE 1848-1919) Hungarian physicist asserts that the measurement of mass is the same for different forces such as the force of gravitation or a physical push (inertial force). This will be cited by Einstein in showing the principle of the equivalence of the effect on any mass of the force of gravitation with the force of propulsion (or "inertial" force) of an object collision. This equivalence can be used to argue for an all-inertial universe without gravitation, gravitation supposedly being the product only of particle collision and therefore only the result of some inertial force - although the cause of any initial inertial force will perhaps always be a mystery.
Eötvös shows that the two methods of calculating mass, by gravitational force, and by propulsive (inertial) force result in the same measurement.
In 1888 Eötvös developed a torsion balance (the kind used by Cavendish to measure the mass of the earth), consisting of a bar with two attached weights, the bar being suspended by a torsion fiber.".
Eötvös improves on the torsion balance (the kind used Cavendish to measure the mass of the earth), and increases its sensitivity.
Eotvos writes (translated from Hungarian) "Of the suppositions used by Newton as the foundations of his theory of gravitation, the most important is the one which claims that the gravitation produced by the Earth on an Earth-bound body is proportional to the mass of the body, and is independent of the structure of the substance composing it.
Newton has already verified this supposition of him by experiment. He was unsatisfied with the scholarly experiments, well-known to him, which revealed the fact that a feather and a coin fell equally fast in emptiness. Targeting this purpose, he used motions of a pendulum which could be registered with much precision. Once he made a pendulum, where the same-weight-bodies consisting of different substances such as gold, silver, lead, glass, sand, table salt, water, corn, and wood, were moving along the arcs of circle, each of which possessing the same radius, and where he registered the duration of the oscillation, he was able to conclude that there was no difference between them.
No doubt, those experiments produced by Newton were much more precise than the aforementioned scholarly experiments; on the other hand, the measurement precision of those experiments was only 1/1,000, so they, strictly speaking, proved only the fact that the difference between the accelerations did not exceed 1/1,000 of their numerical value. This measurement precision which he used in such an important problem could not be deemed satisfactory. Bessel therefore concluded that repetitions of such a classical experiment on a pendulum were necessary.
Proceeding from his measurements produced from the oscillation losses in gold, silver, lead, iron, zinc, brass, marble, clay, quartz, and meteorite substance, he had unambiguously proved that the gravitational accelerations of these bodies did not possess deviations larger than 1/50,000 from each other. This however was insufficient as well. Bessel pointed out very well that it would always be very interesting to check the validity of this assumption with increasing precision provided by the permanently developing instruments of each of the future generations.
Such a research is desirable due to two reasons. First, this is due to the fact that Newton’s supposition led to such a foundation, according to which we can find the mass of a body through its weight measured by a balance. It is required by the logic that the truth of this supposition should be proven up to at least such a precision, which can be reached in the weight, and this is much higher than 1/50,000 part, even more than than 1/1,000,000 part. Second, this is due to the fact that the research produced by Newton and Bessel covered only bodies whose material structure was similar to each other, and manifested a small difference, while this problem is still remaining open for many liquid and gaseous bodies. Proceeding from Bessel’s experiments, we can conclude at most that the gravity of the air differs from that of a solid body no greater than 1/50 {ULSF: note original has an apparent typo of 1/50,000) part.
Since in the process of my research of the gravity of mass my attention was turned towards this problem, and since I resolved it in an absolutely different way than Newton and Bessel did, and since I reached much higher measurement precision than they had, I found the way of my considerations and the results of my experiment to be worthy of presentation to the respected Academy.
The force due to which the bodies located in the empty space fall onto the Earth, and which is known as gravity, is a sum of two components, namely — the gravitation of the Earth and the centrifugal force, which is due to the rotation of the Earth.
The lead lot and the libelle {editor fn: "libelle" is how a light beam reflected from a mirror attached to a torsion thread will swivel around the zero point of a scale} of the torsion balance are not sensitive enouge to the very small deviation in the direction of the force of gravity, which is expected in this observation. However this torsion balance as a whole is applicable to such an observation very well, because I already registered small deviations in the direction of the force of gravity in other observations with it.
I fixed a body, the weight of which was approximately 30 g, at the end of the shoulder of the balance. The shoulder, the length of which varied from 25 to 50 cm, was suspended through a platinum thread. Once the shoulder was directed orthogonally towards the meridian, I registered its position relative to the box of the whole instrument precisely by a system of two mirrors, one of which was moved in common with the shoulder, while another one was fixed on the box. Then I turned out the whole instrument, in common with the box, at 180± in such a way that the body, located initially at the Eastern end of the shoulder, arrived at the Western end of it. Then I registered this new position of the shoulder relative to the instrument. If the gravity of the body at both sides was differently directed, a twist of the suspending thread appeared. At the same time, such an effect was not registered in the case where a brass ball was fixed at one end of the shoulder, while the other end was equipped with a glass, corkwood, or antimonite crystal; meanwhile the deviation of 1/60,00000 in the direction of the force of gravity should yield a twist of 10, which is surely accessed. ...".
Eötvös also measures the movement of a body due to a force caused by particle collision with "ousted" (presumably blown?) air.
Eötvös then concludes: "I was unable to also consider the twisting in the fall. So my experiments, which are still 400 times more precise than those produced by Bessel, showed no difference from Newton’s supposition. I therefore have to claim by right that, in general, the difference between the gravity of the bodies, which have equal masses but consist of different substances, is lesser than 1/20,000,000 in the case of brass, glass, antimonite, and corkwood, but it is undoubtedly less than 1/100,000 in the case of air.".
The famous Eotvos experiment verifying the equivalence principle, first given in this short presentation, will be cited many times by Albert Einstein as one of the basics to his General Theory of Relativity.
Asimov writes that Eötvös uses his improved torsion balance to determine the rate of gravitational acceleration of falling bodies (a problem originally investigated by Galileo) and finds that gravitational mass and inertial mass (which asimov claims have no obvious connection) are identical to less than 5 parts per billion. This will encourage Einstein to presume that gravitational mass and inertial mass are the same and from it develop his general theory of relativity. I think the focus should not be on the mass, but on the equivalence of the forces of gravitation and particle collision. It seems obvious that mass is the same no matter if moved by gravity or particle collision.
The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography also puts Eotvos' work in terms of gravitational or inertial mass as opposed to an equivalence of two forces - gravitation and particle collision, writing "...proving the equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass.".
According to Asimov Eötvös uses this balance to make deductions about the structures underneath the surface from the tiny variations in the gravitational pull on the earth's surface, However I have doubts about being able to use a torsion balance to measure difference in density? under the surface of earth.
(Note that I have doubts about a "centrifugal" force being diffferent from inertial force, because I think that, for example, in the case, of a person rotating an object tied to a string, the centrifugal force seems to me the result of the inertial force being pulled into a different direction.)
(I think that perhaps the key idea here is to try to establish that theory that mass is the same no matter what force acts on it, which seems like a minor theory. In addition, the importance of the equivalence of the force felt by gravity and by some other method like particle collision.)
(To me gravitational mass and inertial mass are both the same, basically mass. I think the concept trying to be expressed is that somehow acceleration from gravity versus from other forces is different, or some aspect of a mass is different if gravity is moving the mass or some other force. Look for more specific information. I think this can be easily summed up by saying matter is and moves the same no matter what force is acting on it, and the contribution of Eötvös appears to be only measurements of the gravitational acceleration from and therefore the mass of the earth.)
(I think this is more like possibly - encourages or inspires Einstein to describe an example of where the force of acceleration feels the same as the force of gravity - to me, there is no reason to think that there should be two kinds of mass, or that mass behaves differently for different forces - for example gravitation versus propulsion - for propulsion of course, loss of mass needs to be accounted for too. It seems possible that the force of gravitation might be the result of particle collision, in other words, this is an all-inertia universe as opposed to the current gravitation plus inertia view, which would also result in the apparent force of gravitation being equivalent of any apparent force. But people should keep an open mind, the truth of living objects moving matter in complex ways is evidence, that we may never know the full picture of the universe.)
(There is an interest in unifying and/or simplifying the phenomena of the universe to a single principle or theory, and so there is an interest in how the force of gravitation and some other force, like that of propulsion, apparently different, are similar.)
(State who first distinguished between mass and weight and when - I think this was either Galileo or Newton.)
(There is clearly a confusion that I think is cleared up by using the word "propulsion" or "particle collision" or "object collision" or "inertial force" because it is not clear that the main focus of this work is to equate the force or gravity with a propulsive force, or the force that results from a physical collision - like a push or tension from a compressed spring. It seems that perhaps the valuable experiment here might be measuring the distance a mass moves a scale and comparing that to the distance a mass is thrown by some projecting force, and then finding that the mass measurements are the same - but then a person could start presuming that the mass is the constant trying to determine an accurate measure of the forces involved. There are so many variables - I can't imagine that any one could be held constant. The important thing, I think, is the theory that these forces are observed to have identical results on matter - and can be viewed as identical forces - which is an arguement in favor of an all-inertial universe without gravitation, gravitation being perhaps the result of particle collision .)
(Another issue, is how can a person separate the force of gravitation from that of inertia, since gravitation is presumably everywhere - perhaps since on earth, the majority of the gravity force is in a vertical direction, a 90 degree angle could be used, but even then, there must be influence from gravity.)
(Knowing exactly what Eotvos did is not clear, because we can't see videos of his experiments, and his descriptions - at least those translated from Hungarian to English - are not entirely clear. Note that Eotvos uses "centripetal" force and never uses the word "inertia", and apparently describes the force of blown air as the "gravity" of the air.)
| (given at Hungarian Academy of Sciences, at the time worked at University of Budapest) Budapest, Hungary |
111 YBN
[02/16/1889 AD]
| 211) Electricity used to restart a heart beating.
| (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
111 YBN
[03/12/1889 AD]
| 6255) Automatic telephone exchange.
Almon Strowger invents the first automatic telephone exchange in 1889. The automatic exchange uses electromechanical switches and will allow people to connect their own phone calls and replace the need for an operator to connect a phone call.
The idea of automatic switching appeared as early as 1879, and Strowger's switch of 1889 is the first fully automatic switch to achieve commercial success. Strowger is the owner of an undertaking business in Kansas City, Missouri. The Strowger switch consists of essentially two parts: an array of 100 terminals, called the bank, that are arranged 10 rows high and 10 columns wide in a cylindrical arc; and a movable switch, called the brush, which is moved up and down the cylinder by one ratchet mechanism and rotated around the arc by another, so that it can be brought to the position of any of the 100 terminals. The ratcheting action on the brush gives Strowger’s invention the common name step-by-step switch. The stepping movement is controlled directly by pulses from the telephone instrument. In the original systems, the caller generates the pulses by rapidly pushing a button switch on the instrument. Later, in 1896, Strowger’s associates devise a rotary dial for generating the necessary pulses.
In 1913 J.N. Reynolds, an engineer with Western Electric (at that time the manufacturing division of AT&T), will patent a new type of telephone switch that becomes known as the crossbar switch. The crossbar switch is a grid composed of five horizontal selecting bars and 20 vertical hold bars. Input lines are connected to the hold bars and output lines to the selecting bars. With the crossbar switch, any column can be connected to any row, and up to 10 simultaneous connections can be provided.
With the advent of the transistor in 1947 and with subsequent advances in memory devices as well as other electronic devices and switches, it became possible to design a telephone switch that was based fundamentally on electronic components instead of on electromechanical switches.
(It appears that long in the past, perhaps even as long ago as the 1200s, remote neuron reading and writing was invented and developed. Eventually, and already for many humans, sending and receiving of sounds and images are all done through thought, as unusual as that sounds for those who have been deprived of the use of this technology.)
(It's somewhat unbelievable that women were, for many years, lined up at a switchboard, to do something that was obsolete centuries before.)
| Kansas City, Missouri, USA |
111 YBN
[03/14/1889 AD]
| 3844) (Sir) Walter Noel Hartley (CE 1846-1913) announces that ozone is highly fluorescent, and that the color of the fluorescence is blue. Hartley goes on to reject Tyndall's particle-size-equals-amplitude-reflection explanation for the blue color of the sky giving as an alternative explanation the fluorescence of ozone.
This seems to me the more likely explanation, but even to this time in the early 2000s, the Tyndall-Rayleigh light-as-a-sine-wave-in-an-aether-medium theory where particles with the same size as the amplitude of the light wave scatter blue light is still the more popular theory.
TODO: Find portrait of Hartley.
Hatley publishes this in "Nature" as "On the Limit of the Solar Spectrum, the Blue of the Sky, and the Fluorescence of Ozone.". Hartley writes: "THERE are two facts of particular interest which have been observed in connection with the light which we receive from the sun and the sky. First, though the ultra-violet spectrum of the sun is very well represented by the iron spectrum taken from the electric arc, yet its length is nothing like so great, and there is no fading away of feeble lines and a weakening of strong ones, which would be the case if the rays were affected by u turbid medium through which they were transmitted, but there is a sudden and sharp extinction which points to a very definite absorption. ... The limitation of the solar spectrum has been the subject of elaborate investigation by M. Cornu. He proved by direct experiment that the ultra-violet rays are absorbed with energy by the atmosphere, and showed that there is a variation in the amount of absorption corresponding with different altitudes, so that the absorbent matter is at each elevation proportional to the barometric pressure, and consequently in constant relation to the mass of the atmosphere. This fact alone is sufficient to exclude water-vapour from consideration as being the medium of absorption. Moreover, water-vapour, while it absorbs the red and infra-red rays, transmits the ultra-violet very completely. ...". Hartley cites the work of Liveing and Dewar in which oxygen is found to absorb light between wave-length 3640 to 3600 and all beyond 3360. Hartley then goes on to discuss the color of the sky writing: " Touching the colour of the sky, Prof. Tyndall has told us that four centuries ago it was believed that the floating particles in the atmosphere render it a turbid medium through which we look at the darkness of space. The blue colour, according to his view, is supposed to be caused by reflection from minute particles, which can reflect chiefly the blue rays by reason of their small size. Experiments on highly attenuated vapours during condensation to cloudy matter were the basis of this reasoning. ...
...In 1880, Messrs. Hautefeuille and Chappuis liquefied ozone, and found that its colour was indigo blue (Comptes rendus, xcv. p. 522). On December 12, 1880, M. Chappuis presented the Academy of Sciences of Paris with a paper on the visible spectrum of ozone. He recognized the most easily visible of the absorption-bands of ozone in the solar spectrum, and in consequence he stated that a theory of the blue colour of the sky could not be established without taking into account the presence of ozone in the atmosphere, for the luminous rays which reach us will of necessity be coloured blue by their transmission through the ozone contained in the atmosphere. And since ozone is an important constituent of the upper atmosphere, its blue colour certainly plays an important part in the colour of the sky. In March 1881, quantitative experiments made by me were published to show how much of blueness could be communicated to layers of gas of different thicknesses when given volumes of ozone are present. I showed that ozone is a normal constituent in the upper atmosphere, that it is commonly present in fresh air, and I accounted for its abundance during the prevalence of westerly and south-westerly winds. It was likewise shown that it was impossible to pass rays of light through as much as 5 miles of air without the rays being coloured sky-blue by the ozone commonly present, and that the blue of objects viewed on a clear day at greater distances up to 35 or 50 miles must be almost entirely the blueness of ozone in the air. The quantity of ozone giving a full sky-blue tint in a tube only 2 feet in length is 2 1/2 milligrammes in each square centimetre of sectional area of the tube. It is necessary to mention that a theory of the blue of the sky was propounded by M. Latlemand ("Sur la Polarisation et la Fluorescence de l'Atmosphère," Comptes rendus, lxxv. p. 707, 1872) after his observations had been found inconsistent with all previous explanations. If the coloration be due to reflection from minute particles of floating matter, or if it be due to white light being transmitted through a blue gas, the blue portion of the sky should be polarized quite as much as white light coming from the same direction in the heavens. But the experiments of M. Lallemand prove that this is not so. Upon these experiments he bases his theory that the blue colour of the atmosphere is due to a blue fluorescence like that seen in acid solutions of sulphate of quinine- that is to say, caused by a change of refrangibility in the ultra-violet rays. Angstrom first threw out the idea of fluorescence being a property of certain gases in the atmosphere. To possess this property the gas must be capable of absorbing either in part or entirely the ultra-violet and violet rays, and of emitting them with a lowered refrangibility and without being polarized. Ozone possesses the property of absorption in the highest degree in the ultra-violet region, and I have now to announce that strongly ozonized oxygen is highly fluorescent when seen in a glass bottle two inches in diameter illuminated by an electric spark passing between cadmium electrodes. The colour of the fluorescence is a beautiful steel blue. This fluorescence has not been observed in other gases, but it is in the highest degree probable that oxygen is fluorescent, though this has yet to be proved. There can be, however, little doubt that the colour of the sky is caused in part by the fluorescence of ozone, and also to some extent by the transmission of rays through the blue gas. The blue of distance is doubtless to be attributed more to transmission than the blue of the sky, though it is quite conceivable that fluorescence also here comes into play. Whatever other cause concurs in the production of the blue of the heavens, it has certainly been established by M. Chappuis that the properties of ozone participate in its production. ...". Hartley goes on to describe that the spectral lines of the telluric (infrared) rays of the sky are very variable stating: "...They are very variable, being dependent on the state of the weather, and are more distinct and broader when viewed with the sun on the horizon. ...". {ULSF: Perhaps this is due to a variable absorption that filters certain lines from Sun light more than others, or perhaps this variability is due to a variety of frequencies of light absorption and then re-emission.} Hartley writes: "...Chappuis observed bands in the blue sky coincident with ozone bands, " and goes on to discuss the possibility of ozone absorption lines in light from the sky. Hartley concludes writing: " The very extensive absorption of the ultra-violet rays by oxygen leads us to expect it to be fluorescent. All such absorbents are fluorescent more or less, and generally strongly, but when the absorbed rays are of very short wave-length the fluorescence is not always visible. Thus there are many substances which do not appear fluorescent by lime-light nor by dull daylight, but are strongly so when seen by electric light, especially if it has passed through no glass or other medium than a quartz lens and a short column of air. Some substances are not fluorescent when seen in glass vessels, because the glass has absorbed those rays of which the refrangibility would have been lowered by the fluorescent substance. In air, and by the light of an electric spark rich in ultra-violet rays, such as that from cadmium electrodes, almost everything is fluorescent. The whole range of the cadmium spectrum has been viewed by me, owing to the fluorescence of the purest white blotting-paper. The light, of course, is feeble, and the eye has to be trained to make observations in total darkness. Pure water, however, never appears fluorescent. Some solutions in water, which transmit all the ultra-violet rays as far as 2304, are fluorescent, though whether this is caused by impurities or not has not been decided. It cannot any longer be doubted (1) that the extreme limit of the solar spectrum observed by Cornu is caused by the gases in the atmosphere, probably both by oxygen and ozone; (2) that the blue of the sky is a phenomenon caused by the fluorescence of the gaseous constituents of the atmosphere, and probably ozone and oxygen are the chief fluorescent substances; (3) that ozone is generally present in the air in sufficient quantity to render its characteristic absorption-spectrum visible, and that therefore it gives a blue colour to the atmosphere by absorption, through which blue medium we observe distant views; (4) that water vapor does not participate in the coloration of the atmosphere under like conditions and in the same manner as ozone.".
(As a note, conclusion (3) seems confusing to me, since (2) claims that the blue is mostly from fluorescence - (3) appears to conclude the opposite that at least some atmosphere is colored blue from ozone absorption.) An interesting point is that clouds obstruct the blue color of the Earth sky from the surface and from orbit. So perhaps the blue color needs a black background to be seen.
Hartley uses the word "crepuscular", which is similar to "corpuscular". Crepuscular is defined as "Of or like twilight", and in zoology, "Becoming active at twilight or before sunrise, as do bats and certain insects and birds.".
It seems that Hartley does not explain clearly the red-orange color of the Sun and sky at the horizon. Perhaps this red color is the result of absorption and or re-emission to.
Hartley possibly fits the "Anaxagoras-Galileo mold" of people who are punished for speaking the truth. Sometimes this truth is simply a more accurate interpretation of the universe that angers others. This pattern can be applied to many atheists throughout history who correctly asserted doubts about the theory of Gods, in particular those who were either punished, persecuted, or demonized because of their allegiance to the more accurate truth. his contribution to science is somewhat small - recognizing the fluorescence of ozone, but in addition, expressing doubt about a popular inaccurate theory, in particular providing an alternative which proves to be more accurate, is a noteworthy science contribution. But yet, I cannot even find a portrait of Hartley, and there is no information about Hartley in EB2008, EB1911, the Concise Dictionary of Scientists, or even Wikipedia at this time.
| (Royal College of Science) Dublin, Ireland |
111 YBN
[04/09/1889 AD]
| 4211) George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor develops celluloid plastic roll film.
Eastman replaces the paper in his earlier gelatin and collodion film, with a tougher material, Hyatt's celluloid. This plastic serves as solvent for the emulsion and as a support (for moving through sprockets). Eastman's film will also make motion pictures possible. Edison will use this film as a carrier for successive still images taken in rapid succession.
Hannibal Goodwin had patented a celluloid film in 1887, and in England William Friese-Greene captures moving images on celluloid film on June 21 in this same year of 1889.
How does this plastic film fit into the 79 years of secret neuron reading and writing?
| (Eastman Dry Plate Company) Rochester, NY, USA |
111 YBN
[04/27/1889 AD]
| 3805) Clarence Edward Dutton (CE 1841-1912), US geologist, calls the way a slab of rock finds its natural depth, moving up or down according to its density,"isostasy".
Dutton writes in "Greater problems of Physical Geology", in describing why the earth is an oblate spheroid instead of perfectly spherical: "If the earth were composed of homogeneous matter its normal figure of equilibrium without strain would be a true spheroid of revolution; but if heterogeneous, if some parts were denser or lighter than others, its normal figure would no longer be spheroidal. Where the lighter matter was accumulated there would be a tendency to bulge, and where the denser matter existed there would be a tendency to flatten or depress the surface. For this condition of equilibrium of figure, to which gravitation tends to reduce a planetary body, irrespective of whether it be homogeneous or not, I propose the name isostasy. I would have preferred the word isobary, but it is preoccupied. We may also use the corresponding adjective, isostatic. An isostatic earth, composed of homogeneous matter and without rotation, would be truly spherical. If slowly rotating it would be a spheroid of two axes. If rotating rapidly within a certain limit, it might be a spheroid of three axes. But if the earth be not homogeneous- if some portions near the surface be lighter than others- then the isostatic figure is 110 longer a sphere or spheroid of revolution, but a deformed figure, bulged where the matter is light and depressed where it is heavy. The question which I propose is: How nearly does the earth's figure approach to isostasy?".
Dutton goes on to credit Babbage and Herschel writing: "The theory of isostasy thus briefly sketched out is essentially the theory of Babbage and Herschel, propounded nearly a century ago. It is, however, presented in a modified form, in a new dress, and in greater detail.".
Dutton develops methods for determining the depth of earthquake origin and the velocity that earthquake waves move through the earth. (chronology)
| Washington, D.C., USA. |
111 YBN
[05/02/1889 AD]
| 4117) George Francis Fitzgerald (CE 1851-1901), Irish physicist, suggests as an explanation for the Michelson-Morley experiment, that "the length of material bodies changes, according as they are moving through the ether or across it, by an amount depending on the square of the ratio of their velocity to that of light.".
Together with Lorentz, FitzGerald is credited with being the first to explain the null results of the Michelson-Morley experiment as due to the contraction of an arm of the interferometer, which resulted from its motion through the ether.
The full text of FitzGerald's short lett to the editor of Science magazine reads: "The Ether and the Earth's Atmosphere. I have read with much interest Messrs. Michelson and Morley's wonderfully delicate experiment attempting to decide the important question as to how far the ether is carried along by the earth. Their result seems opposed to other experiments showing that the ether in the air can be carried along only to an inappreciable extent. I would suggest that almost the only hypothesis that can reconcile this opposition is that the length of material bodies changes, according as they are moving through the ether or across it, by an amount depending on the square of the ratio of their velocity to that of light. We know that electric forces are affected by the motion of the electrified bodies relative to the ether, and it seems a not improbable supposition that the molecular forces are affected by the motion, and that the size of a body alters consequently. It would be very important if secular experiments on electrical attractions between permanently electrified bodies, such as in a very delicate quadrant electrometer, were instituted in some of the equatorial parts of the earth to observe whether there is any diurnal and annual variation of attraction, —diurnal due to the rotation of the earth being added and subtracted from its orbital velocity; and annual similarly for its orbital velocity and the motion of the solar system.".
Lorentz arrived at this idea independently in 1892 and again in a more well-known paper in 1895, and so this theoretical phenomenon is called "Lorentz-FitzGerald Contraction". In the 1892 paper Lorentz describes this change in length in terms of the velocity of a system of material points relative to an ether (ρ), and the known velocity of light (V), giving the equation for the change in length along the x-axis of some moving system of material points as (1+ρ2/2V2), but in 1895 changes this displacement to √1-v2/c2.
Lorentz apparently originates the actual famous expression representing the change is size of some body made of material points= √1-v2/c2 in 1895.
In 1894 Lorentz writes to FitzGerald about the hypothesis, and inquires whether FitzGerald has indeed published it. In his reply, FitzGerald mentions his letter to Science, but at the same time admits that he does not know if the letter had ever been printed and that he was "pretty sure" Lorentz has priority. Soon Lorentz begins to refer to FitzGerald in his discussions. (They may have seen each other in the neuron reading/writing microcamera phone thought network.)
This concept will become an integral part of relativity theory first advanced by Albert Einstein in 1905.
(verify if FitzGerald puts forward an actual equation.)
In his book "Studies in Optics", Michelson writes on p156: "Lorentz and Fitzgerald have proposed a possible solution of the null effect of the Michelson-Morley experiment by assuming a contraction in the material of the support for the interferometer just sufficient to compensate for the theoretical difference in path. Such a hypothesis seems rather artificial, and it of course implies that such contractions are independent of the elastic properties of the material.*" "*This consequence was tested by Morley and Miller by substituting a support of wood for that of stone. The result was the same as before.". So Michelson basically publicly doubts the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction which the theory of relativity is based on.
(This is an integral part in the story of inaccurate scientific theories. This is really an interesting find. First I think most people have to recognize that the concept of time and space dilation originates in an explanation to support the ether theory, that is that ether surrounds the universe and there really is no empty space. The obviously false nature of this claim is clear. For example if empty space was filled with ether, what would such an ether be made of if not matter (atoms, photons, etc), and if made of matter, would they not be detectable? The more simple conclusion is that there is no "ether" (although I can see value in a purely inertial - mechanical only - non-gravitational theory for the universe using only the collisions of matter to explain all motions of matter). Another problem is the material or physical nature of an ether has never been plainly described - is it particulate? Is it material? So just on the basis that time and/or space dilation is based on a theory which originates in trying to explain the existence of an ether is strong evidence that time and space dilation is inaccurate and completely wrong, simply not true, not an actual phenomenon of the universe simply because there is no ether, which I presume most people have accepted as a result of the Michelson-Morley experiment. Beyond the very simple argument that space and time dilation are probably inaccurate because the theory required an ether, there is the mathematical unlikeliness of time and/or space dilation in the form presented by FitzGerald and Lorentz, the originators of the theory: Simply put, what are the chances that the contraction of space would just exactly match the necessary amount to make light appear to have the same velocity in the direction of motion as it has in a 90 degree angle to the motion of the light source?. The chances of this coincidence seems very small. In some way you can see two different schools of thought, again like the sun-centered versus the earth-centered, and possibly conservatives embrace this theory as preserving the older ether theory, where the opposite side (represented by people like Michelson and Morley) reject the ether theory and so therefore probably tend to reject time dilation, and the relativity theories, although I have never actually seen anybody openly reject time or space dilation besides myself, and this also involves rejecting of major theories such as black holes, the big band and expanding universe. Shockingly, but clearly, these ether-save-the-appearances people decisively won and still are winning the battle for popularity, but then only 33% actually even believe something as simple as evolution to put this in perspective. To me this story of FitzGerald trying to save the ether theory which blossoms into relativity is very informative and somewhat shocking. It reinforces my belief more firmly than ever that matter and time dilation is false. I had no idea that time and space dilation was based on an effort to support ether theory. There is still the possibility that people accept that the ether theory is wrong, but FitzGerald realized an idea that still is true, which is something to ponder on for a minute in perhaps awe, but nonetheless exploring every possibility. So, this line of thinking would suppose that, FitzGerald's theory as applies to ether was wrong, but as applies to an etherless space and matter is correct. For me, this science history fact of the origin of the space dilation theory really does add tools in the argument against time and space dilation, and therefore against relativity. ) (The picture that I think is forming about the rise of the theory of relativity is possibly that there was a compromise between the particle and wave groups of people - the particle got the acceptance of light being in the form of a particle, and the wave group got the inclusion of time and space dilation. But this is pure speculation - clearly the neuron reading images must show the story in much more detail.) (It seems that the century of the 1900s was a period of total stagnation: they held onto an 1800s theory of time and space dilation for 100 years and counting, kept seeing hearing and sending thought (neuron reading and writing) a secret for the entire century and counting, if not for landing on the moon, and the advance of vehicles like the airplane, the year 2000 would be identical to the year 1900 for most people. Much of the scientific advances, specifically in physics have happened in secret, in fact, what ever is public physics is almost a charade, because the actual science is all secret, on the other hand, maybe they actually are still living in 1890, secretly and publicly.)
(I think that the light as a particle versus light as a wave in an aether medium controversy, I think, are identical to many classic science debates, in particular the sun-centered and earth-centered debate. These debates many times take on the same form, the popular theory, in this case the theory that the sun goes around the earth, and the theory that light is a wave with an ether medium, tend to be much more complex with many added parameters to account for observations, while the alternative theory, in this case, the sun-centered and light as a particle theories, is viewed as highly unpleasant, heresy, blasphemy, taboo, but yet, offers a more simple and accurate explanation of many observed phenomena without adding extra explanation to "save appearances". So this theory of FitzGerald's and Lorentz's of matter contracting is designed specifically to maintain Thomas Young's and August Fresnel's interpretation, as later accepted by James Clerk Maxwell, of light as a vibration similar to sound, but a latitudinal vibration as opposed to a longitudinal vibration, and instead of air or water for sound, light is viewed as being a vibration of ether particles that collide mechanically against each other. So in one historical interpretation, Newton and his contemporaries in the late 1600s, were perhaps more accurate in viewing light as a particle, or corpuscule, than those supporting a light as a wave theory who came later, and the rise of the wave theory for light which gained a massive majority starting around 1800 by Young and Fresnel seems to me to be a long term mistake - which has continued strongly for 200 years. There are at least two unusual and unhealthy aspects of the light as a particle and light as a wave debate. The first is how terrible the supression of the second theory of light as a particle has been over these two centuries - it has been a total and absolute silence and supression by the academic and publishing industries of any kind of particle theory for light. A second unhealthy aspect of this debate is how the phone companies in conjunction with wealthy people in governments and business figured out how to read and write to and from neurons in the early 1800s and for the 200 years since, have fed the public nothing but lies and misinformation designed specifically to mislead, knowing absolutely for decades many truths like the theory of light as a particle, and countless secrets of science and life of earth obtained from two centuries of watching people and reading and writing to the thoughts of other less connected and wealthy people. So the last two centuries on earth, are absolutely disgusting, I think, without question, at least from my perspective - far removed from the decent society of truth, stopping of violence, educating everybody, and intellectual and physical pleasure for all who want it - just a very terrible two centuries of secrecy, elitism, massive and large-scale violence and dishonesty. However, I have hope for the 21st century, that the truth about neuron reading and writing and all that has been learned (in particular punishing those neuron writing violent), including the truth about light as a particle will reach the majority of people.)
There is the interesting difference between a group of loosely grouped particles compressing, and an individual particle compressing because of relative velocity. Both to me seem to violate the basic idea that velocity is maintained - if the velocity of each particle is initially the same, it seems doubtful that the velocities of each particle would change without some kind of particle collision - or alternatively due to an action-at-a-distance force like gravitation or electromagnetism.
(This theory of FitzGerald's which will be adapted by Lorentz may ultimately lead to the theory that light particles have no mass and are not material.)
| Dublin, Ireland |
111 YBN
[06/03/1889 AD]
| 4834) The first publicly known commercial radiotelegraph message (Marconigram), is sent by Lord Kelvin, June 3, 1889 from the Needles Wireless Telegraph station (on the grounds of the Royal Needles Hotel) at Alum Bay on the Isle of Wight.
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
111 YBN
[06/21/1889 AD]
| 4021) Motion picture camera and projector. Moving images captured and stored on plastic film and projected onto a screen. The moving images are played together with sound from a phonograph.
| (Piccadilly) London, England |
111 YBN
[06/21/1889 AD]
| 4024) William Friese-Green (CE 1855-1921) describes recording a photograph from his eye and suggests that the picture produced by the eye could possibly be captured on to a photographic plate "from the back surface of the lens" perhaps as a result of a "phosphorescence".
William Friese-Green (CE 1855-1921) writes an article in 1889 describing how he captures an image from his eye - by looking at an arc light for a few seconds and then exposing a photographic plate to his eye, then using a microscope to confirm that the image of the arc light is captured on the photographic plate. This is very close to talking about capturing images from behind the head of what the eyes see, and thought-images.
This article contains numerous interesting phrases like "have you ever seen anything with your eyes shut?", "you can obtain a photograph with the human eye"...and somewhat curiously "I found a spot, which pleased me very much"...then perhaps some kind of punishment for talking with "...I had a black spot hovering about the retina for some days"...and the futuristic "but there is no harm in giving you my thoughts,". Friese-Green concludes with what is like a grand-finale of whistle-blowing: "...But now to offer some suggestions with regard to the picture produced by the eye. Can it be reflected from the retina, from the cornea, or from the back surface of the lens ? Is there a kind of phosphorescence which can affect a photographic plate ? Is it some kind of electric phenomena, and our latent image a galvanic action ? Of course, these suggestions are very wild ; for I must confess although I discovered the effect, I cannot explain it, and the more I try to do so the more ignorant I feel. It may lead to something important as time rolls on. Photography is now making huge strides ; its history becomes a clueless labyrinth of confusion and uncertainty ; it has vigorous health and plenty of practical and mental ingenuity always at hand, which affords ample proof of the earnestness with which experimental investigators work. Experimenters should work out their internal nature, with the aid of experiments]of things contained in the varied world around them, then they will have something original to tell us, and be continually adding atoms to the progress of our fascinating art. I know, for my own part, I have formed a love and veneration for photography—with all its worry, disappointments, etc.—which has almost the nature of a passion ; 'every act of seeing leads to consideration, consideration to reflection, reflection to combination, and combination to ideas which ought to be worked out with method and system, then we shall be sure to discover something quite new and original, especially if we work earnestly and patiently....". Probably ending on "patiently" may be a play on people being locked and tortured in psychiatric hospitals.
| (London and Provincial Photographic Association) London, England |
111 YBN
[08/30/1889 AD]
| 3973) Otto Lehmann (CE 1855-1922) names the substances found that exhibit a state in between liquid and solid, which flow like a liquid but have crystalline properties "flowing crystals" ("Fliessende Kristalle") and "liquid crystals" ("flüssige kristalle"), the name still used today.
Liquid crystals are not popular among scientists in the early 1900s century and they remain a scientific curiosity for 80 years. E. Merck of Darmstadt, Germany, sells liquid crystals for analytical purposes as far back as 1907 but even in by the early 1960s, only a few institutions and corporations are known to be performing research on liquid crystals. My own belief is that liquid crystal displays, being connected to cameras and videos, has a high probability of being a secret technology for a long time, as seeing eyes has been secret for an estimated 200 years.
(This period is like some kind of a high point for Germany, with Hertz, Roentgen, the LCD, the CRT in comparison to the idiocy that led to WW1 and WW2.)
In 1876, Lehmann had observed that at temperatures above 146 degrees (Celsius) that silver iodide moves as a liquid, but still exhibits several properties of crystals. A similar state will be found in cholesteryl benzoate Friedrich Reinitzer (1888), and for p-azoxyanisole and p-azoxyohenetole by L. Gattermann (1890) and in ammonium oleate by Lehamnn. Lehmann calls these substances "liquid crystals" ("flüssige kristalle"), but they are also called "anisotropic liquids" or "birefringent liquids".
Lehmann publishes this as "Über fliessende Krystalle." (needs to be translated) Lehmann writes: "Flowing crystals! Is that not a contradiction in terms? Our image of a crystal is of a rigid well-ordered system of molecules. The reader of the title of this article might well pose the following question: 'How does such a system reach a state of motion, which, were it in a fluid, we would recognise as flow?' For flow involves external and internal states of motion, and indeed the very explanation of flow is usually in terms of repeated translations and rotations of swarms of molecules which are both thermally disordered and in rapid motion. If a crystal really were a rigid molecular aggregate, a flowing crystal would indeed be as unlikely as flowing brickwork. However, if subject to sufficiently strong forces, even brickwork can be set into sliding motion. In a certain sense, the resulting motion corresponds to a stream of fluid mass in which the joints between the individual bricks open. The bricks then run out of control, moving over and rolling around each other in a disorderly manner, rather like single granules in a turbulent mass of sand. As a matter of gact, there are solid-but nevertheless non-crystalline-bodies which are able to flow like liquids, although with much greater difficulty. This fact is evidence to anyone who has ever observed the slow change of an unsupoported stick of sealing wax or a larger free-standing mass of pitch. All fusable amorophous bodies transform from the liquid into the solid state continuously. The point at which the state of aggregation really becomes solid (i.e. where the first hints of the onset of displacement elasticity occur) is extremely difficult to recognise. Indeed, because such a material is still able to flow, we would often still regard it as fluid, even though, strictly speaking, it should already be described as solid. ... Crystals of the regular modification of silver iodide exhibit only a waxy consistency and can be spread with a dissecting needle on the object slide of a microscope like hot sealing wax. Yet while they are growing, they very closely resemble thinly for"ged salmiak crystals between hammer and anvil. The same applies to deformed crystals of tin and lead which have been dipped as cathodes into appropriate solutions during microscopic electrolysis. In the light of all these observations, it has not seemed possible to discover a substance whose crystals could be regarded as in a state of flow from direct observations, yet did not disintegrate and reform, but rather maintained their internal correlation under constant deformation in the same manner as do amorphous and liquid bodies. However, it seems that as a result of a recent discovery by Mr. F. Reinitzer in Praque, such a substance, weakly fluid by crystalline, has indeed been detected. The nature of these crystals has not yet been fully understood, and perhaps optical illusions may be involved. Nethertheless, I have no hesitation in reporting the observations here, since so far it has proved impossible to construct an explanation of the phenomenon in terms of extremely soft crystals of a syrupy or gum-like type. The substance in question is cholesteryl benzoate. In a letter in March of last year, Mr. Reinitzer, to whom I owe the substance under investigation, told me the following about the contradictory behaviour of the substance which he observed: 'if one may so express oneself, the substance exhibits two melting points. It first melts at 145.5°C, forming a turbid but unambiguously fluid liquid. This suddenly becomes totally clear, but not until 178.5°C. On cooling, first violet and blue colours appear, which quickly vanish, leaving the bulk turbif like milk, but fluid. On further cooling the violet and blue colours reappear, but very soon the substance solidifies forming a white crystalling mass. When the phenomenon is observed under the microscope, the following sequence is easily detected. Eventually on cooling large star-like radial aggregates consisting of needles appear, these being the cause of the cloudiness. When the solid substance melts into a cloudy liquid, the cloudiness is not caused by crystals, but by a liquid which forms oily streaks in the melted mass and which appears bright under crossed nicols.' These observations indeed contain many contradictions. For, on the one hand a liquid cannot melt on increasing temperature and also at the same time exhibit polarisation colours between crossed nicols. On the other hand a crystalline substance cannot be completely liquid. That a pulpy mass of crystals and liquid was not present follows from the high degree or purity of the substance under invesigation; the substance came for use in the form of totally clear and well-defined crystals. in addition, at the temperatures concerned there was no possibility of chemical decomposition, and furthermore through direct visual observation in a microscope it would have been very easy to recognise clearly the edges of crystals in the liquid, especially because of the strong influence of the former on polarised light. ...". (The part that talks about electrodes and 'in light of this' I think is strong evidence of the LCD in use by 1889.) (Experiment: How easy is it to make a home-made LCD? Is it as simple as putting two polarizing films together, gluing them, filling them with a liquid crystal, heat sealing them into pixels, and applying tiny wires - in particular clear conducting materials - to each side of each pixel? Do people sell liquid crystals? How easy is it to make? Describe the various liquid crystals in use and their manufacture. )
(Note that it is rare to see exclamation points in scientific papers. But they are occassionally used, rarely, and mostly to emphasize the impossibility or extreme ridiculousness of some phenomenon or theory. So perhaps there is something unusual about this paper.)
| Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, Germany |
111 YBN
[11/12/1889 AD]
| 3966) First "spectroscopic binary star" identified, two stars that appear as one, but over time a spectral line appears to double because of change in frequency because of change in relative velocity (Doppler shift).
US astronomers, Edward Charles Pickering (CE 1846-1919) and Antonia C. Maury identify the first known "spectroscopic binary star", two stars that appear as one, but the spectral lines of each appear to shift over time because of Doppler shift.
Zeta Ursae Majoris (Mizar mIZoR), an A1 dwarf of magnitude 2.2, at a distance of 78 light years forms a naked-eye double with Alcor, but the two are not a binary pair. However, a closer companion, which is first detected by Pickering, of magnitude 4.0 is connected to Mizar. Mizar is the first telescopic binary and the first spectroscopic binary to be discovered. The 4th-magnitude companion is also a spectroscopic binary.
Pickering's paper "On the Spectrum of ζ Ursae Majoria", of November 12, 1889 reads: "In the Third Annual Report of the Henry Draper Memorial, attention is called to the fact that the K -line in the spectrum of Z Ursae Majoris occasionally appears double. The spectrum of this star has been photographed at the Harvard College Observatory on seventy nights and a careful study of the results has been made by Miss A. C. Maury, a niece of Dr. Draper. The K line is clearly seen to be double in the photographs taken on March 29, 1887, on May 17, 1889 and on August 27 and 28, 1889. On many other dates the line appeared hazy, as if the components were slightly separated, while at other times the line appears to be well defined and single. An examination of all the plates leads to the belief that the line is double at intervals of 52 days, beginning March 27, 1887, and that for several days before and after these dates it presents a hazy appearance. The doubling of the line was predicted for October 18, 1889, but only partially verified. The line appeared hazy or slightly widened on several plates but was not certainly doubled. The star was however low and only three prisms could be used, while the usual number was four. The predicted times at which the line should be again double are on December 9, 1889 and on January 30, 1890. The hydrogen lines of Z Ursae Majoris are so broad that it is difficult to decide whether they are also separated into two or not. They appear, however, to be broader when the K line is double than when it is single. The other lines in the spectrum are much fainter, and although well shown when the K line is clearly defined, are seen with difficulty when it is hazy. Several of them are certainly double when the K line is double. Measures of these plates gave a mean separation of 0.246 millionths of a millimeter for a line whose wave-length is 448.1, when the separation of the K line, whose wave-length is 393.7, was 0.199. The only satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon as yet proposed is that the brighter component of this star is itself a double star having components nearly equal in brightness and too close to have been separated as yet visually. Also that the time of revolution of the system is 104 days. When one component is approaching the earth all the lines in its spectrum will be moved toward the blue end, while all the lines in the spectrum of the other component will be moved by an equal amount in the opposite direction if their masses are equal. Each line will thus be separated into two. When the motion becomes perpendicular to the line of sight the spectral linea recover their true wave-length and become single. An idea of the actual dimensions of the system may be derived from the measures given above. The relative velocity as derived from the K line will be 0.199 divided by its wave-length 393.7 and multiplied by the velocity of light 186,000, which is equal to 94 miles a second. A similar calculation for the line whose wave-length is 448.1 gives 102 miles per second. Since the plates were probably not taken at the exact time of maximum velocity these values should be somewhat increased. We may however assume this velocity to be about one hundred miles per second. If the orbit is circular and its plane passes through the sun, the distance traveled by one component of the star regarding the other as fixed would be 900 million miles, and the distance apart of the two components would be 143 million miles, or about that of Mars and the sun. The combined mass would be about forty times that of the sun to give the required period. In other words, if two stars each having a mass twenty times that of the sun revolved around each other at a distance equal to that of the sun and Mars, the observed phenomenon of the periodic doubling of the lines would occur. If the orbit was inclined to the line of sight its dimensions and the corresponding masses would be increased. An ellipticity of the orbit would be indicated by variations in the amount of the separation of the lines, which will be considered hereafter. The angular distance between the components is probably too small to be detected by direct observation. The greatest separation may be about 1.5 times the annual parallax. Some other stars indicate a similar peculiarity of spectrum, but in no case is this as yet established.
Addendum, Dec. 17.—The predicted doubling of the lines of Z Ursae Majoris on December 8th was confirmed on that day by each of three photographs. Two more stars have been found showing a similar periodicity: B Aurigae and b Ophiuchi (H. P. 1100 and 2909).".
A few days later on 11/28/1889 Vogel and Scheiner report finding shifted spectral lines around stars.
The first spectroscopic binary in which one of the components is dark will be discovered by Vogel, at Potsdam, in 1889, who finds that the lines in the spectrum of Algol, the well-known variable star, shift alternately towards the red and blue ends of the spectrum with the same period as that of its variability (2 days, 20 hours, 49 minutes). This confirms the theory that this star varies in brightness because a relatively dark body reolves around the star and partially eclipses it at each revolution.
It is not currently clear yet, of the two, Pickering and Maury, who first recognized the shifting spectral lines, and then who first understood the interpretation of two stars.
| Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
111 YBN
[11/28/1889 AD]
| 3818) Hermann Carl Vogel (FOGuL) (CE 1841-1907), German astronomer, proves that the variation in the light of Algol is due to the partial eclipse of its light by a dark satellite by showing that the spectral lines shift from blue to red over a regular period of time.
(Verify that the period is observed to be regular to modern times.)
The first spectroscopic binary was discovered by Edward Pickering, a few months earlier, in August 1889. (although Pickering does not appear to report this until November 12, 1889) Pickering of Harvard Observatory, had noticed spectral shifts in Mizar (Zeta Ursae Majoris, of the Mizar-Alcor system) which could be explained by it being a binary star. (verify) Pickering finds that the only clearly visible narrow line in the spectrum of zeta Ursae Majoris is sometimes double, sometimes single. Double lines would imply that a star has two different radial velocities, so the more logical conclusion is that there are two stars with this (absorption or emission?) line which have different Doppler shifts, one moving closer and the other moving away, reflecting the view that they are orbiting each other.
Vogel and Scheiner had found that the spectra lines of some stars, such as Spica in Virgo and Algol in Perseus, shift back and forth towards blue and the red, indicating that the radial velocity periodically increases and decreases. These spectroscopic binaries, differ from the other kind of spectroscopic binaries discovered by Antonia C. Maury, because the second spectrum is invisible. This can happen if the companion star is too dim for its light to be seen. These kind of spectroscopic binaries with single periodically displaced lines, are far more numerous than those with doubling lines.
The findings of Vogel and Scheiner are published in the Transactions of the Prussian Academy of Sciences.
Vogel describes this body as a "dunkeln Begleiter" "dark companion". Vogel presuming that the bright and dark stars are of equal density, concludes that Algol is a globe of about 1.5 million miles in diameter, the satellite equal to the size of the Sun, and the centers of the two stars being separated by about 3,230,000 miles.
Asimov comments that there are large numbers of spectroscopic binaries. (But that average people don't know this, I think shows how terrible the public education about astronomy is.)
(This Doppler shift technique will be used to reveal planets of other stars, so-called "exo-planets".)
(I think people cannot be sure that this is a star that is too dim to see, and not a planet. I argue that the difference between a star and planet is not that great and that the method of photon emission is identical in both. In theory a mass could be held together that is larger than a star but does not collapse or emit photons in the visible spectrum, depending on its mass distribution.)
(There is an interesting issue in the measure of quantity of light emited by a star. Because quantity of light, that is total photons emited per second per unit of space, includes a measurement of the apparent size, distance of a star, and frequency of the light emited. It would be (actual size*frequency), and also (apparent size*distance*frequency). Perhaps frequency would need to be an average because there are many different frequencies emited.)
| (Astrophysical Observatory at Potsdam) Potsdam, Germany |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 3399) (Sir) Francis Galton (CE 1822-1911), English anthropologist, publishes "Natural Inheritance" (1889). This book includes Galton's law of ancestral heredity which sets the average contribution of each parent to 1/4, of each grandparent at 1/16, etc, the sum over all ancestors being asymptotic to 1.
Galton is the first to study twins, where hereditary influences are identical, and differences can be attributed to environment only.
Galton is the first to study twins, where hereditary influences are identical, and differences can be attributed to environment only. (chronology)
| London, England (presumably) |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 3549) English chemists, (Sir) Frederick Augustus Abel (CE 1827-1902) and (Sir) James Dewer (CE 1842-1923), invent cordite, the first practical smokeless explosive powder.
Cordite is the first practical smokeless explosive powder.
In 1888 he was appointed president of a government committee to find new high explosives. The two existing propellants, Poudre B and ballistite, had various defects, most importantly their tendency to deteriorate during storage.
Cordite is a mixture of Sobrero's nitroglycerine and Schönbein's nitrocellulose to which some petroleum jelly is added. The mixture is comparatively safe to handle when purified ingredients are used. The resulting gelatin can be squirted out into cords (from which the material gets its name) that, after careful drying can be measured out in precise quantity. For 600 years battlefields were hidden under a progressively thickening cloud of gunpowder smoke, and artillery people were blackened with it. With a clear battlefield, the actual state of a battle can be seen more accurately. The Spanish-American War will be the last important war fought with gunpowder (although 7 years after the invention of cordite).
The British government starts using cordite in 1891.
With (Sir) Andrew Noble, Abel carries out one of the most complete inquiries on record of the characteristics of the explosion of black gun powder.
Abel also shows how guncotton can be rendered stable and safe, by removing all traces of the sulfuric and nitric acids from the guncotton by mincing, washing in soda until all the acid has been removed, and drying. (This is to safely destroy or make useless old explosive guncotton?)
In 1891, cordite consists of 58% of nitro-glycerin, 37% of gun-cotton, and 5% of mineral jelly. This variety is now known as Cordite Mark I. Cordite M.D. contains gun-cotton 65%, nitro-glycerin 30%, and mineral jelly 5%. The advantages of Cordite M.D. over Mark I are slightly reduced rate of burning, higher velocities and more regular pressure in the gun, and lower temperature.
A rod of cordite may be bent to a moderate extent without breaking, and Cordite M.D. especially shows considerable elasticity. It can be impressed by the nail and cut with a knife, but is not sticky, nor does nitroglycerin exude to any appreciable extent. Cordite can be obtained in a finely-divided state by scraping with a sharp knife, or on a new file, or by grinding in a mill, such as a coffee-mill, but cannot be pounded in a mortar.
Like all colloidal substances cordite is an exceedingly bad conductor of heat. A piece ignited in air burns with a yellowish flame. With the smaller sizes, about 2 mm. diameter or less, this flame may be blown out, and the rod will continue to burn in a suppressed manner without actual flame, fumes containing oxides of nitrogen being emitted. Rods of moderate thickness, say from 5 mm. diameter, will continue to burn under water if first ignited in air and the burning portion slowly immersed. The end of a rod of cordite may be struck a moderately heavy blow on an anvil without exploding or igniting. The rod will first flatten out. A sharp blow will then detonate or explode the portion immediately under the hammer, the remainder of the rod remaining quite intact. Bullets may be fired through a bundle or package of cordite without detonating or inflaming it. This is of course a valuable quality. The exact temperature at which substances ignite or take fire is in all cases difficult to determine with any exactness. Cordite is not instantly ignited on contact with a flame such as that of a candle, because, perhaps, of the condensation of some moisture from the products of burning of the candle upon it. A blow-pipe flame or a red-hot wire is more rapid in action. The ignition temperature may be somewhere in the region of 180° C.
The manufacturing processes comprise: drying the guncotton and nitro-glycerin; melting and filtering the mineral jelly; weighing and mixing the nitro-glycerin with the gun-cotton; moistening this mixture with acetone until it becomes a jelly; and then incorporating in a special mixing mill for about three hours, after which the weighed amount of mineral jelly is added and the incorporation continued for about one hour or until judged complete. The incorporating or mixing machine is covered as closely as possible to prevent too great evaporation of the very volatile acetone. Before complete incorporation the mixture is termed, in the works, "paste," and, when finally mixed, "dough." The right consistency having been produced, the material is placed in a steel cylinder provided with an arrangement of dies or holes of regulated size at one end, and a piston or plunger at the other. The plunger is worked either by hydraulic power or by a screw (driven from ordinary shafting). Before reaching and passing through the holes in the die, the material is filtered through a disk of fine wire gauze to retain any foreign substances, such as sand, bits of wood or metal, or unchanged fibres of cellulose, &c., which might choke the dies or be otherwise dangerous. The material issues from the cylinders in the form of cord or string of the diameter of the holes of the die. The thicker sizes are cut off, as they issue, into lengths (of about 3 ft.), it being generally arranged that a certain number of these - say ten - should have, within narrow limits, a definite weight. The small sizes, such as those employed for rifle cartridges, are wound on reels or drums, as the material issues from the press cylinders, in lengths of many yards.
Some of the solvent or gelatinizing material (acetone) is lost during the incorporating, and more during the pressing process and the necessary handling, but much still remains in the cordite at this stage. It is now dried in heated rooms, where it is generally spread out on shelves, a current of air passing through carrying the acetone vapour with it. In the more modern works this air current is drawn, finally, through a solution of a substance such as sodium bisulphite; a fixed compound is thus formed with the acetone, which by suitable treatment may be recovered. The time taken in the drying varies with the thickness of the cordite from a few days to several weeks. For several reasons it is desirable that this process should go on gradually and slowly.
The gun-cotton employed for cordite is made in the usual way (see GUN-Cotton), with the exception of treating with alkali. It is also after complete washing with water gently pressed into small cylinders (about 3 in. diameter and 4 in. high) whilst wet, and these are carefully dried before the nitro-glycerin is added. The pressure applied is only sufficient to make the gun-cotton just hold together so that it is easily mixed with the nitro-glycerin. The mineral jelly or vaseline is obtained at a certain stage of distillation of petroleum, and is a mixture of hydrocarbons, paraffins, olefines and some other unsaturated hydrocarbons, possibly aromatic, which no doubt play a very important part as preservatives in cordite.
The stability of cordite, that is, its capability of keeping without chemical or ballistic changes, is judged by certain "heat tests".
(find patent)
The development of cordite did not happen until after long discussions with Nobel. Nobel protests the patent issued to Dewar and Abel, but loses the law suit.
(Cordite is not a secret and so it appears that the government chooses to allow this scientific advance to be announced explained to the public in 1889 England, at least for cordite. This prevails over those who might have advocated secrecy. Clearly secrecy around electronic communication equipment is a different story. It is curious how the nonviolent and harmless seeing, hearing and sending thoughts and remote muscle movements has been kept secret for 200 years, while the truth about the far more dangerous uranium chain reaction based megaton bombs is not kept secret and information about uranium fission is freely available. I argue in favor of not jailing people for any information-based crimes, although intentional data deletion I could possibly see locking a person in jail for small time depending on number of offenses, but certainly not for any non-destructive reading and copying information activities.)
(I think creating lists of all molecules that react with each other, in particular in terms of the quantity of photons emited or absorbed, and the speed of the reaction would be very helpful. In addition, how naturally occurring the molecule is in isolated form and in combined form, is important to determine what molecules can be used to extract photons to do work, without much work going into purification. Simply to examine all the volatile reactions is probably useful. Is there such a list somewhere?)
Cordite is infamously used by neo-conservatives in the USA on 9/11/2001. Cordite is used on 09/11/2001 to explode parts of the Pentagon by criminal people in the US government under George Bush jr, and Dick Cheney, and may have been used in a similar fashion in the 2 world trade center building controlled demolitions on that day.
(I think that any explosive chemical reaction can potentially be used to generate electricity and propel ships, but obviously some are going to be more efficient and useful than others. but yet, this line of experimentation has not been actively pursued, perhaps because few people want to work with explosive reactions. Perhaps walking robots will be used remotes to perform experiments with explosive chemical reactions.)
| London, England (presumably) |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 3701) August Friedrich Leopold Weismann (VISmoN) (CE 1834-1914), German biologist, cuts off the tails of 1,592 mice over 22 generations, and shows that they all continue to produce young with full-sized tails, which is evidence that environmental changes are not inherited (although environmental changes can determine which young will survive long enough to reproduce).
Weismann publishes this in (translated from German) "Essays Upon Heredity" in 1889.
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 3765) Vladimir Vasilevich Markovnikov (CE 1837-1904), Russian chemist, prepares molecules with seven-carbon-atom rings.
| (Moscow University) Moscow, Russia |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 3953) Gabriel Jonas Lippmann (lEPmoN) (CE 1845-1921), French physicist publishes some equations on induction in resistance free circuits, which will be confirmed by experiments twenty years by Professor Kamerlingh Onnes.
| Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France (presumably) |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4074) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (PoVluF) (CE 1849-1936), Russian physicologist discovers the nerves controlling the secretory activity of the gastric glands (any of various glands in the walls of the stomach that secrete gastric juice) and demonstrates that control of the secretions from these glands is regulated by the nervous system.
According to historian Daniel P. Todes: The simplest and most common operation Pavlov and his student perform is implantation of a fistula (in surgery, an opening made into a hollow organ, as the bladder or eyeball, for drainage) to draw a portion of salivary, gastric, or pancreatic secretions to the surface of the dog's body, where it can be collected and analyzed.
A second standard operation used by Pavlov and his students is the esophagotomy, which is used to obtain pure gastric juice from an intact and functioning dog. The esophagotomy involves dividing the gullet (esophagus) in the neck and causing its divided ends to heal separately into an angle of the incision in the skin. This accomplishes "the complete anatomical separation of the cavities of the mouth and stomach", allowing the experimenter to analyze the reaction of the gastric glands to the act of eating. Food swallowed by an esophagotomized dog falls out of the opening from the mouth cavity to the neck instead of proceeding down the digestive tract. Since the dog chews and swallows, but the food never reaches its stomach, this procedure is termed "sham feeding." Sham feeding an esophagotomized dog equipped with a gastric fistula gives the experimenter access to the gastric secretions produced during the act of eating. The experimenter then collected these secretions through the fistula at five-minute intervals, later measuring them and analyzing their contents. This dog-technology allows the experimenter to collect virtually unlimited quantities of gastric juice and to analyze the secretory results of the act of eating. Since ingested food never reached the stomach, however, it does not permit investigation of gastric secretion during the second phase of normal digestion, when food is present in the stomach.
This work is important in establishing the autonomic nervous system and the details of the physiology of digestion. Bayliss will show the importance of chemical stimulation over nervous stimulation.
Pavlov and his pupils produce a large quantity of accurate data on the workings of the gastrointestinal tract, which serves as a basis for Pavlov's Lectures on the (translated from Russian) "Work of the Principal Digestive Glands" (published in Russia in 1897).
Encyclopedia Britannica writes that Pavlov's method of working with the normal, healthy, unanesthetized animal over its entire life has not been generally accepted in physiology. (Perhaps this experiment could be done without any pain to the dog, or only a minimum of pain, and put back when done. Hitzig in his electrical brain stimulation experiments had described how working with a dog in a lot of pain is unpleasant and how to avoid causing excessive pain to the dog.)
Pavlov had discovered the secretory nerves of the pancreas in the previous year (1888).
(At some time in history, remote stimulation of the vagus nerve must have occured. In this way the heart rate of any animal could be accelerated or decelereated remotely by a human. This opens the possibility of murdering an animal terribly by bursting blood vessels or simply preventing the heart, which is a muscle, from contracting and pumping blood. This may have been on October 24, 1810, or later. Most people do not know because, of course, shockingly, and idiotically, and terribly, it is still a secret from the public. )
| (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4081) According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Oliver Heaviside (CE 1850-1925), English physicist and electrical engineer, postulates that an electric charge would increase in mass as its velocity increases, an anticipation of an aspect of Einstein's special theory of relativity. (However I have not been able to verify this.) This relation is usually attributed to Lorentz, who derives it three years later for the force experienced by a charge in steady motion in a magnetic field. According to a Nature article, J. J. Thomson had previously given the force as one-half the correct value, and Heaviside may have sensed this relation from Thomson's analysis. According to some sources, the paper in question by Heaviside is "On The Electromagnetic Effects due to the Motion of Electrification through a Dielectric.".
(Both Heaviside and Lorentz supported the theory of an aether, which has been mostly discarded as inaccurate.) (This theory seems inaccurate to me, in particular because this would be a violation of the theory of conservation of matter and conservation of motion.) (Is this the first historical occurance of this unlikely theory?) (show text where Heaviside postulates this - I can't find an explicit explanation of how mass increases with velocity in Heaviside's "Electromagnetic Theory". Possibly in "On the Electromagnetic Effects due to the Motion of Electrification through a Dielectric." - but there is no mention of mass, or the speed of light, only a slowing of velocity and variables for electric charge.)
Historian Lev B. Oken writes: "The idea that mass increases with velocity is usually ascribed, following Hendrik Lorentz, to J. J. Thomson. But Thomson, who considered in 1881 the kinetic energy of a freely moving charged body, calculated only the correction proportional to V2 and therefore derived only the velocity-independent contribution to the mass. In subsequent papers by Oliver Heaviside, George Searle and others, the energy was calculated for various kinds of charged ellipsoids in the whole interval 0 According to Asimov, Heaviside extends Maxwell's work on electromagnetic theory. (more specific - did Heaviside use Maxwell's equations in a different form?)
Science historian Henry Crew writes that "...not many accepted the Maxwellian theory of light. Helmholtz and Rowland were practically alone in using it in their university lectures. Oliver Heaviside advocated it. ...".
(I think knowing that people like Heaviside may have had video in front of their eyes, tends to leads to doubts about what was really going relative to the camera-thought networks, or perhaps Heaviside was not allowed to receive videos in front of his eyes.)
In a paper on the electromagnetic theory, Heaviside uses the word "tensor" which he defines writing: "The tensor of a vector is its size, or magnitude apart from direction. The tern "tensor" is used through the theories of relativity of the 1900s and into the 2000s.
| London, England (presumably) |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4090) Charles Robert Richet (rEsA) (CE 1850-1935), French physiologist finds that the blood of one animal species is toxic to another species.
| (University of Paris) Paris, France |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4128) Santiago Ramón y Cajal (romON E KoHoL) (CE 1852-1934) Spanish histologist, determines the connections of the cells in the gray matter of the brain and spinal cord and demonstrates the extreme complexity of the nerve system. Ramón y Cajal also describes the structure of the retina of the eye.
Ramón y Cajal establishes the neuron theory, that the entire nervous system is composed only of nerve cells and their processes which Golgi opposed.
| (University of Barcelona) Barcelona, Spain |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4225) German physicists, Johann Phillipp Ludwig Julius Elster (CE 1854-1920), and Hans Geitel (CE 1855-1923) study the photoelectric effect and find that negatively charged magnesium filaments, freshly ground with emery, are discharged not only by ultraviolet light but even by "dispersed evening daylight".
This begins a series of 20 investigations on the photoelectric effect performed by Elster and Geitel.
The photoelectric effect may be a necessary part of reading from neurons.
In 1873, English telegraph engineers, Willoughby Smith (CE 1828-1891) and his assistant Joseph May had found that when selenium is exposed to light, its electrical resistance decreases. This discoverery made possible transforming images into electric signals. Selenium becomes the basis for the manufacture of photoelectric cells, television, the first electric camera, and possibly seeing thoughts. This effect to me, appears to be identical to the photoelectric effect, however, many sources credit Hertz as the first to observe the photoelectric effect in 1888. The photo electric effect is a phenomenon in which charged particles are released from a material when it absorbs light particles. This effect is can occur when visible, ultraviolent, X or gamma interval light collides with a surface which may be solid, liquid or gas, which in turn emits particle which may be electrons or ions.The effect was explained by Albert Einstein.
| (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4277) (Baron) Shibasaburo Kitasato (KEToSoTO) (CE 1856-1931), Japanese bacteriologist, describes a method of culturing the anaerobic bacterium Clostridium chauvoei, the causative agen of the blackleg in cattle, by growing the bacteria on a solid media surrounded by a hydrogen atmosphere.
| (Robert Koch’s laboratory) Berlin, Germany |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4278) (Baron) Shibasaburo Kitasato (KEToSoTO) (CE 1856-1931), Japanese bacteriologist, obtains the first pure culture of the tetanus bacteria.
At the time people think getting a pure culture of Clostridium tetani is impossible. Before this, Clostridium tetani had been grown in symbiosis with other bacteria. Kitasato finds that the spores of the bacillus, strongly heat-resistant, can be heated to 80°C. without dying. Kitasato heats a mixed culture of Clostridium tetani and other bacteria at 80° C. for forty-five to sixty minutes and then cultivates them in a hydrogen atmosphere to grow the first pure culture of Clostridium tetani.
| (Robert Koch’s laboratory) Berlin, Germany |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4342) Svante August Arrhenius (oRrAnEuS) (CE 1859-1927), Swedish chemist suggests an "energy of activation"; an amount of energy that must be supplied to molecules before they will react. This concept is necessary to the theory of catalysis.
Arrhenius expresses the temperature dependence of the rate constants of chemical reactions through what is now known as the "Arrhenius equation". (in same paper as above?)
(Energy is abstract, being a combination of matter and motion. But perhaps a certain quantity of mass and/or motion needs to be added before a reaction is possible. Mass would be in the form of photons, electrons, x-particles, etc. and the motion would be a characteristic of each particle. Perhaps then a certain number of photons must be added before any atom will bond with a different atom? )
| (Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4396) Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (lAnoRT) (CE 1862-1947), Hungarian-German physicist, discoveres that phosphorescence is caused by the presence of very small quantities of copper, bismuth, or manganese in what were previously thought to be pure alkaline earth sulfides.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4439) Hermann Walther Nernst (CE 1864-1941), German physical chemist creates a simple equation explaining why a battery produces an electric potential, by applying the principles of thermodynamics. Nernst's equation relates the potential to various properties of the cell. This equation and explanation has been replaced since then, but Asimov claims they are still useful. This is the first explanation as to why the chemical battery produces an electric potential.
Nernst writes this paper, for his teaching certificate. In this paper, Nernst establishes a fundamental connection between thermodynamics and electrochemical solution theory (the Nernst equation).
(Give specific info, how an electric battery works is still an interesting question.)
| ( University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 4521) George Ellery Hale (CE 1868-1938), US astronomer invents the spectroheliograph, a device that makes it possible to photograph the light of a single spectral line of the sun.
Using this spectroheliograph, Hale is able to photograph the sun by the light of glowing calcium. Hale detects clouds of calcium on the sun he calls "flocculi".
Hale publishes this work as his thesis at MIT, "Photography of the Solar Prominences".
This spectroheliograph allows hale to photograph the prominences of the Sun without the need for an eclipse. In 1868 Janssen and Lockyer had observed prominences visually outside of eclipse for the first time. C. A. Young, Károly Braun, and Wilhelm Lohse had tried to photograph the prominences spectroscopically in daylight but without practical success.
(That the entire sun can be seen in a single frequency by photographing only the line from a prism or diffraction grating of a single frequency is interesting. This can be applied probably to the human head too, in seeing the infrared. Perhaps simply using a powerful spectroscope, infrared images from behind the head can be captured, simply by viewing the image of the back of the head in all the different spectral line frequencies.)
(Show single spectrum photos. Finding these photos is difficult. Hale published a few by other astronomers in "The New Heavens" in 1922.)
(Is there a gaseous atmosphere around the sun, of is the sun completely liquid?)
(This is really interesting to see where the calcium is distributed on the sun, unless other elements also share the calcium line. Perhaps this is what is used to determine what kinds and where various elements are on the surface of earth, other planets and moon. Why do we not get a precise readout of all atoms on the surface of all planets and moons by now?)
(Interesting that there are calcium clouds floating on the sun? in gas form?)
(Is this related to neuron reading and;or writing? In theory with a prism or diffraction grating a person should be able to see light in any frequency they want, ...they can look at the universe in each frequency ... the key is having the detector that can detect each frequency, but clearly any prism or diffraction grating should separate light into each specific frequency. All the frequencies of gamma, xray, uv, visible, infrared, microwave, radio. But they probably need to be enclosed in a dark box, and only a tiny circle of light allowed in, and perhaps a prism or a diffraction grating mounted on a very high ratio geared surface, that can be rotated by a very very tiny amount. Maybe a detector grid can be made by a very photoelectric sensitive metal or material. Or perhaps the detector can be moved around a prism or grating.)
(show image of sun in many different lines - showing each element or molecule distribution, and this distribution for the moon, and other planets.)
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
111 YBN
[1889 AD]
| 6031) John Philip Sousa (CE 1854-1932), US composer, conductor and writer, composes his famous march "The Washington Post".
In the 1890s Sousa also redevelops a type of bass tuba called the helicon, made to his specifications and eventually called the sousaphone.
| (U.S. Marines) Washington, District of Columbia, USA |
110 YBN
[02/??/1890 AD]
| 4223) Johannes Robert Rydberg (riDBoRYe) (CE 1854-1919), Swedish physicist creates a simple equation that describes the spectral lines for various elements.
(Show graphically with the spectral lines, doublets and triplets, etc.)
Rydberg creates an equation that describes the spectral lines (for various elements), as Balmer had done in 1885 for hydrogen. When learning of Balmer's equation, Rydberg shows that Balmer's equation is a special case of the more general relationship of his equation. Bohr will be the first to successfully apply an explanation which will connect this equation which accurately describes the frequency of spectral lines to atomic structure initiating quantum theory.
Asimov explains that Rydberg suspects the existence of regularities in the list of elements that are more simple and regular than the atomic weights and this will be resolved by Moseley's creation of atomic numbers. (explain more about what Moseley does).
Rydberg uses wave numbers instead of wavelengths in his calculations to arrive at a relatively simple expression that relates the various lines in the spectra of chemical elements. Rydberg defines wave-numbers (instead of wave-lengths) as number of waves per centimeter in air. (Perhaps Rydberg prefers the light-as-a-particle model to the light as a wave in a medium model.)
Rydberg's formula gives the frequency of the lines in the spectral series as a simple difference between two terms. Rydberg's formula for a series of lines is (in modern form):
ν = R(1/m2 – 1/n2)
where n and m are integers. The constant R is now known as the Rydberg constant.
Rydberg’s view is that each individual line spectrum is the product of a single fundamental system of vibrations. In his 1890 work, Rydberg views the spectrum of an element as composed of the superposition of three different types of series.
(Probably show text of entire work in English.) Rydberg writes in an English version of his 1890 work: "THE researches, the most important results of which are given in the following pages, will be published with full details in the Svenska Vetensk.-Akad. IlandUnaar Stockholm. They have extended hitherto only to the elements which belong to the groups I., II., III. of the periodical system ; there is, however, no reason to doubt but that the laws I have found can be applied in the same way to all elements.
In my calculations I have made use of the wave-numbers (n), instead of the wave-lengths (λ) n = 108.λ-1', if λ be expressed in Angstrom's units. As will be seen, these numbers will determine the number of waves on 1 centim. in air (760 millim., 16° C. according to Angstrom), and are proportional, within the limits of the errors of observation, to the numbers of vibrations.
1. The "long" lines of the spectra form doublets or triplets, in which the difference (v) of wave-numbers of their corresponding components is a constant for each element.
This law, found independently by the author, has already been announced by Mr. Hartley for Mg, Zn, Cd. The values of the constant differences (v) vary from v=3.1 in the spectrum of Be to v = 7784.2 in the spectrum of Tl. In each group of elements the value of v increases in a somewhat quicker proportion than the square of the atomic weight. ... In accordance with analogy, the spectral lines of Li (the one element, besides H, in which only single lines are observed) ought to be double with v=0.8, corresponding, for instance, iu the red line (λ = 6705.2) to a difference in λ of 0.36 tenth-metre. The most refrangible of the components should also be the strongest.
The elements of the groups I. and III. (atomicity odd) have only doublets; triplets are found in the elements of group II. (atomicity even). As examples may be cited the doublets of Tl and the triplets of Hg. ...
2. The corresponding components of the doublets form series, of which the terms are functions of the consecutive integers. Each series is expressed approximately by an equation of the form (see image 1)
where n is the wave-number, m any positive integer (the number of the term), Nn—109721'6, a constant common to all series and to all elements, n0 and fj. constants peculiar to the series. It will be seen that «0 defines the limit which the wave-number n approaches to when m becomes infinite. .... The wave-lengths (and the wave-numliers) of corresponding lines, as well as the values of the constants v, n0, μ, of corresponding series of different elements, are periodical functions of the atomic weight. ....
Finally, I will remark that the hypotheses of Mr. Lockyer on dissociation of the elements are quite incompatible with the results of my researches. The observations of Lockyer within the spectra of Na and K prove only that, with luminous atoms as with sounding bodies, the relative intensity of the partial tones may vary under different circumstances. For the lines in question belong, without doubt, to the same system of vibrations.".
| (University of Lund) Lund, Sweden |
110 YBN
[06/11/1890 AD]
| 3974) Ludwig Gattermann (CE 1860-1920) publishes the first report of the synthesis of a liquid crystal. The report describes the synthesis of para-azoxyanisole (PAA, a liquid crystal at a temperature between 116°C to 134°C). The method of synthesis is clearly defined and relatively easy. The temperature is lower than that for cholesteryl benzoate and these favourable features cause para-azoxyanisole to become a popular liquid crystal in liquid crystal research. After this, the chemist Rudolf Schenck of Marburg, will record 24 new liquid crystal compounds and Daniel Vorländer of the University of Halle and his students synthesized hundreds of liquid crystal compounds and the first thermotropic smectic compound.
| University of Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany |
110 YBN
[09/04/1890 AD]
| 4301) James Edward Keeler (CE 1857-1900), US astronomer measures the motion of nebulae such as those of Orion and shows that their motion is similar to those of the stars, and that they are part of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Keeler compares the MgO lines in the nebulae to those of the Sun to measure a Doppler shift in position towards or away from the observer.
The precision of these measurements also helps to show that some of the wavelengths do not correspond to any atomic transitions known to occur on earth which leads to Keeler’s involvement in the early stages of the element "nebulium" controversy, which will be resolved by Ira S. Bowen in 1927.
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, CA, USA |
110 YBN
[11/15/1890 AD]
| 3243) The electric machine gun. (Is this the first electric powered gun?)
According to a Scientific American (11/15/1890) article, the Crocker-Wheeler Motor Company of New York City is asked by the US Navy to arrange an electric firing mechanism for the Gatling gun.
Gatling will develop an electric motor powered gun in 1893.
| New York City, NY, USA |
110 YBN
[12/17/1890 AD]
| 4458) Charles Proteus (originally Karl August) Steinmetz (CE 1865-1923), German-US electrical engineer describes a law that quantifies "hysteresis loss", the power loss that occurs in all electrical devices when magnetic action is converted to unusable heat, as H=.002 B.1.6 where H is hysteresis loss, and B is the number of lines of magnetic force. Using this law engineers can calculate and minimize losses of electric power due to magnetism in their designs before starting the construction of such machines.
In 1892 Steinmetz describes this new law concerning hysteresis loss in two papers given to the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. Few people understand this work because of the math involved. (Clearly matter and motion loss occurs - describe how these effects can be minimized and/or quantitified - as explained by Steinmetz.)
Steinmetz writes: "The magnetism of a magnetic circuit will vary periodically, if subjected to a periodically varying magnetomotive force. The variations of the magnetism, however, will not be simultaneous with the variations of the magnetomotive force, but show a certain lag, so that the curve of magnetism, as a function of the magnetomotive force, forms a kind of loop, the well known curve of hysteresis.
This phenomenon proves, that in the production of the magnetic circuit by the conversion of electric energy into magnetic energy, and in the destruction of the magnetic flow by its reversion into electric energy, a certain amount of energy has been lost, that is, converted into heat.
The amount of energy converted into heat by hysteresis in a full magnetic cycle depends on the maximum magnetization. It increases with increasing magnetization, but faster than the magnetization, so that, when for a magnetization of B = 3,000 (3,000 lines of magnetic force per square centimetre) the loss by hysteresis amounts to 736 absolute units or ergs per cubic centimetre (107 ergs= 1 wattsecond); for four times as high a magnetization, or B=12,000, the loss is 6,720, that is, more than nine times as high. On the other hand, the loss increases more slowly than the square of the magnetization, because the square law would require a loss of 11,776 for B= 12,000.
A great number of experimental researches on the loss of energy due to hysteresis, with different magnetizations, have been made by Ewing ; but that law of nature is still unknown, which gives the dependence of the hysteresis upon the magnetization.
In trying to find at least a clew to this law, I subjected a very complete set of Ewing's observations on the hysterftic energy, made on a soft iron wire, and consisting of ten tests from a magnetization of 1,974 lines of magnetic force per square centimetre, up to 15,500 lines per square centimetre, to an analytical treatment by the method of least squares, to ascertain whether the losses due to hysteresis are proportional at all to any power of the magnetization, and which power this is.
The results of this calculation seem to me interesting enough to publish, in so far as all those observations fit very closely the calculated curve, within the errors of observation, and the exponent of the power was so very nearly 1.6, that I can substitute 1.6 for it, and combine those observations of Ewing in the formula
H=.002B1.6,
where H is the loss due to hysteresis, in ergs per cubic centimetre (=10-7 watt-second) per cycle, and B, the maximum magnetomotive force F, in absolute units; in the second column is given the maximum magnetization or induction, B, in lines per square centimetre; in the third column the magnetic conductivity μ=B/F; in the fourth column the hysteric loss E, in ergs per cubic centimetre, as observed by ewing, but in the fifth column the hysteretic loss calculated by the formula H=.002B1.6.
The sixth column gives the differences of the observed and the calculated values, E-H; the seventh column gives these differences in per cents, of E.
In the diagram these calculated values, H, of hysteretic loss are shown in the curve ; the black crosses show the values of hysteretic loss E observed by Ewing.
For comparison there are shown, in dotted lines, the curves of magnetomotive force F and of magnetic conductivity, μ=B/F, as functions of the magnetization B.
It will be seen that the observed values of hysteretic loss are very near the calculated curve through the whole range of observation, and do not show any tendency to deviation, which justifies my considering this coincidence as something more than a mere accident, and, indeed, as an indication of a general law, although certainly this law might be more complicated than the formula.
In Table II. are given the values of hysteretic loss, calculated by the formula :
H = .002 B1.6.
To one interesting fact I wish to draw attention : The hysteretic loss seems to be independent of the magnetomotive force F, and only dependent upon the magnetization B ; it therefore shows no special singularity at the point of the beginning of magnetic saturation, but increases in the last two observations in Table I., which, for an increase of B by 3,500, require an increase of F by 68, showing high saturation, according to the same rule as in the first eight observations, where B= 12,000 corresponds to F=7. Therefore the "knee" of the magnetic curve or "characteristic,"
B=f (F),
is no singular point of the curve of hysteresis H=.002 B1.6, as the diagram shows.
From this formula we get the loss due to hysteresis per cubic inch of soft iron and for the maximum magnetization of M lines of magnetic force per square inch, when n = the number of complete periods of the exciting alternate current:
H = 5/3 x 10-10 n M1.6 watts.
Table I.
Comparison of Ewing's observed values of E, the energy consumed by hysteresis in soft iron, with the values calculated by the equation :
H=.002 B.1.6". (see figure and two tables).
| (Rudolf Eickemeyer's company) New York City, USA |
110 YBN
[12/26/1890 AD]
| 4123) Herman Frasch (Fros) (CE 1851-1914), German-US chemist, invents a method of using hot water under pressure to melt underground sulfur deposits and as a result will increase the supply of sulphur.
Instead of attempting to sink a shaft and mine after the customary practice, he drives wells through the sand and inserts a series of iron tubes so arranged that he is able to fuse the sulfur in place by forcing down superheated water under high pressure. The molten sulfur is permitted to flow to the surface through return pipes where it is run into large bins and solidified in commercial form.
In 1890 Frasch had started this project to use superheated (270-280° F) water under pressure to melt underground sulfur deposits in Louisiana (there are sulfur deposits in Texas too) which will then be forced to the surface like oil is. Before this sulfur, an important element for the chemical industry in particular to make sulfuric acid, had to be imported from Sicily. There are many obstacles which Frasch overcomes. The new Texas oil wells make fuel to heat the water inexpensive and contribute to the success of this project. This leads to the people of the US becoming more chemically independent of people in Europe.
| Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 3740) (Sir) Joseph Norman Lockyer (CE 1836-1920), English astronomer, classifies stars into two main groups, "ascending", those rising in temperature and mass, and "descending", those that are lowering in temperature and mass.
In this view a nebula is viewed as a swarm of meteorites at a low temperature (this is apparently thought to be proven false by modern spectroscopic observations). As the nebula condenses the temperature of the bodies formed rises with a corresponding change in their spectrum, until the highest temperature is reached. Then the bodies start to cool, lowering in temperature by losing an excess of "radiation" at their surface in excess of that gained by condensation. There are, therefore two arms on Lockyer's temperature curve, an ascending arm and a descending arm. Lockyer places stars of class M on the ascending arm, and stars of class N, showing the carbon absorption immediately following the sun on the descending arm. The discrimination of the K and M stars into "giants" and "drawfs" is a large modification of Lockyer's scheme, in which all the stars of the M class are in an early stage of development. In Henry Norris Russell's classification the "giants" are in an early stage and the "drawfs" in a later stage. The difference in luminosity is attributed to a difference in volume or size, which means a difference in density, and also to differences in surface brightness. Lockyer's observations, researches and theories are summarized in two works, the "meteoric Hypothesis" (18909) and "Inorganic Evolution" (1900). These embody an attempt to bring all the known phenomena of the astronomical universe under one category. According to this obituary, these theories have no chance of being accepted and these works evoke much criticism, but act as an incentive to research.
(I think clearly stars go through a gaining mass and temperature period followed by a losing mass and temperature period. But one factor is the initial mass around them that will condense. One exception to this slow process, is if stars collide with each other and form a comparatively quick new distributions of mass. So I am not sure how a spectrum would reveal if a star is gaining of losing temperature or mass - perhaps only over long periods of time could this be determined. If a star is forming there must be a large quantity of matter around it. However, perhaps this matter cannot be seen, and only the star light can be seen. I am concluding that only observations over long periods of time...perhaps even centuries would reveal if a star is increasing in mass and temperature or decreasing. I think the association of more mass equals higher temperature for stars seems logical.)
| (Solar Physics Observatory) South Kensington, England (presumably) |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 3807) William James (CE 1842-1910), US psychologist, publishes "The Principles of Psychology" (2 vol, 1890) which describes psychology as a natural science and becomes an enormous success.
This is one of the first attempts to treat psychology as a natural science.
James writes in his preface: "THE treatise which follows has in the main grown up in connection with the author's class-room instruction in Psychology, although it is true that some of the chapters are more 'metaphysical,' and others fuller of detail, than is suitable for students who are going over the subject for the first time. The consequence of this is that, in spite of the exclusion of the important subjects of pleasure and pain, and moral and aesthetic feelings and judgments, the work has grown to a length which no one can regret more than the writer himself. The man must indeed be sanguine who, in this crowded age, can hope to have many readers for fourteen hundred continuous pages from his pen. But wer Vieles bringt wird Manchem etwas bringen; {ULSF: Bringing many things will bring something} and by judiciously skipping according to their several needs I am sure that many sorts of readers even those who are just beginning the study of the subject will find my book of use. Since the beginners are most in need of guidance, I suggest for their behoof that they omit altogether on a first reading chapters 6 7 8 10 ...".(notice keywords "excluded" and 'suggest")
James writes in Chapter 1: "Scope of Psychology PSYCHOLOGY is the Science of Mental Life, both of its phenomena and of their conditions. The phenomena are Mich things as we call feelings, desires, cognitions, reasonings, decisions, and the like; and, superficially considered, their variety and complexity is such as to leave a chaotic impression on the observer. The most natural and consequently the earliest way of unifying the material was, first, to classify it as well as might be, and, secondly, to affiliate the diverse mental modes thus found, upon a simple entity, the personal Soul, of which they are taken to be so many facultative manifestations. Now, for instance, the Soul manifests its faculty of Memory, now of Reasoning, now of Volition, or again its Imagination or its Appetite. This is the orthodox 'spiritualistic' theory of tioholasticism and of common-sense. Another and a less obvious way of unifying the chaos is to seek common elements in the divers mental facts rather than a common agent behind them, and to explain them constructively by the various forms of arrangement of these elements, as one explains houses by stones and bricks. The 'associationist' schools of Herbart in Germany, and of Hume the Mills and Bain in Britain have thus constructed a psychology without a soul by taking discrete 'ideas,' faint or vivid, and showing how, by their cohesions, repulsions, and forms of succession, such things as reminiscences, perceptions, emotions, volitions, passions, theories, and all the other furnishings of an individual's mind may be engendered. The very Self or ego of the individual comes in this way to be viewed no longer as the pre-existing source of the representations, but rather as their last and most complicated fruit.".
In a later chapter James writes:" Psychology is a natural science. That is, the mind which the psychologist studies is the mind of distinct individuals inhabiting definite portions of a real space and of a real time. With any other sort of mind, absolute Intelligence, Mind unattached to a particular body, or Mind not subject to the course of time, the psychologist as such has nothing to do. ... A Question of Nomenclature. We ought to have some general term by which to designate all states of consciousness merely as such, and apart from their particular quality or cognitive function. Unfortunately most of the terms in use have grave objections. 'Mental state,' 'state of consciousness,' 'conscious modification,' are cumbrous and have no kindred verbs. The same is true of 'subjective condition,' 'Feeling' has the verb 'to feel,' both active and neuter, and such derivatives as 'feelingly,' 'felt,' 'feltness,' etc., which make it extremely convenient. But on the other hand it has specific meanings as well as its generic one, sometimes standing for pleasure and pain, and being sometimes a synonym of 'sensation' as opposed to thought; whereas we wish a term to cover sensation and thought indifferently. Moreover, 'feeling' has acquired in the hearts of platonizing thinkers a very opprobrious set of implications; and since one of the great obstacles to mutual understanding in philosophy is the use of words eulogistically and disparagingly, impartial terms ought always, if possible, to be preferred. The word psychosis has been proposed by Mr. Huxley. It has the advantage of being correlative to neurosis (the name applied by the same author to the corresponding nerve-process), and is moreover technical and devoid of partial implications. But it has no verb or other grammatical form allied to it. The expressions 'affection of the soul,' 'modification of the ego,' are clumsy, like 'state of consciousness,' and they implicitly assert theories which it is not well to embody in terminology before they have been openly discussed and approved. 'Idea' is a good vague neutral word, and was by Locke employed in the broadest generic way; but notwithstanding his authority it has not domesticated itself in the language so as to cover bodily sensations, and it moreover has no verb. 'Thought' would be by far the best word to use if it could be made to cover sensations. It has no opprobrious connotation such as 'feeling' has, and it immediately suggests the omnipresence of cognition (or reference to an object other than the mental state itself), which we shall soon see to be of the mental life's essence. But can the expression 'thought of a toothache' ever suggest to the reader the actual present pain itself? It is hardly possible; and we thus seem about to be forced back on some pair of terms like Hume's 'impression and idea,' or Hamilton's 'presentation and representation,' or the ordinary 'feeling and thought,' if we wish to cover the whole ground.".
(I think it is important to note that there is a clear belief in "soul" and "spirit" expressed, which to me are obviously inaccurate and ancient beliefs.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 3968) In "The Henry Draper catalogue" of steller spectra, Edward C. Pickering and Willamina ("Mina") Fleming (CE 1857-1911) introduce the alphabetic system of spectral classes (known as the Harvard Classification). Encyclopedia Britannica states that Pietro Secchi's classification is extended and modified by Edward Pickering and Annie Cannon.
Pickering writes: "...The classification of stellar spectra already in use proved insufficient to indicate all the difference found in the photographs. Letters were accordingly assigned arbitrarily to the various classes into which the photographs of the spectra could be divided. These arbitrary designations may be translated into any other system at will. Examples of the principal classes of spectra are illustrated inthe Frontispiece. (show image of) The difficulty in adopting the usual classification is increased by the fact that in many cases one type of spectrum passes insensibly into another. While therefore stars may in general be divided into four types as proposed by Secchi, many of them occupy intermediate positions. This matter will be discussed at length in another volume relating to the spectra of the brighter stars. In that case, as a much greater dispersion was used, many additional lines appear in the spectra of all the stars. All spectra bright enough to show any lines are included in the present catalogue. The classification of the faint stars is therefore somewhat uncertain...In expressing the wave-lengths of the lines of the spectrum the millionth of a millimetre has been adopted as a unit, following the general usage in Germany. This unit is preferred to the ten millionth of a millimetre adopted as a unit by Angstrom, and many other physicists. ...".
(see image of catalog) column Res: The residuals found by subtracting the mean photographic magnitude from the observed brightness of each spectrum, ... Pickering describes the columns this way: column "F.K." - the intensity of the line K, wave-length 393.7, and the presence or absence of the F line, wave-length 486.1, are indicated in this column. column "End": When the spectrum contains the series of lines due to hydrogen, the line of shortest wave-length visible in each spectrum is given in this column. Thus gamma denotes the the line whose wave-length is 379.8, is the last one visible, and the spectrum is not distinct enough beyond that to show the line delta, whose wave length is 377.1. The three letters correspond to the three numbers in the second column. A comparison of these letters with the numbers in the third column serves to inficate the color of the star. When the hydrogen lines are not present, the last line visible is ordinarily K in the case of faint stars. For the brighter stars the presence of lines of shorter wave-length is indicated in the remarks.
Pickering and Fleming sort stars by decreasing Hydrogen absorption-line strength, spectral type "A" has the strongest Hydrogen lines, followed by types B, C, D, etc. which have weaker Hydrogen lines. The problem is that other lines do not fit into this sequence. In 1901, Annie Jump Cannon will notice that stellar temperature is the primary distinguishing feature among different spectra and re-orders the ABC types by temperature instead of Hydrogen absorption-line strength. In addition, most classes are thrown out as redundant. After this, there are only the 7 primary classes recognized today, in order: O B A F G K M. Later work by Cannon and others will add the classes R, N, and S which are no longer in use today. The spectrum should be extended to the nonvisible extremes and digital iamges made accessible for all to see.
| Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4138) William Stewart Halsted (CE 1852-1922) US surgeon introduces the use of thin rubber gloves that do not impede the delicate touch needed for surgery. This ensures complete sterile conditions in the operating room and allow surgical access to all parts of the body.
One of the first surgeons to use rubber gloves for operations, Halsted continues the work of Lister in lessing change of infection from microscopic organisms. Rubber can be sterilized more effectively than skin and this represents a valuable innovation.
| (Johns Hopkins Medical School) Bartimore, Maryland, USA |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4166) Elihu Thomson (CE 1853-1937), English-US electrical engineer and inventor invents a high-frequency electrical generator. (more detail)
Other inventions of Thomson include the high-frequency transformer (see image), the three-coil generator, electric welding by the incandescent method (the shaping of the metal is formed not during the heating, but after), and the watt-hour meter. Thomson also did important work in radiology, improving X-ray tubes and pioneering in making stereoscopic X-ray pictures. (chronology and more details)
Thomson is the first to suggest the use of helium-oxygen mixtures in place of nitrogen-oxygen mixtures to minimize the danger of bends in high-pressure work. (Do people use this now?) (chronology)
| Lynn, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4169) (Sir) William Matthew Flinders Petrie (PETrE) (CE 1853-1942), (English archaeologist) excavates Tel Hasi, south of Jerusalem, and applies his principle of sequence dating from pottery fragments. Petrie's work at this site marks the second stratigraphic study in archaeological history; the first was carried out at Troy by Heinrich Schliemann. The excavations of these two men mark the beginning of the examination of successive levels of a site, as opposed to unsystematic digging, which produced only unrelated artifacts.
| Tel Hasi, Palestine |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4173) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, suggests that there are charged particles within the atom that oscillate to produce visible light. Maxwell's theory predicts that electromagnetic radiation (light) is produced by the oscillation of electric charges (a particle explanation would have light particles emitted from all matter, including electric matter all the time, and the oscillating nature causing an interval between particles in every direction). Hertz shows that radio waves are produced by causing electric charges to oscillate which is viewed as proof of Maxwell's theory. Lorentz concludes that the electric charges that cause radio waves must be the same as those that cause visible light, but that the oscillation of the electric particles for visible light must be much faster than those for radio light. This leads Lorentz to conclude that electrons oscillating in atoms are the cause of visible light emission. Bohr and Schrödinger will develop this idea farther. If light is emitted from electrons oscillating in atoms, then a strong magnetic field should affect the nature of the oscillations and therefore the wavelength of the light emitted, and this will be demonstrated in 1896 by Zeeman, a pupil of Lorentz.
In a series of articles published between 1892 and 1904 Lorentz puts forward his ‘electron theory’ in which he proposes that the atoms and molecules of matter contain small rigid bodies that carry either a positive or negative charge. By 1899 Lorentz is referring to these charged particles as 'electrons'. Lorentz believes that matter and the theoretical wave-bearing medium known as the 'ether' are distinct entities and that the interaction between them is mediated by electrons.
(My own view is that all matter may be made of photons, and therefore emit photons, and this includes protons, neutrons, and other subatomic particles. I view photon emission as identical to separation of matter into source particles - for example in the process of atomic decay, combustion, and any exothermic molecular reaction.)
According to Maxwell's theory, electromagnetic radiation (light) is produced by the oscillation of electric charges, however, in Maxwell's time, the charges that produce light are unknown. Since it is generally believed that an electric current is made up of charged particles, Lorentz theorizes that the atoms of matter might also consist of charged particles and suggests that the oscillations of these charged particles (electrons) inside the atom are the source of light. If this is true, then a strong magnetic field should have an effect on the oscillations and therefore on the wavelength of the light produced. In 1896 Zeeman, a pupil of Lorentz, will demonstrate that some spectral lines change position when exposed to an electromagnetic field, an effect known as the Zeeman effect, and in 1902 both Lorentz and Zeeman are awarded the Nobel Prize.
(I think there are alternative explanations to the change in position of spectral lines because of an electromagnetic field or electromagnetic particles. For example, one explanation is that this results from particle collision. Since the resulting direction of a beam of light passed through a grating depends on the initial direction, any change in direction of those beams before entering the grating can shift the spectral lines. For example, the distance from the source to the grating changes the relative position of spectral lines, as does side to side motion of either grating or light source. So the particles in an electromagnetic field, presuming there are particles in an electromagnetic field, may collide with the particle emitting light particles, or the light particles themselves. These collisions may cause a change in direction of the emitted photon, and therefore a change in spectral line position.)
Lorentz' electron theory, which depends on an ether medium, does not successfully explain the negative results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, an effort to measure the velocity of the Earth through the hypothetical luminiferous ether by comparing the velocities of light from different directions. This leads to the development of the theory of space and time contraction and dilation which form the basis of Einstein's special theory of relativity.
(Is this the origin of the idea of electrons in the atom or did Stoney suggest this idea too?)
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4200) Emil Adolf von Behring (BariNG) (CE 1854-1917), German bacteriologist, with the Japanese bacteriologist (Baron) Shibasaburo Kitasato (KEToSoTO) (CE 1856-1931), show that an animal can be given passive immunity against tetanus (also known as lockjaw) by injecting it with the blood serum of another animal infected with the disease. Behring also applies this antitoxin (a term Behring and Kitasato originate) technique to achieve immunity against diphtheria.
In 1890, Behring and Kitasato publishe a paper on immunity to diphtheria and tetanus, the section on diphtheria being written by Behring and the greater part of the paper, on tetanus, by Kitasato. This report opens a new field of science, serology. This find provides the first evidence that immune serum can serve in the curing of an infectious disease.
Behring and Kitasato demonstrate that certain substances (antitoxins) in the blood serum of both humans and animals who have recovered from the disease, either spontaneously or by treatment, show preventive and curative properties. Animals injected with this immune blood are shown to be resistant to fatal doses of bacteria or toxin. In addition, animals treated with the serum after contracting the disease can be cured.
(Describe what blood serum is: simply blood?)
Richet will try similar techniques but fails. Ehrlich uses this technique to make an antitoxin for diphtheria, saving many lives that would otherwise die from the disease.
| (Robert Koch Institute of Hygiene) Berlin, Germany |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4241) Sigmund Freud (FrOET in German, FROED in English) (CE 1856-1939), Austrian psychiatrist, abandons hypnotism, and develops a method of "free association", in which a person is allowed to talk randomly at will, with minimum guidance.
The theory is that a person will become comfortable and start revealing things secret even from their own conscious mind, and unlike hypnotism they are conscious and so will not need to be told about what they said later. Asimov states that with the cause of the motivation of the undesirable behavior known, the behavior can more easily be avoided. This slow analysis of the contents of the mind is called "psychoanalysis".
In 1887 Freud had adopted the method of treatment by hypnotism, introduced into medical practice by Mesmer, and made respectable by Braid, where a hypnotized person talks of unpleasant memories that in a conscious state they do not remember. Freud formulates a view of the mind as containing both a conscious and unconscious level. Unpleasant or embarrassing memories are stored in the subconscious. (I view the mind more literally as the brain, and with millions of neuron connections that represent tiny parts of memories. For example a neuron may represent 1 pixel, or 1 audio sample, and there must be many millions of neurons to store as many images and sounds as a brain does. Although the main center of thought is a mystery, it may be one point in the brain that acts as the top point of all muscle control, and thought organization (in other words what to think of. Probably this point is like the instruction pointer of a CPU, or perhaps different parts of a brain have the highest voltage potential, and those are the images, etc that are the center of attention.))
Freud believes dreams are highly significant, because he claims they reveal the contents of the unconscious mind, although in highly symbolized form. (Now people beam video onto our minds, many times unpleasant video {many times a person facing great frightening heights and other unpleasant events, for the amusement of the evil people that run the people's thought-camera neuron writing technology}, and I wonder how many of our dreams are actually self generated - where we write to our own neurons. Dreams are interesting, so many of mine only include people I know, but sometimes there will be people I have never seen, and I wonder how my brain is able to draw the faces...perhaps they are from faces I have already seen. To see and hear the video of dreams must be a highly interesting thing. )
In 1905 Freud publishes (translated from German) "Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality", on his theories on infantile sexuality and how this sexuality can persist into adulthood creating abnormal sexual responses that can invade and influence other aspects of life. Asimov states that Krafft-Ebing had broken the taboo of scientific discussion about sex 20 years earlier, and that Freud received a large amount of abuse and derision for his work on sexuality. I think that Freud does deserve a very small science credit for talking more openly about sex and perhaps helping others to work towards the time when people can see and learn the nude human anatomy and images of and actual acts of sex publicly.
In 1885 Freud travels to Paris and works with Jean Martin Charcot, a French neurologist who is one of the primary founders of the study of psychology, as a separate medical specialty dealing with mental disorders. Interested in mental disorders, Freud turns from the physiological basis of neurology, the cells and nerves, to the psychological aspects, the manner in which mental disorders arise.
Interesting that this may be around the time when psychology becomes an academic (school degree) field/science.
There is a view that Freud extended psychology from neurology, for example with his (translated from German) "Psychology for Neurologists" published in 1895 and his 1895 (translated from German) "Project for a Scientific Psychology" book (although not published until 1954), which is a comprehensive theory of the neurological events underlying human thought and behavior. According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biolography, the outline of the distinction between the ego and the id is in the "Project for a Scientific Psychology". Freud initially defines the ego as that complex of cortical pathways that are put into function during the baby’s learning to turn to the nipple and in other learning experiences. At the time ego is a term common in psychology. When the ego is again subject to the inflow of excitation, the correlate of hunger, the baby carries out the same motor acts that had previously ended the inflow. This reusing of pathways, without alteration of the pattern of transmission of excitation and without any change in the resulting behavior, Freud called the primary process in the ego. When the baby is hungry at a later time, part of the current stimuli to the sense organs is not the same as it had been when the pathways serving the primary process were put into function. For example, if the mother presents her other breast to the baby, the stimulation of the eyes is different. To cover this situation, Freud postulates an inhibiting ego that does not allow discharge over the primary process pathways, which results in an exact repetition of the first turning to the breast, but compares current perceptions with those making up the pathways serving the primary process. By a complex process, which Freud does not successfully reduce to plausible mechanical terms, the necessary change in the motor act is determined by the inhibiting ego. In Freud's later formulation, the ego becomes the rough equivalent of the inhibiting ego, while that part of the ego not under the control of the inhibiting ego becomes the id, the part of the psychic (or brain) apparatus that mediates primary processes.
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography , people in the United States raise Freud's popularity in the history of thought. For example, long before Freud is popular in Europe, Freud is invited to give a series of lectures at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, to mark its twentieth anniversary. By 1920 most American physicians interested in neurology and psychiatry had taken some account of Freud’s theories. The height of Freud’s influence on American medicine comes after World War II. In the late 1940’s and 1950’s there is a rapid increase in the number of psychoanalysts. Psychiatry shares in the great increase of federal funds available for medical research and education, and the disbursement of these funds is often controlled by people strongly inclined toward a Freudian approach. Federal funds after the war finance research and academic positions that are most often filled with psychoanalysts. Psychoanalysis becomes entrenched in the medical school curriculum, often being the core of the basic course in psychiatry.
I can only describe the voluntary experimental treatment aspect of psychology as being an experimental science to solve un-understood abstract or self proclaimed diseases with no physical evidence or with only behavioral evidence, but view any aspect of unconsensual psychology as unethical and illegal. In addition, any theories without a basis in physical evidence may be viewed as pseudoscience or of very weak and very unlikely but not thoroughly disproven science (such as the theories of psychosis, neurosis, and schizophrenia which are too abstract, and no physical evidence supports any claim, I reject the recent MRI scans said to be symptomatic of psychosis). These theories are scientific in that they do not appeal to supernatural phenomena, however, the conclusions they draw may be inaccurate or the disease label they create unimportant or too general or abstract to be of value. I think people simply are interested in abnormal behavior and create new disease names to describe what are usually an abstract and diverse set of behaviors, many the result of antisexuality, religions, no knowledge of neuron reading/writing, etc, without any simple quick cause or answer. I think in simple terms that psychology treatment like all bodily health treatment must be voluntary only. If a person violates a law, the legal system for all humans is the path they should be entered into. If there are theories about why people violate laws then perhaps free treatment can be offered within prison, or even outside of prison. For nonviolent law breaking people, prisons can be more comfortable than for violent law breaking people, knowing that if a nonviolent person ever is violent, they will be moved to a prison for people who have been violent at least once. So simply put, I vote for voluntary treatment only, and reject involuntary treatments of any kind. Involuntary treatment is immorally and brutally funding unethical pharmaceutical companies and the psychiatric doctor profession. Psychiatric doctors are guaranteed money for performing involuntary treatments for fabricated disorders (such as ADHD, manic depression, hysteria, nymphomania, etc) on innocent victims, many of whom verbally or thoughtfully object, are coerced or never clearly consent.)
(The popularity of psychology has produced a shackle of restraint on new theories in science, on the truth about hearing thought, many wrongly explained murders, sexuality, honesty, creativity, and scientific and social progress. People that try to tell the truth about neuron reading and writing, about 9/11, Thane Cesar, or Frank Sturgis, light as a particle, the big bang theory being unlikely, etc. are labeled insane, The majority of people are obsessed with proving their enemies to have psychiatric disorders, and the theories of psychology created a separate legal system where people can be drugged, restrained, and imprisoned without a jury or even a trial, and then indefinitely, even without ever violating a single law, and certainly without having violated any serious laws, in particular laws against violence.)
(In openly talking about sexuality, Freud helps to remove the unnatural restraints placed on physical pleasure traditionally from religion. However, Freud's views on sexuality seem to me inaccurate - in particular in light of neuron reading and writing. In addition, to his credit, Freud is one of the few to analyze the laugh reaction, why people laugh.)
(One mystery is: how did Freud become so popular? Encyclopedia Britannica dedicates 13 pages to Freud, but yet Freud has no serious contributions to science that I can identify. What explains the massive popularity? Perhaps the field of psychology helps conservative murderers to silence their opposition by calling them crazy and threatening to hospitalize them? Perhaps the association with sexuality drew attention and curiosity? Perhaps psychology, as one of the lightest weight sciences, draws people from religions into a sort of pseudo form of science - a form of a kind of science that is more palatable to them then hard sciences? Psychology may serve as a distraction or placeholder to keep the massive neuron reading and writing science and technology a cloudy mystery - not to be carefully and closely examined but instead the mind is to be viewed as an abstract, undefinable thing.)
It seems very likely that many different biological reactions, like laughing, crying, happiness, sadness, hunger, feeling full, certainly heat, touch, and other nerve-related sensations can all be activated remotely by neuron writing. So people can probably be made to laugh or feel amused, or cry and feel sad involuntarily - I know I have felt this myself - and presumed that x-particles are probably causing my neurons to fire. This probably includes not only moving lung, mouth, tongue, etc. muscles to make a person say words involuntarily, but perhaps even the paths that lead to a person deciding what they are going to say voluntarily. Even sexual arousal or revulsion can probably easily be written onto a person's neurons, certainly a penis of any species can most likely remotely be made hard or soft. But even the subtle feels that lead to sexual arousal may be associated with an image, sound, memory by remote beam neuron writing, in this way, people (or other species) who might usually be undesirable can be made to feel desirable to other people, and likewise those that would usually be desireable can be made to appear and feel undesireable. The extent and results of neuron writing have not even been examined in any way whatsoever publicly.
| (private practice at the Vienna Institute for Child Diseases and teaching at the University of Vienna) Vienna, Austria (presumably) |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4293) Elihu Thomson (CE 1853-1937), English-US electrical engineer and inventor finds that by using a Rumhkorff coil (a transformer with a spark gap across the secondary winding) connected to an array of Leyden jars allows sparks to be drawn from unconnected metal objects around the room. Thomson is able to draw sparks from metal object by holding a knife blade near them, for example from a water pipe, and from the frame of a steam engine thirty feet away, and can even light a gas burner by touching the burner with the knife. This is the basis of wireless communication using light particles (one form of which is radio).
| Lynn, Massachusetts, USA |
110 YBN
[1890 AD]
| 4487) Alfred Werner (VARnR) (CE 1866-1919), German-Swiss chemist synthesizes new optically active compounds around such metals as cobalt, chromium and rhodium, extending the views of Van't Hoff and Le Bel to atoms other than carbon as Kipping and Pope do.
(show diagrams and explain more)
By extending the Le Bel and van’t Hoff concept of the tetrahedral carbon atom (1874) to the nitrogen atom, Werner and Hantzsch simultaneously explain a great number of puzzling cases of geometrically isomeric trivalent nitrogen derivatives (oximes, azo compounds, hydroxamic acids) and for the first time place the stereochemistry of nitrogen on a firm theoretical basis.
| (Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
109 YBN
[01/15/1891 AD]
| 4257) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, using a rotating mirror, measures the speed of the luminous discharge of electricity through a rarefied gas to be 1.6 x 1010 mm/s, just over half the speed of light.
According to Thomson in 1835 Charles Wheatstone had measured the velocity of the flash of light of electrical discharge in a vacuum tube 6 feet long to be less than 2 x 107cm/s. (confirm with Wheatstone paper - I can't find and Thomson doesn't cite) In 1834 Wheatstone measured the speed of electricity in wire to be much faster than the speed of light in space and in 1835 described how each elements has a unique light spectrum but I cannot find the paper Thomson is referring to.
| (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
109 YBN
[01/30/1891 AD]
| 4186) Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (KoSuL) (CE 1853-1927) German biochemist isolates a phosphoric acid, guanine, adenine, and a substance with the properties of a carbohydrate from the products of hydrolysis of nucleic acid.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
109 YBN
[03/17/1891 AD]
| 3610) Noah Steiner Amstutz (CE 1864-1957) transmits "halftone" (more shades than black and white) photograph images electronically, the image is engraved in wax at the receiving end.
Amstutz sends a half-tone picture over a 25-mile length of wire.
Amstutz calls his device an "Artograph" or "Pictoral Telegraph".
A needle passes over a gelatin photograph, the different depths representing the different shades of the photograph. These depths are transmitted electronically to a needle which cuts (engraves) the image depth on a synchronized rotating wax cylinder. From this wax film a plate can be made for printing, which results in a line engraving. Amstutz successfully reproduces photos in papier mache directly from wax (or metal). Using a system of gears, at both receiving and transmitting instruments, the size of the picture can be changed.
Alfred Story writes in "The Story of Photography" (1898): "...It will be seen from the above that the inventor regards the artograph as chiefly useful for newspaper portrait work, although he has his eye on the wrong-doer as well." The keyword "eye" may be evidence of "eye-images" in 1898.
The full text from Story's 1904 text is this: 'EVEN while one writes, the tale of achievement in which photography plays its part takes a new if not a surprising departure; for in these days of rapid developments in science nothing greatly surprises. The new thing is quite in the line of research wherein many recent triumphs have been won, and to which much expectant thought and investigation has been turned. {ULSF: notice early use of keyword "thought"} The transmission of drawings, and especially of photographs, by means of the telegraph, so that a person telegraphing or telephoning to a friend could at the same time transmit his "counterfeit presentment," in order, as it were, to stamp and verify his communication, has long been an end aimed at by inventors, and we have from time to time heard of partial success obtained. It is to an inventor of Cleveland, U.S.A., however, that we are indebted for the accomplishment of the task; and, if we may credit the report of the Cleveland World, the invention is a very remarkable one. Mr. Amstutz, the patentee, calls it the artograph, and according to the published accounts the instrument is exceedingly simple, and can be supplied, both the sending and the receiving apparatus, at a cost of something like seventy-five dollars a set, that is, under sixteen pounds. {ULSF: a very smart point about the inexpensiveness of this basic technology - which is wrongly kept from the public} Mr. Amstutz claims for his invention that it will transmit photographs as rapidly as the telegraph sends messages, and that it permits of the use of an ordinary telegraph for the purpose. The secret of the artograph lies in the discovery - not a new one to anyone who knows aught {ULSF: anything} of engraving - "that a picture, perfect in detail, may consist of absolutely nothing but parallel lines." On this principle he based his contrivance "for sending pictures by wire, the details of the picture depending on the breadth of the lines, which make the lights and shades, and in that way work out the features of the portrait or other picture." The lines are extremely fine, running from forty to eighty an inch. The instrument works automatically, and may be regulated either by clock-work or by electricity. The photograph to be transmitted may either be enamelled on a copper sheet, which is a rapid process, not taking more than five minutes, or prepared on the inventor's aerograph, or engraving machine, an invention which "relates to the art of reproducing photographs, sketches, etc., for printing or other purposes. "It consists in first forming the subject to be reproduced with an uneven surface, and then causing a graver or cutter to automatically interpret, in contiguous paths of cutting, which vary in depth in proportion to the lights and shades of such relief surface, the subject upon another surface that is superimposed upon the first subject. By this process, which is speedier than the use of the copper sheet, the recording material is made of a sheet of celluloid, or other yielding substance. Upon this a photo-gelatine sketch, or other relief surface of the subject to be reproduced, is impressed. The film-picture "is then wound on a drum and the clock work put in motion. The feeding is automatic and as the needle passes over the variable photo surface, it will vary, break and complete the electric current. At the other end of the line, the receiving material, placed upon a cylinder like that at the sending end, interprets the variations, turning them from vertical into horizontal ones, and bringing out the lights and shades of the picture or photograph. When the lines are sufficiently coarse, the picture at the transmitting end has the appearance of being cut by vertical lines, while at the receiving end the picture appears to be composed of tiny squares, the perfection of whose detail depends on the lights and shades which go to make the picture. The substance at the receiving end may be celluloid or chemically prepared paper. In case of celluloid a graver must be used in order to cut into the receiving substance. In case of chemically prepared paper the lines will be brought out by its development. Mr. Amstutz believes that it is possible to receive on a thin copper sheet, covered with prepared chalk, known by artists as a 'chalk plate,' in which case a metal cast of the picture can be taken directly from the chalk plate, thus greatly facilitating the preparation of the photograph for the use of newspapers. Owing to the fact that celluloid will not stand the heat of stereotyping, the picture must be transferred by pressure if used for newspaper work." Such is a brief account of the invention as it comes to us (FN: Quoted from the British and Colonian Printer and Stationer.). Possibly it may not prove to be equal to all the patentee claims for it; but it is not improbable that it may do even more. It will be seen from the above that the inventor regards the artograph as chiefly useful for newspaper portrait work, although he has his eye on the wrong-doer as well. {ULSF: Notice keyword "eye"} "Suppose," says the account above drawn from, "a noted criminal escapes from the New York police. Almost as swiftly as the message recording his escape can be transmitted, a photograph of the criminal can be sent, and the police in any city in the country can be on the look-out for the criminal." Mr. Amstutz is doubtful whether his apparatus for telegraphic photography will be available for other than portrait work until further developed, owing to the sharper outline and closer detail required. But surely this alone is an achievement. While, however, the inventor is proud of his photograph transmitter, which was invented two years ago, although only recently patented, he looks for the greatest profit from his engraving machine, or aerograph. The engravings produced by it on celluloid do not tarnish and are unaffected by moisture. Fire alone destroys them; hence a photograph reproduced by means of the aerograph will enjoy a sort of triple warranty of permanence.'.
In 1895 Scientific American puts an image of Amstutz's machine on the cover and has an article about it. The article reads "The Amstutz Electro-Artograph The advent of each year is made attractive by the development of some new and useful invention for the use of humanity, or, possibly, byu the improvement of what was supposed to be an already perfected idea. That improvements in the general use of electrical current would continue was naturally to be expected, considering the greater knowledge of its laws each year brings to the engineer who makes a study of this marvelous agency. {ULSF: This may be sarcasm, hinting at the terrible nature of a US government agency} When the telephone was introduced to the attention of the world, and the human voice was made audible miles away, and also when the phonograph, with its capabilities of storing up the human voice, was made public, there were dreamy visions of other combinations of natural forces by which even sight might be obtained of distant scenes through inanimate wire. It may be claimed, now, that though we do not see an object miles distant through the wire, yet this same inanimate wire and electrical current will soon serve us, automatically, as both artist and engraver, transmitting and engraving at the same time a copy of a photograph miles away from the original. {ULSF: 'serve' hints at walking robots in 1895} Mr. N. S. Amstutz, a well known mechanical and electrical engineer of Cleveland, Ohio, has brough out of the elements an invention by which this is accomplished. As will be seen by the workings described, it might appropriately be termed a marriage of the phonograph and telephone, as the features of these two inventions are allied in this, called by Mr. Amstutz, electro-artograph. The object of the invention is to transmit copies of photographs to any distance, and reproduce the same at the other end of the wire, in line engraving, ready for press printing. The undulatory or wave current is used, as in the telephone, while the reproduction is made upon a synchronously revolving, waxed cylinder, as in the photograph. There is required for this end both a transmitting and receiving instrument, views of each of which are shown in our illustrations, from sketches made from the instruments in use by Mr. Amstutz. The principle by which this work is accomplished is quite simple, and will readily be understood by reference to the diagrams shown. Fig. 8 representing the transmitter and Fig. 4 the receiver. An ordinary photographic negative is made of the subject to be transmitted: an exposure is made under this negative of a film of gelatine, sensitized with bichromate of potash, and by which the effect is produced of rendering insoluble in water the parts exposed to the light passing through the thin portions of the negative, while those portions protected from the action of the light can be dissolved away; the capabilities of dissolving away varying with the intensity of shade or light upon the negative. After dissolving away the soluble portions from the film there will remain the same picture as appeared on the negative, but it will be entirely in relief. We show a section of such a film, exaggerated, in Fig. 5, in which the variations upon the surface represent the varying effects of the light and shade of the picture. This film is now attached to the surface of the cylinder, A, Fig. 3, and caused to revolve: a tracer or point, B, adjustably connected to a lever, C, rests upon the film, and as the film revolves, rises and falls with the undulating surface of the film and communicating an up and down movement of the end of the lever, C, in a multiplied degree. A number of tappets or levers, F, are centrally fulcrumed at D and arranged so that one end presses upward on the lower end of terminals, E; the opposite ends of the tappets varying in distance from the horizontal line over the end of the lever, C, as shown. When the lever, C, is at its lowest point, as influenced by a depression in the gelatine film, all the tappets press up against the terminals; with a further revolution of the cylinder, A, and an elevation in the film forcing the lever, C, upward, all of the tappets' contact with the terminals, except one, is broken. The height of the hill and depth of valley of the film's surface measuring the number of tappets in contact with the terminals. {ULSF: skipping more details...} With this arrangement in mind, it will readily be seen that with one revolution of the cylinder, A, as the tracer follows the elevations and depressions upon the film, ... With the perfection of detail, which is now the work of Mr. Amstutz, the class of engraving done by this method will be of the highest order of art-line engraving. The work it accomplishes is not cofined in its scope to gelatine, but designs may be chased and engraved also upon the metals, as gold and silver ware. Neither is it necessarily a long distance or line operator, for the machines may be placed side by side and local work can be accomplished. We have selected two examples of the work done by these machines in their present form, which will convey to the intelligent critic a faint idea of the artistic capabilities it can be made to display when its future perfection of detail is accomplished. Both the portrait of the inventor and the view of the boy and dog were engraved upon these machines in the private laboratory of Mr. Amstutz, the time required in engraving the latter being but three minutes. it is not difficult to believe that in the future events which may take place in London or Paris may be sent from photos taken in Europe, and the reproduction of the same, in an artistic picture, appear in the next morning's New York or Chicago papers; and this without disturbing the existing conditions of telegraphic communication further than supplying the two offices each with machines for transmitting and receiving. Mr. Amstutz has had practical experience with and is familiar with the general requirements for illustrative work, and is conversant with the limitations of art work as used in book and newspaper printing. In consequence, he has been better enabled to cope with all the difficulties and overcome them in these machines. Improvements, however, are now in progress, principally to give greater expedition, and to render either continuous or alternating currents applicable-the same principle, however, being the foundation. We are under obligations to Mr. Amstutz for the opportunity to present these, the first sketches ever made from these machines; and courteously permitting us to lay all this interesting subject, in a complete form, before our readers. Mr. Amstutz has signified his willingness to answer such correspondents as may, briefly, desire further information.".
| Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
109 YBN
[03/26/1891 AD]
| 3522) George Johnstone Stoney (CE 1826-1911), Irish physicist, suggests that the minimum electric charge be called an "electron".
Faraday viewed electricity as not a continuous fluid, but composed of particles of fixed minimum charge. Arrhenius' ionic theory made this even more likely. J.J. Thompson will prove that Crooke's belief that cathode rays are streams of particles is true, and that each particle carries what is probably Stoney's minimum quantity of negative electric charge, the name is applied to the particle instead of the quantity of charge.
In 1874, Stoney had estimated the value of the electronic charge, however his result is incorrect because of an erroneous idea of the number of atoms in a gram of hydrogen.
Stoney publishes this in the Transactions of the Royal Dublin Society.
Stoney writes this theory about an "electron" in a section entitled "The Problem Treated From the Standpoint of the Electro-Magnetic Theory of Light". Stoney writes "Whether we proceed under the crude dynamical hypothesis which we have hitherto adopted, or under the electro-magnetic theory to which we are now to direct our attention, we must distinguish between the motions of or in the molecules which do not affect the luminiferous aether, and certain others which set up an undulation in it-an undulation which consists of transverse oscillations under the dynamical hypothesis, but of alternations of electro-magnetic stresses under the electro-magnetic theory. Among motions of the first kind, those that do not affect the aether and are not affected by it, we are to include the following: the progressive journeys of the molecules as they dart about between the encounters; the much swifter translation which carries a molecule of the gas through the aether at the rate of 30,000 metres per second, in common with the rest of the earth; and other motions of a like kind. There are also probably motions in the molecule of a swiftly periodic kind that do not affect the aether, but there are certainly some that do, and it is these that we have to investigate. The simplest hypothesis for our purpose is to disregard the motion of the molecule through the aether, whether that which it has in common with the earth, or that which is peculiar to it, such as its darting about in the gas. We may simplify the problem by disregarding these, and may treat the molecule as though it remained at one station in the aether, undergoing internal periodic motions, some of which are of parts that carry charges of electricity with them, and, therefore, act on the aether and are acted on by it; so that periodic motions, when set up in these parts, will cause a synchronous motion in the aether. Correspondingly, an undulation in the aether of suitable periodic time will set these parts of the molecule in motion, and through them, perhaps other parts of the molecule. The distinction between the motions which do, and the motions which do not, affect the aether, requires to be taken into account equally on the dynamical hypothesis and on the electro-magnetic theory. To pass from the dynamical investigation to the electro-magnetic, attention must be given to Faraday's "Law of Electrolysis," which is equivalent to the statement that in electrolysis a definite quantity of electricity, the same in all cases, passes for each chemical bond that is ruptured. The author called attention to this form of the Law in a communication made to the British Association in 1874, and printed in the Scientific Proceedings of the Royal Dublin Society of February, 1881, and in the Philosophical Magazine for May, 1881 (see pp. 385 and 386 of the latter). It is there shown that the amount of this very remarkable quantity of electricity is about the twentiethet (that is, 1/1020) of the usual electromagnetic unit of electricity, i.e. the unit of the ohm series. {ULSF note: 1 Ampere} This is the same as three-eleventhets (3/1011) of the much smaller C.G.S. electrostatic unit of quantity. A charge of this amount is associated in the chemical atom with each bond. There may accordingly be several such charges in one chemical atom, and there appear to be at least two in each atom. These charges, which it will be convenient to call electrons, cannot be removed from the atom; but they become disguised when atoms chemically unite. If an electron be lodged at the point P of the molecule, which undergoes the motion described in the last chapter, the revolution of this charge will cause an electro-magnetic undulation in the surrounding aether. The only change that has to be made in our investigation to adapt it to this state of things is to change θt into (θt-π/2), i.e. a mere change of phase. We, in this way, represent the fact that it is the tangential directino and velocity of the motion of P, not the direction and length of its radius vector, which determine the direction and intensity of the electro-magnetic stresses in the surrounding aether. We have further to correct for the change of phase (about one-fourth of a vibration preiod) consequent upon what takes place in the immediate vicinity of the moving charge. Within the molecule itself the oscillation of the permanent charge probably causes electric displacements in other parts of the molecule; and it is possible that it is to the reaction of these upon the oscillating charge that we are to attribute those perturbations of which the double lines in the spectrum give evidence. They obviously may, however, have some other source."
(Kind of interesting that the question: does the movement of atoms between molecules or the velocity of free molecules affect the spectrum released? The distinct spectrum of each atom would suggest that Stoney is correct in presuming that these velocities have nothing to do with the frequency of photons emited, but clearly atoms combining, in chemical reactions such as combustion are responsible for photons emited, and clearly the direction of the photons emited must vary with the intermolecular, and molecular movements.)
(I think we need to explore the particle beam {or amplitudeless point-wave} interpretation fully as a secondary hypothesis. For example, in this particle interpretation, simple hydrogen and oxygen combustion might be interpreted as free photons colliding with atoms of hydrogen and oxygen pushing them together so that they collide with each other. When the hydrogen and oxygen atoms composed of many particles collide with each other, individual collisions cause more free photons in low heat and high visible light frequencies to be released which go on to push more hydrogen and oxygen atoms to collide into each other.)
| (Queen's University) Dublin, Ireland |
109 YBN
[04/25/1891 AD]
| 4247) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer invents the "Tesla coil", a simple circuit that uses 2 transformers, a capacitor and spark gap to produce very high frequency current at very high voltage. In addition, Tesla invents a method of lighting by induction. (Is Tesla the first to light a lamp by induction?)
In his laboratory in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where Tesla stayed from May 1899 until early 1900, Tesla had lit 200 lamps without wires from a distance of 25 miles (40 km) and created human-made lightning, producing flashes measuring 135 feet (41 metres).
The Tesla coil uses a spark gap to produce a high current which is then sent through a transformer, the primary inductor causing the secondary inductor to have a very high voltage. Tesla writes in his patent of 1891: "To produce a current of very high frequency and very high potential, certain well-known devices may be employed. For instance, as the primary source of current or electrical energy a continuous-current generator may be used, the circuit of which may be interrupted with extreme rapidity by mechanical devices, or a magneto-electric machine specially constructed to yield alternating currents of very small period may be used, and in either case, should the potential be too low, an induction-coil may be employed to raise it; or, finally, in order to overcome the mechanical difficulties, which in such cases become practically insuperable before the best results are reached, the principle of the disruptive discharge may be utilized. by means of this latter plan I produce a much greater rate of change in the current than by the other means suggested, and in illustration of my invention I shall confine the description of the means or apparatus for producing the current to this plan, although I would not be understood as limiting myself to its use. The current of high frequency, therefore, that is necessary to the successful working of my invention I produce by the disruptive discharge of the accumulated energy of a condenser maintained by charging said condenser from a suitable source and discharging it into or through a circuit under proper relations of self-induction, capacity, resistance, and period in well-understood ways. Such a discharge is known to be, under proper conditions, intermittent or oscillating in character, and in this way a current varying in strength at an enormously rapid rate maybe produced. Having produced in the above manner a current of excessive frequency, I obtain from it by means of an induction-coil enormously high potentials—that is to say, in the circuit through which or into-which the disruptive discharge of the condenser takes place I include the primary of a suitable induction-coil, and by a secondary coil of much longer and finer wire I convert to currents of extremely high potential. The differences in the length of the primary and secondary coils in connection with the enormously rapid rate-of change in the primary current yield a secondary of enormous frequency and excessively high potential. Such currents are not, so far as I am aware, available for use in the usual ways, but I have discovered that if I connect to either of the terminals of the secondary coil or source of current of high potential the leading-in wires of such a device for example, as an ordinary incandescent lamp, the carbon may be brought to and maintained at incandescence, or, in general, that any body capable of conducting the high-tension current described and properly inclosed in a rarefied or exhausted receiver may be rendered luminous or incandescent, either when connected directly with one terminal of the secondary source of energy or placed in the vicinity of such terminals so as to be acted upon inductively. ...".
The Tesla coil is widely used today in radio and television sets and other electronic equipment.
(possibly read relevant text of patent 454622.)
| (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA |
109 YBN
[05/20/1891 AD]
| 4018) Practical motion picture camera and projector.
Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931), US inventor, creates the first practical "motion picture" camera the "Kinetoscope". Edison improves on other methods by using a strip of celluloid film of the kind invented by Eastman, and takes a series of photographs along it's length. A (carefully timed) flashing light then projects these images onto a screen in rapid succession, while (an electric motor) moves the film using gear teeth that fit into sprocket holes on the side of the film, at a carefully regulated speed. (For projecting the images, if the projecting light is constantly on, people would see each image frame scroll on the screen. With a flashing light, the image is projected only when centered.)
Different sources cite different inventors as being the first to capture and project moving images on a roll of film, there is a lot of disagreement, and of course, secrecy because of the lies and secrets involved in seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds to and from brains and remote muscle movement of 1810. It seems clear that all the eye images and thought sound recordings at the telephone companies and governments of earth will some century show the public the true history. Encyclopedia Britannica of 2009 states that several European inventors, including the French-born Louis Le Prince and the Englishman William Friese-Greene, had applied for patents on various cameras, projectors, and camera-projector combinations before or around the same time as Edison as his associates did but claims that these machines are unsuccessful for a number of reasons, however, and little evidence survives of their actual practicality or workability.
A visit by Eadweard Muybridge to Edison's laboratory in West Orange in February 1888 must stimulate Edison's resolve to invent a motion picture camera. Edison files a caveat with the Patents Office on October 17, 1888, describing his ideas for a device which would "do for the eye what the phonograph does for the ear" -- record and reproduce objects in motion. Edison calls the invention a "Kinetoscope," using the Greek words "kineto" meaning "movement" and "scopos" meaning "to watch".
Edison's initial experiments on the Kinetograph are based on Edison's concept of the phonograph cylinder. Tiny photographic images are affixed in sequence to a cylinder, thinking that rotating the cylinder that the illusion of motion could be produced by reflected light. This ultimately proved to be impractical.
A prototype for the Kinetoscope (a peep-hole viewing machine) is finally shown to a convention of the National Federation of Women's Clubs on May 20, 1891. The device is both a camera and a peep-hole viewer, and the film used is 18mm wide. The film runs horizontally between two spools, at continuous speed. A rapidly moving shutter allows fast exposures when the apparatus is used as a camera, and views of the positive print when the apparatus is used as a view; the person viewing looking through the same opening that held the camera lens.
Edison files a patent for the Kinetograph (the camera) and the Kinetoscope (the viewer) on August 24, 1891.
The viewer would look through the lens at the top of the machine to watch a film. In this patent, the width of the film was specified as 35mm, and allowance is made for the possible use of a cylinder.
Dickson's Monkeyshines No. 1, seems is an earlier American film, though it is not shown to the public upon completion. "Dickson's Greeting" is the first (publicly known) American (and Edison) film shown to public audiences and the press.
On 05/28/1891, the "New York Sun" reports: "A little while ago there was a great convention of women's clubs of America. Mrs. Edison is interested in women's clubs and their work and she decided to entertain the Presidents of the various clubs at the Convention. Edison entered into the plan, and when 147 club women visited his workshop he showed them a working model of his new Kinetograph, for that is the name he has given to the most wonderful of all his wonderful inventions. The surprised and pleased club women saw a small pine box standing on the floor. There were some wheels and belts near the box, and a workman who had them in charge. In the top of the box was a hole perhaps an inch in diameter. As they looked through this hole they saw the picture of a man. It was a most marvellous picture. It bowed and smiled and waved its hands and took off its hat with the most perfect naturalness and grace. Every motion was perfect. There was not a hitch or a jerk. No wonder Edison chuckled at the effect he produced with his Kinetograph.".
The first public demonstration of the Kinetoscope was held at the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences on May 9, 1893.
Starting in 1894, Kinetoscopes are sold through the firm of Raff and Gammon for $250 to $300 each. The Edison Company establishes its own Kinetograph studio (a single-room building called the "Black Maria" that rotates on tracks to follow the sun) in West Orange, New Jersey, to supply films for the Kinetoscopes that Raff and Gammon are installing in penny arcades, hotel lobbies, amusement parks, and other such semipublic places. In April of 1894, the first Kinetoscope parlour is opened in a converted storefront in New York City. The parlour charges 25 cents for admission to a bank of five machines. The Kinetograph is battery-driven and weighs more than 1,000 pounds (453 kg).
Maguire and Baucus acquire the foreign rights to the Kinetoscope in 1894 and sell the machines in Europe. Edison opts not to file for international patents on either his camera or his viewing device, and, as a result, the machines are widely and legally copied throughout Europe, where they are modified and improved far beyond the American originals. A Kinetoscope exhibition in Paris inspires the Lumière brothers, Auguste and Louis, to invent the first commercially viable projector, their "cinématographe", demonstrated first in December 1895.
There is the interesting idea that there may have been an effort to try and reduce the recorded size of an image, to save precious storage media, and then magnifying the images with a lens or some other device to see them at a larger scale. This microfication of cameras and storage media clearly must be happening around this time, if not 100 years earlier. Pupin uses the word "microscopic" in his famous quote about his invention making the telephone company millions of dollars, and perhaps this relates to the size of the galvanizing beam devices, and thought image and thought-sound recording devices at that time. So clearly, all these records relating to capture and recording of images and sounds will probably be changed as more information becomes available from the public finally getting to seeing recorded eye-images and brain-sounds.
| (private lab) West Orange, New Jersey, USA |
109 YBN
[11/??/1891 AD]
| 4292) Heinrich Rudolf Hertz (CE 1857-1894), German physicist, shows that cathode rays can penetrate thin foils of metal. (Find translation into English)
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
109 YBN
[12/10/1891 AD]
| 3822) Dewar produces liquid oxygen in large quantities and shows that liquid oxygen and liquid ozone are both attracted by a magnet.
Dewar constructs a device that produces liquid oxygen in quantity. Dewar also shows that both liquid oxygen and liquid ozone are attracted by a magnet. Dewar is motivated by Cailletet and Pictet independently and at the same time announcing the liquefaction of gases such as oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon monoxide, attaining temperatures less than 80 degrees above absolute zero.
(Describe device: what was it made of? How does it work?)
On Decemeber 10, 1891, James Dewar's letter to the president was read which contains this: " At 3 P.M. this afternoon I placed a quantity of liquid oxygen in the state of rapid ebullition in air (and therefore at a temperature -181° C between the poles of the historic Faraday magnet, in a cup-shaped piece of rock salt (which I have found is not moistened by liquid oxygen, and therefore keeps it in the spheroidal state), and to my surprise I have witnessed the liquid oxygen, as soon as the magnet was stimulated, suddenly leap up to the poles and remain there attached until it evaporated. To see liquid oxygen suddenly attracted by the magnet is a very beautiful confirmation of our knowledge of the properties of gaseous oxygen.".
A week later on December 17th is the letter which announces: "...I have examined the properties of liquid ozone in the magnetic field, and find it also highly attracted.".
Dewar publishes "On the Magnetic Permeability of Liquid Oxygen and Liquid Air" later in 1896 and "On the Magnetic Susceptibility of Liquid Oxygen" in 1898.
(interesting that perhaps every gas, and maybe there are many can be liquefied and solidified. It is interesting to think that there may be some gases not yet synthesized. Are all gases small molecules such as CO2, or can there by large molecules CxHy, etc.? Does molecule size relate to a molecule easily forming a gas?)
Experiment: Synthesize a gas that has never been created. Are there many millions of possible gases yet to be synthesized?
(interesting that liquid oxygen is attracted by a magnet, what can that mean since it is not a metal? It may be that any electrical conductor is attracted by a magnet.)
Experiment: Can water and other atoms in liquid state {for example, mercury, bromine, etc} by shaped into an electromagnet? What are the differences between the effects of statically charged objects and electromagnetic (dynamically charged) objects in terms of strength, distribution, etc.?
(See videos of magnetism of liquid oxygen)
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3639) Karl von Voit (CE 1831-1908), German physiologist, shows that mammals store glycogen not only when supplied by glucose, but even when sucrose, fructose, or maltose (three other sugars) replaces glucose in their food sources. This shows that mammals can convert sucrose, fructose, and maltose into glucose, since glycogen is built up of glucose units.
(It is interesting that a basic part of life uses only glucose, that other sugars need to be converted to glucose before some other structure evolved to include those other sugars, or a different system. In some way, glucose is a major part of the language of every cell.)
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3746) Heinrich Wilhelm Gottfried von Waldeyer-Hartz (VoLDIRHARTS) (CE 1836-1921), German anatomist, is the first to maintain that the nervous system is built of separate cells and their delicate extensions. Waldeyer-Hartz names the nerve cells "neurons". Waldeyer shows that the extensions of nerve cells are close together but do not actually touch.
(There is some question about the knowledge of neurons before 1891 since it seems clear that read frmo and writing to neurons was happening around 1810. So if this is true, Waldeyer-Hartz's recognition may be for unclogging the pipe of secret science information to the public.)
Waldeyer-Hartz describes neurons as each consisting of a cell-body with two sets of processes, an axon (axis-cylinder) and one or more dendrites.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3832) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923) and George Downing Liveing examine the effects of pressure on spectral lines.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3918) Eduard Adolf Strasburger (sTroSBURGR) (CE 1844-1912), German botanist, demonstrates that fluids move upward through plant stems by physical forces such as capillary force instead of by physiological forces (such as physically moving parts).
(Human movement may be a cumulative effect of gravitation, inertia and collision, which is evidence that an observed force may actually be only a collective or a superset of smaller fundamental force. )
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3952) Gabriel Jonas Lippmann (lEPmoN) (CE 1845-1921), French physicist invents the first color photographic plate.
Lippmann invents a technique of color photography (although this technique has no relation to modern techniques), by using a thick emulsion over a mercury surface (liquid mercury attaches to the surface forming a mirror surface) that reflects the incoming light. The mercury reflects light rays back through the emulsion to interfere with the incident rays, and forms a latent image that varies in depth according to each ray's color. The development process then reproduces this image in accurate color. This direct method of colour photography requires long exposure times, and no copies of the original can be made, but is an important step in the development of creating color images.
An obituary in "Nature" states that this reproduction of color is "...obtained from the thin laminae which had such an attraction for the mind of Newton.".
In 1891 Lippmann presents his photochromie process to the Académie des Sciences in Paris. Instead of using dyes or pigments, it produced colour photographs by wave interference, but although the results are impressive, they are very difficult to achieve. This photographic process is viewed as evidence of a wave (undulatory) theory of light (with an aether medium as Maxwell, Fresnel and others had suggested).
Lippmann publishes a note in the Comptes Rendus in 1891 entitled "La photographie des couleurs".
This note is described in Nature. The Nature article states: "The conditions said to be essential to photography in colours by M. Lippmann's method are: (l)a sensitive film showing no grain ; (2) a reflecting surface at the back of this film. Albumen, collodion, and gelatine films sensitized with iodide or bromide of silver, and devoid of grain when microscopically examined, have been employed. Films so prepared have been placed in a hollow dark slide containing mercury. The mercury thus forms a reflecting layer in contact with the sensitive film. The exposure, development, and fixing of the film is done in the ordinary manner ; but when the operations are completed, the colours of the spectrum become visible. The theory of the experiment is very simple. The incident light interferes with the light reflected by the mercury ; consequently, a series of fringes are formed in the sensitive film, and silver is deposited at places of maximum luminosity of these fringes. The thickness of the film is divided according to the deposits of silver into laminae- whose thicknesses are equal to the interval separating two maxima of light in the fringes— that is, half the wave-length of the incident light. These laminae of metallic silver, formed at regular distances from the surface of the film, give rise to the colours seen when the plate is developed and dried. Evidence of this is found in the fact that the proofs obtained are positive when viewed by reflected, and negative when viewed by transmitted, light—that is, each colour is represented by its complementary colour.". In addition there are observation by M. E. Becquerel on the above communication. "...M. Becquerel called attention to the experiments made by him on the photography of colours in 1849. His researches, however, dealt more with the chemical than the physical side of the question.".
A longer publication describing Lipmmann's process by Alphonse Berge is printed in 1891, which describes Lippmann capturing images of a visible spectrum in the lab (see image 3).
In 1891 William Abney describes this process writing: "While in Paris last week I had an invitation to see M. Lippmann and to investigate his methods...I have seen his colored spectra, and there is no doubt that the colors are due to interference, and are not what I may call true colors, since they vary according to the angle in which the plate is held, and they show next to none, if any at all, by transmitted light.... To me it seems a verification of Newton's law of the interference of light and hardly in the direction of true photography in natural colors. Photography in natural colors means to me the production of pigments, of which the color is produced by absorption, and which can be rendered permanent when exposed to white light. Becquerel's experiments satisfied the first part, but the second was wanting, and this renders the problem still unsolved.".
Earlier attempts at color photography were made by Seebeck in 1810, Herschel in 1841,Edmund Becquerel in 1848, by Niepce in 1851 to 1866, and by Poitevin in 1865 - all these efforts were based on purely chemical methods, the investigators looking for sensitive compounds that reflect the same colors that contact the film.
In 1889 Lippmann had published "Sur l'obtention de photographies en valeurs justes par l'emploi de verres colores" ("On obtaining photographs of fair values by using colored glasses) . (Notice the word "obtention" - with "ten" - it seems likely that electric color images were figured out some time soon after, if not before the year 1810, we excluded from seeing eyes and thought can only speculate.)
(It is interesting that the color comes from, theoretically, light particles transmitting and/or reflecting through a transparent medium, and not from the light particles reflecting and/or transmitting through a colored or dyed medium.)
(I have a certain amount of doubt about the validity of this claim of producing a color photograph, but simply duplicating this process for all to see would remove most of my doubts. In addition, I think a light-as-a-particle explanation needs to be explored.)
(Possibly, around this time, people could have used gears to make tiny drops of red, green or blue semi-transparent die on a photographic plate at regular intervals onto a gelatin emulsion covered paper or glass plate. When exposed, only red light would reach the silver salt covered with red, and the same for blue and green as Maxwell had shown. If the dye remained through development, the dots would represent the quantity of light of each of those colors, blending, because the eye resolution is lower than the size of the dots on the photographic glass plate or paper- and so the frequencies are mixed at the detector in the eye, as they do for a typical LCD screen, into a color image. Beyond this, it seems likely that using a similar dye-dot method, but with electrically isolated selenium dots as the light detector, electric color images could have been invented very early - find what is the public first color electric image. )
(One interesting point is that while I view light as made of particles, color, I think, can only be defined by more than one light particle, so in some sense, color requires a frequency or photon interval (ie wavelength).)
| University of Paris, Sorbonne Laboratories of Physical Research, Paris, France |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3963) Polish physicist, Karol Stanislaw Olszewski (CE 1846-1915) determines that the critical pressure of a gas can be determined by the appearance of "ebullition" (the state or process of boiling) at the critical pressure. Olszewski uses this method to determine the critical pressure of hydrogen gas, which has not been liquefied at this time.
Olszewski writes (translated from Polish to English): "...I have remarked in these experiments, that with a slow expansion the phenomenon of sudden ebullition always appears under the same pressure, no matter how great the initial pressure may be, provided that value be not too low. ...the phenomenon described constantly appeared at 20 atm. ... These experiments bring me to the conclusion, that the 20 atm. at which the ebullition of hydrogen always appears represents its critical pressure. If hydrogen, cooled by means of liquid oxygen, boiling in racuo. to the temperature.—211° C., which, we may suppose, is several degrees above the critical temperature of hydrogen, is submitted to a slow expansion from a high pressure, its temperature is lowered to the critical temperature, hitherto unknown. If the initial pressure is high enough—in my experiments it was above 80 atm.—then, by means of a slow expansion, the temperature of hydrogen sinks to its critical value, before its critical pressure is reached, and then liquid hydrogen will appear the moment we lower the pressure to its critical value. But if the initial pressure is too low, a slow expansion cools the hydrogen to the critical temperature only after the critical pressure has been passed : the lower the initial pressure is the greater is the expansion needed to cool the hydrogen below its condensing temperature. We may thus explain the changing pressures, corresponding to the phenomenon of ebullition or instantaneous liquefaction in the case of expansion from an insufficient initial temperature. And if the initial pressure is still lower, the instantaneous liquefaction will not appear at all. To ascertain the truth of this statement I performed two series of analogous experiments with gases, the critical pressures and temperatures of which are accurately known, viz., with oxygen and ethylene. The critical temperature of oxygen is, according to my former researches, —118°'8C., its critical pressure is 50'8 atm. In the same apparatus which I used for the experiments with hydrogen I cooled oxygen by means of ethylene boiling under atmospheric pressure ( — 102°'5), then to a temperature 16'3 degrees below the critical temperature of oxygen, and subjected it to a slow expansion, beginning with different initial pressures, from 40 atm. up to 100 atm. The ebullition of oxygen always appeared at a pressure of about 51 atm., provided the initial pressure was not lower than 80 atm. : at the same time there also appeared a meniscus of liquid oxygen. As the initial pressure became lower and lower, so did the ebullition pressure too.
The critical temperature of etbylene according to Prof. Dewar is 10°'l, the critical pressure 51 atm. ; my own determinations of the same quantities yielded results agreeing well with the above-cited, viz., 10° C. and 51'7 atm. I made similar experiments with ethylene, using the apparatus of Cailletet; one series at a temperature of 17° C., another at 27°; then at temperatures, which were first 7°, then 17° higher than the critical temperature of ethylene. During the first series of experiments, the ebullition of ethylene, and at the same time the meniscus, appeared constantly in consequence of a slow expansion at a pressure of about 51 atm.... Hence it follows that the determination of critical pressures by means of expansion is possible, even if the gases have a temperature which is several or many degrees higher than their critical temperature. This dynamical method of determination of critical pressure is really of no advantage if applied to the other gases, for these pressures may be more easily and precisely determined by the vanishing of the meniscus ; but with hydrogen it is the sole possible way to determine not only its critical pressure, but also its critical temperature. ...".
| Cracow Academy, Crakow, Austria (now Poland) |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3969) Edward Pickering (CE 1846-1919) with his brother William Henry Pickering, establishes an astronomical observatory in the Southern Hemisphere, in Arequipa, Peru.
| Arequipa, Peru |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 3993) Joseph Achille Le Bel (CE 1847-1930), French chemist, announces that he has produced optically active ammonium salts, but this observation is not confirmed. However the theory of the existance of asymetrical optical isomers of nitrogen will be confirmed by William Pope in 1899 when the first optically active substituted ammonium salts containing an asymmetric nitrogen atom (with no asymmetric carbon atom) are prepared.
| (Ecole de Médecine) Paris, France |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 4147) Emil Hermann Fischer (CE 1852-1919), German chemist deduces the configurations of the 16 possible aldohexoses, which he represents in the form of the famous Fischer projection formulae.
Sugars had been difficult to purify and characterize, Fischer had discovered that sugars react with phenylhydrazine (an organic compound commonly used in the synthesis of indole) to give osazones that are highly crystalline, easily purified compounds. Fischer then realized that these sugars are spatial isomers and can be differentiated by applying the theory of the tetrahedral carbon atom, first proposed in 1874 by the Dutch chemist Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff. Fischer recognizes that the known isomers of glucose represented only 4 out of the 16 possible spatial isomers predicted by van't Hoff's theory. Using the osazone derivatives and synthetic techniques for the sugars developed by the German chemists Bernhard Tollens and Heinrich Kiliani, Fischer is able not only to differentiate the known isomers but to synthesize nine of the predicted isomers.
Fischer shows that the best known sugars contain six carbons, and can exist in sixteen varieties depending on how the carbon bonds are arranged. Each different arrangement is reflected in the way the plane of light polarization is rotated. Fischer works out which arrangement of carbon bonds applies to which sugar. With this work, the optical observations of Pasteur are combined with the theory of Van't Hoff, and stereochemistry, the study of chemical structure in three-dimensional space is given a solid foundation.
Fischer shows that there are 2 series of sugars, mirror images of each other, he calls the D-series and L-series. This find is important because all sugars in living cells are from the D-series. The L-series virtually never appears on earth. (verify)
So fischer establishes the configurations for all members of the Dseries of aldohexoses, in other words, those derived from D-glyceraldehyde, where D, according to Fischer’s practice, refers to the hydroxyl group’s being positioned to the right of the carbon atom next to the primary alcohol group.
(Note about light polarization: To me polarized light is light that is only going in a single vector/direction, photons of other directions having been filtered/reflected out. Show visually how sugars polarize beams of light particles.)
| (University of Würzburg ) Würzburg , Germany |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 4171) (Sir) William Matthew Flinders Petrie (PETrE) (CE 1853-1942), (English archaeologist) in Tell El-Amarna, excavates the city of Akhenaton, or Amenhotep IV, ruler of Egypt from 1353 to 1336 BCE, and uncovers the now-famous painted pavement and other artistic wonders of the Amarna age (14th century BCE).
Akhetanten, is the capital city of Egypt's monotheist pharaoh, Akhenaton (Amenhotep IV). Akhenaton is the first known monotheist of history. (verify)
| Tell El-Amarna, Egypt |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 4239) Silicon carbide (extremely hard substance) synthesized.
Edward Goodrich Acheson (CE 1856-1931), US inventor creates silicon carbide, a compound of silicon and carbon, which remains the hardest known substance besides diamond for 50 years. Acheson finds this when trying to create diamonds by heating carbon.
Acheson heats a mixture of clay and coke in an iron bowl with a carbon arc light and finds some shiny, hexagonal crystals (silicon carbide) attached to the carbon electrode. Because he at first mistakenly thought the crystals were a compound of carbon and alumina from the clay, he creates the trademark Carborundum, after corundum, the mineral composed of fused alumina.
Later these crystals will be found to be silicon carbide, a compound of silicon and carbon.
Silicon carbide is a bluish-black crystalline compound, SiC, one of the hardest known substances, used as an abrasive and heat-refractory material and in single crystals as semiconductors, especially in high-temperature applications. Silicon carbide is extremely useful as an abrasive. Silicon carbide is popular as a tool bit to cut metal, and is simply called "carbide".
Silicon carbide is prepared commercially by fusing sand and coke in an electric furnace at temperatures above 2,200°C; a flux, e.g., sodium chloride, may be added to eliminate impurities. Silicon carbide is heat resistant, decomposing when heated to about 2,700°C.
In 1895 Acheson manufacturers carborundum (Silicon carbide) commercially, using the power generated by Westinghouse's hydroelectric installations at Niagara Falls.
(EX: Perhaps other two atom molecule substance are also very hard, in particular with valence 4. Like any combination of Carbon, Silicon, Germanium, Tin and/or lead.)
| (Carborundum Company) Monongahedla City, Pennsylvania, USA |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 4242) Robert Edwin Peary (PERE) (CE 1856-1920), US explorer, proves that Greenland is an island by reaching the previously unexplored northern coast.
The northernmost part of Greenland (interestingly largely free of the ice cap that covers most of the rest of the island) is called Peary Land in his honor.
Encyclopedia Britannica states that Peary only finds evidence of Greenland's being an island.
Peary discovers Independence Fjord. Peary also studies the "Arctic Highlanders", an isolated Eskimo tribe who helps him greatly on later expeditions.
| Greenland |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 4417) Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (CE 1863-1932), German astronomer uses a camera and motor driven telescope to compensate for the motion of the earth relative to distant celestial objects.
As a photographic plate is exposed, the telescope slowly turns to compensate for the earth's motion, so that in the photograph the stars look like points, and asteroids will then appear as short streaks. Wolf will identify 500 asteroids with this method, a third of all known to exist. Before this a single person could usually only identify one or two asteroids over the course of a lifetime of observation.
Wolf is the first to identify the North American nebula. (chronology)
Wolf extends Schwabe's data on the sunspot cycle by getting all observation data on sunspots back to the time of Galileo, and confirms that there is a sunspot cycle but that it is somewhat irregular.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 4488) Alfred Werner (VARnR) (CE 1866-1919), German-Swiss chemist attempts to replace Kekulé’s concept of valences that have rigid directions, with a more flexible system, in which affinity is viewed as an attractive force emanating from the center of an atom and acting equally in all directions. Without assuming directed valences, Werner is able to derive the accepted van’t Hoff configurational formulas. Later Werner will create the concept of primary valence (Hauptvalenz) and secondary valence (Nebenvalenz) and his "coordination theory" which unlike this paper, includes inorganic (non-carbon based) compounds too.
| (Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
109 YBN
[1891 AD]
| 6030) Juventino Rosas (CE 1868-1894), (Otomí) Mexican composer and violinist, composes the famous waltz "Sobre las Olas" (1891; "On the Waves"). (verify)
| Michoacán, Mexico (verify) |
108 YBN
[05/??/1892 AD]
| 3624) Willoughby Smith (CE 1828-1891) sends a telegraphic message through water 60 yards without using metal wire.
Smith uses a telephone to detect the small electric current.
Later Smith will report that ten large-size Lechanche cells send a current of 1.5 amperes, using a ground cable 200 yards in length, through the water, of which about 0.15 of a milliampere is received 8 miles away at shore.
| (Needles Lighthouse) Alum Bay |
108 YBN
[05/??/1892 AD]
| 4399) Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (lAnoRT) (CE 1862-1947), Hungarian-German physicist, finds that a jet of water passing through air causes the air to become negatively electrified.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
108 YBN
[07/??/1892 AD]
| 4363) Waldemar Mordecai Wolfe Haffkine (HoFKiN or HaFKiN) (CE 1860-1930), Russian-British bacteriologist reports success in immunization using a culture of a highly virulent strain of heat-killed cholera. In 1893 Haffkine will innoculate 45 thousand people and reduces the deathrate by 70 per cent among the innoculated (Could this be strictly due to the immunization of other factors too?).
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
108 YBN
[08/17/1892 AD]
| 6259) Whitcomb L. Judson develops a clothing fastener (zipper). In 1851, Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing machine, had developed an early clothing slide fastener but the invention was never marketed. Judson patents a slide fastener in 1893. After Judson displays the new clasp lockers at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, he obtains financial backing from Lewis Walker, and together they found the Universal Fastener Company in 1894. Judson later improves his invention by inventing a zipper that can part completely (like the zippers found on today's jackets), and discovers that it is better to clamp the teeth directly onto a cloth tape that can be sewn into a garment, instead of sewing the teeth themselves into the garment. Otto Frederick Gideon Sundback joined Judson's company in 1906 and his patent for Plako in 1913 is considered to be the beginning of the modern zipper.
| Chicago, Illinois, USA |
108 YBN
[08/??/1892 AD]
| 3834) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923) and George Downing Liveing examine the spectra and refractive index (1.989) of liquid oxygen.
They write "If, as there is good reason to think, A and B are the absorptions of free molecules of oxygen, the persistence of these absorptions in the liquid seems to show that the molecules in the liquid are the same as in the gas. At the same time the changes they undergo ought to throw some light on the nature of the change in passing from the gaseous to the liquid state as well as on the causes which produce the sequences of rays which are called channelled-spectra. We have noticed, as Olszewski also has noticed, that liquid oxygen is distinctly blue. This is of course directly connected with its strong absorptions in the orange and yellow.".
In October 1893, they also publish "On the Spectrum of Liquid Oxygen, and on the Refractive Indices of Liquid Oxygen, Nitrous Oxide, and Ethylene".
According to Asimov, Dewar observes that liquid oxygen is blue in color and wrongly concludes that the sky is blue because of oxygen in the atmosphere. (quote paper) (I can't find a direct quote on this. The closest I can find is the examination of spectrum of oxygen revealing the A and B lines.) Rayleigh will provide evidence that confirms Tyndall's theory that light-scattering by atmospheric dust as accounting for the blueness of the sky.
(In terms of the theory that the sky is blue because of liquid oxygen, the one thing that is interesting is that...there is no blue color between great distances on the surface of earth -we never find ourselves saying 'I can't see you through all the scattered blue light in between us!', perhaps this is because all the blue light has already been scattered in the upper atmosphere, or there is not enough space for the scattering of blue light to be seen in between two objects that are in the line of sight on the surface of earth, for example looking at a distant mountain. The Dewar idea is interesting because perhaps at the low temperatures near empty space, oxygen does turn liquid, but I doubt it, because sunlight probably keeps the upper atmosphere to too high a temperature.) (Interesting update: I could not find any temperatures for different earth altitudes, which is surprising, since this is perhaps the first data I would collect by rocket. But the surface of the earth moon in darkness apparently reaches -153° C., and interestingly the liquefaction temperature for oxygen is only -183° C. {-196° C. for N2}, so it seems possible that oxygen might be in liquid form at the top of the earth atmosphere- {since this is equivalent to a body without atmosphere such as the moon - in fact the top of the atmosphere on Earth might even be colder since the moon must produce heat at the surface}, or possibly even on the moon. But perhaps the density might by important - would liquid water fall to earth and heat back to a gas? This raises an interesting point about gravity as relates to a gas versus the same quantity of gas compressed as a liquid. Presumably the force is the same, but appears to be more because gravity is focused onto points that are closer together than when they were in the gas. I am not sure that the spectrum of the blue light would reveal the chemical composition since it is supposedly reflected light whose source is the Sun. For example, the atomic or molecular composition of a mirror can perhaps only be known from a few frequencies in which light is absorbed - verify. It seems clear that matter must cool at the outer edge, become more dense, and fall towards earth, only to heat up, expand, and rise to the top again. Perhaps there is some kind of cycle like this for numerous molecules - moving up and down the gradient from cold to warm. Or perhaps they heat up at the top because more light reaches them there.)
TODO: Compare the temperatures of the upper atmosphere where empty space is, and the liquefying temperature {and perhaps pressure} of oxygen. Is oxygen liquid at those temperatures? How far does a person need to be away from the Sun to release oxygen gas outside a ship into empty space to have the oxygen liquefy? and to solidify?
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
108 YBN
[09/03/1892 AD]
| 4316) Fifth moon of Jupiter, Amalthea observed.
Edward Emerson Barnard (CE 1857-1923), US astronomer identifies a fifth moon of Jupiter. This moon will be named Amalthea by Flammarion, after the goat that served as wet nurse for Zeus (Jupiter in the Latin version). This is the last moon identified without photography. Also in this year Barnard is the first to note a puff of gaseous matter given off by a nova that appears in the constellation Auriga. This is a clear sign (and the first indication?) that a nova involves some sort of explosion.
| (Lick Observatory) Mt. Hamilton, California, USA |
108 YBN
[12/??/1892 AD]
| 4140) Ferdinand Frédéric Henri Moissan (mWoSoN) (CE 1852-1907), French chemist demonstrates his new kind of electric furnace which allows many uncommon elements to be prepared in unprecedented purity.
This furnace is very simple, consisting of two blocks of lime, one laid on the other, with a hollow space in the center for a crucible, and a longitudinal groove for two carbon electrodes which produce a high-temperature electric arc. In one experiment Moissan heats iron and carbonizes sugar in his electric furnace, causing the carbon to dissolve in the molten iron. He then subjects the mixture to rapid cooling in cold water, causing the iron to solidify with enormous pressure, producing carbon particles of microscopic size that appear to have the physical characteristics of diamond. Moissan and his contemporaries believe that diamonds have finally been synthesized by this method, but this conclusion has been rejected in recent years. Moissan’s electric furnace provides great impetus to the development of high-temperature chemistry. With this apparatus he prepares and studies refractory oxides, silicides, borides, and carbides; he succeedes in volatilizing many metals; and, by reducing metallic oxides with carbon, he obtains such metals as manganese, chromium, uranium, tungsten, vanadium, molybdenum, titanium, and zirconium. The electrochemical and metallurgical applications to industry of Moissan’s work become immediately apparent, for example in the large-scale production of acetylene from calcium carbide.
Asimov comments that with the pressures and temperatures available in this time, it is impossible to produce diamond and synthetic diamond from carbon will have to wait half a century until the equipment invented by Bridgman in order to attain higher levels of pressure. Crookes and Parsons also try to make artificial/human-made diamonds in this time but fail.
(The issue of extracting carbon may relate to planet Venus, as one effort may be to remove carbon from it's atmosphere. Maybe the carbon would be separated into the more useful hydrogen or built up to the more useful oxygen.)
| (Academy of Sciences) Paris, France |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 3623) (Sir) William Henry Preece (CE 1834-1913) invents a system of wireless telegraphy.
This wireless telegraph system is used by the postal-telegraph service in 1895 when a cable between the Isle of Mull and Oban in Scotland breaks.
Preece writes in 1894: "If any of the planets be populated with beings like ourselves, having the gift of language and the knowledge to adapt the great forces of nature to their wants, then, if they could oscillate immense stores of electrical energy to and fro in telegraphic order, it would be possible for us to hold commune by telephone with the people of Mars.".
| London, England (presumably) |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 3700) August Friedrich Leopold Weismann (VISmoN) (CE 1834-1914), German biologist presents his theory of a germ plasm, a substance that is never formed anew but only from preexisting germ plasm. Weismann theorizes that the germ plasm is in the chromosomes.
Weismann presents his germ plasm theory fully in "Das Keimplasma. Eine Theorie der Vererbung" (1892, "The Germ-Plasm. A Theory of Heredity" tr. 1893).
Weismann's name is best known as the author of the germ-plasm theory of heredity, with its accompanying denial of the transmission of acquired characters, a theory which on its publication meets with considerable opposition, especially in England, from orthodox Darwinism. This doctrine, formerly called Weismannism, stresses the unbroken continuity of the germ plasm and the nonheritability of acquired characteristics. The germ plasm, forming the eggs and sperm, can be viewed as periodically growing an organism around itself, almost as a form of self-protection, and as a device to help produce another egg or sperm out of a piece of the germ plasm carefully preserved within the organism.
Weismann understands the continuous unbroken chain nature of life, the "continuity of the germ plasm", how organisms appear to live forever, nonsexual species continuously copying without ever aging. This seemed true for multicellular life too, in that each organism can be traced back to an egg and a sperm for as far back as life has existed. )
Weismann suggests that chromosomes contain the hereditary machinery, and that their division during cell division must keep the machinery intact.
Weismann suggests that the quantity of germ plasm is halved in forming egg and sperm and that the process of fertilization restores the original quantity, the new organism receiving half from the father and half from the mother.
One problem with the germ theory is that it does not explain the changes between generations. De Vries' theory of mutation will show how species can change.
(I argue that the most conserved genetic structure is probably the reproductive structures because that is the most required part of any cell. For humans, for example, an ovum and sperm, like two protists, are all that is required to continue reproducing.)
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 3823) Double-wall vacuum container. James Dewar constructs the "dewar flask", the double-wall container with the vacuum between the walls which preserves temperature longer than regular containers.
(Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923), English chemist, constructs double-wall flasks with a vacuum between the walls. The vacuum will not transmit heat by molecular physical contact, for example with air molecules, but only by photons and other small particles (or so-called radiation) that can penetrate the walls. Dewar silvers the walls so that photons that produce heat will be reflected instead of absorbed which adds to the preserving of temperature of the material in the container. In these flasks the extremely low temperature liquid oxygen can be kept for much longer periods than it can in regular flasks. These flasks are called Dewar flasks and are used in Thermos containers to keep drinks hot or cold for long periods of time.
(in particular photons in infrared?, do these reflect from mirrors? Clearly mirrors can be heated. EX: Does infrared light reflect off mirrors? Probably Dewar knows that infrared light reflects.)
(What happens to liquid oxygen stored in a container? It must eventually gain temperature, and as a result increase pressure in the container. What is the maximum pressure it can reach? How thick does the container need to be to contain the molecules exerting this kind of pressure?)
(It is interesting that gas tanks usually don't use the Dewar design, perhaps there is not enough loss to make it worth the extra expense.)
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 3867) Camillo Golgi (GOLJE) (CE 1843-1926), Italian physician and cytologist, shows that in intermittent malaria, the malaria parasites develop in the blood, while in pernicious malaria, the parasites develop in the organs and brain.
From 1886-1892, Golgi provides fundamental contributions to the study of malaria.
Golgi finds that the two types of intermittent malarial fevers (tertian, occurring every other day, and quartan, occurring every third day) are caused by different species of the protozoan parasite Plasmodium.
Golgi also establishes that the onset of fever coincides with the release into the blood of the parasite's spores from the red blood cells. (chronology)
(state paper title and show images from)
| (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 3932) Georg Cantor (CE 1845-1918), German mathematician describes his "diagonal method" which Cantor uses to prove that the infinity of real numbers is larger than the infinity of integers.
Cantor shows that by presuming that all real numbers between 0 and 1 are denumerable. Cantor then lists these example numbers with a variable representing each digit after the decimal point. Cantor then shows that a number can be created from the diagonal of digit variables which is a real number between 0 and 1, but not in the set, and so this set of real numbers is not denumerable (countable).
(But since the digits that the variables represent can only be 0-9, doesn't that presume that any combination of diagonals or other lines could only result in a number already listed (simply because all combinations of 0-9 for any number of digits must be exhausted in the listing)?)
| (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 3933) Georg Cantor (CE 1845-1918), German mathematician summarizes his work in set theory in his best known work "Beiträge zur Begründung der transfiniten Mengelehre" (published in English as "Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers", 1915).
In this work Cantor contains Cantor's view of "transfinite" numbers and sets, which are infinite but different in size.
To describe transinfinite sets, Cantor introduces the concept or "power" (or "cardinal number"), for example, the set of rational numbers and the set of natural numbers (both infinite) are said to have the same ‘power’ (having a 1-to-1 mapping). Cantor designates the set of natural numbers, the smallest transfinite set, with the symbol ℵ0 (aleph null), and the set of real numbers by the letter c, the number of the continuum (that is the number of all points on a line including irrational numbers). ℵ is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, called "aleph". Cantor's symbol ℵ0 is referred to as "aleph nul". From this there is a sense that there are more real numbers than rational numbers or natural numbers. So, the set of real numbers is said to have a higher power than the set of natural numbers. (In this work?)
(In this work Cantor introduces the term "transfinite"?)
| (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4174) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, publishes his first paper supporting the idea that matter contracts in the direction of motion.
Lorentz' electron theory, which depends on an ether medium, does not successfully explain the negative results of the Michelson-Morley experiment, an effort to measure the velocity of the Earth through the hypothetical luminiferous ether by comparing the velocities of light from different directions. In an attempt to overcome this difficulty Lorentz introduces in 1895 the idea of local time (different locations having different time rates). Lorentz arrives at the idea that moving bodies approaching the velocity of light contract in the direction of motion. The Irish physicist George Francis FitzGerald had already arrived at this notion independently writing a letter to the journal "Science" entitled "The Ether and the Earth's Atmosphere", in 1889.
Lorentz' first paper, in 1892, is titled "The Relative Motion of the earth and the Ether". Lorentz will then publish a more well-known paper in 1895 entitled (translated from German) "Michelson's Interference Experiment", and so this theoretical phenomenon is called "Lorentz-FitzGerald Contraction". In the 1892 paper Lorentz describes this change in length in terms of the velocity of a system of material points relative to an ether (ρ), and the known velocity of light (V), giving the equation for the change in length along the x-axis of some moving system of material points as (1+ρ2/2V2), but in 1895 changes this displacement to √1-v2/c2.
In his initial paper of 1892 Lorentz writes (translated from Dutch): "In order to explain the aberration of light, FRESNEL assumed that the ether does not partake of the yearly motion of the earth, which, naturally also means that our planet is perfectly permeable to this medium. Later on STOKES attempted another explanation by supposing the ether to be dragged along by the earth and that, consequently, at every point of the earth's surface the velocity of the ether is equal to that of the earth. Some years ago, I made a comprehensive study of these theories. I then found that still other explanations are possible of a nature more or less intermediate between the two just mentioned and which, therefore, being more complicated, are less worthy of consideration. Of these two extreme conceptions there were, in my opinion, food reasons for rejecting that of STOKES, because it requires the existence of a velocity potential for the motion of the ether, which is incompatible with the equality of the velocities of the earth and the adjacent ether. FRESNEL's conception, on the other hand, could furnish a satisfactory explanation of all phenomena considered, if one introduced for transparent ponderable substances the 'dragging coefficient', as given by FRESNEL, and for which I recently derived the expression from the electro-magnetic theory of light. A serious difficulty however had arisen in an interference experiment made by Michelson in order to make a decision between the two theories. MAXWELL had already observed that if the ether is not dragged along, the motion of the earth must influence the time required by light to travel to and fro between two points rigidly fixed to the earth. Denoting their distance by I, the velocity of light by V, that of the earth by p, the time in question is, when the line joining the points is parallel to the direction of the earth's motion
2 l/V(1 + p2/V2) (1)
and when at right angles to that direction
2l/V(1 + p2/2V2) (2)
giving a difference
lp2/V3 (3)
MICHELSON made use of an apparatus with two horizontal arms of an equal length and perpendicular to earth other, supporting at their ends mirrors at right angles to their directions. An interference phenomenon was observed while the one beam of light was travelling from the point of intersection of the arms to and fro along the one arm, and the second beam along the other. The whole apparatus, including the source of light and the observing telescope, could be rotated on a vertical axis; also, the phenomenon was observed at such a time as to permit the best possible adjustment of either the arms in the direction of the earth's motion. Let us suppose, for the sake of convenience, this adjustment to be perfect; then if FRESNEL's theory were correct, the beam in the direction of the earth's motion would experience, by that motion, the retardation determined by (3), relatively to the other beam. A rotation through 90° should change all differences of phase to an amount which, expressed in units of time, is given by twice the value of (3). not the slightest shift, however, of the interference-fringes could be detected. The objection which might still be made to this experiment, is that the arms were too short to cause the appearance of an unmistakable displacement of the fringes, but MICHELSON removed this difficulty by repeating, in collaboration with MORLEY, the experiment on a larger scale. The beams of light in each of the mutually perpendicular directions were now made to travel to and fro several times, being each time reflected by mirrors; these mirrors, together with everything else used for this experiment, were placed on a stone slab which floated in mercury and could be rotated in a horizontal plane. In this case too, however, the shift of the dringes required by FRESNEL's theory, failed to appear. This experiment has been puzzling me for a long time, and in the end I have been able to think of only one means of reconclining its result with FRESNEL's theory. It consists in the supposition that the line joining two points of a solid body, if at first parallel to the direction of the earth's motion, does not keep the same length when it is subsequently turned through 90°. If, for example, its length be l in the latter position and l(1-α) in the former, the expression (l) must be multiplied by (l-α). Neglecting αp2/V2 this gives
2l/V(1 + p2/V2 - α).
The difference between this expression and (2), and with it the whole difficulty, would disappear if α were equal to p2/2V2.
Now, some such change in the length of the arms in MICHELSON's first experiment and in the dimensions of the slab in the second one is so far as I can see, not inconceivable. What determines the size and shape of a solid body? Evidently the intensity of the molecular forces; any cause which would alter the latter would also influence the shape and dimensions., Nowadays we may safely assume that electric and magnetic forces act by means of the intervention of the ether. It is not far-fetched to suppose the same to be true of the molecular forces. But then it may make all the difference whether the line joining two material particles shifting together through the ether, lies parallel or crosswise to the direction of that shift. It is easily seen that an influence of the order of p/V is not to be expected, but an influence of the order of p2/V2 is not excluded and that is precisely what we need. Since the nature of the molecular forces is entirely unknown to us, it is impossible to test the hypothesis. We can only calculate - with the aid of more or less plausible supposition, of course - the influence of the motion of ponderable matter on electric and magnetic forces. It may be worth mentioning that the result obtained in the case of electric forces yields, when applied to molecular forces, exactly the value given able for α. Let A be a system of material points carrying certain electric charges and at rest with respect to the ether; B the system of the same points while moving in the direction of the x-axis with the common velocity p through the ether. From the equations developed by me, one can deduce which forces the particle in system B exert on one another. The simplest way to do this, is to introduce still a third system C, which just as A, is at rest but differs from the latter as regards the location of the points. System C, namely, can be obtained from system A by a simple extension by which all dimensinos in the direction of the x-axis are multiplied by the factor (1+p2/2V2) and all dimensions perpendicular to it remain unaltered. Now the connection between the forces in B and in C amounts to this, that the x-components in C are equal to those in B whereas the components at right angles to the x-axis are 1+p2/2V2 times larges {ULSF: apparently typo: 'larger'} than in B. We will apply this to molecular forces. Let us imagine a solid body to be a system of material points kept in equilibrium by their mutual attractions and repulsions and let system B represent such a body whilst moving through the ether. The forces acting on any of the material points of B must in that case neutralize. From the above, it follows that the same can not then be the case for system A whereas for system C it can; for even though a transition from B to C is accompanied by a change in all forces at right angles to the axis, this cannot disturb the equilibrium, because they are all changed in the same prosportion. in this way it appears that if B represents the state of equilibrium of the body during a shift through the ether then C must be the state of equilibrium when there is no shift. But the dimensions of B in the direction of the x-axis are the same in both systems. One obtains, therefore, exactly an influence of the motion on the dimensions equal to the one which, as appeared above, is required to explain MICHELSON's experiment. One may not of course attach much importance to this result; the application to molecular forces of what was found to hold for electric forces is too venturesome for that. Besides, even if one would do so, the question would still remain whether the earth's motion shortens the dimensions in one direction, as assumed above, or lengthens those in directions perpendicular to the first, which would answer the purpose equally well. But for all that, it seems undeniable that changes in the molecular forces and, consequently, in the dimensions of a body are possible of the order of p2/2V2. This being so, MICHELSON's experiment can no longer furnish any evidence for the question for which it was undertaken. Its significance - if one accepts FRESNEL's theory - lies rather in the face, that it can teach us something about the changes in the dimensions. Since p/V is equal to 1/10000, the value o p2/2V2 becomes one two hundrend millionth. A shortening of the earth's diameter to the extent of this fraction would amount to 6 cm. There is not the slightest possibility, when comparing standard measuring rods, of noticing a change in length of one part in two hundred million. Even if the methods of observation permitted, one would never detect by a juxtaposition of two rods anything of the change mentioned, if these occurred to the same extent for both rods at right angles to each other, and if one wished to do this by means of observing an interference phenomenon, in which one-beam of light travels to and fro along the first rod and the other beam along the second, the result would be a reproduction of MICHELSON's experiment. But then the influence of the desired change in length would again be compensated by the change in phase differences determined by expression (3).".
Lorentz originates the actual famous expression representing the change is size of some body made of material points= √1-v2/c2 in 1895.
In 1904 Lorentz will extend this work and develop the Lorentz transformations. These mathematical formulas describe the increase of mass, shortening of length, and dilation of time that are characteristic of a moving body and form the basis of Einstein's special theory of relativity. One of the most puzzling aspects of the transition from Newtonian and Maxwellian physics to relativity is how the concept of an ether is apparently dropped for relativity, but yet, the matter and time contraction and dilation that was first used to support an ether theory and requiring the traditional ether medium for light waves is adopted and accepted as a major part of the theory of relativity - including the idea that light is not a particle and not made of mass - but is instead somehow "massless" energy which seems impossible from a mathematical standpoint since E=mv^2 - any "massless energy" concept could only be velocity in this unlikely view.
According to the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction, the volume of an electron is reduced as it's velocity increases, and the electron's mass is increased. At 161,000 miles a second (metric) the mass of the electron is twice it's "rest mass", and at the velocity of light, the mass of an electron is infinite since it's volume is reduced to zero. This is another indication that the greatest velocity that any material object can move is the velocity of light in empty space. (The idea that an object gains mass at high velocity seems to me clearly false, because the two principles of conservation of matter and conservation of motion imply that no extra matter can be added or subtracted from empty space when the velocity of an electron changes. The only change that can happen is that any motion gained or lost is equally lost or gained by other matter.)
(I think another theory is that all matter is made of particles of light, and so no piece of matter can travel faster than a particle of light, because it is impossible to move faster than any particle an object is made of. Of course, I don't think people should completely rule out other theories.)
Lorentz rejects Einstein’s light quantum hypothesis on the grounds that many well-established phenomena, such as interference and diffraction, are impossible to reconcile with a particulate nature of light.
In 1900, mass measurements on subatomic particles show that Lorentz's equation describing how mass varies with velocity is followed exactly. (Give much more information, all the specific details: how was mass measured? Who did the experiments? How many were there? Where is the physical evidence? What is the physical evidence (pictures? data printouts?)? Were speeding particles measured for mass at differing velocities? Where no charged particles measured for mass? Was gravitational attraction used to measure mass? Are there other interpretations? For example if the amount of electricity that is needed to accelerate an electron increases with the electron's velocity, couldn't this be the phenomenon of more force needing to be applied to increase the velocity of an already high velocity object? For example a car at 1mph needs less fuel to go 10x faster than a car going 10mph needs to go 10x faster.)
In 1905 Einstein will advance his special theory of Relativity from which the Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction can be deduced (more probably like, which is based on this contraction theory), and which shows that the Lorentz mass-increase with velocity holds not only for charged particles, but for all objects, charged and uncharged.
(EX: A ratio of the masses of two uncharged particles theoretically can be measured by comparing their gravitational interaction with each other using Newton's law of gravitation, if the particles could be seen - but then collisions with photons might change their position unless both particles are individual photons.)
(I find it hard to believe that Lorentz independently reaches the same theory as FitzGerald, in particular knowing what we are beginning to learn about the history of neuron reading and writing.)
(I think that it is very possible that FitzGerald marks the beginning of the transformation of the ether theory into the theory of relativity, and this inaccurate theory will reign for a century and counting. What is shocking is that people either constructed or falsified proofs, or simply misinterpreted results, in order to support the theory of relativity. But why? Perhaps they wanted it to be true to such an extent that they added bias to their experiments, perhaps they presumed it was true and made their results fit the claims, or interpreted their results in terms that would support the theory of relativity. After there were 3 or 4 "proofs", which may have even been funded by believers in the ether, time-dilation theory, and those who rejected all other theories. Although, reading Michelson's work, it is difficult to identify any other competing theory of the universe besides the "corpuscular" theory (as the light as a particle theory was known in the time of Newton, also known as the "emission theory" in the 1800s), which, should have been adapted and refined, as a light as a particle theory instead of rejected and abandoned. Perhaps those that control neuron reading and writing used their unstopable power to censor and eliminate the truth, which they know, about light as a particle, in prder to protect the secret of neuron reading and in particular neuron writing using x particles or xray beams, in a similar way the systematic genocide and neuron writing abuse of many so-called "undesireable" humans has persisted for the 200 years of the secret, even though many of these humans are nonviolent, lawful, scientists, while those that control the neuron reading and writing are violent, lawless, religious fanatics. Michelson's failed detection of an ether will be settled in favor against the ether by the 1920s - although claims for an ether and the wave theory of light still exist today - and also in the early 1900s, the support for the special and general theories of relativity will be set in stone, by scientists, intellectuals, publishers and educators for more than 100 years of inaccuracy, dishonesty and stagnation.)
This is the paper that Lorentz first implies the suggestion that the velocity of all matter forms a ratio with the velocity of light as a wave in an ether medium. In 1899 Lorentz will explicitly identify the idea that no matter moves faster than the speed of light as a wave in an ether medium.
(This theory of FitzGerald's adapted by Lorentz may ultimately lead to the theory that light particles have no mass and are not material.)
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4236) Synthetic silk (rayon)
Charles Frederick Cross (CE 1855-1935), English chemist develops a method for creating the plastic fiber "rayon" by dissolving cellulose in carbon disulfide and squirting the viscous solution (he calls "viscose") out of fine holes. As the solvent evaporates, fine fibrous threads of "viscose rayon" are formed.
The first to make threads of cellulose was Sir Joseph Swan, who, towards the end of 1883, patented a method in which nitrocellulose dissolved in acetic acid was squirted through a small orifice into a coagulating fluid; these threads were carbonized and used in Swan's incandescent electric filament lamp. A year later, Chardonnet developed Swan's discovery with the idea of making a textile thread and built a small factory for the purpose in 1891. An alternative process in which cellulose dissolved in zinc chloride was similarly squirted and carbonized was devised by Mr. L. S. Powell and demonstrated byhim to Swan in 1888, and the two collaborated in its development.
The search for a method of dissolving cellulose (from wood) dates a long way back. Cross prepares nitric and sulphuric acid esters and later the acetate and benzoate. The great discovery how to obtain cellulose in soluble form happens in 1892, when C. F. Cross, E. J. Bevan, and Clayton Beadle find that a golden yellow viscous liquid can be obtained on treating cellulose with aqueous caustic soda and then with carbon bisulphide. The inventors give the name "viscose" to the cellulose sodium xanthate dispersion, which has the property of being soluble in dilute alkali and reverts to a dispersed form of cellulose when acidified. This liquid, when projected into a suitable precipitating bath-at first ammonium sulphate, and later sulphuric acid is used-yields fibres which, after further treatment to remove the sulphur, leave a pure regenerated cellulose.
| (Cross and Bevan's private business) New Court, Lincoln's Inn, England |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4306) Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (TSYULKuVSKE) (CE 1857-1935), Russian physicist describes an all-metal dirigible in his "Aerostat metallichesky upravlyaemy" ("A Controlled Metal Dirigible", 1892).
| Kaluga, Russia (presumably) |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4310) (Sir) Charles Scott Sherrington (CE 1857-1952), English neurologist, maps motor nerve pathways, chiefly those in the lumbosacral plexus.
(I think many people are starting to realize that very sadly, much of the field of neurology and much of health sciences in general has been shockingly and tremendously delayed because of the brutal keeping of neuron reading and writing a secret for two centuries and counting - all books and treatises on this subject are littered with false and overly abstract useless information - many times purposely so - while the secret truth of the vastly accumulating data - images, sounds and other info from neuron reading remain secret. It is difficult to know for sure what Sherrington may have done without seeing videos of his body and thoughts - perhaps he helped develop the nanoneuron writers and readers in some way that is largely unreported. )
| (Brown Institution Animal Hospital) London, England |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4326) Diesel engine.
Rudolf Diesel (DEZeL) (CE 1858-1913), German inventor builds the "diesel engine", an internal combustion engine similar to the Otto engine, but does not depend on an electric spark for ignition of the fuel-air mixture. Instead the heat from compressing the fuel-air mixture raises the temperature of the mixture to the point where ignition happens. (interesting that enough heat, or photons in the infrared is enough to start the combustion reaction). The advantage of a diesel engine over the Otto engine is that the diesel engine can use heavier fractions of petroleum, kerosene instead of gasoline, and this makes diesel fuel cost less and kerosene is less flammable than gasoline and so safer. But the diesel engine is a large and heavy structure which cannot be used in the light passenger cars that Henry Ford is about to popularize, and the airplanes about to be invented by the Wright brothers. However, the diesel engine is suitable for large transport vehicles (such as trucks, ships and trains) and so oil begins to replace coal in locomotives and (water) ships, particularly between World Wars I and II. This will make Diesel a very wealthy man. Oil will become the prime fuel replacing coal (except in the steel industry) as coal had replaced wood almost 200 years earlier.
Diesel obtains a German development patent in 1892 and the following year publishes a description of his engine under the title "Theorie und Konstruktion eines rationellen Wäremotors" ("Theory and Construction of a Rational Heat Motor"). With support from the Maschinenfabrik Augsburg and the Krupp firms, he produced a series of increasingly successful models, culminating in his demonstration in 1897 of a 25-horsepower, four-stroke, single vertical cylinder compression engine. The high efficiency of Diesel's engine, together with its comparative simplicity of design, makes the engine an immediate commercial success, and royalty fees bring great wealth to Diesel.
(Note that this is not a conversion of heat to work in my view, but of particle separation and particle collision.)
(I think probably a wide variety of fuels, including alcohol, other combustable liquids, gases, and solids, in addition to particle (atom) separation engines will probably be more popular in the future.)
| (Carle von Linde firm) Berlin, Germany |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4360) Theobald Smith (CE 1859-1934), US pathologist shows that Texas cattle fever protist parasite ("Pyrosoma bigeminum" -now called "Babesia bigemina") that is transmitted to uninfected cattle by blood-sucking ticks. This is the first definite proof of the role ticks and other arthropods can play in transmitting disease, and helps the later acceptance of the role the mosquito plays in transmitting malaria and yellow fever.
| (Columbian University, now George Washington University), Washington, D.C, USA |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4397) Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (lAnoRT) (CE 1862-1947), Hungarian-German physicist, constructs a cathode-ray tube with a thin aluminum window through which cathode rays can emerge into open air. Hertz had shown that cathode rays can penetrate thin layers of metal and Lenard works as Hertz's assistant. Lenard shows how the cathode rays in open air ionize the air making it electrically conducting. (Presumably the aluminum foil still allows the vacuum to be maintained in the cathode ray tube.)
Lenard utilizes Hertz’s discovery that thin metal sheets transmit cathode rays, and at the end of 1892 constructs a tube with a "Lenard window". With this device Lenard can direct the cathode rays out of the discharge space in the evacuated tube, and into either open air or a second evacuated space, where the rays can be examined independently of the discharge process.
(What in air is doing the electrical conducting: O2, N2, CO2, H2O, etc, an electrical conductor? how is this shown? Is an electric potential used to cause a long continuous spark through air? It seems that air will always have a low conducting ability even without cathode rays, but maybe no.)
(State which paper, and show diagram of cathode ray tube.)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 4446) Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovsky (EvoNuFSKE) (CE 1864-1920) Russian botanist uses filters designed to filter out bacteria-sized objects from the juice of tobacco plants infected with tobacco mozaic disease and infects healthy tobacco plants with this liquid, but thinking something is wrong with his filters, fails to recognize that the mozaic disease is caused by objects smaller than bacteria. A few years later, Beijerinck will repeat the same experiment, accept the correct conclusion and receive credit for the first identification of viruses.
In 1890 a disease appeared in the tobacco plantations of the Crimea, and the directors of the Department of Agriculture suggest to Ivanovsky that he study it. Ivanovsky leaves for the Crimea that summer. Ivanosky publishes his investigations in a paper entitled "O dvukh beloznyakh tabaka" ("On Two Diseases of Tobacco") in 1892. This is the first study containing factual proof of the existence of new infectious pathogenic organisms—viruses.
I can see why there might be doubts. How can a person be sure that every last bacteria has been filtered? That some bacteria might not be small enough to pass through? Perhaps it is a physical impossibility.
| (St. Petersburg University) Saint Petersburg, Russia |
108 YBN
[1892 AD]
| 6012) Pyotr Il′yich Tchaikovsky (CE 1840-1893), Russian composer, composes his famous ballet "Nutcracker" (Opus 71).
| Klin (outside Moscow), (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) |
107 YBN
[03/04/1893 AD]
| 3841) John William Strutt 3d Baron Rayleigh (CE 1842-1919), English physicist, finds that nitrogen obtained from air shows a slightly higher density than nitrogen obtained from ammonium. This will lead to the discovery of the inert gases.
Rayleigh goes on to report in 1894, in :Anomaly encountered in Determinations of the Density of Nitrogen Gas", that nitrogen obtained from the atmosphere of Earth has a slightly higher density than nitrogen from a variety of other nitrogen compounds.
Rayleigh tries to find the source of the difference, and writes to the journal "Nature" asking for suggestions. Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, asks permission to approach the problem and on 08/13/1894 the explanation of a previously unidentified gas in the atmosphere is announced and is named argon. Argon is the first of a series of rare gases with unusual properties whose existence had not been known before this.
(It is interesting that Ar is more abundant than the smaller He, Ne, and the larger Kr, Xe.)
| (Strutt Home Laboratory) Terling, England |
107 YBN
[04/17/1893 AD]
| 4161) German-US physicist, Albert Abraham Michelson (mIKuLSuN) or (mIKLSuN) (CE 1852-1931), measures the meter in terms of cadmium-red wavelength.
Michelson proposes the use of light wave-length as a standard of length in place of the platinum-iridium bar preserved in a Paris suburb as the International Prototype Meter. The use of light waves as a length standard is finally accepted in 1960, although light emitted from the rare inert gas krypton is accepted as the standard.
Michelson publishes this in "Comptes Rendus" with the title (translated from French) "Comparison of the International Metre with the Wave-Length of the Light of Cadmium.". Michelson writes: "The measurement of luminous wave-lengths in metric values necessitates two distinct operations: the first is the determination of the order of interference produced by a source as nearly homogeneous as possible between rays reflected by two parallel planes; the second is the comparison of the distance between the planes with the metre.
In order to apply this method it is necessary in the first place to produce interference of a very high order and, in the second place, to regulate the position of the surfaces with such exactness that their distance, even when very great, may be determined with an approximation of a few millionths of a millimetre, and that their parallelism may be verified within a small fraction of a second.
A preliminary study of the radiations emitted by twenty different sources has shown that very few exist of such homogeneity that their wave-lengths can be used as absolute standards of length.
Most of the sources which correspond to the bright lines of the spectrum are double, triple or of still more complex constitution; the radiations emitted by the vapor of cadmium, however, seem to be simple enough to conform with the best conditions.
In all cases when the vapors are produced at atmospheric pressure, the difference of path of the interfering rays cannot be carried beyond 2 or 3 centimetres, or 40,000 and 60,000 wavelengths. These figures are very nearly the same as those found by M. Fizeau in his celebrated experiments on interference at great difference of path with sodium light.
If the lack of homogeneity of the source which this limit discloses is due to frequent collisions of the vibrating molecules among themselves or with those of the surrounding gas, which prevent them from executing freely their natural vibrations, it should be possible to greatly augment the order of interference by placing the luminous body in a vacuum, in order to diminish the number of collisions.
Thanks to this arrangement, it has been possible to obtain with a mercury line interferences corresponding to a difference of path of about half a metre, or 850,000 wave-lengths. An examination of the variations in the sharpness of the fringes, as the difference of path increases, shows however that the source is still very complex: it always appears single with the greatest dispersion that it is possible to realize, while in reality it contains at least six distinct components.
An examination of the light of cadmium vapor, made from this point of view, shows that the red line (λ = 0μ.6439) is almost ideally simple, although a little wider than the components of the green line of mercury. The sharpness of the fringes diminishes according to an exponential law and disappears when the difference of path approaches 25 cm. or 400,000 wave-lengths; for a difference of 10 cm., the visibility is about 0.60 of its maximum value. Cadmium gives in addition three other remarkable lines, green, blue and violet; the first two are similarly very simple and give fringes almost as easily visible as those of the red line.
We have thus, for a single substance, three kinds of radiations which may be examined successively without modifying the arrangement of the apparatus; the concordance of the resulis which they give for each increase of distance is a very important check on the exactness of the measures.". Michelson goes on to describe his interferometer and concludes: "The two series of observations which I have been able to complete are not yet entirely reduced; but an approximate calculation shows that there does not exist between them a difference of a wave-length in the total distance between the two extreme marks of the standard metre, which corresponds to an error of about 1/500000.
We have thus a means of comparing the fundamental base of the metric system with a natural unit with the same degree of approximation as that which obtains in the comparison of two standard metres. This natural unit depends only on the properties of the vibrating atoms and of the universal ether; it is thus, in all probability, one of the most constant dimensions in all nature.".
Note that light wave-length is equivalent to and may be referred to as light particle "interval" with respect to a particle theory for light. I think it is acceptable to call light, light "waves" as applies to beams of light, with wavelength, although in my view these are waves created by photons, point-waves with no amplitude, basically straight-line beams of photons where wavelength is determined by spacing between photons, and more accurately described as having an "interval".
| (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
107 YBN
[04/18/1893 AD]
| 4393) Arthur Edwin Kennelly (CE 1861-1939), British-US electrical engineer applying complex-number techniques to alternating current theory.
The mathematical analysis of direct-current circuits is simple (using Ohm's law, for example V=IR), but the analysis of aleternating current (AC) circuits is more complicated (because the resistance of capacitors and inductors changes depending on the frequency of the current).
Kennelly publishes this in a paper titled "Impedance".
Charles Steinmetz will develop this idea farther a few months later. Apparently Kennelly never actually uses an imaginary number "i" or "j". Steinmetz, who produces a similar method for alternating current analysis comments in an article following Kennelly's article, in which Steinmetz uses the word "liable", so what may have happened is that Kennelly saw Steinmetz' work through the neuron net, and Steinmetz was forced to publish a few months later.
| (Edison's company) West Orange, N.J., USA |
107 YBN
[05/03/1893 AD]
| 3888) (Sir) William de Wiveleslie Abney (CE 1843-1920), English astronomer, determines that the dominant color of the blue color of the earth sky is around 4800 (Angstroms). Abney adds or subtracts white to match the spectral color. The color of the sky varies from time to time. Abney finds that the color of the clouds varies widely between sun light and sky light at different times in the day, in particular with sunset colors.
(I put this mainly as a reference for finding - when was the first spectrum of the sky and clouds published? - perhaps Vogel)
| (Science and Art Department) South Kensington, England (verify) |
107 YBN
[07/??/1893 AD]
| 4459) Charles Proteus (originally Karl August) Steinmetz (CE 1865-1923), German-US electrical engineer works out the mathematics of alternating current circuitry using complex numbers (numbers that use the square root of -1, usually represented by the letter "i" or "j").
Steinmetz publishes this work as "Complex Quantities and their Use in Electrical Engineering" which is read during the International Electrical Congress in Chicago in 1893. Steinmetz writes: "In the following, I shall outline a method of calculating alternate current phenomena, which, I believe, differs from former methods essentially in so far, as it allows us to represent the alternate current, the sine-function of time, by a constant numerical quantity, and thereby eliminates the independent variable "time" altogether from the calculation of alternate current phenomena.
Herefrom results a considerable simplification of methods. Where before we had to deal with periodic functions of an independent variable, time, we have now to add, subtract, etc., constant quantities—a matter of elementary algebra—while problems like the discussion of circuits containing distributed capacity, which before involved the integration of differential equations containing two independent variables: "time" and "distance," are now reduced to a differential equation with one independent variable only, "distance," which can easily be integrated in its most general form.
Even the restriction to sine-waves, incident to this method, is no limitation, since we can reconstruct in the usual way the complex harmonic wave from its component sine-waves; though almost always the assumption of the alternate current as a true sine-wave is warranted by practical experience, and only under rather exceptional circumstances the higher harmonics become noticeable.
In the graphical treatment of alternate current phenomena different representations have been used. It is a remarkable fact, however, that the simplest graphical representation of periodic functions, the common, well-known polar coordinates; with time as angle or amplitude, and the instantaneous values of the function as radii vectores, which has proved its usefulness through centuries in other branches of science, and which is known to every mechanical engineer from the Zeuner diagram of valve motions of the steam engine, and should consequently be known to every electrical engineer also, it is remarkable that this polar diagram has been utterly neglected, and even where it has been used, it has been misunderstood, and the sine-wave represented—instead of by one circle—by two circles, whereby the phase of the wave becomes indefinite, and hence the diagram useless. In its place diagrams have been proposed, where revolving lines represent the instantaneous values by their projections upon a fixed line, etc., which diagrams evidently are not able to give as plain and intelligible a conception of the variation of instantaneous values, as a curve with the instantaneous values as radii, and the time as angle. It is easy to understand then, that graphical calculations of alternate current phenomena have found almost no entrance yet into the engineering practice. In graphical representations of alternate currents, we shall make use, therefore, of the Polar Coordinate System, representing the time by the angle φ as amplitude, counting from an initial radius o A chosen as zero time or starting point, in positive direction or counter-clockwise, and representing the time of one complete period by one complete revolution or 360° = 2π.
The instantaneous values of the periodic function are represented by the length of the radii vectores o B = r, corresponding to the different angles φ or times t, and every periodic function is hereby represented by a closed curve (Fig. 1). At any time t, represented by angle or amplitude φ, the instantaneous value of the periodic function is cut out on the movable radius by its intersection o B with the characteristic curve c of the function, and is positive, if in the direction of the radius, negative, if in opposition.
The sine-wave is represented by one circle (Fig. 2).
The diameter o c of the circle, which represents the sine-wave, is called the intensity of the sine-wave, and its amplitude, A O B = ω, is called the phase of the sine-wave.
The sine-wave is completely determined and characterized by intensity and phase.
It is obvious, that the phase is of interest only as difference of phase, where several waves of different phases are under consideration.
Where only the integral values of the sine-wave, and not its instantaneous values are required, the characteristic circle c of the sine-wave can be dropped, and its diameter o c considered as the representation of the sine-wave in the polar-diagram, and in this case we can go a step further, and instead of using the maximum value of the wave as its representation, use the effective value, which in the sine wave is =
maximum value -------------- √2
Where, however, the characteristic circle is drawn with the effective value as diameter, the instantaneous values, when taken from the diagram, have to be enlarged by √2.
We see herefrom, that:
"In polar coordinates, the sine-wave is represented in intensity and phane by a vector o c, and in combining or dissolving sine-waves, they are to be combined or dissolved by the parallelogram or polygon of sine-waves."
For the purpose of calculation, the sine-wave is represented by two constants: C, ω, intensity and phase.
In this case the combination of sine-waves by the Law of Parallelogram, involves the use of trigonometric functions.
The sine-wave can be represented also by its rectangular coordinates, a and b (Fig. 3), where :
a = C cos ω ) b = C sin ω )
Here a and b are the two rectangular components of the sinewave.
This representation of the sine-waves by their rectangular components a and b is very useful in so far as it avoids the use of trigonometric functions. To combine sine-waves, we have simply to add or subtract their rectangular components. For instance, if a and b are the rectangular components of one sinewave, a1 and b1 those of another, the resultant or combined sinewave has the rectangular components a + a1 and b + b1.
To distinguish the horizontal and the vertical components of sine-waves, so as not to mix them up in a calculation of any greater length, we may mark the ones, for instance, the vertical components, by a distinguishing index, as for instance, by the addition of the letter j, and may thus represent the sine-wave by the expression:
a+jb
which means, that a is the horizontal, b the vertical component of the sine-wave, and both are combined to the resultant wave:
C=√a2 + b2
which has the phase :
tan ω = b/a
Analogous, a —j b means a sine-wave with a as horizontal, and — b as vertical component, etc.
For the first, j is nothing but a distinguishing index without numerical meaning.
A wave, differing in phase from the wave a + j b by 180°, or one-half period, is represented in polar coordinates by a vector of opposite direction, hence denoted by the algebraic expression: —a — jb.
This means:
"Multiplying the algebraic expression a + jb of the sinewave by —1, means reversing the wave, or rotating it by 180° = one-half period. {ULSF: no end quote}
A wave of equal strength, but lagging 90° = one-quarter period behind a +jb, has the horizontal component —b, and the vertical component a, hence is represented algebraically by the symbol:
j a — b.
Multiplying, however: a + j b by j, we get:
j a + j2 b
hence, if we define the—until now meaningless—symbol j so, as to say, that:
j2 = -1
hence: j (a + j b) = j a — b,
we have:
" Multipling the algebraic expression a +j b of the sine-wave by j, means rotating the wave by 90°, or one-quarter period, that is, retarding the wave by one-quarter period."
In the same way :
" Multiplying by —j means advancing the wave by 90°, or one-quarter period."
j2 = — 1 means:
j = √-1, that is:
"j is the imaginary unit, and the sine-wave is represented by a complex imaginary quantity a + j b." Herefrom we get the result:
" In the polar diagram of time, the sine-wave is represented in intensity as well as phase by one complex quantity:
a +j b
where a is the horizontal, b the vertical component of the wave, the intensity is given by: C = √a2 + b2
and the phase by: tan ω =b/a
and it is: a = C cos ω b = C sin ω
hence the wave: a + j b can also be expressed by: C (cos ω + j sin ω)"
Since we have seen that sine-waves are combined by adding their rectangular components, we have :
" Sine-waves are combined by adding their complex algebraic expressions."
For instance, the sine-waves:
a +jb
and a1 + j b1
combined give the wave :
A +jB = (a + a1)+j(b + b1).
As seen, the combination of sine-waves is reduced hereby to the elementary algebra of complex quantities.
If C = c +jc1 is a sine-wave of alternate current, and r is the resistance, the E. M. F. consumed by the resistance is in phase with the current, and equal to current times resistance, hence it is:
r C = r c + j r c1.
If L is the "coefficient of self-induction," or s = 2 π N L the "inductive resistance" or " ohmic inductance," which in the following shall be called the "inductance," the E. M. F. produced by the inductance (counter E. M. F. of self-induction) is equal to current times inductance, and lags 90° behind the current, hence it is represented by the algebraic expression :
j s C
and the E. M. F. required to overcome the inductance is consequently :
-j s C
that is, 90° ahead of the current (or, in the usual expression, the current lags 90° behind the E. M. F.).
Hence, the E. M. F. required to overcome the resistance r and the inductance s is :
(r -j s) C
that is:
" I = r —j s is the expression of the impedance, in complex quantities, where r = resistance, s = 2π N L = inductance."
Hence, if C = c +j c1 is the current, the E. M. F. required to overcome the impedance I = r —j s is:
E = I C = (r —j 8) (c + j c1), hence, since j2 = — 1: = (r c + s c1) + j (r c1 — s c) or, if E = e +j e1 is the impressed E. M. F., and I = r —j s is the impedance, the current flowing through the circuit is :
C= E/I = e + je1/ r=js
or, multiplying numerator and denominator by (r + js), to eliminate the imaginary from the denominator :
{ULSF: See paper for equation}
If K is the capacity of a condenser, connected in series into a circuit of current C = c + j c1, the E. M. F. impressed upon
the terminals of the condenser is E = C/2π N K and lags behind the current, hence represented by :
E = jC/2π N K = jkC,
where k = 1/ 2π N K can be called the "capacity inductance" or simply "inductance" of the condenser. Capacity inductance is of opposite sign to magnetic inductance. That means: {ULSF note: this value, the resistance of a capacitor for an oscillating current, is now called "reactance"}
"If r = resistance,
L = coefficient of self-induction, hence s = 2 π N L = inductance,
K = capacity, hence k = 1/2π N K capacity inductance,
I= r —j (s — k) is the impedance of the circuit, and Ohm's law is re-established :
E= I C,
C=E/I,
I=E/C
in a more general form, however, giving not only the intensity, but also the phase of the sine-waves, by their expression in complex quantities."
In the following we shall outline the application of complex quantities to various problems of alternate and polyphase currents, and shall show that these complex quantities can be operated upon like ordinary algebraic numbers, so that for the solution of most of the problems of alternate and polyphase currents, elementary algebra is sufficient. ... ".Steinmetz goes on to give specific examples, and explain in more detail how complex numbers can be used to determine quantites of oscillating currents in capacitors and inductors which create different phases of alternating currents.
Steinmetz’ first textbook on electricity, "Theory and Calculation of Alternating Current Phenomena" (1897), written with E. J. Berg, describes the complex number technique for analyzing alternating-current circuits that he had first presented to the International Electrical Congress in Chicago in 1893.
This helps to complete the victory of AC over DC as the electricity used on and transported over the power lines which connect all buildings and cities, although DC is used in most electrical devices.
This imaginary number technique is still universally used.
A few months earlier Arthur Edwin Kennelly (CE 1861-1939) had published the idea of using complex numbers to analyze alternating currents in electrical circuits but apparently never used an imaginary number? Is there a priority dispute?
| (International Electrical Congress) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
107 YBN
[09/05/1893 AD]
| 3244) C.M. Broderick and John Vankeirsbilck patent a strip feed for a Gatling machine gun.
(first strip feed for a gun?)
| Indianapolis, Indiana (guess) |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 3220) Richard Jordan Gatling (CE 1818-1903), US inventor, develops an electric motor drive which fires the Gatling gun at 3,000 rounds per minute (50 bullets a second).
The Crocker-Wheeler Motor Company of New York City at the request of the US Navy Department had developed an electric motor drive for a Gatling gun in 1890.
In 1895, Carl J. Ehbets patents a "Gas-Operated Machine-gun", which is a device which is applied to a Gatling gun. Powder gas generated by firing turns the barrels, however in 1894, the US Navy adopts the Maxim machine gun instead of the Galing. (Is this the first gas powered gun?)
| Hartford, Connecticut, USA (presumably) |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 3449) Pierre Jules César Janssen (joNSeN) (CE 1824-1907), French astronomer, using observations from the meteorological observatory established by Janssen on Mont Blanc, proves that strong oxygen lines appearing in the solar spectrum are caused by oxygen in the Earth’s atmosphere.
(I find it interesting that we can still see light from oxygen gas in a vacuum tube under high voltage when viewing this light from outside the glass through the surrounding oxygen. Does Janssen produce photographs of solar spectrum without oxygen lines from Mount Blanc?)
| (Mount Blanc Observatory) Mount Blanc, France |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 3668) Charles Friedel (FrEDeL) (CE 1832-1899), French chemist, attempts but fails to make synthetic diamond.
Friedel is one of the leading workers, in collaboration from 1879 to 1887 with Emile Edmond Sarasin (1843-1890), at the formation of minerals by artificial means, particularly in the wet way with the aid of heat and pressure, and he succeeds in reproducing a large number of the natural compounds.
In 1893, as the result of an attempt to make diamond by the action of sulphur on highly carburetted (to combine or mix with carbon or hydrocarbons) cast iron at 450°-500° C. Friedel obtains a black powder too small in quantity to be analysed but hard enough to scratch corundum.
| Sorbonne, Paris, France |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 3917) Charles Ernest Overton (CE 1865-1933) finds that pollen cells have a reduced number of chromosomes relative to their parent spore cells. This report stimulates the realization that the alternation of generations in many organisms is also an alternation between cells with single or double sets of chromosomes.
Overton writes (translated from German) "It will be a matter of great morphological as well as physiological interest, to establish beyond the possibility of a doubt that the alternation of generations, which is so remarkable a feature in the life-history of plants, is dependent on a change in the configuration of the idioplasm; a change, the outward and visible sign of which is the difference in the number of the nuclear chromosomes in the two generations.".
| (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4116) (Sir) Oliver Joseph Lodge (CE 1851-1940), English physicist performs an experiment involving the interference between two opposing light rays traveling around the space between a pair of rapidly rotating parallel steel disks, and claims that the results prove that ether is not carried along with moving matter. This contradicts the results of the Michelson-Morley 1887 experiment in which was interpretted as indicating that an ether does move with matter. The apparent contradiction helped to discredit the theory of the ether and to set the stage for the theory of relativity.
(cite original paper)
| (University College) Liverpool, England (presumably) |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4187) Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (KoSuL) (CE 1853-1927) German biochemist and his student Neumann isolate thymine and cytosine from "paranuclein" (the name given by Kossel in 1886, to nuclein from egg yolk that yields no xanthine on hydrolysis), characterizes thymine, and publishes a new method for the preparation of nucleic acids.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4379) High frequency light found to kill bacteria.
Niels Ryberg Finsen (CE 1860-1904), Danish physician finds that short wave light from the sun or from a powerful electric lights can kill bacteria in cultures and on the skin. In addition Finsen establishes that the bacteria are killed by the light and not from heating effects. Finsen is able to cure lupus vulgaris, a skin disease caused by the tubercle bacterium by irradiating (the infected skin) with strong shortwave light. Finsen designs a powerful arc lamp called the Finsen Light for the purpose of destoying bacteria. Later the even more penetrating photons in X and Gamma frequencies will be used to stop disease.
In this way Finsen is the founder of modern phototherapy (the treatment of disease by the influence of light). Although phototherapy has largely been replaced by other forms of radiation (such as X-rays) and drug therapy (such as cortisone).
Finsen finds that lengthy exposure of smallpox sufferers to red light formed by filtering the violet end of the spectrum prevents the formation of smallpox pockmarks.
Finsen finds that the short ultraviolet rays, either natural or artificial, have the greatest bactericidal power.
Finsen develops an ultraviolet treatment for lupus vulgaris, a form of skin tuberculosis with great success.
| |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4427) Leo Hendrik Baekeland (BAKlaND) (CE 1863-1944), Belgian-US chemist invents "Velox", the first commercially successful photographic paper.
This is a "gaslight paper" like that invented by Josef M. Eder for making, developing, and handling prints from negatives by gas or electrically produced light.
In 1899, Baekeland sells his company and the rights to produce Velox to George Eastman for a million dollars.
(describe developing process before and now with the new paper.) (How does this invention relate to the secret neuron image and sound recording and transmitting done by the phone companies, wealthy and governments of earth at this time? - state an estimate of where the secret neuron technology is at in 1893.)
| (Baekeland's business) New York City, NY, USA |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4432) Wilhelm Wien (VEN) (CE 1864-1928), German physicist, shows that peak of radiation from a black-body increases frequency with an increase in temperature, and this is called "Wien's displacement law".
Wien creates an equation that describes the distribution of all wavelengths in black-body radiation for all temperatures, but his equation only fits for short wavelengths (high frequencies) of light. Rayleigh had created an equation that explained long wavelength (low frequencies) of light but does not work for short wavelengths. This will motivate Planck to create the quantum theory which will explain the distribution of light from a radiating body over all temperatures.
Wien experiments with a heated chamber with a small hole in it. Any light entering the hole is absorbed inside so out of the hole should emit radiation of all wavelengths. Wien finds that as the temperature rises, the predominant color shifts towards the blue end of the spectrum. Lower heated bodies emit mainly in the infrared, then as a body is heated, the color changes to a dull red, then a bright red, yellow-white, and finally blue-white. Extremely hot stars radiate light mostly in the ultraviolet (most of the frequencies are ultraviolet? check.). Very hot objects emit light in the X-ray region (such as the sun's corona. Kirchhoff had created a theory that hot bodies radiate those wavelengths that they absorb when cold. A body that absorbs all wavelengths and was therefore perfectly black, a black-body, would radiate all wavelengths when heated. Prévost had shown 100 years earlier that the amount of radiation rises with temperature, and around 15 years earlier Stefan had used thermodynamics to show exactly how the amount rose.
In 1893 Wien demonstrates the constancy of the products λ.θ, given a shift of the wavelength λ and the corresponding change in temperature θ. Wien also publishes, in 1896, the theoretical derivation of a law of the energy distribution of the radiation, which differs only slightly from the currently accepted Planck law.
(The chamber must be painted or naturally colored black? Clearly the frequencies of light emitted probably relate only to the material/atoms of the chamber. I would think heating various balls of metal might show light frequency distributions? How are the many frequencies measured? simply by sight/color?)
(That the color white is observed shows that there are a variety of different frequencies. Digitally white is defined as the highest intensity of red, green and blue frequency beams very close together. It seems that white is the way a single sensor in the human eye (and perhaps other kind of sensors) interpret beams of different frequencies all stimulating one sensor.)
(EXPERIMENT: Does x-ray contain lower frequency light - can x-rays be filtered to produce lower frequency visible light? Perhaps using a very fast rotating filter might lower the frequency.)
(Black-body radiation is one of those theories that is a major part of physics. Much of science can be divided into these paradigms, theories or experiments.)
(Clearly photons are being added when heating such an object. A black body seems only theoretical, because anything made of atoms will only absorb and emit photon in distinct frequencies (although this is probably many frequencies, and I think it would be nice to see this demonstrated on video.))
(Since frequency is included in these laws, this can only describe a multi-particle phenomenon.)
(There is the problem of how each atom only absorbs and emits specific frequencies, so how can it be that every frequency in a black-body curve can be filled?)
(EXPERIMENT: are other particles emitted from black bodies when heated?)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4440) Hermann Walther Nernst (CE 1864-1941), German physical chemist explains that the ionization of molecules in water happens because water has a high dielectric constant, which means that water is a good electrical insulator, and that electrically charged ions cannot attract each other through the insulating water molecules and so the ions do not hold each other as tightly as they do outside of water and can then carry an electric current. Nernst explains that in a solvent with a lower dielectric constant (a better conductor) ions would hold together and there then is no ionization or ability to carry an electric current. J. J. Thomson suggests this same idea and so this theory is called the Nernst-Thomson rule.
(Interesting that the water is not a conductor, but only the ions in the water - it seems unintuitive but I can accept that it is true - have there been extensive tests on the conductivity of very pure water?)
| ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4449) Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (PoseN) (CE 1865-1947), German physicist uses a delicate bolometer to determine that infrared spectral lines are produced merely by heating a gas.
Paschen spends ten years at Hannover investigating infrared spectra. Paschen makes a very accurate investigation of the dispersion of fluorite and also determines the infrared absorption by carbon dioxide and water vapor.
(find original paper) (chronology)
| (University of Hannover) Hannover , Germany |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 4489) Alfred Werner (VARnR) (CE 1866-1919), German-Swiss chemist creates "coordination theory" which provides a logical explanation for known molecular compounds and also predicts series' of unknown compounds.
(show diagrams and give simple explanation and clear examples)
This theory suggests that the structural relationships between atoms may not be restricted to ordinary valence bonds, either ionic as in Arrhenius' concept or covalent as in Kekulé's system, and also widens understanding of chemical structure and explains many things that would be mysterious otherwise. Coordination bonds are sometimes referred to as "secondary valence". Both ordinary and secondary valence will be united into a single theory by people like Linus Pauling.
Werner's coordination theory is a revolutionary approach in which the constitution and configuration of metal-ammines (called "Werner complexes"), double salts, and metal salt hydrates are logical consequences of a new concept, the coordination number. Werner divides metal-ammines into two classes—those with coordination number six, for which he postulates an octahedral configuration, and those with coordination number four, for which he proposes a square planar or tetrahedral configuration.
According to the theory, every metal in a particular oxidation state (primary valence) has a definite coordination number—that is, a fixed number of secondary valences that must be satisfied. Whereas primary valences can be satisfied only by anions (negatively charged ions drawn to the anode in electrolysis), secondary valences can be satisfied not only by anions but also by neutral molecules such as ammonia. water, organic amines, sulfides, and phosphines. These secondary valences are directed in space around the central metal ion (octahedral for coordination number 6, square planar or tetrahedral for coordination number 4); and the aggregate forms a “complex,” which should exist as a discrete unit in solution.
Werner demonstrates the validity of his views by citing numerous reactions, transformations, and cases of isomerism. Werner shows that loss of ammonia from metal-ammines is not a simple loss but is instead a substitution in which a change in function of the anions occurs simultaneously, resulting in a complete transition from cationic compounds through nonelectrolytes to anionic compounds. Werner also shows how ammonia can be replaced by water or other groups, and demonstrates the existence of transition series' between ammines, double salts, and metal hydrates.
(needs more specific info, clearly define the difference between coordination, ionic and covalent bonds.)
| (Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
107 YBN
[1893 AD]
| 6017) Antonín (Leopold) Dvořák (CE 1841-1904), Czech composer, composes his famous 9th Symphony ("From the New World") (Opus 95).
| (National Conservatory) New York City, New York, USA |
106 YBN
[01/19/1894 AD]
| 3828) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923), English chemist, demonstrates that magnetic strength increases with colder temperature.
Dewar reports this in a lecture at the Royal Institution, and later provides more information in an article "On the Changes Produced in Magnetised Iron and Steels by Cooling to the Temperature of Liquid Air" in 1896.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
106 YBN
[05/??/1894 AD]
| 4092) Augusto Righi (rEJE) (CE 1850-1920), Italian physicist achieves a radio wavelength (or interval) of only 26mm.
| (Institute of Physics, University of Bologna) Bologna, Italy |
106 YBN
[07/25/1894 AD]
| 3611) Charles Francis Jenkins (CE 1867-1934), describes using a two dimensional array of selenium wires embedded in a non-conducting board each wired to a similar board with small electric light bulbs.
(Does Jenkins ever examine the obvious next step of sending the image dot by dot serially?) Jenkins will be the first to send a photographic image wirelessly in 1922. (I describe this device in my youtube video "Seeing, Hearing and Sending...".)
| Washington, D.C., USA. |
106 YBN
[10/??/1894 AD]
| 4258) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, measures the velocity of cathode rays to be 1.9 x 107 cm/sec. Since this speed is slower than light, Thomson concludes that the cathode rays are probably particles instead of aetherial waves of very small length.
Thomson is inclined to the view advocated by Varley and by Crookes that cathode rays consist of negatively electrified particles fired out from the cathode, which is in opposition to the view taken by German physicists, notably Goldstein, Hertz and Lenard, that the rays are of the nature of waves in the ether.
Thomson writes: "THE phosphorescence shown by the glass of a discharge-tube in the neighbourhood of the cathode has been ascribed by Crookes to the impact against the sides of the tube of charged molecules driven off from the negative electrode. The remarkably interesting experiments of Hertz and Lenard show that thin films of metal when interposed between the cathode and the walls of the discharge-tube do not entirely stop the phosphorescence. This has led some physicists to doubt whether Crookes's explanation is the true one, and to support the view that the phosphorescence is due to aetherial waves of very small wave-length, these waves being so strongly absorbed by all substances that it is only when the film of the substance is extremely thin that any perceptible phosphorescence occurs behind it. Thus on this view the phosphorescence is due to the action of a kind of ultra-violet light, which possesses in an exaggerated degree the property possessed by the ultra-violet rays of the sun of producing phosphorescence when incident upon such substances as German or uranium glass. It is perhaps worth while to observe, in passing, that the light produced in an ordinary discharge-tube by an intense discharge is very rich in phosphorogenic rays. I have been able to detect phosphorescence in pieces of ordinary German-glnss tubing held at a distance of some feet from the discharge-tube, though in this case the light had to pass through the glass walls of the vacuum-tube and a considerable thickness of air before falling on the phosphorescent body.
The view, to which Lenard has been led by his experiments, that the cathode-rays are aetherial waves demands the most careful consideration and attention; for if it is admitted, it follows that the aether must have a structure either in time or space. For these cathode-rays are deflected by a magnet, which, so far as our knowledge extends, does not produce any effect on ultra-violet light unless this is passing through a refracting substance : thus if the cathode-rays are supposed to be ultra-violet light of excessively small wave-length, it follows that in the aether in a magnetic field there must either be some length with which the wave-length of the cathode-rays is comparable, or else some time comparable with the period of vibration of these rays.
It might be objected that it is possible that the action of a magnet on the cathode-rays is a secondary effect, and that the primary action of the magnet is to affect the main current of the discharge passing between the positive and negative electrodes, and thus to alter the distribution of the discharge entering the cathode: this would affect the distribution of the places of greatest intensity over the cathode, and thus indirectly the distribution of the waves emerging from it. To test this point I shielded the cathode from magnetic forces by means of a magnetic screen consisting of a ring made of soft iron wire : the length was about 1'5 inch, its thickness was about '75 inch. When this ring encircled the cathode a magnet was brought up to the tube: the phosphorescent patches inside the ring were not now affected by the magnet, but those on the parts of the tube farther away from the cathode and outside the iron ring were very much displaced by the magnet; thus proving that the magnet acts on the cathode-rays through the whole of their course, and does not merely affect the place on the cathode at which they have their origin. There thus seems no escape from the conclusion^ that the establishment of the hypothesis that the cathode-rays are aetherial rays would also prove the finiteness of the structure of the aether.
The following experiments were made with the view of determining the velocity with which the cathode-rays travel, as it seemed that a knowledge of this velocity would enable us to discriminate between the two views held as to the nature of the cathode-rays. If we take the view that the cathode-rays are aetherial waves, we should expect them to travel with a velocity comparable with that of light; while if the rays consist of molecular streams, the velocity of these rays will be the velocity of the molecules, which we should expect to be very much smaller than that of light.
The method I employed is as follows :—The discharge-tube was sealed on to the pump, and the two electrodes were placed at the neck of this tube. The discharge-tube was covered with lampblack, with the exception of two thin strips in the same straight line from which the lampblack was scratched : these strips were about 10 centim. apart; the one nearest to the negative electrode was about 15 centim. from the electrode, the other was 25 centim. from the electrode. They were chosen so as to phosphoresce with, as nearly as could be judged, equal brilliancy when the discharge passed through the tube.
The light from the phosphorescent strip fell upon a rotating mirror about 75 centim. from the tube. This mirror is the one used by me in my experiments on "The Velocity of Propagation of the Electric Discharge through Gases" (Proc. Roy. Soc. 1890) {ULSF: possibly this is a mistake and Thomson is referring to his 'On the Rate of Propagation of the Luminous Discharge of Electricity through a Rarefied Gas"} , and is described in that paper. The only change made in the mirror was to replace the single plane strip of silvered glass which was used in the previous experiments by six strips of mirror fastened symmetrically round the axis. The mirror was driven by a large gramme-machine.
The images formed by reflexion from the mirror were observed through a telescope, of which the object-glass was a large portrait photographic lens of 4-iuch aperture, the eyepiece a short-focus lens: when the mirror was at rest the two images of the phosphorescent strips were seen in the same straight line, and the adjacent ends of the two images were brought into coincidence by inserting between one of the phosphorescent strips and the mirror a very acute-angled prism. The point of the experiment was to see if the images of the two phosphorescent strips remained in the same straight line when the mirror was in rapid rotation. If, for example, the cathode-rays travelled with the velocity of sound, they would take about 1/3300 of a second to pass from one strip to the next; if the mirror were rotating 300 times a second it would, in the interval taken by sound to pass from one strip to the next, rotate through about 33°; the displacement of the image produced by a rotation one thousandth part of this could easily be detected.
When the phosphorescence was produced by the discharge of an ordinary induction-coil, the images seen in the telescope after reflexion from the revolving mirror were drawn out into very faint ribands of light without definite beginnings or ends; so that it was impossible to say whether or not there was any displacement of one image relative to the other.
I tried a considerable number of phosphorescent substances in the hope of obtaining sharp images, but without success.
... After unsuccessful attempts with several methods, I found that this could be done in the following way, using the oscillatory currents produced by the discharge of a Leyden jar :— The electrodes of the discharge-tube were connected with the ends of the secondary coil of a transformer, whose primary circuit consisted of a coil of wire with the ends connected to the outside coatings of two Leyden jars, the inside coatings of which were connected with the extremities of an induction coil : the secondary coil of the transformer had about 30 turns for each turn of the primary coil. It was heavily insulated, and both primary and secondary were immersed in an oilbath. This transformer easily gave sparks 7 or 8 inches long in air, and when connected to the terminals of a discharge-tube made of uranium-glass produced a very vivid phosphorescence. When the phosphorescence was produced in this way, the images after reflexion in the rotating mirror had one edge quite sharp and distinct, though the other edge was indeterminate in consequence of the duration of the phosphorescence.
When the images of the two bright phosphorescent strips were observed in the telescope, after reflexion from the rapidly revolving mirror, their bright edges were seen to be no longer in the same straight line : if the images came in the field of view from the bottom and went out at the top, then the sharp edge of the phosphorescent strip nearest the electrode was lower than the edge of the other image ; if the direction of rotation of the mirror was reversed so that the images came in at the top of the field of view and disappeared at the bottom, then the bright edge of the image of the phosphorescent strip nearest the negative electrode was higher than the bright edge of the image of the other strip. This shows that the luminosity at the strip nearest the cathode begins to be visible before that at the strip more remote ; and that the retardation is sufficiently large to be detected by the revolving mirror. This retardation might be explained, (1) by supposing it due to the time taken by the cathode-rays to traverse the distance between the phosphorescent patches; or (2) we might suppose that, though the cathode-rays reached the two phosphorescent patches almost simultaneously, it took longer for the rays falling on the patch at the greater distance from the cathode to raise the patch to luminosity. In other words, there may be an interval between the incidence of the cathode-rays and the emission of the phosphorescent light; this interval being greater the further the phosphorescent patch is from the cathode. This latter supposition cannot, however, explain the displacement of the images for the following reasons :—The sharpness and brightness of the edge of the image show that the phosphorescence, when once it is visible, must attain its maximum brilliancy in a time very small compared with the time taken by the mirror to rotate through an angle large enough to produce the observed displacement of the images. Again, the two phosphorescent patches are as nearly as possible of equal brightness, so that there can be very little difference in the intensity of the cathode-rays falling upon them : it was for this reason that both the phosphorescent patches were taken some distance down the tube. Again, I took a tube which was bent so that that the catode-rays fell more directly upon the patch farther from the cathode than upon the other patch, so that in this case the phosphorescence of the more remote patch was brighter. The displacement of the images with this tube was just the same as for the previous, i. e. the phosphorescence commenced at the patch nearest the cathode sooner than at the other patch ; whereas if the displacement of the images was due to the interval between the arrival of the rays and the beginning of the phosphorescence it should have commenced at the patch furthest from the cathode, as this was the most exposed to the cathode-rays and phosphoresced with the greatest brilliancy.
I conclude, therefore, that the displacement of the images is due to the time taken by the rays to travel from one patch to the other. This displacement enables us to measure the velocity of the cathode-rays. The amount of displacement observed through the telescope is not constant: even though the mirror is turning at a uniform rate, there are quite appreciable and apparently irregular variations in the amount of the displacement of the images seen in the course of a few minutes. I think these are due to irregularities in the sparks discharging the jar, and the consequent irregularities in the electromotive force acting on the discharge-tube.
When the mirror was rotating 300 times a second, the bright edges of the two patches were on the average separated by the same distance as the image of two lines 1.5 millim. from each other placed against the discharge-tube. Since the distance of the discharge-tube which contained hydrogen from the mirror is 75 centim., the mirror must, in the time taken by the cathode-rays to pass from one patch to the other, have
turned through the angle whose circular measure is 1.5/2x750.
Since the mirror makes 300 revolutions per second, the time it takes to rotate through this angle is
1.5/2 x 750 x 2pi x 300 = 1/6pi x 105 ;
and since the distance between the patches is 10 centim., the velocity of the cathode-rays is
6pi x 106 cm./sec., or about
1.9 x107 cm./sec.
This velocity is small compared with that with which the main discharge from the positive to the negative electrode travels between the electrodes (see J. J. Thomson, Proc. Roy. Soc. 1890). I verified this by inserting an electrode into the far end of the tube used in the previous experiment, and observing the images formed when a bright discharge passed down from the electrode at the beginning to the electrode at the end of the tube. The light from the luminous gas shines through the places where the lampblack has been scraped from the tube, and we get two images, which when the mirror is at rest coincide in position with the images of the two phosphorescent patches in the previous experiment. These images, however, unlike the phosphorescent one, remained in the same straight line when the mirror was rotating rapidly, thus proving that the velocity of the main discharge is very large indeed compared with that of the cathode-rays. The velocity of the cathode-rays is very much greater than the velocity of mean square of the molecules of gases at the temperature 0° C. Thus, for example, at 0° C. the velocity of mean square of the molecules of hydrogen is about 1.8 x 1.05 centimetres per second : the velocity of the cathode-rays is about one hundred times as great. The velocity of the cathode-rays found from the preceding experiments agrees very nearly with the velocity which a negatively electrified atom of hydrogen would acquire under the influence of the potential fall which occurs at the cathode. For, let v be the velocity acquired by the hydrogen atom under these circumstances, m the mass of the hydrogen atom, V the fall in potential at the cathode, e the charge on the atom ; then we have, by the conservation of energy,
mv2=2Ve.
Now e has the same value as in electrolytic phenomena, so that e/m = 104.
Warburg's experiments show that V is about 200 volts, or 2 x 1010 in absolute measure. Substituting this value, we find
v2=4 x1014,
or
v = 2 x 107 cm./sec.
A value almost identical with that found by experiment. The very small difference between the two is of course accidental, as the measurements of the displacement of the images on which the experimental value of v was founded could not be trusted to anything like 5 per cent.
The action of a magnetic force in deflecting these rays shows, assuming that the deflexion is due to the action of a magnet on a moving electrified body, that the velocity of the atom must be at least of the order we have found.
Consider an atom projected parallel to the axis of the tube which is situated in a uniform field of magnetic force, the lines of magnetic force being at right angles to the axis of the tube. Let H be the intensity of the magnetic force. Then, if m is the mass of the atom, v its velocity, and p the radius of curvature of its path, we have
mv2/p = Hev,
where e is the charge on the atom; since e/m for hydrogen is 104, we have
v=pHx104.
I cannot find any quantitative experiments on the deflexion of these rays by a magnet ; but ordinary observation shows that it would require a strong magnetic field to make p as small as 10 centim., which would mean clearing the tube of phosphorescence except within about 10 centim. of the cathode. If v were 2 x 107, this would give H = 200, which is not extravagant.".
(Interesting that Thomson compares the velocity of the cathode ray particle to the velocity of a negatively charged hydrogen atom.)
| (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 2692) The Tianjin-Shanghai telegraph wire line is established. By this time telegraph wires already connect Tianjin and Shanghai with Beijing, Hong Kong, Wuhan, Nanjing, and other cities in the eastern part of China. Transferring Morse code into Chinese causes a problem because (although there are only less than 30 unique sounds in any human language), there are over 50,000 characters in the Chinese language, and a Morse code for 50,000 characters would require 17 dots or dashes instead of the 6 for (phonetic) Latin languages. The system created uses a 4 digit number which corresponds to a set of 6000 of the most commonly used Chinese characters. For example the number 1800 means "center", number 1801 means "necessity", etc. This code is still in use. (How much easier a phonetic code would be. This could have been a perfect opportunity to implement a phonetic alphabet for Chinese. In addition to the 30 symbols for each unique sound, 5 symbols for tone are necessary.)
| Tianjin (and Shanghai), China |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 3144) Georg W. A. Kahlbaum improves the Sprengel mercury pump by using a metal tube instead of a glass tube which avoids the electrification of the glass by the falling mercury.
In 1901, Kahlbaum reaches a vacuum of .0000018 millimeters of mercury, the best vacuum to this time.
| (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 3913) Alexandre Yersin had isolated Yersinia (Pasteurella) pestis, the organism that is responsible for bubonic plague. Shibasaburo Kitasato also observed the bacterium in cases of plague.
| Hong Kong |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 3919) Eduard Adolf Strasburger (sTroSBURGR) (CE 1844-1912), German botanist, reports that the asexually reproducing generation of cells of ferns has twice the number of chromosomes as the sexually reproducing generation does.
This establishes clearly that there is a difference between the chromosome numbers in the gametophyte and sporophyte generations in the plants kingdom.
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 3929) (Sir) Patrick Manson (CE 1844-1922), Scottish physician suggests that the parasite of malaria might be spread by mosquitoes, a theory that Ronald Ross will verify three years later.
| London, England (presumably) |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4085) Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schäfer (CE 1850-1935), English physiologist, demonstrates that an extract of the adrenal glands raises blood pressure. This will lead to the isolation of adrenaline by Takamine seven years later, which will help to develop the concept of hormones for Bayliss and Starling.
| (University College) London, England |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4110) Edward Walter Maunder (CE 1851-1928), English astronomer finds that between 1645 and 1715 (a period of 32 years) there is virtually no sunspots activity recorded. This may corresponds to a prolonged cold period, or be part in long-term climatic change.
| (Royal Observatory) Greenwich, England |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4115) (Sir) Oliver Joseph Lodge (CE 1851-1940), English physicist improves Édouard Branly's radio frequency detector (coherer) by adding a "trembler", a dewvice that shakes the filings loose between radio waves. Connected to a receiving circuit, this improved coherer detects Morse code signals and enables them to be recorded on paper by an inker. This detector becomes the standard but is replaced in the following decade by magnetic, electrolytic, and crystal detectors.
Also in 1894 Lodge suggests that radio signals may be emitted from the Sun. but 50 years will pass before radio frequencies of light particals are detected emitting from the Sun.
(Verify if this is after Hertz's description of radio.)
(It seems clear that nearly all lower frequencies of light particles are emitted from a star. Interestingly, perhaps part of the frequency of light might depend on the distance from the star a person is, if the frequency of light is simply how many photons happen to be going in some particular direction. This is another possible explanation of the red shift of light from distant galaxies, that as we move farther away from a light source, more photons from some beam are going in different directions which only reveal themselves over vast distances from the star. But this theory might conflict with the specific frequency of light that an atom emits in a particular direction. The current view is that a beam of light originates from a single atom source which can be identified by it's frequency (and is not simply photons from many different atoms that happen to be going in the same direction. And in fact I can't imagine how two photons from different atoms could form a direct line, although we cannot detect a single stream of photons, and may never be able to, because it is too small, and all we have are photons to detect photons with, but perhaps. One other possibility is that atoms are in constant motion, for example those in the liquid on the surface of a star, and so one atom might emit photons in one direction, be moving, and a different atom move into the place the initial atom was at and send photons in roughly the same direction which would appear to be a part of the same beam. )
(All of photon communications is cast under a doubtful chronology because it seems clear neuron reading and writing occured in the 1800s.)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4204) Max Rubner (ruB or rUB?) (CE 1854-1932), German physiologist establishes the validity of the principle of the conservation of energy in living organisms, a goal which physiologists have wanted to prove for a long time.
Rubner finds that the energy produced from food by the body is exactly the same in quantity as the energy the food would contain if consumed by fire (after the energy content of urea is subtracted).
So this shows that the laws of physics apply to living and non-living objects, and that living organisms have no supernatural or magic way of obtaining energy (that is obtaining more matter or motion) beyond the material realm of the universe. Mayer had advanced this theory 50 years earlier. This is a serious argument against vitalism.
(Get and quote English translation of work.) It is interesting that humans require air, food, water, and have outputs mainly of air, urine, and feces. Perhaps in the future, people will design genomes that do not require food but that only require photons. Interesting that humans and all non-photosynthetic objects are converting machines.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4220) Jokichi Takamine (ToKomEnE) (CE 1854-1922) Japanese-US chemist, isolates, from a fungus grown on rice, a starch-hydrolyzing (that is to decompose starch by reacting with water, in other words to digest starch) enzyme that is similar to the diastase Payen had isolated, as the first known enzyme, nearly a century earlier. Takamine names this enzyme Takadiastase and develops methods for its use as a starch-digestant in industrial processes. Takadiastase has applications in medicine and the brewing industry.
Takadiastase is an enzyme of rice malt.
| (His private laboratory) Tokyo, Japan (presumably) |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4226) German physicists, Johann Phillipp Ludwig Julius Elster (CE 1854-1920), and Hans Geitel (CE 1855-1923) demonstrate the dependence of the photoelectric current on the polarization of the light, by using a photocathode of a fluid smooth potassium-sodium alloy.
Elster and Geitel also demostrate the existence of a "normal" and a "selective" photoelectric effect, which later became of decisive importance in the electron theory of metals. (in this work?)
| (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4237) Charles Frederick Cross (CE 1855-1935), and Edward John Bevan (CE 1856-1921), English chemists patent a manufacturing method for cellulose acetate.
Cellulose acetate was first prepared in 1865 by Schützenberger.
| (Cross and Bevan's private business) New Court, Lincoln's Inn, England |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4279) (Baron) Shibasaburo Kitasato (KEToSoTO) (CE 1856-1931), Japanese bacteriologist, identifies the bacterium that causes bubonic plague when an outbreak of bubonic plague happens in Hong Kong.
In one paper, in collaboration with James A. Lowson, a British naval surgeon, Kitasato presents several photographs of the isolated bacterium, Pasteurella pestis, and gives more details in a later paper.
Pasteurella pestis is now called Yersinia pestis; renamed after French bacteriologist Alexandre Yersin, who independently discovers the plague bacteria during the same Hong Kong epidemic.
| Hong Kong |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4305) Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (TSYULKuVSKE) (CE 1857-1935), Russian physicist describes plans for an airplane with a metal frame in an article "The Airplane or Bird-like Flying Machine." ("Aeroplan ili ptitsepodobnaya (aviatsionnaya) letatelnaya mashina" ). In this article, Tsiolkovsky describes a monoplane, wings, a wheeled undercarriage, and an internal combustion engine. Tsiolkovsky also suggests using twin screw propellers rotating in opposite directions and describes using a gyroscope as a simple automatic pilot.
| Kaluga, Russia |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4311) (Sir) Charles Scott Sherrington (CE 1857-1952), English neurologist, establishes the existence of sensory nerves in muscles.
Sherrington shows that only 1/2 to 2/3 of the nerves connected to muscles stimulate muscle contraction, but that 1/3 to 1/2 of these nerves are sensory, carrying sensation information to the brain, in order to judge the tension of a muscle and joint.
(state publication)
| (Brown Institution Animal Hospital) London, England |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4318) First known fossil of homo erectus found.
Marie Eugéne François Thomas Dubois (DYUBWo) (CE 1858-1940), Dutch paleontologist, interested in finding the "missing link" between apes and humans, reasons that such a creature would have originated in proximity to the apes of Africa or the orangutan of the Indies. After several years fruitless search in Sumatra, Dubois moves to Java and in 1890 discovers his first humanoid remains (a jaw fragment) at Kedung Brubus. The following year, at Trinil on the Solo river, Dubois finds the skullcap, femur, and two teeth of what he is later to name Pithecanthropus erectus, more commonly known as Java man. Dubois publishes these findings in 1894.
The skullcap (the dome of the skull) is larger than any living apes, and smaller than the skullcap of a modern human. The teeth are also intermediate between ape and human. This find helps to fill in what was called the "missing link" between direct fossil evidence of intermediate forms between apes and humans. Before this the main evidence for human evolution rested mainly on primitive stone tools and the presence of vestigial remnants in the human body, although the Neanderthal skeletons of the 1850s are significant evidence of primitive humans. Broca correctly thought them to be primitive, however Virchow wrongly thought they were ordinary humans deformed by disease or accident.
Because of controversy surrounding his discovery, Dubois withdraws his materials from all examination until 1923.
| Java |
106 YBN
[1894 AD]
| 4333) Michael Idvorsky Pupin (PUPEN Serbian PYUPEN English) (CE 1858-1935), Yugoslavian-US physicist, invents a method where signals can be transmitted across thin wires over long distances without distortion by loading the line with inductance coils at (specific) intervals, which reinforce the signals.
Hertz had reported the principle of electrical resonance of circuits with both a capacitor and inductor in 1887.
Supposedly, inductance coils which when spaced properly along telephone circuits reinforce the vibrations and permit long-distance calls, however, with the many various frequencies of audio, this seems somewhat unlikely to me, but perhaps this can be explained in more detail if there is an actual science accomplishment. How can an inductor preserve current moving at various frequencies through a wire?
The Bell Telephone Company acquires the rights to Pupin's line-loading coils in 1901, as do the Siemens and Halske Company in Germany, and public long-distance telephony soon becomes a reality.
The triode vacuum tube will replace the Pupin loading coils.
Clearly the relay is not fast enough for fast audio frequencies and so the tube amplifier and then the transistor, which are electronic switches and operate much faster than a electromagnetic-mechanical relay, will make transmitting long distance electrical signals possible?
(In one of his books Pupin indicates that the phenomenon is resonance, perhaps a signal can have a frequency, and current can be oscillated but direct current has no oscillations.) This is made in accord with a suggestion made earlier by Heaviside. (here "suggestion" is a key part of sending images and sounds to brains.) The Bell telephone company will buy the device (shouldn't this be the rights to the idea?) in 1901 and it makes long-distance telephone communication (telephony) practical. In my mind, this presumes that there is only a single frequency of data being sent in the phone lines. As I understand, the original format of the audio data in copper phone wires is simply amplitude modulation of direct current. Audio frequencies range from around 20hz to 10000hz so it seems unlikely that such a large range could be resonated - perhaps Pupin invents the band pass filter? State who understands the principle of the band pass filter. Is Pupin's big contribution some kind of band pass filter method? It can't be ruled out that this invention is some kind of false data and Pupin has some other contribution to science - but one which is classified as a government secret.
(It seems clear that Pupin may have something to do with neuron reading and writing, but clearly neuron reading, and even neuron writing, dates back long before, perhaps to 1810 - clearly to the early 1800s. But yet the image of the dollar bill with the ,000,000 appearing to be beamed infront of Pupin's eyes may mean that Pupin made some kind of significant contribution to neuron reading and writing. Perhaps Pupin was an outsider who was able to hear or see thoughts - one of the very few who 1) figure out that hearing and seeing thought is possible, but in addition 2) obtain the technical skills necessary to build devices that can read from and write to neurons. Pupin does mention about millions of dollars.)
(Much of the history around communication, the telephone, cameras, and particle communication is still kept secret from a public, that is sadly far too uninterested in it and/or unaware of the unbelievable secret technical achievements - in particular neuron reading and writing.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
105 YBN
[01/31/1895 AD]
| 3842) John William Strutt 3d Baron Rayleigh (CE 1842-1919), English physicist, and (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist identify, isolate and name the element Argon. They theorize correctly that Argon may be part of an eighth group of elements with a valence of zero. William Crookes describes the spectrum of argon, Karol Olszewski liquefies and solidifies Argon, and W Hartley describes the spark spectrum of Argon as it appears in the spark spectrum of air.
The British physicist John William Strutt (better known as Lord Rayleigh) showed in 1892 that the atomic weight of nitrogen found in chemical compounds is lower than that of nitrogen found in the atmosphere. Strutt theorizes that this difference is due to a light gas included in chemical compounds of nitrogen, while Ramsay suspects that an undiscovered heavy gas exists mixed in with the atmospheric nitrogen. Using two different methods to remove all known gases from air, Ramsay and Rayleigh are able to announce in 1894 that they have found a monatomic, chemically inert gaseous element that constitutes nearly 1 percent of the atmosphere.
Ramsay identifies the element Argon, naming it after the Greek word for "inert" because it does not combine with any other elements. In 1892 Ramsey became interested in the problem Rayleigh had identified that nitrogen from air is a small amount denser than nitrogen obtained from compounds. Ramsay repeats the experiment of Cavendish, who had combined nitrogen with oxygen (was some other element no? o2 and n2 don't combine) and found a small bubble of gas remained, but Ramsay uses magnesium to combine with a sample of nitrogen obtained from air. Ramsay also finds a small bubble of gas that remains, but Ramsay has the new tool, the spectroscope, invented by Fraunhofer in 1814, unavailable to Cavendish. Ramsay heats the gas using electricity in a vacuum tube and he and Rayleigh examine the spectral lines produced. The strongest lines are in positions that fit no known element, and so they know this is a new gas, denser than nitrogen and composing about 1% of the air in the atmosphere of Earth. (Interesting that it is argon 18 and not neon 10 or helium 2, perhaps they are lighter and float up higher? or Krypton (26) which perhaps is rarer?) Since this gas combines with no element, it has a valence of 0. This together with its atomic weight, indicate that it belongs between chlorine and potassium in the periodic table. Chlorine and potassium both have valences of 1, so the succession of valences is 1, 0, 1. This also indicates that argon must be only one of an entire family of elements, and so Ramsay begins the search for the rest of the family of 0 valence elements.
Ramsay and Rayleigh publish this as "Argon, a new Constituent of the Atmosphere.". They write: " I. Density of Nitrogen from Various Sources In a former paper it has been shown that nitrogen extracted from chemical compounds is about 1/2 per cent. lighter than 'atmospheric nitrogen.' The mean numbers for the weights of gas contained in the globe used were as follows:-
Grams From nitric oxide............. 2.3001 From nitrous oxide............ 2.2990 From ammonium nitrite.......... 2.2987
while for 'atmospheric nitrogen' there was found-
By hot copper 1892............ 2.3103 By hot iron 1893 ............. 2.3100 By ferrous hydrate 1894....... 2.3102
At the suggestion of Professor Thorpe experiments were subsequently tried with nitrogen liberated from urea by the action of sodium hypobromite. The hypobromite was prepared from commercial materials in the proportions recommended for the analysis of urea. The reaction was well under control, and the gas could be liberated as slowly as desired. In the first experiment the gas was submitted to no other treatment than slow passage through potash and phosphoric anhydride, but it soon became apparent that the nitrogen was contaminated. The 'inert and inodorous' gas attacked vigorously the mercury of the Töpler pump, and was described as smelling like a dead rat. As to the weight, it proved to be in excess even of the weight of atmospheric nitrogen. The corrosion of the mercury and the evil smell were in great degree obviated by passing the gas over hot metals. For the fillings of June 6, 9, and 13 the gas passed through a short length of tube containing copper in the form of fine wire heated by a flat Bunsen burner, then through the furnace over red-hot iron, and back over copper oxide. On June 19 the furnace tubes were omitted, the gas being treated with the red-hot copper only. The mean result, reduced so as to correspond with those above quoted, is 2 2985.". The authors go on to describe the isolation of nitrogen from a variety of sources. The authors find that nitrogen obtained by passing 'atmospheric' nitrogen over red-hot magnesium does have the same density as the 'chemical nitrogen', to which they conclude that "red-hot magnesium withdraws from 'atmosphereic nitrogen' no substance other than nitrogen capable of forming a basic compound with hydrogen.". The next section is: "II. Reasons for suspecting a hitherto Undiscovered Constituent in Air.". This section describes some of the history of chemistry performed on the atmosphere including the identification of 'phlogisticated air' (nitrogen) by Cavendish whose method was using electric sparks on a short column of gas confined with potash over mercury at the upper end of an inverted U tube. Cavendish had found that 1/120 of the bulk of the air could not be reduced to nitrous acid. The authors write: " Although Cavendish was satisfied with his result and does not decide whether the small residue was genuine our experiments about to be related render it not improbable that his residue was really of a different kind from the main bulk of the phlogisticated air and contained the gas now called argon. ...". The next section is: "III. Methods of Causing Free Nitrogen to Combine.". They write: " To eliminate nitrogen from air, in order to ascertain whether any other gas could be detected, involves the use of some absorbent. The elements which have been found to combine directly with nitrogen are: boron, silicon, titanium, lithium, strontium, barium, magnesium, aluminium {ULSF sic}, mercury, and, under the influence of an electric discharge, hydrogen in presence of acid, and oxygen in presence of alkali. Besides these, a mixture of barium carbonate and carbon at a high temperature is known to be effective. Of those tried, magnesium in the form of turnings was found to be the best. When nitrogen is passed over magnesium, heated in a tube of hard glass to bright redness, combustion with incandescence begins at the end of the tube through which the gas is introduced, and proceeds regularly until all the metal has been converted into nitride. Between 7 and 8 litres of nitrogen can be absorbed in a single tube; the nitride formed is a porous, dirty orange-coloured substance." The authors then explain their "Early Experiments on Sparking Nitrogen with Oxygen in presence of Alkali", followed by "Early Experiments on Withdrawal of nitrogen from Air by means of Red-hot Magnesium.". The authors use a technique in which atmospheric nitrogen is absorbed by red-hot copper. They write "...After some days the gas was reduced in volume to about 200 c.c., and its density found to be 16.1. After further absorption, in which the volume was still further reduced, the density of the residue was increased to 19.09. On passing sparks for several hours through a mixture of a small quantity of this gas with oxygen, its volume was still further reduced. Assuming that this redaction was due to the further elimination of nitrogen, the density of the remaining gas was calculated to be 20.0. The spectrum of the gas of density 19.09, though showing nitrogen bands, showed many other lines which were not recognisable as belonging to any known element.". The authors then give "Proof of the Presence of Argon in Air by means of Atmolysis". They use an atmolyser which contains a number of tobacco pipes. The next section is "VII. Negative Experients to prove that Argon is not derived from Nitrogen from Chemical Sources.", writing "Although the evidence of the existence of argon in the atmosphere, derived from the comparison of densities of atmospheric and chemical nitrogen and from the diffusion experiments (§ VI), appeared overwhelming, we have thought it undesirable to shrink from any labour that would tend to complete the verification.". The authors then describe "VIII. Separation of Argon on a Large Scale.", which is a long process that starts by freeing air from oxygen by using red-hot copper, then magnesium turnings heated to redness, in addition to other procedures. They then write that: " The principal objection to the oxygen method of isolating argon, as hitherto described, is the extreme slowness of the operation. In extending the scale we had the great advantage of the advice of Mr. Crookes, who not long since called attention to the flame rising from platinum terminals, which convey a high tension alternating electric discharge, and pointed out its dependence upon combustion of the nitrogen and oxygen of the air. The plant consists of a De Meritens alternator, actuated by a gas engine, and the currents are tranformed to a high potential by means of a Rnhmkorff or other suitable induction coil. The highest rate of absorption of the mixed gases yet attained is 3 litres per hour, about 3000 times that of Cavendish. It is necessary to keep the apparatus cool, and from this and other causes a good many difficulties have been encountered. In one experiment of this kind, the total air led in after seven days' working, amounted to 7925 c.c., and of oxygen (prepared from chlorate of potash), 9137 c.c. On the eighth and ninth days oxygen alone was added, of which about 500 c.c. was consumed, while there remained about 700 c.c. in the flask. Hence the proportion in which the air and oxygen combined was as 79:96. The progress of the removal of the nitrogen was examined from time to time with the spectroscope, and became ultimately very slow. At last the yellow line disappeared, the contraction having apparently stopped for two hours. It is worthy of notice that with the removal of the nitrogen, the arc discharge changes greatly in appearance, becoming narrower and blue rather than greenish in colour. The final treatment of the residual 700 c.c. of gas was on the model of the small scale operations already described. Oxygen or hydrogen could be supplied at pleasure from an electrolytic apparatus, but in no way could the volume be reduced below 65 c.c. This residue refused oxidation, and showed no trace of the yellow line of nitrogen, even under favourable conditions. When the gas stood for some days over water, the nitrogen line reasserted itself in the spectrum, and many hours' sparking with a little oxygen was required again to get rid of it. Intentional additions of air to gas free from nitrogen showed that about 1 1/2 per cent was clearly, and about 3 per cent. was conspicuously, visible. About the same numbers apply to the visibility of nitrogen in oxygen when sparked under these conditions, that is, at atmospheric pressure, and with a jar connected to the secondary terminals.". Next is "Density of Argon prepared by means of Oxygen.". The authors calculate a density for pure argon of 19.7. They then calculate the density of Argon prepared by means of Magnesium writing "The most reliable results of a number of determinations give it as 19.90.". The next section is "XI. Spectrum of Argon". They write: " The spectrum of argon, seen in a vacuum tube of about 3 mm. pressure, consists of a great number of lines, distributed over almost the whole visible field. Two lines are specially characteristic; they are less refrangible than the red lines of hydrogen or lithium, and serve well to identify the gas, when examined in this way. Mr. Crookes, who will give a full account of the spectrum in a separate communication, has kindly furnished us with the accurate wavelengths of these lines, as well as of some others next to lie described; they are respectively 696.56 and 705.64, 10-6 mm Besides these red lines a bright yellow line, more refrangible than the sodium line, occurs at 603.84. A group of five bright green lines occurs next, besides a number of less intensity. Of the group of five, the second, which is perhaps the most brilliant, has the wavelength 561.00. There is next a blue or blue-violet line of wavelength 470.2; and last, in the less easily visible part of the spectrum, there are five strong violet lines, of which the fourth, which is the most brilliant, has the wave-length 420.0. ... It is necessary to anticipitate Mr. Crookes' communication, and to state that when the current is passed from the induction coil in one direction, that end of the capillary tube next the positive pole appears of a redder, and that next the negative pole of a bluer hue. There are, in effect, two spectra, which Mr. Crookes has succeeded in separating to a considerable extent. Mr. E.C.C. Baly, who has noticed a similar phenomenon, attributes it to the presence of two gases. He says:- 'When an electric current is passed through a mixture of two gases, one is separated from the other and appears in the negative glow.' The conclusion would follow that what we have termed 'argon' is in reality a mixture of two gases which have as yet not been separated. This conclusion, if true, is of great importance, and experiments are now in progress to test it by the use of other physical methods. The full bearing of this possibility will appear later. The presence of a small quantity of nitrogen interferes greatly with the argon spectrum. But we have found that in a tube with platinum electrodes, after the discharge has been passed for four hours, the spectrum of nitrogen disappears, and the argon spectrum manifests itself in full purity. A specially constructed tube with magnesium electrodes, which we hoped would yield good results, removed all traces of nitrogen, it is true; but hydrogen was evolved from the magnesium, and showed its characteristic lines very strongly. However, these are easily identified. The gas evolved on heating magnesium in vacua, as proved by a separate experiment, consists entirely of hydrogen. {ULSF: Does this imply that magnesium can be separated into hydrogen and a second product - perhaps Neon or Sodium, by heating? What else explains the production of Hydrogen?} ... XII. Solubility of Argon in Water. Determinations of the solubility in water of argon, prepared by sparking, gave 3.94 volumes per 100 of water at 12°. The solubility of gas prepared by means of magnesium was found to be 4.05 volumes per 100 at 13.9°. The gas is therefore about 2 1/2 times as soluble as nitrogen, and possesses approximately the same solubility as oxygen. The fact that argon is more soluble than nitrogen would lead us to expect it in increased proportion in the dissolved gases of rain water. Experiment has confirmed this anticipation. ... XIII. Behaviour at Low Temperatures. Preliminary experiments, carried out to liquefy argon at a pressure of about 100 atmospheres, and at a temperature of -90°, failed. No appearance of liquefaction could be observed. Professor Charles Olszewski, of Cracow, the well-known authority on the constants of liquefied gases at low temperatures, kindly offered to make experiments on the liquefaction of argon. His results are embodied in a separate communication, but it is allowable to state here that the gas has a lower critical temperature (-121°) and a lower boiling point (-187°) than oxygen, and that he has succeeded in solidifying argon to white crystals, melting at -189.6°. The density of the liquid is approximately 1.5, that of oxygen being 1.124, and of nitrogen 0.885. The sample of gas he experimented with was exceptionally pure, and had been prepared by help of magnesium. It showed no trace of nitrogen when examined in a vacuum tube.
XIV. Ratio of Specific Heats. In order to decide regarding the elementary or compound nature of argon, experiments were made on the velocity of sound in it. It will be remembered that from the velocity of sound in a gas, the ratio of specific heat at cosntant pressure to that at constant volume can be deduced by means of the equation ...
There can be no doubt, therefore, that argon gives practically the ratio of specific heats, viz., 1.66, proper to a gas in which all the energy is translational. The only other gas which has been found to behave similarly is mercury gas, at a high temperature.
XV. Attempts to induce Chemical Combination.
Many attempts to induce argon to combine will be described in full in the complete paper. Suffice it to say here, that all such attempts have as yet proved abortive. Argon does not combine with oxygen in presence of alkali under the influence of the electric discharge, nor with hydrogen in presence of acid or alkali also when sparked; nor with chlorine, dry or moist, when sparked; nor with phosphorus at a bright-red heat, nor with sulphur at bright redness. Tellurium may be distilled in a current of the gas; so may sodium and potassium, their metallic lustre remaining unchanged. It is unabsorbed by passing it over fused red-hot caustic soda, or soda-lime heated to bright redness; it passes unaffected over fused and bright red-hot potassium nitrate; and red-hot sodium peroxide does not combine with it. Persulphides of sodium and calcium are also without action at a red heat. Platinum black does not absorb it, nor does platinum sponge, and wet oxidising and chlorinating agents, such as nitro-hydrochloric acid, bromine water, bromine and alkali, and hydrochloric acid and potassium permanganate, are entirely without action. Experiments with fluorine are in contemplation, but the difficulty is great; and an attempt will bo made to produce a carbon arc in the gas. Mixtures of sodium and silica and of sodium and boracic anhydride are also without action, hence it appears to resist attack by nascent silicon and by nascent boron.
XVI. General Conclusions.
It remains, finally, to discuss the probable nature of the gas, or mixture of gases, which we have succeeded in separating from atmospheric air, and which has been provisionally named argon. The presence of argon in the atmosphere is proved by many lines of evidence. The higher density of 'atmospheric nitrogen,' and the uniformity in the density of samples of chemical nitrogen prepared from different compounds, lead to the conclusion that the cause of the anomaly is the presence of a heavy gas in air. If that gas possess the density 20 compared with hydrogen, 'atmospheric nitrogen' should contain of it approximately 1 per cent. This is, in fact, found to be the case. Moreover, as nitrogen is removed from air by means of red-hot magnesium, the density of the remaining gas rises proportionately to the concentration of the heavier constituent. Second. This gas has been concentrated in the atmosphere by diffusion. It is true that it cannot be freed from oxygen and nitrogen by diffusion, but the process of diffusion increases, relatively to nitrogen, the amount of argon in that portion which does not pass through the porous walls. This has been proved by its increase in density. Third. As the solubility of argon in water is relatively high, it is to be expected that the density of the mixture of argon and nitrogen, pumped out of water along with oxygen, should, after the removal of the oxygen, exceed that of 'atmospheric nitrogen.' Experiment has shown that the density is considerably increased. Fourth. It is in the highest degree improbable that two processes, so different from each other, should manufacture the same product. The explanation is simple if it be granted that these processes merely eliminate nitrogen from an atmospheric mixture. Moreover, if, as appears probable, argon be an element, or a mixture of elements, its manufacture would mean its separation from one of the substances employed. The gas which can be removed from red-hot magnesium in a vacuum has been found to be wholly hydrogen. Nitrogen from chemical sources has been practically all absorbed by magnesium, and also when sparked in presence of oxygen; hence argon cannot have resulted from the decomposition of nitrogen. That it is not produced from oxygen is sufficiently borne out by its preparation by means of magnesium. Other arguments could be adduced, but the above are sufficient to justify the conclusion that argon is present in the atmosphere. The identity of the leading lines in the spectrum, the similar solubility and the similar density, appear to prove the identity of the argon prepared by both processes. That argon is an element, or a mixture of elements, may be inferred from the observations of § XIV. For Clansius has shown that if K be the energy of translatory motion of the molecules of a gas, and H their whole kinetic energy, then
K/H = 3(Cp - Cv)/2Cv
Cp and Cv denoting as usual the specific heat at constant pressure and at constant volume respectively. Hence if, as for mercury vapour and for argon (§ XIV), the ratio of specific heats; Cp:Cv be 1 2/3, it follows that K=H, or that the whole kinetic energy of the gas is accounted for by the translatory motion of its molecules. In the case of mercury the absence of interatomic energy is regarded as proof of the monatomic character of the vapour, and the conclusion holds equally good for argon. The only alternative is to suppose that if argon molecules are di or polyatomic, the atoms acquire no relative motion, even of rotation, a conclusion improbable in itself and one postulating the sphericity of such complex groups of atoms. Now a monatomic gas can be only an element, or a mixture of elements; and hence it follows that argon is not of a compound nature. From Avogadro's law, the density of a gas is half its molecular weight; and as the density of argon is approximately 20, hence its molecular weight must be 40. But its molecule is identical with its atom; hence its atomic weight, or, if it be a mixture, the mean of the atomic weights of that mixture, taken for the proportion in which they are present, must be 40. There is evidence both for and against the hypothesis that argon is a mixture; for, owing to Mr. Crookes' observations of the dual character of its spectrum; against, because of Professor Olszewski's statement that it has a definite melting point, a definite boiling point, and a definite critical temperature and pressure; and because oa compressing the gas in presence of its liquid, pressure remains sensibly constant until all gas has condensed to liquid. The latter experiments are the well-known criteria of a pure substance; the former is not known with certainty to be characteristic of a mixture. The conclusions which follow are, however, so startling, that in our future experimental work we shall endeavour to decide the question by other means. For the present, however, the balance of evidence seems to point to simplicity. We have therefore to discuss the relations to other elements of an element of atomic weight 40. We inclined for long to the view that argon was possibly one or more than one of the elements which might be expected to follow fluorine in the periodic classification of the elements- elements which should have an atomic weight between 19, that of fluorine, and 23, that of sodium. But this view is apparently put out of court by the discovery of the mon atomic nature of its molecules. The series of elements possessing atomic weights near 40 are:-
Chlorine........ 35.5 Potassium....... 39.1 Calcium......... 40.0 Scandium........ 44.0
There can be no doubt that potassium, calcium, and scandium follow legitimately their predecessors in the vertical columns, lithium, beryllium, and boron, and that they are in almost certain relation with rubidium, strontium, and (but not so certainly) yttrium. If argon be a single element, then there is reason to doubt whether the periodic classification of the elements is complete; whether, in fact, elements may not exist which cannot be fitted among those of which it is composed. On the other hand, if argon be a mixture of two elements, they might find place in the eighth group, one after chlorine and one after bromine. Assuming 37 (the approximate mean between the atomic weights of chlorine and potassium) to be the atomic weight of the lighter element, and 40 the mean atomic weight found, and supposing that the second element has an atomic weight between those of bromine, 80, and rubidium, 85.5, viz., 82, the mixture should consist of 93.3 per cent. of the lighter, and 6.7 per cent. of the heavier element. But it appears improbable that such a high percentage as 6.7 of a heavier element should have escaped detection during liquefaction. If it be supposed that argon belongs to the eighth group, then its properties would fit fairly well with what might be anticipated. For the series, which contains
Si3IV, P4III and V, S3 to 2II to VI, and Cl2I to VII,
might be expected to end with an element of monatomic molecules, of no valency, i.e., incapable of forming a compound, or if forming one, being an octad; and it would form a possible transition to potassium, with its monovalence, on the other hand. Such conceptions are, however, of a speculative nature; yet they may be perhaps excused, if they in any way lead to experiments which tend to throw more light on the anomalies of this curious element. In conclusion, it need excite no astonishment that argon is so indifferent to reagents. For mercury, although a mona1omic element, forms compounds which are by no means stable at a high temperature in the gaseous state; and attempts to produce compounds of argon may be likened to attempts to cause combination between mercury gas at 800° and other elements. As for the physical condition of argon, that of a gas, we possess no knowledge why carbon, with its low atomic weight, should be a solid, while nitrogen is a gas, except in so far as we ascribe molecular complexity to the former and comparative molecular simplicity to the latter. Argon, with its comparatively low density and its molecular simplicity, might well be expected to rank among the gases. And its inertness, which has suggested its name, sufficiently explains why it has not previously been discovered as a constituent of compound bodies. We would suggest for this element, assuming provisionally that it is not a mixture, the symbol A. We have to record our thanks to Messrs. Gordon, Kellas, and Matthews, who have materially assisted us in the prosecution of this research.
Addendum by Professor RAMSAY, March 20, 1895.
Further determinations have been made of the density of argon prepared by means of magnesium. The mean result of six very concordant weighings of different samples, in which every care was taken in each case to circulate the argon over magnesium for hours after all contraction had ceased, gave the density 19.90. The value of R in the gas-equation R=pr/T has been carefully determined for argon, at temperatures determined by means of a thermometer filled with pure hydrogen. I have found that the value of R remains practically constant between -87° and +248°; the greatest difference between the extreme values of R amounts to only 0.3 per cent. Argon, therefore, behaves as a 'perfect' gas, and shows no sign of association on cooling, nor of dissociation on heating. The ratio of the specific heat at constant volume to that at constant pressure has been reinvestigated; the mean of four very concordant determinations with distinct samples of argon is 1.645. The molecular weight of argon, is therefore 39.8, and the same number expresses its atomic weight, unless it be a mixture of two elements, or of mono- and diatomic molecules of the same element. The ratio of specific heats might support the last supposition; but the thermal behaviour of the gas lends no support to this view.". This paper is followed in the Proceedings of the Royal Society by "On the Spectra of Argon." by William Crookes. Crookes writes: " Through the kindness of Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsay I have been enabled to examine the spectrum of this gas in a very accurate spectroscope, and also to take photographs of its spectra in a spectrograph fitted with a complete quartz train. Argon resembles nitrogen in that it gives two distinct spectra according to the strength of the induction current employed. But while the two spectra of nitrogen are different in character, one showing fluted bands and the other sharp lines, the argon spectra both consist of sharp lines. It is, however, very difficult to get argon so free from nitrogen that it will not at first show the nitrogen flutings superposed on its own special system of lines. ... The pressure of argon giving the greatest luminosity and most brilliant spectrum is 3 mm. If the pressure is further reduced, and a Leyden jar intercalated in the circuit, the colour of the luminous discharge changes from red to a rich steel blue, and the spectrum shows an almost entirely different set of lines. I have taken photographs of the two spectra of argon partly superposed. In this way their dissimilarity is readily seen.". Photographs of the two sets of lines are projected onto a screen for the audience. Crookes finds that "In the spectrum of the blue glow I have counted 119 lines, and in that of the red glow 80 lines, making 199 in all. Of these 26 appear to be common to both spectra.". This paper is followed by "The Liquefaction and Solidification of Argon." by Karol Olszewski. Olszewski writes: " For the first two experiments I made use of a Cailletet's apparatus. As cooling agent I used liquid ethylene, boiling under diminished pressure. In both the other experiments the argon was contained in a burette, closed at both ends with glass stop-cocks. By connecting the lower end of the burette with a mercury reservoir, the argon was transferred into a narrow glass tube fused at its lower end to the upper end of the burette, and in which the argon was liquefied, and its volume in the liquid state measured. In these two series of experiments liquid oxygen, boiling under atmospheric or under diminished pressure, was employed as a cooling agent. I made use of a hydrogen thermometer in all these experiments to measure low temperatures.
Determination of the Critical Constants of Argon.
As soon as the temperature of the liquid ethylene had been lowered to -128°.6, the argon easily condensed to a colourless liquid under a pressure of 38 atmospheres. On slowly raising the temperature of the ethylene, the meniscus of the liquid argon became less and less distinct, and finally vanished. From seven determinations the critical pressure was found to be 50.6 atmospheres; the mean of the seven estimations of the critical temperature is -121°. At lower temperatures the following vapour-pressures were recorded:- ......{ULSF a list of experiment number, temperature and pressures is given} ... Determination of the Boiling and Freezing Points.
A calibrated tube, intended to receive the argon to be liquefied, and the hydrogen thermometer were immersed iu boiling oxygen. On admitting argon, and diminishing the temperature of the liquid oxygen below -187°, the liquefaction of the argon became manifest. When liquefaction had taken place, I carefully equalised the pressure of the argon with that of the atmosphere, and regulated the temperature, so that the state of balance was maintained for a long time. This process gives the boiling point of argon under atmospheric pressure. Four experiments gave the numbers -186°.7, -186°.8, -187°.0, and 187°.3. The mean is -186°.9, which I consider to be the boiling point under atmospheric pressure (740.5 mm.). The quantity of argon used for these experiments, reduced to normal temperature and pressure, was 99.5 c.c.; the quantity of liquid corresponding to that volume of gas was approximately 0.114 c.c. Hence the density of argon at its boiling point may be taken as approximately 1.5. This proves that the density of liquid argon at its boiling point (-187°D is much higher than that of oxygen, which I have found, under similar conditions, to be 1.124. By lowering the temperature of the oxygen to -191° by slow exhaustion, the argon froze to a crystalline mass, resembling ice; on further lowering temperature it became white and opaque. When the temperature was raised it melted; four observations which I made to determine its melting point gave the numbers: -189°.0, -190°.6, -189°.6, and -189°.4. The mean of these numbers is -189°.6; and this may be accepted as the melting point of argon. In the following table I have given a comparison of physical constants, in which those of argon are compared with those of other so-called permanent gases. The data are from my previous work on the subject. As can be seen from the foregoing table, argon belongs to the so-called 'permanent' gases, and, as regards difficulty in liquefying it, it occupies the fourth place, viz., between carbon monoxide and oxygen. Its behaviour on liquefaction places it nearest to oxygen, but it differs entirely from oxygen in being solidifiable; as is well known, oxygen has not yet been made to assume a solid state. The high density of argon rendered it probable that its liquefaction would take place at a higher temperature than that at which oxygen liquefies. Its unexpectedly low critical temperature and boiling point seem to have s ome relation to its simple molecular constitution.". This paper is followed by "On the Spark Spectrum of Argon as it appears in the Spark Spectrum of Air." by Walter Noel Hartley (CE 1846-1913). It is an interesting note that Hartley had rejected Rayleigh's and Tyndall's explanation of particles the same size as the amplitude of a transverse sine wave of light causing the blue of the earth sky, citing instead the fluorescent blue of ozone.
William Ramsay goes on to describe the preparation and some properties of pure argon in 1898.
Argon has atomic number 18, an atomic weight 39.948, a melting point −189.3°C, boiling point −185.9°C., and is a colorless, odorless, tasteless, inert gaseous element constituting approximately one percent of Earth's atmosphere. Argon is used in electric light bulbs, fluorescent tubes, and radio vacuum tubes and provides an inert gas shield in arc welding. In welding with an electric arc, argon gas flows over the arc to stop oxygen from entering and bonding into the liquid melted metal pool caused by the arc, until the pool solidifies. There is one atom in each molecule of gaseous argon (argon is monatomic). Most argon is produced in air-separation plants. Air is liquefied and subjected to fractional distillation. Because the boiling point of argon is between that of nitrogen and oxygen, an argon-rich mixture can be taken from a tray near the center of the upper distillation column. The argon-rich mixture is further distilled and then warmed and catalytically burned with hydrogen to remove oxygen. A final distillation removes hydrogen and nitrogen, yielding a very high-purity argon containing only a few parts per million of impurities. It is mixed with neon in so-called neon signs (gas discharge tubes) to produce a green-to-blue glow.
(It is interesting that Ar is more abundant than the smaller He, Ne, and the larger Kr, Xe.)
(One interesting point is how the authors mention the question of why carbon is a solid while nitrogen a heavier atom is a gas and I want to point out that this just describes how an element bonds with other elements of the same kind, for example CO2 is carbon in gas form, just like NH3 is nitrogen in a liquid. So I think the state of matter is strictly the result of inter-atomic bonding, how atoms bond with each other, and does not relate as much to the physical structure of an individual atom - but perhaps the density and mass distribution within an atom has a role. Even so the question of why a group of lower mass objects bond to form a solid while a group of higher mass objects bond to form a gas is an interesting question. Perhaps the stability in the way the atoms hold together - traditionally viewed as their valence - is the main reason.)
(Notice the use of the expression 'dead rat', which may suggest that the authors had wanted to keep this finding secret, but somebody else was possibly going to publish and take the credit so they were forced to publish - but perhaps historical secret videos will shed light on the surroundings of this publication.)
(The disappearance of the spectrum of nitrogen: Does this imply that nitrogen has been bound to some other molecule. If yes, then the nitrogen bound molecule must not be emiting any photons. The other explanation is that nitrogen has been completely separated into its source photons which escape through the glass leaving no matter remaining in the tube. Possibly some part of the nitrogen is moved as an ion in the wire? If yes, the nitrogen must reappear at the other end which seems unlikely. Perhaps the hydrogen was somehow included in the magnesium in the purification of magnesium process? Perhaps hydrogen is trapped between magnesium molecules?)
| (Own Laboratory) Terling, England |
105 YBN
[03/06/1895 AD]
| 4351) Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906), French chemist shows that above a certain temperature (called the Curie point) magnetic properties of magnetic objects stop. Curies also shows that unlike ferromagnetism and paramagnetism, diamagnetism is a property of all matter, and operates at the atomic level.
(In all magnets permanent and electromagnetic? Are the magnets still in solid form after that temperature? Perhaps the many particles added to the material when heated destroy or stop a current flowing through a magnet which creates an electrical field.)
Pierre Curie presents these results in a doctoral thesis. According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Curie examines (1) ferromagnetic substances, such as iron, that always magnetize to a very high degree; (2) low magnetic (paramagnetic) substances, such as oxygen, palladium, platinum, manganese, and manganese, iron, nickel, and cobalt salts, which magnetize in the same direction as iron but much more weakly: and (3) diamagnetic substances, which include the largest number of elements and compounds, whose very low magnetization is in the inverse direction of that of iron in the same magnetic field. Curie studies, at various temperatures, the diamagnetic substances water, rock salt, potassium chloride, potassium sulfate, potassium nitrate, quartz, sulfur, selenium, tellurium, iodine, phosphorus, antimony, and bismuth; the paramagnetic substances oxygen, palladium, and iron sulfate; and the ferromagnetic substances iron, nickel, magnetite, and cast iron. The large number of measurements taken allow Curie to confirm that no parallel can be drawn between the properties of diamagnetic substances and those of paramagnetic substances. Curie finds that diamagnetic substances remain diamagnetic when the temperature varies within wide ranges. This property does not depend on the physical state of the material, since neither fusion (in the case of potassium nitrate) nor allotropic modification (in the case of sulfur) affects the diamagnetic properties of the respective substances. Diamagnetism must therefore be a specific property of atoms. It must result from the action of the magnetic field on the movement of the particles inside the atom, which explains the extreme weakness of the phenomenon and its independence of thermal disturbances or changes of phase. Diamagnetism is therefore a property of all matter; diamagnetism exists also in ferromagnetic or paramagnetic substances but is only a little apparent there because of its weakness. Ferromagnetism and paramagnetism, on the other hand, are properties of aggregates of atoms and are closely related. The ferromagnetism of a given substance decreases when the temperature rises and gives way to a weak paramagnetism at a temperature characteristic of the substance and known as its "Curie point". Paramagnetism is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature. This is Curie’s law. A little later Paul Langevin, who had been Curie’s student at the Ecole de Physique et Chimie, proposes a theory that satisfies these facts by theorizing that magnetism causes thermal excitation of the atoms. Curie’s experimental laws and a quantum mechanical version of Langevin’s theory still constitute the basis of modern theories of magnetism.
Curie determines that this temperature, where the magnetic properties of a substance change, is specific to each substance.
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
105 YBN
[03/26/1895 AD]
| 4141) (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist liberates another inert gas from a mineral called cleveite; this proves to be helium, which produces spectral lines previously known only in the solar spectrum.
Ramsey identifies Helium gas on earth by repeating an experiment done in the USA, where samples of a gas thought to be nitrogen were obtained from a uranium mineral, but Ramsay uses a mineral called cleveite (named for Cleve), and finds that the spectral lines from the gas are lines that are the same as those observed emitting from the sun (in 1868, almost 30 years) earlier by Jannsen. Lockyer had concluded that these lines are from a new element he called Helium, and so Ramsey is the first to identify that helium gas is also found on earth. It is interesting that such a simple element was one of the last to be identified.
In his book "The Gases of the Atmosphere" (1896), Ramsay shows that the positions of helium and argon in the periodic table of elements indicate that at least three more noble gases might exist. In 1898 he and the British chemist Morris W. Travers will isolate these elements—called neon, krypton, and xenon—from air brought to a liquid state at low temperature and high pressure.
Helium is a colorless, odorless inert gaseous element occurring in natural gas and with radioactive ores. Helium is used as a component of artificial atmospheres and as a medium for lasers, as a refrigerant, as a lifting gas for balloons, and in cryogenic research. Helium has atomic number 2; atomic weight 4.0026; boiling point −268.9°C; and a density at 0°C of 0.1785 gram per liter.
In "On a Gas showing the Spectrum of Helium, the reputed cause of D3, one of the Lines in the Coronal Spectrum. Preliminary Note." Ramsay writes: "In the course of investigations on argon, some clue was sought for, which would lead to the selection of one out of the almost innumerable compounds with which chemists are acquainted, with which to attempt to induce argon to combine. A paper by W. F. Hillebrand, " On the Occurrence of Nitrogen in Uraninite, &o." (' Bull, of the U.S. Geological Survey,' No. 78, p. 43), to which Mr. Miers kindly directed my attention, gave the desired clue. In spite of Hillebrand's positive proof that the gas he obtained by boiling various samples of uraninite with weak sulphuric acid was nitrogen (p. 55)—such as formation of ammonia on sparking with hydrogen, analysis of the platinichloride, vacuum-tube spectrum, &c.—I was sceptical enough to doubt that any compound of nitrogen, when boiled with acid, would yield free nitrogen. The result has justified the scepticism.
The mineral employed was cleveite, essentially a uranate of lead, containing rare earths. On boiling with weak sulphuric acid, a considerable quantity of gas was evolved. It was sparked with oxygen over soda, so as to free it from nitrogen and all known gaseous bodies except argon; there was but little-contraction ; the nitrogen removed may well have been introduced from air during this preliminary experiment. The gas was transferred over mercury, and the oxygen absorbed by potassium pyrogallate; the gas was removed, washed with a trace of boiled water, and dried by admitting a little sulphuric acid into the tube containing it, which stood over mercury. The total amount was some 20 c.c.
Several vacuum-tubes were filled with this gas, and the spectrum was examined, the spectrum of argon being thrown simultaneously into the spectroscope. It was at once evident that a new gas was present along with argon.
Fortunately, the argon-tube was one which had been made to try whether magnesium-poles would free the argon from all traces of nitrogen. This it did; but hydrogen was evolved from the magnesium, so that its spectrum was distinctly visible. Moreover, magnesium usually contains sodium, and the D line was also visible, though faintly, in the argon-tube. The gas from cleveite also showed hydrogen lines dimly, probably through not having been filled with completely dried gas.
On comparing the two spectra, I noticed at once that while the hydrogen and argon lines in both tubes accurately coincided, a brilliant line in the yellow, in the cleveite gas, was nearly but not quite coincident with the sodium line D of the argon-tube.
Mr. Crookes was so kind as to measure the wave-length of this remarkably brilliant yellow line. It is 557'49 millionths of a millimetre, and is exactly coincident with the line Ds in the solar chromosphere, attributed to the solar element which has been named helium.
Mr. Crookes has kindly consented to make accurate measurements of the position of the lines in this spectrum, which he will publish, and I have placed at his disposal tubes containing the gas. I shall therefore here give only a general account of the appearance of the spectrum.
While the light emitted from a Pflücker's tube charged with argon is bright crimson, when a strong current is passed through it, the light from the helium-tube is brilliant golden yellow. With a feeble current the argon-tube shows a blue-violet light, the helium-tube a steely blue, and the yellow line is barely visible in the spectroscope. It appears to require a high temperature therefore to cause it to appear with full brilliancy, and it may be supposed to be part of the high-temperature spectrum of helium. ..." Ramsay then presents a table of spectral lines comparing the gas in the Argon tube with the gas in the Helium tube and concludes: "It is to be noticed that argon is present in the helium-tube, and by the use of two coils the spectra could be made of equal intensity. But there are sixteen easily visible lines present in the helium-tube only, of which one is the magnificent yellow, and there are two red linns strong in argon and three violet lines strong in argon, but barely visible and doubtful in the helium-tube. This would imply that atmospheric argon contains a gas absent from the argon in the helium tube. It may be that this gas is the cause of the high density of argon, which would place its atomic weight higher than that of potassium.
It is idle to speculate on the properties of helium at such an early stage in the investigation; but I am now preparing fairly large quantities of the mixture, and hope to be able before long to give data respecting the density of the mixture, and to attempt the separation of argon from helium.
(Note added June 14.—It is now practically certain that the presence of so many of the argon lines in the helium spectrum must have been due to the accidental introduction of air. But there still are coincidences, chiefly in the red lines, which would justify the supposition that there is some constituent common to the two gases.)".
(Finding spectral lines for helium in sun light is evidence that helium atoms are being separated/or heated to illumination, theoretically without oxygen. Is this possible that helium heated in a vacuum emits light? perhaps heated with electricity or flame, is there any difference?)
| (University College) London, England |
105 YBN
[04/??/1895 AD]
| 4032) A motion picture film projector is demonstrated publicly.
Woodville Latham (CE 1838-1911) who, with his sons, create the Eidoloscope projector with help from William Dickson.
Single-user Kinetoscopes are very profitable, however, films projected for large audiences could get more money, since less machines are needed in proportion to the number of viewers, so people develop film projection systems.
| New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
105 YBN
[05/05/1895 AD]
| 4345) Alexandr Stepanovich Popov (CE 1859-1906), Russian physicist demonstrates the transmission of Hertzian waves (radio) between different parts of the University of St. Petersburg buildings. The words "Heinrich Hertz" are transmitted in Morse code and the signals received and heard in sound are transcribed on a blackboard by the St. Petersburg Physicochemical Society's President.
Popov modifies the coherer developed by Oliver Lodge for detecting particle waves with radio interval, making the first continuously operating detector. Popov is the first to use an antenna to transmit and receive photons with radio frequencies. Connecting his coherer to a wire antenna, Popov is able to receive and detect the waves produced by an oscillator circuit.
Popoff concludes with a summary of his device writing (translated from Russian): "The accompanying diagram (fig. 2) shows the arrangement of the parts of the apparatus. The tube containing the filings is supported horizontally between the terminals, M and N, by a thin watch-spring, which, for greater elasticity, is bent at one of the terminals into a zigzag. Over the tube the bell is placed so that when it is actuated it will give slight taps with the hammer on the centre of the tube, which is protected from breakage by an india-rubber ring. A good plan is to mount the tube and the bell on a vertical board. The relay, R, may be placed in any convenient position. The action of the apparatus is as follows: A current from a battery of 4 to 5 volts constantly circulates from the terminal, P, to the platinum foil, A, then through the powder contained in the tube to the other foil, B, and through the coils of the relay back again to the battery. The strength of this current is insufficient to attract the armature of the relay, but if the tube, A B, is exposed to the action of the electric vibrations the resistance instantaneously decreases, and the current increases so much that the armature of the relay is attracted. At this moment the circuit from the battery through the bell, normally interrupted at the point c, is closed and the bell behins to act; but the tapping of the coherer tube immediately reduces its conductivity again and the relay breaks the bell circuit. In my apparatus the resistance of the filinngs after vigorous shaking becomes about 100,000 ohms, and the relay, with a resistance of about 250 ohms, attracts the armature with a current of from 5 to 10 milliamperes (according to the adjustment) - that is, when the resistance of the whole circuit galls below 1,000 ohms. After a single shock the apparatus responds with a brief ring; under the continuous action of the discharges the coild respond with sufficient frequency on account of the bell strokes occurring at approximately equal intervals. The sensitiveness of the apparatus may be indicated by the following experiments:- 1. The apparatus responds across a large auditorium to the discharges of an influence machine if a thin wire about 1 metre long and placed parallel to the direction of the discharges is attached to the point A or B, in order to increase the energy acting on the filings. 2. When connected with a thin vertical wire 2.5 metres long the apparatus responded in the open air, at a distance of 210 feet, to the vibrations produced by a large Hertzian vibrator (plates 40 centimetres square) with sparks in oil. 3. Placed in a closed zinc case, the apparatus did not respond to the sparks passing between the zinc case and the knob of the electrical machine; but if an insulated wire, connected with one of the points A or B, be led out of the case with its end projecting 10 or 15 centimetres, the apparatus responds to vibrations produced by a small Righi, Lodge, or similar transmitter at a distance of 3 to 5 metres; lengthening the external part of the wire considerably increases the sensitiveness. 4. The apparatus is very sensitive to discharges between conductors in direct metallic connection with the circuit containing the coherer tube. Thus if we connect the point A or B with the rod of a discharging electroscope, the apparatus responds to every discharge of the leaves after the electroscope has been charged with 300 volts. Direct discharges from the disc or knob charged by a dry pile of about 500 volts electromotive force actuate the bell, the energy of the charge being less than 5 ergs. 5. The apparatus responds to the spark formed at the moment of breaking an independent circuit, if this circuit is metallically connected with that containing the filings; as, for example, if we close a Grenet cell by a wire from terminal to terminal, and connect one terminal with the point A by a short conductor. If the interrupted circuit contain an electro-magnet the action of the spark which occurs on breaking the circuit may be transmitted to the apparatus through a very long conductor. Self-induction and capacity in the conductor transmitting the vibrations doubtless considerably dimish the transmitted energy. For this reason the sparks produced on the interruptino of the bell circuit at the points C and D act but feebly on the coherer; even the spark at D is of no importance, since at the moment when the conductivity of the filings is destroyed contact is made at the point D. For this reason the arrangement of the parts of the apparatus, as shown above, appears to be the only possible one. With other arrangements failure may easily result, seeing that the conductivity destroyed by the motion of the hammer might be restored by the action of the sparks produced in the apparatus itself, and the bell would ring continnuously. 6. The apparatus when inserted instead of the telephone in one of the disengaged lines at the central station, did not respond either to the rings or the speaking currents onthe neighbouring lines, although these were clearly audible in a telephone if it was inserted instead of my apparatus. Sometimes it responded to certain rings indicating the end of a conversation, and at the moment of hanging up a telephone in its place on one of the neighbouring lines; but at those instants rapid veibrations may have been generated in the circuits by the formation of sparks. .... Another feature of the apparatus, which may give further interesting results, is its ability to indicate the electrical vibrations which occur in a conductor connected with the points A or B (see diagram), in the case where the conductor is exposed to the actino of electro-magnetic disturbances in the atmosphere. ... In conclusion, I may express the hope that my apparatus, when further perfected, may be used for the transmission of signals to a distance by means of rapid electric vibrations if only a source of such vibrations can be found possessing sufficient energy.".
(Give full text of translation of publication?)
(What frequency does the Hertz transmitter Popov uses have?)
(So Popov uses both an antenna that is a closed circuit carrying current, and finds that a wire which is connected as an open circuit to the air - simply holding an electric potential, also allows reception of the signal.)
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia |
105 YBN
[05/13/1895 AD]
| 4534) Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (CE 1869-1959), Scottish physicist establishes that the critical ratio for condensation to occur when dust-free air is expanded and cooled is (final volume to initial volume) V2/V1=1.258 when the initial temperature is 16.7°C.
Wilson publishes this as "On the Formation of Cloud in the Absense of Dust" and writes: "The cloud-formation is brought about as in the experiments of Aitken and others by the sudden expansion of saturated air. A form of apparatus is used in which a very sudden and perfectly definite increase in volume is produced, and in which all danger of the entrance of dust from the outside is avoided. If we start with ordinary air, after a small number of expansions to remove dust particles by causing condensation to take place upon them, it is found that the expansion has now to be pushed to a certain definite limit in order that condensation may take place. With expansion greater than this critical amount (working with a constant initial temperature) there is invariably a cloud produced, and none with less expansion.
Some preliminary experiments have given the following results.
V2/V1 = 1.258, when initial temperature = 16.7°C.
Here V2/V1 is the ratio of the final to the initial volume, when condensation just takes place.
This corresponds to a fall of temperature of about 26°C, and to a vapour pressure about 45 times the saturation pressure.
In order that water drops should be in equilibrium with this degree of supersaturation their radii must be equal to about 8.3 x 10-8 cm., assuming the surface tension for such small drops to have its ordinary value.".
(experiment: do other gases have similar effects?)
(Can any effect of the gas atoms themselves forming clouds of liquid be completely ruled out?)
| (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
105 YBN
[05/29/1895 AD]
| 3820) Karl von Linde creates a cooling feedback loop, which reuses cooled gas to cool incoming gas even more. This process allows low temperatures to be achieved and larger quantities of liquid gas to be produced.
Louis Paul Cailletet (KoYuTA) (CE 1832-1913), French physicist and ironmaster, had liquefied oxygen and nitrogen in 1877-1878.
Karl Paul Gottfried von Linde (liNDu) (CE 1842-1934), German chemist, creates a process where cooled gas is reused to cool incoming compressed gas in a more efficient temperature lowering process. Linde allows condensed gas to expand and cool, then leads the cool gas back so that it bathes a container holding another sample of compressed gas. This second sample is therefore cooled far below the temperature of the original sample. When the second sample is allowed to expand, its temperature drops even lower and can be used to cool a third sample of compressed gas. using this principle, Linde creates a continuous process where large quantities of liquefied gases (instead of cupfuls) can be produced. Liquid air then becomes a commercial commodity instead of a laboratory curiosity.
In 1895 Linde creates the first large-scale plant for the manufacture of liquid air using the Joule–Kelvin effect (or more accurately the Richmond-Cullen-Dalton or simply "gas expanding temperature lowering" effect) (and this feedback process?).
The more air is compressed, the more cold is generated when it expands. This cooling effect increases exponentially when the air is pre-cooled. However, the temperature needed to liquefy air (about -190 degrees Celsius) cannot be produced just from expansion of compressed air. (How did Cailletet achieve this then?) A temperature this low requires a cooling cycle in which the cold produced by the expansion is transferred to the compressed, pre-cooled air in the countercurrent. In a continuous process, the cold given off from each cycle is multiplied until the air is liquefied and can be collected in a container.
In applying the principle of "self intensive" refrigeration, that is, by (reusing) the cold produced by allowing compressed air to expand, Professor Linde is the first one to liquefy gases like air without the use of other liquefied gases, and on a large scale.
The first trials of this method begin in May 1895, and Linde writes in his memoir: "Happy and excited, we watched the temperature drop according to the effect described by Thomson and Joule, even after we had far surpassed the limits within which those researchers had worked.". On the third day, May 29, 1895, Linde finds success. Linde describes this event 20 years later, writing: "With clouds rising all around it, the pretty bluish liquid was poured into a large metal bucket. The hourly yield was about three liters. For the first time in such a scale air had been liquefied, and using tools of amazing simplicity compared to what had been used before".
Linde writes in his US patent: " ...The method of separating the components of atmospheric air is based upon a fact well known to physicists - that oxygen, although having a boiling-point higher than nitrogen, can only by liquefied simultaneously with the nitrogen or part of it, but that nitrogen is first evaporated on volatizing the liquefied mixture, so that the mixture will become richer in oxygen the longer the volatization is continued. ...My process for reaching such low temperatures is based upon the discovery made by Joule and Thomson {sic Richmond} more than forty years ago that atmospheric air when discharged through a valve from a space under high pressure into a space maintained at a lower pressure by causing the gas to pass off will have a lower temperature ... I make use of this decrease in temperature for gradually reducing the temperature to the desired degree by establishing a constant forced circulation of the air between the high-pressure space and the low-pressure space, causing the incoming air at high pressure to be cooled by giving up its heat to the outgoing air at low pressure on its way to the compressor and supplying additional air as required to keep up the pressure. I am enabled by this method to liquefy atmospheric air and to practically separate the oxygen from the nitrogen.". Among other claims, Linde claims a patent on the processes: "The fractional distillation of a liquefied mixed gas by heat derived from previously cooled similar gas undergoing condensation at a higher pressure", "a process for separating air or other mixed gas into its constituent gases, consisting in liquefying the gas and subjecting the liquid to fractional distillation by heat derived from previously-cooled gas undergoing condensation at a higher pressure", "A process for separating air or other mixed gas into its constituent gases, consisting in liquefying the gas and subjecting the liquid to fractional distillation by heat derived from previously-cooled similar gas undergoing condensation at a higher pressure, and wholly or partly maintaining the supply of liquid by liquid gas thus obtained", and "a process for separating air or other mixed gas into its constituent gases, consisting in liquefying the gas and subjecting the liquid to fractional distillation by heat derived from previously-cooled gas undergoing condensation at a higher pressure and utilizing the products of distillation to cool gas about to be liquefied".
| (Munich Thermal Testing Station) Munich, Germany |
105 YBN
[06/20/1895 AD]
| 4450) German physicist, Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (PoseN) (CE 1865-1947) and Mathematician, Carl David Tolmé Runge, identify all the primary lines due to what is thought to be terrestrial helium and, surprisingly, are able to arrange them all into two systems of spectral series. This is taken as evidence that helium is a mixture of two elements, which Runge and Paschen place between Hydrogen and Lithium on the periodic table of elements. This lasts until 1897, when Runge and Paschen show that oxygen too has more than one system of spectral series. (What explains the two different simultaneous spectra - get translations of both papers?)
There is also a debate about a yellow line in the spectrum of terrestrial helium produced by cleveite being double while the same solar line appears to be single. But Huggins will report seeing the solar yellow line as double.
| (University of Hannover) Hannover , Germany |
105 YBN
[11/05/1895 AD]
| 3936) Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (ruNTGeN) (rNTGeN) (CE 1845-1923), German physicist, identifies "X rays" (later shown to be photons with small spacing, that is with high frequency).
Roentgen is interested in the cathode rays from the negative electrode in a Crookes tube, and in particular the luminescence that these cathode rays create in certain chemicals. He repeats some of the experiments of Lenard and Crookes. In order to see the faint luminescence, Roentgen darkens the room and encloses the cathode ray tube in thin black cardboard. On this day, Roentgen sees a flash of light, looks up and notices that a sheet of paper coated with barium platinocyanide is glowing in a location very distant from the cathode ray tube. Roentgen sees that the plate is luminescing even though the cathode rays could not possibly be reaching it being blocked by the black cardboard. When Roentgen turns off the cathode tube, the paper dims again. Roentgen takes the paper to the next room and the paper glows when the tube is on. Roentgen theorizes that some kind of radiation is coming from the cathode-ray tube that is invisible, but highly penetrating. Through experimenting Roentgen finds that the radiation can pass through very thick paper and even thin layers of metal.
Roentgen finds that the radiating beams affect photographic plates and takes the first X-ray photographs, of the interiors of metal objects and of the bones in his wife's hand. Because the radiation does not noticeably exhibit any properties of light, such as reflection or refraction, Roentgen mistakenly thinks that the rays are unrelated to light. In view of its uncertain nature, he names this phenomenon X-radiation (X being the usual mathematical symbol for the unknown.), but it will also becomes known as Röntgen radiation.
Roentgen realizes the importance of this find and experiments heavily for 7 weeks. In these seven weeks Roentgen finds that X rays ionize gases, and their electric neutrality (that is their failure to move or be bent byelectro-magnetic fields (electron streams).
Roentgen publishes his results on December 28, 1895. In total Röntgen publishes 3 scientific papers on X-rays. The first is "Über eine neue Art von Strahlen" ("On a new kind of rays").
Roentgen gives his first and only public lecture on January 23, 1896. In this lecture he takes an X-ray photograph of Kölliker's hand, which shows the bones, to wild applause.
X rays spread over Europe and America. (not Asia? and the earth all together?) Other physicists quickly confirm Roentgen's findings.
Hertz had found that metal films are transparent tp the kathode rays from a Crookes or Hittorf tube, Lenard's researches publishes two years earlier, point out that kathode rays produce photographic impressions and obtained shadow images on photographs. In addition, Leonard had found that cathode rays penetrated through his hand, and Crookes found photographic plates were fogged, but attributed this to inferior quality plates.
According to historian George Sarton, the identification of X-rays had to wait for the exhaustion of vacuum tubes to be better. Johann Hittorf, a student of Plucker increased the vacuum of the Geissler tubes, and observed the shadows of the rays when a screen was placed between the vathode and the phosphorescent spot, and concluded that their propagation is rectilinear. Cromwell Varley concluded that the rays consist of "attenuated particles of matter projected from the negative pole by electricity in all directions, but that the magnet controls their course". Eugene Goldstein was the first to use the phrases cathodic light and cathodic rays (Kathodenlicht, Kathodenstrahlen) in 1876. Crookes had obtained a much higher vacuum -of the order of a millionth of an atmosphere.Crookes proved the cathode rays consisted of negatively charged particles, that they produce considerable heating if stopped, and demonstrated their mechanical action using a radiometer which he had invented.
X rays are useful as a new tool in health sciences, because they penetrate the soft tissues of the body, but are blocked (either absorbed or reflected) by bone. Therefore the absence of X ray photons beamed through a bone cause a shadow of white (which is an unexposed area) on photographic plate, while the photons that go through tissue turn the silver compound black. Metal objects such as bullets, swallowed safety pins, etc, show up very clearly (and allow a surgeon to know where to enter the body to remove such objects). Decay in teeth is visible appearing as gray on white.
Only 4 days after news of Roentgen's finding reaches America, X rays are used to locate a bullet in a person's leg. It takes years to realize that X rays can cause cancer, particularly the form called leukemia. (In a mostly secret history, the use of photon beams with X ray frequently will be used by violent criminals, many wealthy and powerful, to secretly murder certainly hundreds, but probably thousands and maybe even tens of thousands of innocent humans, without ever being seen by the excluded uninformed uneducated public. These murder victims generally are beamed on with cathode ray tube X rays remotely for prolonged periods, until a malignant tumor, a growth from genetic mutation, kills the victim. One of many potential examples is George Gershwin's brain tumor. The size of the cathode ray tube is reduced significantly over the many decades of secret research, development and production, (it seems likely that the products allowed on the market for consumers are purposely made large and use outdated technology, and grossly overpriced, so that an elite class of people living a completely different life than the poor public, a life of routinely hearing thoughts, and seeing inside people's houses, have access to the state of the art technology, to murder the innocent and maintain their control over the majority). )
The identification of X rays is sometimes called the Second Scientific Revolution, the first being the experiments of Galileo on falling bodies. Within months, experimentation with X rays will lead to the understanding of radioactivity by Becquerel. All 1800s physics will be described as "classical physics" (although my feeling is that the laws of Newton are more accurate when viewed in finished form that general relativity (or quantum mechanics). But clearly subatomic particles creates a new paradigm, although if everything is photon, electricity a collective effect, Newton would still be, in theory, correct, although do photons change velocity is still unresolved.-actually pound-rebka found a change in frequency which implies change in velocity since the light did not collide with anything in its path). Roentgen does not patent any aspect of X rays.
Roentgen's first paper in its entirety translated to English in the January 23, 1896 edition of Nature is this: "(1) A discharge from a large induction coil is passed through a Hittorf's vacuum tube, or through a well-exhausted Crookes' or Lenard's tube. The tube is surrounded by a fairly close-fitting shield of black paper; it is then possible to see, in a completely darkened room, that paper covered on one side with barium platinocyanide lights up with brilliant fluorescence when brought into the neighborhood of the tube, whether the painted side or the other be turned towards the tube. The fluorescence is still visible at two metres distance. It is easy to show that the origin of the fluorescence lies within the vacuum tube.
(2) It is seen, therefore, that some agent is capable of penetrating black cardboard which is quite opaque to ultra-violet light, sunlight, or arc-light. It is therefore of interest to investigate how far other bodies can be penetrated by the same agent. It is readily shown that all bodies possess this same transparency, but in very varying degrees. For example, paper is very transparent; the fluorescent screen will light up when placed behind a book of a thousand pages; printer's ink offers no marked resistance. Similarly the fluorescence shows behind two packs of cards; a single card does not visibly diminish the brilliancy of the light. So, again, a single thickness of tinfoil hardly casts a shadow on the screen; several have to be superposed to produce a marked effect. Thick blocks of wood are still transparent. Boards of pine two or three centimetres thick absorb only very little. A piece of sheet aluminium, 15 mm. thick, still allowed the X-rays (as I will call the rays, for the sake of brevity) to pass, but greatly reduced the fluorescence. Glass plates of similar thickness behave similarly; lead glass is, however, much more opaque than glass free from lead. Ebonite several centimetres thick is transparent. If the hand be held before the fluorescent screen, the shadow shows the bones clearly with only faint outlines of the surrounding tissues.
Water and several other fluids are very transparent. Hydrogen is not markedly more permeable than air. Plates of copper, silver, lead, gold, and platinum also allow the rays to pass, but only when the metal is thin. Platinum .2 mm. thick allows some rays to pass; silver and copper are more transparent. Lead 1.5 mm thick is practically opaque. If a square rod of wood 20 mm. in the side be painted on one face with white lead, it casts little shadow when it is so turned that the painted face is parallel to the X-rays, but a strong shadow if the rays have to pass through the painted side. The salts of the metals, either solid or in solution, behave generally as the metals themselves.
(3) The preceding experiments lead to the conclusion that the density of the bodies is the property whose variation mainly affects their permeability. At least no other property seems so marked in this connection. But that density alone does not determine the transparency is shown by an experiment wherein plates of similar thickness of Iceland spar, glass, aluminium, and quartz were employed as screens. Then the Iceland spar showed itself much less transparent than the other bodies, though of approximately the same density. I have not remarked any strong fluorescence of Iceland spar compared with glass (see below, No. 4).
(4) Increasing thickness increases the hindrance offered to the rays by all bodies. A picture has been impressed on a photographic plate of a number of superposed layers of tinfoil, like steps, presenting thus a regularly increasing thickness. This is to be submitted to photometric processes when a suitable instrument is available.
(5) Pieces of platinum, lead, zinc, and aluminium foil were so arranged as to produce the same weakening of the effect. The annexed table shows the relative thickness and density of the equivalent sheets of metal.
Thickness. Relative thickness. Density. Platinum .018 mm. 1 21.5 Lead .050 " 3 11.3 Zinc .100 " 6 7.1 Aluminium 3.5000 200 2.6
From these values it is clear that in no case can we obtain the transparency of a body from the product of its density and thickness. The transparency increases much more rapidly than the product decreases.
(6) The fluorescence of barium platinocyanide is not the only noticeable action of the X-rays. It is to be observed that other bodies exhibit fluorescence, e.g. calcium sulphide, uranium glass, Iceland spar, rock-salt, &c.
Of special interest in this connection is the fact that photographic dry plates are sensitive to the X-rays. It is thus possible to exhibit the phenomena so as to exclude the danger of error. I have thus confirmed many observations originally made by eye observation with the fluorescent screen. Here the power of X-rays to pass through wood or cardboard becomes useful. The photographic plate can be exposed to the action without removal of the shutter of the dark slide or other protecting case, so that the experiment need not be conducted in darkness. Manifestly, unexposed plates must not be left in their box near the vacuum tube.
It seems now questionable whether the impression on the plate is a direct effect of the X-rays, or a secondary result induced by the fluorescence of the material of the plate. Films can receive the impression as well as ordinary dry plates.
I have not been able to show experimentally that the X-rays give rise to any caloric effects. These, however, may be assumed, for the phenomena of fluorescence show that the X-rays are capable of transformation. It is also certain that all the X-rays falling on a body do not leave it as such.
The retina of the eye is quite insensitive to these rays: the eye placed close to the apparatus sees nothing. It is clear from the experiments that this is not due to want of permeability on the part of the structures of the eye.
(7) After my experiments on the transparency of increasing thicknesses of different media, I proceeded to investigate whether the X-rays could be deflected by a prism. Investigations with water and carbon bisulphide in mica prisms of 30° showed no deviation either on the photographic or the fluorescent plate. For comparison, light rays were allowed to fall on the prism as the apparatus was set up for the experiment. They were deviated 10 mm. and 20 mm. respectively in the case of the two prisms.
With prisms of ebonite and aluminium, I have obtained images on the photographic plate, which point to a possible deviation. It is, however, uncertain, and at most would point to a refractive index 1.05. No deviation can be observed by means of the fluorescent screen. Investigations with the heavier metals have not as yet led to any result, because of their small transparency and the consequent enfeebling of the transmitted rays.
On account of the importance of the question it is desirable to try in other ways whether the X-rays are susceptible of refraction. Finely powdered bodies allow in thick layers but little of the incident light to pass through, in consequence of refraction and reflection. In the case of X-rays, however, such layers of powder are for equal masses of substance equally transparent with the coherent solid itself. Hence we cannot conclude any regular reflection or refraction of the X-rays. The research was conducted by the aid of finely-powdered rock-salt, fine electrolytic silver powder, and zinc dust already many times employed in chemical work. In all these cases the result, whether by the fluorescent screen or the photographic method, indicated no difference in transparency between the powder and the coherent solid.
It is, hence, obvious that lenses cannot be looked upon as capable of concentrating the X-rays; in effect, both an ebonite and a glass lens of large size prove to be without action. The shadow photograph of a round rod is darker in the middle than at the edge; the image of a cylinder filled with a body more transparent than its walls exhibits the middle brighter than the edge.
(8) The preceding experiments, and others which I pass over, point to the rays being incapable of regular reflection. It is, however, well to detail an observation which at first sight seemed to lead to an opposite conclusion.
I exposed a plate, protected by a black paper sheath, to the X-rays, so that the glass side lay next to the vacuum tube. The sensitive film was partly covered with star-shaped pieces of platinum, lead, zinc, and aluminium. On the developed negative the star-shaped impression showed dark under platinum, lead, and, more markedly, under zinc; the aluminium gave no image. It seems, therefore, that these three metals can reflect the X-rays; as, however, another explanation is possible, I repeated the experiment with this only difference, that a film of thin aluminium foil was interposed between the sensitive film and the metal stars. Such an aluminium plate is opaque to ultra-violet rays, but transparent to X-rays. In the result the images appeared as before, this pointing still to the existence of reflection at metal surfaces.
If one considers this observation in connection with others, namely, on the transparency of powders, and on the state of the surface not being effective in altering the passage of the X-rays through a body, it leads to the probable conclusion that regular reflection does not exist, but that bodies behave to the X-rays as turbid media to light.
Since I have obtained no evidence of refraction at the surface of different media, it seems probable that the X-rays move with the same velocity in all bodies, and in a medium which penetrates everything, and in which the molecules of bodies are embedded. The molecules obstruct the X-rays, the more effectively as the density of the body concerned is greater.
(9) It seemed possible that the geometrical arrangement of the molecules might affect the action of a body upon the X-rays, so that, for example, Iceland spar might exhibit different phenomena according to the relation of the surface of the plate to the axis of the crystal. Experiments with quartz and Iceland spar on this point lead to a negative result.
(10) It is known that Lenard, in his investigations on kathode rays, has shown that they belong to the ether, and can pass through all bodies. Concerning the X-rays the same may be said.
In his latest work, Lenard has investigated the absorption coefficients of various bodies for the kathode rays, including air at atmospheric pressure, which gives 4.10, 3.40, 3.10 for 1 cm., according to the degree of exhaustion of the gas in discharge tube. To judge from the nature of the discharge, I have worked at about the same pressure, but occasionally at greater or smaller pressures. I find, using a Weber's photometer, that the intensity of the fluorescent light varies nearly as the inverse square of the distance between screen and discharge tube. This result is obtained from three very consistent sets of observations at distances of 100 and 200 mm. Hence air absorbs the X-rays much less than the kathode rays. This result is in complete agreement with the previously described result, that the fluorescence of the screen can still be observed at 2 metres from the vacuum tube. In general, other bodies behave like air; they are more transparent for the X-rays than for the kathode rays.
(11) A further distinction, and a noteworthy one, results from the action of a magnet. I have not succeeded in observing any deviation of the X-rays even in very strong magnetic fields.
The deviation of kathode rays by the magnet is one of their peculiar characteristics; it has been observed by Hertz and Lenard, that several kinds of kathode rays exist which differ by their power of exciting phosphorescence, their susceptibility of absorption, and their deviation by the magnet; but a notable deviation has been observed in all cases which have yet been investigated, and I think that such deviation affords a characteristic not to be set aside lightly.
(12) As the result of many researches, it appears that the place of most brilliant phosphorescence of the walls of the discharge-tube is the chief seat whence the X-rays originate and spread in all directions; that is, the X-rays proceed from the front where the kathode rays strike the glass. If one deviates the kathode rays within the tube by means of a magnet, it is seen that the X-rays proceed from a new point, i.e. again from the end of the kathode rays.
Also for this reason the X-rays, which are not deflected by a magnet, cannot be regarded as kathode rays which have passed through the glass, for that passage cannot, according to Lenard, be the cause of the different deflection of the rays. Hence I conclude that the X-rays are not identical with the kathode rays, but are produced from the kathode rays at the glass surface of the tube.
(13) The rays are generated not only in glass. I have obtained them in an apparatus closed by an aluminium plate 2 mm. thick. I purpose later to investigate the behaviour of other substances.
(14) The justification of the term "rays," applied to the phenomena, lies partly in the regular shadow pictures produced by the interposition of a more or less permeable body between the source and a photographic plate or fluorescent screen.
I have observed and photographed many such shadow pictures. Thus, I have an outline of part of a door covered with lead paint; the image was produced by placing the discharge-tube on one side of the door, and the sensitive plate on the other. I have also a shadow of the bones of the hand (Fig. 1), of a wire wound upon a bobbin, of a set of weights in a box, of a compass card and needle completely enclosed in a metal case (Fig. 2), of a piece of metal where the X-rays show the want of homogeneity, and of other things.
For the rectilinear propagation of the rays, I have a pin-hole photograph of the discharge apparatus covered with black paper. It is faint but unmistakable.
(15) I have sought for interference effects of the X-rays, but possibly, in consequence of their small intensity, without result.
(16) Researches to investigate whether electrostatic forces act on the X-rays are begun but not yet concluded.
(17) If one asks, what then are these X-rays; since they are not kathode rays, one might suppose, from their power of exciting fluorescence and chemical action, them to be due to ultra-violet light. In opposition to this view a weighty set of considerations presents itself. If X-rays be indeed ultra-violet light, then that light must posses the following properties.
* (a) It is not refracted in passing from air into water, carbon bisulphide, aluminium, rock-salt, glass or zinc. * (b) It is incapable of regular reflection at the surfaces of the above bodies. * (c) It cannot be polarised by any ordinary polarising media. * (d) The absorption by various bodies must depend chiefly on their density.
That is to say, these ultra-violet rays must behave quite differently from the visible, infra-red, and hitherto known ultra-violet rays.
These things appear so unlikely that I have sought for another hypothesis.
A kind of relationship between the new rays and light rays appears to exist; at least the formation of shadows, fluorescence, and the production of chemical action point in this direction. Now it has been known for a long time, that besides the transverse vibrations which account for the phenomena of light, it is possible that longitudinal vibrations should exist in the ether, and, according to the view of some physicists, must exist. It is granted that their existence has not yet been made clear, and their properties are not experimentally demonstrated. Should not the new rays be ascribed to longitudinal waves in the ether?
I must confess that I have in the course of this research made myself more and more familiar with this thought, and venture to put the opinion forward, while I am quite conscious that the hypothesis advanced still requires a more solid foundation. ".
According to historian Henry Crew the nature of this radiation is a mystery for nearly twenty years.
Abney supports the idea that the action of the Roentgen rays on photographic plates is not photographic but is, instead, the result of a phosphorescence caused when the rays collide with the glass plate at the back of the sensitive film.
J. J. Thomson will find that Roentgen rays discharge electrified bodies, whether positive or negative, and that when Roentgen rays pass through diaelectrics (insulators), they become conductors of electricity. Röntgen states in his second paper, after Thomson, that Röntgen knew that X-rays are able to discharge electrified bodies at the time of his first communication.
In 1897 George stokes suggests that X-rays are a succession of pulses caused by a sudden stoppage of cathodic particles on a target.
In France, Rene Blondlot will measure the speed of X-rays to be the same as the speed of light, However, there is doubt about Blondlot's honesty, because of his disproven claim of finding a new form of radiation called "N-rays". Clearly the photographs of people's bones add considerably to the popularity of Roentgen's finding.
(Notice how Roentgen refers to "thought" in his last paragraph - which indicates that he must be aware of seeing eyes and thought images. It seems possible that the publication of xrays is a release of information learned much earlier - but unlike seeing eyes was made public. It causes people to wonder what life would be like if xray imaging like seeing though imaging had been kept secret back in 1895 how different life would be now.)
Vicentini and Pacher in Italy will show that the Roentgen rays can be reflected by a brass parabolic mirror but not by a glass mirror.
There is a conflict about the source of the xrays, Ralph Lawrence produces a photograph that shows only the cathode, while de Heen produces a photo showing that the direction of light is from the anode when passed through a hole in a lead plate, still others argue with Roentgen that the Xrays originate at the surface of the glass. George Stokes argues in 1897 that X-rays are electromagnetic pulses produced by the sudden stopping of the negatively charged particles in the cathode ray now called electrons.
In 1912 Max Laue suggests that the spacing of atoms in a crystal might be small and regular enough to provide a natural diffraction grating (able to diffract Xrays into their composite different frequencies. Again, I argue that diffraction, the supposed bending of light, first theorized by Francesco Grimaldi in the 1600s, may very well be actually a form of particle reflection.). Friedrich and Knipping will find that a beam of X-rays passed through a crystal deviates in different directions through large angles, agreeing closely with the predictions of Laue. This closes the arguments about the nature of X-ray radiation in the minds of the majority of people, and everybody is satisfied that x-rays are a shorter wavelength of light (so-called electromagnetic radiation). X-rays "diffraction" (reflection) will be used to determine the shape of DNA.(I think diffraction is actually reflection, and so I explain this phenomenon, not that the sine shaped transverse wavelength of Xrays is too small for machine carved glass gratings, but instead that the size of the particle is too small for glass diffraction grating reflection - but does apparently reflect off of matter in other crystalline solids. In any event, I think a particle explanation needs to be examined in addition to a sine-wave with aether medium or other wave theory. The sine wave in aether theory seems flawed or certainly open to criticism in my mind.)
In a Nature article directly after Roentgen's initial translated paper on a new kind of ray, is an article by A. A. C. Swinton, entitled "Professor Röntgen's Discovery" which begins: " The newspaper reports of Prof. Röntgen's experiments have, during the past few days, excited considerable interest. The discovery does not appear, however, to be entirely novel, as it was noted by Hertz that metallic films are transparent to the kathode rays from a Crookes or Hittorf tube, and in Lenard's researches, published about two years ago, it is distinctly pointed out that such rays will produce photographic impressions. Indeed, Lenard, employing a tube with an aluminium window, through which the kathode rays passed out with comparative ease, obtained photographic shadow images almost identical with those of Röntgen, through pieces of carboard and aluminium interposed between the window and the photographic plate. Prof. Röntgen has, however, shown that this aluminium window is unnecessary, as some portion of the kathode radiations that are photographically active will pass through the glass walls of the tube, Further, he has extended the results obtained by Lenard in a manner that has impressed the popular imagination, while perhaps most important of all, he has discovered the exceedingly curious fact that bone is so much less transparent to these radiations than flesh and muscle, that if a living human hand be interposed between a Crookes tube and a photographic plate, a shadow photograph can be obtained which shows all the outlines and joins of the bones most distinctly. ...".
(Whether this is or is not a case of releasing secret information to the public, humans of earth can thank the scientists and perhaps government of Germany for making this information available to the public. A similar occurrence possibly happened for the Kirchhoff release that chemicals have spectral fingerprints, for Hertzian waves, and then for Planck and Einstein's support for light as a particle. The releasing of secret science information to the public appears to be mainly coming from the scientists of Japan at this time while progress in public education in Europe and America has apparently dried up.)
(Experiment: What is the smallest cathode ray tube that can produce xray beams of photons possible? How can such devices be constructed?)
(The health science benefits of high (or X) frequency photon beams are tremendous, in particular for imaging internal structures in organisms.) Can X-ray particles be used to stimulate parts of the brain or body otherwise unreachible by other particle beams?
(Photon beams with high frequencies can be used to murder and function as dangerous weapons - very difficult to see or detect and faster than other projectile weapons.)
(interesting that, here this is beams of photons very close together...many more than in a beam of visible light, even though not seen, at least in theory. What frequencies are emited from a cathode tube, does it depend on the electric potential? Interesting that the electrode in the vacuum emits beams of photons with a wide range of frequencies, and electron beams, but not when in the air. Something about the vacuum allows photons to exit where air would not allow them to (perhaps just less and air absorbs them)?)
(interesting, this is either adding electrons, or removing electrons leaving positively charged atoms. Basically cause atoms to be electrically charged.)
(It seems to me that the only reason these photons penetrate the soft tissue is that there are so many that some have to get through, not that their wavelength is so small that they pass through, although this does raise the question of: are their various sizes of photons? Which I somewhat doubt.)
(Who publishes the first maps of x-ray frequency absorption, reflection and emission of objects?)
(What gas, if any, does Roentgen have in the crt? Is it then true than all crt's emit photons with xray frequency?)
(Notice how 1.5 cm thick aluminum does not block these beams, but 1.5mm thin sheets of a denser metal like lead does block the beams. Imagine if sheets of metal foil can block the beams that send images and move muscle - a person covering their head with this kind of foil must be very uncomfortable, hot and with poor air ventilation- without knowing the source transmitters - blocking these kinds of beams without sacrificing personal comfort seems very difficult.)
(Roentgen mentions 'Films can receive the impression...' are these plastic films?)
(I think it is an interesting mystery as to why the human eye does not see higher frequency beams of photons. Lower frequency beams not being seen I can understand as there not being enough stimulus, but what explains dense beams not producing any stimulation? Perhaps if photons arrive too close together - the molecules that absorb photons cannot absorb any - for a photon to be absorbed by molecules in the eye perhaps there needs to be a delay to allow the newly absorbed photon to stay in the atom or molecule. It is an interesting mystery since silver compounds exhibit a more logical reaction - which works, apparently, for the highest frequencies of light known.)
(That higher frequency photons are not bent by glass prisms indicates that this bending is the result of some kind of absorption of reflection - which, like the eye, is not happening at high densities of photons. It can't be ruled out that these particles are some how smaller in size than other particles - state the evidence against this. We should have no embarrassment in addressing this question and supplying evidence for and against. Interesting that glass lens show no effect - but that a typical mirror was not used to test simple reflection - that seems an obvious early if not first experiment. That xray beams are not polarized, dispersed by prisms, or refracted may imply that they are different from other particles of light - many particles and even larger pieces of matter reflect off surfaces.)
(The questions about the x radiation having properties like and unlike light is interesting. The same comparisons are made for electron beams. Do electron beams of different frequency cause chemical reactions in photographic silver salts? Can non-photon particles cause the Silver-nitrate, etc reaction too?)
(EX: how are xrays reflected? with a mirror? how are they absorbed? What materials absorb, reflect, and diffract them? interference patterns?)
(Are xray beams connected with seeing, hearing, sending thought? Clearly there is some penetrative power of these beams - and there needs to be - to cross the barrier of skin - which visible light appears not to be able to do.)
(EXPERIMENT: I would say that if double refraction is actually reflection - then electron beams, xrays and other particles of matter could be pseudo-double-refracted by creating a surface in which some particles pass through and some are reflected - on top of a surface where all are reflected - for example, simple a sheet of metal with holes standing on a flat sheet of reflective metal - this would produce at least two beams going in opposite directions back at the viewer. In addition, if polarization is simply reflection of beams with a specific direction, then xrays and electron beams can be polarized by simply passing them through a series of plates with vertical slits - eventually only particles that had a straight path would be detected on the other side - this "polarized" group of beams can then be reflected or blocked by an array of similar strips of metal with vertical slits held horizontally. Construct such simple devices and verify this "pseudo double-refraction" and "pseudo polarization".)
(Xray beams can be used perhaps to measure the density of some material.)
| (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
105 YBN
[12/28/1895 AD]
| 4031) First commercial moving picture film projector.
Auguste (CE 1862-1954) and Louis Lumière (CE 1864-1948) invent the first commercial moving picture film projector, the cinématographe, which functions as a camera and printer as well as a projector, and runs at the speed of 16 frames per second.
A Kinetoscope exhibition in Paris inspires Auguste and Louis Lumière to invent their projector. The first of the Lumière private screenings of films happens on March 22, 1895 in preparation for the public showing in December of that year.
The Lumiere brothers first publicly show projected moving pictures on December 28, 1895. They rent a room at the Grand Caféin Paris for the showing. Louis had filmed an approaching train from a head-on perspective and some people in the audience are frightened at the image on the oncoming locomotive and in a panic try to escape, others faint. Despite the surprise and shock at the sight of moving pictures, audiences flock to the Lumières' demonstrations and the Cinematograph is soon in high demand all around the planet.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 3529) Hans Peter Jørgen Julius Thomsen (CE 1826-1909), Danish chemist, predicts the existence of the inert (or noble) gases in his paper of 1895, (translated from German) "On the Probability of the Existence of a Group of inactive Elements". In this work Thomsen points out that in a periodic function the change from negative to positive value, or the reverse, can only take place by a passage through zero or through infinity; in the first case, the change in gradual, and in the second case it is sudden. It therefore appears that the passage from one series to the next in the periodic system should take place through an element which is electrically neutral. The valency of such an element would be zero, and therefore would represent a transitional stage in the passage from the electronegative elements of the seventh to the univalent electropositive elements of the first group. This indicates the possible existence of inactive elements with atomic weights of 4, 20, 36, 84, 132, which will correspond to the atomic weights of the inert gases when identified. Ramsey will verify this 50 years later.
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 3722) Simon Newcomb (CE 1835-1909), Canadian-US astronomer publishes "Astronomical Constants" which contains calculations of the constants of precession, nutation, yearly aberration, and solar parallax.
(I think much of astronomy may be simplified by simply accepting a system of iteration.)
| (Nautical Almanac Office) Washington, DC, USA |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 3954) Gabriel Jonas Lippmann (lEPmoN) (CE 1845-1921), French physicist invents the coelostat (SELoSTaT), a device in which a flat mirror is turned slowly by a motor to reflect the Sun continuously into a fixed telescope. The mirror is mounted to rotate around a line (axis) through its front surface that points to a celestial pole and turns at the rate of one revolution in 48 hours. The telescope image is then stationary and nonrotating. Unlike a heliostat, a coelostat gives an image in a fixed orientation.
(Why 48 hours instead of 24?)
Lippmann publishes this as "Sur un coelostat, ou appareil à miroir, donnant une image du Ciel immobile par rapport à la Terre". Lippmann describes how the siderostat of Foucault causes the image to move, and how he produced a coelostat in which the image is immobile.
Other instruments that rotate to compensate for the motion of the earth relative to other celestial bodies are the heliostat, which produces a rotating image of the Sun, and the siderostat, which is like a heliostat but is used to observe stars.
| Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France (presumably) |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 3991) Eugen Baumann (BoUmoN) (CE 1846-1896), German chemist, finds that the thyroid gland is rich in iodine, an element not known before this to be found naturally in animal tissue. This will lead to the finding of the iodine containing thyroid hormone and to its use in treating thyroid disorders such as goiter.
Baumann writes (translated frmo German to English): "In the course of investigations on the active physiological substance of the thyroid gland, a substance was obtained, to which the name thyroiodin is applied. The glands, when boiled for some days with 10 per cent, sulphuric acid, yield a liquid which deposits a flocculent precipitate; {ULSF note: flocculent is consisting of flocs and floccules which are tuft-like masses} this, after extraction with alcohol, is regarded as the active substance. It maybe a derivative of nucleic acid: it contains 0.54 per cent, of phosphorus, but it cannot be obtained from the thymus gland, nor from pure nucleic acid ; the most remarkable point about it is that it contains iodine in organic union in considerable amount.". (see later publication of and too)
| (University of Freiberg) Freiberg, Germany |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4029) In the Spring of 1895, Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931) sells "Kinetophones", Kinetoscopes with phonographs in their cabinets, to the public. The viewer looks into the peep-holes of the Kinetoscope to watch the motion picture while listening to the accompanying phonograph through two rubber ear tubes connected to the machine. The picture and sound are made somewhat synchronous by connecting the two with a belt.
An earlier experimental sound film made for Edison's kinetophone from 1894 shows William Dickson playing violing into a phonograph while two men dance.
| (Edison's Black Maria Studio) West Orange, New Jersey, USA |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4175) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, adds a fifth equation to Maxwell's four equations which will be later called the "Lorentz force". Lorentz develops his electron theory in "Versuch einer Theorie tier electrischen unci optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Körpern" (1895). In this work, Lorentz no longer derives the basic equations of his theory from mechanical principles, but simply postulates them and writes the equations for the first time in compact vector notation; in electromagnetic units the four equations that describe the electromagnetic field in a vacuum are
div d = p,
div H = 0,
rot H =4π(pv+d),
—4πc2 rot d = H,
where d is the dielectric displacement, H the magnetic force, v the velocity of the electric charge, p the electric charge density, and c the velocity of light. A fifth and final equation describes the supposed electric force of the ether on ponderable matter containing electrons bearing unit charge: E =4πc2d+v×H
The first four equations embody the content of Maxwell’s theory; the fifth equation is Lorentz’ own contribution to electrodynamics—known today as the Lorentz force—connecting the continuous field with discrete electricity.
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4176) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, publishes his second paper supporting the idea that matter contracts in the direction of motion in order to support an ether explanation for the Michelson-Morley experiment which found no measurable difference between the velocity of light relative to the motion of the earth through a theoretical ether.
Lorentz writes: "As Maxwell first remarked and as follows from a very simple calculation, the time required by a ray of light to travel from a point A to a point B and back to A must vary when the two points together undergo a displacement without carrying the ether with them. The difference is certainly, a magnitude of second order; but it is sufficiently great to be detected by a sensitive interference method.
The experiment was carried out by Michelson in 1881. His apparatus, a kind of interferometer, had two horizontal arms P and Q, of equal length and at right angles one to the other. Of the two mutually interfering rays of light the one passed along the arm P and back, the other along the arm Q and back. The whole instrument, including the source of light and the arrangement for taking observations, could be revolved about a vertical axis; and those two positions come specially under consideration in which the arm P or the arm Q lay as nearly as possible in the direction of the Eart's motion. On the basis of Fresnel's theory it was anticipated that when the apparatus was revolved from one of these principal positions into the other there would be a displacement of the interference fringes.
But of such a displacement -for the sake of brevity we will call it the Maxwell displacement- conditioned by the change in the times of propagation, no trace was discovered, and accordingly Michelson thought himself justified in concluding that while the Earth is moving, the ether does not remain at rest. The correctness of this inference was soon brought into question, for by an oversight Michelson had taken the change in the phase difference, which was to be expected in accordance with the theory, at twice its proper value. If we make the necessary correction, we arrive at displacements no greater than might be masked by errors of observation.
Subsequently Michelson took up the investigation anew in collaboration with Morley, enhancing the delicacy of the experiment by causing each pencil to be reflected to and fro between a number of mirrors, thereby obtaining the same advantage as if the arms of the eariler apparatus had been considerably lengthened. The mirrors were mounted on a massive stone disc, floating on mercury, and therefore easily revolved. Each pencil now had to travel a total distance of 22 meters, and on Fresnel's theory the displacement to be expected in passing from the one principal position to the other would be 0.4 of the distance between the interference fringes. Nevertheless the rotation produced displacements not exceeding 0.02 of this distance, and these might well be ascribed to errors of observation.
Now, does this result entitle us to assume that the ether takes part in the motion of the Earth, and therefore that the theory of aberration given by Stokes is the correct one? The difficulties which this theory encounters in explaining aberration seem too great for me to share this opinion, and I would rather try to remove the contradiction between Fresnel's theory and Michelson's result. An hypothesis which I brought forward some time ago, and which, as I subsequently learned, has also ocurred to Fitzgerald, enables us to do this. The next paragraph will set out this hypothesis.
2. To simplify matters we will assume that we are working with apparatus as employed in the first experiments, and that in the one principal position the arm P lies exactly in the direction of the motion of the Earth. Let v be the velocity of this motion, L the length of either the arm, and hence 2L the path traversed by the rays of light. According to the theory, the turning of the one pencil travels along P and back to be longer than the time which the other pencil takes to complete its journey by
Lv2/c2
There would be this same difference if the translation had no influence and the arm P were longer than the arm Q by 1/2Lv2/c2. Similarly with the second principal position.
Thus we see that the phase differences expected by the theory might also arise if, when the apparatus is revolved, first the one arm and then the other arm were the longer. If follows that the phase differences can be compensated by contrary changes of the dimensions.
If we assume the arm which lies in the direction of the Earth's motion to be shorter than the other by 1/2Lv2/c2, and, at the same time, that the translation has the influence which Fresnel's theory allows it, then the result of the Michelson experiment is explained completely.
Thus one would have to imagine that the motion of a solid body (such as a brass rod or the stone disc employed in the later experiments) through the resting ether exerts upon the dimensions of that body an influence which varies according to the orientation of the body with respect to the direction of motion. If, for example, the dimensions parallel to this direction were changed in the proportion of 1 to 1 + δ, and those perpendicular in the proportion of 1 to 1 + ε, then we should have the equation
ε - δ = 1/2V2/c2 (1)
in which the value of one of the quantities δ and ε would remain undetermined. It might be that ε=0, δ=-1/2v2/c2, but also ε=1/2v2/c2, δ=0, or ε=1/4v2/c2, and δ=-1/4v2/c2.
3. Surprising as this hypothesis may appear at first sight, yet we shall have to admit that it is by no means far-fetched, as soon as we assume that molecular forces are also transmitted through the ether, like the electric and magnetic forces of which we are able at the present time to make this assertion definitely. If they are so transmitted, the translation will very probably affect the action between two molecules or atoms in a manner resembling the attraction or repulsion between charged particles. Now, since the form and dimensions of a solid body are ultimately conditioned by the intensity of molecular actions, there cannot fail to be a charge of dimensions as well.
From the theoretical side, therefore, there would be no objection to the hypothesis. As regards its experimental proof, we must first of all note that the lenghtenings and shortenings in question are extraordinarily small. We have v2/c2=10-8, and thus, if ε=0, the shortening of the one diameter of the Earth would amount to about 6.5 cm. The length of a meter rod would change, when moved from one principal position into the other, by about 1/200 micron. One could hardly hope for success in trying to perceive such small quantities except by means of an interference method. We should have to operate with two perpendicular rods, and with two mutually interfering pencils of light, allowing the one to travel to and fro along the first rod, and the other along the second rod. But in this way we should come back once more to the Michelson experiment, and revolving the apparatus we should perceive no displacement of the fringes. Reversing a previous remark, we might now say that the displacement produced by the alterations of length is compensated by the Maxwell displacement.
4 It is worth noticing that we are led to just the same changes of dimensions as have been presumed above if we, firstly, without taking molecular movement into consideration, assume that in a solid body left to itself the forces, attractions or repulsions, acting upon any molecule maintain one another in equilibrium, and, secondly -though to be sure, there is no reason for doing so- if we apply to these molecular forces the law which in another place we deduced for electrostatics actions. For if we now understand by S1 and S2 not, as formerly, two systems of charged particles, but two systems of molecules -the second at rest and the first moving with a velocity v in the direction of the axis of x - between the dimensions of which the relationship subsists as previously stated; and if we assume that in both systems the x components of the forces are the same, while the y and z components differ from one another by the factor √1-v2/c2, then it is clear that the forces in S1 will be in equilibrium whenever they are so in S2. If thereforce S2 is the state of equilibrium of a solid body at rest, then the molecules in S1 have precisely those positions in which they can persist under the influcence of translation. The displacement would naturally bring about this disposition of the molecules of its own accord, and thus effect shortening in the direction of motion in the proportion of 1 to √1-v2/c2, in accordance with the formulae given in the above-mentioned paragraph. This leads to the values
δ=1/2v2/c2, ε=0
in agreement with (1).
In reality the molecules of a body are not at rest, but in every 'state of equilibrium' there is a stationary movement. What influence this circumstance may have in the phenomenon which we have been considering is a question which we do not here touch upon; in any case the experiments of Michelson and Morley, in consequence of unavoidable errors of observation, afford considerable latitude for the values of δ and ε.".
As an interesting historical note. Lorentz is inaccurate in his claim that, in his 1881 paper that: "accordingly Michelson thought himself justified in concluding that while the Earth is moving, the ether does not remain at rest", because, in fact, Michelson concludes: "The interpretation of these results is that there is no displacement of the interference bands. The result of the hypothesis of a stationary ether is thus shown to be incorrect, and the necessary conclusion follows that the hypothesis is erroneous.". Michelson does then quote Stokes who theorized that the ether might flow freely through the earth, but never explicitly endorses this idea. Notice how Lorentz does not entertain this option that Michelson puts forward of there being no ether, but simply between the two ether theories - 1) in which there is a stationary ether, and 2) in which there is a moving ether. It is worth noting that Lorentz himself may admit the unlikeliness of this theory of matter contraction in just the exact proportion necessary, at the time when writing "Surprising as this hypothesis may appear at first sight".
In his book "Studies in Optics", Michelson writes on p156: "Lorentz and Fitzgerald have proposed a possible solution of the null effect of the Michelson-Morley experiment by assuming a contraction in the material of the support for the interferometer just sufficient to compensate for the theoretical difference in path. Such a hypothesis seems rather artificial, and it of course implies that such contractions are independent of the elastic properties of the material.*" "*This consequence was tested by Morley and Miller by substituting a support of wood for that of stone. The result was the same as before.". So Michelson basically publicly doubts the Lorentz-Fitzgerald contraction which the theory of relativity is based on.
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4188) Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (KoSuL) (CE 1853-1927) German biochemist isolates the amino acid histidine.
| (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4208) William Hampson (CE 1854-1926), English inventor develops methods for producing quantities of liquid air, anticipating the methods used by Linde, and Claude. Liquid air supplied by Hampson will make it possible for Ramsay to identify neon.
Hampson's apparatus contains a copper tube bent into a helix. Hampson applies the "cascade" principle: air cooled by the Joule-Thomson effect is used to precool incoming air before its expansion. This simple device transforms liquid air, and liquid gases in general, from laboratory curiosities to articles of commerce.
Linde develops an equivalent method around the same time. According to the "Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography", Hampson's patent is independent of and slightly earlier than Carl von Linde and Georges Claude.
(find image of Hampson) (find paper on process)
| London, England (presumably) |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4243) Robert Edwin Peary (PERE) (CE 1856-1920), US explorer, returns from a trip to Greenland with two of the three huge meteorites he had discovered (the third will be recovered after trips in 1896 and 1897).
One of these meteorites is the largest known meteorite, which is 90 tons and now in the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
| Greenland |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4302) James Edward Keeler (CE 1857-1900), US astronomer shows that the inner boundary of Saturn's rings rotates more quickly than the outer boundary, by using the Doppler shift of the spectral lines from the rings of Saturn. This is the first observational evidence that Saturn's rings are not solid but made of individual objects, something Maxwell had suggested from theoretical considerations 50 years before.
Keeler designs a spectrograph—differing from a spectroscope in that spectral lines are recorded photographically rather than being located by eye—and Keeler uses this spectrograph to obtained (in 1895) the classic proof of James Clerk Maxwell’s theoretical prediction that the rings of Saturn are meteoritic in nature.
I have recently obtained a spectroscopic proof of the meteoric constitution of the ring, which is of interest because it is the first direct proof of the correctness of the accepted hypothesis, and because it illustrates in a very beautiful manner (as I think) the fruitfulness of Doppler,s principle, and the value of the spectroscope as an instrument for the measurement of celestial motions.
Keeler writes: "The hypothesis that the rings of Saturn are composed of an immense multitude of comparatively small bodies, revolving around Saturn in circular orbits, has been firmly established since the publication of Maxwell's classical paper in 1859. The grounds on which the hypothesis is based are too well known to require special mention. All the observed phenomena of the rings are naturally and completely explained by it, and mathematical investigation shows that a solid or fluid ring could not exist under the circumstances in which the actual ring is placed.
I have recently obtained a spectroscopic proof of the meteoric constitution of the ring, which is of interest because it is the first direct proof of the correctness of the accepted hypothesis, and because it illustrates in a very beautiful manner (as I think) the fruitfulness of Doppler,s principle, and the value of the spectroscope as an instrument for the measurement of celestial motions.
Since the relative velocities of different parts of the ring would be essentially different under the two hypotheses of rigid structure and meteoric constitution, it is possible to distinguish between these hypotheses by measuring the motion of different parts of the ring in the line of sight. The only difficulty is to find a method so delicate that the very small differences of velocity in question may not be masked by instrumental errors. ...".
| (Allegheny Observatory) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4420) Paul Walden (VoLDeN) (CE 1863-1957), Russian-German chemist finds that when he causes malic acid to undergo a change and then returns it back to malic acid, that instead of rotating polarized light in a clockwise direction, that it rotates polarized light in a counter-clockwise direction. Somewhere in the course of reactions the malic acid molecule had been revered, and this process is known as the "Walden invension".
Walden first combines the malic acid with phosphorus pentachloride to give chlorosuccinic acid. This converts back into malic acid under the influence of silver oxide and water but the malic acid has an inverted configuration. These inversions later become a useful tool for studying the detail of organic reactions. Walden inversions, as they are called, occur when an atom or group approaches a molecule from one direction and displaces an atom or group from the other side of the molecule.
Walden is also responsible for Walden's rule, which relates the conductivity and viscosity of nonaqueous solutions. (more info and chronology)
In 1848, Pasteur had this phenomenon in which beams of "polarized" (single direction) light is reflected by internal surfaces within a material into the opposite direction the molecule usually reflects light beams. Pasteur found optical isomers with left-handed and right-handed structure in tartrates and paratartrates.
(In my view polarized light is simply light moving in a single direction, many times filtered by an atomic lattice. The Braggs described this alternative explanation in the early 1900s for x-rays. But perhaps there is more to it. Even with z axis rotation, I think the light as a particle theory can explain all phenomena. In addition, I think that beams of photons can cause interference patterns as viewed by a detector (such as the human eye).)
| (Riga Polytechnical School) Riga, Latvia |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4513) Wallace Clement Ware Sabine (CE 1868-1919), US physicist improves the acoustic quality of a lecture hall. Sabine finds that a single syllable of speech persists long enough to overlap confusingly with those that followed it. By hanging sonically absorptive materials on the walls, Sabine reduces the reverberation time and so improves the acoustical quality of the room.
Sabine photographs sound waves by the changes in the light refraction they produce. The photography of sound waves is developed further by D. C. Miller.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4703) Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet (CE 1870-1961), Belgian bacteriologist finds that two components of blood serum are responsible for the breaking of bacterial cell walls (bacteriolysis): one is a heat-stable antibody found only in animals already immune to the bacterium; the other is a heat-sensitive substance found in all animals and is named "alexin" (and is now called "complement").
Bordet studies the mechanics of bacteriolysis, a phenomenon consisting in the lysis of cholera vibrios injected into the peritoneum (the membranous lining of the coelomic, especially the abdominal, cavity, which surrounds most of the organs) of immunized animals and recently discovered by R. Pfeiffer and Issaeff (1894).
Bordet shows that if blood is heated to 55°C, the antibodies in the blood are not destroyed, because they still react with bacteria, but lose the ability to destroy the bacteria. Bordet concludes that some molecule in the blood which forms a complement to the antibody, destroyed by heating, is needed to destroy the bacteria. Of the two substances: Bordet names the antibody the "sensibilizer", which is the part resistant to heat of 55°C. and present in serum from immunized animals. The second substance, which is destroyed by heating and found in serum from both unvaccinated and vaccinated animals Bordet identifies as Buchner’s "alexin", which Ehrlich will later name “complement”.
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4717) Jean Baptiste Perrin (PeraN, PeriN or PeroN) (CE 1870-1942), French physicist, shows that cathode rays aimed at an isolated metal cylinder give the cylinder a negative charge and the opposite electrode a positive charge, and this suggests that cathode rays are negatively charged particles and not waves.
After this J. J. Thompson will determine the mass of the particles and show that they are much smaller than atoms.
A summary of Perrin's work in English reads: "The kathode rays have been supposed by some to be due, like light, to vibrations of the ether, possibly of short wave-length. Others consider them to consist of matter charged negatively and travelling with great velocity. The latter hypothesis suggested to the Author the desirability of ascertaining by direct experiment whether the kathode rays are electrified or not. The following apparatus was employed :—
A vacuum-tube, furnished at one end with a metal disk serving as kathode, contained at the ether {ULSF: typo} end, in place of the usual anode, a hollow metallic cylinder completely closed save for a small aperture in the centre of each end. This "protecting cylinder" enclosed a similar but smaller cylinder completely insulated from it, and supported by a platinum wire passing through the hole in the back of the protecting cylinder, and fused into the glass at the end of the vacuum-tube. Thus the kathode rays, passing through the aperture in the protecting cylinder, and through a corresponding aperture in the inner cylinder, would give up whatever charge they might possess to the latter, which would, as in Faraday's experiments, be completely protected from external electrical influence. The apparatus worked equally well with a Wimshurst machine or with an induction coil. The protecting cylinder being put to earth, the terminal of the inner cylinder was connected with an electrometer, and found to acquire a negative charge. But when the vacuum-tube was placed between the poles of an electro-magnet so as to deflect the kathode rays, the cylinder inside the anode no longer became charged. It was found that the effect produced by the passage of a single spark from the induction coil was sufficient to charge a condenser of 600 C.G.S. units to a potential of 300 volts.
The law of the conservation of energy requires that a similar effect, in the opposite direction, should be produced at the kathode. On reversing the current this was found to be the case, the inner cylinder being now positively electrified, showing that while negative electricity is radiated from the kathode, positive electricity travels towards it. To determine whether this positive flux is in all respects similar to the negative, the Author modified the apparatus by introducing a second small diaphragm in the protecting cylinder, about half-way between the inner cylinder and the first aperture. Repeating the previous experiment, with the cylinder as anode, the kathode rays penetrated both diaphragms easily, causing strong divergence of the leaves of the electroscope, but on reversing the current, so as to make the protecting cylinder kathode, the electrification was much feebler.
With a more perfect vacuum the positive effect became greater, a condenser of 2,000 C.G.S. units being charged to a potential of 60 volts when the pressure was 3 micro-millimetres, whereas with a pressure of 20 micro-millimetres the potential reached was only 10 volts. In all cases the effect could be reduced to zero by deflecting the rays with an electro-magnet.
According to the Author's view, the molecules of residual gas around the kathode are separated into positive and negative ions, the latter acquiring a great velocity, and constituting the kathode rays. The positive ions move in the opposite direction, forming a diffused pencil, sensitive to the magnet. ...".
According to an 1896 report on Perrin's experiment by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Crookes had, years before, exposed a metal disk connected with a gold-leaf electroscope to the bombardment of the cathode rays, and found that the disk received a slight positive charge. But with Crookes' arrangement, the charged particles have to give up their charges to the disk if the gold leaves of the electroscope are to be affected, and it is extremely difficult if not impossible to get electricity out of a charged gas just by bringing the gas in contact with a metal. Lord Kelvin's electric strainers are an example of this.
(cite both Crookes' and Kelvin's papers) (notice use of word "suggest".)
| (École Normale) Paris, France |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4810) Hyppolite Baraduc (CE 1850-1909) gives a lecture on "thought photography", which talks about photographing the images of thought, to the French Academy of Medicine.
Both Baraduc and Louis Darget (CE 1847-1921) produce thought-photographs taken from the front of the eyes. The theory used is that radiation is emitted from the eyes and captured onto the photographic plate when a person thinks of an image. (Show images.)
(Although the photographs are probably not of thought the reality of neuron reading and writing, and capturing the sounds and images of thought must be at least 85 years old.)
(Is there talk about photographing the images the eyes see?)
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
105 YBN
[1895 AD]
| 4826) (Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937), Italian electrical engineer, transmits and receives a radio signal over a distance of 2.4km (1.5 miles).
The first known invisible particle (or radio) communication goes back to at least Thomas Edison in 1885 and perhaps even to Joe Henry in 1842.
Marconi starts experimenting with the assistance of Prof. A. Righi of Bologna. Marconi's initial apparatus is similar to Hertz’s in its use of a Ruhmkorff-coil spark gap oscillator and dipole antennas with parabolic reflectors. But Marconi will then replace Hertz’s sparkring detector with the coherer that had been employed earlier by Branly and Lodge. Marconi finds that increased transmission distance can be obtained with larger antennas, and his first important invention is the use of sizable elevated antenna structures and ground connections at both transmitter and receiver, in place of Hertz’s dipoles. With this change Marconi achieves in 1895 a transmission distance of 2.4 km (1.5 miles) which is the length of the family estate, and at about this same time recognizes the idea of a "wireless telegraph" which uses a telegraph key to transmit in telegraph code.
A "coherer", is a glass container of loosely packed metal filling, which ordinarily conducts little current, but conducts a large amount of current when photons in radio frequency collides with them. Marconi uses this device to convert radio particles into an easily detected electrical current.
In the use of the aerial Marconi is anticipated by Popov in Russia who used an antenna in 1895.
(show how the antenna connected to the transmitter and receiver then? Isn't the antenna part of the circuit?)
(This is evidence that the photoelectric effect is not only for uv light. )
(To Marconi's credit, he a person who brought much of the secret wireless particle communication to the public. This industry will develop into the massive cell phone industry and ultimately to the nerve cell, or neuron reading and writing wireless particle communication industry going public. For example, clearly the owners and controllers of wireless communication in England, France, Germany, Italy and the USA rejected the idea of bringing commercial wireless communication out from the shadows of secrecy to the light of public use first themselves.)
(EXPERIMENT: EB2010 states: "A few years later Marconi returned to the study of still shorter waves of about 0.5 metres (1.6 feet). At these very short wavelengths, a parabolic reflector of moderate size gives a considerable increase in power in the desired direction. " Does frequency cause any change in strength of reflected signal? If this statement is inaccurate then this would support light as a particle beam without amplitude.)
| (father’s estate) Bologna, Italy |
104 YBN
[01/24/1896 AD]
| 3941) Silvanius P. Thompson detects x-rays from an electric arc.
| (City and Guilds Technical College) Finsbury, England |
104 YBN
[01/26/1896 AD]
| 3939) Vicentini and Pacher show that the Roentgen rays can be reflected by a brass parabolic mirror but not by a glass mirror.
| (Reale Istituto Veneto di science) Veneto, Italy |
104 YBN
[02/10/1896 AD]
| 3938) Blythswood reports creating xray photographs from 20 minute exposures using only a large Wimshurst static electricity generator spark with no vacuum tube.
Michael Pupin will find that Xrays can be produced using an electrodeless tube with tin foil wrapped on both sides connected to a high voltage. (note in this pape Pupin uses the word "suggestion" twice near the end.)
| Renfrew, England |
104 YBN
[02/12/1896 AD]
| 4334) Michael Idvorsky Pupin (PUPEN Serbian PYUPEN English) (CE 1858-1935), Yugoslavian-US physicist, shortens the time of X-ray photography by ten times. Pupin reports on this in the journal "Electricity" on February 12, 1896.
Pupin writes in "From Immigrant To Inventor: "...My good friend, Thomas Edison, had sent me several most excellent fluorescent screens, and by their fluorescence I could see the numerous little shot and so could my patient. The combination of the screen and the eyes was evidentally much more sensitive than the photographic plate. I decided to try a combination of Edison's fluorescent screen and the photographic plate. The fluorescent screen was placed on the photographic plate and the patient's hand was placed upon the screen. The X-Rays acted upon the screen first and the screen by its fluorescent light acted upon the plate. The combination succeeded, even better than I expected. A beautiful photograph was obtained with an exposure of a few seconds. ..."
This will lead to Pupin's reporting in April 1896 of secondary X-ray radiation - that every substance when subjected to X-rays becomes a radiator of these rays.
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
104 YBN
[02/22/1896 AD]
| 3940) Seneca Egbert detects x-rays in sunlight.
Not until 1960 will US astronomer Herbert Friedman (CE 1916-2000) capture an X-ray photo of the Sun by using rockets to rise above the x-ray absorbing atmosphere of earth.
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA (presumably) |
104 YBN
[02/24/1896 AD]
| 4150) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist reports that fluorescent crystals of potassium uranyl sulfate expose a photographic plate under it that is wrapped in black paper while both the crystals and paper-covered photographic plate lay for several hours in direct sunlight.
A few days later on March 2 Becquerel will report similar exposures when both crystals and plate lay in total darkness which will lead to the understanding of what Marie Curie will call "radioactivity", the emission of particles from atoms.
Becquerel writes in "Sur les radiations émises par phosphorescence" (translated from French): "On the rays emitted by phosphorescence
In an earlier session, M. Chairman Henry announced that phosphorescent zinc sulfide placed in the path of rays emanating from a Crookes tube augmented the intensity of rays passing through the aluminum.
Elsewhere, M. Niewenglowski recognized that commercial phosphorescent calcium sulfide emits rays which pass through opaque bodies.
This fact extends to various phosphorescent bodies, and in particular to uranium salts whose phosphorescence has a very brief duration.
With the double sulfate of uranium and potassium, of which I have a few crystals forming a thin transparent crust, I was able to perform the following experiment:
One wraps a Lumière photographic plate with a bromide emulsion in two sheets of very thick black paper, such that the plate does not become clouded upon being exposed to the sun for a day.
One places on the sheet of paper, on the outside, a slab of the phosphorescent substance, and one exposes the whole to the sun for several hours. When one then develops the photographic plate, one recognizes that the silhouette of the phosphorescent substance appears in black on the negative. If one places between the phosphorescent substance and the paper a piece of money or a metal screen pierced with a cut-out design, one sees the image of these objects appear on the negative.
One can repeat the same experiments placing a thin pane of glass between the phosphorescent substance and the paper, which excludes the possibility of chemical action due to vapors which might emanate from the substance when heated by the sun's rays.
One must conclude from these experiments that the phosphorescent substance in question emits rays which pass through the opaque paper and reduces silver salts.".
(Are x-rays known to be absorbed and/or emitted in fluorescence?)
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN
[03/02/1896 AD]
| 4151) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist identifies invisible radiations from a uranium salt.
Days earlier on February 24, Becquerel had reported that fluorescent crystals of potassium uranyl sulfate exposed to the sun for hours exposed a photographic plate covered with paper, and now reports that the crystals expose the photographic plate even without being exposed to sunlight.
Becquerel writes in "Sur les radiations invisibles émises par les corps phosphorescents" ("On the invisible rays emitted by phosphorescent bodies"): "In the previous session, I summarized the experiments which I had been led to make in order to detect the invisible rays emitted by certain phosphorescent bodies, rays which pass through various bodies that are opaque to light.
I was able to extend these observations, and although I intend to continue and to elaborate upon the study of these phenomena, their outcome leads me to announce as early as today the first results I obtained.
The experiments which I shall report were done with the rays emitted by crystalline crusts of the double sulfate of uranyl and potassium , a substance whose phosphorescence is very vivid and persists for less than 1/100th of a second. The characteristics of the luminous rays emitted by this material have been studied previously by my father, and in the meantime I have had occasion to point out some interesting peculiarities which these luminous rays manifest.
One can confirm very simply that the rays emitted by this substance, when it is exposed to sunlight or to diffuse daylight, pass through not only sheets of black paper but also various metals, for example a plate of aluminum and a thin sheet of copper. In particular, I performed the following experiment:
A Lumière plate with a silver bromide emulsion was enclosed in an opaque case of black cloth, bounded on one side by a plate of aluminum; if one exposed the case to full sunlight, even for a whole day, the photographic plate would not become clouded; but, if one came to attach a crust of the uranium salt to the exterior of the aluminum plate, which one could do, for example, by fastening it with strips of paper, one would recognize, after developing the photographic plate in the usual way, that the silhouette of the crystalline crust appears in black on the sensitive plate and that the silver salt facing the phosphorescent crust had been reduced. If the layer of aluminum is a bit thick, then the intensity of the effect is less than that through two sheets of black paper.
If one places between the crust of the uranium salt and the layer of aluminum or black paper a screen formed of a sheet of copper about 0.10 mm thick, in the form of a cross for example, then one sees in the image the silhouette of that cross, a bit fainter yet with a darkness indicative nonetheless that the rays passed through the sheet of copper. In another experiment, a thinner sheet of copper (0.04 mm) attenuated the active rays much less.
Phosphorescence induced no longer by the direct rays of the sun, but by solar radiation reflected in a metallic mirror of a heliostat, then refracted by a prism and a quartz lens, gave rise to the same phenomena.
I will insist particularly upon the following fact, which seems to me quite important and beyond the phenomena which one could expect to observe: The same crystalline crusts, arranged the same way with respect to the photographic plates, in the same conditions and through the same screens, but sheltered from the excitation of incident rays and kept in darkness, still produce the same photographic images. Here is how I was led to make this observation: among the preceding experiments, some had been prepared on Wednesday the 26th and Thursday the 27th of February, and since the sun was out only intermittently on these days, I kept the apparatuses prepared and returned the cases to the darkness of a bureau drawer, leaving in place the crusts of the uranium salt. Since the sun did not come out in the following days, I developed the photographic plates on the 1st of March, expecting to find the images very weak. Instead the silhouettes appeared with great intensity. I immediately thought that the action had to continue in darkness, and I arranged the following experiment:
At the bottom of a box of opaque cardboard I placed a photographic plate; then, on the sensitive side I put a crust of the uranium salt, a convex crust which only touched the bromide emulsion at a few points; then, alongside, I placed on the same plate another crust of the same salt but separated from the bromide emulsion by a thin pane of glass; this operation was carried out in the darkroom, then the box was shut, then enclosed in another cardboard box, and finally put in a drawer.
I did the same with the case closed by a plate of aluminum in which I put a photographic plate and then on the outside a crust of the uranium salt. The whole was enclosed in an opaque box, and then in a drawer. After five hours, I developed the plates, and the silhouettes of the crystalline crusts appeared in black as in the previous experiments and as if they had been rendered phosphorescent by light. For the crust placed directly on the emulsion, there was scarcely a difference in effect between the points of contact and the parts of the crust which remained about a millimeter away from the emulsion; the difference can be attributed to the different distance from the source of the active rays. The effect from the crust placed on a pane of glass was very slightly attenuated, but the shape of the crust was very well reproduced. Finally, through the sheet of aluminum, the effect was considerably weaker, but nonetheless very clear.
It is important to observe that it appears this phenomenon must not be attributed to the luminous radiation emitted by phosphorescence, since at the end of 1/100th of a second this radiation becomes so weak that it is hardly perceptible any more.
One hypothesis which presents itself to the mind naturally enough would be to suppose that these rays, whose effects have a great similarity to the effects produced by the rays studied by M. Lenard and M. Röntgen, are invisible rays emitted by phosphorescence and persisting infinitely longer than the duration of the luminous rays emitted by these bodies. However, the present experiments, without being contrary to this hypothesis, do not warrant this conclusion. I hope that the experiments which I am pursuing at the moment will be able to bring some clarification to this new class of phenomena. ".
Becquerel finds that the radiation appears to emit from the compound in an unending stream in all directions. (verify which paper this is explicitly in.)
In 1898 Marie Curie will name this phenomenon "radioactivity" and also introduces the term "Becquerel rays" for the radiation produced from uranium). (cite work)
(There is an interesting comparison to be made between fluorescence and radioactivity - each may represent some particles escaping from some group of other particles. In fluorescence the particles are photons, but when larger particles are emitted the phenomenon is called radioactivity.)
(Notice the use of the word "mind", wihch indicates that there must be much more to the story when everybody gets to see the recorded images and sounds of thought from this period.)
At the end of 1895, Wilhelm Röntgen had discovered X rays. Becquerel learned that the X rays emitted from the area of a glass vacuum tube made fluorescent when struck by a beam of cathode rays and becomes interested in investigating whether there is some fundamental connection between this invisible radiation and visible light such that all luminescent materials, however stimulated, would also yield X rays, and so performs this experiment to test this hypothesis.
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN
[03/03/1896 AD]
| 4535) Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (CE 1869-1959), Scottish physicist reports that Rontgen rays greatly increase the number of drops formed when a gas is expanded beyond that necessary to produce condensation.
Wilson communicates this finding is a paper "The Effect of Rontgen's Rays on Cloudy Condensation.". Wilson writes: In a paper on " The Formation of Cloud in the Absence of Dust," read before the Cambridge Philosophical Society, May 13th, 1895, I showed that, cloudy condensation takes place in the absence of dust when saturated air suffers sudden expansion exceeding a certain critical amount.
I find that air exposed to the action of Rontgen's rays requires to be expanded just as much as ordinary air in order that condensation may take place, but these rays have the effect of greatly increasing the number of drops formed when the expansion is beyond that necessary to produce condensation.
Under ordinary conditions, when the expansion exceeds the critical value, a shower of fine rain falls, and this settles within a very few seconds; if, however, the flame expansion be made while the air is exposed to the action of the rays, or immediately after, the drops are sufficiently numerous to form a fog, which persists for some minutes.
In order that direct electrical action might be excluded, experiments were made with the vessel containing the air wrapped in tinfoil connected to earth. This was exposed to the rays ; the air was then expanded, the current switched off from the induction coil, and finally the tinfoil removed to examine the cloud formed.
As before, a persistent fog was produced with an expansion which without the rays would only have formed a comparatively small number of drops.
It seems legitimate to conclude that when the Rontgen rays pass through moist air they produce a supply of nuclei of the same kind as those which are always present in small numbers, or at any rate of exactly equal efficiency in promoting condensation.".
(This principle will allow the paths or tracks of particles to be captured photographically.)
This finding is evidence in favor of Wilson's theory that water forms around ions.
(For some reason water in liquid state attaches to charged particles, as opposed to neutral nitrogen, oxygen or other water molecules. Try to explain how this could be using particle collision and other possible explanations.)
(experiment: do other gases have similar effects?)
| (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN
[03/09/1896 AD]
| 3937) Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (ruNTGeN) (rNTGeN) (CE 1845-1923), German physicist publishes his second paper on "X-rays".
Röntgen writes (translated from German): "A NEW FORM OF RADIATION As my investigations will have to be interrupted for several weeks, I propose in the following paper to communicate a few new results. § 18. At the time of my first communication it was known to me that X-rays were able to discharge electrified bodies, and I suspected that it was X-rays, not the unaltered cathode rays, which got through his aluminum window, that Lenard had to do with in connection with distant electrified bodies. When I published my researches, however, I decided to wait until I could communicate unexceptionable results. Such are only obtainable when one makes the observation in a space which is not only completely protected against the electrostatic influences of the vacuum tube, leading-in wires, induction coil, etc., but which is also protected against the air coming from the vicinity of the discharge apparatus. To this end I made a box of soldered sheet zinc large enough to receive me and the necessary apparatus, and which, even to an opening which could be closed by a zinc door, was quite air-tight. The wall opposite the door was almost covered with lead. Near one of the discharge apparatus placed outside, the lead-covered zinc wall was provided with a slot 4 cm. wide, and the opening was then hermetically closed with a thin aluminum sheet. Through this window the X-rays could come into the observation box. I have observed the following phenomena:
(a) Positively or negatively electrified bodies in air are discharged when placed in the path of X-rays, and the more quickly the more powerful the rays. The intensity of the rays was estimated by their effect on a fluorescent screen or on a photographic plate. It is the same whether the electrified bodies are conductors or insulators. Up to the present I have discovered no specific difference in the behavior of different bodies with regard to the rate of discharge, and the same remark applies to the behavior of positive and negative electricity. Nevertheless, it is not impossible that small differences exist.
(b) If an electrical conductor is surrounded by a solid insulator, such as paraffin, instead of by air, the radiation acts as if the insulating envelope were swept by a flame connected to earth. (c) If this insulating envelope is closely surrounded by a conductor connected to earth, which should like the insulator be transparent to X-rays, the radiation, with the means at my disposal, apparently no longer acts on the inner electrified conductor. (d) The observations described in a, b and c tend to show that air traversed by X-rays possesses the property of discharging electrified bodies with which it comes in contact.
(e) If this be really the case, and if, further, the air retains this property for some time after the X-rays have been extinguished, it must be possible to discharge electrified bodies by such air, although the bodies themselves are not in the path of the rays. It is possible to convince oneself in various ways that this actually happens. I will describe one arrangement, perhaps not the simplest possible. I employed a brass tube 3 cm. in diameter and 45 cm. long. A few centimeters from one end a portion of the tube was cut away and replaced by a thin sheet of aluminum. At the other end an insulated brass ball fastened to a metal rod was led into the tube through an air-tight gland. Between the ball and the closed end of the tube a side tube was soldered on, which could be placed in communication with an aspirator. When the aspirator was worked the brass ball was surrounded by air, which on its way through the tube went past the aluminum window. The distance from the window to the ball was over 20 cm. I arranged the tube in the zinc box in such a manner that the X-rays passed through the aluminum window at right angles to the axis of the tube, so that the insulated ball was beyond the reach of the rays in the shadow. The tube and the zinc box were connected together; the ball was connected to a Hankel electroscope. It was seen that a charge (positive or negative) communicated to the ball was not affected by the X rays so long as the air in the tube was at rest, but that the charge immediately diminished considerably when the aspirator caused the air traversed by the rays to stream past the ball. If the ball by being connected to accumulators {ULSF note: batteries} was kept at a constant potential, and if air which had been traversed by the rays was sucked through the tube, an electric current was started as if the ball had been connected with the wall of the tube by a bad conductor.
(f) It may be asked in what way the air loses this property communicated to it by the X-rays. Whether it loses it as time goes on, without coming into contact with other bodies, is still doubtful. It is quite certain, on the other hand, that a short disturbance of the air by a body of large surface, which need not be electrified, can render the air inoperative. If one pushes, for example, a sufficiently thick plug of cotton wool so far into the tube that the air which has been traversed by the rays must stream through the cotton wool before it reaches the ball, the charge of the ball remains unchanged when suction is commenced. If the plug is placed exactly in front of the aluminum window the result is the same as if there were no cotton wool, a proof that dust particles are not the cause of the observed discharge. Wire gauze acts in the same way as cotton wool, but the meshes must be very small and several layers must be placed one over the other if we want the air to be active. If the nets are not connected to earth, as heretofore, but connected to a constant-potential source of electricity, I have always observed what I expected; however, these investigations are not concluded. (g) If the electrified bodies are placed in dry hydrogen instead of air they are equally well discharged. The discharge in hydrogen seems to me somewhat slower. This observation is not, however, very reliable, on account of the difficulty of securing equally powerful X-rays in successive experiments. The method of filling the apparatus with hydrogen precluded the possibility of the thin layer of air which clings to the surface of the bodies at the commencement playing an appreciable part in connection with the discharge. (h) In highly-exhausted vessels the discharge of a body in the path of the X-rays takes place far more slowly- in one case it was, for instance, 70 times more slowly- than in the same vessels when filled with air or hydrogen at atmospheric pressure. (i) Experiments on the behavior of a mixture of chlorine and hydrogen, when under the influence of the X-rays, have been commenced. (j) Finally, I should like to mention that the results of the investigations on the discharging property of the X-rays, in which the influence of the surrounding gases was not taken into account, should be for the most part accepted with reserve.
§ 19. In many cases it is of advantage to put iu circuit between the X-ray producer and the Ruhmkorff coil a Tesla condenser and transformer. This arrangement has the following advantages: Firstly, the discharge apparatus gets less hot, and there is less probability of its being pierced; secondly, the vacuum lasts longer, at least this was the case with my apparatus; and thirdly, the apparatus produces stronger X-rays. In apparatus which was either not sufficiently or too highly exhausted to allow the Ruhmkorff coil alone to work well, the use of a Tesla transformer was of great advantage. The question now arises- and I may be permitted to mention it here, though I am at present not in a position to give answer to it- whether it be possible to generate X-rays by means of a continuous discharge at a constant discharge potential, or whether oscillations of the potential are invariably necessary for their production. § 20. In §13 of my first communication it was stated that X-rays not only originate in glass, but also in aluminum. Continuing my researches in this direction, I have found no solid bodies incapable of generating X-rays under the influence of cathode rays. I know of no reason why liquids and gases should not behave in the same way. Quantitative differences in the behavior of different bodies have, however, revealed themselves. If, for example, we let the cathode rays fall on a plate, one-half consisting of a 0.3 mm. sheet of platinum and the other half of a 1 mm. sheet of aluminum, a pin-hole photograph of this double plate will show that the sheet of platinum emits a far greater number of X-rays than does the aluminum sheet, this remark applying in either case to the side upon which the cathode rays impinge. From the reverse side of the platinum, however, practically no X-rays are emitted, but from the reverse side of the aluminum a relatively large number are radiated. It is easy to construct an explanation of this observation; still it is to be recommended that before so doing we should learn a little more about the characteristics of X-rays. It must be mentioned, however, that this fact has a practical bearing. Judging by my experience up to now, platinum is the best for generating the most powerful X-rays. I used a few weeks ago, with excellent results, a discharge apparatus in which a concave mirror of aluminum acted as cathode and a sheet of platinum as anode, the platinum being at an angle of 45 deg. to the axis of the mirror and at the center of curvature, § 21 The X-rays in this apparatus start from the anode. I conclude from experiments with variously-shaped apparatus that as regards the intensity of the X-rays it is a matter of indifference whether or not the spot at which these rays are generated be the anode. With a special view to researches with alternate currents from a Tesla transformer, a discharge apparatus is being made in which both electrodes are concave aluminum mirrors, their axes being at right angles; at the common center of curvature there is a 'cathode-ray catching' sheet of platinum. As to the utility of this apparatus I will report further at a later date.".
(I think the view is that xray particles complete a circuit causing isolated charged particles to flow and become neutralized. In this way, xray particles are similar to the particles in electric current, presumed to be electrons. How could the cathode rays be stopped so that only the xrays are permitted to emit from the CRT? Perhaps an electro-magnetic field could steer away cathode rays leaving the neutral xrays.)
(Are x-rays produced even without an oscillating/alternating current? It seems likely that they are. It is an interesting comparison between creating a high voltage with a transformer using alternating or pulsed current or creating a large voltage using voltaic pile layers/batteries. This raises the question - is "alternating current", more accurately described as "pulsed current"? If there is a difference, can both create high voltages with a transformer/two different sized induction coils?)
| (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
104 YBN
[03/18/1896 AD]
| 4276) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer, theorizes that Roentgen rays are "moving material particles".
Tesla also creates a photographic image using only reflected x-rays.
Tesla writes: "In my attempts to contribute my humble share to the knowledge of the Roentgen phenomena, I am finding more and more evidence in support of the theory of moving material particles. It is not my intention, however, to advance at present any view as to the bearing of such a fact upon the present theory of light, but I merely seek to establish the fact of the existence of such material streams in so far as these isolated effects are concerned.".
Francke Woodward refers to Tesla's theory when describing an effect of x-rays on a beam of light on June 30, 1897.
| (Private Lab) New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
104 YBN
[03/25/1896 AD]
| 4152) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist finds that the radiation emitted from uranium salts is comparable to X Rays in penetrating matter and ionizing air and that uranous salts although not phosphorescent nor fluorescent, also affect photographic plates.
Only a summary of this work in English exists: "Continuing his researches, the Author finds that the rate of discharge of the electroscope under the action of the X rays, as measured by the diminution of the angle of divergence of the gold leaves, is approximately proportional to the intensity of the radiation. Comparing in this way the action of the double sulphate of uranyl and potassium with that of a Crookes tube, he found that the latter was much more powerful, the ratio being as 22.5 to 2,571.4. The interposition of a plate of quartz 5 millimetres thick reduced these figures to 103.6 in the case of the Crookes tube, and 5.4 with the uranium salt. The effect is therefore proportionally less in the latter case than in the former, and may indicate a difference in the character of the rays emitted.
A film of the uranium salt, which had been kept eleven days in darkness, gave a rate of discharge of 20.69, and the same film, immediately after exposure to the magnesium light, gave 23.08. This remarkable persistence of the invisible radiations made it difficult to measure the effect of various kinds of light in exciting them.
Uranous salts, although neither phosphorescent nor fluorescent, are as active as uranic salts in affecting photographic plates.
A remarkable fact, for which at present no explanation is given, is that whereas the salts of uranium can always be excited by light, the phosphorescent sulphides of calcium and of zinc appear to lose this property, the identical specimens with which photographs had been obtained remaining perfectly inert, even after exposure to the strongest light. Mr. Troost, who had observed the same phenomenon, was making further experiments on the subject.".
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN
[04/06/1896 AD]
| 4335) Michael Idvorsky Pupin (PUPEN Serbian PYUPEN English) (CE 1858-1935), Yugoslavian-US physicist, discovered that atoms struck by X rays emit secondary X-ray radiation.
Pupin reports that "...Every substance when subjected to the action of X-rays becomes a radiator of these rays.".
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
104 YBN
[04/23/1896 AD]
| 4033) The Vitascope projector uses an electromagnet to pull the motion picture plastic film away from the focus of the projection light when the film is not moving, in order that the film will not melt from the heat of the projection light. THis projector incorporates a superior intermittent movement mechanism and a loop-forming device (known as the Latham loop.
C. Francis Jenkins (CE 1867-1934) and Thomas Armat (CE 1866-1948) developed a motion picture projection device which they called the Phantoscope. It was publicly demonstrated in Atlanta in September 1895 at the Cotton States Exposition. The Edison Manufacturing Company agrees to manufacture the machine and to produce films for it, but on the condition that it be advertised as a new Edison invention named the Vitascope. The Vitascope's first exhibition in a theater is on April 23, 1896, at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City.
| (Koster and Bial's Music Hall) New York City, NY, USA |
104 YBN
[04/??/1896 AD]
| 4445) George Washington Carver (CE 1864-1943), US agricultural chemist starts a program of agricultural research that results in hundreds of derivative products from peanuts and sweet potatoes.
Carver shows that peanuts contain several different kinds of oil. By the 1930s the South-East USA is producing 60 million dollars worth of oil a year.
Peanut butter is another of Carver's innovations. Although Haitians made peanut butter by using a heavy wood mortar and a wood pestle with a metal cap around the end of the 1600s.
At this time agriculture in the south-east USA the single-crop cultivation of cotton has left the soil of many fields exhausted and worthless, and erosion then occurs. To solve this Carver urges Southern farmers to plant peanuts and soybeans, which belong to the legume family, and so can restore nitrogen to the soil while also providing the protein needed in the diet of the people of the south-east. Carver finds that Alabama's soils are particularly well-suited to growing peanuts and sweet potatoes. Through this planting of peanuts, much exhausted land is renewed, and the South-Eastern United States becomes a major new supplier of agricultural products. When Carver arrives at Tuskegee in 1896, the peanut is not even recognized as a crop, but within the next half century the peanut becomes one of the six leading crops throughout the United States and, in the South-East USA, the second cash crop (after cotton) by 1940. However, when the state's farmers began cultivating these crops instead of cotton, they find little demand for them on the market. In response to this problem, Carver sets about enlarging the commercial possibilities of the peanut and sweet potato through a long and ingenious program of laboratory research. Carver will ultimately develop 300 derivative products from peanuts—among them cheese, milk, coffee, flour, ink, dyes, plastics, wood stains, soap, linoleum, medicinal oils, and cosmetics—and 118 derivative products from from sweet potatoes, including flour, vinegar, molasses, rubber, ink, a synthetic rubber, and postage stamp glue. Carver creates 60 products from the pecan.
Carver publishes all of his findings in a series of nearly 50 bulletins. Carver does not patent any of his products, allowing others to freely enjoy the fruits of his labor.
(add chronology to all major inventions and contributions to science by Carver.)
| (Tuskegee University) in Tuskegee, Alabama, USA |
104 YBN
[05/06/1896 AD]
| 3717) Samuel Pierpont Langley (CE 1834-1906), US astronomer, flies a personless steam engine plane for 12 minutes over half a mile. This is the first time that a powered, heavier-than-air machine achieves sustained flight.
On this day, an aerodrome, weighing about 30 lb and about 16 ft. in length, with wings measuring between 12 and 13 ft. from tip to tip, twice sustained itself in the air for 12 minutes (the full time for which it was supplied with fuel and water), and traversed on each occasion a distance of over half a mile, falling gently into the water when the engines stopped. Later in the same year, on the 28th of November, a similar aerodrome flew about three-quarters of a mile, attaining a speed of 30 m. an hour.
In 1898, with a grant from the U.S. government, Langley will began work on a full-scale aerodrome capable of carrying a human. The plane is completed in 1903, and is powered by a radial engine capable of 52 horsepower. Two attempts will be made to launch the machine by catapult into the air from the roof of a large houseboat moored in the Potomac in October and December 1903. On both occasions, the aerodrome falls into the water without flying. The pilot, Charles Matthews Manly, Langley's chief aeronautical assistant, survives both crashes, but the aeronautical experiments of Langley come to an end. Through lack of funds the experiments had to be abandoned without the machine ever having been free in the air.
Langley spends $50,000 of government money to develop a motorized passenger airplane, but fails. After his third failure in 1903, the NY Times publishes an article expressing this effort to be a waste of public funds, and that humans will not fly for 1000 years, but nine days later the Wright brothers make the first successful airplane flight.
According to Asimov, in 1914, Langley's last plane is fitted with a more powerful engine and is successfully flown.
| Potomac River, Washington DC, USA |
104 YBN
[05/12/1896 AD]
| 4340) The fluoscope, a fluorescent screen that is illuminated in real-time by x-ray beams.
Asimov credits Michael Pupin with the invention of the fluoroscope.
(Is this invention still useful?)
Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931) demonstrates his invention of the "fluoroscope".
| New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
104 YBN
[05/19/1896 AD]
| 4715) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931) patents a vacuum tube fluorescent lamp.
Ediso n writes in his 1898 patent application: "...The object I have in view is to produce light by fluorescence. i have found that tungstate of calcium or strontium, when acted upon by molecular bombardment, or, if placed outside of the vacuum tube, when acted upon by X rays, will give a useful amount of light in tubes of moderate size and with a small expenditure of energy. I have found that most of the chemical substances which fluoresce when subjected to the action of the X ray of Rontgen, outside of a vacuum tube, are highly responsive to the molecular bombandment when placed within a vacuum tube, and that many of these chemical substances when placed within the vacuum tube may be utilized for the giving of light. ...".
Edison describes the bulb making process writing: "...F is the coating of powdered crystals of tungstate of calcium or strontium. This coating covers the entire interior surface of the bulb A, at least around its middle portion. It is fused to the inner surface of the bulb by placing in the bulb during its manufacture a quantity of the powdered crystals, and then heating the bulb red hot in a glass-blower's flame while the bulb is rotated. The rotation of the bulb causes the mass of crystals to spread out over the surface, to which they adhere by the softening of the glass. The bulb is subsequently exhausted to the proper degree of vacuum at which the so-called molecular bombardment effect is at its maximum, when the bulb is sealed off.".
Edison does not state the strength of electricity needed to illuminate the material between the two electrodes, simply stating that "...When the tube is prperly excited by oscillating waves of electricity, the effect of the bombardment of the molecules of the residual gas is to cause the powdered tungstate to fluoresce brilliantly with a pure white light. A single bulb of moderate size can, by this means, be made to give several candle-power of light with a very small expenditure of energy. If the crystals are fused to the outside of the bulb, the candle-power is not so great, but the lamp can be more readily exhausted of air. ..."
(Note that apparently some x-ray bulb would be necessary to illuminate this bulb using x-rays, because I'm not sure that tungstate of calcium or strontium would produce x-rays. Possibly secondary radiation found by Pupin implies that x-rays are produced by using high voltage to illuminate calcium tungstate.)
(Presumably there must have been some nitrogen, oxygen and perhaps a small amount of inert gases in Edison's partially evacuated tube which would be incandescent under high electric potentials.)
| Llewellyn Park, New Jersey, USA |
104 YBN
[06/02/1896 AD]
| 4337) (Sir) Jagadis Chandra Bose (BOZ or BOS) (CE 1858-1937), Indian physicist, uses a curved diffraction grating to measure the wavelength of radio waves.
| (Presidency College) Calcutta, India |
104 YBN
[06/02/1896 AD]
| 4827) (Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937), Italian electrical engineer, patents his wireless particle radio transmitter and receiver.
This is the first patent in the history of radio. This is significant given what must have been the massive and widespread secret use of particle communications with neuron reading and writing at the time.
By interrupting the oscillating spark signal with a telegraph key, Marconi is able to transmit Morse code. A trembler or tapper, similar to that of an electric bell rings with the received signal at the receiving end.
Many sources state that Marconi does not receive much encouragement to continue his experiments in Italy, and so in 1896 goes to London where he is soon assisted by Sir William Preece, the chief engineer of the post office. This is interesting, given the already long existing secret neuron reading and writing networks.
In London, one of Marconi's Irish cousins, Henry Jameson Davis, helps him prepare the patent application. Davis, also arranges demonstrations of the wireless telegraph for government officials and in 1897 helps to form and finance the Wireless Telegraph and Signal Co., Ltd., which in 1900 becomes Marconi’s Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd.
Marconi writes in his British patent titled "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRANSMITTING ELECTRICAL IMPULSES AND SIGNALS, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR.": " According to this invention electrical actions or manifestations are transmitted through the air, earth, or water by means of electric oscillations of high frequency. At the transmitting station I employ a Ruhmkorff coil having in its primary circuit a Morse key, or other appliance for starting or interrupting the current, and its pole appliances (such as insulated balls separated by small air spaces or high vacuum spaces, or compressed air or gas, or insulating liquids kept in place by a suitable insulating material, or tubes separated by similar spaces and carrying sliding discs) for producing the desired oscillations. I find that a Ruhmkorff coil, or other similar apparatus, works much better if one of its vibrating contacts or brakes on its primary circuit is caused to revolve, which causes the secondary discharge to be more powerful and more regular, and keeps the platinum contacts of the vibrator cleaner and preserves them in good working order for an incomparably longer time than if they were not revolved. I cause them to revolve by means of a small electric motor actuated by the current which works the coil, or by another current, or in some cases I employ a mechanical (non-electrical) motor. The coil may, however, be replaced by any other source of high tension electricity. At the receiving instrument there is a local battery circuit containing an ordinary receiving telegraphic or signalling instrument, or other apparatus which may be necessary to work from a distance, and an appliance for closing the circuit, the latter being actuated by the oscillations from the transmitting instrument. The appliance I employ consists of a tube containing conductive powder, or grains, or conductors in imperfect contact, each end of the column of powder or the terminals of the imperfect contact or conductor being connected to a metallic plate, preferably of suitable length so as to cause the system to resonate electrically in unison with the electrical oscillations transmitted to it. In some cases I give these plates or conductors the shape of an ordinary Hertz resonator consisting of two semicircular conductors, but with the difference that at the spark-gap I place one of my sensitive tubes, whilst the other ends of the conductors are connected to small condensers. I have found that the best rules for making the sensitive tubes are as follows:-- 1st. The column of powder ought not to be long, the effects being better in sensitiveness and regularity with tubes containing columns of powder or grains not exceeding two-thirds of an inch in length. 2nd. The tube containing the powder ought to be sealed. 3rd. Each wire which passes through the tube, in order to establish electrical communication, ought to terminate with pieces of metal or small knobs of a comparatively large surface, or preferably with pieces of thicker wire, of a diameter equal to the internal diameter of the tube, so as to oblige the powder or grains to be corked in between. 4th. If it is necessary to employ a local battery of higher E.M.F. than that with which an ordinarily prepared tube will work, the column of powder must be longer and divided into several sections by metallic divisions, the amount of powder or grains in each section being practically in the same condition as in a tube containing a single section. When no oscillations are sent from the transmitting instrument the powder or imperfect contact does not conduct the current, and the local battery circuit is broken; but when the powder or imperfect contact is influenced by the electrical oscillations, it conducts and closes the circuit. I find, however, that once started, the powder or contact continues to conduct even when the oscillations at the transmitting station have ceased; but if it be shaken or tapped, the circuit is broken. I do this tapping automatically, employing the current which the sensitive tube or contact had allowed to begin to flow under the influence of the electric oscillations from the transmitting instrument to work a trembler (similar to that of an electric bell), which hits the tube or imperfect contact, and so stops the current and, consequently, its own movement, which had been generated by the said current, which by this means automatically and almost instantaneously interrupts itself until another oscillation from the transmitting instrument repeats the process. .... In order to prevent the action of the self-induction of the local circuits on the sensitive tube or contact, and also to destroy the perturbating effect of the small spark which occurs at the breaking of the circuit inside the tube or imperfect contact, and also at the vibrating contact of the trembler or at the movable contact of the relay, I put in derivation across those parts where the circuit is periodically broken a condenser of suitable capacity, or a coil of suitable resistance and self-induction, so that its self-induction may neutralise the self-induction of the said circuits; .... When transmitting through the earth or water I connect one end of the tube or contact to earth and the other end to conductors or plates, preferably similar to each other, in the air and insulated from earth. I find it also better to connect the tube or imperfect contact to the local circuit by means of thin wires or across two small coils of thin and insulated wire preferably containing an iron nucleus. ". In the "complete specification" section Marconi writes: " My invention relates to the transmission of signals by means of electrical oscillations of high frequency, which are set up in space or in conductors. In order that my specification may be understood, and before going into details, I will describe the simplest form of my invention by reference to figure 1. In this diagram A is the transmitting instrument and B is the receiving instrument, placed at say ¼ mile apart. In the transmitting instrument R is an ordinary induction coil (a Ruhmkorff coil or transformer). Its primary circuit C is connected through a key D to a battery E, and the extremities of its secondary circuit F are connected to two insulated spheres or conductors G H fixed at a small distance apart. When the current from the battery E is allowed to pass through the primary of the induction coil, sparks will take place between the spheres G H, and the space all around the spheres suffers a perturbation in consequence of these electrical rays or surgings. The arrangement A is commonly called a Hertz radiator, and the effects which propagate through space Hertzian rays. The receiving instrument B consists of a battery circuit J, which includes a battery or cell K, a receiving instrument L, and a tube T containing metallic powder or filings, each end of the column of filings being also connected to plates or conductors M N of suitable size, so as to be preferably tuned with the length of wave of the radiation emitted from the transmitting instruments. The tube containing the filings may be replaced by an imperfect electrical contact, such as two unpolished pieces of metal in light contact, or coherer, &c. The powder in the tube T is, under ordinary conditions, a non-conductor of electricity, and the current of the cell K cannot pass through the instrument; but when the receiver is influenced by suitable electrical waves or radiation the powder in the tube T becomes a conductor (and remains so until the tube is shaken or tapped), and the current passes through the instrument. By these means electrical waves which are set up in the transmitting apparatus affect the receiving instrument in such a manner that currents are caused to circulate in the circuit J, and may be utilised for deflecting a needle, which thus responds to the impulse coming from the transmitter. Figures 2, 3, 4, &c., show various more complete arrangements of the simple form of apparatus illustrated in figure 1. I will describe these figures generally before proceeding to describe the improvements in detail. Figure 2 is a diagrammatic front elevation of the instruments of the receiving station, in which k k are the plates corresponding to M N in figure 1. g is the battery corresponding to K, h is the reading instrument corresponding to L, n is a relay working the reading instrument h in the ordinary manner. p is a trembler or tapper, similar to that of an electric bell, which is moved by the current that works the instrument. Fig. 3 Figure 3 is a diagrammatic front elevation of the instruments at the transmitting station, in which e e are two metallic spheres corresponding to G H in figure 1. c is an induction coil corresponding to R. b is a key corresponding to D, and a is a battery corresponding to E. Figure 4 is a vertical section of the radiator or oscillation producer mounted in the focal line of a cylindrical parabolic reflector f in which a side view of the spheres e e of figure 3 is given. .... At the receiver it is possible to pick up the oscillations from the earth or water without having the plate w. This may be done by connecting the terminals of the sensitive tube j to two earths, preferably at a certain distance from each other and in a line with the direction from which the oscillations are coming. These connections must not be entirely conductive, but must contain a condenser of suitable capacity, say of one square yard surface (parafined paper as dielectric). Balloons can also be used instead of plates on poles, provided they carry up a plate or are themselves made conductive by being covered with tinfoil. As the height to which they may be sent is great, the distance at which communication is possible becomes greatly multiplied. Kites may also be successfully employed if made conductive by means of tinfoil. When working the described apparatus, it is necessary either that the local transmitter and receiver at each station should be at a considerable distance from each other, or that they should be screened from each other by metal plates. It is sufficient to have all the telegraphic apparatus in a metal box (except the reading instrument), and any exposed part of the circuit of the receiver enclosed in metallic tubes which are in electrical communication with the box (of course the part of the apparatus which has to receive the radiation from the distant station must not be enclosed, but possibly screened from the local transmitting instrument by means of metallic sheets). When the apparatus is connected to the earth or water the receiver must be switched out of circuit when the local transmitter is at work, and this may also be done when the apparatus is not earthed. Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is-- 1. The method of transmitting signals by means of electrical impulses to a receiver having a sensitive tube or other sensitive form of imperfect contact capable of being restored with certainty and regularity to its normal condition substantially as described. 2. A receiving instrument consisting of a sensitive imperfect contact or contacts, a circuit through the contact or contacts, and means for restoring the contact or contacts, with certainty and regularity, to its or their normal condition after the receipt of an impulse substantially as described. 3. A receiving instrument consisting of a sensitive imperfect contact or contacts, a circuit through the contact or contacts, and means actuated by the circuit for restoring with certainty and regularity the contact or contacts to its or their normal condition after the receipt of an impulse. 4. In a receiving instrument such as is mentioned in claims 2 and 3, the use of resistances possessing low self-induction, or other appliances for preventing the formation of sparks at contacts or other perturbating effects. 5. The combination with the receivers such as are mentioned in claims 2 and 3 of resistances or other appliances for preventing the self-induction of the receiver from affecting the sensitive contact or contacts substantially as described. 6. The combination with receivers such as herein above referred to of choking coils substantially as described. 7. In receiving instruments consisting of an imperfect contact or contacts sensitive to electrical impulses, the use of automatically working devices for the purpose of restoring the contact or contacts with certainty and regularity to their normal condition after the receipt of an impulse substantially as herein described. 8. Constructing a sensitive non-conductor capable of being made a conductor by electrical impulses of two metal plugs or their equivalents, and confining between them some substance such as described. 9. A sensitive tube containing a mixture of two or more powders, grains, or filings, substantially as described. 10. The use of mercury in sensitive imperfect electrical contacts substantially as described. 11. A receiving instrument having a local circuit, including a sensitive imperfect electrical contact or contacts, and a relay operating an instrument for producing signals, actions, or manifestations substantially as described. 12. Sensitive contacts in which a column of powder or filings (or their equivalent) is divided into sections by means of metallic stops or plugs substantially as described. 13. Receivers substantially as described and shown in figures 5 and 8. 14. Transmitters substantially as described and shown at figures 6 and 7. 15. A receiver consisting of a sensitive tube or other imperfect contact inserted in a circuit, one end of the sensitive tube or other imperfect contact being put to earth whilst the other end is connected to an insulated conductor. 16. The combination of a transmitter having one end or its sparking appliance or poles connected to earth, and the other to an insulated conductor, with a receiver as is mentioned in claim 15. 17. A receiver consisting of a sensitive tube or other imperfect contact inserted in a circuit, and earth connections to each end of the sensitive contact or tube through condensers or their equivalent. 18. The modifications in the transmitters and receivers, in which the suspended plates are replaced by cylinders or the like placed hat-wise on poles, or by balloons or kites substantially as described. 19. An induction coil having a revolving make and break substantially as and for the purposes described. Dated this 2nd day of March 1897. ". (Give entire patent? Much of this technology has been surpassed and simplified, and certainly secretly miniturized.)
(EXPERIMENT: All things being equal, does a higher frequency of radio cause a stronger received electric current? This seems like it would be likely since there are more light particles per second being emitted and received. This might explain why uv light causes a stronger current. This implies that the frequency of any light can be determined by the strength of the current caused in some receiver. However, possibly a receiving material may absorb certain frequencies better than others, but for a material that receives a wide spectrum, this would be possibly true. This rules out the effect of resonance which can be used to collect larger current of frequencies resonant with the resonance of the circuit.)
(Probably if Marconi was not initially into the wireless telepathy market, he must have been after his success in the wireless telegraph business. So no doubt that like Bell, Marconi must have seen, heard, recorded, and no doubt even sent many thought sounds and images.)
(State what voltage does Marconi use?)
(One very important aspect of wireless particle communication is the idea of concentrating the emitted particles into as small a beam as possible, and keeping the beam in one tiny specific direction, however, this aspect is rarely mentioned due mainly to the secrecy surrounding particle beam science.)
Initially Morse code is transmitted, but amplitude modulation, frequency modulation, pulse code modulation, spread spectrum and other methods will be used to transmit information which may be composed of text, sound, image, etc. data, while wired communciation remains amplitude modulation. Communication, whether analog or digital, is basically run like an on/off switch, an ordered series of a signal being detected or not detected builds up large numbers, images, sounds, and all other forms of data.
| (father’s estate) Bologna, Italy |
104 YBN
[06/11/1896 AD]
| 4728) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, makes a magnetic detector of electrical waves.
Rutherford shows that an oscillatory discharge can magnetize iron, a finding which is already known. Rutherford shows that the magnetization of iron occurs even when the oscillatory discharge of a Leyden jar happens with frequencies of over 108 cycles per second (100 Megahertz). Rutherford also determines that a magnetized needle loses some of its magnetization in a magnetic field produced by an alternating current and this makes the needle a detector of electromagnetic waves. Rutherford buses this principle to build a device that detects radio waves from half a mile away. (Any conductor is a detector of light particles because of the photoelectric effect.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN
[06/11/1896 AD]
| 4737) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and Canadian physicist Harriet Brooks (CE 1876 – 1933) measure the diffusion of the new gas from Radium to be around 0.08, and therefore that the gas emitted from radium must be a heavy radioactive gas.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN
[07/25/1896 AD]
| 3278) (Sir) George Gabriel Stokes (CE 1819-1903), British mathematician and physicist, suggests that Roentgen rays are pulses in an ether. In addition, Stokes is among one of the first to suggest that the X rays found by Roentgen are electromagnetic radiation similar to light.
| Cambridge, England |
104 YBN
[09/02/1896 AD]
| 4828) (Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937), Italian electrical engineer, with the support of the British Post Office and War Office, demonstrates wireless radio communication over 1 3/4 miles.
| Slisbury Plain, England |
104 YBN
[11/25/1896 AD]
| 4153) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist reports that the invisible radiations of uranium and its salts are similar to x-rays in their in crossing opaque bodies, but differ from x-rays in being reflected and refracted in the same way as light. In addition Becquerel reports the power the rays have to gases in discharging electrified bodies.
This work is summarized in English by the Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers as this: "The author showed several months ago, that uranium and its salts emit invisible radiations which traverse opaque bodies and possess the property of discharging electrified bodies at a distance. These radiations share the properties common to the x rays, but differ in the fact that they are reflected and refracted in the same way as light. Amongst the properties observed by the author whilst studying these rays, which he terms "uranium rays", there are two which he publishes—viz., the duration of emission, and their power of communicating to gases the property of discharging electrified bodies.
With regard to the duration of emission, the uranium salts, when kept in the dark, continue to emit their radiations after many weeks. Many phosphorescent and non-phosphorescent salts of uranium were experimented with. These salts were placed on a glass plate, and some of them protected from the air by a sealed glass jar. They were then placed in a double lend box, and so arranged that a photographic plate enclosed in a lead shutter could be slipped under the salts without opening the box. Some of the salts were placed in the box in March, and some in May. Negatives developed in November were nearly as intense as previous ones. It is therefore to be noted that the duration of emission of these rays, differs materially from the ordinary phenomena of phosphorescence, and it still remains to discover the source from which uranium borrows the energy which it emits with so much persistence.
With reference to the dissipation of the charge of electrified bodies, amongst other properties possessed by the x rays, Mr. J. J. Thomson has discovered that not only the direct action of these rays discharges an electrified body at a distance, but that, after having caused these rays to act on a mass of gas. it suffices to cause the gas to pass over the electrified body to discharge it. M. Villari has shown that electric sparks, but not the silent discharge, communicate the same property to different gases.
The author has investigated whether these uranium rays, which discharge electrified bodies at a distance, would not impart this property to different gases.
The current of gas (air or carbonic acid) was caused to pass through a tube containing wool to filter it of all dust, and after this through a second tube containing the uranium salt; the end of this tube opened out on the ball of an electroscope.
In the second series of experiments, the second glass tube was replaced by a cardboard box containing a disc of metallic uranium, the box having two holes, one of which allowed the gas to pass out on to the ball of an electroscope. Under these conditions, if the uranium is not placed in the box, the electroscope remains charged, even when the current of gas is passed upon it, so long as the gas is free from dust. When the current of gas is stopped, and the nraninm is placed in the box, or a uranium salt is placed in the tube, the electroscope shows a loss of charge due to the direct action of the uranium rays. For example, in an experiment with metallic uranium, the rate of falling of the leaves (expressed in seconds of angle per second of time), which was 8 without uranium, became 16.7 with it. The current of air was then started, after having passed over the metallic uranium, and produced a considerable dissipation : the rate of fall of the gold leaves was 88.6. The double sulphate of "uranyle" and potassium, with similar currents of air, gave an average of 23.9, as compared to 71.9 with metallic uranium. The ratio is therefore 3. The direct action of uranium rays emitted by these two substances on the electroscope in air, previously gave the ratio of 3.65. The ratio is therefore about the same in the two cases, the discrepancy being no doubt due to leakage of air through the cardboard box. This proportionality shows that the, effect is not due to the action of particles, or of vapours from the, metal or from the salt. This was further proved by wrapping the uranium disc in black paper. Experiments made with a current of carbonic acid gas yielded resnlts of the same order, but the currents were very weak, and the difficulty of regulating their velocity prevented obtaining figures as directly comparable as the above. These results conclusively prove that gases which have been submitted to the action of uranium rays, possess the property of discharging electrified bodies.".
The comment about the source of energy is interesting because, in my mind, this question should be - what is the source of velocity and matter? And the answer is that, possibly, all collections of matter contain particles with a lot of velocity even if the large object appears to be stationary relative to a viewer. This is because the particles may remain in orbit around each other, or simply collide around as if in a maze - the velocities simply averaging out to be the same in all directions.
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
104 YBN
[11/??/1896 AD]
| 4165) John Martin Schaeberle (sABRlE) (CE 1853-1924) German-US astronomer detects the 13th magnitude dim companian star of Procyon (Alpha Canis Minoris).
Like Sirius B, Procyon's companion is a white dwarf that was inferred from astrometric data long before it was observed. Its existence had been postulated by Friedrich Bessel as early as 1844, and although its orbital elements had been calculated by Arthur Auwers in 1862 as part of his thesis, Procyon B was not visually confirmed until 1896 when John Martin Schaeberle observed it at the predicted position using the 36-inch refractor at Lick Observatory. It is even more difficult to observe from Earth than Sirius B, due to a greater apparent magnitude difference and smaller angular separation from its primary. The average separation of the two components is 15 AUs, a little less than the distance between Uranus and the Sun, though the eccentric orbit carries them as close as 9 AUs and as far as 21.
| (Lick Observatory) Mt. Hamilton, California, USA |
104 YBN
[11/??/1896 AD]
| 4259) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, finds that Röntgen rays cause gases to become electrical conductors and so offers a method much more convenient than disruptive discharge for producing gas ions. In addition Thomson and Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937) calculate the velocity of the charged particles of the cathode ray and that this velocity depends on the intensity of the X-ray radiation.
(Might this have an implication for neuron writing? If x-ray particles can cause electricity to flow in a neuron, perhaps a neuron might be made to fire. Notice Thomson's uses of the word "suggestive" and "leak".)
Thomson and Ruthorford write: "THE facility with which a gas, by the application and removal of Röntgen rays, can be changed from a conductor to an insulator makes the use of these rays a valuable means of studying the conduction of electricity through gases, and the study of the properties of gases when in the state into which they are thrown by the rays promises to lead to results of value in connexion with this subject. We have during the past few months made a series of experiments on the passage of electricity through gases exposed to the rays, the results of these experiments are contained in the following paper.
A gas retains its conducting property for a short time after the rays have ceased to pass through it. This can readily be shown by having a charged electrode shielded from the direct influence of these rays, which pass from the vacuum-tube through an aluminium window in a box covered with sheet lead; then, though there is no leak when the air in the neighbourhood of the electrode is still, yet on blowing across the space over the aluminium window on to the electrode the latter immediately begins to leak.
To make a more detailed examination of this point we used the following apparatus.
A closed aluminium vessel is placed in front of the window through which the rays pass. A tube through which air can be blown by a pair of bellows leads into this vessel: the rate at which the air passed through this tube was measured by a gas-meter placed in series with the tube; a plug of glass wool was placed in the tube leading to the vessel to keep out the dust. The air left the aluminium vessel through another tube, at the end of which was placed the arrangement for measuring the rate of leakage of electricity (usually a wire charged to a high potential placed in the axis of an earth-connected metal tube through which the stream of gas passed, the wire being connected with one pair of quadrants of an electrometer). This arrangement was carefully shielded from the direct effect of the rays, and there was no leak unless a current of air was passing through the apparatus ; when, however, the current of air was flowing there was a considerable leak, showing that the air after exposure to the rays retained its conducting properties for the time (about 1/2 second) it took to pass from the aluminium vessel to the charged electrode.
We tried whether the conductivity of the gas would be destroyed by heating the gas during its passage from the place where it was exposed to the rays to the place where its conductivity was tested. To do this we inserted a piece of porcelain tubing which was raised to a white heat; the gas after coming through this tube was so hot that it could hardly be borne by the hand ; the conductivity, however, did not seem to be at all impaired. If, however, the gas is made to bubble through water every trace of conductivity seems to disappear. The gas also lost its conductivity when forced through a plug of glass wool, though the rate of flow was kept the same as in an experiment which gave a rapid leak; if the same plug was inserted in the system of tubes before the gas reached the vessel where it was exposed to the Rontgen rays, in this case the conductivity was not diminished. This experiment seems to show that the structure in virtue of which the gas conducts is of such a coarse character that it is not able to survive the passage through the fine pores in a plug of glass wool. A diaphragm of fine wire gauze or muslin does not seem to affect the conductivity.
A very suggestive result is the effect of passing a current of electricity through the gas on its way from the aluminium vessel where it is exposed to the Rontgen rays to the place where its conductivity is examined. We tested this by inserting a metal tube in the circuit, along the axis of which an insulated wire was fixed connected with one terminal of a battery of small storage-cells, the other terminal of this battery was connected with the metal tube ; thus as the gas passed through the tube a current of electricity was sent through it. The passage of a current from a few cells was sufficient to greatly diminish the conductivity of the gas passing through the tube, and by increasing the number of cells the conductivity of the gas could be entirely destroyed. Thus the peculiar state into which a gas is thrown by the Rontgen rays is destroyed when a current of electricity passes through it. It is the current which destroys this state, not the electric field ; for if the central wire is enclosed in a glass tube so as to stop the current but maintain the electric field, the gas passes through with its conductivity unimpaired. The current produces the same effect on the gas as it would produce on a very weak solution of an electrolyte. For imagine such a solution to pass through the tubes instead of the gas ; then if enough electricity passed through the solution to decompose all the electrolyte the solution when it emerged would be a nonconductor ; and this is precisely what happens in the case of the gas. We shall find that the analogy between a dilute solution of an electrolyte and gas exposed to the Rontgen rays holds through a wide range of phenomena, and we have found it of great use in explaining many of the characteristic properties of conduction through gases.
Thus Rontgen rays supply a means of communicating a charge of electricity to a gas. To do this, take an insulated wire charged up to a high potential and surrounded by a tube made of a non-conducting substance : let this tube lead into a large insulated metallic vessel connected with an electrometer. If now air which has been exposed to Rontgen rays is blown through the tube into this vessel the electrometer will be deflected. This proves that the gas inside the vessel is charged .with electricity. If the Rontgen rays are stopped and the gas blown out of the vessel the charge disappears. In these experiments we took precautions against dust.
The fact that the passage of a current of electricity through a gas destroys its conductivity explains a very characteristic property of the leakage of electricity through gases exposed to Rontgen rays ; that is, for a given intensity of radiation the current through the gas does not exceed a certain maximum value whatever the electromotive force may be, the current gets, as it were, "saturated." The relation between the electromotive force and the current is shown in the following curve, where the ordinates represent the current and the abscissse the electromotive force. It is evident that this saturation must occur if the current destroys the conducting power of the gas, and that the maximum current will be the current which destroys the conductivity at the same rate as this property is produced by the Rontgen rays. ..." Thomson and Rutherford calculate the velocity of the charged particles of the cathode rays and find that: "...Now EU/l is the sum of the velocities of the positively and negatively charged particles in the electric field. Hence, equation (6) shows that the current bears to the maximum current the same ratio as the space described by the charged particles in time T bears to the distance between the electrodes. In an experiment where I was about 1 cm., the rate of leak through air for a potential-difference of 1 volt was about 1/30 of the maximum rate of leak, hence the charged particles must in the time T have moved through about 1/30 of a centimetre. The time T will depend upon the intensity of the radiation ; it could be determined by measuring the rate of leak at different points on the tube through which the conducting gas was blown in the experiment mentioned at the beginning of this paper. We hope to make such experiments and obtain exact values for T ; in the meantime, from the rough experiments already made, we think we may conclude that with the intensity of radiation we generally employed, T was of the order of 1/10 of a second. This would make the velocities of the charged particles in the air about .33 cm./sec. for a gradient of one volt per cm. This velocity is very large compared with the velocity of ions through an electrolyte ; it is, however, small compared with the velocity with which an atom carrying an atomic charge would move through a gas at atmospheric pressure; if we calculate by the kinetic theory of gases this velocity, we find that for air it is of the order 50 cm./sec.; this result seems to imply that the charged particles in the gas exposed to the Rontgen rays are the centres of an aggregation of a considerable number of molecules. ..." Thomson and Rutherford go on to show the measured current between the two electrodes with are metal plates depending on the distance between the two plates. They find that 1/3x1011 eletromagnetic units is enough to electrolyse all the electrolytic gas produced by Rontgen rays, and so only one three billionth of the whole amount of gas is electrolysed. They measure the leakage of current through different gases. Thomson and Rutherford write "...But in the case of the passage of electricity through a gas which has been exposed to Rontgen rays the conduction takes place even when the system is not exposed to the direct radiation from the exhausted tube; we think it probable therefore that the gas itself radiates after being exposed to the Rontgen rays. ..." and then perform an experiment to test this theory.
This joint paper is famous for the idea that X rays create an equal number of positive and negative carriers of electricity, or "ions" in the gas molecules. Although not explicitly stated in this paper. (State when this theory is first explicitly stated.)
In 1903 Rutherford will report that negative electricity is given off by metals exposed to Roentgen rays.
So Thomson and Rutherford show that the function of the X-rays is to liberate charged ions in the gas which move under the electromotive force applied, thus constituting the carriers of the current. If the rays are turned off these ions disappear by recombination, the positive ions finding negative partners and reconstituting neutral molecules. If, on the other hand, the rays are kept going continuously then the current which passed depended on the value of the applied electromotive force. If the electromotive force is small the ions move slowly against the resistance of the surrounding air, and only a small current passes, the majority of the ions produced disappearing by recombination. If a large electromotive force is applied, the motion of the ions becomes so rapid that there is no time for them to recombine before they reached the electrodes. In this case the whole number of ions produced by the rays is usefully employed in conveying the current, none being wasted by recombination, and the current attains its maximum value. Further increase of electromotive force can not under these circumstances increase it. Such a maximum current was called by Thomson and has continued to be called the 'saturation current'. When the distance between the electrod es is increased the saturation current is increased too. This phenomenon is unparallel in cases of conduction of electricity through metals or electrolytes. Shortly afterwards other workers in the laboratory, including Rutherford and Zeleny, find the absolute velocity of the ions through air under the potential gradient of 1 volt per centimetre. This velocity is found to be proportionate to the electromotive force as indeed had been assumed throughout.
(I think that potentially the x-particles, or photons of x-rays, may change the atoms of gas - perhaps the shape - so that the particles that move in electric current can cause them to be moved - perhaps the gas atoms are made smaller and so collisions with them appear to impart velocity, or perhaps they are made larger and have more surface area for a collision. I think people need to at least explore the idea of a particle-collision only universe - that is an all-inertial universe.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
104 YBN
[12/10/1896 AD]
| 3698) Alfred Bernhard Nobel (CE 1833-1896), Swedish inventor, after death, establishes the "Nobel prize". The Nobel prize is an annual prize given in five fields: Peace, Literature, Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology and Medicine (A sixth award is added for economics in 1969, but is separately funded). The Nobel prize probably carries the highest honor of any science award and inspires scientific achievement.
Nobel's will directs that the bulk of his estate, above 33 million kronor, should endow the annual prizes. This will is proved within 4 years and the Nobel Foundation created.
| (dies at) San Remo, Italy|(will, and awards are in)Stockholm, Sweden |
104 YBN
[12/12/1896 AD]
| 3444) William J. Humphreys(CE 1862-1949) and John F. Mohler (CE 1864-1930) measure how spectral lines of illuminated elements shift depending on the pressure.
In 1890 Kayser and Runge had measured that the shifting of lines due to an increase in material happens mainly on the the less refrangible side.
Humphreys and Mohler write: "In examining the effects of pressure on arc-spectra we used a twenty-one and a half foot concave Rowland grating of 20000 lines to the inch... The arc was produced by a direct 110-volt current of any amperage desired, which, judging from the fuses blown, occassionally amounted to fifty or more. The pressures were always obtained by pumping air into a piece of apparatus designed by Professor Rowland several years ago and used by Messrs. Duncan, Rowland and Todd in their examination of the electric arc under pressure. It consists, as shown by Plate XI., of a cast-iron cylindrical vessel A, having at each end stuffing boxes B, B' through which pass insulated rods D, D' carrying carbons C, C'. The upper rod is regulated by a rack and pinion P, and the lower one by two screws S, S. The cylinder is prevented from becoming too hot by the water jacket K. A plane piece of quartz Q allows light from the arc to reach the spectroscope, and the window W enables one to know when the carbons are in proper position before turning on the current. The pressures were given by a guage which could be read as often as desired, through it never changed appreciable after the current was on a few seconds. Nearly all the work was done in the second spectrum, the dispersion being a little more than one millimeter per Angstrom unit. Some observations were taken directly with a micrometer eyepiece, but most of the results were obtained from photographs which were measured on a dividing engine especially constructed for this sort of work, and used in determining Rowland's table of standard wave-lengths. ... ...when pressure was applied to the arc containing cadmium, a decided shift in the position of the lines was at once noticed. It was not simply unsymmetrical broadening, for it was possible to obtain fine sharp lines with and without pressure; nor was it a case of one line disappearing and another appearing in a slightly different position since it was often easy, while the pressure was being let off, to observe a line gradually change its position without alteration in width or other appearance. ...the shift might be due to change in temperature rather than pressure...Wilson and Gray's work indeicates that the temperature of the negative pole is much lower than that of the positive. We could detect no change in the position of the lines, but this of course does not settle the question ... All our measurements showed that the shifts were invariably towards the less refrangible, i.e., the red end of the spectrum, and that they were directly proportional, not only to the wavelengths, but also to the excess of pressure above one atmosphere."
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. |
104 YBN
[12/29/1896 AD]
| 4759) Walter Bradford Cannon (CE 1871-1945), US physiologist uses X-rays to study gastrointestinal movements, and creates a “bizmuth meal”, a drink made of bizmuth which people drink to make the intestinal system appears white against a black background. Bismuth has a high atomic weight (atomic number 83), is harmless, and is opaque to X rays. This is the first time people can see the body's soft internal organs while the outer skin remains intact.
This is the first use of X rays for physiological purposes.
This seeing of the intenstines creates a large sensation in the days before World War I (as seeing and hearing thought must be even today for those privileged few).
Cannon describes the first experiment in a letter: "It was thought best to try first a small dog as a subject, and I was commissioned to get a card of globular pearl buttons for the dog to swallow. Dr. Dwight, Professor of Anatomy. Dr. Bowditch. Dr. Codman and I were the only witnesses. We placed a fluorescent screen over the dog’s esophagus, and with the greenish light of the tube shining below we watched the glow of the fluorescent surface. Everyone was keyed up with tense excitement. It was my function to place the pearl button as far back as possible in the dog’s throat so that he would swallow it. Nothing was seen! As intensity of our interest increased someone exploded: “Button, button, who’s got the button?” We all broke out in a sort of hysterical laughter.".
| (Harvard Medical School) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4052) Hugo Marie De Vries (Du VRES) (CE 1848-1935), Dutch botanist demonstrates his "segregation laws", which are the re-discovery of "Mendel's laws".
De Vries devises a theory of how different characteristics might vary independently of each other and recombine in many different combinations, basically reinventing Mendel's theories, in order to explain variations in living objects.
In October 1899, Karl Franz Joseph Erich Correns (KoReNS) (CE 1864-1933), German botanist, independently develops the laws of genetics (the inheritance of characteristics), before finding Mendel's work and publishes his own work only to confirm Mendel's. Correns is honest enough to publish the correspondence between Mendel and Nägeli (Correns' uncle-in-law), in which Nägeli rejects Mendel's work.
| (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4170) (Sir) William Matthew Flinders Petrie (PETrE) (CE 1853-1942), (English archaeologist) discovers the stele (stone slab monument) of Merneptah at Thebes, which has inscribed the earliest known Egyptian reference to Israel. Merneptah was king of ancient Egypt from 1213 to 1204 BCE, and was the successor of Ramses II.
| Thebes, Egypt |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4240) Edward Goodrich Acheson (CE 1856-1931), US inventor creates a very pure graphite.
While studying the effects of high temperature on Carborundum (SiC), Acheson finds that the silicon vaporizes at about 4,150° C (7,500° F), leaving behind graphitic carbon.
Graphite is a soft, steel-gray to black, hexagonally crystallized allotrope of carbon with a metallic luster and a greasy feel, used in lead pencils, lubricants, paints, and coatings, that is fabricated into a variety of forms such as molds, bricks, electrodes, crucibles, and rocket nozzles. Also called black lead, plumbago.
Graphite is useful in the formation of electrodes and special lubricants capable of withstanding high temperatures which Acheson will develop in 1906.
(how does Acheson create the graphite? more detail) (is Acheson the first to create graphite?)
(Track the technology used to produce the highest temperature reached, and the highest pressure {perhaps the strongest or emptiest vacuum} through time.)
| (Carborundum Company) Monongahedla City, Pennsylvania, USA |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4328) Christiaan Eijkman (IkmoN) (CE 1858-1930), Dutch physician shows that the cause of the disease "beriberi" is because of poor diet. This leads to the discovery of vitamins and "beriberi" will be the first known "dietary-deficiency disease".
Initially, Eijkman searches for a bacterial cause for beriberi, because Pasteur's germ theory of disease is leading to many successes for physicians such as Koch and Behring. In 1890 polyneuritis breaks out among his laboratory chickens. Noticing that this disease has a striking resemblance to the polyneuritis occurring in beriberi, Eijkman is eventually (1897) able to show that the condition is caused by feeding the chickens a diet of polished, rather than unpolished, rice. Eijkman by chance notices that the chickens one day suddenly are cured, and this is when a cook had been transferred and the new cook stopped feeding the chickens rice and started feeding them commercial chicken feed. Eijkman is therefore the first to identify what is now called a "dietary-deficiency disease", a disease caused by the absence in diet of some required molecule only needed in small amounts to prevent the disease. Eijkman wrongly thinks that there is some kind of toxic chemical in the rice grains and still maintains this theory even after his successor in Batavia, Gerrit Grijns, demonstrates in 1901 that the problem is a nutritional deficiency, later determined to be a lack of vitamin B1 (thiamine). Hopkins will correctly explain the phenomenon of missing required molecules. Funk will call the missing component "vitamine" and the word will lose the "e" to become "vitamin" a few years later. Therefore around 1900, it is shown that the germ theory of disease does not explain all disease and that some diseases are biochemical in nature. The work of Starling and Bayliss will open the way to understanding another variety of biochemical disorder.
(amazing that some part of a body requires special molecules. There must be many specific required molecules for each body, evolved over many years.)
| Javanese Medical School in Batavia (now Jakarta) (presumably) |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4343) Svante August Arrhenius (oRrAnEuS) (CE 1859-1927), Swedish chemist links the quantity of CO2 in a planet's atmopshere to the temperature of the atmosphere - now known as the "Greenhouse effect".
Arrhenius estimates the effect of the burning fossil fuels as a source of atmospheric CO2, predicting that a doubling of CO2 due to fossil fuel burning alone would take 500 years and lead to temperature increases of 3 to 4 °C (about 5 to 7 °F).
Arrhenius (is the first to) understand the "greenhouse effect" of carbon dioxide; that carbon dioxide in the earth atmosphere serves as a heat trap, allowing high frequency sun light in, but blocking low frequency infrared light emitting back out.
(In a particle view, this simply means that CO2 absorbs more photons than it emits over time, given some photon source. For other molecules - which emit more, the same, and less photons than photons absorbed? In addition, public record should be made of which molecules absorb and emit which frequencies of various particles - in particular photons.) And that a small increase in carbon dioxide might increase the temperature of the planet and perhaps had been the cause of the warm temperatures in the time of Mesozoic Era of dinosaurs, and a small lowering in carbon dioxide might cause an ice age.
Ahhrenius publishes this in The Philosophical Magazine.
| (Stockholms Högskola {now the University of Stockholm}) Stockholm, Sweden |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4381) Charles Édouard Guillaume (GEYOM) (CE 1861-1938), Swiss-French physicist finds an alloy of iron and nickel in the ratio of 9 to 5, which changes volume with temperature only slightly. Guillaume names this alloy "invar" for "invariable" because of the lack of change in volume. Invar is useful in the manufacture of balance wheels and tiny hair springs. The lack of change in volume with temperature of invar helps to keep watches and chronometers keep time better. In 50 years Townes will invent the first "atomic clock" using the vibration of the ammonium atom as measured by the unchanging frequency of photons with microwave frequency.
Guillaume publishes this in Comptes Rendus. (verify)
(Guillaume created this alloy himself?)
| (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) Sèvres, France |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4422) Henry Ford (CE 1863-1947) US industrialist builds his first automobile ("horseless carriage"), the "Quadricycle".
This name reflects the chassis, which is a four-horsepower engine with a frame mounted on four bicycle wheels. Unlike many other automotive inventors, including Charles Edgar and J. Frank Duryea, Elwood Haynes, Hiram Percy Maxim, and Charles Brady King, all who had built self-powered vehicles before Ford, Ford sells his automobile to finance work on a second vehicle, and a third, and so on.
This is a two-cylinder gasoline motor. Ford drives this car for 1000 miles and sells it for $200.
In 1862, Étienne Lenoir had built the first gas (direct-acting) combustion powered carriage (car).
(Eventually flying vehicles will become much more popular, and the highways will stretch very high into the sky above all major high ways. The vehicles will have both helicopters and propulsion engines, and will probably be self guided and or controlled by walking robots flying. Humans will fly up and down and directly into their living spaces, in any floor of large vertical buildings.)
| (Detroit Edison Company) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 4494) Charles Fabry (FoBrE) (CE 1867-1945), French physicist and (Jean-Baptiste Gaspard Gustav) Alfred Pérot (CE 1863-1925) invent the Fabry-Pérot interferometer. The Fabry-Pérot interferometer is based on the multiple reflection of light between two plane parallel half-silvered mirrors. The distribution of light produced by interference of rays that have undergone different numbers of reflections is characterized by extremely well defined maxima and minima, and monochromatic light produces a set of sharp concentric rings. Different wavelengths in the incident light can be distinguished by the sets of rings produced. This instrument produces sharper fringes than the interferometer built by Albert Michelson. For spectroscopy, Fabry-Pérot interferometer cheaply duplicates the advantages of the diffraction grating.
| (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 5499) Wilhelm Biedermann (CE 1852-1929) publishes "Electro-physiology" which summarizes much of the public work done in direct neuron writing and electrical muscle contraction. This includes the relating Wollaston's 1810 and Helmholtz' work in muscle contractions with audio frequencies causing sound.
Biedermann reports how crustacean nerves have the property of rhythmic response to constant current stimulation.
In one part Biedermann writes: "...Wollaston (1810) and Ermann (1812) attempted to apply the muscle-sound in determining the discontinuous nature of voluntary muscular contraction (Martins, 31), and Helmholtz subsequently investigated the phenomenon more exactly. Like Ermann he started from the fact that when the masticatory muscles are forcibly contracted at night, with the ears closed, "a dull, humming sound is heard, the ground-tone of which is not intrinsically altered by increased tension, while the humming that goes with it becomes stronger and louder. Helmholtz then found that on tetanising his own masseter directly, and the brachial muscles of an assistant from the median nerve, by means of an induction coil standing in the next room, the muscle gave the tone of the interrupting spring instead of the normal muscle-bruit. This is a direct proof that vibrations do occur within the muscle, however constant its change of form may appear to be, and that a vibration actually corresponds with each single stimulus, for if the number of stimuli is altered, the height of the muscle-tone alters also, since within certain limits it always corresponds with the stimulation-frequency.... The fact that the muscle-tone does not always correspond with the frequency of stimulation in direct excitation from the nerve, makes conclusions as to the rhythm of central innervation, deduced from the natural muscle-bruit, very uncertain. We have said above that muscles, when thrown voluntarily into vigorous and persistent contraction, emit a dull, humming sound. It is difficult to determine the pitch of the ground-tone in this case, because it lies on the threshold of perceptible tones. Helmholtz estimated it in his masticatory muscles at 36-40 vibrations per sec. Wollaston had previously attempted to determine the vibration-frequency in voluntary contraction of his brachial muscles by supporting his arm on a grooved board, over which a rounded piece of wood passes with such rapidity that the sound is of the same pitch as the muscle-sound. He found that the frequency of the latter lay between 20 and 30 vibrations. Helmholtz subsequently found, by means of the consonating spring, that in voluntary innervation there was a marked and visible consonance, when the spring was registered, at 18-20 vibrations per sec. ...".
(Probably some information which is unknown by English speaking people can be found in this translation.)
(Get photo, birth-death dates)
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
104 YBN
[1896 AD]
| 6019) Richard (Georg) Strauss (CE 1864-1949), German composer, composes his famous "Also sprach Zarathustra" Op. 30 ("Thus Spoke Zarathustra" or "Thus Spake Zarathustra") is a tone poem by Richard Strauss, composed during 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical treatise of the same name. (verify)
Nietzsche an outspoken believer in atheism. In Friedrich Nietzsche's "Also sprach Zarathustra", the main character Zarathustra states that "God is dead", and that man, is no longer "the image of God". Nietzsche believes that European man is at a critical turning point and that the advance of scientific enlightenment, in particular the Darwinian theory, has destroyed the old religious and metaphysical basis.
| Munich, Germany |
103 YBN
[01/07/1897 AD]
| 4262) Emil Wiechert (CE 1861-1928) describes electric atoms with masses 2000 to 3000 times smaller than those of hydrogen atoms. Later in 1897 Joseph John Thomson describes cathode rays as being composed of particles and determines their mass to electric charge ratio.
(Get translation of work and explain methods used.)
| (University of Königsberg) Königsberg, Germany |
103 YBN
[01/??/1897 AD]
| 4460) Pieter Zeeman (ZAmoN) (CE 1865-1943), Dutch physicist (under Hendrik Lorentz's direction) shows that a strong electromagnetic field on a light source (a sodium flame) causes both emission and absorption spectral lines to widen (and later on June 4, 1897 that lines are split into two or three components) and that the spectral lines at the edges of the widened emitted light are polarized.
Zeeman writes: (read entire paper?) " SEVERAL years ago, in the course of my measurements concerning the Kerr phenomenon, it occurred to me whether the light of a flame if submitted to the action of magnetism would perhaps undergo any change. The train of reasoning by which I attempted to illustrate to myself the possibility of this is of minor importance at present, at any rate I was induced thereby to try the experiment. With an extemporized apparatus the spectrum of a flame, coloured with sodium, placed between the poles of a Ruhmkorff electromagnet, was looked at. The result was negative. Probably I should not have tried this experiment again so soon had not my attention been drawn some two years ago to the following quotation from Maxwell's sketch of Faraday's life. Here (Maxwell, ' Collected Works,' ii. p. 790) we read :—" Before we describe this result we may mention that in 1862 he made the relation between magnetism and light the subject of his very last experimental work. He endeavoured, but in vain, to detect any change in the lines of the spectrum of a flame when the flame was acted on by a powerful magnet." If a Faraday thought of the possibility of the above-mentioned relation, perhaps it might be yet worth while to try the experiment again with the excellent auxiliaries of spectroscopy of the present time, as I am not aware that it has been done by others. I will take the liberty of stating briefly to the readers of the Philosophical Magazine the results I have obtained up till now.
2. The electromagnet used was one made by Ruhmkorff and of medium size. The magnetizing current furnished by accumulators was in most of the cases 27 amperes, and could be raised to 35 amperes. The light used was analysed by a Rowland grating, with a radius of 10 ft., and with 14,938 lines per inch. The first spectrum was used, and observed with a micrometer eyepiece with a vertical cross-wire. An accurately adjustable slit is placed near the source of light under the influence of magnetism.
3. Between the paraboloidal poles of an electromagnet, the middle part of the flame from a Bunsen burner was placed. A piece of asbestos impregnated with common salt was put in the flame in such a manner that the two D-lines were seen as narrow and sharply defined lines on the dark ground. The distance between the poles was about 7 mm. If the current was put on, the two D-lines were distinctly widened. If the current was cut off they returned to their original position. The appearing and disappearing of the widening was simultaneous with the putting on and off of the current. The experiment could be repeated an indefinite number of times.
4. The flame of the Bunsen was next interchanged with a flame of coal-gas fed with oxygen. In the same manner as in § 3, asbestos soaked with common salt was introduced into the flame. It ascended vertically between the poles. If the current was put on again the D-lines were widened, becoming perhaps three or four times their former width.
5. With the red lines of lithium, used as carbonate, wholly analogous phenomena were observed. ...".
Thomas Preston will publish the first account of photographs of the Fievez-Zeeman effect in December 1897 - although the actual photographs themselves are not published.
According to Thomas Preston in April 1898, "...theory..." (Lorentz' electron theory? - explain how) "...informs us that each bright line of a line-spectrum should be converted into a doublet, or a triplet, according as the sounrce of light is viewed alone, or across, the lines of magnetic force, and further, that each member of a doublet should be circularly polarized, whereas each member of a triplet should be plane polarized, the plane of polarization of the central line being at right angles to that of the two side lines. ...". (report if this has been experimentally found true.)
Faraday had tried this guided by theoretical reasons thinking there should be some effect produced by a powerful magnetic field on radiations (perhaps thinking light particles to have charge?), but failed because the spectroscope Faraday used was not powerful enough. Michelson states that the effect is very small, the doubling of the spectral lines being one-fortieth the distance between the sodium lines.
This work is done before the development of quantum mechanics, and the effect is explained at the time using classical theory by Hendrik Antoon Lorentz, who assumed that the light was emitted by oscillating electrons. This Fievez-Zeeman effect can be explained using Niels Bohr's theory of the atom. Most substances show a Zeeman effect which, according to the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists, is a phenomenon that can be explained using quantum mechanics and the concept of electron spin.
Albert Michelson states in "Light Waves and Their Uses", that Belgium astronomer Charles Fievez had made a similar observation a long time before, indicating that each separate sodium line had been doubled instead of broadened as Zeeman initially announced.
Thomas Preston also cites Charles Fievez as writing in 1885 the first published account of the so-called Zeeman effect.
Zeeman acknowledges Fievez's work in an appendix written a month later in February, but states that Fievez fails to mention widening of absorption lines (only describing widening of emission lines), and polarization of emitted light. In addition, Zeeman states that Fievez may have not been observing the same phenomenon.
(What other explanations can explain how photons are emitted from some incandescent material, at slower and faster intervals, when bombarded by a magnetic field, as opposed to when not being bombarded? If a magnetic field is composed of photons, perhaps there is some gravitational delay caused. One question is: is a single atom emitting both frequencies, or does one atom emit one frequency, and another a second frequency? Clearly groups of atoms emit many different frequencies of photons, but is it one atom emitting many or many atoms each emitting one kind? The current view is one atom emitting many, and it seems logical that all atoms should be as similar as possible. Another idea is that a stream of light particles is being disrupted at a regular rate causing a single regular frequency to have two or more regular frequencies. EXPERIMENT: Model this in 3D, a line of regular interval particles and another line of regular interval particles cross perpendicularly in such a way that every other photon is slightly attracted - this would show how a beam could then have two distinct oscillating frequencies.)
(I think there needs to be a corpuscular particle-collision interpretation of the Fievez/Zeeman effect. For exampe, particles in the electromagnetic current/field collide with particles orbiting around atoms, and tend to cause those particles to have motions in the same plane of motion as the stream of particles in the electromagnetic field/current.)
EXPERIMENT: Perhaps bombardment by other particles might causes a similar effect. Is there a similar shifting of spectral lines in fields of electrons, x-rays, protons, etc.?
(EXPERIMENT: I think the claims of polarized light need to be verified for all on video - circular and plane polarized, if only because this is claimed from theory, and is initially not claimed for lines but for edges.)
Zeeman writes "...the widened line must at once edge be right-handed circularly-polarized, at the other edge left-handed....". (My opinion of "circular polarization" is that this is either "rotation plane polarization" - where particles of light are reflected off a plane at an angle, so the beam direction appears to be rotated, or a nonexistant phenomenon.)
(Experiment: Is there any effect when electric current is applied to a metal grating?)
(Find any drawing of Zeeman's appartus - in particular how (with visual) is the electromagnetic field of the coil applied to the arc?)
| (University of Leiden) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
103 YBN
[03/10/1897 AD]
| 3942) Wilhelm Konrad Röntgen (ruNTGeN) (rNTGeN) (CE 1845-1923), German physicist publishes his third and final paper on "X-rays".
This paper is longer than the first two. Röntgen describes how a barium platino-cyanide fluorescent screen illuminates even when an opaque plate is placed between the other side of it and the X-ray source, but that the screen does not illuminate when put in a opaque cylinder closed at both ends (one end closed by the head of the observer). Roentgen explains this as bodies around the screen, especially the air, themselves emit xrays. Roentgen measures the intensity of xrays produced when cathode rays strike a platinum plate angled at 45 degrees, and finds that the hemisphere of glass surrounding the plate has a bright fluorescence and that the X-rays are measured as having equal intensity in all directions within the hemisphere until an angle of 89 degrees. Roentgen find that X-rays are detectable with the fluorescent screen at all gas pressures in an evacuated cathode ray tube down to the lowest pressure possible, 0.0002 mm of mercury. As pressure is decreased (and more air is evacuated), the intensity of the X-rays increases - so that in a highly evacuated tube, plates of iron 4 cm. thick are transparent when viewed with the fluorescent screen. Roentgen demonstrates that the intensity of the X-rays is proportional to the intensity of the electric current by seeing how far away the fluorescent screen could be moved before the fluorescence was just noticeable, and finds the current to be in proportion to the square of the distance. Roentgen concludes with this summary: " (a) The rays emitted by a discharge-apparatus consist of a mixture of rays which are absorbed in different degrees and which have different intensities. (b) The composition of this mixture of rays depends essentially upon the duration of the discharge-current. (c) The rays selected for absorption by various substances are different for the different bodies. (d) Since the X-rays are generated by the cathode rays, and since both have properties in common- production of fluorescence, photographic and electrical action, and absorbability, the amount of which is essentially conditioned upon the density of the medium through which the radiation passes, etc.- the hypothesis at once suggests itself that both phenomena are of the same nature. Without wishing to bind myself unconditionally to this view, I may remark that the results of the last few paragraphs are calculated to resolve a difficulty which has existed in connection with this hypothesis up to the present. This difficulty arises, first, from the great difference between the absorption of the cathode rays investigated by Herr Lenard and that of the X-rays; and, second, from the fact that the transparency of bodies for these cathode rays depends upon a different law of the densities of the bodies from that governing the transparency for the X-rays. ...". Roentgen also measures no change in direction of X-ray transparency from plates of the same thickness cut from a crystal, of calcite, quartz, tourmaline, beryl, aragonite, apatite and barite. Roentgen finds that Hittorf tubes which have high exhaustion and a platinum anode struck by the cathode rays, produce intense rays. Roentgen comments that he is unable to conclusively produce diffraction of X-rays.
Roentgen uses an Edison fluorescent screen which is a box like a stereoscope which can be held light-tight against the head of the observer, and whose card-board end is covered with barium platino-cyanide. (construct this using glue and various "glow-powders".)
(I think this illumination is probably from reflection off objects in the room.) (What crystals do Friedrich and Knipping use as a natural diffraction grating for xray particles?) (It seems logical that particles in the electric current collide with particles in the platinum anode and send particles in all directions.)
(It is interesting that in his final paper on X-rays Roentgen catagorizes them as being most like cathode rays, which will be shown to be electrons.)
| (University of Würzburg) Würzburg, Germany |
103 YBN
[03/15/1897 AD]
| 4536) Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (CE 1869-1959), Scottish physicist reports on experiments of condensing water vapor from different dust-free gases through expansion.
(possibly summarize intro and conclusion of paper?)
| (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
103 YBN
[04/30/1897 AD]
| 4260) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, concludes that cathode rays are small negatively charged particles which are a universal constituent of atoms. Thomson finds that cathode rays are deflected by an electrostatic field (in addition to an electromagnetic field). This shows that electrical current is negatively charged (attracted to positive static electricity and repelled by negative static electricity) which is the opposite direction of electric current visualized by Benjamin Franklin's method of labeling positive and negative. Thomson compares the deflection of cathode-ray particles by using a static electricity field and by using an electromagnetic field and measures the ratio of mass to electric charge (m/e) to be 1 x 10-7, 1000 times smaller the m/e of an ion of hydrogen from electrolysis. Thomson adapts Prout's hypothesis that all elements are made of hydrogen atoms, by substituting hydrogen for some unknown primodial substance X. Thomson finds that the velocity of cathode rays is variable depending on the potential-difference (the voltage) between the cathode and anode, which is a function of the pressure of the gas - the velocity increases as the exhaustion improves.
As far as I know, the current belief is that electricity has a constant velocity in metal conductors no matter what voltage, instead of electric current moving with a velocity that depends on the voltage. Should this be re-examined and re-measured in light of this finding?
Thomson supports this suggestion by the results of his first magnetic field/electric field experiment, which relie on the heating effect of the rays. His results gave a mass to charge ratio about 1000 times smaller than that for the hydrogen ion, hitherto the smallest known. Thomson calls the particles 'corpuscles', but later the word 'electron' is adopted, which had previously been used by Johnstone Stoney in a less definite connection.
Thomson shows that cathode rays are also deflected by an electric field. Crookes and others had provided evidence that cathode rays are composed of negatively charged particles, showing that cathode rays are deflected by a magnetic field, however nobody could show that the rays are affected by an electric field. Thomson was able to measure a deflection by using very highly evacuated tubes. After this the cathode rays are accepted as particle in nature (beams composed of negatively charged particles).
Thomson measures the ratio of the charge of the cathode-ray particles to their mass. Thomson extracts the measurement for mass from the equation for kinetic energy based on the heat measured caused by the collision of the cathode particles with a "thermal junction" (is this a piece of metal?) placed in front of the beam. If the charges are equal to the minimum charge on ions as determined by the laws of electrochemistry first identified by Michael Faraday, then the mass of the cathode-ray particles is only a small fraction (now known to be 1/1837) of that of hydrogen atoms. (so the comparison of charge is related to that of hydrogen found through electrolysis(?), and then the ratio of the two charges is compared to the masses. So the cathode-ray particles are therefore viewed as being far smaller than atoms and Thomson opens up the field of subatomic particles. The name proposed earlier by Stoney for a hypothetical unit of electrical current was "electron", and Lorentz applies this name to the particles against Thomson's objections (Thomson uses the term "corpuscle" - perhaps leaving the door open that electrons might be light particles). Because Thomson showed that cathode-rays deflect in an electric field, and is the first to show evidence of their subatomic size, Thomson is usually considered the identifier of the electron.
Historian Henry Crew writes that "A tremendous step forward, ... was taken by Sir J. J. Thomson when, during the last three years of the nineteenth century, he not only discovered the electron - this disembodied electrical spirit, as it then appeared- but also measured the ratio of its charge to its mass, e/m, a quantity now called the specific electric charge. ... Now the ratio of e/m is a quantity which, in ordinary electrolysis, has been long and well known. Accordingly the next step which Thomson and his great Cambridge school took was to determine whether the electronic charge e is the same in gaseous discharges as in electrolysis. This was soon answered in the affirmative by Townsend (Proc.Roy. Soc., 65, 192, 1899); and the inertia, m, of the electron was almost immediately established at approximately 1/1850 of the mass of a hydrogen atom. ..."
Emil Wiechert was the first to state that there may exist particles about 2000 to 4000 times lighter than the hydrogen atom on January 7, 1897. Both physicists, Emil Wiechert and Walther Kaufmann, independently correctly calculate e/m by deducing v from the energy which would be acquired by a particle falling through the full potential V of the tube (mv2/2=eV). Unlike Wiechert and Thomson, Kaufmann shows no preference in favor of a particle interpretation of cathode rays.
In his May 21, 1897 discourse delivered at the Royal Institution Thomson gives a brief history of the cathode rays saying: " The first observer to leave any record of what are now known as the Cathode Rays, seems to have been Plücker, who in 1859 observed the now well known green phosphorescence on the glass in the neighborhood of the negative electrode. Plücker was the first physicist to make experiments on the discharge through a tube, in a state anything approaching what we should now call a high vacuum: he owned the opportunity to do this to his fellow townsman Geissler, who first made such vacua attainable. Plücker, who had made a very minute study of the effect of a magnetic field on the ordinary discharge which stretches from one terminal to the other, distinguished the discharge, by the difference in its behaviour when in a magnetic field. Plücker ascribed these phosphorescent patches to currents of electricity which went from the cathode to the walls of the tube and then for some reason or other retraced their steps. The subject was next taken up by Plücker's pupil, Hittorf, who greatly extended our knowledge of the subject, and to whom we owe the observation that a solid body placed between a pointed cathode and the walls of the tube cast a well defined shadow. This observation was extended by Goldstein, who found that a well marked, though not very sharply defined shadow was cast by a small body placed near a cathode of considerable area; this was a very important observation, for it showed that the rays casting the shadow came in a definite direction from the cathode. .... Goldstein seems to have been the first to advance the theory, which has attained a good deal of prevalence in Germany, that these cathode rays are transversal vibrations in the ether. The physicist, however, who did more than any one else to direct attention to these rays was Mr. Crookes, whose experiments, by their beauty and importance, attracted the attention of all physicists to this subject, and who not only greatly increased our knowledge of the properties of the rays, but by his application of them to radiant matter spectroscopy has rendered them most important agents in chemical research. Recently a great renewal of interest in these rays has taken place, owning to the remarkable properties possessed by an offspring of theirs, for the cathode rays are the parents of the Röntgen rays. I shall confine myself this evening to endeavouring to give an account of some of the more recent investigations which have been made on the cathode rays. In the first place, when these rays fall on a substance they produce changes physical or chemical in nature of the substance. In some cases this change is marked by a change in the colour of the substance, as in the case of the chlorides of the alkaline metals. Goldstein found that these when exposed to the cathode rays changed colour, the change, according to E. Wiedemann and Ebert, being due to the formation of a sub-chloride. Elster and Geitel have recently shown that these substances become photo-electric, i.e., acquire the power of discharging negative electricity under the action of light, after exposure to the cathode rays. But though it is only in comparatively few cases that the changed produced by the cathode rays shows itself in such a compicuous way as by a change of colour, there is a much more widely-spread phenomenon which shows the permanence of the effect produced by the impact of these rays. This is the phenomenon called by its discover, {ULSF apparent typo} Prof. E. Wiedemann, thermoluminescence. Prof. Wiedemann finds that if bodies are exposed to the cathode rays for some time, when the bombardment stops the substance resumes to all appearances its original condition; when, however, we heat the substance, we find that a change has taken place, for the substance now, when heated, becomes luminous at a comparatively low temperature, one far below that of incandescnece; the substance retains this property for months after the exposure to the rays has ceased. ... I will now leave the chemical effects produced by these rays, and pass on to consider their behaviour when in a magnetic field.
First, let us consider for a moment the effect of magnetic force on the ordinary discharge between terminals at a pressure much higher than that at which the cathode rays behin to come off. I have here photographs (see Figs. 1 and 2) of the spark in a magnetic field. You see that when the discharge which passes as a thin bright line between the terminals is acted upon by the magnetic field, it is pulled aside as a stretched string would be if acted upon by a force at right angles to its length. The curve is quite continuous, and though there may be gaps in the luminosity of the discharge, yet there are no breaks at such points in the curve into which the discharge is bent by a magnet. Again, if the discharge, instead of taking place between points, passes between flat discs, the effect of the magnetic force is to move the sparks as a whole, the sparks keeping straight until their terminations reach the edges of the discs. The fine thread-like discharge is not much spread out by the action of the magnetic field. The appearance of the discharge indicates that when the discharge passes through the gas it manufactures out of the gas something stretching from terminal to terminal, which, unlike a gas, is capacble of sustaining a tension. The amount of deflection produced, other circumstances being the same, depends on the nature of the gas; as the photographs (Figs. 3 and 4) show, the deflection is very small in the case of hydrogen, and very considerable in the case of carbonic acid; as a general rule it seems smaller in elementary than in compound gases. Let us contrast the behaviors of this kind of discharge under the action of a magnetic field with that of the cathode rays. I have here some photographs (Figs. 5, 6 and 7) taken of a narrow beam formed by sending the cathode rays through a tube in which there was a plug with a slit in it, the plug being used as an anode and connected with the earth, these rays traversing a uniform magnetic field. The narrow beam spreads out under the action of the magnetic force into a broad fan-shaped luminosity in the gas. The luminosity in this fan is not uniformly distributed, but is condensed along certain lines. The phosphorescence produced when the rays reach the glass is also not uniformly distributed, it is much spread out, showing that the beam consists of rays which are not all deflected to the same extent by the magnet. The luminous patch on the glass is crossed by bands along which the luminosity is very much greater than in the adjacent parts. These bright and dark bands are called by Birkeland, who first observed them, "the magnetic spectrum." The brightest places on the glass are by no means always the terminations of the brightest streaks of luminosity in the gas; in fact, in some cases a very bright spot on the glass is not connected with the cathode by any appreciable luminosity, though there is plenty of luminosity in other parts of the gas.
One very interesting point brought out by the photographs is that in a given magnetic field, with a given mean potential difference between the terminals, the path of the rays is independent of the nature of the gas; photographs were taken of the discharge in hydrogen, air, carbonic acid, methyl iodide, i.e., in gases whos densities range from 1 to 70, and yet not only were the paths of the most deflected rays the same in all cases, but even the details, such as the distribution of the bright and dark spaces, were the same; in fact, the photographs could hardly be distinguished from each other. It is to be noted that the pressures were not the same; the pressures were adjusted until the mean potential difference was the same. When the pressure of the gas is lowered, the potential difference between the terminals increases, and the deflection of the rays produced by a magnet diminishes, or at any rate the deflection of the rays where the phosphorescence is a maximum diminishes. If an air break is inserted in the circuit an effect of the same kind if produced. In all the photographs of the cathode rays one sees indications of rays which stretch far into the bulb, but which are not deflected at all by a magnet. Through they stretch for some two or three inches, yet in none of these photographs do they actually reach the glass. In some experiments, however, I placed inside the tube a screen, near to the slit through which the cathode rays came, and found that no appreciable phosphorescence was produced when the non-deflected rays struck the screen, while there was vivid phosphorescence at the places where the deflected rays struck the screen. These non-deflected rays do not seem to exhibit any of the characteristics of cathode rays, and it seems possible that they are merely jets of uncharged luminous gas shot out through the slit from the neighbourhood of the cathode by a kind of explosion when the discharge passes.
The curves describes by the cathode rays in a uniform magnetic field are, very approximately at any rate, circular for a large part of their course; this is the path which would be described if the cathode rays marked the path of negatively electrified particles projected with great velocities from the neighbourhood of the negative electrode. Indeed all the effects produced by a magnet on these rays, and some of these are complicated, as for example, when the rays are curled up into spirals under the action of a magnetic force, are in exact agreement with the consequences of this view. We can, moreover, show by direct experiment that a charge of negative electricity follows the course of the cathode rays. ...". Thomson then describes Perrin's experiment which is described below in another paper. Thomson writes "...An objection sometimes urged against the view that these cathode rays consist of charged particles, is that they are not deflected by an electrostatic force. ....We can, however, produce electrostatic results if we put the conductors which are to deflect the rays in the fark space next the cathode. I have here a tube in which inside the dark space next the cathode two conductors are inserted; the cathode rays start from the cathode and have to pass between these conductors; if now I connect one of these conductors to earth there is a decided deflection of the cathode rays, while if I connect the other electrode to earth there is a deflection in the opposite direction. I ascribe this deflection to the gas in the dark space, wither not being a conductor at all, or if a conductor, a poor one compared to the gas in the main body of the tube.
Goldstein has shown that if a tube is furnished with two cathodes, when the rays from one cathode pass near the other, they are repelled from it. This is just what would happen if the dark space round the electrode were an insulator and so able to transmit electrostatic attractions or repulsions. To show that the gas in the dark space differs in its properties from the rest of the gas, I will try the following experiment: I have here two spherical bulbs connected together by a glass tube; one of these bulbs is small, the other large; they each contain a cathode, and the pressure of the gas is such that the dark space round the cathode in the small bulb completely fills the bulb, while that round the one in the larger bulb does not extend to the walls of the bulb. The two bulbs are wound with wire, which connects the outsides of two Leyden jars; the insides of these jars are connected with the terminals of a Wimshurst machine. When sparks pass between these terminals currents pass through the wire which induce currents in the bulbs, and cause a ring discarge to pass through them. Things are so arranged tat the ring is faint in the larger bulb, brighter in the smaller one. On marking the wires in these bulbs cathodes, however, the discharge in the small bulb, which is filled by the dark space, is completely stopped, while that in the larger one becomes brighter. Thus the gas in the dark space, is completely stopped, while that in the larger one becomes brighter. Thus the gas in the dark space is changed, and in the opposite way from that in the rest of the tube. It is remarkable that when the coil is stopped the ring discharge on both bulbs stops, and it is some time before it starts again. The deflection excited on each other by two cathodic streams would seem to have a great deal to do with the beautiful phosphorescent figures which Goldstein obtained by using cathodes of different shapes. I have here two bulbs containing cathodes shaped like across; {ULSF: apparent typo} they are curved, and of the same radius as the bulb, so that if the rays came off these cathodes normally the phosphorescent picture ought to be a cross of the same size as the cathode, instead of being of the same size. You see that in one of these bulbs the image of the cross consists of two large sectors at right angles to each other, bounded by bright lines, and in the other, which is at a lower pressure, the geometrical image of the cross, instead of being bright, is dark, while the luminosity occupies the space between the arms of the cross. So far I have only considered the behavious of the cathode rays inside the bulb, but Lenard has been able to get these rays outside the tube. To this he let the rays fall on a window in the tube made of thin aluminium about 1/100th of a millimetre thick, and he found that from this window there proceeded in all direction rays which were deflected by a magnet and which produced phosphorescence when they fell upon certain substances, notably upon tissue paper soaked in a solution of pentadekaparalolylketon. The very thin aluminium is difficult to get, and Mr. McClelland has found that if it is not necessary to maintain the vacuum for a long time oild silk answered admirably for a window. As the window is small the phosphorecent patch produced by it is not bright, so that I will show instead the other property of the cathode rays, that of carrying with them a negative charge. I will pace this cylinder in front of the hole, conect it with the electrometer, turn on the rays, and you will see the cylinder gets a negative charge; indeed, this charge is large enough to produce the well known negative figures when the rays fall on a piece of ebonite which is afterwards dusted with a mixture of red lead and sulphur. From the experiments with the closed cylinder we have seen that when the negative rays come up to a surface even as thick as a millimetre, the opposite side of that surface acts like a cathode, and gives off the cathodic rays, and from this point of view we can understand the very interesting result of Lenard that the magnetic deflection of the rays outside the tube is independent of the density and chemical composisiotn of the gas outside the tube, thought it varies very much with the pressure of the gas inside the tube. The cathode rays could be started by an electri impulse which would depend entirely on what was going on inside the tube; since the impulse is the same the momentum acquired by the particles outside would be the same; and as the curvature of the path only depends on the momentum, the path of these particles outside the tube would only depend on the state of affairs inside the tube. The investigation by Lenarg on the absorption of these rays shows that there is more in his experiment than is covered by this consideration. Lenard measured the distance these rays would have to travel before the intensity of the rays fell to one-half their original value. The results are given in the following table:- {ULSF table omitted} We see that though the densities and the coeffiecient of absorption vary enormously, yet the ratio of the two varies very little, and the results justify, I think, Lenard's conclusion that the distance through which these rays travel only depends on the density of the substance - that is, the mass of matter per unit volume, and not upon the nature of the matter. These numbers raise a question which I have not yet touched upon, and that is the size of the carriers of the electric charge. Are they or are they not of the dimensions of ordinary matter? We see from Lenard's table that a cathode ray can travel through air at atmospheric pressure a distance of about half a centimetre before the brightness of the phosphorescence falls to about one-half of its original value. Now the mean free path of the molecule of air at this pressure is about 10-5cm., and if a molecule of air were projected it would lose half its momentum in a space comparable with the mean free path. Even if we suppose that it is not the same molecule that is carried, the effect of the obliquity of the collisions would reduce the momentum to one-half in a short multiple of that path. Thus, from Lenard's experiments on the absorption of the rays outside the tub, it follows on the hypothesis that the cathode rays are charged particles moving with high velocities; that the size of the carriers must be small compared with the dimensions of ordinary atoms or molecules. The assumption of a state of matter more finely subdivided than the atom of an element is a somewhat startling one; but a hypothesis that would involve somewhat similar consequences - viz., that the so-called elements are compounds of some primordial element- has been put forward from time to time by various chemists. Thus Prout believed that the atoms of all the elements were built up on atoms of hydrogen, and Mr. Norman Lockyer has advanced weighty arguments, founded on spectroscopic consideration, in favour of the composite nature of the elements. Let us trace the consequence of supposing that the atoms of the elements are aggregations of very small particles, all similar to each other; we shall call such particles corpuscles, so that the atoms of the ordinary elements are made up of corpuscles, and holes, the holes being predominant. Let us suppose that at the cathode some of the molecules of the gas get split up into these corpuscles, and that these, charged with negative electricity, and moving at a high velocity form the cathode rays. The distance these rays would travel before losing a given fraction of their momentum would be proportional to the mean free path of the corpuscles. Now, the things these corpuscles strike against are other corpuscles, and not against the molecules as a whole; they are supposed to be able to thread their way between the interstices in the molecule. Thus the mean free path would be proportional to the number of these corpuscles; and, therefore, since each corpuscle has the same mass to the mass of unit volume- that is, to the density of the substance, whatever be its chemical nature of physical state. Thus the mean free path, and therefore the coefficient of absorption, would depend only on the density; this is precisely Lenard's result. We see, too, on this hypothesis, why the magnetic deflection is the same inside the tube whatever be the nature of the gas, for the carriers of the charge are corpucsles, and these are the same whatever gas be used. All the carriers may not be reduced to their lowest dimensions; some may be aggregates of two or more corpuscles; these would be differently deflected from the single corpuscle; thus we should get the magnetic spectrum.
I have endeavoured by the following method to get a measurement of the ratio of the mass of these corpuscles to the charge carried by them: A double cylinder with slits in it, such as that used in a former experiment was placed in front of a cathode which was curved so as to focus to some extent the vathode rays on the slit; behind the slit, in the inner cylinder, a thermal junction was placed which covered the opening so that all the rays which entered the slit struck against the junction, the junction got heated, and knowing the thermal capacity of the junction, we could get the mechanical equivalent of the heat communicated to it. The deflection of the electrometer gave the charge which entered the cylinder. Thus, if there are N particles entering the cylinder each with a charge e, and Q is the charge inside the cylinder.,
Ne=Q
The kinetic energy of these 1/2Nmv2=W
where W is the mechanical equivalent of the heat given to the thermal junction. By measuring the curvature of the rays for a magnetic field, we get
m/e *r = I. Thus m/e=1/2 QI2/W.
In an experiment made at a very low pressure, when the rays were kept on for about one second, the charge was sufficient to raise a capcity of 1.5 microfarads to a potential of 16 volts. Thus Q=2.4 x 10-6.
The temperature of the thermo junction, whose thermal capacity was 0.005 was raised 3.3°C. by the impact of the rays, thus
W=3.3 x 0.005 x 4.2 x 107 = 6.3 x 105.
The value of I was 280, thus
m/e = 1.6 x 10-7
This is very small compared with the value 10-4 for the ratio of the mass of an atom of hydrogen to the charge carried by it. If the result stood by itself we might think that it was probable that e was greater than the atomic charge of atom rather than that m was less than the mass of a hydrogen atom. Taken, however, in conjuction with Lenard's results for the absorption of the cathode rays, these numbers seem to favour the hypothesis that the carriers of the charges are smaller than the atoms of hydrogen. It is interesting to notice that the value of e/m, which we have found from the cathode rays is of the same order as the value 10-7 deduced by Zeeman from his experiments on the effect of a magnetic field on the period of the sodium light.".
(Interesting to not that Thomson explains and shows a picture showing that many particles in cathode rays, emitting light particles that are visible are not bent by the magnetic field.)
(Notice how Thomson does not account for the light emitted and apparently a part of the cathode rays. With regard to the particles not deflected by the magnetic field, clearly there are some particles emitting photons that are bent, and some emitting photons that are not bent - so clearly photons are contained in particles that are moved by particles in the magnetic field and those that are not.)
(Notice that Thomson almost describes how the spectrum of light from a grating might be explained by a light-as-a-particle theory in saying that different corpuscles are aggregates and so are differently deflected causing the magnetic spectrum.)
(Note that the measure of heat - does not include photons exiting which would be lost and not accounted for, in particular if the measurement is not instantaneous. This would cause the measurement of work to be too small- and so the mass of the cathode ray particle to be too small.)
(I'm interesting in seeing what evidence exists for the electron actually being a photon, besides the simple fact that photons at different frequencies are released in cathode rays - as can be visibly seen and see in radio and infrared, etc.)
Thomson later writes in his October 1897 paper: "THE experiments discussed in this paper were undertaken in the hope of gaining some information as to the nature of the Cathode Rays. The most diverse opinions are held as to these rays ; according to the almost unanimous opinion of German physicists they are due to some process in the aether to which—inasmuch as in a uniform magnetic field their course is circular and not rectilinear—no phenomenon hitherto observed is analogous : another view of those rays is that, so far from being wholly aetherial, they are in fact wholly material, and that they mark the paths of particles of matter charged with negative electricity. It would seem at first sight that it ought not to be difficult to discriminate between views so different, yet experience shows that this is not the case, as amongst the physicists who have most deeply studied the subject can be found supporters of either theory.
The electrified-particle theory has for purposes of research a great advantage over the aetherial theory, since it is definite and its consequences can be predicted; with the aetherial theory it is impossible to predict what will happen under any given circumstances, as on this theory we are dealing with hitherto unobserved phenomena in the aether, of whose laws we are ignorant.
The following experiments were made to test some of the consequences of the electrified-particle theory.
Charge carried by the Cathode Rays.
If these rays are negatively electrified particles, then when they enter an enclosure they ought to carry into it a charge of negative electricity. This has been proved to be the case by Perrin, who placed in front of a plane cathode two coaxial metallic cylinders which were insulated from each other : the outer of these cylinders was connected with the earth, the inner with a gold-leaf electroscope. These cylinders were closed except for two small holes, one in each cylinder, placed so that the cathode rays could pass through them into the inside of the inner cylinder. Perrin found that when the rays passed into the inner cylinder the electroscope received a charge of negative electricity, while no charge went to the electroscope when the rays were deflected by a magnet so as no longer to pass through the hole.
This experiment proves that something charged with negative electricity is shot off from the cathode, travelling at right angles to it {ULSF: note that - the direction of particles is at a right angle if the cathode is a plate, however the cathode could be a straight wire as far as I know - and then the direction would be parallel to the cathode- perhaps a plate increases the quantity of particles emitted at a right angle to the plate}, and that this something is deflected by a magnet; it is open, however, to the objection that it does not prove that the cause of the electrification in the electroscope has anything to do with the cathode rays. Now the supporters of the aetherial theory do not deny that electrified particles are shot off from the cathode; they deny, however, that those charged particles have any more to do with the cathode rays than a rifle-ball has with the flash when a rifle is fired. I have therefore repeated Perrin's experiment in a form which is not open to this objection. The arrangement used was as follows:— two coaxial cylinders (fig. 1) with slits in them are placed in a bulb connected with the discharge-tube; the cathode rays from the cathode A pass into the bulb through a slit in a metal plug fitted into the neck of the tube ; this plug is connected with the anode and is put to earth. The cathode rays thus do not fall upon the cylinders unless they are deflected by a magnet. The outer cylinder is connected with the earth, the inner with the electrometer. When the cathode rays (whose path was traced by the phosphorescence on the glass) did not fall on the slit, the electrical charge sent to the electrometer when the induction-coil producing the rays was set in action was small and irregular; when, however, the rays were bent by a magnet so as to fall on the slit there was a large charge of negative electricity sent to the electrometer. I was surprised at the magnitude of the charge ; on some occasions enough negative electricity went through the narrow slit into the inner cylinder in one second to alter the potential of a capacity of 1.5 microfarads by 20 volts. If the rays were so much bent by the magnet that they overshot the slits in the cylinder, the charge passing into the cylinder fell again to a very small fraction of its value when the aim was true. Thus this experiment shows that however we twist and deflect the cathode rays by magnetic forces, the negative electrification follows the same path as the rays, and that this negative electrification is indissolubly connected with the cathode rays.
When the rays are turned by the magnet so as to pass through the slit into the inner cylinder, the deflexion of the electrometer connected with this cylinder increases up to a certain value, and then remains stationary although the rays continue to pour into the cylinder. This is due to the fact that the gas in the bulb becomes a conductor of electricity when the cathode rays pass through it, and thus, though the inner cylinder is perfectly insulated when the rays are not passing, yet as soon as the rays pass through the bulb the air between the inner cylinder and the outer one becomes a conductor, and the electricity escapes from the inner cylinder to the earth. Thus the charge within the inner cylinder does not go on continually increasing ; the cylinder settles down into a state of equilibrium in which the rate at which it gains negative electricity from the rays is equal to the rate at which it loses it by conduction through the air. If the inner cylinder has initially a positive charge it rapidly loses that charge and acquires a negative one; while if the initial charge is a negative one, the cylinder will leak if the initial negative potential is numerically greater than the equilibrium value.
Inflexion of the Cathode Rays by an Electrostatic Field.
An objection very generally urged against the view that the cathode rays are negatively electrified particles, is that hitherto no deflexion of the rays has been observed under a small electrostatic force, and though the rays are deflected when they pass near electrodes connected with sources of large differences of potential, such as induction-coils or electrical machines, the deflexion in this case is regarded by the supporters of the aetherial theory as due to the discharge passing between the electrodes, and not primarily to the electrostatic field. Hertz made the rays travel between two parallel plates of metal placed inside the discharge-tube, but found that they were not deflected when the plates were connected with a battery of storage-cells ; on repeating this experiment I at first got the same result, but subsequent experiments showed that the absence of deflexion is due to the conductivity conferred on the rarefied gas by the cathode rays. On measuring this conductivity it was found that it diminished very rapidly as the exhaustion increased; it seemed then that on trying Hertz's experiment at very high exhaustions there might be a chance of detecting the deflexion of the cathode rays by an electrostatic force.
The apparatus used is represented in fig. 2.
The rays from the cathode C pass through a slit in the anode A, which is a metal plug fitting tightly into the tube and connected with the earth ; after passing through a second slit in another earth-connected metal plug B, they travel between two parallel aluminium plates about 5 cm. long by 2 broad and at a distance of 1'5 cm. apart; they then fall on the end of the tube and produce a narrow well-defined phosphorescent patch. A scale pasted on the outside of the tube serves to measure the deflexion of this patch.
At high exhaustions the rays were deflected when the two aluminium plates were connected with the terminals of a battery of small storage-cells; the rays were depressed when the upper plate was connected with the negative pole of the battery, the lower with the positive, and raised when the upper plate was connected with the positive, the lower with the negative pole. The deflexion was proportional to the difference of potential between the plates, and I could detect the deflexion when the potential-difference was as small as two volts. It was only when the vacuum was a good one that the deflexion took place, but that the absence of deflexion is due to the conductivity of the medium is shown by what takes place when the vacuum has just arrived at the stage at which the deflexion begins. At this stage there is a deflexion of the rays when the plates are first connected with the terminals of the battery, but if this connexion is maintained the patch of phosphorescence gradually creeps back to its undetected position. This is just what would happen if the space between the plates were a conductor, though a very bad one, for then the positive and negative ions between the plates would slowly diffuse, until the positive plate became coated with negative ions, the negative plate with positive ones ; thus the electric intensity between the plates would vanish and the cathode rays be free from electrostatic force. Another illustration of this is afforded by what happens when the pressure is low enough to show the deflexion and a large difference of potential, say 200 volts, is established between the plates; under these circumstances there is a large deflexion of the cathode rays, but the medium under the large electromotive force breaks down every now and then and a bright discharge passes between the plates; when this occurs the phosphorescent patch produced by the cathode rays jumps back to its undeflected position. When the cathode rays are deflected by the electrostatic field, the phosphorescent band breaks up into several bright bands separated by comparatively dark spaces; the phenomena are exactly analogous to those observed by Birkeland when the cathode rays are deflected by a magnet, and called by him the magnetic spectrum.
A series of measurements of the deflexion of the rays by the electrostatic force under various circumstances will be found later on in the part of the paper which deals with the velocity of the rays and the ratio of the mass of the electrified particles to the charge carried by them. It may, however, be mentioned here that the deflexion gets smaller as the pressure diminishes, and when in consequence the potential-difference in the tube in the neighbourhood of the cathode increases. ...".
Thomson then talks about conductivity of a gas through which the Cathode Rays are passing, and has another section "Magnetic deflexion of the Cathode Rays in Different Gases" in which Thomson writes: "The deflexion of the cathode rays by the magnetic field was studied with the aid of the apparatus shown in fig. 4. The cathode was placed in a side-tube fastened on to a bell-jar; the opening between this tube and the bell-jar was closed by a metallic plug with a slit in it ; this plug was connected with the earth and was used as the anode. The cathode rays passed through the slit in this plug into the bell-jar, passing in front of a vertical plate of glass ruled into small squares. The bell-jar was placed between two large parallel coils arranged as a Helmholtz galvanometer. The course of the rays was determined by taking photographs of the bell-jar when the cathode rays were passing through it; the divisions on the plate enabled the path of the rays to be determined. Under the action of the magnetic field the narrow beam of cathode rays spreads out into a broad fan-shaped luminosity in the gas. The luminosity in this fan is not uniformly distributed, but is condensed along certain lines. The phosphorescence on the glass is also not uniformly distributed ; it, is much spread out, showing that the beam consists of rays which are not all deflected to the same extent by the magnet. The luminosity on the glass is crossed by bands along which the luminosity is very much greater than in the adjacent parts. These bright and dark bands are called by Birkeland, who first observed them, the magnetic spectrum. The brightest spots on the glass are by no means always the terminations of the brightest streaks of luminosity in the gas; in fact, in some cases a very bright spot on the glass is not connected with the cathode by any appreciable luminosity, though there may be plenty of luminosity in other parts of the gas. One very interesting point brought out by the photographs is that in a given magnetic field, and with a given mean potential-differeence between the terminals, the path of the rays is independent of the nature of the gas. Photographs were taken of the discharge in hydrogen, air, carbonic acid, methyl iodide, i. e., in gases whose densities range from 1 to 70, and yet, not only were the paths of the most deflected rays the same in all cases, but even the details, such as the distribution of the bright and dark spaces, were the same; in fact, the photographs could hardly be distinguished from each other. It is to be noted that the pressures were not the same ; the pressures in the different gases were adjusted so that the mean potential differences between the cathode and the anode were the same in all the gases. When the pressure of a gas is lowered, the potential-difference between the terminals increases, and the deflexion of the rays produced by a magnet diminishes, or at any rate the deflexion of the rays when the phosphorescence is a maximum diminishes. If an air-break is inserted an effect of the same kind is produced.
In the experiments with different gases, the pressures were as high as was consistent with the appearance of the phosphorescence on the glass, so as to ensure having as much as possible of the gas under consideration in the tube.
As the cathode rays carry a charge of negative electricity, are deflected by an electrostatic force as if they were negatively electrified, and are acted on by a magnetic force in just the way in which this force would act on a negatively electrified body moving along the path of these rays, I can see no escape from the conclusion that they are charges of negative electricity carried by particles of matter. The question next arises, What are these particles ? are they atoms, or molecules, or matter in a still finer state of subdivision ? To throw some light on this point, I have made a series of measurements of the ratio of the mass of these particles to the charge carried by it. To determine this quantity, I have used two independent methods. The first of these is as follows:- Suppose we consider a bundle of homogeneous cathode rays. Let m be the mass of each of the particles, e the charge carried by it. Let N be the number of particles passing across any section of the beam in a given time; then Q the quantity of electricity carried by these particles is given by the equation
Ne = Q. We can measure Q if we receive the cathode rays in the inside of a vessel connected with an electrometer. When these rays strike against a solid body, the temperature of the body is raised; the kinetic energy of the moving particles being converted into heat; if we suppose that all this energy is converted into heat, then if we measure the increase in the temperature of a body of known thermal capacity caused by the impact of these rays, we can determine W, the kinetic energy of the particles, and if v is the velocity of the particles,
(1/2)Nmv2 = W.
If ρ is the radius of curvature of the path of these rays in a uniform magnetic field H, then
mv/e = Hρ = I,
where I is written for Hρ for the sake of brevity. From these equations we get
(1/2)(m/e)v2 = W/Q . v = 2W/QI , m/e = I2Q/2W.
Thus, if we know the values of Q, W, and I, we can deduce the values of v and m/e.
To measure these quantities, I have used tubes of three different types. The first I tried is like that represented in fig. 2, except that the plates E and D are absent, and two coaxial cylinders are fastened to the end of the tube. The rays from the cathode C fall on the metal plug B, which is connected with the earth, and serves for the anode; a horizontal slit is cut in this plug. The cathode rays pass through this slit, and then strike against the two coaxial cylinders at the end of the tube; slits are cut in these cylinders, so that the cathode rays pass into the inside of the inner cylinder. The outer cylinder is connected with the earth, the inner cylinder, which is insulated from the outer one, is connected with an electrometer, the deflexion of which measures Q, the quantity of electricity brought into the inner cylinder by the rays. A thermo-electric couple is placed behind the slit in the inner cylinder; this couple is made of very thin strips of iron and copper fastened to very fine iron and copper wires. These wires passed through the cylinders, being insulated from them, and through the glass to the outside of the tube, were they were connected with a low-resistance galvanometer, the deflexion of which gave data for calculating the rise of temperature of the junction produced by the impact against it of the cathode rays. The strips of iron and copper were large enough to ensure that every cathode ray which entered the inner cylinder struck against the junction. In some of the tubes the strips of iron and copper were placed end to end, so that some of the rays struck against the iron, and others against the copper; in others, the strip of one metal was placed in front of the other; no difference, however, could be detected between the results got with these two arrangements. The strips of iron and copper were weighed, and the thermal capacity of the junction calculated. In one set of junctions this capacity was 5x10-3, in another 3x10-3. If we assume that the cathode rays which strike against the junction give their energy up to it, the deflexion of the galvanometer gives us W or (1/2)Nmv2.
The value of I, i.e., Hρ, where ρ is the curvature of the path of the rays in a magnetic field of strength H was found as follows:- The tube was fixed between two large circular coils placed parallel to each other, and separated by a distance equal to the radius of either; these coils produce a uniform magnetic field, the strength of which is got by measuring with an ammeter the strength of the current passing through them. The cathode rays are thus in a uniform field, so that their path is circular. Suppose that the rays, when deflected by a magnet, strike against the glass of the tube at E (fig. 5), then, if ρ is the radius of the circular path of the rays,
2ρ = CE2/AC + AC ;
thus, if we measure CE and AC we have the means of determining the radius of curvature of the path of the rays.
The determination of ρ is rendered to some extent uncertain, in consequence of the pencil of rays spreading out under the action of the magnetic field, so that the phosphorescent patch at E is several millimetres long; thus values of ρ differing appreciably from each other will be got by taking E at different points of this phosphorescent patch. Part of this patch was, however, generally considerably brighter than the rest; when this was the case, E was taken as the brightest point; when such a point of maximum brightness did not exist, the middle of the patch was taken for E. The uncertainty in the value of ρ thus introduced amounted sometimes to about 20 per cent.; by this I mean that if we took E first at one extremity of the patch and then at the other, we should get values of ρ differing by this amount.
The measurement of Q, the quantity of electricity which enters the inner cylinder, is complicated by the cathode rays making the gas through which they pass a conductor, so that though the insulation of the inner cylinder was perfect when the rays were off, it was not so when they were passing through the space between the cylinders; this caused some of the charge communicated to the inner cylinder to leak away so that the actual charge given to the cylinder by the cathode rays was larger than that indicated by the electrometer. To make the error from this cause as small as possible, the inner cylinder was connected to the largest capacity available, 1.5 microfarad, and the rays were only kept on for a short time, about 1 or 2 seconds, so that the alteration in potential of the inner cylinder was not large, ranging in the various experiments from about .5 to 5 volts. Another reason why it is necessary to limit the duration of the rays to as short a time as possible, is to avoid the correction for the loss of heat from the thermo-electric junction by conduction along the wires; the rise in temperature of the junction was of the order 2°C.; a series of experiments showed that with the same tube and the same gaseous pressure Q and W were proportional to each other when the rays were not kept on too long.
Tubes of this kind gave satisfactory results, the chief drawback being that sometimes in consequence of the charging up of the glass of the tube, a secondary discharge started from the cylinder to the walls of the tube, and the cylinders were surrounded by glow; when this glow appeared, the readings were very irregular; the glow could, however, be got rid of by pumping and letting the tube rest for some time. The results got with this tube are given in the Table under the heading Tube 1.
...".
Thomson describes the different tubes used, and lists the tables of measurements and writes: "...It will be noticed that the value of m/e is considerably greater for Tube 3, where the opening is a small hole, than for Tubes 1 and 2, where the opening is a slit of much greater area. I am of the opinion that the values of m/e got from Tubes 1 and 2 are too small, in consequence of the leakage from the inner cylinder to the outer by the gas being rendered a conductor by the passage of the cathode rays.
It will be seen from these tables that the value of m/e is independent of the nature of the gas. Thus, for the first tube the mean for air is .40x10-7, for hydrogen .42x10-7, and for carbonic acid gas .4x10-7; for the second tube the mean for air is .52x10-7, for hydrogen .50x10-7, and for carbonic acid gas .54x10-7.
Experiments were tried with electrodes made of iron instead of aluminium; this altered the appearance of the discharge and the value of v at the same pressure, the values of m/e were, however, the same in the two tubes; the effect produced by different metals on the discharge will be described later on.
In all the preceding experiments, the cathode rays were first deflected from the cylinder by a magnet, and it was then found that there was no deflexion either of the electrometer or the galvanometer, so that the deflexions observed were entirely due to the cathode rays; when the glow mentioned previously surrounded the cylinders there was a deflexion of the electrometer even when the cathode rays were deflected from the cylinder.
Before proceeding to discuss the results of these measurements I shall describe another method of measuring the quantities m/e and v of an entirely different kind from the preceding; this method is based upon the deflexion of the cathode rays in an electrostatic field. If we measure the deflexion experienced by the rays when traversing a given length under a uniform electric intensity, and the deflexion of the rays when they traverse a given distance under a uniform magnetic field, we can find the values of m/e and v in the following way:-
Let the space passed over by the rays under a uniform electric intensity F be l, the time taken for the rays to traverse this space is l/v, the velocity in the direction of F is therefore
(Fe/m)(l/v) ,
so that θ, the angle through which the rays are deflected when they leave the electric field and enter a region free from electric force, is given by the equation
θ = (Fe/m)(l/v2) .
If, instead of the electric intensity, the rays are acted on by a magnetic force H at right angles to the rays, and extending across the distance l, the velocity at right angles to the original path of the rays is
(Hev/m)(l/v) ,
so that φ, the angle through which the rays are deflected when they leave the magnetic field, is given by the equation
φ = (He/m)(l/v) .
From these equations we get
v = (φ/θ)(F/H)
and
m/e = H2θl/Fφ2 .
In the actual experiments H was adjusted so that φ = θ; in this case the equations become
v = F/H, m/e = H2l/Fθ .
The apparatus used to measure v and m/e by this means is that represented in fig. 2. The electric field was produced by connecting the two aluminium plates to the terminals of a battery of storage-cells. The phosphorescent patch at the end of the tube was deflected, and the deflexion measured by a scale pasted to the end of the tube. As it was necessary to darken the room to see the phosphorescent patch, a needle coated with luminous paint was placed so that by a screw it could be moved up and down the scale; this needle could be seen when the room was darkened, and it was moved until it coincided with the phosphorescent patch. Thus, when light was admitted, the deflexion of the phosphorescent patch could be measured.
The magnetic field was produced by placing outside the tube two coils whose diameter was equal to the length of the plates; the coils were placed so that they covered the space occupied by the plates, the distance between the coils was equal to the radius of either. The mean value of the magnetic force over the length l was determined in the following way: a narrow coil C whose length was l, connected with a ballistic galvanometer, was placed between the coils; the plane of the windings of C was parallel to the planes of the coils; the cross section of the coil was a rectangle 5 cm. by 1 cm. A given current was sent through the outer coils and the kick α of the galvanometer observed when this current was reversed. The coil C was then placed at the centre of two very large coils, so as to be in a field of uniform magnetic force: the current through the large coils was reversed and the kick β of the galvanometer again observed; by comparing α and β we can get the mean value of the magnetic force over a length l; this was found to be
60 x ι ,
where ι is the current flowing through the coils.
A series of experiments was made to see if the electrostatic deflexion was proportional to the electric intensity between the plates; this was found to be the case. In the following experiments the current through the coils was adjusted so that the electrostatic deflexion was the same as the magnetic:-
Gas. | θ. | H. | F. | l. | m/e. | v.
|
---|
Air | 8/110 | 5.5 | 1.5x1010 | 5 | 1.3x10-7 | 2.8x109
| Air | 9.5/110 | 5.4 | 1.5x1010 | 5 | 1.1x10-7 | 2.8x109
| Air | 13/110 | 6.6 | 1.5x1010 | 5 | 1.2x10-7 | 2.3x109
| Hydrogen | 9/110 | 6.3 | 1.5x1010 | 5 | 1.5x10-7 | 2.5x109
| Carbonic Acid | 11/110 | 6.9 | 1.5x1010 | 5 | 1.5x10-7 | 2.2x109
| Air | 6/110 | 5 | 1.8x1010 | 5 | 1.3x10-7 | 3.6x109
| Air | 7/110 | 3.6 | 1.x1010 | 5 | 1.1x10-7 | 2.8x109
|
The cathode in the first five experiments was aluminium, in the last two experiments it was made of platinum; in the last experiment Sir William Crookes's method of getting rid of the mercury vapour by inserting tubes of pounded sulphur, sulphur iodide, and copper filings between the bulb and the pump was adopted. In the calculation of m/e and v no allowance has been made for the magnetic force due to the coil in the region outside the plates; in this region the magnetic force will be in the opposite direction to that between the plates, and will tend to bend the cathode rays in the opposite direction: thus the effective value of H will be smaller than the value used in the equations, so that the values of m/e are larger, and those of v less than they would be if this correction were applied. This method of determining the values of m/e and vis much less laborious and probably more accurate than the former method; it cannot, however, be used over so wide a range of pressures.
From these determinations we see that the value of m/e is independent of the nature of the gas, and that its value 10-7 is very small compared with the value 10-4, which is the smallest value of this quantity previously known, and which is the value for the hydrogen ion in electrolysis.
Thus for the carriers of the electricity in the cathode rays m/e is very small compared with its value in electrolysis. The smallness of m/e may be due to the smallness of m or the largeness of e, or to a combination of these two. That the carriers of the charges in the cathode rays are small compared with ordinary molecules is shown, I think, by Lenard's results as to the rate at which the brightness of the phosphorescence produced by these rays diminishes with the length of path travelled by the ray. If we regard this phosphorescence as due to the impact of the charged particles, the distance through which the rays must travel before the phosphorescence fades to a given fraction (say 1/e, where e = 2.71) of its original intensity, will be some moderate multiple of the mean free path. Now Lenard found that this distance depends solely upon the density of the medium, and not upon its chemical nature or physical state. In air at atmospheric pressure the distance was about half a centimetre, and this must be comparable with the mean free path of the carriers through air at atmospheric pressure. But the mean free path of the molecules of air is a quantity of quite a different order. The carrier, then, must be small compared with ordinary molecules.
The two fundamental points about these carriers seem to me to be (1) that these carriers are the same whatever the gas through which the discharge passes, (2) that the mean free paths depend upon nothing but the density of the medium traversed by these rays.
It might be supposed that the independence of the mass of the carriers of the gas through which the discharge passes was due to the mass concerned being the quasi mass which a charged body possesses in virtue of the electric field set up in its neighbourhood; moving the body involves the production of a varying electric field, and, therefore, of a certain amount of energy which is proportional to the square of the velocity. This causes the charged body to behave as if its mass were increased by a quantity, which for a charged sphere is (1/5)e2/μa ('Recent Researches in Electricity and Magnetism'), where e is the charge and a the radius of the sphere. If we assume that it is this mass which we are concerned with in the cathode rays, since m/e would vary as e/a, it affords no clue to the explanation of either of the properties (1 and 2) of these rays. This is not by any means the only objection to this hypothesis, which I only mention to show that it has not been overlooked.
The explanation which seems to me to account in the most simple and straightforward manner for the facts is founded on a view of the constitution of the chemical elements which has been favourably entertained by many chemists: this view is that the atoms of the different chemical elements are different aggregations of atoms of the same kind. In the form in which this hypothesis was enunciated by Prout, the atoms of the different elements were hydrogen atoms; in this precise form the hypothesis is not tenable, but if we substitute for hydrogen some unknown primordial substance X, there is nothing known which is inconsistent with this hypothesis, which is one that has been recently supported by Sir Norman Lockyer for reasons derived from the study of the stellar spectra.
If, in the very intense electric field in the neighbourhood of the cathode, the molecules of the gas are dissociated and are split up, not into the ordinary chemical atoms, but into these primordial atoms, which we shall for brevity call corpuscles; and if these corpuscles are charged with electricity and projected from the cathode by the electric field, they would behave exactly like the cathode rays. They would evidently give a value of m/e which is independent of the nature of the gas and its pressure, for the carriers are the same whatever the gas may be; again, the mean free paths of these corpuscles would depend solely upon the density of the medium through which they pass. For the molecules of the medium are composed of a number of such corpuscles separated by considerable spaces; now the collision between a single corpuscle and the molecule will not be between the corpuscles and the molecule as a whole, but between this corpuscle and the individual corpuscles which form the molecule; thus the number of collisions the particle makes as it moves through a crowd of these molecules will be proportional, not to the number of the molecules in the crowd, but to the number of the individual corpuscles. The mean free path is inversely proportional to the number of collisions in unit time, and so is inversely proportional to the number of corpuscles in unit volume; now as these corpuscles are all of the same mass, the number of corpuscles in unit volume will be proportional to the mass of unit volume, that is the mean free path will be inversely proportional to the density of the gas. We see, too, that so long as the distance between neighbouring corpuscles is large compared with the linear dimensions of a corpuscle the mean free path will be independent of the way they are arranged, provided the number in unit volume remains constant, that is the mean free path will depend only on the density of the medium traversed by the corpuscles, and will be independent of its chemical nature and physical state: this from Lenard's very remarkable measurements of the absorption of the cathode rays by various media, must be a property possessed by the carriers of the charges in the cathode rays.
Thus on this view we have in the cathode rays matter in a new state, a state in which the subdivision of matter is carried very much further than in the ordinary gaseous state: a state in which all matter--that is, matter derived from different sources such as hydrogen, oxygen, &c.--is of one and the same kind; this matter being the substance from which all the chemical elements are built up.
With appliances of ordinary magnitude, the quantity of matter produced by means of the dissociation at the cathode is so small as to almost to preclude the possibility of any direct chemical investigation of its properties. Thus the coil I used would, I calculate, if kept going uninterruptedly night and day for a year, produce only about one three-millionth part of a gramme of this substance.
The smallness of the value of m/e is, I think, due to the largeness of e as well as the smallness of m. There seems to me to be some evidence that the charges carried by the corpuscles in the atom are large compared with those carried by the ions of an electrolyte. In the molecule of HCl, for example, I picture the components of the hydrogen atoms as held together by a great number of tubes of electrostatic force; the components of the chlorine atom are similarly held together, while only one stray tube binds the hydrogen atom to the chlorine atom. The reason for attributing this high charge to the constituents of the atom is derived from the values of the specific inductive capacity of gases: we may imagine that the specific inductive capacity of a gas is due to the setting in the electric field of the electric doublet formed by the two oppositely electrified atoms which form the molecule of the gas. The measurements of the specific inductive capacity show, however, that this is very approximately an additive quantity: that is, that we can assign a certain value to each element, and find the specific inductive capacity of HCl by adding the value for hydrogen to the value for chlorine; the value of H2O by adding twice the value for hydrogen to the value for oxygen, and so on. Now the electrical moment of the doublet formed by a positive charge on one atom of the molecule and a negative charge on the other atom would not be an additive property; if, however, each atom had a definite electrical moment, and this were large compared with the electrical moment of the two atoms in the molecule, then the electrical moment of any compound, and hence its specific inductive capacity, would be an additive property. For the electrical moment of the atom, however, to be large compared with that of the molecule, the charge on the corpuscles would have to be very large compared with those on the ion.
If we regard the chemical atom as an aggregation of a number of primordial atoms, the problem of finding the configurations of stable equilibrium for a number of equal particles acting on each other according to some law of force-whether that of Boscovich, where the force between them is a repulsion when they are separated by less than a certain critical distance, and an attraction when they are separated by less than a certain critical distance, and an attraction when they are separated by a greater distance, or even the simpler case of a number of mutually repellent particles held together by a central force-is of great interest in connexion with the relation between the properties of an element and its atomic weight. Unfortunately the equations which determine the stability of such a collection of particles increase so rapidly in complexity with the number of particles that a general mathematical investigation is scarcely possible. We can, however, obtain a good deal of insight into the general laws which govern such configurations by the use of models, the simplest of which is the floating magnets of Professor Mayer. In this model the magnets arrange themselves in equilibrium under the mutual repulsions and a central attraction caused by the pole of a large magnet placed above the floating magnets.
A study of the forms taken by these magnets seems to me to be suggestive in relation to the periodic law. Mayer showed that when the number of floating magnets did not exceed 5 they arranged themselves at the corners of a regular polygon-5 at the corners of a pentagon, 4 at the corners of a square, and so on. When the number exceeds 5, however, this law no longer holds: thus 6 magnets do not arrange themselves at the corners of a hexagon, but divide into two systems, consisting of 1 in the middle surrounded by 5 at the corners of a pentagon. For 8 we have two in the inside and 6 outside; this arrangement in two systems, an inner and an outer, lasts up to 18 magnets. After this we have three systems: an inner, a middle, and an outer; for a still larger number of magnets we have four systems, and so on.
Mayer found the arrangement of magnets was as follows:-
{ULSF: see image} where, for example, 1.6.10.12 means an arrangement with one magnet in the middle, then a ring of six, then a ring of ten, and a ring of twelve outside.
Now suppose that a certain property is associated with two magnets forming a group by themselves; we should have this property with 2 magnets, again with 8 and 9, again with 19 and 20, and again with 34, 35, and so on. If we regard the system of magnets as a model of an atom, the number of magnets being proportional to the atomic weight, we should have this property occurring in elements of atomic weight 2, (8,9), 19, 20, (34, 35). Again, any property conferred by three magnets forming a system by themselves would occur with atomic weights 3, 10, and 11; 20, 21, 22, 23, and 24; 35, 36, 37 and 39; in fact, we should have something quite analogous to the periodic law, the first series corresponding to the arrangement of the magnets in a single group, the second series to the arrangement in two groups, the third series in three groups, and so on.
Velocity of the Cathode Rays.
The velocity of the cathode rays is variable, depending upon the potential-difference between the cathode and anode, which is a function of the pressure of the gas-the velocity increases as the exhaustion improves; the measurements given above show, however, that at all the pressures at which experiments were made the velocity exceeded 109 cm./sec. This velocity is much greater than the value of 2x107 which I previously obtained (Phil. Mag. Oct. 1894) by measuring directly the interval which separated the appearance of luminosity at two places on the walls of the tube situated at different distances from the cathode.
In my earlier experiments the pressure was higher than in the experiments described in this paper, so that the velocity of the cathode rays would on this account be less. The difference between the two results is, however, too great to be wholly explained in this way, and I attribute the difference to the glass requiring to be bombarded by the rays for a finite time before becoming phosphorescent, this time depending upon the intensity of the bombardment. As this time diminishes with the intensity of bombardment, the appearance of phosphorescence at the piece of glass most removed from the cathode would be delayed beyond the time taken for the rays to pass from one place to the other by the difference in time taken by the glass to become luminous; the apparent velocity measured in this way would thus be less than the true velocity. In the former experiments endeavours were made to diminish this effect by making the rays strike the glass at the greater distance from the cathode less obliquely than they struck the glass nearer to the cathode; the obliquity was adjusted until the brightness of the phosphorescence was approximately equal in the two cases. In view, however, of the discrepancy between the results obtained in this way and those obtained by the later method, I think that it was not successful in eliminating the lag caused by the finite time required by the gas to light up.
". Thomson goes on to talk about experiments with electrodes of different materials, finding that the potentials are different depending on the materials of the cathode and anode.
Thomson's conclusion that the corpuscles were present in all kinds of matter was strengthened during the next three years, when he found that corpuscles with the same properties could be produced in other ways—for example, from hot metals.
In a 1901 paper, "The Existence of Bodies Smaller Than Atoms", Thomson writes: "The exceedingly small mass of these particles for a given charge compared with that of the hydrogen atoms might be due either to the mass of each of these particles being very small compared with that of a hydrogen atom or else to the charge carried ly each particle being large compared with that carried by the atom of hydrogen.".
I think presuming that the electron and proton have identical magnitude of charge might be an error, but people need to keep an open mind, in particular when the particles are too small to physically see. I view the electrical phenomenon as possibly a particle collision phenomenon, and so perhaps particles with more mass increases the number of particle collisions, and therefore the deflection from electrical charge, and so the electron is 1837 times smaller than a proton - and this results in 1837x less collisions by particles of identical mass. Or what if there is no clear relation between mass and charge? Perhaps there are other confirmations of the mass of electrons. Perhaps an experiment to show the force of impact of an electron versus other particles, or some way of stopping or weighing an electron. Perhaps showing how electrified objects actually gain mass. If more mass equals more charge, perhaps there is a relation to gravitational attraction.)
In using the term "corpuscle", perhaps Thomson is leaving open the possibility of connecting the corpuscle with a light particle, however, defining the corpuscle as an electron - different from a light particle would end this possibility.
(Notice Thomsons ending on "supporters of either theory." and how similar either is to aether - clearly it implies that Thomson and others want to openly abandon support for an aether, but are too timid to do this publicly - perhaps because of fear by the neuron administration of the public becoming to rapidly educated and aware of scientific truth - I don't know what explains this fear.)
(Notice the use of the word "slit" - electrons, if material particles, displaying so-called "diffraction" (what I define as most likely reflection) serve as an argument in favor of light as being composed of material particles.)
(With the static electricity created around two aluminum plates, could there possibly be particle collision with particles moving in an electric current between the two plates? Perhaps a current too small to measure? )
(EX: Model a static particle field and a moving particle beam going through the static particle field, Perhaps each plate could have particles of different shape and/or size. Use a gravity+inertia model, and then an inertial only model. Is there any simulation in which the particles in the beam of slightly deflected in one or the other direction? For example, a very simple model has particles moving vertically from the negative plate to the positive plate, which collide with the horizontal beam, pushing those particles us towards the positive plate. Thomson indicates that the deflection is proportional to the strength of the voltage and that would also be true for the increased particle collisions. A beam of particle colliding with a static particle field deflecting in a up direction would seem to be a more complex physics to explain. The slow settling back to no deflection observed, might be because eventually there are too few particles moving between the plates. Perhaps there are other particles, like gas atoms, that block the particles moving from one aluminum plate to the other. The different position lines might be due to different angles of collision, different initial direction vecotrs of each particle, or different masses of particles colliding. The reason for more deflection between two conductors may be because there are many more particles moving between two oppositely charged conductors.)
(EX: Do two cathode beams cause deflection of each other?)
(Possible neuron written videos squares hint: "glass ruled into small squares", and in addition that Thomson uses some white on black images - like the black square that may appear as the thought screen when there are no thoughts. Bell used a similar unusual ink-wasting method.)
(An important point about the luminous beam of electricity is that there are particles moving from cathode to anode, but also many light particles emitted too, which reach the eye, and are the reason this beam of current can be seen. It very well may be that the electric current particles themselves are light particles.)
(The fact that the velocity of the cathode rays is variable depending on the potential difference {voltage} between the cathode and the anode which is a function of the pressure of the gas, - the higher velocity as the exhaustion improves - implies or seems to prove that electric current speed is not constant but depends instead on voltage.)
(Notice: "The question next arises, What are these particles? are they atoms, or molecules, or matter in a still finer state of subdivision? To throw some light on this point" - this clearly implies that Thomson and others must think that electricity is made of particles of light - similar to the 'Newton said all is light" phrase.)
(The measurement of heat as being an exact measurement of the kinetic energy seems like it could only be an estimation. In addition, the concept of energy is flawed in that mass and velocity cannot be exchanged, but only separately conserved. The determination of p, the radius of a circular deflection shows how inaccurate these estaimtes must be - and it does turn a light on the fact that these particles all experience a different deflection - because they have slightly different initial direction vectors, and the particles they collide with - which are not mentioned by Thomson and others but presumed by me have different direction vectors and masses too. Thomson measures the brightest spot as perhaps an average deflection.)
(Notice use of iota, which can mean interval, and then most importantly the changing Prout's hypothesis from all elements being made of hydrogen atoms, to being made of "some unknown primordial substance X" - which could be an X particle - in the view that x-rays are made of particles - smaller than light particles, and that light particles themselves are perhaps made of x particles. This would imply that the theory that x-rays are made of light particles might be inaccurate. But this is all speculation and experiment will help to show what is more accurate.)
(EX: Experiment to determine what particles if any are responsible for positive static electricity repulsion between two gold leaves: Are these positive particles protons, charged ions, or something else? One idea: charge two gold leaves with positive electricity, then drain this quantity to two leaves of a different metal, and then two leaves of other metals - is the quantity of repulsion the same, for the same mass density? If yes, the particles must be independent of metal type - and therefore be all same sized, which implies that they are protons - in other words that they are hydrogen nuclei. But if the quantity differs depending on which metal was originally positively charged, then this would argue that they are positively charged ions of that metal. There are alternative theories - perhaps that the air molecules are the ions carrying the positive charge - so test in a vacuum. If the quantity of repulsion is the same per unit density for different metals, this implies that this positive static electric repulsion is probably due to identical particles that are not as large as the atoms of metal they are next to.)
(EX: Do magnets emit photons in radio intervals? - can the particles theoretically moving between north and south poles be detected in some way other than by their effect on metals and other particles?)
(EX: Can radio beam particles be deflected - by other particle beams - perhaps in a vacuum - by em fields - try other frequencies of light, and types of particle beams.)
(With Thomson's statement: "All the carriers may not be reduced to their lowest dimensions; some may be aggregates of two or more corpuscles; these would be differently deflected from the single corpuscle; thus we should get the magnetic spectrum." - there is an interesting truth related to this, and that is that, cathode particles might be aggregates of photons. If any particles of any set of velocities fall into orbit of each other, their sum velocity can only be slower than the highest velocity of any individual particle in the group, and the collective mass can only be higher than any individual particle in the group. So this effects the velocity - in this way - they could be particles of light - but moving slower than the speed of light because they are aggregates of light particles.)
In two papers in 1883 Hertz had concluded that cathode rays are not streams of electrical particles as many people supposed, but instead are invisible ether disturbances that produce light when absorbed by gas.
Hertz thinks cathode rays are waves because they can penetrate a thin film, and does not think particles can penetrate a thin film, but after the death of Hertz, Thomson shows that cathode rays contains what Thomson calls corpuscles of matter, later named electrons, which are small particles, and that a particle smaller than an atom can easily penetrate solid material. (it seems possible that, for example, a solid such as a glass prism actually has a lot of empty space in it, we hold it, and to our nerve cells it feels solid, but yet, there must be empty space, perhaps with air atoms or even just empty space that runs perhaps all the way through it. Clearly the density of atoms is not the only reason an object is or is not transparent, although most gases are transparent. Simply painting a prism stops most light from going through. Clearly transparency may have to do with empty space passages through atom lattices, but it seems that it has to do with atomic structure too, the current popular view is that transparency is an aspect of electrons, and neutrons and protons have nothing to do with it. )
Lenard, in 1895, had reported that cathode rays are absorbed in different substances in rough proportion to the density of the substance. The highest speed rays, which move at the rate of 1010 cms. per sec., can only penetrate 2 or 3 mms. of air at ordinary temperature and pressure. (Do any people determine if electrons can be used like x-rays to produce images of bones or other tissues? Or even how far into skin and other objects electrons penetrate?)
(Does this paper begin the talk about corpuscles, and particles, or do earlier papers reignite the corpuscular theory of matter? Determine as precisely as possible when the rebirth of the corpuscular view happens. Is there an attempt to label x-rays as x-particles, or as made of material particles? Perhaps a paper hypothesizing that x-particles may be smaller than other particles and that this may explain their penetrating power or why this hypothesis is erroneous. Is Planck's paper the first effort in this rebirth to describe light as a particle? Is there any paper describing a light particle as having mass?)
(We are still waiting for a people to publicly make an effort to determine the possible mass of a light particle, of an x-particle, and then to recognize the ratio of mass of electron to mass of photon, and mass of photon to mass of x-particle, etc. How can the mass of the photon be measured? Experiment: Is there a way to determine the ratio of Masselectron/Massfoton?)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
103 YBN
[05/27/1897 AD]
| 3437) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) and Margaret Lindsay Huggins (1848-1915) show that the spectral lines of calcium change depending on the quantity (and density) of sodium illuminated.
This explains why light in the general solar spectrum is represented by a large number of lines in common with calcium, but in the spectrum of the prominences and chromosphere only one pair of lines can be detected.
The Huggins' use an induction coil to illuminate calcium metal electrodes, in addition to a strong solution of calcium chloride on platinum electrodes.
(todo: EXPERIMENT: Has anybody shown how the spectral absorption lines of calcium can be shifted depending on the distance of the light source?)
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
103 YBN
[07/19/1897 AD]
| 4730) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, measures the velocity of positively charged ions created by Rontgen rays for various gases.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
103 YBN
[08/20/1897 AD]
| 4296) (Sir) Ronald Ross (CE 1857-1932), English physician discovers the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of the Anopheles mosquito which leads to the realization that malaria is transmitted by Anopheles, and lays the foundation for curing malaria.
Ross reports finding small granules in the stomach of particular species of mosquito that seem to be larger than stomach cells are, and describes then as identical to those of the haemamoeba. The parasite of malaria, "plasmodia", was first described by Charles Laveran in 1880.
Plasmodium is a genus of protists (protozoans) that are parasites of the red blood cells of vertebrates and include the causative agents of malaria.
Ross uses birds that are sick with malaria to determine the entire life cycle of the malarial parasite, including finding the parasite in the mosquito's salivary glands. Ross demonstrates that malaria is transmitted from infected birds to healthy ones by the bite of a mosquito, which suggests the disease's mode of transmission to humans.
| |
103 YBN
[09/02/1897 AD]
| 4250) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer, patents a method of wireless transmission of electricity and information.
According to PBS: With his newly created Tesla coils, Tesla soon finds that he can transmit and receive powerful radio signals when the transmitter and receiver are tuned to resonate at the same frequency. When a coil is tuned to a signal of a particular frequency, the coil magnifies the incoming electrical energy through resonant action. (This amplified resonance is an important discovery. Was Hertz the first known to publicly identify this property of resonance in oscillating circuits?) As early as 1895, Tesla had been ready to transmit a signal 50 miles to West Point, New York, but in that same year a building fire consumed Tesla's lab, destroying his work. Guglielmo Marconi had taken out the first wireless telegraphy patent in England in 1896. Marconi's device has only a two-circuit system, which some said could not transmit "across a pond". Later Marconi will create long-distance demonstrations, using a Tesla oscillator to transmit the signals across the English Channel. The patent conflict between Tesla and Marconi over wireless communication continues for many years.
Tesla's 1897 patent is many focused on the wireless transmission of electricity, but Tesla does write: "... .... It will be understood that the transmitting as well as the receiving coils, transformers, or other apparatus may be in some cases movable—as, for example, when they are carried by vessels floating in the air or by ships at sea. In such a case, or generally, the connection of one of the terminals of the hightension coil or coils to the ground may not be so permanent, but may be intermittently or inductively established, and any such or similar modifications I shall consider as within the scope of my invention. While the description here given contemplates chiefly a method and system of energy transmission to a distance through the natural media for industrial purposes, the principles which I have herein disclosed and the apparatus which I have shown will obviously have many other valuable uses—as, for instance, when it is desired to transmit intelligible messages to great distances, or to illuminate upper strata of the air, or to produce, designedly, any useful changes in the condition of the atmosphere, or to manufacture from the gases of the same products, as nitric acid, fertilizing compounds, or the like, by the action of such current impulses, for all of which and for many other valuable purposes they are eminently suitable, and I do not wish to limit myself in this respect. Obviously, also, certain features of my invention here disclosed will be useful as disconnected from the method itself—as, for example, in other systems of energy transmission, for whatever purpose they may be intended, the transmitting and receiving transformers arranged and connected as illustrated, the feature of a transmitting and receiving coil or conductor, both connected to the ground and, to an elevated terminal and adjusted so as to vibrate in synchronism, the proportioning of such conductors or coils as above specified, the feature of a receiving-transformer with its primary connected to earth and to an elevated terminal and having the operative devices in its secondary, and other features or particulars, such as have been described in this specification or will readily suggest themselves by a perusal of the same.".
In 1898 Tesla announces his invention of a teleautomatic boat guided by remote control. When skepticism is voiced, Tesla proves his claims before a crowd in Madison Square Garden.
In 1900, Tesla will begin construction on Long Island of a wireless world broadcasting tower, with $150,000 capital from the US financier J. Pierpont Morgan. Tesla expected to provide worldwide communication and facilities for sending pictures, messages, weather warnings, and stock reports. The project is abandoned because of a financial panic, labor troubles, and Morgan's withdrawal of support. The tower is destroyed by dynamite in 1914.
(It seems clear that any patent debate about wireless technology is meaningless in light of the neuron reading and writing 200 year secret, which must predate all later public patents. It seems clear that most of the public information is at least 50 and in some cases more than 100 years behind the neuron reading and writing secret technology - as must be the case for electronic image capture.)
| (Private Lab) New York City, NY, USA |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 3802) Emile Hilaire Amagat (CE 1841-1915), French physicist, confirms van der Waals law for a variety of gases.
A summary in English from the Journal of the Chemical Society states: "In all attempts that have hitherto been made to test the van der Waals law of corresponding conditions one great source of error and objection has been found in the uncertainty of the determined values for the critical data. In order to avoid this difficulty, in the comparison of substances with one another the author constructs the isothermals of a number of compounds to arbitrary scales of pressure and reduces the resulting diagrams by photographic process to corresponding scales of pressure. The superposed curves should then show coincidence and the result is quite independent of the absolutely determined values of the critical pressure or critical volume. A complete coincidence is in fact found for carbonic anhydride, air, and ether, and an almost as complete agreement for carbonic anhydride, and ethylene. The law of van der Waals is therefore in these cases fully confirmed.".
| (Ecole Polytechnique) Paris, France |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 3912) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (KOK) (CE 1843-1910), German bacteriologist, shows that bubonic plague is transmitted by a flea that infests rats.
In 1894 Alexandre Yersin had isolated Yersinia (Pasteurella) pestis, the organism that is responsible for bubonic plague. Shibasaburo Kitasato also observed the bacterium in cases of plague.
Koch will also show that sleeping sickness is transmitted by the tstse fly. (chronology)
This, together with the work of Laveran and Ross on malaria, reveal a new technique for battling disease. Instead of attacking the bacteria themselves, the insect vector carrying the bacteria from person to person can be fought.
| Calcutta, India |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4088) Electric display (Oscilloscope).
| (Physikal Institute) Strassburg, France |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4093) Augusto Righi (rEJE) (CE 1850-1920), Italian physicist demonstrates that Hertzian waves not only interfere with each other and are refracted and reflected, but that they are also subject to diffraction, absorption, and double refraction, like light waves (or particles) of the visible spectrum. The results of his experiments are published in the widely read "L’ottica delle oscillazioni elettriche" (1897), which is still considered a classic of experimental electromagnetism.
Where Marconi, his pupil, applies Hertzian waves (in modern terms "light particles of sub-visible frequency") to wireless telegraphy, Righi uses them to prove the laws of classical optics.
In order not to resort to mirrors, prisms, and lenses of large dimensions, Righi reduces the wavelength (or interval) used in his experiments to only 26 mm (May 1894), thereby opening the new field of microwaves to later research and technology. In my opinion, the use of a 26mm interval frequency of light refracted through a lens to a focus, would be more than enough to cause doubts about the theory that light beams have amplitude. (Show and describe circuit)
This is the final proof that radio waves are identical to visible light waves, differing only in their wavelengths (or particle interval).
These experiments establish the existence of the electromagnetic spectrum (or the spectrum of light, spectrum of photon frequencies, I reject the idea that photons are the carriers of electrical force, having no charge, although ultimately even electrons are made of photons, but it is misleading to refer to an electromagnetic spectrum of light. The word originates from Maxwell's theory but is associated with the way photons with radio frequency are emitted in all directions from a moving stream of electrons.)
(Experiment: Repeat Righi's experiments. It would be nice to focus a longer wavelength of photons to a point with a lens or by some other method to show that light beams move in straight lines and in no way show amplitude. Another way is to measure the intensity of photons emitted from some object, and to show that the intensity is completely symmetrical around the source, light exiting the source in a sphere dropping in intensity by the square root of the distance from the source. This seems inconsistent with beams of light moving in sine waves, where a person would expect variations in intensity due to amplitude.)
(I am interested to read more about Righi's experiments, and he did write a book which is interesting. I think this is the book where he describes a proton as smaller than an electron but more dense.)
(Describe in more detail any polarization experiments and results, and interference experiments and results - how was interference obtained?)
(Currently there is no english translation of Righi's valuable work, which may be evidence of how poorly educating the public with science history is valued by English speaking people.)
| (Institute of Physics, University of Bologna) Bologna, Italy |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4105) Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (KoPTIN) (CE 1851-1922), Dutch astronomer identifies "Kapteyn's star", a star with the second fastest proper motion, only Barnard's star moves with higher velocity (relative to the earth over time). Kapteyn identified this star when examining proper motions. The motions of stars was first detected by Halley. By examining the motions of stars, Hershel was able to show that the sun itself is also moving through space.
Proper motion is defined as that component of the space motion of a celestial body perpendicular to the line of sight, resulting in the change of a star's apparent position relative to that of other stars; expressed in angular units. (Measur ing the motion of stars must be difficult, since all stars are presumably moving, all measurements can only represent velocities and positions relative to all other measured star positions at any given time. In addition, three-dimensional distance cannot be determined from one position only, but requires a second position to determine the motion in each of the three dimensions - for example, seeing a ball thrown in front of you from right to left, gives you no information about the Z dimensional movement of the ball toward or away from you - although perhaps this can be determined by apparent size of the ball.)
| (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4207) (Sir) Charles Algernon Parsons (CE 1854-1931), British engineer applies his improved steam turbine to marine propulsion in the water ship "Turbinia", a ship that attains a speed of 34 1/2 knots, extraordinary for the time (the fastest destroyers of the time can hardly exceed 27 knots). The turbine is soon used by warships and other steamers.
Parsons uses his turbine-powered ship, to move past British navy ships holding a stately review for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria. A naval vessel is sent after the Turbinia, but is not fast enough to catch it.
| (The Parsons Marine Steam Turbine Co., Ltd., ) Wallsend on Tyne, England |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4222) Paul Sabatier (SoBoTYA) (CE 1854-1941), French chemist discovers "nickel catalysis", where the metal Nickel serves as a catalyst to add hydrogen to various molecules. Nickel catalysis makes possible the formation of edible fats such as margarine and shortenings from inedible plant oils such as cottonseed oil in large quantities at low cost.
Paul Sabatier (SoBoTYA) (CE 1854-1941), French chemist shows how various organic compounds could undergo hydrogenation (the addition of hydrogen to molecules of carbon compounds) For example, ethylene will not normally combine with hydrogen but when a mixture of the gases is passed over finely divided nickel, ethane is produced. Benzene can be converted into cyclohexane in the same way.
Before this only the expensive metals platinum and palladium can serve this purpose, so this brings the cost of the process down enabling use on an industrial scale.
Sabatier heats an oxide of nickel to 300°C in a current of hydrogen gas, and then directs a current of ethylene on the slivers of reduced nickel. Sabatier finds that the resulting gaseous product is mostly ethane resulting from the hydrogenation of ethylene. Sabatier then succeeds in oxidizing acetylene to ethylene and ethane, and in 1901 transforms benzene into cyclohexane with benzene vapors and hydrogen over reduced nickel at 200°C.
A molecule of ethane is the same as the ethylene molecule, except that hydrogen atoms are added at the double bond. (needs visual).
Sabatier will spend the rest of his career studying catalytic hydrogenations. Sabatier's various discoveries form the bases of the margarine, oil hydrogenation, and synthetic methanol industries, in addition to numerous other laboratory syntheses.
Assisted by his student J. B. Senderens, Sabatier goes on to demonstrate the general applicability of his method to the hydrogenation of nonsaturated and aromatic carbides, ketones, aldehydes, phenols, nitriles, and nitrate derivatives and synthesizes methane from carbon monoxide.
Sabatier describes his work in his book "Le catalyse en chimie organique" (1912; "Catalysis in Organic Chemistry").
(describe how ethane is detected - viewing the spectrum?)
| (University of Toulouse) Toulouse, France |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4297) John Jacob Abel (CE 1857-1938), US biochemist isolates a physiologically active substance found in extracts from the adrenal medulla, and (in 1899) names it epinephrine (epinephrine will also be known as adrenalin). This extract is actually the monobenzoyl derivative of the hormone and Jokichi Takamine will isolate pure adrenalin in 1900.
Adrenalin is a blood-pressure-raising hormone. (cite who first found this - does this increase the rate of muscle contraction of the heart?)
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4307) Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (TSYULKuVSKE) (CE 1857-1935), Russian physicist builds the first wind tunnel in Russia. In it, he tests a number of different airfoils to determine their lift coefficients.
Also in 1897, Tsiolkovsky derives the relationship of the exhaust velocity of a rocket and its mass ratio to its instantaneous velocity. Known today as the basic rocket equation, it is expressed as V = c ln(Wi/Wf), in which V is the final velocity, c is the exhaust velocity of propellant particles expelled through the nozzle, Wi is the initial weight of the rocket, and Wf is the final, or burnt-out, weight of the rocket. This equation excludes the force of gravity and drag, which Tsiolkovsky will later take into account in refining his equation. This equation proves that the velocity of a rocket in space depends on the velocity of its exhaust and the ratio of the weight of the rocket at start and end. Understanding this equation allows Tsiolkovsky to imagine many ways of increasing the exhaust velocity and of decreasing the initial and final mass fraction.
| Kaluga, Russia |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4313) (Sir) Charles Scott Sherrington (CE 1857-1952), English neurologist, identifies the concept and names the term "synapse" in Michael Foster’s Textbook of Physiology.
Sherrrington writes, "So far as our present knowledge goes we are led to think that the tip of a twig of the {axon’s} arborescence is not continuous with but merely in contact with the substance of the dendrite or cell body on which it impinges. Such a connection of one nerve-cell with another might be called a synapsis".
Ramon y Cajal’s preparations had showed that definitely limited conduction paths exist in the gray matter and that nerve impulses are somehow transmitted by contact, not as a continuous single object.
In the 1930s a dispute will take place between the theory that synapses exchange information using electricity versus exchanging information using chemical molecules. In the 1950s, the electron microscope will provide evidence for both types of synapses: certain synapses use electrical conduction, while the majority use neurotransmitter molecules.
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4346) Alexandr Stepanovich Popov (CE 1859-1906), Russian physicist transmits a radio signal from ship to shore over a distance of 5km (3 miles) and manages to persuade the Russian naval authorities to begin installing radio equipment in their vessels. By the end of 1899 Popov will have increased the distance of his ship to shore transmissions to 48 km (30 miles).
However Marconi will be the first to commercialize radio, and be send a radio message across the ocean.
(What kind of signal does Popov use? Probably Morse code of a single frequency.)
| (University of St. Petersburg) St. Petersberg, Russia (presumably) |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4433) Wilhelm Wien (VEN) (CE 1864-1928), German physicist, confirms that cathode rays consist of high-velocity particles (about one-third the velocity of light).
(State paper and find translation)
| (technical college in Aachen) Aachen, Germany |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4441) Hermann Walther Nernst (CE 1864-1941), German physical chemist improves the incandescent lamp. Nernst finds that magnesium oxide, which is a nonconductor at room temperature, becomes a perfect electric conductor at higher temperatures, emitting a brilliant white light when employed as a filament. This is called the "Nernst lamp".
This is an electric ceramic lamp that can be heated to incandescence with a weak current. Nernst sells Edison the patent for a million marks. Asimov comments that Edison thought all professors were impractical dreamers, but clearly Nernst proved that wrong.
| ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4469) Moses Gomberg (CE 1866-1947), Russian-US chemist is the first to synthesize tetraphenylmethane, a molecule in which four rings of carbon are attached to a single central carbon atom.
Gomberg oxidizes triphenylmethane hydrazobenzene, to obtain the corresponding azo compound, which decomposes to tetraphenylmethane on heating at 110-120°C. Although Gomberg is successful, the yield of tetraphenylmethane is only 2-5 percent. But which is just enough to study.
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4503) Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff (iPoTYeF) (CE 1867-1952), Russian-US chemist determines the composition of and synthesizes isoprene, a hydrocarbon and the basic unit (monomer) of the rubber molecule.
Isoprene, C5H8, or CH2:C(CH3)CH:CH2 the systematic name is 2-methylbuta-1,3-diene, is a colorless liquid organic compound. It is a hydrocarbon, and is insoluble in water but soluble in many organic solvents; it boils at 34°C. The isoprene structure is the fundemental structural unit in terpenes and natural rubber. The compond itself is used in making synthetic rubbers. Isoprene is a hydrocarbon, and is insoluble in water but soluble in many organic solvents; isoprene boils at 34°C. The isoprene molecule contains two double bonds. Isoprene is readily polymerized by the use of special catalysts; large numbers of isoprene molecules join together to form a single large, threadlike polyisoprene molecule. Isoprene polymers also occur naturally, for example in the natural rubbers balata and gutta-percha.
Isoprene was first isolated by thermal decomposition of natural rubber in 1860 by C. G. Williams. (verify)
Isoprene is obtained in processing petroleum or coal tar and used as a chemical raw material.
Isoprene, either alone or in combination with other unsaturated compounds (those containing double and triple bonds), is used primarily to make polymer molecules, (large molecules consisting of many small, similar molecules bonded together) with properties dependent upon the proportions of the ingredients as well as the initiator (substance that starts the polymerizing reaction) used. The polymerization of isoprene using Ziegler catalysts yields synthetic rubber that closely resembles the natural product. Butyl rubber, made from isobutene with a small amount of isoprene, using aluminum chloride initiator, has outstanding impermeability to gases and is used in inner tubes.
(show isoprene and rubber molecules)
(describe how isoprene is produced) (Isoprene may be a very useful starting point molecule to develop artificial muscles - materials that contract when an electric potential is connect between both sides of the material. EXPERIMENT: try adding simple molecules, for example just calcium, sodium, silicon, iron, to isoprene and make polymer synthetic rubber testing to see if it contracts under electric potential and current.)
(Does this lead directly to the production of artificial rubber?)
(translate )
| (University of Munich?) Munich, Germany |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4712) Georges Claude (CE 1870-1960), French chemist finds that acetylene, which is very flammable, can be transported safely if dissolved in acetone and then easily extracted later.
| (Compagnie Francaise Houston-Thomson) Paris, France |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 4793) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist publically states that x-rays could possibly be used for telepathy.
Crookes writes: "The task I am called upon to perform to-day is to my thinking by no means a merely formal or easy matter. It fills me with deep concern to give an address, with such authority as a President's chair confers, upon a science which, though still in a purely nascent stage, seems to me at least as important as any other science whatever. Psychical science, as we here try to pursue it, is the embryo of something which in time may dominate the whole world of thought. This possibility—nay probability— does not make it the easier to me now. Embryonic development is apt to be both rapid and interesting; yet the prudent man shrinks from dogmatising on the egg until he has seen the chicken.
Nevertheless, I desire, if I can, to say a helpful word. And I ask myself what kind of helpful word. Is there any connexion between my old-standing interest in pyschical problems and such original work as I may have been able to do in other branches of science ?
I think there is such a connexion—that the most helpful quality which has aided me in psychical problems and has made me lucky in physical discoveries (sometimes of rather unexpected kinds), has simply been my knowledge—my vital knowledge, if I may so term it —of my own ignorance.
Most students of Nature sooner or later pass through a process of writing off a large percentage of their supposed capital of knowledge as a merely illusory asset. As we trace more accurately certain familiar sequences of phenomena, we begin to realise how closely these sequences, or laws, as we call them, are hemmed round by still other laws of which we can form no notion. With myself, this writing off of illusory assets has gone rather far; and the cobweb of supposed knowledge has been pinched (as some one has phrased) into a particularly small pill.
I am not disposed to bewail the limitations imposed by human ignorance. On the contrary, I feel ignorance is a healthful stimulant; and my enforced conviction that neither I nor any one can possibly lay down beforehand what does not exist in the universe, or even what is not going on all round us every day of our lives, leaves me with a cheerful hope that something very new and very arresting may turn up anywhere at any minute. ... Telepathy, the transmission of thought and images directly from one mind to another, without the agency of the recognised organs of sense, is a conception new and strange to science. To judge from the comparative slownesss with which the accumulated evidence of our Society penetrates the scientific world, it is, I think, a conception even scientifically repulsive to many minds. We have supplied striking experimental evidence; but few have been found to repeat our experiments. We have offered good evidence in the observation of spontaneous cases,—as apparitions at the moment of death and the like,—but this evidence has failed to impress the scientific world in the same way as evidence less careful and less coherent has often done before. Our evidence is not confronted and refuted ; it is shirked and evaded, as though there were some great a priori improbability which absolved the world of science from considering it. I at least see no a priori improbability whatever. Our alleged facts might be true in all kinds of ways without contradicting any truth already known. I will dwell now on only one possible line of explanation,—not that I see any way of elucidating all the new phenomena I regard as genuine, but because it seems probable I may shed a light on some of those phenomena.
All the phenomena of the Universe are presumably in some way continuous ; and certain facts, plucked as it were from the very heart of Nature, are likely to be of use in our gradual discovery of facts which lie deeper still.
As a starting-point I will take a pendulum beating seconds in air. If I keep on doubling I get a series of steps as follows :— Starting-point. The seconds pendulum.
Step 1. ... 2 vibrations per second. 2. ... 4 , 3. ... 8 , .... {ULSF: Crookes extends this 2 to the power of 63 which is an enormous number of 9.22 x 1018 and writes.}
At the fifth step from unity, at 32 vibrations per second, we reach the region where atmospheric vibration reveals itself to us as sound. Here we have the lowest musical note. In the next ten steps the vibrations per second rise from 32 to 32,768, and here to the average human ear the region of sound ends. But certain more highly endowed animals probably hear sounds too acute for our organs, that is, sounds which vibrate at a higher rate.
We next enter a region in which the vibrations rise rapidly, and the vibrating medium is no longer the gross atmosphere, but a highly attenuated medium, " a diviner air," called the ether. From the 16th to the 35th step the vibrations rise from 32,768 to 34359,738368 a second, such vibrations appearing to our means of observation as electrical rays.
We next reach a region extending from the 35th to the 45th step, including from 34359,738368 to 35,184372,088832 vibrations per second. This region may be considered as unknown, because we are as yet ignorant what are the functions of vibrations of the rates just mentioned. But that they have some function it is fair to suppose.
Now we approach the region of light, the steps extending from the 45th to between the 50th and the 51st, and the vibrations extending from 35,184372,088832 per second (heat rays) to 1875,000000,000000 per second, the highest recorded rays of the spectrum. The actual sensation of light, and therefore the vibrations which transmit visible signs, being comprised between the narrow limits of about 450,000000,000000 (red light) and 750,000000,000000 (violet light) —less than one step.
Leaving the region of visible light, we arrive at what is, for our existing senses and our means of research, another unknown region, the functions of which we are beginning to suspect. It is not unlikely that the X rays of Professor Rontgen will be found to lie between the 58th and the 61st step, having vibrations extending from 288220,576 151,711744 to 2,305763,009213,693952 per second or even higher.
In this series it will be seen there are two great gaps, or unknown regions, concerning which we must own our entire ignorance as to the part they play in the economy of creation. Further, whether any vibrations exist having a greater number per second than those classes mentioned we do not presume to decide.
But is it premature to ask in what way are vibrations connected with thought or its transmission ? We might speculate that the increasing rapidity or frequency of the vibrations would accompany a rise in the importance of the functions of such vibrations. That high frequency deprives the rays of many attributes that might seem incompatible with " brain waves," is undoubted. Thus, rays about the 62nd step are so minute as to cease to be refracted, reflected or polarised ; they pass through many so-called opaque bodies, and research begins to show that the most rapid are just those which pass most easily through dense substances. It does not require much stretch of the scientific imagination to conceive that at the 62nd or 63rd step the trammels from which rays at the 61st step were struggling to free themselves, have ceased to influence rays having so enormous a rate of vibration as 9,223052,036854,775808 per second, and that these rays pierce the densest medium with scarcely any diminution of intensity, and pass almost unrefracted and unreflected along their path with the velocity of light.
Ordinarily we communicate intelligence to each other by speech. I first call up in my own brain a picture of a scene I wish to describe, and then, by means of an orderly transmission of wave vibrations set in motion by my vocal cords through the material atmosphere, a corresponding picture is implanted in the brain of any one whose ear is capable of receiving such vibrations. If the scene I wish to impress on the brain of the recipient is of a complicated character, or if the picture of it in my own brain is not definite, the transmission will be more or less imperfect; but if I wish to get my audience to picture to themselves some very simple object, such as a triangle or a circle, the transmission of ideas will be well nigh perfect, and equally clear to the brains of both transmitter and recipient. Here we use the vibrations of the material molecules of the atmosphere to transmit intelligence from one brain to another.
In the newly-discovered Rontgen rays we are introduced to an order of vibrations of extremest minuteness as compared with the most minute waves with which we have hitherto been acquainted, and of dimensions comparable with the distances between the centres of the atoms of which the material universe is built up; and there is no reason to suppose that we have here reached the limit of frequency. Waves of this character cease to have many of the properties associated with light waves. They are produced in the same etherial medium, and are probably propagated with the same velocity as light, but here the similarity ends. They cannot be regularly reflected from polished surfaces ; they have not been polarised ; they are not refracted on passing from one medium to another of different density, and they penetrate considerable thicknesses of substances opaque to light with the same ease with which light passes through glass. It is also demonstrated that these rays, as generated in the vacuum tube, are not homogeneous, but consist of bundles of different wave-lengths, analogous to what would be differences of colour could we see them as light. Some pass easily through flesh, but are partially arrested by bone, while others pass with almost equal facility through bone and flesh.
It seems to me that in these rays we may have a possible mode of transmitting intelligence, which with a few reasonable postulates, may supply a key to much that is obscure in psychical research. Let it be assumed that these rays, or rays even of higher frequency, can pass into the brain and act on some nervous centre there. Let it be conceived that the brain contains a centre which uses these rays as the vocal cords use sound vibrations (both being under the command of intelligence), and sends them out, with the velocity of light, to impinge on the receiving ganglion of another brain. In this way some, at least, of the phenomena of telepathy, and the transmission of intelligence from one sensitive to another through long distances, seem to come into the domain of law, and can be grasped. A sensitive may be one who possesses the telepathic transmitting or receiving ganglion in an advanced state of development, or who, by constant practice, is rendered more sensitive to these high-frequency waves. Experience seems to show that the receiving and the transmitting ganglions are not equally developed; one may be active, while the other, like the pineal eye in man, may be only vestigial. By such a hypothesis no physical laws are violated, neither is it necessary to invoke what is commonly called the supernatural.
To this hypothesis it may be objected that brain waves, like any other waves, must obey physical laws. Therefore, transmission of thought must be easier or more certain the nearer the agent and recipient are to each other, and should die out altogether before great distances are reached. Also it can be urged that if brain waves diffuse in all directions they should affect all sensitives within their radius of action instead of impressing only one brain. The electric telegraph is not a parallel case, for there a material wire intervenes to conduct and guide the energy to its destination.
These are weighty objections, but not, I think, insurmountable. ....
In these last sentences I have intentionally used words of wide signification—have spoken of guidance along ordered paths. It is wisdom to be vague here, for we absolutely cannot say whether or when any diversion may be introduced into the existing system of earthly forces by an external power. ..... An omnipotent being could rule the course of this world in such a way that none of us should discover the hidden springs of action. He need not make the Sun stand still upon Gibeon. He could do all that he wanted by the expenditure of infinitesimal diverting force upon ultra-microscopic modifications of the human germ.
In this address I have not attempted to add any item to the sound knowledge which I believe our Society is gradually amassing. I shall be content if I have helped to clear away some of those scientific stumbling-blocks, if I may so call them, which tend to prevent many of our possible coadjutors from adventuring themselves on the new illimitable road.
I see no good reason why any man of scientific mind should shut his eyes to our work, or deliberately stand aloof from it. Our Proceedings are of course not exactly parallel to the Proceedings of a Society dealing with a long-established branch of Science. In every form of research their must be a beginning. We own to much that is tentative, much that may turn out erroneous. But it is thus, and thus only, that each Science in turn takes its stand. I venture to assert that both in actual careful record of new and important facts, and in suggestiveness, our Society's work and publications will form no unworthy preface to a profounder science both of Man, of Nature, and of " Worlds not realised " than this planet has yet known.
"
(Possibly read much more of paper, or at least indicate major hints.)
(Notice "lie" which is standard hinting about a massive lie - which the owners of neuron reading and writing require - even to excluded family members. Another is "arrested by bone" for what must be the most controversial informing the public about x-rays writing to the brain.)
(Notice the ominous tone of the introduction - when realizing the scale of murder - the neuron holocaust - it is easy to see why a person would feel emotional in talking about telepathy. ) (Notice the ending on the word "chicken" - might this imply some kind of humans being used as food program which is one of the more shocking things to see on the planet earth perhaps? Perhaps poor humans - many children - with no money or home are picked up off the street and because of a lack of resources, and an unwillingness to murder them, they are kept naked in cages and fed a minimum of food and water - we know there are stray dogs and cats that are murdered by the thousands every year - but yet no stray humans? Upton Sinclair's Mental Radio with Albert Einstein forward would be a link - since Sinclair covered the meat industry in "The Jungle". Then I wonder are the humans eaten? Are the humans educated? Are the humans policed? It may be that there simply are very few stray humans and everybody has enough to eat and a room to stay in.)
(Notice that Crookes is one of the few to actually draw attention to the technique of important word choice in providing more depth of understanding - without explcitly saying that words are spelled out by using the first letter of each word at the end of a paragraph.)
| (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 6032) John Philip Sousa (CE 1854-1932), US composer, conductor and writer, composes his famous march "The Stars and Stripes Forever".
| (Europe and ship crossing) Atlantic ocean |
103 YBN
[1897 AD]
| 6033) Julius (Arnošt Vilém) Fučik (CE 1872-1916), Czech composer, composes his famous "Vjezd gladiátorů" ("Entrance of the Gladiators") (Opus 68). (verify)
(It's interesting how the music reflects the militarization of the planet around the transition to the 1900s.)
| (49th Austro-Hungarian Regiment) Sarajevo, (Austria-Hungary now)Bosnia (verify) |
102 YBN
[04/12/1898 AD]
| 4352) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) finds that thorium gives off "uranium rays".
In her first publication, Marie Curie writes (translated from French): "...I employed ... a plate condenser, one of the plates being covered with a uniform layer of uranium or of another finely pulverized substance {(diameter of the plates, eight centimeters; distance between them, three centimeters). A potential difference of 100 volts was established between the plates.}. The current that traversed the condenser was measured in absolute value by means of an electrometer and a piezoelectric quartz....". The measurements vary between 83 × 10-12 amperes for pitch blende to less than 0.3 × 10-12 for less active salts, passing through 53 × 10-12 for thorium oxide and for chalcolite (double phosphate of uranium and copper). So Curie shows that Thorium is "radioactive" (in her words). Thorium's radioactive properties are discovered at the same time, independently, by Schmidt in Germany. This note also contains the observation that : "Two uranium ores ... are much more active than uranium itself. This fact ... leads one to believe that these ores may contain an element much more active than uranium.".
Henri Poincaré, had advanced in January 1896 the hypothesis of an emission, called "hyperfluorescence", from the glass wall of a Crookes tube struck by cathode rays. Meanwhile Henri Becquerel, at the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, discovered that uranium salts shielded from light for several months spontaneously emit rays related in their effects to Roentgen rays (X rays).
(I'm not sure that "radioactivity" is perhaps the most accurate name that could be given to the phenomenon of different particle beams being emitted from matter. For example, "particle emission" may cover more similar phenomena - including the photons that all matter emits, fluorescence, etc.)
(Get translation and give relevent parts - in particular coining the word "radioactivity" - because I don't see this in the French version.)
Curie recognizes that the amount of radiation in various uranium compounds is proportional to the amount of uranium. The radiation emitted from various uranium compounds ionizes the air allowing it to conducting electricity. The more radiation, the larger the current conducted. This current can be detected with a galvanometer (where does the current originate from? where is the electric potential? - perhaps oxygen and nitrogen atoms form an electrical current.). Curie counterbalances this current with an electric potential created by a crystal under pressure (because of the piezoelectric effect first found by Pierre). The amount of pressure required to balance the current of the radioactivity (of air molecules) gives a measure of the intensity of the radioactivity. (perhaps this is just the measure of the electron radiation, since photons are neutral and helium nuclei are positively charged. In fact, the helium nuclei might actually lower the current?)
(Give full English translation)
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
102 YBN
[04/12/1898 AD]
| 4693) John Zeleny (CE 1872-1951) uses a variety of methods to determine that negative ions have a higher velocity than positive ions.
In 1890 Arthur Schuster had given some reasons for believing that the negative ions in gases move faster than the positive ions, J. J. Thomson in Dec 1895, had explained some phenomena in electrodeless tubes by assuming that the negative ion in oxygen and hydrogen travels faster than the positive one. However, in November of 1897, Ernest Rutherford, in determining separately the velocities of the two ions in air for conduction under the influence of Rontgen rays, did not observe any difference.
After performing numerous experiments Zeleny concludes: "... From the table on p. 132, § 4, it is seen that for all of the gases tried, where a difference of velocity for the two ions exists, with one possible slight exception, the velocity of the negative ion is the greater. It is also seen that for such simple gases as O and N the difference is considerable, while for CO2 there is no appreciable difference, a result which could scarcely be anticipated. It would appear from these results that some relation exists between the ion and the charge carried by it which is dependent upon the sign of the charge, and which varies with the constitution of the ion.
In contemplating the cause of the difference of velocity of the two ions, we must look to the size of the ions and to the charges carried by them, for upon these two factors the velocity itself depends.
As to the charges on the two kinds of ions, the simplest assumption we can make is that they are equal, for if we assume an unequal distribution we are led into a difficulty in imagining a process whereby the two charges are distributed upon an unequal number of carriers, and so that the charge upon each of those of one sign is just a little different from that upon those of the other sign.
We are thus led to suppose, as in liquids, that the observed velocity difference is due to an inequality in the size of the two ions. Why the two ions, even if they are formed of groups of molecules, should in a simple gas be of a different size is a question to which definite answers cannot be given in the present state of our knowledge, or rather ignorance, of the relation between matter and electricity, but is one which must be borne in mind in considerations of this relation. ...".
In 1913 Thomson will use an electromagnetic field to deflect ions, and determines uses this to determine that neon has isotopes, the same atom but with different mass.
(If an electromagnetic field is viewed as a particle field, and electric current the result of particle collision, then charge is not a quantity that can be assigned to a particle, but is strictly dependent on a particle size and/or shape. A particle that appears to be neutral in an electromagnetic field may be too small or too large to be physically moved by particle collision or may not have a shape that allows a bonding, or some other aspect of particle collision to occur.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN
[04/??/1898 AD]
| 3868) Golgi apparatus.
Camillo Golgi (GOLJE) (CE 1843-1926), Italian physician and cytologist, describes the Golgi apparatus (also called "Golgi complex", "Golgi Body", and simply "the Golgi").
Golgi bodies are first revealed by the use of Golgi's silver salt stain. Golgi discovers the presence in nerve cells of an irregular network of small fibers (fibrils), vesicles (cavities), and granules, now known as the Golgi complex or Golgi apparatus. The Golgi complex is found in all cells except bacteria and plays an important role in the modification and transport of proteins within the cell. (from nucleus to cytoplasm?)
Golgi originally names this body the "internal reticular apparatus".
The existence of the Golgi apparatus is debated for decades (some thinking that the Golgi apparatus is a staining artifact), and is not confirmed until the mid-1950s by the use of the electron microscope.
The Golgi apparatus (or Golgi complex) is the site of the modification, completion, and export of secretory proteins and glycoproteins. The Golgi apparatus is an organelle found in all eukaryotic cells but not in prokaryotes such as bacteria. The Golgi apparatus consists mainly of a number of five to eight flattened sacs (cisternae) and associated vesicles, arranged into a stack. Different cell types contain from one to several thousand Golgi stacks. The Golgi apparatus sorts newly synthesized proteins for delivery to various destinations. Secretory proteins and glycoproteins, cell membrane proteins and glycoproteins, lysosomal proteins (and lysosomes), and some glycolipids all pass through the Golgi structure at some point in their maturation. In plant cells, much of the cell wall material passes through the Golgi. The Golgi apparatus itself is structurally polarized within the cell. As the secretory proteins move through the Golgi, a number of chemical modifications may occur. Important among these is the modification of carbohydrate groups. One function of the Golgi apparatus is to modify the oligosaccharide chains found on glycoproteins and glycolipids. When a newly produced glycoprotein passes through the Golgi stack, oligosaccharides (chains of 6-carbon sugars), linked to the amino acid asparagine, are modified, and can be produced into a diverse range of structures which are different in animal, plant, and fungal cells. The Golgi apparatus always functions as a "carbohydrate factory". The Golgi apparatus also carries out other processing events, including the addition of sulfate groups to the amino acid tyrosine in some proteins, the cleavage of protein precursors to yield mature hormones and neurotransmitters, and the synthesis of certain membrane lipids such as sphingomyelin and glycosphingolipids.
In some cases the carbohydrate groups changed are necessary for the stability or activity of the protein or for targeting the molecule for a specific destination. Also within the Golgi or secretory vesicles are proteases that cut many secretory proteins at specific amino acid positions. This often activates a secretory protein, for example, the conversion of inactive proinsulin to active insulin by removal of a series of amino acids.
| (University of Pavia) Pavia, Italy |
102 YBN
[05/02/1898 AD]
| 4380) The explosive oxide and aluminum mixture ("thermite") discovered.
Johann (Hans) Wilhelm Goldschmidt (CE 1861-1923), German chemist describes the oxide/aluminum mixture (called thermite). Goldschmidt finds that aluminum powder when mixed with a metal oxide when ignited will emit tremendous heat, and the chemical reaction results in a pure metal from the metal oxide. Pure iron and chromium can be isolated in this way. In the 1800s many pure metals had been obtained from their oxides (atoms of metal bonded with oxygen atoms, oxygen readily bonds with many atoms) by heating these oxides with sodium or potassium, which is an expensive procedure. Sainte-Claire Deville isolates aluminum in this way and reports that pure powdered aluminum can then replace sodium or potassium for the purpose of isolating pure metals from metal oxides. (perhaps because aluminum is more abundant (4 to 1 according to quickstudy chart) than sodium and potassium?) Because of the great heat produced, thermite can be used in welding (and for some welding is the best technique known), and is used to (weaken or cut? It seems like the timing would be slow for thermite as opposed to explosives) through steel beams in controlled demolition of steel frame buildings.
This process is called the alumino-thermic process, and sometimes the "Goldschmidt reduction process". The oxides of certain metals react with aluminum to yield aluminum oxide and the free metal. The process has been employed to produce such metals as chromium, manganese, and cobalt from oxide ores. It is also used for welding; in this case, iron oxides react with aluminum to produce intense heat and molten iron.
Goldschmidt publishes an extensive paper describing this process in 1898. (See also ). (Give full translation)
Goldschmidt lists one chemical equation: Cr2O3 + 2Al = Al2O3 + 2Cr.
Can this process be used for propulsion and electricity production?
(Does particle size matter in the reaction? Clearly oxygen combusts and so the more oxygen the more seperation of the photons in all atoms. Why do other metal oxides not combust in a similar way? What explains the few that do combust in this way? )
A form of thermite, "thermate" which contains sulfur will be used to demolish 3 World Trade Center buildings by the Bush-Cheney US republican government under the watch of the neuron reading and writing phone company AT&T on 09/11/2001, murdering around 2,800 nonviolent people and this is used to justify enormous increases in military spending, an invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, and repressive laws among other terrible decisions which result in many hundreds of thousands of murders of nonviolent people.
Besides this process, Goldschmidt develops, in collaboration with Alfred Stock, a commercial process for beryllium production around 1918.
(There is not a lot of info available on Goldscmidt and this apparently very useful process. For example, can this be used for propulsion and electricity production?)
(Show visual of molecular combinations, give molecular formulas.)
| (Business: TH. Goldschmidt) Essen-on-the-Ruhr, Germany |
102 YBN
[05/10/1898 AD]
| 3824) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923), English chemist, is the first to liquefy hydrogen.
Dewar publishes this as "Preliminary Note on the Liquefaction of Hydrogen and Helium" in the proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Dewar writes: " On May 10, starting with hydrogen cooled to -205° C., and under a pressure of 180 atmospheres, escaping continuously from the nozzle of a coil of pipe at the rate of about 10 cubic feet to 15 cubic feet per minute, in a vacuum vessel double silvered and of special construction, all surrounded with a space kept below -200° C., liquid hydrogen commenced to drop from this vacuum vessel into another doubly isolated by being surrounded with a third vaccuum vessel. In about five minutes 20 c.c. of liquid hydrogen were collected, when the hydrogen jet froze up from the solidification of air in the pipes. The yield of liquid was about 1 per cent. of the gas. The hydrogen in the liquid condition is clear and colourless, showing no absorption spectrum and the meniscus is as well defined as in the case of liquid air. The liquid has a relatively high refractive index and dispersion, and the density appears to be in excess of the theoretical density, viz., 0.18 to 0.12, which we deduce respectively from the atomic volume of organic compounds and the limiting density found by Amagat for hydrogen gas under infinite compression. My old experiments on the density of hydrogen in palladium gave a value for the combined body of 0.62, and it will be interesting to find the real density of the liquid substance at its boiling point. Not having arrangements at hand to determine the boiling point, two experiments were made to prove the excessively low temperature of the boiling fluid. In the first place, if a long piece of glass tubing, sealed at one end and open to the air at the other, is cooled by immersing the closed end in the liquid hydrogen, the tube immediately fills, where it is cooled, with solid air. The second experiment was made with a tube containing helium. The 'Cracow Academy Bulletin' for 1896 contains a paper by Professor Olszewski, entitled 'A Research on the Liquefaction of Helium,' in which he states 'as far as my experiments go, helium remains a permanent gas and apparently is much more difficult to liquefy than hydrogen.' In a paper of my own in the 'Proceedings of the Chemical Society,' No. 183 (1896-7), in which the separation of helium from Bath gas was effected by a liquefaction method, the suggestion was made that the volatility of hydrogen and helium would probably be found close together just like those of fluorine and oxygen. Having a specimen of helium which had been extracted from Bath gas, sealed up in a bulb with a narrow tube attached, the latter was placed in liquid hydrogen, when a distinct liquid was seen to condense. A similar experiment made with the use of liquid air under exhaustion in the same helium tube (instead of liquid hydrogen) gave no visible condensation. From this result it would appear that there cannot be any great difference in the boiling points of helium and hydrogen. All known gases have now been condensed into liquids which can be manipulated at their boiling points under atmospheric pressure in suitably arranged vacuum vessels. With hydrogen as a cooling agent, we shall get within 20° or 30° of the zero of absolute temperature, and its use will open up an entirely new field of scientific inquiry. Even as great a man as James Clerk Maxwell had doubts as to the possibility of ever liquefying hydrogen. No one can predict the properties of matter near the zero of temperature. Faraday liquefied chlorine in the year 1823. Sixty years afterwards Wroblewski and Olszewski produced liquid air, the fact that the former result has been achieved in one-fourth the time needed to accomplish the latter, proves the greatly accelerated rate of scientific progress in our time. ...". (Was this not a pure sample of helium? Describe explanation for why this is not liquid helium.) (Note too that Louis Paul Cailletet (KoYuTA) (CE 1832-1913), French physicist and ironmaster, had liquefied oxygen and nitrogen in 1877-1878 apparently before Wroblewski and Olszewski in 1883.) Later in 1898, Dewar will measure the boiling point and density (specific gravity) of hydrogen. Dewar measures the boiling point of hydrogen as -238.4° C, using a platinum resistance thermometer. In 1901 Dewar measures this temperature as using a hydrogen and helium gas thermometer. The electrical thermometer uses an equation that connects temperature and resistance, so the temperature is interpolated from the curve of known values. The gas thermometers use the measure of change in pressure using constant volume. The formula used is that given by Chappuis. Using this method, the average measurement is -252.5° C or 20.5 absolute (Kelvin). Current values for the boiling point of hydrogen is around -252.8° C. Dewar measures the density of hydrogen writing: " The density of liquid hydrogen has been approximately determined by evaporating some 10 cubic centimeters of the liquid, and collecting and measuring the gas produced, thereby ascertaining its weight. In this way 8.15 liters at 14° C. and 753 millimeters were colelcted over water from between 9 and 10 cubic centimeters of liquid hydrogen. It appears, therefore, that the density of the liquid is about 0.07, using whole numbers as the calculation works out to 0.068 nearly. Liquid hydrogen is therefore a very deceptive fluid so far as appearance goes. The fact of its collecting so easily, dropping so well, and having such a well-defined meniscus induced me to believe that the density might be about half that of liquid air. it was a great surprise to find the density only one-fourteenth of water. Liquid marsh gas was the lightest known liquid, the density at its boiling point being 0.417, but liquid hydrogen has only one-sixth the density of this substance. The density occluded hydrogen in palladium being 0.62, it is eight times denser than the liquid. Hydrogen in the liquid state is one hundred times denser than the vapor it is giving off at its boiling point, whereas liquid oxygen is two hundred and fifty-five times denser than its vapor. It appears, therefore, that the atomic volume of liquid hydrogen at its boiling point is 14.3, as compared with 13.7 for oxygen under similar circumstances. In other words, they are nearly identical. From this we can infer that the critical pressure need not exceed 15 atmospheres. The extraordinary properties theory requires hydrogen should possess, especially as regards specific and latent heat, becomes more intelligible from the moment we know that the density is so small. In other words, when we compare the properties of equal volumes of liquid hydrogen and air under similar corresponding temperatures, they do not differ more than might be anticipated.".
On December 15, 1898, Dewar's "Application of Liquid Hydrogen to the production of high Vacua, together with their Spectroscopic Examination" is received and read. This describes the extraordinary power of liquid hydrogen as a cooling agent, and the extreme rapidity with which high vacua can be produced by its use. In this work Dewar makes use of equations of van der Waals and Gibbs. Dewar and Crookes test two tubes with platinum electrodes 'sparked in vacua till all hydrogen disappeared, and then filled with dry air'. After cooling with liquid hydrogen, only one of the tubes reveals two faint lines associated with hydrogen.
(It would be interesting to see what gases and liquids do in the empty space above the earth atmosphere. Do they condense? That would be interesting to see. Because the temperature or the quantity and average velocity of the matter moving in those volumes of spaces must be very low relative to inside the atmosphere on the surface of earth.)
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
102 YBN
[06/03/1898 AD]
| 4142) (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist and assistant Morris W. Travers (CE 1872-1961) isolate and identify neon, krypton and xenon, 3 inert gases. Ramsey does this by "fractionating" argon from liquid air. Ramsay and Travers spend months preparing 15 liters of argon gas which they then liquefy in order to carefully allow it to boil. The first fractions of gas (that boil out) contain a new light gas they name "neon" ("new"). The final fractions contain traces of two heavy gases which they name "krypton" ("hidden") and "xenon" ("stranger"). So the new column in the periodic table is filled except for the last place (until the recent potential find of element 118) which will be filled two years later through studies in radioactivity.
In "On a new Constituent of Atmospheric Air", Ramsay and Travers describe the finding of Krypton. They write: "This preliminary note is intended to give a very brief account of experiments which have been carried out during the past year to ascertain whether, in addition to nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, there are any gases in air which have escaped observation owing to their being present in very minute quantity. In collaboration with Miss Emily Aston we have found that the nitride of magnesium, resulting from the absorption of nitrogen from atmospheric air, on treatment with water yields only a trace of gas; that gas is hydrogen, and arises from a small quantity of metallic magnesium unconverted into nitride. That the ammonia produced on treatment with water is pure has already been proved by the fact that Lord Rayleigh found that the nitrogen obtained from it had the normal density. The magnesia, resulting from the nitride, yields only a trace of soluble matter to water, and that consists wholly of hydroxide and carbonate. So far, then, the results have been negative.
Recently, however, owing to the kindness of Dr. W. Hampson, we have been furnished with about 750 cubic centimetres of liquid air, and, on allowing all but 10 cubic centimetres to evaporate away slowly, and collecting the gas from that small residue in a gasholder, we obtained, after removal of oxygen with metallic copper, and nitrogen with a mixture of pure lime and magnesium dust, followed by exposure to electric sparks in presence of oxygen and caustic soda, 26.2 cubic centimetres of a gas, showing the argon spectrum feebly, and, in addition, a spectrum which has, we believe, not been seen before.
We have not yet succeeded in disentangling the new spectrum completely from the argon spectrum, but it is characterised by two very brilliant lines, one almost identical in position with D3, and almost rivalling it in brilliancy. Measurements made by Mr. E. C. C, Baly, with a grating of 14,438 lines to the inch, gave the following numbers, all four lines being in the field at once:— ... There is also a green line, comparable with the green helium line in intensity, of wave-length 5568.8, and a somewhat weaker green, the wave-length of which is 5560.6.
In order to determine as far as possible which lines belong to the argon spectrum, and which to the new gas, both spectra were examined at the same time with the grating, the first order being employed. The lines which were absent, or very feeble, in argon, have been ascribed to the new gas. Owing to their feeble intensitv, the measurements of the wave-lengths which follow must not be credited with the same degree of accuracy as the three already given, but the first three digits may be taken as substantially correct:— .... Mr. Baly has kindly undertaken to make a study of the spectrum, which will be published when complete. The figures already given, however, suffice to characterise the gas as a new one.
The approximate density of the gas was determined by weighing it in a bulb of 32.321 cubic centimetres capacity, under a pressure of 523.7 millimetres, and at a temperature of 16.45°. The weight of this quantity was 0.04213 gram. This implies a density of 22.47, that of oxygen being taken as 16. A second determination, after sparking for four hours with oxygen in presence of soda, was made in the same bulb; the pressure was 523.7 millimetres, and the temperatare was 16.45°. The weight was 0.04228 gram, which implies the density 22.51.
The wave-length of sound was determined in the gas by the method described in the "Argon" paper. The data are :—
i ii iii Wave length in air 34.17 34.30 34.57
"" "" in gas 29.87 30.13
Calculating by the formula
λ2air x densityair : λ2gas x densitygas ::γair : γ (34.33)2 x 14.479 : (30)2 x 22.47 :: 1.408 : 1.666,
it is seen that, like argon and helium, the new gas is monatomic and therefore an element.
From what has preceded, it may be concluded that the atmosphere contains a hitherto undiscovered gas with a characteristic spectrum, heavier than argon, and less volatile than nitrogen, oxygen, and argon ; the ratio of its specific heats would lead to the inference that it is monatomic, and therefore an element. If this conclusion turns out to be well substantiated, we propose to call it "krypton," or "hidden." Its symbol would then be Kr.
It is, of course, impossible to state positively what position in the periodic table this new constituent of our atmosphere will occupy. The number 22.51 must be taken as a minimum density. If we may hazard a conjecture, it is that krypton will turn out to have the density 40, with a corresponding atomic weight 80, and will be found to belong to the helium series, as is, indeed, rendered probable by its withstanding the action of red-hot magnesium and calcium on the one hand, and on the other of oxygen in presence of caustic soda, under the influence of electric sparks. We shall procure a larger supply of the gas, and endeavour to separate it more completely from argon by fractional distillation.
It may be remarked in passing that Messrs. Kayser and Friedlander, who supposed that they had observed D3 in the argon of the atmosphere, have probably been misled by the close proximity of the brilliant yellow line of krypton to the helium line.
On the assumption of the truth of Dr. Johnstone Stoney's hypothesis that gases of a higher density than ammonia will be found in our atmosphere, it is by no means improbable that a gas lighter than nitrogen will also be found in air. We have already spent several months in preparation for a search for it, and will be able to state ere long whether the supposition is well founded."
Following this article in the Proceedings of the Royal Society is an article by William Crookes entitled "On the Position of Helium, Argon, and Krypton in the Scheme of Elements.". Following tihs is a note on June 22, 1898 which states: "S ince the above was written, Professor Ramsay and Mr. Travers have discovered two other inert gases accompanying argon in the atmosphere. These are called Neon and Metargon. From data supplied me by Professor Ramsay, it is probable that neon has an atomic weight of about 22, which would bring it into the neutral position between fluorine and sodium. Metargon is said to have an atomic weight of about 40 ; if so, it shares the third neutral position with argon. 1 have marked the positions of these new elements on the diagram.".
| (University College) London, England |
102 YBN
[06/13/1898 AD]
| 4143) (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist and assistant Morris W. Travers identify, isolate and name the new inert gas "Neon". Ramsay and Travers write "On the Companions of Argon" which describes the identification and naming of neon and metargon (although "metargon" will later prove to be a mixture of impurities in the gas). Ramsay and Travers write: "For many months past we have been engaged in preparing a large quantity of argon from atmospheric air by absorbing the oxygen with red-hot copper, and the nitrogen with magnesium. The amount we have at our disposal is some 18 litres. It will be remembered that one of us, in conjunction with Dr. Norman Collie, attempted to separate argon into light and heavy portions by means of diffusion, and, although there was a slight difference* {original footnote: *Density of lighter portion, 19'93 ; of heavier portion, 20-01, ' Roy. Soc. Proc.,* vol. 60, p. 206.} in density between the light and the heavy portions, yet we thought the difference too'slight to warrant the conclusion that argon is a mixture. But our experience with helium taught us that it is a matter of the greatest difficulty to separate a very small portion of a heavy gas from, a large admixture of a light gas ; and it therefore appeared advisable to re-investigate argon, with the view of ascertaining whether it is indeed complex.
In the meantime, Dr. Hampson had placed at оur disposal his resources for preparing large quantities of liquid air, and it was a simple matter to liquify the argon which we had obtained by causing the liquid air to boil under reduced pressure. By means of a two-way stopcock the argon was allowed to enter a small bulb, cooled by liquid air, after passing through purifying reagents. The two-way stopcock was connected with mercury gas-holders, as well as with a Töpler pump, by means of which any part of the apparatus could be thoroughly exhausted. The argon separated as a liquid, but at the same time a considerable quantity of solid was observed to separate partially round the sides of the tube, and partially below the surface of the liquid. After about 13 or 14 litres of the argon had been condensed, the stopcock was closed, and the temperature was kept low for some minutes in order to establish a condition of equilibrium between the liquid and vapour. In the meantime, the connecting tubes were exhausted and two fractions of gas were taken off by lowering the mercury reservoirs, each fraction consisting of about 50 or 60 cubic cm. These fractions should contain the light gas. In a previous experiment of the same kind, a small fraction of the light gas had been separated, and was found to have the density 17.2. The pressure of the air was now allowed to rise, and the argon distilled away into a separate gas-holder. The white solid which had condensed in the upper portion of the bulb did not appear to evaporate quickly, and that portion which had separated in the liquid did not perceptibly diminish in amount. Towards the end, when almost all the air had boiled away, the last portions of the liquid evaporated slowly, and when the remaining liquid was only sufficient to cover the solid, the bulb was placed in connection with the Topler pump, and the exhaustion continued until the liquid had entirely disappeared. Only the solid now remained, and the pressure of the gas in the apparatus was only a few millimetres. The bulb was now placed in connection with mercury gas-holders, and the reservoirs were lowered. The solid volatilised very slowly, and was collected in two fractions, each of about 70 or 80 cubic cm. Before the second fraction had been taken off, the air had entirely boiled away, and the jacketing tube had been removed. After about a minute, on wiping off the coating of snow with the finger, the solid was seen to melt, and volatilise into the gas-holder.
The first fraction of gas was mixed with oxygen, and sparked over soda. After removal of the oxygen with phosphorus it was introduced into a vacuum-tube, and the spectrum examined. It was characterised by a number of bright red lines, among which one was particularly brilliant, and a brilliant yellow line, while the green and the blue lines were numerous, but comparatively inconspicuous. The wave-length of the yellow line, measured by Mr. Baly, was 5849.6, with a second-order grating spectrum. It is, therefore, not identical with sodium, helium, or krypton, all of which equal it in intensity. The wave-lengths of these lines are as follows :—
Na (D,) 5895-0
Na (D,) 5889-0
He (D,) 5875-9
Kr (D,) 5866-5
Ne (D6) 5849-6
The density of this gas, which we propose to name "neon" (new), was next determined. A bulb of 32.35 cubic cm. capacity was filled with this sample of neon at 612.4 mm. pressure, and at a temperature of 19.92° it weighed 0.03184 gram.
Density of neon 14.67.
This number approaches to what we had hoped to obtain. In order to bring neon into its position in the periodic table, a density of 10 or 11 is required. Assuming the density of argon to be 20, and that of pure neon 10, the sample contains 53.3 per cent, of the new gas. If the density of neon be taken as 11, there is 59.2 per cent. present in the sample. The fact that the density has decreased from 17.2 to 14.7 shows that there is a considerable likelihood that the gas can be farther purified by fractionation.* {original footnote: * June 16th. After fractionation of the neon, the density of the lightest sample had decreased to 13'7.}
That this gas is a new one is sufficiently proved, not merely by the novelty of its spectrum and by its low density, but also by its behaviour in a vacuum-tube. Unlike helium, argon, and krypton, it is rapidly absorbed by the red-hot aluminium electrodes of a vacuum-tube, and the appearance of the tube changes, as pressure falls, from fiery red to a most brilliant orange, which is seen in no other gas.
We now come to the gas obtained by the volatilisation of the white solid which remained after the liquid argon had boiled away.
When introduced into a vacuum-tube it showed a very complex spectrum, totally differing from that of argon, while resembling it in general character. With low dispersion it appeared to be a banded spectrum, but with a grating, single bright lines appear, about equidistant throughout the spectrum, the intermediate space being filled with many dim, yet well-defined lines. Mr. Baly has measured the bright lines, with the following results. The nearest argon lines, as measured by Mr. Crookes, are placed in brackets :—
Reds very feeble, not measured.
..." (they list spectral lines)...
"The red pair of argon lines were faintly visible in the spectrum. The density of this gas was determined with the following results :—A globe of 32.35 c.c. capacity, filled at a pressure of 765.0 mm., and at the temperature 17.43°, weighed 0.05442 gram. The density is therefore 19.87. A second determination, made after sparking, gave no different result. This density does not sensibly differ from that of argon.
Thinking that the gas might possibly prove to be diatomic, we proceeded to determine the ratio of specific heats :—
Wave-length of sound in air 34.18 " " in gas 31.68 Ratio for air 1.408 " for gas 1.660
The gas is therefore monatomic.
Inasmuch as this gas differs very markedly from argon in its spectrum, and in its behaviour at low temperatures, it must be regarded as a distinct elementary substance, and we therefore propose for it the name "metargon." It would appear to hold the position towards argon that nickel does to cobalt, having approximately the same atomic weight, yet different properties.
It must have been observed that krypton does not appear during the investigation of the higher-boiling fraction of argon. This is probably due to two causes. In the first place, in order to prepare it, the manipulation of a volume of air of no less than 60,000 times the volume of tho impure sample which we obtained was required ; and in the second place, while metargon is a solid at the temperature of boiling air, krypton is probably a liquid, and more volatile at that temperature. It may also be noted that the air from which krypton has been obtained had been filtered, and so freed from metargon. A full account of the spectra of those gases will be published in due course by Mr. E. С. С. Baly.".
| (University College) London, England |
102 YBN
[07/01/1898 AD]
| 4255) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer invents the first publically known radio controlled vehicle, a radio controlled boat which Tesla demonstrates at Madison Square Garden later in the same year.
The boat was equipped with, as Tesla described, "a borrowed mind". In response to the question "What is the cube root of 64?" lights on the boat flash four times. Tesla sends signals to the ship using a small box with control levers on the side.
| (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA |
102 YBN
[07/18/1898 AD]
| 4353) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906) identify and name the new element "Polonium".
Marie Curie becomes interested in pitchblende, a mineral whose activity is larger than that of pure uranium, can be explained only by the presence in the ore of small quantities of an unknown substance of very high activity.
This unknown element exists in too small a quantity to yield an optical spectrum but yet is the source of measurable and characteristic effects no matter what compound the unknown element is a part of. Marie Curie overcomes the immense labor necessary in attempting to concentrate the active substance. Pierre abandons—temporarily, so he thought—his own research. Marie and Pierre perform the laborious chemical treatments as well as in the physical measurements of the products which are then compared with a sample of uranium. It was already known that natural pitchblende is three or four times more active than uranium: after suitable chemical treatment the product obtained is 400 times more active and undoubtedly contains, in the Curies words: "a metal not yet determined, similar to bismuth... We propose to call it polonium, from the name of the homeland of one of us".
In addition, Marie Curie coins the term "radioactivity" to describe the particle emissions from the pitchblende. (Is this the first publication that describes the emissions as radiation?) (I'm not sure how accurate the word "radioactivity" is to describe the particle emissions. I think "Particle emission" includes more phenomena, for example, all of luminescence, and incandescence, in addition to radioactivity. Perhaps with radioactivity, the source of particles emitted is theorized to be different from luminescence and incandescence where particles that are emitted, were most likely recently absorbed - where with radioactivity this absorption even is theorized to take place at a much earlier time.)
Besides Polonium, this work of Marie and Pierre Curie will lead to the discovery of the new element radium.
The two Curies isolate from this uranium ore a small amount of powder containing a new element hundreds of times as radioactive as uranium and they name this element "Polonium" after Marie Curie's native nation. When investigating uranium minerals at Becquerel's suggestion using her piezoelectric method, some prove to be much more active than could be accounted for by any conceivable content of uranium. Marie Curie (before Pierre joined her as an assistant) decides that the ores must contain elements more radioactive than uranium, and since all the other elements known to exist in the minerals were known to be nonradioactive, the elements must be in too small a quantity to be detected and so such elements must be even more radioactive. It is at this point that Pierre abandons his research and joins Marie as an assistant. This line of investigation leads to the isolation of a small amount of powder containing polonium. Polonium can not account for the intense radioactivity of the uranium ore and so the Curies continued to search for the source of the very strong radioactivity.
Marie and Pierre publish this in Comptes Rendus as "Sur une substance nouvelle radioactive, contenue dans la pechblende." (On a New Radio-active Substance Contained in Pitchblende) . (give full translation in English) (Is this the first pblished use of the word "radioactive" by the Curies?)
Pitchblende is an amorphous, dense, black, pitchy form of the crystalline uranium oxide mineral uraninite; it is one of the primary mineral ores of uranium. Pitchblende is found in granular masses and has a greasy lustre. Three chemical elements are first discovered in pitchblende: uranium, polonium, and radium.
Polonium is a naturally radioactive metallic element, occurring in minute quantities as a product of radium disintegration and produced by bombarding bismuth or lead with neutrons. Polonium has 27 isotopes ranging in mass number from 192 to 218, of which Po 210, with a half-life of 138.39 days, is the most readily available. Polonium has atomic number 84; melting point 254°C; boiling point 962°C; density 9.32; valence 2, 4.
(Has the spectrum of polonium ever been seen? If yes, provide images of the spectrum for all the various frequencies.)
(Explain - how does Polonium fit onto the periodic table and what did chemists and others publish about this new element?)
(Get better image of polonium.)
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
102 YBN
[07/18/1898 AD]
| 4354) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906) with Gustave Bémont identify and name the new element "Radium".
The Curies detect an even more radioactive substance and name it "radium", but the quantity is so small that it can only be detected as a trace impurity by the nature of its radiations (nature of...explain, the frequency of, or simply the intensity of?) and by the spectral (lines) observed (in the radiation or the luminescing of the trace quantity containing radium?). To obtain more radium the Curies need large masses of ore, and obtain these from the mines of St. Joachimsthal in Bohemia (now part of Czechoslovakia) (which have been mined for centuries for silver and other elements. Waste ore, rich in uranium lays around in piles, and the Curies are only required to pay for shipping which they do with their life savings.) Over the next four years (in which Marie will lose 15 pounds) the Curies carefully purify and repurify the tons of ore into smaller and smaller samples of radioactive material, in an old wooden shed with a leaky roof, no floor, and inadequate heat at the physics school where the Curies work. (what kind of school?). (All this time they take care of their baby Iréne Joliot-Curie.) In 1902 the Curies have prepared a tenth of a gram of radium after several thousand crystallizations (explain the crystallization process). Eventually 8 tons of pitchblende (explain what is) give them a full gram of the salt. Despite their poverty the Curies refuse to patent the process. After this work radioactivity will form a major part of physics research. Dorn and Boltwood will also identify radioactive elements. Radium will be found useful against cancer.
The Curies and Beaumont publish this in Comptes Rendus as "Sur une nouvelle substance fortement radio-active, contenue dans la pechblende" ("On a New, Strongly Radio-active Substance Contained in Pitchblende"). They write: "Two of us have shown that by purely chemical procedures it is possible to extract from pitchblende a strongly radio-active substance. This substance is related to bismuth by its analytical properties. We have expressed the opinion that perhaps the pitchblende contained a new element, for which we have proposed the name of polonium.1
The investigations which we are following at present are in agreement with the first results we obtained, but in the course of these investigations we have come upon a second, strongly radioactive substance, entirely different from the first in its chemical properties. Specifically, polonium is precipitated from acid solution by hydrogen sulfide; its salts are soluble in acids and water precipitates them from solution; polonium is completely precipitated by ammonia.
The new radio-active substance which we have just found has all the chemical appearance of nearly pure barium: it is not precipitated either by hydrogen sulfide or by ammonium sulfide, nor by ammonia; its sulfate is insoluble in water and in acids; its carbonate is insoluble in water; its chloride, very soluble in water, is insoluble in concentrated hydrochloric acid and in alcohol. Finally this substance gives the easily recognized spectrum of barium.
We believe nevertheless that this substance, although constituted in its major part by barium, contains in addition a new element which gives it its radio-activity, and which, in addition, is closely related to barium in its chemical properties.
Here are the reasons which argue for this point of view:
1. Barium and its compounds are not ordinarily radio-active; and one of us has shown that radio-activity appears to be an atomic property, persisting in all the chemical and physical states of the material.2 From this point of view, the radio-activity of our substance, not being due to barium, must be attributed to another element.
2. The first substances which we obtained had, in the form of a hydrated chloride, a radio-activity 60 times stronger than that of metallic uranium (the radio-active intensity being evaluated by the magnitude of the conductivity of the air in our parallel-plate apparatus). When these chlorides are dissolved in water and partially precipitated by alcohol, the part precipitated is much more active than the part remaining in solution. Basing a procedure on this, one can carry out a series of fractionations, making it possible to obtain chlorides which are more and more active. We have obtained in this manner chlorides having an activity 900 times greater than that of uranium. We have been stopped by lack of material; and, considering the progress of our operations it is to be predicted that the activity would still have increased if we had been able to continue. These facts can be explained by the presence of a radio-active element whose chloride would be less soluble in alcohol and water than that of barium.
3. M. Demarçay has consented to examine the spectrum of our substance with a kindness which we cannot acknowledge too much. The results of his examinations are given in a special Note at the end of ours. Demarçay has found one line in the spectrum which does not seem due to any known element. This line, hardly visible with the chloride 60 times more active than uranium, has become prominent with the chloride enriched by fractionation to an activity 900 times that of uranium. The intensity of this line increases, then, at the same time as the radio-activity; that, we think, is a very serious reason for attributing it to the radio-active part of our substance.
The various reasons which we have enumerated lead us to believe that the new radio-active substance contains a new element to which we propose to give the name of radium.
We have measured the atomic weight of our active barium, determining the chlorine in its anhydrous chloride. We have found numbers which differ very little from those obtained in parallel measurements on inactive barium chloride; the numbers for the active barium are always a little larger, but the difference is of the order of magnitude of the experimental errors.
The new radio-active substance certainly includes a very large portion of barium; in spite of that, the radio-activity is considerable. The radio-activity of radium then must be enormous.
Uranium, thorium, polonium, radium, and their compounds make the air a conductor of electricity and act photographically on sensitive plates. In these respects, polonium and radium are considerably more active than uranium and thorium. On photographic plates one obtains good impressions with radium and polonium in a half-minute's exposure; several hours are needed to obtain the same result with uranium and thorium.
The rays emitted by the components of polonium and radium make barium platinocyanide fluorescent; their action in this regard is analogous to that of the Röntgen rays, but considerably weaker. To perform the experiment, one lays over the active substance a very thin aluminum foil on which is spread a thin layer of barium platinocyanide; in the darkness the platinocyanide appears faintly luminous above the active substance.
In this manner a source of light is obtained, which is very feeble to tell the truth, but which operates without a source of energy. Here is at least an apparent contradiction to Carnot's Principle.
Uranium and thorium give no light under these conditions, their action being probably too weak.".
In 1910, radium will be isolated as a pure metal by Marie Curie and André-Louis Debierne through the electrolysis of a pure radium chloride solution by using a mercury cathode and distilling in an atmosphere of hydrogen gas.
Radium, symbol name "Ra", element 88, is a rare, brilliant white, luminescent, highly radioactive metallic element found in very small amounts in uranium ores, having 13 isotopes with mass numbers between 213 and 230, of which radium 226 with a half-life of 1,622 years is the most common. It is used in cancer radiotherapy, as a neutron source for some research purposes, and as a constituent of luminescent paints. Atomic number 88; melting point 700°C; boiling point 1,737°C; valence 2.
When first prepared, nearly all radium compounds are white, but they discolor on standing because of intense radiation. Radium salts ionize the surrounding atmosphere, thereby appearing to emit a blue glow, the spectrum of which consists of the band spectrum of nitrogen. Radium compounds will discharge an electroscope, fog a light-shielded photographic plate, and produce phosphorescence and fluorescence in certain inorganic compounds such as zinc sulfide. The emission spectrum of radium compounds is similar to those of the other alkaline earths. Chemically, radium is an alkaline-earth metal having properties quite similar to those of barium. Radium is important because of its radioactive properties and is used primarily in medicine for the treatment of cancer, in atomic energy technology for the preparation of standard sources of radiation, as a source for actinium and protactinium by neutron bombardment, and in certain metallurgical and mining industries for preparing gamma-ray radiographs.
(State how Radium fits onto the periodic table - did this indicate to people at the time that there might be many larger elements? Is radium the largest atom known at the time?)
(Get better image of radium)
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
102 YBN
[09/01/1898 AD]
| 4731) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, identifies that uranium emits at least two kinds of radiation which Rutherford names "alpha" and "beta" radiation.
Rutherford uses thin sheets of aluminum foils at equal distances to measure the rate of absorption of uranium radiations, and finds that this rate of absorption does not follow a geometrical progression, such as the ordinary absorption law, but that uranium radiations are not uniform but are complex, and that there are at least two different kinds of emitted radiation, one which is quickly absorbed that Rutherford names "α radiation" and a second which has more penetrative power Rutherford names "β radiation".
Rutherford writes: "§ 4 Complex Nature of Uranium Radiation In order to test the complexity of the radiation, an electrical method was employed. The general arrangement is shown in fig. 1.
The metallic uranium or compound of uranium to be employed was powdered and spread uniformly over the centre of a horizontal zinc plate A, 20 cm. square. A zinc plate B, 20 cm. square, was fixed parallel to A and 4 cm. from it. Both plates were insulated. A was connected to one pole of a battery of 50 volts, the other pole of which was to earth; B was connected to one pair of quadrants of an electrometer, the other pair of which was connected to earth.
Under the influence of the uranium radiation there was a rate of leak between the two plates A and B. The rate of movement of the electrometer-needle, when the motion was steady, was taken as a measure of the current through the gas.
Successive layers of thin metal foil were then placed over the uranium compound and the rate of leak determined for each additional sheet. The table (p. 115) shows the results obtained for thin Dutch metal.
In the third column the ratio of the rates of leak for each additional thickness of metal leaf is given. Where two thicknesses were added at once, the square root of the observed ratio is taken, for three thicknesses the cube root. The table shows that for the first ten thicknesses of metal the rate of leak diminished approximately in a geometrical progression as the thickness of the metal increased in arithmetical progression.
It will be shown later (§ 8) that the rate of leak between two plates for a saturating voltage is proportional to the intensity of the radiation after passing through the metal. The voltage of 50 employed was not sufficient to saturate the gas, but it was found that the comparative rates of leak under similar conditions for 50 and 200 volts between the plates were nearly the same. When we are dealing with very small rates of leak, it is advisable to employ as small a voltage as possible, in order that any small changes in the voltage of the battery should not appreciably affect the result. For this reason the voltage of 50 was used, and the comparative rates of leak obtained are very approximately the same as for saturating electromotive forces.
Since the rate of leak diminishes in a geometrical progression with the thickness of metal, we see from the above statement that the intensity of the radiation falls off in a geometrical progression, i. e. according to an ordinary absorption law. This shows that the part of the radiation considered is approximately homogeneous.
With increase of the number of layers the absorption commences to diminish. This is shown more clearly by using uranium oxide with layers of thin aluminium leaf (see table p. 116).
It will be observed that for the first three layers of aluminium foil, the intensity of the radiation falls off according to the ordinary absorption law, and that, after the fourth thickness, the intensity of the radiation is only slightly diminished by adding another eight, layers.
The aluminium foil in this case was about .0005 cm. thick, so that after the passage of the radiation through .002 cm. of aluminium the intensity of the radiation is reduced to about 1/20 of its value. The addition of a thickness of .001 cm. of aluminium has only a small effect in cutting down the rate of leak. The intensity is, however, again reduced to about half of its value after passing through an additional thickness of .05 cm., which corresponds to 100 sheets of aluminium foil.
These experiments show that the uranium radiation is complex, and that there are present at least two distinct types of radiation—one that is very readily absorbed, which will be termed for convenience the α radiation, and the other of a more penetrative character, which will be termed the β radiation.
The character of the β radiation seems to be independent of the nature of the filter through which it has passed. It was found that radiation of the same intensity and of the same penetrative power was obtained by cutting off the α radiation by thin sheets of aluminium, tinfoil, or paper. The β radiation passes through all the substances tried with far greater facility than the α radiation. For example, a plate of thin coverglass placed over the uranium reduced the rate of leak to 1/30 of its value; the β radiation, however, passed through it with hardly any loss of intensity.
Some experiments with different thicknesses of aluminium seem to show, as far as the results go, that the β radiation is of an approximately homogeneous character. The following table gives some of the results obtained for the β radiation from uranium oxide :—
{ULSF: see table}
The rate of leak is taken as unity after the α radiation has been absorbed by passing through ten layers of aluminium foil. The intensity of the radiation diminishes with the thickness of metal traversed according to the ordinary absorption law. It must be remembered that when we are dealing with the β radiation alone, the rate of leak is in general only a few per cent of the leak due to the α radiation, so that the investigation of the homogeneity of the β radiation cannot be carried out with the same accuracy as for the α radiation. As far, however, as the experiments have gone, the results seem to point to the conclusion that the β radiation is approximately homogeneous, although it is possible that other types of radiation of either small intensity or very great penetrating power may be present.
§ 5. Radiation emitted by different Compounds of Uranium.
All the compounds of uranium examined gave out the two types of radiation, and the penetrating power of the radiation for both the α and β radiations is the same for all the compounds. ... ".
Rutherford finds that the radiation from thorium compounds is different from the radiation from uranium compounds writing: "... The curve showing the relation between the rate of leak and the thickness of the metal traversed is shown in fig. 2 (p. 118), together with the results for uranium.
It will be seen that thorium radiation is different in penetrative power from the α radiation of uranium. The radiation will pass through between three and four thicknesses of aluminium foil before the intensity is reduced to one-half, while with uranium radiation the intensity is reduced to less than a half after passing through one thickness of foil.
With a thick layer of thorium nitrate it was found that the radiation was not homogeneous, but rays of a more penetrative kind were present. On account of the inconstancy of thorium nitrate as a source of radiation, no accurate experiments have been made on this point.
The radiations from thorium and uranium are thus both complex, and as regards the α type of radiation are different in penetrating power from each other. ...".
Rutherford finds that the α radiation from uranium and its compounds is rapidly absorbed in its passage through gases and that this absorption is increased with increase in pressure.
Rutherford finds variable results when comparing pressure and rate of radiation and finds little change with temperature.
Rutherford measures the amount of ionization in various gases.
Rutherford fails to find any diffraction (using prisms of glass, paraffin wax, and aluminum) or polarization (by tourmaline) of either x-rays or uranium radiation rays on photographic plates.
(Alpha particles will later be shown to be helium nuclei, and beta particles to be electrons. State the evidence for this view and who provided these various pieces of evidence.)
(What might be interpretations using particles emitted, without any kind of beam structure?)
(Could the exponential decrease in uranium radiation, not also be interpretted as the probability that some particle of a group of same-sized particles will penetrate some object? I think in defining new particles, this kind of major distinctino needs to be thoroughly supported with other diverse experiments, which would convince most skeptical people that there are clearly two distinct particles. Show what other evidence supports the existance of two kinds of particle emissions from Uranium. For example, one may be that thorium has a more linear rate of decrease which implies only a single kind of particle emitted. ) (Note a possible Cambridge-Oxford friendly joke with the "f~ u~ ox~:=. Perhaps neuron written without Rutherford's knowledge - but doubtful. This also raises the issue of why the Cambridge physics people have so many contributions to physics around the 1900s, but there are no papers from people at Oxford, which seems unusual. Rutherford's next paper is his first at McGill.")
(Another theoretical view is that a particle's penetrative power is directly related to the particle's physical size, the smaller the size the father the penetration, versus the larger the size the shorter the penetration - as an argument aside from a particle's or mass's motion. It cannot be denied that a larger motion may result in a larger penetration - given particle collision, but in the absence of any particle collision, motion has no relevance, and only size is relevant. So in this interpretation, which is of course, only a theory, and may be false, but nonetheless must be examined, gamma and x-rays would contain the smallest corpuscles, electrons (beta rays) being perhaps the next in size, then atoms/ions being the larger. So in this sense, it seems that the helium/alpha ray masses would be physically much larger than electrons since the alpha rays are stopped/blocked much more easily than the electron/beta rays. If this theory were true then one question would be why large mass neutral atoms are uneffected by strong electric and magnetic fields. It seems clear that there must be particle collisions between the particles in the field and the neutral atoms, but somehow there is no change in position of the large mass objects. Can this mean that the particles of the field are absorbed or somehow repulsed before collision?)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN
[09/08/1898 AD]
| 4144) (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist and assistant Morris W. Travers identify, isolate and name the new inert gas "Xenon". Ramsay and Travers write in "On the Extraction from Air of the Companions of Argon and on Neon": "In the Presidential Address to the Chemical Section of this Association, delivered last year at Toronto, it was pointed out that the densities of helium and argon being respectively 2 and 20 in round numbers, and the ratio of their specific heats being in each case 1.60, their atomic weights must be respectively 4 and 40. If the very probable assumption is made that they belong to the same group of elements, it appears almost certain on the basis of the Periodic Table that another clement, should exist, having an atomic weight higher than that of helium by about 16 units, and lower than that of argon by about 20. There is also room for elements of higher atomic weight than argon, belonging to the same series. The search for this element was described in last year's Address, and, it will be remembered, the results were negative.
Reading between the lines of the Address, an attentive critic might have noticed that no reference was made to the supposed homogeneity of argon. From speculations of Dr. Johnstone Stoney, it would follow that the atmosphere of our planet might be expected to contain new gases, if such exist at all, with densities higher than 8 or thereabouts. Dr. Stoney gives his reasons for supposing that the lighter the gas the less its quantity in our atmosphere, always assuming that no chemical compounds are known which would retain it on the earth, or modify its relative amount. Therefore it appeared worthy of inquiry whether it was possible to separate light and also heavy gases from argon.
The beautiful machine invented by Dr. Hampson has put it in our power to obtain, through his kindness and that of the 'Brin' Oxygen Company, large quantities of liquid air. We were therefore able to avail ourselves of the plan of liquefaction, and subsequent fractional distillation, in order to separate the gases.
On liquefying 18 litres of argon, and boiling off the first fraction, a gas was obtained of density 17 (O = 16). This gas was again liquefied and boiled off in six fractions. The density of the lightest fraction was thus reduced to 13.4, and it showed a spectrum rich in red, orange, and yellow lines, differing totally from that of argon. On re-fractionating, the density was reduced further to 10.8; the gas still contained a little nitrogen, on removing which the density decreased to 9.76. This gas is no longer liquefiable at the temperature of air boiling under a pressure of about 10 millimetres ; but if, after compression to two atmospheres, the pressure was suddenly reduced to about a quarter of an atmosphere, a slight mist was visible in the interior of the bulb. This gas must necessarily have contained argon, the presence of which would obviously increase its density ; and in order to form some estimate of its true density, some estimate must be made of the relative amount of the argon. We have to consider a mixture of neon, nitrogen, and argon, the two latter of which are capable, not merely of being liquefied, but of being solidified without difficulty. Under atmospheric pressure nitrogen boils at — 194°, and solidifies at —214°, and the boiling-point of argon is —187*, and the freezing-point —190*; the vapour-pressure of nitrogen is therefore considerably higher than that of argon. The mist produced on sudden expansion consisted of solid nitrogen and argon; and for want of better knowledge, assuming the vapour-pressure of the mixture of nitrogen and argon to be the sum of the partial pressures of the two, it is obvious that that of argon would form but a small fraction of the whole. The vapour-pressure of argon was found experimentally to be 100 millimetres at the temperature of air boiling in as good a vacuum as could be produced by our pump; but as we have only to consider the partial pressure of the argon at a much lower temperature, we do not believe that the pressure of the argon can exceed 10 millimetres in the gas. This would correspond to a density for neon of 9.6.
The ratio between the specific heat at constant pressure and constant volume was determined for neon in the usual way, and, as was to he expected, it approximates closely to the theoretical ratio, being 1.655. We therefore conclude that, like helium and argon, the gas is monatomic.
It may be remembered that the refractivity of helium compared with that of air is exceptionally low—viz., 0.1238. The lighter gas, hydrogen, has a refractivity of 0.4733. It was to be expected from the monatomic character and low density of neon that its refractivity should be also low; this expectation has been realised, for the number found is 0.3071. Argon, on the other hand, has a refractivity not differing much from that of air—viz., 0.968. Since the sample of neon certainly contains a small amount of argon, its true refractivity is probably somewhat lower. Experiments will be carried out later to ascertain whether neon resembles helium in its too rapid rate of diffusion.
The spectrum of neon is characterised by brilliant lines in the red, the orange, and the yellow. The lines in the blue and violet are few, and comparatively inconspicuous. There is, however, a line in the green, of approximate wave-length 5.030, and another of about 0.400.
A few words may be said on the other companions of argon. The last fractions of liquefied argon show the presence of three new gases. These are krypton, a gas first separated from atmospheric air, and charai terised by two very brilliant lines, one in the yellow and one in the green, besides fainter lines in the red and orange; metargon, a gas which shows a spectrum very closely resembling that of carbon monoxide, but characterised by its inertness, for it is not changed by sparking with oxygen in presence of caustic potash ; and a still heavier gas, which we have not hitherto described, which we propose to name 'xenon.' Xenon is very easily separated, for it possesses a much higher boiling-point, and remains behind after the others have evaporated. This gas, which has been obtained practically free from krypton, argon, and metargon, possesses a spectrum analogous in character to that of argon, but differing entirely in the position of the lines. With the ordinary discharge the gas shows three lines in the red, and about five very brilliant lines in the blue; while with the jar and spark-gap these lines disappear, and are replaced by four brilliant lines in the green, intermediate in position between the two groups of argon lines, the glow in the tube changing from blue to green. Xenon appears to exist only in very minute quantity.
Indeed, all of these gases are present only in small amount. It is, however, not possible to state with any degree of accuracy in what proportion they are present in atmospheric argon. Of neon, perhaps, we may say that the last fraction of the lightest hundred cubic centimetres from 18 litres of atmospheric argon no longer shows the neon spectrum, and possesses the density of argon; it may be safe to conclude, therefore, that 18 litres of argon do not contain more than 50 cubic centimetres of neon ; the proportion of neon in air must therefore be about one part in 40,000. We should estimate the proportion of the heavy gases at even less.
It follows from these remarks that the density of argon is not materially changed by separating from it its companions. A sample of gas, collected when about half the liquid argon or about 10 cubic centimetres had boiled off, possessed the density 10.89; the density of atmospheric argon is 19.94. But, of course, we give this density of argon as only provisional; for a final determination the density must be determined after more thorough fractionation.
With a density of 9.6, and a consequent atomic weight of 19.2, neon would follow fluorine and precede sodium in the Periodic Table; as to the other gases, further research will be required to determine what position they hold.
{October 10, 1898.—The sample of neon alluded to above has since been found to contain a small trace of helium. The presence of this light gas has no doubt made the density of neon given in this communication somewhat too low. The actual density has not yet been determined, but the density will obviously not be materially altered.—W. R.}"
Xenon is a colorless, odorless, highly unreactive gaseous element found in minute quantities in the atmosphere, extracted commercially from liquefied air and used in stroboscopic, bactericidal, and laser-pumping lamps. Atomic number 54; atomic weight 131.29; melting point −111.9°C; boiling point −107.1°C; density (gas) 5.887 grams per liter; specific gravity (liquid) 3.52 (−109°C).
| (University College) London, England |
102 YBN
[10/29/1898 AD]
| 4689) Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (CE 1869-1959), Scottish physicist shows that the ions produced X-rays, uranium-rays, and negatively charged zinc exposed to ultra-violet light are all identical with respect to the minimum supersaturation required to make water condense on them.
(Summarize paper)
| (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN
[12/??/1898 AD]
| 4261) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, measures the average value of the electric charge of the ions (electrons) produced by Rontgen Rays being passed through dust-free air to be 6.5 x 10-10 electrostatic units and finds that this is the same average electric charge for hydrogen ions.
Thomson reports his results in "On the Charge of Electricity carried by the Ions produced by Rontgen Rays" in 1898 writing: "THE following experiments were made in order to determine the magnitude of the charge of electricity carried by the ions which are produced when Rontgen rays pass through a gas.
The theory of the method used is as follows :—By measuring the current passing through a gas exposed to Rontgen rays and acted upon by a known electromotive force, we determine the value of the product nev, where n is the number of ions in unit volume of the gas, e the charge on an ion, and v the mean velocity of the positive and negative ions under the electromotive force to which they are exposed.
Mr. Rutherford (Phil. Mag. vol. xliv. p. 422, 1897) has determined the value of v for a considerable number of gases; using these values, the measurement of the current through a gas gives us the product ne ; hence if we can determine n, we can deduce the value of e.
The method I have employed to determine n is founded on the discovery made by Mr. C. T. R. Wilson (Phil. Trans. A, 1897, p. 265) that when Rontgen rays pass through dust-free air a cloud is produced by an expansion which is incapable of producing cloudy condensation when the gas is not exposed to these rays. When a determinate expansion is suddenly produced in dust-free air a definite and calculable amount of water is deposited in consequence of the lowering of the temperature of the air by adiabatic expansion. When the gas is exposed to the rays the ions caused by the rays seem to act as nuclei around which the water condenses. I have shown (' Applications of Dynamics to Physics and Chemistry,' p. 164) that on a charged sphere of less than a certain radius the effect of the charge in promoting condensation will more than counterbalance the effect of surface-tension in preventing it. So that a charged ion will produce a very small drop of water which may act as a nucleus. If each ion acts as the nucleus for a drop, then if we know the size of the drop and the mass of water deposited per unit volume, we shall be able to determine the number of drops, and hence the number of ions in unit volume of the gas. One part of the investigation is thus the determination of the size of the drops: this gives us n; and as we know from the electrical investigation ne, we have the means of determining e.
The measurement of the size of the drops in the cloud gave a great deal of trouble. ..."
Thomson finds that determining the size of water drops optically is too difficult and so he opts for measuring the rate at which the cloud sinks. Thomson finds that no cloud is produced by abiadic expansion in dust free air when an electrostatic field (2 metal plates with 400 volts of potential) is applied and the air exposed to Rontgen rays, because the ions thought to form the clouds are withdrawn from the air by the electric field. Thomson uses the velocity of the cloud falling method to measure the charge of hydrogen ions and finds the average to be 6.7 x 10-10 (electrostatic units). Thomson solves for Ne using e=6.5 x 10-10 for the cathode rays, and knowing Ne frmo electrolysis to be Ne=129 x 108, finds N to be N=20x1018, which is the same as N deduced from experiments on the viscosity of air by the Kinetic Theory of Gases. So this is evidence that the value for e for the cathode particle is consistent with the charge carried by the hydrogen ion in electrolysis. So Thomson basically substitutes the electric charge of the cathode particles for that of the Hydrogen ion, and Ne the product of the two found by experiment, and that value gives the correct number of hydrogen molecules as found by the laws of electrolysis.
(Perhaps there are other confirmations of the mass of electrons. Perhaps an experiment to show the force of impact of an electron versus other particles, or some way of stopping or weighing an electron. If more mass equals more charge, perhaps there is a relation to gravitational attraction.)
(The measurements of the velocity of falling clouds must be very open to inaccuracies, and the measurement of e are averaged - the given values varying somewhat widely - so it is clear that this is a somewhat inaccurate measurement and needs to have new methods and be improved upon.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 3524) George Johnstone Stoney (CE 1826-1911), Irish physicist, shows that the stability of the atmosphere of a given planet depends on its temperature and its mass. If the velocity of individual molecules, as determined by their temperature, exceed the planet's 'escape velocity', as determined by its gravitational pull, the lighter molecules are more likely to escape.
| Dublin, Ireland (presumably) |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 3723) Simon Newcomb (CE 1835-1909), Canadian-US astronomer finds a more accurate value for precession.
The Earth's precession is a slow gyration of the earth's axis around the pole of the ecliptic, caused mainly by the gravitational pull of the sun, moon, and other planets on the earth's equatorial bulge. (It is evidence that measurements from the spinning spherical earth might not be as simple as from some object orbiting around the Sun, but in any event, the movement of the measuring device relative to all other objects, which move too, will always be a problem for navigation and prediction of the future locations of masses.)
| (John's Hopkins University ?) Washington, DC, USA |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4109) Martinus Willem Beijerinck (BIRiNK) (CE 1851-1931), Dutch botanist recognizes that the causal agent of tobacco mosaic disease is a completely new type of infectious agent, different from bacteria and describes it as a "virus".
| (Dutch Yeast and Spirit Factory) Delft, Netherlands |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4125) Eugène Anatole Demarçay (DumoRSA) (CE 1852-1904), French chemist, uses spectral analysis to confirm the identity of radium for Marie Curie.
Demarçay is an expert in spectral analysis.
| (personal lab) Paris, France |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4133) Friedrich August Johannes Löffler (lRFlR) (CE 1852-1915), German bacteriologist, shows that hoof-and-mouth disease is caused by a virus. This is the first disease of the other species to be identified as being caused by a virus.
| (University of Greifswald) Greifswald, Germany |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4228) German physicists, Johann Phillipp Ludwig Julius Elster (CE 1854-1920), and Hans Geitel (CE 1855-1923) are the first to describe radiation as caused by changes within the atom, and show that external effects do not influence the intensity of the radiation.
In 1896 Henri Bequerel had discovered radioactivity, and soon after this people tried to determine the origin of the energy of these rays. Crookes had proposed that the air molecules with the greatest velocity stimulated the rays; energy was therefore extracted from the surrounding air. Elster and Geitel place uranium in a glass vessel that is then evacuated and even at the highest vacuum the radiation remains constant. They also placed uranium and a photographic plate in a container and find that the blackening of the plate is independent of the pressure. Therefore the radiation can not be stimulated by the air. Mme. Curie had suggested that the radioactive emission is a fluorescence of the uranium, which is excited by a very penetrating radiation that fills all of space and so named the new phenenomenonla radioactivité, i.e., "activated by radiation". however, Elster and Geitel show that the intensity of the uranium radiation above the earth is the same as it is in a mine 852 meters below the surface. They also find that uranium emits does not emit stronger Becquerel radiation when under the influence of cathode rays. For this purpose they developed a new Lenard cathode-ray tube, which let pass into the atmosphere an intense electron beam with a cross section of several square centimeters. They close off the discharge tube with a copper net covered with a very thin aluminum foil; the cathode rays escape through the holes in the copper net. They also demonstrate that Becquerel radiation is independent of the temperature of the uranium and of the compound in which it occurs. From these experiments Elster and Geitel conclude that the radioactive emission is not the consequence of an external influence, but can only be a spontaneous release of energy by the atom. They infer "that the atom of a radioactive element behaves like an unstable compound that becomes stable upon the release of energy. To be sure, this conception would require the acceptance of a gradual transformation of an active substance into an inactive one and also, logically, of the alteration of its elementary properties.". With this statement radioactivity is defined for the first time as a natural, spontaneous transformation of an element with the release of energy.
| (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4280) (Baron) Shibasaburo Kitasato (北里 柴三郎) (KEToSoTO) (CE 1856-1931), Japanese bacteriologist, and his student Kigoshi Shiga identifies a bacteria that causes one form of dysentery.
Dysentary is an inflammatory disorder of the lower intestinal tract, usually caused by a bacterial, parasitic, or protozoan infection and resulting in pain, fever, and severe diarrhea, often accompanied by the passage of blood and mucus.
| (Institute for Infectious Diseases) near Tokyo, Japan (presumably) |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4312) (Sir) Charles Scott Sherrington (CE 1857-1952), English neurologist, finds and names the phenomenon of "decerebrate rigidity": that when the crura cerebri, located between the crura and the lower part of the spinal bulb, but not in the cerebellum, are cut through, certain groups of muscles have increased excitability and that ordinary peripheral stimulatino can make these muscles stay contracted. Under normal conditions, the exitability of these muscles is inhibited by the cerbrum.
Sherrington studies the effect of cutting the spinal cord or removing the cerebrum on the muscular control of animals, in particular the monkey.
The effects of decerebration had been partially described by many earlier workers, such as Magendie, Bernard, and Flourens.
Asimov states that much of neurophysiology originates with Sherrington, in the same way that neuroanatomy originates with Golgi and Ramón y Cajal.
(describe electrical equipment used by Sherrington.)
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4331) (Baron von Welsback) Karl Auer (oWR) (CE 1858-1929), Austrian chemist introduces the introduces the first metallic filament for incandescent lamps, using one of the densest known elements, the metal osmium. Although osmium is too rare for general use, this improvement paves the way for the tungsten filament and the modern light bulb.
This will lead to Langmuir's tungsten filaments a decade later.
| (University of Vienna) Vienna (presumably) |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4434) Wilhelm Wien (VEN) (CE 1864-1928), German physicist, confirms that cathode rays are negatively charged.
(State paper and find translation)
| (technical college in Aachen) Aachen, Germany |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4514) Wallace Clement Ware Sabine (CE 1868-1919), US physicist measures the sound absorptivity of many different materials comparing these to an open window, since sound that escapes through a window is the same as sound that is absorbed. Sabine finds that the duration of reverberation multiplied by the total absorptivity of a room (the absorptive power of the walls and furnishings) is a constant that varies in proportion to the volume of a room. This is called "Sabine's law", and forms the basis for the architectural design of rooms so that there is enough reverberation to give strength and body to sound, but not enough reverberation to interfere with hearing.
The formula enables Sabine to predict the acoustical properties of an auditorium in advance of construction.
On 10/15/1900 The first structure designed according to the principles created by Sabine, the Boston Symphony Hall opens, and is a great success.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4698) Electromagnetic writing and reading of data. Sound recorded and played back magnetically.
Oberlin Smith had published details of a magnetic recording system in 1888, but whether he constructed a magnetic recording device is unknown.
Valdemar Poulsen (PoULSiN) (CE 1869-1942), Danish inventor invents the telegraphone, an electromagnetic phonograph capable of recording human speech by varying the magnetization of tiny parts of a single wound wire sequentially in direct proportion to the electric current produced by the sound. This device is the forerunner of the modern magnetic sound recorder devices (for example cassette, VHS tapes, floppy and hard disks).
In 1903, with American associates, Poulson founds the American Telegraphone Company for the manufacture and sale of an improved version of the telegraphone. The telegraphone records continuously for 30 minutes on a length of steel piano-wire moving at a speed of 84 inches (213 cm) per second.
In his 1899 patent, Paulson writes: "... It has long been possible to transmit messages, signals, &c., by electrical means. The present invention represents a very essential advance in this branch of science, as it provides for receiving and temporarily storing messages and the like by magnetically exciting paramagnetic bodies. The solution of this problem is based on the discovery that a paramagnetic body, such as a steel wire or ribbon, which is moved past an electromagnet connected with an electric or magnetic transmitter, such as a telephone, is magnetically excited along its length in exact correspondence with the signals, messages, or speech, delivered to the transmitter, and, further, that when the magnetically-excited wire is again moved past the electromagnet it willreproduce the said signals, messages, or speech in a telephone-receiver connected with the said electromagnet.
The invention is of great importance for telephonic purposes, as by providing a suitable apparatus in combination with a telephone communications can be received by the apparatus when the subscriber is absent, whereas upon his return he can cause the communications to be repeated by the apparatus.
Further the present invention will replace the phonographs hitherto used and provide simpler and better-acting apparatus.
As is well known, in the usual phonographs the vibrations of air transmitted to a membrane are caused by means of suitable mechanical parts to make indentations in a receptive body, which indentations can cause a membrane to repeat the said vibrations by suitable mechanical means. Mechanical alterations of such bodies, however, give rise to disturbing noises, which apart from the expense of such apparatus is one of the principal reasons why the phonograph has not come more extensively into use.
In the accompanying drawings one form of this invention is illustrated.
...
The electromagnet i is magnetized in correspondence with the matter spoken and reansfers its magnetism to the steel wire g. The matter thus fixed can now be transmitted over the line by using the third connection- that is, by connecting the terminals 42 and 43 of the switch 19. If, for example, the message, "The subscriber is not at home at present, but will return at four o'clock, at which time please ring again," is fixed to the steel wire and a subscriber at some other station calls the former when the contact-pieces 42 43 are connected together, the following circuit will be described: The induced current from the transmitting-station will first pass over the conductor 35 to the outer coil of the induction coils R and then through the terminals 42 43, whereupon it will pass through these to the line 40, because the terminal 43 is connected with the terminal 39. The line-current will accordingly not pass through the telephone of the receiving-station; but because the contact 23 is then closed the electromagnet 22 is again excited by the current generated in the inner coil of the induction=coils R and the drum d is rotated. The electromagnet i will slide along the fixed wire g and gradually rise with the sleeve f and will be magnetized in accordance with the speech fixed on the wire. The currents induced thereby pass from the electromagnet i, Fig. 7, through the terminalls 33, contact-springs 60 and 34, terminals 24 25 to the inner coil of the induction-coilds R, and then through the terminals 20 and 21 to the electromagnet i. In the inner coil of the induciton-coils R a current is induced corresponding to the speech fixed to the steel wire, which current likewise acts ni the outer coil of the induction-coils R and passes thence through the terminals 42 43 39 to the line conductor 40 and back over the conductor 35 into the outer coild of the induction-coils R. The subscriber at the transmitting station now hears through his receiver the message fixed to the steel wire and knows that in order to speak with the subscriber at the receiving station he must call him up at four o'clock. In order to demagnetize the steel wire g, Fig. 1, the terminals 30 and 33, Fig. 7, are connected with 61 and 62, whereupon the following connection is made: The current passes from battery E through the terminals 31 and 32 to the electromagnet i, through the terminals 21 20, inner coil of the induction coils R, terminal 25, contact-springs 34 60, contacts 33 62 61 30, contact-spring 29, contacts 28 14, and electromagnet i is in this position of the switch uniformly magnetized by the battery E and demagnetizes thereby the steel wire g on the bow e rotating. For telegraphic purposes the invention can also be used with advantage. It is in such case only necessary to receive the current impulses transmitted over the line in the electromagnet while it is in contact with the paramagnetic body. The paramagnetic body may be moved past the electromagnet, or vice versa. Having described my invention, I claim- 1. The method of recording and reproducing speech or signals which consists in impressing upon an electric circuit containing an electromagnet, undulations of current corresponding to the sound-waves of speech or to the signals; simultaneously bringing successive portions of a magnetizable body under the influence of said electromagnet and thereby establishing in said body successively varying magnetic conditions; and finally subjecting an electromagnet connected in a circuit, successively to the various magnetic conditions established in said body, substantially as described. 2. The method of recording and reproducing speech, signals, &c., which consists in imparting magnetic conditions successively to a magnetizable body or surface, said conditions varying in accordance with the sound-waves produced by said speech or signals and then subjecting a reproducing apparatus to said magnetic conditions successively. 3. The method of storing up signals or messages represented by undulating or irregular currents, which consists in imparting to various portions of a magnetizable body, magnetic conditions corresponsing to said undulations or irregular currents. ...".
(Apparently direction is not important and the recorded magnetic field is directly proportional to the undulating electric current.)
Poulsen was employed by the Copenhagen Telephone Company as an assistant in the technical section, so this suggests that this invention may have been invented much earlier and was only being made public at this time.
(It must be that the electromagnet is on to record, and off to read. When on it presses it's field onto the wire, and when off, the wire's field presses itself onto the electromagnet. Is the electromagnetic current produced by the recorded field smaller than the electromagnetic field that creates the recording?)
[t It's interesting to think of what is stored in each part of the wire. Perhaps the quantity of particles stored is what is variable, or perhaps the current lanes for particles of electricity are changed to increase or decrease the flow of current
| (Copenhagen Telephone Company) Copenhagen, Denmark |
102 YBN
[1898 AD]
| 4704) Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet (CE 1870-1961), Belgian bacteriologist discovers that red blood cells from one animal species that are injected into another species are destroyed through a process (hemolysis) analogous to bacteriolysis.
Three years earlier in 1895 Bordet had found that two components of blood serum are responsible for the rupture of bacterial cell walls (bacteriolysis): one is a heat-stable antibody found only in animals already immune to the bacterium; the other is a heat-sensitive substance found in all animals and was named alexin (it is now called complement).
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
101 YBN
[03/03/1899 AD]
| 4900) The first life is saved by wireless communication.
A steamer is stranded on the Goodwin Sands. The East Goodwin lightship reports this to the South Foreland lighthouse using a wireless transmitter. Lifeboats are sent and the entire crew is saved, in addition to 52,588 pounds worth of property.
In April 1912, 700 lives will be saved by wireless in the sinking of the ship "Titanic".
(This shows how many lives were probably lost by keeping wireless communication a secret for so long. Add to that neuron reading and writing and the scale of life needlessly lost is massive.)
| (Marconi Company) London, England (verify) |
101 YBN
[03/17/1899 AD]
| 4319) Phoebe, the ninth satellite of Saturn identified. This is the first satellite with retrograde motion to be observed.
William Henry Pickering (CE 1858-1938), US astronomer, identifies Phoebe, the ninth satellite of Saturn, and notes that it rotates around Saturn in retrograde motion (a satellite that moves clockwise, from right to left, looking down from the north pole, instead of counter clock-wise like most moons in this star system {interesting that there can be star systems with the opposite rotation relative to the Milky Way, although perhaps no}). This motion is opposite the motion of the other moons around their planets, and also the planets around the Sun (interesting that there are no known objects in retrograde orbit around the Sun that I am aware of, but it seems like there should be). This is the first satellite identified by photography. pickering superimposed the two glass plates and noticed the point in different locations.
This is evidence in favor of the theory that some satellites are captured by a planet as opposed to A note by Edward Pickering of March 17, 1899 states "A new satellite of the planet Saturn has been discovered by professor William H. Pickering at the Harvard COllege Observatory. This satellite is three and a half times as distant from Saturn as Iapetus, the outermost satellite hitherto known. The period is about seventeen months, and the magnitude fifteen and a half. The satellite appears upon four plates taken at the Arequipa Station with the Bruce Photographic Telescope. The last discoverey among the satellites of Saturn was made half a century ago, in September 1848, by Professor George P. Bond, at that time director of the Harvard College Observatory.".
(Verify when Pickering notes the retrograde motion - none of the initial reports identify this.)
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
101 YBN
[03/27/1899 AD]
| 4829) England and France are connected by public radio communication across the English Channel. (Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937), Italian electrical engineer, establishes a wireless station at South Foreland, England, for communicating with Wimereux in France, a distance of 50 km (31 miles).
(Clearly wireless particle communication had been going on secrety between England and France for over a century. Interesting that perhaps the turn of the century causes the wealthy people already using wireless communication to decide to go public with radio communication. As outsiders we can only wonder what images and sounds were emitted from and absorbed into their brains.)
| South Foreland, England and Wimereux, France |
101 YBN
[04/18/1899 AD]
| 4089) Sparkless Radio transmitter.
Karl Ferdinand Braun (BroUN) (CE 1850-1918), German physicist invents a sparkless antenna circuit that links the powerful electrical current of the transmitter to the antenna circuit inductively. This invention greatly increases the broadcasting range of a transmitter and will be applied to radar, radio, and television.
Braun expects to extend the range of particle transmission simply by increasing the production of the transmitter's power, but finds that with Hertz oscillators, any attempt to increase the power output by increasing the length of the spark gap will find a limit beyond which the power output only decreases. Braun solves this problem by creating a sparkless antenna circuit - power from the transmitter is magnetically coupled through the transformer effect to an antenna circuit instead of directly linking it to the power circuit.
A patent is granted on this circuit in 1899. It seems like there is still a spark, but that the electricity is transferred using a transformer, so if true then it is technically not the first sparkless transmitter but the important idea is the large amplification resulting from using a transformer.
The patent states: "My invention relates to the transmission of electrical signals without connecting-wires, and comprises the improvements hereinafter described.
In the accompanying drawings, which illustrate diagrammatically apparatus embodying the invention, Figure 1 illustrates a simple form of apparatus. Fig. 2 illustrates an apparatus providing for the use of induction coils.
The period of oscillation of waves which are produced by discharging-condensers depends on capacity and self-induction, viz: T = 2π√LC, in which T denotes the period of oscillation, L the self-induction, and C the capacity. Theoretically, therefore, the energy of the waves should be able to be increased by raising the potential. Experience, however, has shown that there is a limit to the voltage which may be used at the terminals of a single spark-gap, the fact being that a certain critical value of distance is not to be exceeded, because above this value . the discharge is no more of oscillatory nature. In order to increase the energy to be transmitted without disturbing the fre-, quency, the arrangement shown in the drawings is used.
A plurality of condensers C1 C2 C3 are shown in Fig. 1 connected in series. Each of them is provided with a spark-gap, all elements being of identical dimensions. If the first condenser receives a quantity of electricity + E, an equal quantity — E is induced on its other coating and + E accumulates on the second, &c.—that is, all condensers would be charged to exactly the same potential. The total potential, therefore, will be equal to the potential at a single condenser multiplied by the number of condensers, and the same must be true for the energy stored up. Experiments have shown that the discharge first actually takes place if the potential is attained which corresponds to a distance equal to the sum of the single sparking distances. Although one would be inclined, to' assume that as each condenser has its own circuit three separate trains of waves would be set up. This is not so. The waves produced nearly, if not exactly, at the same time will either coincide or interfere with each other. la the first case the amplitude of the electric impulse will be simply multiplied by the number of condensers. In the case of interference the maximum amplitude of the wave composed by its components will come approximately to the same value.
A modification of the invention is illustrated in Fig. 2.
The condensers C1 C2 C3 are of spherical shape, each of them having its own air-gap a1, a2, a3. The inner coating of one condenser is connected to the outer coating of the next ;C across a coil 1 2 3, Fig. 2, which is a secondary to the primary I II III. The corresponding primaries are connected in series and joined to the terminals of a Ruhmkorff apparatus. Of course the insertion of these coils will influence the periodicity of oscillations.
The other part of the transmitting apparatus and the receiving apparatus, as the vertical transmitting-wire, the coherer, &c., are of the usual kind well known to electricians So generally. The invention can be altered in various ways. The coils, for instance, may be arranged in parallel instead of being in series connection. The main idea, however, remains the same—namely, to replace by a group of similar apparatus a single apparatus of known kind.
I do not generally claim the use of multiple spark-gaps for producing electric waves go for wireless telegraphy, as such devices are known; but— What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent in the United States, is—
1. In a system of transmitting electrical signals by means of electrical waves, the combination with a plurality of identical condensers connected in series, of a spark-gap provided for each of said condensers, substantially as described and for the purpose stated.
2. In a system of transmitting electrical signals by means of electrical waves, the combination with a plurality of identical condensers connected in series, of a spark-gap provided to each of said condensers, and induction-coils between the outer coating of one and the inner coating of the next condenser, substantially as described and for the purpose stated.
3. In a system of transmitting electrical signals by means of electrical waves, the combination with a plurality of identical condensers connected in series, of a spark-gap pro10 vided for each of said condensers, and induction-coils between the outer coating of one and the inner coating of the next condenser, said coils being the primaries of transformers, the secondaries being connected to a Ruhmkorff induction apparatus, substantially as described and for the purpose stated. ...".
(Given the secret of neuron reading and writing, sparkless photon communication probably was invented in the early 1800s, but we can only speculate until a time of total free info.)
| (Physics institute at Strasbourg) Strasbourg, France |
101 YBN
[05/01/1899 AD]
| 4455) Thomas Preston (CE 1860-1900 (verify)) presents evidence that the magnetic splitting of spectral lines (Zeeman effect) is characteristic for the series to which they belong.
Preston writes the followin gletter to George Fitzgerald: 'My dear Prof. Fitzgerald I have sent off the 1st proof of my Phil. Mag. paper - to appear in Feb. - and I took your hint and added a note about the corresponding magnetic effects in the corresponding groups of lines in the same chemical groups of elements. I also added a note showing that my analytical representation was the same as your dynamical suggestion of a year ago and I asked for a wire so that you may see this paragraph before it goes to press. What I want to tell you now most particularly is that I have been looking over some measurements and I find that e/m (that is dλ/λ2) is the same q.p. for all corresponding lines of the same element and is the same for all the elements of the same group. If this law holds good when the most general tests have been applied it will have important chemical bearing as it will show us the relations which exist between the structures of different chemical elements as well as the degree of complexity in any element. As I remarked to you before not only is the amount of the effect Δλ/λ2 the same for corresponding lines but the character (i.e. triplet, quartet etc.) of the effect appears to be also the same. The latter of course merely indicates what we already suspect, that these corresponding lines arise from some more fundamental event in the vibrating system. I think we are now at the inside of the affair and it probably remains only to discover if any exceptions exist and to explain them away! However I would like you to keep this letter in case anyone should publish the law before I have found out whether any exceptions exist - or before I have found it out to be quite wrong !!! Yours very sincerely, T. Preston "
(Find image of Preston)
| (University College Dublin) Dublin, Ireland |
101 YBN
[05/11/1899 AD]
| 4690) Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (CE 1869-1959), Scottish physicist finds that negative ions require a much smaller quantity of water vapour in a gaseous medium than positively charged ions do.
This may explain why most rain is negatively electrified and why air usually has a positive potential relative to the rain.
(Read summarized version of paper) Wilson writes: "...To compare the efficiency as condensatino nuclei of the positive and negative ions respectively, expansion experiments were made with moist air containing ions all, or nearly all, charged with electricity of one sign, alternately piositive and negative in successive experiments. To enable a supply of ions nearly all positive or nearly all negative to be produced at will in the air under observation, this was enclosed between two parallel metal plates, and a narrow beam of Rontgen rays was made to pass between the plates parallel to and almost in contact with the surface of one of them. Under these conditions a supply of positive and negative ions is produced in the thin lamina of air exposed to the rays, and when a difference of potential is maintained between the plates, the two sets of ions move in opposite directions, the positive towards the negative plate and vice versa. If we neglect the slight difference in the velocity of positive and negative ions, shown to exist by the experiments of Zeleny, the number of ions in unit volume of the positive and negative streams will be the same, assuming (an assumption which later experiments justify) that equal numbers of positive and negative ions are produced, and that the ionisation does not, for example, consist in the breaking up of the neutral molecules into certain number of positive ions and half as many negative ions, each carrying twice as large a charge as the positive. It is plain, therefore, that there must at any moment be a great excess of the ions which have the greater distance to travel; in other words, of the ions charged with electricity of the same sign as that on the plate nearest the layer of air exposed to the rays. The expansion may either be made while this layer is exposed to the rays, or the rays may be cut off before the expansion. If the interval, between cutting off the rays and making the expansion, lies within certain limits, it is plain that all the ions travelling to the plate next the ionised layer may have been removed, while only a small proportion of those travelling towards the more distant plate have reached it before the expansion in made. In this way we would therefore expect to get positive or negative ions with almost complete absence of ions of the other kind. ... The apparatus being adjusted to give expansions somewhat exceeding the limit v2/v1=1.25, comparatively dense fogs were obtained when the upper plate was maintained at a potential a few volts higher than the lower, so that negative ions were present in excess; whereas, when the field was reversed (the positive ions being now in excess) only a slight condensatino could be observed, and this was mainly confined to the region immediately over the lower plate, where a considerable number of negative ions must have been present. With expansions as great as v2/v1=1.35 the appearance of the fogs obtained was independent of the direction of the field, and this continued to be the case up to the limit 1.38, at which dense fogs appear even in the absence of ions. With the field in the direction which gives an excess of negative ions, the density of the fogs which result from expansion is practically the same for all values of v2/v1 between 1.28 and the above-mentioned limit 1.38. When on the other hand, the upper plate is connected to the negative pole of the battery, so that the positive ions are in excess, the drops remain few till v2/v1 amounts to about 1.31, when the number of the drops begins to increase as the expansion is increased. With v2/v1=1.33, we obtain, with the positive ions, comparatively dense fogs, still, however, considerably less dense than those obtained with negative ions. Finally, above 1.35 the positive and negative fogs are indistinguishable. ... the principal results of this investigation are:- (1.) To cause water to condense on negatively charged ions, the supersaturation must reach the limit corresponding to the expansion v2/v1=1.25 (approximately a fourfold supersaturation). To make water condense on positively charged ions, the supersaturation must reach the much higher limit corresponding to the expansion v2/v1=1.31 (the supersaturation being then nearly sixfold). (2.) The nuclei, of which a very small number can always be detected by expansion experiments with air in the absence of external ionising agents, and which require exactly the same supersaturation as ions to make water condense on them (as well as the similar nuclei produced in much greater numbers by the action of weak ultraviolet light on moist air) cannot be regarded as free ions, unless we suppose the ionisation to be developed by the process of producing the supersaturation. We see, then, that if ions even act as condensation nuclei in the atmosphere, it must be mainly or solely the negative ones which do so, and thus a preponderance of negative electricity will be carried down by precipitation to the earth's surface. ...".
Wilson desribes his apparatus stating: "
| (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
101 YBN
[05/??/1899 AD]
| 4885) James Thomas Knowles (CE 1831-1908), reprints his 1869 letter to the magazine "The Spectator", describing the possible existence of brain-waves radiating from the brain which might allow images of thought to be captured on a photograph, here 30 years later, prompted by Marconi's work of commercializing wireless communication.
This paper is strong proof of the existance of neuron reading and writing as early as 1869.
Initially, back in January 30, 1869, Knowles only uses his initials, but 30 years later in 1899, Knowles reprints his paper with a forward and ends by acknowledging his name.
Knowles writes: "WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY AND 'BRAIN-WAVES'.
The wonderful discovery of wireless telegraphy tempts me to put forward again a theory which I ventured to publish thirty years ago, and to which Signor Marconi's new invention seems, in some ways, to lend an additional "plausibility." Its republication may be perhaps forgiven for the sake of the incidents in support of it contributed by Lord Tennyson, Mr. Browning and Mr. Woolner, which are certainly worth preserving.
Signor Marconi has proved to the whole world that, by the use of his apparatus, messages can be passed through space, for great distances, from brain to brain in the entire absence of any known means of physical communication between two widely separated stations.
To explain, or even to express, the modus operandi of what occurs it is necessary, in the present state of science, to assume the existence of that "ethereal medium" pervading space which has become for many reasons an indispensable scientific assumption, and also the existence of movements, tremors or waves of energy propagated through the ether, from the generating to the receiving station.
All that is in practice essentially requisite is, in the first place, an electric energy derived from the cells of an ordinary galvanic battery—an energy which is regulated into a code of signals under the superintendence of a human brain at a certain locality; and, in the second place, at another locality, a delicately contrived receiving apparatus which is sensitive to those signals and can repeat them to another human brain.
Now, if a small electric battery can send out tremors or waves of energy which are propagated through space for thirty miles or more, and can then be caught and manifested by a sensitive mechanical receiver, why may not such a mechanism as the human brain —which is perpetually, while in action, decomposing its own material, and which is in this respect analogous to an electric battery—generate and emit tremors or waves of energy which such sensitive "receivers" as other human brains might catch and feel, although not conveyed to them through the usual channels of sensation? Why might not such a battery as the brain of Mr. Gladstone radiate into space, when in action, quasi-magnetic waves of influence which might affect other brains brought within the magnetic field of his great personality, much as the influence of a great magnet deflects a small compass needle? Many men (some perhaps of Mr. Gladstone's own colleagues) would admit their experience of such a quasi-magnetic force in his case, a predisposing and persuasive influence quite apart from and independent of the influence of spoken words.
The idea of "brain-waves" as a possible explanation of the modus operandi of such and such-like influences occurred to me about the year 1851, when watching experiments in what was then called electro-biology. I saw men whom I had known long and intimately, and upon whose complete uprightness, straightforwardness, honesty and intelligence I could absolutely rely, brought into a dazed and half-awake state by staring at a metal disc held in their hands, and who were then subjected to the will of an utter stranger, the operator, till they became his mere victims and tools and slavishly and maniacally obeyed whatever suggestion he put into their minds through their brains. They were as clay in the hands of the potter, and the operator's brain seemed completely to control and act as it were in lieu of their own, driving them into actions and antics utterly and hatefully foreign to their habits and ways. It was inexplicable except on the assumption that their brains were not under their own control at all, but under that of another quite external to theirs. When I came to find, as I did, that such control was sometimes exercised from a distance and without any visible or audible signal from the operator to his victim, the thought came to me which I embodied in the word Brain-waves. I discussed the theory with friends for many years, accumulating additional observations as time went on, and at length, when I came to know Lord (then Mr.) Tennyson, I talked it over with him, and asked him what he thought of my hypothesis. He said he thought there was a great deal very plausible in it; that I had at any rate made a good word in "brainwaves," and a word which would live; and he encouraged me to publish the idea, as I accordingly did in the subjoined communication to the Spectator of the 30th of January, 1863.
James Knowles.".
(Get portrait)
| London, England (presumably) |
101 YBN
[08/??/1899 AD]
| 4491) US inventors and brothers, Wilbur Wright (CE 1867-1912) and Orville Wright (CE 1871-1948) test their "wing warping" method for controling an aircraft, by using a five-foot-span biplane kite. The Wrights construct a mechanism to produce a helical twist across the wings in either direction. The resulting increase in lift on one side and decrease on the other enables the pilot to raise or lower either wing tip at will. So in this way equilibrium is maintained and steering is possible by varying the air pressures at the wing tips through adjustment of the angles of the wings.
While other experimenters focus on other aspects of flight, the Wrights focus on airplane steering control. In this test the Wrights discover that they can cause the kite to climb, dive, and bank to the right or left at will, and so the brothers begin to design their first full-scale glider using Lilienthal's data to calculate the amount of wing surface area required to lift the estimated weight of the machine and pilot in a wind of given velocity.
These movable wing tips ("ailerons") that enable a pilot to control a plane is the first Wright brothers patent.
| 08/1899|Dayton, Ohio |
101 YBN
[09/13/1899 AD]
| 4732) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, identifies a gas emitted from Thorium which he names "Thorium emanation" (this will be shown to be Radon gas). Rutherford also reports that radioactivity that lasts for several days occurs on all substances touched by the positive ions created by the emanation.
This same discovery of a gas emitted from Thorium is made independently by Friedrich Ernst Dorn. Pierre and Marie Curie had reported shortly before Rutherford that all bodies placed around Radium salts become temporarily radioactive.
Within a short time the emanations from radium and actinium also were found, by Ernst Dorn and F. Giesel, respectively.
Rutherford writes: "... In a previous paper the author has shown that the radiation from thorium is of a more penetrating character than the radiation from uranium. Attention was also directed to the inconstancy of thorium as a source of radiation. .... The intensity of thorium radiation, when examined by means of the electrical discharge produced, is found to be very variable; and this inconstancy is due to slow currents of air produced in an open room. When the apparatus is placed in a closed vessel, to do away with air currents, the intensity is found to be practically constant. The sensitiveness of thorium oxide to slight currents of air is very remarkable. The movement of the air caused by the opening or closing of a door at the end of the room opposite to where the apparatus is placed, is often sufficient to considerably diminish the rate of discharge. In this respect thorium compounds differ from those of uranium, which are not appreciably affected by slight currents of air. Another anomaly that thorium compounds exhibit is the ease with which the radiation apparently passes through paper. ... The phenomena exhibited by thorium compounds receive a complete explanation if we suppose that, in addition to the ordinary radiation, a large number of radioactive particles are given out from the mass of the active substance. This 'emanation' can pass through considerable thicknesses of paper. The radioactive particles emitted by the thorium compounds gradually diffuse through the gas in its neighbourhood and become centres of ionization throughout the gas. The fact that the effect of air currents is only observed to a slight extent with thin layers of thorium oxide is due to the preponderance, in that case, of the rate of leak due to the ordinary radiation over that due to the emanation. With a thick layer of thorium oxide, the rate of leak due to the ordinary radiation is practically that due to a thin surface layer, as the radiation can only penetrate a short distance through the salt. On the other hand, the 'emanation' is able to diffuse from a distance of several millimetres below the surface of the compound, and the rate of leak due to it becomes much greater than that due to the radiation alone.
The explanation of the action of slight currents of air is clear on the 'emanation' theory. Since the radioactive particles are not affected by an electrical field, extremely minute motions of air, if continuous, remove many of the radioactive centres from between the plates. It will be shown shortly that the emanation continues to ionize the gas in its neighbourhood for several minutes, so that the removal of the particles from between the plates diminishes the rate of discharge between the plates.
Duration of the Radioactivity of the Emanation
The emanation gradually loses its radioactive power. .... We therefore see that the intensity of the radiation given out by the radioactive particles falls off in a geometrical progression with the time. The result shows that the intensity of the radiation has fallen to one-half its value after an interval of about one minute. The rate of leak due to the emanation was too small for measurement after an interval of ten minutes.
If the ionized gas had been produced from a uranium compound, the duration of the conductivity, for voltages such as were used, would only have been a fraction of a second.
The rate of decay of intensity is independent of the electromotive force acting on the gas. This shows that the radioactive particles are not destroyed by the electric field. The current through the gas at any particular instant, after stoppage of the flow of air, was found to be the same whether the electromotive force had been acting the whole time or just applied for the time of the test.
The current through the gas in the cylinder depends on the electromotive force in the same way as the current through a gas made conducting by Röntgen rays. The current at first increases nearly in proportion to the electromotive force, but soon reaches an approximate 'saturation' value.
.... the emanation is uncharged, and is not appreciably affected by an electric field. .... The emanation passes through a plug of cotton-wool without any loss of its radioactive powers. It is also unaffected by bubbling through hot or cold water, weak or strong sulphuric acid. In this respect it acts like an ordinary gas.
An ion, on the other hand, is not able to pass through a plug of cotton-wool, or to bubble through water, without losing its charge.
The emanation is similar to uranium in its photographic and electrical actions. It can ionize the gas in its neighbourhood, and can affect a photographic plate in the dark after several days' exposure. ... Both thorium oxalate and sulphate act in a similar manner to the nitrate; but the emanation is still given off to a considerable extent after continued heating.
In considering the question of the origin and nature of the emanation, two possible explanations naturally suggest themselves, viz.:
(1) That the emanation may be due to fine dust particles of the radioactive substance emitted by the thorium compounds.
(2) That the emanation may be a vapour given off from thorium compounds.
The fact that the emanation can pass through metals and large thicknesses of paper and through plugs of cotton-wool, is strong evidence against the dust hypothesis. Special experiments, however, were tried to settle the question. The experiments of Aitken and Wilson have shown that ordinary air can be completely freed from dust particles by repeated small expansions of the air over a water surface. The dust particles act as nuclei for the formation of small drops, and are removed from the gas by the action of gravity.
The experiment was repeated with thorium oxide present in the vessel. The oxide was enclosed in a paper cylinder, which allowed the emanation to pass through it. After repeated expansions no cloud was formed, showing that for the expansions used the particles of the emanation were too small to become centres of condensation of the water-vapour. We may therefore conclude, from this experiment, that the emanation does not consist of dust particles of thorium oxide.
It would be of interest to examine the behaviour of the emanation for greater and more sudden expansions, after the manner employed by C. T. R. Wilson in his experiments on the action of ions as centres of condensation.
The emanation may possibly be a vapour of thorium. There is reason to believe that all metals and substances give off vapour to some degree. If the radioactive power of thorium is possessed by the molecules of the substance, it would be expected that the vapour of the substance would be itself radioactive for a short time, but the radioactive power would diminish in consequence of the rapid radiation of energy. Some information on this point could probably be obtained by observation of the rate of diffusion of the emanation into gases. It is hoped that experimental data of this kind will lead to an approximate determination of the molecular weight of the emanation.
Experiments have been tried to see if the amount of the emanation from thorium oxide is sufficient to appreciably alter the pressure of the gas in an exhausted tube. The oxide was placed in a bulb connected with a Plücker spectroscopic tube. The whole was exhausted, and the pressure noted by a McLeod gauge. The bulb of thorium oxide was disconnected from the main tube by means of a stopcock. The Plücker tube was refilled and exhausted again to the same pressure. On connecting the two tubes together again, no appreciable difference in the pressure or in the appearance of the discharge from an induction coil was observed. The spectrum of the gas was unchanged.
Experiments, which are still in progress, show that the emanation possesses a very remarkable property. I have found that the positive ion produced in a gas by the emanation possesses the power of producing radioactivity in all substances on which it falls. This power of giving forth a radiation lasts for several days. The radiation is of a more penetrating character than that given out by thorium or uranium. The emanation from thorium compounds thus has properties which the thorium itself does not possess. ...".
Rutherford will describe more fully how radioactivity is produced in substances by the action of thorium two months later.
(Notice that Rutherford is not able to get a spectrum from the gas. State who does produce a spectrum if any.)
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
101 YBN
[09/??/1899 AD]
| 4739) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906) report that radium rays cause radioactivity in all objects placed near them.
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
101 YBN
[10/03/1899 AD]
| 4830) (Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937), Italian electrical engineer, uses Morse code over wireless radio communication to reports the progress of the yacht race for the America’s Cup. The success of this demonstration arouses worldwide excitement and leads to the formation of the American Marconi Company.
| New York City, NY, USA |
101 YBN
[10/03/1899 AD]
| 4831) (Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937), Italian electrical engineer, patents a radio transmitter and receiver that enables several stations to operate on different wavelengths without interference. (In 1943 the U.S. Supreme Court overturns this patent, indicating that Lodge, Nikola Tesla, and John Stone appeared to have priority in the development of radio-tuning apparatus.)
In his patent, Marconi writes: "... The capacity and self-induction of the four circuits—i. e., the primary and secondary circuits at the transmitting-station and the primary and secondary circuits at any one of the receiving-stations in a communicating system—are each and all to be so independently adjusted as to make the product of the self-induction multiplied by the-capacity the same in each case or multiples of each other— that is to say, the electrical time periods of the four circuits are to be the same or octaves of each other.
In employing this invention to localize the transmission of intelligence at one of several receiving-stations the time period of the circuits at each of the receiving-stations is so arranged as to be different from those of the 5 other stations. If the time periods of the circuits of the transmitting-station are varied until they are in resonance with those of one of the receiving-stations, that one alone of all of the receiving-stations will respond, provided that the distance between the transmitting and receiving stations is not too small.
The adjustment of the self-induction and capacity of any or all of the four circuits can be made in any convenient manner and employing various arrangements of apparatus, those shown and described herein being' preferred. ...".
| New York City, NY, USA |
101 YBN
[11/20/1899 AD]
| 4376) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906) report that radium rays emitted by highly radioactive salts of barium are capable of converting oxygen into ozone and observe a coloring action of the rays on glass and on barium platinocyanide commonly used for fluorescent screens.
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
101 YBN
[11/22/1899 AD]
| 4733) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, reports more fully on how radioactivity is produced in substances by the action of thorium.
(show image from paper)
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
101 YBN
[12/11/1899 AD]
| 4374) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist finds that radium rays are deflected by a magnetic field. These will be shown to be electrons (Beta rays).
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
101 YBN
[12/??/1899 AD]
| 4265) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, measures the mass to electric charge (m/e) for the negative electrification discharged by ultra-violet light in air, and for the negative electrification produced by an incandescent carbon filament in an atmosphere of hydrogen, and finds these to be the same ratio as that of the cathode rays. In addition Thomson measures the value of electric charge (e) for the negative electrification discharged by ultra-violet light and calculates this to be 6.8 x 10-10. Thomson describes ionization as a splitting of an atom, in which a negative ion separates from the atom, as opposed to the separation of a molecule into atoms. Thomson states that this negative ion has the same mass and charge for all gases, and is probably the fundamental quantity of which all electrical processes can be expressed.
Thomson writes in "On the Masses of the Ions in Gases at Low Pressures": "IN a former paper (Phil. Mag. Oct. 1897) I gave a determination of the value of the ratio of the mass, m, of the ion to its charge, e, in the case of the stream of negative electrification which constitutes the cathode rays. The results of this determination, which are in substantial agreement with those subsequently obtained by Lenard and Kaufmann, show that the value of this ratio is very much less than that of tho corresponding ratio in the electrolysis of solutions of acids and salts, and that it is independent of the gas through which tho discharge passes and of the nature of the electrodes. In these experiments it was only the value of m/e which was determined, and not the values of m and e separately. It was thus possible that the smallness of the ratio might be due to e being greater than the value of the charge carried by the ion in electrolysis rather than to the mass m being very much smaller. Though there were reasons for thinking that the charge e was not greatly different from the electrolytic one, and that we had here to deal with masses smaller than the atom, yet, as these reasons were somewhat indirect, I desired if possible to get a direct measurement of either m or e as well as of m/e. In the case of cathode rays I did not see my way to do this; but another case, where negative electricity is carried by charged particles (i. e. when a negatively electrified metal plate in a gas at low pressure is illuminated by ultra-violet light), seemed more hopeful, as in this case we can determine the value of e by the method I previously employed to determine the value of the charge carried by the ions produced by Rontgen-ray radiation (Phil. Mag. Dec. 1898). The following paper contains an account of measurements of m/e and e for the negative electrification discharged by ultra-violet light, and also of m/e for the negative electrification produced by an incandescent carbon filament in an atmosphere of hydrogen. I maybe allowed to anticipate the description of these experiments by saying that they lead to the result that the value of m/e in the case of the ultra-violet light, and also in that of the carbon filament, is the same as for the cathode rays; and that in the case of the ultra-violet light, e is the same in magnitude as the charge carried by the hydrogen atom in the electrolysis of solutions. In this case, therefore, we have clear proof that the ions have a very much smaller mass than ordinary atoms ; so that in the convection of negative electricity at low pressures we have something smaller even than the atom, something which involves the splitting up of the atom, inasmuch as we have taken from it a part, though only a small one, of its mass. ...."
(Read complete experiment?)
Thomson goes on to conclude with his view of the process of ionization: "... There are some other phenomena which seem to have a very direct bearing on the nature of the process of ionizing a gas. Thus I have shown (Phil. Mag. Dec. 1898) that when a gas is ionized by Routgen rays, the charges on the ions are the same whatever the nature of the gas: thus we get the same charges on the ions whether we ionize hydrogen or oxygen. This result has been confirmed by J. S. Townsend ("On the Diffusion of Ions," Phil. Trans. 1899), who used an entirely different method. Again, the ionization of a gas by Röntgen rays is in general an additive property; i. e., the ionization of a compound gas AB, where A and B represent the atoms of two elementary gases, is one half the sum of the ionization of A and B, by rays of the same intensity, where A2 and B2 represent diatomic molecules of these gases (Proc. Camb. Phil. Soc. vol. x. p. 9). This result makes it probable that the ionization of a gas in these cases results from the splitting up of the atoms of the gas, rather than from a separation of one atom from the other in a molecule of the gas.
These results, taken in conjunction with the measurements of the mass of the negative ion, suggest that the ionization of a gas consists in the detachment from the atom of a negative ion; this negative ion being the same for all gases, while the mass of the ion is only a small fraction of the mass of an atom of hydrogen.
From what we have seen, this negative ion must be a quantity of fundamental importance in any theory of electrical action ; indeed, it seems not improbable that it is the fundamental quantity in terms of which all electrical processes can be expressed. For, as we have seen, its mass and its charge are invariable, independent both of the processes by which the electrification is produced and of the gas from which the ions are set free. It thus possesses the characteristics of being a fundamental conception in electricity; and it seems desirable to adopt some view of electrical action which brings this conception into prominence. These considerations have led me to take as a working hypothesis the following method of regarding the electrification of a gas, or indeed of matter in any state.
I regard the atom as containing a large number of smaller bodies which I will call corpuscles; these corpuscles are equal to each other; the mass of a corpuscle is the mass of the negative ion in a gas at low pressure, i. e. about 3 x 10-26 of a gramme. In the normal atom, this assemblage of corpuscles forms a system which is electrically neutral. Though the individual corpuscles behave like negative ions, yet when they are assembled in a neutral atom the negative effect is balanced by something which causes the space through which the corpuscles are spread to act as if it had a charge of positive electricity equal in amount to the sum of the negative charges on the corpuscles. Electrification of a gas I regard as due to the splitting up of some of the atoms of the gas, resulting in the detachment of a corpuscle from some of the atoms. The detached corpuscles behave like negative ions, each carrying a constant negative charge, which we shall call for brevity the unit charge; while the part of the atom left behind behaves like a positive ion with the unit positive charge and a mass large compared with that of the negative ion. On this view, electrification essentially involves the splitting up of the atom, a part of the mass of the atom getting free and becoming detached from the original atom.
A positively electrified atom is an atom which has lost some of its "free mass," and this free mass is to be found along with the corresponding negative charge. Changes in the electrical charge on an atom are due to corpuscles moving from the atom when the positive charge is increased, or to corpuscles moving up to it when the negative charge is increased. Thus when anions and cations are liberated against the electrodes in the electrolysis of solutions, the ion with the positive charge is neutralized by a corpuscle moving from the electrode to the ion, while the ion with the negative charge is neutralized by a corpuscle passing from the ion to the electrode. The corpuscles are the vehicles by which electricity is carried from one atom to another.
We are thus led to the conclusion that the mass of an atom is not invariable : that, for example, if in the molecule of HCl the hydrogen atom has the positive and the chlorine atom the negative charge, then the mass of the hydrogen atom is less than half the mass of the hydrogen molecule H2; while, on the other hand, the mass of the chlorine atom in the molecule of HCl is greater than half the mass of the chlorine molecule Cl2.
The amount by which the mass of an atom may vary is proportional to the charge of electricity it can receive; and as we have no evidence that an atom can receive a greater charge than that of its ion in the electrolysis of solutions, and as this charge is equal to the valency of the ion multiplied by the charge on the hydrogen atom, we conclude that the variability of the mass of an atom which can be produced by known processes is proportional to the valency of the atom, and our determination of the mass of the corpuscle shows that this variability is only a small fraction of the mass of the original atom. ...".
(Thomson apparently has a typo in stating that the value of e for the ions produced by Rontgen rays is 6.5 x 10-8 but reported 6.5 x 10-10 in his December 1898 paper.)
(Notice the key word "separation" which includes the basic principle of putting atoms together with some particle, and separating them into their source particles - which is what I argue combustion, and basically all light emitting processes probably are - separation of particles in atoms.)
| (British Association Meeting) Dover, England |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 3724) Simon Newcomb (CE 1835-1909), Canadian-US astronomer publishes new tables for the planets and the moon.
Newcomb's tables improve on Leverrier's and all preceding tables.
Newcomb's value for the mass of Jupiter has not been significantly improved.
His investigations and computations of the orbits of six planets results in these tables of the planetary system, which are almost universally adopted by the observatories of the world.
(State title of work, format of data, ra and dec? Still static equations that hold constant through time, or values to iterate from?)
| (John's Hopkins University ?) Washington, DC, USA |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 3727) Simon Newcomb (CE 1835-1909), Canadian-US astronomer estimates new masses for the terrestrial planets and finds that the calculated perihelia of Mercury, Mars, and Venus vary from the observed values. There are only two popular explanations given: 1) The theory of gravity is inaccurate, 2) some other bodies between Mercury and the Sun are causing the differences. Newcomb hypothesizes about a ring of planets just outside the orbit of Mercury, but ultimately rejects the idea of inner-Mercurial bodies. Asa Hall theorizes that the inverse distance law is not exactly squared but is to the power 2.0000001574. Newcomb tenatively adopts this in addition to a mass change for earth.
They appear to not state, what seems obvious, that large quantities of mass are made of many pieces of matter that cannot possible all be accounted for in a single equation. For example, the mass emited from the Sun which changes it's mass, the liquids rollings around inside the planets changing the distribution of their masses, ... I think that the majority of people will eventually accept that predicting the movement of any matter far into the future is impossible. However, a regular advance of a perihelion should be calculatable. I think this is an error that happens because the positions of the planets are not iterated from initial masses, 3 dimensional locations and times. In my view, the force of gravity should be applied iteratively from some given set of masses, 3D and time variables for all masses in the model, as opposed to creating a single static many termed equation with special terms for offsets to an unchanging perfect ellipse, that is used to estimate future positions. So the two approaches are a) work from the equation for an ellipse that covers all future positions or b) work from an initial set of masses and positions and iterate into the future.
Newcomb studies the transits of Mercury confirm Leverrier's conclusion that the perihelion of Mercury is subject to an anomalous advance. (What amazes me is that apparently the other planets exhibit no advance or retreat in perihelion over the course of centuries or even over the course of a few years. Show how transits are used to measure the 3D location of Mercury. Can the parallax {z} be used to determine distance and relative apparent position {x,y} to determine exact 3D position of Mercury relative to other points in the universe? ) (TODO: examine more closely Newcomb's findings - there appears to be advances or retreats for Venus, and Mars too. The original work is in French.)
| (John's Hopkins University ?) Washington, DC, USA |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 3825) (Sir) James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923), English chemist, is the first to solidify hydrogen. To solidify hydrogen, Dewar must reach 14 degrees above absolute 0. At absolute 0 all matter is converted to a solid state. But at 14 degrees above absolute 0 helium is still not liquefied. Dewar uses the Joule-Thompson (Richmond) effect, and the system of regeneration Linde invented, and builds a large-scale (and large in size?) machine in which these processes can be performed more efficiently. The liquefaction of helium will wait for Kamerlingh Onnes 10 years later.
Dewar reads this report at this British Association Dover Meeting in 1899, as "Solid Hydrogen". Dewar reports: "IN the autumn of 1898, after the production of liquid hydrogen was possible on a scale of one or two hundred c.c., its solidification was attempted under reduced pressure. At this time, to make the isolation of the hydrogen as effective as possible, the hydrogen was placed in a small vacuum test-tube, placed in a larger vessel of the same kind. Excess of the hydrogen partly filled the circular space between the two vacuum vessels. The apparatus is shown in Fig. I. In this way the evaporation was mainly thrown on the liquid hydrogen in the annular space between the tubes. In this arrangement the outside surface of the smaller tube was kept at the same temperature as the inside, so that the liquid hydrogen for the time was effectually guarded from influx of heat. With such a combination the liquid hydrogen was evaporated under some 10 m.m. pressure, yet no solidification took place. Seeing experiments of this kind required a large supply of the liquid; other problems were attacked, and any attempts in the direction of producing the solid for the time abandoned. During the course of the present year many varieties of electric resistance thermometers have been under observation, and with some of these the reduction of temperature brought about by exhaustion was investigated. Thermometers constructed of platinum and platinum-rhodium (alloy) were only lowered 1 1/2° C. by exhaustion of the liquid hydrogen, and they all gave a boiling-point of -245° C., whereas the reduction in temperature by evaporation in vacuo ought to be 5° C., and the true boiling-point from -252° to -253° C. In the course of these experiments it was noted that almost invariably there was a slight leak of air, which became apparent by its being frozen into an air snow in the interior of the vessel, where it met the cold vapour of hydrogen coming off. When conducting wires covered with silk have to pass through india-rubber corks it is very difficult at these excessively low temperatures to prevent leaks, when corks get as hard as a stone, and cements crack in all directions. The effect of this slight air leak on the liquid hydrogen when the pressure got reduced below 60 m.m. was very remarkable, as it suddenly solidified into a white froth-like mass like frozen foam. My first impressions were that this body was a sponge of solid air containing the liquid hydrogen, just like ordinary air, which is a magma of solid nitrogen containing liquid oxygen. The fact, however, that this white solid froth evaporated completely at the low pressure without leaving any substantial amount of solid air led to the conclusion that the body after all must be solid hydrogen. This surmise was confirmed by observing that if the pressure, and therefore the temperature, of the hydrogen was allowed to rise, the solid melted when the pressure reached about 55 m.m. The failure of the early experiment must then have been due to supercooling of the liquid, which is prevented in this case by contait with metallic wires and traces of solid air. To settle the matter definitely the following experiment was arranged. A flask с of about a litre capacity to which a long glass tube bent twice at right angles was sealed, as shown in Fig. 2, and to which a small mercury manometer can be sealed, was filled with pure dry hydrogen and sealed off. The lower portion AB of this tube was calibrated. It was surrounded with liquid hydrogen placed in a vacuum vessel arranged for exhaustion. As soon as the pressure got well reduced below that of the atmosphere, perfectly clear liquid hydrogen began to collect in the tube AB, and could be observed accumulating until, about 30 to 40 m.m. pressure, the liquid hydrogen surrounding the outside of the tube suddenly passed into a solid white foam-like mass, almost filling the whole space. As it was not possible to see the condition of the hydrogen in the interior of the tube AB when it was covered with a large quantity of this solid, the whole apparatus was turned upside down in order to see whether any liquid would run down AB into the flask c. Liquid did not flow down the tube, so the liquid hydrogen with which the tube was partly filled must have solidified. By placing a strong light on the side of the vacuum test-tube opposite the eye, and maintaining the exhaustion to about 25 m.m., gradually the solid became less opaque, and the material in AB was seen to be a transparent ice in the lower part, but the surface looked frothy. This fact prevented the solid density from being determined, but the maximum fluid density has been approximately ascertained. This was found to be 0.086, the liquid at its boiling-point having the density 0.07. The solid hydrogen melts when the pressure of the saturated vapour reaches about 55 m.m. In order to determine the temperature two constant volume hydrogen thermometers were used. One at 0° С, contained hydrogen under a pressure of 269.8 m.m., and the other under a pressure of 127 m.m. The mean temperature of the solid was found to be 16° absolute under a pressure of 35 m.m. All the attempts made to get an accurate electric resistance thermometer for such low temperature observations have been so far unsatisfactory. Now that pure helium is definitely proved to be more volatile than hydrogen, this body, after passing through a spiral glass tube immersed in liquid hydrogen to separate all other gases, must be compared with the hydrogen thermometer. For the present the boiling-point which is 21° absolute at 760 m.m., compared with the boiling-point at 35 m.m. or 16° absolute, enables the following approximate formula for the vapour tension of liquid hydrogen below one atmosphere pressure to be derived:- log p-6.7341 - 83.28/ T m.m., where T = absolute temperature, and the pressure is in m.m. This formula gives us for 55 m.m. a temperature of 16.7° absolute. The melting-point of hydrogen must therefore be about 16° or 17° absolute. It has to be noted that the pressure in the constant volume hydrogen thermometer, used to determine the temperature of solid hydrogen boiling under 35 m.m., had been so far reduced that the measurements were made under from one-half to one-fourth the saturation pressure for the temperature. When the same thermometers were used to determine the boiling-point of hydrogen at atmospheric pressure, the internal gas pressure was only reduced to one-thirteenth the saturation pressure for the temperatures. The absolute accuracy of the boiling-points under diminished pressure must be examined in some future paper. The practical limit of temperature we can command by the evaporation of solid hydrogen is from 14° to 15° absolute. In passing it may be noted that the critical temperature of hydrogen being 30° to 32° absolute, the melting-point is about half the critical temperature. The melting-point of nitrogen is also about half its critical temperature. The foam-like appearance of the solid when produced in an ordinary vacuum is due to the small density of the liquid, and the fact that rapid ebullition is substantially taking place in the whole mass of liquid. The last doubt as to the possibility of solid hydrogen having a metallic character has been removed, and for the future hydrogen must be classed among the non metallic elements.".
(interesting that other gases with larger atoms are liquefied at lower temperatures. Perhaps this has something to do with helium's inert valence or size? What are the liquefaction temperatures for the other inert gases? It is interesting that hydrogen is smaller, but liquefies at a higher temperature than helium.)
(Interesting that a given pressure equals a given temperature, so either can be given to determine the other, apparently with no regard to the mass in a volume of space. ) (Carl Sagan in Cosmos describes a theory that center of Jupiter might be liquid metallic hydrogen. My opinion is that the center of the planets and stars is probably similar, and made of dense metals, or possibly even photons packed together in a form of matter more dense than any atom, only forming atoms in less matter-dense space. I think the definition of 'metal' would have to be clearly defined. Generally, metals are thought to be reflective not transparent. 'Metal' is perhaps an unclear description, if defined as a good conductor of electricity since water and other materials can conduct electricity - although perhaps not as well as solid and liquid metals. I would be interested in seeing how well gas metals conduct electricity.)
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4154) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist shows that the radiation from barium chloride can be deflected by a magnetic field.
Sadly, as far as I know, only a summary of this work exists in English and states: "The radio-active substance used was barium chloride, and the influence of the magnetic field on the rays emitted by it was investigated by means of a fluorescent screen or a photographic plate. The author confirms the observations of Meyer and von Schweidler (Phyeikalische Zeitschrift, No. 10, 113—114) that some of the rays follow the direction of the magnetic field and are undeflected, whereas those in a plane at right angles to the magnetic field are deflected.
The results obtained point to a close relationship between cathodic rays and the rays emitted by radio-active substances.".
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4177) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, introduces the theory of "time", and "mass" dilation and contraction, and what will be called the Lorentz transformations. In addition, Lorentz puts forward the concept that no matter can travel faster than the speed of light, all to defend the theory of an ether against the Michelson and Michelson-Morley experiments which detected no ether.
Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, publishes the first form of what will be called the Lorentz transformations and introduces the concept that at any instant two locations may have different times (a "local" and "universal" time, and this theory will come to be called "time dilation" and is paired with the earlier concept of "matter contraction" in modern terms "space dilation" which is initially thought to be caused by an ether, but now is explained as the result of the geometrical math that is thought by many to describe the universe), in addition to the idea that mass changes relative to an ion's velocity through the theoretical ether. These are the same as the equations in his later more well known 1904 paper, except for an undetermined coefficient.
This is titled (in French) "Théorie simplified des phénomenes électriques et optiques dans des corps en mouvement." ("Simplified Theory of Electrical and Optical Phenomena in Moving Systems") and is a response to Alfred Liénard’s contention that according to Lorentz’ theory, Michelson’s experiment should yield a positive effect if the light passes through a liquid or solid instead of air.
In this work Lorentz introduces the concept that there may be two different times in any one instant of time. Lorentz writes his equations for a transformation of spacial variables x,y,z and time variable t, and states : "The last of these is the time, recokoned from an instant that is not the same for all points of space, but depends on the place we wish to consider. We may call it the local time, to distinguish it from the universal time t.". This concept that at a single instant of time, there might be two different times in the universe is included into the theories of relativity, and seems to me unlikely, the more likely case being time being everywhere the same time at any instant in the universe no matter where in space.
Lorentz writes (translated from French): "In former investigations I have assumed that, in all electrical and optical phenomena, taking place in ponderable matter, we have to do with small charged particles or ions, having determinate positions of equilibrium in dielectrics, but free to move in conductors except in so far as there is a resistance, depending on their velocities. According to these views an electric current in a conductor is to be considered as a progressive motion of the ions, and a dielectric polarization in a non-conductor as a displacement of the ions from their positions of equilibrium. The ions were supposed to be perfectly permeable to the aether, so that they can move while the aether remains at rest. I applied to the aether the ordinary electromagnetic equations, and to the ions certain other equations which seemed to present themselves rather naturally. In this way I arrived at a system of formulae which were found sufficient to account for a number of phenomena.
In the course of the investigation some artifices served to shorten the mathematical treatment. I shall now show that the theory may be still further simplified if the fundamental equations are immediately transformed in an appropriate manner. I shall start from the same hypotheses and introduce the same notations as in my "Versuch einer Theorie der electrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Körpern". Thus, d and H will represent the dielectric displacement and the magnetic force, p the density to which the ponderable matter is charged, V the velocity of this matter, and E the force acting on it per unit charge (electric force). It is only in the interior of the ions that the density p differs from 0; for simplicity's sake I shall take it to be a continuous function of the coordinates, even at the surface of the ions. Finally, I suppose that each element of an ion retains its charge while it moves.
If, now, V be the velocity of light in the aether, the fundamental equations will be ... ". Lorentz then goes on to give his 5 equations, the first 4 from Maxwell, and the fifth the equation that describes will come to be called the "Lorentz force" (show equations). and writes "We shall apply these equations to a system of bodies, having a common velocity of translation p, of constant direction and magnitude, the aether remaining at rest, and we shall henceforth denote by v, not the whole velocity of a material element, but the velocity it may have in addition to p.
Now it is natural to use a system of axes of coordinates, which partakes of the translation p. If we give to the axis of x the direction of the translation, so that py and pz are 0, the equations (Ia)— (Va) will have to be replaced by ... ". Lorentz then lists these equations and writes (show equations): "As has already been said, v is the relative velocity with regard to the moving axes of coordinates. If v=0, we shall speak of a system at rest; this expression therefore means relative rest with regard to the moving axes.
In most applications p would be the velocity of the earth in its yearly motion.
Now, in order to simplify the equations, the following quantities may be taken as independent variables
x'= (V/V2 - px2)x, y'=y, z'=z, t'=t-(px/(V2-px2)x. (1)
The last of these is the time, reckoned from an instant that is not the same for all points of space, but depends on the place we wish to consider. We may call it the local time, to distinguish it from the universal time t. ... ". So here Lorentz introduces the idea that at a single instant, two different points may have different times, which will come to be called "time dilation" and/or "time contraction", and is viewed as pairing with the concept of "space dilation and contraction" introduced by Fitzgerald and Lorentz to explain Michelson's detection of no measurable effect of an ether. Lorentz concludes by introducing the concept of "mass dilation", the idea that a mass may change depending on its velocity. There, in my view, erroneous ideas, will last for over 100 years and counting, perhaps in no small part due to the millions of secrets involving the secret of neuron reading and writing and that elitist secretive society. Lorentz concludes: "... Since k is different from unity, these values cannot both be 1; consequently, states of motion, related to each other in the way we have indicated, will only be possible, if in the transformation of S0 into S the masses of the ions change; even, this must take place in such a way that the same ion will have different masses for vibrations parallel and perpendicular to the velocity of translation.
Such a hypothesis seems very startling at first sight. Nevertheless we need not wholly reject it. Indeed, as is well known, the effective mass of an ion depends on what goes on in the aether; it may therefore very well be altered by a translation and even to different degrees for vibrations of different directions.
If the hypothesis might be taken for granted, Michelson's experiment should always give a negative result, whatever transparent media were placed on the path of the rays of light, and even if one of these went through air, and the other, say through glass. This is seen by remarking that the correspondence between the two motions we have examined is such that, if in S0 we had a certain distribution of light and dark (interference-bands) we should have in S a similar distribution, which might be got from that in S0 by the dilatations (6), provided however that in S the time of vibration be kε times as great as in S0. The necessity of this last difference follows from (9). Now the number kε would be the same in all positions we can give to the apparatus; therefore, if we continue to use the same sort of light, while rotating the instruments, the interference-bands will never leave the parts of the ponderable system, e. g. the lines of a micrometer, with which they coincided at first.
We shall conclude by remarking that the alteration of the molecular forces that has been spoken of in this § would be one of the second order, so that we have not come into contradiction with what has been said in § 7. ". It is interesting that, I think that all these ether concepts can be rejected because of the Michelson-Morley experiments which cast doubt on light as a wave, and an ether medium, but yet, shockingly, all of these concepts are included in relativity and still accepted as accurate.
The Lorentz transformations are set in contrast to traditional Galilean transformations where time and space are independent of each other. In both the emission (or light as a particle) and ether (light as a wave) theories, inertial frames in relative motion are connected by a Galilean transformation, but with the Special theory of relativity inertial frames in relative motion are connected by a Lorentz transformation.
(Lorentz' theories and views depends on the motion of particles relative to particles of ether which are viewed at as being at rest.)
Many historical sources fail to clearly state that Lorentz originates the important, and in my view inaccurate, concept of time and mass dilation and contraction here in 1899. In addition, Lorentz is not often clearly recognized as being first to publish the idea that no matter moves faster than the speed of light.
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4347) Parthenogensis recognized. Sea Urchin egg developed to maturity without fertization.
Jacques Loeb (CE 1859-1924), German-US physiologist causes an unfertilized sea urchin egg to develop to maturity by proper environmental changes (more specific). This is (the first report of?) "artificial parthenogenesis" (reproduction without fertilization).
This work is later extended to the production of parthenogenetic frogs, which loeb raises to sexual maturity. Loeb's work is significant in showing that the initiation of cell division in fertilization is controlled chemically and is in effect separate from the transmission of hereditary traits. (Is there no hereditary genetic molecular involvement?)
Asimov comments that this leads some to believe that the male gender may not be necessary to continue life. (interesting that in the far future, there may evolve a 2 gender human, or some kind of human that can reproduce without sex, an asexually reproducing human. Many protists reproduce asexually, as do all known prokaryotes. Clearly reproduction will change in the far future, in particular once humans start to design every gene of every genomes. One clear probability is that humans will become "ever-living" - that is, age to a certain developmental stage, and then hold that structure for millions of years without further changes - aging, but not changing form.) Much of Loeb's major research is concerned with plant and animal tropisms (involuntary movements in response to stimuli such as light, water, and gravity); Loeb theorizes that tropisms occur not only in primitive animals but also in higher animals, including humans publishing "Forced Movements, Tropisms, and Animal Conduct" in 1918.
Loeb tests the hypothesis that salts act on the living organism by the combination of their ions with protoplasm, by immersing fertilized sea urchin eggs in salt water, the osmotic pressure of which has been raised by the addition of sodium chloride. When replaced in ordinary seawater, the sea urchin eggs undergo multicellular segmentation. T. H. Morgan then subjects unfertilized eggs to the same process and finds that they too can be induced to start segmentation, although without producing any larvae. Loeb is the first to succeed in raising larvae by this technique achieving artificial parthenogenesis.
Loeb also shows that certain caterpillars on emerging in the spring that climb to the tips of branches to feed on the budsare only following the stimulus of light. Loeb demonstrates how when the only source of light is in the opposite direction from food, the caterpillars move toward the light and starve to death. (chronology)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4364) English physiologists, Ernest Henry Starling (CE 1866-1927), and (Sir) William Maddock Bayliss (CE 1860-1924) demonstration of the nerve control of the peristaltic wave, the muscle action responsible for the movement of food through the intestine. Observation of intestinal movements is what leads to their discovery of the peristaltic wave, a rhythmic contraction that forces forward the contents of the intestine.
Starling and Bayliss' study in the 1890s of nerve-controlled contraction and dilation of blood vessels results in the development of an improved hemopiezometer (a device for measuring blood pressure). (precise chronology)
| (University College) London, England |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4391) Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes (iNiS) (CE 1861-1933), Scottish astronomer identifies 1,628 previously unknown binary stars from the southern hemisphere.
| (Cape Observatory) South Africa |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4472) Pyotr Nicolaievich Lebedev (lABeDeV) (CE 1866-1912), Russian physicist experimentally proves that light exerts a mechanical pressure on material bodies.
Lebedev theorizes that the force of gravity is proportional to the volume of a body, and that light pressure must be proportional to its surface, so that for a particle of cosmic dust, the forces of light pressure pushing the particle away from the sun will equal the force of gravity attracting it toward the sun. Lebedev uses this theory to explain why comets’ tails always point away from the sun. (It may be that particles, perhaps all combinations of x-particles, or photons, move in both directions, and these movements may balance at some distance from a star - the motion imparted by incoming particles equals the motion imparted by outgoing particles which collide with particles in between stars - perhaps this is where the heliopause and other populated areas of the outer areas of stars are - where particles are held in place by this equilibrium of incoming and outgoing particles.)
Lebedev measures the pressure exerted by light using very light mirrors in a vacuum, and this confirms the predictions of Maxwell's equations.
Lebedev is also the first to show that this pressure is twice as great for reflecting surfaces as for absorbing surfaces.
According to Columbia Uniuversity Press Encyclopedia Lebedev is the most noted Russian physicist of his time.
In 1909 Lebedev measures the mechanical motion produced by light on gas molecules.
(Explain how equation predicts this. To me this is very interesting, and this may shed light on an earlier question I thought of, that light can move a mirror, to me is a possible support for light particles colliding with other light particles in atoms of the mirror, the velocity of the photon is transferred to the photons in the mirror, which must bounce off other photons distributing this velocity among other photons, until it is eventually spread out enough, the photons in the mirror push back (perhaps having the same velocity in the opposite direction) and send the photon back in the opposite direction with the same velocity. But clearly the photons pushing the photons in the atoms of the mirror causes the mirror to move back because of the velocity imparted to the photons of the mirror. This in my mind seems an important experiment. It can't be ruled out that photons never collide and that the gravitational influence of photons is enough to push the photons in the mirror, so this is not definitive proof, and perhaps there may never be truly definitive proof. )
In 1708, in France, Wilhelm Homberg moved pieces of amianthus and other light substances, by the impulse of solar rays, and made the substances move move quickly by connecting them to the end of a level connected to the spring of a watch. Also in France, in 1747, Mairan and Du Fay observed that sun light focused with a lens can turn a wheel made of copper, and one of iron. In England around 1772, John Michell moved a very thin copper plate balanced on a quartz (agate oGiT/chalcedony KoLSeDONE) cap placed inside a box with a glass top and front, with sun light.
(This effort to measure the motion imparted to objects from the motion of light goes back at least to the 1700s and experiments described by Joe Priestley in his history of opticks.)
| (Moscow State University) Moscow, Russia |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4473) Pyotr Nicolaievich Lebedev (lABeDeV) (CE 1866-1912), Russian physicist experimentally measure the mechanical pressure light exerts on gas molecules.
(cite and translate paper)
In 1899 Lebedev had measured the mechanical motion produced by light on solid objects.
| (Moscow State University) Moscow, Russia |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4533) Richard Wilhelm Heinrich Abegg (CE 1869-1910), German chemist creates "Abegg's rule" (partially anticipated by Dmitri Mendeleev), which states that each element has two valences: a normal valence and a contravalence, the sum of which is eight. (verify this is the correct paper)
Abegg is the first to describe how a chemical reaction is the transfer of electrons and a chemical bond the attraction between opposite electric charges. Abegg notices how the configuration of electrons in the outer shell of the inert gases makes them particularly stable, and how this relates to atoms of other valences. For example, an atom like chlorine tend to gain an electron, while sodium tends to give one away. When sodium and chlorine bond, a sodium atom will give up an electron to the chlorine atom, and so the sodium then forms a positively charged ion, and the chlorine a negatively charged ion, and these two ions hold together because of electrostatic attraction (electrical attraction). (I think this is interesting, and is one explanation. I think a valence of 8 electrons, presuming the single electrons outside a nucleus model is true, could simply form a more gravitationally stable atom as an alternative theory. Possibly there is some cumulative force which increases the complexity besides just two atoms in empty space with no matter for light years. Some effort should be made to unify the force of gravity and electrical force if possible, two separate forces is not as intuitive as a single one, but if two forces are fundamental forces in the universe then that is fine. Beyond that, any system which is functional, and does explain the physical phenomena is perfectly fine to use as a tool, and for further understanding. It is easy to see how a single force with numerous objects could appear to be more than one force - and I think this is the case for electromagnetism - which may be a collective result of particle collision.)
| ( University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4720) (Sir) William Jackson Pope (CE 1870-1939), English chemist produces an optically actively compound (polarizes light) containing an asymmetric nitrogen atom and no asymmetric carbon atoms. This proves Van't Hoff's theory (where the carbon atom valences are in a tetrahedron instead of a square) applies to atoms other than carbon.
(Interesting that the same molecule can form different material just because of physical orientation.)
(show in 3D)
| (Institute of the Goldsmiths’ Company) New Cross, England |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 4836) André Louis Debierne (DeBERN?) (CE 1874-1949), French chemist isolates and identifies the radioactive element actinium (element 89) as a result of continuing work with pitchblende that the Curies had started. (describe specifically how actinium is identified?)
In 1905 Debierne will show that actinium, like radium, forms helium. (forms or emits? I guess a valid theory is that helium is formed at the time of emission.)
Actinium has symbol "AC", and atomic number 89, melting point 1,050°C, boiling point (estimated) 3,200°C, relative density (specific gravity) 10.07; valence 3. Actinium is a radioactive element found in uranium ores, used in equilibrium with its decay products as a source of alpha rays. The longest lived isotope is Ac 227 with a half-life of 21.6 years which also emits beta particles (high velocity electrons). Six other radioisotopes with half-lives ranging from 10 days to less than 1 minute have been identified.
According to the McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology, the relationship of actinium to the element lanthanum, the prototype rare earth, is striking. In every case, the actinium compound can be prepared by the method used to form the corresponding lanthanum compound.
Friedrich Oskar Giesel independently discovers actinium in 1902 as a substance being similar to lanthanum and calls it "emanium" in 1904, but Debierne's name will be kept being earlier.
(translate work and read relevent parts.)
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
101 YBN
[1899 AD]
| 6046) Scott Joplin (CE 1868-1917), US composer and pianist known as the "king of ragtime", composes his famous "Maple Leaf Rag".
| (George R. Smith College for Negroes) Sedalia, Missouri, USA (presumably) |
100 YBN
[01/18/1900 AD]
| 4372) Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906) uses his sensitive electrometer which is based on a piezoelectric crystal, to demonstrate that radium radiation consists of two distinct types: rays that are deviable in a magnetic field, and rays that are non-deviable in a magnetic field. These will later be shown to be beta (electron) and alpha (helium) rays. In addition, Marie Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) reports that the non-deviable rays (helium/alpha rays) are much less penetrating than the deviable (electron/beta) rays. Later Paul Villard will observe a third radiation which Rutherford will later label "Gamma rays". At this time alpha rays are thought to be non-deflecting, but Rutherford will show that they are deflected in a direction opposite to the electron/beta rays.
(Note that Marie Curie apparently does not observe any gamma ray penetration which Paul Villard will later observe.)
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
100 YBN
[03/05/1900 AD]
| 4373) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) and Pierre Curie (CE 1859-1906) report that the rays emitted from radium that are deviable by a magnetic field impart a negative charge to an insulated conductor. In this case the oxygen and nitrogen in the air cannot act as an insulator because of the ionization caused by the radiation. The Curies get around this problem by insulating a conductor with a thin layer of wax. Upon exposing this wax covered conductor to radium radiation, they find the conductor becomes negatively charged. To corroborate this result, the Curies insulate some of the radium salt with wax, and find that it becomes positively charged.
(It is surprising that the Radium salt was not already positively charged - if having emitted electrons for a long time before.)
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
100 YBN
[03/26/1900 AD]
| 4155) Beta rays identified as electrons. Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist shows that shows that the radiation from barium chloride can be deflected by both an electric and a magnetic field, measures the charge to mass ratio, and shows that the radiation (beta particle) is the same as Joseph John Thomson's recently identified electron.
J. J. Thomson’s more radical program of quantitative observations on collimated beams, in which Thomson had shown, in 1897, that the cathode rays are corpuscular and consist of streams of fast moving, negatively charged particles whose masses are probably subatomic. By March 26, 1900, Becquerel duplicates those experiments for the radium radiation and shows that this radiation also consists of negatively charged ions, moving at 1.6 × 1010 cm./sec. with a ratio of m/e = 10-7 gm./abcoulomb. (The centimeter-gram-second electromagnetic unit of charge, equal to ten coulombs.) Therefore, Thomson’s "corpuscles" (electrons) are also found in the radiations of radioactivity. (verify this is the correct paper - explain more the method of determining change and mass used.)
The debate of beta particles being electrons continues publicly in the physics journals even up to the 1940s. Kaufmann in 1902, Bucherer in 1909, Jauncey, Zahn and Spees in 1938, and Goldhaber in 1948.
(interesting that a cathode ray may perform the same phenomenon as a radioactive atom, perhaps there is a high voltage in a vacuum/empty space in an atom? What is the comparison, what similarities can be drawn between electron beams produced by cathode ray tubes and radioactive atoms if any?)
(In the theory that an electromagnetic field is either a group of stationary or moving particles - it is interesting that some particles are swept up, presumably by particle collision, and others pass through uneffected - presumably uncollided.)
(I wonder - does sample size affect measurement of charge or mass?)
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
100 YBN
[03/26/1900 AD]
| 4375) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist succeeds in deflecting electron (beta) radium radiation with an electrostatic field. This requires at least 20,000 volts between two plates 1 cm apart. This establishes that beta rays as definitely identified with cathode rays, that beta rays are streams of rapidly moving, negatively charged, electrons. However, Becquerel measures the velocity of the beta rays from radium to be much larger than the velcoties of cathode rays, measuring beta rays to have velocities between 1/2 to 2/3 the speed of light. (Could this alternatively mean that they have less or more mass than electrons, and are perhaps actually smaller or larger particles?)
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
100 YBN
[04/09/1900 AD]
| 4371) Gamma rays identified.
Paul Ulrich Villard (CE 1860-1934), French physicist identifies some radiation (from uranium) that is not bent in a magnetic field (and is therefore electrically neutral) and is unusually penetrating. These will come to be called "gamma ray", just as the positive charged particles will be named "alpha rays" (what are now known to be helium nuclei) and the negative charged particles "beta rays" (now known to be electrons) by Rutherford. These gamma rays (which will be shown to be photons with the smallest known wavelength) are even more energetic (?) and penetrating than X rays (now known to be photon with X ray spacing).
Villard reports this in his paper: "Sur la re´flexion et la re´fraction des rayons cathodiques et des rayons de´viables du radium".
Historian Leif Gerward describes Villard's report: Villard puts a small quantity of barium chloride containing radium, enclosed in a glass ampoule, in a lead tube. At the end of the tube, a cone of rays emerges with an opening angle of about 20°. An aluminium foil is mounted onto the front of the tube, inclined at 45° to the axis of the tube. The aluminium foil, 0.3 mm thick, intercepts half of the emergent beam. The entire arrangement is placed on a photographic plate, which is wrapped in light-tight black paper, so that the plate receives the emtted beam at grazing incidence. The exposed plate shows that the half-beam intercepted by the aluminium foil no longer is symmetrically equivalent to the non-intercepted half-beam. It had undergone an apparent refraction that was accompanied by a strong diffuse scattering. According to Villard, the transmitted radiation forms a fan of rays, the symmetry axis of which is normal to the surface of the metal foil. Villard points out that he had observed the same phenomenon for cathode rays, albeit with a much thinner foil. Villard notices that in almost every experiment the photographic plate reveals traces of a non-refracted beam, which obviously had been propagating in a straight line (through the tin foil). This beam was superimposed on the refracted beam, making it difficult to interpret the photographs. Next, Villard tries to deflect the non-refracted rays in a magnetic field, but they are unaffected. Moreover, these rays are penetrating enough to affect the photographic plate protected by several layers of black paper as well as an aluminium foil. The rays are even able to traverse a 0.2-mm thick lead foil when placed in the beam. Villard writes: "...I think that this effect is due to the presence of non-deviable rays, which are less absorbent than the ones {Gerward: (alpha rays)} that have been described by Mr. Curie. . . . It follows from the facts presented above that the non-deviable rays emitted by radium contain some very penetrating radiations, capable of traversing metal foils and affecting a photographic plate.". The Curies give Villard a much stronger radium sample and three weeks later Villard presents new and more detailed results on the radium rays to the Acade´mie des Sciences. This work is titled "Sur le rayonnement du radium"and is read on April 30, 1900. Willard’s experimental arrangement is similar to his first radium experiment but without the aluminum foil.The radiation from the radium sample is collimated by a long groove in a lead block (sent through a filter which only allows brams in a straight line to pass - interesting how similar collimating and polarizing are - in my view they may be the same or similar phenomenon) and the collimated, single direction group of beams sent consecutively through two photographic plates stacked on top of each other. The deviable rays are bent in a magnetic field before hitting the photographic plates. Villard reports that the first photographic plate shows traces of two distinct beams. One that has been deflected by the magnetic field and broadened, while the other trace is propagated along an absolutely straight line and produces a sharp impression. On the second plate there is only one trace, that from the non-deflected beam and the impression is as sharp and intense as on the first plate. The nondeflective rays, because of the grazing incidence, penetrated at least 1 cm of glass without any noticeable weakening. Even a lead foil, 0.3 mm thick, is found to attenuate the rays only slightly. Villard already associated this penetrative radiation with X rays and concludes that the "X rays" emitted by radium have a considerably larger penetrating power than the deviable rays (electron/beta rays). Less than three weeks later, Villard more boldly states that at the Friday meeting of the Socie´te´ francaise de physique on May 18, 1900 that radium emits rays that are non-deviable and extremely penetrating. Villard states that these new rays, are different from the radium rays observed so far, that they are being extremely penetrating rays and are a kind of X rays. In addition, Villard points out that the easily absorbed radium rays (helium/alpha rays) are analogous to the non-deviable cathode rays (positive ions or Kanalstrahlen) previously observed by J. J. Thomson, Wilhelm Wien, and others. With the deviable rays (electron/beta rays) already having been shown by Becquerel to be analogous to a faster stream of electrons. Villard concludes that the three kinds of radiation (ions, electrons and X rays) known from experiments with cathode-ray tubes are all present in radium rays. So at this early time, Villard already gives a correct interpretation of the three components of radium rays, however this achievement is mostly unrecognized by contempories. Becquerel repeats Villard’s experiment and rejects the presence of the very penetrating rays. Becquerel argues that the existence of these rays can not possibly have escaped attention in the experiments of Mr. and Mrs. Curie, nor in his own experiments. On June 11, 1900, Becquerel fails to mention the newly discovered form of radiation, stating (translated from French): "The radiation of radioactive bodies is composed of two distinct groups: one, consisting of cathode rays, is deviable by a magnetic field and by an electric field; the other one, whose nature is as yet unknown, is non-deviable and apparently composed of rays having various penetrating powers through metals and opaque bodies.". In a Nature article in February 21, 1901, Becquerel mentions Villard’s results stating: "I might add that recently Mr. Villard has proved the existence in the radium radiation of very penetrating rays which are not capable of deviation.". The Curies support Villard’s interpretation of the penetrating rays as a kind of X rays. The name gamma rays is probably invented by Rutherford. In a January 1903 issue of Philosophical Magazine, Rutherford uses the term "rays nondeviable in character, but of very great penetrating power", but in the subsequent February issue, describes alpha, beta and gamma rays writing: " 1. The a rays, which are very easily absorbed by thin layers of matter, and which give rise to the greater portion of the ionization of the gas observed under the usual experimental conditions. 2. The b rays, which consist of negatively charged particles projected with high velocity, and which are similar in all respects to cathode rays produced in a vacuum-tube. 3. The g rays, which are non-deviable by a magnetic field, and which are of a very penetrating character.". Marie Curie notes in her doctoral thesis that "one can distinguish between three types of radiation, which I will denote by the letters a, b and g, following the notation of Rutherford.". Marie Curie includes a gamma radiograph picture in her doctoral thesis. Curie indicates that there there is weak contrast between bone and soft tissue in gamma radiographs, and that there are long exposure times required, compared to the much easier and faster to produce X-ray radiographs. Gamma radiographs will not grow to be as popular as x-ray radiographs.
In 1902 Rutherford will put forward a corpuscular theory for gamma rays writing: "...The question at once arises as to whether these very penetrating rays are projected particles like kathode rays or a type of Ro¨ntgen rays. The fact that the penetrating rays are not deviable by a magnetic field seems, at first sight, to show that they cannot be kathode rays. ... According to the electromagnetic theory, developed by J. J. Thomson and {Oliver} Heaviside, the apparent mass of an electron increases with the speed, and when the velocity of the electron is equal to the velocity of light its apparent mass is infinite. An electron moving with the velocity of light would be unaffected by a magnetic field. It does not seem at all improbable that some of the electrons from thorium and radium are travelling with a velocity very nearly equal to that of light . ... The power of these rapidly moving electrons of penetrating through solid matter increases rapidly with the speed. From general theoretical considerations of the rapid increase of mass with speed, it is to be expected that the penetrating power would increase very rapidly as the speed of light was approached. Now we have already shown that these penetrating rays have very similar properties, as regards absorption and ionisation, to rapidly moving electrons. In addition, they possess the properties of great penetrative power and of non-deviation by a magnetic field, which, according to theory, belong to electrons moving with a velocity very nearly equal to that of light. It is thus possible that these rays are made up of electrons projected with a speed of about 186,000 miles per second.".
William Bragg initially defends a corpuscular theory of X rays and g rays.
(You can see that this battle fought by Thomson, Rutherford and Bragg was most likely to change the view of light, heat, electricity and all matter to a corpuscular view - which - although so apparently simple a task - has even to the modern times not yet succeeded.)
By 1904, Rutherford echos the popular view stating that "g rays are very penetrating Ro¨ntgen rays, which have their source in the atom of the radioactive substance at the moment of the expulsion of the b or kathodic particle.".
In 1912, Max Laue uses a crystal "diffraction" grating for x-rays, and this apparently adds support for the view that x-rays are not particulate but are instead electromagnetic waves in an aether as Maxwell had theorized.
In 1914 Rutherford and Andrade first determined the wavelength of lower frequency gamma rays and then develop a method to measure the small angles of reflection (about 1.5°) of higher frequency gamma rays. So this determining of wavelength, or in a corpuscular view, particle interval, (although a view not popular at the time), confirm the identify of xrays and gamma rays as light rays with higher frequency than rays of visible light.
(note that diffraction is most likely a form of reflection in my view.)
High-voltage X-ray generators will produce X rays with wavelengths in a range overlapping those of gamma rays.
Arthur Holly Compton’s studies of the scattering of X rays lead to the concept of X rays and therefore gamma rays acting as particles.
(It is very interesting that Gamma rays are more penetrating than X rays, and so therefore gamma rays must be the most penetrable form or frequency of matter known - although perhaps this depends on the quantity of mass per unit time colliding with some target.)
(It seems like there really is very little difference between x-rays and gamma rays.)
(This seems like an interesting find, so explore in more detail. Are they recorded on film? How did Villard identify them? How does Villard test their penetration?)
(I think there is a potential alternative explanation in gamma particles being smaller than x-particles, and this explaining the depth of their penetration - as opposed to the idea that the quantity of photons contributes to the penetration. But these ideas need to be examined and shown to all, and physical evidence for and/or against found experimentally).
(Not being moved by particles in electric fields, perhaps implies that these particles are of smaller size and therefore smaller mass - simply too small for many collisions with the particles of electric fields. These theories should be examined and proven false or true and not simply rejected without any explanation offered. In addition, with the N-rays of Blondlot being proven false, I think it is the responsibility of public educators to show visual proof of the existance of gamma beams. Or perhaps Rutherford's view is a possibility, that the particles are so penetrable because of their velocity, and not their size, or perhaps a combination of both size and speed.)
| (chemistry laboratory of the École Normale) Paris, France |
100 YBN
[04/12/1900 AD]
| 4429) Annie Jump Cannon (CE 1863-1941), US astronomer describes a new system of classifying the visible spectra of stars.
In 1901, Annie Jump Cannon notices that stellar temperature is the primary distinguishing feature among different spectra and re-orders the ABC types by temperature instead of Hydrogen absorption-line strength. In addition, most classes are thrown out as redundant. After this, there are only the 7 primary classes recognized today, in order: O B A F G K M. Later work by Cannon and others will add the classes R, N, and S which are no longer in use today. (verify)
After five years of research, Miss Cannon publishes the description of the spectra of 1,122 of the brighter stars, a volume that proves to be the cornerstone on which her larger catalogs are based.
Cannon categorizes the many spectra of stars that have been photographed, and develops a classification system (still in use at Harvard). Cannon shows that with very few exceptions the spectra can be arranged into a continuous series. (explain.) Cannon's work will form the basis of the "Henry Draper Catalogue" which will eventually contain the spectral classifications of 225,300 stars brighter than 9th or 10th magnitude.
(interesting. Find out: how much variety is there in the spectra of stars? How many distinct spectra are there? - see Draper's, Vogel's, Secchi, and Huggins' works for the earliest views of steller and nebuli spectra.)
In 1867, Pietro Angelo Secchi (SeKKE) (CE 1818-1878), Italian astronomer, had proposed four spectral classes of stars. Class 1 has a strong hydrogen line and includes blue and white stars; class 2 has numerous lines and includes yellow stars; class 3 had bands instead of lines, which are sharp toward the red and fuzzy toward the violet and includes both orange and red (stars); finally, class 4 has bands that are sharp toward the violet and fuzzy toward the red and includes only red. Secchi's classification is extended and modified by Edward Pickering and Annie Cannon. Secchi's divisions are later expanded into the Harvard classification system, which is based on a simple temperature sequence.
Cannon first describes her classification system in 1900, and then slightly modified in 1912. Most of the work of classifying the spectra is performed between 1911 and 1915.
In 1922 Cannon's system of classification is adopted by the International Astronomical Union as the official system for the classification of stellar spectra.
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
100 YBN
[05/03/1900 AD]
| 3675) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist using photographic plates as indicators of activity, shows that purified uranium can be separated chemically into a non-active and radioactive ("Uranium X") portion.
Crookes finds that a solution of uranium salt can be treated in such a way as to precipitate a small quantity of material which contains most of the radioactivity, while the uranium left in the solution is almost inactive. Becquerel will show that this more radioactive precipitate is a different product, and that radioactivity involves the change of one element into another.
Crookes' "Uranium X" will be identified as the element Actinium.
Crookes uses photographic plates to measure the quantity of radiation emited from various uranium salts.
| (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
100 YBN
[06/??/1900 AD]
| 3843) John William Strutt 3d Baron Rayleigh (CE 1842-1919), English physicist, applies the Boltzmann-Maxwell law, which expresses the distribution of energy, to frequency (or wavelength) of black body radiation, and adds the exponential factor described by Wien to create a new expression, c1θk2e-c2k/θdk, which relates temperature and the distribution of frequencies of light emited from a black body.
Kirchhoff had first asked how the distribution of frequency of light emited relates to temperature. This equation only holds for low frequency light. Wien's equation, formulated around the same time, only holds for high frequency light. Both equations will be replaced by the work of Planck (state year).
Rayleigh writes this as "Remarks upon the Law of Complete Radiation" in Philosophical Magazine in 1900. This is a brief paper and Rayleigh begins: "By complete radiation I mean the radiation from an ideally black body, which according to Stewart{ULSF: see } and Kirchhoff is a definite function of the absolute temperature θ and the wave-length λ.". Rayleigh talks about Boltzmann and Wiens, function, Paschen's experimental confirmation of Wein's law, and that Wein's law is supported by general thermodynamic grounds by Planck. Rayleigh writes on the accuracy of Wein's equation (2): "The question is one to be settled by experiment; but in the meantime I venture to suggest a modification of (2) {ULSF Wein's law}, which appears to me more probable a priori. Speculation upon this subject is hampered by the difficulties which attend the Boltzmann-Maxwell doctrine of the partition of energy. According to this doctrine every mode of vibration should be alike favoured; and although for some reason not yet explained the doctrine fails in general, it seems possible that it may apply to the graver modes. Let us consider in illustration the case of a stretched string vibrating transversely. According to the Boltzmann-Maxwell law the energy should be equally divided among all the modes, whose frequencies are as 1, 2, 3,... . Hence if k be the reciprocal of λ, representing the frequency, the energy between the limits k and k+dk is (when k is large enough) represented by dk simply.
When we pass from one dimension to three dimensions, and consider for example the vibrations of a cubical mass of air, we have (Theory of Sound, §267) as the equation for k2,
k2 = p2+q2+r2
where p, q, r are integers representing the number of subdivisions in the three directions. If we regard p, q, r as the coordinates of points forming a cubic array, k is the distance of any point from the origin. Accordingly the number of points for which k lies between k and k+dk, proportional to the volume of the corresponding spherical shell, may be represented by k2dk, and this expresses the distribution of energy according to the Boltzmann-Maxwell law, so far as regards the wave-length or frequency. If we apply this result to radiation, we shall have, since the energy in each mode is proportional to θ,
θk2dk, (3)
or if we prefer it,
θλ-4dλ. (4)
....If we introduce the exponential factor {ULSF of Wein's equation (2)}, the complete expression will be
c1θλ-4e-c2/λθdλ. (6)
If, as is probably to be preferred, we make k the independent variable, (6) becomes
c1θk2e-c2k/θdk. (7)
Whether (6) represents the facts of observation as well as (2) I am not in a position to say. It is to be hoped that the question may soon receive an answer at the hands of the distinguished experimenters who have been occupied with this subject.".
This law is now known as the Rayleigh-Jeans law.
(In this equation and the equation of Wein, the light-as-a-particle alternate interpretation would view λ as photon interval, perhaps γ for "interval", but λ for length between particles, as a particle interval length, space length, or interval length, is a possibility.)
(I think there was initially the idea that as a body increased in temperature, the frequency of light increased - and the wavelength decreased, and so a simple representation of this is T=KF where T=temperature and F=frequency and K is a constant to scale frequency to temperature. However, the real phenomenon is not that simple, because as an object gains temperature - or matter in some volume of space gains temperature - many frequencies of photons are sent in all directions - not just a specific monochromatic frequency - although the peak or maximum frequency rises. And so, this apparently was described using a distribution expression, in which a curve describes the intensity or quantity of a particular frequency {or alternatively particle interval, or wavelength} of light. {verify} It would be nice if Rayleigh had provided a frequency of light curve for various temperatures. TODO: plot and show these equations using various values for wavelength and temperature.)
| (Own Laboratory) Terling, England |
100 YBN
[07/02/1900 AD]
| 3784) Ferdinand Adolf August Heirich, Count von Zeppelin, (TSePuliN) (CE 1838-1917), German inventor, flies the first rigid airship (motor-driven dirigible, gas balloon or blimp).
On this day, one of Zeppelin's aluminum balloons, directed by an internal combustion engine (gasoline?), makes the first effective directed flight by a human. This is 3 and a half years before the first heavier-than-air flight of the Wright brothers. The dirigible balloon (which means directable balloon) will be overtaken by the airplane.
The German government sees an advantage of airships over the as yet poorly developed airplanes, and when Zeppelin achieved 24-hour flight in 1906, he receives commissions for an entire fleet. More than 100 zeppelins are used for military operations in World War I. (There are zeppelin raids on London during World War I, but some 40 of the large balloons are destroyed, being a large, (slow moving), and if filled with Hydrogen, explosive target. (In particular with the laser, which can even easily cut through heavier-than-air modern metal planes. I wonder what the largest most powerful laser created yet is. It must be at least a few feet in diameter, and probably tears apart and burns anything within a few miles in front of it. I wonder what frequencies are used and which are most effective.) (Directable balloons are still in use today, the most recognized being the Goodyear blimp.))
(Were other gases used?)
| Lake Constance, Germany |
100 YBN
[07/17/1900 AD]
| 4833) Marconi patents the inductively coupled antenna. In this circuit, the antenna is connected to a primary inductor coil of a transformer and the battery and relay are connected to the physically separated secondary inductor coil of the transformer. This is probably the most common antenna design in public use. (verify) It must be stressed, that clearly wireless technology had advanced far beyond this secretly given at least a century of neuron reading and writing by this time. (verify this is the first publicly known inductively coupled antenna)
| London, England |
100 YBN
[10/19/1900 AD]
| 4327) Max Planck (CE 1858-1947) creates a simple equation that relates the temperature of an object to the frequency of light emitted from and absorbed into the object by presuming energy to exist in discrete units called "energy elements" "Energieelements" (later to be called "quanta" - state by who and when.).
This is the origin of "quantum theory", the theory, that all energy exists in discrete units.
The theory of a quantum, in addition to J. J. Thomson's theory of electricity being made of corpuscles, shifts the focus, somewhat, away from the wave theory for light which was the more popular theory from around 1800 by the work of Thomas Young and August Fresnel, back to a particle theory for light which arose from the work of Isaac Newton and held the majority view from around 1700 to 1800. So in this sense, Planck's development of quantum theory may be remembered most for reasserting a particle theory for light to some extent if not explicitly. Given the secret of neuron reading and writing and many secret microcameras in many houses - it seems clear that what reaches the public is a massively diluted form - from the thoughts of those who have seen thought for years - most of what reaches the public being purposely polluted with known false information to secretly maintain control over the minds of the people of earth through neuron writing.
Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck (CE 1858-1947), German physicist creates a simple equation that describes the distribution of radiation from a black body (one which theoretically absorbs all frequencies of light and therefore, when heated should emit all frequencies of light) accurately over the entire range of frequencies, by presuming energy to exist in discrete units called "quanta".
Planck views a black body as being composed of many individual "resonators". According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Planck’s inference from the behavior of an individual oscillator to the collective behavior of n oscillators is criticized by Lummer and Wien at the Congrés International de Physique at Paris in August 1900, and by E. Pringssheim at the Versammlung Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte at Aachen in September 1899, where Planck learns from the experimentalists about more significant experimental deviations from Wein's law.) The decisive proof for curved "isochromatics" (lines of the temperature function for constant wavelength) against those of Wien’s law (straight lines) is reported orally in February 1900, and on October 7 by Rubens.
Planck finds that in seeking a relationship between the energy emitted or absorbed by a body and the frequency of radiation that Planck has to introduce a constant of proportionality, which can only take integral multiples of a certain quantity. Expressed mathematically, E = nhν, where E is the energy, h is the constant of proportionality, ν is the frequency, and n = 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, etc. In this view, It follows from this that nature was being selective in the amounts of energy it would allow a body to accept and to emit, allowing only those amounts that were multiples of hν. The value of h is very small, so that radiation of energy at the macroscopic level where n is very large is likely to seem to be emitted continuously. The constant h (6.626196 × 10–34 joule second) is known as the Planck constant – the value h = 6.62 × 10–27 erg.sec. What amazes me is that nobody makes the comparison of Planck's constant with a potential mass for a fundamental unit of matter like a photon or x-particle.
Planck's introduction, h, what Planck calls the ‘elementary quantum of action’ is a break from classical physics and soon other workers began to apply the concept that ‘jumps’ in energy could occur. Einstein's explanation of the photoelectric effect (1905), Niels Bohr's theory of the hydrogen atom (1913), and Arthur Compton's investigations of x-ray scattering (1923) are early successful applications of the quantum theory.
The TimeTables of Science, describes this theory of Planck's as stating that substances can emit light only at certain energies, which implies that some physical processes are not continuous byut occur only in specified amounts, later called quanta.
Before this, people thought that a black body would emit radiation (light) in higher frequencies since there are far more higher frequencies than lower frequencies (for example there are less integers from 1000 to 0 than above 1000. ), and in this time, this supposed phenomenon is called the “violet catastrophe”. But in actuality this does not happen (and heated black bodies emit mostly lower frequencies of light). Both Wein and Rayleigh tried to create equations to describe how radiation of a black body is distributed, Wien's equation (which he created from observation only) works well at high frequencies but not low frequencies, and Rayleigh's equation works at low frequencies but not high frequencies. (show equations) Planck's equation (show equation) accurately describes the distribution of radiation (light) for the entire range of frequencies (spectrum). So according to Plank, if energy can only be absorbed or emitted in quanta, when a black body radiates, it will radiate low frequency because radiating low frequency only requires a small quantity of energy to be brought together to form a quantum of low-frequency radiation. But to emit higher frequencies requires more energy and is therefore less probable that additional energy would be brought together. The higher the frequency the less probable the radiation. As temperature increases, the supply of energy is increased and therefore the probability of higher energy quanta being formed is higher. For this reason, as an object heats up, the light radiated turns orange, yellow, and eventually blue. So Plank's equation gives a theoretical basis for Wien's law which was created by observation (of what?). This theory is not accepted by physicists initially, and even Planck thinks it may not correspond to anything real in the universe, and will not accept statistical interpretations of thermodynamics introduced by Boltzmann. (It seems that this theory is based somewhat on the probability of there being enough energy, and that seems like an indirect explanation, instead of a more direct explanation of photons being emitted in increasing frequency as an object is heated by absorbing photons from a heat source.)
This work of Planck's is published in his 1900 paper, "Zur Theorie der Gesetzes der Energieverteilung im Normal-Spektrum" ("On The Theory of the Law of Energy Distribution in the Continuous Spectrum"). According to Oxford's "A Dictionary of Scientists", this paper ranks Max Planck with Albert Einstein as one of the two founders of 20th-century physics. Quantum theory originates from this paper.
In 1905 Einstein will be the first to apply the quantum theory to an observable phenomenon, the photoelectric effect, first observed by Hertz, arguing that radiant energy itself is made of quanta (light quanta, later called photons). In 1907 Einstein will use the quantum hypothesis to interpret the temperature dependence of the specific heats of solids. In 1913 Bohr will use the quantum theory to describe the structure of the atom (asimov claims this will explain many things that 1800s physics could not. It seems to me to be a new theory where there were no theories, and other theories may work equally well and be more logical and intuitive) All physics before 1900 is called "classical physics" and all physics after "modern physics". This quantum theory will evolve into the field of "quantum mechanics", which is mathematical analysis involving quanta.
In 1859–60 Kirchhoff had defined a blackbody as an object that reemits all of the radiant energy incident upon it; i.e., it is a perfect emitter and absorber of radiation. By the 1890s various experimental and theoretical attempts had been made to determine the spectral emission of a black body—the curve displaying how much radiant energy (matter) is emitted at different frequencies for a given temperature of the blackbody.
historian Henry Crew describes this period this way: "...The great paper in which Sir J. J. Thomson described the experimental and quantitative properties of cathode rays in 1897 may be considered as giving the first clue to this structure. {ULSF that is the structure of the atom}. Here it was demonstrated that however the atom may be built up, the electron - which Thomson then called the corpuscle - must be one constituent. The second contribution to this modern atom was given us by Professor Max Planck of Berlin long before its importance as a foundation stone of atomic structure was recognized. The theory that energy is radiated in discrete, finite bundles, or quanta, was enunciated by Planck in 1901. Here Planck does not assert that energy itself is discontinuous or discrete; he merely insists that the energy must attain a finite and definite value, hv, before the resonator or oscillator can send out radiation or absorb radiation. In this paper, he evaluates the universal constant h as 6.55 x 10-27 erg-seconds and defines c as the frequency of the radiation emitted. The quantum, as Planck defines it, is therefore a perfectly definite quantity.".
(There seem to be many mistaken ideas in this, for example, when a black body is heated, new frequencies of photons are being absorbed. In addition, it seems more likely to me that a photon is the same, and a quantum of violet light simply contains more photons/second, and any thought of a quantum of more than one photon is a theoretical concept only. I think the gradual rise in frequency has more to do with the number of photons emitted per second, when hotter, more photons are being emitted (possibly as the result of more atomic movement at increased temperatures, or simply because more photons are being absorbed from the heat source), and this results in a higher frequency of light. Still one important point is that, Foucault and Kirchhoff's theory that atoms emit and absorb exact frequencies of photons is thought to be accurate and so much of the frequency of photons emitted has to do with which atoms are emitted. A black body of iron emits different frequencies than a black body of some other metal. The key is deciding what atoms the black body would be made of, if only a theoretical object, then it seems to me of little value since it no where applies to anything in the universe. I think perhaps people were trying to understand how stars emit light, and how heated objects emit light, and how objects absorb light. There is the interesting idea that the mass is so pushed together inside stars that there is some other distribution of matter besides atoms - like perhaps lattices of photons, or x particles, for example.)
(I find it hard to believe that the frequency would be related to the size of a quantum. In addition, the concept of energy is very abstract. I think this needs more explanation of Planck's equation, how it is used, how it is used to first describe a physical phenomenon.) (Perhaps there is someway to adapt Planck's quanta to photons, number of photons emitted per second)
(Note that this equation for frequency of Planck's can only apply to two or more particles, and generally can only apply to single beams with constant interval - not to non-constant beams, to unregular frequencies, or groups of beams.)
(Is Planck's equation accurate for other beams of particles besides photons?)
(In addition, humans must realize that the concept of energy is very likely a non-existant phenomenon or occurance, because it implies that mass and motion can be exchanged, which seems unlikely to me - so all that any equation that contains a variable like E for energy can express is that - mass=mass and motion=motion for all times and spaces. Although energy can be viewed as a product of mass and motion, as momentum can, and any other combination of mass and motion can be viewed - in which matter and motion are not exchanged.)
I think a more modern and accurate explanation is needed for black body radiation. First black body radiation should probably be more accurately called "black body particle emission". As more particles (and their motions) are added to a black body (for example by particles from the combustion of a gas flame), the quantity of particles emitted from the black body increases. This increase in the rate of particle emissions, from increased particle quantity and increased number of particle collsions results in higher frequencies of particles exiting the black body - simply because more particles are going in the observed direction per second. Simply put it is matter+motion in= matter+motion out. As a strictly theoretical concept as being a perfect absorber and emitter- clearly there would need to be spaces for absorption and emission- the black body would have to contain empty spaces for any absorption- so it seems to be an interesting theoretical object - because by definition as an absorber of matter, a black body cannot be solid matter. So to try and put this in a mathematical equation, might be like this: AverageFrequencyOfEmittedParticles =~ (ParticleMass added/second+ ParticleMotion added/second)t + ExistingBlackBodyParticleMass + ExistingBlackBodyParticleMotion)/VolumeOfBlackBody. The VolumeOfBlackBody should be the number of free spaces where the space is the smallest unit of matter (ParticleMass) possible. Perhaps ParticleMass could be changed to NumberOfParticles if all particles are viewed as identical in mass and as the smallest unit of mass possible. But I think there needs to be more - because the volume of space of the particles extends widely out to the observer - and most of that space is empty - so this is for the volume of space just at the boundary of the black body - presumed to be in the shape of a sphere. In addition there are particles emitted from just a BlackBody based on its temperature - from collisions within the black body. More work needs to be done to model - in particular in 3D through time - how a solid is heated by absorbing particles and how particles are released by particle collision in regular rates. There is also the view that each atom absorbs and emits specific frequency and sizes of particles and this may effect the math and models that most accurately model black body radiation.
It seems possible that Planck's equation is too simple to be useful - in particular because the value of energy is useless. Examine how Planck's equation is used by people and for what practical purpose. Perhaps the importance of Planck's quantum theory is the view that light might be viewed as corpuscular - in publicly supporting a theory similar to the idea of light as a particle. It is interesting how a quanta is viewed, not as a light particle, but instead as a particle of energy - so it is not a full assertion of a light-as-a-particle theory, but tends in that direction.
(I accept that matter and motion can be bundled together into a single unit, however, I reject the idea that the matter and motion can then be exchanged in any way - in other words I reject that matter and motion can ever be exchanged.)
(Interesting that Planck supports Clausius' theory of entropy, which to me seems clearly false, because it violates the conservation of matter, and the conservation of motion principles. In addition, the concept of "order" and "disorder" is purely a personal opinion.)
Planck writes (translated from German): "The recent spectral measurements made by O. Lummer and E. Pringsheim1, and even more notable those by H. Rubens and F. Kurlbaum2, which together confirmed an earlier result obtained by H. Beckmann3, show that the law of energy distribution in the normal spectrum, first derived by W. Wien from molecular-k inetic considerations and later by me from the theory of electromagnetic radiation, is not valid generally. In any case the theory requires a correction, and I shall attempt in the following to accomplish this on the basis of the theory of electromagnetic radiation which I developed. For this purpose it will be necessary first to find in the set of conditions leading to Wien’s energy distribution law that term which can be changed; thereafter it will be a matter of removing this term from the set and making an appropriate substitution for it. In my last article4 I showed that the physical foundations of the electromagnetic radiation theory, including the hypothesis of “natural radiation”, withstand the most severe criticism; and since to my knowledge there are no errors in the calculations, the principle persists that the law of energy distribution in the normal spectrum is completely determined when one succeeds in calculating the entropy S of an irradiated, monochromatic, vibrating resonator as a function of its vibrational energy U. Since one then obtains , from the relationship dS/dU = 1/, the dependence of the energy U on the temperature , and since the energy is also related to the density of radiation at the corresponding frequency by a simple relation5, one also obtains the dependence of this density of radiation on the temperature. The normal energy distribution is then the one in which the radiation densities of all different frequencies have the same temperature. Consequently, the entire problem is reduced to determining S as a function of U, and it is to this task that the most essential part of the following analysis is devoted. In my first treatment of this subject I had expressed S, by definition, as a simple function of U without further foundation, and I was satisfied to show that this from of entropy meets all the requirements imposed on it by thermodynamics. At that time I believed that this was the only possible expression and that consequently Wein’s law, which follows from it, necessarily had general validity. In a later, closer analysis6, however, it appeared to me that there must be other expressions which yield the same result, and that in any case one needs another condition in order to be able to calculate S uniquely. I believed I had found such a condition in the principle, which at the time seemed to me perfectly plausible, that in an infinitely small irreversible change in a system, near thermal equilibrium, of N identical resonators in the same stationary radiation field, the increase in the total entropy SN = NS with which it is associated depends only on its total energy UN = NU and the changes in this quantity, but not on the energy U of individual resonators. This theorem leads again to Wien’s energy distribution law. But since the latter is not confirmed by experience one is forced to conclude that even this principle cannot be generally valid and thus must be eliminated from the theory. Thus another condition must now be introduced which will allow the calculation of S, and to accomplish this it is necessary to look more deeply into the meaning of the concept of entropy. Consideration of the untenability of the hypothesis made formerly will help to orient our thoughts in the direction indicated by the above discussion. In the following a method will be described which yields a new, simpler expression for entropy and thus provides also a new radiation equation which does not seem to conflict with any facts so far determined. 1 Calculations of the Entropy of a Resonator as a Function of its Energy §1. Entropy depends on disorder and this disorder, according to the electromagnetic theory of radiation for the monochromatic vibrations of a resonator when situated in a permanent stationary radiation field, depends on the irregularity with which it constantly changes its amplitude and phase, provided one considers time intervals large compared to the time of one vibration but small compared to the duration of a measurement. If amplitude and phase both remained absolutely constant, which means completely homogeneous vibrations, no entropy could exist and the vibrational energy would have to be completely free to be converted into work. The constant energy U of a single stationary vibrating resonator accordingly is to be taken as time average, or what is the same thing, as a simultaneous average of the energies of a large number N of identical resonators, situated in the same stationary radiation field, and which are sufficiently separated so as not to influence each other directly. It is in this sense that we shall refer to the average energy U of a single resonator. Then to the total energy UN = NU (1) of such a system of N resonators there corresponds a certain total entropy SN = NS (2) of the same system, where S represents the average entropy of a single resonator and the entropy SN depends on the disorder with which the total energy UN is distributed among the individual resonators. §2. We now set the entropy SN of the system proportional to the logarithm of its probability W, within an arbitrary additive constant, so that the N resonators together have the energy EN: SN = k logW + constant (3) In my opinion this actually serves as a definition of the probability W, since in the basic assumptions of electromagnetic theory there is no definite evidence for such a probability. The suitability of this expression is evident from the outset, in view of its simplicity and close connection with a theorem from kinetic gas theory. §3. It is now a matter of finding the probability W so that the N resonators together possess the vibrational energy UN. Moreover, it is necessary to interpret UN not as a continuous, infinitely divisible quantity, but as a discrete quantity composed of an integral number of finite equal parts. Let us call each such part the energy element ; consequently we must set UN = Pε (4) where P represents a large integer generally, while the value of ε is yet uncertain. Now it is evident that any distribution of the P energy elements among the N resonators can result only in a finite, integral, definite number. Every such form of distribution we call, after an expression used by L. Boltzmann for a similar idea, a “complex”. If one denotes the resonators by the numbers 1, 2, 3, ... N, and writes these side by side, and if one sets under each resonator the number of energy elements assigned to it by some arbitrary distribution, then one obtains for every complex a pattern of the following form: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 7 38 11 0 9 2 20 4 4 5 Here we assume N = 10, P = 100. The number R of all possible complexes is obviously equal to the number of arrangements that one can obtain in this fashion for the lower row, for a given N and P. For the sake of clarity we should note that two complexes must be considered different if the corresponding number patterns contain the same numbers but in a different order. From combination theory one obtains the number of all possible complexes as: R = N(N + 1)(N + 2) · · · ·(N + P − 1) 1 · 2 · 3 · · · ·P = (N + P − 1)! (N − 1)!P! Now according to Stirling’s theorem, we have in the first approximation: N! = NN Consequently, the corresponding approximation is:
R = (N + P)N+P/NN · PP
§4. The hypothesis which we want to establish as the basis for further calculation proceeds as follows: in order for the N resonators to possess collectively the vibrational energy UN, the probability W must be proportional to the number R of all possible complexes formed by distribution of the energy UN among the N resonators; or in other words, any given complex is just as probable as any other. Whether this actually occurs in nature one can, in the last analysis, prove only by experience. But should experience finally decide in its favor it will be possible to draw further conclusions from the validity of this hypothesis about the particular nature of resonator vibrations; namely in the interpretation put forth by J. v. Kries9 regarding the character of the “original amplitudes, comparable in magnitude but independent of each other”. As the matter now stands, further development along these lines would appear to be premature. §5. According to the hypothesis introduced in connection with equation (3), the entropy of the system of resonators under consideration is, after suitable determination of the additive constant: SN = k logR = k{(N + P) log(N + P) − N logN − P log P} (5) and by considering (4) and (1): SN = kN{(1 + U/ε)log(1 + U/ε) - (U/ε)log(U/ε)}
Thus, according to equation (2) the entropy S of a resonator as a function of its energy U is given by: S = k{(1 + U/ε)log(1+U/ε) - (U/ε)log(U/ε) (6)
2 Introduction of Wien’s Displacement Law §6. Next to Kirchoff’s theorem of the proportionality of emissive and absorptive power, the so-called displacement law, discovered by and named after W. Wien, which includes as a special case the Stefan- Boltzmann law of dependence of total radiation on temperature, provides the most valuable contribution to the firmly established foundation of the theory of heat radiation, In the form given by M. Thiesen it reads as follows: E · dλ = θ5ψ(λθ) · dλ where λ is the wavelength, E · dλ represents the volume density of the “black-body” radiation within the spectral region λ to λ + dλ, θ represents temperature and ψ(x) represents a certain function of the argument x only. §7. We now want to examine what Wien’s displacement law states about the dependence of the entropy S of our resonator on its energy U and its characteristic period, particularly in the general case where the resonator is situated in an arbitrary diathermic medium. For this purpose we next generalize Thiesen’s form of the law for the radiation in an arbitrary diathermic medium with the velocity of light c. Since we do not have to consider the total radiation, but only the monochromatic radiation, it becomes necessary in order to compare different diathermic media to introduce the frequency n instead of the wavelength λ. Thus, let us denote by u · dν the volume density of the radiation energy belonging to the spectral region ν to ν + dν; then we write: u · dν instead of E · dλ; c/ν instead of λ, and c · dν/ν2 instead of dλ. From which we obtain u = θ5 (c/ν2) ψ (cθ/ν)
Now according to the well-known Kirchoff-Clausius law, the energy emitted per unit time at the frequency ν and temperature θ from a black surface in a diathermic medium is inversely proportional to the square of the velocity of propagation c2; hence the energy density u is inversely proportional to c3 and we have: u = θ5 (θ/ν2c3) · f(θ/ν)
where the constants associated with the function f are independent of c. In place of this, if f represents a new function of a single argument, we can write: u = ν3/c3 · f(θ/ν) (7) and from this we see, among other things, that as is well known, the radiant energy u · λ3 at a given temperature and frequency is the same for all diathermic media.
§8. In order to go from the energy density u to the energy U of a stationary resonator situated in the radiation field and vibrating with the same frequency ν, we use the relation expressed in equation (34) of my paper on irreversible radiation processes: K = (ν2/c2)U (K is the intensity of a monochromatic linearly, polarized ray), which together with the well-known equation: u = 8πK/c
yields the relation: u =(8πν2/c3)U (8)
From this and from equation (7) follows: U = ν · f(θ/ν)
where now c does not appear at all. In place of this we may also write: θ = ν · f(U/ν) (9)
§9. Finally, we introduce the entropy S of the resonator by setting 1/θ = dS/dU
We then obtain:
dS/dU = 1/ν · f(U/ν)
and integrated:
S = f(U/ν) (10)
that is, the entropy of a resonator vibrating in an arbitrary diathermic medium depends only on the variable U/ν, containing besides this only universal constants. This is the simplest form of Wien’s displacement law known to me.
§10. If we apply Wien’s displacement law in the latter form to equation (6) for the entropy S, we then find that the energy element ε must be proportional to the frequency ν, thus: ε = hν and consequently: S = k{ (1 + U/hν)log (1 + U/hν) - (U/hν)log(U/hν) }
here h and k are universal constants.
By substitution into equation (9) one obtains: 1/θ = (k/hν)log(1 + hν/U)
U= hν/(ehν/kθ-1) (11)
and from equation (8) there then follows the energy distribution law sought for: u =(8πhν3/c3) · 1/(ehν/kθ - 1) (12)
or by introducing the substitutions given in 7, in terms of wavelength λ instead of the frequency: E = 8πch/λ5 · 1/(ech/kλθ − 1) (13)
I plan to derive elsewhere the expressions for the intensity and entropy of radiation progressing in a diathermic medium, as well as the theorem for the increase of total entropy in nonstationary radiation processes.
3 Numerical Values
§11. The values of both universal constants h and k may be calculated rather precisely with the aid of available measurements. F. Kurlbaum, designating the total energy radiating into air from 1 sq cm of a black body at temperature t°C in 1 sec by St, found that:
S100 − S0 = 0.0731 ·watt/cm2 = 7.31 · 105 · erg/cm2·sec
From this one can obtain the energy density of the total radiation energy in air at the absolute temperature 1:
(4 · 7.31 · 105)/3 · 1010 · (3734 − 2734) = 7.061 · 10−15 · erg/cm3·deg4
On the other hand, according to equation (12) the energy density of the total radiant energy for θ = 1 is:
{ULSF: see image or translated paper for equations}
and by termwise integration: u* = 8πh/c3 · 6(k/h)4 (1+ 1/24 + 1/34 + 1/44 + ...)
=48πk4/c3h3 · 1.0823
If we set this equal to 7.061 · 10−15, then, since c = 3 · 1010 cm/sec, we obtain: k4/h3 = 1.1682 · 1015 (14)
§12. O. Lummer and E. Pringswim determined the product λmθ, where λm is the wavelength of maximum energy in air at temperature θ, to be 2940 micron·degree. Thus, in absolute measure: λm = 0.294 cm · deg
On the other hand, it follows from equation (13), when one sets the derivative of E with respect to θ equal to zero, thereby finding λ = λmθ
(1 − ch/5kλm )· ech/kλmθ = 1
and from this transcendental equation:
λmθ = ch/4.9651 · k
consequently: h/k = 4.9561 · 0.294/3 · 1010 = 4.866 · 10−11
From this and from equation (14) the values for the universal constants become:
h = 6.55 · 10−27 erg · sec (15)
k = 1.346 · 10−16 · erg/deg(16)
These are the same number that I indicated in my earlier communication.".
(Make a record for earlier communication - does this concept of constants h and k originate earlier than this work?)
(Verify translation is public domain)
Note that Planck does not here use the term "quantum" (determine when this word is first used). Planck here calls these resonators "energy elements" "Energieelement".
(That Planck derives values from equations relating to the concept of Entropy - I have doubts about the validity of the proof - because in my view entropy is not an accurate theory. So, while h may have meaning in terms of mass at some point, I am having trouble finding meaning or use for k. I think it is important to move these ideas into the paradigm of material light particles - and perhaps that all matter is made of light particles and/or even smaller particles - such as an x particle.)
(It seems clear that these constants can only represent a very rough estimate because of the very difficult nature of measuring heat - and the precise quantity of matter in some space.)
(Explore more fully the black body experiments cited by Planck of Kurlbaum - what matter was used to model a black body? Kurlbaum's numbers appear to be theoretical/mathematical only - and not based on actual observation.)
(Notice that ergs is measured in cm-gram-seconds and so is a combination of space, mass and time. Clearly one of the most interesting parts of this paper is: "...the energy element ε must be proportional to the frequency ν, thus: ε = hν..."
The energy element is one resonator, and these energy elements are then summed together for an average energy of the entire black body. Interesting that frequency replaces 1/2 velocity squared in the traditional equation for kinetic energy. If viewed as energy=1/2mv^2 and these 2 quantities are equal, then ε = hν= h(cm-g-s)(particles/s) ... could this be = h(cm-g-s)(particles-cm/s) viewing frequency as a measurement also of space. Clearly some portion of h represents mass. Perhaps E could be reduced to simply mass*frequency. Mass being the mass of the particle beam being measured - a beam in which each particle has identical mass and regular frequency. Then frequency would replace velocity squared in the kinetic energy equation. So that is a basic question: can velocity squared be identical to frequency, and/or frequency together with some component of Planck's constant h? The equation for momentum, p=mv would be p=mf/v. Frequency presumes a constant velocity for particles - although perhaps this can vary for each different beam and particle type. I think I am working towards trying to find some constant velocity for some basic particle - and it may be more accurate that, although motion is always conserved, motion is transfered from particle to particle - and so - there may be no constant motion for any particle - particles may have variable velocities, accelerations, etc. It is interesting to wonder about how acceleration as a motion must be conserved because the principle of conservation of motion, which I basically accept, requires this. So many equations using the concept of energy seem useless to me, since this is combining quantities that cannot be exchanged - energy has an inaccurate theoretical basis. Perhaps there is some way of equating frequency and particle mass into a measurement of energy - strictly to create a summed quantity for comparison of beams of different mass particles and frequencies. I would drop h and use E=mf which would be in units gram-particles/second or perhaps p=mf since this is a quantity - perhaps it could be simply called beam strength or something - and be mass of particle times frequency times number of beams- and then I would add the 2-d aspect of multiple beams. It seems then that much of the goal here is to find a way of comparing particle beams using some combined quantity.)
(Planck's and other thermodynamic theoretician's works seems to have the goal of trying to relate the frequencies of particles - mostly light particles - emitted from incandescent bodies, based on their temperature. So I think it is important to put in real experimental terms - what the goals are - because with theory and applying math to physical phenomena - many times the actual physical phenomena are lost, and so is the use of any mathematical theories developed.)
(Get copy of original October and December papers in both German and English.)
(The German version stars "Die neueren..." - so close to the all important "neuron".)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 3858) (Sir) David Gill (CE 1843-1914), Scottish astronomer in collaboration with others, uses the 3 minor planets (asteroids) Iris, Victoria, and Sappho, to determine solar parallax. They reach the value: 8.802" for solar parallax. (State distance)
Solar parallax determines the astronomical unit, which is the distance from the Sun to planet Earth.
In 1888–89 Gill had performed with the help of many astronomers, systematic observation of selected minor planets with the heliometer, and these results lead to this determination of solar parallax with modern accuracy.
The exceptionally favorable oppositions of Iris in 1888, and of Victoria, and Sappho in 1889, give an excellent opportunity to use a number of very powerful heliometers to estimate the scale of the star system. Gill gets the cooperation in the observations from a number of heliometer observers, especially from Dr Elkin of Yale, and from Dr Auwers of Berlin. Gill creates a program that is carried out by concerted observations of the three asteroids, made at the Cape of Good Hope in the southern hemisphere, and at New Haven, Gottingen, Leipzig, Bamberg, and Oxford in the northern hemisphere. The comparison stars are also carefully measured.
Gill had tried to measure parallax by measuring the position of Venus and Mars, but finds that their discs have fuzzy boundaries because of their atmospheres. It occurs to Gill, as it had previously to Galle that observations of asteroids which are star-like points of light might result in more accurate measurements (of position and therefore of parallax). All observations are complete in 1889. Nine years later the asteroid Eros will be used, which is located between the earth and Mars, by Harold Jones to make a more accurate estimate.
| Cape of Good Hope, Africa |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4053) Mendel's laws of inheritance rediscovered and publicised.
Hugo Marie De Vries (Du VRES) (CE 1848-1935), Dutch botanist finds the work of he Austrian Monk, Gregor Mendel, published 34 years earlier in 1866 on the breeding of peas, and announces his own findings of Mendel's laws. This stimulates both Karl Correns (CE 1864–1933) (in Germany) and Erich von Tschermak-Seysenegg (in Austria) Erich Tschermak von Seysenegg (CRmoK FuN ZIZuneK) (CE 1871-1962) to publish their similar laws of inheritance.
All three accept that Mendel is the first to identify the laws of inheritance.
(By 1900 perhaps secret electric microphone, camera and neuron networks connect many people, and insiders may communicate and work together in teams to "go public" with some progressive theory or phenomenon publicly.)
| (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4058) Friedrich Ernst Dorn (CE 1848-1916), German physicist, shows that radium produces a gas that, like radium, is also radioactive. This gas will be shown to be Radon, and is element 86, the largest in Ramsay's family of inert gases, until the creation of element 118.
Dorn writes (translated from German): "Rutherford noticed that a sweeping stream of air over thorium or thorium compounds, even after being filtered through cotton, has the property of discharging an electroscope. . . . In a second work Rutherford also investigated the ‘secondary activity’ of the emanation { translator notes: the solid material that coats the vessel walls that is formed as radon continues along its decay sequence}. ... Rutherford said that other radioactive substances (such as uranium) did not exhibit the same properties as thorium. ... I have adopted the approach of Rutherford and have taken a second look at other radioactive substances available locally at our Institute...". Dorn repeats Rutherford’s procedure, using an electrometer to detect activity, and finds that indeed uranium and polonium do not display the emanation phenomenon of thorium, but that radium does. Dorn does not speculate about the nature of the emanation.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica: "Natural radon consists of three isotopes, one from each of the three natural radioactive-disintegration series (the uranium, thorium, and actinium series). Discovered in 1900 by German chemist Friedrich E. Dorn, radon-222 (3.823-day half-life), the longest-lived isotope, arises in the uranium series. The name radon is sometimes reserved for this isotope to distinguish it from the other two natural isotopes, called thoron and actinon, because they originate in the thorium and the actinium series, respectively.
Radon-220 (thoron; 51.5-second half-life) was first observed in 1899 by the British scientists Robert B. Owens and Ernest Rutherford, who noticed that some of the radioactivity of thorium compounds could be blown away by breezes in the laboratory. Radon-219 (actinon; 3.92-second half-life), which is associated with actinium, was found independently in 1904 by German chemist Friedrich O. Giesel and French physicist André-Louis Debierne. Radioactive isotopes having masses ranging from 204 through 224 have been identified, the longest-lived of these being radon-222, which has a half-life of 3.82 days. All the isotopes decay into stable end-products of helium and isotopes of heavy metals, usually lead.".
| (University of Halle) Halle, Germany |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4189) Karl Martin Leonhard Albrecht Kossel (KoSuL) (CE 1853-1927) German biochemist and Kutscher publish the silver-baryta method for the determination of the basic amino acids. For many years this is the best method available for the analysis of basic amino acids.
| (University of Marburg) Marburg, Germany |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4215) George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor sells a low cost camera to the public. This is the first of the famous BROWNIE Cameras. This camera is sold for $1 and uses film that sells for 15 cents a roll. For the first time, the hobby of photography is within the financial reach of almost anybody.
At this time, in parallel, secretly from the public, it seems clear that microscopic cameras may have been in service by the phone companies of earth, capturing not only images in the visible spectrum, but images and sounds translated from the heat portion of the light particle spectrum emitted by humans and other species. In fact, to some extent, the growth of Eastman's company may have shadowed the phone companies technological image and sound recording growth- but Eastman, the supplier to the public, trailing, of course, extremely far behind the phone companies to a ridiculous extent - the telegraph and then phone companies seeing and hearing thought since 1810 presumably.
| (Eastman Kodak Company) New York City, NY, USA |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4303) James Edward Keeler (CE 1857-1900), US astronomer using the 36 inch Crossley reflector telescope photographs thousands of galaxies, and shows that the vast majority of are spiral shaped galaxies. Keeler estimates that the telescope has photographed 120,000 galaxies. Before this only 10-15,000 galaxies (nebulae) had been identified. Keeler's photographs reveal how much spiral nebulae, later identified as exterior galaxies, outnumber all the other hazy objects detectable in the visible universe.
Keeler photographs show that the spiral form is the rule instead of the exception.
(interesting that there are more spirals than nebulae, or elliptical (globular) galaxies. Perhaps in the cycle of universes, this part is young, or perhaps the rate of evolving advanced life is much slower than the formation of spiral galaxies from emitted photons.) (Are these photographs of spiral galaxies the first photographs of spiral galaxies that the public may see?) (Are these photgraphs published and if yes, where?)
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, CA, USA |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4384) (Sir) Frederick Gowland Hopkins (CE 1861-1947), English biochemist identifies tryptophan, one of the amino acid building blocks of proteins. Hopkins will go on to show the essential role of tryptophan in the diet, since mice fed on the protein zein, lacking tryptophan, die within two weeks, while mice given the same diet with the amino acid do not die so quickly.
(How do the rat's die without the required amino acids?)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4395) Emil Wiechert (VEKRT) (CE 1861-1928), German seismologist invents an "inverted-pendulum" seismograph which replaces the seismograph of John Milne. (show image and explain how it works) ( Asimov states that this basic design is still the main design in use.) This seismograph (seismometer?) allows measurements accurate enough to allow analysis of the inner structure of the earth. Wiechert suggests the presence of a dense core, something Beno Gutenberg will soon demonstrate to be true. (dense compared to what? dense enough to be solid? I think the view is that the inside of a planet or star is molten liquid, but that there must be a large amount of pressure and density implies that it must be in solid form - and very compacted - only to become liquid when free space is made around it.)
| |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4426) Frederic Stanley Kipping (CE 1863-1949), English chemist synthesizes "silicone" molecules, using the Grignard reaction.
(Find image of Kipping)
At first Kipping is primarily interested in preparing optically active silicon compounds. Silicon is one of the most abundant elements in the Earth's crust, but silicon can be difficult to work with. François Auguste Victor Grignard (1871-1935) had developed a method of synthesis that greatly facilitates working with silicon. Using the newly available Grignard reagents, Kipping can synthesize many organic compounds containing one or more atoms of silicon. Kipping also shows that long chains made up of alternating silicon and oxygen atoms can be created. Kipping's studies of organic silicon compounds from 1900 are published in a series of 51 papers.
From this work will be created "silicones". Silicones exhibit exceptional high temperature stability and water resistance that make them valuable substitutes for greases and oils. Silicones can be prepared in forms ranging from free-flowing liquids to heavy greases. During World War II silicones will be used as synthetic rubbers, water repellents, hydraulic fluids and greases. So "silicones" will become important as greases, hydraulic fluids, synthestic rubbers, water repellents (for example around plumbing and water using devices like bath tubs), and other uses (for example breast implants). The silicones are complicated molecules with long changes of silicon atoms alternating with oxygen atoms, with organic groupings attached to each silicon atom. Stock will investigate substituting carbon molecules with boron.
In 1900 Grignard announced the creation of what are now called "Grignard reagents", a series of reagents that are made by using magnesium ether and a variety of compounds. Grignard was searching for a catalyst that will allow a methyl group (one carbon connected to three hydrogen atoms) to attach to a molecule. Frankland had prepared combinations of zinc with organic compounds by using diethyl ether as the solvent, and Grignard finds that he can do the same thing with magnesium.
(is there carbon in the silicones or does silicon replace carbon?)
(This is evidence of how synthetic compound creation is useful and interesting to life on earth. It is amazing that many molecules we use are created by humans and do not occur naturally on earth. It is an indication of an advanced civilization, although viewing the distance to having our own globular cluster, we can see how close to the starting point we are.)
Kipping and Pope had also found evidence of stereoisomerism for nitrogen and other atoms. Stereoisomerism is when a molecule contains the same number and kind of atomic groupings as another but has a different spatial arrangement, therefore exhibiting different properties. Stereoisolmerism was first explained in connection with the carbon atom by Van't Hoff and by Le Bel in atoms other than carbon. (chronology - make new record)
| (University College, Nottingham, now Nottingham University) Nottingham, England |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4465) (Sir) William Boog Leishman (lEsmaN) (CE 1865-1926), Scottish physician identifies that the cause of the disease "kala-azar" (leishmaniasis, also known as "dumdum fever") is a protist (Leishmania).
Leisman delays publication until 1903 and is forced to share credit with C. Donovan, who independently repeats this work.
Also in 1900 Leisman develops the widely used Leishman's stain. This is a compound of methylene blue and eosin that soon is adopted as the standard stain for the detection of such protozoan parasites as Plasmodium (malaria parasite) in the blood.
Leishman develops a vaccine against typhoid fever and is credited with reducing the incidence of the disease. (chronology)
| (Army Medical School) Netley, England |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4470) Moses Gomberg (CE 1866-1947), Russian-US chemist prepares the first free radical, triphenylmethyl.
A free radical is an atom or group of atoms that has at least one unpaired electron and is therefore unstable and highly reactive. In animal tissues, free radicals can damage cells and are believed to accelerate the progression of cancer, cardiovascular disease, and age-related diseases.
Gomberg initially tries to prepare hexaphenylethane, the next fully phenylated hydrocarbon of the series. Gomberg makes use of the classical reaction of a metal on an appropriate halide:
2 (C6 H5)3 CX + metal→(C6 H5)6 C2 + metal halide.
The use of either triphenylmethyl bromide or chloride with sodium fails to yield a product, but substitution of silver for sodium leads to a reaction in which a white crystalline product began to separate after heating the reaction mixture for several hours at the boiling point of the benzene solvent. The crystalline product is assumed to be hexaphenylethane, but elementary analysis yielded 87.93 percent carbon and 6.04 percent hydrogen (calculated for hexaphenylethane, C = 93.83, H = 6.17). Gomberg carefully repeats his test and gets similar results, and is forced to conclude that he is preparing an oxygenated compound (which proves to be the peroxide 6 C2 O2).
Gomberg then repeats the reaction of triphenylmethyl chloride and silver in an atmosphere of carbon dioxide. This time, there is no solid product but the yellow color of the solution indicates that a reaction has occurred. Removal of the benzene solvent leaves a colorless solid of unexpectedly high reactivity toward oxygen and halogens. It had been expected that hexaphenylethane would be a colorless solid characterized by chemical inertness. In his first publication on the subject, Gomberg writes "...The experimental evidence presented above forces me to the conclusion that we have to deal here with a free radical, triphenylmethyl, (C6 H5)3C. On this assumption alone do the results described above become intelligible and receive an adequate explanation...".
The announcement of the preparation of a stable free radical is received with skepticism. Gomberg establishes the accuracy of his conclusion by studying the properties of his substance and preparing additional substances showing freeradical properties.
Triphenylmethyl, has a single carbon with three carbon rings attached. Since carbon has 4 valences, the fourth valence must remain free and this is the first example of a "free radical". This atom is very reactive and strongly colored in (water?) solution. Gomberg creates this molecule when unsuccessfully trying to create hexaphenylethane, which is composed of six rings of carbon atoms attached to two carbon atoms in the center. Pauling's theory of resonance will explain why triphenylmethyl is so unusually stable for a free radical that it can actually be isolated in solution and last long enough to be studied. Gomberg develops the first useful antifreeze for automobile radiators, ethylene glycol. (chronology)
| (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4478) Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (CE 1866-1932), Canadian-US physicist invents an electrolytic detector to detect radio signals. This is a device that is more sensitive than other radio telephone detectors.
(describe in detail - find patent)
| (Western University of Pennsylvania, now the University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, USA |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4504) Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff (iPoTYeF) (CE 1867-1952), Russian-US chemist shows that organic reactions taking place at high temperatures can be influenced in their course by varying the nature of the substance they are in contact with. Before this people thought organic molecules break in unpredictable pieces in high temperatures.
| (Mikhail Artillery Academy ) St. Petersburg, Russia |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4725) François Auguste Victor Grignard (GrEnYoR) (CE 1871-1935), French chemist announces the creation of what are now called "Grignard reagents", a series of reagents that are made by using magnesium, ether and a variety of compounds. (show atomic diagrams in 3D)
Grignard was searching for a catalyst that will allow a methyl group (one carbon connected to three hydrogen atoms) to attach to a molecule. Frankland had prepared combinations of zinc with carbon (organic) compounds by using diethyl ether as the solvent, and Grignard finds that he can do the same thing with magnesium, (creating a very useful magnesium-ether.) This adds a powerful new tool for synthesizing in chemistry.
When Grignard is looking for a doctoral thesis topic, Philippe Antoine Barbier, the head of the Lyon chemkistry department, recommends that Grignard study a variation on the Saytzeff reaction by using methyl iodide and magnesium instead of zinc. Grinard learns about the difficulties others have experienced with organomagnesium compounds which ignite spontaneously in air or in carbon dioxide, so Grinard makes use of the finding of E. Frankland in 1859 and J. Wanklyn in 1861 who solved a similar problem with zinc alkyls by keeping them in anhydrous ether. Grignard mixes magnesium turnings in anhydrous ether with methyl iodide at room temperature, preparing what will come to be known as the Grignard reagent. The Grignard reagent can be used for a reaction with a ketone or an aldehyde without first being isolated. On hydrolyzing with dilute acid, the corresponding tertiary or secondary alcohol is produced in much better yield than Barbier had been able to obtain. Grignard's doctoral dissertation (1901) describes the preparation of alcohols, acids, and hydrocarbons by means of reactions of organomagnesium compounds.
At the time of his death some 6,000 papers reporting applications of the Grignard reaction will have been published.
| (University of Lyons) Lyons, France |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 4806) Karl Schwarzschild (sVoRTSsILD or siLD) (CE 1873-1916), German astronomer is the first to find that for a variable star the range of magnitude (brightness) is larger photographically than visually, and to theorize that this is the result of a rythmic change in surface temperature, which is the currently accepted view.
Schwarzschild photographs 367 stars, which include two that are known to vary in brightness. In following one of the variables, eta Aquilae, through several of its cycles, Schwarzschild finds that the changes in magnitude cover a considerably larger range photographically than visually and explains this difference to a rhythmic change in surface temperature. This change in temperature happens in all similar stars—the Cepheids.
(Are there nonperiodic variable stars?) (But why does a star experience a change in temperature? Perhaps some kind of material that falls in and then back out of a star?)
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany (presented, but photos captured in Vienna, Austria) |
100 YBN
[1900 AD]
| 6018) Nikolay Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (CE 1844-1908), Russian composer, composes "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" which contains the famous "The Flight of the Bumblebee".
| Saint Petersberg, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) |
99 YBN
[01/01/1901 AD]
| 4252) Clarence Erwin McClung (CE 1870-1946), suggests that the unpaired "accessory" chromosome (later called the X by Edmund Wilson), might determine gender.
| (University of Kansas) Kansas, USA |
99 YBN
[01/23/1901 AD]
| 4485) John Stone Stone (CE 1869-1943) invents a radio direction finder.
(more details)
| Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
99 YBN
[02/07/1901 AD]
| 4119) Walter Reed (CE 1851-1902), US military surgeon, shows that yellow fever is caused by the bite of an infected mosquito (Stegomyia fasciata, later renamed Aedes aegypti) and that yellow fever can also be transmitted by injecting blood drawn from a person suffering from yellow fever.
Reed helps to stop yellow fever by destroying the Aedes mosquito breeding sites and using mosquito netting to prevent them from biting people. In this way Havana, Cuba and other nations get rid of yellow fever. The Panama canal will be built using these mosquito-killing techniques by Gorgas.
| (Pan American Medical Congress) Habana, Cuba |
99 YBN
[02/14/1901 AD]
| 6342) William Herbert Rollins (1852-1929) kills guinea pigs with x-rays.
| Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
99 YBN
[03/02/1901 AD]
| 4435) Wilhelm Wien (VEN) (CE 1864-1928), German physicist, deflects Goldstein's canal rays ("kanalstrahlen") with the help of combined electric and magnetic fields, recognizes their corpuscular nature, that they are positively charged, and determines their velocity to be about 3.6 X 107 centimeters per second.
Wein publishes this as "Untersuchungen über die elektrische Entladung in verdünnten Gasen" ("Studies on the electrical discharge in diluted gases"). See also and . (Give partial or full translation of 3 papers)
In 1905 Wien will determine the lower boundary of the mass of the "positive electron" (called "Kanalstrahlen") as being that of the hydrogen ion.
| (Wurzburg University) Wurzburg, Germany |
99 YBN
[04/19/1901 AD]
| 4266) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, publishes "The Existence of Bodies Smaller than Atoms" writing: "The masses of the atoms of the various gases were first investigated about thirty years ago by methods due to Loschmidt, Johnstons Stoney and Lord Kelvin. These physicists, using the principles of the kinetic theory of gases, and making certain assumptions (which it must be admitted are not entirely satisfactory) as to the shape of the atom, determined the mass of an atom of a gas; and when once the mass of an atom of one substance is known the masses of the atoms of all other substances are easily deduced by well-known chemical considerations. The results of these investigations might be thought to leave not much room for the existence of anything smaller than ordinary atoms, for they showed that in a cubic centimetre of gas at atmospheric pressure and at 0° C. there are about 20 million, million, million (2 X 1019) molecules of the gas.
Though some of the arguments used to get this result are open to question, the result itself has been confirmed by considerations of quite a different kind. Thus, Lord Rayleigh has shown that this number of molecules per cubic centimetre gives about the right value for the optical opacity of the air; while a method which I will now describe, by which we can directly measure the number of molecules in a gas, leads to a result almost identical with that of Loschmidt. This method is founded on Faraday's laws of electrolysis; we deduce from these laws that the current through an electrolyte is carried by the atoms of the electrolyte, and that all these atoms carry the same charge, so that the weight of the atoms required to carry a given quantity of electricity is proportional to the quantity carried. We know too, by the results of experiments on electrolysis, that co carry the unit charge of electricity requires a collection of atoms of hydrogen which together weigh about one-tenth of a milligram; hence, if we can measure the charge of electricity on an atom of hydrogen, we see that one-tenth of this charge will be the weight in milligrams of the atom of hydrogen. This result is for the case when electricity passes through a liquid electrolyte. I will now explain how we can measure the mass of the carriers of electricity required to convey a given charge of electricity through a rarefied gas. In this case the direct methods which are applicable to liquid electrolytes cannot be used; but there are other, if more indirect, methods by which we can solve the problem. The first case of conduction of electricity through gases we shall consider is that of the so-called cathode rays—those streamers from the negative electrode in a vacuum tube which produce the well-known green phosphorescence on the glass of the tube. These rays are now known to consist of negatively electrified particles moving with great rapidity. Let us see how we can determine the electric charge carried by a given mass of these particles. We can do this by measuring the effect of electric and magnetic forces on the particles. If these are charged with electricity they ought to be deflected when they are acted on by an electric force. It was some time, however, before such a deflection was observed, and many attempts to obtain this deflection were unsuccessful. The want of success was due to the fact that the rapidly moving electrified particles which constitute the cathode rays make the gas through which they pass a conductor of electricity; the particles are thus, as it were, moving inside conducting tubes which screen them off from an external electric field ; by reducing the pressure of the gas inside the tube to such an extent that there was very little gas left to conduct, I was able to get rid of this screening effect and obtain the deflection of the rays by an electrostatic field. The cathode rays are also deflected by a magnet; the force exerted on them by the magnetic field is at right angles to the magnetic force, at right angles also to the velocity of the particle, and equal to Hev sin θ, where H is the magnetic force, e the charge on the particle and θ the angle between H and v. Sir George Stokes showed long ago that, if the magnetic force was at right angles to the velocity of the particle, the latter would describe a circle whose radius is mv/eH (if m is the mass of the particle); we can measure the radius of this circle, and thus find m/ve. To find v, let an electric force F and a magnetic force H act simultaneously on the particle, the electric and magnetic forces being both at right angles to the path of the particle and also at right angles to each other. Let us adjust these forces so that the effect of the electric force which is equal to Fe just balances that of the magnetic force which is equal to Hev. "When this is the case Fe = Hev, or v =F/H. We can thus find t, and, knowing from the previous experiment the value of vm/e, we deduce the value of m/e. The value of m/e found in this way was about 10-7, and other methods used by Wiechert, Kaufmann and Lenard have given results not greatly different. Since m/e = 10-7, we see that to carry unit charge of electricity by the particles forming the cathode rays only requires a mass of these particles amounting to one ten-thousandth of a milligram, while to carry the same charge by hydrogen atoms would require a mass of one-tenth of a milligram. Thus, to carry a given charge of electricity by hydrogen atoms requires a mass a thousand times greater than to carry it by the negatively electrified particles which constitute the cathode rays; and it is very significant that, while the mass of atoms required to carry a given charge through a liquid electrolyte depends upon the kind of atom—being, for example, eight times greater for oxygen than for hydrogen atoms—the mass of cathode ray particles required to carry a given charge is quite independent of the gas through which the rays travel and of the nature of the electrode from which they start. The exceedingly small mass of these particles for a given charge compared with that of the hydrogen atoms might be due either to the mass of each of these particles being very small compared with that of a hydrogen atom or else to the charge carried by each particle being large compared with that carried by the atom of hydrogen. It is therefore essential that we should determine the electric charge carried by one of these particles. The problem is as follows: Suppose in an enclosed space we have a number of electrified particles each carrying the same charge, it is required to find the charge on each particle. It is easy by electrical methods to determine the total quantity of electricity on the collection of particles, and, knowing this, we can find the charge on each particle if we can count the number of particles. To count these particles the first step is to make them visible. We can do this by availing ourselves of a discovery made by C. T. R. Wilson working in the Cavendish Laboratory. Wilson has shown that, when positively and negatively electrified particles are present in moist dust-free air, a cloud is produced when the air is closed by a sudden expansion, though this amount of expansion would be quite insufficient to produce condensation when no electrified particles are present: the water condenses round the electrified particles, and, if these are not too numerous, each particle becomes the nucleus of a little drop of water. Now Sir George Stokes has shown how we can calculate the rate at which a drop of water falls through air if we know the size of the drop, and conversely we can determine the size of the drop by measuring the rate at which it falls through the air; hence, by measuring the speed with which the cloud falls, we can determine the volume of each little drop ; the whole volume of water deposited by cooling the air can easily be calculated, and, dividing the whole volume of water by the volume of one of the drops, we get the number of drops, and hence the number of the electrified particles. We saw, however, that if we knew the number of particles we could get the electric charge on each particle; proceeding in this way I found that the charge carried by each particle was about 6.5 x 10-10 electrostatic units of electricity, or 2.17 X 10-20 electro-magnetic units. According to the kinetic theory of gases, there are 2 x 1019 molecules in a cubic centimetre of gas at atmospheric pressure and at the temperature 0° C.; as a cubic centimetre of hydrogen weighs about one-eleventh of a milligram, each molecule of hydrogen weighs about 1/(22 x 1019) milligrams, and each atom therefore about 1/(22 X 10-19) milligrams, and as we have seen that in the electrolysis of solutions one-tenth of a milligram carries unit charge, the atom of hydrogen will carry a charge equal to 10 ----- (44 x 10-19)=2.27x10-20)
electro-magnetic units. The charge on the particles in a gas, we have seen, is equal to 2.17 X 10-20 units. These numbers are so nearly equal that, considering the difficulties of the experiments, we may feel sure that the charge on one of these gaseous particles is the same as that on an atom of hydrogen in electrolysis. This result has been verified in a different way by Professor Townsend, who used a method by which he found, not the absolute value of the electric charge on a particle, but the ratio of this charge to the charge on an atom of hydrogen; and he found that the two charges were equal. As the charges on the particle and the hydrogen atom are the same, the fact that the mass of these particles required to carry a given charge of electricity is only one-thousandth part of the mass of the hydrogen atoms shows that the mass of each of these particles is only about 1/1000 of that of a hydrogen atom. These particles occurred in the cathode rays inside a discharge tube, so that we have obtained from the matter inside such a tube particles having a much smaller mass than that of the atom of hydrogen, the smallest mass hitherto recognised. These negatively electrified particles, which I have called corpuscles, have the same electric charge and the same mass whatever be the nature of the gas inside the tube or whatever the nature of the electrodes; the charge and mass are invariable. They therefore form an invariable constituent of the atoms or molecules of all gases, and presumably of all liquids and solids. Nor are the corpuscles confined to the somewhat inaccessible regions in which cathodic rays are found. I have found that they are given off by incandescent metals, by metals when illuminated by ultra-violet light, while the researches of Becquerel and Professor and Madame Curie have shown that they are given off by that wonderful substance the radio-active radium. In fact, in every case in which the transport of negative electricity through gas at a low pressure (i.e., when the corpuscles have nothing to stick to) has been examined, it has been found that the carriers of the negative electricity are these corpuscles of invariable mass.
A very different state of things holds for the positive electricity. The masses of the carriers of positive electricity have been determined for the positive electrification in vacuum tubes by Wien and by Ewers, while I have measured the same thing for the positive electrification produced in a gas by an incandescent wire. The results of these experiments show a remarkable difference between the property of positive and negative electrification, for the positive electricity, instead of being associated with a constant mass 1/1000 of that of the hydrogen atom, is found to be always connected with a mass which is of the same order as that of an ordinary molecule, and which, moreover, varies with the nature of the gas in which the electrification is found. These two results, the invariability and smallness of the mass of the carriers of negative electricity, and the variability and comparatively large mass of the carriers of positive electricity, seem to me to point unmistakably to a very definite conception as to the nature of electricity. Do they not obviously suggest that negative electricity consists of these corpuscles, or, to put it the other way, that these corpuscles are negative electricity, and that positive electrification consists in the absence of these corpuscles from ordinary atoms? Thus this point of view approximates very closely to the old one-fluid theory of Franklin; on that theory electricity was regarded as a fluid, and changes in the state of electrification were regarded as due to the transport of this fluid from one place to another. If we regard Franklin's electric fluid as a collection-of negatively electrified corpuscles, the old one-fluid theory will, in many respects, express the results of the new. We have seen that we know a good deal about the "electric fluid" ; we know that it is molecular, or rather corpuscular in character; we know the mass of each of these corpuscles and the charge of electricity carried by it; we have seen, too, that the velocity with which the corpuscles move can be determined without difficulty. In fact, the electric fluid is much more amenable to experiment than an ordinary gas, and the details of its structure are more easily determined. Negative electricity (i.e., the electric fluid) has mass; a body negatively electrified has a greater mass than the same body in the neutral state ; positive electrification, on the other hand, since it involves the absence of corpuscles, is accompanied by a diminution in mass. ....".
(I have doubts about the Wilson charged particle forms the center of a drop theory, and then also on the estimates of counting drops - I need to examine it more, perhaps there are other methods which confirm the Wilson theory/method.)
(It is interesting that again in this paper, Thomson hints that everything is made of light - but yet does not publicly entertain the theory - and we are left with a legacy with this theory absent. In a preface to a book about Tesla in 1902 the preface contains the word "foes" - as if they already knew in 1901 about fotons and their importance.)
(These papers by Thomson are highly abstract and mathematical - and so I think without too much close examination, and of course, knowing that mass and motion cannot be exchanged, and that all matter is made of particles of light or some smaller particle like an X particle - I have a lot of doubts about the determinations of mass and charge of any particle. In particular using math based on Maxwell's theories which all had electric and magnetic fields at right angles to each other - where a more simple view has magnetic and moving electric fields as being identical.)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
99 YBN
[05/??/1901 AD]
| 4028) Thomas Alva Edison (CE 1847-1931) invents the nickel-iron battery (also known as the nickel-alkaline accumulator).
This nickel-iron accumulator has a positive plate of nickel oxide and a negative plate of iron both immersed in an electrolyte of potassium hydroxide. The reaction on discharge is 2NiOOH.H2O+Fe → 2Ni(OH)2+Fe(OH)2
Scientific American describes this battery in 1901 and states that Edison hopes to manufacture the new cell at a cost which will not exceed that of the lead battery. (Find original Scientific American article)
| (private lab) West Orange, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
99 YBN
[12/12/1901 AD]
| 4832) First publicly announced radio message sent over the Atlantic Ocean.
(Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937), Italian electrical engineer, builds a powerful transmitter at Poldhu, Cornwall, England, and a large receiving antenna placed on Cape cod, Massachusetts. When the receiving antenna at Cape Cod blows down, Marconi sails for Newfoundland, where, using a kiteborne antenna and Solari’s carbon-on-stell detector with a telephone receiver, on 12 December receives the first public transatlantic wireless communication, the three code dots signifying the letter "S". According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Marconi, aged twenty seven, already well known becomes world famous overnight.
Edison openly expresses his admiration, although Rayleigh thinks it is fraud. Until Fessenden invents Amplitude Modulation, radio signals are sent in Morse code. Radio will be the primary form of public entertainment until television (which is the same as radio, but transmits images in addition to sound) forty? years later.
This is the starting point of the vast development of radio communications, broadcasting, and navigation services for the public that take place in the next 50 years. Although clearly this is somewhere very late on the timeline of wireless communication given secret neuron reading and writing. This is just the tip of the iceberg, which is the tiny portion of some industry that is shown publicly, the vast majority of wireless particle communication is still secret, even to this day - the most major portion being neuron reading and writing. Walking robots may use radio signals to follow their owner, as an alternative to simply using light particles with visible frequencies. In addition, reflecting particles, the basis for radar is very important for modeling and tracking material objects in 3D space. Wireless particle communication has dominated, although secretly, science on earth. Wireless particle communication and survalience is perhaps, although secretly, may be the most funded and employed scientific field on earth, perhaps second only to the educational school system, for most of the 18 and 1900s. Certainly wireless particle communication has been a very large business in terms of image and sound and neuron reading and writing capturing, storage, and distribution.
These signals are much stronger than those Marconi had earlier produced from Caernarfon, Wales, and are of a frequency several hundred times lower, with 100 times the electrical power at the transmitter. This begins the development of public shortwave wireless communication that is the basis of most modern long-distance radio communication.
Light particle beams have many uses, beyond just sending text, sound, images and other data, to cell phones, or directly to neurons, for example, these beams are used by people in airplanes to determine their location, in particular in cloudy weather. Planes can simply "follow the beam" or "fly blind", and so this is important in the development of remote control planes and planes that fly on autopilot. One of the most famous examples of this were the wirelessly controlled planes of the United States Bush administration's 9/11/2001 mass murder.
(People still communicate with “ham radio” from America to Europe with random success.)
(People might think that private communications require the privacy of the telephone wire, however, clearly the phone companies have been recording every phone call made - and somehow the myth that they do not is the most popular theory. In addition, it seems clear that by now, wireless particle communications can be directed from device to device by tiny beams which creates the equivalent of placing a wire - but more difficult in being invisible. Then add to that encryption, and extremely directed particle communication without wire might be perhaps even more desirable for privacy.
Since cameras require electricity, they might be connected to the telephone or electric line, but clearly flying microparticle devices were invented at least by 1909 (as Perrin hints about dust and thought) which must be powered by particles of light. Probably Edison and Bell were the main growers and developers of secret microphone and camera nets, but they had to work closely with the police and military. Even today, ultimately the electric and telephone companies are not government owned and so they probably are responsible for installing cameras and microphones, and storing all the data. but clearly, media companies, police and military buy the information from the power and/or telephone company. I wonder what happens when the military requests images and the electric and phone company will not give them? It's interesting because the military has all the weapons, but the electric phone company has all the communication equipment and infrastructure, and perhaps more data than the governments. I guess the military would just need to wire into the electric phone company, and basically get everything the electric phone company does, but the electric phone company may be the group that does all the work of planting and/or flying and remotely controlling tiny dust-like cameras and microphones and storing the information that they transmit along what must be a chain of micro devices. Clearly outside offers more possibilities to people in terms of not being detected and getting electricity from the light particles emitted by the Sun. )
(One of thousands of questions about those who live unseen operating particle beam devises is "who assaults people?", "who killed who?", "Who is moving my muscle?", are they GE and AT&T employees? I think they are more like people in police and military without any kind of fear of arrest, and for that, it needs to be the military that control the use of the lasers, but do they control the microdevices, and install the stationary versions? In that aspect, much of AT&T and GE would be run by the military and police. It may be a stale mate however, since the communications companies have a lot of info and particle weapons. Probably AT&T, and GE installs the lasers designed by Raytheon and other military companies, and the military controls them. Does the military rent them or pay for their use? Clearly the owners of AT&T, and GE have no army, but yet, I can't see the military (perhaps ordered by a president) to force the owners of GE and AT&T to allow them to occupy their buildings, or free use of their equipment to assault innocent people. It seems another updated option I have thought about is that wealthy people simply pay for assault options in the windows written to their eyes, AT&T then simply claims to be the "middle-person" simply providing a service - the actual violent criminal is that wealthy person that funded the molestation, assault or murder carried out using equipment created, owned and operated by the communications companies, in particular AT&T.)
(Is the reason that light particle beams with lower radio frequencies may actually penetrate some spaces more than light particle beams of higher frequency because of the material in between only absorbing certain frequencies of light particles? Another possible explanation is that there has been a mistake or purposeful lie about the particles emitted by electric wires carrying oscillating current - for example, perhaps these particles, and this might be said for x-ray beams too, are smaller particles and therefore can penetrate materials farther.)
Not until 1983 will "cell" phones, that is radio wireless audio transmitting and receiving devices reach the public in the United States so the public can actually transmit and receive audio whereever they are on earth.
| Poldhu, Cornwall, England to St. John’s, Newfoundland |
99 YBN
[12/31/1901 AD]
| 4120) Walter Reed (CE 1851-1902), US military surgeon, proves that the agent of yellow fever is a filterable virus of the kind identified by Beijerinck a few years before. Yellow fever is the first human disease attributed to a virus. The last yellow fever epidemic in the USA was in New Orleans in 1905. (but over the entire earth?)
Reed writes: "The production of yellow fever by the injection of blood serum that had previously been passed through a filter capable of removing all test of bacteria, is, we think, a matter of extreme interest and importance. The occurrence of the disease under such circumstances, and within the usual period of incubation, might be explained in one of two ways, viz, first, upon the supposition that the serum filtrate contains a toxin of considerable potency; or, secondly, that the specific agent of yellow fever is of such minute size as to pass readily through the pores of a Berkefeld filter. ...".
| (Society of American Bacteriologists) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4054) Hugo Marie De Vries (Du VRES) (CE 1848-1935), Dutch botanist announces a theory of mutation.
De Vries summarizes his research into the nature of mutations in his "Die Mutationstheorie" (1901–03; "The Mutation Theory").
De Vries' began his work on the evening primrose, Oenothera lamarckiana, in 1886 when he noticed distinctly differing types within a colony of the plants. De Vries considers these different types of plants to be mutants and formulates the idea of evolution proceeding by distinct changes such as those he observed, believing also that new species can arise through a single drastic mutation.
Although many people experienced mutation in breeding, for example herdspeople, and farmers, in 1791 a mutation of a short-legged breed of sheep that could not jump over fences was useful and therefore preserved. De Vries noticed mutations in breeding American evening primrose flowers, finding one every once in a while that was very different from the others. With the theory of mutation and inheritance, the structure of evolution is complete. The mutation theory also changes the theories of Weismann by showing that the germ plasm (ovum and sperm cells) can be altered.
| (University of Amsterdam) Amsterdam, Netherlands |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4124) Eugène Anatole Demarçay (DumoRSA) (CE 1852-1904), French chemist identifies and isolates the rare-earth element, Europium. Europium is named after Europe.
In 1892 Lecoq had obtained basic fractions from Samarium-Gadolinium concentrates that had spark spectral lines not accounted for by Samarium or Gadolinium and therefore must be from new elements, which he names Zε and Zζ.
In 1896 Demarçay had announced a new element between Samarium and Gadolinium, named with a Σ.
As a metal, europium is very reactive so that one usually finds it under its trivalent, triply oxidized form (Eu3+ ion) in oxides or salts. A divalent form (Eu2+) also displays some stability. A very interesting property of the europium ions is their bright red (Eu3+) and bright blue (Eu2+) luminescence.
Europium has symbol "Eu", atomic number 63, atomic weight 151.96, and is a member of the rare-earth group. The stable isotopes, 151Eu and 153Eu, make up the naturally occurring element. The metal is the second most volatile of the rare earths and has a considerable vapor pressure at its melting point. Europium is very soft, and is rapidly attacked by air.
| (personal lab) Paris, France |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4148) Emil Hermann Fischer (CE 1852-1919), German chemist, condenses two amino acid molecules into dipeptides.
Emil Hermann Fischer (CE 1852-1919), German chemist, discovers the amino acids valine, proline and hydroxyproline, and condenses two amino acid molecules into dipeptides.
Although all proteins are known to be made of amino acids, Fischer shows exactly how amino acids are combined with each other. This is the beginning of the exploration into protein structure which Sanger and Du Vigneaud will develop 50 years later.
In 1899 Fischer hoped to reveal the chemical nature of proteins. Fischer is aware of thirteen amino acids that were obtained as hydrolysis products of proteins. Fischer discovers additional amino acids, synthesized several of them, and resolved the d-l forms by fractional crystallization of the salts prepared from the benzoyl or formyl derivatives, which he combined with the optically active bases strychnine or brucine. In this year, 1901, Fischer modifies a method for the separation of amino acids that had been developed by Theodor Curtius in 1883. A mixture of amino acids can be separated by esterifying the acids and distilling them at reduced pressure. Curtius had also showed that the ethyl ester of glycine eliminates alcohol to form a cyclic diketopiperazine, which on ring opening formed glycylglycine. Fischer uses Curtius’ method to separate mixtures of amino acids from protein hydrolysates by fractionally distilling their esters.
(It is amazing that proteins are simply polymers of amino acids, and then the issue of were amino acids all evolved from life, or are any or all abiotic?)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4156) Antoine Henri Becquerel (Be KreL) (CE 1852-1908), French physicist identifies that the element uranium is the radioactive portion of uranium compounds.
Since the electrons can only be emitting from atoms of uranium, this is the first clear indication that the atom is not a featureless sphere but that it has internal structure and that atoms may contain electrons.
A summary of this work translated from French reads: "The author has previously found (Abstr., 1900, ii, 518) that if solutions of uranium compounds are mixed -with a small quantity of a barium salt and the latter is precipitated, the radioactivity of the precipitate is considerably higher than that of the original uranium compound, whilst by several repetitions of this process the radioactivity of the uranium compound is greatly reduced. After the expiration of eighteen months, he has again examined the various products and finds that the uranium preparations have regained their original radioactivity, with practically the same intensity in all cases, whereas the barium precipitates have entirely lost their radioactivity, or, in other words, have behaved as if their very marked radioactivity was simply induced. The author considers that these results show that uranium compounds have a radioactivity of their own, although the possibility that the uranium may contain a small quantity of some specially radioactive substance not separated in the various operations is not excluded. The recovery of radioactivity is in all probability a phenomenon of auto-induction, and supports the author's view that the emission of rays not deviated in a magnetic field is due to the emission, by the same substance, of deviable rays, just as Rontgen rays are produced by the impact of cathode rays. The author has repeated his observations on the radioactivity of uranium compounds at the temperature of liquid air, and confirms his previous result.".
(I think neutron decay, where a neutron emits electrons, indicates that electrons are even in the nucleus (although captured in the isolated unit of a neutron) of every atom.)
| (École Polytechnique) Paris, France |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4221) Jokichi Takamine (ToKomEnE) (CE 1854-1922) isolates and purifies the first pure hormone adrenalin (epinephrine).
Takamine isolates this hormone from adrenal glands.
In 1896 the injection of an extract from the center of the suprarenal (adrenal) gland had been shown to cause blood pressure to rise rapidly.
| (his private laboratory) Clifton, New Jersey, USA |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4227) German physicists, Johann Phillipp Ludwig Julius Elster (CE 1854-1920), and Hans Geitel (CE 1855-1923) demonstrate radioactivity in air and build a simple device to show that the source of this radioactivity are radioactive atoms in the air.
Elster and Geitel want to determine whether the ionization of the atmosphere results from radioactive material within it. Geitel had shown that the ion content of a quantity of air sealed off from the outside becomes constant after some time; since both positive and negative ions disappear from the air, for example, through recombination to neutral molecules, they conclude that an ionizing source must be present. So Elster and Geitel take a wire one meter long which is suspended in the air at a potential of 2,000 volts against earth; after several hours the wire is radioactive. Under definite, accurately determined experimental and measurement conditions, the activity of the wire is found to be proportional to the concentration of the radium emanation (radon) of the free atmosphere. This is known as the Elster-Geitel activation number. This simple method provides information on the distribution of the emanation of radiation in the atmosphere over land and water, its dependence on the height, on meteorological data, and on the earth’s local electric field and its high concentration in narrow valleys and caves. After this Elster and Geitel reecord extensive measurements of the radioactivity of rocks, lakes, and spring waters and spring sediments, especially at health spas. In 1913 Ernest Rutherford will write: "The pioneers in this important field of investigation were Elster and Geitel and no researcher has contributed more to our knowledge of the radioactivity of the earth and the atmosphere than they have.".
| (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4499) Charles Dillon Perrine (PerIN) (CE 1867-1951), US-Argentinian astronomer discovers motion in the nebulosity surrounding a nova in Perseus. This motion is apparently faster than the speed of light. Perrine measures this proper motion as 11" per year, which is at the time more than the largest known proper motion in the observable universe. (State current largest known proper motion) (Is this still confirmed as true? To calculate a velocity based on observed angular motion, does distance need to be known?)
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4515) Karl Landsteiner (CE 1868-1943), Austrian-US physician recognizes that there are different blood types and creates the ABO blood group system.
At the time, although it is known that the mixing of blood from two humans can result in clumping, or agglutination, of red blood cells, the underlying mechanism of this phenomenon is not understood. Landsteiner discovers the cause of agglutination to be an immunological reaction that occurs when antibodies are produced by the host against donated blood cells. This immune response is elicited because blood from different individuals may vary with respect to certain antigens located on the surface of red blood cells. Landsteiner identifies three such antigens, which he labels A, B, and C (later changed to O). Two of his inspired co-workers, the clinicians Decastello and Sturli, examine additional humans and find a fourth blood group, later named AB. Landsteiner finds that if a person with one blood type—A, for example—receives blood from an individual of a different blood type, such as B, the host's immune system will not recognize the B antigens on the donor blood cells and thus will consider them to be foreign and dangerous, as it would regard an infectious microorganism. To defend the body from this perceived threat, the host's immune system will produce antibodies against the B antigens, and agglutination will occur as the antibodies bind to the B antigens. Landsteiner's work makes it possible to determine blood type and therefore paves the way for blood transfusions to occur safely.
The blood grouping is done by mixing suspensions of red cells with the test sera anti-A and anti-B. Blood group O is agglutinated by neither of the sera, AB by both, A by anti-A but not by anti-B, and B by anti-B but not by anti-A. The serum of group O has anti-A and anti-B antibodies, that of A has only anti-B, that of B has only anti-A, and that of AB has neither.
Before this blood transfusion were so dangerous that laws in most European nations made blood transfusion illegal.
In 1910 blood groups will be shown to be inherited according to Mendel's laws (humans have a 50/50 chance of inheriting blood type from each parent?), will help settle paternity disputes (although DNA will far surpass the accuracy of blood type), to study past migrations (blood type is this distinct among groups of people?), and determine races on a basis that is more logical that those used by Retzius 100 years before.
(It is interesting to think that there are 4 different kinds of people in some sense, but blood type is probably just a tiny portion of the human genome and has no correlation with gender, race, height, or other major differences in body types. Perhaps there is an evolutionary reason why different blood types evolved, and an interesting story as to why they did. Perhaps one is better at defending against viruses, bacteria and protists. Perhaps there are other interesting characteristics that result from different blood types. In addition, what are the actual anatomical differences between blood types?)
| (Pathological-Anatomical Institute) Vienna |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4705) Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet (CE 1870-1961), Belgian bacteriologist shows that when an antibody reacts with an antigen, compliment is used up which proves that compliment is necessary for the antibody antigen reaction.
Bordet demonstrates that if an antibpody has the ability to unite with an antigen, the alexin can be absorbed only by the complex antigen-antibody, that is, the antigen “sensitized” by the antibody. This complex antigen-antibody can bring about the fixation of the alexin of fresh serum, and because of this, the alexin can no longer cause the lysis of red corpuscles sensitized by the hemolysin. This is the alexin-fixation reaction (the complement-fixation reaction), which Bordet and his brother-in-law Octave Gengou apply in 1901 to the serodiagnosis of typhoid fever, carbuncle, hog cholera, and other diseases and which makes it possible to trace the antibody in the patient’s serum. This reaction is used again by Wassermann in the diagnosis of syphilis, and has recently been used in the diagnosis of virus infections.
| (Institut Antirabique et Bacteriologique, in 1903 the Institut Pasteur du Brabant) Brussells, Belgium |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4711) Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov (EVonuF) (CE 1870-1932), Russian biologist founds the first center for artificial insemination (impregnating a female by inserting a male's sperm into the female's vagina). Spallanzani had shown that artificial insemination was possible. Between 1908 and 1917 around 8000 Russian mares (females) are artificially inseminated using the sperm of the most vigorous stallions (males). Later cows and ewes will be artificially inseminated.
Using the data of Spallanzani, Jakobi, Remy, Coste, and Vrassky and the results of experiments by dog breeders, horse breeders, veterinarians, and medical doctors, Ivanov believes that “the artificial impregnation of domestic mammals is not only possible but also must become one of the powerful forces of progress in the practice of livestock breeding”.
| Dolgoe Village, Orlovskaya guberniya, Russia |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 4787) Lee De Forest (CE 1873-1961), US inventor develops an electrolytic detector of Hertzian waves (radio) and designs an alternating-current radio transmitter around this time.
As early as 1902, De Forest gives public demonstrations of wireless telegraphy for business people, the press, and the military.
De Forest's radio transmitting and receiving system will be used in 1904 for the first instance of news reporting (of the Russo-Japanese War).
| (Western Electric Company) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 5510) Walther Kaufmann (CE 1871-1947) states that the mass of an electron increases with velocity based on experiments that measure electron charge to mass ratio.
In 1901 Kaufmann publishes a paper in the Journal (translated to English) "News of the Academy of Sciences in Göttingen: Mathematical and Physical Class" titled "Magnetic and Electric Deflectability of the Becquerel Rays and the Apparent Mass of the Electron.". Kaufmann writes: "The question as to whether the "mass" of the electron calculated from the experiments on cathode rays or from the Zeeman effect is the "true" or "apparent" mass has recently been discussed quire extensively, although no direct experiments have yet been proposed in this direction. Now investigations into Becquerel rays have shown that these are deflected by electric and magnetic fields, and a rough measurement has given values for E/m (E, charge; m, mass) as well as for the velocity c, which are of the same order of magnitude as for cathode rays. it must therefore be all the more striking that the Becquerel rays are quantitatively so different from cathode rays. The magnetic deflection of the former is much smaller and their ability to penetrate solids much larger than the latter. Since previous experiments on cathode rays have shown that with increasing speed the deflectability decreases and the penetrability increases, it was reasonable to conclude that the Becquerel rays have much higher speeds than the cathode rays. if the cathode rays have speeds anywhere from 1/3 to 1/5 the speed of light, we must assume that the Becquerel rays have speeds only slightly different from that of light. It is impossible for these rays to exceed the speed of light, at least in a path length large with respect to the size of the "electron" (as these ray particles are now called) because during such a motion energy is radiated until the speed is reduced to the speed of light. 2.) The purpose of the following experiments is to determine the speed as well as the ratio E/m as accurately as possible for Becquerel rays and also from the degree of dependence of E/m on v to determine the relation between "actual" and "apparent" mass. 3.) By using a very small radioactive source of rays and a tiny hole as a diaphram, a small beam was separated out, which produced a point image on a photographic plate placed at right angles to the beam. Magnetic deflection changed the image into a line, simultaneous electric deflection in a direction normal to that of the magnetic deflection gave a curve as an image, each point of which corresponded to a definite v and a definite e/m. We thus obtained on a single plate a whole series of observations from which the dependence of E/m on c can be read off directly. ... 9.) True and apparent mass: We see from (Table 34-11) that velocities of the fastest particles that can be measured are only slightly smaller than the speed of light. From the curve for v it appears that the speeds of the rays that are deflected only weakly in the magnetic field converge toward the speed of light. In the observed range of speeds E/m varies very strongly; with increasing v the ratio E/m decreases very markedly, from which one may infer the presence of a not inconsiderable fraction of "apparent mass" which increases with speed in such a way as to become infinite at the speed of light. A rigorous formula for the field energy of a rapidly moving electron has been derived by Searle under the assumption that an electron is equivalent to an infinitely thin, charged, spherical shell. ... With the exception of the values in the first row which are experimentally uncertain, the formula gives the observed values quite well. The ratio of apparent to true mass for speeds that are small with respect to the speed of light is
m0/M=m'0/M'=0.122/0.39 = 0.313 or about 1/3. ... Even if this value has an appreciable error in it (an error of 10% in the parameters that determine the magnetic deflection would make the true mass negligible small) we can assert on the basis of the above results that the apparent mass is of the same order of magnitude as the true mass and for the two fastest Becquerel rays the apparent mass is appreciably larger than the true mass. We must point out that the above development depends on the assumption that the charge of the electron is distributed over an infinitely thin spherical shell. Since we know nothing about the constitution of the electron and we are not justified a priori in applying to the electron the laws of electrostatics which we seek to derive from the properties of the electron itself, it is quite possible that the energy relationships of the electron can be derived from other charge distributions, and that there may be distributions which, when applied to the above analysis, give a zero true mass.".
The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography of this work: "... By 1902 Kaufmann produced experimental evidence that the mass of electrons was entirely electromagnetic, that is, that electromagnetic mass constituted the total mass of electrons. More importantly, in these same investigations he presented evidence that the mass of electrons was dependent on their velocity, noting that this dependence was accurately calculated by Abraham’s theoretical formula. Thus, a sacrosanct Newtonian principle —that mass was invariant with velocity—was contradicted by Kaufmann’s experimental data! By March 1903 Kaufmann confidently declared that not only the Becquerel rays but also the cathode rays consisted of electrons having a mass entirely electromagnetic.
By May 1904 H. A. Lorentz had developed a theory of electrons as being contractible with velocity and in the direction of motion. This view of electrons later became associated with Einstein’s theory of relativity.".
In a January 1902 work, Kaufmann writes (translated with Google): "At last year's naturalist meeting in Hamburg, I could tell you of the testing, which showed that the ratio ε / μ of the Becquerel rays would decrease with increasing speed, so when ε to be constant, μ increasing again and more quickly the more so, depending more the velocity (q) the speed of light (c) approaches. Such behavior ergiebt theoretically from the equation for the energy of a fast-moving electric charge. It succeeded at that time also to bring the results with a Mr Searle derived theoretical formula in line, but only under the assumption that most of the mass of the moving electron, mechanical, electromagnetic origin is the rest. Soon after the publication of the former experiments, however, showed Mr. M. Abraham, that the Searlesche formula for the field energy of the moving electron, the electromagnetic mass only in the event of an acceleration in the direction of the movement to be calculated without further authorizes, however, in transverse acceleration, as it existed in my experiments, a deviating from the formula Searleschen expression for the mass is. If β = q c / ε, the charge of the electron in EME μ0 the value of the electromagnetic mass for small velocities, then, according to Abraham: ...".
(This debate over the nature of the mass and the charge of electrons is an interesting issue. There is the theory that mass changes with velocity, another where charge changes with velocity. My own view is that the deflection of electrons in an electromagnetic field probably does not vary linearly, but varies exponentially. In this view, an electron is physically collided by particles in the electromagnetic field - the faster the electron, the less collisions occur. Experiments can be performed to see if a linear or exponential deflection occurs for other pieces of matter in particle bombardment fields of a variety of scales. For example, is a spherical metal ball projected at various speeds, deflected by a constant flow of water linearly with speed, or by some other ratio?)
(This theory of "electro-magnetic" mass seems very doubtful to me - and shockingly is still accepted today. More likely, the conservation of mass law is true, and the deflection of electrons is simply the result of any particle collisions in a particle field - the faster the particle the less collisions and the less deflections. There are other explanations, for example, an electron loses mass in the form of light particles the higher the speed relative to all other matter.
The theory of light as an electromagnetic wave which originated with Maxwell is most likely wrong, in particular because Maxwell viewed light as a non-material transverse sine wave in an aether - not as corpuscular material objects.
In addition, those who own all the neuron reading and writing devices must have determined what the actual truth is, and no doubt this theory gains their support by serving to mislead the excluded public. The way the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography describes it - this publication is part of the ancient rivalry of Newton and Leibniz, with perhaps nationalistic undertone, which is stupid if true, because ultimately people should be searching and loyal to truth above race, gender, language, nationality, etc.)
(One interesting point is that there are not a lot of sources on Kaufmann, in particular being a person who may be responsible for the idea that an electron's mass changes with velocity, or the supposed experimental confirmation of that theory.)
(I think that there are a number of clear alternative explanations to the phenomenon of electrons of high speed being less deflected in an electromagnetic field: 1) as the velocity of an electron increases, there are less collisions with particles in the electromagnetic field, and so less motion is transfered to a faster electron 2) as an electron gains velocity, the electron loses mass in the form of emitted light particles until ultimately only a single light particle, which before this, was trapped with other light particles, remains which continues to move at the speed of light 3) a related idea is simply that charge is proportional to velocity of charged particle - instead of the mass changing - the charge changes - this can also be viewed as simply the effect of charge changing with velocity relative to a stationary electromagnetic field. One of the key problems with the theory that mass changes with relative velocity is that according to the conservation of matter principle, mass cannot be created from empty space, or disappear into empty space, nor can matter be converted into motion, or motion into matter.)
(Is a change in mass observed in other particles without charge?)
(A good idea might be to determine an equation that describes the number of collisions by particles in the em field with electrons, which is dependent on the relative velocity of the electron, and see if this ratio of collisions is equal to the amount of deflection. Increasing the field strength should then increase the quantity of collisions and the deflection of the electrons.)
(It seems very likely that this may have been some purposeful deception by those who control neuron writing to mislead the excluded public while they advance in scientific research knowing the truth about light being a material particle and all matter being made of light particles. But it may be an honest mistake-by included or excluded, or it could be an accurate truth.)
(It seems unlikely that an electron would approach an infinite mass at a high speed, in particular without removing mass from the surrounding volume of space - and an infinitely of matter would imply a mass of a very large size.)
(This supports the theory of FitzGerald and Lorentz that the mass of individual particles changes depending on their velocity. This may ultimately lead to the view that light particles has no mass and are not material.)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 6023) (Sir) Edward William Elgar (CE 1857-1934), English composer, composes his famous "Pomp and Circumstance" march.
Elgar is the first English composer of international stature since Henry Purcell (CE 1659–95).
| Malvern, Worcestershire, England (presumably) |
99 YBN
[1901 AD]
| 6253) First vacuum cleaner to use an electric motor.
Hubert Cecil Booth is the first to build a vacuum cleaner that uses an electric motor, however the cleaner is too large too be used conveniently.
In 1907 James Murray Spangler will construct a light, conveniently operated vacuum cleaning machine which he will sell to William Hoover who will manufacture them.
| |
98 YBN
[02/15/1902 AD]
| 4091) Charles Robert Richet (rEsA) (CE 1850-1935), French physiologist discovers and names anaphylactic ("contrary to protection") to describe the property of substances which become much more toxic when injected some time after an initial injection.
In 1900 Richet found that muscle plasma is toxic if injected directly into a vein. During the following year Richet tries to establish the toxic dose of muscle plasma for dogs, defined as the quantity per kilogram of the animal that would cause the animal to eventually die. Richet injects a poison from the Portuguese man-of-war into a group of dogs. When, Richet injects the same poison into the surviving dogs two weeks later all those receiving doses quickly died. Richet concludes that the poison must have properties that are the opposite of the immunizing properties of serums, attenuated bacterial cultures, and other toxins, because instead of reinforcing the resistance of an animal to later injections, a sublethal dose diminished their immunity.
After this preliminary tests to determine the degree of sensitization to a particular substance are performed.
By 1903 Richet is able to show that the same effect can be produced by any protein whether toxic or not as long as there is a crucial interval of three to four weeks between injections. (This I have doubts about - show those who verified.)(make own record?)
In 1907 Richet shows that, if the serum of an anaphylactic dog is injected into a normal dog, the injected dog becomes anaphylactic. The anaphylactic state can therefore be passively transmitted, and it is an antigen-antibody reaction.
Anaphylaxis is closely associated with serum sickness and allergy, and later investigations of allergic diseases stem from Richet.
| (Société de Biologic) Paris, France (presumably) |
98 YBN
[02/??/1902 AD]
| 4835) Marconi finds that long distance radio beams travel farther at night than during the day.
During a voyage on the U.S. liner Philadelphia in 1902, Marconi receives messages from distances of 1,125 km (700 miles) by day and 3,200 km (2,000 miles) by night and so is the first to discover that, because some radio waves travel by reflection from the upper regions of the atmosphere, transmission conditions are sometimes more favourable at night than during the day. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica this is due to the fact that the upward travel of the radio (particles) is limited in the daytime by absorption in the lower atmosphere, which becomes ionized—and so electrically conducting—under the influence of sunlight.
| (US ship Philadelphia) Atlantic Ocean (presumably) |
98 YBN
[03/17/1902 AD]
| 4398) Philipp Eduard Anton von Lenard (lAnoRT) (CE 1862-1947), Hungarian-German physicist, shows that with the photoelectric effect, as the intensity of the light increases, the number of electrons set free rises, but their velocity remains unaffected, and that the velocity of the electrons depends only on the wavelength of the light colliding with the metal.
Also in 1902, Leonard reports on the relationship of flames and electricity. (translate paper and report results)
| (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
98 YBN
[03/28/1902 AD]
| 4857) Gilbert Newton Lewis (CE 1875-1946), US chemist creates the "cubic atom", imagining that atoms can be built up as cubes, which explains the cycle of 8 elements on the periodic table.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
98 YBN
[03/??/1902 AD]
| 4734) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and English chemist Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956) describe radioactivity as atomic decay in which one atom decays into another kind (also known as transmutation).
Rutherford and Soddy show that the constant production of a material “emanation” is the result of the uncontrolled disintegration of thorium into an intermediate, but chemically separable, substance, thorium X, with the emanation. The “radiation” proves to be both particulate and direcly accompanies the process of disintegration. The rate of the process is found in every case to obey the exponential law of a monomolecular chemical reaction. (chronology: In this or a later paper?)
Rutherford and Soddy conclude: "... XII. General Theoretical Considerations.
Turning from the experimental results to their theoretical interpretation, it is necessary first to consider the generally accepted view of the nature of radioactivity. It is well established that this property is the function of the atom and not of the molecule. Uranium and thorium, to take the most definite cases, possess the property in whatever molecular condition they occur, and the former also in the elementary state. So far as the radioactivity of different compounds of different density and states of division can be compared together, the intensity of the radiation appears to depend only on the quantity of active element present. It is not dependent on the source from which the element is derived or the process of purification to which it has been subjected, provided sufficient time is allowed for the equilibrium point to be reached. It is not possible to explain the phenomena by the existence of impurities associated with the radioactive elements, even if any advantage could be derived from the assumption, for these impurities must necessarily be present always to the same extent in different specimens derived from the most widely different sources, and moreover they must persist in unaltered amount after the most refined processes of purification. This is contrary to the accepted meaning of the term impurity.
All the most prominent workers in this subject are agreed in considering radioactivity an atomic phenomenon. M. and Mme. Curie, the pioneers in the chemistry of the subject, have stated (Compt. rend., 1902, 134, 85) that this idea underlies their whole work from the beginning and created their methods of research. M. Becquerel, the original discoverer of the property for uranium, in his announcement of the recovery of the activity of the same element after the active constituent had been removed by chemical treatment, points out the significance of the fact that uranium is giving out cathode rays. These, according to the hypothesis of Sir William Crookes and Professor J. J. Thomson, are material particles of mass one-thousandth that of the hydrogen atom.
The present researches had as their starting point the facts that had come to light with regard to the emanation produced by thorium compounds and the property it possesses of exciting radioactivity on surrounding objects. In each case, the radioactivity appeared as the manifestation of a special kind of matter in minute amount. The emanation behaved in all respects like a gas, and the excited radioactivity it produces as an invisible deposit of intensely active material independent of the nature of the substance on which it was deposited, and capable of being removed by rubbing or the action of acids.
The position is thus reached that radioactivity is at once an atomic phenomenon and the accompaniment of a chemical change in which new kinds of matter are produced. The two considerations force us to the conclusion that radioactivity is a manifestation of subatomic chemical change.
There is not the least evidence for assuming that uranium and thorium are not as homogeneous as any other chemical element, in the ordinary sense of the word, so far as the action of known forces is concerned. The idea of the chemical atom in certain cases spontaneously breaking up with evolution of energy is not of itself contrary to anything that is known of the properties of atoms, for the causes that bring about the disruption are not among those that are yet under our control, whereas the universally accepted idea of the stability of the chemical atom is based solely on the knowledge we possess of the forces at our disposal.
The changes brought to knowledge by radioactivity, although undeniably material and chemical in nature, are of a different order of magnitude from any that have before been dealt with in chemistry. The course of the production of new matter which can be recognised by the electrometer, by means of the property of radioactivity, after the course of a few hours or even minutes, might possibly require geological epochs to attain to quantities recognised by the balance. "It is true that the well-defined chemical properties of both ThX and UrX are not in accordance with the view that the actual amounts involved are of this extreme order of minuteness, yet, on the other hand, the existence of radioactive elements at all in the earth's crust is an a priori argument against the magnitude of the change being anything but small.
It is a significant fact that the radioactive elements are all at the end of the periodic table. If we suppose that radium is the missing second higher homologue of barium, then the known examples— uranium, thorium, radium, polonium (bismuth), and lead are the five elements of heaviest atomic weight. Nothing can yet be stated of the mechanism of the changes involved, but whatever view is ultimately adopted it seems not unreasonable to hope that radioactivity affords the means of obtaining information of processes occurring within the chemical atom."
(Notice the double meaning of "There is not the least evidence..." which may apply to their not being any evidence of the massive secret of flying nanoneuronwriters.)
At the end of the previous paper, of March 6, 1902, Rutherford and Harriet Brooks, describe the radiations of thorium and radium using the word "decay" but in a context of the radiations dissipating.
Later, in September and November 1902, Rutherford and Soddy provide more evidence in support of the theory of atomic decay. Rutherford and Soddy go on to demonstrate that uranium and thorium break down into a series of intermediate elements, using chemical manipulations and following the radioactivity. Boltwood is proving the same fact in the USA at this time. Soddy will develop this work into the concept of isotopes (elements with the same number of protons but with a different number of neutrons). (chronology)
Rutherford names the period of time when half of a radioactive quantity is gone as "half-life". (verify if true, chronology and identify paper - In Rutherford papers I only find "average life", and tables with time when half of quantity is gone.)
(There is an interesting comparison to this thorough research into the phenomenon of radiativity, that in my mind parallels a similar examination of particle emissions noticed much earlier in the perhaps not nearly as thorough or conclusive examinations of the phenomena of luminescense.)
(explain thorium x and uranium x - are these the radioactive thorium and uranium - and then the nonradioactive thorium and uranium actually other elements, which are the products of atomic decay?)
(so you can see that the turn of the century and the find of X rays and radiation in particular start the intense focus of almost all physicists on the phenomenon of radioactivity and trying to determine what atoms are made of.)
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN
[04/28/1902 AD]
| 4235) Léon Philippe Teisserenc de Bort (TeSroN Du BoUR) (CE 1855-1913), French meteorologist, reports that the atmosphere is divided into two layers. This is the result of Teisserenc de Bort finding that above around 11 km (7 miles) the temperature, which drops linearly from sea level to that altitude, remains constant up to the highest points his balloons can reach. The lower layer where temperature changes induce all kinds of air movements, cloud formations, and weather, which he names the "troposphere" ("sphere of change") in 1908. The upper boundary of this troposphere is the tropopause. Teisserenc de Bort calls the upper layer the stratosphere ("sphere of layers") thinking this layer changeless since there is no change in temperature and theorizing that different gases might lie in different layers, with lighter gases floating on heavier gases, for example oxygen at the bottom, then nitrogen, the newly identified helium, and then finally hydrogen above that. According to Asimov this theory has not been proved true by rocket measurements of the mid 1900s, but at far greater heights, extremely thin layers of hydrogen and helium do exist, however the name "stratosphere" still remains. The high atmosphere is not considered to be part of the lower atmosphere.
In 1909 E. Gold will explain this two layer phenomenon as resulting from the cooling of rising air in the troposphere and the absence of convection currents in the stratosphere.
Early balloonists had established that temperature decreases with height by about 6°C per 330 feet (100 m). Using unhumaned balloons equipped with instruments, Teisserenc de Bort finds that above an altitude of 11 km (7 miles) temperature ceases to fall and sometimes increased slightly.
Teisserenc de Bort pioneers the use of non-peopled balloons which reach new heights without endangering any human lives.
In 1898 De Bort started using sounding balloons, a technique devised a few years before by Gustave Hermite and Georges Besançon (1892), and also adopted by Assmann and Hugo Hergesell in Germany. Teisserenc de Bort launches his instruments with lacquered paper balloons (the others, Assmann and Hergesell for instance, use gold beater skin or silk, much heavier), filled with hydrogen produced by the reaction of sulfuric acid on iron filings, and launches from a rotating shelter. The rotating shelter is necessary to launch the delicate paper balloons in the direction of the wind, while the use of hydrogen, instead of town gas (a gas produced from coal and distributed by pipes to houses and buildings for heating, lighting and cooking) is required to reach higher altitudes. Although this technique does not allow Teisserenc de Bort’s balloons to reach altitudes higher than 20 kilometers, as Assmann had, it is much cheaper and allows him to perform a very large number of launches compared to others in the field. De Bort had launched 236 sounding balloons above 11 kilometers for this report.
For his measurements with kites Teisserenc de Bort had installed two photographic theodolites 1,300 meters apart and connected by telephone. (Explain how is the telephone used.) An optical instrument consisting of a small mounted telescope rotatable in horizontal and vertical planes, used to measure angles in surveying, meteorology, and navigation. By the principles of optics, if the focal distance between the objective and the plane of the picture is knownn, the angles, both vertical and horizontal, subtended by the objects shown in the picture at the point occupied by the camera, can be measured, because their tangents will be the distance in the picture divided by the focal distance. De Bort also uses this device to measure the altitude of his sounding balloons and compare it with the one computed using the barometric formula, the validity of which was disputed; de Bort proves that the barometric formula is a reasonable estimate of the altitude, the barometer being slightly delayed during the ascent and the descent.
Perhaps the lack of change in temperature in the stratosphere is the result of the space being less densely filled with matter. Perhaps there is less potential to store photons, or less particle collisions.
| (Observatoire de météorologie dynamique {Dynamic Meteorology Observatory})Trappes, France |
98 YBN
[05/27/1902 AD]
| 4735) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, publishes "The Existance of Bodies Smaller than Atoms" (following Thomson's paper of the same title) in which Rutherford compares removal or addition of an electron at the atomic scale to a chemical change, writing "...All we have to suppose is that the chemical atom is the smallest quantity of matter which takes part in a chemical combination, and that the removal of an electron is a sub-atomic change quite distinct from ordinary chemical action, although a chemical action may in some cases be accompanied by the emission of electrons. ...".
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN
[05/??/1902 AD]
| 4338) (Sir) Jagadis Chandra Bose (BOZ or BOS) (CE 1858-1937), Indian physicist, devises extremely sensitive instruments which can demonstrate the minute movements of plants to external stimuli and to measure their rate of growth.
Bose measures the responses of plants to such stimuli as light, sound, touch, and electricity. Bose invents the crescograph, an instrument capable of magnifying the movements of growth in plants 10 million times.
Bose's experiments are often criticized most often because of the mystical, religious implications that Bose finds in his research. For example, Bose claims that plants, like animals, adjust to change through "inherited memory of the past" and insists that not only can no line be drawn between plants and animals but that his researches show that there is no line between living and nonliving matter. In my view, clearly living and nonliving objects are made of the same particles, and there is a continuity in the universe - based on the principle of conservation of matter and motion - in this sense, no matter or motion is ever created or destroyed.
(needs more detail, what do instruments look like? - is this done with image capturing? cite original papers if any)
Bose's early research is on the properties of very short radio waves, showing their similarity to light. Bose also designs an improved version of Oliver Lodge's coherer, then used to detect radio waves, and as a result is able to put forward a general theory of the properties of contact-sensitive materials.
Bose works with recording the electricity in muscles so closely linked to the massive secret of neuron reading and writing.
(Do plants have electricity running through them as animals do - perhaps an equivalent to an electrical nervous system?)
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
98 YBN
[10/17/1902 AD]
| 4253) Walter S. Sutton (CE 1877-1916) shows that paternal and maternal chromosomes are pairs, and relates this pairing with Mendelian laws.
Sutton writes: "I have endeavored to show that the eleven ordinary chromosomes (autosomes) which enter the nucleus of each spermatic are selected from each of the eleven pairs which make up the double series of the spermatogonia. . . . I may finally call attention to the probability that the association of paternal and maternal chromosomes in pairs and their subsequent separation during the reducing division as indicated above may constitute the physical basis of the Mendelian law of heredity.".
So Sutton shows that all chromosomes exist in pairs and chromosomes are probably the hereditary factors that Mendel postulated. (Mendel's work had been found again two years before).
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
98 YBN
[10/17/1902 AD]
| 4254) Walter S. Sutton (CE 1877-1916) suggests that chromosomes carry the genes which determine the anatomical traits, and that each sex cell (gamete, perhaps can also be called "gender cell") contains only one chromosome, the chromosome included decided by random factors.
Sutton builds his argument on six components, three originate from predecessors, while three are uniquely his own. The six points are:
(1) That the somatic chromosomes comprise two equivalent groups, one of maternal derivation and one of paternal derivation;
(2) That synapsis consists of pairing of corresponding (homologous) maternal and paternal chromosomes;
(3) That the chromosomes retain their morphologic and functional individuality throughout the life cycle;
(4) That the synaptic mates contain the physical units that correspond to the Mendelian allelomorphs; that is, the chromosomes contain the genes;
(5) That the maternal and paternal chromosomes of different pairs separate independently from each other– "The number of possible combinations in the germ-products of a single individual of any species is represented by the simple formula 2" in which n represents the number of chromosomes in the reduced series; and
(6) That "Some chromosomes at least are related to a number of different allelomorphs . . . {but} all the allelomorphs represented by any one chromosome must be inherited together. . . . The same chromosome may contain allelomorphs that must be inherited together. . . . The same chromosome may contain allelomorphs that may be dominant or recessive independently".
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
98 YBN
[10/27/1902 AD]
| 3983) René Blondlot (CE 1849-1930) measures the speed of X-rays to be the same as the speed of light.
Blondlot is remembered for his claim of finding a new form of radiation called "N-rays" but are later proven to not exist by Robert Wood, who among other observations notes that the brightness of the spark being observed varies regularly. Blondlot also finds that X-rays can cause a Hertz resonator (copper wire folded into shape of a triangle with a spark gap) to spark. (Is Blondlot the first to notice this property?)
Blondlot's paper is translated in the Western Electrician, and Maurice Solomon summarizes Blondlot's article for Nature. Solomon states that: "The final result of all the experiments, therefore, leads to the conclusion that the velocity of propagation of X-rays is equal to that of Hertzian waves or of light through the air. M. Blondlot concludes his papers by pointing out that this conclusion is in harmony either with the hypothesis that X-rays are radiations of very short wave-length or with that of E. Wiechert and Sir George Stokes, that they are electromagnetic impulses produced by the impact between the molecules or electrons in the cathode stream and the antikathode. The fact brought out by these experiments that the X-rays cease simultaneously with the current traversing the Crookes' tube, also supports the latter hypothesis.". Here you can see, the division between the wave with aether medium school and the particle (pulse) school. The word "pulse" was used perhaps, to avoid using the word "particle", just as the word "corpuscle" lost popularity after Thomas Young's early 1800 writings.
Blondlot also claims to have measured polarization of X-rays. (make separate record)
(In my view, a fluorescent screen with rotating mirror would be a better method, to make sure that the beam is an X-ray beam and not uv, radio or some other frequency of light.)
I think this negative proof of N-rays makes the measurements of X-ray speed and polarization questionable.
In my view, Blondlot's method of measuring the speed of x-rays is confusing and not as simple as using high-speed electronics to determine this velocity. Research and cite other investigations to determine the speed, penetrative power, etc of x-rays.
(There are also questions about the nature of the x-ray being an x-particle, why the penetrative power of the particle in x-ray beams is deeper than other light particles - is this due to frequency of particle or to some other property? Then is there secrecy and use of x-ray particle beams to do remote neuron activation, that is remote galvanization or using particle beams to move muscles connected to nerves from a distance remotely?)
(Notice how this paper is given page 666 - it seems beyond coincidence - that there is something dishonest with the x-ray or should we say more truthfully 'x particle' as pertains to remote neuron activations such as muscle contraction?)
| University of Nancy, Nancy, France (presumably) |
98 YBN
[11/10/1902 AD]
| 4736) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, shows that alpha rays are deflectable by strong magnetic and electric fields in the opposite direction of cathode rays and so are positively charged bodies.
In this same paper Rutherford names the radiation not affected by a magnetic field, first observed by Paul Villard, "Gamma rays". Before this alpha rays were thought to be non-deflecting.
Rutherford writes: "RADIUM gives out three distinct typos of radiation: (1) The α rays, which are very easily absorbed by thin layers of matter, and which give rise to the greater portion of the ionization of the gas observed under the usual experimental conditions.
(2) The β rays, which consist, of negatively charged particles projected with high velocity, and which are similar in all respects to cathode rays produced in a vacuum-tube.
(3) The γ rays, which are non-deviable by a magnetic field, and which are of a very penetrating character.
These rays differ very widely in their power of penetrating matter. The following approximate numbers, which show the thickness of aluminium traversed before the intensity is reduced to one-half, illustrate this difference.
Radiation. Thickness of Aluminium.
α rays .0005 cm.
β rays .05 cm.
γ rays 8 cm.
In this paper an account will be given of some experiments which show that the α rays are deviable by a strong magnetic and electric field. The deviation is in the opposite sense to that of the cathode rays, so that the radiations must consist of positively charged bodies projected with great velocity. In a previous paper, I have given an account of the indirect experimental evidence in support of the view that the α rays consist of projected charged particles. Preliminary experiments undertaken to settle this question during the past two years gave negative results. The magnetic deviation, even in a strong magnetic field, is so small that very special methods are necessary to detect and measure it. The smallness of the magnetic deviation of the α rays, compared with that of the cathode rays in a vacuum-tube, may be judged from the fact that the α rays, projected at right angles to a magnetic field of strength 10,000 C.G.S. units, describe the arc of a circle of radius about 39 cms., while under the same conditions the cathode rays would describe a circle of radius about 0.01 cm.
In the early experiments radium of activity 1000 was used, but this did not give out strong enough rays to push the experiment to the necessary limit. The general method employed was to pass the rays through narrow slits and to observe whether the rate of discharge, due to the issuing rays, was altered by the application of a magnetic field. When, however, the rays were sent through sufficiently narrow slits to detect a small deviation of the rays, the rate of discharge of the issuing rays became too small to measure, even with a sensitive electrometer.
I have recently obtained a sample of radium of activity 19,000, and using an electroscope instead of an electrometer, I have been able to extend the experiments, and to show that the α rays are all deviated by a strong magnetic field.
Magnetic Deviation of the Rays. {ULSF: figures and tables omitted} Fig. 1a shows the general arrangement of the experiment. The rays from a thin layer of radium passed upwards through a number of narrow slits, G, in parallel, and then through a thin layer of aluminium foil 0.00034 cm. thick into the testing vessel V. The ionization produced by the rays in the testing vessel was measured by the rate of movement of the leaves of a gold-leaf electroscope B. This was arranged after the manner of C. T. R. Wilson in his experiments on the spontaneous ionization of air. The gold-leaf system was insulated inside the vessel by a sulphur bead C, and could be charged by means of a movable wire D, which was afterwards earthed. The rate of movement of the gold-leaf was observed by means of a microscope through small mica windows in the testing vessel.
In order to increase the ionization in the testing vessel, the rays passed through 20 to 25 slits of equal width, placed side by side. This was arranged by cutting grooves at regular intervals in side-plates into which brass plates were slipped. A cross section of the system of metal plates and air-spaces is shown in fig. 1b.
The width of the slit varied in different experiments between 0.042 and 0.1 cm.
The magnetic field was applied perpendicular to the plane of the paper and parallel to the plane of the slits.
The testing vessel and system of plates were waxed to a load plate P so that the rays entered the vessel V only through the aluminium foil.
It is necessary in these experiments to have a steady stream of gas passing downwards between the plates in order to prevent the diffusion of the emanation from the radium upwards into the testing vessel. The presence in the testing vessel of a small amount of this emanation, which is always given out by radium, would produce large ionization effects and completely mask the effect to be observed.
For this purpose a steady current of dry electrolytic hydrogen of 2 c.c. per second was passed into the testing vessel, streamed through the porous aluminium foil, and passed between the plates, carrying with it the emanation from the apparatus.
The use of a stream of hydrogen instead of air greatly simplifies the experiment, for it increases at once the ionization current due to the α rays in the testing vessel, and (at the same time) greatly diminishes that due to the β and γ rays.
This follows at once from the fact that the α rays are much more readily absorbed in air than in hydrogen, while the rate of production of ions due to the β and γ rays is much less in hydrogen than in air. The intensity of the α rays after passing between the plates is consequently greater when hydrogen is used ; and since the rays pass through a sufficient distance of hydrogen in the testing vessel to be largely absorbed, the total amount of ionization produced by them in hydrogen is greater than in air.
With the largest electromagnet in the laboratory I was only able to deviate about 30 per cent, of the α rays. Through the kindness of Professor Owens, of the Electrical Engineering Department, I was, however, enabled to make use of the upper part of the field-magnet of a 30 kilowatt Edison dynamo. Suitable pole-pieces are at present being made for the purpose of obtaining a strong magnetic field over a considerable area ; but with rough pole-pieces I have been enabled to obtain a sufficiently strong field to completely deviate the α rays.
The following is an example of an observation on the magnetic deviation:
Pole-pieces 1.90 x 2.50 cms.
Strength of field between pole-pieces 8370 units.
Apparatus of 25 parallel plates of length 3.70 cms., width 0.70 cm., with an average air-space between plates of 0.042 cm.
Distance of radium below plates 1.4 cm.
Rate of Discharge of Electroscope in volts per minute
(1) Without magnetic field 8.33
(2) With magnetic field 1.72
(3) Radium covered with thin layer of mica to absorb all α rays 0.93
(4) Radium covered with mica and magnetic field applied 0.92
The mica plate, 0.01 cm. thick, was of sufficient thickness to completely absorb all the α rays; but allowed the β AND γ rays to pass through without appreciable absorption. The difference between (1) and (3), 7.40 volts per minute, gives the rate of discharge due to the a rays alone; the difference between (2) and (3), 0.79 volt per minute, that due to the α rays not deviated by the magnetic field employed.
The amount of α rays not deviated by the field is thus about 11 per cent, of the total. The small difference between (2) and (4) includes the small ionization due to the β rays, for they would have been completely deviated by the magnetic field. It is probable that the ionization due to the β rays without a magnetic field was actually stronger than this ; but the residual magnetic field, when the current was broken, was large enough to deviate them completely before reaching the testing vessel. (4) comprises the effect of the γ rays together with the natural leak of the electroscope in hydrogen.
In this experiment there was a good deal of stray magnetic field acting on the rays before reaching the pole-pieces. The distribution of this field at different portions of the apparatus is shown graphically in fig. 2.
The following table shows the rate of discharge due to the a rays for different strengths of the magnetic field. The maximum value with no magnetic field is taken as 100. These results are shown graphically in fig. 3.
The curve (fig. 3) shows that the amount deviated is approximately proportional to the magnetic field. With another apparatus, with a mean air space of .055 cm., the rays were completely deviated by a uniform magnetic field of strength 8400 units extending over the length of the plates, a distance of 4.5 cms.
Direction of the Deviation of the Rays.
In order to determine the direction of the deviation, the rays were passed through slits of 1 mm. width. Each slit was about half covered by a brass plate in which air-spaces were cut to correspond accurately with the system of parallel plates. Fig. 4. represents an enlarged section of three of the plates, with the metal plate C half covering the slit AB. If a magnetic field is applied, not sufficiently great to deviate all the rays, the rate of discharge in the testing vessel when the rays are deviated in the direction from A to B should be much greater than when the magnetic field is reversed, i. e. when the rays are deviated from B to A. This was found to be the case, for while the rate of discharge was not much diminished by the application of the field in one direction, it was reduced to about one quarter of its value by reversal of the field.
In this way it was found that the direction of deviation in a magnetic field was opposite in sense to the cathode rays, i. e., the rays consisted of positively charged particles.
Electrostatic Deviation of the Rays. The apparatus was similar to that employed for the magnetic deviation of the rays with the exception that the brass sides, which held the plates in position, were replaced by ebonite.
Twenty-five plates were used of length 4.50 cms., width 1.5 cm., and average air-space of .055 cm. The radium was .85 cm. below the plates. Alternate plates were connected together and charged by means of a battery of small accumulators to a potential-difference of 600 volts. A current of hydrogen was used as in the case of the magnetic experiment.
With a P.D. of 600 volts, a consistent difference* of 7 per cent, was observed in the rate of discharge due to the α rays with the electric field off and on. A larger potential difference could not be used as a spark passed between the plates in the presence of radium.
The amount of deviation in this experiment was too small to determine the direction of deviation by the electric field.
Determination of the Velocity of the Rays.
It is difficult to determine with certainty the value of the curvature of the path of the rays in a given magnetic field from the percentage amount of rays deviated, on account of the fact that some of the rays which strike the sides of the parallel plates are deviated so as to pass into the testing vessel.
From data obtained, however, by observing the value of the magnetic field for complete deviation of the rays, it was deduced that
Hρ = 390,000.
where H = value of magnetic field,
ρ = radius of curvature of path of the rays. This gives the higher limit of the value Hρ.
By using the usual equations of the deviation of a moving charged body it was deduced that the velocity V of the rays was given by
V = 2.5 X 109cms. per sec,
and that the value e/m, the ratio of the charge of the carrier to its mass, was given by
e/m = 6x103.
These results are only rough approximations and merely indicate the order of the values of these quantities, as the electric deviations observed were too small for accurate observations. The experiments are being continued with special apparatus, and it is hoped that much larger electrostatic deviations will be obtained, and in consequence a more accurate determination of the constants ** of the rays.
*In later experiments, which are not yet completed, I have been able to deviate about 45 per cent, of the α rays in a strong electric field.
** The α rays are complex, and probably consist of particles projected with velocities lying between certain limits; for the radiations include the α radiations from the emanation and excited activity which are distributed throughout the radium compound.
The α rays from radium are thus very similar to the Canal Strahlen observed by Goldstein, which have been shown by Wien to be positively charged bodies moving with a high velocity. The velocity of the α rays is, however, considerably greater than that observed for the Canal Strahlen.
General Considerations.
The radiations from uranium, thorium, and radium, and also the radiations from the emanations and excited bodies, all include a large proportion of α rays. These rays do not differ much in penetrating power, and it is probable that in all cases the α radiations from them are charged particles projected with great velocities.
In a previous paper it has been shown that the total energy radiated in the form of α rays by the permanent radioactive bodies is about 1000 times greater than the energy radiated in the form of β rays. This result was obtained on the assumption that the total number of ions produced by the two types of rays when completely absorbed in air, is a measure of the energy radiated. The α rays are thus the most important factor in the radiation of energy from active bodies, and, in consequence, any estimate of the energy radiated based on the β rays alone leads to much too small a value.
Experiments are in progress to determine the charge carried by the α rays, and from these it is hoped to deduce the rate of emission of energy in the form of α rays from the active substances.
The projection character of the α rays very readily explains some of their characteristic properties. On this view the ionization of the gas by the α rays is due to collisions of the projected masses with the gas molecules. The variation of the rate of production of the ions with the pressure of the gas and the variation of absorption of the rays in solids and gases with the density at once follows. It also offers a simple explanation of the remarkable fact that the absorption of the α rays in a given thickness of matter, when determined by the electrical method, increases with the thickness of matter previously traversed. It is only necessary to suppose that as the velocity of the projected particles decreases in consequence of collision with the molecules of the absorbing medium, the ionizing power of the rays decreases rapidly. This is most probably the case, for there seems to be no doubt that the positive carrier cannot ionize the gas below a certain velocity, which is very great compared with the velocity of translation of the molecules.
It is of interest to consider the probable part that the α rays play in the radioactive bodies on the general view of radioactivity that has been put forward by Mr. Soddy and myself in the Phil. Mag. Sept. and Nov. 1902. It is there shown that radioactivity is due to a succession of chemical changes in which new types of radioactive matter are being continuously formed, and that the constant radioactivity of the well known active bodies is an equilibrium process, where the rate of production of fresh active matter is balanced by the decay of activity of that already produced. Some very interesting points arose in the course of these investigations. It was found that the residual activity of uranium and thorium when freed from UrX and ThX by chemical processes consisted entirely of α rays. On the other hand, the radiation of UrX consisted almost entirely of β rays, while that of ThX consisted of both α and β rays. Similar results probably hold also for radium, for the Curies have shown that radium dissolved in water and then evaporated to dryness temporarily loses to a large extent its power of emitting β rays.
It thus appears probable that the emission of α rays goes on quite independently of the emission of β rays. There seems to be no doubt that the emission of β rays by active substances is a secondary phenomenon, and that the α rays play the most prominent part in the changes occurring in radioactive matter. The results obtained so far point to the conclusion that the beginning of the succession of chemical changes taking place in radioactive bodies is due to the emission of the α rays, i.e. the projection of a heavy charged mass from the atom. The portion left behind is unstable, undergoing further chemical changes which are again accompanied by the emission of α rays, and in some cases also of β rays.
The power possessed by the radioactive bodies of apparently spontaneously projecting large masses with enormous velocities supports the view that the atoms of these substances are made up, in part at least, of rapidly rotating or oscillating systems of heavy charged bodies large compared with the electron. The sudden escape of these masses from their orbit may be due either to the action of internal forces or external forces of which we have at present no knowledge.
It also follows from the projection nature of the α rays that the radioactive bodies, when inclosed in sealed vessels sufficiently thin to allow the α rays to escape, must decrease in weight. Such a decrease has been recently observed by Heydweiler for radium, but apparently under such conditions that the α rays would be largely absorbed in the glass tube containing the active matter.
In this connexion it is very important to decide whether the loss of weight observed by Heydweiler is due to a decrease of weight of the radium itself or to a decrease of weight of the glass envelope : for it is well known that radium rays produce rapid colourations throughout a glass tube, and it is possible that there may be a chemical change reaching to the surface of the glass which may account for the effects observed."
This charge-to-mass ratio measurement lacks the precision required to distinguish between a helium atom with two charges and a hydrogen atom with one charge.
(Note that Rutherford states that the deflection is in the opposite "sense" - not opposite direction - is there some reason for that confusing wording?)
(In my view Rutherford does not do a good job of explaining the apparatus and experiment well - for example, where do the alpha rays enter? The magnetic field should be shown in the diagram as should the supposed beam paths. As I understand the experiment, only the alpha rays that pass through the metal slits are measured. So apparently, the beam is first undeflected, and then deflected and so if deflected from B to A most of the beam will reflect or be absorbed by the front of the second metal columns, but if deflected from A to B will enter into the hole and pass through to the detector.) (Note that Rutherford cannot determine the direction of the α ray deflection by the static electricity field.)
(This experiment of measuring the loss of weight {or mass} is important in the case of showing that all matter is made of particles of light, and that light is a material particle. This experiment has not yet been made publicly. Possibly early combustion experiments in the 1700 and early 1800s during the reign of Newton's corpuscular view were performed. It seems clear, that, for example when a candle or a match burns, certainly much of the matter is converted to CO2 gas, but clearly the particles of light emitted by the millions must also cause a decrease in overall mass, and this decrease can only come from some part of the atom - is that from an electron, proton, neutron, some other composite particle, or is it just a free moving photon moving within or around an atom?)
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN
[11/19/1902 AD]
| 4738) Ernest Rutherford, 1st Baron Rutherford of Nelson (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and English chemist Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956) condense thorium and radium "emanation" (later shown to be isotopes of radon) at low temperatures to prove that emanation is a gas.
(show images from paper)
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 3609) Arthur Korn (CE 1870-1945) builds the first practical photo-telegraphic system (also functioning as a photograph copier) that is used for commercial purposes.
Korn improves on the 1881 selenium photograph image sending telegraph of Shelford Bidwell by replacing the chemical printing paper with photographic paper, in addition to other improvements. This is the first photocopier which copies a photograph directly to another photograph.
Korn publishes the details of this machine in 1904 as "Elektrische Fernphotographie und Ähnliches" ("Electrical Transmission of Pictures and Script") and a second enlarged edition in 1907.
A review of "Elektrische Fernphotographie und Aehnliches." ("Electrical Transmission of Pictures and Script") in "Nature" magazine of 1904, states "The problem of distant electrical vision is one to which much speculation and experimenting have been devoted. Before this problem can be attempted with any hope of success, however, the preliminary one of the electrical transmission of photographs over a distance has to be solved. This problem, it may be stated at once, has been mastered, and it is now possible to transmit photographs in this manner, and successful results have been obtained over telegraph and telephone lines 800 kilometres long. It does not need much consideration to see how important such a process would be for journalistic and police work if it could be industrially exploited, and it were possible simply to hand a sketch or photograph in at the telegraph office and send the same as one now sends an ordinary telegram. The evening papers would be able then to publish photographs taken at the seat of war in Korea on the same day. Unfortunately, with the apparatus at present to be had, the time taken to transmit a half-plate photograph is half an hour. The cost of the use of a telegraph line of any length for half an hour would be, it is needless to point out, prohibitive. The lessening of the required time of transmission is, however, simply a matter of further development, and no good reason can be seen why in a few years' time the process should not be an adjunct to every existing telegraph line. The author of the present work has devoted considerable time to this subject, and his booklet consists of an exact description of the apparatus and processes he has worked out. The author is to be commended on the very precise and careful way in which he has described every detail, so that it would be possible for anybody, with the help of this book, to reproduce, without any original work, the same results as he has obtained himself. The method shortly consists of the following:- A ray of light is made to pass systematically all over the transparent film to be transmitted. After passing through the film it impinges upon a selenium cell the resistance of which varies proportionally to the amount of light which passes through the photograph. These varying currents pass through the line and are received in a moving coil galvanometer the pointer of which, in moving, inserts or takes out resistance in a high tension circuit, according as the current flowing in the moving coil changes. in the high tension circuit a small vacuum tube is connected, and it follows that the illumination of this tube is proportional to the light passing through the plate at the transmitting end of the line. This vacuum tube now passes over the sensitised photographic paper in synchronism with the ray of light over the transmitted plate, and thus a reproduction of the same is obtained. The transmitted film and sensitised paper are each wrapped on a glass cylinder. These cylinders are rotated by motors, and synchronised once each revolution. only one wire is needed for the transmission, with, of course, an earth return.
...".
In a 1907 Nature magazine, Shelford Bidwell describes Korn's device, which builds on his earlier 1881 device. Bidwell writes "...The problem of telegraphic photography has recently been attacked with conspicuous success by Prof. A. Korn, of Munich, whose work is described in a little book entitled "Elektrische Fernphotographie und Ahnliches" (Leipzig, 1907). His latest method is indicated in Fig. 2. The transmitting and receiving cylinders T, R turn synchronously on screwed axes, the regulating mechanism of the receiver is situated in the bridge C D, and a suitable resistance is placed at S2. A celluloid film negative of the picture to be transmitted is wrapped round the cylinder T, which is made of glass. The light of a Nernst lamp N1 is concentrated by a lens upon an element of the film, through which it passes more or less freely according to the translucency of the film at the spot, to the Se cell S1, which is fixed in position, and does not, like mine, move with the cylinder; thus the resistance of the Se is varied in correspondence with the lights and shades of the picture. The receiving cylinder R is covered with a sensitised photographic film or paper, upon a point of which light from a lamp N, is concentrated. Before reaching the paper the light passes through perforations in two iron plates at F, which are, in fact, the pole-pieces of a strong electromagnet; between these is a shutter of aluminum leaf, which is attached to two parallel wires or thin strips forming the bridge C D. When there is no current through C D, the opening is covered by the shutter; when a current traverses the wires, they are depressed by electromagnetic action, carrying the shutter with them, and a quantity of light proportional to the strength of the current is admitted through the perforations. By means of thies "light-relay," as it is termed, the intensity of the light acting at any moment upon the sensitised paper is made proportional to the illumination of the selenium in the transmitter. It remains to mention a device of admirable ingenuity which has rendered it possible to transmit half-tones with fidelity. In its response to changes of illumination selenium exhibits a peculiar kind of sluggishness, to which reference was made in my old article: "Some alteration takes place almost instantaneously with a variation of the light, but for the greater part of the change an appreciable period of time is required." Prof. korn has succeeded in eliminating the effects of the sluggish component by substituting for my box of resistance coils R a second Se cell S2, which is as nearly as possible similar to S1, and which, by means of a second light-relay H, placed in series with the first, is subjected to similar changes of illumination. Thus any subpermanent fall in the resistance of S1 due to the action of light is compensated by an equal fall in that of S2, and only such changes as respond immediately to the varying illumination of S1 are utilised for regulating the transmission current. Such is in brief outline the nature of the new process. As regards the many carefully considered details which have made it a practical success, those interested will find ample information in the pamphlet mentioned above. The apparatus has been worked with excellent effect over long distances; a specimen of its performance, for which I am indebted to the kindness of Prof. Korn,
Note that the book "Trailblazer to Television" describes a slightly different process in which the light is not passed through the photograph as described in the two above Nature articles, but is instead reflected off the surface of the photograph, (the same method used by modern scanners). This description states: "After the light has fallen on each little spot of the picture, it will be reflected onto a selenium cell. As the beam of light passes over a dark spot in the photo, only a little light will strike the selenium cell. As the beam of light passes over a dark spot in the photo, only a little light will strike the selenium cell. Then the selenium cell will allow only a weak current to pass through it and out over the telephone wires to the receiver. But when the light beam strikes a light spot in the photograph, a bright flash of light will be reflected on the selenium cell. Then the cell will allow a strong current to flow through it, over the telephone lines, to the receiver....Each light and dark spot of the entire photograph will be sent over the wires to the receiver.". The receiver is described like this: "In the receiver there will be a cylinder which rotates at exactly the same speed as the cylinder in the transmitter. A sheet of photographic film, just like the film you use in your camera, is wrapped around this cylinder. Next, we replace the intense beam of light which we have in the transmitter with a gas tube in the receiver. This gas tube will be completely covered with tin foil and black paper, except for one tiny window. Then, just as the light beam travels over the photograph in the transmitter, dot by dot, this tiny window in the gas tube will travel in exactly the same way over the photographic film. Now, when the light beam in the transmitter travels over a dark spot in the photograph, only a weak current will flow through the selenium cell and over the telephone wires to the gas tube in the receiver. ...this weak current produces only a weak glow in the tiny window of the gas tube, which then falls as a dim light on that spot of the film. But when the light beam in the tyransmitter strikes a light area on the photograph, a strong current will flow over the telephone lines and produce a bright glow in the receiving tube. This bright glow then strikes the film. As the film moves by the gas tube, each little light and dark spot of the photograph is rebuilt on the film. The more of these tiny spots there are, the clearer our received picture will be, because we can get more of the shadings and details on our film. If we received only a few large bright and dark spots, the picture would look crude and blurred...The film is treated just like any film you take out of your camera after you have taken a picture. It is unwrapped from the cylinder in a dark room, developed in chemical baths, and then printed on photographic paper just like any snapshot.". Notice also that the two above accounts in Nature both fail to mention the requirement of developing the exposed photograph after the scan is complete.
By 1906 Korn’s equipment will be regularly used to transmit newspaper photographs between Munich and Berlin through telegraph circuits. In 1907, Korn establishes a commercial picture transmission system. This system eventually links Berlin, London and Paris becoming the earth's first facsimile network. And so in 1907 pictures will be sent from Berlin to newspapers in Paris and London. In 1909 the "Daily Mirror" will use Korn's apparatus to send horse-racing pictures from Manchester to London. Further improvements are invented by Édouard Belin (1876-1963) in France and AT&T and Bell in the USA. Korn also pioneers the transmission of images by radio in 1922.
(This device converts a two dimensional image in light to a series of electronic currents, but still has mechanical moving parts which must move back and forth over the scanned image. Eventually, capturing and converting an image in light to electricity will be done electronically without any mechanical moving parts. This enables electric cameras to be quiet enough to be hidden, and send the images electronically to remote locations connected by wire or wireless.)
(Presumably after transmission the exposed photo needs to be developed.)
(Clearly, the next development must have been a two dimensional array of selenium cells and some kind of electrical circuit to pass an image sequentially with not moving parts. This would not only allow silently remotely viewing some location, but also electronic motion pictures. But this history appears to be more secretive than even the history of the fax. For example some device called a "motion picture telegraph", "motion-telegraph" or "multi-phototelegraph".)
It is a disappointment that Korn's vision and desire to use telephotography to capture criminals has not yet become a reality. Because of people's strong belief in the myth of privacy (already violated by wealthy insiders utilizing the phone company wires) that even simple street cameras, and then with images archived and freely available to the public are not available. Such a simple, low cost, system could easily be used to solve 90% of all murders, including those of 9/11/01, and other "false-flag" government-involved violent crimes. It is sad, that the public is not informed, aware, or supportive of this inevitable technological progress, and suffers from a lack of care about protecting and improving the freeflow of information, in particular images.
| München, Germany |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 3821) Karl von Linde develops a method of rectification to produce purified oxygen from air.
Karl Paul Gottfried von Linde (liNDu) (CE 1842-1934), German chemist, develops a method for separating liquid oxygen from liquid air on a large scale. New industrial processes need oxygen, and consequently Linde's process was rapidly taken up.
The demand for oxygen-rich gas mixtures falls but the demand for pure oxygen grows very large because of gas welding and cutting processes becoming popular in metal working. Linde convinces his son Friedrich and chemistry professor Hempel to try the method of "rectification". This is a method of separating alcohol and water, long in use in the field of chemistry. A fermented mash is heated until the alcohol evaporates, heat is removed from the alcohol vapor by water cooling so that the alcohol can be condensed (rectification process) and captured as a liquid. Carl von Linde and his employees create a similar process in which liquid air drips down into a rectification column while oxygen vapor provides a countercurrent. This continuous process of liquefaction and evaporation produces nearly pure oxygen. (explain better - does nitrogen boil off?) (Could this rectification process be described as a simple "fractionation" or perhaps even "distillation", or is this a different process? Ultimately it seems that this process makes use of the principle that different atoms change from liquid to gas at different temperatures, which is the basis of distillation (and fractionation). Distillation usually implies the us of alcohol, while fractionation usually implies use of oil.)
This method for separating pure liquid oxygen from liquid air results in widespread industrial conversion to processes that use oxygen (for example in steel making).
This process for the fractional liquefaction of air is the process used in most commercial oxygen now manufactured.
Linde publishes this method in 1892. (Find publication.)
In 1903, the team working in the Höllrigelskreuth Linde factory achieves nitrogen purification by using a modified rectification process. By 1910, this team develops a "two-column apparatus" which delivers pure oxygen and pure nitrogen (from air) at the same time at a low cost. (Presumably the liquid gases are then filled into tanks. Is the tank then simply sealed?)
(Find original US patent for 1902)
In a US patent Linde describes the process for producing pure nitrogen and pure oxygen of 1903: " My invention relates to an improved apparatus for producing pure nitrogen and pure oxygen, the object of the invention being to provide an improved apparatus in which liquefied gas is rectified in repeated operations to separate the liquid and vapors therefrom into the constituent elements thereof;...". The key process is described this way: "The operation of my improvements is as follows: Air or other mixed gas is compressed by pump 8, cooled in the coil 9 in tank 10, and further cooled in the coils 11 and 12 in counter-current chambers 3 and 4. From coil 12 the gas passes to coil 14 in liquid-chamber 6; liquefying therein and boiling the liquid in said chamber. The liquid in coil 14 passes up pipe 15, past throttle-valve 16, and is discharged through nozzle 16 into the lower half of column, when in its downward passage through the column it contacts with the ascending vapor from chamber 6 to exchange its nitrogen for the oxygen of the vapor. The vapor escaping from the top of column 5 passes through chamber 3 and pipe 23 and a portion is again compressed by pump 25, cooled in the coil 26 in tank 27, and passes through pipe 28 and coil 29 and into a coil 30 in chamber 6, where it is liquefied, boiling the liquid in said chamber. The liquid from coil 30, which contains at first, say, seven per cent, oxygen, flows through pipe 31 past valve 32 and is discharged by nozzle 33 into the top of column 5 and in the upper portion of said column exchanges its nitrogen for oxygen in the ascending vapor, so that a continued operation of the apparatus results in a gradual self intensified rectification in the upper portion of column 5 until pure nitrogen escapes from the top thereof and pure liquid oxygen escaped from chamber 6 through pipe 19 into tank 7, when it is vaporized by the incoming gas in coil 18 and escapes as pure oxygen from outlet-pipe 21.".
The Linde company goes on in 1906, to separate water gas into its constituent parts hydrogen, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and methane. (what is water gas?) In 1909 and 1910 they produce pure hydrogen (state how). Starting in 1912, they extract Argon from air from a modified separation process.
[t One interesting fact is that when a liquid boils, spheres of mass less dense than the surrounding liquid occur, but the opposite occurs when a gas condenses in which spheres of mass more dense than the surrounding gas occur.
| (Munich Thermal Testing Station) Munich, Germany (presumably) |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4062) Viktor Meyer (CE 1848-1897), German organic chemist, shows that a large atom-grouping on a molecule might interfere with reactions at some nearby location in that molecule. This is called "steric hindrance" and Meyer introduces the term "stereochemistry" for the study of molecular shapes. (chronology)
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany (presumably) |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4082) Oliver Heaviside (CE 1850-1925), English physicist and electrical engineer suggests in 1902, after radio waves (or particles) had been transmitted across the Atlantic in 1901, the existence of an electronically charged atmospheric layer that reflects the radio waves (or particles). In this same year Arthur Kennelly independently suggests the same explanation. The Heaviside layer (which is sometimes called the Kennelly–Heaviside layer) will be detected experimentally in 1924 by Edward Appleton. (state how these particles are detected.)
| London, England (presumably) |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4180) Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (oSTVoLT) (CE 1853-1932) Russian-German physical chemist originates the Ostwald process for preparing nitric acid (patented in 1902). Ammonia mixed with air is heated and passed over a catalyst (platinum). The ammonium reacts with the oxygen to form nitric oxide, which is then oxidized to nitrogen dioxide; the nitrogen dioxide then reacts with water to form nitric acid.
| (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4181) Friedrich Wilhelm Ostwald (oSTVoLT) (CE 1853-1932) Russian-German physical chemist originates the Ostwald process for preparing nitric acid (patented in 1902). Ammonia mixed with air is heated and passed over a catalyst (platinum). The ammonium reacts with the oxygen to form nitric oxide, which is then oxidized to nitrogen dioxide; the nitrogen dioxide then reacts with water to form nitric acid.
| (University of Leipzig) Leipzig, Germany |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4365) English physiologists, Ernest Henry Starling (CE 1866-1927), and (Sir) William Maddock Bayliss (CE 1860-1924) find that the pancreas secreting its digestive juice is not nerve controlled but is controlled by a substance secreted from the lining of the small intestine (which they name "secretin").
In a famous experiment performed on anesthetized dogs, Bayliss and Starling show that dilute hydrochloric acid, mixed with partially digested food, activates a chemical substance in the epithelial cells of the duodenum. When this activated substance, which they called secretin, is released into the bloodstream, and comes into contact with the pancreas, the secretin stimulates secretion of digestive juice (from the pancreas) into the intestine through the pancreatic duct. (Explain the pancreas' functions)
Two years later, Bayliss and Starling coin the term hormone (Greek horman, "to set in motion") to describe specific chemicals, such as secretin, that stimulate an organ at a distance from the chemical's site of origin.
Pavlov had believed that the process of the pancreas secreting digestive juices when the acid food of the stomach enters the intestine is nerve controlled, but when Starling and Bayliss cut the nerves to the pancreas, it still secretes digestive juices as it usually does. (what do the nerves connected to pancreas do then?) Takamine had isolated the first substance shown to be a pure hormone. This will lead to the recognition of hormone malfunction as a cause of disease. Banting will use this knowledge to identify and use insulin as a treatment for diabetes, greatly lessening the suffering of people with diabetes.
| (University College) London, England |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4394) Arthur Edwin Kennelly (CE 1861-1939), British-US electrical engineer theorizes that somewhere in the upper atmosphere is a layer of electrically charged particles that can reflect radio waves (photons with radio frequency). Balfour Stewart had suggested this 20 years earlier, and Oliver Heaviside will independently publish this theory months later. Appleton will show this to be true. (how, explain)
This comes following Marconi’s success in bridging the Atlantic by a radiotelegraphic signal in 1901. Kennelly suggests that radio waves must be reflected from a discontinuity in the ionized upper atmosphere. Since the same explanation occurs independently to Heaviside a little later, the name Kennelly-Heaviside layer is given to the region, which is now known as the ionosphere.
(Has it ever been shown that charged particles reflect light particles? That may have some interesting consequences if true. EXPERIMENT: make a layer of charged particles and show that photons with radio wavelengths (and other wavelengths) can reflect off of it.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4457) Richard Adolf Zsigmondy (ZiGmuNDE) (CE 1865-1929), Austro-German chemist and Heinrich Siedentopf develop the ultramicroscope and Zsigmondy uses this microscope to investigate various aspects of colloids, including Brownian motion.
Zsigmondy's first interest is in the chemistry of glazes applied to glass and ceramics. While employed in a glassworks (1897), Zsigmondy becomes interested in colloidal gold (gold broken into small enough particles that they do not settle in water but stay suspended, forming deeply colored red or purple liquids). For example, ruby glass is made by colloidial gold within the glass.
In the ultramicroscope, the particles are illuminated with a cone of light at right angles to the microscope. Although still too small to be seen the particles will reflect light shone on them and therefore appear as disks of light against a dark background. The particles can then be counted, measured, and have their velocity and path determined. Zsigmondy publishes his work in this field in his book "Kolloidchemie" (1912; "Colloidal Chemistry").
This ultramicroscope is still used in colloid studies but the electron microscope built by Zworykin (40 years later) will surpass it.
(Asimov comments that colloids contain objects smaller than the wavelengths of visible light and so cannot be seen in a microscope. I doubt the Tyndall effect is true, because it depended on light being a wave with an aether medium. Probably the particles are so small that not many light particles reflect off of them in the same direction of the eye of the observer. But perhaps, according to this theory, small particles could be seen with a uv, xray, gamma ray microscope with detectors for those various frequencies. It is interesting to think that photons in visible frequency do bounce off the object and some return at 180 degrees back into the eyepiece (or continue through the object while others deflect causing the object to appear in darker color). )
(EX: can there by radio, microwave, UV, xray, and gamma ray microscopes? I think that an object should be able to be seen with photons, and the frequency should not matter, but perhaps it is a quantity thing, and more photons are needed to guarantee that some will bounce back at 180 degrees. If x-rays are truly photon beams with higher frequency than visible light, more should reflect in a smaller quantity of time, and so perhaps should be a better light to use for observing small objects. However, if x-rays are made of a smaller particle than a photon, then perhaps here again, they might be better at imaging smaller objects.)
| (private research) Jena?, Germany (verify) |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4480) Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (CE 1866-1932), Canadian-US physicist demonstrates the heterodyne principle of converting high-frequency wireless signals to a lower frequency that is more easily controlled and amplified. This is the forerunner of the superheterodyne principle, which makes easy tuning of radio signals possible and is a critical factor for the growth of commercial broadcasting.
(find and read original patent)
| (National Electric Signalling Company) Brant Rock, Massachusetts, USA |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4713) Georges Claude (CE 1870-1960), French chemist invents a method of producing large quantities of liquid air independently of Linde.
Claude uses the energy of the expanding gas for producing electricity.
| (Compagnie Francaise Houston-Thomson) Paris, France |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4714) Georges Claude (CE 1870-1960), French chemist develops the neon lamp for use in lighting and signs.
While studying the inert gases, Claude found that passing electrical current through them produces light. This is the beginning of the neon light which make Claude wealthy.
Because glass can be twisted to spell out words, neon lights are popular in advertising signs. In the 1930s these lights will be coated internally with fluorescent material so they produce a white light and can be used in houses and factories.
Edison had patented a fluorescent lamp in 1896 which used an electric arc to make an interior coating of calcium tungstate emit light.
(What is the internal coating material of the 1930s - how does it differ from calcium tungstate?)
(interesting that fluorescent lights are neon lights. Are there other gases, argon for example that also produce light under high voltage. This is simply gases in vacuum tubes with electrodes at both ends which is subjected to a high voltage. The emission of light particles with the use of electric current is an interesting phenomenon. The photons probably come from the electricity and the gas, because Crookes and others had shown how a gas is used up after a high voltage is applied for a long time. This is how bulbs were evacuated. Who showed first that the gas in a vacuum tube eventually runs out and is this not evidence that all atoms being composed of light particles?)
(Is raising neon to incandescence different from raising other atoms to incandescence using electricity such as sodium (which is a solid), or oxygen as a gas for example?)
(To see the spectral lines of oxygen, a vacuum tube and high voltage can be used, but otherwise it must be difficult since oxygen is used in combustion. Possibly spectral lines from separated oxygen particles should be seen in any oxygen combustion reaction.)
(Does this lighting of inert gases only occur in a vacuum or outside of a vaccum, and with other gases too?)
(Give more history of the fluorescence from gas in a vacuum under high electric potential lamps.)
| (Compagnie Francaise Houston-Thomson) Paris, France (presumably) |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4721) (Sir) William Jackson Pope (CE 1870-1939), English chemist prepares optically active compounds centered on asymmetric atoms of sulfur, selenium, and tin.
(show visually in 3D.)
Pope demonstrates that even compounds without asymmetric atoms are optically active (polarize light), because the molecule itself is asymmetric (as a result of steric hindrance, where a large atom grouping on a molecule interferes with reactions at a nearby point in the molecule, first described by Viktor Meyer). Pope therefore widens the concept of a stereoisomer, (where a molecule may have isomers because of asymmetry).
| (Municipal School of Technology) Manchester, England |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4766) Bertrand Arthur William Russell (CE 1872-1970), 3d Earl English mathematician and philosopher identifies what is called "Russell's paradox" of a set of all sets which are not members of themselves, is such a set a member of itself?
If yes, then it cannot be the set of all sets of which it is not a member, but if no, it must be listed as a set which it is not a member of.
Russell presents this paradox in writes a letter to Frege. This mathematical paradox forces Frege to add a footnote to his two-volume work.
Some people think that these paradoxes, nullify all of logic, but I think this is simply a mathematical phenomenon of logical statements that form cyclical/impossible paradoxes, like the question "Can we be certain that there is no certainty?", if yes, then we are certain of something, if no, then the statement is true, and we are certain of that.
Whitehead will try to make all of mathematics completely rigorous (being absolutely correct, not deviating from correctness, accuracy, or completeness), with his book “Principia Mathematica”, but Gödel will show that all such efforts of creating a mathematical representation of logic without paradoxes are doomed to failure. (explain details of Godel's explanation)
An interesting aspect of mathematical interpretation of logic is in the way that robots will be able soon to absolutely use the same exact kind of thinking as humans do - understanding what, for example, a plate, bowl, fork, etc are, where they are located, how to clean them, and robots will understand even the most apparently complex thoughts understood by humans, and probably already do.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 4784) Alexis Carrel (KoreL) (CE 1873-1944), French-US surgeon develops a method of sewing together the ends of (suturing) blood vessels.
Alexis Carrel (KoreL) (CE 1873-1944), French-US surgeon starts to investigate techniques for joining (suturing) blood vessels end to end. Carrel is inspired into blood-vessel repair by the 1894 murder of the French President Carnot, where a bullet had severed a major artery and Carnot's life could have been saved if the artery had been repaired quickly enough.
Carrel's techniques, which minimize tissue damage and infection and reduce the risk of blood clots, are a major advance in vascular surgery and pave the way for the replacement and transplantation of organs.
With the development of anticoagulants, suturing will prove unnecessary for blood transfusion. (explain more, what are anticoagulants, how are they used, why is suturing needed for blood transfusion?)
(The faster a person with a severed or cut blood vessel can get it repaired the better the chance of survival. The vessel needs to be located, the person may need to be cut open, the vessel repaired, and then sewn/cauterized/closed...the way things currently are, even getting the person to a hospital and before a person trained to do such a procedure would take 30 minutes, probably far too long to repair a broken blood vessel, although perhaps blood transfusion and restricting the blood escaping from the severed blood vessel can delay vessel repair that is not completely severed.)
| (University of Lyons) Lyons, France |
98 YBN
[1902 AD]
| 6047) Scott Joplin (CE 1868-1917), US composer and pianist, composes his famous "The Entertainer".
| Saint Louis, Missouri, USA (presumably) |
97 YBN
[03/17/1903 AD]
| 3676) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist finds that the phosphor, zinc sulfide emits visible light when near radioactive material. In this way, a zinc sulfide screen can be used in darkness to see particle emissions. Zinc sulfide is used on cathode ray tube (CRT) display screens.
From this finding, Crookes invents the spinthariscope (Greek for "spark viewer") (which he describes in the May 22, 1903 edition of "Chemical News").
The first investigations of luminescence began in 1603 by Vincenzo Cascariolo using barium sulfate. The first stable Zinc sulfide phosphor was described in 1866 by Theodore Sidot.
Materials that emit light when exposed to light, electrons (and other particles) are called "phosphors".
This is a simple device made of a zinc sulfide screen, a bit of radium, and a lens.
This device is based on the phenomenon that particles of alpha rays (helium nuclei, a body made of 2 neutrons and 2 protons) cause zinc sulfide to luminesce (emit light), that under a microscope appear to be numerous individual flashes of light. Each flash of light is thought to be a single alpha particle (helium nucleus).
Even after more sophisticated electric counting devices, Rutherford used this scintillation-counting method to estimate alpha activity.
Crookes uses a screen of platinocyanide of barium, a zinc sulphide screen (of what dimensions?), diamond and other materials to see light emited (luminescence) that results from radioactive emissions of radium. ( Why are these screens not freely available for radiation testing? This material is used as a phosphorescent in CRTs. Perhaps they could be used to see beams being sent to our brains, but the beam might be deactivated to quickly, but then at least it would be stopped. Tell full history of zinc sulfide. Apparently zinc sulfide, ZnS, is very easy to make by simply mixing and then igniting zinc and sulfur together and then allowing to cool.)
Crookes writes in "The Emanations of Radium": " A solution of almost pure radium nitrate which had been used for spectrographic work, was evaporated to dryness in a dish, and the crystalline residue examined in a dark room. It was feebly luminous. A screen of platinocyanide of barium brought near the residue glowed with a green light, the intensity varying with the distance separating them. The phosphorescence disappeared as soon as the screen was removed from the influence of the radium. A screen of Sidot's hexagonal blende (zinc sulphide), said to be useful for detecting polonium radiations, was almost as luminous is the platinocyanide screen in presence of radium, but there was more residual phosphorescence, lasting from a few minutes to half an hour or more according to the strength and duration of the initial excitement. The persistence of radio-activity on glass vessels which have contained radium is remarkable. Filters, beakers, and dishes used in the laboratory for operations with radium, after having been washed in the usual way, remain radio-active; a piece of blende screen held inside the beaker or other vessel immediately glowing with the presence of radium. The blende screen is sensitive to mechanical shocks. A tap with the tip of a penknife will produce a sudden spark of light, and a scratch with the blade will show itself as an evanescent luminous line. A diamond crystal brought near the radium nitrate glowed with a pale bluish-green light, as it would in a "Radiant Matter" tube under the influence of cathodic bombardment. On removing the diamond from the radium it ceased to glow, but, when laid on the sensitive screen, it produced phosphorescence beneath, which lasted some minutes. During these manipulations the diamond accidentally touched the radium nitrate in the dish, and thus a few imperceptible grains of the radium salt got on to the zinc sulphide screen. The surface was immediately dotted about with brilliant specks of green light, some being a millimetre or more across, although the inducing particles were too small to be detected on the white screen when examined by daylight. In a dark room under a microscope with a 2/3-inch objective, each luminous spot is seen to have a dull centre surrounded by a luminous halo extending for some distance around. The dark centre itself appears to shoot out light at intervals in different directions. Outside the halo, the dark surface of the screen scintillates with sparks of light. No two flashes succeed one another on the same spot, but are scattered over the surface, coming and going instantaneously, no movement of translation being seen. The scintillations are somewhat better seen with a pocket lens magnifying about 20 diameters. They are less visible on the barium platinocyanide than on the zinc sulphide screen. A powerful electro-magnet has no apparent effect on the scintillations, which appear quite unaffected when the current is made or broken, the screen being close to the poles and arranged axially or equatorially. A solid piece of radium nitrate is slowly brought near the screen. The general phosphorescence of the screen as visible to the naked eye varies according to the distance of the radium from it. On now examining the surface with the pocket lens, the radium being far off and the screen faintly luminous, the scintillating spots are sparsely scattered over the surface. On bringing the radium nearer the screen the scintillations become more numerous and brighter, until when close together the flashes follow each other so quickly that the surface looks like a turbulent luminous sea. When the scintillating points are few there is no residual phosphorescence to be seen, and the sparks succeeding each other appear like stars on a black sky. When, however, the bombardment exceeds a certain intensity, the residual phosphorescent glow spreads over the screen, without, however, interfering with the scintillations. If the end of a platinum wire which has been dipped in a solution of radium nitrate and dried is brought near the screen, the scintillations become very numerous and energetic, and cease immediately the wire is removed. If, however, the end of the wire touches the screen, a luminous spot is produced, which then becomes a centre of activity, and the screen remains alive with scintillations in the neighbourhood of the spot for many weeks afterwards. "Polonium" basic nitrate produces a similar effect on the screen, but the scintillations are not so numerous. Microscopic glass, very thin aluminium foil, and thin mica do not stop the general luminosity of the screen from the X-rays, but arrest the scintillations. I could detect no variation in the scintillations when a rapid blast of air was blown between the screen and the radium salt. A beam of X-rays from an active tube was passed through a hole in a lead plate on to a blende screen. A luminous spot was produced on the screen, but I could detect no scintillations, only a smooth uniform phosphorescence. A piece of radium salt brought near gave the scintillations as usual, superposed on the fainter phosphorescence caused by the X-rays, and they were not interfered with in any degree by the presence of X-rays falling on the same spot. During these experiments the fingers soon become soiled with radium, and produce phosphorescence when brought near the screen. On turning the lens to the, apparently, uniformly lighted edge of the screen close to the finger, the scintillations are seen to be closer and more numerous; what to the naked eye appears like a uniform "milky way," under the lens is a multitude of stellar points, flashing over the whole surface. A clear finger does not show any effect, but a touch with a soiled finger is sufficient to confer on it the property. Washing the fingers stops their action. it was of interest to see if rarefying the air would have any effect on the scintillations. A blende screen was fixed near a flat glass window in a vacuum tube, and a piece of radium salt was attached to an iron rocker, so that the movement of an outside magnet would either bring the radium opposite the screen or draw it away altogether. A microscope gave a good image of the surface of the screen, and in a dark room the scintillations were well seen. no particular difference was observed in a high vacuum; indeed, if anything, the sparks appeared a trifle brighter and sharper in air than in vacuo. A duplicate apparatus in air was put close to the one in the vacuum tube, so that the eye could pass rapidly from one to the other, and it was so adjusted that the scintillations were about equal when each was in air. The vacuum apparatus was now exhausted to a very high point, and the appearance on each screen was noticed. Here again I thought the sparks in the vacuum were not quite so bright as in air, and on breaking the capillary tube of the pump, and observing as the air entered, the same impression was left on my mind; (note: impressions left on mind - could be hint about image sending) but the differences, if any, are very minute, and are scarcely greater than might arise from errors of observation. It is difficult to form an estimate of the number of flashes of light per second. but with the radium at about 5 cm. off the screen they are barely detectable, not being more than one or two per second. As the distance of the radium diminishes the flashes become more frequent, until at 1 or 2 cm. they are too numerous to count. {Added March 18.- On bringing alternately a Sidot's blende screen and one of barium platinocyanide, face downwards, near a dish of "polonium" sub-nitrate, each became luminous, the blende screen being very little brighter of the two. On testing the two screens over a crucible containing dry radium nitrate, both glowed; in this case the blende screen being much the brighter. Examined with a lens, the light of the blende screen was seen to consist of a mass of scintillations, while that of the platinocyanide screen was a uniform glow, on which the scintillations were much less apparent. The screens were now turned face upwards so that emanations from the active bodies would have to pass through the thickness of card before reaching the sensitive surface. placed over the "polonium" neither screen showed any light. Over the radium the platinocyanide screen showed a very luminous disc, corresponding with the opening of the crucible, but the blende disc remained quite dark. it therefore appears that practically the whole of the luminosity on the blende screen, whether due to radium or "polonium," is occasioned by emanations which will not penetrate card. These are the emanations which cause the scintillations, and the reason why they are distinct on the blende and feeble on the platinocyanide screen, is that with the latter the sparks are seen on a luminous ground of general phosphorescence which renders the eye less able to see the scintillations. considering how coarse-grained the structure of matter must be to particles forming the emanations from radium, I cannot imagine that their relative penetrative powers depend on difference of size. I attribute the arrest of the scintillating particles to their electrical character, and to the ready way in which they are attracted by the coarser atoms or molecules of matter. I have shown (Notice use of "shown" as opposed to "shewn" used by Maxwell) that radium emanations cohere to almost everything with which they come into contact. Bismuth, lead, platinum, thorium, uranium, elements of high atomic weight and density, possess this attraction in a high degree, and only lose the emanations very slowly, giving rise to what is known as "induced radio-activity." The emanations so absorbed from radium by bismuth, platinum, and probably other bodies, retain the property of producing scintillations on a blende screen, and are non-penetrating.} It seems probable that in these phenomena we are actually witnessing the bombardment of the screen by the electrons hurled off by radium with a velocity of the order of that of light; each scintillation rendering visible the impact of an electron on the screen. Although, at present, I have not been able to form even a rough approximation to the number of electrons hitting the screen in a given time, it is evidence that this is not of an order of magnitude inconceivably great. Each electron is rendered apparent only by the enormous extent of lateral disturbance produced by its impact on the sensitive surface, just as individual drops of rain falling on a still pool are not seen as such, but by reason of the splash they make on impact, and the ripples and wave they produce in ever-widening circles.".
(The use of the word "scintillations is interesting, and perhaps Crookes is the first to use that word. Why not use the more simple "points" or "dots" of light? Another interesting point is Crookes' interpretation that the size of the particle does not determine if it is blocked by some barrier but that this has to do with their electrical character. I think this blocking has to do with particle collision - xray and presumably gamma beams penetrating dense objects because of the quantity and density of particles in those beams. In addition, the view of what is now called radioactive contamination, as "induced radio-activity" - analogous to the induced charge of Faraday is interesting. Finally, the theory that denser materials store induced radio-activity more and for a longer time than less dense materials is interesting - verify if anybody publishes later testing of this.) Later on May 22, Crookes summarizes what is known publicly about the three kinds of radium emissions and describes his spintharoscope. In "Certain Properties of the Emanations of Radium", Crookes writes "The emanations from radium are of three kinds. One set is the same as the cathode stream, now identified with free electrons-atoms of electricity projected into space apart from gross matter-identical with "matter in the fourth or ultra-gaseous state," Kelvin's "satellites," Thomson's "corpuscles" or "particles"; disembodied ionic charges, retaining individuality and identity. Electrons are deviable in a magnetic field. They are shot from radium with a velocity of about two-thirds that of light, but are gradually obstructed by collisions with air atoms. Another set of emanations from radium are not affected by an ordinarily powerful magnetic field, and are incapable of passing through very thin material obstructions. They have about one thousand times the energy of that radiated by the deflectable emanations. They render air a conductor and act strongly on a photographic plate. These are the positively electrified atoms. Their mass is enormous in comparison with that of the electrons. A third kind of emanation is also produced by radium. Besides the highly penetrating rays which are deflected by a magnet, there are other very penetrating rays which are not at all affected by magnetism. These always accompany the other emanations, and are Röntgen rays - ether vibrations- produced as secondary phenomena by the sudden arrest of velocity of the electrons by solid matter, producing a series of Stokesian "pulses" or explosive ether waves shot into space. These rays chiefly affect a barium platinocyanide screen, and only in a much feebler degree zinc sulphide. Both Röntgen rays and electrons act on a photographic plate, and produce images of metal and other substances enclosed in wood and leather, and shadows of bodies on a barium platinocyanide screen. Electrons are much less penetrating than Röntgen rays, and will not, for instance, show easily the bones of the hand. A photograph of a closed case of instruments is taken by the radium emanations in three days, and one of the same case by Röntgen rays in three minutes. The resemblance between the two picture is alight, and the differences great. the action of these emanations on phosphorescent screens is different. The deflectable emanations affect a screen of barium platinocyanide strongly, but one of Sidot's zinc sulphide only slightly. On the other hand, the heavy, massive, non-deflectable positive atoms affect the zinc sulphide screen strongly, and the barium platinocyanide screen in a much less degree. If a solid piece of radium nitrate is brought near the screen, and the surface examined with a pocket lens magnifying about 20 diameters, scintillating spots are seen to be sparsely scattered over the surface. on bringing the radium nearer the screen the scintillations become more numerous and brighter, until when close together the flashes follow each other so quickly that the surface looks like a turbulent luminous sea. it seems probably that in these phenomena we are actually witnessing the bombardment of the screen by the positive atoms hurled off by radium with a velocity of the order of that of light: each scintillation rendering visible an impact on the screen, and becoming apparent only by the enormous extent of lateral disturbance produced by its impact. Just as individual drops of rain falling on a still pool are not seen as such, but by reason of the splash they make an impact, and the ripples and waves they produce in ever-widing circles. The Spinthariscope A convenient way to show these scintillations is to fit the blende screen at the end of a brass tube with a speck of radium salt in front of it and about a millimetre off, and to have a lens at the other end. Focussing, which must be accurately effected to see the best effects, is done by drawing the lens tube in or out. i propose to call this little instrument the "Spinthariscope," from the Greek word σπινθαρις, a scintillation.
(State clearly when these screens (platinocyanide of barium, and zinc sulphide) came into use, and how they are constructed. In particular because this puts an 'earliest date' on producing a screen that can show moving images - the CRT television or electric photo-screen.)
(One important note is that the photons released from the screens must be in a large number of directions if not semispherical to be seen from many different directions.)
(Another interesting point is that, the non-material universe view, similar to the view of an aether as the only matter view clearly lost out on the cathode rays/electrons interpretation - this generation of scientists opted for a more simple particle explanation and theory as opposed to cathode rays being transverse oscillations of an aether. This point must be up in the air or debatable, because Crookes makes a special point to state that the emissions of radium are material masses. In some sense, perhaps an oversimplification is that the corpuscularists won the battle in the interpretation of cathode ray tube and radioactive phenomena where they had lost in the battle to define or explain the phenomenon of visible light and heat. To some extent, they lost those two battles because their interpretations had inaccuracies and missing explanations. in the case of visible light as a particle they failed to account for color as a phenomenon of particle frequency, in the case for heat, they created a "heat particle" as opposed to understanding that heat is a phenomenon of particle absorption - or that matter is required - and quantity of matter is part of the equation - in the measuring, gaining or losing of temperature, as is velocity - although this point I need to refine and understand more clearly.)
| (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
97 YBN
[03/23/1903 AD]
| 4492) US inventors and brothers, Wilbur Wright (CE 1867-1912) and Orville Wright (CE 1871-1948) patent their steerable glider, which includes their helical wing control, an adjustable horizontal surface (elevator), and a movable vertical rudder, which allows the pilot to control all three axes of the airplane. These kinds of controls have been used on all airplanes ever ever since.
The Wrights designed a small wind tunnel in which, in the fall of 1901, they test several hundred model airfoils and obtain reliable lift and drag measurements as well as many other essential aerodynamic data. An airfoil is a part or surface, such as a wing, propeller blade, or rudder, whose shape and orientation control stability, direction, lift, thrust, or propulsion.
| Dayton, Ohio |
97 YBN
[03/23/1903 AD]
| 4493) US inventors and brothers, Wilbur Wright (CE 1867-1912) and Orville Wright (CE 1871-1948) build and fly the first successful powered, sustained, and controlled airplane.
With the major aerodynamic and control problems behind them, the brothers design and construct their first powered machine. The Wrights design and build a four-cylinder internal-combustion engine with the assistance of Charles Taylor, a machinist whom they employed in the bicycle shop. The Wrights design their twin pusher propellers on the basis of their wind-tunnel data.
In October 1902 the Wright brothers began the construction of a gas engine powered airplane. The weight of the plane including pilot, is 750 pounds. The engine and propellers are the Wrights' own design and manufacture. With this machine four successful fights are made from the level sand near the Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, on 17 December 1903. The final, longest flight lasts for fifty-nine seconds and covers a distance of 852 feet; this represented about half a mile through the air.
For the first time in history, a heavier-than-air machine completes powered and sustained flight under the complete control of the pilot.
The Wrights will devote the next five years to improving both their invention and their skill as pilots. In 1905, with the airplane nearing the state of practical utility, they offered their patent and their scientific data to the United States War Department, which rejects it. In 1905 the Wrights make a 30 minute 24-mile flight. In this year, two years after Orville Wright's first flight, "Scientific American" magazine first mentions the flight only to suggest that it is a hoax. Convinced that the first use of the airplane would be in war, the Wrights seek markets abroad. In 1908, after many rejections, the Wrights received purchase offers from a French syndicate and from the United States government. Orville gives a flying demonstration in the United States while Wilbur gives a flying demonstration in France. Orville flies an airplane for a full hour. With these flights, all doubts are erased and honors are poured upon the Wrights. In February 1908 the Wrights sign a contract for the sale of an airplane to the U.S. Army. They receive $25,000 for delivering a machine capable of flying for at least one hour with a pilot and passenger at an average speed of 40 miles (65 km) per hour. The following month, the Wrights sign a second agreement with a group of French investors interested in building and selling Wright machines under license. In 1909 Wilbur flies at Rome and Orvile at Berlin. The culmination of the Wrights’ achievements comes with Wilbur’s two flights at New York in 1909. On September 29th, Wilbur takes off from and lands at Governors Island, making a circle around the Statue of Liberty; and on October 4th Wilbur flies twenty–one–miles from Grant’s Tomb and back.
Also in 1909 the first flight across the English Channel stirs the public. In 1927 Charles Lindbergh will make the first flight across the Atlantic Ocean.
(As with neuron reading and writing, clearly the possibility exists that the Wright Brothers are only the first to publicly succeed at powered flight. For example, perhaps militaries had succeeded at powered flight secretly long before. This is similar to the case for walking robots, both with electric motors, and chemical-electrical artificial muscles.)
(find patent for motorized plane) (Is this the first use of the gas engine to flight?) (State other engines and fuels that are successfully used. For example alcohol, etc.)
(It's unbelievable that powered flying planes only date back to the early 1900s - just shocking that it took humans so long.)
(It seems clear that if not already, very soon, humans will be able to fly with artificial muscles flapping artificial wings in the same method used by birds. Artificial muscles, working exactly like any muscle including those of flying birds, are much lighter than electro-magnetic motors, and can contract to move a wing up and down, exactly as birds do. So the view that the early experimenters were very far off in trying to fly using the bird flapping method will be shown to be actually a foreshadowing of future technology where artificial electro-chemical muscles, probably of a shockingly simple design, achieve flight by flapping wings.)
| Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina, USA |
97 YBN
[05/14/1903 AD]
| 4263) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, creates a model of the atom as a sphere composed only of pairs of negatively charged corpuscles and positive charges which will be called the "plum pudding" model of the atom. The physical stability of an atom, based on the magnets of Mayer, is due to the physical geometrical constraints on possible positions for corpuscles in the space of a sphere. Thomson also suggests a discontinuous theory of light (with pulses) and electromagnetic fields. This supports the theory of atoms which some doubt because atomic weights are not found to be exact integers. Thomson also theorizes about the corpuscles having circular orbits around the center of a sphere.
This is the first theory about the internal structure of the atom. Thomson describes this model of the atom in a series of lectures given at Yale university in the summer of 1903. This model of the atom, also described as a sphere of positive energy with negatively charged corpuscles will be called Thomson's model, or the plum-pudding model. Thomson bases this idea on the magnets of Mayer, and how spheres can only be distributed in regular patterns because of the physical geometry of a spherical shape. Thomson also describes the physical interpretation of
Thomson will develop this model more in a paper in March of 1904 entitled "On the structure of the atom: an investigation of the stability and periods of oscillations of a number of corpuscles arranged at equal intervals around the circumference of a circle; with application of the results to the theory of atomic structure.". In 1910, Ernest Rutherford will perform research that leads to the modern understanding of the internal structure of the atom. In the process, the Rutherford atomic model will become more popular than Thomson's so-called "plum-pudding" model of atomic structure.
In his Yale lectures, Thomson talks about the "consitution of the atom" stating: "We have seen that whether we produce the corpuscles by cathode rays, by ultra-violet light, or from incandescent metals, and whatever may be the metals or gases present we always get the same kind of corpuscles. Since corpuscles similar in all respects may be obtained from very different agents and materials, and since the mass of the corpuscles is less than that of any known atom, we see that the corpuscle must be a constituent of the atom of many different substances. That in fact the atoms of these substances have something in common.
We are thus confronted with the idea that the atoms of the chemical elements are built up of simpler systems ; an idea which in various forms has been advanced by more than one chemist. Thus Prout, in 1815, put forward the view that the atoms of all the chemical elements are built up of atoms of hydrogen; if this were so the combining weights of all the elements would, on the assumption that there was no loss of weight when the atoms of hydrogen combined to form the atom of some other element, be integers; a result not in accordance with observation. To avoid this discrepancy Dumas suggested that the primordial atom might not be the hydrogen atom, but a smaller atom having only one-half or one-quarter of the mass of the hydrogen atom. Further support was given to the idea of the complex nature of the atom by the discovery by Newlands and Mendeleeff of what is known as the periodic law, which shows that there is a periodicity in the properties of the elements when they are arranged in the order of increasing atomic weights. The simple relations which exist between the combining weights of several of the elements having similar chemical properties, for example, the fact that the combining weight of sodium is the arithmetic mean of those of lithium and potassium, all point to the conclusion that the atoms of the different elements have something in common. Further evidence in the same direction is afforded by the similarity in the structure of the spectra of elements in the same group in the periodic series, a similarity which recent work on the existence in spectra of series of lines whose frequencies are connected by definite numerical relations has done much to emphasize and establish; indeed spectroscopic evidence alone has led Sir Norman Lockyer for a long time to advocate the view that the elements are really compounds which can be dissociated when the circumstances are suitable. The phenomenon of radio-activity, of which I shall have to speak later, carries the argument still further, for there seems good reasons for believing that radioactivity is due to changes going on within the atoms of the radio-active substances. If this is so then we must face the problem of the constitution of the atom, and see if we can imagine a model which has in it the potentiality of explaining the remarkable properties shown by radio-active substances. It may thus not be superfluous to consider the bearing of the existence of corpuscles on the problem of the constitution of the atom; and although the model of the atom to which we are led by these considerations is very crude and imperfect, it may perhaps be of service by suggesting lines of investigations likely to furnish us with further information about the constitution of the atom.
The Nature of the Unit from which the Atoms are Built Up Starting from the hypothesis that the atom is an aggregation of a number of simpler systems, let us consider what is the nature of one of these systems. We have seen that the corpuscle, whose mass is so much less than that of the atom, is a constituent of the atom, it is natural to regard the corpuscle as a constituent of the primordial system. The corpuscle, however, carries a definite charge of negative electricity, and since with any charge of electricity we always associate an equal charge of the opposite kind, we should expect the negative charge on the corpuscle to be associated with an equal charge of positive electricity. Let us then take as our primordial system an electrical doublet, with a negative corpuscle at one end and an equal positive charge at the other, the two ends being connected by lines of electric force which we suppose to have a material existence. For reasons which will appear later on, we shall suppose that the volume over which the positive electricity is spread is very much larger than the volume of the corpuscle. The lines of force will therefore be very much more condensed near the corpuscle than at any other part of the system, and therefore the quantity of ether bound by the lines of force, the mass of which we regard as the mass of the system, will be very much greater near the corpuscle than elsewhere. If, as we have supposed, the size of the corpuscle is very small compared with the size of the volume occupied by the positive electrification, the mass of the system will practically arise from the mass of bound ether close to the corpuscle; thus the mass of the system will be practically independent of the position of its positive end, and will be very approximately the mass of the corpuscles if alone in the field. This mass (see page 21) is for each corpuscle equal to 2e2/3a, where e is the charge on the corpuscle and a its radius—a, as we have seen, being about 10-18 cm.
Now suppose we had a universe consisting of an immense number of these electrical doublets, which we regard as our primordial system ; if these were at rest their mutual attraction would draw them together, just as the attractions of a lot of little magnets would draw them together if they were free to move, and aggregations of more than one system would be formed.
If, however, the individual systems were originally moving with considerable velocities, the relative velocity of two systems, when they came near enough to exercise appreciable attraction on each other, might be sufficient to carry the systems apart in spite of their mutual attraction. In this case the formation of aggregates would be postponed, until the kinetic energy of the units had fallen so low that when they came into collision, the tendency to separate due to their relative motion was not sufficient to prevent them remaining together under their mutual attraction. .....". Later in the lecture Thomson states: "...We must remember, too, that the corpuscles in any atom are receiving and absorbing radiation from other atoms. This will tend to raise the corpuscular temperature of the atom and thus help to lengthen the time required for that temperature to fall to the point where fresh aggregations of the atom may be formed. The fact that the rate of radiation depends so much upon the way the corpuscles are moving about in the atom indicates that the lives of the different atoms of any particular element will not be equal; some of these atoms will be ready to enter upon fresh changes long before the others. It is important to realize how large are the amounts of energy involved in the formation of a complex atom or in any rearrangement of the configuration of the corpuscles inside it. If we have an atom containing n corpuscles each with a charge e measured in electrostatic units, the total quantity of negative electricity in the atom is n e and there is an equal quantity of positive electricity distributed through the sphere of positive electrification; hence, the work required to separate the atom into its constituent units will be comparable with (n e)2/a. a being the radius of the sphere containing the corpuscles. Thus, as the atom has been formed by the aggregation of these units (n e)2/a will be of the same order of magnitude as the kinetic energy imparted to those constituents during their whole history, from the time they started as separate units, down to the time they became members of the atom under consideration. They will in this period have radiated away a large quantity of this energy, but the following calculation will show what an enormous amount of kinetic energy the corpuscles in the atom must possess even if they have only retained an exceedingly small fraction of that communicated to them. ...". Thomson goes on to determine that if the number of corpuscles of a hydrogen atom is 1000, the amount of energy in the atom is 1.02 x 1019 ergs, stating: "...this amount of energy would be sufficient to lift a million tons through a height considerably exceeding one hundred yards. We see, too, from (1) that this energy is proportional to the number of corpuscles, so that the greater the molecular weight of an element, the greater will be the amount of energy stored up in the atoms in each gram.
We shall return to the subject of the internal changes in the atom when we discuss some of the phenomena of radio-activity, but before doing so it is desirable to consider more closely the way the corpuscles arrange themselves in the atom. We shall begin with the case where the corpuscles are at rest. The corpuscles are supposed to be in a sphere of uniform positive electrification which produces a radial attractive force on each corpuscle proportional to its distance from the centre of the sphere, and the problem is to arrange the corpuscles in the sphere so that they are in equilibrium under this attraction and their mutual repulsions. ... If there are three corpuscles, ABC, they will be in equilibrium of A B C as an equilateral triangle with its centre at 0 and OA=OB=OC = (1/5)1/2, or .57 times the radius of the sphere.
If there are four corpuscles these will be in equilibrium if placed at the angular points of a regular tetrahedron with its centre at the centre of the sphere. In these cases the corpuscles are all on the surface of a sphere concentric with the sphere of positive electrification, and we might suppose that whatever the number of corpuscles the position of equilibrium would be one of symmetrical distribution over the surface of a sphere. Such a distribution would indeed technically be one of equilibrium, but a mathematical calculation shows that unless the number of corpuscles is quite small, say seven or eight at the most, this arrangement is unstable and so can never persist. When the number of corpuscles is greater than this limiting number, the corpuscles break up into two groups. One group containing the smaller number of corpuscles is on the surface of a small body concentric with the sphere; the remainder are on the surface of a larger concentric body. When the number of corpuscles is still further increased there comes a stage when the equilibrium cannot be stable even with two groups, and the corpuscles now divide themselves into three groups, arranged on the surfaces of concentric shells; and as we go on increasing the number we pass through stages in which more and more groups are necessary for equilibrium. With any considerable number of corpuscles the problem of finding the distribution when in equilibrium becomes too complex for calculation; and we have to turn to experiment and see if we can make a model in which the forces producing equilibrium are similar to those we have supposed to be at work in the corpuscle. Such a model is afforded by a very simple and beautiful experiment first made, I think, by Professor Mayer. In this experiment a number of little magnets are floated in a vessel of water. The magnets are steel needles magnetized to equal strengths and are floated by being thrust through small disks of cork. The magnets are placed so that the positive poles are either all above or all below the surface of the water. These positive poles, like the corpuscles, repel each other with forces varying inversely as the distance between them. The attractive force is provided by a negative pole (if the little magnets have their positive poles above the water) suspended some distance above the surface of the water. This pole will exert on the positive poles of the little floating magnets an attractive force the component of which, parallel to the surface of the water, will be radial, directed to 0, the projection of the negative pole on the surface of the water, and if the negative pole is some distance above the surface the component of the force to 0 will be very approximately proportional to the distance from O. Thus the forces on the poles of the floating magnets will be very similar to those acting on the corpuscle in our hypothetical atom; the chief difference being that the corpuscles are free to move about in all directions in space, while the poles of the floating magnets are constrained to move in a plane parallel to the surface of the water.
The configurations which the floating magnets assume as the number of magnets increases from two up to nineteen is shown in Fig. 17, which was given by Mayer.
The configuration taken up when the magnets are more numerous can be found from the following table, which is also due to Mayer. From this table it will be seen that when the number of floating magnets does not exceed five the magnets arrange themselves at the corners of a regular polygon, five at the corners of a pentagon, four at the corners of a square and so on. When the number is greater than five this arrangement no longer holds. Thus, six magnets do not arrange themselves at the corners of a hexagon, but divide into two systems, one magnet being at the centre and five outside it at the corners of a regular pentagon. This arrangement in two groups lasts until there are fifteen magnets, when we have three groups; with twenty-seven magnets we get four groups and so on. ... I think this table affords many suggestions toward the explanation of some of the properties possessed by atoms. Let us take, for example, the chemical law called the Periodic Law; according to this law if we arrange the elements in order of increasing atomic weights, then taking an element of low atomic weight, say lithium, we find certain properties associated with it. These properties are not possessed by the elements immediately following it in the series of increasing atomic weight; but they appear again when we come to sodium, then they disappear again for a time, but reappear when we reach potassium, and so on. Let us now consider the arrangements of the floating magnets, and suppose that the number of magnets is proportional to the combining weight of an element. Then, if any property were associated with the triangular arrangement of magnets, it would be possessed by the elements whose combining weight was on this scale three, but would not appear again until we reached the combining weight ten, when it reappears, as for ten magnets we have the triangular arrangement in the middle and a ring of seven magnets outside. When the number of magnets is increased the triangular arrangement disappears for a time, but reappears with twenty magnets, and again with thirty-five, the triangular arrangement appearing and disappearing in a way analogous to the behavior of the properties of the elements in the Periodic Law. As an example of a property that might very well be associated with a particular grouping of the corpuscles, let us take the times of vibration of the system, as shown by the position of the lines in the spectrum of the element. First let us take the case of three corpuscles by themselves in the positively electrified sphere. The three corpuscles have nine degrees of freedom, so that there are nine possible periods. Some of these periods in this case would be infinitely long, and several of the possible periods would be equal to each other, so that we should not get nine different periods. Suppose that the lines in the spectrum of the three corpuscles are as represented in Fig. 18 a, where the figures under the lines represent the number of periods which coalesce at that line; i.e., regarding the periods as given by an equation with nine roots, we suppose that there is only one root giving the period corresponding to the line A, while corresponding to B there are two equal roots, three equal roots corresponding to C, one root, to O, and two to E. These periods would have certain numerical relations to each other, independent of the charge on the corpuscle, the size of the sphere in which they are placed, or their distance from the centre of the sphere. Each of these quantities, although it does not affect the ratio of the periods, will have a great effect upon the absolute value of any one of them. Now, suppose that these three corpuscles, instead of being alone in the sphere, form but one out of several groups in it, just as the triangle of magnets forms a constituent of the grouping of 3, 10, 20, and 35 magnets. Let us consider how the presence of the other groups would affect the periods of vibration of the three corpuscles. The absolute values of the periods would generally be entirely different, but the relationship existing between the various periods would be much more persistent, and although it might be modified it would not be destroyed. Using the phraseology of the Planetary Theory, we may regard the motion of the three corpuscles as "disturbed" by the other groups. When the group of three corpuscles was by itself there were several displacements which gave the same period of vibration; for example, corresponding to the line C there were three displacements, all giving the same period. When, however, there are other groups present, then these different displacements will no longer be symmetrical with respect to these groups, so that the three periods will no longer be quite equal. They would, however, be very nearly equal unless the effect of the other groups is very large. Thus, in the spectrum, C, instead of being a single line, would become a triplet, while B and E would become doublets. A D would remain single lines.
Thus, the spectrum would now resemble Fig. 18 b; the more groups there are surrounding the group of three the more will the motion of the latter be disturbed and the greater the separation of the constituents of the triplets and doublets. The appearance as the number of groups increases is shown in Fig. 18 b, c. Thus, if we regarded the element which contain this particular grouping of corpuscles as being in the same group in the classification of elements according to the Periodic Law, we should get in the spectra of these elements homologous series of lines, the distances between the components of the doublets and triplets increasing with the atomic weight of the elements. The investigations of Bydberg, Runge and Paschen and Keyser have shown the existence in the spectra of elements of the same group series of lines having properties in many respects analogous to those we have described.
Another point of interest given by Mayer's experiments is that there is more than one stable configuration for the same number of magnets; these configurations correspond to different amounts of potential energy, so that the passage from the configuration of greater potential energy to that of less would give kinetic energy to the corpuscle. From the values of the potential energy stored in the atom, of which we gave an estimate on page 111, we infer that a change by even a small fraction in that potential energy would develop an amount of kinetic energy which if converted into heat would greatly transcend the amount of heat developed when the atoms undergo any known chemical combination.
An inspection of the table shows that there are certain places in it where the nature of the configuration changes very rapidly with the number of magnets; thus, five magnets form one group, while six magnets form two; fourteen magnets form two groups, fifteen three; twenty - seven magnets form three groups, twenty-eight four, and so on. If we arrange the chemical elements in the order of their atomic weights we find there are certain places where the difference in properties of consecutive elements is exceptionally great; thus, for example, we have extreme differences in properties between fluorine and sodium. Then there is more or less continuity in the properties until we get to chlorine, which is followed by potassium; the next break occurs at bromine and rubidium and so on. This effect seems analogous to that due to the regrouping of the magnets.
So far we have supposed the corpuscles to be at rest; if, however, they are in a state of steady motion and describing circular orbits round the centre of the sphere, the effect of the centrifugal force arising from this motion will be to drive the corpuscles farther away from the centre of the sphere, without, in many cases, destroying the character of the configuration. Thus, for example, if we have three corpuscles in the sphere, they will, in the state of steady motion, as when they are at rest, be situated at the corners of an equiangular triangle; this triangle will, however, be rotating round the centre of the sphere, and the distance of the corpuscles from the centre will be greater than when they are at rest and will increase with the velocity of the corpuscles.
There are, however, many cases in which rotation is essential for the stability of the configuration. Thus, take the case of four corpuscles. These, if rotating rapidly, are in stable steady motion when at the corners of a square, the plane of the square being at right angles to the axis of rotation; when, however, the velocity of rotation of the corpuscles falls below a certain value, the arrangement of four corpuscles in one plane becomes unstable, and the corpuscles tend to place themselves at the corners of a regular tetrahedron, which is the stable arrangement when the corpuscles are at rest. The system of four corpuscles at the corners of a square may be compared with a spinning top, the top like the corpuscles being unstable unless its velocity of rotation exceeds a certain critical value. Let us suppose that initially the velocity of the corpuscles exceeds this value, but that in some way or another the corpuscles gradually lose their kinetic energy; the square arrangement will persist until the velocity of the corpuscles is reduced to the critical value. The arrangement will then become unstable, and there will be a convulsion in the system accompanied by a great evolution of kinetic energy.
Similar considerations will apply to many assemblages of corpuscles. In such cases the configuration when the corpuscles are rotating with great rapidity will (as in the case of the four corpuscles) be essentially different from the configuration of the same number of corpuscles when at rest. Hence there must be some critical velocity of the corpuscles, such that, for velocities greater than the critical one, a configuration is stable, which becomes unstable when the velocity is reduced below the critical value. When the velocity sinks below the critical value, instability sets in, and there is a kind of convulsion or explosion, accompanied by a great diminution in the potential energy and a corresponding increase in the kinetic energy of the corpuscles. This increase in the kinetic energy of the corpuscles may be sufficient to detach considerable numbers of them from the original assemblage. .... We must now go on to see whether an atom built up in the way we have supposed could possess any of the properties of the real atom. Is there, for example, in this model of an atom any scope for the electro-chemical properties of the real atom; such properties, for example, as those illustrated by the division of the chemical elements into two classes, electro-positive and electronegative. Why, for example, if this is the constitution of the atom, does an atom of sodium or potassium tend to acquire a positive, the atom of chlorine a negative charge of electricity ? Again, is there anything in the model of the atom to suggest the possession of such a property as that called by the chemists valency ; i.e., the property which enables us to divide the elements into groups, called monads, dyads, triads, such that in a compound formed by any two elements of the first group the molecule of the compound will contain the same number of atoms of each element, while in a compound formed by an element A in the first group with one B in the second, the molecule of the compound contains twice as many atoms of A as of B, and so on ?
Let us now turn to the properties of the model atom. It contains a very large number of corpuscles in rapid motion. We have evidence from the phenomena connected with the conduction of electricity through gases that one or more of these corpuscles can be detached from the atom. These may escape owing to their high velocity enabling them to travel beyond the attraction of the atom. They may be detached also by collision of the atom with other rapidly moving atoms or free corpuscles. When once a corpuscle has escaped from an atom the latter will have a positive charge. This will make it more difficult for a second negatively electrified corpuscle to escape, for in consequence of the positive charge on the atom the latter will attract the second corpuscle more strongly than it did the first. Now we can readily conceive that the ease with which a particle will escape from, or be knocked out of, an atom may vary very much in the atoms of the different elements. In some atoms the velocities of the corpuscles may be so great that a corpuscle escapes at once from the atom. It may even be that after one has escaped, the attraction of the positive electrification thus left on the atom is not sufficient to restrain a second, or even a third, corpuscle from escaping. Such atoms would acquire positive charges of one, two, or three units, according as they lost one, two, or three corpuscles. On the other hand, there may be atoms in which the velocities of the corpuscles are so small that few, if any, corpuscles escape of their own accord, nay, they may even be able to receive one or even more than one corpuscle before the repulsion exerted by the negative electrification on these foreign corpuscles forces any of the original corpuscles out. Atoms of this kind if placed in a region where corpuscles were present would by aggregation with these corpuscles re. ceive a negative charge. The magnitude of the negative charge would depend upon the firmness with which the atom held its corpuscles. If a negative charge of one corpuscle were not sufficient to expel a corpuscle while the negative charge of two corpuscles could do so, the maximum negative charge on the atom would be one unit. If two corpuscles were not sufficient to expel a corpuscle, but three were, the maximum negative charge would be two units, and so on. Thus, the atoms of this class tend to get charged with negative electricity and correspond to the electronegative chemical elements, while the atoms of the class we first considered, and which readily lose corpuscles, acquire a positive charge and correspond to the atoms of the electro-positive elements. We might conceive atoms in which the equilibrium of the corpuscles was so nicely balanced that though they do not of themselves lose a corpuscle, and so do not acquire a positive charge, the repulsion exerted by a foreign corpuscle coming on to the atom would be sufficient to drive out a corpuscle. Such an atom would be incapable of receiving a charge either of positive or negative electricity. ...Such an atom would have the properties of atoms of such elements as argon or helium.
The view that the forces which bind together the atoms in the molecules of chemical compounds are electrical in their origin, was first proposed by Berzelius; it was also the view of Davy and of Faraday. Helmholtz, too, declared that the mightiest of the chemical forces are electrical in their origin. Chemists in general seem, however, to have made but little use of this idea, having apparently found the conception of "bonds of affinity" more fruitful. This doctrine of bonds is, however, when regarded in one aspect almost identical with the electrical theory. The theory of bonds when represented graphically supposes that from each univalent atom a straight line (the symbol of a bond) proceeds; a divalent atom is at the end of two such lines, a trivalent atom at the end of three, and so on; and that when the chemical compound is represented by a graphic formula in this way, each atom must be at the end of the proper number of the lines which represent the bonds. Now, on the electrical view of chemical combination, a univalent atom has one unit charge, if we take as our unit of charge the charge on the corpuscle; the atom is therefore the beginning or end of one unit Faraday tube: the beginning if the charge on the atom is positive, the end if the charge is negative. A divalent atom has two units of charge and therefore it is the origin or termination of two unit Faraday tubes. Thus, if we interpret the "bond" of the chemist as indicating a unit Faraday tube, connecting charged atoms in the molecule, the structural formulae of the chemist can be at once translated into the electrical theory. There is, however, one point of difference which deserves a little consideration: the symbol indicating a bond on the chemical theory is not regarded as having direction ; no difference is made on this theory between one end of a bond and the other. On the electrical theory, however, there is a difference between the ends, as one end corresponds to a positive, the other to a negative charge. An example or two may perhaps be the easiest way of indicating the effect of this consideration. Let us take the gas ethane whose structural formula is written
H O ' O H
According to the chemical view there is no difference between the two carbon atoms in this compound ; there would, however, be a difference on the electrical view. For let us suppose that the hydrogen atoms are all negatively electrified; the three Faraday tubes going from the hydrogen atoms to each carbon atom give a positive charge of three units on each carbon atom. But in addition to the Faraday tubes coming from the hydrogen atoms, there is one tube which goes from one carbon atom to the other. This means an additional positive charge on one carbon atom and a negative charge on the other. Thus, one of the carbon atoms will have a charge of four positive units, while the other will have a charge of three positive and one negative unit, i.e., two positive units; so that on this view the two carbon atoms are not in the same state. A still greater difference must exist between the atoms when we have what is called double linking, i.e., when the carbon atoms are supposed to be connected by two bonds, as in the compound. Here, if one carbon atom had a charge of four positive units, the other would have a charge of two positive and two negative units. ... It may be urged that although we can conceive that one atom in a compound should be positively and the other negatively electrified when the atoms are of different kinds, it is not easy to do so when the atoms are of the same kind, as they are in the molecules of the elementary gases H2, 02, N2 and so on. With reference to this point we may remark that the electrical state of an atom, depending as it does on the power of the atom to emit or retain corpuscles, may be very largely influenced by circumstances external to the atom. Thus, for an example, an atom in a gas when surrounded by rapidly moving atoms or corpuscles which keep striking against it may have corpuscles driven out of it by these collisions and thus become positively electrified. On the other hand, we should expect that, ceteris paribus, the atom would be less likely to lose a corpuscle when it is in a gas than when in a solid or a liquid. For when in a gas after a corpuscle has just left the atom it has nothing beyond its own velocity to rely upon to escape from the attraction of the positively electrified atom, since the other atoms are too far away to exert any forces upon it. When, however, the atom is in a liquid or a solid, the attractions of the other atoms which crowd round this atom may, when once a corpuscle has left its atom, help it to avoid falling back again into atom. As an instance of this effect we may take the case of mercury in the liquid and gaseous states. In the liquid state mercury is a good conductor of electricity. One way of regarding this electrical conductivity is to suppose that corpuscles leave the atoms of the mercury and wander about through the interstices between the atoms. These charged corpuscles when acted upon by an electric force are set in motion and constitute an electric current, the conductivity of the liquid mercury indicating the presence of a large number of corpuscles. When, however, mercury is in the gaseous state, its electrical conductivity has been shown by Strutt to be an exceedingly small fraction of the conductivity possessed by the same number of molecules when gaseous. {ULSF: verify: is this supposed to be "when liquid"?} We have thus indications that the atoms even of an electro-positive substance like mercury may only lose comparatively few corpuscles when in the gaseous state. Suppose then that we had a great number of atoms all of one kind in the gaseous state and thus moving about and coming into collision with each other; the more rapidly moving ones, since they would make the most violent collisions, would be more likely to lose corpuscles than the slower ones. The faster ones would thus by the loss of their corpuscles become positively electrified, while the corpuscles driven off would, if the atoms were not too electro-positive to be able to retain a negative charge even when in the gaseous state, tend to find a home on the more slowly moving atoms. Thus, some of the atoms would get positively, others negatively electrified, and those with changes of opposite signs would combine to form a diatomic molecule. This argument would not apply to very electro-positive gases. These we should not expect to form molecules, but since there would be many free corpuscles in the gas we should expect them to possess considerable electrical conductivity.".
(Note that Thomson does not entertain the possibility of a static atom, that is an atom made of unmoving particles held together in position, or particles orbiting around each other, but held in position within an atom, which I examine.)
(It is interesting that Thomson has a negatively charged corpuscle, and then simply a "positive charge", as opposed to a "positively charged corpuscle". But the interesting aspect of this is that the physical geometry of the atom can remain a sphere made of individual spheres - although theoretically this can be the case for pairs of opposing charged particles. My own view is that charge is a particle collision phenomenon and that within the atom, there may be no charge - charge only being observed when there is a stream of moving particles colliding with particles not moving relative to the stream. So I think the spherical atom made of particles held together because of the physical geomtrical limits of the most condensed shape - the sphere seems the more likely - but accept that this debate - without being to physical observe the structure - seems to be an open question with numerous possibilities.)
(I find the structure model of Thomson - which I independently reached myself too - to be the more logical of the atom models - it geometrically explains the valence - as opposed to the orbit model where the reason for the periodic law is not accounted for with a geometrical explanation.)
(I think it is important to observe that the periodic table appears to show a dual nature to the elements. For example, although there is a single row of 2 elements, there is then 2 rows of 8, and two rows of 28, and potentially two rows of 42 elements. This does not reflect a spherical distribution, which would grow linearly {for example 4/3pir^3: 8,15,22,36,...}, but instead appears to reflect a dual system, where 2 spheres of 8 are filled up first, then the two spheres fill to 28 each. If spherical, wouldn't we expect Argon #18 to not be stable until a larger number like #20 or #22, etc?)
| (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
97 YBN
[05/19/1903 AD]
| 3970) Edward Pickering (CE 1846-1919) is the first to publish a photographic map of the entire sky.
(Show images from map)
| Harvard College Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
97 YBN
[05/28/1903 AD]
| 3677) (Sir) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919), English physicist and James Dewar show that the radiation from radium is less when colder.
| (private lab) London, England(presumably) |
97 YBN
[05/28/1903 AD]
| 3830) William Crookes (CE 1832-1919) and James Dewar (DYUR) (CE 1842-1923) find that the rate of emissions of radium are unchanged when dipped into liquid air.
Crookes and Dewar publish this as "Note on the Effect of Extreme Cold on the Emanations of Radium.". In addition Crookes and Dewar find that the sensitive blende screen (uranium?) become insensitive to the radium emissions when the screen is immersed in liquid air.
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
97 YBN
[06/??/1903 AD]
| 4893) Charles Glover Barkla (CE 1877-1944), English physicist shows that the scattering of x-rays by gases depends on the molecular weight of the gas.
Barkla concludes: "...As the primary and secondary radiations only differ appreciably in intensity, we may reasonably conclude that the radiation proceeding from gases subject to X-rays is due to scattering of the primary radiation. As this scattering is proportional to the mass of the atom, we may conclude that the number of scattering particles is proportional to the atomic weight. This gives further support to the theory that the atoms of different substances are different systems of similar corpuscles, the number of which in the atom is proportional to its atomic weight. ...".
If 1904 Barkla reports that this relationship applies to light solids too. (What about liquids and denser solids?)
Barkla finds that X rays (first published by Roentgen in 1895) are scattered by gases and that the amount of scattering is proportional to the density of the gas and therefore to the molecular weight. This is the first connection between the number of electrons in an atom and its position in the periodic table, and towards the concept of an atomic number. (interesting that there was no atomic number, just atomic masses? before the atomic number.) (since photons have no charge, I think concluding that charged particles do the scattering is possibly wrong. Perhaps this is a non-electrical particle collision phenomenon. It may be that electromagnetism is a neutral particle colliding/attaching phenomenon too.)
Barkla finds that the absorption of x-rays for the following gases: Air 1.5%, Hydrogen 0 %, Sulphuretted Hydrogen 6%, Carbon Dioxide 2%, Sulphur Dioxide 4%. Barkla then shows that the relative intensity of the secondary radiation emitted by the 5 gases relates directly to their density, but finds no relation to the quantity of ionization of each gas (see Table in paper).
Barkla claims that the secondary radiation emitted by “all gases” is of the same absorbability (average wavelength) as that of the primary beam, not, as Georges Sagnac (1898) had reported that secondary X rays from solids have distinctly greater absorbability. However, of course, Barkla did not test all gases, and sulfur was the heaviest atom involved. Eventually Barkla will realize that there is a softened secondary radiation from heavier elements that is emitted isotropically, that is, with no relation to the direction or polarization of the primary beam.
(Read entire paper)
(Notice that in Figure 3. Barkla does not show the x-ray reflection off of wall C and the adjacent wall, or from the inside edges of all apetures. I think this could be the result of primary x-ray particles, but it's not clear. If charge from gas is desired, why not simply use a lead shield to block any direct beams, which would allow gas to flow underneath and around? Notice apeture D might allow reflected x-rays to enter the electroscope. So my view is that the intensity of radiation measured may be strictly from primary radiation, not secondary radiation - and that simply a denser gas absorbs and reflects more x-ray particles than a less dense gas. In a similar way, a denser gas may filter an electron beam, or radio or visible light beam more than a less dense gas.)
(Cite any later person that systematically verified this for many different gases. EXPERIMENT: verify this theory for many different gases.)
| (University College) Liverpool, England |
97 YBN
[07/17/1903 AD]
| 3438) (Sir) William Huggins (CE 1824-1910) and Margaret Lindsay Huggins (1848-1915) photograph the spectrum of radium luminescence (without electrical or thermal excitation) and find that when shifted it aligns with the spectrum of nitrogen around a negative electrode in a vacuum tube.
| (Tulse Hill)London, England |
97 YBN
[07/28/1903 AD]
| 4145) (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist and Frederick Soddy, (CE 1877-1956), English chemist, show spectroscopically that helium is emitted from radium.
Ramsay and Soddy report this in "Experiments in Radioactivity", writing: "1. Experiments on the Radioactivity of the Inert Gases of the Atmosphere.
Of recent years many investigations have been made by Elster and Geitel, Wilson, Strutt, Rutherford, Cooke, Allen, and others on the spontaneous ionisation of the gases of the atmosphere and on the excited radioactivity obtainable from it. It became of interest to ascertain whether the inert monatomic gases of the atmosphere bear any share in these phenomena. For this purpose a small electroscope contained in a glass tube of about 20 c.c. capacity, covered in the interior with tin-foil, was employed. After charging, the apparatus if exhausted retained its charge for thirty-six hours without diminution. Admission of air caused a slow discharge. In similar experiments with helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon, the last mixed with oxygen, the rate of discharge was proportional to the density and pressure of the gas. This shows that the gases have no special radioactivity of their own, and accords with the explanation already advanced by these investigators that the discharging power of the air is caused by extraneous radioactivity.
Experiments were also made with the dregs left after liquefied air had nearly entirely evaporated, and again with the same result; no increase in discharging power is produced by concentration of a possible radioactive constituent of the atmosphere.
2. Experiments on the Nature of the Radioactive Emanation from Radium.
The word emanation originally used by Boyle ("substantial emanations from the celestial bodies") was resuscitated by Rutherford to designate definite substances of a gaseous nature continuously produced from other substances. The term was also used by Russell ("emanation from hydrogen peroxide") in much the same sense. If the adjective "radioactive" be added, the phenomenon of Rutherford is distinguished from the phenomena observed by Russell. In this section we are dealing with the emanation, or radioactive gas obtained from radium. Rutherford and Soddy investigated the chemical nature of the thorium emanation and of the radium emanation, and came to the conclusion that these emanations are inert gases which withstand the action of reagents in a manner hitherto unobserved except with the members of the argon family. This conclusion was arrived at because the emanations from thorium and radium could be passed without alteration over platinum and palladium black, chromate of lead, zinc dust, and magnesium powder, all at a red-heat.
We have since found that the radium emanation withstands prolonged sparking with oxygen over alkali, and also, during several hours, the action of a heated mixture of magnesium powder and lime. The discharging power was maintained unaltered after this treatment, and inasmuch as a considerable amount of radium was employed it was possible to use the self-luminosity of the gas as an optical demonstration of its persistence.
In an experiment in which the emanation mixed with oxygen had been sparked for several hours over alkali, a minute fraction of the total mixture was found to discharge an electroscope almost instantly. From the main quantity of the gas the oxygen was withdrawn by ignited phosphorus, and no visible residue was left. When, however, another gas was introduced, so as to come into contact with the top of the tube, and then withdrawn, the emanation was found to be present in it in unaltered amount. It appears, therefore, that phosphorus burning in oxygen and sparking with oxygen have no effect upon the gas so far as can be detected by its radioactive properties.
The experiments with magnesium-lime were more strictly quantitative. The method of testing the gas before and after treatment with the reagent was to take 1/2000th Part of tne whole mixed with air, and after introducing it into the reservoir of an electroscope to measure the rate of discharge. The magnesium-lime tube glowed brightly when the mixture of emanation and air was admitted, and it was maintained at a red heat for three hours. The gas was then washed out with a little hydrogen, diluted with air and tested as before. It was found that the discharging power of the gas had been quite unaltered by this treatment.
The emanation can be dealt with as a gas ; it can be extracted by aid of a Topler pump; it can be condensed in a U-tube surrounded by liquid air; and when condensed it can be "washed" with another gas which can be pumped off completely, and which then possesses no luminosity and practically no discharging power. The passage of the emanation from place to place through glass tubes can be followed by the eye in a darkened room. On opening a stopcock between a tube containing the emanation and the pump, the slow flow through the capillary tube can be noticed; the rapid passage along the wider tubes ; the delay caused by the plug of phosphorus pentoxide, and the sudden diffusion into the reservoir of the pump. When compressed, the luminosity increased, and when the small bubble was expelled through the capillary it was exceedingly luminous. The peculiarities of the excited activity left behind on the glass by the emanation could also be well observed. When the emanation had been left a short time in contact with the glass, the excited activity lasts only for a short time; but after the emanation has been stored a long time the excited activity decays more slowly.
The emanation causes chemical change in a similar manner to the salts of radium themselves. The emanation pumped off from 50 milligrams of radium bromide after dissolving in water, when stored with oxygen in a small glass tube over mercury turns the glass distinctly violet in a single night; if moist the mercury becomes covered with a film of the red oxide, but if dry it appears to remain unattacked. A mixture of the emanation with oxygen produces carbon dioxide when passed through a lubricated stopcock.
3. Occurrence of Helium in the Gases Evolved from Radium Bromide.
The gas evolved from 20 milligrams of pure radium bromide (which we are informed had been prepared three months) by its solution in water and which consisted mainly of hydrogen and oxygen was tested for helium, the hydrogen and oxygen being removed by contact with a red-hot spiral of copper wire, partially oxidised, and the resulting water vapour by a tube of phosphorus pentoxide. The gas issued into a small vacuum-tube which showed the spectrum of carbon dioxide. The vacuum tube was in train with a small U-tube, and the latter was then cooled with liquid air. This much reduced the brilliancy of the CO2 spectrum, and the D3 line of helium appeared. The coincidence was confirmed by throwing the spectrum of helium into the spectroscope through the comparison prism, and shown to be at least within 0.5 of an Angstrom unit.
The experiment was carefully repeated in apparatus constructed of previously unused glass with 30 milligrams of radium bromide, probably four or five months old, kindly lent us by Professor Rutherford. The gases evolved were passed through a cooled U-tube on their way to the vacuum-tube, which completely prevented the passage of carbon dioxide and the emanation. The spectrum of helium was obtained and practically all the lines were seen, including those at 6677, 5876, 5016, 4932, 4713, and 4472. There were also present three lines of approximate wave-lengths 6180, 5695, 5455, that have not yet been identified.
On two subsequent occasions the gases evolved from both solutions of radium bromide were mixed, after four days' accumulation which amounted to about 2-5 c.c. in each case, and were examined in a similar way. The D3 line of helium could not be detected. It may be well to state the composition found for the gases continuously generated by a solution of radium, for it seemed likely that the large excess of hydrogen over the composition required to form water, shown in the analysis given by Bodlander might be due to the greater solubility of the oxygen. In our analyses the gases were extracted with the pump, and the first gave 28.6, the second 29.2 per cent. of oxygen. The slight excess of hydrogen is doubtless due to the action of the oxygen on the grease of the stop-cocks, which has been already mentioned. The rate of production of these gases is about 0-5 c.c. per day for 50 milligrams of radium bromide, which is over twice as great as that found by Bodlander.
4. Production of Helium by the Radium Emanntion.
The maximum amount of the emanation obtained from 50 milligrams of radium bromide was conveyed by means of oxygen into a U-tube cooled in liquid air, and the latter was then extracted by the pump. It was then washed out with a little fresh oxygen which was again pumped off. The vacuum tube sealed on to the U-tube, after removing the liquid air showed no trace of helium. The spectrum was apparently a new one, probably that of the emanation, but this has not yet been completely examined, and we hope to publish further details shortly. After standing from the 17th to the 21st inst. the helium spectrum appeared, and the characteristic lines were observed identical in position with those of a helium tube thrown into the field of vision at the same time. On the 22nd the yellow, the green, the two blues and the violet were seen, and in addition the three new lines also present in the helium obtained from radium. A confirmatory experiment gave identical results.
We wish to express our indebtedness to the Research Fund of the Chemical Society for a part of the radium used in this investigation."
A conclusion that follows this work of Ramsey and Soddy is that helium is continuously produced by many natural radioactive products.
(Interesting that alpha particles, are actually helium, {but do they simply obtain electrons, they do have a positive charge of +2. EX: Are their spectral lines the same with and without electrons? If yes, do electrons not play a role in spectral line emission?} look more into this and get specifics. Do they identify helium through heating and spectral analysis? how do they collect the gas from uranium and/or other radioactive compounds? One theory is that photons are emitted from helium atoms that disintigrate into their source photons, and perhaps x-particles.)
(Is this an emission or absorption spectrum of helium? Since helium is not combustible with oxygen, how is a visible emission spectrum seen? Apparently some light is emitted when the gas passes through a tube into another of different pressure? The emission spectrum must be from helium gas in a tube subjected to a high electric potential.)
| (University College) London, England |
97 YBN
[11/23/1903 AD]
| 4264) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, provides a method to prove that gold metal leaves when exposed to the Rontgen rays acquire positive and lose negative electricity. Thomson writes in "Experiment to show that negative electricity is given off by a metal exposed to Rontgen Rays":
"Dorn as well as Curie and Sagnac have in different ways shown that a metal exposed to Rontgen rays gives out cathode rays: this I find can be shown very simply by mounting a small gold-leaf electroscope on a quartz support in a vessel in which a very good vacuum can be produced; when the vessel is exhausted and the gold leaves exposed to Rontgen rays they diverge and on testing they are found to have a charge of positive electricity. If before exposure to the rays the leaves are charged negatively then when the rays are applied the leaves at first collapse and then diverge, while if the initial charge is positive the divergence of the leaves increases from the time of putting on the rays. In this way we get a very direct proof that the gold leaves when exposed to the rays acquire positive and lose negative electricity.".
(Notice that Thomson still supports a two fluid theory of electricity - long after Franklin, and the repulsion of positive and negative static electricity is evidence of a positive particle - or possibly a particle of different size which is not stable with other same sized particles, but is with different sized particles. The single fluid view would have the metal gaining negative particles.)
(I think there is something interesting in this, in that, the possibility can't be ruled out that x-rays are particulate, and somehow add positive charge to the metal. The most popular theory probably has the particles as light particles or perhaps even smaller x-particles, that simply knock loose a beam of electrons - so overall matter is lost presuming the electrons to be more massive than the x-ray particles - leaving positively charged ions. Perhaps x-particles has positive charge, but are for some reason not deflected by particles in a magnetic field or too small or two few to be detected. Can x-particles collide with each other? This is a classic question of: can light particles reflect off each other. It seems likely that the answer is yes, since we see light reflecting off surfaces all the time, and I presume that ultimately in the surface are other light particles which are collided with. Even if some of these theories are obviously false, experiments to drive home the point and provide numerous different methods of confirmation can only help to determine the most accurate truth.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
97 YBN
[11/??/1903 AD]
| 4026) Thomas Edison's (CE 1847-1931), company produces the first motion picture or "movie" to tell a story, titled "The Great Train Robbery".
| (private lab) West Orange, New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
97 YBN
[12/??/1903 AD]
| 4462) Hantaro Nagaoka (CE 1865-1950), Japanese physicist puts forward "Saturnian model" of atom as positive charge surrounded by negatively charged electrons. From this theory, Rutherford will create the concept of an atomic nucleus in 1914.
Nagaoka's model consists of a number of electrons of equal mass, arranged uniformly in a ring, and a positively charged sphere of large mass at the center of the ring. (Are the electrons moving?)
Nagaoka rejects the plum-pudding model of the atom advanced by J. J. Thomson (the atom as a sphere of positively charged matter with electrons placed on the surface), in favor of an atom with a positively charged object in the center and electrons circle it like planets circle the sun (or like rings circle Jupiter). Within two years Rutherford will show that there is a central positively charged nucleus in the atom. Bohr will apply quantum mechanical considerations to the atom which will again change the theoretical electron movement within the atom to be different than the motion of matter around a star.
Nagaoka writes: "By the study of a system of particles, which is similar to a Saturnian system, I was led to the discussion of disturbances which propagate in the system, having close analogy with the band and line spectra while illustrating the phenomena of radio-activity. The system consists of a large number of particles of equal mass arranged in a circle at equal angular intervals, and repelling each other with forces inversely proportional to the square of distance between the particles; at the centre of the circle is placed a large particle attracting the other particles forming the ring according to the same law of force. If the repelling particles be revolving about the attracting centre, the system will generally remain stable for small oscillations, which consist of the transversal vibration perpendicular to the plane of the orbit, together with the radial and angular disturbances representing the rarefaction and condensation in the distribution of the particles. Small oscillations of this kind have already been treated by Maxwell in his essay on the stability of Saturn's rings; the system will be the same if the repelling particles of the present system be substituted by the attracting satellites. Evidently the system here considered will be approximately realised if we place negative electrons in the ring and a positive charge at the centre. Such an ideal atom will not be contradictory to the results of recent experiments on kathode rays, radioactivity, and other allied phenomena. ....".
(It seems that electrons either move in the atom or are static. If they move, it seems logical that they would orbit, probably according to the mass divided by inverse squared distance law of gravity. I view electric charge as a collective phenomenon and at the atomic level only gravity and/or particle collision have any effect.)
(One interesting view, is that as life of a planet orbiting a star evolves, they may stop the rotating motion of all the planets around their star, and simply hold the planets in a stable position relative to the star. This might have some parallel analogy to the atom - being perhaps an identical system at a much smaller scale.)
| (Tokyo University) Tokyo, Japan |
97 YBN
[1903 AD]
| 4075) Ivan Petrovich Pavlov (PoVluF) (CE 1849-1936), Russian physicologist demonstrates unconditioned and conditioned reflexes when he shows that, if a bell rings every time a dog is shown food, the dog will eventually salivate when the bell rings even if food is not shown to the dog because the dog has associated the sound of the bell with the sight of food, and this is a conditioned reflex. Studies of the conditioned reflex lead to the theory that a large part of learning and the development of behavior is the result of conditioned reflexes. (I think there is some truth to this. A person can be made to like hamburgers for example, even if initially they do not taste good, as was the case for me. But beyond that I find that I relate to things only from past memories. Actually this is probably different than conditioned response, and has to do with our understanding of the universe strictly from the images, sounds, etc the sensory info stored in our brain which can only enter from the process of recording through our sense organs. The human brain is an object that does a large amount of image and sound storage, recollection and comparison. ) Asimov writes that these theories of behavior are opposed to the theories of Freud and those who follow Freud who will believe the mind to be a thing in itself. (I don't quite understand the difference, but theories of how the brain functions, in particular those in the field of psychology are notoriously wrong, and/or too abstract to be of any use. Perhaps this is a difference of a behavior as physiology versus behavior as sociology. Perhaps it's not that simple.)
(Beyond just hearing the bell, there may be the visual image of the bell, the person ringing it, and other recognizable objects in the many images recorded in the dog's brain every second.) (Explain more how molecules are released into the brain which cause an unpleasant feeling when the brain receives a signal when the bladder or rectum are full, or when the stomach is empty, and other similar nervous system signals.)
Around 1930 Pavlov announces the important principle of the language function in the human as based on long chains of conditioned reflexes involving words. According to Pavlov, the function of language involves not only words, but an elaboration of generalizations not possible in animals lower than the human. Conditione d reflexes may be very important for teaching walking robots to learn about the universe (for example, to learn by trial and error which muscle/motor movements have proven successful in the past).
(State original paper.)
| (Military Medical Academy), St. Petersburg, Russia |
97 YBN
[1903 AD]
| 4127) Santiago Ramón y Cajal (romON E KoHoL) (CE 1852-1934) Spanish histologist, improves Golgi's silver nitrate stain.
In his autobiography Ramon y Cajal describes how he discovered the reduced silver nitrate method in 1903.
| (University of Madrid) Madrid, Spain |
97 YBN
[1903 AD]
| 4368) Einthoven invents a sensitive "string galvanometer" and uses it to measure the electric potentials of the heart.
Willem Einthoven (INTHOVeN) (CE 1860-1927), Dutch physiologist invents the first string galvanometer.
A string galvanometer consists of a fine wire thread stretched between the poles of a magnet. When carrying a current the string is displaced at right angles to the directions of the magnetic lines of force to an extent proportional to the strength of the current. By linking this up to an optical system the movement of the wire can be magnified and photographically recorded. As the differences in potential developed in the heart are conducted to different parts of the body it is possible to lead the current from the hands and feet to the recording instrument to obtain a curve. In 1909 Einthoven publishes the first complete description of his string galvanometer. (translate and verify article)
(explain how the two wires or inductors are placed on the body to measure heart voltage) By 1906 Einthoven is recording the various peaks and troughs (on a scrolling paper?) which Einthoven calls an "electrocardiogram" (an ECG), with various types of heart disorders. (such as...describe the various kinds of heart disorders with a visual of electrocardiograms.) The Einthoven galvanometer is able to measure the changes of electrical potential caused by contractions of the heart muscle and to record them graphically. This galvanometer is a valuable rool in diagnosis and leads the way to a similar recording of the electric potentials of the brain by Berger. (Perhaps Einthoven invention contributes to the secret camera-thought network. Measuring the voltage changes in the main nerve of the ear may possibly be a way to translate what the ear hears, and possibly to even hear the audio of thought. Einthoven may have been excluded from the neuron reading and writing network, and found no reason to make these finds public, or perhaps Einthoven did get videos in his eyes, and this is simply an organized effort to bring a tiny portion of this secret technology to the public. It seems somewhat likely that hearing thought dates to 10/24/1810 and William Hyde Wollaston.) Erlanger and Gasser will refine this technique to record information about the electrical properties of nerves.
Einthoven describes the electrical properties of the heart through the electrocardiograph, which he develops as a practical clinical instrument and an important tool in the diagnosis of heart disease.
Einthoven goes on to develop electrode arrangements, and the present-day standard limb leads are originally described and used by Einthoven. (show and describe their placement)
As early as 1887 the English physiologist Augustus Waller had recorded electric currents generated by the heart. Waller had used the capillary electrometer invented by Gabriel Lippmann in 1873, which – although sensitive to changes of a millivolt – is too complicated and inaccurate for general use.
Einthoven goes on to standardize his ECG machine so that different machines or two recordings of the same machine will produce comparable readings. In 1903 Einthoven defines the standard measures for general use—one centimeter movement of the ordinate for one millivolt tension difference and a shutter speed of twenty-five millimeters per second, so that one centimeter of the abscissa represents 0.4 second. He indicated the various extremes by the random letters P, Q, R, S, and T and chooses both hands and the left foot as contact points. This gave three possible combinations for contact which he labeled I (both hands); II (right hand-left foot); and III (left hand-left foot).
In 1906, clinical electrocardiograms are studied by connecting patients with heart disease in the academic hospital to the instrument in Einthoven’s laboratory by means of a cable 1.5 kilometers long.
By 1913 Einthoven has defined an interpretation of the normal heart tracing and, by correlating abnormal readings with specific cardiac defects identified at post mortem, is able to use the ECG as a diagnostic tool. (show examples of cardiograms that exhibit problems with normal cardiograms.)
The construction of a string recorder and a string myograph, both based on the torsion principle, enable Einthoven to prove that the electrocardiogram and muscle contraction are inseparably connected. (chronology and images)
(Clearly those interested in reproducing a simple electrical circuit that amplifies the electric potentials of the heart and other muscles should examine Einthoven, Erlanger and Gasser's published works.)
(Interesting the use of the word "cardiogram", perhaps there were "audiograms", and "neurograms", or "psychograms" - Andre Maurois in his 1937 "The Thought Hearing Machine" had used the word "psychegram" to describe the recorded thought sounds.)
(Verify that Waller had first used the word "cardiogram".)
(Translate Willem Einthoven, “Die galvanometrische Registrierung des menschlichen Elektrokardiogramms, zugleich eine Beurteilung der Anwendung des Capillarelektrometers in der Physiologie” ("The galvanometric registration of the human electrocardiogram, also an assessment of the operation of the capillary in physiology"), Pflügers Archiv für die gesamte physiologie des Menschen und der Tiere, 99 (1903), 472–480. - Is this the work that announces the string galvanometer?)
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
97 YBN
[1903 AD]
| 4756) Fritz Richard Schaudinn (sODiN) (CE 1871-1906), German zoologist, shows that dysentery is caused by an amoeba and distinguishes between the harmless Entamoeba coli and the disease producing Entamoeba histolytica. Schaudinn does this by experimental self infection with these organisms.
| (German-Austrian zoological station) Rovigno (now Rovinj, Yugoslavia) |
97 YBN
[1903 AD]
| 4768) Chromatography.
Mikhail Semyonovich Tsvett (CE 1872-1919), Russian botanist creates chromatography, when he finds that the different substances in a pigment mixture hold to the surface of alumina powder with different degrees of strength. As the pigment moves downward, it is separated into colored bands. The separation of the different molecules is written in color, and so Tsvett names the technique “chromatography” (which is Greek for “written in color”). Tsvett's work will go unnoticed until Willstätter reintroduces it.
Before Tsvet people thought that only two pigments, chlorophyll and xanthophyll, exist in plant leaves. Tsvet demonstrates the existence of two forms of chlorophyll. The isolation of pigments becomes much easier once Tsvet develops (in 1900) the technique of adsorption analysis. By 1911 Tsvet will have identified eight different pigments. Tsvet's technique involves grinding leaves in organic solvent (ether and alcohol) to extract the pigments and then washing the mixture through a vertical glass column packed with a suitable adsorptive material (for example callcium carbonate and powdered sucrose). The various pigments travel at different rates through the column due to their different adsorptive properties and are therefore separated into colored bands down the column. Tsvet first described this method in 1901 and in a publication of 1906 suggestes that this method should be called ‘chromatography’. The technique is extremely useful in chemical analysis, being simple, quick, and sensitive, but is not much used until the 1930s.
Tsvet is recognized for his research on plant pigments, especially for discovering several new forms of chlorophyll, and for coining the term "carotenoids".
A possible descendent of this process is electrophoresis which will be valuable in reading the nucleotide code of the nucleic acids RNA and DNA. Electrophoresis is the movement of electrically charged particles in a fluid under the influence of an electric field. The particles migrate toward the electrode of the opposite electric charge, often on a gel-coated slab or plate, sometimes in a fluid flowing down a paper. Electrophoresis originates around 1930 by Arne Tiselius (CE 1902 - 1971). Electrophoresis is used to analyze and separate colloids (for example proteins) or to deposit coatings.
| (University of Warsaw) Warsaw, Poland |
96 YBN
[02/14/1904 AD]
| 4837) André Louis Debierne (DeBERN?) (CE 1874-1949), French chemist shows that actinium, like radium, emits helium.
(Verify that helium is mentioned in this work.)
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France (presumably) |
96 YBN
[03/17/1904 AD]
| 4894) Charles Glover Barkla (CE 1877-1944), English physicist reports that x-rays are partially polarized, and also finds that, like gases, the intensity of x-rays scattered by the corpuscles (or electrons) in light solids (lower atomic mass) is proportional to the quantity of matter the x-rays collide with.
Barkl a finds this for aluminum and paper, but not for heavier metals.
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Barkla is aroused in September 1907 when William H. Bragg publishes an attempt to interpret the known facts about X rays, including Barkla’s phenomenon of polarization, on the hypothesis that X-rays are corpuscular, and are composed of a pair of oppositely charged particles with a net angular momentum. (todo: make a record for Bragg's article)
William Henry Bragg describes Barkla's claim of x-rays being polarized this way: "...Barkla showed that a pencil of X-rays could have 'sides' or be polarised if the circumstances of their origin were properly arranged, but the polarisation differed in some of its aspects from that which light could be made to exhibit. Laue's experiment brought the controversy to an end, by proving that a diffraction of X-rays could be produced which was in every way parallel to the diffraction of light: if the diffraction phenomena could be depended upon to prove the wave theory of light, exactly the same evidence existed in favour of a wave theory of X-rays.".
The find that x-rays are partially polarized implies that X-rays are a form of light, and that they are tranverse waves with an aether medium. In addition, that X-rays are polarized implies that they are transverse waves and not longitudinal waves like those of sound (as Roentgen had thought).
Note that Barkla basis his theory of x-ray polarization "...on the hypothesis that Röntgen rays consist of a succession of electro-magnetic pulses in the ether..." which Michelson's experiment of 1881 casts doubt on.
Note too that the actual experiment and apparatus is not described until 01/21/1905.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists, further confirmation of this result is obtained in 1907 when Barkla performs certain experiments on the direction of scattering of a beam of x-rays as evidence to resolve a controversy with William Henry Bragg who argues, at the time, that x-rays are particles. (Notice "at the time" which is a classic reference to AT&T. It seems likely that the owners of neuron writing technology felt a desire to mislead the public about the particle nature of light, in order to slow the public realization and independent discovery of neuron reading and writing.)
Barkla writes in Nature: "Polarisation in Rontgen Rays.
In a paper on secondary radiation from gases subject to X-rays (Phil. Mag. v., p. 685, 1903), I described experiments which led to the conclusion that this radiation is due to what may be called a scattering of the primary X-rays by the corpuscles (or electrons) constituting the molecules of the gas. More recently I have found that from light solids which emit a secondary radiation differing little from the primary, the energy of this radiation follows accurately the same law as was found for gases, so that the energy of secondary radiation from gases or light solids situated in a beam of Rontgen radiation of definite intensity is proportional merely to the quantity of matter through which the radiation passes. Experimental evidence points to a similar conclusion even when metals which emit a secondary radiation differing enormously from the primary **re used as radiators, though I have as yet only shown that the order of magnitude is the same in these cases. The conclusion as to the origin of this radiation is therefore equally applicable to light solids, and probably to the heavier metals.
As explained by Prof. J. J. Thomson (" Conduction of Electricity through Gases," p. 268), on the hypothesis that Rontgen rays consist of a succession of electromagnetic pulses in the ether, each ion in the medium has its motion accelerated by the intense electric fields in these pulses, and consequently is the origin of a secondary radiation, which is most intense in the direction perpendicular to that of acceleration of the ion, and vanishes in the direction of that acceleration. The direction of electric intensity at a point in a secondary pulse is perpendicular to the line joining this point and the origin of the pulse, and is in the plane passing through the direction of acceleration of the ion.
If, then, a secondary beam be studied, the direction of propagation of which is perpendicular to that of the primary, it will on this theory be plane polarised, the direction of electric intensity being parallel to the pulse front in the primary beim.
If the primary beam be plane polarised, then the secondary radiation from the charged corpuscles or electrons has a maximum intensity in a direction perpendicular to that of electric displacement in the primary beam, and zero intensity in the direction of electric displacement. Prof. Wilberforce first suggested to me the idea of producing a plane polarised beam by a secondary radiator, and of testing the polarisation by a tertiary radiator.
The secondary radiation from gases is, however, much too feeble to attempt the measurement of a tertiary. From solids I think it will be possible, and hope shortly to make experiments on this.
It occurred to me, however, that as Rontgen radiation is produced in a bulb by a directed stream of electrons, there is probably at the antikathode a greater acceleration along the line of propagation of the kathode rays than in a direction at right angles; consequently, if a beam of X-ravs proceeding in a direction perpendicular to that of the kathode stream be studied, it should show greater electric intensity parallel to the stream than in a direction at right angles.
I therefore used such a beam as the primary radiation, and studied by means of an electroscope the intensity of secondary radiation proceeding from a sheet of paper in a direction perpendicular to that of propagation of the primary beam.
By turning the bulb round the axis of the primary beam studied, the intensity of this beam was not altered, but the intensity of the secondary beam was found to reach a maximum when the direction of the kathode stream was perpendicular to that of propagation of the secondary beam, and a minimum when these two were parallel.
In one series of experiments the intensity of secondary radiation in a direction perpendicular to that of the primary beam was compared with that in a direction making a small angle with the axis of the primary beam. The latter, according to theory, should not vary with the position of the X-ray bulb.
In a second series of experiments the intensity of secondary radiation in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the primary beam was compared with that of a small portion of the primary beam itself, when the bulb was in different positions.
Lastly, the intensity of secondary radiation was measured in two directions perpendicular to that of propagation of the primary radiation and perpendicular to each other, while the intensity of the primary beam was measured by a third electroscope.
The three methods gave similar results.
In the last case, as the bulb was turned round as described, one secondary beam reached a maximum of intensity when that at right angles attained a minimum. When the bulb was turned through a right angle the former produced a minimum of ionisation while the latter produced a maximum.
Two bulbs were used and the sizes of the apertures were varied, but the results were similar in all cases.
The variation of intensity of the secondary beam amounted to about 15 per cent, of its value, but this, of course, does not represent the true difference, as beams of considerable cross section were studied, consequently secondary rays making a considerable angle with the normal to the direction of propagation of the primary rays were admitted into the electroscope.
The experiments are being continued.
These results, however, are in agreement with the theory, and I think show conclusively that the X-radiation proceeding from a bulb is partially polarised.". (Read relevant parts of paper(s))
(Does anybody dispute this finding, or perform other experiments to prove false? EXPERIMENT: Plane-filter x-rays and show how they, like all particle beams can be polarized, if polarization is actually plane-filtration.)
(It seems that by "secondary radiation", Barkla may actually be referring to the same primary x-rays which are reflected off of solid material. This needs to be verified.)
(Interesting that Barkla uses the term "scattering" and doesn't mention "collision" or "reflection" which would seem to me to be more clear.)
(EXPERIMENT: Show that various particle beams can be "polarized", and that this phenomenon might better be called "planized" or "planerly filtered" - where beams of particles are filtered so that only those beams in a particular plane are passed through. Try electrons, light of various frequencies, neutrons, ions. Perhaps use larger particles like sand grains too.)
(It's not clear what Barkla's apparatus is, and what he is describing. It seems like Barkla is measuring the reflection of x-ray beams, which he is calling a "secondary" beam. Might it be that simply most of the primary x-ray beam is reflected when reflected at 45 degrees to a surface? This experiment needs to be explained much more clearly, in particular to be supposed evidence that x-rays are not particular but are somehow massless waves without a medium - in
the modern view available to the public.)
(It seems impossible that there would be any x-rays in the direction of the primary radiation, for a solid, because that direction contains the wall of solid which the primary beam if reflecting off of.)
(I have a lot of doubt about this theory that x-rays are polarized - in particular because this is based primarily of Maxwell's theory of light as an electromagnetic wave in an aether medium. However, I think x-rays can be polarized by reflective surfaces - that is "plane filtered" by reflective surfaces. EXPERIMENT: plane filter (polarize) x-rays in a variety of directions - showing how a second filter can be turned 90 degrees to greatly lower the detection of x-rays.)
(I think there is a possibility of the x-particle being a photon, but it may be a particle smaller than a photon - to be far more penetrable than photons of visible, ultraviolet and radio light. Find more evidence of the continuity of ultraviolet to x-ray frequency - has anybody ever used a single simple device to alternatively produce either depending on some adjustible setting - like capacitance or inductance?)
(It would be interesting to see the neuron thought-communications of Barkla and others around this paper - was there some kind of corruption? - For example, a need to provide proof of x-ray polarization and then the construction of a paper?)
(I think these results may have more to do with the direction of x-ray beams reflected off the anti-cathode- the majority probably being reflected back toward the cathode. So when the cathode is turned 90 degrees - that cone of reflected particles changes 90 degrees too. This could be shown by simply measuring the particles emitted around the x-ray tube - the majority are probably received in the direction of the cathode. EXPERIMENT: Measure the distribution of x-rays from all around an x-ray tube, and map this 3 dimensionally. Determine if this has been done before and report results found.)
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
96 YBN
[06/18/1904 AD]
| 4500) Charles Dillon Perrine (PerIN) (CE 1867-1951), US-Argentinian astronomer publishes a calculation of the solar parallax (a measure of the Earth–Sun distance) based on observations of the minor planet Eros during one of its close approaches to the Earth. Perrine measures this parallax to be around 8.80.
(state units, and estimate of Sun-earth distance)
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
96 YBN
[06/29/1904 AD]
| 4707) Bertram Borden Boltwood (CE 1870-1927), US chemist and physicist uses a gas-tight gold-leaf electroscope to show that the quantity of inert gas (emanation) presumably emitted by radium is directly proportional to the amount of uranium in each of his samples, which is evidence that uranium decays into radium.
| (Mining Engineering and Chemistry company) New Haven, Conneticut, USA |
96 YBN
[09/08/1904 AD]
| 4401) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist finds that there are several distance ranges for alpha particles (helium nuclei) emitted from radium, each sharply delineated.
This provides support for Rutherford's theory that radioactive elements break down in stages and that intermediate atoms produce their own sets of alpha particles. The different ranges of alpha particles must represent alpha particles emitted by different intermediate elements in the radioactive series.
The α particles fall into a few groups, each of which have a definite range, and therefore a definite initial velocity. Each group corresponds to a different radioactive species in the source, so that the measurement of α particle ranges soon becomes an invaluable tool in identifying radio-active substances.
| (University of Adelaide) Adelaide, Australia |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 3448) Pierre Jules César Janssen (joNSeN) (CE 1824-1907), French astronomer, publishes an atlas of the sun ("Atlas de photographies solaires") which includes 6000 photographs of the sun's disc.
Janssen is the first to report the granular appearance of the sun (in areas clear of spots). (chronology)
(show photos from Atlas)
| (observatory of Meudon) Paris, France |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 3615) Édouard Belin (CE 1876-1963), invents a system similar to Amstutz's that copies a photograph.
In 1907 and 1908 Belin makes various experiments over a long distance telephone line with the two apparatus in one room, sending an image from Paris to Lyons, with two lines connected in Lyons, to automatically send the image back on a second wire to the same room in Paris.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 3647) First practical color photograph.
James Clerk Maxwell had, in 1861, demonstrated the first color image projected, by using 3 different glass negatives exposed to red, green and blue light.
In 1868, Louis Arthur Ducos du Hauron will invent the first color photograph by simply superimposing 3 different color transparent images.
Auguste Lumière (CE 1862-1954) and Louis Lumière (CE 1864-1948) create a practical color photography process, the autochrome progress. Starch grains of very minute size, some of which are dyed with a red stain, a second portion with a green, and a third portion with a blue, are mixed together in such proportions that a fine layer of them appears grey when viewed by transmitted light. Under a magnifying glass the grains are colored, but because of the focus in the eye, the colors blend together. (Fully describe the process.)
| France |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 3708) Ernst Heinrich Philipp August Haeckel (heKuL) (CE 1834-1919), German naturalist, publishes "Kunstformen der Natur" (1904) and "Wanderbilder" (1905). These are illustrated by his own paintings and drawings and describe his extensive zoological travels.
Many of the images from Haeckel's books are in the public domain and provide useful paintings of many species for those making science projects.
| (Zoological Institute) Jena, Germany |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 3975) Otto Lehmann (CE 1855-1922) publishes "Flüssige Kristalle" ("Liquid Crystals"), a large book about liquid crystals.
| Technische Hochschule, Karlsruhe, Germany |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4077) Diode (also known as "rectifier", in other words alternating current into direct current).
Sir John Ambrose Fleming (CE 1849-1945), English electrical engineer invents the first diode (also called "rectifier") which he calls a "valve", and in the US it is called a "tube". This device can change alternating current into direct current (and converts oscillating current into constant current).
Fleming's diode consisted of a glass bulb containing two electrodes. One, a metal filament, is heated to incandescence by an electric current, so that it emits electrons by thermionic emission. The second electrode (the anode) can collect electrons if held at a positive potential with respect to the filament (the cathode) and a current flows. Current can not flow in the opposite direction, therefore the name "valve" for such devices. Lee de Forest develops the device into the triode for amplifying current.
Fleming uses the Edison effect (the passage of electricity from a hot filament to a cold plate within an evacuated bulb) and finds that it is due to the "boiling off" (or emitting) of the newly identified electrons from the hot filament. Fleming finds that electrons travel only when the plate is attached to the positive terminal of a generator, because then the plate attracts the negatively charged electrons. This means that in alternating current, where the charge on the plate and filament alternate from being positive and negative, the current only passes the half of the time when the filament has a negative charge and the plate a positive charge. In this way alternating current entering the device leaves the device as direct current.
Fleming patents this device in 1904, and this is the first electronic rectifier of radio waves (or particles), converting alternating-current radio signals into weak direct currents detectable by a telephone receiver.
De Forest's addition of a grid that makes the tube an amplifier in addition to rectifier makes electronic instruments practical.
(This device is very useful in converting AC which is delivered to houses into DC which most devices and electronics (such as computers) use. In every "AC" adapter there is a rectifier to convert the AC to DC.)
(interesting that no electrons flow from the plate to the filament in the other direction. I guess it is necessary for the plate to be inside the bulb of empty space for the effect to work? Atoms in air might intercept the electrons, where in empty space the electrons are free to move.)
| (University College) London, England |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4084) Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schäfer (CE 1850-1935), English physiologist, Sharpey-Schäfer develops the prone-pressure method (Schafer method) of artificial respiration. This will last until mouth-to-mouth resuscitation comes into use.
(Is this the first known method of resussitation?)
| (Edinburgh University) Edinburgh, Scotland |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4101) Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (KoPTIN) (CE 1851-1922), Dutch astronomer and David Gill publish the "Cape Photographic Durchmusterung", (1896–1900; Cape Photographic Examination), a catalog of 454,000 stars within 19 degrees of the South Celestial Pole. These stars are traditionally less well known because the majority of humans live above the equator.
Since the University of Groningen, in spite of Kapteyn’s requests, can not provide him with a telescope, Kapteyn looks for other ways to contribute to the observational work. In 1885 Kapteyn contacts Gill, then director of the Royal Observatory in Cape Town, South Africa, to offer to measure the photographic plates, covering the whole southern sky, which Gill had taken at the Cape.
The project takes 14 years. The resulting star catalog contains almost a half million entries.
| (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4102) Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (KoPTIN) (CE 1851-1922), Dutch astronomer finds "two star steams", that the stars move in one of two directions. This leads to the recognition of the shape of the Milky Way Galaxy.
Before this people had presumed that the stellar motions have a random character, like those of the molecules of a gas, without preferred direction. Kapteyn finds that the assumption of random motion is incorrect: preferred directions do exist, and that stars belong to two different, but intermingled, groups having different mean motions with respect to the sun.
This phenomenon, termed "the two star streams", is announced by Kapteyn at the International Congress of Science at St. Louis in 1904 and before the British Association in Cape Town in 1905 (Report of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Sec. A) and makes a deep impression in the minds of other astronomers. It demonstrates that a certain order, as opposed to random motion describes stellar motions. (show text of original paper)
Kapteyn finds that stars can be divided into two clear streams: about 3/5 of all stars seem to be heading in one direction and the other 2/5 in the opposite direction. The first stream is directed toward Orion and the second to Scutum, and a line joining them would be parallel to the Milky Way. Kapteyn is unable to explain this phenomenon but Kapteyn's pupil Jan Oort will be the first to interpret this correctly as being a rotating disk, on one side stars are moving in one direction, and on the other stars move in the opposite direction.
Kapteyn measures "peculiar motions" of individual stars, their motion relative to the mean motions of their neighbours.
| (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4178) Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (loreNTS) or (lOreNTS) (CE 1853-1928), Dutch physicist, publishes a paper further developing what Poincare will call the "Lorentz Transformations".
Lorentz notes in this 1904 paper ("Electromagnetic phenomena in a system moving with any velocity smaller than that of light") that the form of Maxwell's equations remain unchanged if the three spacial coordinates (usually x,y,z) and the time coordinate (t), are simultaneously changed in a way that is equivalent to a change in velcity of the system under study. The new transformed coordinates might, for example, be designated x', y', z', and t'. Therefore, a person can treat an electromagnetic system, such as a single electric charge moving with uniform velocity c, as though it had a different velocity v', solve the equations in the new frame of reference, and then transform the solution back to the original frame. The Lorentz-FitzGerald contraction of the field in the direction of motion emerges in the process in a dynamic manner.
In 1899 Lorentz had published "Théorie simplified des phénomenes électriques et optiques dans des corps en mouvement." as a response to Alfred Liénard’s contention that according to Lorentz’ theory, Michelson’s experiment should yield a positive effect if the light passes through a liquid or solid instead of air. Lorentz believed that the positive effect was improbable, and he simplified and deepened his theory to support his belief. He now treated his dynamical contraction hypothesis mathematically, as though it were a general coordinate transformation on a par with the local time transformation. Except for an undetermined coefficient, the resulting transformations for the space and time coordinates were equivalent to those he published in his better-known 1904 article that contains the Lorentz transformations.
In this paper Lorentz reinforces the theory of space, time and mass dilation. Fitzgerald had initiated the idea that matter contracts in the direction of motion through the hypothetical ether. Lorentz had developed and extended this idea to include changes to time and mass depending on the velocity of a particle, using transformation equations for the variables x,y,z and t.
Lorentz writes: "The problem of determining the influence exerted on electric and optical phenomena by a translation, such as all systems have in virtue of the Earth's annual motion, admits of a comparatively simple solution, so long as only those terms need be taken into account, which are proportional to the first power of the ratio between the velocity of translation w and the velocity of light c. Cases in which quantities of the second order, i.e. of the order w2/c2, may be perceptible, present more difficulties. The first example of this kind is MICHELSON's well known interference-experiment, the negative result of which has led FITZ GERALD and myself to the conclusion that the dimensions of solid bodies are slightly altered by their motion through the aether.
Some new experiments in which a second order effect was sought for have recently been published. RAYLEIGH and BRACE have examined the question whether the Earth's motion may cause a body to become doubly refracting; at first sight this might be expected, if the just mentioned change of dimensions is admitted. Both physicists have however come to a negative result.
In the second place TROUTON and NOBLE have endeavoured to detect a turning couple acting on a charged condenser, whose plates make a certain angle with the direction of translation. The theory of electrons, unless it be modified by some new hypothesis, would undoubtedly require the existence of such a couple.
...
In the apparatus of TROUTON and NOBLE the condenser was fixed to the beam of a torsion-balance, sufficiently delicate to be deflected by a couple of the above order of magnitude. No effect could however be observed.
The experiments of which I have spoken are not the only reason for which a new examination of the problems connected with the motion of the Earth is desirable. POINCARÉ has objected to the existing theory of electric and optical phenomena in moving bodies that, in order to explain MICHELSONS'S negative result, the introduction of a new hypothesis has been required, and that the same necessity may occur each time new facts will be brought to light. Surely, this course of inventing special hypothesis for each new experimental result is somewhat artificial. It would be more satisfactory, if it were possible to show, by means of certain fundamental assumptions, and without neglecting terms of one order of magnitude or another, that many electromagnetic actions are entirely independent of the motion of the system. Some years ago, I have already sought to frame a theory of this kind. I believe now to be able to treat the subject with a better result. The only restriction as regards the velocity will be that it be smaller than that of light.
I shall start from the fundamental equations of the theory of electrons. Let δ be the dielectric displacement in the aether, h the magnetic force, p the volume-density of the charge of an electron, v the velocity of a point of such a particle, and f the electric force, i.e. the force, reckoned per unit charge, which is exerted by the aether on a volume-element of an electron. Then, if we use a fixed system of coordinates, ...
I shall now suppose that the system as a whole moves in the direction of x with a constant velocity w, and I shall denote by u any velocity a point of an electron may have in addition to this, so that vx=w+ux, vy=uy, vz=uz. ...
Thus far we have only used the fundamental equations without any new assumptions. I shall now suppose that the electrons, which I take to be spheres of radius R in the state of rest, have their dimensions changed by the effect of a translation, the dimensions in the direction of motion becoming kl times and those in perpendicular direction l times smaller.
... In the second place I shall suppose that the forces between uncharged particles, as well as those between such particles and electrons, are influenced by a translation in quite the same way as the electric forces in an electrostatic system. ... It will easily be seen that the hypothesis that has formerly been made in connexion with MICHELSON'S experiment, is implied in what has now been said. However, the present hypothesis is more general because the only limitation imposed on the motion is that its velocity be smaller than that of light. .... We are now in a position to calculate the electromagnetic momentum of a single electron. For simplicity's sake I shall suppose the charge e to be uniformly distributed over the surface, so long as the electron remains at rest. ... Hence, in phenomena in which there is an acceleration in the direction of motion, the electron behaves as if it had a mass m1, those in which the acceleration is normal to the path, as if the mass were m2. These quantities m1 and m2 may therefore properly be called the "longitudinal" and "transverse" electromagnetic masses of the electron. I shall suppose that there is no other, no "true" or "material" mass. ...
We can now proceed to examine the influence of the Earth's motion on optical phenomena in a system of transparent bodies. In discussing this problem we shall fix our attention on the variable electric moments in the particles or "atoms" of the system. To these moments we may apply what has been said in § 7. For the sake of simplicity we shall suppose that, in each particle, the charge is concentrated in a certain number of separate electrons, and that the "elastic" forces that act on one of these and, conjointly with the electric forces, determine its motion, have their origin within the bounds of the same atom.
I shall show that, if we start from any given state of motion in a system without translation, we may deduce from it a corresponding state that can exist in the same system after a translation has been imparted to it, the kind of correspondence being as specified in what follows.
a. Let A', A2', A3' , etc. be the centres of the particles in the system without translation (Σ'); neglecting molecular motions we shall take these points to remain at rest. The system of points A, A2, A3, etc., formed by the centres of the particles in the moving system Σ, is obtained from A', A2', A3' , etc. by means of a deformation (1/kl, 1/l, 1/l). According to what has been said in § 8, the centres will of themselves take these positions A, A2, A3, etc. if originally, before there was a translation, they occupied the positions A', A2', A3' , etc.
We may conceive any point P' in the space of the system Σ' to be replaced by the above deformation, so that a definite point P of Σ corresponds to it. For two corresponding points P' and P we shall define corresponding instants, the one belonging to P' , the other to P, by stating that the true time at the first instant is equal to the local time, as determined by (5) for the point P, at the second instant. By corresponding times for two corresponding particles we shall understand times that may be said to correspond, if we fix our attention on the centres A' and A of these particles.
b. As regards the interior state of the atoms, we shall assume that the configuration of a particle A in Σ at a certain time may be derived by means of the deformation (1/kl, 1/l, 1/l) from the configuration of the corresponding particle in Σ' , such as it is at the corresponding instant. In so far as this assumption relates to the form of the electrons themselves, it is implied in the first hypothesis of § 8.
Obviously, if we start from a state really existing in the system Σ' , we have now completely defined a state of the moving system Σ. The question remains however, whether this state will likewise be a possible one.
In order to judge this, we may remark in the first place that the electric moments which we have supposed to exist in the moving system and which we shall denote by p will be certain definite functions of the coordinates x, y, z of the centres A of the particles, or, as we shall say, of the coordinates of the particles themselves, and of the time t. The equations which express the relations between p on one hand and x, y, z, t on the other, may be replaced by other equations, containing the vectors p' defined by (25) and the quantities x',y',z',t' defined by (4) and (5). Now, by the above assumptions a and b, if in a particle A of the moving system, whose coordinates are x, y, z, we find an electric moment p at the time t, or at the local time t', the vector p' given by (26) will be the moment which exists in the other system at the true time t' in a particle whose coordinates are x', y', z' . It appears in this way that the equations between p', x', y', z', t' are the same for both systems, the difference being only this, that for the system Σ' without translation these symbols indicate the moment, the coordinates and the true time, whereas their meaning is different for the moving system, p', x', y', z', t' being here related to the moment p, the coordinates x, y, z and the general time t in the manner expressed by (26), (4) and (5).
... We are therefore led to suppose that the influence of a translation on the dimensions (of the separate electrons and of a ponderable body as a whole) is confined to those that have the direction of the motion, these becoming k times smaller than they are in the state of rest. If this hypothesis is added to those we have already made, we may be sure that two states, the one in the moving system, the other in the same system while at rest, corresponding as stated above, may both be possible. Moreover, this correspondence is not limited to the electric moments of the particles. In corresponding points that are situated either in the aether between the particles, or in that surrounding the ponderable bodies, we shall find at corresponding times the same vector d' and, as is easily shown, the same vector h'. We may sum up by saying : If, in the system without translation, there is a state of motion in which, at a definite place, the components of p, d, h are certain functions of the time, then the same system after it has been put in motion (and thereby deformed) can be the seat of a state of motion in which, at the corresponding place, the components of p', d', and h' are the same functions of the local time.
There is one point which requires further consideration. The values of the masses m1, and m2 having been deduced from the theory of quasi-stationary motion, the question arises, whether we are justified in reckoning with them in the case of the rapid vibrations of light. Now it is found on closer examination that the motion of an electron may be treated as quasi-stationary if it changes very little during the time a light-wave takes to travel over a distance equal to the diameter. This condition is fulfilled in optical phenomena, because the diameter of an electron is extremely small in comparison with the wave-length. ... It is easily seen that the proposed theory can account for a large number of facts.
Let us take in the first place the case of a system without translation, in some parts of which we have continually p=0, d=0 and h=0. Then, in the corresponding state for the moving system, we shall have in corresponding parts (or, as we may say, in the same parts of the deformed system) p'=0, d'=0 and h'=0. These equations implying p=0, d=0, h=0, as is seen by (26) and (6), it appears that those parts which are dark while the system is at rest, will remain so after it has been put in motion. It will therefore be impossible to detect an influence of the Earth's motion on any optical experiment, made with a terrestrial source of light, in which the geometrical distribution of light and darkness is observed. Many experiments on interference and diffraction belong to this class.
In the second place, if in two points of a system, rays of light of the same state of polarization are propagated in the same direction, the ratio between the amplitudes in these points may be shown not to be altered by a translation. The latter remark applies lo those experiments in which the intensities in adjacent parts of the field of view are compared.
The above conclusions confirm the results I have formerly obtained by a similar train of reasoning, in which however the terms of the second order were neglected. They also contain an explanation of MICHELSONS's negative result, more general and of somewhat different form than the one previously given, and they show why RAYLEIGH and BRACE could find no signs of double refraction produced by the motion of the Earth.
As to the experiments of TROUTON and NOBLE, their negative result becomes at once clear, if we admit the hypotheses of §8. It may be inferred from these and from our last assumption (§ 10) that the only effect of the translation must have been a contraction of the whole system of electrons and other particles constituting the charged condenser and the beam and thread of the torsion-balance. Such a contraction does not give rise to a sensible change of direction.
It need hardly be said that the present theory is put forward with all due reserve. Though it seems to me that it can account for all well established facts, it leads to some consequences that cannot as yet be put to the test of experiment. One of these is that the result of MICHELSON'S experiment must remain negative, if the interfering rays of light are made to travel through some ponderable transparent body.
Our assumption about the contraction of the electrons cannot in itself be pronounced to be either plausible or inadmissible. What we know about the nature of electrons is very little and the only means of pushing our way farther will be to test such hypotheses as I have here made. Of course, there will be difficulties, e.g. as soon as we come to consider the rotation of electrons. Perhaps we shall have to suppose that in those phenomena in which, if there is no translation, spherical electrons rotate about a diameter, the points of the electrons in the moving system will describe elliptic paths, corresponding, in the manner specified in § 10, to the circular paths described in the other case.
§ 12 It remains to say some words about molecular motion. We may conceive that bodies in which this has a sensible influence or even predominates, undergo the same deformation as the systems of particles of constant relative position of which alone we have spoken till now. Indeed, in two systems of molecules Σ' and Σ, the first without and the second with a translation, we may imagine molecular motions corresponding to each other in such a way that, if a particle in Σ' has a certain position at a definite instant, a particle in Σ occupies at the corresponding instant the corresponding position. This being assumed, we may use the relation (33) between the accelerations in all those cases in which the velocity of molecular motion is very small as compared to w. In these cases the molecular forces may be taken to be determined by the relative positions, independently of the velocities of molecular motion. If, finally, we suppose these forces to be limited to such small distances that, for particles acting on each other, the difference of local times may be neglected, one of the particles, together with those which lie in its sphere of attraction or repulsion, will form a system which undergoes the often mentioned deformation. In virtue of the second hypothesis of § 8 we may therefore apply to the resulting molecular force acting on a particle, the equation (21). Consequently, the proper relation between the forces and the accelerations will exist in the two cases, if we suppose that the masses of all particles are influenced by a translation to the same degree as the electromagnetic masses of the electrons. ... ".
The Concise Dictionary of Scientific Biography writes: "In his 1904 paper Lorentz refined his corresponding-states theorem to hold for all orders of smallness for the case of electromagnetic systems without charges, which meant that no experiment, however accurate, on such systems could reveal the translation of the apparatus through the ether. He also showed that his theory agreed with Kaufmann’s data as well as Abraham’s theory did. With this paper Lorentz all but solved the problem of the earth’s motion through the stationary ether as it was formulated at the time. Poincaré in 1905 showed how to extend Lorentz’ corresponding-states theorem to systems that included charges and to make the principle of relativity, as Poincare’ understood it, more than approximation within the context of Lorentz’ theory,
Lorentz’ solution—developed over the years since 1892—entailed a number of radical departures from traditional dynamics; these he spelled out explicitly in 1904. First, the masses of all particles, charged or not, vary with their motion through the ether according to a single law. Second, the mass of an electron is due solely to its self-induction and has no invariant mechanical mass. Third, the dimensions of the electron itself, as well as those of macroscopic bodies, contract in the direction of motion, the physical deformation arising from the motion itself. Fourth, the molecular forces binding an electron and a ponderable particle or binding two ponderable particles are affected by motion in the same way as the electric force. Finally, the speed of light is the theoretical upper limit of the speed of any body relative to the ether; the formulas for the energy and inertia of bodies become infinite at that speed. Thus, to attain a fully satisfactory corresponding-states theorem, Lorentz had to go far beyond the domain of his original electron theory and make assertions about all bodies and all forces, whether electric or not. ..." and regarding the relationship between Lorentz's electron theory and Einstein's special theory of relativity: "For Lorentz time dilation in moving frames was a mathematical artifice; for Einstein, measures of time intervals were equally legitimate in all uniformly moving frames. For Lorentz the contraction of length was a real effect explicable by molecular forces; for Einstein it was a phenomenon of measurement only.
Einstein argued in 1905 that the ether of the electron theory and the related notions of absolute space and time were superfluous or unsuited for the development of a consistent electrodynamics. Lorentz admired, but never embraced, Einstein’s 1905 reinterpretation of the equations of his electron theory. The observable consequences of his and Einstein’s interpretations were the same, and he regarded the choice between them as a matter of taste. To the end of his life he believed that the ether was a reality and that absolute space and time were meaningful concepts. .... The younger generation of European theoretical physicists who learned much of their electrodynamics from Lorentz—Einstein, Ehrenfest A. D. Fokker—agreed that Lorentz’ great idea was the complete separation of field and matter. Einstein called Lorentz’ establishment of the electromagnetic field as an independent reality distinct from ponderable matter an 'act of intellectual liberation,'..."
(It is interesting that much of Lorentz' work starts with the theory of the electron as a particle, and so in that sense, much of the theory behind the special and general theories of relativity is inherited and so then based on the theories of the movement of an electron. The electron is the example particle used in theorizing and forming equations.)
(I think one important alternative theory is the idea that the mass of an individual particle can never change in accordance with the conservation of matter, no matter what velocity the particle has relative to any other particle. There are composite pieces of matter which can be broken apart of pushed together. According to this view no new mass or motion is ever created or destroyed in the universe. In addition, I view a mass as always being a singular mass - in other words that there is no 'inertial' mass that is different from a 'gravitational' or 'electromagnetic' mass. It is amazing and very tragically interesting that Michelson's initial view of rejecting an ether, did not win, but that Lorentz' theories, which require an ether and originated from an unlikely explanation of why no ether was detected by Michelson have prevailed for a century.)
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4198) Paul Ehrlich (ArliK) (CE 1854-1915), German bacteriologist, reports with Shiga that a dye, trypan red, cures mice experimentally infected with Trypanosoma equinum, causal parasite of mal de caderas. The "trypan red" dye helps destroy the trypanosomes (protists) that causes diseases such as sleeping sickness. This stain that will attach to a bacteria but not other cells in the human body.
| (Serum Institute) Frankfurt, Germany |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4202) Jules Henri Poincaré (PwoNKorA) (CE 1854-1912), French mathematician describes the "Poincaré conjecture".
Poincaré works with mathematical spaces (now called manifolds) in which the position of a point is determined by several coordinates. Poincaré looks for ways in which such manifolds can be distinguished, which widens the subject of topology, at the time known as analysis situs. Riemann had shown that in two dimensions surfaces can be distinguished by their genus (the number of holes in the surface), and Enrico Betti in Italy and Walther von Dyck in Germany had extended this work to three dimensions. Poincaré singls out the idea of considering closed curves in the manifold that cannot be deformed into one another. For example, any curve on the surface of a sphere can be continuously shrunk to a point, but there are curves on a torus (curves wrapped around a hole, for instance) that cannot be shrunk to a point. Poincaré asks if a three-dimensional manifold in which every curve can be shrunk to a point is topologically equivalent to a three-dimensional sphere. This problem (now known as the Poincaré conjecture) becomes one of the most important unsolved problems in algebraic topology. Ironically, the conjecture is first proved for dimensions greater than three: in dimensions five and above by Stephen Smale in the 1960s and in dimension four as a consequence of work by Simon Donaldson and Michael Freedman in the 1980s. Finally, Grigori Perelman proves the conjecture for three dimensions in 2006.
| (University of Paris) Paris, France |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4229) German physicists, Johann Phillipp Ludwig Julius Elster (CE 1854-1920), and Hans Geitel (CE 1855-1923) produce practical photoelectric cells that can be used to measure the intensity of light.
The Elster-Geitel photocell is for decades the photometric instrument of physics and astronomy.
| (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4366) English physiologists, Ernest Henry Starling (CE 1866-1927), and (Sir) William Maddock Bayliss (CE 1860-1924) coin the term "hormone" to denote substances released in a restricted part of the body (endocrine gland), carried by the bloodstream to unconnected parts, where, in extremely small quantities, they are capable of profoundly influencing the function of those parts.
| (University College) London, England |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4377) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) includes a gamma radiograph picture in her doctoral thesis. Curie notes the advantage of eliminating the accompanying electron rays with a magnet in order to produce a sharper image with gamma rays only, but also notes the weak contrast between bone and soft tissue in gamma radiographs, and the long exposure times required. Curie uses a magnetic field to deflect the electron rays to produce a sharper image from the gamma radiation. Because producing an X-ray image is much easier and faster, gamma radiographs will not become as popular.
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4382) Charles Édouard Guillaume (GEYOM) (CE 1861-1938), Swiss-French physicist shows that a kilogram of water occupies a volume of 1,000.028 cubic centimeters, where previously people thought that a kilogram of pure water at 4° C has a volume of exactly 1,000 cubic centimeters. Because of this people use the system of liters for liquids instead of cubic centimeters. (Verify: Was the liter in existance before this measurement?)
(There must be so many variables and room for inaccuracy in measurements of this kind to possibly be inaccurate and too small to measure reliably. In my opinion, measuring volume in cubic meters is fine for all matter in space. I guess an alternative of liters can be allowed, but why not simply use cubic centimeters for every thing?)
| (International Bureau of Weights and Measures) Sèvres, France |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4400) John Ulric Nef (CE 1862-1915), Swiss-US chemist demonstrates that carbon does not always have a valence of 4 but sometimes has a valence of 2, and this shows that valence is not fixed in atoms, but that an atom's valence can be variable.
(show graphically and give more detail)
Nef's work resolves a disagreement between the German chemist Friedrich A. Kekule von Stradonitz, who had proposed the single valence of carbon as four, and Scottish chemist Archibald S. Couper, who proposed the variable valences of carbon as four and two. Nef's findings also enhanced the value of Couper's system of writing the structural formulas of organic (carbon) compounds.
(perhaps this is from a double bond? perhaps two atoms are acting as one? I find it interesting that an atom might have a variable valence, what is the atomic explanation?)
(Is this an exception for a very few atoms, or systematic for every atom in some compound molecule?)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4402) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist suggests that gamma and x rays are corpuscular in nature.
In 1907, Bragg suggests that "γ and X rays may be of a material nature".
(What happens is interesting, in that x-rays are associated with light, and since light is primarily viewed as a wave, the wave theory wins for x-rays...and then a possible effort to put forward a particle theory from behind by associating x-rays with particles, and then realizing that x-rays are light - and so light must also then be made of material particles, mostly apparently fails.)
| (University of Adelaide) Adelaide, Australia |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4413) Theodor Boveri (CE 1862-1915), German cytologist views chromosomes as almost sub-cells that lead their own existence independently of the cells. (This is an interesting idea. I am interested in seeing if DNA can survive and copy without being in a cell. Perhaps it requires a cell-like surrounding. Clearly nucleic acids are duplicated in PCR outside of the cell, what requirements are there for this? in terms of medium and temperature?)
| (Würzburg University) Würzburg, Germany |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4447) Johannes Franz Hartmann (CE 1865-1936), German astronomer provides spectral evidence of intersteller matter. This provides the strongest evidence against the theory that the galaxies are moving away from us at very high velocities.
Hartmann finds that there is dust or gas in between the star delta-Orionis and earth that contains Calcium, because delat-Orionis is a spectral binary star pair, and a radial (Doppler) shift can be seen in most of the spectral lines from delta-Orionis, however the Calcium absorption lines appear in their usual frequency/position. This indicates that the calcium is stationary relative to the star. Since it is unlikely that the star pair moves but leaves calcium behind, Hartmann concludes that there must be dust or gas in between delta-Orionis and the earth that is made in part of calcium. This is the first indication of the existence of interstellar matter.
In 1912, Slipher will use the H and K calcium absorption lines to suggest that the other galaxies are receeding away from us at extremely high speed, but this is an inaccurate claim if the absorption lines are due to interstellar calcium atoms.
Hartmann writes: "... Closer study on this point led me to the quite surpriseng result that the calcium line at λ3934 does not share in the periodic displacements of the lines caused by the orbital motion of the star. ...".
At Potsdam Observatory, Hartmann investigates the ultraviolet frequencies of previously unstudied stellar spectra. Hartmann also devises a spectrocomparator to speed up the evaluation of stellar spectra, as well as two photometric instruments, a microphotometer and a plane, or universal, photometer.
Verify if source is and get full translation, get image showing proof of spectral lines.
(Interesting that the calcium has no Doppler shift. I thought that all stars emit calcium lines and that is what is used to determine Doppler shift. This really makes clear that people need to take a good look at the spectra of stars, learn what they look like, and the explanation of what atoms and molecules are in them, in particular how different are the spectra of different stars.)
This intersteller matter might also explain the slowing or delayed path of light particles as they bend around the other particles of matter - which may increase the spacing between light particles.
Vesto Melvin Slipher will confirm in 1908 from his spectroscopic research that there must be gaseous material lying between the stars.
Russian-US astronomer Otto Struve (CE 1897-1963) will again confirm this in 1925.
| (Potsdam Observatory) Potsdam, Getmany |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4463) (Sir) Arthur Harden (CE 1865-1940), English biochemist finds that a yeast enzyme is made of two parts, a large molecule which is a protein and a small molecule which is the first example of a "coenzyme", a small molecule which is not a protein but is necessary to the correct functioning of an enzyme, which is a protein. Harden finds this by placing an extract of yeast inside a bag made of a semipermeable membrane (a Martin gelatin filter) and places this bag in pure water so that small molecules in the extract pass through the membrane while large molecules cannot (this process is called dialysis and dates back to the time of Thomas Graham). Harden finds that the ability to ferment is lost in the yeast enzyme that remains inside the bag, but that when he adds the water with the filtered products into the dialyzing bag the ability to ferment is restored. So it seems that the yeast enzyme contains two parts, one a small molecule that goes through the filter, and another a large molecule that does not. Boiling the liquid in the bag with the large molecule destroys the fermenting ability, and so this molecule is probably a protein, but the small molecule still functions after boiling and so is probably not a protein. This smaller protein is the first example of a "coenzyme", a small molecule necessary for the correct functioning of an enzyme protein. Euler-Chelpin will study the chemical nature of the coenzyme, and it will become clear that the vitamins first identified by Eijkman are required by some living objects because they form portions of coenzymes. Enzymes are catalysts and so are only needed in small portions, coenzymes, and therefore vitamins are only needed in small amounts. Copper, cobalt, manganese and molybdenum will also be shown to form part of coenzymes.
(Interesting that a vitamin is only a small part of a small coenzyme molecule)
(I am interested in how many proteins and other molecules are necessary for a human to live. It's hard to believe that a human would die without any tryptophane but yet true I guess.)
| (Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine) London, England |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4757) Fritz Richard Schaudinn (sODiN) (CE 1871-1906), German zoologist, confirms that the larvae of the parasite that causes hookworm disease enters the body by actively penetrating the skin of the feet or legs.
| (Institute for Protozoology at the Imperial Ministry of Health) Berlin, Germany |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4873) Charles Franklin Kettering (CE 1876-1958), US inventor develops an electric cash register which replaces the hand crank cash register.
(todo: find patent)
| (National Cash Register Company) Dayton, Ohio, USA |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 4920) Julius Arthur Nieuwland (nYUlaND) (CE 1878-1936), Belgian-US chemist discovers dichloro(2-chlorovinyl)arsine, but, because of its highly poisonous properties, stops all research on it. Later this compound will be developed as a chemical weapon named lewisite but is never used.
This is a reaction between acetylene and arsenic trichloride.
(todo: add image of molecule)
| (Catholic University of America), Washington, D.C, USA |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 5099) Radar: Radio light used to determine location of distant objects.
Christian Hülsmeyer (CE 1881-1957), German engineer, invents the first radar system.
In 1904 Hülsmeyer is issued a patent in several countries for "an obstacle detector and ship navigation device", based on the principles demonstrated by Hertz. Hülsmeyer builds his invention and demonstrates it to the German navy but fails to arouse any interest.
(Find, translate, and read relevent parts of patent.)
| Düsselsorf, Germany (presumably) |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 5779) (Sir) Arthur Schuster (CE 1851-1934) adapts Fraunhofer's equation (nλ=2dsinθ where θ is angle of deflected light) to equate a spectral line wavelength to angle of incidence (nλ=2dsinθ where θ is angle of incident light). This connects angle of incident light with grating spacing and deflected wavelength.
Fraunhofer apparently did not connect angle of incident light to wavelegnth in 1823 (verify).
(Sir) Arthur Schuster (CE 1851-1934) republishes the simple relationship between spectral line wavelength, incidence angle of light source, and diffraction grating groove spacing (nλ=2esinθ) described by Fraunhofer in 1823 (Fraunhofer-Schuster-Bragg Equation).
In 1912, (Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971) will show how this equation also applies to x-rays and crystal diffraction. Bragg mentions Schuster without any citation simply stating: "Regard the incident light as being composed of a number of independent pulses, much as Schuster does in his treatment of the action of an ordinary line grating. When a pulse falls on a plane it is reflected. If it falls on a number of particles scattered over a plane which are capable of acting as centres of disturbance when struck by the incident pulse, the secondary waves from them will build up a wave front, exactly as if part of the pulse had been reflected from the plane, as in Huygen's construction for a reflected wave. ... ...The pulses in the train follow each other at intervals of 2dcosθ where θ is the angle of incidence of the primary rays and the plane, d is the shortest distance between successive identical planes in the crystal. Considered thus, the crystal actually 'manufactures' light of definite wave-lengths, much as, according to Schuster, a diffraction grating does. The difference in this only lies in the extremely short length of the waves. Each incident pulse produces a train of puses and this train is resolvable into a series of wave-lengths λ, λ/2, λ/3, λ/4 etc. where λ=2dcosθ.".
Clearly the equation nλ=2Dsinθ should be called the "Schuster equation" not the "Bragg equation". But probably this relationship was learned much earlier but kept secret with must of neuron reading and writing.
It is somewhat interesting and unusual that only Bragg cites Schuster as the originator of the view. This contribution of Schuster is not mentioned in his obituary or in the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists and there is no article for Schuster in the 2011 Encyclopedia Britannica.
(Note that Schuster works at the University of Manchester just as the Bragg's do.)
(Determine who is the first, if not Fraunhofer to relate angle of incidence to wavelength of light for a grating. Fraunhofer apparently only connects angle of deflection to wavelength.)
| (University of Manchester) Machester, England |
96 YBN
[1904 AD]
| 6343) Sascha Schneider (CE 1870-1927) paints "Hypnosis" which may related to the secret of remote neuron writing. Other paintings show light emitting from the human head which may hint at a knowledge of neuron reading. That Schneider is a homosexual person may be one reason why he is excluded if he was excluded from direct-to-brain windows. Homosexuality is very likely a common excuse to exclude people, and perhaps not surprisingly, many D2B suggestions on excluded are to do homosexual activities.
The view of light emitting from a human head is a common theme in painting, some of which may be an application of the Sun onto the human head, but much of it may be hinting about remote neuron reading.
| |
95 YBN
[01/05/1905 AD]
| 4501) Charles Dillon Perrine (PerIN) (CE 1867-1951), US-Argentinian astronomer identifies the sixth satellite of Jupiter, Himalia (HimoLYo). (verify name is correct satellite Perrine observed)
Himalia is the largest irregular satellite of Jupiter, the sixth largest overall in size, and the fifth largest in mass. (Only the four Galilean moons of Jupiter have greater mass.) (verify)
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
95 YBN
[01/30/1905 AD]
| 4267) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, performs an experiment to show that gamma rays have no negative electric charge as Paschen had found.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
95 YBN
[03/17/1905 AD]
| 4928) Light theorized to be made of units of energy (light quanta).
Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist theorizes that light is made of units of energy (quanta) in accordance with Max Planck's earlier Quantum theory. This revives Newton's corpuscular theory of 1672 that light is a body. This work of Einstein's will result in the word "photon" being applied to the light quantum in 1926. (by Arthur Compton?)
Einstein uses Planck's quantum theory to explain the photoelectric effect by explaining that quanta of light absorbed by a metal atom forces an electron to be released, the shorter the wave length of the light, the more energetic the released electron will be. Lower than a certain wavelength of light, the light quanta will not be enough to cause a metal atom to release an electron and so there is a threshold frequency of light that is different for all metals, below which no current will flow in the metal. Einstein explains the fact that more intense light produces more current by stating that the more light quanta, the more electrons that will be released, but all the electrons will have the same energy. In 1873 the photoelectric effect was identified for the metal selenium. In 1887 Heinrich Hertz had found that ultraviolet light causes electric current to flow in certain metals.. In 1902 Lenard had found that more light intensity raises the quantity of emitted electrons, but not the energy of the emitted electrons. (The energy of the electron is a combination of mass and motion, and so since the mass of each electron is presumably identical, this must simply mean that the velocity of the emitted electrons does not change with increased light intensity.) This is the first application of Planck's quantum theory to a physical phenomenon other than the black-body problem. This contributes to establishing the new quantum theory, the theory of energy as being contained in units called quanta. This brings the people of earth a small step closer to recognizing that all matter is made of particles of light.
Einstein writes in a paper entitled (translated from German) "On a Heuristic Viewpoint Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light": "THERE exists an essential formal difference between the theoretical pictures physicists have drawn of gases and other ponderable bodies and Maxwell’s theory of electromagnetic processes in so-called empty space. Whereas we assume the state of a body to be completely determined by the positions and velocities of an,’ albeit very large, still finite number of atoms and electrons, we use for the determination of the electromagnetic state in space continuous spatial functions, so that a finite number of variables cannot be considered to be sufficient to fix completely the electromagnetic state in space. According to Maxwell’s theory, the energy must be considered to be a continuous function in space for all purely electromagnetic phenomena, thus also for light, while according to the present-day ideas of physicists the energy of a ponderable body can be written as a sum over the atoms and electrons. The energy of a ponderable body cannot be split into arbitrarily many, arbitrarily small parts, while the energy of a light ray, emitted by a point source of light is according to Maxwell’s theory (or in general according to any wave theory) of light distributed continuously over an ever increasing volume. The wave theory of light which operates with continuous functions in space has been excellently justified for the representation of purely optical phenomena and it is unlikely ever to be replaced by another theory. One should, however, bear in mind that optical observations refer to time averages and not to instantaneous values and notwithstanding the complete experimental verification of the theory of diffraction, reflexion, refraction, dispersion, and so on, it is quite conceivable that a theory ai‘ light involving the use of continuous functions in space will lead to contradictions with experience, if it is applied to the phenomena of the creation and conversion of light. In fact, it seems to me that the observations on “black-body radiation”, photoluminescence, the production of cathode rays by ultraviolet light and other phenomena involving the emission or conversion of light can be better understood on the assumption that the energy of light is distributed discontinuously in space. According to the assumption considered here, when a light ray starting from a point is propagated, the energy is not continuously distributed over an ever increasing volume, but it consists of a finite number of energy quanta, localised in space, which move without being divided and which can be absorbed or emitted only as a whole. In the following, I shall communicate the train of thought and the facts which led me to this conclusion, in the hope that the point of view to be given may turn out to be useful for some research workers in their investigations. l. On a Difficulty in the Theory of “Black-body Radiation" To begin with, we take the point of view of Maxwell’s theory and electron theory and consider the following case. Let there be in a volume completely surrounded by reflecting walls, a number of gas molecules and electrons moving freely and exerting upon one another conservative forces when they approach each other, that is, colliding with one another as gas molecules according to the kinetic theory of gases. Let there further be a number of electrons which are bound to points in space, which are far from one another, by forces proportional to the distance from those points and in the direction towards those points. These electrons are also assumed to be interacting conservatively with the free molecules and electrons as soon as the latter come close to them. We call the electrons bound to points in space “resonators”; they emit and absorb electromagnetic waves with definite periods. According to present-day ideas on the emission of light, the radiation in the volume considered-which can be found for the case of dynamic equilibrium on the basis of the Maxwell theory must be identical with the “black-body radiation”-at least provided we assume that resonators are present of all frequencies to be considered. For the time being, we neglect the radiation emitted and absorbed by the resonators and look for the condition for dynamic equilibrium corresponding to the interaction (collisions) between molecules and electrons. Kinetic gas theory gives for this the condition that the average kinetic energy of a resonator electron must equal the average kinetic energy corresponding to the translational motion of a gas molecule. If we decompose the motion of a resonator electron into three mutually perpendicular directions of oscillation, we find for the average value E of the energy of such a linear oscillatory motion
E=R/N T,
where R is the gas constant, N the number of “real molecules” in a gramme equivalent and T the absolute temperature. This follows as the energy E is equal to 2/3 of the kinetic energy of a free molecule of a monatomic gas since the time averages of the kinet ic and the potential energy of a resonator are equal to one another. If, for some reason-in our case because of radiation effects-one manages to make the time average of a resonator larger or smaller than E, collisions with the free electrons and molecules will lead to an energy transfer to or from the gas which has a non-vanishing average. Thus, for the case considered by us, dynamic equilibrium will be possible only,if each resonator has the average energy E. We can now use a similar argument for the interaction between the resonators and the radiation which is present in space. Mr. Planck’ has derived for this case the condition for dynamic equilibrium under the assumption that one can consider the radiation as the most random process imaginable.? He found
Ev=L3/8πν2ρv,
where E, is the average energy of a resonator with eigenfrequency V (per oscillating component), L the velocity of light, V the frequency and p,, dv the energy per unit volume of that part of the radiation which has frequencies between V and V + dv. If the radiation energy of frequency V is not to be either decreased or increased steadily, we must have
{ULSF: see equations}
This relation, which we found as the condition for dynamic equilibrium does not only lack agreement with experiment, but it also shows that in our picture there can be no question of a definite distribution of energy between aether and matter. The greate r we choose the range of frequencies of the resonators, the greater becomes the radiation energy in space and in the limit we get {ULSF see equation} 2. On Planck’s Determination of Elementary Quanta I We shall show in the following that determination of elementary quanta given by Mr. Planck is, to a certain extent, independent of the theory of “black-body radiation” constructed by him. Planck‘s formula2 for pv which agrees with all experiments up to the present is {ULSF: see equation} For large values of T/v, that is, for long wavelengths and high radiation densities, this formula has the following limiting form {ULSF: see equation} One sees that this formula agrees with the one derived in section 1 from Maxwell theory and electron theory, By equating the Coefficients in the two formulae, we get {ULSF: see equations} that is, one hydrogen atom weighs 1/N = 1.62 x 10- 24 g. This is exactly the value found by Mr. Planck, which agrees satisfactorily with values of this quantity found by different means. We thus reach the conclusion : the higher the energy density and the longer the wavelengths of radiation, the more usable is the theoretical basis used by us; for short wavelengths and low radiation densities, however, the basis fails completely. In the following, we shall consider “black-body radiation”, basing ourselves upon experience without using a picture of the creation and propagation of the radiation. 3. On the Entropy of the Radiation The following considerations are contained in a famous paper by Mr. W. Wien and are only mentioned here for the sake of completeness. Consider radiation which takes up a volume v. We assume that the observable properties of this radiation are completely determined if we give the radiation energy p(v) for all frequencies.t As we may assume that radiations of different frequencies can be separ ated without work or heat, we can write the entropy of the radiation in the form ....
Consider monochromatic light which is changed by photoluminescence to light of a different frequency; in accordance with the result we have just obtained, we assume that both the original and the changed light consist of energy quanta of magnitude (R/N)ßv, where V is the corresponding frequency. We must then interpret the transformation process as follows. Each initial energy quantum of frequency v1 is absorbed and is-at least when the distribution density of the initial energy quanta is sufficiently low-by itself responsible for the creation of a light quantum of frequency V,; possibly in the absorption of the initial light quantum at the same time also light quanta of frequencies v3, v4, ... as well as energy of a different kind (e.g. heat) may be generated. It is immaterial through what intermediate processes the final result is brought about. Unless we can consider the photoluminescing substance as a continuous source of energy, the energy of a final light quantum can, according to the energy conservation law, not be larger than that of an initial light quantum; we must thus have the condition R R -ßv2 5 -/?V,, or v2 5 v1 N N This is the well-known Stokes’ rule. We must emphasise that according to our ideas the intensity of light produced must-other things being equal-be proportional to the incide,nt light intensity for weak illumination, as every initial quantum will cause one elementary process of the kind indicated above, independent of the action of the other incident energy quanta. Especially, there will be no lower limit for the intensity of the incident light below which the light would be unable to produce photoluminescence. . According to the above ideas about the phenomena deviations -’ from Stokes’ rule are imaginable in the following cases: 1. When the number of the energy quanta per unit volume involved in transformations is SO large that an energy quantum of the light produced may obtain its energy from several initial energy quanta. 2. When the initial (or final) light energetically does not have the properties characteristic for “black-body radiation” according to Wien’s law; for instance, when the initial light is produced by a body of so high a temperature that Wien’s law no longer holds for the wavelengths considered. This last possibility needs particular attention. According to the ideas developed here, it is not excluded that a “non-Wienian radiation”, even highly-diluted, behaves energetically differently than a “black-body radiation” in the region where Wien’s law is valid.
8. On the Production of Cathode Rays by Illumination of Solids The usual idea that the energy of light is continuously distributed over the space through which it travels meets with especially great difficulties when one tries to explain photo-electric phenomena, as was shown in the pioneering paper by Mr. Lenard. According to the idea that the incident light consists of energy quanta with an energy Rßv/N, one can picture the production of cathode rays by light as follows. Energy quanta penetrate into a surface layer of the body, and their energy is at least partly transformed into electron kinetic energy. The simplest picture is that a light quantum transfers all of its energy to a single electron; we shall assume that that happens. We must, however, not exclude the possibility that electrons only receive part of the energy from light quanta. An electron obtaining kinetic energy inside the body will have lost part of its kinetic energy when it has reached the surface. Moreover, we must assume that each electron on leaving the body must produce work P, which is characteristic for the body. Electrons which are excited at the surface and at right angles to it will leave the body with the greatest normal velocity. The kinetic energy of such electrons is {ULSF: See equation}
If the body is charged to a positive potential Π and surrounded by zero potential conductors, and if Π is just able to prevent the loss of electricity by the body, we must have {ULSF: See equation} where E is the electrical mass of the electron, or {ULSF: See equation} where E is the charge of a gram equivalent of a single-valued ion and P’ is the potential of that amount of negative electricity with respect to the body. If we put E = 9.6 x 103, Π x 10-8 is the potential in Volts which the body assumes when it is irradiated in a vacuum. To see now whether the relation derived here agrees, as to order of magnitude, with experiments, we put P’ = O, V = 1.03 x 1015 (corresponding to the ultraviolet limit of the solar spectrum) and ß = 4.866x10-11. We obtain Π x 107 = 4.3 Volt, a result which agrees, as to order of magnitude, with Mr. Lenard’s results. If the formula derived here is correct, Π must be, if drawn in Cartesian coordinates as a function of the frequency of the incident light, a straight line, the slope of which is independent of the nature of the substance studied. As far as I can see, our ideas are not in contradiction to the properties of the photoelectric action observed by Mr. Lenard. If every energy quantum of the incident light transfers its energy to electrons independently of all other quanta, the velocity distribution of the electrons, that is, the quality of the resulting cathode radiation, will be independent of the intensity of the incident light; on the other hand, ceteris paribus, the number of electrons leaving the body should be proportional to the intensity of the incident light. As far as the necessary limitations of these rules are concerned, we could make remarks similar to those about the necessary deviations from the Stokes rule. In the preceding, we assumed that the energy of at least part of the energy quanta of the incident light was always transferred completely to a single electron. If one does not make this obvious assumption , one obtains instead of the earlier equation the following one {ULSF: See equation} For cathode-luminescence, which is the inverse process of the one just considered, we get by a similar argument {ULSF: See equation} For the substances investigated by Mr. Lenard, ΠE is always considerably larger than RBv, as the voltage which the cathode rays must traverse to produce even visible light is, in some cases a few hundred, in other cases thousands of volts. We must thus assume that the kinetic energy of an electron is used to produce many light energy quanta.
9. On the Ionisation of Gases by Ultraviolet Light We must assume that when a gas is ionised by ultraviolet light, always one absorbed light energy quantum is used to ionise just one gas molecule. From this follows first of all that the ionisation energy (that is, the energy theoretically necessary for the ionisation) of a molecule cannot be larger than the energy of an effective, absorbed light energy quantum. If J denotes the (theoretical) ionisation energy per gram equivalent, we must have {ULSF: See equation} According to Lenard’s measurements, the largest effective wavelength for air is about 1.9 x 10-5 cm, or {ULSF: See equation} An upper limit for the ionisation energy can also be obtained from ionisation voltages in dilute gases. According to J. Stark4 the smallest measured ionisation voltage (for platinum anodes) in air is about 10Volt.t We have thus an upper limit of 9.6 x 10l2 for J which is about equal to the observed- one. There is still another consequence, the verification of which by experiment seems to me to be very important. If each light energy quantum which is absorbed ionises a molecule, the following relation should exist between the absorbed light intensity L and the number j of moles ionised by this light: j=L/RBv
This relation should, if our ideas correspond to reality, be valid for any gas which-for the corresponding frequency-does not show an appreciable absorption which is not accompanied by ionisation.".
(Notice the exception of gas molecules which apparently absorb light instead of become ionized by light, which seems like a somewhat abstract quantity to identify.)
(Note that, to my knowledge, Maxwell never presumed space to be empty, but supported a medium for electromagnetic waves, so Einstein is apparently in error on this statement.)
(Notice "bear in mind" suggests that Einstein is aware of neuron reading and writing at this time - this knowledge may be mandatory to be published in any major scientific journal, in particular as a transaction of money may be required to be published- a transaction which an excluded person could not know about or pay. In addition, there is a "collective mind" in those who receive videos in their eyes - they probably prefer to make changes as large teams - a team of insiders must be in agreement and this also rules out any outsider being published.)
(This theory of Einstein's must have appeal to those people who have secretly supported a corpuscular theory for light. However, Einstein's acceptance of the save-the-ether concept of space and time dilation of FitzGerald and Lorentz will appeal to those who support a wave theory for light, and serve as a popular inaccurate theory for at least a century.)
Asimov states that this view of light as a quantum "represented a retreat from the extreme wave theory of light, moving back toward Newton's old particle theory and taking up an intermediate position that was more sophisticated, and more useful, than either of the older theories.".
(In my view, this paper is the high point of Einstein's work over the course of his life. Scientifically speaking, the rest, seems to me of little value or application to the universe.)
(Note that this view of Einstein's is that light is made of units of energy, this implies that light is made of units of mass with motion, however Einstein never explicitly supposes or states that light may be made of units of mass, only that light is made of units of energy.)
(Note that the theory of entropy is purely false as a violation of conservation of mass and motion.)
(Clearly Einstein is of the mathematical theoretician mind, as opposed to the experimental mind, and one criticism of this distinction is that the theoretician may never be directly involved in any physical experiments and have a remote conception of the real phenomena.)
(One view of the history of science in the last two centuries is the summary that because of the secret of neuron reading and writing, the last two centuries were a shockingly slow and tortuous struggle to publicly finally announce many simple truths like "light is a particle made of matter", "reading and writing images and sounds from thoughts was figured out many years ago", etc.)
(The photoelectric effect is really an interesting phenomenon. It is something very basic. It is the supposed conversion of photons into electrons, something that seems very simple. It leads me to think that quite possibly electrons are photons or cluster to form an electron, (and electricity a collective result of gravity or particle collision). It is interesting that the photoelectric effect only works with metals, all metals? why not gases, liquids, (works with molten metal?), non-metals? Clearly metals are denser, have more photons per nm3 than objects that do not show a photoelectric effect. Probably only electric conducting materials show photoelectric effect (but do ions in solution then?). EXPERIMENT: Do ions in a solution show a photoelectric effect? Try with and without an added electric potential. There may also be an aspect of there needing to be a electric potential...or maybe light causes a static charge to accumulate? Where would the free electrons have to move to if no electric potential? Clearly some photons are absorbed, and some reflected. So photons are probably absorbed by the metal atoms. Are they absorbed into the atom and held in place by gravity or held in place by reflection/collision or both? Perhaps the more photons absorbed per second, the more likely they will form another electron and push out an existing electron. Can the photons push out protons or neutrons? Since probably no, that implies a special relationship between photons and electrons that may not exist between photons and protons, and between photons and neutrons. Perhaps protons or neutrons are ejected (check). I think I want to know some of the basics, like how high can the voltage get? Do gamma beams cause high voltage. At some point, lasers of photons can cut through metal how is that related? Clearly there is a difference between photons just heating up atoms in a metal versus photons causing electricity to flow or accumulate. Heating the metal increases the photons emitted with infrared frequencies, but for a current to flow their probably must be an established stream of moving electrons due to an electric potential. These experiments are probably a rich source of information about the nature of photons, electrons and atoms. What does the threshold wavelength of a metal reveal about the nature of its atoms? Perhaps the denser a metal the higher the voltage produced? In this case, aluminum would have a low current, platinum would have a high current? Show Einstein's paper/article.)
(I think this theory will probably be changed to a photon-as-a-particle-of-mass based theory, and so this is an intermediate between no theory and a probably better theory. I give more value to the finding of the actual phenomenon than to theories trying to explain it, but certainly some value goes to theories which explain physical phenomena.)
(Note that this theory summarizes the mass and motion of many individual particles in using their frequency component.)
(It's somewhat funny, although somewhat sad, that people so slowly, piece by piece, move towards the simple truth of all matter being made of particles of light - by substituting small parts at a time, for example emission theory instead of the taboo corpuscular theory, and then "quantum" for the taboo "particle".)
(To me the clear truth is that all matter is made of material particles. In addition, the view I support is that these particles are probably particles of light since it seems obvious that when any object burns, like a match, candle, gas flame, or atomic fission reaction, light particles escape from the object and the object becomes less in size. In addition, the question of "do all light particles have a constant velocity without any possibility of acceleration?" must have an answer. I don't really know. Even with the view of gravity being the result of particle collision only, perhaps light particles obtain their velocity as a result of cumulative particle collisions. If particles of light do have constant velocity, where did they obtain this velocity, is this just some initial velocity or inherent part of all the material particles in the universe?".)
(Possibly there may need to be a new name for the light particle when viewed as a piece of mass, because "photon" is associated with the view that light is a quantum of energy. Perhaps something like photical, photron, luxon, luxical, luxtron, lightical, litron, Newton, Newtron. But perhaps the definition of "photon" will be changed to a material definition.)
(What I think is required now is to distinguish between a quantum of material light particles and the individual material light particles themselves. Constantly calling a light particle "light particle" seems too long winded and time consuming. Perhaps the light particle being called a "photon" (the name used by Compton for a quantum of light particles), and a "quantum of photons" for the quantity of energy of some frequency of light particles.)
| Bern, Switzerland |
95 YBN
[03/30/1905 AD]
| 4502) Charles Dillon Perrine (PerIN) (CE 1867-1951), US-Argentinian astronomer identifies the seventh satellite of Jupiter, Elara. (verify name)
This and the sixth Jupiter satellite found by Perrine are the first of Jupiter's outer satellites and are far outside the orbit of the four moons identified by Galileo 400 years before. These two moons are probably captured asteroids. Elara is the eighth largest moon of Jupiter and is named after the mother by Zeus of the giant Tityus. Elara did not receive its present name until 1975; before then, it is simply known as Jupiter VII. (verify)
(check if asteroids, what are the names?)
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
95 YBN
[05/01/1905 AD]
| 4740) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, calculates that each alpha particle emitted from radium produces 86,000 ions on average. Rutherford concludes that the total number of β particles emitted by 1 gram of radium per second is 7.3 x 1010, and that 1 gram of radium at its minimum activity emits 6.2 x 1010 α particles per second.
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
95 YBN
[05/01/1905 AD]
| 4741) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, theorizes that gamma rays might be electrons with velocities that approach the speed of light, and that this high velocity may account for why they are not deflected in an electric or magnetic field. Rutherford will expand on this section in the 1905 edition in more detail and talks about a corpuscular theory for the γ rays. Rutherford uses the word "setup" which may imply "shut-up" in talking about a corpuscular theory for γ rays. Rutherford writes "...The weight of evidence, both experimental and theoretical, at present supports the view that the γ rays are of the same nature as the X rays but of a more penetrating type. The theory that the X rays consist of non-periodic pulses in the ether, set up when the motion of electrons is arrested, has found most faviour, although it is difficult to provide experimental tests to decide definitely the question. ...". (So in 1905 the effort to describe x-rays and therefore light as corpuscular is still alive. Even many years later, Rutherford will write both "reflect" and "diffract" when talking about x-ray spectra, this is due mainly the Braggs view that x-ray diffraction was actually particle reflection.)
(However, this theory collapses, because Rutherford and others adopt Lorentz's theory that the mass of an electron must increase with velocity, as opposed to theorizing that mass remains constant without any particle collision, as the conservation of mass would imply, and that the effect of charge is reduced with an increase in velocity, ultimately resulting in a unification of gravitation and electromagnetism as being strctly the result of particle collision. With the failing of this theory, the concept of light as a particle with mass must wait and continues to wait to this day. In some of Rutherford's papers, he uses the phrase "Light Atoms" and later "Light Elements" in the title, and perhaps this implies the stupidity of ignoring the concept of a light particle as matter, and trying to determine the mass of light particles - light as a new atom, and element.)
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
95 YBN
[06/30/1905 AD]
| 4929) Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist theorizes that the speed of light is constant independently of the motion of the light emitting source, and explains his theory of Special Relativity. Einstein states that a "luminiferous aether" is "superfluous" in his theory but adopts the Lorentz transform used to support the aether theory of light by explaining the Michelson result that no change in the velocity of light due to an aether medium is observed. In this view time passes at different rates for objects in constant relative motion.
Einstein explains that there is nothing in the universe that can be viewed as at “absolute rest”, and no motion can be viewed as an “absolute motion”, but that all motion is relative to some frame of reference chosen. Because of this idea that all motion is relative, this theory is called “relativity”. This 1905 paper deals only with the special case of systems in uniform nonaccelerated motion, so it is called the special theory of relativity. Einstein shows that from the assumption of the constant velocity of light and the relativity of motion, the Michelson-Morley experiment can be explained and Maxwell's electromagnetic equations can still be kept. Einstein shows that the length-contraction effect of FitzGerald and the mass-enlargement effect of Lorentz (used to save the theory of an ether) can be deduced, and that the velocity of light in empty space is therefore the maximum speed that any mass can move. As a result of this (acceptance of the Fitzgerald-Lorentz length contraction, the theory of relativity requires that) the rate that time passes changes with the velocity of motion (instead of time being the same throughout the universe)). This removes the concept of simultaneity, that two events can happen at the same time.
(Read entire paper?)
Einstein writes in a paper entitled (translated from German) "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies": "It is known that Maxwell’s electrodynamics—as usually understood at the present time—when applied to moving bodies, leads to asymmetries which do not appear to be inherent in the phenomena. Take, for example, the reciprocal electrodynamic action of a magnet and a conductor. The observable phenomenon here depends only on the relative motion of the conductor and the magnet, whereas the customary view draws a sharp distinction between the two cases in which either the one or the other of these bodies is in motion. For if the magnet is in motion and the conductor at rest, there arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet an electric field with a certain definite energy, producing a current at the places where parts of the conductor are situated. But if the magnet is stationary and the conductor in motion, no electric field arises in the neighbourhood of the magnet. In the conductor, however, we find an electromotive force, to which in itself there is no corresponding energy, but which gives rise—assuming equality of relative motion in the two cases discussed—to electric currents of the same path and intensity as those produced by the electric forces in the former case. Examples of this sort, together with the unsuccessful attempts to discover any motion of the earth relatively to the “light medium,” suggest that the phenomena of electrodynamics as well as of mechanics possess no properties corresponding to the idea of absolute rest. They suggest rather that, as has already been shown to the first order of small quantities, the same laws of electrodynamics and optics will be valid for all frames of reference for which the equations of mechanics hold good.1 We will raise this conjecture (the purport of which will hereafter be called the “Principle of Relativity”) to the status of a postulate, and also introduce another postulate, which is only apparently irreconcilab le with the former, namely, that light is always propagated in empty space with a definite velocity c which is independent of the state of motion of the emitting body. These two postulates suffice for the attainment of a simple and consistent theory of the electrodynamics of moving bodies based on Maxwell’s theory for stationary bodies. The introduction of a “luminiferous ether” will prove to be superfluous inasmuch as the view here to be developed will not require an “absolutely stationary space” provided with special properties, nor assign a velocity-vector to a point of the empty space in which electromagnetic processes take place. The theory to be developed is based—like all electrodynamics—on the kinematics of the rigid body, since the assertions of any such theory have to do with the relationships between rigid bodies (systems of co-ordinates), clocks, and electromagnetic processes. Insufficient consideration of this circumstance lies at the root of the difficulties which the electrodynamics of moving bodies at present encounters.
I. KINEMATICAL PART
§ 1. Definition of Simultaneity Let us take a system of co-ordinates in which the equations of Newtonian mechanics hold good. In order to render our presentation more precise and to distinguish this system of co-ordinates verbally from others which will be introduc ed hereafter, we call it the “stationary system.” If a material point is at rest relatively to this system of co-ordinates, its position can be defined relatively thereto by the employment of rigid standards of measurement and the methods of Euclidean geometry, and can be expressed in Cartesian co-ordinates. If we wish to describe the motion of a material point, we give the values of its co-ordinates as functions of the time. Now we must bear carefully in mind that a mathematical description of this kind has no physical meaning unless we are quite clear as to what we understand by “time.” We have to take into account that all our judgments in which time plays a part are always judgments of simultaneous events. If, for instance, I say, “That train arrives here at 7 o’clock,” I mean something like this: “The pointing of the small hand of my watch to 7 and the arrival of the train are simultaneous events.”. It might appear possible to overcome all the difficulties attending the definition of “time” by substituting “the position of the small hand of my watch” for “time.” And in fact such a definition is satisfactory when we are concerned with defining a time exclusively for the place where the watch is located; but it is no longer satisfactory when we have to connect in time series of events occurring at different places, or—what comes to the same thing—to evaluate the times of events occurring at places remote from the watch. We might, of course, content ourselves with time values determined by an observer stationed together with the watch at the origin of the co-ordinates, and co-ordinating the corresponding positions of the hands with light signals, given out by every event to be timed, and reaching him through empty space. But this co-ordination has the disadvantage that it is not independent of the standp oint of the observer with the watch or clock, as we know from experience. We arrive at a much more practical determination along the following line of thought. If at the point A of space there is a clock, an observer at A can determine the time values of events in the immediate proximity of A by finding the positions of the hands which are simultaneous with these events. If there is at the point B of space another clock in all respects resembling the one at A, it is possible for an observer at B to determine the time values of events in the immediate neighbourhood of B. But it is not possible without further assumption to compare, in respect of time, an event at A with an event at B. We have so far defined only an “A time” and a “B time.” We have not defined a common “time” for A and B, for the latter cannot be defined at all unless we establish by definition that the “time” required by light to travel from A to B equals the “time” it requires to travel from B to A. Let a ray of light start at the “A time” tA from A towards B, let it at the “B time” tB be reflected at B in the direction of A, and arrive again at A at the “A time” t'A.
In accordance with definition the two clocks synchronize if
tB − tA = t'A − tB. We assume that this definition of synchronism is free from contradictions, and possible for any number of points; and that the following relations are universa lly valid:— 1. If the clock at B synchronizes with the clock at A, the clock at A synchronizes with the clock at B. 2. If the clock at A synchronizes with the clock at B and also with the clock at C, the clocks at B and C also synchronize with each other. Thus with the help of certain imaginary physical experiments we have settled what is to be understood by synchronous stationary clocks located at different places, and have evidently obtained a definition of “simultaneous,” or “synchronous,” and of “time.” The “time” of an event is that which is given simultaneously with the event by a stationary clock located at the place of the event, this clock being synchronous, and indeed synchronous for all time determinations, with a specified stationary clock. In agreement with experience we further assume the quantity 2AB/t'A − tA = c, to be a universal constant—the velocity of light in empty space. It is essential to have time defined by means of stationary clocks in the stationary system, and the time now defined being appropriate to the stationary system we call it “the time of the stationary system.”
§ 2. On the Relativity of Lengths and Times The following reflexions are based on the principle of relativity and on the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light. These two principles we define as follows:— 1. The laws by which the states of physical systems undergo change are not affected, whether these changes of state be referred to the one or the other of two systems of co-ordinates in uniform translatory motion. 2. Any ray of light moves in the “stationary” system of co-ordinates with the determined velocity c, whether the ray be emitted by a stationary or by a moving body. Hence velocity = light path time interval where time interval is to be taken in the sense of the definition in § 1. Let there be given a stationary rigid rod; and let its length be l as measured by a measuring-rod which is also stationary. We now imagine the axis of the rod lying along the axis of x of the stationary system of co-ordinates, and that a uniform motion of parallel translation with velocity v along the axis of x in the direction of increasing x is then imparted to the rod. We now inquire as to the length of the moving rod, and imagine its length to be ascertained by the following two operations:— (a) The observer moves together with the given measuring-rod and the rod to be measured, and measures the length of the rod directly by superposing the measuring-rod, in just the same way as if all three were at rest. (b) By means of stationary clocks set up in the stationary system and synchronizing in accordance with § 1, the observer ascertains at what points of the stationary system the two ends of the rod to be measured are located at a definite time. The distance between these two points, measured by the measuring-rod already employed, which in this case is at rest, is also a length which may be desi gnated “the length of the rod.” In accordance with the principle of relativity the length to be discovered by the operation (a)—we will call it “the length of the rod in the moving system”— must be equal to the length l of the stationary rod. The length to be discovered by the operation (b) we will call “the length of the (moving) rod in the stationary system.” This we shall determine on the basis of our two principles, and we shall find that it differs from l. Current kinematics tacitly assumes that the lengths determined by these two operations are precisely equal, or in other words, that a moving rigid body at the epoch t may in geometrical respects be perfectly represented by the same body at rest in a definite position. We imagine further that at the two ends A and B of the rod, clocks are placed which synchronize with the clocks of the stationary system, that is to say that their indications correspond at any instant to the “time of the stationary system” at the places where they happen to be. These clocks are therefore “synchronous in the stationary system.” We imagine further that with each clock there is a moving observer, and that these observers apply to both clocks the criterion established in § 1 for the synchronization of two clocks. Let a ray of light depart from A at the time tA, let it be reflected at B at the time tB, and reach A again at the time t0 A. Taking into consideration the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light we find that tB − tA = TAB/c − v and t'A − tB = TAB/c + v
where TAB denotes the length of the moving rod—measured in the stationary system. Observers moving with the moving rod would thus find that the two clocks were not synchronous, while observers in the stationary system would declare the clocks to be synchronous. So we see that we cannot attach any absolute signification to the concept of simult aneity, but that two events which, viewed from a system of co-ordinates, are simultaneous, can no longer be looked upon as simultaneous events when envisaged from a system which is in motion relatively to that system.
let it be reflected at B at the time tB, and reach A again at the time t0 A. Taking into consideration the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light we find that tB − tA = rAB c − v and t0 A − tB = rAB c + v where rAB denotes the length of the moving rod—measured in the stationary system. Observers moving with the moving rod would thus find that the two clocks were not synchronous, while observers in the stationary system would declare the clocks to be synchronous. So we see that we cannot attach any absolute signification to the concept of simultaneity, but that two events which, viewed from a system of co-ordinates, are simultaneous, can no longer be looked upon as simultaneous events when envisaged from a system which is in motion relatively to that system. § 2. On the Relativity of Lengths and Times The following reflexions are based on the principle of relativity and on the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light. These two principles we define as follows:— 1. The laws by which the states of physical systems undergo change are not affected, whether these changes of state be referred to the one or the other of two systems of co-ordinates in uniform translatory motion. 2. Any ray of light moves in the “stationary” system of co-ordinates with the determined velocity c, whether the ray be emitted by a stationary or by a moving body. Hence velocity =light path/time interval
where time interval is to be taken in the sense of the definition in § 1.
Let there be given a stationary rigid rod; and let its length be l as measured by a measuring-rod which is also stationary. We now imagine the axis of the rod lying along the axis of x of the stationary system of co-ordinates, and that a uniform motion of parallel translation with velocity v along the axis of x in the direction of increasing x is then imparted to the rod. We now inquire as to the length of the moving rod, and imagine its length to be ascertained by the following two operations:— (a) The observer moves together with the given measuring-rod and the rod to be measured, and measures the length of the rod directly by superposing the measuring-r od, in just the same way as if all three were at rest. (b) By means of stationary clocks set up in the stationary system and synchronizing in accordance with § 1, the observer ascertains at what points of the stationary system the two ends of the rod to be measured are located at a definite time. The distance between these two points, measured by the measuring-rod already employed, which in this case is at rest, is also a length which may be designated “the length of the rod.” In accordance with the principle of relativity the length to be discovered by the operation (a)—we will call it “the length of the rod.” In accordance with the principle of relativity the length to be discovered by the operation (a)—we will call it “the length of the rod in the moving system”— must be equal to the length l of the stationary rod. The length to be discovered by the operation (b) we will call “the length of the (moving) rod in the stationary system.” This we shall determine on the basis of our two principles, and we shall find that it differs from l. Current kinematics tacitly assumes that the lengths determined by these two operations are precisely equal, or in other words, that a moving rigid body at the epoch t may in geometrical respects be perfectly represented by the same body at rest in a definite position. We imagine further that at the two ends A and B of the rod, clocks are placed which synchronize with the clocks of the stationary system, that is to say that their indications correspond at any instant to the “time of the stationary system” at the places where they happen to be. These clocks are therefore “synchronous in the stationary system.” We imagine further that with each clock there is a moving observer, and that these observers apply to both clocks the criterion established in § 1 for the synchronization of two clocks. Let a ray of light depart from A at the time tA, let it be reflected at B at the time tB, and reach A again at the time t0 A. Taking into consideration the principle of the constancy of the velocity of light we find that tB − tA = TAB/c − v and
t'A − tB = TAB/c + v
where TAB denotes the length of the moving rod—measured in the stationary system. Observers moving with the moving rod would thus find that the two clocks were not synchronous, while observers in the stationary system would declare the clocks to be synchronous. So we see that we cannot attach any absolute signification to the concept of simult aneity, but that two events which, viewed from a system of co-ordinates, are simultaneous, can no longer be looked upon as simultaneous events when envisaged from a system which is in motion relatively to that system.
§ 3. Theory of the Transformation of Co-ordinates and Times from a Stationary System to another System in Uniform Motion of Translation Relatively to the Former .... {ULSF: Einstein derives the Lorentz transform. }
§ 4. Physical Meaning of the Equations Obtained in Respect to Moving Rigid Bodies and Moving Clocks .... § 5. The Composition of Velocities .... II. ELECTRODYNAMICAL PART § 6. Transformation of the Maxwell-Hertz Equations for Empty Space. On the Nature of the Electromotive Forces Occurring in a Magnetic Field During Motion ... § 7. Theory of Doppler’s Principle and of Aberration ... § 8. Transformation of the Energy of Light Rays. Theory of the Pressure of Radiation Exerted on Perfect Reflectors ... § 9. Transformation of the Maxwell-Hertz Equations when Convection-Currents are Taken into Account ... § 10. Dynamics of the Slowly Accelerated Electron ... ".
(Einstein echos Lorentz's view that the mass of any object increases as it's velocity increases.)
(The theory of light as constant, I think is debatable, but, the theory of space and time dilation or contraction, in my view, seems too unlikely to be within the realm of likely possibility.)
(I'm not exactly sure what Einstein is taking about in his initial example of a magnet and a conductor, but clearly a magnet has an electric current running through it which a conductor does not, so they are different. I think that Einstein is viewing a dynamic electric and magnetic field as being different. In addition, with any force, it seems logical that there must be the so-called energy, since there is clearly matter with motion involved.)
(I think the more accurate view, in explaining the absence of any change in the speed of light due to a light medium, is as Michelson concluded, simply, that no medium exists. It's difficult to know what Einstein means by saying that "the phenomena...possess no properties corresponding to the idea of absolute rest". I think it implies that there is some point of reference for all other points in the universe.)
(It's not clear if the velocity of light is constant or not. I think the Pound-Rebka experiment proves that the velocity of light particles can change. In addition, there is the mystery of what happens in very confined spaces like inside a star, or even simply when light reflects off a mirror - is there even an instant of no motion in between the reversal of velocity due to collision? I think that light particles have a constant motion relative to all other matter is a possibility, and that slower moving matter may be combinations of light particles which orbit each other and so this velocity is contained in a smaller space.)
(I think Einstein's view, presumes the logic of Lorentz that there can be two different times at some time, or that time depends on human observation.)
(It would be interesting to see what thought images and sounds were behind the scenes at the time. Perhaps the neuron decided that they would do away with the aether, as Einstein clearly initially states, but keep the math of space and time dilation. As excluded we can only imagine.)
(Without space and time dilation, supposedly, relativity and the Newtonian theory produce identical results.)
(Charles Lane Poor hints that in the rendering neuron network only Newton's equation is used to predict the motions of physically rendered objects in 3D and time, or a 4 dimension space-time where time is everywhere the same. Poor also recognizes that modeling and predicting the motion of objects in the universe, whether planets or other objects is done by iteration to a future time, not by a single all-emcompassing equation or set of equations.)
(The theory that no two events can happen at the same time seems to me to be clearly an error, even with two spaces or pieces of matter having a variable time, I see no reason why they can not have the same time.)
(The physicist Herbert Dingle sums up the simple problem of supposed time dilation by saying that it is impossible for one twin to travel faster relative to another, and so for one to age more than another, since their motions are relative to each other - they can't possibly be moving at different velocities relative to each other.)
(Carl Sagan gives a clear example of Einstein's claim in stating that if we could add the velocity of light to the velocity of a cart moving towards us, then the cart would appear to arrive sooner than we observe it to. I think a good way of looking at this example is to substitute other objects. For example substitute a photon for the cart. Another photon collides with the cart photon and bounces back. This collision I view as perfectly elastic, and so no motion is exchanged, but both photons reverse directions with the same original velocity. The example in Cosmos is of light reflection. Einstein uses the example of light emission. I view light emission as simply light particles being released from being "tangled" or orbiting within some larger object like an atom that appears to have a slower motion. )
(I think the phenomenon involved is that the velocity of light is so fast that the movement of any object light is reflected off of has no effect on the velocity of light. But perhaps more importantly, if everything is made of photons, any large scale velocity is only the cumulative effect of many much smaller motions of photons, and so has no effect on individual photons. But of course, I think everybody needs to keep an open mind, draw their own conclusions, and answer all the questions they have.)
(Experiment: Show where "adding the velocities" is observed for various object collisions. Include slow and fast moving objects.) (interesting that Einstein saw accelerated motion as being more complex. Viewing the universe from a single frame of reference of the observer with all movement relative to the observer and time being the same everywhere, acceleration is a simple phenomenon, but perhaps assigning a unique time to each point in space makes acceleration much more complex.)
(there is a feeling of a mixing of popular theories to satisfy all major scientists...the particle people are happy because there is no ether, and the wave ether people are happy because there is the space and time dilation. But unfortunately, the truth suffers in such a compromise. The debate between light as a particle and wave I think is still open, for myself I fully support the particle side and a particle explanation should be publicly shown to the public for all physical phenomena. I don't think Newton ever explicitly stated that the speed of light is variable, but that is clearly implied in Newton's work (verify). I think there may be a limit or maximum on the force of gravity and perhaps as a result of a minimum on the distance between two photons (in other words that the force of gravity can never be infinite, and the space between photons may be zero, but this is where the equation must be adapted to show that even at a zero distance there is not an infinite force, perhaps an r^2+1 in the denominator. Beyond this, even the gravitational theory of Newton may not be the final most accurate interpretation, gravity may be the result of many particle collisions), and possibly this limit on the space between two particles is what explains a constant velocity for light particles, or perhaps simply a maximum initial velocity of light particles which can never be made more or less by particle collision - objects with slower velocities only appear to be slower because light particles motions are contained in a small space.)
(explain more about Maxwell's equations.)
(I think that "energy" is an abstract concept being a combination of matter and motion. Leibniz first identified the concept of energy as being more accurate than the momentum of DesCartes, and Thomas Young gave the name "energy" to this quantity. So I think that energy, like many other quantites, like m2c, may be useful tools, but we should recognize that mass and motion probably cannot be interchanged, that is mass converted into motion, or motion converted into mass, if we are to accept the theory of conservation of mass, and conservation of motion.)
(One clear principle may be relevent, and that is the way that two photons in orbit of each other must always have a velocity lower than a single photon. And on average, the more photons in orbit of each other, the lower the cumulative or average velocity of the group, even though the individual velocity of each photon may be constant at the highest speed possible.)
(I think that one source of conflict between the theory of Newton's gravity and Einstein relativity is the question of: Do light particles have a constant velocity? And if yes, how does this velocity originate? Supporters of Newtonian gravitation might argue that this velocity results from some minimum distance two or more particles can reach by the force of gravitation. However, those who reject an action-at-a-distance view, in favor of a particle-collision only view, would reject this, but, I think could only simply accept that the velocity of light particles is some inherent part of the universe. This view that somehow the initial velocity of light is somehow an inherent part of the universe, may be similar to the view that the universe is infinite in space and time, explanations and/or theories that simply have no basis in the human system of logic. I can accept that light particles may have a constant velocity, but I reject the idea of space and time dilation.)
(I think the concept that, with light, velocities cannot be "added" might be better explained by the theory that all matter is made of particles of light, and so any emission of light, is simply a light particle freeing itself from the tangle and taking a direction toward the observer. In this explanation, the cumulative velocity of a group of light particles has no relevance for the velocity of the individual photons relative to the observer. In addition, the cumulative velocity of a group of particles with constant velocity must, from the geometrical limitation due to gravity or collision, be less than the velocity of the individual particle, and generally speaking, although there is, in my mind, no exact equation to generalize this, the cumulative velocity of a group of constant velocity particles becomes less with the more particles are caught in the tangle, which is opposite of the conclusion that an increase in velocity creates an increase in mass. In addition, the theory that an increase in mass accompanies an increase in velocity seems to me to be a violation of the conservation of matter, unless it is viewed as a accumulating of already existing material particles from an external source, and I mostly reject the idea that an increase of velocity is accompanied by an accumulation of particles in favor of the much more simple and logical view that an increase of velocity can only mean the loss of material particles to some cumulative group of constant velocity particle, as the group becomes more and more like a single constant velocity particle. See my videos showing how, an inverse distance squared math which determines direction of constant velocity particles only can cause a group of constant velocity particles to appear to have a slower velocity that the individual particles. Although I mostly reject the theory of inverse distance squared direction-only constant velocity only particles, my current view is in favor of this model, but not as an action-at-a-distance explanation of gravity, but instead as the result of particle collision only, that is the all-inertial-particle-collision-only view, which is so nicely generalized by the inverse distance squared equation. But of course, my views are freely open to change and to criticism and debate. I am simply interested in the most likely truth.)
(I think the paradigm that will eventually replace both Newton's gravitation and Einstein's relativity is the "all-inertial" view or "all particle collision" view of the universe in which gravity is explained as the result of particle collision only. In addition, that all matter is made of particles of light, or some even smaller basic unit of matter of which light particles are a compilation of, that moves with a constant velocity. Even with this view, the simple Newtonian inverse distance squared equation, and iteration over time, will probably be the most practical and common method used to determine the motion of objects in the universe. Clearly the big work of the future will be calculating and predicting the future positions of many millions of ships orbiting the Sun, planets and moons. In particular to guide those ships to change the motions of the Star, planets and moons in the most useful and safest paths. So not only will the simply math of Newton's inverse distance squared equation be in use, but each thrust from individual ships will probably be part of the calculating.)
(Note that Planck's quantum dynamics is not a physical paradigm that is inconsistent with Newtonian gravitation, or makes claims of non-euclidean geometry, or of space or time dilation, as far as I can see. I think it can be said that Planck's quantum theory is on the path to an "all-inertial" theory of the universe, which, in my mind, seems to be the major competition to the action-at-a-distance concept of force.)
(Note that there is no claim of non-Euclidean geometry in this work. The entry of non-Euclidean math will not appear until later in 1915 with the "General" theory of relativity.)
(One truth that is clear to me is that all matter is made of particles of light. This can be seen in the burning of a candle, or match where light particles can be seen being emitted from the object and as a result of this emission, the mass of the object becomes less. The question of "do light particles have a constant velocity?" I think is still open to debate and experiment. What happens when light particles are forced because of collision to not move, as in a compact place inside a star? This seems like a likely exception to light particles having a constant velocity. But perhaps this occurance never happens. My own feeling is that a constant velocity for light is possible. In addition, the question of is gravitation the result of particle collision only? I think that this all-inertial universe interpretation of gravity is a possibility and more logical than an action-at-a-distance interpretation of gravity. In either view, I think the inverse distance law of Newton is the best generalization for large masses like stars, planets, moons, and ships. In addition for ships that thrust, the change in motion due to thrust must be included into the math.)
(Another point of disagreement is on the question "Is time the same throughout the universe?". My own view is that, yes, time is the same everywhere in the universe. Lorentz and in following the math of Lorentz, Einstein support the opposite side in the view that time is not the same throughout the universe.)
(I think that one confusion is that once one point is assigned in space, all other points are relative to that first point, given that all points are in the same space. So the motion of any object or frame of reference can only be relative to the frame of reference of all other points in the universe, and this frame of reference can only be the same, a single frame of reference, which is the identity axis. In a single space, in my view, there cannot ultimately be two different frames of reference. For convenience different frames of reference can be assigned, but ultimately they must conform to a single frame of reference, the identity axis.)
(This theory of space dilation and contraction originated by FitzGerald and time dilation and contraction originated by Lorentz will serve as an inaccurate dogma for a century if not longer.)
There are critics of the theory of relativity, for example William Pickering, Charles Lane Poor, and Herbert Dingle.
(One possible source of mistake or confusion is that, as is the case with the moons of Jupiter, simply because we see the light reflected from some event later than it occured, does not mean that actual event occured later than it actually did- time continues on, in my view, constantly, the same time in every space of the universe, with no regard to how humans see light particles and interpret events.)
(If the speed of light is constant, then is this a conflict with the Newtonian inverse distance squared gravity interpretation of the universe? So this shows that clearly some examination, discussion, and debate is required on this issue. One can theorize that inverse distance squared force at a distance is resposible for the apparent constant velocity of light - for example, that there is some minimum distance that two light particles can be, and so a maximum acceleration possible from gravitation. One can argue from an all-inertial inverse distance squared law that results from particle collision which results in a maximum velocity possible. Another theory is the idea that only direction of constant velocity particles is changed. If a person believes that light has a constant velocity, one must ask, what is the source of this velocity, and like questions of: 'how can the universe be infinite in size and age?', there simply may never be any answer to these questions. But just to say, that I myself, reject the concept of space and or time dilation or contraction, or the application of so-called non-euclidean geometry to the universe.)
(What seems more likely to me is that there is just one coordinate system in the universe. however, this does not mean that there is a "priviledged view". This just means that any reference frame that is chosen determines the (x,y,z,t) of all other points. The explanation I give for why the velocity of light and the velocity of a moving light source are not added is because all matter is made of light and so the escaped light particle from the moving source is in no way physically connected to the larger object and does not share in the collective motion of all the particles. But perhaps there are other explanations. This needs to be modeled in 3D to be shown and better understood.)
| Bern, Switzerland |
95 YBN
[09/27/1905 AD]
| 4930) Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist theorizes that energy and mass are equivalent and publishes his famous equation E=mc2 (originally m=L/c2).
Asimov describes this work of Einstein by writing that Einstein creates the famous equation E=mc2, where E is energy, m is mass and c the velocity of light. Since the velocity of light is a very large number, a small amount of mass, multiplied by the square of the speed of light, is equivalent to a large amount of energy. From this uniting of mass and energy, Lavoisier's theory of conservation of matter, and Helmholtz's conservation of energy are generalized into the conservation of mass-energy. This new view explains that radioactive elements, in being radioactive, are losing mass. This unity of mass and energy is quickly confirmed by a variety of nuclear experiments. Pauli will postulate the existence of the neutrino in the place of missing energy.
(Read entire paper)
Einstein publishes his famous equation in a shorter 3 page paper entitled (translated from German): "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon It's Energy-Content?". Einstein writes: "The results of the previous investigation lead to a very interesting conclusion, which is here to be deduced. I based that investigation on the Maxwell-Hertz equations for empty space, together with the Maxwellian expression for the electromagnetic energy of space, and in addition the principle that:— The laws by which the states of physical systems alter are independent of the alternative, to which of two systems of coordinates, in uniform motion of parallel translation relatively to each other, these alterations of state are referred (principle of relativity). With these principles as my basis I deduced inter alia the following result (§ 8):— Let a system of plane waves of light, referred to the system of co-ordinates (x, y, z), possess the energy l; let the direction of the ray (the wave-normal) make an angle with the axis of x of the system. If we introduce a new system of co-ordinates (ξ, η, ζ) moving in uniform parallel translation with respect to the system (x, y, z), and having its origin of co-ordinates in motion along the axis of x with the velocity v, then this quantity of light—measured in the system (ξ, η, ζ)—possesses the energy
{ULSF: see equation}
where c denotes the velocity of light. We shall make use of this result in what follows. Let there be a stationary body in the system (x, y, z), and let its energy— referred to the system (x, y, z) be E0. Let the energy of the body relative to the system (ξ, η, ζ) moving as above with the velocity v, be H0. Let this body send out, in a direction making an angle with the axis of x, plane waves of light, of energy 1/2L measured relatively to (x, y, z), and simultaneously an equal quantity of light in the opposite direction. Meanwhile the body remains at rest with respect to the system (x, y, z). The principle of energy must apply to this process, and in fact (by the principle of relativity) with respect to both systems of co-ordinates. If we call the energy of the body after the emission of light E1 or H1 respectively, measured relatively to the system (x, y, z) or (ξ, η, ζ) respectively, then by employing the relation given above we obtain {ULSF: See equations} By subtraction we obtain from these equations {ULSF: See equations} The two differences of the form H − E occurring in this expression have simple physical significations. H and E are energy values of the same body referred to two systems of co-ordinates which are in motion relatively to each other, the body being at rest in one of the two systems (system (x, y, z)). Thus it is clear that the difference H−E can differ from the kinetic energy K of the body, with respect to the other system (ξ, η, ζ), only by an additive constant C, which depends on the choice of the arbitrary additive constants of the energies H and E. Thus we may place {ULSF: See equations} since C does not change during the emission of light. So we have {ULSF: See equations} The kinetic energy of the body with respect to (ξ, η, ζ) diminishes as a result of the emission of light, and the amount of diminution is independent of the propert ies of the body. Moreover, the difference K0−K1, like the kinetic energy of the electron (§ 10), depends on the velocity. Neglecting magnitudes of fourth and higher orders we may place {ULSF: See equation} From this equation it directly follows that: If a body gives off the energy L in the form of radiation, its mass diminishes by L/c2. The fact that the energy withdrawn from the body becomes energy of radiation evidently makes no difference, so that we are led to the more general conclusion that The mass of a body is a measure of its energy-content; if the energy changes by L, the mass changes in the same sense by L/9 × 1020, the energy being measured in ergs, and the mass in grammes. It is not impossible that with bodies whose energy-content is variable to a high degree (e.g. with radium salts) the theory may be successfully put to the test. If the theory corresponds to the facts, radiation conveys inertia between the emitti ng and absorbing bodies.".
(todo: Give comparison of emission, ether, and special theory of relativity given by Panofsky and Phillips.)
(The concept of energy is a very abstract idea that combines the concepts of matter and motion (velocity, acceleration, etc) and other complex multiparticle phenomena. For example, the classic example is the claim of a conversion of mass to energy in a nuclear explosion, but what is really happening there is simply the release of photons that were always there in the atom. One debate, if ever this issue was raised publicly, would be between whether the photons are created at the time of the explosion or are in the atoms the entire time. And I argue that the photons are in the atoms the entire time and are simply released, many at a time, in many directions, and so E=mc2 is like saying m=m, since no energy is created or destroyed, the photons were always there with their high velocity.)
(In my view, conservation of energy is the product of two quantities, mass and motion, that cannot be exchanged - what is more specific and needed is a "conservation of motion".)
(todo: has anybody ever specifically identified and also discussed the concept of "conservation of motion"?)
(It seems obvious from a modern perspective that radioactivity is an emission material particles that results is a loss of mass to an atom.)
(It is interesting that both Lorentz and Einstein publish their work from Switzerland. Switzerland, in this sense, is the birth place of the theory of time dilation - although Scotland and FitzGerald is where the earlier concept of space dilation originated.)
(It's an interesting theory that the title of Einstein's paper implies, that the motion of any object depends only on the quantity of matter in it. I think that if we presume that all matter is made of light particles with constant velocity, this claim seems to me to be of no value because determining the cumulative velocity of the many particles in some composite group would seem to be very variable, in particular given random entry directions into the tangle of light particles.)
(I can see how it would logicaly follow that, if all matter is made of particles with the same constant velocity, that the quantity of the total mass and motion of any object is ultimately directly related to the object's mass - no more or less motion can be extracted or can result from the total separation of that object. So in this sense it is also true that p=mc, the momentum of any object is it's mass times the speed of light.)
(I reject the idea that mass can be created or destroyed.)
(I have doubt about the neutrino, perhaps this was simply loss to light particles. I want to look fully at the exact experiment, the image of the particle tracks, etc. could the missing mass be from undetected photons?) Many people, including Asimov view the atom bomb as an example of the conversion of mass to energy on a large scale (a claims that Einstein contributed directly ... perhaps the letter to FDR, but probably FDR and the military already went ahead...these people routinely saw and heard thought by then), however, I view an atom bomb and even simple combustion as the release of photons, particles of light, that were in the atoms already, not as a conversion of energy to matter, but as a release of matter in the form of photons.
(Interesting that Einstein drops the 1/2 of the traditional definition of kinetic energy E=1/2mv2, should the energy actually be E=1/2mc2?)
| Bern, Switzerland |
95 YBN
[09/??/1905 AD]
| 4251) Nettie M. Stevens (CE 1861-1912) and independently Edmund Beecher Wilson (CE 1856-1939), provide supporting evidence that the X and Y chromosomes determine gender, females having XX, and males having XY.
In 1902 a former student of Edmund Wilson’s, Clarence Erwin McClung (CE 1870-1946), pointed out that the unpaired "accessory" chromosome (later called the X by Wilson), long known to exist in the males of some arthropods, might determine gender.
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, both these works provided the missing link between cytology and heredity. Wilson and Stevens conclude that females normally have a chromosome complement of XX and males have one of XY. In oögenesis and spermatogenesis, the X and X (for oögenesis) and the X and Y (for spermatogenesis) separate, and end up, by meiotic division, in separate gametes. All eggs thus have a single X chromosome, while sperm can have either an X or a Y. When a Y-bearing sperm fertilizes an egg, the off spring is a male (XY); when an X-bearing sperm fertilizes an egg, the offspring is a female (XX).
Wilson and Stevens recognize that a few groups of organisms have variations (or reversals) of this scheme–for instance, species that normally lack a Y or in which the females are XY and the males XX (the latter case is true for moths, butterflies, and birds). The 1905 papers by Wilson and Stevens not only clear up a long-standing controversy on the nature of gender determination (for example, whether it is hereditarily or environmentally induced) but also are the first reports that any specific hereditary trait (or set of characteristics, such as those associated with gender) can be identified with one specific pair of chromosomes.
So Stevens and Wilson connect chromosomes with gender determination. Wilson advances the correct idea that chromosomes affect and determine other inherited characteristics too.
One of Wilson’s graduate students, Walter S. Sutton, made the connection between Mendelism and cytology first and most logically in 1902. In studying synapsis (the intertwining of the two chromosomes in a homologous pair of chromosomes), Sutton showed that the visible behavior of the chromosomes can be explained by the first and second Mendelian laws. Sutton's studies of chromosomal pairing provide cytological evidence that the chromosomes segregating in reduction division are the two members of a homologous pair, not any two random chromosomes. Therefore each chromosome can be considered as one Mendelian factor. Wilson supports Sutton's conclusions.
It was in Wilson's department that the science of genetics will really become established through the work of T. H. Morgan and Hermann Muller.
To study early cleavage Wilson developes a method known as "cell lineage" to a high degree. This method involves following the cell-by-cell development of young embryos from fertilization to blastula, recording the exact position of every daughter cell. From this method the exact ancestry of every cell in a blastula can be determined.
| (Nettie Stevens) Bryn Mawr University, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, PA, USA (E. B. Wilson) Columbia University, NY City, NY, USA |
95 YBN
[11/05/1905 AD]
| 4823) Johannes Stark (sToRK) (CE 1874-1957), German physicist, detects a Doppler shift in the spectral lines of Hydrogen emitted by the positive-rays (kanalstrahlan) under high electric potential in a cathode ray tube, by comparing light emitted parallel to the beam with light emitted perpendicular to the beam. This can be used to determine the velocity of the particles emitting the light. By increasing the electric potential (voltage), Stark observes the Doppler shift increasing, indicating increased particle velocity. From the maximum shift, Stark calculates the velocity to be 6 x 107 cm/s (6 x 105m/s, 500 times slower than particles of light).
(State velocity of particles measured.)
Stark observes a Doppler effect in the canal rays first identified by Goldstein.
The study of positive rays leads eventually to the recognition by Ernest Rutherford of the existence of the proton.
(Get translation and give relevant parts.) Stark writes (roughly translated by google.translate.com): "The Doppler effect in canal rays and the spectra of the positive atomic ions.
§ 1 Introduction. On the basis of certain ideas and observations can form the view that emit positive ions of a chemical element whose atomic line spectra. After W. Wiens investigations are the particles of the canal rays positively charged chemical atoms or groups of atoms that have a high speed. It is expected therefore that the light that bring positive rays in a gas emission, in part, has a line spectrum.
If a canal-emitted as positive Atomion spectral lines, while it has a considerable speed, so must all its lines to the Doppler effect can be observed. Denote l the wavelength of a line when it is observed normal to the direction of the canal rays.
is the wavelength of the same line when it is parallel to the canal rays is observed, in such a way that run the canal rays to the observer, v is the velocity of the canal rays, that of the c, the speed of light. The Dopplershift equations is:
λn-λp = λn v/c (1)
...
By the canal rays passed through only a fraction of the cathode fall freely, or by experience behind the cathode collisions occur here than the maximum velocity v still arbitrarily small velocities. Accordingly, the moving line must appear Xp widened to red, or more precisely, it is made according to the speed variation along a number of shifted lines:
...
The figure is the first photograph of Doppler effect in canal rays in hydrogen. From it can already be seen on closer inspection the following sentences. Ensure these principles were, of course, in that "normal" and a "parallel" with the recording layer sides were superposed and thus compared.
The lines of the first spectrum or the series spectrum of hydrogen (Hβ, Hγ, ...) show the channel beams the Doppler effect. Observed parallel to the beam provides each line appears as a doublet, consisting of the "dormant" and the "moving" line. The static line is sharp, the motion points to ultraviolet fast, to red a slow decrease in intensity. The moving line is moved in the whole series after ultraviolet. If one measures for the various lines of the maximum displacement for ΔV=2000 Volt, e/u = 9.5 x 103 magn.Einh. v0 is 6 x 107 cm/sec.
The lines of the second hydrogen spectrum (band spectrum), in addition to the series lines in large numbers - are bound nitrogen also suggested - see show, not the Doppler effect.
If we increase the rate of positive rays in hydrogen by increasing the cathode case, the displacement of the moving line grows ultraviolet. This was an experiment with 3500 volts cathode fall, this was also a high-voltage battery as a power source. Even larger shifts of the moving hydrogen line were obtained using a large induction coil, of course, placed himself in this case a strong broadening of the moving line, according to the variable voltage of the induction coil. ....".
(Because the Fraunhofer-Schuster-Bragg (FSB) equation show that the distance of a light source changes the position of a spectral line (but not the color, the actual frequency, of a spectral line), apparently Stark did not offset any position change because of this FSB effect. It seems within the realm of possibility that what is thought to be a Doppler shift is actually a position shift due to the different distances of the source light.)
(Experiment: Does increasing or decreasing the voltage have any effect on the Doppler shift? Does the frequency of alternating current have any effect?)
(Describe what the positive rays are made of - protons, positive ions, etc.)
(Experiment: Examine the Doppler shift, and the apparent motion over time, of stars around the outside of globular clusters, do their velocities indicate that they appear to be moving in the direction of the cluster?)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
95 YBN
[11/27/1905 AD]
| 4436) Wilhelm Wien (VEN) (CE 1864-1928), German physicist, determines the lower boundary of the mass of the "positive electron" (called "Kanalstrahlen") as being that of the hydrogen ion.
Wien reports this (verify) in the paper "Über die Berechnung der Impulsbreite der Röntgenstrahlen aus ihrer Energie" ("About the energy of cathode rays in relation to the energy of the X-ray and secondary beams"). (Give full or partial translation) (Note there appears to be no mass given, but no other 1905 papers appear to be related to determining the mass of the "positive electron".)
| (Wurzburg University) Wurzburg, Germany |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4034) Earliest automatic color motion picture film camera and projector.
William Friese-Greene (CE 1855-1921), takes out a patent for cinematography in natural colours.
Before this motion picture film images are hand colored.
According to a biography of Friese-Green, the novelty of this camera is a 20 degree prism placed half-way across the back of the lens, in order to obtain two pictures side by side. One picture is taken through a yellow-orange filter, and the other through a blue-red filter, the negatives being obtained with one lens and from the same point of view. Similar but lighter color filters are used when the pictures are projected. The patent states that even better results are obtained by the use of three lenses and three prisms, the first two pictures being taken through blue and yellow filters, the second through red and green filters, and the third pair through violet and orange filters.
Friese-Greene demonstrates this process at the Royal Institution on January 1906, and with Captain Lascelles-Davidson, shows the two color process at the Photographic Convention in Southampton in July 1906. The "British Journal of Photography" criticizes the process as ignoring true reds.
George Albert Smith (another Brighton man) and Charles Urban will develop the first commercially successful photographic color process (Kinemacolor) in 1906.
(Explain more detail about how camera works, and future developments of color motion picture films and technology.)
| (private studio) Brighton, England (presumably) |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4282) Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen (YOHoNSuN) (CE 1857-1927), Danish biologist uses the terms "genotype" to describe the genetic constitution of an individual, and "phenotype", to describe the visible result of the interaction between genotype and environment.
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4283) Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen (YOHoNSuN) (CE 1857-1927), Danish biologist uses the terms "genotype" to describe the genetic constitution of an individual, and "phenotype", to describe the visible result of the interaction between genotype and environment.
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4300) Alfred Binet (BEnA) (CE 1857-1911), French psychologist with Théodore Simon develop tests for human intelligence.
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4370) Daniel Moreau Barringer (CE 1860-1929), US mining engineer and geologist identifies a large meteor crater in Arizona, which people had previously believed to be an extinct volcano. Barringer and after his death his son will not find the main mass of what they think was a large iron meteorite.
| Meteor Crater, Arizona |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4389) William Bateson (CE 1861-1926), English biologist, shows that not all characteristics are independent, and some characteristics are always inherited together. This gene linkage will be explained by Morgan. (more detail)
Bateson also shows that, unlike the characteristics studied by Mendel, some characteristics are governed by more than one gene.
Around 1905 Bateson proposes that the study of the mechanisms of inheritance be termed "genetics" and in 1908 Bateson is the first person to be a professor in the new field of genetics.
| (St. John’s College) Cambridge, England |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4464) (Sir) Arthur Harden (CE 1865-1940), English biochemist shows that the yeast enzyme does not breakdown over time as previously thought, but instead that by adding phosphate to the solution, fermentation starts going again. Since the activity of the yeast enzyme slows down over time, people thought that the yeast enzyme must break down. Harden finds that the phosphate forms an intermediate product, attaching as two phosphate groups on to a sugar, which later will be removed again in the course of the chemical reactions. Harden's work will lead to the realizations that phosphate groups play an important role in biochemistry. The Coris will work out the fine details of fermentation, and Lipmann will develop the concept of the high-energy phosphate bond.
| (Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine) London, England |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4708) Bertram Borden Boltwood (CE 1870-1927), US chemist and physicist suggests that since lead is always found in uranium minerals, lead might be the final stable product of uranium disintegration.
Only one product between uranium and radium is known at this time and that is "uranium X", whose short half-life should allow detectable quantities of radium to form within reasonable time limits. However, after more than a year of looking for radium as the descendant of uranium-x, Boltwood is unable to observe any radium emanation in his uranium solution. Boltwood concludes that there must be a long-lived decay product between uranium and radium that prevents the rapid accumulation of radium.
(Find original paper)
| (Mining Engineering and Chemistry company) New Haven, Conneticut, USA |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4758) Fritz Richard Schaudinn (sODiN) (CE 1871-1906), German zoologist, discovers the organism that causes syphilis, Spirochaeta pallida, later called Treponema pallidum.
The first report of Schaudinn and Hoffmann dated March 10, 1905 just states the existence of Spirochaeta pallida in syphilitic lesions without stating that the bacteria is a possible causal factor of syphilis.
This find stimulates progress against syphilis. A year after this Wasserman will create a diagnostic test for syphilis. Three years after this Ehrlich and his team will find a treatment for syphilis.
According to legend, syphilis was introduced to Europe from Columbus' sailors 400 years before.
(I doubt this claim, but maybe syphilis came from America, which raises the interesting topic of locations of various bacteria. Many people presume bacteria, viruses, and protists are uniformly distributed throughout the earth, but presumably each species of bacteria has points of origin (although for some no doubt very far in the past, perhaps too far to be known), just as the other species do.)
| (Institute for Protozoology at the Imperial Ministry of Health) Berlin, Germany |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4760) Paul Langevin (loNZVoN) (CE 1872-1946), French physicist uses Lorentz's electron theory to give a quantitative explanation of paramagnetism and diamagnetism. (Give more specifics - if uses Lorentz theory of matter and time contraction, it would raise doubts in my mind.) (Get translation of paper) The phenomena of "paramagnetism" and "diamagnetism" was first described and named by Faraday in 1845.
This explanation presumes the existance of an aether.
Pierre Curie had discovered that the magnetic coefficients of attraction of paramagnetic bodies vary in inverse proportion to the absolute temperature—Curie's law and then had established an analogy between paramagnetic bodies and perfect gases and, as a result of this, between ferromagnetic bodies and condensed fluids.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists: Langevin gives a modern explanation of para and dia magnetism incorporating the electron theory of the time. In this way he is able to deduce a formula correlating paramagnetism with absolute temperature, which gives a theoretical explanation of the experimental observation that paramagnetic moment changes inversely with temperature. The formula also enables Langevin to predict the occurrence of paramagetic saturation – a prediction later confirmed experimentally by Heike Kamerlingh-Onnes.
A 1922 review of Langevin's work states: "The electron theory of magnetism proposed by Langevin in 1905 demonstrated that with a suitably conceived magnetic molecule or magneton it is possible to account satisfactorily for both dia- and paramagnetism.
The basic ideas upon which the theory of Langevin rests have been adopted in nearly all theories of magnetism developed since 1905. This theory is therefore reviewed below in some detail.
A magnetic molecule as conceived by Langevin contains a number of electrons of which some are negative and some positive, the algebraic sum of the charges on all the electrons in a molecule being zero. Some of the electrons are supposed to be in orbital motion within the molecule in closed orbits and the planes of the orbits are supposed to maintain, by virtue of internal forces, definite orientations with respect to the molecule as a whole. The arrangement of the orbits may possess such a degree of symmetry that the resultant magnetic moment of the molecule is zero. On the other hand, if the arrangement fail of such symmetry, the magnetic moment of the molecule will have a finite value.
It will appear that the effect of the application of an external magnetic field to a body with a structure of such magnetic molecules is to accelerate the motions of the electrons in their orbits in a sense to produce diamagnetism. In case the magnetic moments of the molecules are not zero there will be superimposed upon this effect another, viz., an orientation of the molecules tending to line up their magnetic axes in the direction of the external field.
... The theory of Langevin, as we have seen, leads in the case of diamagnetism to the result that the diamagnetic susceptibility of all bodies should be independent of the temperature and the field strength; and in the case of paramagnetism to Curie's law, which requires the susceptibility to vary inversely with the absolute temperature.
Now many of the experimental facts found since the time (1905) of publication of Langevin's theory are not in accord with these results. Consequently various attempts at modification of the theory have been made. In the present section we shall consider modifications of the Langevin theory which do not invoke the aid of quantum hypotheses.".
("moment" is not clear, is this momentum?)
| (École Municipale de Physique et Chimie) Paris, France |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4771) Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (omUNSeN) (CE 1872-1928) Norwegian explorer is the first to sail through the Northwest Passage (from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean along the Arctic coast of North America).
Amundsen's ship, the Gjöa, leaves Christiania harbor on June 16, 1903 and reaches Herschel Island in the Yukon in 1905 via via Peel Sound, Roe Strait, Queen Maud Gulf, Coronation Gulf, Amundsen Gulf, Beaufort Sea, and Bering Strait.
(This can be done all by ship? it is all water?)
In 1904 Amundsen had located the site of the North Magnetic Pole, (the North geometric pole is a different location as the North Magnetic Pole - verify. It must be very interesting to see the compass needle point to a tiny point in the snow as a person walks around it. People should make and make freely available movies of this phenomenon.)
| Herschel Island, Yukon |
95 YBN
[1905 AD]
| 4815) William Weber Coblentz (CE 1873-1962), US physicist shows that different atomic groupings absorb characteristic and specific wavelengths in the infrared and publishes the emission and absorption spectra of numerous elements and compounds.
This idea will result in the invention of the spectrophotometer, which measures and records the absorption of different wavelengths in the infrared so that each molecule can be detected without damaging the molecule itself (as burning/combusting into incandescence would cause).
Coblentz developed more accurate infrared spectrometers and extended their measurements to longer wavelengths. In 1905 Coblenz publishes a lengthy study ("Investigations of infra-red spectra") of the infrared emission and absorption spectra of numerous elements and compounds.
Coblentz had started measuring infrared emission and absorption spectra at Cornell university in 1903.
(list some examples, the atoms and/or molecules and show or list their frequencies.) (who invents the spectrophotometer?)
| (National Bureau of Standards) Washington D.C., USA |
94 YBN
[01/13/1906 AD]
| 5502) Karl Schwarzschild (sVoRTSsILD or siLD) (CE 1873-1916), German astronomer, puts forward the theory of "radiative equilibrium". Schwarzschild examines the theory that the atmosphere of a star above its surface is viewed as being made of gas which follows the known gas laws, countered by the force of gravity.
Eddington will extend this theory to the entire star being made of a gas which follows the gas law and this theory is still the accepted theory.
In his work (translated from German) "On the equilibrium of the sun's atmosphere" Schwarzschild writes: "Contents I. Summary. In granulation, sunspots, and prominences the sun's surface displays changing conditions and stormy variations. In order to understand the physical relations of these phenomena, it is customary, as a first approximation, to substitute mean steady-state conditions for these spatial and terporal variations, thus obtaining a mechanical or hydrostatic equilibrium of the solar atmosphere. Until now attention has generally been concentrated on the so-called adiabatic equilibrium, which is analogous to the conditions prevailing in our atmosphere when it has been thoroughly mixed by ascending and descending currents. In this paper I wish to call attention to another type of equilibrium, which we might call radiative equilibrium. Radiative equilibrium in a strongly radiating and absorbing atmosphere will be established when radiative heat transfer predominates over heat transfer due to convective mixing. It would be difficult to decide a priori whether adiabatic or radiative equilibrium predominates in the sun. However, we have observational data from which we can come to some conclusions on this matter. The solar disc is not uniformly bright; in fact, the light intensity decreases with increasing distance from the center. With certain plausible assumptions it is possible to deduce the temperature distribution within the atmosphere from the intensity distribution at the surface. The result we obtain is that the equilibrium conditions of the solar atmosphere correspond generally to those of radiative equilibrium. Our considerations leading to this result require that Kirchhoff's law is valid, or, in other words, that radiation in the solar atmosphere is pure thermal radiation. We require further that conditions vary smoothly as we descend into the sun, so that there is no discontinuous transition between a more or less transparent chromosphere and an opaque photosphere consisting of clouds. We neglect the effect of light-scattering due to atmospheric particles, whose importance A. Schuster first pointed out, as well as refraction, on which H. V. Seeliger bases his explanation of the observed brightness distribution. We further neglect the variation of absorption with wavelength, the decrease of gravity with height, and the spherical propagation of radiation. Thus our considerations are neither complete nor compelling, but by explaining a simple idea in its simplest form, they may form the basis for further speculations. 2. Different Kinds of Equilibrium Let is use p for pressure, T for absolute temperature (°K), p for density, M for molecular weight (relative to the hydrogen atom), g for gravity, h for depth of the atmosphere (measured downward from some arbitrary starting point). Let us choose units related to conditions at the earth's surface, i.e., one atmosphere as the unit of p, the density of air at 273°K and 1 atm. pressure as the unit of p, gravity at the earth's surface as the unit of h, and the height of the so-called "homogeneous atmosphere," which is 8 km, as the unit of k. Then the following relation holds for an ideal gas
pT=pM/R R=0.106, (1)
and the conditions of hydrostatic equilibrium in the atmosphere is expressed by
dp = pgdh. (2)
Eliminating p from (1) and (2) yields
dp/p = M/R g/T dh (3)
a) Isothermal Equilibrium. To obtain some general ideas, let us consider isothermal equilibrium, ie, T constant. This leads to
{ULSF: see text for equations}
On the sun gravity is 27.7 times greater than on the earth and temperature (about 6000°) roughly 20 times greater. The pressure distribution in a gas with the molecular weight of air is thus about the same as that for air on earth. More exact calculations show that, for a gas with the molecular weight of air, pressure and density increase by a factor of 10 with each 14.7 km increase in h, and, for hydrogen, with each 212 km increase in h. Since one second of arc in the sun as seen from earth is 725 km, it is clear that the solar limit must appear quite sharply defined. ...".
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany (presumably) |
94 YBN
[01/17/1906 AD]
| 4898) Charles Glover Barkla (CE 1877-1944), English physicist performs a second experiment to prove that secondary X-rays (x-rays emitted from materials collided with a primary beam of x-rays) from a block of carbon are polarized.
(todo: report and verify more details)
(todo: show image of apparatus from paper)
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
94 YBN
[02/09/1906 AD]
| 4901) Charles Glover Barkla (CE 1877-1944), English physicist shows that for heavier atoms, absorption of secondary x-rays emitted from a material is proportional to the atomic weight of the atoms in the material emitting the secondary x-rays.
(make clearer: quantitiy of absorption or penetration of secondary x-rays?)
Barkla writes: "In papers on secondary Rontgen radiation and polarised Rontgen radiation I have shown that all the phenomena of secondary radiation (as indicated by an electroscope placed several centimetres from the radiator) may, from substances of low atomic weight, be accounted for by considering the corpuscles or electrons constituting the atoms, to be accelerated in the direction of electric displacement in each primary Rontgen pulse as it passes through such substances, and that the interaction between the corpuscles affects only to a small extent the character of the secondary radiation proceeding from the substance. In light atoms ihere is almost complete independence of motion of the corpuscles within the limits of disturbance produced by all primary beams experimented upon.
It was also shown (nature, March 9, 1905) that this independence of motion disappears in heavier atoms in which there may be conceived to be a more intimate relation between the corpuscles, inter-corpuscular forces being brought into play which have the effect of widening the secondary pulses and producing accelerations in the corpuscles in directions other than those of electric displacement in the primary pulse. Until recently I have been unable to make experiments on a sufficient number of elements of higher atomic weight to arrive at any law connecting the penetrating power of the secondary radiation with the atomic weight of the radiator. Recent investigation has, however, shown that beyond the region of atomic weights in which the character of secondary radiation is almost independent of the nature of the radiator, the absorbability of the radiation is a periodic function of the atomic weight, the periodicity agreeing so far as these experiments have gone with the periodicity in chemical properties.
A detailed account of these results will be published shortly.
They, however, afford striking evidence of a connection between chemical properties and distribution of corpuscles in the atom, such as Prof. J. J. Thomson suggests in his conception of the constitution of the atom ; for the character of the secondary radiation set up by a given primary can only, according to the theory which has been shown to account for all the phenomena I have hitherto observed, be affected by the relation between the radiating corpuscle and its neighbours.
The results also suggest a method of determining atomic weights by interpolation, for a small variation in atomic weight is usually accompanied by a very considerable change in absorbability of the secondary radiation, and though in these experiments great accuracy has not been essential, it appears that in many regions a variation of atomic weight by much less than 1 would be indicated.
The experiments are being continued.".
Barkla follows this up with more details on February 23.
Barkla shows that the X rays produced secondarily (x-rays are absorbed by and then re-emitted by a material) increase their penetration strength the higher the atoms of the secondary substance are on the periodic table, although the penetrating power of secondary rays is never greater than the penetrating power of the primary beam. At the time there is no method of measuring the frequency of X rays, so Barkla measures the amount of absorption of a particular beam by an aluminum sheet of standard thickness. The secondary X rays produced by the atoms bombarded with a primary beam of x-rays increase their penetration strength the higher they are on the periodic table. Moseley will use this finding to complete the idea of the atomic number.
(Perhaps denser material means more collisions, and so more particles collide with the absorbing material.)
(EX: one idea is do prisms scatter cathode ray/electron/proton beams? Does the crystal structure have the same effect with photons as other particles, ions, etc?)
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
94 YBN
[04/17/1906 AD]
| 3806) Clarence Edward Dutton (CE 1841-1912), US geologist, suggests that radioactivity might slowly overheat local areas of the earth's crust and give rise to volcanic action.
Dutton concludes that lava is liquefied by the heat released during decay of radioactive elements and that it is forced to the surface by the weight of overlying rocks.
In theorizing that groups of radioactive minerals might account for volcanoes, an idea that is wrong, Dutton calls attention to the role of radioactive heating in the processes of Earth.
(I think volcanoes are caused from pressure of internal molten rock heated in the early formation of the universe, although radioactivity must be responsible for some of the heating of atoms the earth is made of. But because the theory of the inside of large masses seems to me inaccurate, many of these basic questions have gone poorly answered in my view. This idea that radioactivity is responsible for the heat inside the earth I think is mostly wrong - I think it has to do more with trapped photons escaping - and perhaps even atoms separated into photons from collision - and this is the same explanation I give for stars - not nuclear fusion of Hydrogen into Helium, but separation of atoms into their original photons. We see the spectra of metals in supernovas. It seems hydrogen is not dense enough to be in the center of a large mass like a star or planet. The spectra reveals many separated or excited atoms, not just hydrogen and helium. Maybe hydrogen and helium separation or formation is responsible for some photons emited from stars - but is the reason given for the photons emited from planets too? Lava, for example emits light with visible frequency. For example, it seems likely that the interior of the planets and stars are very dense atoms, under very high pressure. Stars and planets can be viewed as tangles of light particles in this view. At the surface, and towards the center, photons escape through holes where there is no collision, in addition, collisions push particles to the surface where there is free space. So I think lava is a heated liquid, heated from the inside of the earth, in which a hole opens, and like a tea pot whistle, the material escapes rapidly through the hole to a lower pressure, less dense place with more free space. But it is an interesting question about the physical nature inside stars and planets - is this a super compressed solid where photons are trapped, or are they just highly compressed with very little space to move? Do they stay in atom form, or do even atoms crush into some smaller distribution of matter? Ultimately, many of these idea are similar in that photons emited from atoms heat bodies up. Questions still remain about how much pressure is needed to push photons together to form larger particles, or even if this is possible. Larger particles can be separated into photons, but can the opposite, photons compressed together into larger particles, be produced in laboratories on earth?)
| Washington, D.C., USA. |
94 YBN
[06/??/1906 AD]
| 4268) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, uses three methods to determine that the number of corpuscles (electrons) in an atom is on the same order as the atomic weight (mass).
The first method is based on the dispersion of light by gases using the index of refraction. The second method is scattering of Rontgen Radiation by gases. This method shows that the number of corpuscles is proportional to the atomic mass of the gas. Thomson finds that there are 25 corpuscles in each molecule of air, and comments that this is near to the atomic mass of nitrogen. The third method is by the absorption of B Rays. The quantity of B particles absorbed by collisions with corpuscles is found to be proportional to the atomic mass. Thomson addresses an argument in favor of their being more corpuscles in an atom based on the spectral lines produced by the Zeeman effect.
Earlier theories allowed as many as a thousand corpuscles (electrons) per hydrogen atom.
(I find the first method to be somewhat doubtful, and abstract - and apparently based on the concept of light as a wave presumably with some kind of medium.)
(When we see the quantity of photons emitted from atoms, it seems likely that there may be many millions of photons in a simgle atom, or perhaps there are only a few, but many atoms in a tiny space. It seems likely that there are more photons in an atom than atomic mass, but that this quantity is probably proportional to atomic mass. )
(We need to remember that this model of Thomson's with just a single group of particles in an atom, is not as popular as the modern view of the atom being made of both proton and neutron - the electrons being of little or no consequence to shape and size of any atom.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
94 YBN
[07/20/1906 AD]
| 4743) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, determines the charge to mass ratio (e/m) of alpha particles as being 5.1 x 103 roughly 1/2 the charge to mass ratio of Hydrogen (1 x 104).
Rutherford writes: "... We may thus reasonably conclude that the α particles expelled from the different radio-elements have the same mass in all cases. This is an important conclusion; for it shows that uranium, thorium, radium, and actinium, which behave chemically as distinct elements, have a common product of transformation. The α particle constitutes one of the fundamental units of matter of which the atoms of these elements are built up. When it is remembered that in the process of their transformation radium and thorium each expel five α particles, actinium four, and uranium one, and that radium is in all probability a transformation product of uranium, it is seen that the α particle is an important fundamental constituent of the atoms of the radio-elements proper. I have often pointed out what an important part the α particles play in radioactive transformations. In comparison, the β and γ rays play quite a secondary role.
It is now necessary to consider what deductions can be drawn from the observed value of e/m found for the α particle. The value of e/m for the hydrogen ion in the electrolysis of water is known to be very nearly 104. The hydrogen ion is supposed to be the hydrogen atom with a positive charge, so that the value of e/m for the hydrogen acorn is 104. The observed value of e/m for the α particle is 5.1 x 103, or, in round numbers, one half of that of the hydrogen atom. The density of helium has been found to be 1.98 times that of hydrogen, and from observations of the velocity of sound in helium, it has been deduced that helium is a monatomic gas. From this it is concluded that the helium atom has an atomic weight 3.96. If a helium atom carries the same charge as the hydrogen ion, the value of e/m for the helium atom should consequently he about 2.5 x 103. If we assume that the α particle carries the same charge as the hydrogen ion, the mass of the α particle is twice that of the hydrogen atom. We are here unfortunately confronted with several possibilities between which it is difficult to make a definite decision.
The value of e/m for the α particle may be explained on the assumptions that the a particle is (1) a molecule of hydrogen carrying the ionic charge of hydrogen, (2) a helium atom carrying twice the ionic charge of hydrogen, or (3) one half of the helium atom carrying a single ionic charge.
The hypothesis that the α particle is a molecule of hydrogen seems for many reasons improbable. If hydrogen is a constituent of radioactive matter, it is to be expected that it would be expelled in the atomic, and not in the molecular state. In addition, it seems improbable that, even if the hydrogen were initially projected in the molecular state, it would escape decomposition into its component atoms in passing through matter, for the α particle is projected at an enormous velocity, and the shock of the collisions of the α particle with the molecules of matter must be very intense, and tend to disrupt the bonds that hold the hydrogen atoms together. If the α particle is hydrogen, we should expect to find a large quantity of hydrogen present in the old radioactive minerals, which are sufficiently compact to prevent its escape. This does not appear to be the case, but, on the other hand, the comparatively large amount of helium present supports the view that the α particle is a helium atom. A strong argument in support of the view of a connexion between helium and the α particle rests on the observed facts that helium is produced by actinium as well as by radium. The only point of identity between these two substances lies in the expulsion of a particles of the same mass. The production of helium by both substances is at once obvious if the helium is derived from the accumulated α particles, but is difficult to explain on any other hypothesis. We are thus reduced to the view, that either the α particle is a helium atom carrying twice the ionic charge of hydrogen, or is half of a helium atom carrying a single ionic charge. ....". (read more from paper) (Could not the same arguments against a diatomic hydrogen be used against a helium atom - in terms of escaping in tact? It is difficult to determine what the difference is between two hydrogens fastened together and a helium atom. At some point, theoretically, two atoms of hydrogen somehow fasten together to form either a hydrogen molecule or a helium atom - so I think the real difference between a hydrogen atom, molecule and a helium atom need to be clearly shown and explained experimentally.)
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
94 YBN
[12/21/1906 AD]
| 4788) Lee De Forest (CE 1873-1961), US inventor, invents the triode, the first publicly known electric switch and electrical controlled amplifier. The Edison effect had been used by John Ambrose Fleming as the basis for a rectifier in 1904.
In 1904 Fleming, a consultant to the Edison Electric Light Company, patented a two-electrode vacuum tube which he called a thermionic valve. Acting between the two electrodes, one of which is heated, the oscillating radio waves are made unidirectional.
De Forest inserts a third element called "the grid" which makes the device a triode (three electrodes) instead of a diode (which has two electrodes). The stream of electrons moves from the filament to the plate (also known as an anode or anti-cathode) at a rate that varies with the charge placed on the grid. A varying, but very weak electric potential on the grid can be converted into a similarly varying but much stronger electron flow from the filament to the plate. In this way Fleming's instrument becomes an amplifier in addition to a rectifier since the voltage on the grid, relative to the plate (ground), can be converted to an electron current signal. The regular current from the filament to the plate can actually be increased as a result of an electric potential between the grid and the plate which is higher than the electric potential between the filament and plate. The triode will be the basis of the radio tube, which makes radios and a variety of electronic equipment practical by amplifying weak signals without distortion.
In this way De Forest invents the first publicly known electric switch (for electronically turning on and off current in a circuit), and amplifier.
In 1910 De Forest will take Fessenden's system of broadcasting voice (which uses amplitude modulation) and uses his triodes to broadcast the singing of Enrico Caruso. In 1916 De Forest will establish a radio station and broadcast news. (Who reads the news?)
De Forest sells his radio tube (or “audion” as De Forest calls it) to American Telephone and Telegraph company ((AT&T)) for $390,000. American Telephone & Telegraph Company uses the Audion as an essential amplification component for long-distance repeater circuits.
The triode will lead (the sales in) the electronics industry (which only includes wires, batteries, resistors, capacitors, possibly inductors (although people may have had to make their own), and rectifiers), how were these items sold?) for (40 years) until the invention of the transistor by Shockley (which will replace the triode almost completely mainly because of the transistor's much smaller size).
When appropriately modified, this single invention is capable of either transmitting, receiving, or amplifying radio signals. At the time, the vacuum amplifier or triode, can be used to send, receive, or amplify radio signals better than any other device.
The Audion vacuum tube, makes possible live radio broadcasting and becomes the key component of all radio, telephone, radar, television, and computer systems before the invention of the transistor in 1947.
In his 1907 patent DeForest writes: "The objects of my invention are to increase the sensitiveness or oscillation detectors comprising in their construction a gaseous medium by means of the structural features and circuit arrangements which are hereinafter more fully described.
...
I have determined experimentally that the presence of the conducting member a, which as before stated may be grid-shaped, increases the sensitiveness of the oscillation detector and, inasmuch as the explanation of this phenomenon is exceedingly complex and at best would be merely tentative, I do not deem it necessary herein to enter into a detailed statement of what I believe to be the probable explanation.
In associating an oscillation detector of the above mentioned type, said detector being now commonly known as the audion, with a closed tuned circuit, it will be noted by reference to Fig. 2, that the secondary I, closes a circuit containing a battery shown at B through the electrode I', conducting member a' and the conducting gaseous medium intervening between said electrode and member. Also by reference to Fig. 1, it will be seen that a similar closed circuit exists between said battery, and the electrode b and conducting member a. In order to close each of said circuits to the passage of direct current from the aforesaid battery there-through, or to prevent the development of a difference of potential between the members a and b, or between a' and b, or to prevent the members a or a' of from receiving an electrical charge from said battery, I insert the condenser C' in said otherwise mechanically closed circuit and find that the presence of said condenser produces a great increase in the sensitiveness of the oscillation detector as determined by the very marked increase in the.sound produced in the telephone T when said condenser is present over the sounds produced therein under the same conditions when said condenser is not employed. It will be understood that the circuit arrangements herein described with reference to the particular forms of audion herein disclosed may with advantage also be employed with various other types of audion. ...".
The triode is the electric switch used in the first computers, like the "Eniac". These large vacuum tube electric switches will later be replaced by much smaller electric switches, called transistors. (verify)
On June 21, 1918, Eccles and Jordan will use two triodes to make the first electronic read and write memory (flip-flop), the basis of the electronic memory chips in ROM, RAM and Flash.
(It is somewhat unusual that all major sources, including Encyclopedia Britannica fail to recognize and state clearly that De Forest's triode is the first publicly known electric switch, an invention which seems to me to be very important, being the basis of modern computers and robots. Probably this is mostly the unhealthy influence of the owners of particle beam neuron writing networks who want the public to be absolutely as ignorant and uneducated as possible - and no doubt even many of those who are aware of neuron writing and receive videos in their eyes.)
(Notice use of the word "tentative" which implies that DeForest is included and this is the release of technology that was probably held secret, perhaps for even more than two centuries.)
| (De Forest Radio Telephone Company) New York City, New York, USA |
94 YBN
[12/24/1906 AD]
| 4479) First publically known amplitude modulation sound signal sent and received by light particles (wirelessly). (Although clearly, humans must have been transmitting and receiving sound and images, including those of thought, using invisible particles probably at least as early as 1810.)
(Identify and read patent)
Reginald Aubrey Fessenden (CE 1866-1932), Canadian-US physicist broadcasts the first publicly known program of music and voice ever, over long distances.
Fessenden becomes interested in voice transmission and develops the idea of superimposing electric waves, vibrating at the frequencies of sound waves, upon a constant radio frequency, in order to modulate the amplitude of the radio wave into the shape of the sound wave. This is the principle of amplitude modulation, or AM.
Fessenden also invents an electrolytic radio detector sensitive enough for use as a radio telephone.
Before the amplitude modulation (AM) method of radio communication, only pulses to imitate the dots and dashes of Morse code were transmitted in radio waves (photons with radio spacing).
Fessenden directs Ernst Alexanderson of the General Electric Company in building a 50,000-hertz alternator that makes possible the realization of radiotelephony, and Fessenden builds a transmitting station at Brant Rock, Massachusetts. On Dec. 24, 1906, wireless operators as far away as Norfolk, Va., are startled to hear speech and music from Brant Rock through their own receivers. That same year, Fessenden establishes two-way transatlantic wireless telegraphic communication between Brant Rock and Scotland. (State how many volts and amps the transmitter is, and the size of the transmitter)
Fessenden sends a continuous signal, varying the amplitude of the waves to follow the wave of a source sound. At the receiving station, these variations are reconverted into the source sound. On this day the first amplitude modulated radio signal is sent from the Massachusetts coast and wireless receivers can actually pick up and play music for the first time in history. This is the beginning of radio stations playing music, although many inventions such as the triode by De Forest will make this fully practical and popular.
(More accurately, Fessenden sends a higher-than-audible-sound-frequency continuous particle beam emission with regular frequency, changing the continuous signal or particle emission, by adding the sound signal which changes the quantity of the particles of each interval in the continuous signal).
The telephone of Philip Reiss does not use amplitude modulation for sound, but the electric current amplitude (quantity) is simply identical to the sound signal amplitude (quantity). One important concept that is rarely mentioned - probably because of the secrecy surrounding neuron reading and writing and particle communication - is that there is no need to have a regular periodic signal for wired communication. Wireless communication does work for sound without needing a periodic carrier signal - because radio is simply the phenomenon of electric inductance - exactly like the principle of the transformer - how electricity running in one wire causes electricity to run in nearby wires and metal. Using a high frequency carrier signal allows sending the various sound frequencies in a signal frequency of light particles as opposed to simply sending the varying frequencies of sound as is often done for sound transmission through wires. In addition using a carrier signal, with a higher frequency than sound, and then simply changing the higher frequency's strength, will not cause the sounds from being heard vibrating metal near powerful transmitters - which occurs when the actual sound frequencies are transmitted.
| (National Electric Signaling Company and General Electric?) Brant Rock, Massachusetts, USA |
94 YBN
[12/24/1906 AD]
| 4796) Ejnar Hertzsprung (CE 1873-1967), Danish astronomer notices the relationship of color and luminosity (also known as magnitude, or brightness) among stars, and scales the brightness of stars as if each had the same proper motion to determine their relative brightnesses.
(Translate full paper and quote important parts. Does Hertzsprung connect color specifically with size, volume, and temperature of a star?)
Henry Norris Russell (CE 1877-1957), US astronomer reaches the same conclusion in 1914, and both astronomers usually share the credit.
During the years 1890–1901 three catalogs of photographically determined stellar spectra were published by Harvard College Observatory and these formed the basis for the original Henry Draper Catalog, in which Antonia C. Maury classified the brighter stars from the north pole to declination –30° and Annie Jump Cannon classified stars south of –30°. Two different systems of classification are used in the catalog, Maury using the more detailed one—twenty-two main groups, each divided into seven different indexes with the use of the letters a, b, c, and four double letters to indicate detailed features in the spectra, and Cannon using a less detailed system still used today—with the exception that subdivisions and luminosity classes have since been added.
Hertzsprung will say that it was his interest in the theory of blackbody radiation and its relation to the radiation of stars that initially stimulated his interest in astronomy. The problem of the radiation of a blackbody, one that absorbs all frequencies of light and, when heated, also radiates all frequencies, had first been posed by G. R. Kirchhoff and was finally solved by Max Planck in 1900 by means of his quantum theory. (It is interesting that neither Kirchhoff nor Planck explicitly, to my knowledge, related the black body idea to stars as a method of measuring their size.)
W. H. S. Monck, an Irish private astronomer, stated in 1893 "I noticed some time ago a remarkable connection between the proper motions of the stars and their spectra - the solar stars (Sedcchi's type II) having much greater proper motion than the Sirian stars (type I), or the stars of the third type, although the smaller number of the latter render the test less decisive. I may, however, add that stars with the kind of spectrum designated K in the Draper Catalogue (which though referred in that Catalogue to the second type border closely on the third) appear to have less proper motion than the other stars with the second type of spectrum.". And in 1895 Monck wrote: "I suspect, moreover, that two distinct classes of stars are at present ranked as Capellan, one being dull and near us and the other bright and remote like the Sirians. Capella itself, perhaps, occupies an intermediate position. α Centauri and Procyon may stand as types of the near and dull Capellan, with large proper motion, while Canopus is a remarkable instance of a bright and distant one, with small proper motion, assuming that there is no doubt as to its spectum.".
In 1899 Huggins had noted in his Atlas of spectra: "I selected, as a true natural criterion, clerly indicating successive changes of density and temperature, the gradual increase of strength of the calcium line K, taken together with the diminution in strength of the lines of hydrogen, and the simultaneous incoming and strengthening of the metallic lines.".
In his 1905 paper Hertzsprung writes: "In volume 28 of the "Annals of the Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College" a detailed survey of the spectra is given for nothern and southern bright stars by Antonia C. Maury and Annie J. Cannon, respectively. The first two columns of Table 1 give a short summary of the spectra class designation used by the two authors. in the last two columns are listed characteristic stars along with their spectra types. For a more detailed description of the characteristics used we must refer to the original papers cited above. here we can find room for only a few words concerning the three sub-classifications b, a, and c. The b stars have broader lines than those of "division" a. The relative intensities of the lines seem, however, to be equal for a- and b- stars "so that there appears to be no decided difference in the consitution of the stars belonging, respectively, to these two divisions." As the most important characteristics of subclass c we can mention, first, that the lines are unusually narrow and sharp; second, that among the "metallic" lines others occur which are not identifiable with any solar lines, and the relative intensities of the remainder do not correspond with the intensities observed in the solar spectrum. "In general, division c is distinguishes by the strongly defined character of its lines, and it seems that stars of this division must differ more decidely in constitution from those of division a than is the case with those of division b." Antoinia C. maury suspects that the a- and b- stars on the one hand and the c-stars on the other, belong to collateral series of development. That is to say not all stars have the same spectral development. What determines such a differentiation (differences in mass and constitution, etc.) is a question that remains unanswered. The question arises how great the systematic differences of the brightness, reduced to a common distance, of stars of the different groups will be. For this purpose I have used the proper motions of the stars in the following simple manner. For each group a value was determined above and below which lies, respectively, one-hald of the proper motions expressed in arc of a great circle, and reduced to magnitude 0. These values are listed in column V of Table 1. In column VI are found the corresponding magnitudes reduced to a proper motion of 1" in a hundred years. (Reduced to 1" annual proper motion the stars would be 10 magnitudes brighter.) In column VIII are the mean reduced stellar magnitudes for somewhat large groups, and in the following two columns the values above and below which 15% of the total lies. These values will be, therefore, the mean deviation from the mediuam. Finally there are listed in column XI the mean errors of the medians. Table 1 contains only stars of subclasses a and b for which I have found proper motions based on the latest determinations of the Fundamental stars (Newcomb precession constants). Also in addition to the c-stars, all stars are omitted which are recognized as variable or the spectra of which were described as "peculiar." The total number of the a and b stars found in Antonia C. Maury's catalogue are given in column III, and in column IV the number of stars remaining after these omissions. I have also attempted to bring together all stars brighter than the 5th magnitude for which spectral class (according to the above-named authors, or to the Draper Catalogue) as well as proper motions could be found, and I come to the same result as that which appears in Table 1. In spite of the small number (308) or stars taken into consideration in Table 1, I consider the picture they give s as more reliable than would be that from a larger number of much more uncertainly classified spectra used in connection with a too great value for the small proper motions (Orion stars). The radial velocity found for about 60 stars has an approximately typical distribution with a mean deviation from zero of some +-20km/sec. It is therefore probable that the projection of the absolute proper motions ona randomly chosen direction would also have a typical distribution. We have, however, also considered the projection of the apparent proper motions on a plane at right angles to the line of sight; and we ask which mean deviation in the star magnitudes, reduced to equal apparent proper motions, would uniquely result (corresponding to the assumption that all stars have the same absolute magnitude). The values are about +1.2 and -1.57 magnitudes. Comparing these with those in columns IX and X in Table 1, we find that the stars which were put together in the A-class cannot differ very much among themselves in absolute magnitude. According to this result, combined with the fact that membership in spectral A-class is easily recognized, I have assembled for 100 A-stars of magnitude 4.62-5.00 the proper motions in declination only. If one arranges these according to magnitude, the value -."008 lies inthe middle, and respectively 15% of the total is over +."0325 and under -."575. From this can be calculated the mean deviation +-."0448 annually, which would correspond to a speed of +-20 km/sec, or 4 astronomical units per year. According to this, we find for the 100 A-stars of mean magnitude 4.84 the mean parallax of ."0112. In Table 1 the magnitudes are reduced to a mean annual proper motion of ."01 in arc of a great circle, corresponding to a parallax of some ."002. For the 100 A-stars we compute with the parallax the mean stellar magnitude of 8.6, in fair agreement with the value 8.05 from Table 1. ... Further I have in column XIII, Table 1, inserted values wihch can be taken as a sort of color-equivalent and which were derived in the following way from the visual magnitudes taken from the revised Harvard Photometry (H.P.) and the photographic magnitudes (corresponding to G-line light of wave length .432u) taken from the Draper Catalogue (D.C.). Within each group, for the number of stars in column XII, both magnitudes mH and mD were brought together, and, on the approximately correct assumption that a linear relation exists between them, that value of mD was calculated which corresponds to MH=4.5. Further we have in column XIV for each group the computer ratios ΔmH:ΔλmD. Actually they should be constant with the value 1. That they increase from white through yellow to red may be due to the Purkinje phenomenon. {ULSF: explain} That they all lie appreciably above 1 can be due to the circumstance that the normal intensity scale, which was uysed for the detemrination of the D.C. magnitudes through comparison of the spectral darkening in the neighborhood of the G-line (λ = .432u), was established not in pure G-light but by means of the Carcel-lampe. ... The minimum shown in column XIII in the neighborhood of the A-group appears to be real. Accordingly the Orion stars would be somewhat yellower than the A-stars... in any case we may say that the annual proper motion of an average c-star, reduced to magnitude 0, amounts to only a few hundredths of a second. With the relatively large errors of these small values, a dependence on spectral class cannot be recognized. In other words, the c-stars are at least as bright as the Orion stars. In both of the spectroscopic binarues o Andromedae and β Lyrae the brightness of the c-star and of the companion star of the Orion type appear to be of the same order of brightness. The proper motions (not here given) are all small, according to the Auwers-Bradley Catalogue. ... For the stars in Annie J. Cannon's listing that have narrow sharp lines, I can also find only small proper motions. This result confirms the assumption of Antonia C. Maury that the c-stars are something unique. When the c- and ac-stars are looked at in summary fashion one sees that with increasing Class number {advancing toward redder spectra} the c-characteric diminishes, and that these stars stop exactly where the bright K-stars begin.".
(I can accept that a stars color and/or spectral lines relate to its brightness, bluer stars being larger and emitting more light particles per second, but I have some doubts about there being red giant stars - the parallax for Betelgeuse varies - but I could accept this if shown clearly and visually for a wide variety of supposed red giant stars.)
I think a possible theory of star development is that stars have 2 stages, one mostly accumulating matter and then a second stage mostly emitting matter, and their size depends on the amount of matter initially accumulated. In the emitting stage, stars simply lose mass going from their initial mass and color to a red color and ultimately to be similar to a planet only emitting photons with infrared and radio frequency. Perhaps there are instabilities that cause supernovas, but the activity of advanced life in star destruction should not be ruled out either, because it seems unlikely that a liquid core would ever develop a fracture.)
(Notice how the translator uses the word "lies" all the time - could this reflect some insider information or perhaps a skeptical translator?)
(Notice an early use of the word "render" by the Irish astronomer Monck.)
(I don't think proper motion may be the best estimate of distance, but clearly if all the blue stars show little or no proper motion, and the red and yellow stars do, it may be that there is a relationship between proper motion and distance. Proper motion only measures a star's movement relative to the dimension that our motion is in - so if, for example, a star is moving away from us, it may appear to have little proper motion, but in fact have a large motion but in a direction that cannot be measured from our perspective. Probably most stars move with similar motions around the galaxy - so proper motion would then be a good indication of distance - but clearly parallax is a better method of determining distance to the other stars.)
(The satellite Hipparchos will measure parallax and brightness of many thousands of stars and this ...)
| (University of Copenhagen, and at the Urania Observatory in Frederiksberg) Copenhagen, Denmark (verify) |
94 YBN
[12/24/1906 AD]
| 4797) Ejnar Hertzsprung (CE 1873-1967), Danish astronomer determines that stars fit into one of two series, one now known as the main sequence (dwarf), and another which includes very bright (or giant) stars. (presumably this is in Hertzspring's second paper, published in 1907, but I cannot find any English translation of this work.)
Hertzsprung will write in 1958 that "I myself never used the designations 'giants' and 'dwarfs,' as the mass does not vary in an extravagant way, as does the density.".
In this paper Hertzsprung refers to the open star clusters as a method for determining the relationship between the radiation of a star and the color of the star. Since the stars of a cluster are of equal distance, their apparent magnitudes (brightness) and colors should indicate the relationship between magnitude (quantity of light emitted) and color.
(Get translation and read important parts - what words does Hertzsprung use to describe the two groups of stars?)
| (University of Copenhagen, and at the Urania Observatory in Frederiksberg) Copenhagen, Denmark (verify) |
94 YBN
[12/27/1906 AD]
| 4710) Bertram Borden Boltwood (CE 1870-1927), US chemist and physicist uses Ernest Rutherford's suggestion that from the quantity of lead in uranium ores, and from the known rate of uranium disintingration, the age of the earth's crust can be determined to estimate the age of some rocks to be at least 2.2 billion years old.
Boltwood argues that in minerals of the same age, the lead–uranium ratio should be constant, and in minerals of different ages the ratio should be different. Boltwood calculates some estimates of the ages of several rocks based on the estimates then accepted for decay rates and produces good results. This is the beginning of attempts to date rocks and fossils by radiation measurements and other physical techniques. This technique will be a very important advance in geology and archeology.
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, a helium method of dating is pioneered in England by R. J. Strutt (later the fourth Baron Rayleigh) (state date) cannot, however, give more than a minimum age because a variable portion of the gas which would have escaped from the rock. But the lead method, developed by Boltwood in 1907, can give an accurate estimation of age and is still in use today. In effect, Boltwood reverses his procedure of confirming the accuracy of lead to uranium ratios by the accepted geological ages of the source rocks, and uses these lead, uranium ratios to date the rocks. Because most geologists, under the influence of Lord Kelvin’s 1800s view that the age of the earth is measured in tens of millions of years, Boltwood’s claim for a billion-year span is met with some skepticism. However, the later work of Arthur Holmes, the concept of isotopes, and the increasing accuracy of decay constants and analyses finally brings widespread acceptance of this method in the 1930’s.
Uranium decay is so slow that it cannot be used for small amounts of times, for example millions of years, Libby will develop a method using radioactivity of carbon-14 for shorter periods of time.
Boltwood writes in Decemeber 1906: "... Age of Minerals. If the quantity of the final product occurring with a known amount of its radio-active parent and the rate of disintegration of the parent substance are known, it becomes possible to calculate the length of time which would be required for the production of the former. Thus, knowing the rate of disintegration of uranium, it would be possible to calculate the time required for the production of the proportions of lead found in the different uranium minerals, or in other words the ages of the minerals.
The rate of disintegration of uranium has not as yet been determined by direct experiment, but the rate of disintegration of radium, its radio-active successor, has been calculated by Rutherford from various data. Rutherford's calculations give 2600 years as the time required for half of a given quantity of radium to be transformed into final products. The fraction of radium undergoing transformation per year is accordingly 2.7xlO-4, and preliminary experiments by the writer on the rate of production of radium by actinium have given a value which is in good agreement with this number. The quantity of radium associated with one gram of uranium in a radio-active mineral has also been determined and was found to be 3.8x10-7 gram. On the basis of the disintegration theory, when radium and uranium are in radio-active equilibrium, an equal number of molecules of each disintegrate per second, and, for our present purposes, we can neglect the difference in atomic weight and simply assume that in any time the weights of radium and uranium which undergo transformation are the same. In one gram of uranium the weight of uranium which would be transformed in one year would therefore be 2.7 10-4 x 3.8 10-7 = 10-10 gram, and the fraction of uranium transformed per year would be 10-10. In the table which follows (Table VI) the ages of the minerals included under Table I have been roughly calculated in accordance with the method outlined above. The ages of the minerals in years are obtained by multiplying the average value of the ratio 1010. The general plan of calculating the ages of the minerals in this manner was first suggested to the writer by Prof. Rutherford. {ULSF: table excluded} ... Summary. Evidence has been presented to show that in unaltered, primary minerals from the same locality the amount of lead is proportional to the amount of uranium in the mineral, and in unaltered primary minerals from different localities the amount of lead relative to uranium is greatest in minerals from the locality which, on the basis of geological data, is the oldest. This is considered as proof that lead is the final disintegration product of uranium.
It has also been shown that, on the basis of the experimental data at present available, the amounts of helium found in radio-active minerals are of about the order, and are not in excess of the quantities, to be expected from the assumption that helium is produced by the disintegration of uranium and its products only.
The improbability that either lead or helium are disintegration products of thorium has been pointed out.".
(One part of this that needs to be answered for me is: How can the amount of the original sample be truly known? How does a person know if the portion they test has a representative ratio of the original uranium that changed to lead. Even in the case of the formation of the earth, can people presume that the original sample was 100% uranium? How can a person be sure that the sample they have has representative quantities of each element? - I guess since the decay happens at the atomic level, the ratio should be the same even in very small quantities of sample material. I presume it is not possible that uranium may clump together in one part and be scarse in another part - because no matter how concentrated - the ratio of uranium to lead should be the same -because decay operates at the atomic level. I suppose that each individual atom is at different parts of the decay process, even atoms next to each other - but presumably they would be in a similar stage of the decay process. Apparently, the uranium atoms in each sample would be in a similar stage on the timeline of decay - and this is shown by the ratio of uranium to lead in each sample. This should be shown graphically with a 3D graphical sample showing the atomic lattice, etc.)
| (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 3920) Eduard Adolf Strasburger (sTroSBURGR) (CE 1844-1912), German botanist, originates the terms "haploid" and "diploid".
| (University of Bonn) Bonn, Germany |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4035) First commercially successful automatic color motion picture film camera and projector (kinema-color).
George Albert Smith (CE 1864-1959) patents the "kinema-color" color moving film process in 1906. While patented in 1906, "kinema-color" will not be introduced to the public until 1908. Charles Urban turns Kinemacolor into a new business, the Natural Colour Kinemacolor Company, which is successful from 1910 to 1913, producing over 100 short movies at its studios in Hove and Nice. A patent suit brought against Kinemacolor by William Friese Greene in 1914 leads to its collapse and ends Smith's life in the film business.
William Friese-Greene has patented the first known color motion film process a year before in 1905.
Smith performs in small Brighton halls as a hypnotist, and claims to practice telepathy. Smith coauthors the paper, "Experiments in Thought Transference" for the Society for Psychical Research (SPR). (Was Smith an insider? It seems likely to be possibly taking advantage of outsiders by using seeing and hearing thought machines.)
| (private lab) Southwick, Sussex, England |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4103) Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (KoPTIN) (CE 1851-1922), Dutch astronomer proposed the Kapteyn Plan of Selected Areas for enlisting the help of astronomers throughout earth to determine the apparent magnitudes, parallaxes, spectral types, proper motions, and radial velocities of as many stars as possible in over 200 patches of sky. On the basis of the results Kapteyn proposes a model for the Milky Way Galaxy, now known as the Kapteyn universe, which has our star system nearly in the center embedded in a dense, almost ellipsoidal, concentration of stars which thin out rapidly a few thousand light-years away from the center.
| (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4314) (Sir) Charles Scott Sherrington (CE 1857-1952), English neurologist, identifies the nociceptor, the pain receptor, responsible for the sensation of pain.
Nociceptors are somatic and visceral free nerve endings of thinly myelinated and unmyelinated fibers. They usually react to tissue injury but also may be excited by chemical substances. Nociceptors are sensory receptors, peripheral endings of sensory nerve fibers which connect a sensory nerve cell to tissue, the terminal filaments ending freely in the tissue.
(It seems likely, given the neuron reading and writing secret, that these nerve cells were possibly identified earlier but the remote activating of pain kept secret.)
This work of Sherrington's is from a series of lectures published as "The integration action of the nervous system" (1906).
Sherrington coins the word "nociception" to describe the detection of a noxious even by nociceptors.
Also in this year, Sherrington develops a theory of antagonistic muscles that help explain how a body under the guidance of the nervous system behave as a unit, how, for example, a body can balance without conscious realization of how the muscles push against each other to maintain that balance. Sherrington maps with greater accuracy than ever before the motor areas of the cerebral cortex, showing which region controls the motion of which part of the body.
(show visual, it is good to know this basic information about your own body. In particular to know where the lasers and muscle moving beams are being sent to make an effort to block them.)
Is this a neuron or part of a neuron?
How many specific sensor cells or receptors on cells are there – touch, heat, state each and how found.
| (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4385) (Sir) Frederick Gowland Hopkins (CE 1861-1947), English biochemist performs a classic series of experiments which proves that mice cannot not survive on a mixture of basic food alone. This goes against the popular view that as long as an animal eats enough matter, the animal will survive. Hopkins begins by feeding fat, starch, casein (or milk protein), and essential salts to mice, noting that the mice eventually cease to grow. Addition of a small amount of milk, however, is enough to restart growth.
This makes clear that some amino acids required by a body cannot be manufactured in the body and have to be present in the food they eat. Hopkins therefore originates the idea of the "essential amino acid" which Rose will develop later.
Also in 1906 Hopkins describes, in a lecture, that rickets and scurvy might be brought about by the lack of such necessary substances. Eijkman had already shown that beriberi is caused by diet, and so beriberi can now be understood in the light of missing essential vitamin molecules.
After several years of careful experiments, in 1912, Hopkins announces publicly that there is an unknown constituent of normal diets that is not represented in a synthetic diet of protein, pure carbohydrate, fats, and salts - these necessary substances will soon be called vitamins.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4419) Maximilian Franz Joseph Cornelius Wolf (CE 1863-1932), German astronomer identifies Achilles, the first of the Trojan asteroids (or "Trojan planets"), two groups of asteroids that move around the Sun in Jupiter's orbit: one group 60° ahead of Jupiter, the other 60° behind.
These objects form an equilateral triangle with the Sun and Jupiter, which as Lagrange showed in 1772 is a gravitational stable position.
(So just a group of asteroids is in a tiny part of Jupiter's orbit and the rest of the orbit is empty? It sounds unusual, but there must be many gravitationally stable positions in orbit of the sun. - balanced by the gravitational attraction of two or more other individual masses at all times. I think much depends on their initial position, velocity and direction - those values just happened to be correct to put it in this orbit - where other positions, velocities and directions would result in various gravitational pulls that do not result in a periodic motion.))
| (University of Heidelberg) Heidelberg, Germany |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4442) Hermann Walther Nernst (CE 1864-1941), German physical chemist announces the third law of thermodynamics, which states that entropy change approaches zero at a temperature of absolute zero.
I reject Rudolf Clausius' concept of entropy as being a violation of the conservation of matter and conservation of motion theory.
However, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica, entropy is defined as the energy ( which is the matter and motion) unavailable to perform work and a measure of molecular disorder (although disorder is in my view a human description) of any closed system. Nernst states that entropy tends to zero as its temperature approaches absolute zero (-273.15 °C, or -459.67 °F). In practical terms, this theorem implies the impossibility of attaining absolute zero, since as a system approaches absolute zero, the further extraction of energy from that system becomes more and more difficult.
Planck will put Nernst's law into simplest form in 1911. Lewis will show that the law can be strictly true only for substances in a crystalline state (?) and this is demonstrated experimentally by Giauque. (needs more specific explicit info. What examples does Nernst give? what language does Nernst use?) (the entire entropy idea is so abstract, and I think it is a useless and erroneous concept.)
(Asimov seems to explain this as that the actual temperature of absolute zero can never be reached. Perhaps that entropy is not 0 at temperature 0? It is obvious and simple that in a universe of photons, where all matter is made of photons, that there will never be an empty universe. There is a ratio of matter to space and I think that is possibly one aspect of this line of thought.)
| ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4471) August von Wassermann (VoSRmoN) (CE 1866-1925), German bacteriologist creates a diagnostic test for syphilis.
This test for syphilis is still known as "the Wasserman test". The test is based on the chemical principle of "complement fixation" first identified by Bodet. A person's blood is mixed with certain antigens (for example such as beef liver or heart) (more specific) and if the antibody to the syphilis bacteria (Treponema pallidum) is present the reaction happens and the complement is used up, The test detects the presence of complement, if absent then the syphilis bacteria is present, if the complement is detected no antibody and therefore no syphilis is present. The antibody to the syphilis bacteria was found the year before by Schaudinn.
Wasserman with Albert Neisser and C. Brück. write: "... The so-called fixation of the complement… depends upon this principle: that when an antigen is mixed with its homologous immune body a union occurs between the two. If complement—a constituent of every fresh serum —is added at the same time, it becomes anchored through the union of the antigen and antibody. It follows, accordingly, that if the complement is anchored, the conclusion may be drawn that either the homologous antigen or the homologous immune body is present in such a mixture. The determination whether in such an experiment the complement is bound can be made easily and convincingly. For this purpose one needs simply to add simultaneously, or somewhat later, the serum of an animal which has been previously treated with red blood corpuscles, the so-called amboceptor, together with its homologous erythrocytes. If the complement has already become bound as a result of the union between the antigen and immune bodies, then it is no longer available for the haemolytic amboceptor and the red blood corpuscles. Consequently the latter remain undissolved… {and} from the appearance or non-appearance of haemolysis, one can draw the conclusion as to whether the sought-for antigen or immune body is present. ...".
| (Robert Koch Institute for Infectious Diseases) Berlin, Germany |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4706) Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet (CE 1870-1961), Belgian bacteriologist and Gengou identify the bacterium that causes whooping cough, extract an endotoxin and prepared a vaccine for whooping cough. (a successful vaccine?)
| (Institut Pasteur du Brabant) Brussells, Belgium |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4722) Howard Taylor Ricketts (CE 1871-1910), US pathologist demonstrates that Rocky Mountain spotted fever can be transmitted to a healthy animal by the bite of cattle ticks.
The bacteria that cause Rocky Mountain spotted fever and typhus, the genus "Rickettsia", will be named after Ricketts, (and will be eventually shown through genetic comparison to be the closest known living ancestor of all mitochondria, the organelles in almost all eukaryote cells that perform cellular respiration, which is an aerobic process that involves using oxygen to produce many more ATP molecules than glycolysis can.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
94 YBN
[1906 AD]
| 4868) Otto Paul Hermann Diels (DELS) (CE 1876-1954) German chemist synthesizes a new and important compound, which is a highly reactive substance, carbon suboxide (the acid anhydride of malonic acid) (C3O2). Diels determines its properties and chemical composition.
(Describe how is prepared)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
93 YBN
[04/03/1907 AD]
| 4763) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, states that if ordinary matter when breaking into simpler forms emits as much heat as radium does, that the Sun may produce heat for a much longer time than predicted by Lord Kelvin, who estimated that the Sun will only shine at its present brightness for no more then 12 million years.
| (McGill University) Montreal, Canada |
93 YBN
[05/??/1907 AD]
| 4269) Early mass spectrometer (spectrograph), a device which can separate ions by their mass. (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, deflects the positive rays found by Goldstein (Kanelstrahlen) by magnetic and electric fields so that ions of different ratios of charge to mass strike different parts of a phosphorescent screen.
Thomson finds that the e/m ratio for Helium is the same as that measured for the alpha particles (rays) from radioactive material, and concludes that alpha rays are made of helium. Thomson displays the figures created by the positive rays in Hydrogen, Helium and Air. In addition, Thomson (CE 1856-1940) suggests calling the rays Goldstein discovered in 1886 "positive rays" as opposed to the name Goldstein had given them of "Kanalstrahlen".
Thomson develops a method where the charged particles in a beam are deflected in the y dimension by an electric force, and in the z dimension by a magnetic force. This causes a parabolic arc to be displayed on a phorescent screen (made with Willemite powder attached with sodium-silicate {"water-glass"} on a glass plate) and later in 1910 directly captured on photographic paper. The dimensions of this arc can be used to determine the e/m ratio of the particles of the beam. Initially Thomson observes the large deflection of the positive Hydrogen ion, then Thomson observes positive rays having values of m/e 1.5, 2.5 that of the hydrogen atom.
In 1912 Thomson uses this method to determine that ions of neon gas fall on two different spots, differing in charge or mass or both, and this is evidence of 2 isotopes of neon.
This invention of Thomson's is an earlier form of mass spectrograph in which a beam of positive rays from a discharge tube passes through a magnetic and an electric field, which deflects the beam both horizontally and vertically. All particles (ions) with the same mass fall onto a fluorescent screen in a parabola. Thomson's assistant Francis Aston will improve the design by adapting the magnetic field, so that ions of the same mass are focused in a straight line rather than a parabola. With Aston's mass spectrometer, different ions are deflected by different amounts, and the spectrograph produced a photographic record of a series of lines, each corresponding to one type of ion. The deflections allow accurate calculation of the mass of the ions.
In his May 1907 paper "On Rays of Positive Electricity" Thomson writes: "IN 1886 Goldstein discovered that when the cathode in a discharge-tube is perforated, rays pass through the openings and produce luminosity in the gas behind the cathode ; the colour of the light depends on the gas with which the tube is filled and coincides with the colour of the velvety glow which occurs immediately in front of the cathode. The appearance of these rays is indicated in fig. 1, the anode being to the left of the cathode KK. Since the rays appeared through narrow channels in the cathode, Goldstein called them "Kanalstrahlen" : now that we know more about their nature, "positive rays" would, I think, be a more appropriate name. Goldstein showed that a magnetic force which would deflect cathode rays to a very considerable extent was quite without effect on the "Kanalstrahlen." By using intense magnetic fields, W. Wien showed that these rays could be deflected, and that the deflexion was in the opposite direction to that of the cathode rays, indicating that these rays carry a positive charge of electricity. This was confirmed by measuring the electrical charge received by a vessel into which the rays passed through a small hole, and also by observing the direction in which they are deflected by an electric force. By measuring the deflexions under magnetic and electric forces, Wien found by the usual methods the value of e/m and the velocity of the rays. He found for the maximum value of e/m the value of 104, which is the same as that for an atom of hydrogen in the electrolysis of solutions. A valuable summary of the properties of these rays is contained in a paper by Ewers (Jahrbuch der Radioaktivitat, iii. p. 291 (1906)).
As these rays seem the most promising subjects for investigating the nature of positive electricity, I have made a series of determinations of the values of e/m for positive rays under different conditions. The results of these I will now proceed to describe.
Apparatus.
Screen used to detect the rays.—The rays were detected and their position determined by the phosphorescence they produced on a screen at the end of the discharge-tube. A considerable number of substances were examined to find the one which would fluoresce most brightly under the action of the rays. As the result of these trials, Willemite was selected. This was ground to a very fine powder and dusted uniformly over a flat plate of glass. Considerable trouble was found in obtaining a suitable substance to make the powder adhere to the glass. All gums &c. when bombarded by the rays are liable to give off gas ; this renders them useless for work in vacuum-tubes. The method finally adopted was to smear a thin layer of "water-glass" (sodium-silicate) over the glass plate, and then dust the powdered Willemite over this layer and allow the water-glass to dry slowly before fastening the plate to the end of the tube. The form of tube adopted is shown in fig. 2. A hole is bored through the cathode, and this hole leads to a very fine tube F. The bore of this tube is made as fine as possible so as to get a small well-defined fluorescent patch on the screen. These tubes were either carefully made glass tubes, or else the hollow thin needles used for hypodermic injections, which I find answer excellently for this purpose. After getting through the needle, the positive rays on their way down the tube pass between two parallel aluminium plates A, A. These plates are vertical, so that when they are maintained at different potentials the rays are subject to a horizontal electric force, which produces a horizontal deflexion of the patch of light on the screen. The part of the tube containing the parallel aluminium plates is narrowed as much as possible, and passes between the poles P, P of a powerful electromagnet of the Du Bois type. The poles of this magnet are as close together as the glass tube will permit, and are arranged so that the lines of magnetic force are horizontal and at right angles to the path of the rays. The magnetic force produces a vertical deflexion of the patch of phosphorescence on the screen. To bend the positive rays it is necessary to use strong magnetic fields, and if any of the lines of force were to stray into the discharge-tube in front of the cathode, they would distort the discharge in that part of the tube. This distortion might affect the position of the phosphorescent patch on the screen, so that unless we shield the discharge-tube we cannot be sure that the displacement of the phosphorescence is entirely due to the electric and magnetic fields acting on the positive rays after they have emerged from behind the cathode.
To screen off the magnetic field, the tube was placed in a soft iron vessel W with a hole knocked in the bottom, through which the part of the tube behind the cathode was pushed. Behind the vessel a thick plate of soft iron with a hole bored through it was placed, and behind this again as many thin plates of soft iron, such as are used for transformers, as there was room for were packed. When this was done it was found that the magnet produced no perceptible effect on the discharge in front of the cathode.
The object of the experiments was to determine the value of e/m by observing the deflexion produced by magnetic and electric fields. When the rays were undeflected they produced a bright spot on the screen ; when the rays passed through electric and magnetic fields the spot was not simply deflected to another place, but was drawn out into bands or patches, sometimes covering a considerable area. To determine the velocity of the rays and the value of e/m, it was necessary to have a record of the shape of these patches. This might have been done by substituting a photographic plate for the Willemite screen. This, however, was not the method adopted, as, in addition to other inconveniences, it involves opening the tube and repumping for each observation, a procedure which would have involved a great expenditure of time. The method actually adopted was as follows :—The tube was placed in a dark room from which all light was carefully excluded, the tube itself being painted over so that no light escaped from it. Under these circumstances the phosphorescence on the screen appeared bright and its boundaries well defined. The observer traced in Indian ink on the outside of the thin flat screen the outline of the phosphorescence. When this had been satisfactorily accomplished the discharge was stopped, the light admitted into the room, and the pattern on the screen transferred to tracing-paper; the deviations were then measured on these tracings. ...". Thomson then gives equations that describe the motion of the deflected particles by the electrostatic and electromagnetic fields. Thomson then writes: "...We see that if the pencil is made up of rays having a constant velocity but having all values of e/m up to a maximum value, the spot of light will be spread out by the magnetic and electric fields into a straight line extending a finite distance from the origin. While if it is made up of two sets of rays, one having the velocity v1 the other tho velocity r2, the spot will be drawn out into two straight lines as in fig. 4.
If e/m is constant and the velocities have all values up to a maximum, the spot of light will be spread out into a portion of a parabola, as indicated in fig. 5.
We shall later on give examples of each of these cases.
The discharge was produced by means of a large induction-coil, giving a spark of about 50 cm. in air, with a vibrating make and break apparatus. Many tubes were used in the course of the investigation, the dimensions of these varied slightly. The distance of the screen from the hole from which the rays emerged was about 9 cm., the length of the parallel plates about 3 cm., and the distance between them '3 cm. Properties of the Positive Rays when the Pressure is not exceedingly loic.
The appearance of the phosphorescent patch after deflexion in the electric and magnetic fields depends greatly upon the pressure of the gas. I will begin by considering the case when the pressure is comparatively high, say of the order of 1/50 of a millimetre. At these pressures, though the walls of the tube in front of the cathode were covered with bright phosphorescence and the dark space extended right up to the walls of the tube and was several centimetres thick, traces of the positive column could be detected in the neighbourhood of the anode. I will first hike the case where the tube was filled with air. Special precautions were taken to free the air from hydrogen ; it was carefully dried, and a subsidiary discharge-tube having a cathode made of the liquid alloy of sodium and potassium was fused on to the main tube. When the discharge passes from such a cathode it absorbs hydrogen. The discharge was sent through this tube at the lowest pressure at which enough light was produced in the gas to give a visible spectrum, until the hydrogen lines disappeared and the only lines visible were those of nitrogen and mercury vapour. This pressure was a little higher than that used for the investigation of the positive rays, but a pump or two was sufficient to bring the pressure down to this value. The appearance of the phosphorescence on the screen when the rays were deflected by magnetic and electric forces separately and conjointly is shown in fig. 6. The deflexion under magnetic force alone is indicated by vertical shading, under electric force alone by horizontal shading, and under the two combined by cross shading. The spot of phosphorescence is drawn out into a band on either side of its original position. The upper portion, which is very much the brighter, is deflected in the direction which indicates that the phosphorescence is produced by rays having a positive charge ; the lower portion (indicated by dots in the figure), which though faint is quite perceptible on the Willemite screen, is deflected as if the rays carried a negative charge. The length of the lower portion is somewhat shorter than that of the upper one, but is quite comparable with it. The intensity of the luminosity in the upper portion is at these pressures quite continuous : no abrupt variations such as would show themselves as bright patches could be detected, although, as will be seen later on, these make their appearance at lower pressures. Considering for the present the upper portion, the straightuess of the edges shows that the velocity of the rays is approximately constant, while the values of e/m range from zero at the undeflected portion to the value approximately equal to 104 at the top of the deflected band. This value of e/m is equal to that for a charged hydrogen atom, and moreover there was no specially great luminosity in the positions corresponding to e/m = 104/14 and 104/16, the values for rays carried by nitrogen or oxygen atoms, though these places were carefully scrutinised. As hydrogen when present as an impurity in the tube has a tendency to accumulate near the cathode, the following experiment was tried to see whether the Kaualstrahlen were produced from traces of hydrogen in the tube. The discharge was sent through the tube in the opposite direction. i. e., so that the perforated electrode was the anode, the electric and magnetic fields being kept on. When the discharge passed in this way there was of course no luminosity on the screen ; on reversing the coil again so that the perforated electrode was the cathode, the luminosity flashed out instantly, presenting exactly the same appearance as it had done when the tube had been running for some time with the perforated electrode as cathode. The fact that a spot of light produced by the undeflected positive rays is under the action of electric and magnetic forces drawn out into a continuous band was observed by W. Wien, who was the first to measure the deflexion of the positive rays under electric and magnetic forces. The values of e/m obtained from the deflexions of various parts of this band range continuously from zero, the value corresponding to the uudeflected portion, to 104, the value corresponding to those most deflected. Wien explained this by the hypothesis that the charged particles which make up the positive rays act as nuclei round which molecules of the gas through which the rays pass condense, so that very complex systems made up of a very large number of molecules get mixed up with the particles forming the positive rays, and that it is these heavy and cumbrous systems which give rise to that part of the luminosity which is only slightly deflected. I think that the constancy of the velocity of the rays, indicated by the straight edges of the deflected band, is a strong argument against this explanation, and that the existence of the negative rays is conclusive against it. These negatively electrified rays, which form the faintly luminous portion of the phosphorescence indicated in fig. 6, are not cathode rays. The magnitude of their deflexion shows that the ratio of e/m for these rays, instead of being as great as 1.7 x 107. the value for cathode rays, is less than 104. The particles forming these rays are thus comparable in size with those which form the positive rays. The existence of these negatively electrified rays suggests at once an explanation, which I think is the true one, of the continuous band into which the spot of phosphorescence is drawn out by the electric and magnetic fields. The values of e/m which arc determined by this method are really the mean values of e/m, while the particle is in the electric and magnetic fields. If the particles are for a part of their course through these fields without charge, they will not during this part of their course be deflected, and in consequence the deflexions observed on the screen, and consequently the values of e/m, will be smaller than if the particle had retained its charge during the whole of its career. Thus, suppose that some of the particles constituting the positive rays, after starting with a positive charge, get this charge neutralized by attracting to them a negatively electrified corpuscle : the mass of the corpuscle is so small in comparison with that of the particle constituting the positive ray, that the addition of the particle will not appreciably diminish the velocity of the positive particle. Some of these neutralized particles may get positively ionized again by collision, while others may get a negative charge by the adhesion to them of another corpuscle, and this process might be repeated during the course of the particle. Thus there would be among the rays some which were for part of their course unelectrified, at other parts positively electrified, and at other parts negatively electrified. Thus the mean value of e/m might have all values ranging from α, its initial value, to —α', where α' might be only a little less than α. This is just what we observe, and when we remember that the gas through which the rays are passing is ionized, and contains a large number of corpuscles, it is, I think, what we should expect. At very low pressures, when there are very few ions in the gas, this continuous band stretching from the origin is replaced by discontinuous patches.
Positive Rays in Hydrogen. In hydrogen, when the pressure is not too low. the brightness of the phosphorescent patch is greater than in air at the same pressure; the shape of the deflected phosphorescence is markedly different from that in air. In air, the deflected phosphorescence is usually a straight band, whereas in hydrogen the boundary of the most deflected side is distinctly curved and is concave to the undeflected position. The appearance of the deflected phosphorescence is indicated in fig. 7. The result indicated in fig. 8. which was also obtained with hydrogen, shows that we have here a mixture of two bands, as indicated in fig. 4, the two bands being produced by carriers having different maximum values of e/m. The greatest value of e/m obtained with hydrogen was the same as in air, 1.2 x 104, the velocity was 1.8 x 108 cm./sec. The presence of the second band indicates that mixed with these we have another set of carriers, for which the maximum value e/m is half that in the other band, i. e. 5 x 103. The curvature of the boundary generally observed is due to the admixture of these two rays.
Positive Rays in Helium. In helium the phosphorescence is bright and the deflected patch has in general the curved outline observed in hydrogen. I was fortunate enough, however, to find a stage in which the deflected patch was split up into two distinct bands, as shown in fig. 9. The maximum value of e/m in the band a was 1.2 x 104, the same as in air and hydrogen, and the velocity was 1.8 x 108; while the maximum value of e/m in band b was almost exactly one quarter of that in a (i. e. 2.9 x 102). As the atomic weight of helium is four times that of hydrogen, this result indicates that the carriers which produce the band b are atoms of helium. This result is interesting because it is the only case (apart from hydrogen) in which I have found values of e/m corresponding to the atomic weight of the gas : and even in the case of helium, when the pressure in the discharge-tube is very low and the electric field very intense, the characteristic ravs with e/m = 2.9 X 103 sometimes disappear and, as in all the gases I have tried, we get two sets of rays, for one set of which e/m=104 and for the other 5 X 103. Although the helium had been carefully purified from hydrogen, the band a (for which e/m = 104) was generally the brighter of the two. The case of helium is an interesting one; for the class of positive rays, known as the α rays, which are given off by radioactive substances, would a priori seem to consist most probably of helium, since helium is one of the products of disintegration of these substances. The value of e/m for these substances is 5 x 103, where we have seen that, in helium it is possible to obtain rays for which e/m = 2.9 x 103. It is true that, at very low pressures and with strong electric fields, we get rays for which e/m = 5 x 103; but this is not a peculiarity of helium : all the gases which I have tried show exactly the same effect.
Argon. When the discharge passed through argon the effects observed were very similar to those occurring in air. The sides were perhaps a little more curved, and there was a tendency for bright spots to develop. The measurements of the electric and magnetic deflexion of these spots gave e/m = 104, the value obtained for other cases. There was no appreciable increase of luminosity in the positions corresponding to e/m=104/40, as there would have been if an appreciable number of the carriers had been argon atoms.
Positive Rays in Gases at very low pressures. As the pressure of the gas in the discharge-tube is gradually reduced, the appearance of the deflected phosphorescence changes : instead of forming a continuous band, the phosphorescence breaks up into two isolated patches ; that part of the phosphorescence in which the deflexion was very small disappears, as also does the phosphorescence produced by the negatively electrified portion of the rays. In the earlier experiments considerable difficulty was experienced in working at these very low pressures ; for when the pressure was reduced sufficiently to get the effects just described, the discharge passed through the tube with such difficulty, that in a very few seconds after this stage was reached sparks passed from the inside to the outside of the tube, perforating the glass and destroying the vacuum. In spite of all precautions, such as earthing the cathode and all conductors in its neighbourhood, perforation took place too quickly to permit measurements of the deflexion of the phosphorescence. This difficulty was overcome by taking advantage of the fact that, when the cathode is made of a very electropositive metal, the discharge passes with much greater ease than when the cathode is made of aluminium or platinum. The electropositive metals used for the cathode were (1) the liquid alloy of sodium and potassium which was smeared over the cathode, and (2) calcium, a thin plate of which was affixed to the front of the cathode. With these cathodes the pressure in the tube could be reduced to very low values without making the discharge so difficult as to lead to perforation of the tube by sparking, and accurate measurements of the position of the patches of phosphorescence could be obtained at leisure. The results obtained at these low pressures are very interesting. Whatever kind of gas may be used to fill the tube, or whatever the nature of the electrode, the deflected phosphorescence splits up into two patches. For one of these patches the maximum value of e/m is about 104, the value for the hydrogen atom : while the value for the other patch is about 5 X 103, the value for α particles or the hydrogen molecule. Examples of the appearance of this phosphorescence are given in figs. 10, 11, 12 ; in fig. 12 the magnetic force was reversed. The differences in the appearance are due to differences in the pressure rather than to differences in the gas : for at slightly higher pressures than that corresponding to fig. 12, the appearance shown in figs. 10 and 11 can be obtained in air. In all these cases the more deflected patch corresponds to a value of about 104 for e/m, while e/m for the less deflected patch is about 5 x 103. It will be noticed that in fig. 11 there is no trace in the helium tube of rays for which e/m = 2.5x 104?, which were found in helium tubes at higher pressures : at intermediate pressures there are three distinct patches in helium, for the first of which e/m= 104, for the second e/m = 5 x 103, and for the third e/m = 2.5 X 103 approximately. Helium is a case where there are characteristic rays—i. e., rays for which e/m = 104/M, where M is the atomic weight of the gas, when the discharge potential is comparatively small, and not when, as at very low pressures, the discharge potential is very large. I think it very probable that if we could produce the positive rays with much smaller potential differences than those used in these experiments, we might get the characteristic rays for other gases. I am at present investigating with this object the positive rays produced when the perforated cathode is, as in Wehnelt's method, coated with lime, when a potential difference of 100 volts or less is able to produce positive rays. The interest of the experiments at very low pressures lies in the fact that in this case the rays are the same whatever gas may be used to fill the tube ; the characteristic rays of the gas disappear, and we get the same kind of carriers for all substances. I would especially call attention to the simplicity of the effects produced at these low pressures : only two patches of phosphorescence are visible. This is, I think, an important matter in connexion with the interpretation of these results ; for at these low pressures we have to deal not only with the gas with which the tube was originally filled, but also with the gas which is given off by the electrodes and the walls of the tube during the discharge : and it might he urged that at these low pressures the tube contained nothing but hydrogen given out by the electrodes. I do not think this explanation is feasible, for the following reasons :—
(1) The gas developed during the discharge is not wholly hydrogen : if the discharge is kept passing long enough to develop so much gas that the discharge through the gas is sufficiently luminous to be observed by a spectroscope, the spectrum always showed, in addition to the hydrogen lines, the nitrogen bands ; indeed, the latter were generally the most conspicuous part of the spectrum. If the phosphorescent screen on which the positive rays impinge is observed during the time this gas is being given off, the changes which {ULSF: typo is whieh"} take place in the appearance of the screen are as follows :—If, to begin with, the pressure is so slow that the phosphorescent patches are reduced to two bright spots, then, as the pressure begins to go up owing to the evolution of the gas, the deflexion of the spots increases. This is owing to the reduction in the velocity of the rays consequent upon the reduction of the potential difference between the terminals of the tube, as at this stage an increase in the pressure facilitates the passage of the discharge. In addition to the increase in the displacement, there is an increase in the area of the spots giving a greater range of values of e/m : this is owing to the increase in the number of collisions made by the particles in the rays on their way to the screen. As more and more gas is evolved, the patches get larger and finally overlap ; the existence of the second patch being indicated by a diminution in the brightness of the phosphorescence at places outside its boundary. As the pressure increases the luminosity gets more and more continuous, and we finally get to the continuous band as shown in fig. 6. At this stage it is probable that there may be enough luminosity to give a spectrum showing the nitrogen lines, indicating that a considerable part of the gas in the tube is air. It is especially to be noted that during this process, when gas was coming into the tube, there has been no development of patches in the phosphorescence indicating the presence of new rays ; on the contrary, one type of carrier—that corresponding to e/m = 5 x 103—has disappeared. The presence of the nitrogen bands in the spectrum shows that nitrogen is carrying part of the discharge, and yet there are no rays characteristic of nitrogen to be observed on the screen ; a proof, it seems to me, that different gases may be made by strong electric fields to give off the same kind of carriers of positive electricity. {ULSF note: the potential double meaning - of "different gases may be made by ..." - perhaps at this point secretly people had figured out in all the developed nations how to create different gases from smaller parts - like from photons, or building up from Hydrogen - a research, which, like trying to hear thought and even sounds ears hear, is conspicuously absent from science journals.} Another result which shows that the positive rays are the same even although the gases are different is the following. The tube was pumped until the pressure was much too low for the discharge to pass, then small quantities of the following gases were put into the tube : air, carbonic oxide, hydrogen, helium, neon (for which I am indebted to the kindness of Sir James Dewar); the quantity admitted was adjusted so that it was sufficient to cause the discharge to pass and yet did not raise the pressure beyond the point where the phosphorescence is discontinuous. In every case there were patches corresponding to e/m=104, e/m = 5 x 103, and except with helium these were the only patches ; in helium, in addition to the two already mentioned, there was a third patch for which e/m = 2.5x103. I also tried another method of ensuring that at these low pressures there were other gases besides hydrogen in the tube. I filled the tube with helium, and after exhausting to a fairly low pressure by means of the mercury pump. I performed the last stages of the exhaustion by means of charcoal cooled with liquid air. This charcoal absorbs very little helium in comparison with other gases ; so that it is certain that there was helium in the tube. The appearance of the phosphorescent screen of tubes exhausted in this way did not differ from those exhausted solely by the pump. The most obvious explanation of these effects seems to me to be that under very intense electric fields different substances give out particles charged with positive electricity, and that these particles are independent of the nature of the gas from which they originate. These particles are, as far as we know at present, of two kinds : for one kind e/m has the value of 104, that of an atom of hydrogen; for the other kind e/m has half this value, ;i. e. it has the same value as for the α particles from radioactive substances. This agreement in the maximum value of e/m at different pressures is a proof that this is a true maximum, and that there are not other more deflected rays not strong enough to produce visible phosphorescence ; for if this were the case— i. e., if the value of e/m for a particle that had never lost its charge temporarily by collision were greater than 104—we should expect to get larger values for e/m at low pressures than at high. I have much pleasure in thanking my assistant Mr. E. Everett for the assistance he has given me in these experiments."
(Notice how at this stage, Thomson believes that the positive rays are only of two kinds, Hydrogen and Helium. Later, Thomson and others realize that the positive rays can contain a variety of different positive ions, depending on the gas, and electrode material. It is interesting that there are these differences between cathode rays and anode rays - for example that there are not negative ions in cathode rays.)
In a May 22, 1913 lecture Thomson describes his method: "In 1886, Goldstein observed that when the cathode in a vacuum tube was pierced with holes, the electrical discharge did not stop at the cathode; behind the cathode, beams of light could be seen streaming through the holes in the way represented in Figure 1. He ascribed these pencils of light to rays passing through the holes into the gas behind the cathode; and from their association with the channels through the cathode he called these rays Kanalstrahlen. The colour of the light behind the cathode depends on the gas in the tube: with air the light is yellowish, with hydrogen rose colour, with neon the gorgeous neon red, the effects with this gas being exceedingly striking. The rays produce phosphorescence when they strike against the walls of the tube; they also affect a photographic plate. Goldstein could not detect any deflection when a permanent magnet was held near the rays. In 1898, however, W. Wein, by the use of very powerful magnetic fields, deflected these rays and showed that some of them were positively charged; by measuring the electric and magnetic deflections he proved that the masses of the particles in these rays were comparable with the masses of atoms of hydrogen, and thus were more than a thousand times the mass of a particle in the cathode ray. The composition of these positive rays is much more complex than that of the cathode rays, for whereas the particles in the cathode rays are all of the same kind, there are in the positive rays many different kinds of particles. We can, however, by the following method sort these particles out, determine what kind of particles are present, and the velocities with which they are moving. Suppose that a pencil of these rays is moving parallel to the axis of x, striking a plane a right angles to their path at the point O; if before they reach the plane they are acted on by an electric force parallel to the axis of y, the spot where a particle strikes the plane will be deflected parallel to y through a distance y given by the equationy = (e/mv2) A , where e, m, v, are respectively the charge, mass, and velocity of the particle, and A a constant depending on the strength of the electric field and the length of path of the particle, but quite independent of e, m, or v.
If the particle is acted upon by a magnetic force parallel to the axis of y, it will be deflected parallel to the axis of z, and the deflection in this direction of the spot where the particle strikes the plane will be given by the equation
z = (e/mv) B , where B is a quantity depending on the magnetic field and length of path of the particle, but independent of e, m, v. If the particle is acted on simultaneously by the electric and magnetic forces, the spot where it strikes the plane will, if the undeflected position be taken as the origin, have for coordinates
| | e | | e
| (1) x = 0, | y = | ---- | A, z = | ---- | B .
| | | mv2 | | mv |
Thus no two particles will strike the plane in the same place, unless they have the same value of v and also the same value of e/m; we see, too, that if we know the value of y and z, we can, from equation (1), calculate the values of v and e/m, and thus find the velocities and character of the particles composing the positive rays. From equation (1) we see that
| e | | B2 | | B
| (2) z2 = | -- | y | --- , | z = yv | -- .
| | m | | A | | A |
Thus all the particles which have a given value of e/m strike the plane on a parabola, which can be photographed by allowing the particles to fall on a photographic plate. Each type of particle in the positive rays will produce a separate parabola, so that an inspection of the plate shows at a glance how many kinds of particles there are in the rays; the measurement of the parabolas, and the use of equation (2), enables us to find the values of m/e corresponding to them, and thus to make a complete analysis of the gases in the positive rays. To compare the values of m/e corresponding to the different parabolas, we need only measure the values of z on these parabolas corresponding to a constant value of y. We see from equation (2) that the values of e/m are proportional to the squares of the values of z. Thus, if we know the value of e/m for one parabola, we can with very little labour deduce the values of e/m for all the others. As the parabola corresponding to the hydrogen atom is found on practically all the plates, and as this can be at once recognised, since it is always the most deflected parabola, it is a very easy matter to find the values of m/e for the other particles. Photographs made by the positive rays after they have suffered electric and magnetic deflections are reproduced in Figure 2. The apparatus I have used for photographing the rays is shown in Figure 3.
A is a large bulb of from 1 to 2 litres capacity in which the discharge passes, C the cathode placed in the neck of the bulb. ...
The form of cathode which I have found to give the best pencil of rays is shown in Figure 3. The front of the cathode is an aluminium cap, carefully worked so as to be symmetrical about an axis: this cap fits on to a cylinder made of soft iron with a hole bored along the axis; the object of making the cathode of iron is to screen the rays from magnetic force while they are passing through the hole. A case fitting tightly into this hole contains a long narrow tube which is the channel through which the rays pass into the tube behind the cathode. This tube is the critical part of the apparatus, and failure to obtain a good pencil of rays is generally due to some defect here. As the length of this tube is very long in proportion to its diameter--the length of most of the tubes I have used is about 6 cm. and the diameter from 0.1 to 0.5 mm.--it requires considerable care to get it straight enough to allow an uninterrupted passage to the rays. ... It is useless to attempt to experiment with positive rays unless this tube is exceedingly straight. The rays themselves exert a sand blast kind of action on the tube and disintegrate the metal; after prolonged use the metallic dust may accumulate to such an extent that the tube gets silted up, and obstructs the passage of the rays. The cathode is fixed into the glass vessel by a little wax; the joint is made tight so that the only channel of communication from one side of the cathode to the other is through the tube in the cathode. The wax joint is surrounded by a water jacket J to prevent the wax being heated by the discharge. The arrangements used to produce the electric and magnetic fields to deflect the rays are shown at L and M. An ebonite tube is turned so as to have the shape shown in Figure 3, L and M are two pieces of soft iron with carefully worked plane faces, placed so as to be parallel to each other, these are connected with a battery of storage cells and furnish the electric field. P and Q are the poles of an electromagnet separated from L and M by the thin walls of the ebonite box: when the electromagnet is in action there is a strong magnetic field between L and M; the lines of magnetic force and electric force are by this arrangement parallel to each other and the electric and magnetic fields are as nearly as possible coterminous. ... Plates of soft iron are placed between the electromagnet and the discharge tube to prevent the discharge from being affected by the magnetic field.
The pressure in the tube behind the cathode must be kept very low, this is done by means of a tube containing charcoal cooled by liquid air. The pressure on the other side of the cathode is much higher. ...
The parabolas are determined by the values of e/m, thus an atom with a single charge would produce the same parabola as a diatomic molecule with a double charge. We can, however, by the following method distinguish between parabolas due to particles with a single charge and those due to particles with more than one charge.
The parabolas are not complete parabolas, but arcs starting at a finite distance from the vertical, this distance is by equation (1) inversely proportional to the maximum kinetic energy possessed by the particle. This maximum kinetic energy is that due to the charge on the particle falling from the potential of the anode to that of the cathode in the discharge tube. Consider now the particles which have two charges: these acquire in the discharge tube twice as much kinetic energy as the particles with a single charge. Some of these doubly charged particles will lose one of their charges while passing through the long narrow tube in the cathode, and will emerge as particles with a single charge; they will, however, possess twice as much kinetic energy as those which have had one charge all the time. Thus the stream of singly charged particles emerging from the tube will consist of two sets, one having twice as much kinetic energy as the other; the particles having twice the kinetic energy will strike the plate nearer to the vertical than the others, and will thus prolong beyond the normal length the arc of the parabola corresponding to the singly charged particle. ...
If the atom acquired more than two charges the prolongation of the atomic line would be still longer. If, for example, it could acquire eight charges it would be prolonged until its extremity was only one-eighth of the normal distance from the vertical. ...
Using this method to distinguish between singly and multiply charged systems we find that the particles which produce the parabolas on the photographic plates may be divided into the following classes:
- Positively
electrified atoms with one charge.
- Positively electrified molecules with one charge.
- Positively
electrified atoms with multiple charges.
- Negatively electrified atoms.
- Negatively electrified
molecules.
The production of a charged molecule involves nothing more than the detachment of a corpuscle from the molecule, that of a charged atom requires the dissociation of the molecule as well as the electrification of the atom. ...
The rarity of the doubly charged molecule seems to indicate that the shock which produces the double charge is sufficiently intense to dissociate the molecule into its atoms. The uniformity of the intensity of the parabolas corresponding to the multiply charged atoms shows that they acquire this charge at one operation and not by repeated ionisation on their way to the cathode.
The occurrence of the multiple charge does not seem to be connected with the valency or other chemical property of the atom. ... Elements as different in their chemical properties as carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, chlorine, helium, neon, a new gas whose atomic weight is 22, argon, krypton, mercury, all give multiply charged atoms. The fact that these multiple charges so frequently occur on atoms of the inert gases proves, I think, that they are not produced by any process of chemical combination.
All the results point to the conclusion that the occurrence and magnitude of the multiple charge is connected with the mass of the atom rather than with its valency or chemical properties. We find, for example, that the atom of mercury, the heaviest atom I have tested, can have as many as 8 charges, krypton can have as many as 5, argon 3, neon 2, and so on. There is evidence that when these multiple charges occur the process of ionisation is generally such that the atom starts either with one charge or with the maximum number, that in the ionisation of mercury vapour, for example, the mercury atom begins either with 1 charge or with 8, and that the particles which produce the parabola corresponding to 5 charges, for example, started with 8 and lost 3 of them on its way through the tube in the cathode. ...
The use of positive rays as a method of chemical analysis
Since each parabola on the photograph indicates the presence in the discharge tube of particles having a known value of m/e, and as by the methods described above we can determine what multiple e is of the unit charge, we can, by measuring the parabolas, determine the masses of all the particles in the tube, and thus identify the contents of the tube as far as this can be done by a knowledge of the atomic and molecular weights of all its constituents. The photograph of the positive rays thus gives a catalogue of the atomic and molecular weights of the elements and compounds in the tube. This method has several advantages in comparison with that of spectrum analysis, especially for the detection of new substances; for, with this method, when we find a new line we know at once the atomic or molecular weight of the particle which produced it. Spectrum analysis would be much easier and more efficient if from the wavelength of a line in the spectrum we could deduce the atomic weight of the element which produced it, and this virtually is what we can do with the positive-ray method. Again, in a mixture the presence of one gas is apt to swamp the spectrum of another, necessitating, in many cases, considerable purification of the gas before it can be analysed by the spectroscope. This is not the case to anything like the same extent with the positive rays; with these the presence of other gases is a matter of comparatively little importance.
With regard to the sensitiveness of the positive ray method, I have made, as yet, no attempt to design tubes which would give the maximum sensitiveness, but with the tubes actually in use there is no difficulty in detecting the helium contained in a cubic centimetre of air, even though it is mixed with other gases, and I have not the slightest doubt a very much greater degree of sensitiveness could be obtained without much difficulty.
I will illustrate the use of the method by some applications. The first of these is to the detection of rare gases in the atmosphere. Sir James Dewar kindly supplied me with some gases obtained from he residues of liquid air; the first sample had been treated so as to contain the heavier constituents. The positive-ray photograph gave the lines of xenon, krypton, argon, and a faint line due to neon; there were no lines on the photograph unaccounted for, and so we may conclude that there are no heavy unknown gases in the atmosphere occurring in quantities comparable with that of xenon. The second sample from Sir James Dewar contained the lighter gases; the photograph shows that, in addition to helium and neon, there is another gas with an atomic weight about 22. This gas has been found in every specimen of neon which has been examined, including a very carefully purified sample prepared by Mr. E. W. Watson and a specimen very kindly supplied by M. Claud, of Paris. ... The substance giving the line 22 also occurs with a double charge, giving a line for which m/e = 11. There can, therefore, I think, be little doubt that what has been called neon is not a simple gas but a mixture of two gases, one of which has an atomic weight about 20 and the other about 22. The parabola due to the heavier gas is always much fainter than that due to the lighter, so that probably the heavier gas forms only a small percentage of the mixture.".
In a obituary, Rayleigh G. Strutt writes in 1941: " The positive rays originally discovered by Goldstein are found in low-pressure discharge tubes which have a hole in the cathode. They proceed into the force-free space behind the cathode. It was shown by W. Wien that these rays are corpuscular and carry a positive charge. He established further that they had atomic dimensions. When Thomson took up the subject no one had succeeded in obtaining a clear separation of the different kinds of atoms which might be present in these rays, and it was his great achievement to have done this. The method was to use parallel fields, magnetic and electrostatic. These give crossed deflections. The rays were received on a photographic plate, and co-ordinates measured on this gave the magnetic and electrostatic deflections respectively. Thomson discovered the importance of carrying out these experiments at the lowest possible gas pressure, so as to avoid secondary phenomena, due to the particles acquiring or losing a charge while they were traversing the field. When this precaution was taken it was found that the picture on a fluorescent screen or photographic plate was a series of parabolas with their common vertices at the point of zero deflection and with their axes parallel to the direction of electrostatic deflection. Each of these parabolas indicated one particular kind of atom or atomic group with a certain specific charge, and each point on the curve corresponded to a different velocity of the particle. In this way a great variety of different atoms and atomic groupings were proved to be present in the discharge tube and their nature could be identified by measurement of the co-ordinates on the picture, combined with the knowledge of the values of the electrostatic and magnetic fields. An entirely new way of separating atoms was attained, generally confirmatory of the results given by chemical methods, but showing that atomic groupings could exist, such as CH or CH2or CH3, which have no stable existence in the chemistry of matter in bulk. It was shown that the atom of mercury, for example, could take up a great variety of charges from one to seven times the electronic charge. Another very important result was that the rare gas, neon, showed two separate parabolas, one indicative of atomic weight of 20, the other an atomic weight of 22. This was the first indication of the presence of isotopes outside the field of radio activity. In these experiments Thomson had the help of Dr F. W. Aston, who, as is well known, later developed the subject independently with great success.". (Notice the double-meaning on '...an entirely new way of separating atoms was attained...' - separating in the first sense, from each other, and in a second sense - in to more useful smaller atoms and subatomic particles.)
(I think that a magnetic field is simply a dynamic {moving} electric field, and so the differences between static electric fields and moving electric fields is important to examine. It seems unlikely that Thomson could have one field strictly in one dimension and the other strictly in another dimension - perhaps the same effect could be done with two static or dynamic electric fields.)
(I'm not sure how Thomson arrives at y=e/mv2E for an electric field and z=e/mv B for a magnetic field - because it would seems that v would be squared for each. Weber had theorized that the static force is related to the dynamic force by the speed of light - so a static force is equal to the same quantity of dynamic force divided by the speed of light -if I am not mistaken about this. Anyway, clearly the Y and Z forces are there, and this may just be a mistake that results in a less accurate e/m and/or v. I view a static and dynamic electromagnetic force as being similar phenomena - the difference being that in a static field the particles in the field are generally not moving - unless moving particles collide with them.)
(What is the context of this particle beam deflecting and the cathode ray tube which leads to the television and oscilloscope? Had Braun already made public the CRT?)
(I don't think the possibility of particles passing from anode to cathode are bombarded, not only be particles from the electromagnetic fields, but also atoms of gas.)
(Is the claim about mercury having multiple charges accurate?)
(Is there the possibility of a tube rectifier for positive rays? Is there any research on other forms of electric current - like positrons, positive ions, other negative particles, etc. Or perhaps comparison with other diffusion phenomena.)
(How is this mass spectrograph different from simply using a magnetic field? Who was the first to observe and record different deflected ions using only a magnetic field?)
(The difference between an electromagnetic field (dynamic electric field) and a static electric field is interesting. Particles passing an em field are subject to a moving object field, while passing a static electric field, these same particles are subject to a nonmoving object field.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
93 YBN
[06/13/1907 AD]
| 4897) Peter D. Innes determines that the velocity of electrons emitted by x-rays colliding with various metals is directly related to the velocity of the electrons that created the x-rays in the cathode ray tube.
(Get birth and death dates, and portrait)
William Henry Bragg describes the experiment done by Innes well in his book "Universe of Light" writing: " Now we come to the photo-electric effect. The X-rays cause the ejection of electrons from any body on which they fall. ... When the x-rays fall upon the silver salts on the photographic plate they start electrons into activity, and it is they that cause the chemical action which forms the essential process of the plate. When they penetrate the human body, the action upon the body tissues is due to the electrons which are set in motion. It is as if the body was subjected to the action of explosive shells. It becomes a matter of great interest to enquire what sort of velocity these electrons possess that are ejected by atoms under the influence of the X-rays. Long ago various attempts were made to answer this question. One of the first was due to Innes in 1907. The method was simple, and it is easy to describe. The X-rays strike a plate of some material MM and electrons are ejected from it in all directions. Two screens L and L' are pierced with small holes at Q and R. The electrons that go through the holes strike a photographic plate at P, and RQP is a straight line. The diagram (Fig. 109) gives an indication of the arrangements of plates and screens, but does not show all the usual details required when sensitive plates are used. Now a stream of electrons in flight can be bent aside by a magnet as we have already seen, in fact the path becomes circular and the stream tends to return into itself. The amount of bending depends on the strength of the magnet on the one hand, and on the charge, velocity, and mass of the carriers of the electricity on the other. When Innes carried out his experiment the charge and mass of the electron had been measured by J. J. Thomson; and it was rightly assumed that electrons were the carriers in this case. Innes brough a magnet up to a determined position near his apparatus. The stream of electrons which now registered its effect upon the photographic plate was not that which went in the straight line, but a curved stream S' RQP', forming an arc of a circle. By observing the relative positions of Q,R, and P', it was possible for Innes to find the radius of the circle. He knew the strength of his magnet and could then calculate the one quantity which remained unknown, viz. the velocity of the electron. A result of first class importance emerged from these observations. It was found that the electrons were moving with a high speed, which was comparable with that of the electrons in the bulb where the X-rays were generated. The speed did not depend upon the intensity of the X-rays: a fact which was easily established by repeating the expeirment when the distance of the bulb from the plate MM was varied. Even when the bulbu's distance was increased eight times so that the intensity of the rays falling upon the plate was diminished sixty-four times, according to the law of the inverse square, there was no change in the position of the spot P'. A longer exposure was of course required to obtain a visible effect upon the plate: but this would naturally follow upon the diminution of the number of electrons in the stream. The number of electrons was less, but their velocity was unchanged. On the other hand, it appeared that when the electrons in the X-ray bulb were made to move faster, and the X-rays therefore became more penetrating, the electron stream in the experiment also became more rapid. Change in the nature of the plate MM made some difference, but it was not great. Raising the atomic weight, as for instance replacing silver by gold, caused the appearance of some rather faster electrons in the general complex. The speeds in fact lay within a certain range, the fastest exceeding the slowest speed by about 20%: and while the lower limit remained the same the upper was somewhat raised. Compared with the other observations this, as was surmised then, and as we now know, was only a secondary effect. The observations made by Innes were confirmed and extended by other workers. ...".
Innes concludes: "...1. The velocity of the electrons emitted by lead, silver, zinc, platinum, and gold under the influence of Rdntgen rays has been measured, both for soft and hard rays. 2. The values found are as follows, the accuracy being within about 3 per cent. :- {ULSF: See table} 3. The velocity of the fastest elections emitted from each metal is completely independent of the intensity of the primiary rays, but increases with the hardness of the tube. 4. The velocity decreases with the atomic weight, the difference between the speed of the fastest electron with hard rays and that with soft rays being practically the same for the various metals, if the variation in hardness of the rays is the same. 5. A minimum velocity is necessary to enable the electron to emerge, and the minimum velocity is nearly the same in the different metals. 6. The number of electrons given off decreases with decreasing intensity of the rays, as well as with increasing hardness. 7. The number emitted also decreases with decreasing atomic weight and density. 8. The concluision is drawn from calculation and discussion of other theories, that the most probable theory is that of atomic disintegration. It is shown that the velocity of the emitted electron is too great to be that acquired under the influence of the electric force in the X-ray pulse. The other theory of ejection is discussed and objections to it pointed out. A possible explanation is given of the increase of the velocity with increasing hardness of the rays, and this fact is shown not to be inconsistent with the disintegration theory. ...".
(This experiment is interesting in that, apparently no reflected x-rays reach the photographic plate - that seems unusual. In addition, I think that there is an interesting theory that, somehow the particles in the cathode tube extend as x-rays, and then continue on as electrons - as opposed these particles being 3 separate objects. EXPERIMENT: Determine the velocity of x-rays using a fluorescent screen and Fizeu, Foucault, and Michelson's methods if possible. Research all attempts at measuring the velocity of x-rays. The French scientist Blondlot published one report.This velocity is presumed to be constant, but this experiment suggests that perhaps the velocity is not constant.)
(An alternative theory is that an electron collides or separates into an x-particle on collision, the x-particle then collides or forms an electrons upon the second collision.)
(Notice what may be a vote against the theory of relativity and in favor of the Newtonian inverse distance squared law, in the somewhat overly obvious reference to this law. Clearly, the Newtonian law must be the one used in all the neuron 3D rendering.)
(todo: Does Dorn actually determine the velocity of emitted electrons before Innes?)
| (Trinity College) Cambridge, England |
93 YBN
[07/09/1907 AD]
| 4950) Hermann Staudinger (sToUDiNGR) (CE 1881-1965), German chemist identifies the ketenes, which are highly reactive carbon-based molecules.
| (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, Germany |
93 YBN
[07/30/1907 AD]
| 4938) Max Theodor Felix von Laue (lOu) (CE 1879-1960), German physicist shows that Special Relativity can yield Fizeau's formula for the speed of light in a moving medium.
In 1851, after many experiments, Fizeau had discovered a formula for the velocity of light in flowing water that could not be understood in terms of classical physics. Assuming light to be a wave phenomenon in the ether, one could suppose that the ether does not contribute to the motion of the flowing water, in which case the velocity of light should be u = c/n; or that the ether is carried along with the motion of the water, in which case the equation should be u = c/n ± v. However, mysteriously, the experiments shows partial ether “drag” varying as a specific fraction of the velocity of water—v(1—1/n2)—the Fresnel drag coefficient. In 1907 Laue demonstrates that Special Relativity yields Fizeau’s formula with the previously unexplained Fresnel drag coefficient: u = c/n ± v(1 – 1/n2).
| ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
93 YBN
[09/14/1907 AD]
| 6254) Practical home vacuum cleaner.
James Murray Spangler, constructs an electric-powered vacuum cleaner in Canton, Ohio, in 1907. Spangler makes a box of wood and tin with a broom handle to push it and a pillow case to hold the collected dust. Spangler's innovation is to connect the motor to a fan disc and a rotating brush, combining a brush sweeper with the suction of a powered vacuum cleaner to pull more dust out of carpets.
Spangler himself did not have the money to promote the cleaner, but his relative, William H. "Boss" Hoover, a maker of leather goods, quickly sees the advantages of Spangler's machine. The first Model 0 Hoover vacuum is made in 1908 with a grey cheesecloth bag, cleaning tools, and a weight of only 40 lb (18 kg). Hoover finds that the machines sell very well door-to-door because housekeepers can see the action on their own carpeting. Hoover quickly builds a large retailing operation that spreads to Britain by 1913.
| Canton, Ohio, USA |
93 YBN
[09/21/1907 AD]
| 4709) Bertram Borden Boltwood (CE 1870-1927), US chemist and physicist identifies a new element between uranium and radium, which Boltwood names "ionium" but which will later be shown to be an isotope of thorium (thorium-230).
| (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
93 YBN
[11/13/1907 AD]
| 354) Helicopter. Paul Cornu (CE 1881-1944), French engineer, a bicycle maker like the Wright brothers, attains a free flight of about 20 seconds, reaching a height of one foot in a twin-rotor craft powered by a 24-horsepower engine.
Earlier on September 29, the Breguet brothers, Louis and Jacques, under the guidance of the physiologist and aviation pioneer Charles Richet made a short flight in their Gyroplane No. 1, powered by a 45-horsepower engine. The Gyroplane had a spiderweb-like frame and four sets of rotors. The piloted aircraft lifted from the ground to a height of about two feet, but was tied to the ground and not under any control. Igor Sikorsky, makes some unsuccessful helicopter experiments around the same time.
Sikorsky will make a practical, controllable helicopter in 1939.
(The helicopter, in the form of a flying car, will probably become very popular and fill the air of earth and the other planets. The only apparent competition may come from fixed wing planes or hover vehicles. It seems likely that the helicopter will be the preferred form, and many rows of helicopter flying car highways over ground highways will probably be common in the future. Humans will probably fly right up to the floor in the many high-rise buildings that will probably dominate the future earth.)
| |
93 YBN
[11/26/1907 AD]
| 6263) Boris L. Rosing displays an image on a Cathode-Ray Tube.
| Petrograd, Russia |
93 YBN
[12/04/1907 AD]
| 4931) Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist puts forward the equivalence principle, that the force of gravitation is equivalent to inertial acceleration, and theorizes that gravity can bend beams of light.
In 1783, John Michell (MicL) (CE 1724-1793) had first shown that gravity must change the speed of light corpuscles.
Einstein first publishes this in 1907 and then develops it further in 1911. In 1911, Einstein puts forward the idea that graity changes the frequency of light.
In 1960 Cranshaw, Schiffer and Whitehead and independently Pound and Rebka will confirm experimentally that gravity changes the frequency, and therefore the velocity of light.
Einstein writes in a paper entitled (translated from German) "On the Relativity Principle and the Conclusions Drawn From It": " Newton's equations of motion retain their form when one transforms to a system of coordinates that is in uniform translational motion relative to the system used originally according to the equations
x'=x-vt y'=y {ULSF: apparent typo ox x'=y} z'=z
As long as one believed that all of physics can be founded on Newton's equations of motion, one therefore could not doubt that the laws of nature are the same without regard to which of the coordinate systems moving uniformly (without acceleration) relative to each other they are referred. However, this independence from the state of motion of the system of coordinates used, which we will call "the principle of relativity," seemed to have been suddenly called into question by the brilliant confirmations of H. A. Lorentz's electrodynamics of moving bodies. That theory is built on the presupposition of a resting, immovable, luminiferous ether; its basic equations are not such that they transform to equations of the same form when the above transformation equations are applied. After the acceptance of that theory, one had to expect that one would succeed in demonstrating an effect of the terrestrial motion relative to the luminiferous ether on optical phenomena. It is true that in the study cited Lorentz proved that in optical experiments, as a consequence of his basic assumptions, an effect of that relative motion on the ray path is not to be expected as long as the calculation is limited to terms in which the ratio v/c of the relative velocity to the velocity of light in vacuum appears in the first power. but the negative result of Michelson and morley's experiment showed that in a particular case an effect of the second order proportional to v2/c2) was not present either, even though it should have shown up in the experiment according to the fundamentals of the Lorentz theory. It is well known that this contradiction between theory and experiment was formally removed by the postulate of H. A. Lorentz and FitzGerald, according to which moving bodies experience a certain contraction in the direction of their motion. However, this ad hoc postulate seemed to be only an artificial means of saving the theory: Michelson and Morley's experiment had actually shown that phenomena agree with the principle of relativity even where this was not to be expected from the Lorentz theory. It seemed therefore as if Lorentz's theory should be absndoned and replaced by a theory whose foundations correspond to the principle of relativity, because such a theory would readily predict the negative result of the Michelson and Morley experiment. Surprisingly, however, it turned out that a sufficiently sharpened conception of time was all that was needed to overcome the difficulty discussed. One had only to realize that an auxiliary quantity introduced by H. A. Lorentz and named by him "local time" could be defined as "time" in general. If one adheres to this definition of time, the basic equations of Lorent'z theory correspond to the principle of relativity, provided that the above transformation equations are replaced by ones that correspond to the new conception of time. H. A. Lorentz's and FitzGerald's hypothesis appears then as a compelling consequence of the theory. Only the conception of a luminiferous ether as the carrier of the electric and magnetic forces does not fit into the theory described here: for electromagnetic forces appear here not as states of some substeance, but rather as independently existing things that are similar to ponderable matter and share with it the feature of inertia. The following is an attempt to summarize the studies that have resulted to date from the merger of the H. A. Lorentz theory and the principle of relativity. The first two parts of the paper deal with the kinematic foundations as well as with their application to the fundamental equations of the Maxwell-Lorentz theory, and are based on the studies by H. A. Lorentz ... and A. Einstein .... In the first section, in which only the kinematic foundations of the theory are applied, I also discuss some optical problems (Doppler's principle, aberration, dragging of light by moving bodies); i was made aware of the possibility of such a mode of treatment by an oral communication and a paper by Mr. M. Laue ... as well as a paper (though in need of correction) by Mr. J. Laub .... In the third part I develop the dynamics of the material point (electron). In the derivation of the eqwuations of motion I used the same method as in my paper cited earlier. Force is defined as in Planck's study. The reformulations of the equations of motion of material points, which so clearly demonstrate the analogy between these equations of motion and those of classical mechanics, are also taken from that study. The fourth part deals with the general inferences regarding the energy and momentum of physical systems to which one is led by the theory of relativity. These have been develop in the original studies, ... but are here derived in a new way, which, it seems to me, shows especially clearly the relationship between the above application and the foundations of the theory. i also discuss here the dependence of entropy and temperature on the state of motion; as far as entropy is concerned, I kept completely to the Planck study cited, and the temperature of moving bodies I defined as did Mr. Mosengeil in his study on moving black-body radiation. The most important result of the fourth part is that concerning the inertial mass of the energy. This result suggests the question whether energy also possesses heavy (gravitational) mass. A further question suggesting ...{ULSF: continue when translation arrives} ".
(The path of light beams being changed by gravity is not a new idea. todo: determine who published this concept first.)
(It may be that many particle collisions can cause an equivalent acceleration in the same proportion as Newton's equation for gravity.)
(Determine if Einstein states that light should also be blue shifted by gravitation.)
| (Moskau Ingenieure-Hochschule {Moscow Engineering School}) Moscow, Russia? (verify) |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4149) Emil Hermann Fischer (CE 1852-1919), German chemist, assembles polypeptides (proteins) using their amino acid building blocks. The largest polypeptide Fischer assembles contains fifteen glycyl and three leucyl residues, has a molecular weight of 1213. This is leucyl-triglycyl-leucy-l-triglycyl-leucyl-octaglycylglycine. Fischer suggests that the peptide linkage—CONH—is repeated in long chains in the polypeptide molecule. The methods Fischer uses to assemble these polypeptides involve either attacking the amino or the carbonyl group in the amino acid (for example, using a halogen-containing acid to combine with the amino group and exchanging the halogen by another amino group). In this way Fischer can introduce glycyl, leucyl, and other groups into a peptide.
In addition to assembling a protein molecule from eighteen amino acids, Fischer shows that digestive enzymes break the protein into pieces just as they do naturally occurring proteins.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4386) (Sir) Frederick Gowland Hopkins (CE 1861-1947), English biochemist and Walter Fletcher provide the first clear proof that muscle contraction and the production of lactic acid are connected.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4416) Paul Louis Toussaint Héroult (ArU or IrU) (CE 1863-1914), French metallurgists invents a practical electric arc furnace.
Heroult patents a furnace in which the arc is produced between the heated scrap iron and a graphite electrode. There are many of these furnaces throughout the earth, all of the Héroult type. The first direct-arc electric furnace installed in the United States is a Héroult furnace. These furnaces are widely used in the manufacture of aluminum and ferroalloys.
The German-born British inventor Sir William Siemens first demonstrated the arc furnace in 1879 at the Paris Exposition by melting iron in crucibles. In this furnace, horizontally placed carbon electrodes produced an electric arc above the container of metal. The Heroult arc furnace, the first commercial arc furnace in the United States is installed in 1906 and has a capacity of four tons, and has two electrodes. Modern furnaces range in heat size from a few tons up to 400 tons, and the arcs strike directly into the metal bath from vertically positioned, graphite electrodes. Although the three-electrode, three-phase, alternating-current furnace is in general use, single-electrode, direct-current furnaces have been installed more recently.
(Using electricity to melt metals is a very useful method - perhaps it can be useful to even a hobbyiest on a much smaller scale.)
(EXP: Build a small and safe electric arc furnace that can be used to cast aluminum or other metals - or simply to melt higher temperature metals. Use car batteries or perhaps an electric outlet.)
(Give history of electric arc furnaces.)
| (Societe Electro Metallurgique Francaise) Froges, Isere, France (presumably) |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4438) Hermann Minkowski (miNKuFSKE) (CE 1864-1909), Russian-German mathematician publishes Raum und Zeit (1907; "Space and Time"), where he shows that the special theory of relativity published 2 years earlier, requires that time be viewed as a fourth dimension (treated mathematically differently than the three spacial dimensions). Einstein's 1905 theory of Special Relativity had made clear that ordinary three-dimensional geometry was not adequate to describe the universe. In Minkowski's view neither space nor time exists separately and that the universe is made of a fused space-time. Einstein will adopt this idea and develop it in his general theory of relativity nine years later.
This theory of four-dimensional geometry is based on the group of Lorentz transformations of special relativity theory.
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biolography, Minkowski is the first to conceive that the relativity principle formulated by Lorentz and Einstein leads to the abandonment of the concept of space and time as separate entities and to their replacement by a four dimensional "space-time", of which Minkowski gives a precise definition and initiates the mathematical study; this view of space-time becomes the frame of all later developments of the theory and leads Einstein to the later general theory of relativity.
(In my view time is the same in every part of the universe, in other words, t is the same for all matter in the universe as time continues forward. If this is true, then it is of no use to assign a t to each piece of matter, because they will all be constant for each frame of a simulation. Time may be viewed as a fourth dimension, and t is part of the equations used to model Newtonian gravity (just as x,y,z are), however, in the view I support, it is a dimension that has the same values for all points of space and matter in the universe. I don't think time changes depending on the velocity of a particle, nor do I think individual pieces of matter contract with higher velocities. I think relativity is a theory that grew out of light as a wave, and misses the idea of light as a particle, and the idea of the particle of light as the basis of all matter, which seem more logical, simple and in accordance with observation to me. I think the so-called proofs of relativity have other explanations (1> as an electron accelerates it takes more electricity to accelerate it further, the electron is not gaining mass and mass cannot be created or destroyed, 2> the bending of light around the sun has never been shown to my knowledge and is based on measurements of very many possible errors...the distance from the beam to the sun's edge, the mass of the sun, the mass of the photons in the beam, etc, 3> the perihelion of Mercury again requires measurements open to error, the mass of the sun, mercury, the math has never been shown to my knowledge, has this experiment been duplicated many times? There are many variables, the effect of the inside of Mercury, the water and liquid on the other planets, the shifts of mass in the sun, 4> clocks tick more slowly, I have never seen a video of this, it might be from friction with other particles which increase with a faster velocity relative to some other object, ultimately any object traveling as fast as a photon, must be a photon, anything moving less must be some composite matter made of photons in orbit of each other, and possibly even photons change velocity for example when they collide with photons in a mirror or come very close to other photons - in addition to the Pound-Rebka experiment), or may even be faked (people have lied about seeing, hearing and sending thought for almost 200 years, there is strict control and deception over what scientific findings are reported to the public). That being said, I think that there may still be changes to Newtonian gravity, for example the gravitational constant as applies to the mass of photons. Or possibly even a new system that views photon velocity as constant and gravity simply the amount of direction change photons have on each other. Perhaps an all-inertial universe, as Henry Pickering described in the early 1900s where gravity is the result of many tiny particle collisions. I am simply interested in the real truth no matter what it may be.)
(Note that Lorentz created the abstract concept that different masses may have different relative times at a single instance of time- an idea that I view as incorrect.)
(Does Minkowski ever work with so-called non-euclidean spaces- restricting space to topological surface spaces?)
(Translate work)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4456) Pierre Weiss (WIZ or WIS) (CE 1865-1940), French physicist creates a theory to explain ferromagnetism which states that individual atoms act as magnets and in non-magnetized iron point in different directions, but an external magnetic field can force them to point in the same direction forming "domains" of cumulative magnetic intensity. Weiss explains that all atoms are made of charged particles and magnetic properties always accompany electric charge. (verify this paper is the correct paper)
Weiss also studies pyrrhotite, the crystals of which are hexagonal prisms (during 1896-1905) and discovers that whatever the strength and direction of the magnetic field, the resulting magnetization remains, to a very good approximation, directed in the plane perpendicular to the axis of the crystalline prism. Weiss then finds that in this plane there is a direction of easy magnetization, in which saturation is reached in fields of twenty or thirty oersteds, and, perpendicularly, a direction of difficult magnetization, in which saturation has the same value but is reached only in fields exceeding 10,000 oersteds. Finally, Weiss shows that the magnetization produced by an arbitrary field can be determined by vectorially subtracting from this field a "structural field" directed along the axis of difficult magnetization and proportional to the component of the magnetization along that axis. The resulting field assumes the direction of the magnetization, and its strength is linked to that of the magnetization by a relation that is independent of that direction.
(I can see how an external magnetic field could cause atom positions to align and allow current to pass which then forms the magnetic field, while in non-magnetized iron, no current can flow and therefore there is no magnetic field. It is interesting that only metals and ceramics can be permanent magnets. Can all metal be magnetized? Is there a correlation to density and magnetic properties? I think this theory is still accepted. Does this theory presume that each atom has magnetic properties? I think magnetism is actually electricism and is a collective phenomenon of many atoms together moving because of gravity. )
(I think this could be a particle collision phenomenon - particles within the magnetic current/field, moving in the direction of the magnetic current/field - may collide with particles in the iron causing them to generally have a motion along the same plane - the same motion as those particles colliding with them. Then gravitation or particle collision causes the particles to remain in orbit around an atom in that same plane.)
| (Zurich Polytechnikum) Zurich, Switzerland |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4516) Karl Landsteiner (CE 1868-1943), Austrian-US physician demonstrates that for the Wassermann test for syphilis, the extract (antigen) previously exclusively obtained from human organs can be replaced by a readily available extract of bovine hearts. This makes possible the widespread use of the Wassermann test.
Two years earlier, in 1905, Landsteiner and Ernest Finger, then chief of the Dermatological Clinic in Vienna, had successfully infected monkeys with syphilis.
| (Pathological-Anatomical Institute) Vienna |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4764) Georges Urbain (vRBoN) (CE 1872-1938), French chemist separates ytterbium (considered an element by Jean Marignac) into ytterbium and the previously unknown lutetium, named after Lutetia, the ancient name of Paris. Lutetium is the last of the stable rare earth elements. Another version has Lutetium as the name of the village that stood on the site of Paris in Roman times.
Encyclopedia Britannica also gives credit to Carl Auer von Welsbach working independently of George Urbain.
Lutetium has atomic symbol Lu, atomic number 71, atomic weight 174.97. Lutetium is a very rare metal and the heaviest member of the rare-earth group. The naturally occurring element is made up of the stable isotope 175Lu, 97.41%, and the long-life β-emitter 176Lu with a half-life of 2.1 × 1010 years.
Lutetium, along with yttrium and lanthanum, is of interest to scientists studying magnetism. All of these elements form trivalent ions with only subshells which have been completed, so they have no unpaired electrons to contribute to the magnetism.
The metal may be prepared by reduction of the chloride or fluoride with an alkali or alkaline earth metal. Rare and expensive, it has few commercial uses. The chief commercial source of lutetium is the mineral monazite, which contains lutetium in a concentration of about three parts per hundred thousand.
| (Sorbonne) Paris, France |
93 YBN
[1907 AD]
| 4884) Adolf Windaus (ViNDoUS) (CE 1876-1959), German chemist synthesizes histamine, a molecule with important physiological properties. (detail these properties).
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
92 YBN
[03/26/1908 AD]
| 5881) (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist theorizes that an electron is a chemical element and assigns the electron the symbol "E".
Rams ay publishes this in the Journal of the Chemical Society as "Presidental Address Elements and electrons". Ramsay writes: " 'Nec perit in toto quicquam, mihi credite, mundo, Sed variat faciemque novat'-OVID. {ULSF: adapted Google translation: 'Nor is any thing in the whole lost, believe me, the world, only varies a new face.'}
BEFORcEom mencingmy task, to attempt toshom that chemical phenomena may be represented in a reasonable manner by assigning n symbol to the clectron, considered ns an element, it mill be advisable to make some general statements regarding the relations between thinking man nnd external nature. Every one of us (and by ‘( us ” I mean to include all things which have, even in embryo, consciousness both of their own existence and that of objects external to them) holds certain suppositions, whether by inheritance or by early teaching, or by virtue of having formed his own deliberate judgment, to be true ; or if the word true be found objectionable, to be convenient ; to be necessary as a mode of thought. Such suppositions we term theories or hypotheses. These words themselves require definition. To quote Dr. Johnstone Stoney : I‘ The principal kinds of supposition are : Theories, Hypotheses, and Fictions. A theory means a supposition which we hope to be true; a hypothesis is a supposition which we expect t’o be useful. Fictions belong to the realm of art ; when allowed to intrude elsewhere, they become either Make-believes or Mistakes.” Chemists and physicists deal with the world of phenomena; with operations and results of operations which take place in what is called nature,” that is, in a region exterior to the minds of the observers. They have agreed, implicitly, to avoid the consideration of the relationship between such phenomena and the mind of man, a branch of the subject termed Metaphysics ; they confine their attention exclusively to the relationships which they observe to exist between various phenomena external to the workings of consciousness. It is true that all such phenomena are known to us only in so far as they impress our consciousness-our own minds, or the minds of other beings whom each of us regards as constituted more or less nearly like himself. But inasmuch as there is a consensus of opinion, on the whole, as to the similarity of impression received by conscious beings, we agree to ignore the inquiry as to the mode in which such impressions reach our minds and to confine our attention to the relationships which me find to exist among phenomena. Now, there are two ways of regarding natural phenomena, and these necessarily depend on the fundamental conceptions which all of us hold. IVe assume, first, that events happen in sequence, and from this we deduce the concaption of time. Secondly, we believe that we can change our position relatively to that of other objects, and that they change their relative position to each other ; we thus acquire the conception of space. Whether these ideas are engrained from birth, or acqui red by expeiiment or observation, we shall probably never know. Thirdly, we are conscious of sustained muscular effort, and from this consciousness we deduce two ideas, first, that of mass, or that which resists our muscular efforts; and second, that of eriergy, or, in other words, we learn that to change the position of an object or mass, a sustained muscular effort is necessary. This last conception is of recent introduction; the word, I believe, used in this senae, was due to Professor Macquorne Rankine. If w-e assign certain numerical values to these conceptions, if we measur e time in seconds, linear space in centimetres, and mass in grams, we arrive at a fundamental equation connecting these with energy, measured in ergs. E = ML2/ 2’2, where E, L, M, and 2’ may stand for equal number of ergs, grams, centimetres, and seconds respectively. It will be observed that only three of these fundamental notious ale necessary; the fourth can be deduced from the other three, Physicists and chemists have for centuries accepted time, space, and mass as fundamentals, and have agreed to derive the conception of energy from these three. That is, they have accepted a mechanical explanation of the universe ; they attempt to explain the invisibly minute in terms of the visible ; the nature of objects by the atomic and molecular theories, namely, by the supposition that objects consist of congeries of small masses; that the changes which they observe to occur in these objects are due to the motions and altered positions of the atoms and molecules, and that the nature of these objects depends largely on the relative positions of the atoms, or, as we say, on their structure. It is, of course, acknowledged that the changes that take place in objects are accompnnied by gain or loss of energy. To alter the position of a mass, energy must be imparted to it, or, if it spontaneously alter its position, it must part with energy in doing so. The whole conception of a ‘6 material universe ” is bound up in this view, which has contributed to a great advance in knowledge ; in fact, all progress in chemistry and physics has been made by its aid. The atomic theory is a ‘(theory,” a supposition which is supposed to be true, as well as a ‘‘ hypothesis,” which is known to be useful. By its help we “explain” (that is, render the unknown in terms of the more familiar) such apparently diverse facts as the relations between the volume, temperature, and pressure of gases ; the optical properties of certain compounds of carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, tin, and silicon; isomerism ; the phenomena of osmotic pressure and vapour pressure ; and with an added hypothesis, the behaviour of dissolved salts under electric stress. It is this last part of our conceptions which I propose to discuss in this address. But before proceeding to do so, it must be noticed that, it is possible to explain phenomena by postulating time, space, and energy as the three fundamentals ; mass is then a derived conception. To my mind, this method of viewing nature is the more logical, for all that we know through our senses directly, and indirectly by instruments which affect our senses, is due to transfer of energy to or from our nerveterminals. Such sensations are for us real; in ascribing them to the presence of “ matter ” as their cause, we make use of a theory which is sanctioned by antiquity, and by all but universal custom. The inconvenience of the hypothesis that energy is the third fundamental entity is that it is difficult to assimilate mentally, and that it results in sets of equations of state, instead of affording a mental picture of the minute unknown in terms of the larger, and better known. Those interested in the subject will find it expounded in various writings of Prof. Mach and of Prof. Ostwald, notably in the latter’s ‘‘ Naturphilosophie.” I Rhould like here to pause, and to note that the words ‘‘ true” and ‘‘ false” are inapplicable to such theories as these of which I have spoken. Both are perfectly consistent schemes for the interpretation of the universe, In all probability, neither of these schemes conveys any idea of what constitutes phenomena ; one or other may be regarded as more convenient. Let me here refer to Dr. Johnstone Stoney’s writings for a full discussion of such relations.* As a matter of convenience, then, like most other chemists and physicists, I choose deliberately the ‘‘ mechanical ” explanation of nature. We assume on what we consider to be good grounds the existence of molecules and of atoms. We believe on reasonable evidence that gases consist of almost innumerable molecules, which may, like argon and its congeners, be single atoms, but which are usually groups of atoms. We hold that, as a rule, liquids consist of molecules of the same order of complexity as gases, but with smaller free path; the molecules of a liquid are more crowded than those of a gas. Some few liquids, water, the alcohols, the acids, probably salts, and some others, may be regarded as mixtures of polymerides of their gaseous molecules. Of the structure of solids, we are only beginning to have some crude notion.” We also believe that molecules at the ordinary temperature are in enormo usly rapid motion; that they are in frequent collision with each other, and that chemical action is the occasional result of such collisions. I say “ occasional ” because, as Dr. Stoney has shown, in molecules such as those of the nitrogen and oxygen of air, a collision takes place on the average thirteen billion times every second. Some mixtures of gases, for example, hydrogen and oxygen, or hydrogen and chlorin e, at a suitable temperature, combine by virtue of such collisions between the molecules; but the process of combination is a comparatively slow one, and it is curious to think that a collision which is followed by a combination is a comparatively rare event. ‘b We begin to perceive that chemical reactions, even those that occur with explosive violence, are far from being the sudden events they seem to ordinary human apprehension. What is really occurring in nature is a protracted and eventful struggle between the members of two opposing armies, each individual unit of which has his own personal history during the struggle, and is fully occupied with his own acts, which are perhaps, as many, as various, and as different from those of his neighbours as are the thoughts and acts of the individual soldiers during the progress of a battle.” T We can represent it as a loss or gain of energy, but we also regard it as the union or junction of atoms, or, it may be, the dissolution of such union or the readjustment of unions, so that bodies with new properties are formed. We may next ask: What, mechanism can be devited to give us a picture of the union of two atoms 1 Do they interpenetrate? Are atoms vortex-rings, and is their union the annular revolution of the two rings? Or is the older conception to be preferred, that they are approximate spheres which come within and stay within the regions of each others’ influence? If so, why do they stay near each other? Various chemists have called the uiechanism by which it is conceived that atoms remain associated in a compound ‘‘ affinities ” or “ bonds,” and “ valency ” is a word used to express the number of such “ bonds ” which an element can exercise in any particular Combination. I have to bring before you a suggestion which, although not exactly new, admits of definite statement, and affords a mental picture of what may conceivably takes place. It is not a ‘Lth eory” ; I do not hope that it may be true; it is rather a hypothesis, a supposition that I expect to be useful ; it may be a make-believe” ; I trust that it mill not be a ‘‘ mistake.” The hypothesis admits of short statement. It is: electrons are atoms of the chemical element, electricity ; they possess mass ; they form compounds with other elements; they are known in the free state, t’hat is, as molecules ; they serve as the “ bonds of union I ’ between atom and atom. The electron may be assigned the symbol ‘‘ E.” I might begin the exposition of this subject with a historical sketch of Davy’s and Berzelius’s conceptions of the relations of chemical and electrical phenomena; it will suffice for my purpose to direct your attention to the Faraday lecture delivered before our Society in 1881. Professor Helmholtz there stated : U. . . We need not speculate about the real nature of that which we call a quantity of positive or negative electricity. Calling them substances of opposite sign, we imply with this name nothing else than the fact that a positive quantity never appears or vanishes without an equal negative quantity appearing or vanishing at the same time in the immediate neighbourhood. In this respect they behave really as if they were two substances, which cannot be either generated or destroyed, but which can be neutralised and become imperceptible by their union.” “ . . . I prefer the dualistic theory. . . . and I keep the well-known supposition that as much negative electricity enters where positive goes away, because we are not acquainted with any phenomena which could be interpreted as correspondirg with an increase or diminution of the total electricity contained in any body.” Later in his lecture, discussing Yaraday’s law, he goes on : “The same definite quantity of either positive or negative electricity moves always with each univalent ion, or with every unit of affinity of a multivalent ion, and accompanies it duriDg all its motions through the interior of the electrolytic fluid. This quantity we may call the electric charge of the ion,” It is what Dr. Stoney has named an “ electron.” Helmholtz proceeds : ‘‘ Now the most startling result of Faradny’s law is perhaps this, If we accept the hypothesis that elementary substances are composed of atoms, we cannot avoid concluding that electricity also, positive as well as negative, is divided in to definite elementary portions, which behave like atoms of electricity. As long as it moves about in the electrolytic liquid, each ion remains united with its electric equivalent or equivalents. At the surface of the electrodes, decomposition can take place if there is suficient electromotive force, and then the ions give off their electric charges and become electrically neutral.” I will make only oue mor0 quotatiou from Helmholtz. Dealing with “ atomic compounds,” that is, molecules consisting of atoms in union with each other, he said : ‘‘ If we conclude from the facts that every unit of affinity is charged with one equivalent either of positive or negative electricity, they can form compounds only if every unit charged positively unites under the influence of a mighty electric attraction with another unit charged negatively. This, as you mill immediateIy see, is the modern chemical theory of quantivalence, comprising all the saturated compounds.” Just twenty years later, in a lecture delivered at Hamburg in 1901, Professor Neriist again emphasised Helmholtz’s views in the words : ‘‘ If, further, the most different elements or ritdicles invariably combine only with a quite definite quantity of free electricity, or with a multiple thereof, this can be most simply expressed by the statement : for compounds between ordinary matter and electricity, exactly the same fundamental chemical law holds as for compounds with each other of ordinary chemical substances, namely, the law of constant and multiple proportions.” ‘6 For example, if, in common salt, we replace the sodium atom by a negative electron, we obtain the negative chlorion; if we replace the chlorine atom by a positively charged electron, we obtain the positive sodium ion.” Helmholtz, it will be noticed, declared his assent to the dual character of electricity ; Nernst has followed his example, and that view has, until of late years, been universally held. But it is well to remember that Benjamin Franklin attributed the action of electricity to a single “electrical fluid” residing in all bodies, and capable of passing from one to another. The particles of this fluid were supposed to repel one another, and to be attracted by the particles of ponderable matter. A positive eloctrified body was imagined by him to be one which had a surplus of electric fluid attached to it; a negatively electrified one, a deficit. This theory of Franklin’s, mutcctis muttmadis, has gained probability since the investigations of J. J. Thomson, and since the discovery of radioactive bodies. It has been shown that electric corpgscles or electrons are capable of detaching themselves from matter, and inhabiting space unattached to any object. They pass from one part of space to another, often with enormous velocity. On certain likely suppositions, the mass of an electron has been measured by Thomson and his pupils ; it does not differ much from the thousandth part of that of an atom of hydrogen. The electron may be termed an atom of negative electricity. The atom which it has left is generally, and by many supposed to be always, positively electrified. The mass of an atom from which one or more electrons have escaped does not differ appreciably from that of the atom of the element ; it is enormously greater than that of the negative electron. As may be supposed, such minute corpuscles find ordinary matter 80 coarse-grained, that in thin sheets it offers little resistance to penetration. The @rays (to give electrons a commonly-used synonym) pass, when in motion, through a considerable thickness of metals and of glass. This behaviour is not unknown in the case of helium, which can traverse thin walls of silica, impervious to other gases, whilst glass and metals are impervious to it. We are not here concerned with free electrons and their motions, but with the mode in which they are associated with matter; to render the conceptions clear, I will select a familiar instance, When the white, opaque, lustrous metal sodium burns in the yellow gas chlorine, small, white, transparent crystals of common salt are produced. These crystals are soluble in water, the solution is also transparent and colourless, and its properties do not materially differ from those of the mean of salt and water. The power possessed by the solution of retarding the passage of light is very nearly proportional to the powers of the salt and the water, taken in the proportion in which they occur in ~olution. The specific heat of the solution, and many other properties, are also mean properties. What mechanism can we assign to the change which occurs when sodium burns in chlorine 1 When salt is dissolved in water and a “current of electricity” is passed through the solution, that is, when two platinum plates, one kept negatively and the other kept positively charged, are dipped into it, sodium travels towards the negative plate, and would, were no secondary action to occiir, deposit in its original metallic state ; similarly, chlorine would be liberated at the positive plate. We say that the salt is ‘‘ ionised in solution,” and we believe that the sodium ion remains an ion because of the positive charge which it carries, and, similarly, the properties of the cblorine ion are due to its negative charge. On removing these charges, the ‘‘ elements ” as we know them are liberated as such. Now, I would argue that in the light of modern knowledge we must suppose that the terms ‘‘ positive ” and ‘‘ negative ” mean merely “ minus electrons” and “plus electrons”; that the sodium ion or ‘‘ sodion ” is an element ; that the metal sodium is a compound of the element “sodion” with an electron; that the chlorine ion is a compound of an electron (actually of more than one electron; see below) with an atom of chlorine. It will conduce to clearness of thought here to consider the mechanism of an electrolytic cell. It consists of two platinum plates, one kept (‘ positive ” and the other “ negative,” dipping in an electrolyte, say, a solu tion of salt. The positive plate may be concidered as analogous to a suction-pump, capable of withdrawing electrons from tbe solution ; the negative platmea, species of electrical force-pump, giving electrons to the solution. The sodium ions move towards the source of electric pressure; each combines with an electron, arid metallic sodium, or its equivalent of hydrogen, is liberated. The chlorine ions, ions because each atom of chlorine has separated from the sodium taking with it the electron of the latter, yield up each an electron to the positive plate, and the element chlorine or its equivalent in oxygen is liberated. The action of a battery is easily pictured on the same general lines. Suppose a simple battery of a copper and a zinc plate dipping in a solution of hydrochloric acid. Electrons can pass through metallic conductors; let us accept that statement for the moment without inquiring into the mechanism. Metals are, however, impervious to ions; they form a species of semipermeable membrane. Both copper and zinc tend to throw off electrons (see Ramsay and Spencer, Phil. itfag., 1906, {vi}, 12, 399), but zinc more readily than copper. So long as the metals are not externally joined, no continuous action takes place; but on making connexion, the result is this : electrons leave the zinc more rapidly and readily than they leave the copper ; this induces a flow of electrons from the zinc plate through the connecting wire to the copper; on reaching the surface of the copper, these electrons, or possibly electrons displaced by them, leave the copper plate, combining with ions of- hydrogen, which then escapes in the gaseous form, whilst the zinc parts with electrons and enters into solution as zinc ions. It may be asked whence the motive power is derived which causes the current of electrons through the wire; the answer may be stated in two ways : either it is due to the difference of the force with which the copper and the zinc retain their electrons, or, in ordinary language, to the electromotive force of the copper-zinc couple ; or it may be attributed to a kind of osmotic pressure, the elect,rons traversing what to them is a nearly open road, namely, the wire, whilst matter, that is, chlorine ions, is unable to pass. This process goes on so long as there is a difference of electric pressure, so long as any zinc is left, or so long as hydrogen ions are present to take up electrons. Let us again consider the combination of sodium with chlorine to form common salt. If it be conceded that salt differs fromits solution only in so far as the mobility of the solution permits of transfer of ions, the transfer of an electron from the sodium to the chlorine must take place at the moment of combination, Symbolised, if we write E for electron and simplify the reaction, dealing for the moment with an atom and not with n molecule of chlorine, we have ENa + C1= NaECl. Here the electron serves as the bond of union between the sodium and the chlorine. If it be desired to form a mental picture of what occurs, let me suggest a fanciful analogy which may serve the purpose: it is that an electron is an ameba-like structure, and that ENs may be con- ceived as an orange of sodium surrounded by a rind c;f electron; that on combination, the rind separates from the orange and forms a layer or cushion between the Na and the C1, and that on solution the electron attaches itself to the chlorine in some similar fashion, forming an ion of chlorine. It will be noticed that the E fills the place usually occupied by a bond, thus: Na-CI. It happens providentially that the bond and the negative sign are practically the same ; Na-C1 may be supposed to ionise thus : Na(-Cl), the negative charge or electron remaining with the chlorine. Let us next consider a fundamental question, which, however, I do not remember to have seen raised. In ordinary parlance, hydragen and chlorine are termed monads, and may be represented as each possessing a bond of affinity, thos, H-, C1-. Now, when they unite, are there two bonds or one? Should we write H-C1 with one bond, or H--C1 with two? Considering a bond as an electron, the symbol C1- is wrong for an atom of Chlorine; it has, strictly speaking, no bond, that is, no electron, but merely possesses the power of receiving one from the hydrogen. But we know from chemical considerations, as well as from arguments derived from the ratio of the specific heats at constant volume and at constant pressure of monatomic and of diatomic gases, that the hydrogen molecule has the formula H,, and the chlorine molecule, Cl,. Is the formula of hydrogen H-H or H- -H '1 These gases conduct electricity at low pressures, and are therefore ionised. It appears probable that in this state the electric condition of the ions must be different. Several suppositions are conceivable. First, the ions may be H and EHE; second, they may be E and HEH ; third, they may be E, and H,. From Wilson's experimentson the separation of the ions in an electric field, and on the slower rate of motion of the positive ions, the second and third of these views are the more probable, and chemical considerations woiild lead, I think, to the choice of the second. When urged electrically, the electrons can penetrate thin metallic plates, as Lenard as shown. But it is a matter on which we may agree to reserve judgment. Let us next consider the chlorine molecule. Here we have, apparently, two atoms i n juxtaposition, no electron being associated with them. It must, however, be remembered that in the oxygenated compounds of chlorine, that element is a polyad, a triad in KO-Cl=O, a tetrad in O=Cl=O, a pentad in KO-Cl(=O),, and a heptad in KO-Cl(=O),. It has therefore a reserve of electrons, and when it combines with itself, forming Cl,, we have the choice between ClECl, ClE,CI, ClE,Cl, and C1E7C1. Were we to write out in full all the electrons, me should have the cumbrous formulae E,ClEClE,, E,ClE,ClE,, E,ClE,E,, and C1E7C1E,, or we might draw the mediate electrons partly from How can we explain this? both atoms of chlorine. I am far from suggesting the use of such formuls ; it is evident that in our ordinary structural or constitutional formula me ignore the ‘‘ latent ” electrons, and make use only of those which are of service for the moment. We may write for the formula of chlorine Cl-C1, or C131, S.C., but we gain nothing by indicating that the two atoms may be trebly bound. In fact, a,structural formula shows by bonds those electrons which we deem it serviceable to represent. It may be remembered that Frankland in his I‘ Lecturenotes” (Inorganic, p. 35) suggested that L L latent atomicity ’’ (or, as we now term it, valeocy) could, if desired, be represented. But he counselled to write H-N-H, and not H-N-H. B B U It will now be convenient to represent some typical formuls in terms of electrons, remembering that we are really arguing in favour of the existence of a new element of which an atom is called an “ electron. ” So long as ionisable compounds are considered, this view presents no real difficulty. Let 11s examine a fern reactions of the usual “exchange” type first, leaving the question of the disposal of electrons which are not separable by ionisation until later. As a first example, let us take the action of hydrochloric acid on silver nitrate : H(ECl).Aq + Ag(ENO,).Aq = AgECl+ H(ENO,).Aq. We might also write : HlEC1.Aq -t Ag]EN03.Aq = AgECl+ HIEN03.Aq. or : HI-CLAq + Agl-NO,.Aq = Ag-C1 + HI-NO,.Aq. Here the vertical bar denotes ionisation. carbonate : Next let us write as an equation the action of an acid on sodium Na2( E,CO,).Aq + H,(E,SO,). Aq = Na,( E,SO,).Aq + H,E,O + CE402, or : Na,lE,CO,. Aq + H,IE,SO,.Aq = Na,lE,SO,.Aq + H,E,O + CE,02, or : Na,j=CO,.Aq + H2J=S0,A. q = Na,l=SO,.Aq + H2-0 + (330,. I n this instance, nothing is predicated regarding the electrons in water or in carbon dioxide, except that they serve to unite the elements. This point will be reserved. Take next a simple case of oxidation : 2EFe(ECl),.Aq + Cl,.Aq = 2Fe(ECl),.hq, or : 2-Fel=CI2.Aq + Cl,.Aq = 2Fel(-C1)8.Aq. Next of reduction : 2Fe( ECl),.Aq + E2SnE,Cl,. Aq = 2EFe(ECl),.Aq + Sn(ECi),.Aq, or : 2FelZC18.Aq + ZSnl Cl,.Aq = 2-Fel Cl,.Aq + Snl(-Cl),.Aq. Such cases give little trouble. Jt is the formulae of bodies which are not ionised, or only partially ionised, which require oareful consideration. It will be remembered that Professor Abegg, in a very suggestive memoir on valency (Zeitsch. anal. Chem., 1904, 39, 330), threw out the suggestion that the total valency of the elements may be taken as eight, which in each group may be taken as “ normal ” valencies, denoted by the +symbol, and ‘‘contra” valencies, denoted by the - symbol. The following table epitomises his suggestion : Group I. 11. 111. I v. V. VI. VII. 4 f -3 - 2 -1 3 f 4 - $ 5 f 6 +7 1+ 2 f 7 - 6- 5 - The normal valencies are supposed by Abegg to be ‘ I stronger ” than the contravalencies. A somewhat similar hypothesis has been advanced by Arrhenius (Theorien der Chemie, Leipzig, 1906) and by Spiegel (Zeitscl’. anorg. Chem., 1894, 5, 29, 365). To take a specific instance : nitrogen in ammonia carries as many pairs of opposite electrical units as corresponds with its maximum capacity for saturation. Thus NH, has an addit ional negative and an additional positive charge when it forms NH,( - HI)( + Cl). The existence of such ‘‘ neutral ” affinities, according to Spiegel, explains the greater content of energy of such bodies as ammonia than their compounds like ammonium chloride. Let us now consider the question: in compounds containing elements or groups which do not separate as ions, and which therefore do not afford a clue, from which element does the electron come? The answer is best arrived at by considering as an instance such a compound as perchloric acid. When dissolved in water, the hydrogen of H-OCIO, is left as an ion, minus an electron, HI-OClO,. The four atoms of oxygen are capable of receiving electrons ; but the chlorine atom, having already seven attached to it, can receive only one more, and that one only when it is ionised, as in a solution of common salt, It then possesses its full complement of eight electrons. Hence it follows that in perchloric acid, the electrons which form the bonds of union of the chlorine with the oxygen must be those previously associated with the chlorine, and not those associated with the oxygen. Expressed in the cumbrous notation in which each electron is denoted by E, we should have The (E)4 means that the oxygen is normally associated with four electrons besides the two which it receives from the hydrogen and the chlorine; the second (E), implies that each oxygen atom is associated with four electrons besides the two which it takes from the chlorine. ... This last statement opens the difficult question why the presence of some one substituting element or group in a compound influences the position into which another substituting element or group shall enter. I can only suggest a possible answer in general terms. Kon-metals are bodies which have a strong afinity for electrons ; metals, bodies with but slight affinity. It is for this reason that ‘‘ metallic conductors ” ful6l their function, whilst non-metals are non-conductors. In a metallic wire, displacement easily occurs ; whether conduction in R metal consists wholly in displacement or in flow, I do not know. Probabl y both methods of transit are operative. Now elements or groups already occupying a position in a compound vary in their affinity for electrons; some approximate to metals in their feeble affinity, others rather resemble non-metals. If they have a great affinity, it is likely that they will exert an attractive influence on substituents which are easily disposed to part with electrom, and vice versfi. I imagine that the phenomenon of ‘‘ predisposing affinity ” is to be explained in some such way. Lastly, the phenomenon of tautomerism may be conceived as the shifting of an electron, and its accompanying absorption of light of certain parts OF the spectrum as due to electronic oscillation. But it would prolong this address too far were I to enter into such speculations in detail. I hope that I shall not be accused of presumption if I venture to draw a parallel between the past and the present. Until nearly the end of the eighteenth century, the phlogistic theory held its sway; what Lavoisier postulated as oxidation, was regarded as loss of phlogiston. I willask you tosuppose thatcertain persons, loth to abandon the theory of phlogiston, took a middle course, and held combustion to consist not only in the loss of phlogiston, but also in combination with oxygen. Their imaginary case, I venture to think, affords a parallel to the views of those who uphold the dual nature of electricity. Just as a combustible body may be supposed never to unite with oxygen without at the same time losing phlogiston, so, according to current language, a body never gains pqsitive electricity without at the same time losing negative electricity. So long as electricity was supposed to be ft state of matter, that view was plausible; now, however, that the substantiality of the electron has been demonstrated in so far as it exhibits inertia and possesses mass, it is surely time to reconsider our position, and, whatever the fate of the hypothesis which I have made the subject of this address, I cherish the hope that it may direct attention to a possible method of “ explaining ” phenomena. As regards our Society, it still continues its era of prosperity. Our numbers increase, and our work increzses. We welcome the advent of new contributors to our Transactions, and we deplore the loss of some old friends. Many, however, still remain among us, and I wish particularly to congratulate Sir William Crookes on his having attained his fiftieth year of membership, retaining the full vigour of youth. May he be long spared to enrich Science by his admirable researches !".
Alfred Walter Stewart will apply this theory to his three-layer model of the atom.
| (University College) London, England (presumably) |
92 YBN
[05/30/1908 AD]
| 4902) Charles Glover Barkla (CE 1877-1944), English physicist C. A. Sadler find that secondary x-ray radiation is homogeneous, that is that the absorption of secondary radiation is independent of the intensity of the primary beam of x-rays.
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
92 YBN
[06/06/1908 AD]
| 3616) Hans Knudsen, Danish inventor, demonstrates the wireless transmission and reception of a photograph whose dot darkness is determined by depth of gelatine on the photograph, the receiver using a needle to mark a smoked glass plate.
Knudsen uses a spark transmitter, both transmitter and receiver are synchronized and a simple on/off 1-bit pulse code is used. In some sense this could be the first publicly known television broadcast.
| London, England |
92 YBN
[06/18/1908 AD]
| 4742) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and Hans Geiger (CE 1882-1945), German physicist, count the number of alpha particles emitted per second from a gram of radium by using an electric field to fire alpha particles into an evacuated tube containing a charged wire which gives causes an electrometer to move when an ion collides with the wire. Using this method Rutherford an Geiger find that the average number of alpha particles emitted from a gram of radium is around 3.4 x 1010.
Geiger will improve this design and create a device which can not only detect alpha particles, but also beta and gamma rays, which will come to be called a Geiger counter.
(This shows the evolution of electric particle accelerators for a variety of different particles and targets.) (read from paper)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
92 YBN
[06/18/1908 AD]
| 4744) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and Hans Geiger (CE 1882-1945), German physicist, conclude that an alpha particle is "...a helium atom, or, to be more precise, the α-particle, after it has lost its positive charge, is a helium atom. ...".
(read from paper) (Notice that Rutherford views helium as somehow being the same after losing its positive charge, later, people will view helium as losing electrons to have a positive charge, and so the view is that an alpha particle is a helium atom that has lost two electrons.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
92 YBN
[06/20/1908 AD]
| 4523) George Ellery Hale (CE 1868-1938), US astronomer detects strong magnetic fields inside sunspots. This is the first discovery of an extraterrestrial magnetic field.
In the hope of overcoming the temperature problems that had plagued the low-lying Snow telescope, Hale designs and builds a sixty-foot tower telescope with a thirty-foot spectrograph in an underground pit. With photographic plates sensitive to red light (developed by R. J. Wallace at Yerkes) Hale detects vortices in the hydrogen flocculi in the vicinity of sunspots. This observation leads to the hypothesis that the widening of lines in sunspot spectra might be due to the presence of intense magnetic fields in sunspots. With the new sixty-foot tower telescope, Hale is able to prove his hypothesis. Young and W. M. Mitchell at Princeton had observed double lines in sunspot spectra visually but had ascribed the effect to "reversal". Hale, convinced that the splitting is due to the Zeeman effect, compares his observations of the doubling of lines in sunspots with a similar doubling obtained with a powerful electromagnet in his Pasadena laboratory. So this comparison is evidence for the presence of magnetic fields in sunspots.
Hale comments: "...In view of the fact that the distributino of the hydrogen flocculi frequency resembles that of iron filings in a magnetic field, it is interesting to recall the exact correspondence between the analytical relations developed in the theory of vortices and in the theory of electro-magnetism. ... The gradual separation of the spots should not be overlooked. Without entering at present into further details, a single suggestion relating to the possible existence of magnetic fields on the sun may perhaps be offered. We know from the observations of Rowland that the rapid revolution of electrically charged bodies will produce a magnetic field, in which the lines of force are at right angles to the plane of revolution. Corpuscules emitted by the photosphere may perhaps be drawn into the votices, or a preponderance of positive or negative ions may result from some other cause. When observed along the lines of force, many of the lines in the spot spectrum should be double, if they are produced in a strong magnetic field. Double lines, which look like reversals, have recently been photographed in spot spectra with the 30-foot spectrograph of the tower telescope, confirming the visual observations of young and Mitchell. It should be determined whether the components of these double lines are circularly polarized in opposite directions, or, if not, whether other less obvious indications of a magnetic field are present. I shall attempt the necessary observations as soon as a suitable spot appears on the sun.".
Hale will go on to recognize the reversal of sunspot polarities with the sunspot cycle, and this in turn leads to the formulation of his fundamental polarity law, which states that there is a twenty-two- to twenty-three-year interval between successive appearances in high latitudes of spots of the same magnetic polarity.
In 1952 H. D. and H. W. Babcock, using an electrooptic light modulator, will measuring magnetic fields on the sun’s surface and find evidence of the existence of a polar field of the sun with a strength of about two gauss and a polarity opposite to that of the earth. At the next solar maximum the polarity was reversed.
(I don't see in where a magnetic field is created in the lab to cause doubling of the sun spot spectral lines. In addition, is much later - in 1925.)
Also in 1908, a 60-inch reflecting telescope is completed on Mount Wilson near Pasadena, California which Hale plans and supervises getting funding from the wealthy steel business owner Andrew Carnegie.
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
92 YBN
[06/27/1908 AD]
| 4190) Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (KomRliNG OneS) (CE 1853-1926), Dutch physicist, liquefies helium.
Kamerlingh Onnes is the first to liquefy helium. Helium is the last known gas to be liquefied and the gas that requires the lowest temperature for liquefaction at 4 degrees above absolute zero. To do this Kamerlingh Onnes builds an elaborate device that cools helium by evaporating liquid hydrogen (around it?), after which the Joule-Thomson effect (with Dewar's recycling method) is used. The liquid helium is collected in a flask contained in a larger flask of liquid hydrogen, which is in turn contained in a larger flask of liquid air.
Kamerlingh Onnes cools liquid helium to 0.8 degrees above absolute zero by allowing some of the liquid helium to evaporate (verify because Onnes report boiling point no lower than 4 degrees Kelvin - perhaps this is later). After Kamerlingh Onnes' death, Keesom, a co-worker of Kamerlingh Onnes will succeed in producing solid helium by using not only low temperatures but high pressures.
Kamerlingh Onnes publishes this work in "The liquefaction of helium.". Onnes Kamerlingh writes: "§ 1. Method. As a first step on the road towards the liquefaction of helium the theory of VAN DER WAALS indicated the determination of its isotherms, particularly for the temperatures which are to be attained by means of liquid hydrogen. From the isotherms the critical quantities may be calculated, as VAN DER WAALS did in his Thesis for the Doctorate among others for the permanent gases of FARADAY, which had not yet been made liquid then, either by first determining a and b, or by applying the law of the corresponding states. Led by the considerations of Comm. N°. 23 (Jan. 1896)) and by the aid of the critical quantities the conditions for the liquefaction of the examined gas may be found by starting from another gas with the same number of atoms in the molecule, which has been made liquid in a certain apparatus. By a corresponding process in an apparatus of the same form and of corresponding dimensions the examined gas may be made liquid.
The JOULE-KELVIN effect, which plays such an important part in the liquefaction of gases whose critical temperature lies below the lowest temperature down to which we can permanently cool down by the aid of evaporating liquefied gases, may be calculated from the isotherms, at least if the specific heat in the gas state is not unknown, and its determination, though more lengthy than that of the isotherms, may be an important test of our measurements. If there is to be question of statical liquefaction of the gas by means of the JOULE-KELVIN effect, this must at all events give a decrease of temperature at the lowest temperature already reached, which, as was demonstrated in the above communication, will be the case to a corresponding amount for gases with the same number of atoms) in the molecule at corresponding states, while a monatomic gas compared with a di-atomic one will be in more favourable circumstances for liquefaction (comp. also Comm. N°. 66, 1900).
But the sign of the JOULE-KELVIN effect under certain circumstances does not decide the question whether an experiment on the statical liquefaction of a gas will succeed. Speaking theoretically, when by the JOULE-KELVIN effect at a certain temperature a decrease of temperature however slight can be effected, liquid may be obtained by an adiabatic process with a regenerator coil and expansion cock with preliminary cooling down of the gas to that temperature. But as long as we remain too near the point of inversion the JOULE-KELVIN effect will have a slight value; accordingly the processes by which really gas was liquefied in a statical state with an apparatus of this kind, as those which were applied to air by LINDE and HAMPSON, and to hydrogen by DEWAR, start from a much lower reduced temperature, viz. from about half the reduced temperature at which the sign of the JOULE-KELVIN effect at small densities is reversed, or more accurately from somewhat below the BOYLE-point, i. e. that temperature at which the minimum of pv is found at very small densities. Experiments from which could be derived at how much higher reduced temperature the process still succeeds with monatomic gases are lacking. So according to the above theorem it is practically the question whether the lowest temperature at our disposal lies below this BOYLE-point) which is to be calculated from the isotherms, in order that the JOULE-KELVIN effect may have a sufficient value to yield an appreciable quantity of liquid in a given apparatus in a definite time.
Three years ago I had so far advanced with the investigations which led to the isotherms of helium, that these determinations themselves could be taken up with a reasonable chance of success.
At first the great difficulty was how to obtain sufficient quantities of this gas. Fortunately the Office of Commercial Intelligence at Amsterdam under the direction of my brother, Mr. O. KamerLinqh Onnes, to whom I here express my thanks, succeeded in finding in the monazite sand the most suitable commercial article as material for the preparation, and in affording me an opportunity to procure large quantities on favourable terms. The monazite sand being inexpensive, the preparation of pure helium in large quantities became chiefly a matter of perseverance and care.
The determination of isotherms of helium was not accomplished before 1907.
The results of the determinations of the isotherms were very surprising. They rendered it very probable that the Joule-kelvin effect might not only give a decided cooling at the melting point of hydrogen, but that this would even be considerable enough to make a Linde-Hampson process succeed.
Before the determinations of the isotherms had been performed I had held a perfectly different opinion in consequence of the failure of Olszewsei's and Dewar's attempts to make helium liquid, and had even seriously considered the possibility that the critical temperature of helium might lie, if not at the absolute zero-point, yet exceedingly low. In order to obtain also in this case the lower temperatures, which among others are necessary for continuing the determinations of isotherms below the temperatures obtainable with solid hydrogen, I had e.g. been engaged in designing a helium motor (cf. Comm. N°. 23) in which a vacuum glass was to move to and fro as a piston in another as a cylinder. And when compressed helium was observed to sink in liquid hydrogen (Comm. N°. 96, Nov. 1906) I have again easily suffered myself to be led astray to the erroneous supposition of a very low critical temperature.
In the meantime I had remained convinced that only the determination of the isotherms could decide how helium could be made liquid. Hence we had proceeded with what might conduce to making a favourable result for the critical temperature at once serviceable. Thus the preparation of a regenerator coil with expansion cock in vacuum glass (to be used at all events below the point of inversion), and the preparation of pure helium was continued. Of the latter a quantity had even been gradually collected sufficiently large to render possible a determination of the Jocle-kelvin effect in an apparatus already put to the test in prelimininary investigations, and to enable us to make efficient expansion experiments.
All at once all these preparations proved of the greatest importance when last year (Comm. N°. 102a) the isotherms began to indicate 5° K. to 6° K. for the critical temperature, an amount which according to later calculations, which will be treated in a subsequent paper, might have been put slightly higher (e. g. 0.5°), and which was in harmony with the considerable increase of the absorption of helium by charcoal at hydrogen temperatures, on the strength of which DEWAR had estimated the critical temperature of helium at 8° K. For according to the above theorem it was no longer to be considered as impossible to make helium liquid by means of a regenerator coil, though this was at variance with the last experiments of OLSZEWSKI, who put the boiling point below 2°. {ULSF original footnote: If there is not accepted an improbably high value for the critical pressure of helium, than this comes practically to the same as if the critical point was estimated at below 2°, because the diHerence between the boiling point and the critical point cannot exceed some tenths of a degree. — Prof. Olszewsei kindly drew my attention to the fact that in the original quotation of his statement in the present paper as well as in a previous one I erroneously hud written critical point in stead of boiling point and I avail myself of this occasion to rectify my error. I remark that in the case of helium it was not to be considered as impossible that the critical pressure was below 1 Atm. (comp. § 4). But in this case experiments in which the gas is expanded from a high pressure to the atmospheric pressure as were made by Olszewsei cannot decide about the question if the gas can be liquefied or not at a certain temperature. The gas may become liquid at that temperature and yet have no boiling point at all, boiling becoming only possible at reduced pressure. It was therefore that in my expansion experiments I continued the expansion in vacuo.}
It is true that the conclusions drawn from the isotherms left room for doubt. It seemed to me that the isotherms at the lowest temperature yielded a lower critical temperature than followed from the isotherms at the higher temperatures, which is due to peculiarities, which have been afterwards confirmed by the determination of new points on the isotherms. So there was ample room for fear that helium should deviate from the law of the corresponding states, and that still lower isotherms than those already determined should give a still lower critical temperature than 5° K , and according as the critical temperature passed on to lower temperatures the chance to make helium liquid by means of the JOULE-KELVIN effect at the lowest temperatures to be reached with liquid hydrogen (solid hydrogen brings new complications with it) became less. This fear could not be removed by the expansion experiment which I made some months ago, and in which I had thought I perceived a slight liquid mist (Comm. N°. 105 Postscriptum March 1908). For in the first place only an investigation made expressly for the purpose could decide whether the mist was distinct enough, and whether the traces of hydrogen the presence of which could still be demonstrated spectroscopically, were slight enough to allow us to attach any importance to the phenomenon. And in the second place the mist was very faint indeed, which might point to a lower critical temperature than had been derived.
So it remained a very exciting question what the critical temperature of helium would be. And in every direction in which after the determination of the isotherms in hand we might try to get more information about it, we were confronted by great difficulties.
As, however, they consisted in the arrangement of a cycle with cooled helium.— a circulation being indispensable to integrate cooling effects with a reasonable quantity of helium —the labour spent for years on the arrangement of the Leiden cascade of cycles for accurate measurements, might contribute to the surmounting of them. Arrived at this point I resolved to make the reaching of the end of the road at once my purpose, and to try to effect the statical liquefaction of helium with a circulation, as much as possible "corresponding" to my hydrogen circulation.
In this I perfectly realized the difficulty to satisfy at the same time the different conditions for success (allowing for possible deviations from the law of corresponding states). For though the reliability of the hydrogen cycle for the cooling down of the compressed helium to 15° K. was amply proved (Comm N°. 103), the preliminary cooling to be reached was as to the temperature only just within the limit at which it could be efficient, nor were the other circumstances which could be realized, any more favourable.
Of course the scale on which the apparatus intended for the experiment in imitation of the apparatus which had proved effective for hydrogen, would be built, was not only chosen smaller in agreement with the value of b which was put lower, but taken as small as possible. That the reduction of HAMPSON'S coil to smaller dimensions does not diminish its action had been found by former experiments, and has been very clearly proved by what OLSZEWSKI tells about the efficiency of his small hydrogen apparatus. I could not, however, reduce below a certain limit without meeting with construction problems, about which the hydrogen apparatus had not given any information. We had to be sure that the capillaries would not get stopped up, that the cocks would work perfectly, that the conduction of heat, viscosity etc. would not become troublesome. When in connection with the available material, the smallest scale at which I thought the apparatus still sufficiently trustworthy, reduction to half its size, had been fixed, the dimensions of the regenerator coil, though as small as those of OLSZEWSKI'S coil, proved still so large that the utmost was demanded of the dimensions of the necessary vacuum glasses; which was of the more importance, because the bursting of the vacuum glasses during the experiment would not only be a most unpleasant incident, but might at the same time annihilate the work of many months.
Besides the difficulties given by the helium liquefactor itself, the further arrangement of the cycle in which it was to be inserted, offered many more.
The gas was to be placed under high pressure by the compressor, and was to be circulated with great rapidity. Every contamination was to be avoided, and the spaces which were to be filled with gas under high pressure were to have such a small capacity, that they only held part of the available naturally restricted quantity of helium.
As compressor only CAILLETET's modified compressor could be used, a compressor with mercury piston, which in conjunction with an auxiliary compressor had been arranged for experiments with pure and costly gases, and was described in Comm. N". 14 (Dec. 1894) and Comm. N°. 54 (Jan. 1900), and which also served for the compression of the helium in the expansion experiments of last March (Comm. No. 105). {ULSF: original footnote: Just as when it was used to get a permanent bath of liquid oxygen (completed 1894, Comm. N°. 14) it was now again in the pioneering cycle and rewarded well the work spent on it especially in 1888 when I was working at the problem to pour off liquid oxygen in a vessel under atmospheric pressure by the help of the ethylene cycle.}
That it could only be charged to 100 atms., a fact which I had sometimes considered as a drawback in the case of experiments with helium, could no longer be deemed a drawback after the determinations of isotherms had taught that even if the pressure of helium compressed above 100 atms. at low temperatures in raised much, the density of the gas increases but little. Accordingly I have not gone beyond 100 atms. in my expansion experiments. The higher pressures which DEWAR and OLSZEWSKI applied in their expansion experiments, have been a decided disadvantage, because they involved the use of a narrower expansion tube. With regard to the circulation now to be arranged, with estimation of the critical pressure at 7 or 5 atms. {ULSF original footnote: The results of the isotherm of helium at — 259° to be treated in a following communication were not yet available then; they point to a smaller value.}, according as b was put At a third or half that of hydrogen, a pressure of 100 atms. in the regenerator coil had to be considered as sufficient according to the law of corresponding states.
But for a long time it was considered an insuperable difficulty that the compressor conjugated to the auxiliary compressor could circulate at the utmost 1400 liters of gas measured at the ordinary temperature per hour, 1/15 of the displacement with the hydrogen circulation. Not before experiments with the latter had been made, in which the preliminary cooling of the hydrogen did not take place with air evaporating at the vacuumpump (so at — 205°) but under ordinary pressure (so at— 190°), and moreover the hydrogen compressor ran 4 times more slowly than usual, and in these experiments liquid hydrogen had yet been obtained, it might be assumed that the circulation process to be realized would still be sufficient to accumulate liquid helium.
With regard to the parts of the compressors, the auxiliary apparatus, and the conduits, which in the course of the experiment assume the same pressure as the regenerator coil, their joint capacity was small enough to enable us to make the experiment with a quantity of 200 liters. This quantity of pure helium besides a certain quantity (160 liters) kept in reserve could be ready within not too long a time {ULSF original footnote: Success was only possible by applying the cycle method; this is evident from the fact that the helium has passed the valve 20 times before liquefaction was observed, and the considerable labour that would have been to expend on the preparation of 20 times the quantity of the pure helium used would have been increased in the same proportion i. e. to an extravagant amount.}.
A great difficulty of an entirely different nature than the preceding one consisted in this that the hydrogen circulation and the helium circulation could not be worked simultaneously with the available helpers to work them. It is true that the two circulations have been arranged not only for continuous use, but if there is a sufficient number of helpers, also for simultaneous use, but in a first experiment it was out of the question to look, besides after the helium circulation, also after the hydrogen circulation, the working of which requires, of course, great experience {ULSF original footnote: Now the great difficulties of a first liquefaction have been overcome simultaneous working has become possible, though it remains the question how to find the means to develop the laboratory service according to the extension of its field of research.}. So on the same day that the helium experiment was to be made, a store of liquid hydrogen had to be previously prepared large enough to provide for the required cooling during the course of the helium experiment. It was again the law of corresponding states which directed us in the estimation of the duration of the experiment and the required quantity of liquid hydrogen {ULSF original footenote: The hydrogen cycle is not only arranged so that the same pure hydrogen in it can be circulated and liquefied at the rate of 4. liters per hour as long as this is wished, but also allows (as will be treated in a following communication) easily to prepare great stores of extremely pure hydrogen gas, which can be tapped off from the apparatus as liquid at the rate of 4 liters per hour.}. They remained just below the limit at which the arrangement of the experiment in the designed way would be unadvisable, but how near this limit was has appeared later.
In all these considerations the question remained whether everything that could appear during the experiment, had been sufficiently taken into account in the preparation. So we were very glad when the calculation of the last determined points on the isotherm- of — 259° shortly before the experiment confirmed that the BOYLE-point though below the boiling point of hydrogen lay somewhat above the lowest temperature of preliminary cooling, and at least the foundation of the experiment was correct.
In the execution I have availed myself of different meaus which DEWAR has taught us to use. I have set forth the great importance of his work in the region of low temperatures in general elsewhere (Comm. Suppl. N°. 9, Febr. 1904), here, however, I gladly avail myself of the opportunity of pointing out that his ingenious discoveries, the use of silvered vacuum glasses, the liquefaction of hydrogen, the absorption of gases in charcoal at low temperatures, together with the theory of VAN DER WAALS, have had an important share in the liquefaction of helium.
§ 2. Description of the apparatus. The whole of the arrangement has been represented on Pl. I. We mentioned before that in virtue of the principles set forth in Comm N° 23 the construction of the helium liquefactor (see PI. II and III) was as much as possible an imitation of the model of the hydrogen liquefactor described before (Comm. N°. 94f, May 1906), to which I therefore refer in the first place.
It was particularly difficult to keep- the hydrogen, which evaporating under a pressure of 6 cm. is to cool the compressed helium to 15° K. (just above the melting point of hydrogen), on the right level in the refrigerator intended for this purpose. This difficulty was surmounted in the following way. The liquid hydrogen is not immediately conveyed from the store bottles into the refrigerator, but first into a graduated glass Ga in the way indicated before, which when comparing the figures of Comm. N°. 94f and N°. 103 Pl. I fig. 4 does not require a further explanation. This graduated glass was a not-silvered vacuum glass, standing in a silvered vacuum glass Gb with liquid air, in which on either side the silver coating had been removed over a vertical strip so as to enable us to watch the level of the hydrogen in the graduated glass. From this vacuum glass the liquid hydrogen is siphoned over into the hydrogen refrigerator by means of a regulating cock P. To see whether the level of the liquid in the refrigerator takes up the right position, the german-silver reservoir N1 of a helium thermometer has been soldered to the tube which conveys at an initial temperature of — 190° the compressed helium which is to be cooled down further. This reservoir leads trough a steel capillary N2 (as in Comm. N°. 27, May 1896) to a reservoir N4 with stem N3. The quantity of helium and the pressure have been regulated in such a way that the mercury stands in the top of the stem, when the thermometer reservoir is quite immerged in hydrogen of 15° K., while as soon as the level falls, this is immediately shown by the fall of the mercury. The same purpose is further served by two thermo-elements constantan-iron (see Comm. N°. 89, Nov. 1903 and N°. 95a, June 1906), one on the bottom, the other soldered to the spiral on the same level as the thermometer reservoir. They did not indicate the level in the experiment of July 10th, because something got defect.
The evaporated hydrogen contributes in the regenerator Db to save liquid air during the cooling of the compressed helium, and is sucked up (along 15 and Hc) in the large cylinder of the conjugated methylchloride pump (Comm. No. 14, Dec. 1894), which otherwise serves in the methylchloride circulation of the cascade for liquid air; it is further conducted through an oil-trap, and over charcoal to the hydrogen gas-holder (Comm. N°. 94f), from which the hydrogen compressor (Comm. N°. 94f) forces the gas again into the store cylinders.
To fill the helium circulation the pure helium passes from the cylinders R1 (see Pl. II), in which it is kept, into the gasholder floating on oil (cf. Comm. N°. 94f), which is in connection with the space in which the helium expands when issuing from the cock, a german-silver cylinder, in which the upper part of the vacuum glass Ea has been inserted. The gas from the gasholder, and afterwards the cold outflowing helium, which has flowed round the regenerator coil, and of whose low temperature we have availed ourselves in the regenerator Da to save liquid air when cooling the compressed helium, is sucked up by the auxiliary compressor V, and then received in the compressor with mercury piston Q (comp. Comm. N°. 54). This forces it (PI. II and III) along the conduit:
a. through a tube Ca which at its lower end is cooled down far below the freezing point by means of vapour of liquid air, and at its upper end is kept at the ordinary temperature. Here the helium is perfectly dried.
b. through a tube divided into two parts along two refrigerating tubes (in Da and Db), in which it is cooled in the one by the abduced hydrogen, in the other by the abduced helium, after which it unites again.
c. through a tube Cb filled with exhausted charcoal and immerged in liquid air. Here whatever traces of air might have been absorbed during the circulation, remain behind.
d. through a refrigerating tube B3 lying in the liquid air which keeps the cover of the hydrogen space and of the helium space cooled down.
e. through a refrigerating tube B2, in which it is cooled by the evaporated liquid hydrogen.
f. through the refrigerating tube B1 lying in the liquid hydrogen evaporating under a pressure of 6 cm., here the compressed helium is cooled down to 15° K.;
g. and from here in the regenerator coil A, which has been fourfold wound as in HAMPSON's apparatus for air, and in the hydrogen liquefactor of Comm. N°. 94f.
Then it expands through the cock M1. If it should allow too much gas to pass, this can escape through a safety tube. When the temperature has descended so low that the liquid helium flows out, the latter collects in the lower part of the vacuum glass Ea, which is transparent up to the level of the cock, and is silvered above it.
The outflowing gaseous helium can be made to circulate again by the compressor of the circulation, or be pressed in the supply cylinder R2.
At some distance under the expansion cock M1, the german silver reservoir Th1 of a helium thermometer has been adjusted, it is soldered to a steel capillary Th2, which is connected with the manometer reservoir Th4 with stem Th3. If the mercury has been adjusted in such a way that at 15° K. its level is at the lower end of the just mentioned stem, the stem has sufficient length to prevent the mercury from overflowing into the capillary with further fall of the temperature.
The circulation is provided with numerous arrangements for different operations (for the compressor comp. Comm. N°. 54). Worth mentioning is an auxiliary tube Z filled with exhausted charcoal, which is cooled by liquid air when used. After the whole apparatus has been filled with pure gas, the gas is circulated through this side-conduit (along 11 and 8) while the charcoal tube Cb belonging to the liquefactor is shut off (by M and 9), to free it from the last traces of air which might have remained in the compressor and the conduits.
It now remains to describe in what way it has been arranged that the liquid helium can be observed. Round the transparent bottom part of the vacuum glass a protection of liquid hydrogen has been applied. The second vacuum glass Eb, which serves this purpose, forms a closed space together with the former Ea, and the construction has been arranged in such a way that first this space can be exhausted and filled with pure hydrogen gas, which is necessary to keep the liquid hydrogen perfectly clear later on. The liquid hydrogen is again conducted into this space in the way of Comm. N°. 94f and N°. 103 Pl. I fig. 4; the evaporated hydrogen escapes at Hg to the hydrogen gasholder The hydrogen glass is surrounded by a vacuum glass Ec with liquid air, which in its turn is surrounded by a glass Ed with alcohol, heated by circulation.
By these contrivances and the extreme purity of the helium we succeeded in keeping the apparatus perfectly transparent to the end of the experiment, after 5 hours. Protection with liquid hydrogen is necessary to reduce the evaporation of the helium to an insignificant degree notwithstanding that the silver coatings of the vacuum glass have been removed. That it ended in a narrower part, and the helium thermometer reservoir was not placed at the lowest point, was because it was possible that only an exceedingly slight amount of liquid should be formed. The vacuum glass was made transparent up to the cock in order to enable us to see any mist that might appear and if on the other hand much liquid was formed, to prevent the lower part from getting entirely filled without our noticing it. The latter has actually been the case for some time, and would not have been so soon perceived, if the walls had been silvered further. But if the glass is not silvered, the transport of heat towards the helium is much greater, and without protection with liquid hydrogen the helium that was formed might have immediately evaporated.
In the preparation of the vacuum glasses Mr. O. KESSELRING, glassblower of the laboratory, has met the high demands put to him, with untired zeal and devotion, for which I here gladly express my thanks to him.
§ 3. The helium. As to the chemical part of the preparation of this gas I was successively assisted by Mr. J. Waterman, Mr. J. G. JURLING, Mr. W. MEYER=CLUWEN, and Mr. H. FILILPPO Jzn. Chem. Docts., who collaborated with Mr. G. J. FLIM, chief of the technical department of the cryogenic laboratory. To all of them I gladly express my indebtedness for the share each of them has had in the arrangement, the improvement, and the simplification of the operation. More particulaily to Mr. FILIPPO for his carefull analyses and the way, in which the last combustion over CuO with addition of oxygen, and avoidance of renewed contamination by hydrogen was carried out by him.
The gas was obtained from the monazite (see § 1) by means of heating, it was exploded with oxygen. Then it was burned over CuO and the oxygen and gases of the same volatility were removed by freezing them out in liquid hydrogen. Then it was compressed over charcoal at the temperature of liquid air, after which it was under pressure led over charcoal at the temperature of liquid hydrogen several times till the gas which had been absorbed in the charcoal and then separately collected no longer contained any appreciable admixtures.
This way of preparation (to be treated in a following Comm.) was also applied in Comm. N°. 105.
§ 4. The experiment. After on July 9th the available quantity of liquid air had been increased to 75 liters, all apparatus examined as to their closures, exhausted, and filled with pure gas, we began the preparation of liquid hydrogen on the 10th of July, 5.45 a. m., 20 liters of which was ready for use in silvered vacuum glasses (ct. Comm. N°. 94f) at 1.30 p. m. In the meantime the helium apparatus had been exhausted while the tube with charcoal belonging to it was heated, and this tube being shut off, the gas contained in the rest of the helium circulation was freed from the last traces of air by conduction over charcoal in liquid air trough the sideconduit. The hydrogen circulation of the helium apparatus was connected with the hydrogen gasholder and the air-pump, which had served as methyl-chloride pump in the preparation of liquid air the day before, and this whole circulation was exhausted for so far as this had not been done before, and filled with pure hydrogen. Moreover the space between the vacuum glasses (Ea and Eb) which was to be filled with liquid hydrogen as a protection against access of heat, was exhausted and filled with pure hydrogen, and the thermometers and thermoelements were adjusted.
At 1.30 p. m. the cooling and filling of the glasses which, filled with liquid air, were to protect the glasses which were to be Riled with liquid hydrogen, began with such precautions that everything remained clear when they were put in their places. At 2.30 a commencement was made with the cooling of the graduated vacuum glass and of the hydrogen refrigerator of the helium liquefactor by the aid of hydrogen led trough a refrigerating tube, which was immerged in liquid air. At 3 o'clock the temperature of the refrigerator had fallen to — 180° according to one of the thermo-elements. Then the protecting glass (Eb) was filled with liquid hydrogen, and after some delay in consequence of insignificant disturbances, the filling of the graduated vacuum glass and the hydrogen refrigerator with hydrogen began at 4.20 p.m.
At the same time the helium was conducted in circulation through the liquefactor. The pressure under which the hydrogen evaporated, was gradually decreased to 6 cm., at which it remained from 5.20 p. m. The level in the refrigerator was continually regulated according to the indication of the thermometer-levelindicator and the reading of the graduated glass, and care was taken to add liquid hydrogen (Hydr. a, Hydr. b PI. II) and liquid air wherever necessary (a, b, c, d, Pl. II). In the meantime tbe pressure of the helium in the coil was slowly increased, and gradually raised from 80 to 100 atms. between 5.35 and 6.35 p. m.
At first the fall of the helium thermometer which indicated the temperature under the expansion cock, was so insignificant, that we feared that it had got defect, which would have a been double disappointment because just before also in the gold-silver thermoelement, which served to indicate the same temperature, some irregularity had occurred. After a long time, however, the at first insignificant fall began to be appreciable, and then to accelerate. Not before at 6.35 an accelerated expansion was applied, on which the pressure in the coil decreased from 95 to 40 atms., the temperature of the thermometer fell below that of the hydrogen. In successive accelerated expansions, especially when the pressure was not too high, a distinct fluctuation of the temperature towards lower values was clearly observed. Thus the thermometer indicated e. g. once roughly 6° K.
In the meantime the last bottle of the store of liquid hydrogen was connected with the apparatus: and still nothing had as yet been observed but some slight waving distortions of images near the cock. The thermometer indicated first even an increase of temperature with accelerated expansion from 100 atms., which was an indication for us to lower the circulation pressure to 75 atms. Nothing was observed in the helium space then either, but the thermometer began to be remarkably constant from this moment with an indication of less than 5° K. When once more accelerated expansion from 100 atms was tried, the temperature first rose, and returned then to the same constant point.
It was, as Prof. SCHREINEMAKERS, who was present at this part of the experiment, observed, as if the thermometer was placed in a liquid. This proved really to be the case. In the construction of the apparatus (see § 2) it had been foreseen that it might fill with liquid, without our observing the increase of the liquid. And the first time the appearance of the liquid had really escaped our observation. Perhaps the observation of the liquid surface which is difficult for the first time under any circumstance, had become the more difficult as it had hidden at the thermometer reservoir. However this may be, later on we clearly saw the liquid level get hollow by the blowing of the gas from the valve and rise in consequence of influx of liquid on applying accelerated expansion, which even continued when the pressure descended to 8 atms. So there was no doubt left that the critical pressure lies also above one atmosphere. If it had been below it, the apparatus might all at once have been entirely filled with liquid compressed above the critical pressure, {which by heating would have passed continously into the gaseous state,} and only with decrease of pressure a meniscus would have appeared somewhere in the liquid layer; this has not taken place now.
The surface of the liquid was soon made clearly visible by reflection of light from below, and that unmistakably because it was clearly pierced by the two wires of the thermoelement.
This was at 7.30 p. m. After the surface had once been seen, it was no more lost sight of. It stood out sharply defined like the edge of a knife against the glass wall.j Prof. KUENEN, who arrived at this moment, was at once struck with the fact that the liquid looked as if it was almost at its critical temperature. The peculiar appearance of the helium may really be best compared with that of a meniscus of carbonic acid e.g. in a CAGNIARD DE LA TOUR-tube. Here, however, the tube was 5 cm. wide. The three liquid levels in the vacuum glasses being visible at the same time, they could easily be compared; the difference of the hydrogen and the helium was very striking.
When the surface of the liquid had fallen so far that 60 cm3, of liquid helium still remained — so considerably more had been drawn off — the gas in the gasholder was exhausted, and then the gas which was formed from this quantity of liquid was again separately collected. In the course of the experiment the purity of this gas was determined by means of a determination of the density (2,01), which was afterwards confirmed by an explosion experiment with oxyhydrogen gas added, and further by a careful spectroscopical investigation.
At 8.30 the liquid was evaporated to about 10 cm3., after which we investigated whether the helium became solid when it evaporated under decreased pressure. This was not the case, not even when the pressure was decreased to 2.3 cm. A sufficient connection could not be quickly enough etablished with the large vacuumpump, which exhausts to 2 mm., so this will have to be investigated on another occasion. The deficient connection, however, has certainly made the pressure decrease below 1 cm., and perhaps even lower. That 7 mm. has been reached, is not unlikely.
At 9.40 only a few cm3, of liquid helium were left. Then the work was stopped. Not only had the apparatus been strained to the uttermost during this experiment and its preparation, but the utmost had also been demanded from my assistants.
But for their perseverance and their ardent devotion every item of the program would never have been attended to with such perfect accuracy as was necessary to render this attack on helium successful.
In particular I wish to express my great indebtedness to Mr. G. J. FLIM, who not only assisted me as chief of the technical department of the cryogenic laboratory in leading the operations, but has also superintended the construction of the apparatus according to my direction, and rendered me the most intelligent help in both respects.
§ 5. Control experiments. All the gas that had been used in the experiment, was collected in three separate quantities and compressed in cylinders. Quantity A contains what was finally left in the apparatus. Quantity B has been formed by evaporation of a certain quantity of liquid helium. Quantity C is the remaining part that has been in circulation. Together they yielded the same quantity as we started with. They were all three exploded with addition of oxyhydrogen gas and excess of oxygen; no hydrogen could be demonstrated. For the density (in a single determination) we found (O = 16) A = 2.04, B = 1.99, C = 2.02.
The spectrum of the gas used for the experiment put in a tube with mercury closure without electrodes and freed beforehand from vapour of water and fat at the temperature of liquid air, answered (only the spectrum of the capillary has been investigated) the description given by COLLIE of the spectrum of helium with a trace of hydrogen and mercury vapour.
Spectroscopically both the distilled C, and B were somewhat purer than the original gas. In the latter the hydrogen lines gained in case of high vacua, in the former the helium disappeared last. The hydrogen, from which the latter has still been cleared, must be found in A. By means of absorption by charcoal 8 cm3, of hydrogen was separated from this. To this would correspond a difference in percentage of hydrogen before and after the experiment of 0.004 %.
To estimate the percentages of hydrogen the spectra of the justmentioned quantities were compared with the spectrum of a helium which could not contain much more than 0.005 % hydrogen according to an estimation founded on the quantities of hydrogen which had been absorbed from the gas the last few times of successive purification when it was led compressed over charcoal at the temperature of liquid hydrogen, and with the spectrum of this helium after 0.1 % hydrogen had been mixed with it.
The gas used for the experiment did not differ much from that which served for comparison, and of which the red hydrogen and helium lines vanished simultaneously for the highest vacua, but it seemed to be somewhat less pure, for the red hydrogen line preponderated over the helium line for the highest vacua. In the different spectra the hydrogen line C was not to be seen at a pressure of 32 mm., the F-line with an intensity of 0.01 of He 5016 ; at 12—16 mm. C was faint compared with He 6677, and F faint compared with He 5016. An amount varying between 0.01 and 0.3 was estimated for the ratio of the intensity.
On the other hand at 32 mm. the C in the mixture with 0.1 pCt. hydrogen had already the same intensity as He 6677, F 0.3 of He 5016, which remained the case at 16 mm. (somewhat less for C, somewhat more for F).
In spite of the precautions taken it was observed a single time that the hydrogen lines increased in intensity during the determination, so when we proceeded to lower pressures the determinations became unreliable. These comparisons are, therefore, very imperfect; but then, the examination how traces of hydrogen in helium may be quantitatively determined by a spectroscopic method would constitute a separate investigation. In connection with the above difference in content of B and C with the original gas, the observations mentioned may perhaps serve to show that these percentages have not been much more than 0.004 and 0.008.
The purity of the helium had already been beyond doubt before, for the cock worked without the least disturbance, and no turbidity was observed even in the last remaining 2 cm3, of liquid.
The reliability of the helium thermometer was tested by the determination of the boiling point of oxygen, for which 89° K. was found instead of 90° K. We must, however, bear in mind that the thermometer has not been arranged for this temperature and the accuracy in percents of the total value is considerably higher for the much lower temperature of liquid helium.
For the assistance rendered me in the different control experiments, I gladly express my thanks to Dr. W. H. KEESOM and Mr. H. FILIPPO Jzn.
§ 6. Properties of the helium. By the side of important points of difference the properties of helium present striking points of resemblance with the image which DEWAR drew in his presidential address in 1902 on the strength of different suppositions.
We mentioned already the exceedingly slight capillarity.
For the boiling-point we found 4°.3 on the helium thermometer of constant volume at 1 atm. pressure at about 20° K. This temperature is still to be corrected to the absolute scale by the aid of the equation of state of helium. The correction may amount to some tenths of a degree if a increases at lower temperatures, so that the boiling-point may perhaps be rounded off to 4°.5 K.
The triple-point pressure if it exists lies undoubtedly below 1 cm., perhaps also below 7 mm. According to the law of corresponding states the temperature can be estimated at about 3° K. at this pressure. The viscosity of the liquid is still very slight at this temperature. If the helium should behave like pentane, we could descend to below 1.5°K. before it became viscous, and still lower near 1° K. before it became solid. How large the region of low temperatures (and high vacua) is that has now been opened, is, however, still to be investigated.
Liquid helium has a very slight density, viz. 0.15. This is smaller than was assumed and gives also a considerably higher value of b than can be derived from the isotherms at —252°.72 and — 258°.82 now that the points mentioned in § 1 have been determined, viz. about 0 0007 provisionally. The value of b which follows from the liquid state is about double the value of b which was expected (viz. 0.0005), and which was assumed in the calculations of Dr. KEESOM and myself on mixtures of helium and hydrogen, cf. Suppl. N°. 16, Sept. '07, p. 4 footnote 4.
From the high value of b follows immediately a small value of the critical pressure, which probably lies in the neighbourhood of 2 or 3 atms., and is exceedingly low in comparison with that for other substances. So when helium is subjected to the highest pressures possible, the "reduced" pressures become much higher than are to be realized for any other substance. What may be obtained in this respect by exerting a pressure of 5000 atms. on helium exceeds what would be reached when we could subject carbonic acid e.g. to a pressure of more than 100.000 atms. {ULSF: Is this 100,000 atms?}
The ratio of the density of the vapour and that of the liquid is about 1 to 11 at the boiling-point. It points to a critical temperature which is not much higher than 5° K., and a critical pressure which is not much higher than 2.3 atms.
But all the quantities mentioned will have to be subjected to further measurements and calculations before they will be firmly established, and before definite conclusions may be drawn from them.
We may only still mention here a preliminary value of a, viz. 0.00005. When in 1873 VAN DER WAALS in his Thesis for the Doctorate considered whether hydrogen would have an a, it was only after a long deliberation that he arrived at the conclusion that this must exist, even though it should be very small. It may be presumed that matter will always have attraction, was his argument, and as chance would have it, these words were repeated by him in reference to helium some days before the liquefaction of it (Proc. Kon Akad. Amsterdam June 1908). The a found now denotes the smallest degree of this attraction of matter known to us (cf. Suppl. N°. 9, p. 13), which still manifests itself with remarkable clearness also in helium in its liquefaction.".
(Perhaps a more logical word instead of 'liquefaction' might be 'liquefication'?)
| (Leiden University) Leiden, Netherlands |
92 YBN
[08/12/1908 AD]
| 4451) German physicist, Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (PoseN) (CE 1865-1947) identifies the “Paschen series” of lines in the spectrum of both helium and hydrogen.
In Tübingen, Paschen has the facilities to perform a systematic bolometric search for infrared spectral lines. Paschen returns to helium, in the spectrum of which he had previously detected bolometrically (June 1895) a few lines predicted by Runge’s series formulas, Paschen finds in the spring of 1908 additional lines that do not fit in that series system. Paschen looks everywhere for the impurity responsible for these lines when a letter arrives from Ritz announcing his newly invented combination principle and suggesting that helium lines might exist at precisely those wavelengths Paschen had observed. Following this striking confirmation, Ritz suggests that Paschen look for hydrogen lines at frequencies ν = N (1/32–1/m2), m = 4, 5 …, and this "Paschen series" is soon found.
(explain more, is an equation? is part of the hydrogen spectrum, why not simply call it the “hydrogen spectrum”? APparently it only explains some lines in both gases)
(translate original paper)
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
92 YBN
[09/24/1908 AD]
| 3617) Wireless typewriter.
Hans Knudsen, Danish inventor, demonstrates a wireless typewriter. The journal "Nature" reports "An appliance for working the keyboard of a typewriter on a type-setting machine from a distance by means of wireless telegraphy has been devised by Mr. Hans Knudsen, and a demonstration of the experimental apparatus was given at the Hotel Cecil on Thursday last.".
| (Hotel Cecil) London, England (presumably) |
92 YBN
[12/09/1908 AD]
| 4960) Percy Williams Bridgman (CE 1882-1961), US physicist introduces the self-tightening joint (also known as a "leakproof pressure seal" or “packing”, "unsupported area seal") which makes higher pressure chambers possible
This is Bridgman's most important invention, a special type of seal, in which the pressure in the gasket always exceeds that in the pressurized fluid, so that the closure is self-sealing; without this his work at very high pressures would not have been possible.
Initially the maximum pressure Bridgman works with is 6,500 atmospheres, not much higher than was currently used by other investigators, and this is inefficiently produced with a screw compressor turned with a six-foot wrench.
At the beginning of the century Emile Amagat and Louis Cailletet had attained pressures of some 3000 kilograms per square centimeter; Bridgman increased this enormously, regularly attaining pressures of 100,000 kg/cm2. Bridgman eventually extends the range to more than 100,000 atmospheres and ultimately reaches about 400,000 atmospheres.
Bridgman invents a chamber that reaches a pressure of 400,000 atmospheres by using stronger materials and by putting pressure on the container from the outside. Through the use of these higher pressures Bridgman is able to study new forms of solids. This explains some of the processes deep within the earth.
In the course of this work Bridgman discovers two new forms of ice, freezing at temperatures above 0°C.
Bridgman discovers that the electrons in cesium undergo a rearrangement at a certain transition pressure.
In 1955, with Bridgman as a consultant, research workers (give names) at General Electric are able to form synthetic diamonds for the first time in history by using a combination of high pressure and high temperature.
Bridgman later explains in 1943 that the self-sealing feature of his first high pressure packing was incidental to the design of a closure for the pressure vessel that could be rapidly assembled or taken apart, the basic advantages of the scheme were realized only later.
(describe this chamber, and how pressure is increased. What is inside? just air? would other gases increase the pressure more? Would a liquid or solid increase the pressure more?)
(I wonder how deep these pressures model, can this model the inside of the earth? I kind of doubt it, because the huge amount of mass of earth must create pressures that cannot be modeled with a small object.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 3836) James Dewar measures the rate of helium produced from radium.
Dewar also measure infrared radiation. (more details, chronology)
| (Royal Institution) London, England (presumably) |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4212) George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor uses cellulose acetate to replace the flammable cellulose nitrate base.
(Eastman's company invents cellulose acetate?)
| (Eastman Kodak Company) New Jersey, USA (presumably) |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4214) George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor sells his first daylight-loading camera, which means that people can now reload the camera without using a darkroom.
How this fits into the secret recording of neuron images and sounds is an important aspect.
| (The Eastman Company) Rochester, NY, USA |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4238) Cellophane (A clear, flexible film made from cellulose).
Cellophane is patented in 1908 by the Swiss chemist Jacques-Edwin Brandenburger (CE 1872-1954).
Cellophane is manufactured in a process that is very similar to that for rayon. Special wood pulp, known as dissolving pulp, which is white like cotton and contains 92–98% cellulose, is treated with strong alkali in a process known as mercerization. The mercerized pulp is aged for several days.
The aged, shredded pulp is then treated with carbon disulfide, which reacts with the cellulose and dissolves it to form a viscous, orange solution of cellulose xanthate known as viscose. Rayon fibers are formed by forcing the viscose through a small hole into an acid bath that regenerates the original cellulose while carbon disulfide is given off. To make cellophane, the viscose passes through a long slot into a bath of ammonium sulfate which causes it to coagulate. The coagulated viscose is then put into an acidic bath that returns the cellulose to its original, insoluble form. The cellophane is now clear.
The cellophane is then treated in a glycerol bath and dried. The glycerol acts like a plasticizer, making the dry cellophane less brittle. The cellophane may be coated with nitrocellulose or wax to make it impermeable to water vapor; it is coated with polyethylene or other materials to make it heat sealable for automated wrapping machines. Cellophane is typically 0.03 mm (0.001 in.) thick, is available in widths to 132 cm (52 in.).
By 1960, petrochemical-based polymers (polyolefins) such as polyethylene will surpass cellophane for use as a packaging film.
| Paris, France (presumably) |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4344) Svante August Arrhenius (oRrAnEuS) (CE 1859-1927), Swedish chemist publishes a book "Worlds in the Making" in which Arrhenius supports the theory of there being life throughout the universe, that bacterial spores can survive the cold and empty space between stars for indefinite periods of time, and that life on earth started when living spores reached the earth.
Asimov argues that ultraviolet light can kill spores, but there are probably some spores that can survive uv, and then simply those inside ice chunks. In addition Asimov points out that this does not resolve the origin of life question, which is true, clearly chemical evolution which created the first bacteria had to happen somewhere. Urey will continue this investigation of the origin of living objects.
Arrhenius argues against the "heat death" of the universe, the supposed ultimate state of maximum entropy predicted by Clausius, believing that processes exist that decrease entropy and maintain equilibrium. Asimov states this is a forerunner to Gold who will image a universe undergoing constant creation. (This constant creation universe theory seems unlikely to me, because of the idea that matter is created from nothing and/or separated into nothing, and these are the main reasons why I think that the theory of entropy is unlikely. For me, the most likely theory will not violate the theory of conservation of mass and motion.)
| (Nobel Institute for Physical Chemistry) Stockholm, Sweden |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4378) Gyroscopic compass. A device which, once properly aligned, always points to true north.
| Kiel, Germany (presumably) |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4424) Henry Ford (CE 1863-1947) US industrialist creates the "assembly line", which brings the parts to the employee instead of the other way around. In this system, each person stands in on place and does a single task. The assembly line stars with parts and ends with finished automobiles. Ford's methods of mass production will be copied by other people. Ford's production of automobiles will contribute to the Industrial Revolution.
After much experimentation by Ford and his engineers, this assembly system by 1913–14 in Ford's new plant in Highland Park, Michigan, is able to turn out a complete chassis every 93 minutes, an enormous improvement over the 728 minutes formerly required.
In October of 1908, Ford announces "I will build a motor car for the great multitude," in announcing the birth of his "Model T" car. In the 19 years of the Model T's existence, Ford sells 15,500,000 of the cars in the United States, almost 1,000,000 more in Canada, and 250,000 in Great Britain, a production total amounting to half the auto output of the entire earth.
Ford makes the automobile affordable enough for average people, and this will change the way of life for most people. Before this only the rich could move freely around the country; now millions can move wherever they please. The Model T is the chief instrument of one of the greatest and most rapid changes in the lives of the common people in history, and this change happens in less than two decades. To manufacture cars, Ford fights a 6 year court battle against the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers who held the rights to a patent of 1895 by George Selden for all gasoline-powered automobiles. Ford loses the original case in 1909 but wins on appeal in 1911.
(Imagine if people try to patent the walking robot, or neuron reading and writing devices - to monopolize the technology - how terrible that would be for poor people in particular, but no doubt everybody would be affected.)
(Clearly we are entering into an age where walking robots do all low-skill labor - and gradually doing even potentially all manual labor. So there will be no manual labor jobs done by humans. Humans will probably, through democracy, create a standard of living where no human goes hungry or without a room. It may be, ironically, that the only and most major jobs available to humans will be in trading physical pleasure for money - since robots cannot fill this space as well. Humans, wealthy humans, in particular, will still work on the ideas of going to other stars and developing the matter around other stars, but it will probably be more of a decision making existance - where robots do the actual physical work - the robots may at some point be producing the best ideas for humans to decide on in terms of new areas of research, development and production.)
| (Detroit Automobile Company) Detroit, Michigan, USA |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4474) Dayton Clarence Miller (CE 1866-1941), US physicist invents a photodeik, a device in which the oscillations of sound waves cause vibrations in a mirror which causes a spot of reflected light to vibrate and so the sound wave can be visualized.
The photodeik records sound patterns photographically. During World War I Miller uses this device to analyze the nature of gun sound wave-forms for the National Research Council, which is developing improved techniques to locate enemy artillery by using sound.
(Is this possibly related to the recording of sound on film?)
| (Case School of Applied Science) Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4517) Karl Landsteiner (CE 1868-1943), Austrian-US physician determines that a microorganism is responsible for poliomyelitis.
After conducting a postmortem examination of a child who had died of poliomyletis, Landsteiner injects a mix of the child's ground up brain and spinal cord tissue into the abdominal cavity of various experimental animals, including rhesus monkeys. On the sixth day following the injections, the monkeys show signs of paralysis similar to those of poliomyelitis patients. The appearance of their central nervous systems is also was similar to that of humans who have died of polio. Since Landsteiner cannot prove the presence of bacteria in the spinal cord of the child who had died frmo polio, he postulates that the agent that causes poliomyletis is a virus. Lansteiner writes (translated from German): "The supposition is hence near, that a so-called invisible virus or a virus belonging to the class of protozoa, cause the disease.". Between 1909 and 1912 Landsteiner and Levaditi of the Pasteur Institute at Paris create a serum diagnostic procedure for poliomyelitis and a method of preserving the viruses that cause it.
Sabin and Salk will develop a vaccine for polio.
| (Royal-Imperial Wilhelminen Hospital) Vienna |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4527) Henrietta Swan Leavitt (CE 1868-1921), US astronomer finds a period-luminosity relation for the Cepheid (SeFEiD) variable stars.
This find originates in Leavitt's study of the variables in the Magellanic Clouds, made on plates taken at the Harvard southern station in Arequipa, Peru. Leavitt publishes this finding as "1777 Variables in the Magellanic Clouds" in the Annals of Harvard College Observatory. Leavitt writes: "In the spring of 1904, a comparison of two photographs of the Small Magellanic Cloud, taken with the 24-inch Bruce Telescope, led 'to the discovery of a number of faint variable stars. As the region appeared to be interesting, other plates were examined, and although the quality of most of these was below the usual high standard of excellence of the later plates, 57 new variables were found, and announced in Circular 79. In order to furnish material for determining their periods, a series of sixteen plates, having exposures of from two to four hours, was taken with the Bruce Telescope the following autumn. When they arrived at Cambridge, in January, 1905, a comparison of one of them with an early plate led immediately to the discovery of an extraordinary number of new variable stars. It was found, also, that plates, taken within two or t"hree days of each other, could be compared with equally interesting results, showing that the periods of many of the variables are short. The number thus discovered, up to the present time, is 969. Adding to these 23 previously known, the total number of variables in this region is 992. The Large Magellanic Cloud has also been examined on 18 photographs taken with the 24-inch Bruce Telescope, and 808 new variables have been found, of which 152 were announced in Circular 82. As much time will be required for the discussion of these variables, the provisional catalogues given below have been prepared.
The labor of determining the precise right ascensions and declinations of nearly eighteen hundred variables and several hundred comparison stars would be very great, and as many of the objects are faint, the resulting positions could not readily be used in locating them. Accordingly, their rectangular coordinates have been employed. A reticule was prepared by making a photographic enlargement of a glass plate ruled accurately in squares, a millimetre on a side. The resulting plate measured 14 X 17 inches, the size of the Bruce plates, and was covered with squares measuring a centimetre on a side. Great care was taken to have the scale uniform in all parts of this Clouds, but for any other region in which it may be desirable to measure a large number of objects. A glass positive was then made from a photograph of each of the Magellanic Clouds, and from this a negative on glass was printed, upon which a print from the plate containing the reticule was superposed. The resulting photograph in each case, was a duplicate of the original negative, with the addition of a reticule whose lines are one centimetre apart, a distance corresponding, on these plates, to ten minutes of arc.
....". Leavitt prints a table of periods for sixteen variable stars and writes: "... The variables appear to fall into three or four distinct groups. The majority of the light curves have a striking resemblance, in form, to those of cluster variables. As a rule, they are faint during the greater part of the time, the maxima being very brief, while the increase of light usually does not occupy more than from onesixth to one-tenth of the entire period. It is worthy of notice that in Table VI the brighter variables have the longer periods. It is also noticeable that those having the longest periods appear to be as regular in their variations as those which pass through their changes in a day or two. This is especially striking in the case of No. 821, which has a period of 127 days, as 89 observations with 45 returns of maximum give an average deviation from the light curve of only six hundredths of a magnitude. Six of the sixteen variables are brighter at maximum than the fourteenth magnitude, and have periods longer than eight days. It will be noticed that this proportion is much greater here than in Table II. The number which have been measured up to the present time is 59, and of these the brighter stars were first selected for discussion, as the material for them was more abundant. A few of the fainter variables, selected at random, were then studied, but no attempt has yet been made to determine periods for the remainder. While, therefore, the light curves thus far obtained have characteristics to which the majority of the variables will probably be found to conform, no inference can be drawn with regard to the prevalence of any particular type, until many more of the periods have been determined. ...".
In 1912 Leavitt extends the analysis to twenty-five stars and finds that the apparent magnitude decreases linearly with the logarithm of the period. This discovery leads to an important method for determining very great distances. Before this only distances out to a hundred light-years could be estimated. Leavitt's work on the light variation of Cepheids will be extended first by Ejnar Hertzsprung and Harlow Shapley and then by Walter Baade to give the period–luminosity relation of Cepheids. Using this relation the luminosity, or intrinsic brightness, of a Cepheid can be determined directly from a measure of its period and this in turn allows the distance of the Cepheid and its surroundings to be calculated. Distances of galaxies up to ten million light-years away can then be determined this way.
The photographic magnitude of a star differs somewhat from its visual magnitude since a photographic emulsion is more sensitive to blue light than the eye.
In our own galaxy this phenomenon had been hidden because a star with a short-period might be brighter than a long-period star just because it is closer to us.
Later people will discover that there are actually two different types of Cepheid variable, however, the same method of distance determination can still be applied separately to each type. (describe more fully all the different kinds of variable stars.)
The first variable star known in the Small Magellanic Cloud was found by Leavitt in 1904. (state who found the first known variable star.)
(variable stars are really interesting phenomena, it must be something blocking the light from the stars exactly in our direction, which may be relatively rare thinking of all the other planes objects can orbit around stars in. So I think this is probably some object that is orbiting around a star exactly in the plane the earth is in. Perhaps a regular, sine wave, variation would appear to be more like an object that has a large center and linearly decreases on one side of the star, while mostly empty space is on the other side. Perhaps that is a pattern that advanced life might evolve clustering around their planet of origin. It could be a star that becomes brighter and dimmer as the result of some unknown phenomenon, like some kind of oscillating pattern of heating and cooling, perhaps from some surrounding objects. The sun, and all stars may have some amount of variation in the intensity that oscillates. Perhaps different parts of a star's surface emit different brightness, but it seems likely that this would result in a very fast period, since stars are usually the fastest rotating object in any star system. I find it hard to believe that the brightness of a star relates to the period of light variation. This implies that the larger a star the longer the period of variation, which could be internal, but for the theory that objects are obscuring the light of the star, this would mean that the objects are farther away the larger the star, which perhaps could be logical, since the zone for DNA life might be farther away.)
(The Large Magellanic Cloud is catagorized as an "Irregular Galaxy", but it may be, in my view, the earliest stage of galaxy - and therefore more like a galactic sized endonebula - a galaxy that will become a spiral, and then globular, presuming its matter is not captured and utilized by some other globular galaxy before then.)
(I think it is something that needs to be seen to be believed, that brighter variable stars have longer periods. Then an explanation should be provided as to why. Are there any theories that explain variable stars? Again I think this is either the object obstructing, or intrinsic property of the star. Since the majority of other stars are not variable, it seems unlikely to me that variability is an intrinsic property of a very rare class of star. It is more likely that some object(s) are obstructing the light of the star, the chances that the objects would be orbiting in the plane of earth (and possibly the exact plane so that no matter where the earth is around the sun we would observe the variability, if some other plane we would see a much more irregular variability...and maybe this should be looked for. Also planes that are close might have a more sustained variability) So given that this is probably an obstruction of the light from objects in a plane parallel to the earth, is there some explanation as to why objects would orbit farther away from larger stars? Perhaps yes, as I typed because of too much heat, but I think this really needs to be verified. Does this imply that for almost all stars that the larger they are the farther away the orbiting matter is? That seems to be false, in particular with the recent finding of large planets around stars by using Doppler variation. What is the closest variable star? EX: Does Doppler variation correspond to variation in intensity?)
(maybe these stars are pulsars, or similar? Perhaps the variation is from a stream of light from their poles? What is the nearest pulsar? This would explain possibly why a larger star would take more time (but then it would be more from an equator than a pole, salthough it could be from a wobble.))
(Interesting that Leavitt gives not only right ascension and declination but two of the retangular coordinates, x, y. What is the origin for the rectangular system?)
(Perhaps just coincidence, but Leavitt's writing has many double-meaning sexual words like "covered with squares", which in modern terms, the word "covered" usually is used to imply to describe a common secret insider occurance - something outsiders know very little about - but insiders see routinely - a person covered with sperm by insiders who get video in their eyes, and the word "squares" is used to describe how people get video squares in their eyes. Another is "coal sack" which may imply the scrotum of a black male - all of which might make a reader smile with amusement at Leavitt's secret world/double-meaning writing. But perhaps this is reading too far into the writings creating during the neuron aparteid era.)
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4531) Fritz Haber (HoBR) (CE 1868-1934), German chemist converts atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia (NH3 by combining nitrogen and hydrogen under pressure using iron as a catalyst.
This synthesis of ammonia from nitrogen gas in the air allows greater production of ammonia which can then be used for fertilizers, explosives, and other uses. This process is called the Haber process, and is refered to as "fixing nitrogen". Before this, although 4/5 of the air on earth is made of nitrogen, nitrogen had to be imported from nitrate deposits in the desert in northern Chile.
The next year the process is turned over to the German chemist Carl Bosch at BASF Aktiengesellschaft for industrial development of what is now known as the Haber-Bosch process. In 1911 the first ammonia plant is built at Ludwigshafen-Oppau, which produces over 30 tons of fixed nitrogen per day by 1913.
The reaction is N2 + 3 H2 2NH3. Haber starts at Ramsay and Young's investigations of ammonia decomposition around 800°C. Haber and his assistant Oordt heat a reactor to 1000°C, and slowly pass ammonia overed heated iron, and add N2 and H2 into a second reactor also with finely divided iron. Almost immediately they produce a very small amount of ammonium, finding that the quantity of ammonia formed in the second reactor is almost as much as the volume of the undecomposed gas leaving the first reactor. Haber goes on to find that nickel works as a catalyst, and that calcium and manganese allow the two gases to combine at even lower temperatures. In 1907 Haber and his pupil A Konig publish their first paper on the topic of NO formation in a high-voltage electric arc but concludes by 1908 that electric arc is not the path to large scale nitrogen fixation. Later Haber decides to attempt the synthesis of ammonia and this he accomplishes after searches for suitable catalysts, by circulating nitrogen and hydrogen over the catalyst at a pressure of 150-200 atmospheres at a temperature of about 500° C.
When coupled with German chemist Wilhelm Ostwald's process for the oxidation of ammonia to nitric acid, the combined process is the key not only to fertilizer and food production but also to the synthesis of nitrates and other explosives useful in construction among other purposes.
This will allow the German people to continue to make explosives in World War I, where before they might have run out.
Bergius will use the principle of the Haber process to form useful organic compounds by hydrogenating coal.
Ammonia NH3 is a colorless, smelly (pungent) gas, extensively used to manufacture fertilizers and a wide variety of nitrogen-containing organic and inorganic chemicals.
(There must be many other extremely useful chemical reactions, that are as of yet unknown to the human species.)
(find, cite and translate all papers involved - show all diagrams.) (Show and explain how the pressure is increased on the two gases.)
| (Fridericiana Technische Hochschule) Karlsruhe, Germany |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4718) Jean Baptiste Perrin (PeraN, PeriN or PeroN) (CE 1870-1942), French physicist, uses the kinetic theory to measure how equal spheres of gamboge (GoMBOJ) (a brownish or orange resin obtained from several trees of the genus Garcinia of south-central Asia) separate equally from Brownian motion in a solution, to calculate the number of molecules in a gram molecule (mole) of a substance (Avogadro's number) as 71 x 1022 and the charge of the electron as 4.1 x 10-10.
The concentration at equilibrium of particles of gamboge of uniform size decreases very rapidly with increasing height in the solution according to an exponential law, the law which holds for the decrease of the pressure or concentration of a gas with increasing height. The weight of a gram molecule (mole) of the substance divided by this number gives the weight of the molecule. For example in 12 grams of Carbon 12 there are Avogadro's number of atoms.
Perrin uses the equation log n0/n = N/RT * 4/3 πa2g(Δ-δ)h where n and n0 are the concentrations of grains in two levels of distance h, 4/3 πa2 is the volume of grain, (Δ-δ) is the apparent density, and N is the number of Avogadro (the number of molecules in a molecule-gram).
| (École Normale) Paris, France |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4723) Howard Taylor Ricketts (CE 1871-1910), US pathologist observes the bacteria that causes Rocky Mountain spotted fever, finding it in the blood of the infected animals and also in the ticks and their eggs.
Ricketts is unable to isolate and culture the bacteria using contemporary laboratory techniques.
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4773) Richard Willstätter (ViLsTeTR) (CE 1872-1942), German chemist, Willstätter will use chromatography to identify the way the magnesium atom is in the chlorophyll molecule, and will show that the iron atom is contained in a similar way in heme, the colored portion of the hemoglobin molecule.
Willstätter reintroduces the technique of chromatography first created by Tsvett in 1906. Willstätter and others such as Kuhn, will make this technique important. Twenty years later Martin and Synge will adapt this technique to filter paper, and chromatography will become the main technique for separating mixtures.
Willstätter's work on chlorophyll is justified in 1960 when Robert Woodward succeeds in synthesizing the compounds described by Willstätter's formulas to create chlorophyll.
| (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, Switzerland |
92 YBN
[1908 AD]
| 4813) William David Coolidge (CE 1873-1975), US physicist patents a technique for manufacturing ductile tungsten which can be drawn into fine wires.
Tungsten is the metal with the highest melting point (3410°C), but tungsten is brittle and there was no way to draw tungsten out into wire. Edison had introduced carbon fibers, but these were brittle and difficult to handle. People understand that some high melting point metal in the form of wire would be much better, These fine tungsten wires are the filaments used in light bulbs, radio tubes and other devices today.
Over the years 1907 to 1910 Coolidge develops a new continuous process for making tungsten wire. Blocks of hot sintered tungsten (sintering is forming a coherent bonded mass by heating metal powders without melting) is passed through a series of swaging, rolling, and drawing steps at gradually reduced temperatures. (Swaging is a process that is used to reduce or increase the diameter of tubes and/or rods. This is done by placing the tube or rod inside a die that applies compressive force by hammering radially.) The tungsten grains gradually deform from cubes to extended fibers, which yield a wire that is ductile at room temperature. The great majority of all the incandescent lamps made on planet earth today are made by this “Coolidge process,” which is one of the first inventions made by a scientist in a U.S. industrial laboratory to achieve large commercial success.
(Tungsten is used for Gas Tungsten Arc Welding because it can stay solid despite the temperature induced by the large amount of electrons that flow through it in arc welding.)
| (Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, in 1900. |
91 YBN
[02/08/1909 AD]
| 4428) Leo Hendrik Baekeland (BAKlaND) (CE 1863-1944), Belgian-US chemist announces the invention of "Bakelite", the first thermosetting plastic, a plastic that does not soften when heated.
Initially Baekeland wants to make a synthetic substitute for shellac, by using the phenol–formaldehyde resins discovered by Karl Baeyer in 1871.
Baekeland uses phenol and formaldehyde (describe these molecules alcohol, oil based?) and then finds a solvent that will dissolve the tar-like mixture. Baekeland realizes that a residue that is hard and resistant to solvents can be a useful material. Baekeland continues to work to make the resinous mass harder, tougher and more efficient to create. By using the proper heat and pressure, Baekeland obtains a liquid that will solidify and take the shape of the container it is in. Once solid, the material is hard, water-resisant, solvent-resistant, is an electrical insulator, and can be easily cut and machined. Hyatt had created the first "plastic", celluloid, but this is the first "thermosetting plastic" (one that once set will not soften under heat), and is still useful now. Baekeland sparks the modern development of plastics.
Baekeland announces this invention in a lecture before the American Chemical Society on 8 February 1909. Baekeland surveys the previous efforts to make use of this reaction, which resulted in slow processes and brittle products and states “..... by the use of small amounts of bases, I have succeeded in preparing a solid initial condensation product, the properties of which simplify enormously all molding operations....”. Baekland goes on to distinguish three stages of reaction, with a soluble intermediate product.
Manufacture of Bakelite resins starts in 1907 and by 1930, the Bakelite Corporation occupies a 128-acre plant at Bound Brook, New Jersey.
(read part of paper?) In a February 8, 1909 paper, Baekeland writes: "Since many years it is known that formaldehyde may react upon"'pheno1ic bodies. That this re- action is not so very simple is shown by the fact, that according to conditions of operating or to modified quantities of reacting materials, very different results may be obtained; so that bodies very unlike in chemical and physical properties may be produced by starting from the same raw materials. Some of these so-called condensation products are soluble in water, other ones are crystalline, while some others are amorphous and resinlike. Then again, among the latter resinous products some are easily fusible and soluble in alcohol or similar solvents while other ones are totally insoluble in all solvents and infusible. This paper will deal with a product of the latter class. The complexity of my subject compels me to make a brief historical outline which will allow us to form a clearer idea of the scope of my work and differentiate it from prior or contemporary attempts in subjects somewhat similar. That phenols and aldehydes react upon each other was shown as far back as 1872 by Ad. Bayer and others.' The substances obtained by these investigators were merely of theoretical interests and no attempt was made to utilize them commercially; furthermore their method of preparation was too expensive and too uncertain and the properties of some of their resinous products were too undecided to suggest the possibility of utilizing them for technical purposes. Until 1891 attempts at synthesis with formaldehyde were generally limited to the use of its chemical representatives, either methylal, methylen acetate, or methylen-haloid-compounds. With the advent of cheap commercial formaldehyde, Kleeberg' took up again this subject using formaldehyde solution in conjunction with phenol and in presence of strong HCl. Under spontaneous heating he obtained a sticky paste which soon becomes a hard irregular mass. The latter is infusible and insoluble in all solvents and resists most chemical agents ; boiling with alkalies, acids or solvents will merely extract small amounts of apparent impurities. As Kleeberg could not crystallize this mass, nor purify it to constant composition, nor in fact do anything with it after it was once produced, he described his product in a few lines, dismissed the subject and made himself happy with the study of nicely crystalline substances as are obtained by the action of formaldehyde and polyphenols, gallic acid, etc. The mass obtained after Kleeberg's method, is a hard and irregular porous substance containing free acid which can only be removed with difficulty after grinding and boiling with water or alkaline solutions. The porosity of the mass is due, as we shall see later, to the evolution of gaseous products during the process of heating. In 1899 Smith,' realizing probably that Kleeberg's method does not lend itself to molding homogeneous articles, tried to moderate the violent reaction by using a solvent like methyl-alcohol or amyl-alcohol in which he dissolves the reacting bodies, as well as the condensing agent, muriatic acid. Even then the reaction is too violent if formaldehyde be used, so he does not use formaldehyde, but instead he takes expensive acetaldehyde and paraldehyde, or expensive polymers of formaldehyde. After the reaction, he slowly evaporates the mixtures and drives off the solvent at I O O O C . He thus obtains, by and by, a hardened mass in sheets or slabs which can be sawed, cut or polished. In his German patent specification2 he insists on the fact that in his process the methyl- or amyl-alcohol not only act as solvents but participate in the reaction and he states that this is clearly shown by the color of the final product, which is dependent on the nature of the solvent he employs: He mentions that his drying requires from 12-30 hours; my own experience is that it takes several days to expel enough of the solvent; and even after several months, there is still a very decided smell of slowly liberated solvent. During the act of drying I observed in every instance warping and irregular shrinking of the mass which thereby becomes deformed and makes this method unfit for accurate molding. I n 1902 L ~ f t t,r~ied to overcome these difficulties in a somewhat similar way. Like Kleeberg he uses a mixture of formaldehyde, phenol and an acid ; but recognizing the imperfections of the product and desiring to make of it a plastic that can be molded, he mixes the mass before hardening, with suitable solvents such as glycerine, alcohol or camphor. He virtually does the same thing as Smith with the difference, however, that he adds his solvents after the main reaction is partially over and uses his acid condensing agent in aqueous solution. His aim, as clearly expressed in his patent specifications, is to obtain a mass which remains “transparent and more or less plastic.” After pouring his mixture in a suitable mold he drie- at a temperature of about soo C. He to2 insists on the advantages of using solvents and in his German patent (page I, line 44) h2 states that from 2 to IO per cent. glycerine must remain in the mass; moreover he arranges matters so as to retain in his mixture all the expensive camphor. The whole process of Luft looks clearly like an attempt to make a plastic similar to celluloid and to prepare it and to use it as the latter. The similarity becomes greater by the use of camphor and the same solvents as in the celluloid process. I have prepared Luft’s product; it is relatively brittle, very much less tough and flexible than celluloid; it does not melt if heated although it softens decidedly; acetone swells it and suitable solvents can extract free camphor and glycerine from it. And now we come to an attempt of another kind, namely the formation of soluble synthetic resins, better known as shellac substitutes. Blumerl boils a mixture of formaldehyde, phenols and an oxyacid, preferably tartaric acid and obtains a fusible, alcohol-soluble, resinous material, which he proposes as a shellac substitute. This substance is soluble in caustic soda lye; it can be melted repeatedly, and behaves like any soluble fusible natural resin. Blumer in his original English patent application puts great stress on the use of an oxyacid and seems to think that the latter participates prominently in the reaction; he uses it in the proportion of one molecule of acid for two molecules of phenol and two molecules of formaldehyde. Nathaniel Thurlow, working in my laboratory on the same subject, has conclusively shown several years ago that the identical material can be obtained by the use of minute amounts of inorganic acids ; he has shown furthermore that equimolecular proportions are not necessary; in fact they are wrong and harmful if the reaction be carried on in such a way that no formaldehyde be lost; he showed also that in order to obtain a fusible soluble resin, an excess of phenol over equimolecular proportions must be used, unless some formaldehyde be lost in the reaction, So as to avoid confusion, I ought to mention here that Blumer and Thurlow’s resin is relatively very brittle, more so than shellac and that no
amount of heating alone changes it into an insoluble, infusible product. As to the real chemical constitution of this interesting product which I have tried to establish by indirect synthesis, I shall read a paper on this subject at one of the next meetings of this society. About a year later, Fayolle‘ tries to make guttapercha substitutes by modifying Luft’s method : he adds large amounts of glycerine to the sulphuric acid used as condensing agent, and obtains a mass that remains plastic and can be softened and kneaded whenever heat is applied. On trial, this method gave me a brittle unsatisfactory substance of which it is difficult, if not impossible, to wash away the free acid without removing at the same time much of the glycerine. In this relation, Luft’s way of adding the glycerine after eliminating the acid, seems more logical.2 Later,3 the same inventor modified his method by adding a considerable amount of pitch (“brai”) and oil thus trying to make another gutta-percha substitute which also softens when heated and remains plastic. In 1905 Story4 modifies all above methods in the following way: He discontinues the use of condensing agents and of added solvents; but he takes a decided excess of phenol, namely 3 parts of 40 per cent. formaldehyde and 5 parts of 95 per cent. cresol or carbolic acid; by this fact the latter is present in excess of equimolecular proportions. He boils this mixture for 8-10 hours, then concentrates in an open vessel which drives off water and some formaldehyde, and which increases still more the excess of phenol; after the mixture has become viscous he pours it into suitable molds, cools down and afterwards hardens by slow drying below 100’ C., or as stated in his patent, at about 8oOC. His product is infusible and insoluble. But this method has some very serious drawbacks which I shall describe summarily and which Story himself recognized 1ater.j Leaving out of consideration his long preliminary boiling, the hardening process at temperatures below IOOO C. is really a dryzng process where the excess of phenol that provisionally has acted as a solvent is slowly expelled. This assertion I have been able to verify beyond doubt by my direct experiments
where hardening was conducted in closed vessels at below I O O O C . and where I succeeded in collecting phenol with the eliminated water. The evaporation or drying process may proceed acceptably fast for thin layers, or thin plates, but for masses of a somewhat larger volume, it requires weeks and months ; even then the maximum possible hardness or strength is not reached at such low temperatures. All this not merely involves much loss of time, but the long use of expensive molds, a very considerable item in manufacturing methods ; furthermore, during the act of drying, the evaporation occurs quickest from the exposed surface, thus causing irregular contraction and intense stresses, the final result being misshapen molded objects, rents or cracks. Story states that if pure phenol be used the reaction proceeds very slowly; I should add that in that case the reaction does not take place, except very imperfectly, even after several days of continuous boiling. Even then in some of my own experim ents made with pure commercial crystallized phenol and with commercial 40 per cent. formaldehyde, I obtained products not of the insoluble type, but similar to the soluble fusible products of Blumer and Thurlow. Taken in a broad sense, Story's process is very similar to Luft's with this difference however, that he foregoes the use of an acid condensing agent and instead of using a solvent like alcohol, glycerine or camphor, he uses a better and cheaper one, namely an excess of phenol. In further similarity with Luft and Smith's his method is, as he expresses himself in his patent text, a drying process. Like Smith and Luft he is very careful to specify temperatures not exceeding I O O O C . for drying off his solvent. Shortly after Story filed his patent, DeLairel obtained a French patent for making soluble and fusible resins either by condensing phenols and formaldehyde in presence of acids, in about the same way as Blumer or Thurlow and then melting this product; or by dissolving phenol in caustic alkalies used i.n molecular proportions, then precipitating the aqueous solution with an acid and afterwards resinifying the reprecipitated product by heating it until it melts. I should remind you that the French patent laws allow patents without any examination whatever as to novelty.
....
This will close my review of the work done, by others and I shall begin the description of my own work by outlining certain facts, most of which seem to be unknown to others, or if they were known their importance seems to have escaped attention. Of these facts I have made the foundation of my technical processes. As stated before, the condensation of phenols with formaldehyde can be made to give, according to conditions and proportions, two entirely differ- ent classes of resinous products. The first class includes the products of the type of Blumer, De- Laire, Thurlow, etc. These products are soluble in alcohol acetone or similar solvents, and in alkaline hydroxides. Heating, simply melts them and they resolidify after cooling. Melting and cooling can be repeated indefinitely but further heating will not transform them into products of the second class. They are generally called “shellac substitutes,” because they have some of the general physical properties of shellac. The second class includes the products of Kleeberg, Smith, Luft, Story, Knoll as well as my own product, in so far only as their general properties are concerned; but each one of them may be characterized by very distinct specific properties which have a considerable bearing on any technical applications. Broadly speaking, this second class can be described as infusible resinous substances, derived from phenols with aldehydes; some of them are more or less attacked by acetone, by caustic alkalies or undergo softening by application of heat. At least one 01 them is unattacked by acetone and does not soften even if heated at relatively high temperatures. None of them can be re-transformed into products of the first class even if heated with phenol. These insoluble infusible substances can be produced directly in one operation by the action of formaldehyde on phenols under suitable conditions, for instance the process of Kleeberg (see above). Or they may be produced in two phases (see Luft and Story above), the first phase consisting of an incomplete reaction giving a viscous product that is soluble in alcohols, glycerine, camphor or phenol, and which on further heating or after driving off the solvent may gradually change into an infusible product.
....
A careful study of the condensation process of phenols and formaldehyde, made me discover that this reaction instead of occurring in two stages can be carried out in three distinct phases. This fact is much more important than it appears at first sight. Indeed it has allowed me to prepare a so-called intermediate condensation product, the properties of which simplify still further my methods of molding and enlarge very much the scope of useful applications of my process. The three phases of reaction can be described as follows: First phase. The formation of a so-called initial condensation product which I designate as A. Second phase. The format'on of a so-called intermediate condensation product, which I designate as B. Third phase. The formation of a final condensation product, which I designate as C. As to the properties of each of these condensation products I can define them in a few words: A, at ordinary temperatures, may be liquid, or viscous, or pasty, or solid. Is soluble in alcohol, acetone, phenol, glycerine and similar solvents; is soluble in NaOH. Solid A is very brittle and melts if heated. All varieties of A heated long enough under suitable conditions will change first into B then finally into C. B is solid at all temperatures. Brittle but slightly harder than solid A at ordinary temperatures: insoluble in all solvents but may swell in acetone, phenol or terpineol without entering into complete solution. If heated, does not melt but softens decidedly and becomes elastic and somewhat rubber-like, but on cooling becomes again hard and brittle. Further heating under suitable conditions changes it into C. Although B is
infusible it can be molded under pressure in a hot mold to a homogeneous, coherent mass, and the latter can be further changed into C by the proper application of heat. C is infusible, insoluble in all solvents; unattacked by acetone, indifferent to ordinary acids, or alkaline solutions; is destroyed by boiling concentrated sulphuric acid, but stands boiling with diluted sulphuric acid; does not soften to any serious extent if heated, stands, temperatures of 300 O C. ; at much higher temperatures begins to be destroyed and chars without entering into fusion. It is a bad conductor of heat and electricity. The preparation of these condensation products A and B and their ultimate transformation in C forTtechnical purposes constitute the so-called Bakelite process. I take about equal amounts of phenol and formaldehyde and I add a small amount of an alkaline condensing agent to it. If necessary I heat. The mixture separates in two layers, a supernatant aqueous solution and a lower liquid which is the initial condensation product. I obtain thus at will, either a thin liquid called Thin A or a more viscous mass, Viscous A or a Pasty A, or even if the reaction be carried far enough, a Solid A. Either one of these four substances are my starting materials and I will show you now how they can be used for my purposes. If I pour some of this A into a receptacle and simply heat it above IOOO C., without any precau. ion, I obtain a porous spongy mass of C. But bearing in mind what I said previously about dissociation, I learned to avoid this, simply by opposing an external pressure so as to counteract the tension of dissociation, With this purpose in view, I carry out my heating under suitably raised pressure, and the result is totally different. This may be accomplished in several ways but is done ordinarily in an apparatus called a Bakelizer. Such an apparatus consists mainly of an interior chamber in which air can be pumped so as to bring its pressure to 50 or better IOO Ibs. per square inch. This chamber can be heated externally or internally by means of a steam jacket or steam coils to temperatures as high as 160° C. or considerably higher, so that the heated object during the process of Bakelizing may remain steadily under suitable pressure which will avoid porosity or blistering of the mass. For instance if I pour liquid A into a test tube and if I heat in a Bakelizer at say 160
180' C., the liquid will change rapidly into a solid mass of C that will take exactly the shape of its container; under special conditions it may affect the form of a transparent hard stick of Bakelite. I t is perfectly insoluble, infusible, and unaffected by almost all chemicals, an excellent insulator for heat and electricity and has a specific gravity of about 1.25. It is very hard, cannot be scratched with the finger nail; in this respect it is far superior to shellac and even to hard rubber. It misses one great quality of hard rubber and celluloid, it is not so elastic nor flexible. Lack of flexibility is the most serious drawback of Bakelite. As an insulator, and for any purposes where it has to resist heat, friction, dampness, steam or chemicals it is far superior to hard rubber, casein, celluloid, shellac and in fact all plastics. In price also it can splendidly compete with all these. Instead of pouring liquid A into a glass tube or mold I may simply dip an object into it or coat it by means of a brush. If I take a piece of wood, and afterwards put it into a Bakelizer for an hour or so, I am able to provide it rapidly with a hard brilliant coat of Bakelite, superior to any varnish and even better than the most expensive Japanese lacquer. A piece of wood thus treated can be boiled in water for hours without impairing its gloss in the slightest way. I can dip it in alcohol or other solvents, or in chemical solutions and yet not mar the beautiful brilliant finish of its surface. But I can do better, I may prepare an A, much more liquid than this one, and which has great penetrating power, and I may soak cheap, porous soft wood in it, until the fibres have absorbed as much liquid as possible, then transfer the impregnated wood to the Bakelizer and let the synthesis take place in and around the fibres of the wood. The result is a very hard wood, as hard as mahogany or ebony of which the tensile- and more specially the crushing strength, has been considerably increased and which can stand dilute acids or water or steam; henceforth it is proof against dry rot. I might go further and spend a full evening on this subject alone and tell you how we are now bringing about some unexpected possibilities in the manufacture of furniture and the wood-worki ng industry in general. But I intend to devote a special evening to this subject and show you then how with cheap soft wood we are able to accomplish results which never have been obtained even with the most expensive hard wood.
In the same way I have succeeded in impregnating cheap ordinary cardboard or pulp board and chang ing it into a hard resisting polished material that can be carved, turned and brought into many shapes. I might take up much more of your time by simply enumerating to you the applications of this impregnation method, with wood, paper, pulp, asbestos, and other fibrous and cellular materials ; how it can be applied for fastening the bristles of shaving brushes, paint brushes, tooth brushes, how it can be used to coat metallic surfaces with a hard resisting protecting material; how it may ultimately supplant tin in canning processes; but I have no doubt that your imagination will easily supply you a list of possible technical uses even if I defer this subject for some other occasion. As to Bakelite itself, you will readily understand that it makes a substance far superior to amber for pipe stems and similar articles. It is not so flexible as celluloid, but it is more durable, stands heat, does not smell, does not catch fire and at the same time is less expensive. It makes excellent billiard balls of which the elasticity is very close to that of ivory, in short it can be used for similar purposes like knobs, buttons, knife handles, for which plastics are generally used. But its use for such fancy articles has not much appealed to my efforts as long as there are so many more important applications for engineering purposes. Bakelite also acts as an excellent binder for all inert fillhg materials. This makes, that it can be compounded with sawdust, wood pulp, asbestos, coloring materials, in fact with almost anything the use of which is warranted for special purposes. I cannot better illustrate this than by telling you that here you have before you a grindstone made of Bakelite and on the other hand a self-lubricating bearing which has been run dry for nine hours at 1800 rev. per minute without objectionable heating and without injuring the quickly revolving shaft. If I mix Bakelite with fine sand or slate dust I can make a paste of it which can be applied like a dough to the inside of metallic pipes or containers, or pumps, and after Bakelizing, this gives an acid proof lining very useful in chemical engineering. Valve seats, which are unaffected by steam, steam-packing that resists steam and chemicals, have been produced in a similar way.
Phonograph records have been made with it, and the fact that Bakelite is harder than rubber, shellac, or kindred substances indicates adyantageous possibilities in that direction. For the electrical industry, Bakelite has already begun to do scme useful work. There too its possib le applications are numerous. Armatures or fields of dynamos and motors, instead of being varnished with ordinary resinous varnishes, can simply be impregnated with A, then put into a Bakelizer and everything transformed into a solid infusible insulating mass; ultimately this may enable us to increase the overload in motors and dynamos by eliminating the possibility of the melting or softening of such insulating varnishes as have been used until now. But the subject of dynamos and motor construction is only at its very modest beginnings and I prefer to mention to you what has been already achieved in the line of molded insulators of which you will find here several very interesting samples. This brings me to the subject of molding Bakelite. For all plastics like rubber, celluloid, resins, etc., the molding problem is a very important one. Several substances which otherwise might be very valuable are useless now because they cannot economically be molded. The great success of celluloid has mainly been due to the fact that it can easily be molded. Nitrated cellulose alone, is far superior in chemical qualities to celluloid, but until Hyatts’ discovery, it could only be given a shape by an evaporation process and its applications were very limited. The addition of camphor and a small amount of solvent to cellulose nitrate was a master-stroke, because it allowed quick and economic molding. In the same way white sand or silica would be an ideal substance for a good many purposes, could it be easily compressed or molded into shape and into a homogeneous mass. But it cannot; and therefore remains worthless. And that is the main difference between a blastic and a non-plastic. It so happens that Bakelite in C condition does not mold; it does not weld together under pressure even if heated; only with much effort is it possible to shape some kind of an object out of it, but someway or another the particles do not stick well together; in other terms it is not a true plastic. Therefore the molding problem has to be solved in the anterior stages of the process. We have seen how
"
(If plastic can be made from some other atoms besides those derived from petroleum oil it will be a valuable find because there is a finite quantity of petroleum oil - perhaps some other oil can be used - like a vegetable oil.)
Plastic is a very useful material, in particular for a hobbiest - but unfortunately there are very few, if any low-cost devices mass produced for the public to work with plastics. Plastics are wonderful for containing electronic projects - like neuron reading and writing devices, to make gears and other customized unusually shaped objects, to make robots and new vehicles with, and to build products which can be sold to the public.
Smith, Luft, and Story tried to solve a similar problem by the admixture of solvents and subsequent evaporation, but we know now that these very solvents imply most serious drawbacks. I have already shown you how I am able to mold and harden quickly by pouring liquid A into a mold and heating it in a Bakelizer. But even that method is much too slow for most purposes. Furthermore, molds cost money; any rubber or celluloid manufacturer will tell you that the item of molds represents a big portion of the cost of his plant. If an order for 10,000 pieces has to be delivered and it takes an hour for molding, it will require between three and four years to fill this order with one mold and if the mold costs $100 it will require $5000 for molds alone if the order has to be finished within 20 days. For that very reason I have devised my molding methods so as to use the molds only during the very minimum of time. I have succeeded in doing so in several ways. One of the simplest ways is the following: As stated before, the use of bases permits me to make a variety of A that is solid although still fusible. The latter is as brittle as ordinary rosin and can be pulverized and mixed with suitable filling materials. A mixture of the kind is introduced in a mold and put in the hydraulic press, the mold being heated at temperatures preferably about or above 160-200°C. The A melts and mixes with the filler, impregnating everything; at the same time it is rapidly transformed into B. But I have told you that B does not melt, so the molded object can be expelled out of the mold after a very short time and the mold can again be refilled. All the molded articles are now in B condition; relatively brittle but infusible. At the end of the day’s work or at any other convenient time all the molded articles are put in the Bakelizer and this of course without the use of any molds; in this way they are finally transformed in ‘ I C” Bakelite of maximum strength and hardness and resisting power. Instead of using A, we can use B and mold it in the hot press where it welds and shapes itself. After a very short time, the B begins to transform into C and can now be expelled from the mold. If the transformation in C is not complete, a short after-treatment in the Bakelizer will finish everything. I have succeeded thus in reducing the molding to less than two minutes for small objects.
The valuable properties of B may be used in many other ways; for instance A may be poured into a large container and be heated slowly at 70’ C. until it sets to a rubber-like mass and shows that it is transformed into B. This block of B if warm has very much the consistency of printers’ roller-composition, but is brittle when cold. The warm flexible mass can now be removed from its container or, divided, cut, or sawed to any desired shape and the so-shaped articles can be simply placed in a Bakelizer; no melting nor deformation can occur, so we need no mold while maximum heat is applied to bring everything in condition C. I could multiply these examples by numerous other modifications of my process but I believe that what I have said will be enough to convince you of its many uses; we are studying now applications of Bakelite in more than forty different industries on some of which I shall report on some future occasion. The chemical constitution of Bakelite and the nature of the reactions which occur in the Bakelite process are problems which I have endeavored to solve. This subject is not by any means an easy one. Indeed, we have to deal here with a product that cannot be purified by crystallization nor other ordinary methods, which is insoluble, does not melt nor volatilize; in other terms, it is not a product which is amenable to our usual methods of molecular weight determination. Its chemical inertness makes it unfit for studying possible chemical transformations and unless my friends, the physjco-chemists, will come to my aid, discover some way for establishing some optical properties or other physical constants, we are very much at a loss to establish the molecular size of my product. But I have been so fortunate as to be able to obtain some insight into its chemical constitution by a rather round-about way: Indeed, I have succeeded in making Bakelite by indirect synthesis.
...
So after all, the synthesis accomplished in my laboratory seems to have a decided similarity to some intricate biological processes that take place in the cells of certain plants. In order not to increase too much the length of this paper, I have merely given you the brief outlines of years of arduous but fascinating work, in which I have been ably helped by Mr. Nathaniel Thurlow and more recently also by Dr. A. H. Gotthelf, who attended to my analytical work. The opened field is so vast that I look forward with the pleasure of anticipation to many more years of work in the same direction. I have preferred to forego secrecy about my work relying solely on the strength of my patents as a protection. It will be a great pleasure to me if in doing so, I may stimulate further interest in this subject among my fellow chemists and if this may lead them to succeed in perfecting my methods or increase still further the number of useful applications of this interesting compound.".
Plastic is a very useful material, in particular for a hobbiest - but unfortunately there are very few, if any low-cost devices mass produced for the public to work with plastics. Plastics are wonderful for containing electronic projects - like neuron reading and writing devices, to make gears and other customized unusually shaped objects, to make robots and new vehicles with, and to build products which can be sold to the public.
| (announced at: American Chemical Society lecture) New York City, NY, USA (presumably) |
91 YBN
[04/06/1909 AD]
| 4244) Humans reach North Pole of earth.
Robert Edwin Peary (PERE) (CE 1856-1920), US explorer, and a black associate Matthew Hensen are the first humans to reach the north pole.
Frederick Albert Cook, a companian on Peary's 1891 trip to Greenland, will claim to have reached the North Pole back in 1908. Cook announces this just 5 days before Peary announces his reaching the North Pole. Most geographers accept Peary as the first to reach the north pole.
According to the 2010 Encyclopedia Britannica, Cook's claim is discredited, however, while Peary's claim to have reached the North Pole is almost universally accepted, in the 1980s the examination of his 1908–09 expedition diary and other newly released documents cast doubt on whether Peary had actually reached the pole. Through a combination of navigational mistakes and record-keeping errors, Peary may actually have advanced only to a point 30–60 miles (50–100 km) short of the pole. The truth remains uncertain.
| Greenland |
91 YBN
[05/??/1909 AD]
| 4903) Charles Glover Barkla (CE 1877-1944), English physicist distinguishes two groups, A and B (afterward labeled L and K, respectively), of homogeneous X rays from each heavy element (metals), and the condition (analogous to Stokes’s law of fluorescence) is established that these two radiations can only be excited by exposing the element to X rays harder (more penetrating) than its own characteristic X rays.
Barkla identifies two types of X rays, a more penetrating set that will come to be called "K radiation" and a less penetrating set which will be called "L radiation". This is the first step in understanding the distribution of electrons in the atom, which Siegbahm and Bohr will soon make clear.
Barkla identifies this as a form of x-ray luminescense, since the secondary x-rays appear to have the same (homogeneous) intensity with no regard to the frequency of the primary x-rays and is emitted approximately equally in all directions with no regard to the direction of the primary beam.
part about braggs showing k and l are spectral lines of metal of cathode tube.
(todo: what frequencies are the k and l lines?)
(Note that this labeling the radiations A and B does not happen in the 05/1909 paper - todo: determine which paper this distinction occurs.)
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
91 YBN
[07/12/1909 AD]
| 4475) Charles Jules Henri Nicolle (nEKOL) (CE 1866-1936), French physician recognizes that typhus is transmitted by the body louse.
Several different illnesses called "typhus" exist, all of them caused by one of the bacteria in the family Rickettsiae. Each illness occurs when the bacteria is passed to a human through contact with an infected insect.
While in Tunis, Nicolle notices that typhus is very contagious, doctors visiting infected people catch it, and hospital employees who admit infected people also get it, but once the infected person is inside the hospital the disease is no longer contagious. Nicolle decides that when the infected person enters the hospital and is stripped of their clothes and scrubbed with soap and water, this must make the difference, and so Nicolle begins to suspect the body louse. Nicolle proves that the body louse is the transmitter of typhus (as mosquitoes transmit malaria and yellow fever) by experimenting on chimpanzees and then guinea pigs. Nicolle transmits typhus to a monkey by injecting it with blood from an infected chimpanzee. A louse is then allowed to feed on the monkey and when transferred to another monkey, the louse succeeds in infecting the monkey by its bite alone. But exterminating the body louse (size=?) is not as easy as exterminating mosquitoes, and typhus will kill many people (for example in World War I) until Müller creates DDT which will stop typhus among those people fighting in World War II, (but not for the prisoners in the Nazi prison camps, many of whom will die from typhus including the widely read Anne Frank.).
Nicolle finds guinea pigs to be susceptible to typhus but that some of them, with blood capable of infecting other animals, show no symptoms of the disease at all. So some animals may contain a disease in mild form showing no symptoms but yet still be able to infect other animals with the disease. This explains how diseases remain in existence between epidemics. A new epidemic is just the result of a new virulence in an antigen that was already there all the time. This change in virulence will be explained when people like Beadle extend De Vries' concept of mutation.
(I think infecting chimps does not get my vote, I am probably against infecting most mammal species, but I think that since many are murdered anyway, (although this may involve pain and discomfort) perhaps there is some justification.)
| (Pasteur Institute in Tunis) Tunis, Tunisia |
91 YBN
[09/??/1909 AD]
| 4729) Jean Baptiste Perrin (PeraN, PeriN or PeroN) (CE 1870-1942), French physicist, determines the "corpuscular mass" of an atom of hydrogen, and gives early evidence of microscopic neuron reader and writer devices writing.
| (École Normale, University of Paris) Paris, France |
91 YBN
[10/23/1909 AD]
| 4508) Robert Andrews Millikan (CE 1868-1953), US physicist measures the course of water droplets in an electric field to determine the electric charge carried by a single electron. The results suggest that the charge on each droplet is a multiple of the elementary electric charge. Millikan measures the electric charge as averaging to 4.65 x 10-10 electrostatic units.
Millikan will obtained more precise results in 1910 with his famous oil-drop experiment in which he replaces water, which tends to evaporate too quickly, with oil.
| |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4113) Émile Berliner (BARlENR) (CE 1851-1929), German-US inventor, demonstrates a helicopter that can lift the weight of two adult humans and uses a light-weight internal combustion gas engine, however the helicopter is tied to the ground and never obtains free flight.
Berliner is fascinated with the development of the helicopter and builds three of his own models. He develops and tests his helicopters with his son, Henry, who is president of Berliner Aircraft, Inc. from 1930 until 1954.
This is apparently the first vertical flight machine in the United States. The brothers Louis and Jacques Bréguet had built and flew one of the first mechanical devices to hover (a gyroplane) for one minute on August 24, 1907.
Because of the increase in human population and limited surface area of earth, it seems very likely that the future will contain many millions of flying vehicles in orderly highways in space, perhaps these vehicles will use propellers like a helicopter.
| Washington, DC, USA |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4284) Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen (YOHoNSuN) (CE 1857-1927), Danish biologist suggests that the factors of inheritance first described by Mendel, and reuncovered by De Vries, should be called "genes" from the Greek word meaning "to give birth to". This suggestion is accepted and other words such as the words "genetics" will result from this word.
Johannsen views genes as symbols: as "Rechnungseinheiten", units of calculations or accounting. Mendel had proven the existence of such elements in 1866, but Johannsen is the first to state clearly the fundamental distinction between the an organism's genotype, which is all of the organism's genes—and an organism's phenotype, how the organism appears and acts.
There is currently no general agreement as to the exact usage of the word "gene". A gene is viewed as the basic unit of heredity that occupies a fixed position on a chromosome. In one view a gene describes a sequence of DNA that determines a particular characteristic in an organism, in another view each gene codes for a particular protein.
(I think the word "gene" should apply to a sequence that codes for a single protein. But if the word "gene" does not now relate specifically to a sequence of DNA that builds a single protein, then perhaps a new word should be created, like monogene, or amingene, something similar, to represent a DNA sequence that produces a single protein. In my experience, for scientists in genetics the word gene refers strictly to a nucleic acid sequence that is responsible for only a single protein.)
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4332) (Baron von Welsback) Karl Auer (oWR) (CE 1858-1929), Austrian chemist develops "Mischmetal", a mixture of cerium and other rare earth metals, which he combines with iron to make "Auer's metal". Auer's metal is strongly pyrophoric (yield sparks upon being struck) and therefore can be used to light gas. This is the first improvement over flint and steel for making sparks since ancient times and is used in gas lighters and strikers.
In modern times high voltage electric sparks are another alternative to a mechanically made spark in gas lighters.
| (University of Vienna) Vienna (presumably) |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4466) (Sir) William Boog Leishman (lEsmaN) (CE 1865-1926), Scottish physician reports that humans inoculated in India have a significantly smaller risk of dying from enteric (intestinal) complaints (5 died out of 10,378 vaccinated, compared with 46 out of the 8936 not vaccinated).
| (Army Medical School) Netley, England |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4506) Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen (SiRreNSeN) (CE 1868-1939), Danish chemist creates the pH scale, which is the negative logarithm of the concentration of hydrogen ions (in a liquid/solution) so that a hydrogen ion concentration of 10-7 moles per liter is a pH of 7. (So there are no solutions with more than 10-1 or less than 10-15 moles per liter?) The hydrogen ion is the smallest of all ions and is always present in any system that contains water.
This happens in 1909 when Sørensen investigates the Electromagnetic force (EMF) method for determining hydrogen ion concentration, and the pH system is a concept Sørensen introduces an easy and convenient for expressing this value. Sørensen is particularly interested in the effects of changes in pH on precipitation of proteins.
| (Carlsberg Laboratory, University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4532) Fritz Haber (HoBR) (CE 1868-1934), German chemist invents a glass electrode which is now commonly used to measure the acidity of a solution by detecting the electric potential (voltage) across a piece of thin glass. This is the most common and easiest method to quickly measure the pH of a solution (which Sørensen creates in this same year).
The pH meter measures hydrogen ion concentration, or acidity, in pH units as a function of electrical potential or voltage between suitable glass electrodes placed in the solution to be tested.
| (Fridericiana Technische Hochschule) Karlsruhe, Germany |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4694) Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene (CE 1869-1940), Russian-US chemist finds that the carbohydrate present in yeast nucleic acid is the pentose (5 carbon) sugar ribose.
At this time nucleic acid is known to exists in two forms, one found in the thymus of animals and the other in yeast. Kossel had shown that thymus nucleic acid contains the four nitrogen compounds adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, but that yeast nucleic acid differs by containing uracil instead of thymine. Carbohydrate and phosphorus were also known to be present. Virtually nothing, however, is known about the structure or function of nucleic acid.
So Levene isolates and identifies the carbohydrate portion of the nucleic acid molecule found in yeast. This is something Kossel could not do.
Levene shows the nucleic acid readily obtained from yeast to be composed of four nucleosides (compounds consisting of a sugar, usually ribose or deoxyribose, and a purine or pyrimidine base) in which he identifies the previously unknown sugar D–ribose. The optical isomer, L–ribose, was recently synthesized in Europe, and Levene shows this new sugar to be identical except for direction of optical rotation. Levene also synthesizes the hypothetical hexose sugars, D–allose and D–altrose, from D–ribose.
| (Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4719) Jean Baptiste Perrin (PeraN, PeriN or PeroN) (CE 1870-1942), French physicist, and Dabrowski determine the number of molecules per mole (also known as gram-molecule, Avogadro's number) using particles of mastic (resin of the mastic tree) in a solution. The mastic has a radius of 0.52um and density of 1.063. Perrin shows that the number of particles in successive layers 6um apart is 305, 530, 940, 1880, which is in close agreement with the exponential series 280, 528, 995, and 1880. Perrin and Dabrowski calculate N to be 70 x 1022. Perrin and Dabrowski then interpret this data using a second method, by using Einstein's equation for Brownian motion which gives values for N equal to 70 x 1022 and 73 x 1022 for the experiments with gamboge and mastic respectively. Einstein's equation is ξ2 = τRT/N * 1/3πaζ ξ is the square of the displacement moving on the x axis over time τ, by a grain of radius a in a fluid of viscosity ζ.
Perrin had already shown in 1908 that the kinetic theory may be quantitatively applied to Brownian motion to determine the number of molecules in a gram (Avogadro's constant).
Earlier in 1908 Perrin’s student Chaudesaigues demonstrated the accuracy of Einstein’s above equation which states that the mean displacement of a given particle undergoing Brownian motion is proportional to the square root of the time of observation, a result that undercuts earlier criticisms of Einstein’s work by Svedberg and others. Chaudesaigues measures the displacement of a grain using a camera at times 0, 30, 60, 90 and 120 seconds, a number of times, and finds that the average displacement of the grain is 6.7 9.3 11.8 13.95 which coincides with the equation of Einstein, which produces 6.7 9.46 11.6 13.4. (Make separate record?)
(I have doubts that the average distance a particle would move under Brownian motion is proportional to the square root of time of observation, because, the individual motions in the universe seem to me to be not symmetrical even when averaged, but apparently this must or may be found for many different experimental examples.) (State Svedberg's arguments against.) (I have a lot of doubt about such a tiny measurement, and then also there is possibly an “Einstein-as-Midas” phenomenon for those who believe relativity after 1905.) (Does Chaudesaigues actually follow the movement and measure the displacement of a particle over time?)
In 1913 Perrin will publishes a book, "Les Atomes" ("Atoms"), which supports the concept of atoms. Leukippos is the oldest of record to advance a theory of atoms. This is a century after Dalton readvanced the atomic theory.
(It is somewhat clear that the secret of neuron reading and writing, has caused there to be corruption and fraud in science. In addition, conformity and unity many times prevails over honesty, in particular in the face of potential violent conflict, such as was the case before World War 2. So, although, perhaps a few people in science, had doubts, or rejected popular theories in their thoughts, they publicly were quiet - and in particular, many must have seen in their eyes the truth, and so knew that discussion of the truth in their eyes was taboo by the neuron writing owners/administration who seek to keep the status quo, and in particular to prevent others from competing with them.)
(Interesting that clearly the science of the very small- using micromachining, making millimeter microphones, cameras, and floating, flying transceivers must have been, as is evidenced now, very big business - but the vast majority of the research and products all kept secret.)
(There was a strong push by many scientists to unite behind Einstein, perhaps some viewed this as a battle for light as a particle versus light as a wave - seeing Einstein as supporting the Planck view of light as quanta, but there is a paradox in the theories of relativity, because in adopting the space and time dilation used by Fitzgerald and Lorentz to try and save the light as a wave in an aether medium theory, the theories of relativity actually simultaneously accept light as a particle, and the math of light as a wave in an aether medium - although supposedly Einstein rejects the idea of an aether as unnecessary - although for space and time dilation as viewed by FitzGerald and Lorentz an aether was necessary. It seems possible that in including space and time dilation, Einstein and others seek to unify the two camps of science. Perhaps they found a majority agreement at the expense of the truth. So in any event, most major scientists unified behind Einstein and the theory of relativity despite the apparent and obvious paradoxes of light as a particle and simultaneously as a wave in an aether space and time contraction/dilation math, and this work may be part of the beginning of that effort.)
| (École Normale) Paris, France |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4724) Howard Taylor Ricketts (CE 1871-1910), US pathologist his assistant, Russel M. Wilder, find that typhus is transmitted by the body louse (Pediculus humanus) (independently of Nicolle in Tunis) and locate the disease-causing organism both in the blood of the victim and in the bodies of the lice. Ricketts also shows, before dying from typhus, that typhus can be transmitted to monkeys, which, after recovering, develop immunity to the disease.
| Mexico City, Mexico |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4841) Karl Bosch (BOs) (CE 1874-1940), German chemist adapts the Haber process (converting nitrogen gas in the air into ammonia) to large scale commercial production.
In 1909 Fritz Haber of Karlsruhe began work on the synthesis of ammonia, employing unusually high pressures and temperatures.
Haber had accomplished the chemical combination of nitrogen and hydrogen gases to form (liquid) ammonia, by using high temperature and pressure in the presence of a catalyst.
Bosch turns Haber’s laboratory experiments to larger scale experiments, which eventually developed into a huge industry within five years. Haber’s technically unsuitable catalysts need to be replaced. After thousands of experiments, Bosch finds that iron with admixed alkaline material is a good choice. Equipment must be built that can withstand high pressures and temperatures. The furnaces, which are first heated from outside, last only a few days because the iron loses its carbon content, and therefore its steel properties, because of the hydrogen, brittle iron carbide results. Bosch invents a twin tube that allows the hydrogen to escape through tiny openings. After numerous experiments, he finds a solution to the heat problem by introducing the uncombined gases into the furnace and then producing an oxyhydrogen flame, the temperature of which can be regulated according to the quantity of oxygen added.
In 1909, Bosch starts to develop a high-pressure ammonia plant at Oppau for BASF. The plant opens in 1912 and is a successful application of the Haber process on a large scale. Bosch also introduces the use of the water-gas shift reaction as a source of hydrogen for the process: CO + H2O = CO2 + H2. After World War I the large-scale ammonia fertilizer industry is established and the high-pressure technique is extended by (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik) BASF to the synthesis of methanol from carbon monoxide and hydrogen in 1923. (describe more the synthesis of methanol - how interesting to create a liquid from 2 gases apparently by increasing pressure.)
| (BASF) Oppau, Germany |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4872) Alfred Stock (sTuK) (CE 1876-1946), German chemist synthesizes and studies boron hydrides.
Stock is the first to systematically synthesize and characterize the boron hydrides during the period 1912 to roughly 1937. Stock called boron hydrides, "boranes" in analogy to the alkanes (saturated hydrocarbons), which are the hydrides of carbon (C). Carbon is the neighbour of boron in the periodic table. Because the lighter boranes are volatile, sensitive to air and moisture, and toxic, Stock develops high-vacuum methods and apparatus for studying them.
Stock synthesizes a mixture of boron hydrides and silicon hydrides (molecules with boron or silicon and hydrogen). Fifty years later boron hydrides will be useful as possible rocket fuel additives that increase the push that force rockets upward (and/or simply forward). Boron hydrides have one too many hydrogens attached to the boron atom according to the Kekulé system, but the resonance theory of Pauling will account for this structure. (More detail about valence problem, and how Pauling theory solves this.)
(Stock also shows that liquid mercury is more dangerous than thought because mercury in gas form is released into the air. Asimov states that many chemists such as Berzelius, Faraday, Wöhler, and Liebig may have suffered from mercury poison not always knowing it.) (chronology) (I have doubts, explain the evidence and cite paper.)
| |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4889) Heinrich Otto Wieland (VEEloNT) (CE 1877-1957), German chemist summarizes his investigations of the polymerization of fulminic acid and the step-by-step synthesis of fulminic acid from ethanol and nitric acid.
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
91 YBN
[1909 AD]
| 4899) (Marchese) Guglielmo Marconi (CE 1874-1937) publicly demostrates the "wireless" telephone which uses light particle to send, receive and play sounds.
Not until 1983 will "cell" phones, that is radio wireless audio transmitting and receiving devices reach the public in the United States so the public can actually transmit and receive audio whereever they are on earth.
(Get much more evidence. Find more sources. Find specific dates if any exist.)
| (Marconi Company) London, England (verify) |
90 YBN
[04/??/1910 AD]
| 4199) Cure for syphillis.
Paul Ehrlich (ArliK) (CE 1854-1915), German bacteriologist, announces a cure for syphilis. An assistant of Ehrlich's from Japan, Dr. Sahachiro Hata, goes back to a chemical Ehrlich had synthesized in 1907, the 606th chemical Ehrlich had synthesized named, dihydroxydiamino-arsenobenzene hydrochloride, and finds that this molecule is an efficient killer of spirochetes, the bacteria which causes syphilis.
Ehrlich had started experimenting with the identification and synthesis of substances, not necessarily found in nature, that could kill parasites or inhibit their growth without damaging the organism. Ehrlich begins with trypanosomes, a species of protozoa that he unsuccessfully attempts to control by means of coal tar dyes. Ehrlich follows this by using compounds of arsenic and benzene, other compounds prove to be too toxic. Ehrlich turns his attention to the spirochete Treponema pallidum, the causal organism of syphilis. The first tests, announced in the spring of 1910, prove to be surprisingly successful in the treatment of a whole spectrum of diseases; in the case of yaws, a tropical disease similar to syphilis, a single injection is sufficient.
Syphilis is worse than trypanosomiasis (for which Ehrlich cured by finding the trypan red stain), and a secret disease in this time of puritanical repression of sex. The product is patented under the name Salvarsan. In the United States it later becomes known as arsphenamine. The chemical name for the molecule is Dihydroxydiamino-arsenobenzene-dihydrochloride.
There is a large planetary demand for the new cure for syphilis, however, Ehrlich does not think that the usual few hundred clinical tests are enough in the case of an arsenic preparation, because the injection requires special precautions. In an unusual transaction, the manufacturer with whom Ehrlich collaborates with, Farbwerke-Hoechst, releases a total of 65,000 units free to physicians all over the earth.
Trypan red and salvarsan mark the beginning of modern chemotherapy, a word popularized by Ehrlich (before this chemicals had been used against disease, such as quinine against malaria, and foxglove against heart disease, but this marks the beginning of a deliberate and concerted effort to find chemical cures of diseases.)
| (announced at the Congress for International Medicine, Wiesbaden, Germany, but work performed at Serum Institute) Frankfurt, Germany |
90 YBN
[08/??/1910 AD]
| 4320) William Henry Pickering (CE 1858-1938), US astronomer, suggests that space and time may be infinite.
William Pickering publishes an article in "Popular Astronomy" entitled: "Are Space and Time Really Infinite?" which identifies the theory that space and time are infinite but then suggests that the new view of a curved space and time may be possible. This time marks the beginning of the very unlikely, far-fetched, deeply abstract, shrouded in mathematical complexity, astronomical and cosmological views - views that adopt the unlikely so-called non-euclidean theory initiated by Lobechevsky, Gauss and Boylai where topologies - that is surfaces - subsets of euclidean geometry - replace open - unrestricted dimensions (variables). Interestingly Pickering states that an infinite space and time is the general presumption - but this presumption is not apparently published - that I am aware of - and clearly - this theory of an infinite space and time will lose out to the theory of a curved space and time in popularity even to this day.
The main contribution to science this makes is to publicly make known the theory that the universe is infinite in space and in time. This theory stands in contrast to theories where the universe is finite sized, in particular the Big-Bang theory of an expanding universe, which is currently the more popular theory. The theory of a universe of infinite size and time is not even mentioned in comparison and has been buried completely, most likely by the neuron writers, those supporting the theory of relativity, and similar people with corrupted minds and poor ideals. The theory of an infinite universe seems more likely to me, because I have trouble imagining a universe in which space somehow ends, or, for example, that the scale has some kind of end. According to the big bang theory, the farthest stars we see represent the beginning of the universe, and the "background radtiaion" - low frequency photons, are claimed to be the left over remains from the birth of the universe, but in my view, they are simply light particles from a space that is too far to be seen - that is, from some part of the universe, so distant that very very few light particles can reach us before being intercepted by some other matter in between there and here. So, I accept the theory of an infinite universe as more likely than a finite universe and this is why I view this contribution of William Pickerings as being important. In addition, I reject a "steady state" theory - which may be some kind of ruse to make it appear that there is an opposition to the big band theory by the powerful media neuron network owners. It seems clear that the theory that matter is never created or destroyed (and the same for motion) but only moves to different spaces is a very likely theory, and certainly on an equal plane, and on a higher plane in my view, than an expanding or steady state universe where matter is created from empty space. Beyond this, it seems likely that Pickering saw and heard thought, and so had a well informed insider view of what the more likely truth is - so in this sense - this report may be whistleblowing - that is leaking secrets learned by those who see, hear and generally communicate rapidly using thought.
(Is this the earliest known explicity stated theory that the universe is infinite in space and in time? Archimedes calculated how many grains of sand could fill the universe, but I am not aware of any earlier statement that the universe is infinite in size. Perhaps ancient Greek people recorded this theory.)
In 1911, C. H. Ames will follow up by supporting the claim of an infinite universe, and states that the way people think is by using images of the mind.
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA (presumably) |
90 YBN
[09/??/1910 AD]
| 4403) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist theorizes that the ionization accompanying the passage of X rays and γ rays through matter is not produced by the direct action of these rays, but is a secondary effect caused by a high-speed electron by the X ray and γ ray.
Bragg draws this conclusion as a result of his neutral-pair theory, viewing the x and/or gamma ray as removing the neutralizing positive charge leaving the remaining negatively charged particle.
Charles Wilson’s cloud chamber will clearly demonstrate that the exposure of a gas to a beam of X rays does not produce a diffuse homogeneous fogging, but instead, a large number of short wiggly lines, that ionization occurrs only along the path of the photoelectron. Bragg’s theory will then become and has remained the accepted view of the interaction of high-frequency light with matter.
| (University of Adelaide) Adelaide, Australia (presumably) |
90 YBN
[09/??/1910 AD]
| 4418) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist publishes support for a corpuscular interpretation of X and Gamma rays. Bragg theorizes that the x-ray is "a negative electron to which has been added a quantity of posiive electricity which neutralizes its charge, but adds little to its mass.".
Bragg plays on the word "particle" by stating "...by at least one important particular...."- supporting no doubt the simple view that all matter in the universe should be viewed as particulate- including light.
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
90 YBN
[10/31/1910 AD]
| 4273) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, uses photographic paper to record particle paths.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
90 YBN
[11/28/1910 AD]
| 4509) Robert Andrews Millikan (CE 1868-1953), US physicist measures the change of a single electron using Charles Wilson's cloud chamber but substituting oil for water droplets.
Millikan's apparatus consists of two horizontal plates that can be made to take opposite charges. Between the plates he introduces a fine spray of oil drops whose mass can be determined by measuring their fall under the influence of gravity and against the resistance of the air. When the air is ionized by x-rays and the plates charged, then an oil drop that has collected a charge will be either repelled from or attracted to the plates depending on whether the drop has collected a positive or negative charge. By measuring the change in the rate of fall and knowing the intensity of the electric field Millikan is able to calculate the charges on the oil drops. Millikan shows that the electric charge only exists as a whole number of units of that charge. After taking many careful measurements Millikan concludes that the charge is always a simple multiple of the same basic unit, which he finds to be 4.774 ± 0.009 × 10–10 electrostatic units, a figure whose accuracy is not improved until 1928.
Earlier determinations of the change of a single electron were made by Joseph John Thomson, H. A. Wilson, Ehrenhaft, and Broglie.
Millikan uses this work to calculate the value of Planck's constant and gets the same result as Planck.
(I think this is a good experiment, I question how accurate the claim of measuring the charge of 1 electron can be, but perhaps.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4230) German physicists, Johann Phillipp Ludwig Julius Elster (CE 1854-1920), and Hans Geitel (CE 1855-1923) discover that the hydrogenized potassium cathode is photosensitive and extends into the infrared range.
(This may be relevent to seeing and or hearing eyes, ears and or thought-images or thought-sounds and perhaps the year 1910 also important as a potential centenial of seeing and hearing eyes, ears and thought images and sounds. Notice that in German "infrared" is "Infrarot". Note that the report of infrared sensitivity does not occur until 07/18/1911.)
| (Herzoglich Gymnasium) Wolfenbüttel, Germany |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4281) Andrija Mohoroviĉić (mOHOrOVECEC) (CE 1857-1936), Croatian geologist discovers the boundary between the Earth's crust and mantle.
From the readings recorded with a seismometer at the Zagreb observatory of an earthquake in the Kulpa Valley of Croatia, and from recordings from other stations, Mohorovicic finds that certain seismic waves arrive at detecting stations sooner than anticipated, and deduces that the earthquake is centered in an outer layer of the Earth—since called its crust—and that the fast waves had traveled through an inner layer—the mantle. Between them lay what was later named the Mohorovicic discontinuity (or simply the Moho). Much later observations by more sophisticated instruments will confirm this discovery. This crust–mantle interface, the Moho, lies at a depth of about 35 km (22 miles) on continents and about 7 km (4.3 miles) beneath the oceanic crust. Modern instruments have determined that seismic-wave velocity rapidly increases to more than 8 km per second (5 miles per second) at this boundary.
Attempts to penetrate the three miles of solid crust under the ocean floor in order to reach this layer and learn more about it, called the Mohole, have been considered since the 1960s. (but even done? If molten metal is reached, perhaps some of the molten metal can be raised to the surface and examined. What is the composition? It may tell us about the inside of the other planets and stars).
| (University of Zagreb) Zagreb, Croatia |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4356) Marie Sklodowska Curie (KYUrE) (CE 1867-1934) and André-Louis Debierne (CE 1874-1949) isolate radium as a pure metal through the electrolysis of a pure radium chloride solution by using a mercury cathode and distilling in an atmosphere of hydrogen gas.
Debierne and Marie Curie prepare radium in metallic form in visible amounts. They do not keep the radium in metallic form but reconvert it into compounds in which they may use to continue their research. (which compounds?)
| (École de Physique et Chimie Sorbonne) Paris, France |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4409) Arthur Schuster (CE 1851-1934) describes a grating as reflecting pulses off the grating planes.
(Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971) will refer to Schuster in his famous November 11, 1912 paper which describes an x-ray grating in a similar way - that x-ray diffraction is actually reflection off the planes of the crystal by X-ray "pulses".
Schuster writes: "... 64. Action of grating on impulses. In the discussion of the grating its action on homogeneous vibrations have so far been made the starting point, but a clearer view is obtained by imagining the disturbance to be confined to an impulsive velocity spread equally over a plane wave-front. Such an impulse, as we have already seen, represent s white light, and by treating such light as an impulse we gain the advantage of having to consider a single entity in place of an infinite number of overlapping waves of infinite extent. We shall also be led to an instructive representation of homogeneous light based on white light. Without wishing to give to one of these views the preference over the other, we must emphasize the justification of both, believin g that a clear idea of the phenomena of light can only be obtained by a proper recognition of the duality of the relationship between white and homogeneous light. In Fig. 76, Art. 60, let the incident light consist of a single impulse spread over a plane wave-front which is parallel to the grating. The impulsive motion will reach the points C1, C2, C3, at regular intervals. If therefore a lens be placed in such a position that a wave-front HK would be brought together at its principal focus, a succession of impulses would pass that focus at regular intervals of time, the result being a periodic disturbance. There will be as many impulses as there are lines on the grating and the interval between them is equal to the time which the disturbance takes to travel through the distance e sin θ. The whole theory of the grating is contained in this statement. It would be easy to show that the overlapping of spectra, and the partial homogeneity which becomes more and more perfect as the number of lines on the grating is increased, are all implied in the finite succession of impulses and it might be instructive to do so, but there is no necessity for it. The sole object of Physics is to explain what we can observe, and we should turn our attention therefore to the physical phenomena which the light after reflexion from a-grating exhibits. For this purpose the impulse serves at least as well as the homogeneous radiation. We
should enquire therefore what are the effects of such a finite succession of impulses on our eye, on a photographic plate or an absorbing medium. In each of these cases resonance plays the predominant part, and our problem resolves itself therefore into finding the resonance effects which may be caused by a succession of impulses and to compare them— if we wish—with those of homogeneous vibrations. The analogy of sound may help us. If a blast of air be directed against a rotating disc perforated at regular intervals like the disc of a siren, a musical sound is heard; or to make the analogy with the grating more complete, imagine a sharp noise of very short duration to be reflected from a railing, when the reflected impulses returning at regular intervals may produce the effect of a musical note. In order to examine the resonance effects which a succession of impulses is capable of producing, we take the case of a pendulum set into a motion by a blow succeeded by others at regular intervals. If r is the period of the pendulum, T that of the interval between the blows assumed to be slightly greater than T, the second blow will be delivered when the pendulum has just passed the position of equilibrium and will have practically the same effect in increasing the momentum as the first; the same is the case for the succeeding blows which will all increase the swing of the pendulum until the accumulated difference in period is such that the forward blows are delivered when the pendulum swings backwards. The difference between T and T' therefore becomes serious when N(T' — T) = 1/4T, N being the number of blows delivered. If the difference between T' and T is less than that indicated by the equation, we should be unable to distinguish between the time interval of the blows and the period of the pendulum, and if we were to investigate the succession N of impulses by some resonance method, we should be driven to the conclusion that it contained all periodicities between the limits T(1±1/4N) in almost equal proportion. Outside these limits there is still some resonance but with diminishing effect. It is seen that the greater the number N the more nearly can we identify the disturbance with a homogeneous vibration. In the case of sound the matter may perhaps be put somewhat clearer by superposing the succession of impulses on a periodic homogeneous vibration and examining the "beats" produced. If NT' = (N±1)T the note has been alternately increased and weakened, and the ear would, by the alterati on in intensity, clearly perceive that it is dealing with disturb- ances of different periods. But if NT' lies anywhere between the limits (N± 1/4)T, there will be little variation in intensity and the ear could not form any definite conclusion as to any difference between T' and T. We should conclude that the sound examined contained all
the periods included within the narrower limits given in about equal proportion, but that in agreement with previous results, it is only when NT' lies outside (N± 1) T that we can altogether neglect the periodicity. The quasi-homogeneous effect of a succession of impulses and its approach to homogeneity as their number increases is thus explained. There is a peculiarity of the periodicity produced by the succession of impulses inasmuch as it is impossible to distinguish between the periodicity T and the periodicity 1/2 T, 1/3, or 1/n T: which are all equally contained in it. A consideration of the resonance effect shows that the succession of blows has the same effect whether the pendulum in the meantime has performed one, two, or n complete oscillations. This explains the overlapping spectra in a grating. We have used the effects of resonance to pick out the periods contained in a succession of impulses such as is formed by a grating, but the mathematician will not find it difficult to apply Fourier's analysis and to express directly the impulses in a series proceeding by sines and cosines. He may thus easily convince himself that our representation of the effects of the grating is in all respects identical whether the white light is decomposed into homogeneous vibrations at its source or after it emerges from the grating.".
(Both Schuster and Bragg use the word "lies" typical of those disgusted by the unending deliberate lies of the neuron reading and writing secret society.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4476) Thomas Hunt Morgan (CE 1866-1945), US geneticist recognizes sex-linked (t gender-linked) genes. This is first clear evidence of hereditary characters being located on a specific chromosome.
Thomas Hunt Morgan (CE 1866-1945), US geneticist works with Drosophila, the fruit fly, which quickly multiplies, and has only four pairs of chromosomes. In 1909 Morgan observes a small but discrete variation known as white-eye in a single male fly in one of his culture bottles. Morgan breeds the white-eyed fly with normal red-eyed females. All of the offspring (F1) are red-eyed. Brother and sister matings among the F1 generation produce a second generation (F2) with some white-eyed flies, all of which are males. To explain this curious phenomenon, Morgan develops the hypothesis of "sex-limited", today called "sex-linked" (or 'gender-linked") characters. Morgan calls the white-eye condition sex-limited (later sex-linked), meaning that the genes for this character are carried on (linked to) the X chromosome. Sex-linked genes, if recessive to their wild-type alleles, will show up almost exclusively in males, who do not have a second X chromosome to mask genes on the first. Sex linkage is found to hold for all sexually reproducing organisms and accounts for many other perplexing hereditary patterns, including red-green color blindness and hemophilia in males. Morgan’s Drosophila work shows for the first time the clear association of one or more hereditary characters with a specific chromosome.
Morgan becomes convinced that the X-chromosome carries a number of discrete hereditary units, or factors and adopts the term "gene", which was introduced by the Danish botanist Wilhelm Johannsen in 1909, and concludes that genes are possibly arranged in a linear fashion on chromosomes.
(Are Drosophila chromosomes larger than those of other species?)
Morgan also describes numerous cases of mutations which demonstrate De Vries' theory of mutation for the animals as well as for the plants. Therefore Morgan proves the theory of gene linkage, how genes of certain characteristics may be found together on the same chromosome and therefore inherited together. Morgan had actually at first doubted Mendel's theories. By coincidence, each of the seven characteristics Mendel had studied are located on different chromosomes. Morgan finds that occasionally linked characteristics are inherited separately, and this is explained as happening when a pair of chromosome exchanges portions ("crossing over") (during copying?). These experiments establish chromosomes as carriers of heredity and strongly back the gene concept.
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4807) Karl Schwarzschild (sVoRTSsILD or siLD) (CE 1873-1916), German astronomer publishes "Aktinometrie", which contains the earliest catalog of photographic magnitudes. Aktinometrie is so called because light produces a photochemical effect that at the time is referred to as "actinic".
Schwarzschild determines the magnitude of the same stars both photographically and visually, demonstrating that the two methods do not yield identical results. This difference between the visual and photographic magnitude of a star, measured at a particular wavelength, is known as its color index.
| (Astrophysical Observatory) Potsdam, Germany |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4844) Schack August Steenberg Krogh (KroUG) (CE 1874-1949), Danish physiologist], argues that the absorption of oxygen and the elimination of carbon dioxide in the lungs take place by diffusion and by diffusion alone, so there is no regulation of this process on the part of the organism.
Krogh makes precise measurements to show that the oxygen pressure is always higher in the air sacs than in the blood and, consequently, there is no need to assume any kind of nervous control. Clearly the quantity of oxygen entering the lungs is controlled by the nervous system.
During his first years with Bohr, Krogh had believed that pulmonary air exchanges took place mainly through secretory processes regulated by the nervous system.
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark (presumably) |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4952) Hermann Staudinger (sToUDiNGR) (CE 1881-1965), German chemist achieves a new and simple synthesis of isoprene, from which polyisoprene (synthetic rubber) had previously been formed, and with C. L. Lautenschläger, Staudinger synthesizes polyoxymethylenes.
| (University of Karlsruhe) Karlsruhe, Germany |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 4961) Percy Williams Bridgman (CE 1882-1961), US physicist invents a pressure chamber that reaches 20,0000 atmospheres, the highest pressure ever achieved.
In this chamber, the screw compressor is replaced by a hydraulic ram, and the new unsupported area seal is systematically exploited. For the first time, pressures of the order of 20,000 atmospheres and more are reported. Bridgman remarks: “The magnitude of the fluid pressure mentioned here requires brief comment, because without a word of explanation it may seem so large as to cast discredit on the accuracy of all the data.”.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
90 YBN
[1910 AD]
| 5021) Karl von Frisch (CE 1886-1982) US-German zoologist shows that fish can distinguish differences in color and intensity of light, and that fish have a sensitive sense of hearing, by using Pavlov's conditioned reflexes.
(There must be a massive number of thought-images and thought-sounds, among other nerve system recordings from many other species, which show what the other species think of, can see and hear, all kept secret from the public.)
| (Munich Zoological Institute) Munich, Germany |
89 YBN
[01/??/1911 AD]
| 4321) Charles Henry Ames supports the theory that space and time may be infinite and also states that "...most of the thinking of mankind is ....image thinking" which reveals the massive secret development of seeing the images which brains see - neuron reading.
Ames writes "...It is true that most of the thinking of mankind is what might be called image thinking. It may even be admitted that most of it must be of this kind, and not only accompanied by, but in a sense dependent on, the image the mind makes of imagable things....".
There may be a lot of neuron reading and writing leaking around 1910 because of the 100 year anniversary, just as there may be this year in 2010.
(Get birth death dates - did Ames also die in 1911 soon after this report? Why is Ames completely unknown?) (Get Image of Ames.)
| ? |
89 YBN
[03/07/1911 AD]
| 4745) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, states that from the results on scattering by different materials, the central charge of the atom is proportional to its atomic weight.
(note this apparently originates from van der Broek - see Rutherford, "the structure of the atom", nature, 92, 1913. p423.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
89 YBN
[03/20/1911 AD]
| 5064) Arthur Holmes (CE 1890-1965), English geologist, explains the application of uranium decay to lead in the use of determining the age of minerals.
Holmes uses rates of radioactive decay to date rocks (as was suggested by Boltwood), and uses this technique to show that the age of rocks on earth are far older than the estimate of Kelvin. Ultimately the scale Holmes creates will estimate the age of the earth and (with the work on meteorites from Paneth,) the star system also at 4,600 million years old.
Holmes writes in his 1911 paper "The Association of Lead with Uranium in Rock-Minerals, and its Application to the Measurement of Geological Time": "1. Introduction.- The study of radioactive minerals is of great importance from two points of view. Such minerals may be regarded as storehouses for the various series of genetically connected radioactive elements. In them the parent element slowly disintegrates, while the ultimate products of the transformation gradually accumulate. The analysis of these minerals ought, then, in the first place, to disclose the nature of the ultimate product of each series; secondly, a knowledge of the rate of formation of this product, and of the total quantity accumulated, gives the requisite data for a calculation of the age of the mineral. It has been shown that the disintegration of uranium results in the formation of eight atoms of helium. In 1907 Boltwood brought forward strong evidence suggesting that lead is the ultimate product of this disintegration. In this paper it is hoped to produce additional evidence that such is the case, according to the following equation : U -> 8He + Pb. 238.5 32 2.069.
On the assumption that helium is produced to this extent, Rutherford has given data* from which it may be calculated that 1 gramme of uranium produces 107 x 10-8 c.c. of helium per annum. Strutt has verified this theoretical estimate by a direct appeal to experiment.t Actually measuring the annual production of helium, he obtained a corresponding result of 99 x 10-8 c.c. Accepting the theoretical figure, which is equivalent to 1*88 x 10-1n grm., it is easily calculated that the amount of lead which would remain is 1*22 x 10-10 grm. per gramme of uranium per annum. If this rate of production were constant, a gramme-molecule of lead would take the place of a gramme-molecule of uranium in 8,200 million years. However, the rate is not constant, but is proportional to the amount of uranium remaining unchanged. If the latter is large compared with the total amount of lead produced, the rate may be taken as nearly constant, and the age of the mineral in which this disintegration has occurred is given by Pb/U. 8200 x 106 years,
where Pb and U represent the respective percentages of these elements at the present day. In many cases, however, this constancy cannot be assumed, and it is necessary to substitute for the present-day percentage of uranium its time-average for the period considered. Thus, in the minerals described in this paper, the difference between the uranium now present and that originally present amounts to about 5 per cent., and, in calculating the age, corresponding values are obtained. In this case a sufficiently accurate approximation to the time-average is given by the mean. For minerals of the same age, the ratio Pb/U should be constant, if all the lead has originated as suggested. Further, for minerals of different ages, the value of Pb/U should be greater or less in direct proportion to those ages. Collecting all the known analyses of primary uranium-bearing minerals which included a determination of lead, Boltwood+ showed that the above conditions were generally found to hold. Unfortunately, he omitted to give the geological ages of the several occurrences. In a summary of his analy ses, to be given in a later section, these will be indicated as accurately as at present is possible. 2. Selection of Mignerals.-In order that the suggested relations between lead and uranium should be detectable, and that lead should be confidently used as a reliable age-index, certain assumptions require to be made. The selection of minerals must be such that for them these assumptions are justifiable. They will be considered as follows:- (a) That no appreciable amount of lead was present when the mineral was formed. (b) That no lead has originated by any other radioactive process than that suggested.
(c) That no lead nor uranium has subsequently been added or removed by external agencies. (a) Previously to the consolidation of a rock magma, the uranium in the latter must, of course, have been generating helium and lead for an unknown period. It is probable that much of the lead then present would, at the time of crystallization, be carried away in hot sulphide solutions to form the hydatogenetic and metasomatic deposits of lead which provide our supplies of that metal. Doubtless, however, a certain amount of lead would be retained in the molecular network of crystals, and consequently analyses of a rock as a whole should give values of Pb/U higher than that corresponding to the period since consolidation. This difficulty may be avoided by consideri ng particular minerals. Thorite, zircon, in some cases apatite and sphene, and other rarer minerals segregate within themselves on crystallization a much larger percentage of uranium than remains to the rest of the magma. Within these minerals lead accumulates to such an extent that the amount originally present becomes negligible. (b) It may be objected that lead may perhaps originate as a product of some element other than uranium. Boltwood shows that it is highly improbable that thorium should give rise to lead, and the results submitted in this paper add further proof to that independence. Wherever lead occurs in primary minerals it is associated with uranium, and there is little doubt that it can be completely accounted for in this way. (c) It may seem unlikely that for periods of hundreds of millions of years a mineral should remain unchanged by external chemical agencies. In the earth's surface materials, making up the belt of weathering, solution is the dominant process. Lower down, in the belt of cementation, re-deposition is more characteristic.* Can we be sure that these processes have not dissolved out lead or uranium at one time, depositing the same elements at another time ? In some cases we cannot, but, fortunately for our purpose, many of the uranium-bearing minerals, like zircon, are dense and stable, and capable of withstanding grea4 changes in their environment without undergoing alteration. But an appeal to analysis will rarely fail to dispel this difficulty. If such changes have occurred, it is inconceivable that they would always have affected lead and uranium in the same proportion, and hence the results obtained from different minerals should show marked discrepancies. On the other hand, if the analyses give consistent results one can only assume that any alteration has been inappreciable. A microscopical examination of the minerals in question affords a useful guide to the extent of alteration. Unless one can be sure in this way that the mineral is fresh, it is clear that reliable results can only be expected when a series of minerals are examined. Still another possible objection may be treated here. Under the high temperatures and pressures which rocks have undergone during their geological history, is it safe to assume that radioactive changes proceed at the same rate? All that can be said is that experimental evidence consistently agrees in suggesting that these processes are quite independent of the temperatures and pressures which igneous rocks can have sustained without becoming metamorphosed. Arrhenius has supposed that radioactive processes may be reversed under the conditions prevailing at great depths. This idea has nothing but analogy to support it. There is abundant evidence that molecular changes are reversed at greater depths, e.g., in the upper zones of the earth's crust silicates are replaced by carbonates, while in the lower zones carbonates are decomposed and silicates are formed. But that interatomic changes should reverse, or even proceed more slo.wly or quickly, there is no evidence. From these considerations, it is obvious that the only minerals to be chosen are fresh, stable, primary rock-minerals. Secondary and metamorphic minerals could not be relied upon to satisfy the required conditions. 3. Methods of Analysis.-(a) Uranium.-This constituent was estimated by Strutt's method, in which radium emanation is directly measured, and the constancy of its ratio to uranium used to give the amount of the latter. From 0'3 grm. to 2'0 grm. of the finely powdered mineral was used for each estimation, according to the relative richness of the mineral in uranium. From preliminary electroscopic tests this could be roughly measured. ... (b) Lead.-Several methods of estimating lead were attempted, but the most constant and reliable results were found to be attained by weighing it as sulphate, and in cases when the quantity of lead present was too small for the gravimetric method, colorimetric estimations were made. ... (g) The greatest ratio is given by thorianite from Ceylon, for which Pb/U = 0.20. Here the only evidence for the pre-Cambrian age of the minerals is derived from the similarity of the rocks to those of the fundamental complex of India. These latter underlie a vast series of sedimentary strata considered to be of pre-Cambrian age. It should be observed that in calculating the above ratios U represents the time-average, and not the amount actually present. The difference is, however, not great. 6. Conclusion.-Evidence has been given to prove that the ratio Pb/U is nearly constant for minerals of the same age, the slight variability being what theoretically one would anticipate. For minerals of increasing geological age the value of Pb/U also increases, as the following table clearly shows:- Geological period. Pb/U. Millions of years. Carboniferou s ......................... 0.041 340 Devonian ................................. 0.045 370 Pre-carboniferous .................... 0.050 410 Silurian or Ordovician ............ 0.053 430 Pre-Cambrian- a. Sweden S , 0.125 1025 ........................0.155 1270 b. United States .............. 0.160 1310 ..........................0.175 1435 c. Ceylon ....................... .... 0.20 1640
Wherever the geological evidence is clear, it is in agreement with that derived from lead as an index of age. Where it is obscure, as, for example, in connection with the pre-Cambrian rocks, to correlate which is an almost hopeless task, the evidence does not, at least, contradict the ages put forward. Indeed, it may confidently be hoped that this very method may in turn be applied to help the geologist in his most difficult task, that of unravelling the mystery of the oldest rocks of the earth's crust; and, further, it is to be hoped that by the careful study of igneous complexes, data will be collected from which it will be possible to graduate the geological column with an ever-increasingly accurate time scale. ...".
(show scale)
| (Imperial College of Science and Technology) London, England |
89 YBN
[03/??/1911 AD]
| 3945) Hugo Gernsback (CE 1884–1967) publishes cartoon implying that victims of Galvani muscle-moving technology might someday turn the tables around and inflict muscle movements on their once unseen remote attackers.
| New York City, NY |
89 YBN
[04/19/1911 AD]
| 4691) Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (CE 1869-1959), Scottish physicist captures the paths of ionising rays (for example those made by α and β particles) photographically using an gas expansion apparatus (cloud chamber).
Wilson perfects his cloud chamber to allow charged (subatomic) particles to be seen with the naked eye, since charged particles leave trails (or tracks) of water droplets. Charged particles curve when the chamber is subjected to a magnetic field, and collisions between particles with molecules or other particles can be seen. (Photography is the first visualization of subatomic particles, but this is the first that shows subatomic particle movement in 3 dimensions.) Blackett will improve the design of the cloud chamber, and Glaser will build a bubble chamber.
(Now particle tract detection is done with wires? in particle accelerators. What about other detectors? photomultipliers, For example for particles from outer space. )
(show movies of particle tracks being formed if possible) (Still there is the problem of visualizing non-charged particles. State how this is solved if it is.)
Wilson reports this in a paper "On a Method of Making Visible the Paths of Ionising Particles through a Gas". Wilson writes: "The tracks of individual α- and β-particles, or of ionising rays of any kind, through a moist gas may be made visible by condensing water upon the ions set free, a suitable form of expansion apparatus being used for the purpose. In order that the clouds formed should give a true picture of the trails of ions left by the ionising particles, it is necessary that little or no stirring up of the gas should result from the expansion. It is desirable that no interval long enough to allow of appreciable diffusion of the ions should elapse between their liberation and the production of the super-saturation necessary for the condensation of water upon them; and that the cloud chamber shuold be free from all ions other than those in the freshly formed trails. The apparatus which has proved effective for the purpose differs from that used in my former experiments on condensation nuclei mainly in the form of the cloud-chamber. This is cylindrical, with flat horizontal roof and floors, its diameter being 7.5 cm., and its height between 4 and 5 mm. before expansion, and about 6.22 mm. after expansion. The expansion is effected by the sudden downward displacement of the floor of the cloud chamber; this is constituted by the flat top of a hollow brass piston open below, and set in motion by the method described in former papers. The clouds are viewed through the roof of the cloud-chamber, which is of glass, coated below with a uniform layer of clear gelatine. The floor is also covered by a layer of gelatine, in this case blackened by the addition of a little Indian ink. ... The potential difference applied between the roof and floor, in the observations described below, amounted to 8 volts. Any ions set free before an expansion were thus exposed to a field of about 16 volts per centimetre, and had at the most about 1/2 cm. to travel. The only ions "caught" on expansion, were thus those which had been produced within less than 1/40th of a second before the expansion, and such as were set free in the short interval after the expansion during which the super-saturation exceeded the limit necessary for condensation upon the ions. A horizontal stratum of the air in the cloud-chamber was illuminated by a suitable source and condensing lens; for eye observations a Nernst lamp is a convenient source. For the purpose of photographing the clouds a Leyden jar discharge through mercury vapour at atmospheric pressure was employed, the mercury being contained in a horizontal capillary quartz tube, of which the central portion was heated to vaporise the mercury. The spark was fired by the mechanism which started the expansion, and took place one- or two-tenths of a second later. The camera was inclined at an angle of 30° to the horizontal, the distances being arranged to give a picture of approximately the natural size, and the photographic plate being tilted so that the whole illuminated layer might be approximately in focus. Results Clouds with Large Expansions.- The clouds formed with large expansions in the absence of ions (v2/v1>1.38) showed, so far as the eye could judge, a uniform distributino of drops. Ionisatino by α-Rays.- The radium-tipped metal tonhue from a spinthariscope was placed inside the cloud-chamber, and the effect of expansion observed after the removal of dust-particles. The cloud condensed on the ions, while varying infinitely in detail, was always of the same general character as that of which fig. 1 (Plate 9) is a photograph. The photograph gives, however, but a poor idea of the really beautiful appearance of these clouds. It must be remembered, in interpreting the photographs, that trails of all ages, up to about 1/40th of a second, may be present, the most sharply defined being those left by particles which have traversed the air while super-saturated to the extent required to cause condensation upon the ions. The trail of ions produced by a particle which traversed the gas before the expansion may have had time to divide into a positively and a negatively charged portion under the action of the electric field, and in each of these a certain amount of diffusion of the ions may have taken place before the expansion. It is possible, therefore, that the few remarkably sharply defined lines, about 1/10 mm. wide, alone represent the actual distribution of ions immediately after the passage of the α-particles, before any appreciable diffusion has had time to take place. Ionisation by β-Rays.-A small quantity of impure radium salt in a thin glass bulb was held against a small aperture, closed by aluminium weighing about 1 mgrm. per sq. cm., in the cylindrical vertical wall of the cloud-chamber. On making an expansion sufficient to catch all the ions, two or three absolutely straight thread-like lines of cloud were generally seen radiating across the vessel from the aperture. In addition, other similar lines were occasionally seen crossing the vessel in other directions, probably secondary β-rays from the walls of the vessel. Ionisation by γ-Rays.- The γ-rays from 30 mgrm. of radium bromide, placed at a distance of 30 cm. on the same horizontal level as the cloud chamber, produced on expansion a cloud entirely localised in streaks and patches and consisting mainly of fine, perfectly straight threads, traversing the vessel in all directions-the tracks of β-particles from the walls of the vessel. Ionisation of X-Rays.- When the air is allowed to expand while exposed to the radiation from an X-ray bulb the whole of the region traversed by the primary beam is seen to be filled with minute streaks and patches of cloud, a few due to secondary X-rays appearing also outside the primary beam. A photograph shows the cloudlets to be mainly small thread-like objects not more than a few millimetres in length, and many of them being considerably less than 1/10mm in breadth. Few of them are straight, some of them showing complete loops. Many of them show a peculiar beaded structure. In addition to the thread-like cloudlets, there are minute patches of cloud which may be merely foreshortened threads. Other fainter and more diffuse patches and streaks are also present possibly representing older trails, in which the ions have had time to diffuse considerably before the expansion. The droplets conposing the threads have been deposited on the ions produced along the paths of the actually effective ionising rays. These are probably of the nature of easily absorbed secondary β- or cathode-rays; some doubtless startingfrom the roof or floor of the cloud-chamber, others, however (the larger number when a limited horizontal beam of X-rays is used), originating in the gas. The results are in agreement with Bragg's view that the whole of the ionisation by X-rays may be regarded as being due to β- or cathode-rays arising from the X-rays. The question whether the original X-radiation has a continuous wave front, or is itself corpuscular as Bragg supposes, or has in some other way its energy localised around definite points in the manner suggested by Sir J. J. Thomson, remains undecided. The method already furnishes, however, a very direct proof that when ionisation by X-rays occurs corpuscules are liberated, each with energy sufficient to enable it to produce a large number of ions along its course. The few preliminary photographs which have been taken were not obtained under conditions suitable for an examination of the relation of the initial direction of the cathode rays produced in the air to that of the incident Rontgen radiation. I hope shortly to obtain photographs which will admit of this being done.".
(Find clearly when particles are curved under an electromagnetic field, and collided - this probably does not occur until after 1912.)
| (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
89 YBN
[04/28/1911 AD]
| 4192) Electrical superconductivity at low temperatures recognized.
Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (KomRliNG OneS) (CE 1853-1926), Dutch physicist, finds that certain metals such as lead and mercury, lose all electrical resistance at liquid helium temperatures. This phenomenon will be called "superconductivity".
Kamerling Onnes reports this first in (translated from Dutch) "The resistance of pure mercury at helium temperatures". Kamerlingh Onnes writes: "§ 1. Introduction. Since the appearance of the last Communication dealing with liquid helium temperatures (December 1910) liquid helium has been successfully transferred from the apparatus in which it was liquefied to another vessel connected with it in which the measuring apparatus for the experiments could be immersed - in fact, to a helium cryostat The arrangements adopted for this purposed which have been found to be quite reliable will be described in full detail in a subsequent Communication. In the meantime there is every reason for the publication of a preliminary note dealing only with the results of the first measurements made with this apparatus, in which I have once more obtained invaluable assistance from Dr. DORSMAN and Mr. G. HOLST. These results confirm and extend the conclusions drawn from the previous experiments upon the change with temperature of the resistance of metals. Moreover, it was in the first place shown that liquid helium is an excellent insulator, a fact which hat {ULSF apparent type mistake} not hitherto been specifically established. This was of importance since the resistance measurements were made with naked wires, a method that is permissible only if the electrical conductivity of the liquid helium is inappreciable. § 2. The resistance of gold at helium temperatures. In the second place a link in the chain of reasoning which I adopted in § 3 of COmmunication No. 119B to show that the resistance of pure gold is already inappreciable at the boiling point of liquid helium has been put to the test by determining the resistance in liquid helium of the gold wire AuIII which was then estimated by extrapolation on the analogy of the platinum measurements. Within the limits of experimental error which are indeed greater for the present experiment than was the case for the others that value is now supported by direct measurement. The conclusion that the resistance of pure gold within the limits of accuracy experimentally obtainable vanishes at helium temperatures is hereby greatly strengthened.
§ 3. The resistance of pure mercury. The third important determination was one of the resistance of mercury. In Communication No. 119 a formula was deduced for the resistance of solid mercury; this formula was based upon the idea of resistance vibrators, and a suitable frequency v was ascribed to the vibrators which makes Bv=a=30 (B=PLANCK's number -h/k = 4.864 x 10-11). From this is was concluded: 1. That the resistance of pure mercury would be found to be much smaller at the boiling point of helium than at hydrogen temperatures, although its accurate quantitative determination would still be obtainable by experiment; 2. that the resistance at that stage would not yet be independent of the temperature, and 3. that at very low temperatures such as could be obtained by helium evaporating under reduced pressure the resistance would, within the limits of experimental accuracy, become zero. Experiment has completely confirmed this forecast. While the resistance at 13°.9K is still 0.034 times the resistasnce of solid mercury extrapolated to 0°C, at 4°.3 K it is only 0.00225, while at 3°K it falls to less than 0.0001. The fact, experimentally established, that a pure metal can be brought to such a condition that its electrical resistance becomes zero, or at least differs inappreciably from that value, is certainly of itself of the highest importance. The confirmation of my forecast of this behaviour affords strong support to the opinion to which I had been led that the resistance of pure metals (at least of platinum, gold, mercury, and such like) is a function of the PLANCK vibrators in a state of radiation equilibrium. (Such vibrators were applied by EINSTEIN to the theory of the specific heats of solid substances, and by NERNST to the specific heats of gases). With regard to the value of the frequency of the resistance vibrators assumed before (one could try to obtain frequencies from resistances) it is certainly worth noting that the wave-length in vacuo which corresponds with the period of the mercury resistance vibrators is about 0.5m.m. while RUBENS has just found that a mercury lamp emits vibrations of very long wave-length of about 0.3 m.m. In this way a connection is unexpectedly revealed between the change with temperature of the electrical resistance of metals and their long wave emission. The results just given for the resistance of mercury are, since they are founded upon a single experiment, communicated with all reserve. While I hope to publish a more detailed description of the investigation which has led to these results in the near future, and while new experiments are being prepared, which will enable me to attain a greater degree of accuracy, it seemed to me desirable to indicate briefly the present position of the problem.".
(I can't believe that there is no resistance, probably just no measurable resistance - as Kamerlingh Onnes explains for mercury - the measurement is very low but not 0. Clearly photons are emitted from such metals, and no doubt magnetic fields made of particles are emitted and exist in and around in the surrounding space. The electrical particles must contribute to heat by knocking free photons and other particles. Perhaps better light beams can be produced at low temperatures? Is this decrease in resistance linear or does it drop at a certain temperature as if it was a specific phenomenon, not just less atomic movement, but some kind of special change?)
| (Leiden University) Leiden, Netherlands |
89 YBN
[04/??/1911 AD]
| 4746) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, theorizes that the diameter of the sphere of positive charge in the center of each atom is minute compared with the diameter of the sphere of influence of the atom and estimates that the radius of an atom is 10-8 cm. Rutherford refers to Nagaoka's Saturnian model for the atom. In a later paper in March 1914, Rutherford will refer to this theory that atoms have a minute central positively charged sphere as the "nucleus theory". From this comes the current view of atoms as having a nucleus, and all the related phases like "nuclear reaction", "nuclear engineering", etc.
(It is interesting to theorize about alternative distributions for atoms, and also to examine closely the evidence that Rutherford provides to support a minute central positively charged sphere in each atom, because this is so major a definition of material structure.)
Rutherford writes: "§ 1. It is well known that the α and the β particles suffer deflexions from their rectilinear paths by encounters with atoms of matter. This scattering is far more marked for the β than for the α particle on account of the much smaller momentum and energy of the former particle. There seems to be no doubt that such swiftly moving particles pass through the atoms in their path, and that the deflexions observed are due to the strong electric field traversed within the atomic system. It has generally been supposed that the scattering of a pencil of α or β rays in passing through a thin plate of matter is the result of a multitude of small scatterings by the atoms of matter traversed. The observations, however, of Geiger and Marsden on the scattering of α rays indicate that some of the α particles, about 1 in 20,000 were turned through an average angle of 90 degrees in passing though a layer of gold-foil about 0.00004 cm. thick, which was equivalent in stopping-power of the α particle to 1.6 millimetres of air. Geiger showed later that the most probable angle of deflexion for a pencil of α particles being deflected through 90 degrees is vanishingly small. In addition, it will be seen later that the distribution of the α particles for various angles of large deflexion does not follow the probability law to be expected if such large deflexion are made up of a large number of small deviations. It seems reasonable to suppose that the deflexion through a large angle is due to a single atomic encounter, for the chance of a second encounter of a kind to produce a large deflexion must in most cases be exceedingly small. A simple calculation shows that the atom must be a seat of an intense electric field in order to produce such a large deflexion at a single encounter.
Recently Sir J. J. Thomson has put forward a theory to explain the scattering of electrified particles in passing through small thicknesses of matter. The atom is supposed to consist of a number N of negatively charged corpuscles, accompanied by an equal quantity of positive electricity uniformly distributed throughout a sphere. The deflexion of a negatively electrified particle in passing through the atom is ascribed to two causes -- (1) the repulsion of the corpuscles distributed through the atom, and (2) the attraction of the positive electricity in the atom. The deflexion of the particle in passing through the atom is supposed to be small, while the average deflexion after a large number m of encounters was taken as √m · θ, where θ is the average deflexion due to a single atom. It was shown that the number N of the electrons within the atom could be deduced from observations of the scattering was examined experimentally by Crowther in a later paper. His results apparently confirmed the main conclusions of the theory, and he deduced, on the assumption that the positive electricity was continuous, that the number of electrons in an atom was about three times its atomic weight.
The theory of Sir J. J. Thomson is based on the assumption that the scattering due to a single atomic encounter is small, and the particular structure assumed for the atom does not admit of a very large deflexion of diameter of the sphere of positive electricity is minute compared with the diameter of the sphere of influence of the atom.
Since the α and β particles traverse the atom, it should be possible from a close study of the nature of the deflexion to form some idea of the constitution of the atom to produce the effects observed. In fact, the scattering of high-speed charged particles by the atoms of matter is one of the most promising methods of attack of this problem. The development of the scintillation method of counting single α particles affords unusual advantages of investigation, and the researches of H. Geiger by this method have already added much to our knowledge of the scattering of α rays by matter.
§ 2. We shall first examine theoretically the single encounters (fn:**The deviation of a particle throughout a considerable angle from an encounter with a single atom will in this paper be called 'single' scattering. The deviation of a particle resulting from a multitude of small deviations will be termed 'compound' scattering.) with an atom of simple structure, which is able to produce large deflections of an α particle, and then compare the deductions from the theory with the experimental data available.
Consider an atom which contains a charge ±Ne at its centre surrounded by a sphere of electrification containing a charge ±Ne {ULSF: in the original publication, the second plus/minus sign is inverted to be a minus/plus sign} supposed uniformly distributed throughout a sphere of radius R. e is the fundamental unit of charge, which in this paper is taken as 4.65 x 10-10 E.S. unit. We shall suppose that for distances less than 10-12 cm. the central charge and also the charge on the alpha particle may be supposed to be concentrated at a point. It will be shown that the main deductions from the theory are independent of whether the central charge is supposed to be positive or negative. For convenience, the sign will be assumed to be positive. The question of the stability of the atom proposed need not be considered at this stage, for this will obviously depend upon the minute structure of the atom, and on the motion of the constituent charged parts.
In order to form some idea of the forces required to deflect an alpha particle through a large angle, consider an atom containing a positive charge Ne at its centre, and surrounded by a distribution of negative electricity Ne uniformly distributed within a sphere of radius R. The electric force X and the potential V at a distance r from the centre of an atom for a point inside the atom, are given by
X=Ne(1/r2 - r/R3)
V= Ne(1/r - 3/2R + r2/2R3).
Suppose an α particle of mass m and velocity u and charge E shot directly towards the centre of the atom. It will be brought to rest at a distance b from the centre given by
1/2mu2 = NeE(1/b - 3/2R + b2/2R3).
It will be seen that b is an important quantity in later calculations. Assuming that the central charge is 100 e, it can be calculated that the value of b for an α particle of velocity 2.09 x 109 cms. per second is about 3.4 x 10-12 cm. In this calculation b is supposed to be very small compared with R. Since R is supposed to be of the order of the radius of the atom, viz. 10-8 cm., it is obvious that the α particle before being turned back penetrates so close to the central charge, that the field due to the uniform distribution of negative electricity may be neglected. In general, a simple calculation shows that for all deflexions greater than a degree, we may without sensible error suppose the deflexion due to the field of the central charge alone. Possible single deviations due to the negative electricity, if distributed in the form of corpuscles, are not taken into account at this stage of the theory. It will be shown later that its effect is in general small compared with that due to the central field.
Consider the passage of a positive electrified particle close to the centre of an atom. Supposing that the velocity of the particle is not appreciably changed by its passage through the atom, the path of the particle under the influence of a repulsive force varying inversely as the square of the distance will be an hyperbola with the centre of the atom S as the external focus. Suppose the particle to enter the atom in the direction PO (fig. 1), and that the direction of motion on escaping the atom is OP'. OP and OP' make equal angles with the line SA, where A is the apse of the hyperbola. p = SN = perpendicular distance from centre on direction of initial motion of particle. .... §7. General Considerations
In comparing the theory outlined in this paper with the experimental results, it has been supposed that the atom consists of a central charge supposed concentrated at a point, and that the large single deflexions of the α and β particles are mainly due to their passage through the strong central field. The effect of the equal and opposite compensation charge supposed distributed uniformly throughout a sphere has been neglected. Some of the evidence in support of these assumptions will now be briefly considered. For concreteness, consider the passage of a high speed α particle through an atom having a positive central charge Ne, and surrounded by a compensating charge of N electrons. Remembering that the mass, momentum, and kinetic energy of the α particle are very large compared with the corresponding values of an electron in rapid motion, it does not seem possible from dynamic considerations that an α particle can be deflected through a large angle by a close approach to an electron, even if the latter be in rapid motion and constrained by strong electrical forces. It seems reasonable to suppose that the chance of single deflexions through a large angle due to this cause, if not zero, must be exceedingly small compared with that due to the central charge.
It is of interest to examine how far the experimental evidence throws light on the question of extent of the distribution of central charge. Suppose, for example, the central charge to be composed of N unit charges distributed over such a volume that the large single deflexions are mainly due to the constituent charges and not to the external field produced by the distribution. It has been shown (§3) that the fraction of the α particles scattered through a large angle is proportional to (NeE)2, where Ne is the central charge concentrated at a point and E the charge on the deflected particles, If, however, this charge is distributed in single units, the fraction of the α particles scattered through a given angle is proportional of Ne2 instead of N2e2. In this calculation, the influence of mass of the constituent particle has been neglected, and account has only been taken of its electric field. Since it has been shown that the value of the central point charge for gold must be about 100, the value of the distributed charge required to produce the same proportion of single deflexions through a large angle should be at least 10,000. Under these conditions the mass of the constituent particle would be small compared with that of the α particle, and the difficulty arises of the production of large single deflexions at all. In addition, with such a large distributed charge, the effect of compound scattering is relatively more important than that of single scattering. For example, the probable small angle of deflexion of pencil of α particles passing through a thin gold foil would be much greater than that experimentally observed by Geiger (§ b-c). The large and small angle scattering could not then be explained by the assumption of a central charge of the same value. Considering the evidence as a whole, it seems simplest to suppose that the atom contains a central charge distributed through a very small volume, and that the large single deflexions are due to the central charge as a whole, and not to its constituents. At the same time, the experimental evidence is not precise enough to negative the possibility that a small fraction of the positive charge may be carried by satellites extending some distance from the centre. Evidence on this point could be obtained by examining whether the same central charge is required to explain the large single deflexions of α and β particles; for the α particle must approach much closer to the center of the atom than the β particle of average speed to suffer the same large deflexion.
The general data available indicate that the value of this central charge for different atoms is approximately proportional to their atomic weights, at any rate of atoms heavier than aluminium. It will be of great interest to examine experimentally whether such a simple relation holds also for the lighter atoms. In cases where the mass of the deflecting atom (for example, hydrogen, helium, lithium) is not very different from that of the α particle, the general theory of single scattering will require modification, for it is necessary to take into account the movements of the atom itself (see § 4).
It is of interest to note that Nagaoka has mathematically considered the properties of the Saturnian atom which he supposed to consist of a central attracting mass surrounded by rings of rotating electrons. He showed that such a system was stable if the attracting force was large. From the point of view considered in his paper, the chance of large deflexion would practically be unaltered, whether the atom is considered to be disk or a sphere. It may be remarked that the approximate value found for the central charge of the atom of gold (100 e) is about that to be expected if the atom of gold consisted of 49 atoms of helium, each carrying a charge of 2 e. This may be only a coincidence, but it is certainly suggestive in view of the expulsion of helium atoms carrying two unit charges from radioactive matter.
The deductions from the theory so far considered are independent of the sign of the central charge, and it has not so far been found possible to obtain definite evidence to determine whether it be positive or negative. It may be possible to settle the question of sign by consideration of the difference of the laws of absorption of the β particles to be expected on the two hypothesis, for the effect of radiation in reducing the velocity of the β particle should be far more marked with a positive than with a negative center. If the central charge be positive, it is easily seen that a positively charged mass if released from the center of a heavy atom, would acquire a great velocity in moving through the electric field. It may be possible in this way to account for the high velocity of expulsion of α particles without supposing that they are initially in rapid motion within the atom.
Further consideration of the application of this theory to these and other questions will be reserved for a later paper, when the main deductions of the theory have been tested experimentally. Experiments in this direction are already in progress by Geiger and Marsden.".
(This paper is highly mathematical. Perhaps one might claim that more theoretical math is necessary when no physical observations make the point obvious. This mathematical analysis is similar to Maxwell's - and suffers, I think, from the flaw of making too many presumptions, and presuming and defining objects and forces that may not exist. I somewhat doubt Rutherford's theory on electrical repulsion of the alpha particles, as displayed by Rutherford's graph. I view these reflections as being the result of particle collisions, and not of electric repulsions. I presume that the electric effect is only explained by particle collision - although I can accept that another theory of two pieces of matter that fit together to form a neutral particle is a possibility. To me, the most simple explanation of electricity if particle collision, and the reality of particle collision, I don't think can be ignored no matter what model.)
(Rutherford accepts the Lorentz theory of electron mass increasing with velocity. This theory I doubt since it violates the conservation of mass and motion for a moving particle, and seems unlikely as a model given some starting velocity - that is in my view the smaller particle probably moves the fastest - not having any other objects orbiting with it. Rutherford also accepts the concept of "electrical mass", that is that charge is equivalent to mass. I can accept that charge may be the equivalent of mass simply from the result of particle collision, although I think there are other possibilities.)
(In terms of the central nucleus theory, I think that this theory is definitely a possibility, and that stars and planets are good evidence, not only of this kind of atom, but that atoms, alpha, beta, gamma, photons, etc are all particulate in nature - and not waves in an ether medium, or the non-material result of some mathematical geometry. I somewhat doubt the logic Rutherford applies, in particular, because the alpha particles can be reflected from collisions with particles distributed throughout the atomic lattice of the gold foil - and then it must be difficult to determine when does one set of objects/protons in one atom end and those of a second neighboring atom begin? Clearly there must be a larger space between atoms than between the components of atoms. I have more doubts about the later development of this atom - in particular because I think there is evidence that there may be electrons in the nucleus, that the concept of a nucleus may be inaccurate - that an atom may have its matter uniformly distributed within some boundary - perhaps more like a globular cluster, microscopic images of atoms show evenly distributed lattices and bell curve atoms apparently. In addition, where do the photons emitted in typical combustion reactions come from - where is the place of photons (and x-particles if smaller than photons) in the atom? )
(I doubt any distinction between single and compound scattering.) (I think this is an example of drawing too many conclusions from some physical observation- although we should explore as many theories as possible - I view these conclusions as highly theoretical.) (We see light particle reflections from objects all the time, in particular from mirrored surfaces, like a pol of water, glass, or a silvered mirror - some particles are absorbed, some transmitted through without collision, and for diffuse objects there are many diverse reflected angles.)
(I think the Saturnian, and/or star-and-planet model for the atom may still be a good model to examine, in this way each proton would be like a star, and electrons would be like planets - and an atom would be a collection of these kind of star systems like small globular clusters.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
89 YBN
[06/12/1911 AD]
| 3977) Charles-Victor Mauguin (CE 1878-1958) establishes that magnetic fields orient liquid crystals.
| Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France |
89 YBN
[06/15/1911 AD]
| 4874) Charles Franklin Kettering (CE 1876-1958), US inventor invents an electric starter for a car engine, which will replace the hand crank method.
Kettering invents the electric self-starting system for the automobile, used for the first time in the 1912 Cadillac. This replaces the labor intensive and dangerous crank method of cranking a motor into motion.
Kettering's contribution is using a motor powerful enough to turn the engine but small enough to fit in a motor vehicle. This concept originated when he was working on an electric cash register and realized that the motor he required does not neccessarily need to carry a constant load but only has to deliver an occasional surge of electricity.
(What about the ignition coil? Did Kettering use a coil to create a spark?) (Is there a difference between the ignition system and the starter system?)
| (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co) Dayton, Ohio, USA |
89 YBN
[06/21/1911 AD]
| 5778) Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist theorizes that gravity changes the frequency of light.
In 1783, John Michell (MicL) (CE 1724-1793) had first shown that gravity must change the speed of light corpuscles.
In 1907 Einstein had theorized that gravity changes the direction of light and develops this idea further in 1911, adding that gravity changes the frequency of light.
In 1960 Cranshaw, Schiffer and Whitehead and independently Pound and Rebka will confirm experimentally that gravity changes the frequency, and therefore the velocity of light.
Einstein publishes this in "Annalen Der Physik" ("Annals of Physics") as (translated from German) "On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light". Einstein writes: "IN a memoir published four years ago I tried to answer the question whether the propagation of light is influenced by gravitation. I return to this theme, because my previous presentation of the subject does not satisfy me, and for a stronger reason, because I now see that one of the most important consequences of my former treatment is capable of being tested experimentally. For it follows from the theory here to be brought forward, that rays of light, passing close to the sun, are deflected by its gravitational field, so that the angular distance between the sun and a fixed star appearing near to it is apparently increased by nearly a second of arc.
In the course of these reflexions further results are yielded which relate to gravitation. But as the exposition of the entire group of considerations would be rather difficult to follow, only a few quite elementary reflexions will be given in the following pages, from which the reader will readily be able to inform himself as to the suppositions of the theory and its line of thought. The relations here deduced, even if the theoretical foundation is sound, are valid only to a first approximation.
1. A Hypothesis as to the Physical Nature of the Gravitational Field
IN a homogeneous gravitational field (acceleration of gravity γ) let there be a stationary system of co-ordinates K, orientated so that the lines of force of the gravitational field run in the negative direction of the axis of z. In a space free of gravitational fields let there be a second system of co-ordinates K', moving with uniform acceleration ( γ ) in the positive direction of its axis of z. To avoid unnecessary complications, let us for the present disregard the theory of relativity, and regard both systems from the customary point of view of kinematics, and the movements occurring in them from that of ordinary mechanics.
Relatively to K, as well as relatively to K', material points which are not subjected to the action of other material points, move in keeping with the equations d²x/dt² = 0, d²y/dt² = 0, d²z/dt² = -γ
For the accelerated system K' this follows directly from Galileo's principle, but for the system K, at rest in a homogeneous gravitational field, from the experience that all bodies in such a field are equally and uniformly accelerated. This experience, of the equal falling of all bodies in the gravitational field, is one of the most universal which the observation of nature has yielded, but in spite of that the law has not found any place in the foundations of our edifice of the physical universe.
But we arrive at a very satisfactory interpretation of this law of experience, if we assume that the systems K and K' are physically exactly equivalent, that is, if we assume that we may just as well regard the system K as being in a space free from gravitational fields, if we then regard K as uniformly accelerated. This assumption of exact physical equivalence makes it impossible for us to speak of the absolute acceleration of the system of reference, just as the usual theory of relativity forbids us to talk of the absolute velocity of a system; (note 2) and it makes the equal falling of all bodies in a gravitational field seem a matter of course.
As long as we restrict ourselves to purely mechanical processes in the realm where Newton's mechanics holds sway, we are certain of the equivalence of the systems K and K'. But this view of ours will not have any deeper significance unless the systems K and K' are equivalent with respect to all physical processes, that is, unless the laws of nature with respect to K are in entire agreement with those with respect to K'. By assuming this to be so, we arrive at a principle which, if it is really true, has great heuristic importance. For by theoretical consideration of processes which take place relatively to a system of reference with uniform acceleration, we obtain information as to the career of processes in a homogeneous gravitational field. We shall now show, first of all, from the standpoint of the ordinary theory of relativity, what degree of probability is inherent in our hypothesis.
2. On the Gravitation of Energy
ONE result yielded by the theory of relativity is that the inertia mass of a body increases with the energy it contains; if the increase of energy amounts to E, the increase in inertial mass is equal to E/c², when c denotes the velocity of light.
Now is there an increase of gravitating mass corresponding to this increase of inertia mass? If not, then a body would fall in the same gravitational field with varying acceleration according to the energy it contained. That highly satisfactory result of the theory of relativity by which the law of the conservation of mass is merged in the law of conservation of energy could not be maintained, because it would compel us to abandon the law of the conservation of mass in its old form for inertia mass, and maintain it for gravitating mass.
But this must be regarded as very improbable. On the other hand, the usual theory of relativity does not provide us with any argument from which to infer that the weight of a body depends on the energy contained in it. But we shall show that our hypothesis of the equivalence of the systems K and K' gives us gravitation of energy as a necessary consequence.
Let the two material systems S1 and S2, provided with instruments of measurement, be situated on the z-axis of K at the distance h from each other, (note 3) so that the gravitation potential in S2 is greater than that in S1 by γh. Let a definite quantity of energy E be emitted from S2 towards S1. Let the quantities of energy in S1 and S2 be measured by contrivances which – brought to one place in the system z and there compared – shall be perfectly alike. As to the process of this conveyance of energy by radiation we can make no a priori assertion because we do not know the influence of the gravitational field on the radiation and the measuring instruments in S1 and S2.
But by our postulate of the equivalence of K and K' we are able, in place of the system K in a homogeneous gravitational field, to set the gravitation-free system K', which moves with uniform acceleration in the direction of positive z, and with the z-axis of which the material systems S1 and S2 are rigidly connected. 'x', 'y', and 'z' axes, 'z' being height
We judge of the process of the transference of energy by radiation from S2 to S1 from a system K0, which is to be free from acceleration. At the moment when the radiation energy E2 is emitted from S2 toward S1, let the velocity of K' relatively to K0 be zero. The radiation will arrive at S1 when the time h/c has elapsed (to a first approximation). But at this moment the velocity of S1 relatively to K0 is γh/c = v. Therefore by the ordinary theory of relativity the radiation arriving at S1 does not possess the energy E2, but a greater energy E1, which is related to E2 to a first approximation by the equation (note 4) E1 = E2 (1 + v/c) = E2 (1 + γh/c²) (1)
By our assumption exactly the same relation holds if the same process takes place in the system K, which is not accelerated, but is provided with a gravitational field. In this case we may replace γh by the potential Φ of the gravitation vector in S2, if the arbitrary constant of Φ in S1 is equated to zero.
We then have the equation
E1 = E2 + E2Φ/c² (1a)
This equation expresses the law of energy for the process under observation. The energy E1 arriving at S1 is greater than the energy E2, measured by the same means, which was emitted in S2, the excess being the potential energy of the mass E2/c² in the gravitational field. It thus proves that for the fulfilment of the principle of energy we have to ascribe to the energy E, before its emission in S2, a potential energy due to gravity, which corresponds to the gravitational mass E/c². Our assumption of the equivalence of K and K' thus removes the difficulty mentioned at the beginning of this paragraph which is left unsolved by the ordinary theory of relativity.
The meaning of this result is shown particularly clearly if we consider the following cycle of. operations: –
1. The energy E, as measured in S2 , is emitted in the form of radiation in S2 towards S1, where, by the result just obtained, the energy E( 1 + γh/c² ), as measured in S1, is absorbed. 2. A body W of mass M is lowered from S2 to S1, work Mγh being done in the process. 3. The energy E is transferred from S1 to the body W while W is in S1. Let the gravitational mass M be thereby changed so that it acquires the value M'. 4. Let W be again raised to S2, work M'γh being done in the process. 5. Let E be transferred from W back to S2.
The effect of this cycle is simply that S1 has undergone the increase of energy E(1 + γh/c² ), and that the quantity of energy M'γh - Mγh has been conveyed to the system in the form of mechanical work. By the principle of energy, we must therefore have Eγh/c² = M'γh - Mγh
or M' - M = E2 + E/c² (1b)
The increase in gravitational mass is thus equal to E/c², and therefore equal to the increase in inertia mass as given by the theory of relativity.
The result emerges still more directly from the equivalence of the systems K and K', according to which the gravitational mass in respect of K is exactly equal to the inertia mass in respect of K'; energy must therefore possess a gravitational mass which is equal to its inertia mass. If a mass M0 be suspended on a spring balance in the system K' the balance will indicate the apparent weight M0 γ on account of the inertia of M0. If the quantity of energy E be transferred to M0, the spring balance, by the law of the inertia of energy, will indicate (M0 + E/c²) γ. By reason of our fundamental assumption exactly the same thing must occur when the experiment is repeated in the system K, that is, in the gravitational field.
3. Time and the Velocity of Light in the Gravitational Field
IF the radiation emitted in the uniformly accelerated system K' in S2 toward S1 had the frequency v2 relatively to the clock in S2, then, relatively to S1 , at its arrival in S1 it no longer has the frequency v2 relatively to an identical clock in S1, but a greater frequency v1, such that to a first approximation
ν1 = ν2 (1 + γ h/c²) (2)
For if we again introduce the unaccelerated system of reference K0, relatively to which, at the time of the emission of light, K' has no velocity, then S1, at the time of arrival of the radiation at S1, has, relatively to K0, the velocity γh/c, from which, by Doppler's principle, the relation as given results immediately.
In agreement with our assumption of the equivalence of the systems K' and K, this equation also holds for the stationary system of co-ordinates K0, provided with a uniform gravitational field, if in it the transference by radiation takes place as described. It follows, then, that a ray of light emitted in S2 with a definite gravitational potential, and possessing at its emission the frequency ν2 – compared with a clock in S2 – will, at its arrival in S1, possess a different frequency ν1 – measured by an identical clock in S1. For γh we substitute the gravitational potential Φ of S2 – that of S1 being taken as zero – and assume that the relation which we have deduced for the homogeneous gravitational field also holds for other forms of field. Then
ν1 = ν2 (1 + Φ/c²) (2a)
This result (which by our deduction is valid to a first approximation) permits, in the first place, of the following application. Let v0 be the vibration-number of an elementary light-generator, measured by a delicate clock at the same place. Let us imagine them both at a place on the surface of the Sun (where our S2 is located). Of the light there emitted, a portion reaches the Earth (S1), where we measure the frequency of the arriving light with a clock U in all respects resembling the one just mentioned. Then by (2a), ν = ν0 (1 + Φ/c²)
where Φ is the (negative) difference of gravitational potential between the surface of the Sun and the Earth. Thus according to our view the spectral lines of sunlight, as compared with the corresponding spectral lines of terrestrial sources of light, must be somewhat displaced toward the red, in fact by the relative amount (ν0 - ν)/ν0 = - Φ/c² = 2.10-6
If the conditions under which the solar bands arise were exactly known, this shifting would be susceptible of measurement. But as other influences (pressure, temperature) affect the position of the centres of the spectral lines, it is difficult to discover whether the inferred influence of the gravitational potential really exists. (note 5)
On a superficial consideration equation (2), or (2a), respectively, seems to assert an absurdity. If there is constant transmission of light from S2 to S1, how can any other number of periods per second arrive in S1 than is emitted in S2 ? But the answer is simple. We cannot regard v2 or respectively v1 simply as frequencies (as the number of periods per second) since we have not yet determined the time in system K. What v2 denotes is the number of periods with reference to the time-unit of the clock U in S2 , while v1 denotes the number of periods per second with reference to the identical clock in S1. Nothing compels us to assume that the clocks U in different gravitation potentials must be regarded as going at the same rate. On the contrary, we must certainly define the time in K in such a way that the number of wave crests and troughs between S2 and S1 is independent of the absolute value of time: for the process under observation is by nature a stationary one. If we did not satisfy this condition, we should arrive at a definition of time by the application of which time would merge explicitly into the laws of nature, and this would certainly be unnatural and unpractical. Therefore the two clocks in S1 and S2 do not both give the "time" correctly. If we measure time in S1 with the clock U, then we must measure time in S2 with a clock which goes 1 + Φ/c² times more slowly than the clock U when compared with U at one and the same place. For when measured by such a clock the frequency of the ray of light which is considered above is at its emission in S2 ν2(1 + Φ/c²)
and is therefore, by (2a), equal to the frequency v1 of the same ray of light on its arrival in S1.
This has a consequence which is of fundamental importance for our theory. For if we measure the velocity of light at different places in the accelerated, gravitation-free system K', employing clocks U of identical constitution we obtain the same magnitude at all these places. The same holds good, by our fundamental assumption, for the system K as well. But from what has just been said we must use clocks of unlike constitution for measuring time at places with differing gravitation potential. For measuring time at a place which, relatively to the origin of the co-ordinates, has the gravitation potential Φ, we must employ a clock which – when removed to the origin of co-ordinates – goes (1 + Φ/c²) times more slowly than the clock used for measuring time at the origin of co-ordinates. If we call the velocity of light at the origin of co-ordinates c0, then the velocity of light c at a place with the gravitation potential Φ will be given by the relation
c = c0 (1 + Φ/c²) (3)
The principle of the constancy of the velocity of light holds good according to this theory in a different form from that which usually underlies the ordinary theory of relativity. 4. Bending of Light-Rays in the Gravitational Field
FROM the proposition which has just been proved, that the velocity of light in the gravitational field is a function of the place, we may easily infer, by means of Huyghens's principle, that light-rays propagated across a gravitational field undergo deflexion. For let E be a wave front of a plane light-wave at the time t, and let P1 and P2 be two points in that plane at deviatio n of a wavefront, using Huyghen's principle
unit distance from each other. P1 and P2 lie in the plane of the paper, which is chosen so that the differential coefficient of Φ, taken in the direction of the normal to the plane, vanishes, and therefore also that of c. We obtain the corresponding wave front at time t + dt, or, rather, its line of section with the plane of the paper, by describing circles round the points P1 and P2 with radii c1 dt and c2 dt respectively, where c1 and c2 denote the velocity of light at the points P1 and P2 respectively, and by drawing the tangent to these circles. The angle through which the light-ray is deflected in the path cdt is therefore (c1 - c2)dt = (δc / δn')dt ,
if we calculate the angle positively when the ray is bent toward the side of increasing n'. The angle of deflexion per unit of path of the light-ray is thus - (1 / c)(δc / δn') , or by (3) - (1 / c²)(δΦ / δn') .
Finally, we obtain for the deflexion which a light-ray experiences toward the side n' on any path (s) the expression
EQUATION (4) (4)
We might have obtained the same result by directly considering the propagation of a ray of light in the uniformly accelerated system K', and transferring the result to the system K, and thence to the case of a gravitational field of any form.
By equation (4) a ray of light passing along by a heavenly body suffers a deflexion to the side of the diminishing gravitational potential, that is, on the side directed toward the heavenly body, of the magnitude a right-angled triangle with sides 'S', 'Delta' and hypoteneuse 'r', and angle 'theta'EQUATION
where k denotes the constant of gravitation, M the mass of the heavenly body, Δ the distance of the ray from the centre of the body. A ray of light going past the Sun would accordingly undergo deflexion to the amount of 4 * 10^6 = 0.83 seconds of arc. The angular distance of the star from the centre of the Sun appears to be increased by this amount. As the fixed stars in the parts of the sky near the Sun are visible during total eclipses of the Sun, this consequence of the theory may be compared with experience. With the planet Jupiter the displacement to be expected reaches to about 1/100 of the amount given. It would be a most desirable thing if astronomers would take up the question here raised. For apart from any theory there is the question whether it is possible with the equipment at present available to detect an influence of gravitational fields on the propagation of light.".
(Note that there is apparently a mistake in the original paper, which is corrected in the Beck translation: on p905 of the original, v0-v should be v2-v, The 1923 Dover translation has the same error.)
(Notice "line of thought" by Einstein - which conjures an image of humans waiting in line for something related to direct-to-brain services.)
| Prague, Czechlslovakia |
89 YBN
[06/??/1911 AD]
| 3944) Hugo Gernsback (CE 1884–1967), publishes the earliest known explicit public description of a machine that records the internal sounds a brain produces, in addition to a machine that writes (plays) a sound recording directly inside the brain, in his June 1911 "Modern Electrics" magazine.
| New York City, NY |
89 YBN
[07/07/1911 AD]
| 4799) Ejnar Hertzsprung (CE 1873-1967), Danish astronomer, notices that the Pole star is a Cepheid variable star.
| Potsdam, Germany |
89 YBN
[07/??/1911 AD]
| 3946) Hugo Gernsback (CE 1884–1967) publishes a cartoon implying that people might wear a protective suit against "wireless" with an image of electricity striking the person. In addition, this cartoon may imply or foreshadow the existance of walking robots.
| New York City, NY |
89 YBN
[11/13/1911 AD]
| 4270) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, uses his method of positive ion electric and magnetic deflection to detect the products of chemical reactions. The production of carbon monosulphide was detected when an electric discharge is passed through a vapour of carbon bisulphide is detected by this method. Thomson gives the results of the chemical combination between hydrogen and oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen and produces photographs with curves corresponding to atomic masses which do not fit with any recognized elements or compounds.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
89 YBN
[12/14/1911 AD]
| 4772) Roald Engelbregt Gravning Amundsen (omUNSeN) (CE 1872-1928) Norwegian explorer is the first to reach the South Pole.
On Decemeber 14, 1911 Amundsen reaches the South Pole (magnetic Pole?).
After learning about Robert E. Peary reaching the North Pole on April 6, 1909, Amundsen decides to try to reach the South Pole. Amundsen reaches the Antarctic continent (Antarctica), and waits for the summer (December to February). After the establishment of three supply depots, on Oct. 29, 1911, Amundsen begins the final run to the pole with four companions and four sleds. Amundsen and company reach the South Pole on Decemeber 14. Scott and his party do not arrive until a month later in January. Amundsen returns safely, (however, Scott and his entire company die on the return.)
| South Pole |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 3976) Charles-Victor Mauguin (CE 1878-1958) studies liquid crystals between two thin layers, of thickness between 10 and 150 microns (microinches), and identifies birefringent liquid films with a helicoidal structure (films which no longer extinguish light between crossed polarisers but cause linearly polarized light to exit with elliptical polarisation, and also under certain circumstances twisted). (how is twisted different from rotated?)
| Sorbonne, University of Paris, Paris, France |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4358) Harry Fielding Reid (CE 1859-1944), US geophysicist creates the "elastic rebound theory" of earthquake mechanics, explaining that faults exist in the earth and are not breaks in the crust caused by earthquakes. According to Reid's theory pressures along the fault increase until there is a sudden slip of one side and the vibration of this causes the effects of an earthquake. This is still the accepted theory.
| ( Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4477) Thomas Hunt Morgan (CE 1866-1945), US geneticist begins chromosome mapping: to map the position of genes on the chromosomes of Drosophila, based on gender-linked inheritance and the fact that the greater the distance between two genes the higher the probability that a break will occur somewhere between them, and that the linked relationship will be disturbed.
In 1909 the Belgian cytologist F. A. Janssens had published a series of cytological observations of what he called chiasmatype formation (intertwining of chromosomes during meiosis). Janssens thought that occasionally homologous chromosome strands exchange parts during chiasma. Morgan is familiar with Janssens’ concept and applies it to the conception of genes as parts of chromosomes. Morgan reasoned that the strength of linkage between any two factors must be related in some way to their distances apart on the chromosome. The farther apart any two genes, the more likely that a break could occur somewhere between them, and hence the more likely that the linkage relationship would be disturbed. During a conversation with Morgan in 1911, Sturtevant, then still an undergraduate, suddenly realizes that the variations in strength of linkage can be used as a means of determining the relative spatial distances of genes on a chromosome. According to Sturtevant’s own report, he went home that night and produced the first genetic map in Drosophila for the sex-linked genes y, w, z, m, and r. The order and relative spacing which Sturtevant determined at that time are essentially the same as those appearing on the recent standard map of Drosophila’s X chromosome. This is the first chromosome map to be drawn.
The major early findings of the Drosophila group are summarized in an epoch-making book, "The Mechanism of Mendelian Heredity", published by Morgan, Bridges, Sturtevant, and Muller in 1915.
H.J. Muller, a student of Morgan will use X rays to study chromosomes. The next major advance will come in 25 years with the establishment of molecular biology and in particular the identification of the DNA structure by Francis Crick and James Watson.
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4798) Ejnar Hertzsprung (CE 1873-1967), Danish astronomer publishes the first color versus magnitude chart of stars to be published.
This is a chart of values for the Pleiades and the Hyades.
| Potsdam, Germany |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4846) Chaim Weizmann (VITSmoN) (CE 1874-1952), Russian-British-Israeli chemist finds that the bacteria Clostricium acetobutylicum, breaks starches down into one part ethanol, three parts acetone, and six parts butanol in the course of fermenting grain. This leads to large scale production of these valuable products.
(cite original paper)
The production of butanol in a microbial fermentation was first reported by Pasteur in 1861. In 1905 Schardinger reported the production of acetone by fermentation.
Acetone was used as the colloidal solvent for nitrocellulose, which was used to manufacture cordite. Before World War 1 acetone was produced from calcium acetate, which was imported by Britain in small amounts from Germany, Austria, and the United States. With the advent of the war, most of the supplies were cut off and the limited amount available from the United States was not enough.
Between 1912 and 1914 Weizmann isolates and studies a number of bacterial cultures, one of which he called BY, which is later named Clostridium acetobutylicum. This organism had a number of unique properties including the ability to use a variety of starchy substances and to produce much better yields of butanol and acetone than did Fernbach's original culture.
Weizmann intended publishing his findings as a scientific publication, however, the outbreak of war changed this. Instead a confidential demonstration was arranged for the head of the Chemical Department of Nobel's Explosive Company. The head of the Chemical Department is impressed with the advantages of the Weizmann process and Weizmann is advised to apply for a patent, which will be issued in March 1915.
Weizmann successfully engineers production of acetone on a large scale in Great Britain. Plants are also built in India, Canada, and the United States and production of acetone, butanol and ethanol continues after the war, butanol then being the most popular product for use in auto lacquers (sealants that protect wood).
This finding initiates the microbial method into the production of industrial chemicals.
Weismann's process is an early example of the deliberate use of microorganisms for synthesizing molecules. Penicillin, vitamin B12, and other molecules will be produced by microorganisms a generation later.
(Is this the first to use of bacteria to produce molecules? Fermenting is the use of the protist yeast, but possibly the first bacteria)
(Explain why and how acetone is needed to make cordite.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4851) (Sir) Henry Hallett Dale (CE 1875-1968), English biologist identifies the compound "histamine" in animal tissues and determines that the chemical’s physiological effects, which include dilation of blood vessels and contraction of smooth muscles, are very similar to the symptoms of some allergic and anaphylactic reactions.
| (Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories) London, England |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4890) Heinrich Otto Wieland (VEEloNT) (CE 1877-1957), German chemist identifies the first known nitrogen free radicals.
Radicals, in chemistry, are group of atoms that are joined together in some particular spatial structure and that take part in most chemical reactions as a single unit. Important inorganic radicals include ammonium, NH4; carbonate, CO3 ; and chlorate, ClO3, and perchlorate, ClO4 ; cyanide, CN; hydroxide, OH; nitrate, NO3; phosphate, PO4; silicate, SiO3 (meta) or SiO4 (ortho); and sulfate, SO4.
Wieland prepares tetraphenylhydrazine from the oxidation of diphenylamine. Wieland shows that when heated in toluene, tetraphenylhydrazine dissociates into two diphenylnitrogen free radicals, characterized by the green color that they impart to the solution.
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4908) Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956), English chemist recognizes that the emission of a helium nucleus (alpha particle) reduces the initial element to a different element two less in number on the Periodic Table.
Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956), English chemist identifies the theory of isotopes, that common elements might be mixtures of non-separable elements of different atomic weight. In October, 1912, Alexander S. Russell creates a corollary rule which states that when a β-ray emission occurs the atom changes in chemical nature by moving into the family in the Periodic Table next higher in number.
Soddy writes "...It appears that chemistry has to consider cases, in direct opposition to the principle of the Periodic Law, of complete chemical identity between elements presumably of different atomic weight, and no doubt some profound general law underlies these new relationships. Apart from the case of the three emanations, for which chemical identity is necessarily a common property of the whole group, we have, in addition to the case of radiolead (210.4) and lead (207.1), which are chemically inseparable, two well-defined groups of triplets : (1) Thorium (232.4), Ionium (230.5), Radiothorium (228.4) ; (2) Mesothorium-1 (228.4), Radium (226.4), Thorium-X (224.4), in which the chemical similarity is apparently perfect. The atomic weights, estimated, for the unknown cases, by subtracting from the atomic weight of the parent substance the known number of helium atoms expelled in their formation, show a regular difference of two units between the successive members of these two groups. The first group consists of quadrivalent elements of the fourth vertical column and the second of bivalent elements of the second column of the Periodic System, and yet the atomic weight of the last member of the first, and first member of the second, group are, as far as is known, the same. The chemical identity of the members of the above two groups is almost certainly much closer than anything previously known. In the rare-earth group, elements with neighbouring atomic weights are often so closely allied that they can only be separated after the most laborious fractionation, and distinguished by the difference in their equivalents. But as the latter are always very close, the test is a very rough one in comparison with what is possible for radio-elements. Take, for example, the case of ionium and thorium. Boltwood, Keetman, and, lastly, Auer von Welsbach have all failed completely to concentrate ionium from thorium, the latter after a most exhaustive examination, in which his unrivalled knowledge of the rare-earths was supplemented by the new, powerful methods of radioactive analysis (Mit teilungen. der Radium Rommission, VI, Sitzzcngsber. K. Akad. Wiss. Wien, 1910, 119, ii, a, 1). The question naturally arises whether some of the common elements may not, in reality, be mixtures of chemically non-separable elements in constant proportions, differing step-wise by whole units in atomic weight. This would certainly account for the lack of regular relationships between the numerical values of the atomic weights. ... ".
Soddy will not apparently publicly name these non-separable elements with different atomic weight "isotopes" until later, December 3, 1913.
McCoy and Ross had reported in 1907 that Hahn’s 1905 radiothoriurm was chemically inseparable from thorium. Similarly, Boltwood, reports a similar difficulty with thorium and ionium. From crystal morphology studies, Strömholm and Svedberg in 1909 confirmed a family resemblance between such radioelements as thorium X and radium. In 1910 the chemical inseparability of mesothorium 1 and radium, reported by Marckwald, as well as Soddy’s own experimental evidence, that these two radioelements form an inseparable trio with thorium X, convince Soddy that such cases of chemical inseparability are actually chemical identities.
Soddy had stated in 1910 that "the recognition that elements of different atomic weight may possess identical chemical properties seems destined to have its most important application in the region of the inactive elements.".
Soddy will name different elements that are chemically unseparable “isotopes”, from the Greek for “same place”. In addition, Soddy indicates the positions of individual isotopes based on the explanation that the emission of an alpha particle causes the emitting element to become a new element with an atomic number decreased by two, Russell will explain that the emission of a beta particle raises the atomic number by one. Using this explanation, Soddy can place all the radioactive intermediates on the periodic table. In the process of radioactive disintegration, 40 to 50 different elements are detected, as judged by the difference in radioactive properties, and since there are only ten or twelve places at the end of the periodic table, Soddy suggests that different elements produced in the radioactive transformation are capable of occupying the same place in the periodic table. In the next few years it will be shown that isotopes are different versions of a single chemical element. The isotopes differ in mass of the nucleus and so have different radioactive characteristics, since radioactive characteristics depend on the nature of the nucleus, but isotopes have the same number of electrons and so have the same chemical properties, since chemical properties depend on the number and distribution of the electrons of the atom. There are 3 series' of atomic decay known, (one for radium, thorium, and uranium) a fourth does not naturally occur but is created in the laboratory a generation after Soddy's work. (todo: which element is the fourth series?)
In 1914 Rutherford and Andrade show that, while the beta emissions are different for Radium D and Lead, there x-ray spectrum is identical.
In 1918 Alfred Walter Stewart will define "isobares" as elements with the same atomic weight but different chemical properties. Any product due to the loss of a beta ray (which has small mass) must be an isobare of its parent substance, because, without change of mass, it moves in the periodic table and so changes its chemical properties.
(Explain how an electron emitted raises the number. Perhaps a neutron decays into a proton and electron (and neutrino) and so it moves up one element. I think this "beta decay" is an argument for neutrons being proton and electron pairs.)
(Is there some logical way to draw all the known isotopes in a periodic table, perhaps in 3 dimensions?)
(Identify exactly what kinds of properties indicate different isotope elements, intensity of alpha, etc?, kind of radiation? Perhaps the measurement of the charge in an electroscope.)
(I think that there is still doubt in my mind about electrons only determining chemical properties. Do isotopes that lose and alpha particle gain a -2 charge? Are they -2 ions?)
(State what atomic transmutation methods are known at this time: 1) bombardment with helium ions (alpha particles) 2) radioactive emission of helium ions 3) radioactive emission of an electron, later 4) neutron caused atomic fission, 5) others?.)
(One interesting aspect is that if isotopes can be identified by having different radiation spectra - doesn't this imply that there emission spectra - at least as relates to electrons (beta particles) and perhaps gamma rays (which is a light spectrum) is different? Apparently the visible spectrum, or light particle emission and absorption spectra are identical for isotopes.)
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4936) (Sir) Owen Willans Richardson (CE 1879-1959), English physicist proves that electrons are emitted from hot metal and not from the surrounding air.
In this same year Richardson proposes a mathematical equation that relates the rate of electron emission to the absolute temperature of the metal. This equation, called Richardson’s law or the Richardson-Dushman equation, becomes an important aid in electron-tube research and technology.
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4937) Francis Peyton Rous (rOS) (CE 1879-1970), US physician reports on an infectious tumor agent that 25 years later will be recognized as the first “tumor virus”, the “Rous chicken sarcoma virus”.
A chicken breeder brings Rous, at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, now Rockefeller University, a sick chicken with a tumor he wants examined. Rous mashes up the tumor and passes it through a filter that will filter out all objects larger than a virus. Rous finds that this “cell-free filtrate” fluid produces tumors in other healthy chickens, but choses not to call it a virus. Twenty five years later when virus research begins to expand this infectious agent is recognizes as the first “tumor virus”. Is perhaps a better name "tumor causing virus"?
| (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 4986) Victor Franz Hess (CE 1883-1964), Austrian-American physicist finds that electroscopes record more charge with altitude, and suggests that this is due to radiation from outer space.
Hess measures that the amount of particle radiation increases with altitude. Hess ascends in balloons up to six miles high, and uses electroscopes to measure the amount of radioactivity. Thinking that radiation mainly comes from the earth, Hess is surprised to find that the radiation is as much as 8 times greater higher in the atmosphere. Others had observed this too, but Hess is the first to suggest that the radiation comes from outer space and Millikan will name the radiation “cosmic rays”. Research of Cosmic rays will lead to the finding of the positron by Anderson and the pi-meson by Powell. Electroscopes are simple instruments in which two gold leaves or quartz fibers, which when charged with the same electric charge, repel each other, and when particle radiation ionizes the air within the electroscope the charge is carried off and the leaves or fibers slowly move closer together. From the rate of their coming together the quantity of ionization, and therefore radiation can be measured.
| Victor Franz Hess|(CE 1883-1964) |
89 YBN
[1911 AD]
| 5093) Louis Dunoyer (CE 1880 - 1963), French physicist, builds a molecular neutral particle beam.
(Find portrait)
This work leads to the origin of the preparation of thin films by thermal vaporization (like aluminum coated mirrors) and to the studies of the properties of atoms and molecules by the so-called molecular ray method.
Dunoyer writes in 1911 in Comptes Rendus (translated from French): "It is now universally accepted that gases are formed of agitated molecules in all directions, their average kinetic energy is proportional the absolute temperature, with a proportionality coefficient the design of molecular reality. The following experiment seems to me to reveal the molecular agitation in a gas in a very striking way. Take for example a cylindrical glass tube divided into three parts by two perpendicular walls to its axis, and these walls are each pierced at their center with a small hole, so as to form diaphragms. Place the tube vertically after being placed in the compartment less than a small quantity of a little volatile at body temperature regular so that we can achieve in a great vacuum tube; can be employed for example a pure alkali metal. After the vacuum as completely as possible, heat the lower compartment alone at a suitable temperature, it will be, for sodium, to 400°. The metal vaporizes and its molecules are agitated in every direction into the compartment lower, with the average speed that corresponds to the temperature 400°. Some of thempass through the the diaphragm which separates the compartment Lower middle compartment. Of these, most will hitting the walls of the compartment or the lower wall of the second diaphragm and, after a number of collisions, just fix it as a filing shimmering metal distilled. But some can pass through the deuxièmediaphragme; these are the ones mainly who had crossed the first diaphragm along a route sufficient closer to the tube axis.
In other words the two diaphragms produce a selection of the molecules that come out of the compartment enter and leave less in the upper compartment, the third that molecules whose speeds have directions included in within one or other of the two cones that are based on the contour of the two diaphragms and have their peaks, one between the two diaphragms and the other on the extension of the line joining their centers. Among these molecules, very few will meet since their speeds are almost all directed parallel and, since all foreign gas is assumed absent or at least negligible, these molecules continue their straight road with a speed whose average size is be of the order of 550m per second for sodium heated to 4OO° up they meet the tip of the tube. There they bounce, then
terminate. If an obstacle such as a glass rod, for example, or edge of a third diaphragm as in the tubes that are presented at the Academy, shall in passing those who meet him, a draw shadow on the wall by the lack of filing equipment. As lower two diaphragms define two cones of radiation, there will even darkness and gloom, just as, if we come across a screen, through two apertures, light from a surface illuminated, emitting in all directions, you get a luminous trail more intense in the central region, common to both cones, that in the peripheral region belonging only to the cone vertex inside. Experience confirms in a striking manner the appearance of the deposit metal and shadows at the upper end of the tube. Compartment means there is a depositing extremely thin this various colors vary with its thickness, which gradually increases from scratch when you are far below the diaphragm.
Among these colors, one of them is a blue that is reminiscent of the sky and which owes its origin, like him, a phenomenon of diffraction by small particles condensed. The vertical walls of the upper compartment no deposit is observed on the bottom of the tube is seen, with a very crisp, glassy deposits that matches the section by the wall of internally tangent cone to the two diaphragms, the central region, strengthened considerably and sharp enough on the first, is the part common to the two cones. The shadow cast by a glass rod cross placed in the upper compartment is a sharp absolute.
I was able to browse and to molecules (enough for many produce a shimmering deposit in minutes) rectilinear paths substantially parallel or slightly divergent in the order of twenty centimeters. There is no indication, however, it is easy to exceed this distance* . *It is the path average free path of gas molecules in statistical equilibrium at a pressure of about a few ten-thousandths of a millimeter mercury pressure above that of the residual atmosphere of foreign gases present in my tubes.".
(Might neutral particle/atom/molecule beams be used in neuron reading and writing?)
| (Faculté des Sciences de Paris - University of Paris) Paris, France |
88 YBN
[01/05/1912 AD]
| 5301) Electrophoresis (electricity used to separate particles in liquids).
Botho Schwerin, patents a method of using an "electo-osmotic" process to purify and separate finely-divided substances, for example particles in a suspension, or so-called colloidal solutions.
Swedish chemist, Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (TiSAlEuS) (CE 1902-1971), who improves on the process of electrophoresis in 1927 cites Schwerin as the first to use electrophoresis.
(Get portrait and birth-death dates.)
| Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany |
88 YBN
[03/03/1912 AD]
| 4528) Henrietta Swan Leavitt (CE 1868-1921), US astronomer finds that apparent magnetude of cepheid variable stars decreases linearly with the logarithm of their period of variation.
Leavitt extends her 1908 finding that brighter stars have slower periods from 16 to 25 variable stars and gives a simple formula to describe the brightness to period relationship. Leavitt publishes this as "Periods of 25 Variable Stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud." writing: "... Fifty-nine of the variables in the Small Magellanic Cloud were measured in 1904, using a provisional scale of magnitudes, and the periods of seventeen of them were published in H.A. 60, No. 4, Table VI. They resemble the variables found in globular clusters, diminishing slowly in brightness, remaining near minimum for the greater part of the time, and increasing very rapidly to a brief maximum. Table I gives all the periods which have been determined thus far, 25 in number, arranged in the order of their length. The first five columns contain the Harvard Number, the brightness at maximum and at minimum as read from the light curve, the epoch expressed in days following J.D. 2,410,000, and the length of the period expressed in days. The Harvard Numbers in the first column are placed in Italics, when the period has not been published hitherto. A remarkable relation between the brightness of these variables and the length of their periods will be noticed. In H.A. 60, No. 4, attention was called to the fact that the brighter variables have the longer periods, but at that time it was felt that the number was too small to warrant the drawing of general conclusions. The periods of 8 additional variables which have been determined since that time, however, conform to the same law. The relation is shown graphically in Figure 1, in which the abscissas are equal to the periods, expressed in days, and the ordinates are equal to the corresponding magnitudes at maxima and at minima. The two resulting curves, one for maxima and one for minima, are surprisingly smooth, and of remarkable form. In Figure 2, the abscissas are equal to the logarithms of the periods, and the ordinates to the corresponding magnitudes, as in Figure 1. A straight line can readily be drawn among each of the two series of points corresponding to maxima and minima, thus showing that there is a simple relation between the brightness of the variables and their periods. The logarithm of the period increases by about 0.48 for each increase of one magnitude in brightness. The residuals of the maximum and minimum of each star from the lines in Figure 2 are given in the sixth and seventh columns of Table I. It is possible that the deviations from a straight line may become smaller when an absolute scale of magnitudes is used, and they may even indicate the corrections that need to be applied to the provisional scale. It should be noticed that the average range, for bright and faint variables alike, is about 1.2 magnitudes. Since the variables are probably at nearly the same distance from the Earth, their periods are apparently associated with their actual emission of light, as determined by their mass, density, and surface brightness.
The faintness of the variables in the Magellanic Clouds seems to preclude the study of their spectra, with our present facilities. A number of brighter variables have similar light curves, as UY Cygni, and should repay careful study. The. class of spectrum ought to be determined for as many such objects as possible. It is to be hoped, also, that the parallaxes of some variables of this type may be measured. Two fundamental questions upon which light may be thrown by such inquiries are whether there are definite limits to the mass of variable stars of the cluster type, and if the spectra of such variables having long periods differ from those of variables whose periods are short.
The facts known with regard to these 25 variables suggest many other questions with regard to distribution, relations to star clusters and nebulae, differences in the forms* of the light curves, and the extreme range of the length of the periods. It is hoped that a systematic study of the light changes of all the variables, nearly two thousand in number, in the two Magellanic Clouds may soon be undertaken at this Observatory.".
By comparing the intrinsic brightness from the period of variation and comparing to the apparent brightness, the distance can be calculated. The variable stars in the Magellanic clouds are too far away to determine their distance by parallax. (perhaps Doppler). Hertzsprung will use a different method (explain which one) to (determine the distance to the variable stars in the Magellanic Cloud Galaxies). Then, once the distance (to one star in the Magellanic Clouds) was known, the distance of the other stars can be determined by using the period-luminosity curve created by Leavitt and Shapley. By comparing the true brightness as shown by the period of variation, and the apparent brightness, the distance can be calculated. The variable stars, or "Cepheids" provide the first method of determining the distance of stars over large distances, and so the scale of the map of the universe is greatly enlarged. Hubble will uncover an even more powerful method of measuring stars in the Doppler shift.
(This presumes that the period of brightness oscillation is identical for all stars and is related to their size.)
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
88 YBN
[04/20/1912 AD]
| 4918) Henry Norris Russell (CE 1877-1957), US astronomer introduces the terms "giant" and "dwarf" to describe two kinds of stars with the same spectrum but different luminosity by comparing spectral color and luminosity with parallax and in addition to mass by using eclipsing binary stars. Russel puts forward the theory that stars start as giant red stars, compress to bright blue stars, and end as small dim red stars. In addition Russell publishes the first chart which maps the visible spectrum versus the luminosity of stars now known as the Hertzsprung-Russell chart. Russell also describes as an exception the first so-called “white dwarf” star, Omicron 2 Eridani.
Russell suggests that red stars and to some extent yellow stars fall into two groups of luminosity, giants and dwarfs with no intermediate groups. Twenty years earlier, Wien had shown that red stars are cooler than yellow stars, which are in turn, cooler than blue-white stars. Russell finds that some red stars are dim, but others are quite bright. Russell concludes that bright red stars are brighter because they are larger. Russell separates red and yellow stars into giants and dwarfs. Russell can find no stars of intermediate size. Russell determines that the sun is a yellow dwarf. Russell plots the spectral class (the color of the star) against the luminosity, the stars form a diagonal line (show image) with the red dwarfs (spectral class K (and M)) at the lower right and the blue-white (spectral class O) at the upper left. The giant and supergiant stars form a horizontal line at the top. Hertzsprung had found this same phenomenon and so this chart is usually called the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram. Russell theorizes, and before him Lockyer in 1890, that a quantity of gas contracts and begins to heat up and radiate in the red at which time it is a red giant, as the star continues to contract and become hotter, it is a smaller but brighter yellow giant, the star continues to contract into a hotter and brighter blue-white star (at this point still a giant but on the main sequence). In this way the star is seen as moving from right to left on the top of the Hertzsprung-Russel diagram. After this, the star moves down the diagonal line, cooling and becoming smaller (as it sheds matter in the form of photons) becoming a yellow dwarf (this appears to be the line separating giant from dwarf), then a red dwarf and finally a black cinder. In this view our sun is towards the end of the cycle but still has billions of years to go. People such as Hans Bethe will replace this view with a different interpretation of star life cycle, but the diagonal line of stars still has importance and is referred to as the “main sequence”.
Russell's theory of stellar evolution is adapted from the theory proposed by August Ritter and modified by Norman Lockyer. Russell gives the complete account of his theory of stellar evolution in December 1913. This lecture makes his work more widely known. In this lecture Russell presents graphs plotting absolute magnitudes of stars against their spectral types (these charts are now known as Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams).
Note that Russell apparently does not publish the first image of the familiar Hertzsprung-Russell diagram until later in a May 1914 "Popular Astronomy" article.
Note that Russell apparently inaccurately states that Hertzsprung labeled these stars "Giants" and "Dwarfs", writing "The existence of these two series was first pointed out by Hertzsprung,1 who has called them by the very convenient names of "giant" and "dwarf" stars—the former being of course the brighter.". Hertzsprung will write in 1958 that "I myself never used the designations 'giants' and 'dwarfs,' as the mass does not vary in an extravagant way, as does the density.".
Russell writes: "To the student of the stars, who attempts to arrange our existing knowledge in such a manner that some light may be thrown upon the problems connected with stellar evolution, the spectral classification developed at Harvard is of vital importance.
In such investigations, we must deal, if possible, not with single instances, but with representative averages for groups of stars. But really representative averages are often much harder to obtain than might be supposed. Consider, for example, the actual brightness of the stars. We can find this only when we know the distance of the star — and out of the hundreds of thousands of stars which have been catalogued, we know the distance of barely five hundred. But even if we knew the exact distances of the 6,000 or more stars which are visible to the naked eye, we would not have a fair sample of the general run of stars. To explain how this may happen, let us suppose that there were only two kinds of stars, one equal to the sun in brightness, and the other 100 times as bright as the sun, and that these were distributed uniformly through space, in the proportion of 100 stars of the fainter kind for every one of the brighter. To be visible to the naked eye, a star of the fainter sort must lie within about 55 light-years from the sun; but all the stars of the brighter kind which lay within 550 light-years would be visible. We would therefore be searching for these stars throughout a region of space whose volume was 1,000 times greater than that to which our method of selection limited us in picking out the fainter ones, and our list of naked-eye stars would consequently contain ten stars of the brighter kind to every one of the fainter — though if we could select instead the stars contained in a given region of space, we would find the disparity to be 100 to 1 the other way.
It is therefore a fortunate circumstance that the stars whose distances have been measured have for the most part been chosen, not on account of apparent brightness, but because of relatively rapid proper-motion—which is found by experience to be a fairly good indication of actual nearness to our system. These stars, therefore, represent mainly the sun's nearer neighbors, without such an egregious discrimination in favor of stars of great actual brightness as we have seen must occur if we choose our stars by apparent brightness alone. Some traces of this discrimination will still be unavoidable, for our knowledge of the proper-motions of the fainter stars is still imperfect, and stops short at a little below the ninth magnitude.
In addition to the stars whose parallax has been directly observed, we have data for many more, which belong to clusters whose distances have been found by combining data regarding their proper-motions and radial velocities. In this case too the absence of proper-motion data (which decide whether or not a star really belongs to the cluster) prevents us from obtaining information about stars fainter than a certain limit; but otherwise our knowledge is probably fairly complete.
In the present discussion of the relation between the spectral type and the real brightness of the stars, those directly measured parallaxes have been employed which are confirmed by the work of two or more observers, and also a few results obtained by single observers whose work is known to be of high accuracy, and free from sensible systematic errors. To these have been added the members of the Hyades, the Ursa Major group, the "61 Cygni group" and the moving cluster in Scorpius discovered independently by Kapteyn, Eddington, and Benjamin Boss. The spectra of a very large number of these stars have been determined at Harvard especially for this investigation, and the writer takes pleasure in expressing his most hearty thanks to Professor Pickering and Miss Cannon for this generous and invaluable aid.
The actual brightness of the stars may best be expressed by means of their "absolute magnitudes"—i. e., the stellar magnitudes which they would appear to have if each star was brought to the standard distance of 32 light-years (corresponding to a parallax of 0".10). The absolute magnitude of the sun on this scale is about 4.7.
On plotting these absolute magnitudes against the spectral types it becomes immediately evident that most of the stars belong to a series in which the fainter members are redder than the brighter, while a few outstanding stars of each spectral class greatly exceed in brightness those belonging to this series (except for class B, all of whose stars are very bright). The existence of these two series was first pointed out by Hertzsprung, who has called them by the very convenient names of "giant" and "dwarf" stars—the former being of course the brighter.
With the large amount of material now available, especially for the dwarf stars, the results derived from the stars with directly measured parallaxes and from those in the clusters are in striking agreement, as is shown in Table I. {ULSF: see table}
In the above table, the quantity given under the heading "Absolute Magnitude" is the mean of the individual values derived from the observed magnitude and parallax of each star in the correspending group (giving half weight to a few stars of relatively uncertain parallax or spectrum)—except for the stars of spectrum B with directly measured parallaxes. In this case the parallaxes are so small that a reliable value could be obtained only by taking the mean of the observed magnitudes and parallaxes for the whole group. These stars are of much greater apparent brightness than most of those of class B, and their actual brightness may be greater than the average for the class. No similar error of sampling need be suspected in other cases, except for the faintest stars in the clusters, where it is obvious in going over the lists that only a few of the brightest stars of class Ks are above the limit of magnitude at which our catalogues of stars belonging to the clusters stop, and probable that some of the fainter stars of class K are also excluded.
With the exceptions just explained, the results of the two independent determinations from the measured parallaxes and the clusters are in remarkably good arrangement, considering the small numbers of stars in many of the groups. The absolute magnitudes of stars of the same spectral class in different clusters are in equally good agreement. The relation between absolute magnitude and spectral type appears therefore to be independent of the origin of the particular star or group of stars under consideration.
This relation seems to be very nearly linear, as is shown by the last column of Table I., which gives for each spectral type an absolute magnitude computed by the formula
Abs. Mag. = 0.5+ 2.2 (Sp.—A),
in which spectrum B is to be counted as o, A as 1, F as 2, etc. It is of interest in this connection to remember that the difference of the visual and photographic magnitudes of the stars is also nearly a linear function of the spectral type.
The individual stars of each spectral class are remarkably similar in real brightness. Excluding those for which the parallax or spectrum is considerably uncertain, there remain in all 218 stars. Of these only n, or 5 per cent. of the whole, differ more than two magnitudes in absolute brightness from the value given by the formula for the corresponding spectral class, while 150, or 69 per cent., have absolute magnitudes within one magnitude of the computed value.
The series of stars so far discussed does not however comprise all those in the heavens. Most of the stars of the first magnitude have small parallaxes, and are of great absolute brightness; and a study of proper-motions shows the same to be true of the nakedeye stars in general. It follows that there exists another series of stars, of great brightness, differing relatively little from one spectral class to another. These "giant" stars can be seen at enormous distances, and consequently form a wholly disproportionate part of the stars visible to the naked eye, as has been explained above. The illustration there given greatly understates the actual situation for the redder stars. The dwarf stars of class M, for example, are so faint that not one of them is visible to the naked eye (though one of them is the second nearest star in the heavens), and so the naked-eye stars of this class are all "giants."
Relatively few of these giant stars are near enough for reliable measures of parallax, and even for these it is safer to take the mean observed parallaxes and magnitudes of groups of stars, to diminish the effect of errors of observation. Confining ourselves as before to parallaxes determined by two or more observers, or by observers of high accuracy, the existing data may be summarized as follows. {ULSF: See table 2} The stars of class B are repeated here, since they may be regarded as belonging to either series.
Here again the stars whose parallaxes have been directly measured have been selected on account of their apparent brightness, and are probably brighter than the average of all the giant stars. Individual stars are in some cases still brighter; for example, Antares, which is clearly shown by its proper-motion and radial velocity to belong to the moving cluster in Scorpius, with a parallax of about o".o10, and hence must be fully 2,500 times as bright as the sun. Canopus and Rigel, whose parallaxes are too small to measure, are probably equally bright or brighter. Whether there are many more stars of such enormous luminosity, and, in general, whether the giant stars of a given spectral class resemble one another in brightness as closely as the dwarf stars do, cannot be determined from existing data, at least of the kind considered here.
The giant and dwarf stars are fully separated only among the spectral classes which follow the solar type in the Harvard classification. For class A the two series are intermingled, and even for class F, where the average brightness of the two differs by four magnitudes, it would be difficult to say whether a star of absolute magnitude near 1.o should be regarded as an unusually faint giant star or an unusually bright dwarf. From class G onward, the reality of the separation into two groups is unequivocally indicated by the observational data.
As a practical application of the principles just developed, we may consider the question of the distance of the Pleiades, a problem so far practically unsolved.
The spectra of the fainter stars which are known to belong to the cluster have been determined at Harvard, through the kindness of Professor Pickering and Miss Cannon. They exhibit a very conspicuous relation between apparent magnitude and spectral type, as is shown in the first four columns of Table III.
These stars evidently belong to the series of dwarf stars. The relative brightness of the different spectral classes is in good agreement with that previously found, except that the stars of class 65 in the Pleiades appear to exceed those of class A in brightness as much as those of class Bo to 63 do among the stars previously studied. {ULSF: See table 3} The fifth column in the table gives the mean absolute magnitudes previously found for stars of similar spectral type in other clusters (choosing the brighter half of those of class F, and a few of the brightest stars of class G, since it is evident that the limitation to stars above a given magnitude compels a similar choice in the Pleiades). From the differences between the observed and absolute magnitudes, we may compute the distances to which a group of stars similar to those already studied must be removed in order to appear equal in average brightness to the stars of the same spectral class in the Pleiades. The hypothetical parallaxes so obtained are given in the last column of the table. With the exception of that derived from class B, they are in extraordinary agreement. If they are treated as independent determinations of the parallax, of equal weight, the resulting mean is o."oo63 ± o".o006, corresponding to a distance of 500 light-years.
This estimate of the distance of the Pleiades depends upon the assumption that, when we find in this cluster the same relation between the relative brightness of the stars of different spectral classes that exists elsewhere, wherever the real brightness of the stars can be investigated, the absolute brightness for each spectral class is also approximately the same as elsewhere. This assumption is made decidedly probable by the fact that it undoubtedly holds true for the stars of the four clusters whose distances are known, and for more than 100 other stars not belonging to clusters, with no serious exceptions. It should however be remembered that no account has been taken of possible absorption of light in space, and that there are unusually few very faint stars in the region of the Pleiades, which has been explained as the result of partial opacity of the nebulosity surrounding the cluster. Some of this nebulosity presumably lies between us and the stars of the cluster, and cuts off a part of their light, which would make the distance computed on the assumption that there was no absorption come out too great. If such absorption exists, it should be possible to determine its amount, and allow for it.
It is of obvious interest to inquire in what other respects besides brightness the giant and dwarf stars of the same spectral class differ from one another. One line of approach is furnished by the visual binary stars. It is well known that, when the orbital elements and apparent brightness of a binary pair are given, we can find what Professor Young calls the "candle-power per ton "—more exactly, the ratio L5/M2 where L is the combined light of the pair, and M the combined mass—without knowing the parallax. The writer has recently shown2 that this principle can be extended by simple statistical methods to the stars known to be physically connected whose orbits cannot yet be computed. In this way about 350 stars have been investigated, and it is found that they fall into two series, similar in all respects to the giant and dwarf stars,— one marked by high luminosity per unit of mass, nearly the same for all spectral classes, and the other by small luminosity per unit of mass, diminishing very rapidly for the redder stars. By means of the parallactic motions of these groups of stars, an approximate estimate can be made of their distances, absolute magnitudes and masses, with results which may be summarized as follows. {ULSF: See table 4} The mean absolute magnitudes agree almost perfectly with those already derived for other groups of stars, showing that we have come again upon just the same giant and dwarf stars in still a different way. The computed masses, although subject to errors which may in some cases be as great as 50 per cent., show that the brighter stars are more massive than the fainter, but that the differences in mass are small compared with those in luminosity.
We may go farther with the aid of the information regarding stellar densities which can be obtained from the eclipsing variables, which are mostly of classes B and A. The average density of the eclipsing variables of class B is about one seventh of the Sun's density. We may therefore estimate that a typical star of the class, with seven times the sun's mass, is between three and four times the sun's diameter, and has about 15 times his superficial area. But we have already found that such a star, on the average, gives out more than 200 times as much light as the sun. Hence its surface brightness must be about 15 times as great as that of the sun. In the same way it is found that stars of class A must exceed the sun five-fold in surface intensity. On the other hand, the faint stars of classes Ks and M give off on the average about 1/10o of the sun's light, with masses exceeding half the sun's. Even if they were as dense as platinum, their surface brightness could not exceed 1/15 that of the sun.
This diminution of surface brightness with increasing redness, which has been proved to exist among the dwarf stars, is in obvious agreement with the hypothesis (now well established on spectroscopic grounds) that the principal cause of the differences between the spectral classes is to be found in differences in the effective surface temperatures of the stars; and the numerical results here obtained are in good agreement with those computed by Planck's formula from the effective temperatures derived by Wilsing and Scheiner from their study of the distribution of energy in the visible spectrum.
That the same law of diminution of the surface brightness with increasing redness holds true among the giant stars is highly probable, for giant and dwarf stars of the same spectral class are almost exactly alike in color and spectrum. If this is true, the giant stars, which are nearly equal in mass and brightness for all spectral types, must decrease very rapidly in density with increasing redness. If the relative surface brightness of classes B, G, and M is as given above, it is easy to show that the average density of the giant stars of class G must be about 1/40 of those of class B, or about 1/250 of the sun's density, and that the density of the giant stars of class M must average only about 1/15,000 of that of the sun. There is no escape from this conclusion unless we assume that the relation between spectral type and surface brightness is radically different for the giant and dwarf stars, in spite of the practical identity of the lines in their spectra and the distribution of energy in the continuous background.
The nature of the connection which class B forms between the two series is now evident. If all the stars are arranged in order of increasing density, the series begins with the giant stars of class M, runs through the giant stars to class B, and then, with still increasing density, through the dwarf stars, past those which so closely resemble the sun, to the faint red stars.
This arrangement is in striking accordance with the theoretical behavior which a mass of gas, of stellar order of magnitude, might be expected to exhibit if left to its own gravitation and radiation, at a very low initial density. While the density remains low, the ordinary "gas laws" will be very approximately obeyed, and, in accordance with Lane's law, the temperature must rise in order that the body may remain in equilibrium as its radius diminishes. At first the central temperature increases in inverse ratio to the radius, and that of the radiating layers near the surface also rises, though more slowly (because we see less deeply into the star as it becomes denser). As the density of the gas increases further, it must become more difficultly compressible than the simple gas laws indicate; and internal equilibrium can be maintained with a smaller rise of temperature after contraction. The temperature will finally reach a maximum, and the star, now very dense, will cool at last almost like a solid body, but more slowly, for contraction will still take place to some extent, and supply heat to replace much of that lost by radiation.
The highest temperature will be attained at a density for which the departures from the gas laws are already considerable, but probably long before the density becomes as great as that of water.
The density of the stars of classes B and A (which all lines of evidence show to be the hottest) is actually found to average about one fifth that of water, that is, of just the order of magnitude predicted by this theory. It appears therefore to be a good working hypothesis that the giant and dwarf stars represent different stages in stellar evolution, the former, of great brightness and low density, being stars effectively young, growing hotter and whiter; while the latter, of small brightness and high density, are relatively old stars, past their prime, and growing colder and redder. The stars of class B, and probably many of those of class A as well, are in the prime of life, and form the connecting link between the two kinds of red stars.".
In his later Popular Astronomy article in May of 1914, Russell writes in more length about his theory of star physics. Russell writes: "...But this new evidence does much more than to confirm that which we have previously considered; it proves that the distinction between the giant and dwarf stars, and the relations between their brightness and spectral types, do not arise, (primarily at least), from differences in mass. Even when reduced to equal masses, the giant stars of Class K are about 100 times as bright as the dwarf stars of similar spectrum, and for Class M the corresponding ratio is fully 1000. Stars belonging to the two series must therefore differ greatly either in surface bright- / ness or in density, if not in both.
There is good physical reason for believing that stars of similar spectrum and color-index are at least approximately similar in surface brightness, and that the surface brightness falls off rapidly with increasing redness. Indeed, if the stars radiate like black bodies, the relative surface brightness of any two stars should be obtainable by multiplying their relative color-index by a constant, (which is the ratio of the mean effective photographic wave-length to the difference of the mean effective visual and photographic wave-lengths, and lies usually between 3 and 4, its exact value depending upon the systems of visual and photographic magnitude adopted as standards). Such a variation of surface brightness with redness will evidently explain at least the greater part of the change in absolute magnitude among the dwarf stars, (as Hertzsprung and others have pointed out); but it makes the problem of the giant stars seem at first sight all the more puzzling.
The solution is however very simple. If a giant star of Class K, for example, is 100 times as bright as a dwarf star of the same mass and spectrum, and is equal to it in surface brightness, it must be of ten times the diameter, and TAu of the density of the dwarf star. If, as in Class M, the giant star is 1000 times as bright as the dwarf, it must be less than mrtav as dense as the latter. Among the giant stars in general, the diminishing surface brightness of the redder stars must be compensated for by increasing diameter, and therefore by rapidly decreasing density, (since all the stars considered have been reduced to equal mass).
But all this rests on an assumption which, though physically very probable, cannot yet be said to be proved, and its consequences play havoc with certain generally accepted ideas. We will surely be asked,— Is the assumption of the existence of stars of such low density a reasonable or probable one ? Is there any other evidence that the density of a star of Class G or K may be much less than that of the stars of Classes B and A ? Can any other evidence than that derived from the laws of radiation be produced in favor of the rapid decrease of surface brightness with increasing redness ? We can give at once one piece of evidence bearing on the last question. The twelve dwarf stars of Classes K2 to M, shown in Figure 3, have, when reduced to the Sun's mass, a mean absolute magnitude of 7.8,—three magnitudes fainter than the Sun. If of the Sun's surface brightness, they would have to be, on the average, of. one fourth its radius, and their mean density would be 64 times that of the Sufi, or 90 times that of water,—which is altogether incredible. A body of the Sun's mass and surface brightness, even if as dense as platinum, would only be two magnitudes fainter than the Sun, and the excess of faintness of these stars beyond this limit can only be reasonably ascribed to deficiency in surface brightness. For the four stars of spectra K8 and M, whose mean absolute magnitude, reduced to the Sun's mass, is 9.5, the mean surface brightness can at most be one-tenth that of the Sun. ... We may now summarize the facts which have been brought to light as follows:—
1. The differences in brightness between the stars of different spectral classes, and between the giant and dwarf stars of the same class, do not arise, (directly at least), from differences in mass. Indeed, the mean masses of the various groups of stars are extraordinarily similar.
2. The surface brightness of the stars diminishes rapidly with increasing redness, changing by about three times the difference in color-index, or rather more than one magnitude, from each class to the next.
3. The mean density of the stars of Classes B and A is a little more than one-tenth that of the Sun. The densities of the dwarf stars increase with increasing redness from this value through that of the Sun to a limit which cannot at present be exactly defined. This increase in density, together with the diminution in surface brightness, accounts for the rapid fall in luminosity with increasing redness among these stars
4. The mean densities of the giant stars diminish rapidly with increasing redness, from one-tenth that of the Sun for Class A to less than one twenty-thousandth that of the Sun for Class M. This counteracts the change in surface brightness, and explains the approximate equality in luminosity of all these stars.
5. The actual existence of stars of spectra G and K, whose densities are of the order here derived, is proved by several examples among the eclipsing variables,—all of which are far less dense than any one of the more numerous eclipsing stars of "early" spectral type, with the sole exception of Beta Lyrae.
These facts have evidently a decided bearing on the problem of stellar evolution, and I will ask your indulgence during the few minutes which remain for an outline of the theory of development to which it appears to me that they must inevitably lead. Of all the propositions, more or less debatable, which may be made / regarding stellar evolution, there is probably none that would command more general acceptance than this;—that as a star grows older it contracts. Indeed, since contraction converts potential energy of gravitation into heat, which is transferred by radiation to cooler bodies, it appears from thermodynamic principles that the general trend of change must in the long run be in this direction. It is conceivable that at some particular epoch in a star's history there might be so rapid an evolution of energy, for example,—of a radio-active nature,—that it temporarily surpassed the loss by radiation, and led to an expansion against gravity; but this would be at most a passing stage in its career, and it would still be true in the long run that the order of increasing density is the order of advancing evolution,
If now we arrange the stars which we have been studying in such an order, we must begin with the giant stars of Class M, follow the series of giant stars, in the reverse order from that in which the spectra are usually placed, up to A and B, and then, with density still increasing, though at a slower rate, proceed down the series of dwarf stars, in the usual order of the spectral classes, past the Sun, to those red stars, (again of Class M), which are the faintest at present known. There can be no doubt at all that this is the order of increasing density; if it is also the order of advancing age, we are led at once back to Lockyer's hypothesis that a star is hottest near the middle of its history, and that the redder stars fall into two groups, one of rising and the other of falling temperature *. The giant stars then represent successive stages in the heating up of a body, and must be more primitive the redder they are; the dwarf stars represent successive stages in its later cooling, and the reddest of these are the farthest advanced. We have no longer two separate series to deal with, but, a single one, beginning and ending with Class M, and with Class B in the middle,—all the intervening classes being represented, in inverse order, in each half of the sequence.
The great majority of the stars visible to the naked eye, except perhaps in Class F, are giants; hence for most of these stars the order of evolution is the reverse of that now generally assumed, and the terms "early" and "late" applied to the corresponding spectral types are actually misleading.
This is a revolutionary conclusion; but, so far as I can.see, we are simply shut up to it with no reasonable escape. If stars of the type of Capella, Gamma Andromedae, and Antares represent later stages of development of bodies such as Delta Orionis, Alpha Virginis, and Algol, we must admit that, as they grew older and lost energy, they have expanded, in the teeth of gravitation, to many times their original diameters, and have diminished many hundred—or even thousand—fold in density. For the same reason, we cannot regard the giant stars of Class K as later stages of those of Class G, or those of Class M as later stages of either of the others, unless we are ready to admit that they have expanded against gravity in a similar fashion. We may of course take refuge in the belief that the giant stars of the various spectral classes have no genetic relations with one another,—that no one class among them represents any stage in the evolution of stars like any of the others,—but this is to deny the possibility of forming any general scheme of evolution at all.
We might be driven to some such counsel of despair if the scheme suggested by the observed facts should prove physically impossible; but, as a matter of fact, it is in conspicuous agreement with the conclusions which may be reached directly from elementary and very probable physical considerations.
There can be very little doubt that the stars, in general, are masses of gas, and that the great majority of them, at least, are at any given moment very approximately in stable internal equilibrium under the influence of their own gravitation, and very nearly in a steady state as regards the production and radiation of heat, but are slowly contracting on account of their loss of energy. Much has been written upon the behavior of such a mass of gas, by Lane, Ritter, and several later investigators, * and many of their conclusions are well established and well known. So long as the density of the gaseous mass remains so low that the ordinary "gas laws" represent its behavior with tolerable accuracy, and so long as it remains built upon the same model, (i.e., so long as the density and temperature at geometrically homologous points vary proportionally to the central density or temperature), the central temperature, (and hence that at any series of homologous points), will vary inversely as the radius. This is often called Lane's Law, If after the contraction the star is built only approximately on the same model as before, this law will be approximately, but not exactly true.
The temperature of the layers from which the bulk of the emitted radiation comes will also rise as the star contracts, but more slowly, since the increase in density will make the gas effectively opaque in a layer whose thickness is an ever-decreasing fraction of the radius. The temperature of the outer nearly transparent gases, in which the line absorption takes place, will be determined almost entirely by the energy density of the flux of radiation through them from the layers below,—that is, by the "black-body" temperature corresponding to this radiation as observed at a distance.
As the gaseous mass slowly loses energy and contracts, its effective temperature will rise, its light will grow whiter, and its surface brightness increase, while corresponding modifications will occur in the line absorption in its spectrum. Meanwhile its diameter and surface will diminish, and this will at least partially counteract the influence of the increased surface brightness, and may even overbalance it. It cannot therefore be stated, without further knowledge, in which direction the whole amount of light emitted by the body will change.
This process will go on until the gas reaches such a density that the departures of its behavior from the simple laws Which hold true for a perfect gas become important. Such a density will be first reached at the center of the mass. At the high temperatures with which we are dealing, the principal departure from the simple gas laws will be that the gas becomes more difficultly compressible, so that a smaller rise in temperature than that demanded by the elementary theory will suffice to preserve equilibrium after further contraction. The rise in temperature will therefore slacken, and finally cease, first at the center, and later in the outer layers. Further contraction will only be possible if accompanied by a fall of temperature, and the heat expended in warming the mass during the earlier stages will now be gradually transmitted to the surface, and liberated by radiation, along with that generated by the contraction. During this stage, the behavior of the mass will resemble roughly that of a cooling solid body, though the rate of decrease of temperature will be far slower. The diameter and surface brightness will now both diminish, and the luminosity of the mass will fall off very rapidly as its light grows redder. It will always be much less than the luminosity of the body when it reached the same temperature while growing hotter, on account of the contraction which has taken place in the interval; and this difference of luminosity will be greater the lower the temperature selected for the comparison. Sooner or later the mass must liquefy, and then solidify, (if of composition similar to the stellar atmospheres), and at the end it will be cold and dark; but these changes will not begin, except perhaps for a few minor constituents of very high boiling point, until the surface temperature has fallen far below that of the stars of Class M, (about 3000° C).
The "critical density" at which the rise of temperature will cease can only be roughly estimated. It must certainly be much greater than that of ordinary air, and, (at least for substances of moderate molecular weight), considerably less than that of water. Lord Kelvin.* a few years ago, expressed his agreement with a statement of Professor Perry that "speculation on this basis of perfectly gaseous stuff ought to cease when the density of the gas at the center of the star approaches one-tenth of the density of ordinary water in the laboratory."
It is clear from the context that this refers rather to the beginning of sensible departures from Lane's Law than to the actual attainment of the maximum temperature, which would come later; and it seems probable, from the considerations already mentioned, that the maximum temperature of the surface would be attained at a somewhat higher density than the maximum central temperature.
The resemblance between the characteristics that might thus be theoretically anticipated in a mass of gas of stellar dimensions, during the course of its contraction, and the actual characteristics of the series of giant and dwarf stars of the various spectral classes is so close that it might fairly be described as identity. The compensating influences of variations in density and surface brightness, which keep all the giant stars nearly equal in luminosity, the rapid fall of brightness among the dwarf stars, and the ever increasing difference between the two classes, with Increasing redness, are all just what might be expected. More striking still is the entire agreement between the actual densities of the stars of the various sorts and those estimated for bodies in the different stages of development, on the basis of the general properties of gaseous matter, The densities found observationally for the giant " stars of Classes G to M are such that Lane's Law must apply to them and they must grow hotter if they contract; that of the Sun, (a typical dwarf star), is so high that the reverse must almost certainly be true; and the mean density of the stars of Classes B and A (about one-ninth that of the Sun, or one-sixth that of water) is just of the order of magnitude at which a contracting mass of gas might be expected to reach its highest surface temperature.
We may carry our reasoning farther. Another deduction from the elementary theory (as easily proved as Lane's Law, but less generally known) is that, in two masses of perfect gas, similarly constituted, and of equal radius, the temperatures at homologous points are directly proportional to their masses. As in the previous case, the effective surface temperature of the more massive body will be the greater, though to a less degree than the central temperature. A large mass of gas will therefore arrive at a higher maximum temperature, upon reaching its critical density, than a small one. The highest temperatures will be attained only by the most massive bodies, and, all through their career, these will reach any given temperature at a lower density, on the ascent, and return to it at a higher density, on the descending scale, than a less massive body. They will therefore be of much greater luminosity, for the same temperature, than bodies of small mass, if both are rising toward their maximum temperatures. On the descending side, the difference will be less conspicuous. Bodies of very small mass will reach only a low temperature at maximum, which may not be sufficient to enable them to shine at all.
All this again is in excellent agreement with the observed facts. The hottest stars,—those of Class B,—are, on the average, decidedly more massive than those of any other spectral type. On the present theory, this is no mere chance, but the large masses are the necessary condition,—one might almost say the cause,—of the attainment of unusually high temperature. Only these stars would pass through the whole series of the spectral classes, from M to B and back again, in the course of their evolution. Less massive bodies would not reach a higher temperature than that corresponding to a spectrum of Class A; those still less massive would not get above Class F, and so on. This steady addition of stars of smaller and smaller mass, as we proceed down the spectral series, would lower the average mass of all the stars of a given spectral class with "advancing" type, in the case of the giants as well as that of the dwarfs. This change is conspicuously shown among the dwarf stars in Table VII, and faintly indicated among the giant stars. The average masses of the giant and dwarf stars appear however to be conspicuously different, which at first sight seems inconsistent with the theory that they represent different stages in the evolution of the same masses. But the giant stars which appear in these lists have been picked out in a way that greatly favors those of high luminosity, and hence, as we have seen, those of large mass, while this is not the case among the dwarf stars. The observed differences between them are therefore in agreement with our theory, and form an additional confirmation of it.
It is now easy too to understand why there is no evidence of the existence of luminous stars of mass less than one-tenth that of the Sun. Smaller bodies presumably do not rise, even at maximum, to a temperature high enough to enable them to shine perceptibly (from the stellar standpoint) and hence we do not see them. The fact that Jupiter and Saturn are dark, though of a density comparable with that of many of the dwarf stars, confirms this view.
We may once more follow the lead of our hypothesis, into a region which, so far as I know, has been previously practically untrodden by theory. It is well known that the great majority of the stars in any given region of space are fainter than the Sun, and that there is a steady and rapid decrease in the number of stars per unit volume, with increasing luminosity. The dwarf stars, especially the fainter and redder ones, really greatly outnumber the giants, whose preponderance in our catalogues arises entirely from the egregious preference given them by the inevitable method of selection by apparent brightness.
What should we expect to find theoretically ? To get an answer, we must make one reasonable assumption,—namely, that the number of stars, in any sufficiently large region of space, which are, at the present time, in any given stage of evolution ..ill be (roughly at least) proportional to the lengths of time which it taker a star to pass through the respective stages. * While a star is growing hotter, it is large and bright, is radiating energy rapidly, and is also storing up heat in its interior; while, on account of its low density, contraction by a given percentage of its radius liberates a relatively small amount of gravitational energy. It will therefore pass through these stages with relative rapidity. Its passage through its maximum temperature will obviously be somewhat slower. During the cooling stages, its surface is relatively small, and its rate of radiation slow; it is dense, and a given percentage of contraction liberates a large amount of energy; and the great store of heat earlier accumulated in its interior is coming out again. It must therefore remain in these stages for very much longer intervals of time,— especially in the later ones, when the rate of radiation is very small.
This reproduces, in its general outlines, just what is observed,—the relative rarity of giant stars, the somewhat greater abundance of those of Class A, near the maximum of temperature, and the rapidly increasing numbers of dwarf stars of smaller and smaller brightness. The well-known scarcity of stars of Class B, per unit of volume, is further accounted for if we believe, as has been already explained, that only the most massive stars reach this stage.
In this connection we will very probably be asked, What precedes or follows Class M in the proposed evolutionary series, and why do we not see stars in still earlier or later stages ? With regard to the latter, it is obvious that dwarf stars still fainter than the faintest so far observed (which are of Class M) would, even if among our very nearest neighbors, be apparently fainter than the tenth magnitude. We cannot hope to find such stars until a systematic search has been made for very large proper-motions among very faint stars. The extreme redness of such stars would unfortunately render such a search by photographic methods less productive than in most cases.
But a giant star of Class M, a hundred times as bright as the Sun , certainly cannot spring into existence out of darkness. In its earlier stages it must have radiated a large amount of energy, though perhaps less than at present. But, as the temperature of a radiating body falls below 3000° C, the energy maximum in its spectrum moves far into the infra-red, leaving but a beggarly fraction of the whole radiation in the visible region. Stars in such stages, would therefore emit much less light than they would do later, and stand a poor chance of being seen. We know as yet very little about the color-index and temperature of stars of those varieties of Class M (Mb and Mc) which are evidently furthest along in the spectral series, and it may well be that a star usually reaches the temperature corresponding to these stages by the time that it begins to shine at all brightly. In any case, stars in these very early stages should be of small or moderate luminosity, and rare per unit of volume, and hence very few of them would be included in our catalogues. ...
I need hardly add that, if what I have said proves of interest to any of you, your frank and unsparing criticism will be the greatest service which you can render me. ...". (todo: proof read above) (Is this the origin of the theory that "gas pressure" pushes out against gravity which pulls matter in? My own view is that the Sun is mostly solid and liquid with a gas atmosphere. In my view, the Sun is a tangle of particles, and so the few that finally reach the surface escape to the vast empty space outside the star. Simply, the trapped motion of many particles with no exit provides the explanation of the constant emitting light particles in my view. This is similar to any light emitting object like a candle, or burning log, gas flame, etc. To me, the theory that a star is all gas, is somewhat obviously inaccurate - star's having extremely dense interior's which provide the fuel for the surface emission.)
In identifying the what some consider the first so-called "white-dwarf" star, Omicron 2 Eridani, Russell writes: "All the white stars, of Classes B and A, are bright, far exceeding the Sun; and all the very faint stars,—for example, those less than 1/50 as bright as the Sun,—are red, and of Classes K and M. We may make this statement more specific by saying, as Hertzsprung does, that there is a certain limit of brightness for each spectral class, below which stars of this class are very rare, if they occur at all. Our diagram shows that this limit varies by rather more than two magnitudes from class to class. The single apparent exception is the faint double companion to o2 Eridani, concerning whose parallax and brightness there can be no doubt, but whose spectrum, though apparently of Class A, is rendered very difficult of observation by the proximity of its far brighter primary.". (I myself have doubts about the white dwarf theory. These may be planets reflecting the light of the star they orbit - as may be the case for Sirius B.)
(A stars closeness effects its brightness, and I think this may possibly be a source of error, unless there are very clear and large differences, for example in stars of similar distance.)
(I think the initial amount of gas that contracts might determine the size of the star during the first phase of contraction, but this idea that a star starts as a red giant and compresses to a bright blue star is interesting and seems logical.)
(A yellow star like the sun, emits photons until losing enough matter to be a black unlit iron ball in space. Perhaps star travellers will find these massive dead star iron balls that serve as a kind of “planetary system”, perhaps for a long time the star will still glow a dull red, but eventually it will be a system emitting light only in the infrared. Infact any point in the infrared that does not emit in the visible may be one of these dead stars. Infact there may be many stars visible in the infrared. Q: Are these stars that are only visible in the infrared? Which is the closest? A quick searching only reveals infrared only stars being “born” not “dead” stars. A simple comparison of visible versus ir image would reveal ir only stars. )
(I think the idea that a supergiant is an early forming star is an interesting idea. Clearly at some mass in the accumulation the star has to start emitting enough photons to have visible frequency and wavelength, but probably the dust still accumulating would absorb much of that light. It is a mystery to me, but this Russell story is at least one theory. The other current theory is that some stars blow up towards the end of the cycle into red giants when they run out of Hydrogen fuel and the gas pressure cannot stop the gravity pressure, I have doubts about this theory, because the center is probably molten iron. it seems clear that there is basically a two stage process, the first stage where matter is condensing to form the star, where more matter is absorbed than emitted, and a second stage, where more matter, in the form of light particles, is emitted than absorbed.)
(Presumably the view is that brighter stars have a larger volume, and therefore more light per unit space is emitted than smaller stars.)
(The European Space Agency satellite “Hipparchos” will provide accurate estimates of apparent luminosity and spectral class for thousands of stars, that confirm the H-R diagram.)
(I think it is important to chart the entire spectrum, although clearly the H-R plots the peak frequency (no stars peak in intensity in the ir or uv?))
(Is it true that the view is that there are currently thought to be four different kinds of stars: those on the main sequence, giants, dwarfs, and white dwarfs? ruling out variable stars, neutron stars, and basically rejecting the existence of so-called "black-holes".)
(It's interesting to think about the implications of light as a particle and what the emission spectra actually represents. Probably much has been learned secretly but kept from the public. When we imagine that neuron reading and writing has been around for perhaps 200 or more years, and those insiders clearly have known about the material and particle nature of all matter including light, but have been bizarrely and selfishly publicly lying about this truth - we can only wonder what truths await the public about the real nature of spectral emission lines and atomic structure.)
(Determine what equation(s) are used to determine brightness with distance. Clearly this should be an inverse squared relationship that includes number of light dots recorded on the captured image. Note for example, it appears that Russell's claim of a star 100x as bright as another would be seen from within 100x the distance as opposed to only 10x the distance if an inverse distance squared relation was in use.)
(Notice that Russell uses the word "render" often, even ending his famous Popular Astronomy article with the words "render me.".)
(Russell makes a clear point that none of the dim red stars are visible to the naked eye, but yet show large parallax, while the bright red stars show no parallax. I think that people cannot rule out that red stars may be quite large, but yet still smaller than white and blue stars. Perhaps there are no red stars in-between the so-called giant and dwarf stars.)
(Note again the use of the word "discrimination" which Walter Adams also used in referring to the Harvard group.)
(todo: Were there any criticisms of this giant and dwarf theory ever published? Perhaps by one of the Pickerings?)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA. |
88 YBN
[05/04/1912 AD]
| 4939) Max Theodor Felix von Laue (lOu) (CE 1879-1960), German physicist with his two assistants W. Friedrich, P. Knipping find that crystals cause reflection (diffraction) patterns on a photographic plate.
In 1912 Laue uses a crystal of zinc sulfide to diffract X rays and records the diffraction pattern on a photographic plate. This allows a method to measure X ray wavelengths by using a crystal of known structure and measuring the amount of diffraction, which the Braggs very quickly do. Secondly, by using X rays of known wavelength, the atomic structure and size of crystals, and even of long polymer molecules can be determined. Wilkins will use X-ray diffraction to determine the structure of nucleic acids. Rosalind Franklin's use of X-ray diffraction on nucleic acids will help Watson and Crick to determine the shape of the DNA molecule. This finding supports the electromagnetic view of X rays as a transverse wave, as opposed to a longitudinal wave or beams of particles. After Roentgen had reported X-rays, people were not sure if X-rays are beams of particles like cathode rays, longitudinal waves like sound (which Roentgen believed), or supposed transverse electromagnetic waves like light. Barkla's work makes people think that X-rays are transverse waves like those of light. Barkla had shown that larger atoms produce more intense X-rays beams. The wavelength of visible light can be measured by the extent of diffraction of a monochromatic (single color/wavelength) beam by a ruled grating in which the grating marks are separated by known distances. The shorter the wavelength of the light, the closer the gratings have to be ruled (cut) in order for an accurate measurement of wavelength. But the evidence indicates that the wavelength of X-rays is much shorter than that of ordinary light, and in order to diffract the X-ray beams a grating would have to be ruled (parallel lines cut) far more closely than possible. Laue realizes that a crystal has layers of atoms that are spaced just as regularly as a grating but far closer than a grating can be ruled. However the angles of diffraction from crystals will depend on the structure of the crystal and that adds complexity into the process. Laue uses a crystal of zinc sulfide and finds that the diffraction pattern from the X-ray beams is recorded on a photographic plate.
This also provides experimental proof that the atomic structure of crystals is a regularly repeating arrangement.
(show image, what did it look like?)
(Can X rays be separated by a prism?)
(X-rays are now thought to be beams of photons with very high frequency.)
William Lawrence Bragg will show how this x-ray "diffraction" is actually a form of "reflection" off atomic planes in crystals, and will show that so-called diffraction patterns can be produced just from reflecting x-rays off of crystal surfaces. Bragg will show how this model of x-ray particle reflection explains the reasong the spots on the photograph become more elliptical with distance. This work leads to the ability to models in three dimensions the atomic structure of many atoms and molecules. This technique apparently only works for crystals with regular structure and does not work for many metallic compounds.
William Henry Bragg cites this find of Laue's as bringing the controversy of x-rays being corpuscular or being so-called electromagnetic light waves, to an end by being the conclusive proof of x-rays as being a form of light. I think the theory that x-particles are even smaller than light particles can't be ruled out. still have doubts, because because it seems unusual, that x-rays will pass through objects opaque to visible light.
(State how the size of the crystal is known?)
(Who first captured a spectrum photographed in the uv? in xray?)
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
88 YBN
[06/07/1912 AD]
| 4692) Charles Thomson Rees Wilson (CE 1869-1959), Scottish physicist improves the process of capturing particle tracks in a gas cloud chamber.
| (Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN
[07/01/1912 AD]
| 4861) US astronomer, Vesto Melvin Slipher (SlIFR) (CE 1875-1969) with help from Percival Lowell (CE 1855-1916), determines the rotation period of the planet Uranus by measuring the Doppler shift of the spectral lines at the edge of the disk of Uranus. Slipher calculates this as 16.8 km (10.5 miles) per second. Knowing the circumference of Neptune, the rotation period can be easily calculated as 10.8 hours. Although still the accepted figure, it is now thought that Uranus may have a much slower rotation.
Slipher also produces comparable data for Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn and showed that Venus's period is much longer than expected.
(It is important to remove the motion of Uranus relative to earth to the displacement of the spectral line.)
In the early 1900s Vesto and his brother Earl Slipher report on the spectra of all the known planets. (possibly make records for each.)
| (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
88 YBN
[07/16/1912 AD]
| 5203) (Sir) William Ramsay (raMZE) (CE 1852-1916), Scottish chemist reports evidence of electron atomic transmutation, detecting helium and neon in x-ray tubes.
In 1926 W. M. Garrett will not be able to confirm other reported claims of transmutation by electron bombardment.
(There is a shroud of secrecy over much technology, neuron reading and writing being the prime example, and so it seems very likely that a similar curtain is veiled over transmutation experiments. So this report of non-confirmation may be accurate, or there may be misinformation.)
| (University College) London, England |
88 YBN
[08/??/1912 AD]
| 4274) (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, determines that some atoms can hold different electric charges. Thomson shows that mercury, for example, can hold a variety of charges from 1 to 7 times the unit of electric charge.
(Verify that this is still accurate?)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN
[10/??/1912 AD]
| 4912) Alexander Smith Russell recognizes that beta decay (the emission of a high-speed electron) results in an atom moving up one place on the periodic table.
(todo: Get birth-death dates, and portrait)
Russell writes in a Chemical News article "The Periodic System and the Radio-Elements": "... F. Soddy in his recent book, "The Chemistry of the Radio-elements," was the first to point out that after an element had expelled an α-particles, the valency of the resultant product in many cases differed from that of the parent product by two. Thus, uranium, which is hexavalent, is transformed after expulsion of an α-particle into uranium X, which, being non-separable from thorium, has a valency of four. Again, ionium, which is tetravalent, is transformed after expulsion of an α-particle into radium, which is bivalent. Radium, again, is transformed into the emanation which, being an inert gas, has a valency of 0. Further instances may be obtained in the thorium and actinium series. There are, however, certain exceptions to this rule as stated in this form, and further it does not apply to β-ray changes. I have developed this fact pointed out by Soddy into the two following rules:-
1. Whenever an α-particle is expelled by a radio-element the group in the periodic system, to which the resultant product belongs, is either two units greater, or two units less, than that to which the parent body belongs. 2. Whenever a β-particle of no particle is expelled, with or without the accompaniment of a γ-ray, the group in the periodic system to which the resultant product belongs is one unit greater, or one unit less, than that to which the parent product belongs. ...".
(Possibly read more of paper.)
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland (verify) |
88 YBN
[11/11/1912 AD]
| 4404) Diffraction explained as particle reflection. The dispersion of light by a grating or prism into a spectrum of increasing frequencies is explained as particles of the same spacing as the grating groove at some angle of incidence, all reflecting in the same direction.
In 1823 Joseph von Fraunhofer had been the first apparently to publicly connect grating spacing with wavelength of light and to publish the equation nλ=Dsinθ.
Sir Arthur Schuster had equated spactral line wavelength to grating spacing and apparently is the first to publish the equation nλ=esinθ where e is the grating spacing (Bragg's variable "D") and θ is the angle between the normal to the grating surface and a plane of the grating groove, for transmitted diffraction and nλ=2esinθ for reflected diffraction.
(Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971), Australian-English physicist suggests that x-ray diffraction is actually reflection off the planes of the crystal by X-ray "pulses" that follow the equation nλ=2dsinθ apparently first published by Arthur Schuster, for a series of wavelengths (λ, λ/2, λ/3, ...) to relate the wavelength of the x-rays. In this equation n is an integer corresponding to the diffraction order, λ= wavelength or spacial interval of the x-ray, d= the distance between crystal planes, and θ=the angle of incidence of the x-ray to the plane the x-ray reflects off of. This equation is called "Bragg's Law".
With this theory it is clear that the crystal “manufactures” its own monochromatic X rays. The notion of reflection also explains why Laue had found that diffracted spots were circular when the photographic plate was close to the crystal, but became elliptical when the plate was more distant. Moving in a cone from the source, the X rays, once reflected, tend to converge in one plane.
In addition, Bragg suggests that ZnS should be seen as face-centered cubic, rather than as simple cubic.
(Give full paper?) In a November 11, 1912 paper, William Lawrence Bragg describes Laue's famous experiments involving x-ray interference by passing X-rays through a tiny hole in a lead sheet to make a tiny x-ray beam, which is then passed through a crystal of cubical zinc blende, to make an image of diffracted (reflected) dots on a photographic plate behind the crystal. Bragg then goes on to describe how ... "...Laue accounts for all the spots considered by means of five different wave-lengths in the incident radiation. They are λ=.0377a λ=.0563a λ=.0663a λ=.1051a λ=.143a
For instance in the example given above, where it was found that α:β:1-γ :: 1:5:1 these numbers multiplied by 2, becoming 2.10.2. Then they can be assigned to a wave-length λ/a=.037
approximately equal to the first of those given above.
However, this explanation seems unsatisfactory. Several sets of numbers h1 h2 h3 can be found giving values of λ/a approximating very closely to the five values above and yet no spot in the figure corresponds to these numbers. I think it is possible to explain the formation of the interference pattern without assuming that the incident radiation consists of merely a small number of wavelengths. The explanation which I propose, on the contrary, assumes the existence of a continuous spectrum over a wide range in the incident radiation, and the action of the crystal as a diffraction grating will be considered from a different point of view which leads to some simplification. Regard the incident light as being composed of a number of independent pulses, much as Schuster does in his treatment of the action of an ordinary line grating. When a pulse falls on the plane it is reflected. If it falls on a number of particles scattered over a plane which are capable of acting as centres of disturbances when struck by the incident pulse, the secondary waves from these will build up a wave front, exactly as if part of the pulse had been reflected from the plane, as in Huygen's construction for a reflected wave. The atoms composing the crystal may be arranged in a great many ways in systems of parallel planes, the simplest being the cleavage planes of the crystal. I propose to regard each interference maximum as due to the reflection of the pulses in the incident beam in one of these systems. Consider the crystal as divided up in this way into a set of parallel planes. A minute fraction of the energy of a pulse traversing the crystal will be reflected from each plane in succession, and the corressponding interference maximum will be produced by a train of reflected pulses. The pulses in the train follow each other at intervals of 2dcosθ, where θ is the angle of incidence of the primary rays in the plane, d is the shortest distance between successive identical planes in the crystal. Considered thus, the crystal actually 'manufactures' light of definite wave-lengths, much as, according to Schuster, a diffraction grating does. The difference in this case lies in the extremely short length of the waves. Each incident pulse produces a train of pulses and this train is resolvable into a series of wave-lengths λ, λ/2, λ/3, λ/4, etc. where λ=2dcosθ. Thought to regard the incident radiation as a series of pulses is equivalent to assuming that all wave-lengths are present in its spectrum, it is probably that the energy of the spectrum will be greater for certain wave-lengths than for others. If the curve representing the distribution of energy in the spectrum rises to a maximum for a definite λ and falls off on either side, the pulses may be supposed to have a certain average 'breadth' of the order of this wave-length. Thus us us to be expected that the intensity of the spot produced by a train of waves from a set of planes in the crystal will depend on the value of the wave-length, viz. 2dcosθ. When 2dcosθ is too small the successive pulses in the train are so close that they begin to neutralize each other and when again 2dcosθ is too large the pulses follow each other at large intervals and the train contains little energy. Thus the intensity of a spot depends on the energy in the spectrum of the incident radiation characteristic of the corresponding wave-length. Another factor may influence the intensity of the spots. Consider a beam of unit cross-section falling on the crystal. The strength of a pulse reflected from a single plane will depend on the number of atoms in that plane which conspire in reflecting the beam. When two sets of planes are compared which produce trains of equal wave-length it is to be expected that if in one set of planes twice as many atoms reflect the beam as in the other set, the corresponding spot will be more intense. In what follows I have assumed that it is reasonable to compare sets of planes in which the same number of atoms on a plane are traversed by unit cross-section of the incident beam, and it is for this reason that I have chosen the somewhat arbitrary parameters by which the planes will be defined. They lead to an easy comparison of the effective density of atoms in the planes. The effective density is the number of atoms per unit area when the plane with the atoms on it is projected on the xy axis, perpendicular to the incident light. ...".
Note that Bragg may be referring to Arthur Schuster's writing in the second edition, 1910 book "An introduction to the theory of optics". (Interesting, that if I understand this correctly, that pulses (or in the view I support, particles) that are aligned when reflecting off the various successive planes cause dots on the photo, and the frequency of these beams is related to the space between the planes (by the cosine of the angle the beam makes with the reflecting surface). So only light that contains a beam of light with an interval space at least as small as the cosine of the distance between two planes the angle of incidence will be in alignment, or strong enough to make an impression on the photo. Interesting that Schuster has a similar interpretation for light with visible frequency - and is unknown to me and probably most people.)
(Using this definition - the various frequencies in a spectrum must be caused by the view that most frequencies are available in most of the directions since light is emitted in a sphere, so then the different angle of incidences of the beams in conjunction with the space between planes (the cosine being the factor that determine interval) determines interval - a resonance occuring where the interval aligns with the spacing between the planes given the angle of incidence.)
(The order n in this equation may be also perhaps the number of reflections for a particle - this would create more and more distant reflected nodes - because only particles with a larger incidence angle would be able to reflect twice, and so the particle emerges with that larger exit angle to create node 2, 3, etc.)
In a later December 1912 article in Nature, Bragg describes using a thin piece of mica to allow a very narrow radius x-ray beam to pass through the mica. A photographic plate on the other side of the mica when developed shows two spots - one where the incident light passed through the mica, and another that was reflected off the crystal planes within the mica. Bragg also bends the piece of mica into an arc, and this can be used to bring the xray beam into a focus. This technique of focusing x-ray beams to a point may be related to neuron writing.
A month later, on December 8th, Bragg writes in Nature: "The Specular Reflection of X-rays.
It has been shown by Herr Laue and his colleagues that the diffraction patterns which they obtain with. X-rays and crystals are naturally explained by assuming the existence of very short electromagnetic waves in the radiations from an X-ray bulb, the wave length of which is of the order io-" cm. The spots of the pattern represent interference maxima of waves diffracted by the regularly arranged atoms of the crystal. Now, if this is so, these waves ought to be regularly reflected by a surface which has a sufficiently good polish, the ifregularities being small compared with the length io~" cm. Such surfaces are provided by the cleavage planes of a crystal, which represent an arrangement of the atoms of the crystal in parallel planes, and the amount by which the centres of atoms are displaced from their proper planes is presumably small compared with atomic dimensions.
In accordance with this, the spots in Laue's crystallographs can be shown to be due to partial reflection of the incident beam in sets of parallel planes in the crystal on which the atom centres may be arranged, the simplest of which are the actual cleavage planes of the crystal. This is merely another way of looking at the diffraction. This being so, it w-as suggested to me by Mr. C. T. R. Wilson that crystals with very distinct cleavage planes, such as mica, might possibly show strong specular reflection of the rays. On trying the experiment it was found that this was so. A narrow pencil of X-rays, obtained by means of a series of stops, was allowed to fall at an angle of incidence of 8o° on a slip of mica about one millimetre thick mounted on thin aluminium. A photographic plate set behind the mica slip showed, when developed, a well-marked reflected spot, as well as one formed by the incident rays traversing the mica and aluminium.
Variation of the angle of incidence and of the distance of plate from mica left no doubt that the laws of reflection were obeyed. Only a few minutes' exposure to a small X-ray bulb sufficed to show the effect, whereas Friedrich and Knipping found it necessary to give an exposure of many hours to the plate, using a large water-cooled bulb, in order to obtain the transmitted interference pattern. By bending the mica into an arc, the reflected rays can be brought to a line focus.
In all cases the photographic plate was shielded by a double envelope of black paper, and in one case with aluminium one millimetre thick. This last cut off the reflected rays considerably. Slips of mica one-tenth of a millimetre thick give as strong a reflection as an infinite thickness, yet the effect is almost certainly not a surface one. Experiments are being made to find the critical thickness of mica at which the reflecting power begins to diminish as thinner plates are used. The reflection is much stronger as glancing incidence is approached."
(todo: Clear up where Bragg changes from cos to sin. In this initial paper Bragg uses cos. Note that Schuster used sin in his 1904 book, Fraunhofer uses sin.)
(This equation shows that the position of spectral lines depends on the distance to the light source, which shows that the light from more distant galaxies, given identical magnification will be have their lines more compressed with grater distance - making the calcium absorption H and K line positions appear to be red shifted. So the equation for diffraction gratings, apparently first published by Fraunhofer, is perhaps the single most important argument against the theory of an expanding universe.)
| (Cavindish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
88 YBN
[11/??/1912 AD]
| 5096) Alfred Henry Sturtevant (STRTuVoNT) (CE 1891-1970), US geneticist, describes the technique of mapping the position of genes on a chromosome by the frequency that crossing over separates the genes, and uses this technique to map six sex-linked genes on a Drosophila chromosome.
When a chromosome crosses over, the rest of the chromosome from that point on is copied to the other chromosome. Using this technique, the four chromosomes of the fruit fly will be soon completely mapped.
Sturtevant writes: "HISTORICAL The parallel between the behavior of the chromosomes in reduction and that of Mendelian factors in segregation was first pointed out by Sutton ('02) though earlier in the same year Boveri ('02) had referred to a possible connection (loc. cit., footnote 1, p. 81). In this paper and others Boveri brought forward considerable. evidence from the field of experimental embryology indicating that the chromosomes play an important r61e in development and inheritance. The first attempt at connecting any given somatic character with a definite chromosome came with ~McClung's ('02) suggestion that the accessory chromosome is a sex-determiner. Stevens ('05) and Wilson ('05) verified this by showing that in numerous forms there is a sex chromosome, present in all the eggs and in the female-producing sperm, but absent, or represented by a smaller homologue, in the maleproducing sperm. A further step was made when Morgan ('lo) showed that the factor for color in the eyes of the fly Drosophila arnpelophila follows the distribution of the sex-chromosome already found in the same species by Stevens ('08). Later, on the appearance of a sex-linked wing mutation in Drosophila, Morgan ('10 a, '11) was able to make clear a new point. By crossing white eyed, long winged flies to those with red eyes and rudimentary wings (the new sex-linked character) he obtained, in Fz, white eyed rudimentary winged flies. This could happen
only if ‘crossing over’ is possible; which means, on the assumption that both of these factors are in the sex-chromosomes, that an interchange of materials between homologous chromosomes occurs (in the female only, since the male has only one sex-chromosome). A point not noticed at this time came out later in connection with other sex-linked factors in Drosophila (Morgan ’11 d). It became evident that some of the sex-linked factors are associated, i.e., that crossing over does not occur freely between some factors, as shown by the fact that the combinations present in the F1 flies are much more frequent in Fz than are new combinations of the same characters. This means, on the chromosome view, that the chromosomes, or at least certain segments of them, are more likely to remain intact during reduction than they are to interchange rnateria1s.l On the basis of these facts Morgan (’11 c, ’ll d) has made a suggestion as to the physicaI basis of coupling. He uses Janssens’ (’09) chiasmatype hypothesis as a mechanism. As he expresses it (Morgan ’11 c ) : If the materials that represent these factors are contained in the chromosomes, and if those that ‘(couple” be near together in a linear series, then when the parental pairs (in the heterozygote) conjugate like regions will stand opposed. There is good evidence to support the view that during the strepsinema stage homologous chromosomes twist around each other, but when the chromosomes separate (split) the split is in a single plane, as maintained by Janssens. In consequence, the original materials will, for short distances, be more likely to fall on the same side of the split, while remoter regions will be as likely to fall on the same side as the last, as on the opposite side. In consequence, we find coupling in certain characters, and little or no evidence at all of coupling in other characters, the difference depending on the linear distance apart of the chromosomal materials that represent the factors. Such an explanation will account for all the many phenomena that I have observed and will explain equally, I think, the other cases so far described. The results are a simple mechanical result of the location of the materials in the chromosomes, and of the method of union of homologous chromosomes, and the proportions that result are not so much the expression of a numerical system as of the relative location of the factors in the chromosomes.
SCOPE OF THIS INVESTIGATION It would seem, if this hypothesis be correct, that the proportion of ‘cross-overs’ could be used as an index of the distance between any two factors. Then by determining the distances (in the above sense) between A and B and between B and C, one should be able to predict AC. For, if proportion of cross-overs really represents distance, AC must be approximately, either AB plus BC, or AB minus BC, and not any intermediate value. From purely mathematical considerations, however, the sum and the difference of the proportion of cross-overs between A and B and those between B and C are only limiting values for the proportion of cross-overs between A and C. By using several pairs of factors one should be able to apply this test in several cases. Furthermo re, experiments involving three or more sex-linked allelomorphic pairs together should furnish another and perhaps more crucial test of the view. The present paper is a preliminary report of the investigation of these matters. .... THE SIX FACTORS CONCERNED In this paper I shall treat of six sex-linked factors and their inter-relationships. These factors I shall discuss in the order in which they seem to be arranged. B stands for the black factor. Flies recessive with respect to it (b) have yellow body color. The factor was first described and its inheritance given by Morgan (’11 a). The white eyed fly (first described by Morgan ’10) is now known to be always recessive with respect both to C and to the next factor. 0. Flies recessive with respect to O(o) have eosin eyes. The relation between C and 0 has been explained by Morgan in a paper now in print and about to appear in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia. P. Flies with p have vermilion eyes instead of the ordinary red (Morgan '11 d). R. The normal wing is RM. The rM wing is known as miniature, the Rm as rudimentary, and the rm as rudimentary-miniature. This factor R is the one designated L by Morgan ('11 d) and Morgan and Cattell ('12). The L of Morgan's earlier paper ('11) was the next factor. M. This has been discussed above, under R. The miniature and rudimentary wings are described by Morgan ('11 a). The relative position of these factors is B, -, P, R, M. This and the next factor both affect the wings. C 0 C and 0 are placed at the same point because they are completely linked. Thousands of flies had been raised from the cross CO (red) by co (white) before it was known that there were two factors concerned. The discovery was finally made because of a mutation and not through any crossing over. It is obvious, then, that unless coupling strength be variable, the same gametic ratio must be obtained whether, in connection with other allelomorphic pairs, one uses CO (red) as against co (white), Co (eosin) against co (white), or CO (red) against Co (eosin) (the c0 combination is not known). METHOD OF CALCULATING STRENGTH OF ASSOCIATION ..... In order to illustrate the method used for calculating the gametic ratio I shall use 'the factors P and M. The cross used in this case was, long winged, vermilion-eyed female by rudimentary winged, red-eyed male. ... In the Fz generation the original combinations, red rudimentary and vermilion long, are much more frequent in the males (allowing for the low viability of rudimentary) than are the two new or cross-over combinations, red long and vermilion rudimentary. It is obvious from the analysis that no evidence of association can be found in the females, since the M present in all female-producing sperm masks m when it occurs. But the ratio of cross-overs in the gametes is given without complication by the Fz males, since the maleproducing sperm of the F1 male bore no sex-linked genes. There are in this case 349 males in the non-cross-over classes and 109 in the cross-overs. The method which has seemed most satisfactory for expressing the relative position of factors, on the theory proposed in the beginning of this paper, is as follows. The unit of ‘distance’ is taken as a portion of the chromosome of such length that, on the average, one cross-over will occur in it out of every 100 gametes formed. That is, percent of cross-overs is used as an index of distance. In the case of P and M there occurred 109 cross-overs in 405 gametes, a ratio of 26.9 in 100; 26.9, the per cent of cross-overs, is considered as the ‘distance’ between P and M.
... SUMMARY It has been found possible to arrange six sex-liked factors in Drosophila in a linear series, using the number of cross-overs per 100 cases as an index of the distance between any two factors. This scheme gives consistent results, in the main. A source of error in predicting the strength of association between untried factors is found in double crossing over. The occurrence of this phenomenon is demonstrated, and it is shown not to occur as often as would be expected from a purely mathematical point of view, but the conditions governing its frequency are as yet not worked out.
These results are explained on the basis of Morgan’s application of Janssens’ chiasmatype hypothesis to associative inheritance. They form a new argument in favor of the chromosome view of inheritance, since they strongly indicate that the factors investigated are arranged in a linear series, at least mathematically.".
(Could sex-linked be called "gender-linked" or is it actually sexually reproductive linked?)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
88 YBN
[12/12/1912 AD]
| 4816) William Weber Coblentz (CE 1873-1962), US physicist is the first to verify Planck's law using a bolometer.
(read relevant text)
| (National Bureau of Standards) Washington D.C., USA |
88 YBN
[12/20/1912 AD]
| 4862) Vesto Melvin Slipher (SlIFR) (CE 1875-1969), US astronomer, finds Hydrogen and Helium absorption spectral lines in the light from the nebula in the Pleides. This shows that the nebulae of the Pleides is illuminated by starlight reflected off dust grains. This is an early indication of the presence of solid material in nebulae and other interstellar clouds.
Slipher states that this and the Spectrograms made of the Andromeda "nebula" imply that the Andromeda "nebula" may be clouded by fragmentary matter which shines by light supplied by the central sun.
| (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4298) John Jacob Abel (CE 1857-1938), US biochemist is the first to work on an artificial kidney, and produces an artificial kidney that is useful in laboratory work.
Abel suggests in 1912 that an "artificial kidney" might be used in the removal and study of diffusible substances in the blood. Abel has an apparatus of coiled collodion tubes surrounded by a saline solution devised in which arterial blood is sent through these tubes and then returned to the experimental animal’s vein. Using this technique, Abel succeeds in demonstrating the existence of free amino acids for the first time from blood in 1914.
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4454) German physicist, Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (PoseN) (CE 1865-1947) show that in sufficiently strong magnetic fields, all the Zeeman spectral splitting patterns transform themselves into the unexpected "normal" pattern. This is called the PaschenBack effect.
In 1899 Thomas Preston had presented evidence that the magnetic splitting of spectral lines (Zeeman effect) is characteristic for the series to which they belong, and in 1900 Runge and Paschen begin an investigation of Preston’s rule.
Runge and Paschen find a large number of apparent exceptions to Preston’s rule. In the simplest case those where very narrow doublet or triplet line groups show the "normal" splitting pattern characteristic of a single line rather than the anticipated superposition of the "anomalous" splittings of the individual components of the group. Paschen, investigates this with his student Ernst Back, and basing himself upon Ritz’s conception of a spectral line as the combination of two independently subsisting terms, shows in 1912 that in sufficiently strong magnetic fields—i.e.; fields strong enough for the magnetic splitting to be large compared with the separation of the components of the line group—all the splitting patterns transform themselves into the "normal" pattern. This "PaschenBack effect" is immediately recognized as a potential clue to determining atomic structure and the mechanism of emission of spectral lines.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4495) Charles Fabry (FoBrE) (CE 1867-1945), French physicist with Henri Buisson verify the Doppler-broadening of emission lines predicted by the kinetic theory of gases for helium, neon, and krypton. Michelson had verified this effect for metallic vapors at low pressure.
(make more clear - explain effect)
| (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4697) Fritz Pregl (PrAGL) (CE 1869-1930), Austrian chemist develops a technique which enables him to make reliable measurements of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and sulfur with only 5–13 mg of starting material.
In 1913 Pregl will determine the elements of some functional groups of carbon-based (organic) molecules using only 3 milligrams. Later microchemists will extend this to samples of only a few tenths of a milligram in mass. Pregl works with a person skilled in glass blowing to create new tiny equipment.
| (University of Innsbruck) Innsbruck, Austria |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4789) Lee De Forest (CE 1873-1961), US inventor cascades multiple vacuum tube amplifiers (triodes) which creates a self-regenerating electrical oscillation that, when connected to an antenna is far more powerful than existing radio transmitters.
In 1906 De Forest had invented the vacuum tube amplifier by inserting a grid element into the rectifier invented by John Ambrose Fleming in 1902.
De Forest discovers that by feeding part of the output of his triode vacuum tube back into its grid, he can cause a self-regenerating oscillation in the circuit. The signal from this circuit, when fed to an antenna system, is far more powerful and effective than that of the transmitters in use at the time and, when properly modulated, is capable of transmitting speech and music.
| (De Forest Radio Telephone Company) New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4791) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist supports the theory that X and gamma rays are corpuscular as opposed to spreading pulses in an aether medium.
Bragg writes: "...It is impossible to avoid being struck by the strong family likeness which the three types of radiation, α, β, and X or γ, rays, bear to each other. The α rays are positively charged, the β rays negatively, the X and γ rays are uninfluenced by electric and magnetic fields. But, putting aside these differences and their immediate consequences, in their laws of penetration and of scattering, in their actions on matter and the reactions which they suffer themselves, the three forms of radiation differ in degree rather than in kind. If it is assumed that the action of each form is direct and requires no assistance from any other form, it is difficult to believe at the same time that the α and β radiations are corpuscular, and that the X and γ rays are spreading pulses in the aether. The distinction in forms is too great: the X and γ rays have corpuscular properties also. I believe, however, that the assumption is wrong: and that the X and γ rays act only through the intervention of β rays. This is accomplished by means of a complete interchangeability between the X or γ ray on the one hand and the moving electron on the other, a change which may be brought about during the passage of the ray or the electron through the atom. This is one of the most striking of the general conclusions to which I have referred. It explains the great bulk of the X ray phenomena with readiness and simplicity, and, moreover, it bids fair to be useful in the still wider field of general radiation. I have tried to show that the interchange must take place with little loss of energy. Papers by R. Whiddington and C. T. R. Wilson, published so recently that I have been unable to refer to them in the book, accentuate still further the reality and importance of the conception and simplify it by showing that the transformations imply no loss of energy at all. Wilson's most recent photographs of the clouds formed on the tracks of ionising agents are far better than those which I have been able to reproduce. The principle of interchangeability also leads at once to a corpuscular hypothesis of X and γ rays. The corpuscular idea correlates the main facts in a fashion which is convenient both for thought and for experiment. I think it is just to say that the aether pulse idea has been for some time unproductive. It is only by the aid of numerous and very special assumptions that it can be made to account, even to outward seeming, for the phenomena of the scattering and the absorption of X rays and the production of the secondary radiation. It seems to me better to put it aside provisionally and to take the interchangeability of X ray and electron as a new starting point. From this, fresh opportunities of advance in knowledge open out in all directions, and after all that is the one sufficient justification for any hypothesis. To take such a step is no denial of all connectino between X rays and electro-magnetic phenomena: it is but to put down on tool and to take up another better fitted for the moment to the work in hand.".
Bragg concludes his book "Studies in radioactivity", with the chapter "The Nature of the X and γ Rays" writing: " In the preceding chapters I have tried to show that the X and γ rays must be considered to be corpuscular. I have adopted a definition of this latter term which does not bring in the word material, my purpose being to avoid limitations which might prove unnecessary and misleading. The question now arises as to whether greater precision can be given to the definition, and the rays linked more closely to other known phenomena and to proved theories. The main properties for which we have to account are the curious mutual interchangeability between the X ray and the electron, the electrical neutrality of the X ray, and the polarisation already referred to. If Marx's experiment is right, we must also explain why the X rays travel with the velocity of light, and, further, a complete theory must lead to the observed laws of scattering and absorption. The most famous theory of the X ray is that proposed by Sir George Stokes. When an electron is accelerated in any way energy is radiated from the place of acceleration through the aether in what may be called an aether pulse. Such a disturbance, if thin enough, will have the negative qualities of the X ray : it will be incapable of reflection, refraction, and polarisation as affected by crystalline structure; and diffraction effects will be beyond observation. It will have the positive property of moving with the velocity of light. If secondary X rays are assumed to be disturbances of the aether arising from accelerations of the electrons in the atoms swept over by primary X rays, then the polarisation which Barkla found is qualitatively explained, and with this goes the existence of the nicks in the curves of Figs. 69 and 70 (Barkla, Phil. Mag., February, 1911, p. 270). These last are striking agreements between theory and experiment. But beyond this point the theory does not seem to make satisfactory progress. It may well be supposed that the failure is due to the fundamental defect that it cannot explain the interchangeability of the X ray and the electron. It cannot show how the X ray carries away so large a fraction (possibly the whole) of the energy of one electron and hands it over to another. If the theory cannot express this chief result of experiment, if indeed it tends to hide and ignore it, we cannot wonder at its lack of power as a further guide to experimental research. The most striking quantitative results are connected with the handing of energy from the X ray to the electron, and back again. But apart from these the assumptions made in respect to the origin of the X rays lead to deductions concerning their power of penetrating materials (J. J. Thomson, " Conduction of Elect. through Gases," Art. 162) which are not to be reconciled with experiment except by various further assumptions of a very special nature. In other words, the experiments give no support to the theory. Much the same can be said in respect to the calculations of the scattering of the X ray, for although the calculated form of the scattering curve, Fig. 69, does fit the experimental curve in some parts, there are wide differences in others. The pulse theory gives no explanation of the dissymmetry between the rays scattered forwards and backwards, a dissymmetry which is so great in the case of the γ rays. Nor does it explain the dissymmetry in the ejection of the secondary cathode or β rays. It is sometimes said that the dissymmetry is due to the fact that the pulse has momentum to hand on, but this explanation is hopelessly insufficient until the pulse can be shown to be concentrated in a very small volume which does not spread as it travels ; that is to say, until the fundamental point of interchangeability is mastered. There is a dissymmetry in the distribution of the X rays produced by cathode rays which Sommerfeld has lately discussed on the pulse theory {Bayer, Akad. der. Wiss. January 7, 1911). He shows that when an electron is brought to a speed of 99 per cent. of that of light, the disturbance travels outwards in a sort of hollow cone of 10° vertical angle, the axis of the cone being the direction of motion of the electron. When the final speed is 90 per cent. of that of light the angle is 50°, and so on. But this is as far as ever from explaining the interchange. It is worth while referring to the point of the relative energies of the β rays and γ rays, since this may have a bearing on the choice of theories. If the γ rays are supposed to be due to pulses arising from the expulsion of β rays, the energy of the former must be less than that of the latter and in general considerably less (Sommerfeld, loc. cit., p. 24). There should also be a connection between the energies of the two which is independent of the nature of materials involved. On a corpuscular theory, the γ may equally well be looked on as the original and the β as the secondary ray; no connection between the energies of the two kinds of ray can be foretold in the absence of knowledge as to how the radiation takes place. Probably the ratio would also depend on the nature of materials in the same way that it does in any stream of γ radiation. In the case of the rays from RaC, Eve has recently found the energy of the γ rays to be about twice as great as that of the β rays (Phil. Mag., Oct., 1911, p. 551). In the early days of X ray discovery, the pulse theory had some success in furnishing qualitative explanations. But, surely, it has made very little progress since that day and instead of leading, has rather lagged behind the general advance. The reason is that it delivers no attack on the central position, which is, as I have already said, the interchangeability of electron and X ray. Clinging to its old base it is, perhaps only for the time, unable to do so. It is necessary to adopt a new base if only to avoid stagnation, and we must seek that one from which attack will be most direct. Let us forget for the time that idea of keeping touch with electromagnetic theory as we fancy it must be, which is hampering every movement. If we try to construct a theory which shall make the explanation of the interchangeability its principal feature, we are first led to conceive of a more material X ray. The electron of the β ray may be imagined as capable of attaching to itself enough positive electricity to neutralise its own charge and of doing this without appreciable addition to its mass. This is the transformation from electron to X ray : the reversed transformation occurs when the electron puts down its positive again. Neither change can occur, except during the passage of the entity through an atom. As an electron, the entity is capable of ionising and so forth, and it has little power of penetration since it easily loses energy. As an X ray, the entity, being neutral, passes through atoms freely and carries its store of energy from point to point without loss. When the X ray is scattered, the whole entity is swung off in a new direction. It is no argument against this view that the positive electron has not yet been isolated, for the possibility of detecting a charged particle depends on the ratio of its charge to its mass. We can distinguish the charged atom, and the electron with an "e/m" ratio a thousand times greater than that of the atom ; but it does not follow that we should as easily find a particle for which the ratio is much greater still. Nor is it an insuperable objection that the polarisation of the X ray does not find so ready an explanation as can be given on the pulse theory ; nor, again, that the velocity of the X ray may be equal to that of light. A hypothesis is not to be set aside because it does not supply an immediate explanation of every fact; moreover, this particular hypothesis is by no means essentially incapable of meeting either of these objections. The great bulk of the X ray phenomena are just what we should expect if we thought the electron able to neutralise its electric charge without alterations of any other of its properties or qualities. The neutral pair theory is a direct physical expression of the fact. It succeeds therefore exactly where the pulse theory fails, giving a simple and convenient means of picturing the X ray processes to the mind. To make the pulse theory a success, or perhaps it should be put, to fit the X ray into a scheme of electromagnetic radiation, it must be shown that the existence of a quantum behaving like a neutral pair can be reconciled with the laws of electromagnetism and is an extreme case of that which we know from another point of view as a wave of light. I think this has not yet been done. When and if it is accomplished the neutral pair idea will not have been thrown away, for it expresses a number of facts too simply and naturally; it will rather have been built into some greater structure. Einstein, Stark, and others have been led to postulate a light-quantum; and in the photo-electric effect they see a transference of energy from the quantum to the electron. When I first put forward the neutral pair theory I was ignorant of the work of Einstein and was guided only by the results of experimental investigation on the behaviour of the new rays. I did not think of carrying over the idea to the theory of light; on the contrary, I had hopes of proving that no connection existed between the two kinds of radiation. It still seems to me that the neutral pair theory correctly pictures the chief processes of the X ray, which the old form of spreading pulse, even the modified Thomson's pulse, are unable to do. But I should now add that we ought to search for a possible scheme of greater comprehensiveness, under which the light wave and the corpuscular X ray may appear as the extreme presentments of some general effect. To do this, the extreme views should be applied to all the phenomena of both light and X rays in order to find out how far each can be made effective. As regards the application of the electromagnetic theory—which fits light effects so well—to the phenomena of the X ray, a great deal of work has been done and we know its strength and its weakness. Very little has been done in the converse direction. The interchangeability which the neutral pair theory expresses is abundantly illustrated in the behaviour of the X ray. It will be very interesting, I think, to carry over the ideas which we learn in this part of the field to that other part where we consider the relation between electron movement and radiation through the aether. The X ray phenomena suggest to us that an electron of given energy may be converted into a light-quantum of equal energy and vice versa, that the chance of either conversion is a function of the energy and depends also on the nature of the material which is required to effect the conversion, and that, in consequence, radiation of a certain composition must exist in equilibrium with a given form of electron movement such as the thermal agitation of electrons in a metal. If investigation from this point of view proves successful, we shall I think be guided and spurred on towards some great idea which will reconcile the old antagonism between the corpuscle and the wave.".
(This may be as close as the human species has come to a return to the view of light as a material particle similar to the view that Newton held, to even the present time (2010).)
(Interesting the view expressed that the light as a corpuscle theory should be at least as explored as the light as a wave theory. For some reason, probably the secret neuron reading and writing technology, publishing the view that light is a material particle became taboo from the early 1800s on and even to the present times - but with the Michelson experiments of the late 1800s it seems obvious that a wave theory for light in an aether seems unlikely or that a corpuscular view is at least as valid.)
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4845) Schack August Steenberg Krogh (KroUG) (CE 1874-1949), Danish physiologist], finds that the capillaries contract or dilate in proportion to the tissue’s requirement for blood. So active muscles, for example, have a greater number of open capillaries than less active muscles do.
Krogh finds an increased use of the oxygen of the blood during muscular work. Since the oxygen pressure of the resting muscles is, as found by several authors, rather low, the higher use of oxygen must be explained by an increase in the diffusion surface. Krogh comes to this conclusion after he had made experiments on the diffusion capacity of animal tissues Krogh arrives at the conclusion that during muscular work new capillaries which have been closed, are opened, which enlarge the surface from which the oxygen can diffuse.
Working with frogs, which he injected with Indian ink shortly before killing, Krogh shows that in sample areas of resting muscle the number of visible (stained) capillaries is about 5 per square millimeter; in stimulated muscle, however, the number is increased to 190 per square millimeter. From this Krogh concludes that there must be a physiological mechanism to control the action of the capillaries in response to the needs of the body.
(What causes the vessels to contract?)
(Determine actual paper, and cite, and read relevant text.)
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4891) Heinrich Otto Wieland (VEEloNT) (CE 1877-1957), German chemist begins his work which will eventually show that the three known bile acids are closely related in structure, the molecular skeleton being steroid in nature, related to the well-known molecule cholesterol (which Wieland's friend Windaus is studying). In addition, Wieland details specifically how these three bile acids differ from each other. (explain how) (chronology)
The publications which begin in 1912 on the subject of bile acids culminate in 1932 in the clarification of the carbon framework of the steroids.
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4892) Heinrich Otto Wieland (VEEloNT) (CE 1877-1957), German chemist first proposes his theory of cellular respiration. Wieland will go on to publish over fifty papers from 1912 to 1943 on the topic of cellular respiration (biological oxidation). Wieland demonstrates that many biological oxidation reactions proceed through dehydrogenation.
Wieland and Warburg work out some of the details of cellular respiration. Wieland views the important reaction in cells to be dehydrogenation, the removal of hydrogen atoms from food molecules, two at a time. Warburg opposes this view claiming that the addition of oxygen is the important molecule and the digestion process is catalyzed by enzymes containing iron atoms. Both will be shown to be correct and form a beginning in the details of how the human body slowly converts food made of carbon molecules into water and carbon dioxide producing energy (heat?) in the process. The steroids, which include cholesterol, and the bile acids, will be shown to also include vitamin D, and the hormones that control sexual development and reproduction.
(explain more clearly about Wieland's views on "energy" - was this described in molecular terms, in terms of mass and/or motion, and or heat?)
| (University of Munich) Munich, Germany |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4913) Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956), English chemist publishes "Matter and Energy" which lists the contemporary form of the Periodic Table.
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4941) Alfred Lothar Wegener (VAGunR) (CE 1880-1930), German geologist proposes that the continents were originally a single mass he names "Pangaea" or “all earth”, surrounded by a continuous ocean "Panthalassa" or “all sea”.
Wegener concludes this based on measurements of longitude in the 1800s which showed that Greenland had moved a mile away from Europe over a century, that Paris and Washington were moving apart by fifteen feet each year, and that San Diego and Shanghai are approaching by six feet each year. In addition, Wegener was impressed, as had others before him, with the similarity of the coast of South America and Africa, and the fact that the bulge on of the east coast of South America neatly fits into the indentation on the west coast of Africa.
Wegener models lunar crators by dropping powdered plastic onto a smooth layer of powdered cement which makes crators that look like those on the moon of earth and support the theory that the crators on the moon are from meteors and not volcanoes. (chronology)
| Greenland |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4993) Casimir Funk (FUNK) (CE 1884-1967) Polish-US biochemist, finding the amine group (NH2) in Eijkman's antiberiberi factor, suggests the name "vital amines" or "vitamines" (“life amine”) for these similar substances needed in trace amounts, however the “e” will be dropped, to the word “vitamin” some years later when people find that not all factors are amines.
Also in 1912, Funk isolates nicotinic acid in rice polishings, Warburg and Elvehjem will show the importance of nicotinic acid in curing the disease pellagra.
Funk goes on to postulate that there are comparable ingredients whose absence from a regular diet would produce scurvy, rickets, and pellagra.
| (Lister Institute of Preventive Medicine) London, England |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 4994) Peter Joseph Wilhelm Debye (DEBI) (CE 1884-1966), Dutch-US physical chemist creates a theory for dipole moments, the effect of an electrical field on the orientation of molecules that have a positive electrical charge on one part and a negative change on another. This equation can be used to establish the existance of a permanent electric dipole in many molecules and provides a method to determine the geometry of molecules.
The unit of dipole moment is called a debye in his honor.
The polarization of the substance had been attributed entirely to the induced shift of the electrons within the molecules, giving each molecule a very small electric moment Eα in the direction of the electric field E. Debye proposes that the molecules of some substances have permanent electric doublets, or dipoles in them of moment μ which contribute to the total polarzation when an external field is applied. The molecule tends to rotate so as to orient its dipole in the field, but this orientation is reduced by the thermal motion of the molecules. Using a treatment analogous to that developed by Langevin for magnetic moments, Debye shows that the average moment per molecule in the direction of a unit field would be α + μ2 /3kT. The equation for the dielectric constant is, therefore,
ε-1/ε+1 = 4πn/3 α + μ2 /3kT
in which k is the molecular gas constant and T the absolute temperature. This equation represents the behavior of the dielectric constant satisfactorily, establishes the existence of a permanent electric dipole in many molecules, and provides a way to determine the moment of the dipole and, from this, the geometry of a molecule. For example, the planarity of the benzene molecule was confirmed by dipole moment measurements. After many years of use in molecular structure investigations, the unit in which the dipole moment is expressed will come to be called the “Debye.”.
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 5001) Friedrich Karl Rudolf Bergius (BARGEUS) (CE 1884-1949), German chemist invents a method of treating coal or heavy oil with hydrogen in the presence of catalysts, which produce lower-molecular-weight hydrocarbons (the Bergius process), like gasoline.
Bergius treats coal and heavy oil (under pressure) to produce gasoline. This technique will take 12 years to evolve from the laboratory to a practical industrial process. (Is this how gasoline is produced now?) During World War II, people in Nazi Germany will use the Bergius process to produce gasoline.
Also in 1913 Bergius creates methods to break down the molecules of wood into simpler molecules which can then undergo chemical reactions that produce alcohol and sugar. During World War II people in Nazi Germany will use this process to make edible material out of wood.
(I'm surprised that we don't see more alcohol powered vehicles.)
| (Technical University at Hannover) Hannover, Germany |
88 YBN
[1912 AD]
| 6262) First radio broadcast. Lee De Forest (CE 1873-1961) uses Fessenden's system of broadcasting voice (amplitude modulation) and his triodes to broadcast the singing of Enrico Caruso from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City. The first known regularly scheduled radio programming does not begin until the Westinghouse Company broadcasts the November 2, 1920 presidential election results from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvanis. In 1922 the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) will be formed and will roadcast its first news program on November 14, 1922.
The first known invisible particle (or radio) communication goes back to at least Thomas Edison in 1885 and perhaps even to Joe Henry in 1842.
| (Metropolitan Opera House) New York City, New York, USA |
87 YBN
[01/17/1913 AD]
| 4405) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist reports that the ionization caused by an x-ray beam of a few millimeters diameter, can be observed in an ionization chamber, can be easily seen by reflecting the beam off a piece of mica, and followed within the chamber by turning the piece of mica.
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
87 YBN
[01/27/1913 AD]
| 4272) First evidence of isotopes among the stable (nonradioactive) elements. (Sir) Joseph John Thomson (CE 1856-1940), English physicist, uses his method of deflecting positive ions with electric and magnetic fields onto a photograph to identify two isotopes of neon.
(Is this the first evidence of any isotope including radioactive isotopes?)
Thomson finds that ions of neon gas fall on two different spots, which implies that the ions are a mixture of two types, differing in charge, mass or both. Soddy had suggested the existance of isotopes, a single element that occurs in atoms with different masses. This is the first evidence that elements might also exist as isotopes. Thomson's pupil Aston will carry this research farther and establish this as fact.
Thomson summarizes his experimental results in "Further applications of positive rays to the study of chemical problems." writing: " The author described the application of positive rays to the detection of the rare gases in the atmosphere. Sir James Dewar kindly supplied two samples of gases obtained from the residues of liquid air; one sample which had been treated so as to contain the heavier gases was found on analysis to contain Xenon, Krypton, Argon, there were no lines on the photograph unaccounted for, hence we may conclude that there are no unknown heavy gases in the atmosphere in quantities comparable with the known gases. The other sample which had been heated so as to contain the lighter gases was found to contain helium and neon and in addition a new gas with the atomic weight 22, the relative brightness of the lines for this gas and for neon shows that the amount of the new gas is much smaller than that of neon. The second part of the the paper contains an investigation of a new gas of atomic weight 3 which this method of analysis had shown to be present in the tube under certain conditions. The gas gas occured sporadically in the tube from the time of the earliest experiments but its appearance could not be controlled. After a long investigation into the source of this gas it was found that it always occurred in the gases given out by metals when bombarded by cathode rays, a trace of helium was also usually found on the first bombardment. The metals used were iron, nickel, zinc, copper, lead and platinum; the gas was also given off by calcium carbide. Various experiments were described which illustrated the stability of the gas.".
(Isotopes are atoms with a constant number of protons, but variable number of neutrons.)
(If two particles have the same charge, but different mass, is the amount of deflection more for the less massive particles? Velocity of the particles also may be a factor.)
(Here the same method of producing positve rays is used to deflect positive ions of other gases.)
(I think the theory that charge is a particle collision phenomenon needs to be explored and how that might effect the explanation of these particle deflection observations. In this theory, deflection has to do with mass, and perhaps size of particle.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
87 YBN
[02/18/1913 AD]
| 4909) Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956), English chemist accounts for all atomic radioactive disintigration series'.
(Show diagrams)
In 1914 Soddy will demonstrate that lead is the final stable element into which the radioactive intermediates are converted (of all radioactive elements?). (Boltwood had suggested this 10 years before.) T. W. Richards will go on to show that lead found in rocks that contain uranium or thorium do not have the same atomic weight as lead found in nonradioactive rocks, but have the same chemical properties (explain specifically which chemical properties: appearance, valence, etc). Within five years, the existence of isotopes of nonradioactive elements will be shown by J. J. Thomson and in particular by Francis Aston.
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
87 YBN
[04/05/1913 AD]
| 5005) Niels Henrik David Bohr (CE 1885-1962), Danish physicist, theorizes that electrons move in fixed circular orbits around a stationary positive nucleus with momentum=h/2pi (h=Planck's constant), and give off or absorb fixed amounts of energy (quanta) by moving from one orbit to another.
Bohr creates the first theory to explain the spectra lines emitted by various atoms, which explains that light is emitted when an electron changes its orbit closer to the nucleus, and when light is absorbed, the electron moves into an orbit farther from the nucleus. Rutherford had adopted the Nagaoka Saturnian model of the atom, creating the "nuclear atom" theory where the atom contains a tiny massive nucleus in its center with a cloud of light electrons rotating around the center. Starting with the Balmer formula for hydrogen, Bohr tries to explain the spectrum of the hydrogen atom using Planck's quantum theory. The sprectral lines from atoms were first noticed by Fraunhofer 100 years before and put to use by Kirchhoff 50 years after that. Before Bohr there was no explanation as to why the spectral lines for each atom should be where they are. Bohr suggests that the electron does not radiate electromagnetically as it oscillates within the atom as Lorentz had suggested in 1895, in accord with Maxwell's theory that electromagnetic radiations are produced whenever an electric charge such as an electron is accelerated. Bohr maintains that light is not emitted as long as the electron stays in orbit. The electron in an orbit is not accelerating and therefore does not need to radiate. In Bohr's theory, light is produced by shifts in “energy levels”, not by oscillations or accelerations of electrons. According to Bohr, electrons can not have any orbit, but only orbits of fixed distance from the nucleus, and each orbit has a fixed amount of energy. As an electron changes from one orbit to another, the amount of energy liberated or absorbed is fixed, and this amount is made of whole quanta. In this way Planck's quantum theory is the result of the discontinuous electron positions within an atom. Bohr choses orbital energies that account for the lines in the hydrogen spectrum, showing that each line marks the absorption of quanta of energy just large enough to lift the electron from one orbit to another orbit farther from the nucleus. Likewise, the emission of a quantum of energy just large enough to drop the electron from one orbit to another orbit nearer to the nucleus. To describe the discrete energies electrons might have, Bohr makes use of Planck's constant divided by 2п. This is symbolized by ћ and is referred to as “h bar”. Bohr envisions electrons in circular orbits, but Sommerfeld will extend Bohr's theory by working out the implications of the existence of elliptical orbits too. Later orbits at various angles will be included. Bohr's theory is the first reasonably successful attempt to model the internal structure of the atom in a way which explains the spectra produced by atoms. Rayleigh, Zeeman, and Thomson are doubtful about Bohr's theory, but Jeans supports Bohr. The experiments of Franck and G. Hertz will support Bohr's theory. De Broglie will show that the electron can be viewed not only as a particle but also as a wave form. Schrödinger will create a theory where the electron is not rotating around the nucleus, but is only a “standing wave” formed around the nucleus.
So Bohr assumes that there are ‘stationary’ orbits for the electrons in which the electron do not radiate light. Bohr further assumes that such orbits occur when the electron has definite values of angular momentum, specifically values h/2π, 2h/2π, 3h/2π, etc., where h is Planck's constant. Using this idea Bohr can calculate energies E1, E2, E3, etc., for possible orbits of the electron. Bohr then theorizes that emission of light occurs when an electron moves from one orbit to a lower-energy orbit and that light absorption involves the electron changing to a higher-energy orbit. In each case the energy difference produces radiation of energy hν, where ν is the frequency. Bohr shows that using this idea, he can obtain a theoretical formula similar to the empirical formula of Johannes Balmer for a series of lines in the hydrogen spectrum.
Bohr writes in a Philosophical Magazine article entitled "On the Constitution of Atoms and Molecules": "In order to explain the results of experiments on scattering of a rays by matter Prof. Rutherford has given a theory of the structure of atoms. According to this theory, the atoms consist of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by a system of electrons kept together by attractive forces from the nucleus; the total negative charge of the electrons is equal to the positive charge of the nucleus. Further, the nucleus is assumed to be the seat of the essential part of the mass of the atom, and to have linear dimensions exceedingly small compared with the linear dimensions of the whole atom. The number of electrons in an atom is deduced to be approximately equal to half the atomic weight. Great interest is to be attributed to this atom-model; for, as Rutherford has shown, the assumption of the existence of nuclei, as those in question, seems to be necessary in order to accoun t for the results of the experiments on large angle scattering of the alpha rays. In an attempt to explain some of the properties of matter on the basis of this atom-model we meet however, with difficulties of a serious nature arising from the apparent instability of the system of electrons: difficulties purposely avoided in atom-models previously considered, for instance, in the one proposed by Sir J. J. Thomson. According to the theory of the latter the atom consists of a sphere of uniform positive electrification, inside which the electrons move in circular orbits. The principal difference between the atom-models proposed by Thomson and Rutherford consists in the circumstance {ULSF: that} the forces acting on the electrons in the atom-model of Thomson allow of certain configurations and motions of the electrons for which the system is in a stable equilibrium; such configurations, however, apparently do not exist for the second atom-model. The nature of the difference in question will perhaps be most clearly seen by noticing that among the quantities characterizing the first atom a quantity appears -- the radius of the positive sphere -- of dimensions of a length and of the same order of magnitude as the linear extension of the atom, while such a length does not appear among the quantities characterizing the second atom, viz. the charges and masses of the electrons and the positive nucleus; nor can it be determined solely by help of the latter quantities. The way of considering a problem of this kind has, however, undergone essential alterations in recent years owing to the development of the theory of the energy radiation, and the direct affirmation of the new assumptions introduced in this theory, found by experiments on very different phenomena such as specific heats, photoelectric effect, Rontgen &c. The result of the discussion of these questions seems to be a general acknowledgment of the inadequacy of the classical electrodynamics in describing the behaviour of systems of atomic size. Whatever the alteration in the laws of motion of the electrons may be, it seems necessary to introduce in the laws in question a quantity foreign to the classical electrodynamics, i. e. Planck's constant, or as it often is called the elementary quantum of action. By the introduction of this quantity the question of the stable configuration of the electrons in the atoms is essentially changed as this constant is of such dimensions and magnitude that it, together with the mass and charge of the particles, can determine a length of the order of magnitude required. This paper is an attempt to show that the application of the above ideas to Rutherford's atom-model affords a basis for a theory of the constitution of atoms. It will further be shown that from this theory we are led to a theory of the constitution of molecules. In the present first part of the paper the mechanism of the binding of electrons by a positive nucleus is discussed in relation to Planck's theory. It will be shown that it is possible from the point of view taken to account in a simple way for the law of the line spectrum of hydrogen. Further, reasons are given for a principal hypothesis on which the considerations contained in the following parts are based. I wish here to express my thanks to Prof. Rutherford his kind and encouraging interest in this work.
PART I -- BINDING OF ELECTRONS BY POSITIVE NUCLEI. § 1. General Considerations The inadequacy of the classical electrodynamics in accounting for the properties of atoms from an atom-model as Rutherford's, will appear very clearly if we consider a simple system consisting of a positively charged nucleus of very small dimensions and an electron describing closed orbits around it. For simplicity, let us assume that the mass of the electron is negligibly small in comparison with that of the nucleus, and further, that the velocity of the electron is small compared with that of light Let us at first assume that there is no energy radiation. In this case the electron will describe stationary elliptical orbits. The frequency of revolution w and the major-axis of the orbit 2a will depend on the amount of energy w which must be transferred to the system in order to remove the electron to an infinitely great distance apart from the nucleus. Denoting the charge of the electron and of the nucleus by -e and E respectively and the mass of the electron by m we thus get {ULSF: See equation} Further, it can easily be shown that the mean value of the kinetic energy of the electron taken for a whole revolution is equal to W. We see that if the value of W is not given there will be no values of w and a characteristic for the system in question. Let us now, however, take the effect of the energy radiation into account, calculated in the ordinary way from the acceleration of the electron. In this case the electron will 4 no longer describe stationary orbits. W will continuously increase, and the electron will approach the nucleus describing orbits of smaller and smaller dimensions, and with greater and greater frequency ; the electron on the average gaining in kinetic energy at the same time as the whole system loses energy. This process will go on until the dimensions of the orbit are of the same order of magnitude as the dimensions of the electron or those of the nucleus. A simple calculation shows that the energy radiated out during the process considered will be enormously great compared with that radiated out by ordinary molecular processes. It is obvious that the behaviour of such a system will be very different from that of an atomic system occurring in nature. In the first place, the actual atoms in their permanent state seem to have absolutely fixed dimensions and frequencies. Further, if we consider any molecular process, the result seems always to be that after a certain amount of energy characteristic for the systems in question is radiated out, the systems will again settle down in a stable state of equilibrium, in which the distances apart of the particles are of the same order of magnitude as before the process. Now the essential point in Planck's theory of radiation is that the energy radiation from an atomic system does not take place in the continuous way assumed in the ordin ary electrodynamics, but that it, on the contrary, takes place in distinctly separated emissions, the amount of energy radiated out from an atomic vibrator of frequency n in a single emission being equal to thn, where t is an entire number, and h is a universal constant. Returning to the simple case of an electron and a positive nucleus considered above, let us assume that the electron at the beginning of the interaction with the nucleus was at a great distance apart from the nucleus, and had no sensible velocity relative to the latter. Let us further assume that the electron after the interactio n has taken place has settled down in a stationary orbit around the nucleus. We shall, for reasons referred to later, assume that the orbit in question is circular; this assumption will, however, make no alteration in the calculations for systems containing only a single electron. Let us now assume that, during the binding of the electron, a homogeneous radiation is emitted of a frequency n, equal to half the frequency of revolution of the electron in its final orbit; then, from Planck's theory, we might expect, that the amount of energy emitted by the process considered is equal to thn, where h is Planck's constant and t an entire number. If we assume that the radiation emitted is homogeneous, the second assumption concerning the frequency of the radiation suggests itself, since the frequency of revolution of the electron at the beginning of the emission is 0. The question, however, of the rigorous validity of both assumptions, and also of the application made of Planck's theory will be more closely discussed in § 3. Putting {ULSF: See equation} we can by help of the formula(1) {ULSF: See equation} If in these expressions we give t different values we get -a series of values for W, w, and a corresponding to a series of configurations of the system. According to the above considerations, we are led to assume that these configurations will correspond to states of the system in which there is no radiation of energy states which consequently will be stationary as long as the system is not disturbed from outside. We see that the value of W' is greatest if t has its smallest value 1. This case will therefore correspond to the most stable state of the system, i. e. will correspond to the binding of the electron for the breaking up of which the greatest amount of energy is required. Putting in the above expressions t = l and E = e, and introducing the experimental values {ULSF: See equations} We see that these values are of the same order of magnitude as the linear dimensions of the atoms, the optical frequencies, and the ionization-potentials. The general importance of' Planck's theory for the discussion of the behaviour of atomic systems was originally pointed out by Einstein*. The considerations of Einstein have been developed and applied on a number of different phenomena, especially by Stark, Nernst, and Sommerfield {sic}. The agreement as to the order of magnitude between values observed for the frequencies and dimensions of the atoms, and values for these quantities calculated by considerations similar to those given above, has been the subject of much discussion. It was first pointed out by Haas*, in an attempt to explain the meaning and the value of Planck's constant on the basis of J. J. Thomson's atom-model by help of the linear dimensions and frequency of an hydrogen atom. Systems of the kind considered in this paper, in which the forces between the particles vary inversely as the square of the distance, are discussed in relation to Planck's theory by J. W. Nicholson. In a series of papers this author has shown that it seems to be possible to account for lines of hitherto unknown origin in the spectra of the stellar nebulae and that of the solar corona by assuming the presence in these bodies of certain hypothetical elements of exactly indicated constitution. The atoms of these elements are supposed to consist simply of a ring of a few electrons surrounding a positive nucleus of negligibly small dimensions. The ratios between the frequencies corresponding to the lines in question are compar ed with the ratios between the frequencies corresponding to different modes of vibration of the ring of electrons. Nicholson has obtained a relation to Planck's theory showing that the ratios between the wave-length of different sets of lines of the coronal spectrum can be accounted for with great accuracy by assuming that the ratio between the energy of the system and the frequency of rotation of the ring is equal to an entire multiple of Planck's constant. The quantity Nicholson refers to as the energy is equal to twice the quantity which we have denoted above by W. In the latest paper cited Nicholson has found it necessary to give the theory a more complicated form, still, however, representing the ratio of energy to frequency by a simple function of whole numbers. The excellent agreement between the calculated and observed values of the ratios between the wave-lengths in question seems a strong argument in favour of the validi ty of the foundation of Nicholson's calculations. Serious ...{ULSF: break in text todo: fill in} These objections are intimately connected with the problem of the homogeneity of the radiation emitted. In Nicholson's calculations the frequency of lines in a line-spectrum is identified with the frequency of vibration of a mechanical system, in a distinctly indicated state of equilibrium. As a relation from Planck's theory is used, we might expect that the radiation is sent out in quanta; but systems like those considered, in which the frequency is a function of the energy, cannot emit a finite amount of a homogeneous radiation; for, as soon as the emission of radiation is started, the energy and also the frequency of the system are altered. Further, according to the calculation of Nicholson, the systems are unstable for some modes of vibration. Apart from such objections -- which may be only formal (see p. 23) -- it must be remarked, that the theory in the form given does not seem to be able to account for the well-known laws of Miner and Rydberg connecting the frequencies of the lines in the line-spectra of the ordinary elements. It will now be attempted to show that the difficulties in question disappear if we consider the problems from the point of view taken in this paper. Before proceeding it may be useful to restate briefly the ideas characterizing the calculations on p. 5. The principal assumptions used are : (1) That the dynamical equilibrium of the systems in the stationary states can be discussed by help of the ordinary mechanics, while the passing of the systems between different stationary states cannot be treated on that basis. (2) That the latter process is followed by the emission of a homogeneous radiation, for which the relation between the frequency and the amount of energy emitted is the one given by Planck's theory. The first assumption seems to present itself ; for it is known that the ordinary mechanics cannot have an absolute validity, but will only hold in calculations of certain mean values of the motion of the electrons. On the other hand, in the calculations of the dynamical equilibrium in a stationary state in which there is no relative displacement of the particles, we need not distinguish between the actual motions and their mean values. The second assumption is in obvious contrast to the ordinary ideas of electrodynamics but appears to be necessary in order to account for experimental facts. In the calculations on page 5 we further made use 8 of the more special assumptions, viz. that the different stationary states correspond to the emission of a different number of Planck's energy-quanta, and that the frequency of the radiation emitted during the passing of the system from a state in which no energy is yet radiated out to one of the stationary states, is equal to half the frequency of revolution of the electron in the latter state. We can, however (see § 3), also arrive at the expressions (3) for the stationary states by using assumptions of somewhat different form. We shall, therefore, postpone the discussion of the special assumptions, and first show how by the help of the above principal assumptions, and of the expressions (3) for the stationary states, we can account for the line-spectrum of hydrogen. § 2. Emission of Line-spectra. Spectrum of Hydrogen. -- General evidence indicates that an atom of hydrogen consists simply of a single electron rotating round a positive nucleus of charge e*. The reformation of a hydrogen atom, when the electron has been removed to great distances away from the nucleus -- e. g. by the effect of electrical discharge in a vacuum tube -- will accordingly correspond to the binding of an electron by a positive nucleus considered on p. 5. If in (3) we put E = e, we get for the total amount of energy radiated out by the formation of one of the stationary states, {ULSF: see equation} The amount of energy emitted by the passing of the system from a state corresponding to t = t1 to one corresponding to t = t2, is consequently If {ULSF: See equation} and from this {ULSF: See equation} We see that this expression accounts for the law connecting lines in the spectrum of hydrogen. If we put t2 = 2 and let t1 vary, we get the ordinary Balmer series. If we put t2 = 3, we get the series in the ultra-red observed by Paschen and previously suspected by Ritz. If we put t2 = 1 and t2 = 4, 5, . . , we get series respectively in the extreme ultra-violet and the extreme ultra-red, which are not observed, but the existence of which may be expected. The agreement in question is quantitative as well as qualitative. Putting {ULSF: see equations}
The observed value for the factor outside the bracket in the formula (4) is
{ULSF: See equation}
The agreement between the theoretical and observed values is inside the uncertainty due to experimental errors in the constants entering in the expression for the theoretical value. We shall in § 3 return to consider the possible importance of the agreement in question. It may be remarked that the fact, that it has not been possible to observe more than 12 lines of the Balmer series in experiments with vacuum tubes, while 33 lines are observed in the spectra of some celestial bodies, is just what we should expect from the above theory. According to the equation (3) the diameter of the orbit of the electron in the different stationary states is proportional to t2. For t = 12 the diameter is equal to 1.6 x 10¯6 cm., or equal to the mean distance between the molecules in a gas at a pressure of about 7 mm. mercury; for t = 33 the diameter is equal to 1.2 x 10¯5 cm., corresponding to the mean distance of the molecules at a pressure of about 0.02 mm. mercury. According to the theory the necessary condition for the appearance of a great number of lines is therefore a very small density of the gas ; for simultaneously to obtain an inten sity sufficient for observation the space filled with the gas must be very great. If the theory is right, we may therefore never expect to be able in experiments with vacuum tubes to observe the lines corresponding to high numbers of the Balmer series of the emission spectrum of hydrogen ; it might, however, be possible to observe the lines by investigation of the absorption spectrum of this gas (see § 4). It will be observed that we in the above way do not obtain other series of lines, generally ascribed to hydrogen ; for instance, the series first observed by Pickering in the spectrum of the star z Puppis, and the set of series recently found by Fowler by experiments with vacuum tubes containing a mixture of hydrogen and helium. We shall, however, see that, by help of the above theory , we can account naturally for these series of lines if we ascribe them to helium.
A neutral atom of the latter element consists. according to Rutherford's theory, of a positive nucleus of charge 2e and two electrons. Now considering the binding of a single electron by a helium nucleus, we get, putting E = 2e in the expressions (3) on page 5, and proceeding in exactly the same way as above,
{ULSF: See equation}If we in this formula put, t2 = 1 or t2 = 2, we get series of lines in the extreme ultra-violet. If we put t2 = 3, and let t1 vary, we get a series which includes 2 of the series observed by Fowler, and denoted by him as the first and second principal series of the hydrogen spectrum. If we put t2 = 4, we get the series observed by Pickering in the spectrum of z Puppis. Every second of the lines in this series is identical with a line in the Balmer series of the hydrogen spectrum; the presence of hydrogen in the star in question may therefore account for the fact that these lines are of a greater intensity than the rest of the lines in the series . The series is also observed in the experiments of Fowler, and denoted in his paper as the Sharp series of the hydrogen spectrum. If we finally in the above formula put t2 = 5, 6, . . , we get series, the strong lines of which are to be expected in the ultra-red. The reason why the spectrum considered is not observed in ordinary helium tubes may be that in such tubes the ionization not so complete as in the star considered or in the experiments of Fowler, where a strong discharge was sent through a mixture of hydrogen and helium. The condition for the appearance of the spectrum is, according to the above theory, that helium atoms are present in a state in which they have lost both their electrons. Now we must assume the amount of energy to be used in removing the second electron from a helium atom is much greater than that to be used in removing the first. Further, it is known from experiments on positive rays, that hydrogen atoms can acquire a negative charge; therefore the presence of hydrogen in the experiments of Fowler may effect that more electrons are removed from some of the helium atoms than would be the case if only helium were present. Spectra of other substances. -- In case of systems containing more electrons we must -- in conformity with the result of experiments -- expect more complicated laws for the line-spectra those considered. ... The possibility of an emission of a radiation of such a frequency may also be inter preted from analogy with the ordinary elecrodynamics, as in electron rotating round a nucleus in an elliptical orbit will emit a radiation which according to Fourier's theorem can be resolved into homogeneous components, the frequencies of which are nw, if w is the frequency of revolution of the electron. We are thus led to assume that the interpretation of the equation (2) is not that the different stationary states correspond to an emission of different numbers of energy-quanta, but that the frequency of the energy emitted during the passing of the system from a state in which no energy is yet radiated out to one of the different stationary states, is equal to different multiples of w / 2 where w is the frequency of revolution of the electron in the state considered. From this assumption we get exactly the same expressions as before for the stationary states, and from these by help of the principal assumptions on p. 7 the same expression for the law of the hydrogen spectrum. Consequently we may regard our preliminary considerations on p. 5 only as a simple form of representing the results of the theory.
Before we leave the discussion of this question, we shall for a moment return to the question of the significance of the agreement between the observed and calculate d values of the constant entering in the expressions (4) for the Balmer series of the hydrogen spectrum. From the above consideration it will follow that, taking the starting-point in the form of the law of the hydrogen spectrum and assuming that the different lines correspond to a homogeneous radiation emitted during the passing between different stationary states, we shall arrive at exactly the same expression for the constant in question as that given by (4), if we only assume (1) that th, radiation is sent out in quanta hn and (2) that the frequency of the radiation emitted during the passing of the system between successive stationary states will coincide with the frequency of revolution of the electron in the region of slow vibrations. As all the assumptions used in this latter way of representing the theory are of what we may call a qualitative character, we are justified in expecting -- if the whole way of considering is a sound one -- an absolute agreement between the values calculated and observed for the constant in question, and not only an approximate agreement. The formula (4) may therefore be of value in the discussion of the results of experimental determinations of the constants e, m, and h.
While, there obviously can be no question of a mechanical foundation of the calculat ions given in this paper, it is, however possible to give a very simple interpretation of the result of the calculation on p. 5 by help of symbols taken from the mechanics. Denoting the angular momentum of the electron round the nucleus by M, we have immediately for a circular orbit pM = T / w where w is the frequency of revolution and T the kinetic energy of the electron; for a circular orbit we further have T = W (see p. 3) and from (2), p. 5 we consequently get {ULSF: See equations} If we therefore assume that the orbit of the electron in the stationary states is circular, the result of the calculation on p. 5 can be expressed by the simple condition : that the angular momentum of the electron round the nucleus in a stationary state of the system is equal to an entire multiple of a universal value, independent of the charge on the nucleus. The possible importance of the angular momentum in the discussion of atomic systems in relation to Planck's theory is emphasized by Nicholson.
... § 4. Absorption of Radiation In order to account for Kirchhoff's law it is necessary to introduce assumptions on the mechanism of absorption of radiation which correspond to those we have used considering the emission. Thus we must assume that a system consisting of a nucleus and in electron rotating round it under certain circumstances can absorb a radiation of a frequency equal to the frequency of the homogeneous radiation emitted during the passing of the system between different stationary states. Let us consider the radiation emitted during the passing of the system between two stationary states A1 and A2 corresponding to values for t equal to t1 and t2, t1 > t2. As the necessary condition for an emission of the radiation in question was the presence of systems in the state A1, we must assume that the necessary condition for an absorption of the radiation is the presence of systems in the state A2. These considerations seem to be in conformity with experiments on absorption in gases. In hydrogen gas at ordinary conditions for instance there is no absorption of a radiation of a frequency corresponding to the line-spectrum of this gas ; such an absorption is only observed in hydrogen gas in a luminous state. This is what we should expect according to the above. We have on p. 9 assumed that the radiation in question was emitted during the passing of the systems between stationary states corresponding to t 2. The state of the atoms in hydrogen gas at ordinary conditions should, however, correspond to t = 1; furthermore, hydrogen atoms at ordinary conditions combine into molecules, i. e. into systems in which the electrons have frequencies different from those in the atoms (see Part III.). From the circumstance that certain substances in a non-luminous state, as, for instance, sodium vapour, absorb radiation corresponding to lines in the line-spectra of the substances, we may, on the other hand, conclude that the lines in question are emitted during the passing of the system. between two states, one of which is the permanent state. How much the above considerations differ from an interpretation based on the ejected from an atom by photoelectric effect as that deduced by Einstein*, i. e. T = hn - W, where T is the kinetic energy of the electron ejected, and W the total amount of energy emitted during the original binding of the electron. The above considerations may further account for the result of some experiments of R.W. Wood** on absorption of light by sodium vapour. In these experiments, an absorption corresponding to a very great number of lines in the principal series of the sodium spectrum is observed, and' in addition a continuous absorption which begins at the head of the series and extends to the extreme ultra-violet. This is exactly what we should expect according to the analogy in question, and, as we shall see, a closer consideration of the above experiments allows us to trace the analogy still further. As mentioned on p. 9 the radii of the orbits of the electrons will for stationary states corresponding to high values for t be very great compared with ordinary atomic dimensions. This circumstance was used as an explanation of the non-appearance in experiments with vacuum-tubes of lines corresponding to the higher numbers in the Balmer series of the hydrogen spectrum. This is also in conformity with experiments on the emission spectrum of sodium ; in the principal series of the emission spectrum of this substance rather few lines are observed. ... In analogy to the assumption used in this paper that the emission of line-spectra is due to the re-formation of atoms after one or more of the lightly bound electrons are removed, we may assume that the homogeneous Röntgen radiation is emitted during the settling down of the systems after one of the firmly bound electrons escapes, e.g. by impact of cathode particles. In the next part of this paper, dealing with the constitution of atoms, we shall consider the question more closely and try to show that a calculation based on this assumption is in quantitative agreement with the results of experiments : here we shall only mention briefly a problem with which we meet in such a calculation. ... Let us now suppose that the system of n electrons rotating in a ring round a nucle us is formed in a way analogous to the one assumed for a single electron rotating round a nucleus. It will thus be assumed that the electrons, before the binding by the nucleus, were at a great distance apart from the latter and possessed no sensible velocities, and also that during the binding a homogeneous radiation is emitted. As in the case of a single electron, we have here that the total amount of energy emitted during the formation of the system is equal to the final kinetic energy of the electrons. If we now suppose that during the formation of the system the electrons at any moment are situated at equal angular intervals on the circumference of a circle with the nucleus in the centre, from analogy with the considerations on p. 5 we are here led to assume the existence of a series of stationary configurations in which the kinetic energy per electron is equal to th (w / 2), where t is an entire number, h Planck's constant, and w the frequency of revolution. The configuration in which the greatest amount of energy is emitted is, as before, the one in which t = 1. This configuration we shall assume to be the permanent state of the system if the electrons in this state are arranged in a single ring. As for the case of a single electron, we get that the angular momentum of each of the electrons is equal to h / 2p. It may be remarked that instead of considering the single electrons we might have considered the ring as an entity. This would, however, lead to the same result, for in this case the frequency of revolution w will be replaced by the frequency nw of the radiation from the whole ring calculated from the ordinary electrodynamics, and T by the total kinetic energy nT. ... According, however, to the point of view taken in this paper, the question of stabi lity for displacements of the electrons in the plane of the ring is most intimately connected with the question of the mechanism of the binding of the electrons, and like the latter cannot be treated on the basis of the ordinary dynamics. The hypothesis of which we shall make use in the following is that the stability of a ring of electrons rotating round a nucleus is secured through the above condition of the universal constancy of the angular momentum, together with the further condition that the configuration of the particles is the one by the formation of which the greatest amount of energy is emitted. As will be shown, this hypothesis is, concerning the question of stability for a displacement of the electrons perpendicular to the plane of the ring, equivalent to that used in ordinary mechanical calculations. .... Proceeding to consider systems of a more complicated constitution, we shall make use of the following theorem, which can be very simply proved :-- "In every system consisting of eletrons and positive nuclei, in which the nuclei are at rest and the electrons move in circular orbits with a velocity small compared with the velocity of light, the kinetic energy will be numerically equal to half the potential energy." By help of this theorem we get--as in the previous cases of a single electron or of a ring rotating round a nucleus-- that the total amount of energy emitted, by the formation of the systems from a configuration in which the distances apart of the particles are infinitely great and in which the particles have no velocities relative to each other, is equal to the kinetic energy of the electrons in the final configuration. In analogy with the case of a single ring we are here led to assume that correspondin g to any configuration of equilibrium a series of geometrically similar, stationary configurations of the system will exist in which the kinetic figurations of the systems will exist in which the kinetic energy of every electron is equal to the frequency of revolution multiplied by (t/2)h where t is an entire number and h Planck's constant. In any such series of stationary configurations the one corresponding to the greatest amount of energy emitted will be the one in which t for every electron is equal to 1. Considering that the ratio of kinetic energy to freqency for a particle rotating in a circular orbit is equal to p times the angular momentum round the centre of the orbit, we are therefore led to the following simple generalization of the hypotheses mentioned on pp. 15 and 22.
"In any molecular system consisting of positive nuclei and electrons in which the nuclei are at rest relative to each other and the electrons move in circular orbits, the angular momentum 25 of every electron round the centre of its orbit will in the permanent state of the system be equal to h/(2p), where h is Planck's constant". In analogy with the considerations on p. 23, we shall assume that a configuration satisfying this condition is stable if the total energy of the system is less then in any neighbouring configured satisfying the same condition of the angular momentum of the electrons. As mentioned in the introduction, the above hypothesis will be used in a following communication as a basis for a theory of the constitution of atoms and molecules. It will be shown that it leads to results which seem to be in conformity with experments on a number of different phenomena.
The foundation of the hypothesis has been sought entirely in its relation with Planck 's theory of radiation ; by help of considerations given later it will bw attempted to throw some further light on the foundation of it from another point of view.".
(TODO: verify text)
(In one view Planck's constant is where the momentum of a light particle might be given E=hf, and from there, presuming a constant velocity for light, h/3e8 would be the photon mass in standard units. TODO: Before the wave theory were there any published estimates of the mass of a light particle?)
(I doubt the finite electron shell theory, but I still have an open mind. Maybe Bohr's theory will be adapted to form a more likely theory. Clearly photons are absorbed into and emitted from atoms, and the frequencies which they are absorbed and emitted appear to be characteristic for each atom. One of the main components of this idea is determining how photons and electrons compare. How many photons are in an electron? I think it is possible that the electric force is a composite effect of gravity and many atoms, because an atom may be too small to be part of the collective effect of electricity (electricism) as we observe it. So removing the electric force from the atom, creates electrons held by gravity, clearly as material object gravity must have an influence. The masses are much less, but the spaces between are less too. One view is that force is only I doubt that there is some other fundamental force at the atomic level, but maybe ta product of particle collision. This effect involves many photons and so is not easy to model, but I can see a stream of photons collide with an atom and the rate at which they are absorbed is equal to the absorption frequencies. Atoms may emit photons when photons collide with them too. For example, atoms need to be excited, or combusted to emit photons, and that involves an additino of photons. Of course, a spark can be created mechanically with flint and other materials. For example heating some object with a flame is adding photons. Perhaps an atom can hold a certain number of photons, and at some point, one photon is too many, and so a photon is released and the new photon absorbed, or the new photon is simply reflected. It seems very likely that photons are absorbed and emitted from the nucleus too, and that electrons are in the nucleus as Soddy and others had claimed. The extra mass in the electron, if in orbit, would change the orbit, as would an electron losing the mass of a photon. In addition, photons absorbed and/or emitted from nuclear particles might change the rotation of an atom or have other effects.)
(One mystery for me is why the atom does not have a spherical distribution of valence shells, but instead appears to repeat 2 8 8 18 18 32 32, as if there is a dual nature to each shell. If a single shape, it seems like an impossible shape - to have an outer layer) have the same number of objects as an inner layer. One idea is that there are two objects, perhaps orbiting each other, and they can only stay stable if they both have the same or similar mass, and so each has layers of 1-8-32. What else can explain the dual symmetry of the periodic system?]
(Did Maxwell claim that light was emitted from an electron only when accelerated, or moving at aconstantly velocity too?)
(It seems unlikely that an electron would hold an orbit without accelerating. For example, the planets accelerate in their motions around the Sun.)
(A light particle interpretation of Bohr's theory might be simply that when a light particle is absorbed by an electron, the electron moves to an orbit farther away from the center of mass, and when an electron emits a light particle, the electron moves closer to the center of the atom. But there is the issue of the frequency of the light particles emitted or absorbed. Does absorption or emission depend on frequency? If yes, then there are clearly many light particles being absorbed or emitted to or from an electron. So when an electron absorbs a single light particle which is part of a characteristic frequency of light particles in a beam, the electron moves to a farther orbit, and then does the frequency of light particle the electron can absorb change? Perhaps the frequency of light particles coincides with the orbit of an electron, so with each pass around the nucleus, it syncronously absorbs another photon. Although, the orbit or the electron might change significantly with the addition of each light particle, but then there might be many adjacent light particles in the light beam.)
(Does this theory presume that each light particle in a particular frequency of light emitted or absorbed is from an electron in the same atom or from different adjacent atoms?)
(Does anybody explore electron orbits that follow an inverse distance law? Each addition or emission of a photon would change the orbiting satellite's mass and therefore it's orbit. TODO: EXPERIMENT: How does reducing or adding mass to a satellite change it's orbit according to the inverse distance squared law? Since F=Gm1m2/r^2 adding mass slightly increases the force between the satellite and nucleus, and so might have the effect of enlarging the orbit, while losing mass would lower the force due to gravity).
(TODO: Is ignoring the mass (m1) of a satellite the correct method of calculating acceleration for it as in the equation Am1=Gm2/r^2 - doesn't m1 have an effect on it's acceleration around m2?)
(In addition, it seems clear that simple combustion may involve the total separation of atoms, and all subatomic particles that atoms are composed of, and so I think a more accurate theory would equate light frequency emitted with quantity of light in an atom, and rate of atoms separated. The rate of atomic separation might be the explanation for the frequency of light observed. A frequency of 10e9 photons/second might mean that 10e9 atoms are being destroyed per second. The frequency of light emitted may have to do with the rate of the light particle chain reaction in a group of atoms or molecules being separated.)
(Is DeBroglie's interpretation that an electron moves in a sine wave? the wave is made of electrons?)
(In Schrodingers view, are the energy waves sine waves?, Is a standing wave presumed to be composed of at least 1 electron? Clearly an electron is material and must follow a path in space.)
(Apparently Bohr views the frequency as being emitted in a transition - so supposedly I am thinking that this must only last for a brief time, and that the extended and continuous emission spectrum is due to many atoms emitting short bursts of light particles with a characteristic frequency. That seems unlikely to me, since emitting even a single light particle must change the orbit of an electron.)
(I kind of feel that this is a pasting together of the spectral formulas to (mass, momentum, and frequency, etc) Planck's formulas, and so that the math works, but it seems doubtful to me that this describes the actual physical process of light absorption and emission by atoms. But I have an open mind, and I think it might be possible that in a simple combustion that somehow mass is lost by electrons, in which case electrons have variable weight, and the atom is still held together. It seems more logical that atoms separate entirely into photons. I think atomic structure is still open to debate.)
| (University of Manchester) Machester, England |
87 YBN
[04/07/1913 AD]
| 4406) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist constructs the first x-ray spectrometer and with his son (Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971), apply the equation nλ=2dsinθ to try and determine wavelength (particle interval) of the x-rays (where n=where n is an integer corresponding to the order of refraction (reflection - perhaps number of reflections), λ= wavelength/interval of the x-ray, d= the distance from plane to plane, and θ=the angle of incidence of the x-ray to the plane the x-ray reflects off of). The Braggs determine atomic cube size by using D=mv, and then use this size in their equation to determine the various x-ray wave lengths (intervals) reflected into different repeating nodes of spectra just like visible light.
The Braggs determine that NaCl is face-centered cubic and not simple cubic.
In a joint paper read in April 1913, the Braggs describe the ionization spectrometer and the observed relative intensities of the different "orders" of diffracted X rays when these rays are reflected off "normal" crystal planes. William Lawrence Bragg develops this farther in June 1913. The Braggs use the equation nλ=2dsinθ to determine the wavelength (interval) of a beam of x-rays by calculating the dimensions of the elementary cube of an atom of sodium, or chlorine, both viewed to have identical structures as rock-salt is a cubic crystal. Using the equation for density D=mass*volume, the Bragg use the mass of the hydrogen atom as 1.64 x 10-24 grams, and the density of rock-salt as 2.17 to calculate a, the distance between planes of any cubic atom. The Braggs calculate this distance to be 4.45 x 10-8 and then use this value to calculate the wavelength (interval space) for an x-ray to be 0.89 x 10-8 (meters or cm?), around 8nm (or 800pm).
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, initially William Henry Bragg uses the x-ray spectrometer to investigate the spectral distribution of the X rays, relations between wavelength and Planck’s constant, the atomic weight of emitter and absorber, and so on. But very quickly he adopts his son’s interest in the inversion of the Bragg relation: using a known wavelength in order to determine d, the distances between the atomic planes, and therefore the structure, of the crystal mounted in the spectrometer. Apart from specifying general symmetry conditions, before June 1912 it had not been possible to give the actual arrangement of the constituent atoms of any crystal. Laue’s assignment of a simple cubic lattice to zinc sulfide had been corrected by William Lawrence to face-centered cubic, and W. L. Bragg went on to analyze the crystal structure of the alkali halides on the basis of "Laue diagrams" that he had made at Cambridge. The spectrometer first serves to confirm these structures and to determine the absolute values of the lattice spacings, and then is applied to more difficult cases. By the end of 1913 the Braggs had reduced the problem of crystal structure analysis to a standard procedure.
The Braggs write: "In a discussion of the Laue photographs it has been shown that they may conveniently be interpreted as due to the reflection of X-rays in such planes within the crystal as are rich in atoms. This leads at once to the attempt to use cleavage planes as mirrors, and it has been found that mica gives a reflected pencil from its cleavage plane strong enough to make a visible impression on a photographic plate in a few minutes' exposure. It has also been observed that the reflected pencil can be detected by the ionisation method. For the purpose of examining more closely the reflection of X-rays in this manner we have used an apparatus resembling a spectrometer in form, an ionisation chamber taking the place of the telescope. The collimator is replaced by a lead block pierced by a hole which can be stopped down to slits of various widths. The revolving table in the centre carries the crystal. The ionisation chamber is tubular, 15 cm. long and 5 cm. in diamet er. It can be rotated about the axis of the instrument, to which its own axis is perpendicular. It is filled with sulphur dioxide in order to increase the ionisation current: both air and methyl iodide have also been used occasionally to make sure that no special characteristics of the gas in the chamber affect the interpretation of the results. The ionisation current is measured directly. A balance method has not been used as we have not found it possible to deflect a suitable portion of the primary rays into a balance chamber. The face of the box containing the X-ray bulb is covered with a special shield of lead, 5.5 mm. thick; the general lead covering of the box is 1 mm. thick, which is not always enough to screen the chamber from penetrating X-rays that produce an effect comparable with the effect of the reflected rays. The circular end of the ionisation chamber is also protected by lead. The slit through which the primary pencil of X-rays emerges from the box is 3.3 mm. long; its width has been 2 mm. for the rougher measurements and 0.75 mm. for the finer. Since the slit is 12 cm. from the anticathode the emerging pencil has an angular width of about a third of a degree in the latter case. In the same way a slit 2 mm. wide and 5 nmm. long admits the reflected pencil to the ionisation chamber when preliminary measurements are being made, or when the whole effect is feeble; and this width can be cut down to 0.75 min. when desired. The distance from either slit to the axis of the apparatus is 8 cm. We have found it best to keep the bulb very "soft." The cathode stream has often been visible over its whole length. As will be seen later it is desirable to determine angles of incidence and reflection with great accuracy. This was not anticipated, and the circular scale was only divided into degrees, and was made too small. Nevertheless, it is possible to read tenths of a degree; a better and more open scale is now being put in. Let us suppose that a crystal is placed on the revolving table so that the cleavage face passes through the axis of the instrument. Let the incident pencil fall on the face and make an angle θ with it; and let the crystal be kept fixed while the ionisation chamber is revolved step by step through a series of angles including the double of θ, the ionisation current being measured at each step. The results of such a set of measurements are shown in fig. 1. In this case the crystal is rock-salt; and it has been placed so that the incident pencil makes an angle of 8.3°-as given by the apparatus-with the incident beam. The points marked in the figure show the result of setting the ionisation chamber at various angles and measuring the current in each case.
The maximum effect is not quite at 16.6°, but at a point somewhat less than 16.4°. The defect from the double angle is due in part to want of symmetry and accuracy of the apparatus; but not much of it is caused in this way. It is rather due to the difficulty of setting the crystal face exactly; sometimes this is much accentuated by "steps" on the face of the crystal. The error can be eliminated by swinging over the ionisation chamber to the other side and taking corresponding observations, in a manner analogous to the method of finding the angle of a prism on the spectrometer. The finer slits were used in obtaining this curve, and it may be inferred from the figure that the source of the X-rays is practically a point. For the width of the pencil from a point source by the time it reaches the slit of the ionisation chamber is 0.75 x 28/12 or 1.75 mm. The chamber slit being 0.75 mm. wide, the whole effect observed is comprised within a lateral movement of the chamber equal to 1.75+0.75 or 2.50 mm. Since the chamber slit is 8 cm. from the axis of the apparatus this implies a rotation of the chamber through (2.50 x 180)/(π x 80) or 1*780. The figure shows that these limits are actually observed; the whole curve lies well within the range 15° to 18°. The source must therefore be nearly a point.
When the actual relation between the angles of the crystal mirror and the ionisation chamber has been determined, the mirror and chamber may be swept together through an extended range, keeping the relation between the angles such that the chamber always shows the maximum current for each setting of the crystal. It is convenient to use the wide slits for a prelirminary examination of this kind. When the effect is small the wide slits can alone be used. But in a number of cases it is possible to use the narrow slits in order to make a closer survey, and where this is done much more information can be obtained. The curve in fig. 2 shows the results of a sweeping movement of this kind, the crystal being iron pyrites. Curves for rock-salt are drawn in figs. 3, I, and 3, II. It will be observed that there are peculiar and considerable variations in the intensity of the reflection at different angles. The three peaks marked A, B, and C are common to the curves of all crystals so far investigated, e.g. zinc blende, potassium ferrocyanide, potassium bichromate, quartz, calcite, and sodium ammonium tartrate. They are readily distinguishable by their invariable form, relative magnitudes, and spacings. Moreover, the absorption coefficients of the rays reflected at these separate angles do not vary with the nature of the crystal or the state of the bulb) It happens that the actual angles of reflection of the three sets of rays are nearly the same for several crystals. The use of the narrow slits permits a closer examination of these effects; but, of course, it takes much longer time to make, and more space to exhibit. The results for iron pyrites are shown in the series of curves of fig. 4: a series in which each curve is obtained in the same way as the curve of fig. 1, the crystal being set at some definite angle which is altered in going from curve to curve. The curves are arranged so that the vertical distance between the horizontal lines of reference of any pair is proportional to the difference in the angles of setting of the crystal in the two cases. In comparing the curves at the different angles two principles must be borne in mind. In the first place if there is a general reflection of rays throughout the whole range of the pencil which is emerging from the slit near the bulb, the curves show, as in fig. 1, a maximum with similar slopes on each side of it. The maximum occurs at that setting of the chamber which is twice the angle of setting of the crystal or differs from it only by that constant error of setting to which allusion has already been made. The maximum slowly marches across the page as we go down the series of curves, and its progress is marked by the dotted line. In the second place there is a special reflection which manifests its presenc e in a curious and most convenient way. It often happens that the rays emerging from the bulb slit and falling on the crystal contain a large preponderance of rays of a given quality which can only be reflected at a certain angle. This angle is very sharply defined: even our present and somewhat rough apparatus shows that it is limited to a very few minutes of arc in either direction. In this case the radiation which is reflected is not distributed generally over the whole range bounded by the edges of the bulb slit, which it will be remembered is about a third of a degree, but is confined to a select small portion of that range. When this is the case the position of the maximum does not change at all as the crystal is moved from setting to setting, so long as any of this radiation is reflected. For example, the curves for 13.4°, 13.8°, 14.1°, 14.4° show the existence of a special reflection of this kind which is always at its maximum when the chamber is set at 27.7°. The reason for this may be understood from fig. 5.
Here O is the bulb slit, P the axis of the instrument, and Q the chamber slit. When the crystal face is in the position PR, let us say, the ray OP strikes at the right angle for reflection, and is reflected along PQ. But when the crystal is turned to OR', the ray OP of the radiation of this quality which we are considering is not reflected at all. It is now the ray OR', where R' lies on the circle OPQ; for the angles made by OR' and QR' with PR', and the angles made by OP and QP with PR, are all equal to each other. The ray OR' is reflected along R'Q, and still enters the ionisation chamber, though the latter has not been moved. When, therefore, we see a maximum persisting in the same angular position of the chamber for several successive positions of the crystal, we know that we have a case of this special reflection. There is a relatively large quantity of very homogeneous radiation of a certain kind present in the radiation from the bulb. The narrower we make the slits the more does it stand out, but the more difficult it is to find, if we do not know where to look for it. It will be noticed how small the general reflection appears, in comparison with the special reflection between the angles (crystal settings) 12° and 14°. It is still small when the angle is reduced to 10.7°. At 10.3° there is enough of it to throw a hump on to one side of a peak of special reflection, and at 9.9° it has passed through, and thrown the hump upon the other side. Consideration of the whole series of curves shows that there are three strongly marked homogeneous pencils of sharply defined quality; they occur at (uncorrected chamber angles) 27.7°, 23.4°, and 20.0°. What we have called the general reflection may comprise many other definite pencils, but they are scarcely resolved at all in this series of curves. Their presence is, however, fairly obvious. A series of potassium ferrocyanide curves shows them much more clearly. Three of this series are shown in fig. 4 (a), and their peculiar forms indicate to what extent interpretation has yet to be carried. When these homogeneous beams are isolated by the use of narrow slits, it is possible to determine their absorption coefficients in various substances. In the end, there is no doubt, this will be done with great accuracy; for the present, our results must only be looked on as provisional. They are, perhaps, right to 5 per cent. for many purposes this is quite sufficient. In the case of rock-salt we find the mass absorption coefficients in aluminium of A, B, and C to be 25.5, 18.8, and 10.6 respectively, the last being the most doubtful and probably too low. The absorption coefficient of the B-rays in Ag is 74, in Cu 140, in Ni 138; these values are approximate. We have made no exhaustive determination of the coefficients in the case of various crystals, but in a number of cases, all those tried, we have found them to be the same. There can be little doubt the three peaks are, in all cases, due to the same three sets of homogeneous rays, rays which do not change with the state of the bulb, but may well do so with the nature of the anticathode. It will be observed that the absorption coefficient of the least penetrating set is very nearly that found by Chapman for the characteristic radiation of platinum. The angles at which the special reflections of these rays take place are not the same for all crystals, nor for all faces of the same crystal, as the following table shows. The angles can be determined with great accuracy; even with our rough apparatus they are probably within 1 per cent. of the truth.
The readings for zinc blende and calcite are not corrected for errors of setting. The difference in the case of the two faces of rock-salt suggested an attempt to find a repetition of the characteristic three peaks at multiples or sub-multiples of those at which they were first observed. For the sines of 11.55 and 20.1 (half the angles of the chamber settings of the B peak in the two cases) are 0.200 and 0.344 respectively. These are very nearly in the ratio 1: √3. If the effects are true diffraction effects such a relation might be expected. The {111} planes are further apart than the {100} planes in the ratio 2: √3; the sines of angles of special reflection should be in the inverse ratio, viz., √3 : 2. True, the sines of the angles have been increased in the ratio 1 : √3, instead of diminished in the ratio 2 : √3, but it is not at all unlikely that a spectrum in one case is being compared with a spectrum of higher or lower order in the other. We, therefore, made a search for other spectra and found them at once. In the case of rock-salt we found traces of a third. The full rock-salt curves are shown in fig. 3 for the two kinds of face. The peaks first found are marked A1, B1, C1, and their repetitions A2, B2, C2; there is a trace of B3 also. The corrected angular positions of B1, B2, B3 are 23.1 , 47.3°, and 73.3°. The sines of the halves of these angles are 0.200, 0.401, and 0.597, and are very nearly in the proportion 1:2: 3. The absorption coefficient of the rays at B2 is the same as that of the rays at B1. In the case of the rock-salt section {111 } a spectrum occurs at half the angles first found. This is shown in fig. 3, II. It is not at all strongly marked, and the question at once arises as to why the second spectrum should be so much stronger than the first in this case and so much weaker in the case of the face {100}. A large amount of the general falling away of intensity at small angles, so obvious in Curve II as compared with Curve I, is undoubtedly due to the fact that the {111} face used was not extended enough to catch the whole pencil of rays from the bulb slit at so glancing an angle.
There can be little doubt as to the interpretation of these results. The three peaks A, B, and C represent three sets of homogeneous rays. Rays of a definite quality are reflected from a crystal when, and only when, the crystal is set at the right angle. This is really an alternative way of stating the original deduction of Laue. The three sets of rays are not manufactured in the crystal, because all their properties are independent of the nature of the crystal. An absorbing screen may be interposed with the same effect before or after the rays have struck the crystal. This was found by Moseley and Darwin, and we have verified it in the case of aluminium. Since the reflection angle of each set of rays is so sharply defined, the waves must occur in trains of great length. A succession of irregularly spaced pulses could not give the observed effect. In the application of electromagnetic theory to monochromatic light on the one hand, and to homogeneous X-rays on the other, there is no difference to be considered beyond that of wave-length. These results do not really affect the use of the corpuscular theory of X-rays. The theory represents the facts of the transfer of energy from electron to X-ray and vice versa, and all the phenomena in which this transfer is the principal event. It can predict discoveries and interpret them. It is useful in its own field. The problem remains to discover how two hypotheses so different in appearance can be so closely linked together. It is of great interest to attempt to find the exact wave-length of the rays to which these peaks correspond. On considering Curve I, fig. 3, it seems evident that the peaks A1 B1 C1, A2 B2 C2 are analogous to spectra of the first and second orders, because of the absence of intervening sets of peaks. The value of n in the equation nλ = 2d sinθ seems clear. The difficulty of assigning a definite wave-length to the rays arises when we attempt to determine the value of d, the distance of plane from plane. There is strong evidence for supposing that the atoms of a cubic crystal like rock-salt, containing two elements of equal valency, are arranged parallel to the planes {100} in planes containing equal numbers of sodium and chlorine atoms. The atoms in any one plane are arranged in alternate rows of each element, diagonal to the cube axes, successive planes having these rows opposite ways. The question arises as to whether the value of d is to be taken as that between two successive planes, or two planes identical in all respects. The value of d in the one case is twice that in the other. The centres of the atoms of sodium and chlorine, regarded for the time being as identical, are arranged in a point system, having as unit of its pattern a cube with a point at each corner and one at the centre of each cube face. The dimensions of this elementary cube can be found in the following way:- If the side of the cube is of length a, the volume associated with each point in the point system will be 1/4 a3. The mass of a hydrogen atom being 1.64 x 10-24 grm. and the density of rock-salt 2.17, we have 1/1a3 (35.5 + 23) x 1.64 x 10-24 = 2.17. This gives a = 4.45 x 10-8. The distance between planes passing through atoms identical in all respects is this distance a. The wave-length, as calculated in this way, is λ = 2asin0 = 1.78 x 10-8 for the peak B. But half-way between these planes which are identical in all respects are situated planes containing the same number of sodium and chlorine atoms, though the arrangement is not in all respects the same. Possibly this tends to make the odd spectra due to the first lot of planes disappear, and, if this is the case, we must halve the first estimate of the wave-length, and put λ = 0.89 x 10-8. The difference between these two values corresponds to taking as a unit of the point system- (1) The group 4NaCl, the smallest complete unit of the crystal pattern. (2) The individual atom of either nature, associated with only one-eighth of the volume of the complete unit. We have also examined the reflection from the (110) face of the rock-salt, and have found the peaks situated at such angles as indicate that the ratio of the distance between these parallel planes to the distance between planes parallel to the face (100) is as 1: √2. Combined with the position of the peaks reflected from the (111) face, this indicates that the point system which the diffracting centres form has as element of its pattern that suggested above, a cube with a point at each corner and one at the centre of each face. Of the three elementary cubic space lattices, this is the only one in which the distance between the (111) planes is greater than that between any other of the planes of the system. The wave-length as calculated from the reflection on the (110) face of zinc blende agrees within the errors of experiment with that calculated above. The wave-lengths to be associated with the spots in the photographs taken by Laue of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals are much smaller than these values. They belong to the region in which we have found reflection to take place at all angles, a region in which the peaks do not obviously occur. This agrees with the distribution of intensity amongst the spots. The experimental method can be applied to the analysis of the radiation from any source of X-rays. It may, however, be able to deal only with intense radiations. The three sets of rays issuing from the bulb we have been using have angles of reflection whose sines are 0.236, 0.200, 0.173. The reciprocals of these are 4.24, 5, and 5.78. The frequencies, and therefore, according to Planck, the corresponding quantum energies, are in arithmetical progression. In this there is some hint of analogy with Rutherford's recent work on the energies of the various types of ,β-ray from RaC. Prof. Barkla has lately communicated to the Physical Society an account of certain experiments in which a diffuse pencil of X-rays, when reflected on the cleavage plane of a crystal, acted on a photographic plate, producing a series of bands. The effect which we have been describing is clearly identical in part with that which Prof. Barkla has described. It is impossible, of course, to criticise a communication of which we have seen an abstract only. But it seems probable that the ionisation method can follow the details of the effect more closely than the photographic method has so far been able to do: and that in this way it is possible to distinguish between those bands which represent distinct sets of rays, and those which are repetitions of one and the same set.".
(Is this the first appearance of this equation or is this a basic optics equation for reflection?)
(Examine this work - for details on how to focus an xray beam - and other neuron writing related hints.)
(It's not clear how many different frequencies there are emitted in the x-rays beams - these different humps or nodes represent different spectra - spectra which contain a continuous set of increasing frequencies - each node being a repeat - in the exact similarity to visible light. I think an important point to remember is that this is reflective "diffraction" - not transmitted "diffraction" - in other words, just particles reflected off the surface are examined - not those that pass through the crystal.)
(Here the Braggs find a method for determining atomic cube size, and then use this to determine x-ray frequency.)
(In my view, these nodes may represent the number of times a particle is reflected before exiting the crystal.)
(I view refraction as simply reflection - that is that Francisco Grimaldi was incorrect in his 1600s interpretation of light bending around a hole, as a "diffraction". Particle reflect and are dispersed, and the various intervals as seen from a specific direction form the frequency of the particles colliding with the eye or detector. How interesting that William Lawrence Bragg states this theory clearly as early as 12/1912)
(Note that where Laue had developed a photograph by passing x-rays through a crystal, the Braggs, reflect x-rays off a crystal at various angles. - verify - or do the Braggs make use of both techniques?)
(It seems to me that this method of using D=mv to estimate the size of the unit cell is open to a lot of error and/or inaccuracy.)
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
87 YBN
[04/07/1913 AD]
| 6245) First home Refrigerator, the "Dolmelre", by Fred Wolf. This refrigerator replaces the simple ice box. Before this restaurants and homes have "ice boxes", which have an insulated compartment for ice and another for food. Thje ice is replaced periodically by buying blocks from the "iceman" whose wagion is a common sight on the streets of towns and cities.
| Chicago, Illinois, USA |
87 YBN
[05/09/1913 AD]
| 4814) William David Coolidge (CE 1873-1975), US physicist uses a tungsten block as an anode (the positive terminal, where electrons go to) in an X-ray tube. This "Coolidge tube" brings X-ray production out of the laboratory and into common use in industry and for health science.
Coolidge invents an X-ray tube based on a tungsten target bombarded in high vacuum with a discharge consisting overwhelmingly of electrons, rather than the previous mixture of electrons and gas ions. This makes possible much more precise control over the frequency of X rays produced than in the previous tubes and also facilitates development of higher-voltage tubes. (explain more why no ions are included, and why this improves frequency control, and the creation of higher-voltage tubes.)
(How does this x-ray tube development compare to the neuron writing development which must have been by this time much smaller than most common cathode vacuum tubes. Where is any publications on making the smallest x-ray tube possible?.)
| (Research Laboratory of the General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, in 1900. |
87 YBN
[05/28/1913 AD]
| 4932) Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist and Marcel Grossmann publish a paper in which the single Newtonian scalar gravitational field is replaced by ten fields, which are the components of a symmetric, four-dimensional metric tensor.
Einstein and Grossmann publish this as "Entwurf einer verallgemeinerten Relativitätstheorie und eine Theorie der Gravitation" ("Design of a generalized theory of relativity and a theory of gravitation").
| (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland |
87 YBN
[05/29/1913 AD]
| 6035) Igor (Fyodorovich) Stravinsky (CE 1882-1971) Russian composer, performs the ballet "The Rite of Spring".
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Stravinsky's work has a revolutionary impact on musical thought and sensibility just before and after World War I, and his compositions remain a symbol of modernism for much of his long working life.
The first performance of "The Rite of Spring" at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées on May 29, 1913, provokes one of the more famous first-night riots in the history of musical theater. Stirred by Nijinsky’s unusual and suggestive choreography and Stravinsky’s creative and daring music, the audience cheers, protests, and argues among themselves during the performance, making so much noise that the dancers can not hear the orchestra. This highly original composition is an early modernist landmark.
| (Théâtre des Champs Élysées) Paris, France |
87 YBN
[06/21/1913 AD]
| 4408) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942), English physicist devises a simple method for projecting and indexing reflections, which he uses to show that there were systematic differences between such simple cubic structures as KCl, such face-centered cubic structures as KBr, and NaCl which appear to be intermediate between the other two structures. Bragg explains this intermediate phenomenon by suggesting that the scattering power of atoms varies in proportion to atomic mass. So in the case of KCl, the atoms are of approximately equal scattering power, and this is reflected in the simple cubic lattice to which both are a part of. This is not the case for KBr where the lattice is defined by the heavier Br atom. NaCl is an intermediate case, reflecting the greater but not predominant scattering power of the Cl atom.
(If light is a particle, and x-rays contain light particles, then any beams of light particles should show the same or similar results, and the same is true for other similar sized particle beams too. However, this might not be true if light particles are larger in size than x-particles. In this case, x-particles might reflect off the sides of surfaces that larger particles like a photon could not reach.)
| (Cavindish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
87 YBN
[07/18/1913 AD]
| 4800) Ejnar Hertzsprung (CE 1873-1967), Danish astronomer, is the first to use Cepheid variable stars to estimate distances to stars. This together with the work of Leavitt allows Shapley to figure out the shape of this galaxy.
(Verify that this paper is the correct paper, translate and quote relevant parts.)
The method Hertzsprung introduces will become an important method of measuring very large distances in the universe. This distance determination is based on a very important discovery made by Henrietta Swan Leavitt at the Harvard College Observatory the previous year. Leavitt had been studying the variable stars in the Small Magellanic Cloud and had found that a relation exists between the apparent magnitude and the period of light variation of the Cepheid variable stars. Hertzsprung realized that since the stars in the cloud can be considered to be at the same distance, their period of variation can be related to their intrinsic brightness. Next, Hertzsprung needs to select Cepheids close enough to our sun to determine their distances, from which their intrinsic brightnesses can be calculated. Since no Cepheid is close enough to allow a direct determination of the distance, Hertzsprung uses the bright Cepheids with known proper motions. From these he determines the average parallactic components of their motions, and from this their distances and their intrinsic brightnesses. It is then a simple step to compute the intrinsic brightnesses (luminosities) of the Cepheids in the Small Magellanic Cloud from their periods. Hertzsprung estimates the distance to the Small Magellanic Cloud to be 10,000 parsecs (state in light years), which is larger than any distance determined in the universe at that time (1913) but about five times smaller than the presently accepted distance, according to the Dictionary of Scientific Biography the main reasons for this discrepancy is the then unknown galactic absorption.
In the same paper Hertzsprung calls attention to the asymmetric distribution of the bright Cepheids with respect to the sun, an asymmetry also shared by the very hot and bright stars of spectral class O. Hertzsprung notices that since the least concentration of these stars is in the best-observed part of the Milky Way, the distribution cannot be the result of observational selection. In addition, Hertzsprung finds that the center of this distribution is in the direction which is much later discovered to be the direction toward the center of the Milky Way galaxy.
(Describe the theory of cepheid variables and the current popular explanation of these cycles. Clearly they are too long to be the result of a larger mass rotating with a slower velocity. One hypothesis is that some mass is periodically blocking the light between the line of sight of we on earth and the star, but it seems unlikely that that would relate directly to the brightness of a star. Perhaps there is some kind of oscillation of stars where mass expands off the surface, cools and then falls back to the surface at a regular rate.)
| Potsdam, Germany |
87 YBN
[07/30/1913 AD]
| 4407) (Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971), Australian-English physicist uses an xray beam of known wavelength (particle interval) to determine the distance between parallel crystal planes that reflect x-ray beams.
In this Bragg uses the inversion of the Bragg relation nλ=2dsinθ, by using a known wavelength, to solve for d, the distances between the atomic planes, and therefore to determine the structure of the crystal mounted in the spectrometer.
By the end of 1913 the Braggs have reduced the problem of crystal structure analysis to a standard procedure.
(Give entire paper?) In "The Structure of the Diamond", the Braggs write: "There are two distinct methods by which the X-rays may be made to help to a determination of crystal structure. The first is based on the Laue photograph and implies the reference of each spot on the photograph to its proper reflecting plane within the crystal. It then yields information as to the positions of these planes and the relative numbers of atoms which they contain. The X-rays used are the heterogeneous rays which issue from certain bulbs, for example, from the commonly used bulb which contains a platinum anticathode. The second method is based on the fact that homogeneous X-rays of wave-length λ are reflected from a set of parallel and similar crystal planes at an angle θ (and no other angle) when the relation nλ = 2d sin θ is fulfilled. Here d is the distance between the successive planes, θ is the glancing angle which the incident and reflected rays make with the planes, and n is a whole number which in practice so far ranges from one to five. In this method the X-rays used are those homogeneous beams which issue in considerable intensity from some X-ray bulbs, and are characteristic radiations of the metal of the anticathode. Platinum, for example, emits several such beams in addition to the heterogeneous radiation already mentioned. A bulb having a rhodium anticathode, which was constructed in order to obtain a radiation having about half the wave-length of the platinum characteristic
rays, has been found to give a very strong homogeneous radiation conisisting of one main beam of wave-length 0.607 x 10-8 cm., and a much less intense beam of wave-length 0.533x 10-8 cm. It gives relatively little heterogeneous radiation. Its spectrum, as given by the (100) planes of rock-salt, is shown in fig. 1. It is very convenient for the application of the second method. Bulbs having nickel, tungsten, or iridium anticathodes have not so far been found convenient; the former two because their homogeneous radiations are relatively weak, the last because it is of much the same
wave-length as the heterogeneous rays which the bulb emits, while it is well to have the two sets of rays quite distinct. The platinum homogeneous rays are of lengths somewhat greater than the average wave-length of the general heterogeneous radiation; the series of homogeneous iridium rays are very like the series of platinum rays raised one octave higher. For convenience, the two methods may be called the method of the Laue photograph, or, briefly, the photographic method, and the reflection method. The former requires heterogeneous rays, the latter homogeneous. The two methods throw light upon the subject from very different points and are mutually helpful. The present paper is confined almost entirely to an account of the application of the two methods to an analysis of the structure of the diamond. The diamond is a crystal which attracts investigation by the two new methods, because in the first place it contains only one kind of atom, and in the second its crystallographic properties indicate a fairly simple structure. We will consider, in the first place, the evidence given by the reflection method. The diagram of fig. 2 shows the spectrum of the rhodium rays thrown by the (111) face, the natural cleavage face of the diamond. The method of obtaining such diagrams, and their interpretation, are given in a preceding
paper. The two peaks marked R1, r'1 constitute the first order spectrum of the rhodium rays, and the angles at which they occur are of importance in what follows. It is also a material point that there is no second order spectrum. The third is showin at R3, r3; the strong line of the fourth order is at R4, and of the fifth at R5. The first deduction to be made is to be derived from the quantitative measurements of the angle of reflection. The sines of the glancing angles for R1, R3, R4, R5 are (after very slight correction for errors of setting) 0.1456, 0.4425, 0.5941, 0.7449. Dividing these by 1, 3, 4, 5 respectively, we obtain 0.1456, 0.1475, 0.1485, 0.1490. These are not exactly equal, as they might be expected to be, but increase for the larger angles and tend to a maximum. The effect is due to reasons of geometry arising from the relatively high transparency of the diamond for X-rays, and the consequent indefiniteness of the point at which reflection takes place. The true value is the maximum to which the series tends, and may with sufficient accuracy be taken as 0.1495. In order to keep the main argument clear, the consideration of this point is omitted. We can now find the distance between successive (111) planes. We have X = 2d sin θ, 0.607 x 10-8 = 2dx 0.1495, d= 2.03 x 10-8. The structure of the cubic crystals which have so far been investigated by these methods may be conisidered as derived from the face-centred lattice (fig. 3): that is to say, the centres which are effective in causing the reflection of the X-rays are placed one at each corner and one.in the middle of each face of the cubical element of volume. This amounts to assigning four molecules to each such cube, for in general one atom in each molecule is so much rnore effective than the rest that its placing determines the structure from our point of view. There are four, because the eight atoms at the corners of the cube only count as one, each of thenm belonging equally to eight cubes, and the six atoms in the centres of the faces only count as three, each of them belonging equally to two cubes. ....
The relative spacings of the spectra given by these three sets of planes are shown in fig. 4. Spectra of the (100) planes being supposed to occur at values of sin 0 proportional to 1, 2, 3, ..., it follows from the above argument that the (11O) planies will give spectra at 1.414, 2.828, 4.242, ..., and the (111) planes at 0.866, 1.732, 2.598 ....
...
The cubical crystals which we have so far examined give results which resemble the diagram of fig. 4 more or less closely. Individual cases depart so little from the type of the diagranm that the face-centred lattice may be taken as the basis of their structure and the departures considered to reveal their separate divergencies from the standard. For convenience of description we will speak of the first, second, third spectra of the (100) or (111) planes and so on, with reference to fig. 4. We may then, for example, describe the peculiarity of the rock-salt (111) spectrum* by saying that the first order spectrum is weak and the second strong. The interpretation (loc. cit.) is that the sodiuin atoms are to be put at the centres of the edges of the cuLbic element - of volume, and the chlorine atoms at the corners and in the middle of each face or vtice versd: for theni the face-centred lattice (cube edge 2a) is brought half way to being the simple cubic lattice (edge a) having an effective centre at every corner. The first (111) spectrum tends to disappear, the second to increase in importance. In the case of potassium chloride, the atoms are all of equal weight and the change is complete: the first order spectrumn of the (111) planes disappears entirely. In zincblende or iron pyrites one atom is so much nmore effective than the other that the diagram of spectra is much more nearly characteristic of the face-centred lattice: at least so far as regards the spectra of the lower orders. We hope to deal with these cases later. Let us now consider the case of the diamond. ... We have therefore four carbon atoms which we are to assign to the elementary cube in such a way that we do not interfere with the characteristics of the face-centred lattice. It is here that the absence of the second order spectrum gives us help. The interpretation of this phenomenon is that in addition to the planes spaced at a distance apart 2.03 x 10-8 there are other like planes dividing the distances between the first set in the ratio 1: 3. In fact there must be parallel and similar planes as in fig. 5, so spaced that AA' = A'B/3, and so on. For if waves fall at a glancing angle θ on the system ABC, and are reflected in a second order spectrum we have 2λ =2 AB sin θ. The planes A'B'C' reflect an exactly similar radiation which is just out of step with the first, for the difference of phase of waves reflected from A and B is 2 λ, and therefore the difference of phase of waves reflected from A and A' is λ/2. Consequently the four atoms which we have
at our disposal are to make new (111) planes parallel to the old and related to them as A'B'C' are to ABC. When we consider where they are to go we are helped by the fact that being four in number they should go to places which are to be found in the cubes in multiples of four. The simplest plan is to put them in the centres of four of the eight smaller cubes into which the main cube can be divided. We then find that this gives the right spacing because the perpendicular from each such centre on the two (111) planes which lie on either side of it are respectively a/2√3 and 1/2(a√3), where a is the length of the side of one of the eight smaller cubes. For symmetry it is necessary to place them at four centres of smaller cubes which touch each other along edges only: e.g. of cubes which lie in the A, C, H and F corners of the large cube. If this is done in the same way for all cubes like the one taken as unit it may be seen on examination that we arrive at a disposition of atoms which has the following characteristics:- (1) They are arranged similarly in parallel planes spaced alternately at distances a/2√3 and a√3/2, or in the case of the diamond 0.508 x 10-8 and 1.522 x 10-8 cm.: the sum of these being the distance 2.03 x 10-8 which we have already arrived at. (2) The density has the right value. (3) There is no second order spectrum in the reflection from (111) planes. It is not very easy to picture these dispositions in space. But we have come to a point where we may readjust our methods of defining the positions of the atoms as we have now placed them, and arrive at a very simple result indeed. Every carbon atom, as may be seen from fig. 5, has four neighbours at distances from it equal to a√3/2 = 1.522x 10-8 cm., oriented with respect to it in directions which are parallel to the four diagonals of the cube. For instance, the atom at the centre of the small cube Abcdefgh, fig. 6, is related in this way to the four atoms which lie at corners of that cube (A, c, f, h), the atom at the centre of the face ABFE is related in the same way to the atoms at the centres (P, Q, R, S) of four small cubes, and so on for every other atom. We may take away all the structure of cubes and rectangular axes, and leave only a design into which no elenments enter but one length and four directions equally inclined to each other. The characteristics of the design may be realised from a consideration of the accompanying photographs (figs. 7 and 8) of a model, taken from different points of view. The very simplicity of the result suggests that we have come to a right conclusion. The appearance of the model when viewed at right angles to a cube diagonal is shown in fig. 7. The (111) planes are seen on edge, and the 1: 3 spacing is obvious. The union of every carbon atom to four neighbours in a perfectly symmetrical way might be expected in view of the- persistent tetravalency of carbon. The linking of six carbon atoms into a ring is also an obvious feature of the structure. But it would not be right to lay much stress on these facts at present, since other crystals which do not contain carbon atoms possess, apparently, a similar structure. We may now proceed to test the result which we have reached by examining the spectra reflected by the other sets of planes. One of the diamonds which we used consisted of a slip which had cleavage planes as surfaces; its surface was about 5 mm. each way and its thickness 0.8 mm. By means of a Laue photograph, to be described later, it was possible to determine the orientation of its axes and so to mount it in the X-ray spectrometer as to give reflection from the (110) or the (100) planes as desired. ... Using the laniguage already explained, we may say that the first (100) spectrum has disappeared, and, indeed, all the spectra of odd order. Spectra were actually found at 20.3° and 43.8°: the sines of these angles being 0.3469 and 0.6921, the latter being naturally much less intense than the former. A careful search in the neighbourhood of 10° showed that there was no reflection at all at that angle. The results for all three spectra are shown diagrammatically in fig. 9, which should be compared with fig. 4. ... It will now be shown that on analysis the photograph appears to be in accordance with the structure which we have assigned to the diamond on the result of the reflection experiments. ... If the structure assigned to diamond in the former part of this paper is correct, a simple explanation of the diffraction pattern can be arrived at. According to this structure the carbon atoms are not arranged on a space lattice, but they may be regarded as situated at the points of two interpenetrating face-centred space lattices. These lattices are so situated in relation to each other that, calling them A and B, each point of lattice B is surrouinded symmetrically by four points of lattice A, arranged tetrahedron-' wise and vice, versa. This can be seen by reference to the diagram of fig. 6. It is now clear why the pattern must be referred to the axes of the facecentred lattice, for if the structure is to be regarded as built up of points arranged on the simple cubic lattice, with three equal axes at right angles, no fewer than eight interpenetrating lattices must be used to give all the points. ...
1915 William Lawrence Bragg and his father William Henry Bragg report how to determine the wavelength of X-ray beams and crystal structure by using X-ray diffraction (off crystals). From this, (they show) that crystals of substances such as sodium chloride do not contain molecules of sodium chloride but only contain sodium and chlorine ions arranged with geometric regularity. In sodium chloride specifically, (the Braggs show that) each sodium ion is at the same distance from six chloride ions, while each cloride ion is at the same distance from six sodium ions, and that there is no physical connection between the ions. (show graphically, and what evidence causes them to claim this?) (that is somewhat amazing that the actual ions themselves do not actually touch.) This will lead to Debye's new treatment of ion dissociation.
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
87 YBN
[10/20/1913 AD]
| 4863) Shift of absorption lines in Spiral nebulae (galaxies) light attributed to Doppler shift, which implies that radial relative velocity of nebulae (galaxy) can be determined from quantity of shift.
Vesto Melvin Slipher (SlIFR) (CE 1875-1969), US astronomer, measures the Doppler shift of a galaxy. Slipher measures this shift to indicate that the Andromeda "nebula" (galaxy) has a velocity of 300,000 km per second in the direction of the earth.
In 1904, Hermann had found that a calcium absorption line in the spectrum from a spectroscopic binary star pair does not share in the periodic movement of the emission lines from the binary stars. Astronomers argue if the shift of the H and K absorption lines is possibly due to non-luminous calcium in between the stars. On October 18, 1817 by Heber Curtis at the Lick Observatory writes that "About twenty-five spectroscopic binaries are known in which the H and K lines of calcium do not partake at all of the periodic shift shown by the other spectral lines, or give a markedly smaller range of radial velocities. This phenomenon is well explained by the interposition of a cloud of invisible calcium vapor between us and the binary. All but one of these stars are located in or near the Milky Way, and several are in or near dark rifts of the Milky Way.".
Slipher's entire report is this: "THE RADIAL VELOCITY OF THE ANDROMEDA NEBULA.
Keeler, by his splendid researches on the nebulae, showed, among other things, that the nebulae are generally spiral in form, and that such nebulae exist in far vaster numbers than had been supposed. These facts seem to suggest that the spiral nebula is one of the important products of the forces of nature. The spectra of these objects, it was recognized, should convey valuable information, and they have been studied, photographically, first by Huggins and Scheiner, and recently more extensively by Fath and Wolf; but no attempt has to my knowledge been made to determine their radial velocity, although the value of such observations has doubtless occurred to many investigators.
The one obstacle in the way of the success of this undertaking is the faintness of these nebulae. The extreme feebleness of their dispersed light is difficult to realize by one not experienced in such observing, and it no doubt appears strange that the magnificent Andromeda Spiral, which under a transparent sky is so evident to the naked eye, should be so faint spectrographically. The contest is with the low intrinsic brightness of the nebular surface, a condition which no choice of telescope can relieve. However, the proper choice of parts in the spectrograph will make the best of this difficulty. The collimator must of course fit the telescope, but the dispersion-piece and the camera may and should be carefully selected for their special fitness for the work. While the speed of the camera is all important in recording the spectrum, the detail in the spectrum depends upon the dispersion, for obviously a line, no matter how dark it may be, must have a certain magnitude or else it cannot be recorded by the granular surface of the photographic plate. Hence the light must be concentrated by a camera of very short focus and the dimension of the spectral line be increased by using a high angular dispersion and a wider slit, as one in this way attains a higher resolving power in the photographed spectrum. Although I had made spectrograms of the Andromeda Nebula a few years ago, using the short camera, it was not until last summer that I thought to employ the higher dispersion and the wider slit. The early attempts recorded well the continuous spectrum crossed by a few Fraunhofer groups, and were particularly encouraging as regards the exposure time required. The first of the recent plates was exposed for 6 hours and 50 minutes, on September 17, 1912, using a very dense 64degree prism, the instrument having already been tried out on some globular star clusters. When making this exposure the brightness of the nebula on the slit-plate compared with that of the clusters indicated that one night's exposure should suffice for the single-prism, and suggested that, by extending the exposure through several nights, one could employ the battery of three dense flint prisms whose dispersion would make it possible to observe the velocity of the nebula. The success of the plate bore out this suggestion. Indeed, upon subsequent examination of this plate it was seen that the nebular lines were perceptibly displaced with reference to the comparison lines. The next plate secured showed the same displacement . Still other single-prism plates were obtained during the autumn and early winter, but the observing program with the 24-inch telescope did not allow an opportunity to carry out the original plan to make the longer exposure spectrogram with the prism train.
These spectrograms are measured with the Hartmann spectrocomparator, using a magnification of fifteen diameters. A similar plate of Saturn was employed as a standard. The observations were as follows:
1912, September 17, Velocity, —284 km. November 15-16, " 296
December 3-4, " 308
December 29-30-31 " —301
Mean Velocity —300 km.
Tests for determining the degree of accuracy of such observations have not been completed, but in rounding off to 300 kilometers in taking the mean one is doubtless well within the accuracy of the observations. The measures extended over the region of spectrum from F to H.
The conditions were purposely varied in making the observations. This was done although it was early noted that the shift at the violet end of the spectrum was fully twice that of the blue end, which should be the case if it were due to velocity.
The magnitude of this velocity, which is the greatest hitherto observed, raises the question whether the velocity-like displacement might not be due to some other cause, but I believe we have at the present no other interpretation for it. Hence we may conclude that the Andromeda Nebula is approaching the solar system with a velocity of about 300 kilometers per second.
This result suggests that the nebula, in its swift flight through space, might have encountered a dark "star," thus giving rise to the peculiar nova that appeared near the nucleus of the nebula in 1885.
That the velocity of the first spiral observed should be so high intimates that the spirals as a class have higher velocities than do the stars and that it might not be fruitless to observe some of the more promising spirals for proper motion. Thus extension of the work to other objects promises results of fundamental importance, but the faintness of the spectra makes the work heavy and the accumulation of results slow.".
This velocity of nearly 300 kilometers per second is at the time the highest velocity ever observed.
So Slipher is the first to apply the Doppler effect to the Andromeda nebula (now known to be a galaxy), and Slipher reports that Andromeda is approaching the earth at 300km (125 miles) a second. But when Slipher looks at the other galaxies, he finds that Andromeda is an exception and that the spectral lines of all but one of the other nebulae are red-shifted which implies that they are moving away from the Earth, and at radial rates far higher than those of ordinary stars. ("Radial rates" is the speed that an object moves in the “away” or “z” direction with earth at the center of the three dimensional axis.). Since a motion of recession is indicated by a shift of spectral absorption lines towards the red end of the spectrum, the phrase “the red shift” because popular among astronomers studying the galaxies Hubble is uncovering. Hubble will use this red-shift to establish the concept of an expanding universe.
(This view of an expanding universe, big bang and background radiation, may be an example of a mistaken interpretation that will last for 100 years or more, and of a closing of people's minds to alternative explanations, such as the stretching apart of light particle beams because of gravity which light from distant galaxies must be subjected more to- but which is applied somewhat randomly depending on what angle a light emitting object is observed from and what material may be in the path of the light in that particular direction. In particular, people should entertain the idea of a larger sized universe, when realizing how all previous estimates of the size of the universe have been too small, and the simple concept that at some distance no light from a distant galaxy will be going in our direction restricts how far we will ever be able to see. The current conclusion in my mind is that the age and size of the universe will be increased with each new larger telescope, because new more distant galaxies will be seen that were not seen before.)
Note that Slipher uses a photographic plate of the visible spectrum of Saturn as a reference for the spectral absorption lines of Andromeda.
Slipher makes an unusual statement in writing "The conditions were purposely varied in making the observations. This was done although it was early noted that the shift at the violet end of the spectrum was fully twice that of the blue end, which should be the case if it were due to velocity.". (Verify if this is true - that one part of the spectrum is more offset than another because of Doppler shift - that this shift is not the same for all frequencies. This is also an important issue, because, I argue that some of this shift must be due to particle collision and/or gravitation - in the case of a blue shift, the lines might be more shifted because the influence of matter in between may stretch the light beams.)
(todo: EXPERIMENT: Has anybody shown how the spectral absorption lines of calcium can be shifted depending on the distance of the light source?)
(Note that no image of the shift in calcium absorption lines is shown in this paper. An image would make this finding more visual and easier to understand.)
(Note: Slipher does not report which lines are used as reference, and does not indicate whether these are absorption or emission lines. But they are presumed to be absorption lines. It seems likely, viewing the images of Humason's 1936 images, that the entire spectrum shifts to the red, and the right end to the blue, mainly because of the relative distance and size of the light source. Slipher will write in 1915 that, since the spectrum spiral "nebulae" is "continuous", unlike the gas nebulae "bright line" (emission) spectral lines,"...the usual stellar spectrograph ... is useless for the dark-line" spectrum. todo: Has anybody tried to determine the doppler shift of the "bright-line" nebulae?)
| (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
87 YBN
[10/29/1913 AD]
| 5067) Edwin Howard Armstrong (CE 1890-1954), US electrical engineer creates the "regenerative" or "feedback" circuit, which connects the output of an electric amplifier back to the input to be amplified again many times.
1912 Armstrong creates the “regenerative circuit” which is the first amplifying receiver and reliable transmitter in radio (circuits). (describe specifics of circuit).
A regenerative circuit is a circuit that simply connects the output of an amplifier back into the input so it can be amplified again many times. This simple connection of output back to amplifier input of a regenerative circuit is also called a "feedback" loop or circuit. The regenerative circuit (or self-regenerative circuit) allows an electronic signal to be amplified many times by the same vacuum tube or other active component such as a field effect transistor. (verify)
Although vacuum tubes are used in early designs, modern transistors (bipolar, JFET etc.) are often used today. Typical regenerative gains for these devices are: bipolar transistor, 100,000; JFET 20,000, and vacuum tube: a few thousand. This is quite dramatic considering the fact that the non regenerative gain of these devices (at RF frequencies) is very low (often 20 or less).
Armstrong writes in his October 1913 patent "Wireless Receiving System": "... The present invention relates to improvements in the arrangement and connections of electrical apparatus at the receiving station of a wireless system, and particularly a system of this kind in which a so-called "audion" is used as the Hertzian wave detector ; the object being to amplify the effect of the received waves upon the current in the telephone or other receiving circuit, to increase the loudness and definition of the sounds in the telephone or other receiver, whereby more reliable communication may be established, or a greater distance of transmission becomes possible. To this end I have modified and improved upon the arrangement of the receiving circuits in a manner which will appear fully from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings. As a preliminary, it is to be noted that my improved arrangement corresponds with the ordinary arrangement of circuits in connection with an audion detector to the extent that it comprises two interlinked circuits; a tuned receiving circuit in which the audion grid is included, and which will be hereinafter referred to as the "tuned grid circuit", and a circuit including a battery or other source of direct current and the "wing" of the audion, and which will be hereinafter referred to as the "wing circuit". As is usual, the two circuits are interlinked by connecting the hot filament of the audion to the point of junction of the tuned grid circuit and the wing circuit. I depart, however, from the customary arrangement of these circuits in a manner which may, for convenience of description, be classified by analysis under three heads; firstly, the provision of means, or the arrangement of the apparatus, to impart resonance to the wing circuit so that it is capable of sustaining oscillations corresponding to the oscillations in the tuned grid circuit; ...". (notice "classified")
| Yonkers, New York City, New York, USA |
87 YBN
[11/05/1913 AD]
| 4824) Johannes Stark (sToRK) (CE 1874-1957), German physicist, shows that a strong static electric field will cause a multiplication in emitted spectral lines of Hydrogen and Helium. This effect is called the "Stark effect" and is an analog of the Zeeman effect in which spectral emission lines are changed by a moving (dynamic) electric (electro-magnetic) field.
According to Asimov the Stark effect can be explained by quantum mechanics and serves as another piece of support for quantum theory. (Explain how quantum mechanics explains the Stark effect.)
Oxford Dictionary of Scientists states a similar explanation: "... following Pieter Zeeman's demonstration of the splitting of the spectral lines of a substance in a magnetic field, Stark succeeded in obtaining a similar phenomenon in an electric field.".
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Stark establishes an electric field of between 10,000 and 31,000 volts/cm, in the canal-ray tube. Stark describes his experiment this way (translated from German):
"... One afternoon soon after courses resumed in October, I began recording the canal rays in a mixture of hydrogen and helium. About six o’clock I interrupted the exposure and. . . went to the darkroom to start the developing process. I was naturally very excited, and since the plate was still in the fixing bath, I took it out for a short time to look at the spectrum in the faint yellow light of the darkroom. I observed several lines at the position of the blue hydrogen line, whereas the neighboring helium lines appeared to be simple...". (Note that with both electrodes in the tube, this must be a synamic electromagnetic field - as opposed to a static field.)
At the beginning of July 1913, several months before Stark’s discovery, Niels Bohr published his concept of a quantum-mechanical model of the atom. According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Bohr's theory provides, in principle, the possibility of understanding the reason for the Stark effect, which the classical theory is powerless to explain. (Explain this belief in more detail - how does the Bohr model explain this where the classical theory cannot. Is there a particle collision explanation? For example, perhaps the particles in electricity collide with particles in the atom emitting photons, and this causes the direction of the photons to change - and this might slightly change the vector they make with the grating - causing them to be reflected slightly left or right of other similar beams. This presumes the interpretation of diffraction explained by William Lawrence Bragg where diffraction is actually reflection.)
Zeeman had used an electromagnetic field from an electromagnet to change the spectral lines, where Stark may use an electric current - depending on the translation. Either way, it seems clear that the two phenomena are identical in that particles moving in the electric effect cause spectral lines to change. So I think there is still the idea that a large static electricity field might cause a similar effect, but then the problem of the static field turning dynamic because of the current flowing between electrodes of the cathode ray tube.
(Is this a static or dynamic field? Because, there must be current from H in figure 1. to the anode and/or cathode. If dynamic then I think Fievez and Zeeman showed this using an electromagnetic field - verify.) (Notice how the electric field in figs. 2 and 3 has a direction - so this seems to me to be identical to the Fievez-Zeeman effect.) (Possibly, in my view, this may be a dynamic electric field and not a static field - even with a static field outside the cathode tube, I'm not sure that there would be no current flowing from outside to the other electrode.) (Note that Stark never states that this is a static electric field apparently.) (Get translation and list relevent parts.)
(Experiment: Do these effects also exist for a static electricity field with absorption lines as they do for the Fievez-Zeeman effect? Are these different doubled, etc. frequencies also reabsorbed?)
(I can accept that there is some difference between a static and dyminamic electric field, but view magnetic field as simply an electric field caused by electric currents. Is there a difference between the Stark and Fievez-Zeeman phenomena? Could there be a leakage of moving particles in the supposed static field?)
| (Physical Institute of Technology) Aachen, Germany |
87 YBN
[11/27/1913 AD]
| 4911) Antonius van der Broek (CE 1870-1926) theorizes that there must be electrons in the nucleus and that successive places in the periodic table correspond to unit differences in the net intra-atomic charge.
Van der Broek writes: "In a previous letter to NATURE (July 20, 1911, p. 78) the hypothesis was proposed that the atomic weight being equal to about twice the intra-atomic charge, "to each possible intra-atomic charge corresponds a possible element," or that (Physik. Zeitschr, xiv., 1912, p. 39), "if all elements be arranged in order of increasing atomic weights, the number of each element in that series must be equal to its intra-atomic charge.".
Charges being known only very roughly (probably correct to 20 per cent.), and the number of the last element Ur in the series not being equal even approximately to half its atomic weight, either the number of elements in Mendeléeff's system is not correct (that was supposed to be the case in the first letter), or the intra-atomic charge for the elements at the end of the series is much smaller than that deduced from experiment (about 100 for Au).
Now, according to Rutherford, the ratio of the scattering of a particles per atom divided by the square of the charge must be constant. Geiger and Marsden (Phil. Mag., xxv., pp. 617 and 618, notes 1 and 2), putting the nuclear charge proportional to the atomic weight, found values, however, showing, not constancy, but systematic deviation from (mean values) 3.825 for Cu to 3.25 for Au. If now in these values the number M of the place each element occupies in Mendeléeff's series is taken instead of A, the atomic weight, we get a real constant (18.7 ± 0.3); hence the hypothesis proposed holds good for Mendeléeff's series, but the nuclear charge is not equal to half the atomic weight. Should thus the mass of the atom consist for by far the greatest part of a particles, then the nucleus too must contain electrons to compensate this extra charge. ...".
| |
87 YBN
[12/04/1913 AD]
| 4910) Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956), English chemist creates the name "isotope" for elements that are chemically unseparable but have different atomic mass. In addition Soddy produces evidence that there is negative charge in the nucleus in contrast to Rutherford's atomic model, and that the electrons of beta decay originate from the nucleus and not the outer ring.
Soddy writes in an article entitled "Intra-atomic Charge" in Nature: " That the intra-atomic charge of an element is determined by its place in the periodic table rather than by its atomic weight, as concluded by A. van der Broek (NATURE, November 27, p. 372), is strongly supported by the recent generalisation as to the radio-elements and the periodic law. The successive expulsion of one α and two β particles in three radio-active changes in any order brings the intra-atomic charge of the element back to its initial value, and the element back to its original place in the table, though its atomic mass is reduced by four units. We have recently obtained something like a direct proof of van der Broek's view that the intra-atomic charge of the nucleus of an atom is not a purely positive charge, as on Rutherford's tentative theory. but is the difference between a positive and a smaller negative charge.
Fajans, in his paper on the periodic law generalisation (Physikal. Zeitsch., 1913, vol. xiv., p. 131), directed attention to the fact that the changes of chemical nature consequent upon the expulsion of α and β particles are precisely of the same kind as in ordinary electrochemical changes of valency. He drew from this the conclusion that radio-active changes must occur in the same region of atomic structure as ordinary chemical changes, rather than with a distinct inner region of structure or "nucleus," as hitherto supposed. In my paper on the same generalisation, published immediately after that of Fajans (Chem. News, February 28), I laid stress on the absolute identity of chemical properties of different elements occupying the same place in the periodic table.
A simple deduction from this view supplied me with a means of testing the correctness of Fajans's conclusion that radio-changes and chemical changes are concerned with the same region of atomic structure. On my view his conclusion would involve nothing else than that, for example, uranium in its tetravalent uranous compounds must be chemically identical with and non-separable from thorium compounds. For uranium X, formed from uranium I by expulsion of an α particle, is chemically identical with thorium, as also is ionium formed in the same way from uranium II. Uranium X loses two β particles and passes back into uranium II, chemically identical with uranium. Uranous salts also lose two electrons and pass into the more hexavalent uranyl compounds. If these electrons come from the same region of the atom uranous salts should be chemically non-separable from thorium salts. But they are not.
There is a strong resemblance in chemical character between uranous and thorium salts, and I asked Mr. Fleck to examine whether they could be separated by chemical methods when mixed, the uranium being kept unchanged throughout in the uranous or tetravalent condition. Mr. Fleck will publish the experiments separately, and I am indebted to him for the result that the two classes of compounds can readily be separated by fractionation methods.
This, I think, amounts to a proof that the electrons expelled as β rays come from a nucleus not capable of supplying electrons to or withdrawing them from the ring, though this ring is capable of gaining or losing electrons from the exterior during ordinary electrochemical changes of valency.
I regard van der Broek's view, that the number representing the net positive charge of the nucleus is the number of the place which the element occupies in the periodic table when all the possible places from hydrogen to uranium are arranged in sequence, as practically proved so far as the relative value of the charge for the members of the end of the sequence, from thallium to uranium, is concerned. We are left uncertain as to the absolute value of the charge, because of the doubt regarding the exact number of rare-earth elements that exist. If we assume that all of these are known, the value for the positive charge of the nucleus of the uranium atom is about 90. Whereas if we make the more doubtful assumption that the periodic table runs regularly, as regards numbers of places, through the rare-earth group, and that between barium and radium, for example, two complete long periods exist, the number is 96. In either case it is appreciably less than 120, the number were the charge equal to one-half the atomic weight, as it would be if the nucleus were made out of α particles only. Six nuclear electrons are known to exist in the uranium atom, which expels in its changes six β rays. Were the nucleus made up of α particles there must be thirty or twenty-four respectively nuclear electrons, compared with ninety-six or 102 respectively in the ring. If, as has been suggested, hydrogen is a second component of atomic structure, there must be more than this. But there can be no doubt that there must be some, and that the central charge of the atom on Rutherford's theory cannot be a pure positive charge, but must contain electrons, as van der Broek concludes.
So far as I personally am concerned, this has resulted in a great clarification of my ideas, and it may be helpful to others, though no doubt there is little originality in it. The same algebraic sum of the positive and negative charges in the nucleus, when the arithmetical sum is different, gives what I call "isotopes" or "isotopic elements," because they occupy the same place in the periodic table. They are chemically identical, and save only as regards the relatively few physical properties which depend on atomic mass directly, physically identical also. Unit changes of this nuclear charge, so reckoned algebraically, give the successive places in the periodic table. For any one "place," or any one nuclear charge, more than one number of electrons in the outer-ring system may exist, and in such a case the element exhibits variable valency. But such changes of number, or of valency, concern only the ring and its external environment. There is no in- and out-going of electrons between ring and nucleus.".
The stimulus for Soddy’s term arises when he “got tired of writing ‘elements chemically identical and non-separable by chemical methods’ and coined the name isotope ....”. Another version has this name being suggested by Margaret Todd.
(This is just befpre WW1 starts in the summer of 1914 and WW1 basically sends a century long frigid chill over the public learning about scientific progress. It seems clear that much more has been learned about transmutation, and so it is no mystery as to why Soddy expressed the view that science should be brought to the public and to "speak the truth though the heavens fall".) (quote from )
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
87 YBN
[12/??/1913 AD]
| 5039) Henry Gwyn-Jeffreys Moseley (CE 1887-1915), English physicist demonstrates that the wavelength (interval) of secondary x-ray radiation emitted from atoms after being bombarded with X-rays, decreases smoothly with the increasing atomic weight of the elements emitting them. In addition, Moseley publishes the "high-frequency spectra" of various elements, using the corpuscular-word "frequency" as opposed to the wave-word "wavelength".
(Is this for all spectral lines, or just for some?)
To explain his diffraction patterns Laue had assumed that the radiation striking the crystal contained precisely six groups of monochromatic rays. W. L. Bragg and then Darwin and Moseley reject this assumption and conclude instead that only certain planes through the crystal, those rich in atoms, cause the interference. W. L. Bragg confirms this by reflecting X rays from the atom-rich cleavage surface of mica. Bragg finds that in reflection the crystal is like a row of semitransparent mirrors, causing interference of reflected radiation of wavelength incident upon the surface at glancing angle θ in that follows the formula nλ = 2d sin θ, where n is the order of the interference and d the separation of the atom-rich planes. The Braggs, Darwin and Moseley all agree that the maximum points found from x-ray reflection is from monochromatic radiation characteristic of their platinum anticathodes and identical to the L rays earlier identified by Barkla. Moseley photo graphically records the position of constructive interference and finds that the K rays consist of a soft, intense line, which he called Kα and a harder, weaker Kβ line. The L rays appeared to be more complicated, there is a soft intense line Lα and several weaker lines. Measurements of Co and Ni show that vKα follows Z, the atomic number. Moseley goes on to find that the frequencies for ten elements from Ca to Zn satisfy to a precision of 0.5 percent the simple relation: v K α/R = (3/4)(Z – 1)2,
where R stands for the Rydberg frequency. Moseley finds that these formulas hold exactly and can be used to test the periodic table for completeness;
Using this phenomenon, Moseley shows that the periodic table of Mendeléev can be arranged by positive charge in the nucleus (later to be the number of protons and called the atomic number) as opposed to atomic weight which fixes the number of elements that can exist on the table. Barkla had suspected this. When Laue and the Braggs showed how X-rays can be reflected (diffracted) by crystals, Moseley uses this technique as a method to determine and compare the wavelengths of the X-ray radiations of various elements. Moseley attributes this phenomenon to the increasing number of electrons in the atom as atomic weight increases, and to the increasing quantity of positive charge in the nucleus. This charge is later found to be a reflection of the number of positively charged protons in the nucleus, and will be called the atomic number. This view of the periodic table fixes the position of the elements. Before this, there could be elements in between known elements, because no minimum difference in atomic weights among the elements was established. Using an atomic number, which is an integer, there can be no element between element 30 and 31 for example. This means that from hydrogen to uranium there can only be 92 elements. In this year there are only 7 positions for unknown elements in the periodic table. This X-ray technique is used to show that Urbain's celtium is not a new element and to verify Hevesy's new element hafnium. This X-ray method is a new and valuable method of chemical analysis, different from the old methods of weighing and titration. These methods will involved measuring light absorption, and change in electric potential (for example Heyrovsky's polarimetry).
Moseley concludes that there were three unknown elements between aluminum and gold (there are, in fact, four), and also correctly concludes that there are only 92 elements up to and including uranium and 14 rare-earth elements.
In a December 1913 paper in Philosophical Magazine, entitled "The High-Frequency Spectra of the Elements" Moseley writes: "In the absence of any available method of spectrum analysis, the characteristic types of X radiation, which an atom emits if suitably exited, have hitherto been described in terms of their absorption in aluminium. The interference phenomena exhibited by X-rays when scattered by a crystal have now, however, made possible the accurate determination of the frequencies of the various types of radiation. This was shown by W. H. and W. L. Bragg, who by this method analyzed the line spectrum emitted by the platinum target of an X-ray tube. C. G. Darwin and the author extended this analysis and also examined the continuous spectrum, which in this case constitutes the greater part of the radiation. Recently Prof. Bragg has also determined the wave-lengths of the strongest lines in the spectra of nickel, tungsten, and rhodium. The electrical methods which have hitherto been employed are, however, only successful where a constant source of radiation is available. The present paper contains a description of a method of photographing these spectra, which makes the analysis of the X-rays as simple as an other branch of spectroscopy. The author intends first to make a general survey of the principal types of high-frequency radiation, and then to examine the spectra of a few elements in greater detail and with greater accuracy. The results already obtained show that such data have an important bearing on the question of the internal structure of the atom, and strongly support the views of Rutherford and of Bohr.
Kaye has shown that an element excited by a stream of sufficiently fast cathode rays emits its characteristic X radiation . He used as targets a number of substances mounted on a truck inside an exhausted tube. A magnetic device enabled each target to be brought in turn into the line of fire. The apparatus was modified to suit the present work. The cathode stream was concentrated on to a small area of the target, and a platinum plate furnished with a fine vertical slit placed immediately in front of the part bombarded. The tube was exhausted by a Gaede mercury pump, charcoal in liquid air being also sometimes used to remove water vapour. The X-rays, after passing through the slit marked S in Fig. I, emerged through an aluminium window 0.02 mm. thick. The rest of the radiation was shut off by a lead box which surrounded the tube. The rays fell on the cleavage face, C, of a crystal of potassium ferrocyanide which was mounted on the prism-table of a spectrometer. The surface of the crystal was vertical and contained the geometrical axis of the spectrometer.
Now it is known that X-rays consist in general of two types, the heterogeneous radiation and characteristic radiations of definite frequency. The former of these is reflected from such a surface at all angles of incidence, but at the large angles used in the present work the reflexion is of very little intensity. The radiations of definite frequency, on the other hand, are reflected only when they strike the surface at definite angles, the glancing angle of incidence θ, the wave-length, and the "grating constant" d of the crystal being connected by the relation
nλ = 2d sin θ
where n, an integer, may be called the "order" in which the reflexion occurs. The particular crystal used, which was a fine specimen with face 6 cm. square, was known to give strong reflexions in the first three orders, the third order being the most prominent.
If then a radiation of definite wave-length happens to strike any part P of the crystal at a suitable angle, a small part of it is reflected. Assuming for the moment that the source of the radiation is a point, the locus of P is obviously the arc of a circle, and the reflected rays will travel along the generating lines of a cone with apex at the image of the source. The effect on a photographic plate L will take the form of the arc of an hyperbola, curving away from the direction of the direct beam, With a fine slit at S, the arc becomes a fine line which is slightly curved in the direction indicated. The photographic plate was mounted on the spectrometer arm, and both the plate and slit were 17 cm. from the axis. The importance of this arrangement lies in a geometrical property, for when these two distances are equal the point L at which a beam reflected at a definite angle strikes the plate is independent of the position of P on the crystal surface. The angle at which the crystal is set is then immaterial so long as a ray can strike some part of the surface at the required angle. The angle θ can be obtained from the relation 2θ = 180° - SPL = 180° - SAL.
The following method was used for measuring the angle SAL. Before taking a photograph a reference line R was made at both ends of the plate by replacing the crystal by a lead screen furnished with a fine slit which coincided with the axis of the spectrometer. A few seconds' exposure to the X-rays then gave a line R on the plate, and so defined on it the line joining S and A. A second line RQ was made in the same way after turning the spectrometer arm through a definite angle. The arm was then turned to the position required to catch the reflected beam and the angles LAP for any lines which were subsequently found on the plate. The angle LAR was measured with an error of not more than 0°.1, by superposing on the negative a plate on which reference lines had been marked in the same way at intervals of 1°. In finding from this the glancing angle of reflexion two small corrections were necessary in practice, since neither the face of the crystal nor the lead slit coincided accurately with the axis of the spectrometer. Wavelengths varying over a range of about 30 per cent. could be reflected for a given position of the crystal.
In almost all cases the time of exposure was five minutes. Ilford X-ray plates were used and were developed with rodinal. The plates were mounted in a plate-holder, the front of which was covered with black paper. In order to determine the wavelength from the reflexion angle θ it is necessary to know both the order n in which the reflexion occurs and the grating constant d. n was determined by photographing every spectrum both in the second order and the third. This also gave a useful check on the accuracy of the measurements; d cannot be calculated directly for the complicated crystal potassium ferrocyanide. The grating constant of this particular crystal had, however, previously been accurately compared with d', the constant of a specimen of rock-salt. It was found that
d = 3d' .1988/.1985
Now W.L. Bragg has shown that the atoms in a rock-salt crystal are in simple cubical array. Hence the number of atoms per c.c.
2 Nσ/M= I/(d')3
N, the number of molecules in a gram-mol., = 6.05 x 1023 assuming the charge on an electron to be 4.89 x 10-10; σ, the density of this crystal of rock-salt, was 2.167, and M the molecular weight = 58.46.
This gives d' = 2.814 x 10-8 and d = 8.454 x 10-8 cm. It is seen that the determination of wave-length depends on σ, so that the effect of uncertainty in the value of this quantity will not be serious. Lack of homogeneity in the crystal is a more likely source of error, as minute inclusions of water would make the density greater than that found experimentally.
Twelve elements have so far been examined....
Plate XXIII. shows the spectra in the third order placed approximately in register. Those parts of the photographs which represent the same angle of reflexion are in the same vertical line.... It is to be seen that the spectrum of each element consists of two lines. Of these the stronger has been called α in the table, and the weaker β. The lines found on any of the plates besides α and β were almost certainly all due to impurities. Thus in both the second and third order the cobalt spectrum shows Ni α very strongly and Fe α faintly. In the third order the nickel spectrum shows Mn α faintly. The brass spectra naturally show α and β both of Cu and of Zn, but Zn β2 has not yet been found. In the second order the ferro-vanadium and ferro-titanium spectra show very intense third-order Fe lines, and the former also shows Cu α3 faintly. The Co contained Ni and 0.8 per cent. Fe, the Ni 2.2 per cent. Mn, and the V only a trace of Cu. No other lines have been found, but a search over a wide range of wave-lengths has been made only for one or two elements, and perhaps prolonged exposures, which have not yet been attempted, will show more complex spectra. The prevalence of lines due to impurities suggests that this may prove a powerful method of chemical analysis. Its advantage over ordinary spectroscopic method lies in the simplicity of the spectra and the impossibility of one substance masking the radiation from another. It may even lead to the discovery of missing elements, as it will be possible to predict the position of their characteristic lines. ... A discussion will now be given of the meaning of the wave-lengths found for the principal spectrum-line α. In Table I. the values are given of the quantity
{ULSF: See equation}
v being the frequency of the radiation α, and v0 the fundamental frequency of ordinary line spectra. The latter is obtained from Rydberg's wave-number, N0=v/c=109,720. The reason for introducing this particular constant will be given later. It is at once evidence that Q increases by a constant amount as we pass from one element to the next, using the chemical order of the elements in the periodic system. Except in the case of nickel and cobalt, this is also the order of the atomic weights. While, hoerver, Q increases uniformly the atomic weights vary in an apparently arbitrary manner, so that an exception in their order does not come as a surprise. We have here a proof that there is in the atom a fundamental quantity, which increases by regular steps as we pass from one element to the next. This quantity can only be the charge on the central positive nucleus, of the existence of which we already have proof. Rutherford has shown, from the magnitude of the scattering of α particles by matter, that this nucleus carries a + charge approximately equal to that of A/2 electrons, where A is the atomic weight. Barkla, from the scattering of X rays by matter, has shown that the number of electrons in an atom is roughly A/2, which for an electrically neutral atom comes to the same thing. Now atomic weights increase on the average by about 2 units at a time, and this strongly suggests the view that N increases from atom to atom always by a single electronic unit. We are therefore led by experiment to the view that N is the same as the number of the place occupied by the element in the periodic system. This atomic number is then for H 1 for He 2 for Li 3 ... for Ca 20 ... for Zn 30, &c. This theory was originated by Broek and since used by Bohr. We can confidently predict that in the few cases in which the order of the atomic weights A clashes with the chemical order of the periodic system, the chemical properties are governed by N; while A is itself probably a complicated function of N. The very close similarity between the X-ray spectra of the different elements shows that these radiations originate inside the atom, and have no direct connexion with the complicated light-spectra and chemical properties which are governed by the structure of its surface.
We will now examine the relation {ULSF: See equation} more closely. So far the argument has relied on the fact that Q is a quantity which increases from atom to atom by equal steps. Now Q has been obtained by multiplying be a constant factor so chosen as to make the steps equal to unity. We have, therefore,
Q = N -k,
where k is a constant. hence the frequency c varies as (N-k)2. If N for calcium is really 20 then k=1. There is good reason to believe that the X-ray spectra with which we are now dealing come from the innermost ring of electrons. If these electrons are held in equilibrium by mechanical forces, the angular velocity w with which they are rotating and the radius r of their orbit are connected by
mw2r = e2/r2(N- σn),
where σn is a small term arising from the influence of the n electrons in the ring of each other... In obtaining this simple expression the very small effect of other outside rings has been neglected. If then, as we pass from atom to atom, the number of electrons in the central ring remains unaltered, {ULSF: See equation} remains constant;
but these experiments have shown that {ULSF: See equation} is also constant,
and therefore
{ULSF: See equation} is constant.
For the types of radiation considered by Bohr, provided the ring moves from one stationary state to another as a whole, and for the ordinary transverse vibrations of the ring, provided the influence of outer rings can be neglected, v is proportional to w. This gives ...the angular momentum of an electron, the same for all the differen atoms. Thus we have an experiment verification of the principle of the constancy of angular moementum which was first used by Nicholson, and is the basis of Bohr's theory of the atom. ...
...".
In April 1914 Moseley publishes the high-frequency spectral lines for more than 30 more elements.
(Another way of stating this is that the frequency of photons absorbed from X-ray beams and then emitted, is more for larger atoms than for smaller atoms. )
(Explain Heyrovsky's polarimetry.)
(Show images of spectral lines.)
(read relevent parts of paper.)
| (University of Manchester) Machester, England |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4129) Santiago Ramón y Cajal (romON E KoHoL) (CE 1852-1934) Spanish histologist, developes a gold stain (1913) for the general study of the fine structure of nervous tissue in the brain, sensory centres, and the spinal cords of embryos and young animals. These nerve-specific stains enable Ramón y Cajal to differentiate neurons from other cells and to trace the structure and connections of nerve cells in gray matter and the spinal cord. The stains have also been of great value in the diagnosis of brain tumours.
This is the gold sublimate method.
| (University of Madrid) Madrid, Spain |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4361) Elmer Verner McCollum (CE 1879-1967), US biochemist with M. Davis find that rats fed with a diet lacking in butterfat fail to develop and from this assume the existence of a special factor present in butterfat without which the normal growth process can not take place. McCollum reports that rats fed on a diet deficient in certain fats resume normal growth when fed "the ether extract of egg or of butter". Furthermore, McCollum is able to transfer this "growth-promoting factor" to otherwise nutritionally inert fat or oil which then exhibites growth–promoting activity in rats. As this factor is clearly fat-soluble, it must be different from the antiberiberi factor proposed by Casimir Funk in 1912 and found by Eijkman, which is water-soluble. McCollum names these substances fat-soluble–A and water-soluble–B, which later becomes vitamins A and B. In 1920 McCollum will be able to extend the alphabet further by naming the antirachitic factor found in cod-liver oil vitamin D (vitamin C already being taken to describe the antiscorbutic factor). Vitamin A and vitamin B are the first of many lettered vitamins. These letter names will last 25 years until the chemical nature of the vitamins allows the use of proper chemical names, although the letters are still in popular use.
Three weeks later Thomas Burr Osborne (CE 1859-1929), US biochemist, independently reports the same findings. Osborne goes on to show that amino acids lysine and tryptophan cannot be synthesized by rats but have to be present in the protein in their diet. In addition Osbourne shows that cod liver oil is a rich source for vitamin A (feeding children nauseating cod liver oil then becomes popular.)
(Get image of Osborne)
| (University of Wisconsin) Wisconsin, USA |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4496) Charles Fabry (FoBrE) (CE 1867-1945), French physicist demonstrates that solar ultraviolet light is filtered out by an ozone layer in the upper atmosphere.
This suggests the existence of ozone in the upper atmosphere. Ozone is a very small component of the air, but absorbs most of the ultraviolet light which is harmful to life, and so may have played an important role in the development of life on earth. The original air on earth did not contain oxygen and oxygen was built up by the photosynthetic activity of plants (and cyanobacteria which are the ancestors of all chloroplasts in plants), so this suggests that life lived under water before there was enough oxygen to be protected from ultraviolet light on land (although clearly parts of stromatalites were above water, and so some bacteria may have evolved defenses to survive the uv light.) One theory is that until ozone could be built up to absorb the ultraviolet light, this light possibly formed organic molecules in the oceans (and lakes) and after the ozone stopped the ultraviolet light, photosynthesis became the only method to form organic molecules.
(Ultraviolet light causes harmful mutations in the nucleic acids in every cell.)
| (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4507) Theodore William Richards (CE 1868-1928), US chemist and team show that lead present in uranium has a lower atomic weight than normal specimens of lead, and this supports the idea that this lead was formed by radioactive decay, which provides experimental verification of Soddy's recently formed theory of isotopes.
Beginning in 1887, Richards and his students spend 30 years establishing the atomic weights of some sixty elements using purely chemical methods. (how?) Although the atomic weight values of Jean Servais Stas had been regarded as standard, about 1903 physicochemical measurements show that some were not accurate.
After this the focus will turn to measuring the atomic mass of individual isotopes by electromagnetic methods (explain briefly) which result in more accurate measurements than those determined by chemical methods. (how many chemical methods of atomic mass determination are there?)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachussets, USA |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4727) Max Bodenstein (BoDeNsTIN) (CE 1871-1942), German chemist is the first to show how the large yield per quantum for the reaction of hydrogen and chlorine could be explained by a chain reaction. (explain yield of particles? explain quantum)
In 1913 Bodenstein and Walter Dux performed experiments on the photochemical chlorine hydrogen reaction. The dissociation of hydrogen bromide had been shown to be far more complicated than the simple proportionality relationships that held for hydrogen iodide. The study of the photochemical chlorine hydrogen reaction results in a surprise in that the velocity (of the reaction) is found to be proportional to the square of the chlorine concentration and inversely proportional with the oxygen concentration. Bodenstein explains this law by using the concept of a chain reaction and, simultaneously, the fact that the photochemical yield exceeds the Einstein law of equivalents by a factor of 104.
Winstein's photochemical law of equivalence states that each molecule taking part in a chemical reaction caused by electromagnetic radiation (light) absorbs one photon of the radiation. This law is also known as the Stark-Einstein law. (So this reaction proves this law to be inaccurate.)
In 1920 Bodenstein will explain this violation of Einstein's theory by postulating the existence of an “atomic” chain reaction, a concept originally proposed by Nernst.
(More details - show reaction in 3D)
| (Technische Hochschule) Hannover, Germany |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4811) Louis Darget (CE 1847-1921) produces thought-photographs taken by placing a photographic plate onto the forehead for half an hour.
(Although the photographs are probably not of thought the reality of neuron reading and writing, and capturing the sounds and images of thought must be at least 85 years old. The actual science of "thought photos" is apparently completely smothered by supernatural claims like images of the dead in the "spiritworld".)
(Is there talk about photographing the images the eyes see?)
| Paris, France |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4849) Leonor Michaelis (miKoAliS) (CE 1875-1949), German-US chemist with his assistant Menton, evolves an equation that describes how the rate of an enzyme-catalyzed reaction varies with the concentration of the substance taking part in the reaction. This is called the Michaelis-Menten equation after Michaelis and his assistant. To work out this equation Michaelis postulates the joining of an enzyme and the reacting substance prior to the reaction, for which direct evidence will only come 50 years later.
Michaelis and Menten try to picture the relation between an enzyme and its substrate (the substance it catalyzes) and, in particular, how to predict and understand the reaction rate, that is, how much substrate is acted upon by an enzyme per unit time, and the basic factors that stimulate or inhibit this rate. The kind of graph obtained when reaction rate is plotted against substrate concentration shows that additional substrate concentration sharply increases the reaction rate until a certain point is reached when the rate appears to become completely indifferent to the addition of any further amounts of substrate.
Michaelis's insight into the working of the enzyme–substrate complex is remarkable as there is no evidence for this model until Britton Chance produces spectroscopic evidence in 1949.
Michaelis and Menten publish this as "Die Kinetik der Invertinwirkung" (Kinetics of the action of inverting).
(Needs to be clearer - show graphically the different parts involved.)
| (Berlin Municipal Hospital) Berlin, Germany |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4942) Irving Langmuir (laNGmYUR) (CE 1881-1957), US chemist extends the life of the electric (incandescent) light bulb by showing that a tungsten filament in a bulb filled with gas with which tungsten will not bond lasts longer than tungsten in a vacuum.
The vacuum tubes (tungsten bulbs) then in use contain an incandescent tungsten wire that tends to break and also deposits a black film inside the bulb. Most research to rectify this focuses on improving the quality of the vacuum in the bulb. Langmuir saw that the same effect can be obtained more cheaply and efficiently by filling the bulb with an inert gas. After much experimentation Langmuir finds that a mixture of nitrogen and argon does not attack the tungsten filament and eliminates the oxidation on the bulb.
Claude, in France, will create the neon gas light bulb which will be used in fluorescent bulbs.
| (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 4963) Hans Wilhelm Geiger (GIGR) (CE 1882-1945), German physicist invents the "Geiger counter", which detects high velocity subatomiuc particles.
A Geiger counter is a cylinder that contains a gas under high electric potential just low enough to not overcome the resistance of the gas. When a high-velocity sub-atomic particle enters the cylinder, the particle ionizes one of the gas molecules, and this ion is pulled towards the cathode with great speed, and as a result of collisions, this ion ionizes more atoms which in turn ionize other atoms, and this creates an avalanche of ionization that conducts a brief electric current that can cause a speaker to make a click sound.
In 1908 Geiger and Rutherford had devised an electrical technique in order to count the individual α particles and compare results with those obtained by Erich Regener, who used the scintillation technique. In 1912 improves on the design of the early instrument made with Rutherford, by varying the form and dimensions of the central electrode. Geiger creates a design that comes to be known as the Spitzenzähler or "point counter", since "the whole working of the apparatus depends on the point of the needle". The great advantage of this device is that in addition to α particles, for the first time, β particles as well as other types of radiation (for example photons with gamma frequencies) can be counted.
(TODO find paper, translate, and give relevent details)
(Give gas used in counter, and how many volts it is under, and the resistance in ohms of the gas.)
(State which kinds of particles are detected.)
| (Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt) Berlin, Germany |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 5019) Archibald Vivian Hill, (CE 1886-1977), English physiologist, shows that heat is produced and oxygen is consumed after the muscle is done contracting, not during the contraction using thermocouples which record changes in heat as tiny electric currents (show device and confirm), and this fits with the findings of Meyerhof. Using his adapted thermocouples, Hill can measure a rise of .003°C in only a few hundredths of a second. (Helmholtz had wanted to measure the heat production made by muscle but failed.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 5057) Beno Gutenberg (CE 1889-1960), German-US geologist suggests that the earth's core is liquid from earthquake data.
At the time, it was known that there are two main types of waves: primary (P) waves, which are longitudinal compression waves, and secondary (S) waves, which are transverse shear waves. On the opposite side of the Earth to an earthquake, in an area known as the shadow zone, no S waves are recorded and the P waves, although they do appear, are of smaller amplitudes and occur later than would be expected. Gutenberg proposes that the Earth's core, first identified by Richard Oldham in 1906, is liquid, which would explain the absence of S waves as, being transverse, they cannot be transmitted through liquids. Making detailed calculations Gutenberg shows that the core ends at a depth of about 1800 miles (2900 km) below the Earth's surface where it forms a marked discontinuity, now known as the Gutenberg discontinuity, with the overlying mantle. Its existence has been confirmed by later work including precise measurements made after underground nuclear explosions.
(From the epicenter all earthquake waves travel in a spherical direction through the earth?)
(verify source is correct one)
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
87 YBN
[1913 AD]
| 5083) (Sir) James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist, and A. S. Russell, show that γ Rays are emitted when α Rays collide with matter.
(Determine what kind of matter emits gamma rays - is this also a theory that alpha particles give rise to gamma emission in radioactive atoms? They also state that these gamma radiations of radioactive matter are probably characteristic of the matter emitting them, like x-rays are.)
(State any work done to examine the reflection/fluorescent spectra of elements from gamma ray bombardment.)
Ernest Rutherford was the first to measure the frequencies of gamma rays in 1914. (verify)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN
[02/??/1914 AD]
| 4747) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, theorizes that the hydrogen nucleus is the positive electron and that the hydrogen nucleus must have a radius of about 1/1830 of the electron.
Rutherford writes: "... Dimensions and Constitution of the Nucleus.
In my previous paper I showed that the nucleus must have exceedingly small dimensions, and calculated that in the case of gold its radius was not greater then 3 x 10-12 cm. In order to account for the velocity given to hydrogen atoms by the collision with a particles, it can be simply calculated (see Darwin) that the centres of nuclei of helium and hydrogen must approach within a distance of 1.7 x 10-13 cm. of each other. Supposing for simplicity the nuclei to have dimensions and to be spherical in shape, it is clear that the sum of the radii of the hydrogen and helium nuclei is not greater than 1.7 x 10-13 cm. This is an exceedingly small quantity, even smaller then the ordinarily accepted value of the diameter of the electron, viz. 2 x 10-13 cm. It is obvious that the method we have considered gives a maximum estimate of the dimensions of the nuclei, and it is not improbable that the hydrogen nucleus itself may have still smaller dimensions. This raises the question whether the hydrogen nucleus is so small that its mass may be accounted for in the same way as the mass of the negative electron.
It is well known from the experiments of J.J. Thomson and others, that no positively charged carrier has been observed of mass less than that of the hydrogen atom. The exceedingly small dimensions found for the hydrogen nucleus add weight to the suggestion that the hydrogen nucleus is the positive electron, and that its mass is entirely electromagnetic in origin. According to the electromagnetic theory, the electrical mass of a charged body, supposed spherical, is (2/3) e2 / a where a is the charge and a the radius. The hydrogen nucleus consequently must have a radius about 1/1830 of the electron if its mass is to be explained in this way. There is no experimental evidence at present contrary to such an assumption.
The helium nucleus has a mass nearly four times that of hydrogen. If one supposes that the positive electron, i.e. the hydrogen atom, is a unit of which all atoms are composed, it is to be anticipated that the helium atom contains four positive electrons and two negative.
It is well known that a helium atom is expelled in many cases in the transformation of radioactive matter, but no evidence has so far been obtained of the expulsion of a hydrogen atom. In conjunction with Mr. Robinson, I have examined whether any other charged atoms are expelled from radioactive matter except helium atoms, and the recoil atoms which accompany the expulsion of a particles. The examination showed that if such particles are expelled, their number is certainly less then 1 in 10,000 of the number of helium atoms. It thus follows that the helium nucleus is a very stable configuration which survives the intense disturbances resulting in its expulsion with high velocity from the radioactive atom, and is one of the units, of which possibly the great majority of the atoms are composed. The radioactive evidence indicates that the atomic weight of successive products decreases by four units consequent on the expulsion of an α particle, and it has often been pointed out that the atomic weights of many of the permanent atoms differ by about four units.
It will be seen later that the resultant positive charge on the nucleus determines the main physical and chemical properties of the atom. The mass of the atom is, however, dependent on the number and arrangement of the positive and negative electrons constituting the atom. Since the experimental evidence indicates that the nucleus has very small dimensions, the constituent positive and negative electrons must be very close together. As Lorentz has pointed out, the electrical mass of a system of charged particles, if close together, will depend not only on the number of these particles, but on the way their fields interact. For the dimensions of the positive and negative electrons considered, the packing must be very close in order to produce an appreciable alteration in the mass due to this cause. This may, for example, be the explanation of the fact that the helium atom has not quite four times the mass of the hydrogen atom. Until, however, the nucleus theory has been more definitely tested, it would appear premature to discuss the possible structure of the nucleus itself. The general theory would indicate that the nucleus of a heavy atom is an exceedingly complicated system, although its dimensions are very minute.
An important question arises whether the atomic nuclei, which all carry a positive charge, contain negative electrons. This question has been discussed by Bohr, who concluded from the radioactive evidence that the high speed b particles have their origin in the nucleus. The general radioactive evidence certainly supports such a conclusion. It is well known that the radioactive transformations which are accompanied by the expulsion of high speed β particles are, like the α ray changes, unaffected by wide ranges of temperature or by physical and chemical conditions. On the nucleus theory, there can be no doubt that the α particle has its origin in the nucleus and gains a great part, if not all, or its energy of motion in escaping from the atom. It seems reasonable, therefore, to suppose that α β ray transformation also originates from the expulsion of a negative electron from the nucleus. It is well known that the energy expelled in the form of β and γ rays during the transformation of radium C is about the one-quarter of the energy of the expelled a particle. It does not seem easy to explain this large emission of energy by supposing it to have its origin in the electronic distribution. It seems more likely that a very high speed electron is liberated from the nucleus, and in its escape from the atom sets the electronic distribution in violent vibration, given rise to intense γ rays and also to secondary β particles. The general evidence certainly indicates that many of the high speed electrons form radioactive matter are liberated from the electronic distribution in consequence of the disturbance due to the primary electron escaping from the nucleus.
....
Following the recent theories, it is supposed that the emission of an α particle lowers the nucleus charge by two units, while the emission of a β particle raises it by one unit. It is seen that Ur1 and Ur2 have the same nucleus charge although they differ in atomic weight by four units.
If the nucleus is supposed to be composed of a mixture of hydrogen nuclei with one charge and of helium nuclei with two charges, it is a priori conceivable that a number of atoms may exist with the same nucleus charge but of different atomic masses. The radioactive evidence certainly supports such a view, but probably only a few of such possible atoms would be stable enough to survive for a measurable time.
Bohr has drawn attention to the difficulties of constructing atoms on the "nucleus" theory, and has shown that the stable positions of the external electrons cannot be deducted from the classical mechanics. By the introduction of a conception connected with Planck's quantum, he has shown that on a certain assumptions it is possible to construct simple atoms and molecules out of positive and negative nuclei, e. g. the hydrogen atom and molecule and the helium atom, which behave in many respects like the actual atoms or molecules. While there may be much difference of opinion as to the validity and of the underlying physical meaning of the assumptions made by Bohr, there can be no doubt that the theories of Bohr are of great interest and importance to all physicists as the first definite attempt to construct simple atoms and molecules and to explain their spectra.".
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN
[04/02/1914 AD]
| 5235) (Sir) James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist, finds that the distribution in intensity in the electromagnetic spectrum of beta-rays (electron-rays) of radium is not constant.
This will lead to Wolfgang Pauli theorizing the excistance of what will be called the neutrino.
At this time Chadwick is studying under Geiger in the foremost German research institute, the Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt in Charlottenburg near Berlin and publishes this paper in German.
Chadwick writes (translated from German with translate.google.com): "The attempts by Hahn, Meitner v. Baeyer and have shown that the B-radiation of most radioactive substances consists of a series of homogeneous B-radiation groups . In particular, the measurements of Danysz and Rutherford and Robinson, result that the B-radiation from radium B + C is distinctly complex, so there are at Radium C alone more than 40 homogeneous groups of rays. To determine the velocity of each group the photographic method was always used. Because of the photographic blackening Startke Rutherford and Robinson have classified each group of beams in seven classes of various intensity. However, since the photographic effectiveness of B-rays of different velocities is not known, one obtains in this way, no safe understanding? about the intensity of each beam group. It is also due to the effect of gamma-rays and scattered B-rays which makes photographic measurements difficult, if over the line spectrum the continuous spectrum is not ordered. ... Summary The intensity distribution in the magnetic spectrum of b-rays from radium B and radium C was measured both with the number method and the ionisation method. It was found that the B-rays give a continuous radiation, that is superimposed by a line spectrum of relatively very low intensity and only in the territory of the slow-B rays are stronger single lines available. These results seemed at first to contradict the many photographs that obtained results which had led to the idea that there is a B-radiation of the most radioactive elements mainly of single homogeneous groups of rays. The difference between the electrical and photographic experiments could be explained as ordinary sensations of the photographic plate for low intensity fluctuations.".
(Translate paper and read relevent parts.)
(Determine how many papers Chadwick published in German. Was there an English version published?)
| (Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt) Charlottenburg, Germany |
86 YBN
[04/20/1914 AD]
| 5676) Jan Bielecki and Victor Henri show that the position of the maximum spectral absorption line of all simple α,β-unsaturated ketones is dependent on the solvent used, because changing solvents causes the intense band to be shifted toward the red, while the weak band is shifted toward the violet.
(Is this the first indication that absorption spectrum can be used to determine molecular structure? Explain possibly theories about how a molecular change might result in a lower or highter rate of light particles being absorpted into a molecule's atoms. Can protons and neutrons be responsible for absorbing some light particles in addition to electrons?)
(Show pictures from paper, and portraits.)
(It seems likely that the science around light absorption and emission has been supressed either directly or indirectly by the neuron owners.)
| (Sorbonne, University of Paris) Paris, France |
86 YBN
[04/??/1914 AD]
| 5107) Henry Gwyn-Jeffreys Moseley (CE 1887-1915), English physicist demonstrates publishes the high-frequency spectra for more than 30 elements, leaving spaces for missing elements.
Moseley writes in part 2 of "The high-frequency spectra of the elements": " The first part of this paper dealt with a method of photographing X-ray spectra, and included the spectra of a dozen elements. More that thirty other elements have now been investigated, and simple laws have been found which govern the results, and make it possible to predict with confidence the position of the principal lines in the spectrum of any element from aluminium to gold. The present contribution is a general preliminary survey, which claims neither to be complete nor very accurate. ... The radiations of long wave-length cannot penetrate an aluminum window or more than a centimetre or two of air. The photographs had therefore in this case to be taken inside an exhausted spectrometer. ...
...The total time of an exposure, including rests, varied from three minutes for a substance such as ruthenium, which could safely be heated, to thirty minutes for the rare earth oxides. The importance of using an efficient high-tension valve may again be mentioned. The oxides of Sa, Eu, Gd, Er were given me by Sir William Crookes, O.M., to whom I wish to express my sincere gratitude. For the loan of the Os and a button of Ru I am indebted to Messrs. Johnson Matthey. The alloys were obtained from the Metallic Compositions Co., and the oxides of La, Ce, Pr, Nd, and Er from Dr. Schuchardt, of Gorlitz. ...
The results obtained for radiations belonging to Barkla's K series are given in table I, and for convenience the figures already given in Part I. are included. The wave-length λ has been calculated from the glancing angle of reflexion θ by means of the relation n λ = 2d sin θ, where d has been taken to be 8.454 x 10¯8 cm. As before, the strongest line is called α and the next line β. The square root of the frequency of each line is plotted in Fig. 3, and the wavelengths can be read off with the help of the scale at the top of the diagram.
The spectrum of Al was photographed in the first order only. The very light elements give several other fainter lines, which have not yet been fully investigated, while the results for Mg and Na are quite complicated, and apparently depart from the simple relations which connect the spectra of the other elements.
In the spectra from yttrium onwards only the α line has so far been measured, and further results in these directions will be given in a later paper. The spectra both of K and of Cl were obtained by means of a target of KCl, but it is very improbable that the observed lines have been attributed to the wrong elements. The α line for elements from Y onwards appeared to consist of a very close doublet, an effect previously observed by Bragg in the case of Rhodium.
The results obtained for the spectra of the L series are given in Table II and plotted in Fig. 3. These spectra contain five lines, α, β, γ, δ, ε, reckoned in order of decreasing wave-length and deceasing intensity. There is also always a faint companion α' on the long wave-length side of α, a rather faint line φ between β and γ for the rare earth elements at least, and a number of very faint lines of wave-length greater than α. Of these, α, β, φ, and γ have been systematically measured with the object of finding out how the spectrum alters from one element to another. The fact that often values are not given for all these lines merely indicates the incompleteness of the work. The spectra, so far as they have been examined, are so entirely similar that without doubt α, β, and γ at least always exist. Often γ was not included in the limited range of wave-lengths which can be photographed on one plate. Sometimes lines have not been measured, either on account of faintness or of the confusing proximity of lines due to impurities. ...
Conclusions In Fig. 3 the spectra of the elements are arranged on horizontal lines spaced at equal distances. The order chosen for the elements is the order of the atomic weights, except in the cases of A, Co, and Te, where this clashes with the order of the chemical properties. Vacant lines have been left for an element between Mo and Ru, an element between Nd and Sa, and an element between W and Os, none of which are yet known, while Tm, which Welsbach has separated into two constituents, is given two lines. This equivalent to assigning to successive elements a series of successive characteristic integers. On this principle the integer N for Al, the thirteenth element, has been taken to be 13, and the values of N then assumed by the other elements are given on the left-hand side of Fig. 3 This proceeding is justified by the fact that it introduces perfect regularity into the X-rays spectra. Examination of Fig 3. shows that the values of ν1/2 for all the lines examined both in the K and the L series now fall on regular curves which approximate to straight lines. The same thing is shown more clearly by comparing the values of N in Table I with those of
ν being the frequency of the line and ν0 the fundamental Rydberg frequency. It is here plain that QK = N - 1 very approximately, except for the radiations of very short wave-length which gradually diverge from this relation. Again, in Table II a comparison of N with
where ν is the frequency of the Lα line, shows that QL = N - 7.4 approximately, although a systematic deviation clearly shows that the relation is not accurately linear in this case.
Now if either the elements were not characterized by these integers, or any mistake had been made in the order chosen or in the number of places left for unknown elements, these regularities would at once disappear;. We can therefore conclude from the evidence of the X-ray spectra alone, without using any theory of atomic structure, that these integers are really characteristic of the elements. Further, as it is improbable that two different stable elements should have the same integer, three, and only three, more elements are likely to exist between Al and Au. As the X-ray spectra of these elements can be confidently predicted, they should not be difficult to find. The examination of keltium would be of exceptional interest, as no place has been assigned to this element.
Now Rutherford has proved that the most important constituent of an atom is its central positively charge nucleus, and van den Broek has put forward the view that the charge carried by this nucleus is in all cases an integral multiple of the charge on the hydrogen nucleus. There is every reason to suppose that the integer which controls the X-ray spectrum is the same as the number of electrical units in the nucleus, and these experiments therefore give the strongest possible support to the hypothesis of van den Broek. Soddy has pointed out that the chemical properties of the radio-elements are strong evidence that this hypothesis is true for the elements from thallium to uranium, so that its general validity would now seem to be established. ... It was shown in Part I that the linear relation between c 1/2 and N-b was most naturally explained if the vibration system was a ring of electrons rotating round the central nucleus with an angular momentum which was the same for the different elements. This view has been analysed and put in a more generalised form in a letter to 'Nature', which in answer to criticisms made by Lindemann.
Summary 1. Every element from aluminum to gold is characterized by an integer N which determines its X-ray spectrum. Every detail in the spectrum of an element can therefore be predicted from the spectra of its neighbours. 2. This integer N, the atomic number of the element, is identified with the number of positive units of electricity contained in the atomic nucleus. 3. The atomic numbers for all elements from Al to Au have been tabulated on the assumption that N for Al is 13. 4. The order of the atomic numbers if the same as that of the atomic weights, except where the latter disagrees with the order of the chemical properties. 5. Known elements correspond with all the numbers be- {ULSF: typo} between 13 and 79 except three. There are here three possible elements still undiscovered. 6. The frequency of any line in the X-ray spectrum is approximately proportional to A(N-b)2, where A and b are constants. ...".
| (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
86 YBN
[05/??/1914 AD]
| 4762) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, acknowledges that (γ-ray) diffraction may be a form of reflection writing "....thin walled α-ray tube, filled with a large quantity of emanation, served as a source of γ rays. The rays were allowed to fall at a definite angle on a crystal, generally rocksalt, and the intensities of the 'reflected,' or rather diffracted, rays were examined by a photographic method.".
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN
[05/??/1914 AD]
| 5085) First determination of the particle intervals (wavelengths) of gamma rays.
Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and Edward Andrade determine the interval (wavelength) of "soft" gamma rays from Radium B to range from 79-136 pm which puts the gamma rays in the intervals between "soft" and "hard" x-rays, presuming a velocity of light particles. Later, in August, Rutherford and Andrade report measuring wavelengths (intervals) ranging from 7pm to 42 pm, which is in the "hard" x-ray range.
In 1913, immediately after Max von Laue found that crystal can produce x-ray "diffraction" patterns, at Leeds, W. H. Bragg, and his son, W. L. Bragg, showed how to measure X-ray wavelengths by reflecting them from crystals.
Rutherford and Edward Andrade write in a Philosophical Magazine article entitled "The Wave-Length of the Soft γ Rays from Radium B": " During the last few years, a large amount of attention has been directed to the absorption of the γ rays emitted by radioactive bodies. At first, the nature of the absorption by matter of the very penetrating γ rays emitted by the products radium C, meothroium 2, thorium D, and uranium X, was carefully examined, and it was found that all these types of radiation were absorbed by light elements very nearly according to an exponential law over a large range of thickness, but with different constants of absorption for each radiation. in order to explain the emission of homogeneous groups of β rays from a number of products, Rutherford suggested that the γ rays emitted by the radioactive products must be regarded as "characteristic" radiations excited in the radioelements by the escape of β particles from them. These "characteristic" radiations were supposed to be analogous to one or more of the groups of characteristic radiations observed by Barkla to be excited in different elements by X rays. it was suggested that the emission of homogeneous groups of β rays was directly connected with the emission of different types of characteric γ rays from each element, and that the energy of the escaping β particle was diminished by multiples of definite units depending on the energy required to set the electronic system of the atom in a definite form of vibration. In order to test this point of view, Rutherford and Richardson analysed in detail the γ rays emitted by a number of radioactive substances, using the absorption method to distinguish broadly between the different types of γ rays emitted. it was found that the γ radiation from the B products, viz, radium B, thorium B, and actinium B, could all be conveniently divided into three types of widely different penetrating power. For example, the absorption coefficients in aluminium for the groups of γ rays from radium B were found to be 230, 40 and 0.5. In the case of the C products, viz., radium C, thorium C, and actinium C, the γ radiation was found to be mainly of one very penetrating type exponentially absorbed in aluminium. The radiations from the various radioactive substances can be conveniently divided into three distinct classes, viz. :- (1) a soft radiation, vaarying in different elements from μ=24 to μ=45, probably corresponding to characteristic radiations of the "L" type excited in the radioatoms; (2) a very penetrating radiation with a value of μ in aluminium of about 0.1, probably corresponding to the "K" characteristic radiation of these heavy atomsl (3) radiations of penetrating power intermediate between (1) and (2) corresponding to one of more types of characteristic radiations not so far observed with X rays. In the meantime, the experiments of W. H. and W. L. Bragg and Moseley and Darwin had shown that the reflexion of X rays from crystals afforded a definite and reliable method of studying the wave-length of X rays. It was found that the radiations from a platinum anticathode consisted in part of a series of strong lines, no doubt corresponding to the "L" characteristic radiation of this element. By using a number of anticathodes of different metals the X-ray spectra of a number of elements were determined by W. H. and W. L. Bragg and by Mosely. The latter has made a comparative study of the strong lines of the spectra emitted by the great majority of the elements. For most of the lighter elements from aluminium to silver, the spectra obtained corresponded to the "K" characteristic radiations, while for the heavier elements the "L" series has been determined. The simple relations which Moseley dins to hold between the spectra of successive elements has been discussed by him in his recent paper. From the analysis of the types of γ rays, it appeared probable that each corresponded to one of the characteristic types of radiation of the element in question. It was consequently to be anticcipated that each of these radiations would give definite line spectra when reflected from the surface of crystals. in order to examine this question, experiments were began to determine the wave-lengths of the γ radiations from the products radium B and radium C. For this purpose, a thin walled α-ray tube, filled with a large quantity of emanation, served as a source of γ rays. The rays were allowed to fall at a definite angle on a crystal, generally rocksalt, and the intensities of the "reflected," or rather diffracted, rays were examined by a photographic method. The determinations of the γ-ray spectra is in some respects far more difficult than similar measurements for X rays. In the first place, the photographic effect of the γ rays, even from the strongest source of emanation avilable, is very feeble compared with that due to the X rays from an ordinary focus tube. For example, using a source of 100 millicuries of radium emanation, an exposure of 24 hours is necessary to obtain a marked photographic effect due to the reflected γ rays. Under similar conditions, 10 minutes exposure suffices to obtain a well-marked X-ray spectrum. In the second place, special precautions have to be raken to screen the photographic plate from the effects of the very penetrating γ radiation from radium C. The greatest difficulty of all, however, is to get rid of the disturbing effect of the very swift primary β particles emitted from the source and the swift β particles emitted from all material through which the γ rays pass. This can only be accomplished by placing the source of radiation, absorbing screens, and crystal in a strong magnetic field, so that practically all the β rays, both the primary ones and those excited by the γ rays in matter, are bent away from the photographic plate. ... ...The crystals used were rocksalt and heavy spar. ... Experimental results. In this paper an analysis will be given of the soft type of γ radiation from radium B. Evidence of lines corresponding to the more penetrating rays from radium B and the penetrating rays from radium C has been obtained on the photographs, and the spectra have been separated by the interposition of absorbing screens; lines have been found, due to radium C, with 6 mm. of lead between the radium tube and the crystal. The spectra due to the penetrating rays from radium B and radium C are faint compared with that of the soft radiation from radium B, and have not yet been fully investigated; and account of them is withheld for a future paper. The stronger lines due to radium B appeared with great distinctness on the photographic plate, as will be seen from fig. 2 (Pl. XII.), which is reproduced from an actual photograph; they permit of accurate measurement. In the photograph B is the band made by the direct rays coming through the slit, β and α are the two strong lines formed by the reflected rays, and F is the fiducial line. The fainter lines do not appear on all the plates; however, no line is given in the table which has not been measured on at least two plates. The main deature of the spectra of the radiation reflected from rocksalt is two strong lines at almost exactly 10° and 12° respectively; they are accompanied by a number of fainter lines at angles of from 8° to 14°. There is also a large group of faint lines between 18° and 22°, which do not permit of accurate measurement, and so are omitted in the table; some of these, at least, are probably repetitions of the measured lines in the second order. ... In fig. 3 the spectrum is shown diagramatically, and below it that of platinum, the scale being adjusted so as to make the strong 10° line coicide with the corresponding platinum line. The dotted lines in the platinum spectrum are taken frmo a paper of de Broglie; as his determination of the strong line differs somewhat from that of Moseley and Darwin, the whole spectrum given by him has been reduced by multiplying by a constant factor chosen so as to make the strong lines agree. ... Connexion of Radium B with Lead. In recent papers, Moseley has examined the X-ray spectra of a number of the ordinary elements. For this purpose, each element either in the state of metal or compound is exposed as anticathode in a focus tube, and the resulting X-ray spectra are obtained photographically by the crystal method. He has shown that the "K" characteristic radiation of all the elements between aluminium and silver shows a similar type of spectrum, and the frequency of the corresponding lines changes by definite steps in passing from one element to the next. The frequency of the strongest spectrum line has been shown to vary as (N-a)2 where N is a whole number and a a constant (about unity) for all this group of elements. N changes by unity in passing from one element to the next, and is supposed to represent the number of fundamental units of positive charge carried by the atomic nucleus and may for convenience be called the "atomic number," since it represents the number of the element when arranged in order of increasing atomic weight supposing that no elements are missing. ... As we have already seen, the soft radiation from radium B, whose absorption coefficient is μ=40 in aluminium, was believed to be the "L" type of characteristic radiation of radium B, and this is completely borne out by the comparison of the γ ray spectrum of the soft radiations of radium B with that of platinum (see page 861). using Moseley's formula, and assuming for the atomic numbers the values to be given in a following paragraph, the factor by which the angle of the strong platinum line must be divided to give the angle of the corresponding line of radium B is 1.118: the value 1.122 used in Table I. was chosen so as to make the experimental lines agree exactly. A determination of the nucleus charge of radium B is for another reason of the highest importance, for this radioactive element has been shown by Fleck to have the chemical properties of lead and to be chemically inseparable from it. As is well known, a very comprehensive and far reaching theory of the relation between the chemical and physical properties of the radioelements has been advanced by Fajans and Soddy. ... If radium B has the same nucleus charge as lead, it must give an X-ray spectra almost identical with that of lead. It should, hoever, be pointed out that a very small variation in the frequency of the vibrations may be possible if the nuclear masses are different. ... The spectrum of the radiation excited in the lead plate L was then determined ... ... It thus appears that the nucleus charge of radium B is the same as that of lead, for the atomic number of radium B, deduced by Moseley's formular from the γ-ray spectrum, is that to be expected for lead, and the strong lines of the γ-ray spectrum of radium B seem to be coincident with those of lead. According to the radioactive calculation, the atomic weight of radium B is 214, while that of lead is 207. Provided the difference in atomic mass has not a large influence on the vibration frequencies of he outer distribution of electrons, it is to be anticipated that the ordinary light spectra of radium B and lead should be nearly identical, while we already know that these two elements have apparently identical chamical properties. ... If the general formula of Moseley hold throughout, the frequencies of vibration of the "L" type of radiation for each of these elements can be simply calculated. Summary. (1) The γ-ray spectrum of the soft radiations from radium B has been examined by reflexion from the cleavage faces of crystals, and found to consist of a number of well-marked lines. (2) The γ-ray spectrum of radium B is found to be of the same general type as that found for platinum and other heavy elements when bombarded by cathode rays. (3) Attention is directed to the structure of the spectral lines using an emanation tube as source of radiation, and also to the imperfections of the crystal employed. (4) Evidence is given indicating that the spectrum of the soft γ-rays spontaneously emitted from radium B, is identical within the limits of experimental error with the spectrum given by lead when the "L" characteristic radiation is emitted by the bombardments of β rays. (5) The bearing of these results on the structure of the atom is discussed.".
(TODO: determine where the first gamma rays with higher than any x-ray frequencies were detected.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN
[05/??/1914 AD]
| 5879) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and Edward Andrade show that the x-ray spectrum of Radium B and lead are identical.
Rutherford and Andrade examine the self-excited X-ray spectrum of Radium B. They use a crystal of rock salt for the analysis and get rid of the effect of the swift Beta rays by putting the source in a strong magnetic field. The wave length of the L radiations proves to be exactly that expected for lead from Moseley's experiment. The actual values for ordinary lead are later determined by Siegbahn and found to be in excellent agreement with Rutherford and Andrade's results.
Rutherford and Andrade publish this in "Philosophical Magazine" as "The Wave-Length of the Soft γ Rays from Radium B". (Read relevent parts of paper.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN
[07/28/1914 AD]
| 4792) Eric Magnus Campbell Tigerstedt (CE 1887 - 1925) Sound recorded and played back with images on plastic film using variations of light. (verify - get and read translation of original patent)
Tigerstedt presents his own movie with sound entitled "Word and Picture" to a gathering of scientists in Berlin in 1914 and this is first successful "talking picture" shown publicly on earth, although Tigerstedt's technology is never commercialised. (verify)
In 1919 Lee De Forest (CE 1873-1961) will patent a device to write and playback syncronously sound recordings and moving images to photographic film.
(Clearly neuron reading and writing goes back, perhaps to 1810 if not farther, so much of the story of science after 1800 is mostly excluded people reinventing inventions kept secret by included, or included releasing inventions to the public which were invented decades before but kept secret.)
(Tigerstedt dies at a young age, as a result from a car crash in the USA - it certainly sounds like a potential neuron particle beam murder.)
(Why does this method of recording sound to plastic tape using light become mass produced for the public to record audio? In particular why does Eastman not include this simple method of audio recording to the movie cameras Kodak sells? Instead of photographic plastic tape, magnetic coated plastic tape is used. Perhaps a bit of data on magnetic film somehow covers less space than a bit of data on photographic film. This raises the question of how small can a pixel be photographically recorded? How many bits of data can be fit and accurately read back on a photograph? Clearly the laser writing method on silicon of compact disks must be able to store more bits of data, more dependably than photographic or magnetic film.)
| Berlin, Germany (verify) |
86 YBN
[07/??/1914 AD]
| 4879) Walter Sydney Adams (CE 1876-1956) US astronomer and Arnold Kohlschütter determine that a star's spectrum can be compared with the star's apparent magnitude to determine the star's absolute magnitude. In addition, by comparing the intensity of spectral lines between a star with another star with the same spectrum of known distance, the distance to the other star can be determined.
In particular Adams and Kohlschütter find that Hydrogen absoption lines are much stronger in stars of the same spectral type with small proper motion (more distant) than in those with a large proper motion (closer), and that the ultraviolet part of the spectrum from stars of the same spectral type is weaker for the small proper motion (more distant) stars.
This is the basis for the difference between giant and dwarf stars of the same spectral type.
This method of estimating the parallax of a star by comparing the strength of spectral lines of stars with other stars of the same spectrum with known parallax is called "spectroscopic parallax".
Adams and Kohlschütter write: "Some Spectral Criteria For The Determination of Absolute Stellar Magnitudes
In the course of a study of the spectral classification of stars whose spectra have been photographed for radial velocity determinations some interesting peculiarities have been observed. The stars investigated are of two kinds: first, those of large proper motion with measured parallaxes; second, those of very small proper motion, and hence, in general, of great distance. The apparent magnitudes of the large proper motion, or nearer stars, are somewhat less on the average than those of the small proper motion stars, so that the difference in absolute magnitude must be very great between the two groups. The spectral types range from A to M. The principal differences in the spectra of the two groups of stars are: 1> The continuous spectrum of the small proper motion stars is relatively fainter in the violet as compared with the red than is the spectrum of the large proper motion stars. The magnitude of this effect appears to depend on the spectral type, and increases with advancing type between F0 and K0. 2. The hydrogen lines are abnormally strong in a considerable number of the small proper motion stars. Thus six stars which show the well developed titanium oxide bands characteristic of type M have hydrogen lines which would place them in types G4 to G6, and many others which show the bands strongly would be classified under type K from their hydrogen lines. That the spectra of these stars are not composite is shown by their radial velocities. The hydrogen lines in the spectra of the large proper motion stars which show the titanium oxide bands are without exception very weak. 3. Certain other spectrum lines are weak in the large proper motion stars, and strong in the small proper motions stars, and conversely. It is with the possibility of applying this fact to the determination of absolute magnitudes that the results given in this communication mainly have to deal. I. Intensity of the Continuous Spectrum A comparison of the intensity of the continous spectrum of several pairs of stars of small and of large proper motion photographed upon the same plate was made recently by one of us, and showed a marked weakening relatively in the violet region for a majority of the small proper motion stars. With a view to supplementing these observations with the larger amount of material available in the radial velocity photographs we have calculated the densities at several points in the spectrum for a considerable number of these stars, and compared the resulting values for the stars of small with those of large proper motion. ... The plan adopted for the determination of the densities was as follows: A standard plate of α Tauri was first obtained, several spectra taken with different exposure times being placed side by side on the negative. The photograph of each star was then compared with this standard plate under a Hartmann spectrocomparator, and estimates were made of the intensity of the continuous spectrum relative to that of α Tauri at three selected points at the violet and four points at the red end of the spectrum. The points were selected in regions as free from lines as possible. The estimates were made in tenths of a unit between the α Tauri spectra. Thus 1.5 indicates an intensity half-way between the first and second of the standard spectra. After the comparisons had been finished the α Tauri photograph was measured under a microphotometer, and the densities were calculated at the points of comparison. The results for all of the stars were then reduced to denisites. The values for the groups of stars are given in Table I. The denisities for the three violet wave-lengths have been combined to form a mean at λ 4220, and similarly for the four wave-lengths near λ 4955. {ULSF: see table}
The features of note in these results are: a) The small proper motion stars of types F to K are decidedly weaker in the violet part of the spectrum than the larger proper motion stars. b) The difference is inappreciable for two groups of A-type stars for which the ratio of proper motions is 1:6.5. c) The difference increases with advancing type from F to K, being twice as great for the latter. The ratio of proper motions for the groups of small and of large proper motion stars is nearly the same for the stars between F and K. hence if interpreted in terms of distance the ratio of distances should be nearly the same, and it would appear that at least a part of the absorption in the violet part of the spectrum of the distant stars must be ascribed, not to scattering of light in space, but to conditions in the stellar atmospheres. In the case of the A-type stars the results are inconclusive, since the ratio of the proper motions shows that the negative result found may be due to the fact that the difference of distance between the two groups of stars is insufficient to produce a measurement amount of scattering.
II. The Hydrogen Lines The abnormal strength of the hydrogen lines in the spectra of certain of the small proper motion stars is of peculiar interest because of the possibility of selective absorption by hydrogen gas in interstellar space. The radial velocity affords a means of determining the origin of the additional absorption since it is highly improbable that the hydrogen in space would have the motion of the stars observed. Accordingly we have given especial attention to the determination of the radial velocities of these stars from the hydrogen lines as compared with other selected lines in the spectrum. The results obtained indicate that within the limits of error of measurement the hydrogen lines give essentially the same values as the other lines, and no differences have been found of an order to correspond to the abnormatl intensity of the lines. {ULSF: See table 2} In Table II are collected the results for 15 stars which show abnormal strength of the hydrogen lines most prominently. All of the stars except Boss 6145 have the bands characteristic of type M. The classification given is based on the hydrogen lines. The column designated "Metallic-H Lines" gives the values in kilometers of the differences in the velocities derived from about 12 selected metallic lines and those from Hγ and Hβ; a small systematic correction is applied to the latter, due probably to the effect of blended lines. These differences would, of course, be zero if all of the hydrogen absorption occurred in the stellar atmosphere. If it all occurred in space the differences would be those given in the final column on the assumption that the absorbing gas is at rest in space. The quantities are derived by applying to the velocities of the stars obtained from the metallic lines the corrections to these velocities for the motion of the sun in space. If any appreciable hydrogen absorption occurred in space the differences, Metallic-H Lines, should, of course, be intermediate between the quantities in the last two columns. When, however, we combine the values for all of the stars, assigning weights according to the numbers in the last column, we find that 98 per cent of the hydrogen absorption must occur in the stellar atmospheres, and that but 2 per cent can possibly be due to hydrogen gas in space. This amount is far below the limits of accuracy of the observations.
III. The Relation of Line Intensity to Absolute Magnitude Systematic differences of intensity for certain lines between stars of large and stars of small proper motion soon became evident in the course of the study of the spectral classification of these stars. in order to secure an accurate system of classification as well as to investigate these differences the following method was adopted. Pairs of lines were selected not far from one another in the spectrum and of as nearly as possibly the same intensity and character, and estimations were made of their relative intensities. For classification purposes a line decreasing in intensity with advancing type, such as a hydrogen line, was combined with a line increasing in intensity with advancing type, such as an ordinary metallic line. In addition to these pairs used for classification purposes several pairs were selected which included all lines suspected of systematic deviations in certain stars. The estimations were made on an arbitrary scale extending from 1 to about 12, 1 being the smallest difference in intensity which could be detected. The method, therefore, is analogous to the Stufenmethode of Argelander used in estimateions of variable stars; hence, for physiological reasons, our scale will be approximately proportional to the logarithm of the intensity differences of the two lines. In general three plates were used for each star, and the photographs of the large and the small proper motion stars were intermingled in order that systematic effects on the estimateion scale might be avoided. After all of the estimations had been completed the material was reduced uniformly, and the results were examined with two objects in view: first, to investigate the changes of the estimated intensity differences with the spectral type, and on this basis to form a classication depending on certain well defined criteria; second, after correcting for changes with type to investigate changes with absolute magnitude. An examination of the pairs of lines used for estimation indicated that the following pairs showed the largest and most definite changes with type. The Harvard scale of classification has been followed closely. {ULSF: see paper}
These lines, accordingly, have been used to determine the type of each individual star, and since no systemative difference for the different lines have been found, the mean of the determinations from the five pairs has been used as the final result for the spectral type. This method of classification has proved most satisdactory in use, and shows good internal agreement. The mean error of one detmination depending on three plates is +0.4 subdivision of the Harvard scale, equal, for example, to the interval from G5.0 to G5.4. As soon as the spectral type of each star had been obtained in this way, the results for the remaining pairs of lines were examined with a view to seeing whether all of them fell into agreement with the classification, or whether there were systematic differences for different groups of stars. For this purpose we constructed a normal curve for each pair of lines from the stars of rather low absolute luminosity, plotting as abscissae the spectral types, and as ordinates the estimateions of intensity differences. Finally we formed for all of the stars the differences between our estimateions of relative intensity and the values from the normal curve corresponding to the spectral type. These differences, combined into means for two separate groups, are shown in Table III. At the head of each column of ratios is given the mean of the absolute magnitudes of the stars observed. Thus for the F8-G6 stars the mean of the absolute magnitudes of the small proper motion stars is -2.9, of the large proper motion stars, +6.1. Although the number of stars used in the estimate of the ratios of the different pairs of lines varies somewhat, the same mean magnitude, which was derived from all of the stars, is used throughout. The computation of the absolute magnitudes of the individual stars was made from the measured parallaxes where these were available. In the absence of such determinations, or when the parallax was very small or negative, the absolute magnitude was computed from the proper motion by aid of the parallax derived from the following formula:
log π = -1.00 - 0.005m + 0.86 log μ
where m is the apparent magnitude and μ the proper motion. This formula is contained in an unpublished investigation by Kapteyn and Kohlschütter on the luminosity-curve of the K-type stars, and is based upon a discussion of the relation between proper motion and parallax for the K stars. The unit employed in the determination of absolute magnitudes is 0."1; that is, the absolute magnitude of a star at a distance corresponding to a parallax of 0."1. The number of stars used in each comparison in Table IIi is indicated by the figures in parentheses. It is obvious from the method of derivation that the mean values in Table III for all the pairs of lines will be small in the case of the stars of small absolute magnitude, and that the values for the pairs used for classification purposes will be small for stars of both small and large absolute magnitude. The most prominent cases of lines where systemativ differences are seen to exist between the stars of high and of low luminosity are the following: {ULSF: see paper}
The Sr line at λ4216 is an extremely prominent chromospheric line, and the same is true in less degree of the enhanced Ti line at λ4395. The line at λ4408 is a blend, and as given by Rowland consists of V and Fe. Some other element may perhaps contribute to the stellar line. All four of the lines which are relatively weak in the high luminosity stars are well known sun-spot lines, being greatly strengthened in the umbrae of spots. The following five pairs of lines were selected from Table III as the basis for an investigation of the individual stars:
4216 4395 4408 4456 4456 ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- 4250 4415 4415 4462 4495
The results given in Table III, estimated value-normal value, for these five pairs of lines were combined into means. By assuming a linear relationship between these mean values D, and the absolute magnitude M, we then derived the formulae:
F8-G6 stars: M=+5.6-1.6D G6-K9 stars: M=+6.8-1.8D
The difference between the two constant terms shows merely that the average magnitude of the stars used for the normal curve is 5.6 for the first group, and 6.8 for the second group. The agreement for the two groups of the coefficient of D indicates how well the same relationship holds throughout the whole range of spectral type from F8 to K9. For the very faintest stars, below absolute magnitude 7, the linear relationship does not seem to hold strictly but it has not seemed desirable for the present material to use a more complicated formula. Tables IV and V show the absolute magnitudes computed from these formulae for 71 stars of types F8 to G6, and 91 stars of types G6 to K9. The spectral classification is that derived by the method already describes and the parallax π is taken from Groningen Publication, No. 24. The first column of absolute magnitudes M contains the values calculated from the parallax or the proper motion, the latter being used wherever the measured parallax is less than +0."05. The second column of absolute magnitudes contains the values determined from the intensities of the spectrum lines. The average difference between the two sets of absolute magnitudes is slightly less than 1.6 magnitudes for the F8-G6 stars, and 1.5 magnitudes for the G6-K9 stars. In view of the uncertainties attaching to the determination of absolute magnitudes from proper motions, this difference is not excessive. There appears, therefore, to be considerable promise in the application of spectrum line criteria to the determination of absolute magnitudes and parallaxes. Summary Inclusing the results described here, we have found as a product of our investigations of the spectra of large and of small proper motion stars three phenomena which appear to have a distinct bearing upon the problem of the determination of the absolute magnitudes of stars. 1. The continnuous spectrum of the small proper motion stars is decidedly less intense in the violet region relative to the red than the spectrum of the nearer and smaller stars. This effect appears to be a function of the spectral type, and so must be ascribed in part, at least, to conditions in the stellar atmospheres. 2. A considerable number of the small proper motions tars show hydrogen lines of absnotmally great intensity. measures of the radial velocity show the source of the additional absorption to be mainly, if not wholly, in the stars themselves. 3. Certain lines are strong in the spectra of the small proper motion stars, and others in the spectra of the large proper motion stars. The use of the relative intensities of these lines gives results for absolute magnitudes in satisfactory agreement with those derived from parallaxes and proper motions. It seems very probable from physical considerations that the spectra of stars of quite different mass and size would differ considerably in certain respects even when the main spectral characteristics were the same. If the depth of the atmopshere for stars of similar spectral type is at all in proportion to the linear dimensions of the stars, we should expect the deeper reversing layers of the larger stars to produce certain modifications of the spectrum lines. Owing to the small scale of the stellar spectrum photographs, only the most marked changes could be distinguished, and among these the effect of the deep atmosphere upon the violet end of the spectrum should be especially prominent. A case of somewhat similar nature is that found in observations of the center and the limb of the sun. The length of path through the solar atmosphere is much greater at the limb, and greater relatively for the lower and lower strata. On large-scale solar photographs the differences between the center and the limb spectra are very marked, but on the very small-scale photographs, no doubt, only the most prominent differences could be observed. The difference, however, in the relative intensity of the violet portion of the continous spectrum at center and limb as compared with the red portion, which is so marked a feature of the observations, would appear equally well on photographs taken with high and low dispersion.".
On February 8 of 1916 Adams will publish a four part paper, which puts forward a new method of star classification based on specific spectral lines, and more explicitly explains the use of the method of comparing spectral lines to determine absolute magnitude and distance.
Isaac Asimov describes this contribution as being by Adams alone writing that Adams shows that the spectrum of a star alone reveals if a star is a giant or a dwarf. Adams estimates a star's luminosity from it's spectrum. By comparing this luminosity with the star's apparent brightness, Adams calculates the star's distance. This method, called "spectroscopic parallax", makes it possible to determine the distance of stars more distant than the parallax method of Bessel. This method makes it possible for Hertzsprung to calculate the distance to variable stars so that the period-luminosity curve, important for distances beyond our own galaxy, can be prepared by Shapley.
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, this method of obtaining “spectroscopic parallaxes", applied to thousands of stars, is a fundamental astronomical tool of immense value in gaining knowledge of giant and dwarf stars and of galactic structure. Otto Struve states that "It is not an exaggeration to say that almost all our knowledge of the structure of the Milky Way which has developed during the past quarter of a century has come from the Mount Wilson discovery of spectroscopic luminosity criteria.".
(How is the apparent brightness estimated? are dots counted on photographs? explain how.)
(Do the spectroscopic distance method and the Cepheid variable star method produce the same results?)
(I think Adams may make a mistake in claiming that if hydrogen absorption occured in space, the Hydrogen lines would be shifted less - I guess that Adams presumes that absorption of light would perhaps lower the frequency of light received. This also raises the issue of light Doppler shifted to a different frequency may or may not be absorbed in the same kind of molecule that emitted it - being of a slightly different frequency. Adams does not mention that this shifting, or changing of frequency of the hydrogen lines might occur because of the effect of gravity on light particles in between source and destination. This might be a good method to determine how much shifting of hydrogen lines is due to intersteller matter. By comparing the shift of hydrogen lines from stars of known proper motion, the Doppler shift can be removed from the shifted line and the quantity of red shift of the spectral lines due to the gravitational effect of intersteller matter determined. Another issue is that if 2% of the hydrogen light absorption takes place in between source and destination, can this effect be presumed to scale to larger distances? Might this explain why most distant galaxies are red-shifted as opposed to blue-shifted?)
(EXPERIMENT: Determine how much of Doppler shift of light from various stars and galaxies can be determined to be from intersteller matter. Is there a larger shift in denser volumes of space? Does vicinity of the light to other objects in between the source and destination make a difference?)
(I think many people would expect that the spectral lines would be fainter for the most distant stars - just as the total light is fainter the more distant. Perhaps this faintness is not uniform for the entire spectrum - but if this is true, shouldn't we conclude that the absorption must happen strictly in interstellar space? If the distant stars were at equal distance to the close stars, would they not have similarly undimmed spectral lines? I think this needs to be discussed among major astronomers openly in a public debate of many of these astronomy, science history, original paper issues and major questions/debates.)
(This theory I have doubts about: "it would appear that at least a part of the absorption in the violet part of the spectrum of the distant stars must be ascribed, not to scattering of light in space, but to conditions in the stellar atmospheres" - it seems more logical that this might be due in some part to the natural effect of a distant object being dimmer because the farther away, the more light beams are going in other directions, possibly to a gravitational delay effect because of matter in between source and destination, and possibly to absorption in between source and destination. Because this absorption is strictly found only in the more distant stars - don't we have to conclude that it is a product of distance? Then this quote "In the case of the A-type stars the results are inconclusive, since the ratio of the proper motions shows that the negative result found may be due to the fact that the difference of distance between the two groups of stars is insufficient to produce a measurement amount of scattering." - does this not imply that this effect is due only to scattering - presumably of light by the matter in between source and destination?)
(EXPERIMENT: How large can a "diffraction" grating be? Can microwave and radio frequencies be reflected by largely spaced gratings?)
(It may be that the higher frequency light particle beams are scattered more simply because there are more particles per second to scatter and so a loss of brightness, while linear for all frequencies, is more noticeable for higher frequencies.)
(Verify that in saying " Systematic differences of intensity for certain lines between stars of large and stars of small proper motion soon became evident in the course of the study of the spectral classification of these stars." - Adams means differences of intensity for certain lines between stars within each group of large and small proper motion - the difference being between stars of any proper motion - not between stars of different proper motion. This is the only way that I can see a science contribution here - that the spectrum of a star can be used to determine it's absolute temperature and size, etc - absolute magnitude.)
(This quote seems unusual: "It seems very probable from physical considerations that the spectra of stars of quite different mass and size would differ considerably in certain respects even when the main spectral characteristics were the same." - Perhaps this view is in error, but Adams does still determine absolute magnitude from spectrum compared to apparent magnitude and so there is a science contribution.) (Possibly only read 3rd part for a shorter version)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
86 YBN
[07/??/1914 AD]
| 4973) Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945) designs first multistage (step) rocket.
Goddard is awarded the first two patents for a rocket apparatus: A Liquid Fuel Gun Rocket; and a Multistage Step Rocket.
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA (verify) |
86 YBN
[08/13/1914 AD]
| 5007) Harlow Shapley (CE 1885-1972), US astronomer, argues against the binary-star theory of Cepheid variables, in favor of a star pulsation theory
Shapley suggests that variable stars vary because of pulsations of changes in diameter, and this will be worked out by Eddington. (I think the binary star theory seems possible, and also a binary system with a massive, but dim object like a Jupiter. If due to a physical difference, What makes these stars different from non-variable stars? Do all stars expeience these pulsations? These pulsation were explained by (name?-possibly Charles Poor) as being due to an outermost layer of matter on stars heating up and rising, then cooling and falling back to the surface to repeat the cycle.)
Shapley writes: "The purpose of the present discussion is an attempt to investi- gate the question of whether or not we should abandon the usually accepted double-star interpretation of Cepheid variation. In ad- Q dition to the brief statement of some general considerations and correlations of the many well known characteristics of Cepheid · and cluster variables, certain recently discovered properties of these ` stars are discussed in greater detail, because chiefly upon them are based the conclusions reached in this study. It seems a misfortune, perhaps, for the progress of research on the causes of light-variation of the Cepheid type, that the oscilla- tions of the spectral lines in nearly; every case can be so readily attributed, by means of the Doppler principle, to elliptical motion O in a binary system. The natural conclusion that all Cepheid vari- ables are spectroscopic binaries has been the controlling and fundamental assumption in all the recently attempted interpre- tations of their light-variability, and the possibility of intrinsic light-fluctuations of a single star has received little attention. From the very first there have been serious troubles with each new theory. Considered from the spectroscopic side alone, the Cepheids stand out` as unexplainable anomalies. There are per- sistent peculiarities in the spectroscopic elements, such as the low value of the mass function, the universal absence of a secondary spectrum, and the minute apparent orbits. Practically the only thing they have in common with ordinary spectroscopic binaries is the definitely periodic oscillation of the spectral lines, which permits, with some well known conspicuous exceptions of interpretation as periodic orbital motion. Adding, then, to the spectroscopic abnormalities the curious_ relations between light- variation and radial motion, the diiliculties in the way of all the proposed simple solutions seem insurmountable. Geometrical ex- planations of the light-variation fail completely, and little better can be said of the hypotheses that involve partly meteorological I and partly orbital assumptions. " . The writer can offer no complete explanation of Cepheid varia- bility as a substitute for the existing theories that are shown to be more and more inadequate. At most, only the direction in which . the real interpretation seems to lie can be pointed out, and an indication given of the strength of the observational data that would support the theory developed along the lines suggested. The principal results of a rather extensive investigation, further details of which it is hoped can be published in subsequent papers in the near future, are outlined in the following paragraphs. The main conclusion is that the Cepheid and cluster variables are not binary systems, and that the explanation of their light—changes can much more likely be found in a consideration of internal or surface pulsations of isolated stellar bodies. ...
An unpublished investigation by the writer of the relation between the periods and sectral types of all variables shows the existence of a continuous property from the longest-period Cepheids to the shortest-period cluster variables. ...".
Shapely cites "irregular oscillations" of some variable stars. Shapely points out how Russell disproved the single spotted star theory. Shapley also points out that Cepheid period is related to star spectral type and calculated density.
Henrietta Leavitt had identified a period-luminosity relation for the Cepheid (SeFEiD) variable stars in 1908.
(Notice the word "lie" - it seems possible that Mount Wilson was controlled by somewhat less than honest neuron wealthy people possibly - only the camera thhought net will reveal this. Is it not bizarre that they would want to publish a lie about something so apparently trivial.)
(todo: determine who was first to correlate absolute magnitude with period of Cepheid variable stars.)
(State how apparent star mangitude is measured, and all equipment used.) (It is interesting that globular clusters have variable stars. Could a very large oscillating star or binary star, or binary star and dim object, be useful to an advanced group of civilization or might that be a natural phenomenon that they choose to leave unchanged? Perhaps this is support for the objects with regular orbit in this direction.)
(This also may confirm the variable star method, or possibly the star apparent brightness is enough. I would not be surprised if presuming all stars to be the same brightness can produce relatively accurate 3D maps - at a distance, differences in brightness must be very small, but perhaps not.)
| (Mount Wilson Solar Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
86 YBN
[08/??/1914 AD]
| 5109) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and Edward Andrade measure wavelengths (intervals) for gamma rays to be as small as 7 pico-meters.
(Is this the smallest wavelength ever measured for light? State smallest known measure for x-rays.)
In August, Rutherford and Andrade report measuring wavelengths (intervals) ranging from 7pm to 42 pm, which is in the "hard" x-ray range.
Rutherford and Andrade write in "The Spectrum of the Penetrating γ Rays from Radium B and Radium C" in Philosophical Magazine: " In a previous paper, we have given the results of an examination of the wave-lengths of the soft γ rays from radium B, for angles of reflexion from rock-salt between 8° and 16°. It was shown that the two strong lines at 10° and 12° correspond to the two characteristic lines always present in the spectr of the 'L' series for heavy elements. It was deduced from the experiments of Moseley, that the spectrum of radium B correspond to an element of atomic number or nucleus charge 82. Direct evidence was obtained that the strong lines of the γ ray spectrum of radium B were identical with the corresponding lines in the X-ray spectrum of lead- thus confirming the hypothesis that radium B and lead have in general identical physical and chemical properties although their atomic weights differ probably by seven units. In the present paper an account is given of further experiments to determine the γ-ray spectra of the very penetrating rays from radium B and radium C. The strong lines from radium B, which are relected from rock-salt at angles of 10° and 12°, undoubtably supply the greater part of the soft radiation for which μ=.40(cm.)-1 in aluminum. There still remained the analysis of the frequency of the lines included in the penetrating radiations from radium R for which μ = 0.5, and from radium C, for which μ=0.115. It may be mentioned at once that there is undoubted evidence that a large part, if not all, of these penetrating radiations give definite line spectra and correspond to groups of rays of very high frequency; but it has been a difficult task to determine the wave-lengths of the lines with the accuracy desired. We have been much aided by the development of a new method for finding the wave-length, which depends on the measurement of absorption as well as of reflexion lines. In our first experiments the same general method was employed as in the previous work. A fine glass tube containing about 100 millicuries of emanation was used as a source. The distances between the source and crystal and between the crystal and the photographic plate were equal, and, as in the previous experiments, about 9 cm. A beam of γ rays passing through a narrow opening in a lead block fell on the crystal, the arrangment being that shown in fig. 1 of our previous paper. ... It will be sseens that there is also a very good agreement between the values obtained by the direct relexion and by the transmission method, but for the very penetrating rays under examination, the results obtained by the transmission method were more definite and reliable, while the exposires required for the photographs were relatively much less. ... Discussion of Spectra
It will be seen that the wave-lengths of the penetrating γ rays from radium B and radium C are much shorter than any previously determined. Moseley has determined the 'K' spectra of silver and found the wave-length of the strong line 0.56 x 10-8 cm. The wave-length of the most penetraing γ ray observed is 0.7 x 10-9, or eight times shorter. When the great penetrating power of the radiations from radium C-half absorbed in 6 cm. of aluminum-is considered, and the shortness of its wave-length, it is surprising that the architecture of the crystal is sufficiently definite to resolve such short waves. This is especially the case when we consider that owing to the heat agitation of the atoms, the distance between the atoms must be continually varying over a range comparable with the wave-length of the radiation. One photograph was taken with the crystal immersed in liquid air, but no obvious imrovement in definition was observed. The appearance of these high frequency vibrations from radium B and radium C is accompanied by the expulsion of very high speed β particles from the atom. It does not, however, follow that it will be necessary to bombard the material with such very high speed β rays to excite the corresponding radiation. If we may assume, as seems probably, that Planck's relation E=hv holds for the energy of the β particle required to excite radiation of frequency v, it can be deduced that the electron to excite this radiation in radium C must fall freely through a difference of potential of 180,000 volts, which is equivalent to a velocity of about 0.7 that of light. This is much smaller than the velocity of the swift β particles from radium B or C, and is not beyond the range of possible experiment. With the tube recently designed by Coolidge there should be no inherent difficulty in exciting the corresponding radiation in a heavy element like platinum or uranium. We have seen that the soft γ rays defined by the absorption coefficient μ=40 in aluminium correspond to the 'L' series of characteristic radiations for an element of atomic number 82. Moseley has examined the spectra of the K series for elements from aluminium to silver and finds them all similar., consisting of two well-marked lines differing in frequency by about 11 per cent. The frequency of the more intense line (α) is approximately proportional to (N-1)2 where N is the atomic number of the element. Supposing this relation to hold for all the elements of higher atomic weights, the angle of reflexion for the strong line of the K series for an element of number 82 (radium B) should be 1°46'. The observed value of the strong line is about 1°40' - a very fair agreement, considering the wide range of extrapolation. We may consequently conclude that the penetrating γ rays from radium B, correspond to the characteristic radiation of the K series of this element. It has been previously supposed that the very penetrating rays from radium C belong to the K series of characteristic radiations for that substance, but if the relation found by Moseley holds even approximately for the heavy elements, this cannot be the case. Radim C corresponds to an element of atomic number 83, and the frequency of its 'K' radiation should be only a few per cent higher than that for radium B. Actually the average frequency of the main radiations from radium C is roughly twice that for the average frequency of the penetrating rays from radium B. We are thus driven to conclude that in the case of radium C, and probably also thorium D, which emits an even more penetrating γ radiation than radium C, another type of characteric radiation is emitted which is of higher mean frequency than for the 'K' series. In other words, it is possible, at any rate in heavy elements, to obtain a line spectrum which is of still higher frequency than the 'K' type. This may for convenience be named the 'H' series, for no soubt evidence of a similar radiation will be found in other elements when bombarded by high speed cathode rays. ...".
(So clearly gamma rays can obtain frequencies higher than the highest frequency generated X-rays.) (Is this creation of the H electron shell/series? Does this series still exist? Point out clearly where spectral line series is associated with electron shell.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 4497) Charles Fabry (FoBrE) (CE 1867-1945), French physicist with Henri Buisson confirm experimentally in the laboratory the Doppler effect for light. Fabry and Buisson illuminate a horizontal rotating white disk so that points at opposite ends of a diameter constitute equal sources of light moving in opposite directions; the disk is viewed at an oblique angle, and the interferometer then detects the difference in position of the sets of rings produced by light from the two ends of the diameter.
| (Mareseilles University) Mareseilles, France |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 4785) Alexis Carrel (KoreL) (CE 1873-1944), French-US surgeon performs the first successful heart surgery on a dog.
Also around this time Carrel with chemist Henry Dakin, devise the Carrel–Dakin antiseptic for deep wounds, sodium hypochlorite, which lowers the death rate from infected wounds during World War I.
| (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 4852) (Sir) Henry Hallett Dale (CE 1875-1968), English biologist isolates a molecule named acetylcholine from a fungus called ergot which produces effects on organs similar to those produced by nerves in the parasympathetic system.
After successfully isolating acetylcholine in 1914, Dale establishes that it occurs in animal tissue, and later in the 1930s Dale shows that acetylcholine is released at nerve endings. This research establishes acetylcholine’s role as a chemical transmitter of nerve impulses.
Dale recognizes that an active principle of ergot, recognisable by its inhibitor action on the heart and its stimulant action on intestinal muscle, is acetylcholine.
In 1921, Otto Loewi (LOEVE) (CE 1873-1961), German-US physiologist provides the first proof that chemicals are involved in the transmission of impulses from one nerve cell to another and from a neuron to the responsive organ, when he demonstrates on frogs that a fluid is released when the vagus nerve is stimulated, and that this fluid can stimulate another heart directly. Loewi names this material "Vagusstoff" ("vagus material"). Dale will identify Loewi's Vagusstoff as acetylcholine in 1934.
| (Wellcome Physiological Research Laboratories) Herne Hill, England |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 4962) James Franck (CE 1882-1964), German-US physicist and Gustav Ludwig Hertz (CE 1887-1975), German physicist (and nephew of Heinrich Hertz) show that when bombarding gases and vapors with electron beams of different energies that when the energy is not enough to allow the absorption of a full quantum of energy, the electron rebounds elastically and there is no light emission, but when the energy is enough, a quantum is absorbed and light is emitted.
Franck and Hertz bombard mercury atoms with electrons and trace the energy changes that result from the collisions. They find that electrons with insufficient velocity simply bounced off the mercury atoms, but that an electron with a higher velocity loses precisely 4.9 electronvolts of energy to an atom. If the electron has more than 4.9 volts of energy, the mercury atom still absorbs only that amount. The Franck-Hertz experiment gives proof of Niels Bohr’s theory that an atom can absorb internal energy only in precise and definite amounts, or quanta.
(TODO: Find paper, translate, read relevant parts and show all figures from paper. Give details of experiment including all aparatuses.)
A summary in English reads: "Electrons suffer elastic collisions in Hg vapor up to a critical velocity. The method of measuring this critical velocity within 1/10 v. was described. It was shown that the energy of a 4.9 v. beam was exactly equal to the quantity of energy corresponding to the Hg resonance line 253.6 uu. The reason for this was discussed and it was suggested that for the giving up of the energy of the 4.9 v. beam the Hg vapor mol. takes in a part of the energy of collision for ionization, so that 4.9 v. would be the ionizing voltage for Hg vapor. Another part of the blow appears to produce light, from which it is presumed that it resides in the emission of the line 253.6 uu. A note added states that the authors have meanwhile tried an expt. in order to prove the production of the line 253.6 uu. by the 4.9 v. radiation and obtained positive results which will appear later.".
A vapor is the gaseous state of a substance that is liquid or solid under ordinary conditions. Can vapors be mixtures of different gases and liquids?
(When a person describes an electron beam of different energies, this must imply different velocity since electron mass is presumed to be a constant, or does this imply different frequency. How are different electron beam energies obtained - by changing the voltage producing the beam?)
(This in some ways is like the reverse of the photoelectric effect, and maybe is an electro-photonic effect. It shows again the threshold idea that a beam of particles without a high enough frequency (or perhaps velocity?) will not dislodge a photon or electron from an atom. In the view that electrons and photons are the same thing, this shows the interchangeability of photons and electrons.)
(EXPERIMENT: Perhaps there is an electric-electric effect where a beam of electrons causes a current in metal. There is a light-light effect where light causes some atom to emit photons - luminance and fluorescence are examples of this. But to think of the tiny interaction at the atom, I don't know, if static perhaps only a repeated colliding with a certain frequency causes a photon to break lose (actually I doubt that a photon would be held statically in an atom, but only in orbit in an atom, even so, perhaps only a certain frequency of electrons causes it to exit the atom). Just like light, there is a difference between the velocity of electrons in a beam, the frequency of electrons, and the quantity (surface area) of electron beams. Perhaps the “energy” of an electron is here referring to the velocity of electrons (if frequency is constant among all electron beams which I find hard to believe but maybe) which probably relates to the electric potential. Again the question of is it possible to change the frequency of an electron beam? I am guessing that the velocity (not the frequency) can be changed by changing the voltage. And so maybe it is the velocity of electrons in a beam that causes photons in a gas atoms to release photons. Does this happen for liquids? or solids? Perhaps a certain velocity of electron is necessary to push a particle in an atom far enough away from the atom to be free.)
(Show the apparatus that produces the electron beams.)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 4965) Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945), US physicist starts developing experimental rockets.
Goddard is the first to explore mathematically the ratios of energy and thrust per weight of various fuels, including liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. By 1913 Goddard proves that a rocket of 200 pounds' initial mass can achieve escape velocity for a 1-pound mass if the propellant is of gun cotton at 50 percent efficiency or greater.
| (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 4977) Spiral "nebulae" recognized to be other galaxies.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 5040) Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov (VoVEluF) (CE 1887-1943), Russian botanist, uses Mendel's genetic laws to create strains of wheat that are resistant to various wheat diseases.
| (Agricultural Higher School) Moscow, Russia |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 5088) Seth Barnes Nicholson (CE 1891-1963), US astronomer, identifies the ninth satellite of Jupiter (Sinope) (probably a captured asteroid).
(Show image)
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 5179) Swiss physicist, Heinrich Greinacher (CE 1880-1974) publishes a voltage-doubling circuit ("Greinacher multiplier").
The voltage doubler circuit was apparently invented by Swiss physicist, Heinrich Greinacher (CE 1880-1974) (the "Greinacher multiplier", a rectifier circuit for voltage doubling) in 1914 and in 1920, Greinacher generalizes this idea to a cascaded voltage multiplier. (verify)
Cockcroft and Walton will use this circuit in 1930 to accelerate and collide protons and molecules at voltages up to 280 KV and higher.
The "Greinacher multiplier" (Cockcroft-Walton voltage doubler) circuit is an extremely simple circuit, and a very easy way for any person to reach high voltages at low cost, of course it should be said that high voltages are extremely dangerous and can easily kill a person so as with all dangerous technology those experimenting with the Cockcroft-Walton voltage doubler should take proper precautions against being too close to high voltages.
(Note that Cockcroft does not appear to specifically mention Greinacher, and this may be one reason for the mistaken credit Cockcroft and Walton sometimes receive for the voltage doubling circuit, in addition to language and free information barriers.)
| (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
86 YBN
[1914 AD]
| 6034) Frederick Joseph Ricketts (CE 1881-1945), British composer who publishes using the name "Kenneth J. Alford", composes his famous "Colonel Bogey" march.
| (93rd Highlanders, British army) Scotland, UK (verify) |
85 YBN
[01/25/1915 AD]
| 4043) In 1915 the first transcontinental telephone line is opened between New York City and San Francisco. Bell in New York City speaks again to his old assistant Watson who is in San Francisco. Again Bell says 'Watson please come here. I want you.'
| New York City and San Francisco, USA |
85 YBN
[01/??/1915 AD]
| 4410) (Sir) William Henry Bragg (CE 1862-1942) and (Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971) publish "X-Rays and Crystal Structure" which describes their work using x-rays to determine wavelength and crystal structure.
Using their method of determining both the wavelength of X-ray beams and crystal structure by using X-ray diffraction off crystals, they show that crystals of substances such as sodium chloride do not contain molecules of sodium chloride but only contain sodium and chlorine ions arranged with geometric regularity. In sodium chloride specifically, the Braggs show that each sodium ion is at the same distance from six chloride ions, while each cloride ion is at the same distance from six sodium ions, and that there is no physical connection between the ions. This will lead to Debye's new treatment of ion dissociation.
(show graphically, and what evidence causes them to claim this?) (that is somewhat amazing that the actual ions themselves do not actually touch.)
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England (and Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
85 YBN
[01/??/1915 AD]
| 4864) Vesto Melvin Slipher (SlIFR) (CE 1875-1969), US astronomer, measures the Doppler shift of 15 "nebulae" (galaxies) and finds that the majority are moving away from the earth. Slipher calculates an average velocity of 400 km/s. In addition, Slipher measures the rotation of the spiral nebula (galaxy) to be about 8 times that of the edge of Jupiter, or roughly 100km/s, by finding slanted lines that are captured over the course of the long photographic exposure.
(Substitute: "Slipher publishes more supposed radial velocities based on the erroneous theory of absorption line shift being due to Doppler shift, as opposed to from calcium in between the stars as shown by spectroscopic binary stars.")
Percival Lowell explains the slanted or "inclined" lines in his 1903 paper on the rotation of Jupiter writing: "...This shear of the lines marks the planet's rotation on its axis. At the edge where a particle at the equator is coming toward us, owing to the rotation, the wave-length is shortened and the dark lines are shifted toward the violet end of the spectrum; at the other edge where the motion is away from us the wave-length is lengthened and the lines are shifted toward the red.". (TODO: Determine if Lowell is the first to publish this slanted line equals rotational velocity finding.) In December of 1912, Slipher had published the first measurement of the velocity of a spiral "nebula" (galaxy), and found the velocity of -300km/s, the highest velocity at that time ever measured.
Slipher writes: "SPECTROGRAPHIC OBSERVATIONS OF NEBULAE.
During the last two years the spectrographic work at Flagstaff has been devoted largely to nebulae. While the observations were chiefly concerned with the spiral nebulae they also include planetary and extended nebulae and globular star clusters.
Nebular spectra may be broadly divided into two general types (1) bright-line and (2) dark-line. The so-called gaseous nebulae are of the first type; the spiral nebulae of the second type.
Nebulae are faint and hence are generally difficult of spectrograph^ observation because of the extreme faintness of their dispersed lightIn the bright-line spectrum the light is concentrated in a few points; in the dark line (continuous) spectrum it is spread out along its whole length. Hence linear dispersion does not affect directly the brightness of the one but vitally that of the other. Thus while the usual stellar spectrograph may serve in a limited way for the bright-line spectrum it is useless for the dark-line one. This suggests why, until recent years, observations of nebular spectra were devoted chiefly to objects having bright lines. The dark-line spectrum is faint in the extreme. It will not over-emphasize this matter to recall that Keeler in his classical observations of planetary (bright-line) nebulae was able to employ a linear dispersion equal to that given by twenty-four sixty-degree prisms, whereas Huggins was able to obtain only a faint photographic impression of the dark-line spectrum of the greatest of the spirals, the Andromeda nebula. ... When entering upon this work it seemed that the chief concern would be with the nebular spectra themselves, but the early discovery that the great Andromeda spiral had the quite exceptional velocity of —300 km showed the means then available, capable of investigating not only the spectra of the spirals but their velocities as well. I have given more attention to velocity since the study of the spectra had been undertaken with marked success by Fath at Lick and Mount Wilson, and by Wolf at Heidelberg.
Spectrograms were obtained of about 40 nebulae and star clusters. The spectrum shown by the spirals thus far observed is predominantly type II (G—K). The best observable nebula, that in Andromeda shows a pure stellar type of spectrum, with none of the composite features to be expected in the spectrum of the integrated light of stars of various types and such as are shown by the spectra of the globular star clusters which present a blend of the more salient features of type I and type II spectra.
In the table is a list of the spiral nebulae observed. As far as possible their velocities are given, although in many cases they are only rough provisional values.
{ULSF: See image} These nebulae are on the south side of the Milky Way.
These are on the north side of the Milky Way
As far as the data go, the average velocity is 400 km. It is positive by about 325 km. It is 400 km on the north side and less than 200 km on the south side of the Milky Way. Before the observation of N.G.C. 1023, 1068, and 7331, which were among the last to be observed, the signs were all negative on one side and all positive on the other, and it then seemed as if the spirals might be drifting across the Milky Way.
N.G.C. 3115, 4565, 4594, and 5866 are spindle nebulae—doubtless spirals seen edge-on. Their average velocity is about 800 km, which is much greater than for the remaining objects and suggests that the spirals move edge forward.
As well as may be inferred, the average velocity of the spirals is about 25 times the average stellar velocity. This great velocity would place these nebulae a long way along the evolutional chain if we undertook to apply the Campbell-Kapteyn discovery of the increase in stellar velocity with "advance" in stellar spectral type.
N.G.C. 4594, in addition to showing a velocity of 1100 km shows inclined lines. The inclination is about four degrees at wavelength 4300, or four times that shown by a similar spectrogram of Jupiter. Hence the linear velocity of rotation at a distance of 20 seconds from the nucleus of the nebula is eight times Jupiter's limb velocity, or roughly 100 km. The slit was on the long axis of the nebula which makes the axis of rotation perpendicular to the nebula's plane of greatest extension.".
(Note that some people mistakenly credit Hubble with being the first to measure the Doppler shift of galaxies.)
| (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
85 YBN
[06/04/1915 AD]
| 4748) Secret Science: Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, publishes "Radiations from Exploding Atoms" and uses the phase "atomic explosion" which may be a clear hint that nuclear uranium fission explosives may have been realized at least as early as June 4, 1915. In this paper Rutherford also describes accelerating particles to velocities similar to those seem emitting from atoms. He writes: "...By the application of a high voltage to a vacuum tube it is quite possible to produce types of radiation analogous to those spontaneously arising from radium. For example, if helium were one of the residual gases in the tube, some of its atoms would become charged, and would be set into swift motion in the strong electric field. In order, however, to acquire a velocity equal to the velocity of expulsion of an α particle, say, from radium C, even in the most favourable case nearly four million volts would have to be applied to the tube. In a similar way, in order to set an electron in motion with a velocity of 98 per cent. the velocity of light, at least two million volts would be necessary. As we have seen, it has not so far been found possible to produce X-rays from a vacuum tube as penetrating as the γ rays. ...".
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
85 YBN
[09/15/1915 AD]
| 4510) Robert Andrews Millikan (CE 1868-1953), US physicist performs an experiment which verifies Einstein's photoelectric equation for the maximum energy emission of a negative electron under the influence of ultra-violet light:
1/2 mv2 = Ve = hv − p.
(Read entire paper?)
Millikan argues against Ramsauer's conclusion that there is no definite maximum velocity of emission of corpuscles from metals under the influence of ultra violet light, arguing instead that there is a "...definite and accurately determinable maximum velocity of emission for each exciting wave-length.". (however, this seems obvious that Ramsauer is saying that there is no maximum velocity as frequency is increased - while Millikan is stating that each frequency has a maximum - which seems like two different things.) Ramsauer results conflict with Einstein's equation because Ramsauer found no definite maximum velocity of emission when he plotted energies of emission on the x-axis against deflecting magnetic field strength on the y-axis, finding the curves to run off asymptotically to the x axis.
Millikan summarizes his results writing: "The tests of Einstein’s photoelectric equation which I have considered and, save in the case of the last, subjected to accurate experimental verification are: 1. The existence of a definite and exactly determinable maximum energy of emission of corpuscles under the influence of a given wave–length. 2. The existence of a linear relationship between photo–potentials and the frequency of the incident light. (This has not been shown in the present paper.) 3. The exact appearance of Planck’s h in the slope of the potential– frequency line. The photoelectric method is one of the most accurate available methods for fixing this constant. 4. The agreement of the long wave–length limit with the intercept of the P.D., v line, when the latter has been displaced by the amount of the contact E.M.F. 5. Contact E.M.F.’s are accurately given by
h/e(v0 - v'0) - (V0 - V'0).
6. Contact E.M.F.’s are independent of temperature. This last result follows from Einstein’s equation taken in conjunction with the experimentally well established fact of the independence of photo–potentials on temperature. If the surface changes in the heating so as to change the photoelectric currents, the contact E.M.F. should change also, otherwise not.".
In 1916, Millikan will use this same experimental verification of Einstein's equation relating the frequency of light to the induced voltage of the photoelectric effect to verify experimentally Planck's constant (h).
(In terms of 1, in my view, energy must be viewed as the combination of mass and motion.) (State more clearly how Planck's constant is measured.) (It seems possible that another equation could be made that relates light frequency to measured potential that either omits Planck's constant, or includes the mass of a light particle, or a aratio of the mass of a light particle to an electron.)
(Notice how 1/2mv2 is converted to a change in voltage - describe how that happens)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
85 YBN
[11/??/1915 AD]
| 4840) Joseph Goldberger (CE 1874-1929), Austrian-US physician demonstrates that the disease Pellagra is a dietary deficiency disease.
Elvehjem will show the required vitamin to be nicotinic acid, more commonly known as niacin.
To prove that Pellagra is a dietary deficiency disease, Goldberger experiments on voluntary prisoners in a Mississippi jail who are given pardons in exchange. Goldberger places the prisoners on diets that lack meat, and milk. After 6 months they develop pellagra which could be relieved by adding milk and meat to the diet. (Perhaps the rest of the diet was limited to certain foods?)
In November 1915 the Public Health Service issues a press release reporting the Mississippi prison-farm experiment and urging that pellagra can be prevented by an appropriate diet; yet throughout the 1920’s many practicing physicians, especially in the US South, are unwilling to accept diet as a direct cause of pellagra.
Pellagra, is a nutritional disorder caused by a dietary deficiency of niacin (also called nicotinic acid) or a failure of the body to absorb this vitamin or the amino acid tryptophan, which is converted to niacin in the body. Pellagra is characterized by skin lesions and by gastrointestinal and neurological disturbances.
(are the vitamins molecularly similar to each other or very different?)
(Find original paper if any)
| (US Public Health Service) Washington, DC, USA (verify) |
85 YBN
[12/01/1915 AD]
| 4881) Walter Sydney Adams (CE 1876-1956) US astronomer captures the spectrum of the companion of Sirius (Sirius B) and reports that this spectrum is the same as Sirius, except that the ultraviolet part of the companion spectrum fades out sooner.
In 1844, Friedrich Bessel had first shown that Sirius must have a companion and had worked out its mass, from the effect it has on the star Sirius A, to be about the same as our Sun. In 1862, the dim Companion of Sirius was first observed telescopically by Alvan Clark. From its dimness Clark and others thought Sirius B to be a dying cooling star.
Willamina Fleming had determined the spectrum of the earliest known supposed white-dwarf, omicron 2 Eridani (also known as 40 Eridani), which Henry Norris Russell describes as an "apparaent exception" in comparison to the other stars whose spectral type was plotted against their absolute magnitude in December 1913. (It may be, as unusual as it sounds to an educated person, that there was some kind of religious pressure against claiming that a planet orbits another star in the early 1900s, and so insider people publicly pretended that these so-called white dwarfs are not planets. Perhaps the neuron writing administration made this choice, like they make so many shockingly terrible decisions.)
Adams writes: " The Spectrum of the Companion of Sirius.
We have made several attempts during the past two years to secure a spectrum of the companion of Sirius. ... The line spectrum of the companion is identical with that of Sirius in all respects so far as can be judged from a close comparison of the spectra, but there appears to be a slight tendency for the continuous spectrum of the companion to fade off more rapidly in the violet region. The suggestion has been made by several astronomers that at least a portion of the light of the companion is due to light reflected from Sirius. It is, however, by no means necessary to have recourse to this explanation, since in the case of the companion of O2 Eridani, where there can be no question of reflected light, we know of a similar case of a star of very low intrinsic brightness which has a spectrum of type A0. ...".
Adams succeeds in obtaining the spectrum of Sirius B and finds that the star is much hotter than the Sun, so at only eight light-years away, Sirius B could only be invisible to the naked eye if it is much smaller than the Sun and no bigger than even the Earth.
Sir Arthur Eddington predicted that, since the Einstein effect is proportional to the mass divided by the radius of the star and the radius of the companion of Sirius is very small, the gravitational effect due to the theory of relativity should be large.
In 1924 Adams will succeed in making the difficult spectroscopic observations and detects the predicted red shift, which confirms his own account of Sirius B and is thought to provide strong evidence for the theory general relativity.
(Here in 1915, Adams, appears to have doubts, but generally appears to be opposed to the view ofthe light of Sirius B being reflected, stating ..."The suggestion has been made by several astronomers that at least a portion of the light of the companion is due to light reflected from Sirius. It is, however, by no means necessary to have recourse to this explanation,"... But, by 1924 there is no more debate about Sirius B being a planet or star - and the view of Sirius B as a unique kind of star, a white dwarf, is the popular view.)
(I have trouble accepting that the same color stars can represent different sizes, clearly the full spectrum needs to be looked at from radio into gamma. I doubt seriously that a small star is going to have a similar spectrum as a large star. Humans need to make available and show the full spectrum of each star beyond the visible at least into the X Ray and radio if possible. I have doubts about the white dwarf/neutron star (are they the same?) theory.)
(I think a good research project for a graduate student is to go back, redo, and verify these claims, in particular with a focus on trying to find any errors. For example, verify the supposed large gravitation of Sirius B, verify the spectrum compared to other stars, determine and verify the observed distant and surface light particle emission rate (absolute and relative magnitude), etc. This may be a case of people creating many more phenomena or classifications than actually exist.)
(Might the measurement of mass of Sirius B be inaccurate? May there be other unseen objects orbiting Sirius A which cause a large wobble? Might there be other sources for error?)
(Something somewhat suspicious is the statement about Sirius B having the identical spectral lines as Sirius A except that Sirius B's spectrum fades off more rapidly in the ultraviolet. That may be due to it's position relative to the grating. Is it possible that Sirius B is a planet shining light reflected from Sirius B? If a planet then possibly it might be detectible if ever it crosses the path of Sirius A. Do a detailed comparison of spectral lines of each light source. If identical, light from Sirius B seems very unlikely to be anything other than reflected light.)
(Possibly "surface" magnitude, or "surface emission" might be better than "absolute magnitude", and "emission at earth" instead of "visual magnitude" - these ideas should be opened for discussion and clear names made available.)
(Other possibilities besides a large Jovian-like planet, are distant star, or some kind of product of living objects. If a distant star, possibly the wobble of Sirius is due to unseen planets. Possibly Sirius B may have a measurable periodic wobble in it's light emission spectrum.)
(TODO: Does the position of Sirius B change? Do these changes correspond exactly to the wobble in Sirius?)
(TODO: Has a non-spectral parallax of Sirius B ever been taken? It seems apparent that Sirius B may have been {purposely?} skipped by Hipparchos. Sirius A is HIP 32349, and Hipparchos measured the parallax of Sirius A to be 379.21 milliarc seconds. Distance in parsecs is 1000/parallax, in light years D=D*3.2616. Clearly a parallax would indicate the distance of Sirius B and confirm or disprove if it is a satellite of Sirius A. If Sirius B was skipped purposely, that seems unusual - and perhaps a purposeful decision made by people who know that the theory of "white dwarves" is inaccurate, as if they already knew the answer - and that the measurement would show that the parallax for Sirius B is far smaller than for Sirius A, but perhaps no and as outsiders we can only guess. For example, when entering the Henry Draper number for Sirius B HD 48915B - the Hipparchos catalog only returns the record for Sirius A.)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
85 YBN
[12/03/1915 AD]
| 4995) Peter Joseph Wilhelm Debye (DEBI) (CE 1884-1966), Dutch-US physical chemist extends the work of the Braggs and shows that X-ray beams can also be used to analyze powdered solids, which are mixtures of tiny crystals, oriented in all possible directions.
(todo: show photos if any)
(TODO: more info: what do the diffractions look like, why are they useful?)
Together with his x-ray work and results from rotational spectra, this enables the precise spatial configuration of small molecules to be deduced.
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
85 YBN
[12/04/1915 AD]
| 4917) Frederick William Twort (CE 1877-1950), English bacteriologist identifies bacteriophages, viruses that can infect and kill bacteria.
Twort attempts to grow viruses in artificial media and notices that bacteria some bacteria became transparent. This phenomenon is shown to be contagious and is the first demonstration of the existence of bacteria-infecting viruses. These are later called ‘bacteriophages’ by the Canadian bacteriologist Felix d'Herelle (CE 1873-1949) in France, who discovers them independently in 1917. Twort writes in "An Investigation on the Nature of Ultra-Microscopic Viruses" in the Lancet: "DURING the past three years a considerable number of experiments have been carried out at the Brown Institution on filter-passing viruses. Many of these, previous to the outbreak of the war, were performed by Dr. C. C. Twort, and, unfortunately, circumstances during the present year have made it difficult to continue the work. In the first instance attempts were made to demonstrate the presence of non-pathogenic filterpassing viruses. As is well known, in the case of ordinary bacteria for every pathogenic microorganism discovered many non-pathogenic varieties of the same type have been found in nature, and it seems highly probable that the same rule will be found to hold good in the case of ultra-microscopic viruses. It is difficult, however, to obtain proof of their existence, as pathogenicity is the only evidence we have at the present time of the presence of an ultra-microscopic virus. On the other hand, it seems probable that if non-pathogenic varieties exist in nature these should be more easily cultivated than the pathogenic varieties; accordingly, attempts to cultivate these from such materials as soil, dung, grass, hay, straw, and water from ponds were made on specially prepared media. Several hundred media were tested. It is impossible to describe all these in detail, but generally agar, egg, or serum was used as a basis, and to these varying quantities of certain chemicals or extracts of fungi, seeds, &c., were added. The material to be tested for viruses was covered with water and incubated at 30* C. or over for varying periods of time, then passed through a Berkefeld filter, and the filtrate inoculated on the different media. In these experiments a few ordinary bacteria, especially sporing types, were often found to pass through the filter; but in no case was it possible to obtain a growth of a true filterpassing virus. Attempts were also made to infect such animals as rabbits and guinea-pigs by inoculating two doses of the filtered material, or by rubbing this into the shaved skin. In other cases inoculations were made directly from one animal to another in the hope of raising the virulence of any filter-passing virus that might be present. All the experiments, however, were negative. Experiments were also conducted with vaccinia and with distemper of dogs, but in neither of these diseases was it found possible to isolate a bacterium that would reproduce the disease in animals. Some interesting results, however, were obtained with cultivations from glycerinated calf vaccinia. Inoculated agar tubes, after 24 hours at 37° C., often showed watery-looking areas, and in cultures that grew micrococci it was found that some of these colonies could not be subcultured, but if kept they became glassy and transparent. On examination of these glassy areas nothing but minute granules, staining reddish with Giemsa, could be seen. Further experiments showed that if a colony of the white micrococcus that had started to become transparent was plated out instead of being subcultured as a streak then the micrococci grew, and a pure streak culture from certain of these colonies could be obtained. On the other hand, if the plate cultures (made by inoculating the condensation water of a series of tubes and floating this over the surface of the medium) were left, the colonies, especially in the first dilution, soon started to turn transparent, and the micrococci were replaced by fine granules. This action, unlike an ordinary degenerative process, started from the edge of the colonies, and further experiments showed that when a pure culture of the white or the yellow micrococcus isolated from vaccinia is touched with a small portion of one of the glassy colonies, the growth at the point touched soon starts to become transparent or glassy, and this gradually spreads over the whole growth, sometimes killing out all the micrococci and replacing these by fine granules. Experiments showed that the action is more rapid and complete with vigorous-growing young cultures than with old ones, and there is very little action on dead cultures or on young cultures that have been killed by heating to 60° C. Anaerobia does not favour the action. The transparent material when diluted (one in a million) with water or saline was found to pass the finest porcelain filters (Pasteur- Chamberland F. and B. and Doulton White) with ease, and one drop of the filtrate pipetted over an agar tube was sufficient to make that tube unsuitable for the growth of the micrococcus. That is, if the micrococcus was inoculated down the tube as a streak, this would start to grow, but would soon become dotted with transparent points which would rapidly extend over the whole growth. The number of points from which this starts depends upon the dilution of the transparent material, and in some cases it is so active that the growth is stopped and turned transparent almost directly it starts. This condition or disease of the micrococcus when transmitted to pure cultures of the micrococcus can be conveyed to fresh cultures for an indefinite number of generations; but the transparent material will not grow by itself on any medium. If in an infected tube small areas of micrococci are left, and this usually happens when the micrococcus has grown well before becoming infected, these areas will start to grow again and extend over the transparent portions, which shows that the action of the transparent’material is stopped or hindered in an overgrown tube; but it is not dead, for if a minute portion is transferred to another young culture of the micrococcus it soon starts to dissolve up the micrococci again. Although the transparent material shows no evidence of growth when placed on a fresh agar tube without micrococci it will retain its powers of activity for over six months. It also retains its activity when made into an emulsion and heated to 52° C., but when heated to 60° C. for an hour it appears to be destroyed. It has some action, but very much less, on staphylococcus aureus and albus isolated from boils of man, and it appears to have no action on members of the coli group or on streptococ ci, tubercle bacilli, yeasts, &c. The transparent material was inoculated into various animals and was rubbed into the scratched skin of guineapigs, rabbits, a calf, a monkey, and a man; but all the results were negative. From these results it is difficult to draw definite conclusions. In the first place, we do not know for certain the nature of an ultra-microscopic virus. It may be a minute bacterium that will only grow on living material, or it may be a tiny amoeba which, like ordinary amoebae, thrives on living microorganisms. On the other hand, it must be remembered that if the living organic world has been slowly built up in accordance with the theories of evolution, then an amoeba and a bacterium must be recognised as highly developed organisms in comparison with much more primitive forms which once existed, and probably still exist at the present day. It is quite possible that an ultra-microscopic virus belongs somewhere in this vast field of life more lowly organised than the bacterium or amoeba. It may be living protoplasm that forms no definite individuals, or an enzyme with power of growth. ...". (Check for typos)
| (Brown Institution) London, England |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4392) Robert Thorburn Ayton Innes (iNiS) (CE 1861-1933), Scottish astronomer is the first to identify the star called Proxima Centauri, ("proxima" is Latin for "nearest"). Innes sees the faint star, which appears to be a third and distant companian of the binary Alpha Centauri stars. Proxima Centauri makes a large orbit around (a that star)(both stars?).
Proxima Centauri, is still the nearest known star besides our own Sun to our star system and is 4.3 light years away.
Innes makes this discovery using the blink microscope in astronomy. (explain and show image of microscope)
| (Cape Observatory) South Africa |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4777) Frederick William Twort (CE 1877–1950), British bacteriologist, identifies the first known bacteriophage (a virus that kills certain bacteria).
During an attempt to grow viruses in artificial media Twort notices that bacteria, which are infecting his plates, become transparent. This bacteria becoming transparent phenomenon proves to be contagious and is the first demonstration of the existence of bacteria-infecting viruses, which will later be called "bacteriophages" by the Canadian bacteriologist Felix d'Herelle, who discovers them independently.
Twort writes: "... More recently, that is when the investigation of infantile diarrhoea and vomiting was continued during the summer and autumn of this year (1915), similar experiments were carried out with material obtained from the intestinal tract. The general results of this investigation will be published later, and it will be sufficient here to note that after certain difficulties had been overcome it was found that in the upper third of the intestine, which contained numerous bacilli of the typhoid-coli group, some larger bacilli were also present. In some cases they grew in far larger numbers than the coli types of bacteria; but this was only so when precautions were taken to eliminate the action of a dissolving substance which infected the colonies so rapidly that they were dissolved before attaining a size visible to the eye. Here, then, is a similar condition to that found in vaccinia, and the greatest difficulty was experienced in obtaining the bacilli free from the transparent dissolving material, so rapidly was the infection increased and carried from one colony to another. Finally, cultures were obtained by growing the bacilli with certain members of the typhoid-coli group for a few generations and then plating out. From the colonies cultures were obtained on ordinary agar. Some of
these cultures being slightly infected with the dissolving material rapidly became transparent and were lost, while a few grew well. The bacillus has several curious characters, and these are now being investigated. It is in no way related to the typhoid-coli group. The relation of this bacillus and the dissolving material to infantile diarrhoea has not yet been determined, but probably it will be found also in cases of dysentery and allied conditions ; and I greatly regret that I have not been afforded an opportunity of investigating the dysenteric conditions in the Dardenelles to determine this and other points. ...".
Twort is also the first to culture the causative organism of Johne's disease, an important intestinal infection of cattle. (chronology)
| (London University) London, England |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4817) William Draper Harkins (CE 1873-1951), US chemist (with Ernest D. Wilson) create a theory of atom building, and theorize that hydrogen to helium atomic fusion is the source of energy of stars, creates the concept of a "packing fraction", and shows that if four hydrogen atoms combine to form a helium atom, 77% of the mass is lost in the conversion.
In 1915 Harkins and E. D. Wilson publish five important papers concerning the processes of building complex atomic nuclei from protons, deuterium, tritium nuclei, and α-particles. At this time the only nuclear reactions that have been studied are the decomposition reactions of radioactive nuclei, for which the Einstein equation relating mass and energy predict the observed energies. (more specific how is energy observed - which matter and which motion?) With the Einstein equation Harkins shows the enormous energy produced in the nuclear fusion of hydrogen to produce helium, which results in 77 percent loss of mass and identifies this reaction as the source of stellar energy. Harkins terms the decrease in mass in nuclear synthesis “packing effect”, and showed it to be lower in complex nuclei of even atomic number (considered to be produced by condensation of α-particles) than in complex nuclei of odd atomic number (considered to be produced by condensation of a tritium or lithium nucleus with α-particles). This observation led Harkins to propose that the even-numbered elements are more stable and he demonstrated that they are the more plentiful in stars, in meteorites, and on earth. In 1919 Harkins’ conclusions were confirmed by Rutherford, who bombarded various atoms with α-particles and found that of the elements so bombarded, only the odd-numbered ones lost a proton.
Harkins creates the theory of “packing fraction”, which is the energy consumed in packing the nucleons into the nucleus. Harkins uses Einstein's equation relating mass and energy (e=mc^2) to show that if 4 hydrogen atoms are converted into a helium nucleus, some mass would be lost (saved in the packing) which would appear as energy (or in my view in the form of photons). (Somehow the nucleons in the a helium nucleus contain slightly less mass than the dual hydrogen molecules and that this mass is released?) Harkins is particularly interested in the slight deviations of atomic nuclei mass to a whole number, and introduces what he calls the “packing fraction”, which is the the amount of energy consumed in packing the nucleons into the nucleus. Harkins suggests this hydrogen to helium conversion as a star's source of energy, and this is the popular accepted theory of how stars function. And this is the basis for so-called “fusion” power and the hydrogen bomb.
At Chicago, Harkins begins work on the structure and the reactions of atomic nuclei. The leading researchers in this newly developing science (Ernest Rutherford, Francis William Aston, Frederick Soddy, Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett) are mostly in England and, except for T. W. Richards at Harvard, there is little US involvement. (However, it seems clear that there must be a rigorous, but secret program in particle science, in particular surrounding neuron reading and writing, atomic transmutation, and particle and explosive weapons in all major nations of Earth by 1915.)
My view of the "packing fraction" theory is that there is no need of energy to pack nucleons into the nucleus, because this is done by the force of gravity. But I need to examine the claim more. (In my view energy is an abstract concept, wihch is a combination of matter and motion. Stars are packed full of matter with velocity, and that is enough to explain why stars emit light, simply because photons near the surface are likely to bounce into the empty space around a star and exit that way.)
(I accept that hydrogen atoms can be converted into helium, and people should remember that the photons that result come from a loss of matter from hydrogen atoms, not from any kind of special power of the fusion process. It is from left over matter. There may be many transmutation reactions where photons remain, even more than the hydrogen to helium conversion.)
(show or talk about physical evidence that shows this hydrogen to helium conversion to be true, and how Harkins explanation does fit the observed phenomenon.)
(one question is that since hydrogen and helium are such light gases, why would they be in the center of the sun? Wouldn't it be more logical for the center of the sun to be like the center of the earth, dense molten metal? We see photons in the form of light and heat emitted from the earth's inside from volcanoes, does hydrogen to helium also explain these photons? I see no need for a hydrogen to helium explanation, and in addition, doubt that hydrogen as an atom is in the center of planets of stars (perhaps individual neutrons and protons under pressure are split or pushed into larger atoms inside planets and stars). The question of how large atoms are made from photons is a classic question, and in stars and maybe even planets are the probable answers.)
(Get larger photo)
(My own view on the source of "stellar energy", is that the velocity is already built into all mass and that light particles simply reach empty space to move at the surface of stars. The motion is contained into small volumes of space. In addition, matter is packed into the volume of a star and so the pressure of particle collision causes the release/emission of matter - just as opening a container with a higher pressure into a lower pressure causes an fast movement of matter from the high pressure container to the lower pressure volume. I have doubts about hydrogen and helium being in the center of stars. More likely very dense atoms like metals are compressed, in particular since the spectra of iron and other metals is shown in the inner most observable emission spectra of exploded stars. I have shown how more massive material tends to a gravitational center, while less massive material tends to cluster farther away in a simple computer simulation. It isn't clear that the atomic form is maintained at the great pressures inside stars - perhaps light particles are simply packed together without moving, or maintain their velocity but with very small intervals between collisions.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4818) William Draper Harkins (CE 1873-1951), US chemist defines a new periodic system, and defines atoms as simply combinations of hydrogen and helium atoms.
This model of the atom will not have as much popularity as the Nagaoka (1903)-Rutherford (1911) Saturnian view of the atom with a sun-like central positive charge surrounded by negatively charged planet-like electrons. Another popular view that this model disputes is that atoms are composed only of Hydrogen atoms.
William Draper Harkins (CE 1873-1951), US chemist defines a new periodic system, different from the scheme of Mendeleve, being based on two kinds of atoms, odd elements which contain combinations of hydrogen and helium atoms, and even elements which contain only combinations of helium atoms. In addition, Harkins is the first to estimate the distribution of the elements in the universe.
Harkins creates creates a new periodic system, as opposed to that of Mendeleev which has periodis of 2,8, 18 and 32 elements, with a system which is two atomic species in length since Harkins theorizes that atoms are either build in combinations of helium and helium for even numbered atoms, or helium and hydrogen for odd numbered atoms. (I have doubts about these theories of Harkins and Wilson. I doubt the hydrogen to helium theory of stars, I doubt a packing phenomenon exists, and the chances of four hydrogen atoms collising all at the same time to form a helium atom seems possible in a very dense volume of space, but, as with all things at a scale which cannot be directly observed, I think people need to reserve doubts and explore alternative theories.)
(I think the theory of atoms made strictly of hydrogen and helium atoms seems like a good possibility. It's interesting that this model has not been more publicly addressed. Another interesting thing about Harkins is that he publishes these few interesting papers and then mysteriously ends all controversy spending the rest of his years doing boring uneventful, noncontroversial "surface" chemistry - its almost as if he somehow angered powerful people by releasing too much secret information, and was "transferred to Siberia" metaphorically speaking. But as outsiders, we can only guess.)
Harkins is one of the first to address the problem of the relative proportions of the various elements in the universe, and bases his calculations on nuclear stability, the more stable the atom the more common. (show the equations, show the order of abundance, why more Aluminum than Lithium, Beryllium, Boron, etc? It may have to do with what happens to atoms pushed together under great pressures. Pressure is related to the force put on a particle, and so a vacuum is 0 pressure.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4878) Walter Sydney Adams (CE 1876-1956) US astronomer, determines that the visible spectrum of the companian of Sirius is identical with that of Sirius, except for fading off more rapidly in the violet region.
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4933) Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist claims that general relativity explains the anomalous precession of the planet Mercury. Einstein also calculates the bending of light by gravity. (verify)
| ( Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics) Berlin, Germany |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4934) Albert Einstein (CE 1879-1955), German-US physicist publishes his field equations for his "general relativity" theory. (verify)
In 1915 Einstein publishes his “General Theory of Relativity” which applies his theory of relativity to include the case of accelerated frames of reference, and presents a new theory of gravity of which Newton's classic theory is only a special case. In this general theory Einstein identifies three predicted effects that he claims are different from Newton's theory. First Einstein's theory allows for a shift in the position of the perihelion of a planet, a shift that Newton's theory does not allow. Only in the case of Mercury is the difference large enough to be noticable. This is the motion that Leverrier had detected and tried to explain by supposing the existence of a planet inside the orbit of Mercury. Secondly, Einstein explains that light in an intense gravitational field should show a red shift. According to Asimov, this had never been looked for before. At Eddington's suggestion, W. S. Adams demonstrates the existence of this Einstein shift of the frequency of light to the red in the case of the companion of Sirius which has the largest gravitational field known. In the 1960s the much smaller red shift of light of our own sun is measured and found to match Einstein's prediction (show math, and observation spectrum? images). In addition, the shift in gamma-ray wavelength, found by Mössbauer in the late 1950s is identical to this shift predicted by Einstein and this too will be measured and found to be in accord with the prediction.
(Read relevant parts of English translation)
The astronomer William Pickering casts doubt on the validity of the theory of Relativity in his "Popular Astronomy" article "Shall We Accept Relativity?" in 1922. Pickering echos many of Charles Lane Poor's published objections, and argues that the observed difference in the advance of Mercury's perihelion was based on the assumption that the Sun is a perfect sphere, but that the Sun is actually larger around it's equator, that the measurements of the bending of light around the ecclipsed Sun did not confirm the theory, and that the measurements of Doppler shift from Mr. Wilson are "distinctly unfavorable".
Charles Lane Poor publishes a book "Gravitation versus Relativity" which is a thorough attempt to disprove the theory of relativity in 1922. Poor argues that Einstein's theory causes a 17% error in the motion of the perihelion of planet Venus, among numerous other criticisms.
In 1972 Herbert Dingle publishes "Science at the Crossroads", in which Dingle expresses doubts about the Theory of Relativity.
(In my opinion, this red shift of light from a gravitational field, perfectly explains the red shift of the distant galaxies. And this adds complexity to understanding the position of distant stars, because not only does the velocity of a star relative to the observer change the frequency of light, but also the gravity of galaxies and individual stars changes the frequency of light. So when we see a red shifted galaxy, how much is from velocity and how much is from gravity is unknown, and so the estimate of the distance for spiral galaxies in my view should be based more on size than Doppler shift. It is clear that ultimately the red shift of gravity prevails over the Doppler effect. So Doppler shift is probably only a rough estimate of distance. To try to calculate the relative velocity of other galaxies to us, we should use the observed size and absolute magnitude. To use red shift we could use a factor to remove the average red shift of light per unit of space, however, it seems to me that the distribution of mass in the universe is so non-uniform, that it is useless to try to use red-shift to determine distance - how many objects might have bent the light from source to observer - and how can those possibly be accounted for - and what a complex process that would be. Even here, the estimates may be wrong because of more or less stretching of light between galaxies. There must be galaxies that are large in size but are red shifted as a result of being behind a galaxy relative to our position (although they appear next to it). The light from some galaxies is actually split in half by a galaxy closer to us, and this light must be very red shifted, but for all we know the galaxy is just behind the one we see.) (In addition, we live very near a gravitational "hole" which is the Sun, the mass of the Sun may cause nearby incoming light beams to be red shifted on passing and blue-shifted after passing the Sun.)
(The shift of light due to gravity, which is the conclusion that can be drawn from Newton's equation, also identified by Einstein, and then Mössbauer, I think is solid experimental evidence that light is red shifted when bent by gravity, and knowing this, this effect cannot be ignored as an explanation as to why the light from most of the galaxies, in particular the galaxies with smaller apparent size is red shifted. But this conclusion was not drawn by Einstein and others to my knowledge, and instead the interpretation of an expanding universe was accepted.) Third Einstein shows that light will be deflected by a gravitational field much more than Newton predicted. This is confirmed on 03/29/1919 when the positions of bright stars near the sun during a solar eclipse are compared with their position six months before when their light did not pass near the sun. (For this one, I think this is a precise measurement, with a large amount of room for error. The difference is something like .0026 instead of .0039...it is ridiculously small. This includes errors in the estimate of the mass of the sun, in the distance of the light beam from the sun. And I think the real shame is that, people were motivated to confirm Einstein's theory instead of figure out what the truth is, instead of trying to allow some doubt for Newton's theory. I think there is a clear bias shown in this confirmation, and a lack of doubt expressed. Was there even a single person that expressed doubt? What did they cite as evidence against?) The Royal Astronomical Society of London made two expeditions, one to northern Brazil and one to Principe Island in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of West Africa. (what star positions are used to confirm the location of the stars in question? Their distance compared to other stars was measured? Describe all the details. How is the actual measurement made? How is the actual calculation made? Show the math for both theories. ) After this Einstein is very popular, and recognized around the earth.
(Clearly Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is the most popular interpretation of the universe of the small percentage of those (33% perhaps) who have an scientific interpretation. Although I think possilby “the standard model” may have replaced or changed the GToR to view forces as the result of particle interactions, which I think is clearly a possible alternative to action-at-a-distance theories, like Newton's gravitation, and Coulomb's electric and magnetic law. But all through the 1900s there was an unhealthy conformity in support of the theory of relativity in my opinion. A clear example of this is shown in “Studies in Optics”, a book by Albert Michelson, where a single note is put on the first page by Chandrasekhar explaining that while Michelson expresses uncertainty about the theory of relativity, that it is clearly and overwhelmingly demonstrated. That such a statement is necessary to remove any possible doubt about the theory of relativity I think shows the intolerance of any opposition or doubt in the theory. And Chandrasekhar won a Nobel prize based on conclusions drawn from the theory of relativity.)
(In evidence against space and time dilation and the theory of relativity, I offer the idea that the photon, the particle of light, is not massless as is claimed in relativity, but is a piece of matter, that the photon is the basis of all matter in the universe, is the only matter in the universe, and all other matter is a combination of photons. In addition, that magnetism is a form of electricity, or the electrical force, and that electricity is a combined effect of particle collision and/or the force of gravity. But more specifically against the idea of space and time dilation, that this theory was initially created by George Fitzgerald and then Hendrik Lorentz to prop up the ether theory after the result of the Michelson-Morley experiment, and that relativity uses that same exact concept, and that this concept of space and time dilation is the only fundamental difference between Newton's and Einstein's interpretation. (Michelson in his 1927 book states that Fitzgerald's length contraction “seems rather artificial”.) In particular I put forward the idea that time is the same throughout the universe. In other words, the time here is the same time as it is on the other side of the galaxy, and this is the same time as it is in the Andromeda galaxy and everywhere else in the universe. If it is 5 pm here, it is 5 pm there. no matter where here and there is. So when viewing a location in 4 dimensional quadordinates (or coordinates), all points have the same value for t in any given frame of a simulation. Any time we draw a picture of the universe in some state, we are drawing a representation of a single instant in time, and it is presumed that everything we see in that image has the same value for t. So in giving points (x,y,z,t) such values as (0,0,0,0) and (1,0,0,0), a person can see that for each frame of the model the value for t stays the same. in frame 2 the point at (0,0,0) will be (0,0,0,2) and the point at (1,0,0) will be at point (1,0,0,2), the time t will always be the same. And so, it is a waste of time, and memory to bother with a value t for time in such models or simulations of the universe when it will always be irrelevant. To put it simply, time does not depend on the velocity, or location of any matter or space. )
(So I think from here, I need humans need to experimentally show whether Newton's law or Einstein's law is the more accurate. Clearly and obviously Newton's law is by far the more simple and useful.)
(I think this is important to show and explain using the exact text from Einstein's paper. Is this a matter of the effects being so small as to be within the realm of error in measurement, casting some amount of doubt on the character of those who confirm these measurements? or is it some other explanation such as the improper interpretation of Newton's equation? Not including all necessary matter, etc.)
(I think possibly people are not using Newton's equation iteratively, and are somehow presuming a time independent form of Newton's equation. Simulations must be worked out into the future from some initial time, as far as I remember, Newton's equations were applied in a static geometrical way. In other words that the position of Jupiter each year is always the same, when the only way, in my view, to get the correct position of Jupiter in the future, is to run the model forward one year through iteration - that is accumulating and constantly determining the new motion of each mass at each instance of time. In my simple 3D Newtonian modeling of masses, I see many orbits that show perihelial movements (show video examples), the orbit appears to rotate over time. It seems clear that planets, comets, etc need to be modeled with some initial position and velocity - but strangly we have never heard this publicly. Now this is easier because of computers, but before computers this would be done by hand. This iteration would be highly repetitive, and recursive, so perhaps that is the reason that people of the past tried to generalize and simplify this modeling of planets into a single equation which accounts for all "perturbations". Then the question remains as to how relativity solves this movement, and how it does is with a geometrical equation...not a model that can be run forward with 4d quadordinates for Mercury, the sun and other planets. Clearly show all math on both sides.)
(I am not aware of any mention before this that particles of light should show the effect of gravity, but it is a logical result of Newton's equation if applied to particles of light. I am surprised that none of the scientists after Newton ever entertained the modeling of light particles because of gravity. - see Preistley book)
(The 3d images of gravity, the funnel shape, are impressive, but this is the same 3d image for Newton's inverse distance squared equation as far as I know.)
(I think the view of Sirius B having a strong gravitational field may be in error, because Sirius B may be a satellite of Sirius A, which would explain it's smaller magnitude.)
(I think all the effects that Einstein claims are evidence for the theory of General Relativity, can be explained by the inverse distance law of gravity, even if viewed as a generalization of an all inertial particle collision only universe. I think this should be the goal of present and future scientists until it is proven beyond a doubt for the majority of humans.)
(The Theory of Relativity, I think, represents a continuing of the widing separation due to the rise of the wave theory of light around the early 1800s by people like Thomas Young and August Fresnel, which replaced Newton's theory of light as a particle of matter, and was continued by Maxwell. The Theory of Relativity continues the math of light as a combination electric and magnetic sine wave with an aether medium of Maxwell and the time-dilation aether-based theory of Lorentz. The claim that, in viewing light as a quantum of energy, there is a bridge back to the corpuscular theory available I think is somewhat weak, but nonetheless, my hope is that whatever bridge may exist is taken very soon. It seems clear, too, that much of the support of the theory of relativity and the wave theory of light may have been simply to help keep neuron reading and writing, and particle communications a secret from the extremely victimized excluded public.)
(My own view of the perihelion of Mercury is that we need to iterate as opposed to using a single complex time-independent equation which accounts for all the perturbations.)
| (Berlin’s Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Physics) Berlin, Germany |
85 YBN
[1915 AD]
| 4970) Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945), US physicist is the first to prove that thrust and consequent propulsion can take place in a vacuum, needing no air to push against.
| (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
84 YBN
[01/13/1916 AD]
| 4808) Karl Schwarzschild (sVoRTSsILD or siLD) (CE 1873-1916), German astronomer provides the first solution to be found of the complex partial differential equations by which Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is expressed mathematically.
Schwaschild publishes this as (translated from German) "On the gravitational field of a mass point according to Einstein's theory".
Schwarzschild writes: "In his work on the motion of the perihelion of Mercury (see Sitzungsberichte of November 18th, 1915) Mr. Einstein has posed the following problem: Let a point move according to the prescription: {ULSF see equation} where the gμν stand for functions of the variables x, and in the variation the variables x must be kept fixed at the beginning and at the end of the path of integration. In short, the point shall move along a geodesic line in the manifold characterised by the line element ds.
The execution of the variation yields the equations of motion of the point: {ULSF see equation} where {ULSF see equation} and the gαβ stand for the normalised minors associated to gαβ in the determinant |gμν |.
According to Einstein’s theory, this is the motion of a massless point in the gravitational field of a mass at the point x1 = x2 = x3 = 0, if the “components of the gravitational field” Γ fulfil everywhere, with the exception of the point x1 = x2 = x3 = 0, the “field equations” {ULSF see equation} and if also the “equation of the determinant” {ULSF see paper} is satisfied. The field equations together with the equation of the determinant have the fundamental property that they preserve their form under the substitution of other arbitrary variables in lieu of x1, x2, x3, x4, as long as the determinant of the substitution is equal to 1. Let x1, x2, x3 stand for rectangular co-ordinates, x4 for the time; furthermore, the mass at the origin shall not change with time, and the motion at infinity shall be rectilinear and uniform. Then, according to Mr. Einstein’s list, loc. cit. p. 833, the following conditions must be fulfilled too: 1. All the components are independent of the time x4. 2. The equations gρ4 = g4ρ = 0 hold exactly for ρ = 1, 2, 3. 3. The solution is spatially symmetric with respect to the origin of the co-ordinate system in the sense that one finds again the same solution when x1, x2, x3 are subjected to an orthogonal transformation (rotation). 4. The gμν vanish at infinity, with the exception of the following four limits different from zero: g44 = 1, g11 = g22 = g33 = −1.
The problem is to find out a line element with coefficients such that the field equations, the equation of the determinant and these four requirements are satisfied.
§2. Mr. Einstein showed that this problem, in first approximation, leads to Newton’s law and that the second approximation correctly reproduces the known anomaly in the motion of the perihelion of Mercury. The following calculation yields the exact solution of the problem. It is always pleasant to avail of exact solutions of simple form. More importantly, the calculation proves also the uniqueness of the solution, about which Mr. Einstein’s treatment still left doubt, and which could have been proved only with great difficulty, in the way shown below, through such an approximation method. The following lines therefore let Mr. Einstein’s result shine with increased clearness. §3. If one calls t the time, x, y, z, the rectangular co-ordinates, the most general line element that satisfies the conditions 1-3 is clearly the following: {ULSF see paper} ... When one introduces these values of the functions f in the expression (9) of the line element and goes back to the usual polar co-ordinates one gets the line element that forms the exact solution of Einstein’s problem: {ULSF see paper} The latter contains only the constant α that depends on the value of the mass at the origin. §5. The uniqueness of the solution resulted spontaneously through the present calculation. From what follows we can see that it would have been difficult to ascertain the uniqueness from an approximation procedure in the manner of Mr. Einstein. Without the continuity condition it would have resulted: {ULSF see paper} When α and ρ are small, the series expansion up to quantities of second order gives: {ULSF see paper} This expression, together with the corresponding expansions of f2, f3, f4, satisfies up to the same accuracy all the conditions of the problem. Within this approximation the condition of continuity does not introduce anything new, since discontinuities occur spontaneously only in the origin. Then the two constants α and ρ appear to remain arbitrary, hence the problem would be physically undetermined. The exact solution teaches that in reality, by extending the approximations, the discontinuity does not occur at the origin, but at r = (α3−αρ)1/3, and that one must set just ρ=α3 for the discontinuity to go in the origin. With the approximation in powers of α and ρ one should survey very closely the law of the coefficients in order to recognise the necessity of this link between α and ρ. §6. Finally, one has still to derive the motion of a point in the gravitational field, the geodesic line corresponding to the line element (14). From the three facts, that the line element is homogeneous in the differentials and that its coefficients do not depend on t and on Φ, with the variation we get immediately three intermediate integrals. If one also restricts himself to the motion in the equatorial plane (θ = 90, dθ = 0) {ULSF: not clear if symbol is θ} these intermediate integrals read:
{ULSF: see paper} ... If one introduces the notations: c2/h = B, (1 − h)/h = 2A, this is identical to Mr. Einstein’s equation (11), loc. cit. and gives the observed anomaly of the perihelion of Mercury. Actually Mr. Einstein’s approximation for the orbit goes into the exact solution when one substitutes for r the quantity {ULSf see paper} Since /r is nearly equal to twice the square of the velocity of the planet (with the velocity of light as unit), for Mercury the parenthesis differs from 1 only for quantities of the order 10−12. Therefore r is virtually identical to R and Mr. Einstein’s approximation is adequate to the strongest requirements of the practice. Finally, the exact form of the third Kepler’s law for circular orbits will be derived. Owing to (16) and (17), when one sets x = 1/R, for the angular velocity n = d/dt it holds n = cx2(1 − x). For circular orbits both dx/dΦ and d2x/d2Φ must vanish. Due to (18) this gives:
{ULSF: see paper} ...
The deviation of this formula from the third Kepler’s law is totally negligible down to the surface of the Sun. For an ideal mass point, however, it follows that the angular velocity does not, as with Newton’s law, grow without limit when the radius of the orbit gets smaller and smaller, but it approaches a determined limit
n0 =1/α√2.
(For a point with the solar mass the limit frequency will be around 104 per second). This circumstance could be of interest, if analogous laws would rule the molecular forces.".
(Show translated work - the only translation I can find is copyrighted.) (Possibly read and show translated paper which has many equations.)
(I think future people will describe all public physics after the introduction of the theory of relativity and based on non-Euclidean math, starting in the early 1900s and ending perhaps in the early or mid 2000s as being an era of abstract mathematical unlikely physics, or some similar description.)
(Find if a public domain translation exists. Find online original.)
(One problem with the explanations of Relativity is that they are summarized and not graphically shown and explained in great detail. For example, Schwarzschild solves for components of a 4x4 matrix, but what does this matrix represent? How is the interpretation of the movement of masses calculated using this matrix? All this is not explained.)
(I think one thing that is clear is that no matter what math, Newton's simple equation interated into time, or the calculation of the positions of masses using Einstein's General Theory of Relativity into time, clearly determining masses, the positions of masses, and iterating into future times is required for both, so given this, Newton's equation is far less calculation. Beyond this, the General Theory of Relativity (GTR) requires the theory of time and space dilation to be accurate - without this theory the GTR supposedly reduces to a Newtonian equivalent. The theory of time and space dilation seems to me very unlikely as it did to Albert Michelson, who was the first to doubt publicly the existance of an aether medium in space. In addition, the concept that light is massless, seems unlikely to me. A much more likely theory in my mind is that all matter is made of particles of light which are material objects.)
(Schwarzschild uses Einstein's equations which examine the motion of a "massless" point in a gravitational field, does this presume that points of space move? Another view is that matter moves through points of space which do not move. But if this massless point is supposed to represent light, that seems to me to be unlikely. I think light is made of particles and these particles are material objects with mass.)
(restricting the motion to a single plane seems unlikely to me - too geometrically unlikely for the motion of a planet - too much of an over simplification.)
| Berlin, Germany (published), Russia (written) |
84 YBN
[01/26/1916 AD]
| 4855) Gilbert Newton Lewis (CE 1875-1946), US chemist introduces the theory of a "covalent bond", in which the chemical combination between two atoms is the result of the sharing of a pair of electrons, with one electron contributed by each atom. In addition, Lewis proposes the "cubical atom" theory in which the electrons forms vertices of a cube, all 8 vertices being occupied being the most stable form of the inert gases, and creates the familiar "dot form" of visualizing atom-to-atom bonds.
In 1913 Bray, Branch and Lewis had proposed a dualistic theory of valence which distinguished two distinctly different kinds of atom-to-atom bond: the familiar polar bond formed by electron transfer, as in Na+ c1-, and a nonpolar bond that did not involve electron transfer. The polar theory, exemplified by J. J. Thomson’s popular book The Corpuscular Theory of Matter (1907), was then at the peak of its popularity and Bray and Lewis were the first to challenge the view that all bonds, which includes those in the inert hydrocarbons, are polar.
Lewis states that the concept of the cubical atom as seen in figure 2 of his 1916 paper originates from a memo of March 28, 1902.
In his paper, Lewis separates compounds into polar and non-polar, and states that the essential difference is that in a polar molecule one or more electrons are weakly held and can be separated from their former positions in the atom, and in the extreme case pass to another atom, while in a non-polar molecule electrons cannot move very far from their normal positions.
Lewis writes: "...A number of years ago, to account for the striking fact which has become known as Abegg's law of valence and countervalence, and according to which the total difference between the maximum negative and positive valences or polar numbers of an element is frequently eight and is in no case more than eight, I designed what may be called the theory of the cubical atom. This theory, while it has become familiar to a number of my colleagues, has never been published, partly because it was in many respects incomplete. Although many of these elements of incompleteness remain, and although the theory lacks to-day much of the novelty which it originally possessed, it seems to me more probable intrinsically than some of the other theories of atomic structure which have been proposed, and I cannot discuss more fully the nature of the differences between polar and nonpolar compounds without a brief discussion of this theory. The pictures of atomic structure which are reproduced in Fig. 2 {ULSF original footnote: These figures are taken from a memorandum dated March 28, 1902, together with the models are notes concerning different types of chemical compounds; the various possible arrangements of electrons in the outer atom and the possibility of intra-atomic isomerism; the relationship between symmetrical structure and atomic volume; and certain speculations as to the structure of the helium atom which we shall see were probably partly incorrect. The date of origin of this theory is mentioned not with the purpose of claiming any sort of priority with respect to those portions which overlap existing theories, but because the fact that similar theories have been developed independently adds to the probability that all possess some characteristics of fundamental reality.}, and in which the circles represent the electrons in the outer shell of the neutral atom, were designed to explain a number of important laws of chemical behavior with the aid of the following postulates:
1. In every atom is an essential kernel which remains unaltered in all ordinary chemical changes and which possesses an excess of positive charges corresponding in number to the ordinal number of the group in the periodic table to which the element belongs.
2. The atom is composed of the kernel and an outer atom or shell, which, in the case of the neutral atom, contains negative electrons equal in number to the excess of positive charges of the kernel, but the number of electrons in the shell may vary during chemical change between 0 and 8.
3. The atom tends to hold an even number of electrons in the shell, and especially to hold eight electrons which are normally arranged symmetrically at the eight corners of a cube.
4. Two atomic shells are mutually interpenetrable.
5. Electrons may ordinarily pass with readiness from one position in the outer shell to another. Nevertheless they are held in position by more or less rigid constraints, and these positions and the magnitude of the constraints are determined by the nature of the atom and of such other atoms as are combined with it.
6. Electric forces between particles which are very close together do not obey the simple law of inverse squares which holds at greater distances.
Some further discussion of these postulates is necessary in order to make their meaning clear. The first postulate deals with the two parts of the atom which correspond roughly with the inner and outer rings of the Thomson atom. The kernel being that part of the atom which is unaltered by ordinary chemical change is of sufficient importance to merit a separate symbol. I propose that the common symbol of the element printed in a different type be used to represent the kernel. Thus Li will stand for the lithium kernel. It has a single positive charge and is equivalent to pure lithium ion Li+. Be has two positive charges, B three, C four, N five, O six and F seven.
We might expect the next element in the series, neon, to have an atomic kernel with eight positive charges and an outer shell consisting of eight electrons. In a certain sense this is doubtless the case. However, as has been stated in Postulate 3, a group of eight electrons in the shell is extremely stable, and this stability is the greater the smaller the difference in charge between the nucleus and this group of eight electrons. Thus in fluoride ion the kernel has a charge of +7, and the negative charge of the group of eight electrons only exceeds it by one unit. In fact in compounds of fluorine with all other elements, fluorine is assigned the polar number —1. In the case of oxygen, where the group of eight electrons has a charge exceeding that of the kernel by two units, the polar number is considered to be —2 in nearly every compound. Nitrogen is commonly assumed to have the polar number —3 in such compounds as ammonia and the nitrides. It may be convenient to assign occasionally to carbon the polar number —4, but it has never been found necessary to give boron a polar number —5, or beryllium —6, or lithium —7. But neon, with an inner positive charge of 8 and an outer group of eight electrons, is so extremely stable that it may, as a whole, be regarded as the kernel of neon and we may write Ne = Ne.
The next element, sodium, begins a new outer shell and Na = Na+, Mg = Mg++, and so on. In my original theory I considered the elements in the periodic table thus built up, as if block by block, forming concentric cubes. Thus potassium would be like sodium except that it would have one more cube in the kernel. This idea, as we shall see, will have to be modified, but nevertheless it gives a concrete picture to illustrate the theory. ...
As an introduction to the study of substances of slightly polar type we may consider the halogens. in Fig. 3 I have attempted to show different forms of the iodine molecule I2. A represents the molecule as completely ionized, as it undoubtably is to a measurable extent in liquid iodine. Without ionization we may still have one of the electrons of one atom fitting into the outer shell of the second atom, thus completeing its group of eight as in B. But at the same time an electron of the second atom may fit into the shell of the first, thus satisfying both groups of eight and giving the form C which is the predominant and characteristic structure of the halogens. Now, notwithstanding the symmetry of the form C, if the two atoms are for any reason tending to separate, the two common eletrons may cling more firmly sometimes to one of the atoms, sometimes to the other, thus producing some dissymmetry in the molecule as a whole, and one atom will have a slight excess of positive charge, the other of negative. This separation of the charges and the consequent increase in the polar character of the molecule will increase as the atoms become separated to a greater distance until complete ionization results. Thus between the perfectly symmetrical and nonpolar molecule C and the completely polar and ionized molecule represented by A there will be an infinity of positions representing a greater or lesser degree of polarity. Now in the substance like liquid iodine it must not be assumed that all of the molecules are in the same state, but rather that some are highly polar, some almost nonpolar, and other repsent all gradations between the two. When we find that iodine in different environments shows different degrees of polarity, it means merely that in one medium there is a larger percentage of the more polar forms. So bromine, although represented by an entirely similar formula, is less polar than iodine. in other words, in the average molecule the separateion of the charge is less than in the case of iodine. Chlorine and fluorine are less polar than either and can be regarded as composed almost completely of molecules of the form C....".
Lewis suggests that an electron can be shared between two atoms, and that this is the basis of nonelectrolytic bonds in carbon-based (organic) compounds. After the “nuclear atom” theory of Rutherford, people in chemistry apply this atom theory to chemical valence. Now the visualization of valence bonds by Kekulé and Couper as dashes can be explained in terms of electrons. In 1904 Abegg was the first to explain valence bonds in terms of electrons, ((one atom borrows an electron from another atom and the opposite charges hold the atoms together from electrical attraction)) but Abegg's explanation only applies to electrolytes. With the Lewis electron sharing model, a bond in carbon-based (organic) compounds (and all nonelectrolytic? compounds) represents the sharing of one pair of electrons, with the result that all atoms have the stable electronic configuration of an inert gas atom. Similar ideas are advanced by Langmuir. Sidgwick will advance this thesis farther, and Pauling will combine the electronic bond idea with the quantum mechanics that follows the theories of Schrödinger and De Broglie.
In a series of long papers and lectures in 1919-1921 Langmuir elaborated Lewis’ theory so successfully that the Lewis-Langmuir theory becomes widely accepted. However, Langmuir abruptly stops publishing on valence in 1921, probably because of the rise of the Bohr theory. Lewis, however, continues to support the static atom in a lecture to the Faraday Society in 1923 and in his "Valence and the Structure of Atoms and Molecules" (1923). The conflict between the static and dynamic eventually is resolved in favor of a dynamic atom, and the cubic atom quickly becomes less popular. (However, I think there is still a good case to be made for both a static atom and a star-planets model atom.)
In the late 1920’s the shared-pair bond was the starting point for the new quantum chemistry of E. Schrödinger, H. London, L. Pauling, and others, which transforms Lewis’ idea into a quantum mechanical theory of molecular structure.
(This is an important point because this is the bridging together of the Rutherford “nuclear atom” theory in physics and the “valence” theory in chemistry. A mistake here could result in decades of theories based on an erroneous interpretation, and people would need to revisit a decision made decades before to create a more accurate theory.)
(I have doubts about the "chemical bond is a shared electron pair" theory. One question to answer is: How are the electrons shared with adjacent atoms, if orbiting around the nucleus? With a static atom model, perhaps the electrons or other particles fit into structural holes in adjacent atoms.)
(Clearly the periodic table suggests that the atomic shape is not spherical, but somehow has a dual or two piece nature since the shells grow in pairs 2-8-8-18-18-32-32 which is not the distributino expected for a single spherical shape.)
(This theory, like all electrical theories presumes the existance of Coulomb's action-at-a-distance force, as opposed to an equivalent particle-collision-only based force of electricity.)
| (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
84 YBN
[01/26/1916 AD]
| 4856) Gilbert Newton Lewis (CE 1875-1946), US chemist
(1923 Lewis with Merle Randall publishes “Thermodynamics and the Free Energy of Chemical Substances”, which more than any other book, clarifies and expands Gibbs' chemical thermodynamics for students. In this book Lewis replaces the concept of “concentration” with “activity” which is more useful in working out rates of reactions and questions of equilibria than the older “concentration”. This modifies and makes more accurate Guldberg and Waage's law of mass action. (all of this needs more specific info, I think thermodynamics may be inaccurate and too abstract to be of use, but clearly accurately describing rates of reactions is a real and useful thing.))
(Lewis works out a theory of acid-base action founded on the movement (a behavior) of electron pairs.)
1933 Lewis is the first to prepare a sample of water in which all the hydrogen atoms are “deuterium” (or “heavy hydrogen”), hydrogen with a neutron and proton (in the nucleus) instead of just a proton, and with an atomic weight of 2 instead of 1 as (the most abundant form of hydrogen has). (I still question the basic idea of there being a central nucleus in atoms, and without being able to directly see such a thing, I think people need to keep an open mind.) This water is called “heavy water”, and will be used to slow down neutrons to make them more effective in creating a (uranium) chain reaction, (which helps the development of the atomic bomb). (but also helps the use of uranium fission for electricity.)
| (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
84 YBN
[02/08/1916 AD]
| 4880) Walter Sydney Adams (CE 1876-1956) US astronomer puts forward new classification of stars based on specific spectral lines, and more clearly explains the use of spectral lines to determine absolute magnitude, parallax, and distance of a star. In addition Adams, clearly gives spectroscopic evidence for the existence of two kinds of M (red) type stars, giants and dwarfs. This confirms the hypothesis of Hertzsprung and Russell that the M type stars are divided into two groups of "giant" and "dwarf" stars, using comparison of spectral lines.
Adams publishes a four part paper. Part 1 is In part 1 Adams describes a new method of classifying stars: "A QUANTITATIVE METHOD OF CLASSIFYING STELLAR SPECTRA
The basis of the classification of stellar spectra is at present largely empirical. In the absence of sufficient knowledge as to the modifications of spectra produced by different physical conditions it has not been possible to establish with certainty a system of classification which will represent the actual order of stellar development. Hence the stars have been classified into types simply in accordance with the characteristics of their spectra. The appearance of new lines and the disappearance of others, systematic variations in the intensities of certain lines, the presence of bands, the intensity of the continuous spectrum, and other similar criteria have been used to separate the stars into several spectral groups.
To some extent the system of classification now in general use by astronomers, that devised by the Harvard Observatory, probably has a physical basis. Thus it is well known that the differences between the spectrum of the sun and that of a star like Arcturus are very similar to those between the spectrum of the sun and that of sun-spots. In the latter case investigations have shown that a reduction of temperature is the principal agent in producing the modifications observed. Similarly the presence of bands characteristic of certain compounds which are found in the spectra of stars like a Orionis is an indication of relatively low temperature. Accordingly it seems probable that the successive types of stellar spectra, represented by the sun, Arcturus, and a Orionis, are characterized by successively lower temperatures in the gases forming the atmospheres of these stars. This does not of necessity indicate, however, that Arcturus and a Orionis have developed from stars like our sun. Lockyer and some others consider that the curve of stellar development has both an ascending and a descending branch, and that some stars of low temperature will become hotter before beginning to cool permanently. Stars which differ greatly in size and mass must almost certainly differ in the rate, and quite possibly in the order, of their development as well.
The principal lines used in the Harvard system of classification for the separation of stars into the several types are certain lines due to calcium, the more prominent lines of such metals as iron, and, most important of all, the hydrogen lines. In accordance with this system the stars are divided into seven main types designated by the letters B, A, F, G, K, M, and N, with intermediate types indicated on a scale extending from zero to ten. Thus GS indicates a type halfway between types G and K. The B stars are characterized by helium and hydrogen absorption lines. In the A stars the helium lines disappear, the hydrogen lines reach their maximum intensity, and faint metallic lines begin to appear. These lines grow stronger and the hydrogen lines weaker in the successive types F, G, and K, the low temperature lines in particular increasing rapidly in intensity between the G and K types. The sun is a typical GO star. The M and N stars are distinguished by the presence of bands, in the one case of a compound of titanium, and in the other of carbon.
The Harvard system of classification in general meets the requirements of spectral observations in a most excellent way. There is, however, in published descriptions of its application a serious lack of numerical relationships between the intensities of the lines compared, and as a result a considerable uncertainty arises in the determination of spectral types. Since in many astronomical investigations a comparison is instituted between stars of very closely the same type it is important to reduce the classification of stellar spectra to as accurate a basis as possible. The following brief description of the method employed at Mount Wilson is given for two purposes: first, because it replaces to a considerable extent direct estimations of spectral type by numerical estimates of relative line intensity which may be made with much higher accuracy; and second, because the method provides the material upon which several investigations have been based. It was devised in large measure by Dr. Kohlschütter, and has been used with but slight modifications since his departure from Mount Wilson.
The material available for classification purposes consists of several thousand photographs of stellar spectra taken with a one prism slit spectrograph and the sixty-inch reflector. About two-thirds of these spectra are of types succeeding FO. On most of the photographs the region of spectrum in best definition extends from λ 4200 to λ 4900. It includes, therefore the two hydrogen lines Hγ and Hβ, the important calcium line at λ 4227, and some of the most prominent iron lines in the entire spectrum. Since the hydrogen lines show a rapid decrease in intensity with the successive types F, G, K and M, and form by far the most important criterion in the derivation of spectral type, accurate determinations of their intensity relative to other lines in the spectrum are essential. Accordingly several adjacent iron lines have been selected which show but a moderate change of intensity in these types, and estimates are made on an arbitrary scale, extending from zero to ten, of the differences in intensity between the hydrogen lines and this selected list. The calcium line X 4227 is also compared with Hy in the types FO to G5, beyond G5 the differences becoming too great to provide satisfactory determinations. The list of pairs of lines finally adopted for classification purposes is given in Table I. {ULSF: See table} The scale of classification was adapted to the Harvard system by selecting a considerable number of stars for which Harvard determinations were available, and making estimates of the relative intensities of these pairs of lines in the stars selected. The values were then plotted against the average types of these stars, and smooth curves were drawn through the several points. These curves provide the means of converting determinations of relative line intensity into determinations of spectral type. The curves are shown in figure 1. For reasons which will appear later, they are based upon stars of large proper motion alone, and the material may, therefore, be regarded as homogeneous in character.
To illustrate the use of these curves I have selected as examples the stars Groom. 3357, Piazzi 0h130, Groom. 145 and Lai. 19022. The estimated differences of intensity for these stars, as determined from three photographs of their spectra, are given in Table II. {ULSF: See table 2}
The average probable error of the determination of type for these four stars is * 1.0, and this is about the value obtained for several hundred stars classified in this way. It is evident that the accuracy will be least when the lines compared differ greatly in intensity, as in the types F0—F9 and K5—Ma, and greatest when the lines are of nearly equal intensity.
This simple method of classification may be recommended as being rapid of operation, and free from the difficulties connected with the comparison of separate photographs with one another. It requires the establishment of a scale of relative-intensity-estimates by the observer, but this is a very simple matter when the range employed is small. To some extent the scale will be dependent upon the dispersion of the spectrograph employed since several of the lines used are compound in character. With the single prism spectrograph at Mount Wilson the same reduction curves have been used successfully for photographs on which the linear dispersion varies from 16 to 90 angstrom units to the millimeter at the center of the spectrum.
In connection with the classification of stellar spectra a number of photographs have been made with a Koch microphotometer of the intensity curves of some of the pairs of lines employed in the comparison. There are numerous practical difficulties connected with the use of this instrument for lines as narrow and as short as those in stellar spectra, and it is doubtful whether the accuracy obtained is of so high an order as to justify the use of so laborious a method for stellar classification. It is probable, however, that it might be used to advantage in the selection of standard stars of reference in which a knowledge of the absolute intensities of certain spectrum lines would be of great value. ...". Part 2 describes more clearly the use of comparing spectral lines of same-spectrum stars to determine parallax. Adams writes: "A SPECTROSCOPIC METHOD OF DETERMINING STELLAR PARALLAXES
The question whether the intrinsic brightness of a star may not have an appreciable effect upon its spectrum is one with important applications in astronomy. If two stars which have closely the same type of spectrum differ very greatly in luminosity it is probable that they also differ greatly in size, mass, and in the depth of the atmospheres surrounding them Accordingly we might hope to find in these stars certain variations in the intensity and character of such spectrum lines as are peculiarly sensitive to the physical conditions of the gases in which they find their origin, in spite of the close correspondence of the two spectra in general. If such variations exist and a relationship may be derived between the intensities of these lines and the intrinsic brightness
of the stars in which they occur, we have available a means of determining the absolute magnitudes* {ULSF: original footnote: The absolute magnitude of a star is its apparent magnitude when reduced to unit distance. The unit commonly employed is the distance corresponding to a parallax of OTl. On this scale the absolute magnitude of the sun would be 5.5, or 4.8, if more recent, and probably better, values of the sun's photometric brightness are employed.} of stars, and hence their distances.
The first attempt to detect such lines was made by Hertzsprung, who concluded that the strontium line at λ 4077 gave some indication of varying with the absolute magnitudes of the stars in whose spectra it appeared. Quite independently Dr. Kohlschiitter in the course of his studies of the classification of the Mount Wilson stellar spectra found two or three lines which appeared to vary in this way, and some results of an application of these lines to the determination of absolute manitudes were published in 1914. Since that time the work has been extended greatly with the aid of the additional material available. The results of the investigation and of an attempt to utilize these criteria for the derivation of stellar distances are contained in this communication.
The first essential in beginning this research was an accurate classification of the stellar spectra into the several types. This was carried out by the method already described (These Proceedings, 1, 481). Stars of the same type of spectrum but of very different absolute brightness were then compared with one another, and the relative intensities of the different spectral lines were examined carefully.
To illustrate the procedure we may take as an example the two stars 611 Cygni and a Tauri. The parallaxes of these stars are 0.*31 and 0."07, respectively, and their apparent magnitudes are 5.6 and 1.1. Their absolute magnitudes may be computed from the equation
M = m + 5 + 5 1og π
in which M is the absolute magnitude, m the apparent magnitude, and 7r the parallax. The absolute magnitudes, accordingly, are 8.0 and 0.4; that is, the luminosity of a Tauri is over 1100 times as great as that of 611 Cygni. A comparison of the spectra of the two stars side by side on a Hartmann spectrocomparator shows several points of difference. Of these, two are most important. The calcium line at λ 4455 is very strong in 611 Cygni and relatively weak in a Tauri; and the strontium line at λ 4216 is weak in 61l Cygni and strong in a Tauri. That this difference in behavior depends upon physical conditions in the stars and is not merely accidental is made almost certain by solar investigations. The line λ 4455 of calcium is greatly strengthened in the spectrum of sun-spots, and increases in intensity with reduction in temperature. The line λ 4216 of strontium, on the other hand, is an enhanced line, that is stronger in the spectrum of the spark than of the arc, and is probably a high temperature line. It is very prominent in the spectrum of the sun's limb when photographed at eclipses, and also in the upper chromosphere. Numerous other smaller differences between the spectra of a Tauri and 611 Cygni all point in the same direction; the low temperature lines strengthened in sun-spots are stronger in 611 Cygni; the enhanced lines are stronger in a Tauri.
It has seemed preferable, however, for two reasons to use only these two lines in the absolute magnitude investigation. First, because they show the effect most markedly; and second, because they appear to be influenced but slightly by closely adjoining lines which blend with them. Among other lines which show the effect plainly, reference should be made to λ 4435 of calcium and λ 4535 of titanium, which are strong in intrinsically faint stars, and to two lines at λ 4395 and λ 4408 which are strong in the brighter stars. The line at λ 4395 is probably due to enhanced titanium. As will appear later, in the course of a discussion of M type stars, the hydrogen lines themselves seem to vary with absolute magnitude, at least in certain types of spectra. This should prove of fundamental importance in further investigations of stellar luminosity.
After the behavior of the two lines λ 4216 and λ 4455 had been examined in a large number of stars, and the systematic differences had been found to persist through a wide range of spectral type, the attempt was made to establish a numerical relationship between the intensities of these lines and the absolute magnitudes of the stars in which they occur. As in the case of the hydrogen lines used for classification purposes, lines were selected near λ 4216 and λ 4455, with which the intensities of these lines were compared, the differences of intensity being estimated on a scale extending from zero to ten. The pairs of lines finally adopted for all of this work are as follows:
(a) λ 4216, Sr and λ 4250, Fe
(b) λ 4455, Ca λ 4462, Fe, Mn
(c) λ 4455, Ca λ 4495, Fe
For convenience of reference these pairs of lines will be designated in the future as (a), (b) and (c). The value (a) = —2, for example, denotes that λ 4216 is estimated to be two units fainter than λ 4250.
As soon as the estimates had been completed a number of the stars with well-determined parallaxes were selected, their absolute magnitudes were computed, and curves were constructed in which the observed differences of intensity for each pair of lines formed the abscissae, and the absolute magnitudes the ordinates. The stars were divided into five groups according to spectral type and curves were drawn for each group. The groups are as follows:
F0-F6; F7-G7; G8-K4; K5-K9; M
The curves are so nearly straight lines in the case of the first three of these groups that straight lines have been adopted, the constants being derived by least square solutions. In the KS-K9 group the curve for (a) is a straight line but not for (b) or (c). It is probable that there are no straight lines in the M group, but this is very uncertain. The significance of a straight line is, of course, that the intensity of the spectrum line varies uniformly with the absolute magnitude.
The most serious difficulty in the construction of these curves is the scarcity of parallax determinations on stars of high luminosity. Parallax observers have confined their attention almost wholly to stars of large proper motion which promise to yield large parallaxes. With the aid, however, of the Yale observations on the very bright stars, and some most valuable determinations by Mr. van Maanen of the parallaxes of certain stars of small proper motion, a number of stars of very high luminosity were selected upon which the lower portions of the curves could be based. Particularly in the cases of the K5-K9 and the M groups these portions of the curves are still most uncertain, and must be adjusted with the aid of additional parallax observations when they become available.
The list of formulae derived for the several groups is given in Table I. The equations are from my own observations. A similar list, in which the constants differ slightly, has been obtained from the determinations of Miss Burwell, who has carried out a complete series of estimations of the line intensities in these stars. In the formulae, M is the absolute magnitude, and A the estimated difference of intensity for each of the pairs of lines.
{ULSF: See Table 1}
The equation and curves in the case of the M stars are applicable only to the stars of low luminosity. In the case of the F0-F6 stars it is doubtful whether the equations given, which for (b) and (c) are the same as in the G group, are other than rough approximations. The enhanced lines in the early F stars are normally so prominent that it is not surprising that the method begins to break down at this point.
To illustrate the use of the formulae and curves we may select as illustrations a few stars of different spectral types and magnitudes. These are collected in Table II. The classification is from Mount Wilson determinations. {ULSF: See Table 2}
The parallaxes are computed from the absolute magnitudes by the formula, to which reference has already been made,
5 log π = M — m — 5.
The results are given in the next to the last column of the table, and the measured parallaxes in the final column.". The third part describes more clearly the method of determining distance based on the intensity of spectral lines of stars with the same spectrum. Adams writes: "A definite test of the value of this method of deriving stellar parallaxes can be made only through a comparison with all available data on measured parallaxes. Since the evidence depends directly on individual values it is necessary for this purpose to present tables of a somewhat extended character.
It is evident that in the case of the stars whose absolute magnitudes, as computed from the measured parallaxes have been used in the derivation of the relationship between line intensity and absolute magnitude, the mean values of the magnitude will necessarily be identical with those derived from the formulae. The agreement of the measured and the computed parallaxes of the individual stars, however, serves as important evidence bearing on the validity of the method.
In Tables I and II are collected all of the stars with measured parallaxes equal to or exceeding +0?05 for which we have spectral observations. Table I contains the stars used in the derivation of the curves, but in Table II the values are entirely independent, none of these stars having been used previously. This table, accordingly, serves as a most exacting test of the value of this means of computing parallaxes.
{ULSF: See Tables 1 and 2}
The columns in the tables designated by A and B refer to the determinations by Adams and Miss Burwell. The final values are the means for the two observers. The measured parallaxes are taken from a variety of sources. Y. indicates Yale determinations; K., the values compiled by Kapteyn in Groningen Publication No. 24; Sch., the results of Schlesinger; R., those of Russell; vM., of van Maanen; S., of Slocum; M., of Mitchell; J.,of Jost; and F., those of Flint. Where relative parallaxes are given the values have been reduced to absolute measure by making suitable corrections for the parallaxes of the comparison stars. The tables are arranged according to spectral type.
The comparison of the computed and the measured parallaxes shows an excellent degree of accordance for most of the stars. There are, however, occasional large discrepancies. Of these the most serious is in the case of S Eridani. The spectrum observations give a much smaller parallax than is found by the Yale observers. A striking case of agreement, on the other hand, is that of e Eridani; this parallax was computed before it was known that a measured value was available. A star which should prove of exceptional interest is Boss 6129. From spectrum observations we have obtained a parallax of +0."23: no measured value has been published but the star is on the observing programme at several observatories. The average deviation, taken without regard to sign, between the observed and the computed values of the parallaxes in Tables I and II is 0."024: it is 0."026 for the stars of Table II alone. There seems to be no marked systematic difference between the observed and the computed parallaxes; the former average somewhat larger, but this is due mainly to a few large discrepancies.
There are 25 stars with measured negative parallaxes for which we have made spectrum determinations. The largest value for any one of these stars as computed from the line intensities is +0f08; the average value for all is +0."03. The spectrum method, of course, gives no negative parallaxes.
It seems reasonable to conclude from these results that the method of computing absolute magnitudes and parallaxes from the variation of the intensities of lines in stellar spectra is capable of yielding results of a very considerable degree of accuracy. Especially in the K and M type stars of low luminosity, the line variations are so great that such stars may be recognized from a mere inspection of the spectrum. Stars, for example, like 61 Cygni, Groom. 34, and Kriiger 60 bear very evident marks of their intrinsic faintness in the remarkable intensity of the low temperature calcium lines in their spectra. At first thought it might appear that a relationship between certain spectral characteristics and the distances of stars could hardly be credible, since it would appear like a correlation between two utterly unrelated subjects except in so far as the scattering of light in space might connect them. In fact, of course, it is not the distances but the absolute magnitudes of stars which have an influence on the character of the spectrum lines and such an effect, far from being improbable, is rather to be expected than not. The derivation of the distances is merely a by-product resulting from the combination of real, or absolute, with apparent magnitudes.
An important gain in the value of this method of determining stellar magnitudes and distances should result from an increase in the number of measured parallaxes of bright stars of small proper motion. Such stars will on the average prove to be very luminous, and, as already stated, the portion of the curves connecting line intensity with absolute magnitude is subject to much more uncertainty in the case of the high luminosity stars than in any of the others. It is probable that after such a revision has been made the method will find its most important application as a means of distinguishing these giant stars in the stellar system.". Part 4 gives spectroscopic evidence for the existence of two kinds of type M (red) stars - giants and dwarfs. Adams writes: SPECTROSCOPIC EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF TWO CLASSES OF M TYPE STARS The principal distinguishing feature of the M type of stellar spectrum on the Harvard system of classification is the presence of absorption bands due to titanium oxide. These bands increase in intensity for the successive subdivisions Ma, Mb, and Mc. The star a Ononis, in which they are present in moderate intensity, is selected as a typical Ma star by the Harvard observers. Since these bands may be seen faintly in stars of the K5 type of spectrum it is necessarily largely a matter of judgment whether in any given spectrum they are sufficiently strong to warrant classifying the star as Ma, or whether it should still be retained within the K type.
For types of spectra previous to M the principal basis of classification is the intensity of the hydrogen lines. These reach a maximum in the A type, and grow fainter in the successive types F, G, and K. Of the hydrogen lines in a Orionis, however, Miss Cannon, in the course of her classification of the Harvard spectra, makes the statement that they are of about the same intensity as in α Tauri, a typical K5 star.
The classification of the Mount Wilson stellar spectra in accordance with the Harvard system, a description of which is given in a previous communication,* is based upon a comparison of the intensities of the hydrogen lines with those of neighboring iron lines which are subject to relatively slight variation with type. A series of curves have been constructed giving the relationship between the relative intensities of these pairs of lines and the spectral type; and the determination of type is thus reduced to an estimation of the intensities of these lines. The stars used in the derivation of these curves are almost wholly stars of large proper motion, and in many cases have measured parallaxes of considerable size. They are, accordingly, stars of relatively low intrinsic brightness in general. This is true especially of the K5-K9 and Ma stars, nearly all of which, like 61 Cygni and Groom. 34, are of very low absolute luminosity. The curves derived in this way show a regular decrease in the intensity of the hydrogen lines throughout the range of spectrum employed, the lines in K5 stars being fainter than in KO, and in the Ma stars fainter than in K5. In fact the hydrogen lines are barely visible in most of the M stars used in the construction of the curves.
When these results are applied to the M stars of high luminosity a very anomalous condition is found. The presence of the bands places these stars definitely in the M type, but the hydrogen lines are of quite abnormal intensity. Thus a Orionis, with bands of type Ma, if classified on the basis of its hydrogen lines would become G2. This is the most remarkable case found as yet, but all of the high luminosity M stars show a strong tendency in the same direction. The results of a classification of 48 stars of types Ma to Mc on the basis of the intensities of their hydrogen lines may be summarized as follows:
{ULSF: See table 1}
Accordingly, the most advanced type found for any of these stars from a determination of the intensities of their hydrogen lines is Kl, and the average type is G7. This is as against an average type of Mb given by the intensities of the bands. Two conclusions may be drawn at once from these results: First, that the Harvard system of classification, in which the M type stars are all included in one group on the basis of the presence of the bands, fails entirely to discriminate between the spectral peculiarities of the high and the low luminosity M stars; and second, that the intensity of the hydrogen lines in the M stars probably varies with the absolute magnitude, the brighter stars having the stronger hydrogen lines.
A method of determining the absolute magnitudes of stars from the characteristics of certain of their spectral lines has been described in a previous communication.* The essential feature of this method is the use of the two lines λ 4216 of strontium and λ 4455 of calcium, the intensities of which appear to be connected directly with the intrinsic brightness of the stars in whose spectra they occur. The intensities of these lines relative to other lines in the spectrum are estimated, and a numerical relationship is established between these intensity ratios and absolute magnitude by means of a selection of stars of known parallax. In this way the following formulae applicable to stars of types G8-K4 have been derived. M is the absolute magnitude, and Δ the intensity ratio for each pair of lines.
4216 4455 44S5 ---- ---- ---- 4250 4462 4494
M=-1.6Δ+4.7 M=+1.6Δ+5.1 M=+2.3Δ-0.3
It is this set of formulae which has been used in the case of the M stars of high luminosity. The average type of these stars was found to be G7, which is sufficiently near the limits of the group to admit of the application of the corresponding equations. Summarized briefly the results for the high and the low luminosity stars are as follows:
{ULSF: See paper}
Of the high luminosity stars only two, a Orionis and Boss 660, have negative values of the absolute magnitude, and only five stars have values exceeding 2.0. The remaining 41 stars have magnitudes ranging between 0.0 and 2.0. It is clear, accordingly, that on the basis of absolute magnitude determinations the M stars fall into two clearly denned groups, separated by an interval of about 7 magnitudes within which no intermediate values have been found.
The spectroscopic evidence, therefore, confirms the hypothesis of Hertzsprung and Russell that the M type stars are divided into two groups of 'giant' and 'dwarf' stars. This hypothesis was based primarily on parallax observations. The absolute magnitudes calculated from these parallaxes showed almost a complete absence of stars of brightness intermediate between exceedingly luminous stars like a Orionis, and extremely faint stars such as Groom. 34. It has been thought probable by some astronomers that this apparent gap is due to the fact that parallax determinations have hitherto been restricted almost entirely to a few stars of great apparent brightness, and to stars of very large proper motion, while the connecting links would probably be found among stars of moderate apparent brightness and moderate proper motion. The spectroscopic evidence, however, is based upon numerous stars of just this character, and the gap still appears to persist.
These results may be summarized briefly as follows. Two groups of M stars are indicated clearly by an examination of the intensities of the hydrogen lines: in the first the hydrogen lines are very strong; in the second they are very faint. A computation of the absolute magnitudes of these stars on the basis of certain peculiarities in their spectra shows the existence of these groups distinctly. Connecting links over a range of 7 magnitudes are entirely lacking, and the conclusion seems to be unavoidable that among these stars the intensity of the hydrogen lines varies with the absolute magnitude.
The results given for the high and the low luminosity stars may be used to furnish an approximate relationship between the intensities of the hydrogen lines and absolute magnitude. Thus we have for Hβ:
{ULSF: See paper}
Assuming a linear relationship between intensity and absolute magnitude we obtain the equation
M= -1.8Δ + 4.8
This is remarkably similar to the corresponding equation found for the line λ 4216 and given on a preceding page. It seems probable, therefore, that in the case of the M stars, at least, the hydrogen lines may be used for absolute magnitude determinations in the same way as λ 4216.
There is, however, one characteristic of the spectra of these high luminosity stars which must be taken into consideration when use is made of the relative intensities of the hydrogen lines. This is a relationship which appears to exist between the intensities of the hydrogen lines and the intensities of the bands, the hydrogen lines being stronger when the bands are stronger. There are occasional exceptions to this rule, as in the case of α Orionis, but in general the effect is well marked. Thus if we compare the intensity of the hydrogen line Hβ in the stars having bands of moderate intensity with that in stars in which the bands are very strong we find the following result:
No. of Stars Intensity of Bands Intensity of Hβ 13 Moderate +1-2 20 Strong +1.7
It is of interest to note in this connection that the computation of the absolute magnitude shows that the Mc stars, in which the bands are exceedingly strong, are brighter on the average than those in which the bands are less intense.
Among the high luminosity stars are some with proper motions of moderate size. The absolute magnitudes of these stars should average somewhat less than those of the very small proper motion stars which constitute the remainder of the list. An analysis of the results for the 48 stars gives the following comparison. M is the absolute magnitude and m the apparent magnitude.
No. of Stars Average P.M. Average m Average M 15 0"155 5.06 1.54 33 0.017 5.49 1.29
After making the necessary correction for the difference in the values of the average apparent magnitude we find the large proper motion stars to be about 0.7 magnitude fainter than those of small proper motion. This furnishes a check on the accuracy of the absolute magnitude determinations.
The variations in the intensities of the hydrogen lines and of the two lines used in the computation of absolute magnitude form only a part of a more general difference in the spectral characteristics of the high and the low luminosity M stars. The results of a detailed comparison of the spectrum of α Orionis (M = —1.0) with that of Lal. 21185 (M = + 10.6) and of other intrinsically faint stars may be summarized as follows:
{ULSF: See paper} α Orionis Lal. 21185 Enhanced lines, especially those due to Fe, Ti, Sr, and Y... . Strong Weak Hydrogen lines Strong Weak Low temperature lines of Co, Ti, Cr, and Sr Weak Strong λ 4227 of calcium Weak Very strong
Results of a character very similar to these were found in a comparison of the spectra of a Tauri (K5) and 611 Cygni (K8) two stars differing in brightness by nearly 8 magnitudes, and also in the case of the N and the R type stars of the Harvard classification. The differences, accordingly, appear to be fundamental in nature, and associated with the intrinsic brightness of the stars of the several types. They indicate a lower temperature in the absorbing gases constituting the atmospheres of the fainter stars, and are analogous in many respects to those observed in the spectrum of sun-spots.
The division of the M type stars into two well-defined classes of high and low luminosity stars raises the question at once whether a corresponding separation may be found among other types of spectra. From his discussion of parallax observations Russell concludes that such a {ULSF: See Figure 1}
separation does exist among the K stars. The spectroscopic evidence tends to support the existence of such a division at least for the K5-K9 stars. This evidence is of just the same character as that in the case of the M type stars, and is of two kinds. First, the hydrogen lines have an abnormally high intensity in the very luminous stars, and there is an absence of intermediate values of the intensity between these and the low values characteristic of the fainter K5-K9 stars. Second, computations of absolute magnitude indicate the existence of two mean magnitudes, one high and the other low, about which the values for the individual stars showed a marked tendency to gather. This effect is not so well defined as for the M stars, but still very clear. It may perhaps be shown to the best advantage by a reproduction of the curves representing the estimated intensity differences for the pairs of lines used in the determinations of absolute magnitude. These are given in figure 1. The curves are based upon essentially all of the stars with observed parallaxes for which we have spectral observations. Each point on the curves represents the mean for a considerable number of stars; and, as these stars differ in absolute magnitude, the corresponding intensity differences for the pairs of lines will differ. In types F and G the higher and lower luminosity values and the fine differences balance one another so nearly that the successive values show but a gradual change, and the curves make but a slight angle with the horizontal axis. At about K3, however, the curves begin to bend abruptly, and the remaining types depart from the axis very rapidly. This is due to the absence of stars of even moderately high luminosity among those upon which the curves are based.
The corresponding curves for the high luminosity stars of these types run nearly parallel to the horizontal axis. We find, accordingly, both for types K5-K9 and M, a branching of the curves which points directly toward the existence of a division into two distinct groups. This evidence is based upon all of the spectroscopic material available.
In conclusion reference should be made to the necessity of adding to the symbols used in the Harvard system of classification for the M stars some character or figure which shall serve to distinguish between the spectral characteristics of the high and the low luminosity stars. The most important of these is the difference in the intensity of the hydrogen lines. Accordingly, though somewhat cumbersome in practice, I can think at present of no method which would convey the necessary information in any better way than by adding to the classification based on band intensity the corresponding classification based on hydrogen line intensity. Thus Mb (G6) would indicate a spectrum in which the bands are strong but the hydrogen lines give a type of G6. On this basis the low luminosity M stars would be of normal type and would require no suffix.".
(I accept the determination of distance (and parallax) from comparison of two stars with identical spectra. But even after reading part 4 of this paper, the part of red giants and red dwarfs I still have doubts. For one thing, possibly the Hydrogen line intensity does not relate to star size, but instead to stars with more Hydrogen than others. Another possibility is that more photons are emitted with the Hydrogen frequency - for example, photon frequency may have more to do with size of the star than with which atoms are emitting the photons. It seems unusual that the Hydrogen line would vary, but the other lines would not - or would all have a linear rate of dimming with distance - and that the Hydrogen line would be an exception- verify. EXPERIMENT: How do other spectral lines compare if being directly indicative of absolute magnitude of stars? Another interesting part is that Adams claims a similar high/low luminosity division for K5-K9 stars, but I am not aware that this claim has survived to today.)
(Notice "...fails entirely to discriminate...", potentially this is an appeal to racism, or anti-women in science - since apparently the Pickerings were anti-discrimination against women, and no doubt based on race too. But this is, of course, speculation knowing about the great potential of hundreds of years of the secret of neuron reading and writing micro-scale cameras, etc. - the aparteid of those who see videos in their eyes with those who are excluded from this most basic idea and service.)
(Another question is: why are the ratio's used so diverse for the three lines - should they not be proportional?)
(Verify that the scaling of magnitude is by an inverse square of the distance, since clearly the quantity of light reaching the observer is reduced by this quantity. )
(Some people may accept the theory that there are two groups of red stars, giants and dwarfs, but reject the popular theory of the place of these stars in the accumulation-dissipation cycle of stars.)
(Possibly the scale of red stars is larger than the other kinds, - but that no "medium" red stars are apparently identified - the more likely case is a problem with scaling apparent magnitude and distance. Find where this equation, which should be inverse distance squared is listed in this paper - I think it is presumed. There is no equation listed in the part on distances, but for the parallax the equation is a linear equation (5 log pi = M -m -5). And for the earlier equation of absolute magnitude Adams lists the equation M = m + 5 + 5log pi. M is absolute magnitude, m is apparent magnitude, and pi is parallax. Should this relationship be one of an inverse square? For example, M=m+pi2)
(Perhaps the comparative intensity of all common lines should be compared and averaged for an estimate of distance - is it not potentially inaccurate to only compare certain lines?)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
84 YBN
[02/24/1916 AD]
| 4809) Karl Schwarzschild (sVoRTSsILD or siLD) (CE 1873-1916), German astronomer theorizes about a mass so dense that no material object can escape the mass's gravitational attraction.
This phenomenon of a mass so dense that not even light can escape it's gravitational force will be called a "black hole" 50 years later.
Schwarzschild uses Eintein's General Theory of Relativity to calculate the gravitational phenomena around a star if all the mass of the star is concentrated in a point. Fifty years later this point will be called a "black hole", and the concept of the Schwarzschild radius as the boundary of such a black hole is still accepted.
Earlier in 1916 Schwarzschild had given the first solution to Einstein's field equations.
In this second paper, enetitled (translated from German) "On the gravitational field of a sphere of incompressible fluid according to Einstein's theory", the well-known “Schwarzschild radius” appears, which treats the gravitational field of a fluid sphere with constant density throughout. According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, this simplification cannot represent any real star, but does allow an exact solution. This solution has a singularity at R = 2MG/c2, where R is the (Schwarzschild) radius for an object of mass M, G the universal constant of gravitation, and c the velocity of light. Should a star, undergoing gravitational collapse, shrink down inside this radius, the star will become a “black hole” which emits no radiation and can be detected only by its gravitational effects.
The Schwarzschild radius for the Sun is 3 kilometers (less than 2 miles) while its actual radius is 700,000 kilometers. The theoretical study of black holes and the continuing search for them has become an important field in modern astronomy.
The black holes resulting from Schwarzschild’s solution differ from those of Kerr’s 1963 solution in that they have no angular momentum and there is no mention of the central mass rotating.
Schwarzschild writes (translated from German): "As a further example of Einstein’s theory of gravitation I have calculated the gravitational field of a homogeneous sphere of finite radius, which consists of incompressible fluid. The addition “of incompressible fluid” is necessary, since in the theory of relativity gravitation depends not only on the quantity of matter, but also on its energy, and e. g. a solid body in a given state of tension would yield a gravitation different from a fluid. The computation is an immediate extension of my communication on the gravitational field of a mass point (these Sitzungsberichte 1916, p. 189), that I shall quote as “Mass point” for short. §2. Einstein’s field equations of gravitation (these Sitzungsber. 1915, p. 845) read in general: {ULSF see paper}
The quantities Gμν vanish where no matter is present. In the interior of an incompressible fluid they are determined in the following way: the “mixed energy tensor” of an incompressible fluid at rest is, according to Mr. Einstein (these Sitzungsber. 1914, p. 1062, the P present there vanishes due to the incompressibility): ...
When one avails of the variables χ, θ, Φ instead of x1, x2, x3 (ix), the line element in the interior of the sphere takes the simple form: ... Outside the sphere the form of the line element remains the same as in “Mass point”: ...
This is the known line element of the so called non Euclidean geometry of the spherical space. Therefore the geometry of the spherical space holds in the interior of our sphere. The curvature radius of the spherical space will be 3√kρ0. Our sphere does not constitute the whole spherical space, but only a part, since χ can not grow up to π/2, but only up to the limit χa. For the Sun the curvature radius of the spherical space, that rules the geometry in its interior, is about 500 times the radius of the Sun (see formulae (39) and (42)). That the geometry of the spherical space, that up to now had to be considered as a mere possibility, requires to be real in the interior of gravitating spheres, is an interesting result of Einstein s theory. Inside the sphere the quantities: ... are “naturally measured” lengths. The radius “measured inside” from the center of the sphere up to its surface is: ... Hence the mass of our sphere will be (k = 8πk2) ... 2. About the equations of motion of a point of infinitely small mass outside our sphere, which maintain tha same form as in “Mass point” (there equations (15)-(17)), one makes the following remarks: For large distances the motion of the point occurs according to Newton’s law, with α/2k2 playing the role of the attracting mass. Therefore α/2k2 can be designated as “gravitational mass” of our sphere. If one lets a point fall from the rest at infinity down to the surface of the sphere, the “naturally measured” fall velocity takes the value:
... For the Sun the fall velocity is about 1/500 the velocity of light. One easily satisfies himself that, with the small value thus resulting for χa and χ (χ< a), all our equations coincide with the equations of Newton’s theory apart from the known second order Einstein’s effects.
...
With the growth of the fall velocity va (= sinχa), the growth of the mass concentration lowers the ratio between the gravitational mass and the substantial mass. This becomes clear for the fact that e. g. with constant mass and increasing density one has the transition to a smaller radius with emission of energy (lowering of the temperature through radiation). 4. The velocity of light in our sphere is ... hence it grows from the value 1/cosχa at the surface to the value 2/(3cosχa −1) at the center. The value of the pressure quantity ρ0 + ρ according to (10) and (30) grows in direct proportion to the velocity of light. At the center of the sphere (χ = 0) velocity of light and pressure become infinite when cosχa = 1/3, and the fall velocity becomes √8/9 of the (naturally measured) velocity of light. Hence there is a limit to the concentration, above which a sphere of incompressible fluid can not exist. If one would apply our equations to values cosχa < 1/3, one would get discontinuities already outside the center of the sphere. One can however find solutions of the problem for larger χa, which are continuous at least outside the center of the sphere, if one goes over to the case of either λ > 0 or λ < 0, and satisfies the condition K = 0 (Eq. 27). On the road of these solutions, that are clearly not physically meaningful, since they give infinite pressure at the center, one can go over to the limit case of a mass concentrated to one point, and retrieves then the relation ρ =α3, which, according to the previous study, holds for the mass point. It is further noticed here that one can speak of a mass point only as far as one avails of the variable r, that otherwise in a surprising way plays no role for the geometry and for the motion inside our gravitational field. For an observer measuring from outside it follows from (40) that a sphere of given gravitational mass α/2k2 can not have a radius measured from outside smaller than: Po = α. For a sphere of incompressible fluid the limit will be 9/8α. (For the Sun α is equal to 3 km, for a mass of 1 gram is equal to 1.5 x 10−28 cm.)".
(Possibly read and show translated paper which has many equations.)
(The size of the point should be defined, how many photon volumes? for example) (Did Schwarzschild view this point as a star?) (show the math behind this.) (this needs more specific info: how is the force of gravity modeled? what are the masses tried?) (I think the idea of a black hole is the idea of a mass that is very high in a very small space. Clearly there is a limit on how much matter can be squeezed into a small space, in particular with only empty space around an object. In addition, there is a limit on the variety of atoms, although there are theories of neutrons and other particles being pushed together, the densest atom known is iridium, and stars are so hot that most of the material is liquid - although the internal composition of stars and planets - the form it takes - may never be known since it exists only under high pressure, and to see inside would require a hole which would instantly lower the pressure and free the compressed matter.)
(the black hole, I think is a product of the erroneous view that space and time dilate depending on the speed of some matter. In addition, I think the idea of a black hole is wrong because I doubt that there is any mass in the universe that can be made denser than a star. I doubt there are any objects that are dense enough to emit photon with X ray but not emit photons in visible and every other lower frequency. )
(The theory that some collective mass could be so large that no individual piece of mass, like a particle of light could escape seem unlikely to be true in my opinion. If gravity is viewed as the result of collision, this would imply that particles inside some tangle of mass could never escape the constant incoming particle bombardment which seems unlikely to me. There must always be some empty space outside of any mass, and the existance of this open space, means that particles should be free to move in those directions without colliding with other masses - otherwise there would be a universe simply of mass with no empty space. If gravity is viewed as a force that operates at an action-at-a-distance force, it seems that a particle at the edge of some dense collection of matter and empty space would mostly feel the gravitational force of the other pieces of matter nearest to it - the center of some theoretical massive collection would be too far away to have a large influence. This issue needs to be examined in more detail and explained in a way so that most people can understand all the issues and theories involved. There are complex issues of how dense can a collection of particles become? My mind leans against the possibility of black holes as unlikely, because the theory of time and space dilation are false in my view, and because I doubt that there could ever be a collection of mass in the universe from which no mass is ever emitted. To me, I think, strictly based, nonmathematically, on logic and simplicity, of course without total certainty, that since there is more space than matter in the universe, a situation where mass would not have a space to move into seems unlikely. Pictured in an an inertial view - there could never be an influx of particles so large that none would be moving in the opposite direction - in particular the farther away from some central point. There is kind of a funny idea in that - if there is even one black hole or place in the universe from which the gravity is too large for mass to escape, why would not all of matter have dissappeared into this volume? At some distant point from a black hole, clearly the gravity is not large enough to contain the matter around it. The physical geometry of a sphere requires that as the object grows larger, the density a point on the surface sees grows smaller - the gravitational force a point on the surface is exposed to must become less and less - and more and more empty space is opened to the point on the surface. These idea can be explored and expressed mathematically.)
(interesting that the concept of a gravity so large that no mass can escape can be analyzed using Newtonian Gravitation, and Euclidean Geometry too.)
(Schwarzschild examines a point on the inside surface of a sphere in comparison with a point on the outside surface of a sphere.)
(What those who seeks to explain against and/or in favor of Relativity and Non-Euclidean geometry really need to do, is explain very clearly the basic premise and presumptions of non-euclidean geometry, its origins, with graphics to visually explain in basic very simple terms the theories and equations associated with this field.)
(Notice that Swartzschild has a lower velocity for light for light particles within the sphere.)
(Note the first to use the term "black hole", since Schwarzschild doesn't use the phrase "black hole" in this paper.)
| Berlin, Germany (published), Russia (written) |
84 YBN
[11/27/1916 AD]
| 4437) Wilhelm Wien (VEN) (CE 1864-1928), German physicist, demonstrates the existence of a phenomenon that is the inverse of the Stark effect, Wien shows the line splitting of a stationary light source in an electric field, experimentally showing the corresponding splitting in the case of a moving light source in a magnetic field. (explain and show graphically)
(is this accurate?)
(Find and translate original paper)
| (Wurzburg University) Wurzburg, Germany |
84 YBN
[11/??/1916 AD]
| 4982) (Sir) Arthur Stanley Eddington (CE 1882-1944), English astronomer and physicist publishes his theory of "radiative equilibrium of the stars" in which stars are views as being composed of gas and so follow the laws of a perfect gas. In this view the radiation-pressure from the high temperature of the gas is balanced by the force of gravity pulling it back to the center.
In an article in the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society", entitled "On the Radiative Equilibrium of the Stars" Eddington writes: "1. Outline of the Invesigation. — The theory of radiative equilibrium of a star’s atmosphere was given by K. Schwarzschild in I9O6. He did not apply the theory to the interior of a star; but the necessary extension of the formulae (taking account of the curvature of the layers of equal temperature) is not difficult. It ` is found that the resulting distribution of temperature and density in the interior follows a rather simple law. Taking a star—a "giant" star of low density, so that the laws of a perfect gas are strictly applicable——and calculating from its mass and mean density the numerical values of the temperature, we find that the temperature gradient is so great that there ought to be an outward flow of heat many million times greater than observation indicates. This contradiction is not peculiar to the radiative hypothesis, a high temperature in the interior is necessary in order that the density may have a low mean value notwith— _ standing the enormous pressure due to the weight of the column of material above. There is a way out of the difficulty, however, if we are ready to admit that the radiation-pressure due to the outward flow of heat_may under calculable conditions of temperature, density, and . absorption nearly neutralise the weight of the column, and so reduce the pressure which would otherwise exist in the interior. For the giant stars it is necessary that only a small fraction of the weight should remain uncompensated. (For the dwarf stars, on the other hand, radiation-pressure is practically negligible.) We thus arrive at the theory that a rarefied gaseous star adjusts itself into a state of equilibrium such that the radiation-pressure very approximately balances gravity at interior points. This condition leads to a relation between mass and density on the one side and effective temperature on the other side, which seems to correspond roughly with observation. The laws arrived at differ considerably from those of Lane and Ritter. ...".
Eddington will later publish the "The Internal Constitution of the Stars", the first major work on stellar structure. Eddington uses the concept of radiation pressure from the interior of the star as the major factor involved in a star's luminosity.
(I think that it is important to give plausible theories supported by a mathematical and physical basis which seek to describe the composition of the stars. My own view is that light particles are trapped in stars. Near the center there is very little space to move, and light particles may have little or no motion relative to all the other particles. At the surface, there is, of course, much more empty space and light particles reaching there escape in all directions. So the math involved is basically, in my view, millions and millions of masses with motions colliding with each other. At the base level, it's too large to calculate and useless. But perhaps all the motions can be generalized - in particular because the average motion of any light particle must decrease as they go closer to the center, and increase as they move towards the surface finding more and more empty space to push and be pushed in to.)
(To my knowledge, all later works after Eddington's initial theory, are strictly based on this gas pressure versus gravitation model, and this is the currently most popular, and only major theory of stellar structure. This may be the result of "neuron party-line" pressure, which forces an absolutely singular view to be adopted by all those who want to receive direct-to-brain windows. All thought of a solid and even liquid interior of a star is forbidden.)
(Eddington was a mathematical theorist mostly, and it seems very likely a corrupted scientist; corrupted by the neuron writing owners by money. For example, Eddington was an early and strong supporter and popularizer of Eintein's theory of Relativity and the theory of time and space contraction and dilation.)
(The theory that a star is completely gas, seems to me to be obviously inaccurate - clearly the extreme density of a star and even many planets suggests, not only a solid, but some kind, of super-compressed-solid, far far removed from any thought of a gas.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 4086) Sir Edward Albert Sharpey-Schäfer (CE 1850-1935), English physiologist, suggests that the hormone he suspects is in the secretions of the islets of Langerhans be named "insulin" from the Latin word for "island". When this hormone is isolated six years later by Banting and Best, the name "insulin" is used over the Banting and Best's preference for "isletin".
| (Edinburgh University) Edinburgh, Scotland |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 4317) Edward Emerson Barnard (CE 1857-1923), US astronomer, identifies a star with a very large proper motion (which will be named Barnard's star).
This star will have the largest known proper motion (10 seconds of arc per year) until 1968. This star moves the width of the moon in 180 years. Barnard's star is one of the closest stars to us, and is a red dwarf star (smaller than the star the earth orbits).
| (Yerkes Observatory University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 4511) Robert Andrews Millikan (CE 1868-1953), US physicist verifies Planck's constant (h) experimentally by using Einstein's equation for the photoelectric effect to relate frequency of light to induced voltage.
Millikan writes: "Quantum theory was not originally developed for the sake of interpreting photoelectric phenomena. It was solely a theory as to the mechanism of absorption and emission of electromagnetic waves by resonators of atomic or subatomic dimensions. It had nothing whatever to say about the energy of an escaping electron or about the conditions under which such an electron could make its escape, and up to this day the form of the theory developed by its author has not been able to account satisfactorily for the photoelectric facts presented herewith. We are confronted, however, by the astonishing situation that these facts were correctly and exactly predicted nine years ago by a form of quantum theory which has now been pretty generally abandoned. It was in 1905 that Einstein made the first coupling of photo effects and {ULSF: an apparent missing part} with any form of quantum theory by bringing forward the bold, not to say reckless, hypothesis of an electro-magnetic light copuscle of energy, hν, which energy was transferred upon absorption to an electron. This hypothesis may well be called reckless first because an electro-magnetic disturbance which remains localized in space seems a violation of the very conception of an electromagnetic disturbance, and second because it flies in the face of the thoroughly established facts of interference. The hypothesis was apparently made solely because it furnished a ready explanation of one of the most remarkable facts brought to light by recent investigations, viz., that the energy with which an electron is thrown out of a metal by ultra-violet light or X-rays is independent of the intensity of the light while it depends on its frequency. This fact alone seems to demand some modification of classical theory or, at any rate, it has not yet been interpreted satisfactorily in terms of classical theory. While this was the main if not the only basis of Einstein's assumption, this assumption enabled him at once to predict that the maximum energy of emission of corpuscles under the influence of light would be governed by the equation 1/2 mv2 = Ve = hv − p, (1)
in which hv is the energy absorbed by the electron from the light wave, which according to Planck contained just the energy hv, p is the work necesary to get the electron out of the metal and 1/2 mv2 is the energy with which it leaves the surface, an energy evidently measured by the product of its charge e by the P.D. against which it is just able to drive itself before being brought to rest. At the time at which it was made this prediction was as bold as the hypothesis which suggested it, for at that time there were available no experiments whatever for determining anything about how P.D. varies with v, or whether the hypothetical h of equation (1) was anything more than a number of the same general magnitude as Planck's h. Nevertheless, the following results seem to show that at least fice of the experimentally verifiable relationships which are actually contained in equation (1) are rigorously correct. These relationships are embodied in the following assertions: 1. That there exists for each exciting frequency v, above a certain critical value, a definitely determinable maximum velocity of emission of corpuscles. 2. That there is a linear relation between V and v. 3. That dV/dv or the slope of the V v line is numertically equal to h/e. 4. That at the critical frequency v0 at which v=0, p=hv0, i.e., that the intercept of the V v line on the v axis is the lowest frequency at which the metal in question can be photoelectrically active. 5. That the contact E.M.F. between any two conductors is given by the equation Contact E.M.F. = h/e(v0 - v'0) - (V0 - V'0). No one of these points except the first had been tested even roughly when Einstein made his prediction and the correctness of this one has recently been vigorously denied by Ramsauer. As regards the fourth Elster and Geitel had indeed concluded as early as 1891, from a study of the alkali metals, that the more electro-positive the metal the smaller is the value of v at which it becomes photo-sensitive, a conclusion however which later researches on the non-alkaline metals seemed for years to contradict. ... The work at the Ryerson Laboratory on energies of emission began in 1905. How the present investigation has grown out of it will be clear from the following brief summary of its progress and its chief results. 1. It was found first that these energies are independent of temperature, a result unexpected at the time but simultaneously discovered by Lienhop and thoroughly confirmed by others later. This result showed that photoelectrons do not share in the energies of thermal agitation as they had commonly been supposed to do, and this result still stands. 2. The apparent energies of emission, that is, the volts which had to be applied to just stop the emission were determined for elecen different metals and found to differ among themselves by more than one volt. This point has recently been tested again by Richardson and Compton and by Page, both of whom found no differences. The present work shows that differences do in general exist though possibly not under the conditions used by the other experimenters. 3. The energy of emission was found to vary considerably with time and illumination, a result which i interpreted as due to the disturbing influence of a surfacve film which exerted under different conditions different retarding influences on the escape of electrons. 4. The results in 3 revealed the necessity of questioning the validity of all results on photopotentials unless the effects of surface films were eliminated... 5. The marked difference between the apparent effects on the energy of emissino of different types of sources such as the spark and the arc, even when the same wave-length was employed, were traced to extreme difficulty of eliminating distubances when spark sources are employed - a difficulty of course appreciated from the first, but thought to have been disposed of because screening of the direct light from the arc removed the differences. After these disturbing incluences were eliminated powerful spark sources of given wave-length were found to produce exactly the same energies of emission as arc sources of the same wave-length and of about the same mean intensity, but of only one thousandth the instantaneous intensity. This furnished very exact proof of the independence first discovered by Lenard of the energy of emission upon intensity, even when the intensity of illuminatino in one wave-length, viz., λ=3650, was as high as 10000 erg/cm2sec. 6. The relation between V and c was tested with spark sources without bringing to light at first anything approaching a linear relationship. These results were reported by Dr. Wright. A question as to their validity was, however, raised by my subsequent proof of the insufficiency of such screening devices as had been used in the case of spark sources. Accordingly Dr. Kadesch took up again the relation between V and v with powerful spark sources, using film-free sodium and potassium surfaces, and obtained results which spoke definitely and strongly in favor of a linera relation between the maximum P.D. and v. ... (What is the story with the need for a filter?) 7. At the same time I undertook to investigate with as much exactness as possible, using as a source the monochromatic radiations of the quartz-mercury arc, the third, fourth and fifth of the above assertions of Einstein's equation, and in the vice-presidential address before the American Association for the Advancement of Science in December, 1912, expressed the hope that we should soon be able to assert whether or not Planck's h actually appeared in photoelectric phenomena as it has been usually assumed for ten years to do. At that time the paper of Hughes and of Richardson and Compton had just appeared, though the latter paper I had unfortunately not seen at the time of writing and hence made no reference to it. These authors found the value of h in the Einstein photoelectric equatino varying in the eight metals studied from 3.55 x 10-27 to 5.85 x 10-27. Planck's h was 6.55 x 10-27, a difference which Hughes tried to explain by assuming either that only a fraction of the energy hv was absorbed or that the energy of emission against the direction of the incident light was less than that in the direction of the incident light. ..." Millikan concludes: "...Planck's "h" appears then to stand out in connection with photo-electric measurements more sharply, more exactly and more certainly than in connection with any other type of measurements thus far made. ... 1. Einstein's photoelectric equation has been subjected to very searching tests and it appears in every case to predict exactly the observed results. 2. Planck's h has been photoelectrically determined with a precision of about .5 per cent. and is found to have the value h=6.57 x 10-27.".
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 4530) Arnold Johannes Wilhelm Sommerfeld (CE 1868-1951), German physicist modifies Bohr's theory to allow electrons to have elliptical orbits too.
In Bohr's model published 3 years earlier (1913), an atom is made of a central nucleus around which electrons move in definite circular orbits. The orbits are quantized, in other words, the electrons occupy only orbits that have specific energies. The electrons can ‘jump’ to higher or lower levels by either absorbing or emitting photons of the appropriate frequency. It is the emission of just those frequencies that produces the familiar lines of the hydrogen spectrum. Closer examination of the spectrum of hydrogen shows that Bohr's model can not account for the fine structure of the spectral lines. What at first had looked like a single line are later shown to be a number of lines close to each other. Sommerfeld's solution is to suggest that some of the electrons move in elliptical rather than circular orbits. This requires introducing a second quantum number, the azimuthal quantum number, l, in addition to the principal quantum number of Bohr, n. The two are simply related and together permit the fine structure of atomic spectra to be satisfactorily interpreted.
Sommerfeld applies Einstein's relativity theory to the speeding elections and so both relativity and Planck's quanta are included in the theory of the atom. As a result the Bohr-Sommerfeld atom is sometimes referred to. (chronology)
(I have doubts about the truth of a model based on relativity, because I think time dilation is inaccurate.) (In addition, I think there needs to be a more structural explanation of the Bohr model - for example why only certain orbits are allowed - is there some structural reason why - perhaps an object in the way or collisions at other intervals?)
(translate work)
| |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 4776) Félix Hubert D'Hérelle (DAreL) (CE 1873-1949), Canadian-French bacteriologist identifies a bacteriophage (a virus that kills certain species of bacteria), independently of British microbiologist Frederick Twort who made an earlier identification of the bacteriophage in 1915.
While working in the Pasteur Institute,) D'Hérelle notices that there are places in a bacteria culture where there are no bacteria, and concludes that something is destroying them. Later D'Hérelle is investigating a form of dysentery infected in a French cavalry squadron during World War I, and happens to mix a filtrate of the clear areas with a culture of dysentery bacteria. The bacteria are quickly and totally destroyed by an unknown agent in the filtrate that Hérelle terms an "invisible microbe", but in 1917 renames a "bacteriophage" (bacteria eater). (perhaps should be named bacteria killer bacteriocide).
In subsequent years Hérelle will attempt to use bacteriophages as therapeutic agents in the treatment of bacterial infections. Although Hérelle achieves some success in using bacteriophages in the treatment of dysentery and other infections, the use of these agents against such diseases is later replaced by antibiotic and other drugs.
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 4944) Irving Langmuir (laNGmYUR) (CE 1881-1957), US chemist invents a high speed high vacuum mercury vapor pump.
| (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 5013) Edward Calvin Kendall (CE 1886-1972), US biochemist, isolates the amino acid thyroxine from the iodine-containing protein, thryoglobulin obtained from the thyroid gland. Thyroxine is unusual in containing four iodine atoms, and is closely related to the common amino acid, tyrosine. (tyrosine contains iodine?) Starling and Bayliss had invented the hormone concept. The thyroid had been shown to control the overall rate of metabolism of a body, when the human metabolism goes fast the thyroid is overactive, and when the metabolism is too slow, the thyroid is underactive, so many people thought that this is controlled by a hormone. In the 1890s the thyroid gland was shown to contain large amounts of iodine, an atom previously not known to occur in living tissue. ) Identifying hormones from glands will become a popular part of research, ten years later Bantin and Best will isolate insulin, and hormones offer the possibility of practical and effective therapies for some diseases. (It appears that there is no molecular similarity between each hormone. Perhaps like the vitamin, simply a substance needed in small amounts to prevent a dietary deficiency disease, hormones have a similar definition.) (Thyroxine will be called the thyroid hormone.) (State what the thyroid gland controls for mammals, reptiles, etc.)
| (Mayo Foundation) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
84 YBN
[1916 AD]
| 5023) Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn (SEGBoN) (CE 1886-1978), Swedish physicist, discovers a third electron shell, the "M" shell using x-ray spectra.
Charles Barkla had discovered characteristic radiation from different elements. That is, when substances are exposed to X rays, they emit a secondary radiation with a specific penetrative power characteristic of the element. Barkla distinguished two components in this secondary radiation that he called K and L. In 1914 Walther Kossel offered an interpretation of the spectral lines using Niels Bohr’s new atomic model.
Besides working with crystals, Siegbahn performs x-ray spectroscopy at longer wavelengths using gratings. (describe gratings and chronology)
Siegbahn develops techniques to measure the wavelength of X rays accurately and produces X ray spectra for each element. From these groups of X-rays it is possible to support the view of Bohr and others that the electrons in atoms are in shells. From x-ray spectra, people had already established that there are two distinct ‘shells’ of electrons within atoms, each giving rise to groups of spectral lines, labeled ‘K’ and ‘L’. The different bands (groups of spectral lines) of X-rays grow to be labeled K, L, M, N, O, P and Q in order of increasing wavelengths and the electron shells are similarly lettered in order of increasing distance from the atomic nucleus. With Einar Friman, Siegbahn, in a study of the L series for zinc to uranium extend the longest recorded x-ray wavelength from Moseley’s 6 Ångstrom units to 12.8 Ångström units. (verify source is correct) (It is inmteresting that few emission spectral lines of elements are self generated, but are instead the product of bombardment from an external source of light particles. TO heat something to incandescence is to bombard it with light particles - many that are microwave frequency. Can it be presumed that heat felt by humans is mostly microwave frequency light particle beams? Is it then true that, all flames emits microwave light and these are the frequencies that produce the heat sensation? X-ray stimulation is somewhat different in the source of bombarding light particles being a primary beam of x-rays. EXPERIMENT: Can an object be heated to emit uv light, and x-ray light? Perhaps there are so few x-rays lines for this reason - that there is no "stepping up" to the x-ray frequency range as there is for visible light emissino spectral lines. So x-ray emission lines from bombardment (and visible emission lines frmo heating) are "luminescent" lines, emissions that are created from a source of light particles bombarding the target, as being self generated with no need for an external source.)
(Show images of x-ray spectra, and how they are produced. Are these absorption, emission, or reflection spectral lines? Which atoms emit photons in the xray? Do all when made to emit light? Is this spectra from reflection? Do X rays reflect off of the same atom in the same way/frequencies if solid, liquid or gas?)
(I don't think the letters for shells K, L, M, N, etc. still exist, there are basically 4 s,p,d,m...?)
(Show and describe all aparatuses used.)
(Determine which paper and read relevent parts)
| (University of Lund) Lund, Sweden |
83 YBN
[03/03/1917 AD]
| 4529) Henrietta Swan Leavitt (CE 1868-1921), US astronomer extends the scale of standard star brightness down to the 21st magnitude in publishing the "north polar sequence" determination of stellar magnitudes.
In 1907 the director of the observatory, Edward Pickering, announced plans to redetermine stellar magnitudes by photographic techniques. The photographic magnitudes of a group of stars near the north celestial pole were to act as standards of reference for other stars. Leavitt was selected to measure these magnitudes, known as the "north polar sequence". This "north polar sequence" is eventually published as volume 27, number 3 of the Annals of Harvard College Observatory (1917), and an extension of this research is given in number 4 of the same volume, in which Miss Leavitt supplies secondary magnitude standards for the forty-eight "Harvard standard regions" devised by Edward Pickering. A similar work presents magnitude standards for the Astrographic Catalogue (Annals of Harvard College Observatory, 85, no. 1, 1919; nos. 7 and 8, published posthumously, 1924-1926). The north polar sequence and its subsidiary magnitudes provide the standards for most statistical investigations of the Milky Way system until about 1940.
(The system of star brightness or luminosity both absolute and intrinsic needs to be changed to perhaps a number of particles of mass emitted per second scale which starts at 0. Perhaps a "Star Emission" variable that is measured in kg/s. But in terms of absolute brightness, I think a number of pixels, given some absolute light capturing scale, might be more logical.)
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
83 YBN
[04/15/1917 AD]
| 4945) Irving Langmuir (laNGmYUR) (CE 1881-1957), US chemist finds that certain substances will form films on water that are one molecule thick and is the first to study such monomolecular films. Langmuir uses Avogadro's number, and other calculations to determine the distribution of molecules over a surface.
| (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
83 YBN
[06/??/1917 AD]
| 4702) Kotaro Honda (CE 1870-1954), Japanese metallurgist, produces a stronger permanent magnet by adding colbalt to tungsten steel.
Honda finds that adding cobalt to tungsten steel produces an alloy capable of forming a more powerful magnet than ordinary steel. This will lead to the production of alnico, more strongly magnetic, corrosion resistant, relatively immune to vibration, and temperature change, and less expansive than ordinary steel magnets. Only electromagnets at liquid helium temperatures, in the mid 1900s will be have stronger magnetic fields. This is K. S. magnet steel.
Honda and Saito write: "K. S. Magnet Steel.—The composition of this steel is given as C 0.4-0.8 per cent.; Co 30-40 percent.; W {ULSF: Tungsten} 5-9 per cent.; Cr 1.5-3 per cent. Tempering is best effected by heating to 950° C. and quenching in heavy oil. Measurements of the residual magnetism (or specimens of different composition gave values from 920 to 620 C.G.S-units; the coercive force for the same specimens ranged from 226 to 257 gauss. Artificial aging by heating in boiling water and by repeated mechanical shock reduced the residual magnetism by only 6 per cent. The hysteresis curves for a magnetizing force of =~ 1,300 gauss were taken for annealed and tempered specimens; for the annealed specimen the coercive force was 30 gauss and for the hardened steel the coercive force 238 gauss and the energy loss per cycle 909,000 ergs. The hardness of annealed and tempered specimens was found to be 444 and 652 respectively on the Brinnell scale and 38 and 55 on the Shore scale. The microstructure of the hardened steel showed a finer grain than for the annealed." and write in their introduction: "In June, 1917, a new remarkable alloy steel possessing an extremely high coercive force and a strong residual magnetism was discovered by Mr. H. Takagi and one of the present writers (K. Honda). This steel is prominent as a magnet steel among those hitherto known, i.e., tungsten magnet steel, and is named the "K. S. Magnet Steel," after Baron K. Sumitomo, who offered a sum of 21,000 yen to our university for the investigation of alloy steels. During the last two years, several important improvements have been made in the steel,...", the authors summarize writing: "1. K. S. magnet steel has an extremely large coercive force; its intensity of residual magnetism is also considerably larger than that of ordinary tungsten steels.
2. The area of the hysteresis loop of K. S. magnet steel is very large.
3. K. S. magnet steel, when quenched, is mechanically very hard, and has a very fine microstructure.
4. The residual magnetism of K. S. magnet steel does not appreciably diminish by a prolonged heating at 100° C. over many hours.
5. 850 repeated falls of the steel bar from a height of one meter on a concrete floor causes only a diminution of magnetization by 6 per cent, of its initial value.
6. K. S. magnet steel is specially suited for short bar magnets.".
(Describe the very strong ceramic magnets, for example in hard drives.)
| (Tokyo Imperial University) Tokyo, Japan |
83 YBN
[07/28/1917 AD]
| 4769) Heber Doust Curtis (CE 1872-1942), US astronomer supports the theory that the other "nebulae" are not part of the Milky Way Galaxy, but are much more distant "island universes".
Curtis correctly supports the "island universes" explanation what are thought to be nebulae but later recognized to be other galaxies. Curtis argues that there are numerous very faint novas in some of the nebulas, more numerous than could be expected and fainter than if they were objects in this galaxy. Kant had also held this view.
Curtis writes: "... It is possible that a single nova might appear, so placed in the sky as to be directly in line with a spiral nebula, tho the chances for such an occurrence would be very small. But that six new stars should happen to be thus situated in line with a nebula is manifestly beyond the bounds of probability; there can be no doubt that these novae were actually in the spiral nebulae. The occurrence of these new stars in spirals must be regarded as having a very definite bearing on the "island universe" theory of the constitution of the spiral nebulae.".
In 1920 Curtis and Shapley will have a great debate before the National Academy of Sciences about the truth of the nebulae or island universe theory.
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
83 YBN
[09/??/1917 AD]
| 4865) Vesto Melvin Slipher (SlIFR) (CE 1875-1969), US astronomer, shows that the visible light emission spectrum of lightning is mostly that of Nitrogen and Oxygen in addition to Iron and vanadium metals.
| (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
83 YBN
[10/18/1917 AD]
| 5025) Heber Curtis (CE 1872-1942), US astronomer, reports that for 25 spectroscopic binary stars, the H and K calcium absorption lines do not show the periodic shift shown by the star emission lines.
Heber writes in "ABSORPTION EFFECTS IN THE SPIRAL NEBULAE": "A study of the negatives of spiral nebulae obtained with the Crossley Reflector has shown that the phenomenon of dark lanes caused by occulting or absorbing matter is much more frequent than had previously been supposed. A paper of considerable length on this subject, in which the evidence is supplied chiefly by half-tone illustrations of seventy-seven spirals, will be published soon by the Lick Observatory. An abstract of that paper follows. ".
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
83 YBN
[1917 AD]
| 4295) Julius Wagner von Jauregg (VoGnR FuN YUreK) (Austrian psychiatrist) (CE 1857-1940) finds that six of nine people inflicted with "general paralysis of the insane" (GPI), a relatively common complication of late syphillis are significantly healed, after injecting them with tertian malaria - a form of malaria that gives a two-day interval between fever attacks.
Wagner von Jauregg finds that the high bodily temperature of a fever damages the germ causing syphilis. (verify - others later explained this as temperature or von Jauregg did?)
As early as 1887 von Jauregg had noticed that rare cases of remission were often preceded by a feverish infection, suggesting that the deliberate production of a fever could have a similar effect.
The malaria treatment of the disease will be later replaced largely by administration of antibiotics.
This work leads to the development of fever therapy and shock therapy for a number of mental disorders.(Fever and shock therapy are not only ineffective, but when done without consent are clearly torture, assault, and highly illegal and unethical. To me this is obvious, but I think perhaps even most people either think that all psychology treatments are done voluntarily...which is far from true and seriously erroneous, or that such diseases are not only real, but are serious enough to allow involuntary treatment. Psychology reveals the brutal side in most people, how they are so casually willing to violate the Nuremberg principle of treating humans without consent in the name of a psychiatric disorder. )
(I think any report claiming scientific results in the field of psychology has to be viewed with some scrutiny, because there is so much abstraction, dishonesty and fraud in psychology.)
| (University of Vienna Hospital for Nervous and Mental Diseases) Vienna, Austria |
83 YBN
[1917 AD]
| 4716) Georges Claude (CE 1870-1960), French chemist develops a process for the manufacture of ammonia from nitrogen in the air that is similar to the process developed by the German chemist Fritz Haber.
| (unknown) Paris, France (presumably, verify) |
83 YBN
[1917 AD]
| 4761) Paul Langevin (loNZVoN) (CE 1872-1946), French physicist develops the first sonar using ultrasonic sound. Langevin produces ultrasonic sounds using Pierre Curie's piezoelectric effect. In the first two decades of the 20th century radio circuits are developed that can shift potentials quickly enough to make crystals vibrate fast enough to produce sound waves with frequencies in the ultrasonic range. Ultrasonic sound waves are far more easily reflected from small objects than audible longer wavelength sound can be reflected. Langevin intends to develop a device to locate submarines using ultrasonic sound waves during World War I, a phenomenon known as "echo location". But by the time Langevin has the device working World War I is over. This principle forms the basis of modern sonar. In sonar, ultrasonic sound waves are used to detect submarines, contours of the ocean bottoms, schools of fish and other objects underwater.
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography: Aruond 1914 Langevin is requested by Maurice de Broglie to find a way of detecting submerged enemy submarines. Lord Rayleigh and O. W. Richardson had thought of employing ultrasonic waves in 1912. (So clearly ultrasonic sound was already produced and detected by 1912- state by whom) In France a Russian engineer, Chilowski, proposed to the navy a device based on this principle; but its intensity was much too weak. In less than three years Langevin succeeds in providing adequate amplification by using piezoelectricity. Langevin's team calls the steel-quartz-steel triplet Langevin develops a "Langevin sandwich". Functioning by resonance, it 'finally played for ultrasonic waves the same roles as the antenna in radio engineering."'.
(State if a crystal can be used to detect frequencies of light particle beams because of physical vibration resonance too. If yes, this might be a good method to detect high frequency light beams.)
(Ultrasound is in common public use now in health science to harmlessly capture images of babies in the womb. Ultrasound can also be used to determine the distance of objects using molecules in the air as a medium for sound.)
(It would be interesting to see if there is some fast and simple way of getting a 2D or 3D audio map without the need for a large array of sound sensors. Even with a large array of sensors, perhaps this might not be expensive. Probably this method is not as good as radar, which uses radio light particles.)
(It's not clear if Pierre Curie or Langevin, or perhaps even some other person in the shadow of the neuron reading and writing secret science research of the 18 and 1900s first discovered ultrasound and its use for sonar.)
(EX: Do many different objects vibrate syncronously with an alternating or pulsed electric current? I would think most rigid objects would. Which objects are the best for dispersing or directing sound/air vibrations?)
(Document the history of ultrasound, is infrasound also known and useful?)
| (Collège de France) Paris, France (presumably) |
83 YBN
[1917 AD]
| 4765) Willem de Sitter (CE 1872-1934), Dutch astronomer, creates what will be called the "de Sitter universe" in contrast to the "Einstein universe" and suggests that light from distant stars should be red-shifted. In addition, de Sitter introduces Einstein's General Theory of Relativity to english speaking people.
De Sitter shows that there is another solution to Einstein's cosmological equations without the cosmological constant Einstein had introduced, that produces a static universe if no matter is present. The contrast is summarized in the statement that Einstein's universe contains matter but no motion while de Sitter's involves motion without matter.
The Russian mathematician Alexander Friedmann in 1922 and the Belgian George Lemaître independently in 1927 will introduce the idea of an expanding universe that contains moving matter. In 1928 the de Sitter universe will be transformed mathematically into an expanding universe. This model, the Einstein–de Sitter universe, contains normal Euclidean space and is a simpler version of the Friedmann–Lemaître models in which space is curved.
De Sitter publishes (1916–1917) a series of three papers on "Einstein’s Theory of Gravitation and Its Astronomical Consequences" in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. In the third of these papers De Sitter introduces what will soon become known as the "De Sitter universe" as an alternative to the “Einstein universe”.
Sitter calculates the radius of the universe to be 2 billion light-years, and to contain 80 billion galaxies, but like almost all estimates of the universe, this appears to be far too small and young, and the universe far older and larger.
The Complete Dictionary of Scientists states that apparently De Sitter’s papers introduce Einstein's theory to the English-speaking countries during and shortly after World War I, and lead to Eddington’s solar eclipse expeditions of 1919 to measure the gravitational deflection of light rays passing near the sun.
DeSitter writes: "Since Minkowski the conception of space and time as a {ULSF typo: "four" - possible play on word 'dimension' as 'unrealistic'} our-dimensional continuity has been widely accepted. The ideal put forward by him in his celebrated lecture of 1908, 'that space and time each separately should vanish to shadows, and only a union of the two should preserve reality,' has, however, only been completely realised by the latest theory of Einstein, the 'Allgemeine Relativitatstheorie' of 1915, by which, moreover, gravitation is also incorporated in the union. The points of space occupied by a given material point at successive times form in the four-dimensional time-space a continuity of one dimension, which is called the world-line of the point. Also a light-vibration has its world-line, the projection of which on three-dimensional space is a ray of light. Now what we observe are always insections of world-lines. Take, e.g., an observation of an occultation of a star by the moon, and let us imagine, to simplify the argument, that the face of the clock is illuminated by the light of the star. Then the world-line of the star, it then intersects successively the world-line of a point on the moon's edge, that of the clock's hand, and that of a point on the clock's face. The last two intersections may be said to coincide, so that three world-lines have one point in common. About the course of world-lines between the points of intersection we know nothing, and no observation can ever tell us anything. Now we must necessarily describe the world-lines and their intersections by means of a system of co-ordinates. The aws of nature are also necessarily expressed by means of these co-ordinates. We can imagine two physicists each making a model of all world-lines and their coincidences, and the two models must be both correct, and therefore essentially identical, whenever they both represent all intersections in the right order. The course of the world-lines themselves may be entirely different in the two models. These considerations have led Einstein to his postulate of general relativity, which requires the laws of nature to be invariant for all transformations of co-ordinates. 2. Let the four co-ordinates be x1,x2,x3,x4. For the fourth we may choose the time measured in such a unit that the velocity of light in a space, where there is no matter and no gravitation, is unity: or x4=ct. The other co-ordinates are then pur space-coordinates, for which we can, e.g., take ordinary rectangular Cartesian co-ordinates. The four-dimensional distance between two neighboring points will be called ds. We have generally
where necessarily gαβ=gβα. There are thus ten coefficients gαβ, which are functions of the co-ordinates x1...x4. The line-element ds must be invariant for all transformations, and it entirely characterises the metric properties of the four-dimensional time-space. If we introduce other co-ordinates x1' ... x4' by an arbitrary transformation
In this four-dimensional time-space we consider tensors of different orders. The tensor of order zero is a pure number (scalar), the tensor of the first order is a vector, which has 4 components, the tensor of the second order has 16 components, and so on. The ten coefficients gij form a tensor of the second order. Since gij=gji, this tensor is symmetrical. We need not go into the details regarding the calculus of these tensors, which has been developed by Riemann, Christoffel, Levi-Civita, Ricci, and others. The central fact is that the transformation-formulas for tensors are easily derived from those for the co-ordinates {thus, e.g., any set of 16 quantities which are transformed by the equations (3) form a covariant tensor of the second order}, and that these transformation-formulas express the components of the transformed tensor as homogeneous linear functions of the components of the original tensor. Therefore, if for one system of co-ordinates a certain tensor is zero, it is zero for any system of co-ordinates. Consequently, if once we have expressed the laws of nature in the form of linear relations between tensors, they will be invariant for all transformations. Thus with the aid of the calculus of tensors Einstein has succeeded in satisfying the postulate of general relativity. The fundamental tensor gij which defines the line-element, and therefore the metric properties of the reference system of space-time co-ordinates, naturally occupies a prominent place in all formulas. 3. The characteristic feature of Einstein's theory is the intimate connection which he has traced between this fundamental tensor and the gravitational field. In all other theories, also in the 'old' theory of relativity, gravitation is a 'force,' like, e.g., electrimagnetic forces, which requires its own laws, and these laws have no greater inherent necessity than those of any other natural phenomenon. In Einstein's new theory, gravitation is of a much more fundamental nature: it becomes almost a property of space. Gravitation certainly differs from all other forces of nature by its generality and its independence of anything else. At a given point in a gravitational field every material point receives the same acceleration whatever its chemical or physical properties may be. Now, if we introduce a new system of co-ordinates which at this point has exactly this acceleration, then the material point subjected to gravitation would be at rest relatively to this new system of co-ordinates, and would thus in this new system be apparently not subjected to gravitation. By the principle of general relativity there is no essential difference between the two systems of co-ordinates: we have no right to say that either of them is a gravitational field or not thus depends on the choice of the reference-system. In the old mechanics space is Euclidean, and a material point subjected to no forces describes a straight line with uniform velocity, i.e. its world-line in a Euclidean four-dimensional time-space {the system of reference of the old theory of relativity} is a straight line. In Einstein's theory, if there is gravitation, the four-dimensional time-space is not Euclidean, and the world-line of a point subjected to no other forces than gravitation is a geodetic line. If there is no gravitation, the time-space is Euclidean, and the grodetic line is a straight line as in the old theory. Gravitation is thus, properly speaking, not a 'force' in the new theory. 4. The equations of the geodetic line are, of course, derived in terms of the coefficients gij by writing down the condition that ∫ds shall be a minimum. We will not enter into the details of this computation, but we will only explain so much of the operations involved as is necessary for the good understanding of the subsequent reasoning. ... ". De Sitter goes on to compare Newton's theory to the General Theory of Relativity in terms of explaining the secular motion of the perihelia for the four terrestrial planets, writing: "... The mean errors have been adopted from Newcomb. The differences, as found by Newcomb, are added for comparison. Though some of the differences between the observed values and those given by the new theory still exceed their mean errors, the agreement is satisfactory on the whole. Only the node of Venus still shows a considerable discrepancy. The differences have no tendency to show the same sign; there is thus not the slightest reason to adopt a rotation of the system of the fixed stars. Also Seeliger's explanation of the anomalous motion of the perihelion of Mercury by the attraction of nebulous matter in the neighborhood of the sun now becomes superfluous. The node of Venus, of course, remains outstanding, but none of the hypotheses put forward in explanation of the anomalies in the motions of the inner planets can put it right without at the same time introducing greater discrepancies in other elements."
There is apparently some conflict about the issue of did De Sitter create a model of an expanding universe or a static universe? The papers are very abstract. In the third paper, De Sitter indicates a comparison of two universe geometries A and B, A is Euclidean space-time, and B is non-Euclidean space-time, in A time is everywhere the same, and in B time is not everywhere the same. De Sitter closes his work writing: "... In the System B we have g44=cos2X. Consequently the frequency of light-vibrations diminishes with increasing distance from the origin of co-ordinates. The lines in the spectra of very distant stars or nebulae must therefore be systematically displaced towards the red, giving rise to a spurious positive radial velocity.
It is well known that the helium stars do indeed show a systematic displacement, corresponsing to about +4.5km/sec. If we ascribe about one-third of this to the mass of the stars themselves, the rest, or +3 km./sec.; may be explained as an apparent displacement due to the diminution of g44, For the average distance of the B-stars we can take r-Rx = 3 x 107. We then have 1-cosX=10-5, from which
(44) R=2/3 x 1010
Campbell has also found a systematic displacement of the same sign for the K stars, whose average distance probably is the largest after the helium stars. For stars of other types both the systematic displacement and the average distance are smaller. For the lesser Magellanic cloud Hertzsprung found the distance r>6 x 109. The radial velocity is about 150 km./sec. This gives
(45) R>2x1011.
The formulas (25'), for small values of r, become the same as in classical mechanics. For large values of r there is no reason why the angular propert motion dθ/dt should not decrease in the same way as it does in Newtonian mechanics. The total linear velocity, however, and consequently also the radial velocity, may on the average be expected to increase up to X=1/4π, owing to the first term on the right in the second formula (25'). We should thus, in the system B, for stars in out neighbourhood expect radial and transveral velocities of the same order, but for objects at very large distances we should expect a greater number of large or very large radial velocities. Spiral nebulae most probably are amongst the most distant objects we know. Recently a number of radial velocities of these nebulae have been determined. The observations are still very uncertain, and conclusions drawn from them are liable to be premature. Of the following three nebulae, the velocities have been determined by more than one observer:
Andromeda (3 observers) -311 km./sec. N.G.C. 1068 (3 observers) +925 km./sec. N.G.C. 4594 (2 observers) +1185 km./sec.
These velocities are very large indeed, compared with the unusual velocities of stars in our neighbourhood.
The velocities due to inertia, according to the formular (25'), have no preference of sign. Superposed on these are, however, the apparent radial velocities due to the diminution of g44, which are positive. The mean of the three observed radial velocities stated above is +600 km./sec. If for the average distance we take 105 parsecs 2x1010, then we find
(46) R=3x 1011
Of course this result, derived from only three nebulae, has practically no value. If, however, continued observation should confirm the fact that the spiral nebulae have systematically positive radial velocities, this would certainly be an indication to adopt the hypothesis B in preference to A. If it should turn out that no such systematic displacement of spectral lines toward the red exists, this could be interpreted either as showing A to be preferable to B, or as indicating a still larger value of R in the system B.".
(I reject the idea that space itself is curved. My view is that material objects have curved paths in an un-curved 3d space, where time is the same everywhere. I reject the concept of so-called non-euclidean geometry, in particular as applies to the universe. I think it is good to examine the origins of the non-Euclidean theory as described by Lobechevskii and others, and other historical commentary on non-Euclidean theory, for example, Helmholtz doubted that space in the universe is curved. Some of the problems with non-Euclidean geometry stem from the debate of whether Euclid imagined a curved line fitting into his parallel and other line postulates, in addition to how to define an angle made with one or more curved lines.)
(This sounds like entropy, that somehow matter is spreading out and so the gravitational fields become less and less and the universe just ends as a motionless group of unmoving particles too far apart to influence each other, which I reject. The possible explanation for the red-shift of distant galaxies may be from gravitational stretching, currently called the “Mössbauer effect”, or “gravitational red-shift” on material light particles. To me it is doubtful that light is made of anything other than material objects in particle form. Much of the abstraction may be purposely to distract excluded people interested in science from realizing how neuron reading and writing, in addition, to many other science findings, even of a theoretical nature, have been kept secret for decades. So real science continues on secretly, while the excluded outsiders are off on some wild goose chase of extremely unlikely and complex mathematics surrounded and shrouded by doubts and uncertainty.)
(How does this match with the telescopes of this time? How many galaxies can be seen? As the telescope size increases, so does the size of the universe. My prediction is that before people finally accept that the universe is infinitely old and large, the estimates of the size and age of the universe will continue to increase as telescopes increase the distance of galaxies that can be seen.)
(It seems clear to me that the theory of relativity can only be one of two things, a mistaken theory where supporters honestly believe in its validity, or a conscious fraud, where those who support relativity know that it is inaccurate, but for political, racial, or some other reason publicly support the theory of relativity. I think that the theory of relativity will be proven to be completely false, in particular on the points of 1) Lorentz and FitzGerald space and time dilation and or contraction, originally designed to try and save an aether and light as a wave theory, 2) light as nonmaterial, or massless 3) space of the universe is non-Euclidean. I think there is the possibility of 4) the speed of light particles is always constant being proven false, but, it may forever be a mystery since humans might always explain some experiment like the Pound-Rebka experiment, as slowing down from collision or orbits with other particles.)
(It is an interesting story how Einstein's extremely abstract and unlikely theories of relativity gained popularity to reign as the most accepted view. Most people think that Arthur Eddington had perhaps the most to do with this, but it must be more than that. It seems unusual that such an abstract and unlikely theory would be published at all. Relativity may be an example of the massive appeal of an "emperor wears no clothes" kind of occurance - where there is so much celebration over something that a wide majority of people accept but know next to nothing about. This is the case for most religions too - the members of whom know little of the early history, recorded clearly in writing, of the origin of their religion - but yet accept all the claims of each religion. The same is true for pseudoscience and mystical beliefs, and superstitions. As an inaccurate or at least unlikely theory, relativity compares with Clausius' creation of "entropy" which, like aether, I think will just be shown to be simply inaccurate, as a creation of something that does not exist, but because of the authority of Clausius and the journal his work is published in, other writers feel required to accept the concept. Most concepts that other scientists reject never are publicly rejected, but simply are never referred to in their writings. Some very brave scientists publicly express doubts - in the case of relativity there are few examples, William Pickering being one.)
(In addition, people need to realize that at this time historically, there were not publicly known computers, such as those commonly owned by the public. As a result early astronomers tried to create complex mathematical equations that include all known possible sources of perturbations, but I think it is clear that taking some initial positions and velocities and then interating forward into time using a loop will be shown to be the best, most simple, and most accurate method of predicting the future positions and motions of matter in the universe. There is simply too much matter to include all of it, and so we cannot exactly predict all the interactions, collisions, etc - the best we can do is to try to include as many as possible and constantly adjust the model given the new positions. There will always be small doubts and uncertainties - even when millions of ships are moving around planets and stars using gravitation.)
(It seems like that there were those who supported and accepted relativity, like de Sitter, and those who rejected it, like Pickering, and this may reflect a classic two sided situation on earth. But, this division exists within a larger division of for example those who are for and against science...in fact there are so many sides and groups that it's impossible to really clearly define two sides for many issues. For example, there are those against and for violence, but when you add more issues, the fragmentation becomes larger. Generally speaking, in terms of relativity, those who supported it, in my view, did more harm than good. The better position, in my view, at least, is found in those who argue against relativity because the theory of relativity is inaccurate - in particular because time and space dilation and the theory of an aether is highly unlikely given Michelson's 1881 and 1887 results.)
(I want to add that there should be no restriction on any ideas or theories of any kind scientific or otherwise. In addition, playing with models where matter and motion is limited to a surface topology can be fun. I simply doubt that this math, certainly in its present form, relates to the geometry or space, matter and time of the universe accurately. Clearly, the theories of non-Euclidean geometry as applied to the universe, and relativity need to be more thoroughly disproven and explained in terms that most people can understand and visualize.)
(I think it is possible that the red-shift of distant galaxies was known secretly, and De Sitter used this 'insider information' to draw conclusions, and then finally when the red-shift goes public, unlike neuron reading and writing, de Sitter's paper and theory is presumed to be accurate because - how could he have known about a red shift?!)
(One truth is that there is an infinity of pieces of matter that need to be included into any equation that tries to predict the future position of any one or more pieces of matter whether using Newtonian gravitation or Einsteinian relativity - and given this, there is no possible way to include all pieces of matter even with the best computer in existance - the calculation will always be an approximation and estimate. Given this, it seems unlikely that the tiny difference between Newton's gravitation and Einstein's relativity would be within the realm of measurable error. In addition, to accept the theory of relativity you have to accept the theory that space is curved, that time and space can be contracted and dilated according to non-Euclidean theory, which to me seems very unlikely, in particular knowing the origins of the space dilation theory of FitzGerald and later Lorentz to save the light as a wave in an aether medium theory.)
(Notice the phrase "light-vibration", which clearly shows the belief that light is a wave in a medium - that is a non-material phenomenon. This fits in when understanding that much of the theory of relativity is descended from the theory of space and time dilation of FitzGerald and Lorentz to try and save the theory of light as a wave in an aether medium from the results of the 1881 Michelson, and the later 1887 Michelson-Morley experiment.)
(This paper of De Sitter's is important, as are Einstein's papers because this is the clearest view of the origin of the theories of relativity and how they were advertised to and ultimately accepted by the public as being the most accurate theories. Many times, this effort to sell a new theory must take extra care to explain in basic terms and to try and bridge any space between the current accepted view and the new view, and so this provides one of the best views at this kind of classical philosophical change of popular opinion.)
(It may be that this geometrical approach is like the classical approach in trying to create an all-emcompassing single equation that will describe the motion of a planet indefinitely into the future - for example like Kepler's laws - where a static ellipse forever will describe the motion of a planet and can be used to predict the motion and position of a planet far into the future, but this approach seems to be impossible to me, because, there is so much matter that influences these orbits, that the only certainty is that they will not hold a perfect ellipse over time - the orbits of the planets are not perfectly geometrical and are highly unpredictable because of the constant interaction of other matter, the motion of liquids in the planets, and other hard to quantify and calculate material effects. Again, given this truth, the practical, most simple, and more accurate approach is to simply iterate into the future given some masses with initial motions. Charles Lane Poor refers to this approach in his 1922 work which is critical of the General Theory of Relativity. This clear difference between the two methods is not clearly identified to the public and needs to be - the one traditional method of antiquity - trying to create a mathematical equation that will hold for all time versus iterating into the future from some initial condition. In particular, the obvious impossibility of the traditional approach of an all emcompassing equation or set of equation that account for every possible perturbation.)
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
83 YBN
[1917 AD]
| 5026) Wolfgang Köhler (KOElR) (CE 1887-1967), Russian-German-US psychologist, proves that chimpanzees can put two sticks together, and stack boxes, in order to get a banana.
Köhler does an experiment where a chimpanzee joins two sticks together to get a banana, and another experiment a chimpanzee puts one box on top of another to reach a banana. (Imagine how much must be learned about learning from seeing the images of thought formed by the brain. In fact, images and sounds are the probably main way that mammals think. Thought is more or less a series of images and sounds like a movie played forward in time. These movies can be seen and heard by neuron reading.)
(Describe how the sticks are joined together.)
| (Prussian Academy of Sciences at Tenerife) Canary Islands |
82 YBN
[03/16/1918 AD]
| 4923) Protactinium-231.
(todo: Get copy of original paper)
The first discovery of protactinium was in 1913 by Kasimir Fajans and O. Göhring, who found the isotope protactinium-234m (half-life 1.2 min), a decay product of uranium-238; they named it brevium for its short life.
Otto Hahn (CE 1879-1968), German chemist, and Lise Meitner (mITnR) (liZ or lIZ or lIS or liS?) (CE 1878-1968), Austrian-Swedish physicist identify the most stable isotope of the element Protactinium-231. Protactinium is independently discovered by Frederick Soddy and John A. Cranston.
protactinium (prō'tăktĭn'ēəm), radioactive chemical element; symbol Pa; at. no. 91; at. wt. 231.0359; m.p. greater than 1,600°C; b.p. 4,026°C; relative density 15.37 (calculated); valence +4, +5. Protactinium is a malleable, shiny silver-gray radioactive metal. It does not tarnish rapidly in air. Known compounds include a chloride (PaCl4), a fluoride (PaF4), a dioxide (PaO2), and a pentoxide (Pa2O5). Protactinium has 24 isotopes of which only three are found in nature. The most stable is protactinium-231 (half-life about 32,500 years); it is also the most common, being found in nature in all uranium ores in about the same abundance as radium.
| (Institut für Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem) Berlin, Germany |
82 YBN
[04/??/1918 AD]
| 5008) The Sun is determined to be in the outer part of our galaxy.
| (Mount Wilson Solar Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
82 YBN
[06/21/1918 AD]
| 6199) Electronic read and write memory.
| (City and Guilds Technical College) London, UK |
82 YBN
[10/??/1918 AD]
| 5880) "Isobares" (modern "isobar") defined (elements with the same atomic mass but different positions on the periodic table) and defines a new model of the atom.
Alfred Walter Stewart (CE 1880-1947) defines "isobares" as elements with the same atomic weight but different position on the periodic table and so have different chemical properties. For example, "Meso-thorium-1" and "Meso-thorium-2" are isobares in having the same atomic mass but different chemical properties and spectra.
Stewart also proposes a model for the atom: "the atom is assumed to be made up of three separate regions: (1) a core of negative electrons; (2) an intermediate zone occupied normally by positive electrons but containing also, in the case of the radio-elements, certain negative electrons; and, finally, (3) an external region occupied by negative electrons. The orbits of the electrons in the two inner zones are assumed to be approximately circular; whilst those of the external electrons are supposed to be extremely elongated ellipses, similar to the paths of comets in the Solar System.".
Stewart publishes this in "Philosophical Magazine" as "Atomic Structure from the Physico-Chemical Standpoint". Stewart writes: "THE theories put forward up to the present with regard to the structure of the atom have been based mainly upon physical data; but since the problem is a two-fold one, it appears possible that further light may be thrown upon it by a consideration of the chemical side of the question. Neither view alone will suffice to cover the whole ground; and the following is put forward with the idea of showing the essentials of the matter from the chemical standpoint, in the hope that it may prove suggestive to those who have hitherto regarded the problem chiefly from the physical aspect. Any complete theory of atomic structure must account for the following facts concerning the elements :- (1) That α- and β-ray changes are independent processes. (2) That the electrons involved in valency changes occurring during ordinary chemical reactions originate in a region of the atom different from that occupied by the electrons which are ejected during B-ray changes. (3) That the "valency" electrons are easily removable in chemical reactions, while the β-ray electrons are ejected spontaneously and cannot be withdrawn from the atom by any processes under our control. (4) That the atomic number of an atom can be altered by either an α- or a β-ray change. (5) That in an α-ray change the ejected material is always a helium atom carrying tow positive charged. (6) That a change in the valency of an element produced by chemical means alters the chemical properties of that element in a manner similar to that which is observed when a β-ray is ejected; bbut that there is a difference in degree between the effects produced in the two cases. (7) That certain atoms possessing different atomic weights show the same chemical properties, whilst other atoms having atomic weights identical with one another exhibit totally different chemical characteristics.
The model atom which will now be described covers these points; and it appears to possess certain features of novelty. At the centre of the structure is a group of negative electrons travelling in closed orbits which, for the sake of clearness, may be assumed to be circular. Closely surrounding this negative group lies another series of orbits occupied by positive electrons {ULSF: original footnote: This presumption as to the relative positions of the positive and negative zones is made purely for convenience. The general argument is not affected by an inversion of their positions, or even by assuming that they form a kind of double-star system.} which, in some cases, are associated with negative electrons in a manner to be dealt with later. These orbits are assumed to be circular also; their extreme diameter may be taken, according to Rutherford's view, as not being greater than 10-12 cm.; and, as in the Rutherford atom, the mass of the system is assumed to be concentrated in this portion. Further still from the centre, other electrons move in orbits of an elliptical character, the ellipses being much elongated, so that the electrons travel in paths like those of comets in the solar system. The general appearance of the atomic mechanism is shown in fig. 1. {ULSF: See figure 1} It is now necessary to consider each part of the system in detail. The central negative core is the point of origin of the β-rays; and since the electrons ejected by the atom during the β-ray changes travel at extremely high velocities, although they have passed through the positive zone during their flight, it is simplest to assume that under normal conditions they are moving at high speeds in their intra-atomic orbits. Changes moving with such high velocities would be difficult to deviate from their normal paths by external forces; and this accounts for the fact that chemical reactions fail to affect the intimate chemical structure of atoms. During phases of atomic instability, however, these electrons would leave the atom at high speeds. The intermediate positive zone of the atom is occupied mainly-and in the non-radioactive elements exclusively- by positive electrons, the number of which is equal to the atomic number of the element. In the case of radioactive elements, a further complication most {ULSF: typo} by postulated in order to account for the ejection of α-particles. In the case of these active elements it is assumed that in the positive zone some of the orbits are occupied by complex groups composed of two positive and one negative electron which together form a "planet and satellites" arrangement circulating as a whole about the central negative core. The number of these complexes depends upon the nature of the atom in question: in the uranium atom, since it ejects eight α-particles in sucession, there will be at least sixteen such systems. The ejection of the charged helium atom is supposed to take place when two of these copmlexes collide with one another either owing to a crossing of their orbits or by a distubance of the stability conditions within the atom; and the collision produces a group of four positive and two negative charges, the arrangement of which will be clear when the next zone of the atomic structure has been considered. The atomic number of the element and the general chemical character of the atom are governed by the nature of the two inner sections of the atomic system. A change in either the negative core or the intermediate positive zone alters the nature of the intra-atomic system and thus brings about a modification of the structure as a whole. The external zone of the atom is the portion influence by normal reactions resulting in chemical change or alteration in valency. The assumption that the orbits of the electrons in this zone are cometary in type has been made for the following reason. When the "cometary" electrons in their paths about the centre of the atom reach a position if aphelion to the nucleus, they will be travelling slowly in their orbits and hence will be less resistant to forces tending to remove them from the atom. Further, since they are far away from the centre of attraction under these conditions, the forces uniting them to it will be weakened; and it will be possible to abstract or insert electrons at this point much more readily than is the case with electrons in either of the other two zones. This serves to account for the case with which the valency of certain elements can be altered by chemical or electrical means. In the case of elements which show no changes of valency, it may be assumed that the electronic orbits in the outer zone are more nearly circular in form than is the case with elements exhibiting variable valency. The inertness of the argon series is accounted for by assuming that in their case the attraction of the nucleus under normal conditions is insufficient to retain any electrons in an external zone. At this point it may be well to indicate the conditions of attraction within the systems of ordinary elements; and the point may be illustrated by means of a metallic atom such as tin. In this case, the negative charges at the centre are assumed to be fewer in number than the charges in the positive zone. Owing to this preponderance of positive charges, the positive-negative nucleus as a whole will have a positive charge; and, acting as a unit, it will suffice to retain in their orbits the "cometary" negative electrons which circulate around it. With regard to the expulsion of charged helium atoms from radioactive elements, it is assumed that the α-particle consists of four positive and two negative electrons: the pair of negative electrons being situated at the foci of an ellipse around the circumference of which two positive charges revolve. The extra pair of positive charges travel in longer, "cometary" orbits; so that they are easily detachable when in aphelion. It must be admitted that there is a difficulty in accounting for their attraction by the atomic nucleus, which in this case is electrically neutral; but as this attraction is a matter of practice and not of theory, it must be admitted as possible even if no theory can be adduced to account for it. The formation of the α-particle is due, as has been said, to the collision of two systems each containing two positive and one negative electron. This does away with the necessity for postulating the presence of actual helium atoms within the structure of radioactive elements, an hypothesis wihch is fraught with difficulties owing to the fact that the helium atom has a volume of 26.6, whilse the uranium atom, which emits eight helium atoms, has a volume of only 12.8. The collision hypothesis also accounts for the presence of the two extra positive charges which invariable accompany the helium atom in its ejection. In this mode atom, as in most others, the valency of an element is taken as the difference between the total positive and the total negative charge of the atom; but the variation in valency caused by α- or β-ray changes is assumed to be brought about by alterations in the inner zones of the atomic structure, whilst chemical changes of valency are accounted for on the assumption that the number of the electrons in the cometary orbits is altered. no definite conclusions can be drawn with regard to the relative numbers of electrons in the various zones, beyond the suggestion put forward that the number of electrons in the innermost negative core of metallic atoms is less than that of the electrons in the intermediate positive orbits; though probably, as Soffy has indicated, the surplus number of positive charges in the two inner zones combined is equal to the atomic number of the atom. In order to test still further this conception of the atom, it is necessary to examine evidence in a different field. Among the radioactive elements, two classes can be distinguished. In the first place there are certain groups of elements which are chemically inseparable but which differ from one another in atomic weight. Since they are chemicall indistinguishable from each other, they occupy the same place in the Periodic Table; and on this account Soddy named them isotops (from isos equal, and topos a place). A second type of the radio-elements is exemplified by mesothorium-1, meothorium-2 and radiothorium. These elements differ completely from one another in chemical character; but they all possess the same atomic weight. For this reason the name isobares {ULSF: original footnote: Isobars would be a better word, but unfortunately it is already in use in meteorology.} (from isos equal, and baros weight) is here suggested for them. These isobaric elements result from the operations of β-ray changes in the radioactive series; and the generation of one element from another in this way is spontaneous and irreversible. On the other hand, a somewhat similar process occurs among the non-radioactive elements when an atom changes its valency; but in the latter case the process is controllable in the laboratory and is reversible under proper conditions. The two actions, then, are not identical; but they appear to display a certain parallelism which is of considerable importance from the point of view of atomic structure. unless a model atom is capable of throwing light upon this matter, it is evidently incomplete; and as the point forms a crucial test of the theory of atomic architecture, some details of it are given here, though the merest outline must suffice. Ferrous iron and ferric iron will serve as a convenient example of the effects of changing the valency of an element by chemical reactions. Ferrous iron is divalent, whilst ferric iron is trivalent: the absorption spectra of the two materials are different from each other; and in chemical properties ferrous iron shows a close analogy with magnesium, whilst ferric iron is akin to aluminium in its reactions. A different in chemical character such as this should, according to modern ideas of the atom, involve certain changes in the atomic nucleus; but at the same time it is hand to imagine that any changes in the nucleus can occur in ordinary inactive elements. Turning to the case of the radioactive isobares, it is found that a very similar state of things prevails. Mesothorium-1 is divalent and resembles in its chemical relations the members of Group II. of the Periodic Table, which also contain magnesium. Mesothorium-2 is trivalent, and shows a close kinship with elements in the aluminium group. At first sight the main difference between the two phenomena appears to lie in the fact that the β-ray change is cpontaneous, whilst the chemical change of valency is a controllable process, but even the spontaneity of the β-ray change finds its parallel among certain of the stable elements. Thus when the chloride of monovalent indium is dissolved in water, it is spontaneously converted into metallic indium and the chloride of trivalent indium. Reduced to its essentials this change corresponds tothe loss of two negfative electrons frmo two of the monovalent indium atoms; and no external forces are required to bring about the phenomenon. The case of indium is not an isolated one, as this type of reaction appears to be the most general which is exhibited by inorganic compounds. Another parallelism between the β-ray change and the conversion of an ion into a new one of higher valency may be adduced. In several cases, elements are found which exist in monovalent and trivalent forms, or in the divalent and quadrivalent condition only, instead of yielding a complete series of mono-, di-, tri-, and quadrivalent varieties. Thus thallium forms the chrloides TlCl and TlCl3, but does not give rise to the intermediate TlCl2. It may be asked why there, intermediate forms are not isolated when electrical charges are removed step by step from substances of lower valency. The state of affairs among the radio-elements throws some light upon this point. The conversion of TlCl into TlCl2 is paralleled by two consecutive β-ray changes in the radio elements; and in the following table the results of such successive changes are give. These examples have been selected in which no disturbing factor in the form of an alternative α-ray change occurs. The figures give the average life of the element.
ULSF: see table} Examination of the figures shows that the intermediate product in the double β-ray change has an average life very much shorter than those of the parent and the disintegration product. Applying the same reasoning to the case of the salts of thallium, it might be expected that when monovalent thallium loses an electrical charge and passes into divalent thallium, the latter substance readily loses an electrical charge and changes almost immediately into trivalent thallium, the intermediate stage TlCl2 being too unstable for isolation. Looking at the matter in its essentials, it is clear that both the β-ray change and the alteration of valency by chemical means produce a marked change in chemical character which is similar in both cases; and a truth theory of the atomic structure must account for these phenomena. ... The foregoing is sufficient to show that the suggested model atom meets the demands made upon it from the chemical side; and to this extent it justifies further consieration. An examination of it from the physical standpoint would be of interest. in the meantime, it may be pointed out once more than this view of atomic structure is to be regarded as suggestive rather than constructive.".
(Kind of an interesting view that an atom may be like a double-star system- that might explain the dual nature of the cyclical periodic table structure of 2-8-8-18-18-32-32. For example, an electron can only be added to one of the binary stars at a time or else an instability arises. In this theory, the two "stars" need to be of similar mass to maintain orbit around each other.)
(Definite parts of this model seem doubtful - like inert gas atoms not being able to hold more electrons - but yet the mass is no different. Inert gas atoms seem more like a structural fitting limitation to me - a geometrical limitation - that there is simply no stable physical configuration for another electron without another proton first. Also, the application of the theory that electrons change mass with motion is doubtful to me - but I can accept that a moving electron may lose mass in the form of light particles - but it seems doubtful that they would be regained upon slowing down.)
(EXPERIMENT: Has an electron been sped up to lose mass, then slowed down to see if the mass is apparently gained back? It would seem unlikely that an electron would gain lost mass back, but possibly.)
In modern terms, an "isobar" is any of two or more kinds of atoms having the same atomic mass but different atomic numbers. Some examples are: 40S,40Cl, 40Ar, 40K, 40Ca. (verify)
| (University of Glasgow) Glasgow, Scotland |
82 YBN
[11/10/1918 AD]
| 4974) Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945) designs and demonstrates the bazooka, a shoulder-held weapon consisting of a long metal smoothbore tube for firing armor-piercing rockets at short range.
| (Aberdeen Proving Ground) Aberdeen, Maryland, USA |
82 YBN
[1918 AD]
| 4430) Annie Jump Cannon (CE 1863-1941), US astronomer obtains and classifies visible spectra for more than 225,000 stars, published in nine volumes as the Henry Draper Catalogue (1918–24) starting in 1918.
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachussetts, USA |
82 YBN
[1918 AD]
| 4443) Hermann Walther Nernst (CE 1864-1941), German physical chemist explains how hydrogen and chlorine explode on exposure to light as a chain reaction.
Nernst explains how hydrogen and chlorine explode on exposure to light. Nernst explains that light energy (photons) break the chlorine molecule into two chlorine atoms. The chlorine atom which is much more reactive than the chlorine molecule reacts with the hydrogen molecule to create hydrogen chloride and a free hydrogen atom. The free hydrogen atom then reacts with another chlorine molecule to form hydrogen chloride (and a another free chlorine atom). This cycle can repeat for ten thosand to a million steps on the initial molecular break caused by light (photons, again these types of measurements are highly prone to inaccuracy). In this way, light (free photons, EX: perhaps only of certain frequency?) causes a "chain reaction". (Nernst is first to find this explosive chain reaction? Whoever did must be an interesting story...'lets mix hydrogen and chlorine...boom!') Chain reactions are useful in explaning many reactions such as chain reactions that produce polymers (long-chain molecules). Otto Hahn and others will find chain reactions which release far more photons than molecular chain reactions, nuclear reaction which split atoms instead of molecular bonds. (It is still unclear if any atoms are destroyed in simple combustion, clearly the photons come from somewhere...is it from electrons, protons neutrons? It is possible that atoms can remain in tact by losing a few photons, but perhaps each photon is necessary to keep an atom stable.)
According to Einstein’s photochemical equivalence law of 1912, a molecule that absorbs one energy quantum of radiation (hv) in a primary photochemical process can initiate secondary chemical reactions no longer dependent on the initial light particles. This law seems to be true for a number of reactions but it had been demonstrated that for the formation of HCl from H2 and Cl2 at least 106 molecules are formed per quantum in place of two as are expected from the equation Cl2+hv =2Cl. In 1918 Nernst suggests a simple solution to this problem by creating the idea of a "chain reaction". In this case the proposed process is:
Cl2+hv=2Cl
Cl+H2=HCl+H
H+Cl2=HCl+Cl, and so forth
Nernst’s theory will be justified in 1925 by James Franck’s calculations of the energy of dissociation of Cl2 based on absorption-spectrum studies.
| ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
82 YBN
[1918 AD]
| 4978) (Sir) Arthur Stanley Eddington (CE 1882-1944), English astronomer and physicist gives a theoretical basis to the pulsation theory for Cepheid variable stars, first formulated by Harlow Shapley in 1914.
Eddington writes: " Although variable stars of the Cepheid type show a periodic change of radial velocity, it is improbable that they are binary stars. The theory which now appears most plausible attributes the light- changes to the pulsation of a single star; and accordingly the varying radial velocity measures the approach and recession of the surface in the course of the pulsation. In order to throw light, if possible, on the phenomena of these variables, I have investigated the theory of a pulsating mass of gas. A complete solution of this problem would be very difficult, but it seems to be possible to determine the general character of the oscillation, and to obtain results which may be compared with observation. The type of pulsation here considered is symmetrical about the centre; that is to say, the star remains spherical, but expands and contracts. It is possible that the actual oscillation may be an elliptical deformation; but I think that a symmetrical oscillation is more probable in a star of low density, and it is much simpler to investigate. It may be useful to summarise some of the leading results of- observation with regard to these variables— - (1) The light—curve and the velocity-curve are closely similar. The correspondence is the more marked because both curves are usually very unsymmetrical. Maximum light corresponds to maximum velocity of approach." (2) The light-variation is generally marked by a rapid rise to maximum and a slow decline. The velocity·curve shows a corresponding feature, which is usually expressed by saying that the periastron of the "orbit " points directly away from the earth. (3) The period is a function of the absolute magnitude. For periods from three days upwards, the relation between log-period and absolute magnitude is practically linear; for shorter periods the relation is given by a curve. It appears to be possible to determine the absolute magnitude from the period with a probable error of less than a quarter of a magnitude. (4) The Cepheids are giant stars, and are much more luminous than the average giants of their type. (5) The spectral type tends to advance (towards M) as the period increases. ...".
(I have doubts, clearly the change in radial velocity as observed by Doppler shift is probably due to satellites pulling on the planet. This method is how modern astronomers determine what planets are around stars. Interesting to note that variable stars would be, by this definition, star's that periodically change apparently brightness because of changes in distance because of the pull of planets. It seems like there would not be enough change in distance to cause a significant change in apparent magnitude, but that does explain change in radial velocity as detected by Doppler shifted lines. That the light curve and velocity curve are similar, indicates to me that the change in light is directly related to the change in star position because of the periodic pull of satellites.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
82 YBN
[1918 AD]
| 4979) (Sir) Arthur Stanley Eddington (CE 1882-1944), English astronomer and physicist publishes "Report on the Relativity Theory of Gravitation (1918)", the first complete account of general relativity in English.
In 1916, deSitter, in Holland, sends a copy of Einstein’s famous 1915 paper on the general theory of relativity to Eddington, who was secretary of the Royal Astronomical Society. Eddington prepares this report at the request of the Physical Society of London.
This work is followed by "Space, Time and Gravitation" (1920) then following this Eddington publishes "The Mathematical Theory of Relativity" (1923) Einstein will say in 1954 that he considers this book the finest presentation of the subject in any language, and of Eddington, Einstein will say, “He was one of the first to recognize that the displacement field was the most important concept of general relativity theory, for this concept allowed us to do without the inertial system.”. This makes Eddington a leader in the field of relativity physics.
Eddington, Bertrand Russell, and Whitehead are among the first to support Einstein's theory of relativity.
Eddington gives many popular lectures on relativity, leading the English physicist Sir Joseph John Thomson to remark that Eddington had persuaded multitudes of people that they understood what relativity meant.
In "Report on the Relativity Theory of Gravity" in the section describing the special theory of relativitiy, Eddington describes Michelson's and Morley's 1887 experiment and writes "...But when the experiment was tried, it was found that both parts of the beam took the same time, as tested by the interference bands produced. ... The plain meaning of the experiment is that both arms ... automatically contract... This explanation was first given by FitzGerald. ...". So Eddington entirely ignores Michelson's 1881 similar experiment and conclusion that the theory of the aether must be false. So Eddington does not entertain the alternative theory that, as Michelson concluded in 1881, there simply is no aether. In this sense, the claim that the aether is "superfluis" by Einstein in 1905 takes on the meaning, not that the aether does not exist, but instead, as FitzGerald had concluded that the aether is there, but simply not detectible. In a later section on the general theory of relativity Eddington writes: "...The behaviour of natural objects will no doubt appear very odd when referred to a space other than that customarily used. So-called rigid bodies will change dimensions as they move; but we are prepared for that by our study of the Michelson-Morley contraction. ...", expressing how the theory of space and time contraction is extended into the general theory of relativity.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
82 YBN
[1918 AD]
| 5002) György (George) Hevesy (HeVesE) (CE 1885-1966), Hungarian-Danish-Swedish chemist with Fritz Paneth, uses a radioactive isotope of lead (from thorium decay), which is easily detected from the radiations it emits, to determine the solubility of radioactive lead salts, and therefore, of the very similar regular lead salts.
| (University of Budapest) Budapest, Hungary |
82 YBN
[1918 AD]
| 5070) Jaroslav Heyrovský (HAroFSKE) (CE 1890-1967) Czech physical chemist, invents a device to measure the concentration of ions which uses the electric potential produced over a system where a continuous stream of small drops of mercury pass through the solution into a pool of liquid mercury.
Heyrovský's polarograph depends on the fact that in electrolysis the ions are discharged at an electrode and, if the electrode is small, the current may be limited by the rate of movement of ions to the electrode surface. In polarography the cathode is a small drop of mercury (constantly forming and dropping to keep the surface clean). The voltage is increased slowly and the current plotted against voltage. The current increases in steps, each corresponding to a particular type of positive ion in the solution. The height of the steps indicates the concentration of the ion.
Heyrovský will name this method “polarography” in 1925.
(Explain more why this is useful.)
| (Charles University) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
82 YBN
[1918 AD]
| 6027) Gustav Holst (Gustavus Theodore Von Holst) (CE 1874-1934), English composer and music teacher, composes his famous orchestral suite "The Planets".
(Jupiter sounds similar to the US composer Copland.)
| (St. Paul’s Girls’ School or Morley College) London, England |
81 YBN
[02/08/1919 AD]
| 5068) Edwin Howard Armstrong (CE 1890-1954), US electrical engineer invents the superheterodyne circuit, a highly selective method of receiving, converting, and greatly amplifying very weak, high-frequency electromagnetic waves (light particles).
A superheterodyne circuit combines the high-frequency current produced by the incoming wave with a low-frequency current produced in the receiver, giving a beat (or heterodyne) frequency that is the difference between the original combining frequencies. This different frequency, called the intermediate frequency (IF), is beyond the audible range (which explains the original term, "supersonic heterodyne reception"). The intermediate frequency can be amplified with higher gain and selectivity than can the initial higher frequency. The IF signal, retaining the same modulation as the original carrier, enters a detector where the desired audio, image or other transmitted data is obtained. The receiver is tuned to different broadcast frequencies by adjusting the frequency of the current used to combine with the carrier waves. This arrangement is employed in most radio, television, and radar receivers.
This allows anybody to tune in radio transmitting station signals and radio sets become very popular, and Armstrong becomes a millionaire, as a result of licensing his patents to RCA.
The superheterodyne principle is used in 98 percent of all radio, radar, and television reception systems.
Armstrong writes in his 1919 patent application "Method of Receiveing High Frequency Oscillations": "This invention relates to a method of receiving transmitted high frequency oscillations as in radio telegraphy or radio telephony and it is particularly effective when receiving damped or undamped waves of short wave length. Another result achieved by the use of this invention is that because of its selectivity the interference caused by undesirable signals, strays, and atmospherics is greatly reduced.
The particular difficulties overcome by this invention will be understood from the following explanation: It is well known that all detectors rapidly lose their sensitiveness as the strength of the received signals is decreased, and that when the strength of the high frequency oscillations falls below a certain point the response of a detector becomes so feeble that it is impossible to receive signals. The application of low frequency amplifiers assist somewhat up to a certain point, but the inherent noise in all low frequency amplifiers limits the extent to which low frequency amplification can be carried. It is also well known that the sensitiveness of a rectifier for weak signals may be restored by the use of the heterodyne principle, but this is only a partial solution of the problem inasmuch as this method can be used only in certain cases.
A solution for the loss of sensitiveness of the detector for weak signals lies in the amplification of the radio frequency currents before applying them to the detector. This has been recognized for some time and various forms of multi-tube vacuum tube amplifiers have been developed and successfully employed in practice on certain ranges of wave lengths. Because of the inherent capacity which exists between the elements of vacuum tubes, this method of amplification becomes increasingly difficult, as the frequency of the oscillations to be received increase. There are two principal points of difficulty encountered in the above method of amplification; first, there is a tendency of the amplifier system to oscillate, as the frequency is increased, and secondly, it is impossible to make the amplifier operate well at more than one frequency without a variety of adjustments. The limit of the practical amplifier at present is about 100 meters and the range of wave lengths from 0-100 meters are unused at the present time because of the difficulties of amplifying and detecting them. High frequency amplifiers have been constructed to operate on wave lengths as low as 200 meters, but with only fair efficiency.
The present invention discloses a method of indirect amplification and reception which operates independent of the frequency of the incoming oscillations and which, therefore, opens up the great range of wave lengths below 100 meters and makes possible, in fact, the use of waves of a few meters in length whereby radio communication by directed beams of energy becomes a practical proposition. The present invention may also be used to great advantage on wave lengths from 300 to 1,000 meters with a considerable gain in selectivity and sensitiveness, as compared to any of the known methods.
This new method of reception consists in converting the frequency of the incoming oscillations down to some predetermined and lower value of readily amplifiable high frequency current and passing the converted current into an amplifier which is. adjusted to operate well at this predetermined frequency. After passing through the amplifier, these oscillations are detected and indicated in the usual manner. The intermediate frequency is always above good audibility, but beyond this requirement there is no other limitation as to what it shall be. The method of conversion preferred is the beat method known as the heterodyne principle, except that in the present system the beat frequency is always adjusted to a point above good audibility.
The process of converting the incoming high frequency oscillations down to the audible range may be carried out in several stages and each stage may be amplified by means of a multi-tube amplifier. The great advantage of this method is that the effect of the output side of the amplifier upon the input side is eliminated as the frequencies are entirely different. As a consequence of this the limitation on amplification which has always been imposed by the tendency of the amplifier to oscilfate is removed, and exceedingly great amplifications become possible.". (Notice "lies" - and a possible "pp" "practical proposition" for pupin.)
(Do the nano neuron devices use this superheterodyne principle?)
(The radio dial changes the space between two plates in a capacitor which changes the resonant oscillating frequency of the current in the circuit.)
(Was Armstrong aware of neuron reading and writing? Was Armstrong an outsider all his life? Armstrong was in the military when he patents the superheterodyne circuit, perhaps there was a military effort to make it public.)
| Paris, France |
81 YBN
[04/??/1919 AD]
| 4749) Secret Science: Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, publishes a paper with the phrase "Light Atoms" in the title which implies that light particles are atomic in nature.
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
81 YBN
[04/??/1919 AD]
| 4750) Atomic transmutation. Humans change atoms of nitrogen into atoms of oxygen (transmutation) by colliding accelerated alpha particles with nitrogen gas.
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
81 YBN
[05/26/1919 AD]
| 4966) Goddard publishes the small book “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes” suggests that sending a small vehicle to the earth moon using rockets.
| (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
81 YBN
[05/29/1919 AD]
| 4980) (Sir) Arthur Stanley Eddington (CE 1882-1944), English astronomer and physicist leads an expedition to Príncipe Island, West Africa that provides the first confirmation of Einstein’s theory that gravity will bend the path of light when light passes near a massive star. During the total eclipse of the sun, the group find that the positions of stars seen just beyond the edge of the eclipsed Sun confirm the general theory of relativity.
(The light is bent away from the center of the sun?)
Eddington writes: "I. PURPOSE OF THE EXPEDITIONS. 1. THE purpose of the expeditions was to determine what effect, if any, is produced by a gravitational field on the path of a ray of light traversing it. Apart from possible surprises, there appeared to be three alternatives, which it was especially desired to discriminate between- (1) The path is uninfluenced by gravitation. (2) The energy or mass of light is subject to gravitation in the same way as ordinary matter. If the law of gravitation is strictly the Newtonian law, this leads to an apparent displacement of a star close to the sun's limb amounting to O".87 outwards. (3) The course of a ray of light is in accordance with ETNSTEIN'S generalized relativity theory. This leads to an apparent displacement of a star at the limb amounting to 1".75 outwards.
In either of the last two cases the displacement is inversely proportional to the distance of the star from the sun's centre, the displacement under (3) being just double the displacement under (2).
It may be noted that both (2) and (3) agree in supposing that light is subject to gravitation in precisely the same way as ordinary matter. The difference is that, whereas (2) assumes the Newtonian law, (3) assumes EINSTEIN'S new laws of gravitation. The slight deviation from the Newtonian law, which on EINSTEIN'S theory causes an excess notion of perihelion of Mercury, becomes magnified as the speed increases, until for the limiting velocity of light it doubles the curvature of the path. 2. The displacement (2) was first suggested by Prof. EINSTEIN in 1911, his argument being based on the Principle of Equivalence, viz., that a gravitational field is indistinguishable from a spurious field of force produced by an acceleration of the axes of refere nce. But apart from the validity of the general Principle of Equivalence there were reasons for expecting that the electromagnetic energy of a beam of light would be subject to gravitation, especially when it was proved that the energy of radio-activity contained in uranium was subject to gravitation. In 1915, however, EINSTEIN found that the general Principle of Equivalence necessitates a modification of the Newtonian law of gravitation, and that the new law leads to the displacement (3). 3. The only opportunity of observing these possible deflections is afforded by a ray of light from a star passing near the sun. (The maximum deflection by Jupiter is only 0".017.) Evidently, the observation must be made during a total eclipse of the sun. Immediately after EINSTEIN'S first suggestion, the matter was taken up by Dr. E. FREUNDLICH who attempted to collect information from eclipse plates already taken; but he did not secure sufficient material. At ensuing eclipses plans were made by various observers for testing the effect, but they failed through cloud or other clauses. After EINSTEIN'S second suggestion had appeared, the Lick Observatory expedition attempted to observe the efect at the eclipse of 1918. The final results are not yet published. Some account of a preliminary discussion has been given, but the eclipse was an unfavourable one, and from the information published the probable accidental error is large, so that the accuracy is insufficient to discriminate between the three alternatives. 4. The results of the observations here described appear to point quite definitely to the third alternative, and confirm EINSTEIN'S generalised relativity theory. As is well-known the theory is also confirmed by the motion of the perihelion of Mercury, which exceeds the Newtonian value by 43" per century-an amount practically identical with that deduced from EINSTEIN'S theory. On the other hand, his theory predicts a displacement to the red of the Fraunhofer lines on the sun amounting to about 0'.008 A in the violet . According to Dr. ST. JOHNS this displacement is not confirmed. If this disagreement is to be taken as final it necessitates considerable modifications of EINSTEIN'S theory, which it is outside our province to discuss. But, whether or not changes are needed in other parts of the theory, it appears now to be established that EINSTEIN'S law of gravitation gives the true deviations from the Newtonian law both for the relatively slow-moving planet Mercury and for the fast-moving waves of light. It seems clear that the effect here found must be attributed to the sun's gravitational field and not, for example, to refraction by coronal matter. In order to produce the observed effect by refraction, the sun must be surrounded by material of refractive index 1 + .00000414/r, where r is the distance from the centre in terms of the sun's radius. At a height of one radius above the surface the necessary refractive index 1.00000212 corresponds to that of air at 1/140 atmosphere, hydrogen at 1/60 atmosphere, or helium at 1/20 atmospheric pressure. Clearly a density of this order is out of the question.".
There are critics of the claim that Eddington's measurements confirm Einstein's theory of general relativity. For example William Pickering and Charles Lane Poor.
(It seems incorrect that light would appear farther from the Sun from gravitation, because the light would be physically bent in towards the Sun and land closer to the light coming straight from the Sun on the detector which is the photographic plate. There is, perhaps some view, that when tracing back the path of the light it should appear farther away from the Sun, but I don't think that's correct. I think I must have this incorrect - todo: examine this problem more.)
(I think it would be interesting to see the thought screen of Eddington and others for this paper. Notice the word "discriminate" - perhaps there was some neuron network owner corruption.)
| Príncipe Island, West Africa |
81 YBN
[05/??/1919 AD]
| 3882) Hugo Gernsback (CE 1884–1967), publishes an article on a "thought recorder" device in his May 1919 "Electrical Experimenter" magazine.
| New York City, NY (presumably) |
81 YBN
[06/08/1919 AD]
| 3849) The Syracuse Herald newspaper prints an article "This Machine Records All Your Thoughts".
The "audion" is an elementary radio tube developed by Lee De Forest (patented 1907) which is the first triode vacuum tube, incorporating a control grid as well as a cathode and an anode. The audion is capable of more sensitive reception of wireless signals than the electrolytic and Carborundum detectors. The Audion is replaced by the transistor.
This image is clearly adapted from the May 1919 cover of "Electrical Experimenter" a month earlier.
| Syracuse, NY |
81 YBN
[08/??/1919 AD]
| 4905) Francis William Aston (CE 1877-1945), English chemist and physicist adapts J. J. Thompson's electromagnetic and static electric deflection device to deflect ions with magnetic fields into a “mass spectrograph” which Aston uses to identify 212 of the 287 naturally occuring stable isotopes.
(Make a record for each isotope found?)
(todo: go through Aston's papers in more detail.)
In 1913 English chemist Frederick Soddy had postulated that certain elements might exist in forms that he called isotopes that differ in atomic weight while being indistinguishable and inseparable chemically. Also in 1913, J. J. Thomson, with Aston as assistant, had obtained the first evidence for isotopes among the stable (nonradioactive) elements finding two isotopes of neon.
Aston used the mass spectrograph to show that not only neon but also many other elements are mixtures of isotopes. Aston’s achievement is illustrated by the fact that he discovered 212 of the 287 naturally occurring isotopes.
Aston improves J. J. Thomson's device which deflects ions with a magnetic field so that ions of a particular mass will focus in a fine line on the photographic film. Aston shows that neon creates two lines, one with a mass of 20 and a second with a mass of 22. From the intensity of the 2 lines, Aston shows that there are 10 times as many ions of mass 20 than there are of mass 22, and when added together in proportion they have an average mass of 20.2, exactly the atomic mass of neon determined by experiment. (Later a third group of ions of mass 21 in tiny quantities will be found.) (Aston finds 2 types of atoms for chlorine with masses of 35 and 37 in the ratio of 3 to 1. A weighted average results in 35.5, the atomic weight of chlorine.) By the end of 1920, Aston sees that all atoms have masses that are very close to integers if the mass of hydrogen is 1. The reason that atoms have different atomic masses that are not integers is because they are mixtures of atoms with different integral masses. Therefore the hypothesis of Prout a century before, (that all atoms are integer combinations of hydrogen) is shown to be true. Moseley's atomic numbers in the previous decade had given evidence in support of Prout's hypothesis, but Aston's is the more direct evidence. Aston's mass spectrograph (so called because it divides the elements into lines like a spectroscope shows that most atoms are combinations of isotopes, differing in mass but having the same chemical properties. This confirms Soddy's isotope hypothesis for all atoms, since Soddy had applied the isotope concept to radioactive elements only.
(Read relevant text)
(So clearly, using an electromagnetic particle field is a simple method to separate isotopes of different atoms of gases, and perhaps of liquids too.)
(Perhaps a more accurate name for the mass spectrogtraph is, a “mass deflectograph”, “mass electromagnetic deflection meter”, “mass magnetometer”, “mass magnetic deflector”, or “ion deflector mass indicator”, "mass divider", "electromagnetic mass separator", as ideas.)
(To do: are there then experiments confirming the mass of larger samples of each purified isotope?)
(Question: Do chemical properties, for example valence, density, critical temperatures, etc, change at all with the number of neutrons, protons and electrons? What are the results of the differences in the various sub-atomic particles?)
(Question: What explains why isotopes seem to be found together? Is this an example of streams of neutrons simply being absorbed?)
(how do Thomson and Aston make atoms into ions? How do they remove the electrons?)
(is it possible that electrons have less charge and more mass and that is why they do not deflect as much as protons under the same magnetic field? If that is true, maybe there are many electrons to balance the charge of one proton. Perhaps charge is simply related to the ratio of mass of a larger particle to that of a photon, since photons might be the particles causing the collisions which produce the observed deflections of some particles in an electromagnetic field. Above some mass, the collision may produce no observable change in direction. Or perhaps the physical structure of charged particles causes them to have a better chance of fastening to oppositely charged particles.)
(interesting that atoms seem to cluster by same proton count, as opposed to same neutron count, or simply that isotopes are always found together. same chemical propteries.)
(a very interesting story, how much of the credit should go to Thomson for the idea of deflecting ions. Were there early people who deflected various charged particles?)
(It seems likely that photons are in orbit within atoms, since they are released for any combustion event. It seems likely that all subatomic particles are made of photons too. So it seems clear that combustion may involve total atomic separation into an atom's source photons. However, there are other theories, for example that the photons are created at the time of combustion, that the photons originate from separated or converted electrons.)
(This device presumes that the charge of all particles involved is identical. If charge is viewed as probability of particle collision, or combination, then a larger particle would have a higher probability of collision, and would have a larger momentum than a smaller mass particle, making any change in direction more apparent.)
(Show diagram of spectrograph.)
Aston will write numerous papers in Philosophical magazine detailing the "mass-spectra" of the chemical elements throughout the 1920s.
| (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
81 YBN
[09/12/1919 AD]
| 4790) Lee De Forest (CE 1873-1961), US inventor records sound and images together on plastic (movie) film.
In 1914 Eric Tigerstedt had patented and demonstrated a system of recording sound using variations of light onto a photographic strip of film.
In 1923 De Forest demonstrates a sound motion picture which uses his "glow lamp" device, which can convert sound waves into electric current waves which in turn vary the brightness of a lamp filament which is photographed together with a motion picture, and when playing back the motion picture, the varying brightness in the sound track is then converted back to sound. Within 5 years "talkies", movies with sound will replace movies without sound.
A 1928 Popular Mechanics article writes: "... Talking movies are not new, in fact they were demonstrated years ago, but it was not until the fall of 1926 that the industry became vitally interested. Curiously enough the father of all talkies - the telephone - is the parent of the speaking movies, for, in their present form, they are a by-product of the telephone laboratory. Engineers of the Bell Telephone company were hunting ways to improve the telephone. As a result of their experiments they developed various side issues, which included the public-address system of huge loud speakers used to carry a speaker's voice 50,000 or 100,000 people in a single audience; the electrical method of registering phonograph records; the orthophonic phonograph horn, and, finally, the talking movie. The latter was turned over to the Western Electric company, which builds all Bell telephone appararatus, and in 1925 motion-picture producers were invited to consider its possibilities. All passed the opportunity except the late Sam L. Warner, of Warner Brothers. He visioned the future of sound in films and, unable to obtain the exclusive use of the phonograph-disk method, obtained a license and the exclusive use of the name Vitaphone. Fox followed with Movietone, the filmband process. Its development, however, dates back nineteen years, when Theodore Case, a Yale student, began experiments which led to its development. ... ".
In his 1919 patent De Forest writes: "This invention relates to making a record of sound waves and to reproducing the same from the record so made.
The object of the invention is to provide an electrically operated means for recording and reproducing recorded sound. A further object of the invention is to provide a novel form of sound record.
A further object of the invention is to provide a simultaneous recording of sound waves and light waves and the simultaneous reproduction thereof.
A further object of the invention is to provide a photographic film having recorded thereon photographs and sound record. A further object of the invention is to simultaneously reproduce from such photographic film the sound record and the pictures or negative developed thereon, or, in other words, to reproduce talking moving pictures from a single roll of film. Further objects of the invention will appear more fully hereinafter.
The invention consists substantially in the construction, combination, location, and relative arrangement of parts, all as will be more fully hereinafter set forth, as shown by the accompanying drawing and finally pointed out in the appended claims. Referring to the drawings,- Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic illustration of a sound recording arrangement embodying my invention.
Fig. 2 is a similar view showing a sound reproducing arrangement embodying my invention.
Figs. 3 and 4 illustrate modified forms of sound records obtained in accordance with my invention.
Fig. 5 is a diagrammatic view showing: an automatic means for reproducing the sound from its record and for simultaneously controlling the intensity of volume or pitch, thereof.
Fig. 6 is a similar view showing a modified light source.
The same part is designated by the same reference character wherever it appears throughout the several views.
It is among the special purposes of my present invention to record sound waves upon a photographic film such as an ordinary film employed in motion picture photography. This can be accomplished in many ways. I have discovered, however, that a source of light may be directly controlled by the intensity, pitch and volume of sound in such a manner that the fluctuations caused by sound waves in the intensity of light emitted from the source may be photographed upon the film. My investigations have revealed that certain light cells are more sensitive to the ultra violet rays of the spectrum than others.
I have shown and described in detail in a companion application Serial No. 324,085 filed on even date herewith a number of efficient means for controlling electric currents by means of light variations for any purpose, and in accordance with this invention I provide a source of light, for example, a lamp 1, the filament or incandescent electrode of which may be lighted to its sensitive or critical point of incandescence by means of any suitable source of current, for example, battery 2. The light rays pass through a lens in the usual well known manner 3, and, if desired, a color filter 4, which color filter is preferably of a dark blue, as I have found that the best results when using a photoelectric cell of the Kuntz variety are obtained by using a filter of this color. A photographic, film is passed by the lens and filters 3 and 4 in the usual well known manner, and the light emanating from the lamp 1 is recorded on the film, preferably in the nature of a minute ray obtained through a pin point aperture or focused to a point by a lens. The lamp 1 is controlled directly by and in accordance with sound waves, and while this may be effected in many different ways I have illustrated for the purposes of this application a simple microphone circuit comprising a transmitter or microphone 5, included in a closed circuit with a source of current 6, the lamp circuit and the microphone circuit being inductively, associated with each other through transformer coils 7. With this arrangement sound waves in the microphone set up weak pulsating currents which effect the closed circuit of the lamp 1 and thereby cause light variations which effects variation in intensify of light supplied to the sensitized surface of the film and thereby recorded on the film in the form of varying light exposures. In Fig. 2 I have shown a simple arrangement for reproducing the sound waves from the recorded waves on the film wherein the film 7 passes between a light sensitive electrical device diagrammatically illustrated at 8 and a source of light 9 which is constant in intensity. The light sensitive electrical device 8 may be any device of this nature, for example, it may be a selenium cell or a photo electrical cell, both of which I have found to be suitable for this purpose. It will be apparent that the light that passes through the film 7 to affect the electrical devices 8 will vary in accordance with the exposure on the film 7 and the fluctuating currents thereby set up in the circuit including the electrical device 8 will consequently vary directly in accordance with the original sound waves from which the sound record was produced. It will be obvious that the pulsating currents thus produced in the electrical devices 8 may be converted in any well known manner back into sound waves either with or without previous amplification, and in my copending application above mentioned I show various means for reproducing with and without amplification the pulsating currents set up in the electrical devices 8 in the form of the original sound waves. The applications of the foregoing principles are many, and while I have shown and will now describe its application to motion picture photography to thereby obtain "talking moving pictures" I wish it to be understood that I do not desire to be limited or restricted in this respect as this particular application has been selected for the purposes of illustration of the utility of the invention involved.
It is recognized that the great difficulty heretofore encountered in the production of talking moving pictures has been the impossibility of obtaining perfect synchronism between the sound record and the picture in reproduction of projection. At a glance it will be apparent that I am enabled to simutaneously record or expose the film to the scene to be photographed and to the sound waves produced by the talking, singing, or otherwise sound producing parts of the scene being photographed. By recording the sound wave's and the light waves simultaneously on the same film the problem of synchronism is obviously solved, for the sound waves, that is, their record, will be reproduced with the record of the light waves at its proper place in the projection or reproduction of the same. It will thus be apparent that I have provided means which will enable making a permanent record not only of plays but of all talking, singing, or other sound wave producing parts of the plays and enable the reproduction of the same with perfect synchronism inasmuch as they are on the same record or film in proper relation relative to each other. In Fig. 1 I show diagrammatically at 10 a motion picture camera through which the motion picture film 7 passes intermittently in the usual well known manner. I provide a suitable loop 11 in the passage of the film and on one side of the loop I subject the film to the sound controlled light rays, the sound for controlling which is produced, by the actors, musicians, or the like, which are being photographed. The loop which is provided between the sound recording devices and the camera or light recording devices is to enable the film 7 to pass continuously by the lens 3 as distinguished from the intermittent feed of the film past the camera, aperture 3a for the obvious reason of maintaining the sound record as a continuous record. The relative speed of travel of the film 7 past the sound lens 3 and past the camera aperture 3a can easily be regulated in any well known manner, such as at present employed in the motion picture photography art for making and maintaining speed loops. The sound record may be made on the film in any suitable manner, for example, the present form of film employed in the motion picture art, and illustrated in Fig. 3, may be widened a sufficient distance to permit the sound record illustrated at 13 to be made on or near one margin thereof, or the size of the exposure itself may be diminished in width to permit a narrow band along one edge to be concealed when the scene exposure is made and exposed only when it reaches the sound controlled recorder. The film 7 passing by the reproducing mechanism, for example, as shown in Fig. 5, sets up currents in the electrical devices 8 in the manner hereinbefore described, whereby these currents are capable of conversion back into sound waves. I have shown one arrangement for accomplishing this wherein I employ the audion of my invention indicated at 20, which audion is used extensively in the wire and radio communication art and wherein the filament electrode 21 heated in the usual well known manner by means of current source 22 is connected to one terminal of the electrical devices 8, the other terminal of which is connected with the grid electrode 24. The plate electrode 25 of the audion 20 is connected through current source 26 to the filament in the usual manner. In the arrangement shown I employ a cascade amplifier of a combination detector and amplifier whereby the currents of the current variations in the input or grid filament circuit of the audion 20 are amplified and conducted through the transformer 27 into the input circuit of the amplifier audion 21, the output or plate filament circuit of which includes a loud speaking horn 28, or other, suitable device, for converting electrical currents into sound waves. It will be apparent that the intensity of the sound-waves produced will depend upon, to a great extent, the intensity of the sound waves producing the original record. It may be desirable, however, to afford additional means for controlling the intensity of the soimd waves, and this may readily be accomplished by controlling any of the variable elements in the audion circuits, for example, the current source 22 for supplying the current to the filaments of the respective audions can effectively control the intensity of the output circuit of the last audion of the series, and I therefore provide means whereby the film 7 on which the sound waves have been recorded in the form of light exposures passes by two reproducing devices adjacent to each other, the one device 8 feeding into the input circuit of the audion amplifier system and the other device 8a controlling the filament current of the amplifier system to make louder or softer or otherwise vary the intensity and pitch of the reproduced sound waves by and in accordance with the original sound record. This is accomplished for example by including the auxiliary electrical devices 8a in the grid filament circuit of audion 29, the output or plate filament circuit of which includes a solenoid coil 30, the plunger of which is in the form of a rack 31 which meshes with a segment 32 which forms the control arm 33 of a rheostat resistance 34 for controlling the filament current source 22. The foregoing arrangement is preferable to the modification shown in Fig. 4, and which I will hereinafter describe in that the entire operation of the reproduction of the sound is automatic in operation and relies solely upon the original sound waves and the record thereof for controlling the intensity and pitch of the sound waves reproduced therefrom. It is possible, however, to artificially effect the volume or pitch or intensity control on the film by means of an auxiliary or tone record 40 in a parallel line on the film adjacent the sound record 13 as illustrated in Fig. 4, the said artificial record 40 being made by the director or operator after the simultaneous light and sound records have been made, in which case the auxiliary electrical devices 8 would obviously be placed out of alignment with the electrical devices 8 so that they would both simultaneously be affected.
... The alternating or pulsating currents produced by the microphone as hereinbefore described are led to the input electrode of the audion amplifier 90, the output electrode of which leads into the filament and oscillating circuit tap 67 through the transformer 91, as will be readily understood, thereby effecting a modulation of the high frequency oscillations generated by the balance of the oscillion system, and the modulated high frequency oscillations vary the degree of brilliancy of light emitted from the arc lamp by the unmodulated high frequency currents, which variations are proportional in every respect to the original modulating audible frequency alternating or pulsating currents in the microphone circuit.
Many modifications and changes in details will readily occur to those skilled in the art without departing, from the spirit and scope of my invention as defined in the claims, therefore what I claim as new and useful and of my own invention and desire to secure by Letters Patents is,—
1. The combination with a photographically obtained sound record, of means controlled by said record for producing an electric current varying in potential in accordance with said record, an audion amplifier for amplifying said current, and a sound producer controlled by the output circuit of said audion, and means controlled by the record for controlling the current supplied the filament of said audion to thereby control the volume of the sound produced by said producer.
2. The combination with a photographically obtained sound record, of means for reproducing the sounds from the photographic record, and means controlled by the record independently of the reproduction thereof for controlling the volume of sounds reproduced therefrom.
3. The combination with a photographically obtained sound record, of means controlled by said record for producing an electric current varying in potential in accordance with said record, an audion amplifier system for amplifying said current, a sound producer controlled by said audion amplifier system, and means controlled by the record for controlling a variable element included in said audion amplifier system to thereby control the volume of the sound produced by said producer. ...".
(Another clear example of Bell Labs, AT&T, the phone companies, releasing technology to the public, that they and many other people may have sat on secretly for decades, and even centuries.)
(Note that possibly "talkies" has a double meaning, to mean those who still think that they must talk for people to know what they think - basically the excluded - as opposed to those who simply think back and forth to each other in silence.)
(Was the sound to electric current done in AM? ) (probably De Forest uses the same system as Bell in converting sound waves directly into the same frequencies of current waves.) (Clearly recording sounds and images goes back secretly to a much earlier time.)
(Few sources mention De Forrest's link to this important technological improvement.) (Why does this process not get included into the Eastman Kodak movie cameras?)
(It is mysterious that people did not prefer the light to plastic photographic film method, instead of the electromagnetic plastic metal coated film method. Which method did the phone companies and governments of earth use to record the vast phone calls, and secret cameras, microphones, and neuron reading and writing devices?)
| (De Forest Phonofilm Corporation) New York City, New York, USA |
81 YBN
[11/??/1919 AD]
| 4163) German-US physicist, Albert Abraham Michelson (mIKuLSuN) or (mIKLSuN) (CE 1852-1931), using microscopic measurements of water level in an iron pipe, which amount to four microns, calculates the intensity of the attraction of the sun and moon on the earth. Michelson calculates the rigidity of earth to be 0.690, (units?) and shows that in addition to water tides there are earth tides, due to the force of gravity from the moon and Sun, which are 1/3 of what they would be if the earth was entirely fluid.
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
81 YBN
[12/30/1919 AD]
| 6095) Hevesy and Zechmeister use radioactive lead to prove Svante Arrhenius' theory of electrolytic dissociation.
Georg von Hevesy (HeVesE) (CE 1885-1966), Hungarian-Danish-Swedish chemist with Laszlo Zechmeister, uses a radioactive isotope of lead to prove Svante Arrhenius' theory of electrolytic dissociation.
In his Nobel prize lecture Hevesy explains: "If we dissolve sodium chloride and the equivalent amount of sodium bromide in water and then separate the two salts by crystallisation, it would have been expected in the time prior to Arrhenius that the chloride ions would retain their original partners, the same applying to the bromide ions. According to Arrhenius, however, each chloride ion has the same chance of associati ng with a sodium atom originally bound to chlorine as with one initially associated with bromine. The correctness of the much debated views of Arrhenius was shown in different ways; the most direct proof, however, was provided through the application of isotopic indicators(17). When equivalent amounts of PbCl2 and labelled Pb(NO3)2 (or vice versa) were dissolved and the two compounds were separated by crystallisation, the labelled lead ions were found to be equally distributed between chloride and nitrate ions. Very different results were obtained in all cases in which the lead atom was joined to carbon. Between lead chloride and lead tetraphenyl in pyridine, between lead acetate and lead tetraphenyl in amyl alcohol, and between lead nitrate and diphenyl lead nitrate in aqueous ethyl alcohol, no change in the places of lead atoms could be detected, although in every combination investigated one of the molecular types was capable of electrolytic dissociation. The lack of interchange of atoms present in organic binding (hydrogen atoms bound to oxygen or nitrogen being an exception, as shown by Bonhoeffer(18), such as that of carbon atoms in glycogen or phosphorus atoms in lecithin with other carbon and phosphorus atoms respectively, was found to be of great significance for the application of isotopic indicators in biochemical research. Owing to the absence of such an interchange, the presence of labelled carbon atoms in glycogen molecules, or of labelled phosphorus atoms in lecithin molecules, extracted from the organs, proved that a synthesis of these molecules took place after the labelled atoms were administered. This principle enables us to distinguish between "old" and "new" molecules and to determine the rates at which molecules of the different compounds are built up and carried to the different organs. A prompt interchange of the electrical charges between Pb++ and Pb++++ ions was found to take place in experiments where plumbous acetate and labelled plumbic acetate (or vice versa) were dissolved in glacial acetic acid and then separated by crystallisation1 8. The same holds for Tl+ and Tl+++ ion(19). An interchange of lead atoms takes place between fused lead and fused lead chloride, lead oxide or lead sulphide(20). After artificially radioactive isotopes became available as indicators, interchange processes were studied in numerous cases. A rapid interchange of charge s was found to take place between Fe++ and Fe+++, Cu+ and Cu++, etc (21)...".
Hevesy and Zechmeister publish this in "Berichte der deutschen chemischen Gesellschaft" ("Journal of the German Chemical Society") as "Über den intermolekularen Platzwechsel gleichartiger Atome" ("On the intermolecular space changing of similar atoms").
(Translate paper and read relevent parts.)
| (University of Budapest) Budapest, Hungary |
81 YBN
[1919 AD]
| 4452) German physicist, Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (PoseN) (CE 1865-1947) orders the neon spectrum—almost 1,000 lines—into spectral series.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
81 YBN
[1919 AD]
| 4906) Francis William Aston (CE 1877-1945), English chemist and physicist announces the “wholenumber rule” that atomic masses are integral on the scale O16 (a notation introduced by Aston in 1920). In this view fractional atomic weights are due to mixing of isotopes, and so the elements are to be defined physically by their atomic numbers, instead of in terms of the mass of their isotopic mixtures.
In 1816 William Prout had put forward his hypothesis that all elements are built up from the hydrogen atom and that their atomic weights are integral multiples of that of hydrogen. Although receiving considerable support it was eventually rejected when it was found that many elements have non-integral weights (for example chlorine: 35.453). (And I think now, clearly humans can move forward and state clearly that all atoms are made of light particles, which has been hinted at for over a century, and which seems to me extremely obvious when viewing any simple combustion, such as a candle or gas flame. For example, Aston, like Thomson and Rutherford titles some papers with "light atoms" as what must be some kind of protest against being able to announce to the public that all matter is probably made of light particles.)
Frederick Soddy in 1913 had introduced the idea of isotopes; that is, the same chemical element having differing weights. Aston establishes that isotopes are not restricted to radioactive elements but are common throughout the periodic table.
Aston writes in a brief article for "Nature" entitled "The Constitution of the Elements": "It will doubtless interest readers of Nature to know that other elements besides neon (see Nature for November 27, p. 334) have now been analysed in the positive-ray spectrograph with remarkable results. So far oxygen, methane, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, neon, hydrochloric acid, and phosgene have been admitted to the bulb, in which, in addition, there are usually present other hydrocarbons (from wax, etc.) and mercury.
Of the elements involved hydrogen has yet to be investigated; carbon and oxygen appear, to use the terms suggested by Paneth, perfectly "pure"; neon, chlorine, and mercury are unquestionably "mixed." Neon, as has been already pointed out, consists of isotopic elements of atomic weights 20 and 22. The mass-spectra obtained when chlorine is present cannot be treated in detail here, but they appear to prove conclusively that this element consists of at least two isotopes of atomic weights 35 and 37. Their elemental nature is confirmed by lines corresponding to double charges at 17.50 and 18.50, and further supported by lines corresponding to two compounds HCl at 36 and 38, and in the case of phosgene to two compounds COCl at 63 and 65. In each of these pairs the line corresponding to the smaller mass has three or four times the greater intensity.
Mercury, the parabola of which was used as a standard of mass in the earlier experiments, now proves to be a mixture of at least three or four isotopes grouped in the region around 200. Several, if not all, of these are capable of carrying three, four, five, or even more charges. Accurate values of their atomic weights cannot yet be given.
A fact of the greatest theoretical interest appears to underlie these results, namely, that of more than forty different values of atomic and molecular mass so far measured, all, without a single exception, fall on whole numbers, carbon and oxygen being taken as 12 and 16 exactly, and due allowance being made for multiple charges.
Should this integer relation prove general, it should do much to elucidate the ultimate structure of matter. On the other hand, it seems likely to make a satisfactory distinction between the different atomic and molecular particles which may give rise to the same line on a mass-spectrum a matter of considerable difficulty.".
(Is this releasing of a finding that was realized years earlier? Given the still-secret of neuron writing, it seems very likely that Thomson and other Cambridge physicists possibly were selected by the British government to release small ancient technological findings in small quantity to educate poor people and those excluded, to move public technology slowly forward by releasing secret technology that was probably already in full use by all major nations - as is the case for neuron reading - and of course the wonderful neuron writing which by now only a monsterous neuron writing owner people would keep a secret from the many millions of victimized people in the public.)
Aston follows this paper with many more which include more details.(see for a full list of works minus 1)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
81 YBN
[1919 AD]
| 4943) Irving Langmuir (laNGmYUR) (CE 1881-1957), US chemist tries to develop the theory of the electron structure of the atom published by Gilbert Lewis in 1916. Lewis had only dealt with the first two rows of the periodic table and Langmuir tries to extend it. Langmuir proposes that electrons tend to surround the nucleus in successive layers of 2, 8, 8, 18, 18, and 32 electrons respectively. Then using similar arguments to those of Lewis, Langmuir goes on to try and explain the basic facts of chemical combination.
| (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
81 YBN
[1919 AD]
| 4997) Otto Fritz Meyerhof (MIRHoF) (CE 1884-1951), German-US biochemist Meyerhof shows that working muscle does “anaerobic glycolysis” (glycogen breakdown without air), using glycogen and producing lactic acid without the use of oxygen, and that the lactic acid is reconverted to glycogen through oxidation by molecular oxygen, during muscle rest.
In addition, Meyerhof shows that when muscle rests after work, the major portion of lactic acid is oxydized (to pay off what physiologists call “oxygen debt”) back to glycogen. Later the Coris will work out the detailed steps of how glycogen is converted to lactic acid and this process is known as the “Embden-Meyerhof pathway” named after Meyerhof and a co-worker.
“Anaerobic glycolysis” is later called "anoxygenic glycolysis" by some to more specifically identify oxygen as the molecule not used.
| (University of Kiel) Kiel, Germany |
81 YBN
[1919 AD]
| 5022) Karl von Frisch (CE 1886-1982) US-German zoologist demonstrates that bees can be trained to distinguish between various tastes and odours.
| (Munich Zoological Institute) Munich, Germany |
81 YBN
[1919 AD]
| 5043) Otto Stern (sTARN {German} STRN {English}) (CE 1888-1969), German-US physicist, uses beams of neutral silver atoms, to confirm the theoretical values of molecular velocities in a gas.
In 1911 Dunoyer had shown that atoms or molecules introduced into a high-vacuum chamber travel along straight trajectories, forming beams of particles that in many respects are similar to light beams.
(Determine time when molecular beam is created, and then made public, since this is not clear among sources.)
Theoretical molecular velocities in a gas had been computed theoretically around 1850. (state by whom)
(Could it be that neutral molecule beams are used for neureon writing?)
(Is there any work and possibility for atomic transmutation or separation using molecular beams? Perhaps similar to a neutron beam? Can molecular beams cause atomic fission? )
(Can helium nuclei be made into alpha particle beams with this method? How fast and frequent can the particle beams be with this method?)
| (University of Frankfurt) Frankfurt, Germany |
81 YBN
[1919 AD]
| 5071) Hermann Joseph Muller (CE 1890-1967), US biologist, finds that increasing the temperature increases the number of genetic mutations in fruit flies.
(determine correct paper)
| (Rice Institute) Houston, Texas |
80 YBN
[01/??/1920 AD]
| 4914) Frederick Soddy (CE 1877-1956), English chemist publishes "Science and Life" which promotes science education and opposes secrecy.
| (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
80 YBN
[02/28/1920 AD]
| 4819) William Draper Harkins (CE 1873-1951), US chemist separates chlorine into two isotopes, and states that "...the nucleus of an isotopic atom of higher atomic weight differs from the nucleus of the normal atom by the presence of a mu group (h2e2) which carries no net charge, and which, if it were alone, would have an atomic number zero.", which occurs before Rutherford's prediction of the neutron. Harkins also predicts the existence of heavy hydrogen which he calls "meta-hydrogen" (deuterium, hydrogen with 1 proton and 1 neutron) with an atomic weight of 3 and a formula h3e2+.
(Note that Harkins apparently makes no mention of a neutral particle composed of a single proton and electron.)
(I think people must note that the current popular view of the neutron as a fundamental particle is, in my view, erroneous, as opposed to the neutron being a composite particle, composed of either a proton and electron. It may be that the neutral composite particle in isotopes is made of 2 protons and two electrons as Harkins envisions. -verify)
[t Note, that Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography states that Harkins predictes the neutron before Rutherford, but I can't find this original paper.
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
80 YBN
[04/19/1920 AD]
| 4322) William Henry Pickering (CE 1858-1938), US astronomer, publishes a clear analysis of the theory of relativity for the public concluding: "..The properties of light appear to fall under two heads, those which are best explained by the undulatory theory, and those which are best explained by the corpuscular....It may be that we shall ultimately have to combine the two theories, and say that light is simply an undulating stream of corpuscles.".
(This describes well the compromise of the corpuscular and wave theorists in relativity - the corpuscularists get the aether removed, but the wavists get the very unlikely theory of space and time dilation.)
| Jamaica |
80 YBN
[04/26/1920 AD]
| 4770) US astronomers, Harlow Shapley and Heber Doust Curtis (CE 1872-1942) debate the "nebulae" versus "island universe" theories. This great debate is to argue between the nebulae being part of the this galaxy or not being a part of this galaxy, and is held before the National Academy of Sciences.
Evidence against the “island universe” theory arose from the comparisons by Adriaan van Maanen of photographs of nebulae taken years apart. Van Maanen found in 1916 by careful measurements comparing the different photographs, that the spiral nebula M101 is rotating far too rapidly to be of a size comparable with our galaxy. Curtis himself is skeptical of van Maanen’s results, and this skepticism will be shown to be well-founded. Van Maanen’s colleague at Mount Wilson, Harlow Shapley, believes in the alleged rotations; and since Shapley has used new distance-measuring techniques to argue that the galaxy is far larger than previously thought, Shapley becomes the leading opponent of the “island universe” theory.
| (Lick Observatory) Mount Hamilton, California, USA |
80 YBN
[06/03/1920 AD]
| 4751) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, knocks loose hydrogen atoms from solid nitrogen compounds by bombarding the compounds with alpha particles. In addition Rutherford produces hydrogen atoms from aluminum, and shows that not many hydrogen atoms are released when bombarding carbon, silicon or oxygen. In addition, Rutherford theorizes about the existance of an atom of mass 1 which has zero electric charge, which foreshadows the finding of the neutron by Chadwick after a long search in 1932, 12 years later.
Rutherford writes: "... it seems very likely that one electron can also bind two H nuclei and possibly also one H nucleus. In the one case, this entails the possible existence of an atom of mass nealy 2 carrying one charge, which is to be regarded as an isotope of hydrogen. In the other case, it involves the idea of the possible existence of an atom of mass 1 which has zero nucleus charge. Such an atomic structure seems by no means impossible. On present views, the neutral hydrogen atom is regarded as a nucleus of unit charge with an electron attached at a distance, and the spectrum of hydrogen is ascribed to the movements of this distant electron. Under some conditions, however, it may be possible for an electron to combine much more closely with the H nucleus, forming a kind of neutral doublet. Such an atom would have very novel properties. Its external field would be practically zero, except very close to the nucleus, and in consequence it should be able to move freely through matter. Its presence would probably be difficult to detect by the spectroscope, and it may be impossible to contain it in a sealed vessel. On the other hand, it should enter readily the structure of atoms, and may either unite with the nucleus or be disintegrated by its intense field, resulting possibly in the escape of a charged H atom or an electron or both. If the existence of such atoms be possible, it is to be expected that they may be produced, but probably only in very small numbers, in the electric discharge through hydrogen, where both electrons and H nuclei are present in considerable numbers. It is the intention of the writer to make experiments to test whether any indication of the production of such atoms can be obtained under these conditions. The existence of such nuclei may not be confined to mass 1 but may be possible for masses 2, 3, or 4, or more, depending on the possibility of combination between the doublets. The existence of such atoms seems almost necessary to explain the building up of the nuclei of heavy elements; for unless we suppose the production of charged particles of very high velocities it is difficult to see how any positively charged particle can reach the nucleus of a heavy atom against its intense repulsive field. ....".
(I think that there is a possibility for other structures, in particular where charge is viewed as some physical aspect of collision as opposed to a force which operates depending on distance.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
80 YBN
[12/01/1920 AD]
| 5110) Arthur Holly Compton (CE 1892-1962), US physicist, indirectly measures the wave-length (interval) of gamma-rays to be 0.037A (3.7pm).
(I have doubts. This is an extrapolation from the quantity of penetration of gamma rays.)
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4309) Konstantin Eduardovich Tsiolkovsky (TSYULKuVSKE) (CE 1857-1935), Russian physicist writes about space suits, satellites, the colonization of the solar system, and is the first to suggest the possibility of a space station. (verify)
Some of the devices Tsiolkovsky describes will be developed by Goddard in the USA.
In the 1920s Tsiolkovsky also describes the use of different stages which break away from the rocket. (exact chronology)
| Kaluga, Russia (presumably) |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4411) (Sir) William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971) publishes a list of atomic radii. These values, however, are calculated from an incorrect baseline, and require later correction. The aim of this work is to set limits to possible atomic packing arrangements, and therefore reduce the number of potential solutions of unknown structures with several parameters.
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4453) German physicist, Louis Carl Heinrich Friedrich Paschen (PoseN) (CE 1865-1947) performs the first analysis of the spectra of an atom in its doubly ionized, as well as its neutral, and singly ionized states.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen , Germany |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4553)
| unknown |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4554)
| unknown |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4555)
| unknown |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4556)
| unknown |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4557)
| unknown |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4877) Chemists at DuPont produce a thick pyroxylin lacquer which is quick drying but durable and that can be colored, which is marketed under the name Viscolac® in 1921. Assisted by General Motors engineers, DuPont refines the product further and renames it Duco. Before this conventional paints applied to automobiles took up to two weeks to dry.
| (DuPont's Redpath Laboratory) Parlin, New Jersey |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4921) Julius Arthur Nieuwland (nYUlaND) (CE 1878-1936), Belgian-US chemist creates the precursor to the first commercially successful synthetic rubber.
Nieuwland spends 14 years trying to track down an unusual odor from acetylene which results in his finding that acetylene, a compound with a molecule containing two carbon atoms, can be made to combine with itself to form a four-carbon molecule and a six-carbon molecule. These larger molecules can continue to add on two-carbon units (polymerizing) forming a giant molecule that has the same properties of rubber. This attracts the attention of the chemists at Du Pont with whom Nieuwland will work closely with after this. Carothers and associates (who will prepare nylon) find that if a chlorine atom is added at the four-carbon stage, the final polymer is much more like rubber, and is what is now called neoprene, an early synthetic rubber. (When Japan stops the suppply of natural rubber after the attack on Pearl Harbor, synthetic rubber replaces it).
Nieuwland writes in 1931: "As early as 1906 the observation was made that if acetylene is passed into a solution of cuprous chloride and sodium or potassium chloride, there is developed a most peculiar odor, very unlike that of acetylene. .1 number of unsuccessful attempts were made to separate what was thought to be a derivative or compound formed by the action of acetylene on the copper salt mixture, but it was not until 1921 that the idea occurred that only by the use of a more highly concentrated cuprous chloride solution could satisfactory results be hoped for. Recalling that the desired high concentration could be obtained by the use of ammonium chloride or amine salts, the earlier work was repeated, using several liters of solution, in order to obtain measurable amounts of the new compound. It was at first supposed that the derivative might be a gas and appropriate apparatus was constructed for catching it. However, on distilling the product formed by the absorption of acetylene in an aqueous solution of cuprous chloride and ammonium chloride, the receiver was found to contain several cubic centimeters of a highly refractive liquid, with an odor resembling that observed in the earlier work. About four years were spent at Notre Dame in modifying the process so as to obtain the maximum yield in the shortest time. The du Pont Company had for some time been interested in acetylene reactions and in the possibility of the manufacture of synthetic rubber, because of the well-known limitations of natural rubber and especially because of the lack of an adequate supply in this country. Acetylene had been considered the ideal starting point because of the availability of unlimited quantities of the raw materials, lime and carbon. The work started at Notre Dame was therefore continued at the Jackson Laboratory with the general purpose of broadening our knowledge of acetylene polymers, and in the hope that the highly reactive product of the acetylene reaction above noted might prove a satisfactory starting point for the preparation of synthetic rubber. Although a satisfactory synthetic rubber was not obtained from this compoun d, which was found to be divinylacetylene, the work resulted in the preparation of a new drying oil, from which could be made films of great hardness and most unusual chemical stability, which are not softened by any known solvents. Furthermore, the ground was prepared for the development of a number of interesting fields of research, the various phases of which will be made the subject of future papers. In this paper will be described the polymerization of acetylene and the properties of the compounds obtained. ... Divinylacetylene is extremely dangerous to handle. The viscosity of the freshly prepared material rises rapidly on standing at room temperature, resulting in a gel and finally a hard resin. These firoducts can neither be distilled nor handled without explosions varying in degree from rapid decmnpositions to violent detonations. The safest place for the hydrocarbon is in the catalyst mixture and this method of storage is recommended with distillation just prior to use. Summary A low temperature catalytic polymerization of acetylene has been described, producing vinylacetylene, divinylacetylene and a tetramer thought to be 1,5,7-octatriene-3-ine. A mechanism for this polymerization in the presence of aqueous cuprous chloride has been suggested and laboratory procedures have been briefly described. This paper describes the initial work in a successful search for synthetic rubber starting from acetylene.".
(Artificial rubber may be the basis of artificial muscles, which may be lighter than electric motors for electronically moving objects. Artifical muscles clearly must have a long secret history.)
| (Notre Dame University) Notre Dame, Indiana, USA |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4922) George Hoyt Whipple (CE 1878-1976), US physician demonstrates that liver as a dietary factor greatly enhances hemoglobin regeneration in dogs. This leads to the successful treatment of pernicious anemia.
(todo: Find original paper(s) if any)
Whipple began his research career by working on bile pigments but goes on to study the formation and breakdown of the blood pigment, hemoglobin, which breaks down in to bile pigments. To do this Whipple bleeds until he had reduced their hemoglobin level to a third, then measures the rate of hemoglobin regeneration. Whipple soon notices that this rate varies with the diet of the dogs and by 1923 reports that liver in the diet produces a significant increase in hemoglobin production.
This work that leads George Minot (CE 1885–1950) and William Murphy (CE 1892–1987) to develop a successful treatment for pernicious anemia.
(I think that red blood cells and maybe hemoglobin too are formed in the bone marrow, check.)
| (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 4959) Heinrich Barkhausen (BoRKHoUZeN) (CE 1881-1956), German physicist with Karl Kurz, develops the Barkhausen-Kurz oscillator for ultrahigh frequencies (a forerunner of the microwave tube), which leads to the understanding of the principle of velocity modulation.
| (Technical Academy in Dresden) Dresden, Germany |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 5041) Nikolay Ivanovich Vavilov (VoVEluF) (CE 1887-1943), Russian botanist, theorizes that the planetary region of greatest diversity of a species of plant represents its center of origin, and eventually proposes 13 world centres of plant origin.
| (University of Saratov) Saratov, Russia (presumably) |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 5044) Otto Stern (sTARN {German} STRN {English}) (CE 1888-1969), German-US physicist, with Walter Gerlach pass a beam of neutral silver atoms through a nonuniform magnetic field and observe that the beam splits into two separate beams (Stern–Gerlach experiment).
(Verify if correct paper)
Stern creates molecular (neutral particle) beams by allowing gases to escape from a container into a tiny hole into a high vacuum. Because the molecules entering the vacuum meet almost no other particles, they form a straight beam of moving particles. Stern also sometimes uses metallic atoms like silver. Although these molecules are electrically neutral, because they are composed of positive protons and negative electrons, they move in someway like tiny magnets and they exhibit some response to a magnetic field. Stern confirms that these particles do act like tiny magnets, and helps to confirm Planck's quantum theory. Stern's pupil Rabi will expand Stern's work in this area.
In 1920 Stern used a molecular beam of silver atoms to test an important prediction of quantum theory, the theory that certain atoms have magnetic moments (are like small magnets) and that in a magnetic field these magnets take only certain orientations to the field direction. The phenomenon is known as space quantization, and it can be predicted theoretically that silver atoms can have only two orientations in an external field. To test this, Stern with Walter Gerlach pass a beam of silver atoms through a nonuniform magnetic field and observe that the beam splits into two separate beams.
In 1929 Stern demonstrates that atoms and molecules can be reflected into "diffraction" patterns similar to the work of Clinton J. Davisson for electron "diffraction".
(I can only envision a wave relating to matter in the sense that, there often occurs waves made of regularly spaced particles.)
(Perhaps ions, or molecule beams are what is sent from flying and stationary micro and nano-meter sized devices.)
(This is an interesting phenomenon, that molecules should move in a straight line when entering empty space/a vacuum. Perhaps they enter the vacuum with a velocity and simply maintain that velocity because there are no other particles to stop them. But they must bounce off the glass, since they cannot ever exit the vacuum. )
(Explain how specifically, Planck's quantum theory is confirmed.)
(Once the molecules enter the vacuum, they must lower the vacuum properties, how is this avoided? Clearly the beam can't last for much time, it would seem.)
| (University of Frankfurt) Frankfurt, Germany |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 5045) Otto Stern (sTARN {German} STRN {English}) (CE 1888-1969), German-US physicist, with Estermann reflect ("diffract") neutral hydrogen and helium molecular beams off a Lithium Fluoride crystal to produce "diffraction" patterns. (Verify Lithium Fluoride crystal)
(Can this be photographically shown? Explain how particles are detected.)
Stern creates molecular (neutral particle) beams by allowing gases to escape from a container into a tiny hole into a high vacuum. Because the molecules entering the vacuum meet almost no other particles, they form a straight beam of moving particles. Stern also sometimes uses metallic atoms like silver. Although these molecules are electrically neutral, because they are composed of positive protons and negative electrons, they move in someway like tiny magnets and they exhibit some response to a magnetic field. Stern confirms that these particles do act like tiny magnets, and helps to confirm Planck's quantum theory. Stern's pupil Rabi will expand Stern's work in this area.
In 1920 Stern used a molecular beam of silver atoms to test an important prediction of quantum theory, the theory that certain atoms have magnetic moments (are like small magnets) and that in a magnetic field these magnets take only certain orientations to the field direction. The phenomenon is known as space quantization, and it can be predicted theoretically that silver atoms can have only two orientations in an external field. To test this, Stern with Walter Gerlach pass a beam of silver atoms through a nonuniform magnetic field and observe that the beam splits into two separate beams.
In 1929 Stern demonstrates that atoms and molecules can be reflected into "diffraction" patterns similar to the work of Clinton J. Davisson for electron "diffraction".
(I can only envision a wave relating to matter in the sense that, there often occurs waves made of regularly spaced particles.)
(Perhaps ions, or molecule beams are what is sent from flying and stationary micro and nano-meter sized devices.)
(This is an interesting phenomenon, that molecules should move in a straight line when entering empty space/a vacuum. Perhaps they enter the vacuum with a velocity and simply maintain that velocity because there are no other particles to stop them. But they must bounce off the glass, since they cannot ever exit the vacuum. )
(Explain how specifically, Planck's quantum theory is confirmed.)
(Once the molecules enter the vacuum, they must lower the vacuum properties, how is this avoided? Clearly the beam can't last for much time, it would seem.)
(To me, all these particle "diffraction" experiments prove that light is a particle, not that matter is a wave.)
| (University of Frankfurt) Frankfurt, Germany |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 5084) (Sir) James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist, uses the results of bombarding elements with alpha particles to calculate the positive charge on the nuclei of some atoms, and these results fit into the theory of atomic numbers created by Moseley.
This establishes that atomic number is determined by the number of protons in an atom (which is the current definition of the atomic number of any atom).
(Explain how Chadwick calculates the positive charge on the nuclei of various atoms?) (Explain how the elements are bombarded, are the targets thin metal sheets?)
(read relevant parts of paper.)
| |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 5119) Walter Baade (BoDu) (CE 1893-1960), German-US astronomer discovers the minor planet Hidalgo, whose immense orbit extends to that of Saturn.
(determine original paper and show any images)
| (University of Hamburg's Bergedorf Observatory) Hamburg, Germany |
80 YBN
[1920 AD]
| 5180) Swiss physicist, Heinrich Greinacher (CE 1880-1974) publishes a cascading voltage-doubling circuit ("Greinacher multiplier").
The voltage doubler circuit was apparently invented by Swiss physicist, Heinrich Greinacher (CE 1880-1974) (the "Greinacher multiplier", a rectifier circuit for voltage doubling) in 1914 and in 1920, Greinacher generalizes this idea to a cascaded voltage multiplier. (verify)
Cockcroft and Walton will use this circuit in 1930 to accelerate and collide protons and molecules at voltages up to 280 KV and higher.
| (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
79 YBN
[01/21/1921 AD]
| 4924) Nuclear isomers.
Otto Hahn (CE 1879-1968), German chemist, and Lise Meitner (mITnR) (liZ or lIZ or lIS or liS?) (CE 1878-1968), Austrian-Swedish physicist identify nuclear isomers, atoms with identical nuclei but different in energy content and type of radioactive decay. (more specifics: energy content? how can neutron and proton by the same but an isomer? that has to be a mistake)
In Hahn's examination of uranium and its products, he finds in 1921 a small, but persistent and inexplicable, activity in the uranium series’ protactinium isotope. Hahn finds the first example of nuclear isomerism: uranium Z, has the same parent and the same daughter product as uranium X2 and both these protactinium isotopes are formed by, and decay by, beta emission. But their nuclei are at different energy levels and decay with different half-lives.
Igor Vasilevich Kurchatov (CE 1903-1960) Russian physicist, is also credited with the discovery of nuclear isomers. (determine chronology)
| (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instute fur Chemie) Berlin, Germany |
79 YBN
[02/26/1921 AD]
| 4752) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, finds that in terms of colliding alpha particles with other atoms that "...no effect is observed in 'pure' elements the atomic mass of which is given by 4n, where n is a whole number. The effect is, however, marked in many of the elements the mass of which is given by 4n + 2 or 4n + 3. Such a result is to be anticipated if atoms of the 4n type are built up of stable helium nuclei and those of the 4n + a type of helium and hydrogen nuclei. It should also be mentioned that no particles have so far been observed for any element of mass greater than 31. If this proves to be general, even for α-particles of greater velocity than those of radium C, it may be an indication that the structure of the atomic nucleus undergoes some marked change at this point; for example, in the lighter atoms the hydrogen nuclei may be satellites of the main body of the nucleuis, while in the heavier elements the hydrogen nuclei may form part of the interior structure. Until accurate data are available as to the effect of velocity of the α-particles on the number, range and distribution of the liberated particles, it does not seem profitable at this stage to discuss the possible mechanism of these atomic collisions which lead to the disintegration of the nucleus.".
(Perhaps "profitable" is a hint that people may find monetary value in converting one atom into another kind.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
79 YBN
[02/??/1921 AD]
| 4162) German-US physicist, Albert Abraham Michelson (mIKuLSuN) or (mIKLSuN) (CE 1852-1931), uses a 20 foot interferometer attached to a 100 inch telescope on Mount Wilson and meaures the diameter of the star Betelgeuse (α Orionis), thought to be very large compared to other stars.
Michelson calculates the diameter of Betelgeuse to be 240 million miles, or slightly less than the orbit of Mars, which is around 300 times the size of our star.
Asimov claims that measuring the diameter of Betelgeuse is not possible using direct observation. I am skeptical since perspective should hold true (the farther an object, the more small although it's apparent size depends on it's actual size), although this is a tiny measurement.
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
79 YBN
[03/21/1921 AD]
| 5238) C. O. Lampland reports that changes in the structure and brightness in the "Crab" and other nebulae have been observed in photographs spanning 8 years.
In April John Duncan will determine the rate that the crab nebula is expanding.
| (Lowell Observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
79 YBN
[03/??/1921 AD]
| 5157) Edward Arthur Milne (miLN) (CE 1896-1950) English physicist, develops his mathematical theory of solar atmosphere, based on the gas-law models of Eddington and Jeans, estimating the sun's temperature in various layers and mathematically explaining the solar "wind" of particles emitted from the Sun.
Milne goes on to show that atoms can be ejected from the sun at speeds up to 1,000 kilometers per second, and this begins the theory of a “solar wind”.
Milne is the first to relate steller explosions to steller collapse, which Chandrasekhar will develop. (determine chronology and make record for)
(It seems that Milne adopts Eddington's gas-pressure versus gravitation "extremely dense" gas-law based theory of stellar structure.)
(Clearly photons are ejected at 300,000 km per second, 300 times faster than the particles detected by Milne.)
(Unless the gas laws can explain highly dense molten liquids, I doubt that gas laws can be an accurate representation of star structure. In addition, because the pressure must be so high inside stars, the concept of temperature must take a different form than we on the surface of earth understand temperature, because there must be much less room for particles to move - so motion will be very low and in that sense temperature would be very low - where temperature immensly increases is at the surface where particles reach open space immense movement occurs. I view the emission of light particles from the Sun as being a constant process - the Sun is a tangle of particles many colliding in, and many more emitting out, some to return again.)
(I think that the solar wind is probably mostly light particles, but must be other larger particles too like electrons, protons, neutrons, ions, neutral atoms.)
(With regard to determining the temperature of the sun at varying depths, this seems to me difficult, in particular with the aspect of high pressure. Perhaps the atomic velocities are low, and the temperature therefore relatively low, but because of the very high pressure - a low temperture seems illogical. This may result in actually a solid core, although perhaps there is not enough pressure and the inside of most stars and planets is liquid and therefore moving. I think for high temperature, there needs to be free space for particles to move. This is why a smothered fire does not burn, there needs to be surface area for movement and chemical reactions.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
79 YBN
[04/26/1921 AD]
| 5239) John Duncan determines the rate that the Crab nebula (N. G. C. 1952, M. 1) is expanding.
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
79 YBN
[07/??/1921 AD]
| 4866) Vesto Melvin Slipher (SlIFR) (CE 1875-1969), US astronomer, shows that there are no absorption lines in the spectrum of Venus for oxygen or water vapor.
| (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
79 YBN
[09/26/1921 AD]
| 5051) (Sir) Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (CE 1888-1970), Indian physicist suggests that the color of the sea is from molecular scattering of light in water. as opposed to a reflection of the color of the sky as Rayliegh had suggested in 1910.
| (University of Calcutta) Calcutta, India |
79 YBN
[09/??/1921 AD]
| 4783) Neurotransmitters discovered.
Otto Loewi (LOEVE) (CE 1873-1961), German-US physiologist provides the first proof that chemicals are involved in the transmission of impulses from one nerve cell to another and from a neuron to the responsive organ, when he demonstrates on frogs that a fluid is released when the vagus nerve (one of 2 nerves from the brain/spine to the heart?) is stimulated, and that this fluid can stimulate another heart directly. Loewi names this material "Vagusstoff" ("vagus material"). Dale will show that this fluid is made of (molecules of) acetylcholine.
At the time people have known for that an impulse in the vagus nerve slows the heart. If the vagi are cut, the inhibitory impulses cease and the heart rate increases.
Loewi describes his experiment writing (translated): "The night before Easter Sunday of {1921} I awoke, turned on the light, and jotted down a few notes on a tiny slip of thin paper. Then I fell asleep again. It occurred to me at six o’clock in the morning that during the night I had written down something most important, but I was unable to decipher the scrawl. The next night, at three o’clock, the idea returned. It was the design of an experiment to determine whether or not the hypothesis of chemical transmission that I had uttered seventeen years ago was correct. I got up immediately, went to the laboratory, and performed a simple experiment on a frog heart according to the nocturnal design. I have to describe briefly this experiment since its results became the foundation of the theory of the chemical transmission of the nervous impulse.
The hearts of two frogs were isolated, the first with its nerves, the second without. Both hearts were attached to Straub canulas filled with a little Ringer solution. The vagus nerve of the first heart was stimulated for a few minutes. Then the Ringer solution that had been in the first heart during the stimulation of the vagus was transferred to the second heart. {This second heart} slowed and its beats diminished just as if its vagus had been stimulated. Similarly, when the accelerator nerve was stimulated and the Ringer from this period transferred, the second heart speeded up and its beats increased. These results unequivocally proved that the nerves do not influence the heart directly but liberate from their terminals specific chemical substances which, in their turn, cause the well-known modifications of the function of the heart characteristic of the stimulation of its nerves.".
Ringer's solution is a nutrient fluid.
Not until 1936 does Loewi positively identify the "Acceleransstoff" or "Sympathicusstoff" with adrenaline (epinephrine). Like many others, Loewi apparently does assume immediately that his results for the cardiac nerves also apply to all other peripheral autonomic nerve fibers, and one of the earliest and most important pieces of evidence for this extension will be produced in Loewi’s laboratory by E. Engelhart.
The vagus nerve is either of the tenth and longest of the cranial nerves, passing through the neck and thorax into the abdomen and supplying sensation to part of the ear, the tongue, the larynx, and the pharynx, motor impulses to the vocal cords, and motor and secretory impulses to the abdominal and thoracic viscera. The vagus nerve is also called pneumogastric nerve.
According to Oxford "World of the Body": "‘Vagus’ means ‘wanderer’ — and that is indeed what these nerves are. Attached to the brain stem, and emerging through the base of the skull into the neck, the right and left vagus nerves innervate through their branches a widespread range of body parts, from the head down to the abdominal organs. These nerves contain fibres that are both incoming to the central nervous system (the majority) and outgoing from it. Sensory information comes from the external ear and its canal, and from the back of the throat (pharynx) and upper part of the larynx. Longer fibres travel in the branches of the vagi from the organs in the chest and in the abdomen: from the lungs and the heart, and from the alimentary tract, including the oesophagus and right down to half way along the colon. The incoming signals lead to many reflex responses, mediated at cell stations in the brain stem, and entailing either autonomic or somatic motor responses. For example: irritants in the airways stimulate vagal sensory nerve endings and lead to a cough reflex; information on the state of inflation of the lungs causes modification of the breathing pattern; distension of the stomach leads to reflex relaxation of its wall.
The outgoing, motor fibres in the vagus nerves represent most of the cranial component of the parasympathetic division of the autonomic nervous system. Vagal stimulation slows the heart beat, and excessive stimulation can stop it entirely. When Otto Loewi first showed, in 1921, that stimulation of the vagus nerve to a frog heart caused something to be released that could slow down another heart that was linked to the first only by fluid perfusion, he called the unknown factor Vagusstoff. We know now that vagal nerve endings act on the heart's pacemaker by the release of the transmitter acetylcholine; this modulation of the heart rate is continuous, counterbalancing the action of the sympathetic nerves at the same site. The vagus nerves also provide a pathway for reflex reduction of the cardiac output if the blood pressure tends to rise. In the lungs, they stimulate the smooth muscle in the wall of the bronchial tree, tending to increase the resistance to airflow (by causing bronchoconstriction), again counterbalancing the sympathetic effect which tends towards relaxation. In the alimentary tract they stimulate smooth muscle in the walls of the stomach and of the intestines, acting through the nerve networks between the layers of smooth muscle, but they have the opposite action on the smooth muscle sphincter that tends to prevent the stomach contents from moving on. They stimulate glandular secretions of stomach acid and of the digestive enzymes that are released into the stomach and intestine, and the ejection of bile from the gall bladder. They also influence the release from the pancreas of the hormones that promote the storage of absorbed nutrients. All these effects add up to support of activity in the alimentary system during and after eating, when the parasympathetic effects predominate over the opposite quietening effects of the sympathetic nerve supply.
The term ‘vaso-vagal’ attack refers to fainting, when — from a variety of causes ranging from emotional shock to the pain of injury — there is a strong parasympathetic outflow in the vagus nerves, causing slowing of the heart that leads to a fall in blood pressure sufficient to cause unconsciousness.".
Acetylcholine is an ester of choline and acetic acid, and is a neurotransmitter active at many nerve synapses and at the motor end plate of vertebrate voluntary muscles. Acetylcholine affects several of the body's systems, including the cardiovascular system (decreases heart rate and contraction strength, dilates blood vessels), gastrointestinal system (increases peristalsis in the stomach and amplitude of digestive contractions), and urinary system (decreases bladder capacity, increases voluntary voiding pressure - that is urinating and/or deficating pressure). Acetylcholine also affects the respiratory system and stimulates secretion by all glands that receive parasympathetic nerve impulses. Acetylcholine is important in memory and learning and is deficient in the brains of those with late-stage Alzheimer disease.
The parasympathetic nervous system is the part of the autonomic nervous system originating in the brain stem and the lower part of the spinal cord that, in general, inhibits or opposes the physiological effects of the sympathetic nervous system, as in tending to stimulate digestive secretions, slow the heart, constrict the pupils, and dilate blood vessels.
At the time there is a debate between whether synaptic transmission is electrical or chemical.
Loewi has doubts that chemical transmitters are also released by ordinary voluntary motor fibers or across other nonautonomic synaptic junctions, but Dale and his associates will go on to prove that this is true.
(How does this fit into neuron reading and writing? Was Loewi excluded?)
| (University of Graz) Graz, Austria |
79 YBN
[11/14/1921 AD]
| 5092) (Sir) Frederick Grant Banting (CE 1891-1941), Canadian physiologist, and his assistant US-Canadian physiologist, Charles Herbert Best (CE 1899-1978), isolate insulin.
Banting was interested in the disease diabetes mellitus, which the main biochemical symptom is the presence of unusually high levels of glucose in the blood and the eventual appearance of glucose in the urine. At this time this disease results in slow but certain death. A generation earlier people (state who) had found that diabetes may be related to the pancreas because removal of the pancreas in experimental animals causes a diabetes-like condition. After the hormone concept had been created by Starling and Bayliss, people theorize that the pancreas produces a hormone that controls the way a body metabolizes its glucose molecules. If there is not enough of this hormone, glucose accumulates and causes diabetes. The main function of the pancreas is to produce digestive juices, but there are small patches of cells called Islets of Langerhans after Langerhans who first described them 50 years before, and these might be the source of the hormone. The hormone had even already been given a name “insulin” (state by whom) (from the Latin word for Island). Kendall had isolated the hormone thyroxine, from the thyroid hormone, but insulin was difficult to isolate because the digestive juices in the pancreas break up the insulin molecule (which is a protein) as soon as the pancreas is mashed up. In 1920 Banting reads an article that describes how tying off the duct that the pancreas emits its secretions into the intestines causes the pancreatic tissue to degenerate. Banting realizes that by tying off the duct, the Islets of Langerhans, not being involved in the digestive secretions should still be intact, but the digestive secretions that break down the hormone should not be present. Banting convinces John Macleod at the University of Toronto to give him laboratory space and a co-worker to do the experiment. Banting and Best tie off the pancreatic ducts in a number of dogs and wait seven weeks. By then the pancreases had become shriveled, but the Islets of Langerhans are still in good shape. From these pancreases, Banting and Best extract a solution that can be supplied to the dogs who had been made diabetic from the removal of their pancreas. The extract quickly stops the symptoms of diabetes (state the symptoms). Banting and Best call the hormone “isletin”, but Macleod insists on the original “insulin”. Millions of humans with diabetes have been able to live regular lives because of the isolation of insulin.
(Later genetic engineering will allow large amounts of pure insulin to be created without the slower and cruel process of extracting insulin from other species.)
A hormone is a carbon-based (organic) compound (often a steroid or peptide) that is produced in one part of a multicellular organism and travels to another part to exert its action.
(It is somewhat rare to see a Canadian, like Central or South American, Indian, or Asian person recognized for scientific advances which seems unusual because clearly there must be advanced science occuring in those nations.)
| (University of Toronto) Toronto, Canada |
79 YBN
[1921 AD]
| 4068) Luther Burbank (CE 1849-1926), US naturalist describes his methods and results of plant breeding in his books "How Plants Are Trained to Work for Man" (8 vol., 1921).
Burbank develops many varieties of plants, including 60 varieties of plum, ten new commercial varieties of berry, working with pineapples, walnuts, almonds, and flowers (including the Fire poppy, the Burbank rose, the Shasta daisy, and Ostrich-plume clematis).
Burbank's breeding methods produce multiple crosses of imported foreign with native strains in order to obtain seedlings that he grafts onto fully developed plants for relatively quick appraisal of hybrid characteristics. Burbank, trys to cause, as he states, "perturbation" in the plants, growing hundreds of thousands of plants under differing environmental conditions to try to get as wide and as large a variation as possible.
| Santa Rosa, California, USA |
79 YBN
[1921 AD]
| 4387) (Sir) Frederick Gowland Hopkins (CE 1861-1947), English biochemist isolates the tripeptide glutathione (GlUTutION) from living tissue, which is important as a hydrogen acceptor in a number of biochemical reactions.
Hopkins shows the role glutathione has in oxidative processes within cells.
Hopkins shows that glutathione can exist in two interchangable forms: a reduced form and an oxidized form. Hopkins proposes that glutathione functions as an oxygen-carrying catalyst (called by him a coenzyme), with the disulfide oxidized form acting as the hydrogen acceptor in being reduced and then passing on the hydrogen to oxygen during its spontaneous reoxidation. This is the first hint of the intermediate hydrogen transport that occurs in living tissues, a now well-established fundamental fact in the field of biological oxidation.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
79 YBN
[1921 AD]
| 4518) Karl Landsteiner (CE 1868-1943), Austrian-US physician demonstrates the existence of the antigens. An antigen is a substance that when introduced into the body stimulates the production of an antibody. Antigens include toxins, bacteria, foreign blood cells, and the cells of transplanted organs.
In this research Landsteiner will use small organic molecules called haptens—which stimulate antibody production only when combined with a larger molecule, such as a protein—to demonstrate how small variations in a molecule's structure can cause great changes in antibody production. Landsteiner will summarize his work in "The Specificity of Serological Reactions" (1936), which will be a classic text that helps to establish the field of immunochemistry.
| (The Hague) Netherlands |
79 YBN
[1921 AD]
| 4854) Henry Clapp Sherman (CE 1875-1955), US biochemist shows that rickets can be caused by a low-phosphorus diet. Sherman also shows that calcium and phosphorus are both needed by the (human and perhaps mammal) body.
| (Columbia University) New York City, NY, USA |
79 YBN
[1921 AD]
| 4955) (Sir) Alexander Fleming (CE 1881-1955), Scottish bacteriologist, identifies lysozyme, an enzyme that destroys bacteria.
Lysozyme is an antibacterial enzyme found in tears and saliva.
In 1921, while inspecting a contaminated culture plate, Fleming observes nasal mucus dissolving a yellowish colony. The bacteriolytic agent is named “lysozyme,” and the susceptible organism (at Wright’s suggestion) Micrococcus lysodeikticus. With V. D. Allison’s collaboration, Fleming detectes lysozyme in human blood serum, tears, saliva, and milk; and in such diverse animal and plant substances as leucocytes, egg white, and turnip juice. Since inoffensive airborne bacteria are lyzed more readily than pathogenic species, chemical concentration of the active principle is attempted, without success. Lysozymes are later crystallized in other laboratories; because of their specific disruptive action on the cell wall of certain gram-positive organisms, these enzymes have proven valuable in studies of bacterial cytology.
| (St Mary's Hospital) London, England |
78 YBN
[01/26/1922 AD]
| 5103) (Prince) Louis Victor Pierre Raymond De Broglie (BrOGlE) (CE 1892-1987), French physicist views light as a material particle ("atoms of light") all having the same "very low mass", and unites Planck's E=hv with Einstein's E=mc2 to solve for the mass of light beams (a quantum).
Broglie writes: "The aim of this work is to establish a number of known results of the theory of radiation by arguments that rely solely on thermodynamics, kinetic theory and the quantum without any intervention of electromagnetism. The assumption adopted is that of light quanta. The black body radiation in equilibrium at temperature T is considered a gas formed of atoms of light energy W == hv. We neglect in this test molecules of light 2, 3 ... n atoms hv, that is to say that we must reach the Wien's radiation law because, in point of view of light quanta, the form of Wien is derived from the complete equation of Plank when we neglect the associations of atoms. The mass of the atoms of light is supposed, according to the formulas of the mechanics of relativity, equal to hv/c2, the energy quotient tD by the square of the speed of light. Their quantity of movement is
hv/c = W/c
Call n the number of atoms of light contained within the unit volume. On unit area of the wall defining the volume, that arrives by second 1/6 nc atoms of light each provide a quanty of movement equal to W/c. The force experienced by the unit area or pressure is 2, 1/6ns W/c = 1/3 nW. This is the third of the energy contained in the unit of volume, as is also the electromagnetic theory and as exper ience has verified. The number of atoms of light with energy W, which are located in the the element of volume dx, dy, dz and whose quantity components of movement is between p and p + dp, q and q + dq, r and r + dr, is given by the formula of statistical mechanics, yet applicable here.
{ULSF: see equation}
To obtain the total number of atoms of energy dx, dy, dz must be integrated throughout the volume, replace dp, dq, dr by 4πG2, where G is the vector length for quantity of movement and substitute for G the value W/c.
... The hypothesis of light quanta therefore lead, in adopting the dynamics of relativity, to regard the light atoms (supposing of the same very low mass) as animated variable velocities with their energy (frequency), but all extremely close to c. We explained and why light appears to spread (within the limits of experimental precision) exactly with the speed that plays the role of infinite speed in the formulas of Einstein.
In summary, the essential conclusions of this work are the following: 1. One may, by the hypothesis of light quanta join rules of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics, find all results of the thermodynamics of radiation and even the act of spreading Planck-Wien. However, these results assume expressly to employ, for the atoms of light, formulas of the dynamics of relativity. 2. There is undoubtedly a strong link between the chemical constant of and the constant of Stéfan of black body radiation. This link has already been presented by M. Lindemann in a recent work on the vapor pressure of solids (Phil. Mag., t. 39, p 21-25). He reveals a new aspect of the constant interaction of matter and radiation.".
(Removing the concept of time dilation and trying to , the mass of a light particle would need to remove the v of frequency for there to be any relation to Planck's equation since in this theory frequency has no effect on mass. Either DeBroglie is calculating the mass of a group of light particles with some frequency, or the mass of a single particle - if a single particle then frequency would be irrelevant. But if for a group of particles, I think one must define the time or some limit on length - to define some finite quantity of light particles.)
(This seems like simply using a previous formula for mass of a light particle - perhaps Einstein should be credited with promoting the idea that the light particle has mass - review Einstein's first paper on light quanta again - if there is a m=... and the reference is to a light quantum, perhaps this argument could be made, although, I think perhaps the definition would perhaps more accurately be that Einstein viewed light as "energy" - clearly Einstein never explicitly says that light quanta are "light atoms" or that light has mass.)
(Is it not genius of humans to use v for both frequency and for velocity?)
| (brother Maurice's lab) Paris, France (verify) |
78 YBN
[02/06/1922 AD]
| 4323) William Henry Pickering (CE 1858-1938), US astronomer, summarizes arguments against Albert Einstein's theory of relativity in "Shall We Accept Relativity?" in "Popular Astronomy".
This article follows an obituary for Henrietta Swan Leavitt who died at the unusually early age of 53. On the same page as this important paper is on the same page is "her loss is keenly felt" - as if perhaps some kind of introduction to "Shall We Accept Relativity" - reminding insiders how Leavitt was murdered to strike at the scientists and perhaps at the Pickerings by violent antiscience and anti-women neuron writing people - and so perhaps lessening the anger that criticism of relativity may have given rise to at the time.
This article may mark the end of serious open objections to the theory of relativity which wins popular support even to now while a light as a particle of mass theory is not even allowed on the same stage. It seems clear that the light particle as being material with a mass public realization - and acceptance will happen at some future time and with this probably the theory of relativity, which held popularity for over a century will be viewed as inaccurate and completely false.
This article is full of revealing and smartly chosen words: notice use of word “interval”, “accumulated” may imply CPU/accumulator, “yet to an outsider” - “result” might be “re:assault” for those with sensitive anti-violence ears and eyes, - interesting that the title spells “s-war” - so early before ww2 –1922 perhaps insiders were already wanting that as a sick goal for money making, or sports-like entertainment, or for their quests for more earth-land.
(Possibly read entire paper)
(Does this signal the turning point, as a major defeat to a particle theory for light without an aether - and a victory for the relativity compromised theory? Or is there much more public objection published to relativity, time dilation, etc after this?)
| Luxor, Egpyt |
78 YBN
[03/01/1922 AD]
| 5163) Robert Sanderson Mulliken (CE 1896-1986), US chemist, suggests isotope separation by evaporative centrifuging.
In his paper "THE SEPARATION OF ISOTOPES BY THERMAL AND PRESSURE DIFFUSION" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Mulliken writes: " Introduction With the ultimate aim of obtaining extensive separations of isotopes, a careful preliminary study, both theoretical and experimental, is being made, in order to find the best practical method or methods. In a pre- vious paper by Mulliken and Harkins the theory was developed and equations obtained for the change of composition and atomic weight for the fractions obtained when a mixture of isotopes is subjected to a process of irreversible evaporation, molecular effusion, molecular diffusion, or gaseous diffusion. A rather complete summan of the possible methods for separating isotopes was also given (p. 62). In the present paper, the theory of the method of thermal diffusion and that of the centrifugal method, as applied to the separation of isotopes, are rather fully discussed. Equations analogous to those for the other methods of separation are obtained, and used in a study of the applicability of the methods to various isotopic elements. Conclusions are reached as to the practical value of the two methods. ... Thermal Diffusion It has been shown theoretically and experimentally that if a gaseous mixture is present in a container, one portion of which is kept hot, and another cold, an equilibrium state is attained in which there is an increased concentration of the larger or heavier molecules at the cold end, and vice versa. ... Evaporative Thermal Diffusion.-Probably the most favorable way to apply thermal diffusion would be to use a method of procedure similar to that proposed in the case of centrifugal separation, viz., to have a supply of the liquid mixture in the cold bulb, and to draw off gas very slowly from the hot bulb. The rate of separation would be the same as for an ordinary diffusion or an irreversible evaporation having a separation coefficient equal to ΔtM. As a matter of theoretical interest it is intended to test this method of "evaporative thermal diffusion" experimentally with mercury. If the process of drawing off the gas took place through a porous wall, the effect of ordinary diffusion would be added to that of thermal diffusion, and the result would be the same as for an ordinary diffusion with a separation coefficient (B + ΔtM), instead of B. This increase would, however, hardly be worth the added difficulties. Pressure Diffusion Development of Equations.--The problem of the separation of isotopes by “pressure diffusion,” that is, by virtue of variation of composition along a pressure gradient, due either to a gravitational field or to centrifugal force, has been discussed by Lindemann and Aston,” and by Chapman,8 who compares the method with that of thermal diffusion. Lindemann and Aston derive equations applicable to a gaseous mixture of two isotopes. .... Comparison of Centrifugal and Ordinary Separation Methods and Coefficients.- The following values of the "centrifugal separation coefficients" (P or P' ) have been calculated for several elements at 20": ... For ordinary air, the coefficient would be about 62 X The values for most of the even-numbered heavy elements (beginning with zinc) are doubtless high, like those for zinc and mercury. The values have been calculated chiefly from atomic weight and positive-ray analysis data;18 in the case of mercury, the value has been calculated from the approximate relation P' = M/RT.B, using the experimental value of the ordinary (diffusion) separation coefficient B obtained by Mullikeri and Harkins. An important feature of the centrifugal separation coefficient whicl1 differentiates it from the ordinary sepa- ration coefficient, is that it is i:*dependentlg of the state of combinatiovl of the element,20 and is thus characteristic of the latter. This is true for each element even in compounds, containing more than one isotopic ele- The ordinary separatio:n coefficient for a given element is in- versely proportional to the molecular weight of the compound in which it appears, but is otherwise independent of the state of ~ o m b i n a t i o n ~ ~ , ~ ~ (i. e., of the number of its atoms per molecule or the presence of other isotopic elements). Due to this mass factor, the ordinary coefficient tends to fall with increasing atomic weight of the isotopic element (this tendency is largely balanced by the increasing spread of the atomic weights of the isotopes), whereas the centrifugal separation coefficient is not so affected. Centrifugal separation is therefore relatively much more favorable to the heavy elements, as well as absolutely due to the increased number of isotopes. The effect of the atomic weight differences and of the mol-fractions of the various isotopes of a given element, is the same for both the ordinary and the centrifugal separation coefficients (also for the thermal diffusion coefficient) ; they differ in the dependence of the former (the same is true of the thermal coefficient) on the m3gnitude of the atomic (or molecular) weight. In a centrifugal separation, the degree of separation varies continuously with the distance from the axis of the apparatus] as expressed by Equation 28 or 28’. In using Equations 23 and 28 or 28’ it should be remembered that A,M is the diference in atomic weight between material in different regions. The absolute atomic weights of any fractions depend on the distribution of material in the centrifuge. The only generalization which can be made is that the original or average atomic weight must be somewhere between the extremes at center and periphery. If the material were largely concentrated in the periphery, the decrease of atomic weight would be nearly A,M for the light fraction, while the increase would be only slight for the denser fraction. Note that AjM varies as the square of the angular velocity, and also as the square of the radius. A#M also varies inversely as the absolute temperature. ... The value of the centrifugal method evidently depends on the possibility of obtaining and using a velocity approaching lo5 cm./ sec. If this can be done, the centrifugal method is clearly superior in theory to any other method for the heavier elements. The method has additional superiority in the fact that the separation should be just as great for a?zy comflound of an element, as already pointed out. There are, however, a number of difficulties, especially for the heavier elements, aside from that of obtaining the necessary speed. Drawbacks to Centrifugal Method.-Among the factors that reduce the apparent advantages of the :ipplication of the centrifugal method to the separation of gaseous isotopic mixtures are (1) the difficulty of constructing a centrifuge which could consistently turn out separated products at as great a rate as a diffusion or evaporation apparatus; (2) the fact that the value of AOM depends on (v2 - tc,2n)o, t on zi2 alone ; (3) the necessity for removi ng the products continuously while the centrifuge is moving at full speed; (4) the fact that AJ4 represents the extreme separation, and that it will be difficult to design an apparatus, continuous or otherwise, that will separate the input material at all completely into two more or less equal extreme fractions, especially in view of the fact that (5) at high speed a gas will very largely condense to a liquid, or become highly COITIpressed, close to the periphery, so that the light fraction will be extremely small. ... Method of Evaporative Centrifuging.-The following special adaptation of the centrifugal method seems rather promising as a means of securing n fairly large separation in a single operation in the case of certain gases. It should give greater separation than the method of dividing a $;as directly into fractions, as well as being largely independent of the difficulties caused by large pressure ratios. For this purpose, the apparatus should have a considerable capacity near the periphery, which ihould he in free communication with the center, so that equilibration would be rapid. The gaseous isotopic mixture to be centrifuged would be admitted through a tube connected with the center of the centrifuge. .Is the latter speeded up, more and more gas would be drawn in, and compressed or condensed in the periphery. When equilibrium had been established, under conditions such that nearly all the gas was concentrated in the periphery, the gas would be drawn off very slowly by reducing its pressure at the center of the apparatus. Any desired cut could be made, and the process would be analcgous in its results to, although entirely cliff erent in mechanism from, a process of irreversible evaporation having a separatio9z coe6cient equal to the value of A,M, which represents difference in atomic weight between center and periphery. Gas thus drawn off corresponds to the “instantaneous condensate” in an evaporation. For the residue, in the periphery, the increase in atomic weight would be ... for the gas drawn off, ...
In this last case, two separated fractions differing by 1.356 Pa2 would be obtained; whereas, by merely splitting the gas in a centrifuge at the same speed into two fractions, even if the density of the gas could be uniform, the difference in average composition of the two fractions would be only Pv2/2 units of atomic weight. The modified method thus should give a much larger practical separation, even aside from the question of the pressure ratio efyect. Further, the product can be taken off in several fractions, if desired, and a large cut can be made on the residue in one operation, greatly increasing the separation. The method thus strongly resembles the evaporation method, and may be called “evaporative centrifuging ” In practice, the efficiency of the method will be reduced somewhat (1) by the very fact that not all the gas will be in the periphery initially, and (2) by the disturbance of equilibrium caused by the drawing off of the gas For the successful operation of the method of evaporative centrifuging, the speed and quantity of material used must be so adjusted that the gas pressure at the center will be great enough to handle, while the material in the periphery is, preferably, in the liquid state. This condition can be fulfilled, up to fairly high peripheral velocities, by a few gases of high critical pressure and low boiling point, such as hydrogen chloride, bromide, selenide, telluride and silicide. .... General Considerations Respecting the Centrifuging of a Gas,-- For the lightest elements, the centrifugal method has no great theoretical superiority over the diffusion methods in degree of separation even for v = lo6. For the heavier elements or cowpounds, the pressure rntio becomes excessive at velocities too low to yield a very great separation. For gases of low critical pressure, the pressure ratio again limits the separation. For liquids, or gases of high critical temperature, Izeatiizg is required (note that the degree of separation is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature). Thus the method of evaporative centrifuging is restricted in its usefulness to some of the elements of medium atomic weight. Here a separation 10-15 times as great as that obtainable by diffusion methods can be hoped for in a single operation. .I greater separation than this in a single operation can hardly be hoped for under any practicable conditions. Factors of Importance in Separating Isotopes by the Centrifuging of a Liquid.-As far as theory is concerned, a very large separation might be expected in the centrifuging of liquid elements of high atomic weight. One great advantage of such a method would be the ease with which the material could be divided into fractions, the difficulties caused by compression and condensation in the case of gases at high pressure ratios being practically absent. .... Theory of Separation of Isotopes by Liquid Centrifuging.-Lindemann and .Iston11 give for the separation of a liquid into isotopes by centrifuging the same equation as for a gas. In connection with a discussion of the possibility of separating liquid mercury by this method, PooleZ6 gives a dctailed derivation which would lead to eqiia tions identical with those oi’ Lindemann and Aston, although Poole does not make the necessary final step. The equations in the present paper would then also hold. In Poole’s derivation, he assume; that the buoyancy effect caused by. the relative centrifugal force on the assumed two isotopes, which have equal atomic volumes, is balanced by the “osmotic pressure” which is set equal to cRT. ... continuity, to any liquid or compressed gas whatever. Experimental Work on the Separation of Isotopes by Liquid Centrifuging.- An unsuccessful attempt was made by Joly and PooleZ9 to dptect a separation of the isotopes of lead after centrifuging ordinary lead in the liquid state in steel tubes, with a peripheral velocity of lo4 cm. sec. The expected separation was, however, within the limit of error of the density determinations. They secured, nevertheless, a decided separation in the case of certain alloys. Poole26 later discussed the possibility of securing a separation with mercury, hut concluded that the separation (30 parts per million in densky) to be expected with their centrifuge would be too small to measure. Actually, much smaller changes in the density of mercury can be determined, as has been shown by Rronsted and Hevesy”O and especially by Mulliken and €Iarkins.2 TvYith the idea of testing the theory experimentally, two steel tubes were made to fit a large laboratoiy centrifuge. Thick-walled glass tubes were first tried, but their capacity was small and breakage too frequent. A speed of about 2300 r.p.m. was attained. The inner end of each tube was 7.1 cm. from the center of the centrifuge, the outer end 26.3 cm. The tubes held 13 cc. each. The calculated extreme separation is (A@) = 8.8 parts per million in density. The centrifuged material was divided into thirds, and the densities of the inner and outer thirds compared. The expected difference was about 2/3 X 8.8 = 5.9 p.p.m. (by Equation 30). This is very much greater than the experimental error in the density determinations. The results were conclusively negative to within 0.5 p.p.m. in each of three runs (a 40-minute run with glass tubes, and two %hour runs with the steel tubes). ... Conclusions in Regard to Liquid Centrifuging.-The above results give direct proof that diffusion is sufficiently rapid to permit separation, but that vibration of the centrifuge is sufficient to prevent it (the effect of vibration would of course be less if diffusion were more rapid). The result shows that on account of the latter factor, the separation of isotopes by the centrifuging of a liquid is not a promising method, although it might be possible in a very accurately, heavily constructed and perfectly balanced centrifuge. ... Summary I . The theory of the separation of isotopes by thermal diffusion and by centrifuging is discussed. Equations are developed giving the difference in atomic weight obtainable in any operation, similar to the equat ions for diffusion and evaporation processes obtained in a previous paper. 2. For thermal diffusion, the difference in atomic weight between portions of an isotopic gas at temperatures T1 and Tz, respectively is AtM= ii x B In Tl/T2, approximately, the atomic weight being greater at the wlder end. B is the ordinary separation coefficient as defined in the previous paper. K is an approximate constant for each element, having a value probably near and depending on the behavior of the molecule during jinpacts. The term KR may be called the thermal separation coefficient. ’The method of thermal diffusion is shown to be much less effective as a means of separating isotopes than ordinary diffusion or evaporation. .I somewhat more advantageous modification of the method is described under the name of evaporative thermal diffusion. 3. For the centrifuging of a gas the difference in atomic weight between the central and peripheral regions is A,M = P(v2-vo2), where P, the “centri fugal separation coefficient,” is a characteristic constant for each element (v and vfl denote velocities at the peripheral and central regions of the material under treatment). Values of P for various elements are given. It is shown that the value of P is unaffected by the state of combination of the element, even if the compound contains other isotopic elements. Thus the separation is equally great for all compounds of a given element. This is in contrast to the situation with all the other diffusion methods, for which the degree of separation of a given element in one operation is inversely proportional to the molecular weight of the compound. Further, the value of P for any elenzent is independent of the atomic weight, while the ordinary separation coefficient B is inversely proportional to the lati-er. Hence, the theory is on this basis rclatively increasingly more favorable to the centrifugal method as the atomic weight increases. two isotopes, and for a mixture of several isotopes is given by P is equal to -( 1%-M1hX2 for a mixture of 2RT z a z b X a X b ( M a -Mb) . P, unlike B, is inversely proportional to T , but 2RT depends on the atomic or molecular weight intervals (;V,-Mb) and molfractions i d s ) in the same may as B. 4. Although for the heavy elements the theory predicts, for a peripheral velocity of lo5 cm./sec a separation many times that obtainable
in a single diffusion or evaporation, it is shown that compression and condensation of the gas or vapor into the peripheral region make such large separations impracticable if carried out in any ordinary way. The pressure ratio between the two regions is given by In’?= - -*oM (strictly true only for an ideal gas), and so increases with atomic and molecular weight. 5. A special method which is called “evaporative centrifuging” is proposed whereby gas condensed in the periphery of the centrifuge at high speed would be allowed to evaporate very slowly, the light fraction being drawn off gradually at low pressure from the center of the apparatus. The process would be in effect precisely analogous to an evaporation in which the separation coefficient was increased from 6 to Pv2. This method, applicable at room temperatitre to hydrogen chloride, bromide, selenide, telluride and silicide, and perhaps to other substances, though . less advantageously, with heating, might be expected with peripheral velocities up to lo5, to yield a separation 10 or 15 times as great in a single operation as would an ordinary diffusion or evaporation. No serious ohjection to the method is obvious. The method may be the most rapid method of separating isotopes for some of the elements of medium atoniic weight, provided a suitable centrifuge of reasonable capacity and the necessary speed can be constructed. For the lighter or heavier elements, the method is less promising. 6. The theory of the separation of isotopes by the centrifuging of a liquid is discussed, and a thermodynamic demonstration given that the , degree of separation for a given apparatus is identical for liquids, gases, and intermediate states of matter. An account is given of an attempt to test the theory in the case of liquid mercury The conclusively negative results obtained are shown by an experiment to be attributable to a slight vibration of the centrifuge. This effect is likely to prove a limiting factor in any attempt to use the theoretically very promising method of liquid centrifuging. The effect of other factors is discussed. including that of diffusion rate. The latter is shown theoretically, and experinientally by determining the rate of interdiffusion of separated isotopcs, to be sufficiently great in the case of mercury (and undoubtedly in general), to permit an approach to the theoretical equilibrium state of partial separation in a few hours. The above discussion applies to the separation by centrifuging of non-isotopic gases of nearly equal molecular weight (e. g., air), and also of ideal solutions. The chief diffictilty in the case of the latter would be the effect of vibration. ... "
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
78 YBN
[03/03/1922 AD]
| 4324) William Henry Pickering (CE 1858-1938), US astronomer, argues for an all inertial universe - without gravitation, however supports an aether as opposed to material particles such as photons, etc – causing collisions. Pickering uses the analogy of a billiard ball being sent into a curved motion, like that of a planet around a star, not because of gravity, but instead because of a succession of collisions with other billiard balls.
(This may be a case of leaking information gained by some publicly unknown person that saw thought images.)
| Menton, France |
78 YBN
[04/28/1922 AD]
| 4325) William Henry Pickering (CE 1858-1938), US astronomer, doubts Airy's explanation for the astronomical phenomenon of "aberration", and also expresses doubts about the theory of relativity, in a "Popular Astronomy" article titled "Aberration and Relativity" concluding "...Much beside this that runs counter to our common sense, such as the shortening of bodies in the direction of their motion, and Minkowski's theory that time is a form of space will thus be left as mere philosophical speculations, without any physical basis of fact. Should the photographs to be taken at the coming solar eclipses of 1922 and 1923 confirm the rejected photographs taken by Crommelin in 1919, which supported Newton instead of Einsteain, and there is but little doubt that such will be the case, it is to be joped that then astronomical science will at last escape from this mathematical mare's nest of Relativity, into which a considerable portion of the English speaking world, following a few leaders, seems to have been led, and again return to the saner views held during what the Relativits are now pleased to call the "Prerelativity period.".
In 1729 James Bradley had noticed that the positions of stars move relative to the position of the earth around the Sun and determined that the apparent difference of position of the star must be due to the finite velocity of light. (I'm not exactly clear about the phenomeon of aberration. I basically accept Bradley's explanation but I think it needs to be shown graphically in a two dimensional animation. One issue is that light particles are emitted from a star in many directions and any particle stream observed can only be traced back to the same single point in space no matter from what perspective and what relative velocity of star or observer. This aberration must be observed only relative to other stars, presumably - or perhaps it is from some turning of the earth - I would have to examine photographs of the aberration phenomeon. Clearly the difference in apparent position of the distant star is relative to the earth's position and not other more distant stars. It may be some periodic tilt of the earth. Aberration is really an interesting phenomenon to appear to be so simple, but yet still debated centuries later- it needs to be clearly shown and all arguments flushed out.)
| Mandeville, Jamaica |
78 YBN
[05/19/1922 AD]
| 3612) Charles Francis Jenkins (CE 1867-1934), sends a half-tone photograph using light particles (wireless radio) and selenium light detector.
Hans Knudsen, had sent the first wireless half-tone photograph image in 1908.
Jenkins uses the mechanical image scanning system first designed by German scientists Paul Nipkow in 1884, which is a large disk with a number of small holes in a spiral pattern, the disk is spun and the holes pass one after the other over a lit image (each one dot over relative to the position of the last hole at a synchronized time interval), tracing out a series of horizontal lines. The device is slowly geared to move, so that each line is slightly lower than the previous one. The mechanical disk image scanner transmits images a line at a time. Light from the image passes through the holes and is guided by lenses and mirrors to a selenium cell. The darker areas of the image produce a weaker electrical current in the selenium cell than the light areas do. These signals are then sent to a receiver. At the receiver, the electronic signals are converted back to light which varies in intensity according to the strength of the signal. This light passes again through another spinning disk (with holes). As the disk spins, each line of the image is re-created on a small screen. (Because of the persistence of the screen in the human brain, the dots, although lit at different times, create a full two dimensional image.)
By 1832, this mechanical scanning system (also pioneered by John Logie Baird) will be replaced by electronic television systems (with no mechanical moving parts (aside from particles of electricity) those devised by Vladimir Zworykin and Philo Farnsworth.
| Washington, D.C., USA. |
78 YBN
[05/27/1922 AD]
| 5197) Jacob Aall Bonnevie Bjerknes (BIRKneS) (CE 1897-1975), Norwegian-US meteorologist, explains his "Polar Front Theory". Bjerknes and his father Vilhelm had found that the atmosphere of earth is made of air masses that are either warm tropical air or cold polar air, and the sharp boundaries between them they call “fronts” (similar to battle lines in war).
During World War I Bjerknes works with his father in establishing a series of weather observation stations throughout Norway. From the data collected, and working with other meteorologists like Tor Bergeron, the Bjerknes develop their theory of polar fronts. The Bjerknes' establish that the atmosphere is composed of distinct air masses possessing different characteristics and apply the term ‘front’ to the boundary between two air masses. The polar front theory shows how cyclones (low-pressure centers) originate from atmospheric fronts over the Atlantic Ocean where a warm air mass meets a cold air mass.
The two “jet streams” of earth will be first identified when US bomber pilots on their way to Japan find themselves virtually motionless, stuck in a fast wind from West to East. The jet streams are streams of rapidly moving air, 199 to 200 miles per hour, at a height of six to nine miles up. One of the jet streams is in the northern hemisphere and the other in the southern hemisphere. These streams follow the paths between the polar and tropical air masses and therefore are usually areas of many storms. The changing courses of the jet streams are used to predict future weather.
(Clearly, humans cannot predict the future movement of the weather 1 month in advance, but yet they claim with certainty that relativity describes the movement of planet Mercury's orbit around the Sun more accurately than Newton's equation do.)
| (Geophysical Institute) Bergen, Norway |
78 YBN
[05/??/1922 AD]
| 4104) Jacobus Cornelius Kapteyn (KoPTIN) (CE 1851-1922), Dutch astronomer estimates the shape of the galaxy to be rotating, and spheroid with the Sun near the center.
With the newly obtained results on stellar density distribution (the "Kapteyn system') and the new knowledge of stellar movements (the peculiar motions, solar motion, and star streams), Kapteyn towards the end of his career develops a dynamical theory for the galaxy.
Kapteyn spends a large amount of time counting the many stars in small samples from various directions in order to determine the shape of the galaxy as Hershel had done a century earlier and concludes, as Hershel had, that the galaxy is a large lens-shaped object with the sun near the center. Kapteyn's estimate of the size of the Milky Way galaxy is 9 times larger than Hershel's, estimating the size to be 55,000 light years (the space a particle of light covers in one earth year) in diameter, and 11,000 light years thick. Shapley will later prove that the sun is located near the outside of the plane of the Milky Way (by locating globular clusters which he presumes to be evenly distributed around the galaxy center?).
Kapteyn is able to measure the motion of the sun common to all the other stars, (explain method) and finds that this motion, attributed to the movement of our star, is smaller the more distant the star's velocity being measured is. Using this method, Kapteyn is able to determine the distances of stars beyond the previous limits. (This is the basis of perspective, for example like being in a moving car, how close objects appear to have a high velocity, while the more distant objects seem to barely move)
(It seems impossible, in my mind, to be able to know which part of an observed velocity is from our star and which is from the observed star. Perhaps there is some trend which allows people to estimate the velocity of a star because of the velocity of other nearby stars. As far as I can see, the individual motion/velocity of a star in this galaxy as measured from a star in this galaxy, can only be measured using other distant galaxies, but I have never heard this.)
| (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
78 YBN
[08/01/1922 AD]
| 4820) US physiologists, Joseph Erlanger (CE 1874-1965) and Herbert Spencer Gasser (CE 1888-1963) use Ferdinand Braun's oscillograph (invented in 1897) to observe currents in nerve fibers amplified using a string galvanometer.
Erlanger and Gasser investigate the transmission of a nerve impulse along a frog nerve kept in a moist chamber at constant temperature. Their innovation is to study the transmission with the cathode-ray oscillograph, invented by Ferdinand Braun in 1897, which enables them to picture the changes to the impulse as it travels along the nerve.
Erlanger and Gasser end their paper writing: "In frog nerve and some mammalian nerves there are secondary waves on the catacrotic limb. Suggestions are made as to the cause of these waves.", perhaps relating to the conflict of World War I which had just ended.
(show device, a cathode ray tube where the spot of green fluorescence formed by the stream of electrons is shifted by an electric field made by a varying current.)
(Note that the public is still waiting for the simple experiment of using a particle beam to remotely make a neuron fire - no less than 200 years after Galvani did this directly.)
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
78 YBN
[11/??/1922 AD]
| 3883) Hugo Gernsback (CE 1884–1967), publishes an article in his November 1922 magazine "Science and Invention" entitled "The Thought Wave Detector". (see image) "Science and Invention", is one of the first science fiction magazines, which Gernsback changes into "Amazing Stories". Notice the possible coincidence between "amazing" and "a-maser-ing stories" (stories of people who were murdered by a maser).
| New York City, NY (presumably) |
78 YBN
[12/09/1922 AD]
| 5111) Arthur Holly Compton (CE 1892-1962), US physicist, recognizes that, like visible light, a beam with a large enough angle of incidence will be totally reflected from the surface of a refractive material. Compton determines the index of refraction, using x-rays, for glass, lacquer, and silver.
This reflection method will allow x-ray reflection spectra to be taken from a machine ruled grating. In 1927 Osgood will use a concave grating to obtain spectral lines of wave-lengths (intervals) between 40-200 A which bridges the space between X-ray and ultra-violet frequencies of light.
(More detail - Compton will use this later in using a grating.)
(Does Compton verify the indeces of refraction with visible light measurements?)
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
78 YBN
[12/13/1922 AD]
| 5108) Arthur Holly Compton (CE 1892-1962), US physicist, finds that reflected (scattered) x-rays lengthen their wavelength (interval) ("Compton effect") and concludes that a light quantum has momentum.
Compton finds that X-rays, in scattering by graphite, lengthen their wavelength, and this will be called the “Compton effect”. Compton explains this by theorizing that a photon of light collides with an electron, which recoils, subtracting some energy from the photons therefore increasing its wavelength. Compton uses the technique of the Braggs to measure the wavelength of the scattered X-rays. A few years later Raman will find a similar effect with visible light.
Compton publishes these results in an article in "The Physical Review" entitled "A Quantum Theory of the Scattering of X-Rays by Light Elements". Compton's abstract reads: " A quantum theory of the scattering of X-rays and γ-rays by light elements. - The hypothesis is suggested that when an X-ray quantum is scattered it spends all of its energy and momentum upon some particular electron. This electron in turn scatters the ray in some definite direction. The change in momentum of the X-ray quantum due to the change in its direction of propagation results in a recoil of the scattering electron. The corresponding increase in the wave-length of the scattered beam is {ULSF: see equation} where h is the Planck constant, m is the mass of the scattered electron, c is the velocity of light, and θ is the angle between the incident and the scattered ray. Hence the increase is independent of the wave-length. The distribution of the scattered radiation is found, by an indirect and not quite rigid method, to be concentrated in the forward direction according to a definite law (Eq. 27). The total energy removed from the primary beam comes out less than that given by the classical Thomson theory... Of this energy a fraction ... reappears as scattered radiation, while the remained is truly absorbed and transformed into kinetic energy of recoil of the scattering electrons. ... Unpublished experimental results are given which show that for graphite and the Mo-K radiation the scattered radiation is longer than the primary, the observed different ... being close to the computed value .024. in the case of scattered γ-rays, the wave-length has been found to vary with θ in agreement with the theory, increasing from .022 A (primary) to .068 A (θ=135°). Also the velocity of secondary β-rays excited in light elements by γ-rays agrees with the suggestion that they are recoil electrons. As for the predicted variation of absorption with λ, Hewlett's results for carbon for wave-lengths below 0.5 A are in excellent agreement with this theory; also the predicted concentration in the forward direction is shown to be in agreement with the experimental results, both for X-rays and γ-rays. This remarkable agreement between experiment and theory indicates clearly that scattering is a quantum phenomenon and can be explained without introducing any new hypothesis as to the size of the electron or any new constants; also that a radiation quantum carries with it momentum as well as energy. The restriction to light elements is due to the assumption that the constraining forces acting on the scattering electrons are negligible, which is probably legitimate only for the lighter elements. Spectrum of K-rays from Mo scattered by graphite, as compared with the spectrum of the primary rays, is given in Fig. 4, showing the change of wavelength. Radiation from a moving isotropic radiator.-It is found that in a direction θ with the velocity {ULSF: see equation}. For the total radiation from a black body in motion to an observer at rest, I/I' = (T/T')4 = (vm/vm')4, where the primed quantities refer to the body at rest.".
In his paper Compton writes: " J. J. Thomson's classical theory of the scattering of X-rays, though supported by the early experiments of Barkla and others, has been found incapable of explaining many of the more recent experiments. This theory, based upon the usual electrodynamics, leads to the results that the energy scattered by an electron traversed by an X-ray beam of unit intensity is the same whatever may be the wave-length of the incident rays. Moreover, when the X-rays traverse a thin layer of matter, the intensity of the scattered radiation on the two sides of the layer should be the same. Experiments on the scattering of X-rays by light elements have shown that these predictions are correct when X-rays of moderate hardness are employed; but when very hard X-rays or γ-rays are employed, the scattered energy is found to be decidedly less than Thomson's theoretical value, and to be strongly concentrated on the emergent side of the scattering plate. Several years ago the writer suggested that this reduced scattering of the very short wave-length X-rays might be the result of interference between the rays scattered by different parts of the electron, if the electron's diameter is comparable with the wave-length of the radiation. By assuming the proper radius for the electron, this hypothesis supplied a quantitative explanation of the scattering for any particular wave-length. But recent experiments have shown that the size of the electron which must thus be assumed increases with the wave-length of the X-rays employed, and the conception of an electron whose size varies with the wave-length of the incident rays is difficult to defend. Recently an even more serious difficulty with the classical theory of X-ray scattering has appeared. It has long been known that secondary γ-rays are softer than the primary rays which excite them, and recent experiments have shown that this is also true of X-rays. By a spectroscopic examinatino of the secondary X-rays from graphite, I have, indeed, been able to show that only a small part, if any, of the secnodary X-radiation is of the same wave-length as the primary. While the energy of the secondary X-radiation is so nearly equal to that calcualted from Thomson's classical theory that it is difficult to attribute it to anything other than true scattering, these results show that if there is any scattering comparable in magnitude with that predicted by Thomson, it is of a greater wave-length than the primary X-rays. Such a change in wave-length is directly counter to Thomson's theory of scattering, for this demands that the scattering electrons, radiating as they do because of their forced vibrations when traversed by a primary X-ray, shall give rise to raditiation of exactly the same frequency as that of the radiation falling upon them. Nor does any modification of the theory such as the hypothesis of a large electron suggest a way out of the difficulty. This failure makes it appear improbably that a satisfactory explanation of the scattering of X-rays can be reached on the basis of the classical electrodynamics. The Quantum Hypothesis of Scattering According to the classical theory, each X-ray affects every electron in the matter traversed, and the scattering observed is that due to the combined effects of all the electrons. From the point of view of the quantum theory, we may suppose that any particular quantum of X-rays is not scattered by all the electrons in the radiator, but spends all of its energy upon some particular eletron. This electron will in turn scatter the ray in some definite direction, at an angle with the incident beam. This bending of the path of the quantum of radiation results in a change in its moementum. As a consequence, the scattering electron will recoil with a momentum equal to the change in momentum of the X-ray. The energy in the scattered ray will be equal to that in the incident ray minus the kinetic energy of the recoil of the scattering electron; and since the scattered ray must be a complete quantum, the frequency will be reduced in the same ratio as is the energy. Thus on the quantum theory we should expect the wave-length of the scattered X-rays to be greater than that of the incident rays. The effect of the momentum of the X-ray quantum is to set the scattering electron in motion at an angle of less than 90° with the primary beam. But it is well known that the energy radiated by a moving body is greater in the directino of its motion. We should therefore expect, as is experimentally observed, that the intensity of the scattered radiation should be greater in the general direction of the primary X-rays than in the reverse direction. ... A quantitative test of the accuracy of Eq. (31) is possible in the case of the characteristic K-rays from molybdenum when scattered by graphite. In Fig. 4 is shown a spectrum of the X-rays scattered by graphite at right angles with the primary beam, when the graphite is traversed by X-rays from a molybdenum target. The solid line represents the spectrum of these scattered rays, and is to be compared with the broken line, which represents the spectrum of the primary rays, using the same slits and crystal, and the same potential on the tube. The primary spectrum is, of course, plotted on a much smaller scale than the seconday. The zero point for the spectrum of both the primary and secondary X-rays was determined by finding the position of the first order lines on both sides of the zero point. it will be seen that the wave-length of the scattered rays is unquestionably greater than that of the primary rays which excite them. Thus the Kα line from molybdenum has a wave-length 0.708 A. The wave-length of this line in the scattered beam is found in these experiments, however, to be 0.730 A. ... Velocity of recoil of the scattering electrons.- The electrons which recoil in the process of the scattering of ordinary X-rays have not been observed. This is probably because their number and velocity is uisually small compared with the number and velocity of the photoelectrons ejected as a result of the characteristic fluorescent absorption. ... Discussion This remarkable agreement between our formulas and the experiments can leave but little doubt that the scattering of X-rays is a quantum phenomenon. The hypothesis of a large electron to explain these effects is accordingly superfluous, for all the experiments on X-ray scattering to which this hypothesis has been applied are now seen to be explicable from the point of view of the quantum theory without introducing any new hypotheses or constants. in addition, the present theory accounts satisfactorily for the change in wave-length due to scattering, which was left unaccounted for on the hypothesis of the large electron. From the standpoint of the scattering of X-rays and γ-rays, therefore, there is no longer any support for the hypothesis of an electron whose diameter is comparable with the wave-length of hard X-rays. The present theory depends essentially upon the assumptino that each electron which is effective in the scattering scatters a complete quantum. It involves also the hypothesis that the quanta of radiation are received from definite directions and are scattered in definite directions. The experimental support of the theory indicates very convincingly that a radiation quantum carries with it directed momentum as well as energy. Emphasis has been laid upon the fact that in its present form the quantum theory of scattering applies only to light elements. The reason for this restriction is that we have tacitly assumed that there are no forces constraint acting upon the scattering electrons. This assumption is probably legitimate in the case of the very light elements, but cannot be true for the heavy elements. For if the kinetic energy of recoil of an electron is less than the energy required to remove the electron from the atom, there is no chance for the electron to recoil in the manner we have supposed. The conditions of scattering in such a case remain to be investigated. The manner in which interference occurs, as for example in the cases of excess scattering and X-ray reflection, is not yet clear. Perhaps if an electron is bound in the atom too firmly to recoil, the incident quantum of radiation may spread itself over a large number of electrons, distributing its energy and momentum among them, thus making intereference possible. In any case, the problem of scattering is so closely allied with those of reflection and intereference that a study of the problem may very possibly shed some light upon the difficult question of the relation between interference and the quantum theory. ... ".
Compton describes the apparatus used and more details about the experiment to determine change in wave-length in a later paper of May 9, 1923. (Make separate record for?)
(Notice "superfluous" which must refer to Einstein's description of an aether in his famous 1905 paper on Relativity.)
(Has the Compton effect been found for electron, neutron and other particle beams?)
(So Compton compares a single reflected beam with a twice reflected measurement to determine change in wave-length: the primary beam is reflected off (presumably) a salt crystal and the angle measured of the scattered beams, and then the original beam is scattered off graphite, and the reflected beams are are reflected a second time off of the salt crystal - so in theory what Compton is calling a primary wavelength is actually after a single reflection from a salt crystal which might result in a lowering of wavelength.)
(Is this light quantum mometum p=mc? or p=1/2mc? My own view is that p=mc and that Einstein's famous E=mc2 should probably be E=1/2mc2, simply the equation for kinetic energy but where velocity is the velocity of a light particle. But energy, as a concept is somewhat flawed in my view since the implication is that mass and motion can be exchanged which seems unlikely to me, but that view should be explored too.) (I view light as a material particle. Without doubt, there is a lowering of wavelength for the x-rays, which also implies that the red-shifted calcium absorption lines and theoretically the emission light from other galaxies might change wave-length from similar collisions. Clearly, Compton's theory of a light quantum losing energy has consequences. For example this loss of energy must come from either mass or motion or both. If we presume that no mass is lost, then we have to conclude that there is a change in the velocity of the light, which must be verified and appears to be in conflict with the theory that the speed of light is constant. Another alternative is that somehow the light particles are simply delayed in some kind of reflection which changes their course. It seems logical that the larger the direction change of the particle the longer the delay their might be. This is clearly an example of how the word "energy" and/or "momentum" appear to me as a kind of curtain which hides the more specific quantities of mass and motion - or these terms are somehow used in a sense that matter and motion can somehow be exchanged.)
(Describe what materials Compton uses. Are photographic plates used?)
(Again, I view light as a material particle. I doubt that a photon's “energy” is changed or somehow made less. I think that possibly a certain number of photons are reflected in a different direction at some rate that constitutes a lesser wavelength. I think I need to see the method of detection. Clearly all matter is conserved, and it seems somewhat doubtful that the photon changes velocity. It is possible that Compton's explanation is correct but that energy is not lost but velocity, but then the photon would be detected to be moving slower. EX: maybe there is some way of determining if the photons reflected at lower frequency are actually moving 3e8m/s. For example, Raman finds that there is only a faint beam that is in a lowered wavelength. Perhaps photons are absorbed in atoms, and then emitted (although in the same direction seems unlikely), and when they are emitted there is a delay. For example an atom absorbs a photon very briefly and emits it when the next photon is absorbed. Ultimately because the wavelength is less, there have to be fewer photons over time, and what is happening to the back-up of photons? My guess if that they are absorbed by the material, and so the materials that lower the wavelength probably heat up more (or reflect more photons) than those that do not. Clearly these wavelengths are not multiple wavelengths of the source, so that it would be easy to say that every other photon is absorbed. In addition, perhaps this interaction only involves one atom, but maybe it involves more than one. Perhaps one atom is pushed by a photon, and a second atom collides with the next photon - like billiard balls.)
(Show the math behind Compton's explanation and any images of devices used, spectra photographed, etc.)
(It is interesting how scientists, turned to the word "scattered" as opposed to "reflected" in order to avoid using "diffracted", which has a light-is-a-wave implication. Perhaps "reflected" implies a single reflected direction, where "scattered" implies a larger dispersion of the incident light.)
(In terms of Compton's "loss of energy theory", this implies that there is either a loss of motion or a loss of mass or both, and so a loss of motion is ruled out if one believes that the motion of a photon is constant. If there is a loss in motion, then this would imply that the resulting light beam would have a slower velocity than the traditional velocity of light. A change in mass appears to be ruled out if one believes that all photons are atoms of light which do not have variable masses - that all photons have identical masses. A beams of photons simply being reflected around in an atomic lattice does not explain a longer wavelength, but only a delay of the beam. Perhaps some photons are removed, for example, by absorption, but then the resulting beam would have a multiple, or incoherent interval. Perhaps the change in frequency is due to a reflection which slightly changes the angle of each incident photon. For example, a beam arrives at 45 degrees and exits at 40 degrees, so a detector at 45 degrees sees a change in interval because the resulting beam is directed at 40 degrees.)
(EXPERIMENT: Does the angle of the detector change the frequency of the received beam? )
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 3978) Georges Friedel (CE 1865-1933) classifies thermotropic liquid crystals into three kinds: smectic, nematic, and cholesteric types. In smectic (Greek for grease or clay) type liquid crystals, cigar-like molecules are arranged side by side in a series of layers. The layers are free to slip and move over each other, and so the smectic state is viscous, but fluid and ordered. Nematic (Greek for thread-like) types contain molecules that are not as ordered as in the smectic state, but they maintain their parallel order, on average in one direction, the direction usually represented by a vector n called a director. Liquid crystals used in electronic displays are primarily of the nematic type. Cholesteric liquid crystals usually contain a large number of compounds containing cholesterol, and are arranged in layers. Within each layer, molecules are aligned in parallel, similar to those in nematic liquid crystals. The director n in each layer is displaced slightly from the director in the adjacent layer, so that the displacement traces out a helical path, which causes interesting phenomena such as optical rotation, selective reflection and two-color circular polarization.
| School of Mines, Saint-Etienne, France (presumably) |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4362) Elmer Verner McCollum (CE 1879-1967), US biochemist, in collaboration with other members of the Johns Hopkins medical school, identify what is now known as fat-soluable vitamin D (the antirachitic factor). Vitamin C had been already assigned to the factor that when missing causes scurvy, found in the citris fruits used by Lind to cure the disease 150 years earlier.
McCollum shows that a deficiency of calcium will eventually produce tetany, muscular spasm. (chronology)
McCollum shows that (mammals and perhaps other classes?) do not need phosphorus containing (organic) materials like those first reported by Harden, but that (mammals) can use simple inorganic phosphates as a source for phosphorus.
(more specific, how can phosphorus containing molecules be carbon-based? clearly a is using organic to mean more than just carbon based, but molecules that are found in living tissue? a doesn't give examples of molecules Harden reported.)
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4444) Hermann Walther Nernst (CE 1864-1941), German physical chemist invents an electric piano (is this the first? a: which was never heard from again. t: this is not the ancestor of all electric pianos? was this a player piano or a keyboard that produces electric sounds?)
In 1922 Nernst examines the idea that the concert grand might be replaced with a small piano that is magnetically controlled and furnished with loudspeaker amplification. Nernst calls his instrument the Neo-Bechstein flügel.
| ( University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4467) John Stanley Plaskett (CE 1865-1941), Canadian astronomer uses a 72-inch reflector telescope to identify a binary star system called "Plaskett's twins" which will be the most massive known stars for the next 50 years.
Using the 72-inch reflector and a highly sensitive spectrograph, Plaskett discovers many spectroscopic binary systems.
(how is their mass measured? Based on size and/or color?)
| (Victoria Observatory) Victoria, British Colombia |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4490) Charles Lane Poor (1866-1951), US astronomer publishes the book "Gravitation Versus Relativity" (1922) which doubts the accuracy of Einstein's theory of relativity.
Poor draws attention to the fact that Newton and other later people generalize the shape of planets as spheres, but the the shape of planets and other matter is not perfectly spherical, but is instead, very irregular. Poor also draws attention to the fact that there is much mass around the stars and planets that is ignored in calculating the motions of the planets.
Poor puts forward a theory that the sun spot cycle correlates to an eleven year cycle of the sun expanding and the contracting. To me this seems a possibility in that the formation of sun spots is gas condensing and then under the increased mass falling back to the surface again to start again the cycle of heating up, rising away from the sphere, as a result, cooling, forming a solid darker mass, and with this larger density, falling back to the surface. But I don't think this is the current view, and the data needs to be carefully examined to see if this is a possibility. But if true, Poor would be the first I am aware of to make this theory public.
Poor gives numerous arguments against the so-called proof of the theory of relativity better explaining the movement of the perihelion of planet Mercury. Poor states that as early as 1748, Euler showed that the spheroidal figure of Jupiter would cause irregularities in the motions of the satellites, and Poor states that in 1758 "...Walmsley showed that the elliptical shape of Jupiter would cause a rotation of the orbit of each satellite, a rotation exactly similar to the now much discussed motion of the perihelion of Mercury.".
(In my own experience modeling various masses under Newton's law, I find often that an orbit will rotate, in fact a changing orbit is probaby the rule and a regular perfectly stationary orbit is an exception and in terms of exact precision an impossibility.)(Show video examples)
(Get photo of Poor)
(There is no doubt in my mind that the concepts of space and time dilation and contraction are inaccurate, in particular being created by George FitzGerald and Henderik Lorentz to accomodate an aether theory, in particular in light of the secret of neuron reading and writing.)
| (Johns Hopkins University), Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4726) Secret: George Ellery Hale (CE 1868-1938), US astronomer uses the word "render" in his book "The New Heavens" (1922) which is a historical keyword which may imply that by 1922 the neuron reading and writing administration of most developed nations is modeling and tracking most humans in three dimensions in real-time.
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4875) Charles Franklin Kettering (CE 1876-1958), US inventor with Thomas Midgley, Jr. (CE 1889-1944), and T. A. Boyd add tetraethyl lead to gasoline which removes "knock" (when an engine makes a regular loud banging noise) which Kettering determines is when fuel fails to combust. The resulting product, ethyl gasoline, is put on the market in 1922.
| (Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co) Dayton, Ohio, USA |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4940) (Sir) Charles Leonard Woolley (CE 1880-1960), English archaeologist begins excavating the ancient city of Ur (1922–34). Woolley uncovers many artifacts from the ancient Sumerian city of Ur (in modern Iraq, then under British control), the earliest of the great civilizations, the first (before 3000 BCE) to devise a system of writing. According to the Old Testament, Abraham had moved from Ur to Canaan. Woolley finds evidence of flooding which may have given rise to the biblical tale of the flood, but this was in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. These excavations reveal much about everyday life, art, architecture, literature, government, and religion in what has come to be called “the cradle of civilization.”.
(The earliest flood story comes from Sumer -verify)
In the 1930s Woolley uncovers the relics of a Hurrian kingdom in northern Syria.
| Ur (modern Iraq) |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 4951) Hermann Staudinger (sToUDiNGR) (CE 1881-1965), German chemist and J. Fritschi propose that polymers are actually giant molecules (macromolecules) that are held together by normal covalent bonds.
Is paper: ?
Staudinger and Fritschi show that various plastics being produced are polymers with simple units being arranged in a straight line, and not disorderly conglomerates of small molecules as some people had thought.
The concept that polymers are giant molecules held together with normal covalent bonds is a concept that meets with resistance from many authorities. Throughout the 1920s, the researches of Staudinger and others show that small molecules form long, chainlike structures (polymers) by chemical interaction and not simply by physical aggregation. Staudinger shows that such linear molecules can be synthesized by a variety of processes and that they can maintain their identity even when subject to chemical modification. Staudinger’s work provides the theoretical basis for polymer chemistry and greatly contributes to the development of modern plastics.
Starch and cellulose are natural polymers built of glucose molecules from which water has been subtracted. Proteins are polymers built up our of amino acids from which water has been subtracted.
Staudinger's work on polymers begins with research he conducts for the German chemical firm BASF on the synthesis of isoprene (1910). A product which may have lead to the first artificial muscles, which may allow light weight walking robots.
| |
78 YBN
[1922 AD]
| 5047) Alexander Alexandrovich Friedmann (FrEDmoN) (CE 1888-1925), Russian mathematician, removes the “cosmological term” from Einstein's general theory of relativity and is the first to work out the mathematical analysis of an expanding universe.
Einstein later will describe the cosmological constant as the greatest mistake of his life. Friedmann's model of the universe is the first to create the idea of a “big bang” beginning of an expanding universe which Lemaître and Gamow will popularize, and which will ultimately dominate cosmology for nearly a century and perhaps longer.
William de Sitter had predicted an expanding universe in 1919. Arthur Eddington will develop the expanding universe theory in 1930.
(In my view relativity, while creative, is inaccurate, since space and time dilation is probably false.)
(I reject this big bang expanding universe theory arguing for an infinitely large and old universe. Perhaps the shift of absorption lines in the spectrum of spiral galaxies is due to a more distant light source gives light more time to spread out - for example the spectrum of a close light is larger than the spectrum of a distant light. Binary spectroscopic pairs have shown that the calcium absorption lines are due to interstellar matter and do not move with the emission spectrum of the binary star pairs. It is not clear if the claim is that the emission spectrum of spiral galaxies, which is continuous except for absorption lines, is shifted so the uv and xray frequencies are shifted into the visible. Presuming an emission (bright line) Doppler shift shift from spiral galaxies, this may be caused by a stretching of light beams from gravity as apparently shown by the Mössbaur effect. In addition, in terms of a finite sized universe, it seems to me that there must be galaxies so far away that not one beam of light reaches our telescopes. But the big-bang expanding universe theory will continue to stand because of the power of tradition and authority. )
(I think there is a simple mistake in the “space ship” examples given many times where the view is the person that moves faster and reaches the destination quicker is actually younger, than a person who moves more slowly. Aside from the claim of time dilation, I think many people wrongly accept a feeling that a person that arrives at, for example, another star faster, actually is younger, because they have reached the star before the slower person, and so are therefore experiencing life faster than the other person, but the reality is that the faster person simply reached the destination quicker, but time is still the same throughout the universe. It may appear that the faster person is younger and living more life in a given time, but (aside from the theory of time-dilation), the slower person is aging at the same rate, but is simply in a different part of the universe. One interesting thing is that given two points, if one if moving near the speed of light relative to the other, it also implies that the other is moving near the speed of light, so do they both experience a time-slowing? Do clocks tick the same speed for both? It seems unlikely to me. but probably the more believable view is where some object's velocity is measured against the other pieces of matter in the universe. in other words, we view the speed of a photon at 3e8m/s compared to all the galaxies, stars, planets, and earth bound objects we know of, and so humans are probably implicitly presuming that a ship is moving with a velocity relative to those objects (galaxies, stars, planets...in particular earth bound objects). It's interesting to realize that we tend to think that light from the sun is moving toward us at 3e8m/s, but in the same way we (or perhaps photons in our body) are moving towards those particles of light at -3e8m/s. Since we are not moving towards the sun, the temporary source of light, it seems far more logical to view the photons as moving towards us, and we having a 0 velocity relative to them. But the example still exists: for example accelerated electrons, isn't the observer accelerating in the opposite direction at the same relative velocity? If yes, which seems true, why would the observer not experience the same time and space dilation? And I think the reason they do not, is that there is no time or space dilation, that the electron or the observer experiences. The increase in required electric potential is probably due to the physical properties of electrical field accelerating of charged particles, not from an increase in the mass of an electron, or the slowing of time for an electron. Compared to an electron or photon speeding away, we are moving at the same relative velocity, but yet we do not experience space or time dilation, so why should the particle? About the slipperiest way to get out of this is to compare a velocity to all other pieces of matter in the universe, but that is complex, because, clearly, there are many relative velocities, but is there some overall collective velocity for most of the matter? Perhaps it all averages out to 0 m/s relative to photons, but I think we need to describe velocity as relative between individual points. ) (The majority of new theories, even those accepted and popular today, were almost all viewed with suspicion initially. Rarely are new theories quickly accepted, although there are certainly those who quickly recognize the truth in a new theory, they are usually in the minority, even when there is no pre-existing competing theory.)
| (Academy of Sciences) Petrograd, Russia |
77 YBN
[01/02/1923 AD]
| 5003) György (George) Hevesy (HeVesE) (CE 1885-1966), Hungarian-Danish-Swedish chemist and Dutch physicist, Dirk Coster (CE 1889-1950) isolate element 72, named hafnium (the Latinized name of Copenhagen). Moseley uses X-ray analysis to verify that this atom (has no known spectrum). Bohr had suggested that this element, one of the last unidentified elements, be looked for in the ores of the metal zirconium, which is just about this element in the periodic table.
Coster and Hevesy write: "SINCE Moseley's discovery of the fundamental laws of the X-ray emission, it has become quite clear that the most simple and conclusive characteristic of a Chemical element is given by its X-ray spectrum. In addition, Moseley's laws allow us to calculate very accurately the wave-lengths of the X-ray spectral lines for any element in the periodic table, if those of the elements in its neighbourhood are known. Taking into account that the presence of a very small proportion of a definite element in any chemical substance suffices to give a good X-ray spectrum of this element, it is quite evident that for the eventual discovery of any unknown element X-ray spectroscopy, especially as it has been developed by Siegbahn, represents the most effective method. .... In a Norwegian zirconium mineral the new lines were so intense that we estimate the quantity of the element 72 present in it to be at least equal to one per cent. Besides we investigated with low tension on the tube a sample of "pure zirconiumoxyde." Also with this specimen the La lines were found, but very faint. It seems to be very probable that ordinary zirconium contains at least from 0.01 to 0.1 per cent. of the new element. Especially the latter circumstance proves that the element 72 is chemically homologous to zirconium. Experiments are in progress to isolate the new element and to determine its chemical propweries. For the new element we propose the name Hafnium (Hafniae=Copenhagen).".
(It is intersting that Hafnium is not listed as a radioactivie element, but yet x-ray spectral emission lines are used to identify it.)
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
77 YBN
[02/27/1923 AD]
| 4996) Peter Joseph Wilhelm Debye (DEBI) (CE 1884-1966), Dutch-US physical chemist extends the work of Arrhenius, who suggested that electrolytes dissociate into positive and negative charged ions, but not necessarily completely, by maintaining that most salts have to ionize completely because X-ray analysis shows that they exist in ionic form in the crystal before they are ever dissolved. Debye explains that the reason the solution seems to be incompletely ionized is (in a liquid) each positive ion is surrounded by negative ions, and each negative ion is surrounded by positive ions, and this created drag (friction). (but wouldn't there be more of a uniform distribution? Why do some single ions have clouds around them, when other are part of the cloud? Shouldn't they all have a similar effect on each other?)
This is known as the Debye–Hückel theory of electrolytes.
| (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
77 YBN
[05/04/1923 AD]
| 5004) First radioactive "tracer".
György (George) Hevesy (HeVesE) (CE 1885-1966), Hungarian-Danish-Swedish chemist is able to follow the absorption and distribution in plants of a radioactive isotope of lead dissolved in water. Although lead is not a normal component of living tissues, this will lead to the use of radioactive substances that are usually found in living tissue after the creation of artificial radioactivity by the Joliot-Curies, so that usually nonradioactive substances can be made radioactive, and these isotopes will be used as “tracers” to show how these atoms are used in living tissue and will reveal a large amount of information about the metabolism of living cells and tissue.
This is the first application of a radioactive tracer – Pb–212 – to a biological system. The Pb–212 is used to label a lead salt that plants take in with water. At various time intervals plants are burned and the amount of lead taken in can be determined by simple measurements of the amount of radioactivity present. After the discovery of artificial radioactivity by Irène and Frédéric Joliot-Curie in 1934, Hevesy's radioactive tracers develop into one of the most widely used and powerful techniques for the investigation of living and of complex systems.
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
77 YBN
[06/14/1923 AD]
| 3613) Charles Francis Jenkins (CE 1867-1934), transmits and receives the first electronic (photographic) moving (silhouette) images using photons (wireless radio).
| Washington, D.C., USA. |
77 YBN
[09/06/1923 AD]
| 4842) Alwin Mittasch, Mathias Pier, and Karl Winkler at (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik) BASF synthesize methanol from carbon monoxide and hydrogen at high temperature and pressure with a catalyst. Catalysts include zinc oxide with chromium oxide, and zinc oxide with other heavy metal oxides.
(describe more the synthesis of methanol - how interesting to create a liquid from 2 gases apparently by increasing pressure.)
| (BASF) Ludwigshafen-on-the-Rhine, Germany |
77 YBN
[09/10/1923 AD]
| 5104) (Prince) Louis Victor Pierre Raymond De Broglie (BrOGlE) (CE 1892-1987), French physicist views light as a material particle ("atoms of light") with a mass less than 10-50 grams, and that the "phase wave" of an electron is Bohr's model of the atom must be in tune with the length of the closed path to be stable.
De Broglie combines the E=mc2 equation of Einstein relating mass and energy, and the E=hf equation of Planck, relating frequency and energy, to show that with any particle there should be an associated wave (which will come to be called a “matter wave”). The wavelength of a particle is inversely related to the momentum of the particle (p=mv momentum=mass x velocity).
In this view only objects with a small mass, such as electrons will have a detectable wavelength (the claim is that an object as large as a ball would have too large a mass for a matter wave to be detected, the wavelength being too small. De Broglie's predicts that an electron, because of its small mass should have a wavelength as big as some X-ray wavelengths and so can be detected. Davisson and G. P. Thomson will detect this wavelength in beams of electrons in 1927. De Broglie finds this idea when he was searching for a symmetric inverse of the Compton effect, that if waves are particles, so could particles be waves. The particle-wave dualism for the electron matches the wave-particle dualism for the photon as Compton had shown. This dual nature of matter serves to support Einstein's equating of mass and energy. Schrödinger will use this new wave concept of the electron to create a model of the atom in which the jumping of electrons of Bohr is replaced by standing electron waves. Schrödi nger extends de Broglie’s results in the winter of 1925–1926 into a wave mechanics, working out the wave equation of the theory. However, Schrödinger, while extending and completing in an essential way the original framework, alters de Broglie’s original picture, granting reality only to the waves and refusing wave-particle dualism.
Similarly, in connection with chemical bonding, the static electrons of Lewis will be replaced by the resonating electron waves of Pauling.
(Todo: get better translation for Frech paper)
In the September 10, Comptes Rendus article "Ondes et Quanta", Broglie writes (translted from French by translate.google.com): "Consider a moving mass of material of mass m0 that moves compared with one fixed observer with a velocity v βc (β<1). According to the principle of inertia of energy, it must have an internal energy equal to m0c2. On the other hand, the principle of quanta led to attribute this internal energy at a single frequency periodic phenomenon that v0 as hv0 = m0c2,
c is always the speed limit of the theory of relativity and h la constant of Planck. For the stationary observer, the total energy of the moving body corresponds to a frequency
v=m0c2/h√I-β2. But if the stationary observer observes the periodic phenomenon internal of the moving object, it will see it slowed down and assign a frequency v=m0c2/h√I-β2. On this frequency v1 = v0√1-β2; for him, this phenomenon varies as sin 2πv1t
Now suppose that at time t=0, the movement coincides in the space with a wave of frequency v defined above, propagating in the same direction with its speed. This wave of velocity greater that c can correspond to an energy transport we consider only as a fictitious wave associated with the movement of the moving body. I say that if at time t = 0, there is agreement between the phase vectors of the wave and the internal phenomenon of the moving object, the harmony of phase continues. Indeed, at the time the moving object is at a distance from the origin equal vt=x; its internal motion is then represented by sin2πv1x/v, The wave at this point, is represented by
sin2πv(t - xβ/c) = sin 2πvx(1/v - β/c).
The two sinuses are equal, the phase matching is achieved if we
v1=v(1-β2),
condition obviously satisfied by the definitions of v and v1. The proof of this important result depends solely on the principle of relativity and the accuracy of the relationship of quanta for both the stationary observer as for the observer involved. First apply this to a light atom. I have argued elsewhere
that the atom of light must be regarded as a moving object with a mass very small (<10-50 grams) moving with a speed significantly equal to c (although slightly lower). This brings us to the following statement: The light atom, is equivalent in reason to the total energy of one radiation of frequency v which is the seat of an internal periodic phenomenon, seen by the stationary observer, at each point of space has the same phase as a wave of frequency v moving in the same direction with a speed substantially equal (only slightly greater than) the constant called the speed of light. " Turning now to the case describing an electron in a uniform velocity substantially less than c in a closed path. At time t = 0, the moving body is at a point O. The associated ficticious wave, from hereafter O and describes the entire trajectory with the velocity c/B, overtaking the electron at time t at point O' such that OO' - Bct. Therefore
T= B/c{Bc(t + Tv)} or T=B2/1-B2 Tv ,
where T, is the period of revolution of the electron in its orbit. The internal phase of the electron, when internal electron, when it goes from O to O', varies as:
{ULSF: see equation}
It is almost necessary to suppose that the trajectory of the electron is not stable if the fictitious wave passing in O' the electron is found in phase with her: the wave she wave of frequency v and velocity c/B must be in resonance on the path of the trajectory. This leads to the condition
{ULSF: See equation}
Showing that this stability condition is well with the theories of Bohr and Sommerfeld for a trajectory described with a constant speed.
Let us call px,py,pz the quantities of movement of the electron in three rectangular axes. The general condition of stability set by Einstein is indeed
{ULSF: See equation}{ULSF: original footnote: The case of quasi-periodic motion presents no new difficulty. The need to satisfy the requirement of text for infinitely pseudoperiodic leads to the conditions of Sommerfeld. }
which can be written in this case
{ULSF: See equation}
as above.
In the case of an electron rotating with an angular velocity w on a circle of radius R, one finds for small enough velocities the original formula Bohr: {ULSF: see equation}
If the velocity varies along the trajectory, we still find the formula of Bohr-Einstein if B is small. If B takes large values, the question becomes more complicated and requires special consideration. Continuing in the same way, we achieved import results soon to be released. We are therefore now able to explain the phenomenon of diffraction and of interference taking into account the quantum of light.".
(Determine how DeBroglie explains diffraction and interference using the quantum of light.)
De Broglie apparently first mentions that the mass of an atom of light must be very small in 1922.
In an English language Nature Article "Waves and Quanta" DeBroglie writes: " The quantum relation, energy=h x frequency, leads one to associate a periodical phenomenon with any isolated portion of matter or energy. An observer bound to the portion of matter will associate with it a frequency determined by its internal energy, namely, by its "mass at rest." An observer for whom a portion of matter is in steady motion with velocity Bc, will see this frequency lower in consequence of the Lorentz-Einstein time transformation. I have been able to show (Comptes rendus, September 10 and 24, of the Paris Academy of Sciences) that the fixed observer will constantly see the internal periodical phenomenon in phase with a wave the frequency of which v=m0c2/h√I-β2 is determined by the quantum relation using the whole energy of the moving body-provided it is assumed that the wave spreads with the velocity c/β. This wave, the velocity of which is greater than c, cannot carry energy. A radiation of frequency v has to be considered as divided into atoms of light of very small internal mass (<10-50 gm.) which move with a velocity very nearly equal to c given by m0c2/h√I-β2=hv. The atom of light slides slowly upon the non-material wave the frequency of which is v and velocity c/β, very little higher than c. The "phase wave" has a very great importance in determining the motion of any moving body, and I have been able to show that the stability conditions of the trajectories in Bohr's atom express that the wave is tuned with the length of the closed path. The path of a luminous atom is no longer straight when this atom crosses a narrow opening; that is, diffraction. It is then necessary to give up the inertia principle, and we must suppose that any moving body follows always the ray of its "phase wave"; its path will then bend by passing through a sufficiently small aperture. Dynamics must undergo the same evolution that optics has undergone when undulations took the place of purely geometrical optics. Hypotheses based upon those of the wave theory allowed us to explain interferences and diffraction fringes. By means of these new ideas, it will probably be possible to reconcile also diffusion and dispersion with the discontinuity of light, and to solve almost all the problems brought up by quanta.".
(This seems, like Relativity, alsmot like some kind of compromise - a light particle is given a mass to please the corpuscularists and move the public story forward one small step, but then a non-material wave with a velocity that depends on the FitzGerald-Lorentz contraction created to save the aether theory.)
(I basically reject any kind of wave theory, other than in the sense of waves formed by material particles. So I reject the idea that there is any "duality" between material particles and "waves".)
(I think what we see with electron, x-ray, ions, and neutral particle beams, is that there are simply many beams that can be formed in the universe, made of particles, and the particles can have a variety of masses - so we can have an x-ray beam and an electron beam which have the same frequency, but different interval space because they have different velocities. In the same sense electrons and photons might have the same interval (wavelength) but different frequency because of their different velocities. Interestingly, many particle beams, electrons, ions, etc. may be incoherent - that is have no regular interval (wavelength), but they can be made to have a regular interval by passing them through a crystal or grating - and in this way they are filtered into regular interval beams. However, the beam needs to have enough particles at those regular spacings to create a regularly spaced beam - and this is how there can be empty places in a spectrum- simply because there are no, or not enough, particles with that interval spacing among the many nonregularly spaced particles, in some beam.)
(Hoping not to sound negative, unpleasant and/or closed-minded, I seriously doubt this theory. And I think the so-called “proofs” are highly doubtful and want to look into them to see what is claimed as proof. I don't doubt that many particle emissions have regular periodicity and so are waves in the sense of particles with regular interval, such as beams of electrons, protons, neutrons, and photons, but I doubt that there is any kind of sine wave made of matter or nonmaterial waves in the universe. Perhaps De Broglie's theory can be applied to the point wave frequencies, where wavelength is replaced by Iota, and represents the distance between two particles. I think the goal for corpuscular theorists is to try to see if Planck's equation can be used to represent any beam of matter with regular interval (wavelength).)
(Possibly this is an old rivalry between the people of France for the wave theory of light, and those of England for the particle theory (although there are simply many people of both sides in every nation, for example in England, Thomas Young and james Clerk Maxwell stand as major exceptions).)
(Refraction, the so-called diffraction of Grimaldi, and the interference of Thomas Young (and later Albert Michelson) need to be explained in a corpuscular view. The clear arguments for the particle view are for refraction - that neutron have been refracted, for diffraction the explanation given by William Lawrence Bragg, and for interference - I think my 3D model of an interferometer offers at least one explanaton - the patterns created form from reflection of particles off the inside surface of the slit.)
(To me E=mc2 may be a useful concept, but I reject the idea that motion and matter are interchangable, however I can accept that photons are the basis of all matter.)
( The “baseball” not having a matter wave argument seems interesting. A baseball is made of smaller particles which would supposedly have the matter waves. It is pointless to talk about larger objects as big particles, and this shows the nature of all matter being simply composite objects made of photons. I think in favor of the particle theory is the way that Galaxies, stars and planets all appear to be spherical and corpuscular.)
(I think this dual paradigm of particle-wave is going to fall to particle if it has not already. It's too much extra baggage to have a second theory being dragged along. It's too unlikely to have 2 correct theories. I think the only remaining pieces, in my mind, to prove the particle theory are explaining refraction (which I am thinking is reflection in an atomic lattice. Perhaps there are crystals with asymmetrical crystals which violate Snell's law of refraction because of this tunnel effect. But perhaps there are other reasons, clearly light is a particle as is all matter in the universe. Even sound is particle in nature because the phenomenon is the result of moving matter. And secondly, in terms of the cancellation of light in interference patterns, fundamentally since photons are matter, all matter is conserved and no photons/light is destroyed. Clearly the light particles are somewhere, and that can be experimentally determined. Perhaps other particles can produce interference patterns with half silvered mirrors as Michelson did. Careful measurement of temperature of a half-silvered mirror, mirrors, glass, etc. should be carefully made to determine if more or less photons are being absorbed. In addition, all frequencies of light should try to be detected in such dark areas of interference patterns.)
(We have to remember that these are basically sine waves. That is almost never mentioned. The wave theory is based on the sine wave as far as I know. There are many other wave possibilities, but the sine wave is simple and suits the purpose of explaining observed phenomena.)
(So how does Davisson's and Thomson's work verify this theory? I think it can only be claimed that the beam of electrons has a wavelength that is in accordance with Planck's equation. Verify what mass and velocity Davisson and Thomson use to determine interval (wavelength) Q: How is the actual wavelength of electron beams determined? EX: Q: How does the wavelength of electron beams vary with voltage? Is the wavelength (space between electrons) of electron beams/current always the same? Does more resistance equal lower or inconsistent wavelength or just lower intensity? Does the atom used in the electrode change the electron frequency? These are cathode ray tube experiments. A fast electron detector can reveal electron wavelength. Q: Is it possible to vary electron wavelength? This is a fundamental most simple basic question I have a tough time believing has not been already answered. Can x-rays and electron beams be spread into spectral lines? What frequencies are seperated from electron beams?)
(One key idea is how to deal with point waves of particles (beams of particles with regular/consistent wavelength), be they photons or electrons. Perhaps in some way Planck has done that and De Broglie extended this to beams of electrons, protons, and other particles. Q: How do the wavelengths of proton and electron beams (and alpha particles, neutrons) differ if at all? This might reveal the nature of their differences in mass. )
(It seems unusual that Einstein's E=mc^2 is not E=1/2mc^2, has the law of kinetic energy somehow been changed?)
(I think that either 1) matter waves are basically a math to deal with particle point beams/waves and are not intrinsic components of matter or 2) this view of matter waves, if not relating to wavelength as distance between particles is inaccurate, and so may be an acceptable theory to explain observed phenomena but does not describe the actual phenomena.)
(I think many people must look at science as just another religion, because much of seems to be fraud, purposeful lies to protect the neuron people in power, wealthy people just lying and making up false stories about how light is not material, not a particle, how space and time can be contracted and dilated, how nobody sees and hears thought images and sounds, how remotely moving a muscle with an x-ray hasn't been thought of yet.)
(show De Broglie equation(s).)
(Outside of Davisson in the USA, and Thomson in England, this is pretty much where the theory that the light particle has a very low mass ended up to now and no doubt the near future.)
(TODO: Verify: In December of 1923 De Broglie captures emission spectra from both visible and x-ray light on a single photographic plate. - verify - if no, has this been done before? Has anybody produced both visible, and x-ray spectral lines on a photographic plate? )
| (brother Maurice's lab) Paris, France (verify) |
77 YBN
[12/29/1923 AD]
| 5058) Electric camera and image display.
| (for Westinghouse Electric Corporation, Pittsberg, PA, USA) Haddenfield, New Jersey, USA |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 4216) George Eastman's (CE 1854-1932), company "Kodak" sells 16 mm film on cellulose acetate base, the first 16 mm Motion Picture Camera, and the KODASCOPE Projector. This makes amateur motion pictures practical. The immediate popularity of 16 mm movies results in a network of Kodak processing laboratories throughout earth.
| (Eastman Kodak Company) NJ, USA |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 4775) Hans Karl August Simon von Euler-Chelpin (OElR KeLPiN) (CE 1873-1964), German-Swedish chemist works out (through a line of experimentation) the structure of Harden's yeast coenzyme.
In 1904 important work by Arthur Harden had shown that enzymes contain an easily removable nonprotein part, a coenzyme. In 1923 Euler-Chelpin works out the structure of the yeast coenzyme and shows that the molecule is made up from a nucleotide similar to that found in nucleic acid. The nucleotide is named diphosphopyridine nucleotide (now known as NAD).
Euler-Chelpin also contibutes to the determination of the molecular structure of several of the vitamins.
| (University of Stockholm) Stockholm, Sweden |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 4927) Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted (BruNSTeD) (CE 1879-1947), Danish chemist (and independently Thomas Martin Lowry of England) broaden the definition of acids and bases, by defining acids as substances with lose a hydrogen ion in solution and bases as substances with accept a hydrogen ion in solution.
(Is the solution always water? What other liquids can be acids and bases?)
(todo: Get translation of work)
Brønsted (and independently Thomas Martin Lowry of England) changes the definition of acids and bases by stating that acids are substances that give up a hydrogen ion in solution, and bases are substances that take up a hydrogen ion in solution. Before this the definition for acids is the same, but bases are defined as substance that give up hydroxyl ions (OH) in solution. Brønsted's definition shows how acids and bases are opposed to each other, and explains why the hydroxyl ion is such a strong base, since it reacts with the hydrogen ion to form water. (Brønsted's definition therefore broadens the concept of a base to include all molecules that accept a hydrogen ion in solution beyond just the hydroxyl ion.) Every acid in giving up a hydrogen ion in solution, becomes a base with the capacity of taking up a hydrogen ion once more to form the acid again. Gilbert Lewis will extend this definition.
(This is really amazing. It seems so simple that hydrogen, a proton is passed back and forth in a liquid, and those that release a hydrogen are what people call acids (tart tasting to the taste sensor), while those that accept a hydrogen are what people describe as bases (slippery to the touch sensor). )
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 4967) Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945), US physicist tests the first liquid fuel rocket, using gasoline and liquid oxygen as fuel.
| (Clark University) Worcester, Massachusetts, USA |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 4987) Otto Heinrich Warburg (WoRBURG) (CE 1883-1970), German biochemist creates a method for measuring the absorption of oxygen by respiring cells, by the decrease of pressure in a small flask.
(TODO: cite original paper, and read relevent parts)
This decrease is shown by the change in level of a fluid in a thin U-shaped tube attached to the flask. Carbon dioxide is absorbed by a small well of alkaline solution within the flask. This is called a Warburg manometer to which Warburg flasks are attached. Warburg shows that when the heme groups (part of the molecule) of the hemoglobin carries the oxygen to a cell, the heme groups of the cytochromes (proteins different from the one forming part of hemoglobin) take the oxygen. Warburg observes that carbon monoxide molecules attach themselves to cytochromes and correctly suspects that they contain iron atoms. Warburg argues for the oxygen based respiration against Wieland who argues for hydrogen based respiration, and both will be shown to be correct. Small molecules absorbed (into what) after digestion (glucose and fatty acids for example) lose hydrogen atoms, two at a time, and these are attached to oxygen atoms to form water. This is called glycolysis, which is an oxygen-free (anaerobic) process first noted in yeast by Pasteur over 50 years before) (and serves as a more primitive method of creating only 2 molecules of ATP where cellular respiration with oxygen can create more than 20 ATP molecules for use by the cell). So both dehydrogenation and oxidation play a role in digestion. Cells use glycolysis when there is no oxygen available and glycolysis is less efficient than oxygen respiration.
Warburg first notes that intercellular respiration is blocked by hydrogen cyanide and by carbon monoxide. This suggests to him that the respiratory enzymes contain iron on the analogy that carbon monoxide acts on hemoglobin by breaking the oxygen–iron bonds. Support for this view comes from the similarity between the spectrum of the carbon monoxide–hemoglobin complex and that of the carbon monoxide–respiratory enzyme complex.
Warburg isolates flavoenzyme, which is a protein and contains a molecular group that will be shown to be very similar to one of the vitamins.
Warburg also studies the metabolism of cancerous cells and also in 1923, discovers that malignant cells use far less oxygen than normal cells and can in fact live anaerobically. This leads Warburg to speculate that cancer is caused by a malfunction of the cellular respiratory system.
| (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Biology) Berlin, Germany |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 4989) Philip Edward Smith (CE 1884-1970), US endocrinologist develops methods for removing the pituitary gland without damaging the brain and demonstrates the overriding importance of the pituitary gland by showing that such “hypophysectomy” results in the stopping of growth and the atrophy of other endocrine glands such as the thyroid, adrenal cortex and reproductive glands.
The endocrine system is a group of ductless glands that secrete hormones necessary for normal growth and development, reproduction, and homeostasis. In humans, the major endocrine glands are the hypothalamus, pituitary, pineal, thyroid, parathyroids, adrenals, islets of Langerhans in the pancreas, ovaries, and testes. Secretion is regulated either by regulators in a gland that detect high or low levels of a chemical and inhibit or stimulate secretion or by a complex mechanism involving the hypothalamus and the pituitary. Tumours that produce hormones can throw off this balance. Diseases of the endocrine system result from over- or underproduction of a hormone or from an abnormal response to a hormone.
(Are all glands connected together to the single nervous network? Do glands have origins around the same time?)
(TODO: Get portrait)
| (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 5000) Theodor H. E. Svedberg (SVADBAR) (CE 1884-1971), Swedish chemist invents an ultracentrifuge.
Svedberg invents an ultracentrifuge which is powerful enough to force colloidal particles to settle out of a liquid, and can be used to determine molecule size (in particular for proteins and synthetic polymers) by the rate of settling for the first time, which also allows molecular weight to be determined. The force of gravity from the earth is not enough to force colloid particles to settle, because the velocity given them by collisions with water molecules is enough to overcome the force of gravity from the earth. But, by using centrifugal force this force can be increased to force colloid particles to settle to the bottom. At this time centrifuges are used to separate milk from cream, and blood cells from blood plasma.
Svedberg's first ultracentrifuge, completed in 1924, is capable of generating a centrifugal force up to 5,000 times the force of gravity. Later versions generate hundreds of thousands of times the force of gravity. Svedberg finds that the size and weight of the particles determine their rate of settling out, or sedimentation, and uses this fact to measure their size. With an ultracentrifuge, Svedberg goes on to precisely determine the molecular weights of highly complex proteins such as hemoglobin.
Encyclopedia Britannica writes that centrifugal force is a fictitious force, peculiar to a particle moving on a circular path, that has the same magnitude and dimensions as the force that keeps the particle on its circular path (the centripetal force) but points in the opposite direction.
Svedberg and his student Tiselius will create modern methods of electrophoresis.
Electrophoresis is A method of separating substances, especially proteins, and analyzing molecular structure based on the rate of movement of each component in a colloidal suspension while under the influence of an electric field.
Electrophoresis uses electric force to separate molecules and is important in determining the order of nucleotides in nucleic acids.
(I argue that possibly centripetal force is actually the result of regular velocity where a mass is constantly having its otherwise straight velocity redirected (by collision or physical connection to other masses) into a circle)
Svedberg and Robin Fåhraeus explain this theory and the math involved in the paper "A New Method for the Determination of the Molecular Weight of the Proteins". (Show math involved. How are the claims be justified?)
| (University of Uppsala) Upsala, Sweden |
77 YBN
[1923 AD]
| 5042) Victor Moritz Goldschmidt (CE 1888-1947), Swiss-Norwegian geochemist, shows what sort of minerals certain elements should appear in based on the chemical consequences of their properties, and making use of the new knowledge of their atomic and ionic sizes. (more specific)
Following the work of Max von Laue and W. H. and W. L. Bragg, he laid the foundation for his work by working out the crystal structure of over 200 compounds.
Goldschmidt publishes his work in "Geochemical Laws of the Distribution of the Elements (8 vol., 1923 – 38)".
| (University of Kristiania) Kristiania (now Oslo), Sweden (presumably) |
76 YBN
[01/29/1924 AD]
| 5204) Hantaro Nagaoka (CE 1865-1950), Japanese physicist publishes the theory that mercury could possibly be converted to gold by "striking out a H-proton from the nucleus by α-rays, or by some other powerful methods of disruption.".
On July 21, the Morning Post will report that Dr. A. Miethe has obtained gold from mercury by the prolonged action of a high-tension electric current upon it.
(State other transmutation experiments which produce detectible amounts of precious metals, or other useful elements.)
| (Institute of Physical and Chemical Research) Tokyo, Japan |
76 YBN
[02/12/1924 AD]
| 6036) George Gershwin (CE 1898-1937), US composer, composes the famous "Rhapsody in Blue".
Gershwin composed Rhapsody in Blue, perhaps his best-known work, in three weeks’ time.
| (Aeolian Concert Hall) New York City, New York, USA |
76 YBN
[06/07/1924 AD]
| 5075) Walther Wilhelm Georg Franz Bothe (CE 1891-1957), German physicist, devises the "coincidence method" and shows that momentum and energy are conserved at the atomic level which falsifies the theory that momentum and energy are only statistically conserved in interactions of light and matter.
Bothe creates the "coincidence method" of detecting the emission of electrons by x-rays in which electrons passing through two adjacent Geiger tubes at almost the same time are recorded as a coincidental event. Bothe uses this "Coincidence counting" Bothe applies the method to the study of cosmic rays and theorizes that cosmic particles are made of massive particles as opposed to photons.
Bohr, Kramers, and Slater in 1924 had formulated a new quantum theory of radiation in which momentum and energy-are conserved only statistically in interactions between radiation (light) and matter. Bothe and Geiger suggest that this can be tested experimentally by examining individual Compton collisions. Bothe introduces a modification into the Geiger counter that makes it appropriate for use in coincidence experiments. Using two counters, Bothe and Geiger study the coincidences between the scattered X ray and the recoiling electron. Correlating photons with electrons, Bothe and Geiger find a coincidence rate of one in eleven; since the chance coincidence rate for the situation was 10−5, the experimental results contradict the theoretical predictions and indicate small-scale conservation of energy and momentum.
(Give more details)
| (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany (presumably) |
76 YBN
[06/07/1924 AD]
| 5076) Walther Wilhelm Georg Franz Bothe (CE 1891-1957), German physicist with Werner Kolhörster demonstrate that cosmic rays might be particles.
Ever since the discovery of cosmic rays in 1912, physicists had assumed that they are high-energy photons. Bothe and Kolhörster separate two Geiger counters by about 4 cm. of gold; and in order for a photon to produce a pulse in a counter, the photon needs to undergo a Compton collision and produce an ionizing electron. The known probability of Compton collisions and the average energy of the photons indicate that coincidences between the two counters are highly improbable. The high coincidence rate in the experiment, approximately 75 percent of the original single-counter rate, therefore indicate that the cosmic radiation might well be particulate (and not a symmetrical wave?).
| (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany (presumably) |
76 YBN
[06/13/1924 AD]
| 4975) Max Born (CE 1882-1970), German-British physicist introduces the term "quantum mechanics".
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
76 YBN
[07/02/1924 AD]
| 5139) Satyendranath Bose (CE 1894-1974), Indian physicist, shows that the Planck quantum law is completely consistent with Einstein’s quantum gas model.
In July 1924 Bose sends a short manuscript entitled “Plancks Gesetz und Lichtquantenhypothese” ("Plancks Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis") to Albert Einstein for criticism and possible publication. Einstein himself translates the paper into German and has it published in the Zeitschrift für Physik later that year. Einstein adds a note that states: “In my opinion Boses derivation of the Planck formula signifies an important advance. The method used also yields the quantum theory of the ideal gas as I will work out in detail elsewhere.".
Einstein will generalize Bose's paper and create a type of quantum statistics useful for subatomic particles and called “Bose-Einstein statistics”. Subatomic particles that follow one set of statistics are called “bosons” and those that follow a different set of statistics are called “fermions”. The photon and other exchange particles are bosons.
An abstract of this paper, “Plancks Gesetz und Lichtquantenhypothese” (”Plancks Law and Light Quantum Hypothesis“), translated from German reads: "The phase space of a light quantum with respect to a given volume is divided into "cells" of the quantity h3. The number of possible distributions of light quanta of a radiation macroscopically defined by this cell provides the entropy and thus all thermodynamic properties of the radiation.".
The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography describes this work of Bose by writing: "Bose’s 1924 paper showed that the Planck law was completely consistent with Einstein’s quantum gas model. His derivation followed a general procedure introduced by Boltzmann for determining the equilibrium energy distribution of the microscopic entities that constitute a macrosystem. The procedure begins by enumerating all the possible, distinguishable microstates of the entities, where each such state is defined by a set of coordinates and momenta. That is, each possible state of a single entity is specified by a point in six-dimensional phase space the axes of which correspond to the three spatial coordinates and the three components of momentum. Each possible state of the system is specified by a distribution of such phase points. Bose’s innovation was to assume that two or more such distributions that differ only in the permutation of phase points within a subregion of phase space of volume h3 (where h is Planck’s constant) are to be regarded as identical. ...".
In 1926 Enrico Fermi derives a second System of quantum statistics, now called the Fermi-Dirac statistics, in which it is assumed that each subvolume h3 in phase space can be occupied by no more than one point, consistent with the exclusion principle enunciated by Wolfgang Pauli in 1925.
(Simply seeing the word "entropy" to me indicates an inaccurate theory.)
(I think I basically reject this system, but need to learn more about it. Clearly photons are like all other matter and there is no need to separate matter, although I think we will be stuck with the idea of charged/uncharged for along time. I think people will figure out charge, and probably it will be viewed as a product or particle collision, or gravity, or perhaps two kinds of particles that structurally combine, or perhaps some other interpretation will prevail. I reject the idea of “exchange particles”. I think motion may be transfered but it seems unlikely that matter, in the form of light particles is ever destroyed, but does cluster in different ways.)
(Describe nature of paper)
(Give more specific detail about Einstein's quantum statistics interpretation of Bose's paper.)
(Examine and understand, describe a basic explanation of Bose-Einstein statistics.)
(Explain claerly the difference between Bosons and Fermions, are Bosons particles that are thought to represent a force? Perhaps any distinction between bosons and fermions is unnecessary.)
(State Einstein's later paper)
(Interesting how variables store position and momentum, as opposed to position and velocity. Clearly with a computer, many variables can be stored for any instant of time - like mass, position, velocity, acceleration, etc. It seems overly complex to try to simply use integration or differentiation to describe matter in space to describe an all-time or timeless system, given computer iteration into the future. It's not clear what practical purpose these equations of Bose, Einstein, etc have in describing physical phenomena that isn't already more simply described with simple Newtonian physics.)
| (University of Dacca) East Bengal, India |
76 YBN
[08/??/1924 AD]
| 4753) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, and James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist report that clearly more hydrogen nuceli are emitted and projected farther when atoms with odd atomic number are collided with alpha particles than atoms with even atomic number.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN
[08/??/1924 AD]
| 4896) Popular Mechanics reports that Grindal Matthews has invented a light ray that can remotely stop a motorcycle by stopping the motion of the magnetos (devices that produce alternating current for distribution to the spark plugs, used in the ignition systems of some internal-combustion engines), burn people, and ignite gunpowder. This may hint at the secret use of masers, or high intensity x-rays.
(This relates to the question of why light and x-ray beams, neuron writing were not used in World Wars 1 or 2, or if used, apparently in only smaller unreported unseen ways. It was probably likely that planes and people could have been instantly separated very quickly by maser or x-ray beams, but this was apparently, not done by either side in either war.)
| Chicago, Illinois, USA |
76 YBN
[12/17/1924 AD]
| 5199) Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett (Baron) Blackett (CE 1897-1974), English physicist, provides photographic evidence from cloud chamber collision tracks, that an alpha particle collision with a nitrogen atom causes the nitrogen to eject a proton, and that the alpha particle is absorbed causing nitrogen to be converted to oxygen. These are the first photographs of a nuclear reaction.
So Blackett provides photographic evidence that Rutherford had in fact succeeded in converting nitrogen to oxygen by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles by capturing 8 images (of 20,000 photographs) of alpha particle tracks in an expanded cloud chamber that show that element transmutation occurred. Blackett periodically expands the cloud chamber (first invented by Wilson) to make particle tracks visible, and then captures photographs. The 20,000 photographs Blackett takes contain a total of more than 400,000 alpha particle tracks, and of those only 8 involve a collision of an alpha particle and a nitrogen molecule. The forked tracks prove that nitrogen had been transmuted to oxygen.
In the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series A, Blackett writes in his article "The Ejection of Protons from Nitrogen Nuclei, Photographed by the Wilson Method.": "1. Introduction. The original experiments of Rutherford and later those of Rutherford and Chadwick have shown that fast alpha-particles are able by close collisions to eject protons from the nuclei of many light elements. In particular the protons from boron, nitrogen, fluorine, sodium, aluminium and phosphorus have great ranges, and are emitted in all directions relative to the velocity of the bombarding alpha-particles. The scintillation method used in these experiments can give no direct information about the motion after the collision of the residual nucleus and of the alpha-particle itself. The proton alone has sufficient range to make detection by the scintillation method possible. The Wilson Condensation Method provides the obvious and perhaps the only certain way of observing the motion of these two particles. Of the "active" elements mentioned, nitrogen can at once be selected as the most suitable for a first investigation.
According to Rutherford and Chadwick the maximum forward and backward ranges* of the protons ejected by 7 cm. alpha-particles from nitrogen are 40 and 18 cms. The total number emitted in all directions by a million 8 6 cm. alpha-particles can be estimated, from their data, to be about 20. This number decreases rapidly with the range of the alpha-particles. In order to photograph a large number of tracks, a modified and automatic form of Wilson's apparatus was constructed, which made one expansion and took one photograph every ten or fifteen seconds. The condensation chamber itself had a floating ebonite piston similar to that described recently by Kapitza.t No mercury rings were used however and the rubber tube employed to change the volume was replaced by a corrugated metal diaphragm. A detailed description of the apparatus, which is an improved form of that previously used by the writer,. will be given elsewhere. The camera, designed originally by Shimizu,? takes two photographs at right angles on standard cinematograph film. About 23,000 photographs have been taken of the tracks of alpha-particles in nitrog en. From 5 to 20 per cent. of oxygen was added to the nitrogen to improve the sharpness of the tracks. The source used was a deposit of Thorium B + C, which gives a complex beam of 8-6 and 5 0 cm. particles, the numbers being known to be in the ratio of 65 to 35. The average number of tracks on each photograph was 18; the tracks of about 270,000 alpha-particles of 8 6 cm. range and 145,000 of 5 ' 0 cm. ranige have therefore been photographed. 2. General Results. Amongst these tracks a large number of forks were found corresponding to the elastic collisions make by alpha-particles with nitrogen (and oxygen) atoms. Reproductions of a few such tracks are given on Plate 6 (photographs 4 to 10). A description of each photograph will be found at the end of the paper. If a particle of mass M and initial velocity V collides with another of mass m, initially at rest, and the two have velocities after collision making angles ! and 0 with V, then the assumption that both energy and momentum are conserved leads to the relation m/M = sin s/sin (20 + 5). (1) The values of m/M calculated from the observed values of d and 0 are found to agree closely with the accepted ratio of the colliding masses, thus confirming the conclusion reached in a previous paper that both energy and momentum are conserved, at least approximately, during these collisions. This result also applies to some forks due to the collision of alpha-particles with hydrogen and helium nuclei (Plate 6, Nos. 1, 2, and 3). But amongst these normal forks due to elastic collisions, eight have been found of a strikingly different type. Six of them are reproduced on Plate 7. These eight tracks undoubtedly represent the ejection of a proton from a nitrogen nucleus. It was to be expected that a photograph of such an event would show an alpha-ray track branching into three. The ejected proton, the residual nucleus from which it has been ejected, and the alpha-particle itself, might each have been expected to produce a track. These eight forks however branch only into two. The path of the first of the three bodies, the ejected proton, is obvious in each photograph. It consists of a fine straight track, along which the ionisation is clearly less than along an alpha-ray track, and must therefore be due to a particle of small charge and great velocity. The second of the two arms of the fork is a short track similar in appearance to the track of the nitrogen nucleus in a normal fork. Of a third arm to correspond to the track of the alpha-particle itself after the collision there is no sign. On the generally accepted view, due to the work of Rutherford, the nucleus of an atom is so small, and thus the potential at its surface so large, that a positively charged particle that has once penetrated its structure (and almost certainly an alpha-particle that ejects a proton must do so) cannlot escape without acquiring kinetic energy amply sufficient to produce a visible track. As no such track exists the alpha-particle cannot escape. In ejecting a proton from a nitrogen nucleus the alpha-particle is therefore itself bound to the nitrogen nucleus. The resulting new nucleus must have a mass 17, and, provided no electrons are gained or lost in the process,* an atomic number 8. The possibility of such a capture has already been suggested by Rutherford and Chadwick in a recent paper. The argument so far has been based on the appearance of these anomalous tracks. The conclusions already drawn from their appearance are fully confirmed by measurement, The results will be summarised in this section and given in detail in the next. In marked contrast to the normal forks, the angles between the components of each of these anomalous forks are not in general consistent with an elastic collision between an alpha-particlea nd a nucleus of any known or possible (i.e., integral)m ass. Makingt he assumptiont hat momentuma lonei s conserved during the collision, the velocity of the proton of assumed mass 1 is found from the measured angles of each fork to be in good agreement with those deduced by Rutherford and Chadwick from the measurement of their range. This result is independent of the mass assumed for the particle producing the short track. The momentum of the latter can also be calculated without further assumptions. The observed lengths of these tracks can be shown to be not inconsistent with the view that the particles producing them have a mass 17 and an atomic number 8. 3. The Measurement of the Anomalous Tracks. Therei s little doubtt hat momentumm ustb e conservedd uringt hese collisions, though the kinetic energy clearly is not. This assumption is supported by the observationt hat these anomalous forks are co-planar,a s are also the normal forks. If 4 and c) are the angles between the initial track of the alphaparticle and the track of the proton and the resulting nucleus respectively, we have MPVsPin - m"vnsi n co 0, Mv 2)c os 4 + mn"v'c os X - MV -O, where mp and tn. are the masses, and vp and v, the velocities, of the proton and final nucleus, and where M and V are the mass and initial velocity of the alphaparticle. We therefore find that m,vp MV sin o/sin (+ + ), (2) and m,,v, ~MV sin +/sin (+ co). (3) For each track 4 and X are measuredw, hile V is calculatedf romt he distance of the fork fromi the source, whence from (1), assuming in, z 1, we obtain v,. Assumingw ith Rutherfordt hat the rangeo f a fast protoni s proportionatlo the cube of its velocity and that a proton of velocity 3 08 x 109 cm. per sec. has a range of 28 cm., we find the following values for the ranges of the protons in the six photographs most suitable for measurement: Range 31, 52, 25, 18 24, 19 cm. 4' 41? 63? 65? 79?, 84?, 150?. Underneath each range is tabulated the angle ul of projection of the proton. The averagei nitial rangeo f these six alpha-particleiss 6 *8 cm. Ejection of Protons from Nitrogen Nuclei. 353 It is important to realise that since v, is independent of mn in (2), the ranges above are independento f the value assumedf or the mass of the heavierp article. These calculatedr anges are in sufficienta greementw ith the measurementso f Rutherford and Chadwick, who found that 7 0 cm. alpha-particles ejected protonsf rom nitrogenw ith maximumf orwarda nd backwardra nges of 40 and 18 cms. They also found that these maximum ranges were roughly proportional to the initial range of the alpha-particles. Far more data will be required beforeo ne can hopet o find in the photographsa ny indicationo f this proportionality. .... 5. Discussion of Results. The study of the photographs has led to the conclusion that an alphaparticle that ejects a proton from a nitrogen nucleus is itself boiud to that nucleus. This result is of such importance that it is useful to emphasise the evidence on wbich it is based. The first step in the argument must show that the eight anomalous forks do actually represent the ejection of a proton from a nitrogen nucleus. Their appearance makes this probable; the measurements of the forks, the frequency of their occurrence and the absence of any other abnormal forks, make it certain. The second step must show that if the alpha-particle is not bound to the nitrogen nucleus after the collision, a third arm to the forks would be found. ... It is possible that the integrated nucleus may have a short life. One can however be certain that if it breaks up again with the emission of any -positively charged particle it must have a life greater than the time of effective supersaturation in the condensation chamber-a time of the order of 1/1000 sec.-otherwise the track of the emitted particle would be visible on the photographs. ...". {ULSF: See photographs and Blackett's description.}
(State if anybody has every tried to compress and lower the temperature of materials to increase the chance of collision. EXPERIMENT: Does increasing pressire cause more collisions?)
(EXPERIMENT: In a collision, I have doubts about "momentum", as a combination of mass and velocity being conserved, as opposed to mass being conserved, and motion being conserved, but not the product of the two. For example, a 1 meter diameter iron ball collides with a 1 cm iron ball, I doubt seriously, that the smaller 1 cm ball flies off because m1v1 is huge, but m2 is tiny. So m1v1 will not equal m1v2, probably more likely only the motion of m1 is imparted to m2 - there is no exchange of matter - and then only the motion of the colliding parts. Perform experiments to see if this simple idea is true.)
(I have some doubt about the conclusions about what occured in these photographs of collisions. For example, clearly how two or more particles collide determines how much of the motion of the first particle will be imparted to the second. In particular thinking that the view of the interchangability of mass and motion seems to be not true, where conservation of mass and motion separately is. I can accept that these are collisions, but there are a lot of possible interpretations. Perhaps years of research have shown that track length and strength is characteristic of particle kind.)
(Notice that Blackett states that "a large number of forks were found corresponding to the elastic collisions make {ULSF: typo} by alpha-particles with nitrogen (and oxygen) atoms. Reproductions". Why does he not quantity this, to state about 10% so about 27,000 collisions occured. It seems possible that the possibility of large scale transmutation is being kept secret, if yes, it should be made public, if no, it should be vigorously pursued - and that does not apparently require massive expensive colliders.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN
[1924 AD]
| 3614) Photographs ("wire photos") are sent and received by AT&T over their electrical wire network. A telephotography machine is used to send pictures from political conventions in Cleveland, Ohio to New York City for publication in newspapers. The telephotography machine uses transparent cylinder drums, driven by electric motors that are synchronized between transmitter and receiver. At the transmitter, a positive transparent photograph is placed on the cylinder and is scanned by a vacuum-tube (light and selenium) photoelectric cell. The output of the photocell (amplitude?) modulates a 1.8khz carrier signal, which is sent over a telephone wire. At the receiver an unexposed negative is progressively lit by narrowly focused beam of light, the intensity of the light corresponding to the output of the photoelectric cell in the transmitter. The AT&T fax system can send a 5x7 inch photograph in 7 minutes with a resolution of 100 lines per inch.
| Cleveland, OH, (to NYC, NY), USA |
76 YBN
[1924 AD]
| 4525) George Ellery Hale (CE 1868-1938), US astronomer modifies his spectroheliograph and names the new device a spectrohelioscope. This is a special type of spectroscope, with an oscillating slit, for the visual study of solar phenomena. (Is this spectroscope still in use - how useful is it?)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
76 YBN
[1924 AD]
| 4696) Hans Spemann (sPAmoN) (CE 1869-1941), and Hilde Mangold German zoologists show that certain parts of the ambhibian embryo, the organizing centers, direct the development of groups of cells into particular organs and tissues and secondly that, tissue taken from one amphibian embryo and grafted onto another part will assume the character of the host, losing its original nature.
This demonstrates an absence of predestined organs or tissues in the earliest stages of embryonic development.
Spemann and Hilde Mangold publish the results of their experiments in which they implant tissue from one embryo to another. For implant donor and the host they use, respectively, gastrulas of the newts Triton cristatus (almost colorless) and Triton taeniatus (highly pigmented). Implant donor and host cells are therefore easy to distinguish. In innumerable experiments Spemann and Mangold find that the donor graft disappears below the gastrula surface to form the mesodermal elements (notochord and muscles) of the secondary embryo. Above the gastrula surface the ectoderm of the host is induced to form the neural tube of the secondary embryo from the grafted donor material.
The science of experimental embryology was founded around 1890 by Wilhelm Roux and Hans Driesch. Roux had destroyed one of the two blastomeres formed by the first division of a fertilized frog's egg, and found that the other blastomere continued to develop, but formed half an embryo. Then Driesch removed one of the two blastomeres of a sea urchin's egg entirely, and finds that the remaining blastomere forms, not half an embryo, but a normal embryo of small size.
Spemann invents a number of very simple but elegant and refined instruments, mostly made from glass, which make it possible to carry out complicated surgical operations on eggs and embryos only a millimeter or two in diameter. In this way Spemann is almost singly responsible for founding the techniques of microsurgery.
(This may mark the beginning of experimenting to create many unusually shaped organisms by removing cells during the embryo stage, including possibly even human embryos.) The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography may be hinting at this in writing that "...Thus Spemann was introduced, at the beginning of his academic career, to the animal that was to remain his favorite experimental material...".
(Interesting that half an organism develops when one of the two blastomeres is destroyed but left in place.)
(Explain how this relates to the modern understanding and use of stem cells to regenerate missing nerve and other cells normally unreplaceable, allowing new organs {for example spine, teeth, limbs, etc} to regrow. Have stem cells been successfully used to regrow fingers and limbs?)
| (University of Freiburg) Breisgau, Germany |
76 YBN
[1924 AD]
| 4981) (Sir) Arthur Stanley Eddington (CE 1882-1944), English astronomer and physicist announces his mass-luminosity law for stars which relates the luminosity of a star to its mass.
Eddington announces the mass-luminosity law, which states that as the mass of a star increases, the expansive force of radiation pressure increases very rapidly, and at masses greater than fifty times that of the sun, the force of radiation pressure is large enough to blow the star apart, which is why very massive stars do not exist. Eddington will also use this theory to explain variable stars. Some stars at the edge of stability pulsate, and according to Eddington these are the variable stars. (Asimov states that this explanation still is accepted.) Chandrasekhar will later give the force of radiation pressure an important role in steller evolution.
Eddington claims that (the sun is gas throughout and that) the expansive force of heat and radiation pressure counter the contracting force of gravity. Because the pressure of matter in a star increases with depth, the radiation pressure countering it must increase, and the only way that can happen is from a rise in temperature. In the 1920s Eddington shows that the rise in temperature needed (to counter the force of pressure from gravity) is millions of degrees in the center.
(Eddington and others presume that the density of the sun is much lower than the earth's density and so many people (wrongly) believe that the sun and stars are made (completely) of (a gas throughout). And this creates the question of what keeps the gas from contracting, under the force of gravity into a more compact mass like the white dwarf star W. S. Adams had just uncovered. Hans Bethe will use this theory of the sun's interior being millions of degrees to create a theory where nuclear (fusion of hydrogen into helium) powers (causes the emission of photons) the sun and other stars.
Eddington also suggests that so-called white dwarf stars are made up of "degenerate matter" in which the electrons have collapsed from their orbits.
Eddington writes: "1. A theory of the stellar absorption-coefficient should, if successful, lead to formulae determining the absolute magnitude of any giant star of which the mass and effective temperature are known. I have hitherto laid most stress on whether the theory will predict the absolute magnitude of Capella. The present position of that problem was summarised in my last paper, althoughvthere appears to have been - some measure of success, the final conclusion is not yet certain. In this paper we shall consider the differential instead of the absolute results of the theory. We are not yet certain what should be the form of the absolute factor occurring in the formula connecting total radiation and mass; but apart from this factor, the form of the law seems to be fixed within narrow limits. Instead of constructing the absolute factor from physical constants we shall be content to determine its value from the observational data for Capella ; and then it ought to be possible to calculate the luminosity of any other giant star, the result depending differentially on Capella. Using the constant determined from Capella, we shall find that the formulae of the theory appear to predict correctly the absolute magni- tudes of all other ordinary stars available for the test, regardless of whether they are giants or drawfs. The evidence for this statement is shown graphically in fig. 1. According to the giant and dwarf theory the absolute magnitude is a double valued function of mass and effective temperature; thus a star of mass 1 and temperature 5860° has two possible magnitudes: (1) that- of the Sun at present, (2) that of the Sun when it passed through the same temperature on the upgrade with a much larger surface area than now. It is the latter magnitude that the theory attempts to predict; but the former magnitude is actually situated on the theoretical curve. If the theory gives the right magnitudes of the wrong stars, it is presumably wrong; if so, the question of its absolute agreement for Capella becomes of minor importance. But it would be surprising if the- accordance shown in fig. 1 arose from mere accident, and we must face the question whether the stars there shown are really the "wrong" stars. The suggestion is that even the dense stars like the sun are in the condition of a perfect gas, and will rise in temperature if they contract. In short, all ordinary stars are "giants " according to the usual implica- tion of the term. In the course of this paper theoretical reasons will be given for believing that under stellar conditions matter should be able to contract to an enormously high density before deviations from the laws of a perfect gas become appreciable. The present results come into conflict with the Lane-Ritter theory of stellar evolution as incorporated in the giant and dwarf theory at present almost universally accepted. Strong initial opposition to the results in this paper will doubtless be felt on that account ; a discussion of the nature and extent of the conflict is given in § 12. .... Granting that the gas-laws hold for all ordinary stars, whether dense or diffuse, are we to expect that each star will have the precise luminosity deducible from its mass and effective temperature? In other words, will the theory be accurate individually, or only statistically? It is difficult to see how residual differences could arise, except from abnormal composition or abnormal rotation. As regards composition, an unduly large proportion of hydrogen would make the star fainter; apart from this not much effect is likely to be produced. As regards A rotation, E. A. Milne has found that a rapid rotation makes the star slightly fainter ; but the effect is very small until the speed is sufficient to deform the star greatly. I think that what is most to be feared is that peculiar radiating conditions may arise, such that the observed spectrum misleads us as to the true effective temperature; but if this happened it would be a failure of the test rather than of the theory. It may be noted that an unsuspected binary should betray itself by having a magnitude fainter than that predicted from its (combined) mass. g. Theoretical Considerations We must now consider whether it is physically likely that a dense star, such as the sun, can obey the laws of a perfect gas. The failure of the ordinary gas-laws at high densities is due to the finite size of the molecules which behave approximately as rigid spheres with radii of the order I0-8 cm. Compression proceeds with increasing difficulty until these spheres are packed tightly; the density is then of the order characteristic of solids and liquids. The idea underlying the giant and dwarf theory is that the maximum density of ordinary matter (say 10-20 gm. per c.c.) is applicable to the stars, and that the devia- tions from the gas-laws first begin to have serious effect when the density comes within sight of this limit. But the atoms in a star are very much smaller than ordinary atoms. Several layers of electrons have been stripped away, and the gas—laws ought therefore to hold up to far greater densities. It appears that in the interior of a star the atoms of moderate atomic weight are stripped down to the K level, and have radii of the order 10-10 cm.; lighter elements, such as carbon and oxygen, are reduced to the bare nucleus, . The maximum density, corresponding to contact of these reduced atomic spheres, must be at least 100,000, and any star with mean density below 1000 ought to behave as a perfect gas. It may be asked: Does the removal of outer electrons necessarily reduce the effective size of the atom? Perhaps it is only the boundary- stone, not the boundary, that disappears. The answer seems to be given clearly by physical experiment. An alpha particle is a helium atom which has lost its "boundary stones," and it appears that it thereby loses its former boundary. It cannot enter other atoms, and behaves in every way as a simple charged nucleus with no trace of that resisting boundary which prevents neutral helium gas from being compressed beyond a certain density. It seems clear that the effective size of the- atom is determined by the existing peripheral electrons—as we should expect theoretically. A further question arises as to the effect of the charges of the ions and electrons. It seems almost paradoxical that we should be able to force atoms closer together by ionising them, and so making them repel. one another. Will not the repulsion of the ion establish a region which other ions are unable to enter, so that the volume of this region consti- tutes an effective size ofthe ion? It is very difficult to calculate the effect of these electrical forces; they are not obviously insignificant, at- any rate in the stars of small mass. But it is quite easy to see that the effect does not increase when the star contracts, it is just as large when the star is diffuse as when the star is condensed, so that there is no evolution from gaseous to non-gaseous (giant to dwarf) condition. It has often been pointed out in atomic theory that if inverse-square forces alone are acting no definite scale of size can be obtained. Thus inverse-square electrical forces will not alter the result for inverse-square gravitational forces, viz. that there is no definite scale of size for a giant star of given mass—it is equally comfortable with any radius. Stars of the same mass and different radii form a perfectly homologous series, which can only be disturbed when other than inverse-square forces begin to play an appreciable part. According to current theory this happens when the compression is great enough to bring into importance the inter-atomic forces at impact, which do not follow the inverse-square law. The star then passes into a dwarf equilibrium not homologous with its previous progress. But we have just seen that this change will not occur until the star reaches a density of at least 1000; and electrical forces between the charged atoms and electrons do not lead us to modify this conclusion, because, being inverse-square forces, they cannot produce a breach of homology. ....
... 14. Summary 1. Assuming on the evidence of previous investigations that the absorption-coeff icient is proportional to p/T, it is possible to calculate the difference of absolute magnitude of any two gaseous (giant) stars of known mass and effective temperature. Hence, using the observed data for Capella, the absolute magnitudes of other stars can be determined differentially. 2. Collecting all suitable data 36 stars furnish comparisons between theory and observation, The average residual is +- 0m.56, and the maximum discordance is 1m.7. The probable errors of the observa- tional data would account for a great part of this difference. The only stars omitted in the comparison are the two "white dwarfs.” For these the internal conditions must (if the observations are not at fault) be so different from those of a normal star that the theoretical calculations are not expected to apply without modification. 3. More than half the stars used in the comparison are dwarf stars. The agreement of their absolute magnitudes with the predicted magni- tudes for gaseous stars is in conflict with the current view that they are too dense to follow the laws of a perfect gas, and that their low luminosity is attributable to deviation from the gas-laws. According to they present results their low luminosity is fully accounted for by their comparatively small mass without appeal to any other physical difference. 4. The current expectation that between density 0.1 and 1 the , compressibility of a star will fall off rapidly, as compared with the com- pressibility of a perfect gas, appears to rest on a false analogy between stellar ions and atoms at ordinary temperature. Owing to the high ionisation, stellar atoms have only about 1/100,000 of the bulk of ordinary atoms, and failure of the laws of a perfect gas is not to be expected till a density 100,000 times higher is reached. The effect of the high electric charges of the ionised atoms has been considered, but it appears that it would not appreciably affect the com- pressibility of any of the stars considered.
5. Notwithstanding a wide range of physical condition in the interior of the stars discussed, the ionisation level is not very different in any of them. The assumption that the same molecular weight can be used for all of them is thus closely justified. Attempting a second approximation by taking account of the small variations of molecular weight and of a slowly varying factor in the absorption—coefficient (predicted by Kramers’ theory and probable on general grounds), the theoretical curve is scarcely changed for masses greater than 1/2 and is brought into rather better ‘ agreement withobservation for the small stars. 6. The extent of the conflict between the present results and the current theory of stellar evolution depends on whether we admit that the mass of a star diminishes to an important extent or not by radiation of energy during its lifetime. If the mass of the star remains sensibly constant, the statistical diagram of absolute magnitude and spectral type (the "compass-legged ” diagram) cannot be interpreted as indicating the course of evolution of a star. Instead, it indicates the locus of equilibrium points reached by stars of different initial mass. If the star gradually burns itself away in liberating sub-atomic energy, the statistical diagram probably indicates its track of evolution as current theory supposes; In that case the divergence between the present theory and the giant and dwarf theory is narrowed down to the single point, that the diminishing brightness in the dwarf sequence is due to decreasing mass and_ not to a falling off of compressibility. The conception of an ascending and descending series (judged by effective temperature) is thus retained ; although as judged by internal tempera- ture there is probably a continuous ascent. 7. By way of appendix, a discussion is given of the fundamental quartic equation of the theory of radiative equilibrium in which account is taken of the gradual increase of molecular weight from the centre to the boundary of the star.".
(I reject the literal interpretation of a star as made of gas, because the inside must be very dense and solid, surrounded by liquid, and gas, like Jupiter and the other planets - only on the outermost layer. I don't think the gas law can apply any better to a solid star as it can to the solid, liquid and gas earth. Most of Eddington's and the popular scientists of the 1900s are strictly mathematical theorists, which of course can be useful, and everybody must be free to theorize, think about, and speculate about absolutely anything they want to.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN
[1924 AD]
| 5010) George Richards Minot (mInuT) (CE 1885-1950), US physician, and his assistant Murphy start successfully treating people with pernicious anemia (a disease in which red blood cell count decreases progressively) by feeding them liver. In the early 1920s G. H. Whipple had reported that liver in the diet has a strong effect of raising red blood cell counts during anemia. Minot decided that pernicious anemia might be a dietary deficiency disease that results from the lack of a vitamin, because pernicious anemia is always accompanied by a lack of hydrochloric acid in the stomach secretions. Minot hypothesizes that digestion fails and less than usual quantities of a particular vitamin are absorbed. Folkers will prove that pernicious anemia is caused by a vitamin deficiency 20 years later.
(State which vitamin.)
| (Collis P. Huntington Memorial Hospital, Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
76 YBN
[1924 AD]
| 5027) David Keilin (KIliN) (CE 1887-1963), Russian-British biochemist, notices that 4 spectrum absorption lines from the muscles of the horse botfly disappear when the cell suspension is shaken in the air, but reappear after. Keilin concludes that there is a respiratory enzyme within cells that absorbs oxygen, and catalyzes its combination with other substances. Keilin calls this enzyme cytochrome, and shows that cellular respiration involves a chain of enzymes that pass hydrogen atoms from one compound to another, until by way of cytochrome, the hydrogen atoms are combined with oxygen. This fits well with the work of Warburg.
(Many people may not be aware that insects have muscles. In fact muscles move most multicellular objects, however single celled organisms have different methods of locomotion.)
(Explain what a cell suspension is.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
76 YBN
[1924 AD]
| 5118) Raymond Arthur Dart (CE 1893-1988), Australian-South African identifies a fossil skull (the "Taungs" skull) as a primitive precursor of Homo sapiens and creates the name "Australopithescus africanus" to describe this new species.
| (University of Witwatersrand) Johannesburg, South Africa |
75 YBN
[01/01/1925 AD]
| 5060) Spiral nebulae proven to be other galaxies containing stars and to be very far away. US astronomer, Edwin Hubble (CE 1889-1953) shows that M31 (Andromeda) contains stars, and uses the period of a variable star in M31 to show that it is very far away (930,000 light-years).
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
75 YBN
[01/16/1925 AD]
| 5233) Wolfgang Pauli (CE 1900-1958), Austrian-US physicist, announces his "exclusion principle",
Pauli announces his “exclusion principle”, that in any particular energy level, two and only two electrons are permitted, one spinning clockwise and one spinning counterclockwise, and this adds a fourth “quantum number” to the three created by Bohr, Sommerfeld, and others. Pauli reaches this conclusion because of the Zeeman effect. After this theory electrons of the elements can be arranged in shells and subshells.
The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography explains Pauli's finding this way: Landzé, Sommerfeld, and Bohr and others thoought that, particularly in the case of the alkali metals, the atomic core around which the valence electron move has an angular momentum, and that this explains why the atomic core has a halfintegral angular momentum and a magnetic moment. In addition, the alkaline earths possess both a singlet and a triplet system and these two systems should also be explained from the properties of the core. Simply because the atomic core should always possess the same electron configuration, but in the two cases it would interact differently with the valence electrons. No one could explain how this would happen; and Bohr spoke of a Zwang, or constraint, which had no mechanical analogue. If the core has this property then, the closed noble gas configuration should possess such peculiar properties too. It was further believed that the core could not be characterized by the quantum numbers of the individual electrons and so the “permanence of the quantum numbers” would have to be given up. However, Pauli proposes that the magnetic anomaly can be understood as a result of the properties of the valence electron. in the valence electron Pauli writes is "a classically nondescribable two-valuedness in the quantum-theoretic properties of the electron." According to Pauli, the atomic core, on the other hand, has no angular momentum and no magnetic moment. This assumption means that the "permanence of the quantum numbers", Bohr’s design principle can, be described by quantum numbers. In addition to the already known n, l, and m, one now needed a fourth, which is denoted today by the spin quantum number s. After this foundation, Pauli goes on to study the structure of the core, which E. C. Stoner (Philosophical Magazine, 48,(1924), 709) had analyzed. Pauli is able to explain Stoner’s rule by means of his famous exclusion principle: "There can never be two or more equivalent electrons in an atom, for which in a strong field the values of all the quantum numbers n, k1, k2 and m are the same. If an electron is present, for which these quantum numbers (in an external field) have definite values, then this state is “occupied”. In this formulation the atom is first considered in a strong external field (Paschen-Back effect), since only then can the quantum numbers for single electrons be defined. However, on thermodynamic grounds (the invariance of the statistical weights during an adiabatic transformation of the system) the number of possible states in strong and weak fields must, as Pauli observed, be the same. Thus the number of possible configurations of the various unclosed electron shells could now be ascertained.
The exclusion principle states that two electrons with the same quantum numbers cannot occupy the same atom.
(Give better translation) Pauli writes (translated from German) in "On the relation of the completion of electron groups in the atom with the complex structure of spectra") in "Zeitschrift für physik": "It is proposed specifically in view of the Millikan-Landesehen findings of the imagination seeing the Alkali doublett relativistic formulas and on the basis of results obtained in a previous paper, the view that in these doublets and their anomalous Zeeman effect as a non-describable ambiguity of the quantum properties of light-electron is expressed without this is the completion of noble gas configuration of the atomic residue in the form of a hull? pulse or as the seat of the magneto-mechanical anomaly of the atom involved. Then an attempt is made taken as a provisional working hypothesis that position despite this conflict with fundamental difficulties for other atoms as the alkalis in its consequences to follow Moglichts? grows far.
It is found at first, he shall enable in contrast to the conventional view in the case of a strong deflection magnetic field, where zwisehen of the coupling forces atomic residue and radiating electron may be waived, these two subsystems in the number of stationary states and the values of their Quantum numbers and their attributed to magnetic energy no other properties than the free atom and the rest of radiating electron in the alkali. On Grand this result also leads to a general classification of each electron in an atom by the main quantum number n and two secondary quantum numbers k1 and k2, which is added in the presence of a field revolted yet another quantum number m1. Found? in a recent work by EC Stoner, this classification leads to a general quantum theoretical formulation of the completion of electron groups in the atom. ...".
(Does use of the word "exclusion" possibly refer to the massive group of "excluded", who know nothing about neuron reading and writing?)
(Is this spin around their own axis or around a nucleus?) (state clearly who creates and how the quantum numbers are created) (What about shells with more than 2 electrons?) (How do material light particles of which electrons and proton are made of fit into this view?) (I view the Zeeman effect as possible due to particle collision from the electromagnetic field changing the direction of the emission of light particles which changes the angle of incidence of the light beam to the grating, and this in turn changes the spectral line position in accord with the Bragg equation.)
(I think that the key to this finding are understanding what electromagnetic moment is- what was physically observed, what it means, in addition to explaining the Zeeman effect with a material particle explanation.)
(This theory seems doubtful to me. Is the view that the electrons are spinning around their own axis or the atom? It's not explained clearly enough to understand - more background info and visuals, like Pauli's thought-images are needed.)
(Explain what the quantum numbers n, l and m represent.)
(Clearly Pauli was a theoritician and mathematician as opposed to experimenmtalist, and this is historically where so many errors and confusing dogmas have arisen.)
(I think there must be other explanations for the measurements of magnetic moment. In addition, without being able to directly see a rotating electron, I have doubts about the truth of an electron rotating and then two oppositely rotating electrons seems even more unlikely.)
| (Institute fur Theoretische Physik) Hamburg, Germany |
75 YBN
[02/21/1925 AD]
| 5105) (Sir) Edward Victor Appleton (CE 1892-1965) English physicist establishes that radio particle waves are reflected from an ionized layer 96km (60 miles) up in the earth atmosphere.
The existence of such a layer had been postulated by Oliver Heaviside and Arthur Kennelly to explain Marconi's transatlantic radio transmissions. By varying the frequency of a BBC transmitter in Bournemouth and detecting the signal some 140 miles (225 km) away in Cambridge, he showed that interference occurrs between direct (ground) waves and waves reflected off the layer (sky waves).
By varying the wavelength and noting when the received signal is in phase and strengthened or out of phase and therefore weakened, Appleton determines that the Kennelly-Heaviside layer is around sixty miles high. Appleton theorized that the radio fading (the loss of radio reception) might be due to the radio waves being reflected from a layer in the atmosphere, which might cause interference with the radio wave received directly from the transmitter, because the radio signal would take two different routes and be out of sync.
At dawn the Kennelly-Heaviside layer breaks up and the phenomenon of radio fading is not noticeable during the day. But Appleton finds that during the day there is still reflection of radio waves from charged layers higher up.
These layers above the Heaviside–Kennelly layer, are now called the Appleton layers. These Appleton layers undergo daily fluctuations in ionization and Appleton establishes a link between these variations and the occurrence of sunspots.
Appleton and Barnett write in a March 1925 Nature article "Local Reflection of Wireless Waves from the Upper Atmosphere": " In some recent experiments carried out for the Radio Research board of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, measurements have ben made of the diurnal variation of the signals received at Cambridge from the stations of the British Broadcasting Company. During the day-time these signals have been found to be fairly constant, but night-time variations of intensity have been measured at distances from the transmitter so short as 50 miles. For example, the signals from London at Cambridge are found to be constant during the day; but, at about sunset, variations, which are often of a periodic character, behin, and continue through the dark hours. In this case the mean night value is very little different from the day value. For more distant stations (for example, Bournemouth) the phenomena are different. During the day the signal is weak and constant; but after sunset the intensity increases and, though variable, the signal maxima may be several times the day value. In this case the variations in signal intensity are larger, less rapid and less markedly periodic than in the case of the London signals. These effects may be explained in a general way if an atmospheric reflecting layer is postulated which is comparatively ineffective for the waves of this frequency during the day-time but bends them down very markedly at night. According to this view two rays arrive at the receiver at night, one nealy along the ground, which may be called the direct ray, and the other return from the atmosphere, and called the indirect ray. In the case of the London signals the direct ray is considered as being strong and constant compared with the indirect ray; and the night-time variation is considered as being due to interference between the direct and the weak indirect ray. For the longer distance transmission the stronger night-time signal is to be attributed to the indirect ray. If the reflecting stratus is imagined to be at a height greater than say 50 kilometres, the above interpretation indicates bending back at relatively small angles of incidence (for example, if London is considered, and the height is assumed to be 100 kilometres, this angle of incidence is about 22°). Such high grazing angle reflection from the heaviside layer has not usually been considered possible, and we have therefore attempted to examine the phenomena in a more direct manner. The method adopted has been to vary the frequency of the transmitter continuously through a small range and attempt to detect the interference phenomena so produced between the two rays. From our measurements it was estimated that at a distance of about 160 kilometres frmo the transmitter, the effects of the direct ray and the indirect ray at night would be approximately equal. The British Broadcasting Company, on being approached, very kindly consented to collaborate in the experiments and to use the Bournemouth stations as the transmitter. Oxford, being about 140 kilometres from Bournemouth, was chosen as the receiving site, and excellent facilities for the installation of the receiving station were provided for us in the Oxford Electrical Laboratory by Prof. J. S. Townsend and Mr. E. W. B. Gill. Capt. A. G. D. West, of the B.B.C., who was in charge of the Bournemouth end of the experiment, arranged the transmitter so that a known frequency change could be produced uniformly during a given time (for example, 10 to 30 seconds) which the aerial current remained practically constant. The received signal intensity at Oxford was determined with a receiver specially designed to give approximately uniform sensitivity over this band of frequencies. The resulting signal currents were measured by moving coil and small Einthoven galvanometers. Me. F. G. G. Davey gave us most valuable assistance at the receiving station. Land-line communication was also maintained between the two stations during the period of the experiments for control purposes. Two sets of experiments were carried out on December 11, 1924, and on February 17, 1925, and in both cases quite definite examples of successions of interference bands were observed as the wave-length was changed, the intensity varying from a maximum value almost to zero as was arranged for by choice of distance. If we assume the simplest interpretation of these interference phenomena and regard them as analogous to those of a Lloyd's mirror fringe system, the effects may be viewed as follows. For a direct ray path of length a, a higher ray path of length a' and a given wave-length λ, the higher ray arrives N wave-lengths behindhand as compared with the lower ray where N=(a'-a)/λ. If N is an integer the waves steadily reinforce unless a' is changing, while if N is halfway between two integers they are steadily opposite in phase. If the wave-length is gradually increased to λ' at the sending station, alternations of intensity may be expected, the number being (a'-a)λ - (a'-a)λ'. The experimental observations according to this simple interpretation indicate a path difference (a'-a) of the order of 80 kilometres, of about 85 kilometres. Evidence was, however, obtained that the results may be somewhat complicated by the elliptical polarisation of the indirect ray, in which case the above estimate of the height may have to be revised. Further experiments on this point are in progress. but the interference phenomena between two rays depending on the existence of a deflecting layer seem definitely established. It has been usual to attribute the difference between day and night strengths of wireless signals to a difference in the sharpness of the boundary of the effective atmospheric layer, the lower boundary being assumed sharper by night than be day. We think, however, that the transition cannot be sharp compared with the wave-length, particularly for the short waves we have used, and therefore the term "reflection." used for convenience above, must be taken as meaning "ionic deflection." We imaging, therefore, that at night the layer is sufficiently high and intense to permit of ionic deviation taking place, the ray being turned through large angles without undue absorption. During the day the ionisation due to solar agencies throws the ray down at lower leverls (for example, 40-50 kilometres), and here, although ionic refraction can take place, the collisional "friction" causes heavy absorption at these short wave-lengths and high grazing angles. The difference in the action of the atmospheric ionisation between day and night is therefore to be taken as due to the differences in height (and therefore density) of the effective layer, and not as due to the difference in the sharpness of the boundary of the layer as has been usually assumed. These and other experiments suggest the inference that, at distances greater than about 100 miles from a wireless transmitter of these wave-lengths (for example, 300-400 metres), night-time reception is dependent almost entirely on the upper indirect ray; and evidence is not lacking that, due to the more effective reflection by the ionised layer at smaller grazing angles, the signal strength maximum may in some cases increase with increase of distance from the transmitter.".
(How do the people at both ends communicate, by telephone? how do they syncronize the transmitted and received signal?)
| (King's College) London, England |
75 YBN
[03/19/1925 AD]
| 6065) "Sweet Georgia Brown", written Ben Bernie and Maceo Pinkard (music) and Kenneth Casey (lyrics) and recorded.
| New York City, New York, USA (probably) |
75 YBN
[04/04/1925 AD]
| 4754) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, refers to hydrogen atoms as "protons". Before this Rutherford referred to hydrogen atoms as "Long-range particles", "H nuclei" and "H particles".
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
75 YBN
[05/18/1925 AD]
| 4882) Walter Sydney Adams (CE 1876-1956) US astronomer finds an average displacement to the red of the spectral lines of the companion of Sirius (Sirius B) of 21 km./sec which confirms Eddington's prediction and Einstein's general theory of relativity.
(I have serious doubts about this claim.)
This measurement of Adams confirms Eddington’s prediction. Adams finds a displacement to the red of 21 km./sec., a result he later modifies to 19 km./sec. Eddington writes in 1927: “Prof. Adams has thus killed two birds with one stone. He has carried out a new test of Einstein’s general theory of relativity, and he has shown that matter at least 2,000 times denser than platinum is not only possible, but actually exists in the stellar universe.”.
Adams calculates that for a star to be so small and yet so massive, it must have a density of 40,000 times that of water, or 2000 times greater than platinum. Because of the “nuclear atom made mostly of empty space” model of the atom, advanced by Ernest Rutherford, the view (who puts forward?) is that stars like the Companion of Sirius (how many others are there?) (are made of) subatomic particles that are crushed together, in what is called "degenerate matter" (is this somehow sub atomic particles put together in a way different from regular atoms?), and these kinds of stars come to be called “white dwarfs”. Other white dwarfs will be found in the 1920s (but not later?). Eddington will show that these stars must have very large gravitational fields, large enough to produce a shift in the spectral absorption lines toward the red in accordance with the general theory of relativity (and also Newton's law of gravitation?). (This paragraph is not in Adams' papers - find source.)
Adams writes: "THE RELATIVITY DISPLACEMENT OF THE SPECTRAL LINES IN THE COMPANION OF SIRIUS
The remarkable character of the companion of Sirius and the almost unique position it occupies as an object which might be expected to yield a very large gravitational displacement of the spectral lines on the theory of generalized relativity has been discussed in an interesting paper by Eddington.' In this article he has shown the extraordinary values of the density of the material composing the star which would follow as a consequence of a confirmation of a relativity displacement of the order predicted. The possibility of deriving results of such interest for this star is, of course, due to the fact that it is at the same time a "white dwarf," that is, an early type star of very low intrinsic brightness, and a component of a visual binary system with well-determined elements. From the elements of its orbit its mass and velocity relative to the principal star may be derived, and the well-known parallax of Sirius in combination with the apparent magnitude of the companion provides a knowledge of its absolute magnitude. The spectral type of the star is a matter of direct observation, and results for surface brightness, size and density follow as a consequence of what is known regarding stars of similar spectral class. The first observations of the spectrum of the companion of Sirius were made at Mount Wilson with the 60-inch reflector in 19142 and showed that the spectrum was of an early type and not widely different from that of Sirius itself. The difficulties of such observations are evident. The brightness of the two stars is nearly in the ratio of 1 to 10,000, and at i distance of 10" the scattered light of Sirius produces a spectrum which overlies that of the fainter star on all the photographs. Accordingly, it is necessary to select times of excellent seeing and to make the duration of the exposures as short as possible. For this reason the photographs obtained with the 100-inch reflector, with which the brightness of the fainter star relative to the illuminated field is greater than with the 60-inch telescope, are considerably superior. In the case of the more recent photographs diaphragms with circular apertures have been used to reduce the effect of the diffraction rays produced by the supports of the auxiliary mirrors. This has led to a marked improvement. All of the spectrograms have been made at the Cassegrain focus of the telescope at an equivalent focal length of 135 feet. A single-prism spectrograph with an 18-inch camera has been used for the observations, the average exposure time being about 40 minutes. There seems to be little doubt that the spectrum of the companion is in some respects peculiar. The enhanced lines so prominent in the spectrum of Sirius are faint, X4481 of mnagnesium being especially noteworthy in this respect. This agrees with the results found for other white dwarf stars. The arc lines are also faint, and the hydrogen lines form the principal feature of the spectrum. The distribution of the light in the continuous spectrum is noticeably different from that of the scattered light from Sirius and resembles that of an F-type star in being considerably more intense toward longer wave-lengths. As a result, the spectrum of the companion may be obtained nearly free from the spectrum of Sirius at Hp, while at He the superposition is very pronounced. At wave-lengths shorter than HA the spectrum of the companion can hardly be seen upon that produced by the scattered light of Sirius. A consideration of these various features indicates that a classification of the spectrum as FO is probably not seriously in error, although the line spectrum-by itself would indicate a somewhat earlier type. It should be noted, moreover, that the increase in the amount of scattering toward shorter wave-lengths would tend to make the violet portion of the continuous spectrum from the scattered light somewhat more intense than in the case of Sirius itself. This may well account for a part of the difference observed. It seems probable, therefore, that the spectrum of the companion should be classed as earlier rather than later than FO. For the purpose of measuring the relative velocities of Sirius and the companion a selection has been made of the spectrograms secured under the most favorable conditions and showing the spectrum of the companion most clearly. Four spectrograms have been found especially suitable, two of which are of exceptionally good quality. Since direct measurements are difficult on account of the diffuse character of the lines, they have been supplemented by an extended study and measurement of the two best spectrograms with the large registering microphotometer. For this purpose direct enlargements were made from the original negatives, and intensity curves of the more important spectral lines in both the spectrum of Sirius and that of the companion were traced with the microphotometer from these enlargements. The measurements, which were carried out by Miss Ware, who has had extensive experience with such photometric curves, consist in determining the centers of the chords of the-curve of each spectral line at a large number of points between its base and vertex. The spectrum of Sirius lying on either side of that of the companion, the mean of the two curves for Sirius is compared with that of the fainter star. The horizont al scale of these curves is about 53 times that of the original negatives. A second method of measurement makes use of the lines of the comparison spectrum as traced with the microphotometer. The curves of the lines in the spectrum of the companion are measured with reference to the curves of neighboring comparison lines, and the results are reduced by the usual method for stellar spectra after correction for the enlargement factor. The known radial velocity of Sirius is then subtracted from the value derived for the companion. The spectrograms have also been measured directly with a comparator by one or more observers. In most cases only the spectrum of the companion has been measured and the resulting radial velocity has been compared with that of Sirius. Toward the violet end of the spectrum, however, it has been possible to measure some of the lines in both spectra and thus obtain differential values directly. The following table gives the results of all the measures for the individual lines, the detailed values being listed in order to provide material for an estimation of the accuracy of the final results. The methods used in measurement are indicated and the relative displacements between the com-- panion and Sirius are given for convenience as radial velocities in kilometers per second. The displacements in angstrom units may be obtained by dividing these values by 69 at Hγ and 62 at Hβ. The positive sign indicates a displacement toward the red of the lines in the spectrum of the companion relative to those in Sirius. The results for Hβ, and Hγ are entitled to by far the highest weight, the other lines being faint and difficult of measurement.
{ULSF: See table of measurements}
The outstanding features of these results are the definite character of the positive displacement and its change in amount with wave-length. Thelgreater relative intensity of the spectrum of the scattered light of Sirius toward shorter wave-lengths and the increasing influence of the superposition of the lines in its spectrum upon those of the companion evidently will tend to reduce the amount of the measured displacement. Although the correction for this effect cannot be determined rigorously, some approximation'to it can be gained from photometric measures of the relative densities of the continuous spectrum of Sirius and of Sirius plus companion at selected points throughout the spectrum. These have been made with the registering microphotometer and 'give the following values of the ratio of the photographic density of the continuous spectrum of the companion to that of Sirius at five regions in the spectrum: λ4200 0.8 λ4400 1.2 λ4600 1.7 Hγ 1.1 4500 1.4 If we may assume, as seems justified from observation, that the relation of line intensity to continuous spectrum is the same for the hydrogen lines both for Sirius and its companion, the above numbers will also represent the ratios of the intensities of the lines. For Hy, where the ratio is nearly 1, the measured displacement will require multiplication by a factor of nearly 2 to correct for the effect of superposition. At Hp, on the other hand, the spectrum of Sirius is relatively so faint that no correction should be necessary. For the other lines the uncertainty is greater because the relationship of line intensity to continuous spectrum is probably different in the two stars. Under the same assumption as for the hydrogen lines, however, values for the correction factor may be found, when the displacement is small as compared with the widths of the lines, from the approximate formula a = 1 + k1/k2
in which ki = 1 is the density of the spectrum of the scattered light of Sirius, and k2 that of the companion. The correction factors would be larger the fainter the lines in the spectrum of the companion relatively to those in Sirius. Applying corrections obtained by this formula, and assigning double weight to the measures with the registering microphotometer on the hydrogen lines, we find the mean values {ULSF: See actual paper for better layout of tables} KM./SEC. Hβ +26 Hγ 21 Additional Lines 22 +23 The relative velocity of Sirius and its companion may be computed readily from the elements of the visual orbit. For the mean epoch of the observations this is found to be 1.7 km./sec., the companion showing a motion of recession from Sirius. Applying this correction to the observed value, the final result for the displacement of the lines in the spectrum of the companion is +21 km./sec., or +0.32 angstrom. This value, interpreted as a relativity displacement, gives a radius for the star of about 18,000 km. If we use the values derived by Seares3 for surface brightness, we find for the companion of Sirius, on the alternatives of FO or A5 for its spectral type, V0 A5 Surface brightness -0.88 -1.45 Radius (km.) 24000 18000 Density (water = 1) 30000 64000 Relativity Displacement (angstrom) +0.23 +0.32 Eddington has calculated a relativity shift of 20 km./sec. on the basis of a spectral type of FO and an effective temperature of 80000 for the Although such a degree of agreement can only be regarded as accidental for observations as difficult as these, the inherent accord of the measurements made by different methods, and in particular with the registering microphotometer, is thoroughly satisfactory. The results may be considered, therefore, as affording direct evidence from stellar spectra for the validity of the third test of the theory of general relativity, and for the remarkable densities predicted by Eddington for the dwarf stars of early type of spectrum.".
The view of "white dwarf" stars, is that these are stars that have collapsed into a highly compressed object after its supposed nuclear fuel is exhausted. (Although my own view is one of doubt on this claim of white dwarf stars being somehow very dense, and also of stars being powered by hydrogen fusing to form helium which released photons - the more likely source is simply the tangle of photons reaching empty space only at the surface of any star-so pressure is built inside from particle collisions.)
1925 Adams searches for a red shift in the spectrum (of the Companian of Sirius) and finds one. It is not the size predicted by Einstein but is close enough to be considered a check of the theory. (this is not clear, Adams finds a red shift in the spectrum of the star? How does he know it is not from Doppler shift?)(if a red shift from passing light, how is the original frequency known, and can that not also be an explanation for why the light from distant galaxies is red shifted?)
(If the spectrum from each kind of star reveals only 4 or 5 kinds, one being white dwarfs, I think that is a good argument for saying that these stars are different from others. What kinds of atoms does the light of white dwarfs reveal? If not made of atoms, what does that complete spectrum look like? The same for neutron stars, pulsars, all other kinds. Clearly identify the steller spectra showing that they are all unique, most are unique, most are the same, etc. Are there possibilities of intelligent life creating or adapting so-called neutron stars?)
This is nearly 10 years after Adams had determined the spectrum of Sirius B.
(Much of the rise of the latest corruption by the neuron network coincides with the rise of non-euclidean geometry and in particular the rise of the theory of relativity. Where in 1915 this corruption was clearly in place and growing, by 1925, the corruption is clearly fully in motion and at a largely developed stage of growth.)
(Interesting that Adams simply refers to the spectral line shift as a "relativity displacement" - as if the concept of gravitation, or mass is not related, just the abstract "relativity".)
(Adams, apparently presumes that Sirius B is at the same distance as Sirius A, without taking any parallax measurement of Sirius B. Question: Has any visual parallax of Sirius B ever been taken?)
(Clearly, the amount of shift varies greatly for different lines. Is this true that quantity of red shift varies depending on the frequency of the spectral line? Otherwise, I would have to conclude that the shifting is not uniform for the entire spectrum, and so cannot strictly represent a single phenomenon like a Doppler shift, or a gravitational shift.)
(In this paper, Adams refers to the spectrum of stars as being "early" and "later" - so already this view of stars having a single continuous life cycle is in place and being promoted.)
(There is a lot of averaging and adjusting of the spectral line shifts, and then just a few lines - all of which have widely different values - so I have doubts about the recorded shifts, and about the interpretation of these shifts as being strictly due to the mass of Sirius B. Does Adams remove Doppler shift for motion of Sirius B relative to the observer? How is this value estimated?)
(Interesting begining with "The remarkable character" which may refer to Einstein - and it raises the idea that, truth was lost in the early 1900s to the apparently more important and larger fascination of interesting individual people.)
In 1862, G. Bond, in describing the Alvan Clark's first visual identification of Sirius B, presumes that Sirius is a binary star system, but publicly concludes by writing that the companion's " faintness would lead us to attribute to it a much smaller mass than would suffice to account for the motions of Sirius, unless we suppose it to be an opaque body or only feebly self-luminous.".
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
75 YBN
[06/06/1925 AD]
| 5024) Karl Manne Georg Siegbahn (SEGBoN) (CE 1886-1978), Swedish physicist, show that x-rays are refracted as they pass through glass, in the same way as light.
Siegbahn also publishes his influential "Spectroscopy of X-rays" (1925).
Siegbahn publishes this work in French in "Le Journal de Physique et le Radium", as (translated from French) "The Reflection and Refraction of X-Rays", with a summary that reads (translated from French): "The author gives a summary of recent research laboratory at the University of Uppsala (Sweden). This research focused on examination of Bragg's law, and the refraction phenomena in X-ray amorphous bodies (glass).".
Siegbahn goes on to write (translated from French with translate.google.com): "The experimental measurement of the wavelengths of X rays is based on the law of Bragg: nλ = 2d0sin φn, (1)
where λ is the wavelength; d0, the distance between atomic planes, and φ the angle of reflection of order n.
The validity of this equation was examined for the first time by Bragg, which measured the reflection angles for different orders by using a monochromatic beam.
By the law (1) the expression sin φn/n = λ/2d0 must be constant. The degree of accuracy that is possible to achieve in the method of measuring by Bragg, is proved in the value of the function sin φn/n actually appearing as constant. The author has tried to increase the accuracy of methods used in measuring wavelength of X-rays. When new instruments built for this purpose, were employed and a greater accuracy in measuring the angles of reflection could be obtained, it was a fundamental question to verify the Bragg law. Primitive measures of Dr Stenstrom indicated that the function sin φn/n
was not perfectly constant but decreasing for high values of n. Because of the importance of this issue for the X-ray spectroscopy, experimental studies were repeated by Dr. Hjalmar, and recently by M. Larsson. The results of experiments of Mr. Larsson show (Figure 1) that there exists a very regular deviation from the simple law of Bragg, the value sin φn/n is not the same for the different orders. Mr. Larsson has used in his experiments X-ray characteristic of copper Kα1, and for a reflecting crystal, mica. With this choice of radiation and the crystal, it is possible to measure the angle of reflection from first to eleventh order. The curve plotted in fig1 is derived from the theory of Mr. Darwin and Mr. Ewald. Both authors have treated the problem of reflection of X rays on a crystal, in consideration of the mutual inflence of resonators of the crystalline body, influences neglected in the simple theories of Laue and Bragg. ... The results of our measurements are given in Fig, 2. Values obtained in the experiments are given in terms of the wavelength; the values vary from 10000 units X (1 λ) to 5000 (5 λ). As shown in the figure, the values of dcalcite/dgypsum are not located on a straight line parallel to the axis of the abscissa, as we had assumed, but rather, the experimental curve shows two discontinuities: the first exactly for the characteristic wavelength of calcium, and the second exactly for the characterist wavelength of sulfur.
This result is a preview for the complete theory. The value of δ/λ2 is not quite a constant and this is consistent with the classical theory of the dispersion value; the value of δ indicates an anomalie when v passes through frequencies of resonators. In the case studied experimentally, we went in our measurements, for frequencies calcium and sulfur and our curve shows anomalous dispersion by both calcite crystals and gypsum in the domain of X-ray frequencies.
In previously treated cases, it was a refraction in crystals, the refraction coming to superimpose on the interferential reflection of Laue-Bragg. But the refraction is not necessarily restricted to crystalline bodies. One has often tried to discovered experimentally a refraction in glass prisms, in using a device similar to those of optics. A full discussion of these experiments is in the fine work of MM. Dauvillier and Ledoux-Lebard in the Physics of X rays. MM. Larsson, Waller and the author has repeated these experiments in choosing the most favorable conditions for the phenomenon. Figure (3) shows the device. A very thin beam passes near the edge of a glass prism. If the angle of incidence is very small, part of the ray is totally reflected and forms an image on a photographic plate. Another part passes on outside of prism in the vicinity of the ridge and puts on the plate a fine black line corresponding to the direct beam.
But besides this, one can see on the plates a third line that corresponds to a ray refracted by the prism in a direction contrary to the normal optical deviation. Figure (4) shows some results obtained with the rays characteristic of iron. In the first part, we see the direct image and the image totally reflected. In the second part, which is obtained with a larger incidence angle, the reflected image has disappeared, but also the refracted ray has emerged. Other parts show results with increasing incidence angles. These snapshots can be used to measure the refractive index. For this purpose, we measured the distances to the direct line from the relative lines of the rays that are reflected and refracted. The values of the index of refraction μ= 1 - δ gives the following: {ULSF: see table}
Since in these cases, the frequencies are larger than the frequencies of resonators, we can assume that δ/μ2, is a constant. The experimental values are in agreement with this hypothesis. This method to show small differences in velocities of the light (or the X-rays) is very sensitive. For the Ka rays of copper we measured the ratio Cglass/Cair and we found 1.000 008 125 with a probable error of 0.000 000 05.
We can therefore use this method to measure refractive indices in the field of X-rays. It is probably possible, for measures of this kind, to directly calculate the number of electrons in a energy levels of atoms.
But one can also use the indicated method for studying the spectra of X-rays by a means quite analogous to the ordinary optical method. The figure shows X-ray spectra obtained with an ordinary glass prism. One can see, besides the direct ray and the ray totally reflected, the spectrum of a complex beam of X-rays including the Ka rays of copper and of iron. Finally, I wish to draw attention to the fact that these experiments involve a spectral method which is applicable in the ordinary optical as well as in the X-ray range. We can therefore expect that this method will open new prospects for linking these two domains.".
Later, using Siegbahn’s gratings and suggestion, Bengt Edlén and others at Uppsala photographically record optical spark spectra in the ultraviolet region, down to 10 Ångström units. Siegbahn’s team extends the long-wave limit of X-ray spectroscopic registrations in the K, L, M, and N series to 400 Ångström units and so the two spectral regions are bridged. (Create a record for when x-ray and uv frequencies are bridged.)
(Can radio, and microwave, be refracted with a prism?)
(This work is interesting to me because x-rays may be connected to neuron writing.)
(Translate and read relevant parts)
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
75 YBN
[07/13/1925 AD]
| 5059) Vladimir Kosma Zworykin (ZWoURiKiN) (CE 1889-1982) Russian-US electrical engineer, patents a color television system.]
Zworykin writes in his 1925 patent: "My invention relates, in general, to television systems.
One of the objects of my invention is to provide an improved means for reproducing, at the receiving station, the image of the desired object in its natural colors.
Another object of my invention is to provide improved means for indicating any change in color of the object or any change in position at the receiving station.
A still further object of my invention is to provide means for securing color television with very small change from the apparatus that may be used to produce television without colors. ... Having briefly described the apparatus shown in the drawings, I will now explain its detailed operation. For this purpose, it will be assumed that it is desired to broadcast the image of some object which is in front of the lens 41 associated with the transmitting cathode-ray tube 27.
Ordinarily, the oscillations generated by the oscillator 9 are not radiated by the antenna 3. This is because of the fact that these oscillations are neutralized by the action of the modulator triodes 7 and 8, and, consequently, there is no transfer of energy into the secondary of the transformer 6. The only manner in which the antenna can be set in oscillation by the operation of the triode 9 is by a change in condition in the primary of the transformer 11 which is connected to the grid 37 and to the screen 35 of the composite plate 33.
The light from the object placed before the lens 41 is so varied that, upon the focusing of this light upon the photoelectric material 48 of the composite plate 33, electron emission of varying intensity from the minute globules of photoelectric material takes place in accordance with the reflected light from the object placed before the lens 41.
However, inasmuch as the light, before reaching the photoelectric material 48, passes through the color screen 40, it is analyzed. That is, if a particular point of the object is a certain color—for example, red—only the red light will be transmitted through anv of the squares of the color screen and this will be through the red square or squares in the color screen, depending upon the size of the red part of the object. All the other wave lengths or colors of the light will be absorbed. The action of the color screen is the same for blue and green lights, and other colors are analyzed and light transmitted through the various squares in accordance with primary colors combining to form the remaining colors. This follows as all the colors may be obtained by varying the combination of these three colors, and all the colors of the object will be analyzed in an obvious manner. Consequently, the image appearing upon the photoelectric material 48 is broken up into a mosaic pattern, there being light spots on the photo-electric material 48 corresponding to each square of the color screen 40 through which light is transmitted. This, as before described, is controlled by the color of the object.
Therefore, the electron emission from each minute globule of the photoelectric material 48, in addition to being controlled by the relative lights and shadows of the object, is controlled by the colors. To explain more fully, if a red spot appears on the object, light is transmitted to certain minute globules of the photoelectric material that correspond or are relatively in the same position with respect to the remaining photoelectric material as the red squares in the color screen through which light is transmitted. The same is true of any other spot on the picture.
This electron emission may be considered a species of conduction between the globules of photoelectric material 48 and the grid 37. This phenomena is intensified by the argon that fills the container as a result of the ionization of the gas brought about by the electron impacts.
In view of the fact that the oxide plate 36 is an insulator there is no conduction between the grid 37 and the screen 35, even though the photoelectric globules emit electrons. The cathode beam impinges on the composite plate 33 as soon as the filament 30 is energized. This cathode beam ionizes the argon gas through which it passes. The ionized gas then acts to confine or concentrate the cathode beam in a well known manner.
When the cathode beam strikes a particular point upon the screen, it ionizes the argon covered by the beam and this bridges the spaces between the screen and certain of its globules. As a result of this operation, through the particular point that is covered by the cathode beam, there is conduction between the aluminum plate 35 and the grid 37, the small globules of photoelectric material acting as individual photoelectric cells.
The current flowing in the circuit, from the grid 37 to the plate 35, is amplified by means of the amplifier triode 12. The output of the amplifier 12 now causes the modulator triodes 7 and 8 to transmit, through the transformer 6, the high-frequency oscillations, generated by the oscillator triode 9, modulated in accordance with the current in the amplifier triode 12 which, in turn, is governed by the intensity and color of the light focused upon the particular spot at which the cathode ray is located. The intensity of this electron stream is, of course, governed by the intensity and color of the light reflected from the object.
The intensity of the light from the object is, in turn, governed on any particular point by the color of the light reflected from the object. That is, if red rays of a certain intensity dominate, there will be an electron flow at this point proportional to the amount of red rays. In the event that the beam is covering a portion of the cathode-ray stream corresponding to one of the other small squares of the screen for example, a blue one, the intensity of the electron emission is governed by the amount of blue light transmitted by the color screen which is controlled by the amount of blue light reflected from the corresponding surface of the object. ... Returning now to the operation of the systern that was being described, as the whole area of the composite plate 33 at the transmitting station and the fluorescent screen 60 at the receiving station is covered by the cathode beams in 1/32 of a second, the colored image of the object will be displayed on the ground glass screen 63 during 1/32 of a second. However, as the frequency of the oscillation of the generator 23 is 16 cycles per second, the picture will be transmitted twice and will remain on the screen 60 during 1/10 of a second. Thus, due to the persistency of vision phenomena, any movement or change in color of the object before the lens 41 will be properly transmitted and recorded upon the fluorescent screen 60 and will appear thereupon as a moving image.
It will, be obvious, of course, that it is necessary to have the fluorescent screen 60 composed of fluorescent material that will give off white light or, at least, light comprising the three primary colors red, blue and green. There are certain zinc sulphides, that, when subject to bombardment by the cathode ray, give off white light. If the screen is made up of a combination of several elements, a mixture of the three primary colors may be obtained. For example, cesium, when subjected to cathode rays, gives off a red fluorescence, barium a blue fluorescence and zinc sulphide gives off a green fluorescence. Consequently, by composing the screen 60 of these materials, color television may be secured.
Of course, in place of transmitting the image of actual objects, it is entirely possible to send moving pictures, as all that is necessary is to pass the pictures before the lens 41 at the required rate of speed and a replica of them will appear on the screen 60. In order to place these pictures before a large audience, it is, of course, possible to intensify and focus them upon an ordinary screen by means of any well-known optical system. ...".
(In this description it seems almost like the cathode points as particles move from the Sun, off the object, onto the drop of potassium hydride, through the argon to the cathode, which is electronically moved to complete this circuit in horizontal lines. But I'm not sure this is entirely accurate.)
| (Westinghouse Electric Corporation) |
75 YBN
[09/05/1925 AD]
| 5112) Arthur Holly Compton (CE 1892-1962), US physicist, and Richard Doan obtain spectra of X-rays using a metal grating.
This is the first successful application of a ruled diffraction grating to the production of X-ray spectra. These first X-ray spectra are produced by Richard L. Doan, who carries out a suggestion of Compton’s that such spectra might be obtained from a ruled grating by working within the angle of total reflection. Doan has a grating ruled on Albert Michelson’s ruling engine, and with this grating Doan photographs the first X-ray grating spectra in 1925.
Compton and Doan write: "We have recently obtained spectra of ordinary X-rays by reflection at very small glancing angles from a grating ruled on speculum metal. Typical spectra thus obtained are shown in the accompanying figures. From some of these spectra it is possible to measure X-ray wave-lengths with considerable precision. In order to reflect any considerable X-ray energy from a speculum surface it is necessary to work at small glancing angles, within the critical angle for total reflection. (See A. H. Compton, Phil. Mag., 45, 1121 (1923).) Within this critical angle, which in our experiments, using wavelengths less than 1.6 angstroms, was less than 25 minutes of arc, the diffraction grating may be used in the same manner as in optical work. The wave-length is given by the usual formula, nX = D (sin 0 + sin i) where i is the angle of incidence and t is the angle of diffraction for the nth order. ... In order that several orders of the spectrum should appear inside the critical angle, we had-a grating ruled with a comparatively large grating space, D = 2.000 X 10-3 cm. Special pains were taken to obtain a well polished surface, and the ruling was rather light, so as to obtain good reflection from the space between the lines. The reflected beam thus obtained was just as sharply defined as the direct beam. In our first trials the X-rays direct from the target of a water-cooled Coolidge tube were collimated by fine slits 0.1 mm. broad and about 30 cm. apart. ... We were not able, with the grating used, to separate sharply the different X-ray spectrum lines. Therefore in order to get a precise measurement of one particular line we reflected the Kal line of molybdenum from a calcite crystal and studied this beam with the ruled grating. The experimental arrangement is shown diagrammatically in figure 1. Typical diffraction patterns are shown in figures 4 and 5 for two different angles of incidence of the X-rays on the grating. It was found that the intensity of the spectrum obtained increased with the glancing angle, 0. Thus in figure 4, where 0 = 0.00095 radians, only the first order spectrum appears; whereas in figure 5, where 0 = 0.00308, there appear the first inside order and three outside orders. The exposure was in each case about 9 hours. ... The weighted mean value of our measurements on five films showing from 1 to 4 orders of the spectrum of the molybdenum Kai line is X = 0.707 i 0.003A. From crystal measurements this wave-length is determined as X = 0.7078 , 0.0002A. The agreement is well within the probable error of our experiments. Our measurements of the spectra, obtained using a copper target, give in a similar manner wave-lengths intermediate between the a and , lines of copper, i.e., about 1.4 to 1.5A. We see no reason why measurements of the present type may not be made fully as precise as the absolute measurements by reflection from a crystal, in which the probable error is due chiefly to the uncertainty of the crystalline grating space.". (Do people still use these diffraction gratings for x-rays?)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
75 YBN
[10/22/1925 AD]
| 5292) Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (CE 1882-1963), patents the first publicly known non-vacuum tube (solid state) electric switch and amplifier, also known as a "field-effect transistor".
William Shockly's original field effect transistor patent will be completely thrown out and Bardeen's point junction patent transistor patent will have over half the claims dismissed due to Lilienfeld's prior work.
In his patent application of October 22, 1925 entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING ELECTRIC CURRENTS" Lilienfeld writes: "The invention relates to a method of and apparatus for controlling the flow of an electric current between two terminals of an electrically conducting solid by establishing a 5 third potential between said terminals; and is particularly adaptable to the amplification of oscillating currents such as prevail, for example, in radio communication. Heretofore, thermionic tubes or valves have been
10 generally employed for this purpose; and the present invention has for its object to dispense entirely with devices relying upon the transmission of electrons thru an evacuated space and especially to devices of this char
16 acter wherein the electrons are given off from an incandescent filament. The invention has for a further object a simple, substantial and inexpensive relay or amplifier not involving the use of excessive voltages, and
20 in which no filament or equivalent element is present. More particularly, the invention consists in affecting, as by suitable incoming oscillations, a current in an electrically conducting solid of such characteristics that said
25 current will be affected by and respond to electrostatic changes. Means are associated with the aforesaid conducting solid whereby these electrostatic changes are set up conformably with the incoming oscillations
30 which are thus reproduced greatly magnified in the circuit, suitable means being provided, also, to apply a potential to the said conducting solid portion of the amplifier circuit as well as to maintain the electrostatic produc
35 ing means at a predetermined potential
which is to be substantially in excess of a
potential at an intermediate point of said
circuit portion.
The nature of the invention, however, will
40 best be understood when described in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which—
Fig. 1 is a perspective view, on a greatly enlarged scale and partly in section, of the
45 novel apparatus as embodied by way of example in an amplifier.
Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic view illustrating the voltage characteristics of an amplifier as shown in Fig. 1.
60 Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of a radio
60
G5
70
receiving circuit in which the novel amplifier is employed for two stages of radio frequency and two of audio frequency amplification.
Eeferring to the drawings, 10 designates 53 a base member of suitable insulating material, for example, glass; and upon the upper surface of which is secured transversely thereof and along each side a pair of conducting members 11 and 12 as a coating of platinum, gold, silver or copper which may be provided over the glass surface by wellknown methods such as chemical reduction, etc. It is desirable that the juxtaposed edges of the two terminal members 11 and 12 be located as closely as possible to each other; and substantially midway of the same there is provided an electrode member 13, which is of minimum dimensions to reduce capacity effect. This member consists of a suitable metal foil, preferably aluminum foil, and may conveniently be secured in position by providing a transverse fracture 14 in the glass and then reassembling the two pieces to retain between the same the said piece of aluminum foil of a thickness approximating one ten-thousandth part of an inch. The upper edge of this foil is arranged to lie flush with the upper surface of the glass
Over both of the coatings 11 and 12, the intermediate upper surface portion of the glass 10, and the edge of the foil 13 is provided a film or coating 15 of a compound having the property of acting in conjunction 85 with said metal foil electrode as an element of uni-directional conductivity. That is to say, this coating is to be electrically conductive and possess also the property, when associated with other suitable conductors, of 90 establishing at the surface of contact a considerable drop of potential. The thickness of the film, moreover, is minute and of such a degree that the electrical conductivity therethru would be influenced by applying 95 thereto an electrostatic force. A suitable material for this film and especially suitable in conjunction with aluminum foil, is a compound of copper and sulphur. A convenient way of providing the film over the coatings
so
100 10
1,745,175
11 and 12 and the electrode 13 is to spatter metallic copper by heating copper wire within a vacuum, or by depositing copper from a colloidal suspension, over the entire upper surface and then sulphurizing the deposited copper in sulphur vapor, or by exposure to a suitable gas as hydrogen sulphide or a liquid containing sulphur, as sulphur dissolved in carbon bisulphide.
To produce the required flow of electrons through the film 15 a substantial potential is applied across the two terminal coatings 11 and 12 as by conductors 16 leading from a battery or like source 17 of direct current. 15 As shown in the diagrammatic view, Fig. 2, the dimensional volt characteristics of the device indicate a substantially steady voltage of value a over the coating 11 and a corresponding steady voltage 5 of diminished 20 value over the coating 12, while over the portion of the surface between said coatings the voltage in the film 15 will be according to the gradient c. As aforesaid, the electrode 13 is located substantially midway of the inner 25 ends of the terminal coatings il and 12 and there is arranged to be supplied thereto a potential indicated by the value d, Fig. 2, and somewhat in excess of the voltage prevailing along the gradient c at this point. This po30 tential may be applied by means of a battery or like source of potential 18, the negative pole of which is connected to the negative pole of the battery 17. In the circuit of the electrode 13 and source of potential 18 is also 35 included some exterior source of oscillating or fluctuating current, which source is indicated, by way of example, in Fig. 3, as the antenna 20 of a radio communication circuit. The effect of thus providing an excess posi4.0 tive potential in the electrode 13 is to prevent any potential in the oscillating circuit hereinbefore described from rendering said electrode of zero potential or of a negative potential, which would then permit a current to (5 pass from the electrode edge to the film 15; as in the reverse direction where a positive voltage is maintained, the two members— namely electrode and connecting film—act as an electric valve to prevent the flow. MainEC taining a positive potential at this point, however, insures that the flow of the electrons from the piece 11 to the piece 12 will be impeded in a predetermined degree, a variation therein being effected conformably to the C5 changing amount of this potential under the influence of the oscillating or fluctuating current introduced. This effect will be repeated on a greatly magnified scale in the circuit of the conducting coatings 11 and 12 and may be 60 reproduced in various circuits or for various purposes as thru a transformer 21, from the secondary of which leads 22 extend to any suitable device, which, as shown in Fig. 3, may be further amplifiers of this character 65 as the radio frequency amplifiers 23 and audio
70
80
85
frequency amplifiers 24, the last of which is shown connected to a loud speaker or similar device 25. A current rectifying member 26, however, is necessary where it is desired to convert the radio frequency into audio frequency oscillations. It will be observed that but two sources of potential 27 and 28—which may be combined into a single, properly tapped source—are required and of potentials approximately 30 and 15 volts respectively 75 for the particular elements employed.
The basis of the invention resides apparently in the fact that the conducting layer at the particular point selected introduces a resistance varying with the electric field at this point; and in this connection it may be assumed that the atoms (or molecules) of a conductor are of the nature of bipoles. In order for an electron, therefore, to travel in the electric field, the bipoles are obliged to become organized in this field substantially with their axes parallel or lying in the field of flow. _ Any disturbance in this organization, as by heat movement, magnetic field, electrostatic cross-field, etc., will serve to increase 90 the resistance of the conductor; and in the instant case, the conductivity of the layer is influenced by the electric field. Owing to the fact that this layer is extremely thin the field is permitted to penetrate the entire volume 95 thereof and thus will change the conductivity throughout the entire cross-section of this conducting portion.".
(Lilienfeld apparently does not use semiconductor metals.)
(Interesting that Lilienfeld makes use of the vacuum spray method used to coat mirrors, first made public by another under-valued scientist Louis Dunoyer.)
(It's interesting that the barrier is an insulator {dielectric}, and the strong electromagnetic field allows current to flow through the thin insulator. Basically, this is simply some kind of physical barrier for electrons that is overcome by sending many light particles through. Perhaps the smaller light particles knock open paths in the insulator for the larger electrons to move through.)
| Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA |
75 YBN
[11/16/1925 AD]
| 5282) Werner Karl Heisenberg (HIZeNBARG) (CE 1901-1976), German physicist, with Max Born and Pascual Jordan develop "matrix mechanics", a new form of quantum mechanics.
In 1925, after an extended visit to Bohr’s Institute of Theoretical Physics at the University of Copenhagen, Heisenberg examines the problem of spectrum intensities of the electron taken as a one-dimensional vibrating system (anharmonic oscillator). The view that any theory of quantum mechanics should be based only on observable quantities is central to his paper of July 1925, “Über quantentheoretische Umdeutung kinematischer und mechanischer Beziehungen” (“Quantum-Theoretical Reinterpretation of Kinematic and Mechanical Relations”). Heisenberg’s formalism rests on noncommutative multiplication; Born, together with his new assistant Pascual Jordan, realize that this can be expressed using matrix algebra, which they use in a paper submitted for publication in September as “Zur Quantenmechanik” (“On Quantum Mechanics”). By November, Born, Heisenberg, and Jordan have completed “Zur Quantenmechanik II” (“On Quantum Mechanics II”), which is regarded as the foundational document of a new quantum mechanics.
In 1927 working backwards from known spectral lines, Heisenberg, Born and jordan evolve a system called "matrix mechanics" which consists of an array of quantities which, properly manipulated give the wavelengths of the spectral lines which will be shown to be the equivalent of Schrödinger's wave mechanics which will be announced months later. Physicists will prefer Schrödinger's interpretation as allowing some visualization.
From studies of nuclear theory, Heisenberg predicts that the hydrogen molecule can exist in two forms: ortho-hydrogen, in which the two atoms of hydrogen spin in the same direction, and para-hydrogen, where the two hydrogen atoms spin in opposite directions. (if spinning in opposite directions why not in every different possible 3d axis direction?) In 1929 this will be confirmed. (describe in detail how this is confirmed. I have doubt about this claim.) This theory will help in creating new methods for lowering the evaporation rate of liquid hydrogen, and this will be important when large quantities of liquid hydrogen are needed as rocket fuel. (again check the truth of this claim.)
(give more specific and detailed information. Show at least one example. Are these still shown to be accurate into extended regions of the spectra? )
(this to me seems like Heisenberg's major contribution. How are Heisenberg's matrix mechanics and Schrödinger's wave mechanics similar? Can a physical interpretation of particles with regular spacing be concluded? If in Schrödinger's wave mechanics sine can be replaced with a function, can this also be applied to the matrix mechanics? I think matrix mechanics is just a way for dealing with many variable {multi-dimension} equations. How do these theories apply to neutrons and protons? Are neutrons and protons absolutely removed from spectra? I think possibly neutron, proton, or electron decay is what is responsible for photons emitted.)
(Completely compare the two methods of quantum mechanics, matrix and wave. Does the matrix method take a more corpuscular view or is the form of particles immaterial?)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
75 YBN
[11/20/1925 AD]
| 5254) Dutch-US physicists, George Eugene Uhlenbeck (UleNBeK) (CE 1900-1988) and Samuel A. Goudsmit (CE 1902-1978), propose the concept of electron spin.
In 1925, while working on his Ph.D. at the University of Leiden, Netherlands (1927), Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit put forward their idea of electron spin after determining that electrons rotate about an axis.
Uhlenbeck and colleague Goudsmit interpret Pauli's fourth quantum number by suggesting that an electron may be said to have a spin of +1/2 or -1/2. Eventually similar spins (equal to 1/2 or some multiple of 1/2) will be found to exist for almost all other particles.
In a 1926 Nature article Uhlenbeck and Goudsmit write: "So far as we know, the idea of a quantised spinning of the electron was put forward for the first time by A. K. Compton (Journ. Frankl. Inst., Aug. 1921, p. 145), who pointed out the possible bearing of this idea on the origin of the natural unit of magnetism. Without being aware of Compton's suggestion, we have directed attention in a recent note (Naturwissenschaften, Nov. 20, 1925) to the possibility of applying the spinning electron to interpret a number of features of the quantum theory of the Zeeman effect, which were brought to light by the work especially of van Lohuizen, Sommerfeld, Landé and Pauli, and also of the analysis of complex spectra in general. In this letter we shall try to show how our hypothesis enables us to overcome certain fundamental difficulties which have hitherto hindered the interpretation of the results arrived at by those authors. To start with, we shall consider the effect of the spin on the manifold of the stationary states which corresponds to motion of an electron round a nucleus. On account of it's magnetic moment,the electron will be acted on by a couple just as if it were placed at rest in a magnetic field of magnetic field of magnitude equal to the vector product of the nuclear electric fields and velocity of the electron relative to the nucleus divided by the velocity of light. This couple will cause a slow precession of the spin axis, the the conservation of the angular momentum of the atom being ensured by a compensating precession of the orbital plane of the electron. This complexity of the motion requires that, corresponding to each stationary state of an imaginary atom, in which the electron has no spin, there shall in general exist a set of states which differ in the orientation of the spin axis relative to the orbital plane, the other characteristics of the motion remaining unchanged. If the spin corresponds to a one quantum rotation, there will be in general two such states. Further, the energy difference of these states will, as a simple calculation shows, be proportional to the fourth power of the nuclear charge. It will also depend on the quantum numbers which define the state of motion of the nonspinning electron in a way very similar to the energy differences connected with the rotation of the orbit in its own plane arising from the relativity variation of the electronic mass. We are indebted to Dr. Heisenberg for a letter containing some calculations on the quantitative side of the problem. This result suggests an essential modification of the explanation hitherto given of the fine structure of the hydrogen-like spectra. As an illustration we may consider the energy levels corresponding to electronic orbits for which the principal quantum number is equal to three. The scheme on the left side of the accompanying figure (Fig. 1) corresponding to the results to be expected from Sommerfeld's theory. The so called azimuthal quantum number k is defined by the quantity of moment of momentum of the electron about the nucleus, kh/2π, where k = 1, 2, 3. According to the new theory, depicted in the scheme on the right, this moment of momentum is given by Kh / 2π, where K = 1/2, 3/2, 5/2. The total angular momentum of the atom is Jh/2π, where J = 1, 2, 3. The symbols K and J correspond to those used by Landé in his classification of the Zeeman effects of the optical multiplets. The letters S, P, D also relate to the analogy with the structure of optical spectra which we consider below. The dotted lines represent the position of the energy levels to be expected in the absence of the spin of the electron. As the arrows indicated, this spin now splits each levels into two, with the exception of the level K= 1/2, which is only displaced. In order to account for the experimental facts, the resulting levels must fall in just the same places as the levels given by the older theory. Nevertheless, the two schemes differ fundamentally. In particular, the new theory explains at once the occurrence of certain components in the fine structure of the hydrogen spectrum and of the helium spark spectrum which according to the old scheme would correspond to transitions where K remains uncharged. Unless these transitions could me ascribed to the action of electric forces in the discharge which would perturb the electronic motion, their occurrence would be in disagreement with the correspondence principle, which only allows transitions in which the azimuthal quantum number changes by one unit and only J will remain unchanged. Their occurrence is, therefore, quite in conformity with the correspondence principle. The modification proposed is specially important for explaining the structure of X-ray spectra. These spectra differ from the hydrogen-like spectra by the appearance of so called "screening" doublets, which are ascribed to the interactions of electrons within the atom, effective mainly through reducing the effect of nuclear attraction. In our view, these screening doublets correspond to pairs of levels which have the same angular momentum J but different azimuthal quantum numbers K. Consequently, the orbits will penetrate to different distances from the nucleus, so that the screening of the nuclear charge by the other electrons in the atom will have different effects. This screening effect will, however, be the same for a pair of levels which have the same K but different J's and correspond to the same orbital shape. Such pairs of levels were, on the older theory, labeled with values of k different by one unit, and it was quite impossible to understand why these so called "relativity" doublets should appear separately from the screening doublets. On our view, the doublets in question may more properly be termed "spin" doublets, since the sole reason for their appearance is the difference in the orientation of the spin axis relative to the orbital plane. It should be emphasized that our interpretation is in complete accordance with the correspondence principle as regards the rules of combination of X-ray levels. The assumption of the spinning electron leads to a new insight into the remarkable analogy between the multiplet structure of the optical spectra and the structure of the X-ray spectra, which was emphasized especially by Landé and Millikan. While the attempt to refer this analogy to a relatively effect common to all the structures was most unsatisfactory, it obtains an immediate explanation on the hypothesis of the spin electron. ... It seems possible on these lines to develop a quantitative theory of the Zeeman effect, if it is assumed that the ratio between magnetic moment and angular momentum due to the spin is twice the ratio corresponding to an orbital revolution. At present, however, it seems difficult to reconcile this assumption with a quantitative analysis of our explanation of the fine structure of levels. In fact it leads, in a preliminary calculation, to widths of the spin doublets just twice as large as those required by observation. It must be remembered, however, that we are here dealing with problems which for their final solution require a closer study of quantum mechanics and perhaps also of questions concerning the structure of the electron. In conclusion, we wish to acknowledge our indebtedness to Prof. Niels Bohr for an enlightening discussion, and for criticisms which helped us distinguish between the essential points and the more technical details of the new interpretation.".
Neils Bohr follows this paper with a letter stating "Having had the opportunity of reading this interesting letter by Mr. Goudsmit and Mr. Uhlenbeck, i am glad to add a few words which may be regarded as an addition to my article on atomic theory and mechanics, which was published as a supplement to NATURE of Decemeber 5, 1925. As stated there, the attempts which have been made to account for the properties of the elements by applying the quantum theory to the nuclear atom have met with serious difficulties in the finer structure of spectra and the related problems. In my article expression was given to the view that these difficulties were inherently connected with the limited possibility of representing the stationary states of the atom by a mechanical model. The situatino seems, however, to be somewhat altered by the introduction of the hypothesis of the spinning electron which, in spite of the incompleteness of the conclusions that can be derived from the models, promises to be a very welcome supplement to our ideas of atomic structure. In fact, as Mr. Goudsmit and Mr. Uhlenbeck have described in their letter, this hypothesis throws new light on many of the difficulties which have puzzled the workers in this field during the last few years... This possiblity must be the more welcomed at the present time, when the prospect is held out of a quantitative treatment of atomic problems by the new quantum mechanics initiated by the work of heisenberg, which aims at a precise formulation of the correspondence between classical mechanics and the quantum theory.".
(I have a large amount of doubt that electrons spin and pair in this way. This needs more specific info, is this a basic building block of electron orbital theory or unnecessary to the evolution of that theory?)
(Without too much doubt the idea that an electron gets more massive with relative velocity seems inaccurate to me, although I can accept that perhaps an electron loses mass in the form of photons as it continues to increase velocity in an electromagnetic field.)
(I think there are other possible explanations for spectral lines. For example frequency of emitted light particles may be the result of light particles emitted from adjacent atoms, as opposed to from the same from each atom. In addition, light particles might emit from particles in the nucleus, in particular if atoms can be completely disintegrated into their source photons. It seems unlikely, for example, that a proton or neutron, being made of light particles, cannot be separated into light particles, and that would create characteristic frequencies. We can only imagine what has been learned and kept secret by those who can see and hear thought images and sounds.)
| (Instituut voor Theoretische Natuurkunde) Leyden, Netherlands |
75 YBN
[11/??/1925 AD]
| 4802) Secret science: Popular Science prints a story entitled "Radio Waves from the Brain?" which examines the claims of Italian scientist Ferdinando Cazzamali.
| New York City, NY, USA |
75 YBN
[11/??/1925 AD]
| 4803) Secret science: Ferdinando Cazzamali reports to have taken photographs of "brain waves" that carry thoughts from one mind to another.
Earlier in August Cazzamali reported that hypnotized subjects were able to affect radio apparatus. In September of 1925 Professor Charles Henry of the Sorbonne, France, stated that he had proven the existence of unclassified radiations in the human constitution.
(Get portrait and birth and death dates for Cazzamali)
| (University of Milan)Milan, Italy |
75 YBN
[12/24/1925 AD]
| 4512) Robert Andrews Millikan (CE 1868-1953), US physicist names the radiation detected by V. F. Hess from outer space "cosmic rays". Millikan performs many tests, buy plane, balloon, and the bottom of lakes, Millikan's pupil Anderson will continue this work. Millikan believes that cosmic rays originate from the outer part of the universe.
Millikan uses an electroscope to detect the particles, which ionize the gas inside the electroscope. (more detail)
In 1912 the Austrian-born physicist Victor Hess had found that atmospheric ionization increased with altitude up to 12,000 feet. But although Hess had argued that some kind of radiation was coming from outer space, most physicists still attribute the phenomenon to some terrestrial cause, such as electrical discharges from thunderstorms or radioactivity. Millikan’s initial experiments, done with a personless sounding balloon in 1922 raised to a height of fifteen kilometers and with lead-shielded electroscopes at the top of Pike’s Peak in 1923, fail to decide in favor of either interpretation. In the summer of 1925 Millikan measures the variation of ionization with depth in Muir Lake and Lake Arrowhead in the mountains of California. Millikan’s electroscopic measurements show that the intensity of ionization at any given depth in Lake Arrowhead is the same as the intensity six feet lower in Muir Lake. Since the layer of atmosphere between the surfaces of the two lakes has precisely the absorptive power of six feet of water, the results decisively confirm that the radiation is coming from the cosmos. In addition, since the intensity of the ionization shows no diurnal variation, the radiation must be uniformly distributed over all directions in space. Since Millikan detects ionization as far below the top of the atmosphere as the combined air and water equivalent of six feet of lead, clearly the cosmic rays are more energetic than even the highest frequency (or hardest) known gamma rays. To penetrate six feet of lead, charged particles would have to possess stores of energy then considered impossibly large and so Millikan assumes that cosmic rays are photons.
According to Millikan's analysis, cosmic ray energies are not generally distributed but were clustered in three distinct bands. To account for these bands, Millikan introduces what he called the "atom-building hypothesis". Using Dirac’s formula for absorption through Compton scattering, Millikan computes the energy of the three bands from their absorption coefficients and foinds them equal to 26, 110, and 220 MEV. These figures equal the mass defects of hydrogen, oxygen, and silicon, which are known to be three of the most abundant elements of the universe. Millikan concludes that the cosmic particles are photons, and that these photons striking the earth must be produced when four atoms of hydrogen somehow fuse to form helium, sixteen to form oxygen, and twenty-eight to form silicon. In his summary of the argument, cosmic rays are the "birth cries" of atoms, a phrase which becomes popular among both the scientific and the lay publics. However, at the beginning of the 1930s, Millikan’s assumption that the primary radiation consists of photons is proven inaccurate by other experimentalists, especially by Arthur Compton’s conclusive detection of a latitude effect in 1932. If cosmic rays are charged particles, their trajectories would be affected by the earth’s magnetic field, so that more of them would strike the earth at higher than at lower latitudes, this is the "latitude effect". Compton and others will show that "cosmic rays" are mostly high velocity protons.
(Show if cosmic particles also consist of pions, muons, neutrinos, and other particles)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
75 YBN
[1925 AD]
| 4299) John Jacob Abel (CE 1857-1938), US biochemist is the first to prepare insulin in crystalline form. This is an important step in preparing pure (a and reproducible) solutions of this important substance. (what kind of molecule is insulin?)
Abel's announcement in 1926, that he has crystallized insulin is met with considerable skepticism, especially regarding the protein nature of insulin. This work is not generally accepted until the mid 1930s.
Abel uses the techniques crystallization, optical rotation, melting point, and elementary analysis to determine that the crystallized substance is insulin.
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
75 YBN
[1925 AD]
| 4990) Roy Chapman Andrews (CE 1884-1960), US zoologist finds the first known dinosaur eggs.
In addition Andrews uncovers bones of Baluchitherium (“beast of Baluschistan”) the largest known land mammal ever to have lived. The shoulders of this mammal are as high as the head of a giraffe. (still the largest?)
| Central Asia |
75 YBN
[1925 AD]
| 5017) (Sir) Robert Robinson (CE 1886-1975), English chemist, determines the structure of the alkaloid, morphine (except for one atom).
Alkaloid molecules are some of the most complicated one-piece molecules known. Alkaloids are nitrogenous compounds, produced by plants, possessing rings of atoms which include nitrogen and carbon. The larger giant molecules, such as proteins and starch are (polymers) made of repeating units of simple smaller individual molecules. In addition to the challenge of solving the complex nature of the alkaloid molecules, alkaloids are also interesting for the profound affects these substances have on the animal body even in small portions. These effects can be poisonous, or in proper dosage stimulating or analgesic (lessens sinus congestion?). Well known alkaloids are nicotine, quinine, strychnine, morphine, and cocaine. (In the mophine molecule are there carbon rings and nitrogen rings, or carbon-nitrogen rings?)
(Is this the chemist who popularized LSD?)
| (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
75 YBN
[1925 AD]
| 5065) First mechanical computer that can solve differential equations.
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
74 YBN
[01/26/1926 AD]
| 6264) John Logie Baird gives a public demonstration of his system of television.
In 1908, Hans Knudsen, had sent the first wireless half-tone photograph image. In 1922, Charles Francis Jenkins had sent a half-tone photograph using light particles (wireless radio) and a selenium light detector.
Baird is a prolific inventor. By the end of 1928 Baird will have achieved a number of firsts: 1) A system of color television in 1928 which later forms the basis of the technique used by NASA to bring live color TV pictures from the moon. 2) Stereoscopic (3D) television (still not a practical possibility today) in August 1928. 3) Infra-red television (the basis of many modern CCTV security systems) which causes a huge stir in the scientific and military world. 4) Some 34 years before the USA claims success with the 'first' transatlantic television pictures, Baird succeeds in transmitting live television pictures from London to New York. 5) Baird develops 'Phonovision', a system of recording television on to discs. Baird is unable to successfully replay these recordings in 1928, but they have recently been restored and the world's first video recordings can now be seen.
| (Royal Institution) London, England |
74 YBN
[02/07/1926 AD]
| 5272) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist introduces what will be called "Fermi-Dirac" statistics in which gas particles obey the exclusion principle of Wolfgang Pauli. These particles will be called "Fermions" in Fermi's honor.
Fermi writes in (translated from German) "The quantization of the ideal monatomic gas": "If the Nernst heat rate also should keep to the ideal gas, its validity must be assumed that the laws of ideal gases at low temperatures deviate from the classical. The cause of this degeneration is to be found in a quantization of molecular motions. In all theories of degeneration more or less arbitrary assumptions are made about the statistical behavior of molecules, or through its quantization. In the present study only the first marked by Pauli and numerous spectroscopic facts used reasonable to assume that in a system can never exist two equivalent elements whose quantum numbers match completely. With this hypothesis, the equation of state and the internal energy of ideal gas are derived, and the entropy for large temperatures is consistent with the Stern-Tetrode match. ...".
Later in 1928, Fermi writes in (translated from German) "A statistical method for determining some properties of the atom and its application to the theory of the periodic table of elements": "In a heavy atom, the electrons can be considered as a kind of atmosphere around the nucleus, which is in a state of complete degeneration. One can approximate the distribution of electrons around the nucleus calculated by a statistical method, which is applied to the theory of the formation of groups of electrons in the atom. The agreement with experiment is satisfactory. ...".
(I have doubts about the exclusion principle, and the usefulness of much of the theories of quantum mechanics, because it is almost all based on trying to explain spectral line positions.)
(Fermi seems to me to be, like so many physicists of the 1900s, mostly mathematical theorists - and one major flaw of this is that is the theory is wrong to begin with, all the complex math available is not going to prove anything. Mostly, much of the math done seeks to relate electron rotation with observed spectral line frequency. All this when people have known for centuries that all matter is made of material light particles and casually watched thought-movies but haven't had the courtesy to show and tell the public. Much of the math centers around the concept of "energy" as some fluid quantity where mass and motion can be converted into each other. They all accept the theory of relativity with space, time, and mass contraction and dilation, so instantly, this can only be in error. One interesting part of learning about science history is tracing the lineage on the tree of inaccurate and corrupted theories. One person may be responsible for numerous erroneous but generally accepted theories. Generally, when one of their theories is corrupted or inaccurate - it is usually found that basically every theory they publish is most likely in error. Such is the case with so many scientists - all the "relativity"-set for example.)
| (University of Florence) Florence, Italy |
74 YBN
[02/??/1926 AD]
| 5875) Barbara McClintock (CE 1902–1992) identifies and numbers the ten corn (maize) chromosomes.
(Determine if correct paper and accurate claim since 10 chromosomes for the genus Zea is claimed in the cited paper.)
| (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
74 YBN
[03/06/1926 AD]
| 5165) Friedrich Hermann Hund (CE 1896-1997), helped introduce the method of using molecular orbitals to determine the electronic structure of molecules and chemical bond formation. In this view the atomic orbitals of isolated atoms become molecular orbitals, extending over two or more atoms in the molecule.
(Translate and read relative parts of paper)
(State if this is for all electrons, or just some, and more specifically and simply about the path of electrons in molecules.)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
74 YBN
[03/16/1926 AD]
| 4968) First flight of a liquid-propelled rocket engine.
Goddard launches his first rocket. This rocket is four feet high, and six inches in diameter. (see image)
| (Aunt Effie's Farm) Auburn, Massachusetts, USA |
74 YBN
[03/18/1926 AD]
| 5063) (Baron) Edgar Douglas Adrian (CE 1889-1977), English physiologist, measures the electric potential (voltage) from single nerve fibers. (verify this is the correct paper)
In 1905 Adrian's colleague Keith Lucas demonstrated that the nerve impulse obeys the ‘all-or-none’ law, which states that below a certain threshold of stimulation a nerve does not respond. Adrian succeeds in separating individual nerve fibers and amplifying and recording the small action potentials in these fibers. By studying the effect of stretching the sternocutaneous muscle of the frog, Adrian demonstrates how the nerve, even though it transmits an impulse of fixed strength, can still convey a complex message, finding that as the nerve extension increases so does the frequency of the nerve impulse, rising from 10 to 50 impulses per second.
(State how the nerve is extended - somehow physically stretched?)
(Describe device and procedure used) (what is this potential relative to? Ground or some other parts of the fiber?)
(Interesting the ranks of society: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_and_noble_ranks)
(TODO: Show pictures of apparatuses used.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
74 YBN
[06/02/1926 AD]
| 5038) James Batcheller Sumner (CE 1887-1955), US biochemist, isolates and names, “urease”, the first enzyme to be prepared in crystalline form, and to be shown clearly to be a protein.
Sumner extracts the enzyme content of jack beans. The enzyme involved catalyzes the breakdown of urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide, so Sumner names this enzyme “urease”. In extracting the enzyme, Sumner finds that some tiny crystals have precipitated out of one of his fractions. When he dissolves these crystals (in water?), he finds the solution to have concentrated urease activity, and so concludes that the crystals are the enzyme urease. More tests show that the crystals are also proteins. This goes against the theory of Willstätter who had produced evidence that enzymes are not proteins, but the test Willstätter used will be shown to not be sensitive enough.
(Describe fractionation process.)
| (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
74 YBN
[06/17/1926 AD]
| 5187) Iréne Curie (CE 1897-1956) and P. Mercier report on the distribution of lengths of alpha particles emitted from radium C and radium A using Wilson's cloud chamber.
Curie and Mercier write in (translated from French) "On the Distribution of lengths of alpha rays of Radium C and of Radium A": " Summary.- The distribution of lengths of alpha rays of RaC and of RaA in air is studied by the method described in a previous workm that utilized the apparatus (detente?) of Wilson. the parcours of rays are distributed, autour of a parcours the most probable I, suivant a loi of probability of coefficient alpha, conforming with previsious theories of Borf and of Flamm. The value of coefficient a/l, independant of conditions of temperature at of pressure, is confirmed with the theoretical requirements. The parcours of the most probable is peu different of parcours extrapolate obtaining for the curves of ionization. On the whole? (trouve), for the groups of RaC and of RaA: pc=1.1.10-2; pA=1.,25.10-2; ac=,76mm; aA=0,59mm; in the air of 15 degrees at 760 mm Hg of pressure. The report of parcours the most probable is Ic/Ia=1.671
In an earlier work, one of us had determined the distribution of wavelengths of alpha rays of polonium by a new method that utilizes the fog apparatus of Wilson. The method consists essentially in the comparison of lengths of a large number of rays emitted at the same instant in the course of the fog? (detente); the alpha rays emit from a point source of canals in a horizontal plane by a fente placee of 2 cm of the source; the source is covered automatically at the end of the chute of piston. Photography of rays gives a direct point comparison of wavelengths in the image. ...". (Get full translation and read relevent parts)
(Determine who is first to describe the spectral frequencies of alpha particles using the Bragg method. Determine who showed if these frequencies are unique to each radioactive element. Show if these frequencies of alpha emission are regular (and also if continuous or discrete frequencies).)
(An irregular rate of emission would be indicated by a particle source whose spectral lines change intensity and or position without any regular period.)
(Determine who if anybody uses the Bragg method to determine Alpha Particle intervals.)
(Determine who was the first to compare lengths and publish photos of alpha tracks.)
| (Radium Institute) Paris, France |
74 YBN
[06/26/1926 AD]
| 5131) Based on his periodic law, Mendeleev predicted the existence of rhenium, which he called dvi-manganese.
German chemists Walter Karl Friedrich Noddack (CE 1893-1960) with Ida Tacke (CE 1896-1978) and Otto Berg isolate element 75, after careful fractionation of ores for three years. Noddack names rhenium after the Rhine River.
Noddack, Tacke and Berg also announce the discovery of element 43 ((now known as Technetium)) and name it “masurium” after a region in East Prussia, but this is an error.
Noddack and Tacke discover rhenium by X-ray spectroscopy in columbite that has been systematically enriched. O. Berg also assists in the discovery. Although they succeeded in obtaining two milligrams of rhenium from various ores, not until 1926, when they produce the first gram of rhenium, are they able to examine the chemical properties of the new element. In the same paper, Noddack and Tacke claim to have discovered a second new element, element forty-three of the periodic table, which they named "masurium". This element is discussed for years in the literature until E. Segré and C. Perrier discover that the element can only be produced only artificially, and they name this element technetium.
rhenium (rEnEuM), metallic chemical element; symbol Re; at. no. 75; at. wt. 186.207; m.p. about 3,180°C; b.p. about 5,625°C; sp. gr. 21.02 at 20°C; valence −1, +2, +3, +4, +5, +6, or +7. Rhenium is a very dense, high-melting, silver-white metal. Of the elements, only carbon and tungsten have higher melting points and only iridium, osmium, and platinum are more dense. The chemical properties of rhenium are like those of technetium, the element above it in Group 7 of the periodic table. A number of rhenium compounds are known, among them halides, oxides, and sulfides.
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
74 YBN
[08/02/1926 AD]
| 5267) Ernest Orlando Lawrence (CE 1901-1958), US physicist, ionizes atoms by electron impact showing that light quanta and electrons obey the same general laws in processes involving ionization of atoms and molecules.
Lawrence's writing is somewhat confusing and hard to follow but this is probably the result of the neuron secret and the abstract official lie told to the public.
| (Sloan Laboratory, Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
74 YBN
[12/14/1926 AD]
| 5146) William Francis Giauque (JEOK) (CE 1895–1982), US chemist creates the "adiabatic demagnetization" method (independentally with Debye and Simon) to cool helium to lower a temperature than ever reached. (verify that this paper is the correct one)
The Oxford Dictionary of Scientists describes the process by writing: The basic idea is to take a paramagnetic substance surrounded by a coil of wire in a gas-filled container. The sample can be cooled by surrounding the container by liquid helium and magnetized by a current through the coil. It is thus possible to produce a magnetized specimen at liquid-helium temperature, and then to isolate it in a vacuum by removing the gas from the container. Within the magnetized specimen the ‘molecular magnets’ are all aligned. If the magnetic field on the specimen is reduced to zero the sample is demagnetized, and in this process the molecular magnets become random again. The entropy increases and work is done against the decreasing external field, causing a decrease in the temperature of the specimen.
Giauque creates a technique (independently created at the same time by Debye and Simon) by using the Joule-Thomson method to cool helium to the lowest temperature obtainable (.4° K) and then in a container surrounded by helium to allow a magnetic salt, with molecules magnetized into alignment, to become unaligned, which requires that the magnetic salt molecules absorb heat from the surrounding helium to lower the temperature of the helium to within thousandths of a degree above absolute 0.
In 1933 Giauque has a working apparatus that improves on Kamerlingh-Onnes's apparatus in achieving a temperature of 0.1 K. (Make a record for?)
(I have doubts. State how the temperature is measured. Couldn't a similar technique be used for other liquids or gases to be allowed to expand around the helium? How much more can be gained from magnetic unalignment than expanding of a gas? That the magnetic unalignment idea seems so specific and in my mind, can't possibly be a bigger absorber of heat than an expanding gas, to me it indicates that 2 of 3 people copied the idea, and I can't believe that this idea works. Possibly some other bombardment might serve a similar function. For example compressing particles into a small space and then stopping the bombardment to allow them to re-enter the less dense space. But then, this type of research to me seems not incredibly interesting, after the liquefaction of helium, and maybe the solidifying of all isotopes of all atoms, what could remain? I guess there are an infinite number of experiments within such cold temperatures that are useful. I just think there is going to be a limit on how cold a temperature can be reached until perhaps humans create a container in between the stars or near the outer star system.)
(What causes the magnetic salt molecules to become unaligned? why would they not just stay unmoved since there are no particles moving them? perhaps tiny movements, for example light particles and/or electrons, etc cause them to move.)
(Clearly the particles of electric current in the electromagnetic must cause collisions, and contribute light particles and motion - and so how much motion and matter could be removed from stopping this flow of current?)
(The Oxford Dictionary of Scientist use the word "entropy" as the way matter tends to move into free space, or from more dense to less dense space. I think that may be a possible generalization, but I basically reject the theory of entropy as defined as mass or space somehow being destroyed or created. There must be spaces where matter is accumulating to form stars and planets and so there, the result of particle collision generally keeps matter moving in a more dense volume. Perhaps one can say that entropy is how the result of particle collisions tends, in a general way, to move matter into less dense spaces.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
74 YBN
[1926 AD]
| 4871) Willem Hendrik Keesom (KASuM) (CE 1876-1956), Dutch physicist solidifies helium.
Keesom is the first to produce solid helium by applying external pressure in combination with temperatures of less than 3°K. Keesom demonstrates that there are two kinds of helium, helium I and helium II, helium II remaining liquid down to absolute zero, the dividing line between the two being around 2°K. Helium II has very unusual properties. According to Keesom, the heat capacity changes abruptly and all internal friction disappears so that it is a “superfluid”.
Keesom writes the book "Helium" in 1942. (how is pressure applied? describe specifically.)
(describe what heat capacity is) (I have a lot of doubts about everything but some solid produced. Explain how Keesom knows that this is a solid. Couldn't some helium simply not solidify? I guess probably no. What explains the two different heliums then? Perhaps isotopes? How do atoms in the container react with the helium if at all?)
| (University of Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
74 YBN
[1926 AD]
| 4976) Max Born (CE 1882-1970), German-British physicist submits two papers in which he formulates the quantum mechanical description of collision processes and finds that in the case of the scattering of a particle by a potential, Schrödinger’s wave function at a particular spatiotemporal location should be interpreted as the probability amplitude of finding the particle at that specific space-time point.
In 1925 Heisenberg gave Born a copy of the manuscript of his first paper on quantum mechanics, and Born immediately recognized that the mathematical entities with which Heisenberg had represented the observable physical quantities of a particle—such as its position, momentum, and energy—were matrices. Joined by Heisenberg and Jordan, Born formulates all the essential aspects of quantum mechanics in its matrix version. A short time later, Erwin Schrödinger formulates a version of quantum mechanics based on his wave equation. It is soon proved that the two formulations are mathematically equivalent. What remains unclear is the meaning of the wave function that appears in Schrödinger’s equation.
Erwin Schrödinger, who developed wave mechanics, interpreted particles as ‘wave packets’, but this is unsatisfactory because such packets would dissipate in time. Born's interpretation was that the particles exist but are ‘guided’ by a wave. At any point, the amplitude (actually the square of the amplitude) indicates the probability of finding a particle there.
So Born gives electron waves a probabilistic interpretation: the rise and fall of a wave can be taken to indicate the rise and fall in probability that an electron exists in those particular parts of the “wave packet”.
In (translated from German) "A new formulation of the laws of quantization of periodic and aperiodic phenomena", the “matrix” is replaced by the general concept of an operator. In (translated from German) "Quantum mechanics of collision processes", Born elaborates the basis of the “Born approximation method” for carrying out the actual computations. This is the first paper on the probability interpretation of quantum mechanics.
(While this probability interpretation may be useful, I think it is wrong to presume that a particle appears or disappears, if that is presumed. In addition, I reject the idea of chance, or randomness, because I see the universe as being composed of space and material particles moving forward in time, and so there is no element of chance in the course of particles, but those paths are too numerous and complex to predict with complete accuracy.)
(I think it is accurate to describe most of Born's and the quantum mechanics and relativity schools of thought deal mostly in theoretically, that is mathematically describing physical phenomena, as opposed to experimenting and finding new previously unobserved phenomena.)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
74 YBN
[1926 AD]
| 5032) Erwin Schrödinger (srOEDiNGR) (CE 1887-1961), Austrian physicist publishes a new model of the atom, where material points are wave-systems, and electrons can be in any orbit in which its matter waves can extend in an exact number of wavelengths.
In Schrödinger's model an electron in a standing wave is not an electric charge in acceleration and so does not radiate light as a condition of Maxwell's equations. Any orbit between orbits where a fractional number of wavelengths is required would be not allowed. This explains the existence of discrete electron orbits, as a necessary result of the properties of an electron, and not simply as a deduction from spectral lines. The Schrödinger wave equation serves as the basis of this theory sometimes referred to as wave mechanics, and also quantum mechanics. This theory put Planck's quantum theory, which describes energy as existing in quanta, on a firm mathematical basis 25 years after its creation. Dirac and Born will also work out the mathematics involved in the concept of electrons as standing waves. Schrödinger's wave mechanics will be shown to be equivalent with Heisenberg's matrix mechanics advanced the year before in 1925. (show both)
In a six-month period in 1926, at the age of 39, usually a late age for original work by theoretical physicists, Schrödinger publishes the papers that give the foundations of quantum wave mechanics. In these papers Schrödinger describes his partial differential equation that is the basic equation of quantum mechanics and has the same relation to the mechanics of the atom as Newton’s equations of motion have to planetary astronomy. Schrödinger adopts the theory made by Louis de Broglie in 1924 that particles of matter have a dual nature and in some situations act like waves, by introducing a wave equation that is now known as the Schrödinger equation. The solutions to Schrödinger’s equation, unlike the solutions to Newton’s equations, are wave functions that can only be related to the probable occurrence of physical events. The definite and quickly visualized sequence of events of the planetary orbits of Newton is, in quantum mechanics, replaced by the more abstract notion of probability.
Schrödinger writes in an English paper on September 3, 1926: "The theory which is reported in the following pages is based on the very interesting and fundamental researches of L. de Broglie on what he called “phase—waves" (“ondes de phase") and thought to be associated with the motion`of material points, especially with the motion of an electron or proton. The point of view taken here, which was first published in a series of German papers, is rather that material points consist of, or are nothing but, wave—systems. This extreme conception may be wrong, indeed it does not offer as yet the slightest explanation of why only such wave-systems seem to be realized in nature as corre- spond to mass—points of definite mass and charge. On the other hand the opposite point of view, which neglects altogether the waves dis- covered by L. de Broglie and treats only the motion of material points, has led to such grave difficulties in the theory of atomic mechanics -and this after century-long development and refinement-that it seems not only not dangerous but even desirable, for a time at least, to lay an exaggerated stress on its counterpart. In doing this we must of course realize that a thorough correlation of all features of physical phenomena can probably be afforded only by a harmonic union of these two extremes. The chief advantages of the present wave—theory are the following. a. The laws of motion and the quantum conditions are deduced simultaneously from one simple Hamiltonian principle. b. The discrepancy hitherto existing in quantum theory between the frequ ency of motion and the frequency of emission disappears in so far as the latter frequencies coincide with the differences of the former. A definite localization of the electric charge in space and time can be associated with the wave-system and this with the aid of ordinary electrodynamics accounts for the frequencies, intensities and polariza- tions of the emitted light and makes superfluous all sorts of correspond- ence and selection principles. c. It seems possible by the new theory to pursue in all detail the so—called "transitions," which up to date have been wholly mysterious. d. There are several instances of disagreement between the new theory and the older one as to the particular values of the energy or frequency levels. In these cases it is the new theory that is better supported by experiment. To explain the main lines of thought, I will take as an example of a mechanical system a material point, mass m, moving in a conservative field of force V(x, y, z). All the following treatment may very easily be extended to the motion of the “image—point," picturing the motion of a wholly arbitrary conservative system in its “configuration—space" (q—space, not pq-space). We shall effect this generalization in a somewhat different manner in Section 7. ... At first sight it does- not seem at all tempting, to work out in detail the Hamiltonian analogy as in real undulatory optics. By giving the wave—length a proper well-defined meaning, the well—def1ned meaning of rays is lost at least in some cases, and by this the analogy would seem to be weakened or even to be wholly destroyed for those cases in which the dimensions of the mechanical orbits or their radii of curvature be- come comparable with the wave—length. To save the analogy it would seem necessary to attribute an exceedingly small value to the wave- length, small in comparison with all dimensions that may ever become of any interest in the mechanical problem. But then again the working out of an undulatory picture would seem superfluous, for geometrical optics is the real limiting case of undulatory optics for vanishing wave- length. Now compare with these considerations the very striking fact, of which we have today irrefutable knowledge, that ordinary mechanics is really not applicable to mechanical systems of very small, viz. of atomic dimensions. Taking into account this fact, which impresses its stamp upon all modern physical reasoning, is one not greatly tempted to investigate whether the non—applicability of ordinary mechanics to micro-mechanical problems is perhaps of exactly the same kind as the non-a pplicability of geometrical optics to the phenomena of diffraction or interference and may, perhaps, beiovercome in an exactly similar way? The conception is: the Hamiltonian analogy has really to be worked out towards undulatory optics and a definite size is to be at- tributed to the wave—length,in every special case. This quantity has a real meaning for the mechanical problem, viz. that ordinary mechanics with its conception of a moving point and its linear path (or more generally of an “image—point" moving in the coordinate space) is only approximately applicable so long as they supply a path, which is (and whose radii of curvature are) large in comparison with the wave-length. If this is not the case, it is a phenomenon of wave—propagation that has to be studied. In the simple case of one material point moving in an external field of force the wave-phenomenon may be thought of as taking place in the ordinary three—dimensional space; in the case of a more general mechanical system it will primarily be located in the coordinate space (g-space, not pg-space) and will have to be projected somehow into ordinary space. At anyrate the equations of ordinary mechanics will be of no more use for the study of these micro—mechanical wave-phe- nomena than the rules of geometrical optics are for the study of diffrac- tion phenomena. Well known methods of wave-theory, somewhat generalized, lend themselves readily. The conceptions, roughly sketched in the preceding are fully justihedby the success which has attended their development. ... 10. In the foregoing report the undulatory theory of mechanics has been developed without reference to two very important things, viz. (1) the relativity modifications of classical mechanics, -(2) the action of a (magnetic field on the atom. This may be thought rather peculiar since L. de Broglie, whose fundamental researches gave origin to the present theory, even started from the relativistic theory of electronic motion and from the beginning took into account a magnetic field as well as an electric one. It is of course possible to take the same starting point also for the present theory and to carry it on fairly far in using relativistic mechanics instead of classical and including the action of a magnetic field. Some very interesting results are obtained in this way on the wave—length displacement, intensity and polarization of the fine structure components and of the Zeeman components of the hydrogen atom. There are two reasons why I did not think it very important to enter here into this form of the theory. First, it has until now not been possible to extend the relativistic theory to a system of more than one electron. But there is the region in which the solution of new problems is to be hoped from the new theory, problems that were `inaccessible to the older theory. Second, the relativistic theory of the hydrogen atom is apparently incomplete; the results are in grave contradiction with experiment, since in Sommerfeld’s well known formula for the displacement of the natural fine structure components the so—called azimuthal quantum number (as well as the radial quantum number) turns out as "half—integer," i.e. half of an odd number, instead of integer. So the fine structure turns out entirely wrong. The deficiency must be intimately connected with Uhlenbeck—Goud— smit’s theory of the spinning electron. But in what way the electron spin has to be taken into account in the present theory is yet unknown.".
(Is it possible to view Schrödinger's standing waves, as standing linear waves of electrons, which require spacing between electrons (wavelength) that will be stable? Is a matter wave viewed as a beam of matter where wavelength is distance between particles? Perhaps the view is that a particle follows some wave pattern. I think Bohr's and Schrödinger's work, in addition Einstein's is where an average person starts to be removed from the story of physics (and history of science). So perhaps an effort should be made to explain these theories to the public, including simple examples.)
(Is there a function that instead of sine uses a more simple point wave 0 or 1? Perhaps no, but maybe sine can be reduced in some way in this idea.)
(I think people cannot not rule out statically placed electron theories that also accurately reproduce spectral line theories.)
(Viewing Planck's equations, is it possible to simply view a quantum of energy as simply a photon? I think I need to see some examples of how Planck's equations are used.)
(Interesting that the Bohr model limits the orbit by momentum of h/2pi, where Schoedinger limits the orbit by wavelength. With both, I think these may be examples of applying math equations to physical phenomenona that work, but the theoretical explanations behind the math probably does not apply to the actual physical phenomena. But the structure of the inside of atoms may be a mystery for many more centuries until we can somehow visualize the atom inside.)
(My own view is that, the Bohr and Schoedinger models probably don't describe the physical reality, and an effort should be made to describe a more realistic all-inertial, and/or gravitational model of a material atom composed of light particles.)
The title of one of Schroinger's papers "An undulatory theory of the mechanics of atoms and molecules", to me implies a backwards step. We need to be moving away from undulatory theories and toward particle beam theories. How much of the support of relativity and quantum mechanics comes from the owners of neuron reading and writing devices? I think probably a lot of funding and approval does, because they have a monetary interest in keeping the simplicity of their advanced material particle beam nano technology a secret out of the thoughts and hands of the public.]
(To me the idea that material points are nothing but wave-systems seems very unlikely, although I think the idea of material points can be thought of as being components in point-wave systems, which have, instead of wavelength, an interval of space and time.)
(It may be that, this theory is funded by those who for centuries seek to remove a material view of matter in the universe, and in particualr to remove any common-sense interpretation of the universe and science - to remove science out of the understanding of the general public - as insiders who see and hear thoughts - they may seek to separate the two sides as much as possible. So they fund works like Schrodinger's and other matter-is-non-material theorists like Einstein in an effort to confuse and mislead the public, from the very simple advanced flying nanotechnology they own and develop.)
(There is always this battle between the corpuscularists and atomists centered around Newton and others, and the wave-theorists centered around Huygens, Hooke, Young, Fresnel, and this battle has been fought for over 3 centuries and continuing. My own view, is that at this time, the wave theory is so doubtful, that mostly those arguing for a wave theory are people who receive neuron reading and writing, who probably don't believe a wave theory, but are funded to mislead the public. But it's not clear. Seeing their thought-images would be evidence to show if they themselves actually believe light is a material particle or a non-material wave.)
(As with the Bohr model, it seems logical that an electron orbital frequency would correspond to a photon emission frequency, but yet, it seems illogical that an electron would emit a photon at some regular interval, and then without having its orbit effected. Then there is the question of how long is the duration of the photon beam emission in a transistion of an electron from one orbit to another.)
(Schrodinger uses the phrase "born in mind", which may describe those who parents were consumers of neuron written videos as opposed to the many people who know absolutely nothing about neuron reading or writing.)
| (University of Zürich) Zürich, Switzerland |
74 YBN
[1926 AD]
| 5072) Hermann Joseph Muller (CE 1890-1967), US biologist, finds that X-rays greatly increase the rate of genetic mutation.
This increases the number of mutations so that geneticists can study them. In addition this shows that there is nothing mysterious about genetic mutation, being something that a person can now initiate themselves. Blakeslee will soon show that even ordinary chemicals can cause genetic mutation. Muller understands that the vast majority of mutations are bad, and that only a very few useful mutations contribute to survival of an organism. In addition, Muller notes that too many mutations could cause species extinction. Muller warns about needless X-ray therapy and diagnosis. Muller interprets the well known fact that radiation causes cancer as a mutation in which a normal cell becomes cancerous.
(Clearly x-rays may be used as a weapon, and this is clearly a lower limit on the use of X-ray beams to induce cancer in many innocent people.)
| (University of Texas) Austin, Texas, USA |
74 YBN
[1926 AD]
| 5156) Bertil Lindblad (CE 1895-1965), Swedish astronomer, shows that the outer parts of the Milky Way galaxy rotate more slowly around the center of the galaxy and the inner stars rotate faster, and advances the theory that the galactic system is rotating around a distant center.
By the early 1920s the Dutch astronomer Jacobus C. Kapteyn and others had made statistical studies establishing that generally stars appear to move in one of two directions in space.
During his last years in Uppsala, Lindblad introduces new concepts that can explain the asymmetric drift of high velocity stars and advances the fundamental idea that the galactic system is rotating around a distant center. Lindblad introduces a model of the galactic system consisting of a number of subsystems of different speeds of rotation and with different degrees of flatness and velocity dispersion.
In 1925 Lindblad writes "...Judged from the results for the motion of the spiral nebulae, and from the flattened form of the last-mentioned system, this system must probably be supposed to have a general motion of rotation also. ...".
In 1927 Lindblad writes "...We assume that the stellar system has a general motion of rotation around an axis perpendicular to the galactic plane. The phenomenon of the "asymmetrical drift" of stellar velocities of great size, studies by Boss, Adams and Joy, Stromberg, Oort, and others, interpreted as due to a general decrease of the speed of rotation with increasing velocity dispersion, fixes the axis of rotation in the direction of the galactic longitude 330°. The direction of the rotation is retrograde, being from the left to right for an observer situated to the north of the galactic plane. The direction towards the axis of rotation points very nearly towards the centre of distribution of the system of globular clusters according to Shapley's investigations. The existence of such a general motion of rotation has received very strong support in a recent investigation by Oort on the rotation effects in radial velocities and proper motions of distant galactic objects. ...".
Lindblad also determines the absolute magnitude (the actual brightness of a star after distance is taken into account) of many stars.
(Are many years of recordings needed to record the changing positions of many stars? State how much the positions of the stars change over the course of a few years.)
(Determine correct paper, translate and read relevent parts.)
| (Uppsala University) Uppsala, Sweden |
73 YBN
[03/03/1927 AD]
| 4957) Electron beams reflected into "diffraction patterns" off of a single crystal of nickel. Electron beam particle intervals calculated as equivalent to x-rays beams (interval space of 0.1nm, frequency around 10 x 1016 particles/second, 10 PHz).
Clinton Joseph Davisson (CE 1881-1958), US physicist and L. H. Germer show that electron beams can be diffracted (reflected) which is thought to be characteristic of waves and not particles, and so some people see this as supporting De Broglie's theory of the wave nature of the electron. One day Davisson is studying the reflection of electrons from a metallic nickel target enclosed in a vacuum tube. The tube accidentally shatters and the heated nickel quickly develops a film of oxide that makes it useless as a target. To remove the film, Davisson heats the nickel for an extended period. Using this nickel metal plate in a new evacuated tube Davisson finds that the reflecting properties of the nickel have changed. Davisson finds that where the metal target had contained many tiny crystal surfaces before heating, it contains just a few large crystal surfaces after heating. Davisson decides to prepare a single nickel crystal for use as a target. When Davisson does this, he finds that the electron beam is reflected and also diffracted. Since diffraction is characteristic of waves, not particles, this is thought to prove the wave nature of electrons confirming De Broglie's theory. G. P. Thomson (J. J. Thomson's only son (only child?)) will also confirm electron beam diffraction patterns in a different experiment using thin gold foil.
(This provides evidence that light is probably made of material particles, and that any theory of an aether medium, and light as an electromagnetic wave, whether with a medium or not shold be completely abandoned.) Davisson begins his work by investigating the emission of electrons from a platinum oxide surface under bombardment by positive ions. Davisson then moves from this to studying the effect of electron bombardment on surfaces, and observs in 1925 that the angle of reflection can depend on crystal orientation.
In 1930, Professor A. J. Dempster will show that protons can also product "diffraction" patterns.
In 1927 Davisson performs the classic experiment with the US physicist Lester Germer (CE 1896–1971) in which a beam of electrons of known momentum (p) is directed at an angle onto a nickel surface. The angles of reflected (diffracted) electrons are measured and the results are in agreement with de Broglie's equation for the electron wavelength (λ = h/p).
They also use the optical grating formula nλ=d sin θ (created by William Lawrence Bragg (CE 1890-1971), ) and measure a wavelength around 1 x 10-8cm (around 0.1nm equivalent to frequencies (particle intervals) for x-rays. Velocities are listed as being around 5 x 106 m/s, which gives a frequency around 50 x 1015 particles/sec (50PHz). The frequency is less than for x-rays of the equivalent interval space because the velocity of electrons is less than the velocity of light particles. (verify)
Davisson and Germer will report on April 23, 1928 that the patterns caused by electron beams do not obey the Bragg law.
Davisson reflects the electrons off the surface of the nickel crystal, and in May George Thomson will create so-called diffraction patterns by passing electrons through a celluloid film.
(Read entire paper)
(Does this show that electron beams are made of particles with frequencies similar to light particles beams, but with different particle masses?)
(The big excitement, and proof, I think is that beams previously thought to be waves are shown to be made of particles.)
(What I think I am finding is that, yes these beams of particles are waves, but point waves, not sine waves. They have frequencies, but travel in straight lines, the interference pattern being the result of a particle phenomenon, possibly within the atoms of the object the beams are diffracted from, possibly with each other, or possibly in the detector which may only detect certain intervals of particles. One important aspect is that there is never a single beam, but an area of many beams. Another important aspect is that all photons and electrons are clearly matter (there is no debate with the electron being matter as far as I know) and so matter has to be conserved, and dark areas in an interference pattern do not represent matter disappearing into empty space, clearly the matter is somewhere, and the answer to this is to find where the matter (the photon or electron) is. Maybe they are absorbed into the object they are reflecting off of, maybe they are reflected in a different angle. I think it has to be one of the two. That electron beams produce interference patterns I think is an indication that photon beams are particle in nature too.)
(how can Davisson see the crystals? These are crystals on the surface of metal?) (how does he know where the crystals are? Is this a tiny target? Why do the crystal sizes change? What is the molecular/atomic change?)
(I think this says perhaps that particle beams can cause diffraction patterns, and that diffraction pattern may very well be characteristic of particle beams, which tends to support light beams as being particle in nature, similar to electron beams. Do electron beams diffract in prisms and diffraction gratings? What frequencies can electron beams be created in? Is the frequency of the electron beam related to the voltage in the cathode ray? This is a basic question that probably was answered in 1920. )
(What frequencies are calculated for electron beams?)
(William L. Bragg argues that crystals can filter beams of incoherent light, like white visible light, seperating beams with no regular frequency into regular components. - verify)
(The Nature article doesn't describe the electron apparatus and provides no photos of diffraction patterns.)
(Questions related to DeBroglie: id5103 So how does Davisson's and Thomson's work verify this theory? I think it can only be claimed that the beam of electrons has a wavelength that is in accordance with Planck's equation. Verify what mass and velocity Davisson and Thomson use to determine interval (wavelength) Q: How is the actual wavelength of electron beams determined? EX: Q: How does the wavelength of electron beams vary with voltage? Is the wavelength (space between electrons) of electron beams/current always the same? Does more resistance equal lower or inconsistent wavelength or just lower intensity? Does the atom used in the electrode change the electron frequency? These are cathode ray tube experiments. A fast electron detector can reveal electron wavelength. Q: Is it possible to vary electron wavelength? This is a fundamental most simple basic question I have a tough time believing has not been already answered. Can x-rays and electron beams be spread into spectral lines? What frequencies are seperated from electron beams?)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
73 YBN
[03/28/1927 AD]
| 5284) Werner Karl Heisenberg (HIZeNBARG) (CE 1901-1976), German physicist, creates the "uncertainty principle" which states that making an exact simultaneous measurement of both the position and the momentum (mass times velocity) of any body is impossible.
In 1927 Heisenberg creates the "uncertainty principle" which states that making an exact simultaneous measurement of both the position and the momentum (mass times velocity) of any body is impossible. The more exact the measure of one, the less exact the measurement of the other. The uncertainties of the two measurements when multiplied (as if by Maxwellianesqe magic) result in a value approximately that of Planck's constant.
Laplace had maintained that the entire history of the universe can be calculated if the position and velocity of every particle in it were known for any one instant of time. Asimov states that this theory has a weakening effect on the law of cause and effect, which had been unquestioned since the days of Thales and the Ionian philosophers. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle seeks to destroy the purely deterministic philosophy of the universe (as exemplified by Laplace).
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, Heisenberg draws a philosophically profound conclusion: that absolute causal determinism is impossible, since it requires exact knowledge of both position and momentum as initial conditions. Therefore, the use of probabilistic formulations in atomic theory results not from ignorance but from the necessarily indeterministic relationship between the variables. This viewpoint is central to the so-called "Copenhagen interpretation" of quantum theory, which gets its name from the strong defense for this idea at Bohr’s institute in Copenhagen. Although the probabilistic interpretation becomes a predominant viewpoint, several leading physicists, including Schrödinger and Albert Einstein, see the renunciation of deterministic causality as physically incomplete.
The translation of the word "anschaulichen" ("idiological" content) in the title of this work of Heisenberg varies, for Encyclopedia Britannica interprets this word as "perceptual" content, an interpretation for NASA translates "anschaulichen" as "actual" content.
Heisenberg writes (translated from German): "First, exact definitions are supplied for the terms: position, velocity, energy, etc. (of the electron, for instance), such that they are valid also in quantum mechanics. Canonically conjugated variables are determined simultaneously only with a characteristic uncertainty. This uncertainty is the intrinsic reason for the occurrence of statistical relations in quantum mechanics. Mathematical formulation is made possible by the Dirac-Jordan theory. Beginning from the basic principles thus obtained, macroscopic processes are understood from the viewpoint of quantum mechanics. Several imaginary experiments are discussed to elucidate the theory.
We believe to understand a theory intuitively, if in all simple cases we can qualitatively imagine the theory's experimental consequences and if we have simultaneously realized that the application of the theory excludes internal contradictions. For instance: we believe to understand Einstein's concept of a finite three-dimensional space intuitively, because we can imagine the experimental consequences of this concept without contradictions. Of course, these consequences contradict our customary intuitive space-time beliefs. But we can convince ourselves that the possibility of applying this customary view of space and time can not be deduced either from our laws of thinking, or from experience. The intuitive interpretation of quantum mechanics is still full of internal contradictions, which become apparent in the battle of opinions on the theory of continuums and discontinuums, corpuscles and waves. This alone tempts us to believe that an interpretation of quantum mechanics is not going to be possible in the customary terms of kinematic and mechanical concepts. Quantum theory, after, derives from the attempt to break with those customary concepts of kinematics and replace them with relations between concrete, experimentally derived values. Since this appears to have succeeded, the mathematical structure of quantum mechanics won't require revision, on the other hand. By the same token, a revision of the space-time geometry for small spaces and times will also not be necessary, since by a choice of arbitrarily heavy masses the laws of quantum mechankics can be made to approach the classic laws as closely as desired, no matter how small the spaces and times. The fact that a revision of the kinematic and mechanic concepts is required seems to follow immediately from the basic equations of quantum mechanics. Given a mass it is readily understandable, in our customary understanding, to speak of the position and of the velocity of the center of gravity of that mass m. But in quantum mechanics, a relation pq-qp=h/2πi exists between mass, position and velocity. We thus have good reasons to suspect the uncritical application of the terms "position" and "velocity". If we admit that for very small spaces and times discontinuities are somehow typical, then the failure of the concepts precisely of "position" and "velocity" become immediately plausible: if, for instance, we imagine the uni-dimension motion of a mass point, then in a continuum theory it will be possible to trace the trajectory curve x(t) for the particle's trajectory (or rather, that of its center of mass) (see Fig. I, above), with the tangent to the curve indicating the velocity, in each _ase. In a discontinuum theory, in contrast, instead of the curve we shall have a series of points at finite distances (s_e Gig. 2, above). In this case it is obviously pointless to talk of the velocity at a certain position, since the velocity can be defined only by means of two positions and consequently and inversely, two different velocities corresponded to each point. The question thus arises whether it might not be possible, by means of a more precise analysis of those kinematic and mechanical concepts, to clear up the contradictions currently existing in an intuitive interpretation of quantum mechanics, to thus achieve an intuitive understanding of the relations of quantum mechanics. § I The concepts: position, path, velocity, energy In order to be able to follow the quantum-mechanical behavior of any object, it is necessary to know the object's mass and and the interactive forces with any fields or other objects. Only then is it possible to set up the hamiltonian function for the quantum-mechanical system. The considerations below shall in general refer to non-relativistic quantum mechanics, since the laws of quantum-theory electrodynamics are not completely known yet.* No further statements regarding the object's "gestalt" are necessary: the totality of those inter-active forces is best designated by the term "gestalt". °, If we want to clearly understand what is meant by the word _ "position of the object" - for instance, an electron - (relative co a given reference system}, th_n we must indicate the i definite experiments by means of which we intend to determine _ the "position of the electron " Otherwise the word is meaning- ? ! less In principle, there is no shortage of experiments that 1 ! permit a determination of the "position of the electron" to t any desired precision, even. For instance: illuminate the electron and look at it under the microscope. The highest precision attainable here in the determination of the position is substantially determined by the wavelength of the light used. But let us build in principle, a gamma-ray microscope and by means s " of it determine the position as precisely as desired. But in I this determination a secondary circumstance becomes essential: ] the Compton effect. Any observation of the scattered light I coming from the electron (into the eye, onto a photographic ti plate, into a photocell} presupposes a photoelectric effect, i that is, it can also be interpreted as a light quantum strik- I ing the electron, there being ref]ectedordiffracted to then )I I - deflected once again by the microscope's lense - finally /17__55 I triggering the photoelectric effect. At the instant of the determination of its position - i.e., the instant at which ' the light quantum is diffracted by the electron - the electron i discontinuously changes its impulse. That change will be more i pronounced, the smaller the wavelength of the light used, i.e. the more precise the position determination is to be. ...
If one assumes that the interpretation of quantum mechanics attempted here is valid at least in its essential points, then we may be allowed to discuss its main consequences, in a few words. We have not assumed that quantum theory - in contrast to classical theory - is essentially a statistical theory, in the sense that starting from exact data we can only draw statistical conclusions. Among others, the known experiments by Geiger and Bothe speak against such an assumption. Rather, in all cases in which relations exist between variables, in classical theory, that can really be measured precisely, the corresponding exact relations exist also in quantum theory (impulse and energy theorems). But in the rigorous formulation of the law of causality. "If we know the present precisely, we can calculate the future" - it is not the conclusion that is faulty, but the premise. We simply can not know the present in principle in all its parameters. Therefore all perception is a selection from a totality of possibilities and a limitation of what is possible in the future. Since the statistical nature of quantum theory is so closely to the u_certainty in all observations or perceptions, one could be tempted to conclude that behind the observed, statistical world a "real" world is hidden, in which the law of causality is applicable. We want to state explicitly that we believe such speculations to be both fruitless and pointless. The only task of physics is to describe the relation between observations. The true situation could rather be described better by the following: Because all experiments are subject to the laws of quantum mechanics and hence to equation (1), it follows that quantum mechanics once and for all establishes the invalidity of the law of causality.
Addendum at the time of correction. After closing this paper, new investigations by Bohr have led to viewpoints that allow a considerable broadening and refining of the analysis of quantum mechanics relations attempted here. In this context, Bohr called my attention to the fact that I had overlooked some essential points in some discussions of this work. Above all, the uncertainty in the observation is not due exclusively to the existence of discontinuities, but is directly related to the requirement of doing justice simultaneously to the different experiences expressed by corpuscular theory on the one hand and by wave theory on the other. For instance, in the use of an imaginary Γ-ray microscope, the divergence of the ray beam must be taking into account. The first consequence of this is that in the observation of the electron's position, the direction of the Compton recoil will only be known with some uncertainty, which will then lead to relation (I). It is furthermore not sufficiently stressed that rigorously, the simple theory of the Compton effect can be applied only to free electrons. As professor Bohr made very clear, the care necessary in the application of the uncertainty relationship is essential above all in a general discussion of the transition from micro to macro-mechanics. Finally, the considerations on resonance fluorescence are not entirely correct, because the relation between the phase of the light and that of the motion of the electrons is not as simple as assumed here. I am greatly indebted to professor Bohr for being permitted to know and discuss during their gestation those new investigations by Bohr, mentioned above, dealing with the conceptual structure of quantum theory, and to be published soon.".
(I agree with Laplace, and a deterministic universe, but the most clear limitation against being able to run the model backwards or forwards is because of the infinite amount of matter in the universe. In terms of the uncertainty principle, I see this as a more complex issue of using photons to measure position and or velocity (velocity is measured over time and so that adds a third variable, why not simply use velocity instead of momentum?) and this includes with the photons in atoms of our eyes, etc...it seems a much more complex question. This mathematical relation seems to me to be a result of real number math, can be applied to any two measured quantities using real numbers (and perhaps integers too?), and is unimportant even if true. The real tragedy of the uncertainty principle is that this is mistakenly used to imply that particles can occupy two positions at once, and that a piece of matter only occupies a real location when we look at it, etc. Which to me, are obviously false, and I conclude that particles occupy real locations in the universe even if we cannot measure their position exactly, and at no time disappear or reappear. )
(The minimum duration of “instant of time” in my view is the time a photon moves over a pixel on a screen modeling it. Or possibly the time elapsed for a photon to move from 1 photon sized space to another at maximum speed.)
(Show math, and while Heisenberg's uncertainy principle may be true, one major mistake in the line of thinking that followed this theory is that somehow the particle mass and position, etc is not of a definite quantity. Even if we cannot observe something exactly, does not mean that a particle of mass does not exist in some exact location, to me, it simply means that mathematical precision can go on to infinity. In addition, although I think the universe is of infinite size, I still think that the universe is made of at least photon sized integer-only spaces, in other words, although any arbitrary volume of space can be used, since there is no matter known smaller than a photon, it is sufficient to use the volume of a photon as a space of 1 cubed. From this, all matter in the universe may have an integer location. In addition using a maximum velocity for all photons, which creates a minimum time unit/movie frame for all matter movement, velocities may also be integer, however, I can't rule out fractional velocities. I seriously question the reaching of Planck's constant, and perhaps the thought video will show more. This is a person who stayed in Germany under the Nazis and because of the extreme dishonesty, racism and violence, I think Heisenberg's ethics in terms of total honesty are certainly open to question. but beyond this, why stop at the level of precision of Planck's constant? 10-43 or something. Why not go to 10-100? and more? Perhaps 10-43 is an estimated size for a photon? But then this has apparently nothing to do with uncertainty. What is the significance of two uncertainties multiplied? Show what the uncertainties represent, and how their quantities are arrived at. This seems like a complicated idea of trying to use photons to measure photons, etc. and it seems pointless and useless to explore this line of theorizing in my opinion. There are physical limits on measurement, one of the largest being the impossibility of storing the location of every photon in the universe or even in a tiny volume of space, etc.)
(In my view, the uncertainty principle is perhaps a similar expression to saying that the universe may be of infinite scale and age - perhaps true and inspiring, but of little productive value.)
(show math of uncertainty principle)
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
73 YBN
[04/14/1927 AD]
| 5236) Jan Hendrik Oort (oURT) (CE 1900-1992) Dutch astronomer, provides observational evidence confirming the rotational motion of the Milky Way galaxy and estimates the distance of the Sun to the center of the galaxy as 5100 parsecs (16,618 light years).
Oort provides observational evidence that confirms Lindblad's hypothesis of a rotation of the galactic system. Oort shows that the Milky Way galaxy is rotating around its center by showing that of the two streams Kapteyn had found, the one stream moving ahead are stars closer to the center, and the other stream falling behind are stars farther from the center of the galaxy than the sun. Oort estimates the center to be in Sagittarius which agrees with Shapley but disagrees with Kapteyn. Lindblad is independently demonstrating this at the same time.
Oort uses the proper motion of 600 stars.
Oort writes in the "Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of the Netherlands", in an article "Observational evidence confirming Lindblad's hypothesis of a rotation of the galactic system": " It is well known that the motions of the globular clusters and RR Lyrae variables differ considerably from those of the brighter stars in our neighborhood. The former give evidence of a systematic drift of some 200 or 300 km/sec with respect to the bright stars, while their peculiar velocity averages about 80 km/sec in one component, which is nearly six times higher than the average velocity of the bright stars. Because the globular clusters and the bright stars seem to possess rather accurately the same plane of symmetry, we are easily led to the assumption that there exists a connection between the two. But what is the nature of the connection? It is clear that we must not arrange the hypothetical universe in such a way that it is very far from dynamical equilibrium. Following KAPTEYN and JEANS let us for a moment suppose that the bulk of the stars are arranged in an ellipsoidal space whose dimensions are small compared to those of the system of globular clusters as outlines by SHAPLEY. From the observed motions of the stars we can then obtain an estimate of the gravitational force and of the velocity of escape. An arrangement as supposed byu KAPTEYN and JEANS, which ensures a state of dynamical equilibrium for the bright stars, implies, however, that the velocities of the clusters and RR Lyrae variables are very much too high. A majority of these would be escaping from the system. As we do not notice the consequent velocity of recession it seems that this arrangement fails to represent the facts. As a possible way out of the difficulty we might suppose that the brighter stars around us are members of a local cloud which is moving at fairly high speed inside a larger galactic system, of dimensions comparable to those of the globular cluster system. We must then postulate the existence of a number of similar clouds, in order to provide a gravitational potential which is sufficiently large to keep the globular clusters from dispersing into space too rapidly. The argument that we cannot observe these large masses outside the Kapteyn-system is not at all conclusive against the supposition. There are indicvations that enough dark matter exists to blot out all galactic starclouds beyond the limits of the Kapteyn-system. LINDBLAD has recently put forward an extremely suggestive hypothesis, giving a beautiful explanation of the general character of the systematic motions of the stars of high velocity. He supposes that the greater galactic system as outlined above may be divided up into sub-systems, each of which is symmetrical around the axis of symmetry of the greater system and each of which is approximately in a state of dynamical equilibrium. The sub-systems rotate around their common axis, but each one has a different speed of rotation. One of these sub-systems is defined by the globular clusters for instance; this one has a very low speed of rotation. The stars of low velocity observed in our neighborhood form part of another sub-system. As the rotational velocity of the slow moving stars is about 300 km/sec and the average random velocity only 30 km/sec, these stars can be considered as moving very nearly in circular orbits around the centre. We may now apply an analysis similar to that used by JEANS in his discussion of the motions of the stars in a "Kapteyn-universe"... ... 4. Proper motion data. If the interpretation of the systematic term in the radial velocities as a rotation is right, a similar term should occur in the proper motions. but, as is evident from the formulae given in section 2, the rotation terms in the proper motions cannot be predicted from the radial velocity results unless we make an assumption as to the character of the general gravitational force. Now it will be shown in the next section that the radial velocity results make it very probable that a great part of this force varies inversely proportional to the square of R. We shall suppose that the total gravitational force in this part of the galactic system can be represented as the sum of two forces, K1 and K2, the first of which varies inversely proportional to R2 and the second directly proportional to R. We want to determine what percentage of the total force is made up of K1, and what of K2. The residual transverse velocity in km/sec is easily seen to be equal to...{ULSF: See equations}
Theoretically we can determine both V/R K1/K and V/R K2/K from the proper motions, but for several reasons a solution of both unknowns is not very likely to yield useful results. Accordingly it was decided to assume the value of +0.031 found from the radial velocities for 3/4V/RK1/K and only to use the proper motions for determining the ratio K2/K1. For the determination of this ratio I have utilized the proper motions of some 600 stars, all of types that are known to possess very small peculiar proper motions. ... ...In this way we find:
K2/K1 = 0.11 which gives a rather satisfactory agreement with the observed average proper motions in the various intervals of galactic longitude. ...
5. Concluding remarks. It has been shown from radial velocities that for all distant galactic objects there exist systematic motions varying with the galactic longitudes of the stars considered. The relative systematic motions are always of the same nature and they increase roughly propoertional with the distance of the objects. Probably the simplest explanation is that of non-uniform rotation of the galactic system around a very distant centre. This explanation is capable of representing all the observed systematic motions within their range of uncertainty (except perhaps in the case of the B stars). If with this supposition we compute the position of the centre from the radial velocities, we find that it lies in the galactic plane, either at 323° longitude or at the opposite point. The first direction is in remarkably close agreement with the longitude of the centre of the system of globular clusters (325°). The observations would therefore seem to confirm LINDBLAD's hypothesis of a rotation of the entire galactic system around the latter centre. The proper motions corroborate the above interpretation, at least qualitatively. They were used mainly to determine the character of the non-uniformity of the rotation. This character corresponds to a gravitational force which can sufficiently well be represented by the following formula:
K=c2/R2 + c2R, if R is the distance of the centre. A provisional solution gave c2/c1=0.11/r3 Such a force would for example result if 9/10th of the total force came from mass concentrated near the centre and 1/10th from an ellipsoid of constant density large enough to contain the sun within its borders. The true character of the force will of course by more complicated. We can derive a numerical result for R as soon as the circular velocity, V, is known. An estimate of this circular velocity may be made from the radial velocities of the globular clusters. According to STROMBERG these clusters posses a systematic motion nearly perpendiculat to the direction of their centre and equal to 286 km/sec +- 67 (m.e.) relatively to the sun, or 272 km/sec relatively to the centre of the slow moving stars. This would give us an estaimte of the circular velocity if we were sure that the system of globular clusters had no rotation. ...Assuming C=272 km/sec we find R=5900 parsecs. ... Note added to proof ... While this paper was going through the press a provisional correction to the constant of precession was derived from proper motions in galactic latitude, and a corresponding correction was applied to the proper motions in longitude. both direction and amount of the angular velocity of rotation derived from the radial velocities are satisfactorily confirmed by the corrected proper motions. The ratio K2/K1, which in section 4 was found to be 0.11, is changed into 0.29 by the above correction. The corresponding estimate of the distance of the centre changes from 5900 to 5100 parsecs.".
(This proof needs to be explained more clearly and shown graphically. Perhaps another method is to simply model using Newton's simple gravitation equation. In addition proper motion could be examined from the perspective of this star.)
Using Trumpler's identification that more distant star clouds look fainter because of dust, Oort reduces Shapley's estimate to the center of the galaxy from the sun from 50,000 light-years to 30,000, which is currently the accepted distance. (cite which paper and when)
(Oort?) shows that the sun completes a rotation around the center of the Milky Way galaxy in 200 million years. (chronology and paper)
(is this using the relative velocity of the sun to the center? Show math of how this is calculated, and state who calculates this first.)
(Oort shows?) that from the period of rotation of the sun (200 million years) that the Milky Way galaxy is equal to the mass of around 100 billion stars the size of the sun. (chronology and original paper)
(Actually counting all stars (if possible in some wavelength) might confirm this.)
(Note the interesting view that groups of stars might be rotating around a central axis while rotating around the galactic center too - much like moons and planets rotate around the Sun. It seems like this rotation can't be ruled out - certainly binary stars are examples of stars rotating around a local axis.)
(Describe estimated distance from sun to center of Milky Way Galaxy, and also estimated radius of Milky Way Galaxy.)
| (Observatory) Leiden, Netherlands |
73 YBN
[04/19/1927 AD]
| 4946) Irving Langmuir (laNGmYUR) (CE 1881-1957), US chemist invents an atomic (as opposed to molecular) hydrogen blowtorch.
Langmuir invents an atomic hydrogen blowtorch that can produce temperatures near 6000°C (almost as hot as the surface of the sun). The torch blows a stream of hydrogen gas past hot tungsten wires which separate the hydrogen molecule into individual hydrogen atoms which recombine to form hydrogen molecules again, and the heat of this combination produces temperatures near 6000°C.
(Explain more, I have doubts. Get more information: how does the hydrogen ignite? simply by combining again? If the hydrogen ignites and photons are given off as heat and light, this is simply hydrogen combustion with oxygen in the air and results in water (that probably is evaporated). How is this different from just a simply hydrogen and oxygen torch? What is the exact temperature difference between the two? - todo: read more of paper for details.)
(Can it be possible that H2 is the basis of all atoms, or is elemental H found in the nucleus of atoms?)
| (General Electric Company) Schenectady, New York, USA |
73 YBN
[05/05/1927 AD]
| 5306) Eugene Paul Wigner (WIGnR) (CE 1902–1995), Hungarian-US physicist, creates the theory of atomic "parity". (Verify original paper is correct.)
In 1927 Wigner introduces the idea of parity as a conserved property of nuclear reactions. The basic insight is mathematical and arises from certain formal features Wigner identifies in transformations of the wave function of Erwin Schrödinger. The function Ψ(x,y,z) describes particles in space, and parity refers to the effect of changes in the sign of the variables on the function: if the sign remains unchanged the function has even parity while if the sign changes the function has odd parity. Wigner proposes that a reaction in which parity is not conserved is forbidden. In physical terms this means that a nuclear process should be indistinguishable from its mirror image; for example, an electron emitted by a nucleus should be indifferent as to whether it is ejected to the left or the right. Such a consequence seemed natural and remains unquestioned until 1956 when Tsung Dao Lee and Chen Ning Yang show that parity is not conserved in the weak interaction. (More information about what Lee and Yang show.)
Wigner with Gregory Breit in 1936 works out the Breit–Wigner formula, a theory of neutron absorbtion, which does much to explain neutron absorption by a compound nucleus. Wigner is involved in much of the early work on nuclear reactors leading to the first controlled nuclear chain reaction.
(explain in more detail. Show equations. How useful is this theory and how accurate?)
| (Institute fur Theoretische Physik) Berlin, Germany |
73 YBN
[05/21/1927 AD]
| 5291) Person in motorized plane crosses Atlantic Ocean.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh (CE 1902-1974), US aviator from 05/20-21/1927 is the first person to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a motorized plane. Lindbergh accomplishes the flight in 33 and a half hours. Lindbergh is motivated by a $25,000 prize to the first non-stop flight from New York to Paris. A St. Louis businessperson funds Lindbergh who buys a monoplane (an airplane with only one pair of wings) which he names "The Spirit of St. Louis". This is 25 years after the Wright Brothers made their first flight. After his flight Lindbergh is celebrated as a hero in the USA. Flight becomes more popular as a result of this.
| |
73 YBN
[05/24/1927 AD]
| 5100) (Sir) George Paget Thomson (CE 1892-1975) English physicist uses a method of photographically capturing electron "diffraction" patterns and publishes the first public image of electron diffraction, in this case caused by passing cathode rays through a thin celluloid film.
Earlier on March 3, Clinton Joseph Davisson (CE 1881-1958), and L. H. Germer had show that electron beams can be diffracted by reflecting electrons off of a single crystal of nickel but did not publish any photographs.
After thin photo from gold, on November 17, Thomson will publish a similar electron "diffraction" photo caused by passing cathode rays through platinum foil.
Where Davisson had reflected electron beams off of a crystal of nickel and measured a diffraction pattern, Thomson passes high speed electrons through a thin celluloid film (and later thin foils of the metals gold and aluminum), and captures a photograph which shows the same kind of diffraction patterns that Laue obtains with X-rays and this is in accordance with De Broglie's theory.
Thomson calculates the space interval (wavelength) of the electrons to be 1.0 x 10-9 cm. (determine what the frequency is)
Thomson and Reid write in a preliminary Nature article: "Diffraction of Cathode Rays by a Thin Film. If a fine beam of homogeneous cathode rays is sent nearly normally through a thin celluloid film (of the order 3 x 10-6 thick) and then received on a photographic plate 10 cm. away and parallel to the film, we find that the central spot formed by the undeflected rays is surrounded by rings, recalling in appearance the haloes formed by mist round the sun. A photograph so obtained is reproduced (Fig. 1). If the density of the plate is measured by a photometer at a number of points along a radium, and the intensity of the rays at these points found by using the characteristic blackening curve of the plate (see Phil. Mag., vol. 1, p. 963, 1926), the rings appear as humps on the intensity-distance curves. In this way rings can be detected which may not be obvious to direct inspection. With rays of about 13,000 volts two rings have been found inside the obvious one. Traces have been found of a fourth ring in other photographs, but not more than three have been found on any one exposure. This is probably due to the limited range of intensity within which photometric measurements are feasible. The size of the rings decreases with increasing energy of the rays, the radium of any given ring being roughly inversely proportional to the velocity, but as the rings are rather wide the measurements so far made are not very accurate. The energy of the rays, as measured by their electrostatic deflexion, varied from 3900 volts to 16,500 volts. The rings are sharpest at the higher energies and were indistinguishable at about 2500 volts. In one photograph the radii of the rngs were approximately 3, 5, and 6.7 mm. for an energy of 13,800 volts. It is natural to regard this phenomenon as allied to the effect found by Dymond (NATURE, Sept. 4, 1926, p. 336) for the scattering of electrons in helium, through the angles are of course much smaller than he found. This would be due partly to the greater speed of the rays giving them a smaller wave-length. Using the formula λ=h/mv the wave-length in the above-quoted case would be λ = 1.0 x 10-9 cm. It is quite possible that there are other rings inside or outside those observed at present, and no opinion is advanced as to whether the diffracting systems are atoms or molecules. The disappearance of the rays at low speeds is probably due to the increased total amount of scattering which occurs. In all, about fifteen plates have been taken showing the effect, in cluding some using a slit, instead of a pin hole, to limit the beam of rays. It is hoped to make a further experiments with rays of greater energy and to obtain more accurate measurements of the size of the rings.".
Thomson publishes a more detailed report later in November which describes the apparatus used to capture photographs.
In 1930 Thomson will describe an "electron camera" used to capture photographs of electron diffraction.
(This shows in some way the similarity between beams of electrons and beams of photons. Wouldn't people think that electric charge would result in a different reflection/diffraction pattern? Show what these patterns look like. How do they are in accordance with De Broglie's theory?)
(State who first reflects electrons beams off a surface to create "diffraction" patterns.)
(Questions related to DeBroglie: id5103 So how does Davisson's and Thomson's work verify this theory? I think it can only be claimed that the beam of electrons has a wavelength that is in accordance with Planck's equation. Verify what mass and velocity Davisson and Thomson use to determine interval (wavelength) Q: How is the actual wavelength of electron beams determined? EX: Q: How does the wavelength of electron beams vary with voltage? Is the wavelength (space between electrons) of electron beams/current always the same? Does more resistance equal lower or inconsistent wavelength or just lower intensity? Does the atom used in the electrode change the electron frequency? These are cathode ray tube experiments. A fast electron detector can reveal electron wavelength. Q: Is it possible to vary electron wavelength? This is a fundamental most simple basic question I have a tough time believing has not been already answered. Can x-rays and electron beams be spread into spectral lines? What frequencies are seperated from electron beams?)
| (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
73 YBN
[06/16/1927 AD]
| 4907) Francis William Aston (CE 1877-1945), English chemist and physicist builds a second mass spectrometer which can measure the mass of solids (the first spectrometer could only measure the mass of gases). Aston also explains the theory of "packing fraction", how protons and electrons inside the atomic nucleus are packed so close together that their electromagnetic fields interfere and a certain fraciton of the combined mass is destroyed.
(Note that at the time of the creation of the packing fraction theory, electrons were thought to be inside the nucleus. Todo: Does this change the current explanation of the packing fraction or somehow invalidate the theory?)
Aston builds a more refined spectrograph which enables him to show that the “mass numbers” of the individual isotopes are actually very slightly different from integers, sometimes a little above, sometimes a little below. These slight mass discrepancies will be shown to result from the energy that goes into binding the particles in the nucleus together and are called by Harkins “packing fraction” or “binding energy”. When one type of atom is changed into another the difference in binding energy results in a large number of photons released if enough atoms make the change, as will be shown twenty years later when an isotope (of uranium) identified by Dempster will make the atomic bomb possible.
Aston describes the ‘packing fraction’ as a measure of the stability of the atom and the amount of energy required to break up or transform the nucleus. So Aston's work contains the implications of atomic energy and destruction and he believed in the possibility of using nuclear energy and also warned of the dangers. (In particlar the motion of individual masses within atoms is the key to the destructive power of atomic separation, in addition to using this partucle release to move machines and for other harmless useful purposes.)
Aston's first spectrograph was only suitable for gases but by 1927 he had introduced a new model capable of dealing with solids. From 1927 to 1935 Aston remeasures the atomic weights of the elements with his new instrument.
This spectrometer has an accuracy of 1 in 10,000 parts, which just enough to give rough first order values of the divergences of masses from whole numbers.
Aston describes the discharge tube which emits the positive ions (positive rays, or canal rays, kanalstrahlen), the slit system used to collimate the rays, the electric field made of curved plates machined from brass for a 30cm radius. Aston states that an electric potential of 400 volts is enough to deflect 48 kilovolt rays which is the highest (or hardest) ever used. The instrument that produces the magnetic field is the largest part of the spectrometer, and is a ring of special magnet with external diameter of 46 cm. 225 pounds of number 14 Copper wire is wound around the steel ring, 6,257 turns in all. The radius of curvature of the median ray is about 22.5 cm, so that the deflection of a singly charged mercury atom with 30 kilovolt energy will require a field of about 15,700 gauss. Measurements show that with 5 amperes the field is 20,400 gauss. Then there is a camera that uses (gasp) glass plates. Originally hydrogen was to be used as a standard, or the proton itself, however, being at the extreme smaller end of the scale, the neutral oxygen O16 atom instead is used as the standard. Aston explains the units of mass used: " Units.- The choice of a standard of mass is at our disposal. From a theoretical point of view the neutral hydrogen atom, or the proton itself, would be a good unit, and would make all the divergences of the same, negative, sign. On the other hand, the fact that such masses as these lie at the extreme end of the scale makes them inconvenient as practical standards. For the present enquiry the neutral oxygen atom O16 has been adopted as standard. The identity of this scale with that of chemical atomic weights depends on whether oxygen is a simple element of not. The absence of a very small percentage of an isotope is difficult to prove, and in oxygen particularly so, for the neighboring units 14,15,17,18 are always liable to be present. The possibilities of an isotop O17 is actually suggested by Blackett's experiments on the disintegration of nitrogen nuclei by the impact of alpha rays, but the evidence on the whole so far is in favour of oxygen being simple. The masses measured by the mass-spectrograph are those of positively charged particles, and must, therefore, be corrected for the mass of the electron m0 when this is significant. For this purpose m0 is taken to be 0.00054 on the oxygen scale. To avoid ambiguity the word "mass" will always be used when the weight of an individual atom is concerned, "atomic weight" being given its usual significance. Where molecules are concerned their masses are assumed to be the exact sum of the masses of their component atoms.".
Aston goes on to explain the theory of the packing fraction, writing: "Ever since the discovery of the whole number rule it has been assumed that in the structure of atoms only two entieis are ultimately concerned, the proton and the electron. If the additive law of mass mentioned above was as true when an atomic nucleus is built of protons plus electrons as when a neutral atom is built of nucleus plus electrons, or a molecule of atoms plus atoms the divergences from the whole number rule would be too small to be significant, and, since a neutral hydrogen atom is one proton plus one electron, the masses of all atoms would be whole numbers on the scale H=1. The measurements made with the first mass-spectrograph were suffiently accurate to show that this was not true. The theoretical reason adduced for this failure of the additive law is that, inside the nucleus, the protons and electrons are packed so closely together that their electromagnetic fields interfere and a certain fraction of the combined mass is destroyed, whereas outside the nucleus the distances between the charges are too great for this to happen. The mass destroyed corresponds to energy released, analogous to the heat of formation of a chemical compound, the greater this is the more tightly are the component charges bound together and the more stable is the nucleus formed. It is for this reason that measurements of this loss of mass are of such fundamental importance, for by them we may learn something of the actual structure of the nucleus, the atomic number and the mass number being only concerned with the number of protons and electrons employed in its formation. The most convenient and informative expression for the divergences of an atom from the whole number rule is the actual divergence divided by its mass number. Thi is the mean gain or loss of mass per proton when the nuclear packing is changed from that of oxygen to that of the atom in question. It will be called the "packing fraction" of tha tom and expressed in parts per 10,000. Put in another way, if we suppose the whole numbers and the masses of the atoms to be plotted on a uniform logarithmic scale such that every decimetre equals a change of one per cent., then the packing fractions are the distances, expressed in millimetres, between the masses and the whole numbers.".
Aston then gives his results: " The results obtained with the new instrument and now to be recorded may be classified under two entirely different heads. First there are those giving new information on the isotopic constitution of elements, and secondly there are those by which the packing fractions of the individual types of atoms are measured. It is convenient to combine both of these under the element concerned, and, for ease of reference, to take the elements in their natural order of atomic number. Hydrogen.- The hydrogen molecule was compared with the helium atom by Method III and measured against the known ratio H:H2. The voltages applied were approximately in the ratio 2:1.004, so that the H2 line was on the heavy side of each doublet. The difference between the packing fractions of hydrogen and helium is the sum of the two intervals corrected for the mass of the electron. The intervals of mass came out on three plates to be 73.7, 73.6, 73.9, mean 73.73. From this must be subtracted the correction for the electron which in this particular case amounts to 1/4m0=1.35 x 10-4, whence we get 72.4 as the excess of the packing fraction of hydrogen over that of helium. The value of the latter is shown below to be 5.4, hence the packing fraction of hydrogen is 77.8, and therefore its mass 1.00778, a value in excellent agreement with the best results obtained by other means. Helium.- The atom was compared with the doubly charged oxygen atom O++ using the known ratio C++:C+ as a measure. For this purpose voltages roughly 242 and 362 were applied to the plates, bringing C++ and He into close approximation on one spectrum and C+ and O++ together on the other. The packing fraction of helium will be measured by the difference between these intervals. The mean of four measurements gave 5.2. This must be corrected by the addition of m0/24 so that the packing fraction of helium is 5.4 and its mass 4.00216, a value rather higher than 4.000 found by Baxter and Starkweather. Boron.- As before, boron trifluoride was found a convenient source of this element. The lighter isotop B10 was compared with O++ by the use of the known ration CH3:C. B11 was compared with C by the known ratio C:CH, which is sufficiently near for the purpose. The results so obtained were checked by comparing the ratio B10:B11 with that of B11:C. Using the mass of C given below, the results of these three comparisons were in good agreement, and gave for B10 the packing fraction 13.5, mass 10.0135; and for B11 the packing fraction 10.0, mass 11.0110. Carbon.-The accurate evaluation of this atom is of peculiar importance, for it and its compounds give the most valuable standard lines used. Its mass can be measured in two ways. The more direct is to make use of the geometrical progression O:C:OH2. The technical objection to this is that the water line is only well developed when a new discharge tube is fitted, and then its intensity is very difficult to gauge. On the other hand the comparison is very favourable, for the square of the unknown is involved and any uncertainty in the mass of hydrogen only enters in the second order. The mean of four experiments so far made on this series gives a difference between the intervals of C:HO2 and O:C of 2.7. The water molecule has a packing fraction 8.7 and the correction of the electron is quite negligible. Hence the packing fraction of carbon is half the difference, that is 3.0 and its mass 13.0036. The mass of carbon can also be measured by means of the O, CH4 doublet. Several measurements of this have been made both by the comparitor and by means of a photometer. From these the most probable value of the molecular weight of methane is 16.0350, a figure practically the same as that deduced by Baume and Perrot from its density. The molecular weight worked out from the values for carbon and hydrogen given aboce is 16.0347 an agreement warranting confidence in the methods employed. ...". Aston goes on to describe the measurements for Nitrogen, Fluorine, Neon, Phosphorus, Sulphur, Chlorine, Argon, Arsenic, Bromine, Krypton, Tin, Iodine, Xenon, Tungsten, and Mercury.
(Interesting that the electric potential is measured in volts, but the magnetic field in gauss. Perhaps magnetic field should be measured in particles/second, and also a measurement for particles/second/volume. Todo: equate what "gauss" includes in terms of particle quantity, time, and space.) (My own view of the packing fraction theory is unclear, I have a lot of doubt about the truth of this theory. I think that there may be some truth to the idea that some photons are gained or lost in how the structure of any atom falls together because of geometrical structure. It's an interesting issue for further examination, in particular in terms of atoms made only of light particles, some even smaller basic unit of matter, or a variety of different sized particles. Looking at the electromagnetic field theory Aston gives, perhaps a more corpuscular view is that light particles orbiting protons and electrons collide with each other and exit the atom.)
(Notice the use of the word "classified" which fits with much of the Cavendish lab work being released of ancient classified science technology and information.)
(The results for Hydrogen are, to me, confusing, because is the proton viewed as 1? What is the mass of 1.00778 in, if not in masses of protons?)
(Clearly number of photons, or some basic unit of matter would be the best unit of mass to use. And the most informative, for example, how many photons are in an electron and proton?)
(Interesting that Aston presumes and apparently the results reflect that there is no packing fraction between atoms, in the formation of molecules.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
73 YBN
[06/30/1927 AD]
| 5232) Fritz Wolfgang London (CE 1900-1954), German-US physicist with Walter Heitler, creates an explanation for the covalent bond in the hydrogen molecule using wave mechanics.
London creates a quantum mechanical interpretation of the hydrogen molecule which serves as the basis for viewing molecules in terms of the new physics and lays the groundwork for the resonance theory of Linus Pauling.
(Is this quantum or wave mechanics or both?)
(more specific, show math.)
London writes (translated from German): "The interplay of forces between neutral atoms is a characteristic quantum mechanical ambiguity. This ambiguity seems to be appropriate to include the various modes of behavior that provides the experience: In hydrogen, for example, the possibility of a homopolar bond, or elastic reflection on the noble gases, however, only the latter - and this first as an effect already Approximation of about the right size. In the selection and discussion of different attitudes to the Pauli principle proven here, in application to systems of several atoms. ...".
(This aspect of how do moving electrons bond from atom to atom is, I think, a very interesting question. For myself, I have a lot of doubts about a wave interpretation, and doubts too about electrons orbiting the entire molecule as ? suggested.)
(Verify that this is the correct paper, translate, read relevent parts.)
| (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
73 YBN
[08/01/1927 AD]
| 5114) T. H. Osgood, US physicist, bridges the space between ultra-violet and x-ray spectral lines.
(Get portrait and birth-death dates) (verify this is the first bridge between x-ray and uv.)
Osgood uses a concave grating to obtain spectral lines of wave-lengths (intervals) between 40-200 A which bridges the space between X-ray and ultra-violet frequencies of light.
(Osgood uses the word "lies" in this work.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
73 YBN
[08/26/1927 AD]
| 5756) British microbiologist, Frederick Griffith (CE 1881–1941) observes the first known bacterial "transformation", how DNA in the environment can enter a bacteria.
Griffith succeeds in distinguishing two types of pneumococci bacteria, the nonvirulent R (rough) of serological type I and the virulent S (smooth) of type III. He then inoculates mice with both live nonvirulent R and heat-killed S pneumococci. Although when either are inoculated separately no infection results, together they produce in the mice lethal cases of pneumonia. Griffith also recovers virulent S pneumococci of type III from the infected mice that live. This unusual result which will lead Oswald Avery and his colleagues in 1944 to carry out the experiments that succeed in explaining Griffith's results by suggesting that the power to transform bacteria is in the nucleic acid of the cell and not in its proteins or sugars.
In addition, Griffith shows that this transformation is heritable, that is, can be passed on to succeeding generations of bacteria.
The three main mechanisms by which bacteria acquire new DNA are transformation, conjugation, and transduction. Transformation involves acquisition of DNA from the environment, conjugation involves acquisition of DNA directly from another bacterium, and transduction involves acquisition of bacterial DNA via a bacteriophage intermediate.
Griffith publishes this in the "Journal of Hygiene" as "The Significance of Pneumococcal Types". Griffith writes: 'I. OBSERVATIONS ON CLINICAL MATERIAL. SINCE communicating my report1 on the distribution of pneumococcal types in a series of 150 cases of lobar pneumonia occurring in the period from April, 1920 to January, 1922, I have not made any special investigation of this subject. In the course, however, of other inquiries and of the routine examination of sputum during the period from the end of January, 1922, to March, 1927, some further data have been accumulated2. Table I gives the results in two series and, for comparison,those previously published. ... The main point of interest, since the beginning of the inquiry, is the progressive diminution in the number of cases of pneumonia attributable to Type II pneumococcus. The great majority of the cases occurred in the Smethwick district, and the figures may reveal a real local decrease of Type II, and a corresponding increase of Group IV cases. It must, however, be remembered that the isolation on a single occasion of a Group IV strain from a sputum, especially in the later stages of the pneumonia, does not prove that strain to be the cause of the disease. This is clearly shown by the examination of several samples of sputum taken at different times from the same case; in these a Group IV strain was often found in addition to one or other of the chief types. There may be a slight element of uncertainty regarding causal connection of the Group IV strains with the pneumonia, since the cultures of pneumococci in this series were derived from sputum (except in four cases where the material was pneumonic lung) and some of the samples of sputum were obtained when the disease had been in progress for some time-from 4 to 11 days after the onset. ...". In his summary Griffith writes: "1. In the course of the examination of sputum from cases of lobar pneumonia, observations have been made on the incidence of the chief types of pneumococc i. In the district from which the material was obtained, there was an apparent local diminution in the number of cases of lobar pneumonia due to Type II; the figures were 32-6 per cent. of Type II cases in the period 1920-22, and only 7-4 per cent. in the period 1924-27. The incidence of Type I was approximately the same in the two periods, the percentages being 30-6 and 34-3. 2. Several different serological varieties of pneumococci have been obtained from the sputum of each of several cases of pneumonia examined at various stages of the disease. This has occurred most frequently in cases of pneumonia due to Type I, and in two instances four different types of Group IV were found in addition to the chief types. The recovery of different types is facilitated by the inoculation of the sputum (preserved in the refrigerator), together with protective sera corresponding to the various types in the order of their appearance. 158 Pneumococcal Types 3. Two interesting strains of Group IV pneumococci have been obtained from pneumonic sputum. One was an R strain which produced typical rough colonies, yet preserved its virulence for mice and its capacity to form soluble substance. This R pneumoco ccus developed a large capsule in the mice, which died of a chronic type of septicaemia. A strain producing smooth colonies was obtained from it in the course of a prolonged series of passage experiments. The second strain, which was proved not to be a mixture, agglutinated specifically with the sera of two different types. In the peritoneal cavity of the mouse the specific soluble substance of each type was produced. 4. A method of producing the S to R change through ageing of colonies on chocolate blood medium containing horse serum is described. After two to three days' incubation small rough patches appear in the margins of the smooth colonies, and from these pure R strains can be isolated. 5. It has been shown that the R change is not equally advanced in the descendants of virulent pneumococci which have been exposed to the action of homologous immune serum. Some R strains form traces of soluble substance in the peritoneal cavity of the mouse; these revert readily to the virulent S form and, in addition, are able to produce active immunity. Others show no evidence of S antigen; spontaneous reversion takes place with difficulty, if at all, and they are incapable of producing active immunity. The stronger the immune serum used, the more permanent and complete is the change to the R form. 6. Restoration of virulence to an attenuated R strain, with recovery of the S form of colony and of the original serological type characters may be obtained by passage through mice. The change from the R to the S form is favoured by the inoculation of the R culture in large doses into the subcutaneous tissues; but the most certain method of procuring reversion is by the inoculation of the R culture, subcutaneously into a mouse, together with a large dose of virulent culture of the same type killed by heat. Incubation of such a mixture in vitro does not induce reversion. 7. Reversion of an R strain to its S form may occasionally be brought about by the simultaneous inoculation of virulent culture of another type, especially when this has been heated for only a short period to 600 C., e.g. R Type II to its S form when inoculated with heated Type I culture. 8. Type I antigen appears to be more sensitive to exposure to heat than Type II antigen, since the former loses the power to cause reversion when heated to 800 C., whereas Type II culture remains effective even after steaming at 1000 C. 9. The antigens of certain Group IV strains appear to be closely related to that of Type II, and are equally resistant to heat. Steamed cultures of these Group IV strains cause the R form derived from Type II to revert to its S form, while they fail to produce reversion of the R form derived from Type I. F. GRIFFITH 159 10. The inoculation into the subcutaneous tissues of mice of an attenuated R strain derived from one type, together with a large dose of virulent culture of another type killed by heating to 600 C., has resulted in the formation of a virulent S pneumococcus of the same type as that of the heated culture. The newly formed S strain may remain localised at the seat of inoculation, or it may disseminate and cause fatal septicaemia. The S form of Type I has been produced from the R form of Type II, and the R form of Type I has been transformed into the S form of Type II. The clear mucinous colonies of Type III have been derived both from the R form of Type I and from the R form of Type II, though they appear to be produced more readily from the latter. The newly formed strains of Type III have been of relatively low virulence, and have frequently remained localised at the subcutaneous seat of inoculation. Virulent strains of Types I and II have been obtained from an R strain of Group IV. 11. Heated R cultures injected in large doses, together with small doses of living R culture have never caused transformation of type, and only rarely produced a reversion of the R form of Type II to its virulent S form. 12. The results of the experiments on enhancement of virulence and on transformation of type are discussed and their significance in regard to questions of epidemiology is indicated.".
(Add image from paper.)
| (Ministry of Health) London, England (verify this is in London at the time) |
73 YBN
[09/03/1927 AD]
| 5106) (Sir) Edward Victor Appleton (CE 1892-1965) English physicist finds evidence for more than one ionized layer in the earth atmosphere.
Appleton determines the height of the charged layers which reflect radio light particle waves during the day is around 150 miles high, and these are sometimes called the Appleton layers. More experiments will show how these charged layers change because of the position of the sun, and the sunspot cycle. This marks the beginning of the study of the layer of air above the stratosphere (named by Teisserenc de Bort), what Watson-Watt will name the ionosphere because of their ion composition. Later rockets will be used to study the ionosphere.
(Read relevant portions of text)
| (King's College) London, England |
73 YBN
[11/04/1927 AD]
| 5101) (Sir) George Paget Thomson (CE 1892-1975) English physicist publishes photos of electron beam "diffraction" patterns from electrons passed through various thin solid materials (celluloid, gold, aluminum).
| (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
73 YBN
[12/12/1927 AD]
| 5113) Arthur Holly Compton (CE 1892-1962), US physicist, suggests the name "photon" for a light quantum.
Compton suggests the name "photon" for the light quantum in its particle aspect. This revives the theory of light as a particle first proposed by Newton (identify when).
Asimov states that the Planck and Einstein will render the particulate nature of light more sophisticated, but this will not obliterate the wave phenomena established by such nineteenth-century physicists as Young, Fresnel and Maxwell.
In his December 12, 1927 Nobel lecture "X-rays as a branch of optics", Compton writes: "One of the most fascinating aspects of recent physics research has been the gradual extension of familiar laws of optics to the very high frequencies of X-rays, until at the present there is hardly a phenomenon in the realm of light whose parallel is not found in the realm of X-rays. Reflection, refraction, diffuse scattering, polarization, diffraction, emission and absorption spectra, photoelectric effect, all of the essential characteristics of light have been found also to be characteristic of X-rays. At the same time it has been found that some of these phenomena undergo a gradual change as we proceed to the extreme frequencies of X-rays, and as a result of these interesting changes in the laws of optics we have gained new information regarding the nature of light. It has not always been recognized that X-rays is a branch of optics. AS a result of the early studies of Röntgen and his followers it was concluded that X-rays could not be reflected or refracted, that they were not polarized on transve rsing crystals, and that they showed no signs of diffraction on passing through narrow slits. In fact, about the only property which they were found to possess in common with light was that of propagation in straight lines. Many will recall also the heated debate between Barkla and Bragg, as late as 1910, one defending the idea that X-rays are waves like light, the other that they consist of streams of little bullets called "neutrons". It is a debate on which the last word has not yet been said!
The refraction ad reflection of X-rays We should consider the phenomena of refraction and reflection as one problem, since it is a well-known law of optics that reflection can occur only from a boundary surface between two media of different indices of refraction. If oneis found, the other must be present. In his original examination of the properties of X-rays, Röntgen1 tried unsuccessfully to obtain refraction by means of prisms of a variety of mate- rials such as ebonite, aluminum, and water. Perhaps the experiment of this type most favorable for detecting refraction was one by Barkla2. In this work X-rays of a wavelength which excited strongly the characteristic K-radiation from bromine were passed through a crystal of potassium bromide. The precision of his experiment was such that he was able to conclude that the refractive index for a wavelength of 0.5 Å probably differed from unity by less than five parts in a million. Although these direct tests for refraction of X-rays were unsuccessful, Stenström observed3 that for X-rays whose wavelengths are greater than about 3 Å, reflected from crystals of sugar and gypsum, Bragg’s law, nl = 2 D sin 8, does not give accurately the angles of reflection. He interpreted the difference as due to an appreciable refraction of the X-rays as they enter the crystal. Measurements by Duane and Siegbahn and their collaborators4 showed that discrepancies of the same type occur, though they are very small indeed, when ordinary X-rays are reflected from calcite. The direction of the deviations in Stenström’s experiments indicated that the index of refraction of the crystals employed was less than unity. If this is the case also, for other substances, total reflection should occur when X-rays in air strike a polished surface at a sufficiently sharp glancing angle, just as light in a glass prism is totally reflected from a surface between the glass and air if the light strikes the surface at a sufficiently sharp angle. From a measurement of this critical angle for total reflection it should be possible to determine the index of refraction of the X-rays. When the experiment was tried5 the results were strictly in accord with these predictions. The apparatus was set up as shown in Fig. 1, reflecting a narrow sheet of X-rays from a polished mirror on the crystal of a Bragg spectrometer. It was found that the beam could be reflected from the surfaces of a polished glass and silver through several minutes of arc. By studying the spectrum of the reflected beam, the critical glancing angle was found to be approximately proportional to the wavelength. For ordinary X-rays whose wavelength is one half an ångström, the critical glancing angle from crown glass was found to be about 4.5 minutes of arc, which means a reflective index differing from unity by less than one part in a million. Fig. 2 shows some photographs of the totally reflected beam and the critical angle for total reflection taken recently from Dr. Doan6 working at Chicago. From the sharpness of the critical angle shown in this figure, it is evident that a precise determination of the refractive index can thus be made. You will recall that when one measures the index of refraction of a beam of light in a glass prism it is customary to set the prism at the angle for minimum deviation. This is done primarily because it simplifies the calculation of the refractive index from measured angles. It is an interesting comment on the psychology of habit that most of the earlier investigators of the refraction X-rays by prisms also used their prisms set at the minimum deviation. Of course, since the effect to be measured was very small indeed, the adjustments should have been made to secure not the minimum deviation but the maximum possible. After almost thirty years of attempts to refract X-rays by prisms, experiments under the conditions to secure maximum re- fraction were first performed by Larsson, Siegbahn, and Waller7, using the arrangement shown diagrammatically in Fig. 3. The X-rays struck the face of the prism at a fine glancing angle, just greater than the critical angle for the rays which are refracted. Thus the direct rays, the refracted rays, and the totally reflected rays of greater wavelength were all recorded on the same plate. ... Thus optical refraction and reflection are extended to the region of Xrays, and this extension has brought with it more exact knowledge not only of the laws of optics but also of the structure of the atom. The diffraction of X-rays Early in the history of X-rays it was recognized that most of the properties of these rays might be explained if, as suggested by Wiechert8, they consist of electromagnetic waves much shorter than those of light. Haga and Wind performed a careful series of experiments9 to detect any possible diffraction by a wedge-shaped slit a few thousandths of an inch broad at its widest part. The magnitude of the broadening was about that which would result10 from rays of 1.3 Å wavelength. The experiments were repeated by yet more refined methods by Walter and Pohl11 who came to the conclusion that if any diffraction effects were present, they were considerably smaller than Haga and Wind had estimated. But on the basis of the photometric measurements of Walter and Pohl’s plates by Koch12 using his new photoelectric microphotometer, Sommerfeld found13 that their photographs indicated an effective wavelength for hard X-rays of 4 Å, and for soft X-rays a wavelength measurably greater. It may have been because of their difficulty that these experiments did not carry as far as their accuracy would seem to have warranted. Nevertheless it was this work perhaps more than any other that encouraged Laue to undertake his remarkable experiments on the diffraction of X-rays by crystals. ... While these slit diffraction experiments were being developed, and long before they were brought to a successful conclusion, Laue and his collaborators discovered the remarkable fact that crystals act as suitable gratings for diffracting X-rays. You are all acquainted with the history of this discovery. The identity in nature of X-rays and light could no longer be doubted. It gave a tool which enabled the Braggs to determine with a definiteness previously almost unthinkable, the manner in which crystals are constructed of their elementary components. By its help, Moseley and Siegbahn have studied the spectra of X-rays, we have learned to count one by one the electrons in the different atoms, and we have found out something regarding the arrangement of these electrons. The measurement of X-ray wavelengths thus made possible gave Duane the means of making his precise determination of Planck’s radiation constant. By showing the change of wavelength when X-rays are scattered, it has helped us to find the quanta of momentum of radiation which had previously been only vaguely suspected. Thus in the two great fields of modern physical inquiry, the structure of matter and the nature of radiation, the discovery of the diffraction of X-rays by crystals has opened the gateway to many new and fruitful paths of investigation. As Duc de Broglie has remarked, "if the value of a discovery is to be measured by fruitfulness of its consequences, the work of Laue and his collaborators should be considered as perhaps the most important in modern physics". These are some of the consequences of extending the optical phenomenon of diffraction into the realm of X-rays. There is, however, another aspect of the extension of optical diffraction into the X-ray region, which has also led to interesting results. It is the use of ruled diffraction gratings for studies of spectra. By a series of brilliant investigations, Schumann, Lyman, and Millikan, using vacuum spectrographs, have pushed the optical spectra by successive stages far into the ultraviolet. Using a concave reflection grating at nearly normal incidence, Millikan and his collaborators15 found a line probably belonging to the L-series of aluminum, of a wavelength as short as 136.6 Å, only a twenty-fifth that of yellow light. Why his spectra stopped here, whether because of failure of his gratings to reflect shorter wavelengths, or because of lack of sensitiveness of the plates, or because his hot sparks gave no rays of shorter wavelength, was hard to say. Röntgen had tried to get X-ray spectra by reflection from a ruled grating, but the task seemed hopeless, How could one get spectra from a reflection grating if the reflection grating would not reflect? But when it was found that X-rays could be totally reflected by fine glancing angles, hope for the success of such an experiment was revived. Carrara16, working at Pisa, tried one of Rowland’s optical gratings, but without success. Fortunately we at Chicago did not know of this failure, and with one of Michelson’s gratings ruled specially for this purpose, Doan found that he could get diffraction spectra of the K-series radiations both from copper and molybdenum17. Fig. 5 shows one of our diffraction spectra, giving several orders of the KaI -line of molybdenum, obtained by reflection at a small glancing angle. This work was quickly followed by Thibaud18, who photographed a beautiful spectrum of the K-series lines of copper from a grating of only a few hundred lines ruled on glass. That X-ray spectra could be obtained from the same type of ruled reflection gratings as those used with light was now established. The race to complete the spectrum between the extreme ultraviolet of Millikan and the soft X-ray spectra of Siegbahn began again with renewed enthusiasm. It had seemed that the work of Millikan and his co-workers had carried the ultraviolet spectra to as short wavelengths as it was possible to go. On the X-ray side, the long wavelength limit was placed, theoretically at least, by the spacing of the reflecting layers in the crystal used as a natural grating. De Broghe, W. H. Bragg, Siegbahn, and their collaborators were finding suitable crystals of greater and greater spacing until Thoraeus and Siegbahn 19, using crystals of palmitic acid, measured the La-line of chromium with a wavelength 21.69 Å. But there still remained a gap of almost three octaves between these X-rays and the shortest ultraviolet in which, though radiation had been detected by photoelectric methods, no spectral measurements has been made. Thibaud, working in de Broglie’s laboratory at Paris, made a determined effort to extend the limit of the ultraviolet spectrum, using his glass grating at glancing incidence2 0. His spectra however stopped at 144 Å, a little greater than the shortest wavelength observed in Millikan’s experiments. But meanwhile, Dauvillier, also working with de Broglie, was making rapid strides working from the soft X-ray side of the gap. First21 using a grating of palmitic acid, he found the Ka -line of carbon of wavelength 45 Å. Then22 using for a grating a crystal of the lead salt of melissic acid, with the remarkable grating space of 87.5 Å, he measured a spectrum line of thorium as long as 121 Å, leaving only a small fraction of an octave between his longest X-ray spectrum lines and Millikan’s shortest ultraviolet lines. The credit for filling in the greater part of the remaining gap must thus be given to Dauvillier. The final bridge between the X-ray and the ultraviolet spectra has however been laid by Osgood23, a young Scotchman working with me at Chicago. He also used soft X-rays as did Dauvillier, but instead of a crystal grating, he did his experiments with a concave glass grating in a Rowland mounting, but with the rays at glancing incidence. Fig. 6 shows a series of Osgood’s spectra. The shortest wavelength here shown is the Ka -line of carbon, 45 Å, and we see a series of lines up to 211 Å. An interesting feature of the spectra is an emission band in the aluminum spectrum at about 170 Å, which is probably in some way associated with the L-series spectrum of aluminum. These spectra overlap, on the short wavelength side, Dauvillier’s crystal measurements, and on the other side of the great wavelengths, Millikan’s ultraviolet spectra. ... Whatever we may find regarding the nature of X-rays, it would take a bold man indeed to suggest, in light of these experiments, that they differ in nature from ordinary light. It is too early to predict what may be the consequences of these grating measurements of X-rays. It seems clear, however, that they must lead to a new and more precise knowledge of the absolute wavelength of crystals.
This will in turn afford a new means of determining Avogadro’s number and the electronic charge, which should be of precision comparable with that of Millikan’ s oil drops. The scattering of X-rays and light The phenomena that we have been considering are ones in which the laws which have been found to hold in the optical region apply equally well in the X-ray region. This is not the case, however, for all optical phenomena. The theory of the diffuse scattering of light by turbid media has been examined by Drude, Lord Rayleigh, Raman, and others, and an essentially similar theory of the diffuse scattering of X-rays has been developed by Thomson, Debye, and others. Two important consequences of these theories are, (I) that the scattered radiation shall be of the same wavelength as the primary rays; and (2) that the rays scattered at go degrees with the primary rays shall be plane polarized. The experimental tests of these two predictions have led to interesting results. A series of experiments performed during the last few years* has shown that secondary X-rays are of greater wavelength than the primary rays which produce them. ... According to the classical theory, an electromagnetic wave is scattered when it sets the electrons which it traverses into forced oscillations, and these oscillating electrons reradiate the energy which they receive. In order to account for the change in wavelength of the scattered rays, however, we have had to adopt a wholly different picture of the scattering process, as shown in Fig. g. Here we do not think of the X-rays as waves but as light corpuscles, quanta, or, as we may call them, photons. Moreover, there is nothing here of the forced oscillation pictured on the classical view, but a sort of elastic collision, in which the energy and momentum are conserved. This new picture of the scattering process leads at once to three consequences that can be tested by experiment. There is a change of wavelength sn=+c(I -cosqJ) which accounts for the modified line in the spectra of scattered X-rays. Experiment has shown that this formula is correct within the precision of our knowledge of h, m, and c. The electron which recoils from the scattered Xrays should have the kinetic energy Ekin = hv . kcos20 WlC2 (2) approximately. When this theory was first proposed, no electrons of this type were known; but they were discovered by Wilson28 and Bothe29 within a few months after their prediction. Now we know that the number, energy, and spatial distribution of these recoil electrons are in accord with the predictions of the photon theory. Finally, whenever a photon is deflected at an angle j, the electron should recoil at an angle q given by the relation approximately.
This relation we have tested30, using the apparatus shown diagrammatically in Fig. IO. A narrow beam of X-rays enters a Wilson expansion chamber. Here it produces a recoil electron. If the photon theory is correct, associated with this recoil electron, a photon is scattered in the direction j. If it should happen to eject a b- ray, the origin of this b- ray tells the direction in which the photon was scattered. Fig. 11 shows a typical photograph of the process. A measurement of the angle q at which the recoil electron on this plate is ejected and the angle j of the origin of the secondary P-particle, shows close agreement with the photon formula. This experiment is of especial significanc e, since it shows that for each recoil electron there is a scattered photon, and that the energy and momentum of the system photon plus electron are conserved in the scattering process. The evidence for the existence of directed quanta of radiation afforded by this experiment is very direct. The experiment shows that associated with each recoil electron there is scattered X-ray energy enough to produce a secondary b- ray, and that this energy proceeds in a direction determined at the moment of ejection of the recoil electron. Unless the experiment is subject to improbably large experimental errors, therefore, the scattered X-rays proceed in the form of photons. Thus we see that as a study of the scattering of radiation is extended into the very high frequencies of X-rays, the manner of scattering changes. For the lower frequencies the phenomena could be accounted for in terms of waves. For these higher frequencies we can find no interpretation of the scattering except in terms of the deflection of corpuscles or photons of radia- tion. Yet it is certain that the two types of radiation, light and X-rays, are essentially the same kind of thing .We are thus confronted with the dilemma of having before us a convincing evidence that radiation consists of waves, and at the same time that it consists of corpuscles. It would seem that this dilemma is being solved by the new wave mechanics. De Broglie31 has assumed that associated with every particle of matter in motion there is a wave whose wavelength is given by the relation mv = h/ l where mv is the momentum of the particle. A very similar assumption was made at about the same time by Duane32 , to account for the diffraction of X-ray photons. As applied to the motion of electrons, Schrödinger has shown the great power of this conception in studying atomic structure33. It now seems, through the efforts of Heisenberg, Bohr, and others, that this conception of the relation between corpuscles and waves is capable of giving us a unified view of the diffraction and interference of light, and at the same time of its diffuse scattering and the photoelectric effect. It would however take too long to describe these new developments in detail. We have thus seen how the essentially optical properties of radiation have been recognized and studied in the realm of X-rays. A study of the refraction and specular reflection of X-rays has given an important confirmation of the electron theory of dispersion, and has enabled us to count with high precision the number of electrons in the atom. The diffraction of X-rays by crystals has given wonderfully exact information regarding the structure of crystals, and has greatly extended our knowledge of spectra. When X-rays were diffracted by ruled gratings, it made possible the study of the complete spectrum from the longest to the shortest waves. In the diffuse scattering of radiation, we have found a gradual change from the scattering of waves to the scattering of corpuscles. Thus by a study of X-rays as a branch of optics we have found in X-rays all of the well-known wave characteristics of light, but we have found also that we must consider these rays as moving in directed quanta. It is these changes in the laws of optics when extended to the realm of X-rays that have been in large measure responsible for the recent revision of our ideas regarding the nature of the atom and of radiation.".
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, the word "photon" was introduced in 1926.
(There is apparently no clear indication or source that can state precisely when the term "photon" was introduced. The earliest paper of Compton's I can find that uses the word "photon" is Compton's Nobel lecture of 12/12/1927.)
Technically, if I am not mistaken, "photon" cannot apply to a single light particle, because it is a light "quantum" which applies to a group of particles with a specific frequency. So possibly some other name is required for the theory that light is a material particle besides "photon" like photron, luxon, or litron. Or perhaps, the definition of photon can be changed to apply, not to a quantum, but to a single light particle. Compton writes "Here we do not think of the X-rays as waves but as light corpuscles, quanta, or, as we may call them, photons." - it seems to imply that a single light corpuscle is a quantum which can be called a photon, but this could also be interpreted as meaning that a quantum of light corpuscles, in other words a group of light corpuscles with some frequency and duration, can be called a photon. My own view is that Compton is saying that a single corpuscle is a quantum, and also a photon, but this seems inaccurate. The confusing aspect of the equations for quantum physics are that they say nothing about duration of time - they are timeless equations that simply say that - given this continuous frequency of light particles, this is the continuous velocity of electrons, etc. So I think that a time variable could be added.
(This is important in establishing that light is a particle, and is usually found only in beams of particles. This idea will ultimately be set in contrast to the theory of light as an electromagnetic sine wave with or without a medium. Later this idea that light is a particle will develop into the light particle being the basic unit of all matter probably secretly by some unknown person and eventually publicly by Ted Huntington - however to reach the eyes of the public there is only one method and that is by paying lots of money and even then there may be other issues.)
(This moves a very tiny step forward towards progress and the public realization that all matter is made of light particles, that light is a particle of mass, and that neuron reading and writing has been happening for hundreds of years - all these secrets kept by dispicable people.)
(It's not clear that relativity views light as a particle, but light has come to be viewed as massless and it is clear that in relativity light is viewed as energy and massless.)
(These two theories of particle versus wave theory for light are themes throughout the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s and even now. Currently the view is that all matter can also be viewed as a wave, and there is a belief in the equivalence of the two theories, however I think ultimately a particle theory will be proven to be true and the wave theory only true to the extent that light and other material objects may be many times distributed with a regular interval which can be called a "wave" of particles. So in my view light is a wave of particles. In my opinion, light itself is not a wave, and is not moved by a medium, and does not move in a sine wave shape, but is only a wave made of particles.)
(In my view, the next physics is going to drop any belief in space and or time dilation, and may or may not retain the theory that light particles have a constant velocity.)
(Much of the science from the 1700s to now has carried the debate of particle versus wave theory for light, and I think that somewhere from 2000-2500 the particle theory will decisively win, and the wave theory will fall to history permanently destroyed like the earth-centered, and ether theories, and ultimately even the theories of the religions will most likely fall to the past. But for this to happen, light refraction, diffraction, interference, and polarization must be fully explained, modeled and proven beyond any doubt to all average people by a particle theory. )
(EXPERIMENT: Can electrons be "polarized" or "planized"? Create horizontal and vertical lattices and show how a beam can be blocked by rotating the second lattice. Do this for other non-light particles.)
(What I think is required now is to distinguish between a quantum of material light particles and the individual material light particles themselves. Constantly calling a light particle "light particle" seems too long winded and time consuming. Perhaps the light particle being called a "photon" (the name used by Compton for a quantum of light particles), and a "quantum of photons" for the quantity of energy of some frequency of light particles. Another possible naming convention is "photron" for the material light particle. Another idea is "photum" for a quantum of light particles. Perhaps a quantum of electrons could be an "electrum".)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
73 YBN
[12/13/1927 AD]
| 4870) German chemists, Otto Paul Hermann Diels (DELS) (CE 1876-1954) and Kurt Alder (CE 1902-1958) create the diene synthesis (or the Diels-Alder reaction), which involves a method of joining two compounds to form a ring of atoms.
In 1928, Diels and Alder attempt to combine maleic anhydride with cyclopentadiene. The dienes (compounds with conjugated carbon double bonds) unite with philodienes (compounds with an ethylene radical with carbonyl or carboxyl groups connected on either side) to form ring-shaped structures. This type of synthesis occurs spontaneously even at room temperature. Diels goes on to publish thirty-three papers on the practical applications of this new method of synthesis.
Diels uses this to synthesize a variety of compounds, and other will use this reaction to synthesize alkaloids (explain what are), polymers, and other complex molecules. Woodward, for example, will use this technique in his synthesis of cortisone.
In the Diels-Alder reaction, organic compounds with two carbon-to-carbon double bonds are used to cause the syntheses of many cyclic carbon-based (organic) substances. This reaction is especially important in the production of synthetic rubber and plastics.
This reaction also produces new facts about the three-dimensional isomerism of the carbon compounds.
| (Christian Albrecht University) Kiel, Germany |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4519) Karl Landsteiner (CE 1868-1943), Austrian-US physician and Philip Levine identify 3 additional blood groups, M, N and MN, that do not matter for blood transfusion, but are helpful in anthropological studies (to determine human migrations).
(are blood types the same for all mammals? reptiles, amphibs, fish, etc?)
| (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4520) Karl Landsteiner (CE 1868-1943), Austrian-US physician with co-workers Alexander Wiener and Philip Levine identify the rhesus (Rh) factor, in human blood.
Levine is the first to see the connection between the Rhesus factor and jaundice occurring in newborn children. A mother who does not have the Rh factor can be stimulated by an Rh-positive fetus to form antibodies against the Rh factor. The red cells of the fetus are then destroyed by these antibodies, and the product of hemoglobin decomposition forms bilirubin which cause jaundice. Permanent brain damage can result, and the fetus or newborn child may die. Blood (serological) tests can be used to recognize this problem and save the fetus by blood exchange transfusions.
The Rh factor is also of vital importance in blood transfusions, Rh-positive blood must not be transfused into Rh-negative patients. If it is, Rh antibodies will be formed; and further transfusion of Rh-positive blood will lead to severe hemolytic reactions and a human may die.
| (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4780) Nevil Vincent Sidgwick (CE 1873-1952), English chemist extends the idea of valency developed by Gilbert Lewis and Irving Langmuir to non-carbon based (inorganic) compounds, using the Bohr–Rutherford model of the atom. Sidgwick introduces the term "coordinate" bond, in which, unlike the covalent bond of Lewis, both electrons are donated by one atom and accepted by the other. This explains the coordination compounds of Alfred Werner. (more detail)
The Abegg and Lewis electronic concept of valence does not apply to Werner's coordination compounds. (explain in clear detail), and Sidgwick makes use of Bohr's concept of electron shells to explain this. Sidgwick publishes this in his book "Electronic Theory of Valency".
| (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4821) US physiologists, Joseph Erlanger (CE 1874-1965) and Herbert Spencer Gasser (CE 1888-1963) report that different nerve fibers require a stimulus of different intensity to create an impulse; each fiber has a different threshold of excitability.
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4847) Antonio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz (moNES) (CE 1874-1955), Portuguese surgeon introduces and develops (1927–37) cerebral angiography (arteriography), a method of making visible the blood vessels of the brain by injecting into the carotid artery substances that are opaque to X rays.
In 1926, aged 51, Moniz begins his work on cerebral angiography. In collaboration with Almeida Lima he injects radio-opaque dyes into arteries, which enable the cerebral vessels to be photographed. By 1927 it is possible to show that displacement in the cerebral circulation could infer the presence and location of brain tumours. A detailed account of the technique is published in 1931.
In this work, the technic of injecting sodium iodide into the carotid arteries and of taking the roentgenograms is given.
Moniz is perhaps most well known for winning a Nobel prize for the first lobotomy performed on a human, a shockingly brutal procedure inflicted unconsensually on many nonviolent people.
| (University of Lisbon) Lisbon, Portugal |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4869) Otto Paul Hermann Diels (DELS) (CE 1876-1954) German chemist devises an easily controlled method of removing some of the hydrogen atoms from hydroaromatic compounds by the use of metallic selenium.
| (Christian Albrecht University) Kiel, Germany |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4886) Adolf Windaus (ViNDoUS) (CE 1876-1959), German chemist and Alfred Hess identify the precursor of vitamin D, ergosterol, which reacts with light particles to produce vitamin D2 (calciferol).
In 1924 Harry Steenbock and Alfred Hess independently showed that exposure of certain foods to ultraviolet light made them active in curing rickets. This indicated that some compound was photochemically converted into vitamin D. At first people think that cholesterol is the provitamin of vitamin D, since irradiation of a samples of cholesterol produce an active product, but when a more highly purified sample fails to work, people realize that cholesterol cannot be the provitamin of vitamin D. Robert Pohl uses absorption spectra to show that a very small amount of an impurity is present in the original cholesterol sample. Windaus and Hess then identify the impurity of the fungus sterol ergosterol, which is the active provitamin.
The natually occuring vitamin isolated is named vitamin D1, and when a pure vitamin is isolated from irradiated ergosterol, it is called vitamin D2, or calciferol. (Explain more how D1 is isolated and identified if not from ergosterol.)
Windaus soon demonstrates that the conversion of ergosterol to the vitamin involves an isomerization. (More detail and visual images)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4947) Walter Rudolf Hess (CE 1881-1973), Swiss physiologist induces sleep in cats using electrodes directly connected to the brain.
Hess uses the smallest possible stainless-steel electrodes to minimize the size fo the brain lesions. Using these electrodes, Hess records thousands of point-to-point mappings with their accompanying stimulation effects between 1927 and 1949. How does this work relate to remote neuron stimulation. Does Hess ever experiment or comment on remote stimulation?
| (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 4998) Davidson Black (CE 1884-1934) Canadian anthropologist, finds a human tooth (a human molar) from which he deduces the existence of a small-brained ancestor he calls “Sinanthropus pekinensis” (“China man of Peking”), which will come to be called “Peking man” although much like Dubois' “Java man”, these are both now considered Homo erectus bones.
| (Chou Kou Tien) Peking, China |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 5089) Seth Barnes Nicholson (CE 1891-1963), US astronomer, measures the heat with a thermocouple to estimate that the surface temperature of the moon drops 200 Centigrade degrees when in the shadow of the earth during a lunar eclipse.
This shows that stored heat from inside the moon reaches the surface very slowly. One theory is that the moon is covered with loose dust, the vacuum in between the dust serving as an excellent heat insulator.
To measure heat (light particles with microwave frequency) Nicholson uses thermocouples that are made of wires of bismuth and bismuth-tin allow, 0.03 mm in diameter, mounted in an evacuated cell provided with a rock-salt window.
Nicholson measures the surface temperature of Mercury to have a maximum of 410°C.
(It's pretty interesting that you can measure the temperature of distant objects with a thermopile. Clearly, you have to use an inverse distance squared estimate for the quantity of light that reaches the observer.)
(State how these temperatures are measured. Is this just from spectra, using Plank's curve/equation to estimate temperature?)
(Read relevent parts of paper.)
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 5143) Abbé Georges Édouard Lemaître (lumeTR) (CE 1894-1966), Belgian astronomer describes an expanding universe based on the general theory of relativity.
In 1927 Lemaître creates what will be called the “big-bang” theory by using the expanding universe theory popularized by the work of Hubble and postulated from theory by Sitter, to extrapolate this expansion back in time, showing that all the galaxies would be pushed closer and closer together into a kind of “cosmic egg” or “superatom” that contains all the matter in the universe. Running the time forward, this superatom continaing all the matter in the universe would explode in a “big bang” and the (supposed) recession of the galaxies is what people see now as a result of this super-explosion. This is the origin of the “big-bang” theory. Eddington will bring Lemaître's paper to the attention of other scientists. Initially, from Hubble's estimate of the size of the universe, the moment of big bang would happen 2 billion years in the past, which is too short according to geological dating of rocks on earth being older. Baade's increase in the scale of the universe 25 years later, puts the big bang 6 or 7 billion years into the past. The current accepted figure in that the universe is 15 billion years old. Gamow will further elaborate this “big bang” theory of creation, and this theory will win over the “continuous creation” theory of astronomers like Gold and Hoyle, mainly because background radiation will be detected by Penzias and R. W. Wilson.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists Lemaître is one of the propounders of the big-bang theory of the origin of the universe. Einstein's theory of general relativity, announced in 1916, leads to various cosmological models, including Einstein's own model of a static universe. Lemaître in 1927 (and, independently, Alexander Friedmann in 1922) discover a family of solutions to Einstein's field equations of relativity that describe not a static but an expanding universe. This idea of an expanding universe is demonstrated experimentally in 1929 by Edwin Hubble who is unaware of the work of Lemaître and Friedmann (although, this seems unlikely given neuron reading and writing). Lemaître's model of the universe receives little notice until Eddington arranges for it to be translated and reprinted in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1931. This big-bang model does not fit too well with the available time scales of the 1930s and Lemaître does not provide enough mathematical detail to attract serious cosmologists. Its importance today is due more to the revival and revision this model receives by George Gamow in 1946.
In his 1927 work (translated into English), "A homogeneous universe of constant mass and increasing radius", Lemaitre writes: "According to the theory of relativity, a homogeneous universe may exist such that all positions in space are completely equivalent ; there is no centre of gravity. The radius of space R is constant ; space is elliptic, i.e. of uniform positive curvature I/R2 ; straight lines starting from a point come back to their origin after having travelled a path of A length πR ; the volume of space has a finite value π2R3 ; straight lines are closed lines going through the whole space without encountering any boundary. Two solutions have been proposed. That of de Sitter ignores the existence of matter and supposes its density equal to zero. It leads to special difficulties of interpretation which will be referred to later, but it is of extreme interest as explaining quite naturally the observed receding velocities of extra—galactic nebulae, as a simple consequence of the properties of the gravitational field without having to suppose that we are at a point of the universe distinguished by special properties. The other solution is that of Einstein. It pays attention to the evident fact that the density of matter is not zero, and it leads to a relation between this density and the radius of the universe. This relation forecasted the existence of masses enormously greater than any known at the time. These have since been discovered, the distances and dimensions of extra—galactic nebulae having become known. From Einstein’s formulae and recent observational data, the radius of the universe is found to be some hundred times greater than the most distant objects which can be photographed by our telescopes. ... 6. Conclusion We have found a solution such that (1°) The mass of the universe is a constant related to the cosmo- logical constant by Einstein’s relation {ULSF: see equation}
(2°) The radius of the universe increases without limit from an asymptotic value R0 for t = -∞.
(3°) The receding velocities of extragalactic nebulae are a cosmical effect of the expansion of the universe. The initial radius R0 can be computed by formulae (24) and (25) or by the approxi- mate formula {ULSF: see equation}
This solution combines the advantages of the Einstein and de Sitter solutions. Note that the largest part of the universe is for ever out of our reach. The range of the 100—inch Mount Wilson telescope is estimated by Hubble to be 5 x 107 parsecs, or about R/200. The corresponding Doppler effect is 3000 km./sec. For a distance of 0·087R it is equal to unity, and the whole visible spectrum is displaced into the infra-red. It is impossible to see ghost—images of nebulae or suns, as even if there were no absorption these images would be displaced by several octaves into the infra-red and would not be observed.
It remains to find the cause of the expansion of the universe. We have seen that the pressure of radiation does work during the expansion. This seems to suggest that the expansion has been set up by the radiation itself. In a static universe light emitted by matter travels round space, comes back to its starting—point, and accumulates indefinitely. It seems that this may be the origin of the velocity of expansion R'/R which Einstein assumed to be zero and which in our interpretation is observed as the radial velocity of extra-galactic nebulae.".
(read more of paper)
(State who coins the phrase "big bang".)
(I reject the big-bang expanding universe in favor of a universe of infinite size and age. In addition, I reject non-Euclidean topological geometry as accurately applying to the universe. It seems clear that there is possibly some neuron writing network corruption in delaying or publicly removing the idea of light being a particle of matter, and the universe being best described by simple Euclidean geometry. I argue that there must be galaxies so far away that there is no possible way even a particle of light can reach our tiny telescopes from them, that the red-shift of absorption lines is due to distance only or to gravitational red-shift. I reject a "continuous creation" theory, which may have served a corrupt elite as a bogus "alternate" or "opposing" theory to the big bang relativity model. The idea of new space or matter being created in the universe simply violates the law of conservation of matter, and seems unlikely. I argue that the background radiation, or more accurately stated, the "background light particles", for which a Nobel Prize was won, and a billion dollar satellite telescope (COBE) was created, is probably simply light particles from galaxies within a sphere of light sources close enough for their light to reach our tiny detectors. As our telescopes become much larger, we will inevitably see more distant galaxies. At that time, probably the so-called experts will promptly increase the size of the known universe. The estimated size of the universe has been consistently underestimated, for some reason, people appear to have trouble accepting the vast, and probably infinitely large size. Others before now have publicly expressed doubts about the big-bang expanding universe, including the 1995 Book “The Cult of the Big Bang”, and the 2002 book “Goodbye Big Bang, Hello Reality” by William C. Mitchell.)
(It's amazing that people have won Nobel prizes and massive amount of funding based on the big-bang theory, all dependent on the red-shifted absorption lines being only due to Doppler Shift - note that the light emitted from galaxies has not been shown to be red-shifted yet to my knowledge, and to know that the arguments for an infinitely large and old universe are far more logical than a tiny 15 billion year visible-only universe. It seems that people cannot imagine that there might be any galaxies beyond those whose light we can detect in our telescopes. As time continues, I think this big-bang theory becomes more and more fraudulent, as the data against it become more and more clear and obvious (as is the case too for time-dilation and relativity).)
(Clearly the steady-state universe theory is wrong too, because the view I think is most logical is that photons are the basis of all matter, no photon can be created or destroyed, and no space can be created or destroyed.)
| (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 5185) Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov (SimYOnoF) (CE 1896-1896), Russian physical chemist, and independently English physical chemist, (Sir) Cyril Norman Hinshelwood (CE 1897-1967) in 1928, show that below a critical temperature the hydrogen oxygen chain reaction is stopped at the walls of the vessel before it has a chance to reach explosive rates.
(Find, translate and read relevent parts of Semenov's paper if any.)
Hinshelwood studies in “kinetics”, the study of the rate at which chemical reactions happen. For example even in a simple reaction like hydrogen and oxygen to form water, a hydrogen molecule must split into two hydrogen atoms, one which combines with an oxygen molecule which frees a single oxygen atom to then combine with a hydrogen molecule which frees a hydrogen atom, and this continues on in a chain reaction. (Clearly there is a release of light particles which are probably the true source of the chain reaction, I think.)
| (Electronic Phenomena Laboratory of the Petrograd Physical-Technical Radiological Institute) (Petrograd now) Leningrad, Russia (presumably) |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 5530) The "Verein für Raumschiffahrt" ("The Society for Space Tracel") is founded which will eventually include German-US rocket engineer, Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun (CE 1912-1977) and German-US engineer and popularizer of science, Willy Ley (lA) (CE 1906-1969).
In 1927 Ley founds the German Rocket Society, the first group of people to experiment with rockets except for Goddard.
In 1930 Von Braun joins the group of German enthusiasts including Ley who launch some eighty-five rockets, one reaching an altitude of a mile. In 1932 the German army will take over the program.
| (Berlin Institute of Technology) Berlin, Germany |
73 YBN
[1927 AD]
| 5720) AT&T releases the movie "That Little Big Fellow", a movie that contains a picture of a thought-screen. This is clear evidence that neuron reading and writing was developed by 1927.
| |
72 YBN
[01/??/1928 AD]
| 5240) Edwin Powell Hubble (CE 1889-1953), US astronomer, determines from the observed rate of expansion of the Crab nebula that the expansion must have taken 900 years to reach its present size. In addition, Hubble connects the Crab Nebula nova with a nova reported in Chinese annals in 1054.
Changes in size over the course of several years of photographs of the Crab nebula had been reported in 1921.
Hubble writes "...A nova outburst has been describes thus: 'A star swells up and blows off its cover' - and the prevailing opinino holds that this is not entirely wrong. The star suddenly becomes unstable and some sort of explosion results; bu we do not know whether the action is spontaneous of whether it arises from some external stimulus, such for instance as a collision. Novae are so frequent, however, and the lives of stars are so long that we must suppose the outbursts to be normal episodes in the histories of stars. Probably there are preliminary indications which can be observed but as yet they have not been identified. At any moment, so far as we know, any particular star may blaze out as a nova. Studies of the spectra indicate that outbursts are normally accompanied by the ejection of nebulous material. Only occassionally, however, is the star so near or the material in such quantity that the nebulosity can be seen or photographed. Nova Aquila (1918) was such a case and Nova Persei (1901) as well. The Crab Nebula, Messier No. 1, is possibly a third, for it is expanding rapidly and at such a rate that it must have required about 900 years to reach its present dimensions. For, in the ancient accounts of celestial phenomena only one nova has been recorded in the region of the Crab Nebula. This account is found in the Chinese annals, the position fits as closely as it can be read, and the year was 1054! ....".
This association of the nova of 1054 with the Crab Nebula will be later debated and doubted by some astronomers.
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
72 YBN
[02/16/1928 AD]
| 5052) (Sir) Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (CE 1888-1970), Indian physicist and K. S. Krishnan show that light with visible frequencies reflected (scattered) off of some substances can change frequency (and therefore interval, or so-called wavelength) ("The Raman effect").
Raman shows that a very small part of light with visible wavelengths scattered from various substances, changes wavelength, and in addition, that, like X-ray scattering, photons with visible wave length scatter in a way that depends on the molecule doing the scattering. These “Raman spectra” is are very useful in determining some of the fine details of molecular structure.
Raman finds that when light passes through a transparent material, some of the light that emerges at a right angle to the original beam is of other frequencies (Raman frequencies) characteristic of the material.
In March Raman finds that visible light reflected by fluids produces a variety of secondary spectral lines, and describes this as "the optical analogue of the Compton Effect".
Raman and Kirshnan write in an article titled "A New Type of Secondary Radiation" in Nature: "If we assume that the X-ray scattering of the 'unmodified' type observed by Prof. Compton corresponds to the normal or average state of the atoms and molecules, while the 'modified' scattering of altered wave-length corresponds to their fluctuations from that state, it would follow that we should expect also in the case of ordinary light two types of scattering, one determined by the normal optical properties of the atoms or molecules, and another representing the effect of their fluctuations from their normal state. It accordingly becomes necessary to test whether this is actually the case. The experiments we have made have confirmed this anticipation, and shown that in every case in which light is scattered by the molecules in dust-free liquids or gases, the diffuse radiation of the ordinary kind, having the same wave-length as the incident beam, is accompanied by a modified scattered radiation of degraded frequency.
The new type of light scattering discovered by us naturally requires very powerful illumination for its observation. In our experiments, a beam of sunlight was converged successively by a telescope objective of 18 cm. aperture and 230 cm. focal length, and by a second lens of 5 cm. focal length. At the focus of the second lens was placed the scattering material, which is either a liquid (carefully purified by repeated distillation in vacuo) or its dust-free vapour. To detect the presence of a modified scattered radiation, the method of complementary light-filters was used. A blue-violet filter, when coupled with a yellow-green filter and placed in the incident light, completely extinguished the track of the light through the liquid or vapour. The reappearance of the track when the yellow filter is transferred to a place between it and the observer's eye is proof of the existence of a modified scattered radiation. Spectroscopic confirmation is also available.
Some sixty different common liquids have been examined in this way, and every one of them showed the effect in greater or less degree. That the effect is a true scattering and not a fluorescence is indicated in the first place by its feebleness in comparison with the ordinary scattering, and secondly by its polarisation, which is in many cases quite strong and comparable with the polarisation of the ordinary scattering. The investigation is naturally much more difficult in the case of gases and vapours, owing to the excessive feebleness of the effect. Nevertheless, when the vapour is of sufficient density, for example with ether or amylene, the modified scattering is readily demonstrable.".
(The Raman effect, the Mossbauer effect, gravitation frequency shifting, and the way calcium absorption lines do not shift with spectral binary star pairs are all evidence against an expanding universe theory. The Raman effect is more evidence that matter can red shifts light (although Raman finds that light can also be blue shifted by scattering - {from Nobel lecture}). Here, like the Mossbauer effect, red shifting light is so simple that people can red shift light here on earth over a tiny distance. Did this red shift in addition to Doppler idea enter Raman's writings and thoughts?)
(What about the possibility that the liquid surface is uneven and the different directions the light is reflects in cause the frequencies of the reflected light to change? This is the same principle of the diffraction grating- because the surface is not exactly flat, light beams are sent in different directions, and this changes the frequency of some reflected or transmitted light beams. {See my 3D modeled videos})
| (University of Calcutta) Calcutta, India |
72 YBN
[02/??/1928 AD]
| 4801) Secret science: Popular Science prints a story entitled "In Telepathy All Bunk?" which examines the scientific possibility of seeing, hearing and sending thought images and sounds to and from brains (neuron reading and writing). By this time a secret for at least 100 years.
(Notice that this article may have been paid for by Thomas Edison - since the title echos his famous "religion is all bunk" quote. Perhaps Edison wanted, like electric lighting and electricity to bring wireless communication by thought to the public.)
| New York City, NY, USA |
72 YBN
[03/07/1928 AD]
| 5256) Linus Carl Pauling (CE 1901–1994), US chemist, states that Gilbert Lewis's "shared electron pair" valence theory can be viewed as equivalent to the quantum mechanics interpretation which is based on the Pauli exclusion principle and the Heisenberg-Dirac resonance phenomenon.
Gilbert Lewis, Pauling's long-time friend, had introduced Ernest Rutherford's nuclear atom into the chemical structure of molecules by picturing a static atom, with motionless electrons placed at the corners of a cube. De Broglie had created a wave theory for particles of matter and London had used this theory to explain the structure of the hydrogen molecule.
Pauling writes in a 1928 article "THE SHARED-ELECTRON CHEMICAL BOND" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: "With the development of the quantum mechanics it has become evident that the factors mainly responsible for chemical valence are the Pauli exclusion principle and the Heisenberg-Dirac resonance phenomenon. It has been shown1'2 that in the case of two hydrogen atoms in the normal state brought near each other the eigenfunction which is symmetric in the positional coordinates of the two electrons corresponds to a potential which causes the two atoms to combine to form a molecule. This potential is due mainly to a resonance effect which may be interpreted as involving an interchange in position of the two electrons forming the bond, so that each electron is partially associated with one nucleus and partially with the other. The so-calculated heat of dissociation, moment of inertia, and oscillational frequency2 of the hydrogen molecule are in approximate agreement with experiment. London3 has recently suggested that the interchange energy of two electrons, one belonging to each of two atoms, is the energy of the non-polar bond in general. He has shown that an antisymmetric (and hence allowed) eigenfunction symmetric in the coordinates of two electrons can occur only if originally the spin of each electron were not paired with that of another electron in the same atom. The number of electrons with such unpaired spins in an atom is, in the case of Russell-Saunders coupling, equal to 2s, where s is the resultant spin quantum number, and is closely connected with the multiplicity, 2s + 1, of the spectral term. This is also the number of electrons capable of forming non-polar bonds. The spins of the two electrons forming the bond become paired, so that usually these electrons cannot be effective in forming further bonds. It may be pointed out that this theory is in simple cases entirely equivalent to G. N. Lewis's successful theory of the shared electron pair, advanced in 1916 on the basis of purely chemical evidence. Lewis's electron pair consists now of two electrons which are in identical states except that their spins are opposed. If we define the chemical valence of an atom as the sum of its polar valence and the number of its shared electron pairs, the new theory shows that the valence must be always even for elements in the even columns of the periodic system and odd for those in the odd columns. The shared electron structures assigned by Lewis to molecules such as H2, F2, C12, CH4, etc., are also found for them by London. The quantum mechanics explanation of valence is, moreover, more detailed and correspondingly more powerful than the old picture. For example, it leads to the result that the number of shared bonds possible for an atom of the first row is not greater than four, and for hydrogen not greater than one; for, neglecting spin, there are only four quantum states in the L-shell and one in the K-shell. A number of new results have been obtained in extending and refining London's simple theory, taking into consideration quantitative spectral and thermochemical data. Some of these results are described in the following paragraphs. It has been found that a sensitive test to determine whether a compound is polar or non-polar is this: If -the internuclear equilibrium distance calculated for a polar structure with the aid of the known properties of ions agrees with the value found from experiment, the molecule is polar; the equilibrium distance for a shared electron bond would, on the other hand, be smaller than that calculated. Calculated4 and observed values of the hydrogen-halogen distances in the hydrogen halides are in agreement only for HF, from which it can be concluded that HF is a polar compound formed from H+ and F- and that, as London had previously stated, HCI, HBr, and HI are probably non-polar. This conclusion regarding HF is further supported by the existence of the hydrogen bond. ... In the case of some elements of the first row the interchange energy resulting from the formation of shared electron bonds is large enough to change the quantization, destroying the two sub-shells with I = 0 and I = 1 of the L-shell. Whether this will or will not occur depends largely on the separation of the s-level (I = 0) and the p-level (I = 1) of the atom under consideration; this separation is very much smaller for boron, carbon, and nitrogen than for oxygen and fluorine or their ions, and as a result the quantization can be changed for the first three elements but not for the other two. The changed quantization makes possible the very stable shared electron bonds of the saturated carbon compounds and the relatively stable double bonds of carbon, which are very rare in other atoms, and in particular are not formed by oxygen. This rupture of the I-quantization also stabilizes structures in which only three electron pairs are attached to one atom, as in molecules containing a triple bond {ULSF: See figures in paper} (N2 = N: N.), the carbonate, nitrate, and borate ions ( :0: etc.), the carboxyl group, R: C , and similar compounds. It has further been found that as a result of the resonance phenomenon a tetrahedral arrangement of the four bonds of the quadrivalent carbon atom is the stable one. Electron interactions more complicated than those considered by London also result from the quantum mechanics, and in some cases provide explanations for previously anomalous molecular structures. It is to be especially emphasized that problems relating to choice among various alternative structures are usually not solved directly by the application of the rules resulting from the quantum mechanics; nevertheless, the interpretation of valence in terms of quantities derived from the consideration of simpler phenomena and susceptible to accurate mathematical investigation by known methods now makes it possible to attack them with a fair assurance of success in many cases. ...".
Later in July 1928, Pauling will elaborate on this quantum mechanical interpretation of valence electron bonds in a highly mathematical 41 page paper "The Application of the Quantum Mechanics to the Structure of the Hydrogen Molecule and Hydrogen Molecule-Ion and to Related Problems". In this paper Pauling writes: "I. INTRODUCTION Many attempts were made to derive with the old quantum theory structures for the hydrogen molecule, Hz, and the hydrogen molecule-ion, Hz f, in agreement with the experimentally observed properties of these substances, in particular their energy contents. These were all unsuccessful, as were similar attempts to derive a satisfactory structure for the helium atom. It became increasingly evident that in these cases the straightforward application of the old quantum theory led to results definitely incompatible with the observed properties of the substances, and that the introduction of variations in the quantum rules was not sufficient to remove the disagreement. (For a summary of these applications see, for example, Van Vleck (l).) This fact was one of those which led to the rejection of the old quantum theory and the origination of the new quantum mechanics. The fundamental principles of the quantum mechanics were proposed by Heisenberg (2) in 1925. The introduction of the matrix algebra (3) led to rapid developments. Many applications of the theory were made, and in every case there was found agreement with experiment. Then the wave equation was discovered by Schrodinger (4), who developed,and applied his wave mechanics independently of the previous work. Schrodinger’s methods are often considerably simpler than matrix methods of calculation, and since it has been shown (5) that the wave mechanics and the matrix mechanics are mathematically identical, the wave equation is generally used as the starting point in the consideration of the prope rties of atomic systems, in particular of stationary states. The physical interpretation of the quantum mechanics and its generalization to include aperiodic phenomena have been the subject of papers by Dirac, Jordan, Reisenberg, and other authors. For our purpose, the calculation of the properties of molecules in stationary states and particularly in the normal state, the consideration of the Schrodinger wave equation alone suffices, and it will not be necessary to discuss the extended theory. In the following pages, after the introductory consideration of the experimentally determined properties of the hydrogen molecule and molecule-ion, a unified treatment of the application of the quantum mechanics to the structure of these systems is presente d. In the course of this treatment a critical discussion will be given the numerous and scattered pertinent publications. It will be seen that in every case the quantum mechanics in contradistinction to the old quantum theory leads to results in agreement with experiment within the limit of error of the calculation. It is of particular significance that the straightforward application of the quantum mechanics results in the unambiguous conclusion that two hydrogen atoms will form a molecule but that two helium atoms will not; for this distinction is characteristically chemical, and its clarification marks the genesis of the science of sub-atomic theoretical chemistry. 11. THE OBSERVED PROPERTIES OF THE HYDROGEN MOLECULE AND MOLECULE-ION The properties of the hydrogen molecule and molecule-ion which are the most accurately determined and which have also . been the subject of theoretical investigation are ionization potentials, heats of dissociation, frequencies of nuclear oscillation, and moments of inertia. The experimental yalues of all of these quantities are usually obtained from spectroscopic data; substantiation is in some cases provided by other experiments, such as thermoc hemical measurements, specific heats, etc. A review of the experimental values and comparison with some theoretical results published by Birge (7) has been used as the basis for the following discussion. ... The application of the quantum mechanics to the interaction of more complicated atoms, and to the non-polar chemical bond in general, is now being made (45). A discussion of this work can not be given here; it is, however, worthy of mention that qualitative conclusions have been drawn which are completely equivalent to G. N. Lewis’s theory of the shared electron pair. The further results which have so far been obtained are promising; and we may look forward with some confidence to the future explanation of chemical valence in general in terms of the Pauli exclusion principle and the Heisenberg-Dirac resonance phenomenon.".
Pauling develops this quantum mechanical interpretation of valence electron bonds in more detail in another paper in 1931 entitled "THE NATURE OF THE CHEMICAL BOND. APPLICATION OF RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE QUANTUM MECHANICS AND FROM A THEORY OF PARAMAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY TO THE STRUCTURE OF MOLECULES".
Pauling uses quantum mechanics to determine the equivalent strength in each of the four bonds surrounding the carbon atom and develops a valence bond theory in which he proposes that a molecule can be described by an intermediate structure that is a resonance combination (or hybrid) of other structures.
In 1939 Pauling publishes “The Nature of the Chemical Bond” in which he explains his theory about electron waveforms which form stable bonds in pairs, and his theory of “resonance” where molecules are made more stable when electron wave bonds alternate as double and single bonds. This book provides a unified summary of his vision of structural chemistry.
(State what the theory explaining how atoms bond before this was.) (Explain more. That some bond might require more “energy” for example more photons as heat to break. How does Pauling explain this? Can this also be explained with static bonds?) (Explain what partially ionic is, versus fully ionic, covalent, etc.) (Explain the “resonance” theory more and how it explains the unusual properties of benzenes, for Gomberg's free radicals.)
(I doubt the matter-wave theory of DeBroglie and Schroedinger. Perhaps it is a good math model, but it seems obvious to me to be unintuitive to visualize and unlikely in terms of actual physical phenomena. Perhaps a better and mathematically equivalent explanation is using particle frequency and interval.)
(I have doubts about Pauling's valence theory - it needs to be explained and shown visually.)
(Much of this theoretical work of Pauling shows Pauling to be more of a mathematical theoretician than a finder of new experimental phenomena, but his work on the helical shape of proteins, I think is, in my view, a solid science contribution.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
72 YBN
[03/28/1928 AD]
| 5293) Electrolytic capacitor.
Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (CE 1882-1963), patents the first publicly known electrolytic capacitor.
In his patent application "Electrical Condenser Device", Lilienfeld writes: "The invention relates to a condenser device for use in connection with electric circuits; and it has for its object the provision of a simple, compact, substantial and effective 5 device of this character which withal shall be comparatively inexpensive to construct; also, a condenser which shall have extremely high specific capacity—of the order of magnitude of 0.02 mfds. per cm2., with a total
10 thickness of the finished product which may be less than 1 mm.
If a coating of compounds of a metal, foi example, the oxide of aluminum, magnesium, tantalum, tungsten, etc., be produced
15 partly or entirely over a surface of the respective metal selected, or an alloy of several of these metals, an insulating layer having high dielectric properties may be attained; and I have discovered that such layers may
20 be used in a minute thickness as the dielectric of a commercial condenser, provided a further layer or coating of substantially more conductive material be integrally associated therewith by applying this material in disintegrated or finely subdivided state, e. g. by spraying or by spattering it in a vacuum cathodically from such metals as copper, lead, aluminum, etc., over said dielectric layer. Or said layer may be applied by colloidal precipitation, it being understood that substantially molecular contact over the whole area is had between it and the dielectric layer. Under these circumstances such insulating layers, I also have discovered, do not possess rectifying properties similar to those which are being shown by different combinations, for example, when aluminum oxide is deposited on an aluminum electrode of an electrolytic cell with ammonium borate as electrolyte; on the contrary, the layers show insulating properties foi voltages applied in either direction.
The underlying or base material is preferably of relatively thin metal, approximately 0.03 mm. or less, to prevent, in case of bending, distortion of the same and injury to the superposed layers.
In some cases it may be advisable to apply
60 more than one coating over the first and insulating layer in succession in the manner
so
35
45
indicated, in order to increase the effectiveness of the insulation, a final coating of particularly good conducting quality, as of silver, platinum, tin, nickel, aluminum, etc., however, being generally provided so as to 35 secure a good contact for the outside lead. These coatings, in particular as well as in certain instances also the initial coatings, may be precipitated from colloidal metal suspen- . sions; or they may be "metal-sprayed". 10
The dielectric layer or layers when thus coated maintain a highly insulating property, affording a substantial insulation between the underlying metal which represents one of the condenser plates and the conduct- 65 ing coating or coatings which represents the other plate of the condenser, so that it is possible to apply voltages of the order of magnitude of 100 volts across a dielectric thus produced and of a thickness of the order ifO of magnitude of only 10"* mm. without puncturing it. In fact, the condenser will in many instances possess self-healing properties. In an aluminum-aluminum oxide condenser , with an oxidizable conducting layer of cop- 75 per, aluminum, magnesium, etc., short circuits will disappear as soon as the condenser is momentarily subjected to a load. This is a possible explanation of the fact, which I have discovered, that the allowable voltage 80 appears to be a function not only of the nature and thickness of the dielectric layer but also of the physical and chemical properties of the superposed coatings.
A coating produced by spattering from a 85 copper cathode over the dielectric layer, for example, imparts to the layer the property of withstanding a higher voltage than silver similarly applied. The more effective coatings, however, may, in some cases, not be very 90 highly conductive; and it is, therefore, sometimes desirable to provide more than one coating over the layer, the outer of them to possess a particularly good conducting quality; and the same may be applied in any suitable man- 95 ner, for example, electrolytically.
The dielectric layer may readily be attained of said minute thickness by electrolytic or by purely chemical methods, e. g. heat oxidation, sulfurization, etc., forming the same ^°ft
1,906,091
of and directly on the metal base which represents one of "the condenser plates; for example, a dielectric layer consisting of the oxide of aluminum thus formed directly of an 8 underlying solid conducting base of aluminum has been found very satisfactory for this purpose. Over this layer is to be provided the superposed coating of substantially greater conductivity than the dielectric, and 10 suitable provision is to be made for affording electrical connection on one hand with the base element and on the other hand with the conducting coating located about the intermediate dielectric.
16 In many cases, very satisfactory results are had with the superposed coating consisting partly or wholly of a compound of certain metals; and this may be attained in different ways. For instance, if a metal, e. g. copper, 20 electrode is used in spattering, layers of different natures may be obtained according to the gas filling of the spattering container in which the spattering is conducted as well as to the electrical conditions prevailing there25 in. Thus, either a pure metallic layer, (Cu), layer of a compound (Cu2O) or, preferably, a mixture of both may be produced directly by the spattering process. ... The novel condenser herein set forth has been found capable of withstanding applied voltages of the order of magnitude of 100 volts with a dielectric or insulating layer, as the layer 16, of an order of magnitude of only 10~* mm.; and a very compact and effective device is thereby afforded, it being found possible to construct condensers of this type of a capacity as high as 0.02 mf ds. per cm2, while the total thickness of the commercial condenser need not be over 1 mm. and may be substantially less, depending upon the materials utilized. Through the contacts or terminals provided as aforesaid, a number of the novel condenser units may be interconnected in parallel or series relationship, or both, and in manner well understood, to provide for various combinations of capacities and voltages required. While the dielectric insulates, of course, in either direction of current flow, it has been found preferable to connect the positive ( + ) po- 110 tential to the aluminum or underlying base element of the condenser in the case of the application of direct current thereto. ... ".
| Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA |
72 YBN
[04/30/1928 AD]
| 5164) Robert Sanderson Mulliken (CE 1896-1986), US chemist, develops, with Friedrich Hermann Hund (CE 1896-1997), the concept of "molecular-orbital theory" of chemical bonding, which is based on the idea that electrons in a molecule move in the field produced by all the nuclei. The atomic orbitals of isolated atoms become molecular orbitals, extending over two or more atoms in the molecule. Mulliken shows how the relative energies of these orbitals can be obtained from the spectra of the molecule.
According to the complete dictionary of scientific biography, Mulliken’s work on the interpretation of spectra of diatomic molecules ends with the preparation of three classic review articles (1930–1932) in which Mulliken introduces his famous correlation diagrams, which enable one to visualize the state of a molecule in relation to the separated atoms and the united atom descriptions. Linus Pauling opposes Mulliken’s molecular orbital (MO) view and instead supports a valence bond (VB) approach based on a resonance theory of the chemical bond, meant to extend classical structural theory. Pauling envisions molecules as aggregates of atoms bonded together along privileged directions. Pauling's VB theory will find immediate and widespread success when compared to the MO theory.
Mulliken writes: "LANGMUIR, in 1918, in elaborating G. N. Lewis’ theory of valence, suggested that the peculiar stability and inertness of the N2 molecule might be accounted for by the following assumptions: (a) each N nucleus retains its two most firmly bound electrons, i.e., each atom keeps its inner- most or K shell; (b) eight of the remaining ten electrons form a group of eight or "octet," i.e. an L shell, or complete group of two—quantum elec- trons, in the language of Bohr’s theory; (c) the last two electrons form a pair which is imprisoned in this octet and helps to stabilize the whole struc- ture. ·To CO and CN", with the same number of electrons, Langmuir attributed similar, although of course less symmetrical, structures. The surprising stability of NO, with one more electron, Langmuir explained by a similar structure, but with three electrons imprisoned in the octet. If the octet in these pictures really functions as an L shell, the additional - electrons might be regarded as “imprisoned” valence electrons. From this point of view, the molecules CN, CO or N2, and NO should have respec- tively one, two, and three valence electrons. In this, they would be exactly like the atoms Na, Mg,Al. No marked analogy is evident in chemical behavior, however. Chemically, CN resembles Cl rather than Na, as shown especially by the stability of CN "; and N2 resembles argonl rather than Mg. This is attrib- utable to the fact that the supposed valence electrons are “imprisoned,” i.e. much more firmly held than the valence electrons of Na, Mg, Al. Nevertheless, as the writer has pointed out,3 the band spectra of CN and a number of other “one-valence-electron" molecules (CO+, N2+, BO., etc.) indicate a marked analogy between these molecules and the Na atom, in re spect to the nature and arrangement of electron levels. Similarly, as Birge has shown,4·5 the electron levels of CO and N2 present a remarkable analogy to those of Mg. Further, as first shown by Sponer’s work, theNO energy levels parallel those of the Al atom.4»5·“ If the suggested analogies are correct, they should be capable of ex- pression by specifying a definite "orbit" for each electron in the molecule. For example, each electron in CN or BO should have quantum numbers the same as those of a corresponding electron in the Na atom, except that the molecules mentioned have two extra K electrons. In discussing such an assignment of quantum numbers,7r5 the writer pointed out? that in the forma- tion of such a molecule from two atoms, some of the electrons must undergo rather radical changes in their quantum numbers. Birge and Sponer,8 however, have obtained strong evidence that a mole- cule such as CO or N2, if merely given sufficient energy of vibration, can dissociate smoothly into its atoms. This at first seemed to conflict with the conclusion stated at the end of the preceding paragraph, since in the old quant um theory there seemed to be no way in which quantum numbers could be changed except by violent agencies such as collision or light ab- sorption. Birge and Sponer’s results seemed, then, to demand a model com- posed of atoms with unchanged quantum numbers. But Hund has now shown that, with the new quantum theory, these contradictions disappear. In fact Hund’s work,9’1°·11»12 together with that of Heitler and London,13·14 promises at last a suitable theoretical found&ti01‘1 for an understanding of the problems of valence and of the structure and ‘ stability of molecules. For example, Hund’s work enables us to understand how a continuous transition can exist between ionic and atomic binding. Briefly, the molecule may be said to be latent in the separated atoms; in a certain sense, the molecular quantum numbers already exist before the atoms come together, but take on practical importance, at the expense of the atomic quantum numbers, only on the approach of the atoms to molecular distances.1° This of course does not exclude the possibility that in some cases a quantum jump in the usual sense may be needed to reach the most stable state of the molecule. ...".
(This issue to me of how do atoms connect and share electrons if the electrons are orbiting a nucleus, is one of the great mysteries of the Saturnian model of atoms (and molecules) adopted by Rutherford, Bohr and with us still somewhat to the present time. The alternative, an unmoving electron is a valid theory, but seem unlikely by analogy with a star system. I think that one clear missing piece is that clearly atoms are made of light particles, and so clearly light emissions are light particles exiting an atom and/or molecule, and light particle additions are adding mass and motion to atoms and molecules. )
(Verify that this is the correct paper.)
| (Washington Square College, New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
72 YBN
[07/11/1928 AD]
| 5789) Rocket powered plane. (verify)
| Wasserkuppe, Germany (verify) |
72 YBN
[07/22/1928 AD]
| 5830) The first scientific pregnancy test.
Early methods of bio-assay for identifying human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG) in the mother's urine depend on the use of mice and then later on the use of frogs. Human chorionic gonadotropin is a hormone unique to pregnancy that starts to be produced by the embedding 'chorionic villi' of the embryo as soon as it becomes implanted in the uterus. The hormone can therefore reach the mother's bloodstream within days of conception, and is excreted in the urine. Selmar Ascheim and Bernhard Zondek are the first to show, in Berlin in 1927, that pregnancy can be confirmed even before the first missed period, by injection of an extract of the mother's urine into immature female mice. The ovaries are stimulated, causing enlargement with development of eggs that can be seen in the abdomen when the animal is killed after a suitable interval. Later in 1933, a successful pregnancy test is achieved by Shapiro and Zwarenstein in Cape Town, using a particular variety of frog (Xenopus), which had been shown to respond to injection of gonadotrophins by ejecting visible eggs from the body. The bio-assay methods continue until the late 1960s, when immunoassay takes over. Modern pregnancy tests are based on the detection of HCG by immunoassay on samples of urine or of blood and are very sensitive and rapid.
Three methods of pregnancy detection are: Bioassay: A bioassay is a test that uses animals or live tissue to look for a response to the hormone that is injected or added. Immunoassay: An immunoassay is a test that uses antibodies directed against the hormone to “capture” the hormone. The test involves using materials or substances that are related to or are part of the immune system. To perform an immunoassay, a scientist introduces cells from the immune system with serum that may or may not have an antibody, and observes whether or not the cells clump together. Radioimmunoassay: A radioimmunoassay uses a radioisotope as the label to detect and measure the amount of hormone present in the sample.
Not until 1978 will the first home pregnancy tests start appearing on drug store shelves in the USA.
| (Aus der Universitats-Frauenklinik der Charite zu Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
72 YBN
[08/02/1928 AD]
| 5345) Ronald Gurney and Edward Condon, and independently George Gamow (Gam oF) (CE 1904-1968), Russian-US physicist, create the theory of alpha particle "tunneling" as a peculiar property of wave mechanical equations.
Ernest Rutherford had found (1927) that RaC α particles incident on uranium cannot penetrate the nucleus, although their energy is roughly double that of α particles emitted by uranium. Gamow explains that the apparent paradox vanishes if the emitted α particles is "tunneling through" the nuclear potential Coulomb barrier, a characteristic wave mechanical effect. Quantitative calculations prove that the empirically established relationship between the nuclear decay constant and the energy of the emitted α particles (the Geiger-Nuttall law) can be completely understood. This same conclusion is reached virtually simultaneously by R. W. Gurney and E. U. Condon at Princeton University.
Oppenheimer and Fowler with Nordheim will apply this theory to the emission of electrons from cold metals under the action of strong electromagnetic fields. Esaki will make use of this tunneling effect 30 years later.
(I have a lot of doubts about this theory. In terms of the electron case, it seemslike Gurney and Condon are saying simply that an external em field lowers the atom nucleus Coulomb field, causes electrons to leave an atomic orbit. It's not clear what the explanation for the alpha effect is - perhaps that some external alpha particle can overpower the Coulomb field of an internal alpha particle. I doubt the Coulomb field, and notice how the gravitational field is ignored.)
(Gurney and Condon raise an interesting criticism of quantum mechanics: that frequencies of spectra are larger wavelength (interval) than atomic dimensions. This intepretation of spectral line frequencies fits more with some other explanation for example a theory where rate of collision, atomic disintigration, atomic structure, or some other factors determine frequency of emitted light particles.)
(Gamow seems clearly to be a mathematical theorist of physics, and this implies, in particular given 200+ years of neuron lie corruption, without trying to sound mean or unpleasant, that probably anything connected to Gamow is probably inaccurate. In some sense, it's a good guide, because if there are questions or is unclear understanding about some theory - if the person attached to the unknown but popular theory has other much clearer examples of dishonesty, or mistaken views, it's easier to presume that their other works are probably littered with false or corrupted claims. For example, Gamow and Teller both supported the big bang theory, a theory that most people who receive direct-to-brain windows must have known is obviously false-and so like 9/11 there are people paid large sums of money and neuron "services" to promote false claims. Many times, a person who gets paid to lie, does this numerous times - and the beautiful thing, is that excluded people can then see that the big money liars are connected to some popular theory - like that there are red giants - if, for example, Gamow, clearly a puppet for the neuron lie is publishing papers about red giants, supporting and promoting the red giant theory, probably it is a lie designed to mislead those excluded from the truth about neuron writing. In fact, one argument is that anybody the public has heard about, and is a "famous" scientist, probably was a puppet of the neuron, because, anybody else with integrity would never last - they wouldn't be published or funded, and many known truths clearly will not be published. The least worst of these funded scientists - tend to use many read-in-between-the-lines wordings like "lies", "galvanize", etc. And Stationed in Washington DC, Gamow touches on almost all of the major popular lies: Some paper titles: "The reality of neutrinos", "Energy Production in Red Giants", "Expanding Universe and the Origin of Elements".)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
72 YBN
[08/??/1928 AD]
| 3884) In mid August of 1928, Hugo Gernsback (CE 1884–1967), using his radio station WRNY begins regular television broadcasts with a mechanical television system devised by John Geloso of the Pilot Electric Company.
| New York City, NY (presumably) |
72 YBN
[12/28/1928 AD]
| 5294) Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (CE 1882-1963), patents another form of a field-effect transistor which focuses on amplifying currents.
| Cesarhurst, New York City, New York, USA |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 4213) George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor develops a process for color and motion picture film.
| (Eastman Kodak Company) NJ, USA (presumably) |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 4468) John Stanley Plaskett (CE 1865-1941), Canadian astronomer in collaboration with J. A. Pearce, show that interstellar absorption lines, mainly of calcium, take part in the galactic rotation and so the interstellar matter is not confined to separate star clusters. This result is independently first announced by Otto Struve in 1929. This supports the hypothesis formulated by Arthur Eddington in 1926 that interstellar matter is widely distributed throughout the Galaxy.
| (Victoria Observatory) Victoria, British Colombia |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 4876) Thomas Midgley, Jr. (CE 1889-1944), with Charles Franklin Kettering (CE 1876-1958), invent "Freon", which is several different chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, which are used in commerce and industry. The CFCs are a group of compounds containing the elements carbon and fluorine, and, in many cases, other halogens (especially chlorine) and hydrogen. Freons are colorless, odorless, nonflammable, noncorrosive gases or liquids.
Midgley prepares difluorochloromethane (Freon) as a non-poisonous, non-flammable, safer refrigerant instead of ammonia, methyl chloride and sulfur dioxide which are all poisonous. What was needed was non-poisonous gas that can be easily liquefied by pressure alone. Midgley demonstrates the safeness of freon by taking in a deep lungful and letting it trickle out over a lit candle, which is put out.
Refrigerators from the late 1800s until 1929 used the toxic gases, ammonia (NH3), methyl chloride (CH3Cl), and sulfur dioxide (SO2), as refrigerants. Several fatal accidents occurred in the 1920s because of methyl chloride leakage from refrigerators. So freon removes the danger of refrigerant leak, however, in 1974, M. Molina and F. Rowland find that when CFCs reach the stratosphere they could break down to release chlorine atoms which then may react with stratospheric ozone, separating the ozone molecule into oxygen which unlike ozone does not absorb ultraviolet light from the Sun and so because of the need for the light filtering of ozone in the atmopshere, CFCs are being phased out.
| (General Motors Corporation) Dayton, Ohio, USA (verify) |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 4915) (Sir) James Hopwood Jeans (CE 1877-1946), English mathematician and astronomer is the first to propose that matter is continuously created throughout the universe ("Steady-state" theory).
(The one positive result of the "constant creation" theory of the universe is that it is a "universe with no creation or destruction" theory which is correct in my opinion, and that it served as an opposition, althought an inaccurate opposition to the big-bang theory. Some times in science, it appears that a "false alternative" is created, so that any doubters of the official party line theory, in this case, the Big Bang Expanding Universe theory, will then turn to the popular alternative, the constant creation theory - and find that it is not accurate, and so have no choice, while the actual more accurate theory - that of matter neither created or ever destroyed but constantly moving is ignored, perhaps in the interest of keeping the public in ignorance and away from the secret truths, for example of neuron reading and writing.)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 4956) (Sir) Alexander Fleming (CE 1881-1955), Scottish bacteriologist, identifies penicillin, which is a fungi that kills some types of bacteria but does not kill human white blood cells.
In 1928 Fleming discovers that the fungi Penicillium notatum produces a substance Fleming calls penicillin that kills some types of bacteria but does not kill human white blood cells, and this will lead to the isolation of the penicillin molecule by Florey and Chain, which is the first important example of what Waksman will call antibiotics. Fleming had left a culture of staphylococcus germs uncovered for some days. Fleming was about to throw away the dish when he noticed that some specs of mold had fallen onto it. This is common, but Fleming notices that around each speck of mold the bacterial colony had died and no new growth invaded the area. Tyndall had briefly notes a similar observation 50 years earlier. Fleming isolates the mold and eventually identifies it as one called Penicillium notatum, closely related to a common variety of mold that grows on bread. Fleming decides that there is a substance in this mold that may kill and inhibit bacterial growth, and calls this substance penicillin. Fleming finds that some bacteria grow well around the mold while others do not. Since finding a substance that kills bacteria is not enough, the substance also must not kill human cells, Fleming tests (the Penicillium mold?) with human white blood cells at concentrations that are highly destructive to bacteria and finds that there is no effect on the blood cells. The coming of World War II motivates the search for antibacterial substances to treat wounded people in the army with. Fleming, working with two young researchers, fails to stabilize and purify penicillin. However, Fleming points out that penicillin has clinical potential, both as a topical antiseptic and as an injectable antibiotic if it can be isolated and purified. Penicillin eventually comes into use during World War II as the result of the work of a team of scientists led by Howard Florey at the University of Oxford. Florey and Chain succeed in isolating penicillin and show that it is as effective as Fleming's experiments had shown it to be. Penicillin is the first important example of what Waksman will call the antibiotics.
(Penicillin will prove to be very effective in killing certain kinds of bacteria.) (Cite who proves that penecillin in various bodies does in fact destroye bacteria as it does on petrie dishes.)
(Bacteria that can survive penicillin and other antibiotics will evolve from mutation and natural selection and this seems like a continuous process.)
(Possibly the mold evolved a natural protection against some bacterias that evolved through millions of years of natural selection. Perhaps there are other eukaryotes, and even prokaryotes that have built up similar defenses over millions of years. Perhaps every eukaryote cell known should be tested with bacterias and viruses in the search for information about killing bacteria and viruses, their structure, and chemical evolution).
| (St Mary's Hospital) London, England |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 4984) (Sir) Walter Norman Haworth (HAWRt) (CE 1883-1950), English chemist recognizes that sugar molecules are carbon rings instead of straight bonds.
Emil Fischer had beginning in 1887, synthesized a number of sugars presuming that they are open-chain structures, most of which are built on a framework of six carbon atoms. Haworth however succeeds in showing that the carbon atoms in sugars are linked by oxygen into rings: either there are five carbon atoms and one oxygen atom, giving a pyranose ring, or there are four carbon atoms and one oxygen atom, giving a furanose ring. When the appropriate oxygen and hydrogen atoms are added to these rings the result is a sugar. Haworth goes on to represent the carbohydrate ring by a perspective formula, today known as a Haworth formula.
Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/walter-haworth#ixzz19VGLnVMc
By 1928, Haworth has evolved and confirmed, among others, the structures of maltose, cellobiose, lactose, gentiobiose, melibiose, gentianose, raffinose and the glucoside ring structure of normal sugars.
| (St. Andrews University) St. Andrews, Scotland |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 5033) Friedrich Adolf Paneth (PoNeT) (CE 1887-1958), German-British chemist, develops methods for determining trace amounts of helium in rocks, which makes determining the age of rocks possible because uranium in rocks very slowly emits helium. Paneth uses this technique for measuring the age of meteorites.
In 1913 Paneth had worked with Hevesy in using radium D (an isotope of radium) as a tracer in determining the solubility of lead salts. Paneth uses a technique for studying compounds that exist only in very small portions, which makes it possible for him to demonstrate the existence of free radicals in the course of organic reactions. (More detail)
R. J. Strutt (later Lord Rayleigh) had first theorized that the quantity of helium in some mineral which accumulates from radio-active atomic decay, can be used to determine geological age of the mineral.
(explain fully, how does the amount of helium in a rock indicate the age of the rock? Perhaps it is the percentage of uranium to helium that can be determined? So that, of the existing matter, uranium forms 90% and helium 10%, and since uranium emits 1 helium atom every 100 years, this is .10 x 100 x (uranium atoms) year, 10*(uranium atoms) years old. )
(TODO Get and translate first German paper.)
| Königsberg, Germany |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 5132) Albert Szent-Györgyi (seNTJEoURJE) (CE 1893–1986) Hungarian-US biochemist, isolates a substance from the adrenal gland that will be shown to be vitamin C by Charles King.
In the usually fatal condition Addison's disease, where the adrenal glands cease to function, one symptom is a brown pigmentation of the skin. Szent-Györgyi wonderse if there was a connection between this and the browning of certain bruised fruits, which is due to the oxidation of phenolics to quinole. Some fruits, notably citrus, do not go brown because they contain a substance that inhibits this reaction.
Szent-Györgyi isolates a substance from adrenal glands. Because the substance easily gains and loses hydrogen atoms, it is therefore a hydrogen carrier. The molecule seems to have six carbon atoms and so Szent-Györgyi names it hexuronic acid.
Hexuronic acid also turns out to be present in nonbruising citrus fruits known for their high vitamin C content. Szent-Györgyi thinks he has finally succeeded in isolating the elusive vitamin but is anticipated in announcing his discovery by Charles King, who publishes his own results two weeks earlier. Vitamin C will be found to be identical to hexuronic acid.
Vitamin C is known as "ascorbic acid".
Szent-Györgyi in English is “Saint George” von Nagyrapolt.
| (University of Szeged) Szeged, Hungary |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 5222) Georg von Békésy (CE 1899-1972), Hungarian-US physicist, creates a new explanation for how the brain hears sound and creates electrical and mechanical models of the ear.
(Determine chronology and correct paper, translate and cite)
Following the work of Hermann von Helmholtz, people generally thought that sound waves entering the ear selectively stimulated a particular fiber of the basilar membrane; this in turn stimulates hairs of the organ of Corti resting on the basilar membrane, which transfers the signal to the auditory nerve. However, using the techniques of microsurgery, Békésy is able to show that a different mechanism is involved.
The vibratory tissue most important for hearing is the basilar membrane, stretching the length of the snail-shaped cochlea and dividing it into two interior canals. Békésy finds that sound travels along the basilar membrane in a series of waves, and he demonstrates that these waves peak at different places on the membrane: low frequencies toward the end of the cochlea and high frequencies near its entrance, or base. Bekesy discovers that the location of the nerve receptors and the number of receptors involved are the most important factors in determining pitch and loudness.
Békésy shows that sound waves passing through the fluid in the cochlea (a spiral tube in the inner ear), creates wavelike displacements in the basilar membrane (divides the cochlea into two sections, and is made up of some 24,000 parallel fibers stretched across its width which become progressively wider) and the so the shape of the wave, the pitch (wavelength or frequency), and loudness (strength) produces the signal the brain uses, which differs from the view provided by Helmholtz that each fiber has a natural period that responds to a sound which is composed of a combination of frequencies.
In the course of his life, Bekesy conducts intensive research that leads to the construction of two cochlea models and highly sensitive instruments that made it possible to understand the hearing process, differentiate between certain forms of deafness, and select proper treatment more accurately. (Modeling the ear may be useful to figuring out neuron reading sound heard by the brain, and thought sounds. In particular because the phone companies may use advanced technology to stop actual neuron reading. By showing that similar analogous models work, it can be shown that for some mysterious reason, the same exact technology does not work to hear sounds and thought-sounds.)
(show image of basilar membrane)
(Perhaps there is some way of separating sound wavelengths into it's source components like a prism does for light. Fourier did something similar. It requires perhaps a beam of various wavelength such as light is, where each beam of air molecules (maybe in some way sound is a molecular beam) is sent in different directions. Probably, this is definitely possible using Bragg's theory of the diffraction grating. EXPERIMENT: Create a set of planes of equal distance that are semitransparent and semi-reflective to air molecules, and see if different frequencies of sound are separated.)
(Describe more specifically the wavelike displacements in the basilar membrane.)
(I think a modern researcher still gave the natural frequency explanation. Verify what is the current belief.)
(Notice that the Nobel biography mentions nothing about Bekesy's 23 years working for the Hungarian phone company, as if this is irrelevent in a biography.)
(Perhaps Bekesy was awarded a Nobel prize to bring attention to neuron reading and writing.)
| (Hungarian Telephone System Research Laboratory) Budapest, Hungary |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 5709) The cartoon characters "Mickey and Minnie Mouse" are shown to the public in the movie "Steamboat Willie". This is the first animated movie with sound shown to the public. The two ears of Mickey and Minnie Mouse look very similar to a circular "eye" and "thought-image" screen. This must be an easily recognized image for those people who do receive direct-to-brain windows.
The movies "Plane Crazy" and "Gallopin' Gaucho", which have no audio, are the first movies with the Mickey Mouse character. Greg Merritt, author of "Celluloid Mavericks" comments that "...After acquiring the appropriate douns (not easy in an age when audio technology was patented and monopolized), Disney arranged to have Steamboat Willie play in a Manhattan theater. The press raved. Audiences were awed. ...".
Seeing a picture so closely related to the image of people with their eye and thought screen must have given hope to many of those neuron consumers who want neuron reading and writing to go public. However, even now in 2011, 83 years later, neuron consumers are still absolutely forbidden by the neuron owners to even admit that they receive direct-to-brain windows, let alone that the public would be shown and receive regular neuron reading and consensual neuron writing service.
| Manhattan, New York, New York City, USA |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 6265) Infrared (heat) mechanical movie camera. This camera, which Baird calls a "noctovisor" can see through fog. Baird comments that ships can use infrared light as a search light and not give their position away to the enemy. (Unless, of course, the enemy is using an infrared camera too.)
John Logie Baird produces visible images of infrared light (heat) using his mechanical camera.
(Was Baird excluded from direct-to-brain windows or was he a direct-to-brain consumer?)
(Add more, including the comments from Television to-day and to-morrow.)
| London, England (verify) |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 6266) First regular television broadcasts.
General Electric starts regularly broadcasting three times a week from their WGY television station in Schenectady, New York.
| (General Electric, WGY) Schenectady, New York, USA |
72 YBN
[1928 AD]
| 6267) Color television system. John Logie Baird builds the first color television system (sending moving images using radio, receiving the images, and displaying them in light).
This system will later form the basis of the technique used by NASA to bring live color TV pictures from the moon.
In 1905 Friese-Greene had patented the earliest automatic color motion picture film camera and projector.
| London, England (verify) |
71 YBN
[01/14/1929 AD]
| 5147) William Francis Giauque (JEOK) (CE 1895–1982), US chemist and H. L. Johnson find that oxygen is a mixture of 3 isotopes.
Giauque and H.L. Johnson find that oxygen is a mixture of 3 isotopes, and that the most common isotope has an atomic weight (mass) not exactly 16, since the average of these isotopes is 16.00000 and this has been used as the atomic weight standard since the time of Berzelius, in 1961 the isotope carbon-12, the most common form of carbon, will become the new standard and is set equal to exactly 12. This sets the tradition of using a single isotope as the standard.
Oxygen-18 will be used as an isotopic tracer and will be shown that oxygen liberated by plants during photosynthesis (first detected by Priestley 150 years earlier) comes from water and not from carbon dioxide.
On January 14, 1929, Giauque and Johnson report in an article titled "AN ISOTOPE OF OXYGEN, MASS 18. INTERPRETATION OF THE ATMOSPHERIC ABSORPTION BANDS": "In connection with our study of the entropies of gases we have recently considered the available spectroscopic data for oxygen. The atmospheric absorption bands of oxygen contain the necessary information concerning the rotation levels of the oxygen molecule but we found that no completely satisfactory interpretation of these bands has been given, although Mulliken‘ has recently arrived at a partial solution. However, he expresses the opinion that a revised interpretation will probably be necessary in order to include a weak band for which no explanation has been offered by any previous worker. .... The quantum number j’ refers to the rotation state in the upper electronic level. The symbol b indicates that an observed line has been used in two places and bb indicates use in three places. The symbol d is used where the line is known to be double. A number of the missing lines have undoubtedly been obscured by near coincidence with strong lines of the A band. The seven unexplained lines which do not necessarily belong to oxygen are given in Table 111. .... Babcock has also estimated the relative intensities of A' and A lines as roughly 1% and that the odd and even members of the A' band are of about equal intensity. As we have pointed out in the above paper this probably cannot be taken as a measure of the relative amounts since the absorption coefficients may be quite different. Assuming that the two sorts of molecules did exist in the above proportions, the lighter isotope of oxygen would have an atomic weight of about 15.98. This is obtained due to the existence of twice as many levels in the 16-18 molecule, thus making the total absorption 2% of that due to 16-16 oxygen. The mass spectrograph results obtained by Aston in terms of the lighter isotope seem to fall too close to the atomic weight values based on other methods to permit a value of 15.98 for the light isotope of oxygen. The situation is complicated by the possibility of isotopes of all the light elements but the general agreement seems significant. Aston has pointed out that it is very difficult to prove the non-existence of other isotopes of oxygen with the mass spectrograph. However, this appears to be the most promising possibility for the estimation of the relative amount of OI8. The presence of isotopes of oxygen will, of course, not affect chemical atomic weights except in the remote possibility of non-uniform distribution but before we can know the relationship between ordinary atomic weights and the results of the mass spectrograph, the amount of O1smust be known. ... Summary The weak band in the atmospheric absorption of oxygen has been explained and demonstrates the existence of an isotope of oxygen, mass 18, present in small amount.".
and then later on June 27, 1929, in a second paper "AN ISOTOPE OF OXYGEN, MASS 17, IN THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE", Giauque and Johnson write: "Recently the presence of an oxygen isotope, mass 18, in the earth's atmosphere, was reported. In this paper it will be shown that an additional isotope of oxygen with mass 17 is also present. As in the previous case, the conclusion is based on a study of atmospheric absorption spectra obtained by H. D. Babcock of Mount Wilson Observatory. Since our interpretation of the weak A' band in the atmospheric absorption of sunlight as originating from the 18-16 oxygen molecule, Babcock has carried out further measurements which have supplied additional support by extending the various branches of the bands. He has also found a new series of very weak lines. Babcock has kindly permitted us to make use of his manuscript in advance of publication. He suggests that this new series is due to the forbidden alternate rotation levels of the 16-16 oxygen molecule, although, as he states, they do not occupy the correct positions by many times the experimental error. We have found that these lines originate from an oxygen molecule consisting of an atom of mass 17 in combination with one of mass 16. In agreement with the predictions of the theory of wave mechanics the normal state of this molecule has one-half unit of vibration and both odd and even rotation levels exist. The method of calculation of the isotopic separation of the lines makes use of the equations given for this purpose by Loomis. In calculating the vibrational isotope effect we have previously made use of the equation given by Birge for the normal oxygen molecule,... The lines calculated for the 16-18 and 16-17 molecules are given beside the observed data in Table I. In order to clear up any doubt concerning ... the possibility that the new very weak lines might be due to the forbidden alternate rotation levels of the 16-16 molecule, the positions of the forbidden lines are calculated and given in italics along with the assignments of Babcock, also in italics, in Table I. ... Summary A new weak band recently discovered in the atmospheric absorption of oxygen by Mr. H. D. Babcock of Mount Wilson Observatory has been explained and shows that an isotope of oxygen of mass 17, as well as the previously discovered Oxygen 18, is present in the earth’s atmosphere. On the basis of accurate intensity measurements by Babcock, 18-16 molecules are present to the extent of one part in 625 and 17-16 molecules to the extent of about one part in 5000. Thus Oxygen 18 has an abun dance of one part in 1250 and Oxygen 17 about one part in 10,000. All of the above figures are maximum estimates.".
(State who uses Oxygen-18 as an isotopic tracer and when.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
71 YBN
[01/17/1929 AD]
| 5061) Shift of absorption lines in spectrum of other galaxies found to be linearly related to distance.
Edwin Powell Hubble (CE 1889-1953), US astronomer, suggests that the speed that a galaxy is moving away from us is directly proportional to its distance from us. If this theory is true, the Doppler shift can be used as a method of distance measurement more useful than Leavitt's variable star method.
Slipher had measured the radial velocities of the galaxies, interpreting the shift of the calcium absorption spectral lines as implying a Doppler shift of the light from the galaxy. In his paper, Hubble states that "The outstanding feature, however, is the possibility that the velocity-distance relation may represent the de Sitter effect, and hence that numerical data may be introduced into discussions of the general curvature of space.". So Hubble suggests that this data implies that the universe is expanding as Sitter had theorized. This expanding universe theory explains that the distance between the galaxies is steadily increasing and that all the galaxies are moving away from each other no matter what galaxy an observer is in. In addition, at some distance from us, the velocity of recession reaches the speed of light and so no light or any other matter and therefore information can reach us from any of those galaxies or other galaxies even more distant. This is sometimes referred to as the Hubble radius, which has been estimated at 13 billion years, so that the observable universe is thought to be a sphere with a radius of 13 billion light years (diameter of 26 billion light years). Using the speed of recession to determine the distance, the actual size of a galaxy can be determined. Hubble calculates that reversing the expanding galaxies brings them all together around 2 billion years ago, which is too short a time for geologists who estimate the age of the earth at least 3 billion years old. Baade will correct this mistake (how?). Lemaître and Gamow will favor the explanation of an expanding universe as the result of a "big bang".
Hubble writes in "A relation between distance and radial velocity among extra-galactic nebulae": " Determinations of the motion of the sun with respect to the extra-galactiv nebulae have involved a K term of several hundred kilometers which appears to be variable. Explanations of this paradox have been sought in a correlation between apparent radial velocities and distances, but so far the results have not been convincing. The present paper is a re-examination of the question, based on only those nebular distances which are believed to be fairly reliable. ... The data in the table indicate a linear correlation between distances and velocities, whether the latter are used directly or corrected for solar motion, according to the older solutions. This suggests a new solution for the solar motion in which the distances are introduced as coefficients of the K term, i.e., the velocities are assumed to vary directly with the distances, and hence K represents the velocity at unit distance due to this effect. The equations of condition then take the form rK + X cos α cos δ + Y sin α cos δ + Z sin δ = v. ... The results establish a roughly linear relation between velocities and distances among nebulae for which velocities have been previously published, and the relation appears to dominate the distribution of velocities. In order to investigate the matter on a much larger scale, Mr. Humason at Mount Wilson has initiated a program of determining velocities of the most distant nebluae that can be observed with confidence. These, naturally, are the brightest nebulae in clusters of nebulae. The first definite result, v=+3779 km./sec. for N. G. C. 7619, is thoroughly consistent with the present conclusions. Corrected for the solar motion, this velocity is +3910, which, with K=500, corresponds to a distance of 7.8 x 106 parsecs. Since the apparent magnitude is 11.8, the absolute magnitude at such a distance is -17.65, which is of the right order for the brightest nebulae in a cluster of which this neblua appears to be a member, is or the order of 7 x 106 parsecs. New data to be expected in the near future may modify the significant of the present investigation or, if confirmatory, will lead to a solution having many times the weight. For this reason it is thought premature to discuss in detail the obvious consequences of the present results. For example, if the solar motion with respect to the clusters represents the rotation of the galactic system, this motion could be subtracted from the results for the nebulae and the remainder would represent the motion of the galactic system with respect to the extra-galactic nebulae. The outstanding feature, however, is the possibility that the velocity-distance relation may represent the de Sitter effect, and hence that numerical data may be introduced into discussions of the general curvature of space. In the de Sitter cosmology, displacements of the spectra arise from two sources, an apparent slowing down of atomic vibrations and a general tendancy of material particles to scatter. The latter involves an acceleration and hence introduces the element of time. The relative importance of these two effects should determine the form of the relation between distances and observed velocities; and in this connection in may be emphasized that the linear relation found in the present discussion is a first approximation representing a restrcted range in distance.".
Humason will continue Hubble's work on the recession of the galaxies.
Asimov implies that Hubble does not claim that the universe ends at this limit, but simply that the rest of the universe cannot be seen past the speed of light. (Perhaps Hubble estimates an infinitely large universe? Verify if this is true.)
(I think the shift of the calcium absorption lines is probably an indication of distance, but that the reason for the red-shift is not from Doppler shift, but might be from 1) a natural spreading out of the angles as a light source becomes more distant, and this spreads out the spectrum, or 2) because light is a material particle and is effected by gravity, gravitational frequency shifting (Mossbauer effect) 3) reflection effect similar to Raman effect. The light beams from some galaxies are greatly distorted from the gravity of other galaxies making an estimate of true distance more difficult. In terms of distance, I think simply that the size of an object may be the best method. But in terms of relative radial velocity, I think the high end of the emission spectrum needs to be found and to determine if that is in fact shifted to the red. In addition, the measurements of average brightness typical of a spiral galaxy measured and determined if that shifts in the emission spectrum. Event then, the change in frequency may be mostly due to a distance effect and not to the relative velocity of the light source. I think clearly size of objects should be checked against shifted calcium absorption lines, and emission spectrum if possibly, because it may be that massive objects change the frequency of objects behind them relative to us. People should find objects where gravitational red-shift results in a very clear erroneous distance measure relative to galaxy size, presuming most spiral galaxies to be of similar size). )
(In terms of the expanding universe theory, it seems hard to believe that more space is being added to the universe, where could such space be created from? Are we to presume that new matter is created too? If red shift is due more to gravitational stretching we might lose site of galaxies before their supposed velocity reaches the velocity of light, or see galaxies after the supposed velocity of light was already achieved. This should be checked. )
(In terms of a big-bang expanding universe theory, I think that there is a perhaps even more interesting truth, and that is that there is a sphere of space around an observer in which a photon from event the largest known galaxy beyond this sphere can never be going in the direction of the observer. This depends on the number of directions light beams are emitted from stars, the number of photons emitted per unit of time, the size of the detector, the distance between the source and observer, and that amount of matter that may absorb photons in between. This estimate is probably not going to be exact, because there are many unknowns, or estimates, but I don't think anybody can deny, that at some distance, the size of stars, and galaxies, even the largest, will not produce a single photon that is going in the exact direction of an observer at some finite distance from the source. Generally speaking, the amount of light decreases by the inverse square root of distance. Think of two points on a 2D plane. As the points separate there are many more possible angles for light emitted from one and detected from the other to move in. Beyond this, the chances of some other matter absorbing the photon increases with distance, and at some distance there is no chance that light particle beams will not be completely absorbed in between two points. So this sphere is a reality that has to do with the finite number of photons emitted from a star, and other factors.)
(I think it seems logical that most spiral galaxies are of similar sizes. EX: QUESTION: How does the red-shift/distance from gravitational red-shift compare to the theoretical Doppler shift/distance?)
(I think that without a doubt, with each larger telescope, more most distant galaxies will continue to be seen, simply because, it seems logical to me that the space, matter and time in the universe is probably infinite, that is without begining or end.)
(Ultimately the size of the biggest telescope determines how much of the universe we can see, and clearly there is a limit, which may in fact be set by the distance life of any star system spreads out to and still maintains contact with each other.)
(One simple calculation for the distance at which no light will be going in our direction is "Quantity of light particles emitted per instant", divided by the "distance". This presumes that each particle is going in a different direction. When this number is less than 1 there will be no particle observed.)
(The Big-Bang expanding universe theory will hold for a century and counting, but I think will eventually be understood to be inaccurate. The people in this time, fail to entertain any other theories about why light might be red-shifted. They publicly reject the light as a material particle theory. The view that I think is most accurate is that the universe is infinite in size and age, but that only a tiny portion of this unending universe will ever be seen by life of earth. My own feeling is that there is no creation of the universe, that the universe has always been, and will always be. It is, perhaps, hard to believe, but yet, that is what the physical evidence implies to me.)
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
71 YBN
[01/31/1929 AD]
| 4958) Clinton Joseph Davisson (CE 1881-1958), US physicist and L. H. Germer find that electron beams are not polarized by reflection.
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
71 YBN
[02/23/1929 AD]
| 5383) Dmitri V. Skobelzyn (CE 1892-1990) is the first to observe cloud tracks of cosmic ray particles.
Skobelzyn writes in Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and Nuclei, (translated from German) in an article "A New Type of Very Fast Beta Rays": "From about 600 pictures obtained with a Wilson chamber in the uniform magnetic field, 32 pictures were found with tracks originated outside of the Wilson chamber and not affected noticeably by the magnetic field. One has to assign to these tracks energies greater than 15000 eV. Approximately calculated ionization effect of these tracks was about 1, the angular distribution shows a sharp excess of tracks directed to large angles with respect to the horizontal plane. One should assign these rays to the secondary electrons created by Hess ultra- rays. It should be stressed that simultaneous appearance of several such tracks occurred from common centers. Possible effects important to theme thods of measuring of "high altitude rays" and anomalies of "transition zones" are discussed.". (It's hard to believe that Wilson didn't observe cosmic ray particles.)
(Verify death date)
| (Phys.-Techn. und Polytechn. Institut) Leningrad, (Soviet Union now) Russia |
71 YBN
[04/22/1929 AD]
| 4781) Electric potentials (voltages) of the electric currents in the brain measured publicly, electrical oscillations of human brain identified. This device is called an electroencephalograph (EEG).
Voluntary muscle movements are detected from associated changes in electric potential measured with electrodes placed on the surface of the head.
Hans Berger (CE 1873-1941), German psychiatrist applies electrodes to the human skull which are connected to an oscillograph which records the changes in electric potential (voltage). In a second report, in Februay 1930, Berger labels "alpha" and "beta" waves. From this electroencephalography will be created, which will be useful in diagnosing epilepsy.
Isaac Asimov states that the growing understanding electroencephalography will serve as a guide to the fine workings of the nervous system. In 1902 Berger had taken measurements of electrical activity above skull defects with the Lippmann capillary electrometer, and later with the Edelmann galvanometer. In 1910, however, Berger states in his journal that the results of these measurements are not satisfactory. Until 1925 Berger followed two methods of research: stimulation of the motor cortex through a defect in the skull, measuring the time between stimulus and contralateral motor reaction, and recording the spontaneous potential differences of the brain surface. However, after 1925 Berger focuses only on recording the spontaneous changes in electrical potential that can be recorded through the skull. Berger calls July 6, 1924 the date of discovery of the human electroencephalogram in his first publication on electro-encephalography (1929).
In 1924 Berger had made the first human electroencephalogram by recording, as a trace, the minute changes in electrical potential measured between two electrodes placed on the surface of the head. Berger later catagorizes the resulting wave patterns, including alpha and beta waves, and published his findings in 1929.
According to the Encylopedia Britannica: to record the electrical activity of the brain, 8 to 16 pairs of electrodes are attached to the scalp. Each pair of electrodes transmits a signal to one of several recording channels of the electroencephalograph. This signal consists of the difference in the voltage between the pair. The rhythmic fluctuation of this potential difference is shown as peaks and troughs on a line graph by the recording channel. The EEG of a normal adult in a fully conscious but relaxed state is made up of regularly recurring oscillating waves known as alpha waves. When a person is excited or startled, the alpha waves are replaced by low-voltage, rapid, irregular waves. During sleep, the brain waves become extremely slow. Such is also the case when a person is in a deep coma. Other abnormal conditions are associated with particular EEG patterns. For example, irregular slow waves known as delta waves arise from the vicinity of a localized area of brain damage.
In 1887 Augustus Desire Waller (CE 1856-1922) had measured the electric potentials of the heart muscle, and found them to coincide with each heart muscle contraction, and published the first electrocardiograph images.
Berger is influenced by Caton and by Nemminski. Caton had measured electrical potentials on the exposed cortex of experimental animals in 1875, but was not able to record these phenomena graphically. Nemminski recorded the first electrocerebrogram on dogs with the skull intact by using the Einthoven string galvanometer in 1913. Berger does not receive international recognition until Adrian and Matthews draw attention to his work in 1934.
Note that in German the captured brain voltages are called an "Elektroenkephalogramm".
Berger's works on the electroencephalograph are not translated into English (so far as I know) until 1969. Berger writes (translated from German): "On the Electroencephalogram of Man
As Garten, who in all likelihood can be regarded as one of the greatest experts in electrophysiology, has rightly emphasized, one cannot be far from the truth if one ascribes to each living plant or animal cell the ability to produce electrical currents. Such currents are called bioelectric currents, because they accompany the normal manifestations of life of the cell. They are, I presume, to be distinguished from currents artificially produced by injuries which were designated under the terms of demarcation currents, alteration currents or injury currents. It was to be expected as a matter of course that bioelectric phenomena should be demonstrable also within the central nervous system, since it represents such an enormous cell aggregate and in fact this demonstration was made relatively early. Caton as early as 1874 published experiments on rabbit and monkey brains, in which non-polarizable electrodes were either applied to the surface of both hemispheres, or in which one electrode was placed on the cerebral cortex and the other on the surface of the skull. The currents were recorded with a sensitive galvanometer. Distinct current oscillations were found which became accentuated especially upon arousal from sleep and when death was imminent, but after death decreased and later completely disappeared. Caton already was able to demonstrate that strong current oscillations occurred in the cerebral cortex when the eye was exposed to light and he surmised that perhaps these cortical currents could be used for the purpose of localization within the cerebral cortex. In 1883, Fleischl von Marxow, using non-polarizable electrodes and a sensitive galvanometer, first observed that in various animals, when records were taken from two summetrically placed points on the surface of the cerebral hemispheres, only slight or no deflections at all occurred at first, but that with peripheral stimuli, e.g. by exposing the eyes to light, one could obtain clear-cut deflections when the electrodes were located inthe region of Munk's visual centers. Chloroform administration abolishes the occurrence of deflections on the galvanometer in response to peripheral stimulation. If one allows the animal to wake up from the narcosis, current oscillations in response to peripheral stimulation reappear in the cerebral cortex. He succeeded in recording these currents not only from the exposed cerebral cortex, but also from the dura mater and even from the calvarium divested of its periosteal covering. He stressed that one has to exercise great care to prevent cooling of the cerebral cortex and adds: "It may even become possible, by taking records from the scalp, to perceive the currents generated in our own brain by various mental acts". A. Beck also worked on the cerebral cortex of the dog, using non-polarizable clay electrodes and Hermann's galvanometer. He made the important observation that a current of variable strength is present at all times, when any two points on the cortical surface are interconnected. The oscillations of this current do not coincide in time with respiration or the movements of the pulse and are also indepndent of movements of the animal. This current disappears during narcosis. Upon stimulation of peripheral sense organs, e.g. of the eye by magnesium light, a strong current oscillation occurs in the contralateral occipital lobe, thus making it possible to define the dog's visual area by means of these potential oscillations. In 1892 Beck and Cybulski published additional studies carried out in monkeys and dogs. Using a sensitive galvanometer, they again found that when two points of the cerebral cortex were connected, a current of varying strength was present al the time. A relationship of its oscillations with pulse and respiration could not be demonstrated. They took great pains to show in particular that the currents originate in the cortex itself and are not conducted from elsewhere. Thus, e.g., passing strong currents through the scalp, while the cerebral electrodes remained applied, did not elicit any movement of the galvanometer needle. Upon local stiumulation of the cerebral cortex a local alteration of the cortical currents took place. Upon stimulation of the forelimb a current oscillation was induced in the area of the cruciate sulcus; upon illumination of the eye a similar change occurred in the occipital lobe. These electrical changes in the cerebral cortex were easiest to elicit in monkeys and were all the more pronounced, the closer the stimulus resembled those stimuli that usually affect the animal under normal conditions. Thus, e.g. a slight touch of the hand influences the galvanometer more strongly than pinching of the skin. The authors believe that these electrical phenomena in the cerebral cortex correspond to the simple mental states. Gotch and Horsley performed experiments on cats, rabbits and monkeys. They used non-polarizable clay electrodes and Lippmann's capillary electrometer. They interconnected various parts of the cerebral cortex. At rest currents were almost totally absent, but upon each peripheral stimulation a current oscillation took place.
Danilevsky in 1891 observed current oscillations in the cerebral cortex of dogs in response to peripheral stimulation. Upon Bechterev's suggestion Larionov in 1899 and Trivus in 1900 used the current oscailltions originating in the cerebral cortex to localize the auditory and visual areas of the dog, without being able to make any significantly new observations in the course of these studies. Tcheriev carried out similar studies in 1904. He became convinced that these currents were in all probability dependent upon the movement of the blood in the cerebral vessels and that they were therefore not caused by the state of activity of the central nervous system. In 1912 Kaufmann experimented on 24 dogs and took records with non-polarizable electrodes and a Wiedemann galvanometer. He was able to demonstrate unequivocally the physiological origin of the electrical phenomena and to refute Tcheriev's view. He succeeded in recording these currents also from the surface of the skull bone. He likewise saw at all times spontaneous oscillations of the cortical current and succeeded in demonstrating changes occurring upon peripheral, e.g. visual stimulation. Pravdich-Neminsky in 1913 recorded the cortical currents in the dog for the first time with the string galvanometer and observed the influence of peripheral stimuli which, however, were at first limited to electrical stimulation of the sciatic nerve. In 1919 Cybulski in collaboration with a coworker also studied the action currents of the cerebrum in dogs and monkeys by means of the string galvanometer. They could only confirm Beck's and Cybulski's earlier observations. Finally, in 1925 Pravdich-Meninsky published a larger study in Pflugers Archiv. He points out that such continous phenomnena as the spontaneous oscillations of the cerebral cortical currents had not been observed by all investigators, but only by Beck, Danilevsky and Kaufmann. His own investigations were carried out in dogs. Records were taken with non-polarizable clay electrodes and the large Edelmann string galvanometer. In addition to the "electrocerebrogram", the cerebral pulsations and the blood pressure were also recorded. Neminsky also became convinced that Tcheriev was incorrect in asserring that a simple physical relationship exists between the electrical phenomena in the brain and the friction of the blood on the walls of the cerebral vessels, etc. In the electrocerebrogram recorded with the Edelmann string galvanometer, he was able to distinguish waves of first and second order. Of those of the first order there were 10-15 in one second, of those of the second order, there were 20-32 in one second. Neminsky was also successful in recording such oscillations drom the dura, as well as from the bone of the skull, just as from the cortex itself. Most of the authors cited here considered these "cortical currents" as the expression of the activity of the cerebral cortex of the animal, because they increase with functional involvement of the cortical centers and disappear during narcosis or at death. It is useful to distinguish between the current present at all times, which can be recorded from the cerebral cortex, and its alterations under the influence of peripheral stimuli. The latter current oscillations are particularly sensitive and disappear easily upon cooling of the cortex and for otherwise not wholly explainable reasons. Whether the interpretations given by the authors are in fact correct, is still by no means established. Garten expressed the opinion that the electrical phenomena in the central nervous system, in accordance with the complicated structure of the latter, may be explained in a variety of ways. According to him, if an action current is observed, the first question that arises is whether this action current originates from the myelinated nerve fibers, or whether it is caused by excitation of many unmyelinated fibers of the grey matter, or by excitatory processes of the ganglion cells in the cortex or in deep-lying nuclei. Garten adds: 'The conditions will become especially complicated in studies on the cerebral cortex, becaise there we have to expect simultaneously action currents of very different systems which at times may be active and at other times may be at rest'. I myself worked in 1902 with Lippmann's capillary electrometer. Using boot-shaped clay electrodes and Fleischl von Marxow's procedure, I attempted to record currents from symmetrical locations in the two cerebral hemispheres of the dog. In five experiments, in one cat and four dogs, it was possible to carry out the experiment as designed without technical flaws, but several other experiments failed. In these five experiments oscillations of the electrometer, which did not depend upon external stimuli, were found when the electrodes rested on the brain surface of the unanesthetized animal. Once they were also recorded from two points on the dura which still covered the two cerebral hemispheres. On the other hand, in contrast to Fleischl von Marxow's observations, it was possible in only one of these five experiments to demonstrate the occurrence of current oscillations upon stimulation of peripheral sense organs; upon stroking the dog's forepaw a very pronounced current oscillation occurred each time on repeated occasions. Because at that time I was particularly interested in the effect exerted by peripheral stimuli upon these currents recorded from the cerebral cortex, I abandoned the experiments. Subsequently, in 1907 I performed once again an experiment on a dog, with the capillary electrometer, without, however, being able to observe the hoped for current oscillations upon stimulation of peripheral sense organs. Then, in 1910 I tried with the small Edelmann string galvanometer to obtain currents from symmetrical points of the cortex, using non-polarizable boot-shaped clay electrodes. Even though at rest, i.e., without the influence of external stimuli, one saw at all time exceedingly small oscillations of the string, larger deflections again failed to occur in any of the dogs investigated, either upon touching the paw, or upon illuminating the eye, or even under the influence of strong auditory stimuli, although the animals were not anethetized. Then last year, at a time, when my observations on man, which I shall report below, were already available, I again performed three experiments on dogs. In these I used the large Edlemann string galvanometer and the double-coil galvanometer of Siemens and Halske, the latter with particularly sensitive inserts. The dogs used in these experiments had received 1.5 grams of Veronal by mouth about five hours before the experiment; then in addition, one hour before the beginning of the preparatory operation, they received 0.03-0.05 grams of morphine subcutaneously. In accordance with Einthoven's suggestion for the recording of the electrocardiogram in the animal, and in order to avoid cooling of the cerebral cortex, I substituted freshly amalhamated tiny zinc plates for the non-polarizable clay electrodes which I had used before. The zinc plates were introduced into the subdural space through a slit in the dura. They measured 12 mm in length and 4 mm in width; their four corners were rounded off to avoid injuries to them was soldered the well insulated connecting wire; they had a surface area of 25 sq. mm. After they had been inserted throgh the slit in the dura, through which they were just able to pass, they were advanced into the subdural space far enough to come to rest in the laterally sloping region of the skull. Thus their surfaces were firmly applied to the pia-arachnoid covered cortex and they were pressed against the dura and the bone by the pulsating brain. The trephine opening, which was kept as small as possible, was enlarged with a Luer's rongeur only to the extent necessary to permit easy introduction of the tiny zinc plates, and was then completely filled with the wax customarily used in brain operations in man. The well insulated wire was led through this mass of wax. The wire itself was surrounded by wax, and the skin was then closed with a few sutures over the trephine opening. Thus, the brain was in no way exposed to drying or cooling. In accord with the above findings quoted from the literature it was dounf that when these electrodes were applied over two areas of the same hemisphere, or also when they rest upon the right and left hemisphere, a current exhibiting considerable oscillations is present at all times. Figure 1 shows a record of the continuous cerebral current oscillations which were recorded from the right and the left hemisphere of an approximately four year old female dog by means of the tiny amalgamated zinc plates and the large Edelmann string galvanometer. The legend of the figure gives additional details concerning the type of recording, the resistance and other similar items. One recognizes in Figure 1 larger oscillations of longer duration and smaller ones of shorter duration. Using exactly the same arrangement, the current oscillations that can be picked up from the cortex of the two hemispheres were recorded with the coil galvanometer of Siemens and halske which for my purposes is much more sensitive. Figure 2 shows a small segment of a long curve recorded in this fashion from the same female dog. Having two galvanometers made it possible also to record the electrocardiogram simultaneously. In the figure the latter is written in the middle, whereas the curve of the cerebral oscillations appears at the top. In contrast to the record taken with the string galvanometer, the time signals here indicate tenths of a second. in accordance with Einthoven's proposal, the electrocardiogram was recorded with freshly amalgamated small zinc rods which were inserted under the skin of the thorax. It is quite evidence that the oscillations recorded from the surface of the two hemispheres do not coincide with those of the electrocardiogram. Thus, it is hardly possible that the cerebral record represents a distorted electrocardiogram, a question to which later in a different context we shall have to return once again. The deflections of the current oscillations recorded from the brain surface are very much larger when they are derived from the two hemispheres than when one records from two points in the same hemisphere, e.g. from the area of the cruciate sulcus in front and from the occipital lobe posteriorly. A bilateral ligation of the common carotid arteries had no influence upon the amplitude of the deflections of the electrical curves recorded from the brain. Certainly, the blood flow in the brain of the dog is thereby, as we know, by no means interrupted, even though the blood supply is at first probably smoewhat reduced in its amount. Also total exsanguination through the opened and incannulated femoral artery in another dog led to no decrease but to a transient increase in the amplitude of the delections of the continuous current oscillations recorded from the surface of the cerebral cortex. As shown by Mosso, it is possible to arouse dogs by an injection of 0.01-0.02 grams of cocaine hydrochloride, even from deep chloral-induced sleep. In one dog, put to sleep by the above described combination of Veronal and morphine, a considerable increase of the current oscillations recorded frmo the brain surface was obtained by intravenous injection of a large dose of cocaine hydrochloride given into the jugular vein. However, the amplitude of the deflections of the electrocardiogram also increased simultaneously. I was of the opnion that the procedure which I had devised prevented drying and cooling of the cerebral cortex, but on the other hand I also believed that, owing to the continuous cerebral movements, the fairly large electrodes were certainly not resting uniformly and always under the same pressure on the surface of the cerebral cortex. .... Although sufficiently incontrovertible observations by other authors already existed, I was nevertheless time and again haunted by the worry that the continuous oscillations, which can be recorded from the brain surface, could perhaps be caused merely by the movements of the brain after all? .... One can distinguish between waves of somewhat larger amplitude and greater duration, with an average of 90-100 σ and those of shorter duration and smaller amplitude of 40-50 σ. Therefore these findings also essentially agree with Pravdich-Neminsky's reports, who distinguishes between waves of the first order, or which there are 11-15 in one second, and shorter waves, of the second order, of which there are 20-32 in one second. According to my observations, the amplitudes of the current oscillations recorded from the brain surface in the dog reach an average magnitude of 0.0002-0.0006V for the longer 900-100 σ duration waves, and one of 0.00013 V for the largest of the briefer and essentially smaller second order waves witha duration of only 40-50 σ. I have not carried out experiments on the influence of peripheral stimuli again, because what mattered to me now was the investigation of the current oscillations present at all times that can be recorded from the surface of the cerebral cortex. I need hardly point out that by post-mortem examination of the dogs it was verified that the tiny electrode plates inserted into the subdural space really were placed as intended, and that no alterations visible to the naked eye were produced in the subdural space or on the surface of the arachnoid and pia. In particular, not the slightest hemorrhage could be demonstrated. It goes without saying that the table upon which the dog was lying during each galvanometer recording was insulated from the surroundings by glass legs. There exist no investigations on electrical events in the brain of man, neither do I know of any publication of records which would correspond to those to be reported here. After several fruitless attempts, I was able on July 6, 1924 to make the first pertinent observations in a young man aged 17. This young man had undergone a palliative trepanation over the left cerebral hemisphere performed by Guleke because of a suspected brain tumor. Because the signs of increased intracranial pressure after an initial remission recurred, the original trephine opening was enlarged posteriorly, whereupon the signs of increased intracranial pressure receded. About one yea after the second operation I attempted to demonstrate currents in the area of the trephine opening, where the bone was missing, by using non-polarizable boot-shaped clay electrodes and the small Edelmann string galvanometer. The experiments were initially unsuccessful, and only when the two clay electrodes were placed 4 cm apart in the vicinity of a scar running vertically from above downwards through the middle of the enlarged trephine opening, was it possible with large magnifications to obtain continuous oscillations of the galvanometer string. This could be achieved either by inserting a platinum thread with a resistance of 5200 Ohms or a quartz thread with a resistance of 3200 Ohms. No oscillations could be demonstrated with the clay electrodes in the region of the trephine opening away from the very firm scar. This was the first result which intimated that probably in man, as in rabbits, dogs and monkeys, continuous electrical currents can be recorded from the surface of the intact cerebral cortex. ... In the investigations in man, to be described next, I used, instead of nonpolarizable electrodes, needle electrodes, which were zinc plated according to Trendelenburg's proposal and, except for their tips, were insulated from their surroundings by a coat of varnish. Needle electrodes have also often been used by others for recording of action currents, thus, e.g. by Straub, for the recording of cariac currents, by others for the recording of muscle action currents, etc. Several descriptions of needle electrodes have been made. Straub inserted ordinary sewing needles to which copper wires had been soldered, at a flat angle under the skin. Mann and Schleier used nickel silver electrodes. I have used zinc plated steel needles. According to Gildemeister's and Paul Hoffman's explanations, the use of nonpolarizable electrodes for the recording of currents from the human body is not required at all in circumstances in which one is concerned with the recording of current oscillations with a rapid time course. These needle electrodes, which of course are by no means completely non-polarizable, have in addition the great advantage of bypassing the skin. The latter, according to the studies carried out by Einthoven, and especially by Gildemeister, creates very complicated electrical conditions, which are not easily comprehended. These zinc plated electrodes were inserted through the skin into the subcutaneous tissue and whenever a bone defect was present they lay between the dura and the skin, i.e. epidurally. It is known from the animal experiments reported in detail above, that one can also record the so-called "cortical currents" from the dura and from the bone shorn of its periosteum. The puncture sites located in the vicinity of the existing bone defects were treated with iodine. The zinc plated needle electrodes, insulated except for their tips, were sterilized by keeping them for secveral hours in a 10% formalin solution and then transferred into a sterilized physiological saline solution to wash off the last remnants of formalin which would irritate the tissue. Under careful observation of all the rules of asepsis, the needles, just like a hypodermic needle, were inserted in the region of a skin fold elevated from its base and were pushed in, parallel to the skin surface, until the tip as placed securely in the subcutaneous tissue, i.e. in the epidural space. The very fine needles could cause no injury with this method of insertion. The double0coil galvanometer was used predominantly for the recording of the current oscillations objtained in this manner from the epidural space with the needle electrodes, firstly because of the larger deflections and the better monitoring of the curves which could always be seen, even during the recording, and secondly, because of the advantage of having these curves written in black on white. In a 40 year old man ... a record was taken from two points ...located over the left hemisphere. ... From figure 4 it becomes readily evidence that the current oscillations recorded from the epidural space are composed of two types of waves alternating regularly with each other. The large waves have an average duration of 90 σ, the smaller ones one of 35 σ. ...Thus when recording with needle electrodes...we immediately obtain continuous current oscillations, which in their time course also approximately correspond to the two wave types found in the dog. ... In another case, ...a 19 year old girl...zinc plated needle electrodes were inserted subcutaneously and a record was taken with galvanometer 1 of the double-coil galvanometer. ... Again one is immediately struck by the correspondence between this figure and Figure 4. Here too we see the large and small waves which alternate regularly. The larger waves have a length of 90-100 σ, the smaller ones one of 40-50 σ. .... In these epidutal recodings with needle electrodes it also depends entirely upon the local conditions whether the curves one obtains are more or less distinct. A small displacement of the needle in the subcutaneous tissue often works wonders. Particularly large deflections and a beautiful display of the waves of the cerebral curve were obtained in the following examination: In a 15 year old girl....needle electrodes in the epidural space were connected...The curve of epidurally recorded current oscillations,...again discloses the regular alternation of large and small waves, exactly as in Figures 4 and 5 discussed previously. ... In the three cases just reported here we have before us the same waves of the cerebral record. What is striking is the regularity with which in all three the large and small waves alternate with each other, a large wave always being followed by a small one, then again a large one, and so forth. In other cases with epidural recordings I did not obtain curves that were regular to such a degree. In a 30 year old woman...One finds here too the same larger and smaller oscillations, ...But the consistently regular sequence, characterized by a large and small wave always following upon each other, is missing here. ... According to my experience, it would however be an error to assume that these current oscillations, which appear in all the previous curves, could only be obtained with recordings from the dura of the cerebrum. I have been able to record a very similar, although not quite identical, curve from the dura of the cerebellum. A young man, aged 22, had been operated on....the current oscillations...were recorded with the needle electrodes from the dura of the cerebellum. ... Again one sees the two types of waves with exactly the same durations as could be recorded from the dura of the cerebrum. The only thing that distinguishes this cerebellar curve from that of the cerebrum is the fact that here...upon a large wave there always follows a small wave - and that the waves occur somewhat less frequently. .... By means of subcutaneous needle electrodes placed with the bone defect I recorded the current oscillations from the dura of the cerebrum in still some other cases, without however obtaining anything different from what is evident from the curves reported and discussed here. However, I wish to reiterate what was stated above, that an apparently insignificant displacement of a needle tip in the subcutaneous tissue often greatly influences the quality, i.e., the height of deflections, of the curves one obtains. In still other cases, which will not be described here further, I was able to observe several times that the curves recorded with needle electrodes, which a few weeks after the palliative trepanation had been quite well developed, deteriorated with increasing intracranial pressure while the tumor was growing into the trephine openings, as was verified later by post-mortem examination. This fact too, like many others, seems to me to favor the idea that the current oscillations orignate locally in the underlying brain tissue. As a general result of these recordings with epidural needle electrodes I would consequently like to state that it is possible to record continuous current oscillations, among which two kinds of waves can be distinguished, one with an average duration of 90 σ, the other with one of 35 σ. The longer waves of 90σ are the ones of larger amplitude,the shorter, 35 σ waves are of smaller amplitude. According to my observations there are 10-11 of the larger waves in one second, of the smaller ones, 20-30. The magnitude of the deflections of the larger 90 σ waves can be calculated to be about 0.00007-0.00015 V, that of the smaller 35 σ waves 0.00002-0.00003 V. ... I recorded curves in a whole series of healthy people with intact skulls and I shall now discuss the results of these investigations in the light of some characteristic examples. In 14 sessions I have recorded 73 tracings in my son Klaus, who ar the time of these studies was 15 to 17 years old. Whenever these investigations were carried out, his hair was cut as short as possible. Figure 12 shows such a record obtained from my son Klaus. Zinc plated needle electrodes were inserted cubcutaneously in the midline of the skull anteriorly within the hair line of the forehead and posteriorly about two finger breadths above the external occipital protuberance. In this examination the resistance of the needle electrodes was 700 Ohms when measured with the Edelmann instrument. They were connected with galvanometer 1 of the double-coil galvanometer, while the electrocardiogram was being recorded from both arms with lead foil electrodes through galvanometer 2. As in all previous investigations a condenser was inserted in the circuit. In Figure 12, in the top curve, one recognizes immediately and distinctly the already famililar larger waves with an average duration of 90 σ and the smaller oscillations lasting on the average 35-40 σ. The middle curve represents the electrocardiogram. At the bottom time is indicated in tenths of a second. The amplitude of the deflections of the electrical oscillations recorded with the needle electrodes amounts to 0.00012-0.0002 V when measured in a simultaeously recorded string galvanometer curve. I also wish to emphasize that curves differing markedly in quality were obtained when recording with needle electrodes from the intact skull, even in the same person, e.g. in my son Klaus, and that even the smallest displacements of the needle in the subcutaneous tissue often exert an unexpected and above all unintended effect upon the quality of the curves. Using subcutaneous electrodes records were also taken in Klaus from both parietal regions, as well as crosswise or ipsilaterally from one frontal to one parietal eminence and with various other combinations. However, the fronto-occipital recordings taken with needle electrodes, in which the latter were applied exactly in the midline of the skull, yielded by far the largest deflections. ... I have 56 of my own curves ....The records from my scalp just as those of my son Klaus, were not as beautiful as those of people who had large areas of baldness or, even better, had no hair at all. .... I wish to point out again that I tried all conceivable arrangements of electrode positions on the surface of the scalp....
...I also tried to record with one electrode placed on the skull and the other elsewhere on the body, ...All these investigations, hwoever, were unsuccessful. In all these experiments the electrocardiogram interfered in a troublesome way....
But as far as man is concerned one may still have to ponder the question whether, e.g. with needle electrodes inserted subcutaneously into the tissue, one records streaming currents. As streaming currents one designates those electrical currents which appear when a fluid in which the electrodes are placed is made to flow, starting from a state of rest. These streaming currents, however, appear also whenever in an already flowing liquid the velocity of flow changed. .... I have, however, to discuss yet another source of artefact which under certain conditions could cause distortions of the current oscillations recorded from the scalp or epidural space. This is musculat movement. One might think that movements in the area of the M. frontalis, M. occipitalis, M. corrugator supercilii, Mm. ciliares, M. orbicularis oculi and of the other eye muscles, the muscles of the external ear and finally of the very powerful M. termporalis and M. masseter and perhaps also of the muscle of expression could be involved in the the generation of these current oscillations recorded from the skull. ... In a series of investigations I therefore examined the effect of vountary movements of the above muscle groups on the curves recorded from the scalp. The result was that the influence of these active muscle movements can be demonstrated both upon needle electrodes in the subcutaneous tissue and upon lead foil electrodes which are firmly pressed against the skin. With the insertion of a condenser into the circuit, this influence manifests itself mainly in a simple upward or downward displacement of the level of the galvanometer line. If however the same movements are performed several times as rapidly as possible in a repetitive manner, then in fact wave-like oscillations may appear. But they still differ markedly from the first and second order waves of the curves recorded from the scalp. Chewing movements performed rapidly in a repetitive fashion cause current oscillations of a duration averaging 400 σ; frowning causes oscillations of 450 σ. The shortest oscillations are seen with repetitive eye blinking, performed as rapidly as possible; wave-like oscillations of a duration of 160-180 σ then appear. Other movements, e.g. movements of the entire head, can also elivity wave-like oscillations; with very rapidly performed forward and backward head nodding movements these oscillations measure 250 σ, with head rotation 200 σ, etc. Speaking, tongue movements, mouth movements such as puckering of the lips, pulling the mouth to the side and other similar movements did not influence the deflections of the curve recorded from the skull, if these movements were not associated with others, e.g. speaking with head rotation, eye movements, etc. Naturally, the influence of these movements was most marked when metal plate electrodes were attached to the scalp; but, as mentioned before, they appeared also with the frequently used lead foil electrodes and even with needle electrodes! If one knows these effects they are easy to interpret. With lead foil electrodes placed on the forehead and occiput the influence of these movements was much more pronounced than when the lead foil electrodes were placed upon the two parietal eminences; in the latter case trhe influence of all the above movements could hardly be demonstrated anymore. Undoubtably, this greater susceptibility to movements of the muscles is a disadvantage of the recording arrangement with lead foil electrodes placed on the forehead and occiput. The interpretation of the records, however, hardly ever seriously suffers because of this. I believe it to be completely impossible that the above reported current oscillations and their first and second order waves could be caused merely by these muscle movements. However, the muscle movements can under certain circumstances markedly change the current oscilations of first and second order by altering the areas of contact between electrodes and skin surface, or those between the needle electrodes and the surrounding subcutaneous tissue. They may thereby influence the form of the curve and lead to distortions. ... Certainly one must take muscular movements into consideration as a source of artefact when recording current oscillations from the skull. I do not, however, believe that these current oscillations are caused solely by the movements of the external musces of the head or even by the movements of the eye muscles. Finally, one might still consider whether the currents could originate in the human skin. ... Gland currents...we are probably justified in excluding them from our consideration. ... From the arm ... where, as is well kow, the skin contains hair and therefore piloerector muscles, such records cannot be obtained. This, in my opinion, militates quite categorically against the cutaneous origin of the above described current oscillations. ... In the course of the investigations, another not insignificant source of artefact became apparent which has to be considered in detail. This is a fact which I already mentioned once before, namely the ubiquity of the electrocardiogram. I already explained above that recordings from the head and the back, the head and the chest, etc., always yielded an electrocardiogram. I even saw the electrocardiogram with a lead foil recording from the skill in which the lead foil electrodes were lying on the forehead and occiput. The main deflections of the electrocardiogram could be recognized without difficult in this curve. I therefore, at least temporarily, arrived at the somewhat perculiar notion that the curve supposedly recorded frmo the dura was actually only a distorted electrocardiogram, an electrocardiogram altered by changes in the area of contact of the electrodes caused by the changing blood content of the skin and brain and, perhaps also by associated changes caused by polarization and capacitative phenomena of the skin. With needle electrodes one bypasses the skin, of course, and thus the latter with its electrical fluctuations could not induce any changes; but the objections with regard to the changes in the area of contact between electrode and tissue and to polarization remained. Figure 3 obtained in the animal experiment in which current oscillations recorded from the brain surface continue in spite of the arrest of the electrocardiogram, decisely argues against the notion that the supposedly cerebral curves may only represent an altered electrocardiogram. In any case, however, the fact that a distorted electrocardiogram appeared in the course of a scalp recording, led me later to record an electrocardiogram simultaneously and in addition to the current oscillations derived from the skull in all these investigations. This circumstance was also the reason why I set such particularly graeat value onthe possession of a double-coil galvanometer. The simultaneous recording of the electrocardiogram also has the great advantage that, from the known delay of the pulse in its propagation to the brain, one can by calculation approximately determine the time of onset of each cerebral pulsation in the curves recorded from the skull, even when these pulsations are not recognizable in the curves. I therefore believe I have discussed all the principal arguments against the cerebral origin of the curves reported here which in all their details have time and again preoccupied me, and in doing so I have laid to rest my own numerous misgivings. Moreover I refer to the results of the animal experiments in dogs and monkeys, performed from Caton to Pravdich-Neminsky, which for this very reason I reported in somewhat greater detail above. I believe indeed that the cerebral curve which I have described here in great detail originates in the brain and corresponds to Neminsky's electrocerebrogram of mammals. Because for linguistic reasons I hold the word "electrocerebrogram" to be a barbarism, compounded as it is of Greek and Latin components, I would like to propose, in analogy to the name "electrocardiogram", the name "electroencephalogram" for the curve which here for the first time was demonstrated by me in man. I therefore, indeed, believe that I have discovered the electroencephalogram of man and that I have published it here for the first time. The electroencephalogram represents a continuous curve with continuous oscillations in which, as already emphasized repeatedly, one can distinguish larger first order waves with an average duration of 90 σ and smaller second order waves of an average duration of 35 σ. The larger deflections measure at the most 0.00015-0.0002 V. To begin with I only investigated those continuous oscillations which correspond to the continuous oscilations recorded by Cybulski, Kaufmann and Neminsky from the cerebral coretx of the dog and monkey. In man, as I said, such investigations have up to now been unknown. It is true that Bissky claimed "he had sicovered the physiological rhythm of the human nervous system" and had established "our nervous system and brain only reacts to a special alternating current with a certain number of oscillations per second". The frequency of this alternating current is, however, several times greater than the one that corresponds to the oscillations of first and second order found by me in man. I gather from a paper by Schulte concerning this method of Bissky that the current that was used exhibited 335 interruptions per second. It is in any case evident from this that these investigations by Bissky bear no relationship to our findings. For, of the larger waves of the human electroencephalogram there are 10-11 in one second, of the smaller ones 20-30 in one second and therefore if one adds both together, there are about 10-30 in one second. In contrast to Bissky's vagaries serious investigators showed evidence suggesting an entirely different rhythm of the human central nervous system. If we now consider the question of how the electroencephalogram originates, I would like to point out again that it is not only possible to record these current oscillations from the dura of the cerebrum, but also from that covering the cerebellum. The electroencephalogram therefore certainly does not represet a particular characteristic of the cerebrum, even though perhaps the electroencephalogram of the cerebellum may show a somewhat different form and more infrequent large current pulses. But we are completely unable to determine whether the current originates in the cortex of the cerebrum and cerebellum or in deeper parts, and I wish once more to refer to Garten's above quoted view. It is, however, certain that the oscillations of the electroencephalogram do not, in the strict meaning of the word, represent resting currents, but they are action current, i.e. bioelectric phenomena which accompany the continuous nervous processes taking place in the central nervous system. For we have to assume that the central nervous system is always, and not only during wakefulness, in a state of considerable activity. This is, e.g., true for the cortex in which, in addition to those events connected with consciousness, a whole series of other activities take place. Indeed. one can say that the processes connected with conscious phenomena probably only represent a small part of the total cortical work. It goes without saying that the electrical manifestations which continuously appear in the electroencephalogram are only concomitant phenomena of the true nervous processes. For one has long abandoned the old notion that the electrical phenomena in themselves are of special importance for the functions of the central nervous syste,. Such views were still held by Rolando who saw in the lamellar arrangement of the cerebellum evidence that the latter had a particular significance for the development of electricity, and also by Baillarger, when he compared the six-layered structure of the cerebral cortex observed by him with the arrangement of individual plates in a Voltaic pile. We see in the electroencephalogram a concomitant phenomenon of the continuous nerve processes which takes place in the brain, exactly as the electrocardiogram represents a concomitant phenomenon of the contractions of the individual segments of the heart. Naturally, in the course of the investigations various questions quite spontaneously forced themselves upon my mind, e.g. whether in the human electroencephalogram too, as has been found in the animal experiment, changes occur under the influence of peripheral stimuli; furthermore, the question whether one would be able to demonstrate a difference of the electroencephalogram in wakefulness from that of sleep, how it would behave in narcosis and others of this kind. Above all, however, what about the question of the electroencephalogram in wakefulness from that of sleep, how it would behave in narcosis and others of this kind. Above all, however, what about the question which already preoccupied Fleischl von Marxow when he wrote that under certain circumstances one would perhaps be able to go so far as to observe the electrical concomitants of the events in one's own brain? Is it possible to demonstrate the influence of intellectual work upon the human electroencephalogram, insofar as it has been reported here? Of course, one shuold not at first entertain too high hopes with regard to this, because mental work, as I explained elsewhere, adds only a small increment to the cortical work which is going on continuously and not only in the waking state. But it is entirely conceivable that this increment might be detectable in the electroencephalogram which accompanies the continuous activity of the brain. Naturally, I have performed numerous such experiments, but I did not arrive at an unequivocal answer. I am inclined to believe that with strenuous mental work the larger waves of first order with an average duration of 90 σ are reduced and the smaller 35 σ waves of second order become more numerous. With complete mental rest, in the dark, with the eyes closed, one obtains the best electroencephalograms showing both types of waves in a fairly regular pattern. This information is based primarily upon investigations in healthy human individuals who had no skul defects and in whom therefore records were taken from the scalp with lead foil electrodes. In this type of investigation, i.e. when recording from the skin, the interference especially by the Tarkhanov phenomenon must however be considered. The Tarkhanov phenomenon, which can be demonstrated particularly during the performance of intellectual tasks, can level out the larger deflections of the electroencephalogram by a compensating action, so that the amplitude of the waves of first order decreases and one gains the impression that the small waves stand out more prominently. Of course one can avoid being deceived in this manner by measuring the length of the individual wave types, but for this purpose one naturally needs very well written curves. Especially in experiments on my son Klaus I gained the impression that with exacting intellectual work, even with just a high level of attention, the smaller and shorter waves predominate. however, this can by no means be regarded as a conclusive finding, but still requires many follow-up investigations so that I would not like to commit myself to a definite answer here. I hope, however, to be able to report later on this particular question. Natually the investigation of the influence of drugs and stimulants upon the electroencephalogram would also be of great interest so that really an abundance of problems is presented, for here in the electroenceophalogram we may possess at last an objective method of investigating the events occurring at the higher levels of the central nervous system. Predominantly practical consideations were those which repeatedly for many years induced me to work on this task, especially the specific question whether, as is the case for the electrocardiogram in heart diseases, one could discover an objective method of investigating pathological alterations of the activity of the central nervous system. This, of course, could then also become of utmost importance from the diagnostic point of view. I already carried out a series of investigations in this direction. Here too, I cannot make any definite statements because unequivocal results are not yet available. But these studies as well as those of the problems indicated above will be continued as far as time will allow me, and I hope to be able to report on them later. In the pursuit of these questions and investigations it would of course be desireable if one could use still more sensitive instruments of the type which technology is in fact able to provide.".
(Notice again "forced upon the mind" - this phrase was used by a translater of Hertz see id4289.)
(Was Berger excluded from neuron reading and writing? If yes, then it shows a large amount of insight to understand the value of interpretting the electric currents of the brain and nervous system, or if no, and included receiving at least videos in his eyes, then Berger is more of a conduit of science information from the insiders to the excluded public.)
(What kind of amplifier does Berger use to measure such small voltages? Currently a specialized low-offset voltage amplifier is necessary.)
(Even today, this comparatively primitive encephelograph telenology is viewed as state of the art, and is being sold for use in video games as a new and modern device - where humans control objects by relaxing and tensing their mind, or using different parts of their mind, very far from the modern neuron reading and writing.)
(Explain alpha and beta frequencies - where must electrodes be placed to measure them?)
(There are numerous health benefits to neuron reading and writing, all, shockingly, being kept from the majority of the public. The top of the list is: 1) Stopping pain, 2) Blind people could see, 3) deaf people could hear, 4) people could be remotely resuscitated, 5) many murderers would be seen and caught 6) many great scientific advances might be learned about, 7) many sexually frstrated people might get sex - the genocide of excluded would end, 8) excluded people would no longer be victim to the "voice of God" in their minds 9) obese people might lose weight by stopping sensations of hunger, 10) speed of communication would greatly increase, 11) many lies would be exposed to the potential victims, 12) violent people could be held by remote muscle contraction. There must be many unknown other health advances, perhaps nano-devices that enter the body to attack bacteria, unclog arteries, etc.)
(It may be that just as the electric current in a computer is run by an oscillator in the form of a crystal chip, so it may be that there is a clock in the human brain that syncronizes human thought without which thoughts, decisions, and actions such as muscle movements would not move forward. So in this sense, Berger would be the first to publicly identify at least one of these nervous sytem clocks. What causes these electrical oscillations? In electronics an inductor and capacitor can create an oscillation but a transistor is needed to keep it from dissipating.)
(Perhaps Berger is following Ernest Rutherford's naming style of alpha, beta, etc.)
(Read relevant parts of paper.)
(Notice the smart idea of needle electrodes - which can greatly reduce the area of electricity being measured.)
(Interesting, on the use of the word "further" I realize that possibly Berger's entire effort was some kind of counter to some kind of rising violent group possibly - it was a little too early to be seeing the rise of Hitler in the neuron network. And then ultimately the Nazis had enough power to murder Berger, who by revealing some of neuron reading was clearly working against evils like secrecy and violence, etc. As outsider excluded humans, we can only speculate.)
(Determine what "σ" means. One wave has an average duration of 90 σ and the other has length is 35 σ. Since Berger states that the larger waves at 10-11 Hz, and the smaller waves, 20-30 Hz, clearly σ is not time units, which Berger uses 1/10s.)
(It may be that the electrical oscillations in the brain at 90σ and 35σ, are two clocks in the nervous system of the brain - that, like in electronics, are used to syncronize the nerve cells - for example to move an image or sound back into a new memory at a regular interval. Perhaps one clock produces a smaller electric potential, or is farther away inside the brain and so less of the signal is measured.) (Notice that the 20-30 oscillations per second fits with the 25-30 frames per second rate of image perception in humans. This may imply that a faster clock might allow a human to interpret more images and some how have a selective advantage over other species and other members of the same species, for example, if a mammal clock was only 15 frames a second millions of years ago.)
(EX: Find and/or take measurements of the alpha and beta oscillations for various species from lowest order to highest to determine if there is a variation in frequency and if this relates to speed of understanding/perception.)
(It seems unusual that Berger notes that muscle movement is detected electronically - but then appears to view this immense finding as insignificant - viewing as if some kind of artefact in the constant electric oscillations.)
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
71 YBN
[04/26/1929 AD]
| 5476) Plastic polarizer sheet.
Edwin Herbert Land (CE 1909-1991), US inventor, and Joseph Friedman, invent a technique where polarizing crystals (such as herapathite, sulphate of iodoquinine) dissolved in alcohol are added to a plastic (like nitrocellulose dissolved in butl acetate), iodine dissolved in metyl alcohol is then added, and the herapathitite crystals form, and then an electromagnetic field forces the crystals to align, which leaves a solid clear polarizing sheet when the plastic hardens.
In 1932 Land calls this creation a "Polaroid J sheet" and the Polaroid will quickly replace the Nicol prisms in polarimeters, safety glasses, spectacles, and other uses.
This greatly reduces the cost, and allows for any shape and size polarizer.
(The corpuscular interpretation of polarization has really never been presented clearly to the public, as far as I know, and the particle interpretation of light polarization seems to me to be the more accurate theory. In my opinion, polarization is actually, simply, a "planization", that is, filtering light beams depending only on their direction because of the physical structure of the matter in any object that polarizes light. The electromagnetic theory of light, in my view, is simply not accurate because there is no ether, and lgumentight being a wave without a medium seems unlikely. The arguments for light being a material particle, in my view, far outweigh the claim that light is not material, but is a sine wave motion with or without a medium. See my 3D models of how polarization may be viewed as "planization" or "plane-filtering".)
Encyclopedia Britannica gives a technically accurate by purposeful vagueness definition of polarized light writing: "...light in which all rays are aligned in the same plane.", perhaps in preparation for a time when the neuron lie is no longer in place.
(It seems likely that much of Land's work, like Eastman, was as middle-person between the barefoot public and the millions-of-shoes neuron owners, to dribble out crumbs of ancient technology to the public.)
| (Norwich Research, Inc.) Norwich, Connecticut, USA |
71 YBN
[05/10/1929 AD]
| 5445) Electron lens; electromagnetic field used to focus beam of electrons.
Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (CE 1906-1988), German electrical engineer, writes "My first completed scientific work (1928-1929) was concerned with the mathematical and experimental proof of Busch's theory of the effect of the magnetic field of a coil of wire through which an electric current is passed and which is then used as an electron lens. During the course of this work I recognised that the focal length of the waves could be shortened by use of an iron cap. From this discovery the polschuh lens was developed, a lens which has been used since then in all magnetic high-resolution electron microscopes. Further work, conducted together with Dr. Knoll, led to the first construction of an electron microscope in 1931.".
The first electron "magnifying glass" of Ernst Ruska and Max Knoll (1897-1969), constructed in 1929, is a single-magnetic-lens instrument, basically a cathode-ray oscillograph, consisting of a cathode vacuum tube with cold cathode, an anode, and the specific coil to focus the electron beam and form the image of an object, a circular hole (annular aperture), on a fluorescent screen. As a prototype, this instrument shows the feasibility of the new imaging principle. The next instrument, operational in 1931, is a true microscope, equipped with two electromagnetic lenses, allowing two-stage imaging at a 16-times magnification. (Explain why a second lens is necessary)
Ruska sees the focus of the electron beam using calcium tungstantite or uranium-glass.
(translate and read relevent parts of 1929 paper.)
| (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
71 YBN
[07/28/1929 AD]
| 5361) Gerhard Herzberg (CE 1904-1999), German-Canadian physical chemist and Walter Heitler find that there must be an even number of protons in Nitrogen which will imply that a neutral particle exists in the nucleus of the atom.
Herzberg collaborates with Walter H. Heitler at Göttingen on an analysis of the rotational Raman spectrum of N2. (Describe what a rotational Raman spectrum is and how it is obtained.)
(Without a translation it's tough to know how to evaluate this claim, no other sources support it.)
(I doubt Bose statistics, in particular because it was identified by Eintein and is associated with relativity which accepts space and time dilation and views non-euclidean geometry as applying to the universe, but I'm open to more clear explanation of Bose statistics.)
(Translate paper. Give more details.)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
71 YBN
[07/??/1929 AD]
| 4969) First instrument carrying rocket. Rocket carries barometer, thermometer and a small camera.
| Worchester, Massachusetts, USA |
71 YBN
[07/??/1929 AD]
| 4972) First liquid-fuel rocket to move faster than the speed of sound.
(First obejct to move faster than the speed of sound in air?)
Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945), is the first to shoot a liquid-fuel rocket faster than the speed of sound (in standard atmosphere: 761.6 mph, 1,225.5 km/h).
Goddard's rocket reaches 7500 feet (2,286 m) above the ground. (first rocket to reach this height?)
(show how far in the atmosphere).
| Worchester, Massachusetts, USA |
71 YBN
[08/26/1929 AD]
| 5211) Fritz Zwicky (TSViKE) (CE 1898-1974), Swiss astronomer, suggests that the Compton effect may explain why the absorption lines of other galaxies are red-shifted the farther a galaxy is.
Zwicky still refers to other galaxies as "nebulae" in a 1941 paper, but rejects an expanding universe in the same paper.
(My current view is that the red shift of these absorption lines is from Bragg-shifting, the natural result of the Bragg equation - that a more distant light source must reflect off a grating at a farther place to create the same angle as a closer light source.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
71 YBN
[08/??/1929 AD]
| 5136) Edward Adelbert Doisy (CE 1893–1986), US biochemist isolates the female sex hormone estrone in crystalline form.
(Show image of crystals)
| (St. Louis University) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
71 YBN
[09/13/1929 AD]
| 5358) Werner Forssmann (CE 1904-1979), German surgeon, introduces the method of cardiac catheterization. A catheter (plastic tube) enters a vein in the elbow and is pushes directly into the right atrium of the heart.
Forssmann feels that there is a danger in the direct injection of drugs into the heart frequently demanded in an emergency and so develops the cardiac catheter method as an alternative to bring drugs to the heart. Forssmann uses a catheter which is opaque to x-rays so he can follow it using X-ray. Forssmann practices on cadavers and then performs the catheterization on himself. Forssmann pushes in the entire length of a 65-centimeter (25.6-in) catheter into his vein, walks up several flights of stairs to the x-ray department and confirms that the tip of the catheter has reached his heart. There had been no pain or discomfort.
This makes it possible, in theory, to see and study the structure and function of an ailing heart and make more accurate diagnoses without surgery. Many people assume this method must be dangerous, and so this technique will be ignored until André Cournand and Dickinson Richards to develop the technique into a routine clinical tool in the 1940s.
(One small cameras and other sensors are made public, these devices attached to a catheter can provide an inside view of the heart. Describe all the uses of the cardiac and other catheters.)
(Describe, are these made of very flexible but firm plastic? and perhaps a very thin catheter so blood will still flow in the vein.)
(Veins carry blood without oxygen back to the heart. Does Forssmann or others use this technique with arteries too?)
(Describe how is the catheter made opaque to x-rays.)
| (Chirurgischen Abteilung des Augusta Viktoria-Heims zu Eberswalde) |
71 YBN
[11/14/1929 AD]
| 5318) Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (BUTenoNT) (CE 1903-1995), German chemist, also isolates the sex hormone, estrone, (independently from Edward Doisy) from the urine of pregnant women.
Estrogen is one of the molecules secreted by the ovarian cells in small quantities that are responsible for the development of sexual maturity in women.
In 1931 Butenandt isolates and identifies androsterone, a male sex hormone, and in 1934, the hormone progesterone, which plays an important part in the female reproductive cycle. (Is maturity not coded in DNA? Perhaps the creation of estrogen is coded in DNA at a certain point in certain cells?)
(It seems beyond coincidence for two people to isolate the same substance in the same year, in particular with the neuron network. There is neuron writing on excluded people which also adds to the chances of simulateous findings. Butenandt talks about Doisy's announcement in his paper.)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 4695) Phoebus Aaron Theodor Levene (CE 1869-1940), Russian-US chemist identifyies deoxyribose, the carbohydrate in thymus nucleic acid.
Like, ribose, which Levene had identified 20 years earlier, this sugar is also a pentose (5 carbon) sugar but lacks one oxygen atom compared to ribose and is therefore called "deoxyribose".
No other sugars have ever been found in any nucleic acids; there are only nucleic acids with ribose and with deoxyribose, and so nucleic acids are divided into ribonucleic acids (abbreviated RNA) and deoxyribonucleic acids (abbreviated DNA) based on the sugar they contain. Levene works out how the components of nucleic acids are combined into nucleotides, how nucleotides serve as building blocks and combine to form a nucleic acid chain. Todd will extend this work.
Levene suggests a simple tetranucleotide structure for ribonucleic and deoxyribonucleic acids (RNA and DNA). (A nucleotide is one of the four bases plus a sugar and a phosphate group.) According to Levene each of the four bases occurrs just once in each DNA and RNA molecule and are joined together by the sugar and phosphate groups. This structure can then be repeated to form a polynucleotide with the bases occurring in the same order throughout.
Not until 1944 will Oswald Avery show that DNA, and not protein, is the agent of heredity.
(Did Levene establish all the chemical bonds of RNA and DNA?)
| (Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 4850) Leonor Michaelis (miKoAliS) (CE 1875-1949), German-US chemist finds that keratin is soluble in thioglycolic acid. Keratin is the main component of hair and this leads to the development of the home permanent.
(A home permanent is where hair is formed and holds some shape.- describe how it works. Is thioglycolic acid still found in "hair spray"?))
(Is there a funny story of how this was found? Did the scientists then apply interesting hair doos to themselves and all around them?)
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 4919) Henry Norris Russell (CE 1877-1957), US astronomer theorizes about the Sun's composition in detail, showing that the light of the Sun is mostly from hydrogen.
Russell explains that light from the Sun shows that it is composed mostly of Hydrogen and the other minor elements are helium, oxygen, nitrogen and neon among others. Russell finds that the spectrum of stars is mostly from hydrogen. This implies that the universe is mainly hydrogen and helium in a 9 to 1 ratio.
Russell publishes his work in a 72 page paper. The abstract of this paper reads: "The energy of binding of an electron in different quantum states by neutral and singly ionized atoms is discussed with the aid of tables of the data at present available. The structure of the spectra is next considered, and tables of the ionization potentials and the most persistent lines are given. The presence and absence of the lines of different elements in the solar spectrum are then simply explained. The excitation potential, E, for the strongest lines in the observable part of the spectrum is the main factor. Almost all the elements for which this is small show in the sun. There are very few solar lines for which E exceeds 5 volts; the only strong ones are those of hydrogen. The abundance of the various elements in the solar atmosphere is calculated with the aid of the calibration of Rowland 's scale developed last year and of Unsold's studies of certain important lines. The numbers of atoms in the more important energy states for each element are thus determined and found to decrease with increasing excitation, but a little more slowly than demanded by thermodynamic considerations. The level of ionization in the solar atmosphere is such that atoms of ionization poten- (- lid 8.3 volts are 50 per cent ionized. Tables are given of the relative abundance of fifty-six elements and six compounds. These show that six of the metallic elements, Na, Mg, Si, K, Ca, and Fe, contribute 95 per cent of the whole mass. The whole number of metallic atoms above a square centi-meter of the surface is 8 X '02°. Eighty per cent of these are ionized. Their mean atomic weight is 32 and their total mass 42 mg/cm2. The well-known difference between ele-ments of even and odd atomic number is conspicuous—the former averaging ten times as abundant as the latter. The heavy metals, from Ba onward, are but little less abundant than those which follow Sr, and the hypothesis that the heaviest atoms sink below the photosphere is not confirmed. The metals from Na to Zn, inclusive, are far more common than the rest. The compounds are present in but small amounts, cyanogen being rarer than scandium. Most of those elements which do not appear in the solar spectrum should not show observable lines unless their abundance is much greater than is at all probable. There is a chance of finding faint lines of some additional rare earths and heavy metals, and perhaps of boron and phosphorus. The abundance of the non-metals, and especially of hydrogen, is difficult to estimate from the few lines which are available. Oxygen appears to be about as abundant by weight as all the metals together. The abundance of hydrogen may be found with the aid of Menzel's observations of the flash spectrum. It is finally estimated that the solar atmosphere contains 6o parts of hydrogen (by volume), 2 of helium, 2 of oxygen, i of metallic vapors, and o.8 of free electrons, practically all of which come from ionization of the metals. This great abundance of hydrogen helps to explain a number of previously puzzling astrophysical facts. The temperature of the reversing layer is finally estimated at 5600° and the pressure at its base as o.0o5 atm. A letter from Professor Eddington suggesting that the departure from the thermo-dynamic equilibrium noticed by Adams and the writer is due to a deficiency of the number of atoms in the higher excited states is quoted and discussed.".
Russell then goes on to describe the current view of the atom and visible spectrum writing: "The hope that from the familiar qualitative spectrum analysis of the solar atmosphere a quantitative analysis might be developed is of long standing. Recent developments in spectroscopy and astrophysics have turned the hope into a rational anticipation. The most precise method of investigation—the study of the detailed contours of individual lines—promises the most, but it will be some time before it can be applied to the multitude of lines available. In the meantime, a survey of the problem and a discussion of the existing evidence regarding the relative abundance of those elements which show lines in the solar spectrum, and of the significance of the "absence" of those which do not, may be in order.
I. THE IONIZATION POTENTIALS AND SPECTRA OF THE ELEMENTS
The manner in which the appearance of the arc and spark lines of a given element in earlier and later types of the sequence of stellar spectra is governed by the condition of ionization and excitation in the atmosphere of the stars is now familiar. The way in which the spectra and related properties of the atoms themselves vary with the atomic number is less widely known, and our discussion may well begin with a summary of the facts as at present understood.
The electrons in an atom, whether neutral or ionized, are bound in different states—a term now preferable to the old "orbits." The more firmly bound inner electrons which form parts of the completed groups or "shells" are of concern in the spectroscopy of X-rays, but not of ordinary light. The latter deals with the outer electrons and with the complex set of excited states into which one or more of them may be raised from their normal positions. When there is but one outer electron, the various energy-levels, or spectroscopic terms, in which the atom itself can exist are intimately correlated with the state of this electron and are not very numerous, and the spectrum is then simple. When there are several outer electrons, however, a single configuration of electronic states may give rise (by space quantization) to an almost bewildering number of different spectroscopic terms, and the spectra are very complicated. As the number of outer electrons approaches that required to form a complete "shell," Pauli's restriction principle comes into play and the spectra are again simpler. The brilliant and detailed success of Hund's theory in predicting the characteristics of the spectrum from the electronic configurations is well known.
...".
Russell uses a theory of gas pressure in addition to the shell level of ionized atoms to theorize about the quantity of each element in the Sun. Russell writes: "...Much has been written on the theoretical distribution of the energy states of the atoms in a stellar atomosphere. An exact discussion would be very complicated, but, fortunately, there is good reason to believe that the most simple and obvious approximations should give results close to the truth. The temperature of the reversing layer doubtless increases towards its base, but it is probably that the change is relatively small. According to Eddington, it increases from 0.81 to 0.88 times the effective temperature Te between the outer boundary and the depth corresponding to the optical thickness T=0.25. These values hold for the integrated light. For the center of the disk the range is from the same lower limit to 0.91 Te. Since most of the material is in the deeper layers, the assumption T=0.87Te would appear to be reasonable. For the sun, Te=5730° and T=4980°. The pressures in the upper and lower parts of the reversing layer must differ very greatly. Milne has just shown, however, that the assumption of a uniform pressure gives surprisingly good results. Although the opacity actually increases gradually with the depth, the line contours should be very similar to those produced by an atmosphere devoid of general opacity and overlying a solid photosphere, provided that the amount of matter in this fictitious atmosphere were equal to that which is actually above the optical depth t=1/3. The "number of atoms above the photosphere" then takes on a definite meaning. he shows also that the total numbers of neutral and ionized atoms above any depth will be very nearly the same as those calculated from the elementary formula of Saha, with an electronic pressure one-half of the value at the given depth. The effects of a chromosphere supported by radiation pressure are excluded from consideration. in what follows, we shall therefore consider the sun's atmosphere as having a definite temperature T, and a definite electronic pressure P. In thermodynamic equalibrium, the number M0 ofneutral atoms in any energy state is then given by the equation .... The conclusion from the "face of the returns" is that O is four times, and H eighty times, as abundant by weight as all the metals together. These numerical values should not be stressed; but the great abundance of H can hardly by doubted. It is, however, very difficult to estimate it from the intensity of the Balmer lines. ... The abundance of hydrogen and its consequences.- The results of the present investigations leave some puzzles to be solved: a) The calculated abundance of hydrogen in the sun's atmopshere is almost incredibly great. b) The electron pressures calculated from the degree of ionization and from the numbers of metallic atoms and ions are discordant. .... Applications to the stars.-The assumption of an atmosphere composed mainly of hydrogen serves also to resolve some difficulties which appeared in the study of stellar spectra made last year by Adams and the writer. The electronic pressures, computed from the relative strength of the arc and enhanced lines, came out about 10 times greater in Procyon and 60 times greater in Sirius than in the sun, while the amounts of metallic vapor above equal areas of surface were 0.6 and 0.05 times as great. Allowance for double ionization in Sirius would increase the last figure, but could hardly double it. It was then suggested that a great abundance of hydrogen in Sirius might explain these facts, but the full effect was not realized. At the temperature of an A star, hydrogen must be heavily ionized. If the hydrogen atoms are as abundant as has been suggested for the sun, there are dozens of them for every metallic atom, and, when a considerable fraction of these are ionized, the electronic pressure may be many times that which would arise from the ionization of the metallic atoms alone. At the same time, these electrons and the hydrogen ions contribute to the general opacity, so that the photosphere is raised and the total quantity of gas above it is much diminished, and the metallic lines are thus weakened. Hydrogen must be extremely abundant in the atmosphere of the red giants, for its lines are stronger in their spectra than in that of the sun. With any reasonable allowance for the effect of the lower temperature in diminishing the proportion of excited atoms, the relative abundance of hydrogen, compared with the metals, comes out hundreds of times greater than in the sun. If this is true, the outer portions of these stars must be almost pure hydrogen, with hardly more than a smell of metallic vapors in it.
The theory of such an atmosphere presents an interesting problem, for quantities which are ordinarily neglected may have to be considered—for example, scattering by the unexcited neutral atoms. The effect of hydrogen in reducing the electronic pressure in the sun appears to be already near its limiting value, and it cannot be invoked further to account for the extraordinary discrepancy in these stars between the degree of ionization indicated by the enhanced lines and the pressure calculated from the extent of the atmospheres and the surface gravity. Discussion of these matters, however, cannot be undertaken in the present paper.
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that the present work, like that of Dr. Adams and the writer last year, is of the nature of a reconnaissance of new territory. It is to be hoped that the determinations made here by approximate methods will be replaced within a few years by others of much greater precision, based on accurate measures of the contours and intensities of as many lines as possible. An extensive field of work is open, and it is hoped that much more may be done at this Observatory.
...".
(Are these in element form or molecular form? Are there any molecules in the light from the sun? One important point that seems never to be mentioned is that the light from a star only is emitted from atoms that are burned (separated into photons), and photons from the inside are not shown, they must be absorbed by atoms cl oser to the outside (or maybe no, which is an interesting theory), so in some way a person can only determine what atoms are being destroyed on the surface of stars, as we can only see what atoms are on the surface of a planet, not what is inside (except if one ever blows up such as a nova, and there it reveals that iron and heavier elements are in the center, which I think argues against the center being hydrogen to helium). In addition, one other serious error with the hydrogen to helium fusion theory is: where is all the helium? Shouldn't there be more helium if hydrogen is being converted for billions of years, shouldn't there be billions of years worth of helium combusting from the sun. It's interesting that there is oxygen on the sun and so all the combustion chemical equations are working on the surface of the sun. As a novice it seems that oxygen spectral emission lines must only be found in conjuction with other molecules that are separated with oxygen, with the exception of oxygen under high electric potential. It is possible that there are atoms on the sun that are not being separated into photons, the only light we see is from atoms that are illuminated/burned/separated, for example if we see the neon spectral lines, it means that neon is being separated/burned on the surface of the sun.)
(Hydrogen burned with oxygen results in H2O in the cold temperatures of earth, but on the surface of the Sun, it seems more likely that photons with hydrogen atom separation frequencies might be the result of particle collisions from particles exiting the Sun with Hydrogen atoms around the surface.) (I think that most stars emit Hydrogen spectral lines show that most stars are similar, the outside burning hydrogen, but the inside probably molten iron.)
(I think this view of the universe being mostly hydrogen and helium in a 9 to 1 ratio is probably wrong. I think it may be a serious error to presume that stars are 99% hydrogen. I think they are mainly heavy metals (following the model of what we know about the inside of the earth), and if we add up all the stars we find that the universe is mostly iron and/or other heavy metals, quite possibly only the surface of stars are burning hydrogen which is the only light that can be seen while stars burn. I think the spectra of novas is important evidence to this claim. If the spectra of novae shows the center of stars to be nitrogen, silicon, iron, then probably much of the universe is made of iron, silicon and nitrogen. By weight, probably most of the photons are in iron and silicon. I doubt the 9 to 1 hydrogen to helium, and probably EX: all nova spectra should be analyzed to see the ratio of atoms in the exploded star, this itself maybe a representation of the ratio of the various atoms in the universe, although some hydrogen can be added for nebulae, calcium in between the stars, etc. )
(It must be remembered that this was before the spectra of supernovas was examined. At that time, people should have bravely faced the past and corrected the inacurate theory that stars are mostly made of hydrogen gas.)
(It seems to me, a difficult task to determine the quantity of each atom simply from the existance of spectral lines - for example, simply seeing spectral lines for hydrogen, or iron, don't indicate the quantity present.)
(It seems that the difference between those who write simply and clearly for all to understand as opposed to those who write abstractly in an effort to seem smart and to lose the public shifted to those who seek to lose the public around the time of WW1, although this method of abstract mathematical shaded analysis was not a new phenomenon at that time.)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 4935) Bernhard Voldemar Schmidt (CE 1879-1935), Russian-German optician designs the Schmidt telescope, which allows viewing of large areas of the sky.
(todo: Get better portrait)
Parabolic mirrors are used rather than spherical ones in telescopes to correct the optical defect known as spherical aberration and therefore allow the light from an object to be accurately and sharply focused. However, this accurate focusing only occurs for light falling on the center of a parabolic mirror. Light falling at some distance from the center is not correctly focused, and this is called "coma". This limits the use of parabolic reflectors to a narrow field of view and so parabolic mirror telescopes cannot be used for survey work and the construction of star maps. Schmidt replaces the primary parabolic mirror with a spherical mirror, which is coma-free but does suffer from spherical aberration which prevents the formation of a sharp image. To overcome this Schmidt introduces a ‘corrector plate’ through which the light passes before reaching the spherical mirror. The plate is shaped to be thickest in the center and least thick between its edges and the center. In this way a comparatively wide beam of light passing through it is refracted so to just compensate for the aberration produced by the mirror and produce an overall sharp image on a (curved) photographic plate.
An instrument with such a device is a Schmidt telescope or Schmidt camera. Without such a device, astronomers could only see a tiny part of the sky at one time, and large surveys would take a long time.
| (Hamburg Observatory) Bergedorf, Germany |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 4954) Hans Fischer (CE 1881-1945), German chemist, determines the atomic structure of the hemin molecule and synthesizes the hemin molecule.
(Both in same year? Show papers, get translations)
Fischer shows that hemin, the nonprotein, iron-containing portion of the hemoglobin molecule, which gives blood a red color.
Fischer shows that hemin is made of four pyrrole rings, which each consist of four carbon atoms and a nitrogen atom arranged in a larger ring.
Fischer and the students working under him had taken apart the heme molecule into simpler components and over the course of 8 years figured out the atomic structure.
Hemin is a crystalline product of hemoglobin. By splitting in half the molecule of bilirubin, a bile pigment related to hemin, Fischer obtained a new acid in which a section of the hemin molecule was still intact. Fischer identified its structure and found it to be related to pyrrole. This made possible the artificial synthesis of hemin from simpler organic compounds whose structure was known. Fischer also showed that there is a close relationship between hemin and chlorophyll, and by the time of his death Fischer has nearly completed the synthesis of chlorophyll. Fischer will show that the chlorophylls are substituted porphins with magnesium rather than iron in the center. Fischer identified the pyrrole rings of chlorophyll but died before completing its synthesis, which will be accomplished in 1960 at Munich and, independently, at Harvard.
(Can gamma, X-rays, electrons, smaller-charged particles if any, protons, SEM, STM, etc. now quickly determine atomic structure in all solids, liquids, and gases? )
(show molecule model, chemical formula, structural diagram)
| |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 5144) Artturi Ilmari Virtanen (VRTuneN) (CE 1895-1973), Finnish biochemist, creates a method (AIV method) of preserving fodder (food for farm animal such as hay) using acids.
In the 1920s Virtanen finds that by acidifying green fodder, the reactions that produce deterioration are stopped without damage to the nutritional qualities of the fodder, which makes feeding cattle during long winter months more economical.
Fodder is feed for farm animal (livestock), especially coarsely chopped hay or straw.
This "AIV" method, as it became known, named for Virtanen's initials, stops the loss of nitrogenous food material in storage. After much experimentation Virtanen finally finds that a mixture of hydrochloric and sulfuric acid is adequate to stop spoilage and still be edible, as long as the acid strength is kept at a pH of about four. In 1929 Virtanen found that cows fed on silage produced by his method give milk indistinguishable in taste from that of cows fed on normal fodder, and is just as rich in both vitamin A and C. This method was introduced on Finnish farms in 1929, and its use gradually spreads to other countries.
| (Biochemical Research Institute at Helsinki) Helsinki, Finland |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 5287) Robert Jemison Van De Graaff (VanDuGraF) (CE 1901-1967), US physicist, works out the principle behind a high-voltage electrostatic generator using tin cans, a silk ribbon and a small motor.
(very interesting, simply building up a static charge from friction charge transfer. explain details.)
(Determine if Van De Graaff uses an electric motor. Determine if somebody before had automated the static electricity generator with an electric motor.)
| (Oxford Univerity) Oxford, England (presumably) |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 5371) Walther Wilhelm Georg Franz Bothe (CE 1891-1957), German physicist and Werner Kolhörster Bothe and Kohlhörster find that two parallel counters surrounded by thick shielding of lead and iron and separated by several centimeters in a vertical plane are occasionally discharged in coincidence by the passage of a charged particle through the shield and the two counters. They detect such events by attaching the counters to separate fiber electrometers and photographing on a moving film the deflections of the fibers caused by discharges of the counters. They find that the rate of coincidences decreases by only a small fraction when a 4.1 centimeter thick gold brick is inserted between the two counters.
(Cite paper, translate and read relevent parts.)
(It seems unlikely that a particle would get through 4 cm of gold, or 1 meter of lead, but still collide not only with a particle in 1 counter, but with particles in 2 counters. Perhaps it is a coincidental collision by 2 particles. Other alternatives are that this a single very small particle or that is a very dense beam of particles.)
In 1931 Rossi will show that cosmic particles can penetrate through a solid meter of lead.
| (University of Giessen) Giessen, Germany (presumably) |
71 YBN
[1929 AD]
| 6055) "Happy Days Are Here Again" composed by Milton Ager (music) and Jack Yellen (lyrics).
| Los Angeles, California, USA (verify) |
70 YBN
[01/??/1930 AD]
| 5178) Henry A. Barton had collided protons subjected to 25kV with a copper target and found no radiation from proton impacts.
(Get birth death dates) (State if this is the first use of protons to collide with targets. Rutherford had collided positive ions - probably including Hydrogen ions.)
| (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
70 YBN
[02/14/1930 AD]
| 5353) J. Robert Oppenheimer (CE 1904-1967), US physicist theorizes that Dirac's negative electron states are filled by protons and that there are no transistions to or from these states between electrons and protons.
This seems to be a mistaken historical belief. The Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography reports that Oppenheimer shows that "Dirac could not be right in identifying these as protons, since they would have to have the same mass as electrons." however, in the work cited by the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Oppenheimer writes: "...Thus we should hardly expect any states of negative energy to remain empty. if we return to the assumption of two independent elementary partrge, and dissimilar mass, we can resolve all the difficulties raised in this note, and retain the hypothesis that the reason why no transitions of states of negative energy occur, either for electrons or protons, is that all such states are filled. In this way, we may accept Dirac's reconciliation of the absence of these transistions with the validity of the scattering formulae." - so Oppenheimer finally settles on the claim that the negative energy states are real, that they are filled by protons, and that there are no transistions of states between electrons and protons. But, how there could be a mistaken interpretation is completely understandable, because there are no visual diagrams, and the writing is abstract.
Asimov makes a similar claim stating that Oppenheimer shows: "...that the proton could not be Dirac's 'antielectron' and paved the way for the discovery, two years later, of the true antielectron, the positron, by Anderson.".
(Interestingly Oppenheimer actually mentions free moving electrons, and so in some way bridges a space between the strictly-electron orbit explains spectral lines theory of quantum mechanics and the transistion to this abstract math describing any freely moving particle.)
(Verify that there is nt some other paper where Oppenheimer claims that the antielectron must has a mass less than a proton.)
(Reading Oppenheimer's 1930 paper: This paper is somewhat confusing and difficult to understand, but the conclusion seems clear enough that Oppenheimer believes Dirac's negative states are filled with protons and there are no transitions to negative energy states by electrons because these states are filled. - But it should be noted that 1) Dirac's including relativity into a quantum interpretation of electron orbits seems unlikely to be accurate to me, 2) Negative energy states seem unlikely to represent real phenomena because there can't be negative mass, and imaginary motion resulting in a negative v^2 term seems unlikely too. So my feeling is that Oppenheimer is a young person, who reads the contemporary theories. Oppenheimer's starting point is not Newton, Ampere, Maxwell, Michelson, Thomson, etc...but is Dirac and other contemporaries - and so they are all caught in the pseudo-math interpretation of the day - all in the wake of relativity and the fraud of the theory of space and time contraction and dilation.)
(I think it's safe to summarize that Oppenheimer is, like Gamow and Pauli, basically a mathematical theorist, and not an experimentalist as Chadwick, for example was. There are those people who do both, almost all experimentalists provide some math in their papers, however, Fermi is an example where the person was perhaps half and half - Fermi started as a math theorist and then turned more to experiment.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
70 YBN
[02/18/1930 AD]
| 4795) Hans Berger (CE 1873-1941), German psychiatrist names the two characteristic electrical oscillations measured with electrodes placed on the head "alpha" and "beta".
Berger writes in his second report on the electroencephalogram: "...For the sake of brevity I shall subsequently designate the waves of first order as alpha waves = α-w, the waves of second order as betal waves = β-w, just as I shall use "E.E.G." as the abbreviation for the electroencephalogram and "E.C.G." for the electrocardiogram. ...".
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
70 YBN
[02/18/1930 AD]
| 5398) Clyde William Tombaugh (ToMBo) (CE 1906-1997), US astronomer, identifies the ninth planet which will be named Pluto, but in 2006 Pluto is reclassified as a dwarf planet.
After finishing high school, Tombaugh builds his own telescope according to specifications published in a 1925 issue of Popular Astronomy. Using this instrument, Tombaugh makes observations of Jupiter and Mars and sends sketches of these planets to Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, hoping to receive advice about his work. Instead, Tombaugh received a job offer. Tombaugh’s assignment is to locate the ninth planet, a search instigated in 1905 by astronomer Percival Lowell. To carry out this task, Tombaugh uses a 33-cm (13-inch) telescope to photograph the sky and an instrument called a blink comparator to examine the photographic plates for signs of moving celestial bodies.
On February 18, 1930 Tombaugh identifies a moving point on photographic plates which will be identified as a planet and named Pluto. This observation is found after almost a year of photographic plate comparisons. Pluto will be shown to have the most inclined to the ecliptic orbit of all planets. Some astronomers suspect that Pluto was once a moon of Neptune.
(Tombaugh must have found other moving objects too, such as meteors in the process.)
| (Lowell Observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
70 YBN
[02/??/1930 AD]
| 5009) Harlow Shapley (CE 1885-1972), US astronomer, suggests calling "extragalactic nebulae" (the name given by Hubble) "galaxies", recognizing that our own galaxy is only one of many. Before this the word "galaxy" had only refered to our galaxy, that is the group of stars within the radius of the globular clusters.
Shapley writes in "The Super-Galaxy Hypothesis." in the Harvard College Observatory Circular: "... The linear diameters of the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds are eleven and six thousand light years, respectively. The diameters of the giant spiral systems Messier 31 (Andromeda Nebula) and Messier 33 are, according to Hubble, 42,000 and 15,000 light years. The linear diameters of the greatest members of the Centaurus super-system are much the same as that of the Andromeda nebula, while for its two or three hundred members between the seventeenth and eighteenth photographic magnitudes the average diameter is about ten thousand light years. Similarly, the maximum diameters of the galaxies* {ULSF: original footnote: *The name, galaxy, used in the present sense, is not very satisfactory, at least historically; but the terms, extra-galactic nebula, anagalactic nebula, non-galactic nebula, spiral nebula, star cloud, and island universe, all seem even less appropriate for a general working name.".} in the four groups in Coma-Virgo recently investigated at harvard are about twenty thousand light years, the diameters of most of them being between five and ten thousand light years. ...".
| (Harvard College Observatory) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
70 YBN
[04/04/1930 AD]
| 5220) Max Theiler (TIlR) (CE 1899-1972), South African-US microbiologist, creates the first vaccine against yellow fever.
Theiler creates the first vaccine against yellow fever by infecting monkeys, and passing that virus onto mice, where it develops into a brain inflammation (encephalitis), then from mouse to mouse, and back into monkeys where it causes only a very feeble yellow fever and leaves the monkey with full immunity. Theiler and his colleagues use themselves as test subjects in testing the vaccine against the full-strength virus with success.
Reed had shown that yellow fever is transmitted by a species of mosquito.
(Read abstract?)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
70 YBN
[05/06/1930 AD]
| 5102) (Sir) George Paget Thomson (CE 1892-1975) English physicist and C. G. Fraser build an "electron camera" in which a photographic plate can easily capture an image of a "diffraction" pattern illuminated on a willamite screen by an electron beam which is passed through a crystalline target.
| (University of Aberdeen) Aberdeen, Scotland |
70 YBN
[06/03/1930 AD]
| 5369) Bruno Benedetto Rossi (CE 1905-1994) Italian-US physicist, explains that if cosmic rays are electrically charged particles, the deflection of their paths in the earth's magnetic field should be noticeable by an unsymmetrical directional distribution of the intensity with respect to the geomagnetic meridian.
In 1934 Rossi will confirm the findings of Johnson and Alvarez and Compton that the intensities of cosmic particle coicidence counts from the northern and southern direction are the same, but that there is greater intensity from the west than from the east, this indicating that cosmic radiation consists of positively charged particles.
This will lead to cosmic particles being recognized as high-energy protons and more complicated atomic nuclei.
(Some historians mistake this by claiming that Rossi identifies the particles as positive, but Rossi explains in 1934 that he is simply confirming what Compton, et al found.)
| (Physikalisch-Technische Reichsanstalt) Charlottenburg, Germany |
70 YBN
[06/17/1930 AD]
| 5403) Kurt Gödel (GRDL) (CE 1906-1978), Austrian-US mathematician, publishes his "incompleteness theorem", which states that within any axiomatic mathematical system there are propositions that cannot be proved or disproved on the basis of the axioms within that system, therefore, such a system cannot be complete and consistent.
Gödel publishes his proof that for any set of axioms, there will always be statements, with the system ruled by those axioms, that can be neither proved nor disproved on the basis of those axioms. Gödel proves this by translating symbolic logic into numbers in a systematic way and shows that it is always possible to construct a number that can not be arrived at by the other numbers of his system. If true, Gödel's proof means that the totality of mathematics cannot be made complete on the basis of any system of axioms. Asimov states that Gödel ends the search for certainty in mathematics by showing that it does not and cannot exist, just as Heisenberg had done for physical sciences with his uncertainty principle five years earlier.
(But is this analogy accurate? For example, for something such as a closed system, defined by a finite number of axioms? It is an abstract concept that is being proved, and so it's not clear that what is claimed to be proved is true. Show the math/equations Gödel publishes.)
(It's not clear what “brought to order” means. In terms of Russell's paradox, perhaps there are logical statements that cannot have a true or false answer, but simple are illogical or unanswerable questions, while other questions do have yes or no answers, and other statements can be viewed as true or false. So there would be the realm of true, false, and unsolvable. I think there is value to Gödel's proof though, and his math should be shown.)
(I think this may be false, because while there are some statements that cannot be proven true or false, I don't think that this removes the basis for statements proven more likely true or false. Gödel's theory as far as I can see, or certainly, Russell's paradox, simply shows that there are some statements which cannot be proven true or false, but does not rule out some statement being proven true or false. And then within the realm of factual accounting, some descriptions simply happen to be more accurate than others, and this is the basis for science, engineering, etc. so there is of course, great use in human created systems of logic used to define true and false, which clearly in the universe exist as true events and non-true events. )
| (University of Wien) Vienna, (Austria now) Germany |
70 YBN
[07/19/1930 AD]
| 5020) Robert Julius Trumpler (CE 1886-1956), Swiss-US astronomer demonstrates the presence throughout the galactic plane of interstellar matter that absorbs light and decreases the apparent brightness of distant star clusters.
[t I think this may be evidence and a claim against the expanding universe theory. Basically
In 1917, Herber Curtis had shown that the absorption lines of spectroscopic binary stars do not shift with the moving spectral emission lines of the binary stars.
Trumpler shows that the light of the more distant globular clusters is dimmer than is to be expected from their sizes, and that the more distant the cluster, the larger the difference between actual and expected brightness. In addition, Trumpler find that the more distant the globular cluster, the redder it appears. Trumpler explains this by supposing that thin wisps of dust fill interstellar space and that over large distances there is enough dist to dim and redden the light of the farther clusters. This dimming effect will lead to the reduction in distance to the galactic center of the Milky Way Galaxy from Shapley's estimate of 50,000 to 30,000 light years (apparently by Oort, Oort cites this finding?)
(List relevent text from paper.) Trumpler writes: "I ABSORPTION OF LIGHT IN THE GALACTIC SYSTEM For more than a century astronomers have interested them- selves in the question: Is interstellar space perfectly trans- parent, or does light suffer an appreciable modification or loss _- of intensity when passing through the enormous spaces which separat e us from the more remote celestial objects? Any effect of this kind is generally referred to as "absorption of light in space," whatever the peculiar physical process assumed for its cause. Various hypotheses have been proposed for the latter. The older views attributed such absorbing properties to the hypothetical ether itself; but at present we think rather of a much rarefled invisible material medium and admit that the latter is not necessarily of uniform distribution throughout all space. According to prevailing physical theories, light passing through such a material medium will be affected in various ways: Aside from possible refraction and dispersion effects, light may be absorbed by free atoms or molecules; it may be scattered by free electrons, atoms, or molecules, or by solid particles of extremely small size; and finally light may be ob- structed by larger bodies, such as meteorites. The space ab- sorption of light is thus intimately related to the question of the presen ce, distribution, and constitution of dark matter in the universe. Let us brieiiy review the observable phenomena which may give information on this question: l. General Absorption.-—By this term we designate the loss of starlight on its passage from the star to the observer. If such loss exists, the apparent brightness of a star will not decrease inversely proportional to the square of its distance, but more rapidly. This will make itself felt in the statistical determina- tion of the space distribution of stars from star counts of suc- cessive magnitude intervals. It is further to be noted that a ` general absorption will affect all photometric distance determi- nations which are based on a comparison of absolute and ap- parent magnitudes. Distances derived by such methods (spec- g troscopic parallaxes, variable star parallaxes, etc.) should then differ systematically from the results of other methods not af- fected by absorption (statistical distances from proper motions, apparent diameters of star clusters or nebulae, etc.), 2. Selective Absorption.—If the loss of light is not the same for all colors, but varies with the wave-length, we speak of a selective absorption. Its consequence is that the apparent color of a star changes with its distance from the observer. 3. M onochroniotic Absorption, or the observation of inter- stellar absorption lines in stellar spectra.—Evidence that a cer- tain spectral line is not produced in the atmosphere of the star but by atoms contained in the space between star and observer i may be gained in two ways: ez) There should be an increase with distance in the inten- sity of the line for stars of the same spectral type and lumi- nosity. I b) The Doppler shift of such line will generally differ from that of the stellar absorption lines, and it should appear sta- tionary in the case of spectroscopic binaries. According to the investigations of O. Struve, ]. S. Plaskett, Eddington, and others, we have good reason to conclude that the K line of calcium in stars of types O5 to B3 is of interstellar ori- gin and that ionized calcium atoms are scattered through space within our galactic system, taking part in its rotational motion. 4. Obscnrotion Effects.-Among these, we have in the first place to mention the so-called dark nebulae. They are noticed either as well—defined nearly starless patches in the middle of rich Milky Way star fields, or as dark passages apparently pro- jected on bright diffuse nebulae. The view that these forma- tions are caused by local obscuration or absorption of light is rather generally accepted, and some astronomers are even in- clined to consider the dark division of the Milky Way between Scorpio and C ygnns as of a similar origin. In the second place there is the well—known fact that practi- cally no globular clusters or spiral nebulae are visible near the galactic equator. This suggests that some- of these distant ob- jects are obscured by an absorbing medium in our Milky Way system which is strongly concentrated to the galactic plane. .... Our Milky Way system seems to contain a considerable amount of iinely divided matter, noticeable by its absorption of light. This matter appears to be made up mainly of: 1. Free atoms (Ca, N cz, and probably others) causing inter- stellar (stationary) absorption lines observable in the spectra of distant stars. Eddington estimates their space density of the order of lO’2‘* grams per cubic centimeter (one H atom per cubic centimeter) and shows that this is not sufficient to origi- nate an observable amount of Rayleigh scattering. 2. Free electrons are likely to be included, since the observed interstellar calcium atoms are ionized. 3. Fine cosmic dust particles of various sizes (average mass of particle 10*29 grams or larger, space density of the order of lO‘23 grams per cubic centimeter) maintained in space by light pressure of the stars and prodtgcing the observed selective ab- sorption by Rayleigh scattering. ` 4. Perhaps we should add also larger meteoric bodies, ob- structing light of all wave-lengths equally, which may be re- sponsible for a small part of the general absorption (residual effect). This absorbing medium is limited to our galactic system, forming an essential feature of it; it is much concentrated to the galactic plane extending along the latter like a thin disk probably not more than a few hundred parsecs thick. While ` its distribution follows the Milky Way in general, it is not necessarily uniform. The observed obscuration of globular clusters and spiral nebulae near the galactic circle then follows as a natural consequence of the great depth of the medium in this direction. The so-called dark vnebulae or obscuring clouds seem to be of incomparably greater opacity, and it is as yet p uncertain whether their absorption is selective or not. As they are also most prominent in the Milky Way, they may represent strong local condensations of the general absorbing medium or of some of its above-mentioned constituents.".
(Clearly this is saying that the light is reddened. Is this light spectroscopically red shifted? If yes, this might be strong evidence that dust (relatively small pieces of matter...although these can be, perhaps megaton ice chunks for all we know from the distance we see them))
(Is the light red shifted or is blue light filtered out?)
(Interesting that the absorption lines for Sodium are Doppler shifted differently because the light is absorbed by atoms in between source and destination. So, clearly determine if the Doppler shift of the distant galaxies is of emission spectral lines, and absorption lines - in other words, the entire light spectrum is shifted.)
(Note that EB2010 writes: "demonstrated the presence throughout the galactic plane of a tenuous haze of interstellar material that absorbs light generally and decreases the apparent brightness of distant clusters." - notice "tenuous")
| (Mount Hamilton) Santa Clara County, California, USA |
70 YBN
[08/19/1930 AD]
| 5177) English physicist, (Sir) John Douglas Cockcroft (CE 1897-1967) and Irish physicist, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (CE 1903-1995) collide protons and molecules at voltages up to 280 KV with lead and a beryllium salt target and measure non-homogeneous radiation emitted from the targets.
Cockcroft and Walton use a voltage multiplier to create a very high voltage and in creating this high voltage can accelerate protons which are easily created by ionizing hydrogen to velocities greater than the natural velocity of alpha particles. Before this the only particles that can be used to break down the atomic nucleus (called “atom smashing”) are alpha particles and Rutherford had explored much of the reactions of alpha particles and atoms. Cockcroft and Walton state that their work is inspired by the theoretical work on particle bombardment of Gamow.
In January 1930 Henry Barton had collided protons subjected to 25kV with a copper target and found no radiation from proton impacts.
The voltage doubler circuit was apparently invented by Swiss physicist, Heinrich Greinacher (CE 1880-1974) (the "Greinacher multiplier", a rectifier circuit for voltage doubling) in 1914 and in 1920, Greinacher generalized this idea to a cascaded voltage multiplier. (verify)
The "Greinacher multiplier" (Cockcroft-Walton voltage doubler) circuit is an extremely simple circuit, and a very easy way for any person to reach high voltages at low cost, of course it should be said that high voltages are extremely dangerous and can easily kill a person so as with all dangerous technology those experimenting with the Cockcroft-Walton voltage doubler should take proper precautions against being too close to high voltages.
(Read relevent portions of paper)
(State how are hydrogen atoms ionized, with xrays?)
(Can electrons cause nuclear reactions? I know there are electron beam experiments still being done, determine if they cause nuclear changes.) (State the voltages used by Rutherford in his bombardment experiments.) (There are many thousands of particle collision experiments possible.)
(It's kind of unusual that Cockcroft did not appear to public in "Philosophical Magazine".)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
70 YBN
[10/10/1930 AD]
| 5268) Ernest Orlando Lawrence (CE 1901-1958), US physicist, builds the first circular particle accelerator he names "cyclotron", in which an electromagnetic field accelerates and deflects the path of ions into circles.
Lawrence first conceives of the idea for the cyclotron in 1929. In this device charged particles move in spiral paths under the influence of a vertical magnetic field. The particles move inside two hollow D-shaped metal pieces arranged with a small gap between them. A high-frequency electric field applied between the two D-shaped halves gives a "kick" to the particle each time the particle crosses the gap. A student of Lawrence's, M. Stanley Livingston, undertakes the project and builds the first model which is 4 inches (10.2 cm) in diameter, and accelerates hydrogen ions (protons) to an energy of 13,000 electron volts (eV).
Lawrence then builds a second cyclotron that accelerates protons to 1,200,000 eV, enough energy to cause nuclear disintegration. To continue the program, Lawrence builds the Radiation Laboratory at Berkeley in 1936 and is made its director. One of Lawrence’s cyclotrons produced technetium, the first element that does not occur in nature to be made artificially. Lawrence's basic design is used in developing other particle accelerators, which have been largely responsible for the great advances made in the field of particle physics. With the cyclotron, Lawrence produces radioactive phosphorus and other isotopes for medical use, including radioactive iodine for the first therapeutic treatment of hyperthyroidism. In addition, Lawrence institutes the use of neutron beams in treating cancer.
At first, in the 1920s the only particles available to bombard atoms with were the alpha particles used by Ernest Rutherford, but being a double positive electric charge they approach the positively charged atomic nucleus only with difficulty. In 1928 Gamow suggests that protons be used instead, these hydrogen ions are easily available. Because protons have only an electric charge of plus 1, they would be less strongly repelled by the atomic nuclei than alpha particles. Cockcroft and Walton invented the first proton linear accelerator which uses a voltage multiplier. Van de Graaff had built a particle accelerator. However the cyclotron will prove to be the most useful of the particle accelerators to particle physics. Lawrence theorizes that instead of giving charged particles one large push in the beginning, charged particles can be moved in circles giving them a small push each time around. By the end of the 1930s thirty-five huge cyclotrons will have been built and twenty more are under construction. Lawrence's cyclotron design will reach its limit by 1940, but improvements by people like McMillan take the velocities (energies) to higher levels.
Lawrence publishes multiple papers in 1930 and 1931 describing the cyclotron and applies for a patent on the device in 1932. In his first paper, of October 10, 1930, in a Science article "On the production of high speed protons", Lawrence and N. E. Edlefsen write: "Very little is known about nuclear properties of atoms because of the difficulties inherent in excitation of nuclear transitions in the laboratory. The study of the nucleus would be greatly facilitated by the development of a source of high speed protons having kinetic energies of about one million volt-electrons. The straighforward method of accelerating protons through the requisite difference of potential presents great difficulties associated with the high electric fields necessarily involved. Apart from obvious difficulties in obtaining such high potentials with proper insulation, there is the problem of development of a vacuum tube suiotable for such voltages. A method for the acceleration of protons to high speeds which does not involve these difficulties is as follow. Semicircular hollow plates in a vacuum not unlike duants of an electrometer are placed in a uniform magnetic field which is normal to the plane of the plates. The diametral edges of the plates are crossed by a grid of wires so that inside each pair of plates there is an electric field free region. The two pairs of plates are joined to an inductance thereby serving as the condenser of a high frequency oscillatory circuit. Impressed oscillations then produce an alternating electric field in the space between the grids of the two paris of plates which is perpendicular to the magnetic field. Thus during one hald cycle the electric field accelerates protons into the region between one of the pairs of plates where they are bent around on a circular path by the magnetic field and eventually emerge again into the region between the grids. If now the time required for the passage along the semi-circular path inside the plates equals the hald period of the oscillations, the protons will enter the region between the grids when the field has reversed direction and thereby will receive an additional acceleration. Passing into the interior of the other pair of plates the protons continue on a circular path of larger radius coming out between the grids where again the field has reversed and the protons are accelerated into the region of the first pair of plates, etc. Because the radii of the circular paths are proportional to the velocities of the protons the time required for traversal of a semicircular path is independent of the radius of the circle. Therefore once the protons are in syncronism with the oscillating field they continue indefinitely to be accelerated on passing through the region between the grids, and spiraling around on ever-widing circles gain more and more kinetic energy from the oscillating field. For example, oscillations of 10,000 volts and 20 meters wave-length impressed on plates of 10 cm radius in a magnetic field of 15,000 Gauss will ield protons having about one million volt-electrons of kinetic energy. The method is being developed in this laboratory, and preliminary experiments indicate that there are probably no serious difficulties in the way of obtaining protons having high enough speeds to be usedul for stuies of atomic nuclei.".
In his patent application of January 26, 1932, "Method and Apparatus for the Acceleration of Ions" Larence writes: (read entire patent except for claims). "This invention relates to a method and apparatus for the multiple acceleration of ions. The invention is based primarily upon the cumulative action of a succession of accelerating impulses each requiring only a moderate voltage but eventually resulting in an ion speed corresponding to a much higher voltage.
In order to effect this cumulative action it is necessary to cause ions or electrically charged
particles to pass repeatedly through accelerating electric fields in such manner that the motion of the ion or charged particle is in resonance or synchronism with oscillations in the electric accelerating field or fields. It has been proposed
to produce high speed ions in this manner by causing the ions to pass successively in a rectilinear path through a plurality of electric fields, such a method having been disclosed by R. Wideroe—Archives fur Elektrot., 21, 387 (1929).
The method disclosed by Wideroe is to accelerate a beam of ions through a series of metal tubes arranged in a line and attached alternately to the two ends of the inductance of a high frequency oscillatory circuit. The tubes are made
successively longer (proportional to the square roots of integers) so that the time of passage through each tube is a constant equal to the half period of the oscillating circuit. In this way it is arranged that during the time of passage
of the particle through one of the tubes the electric field between successive tubes undergoes a half cycle, that is a reversal of direction, so that the particle experiences a force in thejsame direction each time it passes from one tube to the next.
Thereby an ion arrives at the end of the series
of tubes with an energy which is equivalent to the
sum of the potential drops through which it has
passed.
The method developed by Wideroe as above re
ferred to has been successfully demonstrated for heavy ions, for example he succeeded in producing potassium ions having equivalent voltages double the maximum voltage applied to the vacuum tube, and at the University of California this method
of rectilinear acceleration has been further developed so that ions have been produced having energies corresponding to 30 times the voltage applied to the tube. This method is conveniently applicable in practice only to fairly heavy
ions; for relatively light ions, say up to an atomic
weight of 25 or 30. the necessary length of the
tubes, because of the high speeds of the ions,
would be so great as to make it impractical.
The main object of the present invention is to
provide a method and apparatus which will enable
the production of high speed ions by successive accelerating impulses without necessitating the use of an extremely long apparatus such as would be required by the Wideroe method and to enable the operation to be performed in a compact 59 or relatively small sized apparatus even for the production of very high speeds with relatively light ions.
This stated object is attained according to the present invention, by causing the ions to travel 66 in curved paths back and forth between a single pair of electrodes instead of through a series of electrodes in rectilinear arrangement.
The movement of the ions or charged particles in such paths, according to the present invention, is effected by the action of a magnetic field, by means of which the moving ions or charged particles are deflected in such manner that their motion is repeatedly reversed with reference to the electric field between the electrodes and the voltage of such electrodes alternates or oscillates in synchronism or resonance with the reversal of the path of the motion of the particle. The present invention therefore utilizes the principle of resonance of the ions with an oscillating electric field but overcomes the difficulties inherent in the use of a long series of tubes by spinning the ions by means of a magnetic field so that the ions move successively in opposite directions in an oscillating electric field, in curved paths and in resonance with the oscillations of the field, whereby an extremely large number of accelerating impulses can be produced in a comparatively limited space.
The accompanying drawings illustrate an apparatus suitable for carrying out my invention and referring thereto:
Fig. 1 is a diagrammatic elevation, and
Fig. 2 is a diagrammatic section, of a means for producing electrostatic and magnetic fields for effecting the successive repeated acceleration? 95 according to the present invention;
Fig. 3 is a side elevation of an apparatus embodying the invention;
Fig. 4 is a vertical section of such apparatus;
Fig. 5 is a section on line 5—5 in Fig. 4, said figure also showing diagrammatically the electrical circuits energizing and controlling the apparatus;
Figs. 6 and 7 are graphs illustrating the results of the operation of my invention.
The general principle or mode of operation of the invention will be described with reference to Figs. 1 and 2, wherein is shown the essential apparatus for carrying out such mode of operation, said apparatus comprising a pair of electrodes
and 2 for establishing the required electric field and magnet means 3 for establishing a magnetic field for reversing the motion of the ions.
Electrodes 1 and 2 are shown as consisting of 5 approximately semicylindrical hollow metal plates or members closed at each side and at their peripheral portions but with their diametral portions open and facing one another. The respective electrode members 1 and 2 are connected to
means indicated at 4 for maintaining the required alternating or oscillating electric potential difference between said members.
The magnet means 3 may consist of any suitable magnet having two pole pieces arranged on
opposite sides of the members 1 and 2 so as to produce a uniform magnetic field, the lines of force of such field extending transversely to the electrodes 1 and 2 and normal to the plane of the electric field between the electrodes.
Suitable means are assumed to be provided for supplying ions or electrically charged particles to the space between the electrodes I and 2, for example near the center of the electric field. It will be understood that the effective electric field
is substantially confined to the space between the diametral faces of the two electrodes, the space within each hollow electrode being of approximately uniform potential and therefore of zero electric field, it being further understood how
ever, that some electric lines of force may be considered as extending into such hollow spaces within the electrodes to a limited extent, as hereinafter explained. If an ion is present in the diametral region
between the two electrodes it will be attracted to the interior of the electrode having the opposite charge. For instance, consider a hydrogen molecule ion, H2+. If electrode 1 is negatively charged the ion will be attracted to it,
gaining a velocity from the field and passing into the field free space inside electrode 1. Under the influence of the strong magnetic field at right angles to its path the ion will travel in a circular path inside electrode 1 eventually
arriving again in the region between the pair of electrodes. Now it is evident that if-the initial impulse is imparted at time t and the particle arrives back between 1 and 2 a time fe exactly a half cycle later, it will find the field
between 1 and 2 reversed and will experience an acceleration toward 2. The time required for the particle to traverse a semi-circular path inside the electrodes is the same for all velocities. This becomes clear when it is recalled that the
radius of a circular path on which a charged particle travels is proportional to its velocity. If then the particle arrives from electrode 1 into the region between 1 and 2 a half cycle later it will experience a second increment of velocity
on passing into electrode 2 where again it will traverse a semicircular path of larger radius arriving between 2 and 1 again another half cycle later, and again receives another acceleration into electrode 1. Thus for this resonance
condition the process continues, the particle gaining velocity with each passage through the region between the electrodes until it arrives at a collector placed at the outer edge of the magnetic field. The effect of the above-described
operation is to cause the particle or ion to move in a curved path in a plurality of revolutions in an alternating or oscillating electric field within the space enclosed by the hollow electrodes 1 and 2, in such manner that its path forms approximately a spiral of increasing radius, the
particle being continually deflected by the action of the magnetic field thereon so as to revolve around the axis or center of the field, and the period of half revolution as determined by the strength of the magnetic field coincides or 80 is synchronous with the period of alternation or oscillation of the electric field so that the particle or ion is repeatedly accelerated at successive half revolutions by the action of the electric field.
It will be understood that in order for the ion or charged particle to be accelerated in the manner above described it is necessary that the space traversed by the particle shall be. sufficiently free of other particles to prevent any substantial diminution in its velocity by reason of collision with such other particles. For this purpose it is necessary that the electrodes between which the electric field is maintained shall be inclosed in a suitable means within which a high degree of evacuation is maintained. It is also necessary to provide suitable means for establishing resonance or synchronism between the alternating electric field and the reversal of motion by the magnetic means. In operating upon light ions 100 the frequency of alternation required is such that it may be conveniently supplied by a high frequency oscillatory circuit.
Figs. 3 to 5 of the drawings illustrate an apparatus which has been successfully used in carrying out the invention and which embodies the principle of operation above described.
In said apparatus two electrodes 6 and 7 are provided, electrode 6 being in the shape of a hollow semicylindrical metal plate as above described and electrode 7 being shown as consisting of metal bars spaced apart a distance equal to the distance between the two side walls of member 6. Both of said electrodes are inclosed within an air tight casing 8 which may be of 115 metal and is mounted in any suitable manner between the pole pieces 9 and 10 of the magnet 11.
The electrode member 6 is insulated from the casing 8, being for example supported by a rod 12 connected to the semicylindrical peripheral wall 13 of the member 6 and mounted at its outer end on an insulator 14 which is supported on the casing 8. The casing 8 may be supported on the pole pieces of the magnet or in any other suitable manner.
The electrode means 7 is supported at its ends on the casing 8 and is preferably grounded through said casing.
A connection or conduit 15 leads from the interior of casing 8 to a suitable vacuum pump for maintaining the necessary high vacuum within the casing and a connection 16 may be provided for introducing into the casing a regulated amount of a gas, such as hydrogen for example.
In this form of the invention the high frequency oscillating electrical field is maintained between electrodes 6 and 7 by applying to the insulated electrode 6 a high frequency oscillating potential for example by means of an oscillatory electrical circuit such as illustrated in Fig 5, the grounded electrode 7 being connected through the casing to one side of said oscillation circuit.
The oscillation circuit 18 may be of any suitable type, comprising an oscillation tube 19, and suitable capacity and inductance means, constituting an oscillator having a definite frequency, the input of said oscillator being connected to an energizing circuit 20 and the output of the oscil- lator being connected by wires 22 and 23, respectively to supporting rod 12 for electrode 6 and to electrode 7 through grounded casing 8.
The energizing circuit for the oscillator may be 6 of any suitable type, comprising for example means including thermionic tubes, for rectifying alternating current and supplied from a service line 24, and adapted to apply unidirectional current to the oscillator for energizing the latter.
10 The oscillator and energizing circuits shown are of well known type, the connections for energizing the filaments in the thermionic tubes being omitted. The magnet 11 is preferably an electromagnet
15 energized by connections 26 and 27 from a direct current circuit, said connections including an ammeter 28 and a variable resistance or current controlling means 29 whereby the energization of the magnet may be variably controlled so as
20 to bring the period of reversal of motion of the charged particles into resonance with the frequency of the oscillating electrical field.
Ions may be supplied to the apparatus described by any suitable means. For example, as shown in
25 the drawings, a filament 30 may be mounted within the casing 8 adjacent the space between the electrodes 6 and 7, said filament being connected by conductors 31 and 32 to an energizing circuit including battery 33, adjustable resistance, or
30 current controlling means, 34 and ammeter 35. The filament circuit, as a whole, is preferably insulated and maintained at a suitable negative potential, for example by means of a battery 36, of say 200 volts, connected between said circuit
35 and the grounded connection 37.
Means are provided for withdrawing the ions from the magnetic field at a definite point in the circulatory motion thereof. For this purpose I have shown electrode means 40 and 41 defining
40 an electric field adapted to receive the ions and to deflect same outwardly from the magnetic field. Electrode 40 is shown as a metal member mounted within casing 8 and grounded by connection to said casing and extending in a curve
f_ «C members of electrodes 6 and 7, so that the ions may circulate in spiral paths within the space denned by members 6, 7 and 42 such spiral paths increasing in distance from the center of circulation until they pass to the outside of the mem
«!i ber 40. Electrode 41 is formed as a metal strip curved in parallelism with electrode 40 and mounted on an insulated post 43. Hi case positive ions are being operated upon, the electrode 41 is maintained at suitable negative potential
60 to draw the ions outwardly from the magnetic field. The supporting post 43 for electrode 41 is shown as connected by wire 44 to a potentiometer 45 connected to a unidirectional source of suitable voltage, for example, 1,000 volts, an
65 electrostatic voltmeter 46 being provided for measuring the voltage applied between electrode 41 and the grounded electrode 40.
The electric field producing means described may also be used for measuring the speed of the
iC ions as they traverse the channel 47 between electrodes 40 and 41, by measuring the potential difference between electrodes 40 and 41 required to deflect the ions in a definite path between inlet opening 49 and outlet opening 50 of said
75 channel, suitable means such as an insulated
collector box 51 being provided for receiving the ions only when they follow such definite path. Insulated collector box 51 is connected to a current measuring means 53 shown ac, an electrometer with high resistance shunt and having 80 ground connections so as to measure the current drawn from the collector box, such current being proportional to the number of ions collected. The electric field strength required for deflecting the ions the required amount, in 86 passing through the channel between electrodes 40 and 41 is proportional to the kinetic energy due to the speed of the ions, and by adjusting the voltage between electrodes 40 and 41 for maximum current from the collector box, it is 90 possible to determine from measurement of such voltage, the speed of the ions as they leave the magnetic field.
I have also shown at 52 means for controlling the magnetic field at a definite part of the path 95 of the ions to assist in withdrawing the ions from such field, the means 52 consisting of a channel member of soft iron, whose channel 52' is located in line with the path of the ions issuing from the channel between electrodes 40 and 41 100 and serves to reduce the magnetic field intensity at such point, so that the ions deviate outwardly from the magnetic field by. reason of their own momentum. The means 52 may be used either in conjunction with, or instead of, the de- 105 fleeting electric fleld means 40 and 41.
The high speed ions produced by the operation of the above described apparatus may be utilized in any suitable manner, for example for application to the disintegration or synthesis of 110 atoms, or for general investigations of atomic structure, or for therapeutic investigations or applications. For such purposes the high speed ions may be delivered from the apparatus, for example by passing through a window 55 of mica 115 or other suitable material, in the wall of casing 8, it being understood that the collector box 51 may be removed or omitted in that case, so that the ions pass unobstructedly to the window 55 and thence to any suitable means for utilization 120 of same. Window 55 or other equivalent means serves as a means for withdrawing and receiving the accelerated ions while permitting the ions to maintain substantially the high speed produced by the repeated accelerations. 125
The apparatus shown in Figs. 3, 4 and 5 operates upon the principle above described in connection with Figs. 1 and 2 it being understood that the electric field in this case is maintained between the grounded electrode 7 and the in- 130 sulated electrode 6 and that the reversal of the oscillatory electric field is effected each time the ions pass through the space between said electrodes. It will be understood that instead of the grounded electrode 7 another insulated elec- 135 trode opposite electrode 6 and similar in construction thereto may be employed as illustrated in Figs. 1 and 2 and in that case the energy of acceleration would be double that which can be obtained with a single insulated electrode as 140 shown in Fig. 5.
In the operation of the apparatus shown in Figs. 3 to 5 the ions are generated in situ in the space between the electrodes 6 and 7 by the operation of electrons emitted from the heated '.±!i filament 30, said filament being preferably maintained at a moderate negative potential, say about 200 volts, and being preferably, partly inclosed by a housing 57 in electrical connection therewith and open on the side toward the space 150
1,948,384
between electrodes 6 and 7 so that electrons are wbject to the action of an electric field tending to force the electrons through the opening into the space between electrodes 6 and 7. The space 6 within the casing 8 is evacuated to a suitable degree, for example, to a pressure less than 10~* atmosphere and a gas, for example hydrogen is admitted to said space in regulated manner so as to maintain the desired degree of vacuum and
10 at the same time supply a sufficient number of molecules for production of the ions in the desired amount. The electrons emitted from the filament operate by impact upon such molecules to produce ions and the results obtained indicate
15 that both molecular ions and protons are produced. It has also been found that the effect of the magnetic field is to concentrate the beam of electrons from the filament into a relatively limited zone extending from the hottest portion
20 of the filament normally to the plane of the electric field so that the zone of production of the ions is rather sharply defined. The ions produced in this manner are then subjected to the multiple acceleration as above described by
25 the successive operation of the electrical field
thereon the magnetic field serving to maintain
the curved path of the ions necessary for such
successive operation of the electrical field.
When one considers the spiraling of the ions
30 back and forth from one hollow electrode to another on ever widening paths and estimates the distance the ions travel in their course, it may appear at first sight that only an exceedingly small fraction of the ions starting will arrive at the
35 periphery of the apparatus. A superficial view of the matter would suggest that the electric field between the pairs of plates and the magnetic field would have to be very precisely perpendicular to each other and that the Interior of the
40 plates would have to be field free to a high order of magnitude so that the ions would experience forces only tending to keep them in a plane in the interior of the plates. In fact consideration of this matter might lead one to believe that it
45 is a requirement that is practically impossible to achieve. It is therefore to be emphasized particularly that this requirement has been so obviated that in the experimental tests of this method it was found that a very satisfactory
50 portion of the ions starting the spiral paths reach their ultimate goal.
Consideration of Fig. 2 shows the important feature of the experimental arrangement which gives a focusing action of the ions, keeping them
55 approximately in a plane central and parallel to the plates. In this figure dotted lines e show qualitatively the way the lines of force of the electric field extend between the electrodes in the part of the field under consideration, other
60 lines of force being omitted, the shape and position of the electrodes being such that the lines of electric force converge from within each electrode toward the central part of the other electrode. A dot and dash line p shows in a quali
35 tative manner also the effect of the, electric field on an ion traveling in a plane which is near the side walls of the electrodes, that is away from the central plane a—-a. As the ion approaches electrode 1 it not only experiences an acceleration
VO towards 1, but an acceleration at right angles towards the center plane. An electric field of this form thus produces a focusing action which keeps the ions traveling approximately in the central part of the region of the interior of the plates.
<»> This focusing action is a very strong one and
overcomes the effects of stray fields and space charge and the like, which would tend to cause a divergence of a beam of ions spiraling around. Of course, this type of an electric field between the plates also tends to prevent the spreading of 80 the ion beam in the plane of the plates at right angles to the magnetic field as well, but this is not so important because a slight tendency of the ions to move in a direction which is not exactly perpendicular to the diametral plane is not quite 85 so important. This focusing action is a feature of the process which makes it so effective, and indeed makes it possible in this way to speed up a large proportion of the ions generated in the diametral region between the pair of plates. 00
In addition to the focusing by the electric field as above pointed out there is a focusing action due to curvature of the magnetic field adjacent the peripheral portion of such field, such curvature being shown in Fig. 2, where the magnetic 88 lines of force are indicated by the dash lines m, and resulting in deflection of the circumferentially moving ions so as to impart a radial inward component of motion as shown by the heavy arrows, the effect of which is to concentrate the 100 paths of the ions toward the medium plane a—a of the electrode system.
The production of the ions required for the above described operation may be effected in any suitable manner and in the form of the apparatus 108 above described this has been effected by maintaining the electrodes in an atmosphere of the gas at such a pressure that the ions are able to traverse the course of their spiral paths without too great scattering and to cause a beam of elec- 110 trons to pass down between the pairs of plates ionizing the gas and thereby forming the ions in situ. In the laboratory at the University of California using this method approximately A of one micro-ampere of protons were caused to 115 spiral around approximately 50 times, gaining an energy corresponding to % of a million volts hi this way. That is to say, A a micro-ampere of protons were produced having energies 200 times that corresponding to the maximum voltage 120 applied across the electrodes.
Another method of producing ions would be, of course, the well known discharge tube method wherein a hot cathode discharge would be maintained in the gas at fairly high pressure and the 125 ions let out into the region between the pairs of plates through a suitable canal; and with a suitable pumping arrangement, pressure difference between the discharge tube and the region of the pair of plates could be made as great as desired. 130
A third method for the producing of protons and H molecule ions is that of Dempster, who has found that protons are emitted when lithium metal is bombarded by electrons. In this instance the lithium could be placed in the region 138 between the plates and suitably bombarded with electrons. There is also available the method of Kunsman for the production of alkali ions.
By means of apparatus constructed and operated as above described it has been possible to ob- 140 tain high speed ions of a voltage of 1 million. The following mathematical analysis is given as explaining the fact that the frequency of reversal by operation of the magnetic field is constant throughout the circulation of the ion in said field and therefore can be maintained in resonance with a definite frequency of oscillation of the accelerating electric field. It may be stated that the results of actual operation of the appa These curves are hyperbolas and are the theoretical curves for tne fundamental resonance conditions of the ions named.
It has been mentioned before (referring to Fig. 5) that a deflecting system is used to draw the beam of ions from tne circular paths in the magnetic field. With the system shown in Fig. 5 there is an optimum voltage applied to the deflecting plates which causes the largest number of the circulating ions to enter the collector. As an example, there is plotted in Fig. 6 the current to the collector as ordinates corresponding to various deflecting fields as abscissas. There are two curves shown; both were obtained with 37Yz meter oscillations applied to the tube and the curve labeled H+ was obtained with a magnetic field of 5250 gauss. It is seen that this curve has a maximum for a deflecting field of 1700 volts/cm. With this magnetic field it is expected from the theory that 175,000 volt H+ ions would arrive at the collector; also the theoretical deflecting field required to bend the beam of 175,000 volt protons into the collector agrees with this experimentally observed optimum value, that is, 1700 volts per centimeter. The second curve nfl labeled 350,000 volts H2+ represents the current to the collector when a magnetic field of 10,500 gauss was used. For this magnetic field it is expected that H2+ ions will resonate with the electric oscillations of wave length 37% meters and moreover 120 it is expected that the ions arriving at the collector system would have twice the kinetic energy that the protons had in the former case and therefore would require twice the deflecting field to bend them into the collector. It is seen that J2S such is found experimentally to be the case; the deflecting field giving the maximum current being 3400 volts per centimeter, as compared to 1700 volts per centimeter for protons.
It is seen that for a deflecting field between 130 1700 and 3400 volts/cm, it is possible for both protons and hydrogen molecular ions to arrive at the collector system when in each instance the magnetic field is properly adjusted. Fig. 7 shows an example of this; ordinates representing cur- 18JJ rents to the collector corresponding to various magnetic fields given by the abscissas with a deflecting field of about 2500 volts per centimeter. It is seen that collector currents are obtained for magnetic fields in two very restricted regions mi only, that of 5250 and 10,500 gauss. These magnetic fields are those calculated from the theory to cause protons and Hb+ ions respectively to resonate with the oscillating electric field of 37.5 meters wave length. The range of magnetic field u& over which ions are accelerated enough to reach the collector system depends on the magnitude of the high frequency oscillations applied to the tube; increasing with the applied high frequency voltage. In some of the experiments already car- ]0Q ried through, such low voltages have been used, that a variation of the magnetic field of .2 of a percent from the resonant value has caused the ion beam arriving at the collector to diminish practically to zero.
It is obvious that resonance between the period of reversal of motion of the ions and the frequency of oscillation of the electric field can be effected either by adjustment of the strength of the magnetic field, as" above set forth, or by adjustment of the frequency of oscillation of the oscillation, circuit which energizes the electric field. ...".
(TODO: Does Lawrence ever bombard large atoms with large atomic ions? What occurs when large ions are collided? For example does Iron26 + Iron26 = Te52? Does He2+He2=Be4? Does Li3+Li3->C6? Does Be4+Be4=O8? Y39+Y39->Pt78? - Determine if there are any papers whatsoever that describe this building up of atoms by colliding ions. Even possible the neutral so-called "molecular" beams might gain enough velocity to create atomic fusion. It seems likely that any papers would be published pre-1935 and certainly pre-1945 although possibly there could be some in the 1950s or later.)
(Can similar models be made using other kinds of particle collision, like gas molecules, that push and accelerate some other particles even if only to experiment and find analogies to an electromagnetic field?)
(what about accelerating electrons and other charged particles in cyclotron/circular accelerators? How are the electrons isolated? Explain more about the details of accelerating protons, how many times around? How does the voltage change, quickly for a small amount of time? Isn't it absurd to conclude that the mass of a particle goes toward infinity simply from reaching a high velocity, when probably accelerating the already high velocity particle reaches the limit of an electric field? Particle accelerators are used with fixed targets such as plates of metals perhaps any kind of molecules, gases, for example, and for collisions with electrical opposite particles (such as antiprotons). A cathode ray tube in a television set is an electron beam. Particle beams can be used to convert atoms into other atoms (transmutation), and probably among the many many secret advances kept from the public, are the systematic conversion of large amounts of one kind of atom into another, in particular those atoms that may be more valuable. In particular converting common atoms such as iron, aluminum, silicon into oxygen, and hydrogen so such a process can be used on other planets and moons. In addition, some form of beam devices are used against people, possibly many rooms have tiny beam devices which cause their muscles to move involuntary, send and receive images, sounds and smells to and from their brains, make them itch or gesture, and other unpleasant effects.)
(State when negative ions are accelerated using the circular method.) (Possibly an magnet should be called an "electret" because clearly magnetism is simply a phenomenon of electricity.) (Is voltage increased with each turn of a single proton or beam of protons?) (Explain how electrons are removed from hydrogen to leave only protons.)
(Clearly there must be much more behind the neuron curtain that has not been made public. For example, dust-sized flying radio neuron reading and writing devices must clearly have been in large use by 1930- implying thatthe cyclotron probably has earlier origins but needed to be made public for some reason.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
70 YBN
[10/10/1930 AD]
| 5269) Ernest Orlando Lawrence (CE 1901-1958), US physicist, and John Lawrence show that neutron rays are roughly 10 times as biologically effective as x-rays in lowering the total number of lymphocytes in blood.
In this paper "The Biological Action of Neutron Rays", in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Ernest and John Lawrence give an interesting description of particle collisions writing: "Introduction.-Neutron rays have the property of penetrating dense substances such as lead more readily than light substances containing hydrogen. This behavior arises from the circumstances that, being uncharged particles, neutrons pass unimpeded through electron clouds of atoms and are slowed down or absorbed only when they encounter the much more dense atomic nuclei. The collision of a neutron with the nucleus of an atom is understandable in very simple terms; for both neutron and nucleus behave, as tiny, very
dense, solid spheres.' The neutron has a mass very nearly equal to that of the hydrogen nucleus, the proton, so that in a head-on collision the proton recoils with the full speed of the neutron while the neutron is brought to rest. Glancing impacts likewise give rise to recoil protons of various smaller speeds with the result that neutrons on the average lose half their energy per collision. On the other hand, when a neutron strikes the nucleus of a heavy element, as for example lead, which is more than two hundred times heavier, the neutron rebounds with little loss of energy. Momentum is conserved in the impact and the heavy nucleus recoils with a small amount of energy which is in inverse proportion to its mass. The latter situation is not unlike a billiard ball colliding with a cannon ball. It is for this reason that neutrons are able to penetrate such great thicknesses of dense substances-for inasmuch as little energy is lost in each impact, the neutrons make many nuclear collisions and hence travel great distances before being brought practically to rest. Likewise, it is clear that they are more readily absorbed in substance containing hydrogen such as biological materials. The recoil nuclei, resulting from the passage of neutrons through a substance, being heavy charged particles, rapidly lose their acquired kinetic energy by intense ionization along their paths. Recoil protons produce more than one hundred times as much ionization per unit distance of path as is produced by secondary electrons generated in matter by x-rays. In other words, in ionizing power the recoil particles are similar to alpha rays rather than electrons. ...". Any use of the word "billiard" may imply the "all-inertial" corpuscular view of the universe, where even gravity is strictly the result of particle collision between material corpuscles - a system that can be refered to as a "billiard ball universe" model or theory.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
70 YBN
[10/23/1930 AD]
| 5077) Walther Wilhelm Georg Franz Bothe (CE 1891-1957), German physicist, reports very penetrating radiation is emitted from beryllium bombarded with alpha particles, which will be shown by Chadwick to be neutrons.
In April of 1919, Rutherford had produced oxygen nuclei and protons by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, and during the 1920s various laboratories work on this type of transmutation. Bothe starts experimenting on this subject in 1926, and in the following years studies the transmutation of boron to carbon by alpha particle collision. Bothe is among the early users of the electronic counter to detect the protons in this type of reaction. (Tell more about the proton detector origins and structure.)
Bothe and Becker bombard a number of elements and compounds with alpha rays. They detect a highly penetrative radiation from beryllium bombarded by alpha particles, and assume that this radiation is gamma radiation. Bothe estimates the photon energy from the degree of absorption of the secondary electrons. When other physicists study this "beryllium radiation", estimating the energy of the radiation causes a problem because the energy varies depending on the substance used as an absorber.
The Joliet-Curies repeat this experiment. Chadwick later suggests that the radiation is particulate and consists of a new particle, the neutron.
(It is very interesting that helium nuclei can be converted into neutron beams by beryllium, and there must be other materials too which converts helium into neutrons. The range of experiments here are many, because there are many particle beams, and many different elements and molecules.)
(How different from hydrogen atoms are neutrons? Certainly mass is one determining characteristic - perhaps electromagnetic moment might be different?)
(Interesting how this apparantly is in light elements, (again notice the "light element" potential double-meaning of the light particle as some kind of a basic element), does this radiation exist for heavier elements too? If no, perhaps this implies that the light element itself is somehow converted into the so-called neutron - which may be a hydrogen atom I think.)
| (University of Berlin) Berlin, Germany |
70 YBN
[11/15/1930 AD]
| 5212) William Thomas Astbury (CE 1898-1961) English physical biochemist, and H. J. Woods determine the molecular structure and explain the difference of stretched and unstretched wool by using X-ray diffraction.
Astbury and Woods publish an article in Nature entitled "The X-Ray Interpretation of the Structure and Elastic Properties of Hair Keratin" in which they write: "RECENT experiments, carried out for the most part on human hair and various types of sheep's wool, have shown that animal hairs can give rise to two X-ray "fibre photographs" according as the hairs are unstretched or stretched, and that the change from one photograph to the other corresponds to a reversible transformation between two forms of the keratin complex. Hair rapidly recovers its original length on wetting after removal of the stretching force, and either of the two possible photographs may be produced at will an indefinite number of times. Both are typical "fibre photographs" in the sense that they arise from crystallites or pseudo-crystallites of which the average length along the fibre axis is much larger than the average thickness, and which are almost certainly built up in a rather imperfect manner of molecular chains what Meyer and Mark have called Hauptvalenzketten running roughly parallel to the fibre axis. ... The skeleton model is shown in Fig. 1. It is simply a peptide chain folded into a series of hexagons with the precise nature of the side links as yet undetermined. Its most important features may be summarized as follows :- (1) It explains why the main periodicity (5.15 A.) in unstretched hair corresponds so closely with that which has already been observed in cellulose, chitin, etc., in which the hexagonal glucose residues are linked together by oxygens. (2) When once the side links are freed, it permits an extension from 5.15 A. to a simple zigzag chain of length 3 x 3.4 A., that is, 98 per cent, and also allows for possible contraction below the original length, without altering the interatomic distances and the angles between the bonds. 3) It explains why natural silk does not show the long-range elasticity of hair, since it is for the most part already in the extended state, with a chief periodicity of 3.5 A. ...".
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
70 YBN
[12/04/1930 AD]
| 5234) Wolfgang Pauli (CE 1900-1958), Austrian-US physicist, proposes that an unnamed particle accounts for the apparent violation of the law of conservation of energy in beta decay. Fermi will name this particle the "neutrino".
Pauli proposes in a letter of December 4, 1930 to Lise Meitner and associates that "the continuous β-spectrum would be understandable under the assumption that during β-decay a neutron is emitted along with the electron...". This is before Chadwick's announcement of the neutron.
Pauli suggests that when an electron is emitted (as beta decay) another particle without charge and perhaps without mass either is also emitted and this second particle carries part of the missing energy. In the next year Fermi will name this particle the “neutrino” which is Italian for “little neutral one”. The neutrino will finally be detected in 1956 by a very elaborate experiment involving a nuclear power stations. In 1962 a theory is created which explains that supernovas explode through reactions involving neutrino formation.
In beta decay the electron should always carry away the same amount of energy same amount of energy. however, in 1914, James Chadwick showed that the electrons emitted in beta decay do not have one energy or even a discrete set of eneries. Instead, they have a continuous spectrum of energies. Whenever the electron energy is at the maximum observed, the total energy before and after the reaction is the same, and energy appears to be conserved. But in all other cases, some of the energy released in the decay process appears to be lost. Pauli explains this lost energy as being due to a particle in the nucleus he names a "neutron". Fermi will later rename this theoretical particle a "neutrino".
In his letter Pauli writes: "Dear radioactive ladies and gentlemen, As the bearer of these lines, to whom I ask you to listen graciously, will explain more exactly, considering the ‘false’ statistics of N-14 and Li-6 nuclei, as well as the continuous b-spectrum, I have hit upon a desperate remedy to save the “exchange theorem”* of statistics and the energy theorem. Namely the possibility that there could exist in the nuclei electrically neutral particles that I wish to call neutrons,** which have spin 1/2 and obey the exclusion principle, and additionally differ from light quanta in that they do not travel with the velocity of light: The mass of the neutron must be of the same order of magnitude as the electron mass and, in any case, not larger than 0.01 proton mass. The continuous b-spectrum would then become understandable by the assumption that in b decay a neutron is emitted together with the electron, in such a way that the sum of the energies of neutron and electron is constant. Now, the next question is what forces act upon the neutrons. The most likely model for the neutron seems to me to be, on wave mechanical grounds (more details are known by the bearer of these lines), that the neutron at rest is a magnetic dipole of a certain moment m. Experiment probably required that the ionizing effect of such a neutron should not be larger than that of a g ray, and thus m should probably not be larger than e.10-13 cm. But I don’t feel secure enough to publish anything about this idea, so I first turn confidently to you, dear radioactives, with a question as to the situation concerning experimental proof of such a neutron, if it has something like about 10 times the penetrating capacity of a g ray. I admit that my remedy may appear to have a small a priori probability because neutrons, if they exist, would probably have long ago been seen. However, only those who wager can win, and the seriousness of the situation of the continuous b-spectrum can be made clear by the saying of my honored predecessor in office, Mr. Debye, who told me a short while ago in Brussels, “One does best not to think about that at all, like the new taxes.” Thus one should earnestly discuss every way of salvation.—So, dear radioactives, put it to test and set it right.—Unfortunately, I cannot personally appear in Tübingen, since I am indispensable here on account of a ball taking place in Zürich in the night from 6 to 7 of December.—With many greetings to you, also to Mr. Back, your devoted servant, W. Pauli".
At the Solvay Congress in 1933, Pauli will again justify this proposal, which is published in the Congress report.
With D. Lea. Chadwick will conduct a search of the neutrino and is unable to detect any particles. They show, using a very-high-pressure ionization chamber, that if the neutrino does exist, it can not produce more than one ionization in 150 kilometers of air at normal pressure.
(Determine any official paper.)
(I doubt the existence of the neutrino. Perhaps the missing mass or motion is due to emitted light particles which appear to be neglected. To the best of my knowledge, the evidence for the existence of neutrinos is not direct, but is from Cherenkov radiation. As always there is a problem in thinking that mass and motion can be exchanged. In my view, there is no way that velocity can ever be converted to mass, and so the velocity of a particle cannot create, destroy or change mass.)
(Explain specifics of neutrino detection experiment). (Neutrinos are claimed to be detected by Cherenkov photons at the Kamioka Observatory in Japan at the beginning of a supernova which is compelling evidence.)
(In addition, there may be a large variety of photon combinations, in theory, photons may cluster into many thousands of different mass particles, and perhaps a neutrino is just a (possibly variable sized) piece of neutron that exits the neutron. There probably are few restrictions on the quantity of light particles that can be tangled in some mass.)
(It seems likely that what is being described as differing "energies" is actually differing "penetration". There are many alternative theories to the so-called "missing energy" or variable penetration. The electrons may have different angles and so those with larger angles of incidence penetrate less. There may be other collisions on the way out of the material which take away velocity. Some velocity may be lost to invisible light particles. Perhaps there is more than one electron in a ray of beta decay. Experiment: determine frequencies of beta decay electron beams - are they individual particles or multiparticle beams?)
| (Physical Institute of the Federal Institute of Technology) Zürich, Switzerland |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 4505) Vladimir Nikolaevich Ipatieff (iPoTYeF) (CE 1867-1952), Russian-US chemist shows how low octane gasoline can be converted into high octane gasoline. Gasoline with low octane produces a damaging and wasteful "knock" because of burning too quickly.
| (Universal Oil Products Company) Chicago, ILlinois, USA |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 4804) Upton Sinclair publishes the book "Mental Radio" in which his wife somewhat successfully reproduces many drawings which Sinclair had drawn without his wife seeing. Albert Einstein writes an introduction for the book supporting the claims of telepathy.
(Clearly probably neuron writing was used to allow the wife to reproduce the drawing, or she did see the original drawings, however, I can accept that this was strictly neuron reading and writing and that Sinclair is probably honest in the claims of his book. Without seeing their eyes it is hard to be certain. Incidentally one of my complaints about Einstein, was that with all the fame, and probably as a receiver of neuron written videos that he never told the public about neuron reading and writing - but here clearly one must accept that Einstein did lend his popularity to at least hinting to the public about neuron reading, writing and the 200 and perhaps more years of secret scientific telepathy.)
| New York City, NY, USA (verify) |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 4999) Davidson Black (CE 1884-1934) Canadian anthropologist, finds skulls, other bones, tools and the remains of campfires from what is now known to be Homo erectus.
| (Chou Kou Tien) Peking, China (presumably) |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 5031) Bernardo Alberto Houssay (CE 1887-1971), Argentinian physiologist, isolates a hormone from the pituitary that has the reverse effect to insulin, and so can increase the amount of sugar in the blood.
Houssay shows that the anterior lobe of the pituitary gland, (a small hormone-producing structure suspended from the base of the brain), secretes a hormone that has an effect opposite to that of insulin (first isolated by Banting and Best) and affects the course of sugar metabolism. Houssay shows that removing the pituitary gland from a diabetic animal reduces the severity of the diabetes (since insulin is not countered by secretions from the pituitary), while injecting pituitary extracts increases the severity of diabetes and can even produces a diabetic condition where none was before.
(what is the name of this hormone? - it's unusual that no source gives the name of the hormone.) (Hopefully, more South American scientists wil be recognized as time continues.)
| (University of Buenos Aires School of Medicine) Buenos Aires, Argentina |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 5079) John Howard Northrop (CE 1891–1987), US biochemist crystallizes pepsin, the protein-splitting digestive enzyme in gastric secretions.
Sumner was the first to crystallize the enzyme urease. This and other enzyme crystallizations show clearly that enzymes are proteins.
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 5160) Nikolay Nikolaevich Semenov (SimYOnoF) (CE 1896-1896), Russian physical chemist, discovers a new type of chemical process: the so-called branched chain reaction. Semenov determines the mechanisms of chain processes and develops a general theory for them. Semenov also creates theories of chain and thermal explosions and develops the understanding of flame spreading, detonation, and burning of explosives. His theoretical models foreshadow the discovery of nuclear chain reactions.
Semenov’s general theory of chain reactions eventually includes both branched and unbranched chain processes. Chain reactions represents a series of self-initiating stages of chemical reactions, which, once started, continue until the process stops for lack of reactant. The key to a chain reaction is an initial formation of a so-called active center—an atom or a group of atoms that has a free (unpaired) electron, in other words, a free radical. Once formed, the free radical interacts with another molecule in such a way that a new free radical (continuation of chain) is formed as one of reaction’s products. The reaction continues until free radicals are somehow prevented from continuing to form similar particles (for example, by destruction at the flask’s walls), that is, until a termination of the chain occurs. In a branched chain reaction, free radicals do not only regenerate active centers, but also actively multiply, creating new chains and constantly accelerating the reaction.
(Describe the difference between branched and unbranched chain reactions.) (needs more specific info. Cite, translate and read relevent parts of paper first describing branched chain reactions))
| (Electronic Phenomena Laboratory of the Petrograd Physical-Technical Radiological Institute) (Petrograd now) Leningrad, Russia |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 5173) Bernard Ferdinand Lyot (lEO) (CE 1897-1952), French astronomer, invents the "coronograph".
A coronagraph is a telescope or an attachment for a telescope equipped with a disk that blacks out most of the sun, used to photograph the sun's corona.
Before Lyot’s coronagraph, observing the corona had been possible only during a solar eclipse, but total eclipses happen rarely and only last no more than seven minutes. Merely blocking out the Sun’s radiant disk is insufficient to view the comparatively dim corona because of the diffusion of the Sun’s light by the earth's atmosphere, whose brightness renders the corona invisible. But by going to the Pic du Midi Observatory high in the French Pyrenees, where the high altitude results in less atmospheric diffusion, and by equipping his coronagraph with an improved lens and a monochromatic filter that he had developed, Lyot succeeds in making daily photographs of the Sun’s corona. In 1939, using his coronagraph and filters, Lyot captures the first motion pictures of the solar prominences.
The coronograph focuses the light of the sun onto an opaque disc which removes all scattered light from the atmosphere. With the coronograph astronomers do not have to wait for an eclipse to observe spectral lines of the corona.
(Verfiry if viewing just the Sun's hydrogen spectral line, and/or with simply dark filters allows the Solar corona to be seen.)
(show images and movie)
| (Pic du Midi Observatory) Bigorre, France |
70 YBN
[1930 AD]
| 5176) Odd Hassel (CE 1897-1981) Norwegian physical chemist, discovered the existence of two forms of cyclohexane (a 6-carbon hydrocarbon molecule).
Hassel shows that the six carbon ring in cyclohexane and its derivatives, can exist in two three-dimensional shapes (called “boat” and “chair”) and that this affects the reactions with these compounds. Barton will work independently with "conformational analysis" (the study of the three-dimensional geometric structure of molecules).
(determine correct paper.)
| (University of Oslo) Oslo, Norway |
69 YBN
[02/17/1931 AD]
| 5257) Linus Carl Pauling (CE 1901–1994), US chemist, with biochemist Alfred Mirsky, explains general protein structure, and that protein molecules became “denatured” (uncoiled) once certain weak bonds are broken. Pauling and Mirsky state that no denatured protein has been crystalized.
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
69 YBN
[05/29/1931 AD]
| 5299) English physicist, Paul Adrien Maurice Dirac (DiraK) (CE 1902-1984) theorizes that an anti-electron, and anti-proton may exist with the same mass, but opposite charge as an electron and proton, respectively. Dirac also theorizes that a light particle is a sphere and can collide with other light particles.
This view of antimatter will later be adapted or misinterpreted to claim that anti-particles are non-material.
In 1898 Arthur Schuster (CE 1851–1934) had speculated about the existance of anti-matter.
In 1931 Dirac suggests that there must be a particle with the same mass as an electron but with an opposite electrical charge. Dirac develops this theory from De Broglie's work which describes an electron as having wave properties. This same equation holds for the proton too, and Dirac proposes that there should be particle with the same mass as a proton but with an opposite electrical charge. Oppenheimer contributes to this view. Dirac names these theoretical particles "anti-electron" and "anti-proton". In two years Anderson will confirm the existence of the antielectron (also known as the positron), however it will be 25 years before the first antiproton is detected by Segré. Later other particles will be shown to have antiparticles too. In modern times antihydrogen atoms have been created. (state when). It is possible that even antimatter galaxies exist, but there is no physical evidence of this yet.
In 1926, Dirac develops the Fermi-Dirac statistics (which had been suggested somewhat earlier by Enrico Fermi). This view supports the theory that the fundamental laws governing microscopic particles are probabilistic.
In 1928 Dirac creates combines quantum mechanics with the quantity mc2 to create a relativistic wave equation for the electron. The Dirac equation requires a combination of four wave functions and relatively new mathematical quantities known as spinors. As an added bonus, the equation describes electron spin (magnetic moment). (I have doubts about mc^2 being relevent in particular since kinetic energy has always been 1/2mc^2, beyond that time dilation is definitely false, that all matter is made of light particles I can accept however.)
In December 1929, Dirac, finding that his relativity quantum theory of an electron has "...unwanted solutions with negative kinetic energy for the electron, which appear to have no physical meaning. ..." and concludes that "...an electron with negative energy moves in an external field as though it carries a positive charge. This result has led people to suspect a connection between the negative energy electron and the proton or hydrogen nucleus.... The most stable states for an electron (i.e., the states of lowest energy) are those with negative energy and very high velocity. All the electrons in the world will tend to fall into these states with emission of radiation. ...We are therefore led to the assumption that the holes in the distribution of negative energy electrons are the protons. When an electron of positive energy drops into a hole and fills it up, we have an electron and proton disappearing together with emission of radiation. ...". By suggesting that such "holes can be identified with protons, Dirac hopes to produce a unified theory of matter, as electrons and protons are at the time the only known elementary particles. Others show, however, that a "hole" must have the same mass as the electron, whereas the proton is a thousand times heavier. This leads Dirac to admit in 1931 that his theory, if true, implies the existence of the anti-electron. Dirac writes: " ...A recent paper by the author* may possibly be regarded as a small step according to this general scheme of advance. The mathematical formalism at that time involved a serious difficulty through its prediction of negative kinetic energy values for an electron. It was proposed to get over this difficulty, making use of Pauli's Exclusion Principle which does not allow more than one electron in any state, by saying that in the physical world almost all the negative-energy states are already occupied, so that our ordinary electrons of positive energy cannot fall into them. The question then arises as to the physical interpretation of the negative-energy states, which on this view really exist. We should expect the uniformly filled distribution of negative-energy states to be completely unobservable to us, but an unoccupied one of these states, being something exceptional, should make its presence felt as a kind of hole. It was shown that one of these holes would appear to us as a particle with a positive energy and a positive charge and it was suggested that this particle should be identified with a proton. Subsequent investigations, however, have shown that this particle necessarily has the same mass as an electront and also that, if it collides with an electron, the two will have a chance of annihilating one another much too great to be consistent with the known stability of matter.t It thus appears that we must abandon the identification of the holes with protons and must find some other interpretation for them. Following Oppenheimer,? we can assume that in the world as we know it, all, and not merely nearly all, of the negative-energy states for electrons are occupied. A hole, if there were one, would be a new kind of particle, unknown to experimental physics, having the same mass and opposite charge to an electron. We may call such a particle an anti-electron. We should not expect to find any of them in nature, on account of their rapid rate of recombination with electrons, but if they could be produced experimentally in high vacuum they would be quite stable and amenable to observation. An encounter between two hard y-rays (of energy at least half a million volts) could lead to the creation simultaneously of an electron and anti-electron, the probability of occurrence of this process being of the same order of magnitude as that of the collision of the two y-rays on the assumption that they are spheres of the same size as classical electrons. This probability is negligible, however, with the intensities of y-rays at present available. The protons on the above view are quite unconnected with electrons. Presumably the protons will have their own negative-energy states, all of which normally are occupied, an unoccupied one appearing as an anti-proton. Theory at present is quite unable to suggest a reason why there should be any differ ences between electrons and protons.". One year later, this particle—the antielectron, or positron—is identified in cosmic rays by Carl Anderson of the United States. In 1933, the Joliot-Curies will determine that positive electrons are emitted (in addition to neutrons, and gamma rays) from bombarding Beryllium with alpha particles.
Note that Dirac presumes light particles to be spheres, and the same size as electrons and implies light particles can collide with each other.
Note too that Dirac does not claim that these "anti" particles are anti-matter, but instead, for the case of the anti-electron that it has "...the same mass and opposite charge to an electron. ...". So state when this theory was adapted to view anti-particles as anything other than same-mass electrical-opposite particles.
(To my knowledge, I am the first person to publicly reject the theory of anti-matter. I think anti-matter is simply electrically opposite matter as Dirac originally claims here, both made of light particles. That this is so simple, implies that there is some kind of "insider agreement", as is the case for all non-public neuron knowledge, to simply pretend publicly that the more accurate truth is not known.)
(That there are negative energy states for the electron to me implies an inaccurate theory, or at best, that those states simply should be ignored as mathematical realities, but physical impossibilities like the case for the negative roots for t in the simple equation S=1/2at^2.)
(To me, this almost comical- as if Anderson's finding of an positively charged particle with the same mass as an electron somehow is an exact fit proving Dirac's relativity quantum theory. The simple truth is that probably in the tracks of particle collisions there are every possible particle mass and charge observed in the material fragments of collision. In addition, add to this the, thoroughly corrupted neuron insiders who know so much more than they tell publicly and leave the poor public like they live in a Pol-Pot society where wisdom and scientific knowledge is forbidden to the masses.)
(It is important to note, as Dirac states, that the anti-electron and anti-proton, being described as negative energy electron and proton levels, respectively, as relates to spectral line position, are theoretically located in an atom. Quantum mechanics describes the structure of atoms, not individual free-moving particles which apparently can only be described with the basic laws of inertia, gravitation, and electromagnetism. As I understand, in Dirac's view the positron is to be located in orbit around an atom and certainly within an atom. However, Anderson finds the positron as a free moving particle. Clearly any particles can be simply free moving particles, and have nothing to do with quantum mechanics equations that describe spectral line emissions and absorption frequencies. Could it not be possible that the positron is simply a proton that has been reduced from particle collision? Is it possible that any combination of mass and motion can be found in the universe?)
(In some sense that quantum mechanics only applies to the structure of atoms, and not free moving particles, this shows how far away from simple material particles with motion quantum mechanics has gone, perhaps.)
(The concept of negative energy sounds doubtful to me, since in all equations of energy the velocity is squared, unless an imaginary velocity is used, v^2 will always be positive, and the idea that m, mass would be negative seems meaningless in a universe of empty space and matter.)
It should be noted that most of the mathematical work of quantum mechanics is all basically an effort to explain spectral lines emitted and absorbed by atoms - a process started with the Balmer series formula.
(It seems clear that popular inaccurate theories many times 1) originate from imposing mathmatical authority, 2) complex integral and differential math theory, 3) neuron net corruption, 4) great wealth 5) many times from the same individual 6) math that seeks to describe something not directly observable.)
(It seems clear that Dirac is the source of some popular inaccurate theories, but theory is of course always free thought and expesssion. Certainly the concept of negative energy is very doubtful, and anti-matter, the claim that, perhaps mistakenly, grows from this work, I think, is very basically, and very simplisticly false. That anti-matter is so simplisticly false, just simply given the truth that anti-protons and protons never disappear on impact, but that all matter is accounted for in the form of light particles emitted from such collisions, is clear and simple. The only conclusion is that so-called anti-particles, are only electrical opposite particles, and that there is no anti-matter. That this observation is so obvious, and simple, I think, with all due respect, implies doubts about many other modern popular physics claims.)
(I view so-called antimatter as being only electrical opposite matter, because I doubt any other differences such as magnetic moment (and state others if any). There is something peculiar about a positron and proton having the same exact charge but different mass. A person might conclude that mass has nothing to do with charge (which we know is not true, since two protons clearly have a charge of +2). Perhaps people are simply defining mass (of antielectron/positron and proton, and antiproton and electron) as being when charges are all equal? People should do mass (spectrometer) deflectometer/magnometer/electrometer to compare what are the charges when mass is presumed to be equal? Could a person say that the charge of an electron is 1000 or whatever times stronger than that of a proton and that they are the same mass? (and of course since there are two unknowns, couldn't there be any combination of the two properties?))In addition, it depends what particle is doing the deflecting. Q: Can their be an electric field generated by a positron current? Can their be proton currents? Perhaps there can be no currents with an antielectron because all atoms are made of electrons, but perhaps in anti-atoms, which I view as being electrical opposite-atoms there can be an antielectron current and field. What might that field be like? Perhaps moving in the opposite direction? As an aside, one question is: what particles are produced by particle collisions? List as many as known with masses and charges. Are the source particles made of these particles, or is there a reshuffling of mass/photons? Q: What about electrical currents of ions? Is any electric field generated the same as those made by electrons? Are ions to large to pass through metal? Perhaps there is an electric field in ion currents carried in liquid. ]
(State the full math behind the claims of antiparticles by Dirac. Does Dirac claim that antiparticles are electrical opposites only? Are his conclusions based simply on the possibility of a negative particle of a certain mass? Could there then not be any number of combinations of mass (and charge) in theory? What if anything limits this assertion? For Anderson show proof of antielectron charge and mass. And the same for the antiproton. Clearly it seems like here too, there is secret unpublished science going on. There is something illogical about an antielectron and proton having vastly different mass but the same exact charge...is there not some more logical interpretation that has already been reached secretly? In addition add to that what must be secret research in transmutation in a similar field...basically beam science...anything that forms a beam of particles.)
(In one paper Dirac uses the word "dust" a few times, which Perrin famously used in 1909 probably to describe the size of flying cameras and neuron readers and writers.)
(Many mathematical physics theorists have similar works, Maxwell, Clausius, Gibb, Einstein, - they are not people who perform experiments, like Joe Henry, Faraday, Edison, Rutherford.)
| |
69 YBN
[06/11/1931 AD]
| 5260) Linus Carl Pauling (CE 1901–1994), US chemist, proposes that the phenomenon of resonance causes the stability of the benzene ring.
In an earlier 1931 article in the Journal ofthe American Chemical Society entitled "THE NATURE OF THE CHEMICAL BOND. APPLICATION OF RESULTS OBTAINED FROM THE QUANTUM MECHANICS AND FROM A THEORY OF PARAMAGNETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY TO THE STRUCTURE OF MOLECULES", Pauling wrote: During the last four years the problem of the nature of the chemical bond has been attacked by theoretical physicists, especially Heitler and London, by the application of the quantum mechanics. This work has led to an approximate theoretical calculation of the energy of formation and of other properties of very simple molecules, such as Hz, and has also provided a formal justification of the rules set up in 1916 by G. N. Lewis for his electron-pair bond. In the following paper it will be shown that many more results of chemical significance can be obtained from the quantum mechanical equations, permitting the formulation of an extensive and powerful set of rules for the electron-pair bond supplementing those of Lewis. These rules provide information regarding the relative strengths of bonds formed by different atoms, the angles between bonds, free rotation or lack of free rotation about bond axes, the relation between the quantum numbers of bonding electrons and the number and spatial arrangement of the bonds, etc. A complete theory of the magnetic moments of molecules and complex ions is also developed, and it is shown that for many compounds involving elements of the transition groups this theory together with the rules for electron-pair bonds leads to a unique assignment of electron structures as well as a definite determination of the type of bonds involved.' I. The Electron-Pair Bond The Interaction of Simple Atoms.-The discussion of the wave equation for the hydrogen molecule by Heitler and London,2S ~ g i u r aa,n~d Wang4 showed that two normal hydrogen atoms can interact in either of two ways, one of which gives rise to repulsion with no molecule formation, the other
to attraction and the formation of a stable molecule. These two modes of interactio n result from the identity of the two electrons. The characteristic resonance phenomenon of the quantum mechanics, which produces the stable bond in the hydrogen molecule, always occurs with two electrons, for even though the nuclei to which they are attached are different, the energy of the unperturbed system with one electron on one nucleus and the other on the other nucleus is the same as with the electrons interchanged. Hence we may expect to find electron-pair bonds turning up often. But the interaction of atoms with more than one electron does not always lead to molecule formation. A normal helium atom and a normal hydrogen atom interact in only one way,s giving repulsion only, and two normal helium atoms repel each other except at large distances, where there is very weak a t t r a c t i ~ n . ~T,w~o lithium atoms, on the other hand, can interact in two ways,7 giving a repulsive potential and an attractive potential, the latter corresponding to formation of a stable molecule. In these cases it is seen that only when each of the two atoms initially possesses an unpaired electron is a stable molecule formed. The general conclusion that an electron-pair bond is formed by the interaction of an unpaired electron on each of two atoms has been obtained formally by Heitler* and London,Q with the use of certain assumptions regarding the signs of integrals occurring in the theory. The energy of the bond is largely the resonance or interchange energy of two electrons, This energy depends mainly on electr ostatic forces between electrons and nuclei, and is not due to magnetic interactions, although the electron spins determine whether attractive or repulsive potentials, or both, will occur. Properties of the Electron-Pair Bond,-From the foregoing discussion we infer the following properties of the electron-pair bond. 1. The electron-hair bond is formed through the interaction of an unpaired electron on each of two atoms. 2. The spins of the electrons are opposed when the bond is formed, so that they cannot contribute ta the Bramagnetic susceptibility of the substance. 3. Two electrons which form a shared @ir cannot take +art in forming additional pairs. In addition we postulate the following three rules, which are justified by the qualitative consideration of the factors influencing bond energies. An outline of the derivation of the rules from the wave equation is given below.
4. The main resonance terms for a single electron-pair bond are those involving only one eigenfunction from each atom. 5. Of two eigenfunctions with the same defiendence on r, the one with the larger value in the bond direction will give rise to the stronger bond, and for a given eigenfunction the bond will tend to be formed in the direction with the largest value of the eigenfunction. 6. Of two eigenfunctions math the same dependence MZ 0 and cp, the one with the smaller mean value of r, that is, the one corresponding to the lower energy level for the atom, &ll give rise to the stronger bond. Here the eigenfunctions referred to are those for an electron in an atom, and r, 0 and (p are polar coordinates of the electron, the nucleus being at the .origin of the coordinate system. It is not proposed to develop a complete proof of the above rules at this place, for even the formal justification of the electron-pair bond in the simplest cases (diatomic molecule, say) requires a formidable array of symbols and equations. The following sketch outlines the construction of an inclusive proof. ... Summary With the aid of the quantum mechanics there is formulated a set of rules regarding electron-pair bonds, dealing particularly with the strength of bonds in relation to the nature of the single-electron eigenfunctions involved. It is shown that one single-electron eigenfunction on each of two atoms determines essentially the nature of the electron-pair bond formed between them; this effect is accentuated by the phenomenon of concentration of the bond eigenfunctions. The type of bond formed by an atom is dependent on the ratio of bond energy to energy of penetration of the core (s-p separation). When this ratio is small, the bond eigenfunctions are p eigenfunctions, giving rise to bonds at right angles to one another; but when it is large, new eigenfunctions especially adapted to bond formation can be constructed. From s and p eigenfunctions the best bond eigenfunctions which can be made are four equivalent tetrahedral eigenfunctions, giving bonds directed toward the corners of a regular tetrahedron. These account for the chemist’s tetrahedral atom, and lead directly to free rotation about a single bond but not about a double bond and to other tetrahedral properties. A single d eigenfunction with s and p gives rise to four strong bonds lying in a plane and directed toward the comers of a square. These are formed by bivalent nickel, palladium, and platinum. Two d eigenfunctions with s and p give six octahedral eigenfunctions, occurring in many complexes formed by transition-group elements. It is then shown that (excepting the rare-earth ions) the magnetic moment of a non-linear molecule or complex ion is determined by the number of unpaired electrons, being equal to p~ = 2 z/s(S + l), in which S is half that number. This makes it possible to determine from magnetic data which eigenfunctions are involved in bond formation, and so to decide between electron-pair bonds and ionic or ion-dipole bonds for various complexes. It is found that the transition-group elements almost without exception form electron-pair bonds with CN, ionic bonds with F, and iondipole bonds with HzO; with other groups the bond type varies. Examples of deductions regarding atomic arrangement, bond angles and other properties of molecules and complex ions from magnetic data, with the aid of calculations involving bond eigenfunctions, are given.".
In a second paper in June "THE NATURE OF THE CHEMICAL BOND. 11. THE ONE-ELECTRON BOND AND THE THREE-ELECTRON BOND", Pauling writes: "The work of Heitler and London and its recent extensions’ have shown that the Lewis electron-pair bond between two atoms involves essentially a pair of electrons and two eigenfunctions,2 one for each atom. It will be shown in the following paragraphs that under certain conditions bonds can be formed between two atoms involving one electron or three electrons, in each case one eigenfunction for each atom being concerned. The conditions under which the one-electron bond and the three-electron bond can be formed will be stated, and their properties will be discussed. These bonds have not the importance of the electron-pair bond, for they occur in only a few compounds, which, however, are of especial interest on account of their unusual and previously puzzling properties. The One-electron Bond.-The resonance phenomenon of the quantum mechanics, which provides the energy of the shared-electron chemical bond, occurs even between two unlike atoms when an electronpair bond is formed, on account of the identity of the two electrons. But if only one electron is available, resonance is not expected in general. The applications of the first-order perturbation theory of the quantum mechanics to a system of two nuclei and one electron, although not leading to accurate numerical results, is illuminating. It is found that with two nuclei of different charges there occur in most cases only repulsive states, so that Li + H+ or Li+ + H would not form a stable molecule LiH+. Only when the unperturbed system is degenerate or nearly degenerate, as in Hz+ where the two nuclei have the same charge, does there exist a resonance energy leading to molecule formation. The criterion for the stabilization of a single-electron bond by resonance energy is the following: A stable one-electron bond can be formed only when there are two conceivable electronic states oj the system with essentially the same energy, the states differing in t h t for one there is an unpaired electron attached to one atom, and for the other the same unpaired electron is attached to the second atom. By “essentially the same energy” it is meant that the energies of the states of the unperturbed system differ by an amount less than the possible resonance energy. (In Hz+ the resonance energy in the normal state is about 60,000 cal. per mole.) The criterion is of course satisfied in H2+, where the two nuclei are identical, and in H3+. ... Sidgwick decided from consideration of the compounds containing them that one-electron bonds are stable only when one of the atoms so linked is hydrogen. From the foregoing theoretical considerations this is to be rejected. It would be surprising if Liz+, Na2+, etc., were not stable, with dissociation energies about two-thirds as great as those of Liz, Naz, etc., and it is possible that other compounds involving oneelectron bonds between two unlike atoms will be discovered.6 The Three-electron Bond.-The approximate solution of the wave equation for a system composed of a pair of electrons attached to one nucleus and a single electron attached to another nucleus has shown that the resonance forces corresponding to interchange of the three electrons are in the main repulsive. Thus normal He and H have no tendency whatever to molecule formation.’ But if the two nuclei are identical or nearly so, an additional degeneracy is introduced, for the two configurations A: . B and A. :B, in one of which atom A contains an electron pair and B an unpaired electron, and in the other A contains an unpaired electron and B an electron pair, then have nearly the same energy. The interactions of the two atoms will then cause the eigenfunction for the normal state of the system to be the stable nuclear-symmetric combination of the eigenfunctions corresponding to these two configurations; and the accompanying resonance energy will lead to the formation of a stable molecule containing a three-electron bond. A three-electron bond, involwng one eigenfunction for each of two atoms and three electrons, can be formed in case the two configurations A : B and A : B correspond to essentially the same energy. As in the case of the oneelectron bond, “essentially the same energy” means that the energies of the two unperturbed configurations differ by an amount less than the possible resonance energy. Another way of looking at the problem is to neglect the mutual repulsion of the electrons. Then the eigenfunction for one electron in the field of two essentially identical nuclei is either the nuclear-symmetric one, which gives rise to the stable one-electron bond, or the nuclear-antisymmetric one, which corresponds to a repulsive potential function. Two electrons with opposed spins can be introduced into the nuclear-symmetric eigenfunction, producing an electron-pair bond with about double the energy of a one-electron bond (neglecting the mutual repulsion of the electrons). This eigenfunction is then completely occupied, according to Pauli’s principle, and a third electron must be introduced into the nuclear-antisymmetric eigenfunction, whose repulsive potential neutralizes the attraction of one of the nuclear-symmetric electrons, producing a three-electron bond with about the same energy as a one-electron bond. With four electrons, two are necessarily nuclear-symmetric and two nuclear-antisymmetric, so that there is no tendency to form a strong bond. ... It may be mentioned that the three-electron bond developed above is not present in the benzene molecule, for which certain investigators have suggested the structure {ULSF: See paper for molecule diagrams} H H : c'..c..'c: H . c * H We have seen that a three-electron bond is less stable than an electron-pair bond, so that this structure would provide a very unstable rather than a very stable benzene ring. I am grateful to Professor G. N. Lewis for his valuable suggestion relative to the structure of the nitroso compounds and for his stimulating interest in the work as a whole. Summary It is shown that a stable shared-electron bond involving one eigenfunction for each of two atoms can be formed under certain circumstances with either one, two, or three electrons. An electron-pair bond can be formed by two arbitrary atoms. A one-electron bond and a three-electron bond, however, can be formed only when a certain criterion involving the nature of the atoms concerned is satisfied. Of these bonds the electron-pair bond is the most stable, with a dissociation energy of 2 4 v. e. The oneelectron bond and the three-electron bond have a dissociation energy
roughly half as great, about 1-3 v. e. The hydrogen molecule-ion, H.H+, H H triatomic hydrogen ion, H.H.H+, boron hydrides H : B : B:: H, etc., lithium H H molecule-ion, Li-Li +, etc., contain one-electron bonds. The helium molecule and molecule-ion, He He and He * : *He+, nitric oxide, : N': :' 0: , nitrogen dioxide, : 0 1 N : : 0 : , and oxygen molecule, : O.:,'? : , contain threeelectron bonds. A discussion of nitroso compounds, in particular dealing with their magnetic moments, is also given.".
(Lewis viewed valence electrons as filling a structural hole in the atom.) (Notice the mention of G. N. Lewis and ending on "as a whole" - could be neuron writing on an outsider without their knowledge or even with. in one paper Pauling uses the word "render" - but it's not overly clear that Pauling knew about or regularly knowingly received neuron writing.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
69 YBN
[09/10/1931 AD]
| 5446) Electron microscope.
| (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
69 YBN
[10/03/1931 AD]
| 5161) Wallace Hume Carothers (CE 1896-1937), US chemist, produces the synthetic rubber, neoprene.
Carothers and Nieuwland (at Du Pont) develop the synthetic rubber neoprene.
Working with acetylenes Carothers discovers that the action of hydrochloric acid on monovinylacetylene produces 2-chloro-buta-1,3-diene (chloroprene), which polymerizes very readily to give a polymer that is superior in some respects to natural rubber.
Carothers' group at Dupont is able to synthesize what Carothers calls "superpolymers", polymers with molecular weights of ten thousand or more. This success is soon followed by the discovery of the “cold-drawing” phenomenon peculiar to these materials. In April 1930, his co-worker Julian Hill observes that a superpolyester can be mechanically drawn out from a melt or dry-spun from a solution into fibers or threads. Carothers defines a “superpolymer” to linear polymers having molecular weights above 10,000.
(Determine chronology of superpolymer find and paper) (Synthetic rubber may be connected to artificial muscles, which are an epochal invention that has been secret for far too long. Synthetic muscle may make flying with wings possible, and most importantly light-weight walking robots- far more efficient than the much denser metal electromagnetic motor moved robots.)
(Determine which paper and read relevent parts)
| ( E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company) Wilmington, Delaware, USA |
69 YBN
[10/13/1931 AD]
| 5319) Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (BUTenoNT) (CE 1903-1995), German chemist, isolates the male sex hormone "androsterone".
Butenandt isolates 15 milligrams of androsterone from 3960 gallons of urine.
Androsterone is an important male hormone produced by cells of the testicles, Using 15 milligrams of androsterone, and using the microanalytical methods of Pregl, Butenandt uses various techniques to deduce the molecular formula for androsterone. In 1934 Ružička will (synthesize androsterone from a similar molecule proving Butenandt's formula to be correct).
Androsterone is a steroid hormone excreted in urine that reinforces masculine characteristics.
Androsterone is different from testosterone. Androsterone has two more Hydrogen atoms than testosterone. Androsterone is C19H30O2. Testosterone is C19H28O2. Testosterone is a white crystalline steroid hormone, produced primarily in the testes and responsible for the development and maintenance of male secondary sex characteristics.
(This hormone is different from testosterone?)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
69 YBN
[11/29/1931 AD]
| 5213) William Thomas Astbury (CE 1898-1961) English physical biochemist, and Thora C. Marwick use X-ray crystal "diffraction" photographs to determine the structure of the crystal lattice of cellulose.
In a Nature article Astbury and Marwick write: "FROM an examination of the available data for cellulose and the sugars, we have formed the conclusion that the six-atom sugar ring is associated in the crystalline state with certain linear dimensions which are approximately constant, and that at least one of these dimensions usually corresponds to one of the axial lengths of the unit cell. ...".
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
69 YBN
[11/29/1931 AD]
| 5214) William Thomas Astbury (CE 1898-1961) English physical biochemist, and Florence Bell produce the first hypothetical structure of DNA.
Astbury uses X-ray diffraction to try to determine the structure of nucleic acids, but is incorrect. This will lead to the work of Pauling in determining the structure of proteins and Watson and Crick to determine the structure of nucleic acids with Rosalind Franklin's X-ray data.
Astbury and Bell write "... Films of sofium thymonucleate stretched some 250 per cent have been found to give a striking, though still rather obscure, X-ray fibre photograph in which by far the most prominent reflection corresponds to a spacing along the fibre axis of 3.3 A., which is almost identical with that of a fully extended polypeptide chain system, such as B-keratin or B-myosin. The true period along the fibre axis is much greater than this- perhaps seventeen times as great, to judge by the present photographs- and there are also side spacings up to about 26 A., the best defined being one of approximately 16.2 A. In view of the hydrodynamic and optical properties of the solutions and of the optical properties of the solid fibres, the natural conclusion from the X-ray data is that the spacing of 3.3 A. along the fibre axis corresponds to that of a close succession of flat or flattish nucleotides standing out perpendicuularly to the long axis of the molecule to form a relatively rigid structure, strongly optically negative, and showing double refraction of flow. ... X-ray examination of other nucleic acids and polynucleotides is in progress.".
| (University of Leeds) Leeds, England |
69 YBN
[12/05/1931 AD]
| 5125) Harold Clayton Urey (CE 1893-1981), US chemist, isolates deuterium ("heavy hydrogen", a hydrogen with a neutron).
Deuterium is the isotope of hydrogen containing one proton and one neutron in its nucleus. This work of Urey's follows the accurate measurement of the atomic weights of hydrogen and oxygen by Francis W. Aston and the discovery of oxygen isotopes by William Giauque. To obtain deuterium Urey, Brockwedde and Murphy, use the fact that deuterium evaporates at a slightly slower rate than normal hydrogen. So they take some four liters of liquid hydrogen, which they distill down to a volume of one cubic centimeter. The presence of deuterium is then proved spectroscopically.
So Urey is the first to isolate deuterium (also called “heavy hydrogen”), a hydrogen atom that has a neutron, by recognizing that the vapor pressure of ordinary hydrogen should be more than the vapor pressure of heavy hydrogen, and then slowly evaporating 4 liters of liquid hydrogen down to 1 cubic centimeter, and shows that the spectral lines of regular hydrogen are accompanied by faint lines that are in exactly the positions predicted for heavy hydrogen. Atoms of heavy hydrogen, with a more massive nucleus, will have a single electron with energy levels slightly different from ordinary hydrogen atoms and so when heated, the spectral lines will be at wavelengths slightly different from ordinary hydrogen. The name deuterium is given to the heavy isotope. After this, people will prepare water with high proportions of deuterium, mainly by Lewis, and this water will be called “heavy water”. Biochemically important molecules can then be prepared using deuterium in place of hydrogen, and the intricate chemical reactions within living tissue initiated thanks to the pioneer work of Schoenheimer in using isotopic tracers.
Urey, Brockwedde and Murphy announce this finding on Decemeber 5, 1931 in an article in "Physical Review", "A Hydrogen Isotope of Mass 2". They write: "The proton-electron plot of known atomic nuclei shows some rather marked regularities among atoms of lower atomic number. Up to O16 a simple step-wise figure appears into which the nuclear species H2, H3 and He4 could be fitted very nicely. Birge and Menzel have shown that the discrepancy between the chemical atomic weight of hydrogen and Aston's value by the mass spectrograph could be accounted for by the assumption of a hydrogen isotope of mass 2 present to the extent of 1 part in 4500 parts of hydrogen of mass 1.
It is possible to calculate with confidence the vapor pressures of the pure substances H1H1, H1H2, H1H3, in equilibrium with the pure solid phases. It is only necessary to assume that in the Debye theory of the solid state, θ is inversely proportional to the square root of the masses of these molecules and that the rotational and vibrational energies of the molecules do not change in the process of vaporization. These assumptions are in accord with well-established experimental evidence. We find that the vapor pressures for these molecules in equilibrium with their solids should be in the ratio of p11:p12:p13 = 1:0.37:0.29. The theory of the liquid state is not so vell understood but it seems reasonable to believe that the differences in vapor pressure of these molecules in equilibrium with their liquids whould be rather large and should make possible a rapid concentration of the heavier isotopes, if they exist, in the residue from the simple evaporation of liquid hydrogen near its triple point.
Accordingly two samples of hydrogen were prepared by evaporating large quantities of liquid hydrogen and collecting the gas which evaporated from the last fraction of the last cubic centimeter. The first sample was collected from the end portion of six liters of liquid evaporated at atmospheric pressure, and the second sample from four liters evaporated at a pressure only a few millimeters above the triple point. The process of liquefaction has probably no effect in changing the concentration of the isotopes since no appreciable change was observed in the sample evaporated at atmospheric pressure.
These samples were investigated for the atomic spectra of H2 and H3 in a hydrogen discharge tube run in Wood's so-called "black stage" by using the second order of a 21 foot grating with a dispersion of 1.31 Å per mm. With the sample evaporated at the boiling point no concentration so high as had been estimated was detected. We then increased the exposures so that the ratio of the time of exposure to the minimum required to get the H1 lines on our plates was about 4500:1. Under these conditions we found in this sample as well as in ordinary hydrogen faint lines at the calculated positions for the lines of H2 accompanying Hβ, Hγ, Hδ. These lines do not agree in wavelength with any molecular lines reported in the literature. However they were so weak that it was difficult to be sure that they were not ghosts of the strongly overexposed atomic lines.
The sample of hydrogen evaporated near the triple point shows these lines greatly enhanced, relative to the lines of H1, over both those of ordinary hydrogen and of the first sample. The relative intensities can be judged by the number and intensity of the symmetrical ghosts on the plates. The wave-lengths of the H2 lines appearing on these plates could be easily measured within about 0.02 Å. The following table gives the mean of the observed displacements of these lines from those of H1 and the calculated displacements:
Line | Hα | Hβ | Hγ | Hδ |
|
---|
Δλ calc. | 1.793 | 1.326 | 1.185 | 1.119
| Δλ obs.
| Ordinary hydrogen | -- | 1.346 | 1.206 | 1.145
| 1st sample | -- | 1.330 | 1.119 | 1.103
| 2nd sample | 1.820 | 1.315 | 1.176 | --
|
The H2 lines are broad, as is to be expected for close unresolved doublets, but they are not as broad and diffuse as the H1 lines probably due to the smaller Döppler broadening. Although their intensities relative to the ghosts of the respective H1 lines appear nearly constant for any one sample of hydrogen, they are not ghosts for their intensities relative to the known ghosts for their intensities are not the same in the case of ordinary hydrogen and of the 1st sample as they are in the case of the second sample. They are not molecular lines for they do not appear on a plate taken with the discharge tube in the "white stage" with the molecular spectrum enhanced (H2γ was found as a slight irregularity on a microphotometer curve of this plate). Finally the H2α line is resolved into a doublet with a separation of about 0.16 Å in agreement with the observed separation of the H1α line.
The relative abundance in ordinary hydrogen, judging from relative minimum exposure time is about 1:4000, or less, in agreement with Birge and Menzel's estimate. A similar estimate of the abundance in the second sample indicated a concentration of about 1 in 800. Thus an appreciable fractionation has been secured as expected from theory. No evidence for H3 has been secured, but its lines would fall on regions of our plates where the halation is bad.
The distillation was carried out at the Bureau of Standards by one of us (F.G.B.), who is continuing the fractionation to secure more highly concentrated samples. The spectroscopic work was done at Columbia University by the other two (H.C.U. and G.M.M.) who are working on the molecular spectrum.
... ".
An atom's "triple point" is The temperature and pressure at which a substance can exist in equilibrium in the liquid, solid, and gaseous states.
During the thirties Urey’s group separates isotopes of oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, and sulphur.
Deuterium (hydrogen-2) will be used to make the first hydrogen bomb.
(I think people need to make sure that helium was actually produced in the hydrogen bomb detonation. This will probably wait until there is life regularly moving between the planets.)
(Asimov states that these deuterium lines are absorption lines, but it seems more likely that they are emission lines - determine which. For this reason, people should always indicate whether spectral lines are emission or absorption at least once when introducing spectral line evidence.)
(Note that the emission lines for the heavy Hydrogen are observed by subjecting the hydrogen to a high voltage in a discharge tube and observing the light particles emitted from atoms in the tube and viewed using a 21 foot grating.)
(Describe more how the lines for heavy hydrogen are estimated, who first did this work, and how could they possibly know where the predicted spectral emissino lines would be? Note that the authors do not indicate who or how the theoretical heavy hydrogen emission lines were estimated.)
| (Bureau of Standards) Washington, D. C. (and Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
69 YBN
[12/16/1931 AD]
| 5370) Bruno Benedetto Rossi (CE 1905-1994) Italian-US physicist, demonstrates that cosmic particles can penetrate through a meter of solid lead.
In 1929 Walther Bothe and Werner Kohlhörster described an experiment that shows that cosmic rays contain charged particles capable of penetrating large thicknesses of dense matter. Bothe and Kohlhörster found that two parallel counters surrounded by thick shielding of lead and iron and separated by several centimeters in a vertical plane were occasionally discharged in coincidence by the passage of a charged particle through the shield and the two counters. They found that the rate of coincidences decreases by only a small fraction when a 4.1 centimeter thick gold brick was inserted between the two counters.
(It's possible that these particles are very dense beams, very small particles, and/or very high speed particles. It's hard to believe that this is a case, with the billiard model, of a particle colliding a lead atom and that velocity being passed all the way to the second detector. Clearly the entire apparatus should be covered with a meter of lead. Another possibility is a very small particle somehow can pass through the lead without any collision, but then collides with a particle in both detectors.)
(What is the equivalent penetration of other particles? Are these thought to be protons? What is the equivalent velocity for the penetration of a proton given known penetration measurements for protons?)
| (University of Florence) Florence, Italy |
69 YBN
[12/19/1931 AD]
| 5288) Robert Jemison Van De Graaff (VanDuGraF) (CE 1901-1967), US physicist, builds a high-voltage electrostatic generator (Van de Graaff generator).
These high voltages (electric potentials) can accelerate particles to high velocities, but Lawrence's cyclotron will be more useful. In the 1930s Van de Graaff's generator produces bolts of human-made lightning.
This device works by moving charged particles from a moving belt of insulating fabric onto a smooth, spherical, well-insulated metal shell. The shell increases in potential until an electric breakdown occurs or until the load current balances the charging rate. Machines of this kind, properly enclosed, have produced potentials of about 13,000,000 volts (13 megavolts). In a related device called the Pelletron accelerator, the moving belt is replaced by a moving chain of metallic beads separated by insulating material. The Pelletron accelerator at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Tenn., produces 25 megavolts and will accelerate protons or heavy ions, which are then injected into an isochronous cyclotron for further acceleration.
In his 1931 patent, Van De Graaff writes: "This invention relates to electrostatic generators for the production of direct current voltages, and also to apparatus including an electrostatic generator and the electrical device, such as an X-ray tube, operated thereby.
Influence machines of the general types designed by Holtz and Wimshurst have been employed in the production of direct current potentials, but the output voltages have been restricted to relatively low values. The presence of the conducting wires or bodies required to transfer the electrical charges from the rotating disks to the generator terminals facilitates leakage and limits the maximum voltage that may be established between the generator terminals.
Higher potentials may be obtained by the rectification of alternating current but apparatus of this type is quite costly and, as with influence machines, the maximum available voltage is limited. So far as I am aware, the maximum steady direct current voltage attained by prior workers in this art was about 700,000 volts, and was obtained by the rectification of alternating current.
An object of this invention is to provide an electrostatic generator which will produce steady, direct current voltages of an order substantially higher than any previously obtained by influence machines and/or the rectification of
alternating current. An object is to provide a generator in which the electrical charges are established directly upon the electrodes or terminals, as distinguished from prior influence machines in which the charges were collected upon
a system of conductors leading to the electrodes. A further object is to provide an electrostatic generator having electrodes in the form of hollow bodies, and non-conducting charge carriers which transfer charges between the interior of
the hollow electrodes and a grounded point. More specifically, an object is to provide an electrostatic generator including two hollow electrodes supported on insulator columns, and a charge carrier for each electrode, the charge carriers having the form of silk belts passing over pulleys within the electrodes and driven by motors located at the base of the insulator columns. Other specific objects relate to the provision of high voltage apparatus combining generators of the types stated with the high potential electrical apparatus to be energized thereby. These and other objects of the invention will be apparent from the following specification ... Two substantially identical units are shown in Fig. 1, the units being turned at right angles to each other for the better illustration of the structural details at the base of the units. Each unit includes a wheeled supporting base 1 to which is secured a bracket 2 that carries an insulator column 3. The insulators 3 may be, and preferably are, glass rods of a height sufficient to provide adequate insulation between the grounded base 1 and hollow electrodes 4 that are mounted on the rods 3. The exterior surfaces of the electrodes 4 are free from projections or points which would promote leakage and, in general, will be of spherical form.
The lower portion of each electrode is provided with slots 5 for passage of a non-conducting belt 6 that passes over a pulley 7 mounted within the electrodes 4 and a conducting pulley 8 that is located at and driven by a motor 9 on the base 1. The belt 6 is non-conducting and may be silk or a fabric treated with a non-conducting flexible plastic, such as a cellulose ester. Interposed between the two runs of each belt is a solid insulating medium, herein of glass, and comprising the glass rod 3. Within the electrode, brushes or combs 10 are provided adjacent the belt 6, the brushes being electrically connected to the interior of the electrode.
The belts 6 constitute the charge carriers which transfer to the electrodes the electrical charges which are established at the lower ends of the belts. The apparatus for charging the belts is shown diagrammatically in Fig. 1, as an alternating current source 11, a transformer 12, and a rectifier 13 in the secondary circuit of the transformer. The terminal of the secondary which is
negative, during cycles when rectifier 13 is conductive is connected to ground and the positive terminal of rectifier 13 is connected to a brush electrode 14 adjacent the portion of the upward 5 run of belt 6 where it engages the lower pulley of the positive electrode unit. At the negative electrode unit, a conductor 15 extends from ground to a brush electrode 16 that is adjacent the lower portion of the upward run of the belt
and directly opposite the rounded electrode 17 that is connected to the positive terminal of the rectifier 13. The electrical charges placed on the belts by this low voltage circuit are indicated by the + and — signs adjacent the belts.
It will be apparent that, as each charged belt passes by the brushes 10, the charge passes from the belt to the brush, and thence to the interior surface of the electrode 4. As charges can not remain upon the interior surface of a hollow body,
the electrical charges pass to the exterior surfaces of the electrodes. The fact that charges will not accumulate at the interior surface makes it possible to increase the charge or voltage on the electrodes 4 to a value determined only by
the form and location of the electrodes. The maximum voltage that may be established between electrodes 4 is limited by the sharpest maximum curvature of the electrode surfaces, and by the spacing of the electrodes from each other
and from ground, i. e., from the conducting brackets 2 which carry the rod insulators 3.
The legends applied to Fig. 1 indicate the voltages obtained with one particular generator in which the electrodes 4 were twenty-four inch
spheres mounted on seven foot glass rods. With spherical electrodes of this size, leakage from the electrode restricts the maximum voltage on the electrode to about 750,000 volts, thus limiting the voltage between the oppositely charged elec
trodes to about 1,500,000 volts. The belts 6 were of silk and the rectifier charging system established a relatively low voltage of about 5,000 volts between each brush and its corresponding rounded terminal.
This external source of relatively low voltage for charging the belt is illustrated in the drawings to facilitate a more ready understanding of the method of operation of the device but it will be understood that the machines may be made self
exciting, in which case they may be primed by small stray charges generated by friction or otherwise. Furthermore, it will be apparent that each unit can be made to operate as a motor if a high potential difference is established between
the electrode 4 and its grounded base. For example by moving the units to bring the electrodes 4 into contact, and operating the motor 9 of one unit to establish a high potential upon the electrodes, the belt 6 of the other unit will be driven as
the electrical charges move upwardly from the grounded base to neutralize the charge established in that unit.
A little consideration of the described apparatus will show that, by decreasing the curvature of
the electrode surfaces and increasing the insulation between each electrode and ground, higher voltages may be obtained. The absence of conducting paths between the electrodes, and the transfer of charges to the interior surfaces of the
electrodes make it possible to increase the voltages to values of an order not obtainable with any known type of direct current generator.
A generator system operative to produce voltages of the order of several million volts is/illus
trated in Fig. 2. For convenience of description,
it will be assumed that a maximum voltage of about 10,000,000 volts is to be produced between the spherical electrodes 40, i. e., a potential difference of about 5,000,000 volts between each electrode and ground. The electrodes take the form of a thin conducting shell 40 that is supported by an interior framework 41, the conducting shell being free from surface irregularities or projections and having a diameter of about 10 feet. The insulator columns 42 which support the electrodes 40 on the movable bases 43 may be tubular sleeves of non-conducting material, for example, paper or wood veneer impregnated with shellac or an artificial resin. Adequate insulation will be provided when the insulator columns have a length of about fifteen feet.
To insure most efficient operation it is highly desirable to maintain a uniform potential gradient between the electrode and ground along the supporting column 42. This condition will obtain when the insulating support presents high conductivity in horizontal planes and a controlled resistance in vertical planes along the column. By providing a conductive coating upon the surface of the column, the coating being of substantially constant but relatively low conductivity, the leakage flow of current will establish a uniform potential gradient along the column and, since the potential will be substantially constant over any horizontal plane, the lines of force in so the space within the column will be substantially linear and parallel to the axis of the column. This leakage coating may take the form of a paint or varnish layer 42a, of low conductivity, as shown in Fig. 3 and at the left of Fig. 2, or it s.-> may comprise a cord or thread 42" that is rendered slightly conductive by treatment with graphite or India ink, and is wound spirally around the column 42, as shown at the right of Fig. 2.
The gradual potential gradient down the insulating column tends likewise to produce a lowering of the electric field at points on the spherical electrode adjacent the entering portion of the column 42, thus resulting in the location of the most concentrated electric field at a region of the electrode remote from the supporting column.
The charge conveyor system may be of the type previously described but, as illustrated, includes a more efficient arrangement in which the carrier belt 44 is doubled back to provide a plurality of upward runs. The current carrying capacity of such a belt is, for a given belt width, equivalent to that of two simple belts of the type shown in Fig. 1. This method of increasing the current output may be carried further by doubling the charge carrier back and forth to provide additional sections of one upward and one downward run. The current output may also be increased by the use of wider charge carriers or higher carrier speeds.
The collector brushes within the electrodes 40 are insulated from the electrode and the potential difference between the brush and electrode is employed to place on the belt, just before it leaves the hollow electrode, a charge of opposite sign to that brought to the electrode by the belt. The belt does double duty by not only bringing to the electrode charges of one sign but also by carrying away charges of the opposite sign.
...".
(Explain details, show dumbbell shaped models).
(Very interesting, simply building up a static charge from friction charge transfer. explain details.)
(Determine if Van De Graaff uses an electric motor. Determine if somebody before had automated the static electricity generator with an electric motor.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
69 YBN
[12/28/1931 AD]
| 5188) French physicists, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO KYUrE) (CE 1900-1958) determines that gamma rays are emitted by the bombardment of boron by alpha particles.
Bothe and Becker had found that a very penetrative radiation is emitted when boron is bombarded by alpha particles, which Chadwick identifies as neutrons on February 27, 1932. Soon after this find of gamma rays, the Joliot-Curies will determine that positive electrons are also produced in alpha bombardment of boron.
In (translated from French) "The excitation of nuclear gamma rays from boron by alpha particles. Quantum energy of gamma radiation from polonium" Joliot writes (translated from French): "Boron, like beryllium (beryllium), lithium and certain light elements, is likely to emit gamma rays when bombarded by alpha particles. The intensity of this radiation for boron is very low; Bothe and Becker indicated a yield of excitation of 4 photons for 106 incident alpha particles (alpha rays of Polonium), about 8 times less than the performance relative to Be. These rays have been studied using a point meter, the absorption coefficient in lead for the y-ray s of boron excited by alpha rays of polonium was found to be on the order of that of gamma rays from Ra (B + C), which corresponds to an energy of about 108eV (electron volts). ...". (read more)
(Notice that 4 photons from 10e6 gamma particles implies to me that a photon is apparently not viewed, in this instance, as a single particle, but apparently as a quantity of light particles with gamma frequency which has a finite duration. It seems absurd to think of a single light particle as having a gamma frequency since this frequency {interval} depends on at least 2 light particles.)
(Note that Joliot presumes the light particles to be emitted from the nucleus as opposed to by electrons.)
| (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
69 YBN
[1931 AD]
| 4964) Hans Wilhelm Geiger (GIGR) (CE 1882-1945), German physicist detects high-speed sub-atomic particles from outer-space (cosmic rays).
Geiger discovers the first detection of cosmic ray showers, when noting that counters placed in separate rooms at the Institute periodically record simultaneous bursts of high-speed particle detections.
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
69 YBN
[1931 AD]
| 4991) Pressurized air-tight air vehicle cabin.
Auguste Piccard (PEKoR) (CE 1884-1962), Swiss physicist, Paul Küpfer reach an altitude of 51,775 feet (almost 10 miles, 16 km) in an 18 hour balloon flight and this is the first penetration of the stratosphere by a human. The balloon they use has an aluminum gondola. This balloon uses hydrogen gas.
Previous ascents had shown that the stratosphere could be fatal and that to penetrate the isothermal layer, with its low pressure, a revolutionary balloon would be necessary. Piccard builds a balloon for the stratosphere in 1930. This balloon has an airtight cabin, equipped with pressurized air; this technique will later be common on airplanes.
| Augsburg, Germany |
69 YBN
[1931 AD]
| 5054) Paul Karrer (CE 1889-1971), Swiss chemist, synthesizes vitamin A.
Karrer isolates and proves the structure of a variety of carotenoids, yellow pigments; molecules that color organisms such as carrots, sweet potatoes, egg yolk, tomatoes, lobster shells, and human skin.
In 1930 Karrer had determined the molecular structure for carotene, the main precursor of vitamin A.
(show structure of vitamin A)
| (Chemical Institute) Zürich, Switzerland |
69 YBN
[1931 AD]
| 5251) Richard Kuhn (KUN) (CE 1900-1967) Austria-German chemist, discovers at least eight carotenoids, (the fat-soluble yellow colouring agents widely distributed in nature), prepares them in pure form, and determines their constitution. Kuhn discovers that one carotenoid is necessary for the fertilization of certain algae.
(Determine when and original paper(s).)
| (Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut fur Medizinische Forschung, Institut fur Chemie) Heidelberg, Germany |
69 YBN
[1931 AD]
| 6053) Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy Ellington) (CE 1899-1974), composes "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)".
| (Lincoln Tavern) Chicago, Illinois, USA (verify) |
69 YBN
[1931 AD]
| 6057) Herman Hupfeld (CE 1894-1951) writes "As Time Goes By". The song will become most famous in 1942 when it is in the movie "Casablanca".
(verify)
| Montclair, New Jersey |
68 YBN
[02/17/1932 AD]
| 5086) (Sir) James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist, identifies a neutral particle he names a "neutron", which can be supposed to "consist of a proton and an electron in close combination" with a mass "slightly less than the mass of the hydrogen atom".
Bothe and the Joliot-Curies report that when certain light elements such as beryllium are bombarded with alpha particles, some kind of radiation is formed that shows its presence by ejecting protons from paraffin (state molecular fomula). Chadwick explains this by concluding that the alpha particles knock neutral particles out of the nuclei of the beryllium atom, and that these neutral particles, as massive as a proton, in turn knock protons out of paraffin. In the 1920s there were only 2 sub-atomic particles known (ruling out the interpretation of a photon as a subatomic particle), the electron identified by J.J. Thomson, and the proton identified by Rutherford. Before the neutron, people theorized that electrons are in the nucleus to balance the electric charge of the protons. People knew that helium, for example, has a mass of 4 protons, so people supposed that there are 2 extra electrons in the nucleus which hold the protons together. In the 1920s Rutherford and Chadwick make several attempts to detect a neutral particle, but uncharged particles do not ionize molecules of air, and ionized air is how particles are most easily detected. The neutron proves to be by far the most useful particle for initiating nuclear reactions. Three years later Hahn and Meitner will show that neutrons initiate uranium fission. Heisenberg will suggest that the nucleus contains only protons and neutrons, and no electrons. In this view, the helium nucleus still retains a positive charge of 2, but instead of 4 protons and 2 electrons, it only contains 2 protons and 2 neutrons. The neutron is then used to explain the isotope theory of Soddy and Aston advanced 20 years before (although the electron+proton theory can equally explain the added mass). This neutron theory still has the problem (which perhaps the proton+electron theory may have too) of what keeps the positively charged protons together in the nucleus? Yukawa will calculate the existence of a new force, the nuclear force. Chadwick begins work on an atomic bomb in Great Britain shortly after Meitner announces the news about uranium fission.
Chadwick made several attempts to detect the neutral particle, but none was successful until he learned of experiments by the Joliot-Curies in Paris, in which, they said, extremely penetrating gamma rays were emitted. As he suspected, Chadwick found the rays were not gammas but neutrons: and not long afterward Norman Feather, also at the Cavendish, showed that neutrons were capable of causing nuclear disintegrations.
On February 17, 1932, Chadwick published "Possible Existence of a Neutron" in Nature magazine writing: " It has been shown by Bothe and others that beryllium when bombarded by α-particles of polonium emits a radiation of great penetrating power, which has an absorption coefficient in lead of about 0.3(cm.)-1. Recently Mme. Curie-Joliot and M. Joliot found, when measuring the ionisation produced by this beryllium radiation in a vessel with a thin window that the ionization increased when matter containing hydrogen was placed in front of the window. The effect appeared to be due to the ejection of protons with velocities up to a maximum of nearly 3 x 109 cm. per sec. They suggested that the transference of energy to the proton was by a process similar to the Compton effect, and estimated that the beryllium radiation had a quantum energy of 50 x 106 electron volts. I have made some experiments using the valve counter to examine the properties of this radiation excited in beryllium. The valve counter consists of a small ionisation chamber connected to an amplifier and the sudden production of ions by the entry of a particle, such as a proton or α-particle, is recorded by the deflexion of an oscillograph. These experiments have shown that the radiation ejects particles drom hydrogen, helium, lithium, beryllium, carbon, air, and argon. The particles ejected from hydrogen behave, as regards range and ionising power, like protons with speeds up to about 3.2 x 109 cm. per sec. The particles from the other elements have a large ionising power, and appear to be in each case recoil atoms of the elements. If we ascribe the ejection of the proton to a Compton recoil from a quantum of 52 x 106 electron volts, then the nitrogen recoil atom arising by a similar process should have an energy not greater than about 400,000 volts, should produce not more than about 10,000 ions, and have a range in air at N.T.P. of about 1.3 mm. Actually, some of the recoil atoms in nitrogen produce at least 30,000 ions. In collaboration with Dr. Feather, I have observed the recoil atoms in an expansion chamber and their range, estimated visually, was sometimes as much as 3 mm. at N.T.P. These results, and others I have obtained in the course of the work, are very difficult to explain on the assumption that the radiation from beryllium is a quantum radiation, if energy and momentum are to be conserved in the collisions. The difficulties disappear, however, if it be assumed that the radiation consists of particles of mass 1 and charge 0, or neutrons. The capture of the α-particle by the Be3 nucleus may be supposed to result in the formation of a C12 nucleus emitted in the forward direction may well be about 3 x 109 cm. per sec. The collisions of this neutron with the atoms through which it passes give rise to the recoil atoms, and the observed energies of the recoil atoms are in fair agreement with this view. Moreover, I have observed that the protons ejected from hydrogen by the radiation emitted in the opposite direction to that of the exciting α-particle appear to have a much smaller range than those ejected by the forward radiation. This again receives a simple explanation on the neutron hypothesis. If it supposed that the radiation consists of quanta, then the capture of the α-particle by the Be3 nucleus will form a C13 nucleus. The mass defect of C13 is known with sufficient accuracy to show that the energy of the quantum emitted in this process cannot be greater than about 14 x 106 volts. It is difficult to make such a quantum responsible for the effects observed. It is to be expected that many of the effects of a neutron in passing through matter should resemble those of a quantum of high energy, and it is not easy to reach the final decision between the two hypotheses. up to the present, all the evidence is in favour of the neutron, while the quantum hypothesis can only be upheld if the conservation of energy and momentum be relinquished at some point.".
(Read relevant parts of paper) In May of 1932 Chadwick publishes a more detailed report entitled "The Existence of a Neutron." in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, writing: "§ 1. It was shown by Bothe and Becker that some light elements when bombarded by α-particles of polonium emit radiations which appear to be of the γ-ray type. The element beryllium gave a particularly marked effect of this kind, and later observations by Bothe, by Mme. Curie-Joliott and by Webster showed that the radiation excited in beryllium possessed a penetrating power distinctly greater than that of any γ-radiation yet found from the radioactive elements. In Webster's experiments the intensity of the radiation was measured both by means of the Geiger-Muller tube counter and in a high pressure ionisation chamber. He found that the beryllium radiation had an absorption coefficient in lead of about 0 22 cm.-1 as measured under his experimental conditions. Making the necessary corrections for these conditions, and using the results of Gray and Tarrant to estimate the relative contributi ons of scattering, photoelectric absorption, and nuclear absorption in the absorption of such penetrating radiation, Webster concluded that the radiation had a quantum energy of about 7 X 106 electron volts. Similarly he found that the radiation from boron bombarded by α-particles of polonium consisted in part of a radiation rather more penetrating than that from beryllium, and he estimated the quantum energy of this component as about 10 X 106 electron volts. These conclusions agree quite well with the supposition that the radiations arise by the capture of the α-particle into the beryllium (or boron) nucleus and the emission of the surplus energy as a quantum of radiation. The radiations showed, however, certain peculiarities, and at my request the beryllium radiation was passed into an expansion chamber and several photographs were taken. No unexpected phenomena were observed though, as will be seen later, similar experiments have now revealed some rather striking events. The failure of these early experiments was partly due to the weakness of the available source of polonium, and partly to the experimental arrangement, which, as it now appears, was not very suitable. Quite recently, Mme. Curie-Joliot and M. Joliot made the very striking observation that these radiations from beryllium and from boron were able to eject protons with considerable velocities from matter containing hydrogen. In their experiments the radiation from beryllium was passed through a thin window into an ionisation vessel containing air at room pressure. When paraffin wax, or other matter containing hydrogen, was placed in front of the window, the ionisation in the vessel was increased, in some cases as much as doubled. The effect appeared to be due to the ejection of protons, and from further experiment they showed that the protons had ranges in air up to about 26 cm., corresponding to a velocity of nearly 3 X 109 cm. per second. They suggested that energy was transferred from the beryllium radiation to the proton by a process similar to the Compton effect with electrons, and they estimated that the beryllium radiation had a quantum energy of about 50 X 106 electron volts. The range of the protons ejected by the boron radiation was estimated to be about 8 cm. in air, giving on a Compton process an energy of about 35 X 106 electron volts for the effective quantum.t There are two grave difficulties in such an explanation of this phenomenon. Firstly, it is now well established that the frequency of scattering of high energy quanta by electrons is given with fair accuracy by the Klein-Nishina formula, and this formula should also apply to the scattering of quanta by a proton. The observed frequency of the proton scattering is, however, many thousand times greater than that predicted by this formula. Secondly, it is difficult to account for the production of a quantum of 50 X 106 electron volts from the interaction of a beryllium nucleus and an a-particle of kinetic energy of 5 X 106 electron volts. The process which will give the greatest amount of energy available for radiation is the capture of the a-particle by the beryllium nucleus, Be9, and its incorporation in the nuclear structure to form a carbon nucleus C13. The mass defect of the C13 nucleus is known both from data supplied by measurements of the artificial disintegration of boron B10 and from observations of the band spectrum of carbon; it is about 10 X 106 electron volts. The mass defect of Be9 is not known, but the assumption that it is zero will give a maximum value for the possible change of energy in the reaction Be9 + a - C13 + quantum. On this assumption it follows that the energy of the quantum emitted in such a reaction cannot be greater than about 14 x 106 electron volts. It must, of course, be admitted that this argument
When the source vessel was placed in front of the ionisation chamber, the number of deflections immediately increased. For a distance of 3 cm. between the beryllium and the counter the number of deflections was nearly 4 per minute. Since the number of deflections remained sensibly the same when thick metal sheets, even as much as 2 cm. of lead, were interposed between the source vessel and the counter, it was clear that these deflections were due to a penetrating radiation emitted from the beryllium. It will be shown later that the deflections were due to atoms of nitrogen set in motion by the impact of the beryllium radiation. When a sheet of paraffin wax about 2 mm. thick was interposed in the path of the radiation just in front of the counter, the number of deflections recorded by the oscillograph increased markedly. This increase was due to particles ejected from the paraffin wax so as to pass into the counter. By placing absorbing screens of aluminium between the wax and the counter the absorption curve shown in fig. 2, curve A, was obtained. From this curve it appears that the particles have a maximum range of just over 40 cm. of air, assuming that an Al foil of 1 64 mg. per square centimetre is equivalent to 1 cm. of air. By comparing the sizes of the deflections (proportional to the number of ions produced in the chamber) due to these particles with those due to protons of about the same range it was obvious that the particles were protons. From the range-velocity curve for protons we deduce therefore that the maximum velocity imparted to a proton by the beryllium radiation is about 3*3 X 109 cm. per second, corresponding to an energy of about 5.7 X 106 electron volts. The effect of exposing other elements to the beryllium radiation was then investigated. An ionisation chamber was used with an opening covered with a gold foil of 0 5 mm. air equivalent. The element to be examined was fixed on a clean brass plate and placed very close to the counter opening. In this way lithium, beryllium, boron, carbon and nitrogen, as paracyanogen, were tested. In each case the number of deflections observed in the counter increased when the element was bombarded by the beryllium radiation. The ranges of the particles ejected from these elements were quite short, of the order of some millimetres in air. The deflections produced by them were of different sizes, but many of them were large compared with the deflection produced even by a slow proton. The particles therefore have a large ionising power and are probably in each case recoil atoms of the elements. Gases were investigated by filling the ionisation chamber with the required gas by circulation for several minutes. Hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, oxygen, and argon were examined in this way. Again, in each case deflections were observed which were attributed to the production of recoil atoms in the different gases. For a given position of the beryllium source relative to the counter, the number of recoil atoms was roughly the same for each gas. This point will be referred to later. It appears then that the beryllium radiation can impart energy to the atoms of matter through which it passes and that the chance of an energy transfer does not vary widely from one element to another. It has been shown that protons are ejected from paraffin wax with energies up to a maximum of about 5 7 X 106 electron volts. ... In general, the experimental results show that if the recoil atoms are to be explained by collision with a quantum, we must assume a larger and larger energy for the quantum as the mass of the struck atom increases. ? 3. The Neutron Hypothesis.-It is evident that we must either relinquish the application of the conservation of energy and momentum in these collisions or adopt another hypothesis about the nature of the radiation. If we suppose that the radiation is not a quantum radiation, but consists of particles of mass very nearly equal to that of the proton, all the difficulties connected with the collisions disappear, both with regard to their frequency and to the energy transfer to different masses. In order to explain the great penetrating power of the radiation we must further assume that the particle has no net charge. We may suppose it to consist of a proton and an electron in close combination, the "neutron " discussed by Rutherford in his Bakerian Lecture of 1920. When such neutrons pass through matter they suffer occasionally close collisions with the atomic nuclei and so give rise to the recoil atoms which are observed. Since the mass of the neutron is equal to that of the proton, the recoil atoms produced when the neutrons pass through matter containing hydrogen will have all velocities up to a maximum which is the same as the maximum velocity of the neutrons. .... It is possible to prove that the mass of the neutron is roughly equal to that of the proton, by combining the evidence from the hydrogen collisions with that from the nitrogen collisions. In the succeeding paper, Feather records experiments in which about 100 tracks of nitrogen recoil atoms have been photographed in the expansion chamber. ... We have now to consider the production of the neutrons from beryllium by the bombardment of the a-particles. We must suppose that an a-particle is captured by a Be9 nucleus with the formation of a carbon C12 nucleus and the emission of a neutron. The process is analogous to the well-known artificial disintegrations, but a neutron is emitted instead of a proton. The energy relations of this process cannot be exactly deduced, for the masses of the Be9 nucleus and the neutron are not known accurately. It is, however, easy to show that such a process fits the experimental facts. We have Be9 + He4 + kinetic energy of a = C12 + n1 + kinetic energy of C12 + kinetic energy of n1. If we assume that the beryllium nucleus consists of two a-particles and a neutron, then its mass cannot be greater than the sum of the masses of these particles, for the binding energy corresponds to a defect of mass. The energy equation becomes (8-00212 + n') + 4-00106 + K.E. of a > 12-0003 + n' + K.E. of C12 + K.E. of n1 or K.E. of n1 < K.E. of a + 0 003 - K.E. of C12. Since the kinetic energy of the a-particle of polonium is 5-25 X 106 electron volts, it follows that the energy of emission of the neutron cannot be greater than about 8 X 106 electron volts. The velocity of the neutron must therefore be less than 3 * 9 X 109 cm. per second. We have seen that the actual maximum velocity of the neutron is about 3 3 X 109 cm. per second, so that the proposed disintegration process is compatible with observation. A further test of the neutron hypothesis was obtained by examining the radiation emitted from beryllium in the opposite direction to the bombarding a-particles. ... § 4. The Nature of the Neutron.-It has been shown that the origin of the radiation from beryllium bombarded by a-particles and the behaviour of the radiation, so far as its interaction with atomic nuclei is concerned, receive a simple explanation on the assumption that the radiation consists of particles of mass nearly equal to that of the proton which have no charge. The simplest hypothesis one can make about the nature of the particle is to suppose that it consists of a proton and an electron in close combination, giving a net charge 0 and a mass which should be slightly less than the mass of the hydrogen atom. This hypothesis is supported by an examination of the evidence which can be obtained about the mass of the neutron. As we have seen, a rough estimate of the mass of the neutron was obtained from measurements of its collisions with hydrogen and nitrogen atoms, but such measurements cannot be made with sufficient accuracy for the present purpose. We must turn to a consideration of the energy relations in a process in which a neutron is liberated from an atomic nucleus; if the masses of the atomic nuclei concerned in the process are accurately known, a good estimate of the mass of the neutron can be deduced. The mass of the beryllium nucleus has, however, not yet been measured, and, as was shown in ? 3, only general conclusions can be drawn from this reaction. Fortunately, there remains the case of boron. It was stated in ? 1 that boron bombarded by a-particles of polonium also emits a radiation which ejects protons from materials containing hydrogen. Further examination showed that this radiation behaves in all respects like that from beryllium, and it must therefore be assumed to consist of neutrons. It is probable that the neutrons are emitted from the isotope B11, for we know that the isotope B10 disintegrates with the emission of a proton.* The process of disintegration will then be B"1 + He4 -_ N14 + 91. The masses of B" and N14 are known from Aston's measurements, and the further data required for the deduction of the mass of the neutron can be obtained by experiment. ... The masses are B1 =- 1100825 ? 0-0016; He4 = 4-00106 ? 0-0006; N14 14 0042 ? 0 0028. The kinetic energies in mass units are o-particle = 0 00565; neutron = 0 0035; and nitrogen nucleus = 0 00061. We find therefore that the mass of the neutron is 1-0067. Such a value for the mass of the neutron is to be expected if the neutron consists of a proton and an electron, and it lends strong support to this view. Since the sum of the masses of the proton and electron is 1 0078, the binding energy, or mass defect, of the neutron is about 1 to 2 million electron volts. This is quite a reasonable value. We may suppose that the proton and electron form a small dipole, or we may take the more attractive picture of a proton embedded in an electron. On either view, we may expect the "radius " of the neutron to be a few times 1013 cm. ... General Remarks. It is of interest to examine whether other elements, besides beryllium and boron, emit neutrons when bombarded by a-particles. So far as experiments have been made, no case comparable with these two has been found. Some evidence was obtained of the emission of neutrons from fluorine and magnesium, but the effects were very small, rather less than I per cent. of the effect obtained from beryllium under the same conditions. There is also the possibility that some elements may emit neutrons spontaneously, e.g., potassium, which is known to emit a nuclear P-radiation accompanied by a more penetrating radiation. Again no evidence was found of the presence of neutrons, and it seems fairly certain that the penetrating type is, as has been assumed, a y-radiation. Although there is certain evidence for the emission of neutrons only in two cases of nuclear transformations, we must nevertheless suppose that the neutron is a common constituent of atomic nuclei. We may then proceed to build up nuclei out of a-particles, neutrons and protons, and we are able to avoid the presence of uncombined electrons in a nucleus. This has certain advantages for, as is well known, the electrons in a nucleus have lost some of the properties which they have outside, e.g., their spin and magnetic moment. If the a-particle, the neutron, and the proton are the only units of nuclear structure, we can proceed to calculate the mass defect or binding energy of a nucleus as the difference between the mass of the nucleus and the sum of the masses of the constituent particles. It is, however, by no means certain that the a-particle and the neutron are the only complex particles in the nuclear structure, and therefore the mass defects calculated in this way may not be the true binding energies of the nuclei. In this connection it may be noted that the examples of disintegration discussed by Dr. Feather in the next paper are not all of one type, and he suggests that in some cases a particle of mass 2 and charge 1, the hydrogen isotope recently reported by Urey, Brickwedde and Murphy, may be emitted. It is indeed possible that this particle also occurs as a unit of nuclear structure. It has so far been assumed that the neutron is a complex particle consisting of a proton and an electron. This is the simplest assumption and it is supported by the evidence that the mass of the neutron is about 1-006, just a little less than the sum of the masses of a proton and an electron. Such a neutron would appear to be the first step in the combination of the elementary particles towards the formation of a nucleus. It is obvious that this neutron may help us to visualise the building up of more complex structures, but the discussion of these matters will not be pursued further for such speculations, though not idle, are not at the moment very fruitful. It is, of course, possible to suppose that the neutron may be an elementary particle. This view has little to recommend it at present, except the possibility of explaining the statistics of such nuclei as N14. ... In conclusion, I may restate briefly the case for supposing that the radiation the effects of which have been examined in this paper consists of neutral particles rather than of radiation quanta. Firstly, there is no evidence from electron collisions of the presence of a radiation of such a quantum energy as is necessary to account for the nuclear collisions. Secondly, the quantum hypothesis can be sustained only by relinquishing the conservation of energy and momentum. On the other hand, the neutron hypothesis gives an immediate and simple explanation of the experimental facts; it is consistent in itself and it throws new light on the problem of nuclear structure. Summary. The properties of the penetrating radiation emitted from beryllium (and boron) when bombarded by the oc-particles of polonium have been examined. It is concluded that the radiation consists, not of quanta as hitherto supposed, but of neutrons, particles of mass 1, and charge 0. Evidence is given to show that the mass of the neutron is probably between 1 005 and 1*008. This suggests that the neutron consists of a proton and an electron in close combination, the binding energy being about 1 to 2 X 106 electron volts. From experiments on the passage of the neutrons through matter the frequency of their collisions with atomic nuclei and with electrons is discussed. ... ".
(If Chadwick is saying that we may suppose that a neutron is a proton and electron in close combination, then isn't Chadwick saying that a neutron is simply a Hydrogen atom? Why is this point not recognized? Why is there not a comparison to the mass of the Hydrogen atom and the neutron? todo: determine what the estimated mass of the Hydrogen atom was at the time.)
(My own feeling is that the electromagnetic force, is a force that is the result of particle collisions and combinations, and so there is no need to create an action-at-a-distance force of electricity within an atom.)
(In one view electro-magnetism is a cumulative effect of gravity (as action-at-a-distance or as the result of particle collision only), and therefore, individual particles only show electrical effect in the presence of a large number of other particles. Within the atom, individual particles do not have charge and move only according to the law of gravity. )
(Make the pre-neutron nuclear atom view more clear, Rutherford, Soddy and Bohr comment on this model.)
(Identify all light elements which emit neutrons when bombarded with alpha rays.)
(Explain how particles are detected with ionized air.)
(Revisit Rutherfords view on the existance of a neutral particle.)
(This is an important development in the model of atoms, and a mistake here could produce centuries of mistaken beliefs, so it is important to explore all possibilities of atom models, and to keep an open mind.` Since we may never be able to see inside atoms, we may not know if electrons are in orbit or stationary, if neutrons are there, if protons rotate or are stationary, etc. )
(Explain how the neutron and neutral hydrogen atom are different. State all characteristics like mass, electromagnetic moment, any other evidence of their differences. Could a neutron be a proton and electron orbiting each other? The neutron decays into a proton and electron (and presumably photons), so that seems like evidence.)
(State what other reactions neutrons cause. Search for "transmutation" papers.)
(Chadwick's two papers seem to me to be somewhat theoretical. Without being able to see the work done there, the images of his thoughts at the time, it's difficult to know how accurate the claim of a neutral particle of mass 1 is. In addition, is a neutral Hydrogen atom described - does an electron significantly make its mass over 1? Then there is the missing discussion about why the mystery radiation must not be neutral hydrogen atoms.)
(Other interesting questions EXPERIMENT: what is the emission spectrum of neutrons? Can neutrons be combusted with oxygen? Can neutron be bonded with other atoms in the way that Hydrogen is? Can neutrons be collected as a gas the way Rutherford collected (emanation) Helium?)
| (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN
[02/23/1932 AD]
| 5181) English physicist, (Sir) John Douglas Cockcroft (CE 1897-1967) and Irish physicist, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (CE 1903-1995) describe the details of their linear proton accelerator, and the details and theory of the voltage doubling circuit they use to accelerate protons at 700kV and 10 microamperes.
Heinrich Greinacher (CE 1880-1974) had first publishes a cascading voltage-doubling circuit ("Greinacher multiplier") in 1920. Cockcroft does not mention Greinacher but does state that "... The circuit finally adopted, differs in the arrangement of condensers from a circuit suggested by Schenkel, which also allowed voltage multiplication to any extent, but required some of the condensers used to withstand the full voltage of the output circuit. ...".
(Show image from paper and read relevant parts.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN
[02/??/1932 AD]
| 5062) Edwin Powell Hubble (CE 1889-1953), US astronomer, reports that the globular clusters around the Andromeda galaxy are distributed around the galactic center, which supports Shapley's observations of globular clusters of this galaxy.
Hubble finds that the Andromeda globular clusters are measurably smaller than our own. The estimate of the size of the Milky Way galaxy at the time is inaccurate because of an error of the period-luminosity curve, which Baade will correct 10 years later.
The abstract for Hubble's paper "Nebulous Objects in Messier 31 Provisionally Identified as Globular Clusters" reads: " One hundred and forty nebulous objects have been found in or close to the borders of Messier 31 which, from their numbers, their distribution, and the radial velocity of a typical example, are presumably associated with the spiral. From their forms, structure, colors, luminosities, and dimensions they are provisionally identified as globular clusters. Absolute photographic magnitudes range from -4 to -7, the mean being -5.3. The luminosity function has a double maxumim, which suggests a mixture of two homogeneous groups having most frequent magnitudes at -5.0 and -6.2. Diameters range frmo about 4 to 16 parsecs. The number of objects per unit area decreases with distance from the nucleus of M31, and occasional objects are found as far as 3°.5 from the nucleus. The diameter of the spiral as derived from the distribution of these objects is probably of the order of 30,000 parsecs. According to Shapley's distances and magnitudes for the clusters in our system, reduced to the conventional scale, the objects in M31 are systematically fainter than the galactic globular clusters, by an amount cvarying from about 0.75 to 1.95 mag. according to the interpretation of the data. The ranges in absolute luminosity are of the same order, however, and the two groups overlap to a considerable extent. The known globular clousters in the Magellanic Clouds are comparable with the brighter objects in M31. Objects apparently similar to those in M31 are found in N.G.C. 6822, M33, M81 and M101.".
(Check: Does Hubble state that the globular clusters are of different size? I doubt the globular clusters of Andromeda are different sizes than the globular clusters of the Milky Way - or at least it seems unlikely to me.)
(What equation is being used to determine distance? Because clearly this should involve an inverse distance squared relation for apparent luminosity.)
(One question is, how is scale in telescope used to measure size of objects? Show the magnification calculation. I think these would be very useful for the public, for example telescopes. The data of: what is the actual apparent size of all major galaxies? in arc-seconds by arc-seconds. And simply in mm x mm or um x um. Then people can use these numbers in perspective calculation. What is used for the z dimension factor? Can x and y simply be divided by distance (z)? This seems like a basic equation, but yet most people probably have not ever seen it. Do we find in all experiments that perspective is exactly x/z and y/z?)
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
68 YBN
[03/01/1932 AD]
| 5342) Haldan Keffer Hartline (CE 1903-1983), US physiologist, and Clarence H. Graham record the electric potential created in a single neuron in the eye of a horse-shoe crab when light contacts the retina of the eye.
Hartline studies individual nerve fibers in the eyes of horseshoe crabs and frogs using tiny electrodes. Hartline investigates the electrical responses of the retinas of certain arthropods, vertebrates, and mollusks because their visual systems are much simpler than those of humans and so are easier to study. Hartline focuses on the eye of the horseshoe crab (Limulus polyphemus). Using minute electrodes in his experiments, Hartline obtains the first record of the electrical impulses sent by a single optic nerve fibre when the receptors connected to it are stimulated by light. Hartline also finds that the receptor cells in the eye are interconnected so that when one is stimulated, other nearby receptor cells are depressed, which enhances the contrast in light patterns and sharpening the perception of shapes. In this way Hartline builds up a detailed understanding of the workings of individual photoreceptors and nerve fibres in the retina.
In their March 1, 1932 paper "Nerve impulses From Single Receptors In The Eye", in the Journal of Cellular and Comparative Physiology, Hartline and Clarence Henry Graham write: "Recent studies in sensory physiology have provided a new approach to the problem of the mechanism of sense organs. The discharge of nerve impulses in the afferent fibers from various receptors has been studied in preparations in which the activity can be limited to a single end organ and its attached nerve fiber. The more complete analysis characteristic of this approach is best exemplified in the work done on tension, touch, and pressure receptors (Adrian, '26; Adrian and Zotterman, '26 ; Bronk, '29 ; Matthews, '31 ; Adrian, Cattell, and Hoagland, '31; Adrian and Umrath, '29; Bronk and Stell a, '32). In the case of these relatively simple end organs it has been possible to study the effect of various intensities of stimulation upon the nervous discharge and to investigate the processes of adaptation and fatigue. It is highly desirable to extend this method to the photoreceptor. Within the last few years Adrian and Matthews ( '27 a, '27 b, '28) have succeeded in demonstrating the passage of impulses in the optic nerve of the eel, Conger vulgaris, upon stimulation of the retina by light. These investigations on the discharge in the entire optic nerve have yielded such valuable information regarding the mechanism of the visual process and especially regarding the synaptic factors that the possibility of studying the response of a single photoreceptor unit becomes a most attractive one. For this purpose two conditions must be met which are not fulfilled by the eye of the eel. It is necessary to have a preparation in which the nerve can be readily separated into its constituent fibers and there should be no intervening neurones between the receptor cell and the nerve fiber in which the impulses are recorded. The present paper2 is concerned with a study of the nerve message in a more primitive eye, that of Limulus polyphemus, which admirably meets these requirements. In this eye the fibers in the optic nerve come directly from the receptor cells with no intervening neurones. Moreover, we have been able to develop a technique whereby the discharge from a single receptor unit is recorded. THE PREPARATION The lateral eye of the horseshoe crab3 (Limulus polyphemus) is a facetted eye containing about 300 large, coarsely spaced ommatidia. The histological structure of this organ has been studied in detail by Grenacher ( '79) and Exner ( '91 ). In each ommatidium there are fourteen to sixteen sense cells ('retinula cells') grouped about a central rhabdom. From each sense cell a nerve fiber runs uninterruptedly in the optic nerve to the central ganglion. Grenacher was unable to find any evidence of the presence of ganglion cells in the eye itself. On this basis we believe that in the optic nerve of Limulus we are dealing with a true sensory nerve, the activity of which is uncomplicated by synapses or ganglion cells. The nerve is unusually long, and in the adult animal may reach a length of 10 em. The carapace of the animal is opened from the dorsal side and the optic nerve is readily found at the point where it leaves the eye. It is dissected free of surrounding tissue and severed at a convenient length (1 to 3 cm.). The eye, with a margin of carapace surrounding it, is then loosened from the animal and removed with its attached length of nerve. It is mounted on the front wall of a moist chamber by means of melted paraffin and the nerve, extending through a slot, is slung on silk thread electrodes. This preparation will survive for ten to twelve hours. METHOD AND APPARATUS The method used in these experiments is to obtain in the usual manner oscillograms of the potential changes between the cut end and an uninjured portion of the nerve upon stimulation of the eye by light. The scheme of the experimental layout is given in figure 1. The eye-nerve preparation in its moist chamber (MG) is placed in an electrically shielded and thermally insulated box (B) with the front surface of the eye (E) at the focus of a 16-mm. microscope objective ( M ) . Illumination is provided by a 500-watt projection lamp. An image of the filament is focused on a metal diaphragm ( D ) , the rays first passing through a heat filter consisting of 7 em. of distilled water. The aperture in the diaphragm may be either a slit (about 10 mm. X 1 mm.) or a pinhole (about 0.5- mm. diameter), and it is the image of this aperture which is focused by means of the objective onto the cornea of the eye. Provision is made for the control of intensity by means of Wratten neutral-tint filters (3') placed immediately behind the diaphragm, and the exposure is regulated by a handoperated shutter (8) situated in front of it. The moist chamber containing the eye-nerve preparation is mounted on a platform ( P ) carried by a vernier micrometer rnanip~lator.~ This manipulator is placed with its controls ( X , Y, 2) outside the dark box and permits accurately controlled motion in three perpendicular directions. With this arrangement it is possi ble to adjust accurately the position of the image on the eye and to reproduce a given setting to within 0.01 mm. The nerve ( N ) is slung over two silk threads soaked in sea- water which serve as electrode. These threads run in glass tubes through the wall of the moist chamber and at C make contact with the non-polarizable Ag-AgCL electrodes connected to the input of a vacuum-tube amplifier (leads l in fig. 1). The amplifier consists of three stages of direct-coupled amplification and one power stage. The design is similar in principle to that used by Chaffee, Bovie, and Hampson ( '23), and recently Adrian ('31) has described a circuit which is almost identical with the one which we have been using. ... These three stages in cascade yield a maximal voltage amplification of 80,000. This maximum, however, is seldom used, the amplification being reduced by means of volume controls in the screen-grid stages. ... At maximum sensitivity 3 microvolts applied to the input of the first stage produces a deflection of 1 mm. of the oscillograph beam at the camera (distance of 5 meters). In most experiments, however, it was necessary to reduce the sensitivity to about one-tenth of this. Within the range used the deflections are proportional to the applied E.M.F. and a rectangular wave is reproduced with inappreciable distortion (fig. 2, c>. RESPO NSES OF THE WHOLE NERVE The electrical changes taking place in the whole nerve are best studied in the young animal (3 to 8 em. across carapace). A typical record of the changes when the whole eye is illuminated is shown in figure 2, A. After a short latent period there is an irregular variation of potential, followed immediately by an increase in negativity of the lead nearer the eye. This secondary rise reaches a maximum in about a fifth of a second and then sinks slightly to a steady value which is maintained throughout the duration of the illumination. Superimposed on these slow changes of potential is seen the fine structure associated with the passage of nerve impulses. When the light is turned off the impulses cease after a short latent period and the potential returns to its original level. Except for the slow changes this record is quite similar to those obtained by Adrian and Matthews from the optic nerve of the conger eel ('27 a). Control experiments show that when the nerve is crushed between the eye and the lead nearer it neither slow change nor impulses can be detected. It is interesting to compare the response from the nerve with the retinal potentials obtained by placing one lead on the cornea and one on the tissue at the back of the eye. These retinal potentials in Limulus have already been described by one of us (Hartline, '28) and a typical record obtained with the present apparatus is reproduced in figure 2, B. It is to be noted that this retinal action potential is a simple wave entirely devoid of fine structure. Its maximum is reached before that of the slow change in the nerve and is indeed approximately synchronous with the first burst of nerve activity. ... RESPONSES OF SINGLE PHOTORECEPTOR UNITS Isolation of sirqle zcvzits The lateral eye and optic nerve of the adult Limulus are exceptionally good material for the recording of single fiber responses. The nerve is practically free of connective tissue and when floated on the surface of a drop of sea-water may readily be dissected apart with glass needles under a binocular microscope. In this manner it is possible to obtain very small bundles of nerve fibers. In the young animal such bundles show evidence of a fair number of active fibers, but in the adult it appears that considerable areas of the eye have undergone degeneration of both ommatidia and nerve fibers. Consequently, many of the bundles obtained by dissection show no electrical response. A few trials, however, usually yield a bundle in which the response shows the striking rcgularity characteristic of the impulse discharge in a single nerve fiber (fig. 3). A typical experiment makes clear the procedure used. An eye-nerve preparation was mounted in the manner described. The moist chamber was then flooded with sea-water, and by means of fine-pointed glass needles the nerve was split into several large bundles. The sea-water in the chamber was then drawn off aiid one of the bundles slung over the electrodes. This preparation {'as placed in the dark box and a trial record taken. Several bundles mere tried in succession and the one giving the most favorable discharge was chosen. The moist chamber was again flooded with sea-water and a fine strand dissected off this bundle. When the sea-water was withdrawn and the eye stimulated, it was found that tlierc were still several active fibers. One more dissection, however, gave a very delicate strand in which there was but one active fiber. A record from this fiber is given in figure 3 (A, B, C, U). The impulses are unusually large (0.3 millivolt), due in part, at least, to the fact that there was in this fine strand very little material short-circuiting the active fiber. In other preparations we have obtained impulses as large as 0.6 milli- volt. That we are dealing with impulses in one fiber oiily is evideiiced by the following coiisideratioiis : 1) The discharge exhibits a regularity typical of that in a single fiber. Moreover, there is never any type of response iiitermediate between that figured liere aiid iio response at all. Further subdivisioii of the nerve strand iiir-ariably yields one portioii wliicli gives 110 response, the otlier sliomiiig the same regular succession of impulses as before. Adrian aiid Zottermaii ('26) have discussed this point fully, aiid it lias become geiierally recognized that the discharge of a train of regularly spaced nerve impulses of uniform size is typical of the functioiiiiig of a siiigle iiervous unit. This is true iiot only for various end orgaiis and their nerve fibers, but also for the ei'ferent impulses iii motor units (Adrian aiid Bronk, '28). 2) ilatthews ('31) has found in the case of tlie tension receptors in muscle that such a regularity of response occurs when stimulation is restricted to a portion of the muscle found liistologictilly to contain a single muscle spindle. TTe have performed an experiment mhicli lias certain features similar to his. When tlie piiiliole diaphragm was placed at D (fig. 1) and the preparation adjusted so that the image of thc pinhole fell 011 the surface of the eye, it was found that no respoiise to illumiiiation occurred uriless the image fell upon a defiiiitely restricted region. Tlic respoiise obtained in this position coiisistetl of tlie same regular series of impulses as liucl been obtained with illuminatioii of the entire eye. By meaiis of the micrometer manipulator it was possible to determine the extension of this region from which a response could be obtained. This was done by taking micrometer readings at the points where impulses first appeared as the region was approached from either side. This area was found to have a vertical diameter of 0.12 mm. aiid a liorizontal diameter of 0.17 mm. The surface of the eye iii this region was then examined hp means of the followiiig device. A halfsilvered mirror was introduced into the light beam between the diaphragm (D) and the microscope objective ( M , fig. 1) at an angle of 45" to the optical axis. With the help of a suit ably placed eyepiece a region of the front surface of the eye 1.5 mm. in diameter could be observed at a magnification of about 40 X. In the center of this field the small illumiiiated region could be seen where the image of the pinhole fell upon tlic eye. In tlic present expci*iment this examiiitltioii was made with the eye so situated that a maximum frequeiicy of respoiise was elicited from tlie nerve fiber. It was fouiid that tlie image of the pirillole lay directly over w e ommatidium. This image was a circular patch of light 0.12 mm. in diameter aiici the ommatidium was slightly smaller. There were 110 other ommatidia jllumiiiated by this patch of light, tlie average separation of adjaceiit ommatidia being about 0.3 mm. That we are dealing with the syiic;lironous discharge of all the fibers from one ommalidium is reiidered unlikely by the fact, already mentioned, that when N strand showiiig a aniform series of impulses is further subdivided the oiie part gives the same cliscliarge and tlie other none at all. Furtlier, it has been impossible to obtaiii a simple regular series of impulses by confining tlie stimulus to a single ommatidium without previous dissectioii of the nerve. We must rely upon tlie good fortunc of the dissection to include oiily oiie active fiber from a given ommatidium. If several active elements are present in the nerve bundle, it is frequently possible, if their number is not too great, to recognize their respective impulses in the responses obtaiiicd when the region of illumination is large, and to effect a separation physiologically by meaiis of coiifiriirig the stimulus to the respective end organs supplied. An example of this is given in the experimeiit of figure 4. ... Nature of the rcsponsc As examples of typical single fiber responses we may take the records re1)roduced in figure 3, B, ancl figure 4, B. The discharge begins after a latent period at a relatively high frequency which may rise to a maximum and then sinks, rapidly at first, and then more slowly, tending to reach a constant level. The discharge continlies as long as the light is shining on the eye, and at the higher intensities is quite regular. When the light is turned off, the discharge persists for a very short period and then stops abruptly. The effect of intensity upon the discharge is marked. It is shown in four records of figure 3. At the higher intensities the initial maximum frequency and the final steady value are both increased, as has been found to be the case for all other end organs studied by other investigators. At lower intensities the freqneiicy is less, the discharge tends to become irregular, and the latent period increases. At still lower intensities the discharge becomes very short in spite of continued illumiiiatioii and just above the threshold coiisists of oiily a single impulse. Figure 5 gives the graphs of the frequency-time relation for three intensities. The curves are taken from the records A, C, and D of figure 3. In figure 6 is plotted tlie frequency of discharge against tlic logarithm of the stimulating iiiteiisity; curve A gives the initial masimum frequencies; curve €3, the frequencies after three aiitl one-half seconds. The linear relation over a moderate range of intensities parallels that found by IlIatthews ('31) for the muscle spindle. ... DISCUSSION The discharge of impulses recorded in a single nerve fiber when its attached photoreceptor is stimulated by light closely resembles that found in similar preparations from other sense organs. Initially discharging at a high frequency, this photoreceptor unit adapts fairly rapidly, but maintains a steady discharge as long as the stimulus is applied. In this respect it may be classed with the tension and pressure receptors as opposed to the tactile. Moreover, as in other sense organs, the frequency of discharge is greater with higher intensities of stimulation. At the highest intensity employed the maximum frequency we have observed is about 130 per second. At low intensities the discharge becomes irregular and may even stop. These experiments on the isolated photoreceptor unit, uncomplicated by synapses or ganglion cells, agree in revealing a typical nervous unit discharging a regular sequence of nerve impulses. The photoreceptor is thus seen to fit into the general picture of sense-organ activity developed from the study of other receptors. The relation of these findings to visual physiology has not been touched upon in this paper. It is of interest to notice that the familiar linear relation between the response and the logarithm of the stimulating intensity is present in the behavior of the single photoreceptor unit. Of particular significance is the fact that a single receptor unit is capable of responding at different frequencies over such a wide range of intensities. In figure 6, where the intensity range is 1 to 10,000, it is evident that the lower limit has not been reached. Other experiments have shown us that the range may be as great as 1 to 1,000,000. SUMMARY 1. The lateral eye of Limulus polyphemus when excised with a portion of its optic nerve attached provides a preparation well suited for the study of the nerve discharge associated with the process of photoreception. In this primitive eye there are neither ganglion cells nor synapses. 2. The method used in this study has been to stimulate the eye by light and record the action potentials in the optic nerve by means of an oscillograph. 3. In the whole nerve the response to light consists of slow potential changes, superimposed upon which are rapid, irregular fluctuations associated with the passage of nerve impulses. 4. The optic nerve may be subdivided into strands, which, if sufficiently small, may show a regular sequence of uniform nerve impulses, which from analogy with other sense organs are interpreted as being due to the discharge from a single fiber. 5. This regular discharge is associated with stimulation of a single ommatidium. 6. When several active fibers are present in a strand from the optic nerve, their respective discharges may be recognized by differences in the corresponding size of impulses. In one case each discharge was shown to be associated with the stimulation of separate ommatidia. 7. The discharge in a single fiber begins after a short latent period at a high frequency, which has been found to be as high as 130 per second. The frequency falls rapidly at first, and finally approaches a steady value, which is maintained for the duration of illumination. 8. Frequency of discharge is greater at high intensities of illumination and the latent period is shorter. 9. The response of the completely dark-adapted eye to high intensiti es is characterized by a short pause in the discharge after the first initial burst. Following this ‘silent period’ the discharge is renewed at a lower frequency. 10. The behavior of this photoreceptor is analogous to that of other receptor organs, particularly those of tension and pressure. 11. The range of intensities to which a single photoreceptor unit responds with varying frequency may be as great as 1 to 1,000,000.".
(Note that this article does not appear in the American Journal of Physiology until 1938, but instead appears in the second issue of the first volume of a new journal, although a preliminary report appears in 1932 "Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine".)
(Notice no mention of remotely stimulating a nerve cell by bypassing the eye with light such as x-ray or uv light.)
(Very interesting that the nerve does not stay constantly firing, but instead fires with a frequency of on/off electric potentials. See Katz's work on the reverse of direct neuron firing (writing). Katz found that both constant and pulsed current could cause motorneurons to fire.)
| (University of Pennsylvania) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
68 YBN
[04/16/1932 AD]
| 5182) First nuclear transformation by protons, Lithium bombarded with protons results in 2 Helium atoms.
In 1919 Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), had changed atoms of nitrogen into atoms of oxygen (transmutation) by colliding accelerated alpha particles with nitrogen gas.
English physicist, (Sir) John Douglas Cockcroft (CE 1897-1967) and Irish physicist, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (CE 1903-1995) bombard lithium with protons and produce alpha particles, and conclude that lithium and hydrogen are combined to form helium. This is the first nuclear reaction to be created by artificially accelerated particles and without using any form of natural radioactivity. The cyclotron Lawrence will invent will replace the voltage multiplier. This reaction will be important in the development of the hydrogen bomb.
This reaction is: 73Li + 11H → 42He + 42He + 17.2 MeV. (Note that 17.2 MeV is perhaps best described as being equal to an equivalent quantity of light particles.)
Cockcroft and Walton announce this finding in a Nature article in April 1932 entiteld "Disintegration of Lithium by Swift Protons". They write: "In a previous letter to this journal we have described a method of producing a steady stream of swift protons of energies up to 600 kilovolts by the application of high potentials, and have described experiments to measure the range of travel of these protons outside the tube. We have employed the same method to examine the effect of the bombardment of a layer of lithium by a stream of these ions, the lithium being placed inside the tube at 45° to the beam. A mica window of stopping power of 2 cm of air was sealed on to the side of tube, and the existence of radiation from the lithium was investigated by the scintillation method outside the tube. The thickness of the mica window was much more than sufficient to prevent any scattered protons from escaping into the air even at the highest voltage used.
On applying an accelerating potential of the order of 125 kilovolts, a number of bright scintillations were at once observed, the numbers increasing rapidly with voltage up to the highest voltage used, namely 400 kilovolts. At this point many hundreds of scintillations per minute were observed using a proton current of a few microampers. No scintillations were observed when the proton was cut off or when the lithium was shielded from it by a metal screen. The range of the particles was measured by introducing mica screens in the path of the rays, and found to be about eight centimetres in air and not to vary appreciably with voltage.
To throw light on the nature of these particles, experiments were made with a Shimizu expansion chamber, when a number of tracks resembling those of -particles were observed and of range agreeing closely with that determined by the scintillations. It is estimated that at 250 kilovolts, one particle is produced for approximately 109 protons. The brightness of the scintillations and the density of the tracks observed in the expansion chamber suggest that the particles are normal -particles. If this point of view turns out to be correct, it seems not unlikely that the lithium isotope of mass 7 occasionally captures a proton and the resulting nucleus of mass 8 breaks into two -particles, each of mass four and each with an energy about eight million electron volts. The evolution of energy on this view is about sixteen million electron volts per disintegration, agreeing approximately with that to be expected from the decrease of atomic mass involved in such a disintegration. Experiments are in progress to determine the effect on other elements when bombarded by a stream of swift protons and other particles.".
(Explain how the cyclotron is important to the development of the hydrogen bomb.)
(One idea is to continuously circle the protons around through the target to maximize the colliding probability- if a goal is to convert Lithium into Helium, or systemaically convert other elements - is this method ever discussed?)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN
[04/23/1932 AD]
| 5053) Peter Joseph Wilhelm Debye (DEBI) (CE 1884-1966), Dutch-US physical chemist scatter light using ultrasound.
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) |
68 YBN
[04/29/1932 AD]
| 5385) Karl Guthe Jansky (CE 1905-1950), US radio engineer uses a large rotating radio antenna and receiver tuned to receive 14.6 meter interval (wavelength) of radio light, and determines that thunderstorms produce radio light which Jansky records both with a pen plotting on paper and as static from a speaker.
Jansky writes in the Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers the article "Directional Studies of Atmospherics at High Frequencies": " Summary- A system for recording the direciton of arrival and intensity of static on short waves is described. The system consists of a rotating directional antenna array, a sdouble detection receiver and an energy operated automatic recorded. The operation of the system is such that the output of the receiver is kept constant regardless of the intensity of the static. Data obtained with this system show the presence of three separate groups of statuc: Group 1, static from local thunderstorms; Group 2, static from distant thunderstorms, and Group 3, a steady hiss type static of unknown origin. Curves are given showing the direction of arrival and intensity of static of the first group plotted against time of day and for several different thunderstorms. Static of the second group was found to correspond to that on long waves in the direction of arrival and is heard only when the long wave static is very strong. The static of this group comes most of the time from directions lying between southeast and southwest as does the long wave static. Curves are given showing the direction of arrival of static of group three plotted against time of day. The direction varies gradually throughout the day going almost completely around the compass in 24 hours. The evidence indicates that the source of this static is somehow associated with the sun. ...".
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
68 YBN
[04/30/1932 AD]
| 5244) (Sir) Hans Adolf Krebs (CE 1900-1981), German-British biochemist, with K. Henselheit describe the "urea cycle", in which amino acids (the monomers of proteins) lose their nitrogen in the form of urea, which is excreted in urine. The remainder of the amino acid molecule then may participate in a variety of metabolic pathways.
Krebs shows that urea is formed by the disassembly and reassembly of a part of the amino acid arginine. Krebs works out part of the urea cycle which describes how when amino acids are broken down to be used for energy instead of used to build proteins, removing the nitrogen atom from the amino acid (deamination) is the first step, the nitrogen atom is then passed out of the body through urine. Krebs is the first to observe this process of removing the nitrogen from an amino acid. The urea cycle will become more detailed but the main skeleton is still as Krebs described.
In their paper in the Journal of Molecular Medicine, Krebs and Henseleit write in their abstract (translated from German with Google translate): "The main result of this work is the discovery of the path on which the synthesis of urea from ammonia and carbon dioxide passes for the animal organism. The urea synthesis is linked to the presence of ornithine, without ornithine is consumed in the balance of synthesis. Ornithine, ammonia and carbon dioxide occur with elimination of water to a guanidino compound - the arginine - together {reaction (1)}. Arginine by the action of arginase cleaves urea from {reaction (2)} and ornithine returning, again for the reaction (1) is available. ...".
(If the amino acid from food is used to build proteins, is this done by ribosomes and RNA?)
| (University of Freiburg) Freiburg, Germany |
68 YBN
[05/08/1932 AD]
| 5386) Karl Guthe Jansky (CE 1905-1950), US radio engineer detects a radio light source from from outside the solar system.
Jansky publishes an initial announcement in a Nature article "Radio Waves from Outside the Solar System", locating the radio source at 18' right ascension and -10° declination.
Jansky identifies the source of radio as static interference in radio reception, coming from a source in the constellation of Sagittarius, and this is the beginning of radio astronomy. Jansky detectes that the source is from overhead and moves steadily. At first Jansky thinks that it moves with the sun, but then finds that it gains slightly on the sun, four minutes of arc a day, which is just the amount that the stars gain on the sun every day. So the source must lie beyond the Solar System. By the spring of 1932 Jansky determines that the source is in the constellation of Sagittarius, the direction that Shapley and Oort placed as the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Radio astronomy is useful, because radio and microwaves penetrate dust clouds that visible light can not, so that a radio telescope can detect the galactic center which a detector on an optical telescope can not. Whipple will present a discussion of Jansky's observation. Reber, an amateur astronomer will carry on this work. The development of microwave technology in connection with radar during World War II will make radio astronomy more popular after World War II. In his honor the unit of strength of radio wave emission is now called the jansky.
In October of 1962 Bruno Benedetto Rossi (CE 1905-1994) Italian-US physicist, at MIT and others will be the first to report detecting an x-ray source from outside the solar system.
Bell releases a press release about the finding and it makes the front page of the New York "Times". It seems more likely that Alexander Bell or other Bell Telephone Labs owners bought the front page of the NY Times, and most people do. We are still waiting for the "Scientists hear thought!" headline.
In his initial report of May 8, 1932, in Nature, "Radio Waves from Outside the Solar System", Jansky writes: "IN a recent paper on the direction of arrival of high-frequency atmospherics, curves were given showing the horizontal component of the direction of arrival of an electromagnetic disturbance, which I termed hiss type atmospherics, plotted against time of day. These curves showed that the horizontal component of the direction of arrival changed nearly 360° in 24 hours and, at the time the paper was written, this component was approximately the same as the azimuth of the sun, leading to the assumption that the source of this disturbance was somehow associated with the sun. Records have now been taken of this phenomenon for more than a year, but the data obtained from them are not consistent with the assumptions made in the above paper. The curves of the horizontal component of the direciton of arrival plotted against time of day for the different months show a uniformly progressive shift with respect to the time of day, which at the end of one sidereal year brings the curve back to its initial position. Consideration of this shift and the shape of the individual curves leads to the conclusion that the direction of arrival of this disturbance remains fixed in space, that is to say, the source of this noise is located in some region that is stationary with respect to the stars. Although the right ascension of this region can be determined from the data with considerable accuracy, the error not being greater than +- 30 minutes of right ascension, the limitations of the apparatus and the errors that might be caused by the ionised layers of the earth's atmosphere and by attenuation of the waves in passing over the surface of the earth are such that the declination of the region can be determined only very approximately. Thus the value obtained from the data might be in error by as much as +-30°. The data give for the co-ordinates of the region from which the disturbance comes, a right ascension of 18 hours and declination of -10°. A more detailed description of the experiments and the results will be given later.".
In a later paper on September 14, 1933, published in "Popular Astronomy" as "Electrical Phenomena that apparently are of interstellar origin", Jansky writes:
"Summary. Electromagnetic waves of an unknown origin were detected during a series of experiments on atmospherics of short wave-lengths. Directional records have been taken of these waves for a period of nearly two years. The data obtained from these records show that the azimuth of the direction of arrival changed from hour to horu and from day to day in a manner that is exactly similar to the way in which the azimuth of a star charged. This fact leads to the conclusion that the direction of arrival of these waves is fixed in space; that is to say, that the source of these waves is located in some region that is stationary with respect to the stars. Although the right ascension of this region can be determined from the data with considerable accuracy, the error not being greater than +-30 minutes of right ascension, the limitations of the apparatus and the errors that might be caused by the ionized layers of the earth's armosphere and by attenuation of the waves in passing over the surface of the earth are such that the declination of the region can be determined only very approximately. Thus the value obtained from the data may be in error by as much as +-30 degrees. The data give, for the coordinates of the region from which the waves seem to come, a right ascension of 18 hours and a declination of -20 degrees. Introduction During the progress of a series of experiments that were being made at Holmdel, New Jersey, on the direction of arrival of atmospherics at high frequencies, records were obtained that showed the presence of very weak but continuous electromagnetic waves of an unknown origin. The first indications of this phenomenon were obtained on records taken during the summer and fall of 1931, and a comprehensive study of it was made during the year 1932. The results of this study are the subject of this paper. The first complete records obtained showed the surpriseing fact that the azimuth of the direction of arrival of these waves changed nearly 360 degrees in 24 hours and subsquent records showed that each day an azmuth of 0 degrees (south) was reached aproxumately 4 minutes earlier than on the day before. These facts lead to the conclusion that the directino of arrival of these waves remains fixed in space, that is to say, its righ ascension and declination are constant. ... The apparatus consists of a sensitive short-wave radio receiving system to which is connected an automatic signal intensity recorder. The antenna system is highly directive in the horizontal plane and is rotated continuously about a vertical axis once every twenty minutes so that data obtained with the system, like that obtained with a loop aerial rotated about a vertical axis, give the azimuth of the direction of arrival of signals, but tell nothing directly about its altitude. The recorder motor and the antenna driving motor are both synchronous motors operating from the same power supply so that the records obtained show the azimuth of the direction of arrival of signals directly as well as their intensity. Figure 1 shows a sample record of the waves in question obtained with the apparatus. Time is given along the horizontal axis as also is the azimuth, (the azimuth is given along the top of the record), and relative intensity values in db.. along the vertical axis. The time at which the antenna was pointed in the direction from which the waves come is clearly indicated on the record by the humps in the curve the central points of which are indicated by the short vertical line,. Except where otherwise noted the apparatus was tuned to a wave-length of 14.6 meters. ... The possibility of a group of sources not being uniformly distributed over a given area with respect to the earth presents the most fascinating explanation of the data, for after a brief consideration of the curves fiven in Figure 2 it will be evident that a disk-like distribution of the sources around the earth like the distribution of the stars in the Milky Way would give a very similat curve. This possibile explanation proves even more interesting when it is disvovered that the coordinates given nby the data are very nearly the same as those for the center of the Milky Way, the coordinates of which point are appoximately right ascension 17 hours, 30 minutes, declination -30 degrees (in the Milky Way in the direction of Sagittarius) well within the limit of error the data;p and also because the records show a small hump betewen the main humps in certain sectinos of the record just as would be expected if the Milky Way were the source of the waves. Considerable data will have to be taken and thoroughly analyzed, however, before such a theory or for that matter before any throru relative to the source of these waves can be accepted. Although all the data presented so far in this paper were taken on a wave-length of 14.6 meters, a few rins were made on wave-lengths ranging from 15 meters to 13 meters with no apparentl change in the intensity of the waves. Due to the fact that the antenna system loses its directivity outside of the wave-length range, no data have been taken on other wave-lengths. At no time did the intensity of the waves reach a value in excess of 0.39 microvolts per meter for a receiver with a 1.0 kilocycle band width. Conclusion. In conclusion, data have been presented which show the existence of electromagnetic waves in the earth's atmosphere which apparetnly come from a direction fixed in space. The data give for the coordinates of tehis direction a right ascension of 18 hours and a declination of -20 degrees. The experiments wihch are the subject of this paper were performed during the year 1932 at the molmdel Radio Laboatories of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc, which haave a north latitude of 40 degrees 20 mnutes and a west longitide of 74 degrees 10 minutes.".
Note that the term "azimuth" refers to: the length in degrees of the arc of the horizon between a given point and true north, measured clockwise, or simply a horizontal direction measured in degrees (see image). Altitude-azimuth or alt-azimuth is one method of locating the position of a star, right ascension and declination is another system used.
(This appears to be part of the telecom companies, in particular the big monopoly land line companies, in the Americas, AT&T, dribbling out tiny crumbs of information relating to the massive secret dust-sized cameras, microphones, neuron reading and writing radio networks which is shockingly and brutally kept from helping the public to communicate and helping to solve and alleviate their health problems - much of which would be reduced simply be the stopping of neuron written murder, assault, molestation, and violent and sexually inappropriate suggestions.)
(This is all part of the simple idea of seeing the universe in every wavelength of light/photons, and even in all the wavelengths of other particles, atoms and molecules. All of the universe should be viewed in every wavelength.)
(Notice the first words in the Nature article are "In a recent paper", which spells, certainly not by coincidence, "arp", which is evidence that the arpa net was in use in 1933 - but by then remote neuron reading and writing was already 100 years old if not older. In addition, "Records have now been taken of this phenomenon for more than a year", which may hint about the vast recordings Bell has of thought-images, visual images, thought-sounds and external sounds which probably are the largest library of data on earth - and not democratically owned and operated by a democratic government, but strictly by individual wealthy people.)
(At some time in the future, humans will get a better determination of our position in terms of advanced life among the nearest stars. It may be a feeling similar to the feeling native american people had - the realization that we are not the only living objects that live here and want to expand - and that there may be serious limitations set on us by more advanced species of other stars. Just like there are limits between nations of earth. Probably one early step is sending indetectible flying radio cameras to planets of other stars to determine if any life lives on their surfaces.)
(The phenomenon of how longer wavelength light can penetrate clouds of various atoms while visible wavelength cannot is interesting. Perhaps those atoms only absorb photons with the smaller visible separation between them. Or perhaps those clouds only emit a stream of long wavelength light, filtered from all the wavelengths of light that collide with it. Perhaps there is some aspect of the billiard-ball kind of colliding that ultimately pushes out photons on the side of the cloud facing the observer. The theory is probably that a beam with a long wavelength moves untouched through a cloud, but it is possible that it is a series of collisions, also possible are that the photons are temporarily absorbed but then quickly emitted, the atoms unable to hold onto them.)
(In terms of the "jansky" as a unit, probably a better unit is photons/second-cm^2.)
(Notice "10 minutes", which I have heard before from neuron consumers - it conjures an image of some kind of insider board meeting where they decide issues - like who to include, threats to their omnipotence, etc. Or perhaps people buy "minutes" of neuron service which costs lots of money - but clearly many videos captured for almost free from the public without needing to pay anything to those people most of whom are not even aware that images of them are being captured all the time by AT&T's dust-sized cameras. These images are captured and stored for pennies, but probably cost the consumers a lot of money to see in front of their eyes, in particular with no democratic controls, and no competition.)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) New York City, New York, USA |
68 YBN
[05/09/1932 AD]
| 5167) Charles Glen King (CE 1896-1988), US biochemist isolates vitamin C.
Albert Szent-Giorgi at the University of Szeged in Hungary, had isolated vitamin C four years in 1928 without realizing it.
King isolates vitamin C as the antiscorbutic (curing or preventing scurvy) factor in lemon juice.
King writes in the Journal of Biological Chemistry article "Isolation and Identification of Vitamin C": "... This paper deals with (a) the precipitation of the active material as the lead salt, and (b) the isolation of a crystalline compound which is active in preventing scurvy in guinea pigs. The properties of this active crystalline substance correspond with those given for the "hexuronic acid” studied by Szent-Gyorgyi (6-7) as an oxidation-reduction factor in adrenal cortex, oranges, and cabbage. We believe that the two substances are identical, as stated in a previous communication ...".
Haworth and Reichstein will determine the structure and synthesize vitamin C in 1933.
| (University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
68 YBN
[06/07/1932 AD]
| 5286) Werner Karl Heisenberg (HIZeNBARG) (CE 1901-1976), German physicist, proposes a model of the atomic nucleus in which protons and neutrons are held together by exchanging electrons this will come to be known as the "strong" force. In this paper Heisenberg introduces a quantum number which distinguishes between a proton and a neutron. (verify)
In exchange with Dirac, Jordan, Wolfgang Pauli, and others, Heisenberg tries to create a quantum field theory, uniting quantum mechanics with relativity theory to comprehend the interaction of particles and (force) fields.
In 1932 after Chadwick identifies the neutron, Heisenberg quickly shows that from a theoretical view, a nucleus made of protons and neutrons is far more stable than one made of protons and electrons as had been thought for more than a decade. Heisenberg claims that protons and neutrons would be held together in the nucleus by exchange forces, and these theoretical forces will be worked out by Yukawa. Heisenberg develops a model of proton and neutron interaction through what will come to be known as the strong force.
In his paper (translated from German with translate.google.com) "On the construction of atomic nuclei. I" Heisenberg writes: "We discuss the consequences of the assumption that the atomic nuclei of protons and neutrons are built without the participation of electrons. §1. The Hamiltonian of the core. §2. The ratio of charge and mass and the special stability of the He-core. §3 to §5: Stability of the nuclei and radioactive decay series. §6. Discussion of the basic physical assumptions. By the experiments of Curie and Joliot 1) and its interpretation by Chadwick 2) it has been found that a new fundamental building block, the neutron, plays an important role in the structure of nuclei. This result seems to suggest that atomic nuclei are composed of protons and neutrons without the participation of electrons 3). If this assumption is correct, it means a auserordentliche? for simplifying the theory of atomic nuclei. The fundamental difficulty encountered in the theory of B-decay and nitrogen nuclear statistics, can be reduced, namely then to the question in what way can decay into a neutron and proton and electron statistics which it is sufficient, while the actual construction of the cores under the laws of quantum mechanics in the force acts between protons and neutrons curves can be described.
§1 For the following considerations it is assumed that the neutrons follow the rules of Fermi statistics and have spin 1/2 h/2pi. This assumption will be necessary to explain the statistics of the nitrogen nucleus, and corresponds to the empirical results on nuclear moments. If one were to interpret the neutron as composed of protons and electrons, one would, therefore, use the electron Bose statistics with null spin. It seems only practical to carry out such an picture in more detail. Rather, the neutron is regarded as an independent fundamental component, which is believed, however, that it, under appropriate circumstances may split into proton and electron, and probably the conservation of energy and momentum are no longer applicable. Of the force effects of the elementary nuclear components to each other, we first consider that between neutron and proton. Bring one neutron and proton in a spacing comparable with nuclear dimensions, then in analogy with the H2+ -Ion - a place of negative exchange Charge occurs, the frequency of this, a function 1/h J(r), is the distance r, between the two particles. The coarser J(r) corresponds to the exhange - or rather, the work integral of the molecular theory. This work function can change the picture of the electrons, they have no spin and obey the rules of Bosestatistik, make clear. However, it is probably more correct, that the space work integral J(r) is considered a fundamental property of the neutron and proton pair, without having it reduced to electron movements. ... Finally, it should also be discussed briefly to the question, what are the fundamental limits of accuracy, can be described, mutatis mutandis within which a Hamiltonian of the nucleus of type (1) the physical behavior of the nuclei. Looking at molecules as analogous to the nuclei and the neutrons compared with atoms, we come to the conclusion that equation (1) can only apply if the motion of protons relative to the slow movement of the electron in the neutron takes place, ie the protons speed must be small compared to the light speed. For this reason, we omitted all relativistic terms in the Hamiltonian (1). The mistake that one commits in this case is on the order (v / c)2, or about 1%. This approximation can speak the neutron still be regarded as a static entity, as we have done above. One must however be clear that there are other physical phenomena in which the neutron can not be regarded as a static entity and can give of whom then equation (1) no accountability. One of these phenomena for as the Meitner-Hupfeld effect, the scattering of gamma rays by nuclei also belong to all the experiments in which the neutrons into protons and electrons can be broken down, an example of this is provided by the braking of the cosmic ray electrons passing through atomic nuclei. For discussion of such experiments, is therefore a more accurate addressing the fundamental problems that were observed in the continuous B-ray spectra in appearance, is essential.".
For more basic information see . (Get better translation and read relevent parts. It's hard to believe that there is no English translation of this work, since this theory is apparently a component of one popular modern view of the atom.)
(So is Heisenberg the founder of the theory of nuclear forces or Fermi? In any event, I doubt the theory of nuclear forces. But find more explicit evidence for their claims. I think Fermi may have founded the weak force and Heisenberg the strong force.)
(In this current translation I can't quite determine what heisenberg is describing. But if it is a neutron and proton held together by the neutron exchanging an electron with the proton, this to me seems unlikely - it is difficult to imaging how this electron would go back and forth between neutron and proton. Even as a shared electron it seems unnecessary. In my view, the more probable picture, although people can only guess, is the view of an electron orbiting a proton, and ampere's electrical force does not apply for particles in an atom because the electrical effect is a larger phenomenon that requires a particle field to produce many collisions. But I think a good interpretation of the electro-magnetic effect is still open to investigation - I'm sure those who own neuron writing devices have developed a somewhat accurate interpretation - probably different from any public explanation.)
(According to one bibliography, there is apparently an English translation of the first paper on the atomic nucleus from 1965 but I can't find it.)
| (University of Leipsig) Leipsig, Germany |
68 YBN
[06/15/1932 AD]
| 5183) English physicist, (Sir) John Douglas Cockcroft (CE 1897-1967) and Irish physicist, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (CE 1903-1995) disintegrate a variety of elements using high-speed protons. Cockcroft and Walton convert Fluorine into Oxygen, Sodium into Neon, in addition to other unknown transmutations.
Cockcroft and Walton write in the Proceedings of the Royal Society A article "Experiments with High Velocity Positive Ions. II. - The Disintigration of Elements by High Velocity Protons.": "1. Introduction. in a previous paper we have described a method of producing high velocity positive ions having energies up to 700,000 electron volts. We first used this method to determine the range of high-speed protons in air and hydrogen and the result obtained will be described in a subsequent paper. In the present communication we describe experiments which show that protons having energies above 150,000 volts are capable of disintegrating a considerable number of elements. Experiments in artificial disintegration have in the past been carried out with streams of α-particles; the resulting transmutations have in general been accompanied by the emission of a proton and in some cases γ-radiation. The present experiments show that under the bombardment of protons, α-particles are emitted from many elements; the disintegration process is thus in a sense the reverse process to the α-particle transformation.
2. The Experimental Method. Positive ions of hydrogen obtained from a hydrogen canal ray tube are accelerated by voltages up to 600 kilovolts in the experimental tube described in (I) and emerge through a 3-inch diameter brass tube into a chamber well shielded by lead and screened from electrostatic fields. To this brass tube is attached by a flat joint and plasticene seal the apparatus shown in fig. 1. A target, A, of the metal to be investigated is placed at an angle of 45 degrees to the direction of the proton stream. Opposite the centre of the target is a side tube across which is sealed at B either a zinc sulphide screen or a mica window. In our first experiments we used a round target of lithium 5 cm. in diameter and sealed the side tube with a zinc sulphide screen, the sensitive surface being towards the target. ... {ULSF: They describe disintigrating Lithium - read?} ... 6. The Disintegration of other Elements. Preliminary investigations have been made to determine whether any evidence of disintegration under proton bombardment could be obtained for the following elements: Be, B, C, O, F, Na, Al, K, Ca, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Ag, Pb, U. Using the fluorescent screen as a detector we have observed some bright scintillations from all these elements, the numbers varying markedly from element to element, the relative orders of magnitude being indicated by fig. 7 for 300 kilovolts. The results of the scintillation method have been confirmed by the electrical counter for Ca, K, Ni, Fe and Co, and the size of the oscillograph kicks suggest that the majority of the particles ejected are α-particles.
... The interesting problem as to whether the boron splits up into three α-particles or into Be3 plus an α-particle must await an answer until more detailed investigation is made. ... {ULSF: They conclude that Fluorine is converted to oxygen and helium, that Sodium is converted to Neon and Helium. } ....". (Describe the difference between regular volts and electron volts.)
(Experiment: What are the results of other atoms and molecules bombarded with protons?)
(Do later experimenters confirm with emission spectra by accumulating the resulting products which atoms are produced? What methods are used to separate the transmuted atoms from non-transmuted atoms?)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN
[06/??/1932 AD]
| 4883) US astronomers, Walter Sydney Adams (CE 1876-1956) and Theodore Dunham detect absorption lines in the spectrum of light reflected off Venus.
Adams and Dunham write: "In 1922, St. John and Nicholson investigated the spectrum of Venus ... No trace was found of lines due to oxygen or to water vapor in the spectrum of the planet. Recent progress at the Research Laboratory of the Eastman Kodak Company in sensitizing photographic plates to the infrared has made it possible to extend this investigation to the region of longer wave-lengths where the A-band of oxygen at λ7594 and the group of strong water-vapor lines in the interval λ8150-λ8300 afford excellent material for a sensitive test of the presence of molecules of these gases in the atmosphere of Venus. ... Twelve unblended lines which definitely bThe inteelong to the band at λ8689 have been measured on the spectrogram. The problem of the identification of these bands presents difficulties, because very little is known of molecular spectra in this region of the spectrum and direct comparison with known bands is not possible, On the other hand, measurements of the heads of these bands and of the separations of the component lines, considered in connection with our theoretical knowledge of band structure, afford a fair presumption that they are due to carbon dioxide. The band at λ7820 is best suited for a calculation of this sort. The interval at the origin of this band is half as great again as that between neighboring lines in the P and R branches. This is a strong indication that alternate lines are missing. On this assumption the band can be accurately represented by a quadratic formula. The constants in the formula lead to a moment of inertia of about 70.5 x 10-40 for the lower state of the molecule concerned, a value in excellent agreement with the experimental results for the moment of inertia of carbon dioxide. These bands are not present in the solar spectrum shortly before sunset, under conditions such that the amount of carbon dioxide in the path corresponds to at least 30 meters of gas at atmospheric pressure. An attempt is being made to confirm the identification by photographing the absorption spectrum of carbon dioxide in a pipe 20 meters long. A beam of light passes through the pipe twice, giving a path 40 meters in length. No bands have so far been detected with carbon dioxide at a pressure of three atmospheres.".
(Does this view of the moment of inertia of the carbon dioxide molecule imply that the molecule somehow spins while releasing light particles, and so it's period determines the frequency of emitted light particles? If no explain more clearly.)
(It seems like the phone company/neuron reading company somehow, for some reason, allowed this data to be released - anything with infrared must be sensitive information. Perhaps there was some important point they wanted to make, or simple could find no serious reasons not to prevent it from being published?)
(show spectrum for Venus and CO2)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Pasadena, California, USA |
68 YBN
[07/02/1932 AD]
| 5158) Edward Arthur Milne (miLN) (CE 1896-1950) English physicist, In 1932 Milne creates a variation of general relativity which is called “kinematic relativity” which features an expanding universe which is nonrelativistic and used Euclidean space.
Milne writes "...A much simpler explanation of the facts may be obtained as follows. The explanation abandons the curvature of space and the notion of expanding space, and regards the observed moitons of distant nebulae as their actual motions in Euclidean space. ...".
(Just to comment that, even with the expanding space theory - the actual motions must represent actual real motion in space as far as I interpret - but all this doesn't matter because it seems likely that the shifting absorption lines represent a distance, and any Doppler shift if probably mixed in, and presumably so small, that it is immeasuable compared to the shift from the Bragg equation light source distance-angle phenomenon.)
(To me, space-time is clearly Euclidean, and time and space dilation and contraction seems very doubtful. This pubilcation clearly seeks to weaken or remove the shockingly popular misplaced and erroneous authority and dogma of time and space dilation, and a non-euclidean universe theory.)
(If the shifting absorption lines represent a spreading of spectral lines as a result of the reality of the Bragg equation, this represents a second method of determining distance, and possibly velocity from Doppler shift apart from "Bragg equation shift". So the methods to determine distance of other galaxies are 1) on the basis of perspective given some standard size of galaxy 2) on the basis of the shift of absorption lines given some standard size of galaxy. Any difference between the expected measurement from method 2) and the actual measurement probably represents Doppler shift, but given such massive distances and so small a sample of light points to work with, these estimates to me would seem very imprecise.)
| (Wadham College) Oxford, England |
68 YBN
[08/02/1932 AD]
| 5380) Positive electron identified.
Carl David Anderson (CE 1905-1991), US physicist, captures photos of a positive electron.
Carl Anderson builds a cloud chamber with a lead plate dividing it which slows cosmic particles enough to cause a noticeable curve on the other side of the plate, where before no curve could be observed even under a strong magnetic field because the cosmic particles have too high a velocity. In August 1932, Carl Anderson observes some photographs of particles tracks from his lead plate cloud chamber that look exactly like electron tracts but curve in the opposite direction, and Anderson concludes that this is the antielectron predicted by Dirac two years earlier. Anderson suggests the name "positron" for the new particle (which is accepted), and "negatron" for the electron (which is not accepted).
Anderson initially reports this in Science as "". Anderson writes: "THE APPARENT EXISTENCE OF EASILY DEFLECTABLE POSITIVES UP to the present a positive electron has always been found with an associated mass 1,850 times that associated with the negative electron. In measuring the energies of charged particles produced by cosmic rays some tracks have recently been found which seem to be produced by positive particles, but if so the masses of these particles must be small compared to the mass of the proton. The evidence for this statement is found in several photographs, three of which are discussed below. In one instance, in which a lead plate of 6 mm thickness was inserted in the cloud-chamber, tracks of a particle were observed above and below the lead. The curvature due to the magnetic field was measurable both above and below the lead. There are the following alternative interpretations: (1) a positive particle of small mass penetrates the lead plate and loses about two thirds of its energy; or (2) two particles are simultaneously ejected from the lead, in one direction a positive particle of small mass, in the opposite direction an electron; or (3) an electron of about 20,000,000 volts energy penetrates the lead plate and emerges with an energy of 60,000,000 volts, having gained 40,000,000 volts energy in traversing the lead; or (4) the chance occurrence of two independent electron tracks in the chamber, so placed as to give the appearance of one particle traversing the lead plate. In another instance two tracks of opposite curvature appear below the lead. The alternative interpretations are: (1) a positive particle of small mass and an electron emerging from the same point in the lead; or (2) a positive particle of small mass strikes the lead and rebounds with a loss in energy; or (3) an electron of about 20,000,000 volts energy strikes the lead and rebounds with 30,000,000 volts energy; or (4) the chance occurrence of two independent electron tracks. In the third instance two tracks appear below the lead plate. The alternative interpretations are: (1) a positive particle of small mass and another positive particle emerge from the same point in the lead; or (2) a 4,000,000 volt electron rebounds from the lead producing the second track; but here a difficulty is met with, since a change in the sign of the charge would have to be assumed to take place in the rebound of the electron; or (3) the chance occurrence of two independent tracks. For the interpretation of these effects it seems necessary to call upon a positively charged particle having a mass comparable with that of an electron, or else admit the chance occurrence of independent tracks on the same photograph so placed as to indicate a common point of origin of two particles. The latter possibility on a probability basis is exceedingly unlikely. The interpretation of these tracks as due to protons, or other heavier nuclei, is ruled out on the basis of range and curvature. Protons or heavier nuclei of the observed curvatures could not have ranges as great as those observed. The specific-ionization is close to that for an electron of the same curvature, hence indicating a positively-charged particle comparable in mass and magnitude of charge with an electron.".
In a later paper in the "Physical Review" entitled "The Positive Electron", Anderson writes for an abstract: " Out of a group of 1300 photographs of cosmic-ray tracks in a vertical Wilson chamber 15 tracks were of positive particles which could not have a mass as great as that of the proton. From an examination of the energy-loss and ionization produced it is concluded that the charge is less than twice, and is probably exactly equal to, that of the proton. If these particles carry unit positive charge the curvatures and ionizations produced require the mass to be less than twenty times the electron mass. These particles will be called positrons. because they occur in groups associated with other tracks it is concluded that they must be secondary particles ejected from atomic nuclei.". In his paper Anderson writes: " On August 2, 1932, during the course of photographic cosmic-ray tracks produced in a vertical Wilson chamber (magnetic field of 15,000 gauss) designed in the summer of 1930 by Professor R. A. Millikan and the writer, the tracks shown in Fig. 1 were obtained, which seemed to be interpretable only on the basis of the existence in this case of a particle carrying a positive charge but having a mass of the same order of magnitude as that normally possessed by by a free negative electron. Later study of the photograph by a whole group of men of the Norman Bridge Laboratory only tended to strengthen this view. The reason that this interpretation seemed so inevitable is that the track appearing on the upper half of the figure cannot possibly have a mass as large as that of a proton for as soon as the mass is fixed the energy is at once fixed by the curvature. The energy of a proton of that curvature comes out 300,000 volts, but a proton of that energy according to well established and universally accepted determinations has a total range of about 5 mm in air while that portion of the range actually visible in this case exceeds 5 cm without a noticeable change in curvature. The only escape from this conclusion would be to assume that at exactly the same instant (and the sharpness of the tracks determines that instant to within about a fiftieth of a second) two independent electrons happened to produce two tracks so placed as to give the impression of a single particle shooting through the lead plate. This assumption was dismissed on a probability basis, since a sharp track of this order of curvature under the experimental conditions prevailing occurred in the chamber only once in some 500 exposures, and since there was practically no chance at all that two such tracks should line up in this way. We also discarded as completely untenable the assumption of an electron of 20 million volts entering the lead on one side and coming out with an energy of 60 million volts on the other side. A fourth possibility is that a photon, entering the lead from above, knocked out of the nucleus of a lead atom two particles, one of which show upward and the other downward. but in this case the upward moving one would be a positive of small mass so that either of the two possibilities leads to the existence of the positive electron. In the course of the next few weeks other photographs were obtained which could be interpreted logically only on the positive-electron basis, and a brief report was then published with due reserve, in interpretation in view of the importance and striking nature of the announcement. MAGNTITUDE OF CHARGE AND MASS It is possible with the present experimental data only to assign rather wide limits to the magnitude of the charge and mass of the particle. The specific ionization was not in these cases measured, bit it appears very probable, from a knowledge of the experimental conditions and by comparison with many other photographs of high- and low-speed electrons taken under the same conditions, that the charge cannot differ in magnitude from that of an electron by an amount as great as a factor of two. Furthermore, if the photograph is taken to represent a positive particle penetrating the 6 mm lead plate, then the energy lost, calculated for unit charge, is approxumately 38 millino electron-volts, this value being practically independent of the proper mass of the particle as long as it is not too many times larger than that of a free negative electron. This value of 63 million volts per cm energy-loss for the positive particle it was considered legitimate to compare with the measured mean of approximately 35 million volts for negative electrons of 200-300 million volts energy since the rate of energy-loss for particles of small mass is expected to change only very slowly over an energy range extending from several million to several hundred million volts. Allowance being made for experimental uncertainties, an upper limit to the rate of loss of energy for the positive particle can then be set at less than four times that for an electron, thus fixing, by the usual relation between rate of ionization and charge, an upper limit to the charge less than twice that of the negative electron. it is concluded, therefore, that the magnitude of the charge of the positive electron which we shall henceforth contract to positron is very probably equal to that of a free negative electron which from symmetry considerations would naturally then be called a negatron. It is pointed out that the effective depth of the chamber in the line of sight which is the same as the direcion of the magnetic lines of force was 1 cm and its effective diameter at right angles to that line 14 cm, thus insuring that the particle crossed the chamber practically normal to the lines of force. The change in direction due to scattering in the lead, in this case about 8° measured in the plane of the chamber, is a probable value for a particle of this energy though less than the most probable value. The magnitude of the proper mass cannot as yet be given further than to fix an upper limit to it about twenty times that of the electron mass. if Fig. 1 represents a particle of unit charge passing through the lead plate then the curvatures, on the basis of the information at hand on ionization, give too low a value for the energy-loss unless the mass is taken less than twenty times that of the negative electron mass. Further determinations of Hp for relatively low energy particles before and after they cross a known amount of matter, together with a study of ballistic effects such as close encounters with electrons, involving large energy transfers, will enable closer limits to be assigned to the mass. To date, out of a group of 1300 photographs of cosmic-ray tracks 15 of these show positive particles penetrating the lead, none of which can be ascribed to particles with a mass as large as that of a proton, thus establishing the existence of positive particles of unit charge and of mass small compared to that of a proton. In many other cases due either to the short sectino of track available for measurement or to the high energy of the particle it is not possible to differentiate with certainty between protons and positrons. A comparison of the six or seven hundred positive-ray tracks which we have taken is, however, still consistent with the view that the positive particle which is knowcked out of the nucleus by the incoming primary cosmic ray is in many cases a proton. From the fact that the positrons occur in groups associated with other tracks it is concluded that they must be secondary particles ejected from an atomic nucleus. If we retain the view that a nucleus consists of protons and neutrons (and a-particles) and that a neutron represents a close combination of a proton and electron, then from the electromagnetic theory as to the origin of mass the simplest assumption would seem to be that an encounter between the incoming primary ray and a proton may take place in such a way as to expand the diameter of the proton to the same value as that possessed by the negatron. This process would release an energy of a billion electron-volts appearing as a secondary photon. As a second possibility the primary ray may disintegrate a neutron (or more than one) in the nucleus by the ejection either of a negatron or a positron with the result that a positive or a negative proton, as the case may be, remains in the nucleus in place of the neutron, the event occurring in this instance without the emission of a photon. This alternative, however, postulates the existence in the nucleus of a proton of negative charge, no evidence for which exists. The greater symmetry, however, between the positive and negative charges revealed by the discovery of the positron should prove a stimulus to search for evidence of the existence of negative protons. if the neutron should prove to be a fundamental particle of a new kind rather than a proton and negatron in close combination, the above hypotheses will have to be abandoned for the proton will then in all probability be represented as a complex particle consisting of a neutron and positron. While this paper was in preparation press reports have announced that P. M. S. Blackett and G. Occialini in an extensive study of cosmic-ray tracks have also obtained evidence for the existence of light positive particle confirming our earlier report. ...".
(Interesting that Anderson thinks that the appearance of the positron is from a nucleus. This fits with the idea that Dirac's interpretation of negative energy states in his relativity-quantum model of the atom puts a negative particle with the atom - initially I thought that the positron was simply detected as arriving as a cosmic particle. I think that these tracks are from a positively charge particle, and could be from a partially disintegrated proton which still retains the electromagnetic condition. I think that it's possible that charge may depend on mass too because I think charge is probably a particle collision phenomenon- but it could be that charge is the result of a particle bonding phenomenon- for example two particles forming a composite particle because of a structural fit or because one can successfully stay in orbit of the other - while some other particle cannot stay in successful orbit because of velocity or mass.)
(Show tracks of electrons and then positrons. Is the slope of curve identical in each?)
(State how people know that the particles are not from the lead and are still the same original particle?)
(It seems unusual that a proton with a high velocity should only have a range of 5 mm in a cloud chamber. Determine what experiments have been performed to show the size of tracks produced by protons of various velocities also vary in accordance with velocity.)
(It is interesting looking at the famous photo that the famous positron track appears definitely to lose mass as it moved through the ionization chamber - with each ionization - I think that it's clear that all particles must transfer, certainly motion to those atoms ionized and perhaps some mass in the form of light particles too.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
68 YBN
[08/02/1932 AD]
| 5381) Positive electron identified.
Carl David Anderson (CE 1905-1991), US physicist, captures photos of a positive electron.
Carl Anderson builds a cloud chamber with a lead plate dividing it which slows cosmic particles enough to cause a noticeable curve on the other side of the plate, where before no curve could be observed even under a strong magnetic field because the cosmic particles have too high a velocity. In August 1932, Carl Anderson observes some photographs of particles tracks from his lead plate cloud chamber that look exactly like electron tracts but curve in the opposite direction, and Anderson concludes that this is the antielectron predicted by Dirac two years earlier. Anderson suggests the name "positron" for the new particle (which is accepted), and "negatron" for the electron (which is not accepted).
Anderson initially reports this in Science as "THE APPARENT EXISTENCE OF EASILY DEFLECTABLE POSITIVES". Anderson writes: " UP to the present a positive electron has always been found with an associated mass 1,850 times that associated with the negative electron. In measuring the energies of charged particles produced by cosmic rays some tracks have recently been found which seem to be produced by positive particles, but if so the masses of these particles must be small compared to the mass of the proton. The evidence for this statement is found in several photographs, three of which are discussed below. In one instance, in which a lead plate of 6 mm thickness was inserted in the cloud-chamber, tracks of a particle were observed above and below the lead. The curvature due to the magnetic field was measurable both above and below the lead. There are the following alternative interpretations: (1) a positive particle of small mass penetrates the lead plate and loses about two thirds of its energy; or (2) two particles are simultaneously ejected from the lead, in one direction a positive particle of small mass, in the opposite direction an electron; or (3) an electron of about 20,000,000 volts energy penetrates the lead plate and emerges with an energy of 60,000,000 volts, having gained 40,000,000 volts energy in traversing the lead; or (4) the chance occurrence of two independent electron tracks in the chamber, so placed as to give the appearance of one particle traversing the lead plate. In another instance two tracks of opposite curvature appear below the lead. The alternative interpretations are: (1) a positive particle of small mass and an electron emerging from the same point in the lead; or (2) a positive particle of small mass strikes the lead and rebounds with a loss in energy; or (3) an electron of about 20,000,000 volts energy strikes the lead and rebounds with 30,000,000 volts energy; or (4) the chance occurrence of two independent electron tracks. In the third instance two tracks appear below the lead plate. The alternative interpretations are: (1) a positive particle of small mass and another positive particle emerge from the same point in the lead; or (2) a 4,000,000 volt electron rebounds from the lead producing the second track; but here a difficulty is met with, since a change in the sign of the charge would have to be assumed to take place in the rebound of the electron; or (3) the chance occurrence of two independent tracks. For the interpretation of these effects it seems necessary to call upon a positively charged particle having a mass comparable with that of an electron, or else admit the chance occurrence of independent tracks on the same photograph so placed as to indicate a common point of origin of two particles. The latter possibility on a probability basis is exceedingly unlikely. The interpretation of these tracks as due to protons, or other heavier nuclei, is ruled out on the basis of range and curvature. Protons or heavier nuclei of the observed curvatures could not have ranges as great as those observed. The specific-ionization is close to that for an electron of the same curvature, hence indicating a positively-charged particle comparable in mass and magnitude of charge with an electron.".
In a later paper in the "Physical Review" entitled "The Positive Electron", Anderson writes for an abstract: " Out of a group of 1300 photographs of cosmic-ray tracks in a vertical Wilson chamber 15 tracks were of positive particles which could not have a mass as great as that of the proton. From an examination of the energy-loss and ionization produced it is concluded that the charge is less than twice, and is probably exactly equal to, that of the proton. If these particles carry unit positive charge the curvatures and ionizations produced require the mass to be less than twenty times the electron mass. These particles will be called positrons. because they occur in groups associated with other tracks it is concluded that they must be secondary particles ejected from atomic nuclei.". In his paper Anderson writes: " On August 2, 1932, during the course of photographic cosmic-ray tracks produced in a vertical Wilson chamber (magnetic field of 15,000 gauss) designed in the summer of 1930 by Professor R. A. Millikan and the writer, the tracks shown in Fig. 1 were obtained, which seemed to be interpretable only on the basis of the existence in this case of a particle carrying a positive charge but having a mass of the same order of magnitude as that normally possessed by by a free negative electron. Later study of the photograph by a whole group of men of the Norman Bridge Laboratory only tended to strengthen this view. The reason that this interpretation seemed so inevitable is that the track appearing on the upper half of the figure cannot possibly have a mass as large as that of a proton for as soon as the mass is fixed the energy is at once fixed by the curvature. The energy of a proton of that curvature comes out 300,000 volts, but a proton of that energy according to well established and universally accepted determinations has a total range of about 5 mm in air while that portion of the range actually visible in this case exceeds 5 cm without a noticeable change in curvature. The only escape from this conclusion would be to assume that at exactly the same instant (and the sharpness of the tracks determines that instant to within about a fiftieth of a second) two independent electrons happened to produce two tracks so placed as to give the impression of a single particle shooting through the lead plate. This assumption was dismissed on a probability basis, since a sharp track of this order of curvature under the experimental conditions prevailing occurred in the chamber only once in some 500 exposures, and since there was practically no chance at all that two such tracks should line up in this way. We also discarded as completely untenable the assumption of an electron of 20 million volts entering the lead on one side and coming out with an energy of 60 million volts on the other side. A fourth possibility is that a photon, entering the lead from above, knocked out of the nucleus of a lead atom two particles, one of which show upward and the other downward. but in this case the upward moving one would be a positive of small mass so that either of the two possibilities leads to the existence of the positive electron. In the course of the next few weeks other photographs were obtained which could be interpreted logically only on the positive-electron basis, and a brief report was then published with due reserve, in interpretation in view of the importance and striking nature of the announcement. MAGNTITUDE OF CHARGE AND MASS It is possible with the present experimental data only to assign rather wide limits to the magnitude of the charge and mass of the particle. The specific ionization was not in these cases measured, bit it appears very probable, from a knowledge of the experimental conditions and by comparison with many other photographs of high- and low-speed electrons taken under the same conditions, that the charge cannot differ in magnitude from that of an electron by an amount as great as a factor of two. Furthermore, if the photograph is taken to represent a positive particle penetrating the 6 mm lead plate, then the energy lost, calculated for unit charge, is approxumately 38 millino electron-volts, this value being practically independent of the proper mass of the particle as long as it is not too many times larger than that of a free negative electron. This value of 63 million volts per cm energy-loss for the positive particle it was considered legitimate to compare with the measured mean of approximately 35 million volts for negative electrons of 200-300 million volts energy since the rate of energy-loss for particles of small mass is expected to change only very slowly over an energy range extending from several million to several hundred million volts. Allowance being made for experimental uncertainties, an upper limit to the rate of loss of energy for the positive particle can then be set at less than four times that for an electron, thus fixing, by the usual relation between rate of ionization and charge, an upper limit to the charge less than twice that of the negative electron. it is concluded, therefore, that the magnitude of the charge of the positive electron which we shall henceforth contract to positron is very probably equal to that of a free negative electron which from symmetry considerations would naturally then be called a negatron. It is pointed out that the effective depth of the chamber in the line of sight which is the same as the direcion of the magnetic lines of force was 1 cm and its effective diameter at right angles to that line 14 cm, thus insuring that the particle crossed the chamber practically normal to the lines of force. The change in direction due to scattering in the lead, in this case about 8° measured in the plane of the chamber, is a probable value for a particle of this energy though less than the most probable value. The magnitude of the proper mass cannot as yet be given further than to fix an upper limit to it about twenty times that of the electron mass. if Fig. 1 represents a particle of unit charge passing through the lead plate then the curvatures, on the basis of the information at hand on ionization, give too low a value for the energy-loss unless the mass is taken less than twenty times that of the negative electron mass. Further determinations of Hp for relatively low energy particles before and after they cross a known amount of matter, together with a study of ballistic effects such as close encounters with electrons, involving large energy transfers, will enable closer limits to be assigned to the mass. To date, out of a group of 1300 photographs of cosmic-ray tracks 15 of these show positive particles penetrating the lead, none of which can be ascribed to particles with a mass as large as that of a proton, thus establishing the existence of positive particles of unit charge and of mass small compared to that of a proton. In many other cases due either to the short sectino of track available for measurement or to the high energy of the particle it is not possible to differentiate with certainty between protons and positrons. A comparison of the six or seven hundred positive-ray tracks which we have taken is, however, still consistent with the view that the positive particle which is knowcked out of the nucleus by the incoming primary cosmic ray is in many cases a proton. From the fact that the positrons occur in groups associated with other tracks it is concluded that they must be secondary particles ejected from an atomic nucleus. If we retain the view that a nucleus consists of protons and neutrons (and a-particles) and that a neutron represents a close combination of a proton and electron, then from the electromagnetic theory as to the origin of mass the simplest assumption would seem to be that an encounter between the incoming primary ray and a proton may take place in such a way as to expand the diameter of the proton to the same value as that possessed by the negatron. This process would release an energy of a billion electron-volts appearing as a secondary photon. As a second possibility the primary ray may disintegrate a neutron (or more than one) in the nucleus by the ejection either of a negatron or a positron with the result that a positive or a negative proton, as the case may be, remains in the nucleus in place of the neutron, the event occurring in this instance without the emission of a photon. This alternative, however, postulates the existence in the nucleus of a proton of negative charge, no evidence for which exists. The greater symmetry, however, between the positive and negative charges revealed by the discovery of the positron should prove a stimulus to search for evidence of the existence of negative protons. if the neutron should prove to be a fundamental particle of a new kind rather than a proton and negatron in close combination, the above hypotheses will have to be abandoned for the proton will then in all probability be represented as a complex particle consisting of a neutron and positron. While this paper was in preparation press reports have announced that P. M. S. Blackett and G. Occialini in an extensive study of cosmic-ray tracks have also obtained evidence for the existence of light positive particle confirming our earlier report. ...".
(Interesting that Anderson thinks that the appearance of the positron is from a nucleus. This fits with the idea that Dirac's interpretation of negative energy states in his relativity-quantum model of the atom puts a negative particle with the atom - initially I thought that the positron was simply detected as arriving as a cosmic particle. I think that these tracks are from a positively charge particle, and could be from a partially disintegrated proton which still retains the electromagnetic condition. I think that it's possible that charge may depend on mass too because I think charge is probably a particle collision phenomenon- but it could be that charge is the result of a particle bonding phenomenon- for example two particles forming a composite particle because of a structural fit or because one can successfully stay in orbit of the other - while some other particle cannot stay in successful orbit because of velocity or mass.)
(Show tracks of electrons and then positrons. Is the slope of curve identical in each?)
(State how people know that the particles are not from the lead and are still the same original particle?)
(It seems unusual that a proton with a high velocity should only have a range of 5 mm in a cloud chamber. Determine what experiments have been performed to show the size of tracks produced by protons of various velocities also vary in accordance with velocity.)
(It is interesting looking at the famous photo that the famous positron track appears definitely to lose mass as it moved through the ionization chamber - with each ionization - I think that it's clear that all particles must transfer, certainly motion to those atoms ionized and perhaps some mass in the form of light particles too.)
(Note that is neither report does Anderson refer to Dirac and Dirac's theory of the antielectron.)
(I would say that Anderson is clearly more of the experimental school which to me is the better school of thought - the theoretical school being mostly removed from the process of actual experimenting.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
68 YBN
[08/21/1932 AD]
| 5200) Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett (Baron) Blackett (CE 1897-1974), English physicist, creates a “coincidence counter” by putting a geiger counter above and below a Wilson cloud chamber, to only capture photographs when high energy particles have passed through the chamber.
In A Nature article "Photography of penetrating Corpuscular Radiation", Blackett and Occhialini write: "SINCE Skobelzyn discovered the tracks of particles of high energy on photographs taken with a Wilson cloud chamber, this method has been used by him and others in a number of investigations of the nature of penetrating radiation. Such work is laborious, since these tracks occur in only a small fraction of the total number of expansions made. We have found it possible to obtain good photographs of these high energy particles by arranging that the simultaneous discharge of two Geiger-Muller counters due to the passage of one of these particles shall operate the expansion itself. On more than 75 per cent of the photographs so obtained (the fraction depending on the ratio of the number of 'true' to 'accidental' coincidences) are found the tracks of particles of high energy. ... When the cloud chamber has been made ready for use, the arrival of a coincidence is awaited. After an average wait of about two minutes, a coincidence occurs and a relay mechanism starts the expansion. ... The observed breadth of the tracks in oxygen at 1.5 atmospheres pressure was 0.8 mm, and in hydrogen 1.8 mm. ... ".
So when a "cosmic ray" particle causes an increase in current in the two counters, the cloud chamber is expanded and a photograph taken, which greatly increases the change of a photograph with a cosmic ray particle track in the photo.
(Was there a German physicist who created something similar?)
(Notice "Corpuscular Radiation" in the title - it seems that right around the time of WW2 and after there was a continuing lapse into theoretical mathematical abstraction and away from simple truths that the majority of average people can observe, understand and agree upon. but this is the result of the shocking and bizarre continuing decision to keep neuron reading and writing technology - even at the level of micrometer flying camera and microphones an absolute secret upon what can only be severe punishment for any and all violators who tell any part of the truth.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
68 YBN
[10/23/1932 AD]
| 5377) Rupert Wildt (ViLT) (CE 1905-1976), German-US astronomer, identifies absorption lines for ammonia and methane in the spectra, recorded by Slipher, of Jupiter and the outer giant planets. This find is evidence that the outermost atmosphere of Jupiter cannot be red-hot, but must be under 1000 degrees on the absolute scale.
Asimov states that people have since recognized that these planets are mainly made of hydrogen and helium which do not yield any easily observed absorption lines, but that ammonia and methane are important minor components. I look forward to the first chemical probes that enter deep into the clouds and determine all the molecules.
(Verify which paper Wildt identifies ammonium absorption lines.) (why are hydrogen and helium absorption lines not easy to detect? Do they fall under the lines of other elements? Are there not lines specific only to the hydrogen and helium molecules? I am surprised that there is not visual proof of the claim of those planets being mostly hydrogen and helium. Check and see.)
Wildt's claim that the Venusian clouds contained formaldehyde (CH2O) formed under the influence of ultraviolet rays has not been confirmed.
(All this makes me want to look at the spectra of all the planets and moons. They should be made available and explained, including any unknown unexplained lines.)
(Note that in his 1934 nature paper Wildt uses the word "exclude" and ends on the initials "pisr".)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 4217) George Eastman's (CE 1854-1932), company "Kodak" sells the first 8 mm amateur motion-picture film, cameras, and projectors.
| (Eastman Kodak Company) NJ, USA |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 4887) Adolf Windaus (ViNDoUS) (CE 1876-1959), German chemist is the first to locate the sulfur atom in the molecule of vitamin B1 (thiamin) (an important step in determining the structure of this important molecule).
(identify original paper)
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 4888) Adolf Windaus (ViNDoUS) (CE 1876-1959), German chemist and his co-workers prepare 7-dehydrocholesterol and show that it also is a provitamin for vitamin D.
Windaus shows that 7-dehydrocholesterol is a steroid, and that it is converted into the vitamin when one of its chemical bonds is broken by the action of sunlight. This explains why exposure to sunlight can prevent vitamin D deficiency (rickets) in humans.
People thought initially that there was only one provitamin, but this shows that there are numerous precursors of vitamin D. The name vitamin D2 is retained for the substance obtained from ergosterol, and the new vitamin is named D3. Vitamin D3 will be found to be even more important than vitamin D2, since D3 is synthesized by the animal body. Hans Brockmann confirms this by isolating pure vitamin D3 from tuna liver oil.
| (University of Göttingen) Göttingen, Germany |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 4948) Walter Rudolf Hess (CE 1881-1973), Swiss physiologist establishes that low frequency direct current pulses with special wave form is the most effective form of electric current to stimulate brain cells.
| (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 4971) First gyro stabilization apparatus and deflector vanes in the blast of the rocket motor as a method of stabilizing and guiding rockets.
Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945), develops a system for steering rockets in flight by using a rudder device to deflect the gas exhaust using gyroscopes to keep the rocket in the correct direction.
(Were electronics used?)
| (Clark University) Worchester, Massachusetts, USA |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 4988) Otto Heinrich Warburg (WoRBURG) (CE 1883-1970), German biochemist isolates the first of the so-called yellow enzymes, or flavoproteins, which participate in dehydrogenation reactions in cells. Warburg also discovers that these enzymes act in conjunction with a nonprotein component (now called a coenzyme), flavin adenine dinucleotide.
Warburg helps to show that coenzyme I, Harden's coenzyme, is similar to another vitamin, Goldberger's P-P factor. This will lead to the understanding that vitamins are components of enzymes (coenzymes?), parts of catalysts controlling important metabolic actions, instead of simply mysterious molecules needed in trace amounts. (chronology)
| (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Cell Physiology) Berlin, Germany |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 5080) John Howard Northrop (CE 1891–1987), US biochemist crystallizes trypsin, a protein-splitting enzyme of the pancreatic secretions.
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 5155) Gerhard Domagk (DOmoK) (CE 1895-1964), German biochemist, finds that an orange-red dye with the trade name “Prontosil” has a powerful effect on streptococcus infections in mice.
In 1932 Domagk’s colleagues at I. G. Farbenindustrie, the chemists Fritz Mietzsch and Josef Klarer, synthesized a new azo dye, hoping that it would prove to be a fast dye for treating leather. This dye is -4 sulfonamide-2-4-diaminoazobenzol, which they named "prontosil rubrum". Domagk recognizes the protective power of this dye against streptococcal infections in mice and its low toxicity, but withholds publication of his findings until 1935. According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Domagk's paper's “Ein Beitrag zur Chemotherapie der bakteriellen Infektionen” has become a classic and a masterpiece of careful and critical evaluation of a new therapeutic agent.
In 1933 A. Förster had reported the dramatic recovery of an infant with staphylococcal septicemia after treatment with prontosil rubrum.
Bovet will find that only a portion of the Prontosil molecule is needed for the antibacterial effect to occur. The effective portion is sulfanilamide, a compound well known to chemists for a generation. The use of sulfanilamide and other sulfa drugs start the era of “the wonder drug” and cure a variety of infectious diseases such as pneumonia. Dubos will show that not only synthetic molecules but those produced by microorganisms can be useful against bacteria, and this will bring light on to the previous work of Fleming on penecillin.
Domagk's daughter will later be healed from a steptococci infection likely as a result of Domagk injecting large quantities of Prontosil into her. Prontosil will help cure Franklin Roosevelt Jr, the son of the US President from an infection.
(translate and read relevent parts of paper.)
(cite the initial identification of sulfanilamide.)
| (I. G. Farbenindustrie) Wuppertal-Elberfeld, Germany |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 5324) Axel Hugo Teodor Theorell (TEOreL) (CE 1903-1982), Swedish biochemist, isolates the muscle protein myoglobin in crystalline form.
| (Uppsala University) Uppsala, Sweden |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 5333) John von Neumann (CE 1903-1957), Hungarian-US mathematician, shows that Schrödinger's wave mechanics and Heisenberg's matrix mechanics are mathematically equivalent.
In his book "The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics" (1932) von Neumann treats quantum states as vectors in a Hilbert space. This mathematical synthesis reconciles the seemingly contradictory quantum mechanical formulations of Erwin Schrödinger and Werner Heisenberg.
(Show and explain more. I have doubts.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
68 YBN
[1932 AD]
| 6261) BASF produces the first plastic-backed magnetic recording tape.
The theory of magnetic recording was developed by Oberlin Smith in 1888, but the first magnetic recorder, which used steel wire, was built in Denmark by Vladimir Paulsen in 1898. Paulsen called his invention a telegraphone. In 1927, J. A. O'Neil introduced a magnetic recording system in the United States that used ribbons coated with iron oxide. In 1928, Fritz Pfleumer in Germany introduces a paper strip system coated with iron oxide and sold his idea to the German chemical company AEG, who in turn, sold it to the BASF company which replaced the paper with cellulose-acetate strips. in 1932 BASF produces a plastic-backed magnetic recording tape similar to the tape in use today. The first commercial tape recording will feature the London Philharmonic Orchestra by BASF at their Ludwigshafen, Germany factory on November 19, 1936. Digital recording using laser writing in the form of Compact Disks and DVDs, and electronic data storage will replace most magnetic recording tapes. Clearly much data is stored by the direct-to-brain neuron writing service, and if free, people may eventually simply request sounds or images they want from the neuron system. Perhaps storage by the neuron service providers will ultimately be completely electronic memory. But probably optical and magnetic tape, in addition to laser written disk recordings will be stored for centuries as a more permanent and secure form of data storage.
| (BASF) Ludwigshafen, Germany |
67 YBN
[01/30/1933 AD]
| 5115) Arthur Holly Compton (CE 1892-1962), US physicist, measures more cosmic rays at higher latitudes (towards the poles of earth), than at the equator.
People had earlier found that quantity of cosmic rays increases with altitude, and Compton confirms this. Compton has 8 different expeditions and takes measurements at 69 different stations distributed around the earth's surface. Compton uses a 10 cm spherical steel ionization chamber filled with argon at 30 atmospheres, connected to a Lindmann electrometer, and shielded with 2.5 cm of bronze plus 5 cm of lead. Measurements are made by comparing the ionization current due to the cosmis rays with that due to a capsuel of radium at a measured distance. Compton supposed that the cosmic rays may be high-speed electrons that may be deflected from the earth's magnetic field.
(Are their neutral particles besides photons detected from outer space?)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
67 YBN
[02/08/1933 AD]
| 5247) Ragnar Arthur Granit (CE 1900-1991), Finnish-Swedish physiologist, demonstrates that light not only stimulates but can also inhibit impulses along the optic nerve.
In his 1933 paper Granit writes: "OUR knowledge of the retinal action currents, discovered by the Swedish physiologist Holmgren {1882} in 1865, has proceeded hand in hand with the development in electrophysiology in general. The history of this striking progress in electrical recording is briefly summarized in the literature relating to retinal action currents. Since Gotch {1903}, working in this laboratory, with the aid of the sufficiently fast capillary electrometer, obtained the first curves embodying all the features of the process, and since v. Briicke and Garten {1907} and Piper {1911} in extensive series with the string galvanometer had shown the responses to light to be fundamentally alike for various vertebrate eyes, the main features of the retinal action currents have been common knowledge to all physiologists. Valve amplification was used at an early stage for the investigation of retinal action potentials by Chaffee, Bovie and Hampson {1923}. Unfortunately they used excised opened bulbs, although the method was particularly well suited for the study of intact animals, a feat attempted as early as 1876 by Dewar and McKendrick {Dewar, 1876}. With their slow Thomson galvanometer the latter authors even succeeded in obtaining responses from the human eye, but it remained for Hartline {1925} to prove by systematic comparisons with the string galvanometer that the deflections obtained from intact animals were identical with those given by the bulbs. Hartline also recorded some fairly good retinal action carrents from the human eye. The retinal action currents have generally been held to be composite effects. In view of the complex structure of the retina and the equally complex appearance of the potential change accompanying stimulation by light, interference phenomena between potentials differing in sign, strength and time relations would certainly offer a reasonable explanation of the effect in terms of simpler components. Several such solutions have been propounded {see e.g. Kohlrausch's review, 1931}, the best known being those of Einthoven and Jolly {1908} and of Piper {1911}. Evidently it is theoretically possible to resolve a complex curve in an infinite number of ways. And, though a many-sided experimental experience may make certain solutions more probable than others, yet a final decision can only be reached when the composite curve has been split into components by biological means. Such an attempt forms the subject of this paper. The work has been based on the assumption that an organ like the retina where cells have become differentiated for specific purposes may show selective sensitivity or selective resistance to certain agents. It then becomes of paramount importance to find a preparation sufficiently stable and yet sufficiently sensitive to serve for the analysis. Frogs were tried but soon discarded in favour of the Sherrington decerebrate cat preparation {cf. Hartline, 1925}. This proved very satisfactory, provided that no operations were carried out around the bulb. In the best animals the first positive deflection, the b-wave, remained constant within 4-5 p.c. for several hours. The secondary rise varied more. Some thirty animals were used and the number of photographed responses approached 800. ... SUMMARY. Leads from the cornea and decerebration wound have been taken to the input of a directly coupled amplifier with a string galvanometer in the output. The aim of the work has been to try to establish a biological analysis of the complex action potential of the retina. This has been done in two ways: by giving the animal ether and by interfering with the blood supply of the retina. Both agents were found to affect certain components selectively and in a reversible manner. Narcotization removes in three characteristic steps definite components of the response to stimulation with white light. These components are indicated in Fig. 8 by Roman letters in the order of their disappearance and given separately for a high intensity in Fig. 7. Process I (P I) disappears rapidly during narcotization and the fast deflections are left unchanged. It is essentially a high-intensity component. Thus, at an early stage of ansesthesia, this component may be minute or even absent at high intensities, whereas the low-intensity response is almost or even completely unchanged. Therefore the slow phase of the composite effect is not homogeneous. The positive remainder after removal of P I reacts uniformly and simultaneously to ether at all intensities, diminishing gradually during continued anaTsthesia. This component is termed P II. Finally only a negative, P III, is left provided the intensity has been high enough. The last stage is a gradual disappearance of P III. The ether analysis shows the response at low intensities to be a practically pure P II. Removal of P I need not affect it, and when the positive deflection is removed there is no negative left. Asphyxia in the animal or occlusion of the carotid affects selectively P II. The selectivity may be demonstrated by testing with the practically pure P II at a low intensity. The high-intensity response contains P I and P III, and is a large negative deflection followed by a secondary positive rise. Removal of P II in this manner shows the brief initial negative (a-wave) running on into the large negative P III of which it is therefore a part.
Removal of P I by ether often enhances the off-effect. Removal of P II by asphyxia regularly enhances the off-effect. The practically pure P II at low intensities never gives an off-effect. Therefore the off-effect depends primarily upon P III. Since, however, P III produces an offeffect only in the presence of either P I or P II it must be resolved by an interference construction from the rise of P III (cf. Fig. 8). Part II. The latent period and the relation between the processes in retina and nerve. Action currents from the optic nerve were first successfully recorded by Kiihne and Steiner {1881}, later by Ishihara {1906} and by Westerlund {1912}. The effect obtained resembles the retinal action potential, even the initial fast a-wave being present in the records of Westerlund. In none of the records published can a secondary rise (c-wave ) be found. Frohlich {1914} observed upon the retinal action current of the cephalopod eye oscillations which have been interpreted as caused by impulses in the optic nerve, but there are also other explanations to be considered {cf. Kohlrausch, 1931}. The actual impulses in the optic nerve were then recorded in an interesting work by Adrian and Matthews {1927 a, b, 1928}, who used a capillary electrometer and an amplifier. They used the long optic nerve of the conger eel. Adrian and Matthews confirmed the general relation between intensity of stimulation and frequency of discharge, established by Adrian and his successive collaborators {cf. Adrian, 1928} for various sensory end organs and neurones. They also obtained the frequency-time curve of the retinal discharge. We now know that the frequency of the impulses discharged by the retina first rises rapidly at the onset of stimulation, then falls to a lower level during continued stimulation, and also that the off-effect of the retinal action potential has its counterpart in a renewed outburst of impulses at the cessation of illumination. Considering the slowness of the instruments used by the early workers it is possible that what they recorded was the integrated total frequency-time curve, obtained by Adrian and Matthews by plotting the impulses per unit time against time of stimulation. But it is also quite probable that the effect recorded was due to spread from the retinal currents. The latter view appears to be taken by Westerlund, and my own experiences with "integrative" recording controlled by oscillograph records taken with large condensers in the amplifying circuit show that "integrative" records may be seriously distorted by retinal effects, at least when the leads are applied as will be described below. Most important is the observation by Adrian and Matthews that the off-effect also is translated into impulses. This distinguishes the retinal discharge from that of other sensory end organs recorded by Adrian and his co-workers {Adrian, 1928}. Interesting work with the Limulus eye has recently been published by Hartline and Graham {1932}, who succeeded in obtaining impulses from a single ommatidium. The ommatidium is a fairly complicated structure {Demoll, 1910; Versluys and Demoll, 1922-3}, but is not connected with otherommatidia by way of internuncial neurones. However, its internal organization is complicated enough to make it appear questionable whether it can be assumed to be non-synaptic. The retinal action potential of several ommatidia looks like the isolated component P II of the cat's eye and appears to be related to the frequency of the discharge in the nerve {Hartline, 1932}. Further experimentation, no doubt, willshowwhether it is homogeneous or contains a hidden component of opposite sign and whether this eye gives an off-effect. In this work the aim is to gather information as to how the components of the retinal action potential, isolated in Part I, are represented in the optic nerve. It has not been possible to accomplish this in a quantitative manner. The cat's optic nerve is rather unaccessible and easily damaged. In order to ensure satisfactory development of all three components of the action potential a great number of fibres must be activated which further complicates the task of recording. But the choice of preparation is fully justified by the fact that the retinal action potential of the decerebrate cat is easily split into components. METHOD. For retinal responses the technique has already been described in Part I. The "push pull" battery-coupled amplifier was used in most cases; in later work a new two-stage amplifier, also battery coupled, built onthe principles set forth by Cha ffee, Bovie and Hampson {1923}, was used. With Mazda Pentodes 220, this system gives a base line free from drift and a total amplification of about 50. This is more than needed for work with eyes of decerebrate animals. The same amplifier and string galvanometer were used for obtaining records from the optic nerve with syringe needle electrodes {Adrian and Bronk, 1929}, stuck into foramen opticum from the cranial side {Granit, 1932 a}. When impulses were recorded the animal in its well-insulated and shielded box was moved into another research room where a Matthews' oscillograph with its amplifying system was set up for other purposes. A Cambridge string galvanometer could be worked alongside the oscillograph, and sometimes this string was also connected to the directly coupled amplifier described above. The stimulating and signalling system could not be shifted as easily as the preparation, and therefore a small lamp, run from an 8-volt accumulator and adjusted by means of lenses to illuminate a large part of the retina, was used in connection with the oscillograph. Records of the retinal action potential showed this illumination to be of the order of magnitude of the high intensities obtained with the other apparatus (cf. Part I). The electrodes were generally silver pins. The two leads were used in various positions relative to one another, but the best results were generally obtained when they were parallel and stuck in obliquely deep into the foramen opticum. The discharge recorded in this manner consists of regular or irregular oscillations dependent upon the degree of synchronization in the fibres concerned. Naturally this index of nervous activity is qualitative rather than quantitative, but some idea about the intensity of the effect can be gained by considering various aspects of the records. A test on artefacts was provided by the fact that the experiments ended with removal, sometimes accompanied by restoration, of the components of the retinal action potential. The stimulating light was generally switched on by means of a key in its own circuit. This moment was recorded on the plate by a pointer attached to a magnetic short-circuiting device. But in some cases a photographic shutter was employed, and then the on and off of the stimulus were not recorded. In the former case the heating and cooling time of the filament entered into the latency of the on- and off-effects. This, of course, was not the case when the accurate device used with the apparatus described in Part I was used. However, when oscillograph and string galvanometer were worked together an absolute value for the latent periods was not needed, the purpose of this combination being to compare retinal and nerve responses relative to one another. Altogether some fifteen animals were used. ... SUMMARY. Of the three components of the retinal action potential only one, P II, can be shown to be associated with the discharge of impulses through the optic nerve. P III appears to be related to an inhibitory process. P I does not appear to be concerned with the discharge of impulses, or, if so, to a very small degree. These statements are summarized in greater detail on pp. 223 and 234. ...".
(State who is the first to use electricity to make a neuron fire directly.)
(What is amazing is that for centuries of nerve electrical experiments, nobody to my knowledge has publicly tried to make a neuron fire remotely. Here Granit makes an individual nerve cell fire.)
(Determine if this is the correct paper.)
| (Oxford Univerity) Oxford, England |
67 YBN
[03/27/1933 AD]
| 5201) Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett (Baron) Blackett (CE 1897-1974), English physicist, James Chadwick and G. Occhialini detect positive electron (positron) tracks from collisions of neutrons and gamma rays with lead.
Later in February 1934, Blackett, Chadwick and Occhialini will observe positive and electron tracks from gamma collisions with lead. They show that gamma rays passing through lead sometimes disappear and a positron and electron are emitted. This is described as a confirmation of the Dirac's theory and the famous E=mc2 equation of Einstein and the conversion of energy (light) to matter (electron and positron).
(Explain in more detail, clearly the entire gamma beam does not disappear. How are the electron and positron detected? Is this a nuclear reaction or just an electron reaction?)
(I reject the claim of conversion of energy to matter as a simple violation of conservation of mass, and conservation of motion. Light particles are probably not energy, but are instead matter.).
(I think this may be a more complex reaction, is one photon being converted or more than one? Are there other examples of photons being converted to electron and positron pairs? Perhaps the beam of closely spaced photons forces lead atoms to absorb many photons, and then start to emit photons, and even may be enough to create new particles, or dislodge particles as large as electrons and positrons. One theory is that electrons and positrons are similar to or the same as photons, the one problem being how to explain their 3 different movements in electric fields, and perhaps any differences in velocity. Perhaps the maximum velocity of electrons and positrons may give a rough indication of how many photons they are made of.)
(Converting lead into gold probably found a lot of secret research funding. At some point the public may actually find out about what they bought.)
(Interesting that we don't see more large particle colliders like Helium ions, and other larger positive and negative ions.)
(There are many "g" words like "gauss", "Gilbert" and a q which is similar to a g in "questions" perhaps hinting at a lead to gold transmutation that for illogical reasons must be kept secret.)
(Search and display any papers on Lead transmutation.)
(There are about 3 or 4 papers with the title "Transmutation of Elements" in Nature around 1926-1929, that involve transmutation of lead.)
(Probably mercury would be easier, but lead is by far more common - probably lead would need to be worked down to gold. The goal is clearly to take some common low-cost element and convert them into more useful and valuable elements, using any photons emitted for electricity. Mercury into platinum might be a valuable conversion.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN
[03/??/1933 AD]
| 4164) German-US physicist, Albert Abraham Michelson (mIKuLSuN) or (mIKLSuN) (CE 1852-1931), and other scientists measure the speed of light in a long vacuum tube, and report it to have an average of 299,774 km/s (186,271 miles a second).
Michelson, Pease and pearson report in the Astrophysical journal summarizing: "The observations were made by the rotating-mirror method, the light passing thgough a steel tube 1 mile long, evacuated to pressures which ranged from 0.5 to 5.5 mm mercury. By multiple reflections the path length waqs increased to 8 or 10 miles. The distance was obtained by reference to a carefully measured base line adjoining the tube. The time was measured stroboscopically through successive steps by use of a tuning fork synchronized with the rotating mirror, a free swinging pendulum, a chronometer, and wireless signals from Arlington. There were made 2885.5 determinations of the velocity, the simple mean value of which is 299,774 km.sec., with an average deviation of 11 km/sec. from the mean.".
The magazine "Popular Science Monthly" reports that "thousands of the most careful measurements ... do not agree", that measurements vary as much as 12 miles a second, and that measurements vary with season. The Pound-Rebka experiment indicates that the speed of light may vary due to the force of gravity.
Michelson started this experiment but he is dead by the time a final figure is announced. The current accepted value is 299,792.5 km/s.
In 1927 using a 22 mile pathway between two California mountain peaks Michelson surveyed to an accuracy of less than an inch, and measured the speed of light as 299,798 km/s.
Froome and Essen write that the measurements of the speed of light made after the war from 1945 onwards are different from earlier methods, mainly because of the use of high frequency radio techniques which increases the accuracy.
In 1945 Essen and Gordon-Smith will use a cavity resonator to measure the speed of light. In a cavity resonator, light travels down a hollow metal cylinder and if the cylinder is closed at both ends and is exactly a whole number of half-wavelengths (or intervals in the particle interpretation) long, resonance occurs. The scale of the instrument can be varied to correspond to the wavelength (or interval) of the standing waves in the cylinder. In 1947, Smith, Franklin and Whiting in the United Kingdom, and Aslakson in the USA use radar reflection over a known distance to measure the speed of light. (Are these the first publicly known use of an electronic light detector in the measurement of the speed of light?). This method is very simple: the travel time of a pulse of radio to a distant object, like an airplane, or ship and back again is measured and compared to the known distance - for example getting the distance from the altitude meter of the plane.
Describe the first use of electronic devices to determine the count/track the time of light travel and/or the instant of light collision/detection.
It may be possible in the future to measure any delay due to photons stopping in reflection. Although this may be perfectly elastic, perhaps the instant of collision (or based on a second interpretation, the orbit around an atom) adds a very very small but measurable delay.
(Of course much of the research around light is a secret, photons are beamed to people's brains in neuron writing and perhaps neuron reading too, and used to make them itch, perhaps from tiny microscopic sources in the walls, from the top of street lamps, and or satellites.)
This measuring of the speed of light raises the issue of measuring the speed of gravitation. Is there a finite speed for gravitation of does gravity act instantaneously? Can this ever be proved, or might this be physically impossible to ever measure?
| Irvine, CA, USA |
67 YBN
[04/10/1933 AD]
| 5189) French physicists, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO KYUrE) (CE 1900-1958) and Iréne Curie (CE 1897-1956) determine that positive electrons are emitted (in addition to neutrons, and gamma rays) from bombarding Beryllium with alpha particles.
By operating their Wilson chamber in a magnetic field, the Joliot-Curies will be able to make the first photographs of the creation of an electron pair (one positive and one negative) by materialization of a γ photon.
The Joliot-Curies publish this in Comptes Rendus as (translated from French) "Contribution to the study of positive electrons". They write (translated from French): " During our research by the method of trajectories of fog, on the spectrum of Compton electrons of gamma rays associated with the emission of neutrons, we noticed that several trajectories of electrons with high energy bent by a magnetic field directed to (across?) the source. This curious fact was difficult to interpret and we acknowled ged that these electrons were lances launched by the collision of photons which arose in a remote area of the source as a result of transmutations that sometimes cause neutrons passing through matter. The recent discovery of the positive electron suggested the idea that these electrons carried a positive charge and came from the source. Experiments by the Wilson method were undertaken by Chadwick, Blackett and Occhialini. These authors concluded that the complex radiation neutrons and photons projected from positive electrons that traverse a a sheet of lead. Two observations in favor of this conclusion are, firstly, the large concentration near the source of trajectories electron bent in the direction which corresponds to a positive charge and, second, the verification of the direction of speed of the change of radius of curvature of an electron that has passed through a metal plate placed in the middle of the apparatus. ...". (Read rest?)
(Determine how can there be a single gamma photon unless a photon represents in this view more than one particle?)
(It seems clear that the light particles (gamma photon) emitted existed as part of the electron and positron- that electrons and positrons are composed only of light particles. Is this the first clear evidence and tenative proof that electrons are made strictly of light particles?)
| (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
67 YBN
[04/12/1933 AD]
| 5148) US chemists, William Francis Giauque (JEOK) (CE 1895–1982), and D. P. MacDougall, uses "adiabatic demagnetization" method to cool helium to under 1° Absolute.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
67 YBN
[05/22/1933 AD]
| 5190) French physicists, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO) (CE 1900-1958) and Iréne Curie (CE 1897-1956) theorize that a gamma photon produces a positive and negative electron.
By operating their Wilson chamber in a magnetic field, the Joliot-Curies are able to make the first photographs of the creation of an electron pair (one positive and one negative) by materialization of a γ photon. (Show photographs)
The Joliot-Curies publish this in Comptes Rendus as (translated from French) "On the Origin of the Positive Electrons". They write (translated from French): " We have shown that the penetrative radiation excited by the alpha rays in beryllium are made out of positive electrons by a screen of lead, but not an aluminum screen. We also reported that the number of positive electrons is greatly reduced when 2 cm of lead is interposed between the source and sink of lead, which suggests that these electrons are not produced by neutrons. These experiments were previously conducted using, the expansion apparatus of Wilson, with magnetic field. The cylinder of glass of the apparatus has an orifice closed (ferme) by a foil 1/10e of a millimeter thick. Behind this foil can be placed washers of various materials which are irradiated by the source of (Po + Be) placed at a short distance outside the unit. Here are the results obtained: 1 ° The interposition of 2 cm of lead between the source and a heat sink of lead reduced by about 40 to 100 the number of negative electrons from the heat sink and the number of positive electrons is reduced in proportion similar. 2° With a pellet of uranium oxide as the heat sink the number of positive electrons is a bit larger than lead. 3° With a slice of copper as heat sink there are little positive electrons. 4° The maximum energy of negative electrons is 4.7 × 106 eV (which corresponds to a quantum of 5 x 106eV), so the positive electrons are of the order of 2.2 x 106 eV. 5° In several pictures there are two trajectories of electrons, one positive and one negative, apparently from the same point. It is possible that these electrons have actually been issued simultaneously. These experiments are very favorable of the hypothesis of the production of positive electrons by the gamma rays. In effect, the same radiation that is responsible for the production of the positive electrons and negative electrons, and the absorption of 40 to 100 in 2 cm of lead accords well with a gamma ray of 5 x 106 eV. On the other hand that the proportion of positive electrons increases with the atomic weight of the radiator (heat sink?) suggests that their emission is related to the phenomenon of absorption of nuclear gamma rays. One can imagine the phenomenon as follows a photon meeting a high-energy heavy nucleus would be transformed into two electrons of opposite sign. If one core only occurs supposeque to cause the transformation of a quantum 5X I06 eV lose a énergiede I, I × I06 eVpour produce the mass of two electrons, and if those above is by Tagentis almost equally the remaining energy of the quantum everyone has a kinetic energy of I06 eV ×, not far from the limit of 2.2 X io ° eV found experimentally. To give birth the two electrons to the photon should have a quantum energy of the least i, ix io ° eV, which is consistent withthe fact that the nuclear absorption There is douteusepour rays of Ra C (I
One can also envisage another interpretation by admitting the existence of neutral particles of mass close to that of the electron (neutrino of Pauli-Fermi) with a dislocation that would produce a positive electron and a negative electron. The neutrinos could be either in the radiation excited in the beryllium, or embedded in the heavy nuclei. We put in avonsessayé évidencela projection electron positifspar y-rays in studying the electrons produced in a radiator Lead by a beam filtered and channeled much of y-rays of ThC ". We observed some trajectories that seem to be those of positive electrons. from lead. One of these paths leads to a screen of mica plot middle of the device and there are the other side of the screen a trajectory more faiblerayon of curvature which can be celledu same electron positive, and slightly slowed its déviépar passagedans screen. This ". (Read rest?)
(Determine how can there be a single gamma photon unless a photon represents in this view more than one particle?)
(How does the theory that all matter is made of light particles influence this finding?)
| (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
67 YBN
[06/16/1933 AD]
| 5278) Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant (CE 1901-2000), Australian physicist, with Lord Rutherford, uses high-speed protons to cause transmutation in Lithium and Boron.
(read paper and give more details.)
| (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN
[07/30/1933 AD]
| 5069) Edwin Howard Armstrong (CE 1890-1954), US electrical engineer, invents frequency modulation (FM) which eliminates the problem of static from amplitude modulation (AM).
Amplitude modulation uses variations in amplitude (strength) of radio signal to transmit a signal, but thunderstorms and electrical appliances also modulate the amplitude of received signals which creates noise. FM will be used for the sound circuits in television sets. FM can only be used with high frequency carrier waves ((the standard frequency that is varied relative to the source signal)).
Armstrong writes in his 1933 patent application: "This invention relates to a method of reception in radio signaling systems in which signaling is accomplished by variations of the transmitted frequency. Briefly it relates to a method in which the incoming signaling current is employed to "heterodyne itself" so that the efficiency of rectification for the particular signal to be received is increased and the ratio of signaling currents to disturbing currents is improved. The method is particularly applicable to systems which have current limiting or amplitude equalizing devices for the purpose of dealing with fading. In this specification Fig. 1 illustrates the general arrangement of the apparatus, the circuit diagram showing an arrangement applicable to telegraphy. Figure 2 illustrates an arrangement more particularly applicable to telephony. Figure 3 is a diagram showing the current, voltage ' relations existing in certain portions of the circuit disclosed herein. ... The operation of the system is as follows: Suppose that signaling is accomplished by transmitting a signaling wave and a marking wave which differ by 50 cycles, and suppose the local heterodyne is adjusted to give beat currents having a frequency of 1200 and 1250 cycles respectively. As explained in my prior application, the circuit between A will be made non-reactive for 1200
cycles and the circuit between B will be made non-reactive for 1250 cycles. By means of the compensator 21 the resistance drop in coil 18 and condensers 16 and 17 is eliminated and hence the phase of the E. M. F. supplied to the transformer systems 22, 24 and 23, 25 is 90° out of phase with the current flowing in the selector circuit, whenever that current is of a frequency which is not exactly equal to the non-reactive frequency of either A or B. In the case where the frequency coincides with the non-reactive frequency of either A or B there is no E. M. F. across that point.
When the 1200 cycle current is flowing in the selector circuits, there will be zero potential across A. Across B there will, therefore, be a capacity reactance (net) and the E. M. F. across B will therefore be 90° behind the current in the circuit. Similarly, when the 1250 cycle current is flowing in the selector circuit there will be zero potential across B and across A there will be an inductive reactance and hence the E. M. F. across A will be 90° ahead of the current.
Under ordinary circumstances these phase relations make no difference and the 1200 cycle and 1250 cycle currents are alternately supplied by the amplifiers 26, 27 to their respective rectifiers 30, 31, rectified in the ordinary manner and indicated by the device 44. In the present arrangement, however, the E. M. F. across the resistance 85 19,20 in the selector circuit is applied to an amplifying system 34, 42 which supplies a current equally and symmetrically to the two rectifiers 30, 31 as shown. This current cannot of itself have any effect on the indicating device 44 since that device is in a balanced position for currents which are supplied equally to the two rectifiers, but by properly adjusting the phase and magnitude of this current with respect to the phase and magnitude of the two currents supplied by the amplifiers 26 and 27, a heterodyne action can be produced in the rectifiers 30, 31 which greatly improves the operation of this balanced system. ... The operation of this system is as follows: Incoming signals, varied in frequency by the fluctuations of the voice are received in the ordinary way by the receiver 50, 51, and are converted therein to some superaudible frequency such as 30,000 cycles per second. This current is then passed through the current limiter 52 in which its amplitudes are reduced to a common predetermined value. It is then applied to the selector system 54—60. The resistance 56 in this circuit is so chosen that the circuit 54—55 is fairly well damped. It is not necessary to have 54—55 tuned, but the system is more symmetrical when it is. 57 is adjusted with respect to the reactances of 58 and of 59, 60 for the purpose of determining the width of the band over which the selector system operates. The resistances of 58—59 and 60 are made as low as possible. Where this cannot be done in a practical way a resistance compensator described in my previous application, referred to above, should be used. An insight into the current voltage relations may be had by reference to Fig. 3. Assume that the incoming frequency, held to constant amplitude by the current limiter, is varied thru a range of frequencies. The current in the selector circuit will be as represented by curve A. The impedance across the condenser 58 and the inductances 59, 60 will be as represented by curve B. The voltage drop across the same points will be the product of these two values as shown by curve C. Note that the phase of the E. M. F. across these points at frequencies above the zero value (mid-frequency) is 180° from that existing at frequencies below the mid-frequency value; ....".
| New York City, New York, USA |
67 YBN
[08/01/1933 AD]
| 4985) Polish-Swiss biochemist, Tadeus Reichstein (CE 1897–1996) and independently British chemists, (Sir) Walter Norman Haworth (HAWRt) (CE 1883-1950) and (Sir) Edmund Hirst synthesize vitamin C.
Haworth name vitamin C "ascorbic acid".
Haworth and Hirst synthesize both right and left handed versions of ascorbic acid. In their initial article Haworth and Hirst recognize that Reichstein, et al, should be credited with the first synthesis of the dextrose (right handed) ascorbic acid.
(Read relevent parts of each paper, show how vitamin C is synthesized.)
Reichstein finds a better technique for making the vitamin later this year, and this method is still used in commercial production.
This is the first vitamin that is artificially produced.
Vitamin C is related in structure to simple sugars.
| (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland and (Birmingham University) Birmingham, England |
67 YBN
[08/06/1933 AD]
| 5435) George Wald (CE 1906-1997), US chemist, detects vitamin A in the retina.
In a letter to Nature, "Vitamin A in the Retina", Wald writes: "I HAVE found vitamin A in considerable concentrations in solutions of the visual purple, in intact retinas, and in the pigment-choroid layers of frogs, sheep, pigs and cattle. The non-saponifiable extracts of these eye tissues display in detail all of the characteristics of vitamin A-containing oils.".
| (University of Zurich) Zurich, Switzerland |
67 YBN
[10/07/1933 AD]
| 5474) Gordon Locher detects neutrons caused by cosmic ray collisions in Argon gas.
Locher publishes this in "The Physical Review" as "Neutrons from Cosmic-Ray Stösse". Locher writes: "Some preliminary results of the cloud photography of cosmic-ray Stösse, or ionization bursts, in argon, seem sufficiently interesting to be described here. Numerous neutron-recoil atom tracks, two long nucleus tracks, and groups of simultaneous tracks that converged at different points, were found. ... Fig. 7 shows micrographs of some of the short recoil-atom tracks from Stösse, also some recoil-atom tracks from Be neutrons, in the same cloud atmosphere, for comparison of ionization density and energy. The similarity is very evident. Tracks of this kind are recognizable with considerable certainty because of the enormous density of their ionization. The use of atgon greatly facilitates the detection of neutrons; Bonner has found from ionization measurements that the target area of the argon atom for Be neutrons is about 17 times that of hydrogen of 4.85 times that of nitrogen. Since the tracks of the Stösse do not converge to single points, it is impossible to tell from what material the neutrons arise, but the infrequency of appearance of recoil atoms on pictures other than those of Stösse indicates that the neutrons somehow arise from disintegration processes. The numbers of short recoil-atom tracks from Stösse is about the same as the number of Be neutron-recoil atom tracks from a Be-Po source of 0.05 millicurie radium requivalent, placed on top of the cloud chamber, or 1 to 10 millicuries at the Stösse track-foci. But the energy and ionization characteristics of the Stösse-neutrons are unknown, so that comparison of their number with those of Be neutrons is little more than speculation. ...".
This leads to Willard Libby showing in 1949 that because of these neutrons hydrogen-3, helium-3 and carbon-14 can be used to determine the age of living matter.
| (Bartol Research Foundation of the Franklin Institute, University of Delaware) Newark, Delaware, USA |
67 YBN
[12/12/1933 AD]
| 5447) Electron microscope that magnifies objects more than any light microscope (12,000x).
Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (CE 1906-1988), German electrical engineer, builds an electron microscope that, for the first time, can clearly magnify objects more than any known light microscope.
In this instrument, electrons are passed through a very thin slice of the object under study and are then deflected onto photographic film or onto a fluorescent screen, producing an image that can be greatly magnified.
Ruska publishes this as (translated from German) "On progress in construction and performance of the magnetic electron microscope.".
(Translate and read relevent parts of paper.)
(Notice that the famous first images are of "baumwoll" which is cotton - and then "Baumwollgespinst, verkohlt", "cotton fiber, charred", "woll" stands out as being similar to "Wollaston" who may have been the first to do some aspect of neuron reading and writing. Perhaps just coincidence. It may be aggressive posturing, but could also be "false agressive" neurological battling - to appear agreesive to those angry with the release of secret information. So the public gets the immensely useful tool the electron microscope and to calm the hot-headed people angry about the release of the electron microscope to the public - the author waives the pretend club to appear to be angry - which removes the focus and anger related to releasing secret or secret-related information.)
| (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 3885) Hugo Gernsback (CE 1884–1967) publishes series of magazines titled "Sexology, the Magazine of Sex Science" which teach sex education, the word "sexology" describing the science of sex. According to one description, the title and subject stun the American reading public.
| New York City, NY (presumably) |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 4778) Secret science: Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, may hint that humans are living secretly on the dark side of the moon of Earth by stating before the British Association in the fall of 1933 that "...anyone who says that with the means at present at our disposal and with our present knowledge we can utilize atomic energy is talking moonshine.". Rutherford had used the phrase "atomic explosion" in 1915 and "Light Atoms" in 1919. This could be a double or triple meaning with prohibition - which was another trajedy happening at this time.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 4812) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer describes inventing a method to photograph thought.
Tesla writes at the age of 78: "In 1893 ... I became convinced that a definite image formed in thought, must by reflex action, produce a corresponding image on the retina, which might be read by a suitable apparatus. This brought me to my system of television which I announced at the time... My idea was to employ an artificial retina receiving and object of the image seen, an optic nerve and another retina at the place of reproduction...both being fashioned somewhat like a checkerboard, with the optic nerve being a part of the earth.".
Even if not realized, and such a device not capable of capturing images of thought, still, promoting the possibility, which is a secret reality and secret technology, kept secret for an absurdly long period of time (200 years at least in 2010), can only be a good thing and contribution to science in such a dark period of scientific stagnation and secrecy.
| (Tesla's private lab) New York City, NY, USA (verify) |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 4822) US physiologists, Joseph Erlanger (CE 1874-1965) and Herbert Spencer Gasser (CE 1888-1963) find that nerve fibers conduct impulses at different rates, depending on the thickness of the fiber (impulses traveling faster the thicker the fiber), and Erlanger and Gasser also find that different fibers transmit different kinds of impulses, represented by different types of waves.
(verify if different kinds of waves in different fibers was found earlier.)
The Braun Cathode Ray Tube allows Erlanger to picture the changes to the impulse as it travels along the nerve. Erlanger and Gasser find that on stimulating a nerve, the resulting electrical activity indicating the passage of an impulse is composed of three waves, as observed on the oscillograph. Erlanger and Gasser explain this by proposing that the one stimulus activates three different groups of nerve fibers, each of which has its own rate of conduction. They go on to measure these rates, concluding that the fastest fibers (the A-fibers) conduct with a speed of up to 100 meters per second (mps) while the slowest (the C-fibers) can manage speeds of no more than 2 mps. The intermediate B-fibers conduct in the range 2–14 mps. Erlanger and Gasser are able to relate this variation to the thickness of the different nerve fibers, A-fibers being the largest.
It was a short step from this to the theory of differentiated function, in which it was proposed that the slender C-fibers carry pain impulses whereas the thicker A-fibers transmit motor impulses. But it was soon demonstrated that while such propositions may be broadly true the detailed picture is more complex. Although according to Encyclopedia Britannica: "... they demonstrated that different nerve fibres exist for the transmission of specific kinds of impulses, such as those of pain, cold, or heat...". (determine what is answer to conflict)
(Note that the early 1900s represent an era of labeling phenomena alpha, beta, gamma, etc.- particles, brain waves, and here nerve fibers.)
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 4859) Gilbert Newton Lewis (CE 1875-1946), US chemist is the first to prepare a sample of water in which all the hydrogen atoms are “deuterium” (or “heavy hydrogen”), hydrogen with a neutron and proton (in the nucleus) instead of just a proton, and with an atomic weight of 2 instead of 1 as the most abundant form of hydrogen has. This water is called “heavy water”, and will be used to slow down neutrons to make them more effective in creating a chain reaction, (which helps the development of the atomic bomb, but also helps the use of uranium fission for electricity.).
In the next two years Lewis publishes twenty-eight reports on deuterium chemistry, including several in collaboration with E. O. Lawrence on the nuclear reactions of deuterium in the cyclotron. Since deuterium is different from hydrogen, Lewis foresaw a whole new chemistry of deutero compounds with distinct and unusual properties, but by 1934 Lewis stops work on heavy water. Covalent carbon-deuterium bonds are not easy to make, and deutero compounds are not very different from ordinary compounds. Lewis reports on the lethal effect of heavy water on germinating plant seeds and on living organisms, but does not recognize how deuterium can be used as a biological tracer to study the microchemistry of living tissue. In 1937, Lewis publishes a report on the refraction of neutrons by wax which has to be withdrawn as an experimental error. Later scientists will show that beams of neutron particles do refract in accord with Snell's law.
(Interesting that particles might be refracted - this would indicate clearly that refraction is probably a result of particle collision, and not wave mechanics.)
(EXPERIMENT: Do particle beams show refraction when passing through water and other materials? Can refraction be used to separate beams of different frequency?)
(I still question the basic idea of there being a central nucleus in atoms, and without being able to directly see such a thing, I think people need to keep an open mind.)
| (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 4983) (Sir) Arthur Stanley Eddington (CE 1882-1944), English astronomer and physicist publishes “The Expanding Universe” which promotes the expanding universe theory.
(I view the expanding universe theory as unlikely, and I suport the theory that universe is of infinite size and age, for one reason, because it seems unlikely that space would just end 20 billion light years away, for another, I doubt that non-Euclidean geometry applies to the universe.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 5273) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist proposes a theory to explain beta decay that hypothesizes the existance of a "weak interaction" (force) and includes the "neutrino", a particle first proposed by Wolfgang Pauli.
Fermi names the particle Pauli had postulated a "neutrino" instead of "neutron" as Pauli had proposed before Chadwick named the neutral particle in the nucleus the "neutron". Fermi works out some of the math involved in neutrino emission.
With D. Lea. Chadwick will conduct a search of the neutrino and is unable to detect any particles. They show, using a very-high-pressure ionization chamber, that if the neutrino does exist, it can not produce more than one ionization in 150 kilometers of air at normal pressure.
Fermi works out the nature of what is now called the weak interaction which is only a trillionth as strong as the electromagnetic interaction. Fermi's work with the weak force will guide Yukawa in his description of a strong interaction.
In his original paper in Italian entitled "Tentativo di una Teoria Dei Raggi β", (translated from Italian with translate.google.com) "Attempt of a theory of β-rays", Fermi writes: "Summary. - It is proposed a quantitative theory of the emission of rays B which admits the existence of "neutrino" and this is the emission of electrons and neutrinos at the time of the disintegration of a nucleus B with a procedure similar to that followed in the theory of radiation to describe the emission of a quantum of light from an excited atom. Formulas are deduced for the lifetime and the shape of the continuous spectrum of B-rays, and are compared with experimental data. ...".
In a later paper received on January 16, 1934, Fermi writes (translated from German), in "Test of a theory of β-rays. I": "A quantitative theory of beta decay is proposed, in which one assumes the existence of the neutrino, and deals with the emission of electrons and neutrinos from a core in the beta-decay with a similar method as the emission of a photon from an excited atom in the Radiation theory. Formulas for life and for the shape of the emitted continuous beta-ray spectrum are derived and compared with experiment.".
(Note that Fermi's original paper is in Italian, and I find no English translation of the original, which seems unusual since this is the basis of modern physics, and presumably most scholars of particle physics would want to examine this paper. This is also the case for Werner Heisenberg's 1932 paper which is the basis of the so-called "strong" interaction between a neutron and proton by an electron.)
(There are other possible explanations for the continuous electromagnetic spectrum of beta radiation: 1) these are particles of various masses, perhaps portions of electrons or other atom fragments, when we think of how many light particles must be in an atom, it seems very likely that there are many fractional possibilities for sub-atomic particles. 2) the motion given to the particles varies depending on the collision. Disagreement, seems to me, to be the root and basis of science, and I think it is important for people not to be offended or upset because a person disagrees or fails to understand the person's theory or claim. People must be able to have different views and express doubts and still remain on friendly terms. I, for one, simply cannot accept something I don't understand, or think is doubtful and I accept this trait in other people without any hostility or hurt feelings.)
(Neutron decay shows that a neutron may not be as stable as a proton and electron. A proton has been reduced to small mass particles - aside from photons state which ones, but has an electron ever been reduced or even transformed to particles other than photons? These are basic questions that go unanswered or explained by those in science, and again more from an massive amount of evidence of the missing logic and sense of educating the public present in the current stage of science on earth. What gives Fermi the motivation and authority (if any) to name the neutrino?)
(State from which atom or particle the neutrino is thought to be emitted from.)
(Determine if the view is that a weak interaction is strictly the result of particle collision, and not an action-at-a-distance force, as is presumed for gravitation.)
(I think people can create forces to describe larger scale effects in particular when the individual masses involved cannot be seen, and in this way create many forces, such as the life on a planet collective force which may build ships to enable them to leave a planet which may be a larger generalization of the law of gravity, and so on, a molecular force which holds molecules together which is different from the electrical force, etc.)
(Show clearly how the weak interaction/force is created. What specific evidence does Fermi use to justify a weak force? Determine clearly if Fermi is the inventor of the weak force.)
| (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
67 YBN
[1933 AD]
| 5281) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist publishes a paper entitled "Le ultime particelle constitutive della materia" ("The ultimate constituent particles of matter") which may imply that some sub-atomic particle may be the basis of all matter.
It seems clear that the theory that material light particles are the basis of all matter was known, although secretly, very early on, and it is a bizarre twist of history, and testifies to the corruption and unusual viciousness of the owners of neuron writing devices that such a simple theory has been kept from the public for over a century if not longer.
Fermi writes (translated from Italian): "Perhaps the most essential differences between the objects in the macroscopic world that is common objects and objects of the microscopic world of atoms and the following: In the world of macroscopic objects there are never two equals. Consider for example two pieces of iron, we can reduce them to have the same grain as much as possible of their microcrystalline structure, the state of temperament, the content of various impurities and so on. But obviously we can never hope that the two pieces of iron are reduced to being completely equal, and the reason for this impossibility is to be found in the extreme complexity of objects concerned, constituted by aggregates of billions of billions of atoms and molecules: it is enough if one of these atoms in one of two pieces of iron is offset from the corresponding atom of the other piece, because the two objects can no longer be called identical. So in this sense the non-existence of bodies identical in the macroscopic world can be interpreted as an indication of a very complex structure. ..."
| (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
66 YBN
[01/15/1934 AD]
| 5191) French physicists, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO) (CE 1900-1958) and Iréne Curie (CE 1897-1956) induce artificial radioactivity.
The Joliot-Curies had shown that when certain kinds of light elements, notably boron and aluminum, are bombarded by α particles there is an emission not only of protons or neutrons but also of positive electrons, the origin of which they attribute to some induced transmutations and showed that the energies of the positive electrons created in this manner form a continuous spectrum analogous to that formed by the energies of the negative electrons emitted in β radioactivity. At the end of December 1933, Frederic reports that the annihilation of positive electrons stopped by matter, appears to be as Dirac had predicted, accompanied by the emission of two γ photons of approximately 500 KEV.
In the discovery of artificial radioactivity, Joliot covers the window of his cloud chamber with a thin sheet of aluminum foil, against which he places a strong source of polonium and is surprised to observe that the emission of positive electrons, induced by the polonium, continues for several minutes after the polonium had been removed and, therefore, after all irradiation of the aluminum had ceased.
So the Joliot-Curies conclude correctly that they have created a radioactive isotope of phosphorus from bombarding aluminum with alpha particles. The alpha particles had converted atoms of aluminum into phosphorus (2 places higher on the periodic table), and the radioactive isotope of phosphorus continues to break down and is the source of the continuing radiation. (State what kind of radiation)
The Joliot-Curies report this in a note to the Academy of Sciences on January 15 1934. Within less than two weeks after their announcement they are able to execute radiochemical experiments proving that the radioelement (radioactive element) formed in aluminum bombarded with α rays has exactly the same chemical properties as phosphorus and that the radioelement formed in boron has the same chemical properties as those of nitrogen.
These experiments provide the first chemical proof of induced transmutations and show the possibility of artificially creating radioisotopes of known stable elements. These experiment are then repeated and extended in the major nuclear physics laboratories of various countries.
This shows that radioactivity is not just a phenomenon found in the very heaviest of elements, but any element can be radioactive if the proper isotope is prepared. Since then, over 1000 different radioactive isotopes have been prepared, at least one for every known element, and sometimes 10 or more, and these isotopes (also called radioisotopes) are useful in health, industry and research.
Curie and Joliot write in (translated from French) "A new Type of Radioactivity": "We have recently shown by the method of Wilson that some light elements (beryllium, boron, aluminum) emit positive electrons when they are bombarded with alpha rays of polonium. Our interpretation of the emission of positive electrons from Be is due to the internal materialization of gamma rays together with positive electrons emitted by B and Al are from electrons of transmutation accompanying the emission of neutrons. In seeking to clarify the mechanisms of these emissions we have found these the following phenomenoa: The emission of positive electrons by some light elements irradiated by the alpha rays of polonium subsist for longer or shorter times, which reach more than half an hour in the case of boron, after the removal of the source of alpha rays. ...". (Have translated and read more possibly.)
(Identify the Phosphorus isotope, half-life, rate and equation of decay, and which particles are emitted.)
(Is it true that any element can be made radioactive? Is this only light particle, gamma and or x-ray radiation?)
| (Radium Institute) Paris, France (presumably) |
66 YBN
[01/15/1934 AD]
| 5192) French physicists, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO KYUrE) (CE 1900-1958) and Iréne Curie (CE 1897-1956) provide chemical proof of transmutation by chemically separating Nitrogen from alpha particle bombarded Boron, and Phosphorus from alpha particle bombarded Aluminum, and showing that both the radioactive elements Nitrogen and Phosphorus have the same chemical properties as non-radioactive Nitrogen and Phosphorus.
This is the first chemical proof of induced transmutations.
The Joliot-Curies had shown that when certain kinds of light elements, notably boron and aluminum, are bombarded by α particles there is an emission not only of protons or neutrons but also of positive electrons, the origin of which they attribute to some induced transmutations and showed that the energies of the positive electrons created in this manner form a continuous spectrum analogous to that formed by the energies of the negative electrons emitted in β radioactivity. At the end of December 1933, Frederic reports that the annihilation of positive electrons stopped by matter, appears to be as Dirac had predicted, accompanied by the emission of two γ photons of approximately 500 KEV.
In the discovery of artificial radioactivity, Joliot covers the window of his cloud chamber with a thin sheet of aluminum foil, against which he places a strong source of polonium and is surprised to observe that the emission of positive electrons, induced by the polonium, continues for several minutes after the polonium had been removed and, therefore, after all irradiation of the aluminum had ceased.
So the Joliot-Curies conclude correctly that they have created a radioactive isotope of phosphorus from bombarding aluminum with alpha particles. The alpha particles had converted atoms of aluminum into phosphorus (2 places higher on the periodic table), and the radioactive isotope of phosphorus continues to break down and is the source of the continuing radiation. (State what kind of radiation)
After Curie and Joliot reported creating artificial radiation in January 1934, they report their finding of chemical proof of transmutation.
These experiments provide the first chemical proof of induced transmutations and show the possibility of artificially creating radioisotopes of known stable elements. These experiment are then repeated and extended in the major nuclear physics laboratories of various countries.
Curie and Joliot write in Journal de Physique, (translated from French) "I. Artificial Production of Radioactive Elements, II Chemical Proof of the Transmutation of Elements.": " Summary. Boron, Magnesium and Aluminum, after irradiation with alpha rays from polonium show a lasting radioactivity that occurs in the case of B and Al, by the emission of positrons, whereas in the case of Mg it is by the emission of negative electrons and positrons. Radionuclides were created by transmutation. Their destruction is exponential; decay of one half takes place in 14 min., 2 min. 30 sec., 3 min. 15 sec., for B, Mg and Al respectively. It is independent of the energy of alpha rays exciters. The radiation emitted by irradiate Al and B is exclusively composed of positrons without negative electrons, and forms a continuous spectrum as the natural spectrum of beta-rays of radioactive substances. The maximum energy of the radiation of positrons is about 1.5 x 106 eV for B, 3x 106 eV for Al. The positive and negative electrons of Mg form two continuous spectra and corresponding probably transmutation of two isotopes of Mg. These new elements are radioactive nuclei probably 137N, 2714Si, 2813Al, 3015P, trained from nuclei 105B, 2412Mg, 2512Mg and 2713Al. On the chemical separation, from boron and aluminum, the radioactive elements that formed by irradiation, have, as expected, the chemical properties of nitrogen and phosphorus respectively. These experiments provide the first chemical proof of artificial transmutations. We propose to call radioazote, radiosilicium, radioaluminium, radiophosphorus new radioisotopes. ...". (Have translated and read more possibly.)
(Read relevent parts of Novemeber 14 paper too)
(We have benefited from transmutation being made public. Given the secret of neuron reading and writing, and WW1 and the imminent WW2, it is somewhat surprising that atomic transmutation was shown to the public by Ernest Rutherford and then the Joliot-Curies.)
| (Radium Institute) Paris, France |
66 YBN
[01/22/1934 AD]
| 5413) US chemist, Lyman Creighton Craig (CE 1906-1974), with W. A. Jacobs, isolate an unknown amino acid, which they named lysergic acid. Other workers managed to prepare the dimethyl amide of this acid and find that the compound, lysergic acid diethylamide, LSD, to have considerable physiological effects.
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
66 YBN
[02/10/1934 AD]
| 5202) Patrick Maynard Stuart Blackett (Baron) Blackett (CE 1897-1974), English physicist, detects electron and positron emission from gamma ray collision with lead.
Chadwick and Occhialini will observe positive and electron tracks from gamma collisions with lead. They show that gamma rays passing through lead sometimes disappear and a positron and electron are emitted. This is described as a confirmation of the Dirac's theory and the famous E=mc2 equation of Einstein and the conversion of energy (light) to matter (electron and positron).
They summarize their work in a Proceedings of the Royal Society of London article, "Some Experiments on the Production of Positive Electrons": "The emission of positive electrons has been observed under different experimental conditions: (1) from a lead target exposed to the y-rays of thorium active deposit; (2) directly from a source of thorium active deposit; and (3) from a lead target exposed to the radiations (y-rays and neutrons) emitted by beryllium, boron, and fluorine when bombarded by polonium o.-particles. The measurements of the energies of the positrons ejected from lead by the thorium y-rays support the view that a positron and an electron are produced simultaneous ly by the interaction of a y-ray and an atom, and that the mass of the positron is the same as that of the electron. The positron and electron are probably created in the electric field outside, rather than inside, the nucleus. The observations show that when y-rays of high frequency pass through lead an appreciable fraction (about one-fifth for a y-ray of hv 2-6 X 106 volts) of the energy absorbed is used in this process of creating a positron and an electron.".
(I doubt that any tracks are from light particles, but that all are from components of the collided atoms. Perhaps light particles split various sub-atomic particles (clusters) into various parts. It seems more likely to me that if the tracks in these photos can be aligned to a single starting point, and are not simply coincidence, {looking at figure 3 for example - do those 2 curves originate at the same point? It seems doubtful}, then perhaps this is simply some neutral or larger particle split into a positron and electron, both of which are material objects {the positron is not "anti-matter" in this view}. Look at all the tracks - clearly at any instant there are numerous pieces of matter being emitted from the target. It seems unlikely that there would only be a few "characteristic" track curves representing each different kind of particle, but perhaps.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England (presumably) |
66 YBN
[02/24/1934 AD]
| 5184) English physicist, (Sir) John Douglas Cockcroft (CE 1897-1967) and Irish physicist, Ernest Thomas Sinton Walton (CE 1903-1995) with C. W. Gilbert induce radioactivity with high velocity Protons and Diplons (a proton with a neutron).
Curie and Joliot had induced radioactivity by bombarding boron, magnesium and aluminium with α-particles, the radioactivity periods randing from 2 to 14 minutes.
(After this paper there are no more papers by Cockcroft in Nature until 1947, most likely because of the secrecy involved during World War 2.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
66 YBN
[03/17/1934 AD]
| 4755) Ernest Rutherford (CE 1871-1937), British physicist, with Marcus Oliphant and Paul Harteck, achieve the first publicly known nuclear fusion by creating a larger atom (helium) by colliding two smaller atoms (deuterons with deuterium). Rutherford and group, bombard compounds with deuterium (an isotope of hydrogen that contains a proton and neutron, also known as "heavy hydrogen", at the time called "diplogen") with deuterons (deuterium nucleus, one proton and neutron, at the time called a "diplon"). This reaction is the first achievement of what is now called fusion (producing helium from hydrogen), as well as for the production of tritium.
Deuterium is the isotope of the element hydrogen with atomic weight 2.0144 and symbols 2H or D. The terrestrial natural abundance of deuterium is 1 part in 6700 parts of ordinary hydrogen (protium). Small variations in natural sources are found as a result of fractionation by geological processes. Deuterium is a gas (D2) at room temperature. It is prepared from heavy water, D2O, either by electrolysis or by reaction of D2O with metals such as zinc, iron, calcium, and uranium. It is also prepared directly by the fractional distillation of liquid hydrogen.
A deuteron is the nucleus of the atom of heavy hydrogen, 2H (deuterium). The deuteron d is composed of a proton and a neutron; it is the simplest multinucleon nucleus. Its binding energy is 2.227 MeV; that is, this is the amount of energy which must be added to a deuteron for it to dissociate into a proton and a neutron. Deuterons are much used as projectiles in nuclear bombardment experiments.
In 1950, large-atom fusion is achieved by G. B. Rossi, et al, using a cyclotron to accelerate Carbon-12 ions into Aluminum-27 to produce the larger atom Chlorine-34 and carbon-12 ions with Gold-197 to create Astatine-205.
Rutherford, Oliphant and Harteck write: "We have been making some experiments in which diplons have been used to bombard preparations such as ammonium chloride (NH4Cl), ammonium sulphate ((NH4)2SO4) and orthophosphoric acid (H3PO4), in which the hydrogen has been displaced in large part by diplogen. When these D compounds are bombarded by an intense beam of protons, no large differences are observed between them and the ordinary hydrogen compounds. When, however, the ions of heavy hydrogen are used, there is an enormous emission of fast protons detectable even at energies of 20,000 volts. At 100,000 volts the effects are too large to be followed by our amplifier and oscillograph. The proton group has a definite range of 14.3 cm., corresponding to an energy of emission of 3 million volts. In addition to this, we have observed a short range group of singly charged particles of range about 1.6 cm., in number equal to that of the 14 cm. group. Other weak groups of particles are observed with the different preparations, but so far we have been unable to assign these definitely to primary reactions between diplons.
In addition to the two proton groups, a large number of neutrons has been observed. The maximum energy of these neutrons appears to be about 3 million volts. Rough estimates of the number of neutrons produced suggest that the reaction which produces them is less frequent than that which produces the protons.
While it is too early to draw definite conclusions, we are inclined to interpret the results in the following way. It seems to us suggestive that the diplon does not appear to be broken up by either α-particles or by proton bombardment for energies up to 300,000 volts. It therefore seems very unlikely that the diplon will break up merely in a much less energetic collision with another diplon. It seems more probable that the diplons unite to form a new helium nucleus of mass 4.0272 and 2 charges. This nucleus apparently finds it difficult to get rid of its large surplus energy above that of an ordinary He nucleus of mass 4.0022, but breaks up into two components, One possibility is that it breaks up according to the reaction
The proton in this case has the range of 14 cm. while the range of 1.6 cm. observed agrees well with that to be expected from momentum relations for an particle. The mass of this new hydrogen isotope calculated from mass and energy changes is 3.0151.
Another possible reaction is
leading to the production of a helium isotope of mass 3 and a neutron. In a previous paper we suggested that a helium isotope of mass 3 is produced as a result of the transmutation of Li6 under proton bombardment into two doubly charged particles. If this last reaction be correct, the mass of He3 is 3.0165, and using this mass and Chadwick's mass for the neutron, the energy of the neutron comes out to be about 3 million volts. From momentum relations the recoiling particle should have a range of about 5 mm. Owing to many disturbing factors, it is difficult to observe and record particles of such short range, but experiments are in progress to test whether such a group can be detected. While the nuclei of and He3 appear to be stable for the short time required for their detection, the question of their permanence requires further consideration."
(Perhaps fusion should simply refer to the process of a reaction that results in a larger atom from two or more smaller atoms, and fission is the opposite reaction where a larger atom that is separated into smaller atoms.)
(Rutherford et al use a particle accelerator of the kind designed by Cockroft to accelerate protons and deuterons. - verify)
(State when tritium is conclusively detected from this reaction and how.)
(State if anybody examined the above target compounds with deuteron bombardment to observe is there was a clear difference in the proton emissions.)
(Notice how Rutherford compares the distance particles travel to a voltage.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
66 YBN
[03/19/1934 AD]
| 5210) Fritz Zwicky (TSViKE) (CE 1898-1974), Swiss astronomer, and Walter Baade distinguish between ordinary novas and supernovas.
Zwicky and Baade suggest that there is a difference between novas, one kind being ordinary and the other being supernovas. A supernova is a star that blew up in one large explosion where an ordinary star loses one percent of its mass and returns to its ordinary existance as a star. A supernova may be as bright as many millions of stars. Supernovas are observed in the Andromeda Galaxy, and include the supernovas observed by Tycho Brahe and Kepler. Zwicky shows that for any galaxy there are only two or three supernovas every thousand years. Chandrasekhar will claim that white dwarfs are the formed by supernovas.
Zwicky and Baade publish this as "On Super-Novae" in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They write (note that "nebulae" refers to other galaxies"): "A. Common Novae.-The extensive investigations of extragalactic systems during recent years have brought to light the remarkable fact that- there exist two well-defined types of new stars or novae which might be distinguished as common novae and super-novae. No intermediate objects have so far been observed. Common novae seem to be a rather frequent phenomenon in certain stellar systems. Thus, according to Bailey,' ten to twenty novae flash up every year in our own Milky Way. A similar frequency (30 per year) has been found by Hubble in the well-known Andromeda nebula. A characteristic feature of these common novae is their absolute brightness (M) at maximum, which in the mean is -5.8 with a range of perhaps 3 to 4 mags. The maximum corresponds to 20,000 times the radiation of the sun. During maximum light the common novae therefore belong to the absolutely brightest stars in stellar systems. This is in full agreement with the fact that we have been able to discover this type of novae in other stellar systems near enough for us to reach stars of absolute magnitude -5 with our present optical equipment B. Super-Novae.-The novae of the second group (super-novae) presented for a while a very curious puzzle because this type of new star was found, not only in the nearer systems, but apparently all over the accessible range of nebular distances. Moreover, these novae presented the new feature that at their maximum brightness they emit nearly as much light as the whole nebula in which they originate. Since the investigations of Hubble and others have revealed that the absolute total luminosities of extragalactic systems scatter with rather small dispersion around the mean value Mj,V = -14.7, there is no doubt that we must attribute to this group of novae an individual maximum brightness of the order of M,jv = -13. A typical specimen of these super-novae is the well-known bright nova which appeared near the center of the Andromeda nebula in 1885 and reached a maximum apparent brightness of m = 7.5. Since the distance modulus of the Andromeda nebula is m-M= 22.2, (1) the absolute brightness of the nova at maximum was M = -14.7. An integration of the light-curve shows that practically the whole visible radiation is emitted during the 25 days of maximum brightness and that the total thus emitted is equivalent to 107 years of solar radiation of the present strength. Finally, there exist good reasons for the assumption that at least one of the novae which have been observed in our Milky Way system belongs to the class of the super-novae. We refer to the abnormally bright nova of 1572 (Tycho Brahe's nova).2 About the final state of super-novae practically nothing is known. The bright nova of 1885 in the Andromeda nebula has faded away and must now be fainter than absolute magnitude -2. Repeated attempts to identify the nova of 1572 with one of the faint stars near its former position have so far not been very convincing. Regarding the initial states of super-novae only the following meager facts are known. First, super-novae occur not only in the blurred central parts of nebulae but also in the spiral arms, which in certain cases are clearfy resolved into individual stars. Secondly, the super-nova of 1572 in its initial stage probably was not brighter than apparent magnitude 5 as otherwise it would be registered as such in the old catalogues, which, however, is not the case. Super-novae are a much less frequent phenomenon than common novae. So far as the present observational evidence goes, their frequency is of the order of one super-nova per stellar system (nebula) per several centuries. We believe that on the basis of the available observations of supernovae the following assumptions are admissible: (1) Super-novae represent a general type of phenomenon, and have appeared in all stellar systems (nebulae) at all times as far back as 109 years. To be conservative we shall assume for purposes of calculation that in every stellar system only one super-nova appears per thousand years. (2) Super-novae, initially, are quite ordinary stars whose masses are not greater than 1033 gr. to 1081 gr. (3) The super-nova of 1885 in Andromeda is a fair sample. We therefore base our calculations on the characteristics observed for this super-nova, namely: (a) At maximum the visible radiation Lv emitted per second is equal to that of 6.3 X 107 suns. ... The above considerations seem to indicate that in any case the total energy emitted in the super-nova process represents a considerable fraction of the star's mass. We also think that our case (1) corresponds more nearly to the reality than does case (2). A more detailed discussion of the super-nova process must be postponed until accurate light-curves and high-dispersion spectra are available. Unfortunately, at the present time only a few underexposed spectra of super-novae are available, and it has not thus far been possible to interpret them.". (I have doubts, show images of both supernovas and regular novas. How a star explodes may not take one or two forms, it may depend on how deep a fracture may occur.)
(Determine and report if Zwicky and Baade see actual explosions or only observe after the initial explosion. How long after?)
(Show calculations which determine how often supernovas occur per star group.)
(It's amazing if there are 30 novas a year observed in the Andromeda Galaxy. Is this just some inherent instability in stars, but that seems unlikely - they do rotate very quickly, but like a planet spontaneously exploding - it seems somewhat unlikely, but perhaps. Other alternatives are living objects separating their star to use the matter, galactic powers destroying some rogue unwanted species, galactic powers punishing some species, and two advanced multi-star societies fighting against each other. Clearly we know about conflict from our history, conflicts which involved large destructive events inflicted onto the other side, and a deep anger at the other side - in addition to simply a desire and willingness to take over resources of the less powerful.)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
66 YBN
[03/25/1934 AD]
| 5274) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist induces artificial radiation by neutron bombardment.
Fermi publishes this first as a short note entitled "Radioattivita Indotta Da Bombardamento Di Neutroni. -I" ("Radioactivity Induced from neutron bombardment. -I") in the Italian journal "La Ricerca scientifica". Fermi writes: " In this letter I want to report on several experiments undertaken to determine whether a bombardment with neutrons will produce phenomena of induced radioactivity similar to those observed by M. and Mme. Joliet when the bombardment was done with α-particles. I used the following apparatus: The source of neutrons was a small glass tube containing beryllium powder and emanation. Using about 50 millicurie of emanation (which was given to me by Professor G. C. Trabacchi, to whom I extend here my cordial thanks), I could obtain more than 100,00 neutrons per second, mixed, of course, with a very intense γ-radiation; however, the latter does not influence experiments of this kind. Small cylindrical containers filled with the substances tested were subjected to the action of the radiation from this source during intervals of time varying from several minutes to several hours. Immediately after being irradiated, the targets were placed in the vicinity of a Geiger-Muller counter, whose wall was formed of aluminum sheet about 0.2 mm thick, allowing β-rays to enter the counter. Positive results have been obtained, so far, with the following elements: Aluminum.- A small aluminum cylinder, irradiated by neutrons for about two hours, gives rise, in the first few minutes after the end of the irradiations, to a considerable increase in the rate of pulses from the counter, the rate increases by about 30-40 pulses per minute. A decrease follows, the rate reducing to hald of its initial value in about 12 minutes. Fluorine. - Calcium fluoride, irradiated for a few minutes and rapidly brought into the vicinity of the counter, causes in the first few moments an increase of pulses; the effect descreases rapidly, reaching the half-value in about 10 seconds. These phenomenona can possibly be explained in the following way. Fluorine under neutron bombardment disintegrates with the emissino of an α-particle, the probable nuclear reaction being: F19 + n1 -> N16 + He4.
The isotop N16 may then, by emitting a β-ray, transmute into O16. A similar interpretation can be given to the case of aluminum, the possible nuclear reaction being: Al27 + n1 -> Na24 + He4. The atom Na24 must be a new radioactive isotope, which, through the emission of a β-particle, transforms into Ca24. If these interpretations are correct, we have here an artificial formation of radioactive elements emitting ordinary β-particles, in contradistinction to the substances discovered by Joliot, which emit positrons. in the case of nitrogen, we would have two radioactive isotopes: N13, found by Joliot, which transforms into C13 by positron emission, and N16, which, emitting an electron, transmutes into O16. Experiments are in progress, extending the investigation to other elements, and studying the details of the phenomenon."
A later English description is published in Nature as "Radioactivity Induced by Neutron Bombardment" in which Fermi writes: "Experiments have been carried out to ascertain whether neutron bombardment can produce an induced radioactivity, giving rise to unstable products which disintegrate with emission of B-particles. Preliminary results have been communicated in a letter to La Ricerca Scientifica, 5, 282; 1934. The source of neutrons is a sealed glass tube containing radium emanation and beryllium powder. The amount of radium emanation available varied in the different experiments from 30 to 630 millicuries. We are much indebted to Prof. G. C. Trabacchi, Laboratorio Fisico della Sanita pubblica, for putting at our disposal such strong sources. The elements, or in some cases compounds containing them, were used in the form of small cylinders. After irradiation with the source for a period which caried from a few minutes to several hours, they were put around a Geiger counter with walls of thin alunimum foil (about 0.2 mm. thickness) and the number of impulses per minute was registered. So far, we have obtained an effect with the following elements: Phospohorus - Strong effect. half-period about 3 hours. The disintegration electrons could be photographed in the Wilson chamber. Chemical separation of the active product showed that the unstable element formed under the bombardment is probably silicon. iron- Period about 2 hours. As the result of chemical separation of the active product, this is probably manganese. Silicon - Very strong effect. Period about 3 minutes. Electrons photographed in the Wilson chamber. Aluminum - Strong effect. Period about 12 minutes. Electrons photographed in the Wilson chamber. Chlorine - Gives an effect with a period much longer than that of any element investigated at present. Vanadium - Period about 5 minutes. Copper - Effect rather small. Period about 6 minutes. Arsenic - Period about two days. Silver - Strong effect. Period about 2 minutes. tellurium. Period about 1 hour. iodine - Intense effect. Period about 30 minutes. Chromium - Intense effect. Period about 6 minutes. Electrons photographed in the Wilson chamber. Barium - Small effect. Period about 2 minutes. Fluorine 0 Period about 10 seconds. The following elements have also given indication of an effect: sofium, magnesium, titanium, zirconium, zinc, strongtium, antimony, selenium and bromine. Some elements give indication of having two or more periods, which may be partly due to several isotopic constituents and partly to successive radioactive transformations. The experiments are being continued in order to verify these results and extend the research to other elements. The nuclear reaction which causes these phenomena may be different in different cases. The chemical separation effected in the cases of iron and phosphorus seems to indicate that, at least in these two cases, the neutron is absorbed and a proton emitted. The unstable product, by the emission of a B-particle, returns to the original element. The chemical separations have been carried out by Dr. O. F'Agostino. Dr. E. Amaldi and Dr. E. Segre have collaborated in the physical research.".
Upon receiving Fermi's note, Rutherford writes in a letter to Fermi "...I congratulate you on your successful escape from the sphere of theoretical physics! ...".
(Notice that most of these elements are radio active - that is emitting electrons and light particles with high frequency for only a few minutes which implies that many nuclear transmutations may be somewhat safe in terms of radioactivity in the environment. Determine if light particles are emitted, and/or detected in these papers, and if light particles are infact present as radioactivity.)
| (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
66 YBN
[04/11/1934 AD]
| 5320) Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (BUTenoNT) (CE 1903-1995), German chemist, isolates "progesterone", a female hormone which is important to the chemical mechanisms involved in pregnancy.
Progesterone is a steroid hormone, C21H30O2, secreted by the corpus luteum of the ovary and by the placenta, that acts to prepare the uterus for implantation of the fertilized ovum, to maintain pregnancy, and to promote development of the mammary glands. Progesterone is also a drug prepared from natural or synthetic progesterone, used in the prevention of miscarriage, in the treatment of menstrual disorders, and as a constituent of some oral contraceptives.
| (Institute der Technische Hochschule) Danzig-Langfuhr, Germany (Austria) |
66 YBN
[04/14/1934 AD]
| 5279) Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant (CE 1901-2000), Australian physicist, with P. Hartek and Lord Rutherford, creates tritium (hydrogen-3) by bombarding deuterium with itself.
Oliphant bombards deuterium with itself and creates tritium and isotope of hydrogen, hydrogen-3, tritium, which has small radioactivity, has an atomic mass of 3, and is the only known radioactive form of hydrogen. This work will lead to work on hydrogen fusion, combining two hydrogens to form a helium atom, to the hydrogen bomb, and to the attempt at practical hydrogen fusion reactors.
Olpihant et al write in "Transmutation Effects Observed with heavy Hydrogen": "In our paper " Transmutation of Elements by Protons,"* we showed that the transformation of some of the light elemeints by protons could be conveniently studied by the use of comparatively low voltages-of the order of 100,000 volts-by generating an intenise narrow beam of protons which fell on the target of small area of about 1 sq. cm. In the light of experience of the past year, the installation has been modified in several particulars and entirely reconstructed. By the addition of another- 100,000-volt transformer in tandem and the use of appropriate condensers the D.C. voltage available has been raised fromn 200,000 to 400,000 volts. ... In our last paper* we gave an account of the transformationps roducedi n lithium by the ions of heavy hydrogen. The heavy water used for this purpose was generously presented to us by Professor G. N. Lewis. For our present experiments we have depended on a supply of concentrated heavy water prepared in the Cavendish Laboratory by Dr. P. Harteck.t For preliminary requirementsa weak concentrationo f diplogen4o f about 12% was generally 'ased. Strongerc oncentrationus p to 30%m ixturew ith helium?w eren ecessary in order to study the emission of neutrons and protons. The action of diplons on diplons was studied by observation of the effects produced when diplonis were used to bombardt argets coveredw ith a thin layer of a preparationc ontainingh eavyh ydrogen. Thesew erea mmoniumc hloride,a mmoniums ulphate, and orthophosphorica cid in which the normal hydrogen had been largely replacedb y diplogen. The method of preparationw as very simple. A small quantity of the normal ammoniuin salt or the phosphoric pentoxide was added to an excess of heavy water. An equilibriumw as at once established betweent he concentrationo f hydrogena nd of diplogeni n the compounda nd in the water,lIa nd if a drop of the solutionw as placedu pon a warmi ron target and allowedt o evaporatea stable but non-uniformla yer of a salt containing diplogen was left behind ... The Action of Diplons on Diplons The Emission of Charged Particles-The nmost interesting and important reaction which we have observed is that of heavy hydrogen on heavy hydrogen itself. Experiment has shown* that diplogen is not appreciably affected by bombardment with x-particles from poloniun, and we have been unable to detect any specific action of protons on diplogen for energies up to 300,000 e-volts. We were therefore suxrprised to find that on bombarding heavy hydrogen with diplons an enormous effect was produced. Fig. 4, Plate 16, shows a reproduction of portion of an oscillograph record obtained in our first experiment. We assumed at first that this was an effect due to radiation passing through the counting chamber as previous experiments had shown that X-rays could produce just the result observed, but subsequent observation at much lower bombarding potentials showed that we were dealing in reality with a very large emission of protons. Examples of an oscillograph record obtained under these conditions are given in figs. 5 and 6, Plate 16. The original observations were made on ND Cl, but in order to establish that the effects observed came from the action of D on D and not from the nitrogen or chlorine, we bombarded targets of (ND4)2SO4 and of D3P04. The absorption curves obtained for the three substances are given in fig. 1. The shape of these curves is due to the fact that protons gave too small a deflection in the oscillograph to be easily counted except over the last five centimetres of their path. It is evident from fig. 1 that there are present in each case two very prominent groups of particles of ranges 14 *3 and 16 cm. respectively. Careful counting of the records established that the numbers of these particles were identical within the errors of measurement. The nmaximum size of the deflections produced on the oscillograph record by the particles in each group indicated that they both consisted of singly charged particles. On these data it is natural to assumne that the particles are emitted in pairs opposite one another, and that the difference in range arises from a difference in mass, and hence of the velocity and energy. The simplest reaction which we can assume is 1D2 + 1D2 2He4 -H* 1H1 1H3.t
... Summary An account is given of the effects observed when diplons are used to bombard targets of compounds containing heavy hydrogen. It is found that a group of protons of 14'3 cm. range is emitted in very large numbers. A shorter 1I6 cm. range group of singly charged particles is also observed, and it is shown that the two groups contain equal numbers of particles. A discussion of the reaction which gives rise to them is given, and reasons are advanced for supposing that the short-range group consists of nuclei of a new isotope of hydrogen of mass 3 0151. The number of particles emitted has been investigated as a function of the energy of the bombarding diplons, and the absolute yield for a pure diplon beam hitting a pure diplogen target is estimated to be about 1 in 106 at 100,000 volts. Neutrons have been observed in large numbers as a result of the same bombardm ent. It is shown that the energy of the neutrons is about 2 x 106 e-volts, and it is suggested that they arise from an alternative mode of breaking up of the unstable form of helium nucleus formed initially by the union of two diplons. This other mode results in the expulsion of a neutron and a helium isotope of mass 3 in directions opposite to one another. If we calculate the mass of 2He3 from energy and momentum considerations of the ranges of the short-range groups emitted from 3Li6 when bombarded by protons, the energy of the neutron can be deduced and agrees well with experiment.".
(What about hydrogen bombarded with hydrogen, h bombarded with deuterium? search for and show equations. state what kind of radioactivity from tritium, gamma? Perhaps a radioactive atom is one where individual atoms are constantly separating/disintegrating into photons, each atom emitting its photons in gamma wavelength (is there other emissions such as X-ray, UV, etc? which result in lower mass over time?) and the rate varies with how many atoms are disintegrating per second. This implies that radioactive atom clusters are constantly unwinding, perhaps from the outside in. Q: In other words only the surface is radioactive, inside is not. I am not sure if there is some way of testing, perhaps radioactivity increases only relative to surface area and not mass. If radioactivity increases with mass and not surface area than atoms are probably disintegrating to photons inside the rock or conglomerate material. It is interesting that hydrogen and hydrogen do not merge but deuterium and deuterium do. Perhaps by increasing the size of empty space between the two colliding particles. Perhaps using photon, and other beams too. )
(I am surprised that there is no other low cost reaction that cannot be used to produce heat. It seems like hydrogen to helium fusion is perhaps not the most productive path, although an interesting experimental path. One important aspect of hydrogen fusion is that although two hydrogen atoms fuse to form a helium atom, the heat from the reaction is from left over matter, and if we are only looking for left over matter, is there not some other nuclear reaction that produces more for the amount of electricity used to put into it? Then what kind of matter is left over in a hydrogen fusion reaction, explain this, is it photons in gamma wavelength? electrons? neutrinos? My guess is that it is simply photons in gamma, which is radioactivity, so we are left with the same dilemma of many other nuclear reactions. What is needed is a reaction that produces photons in the gamma, but leaves no lasting radiation beyond that...not radioactive waste. Can photons with gamma wavelength cause other atoms to become radioactive? This seems like a key question. If gamma is produced from hydrogen fusion, and gamma causes other atoms to emit gamma too for extended periods of time, then this will produce radioactive/gamma waste. If gamma does not cause other atoms to be radioactive then perhaps there are other nuclear reactions that emit more photons with gamma wavelength. It seems like fusing of atoms is unimportant and matter left over is what is important.)
(Show image from paper.)
(State how Oliphant shows how this is tritium and not lithium or helium.)
(State all specific transmutation reactions where atomic number can be increased by particle bombardment.)
| (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England (presumably) |
66 YBN
[05/??/1934 AD]
| 5275) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist bombards uranium with neutrons producing what will be shown to be atomic fission, and probably creating Neptunium and Plutnium.
This bombarding of uranium with neutrons, results in an unknown element with a 13 minute half life, and theorizes that this is an element with atomic number larger than 92. Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner will show that this element is Barium (atomic number 56) a product of atomic fission. (verify Barium is the 13 minute half life element)
Fermi bombards uranium with neutrons in an attempt to form an artificial element above uranium (atomic number 92) in the periodic table. No element above uranium is known to occur naturally. Fermi thinks that he may have created a new element which he calls "uranium X". When Hahn investigates this, he suspects that uranium fission is probably what is happening, and Lise Meitner will announce this publicly.
Szilard, Fermi and others wonder if in uranium fission, neutrons can be emitted that would then cause other uranium atoms to undergo fission, producing more neutrons and fission and so on. Such a nuclear chain reaction would produce an incredible amount of heat and emitted particles (energy) in a split second all from one neutron, which might come from the stray neutrons that are in the air all the time because of cosmic rays. When the Manhattan Project is created, Fermi (even as an "enemy alien", not naturalized until 1944) is placed in charge of the actual building of a uranium chain reaction.
According to Asimov "Against Fermi's wishes his superior discloses this find and the Fascist press publicizes it.".
In a June 16, 1934 Nature article entitled "Possible production of Elements of Atomic Number Higher than 92", Fermi writes: "Until recently it was generally admitted that an atom resulting from artificial disintegration should normally correspond to a stable isotope. M. and Mme. Joliot first found evidence that it is not necessarily so; in some cases the product atom may be radioactive with a measurable mean life, and go over to a stable form only after emission of a positron. The number of elements which can be activated either by the impact of an a-particle (Joliot) or a proton (Cockcroft, Gilbert, Walton) or a deuteron (Crane, Lauritsen, Henderson, Livingston, Lawrence) is necessarily limited by the fact that only light elements can be disintegrated, owing to the Coulomb repulsion. This limitation is not effective in the case of neutron bombardment. The high efficiency of these particles in producing disintegrations compensates fairly for the weakness of available neutron sources as compared with a-particle or proton sources. As a matter of fact, it has been shown that a large number of elements (47 out of 68 examined until now) of any atomic weight could be activated, using neutron sources consisting of a small glass tube filled with beryllium powder and radon up to 800 millicuries. This source gives a yield of about one million neutrons per second. All the elements activated by this method with intensity large enough for a magnetic analysis of the sign of the charge of the emitted particles were found to give out only negative electrons. This is theoretically understandable, as the absorption of the bombarding neutron produces an excess in the number of neutrons present inside the nucleus; a stable state is therefore reached generally through transformation of a neutron into a proton, which is connected to the emission of a b-particle. In several cases it was possible to carry out a chemical separation of the b-active element, following the usual technique of adding to the irradiated substance small amounts of the neighboring elements. These elements are then separated by chemical analysis and separately checked for the b-activity with a Geiger-Muller counter. The activity always followed completely a certain element, with which the active element could thus be identified. In three cases (aluminum, chlorine, cobalt) the active element formed by bombarding the element of atomic number Z has atomic number Z - 2. In four cases (phosphorus, sulphur, iron, inc) the atomic number of the active product is Z - 1. In two cases (bromine, iodine) the active element is an isotope of the bombarded element. This evidence seems to show that three main processes are possible: (a) capture of a neutron with instantaneous emission of an a-particle; (b) capture of the neutron with emission of a proton; (c) capture of the neutron with emission of a g-quantum, to get rid of the surplus energy. From a theoretical point of view, the probability of processes (a) and (b) depends very largely on the energy of the emitted a- or H-particle; the more so the higher the atomic weight of the element. The probability of process (c) can be evaluated only very roughly in the present state of nuclear theory; nevertheless, it would appear to be smaller than the observed value by a factor 100 or 1,000. It seemed worthwhile to direct particular attention to the heavy radioactive elements thorium and uranium, as the general instability of nuclei in this range of atomic weight might give rise to successive transformations. For this reason an investigation of these elements was undertaken by the writer in collaboration with F. Rasetti and O. D'Agostino. Experiment showed that both elements, previously freed of ordinary active impurities, can be strongly activated by neutron bombardment. The initial induced activity corresponded in our experiments to about 1,000 impulses per minute in a Geiger counter made of aluminum foil of 0.2 mm thickness. The curves of decay of these activities show that the phenomenon is rather complex. A rough survey of thorium activity showed in this element at least two periods. Better investigated is the case of uranium; the existence of periods of about 10 sec, 40 sec, 13 min, plus at least two more periods from 40 minutes to one day is well established. The large uncertainty in the decay curves due to the statistical fluctuations makes it very difficult to establish whether these periods represent successive or alternative processes of disintegration. Attempts have been made to identify chemically the b-active element with the period of 13 min. The general scheme of this research consisted in adding to the irradiated substance (uranium nitrate in concentrated solution, purified of its decay products) such an amount of an ordinary b-active element as to give some hundred impulses per minute on the counter. Should it be possible to prove that the induced activity, recognizable by its characteristic period, can be chemically separated from the added activity, it is reasonable to assume that the two activities are not due to isotopes. The following reaction enables one to separate the 13 min-product from most of the heaviest elements. The irradiated uranium solution is diluted in 50 per cent nitric acid; a small amount of a manganese salt is added and then the manganese is precipitated as dioxide (MnO2) from the boiling solution by addition of sodium chlorate. The manganese dioxide precipitate carries a large percentage of the activity. This reaction proves at once that the 13 min-activity is not isotopic with uranium. For testing the possibility that it might be due to an element 90 (thorium) or 91 (protactinium), we repeated the reaction at least ten times, adding an amount of uranium X1 + X2 corresponding to about 2,000 impulses per minute; also some cerium and lanthanum were added in order to sustain uranium X. In these conditions the manganese reaction carried only the 13 min-activity; no trace of the 2,000 impulses of uranium X1, (period 24 days) was found in the precipitate; and none of uranium X2, although the operation had been performed in less than two minutes from the precipitation of the manganese dioxide, so that several hundreds of impulses of uranium X2 (period 75 sec) would have been easily recognizable. Similar evidence was obtained for excluding atomic numbers 88 (radium) and 89 (actinium). For this, mesothorium-1 and -2 were used, adding barium and lanthanum; the evidence was completely negative, as in the former case. The eventual precipitation of uranium-X1 and mesothorium-1, which do not emit b-rays penetrating enough to be detectable in our counters, would have been revealed by the subsequent formation respectively of uranium-X2, and mesothorium-2. Lastly, we added to the irradiated uranium solution some inactive lead and bismuth, and proved that the conditions of the manganese dioxide reaction could be regulated in such a way as to obtain the precipitation of manganese dioxide with the 13 min-activity, without carrying down lead and bismuth. In this way it appears that we have excluded the possibility that the 13 min-activity is due to isotopes of uranium (92), protactinum (91), thorium (90), actinium (89), radium (88), bismuth (83), lead (82). Its behavior excludes also ekacaesium (87) and emanation (86). This negative evidence about the identity of the 13 min-activity from a large number of heavy elements suggests the possibility that the atomic number of the element may be greater than 92. If it were an element 93, it would be chemically homologous with manganese and rhenium. This hypothesis is supported to some extent also by the observed fact that the 13 min-activity is carried down by a precipitate of rhenium sulphide insoluble in hydrochloric acid. However, as several elements are easily precipitated in this form, this evidence cannot be considered as very strong. The possibility of an atomic number 94 or 95 is not easy to distinguish from the former, as the chemical properties are probably rather similar. Valuable information on the processes involved could be gathered by an investigation of the possible emission of heavy particles. A careful search for such heavy particles has not yet been carried out, as they require for their observation that the active product should be in the form of a very thin layer. It seems therefore at present premature to form any definite hypothesis on the chain of disintegrations involved. ".
In this neutron bombardment work, Fermi shows that many elements capture neutrons and emit gamma rays. (Give more support for from other Fermi papers.)
This may be the first actual creation of elements 93, Neptunium, and 94 Plutonium which are not clearly identified until 1940 for Neptunium and 1942 for Plutonium. In his Nobel prize speech of 1938, Fermi states that "...Both elements show a rather strong, induced activity when bombarded with neutrons; and in both cases the decay curve of the induced activity shows that several active bodies with different mean lives are produced. We attempted, since the spring of 1934, to isolate chemically the carriers of these activities, with the result that the carriers of some of the activities of uranium are neither isotopes of uranium itself, nor of the elements lighter than uranium down to the atomic number 86. We concluded that the carriers were one or more elements of atomic number larger than 92 ; we, in Rome, use to call the elements 93 and 94 Ausenium and Hesperium respectively. It is known that O. Hahn and L. Meitner have investigated very carefully and extensively the decay products of irradiated uranium, and were able to trace among them elements up to the atomic number 96. ...".
(Uranium fission weapons must have protection from external neutrons initiating a fission chain reaction.)
(This work clearly shows Fermi's skill in chemical analysis and experimental research. So I don't know if Fermi's theoretical work will last, but clearly the neutron bombardment work seems like solid science and a lasting contribution to earth.)
| (University of Rome) Rome, Italy |
66 YBN
[06/07/1934 AD]
| 4853) (Sir) Henry Hallett Dale (CE 1875-1968), English biologist shows that acetylcholine is released at nerve endings (identifying the "Vagusstoff" of Loewi as acetlycholine).
This research establishes acetylcholine’s role as a chemical transmitter of nerve impulses.
In 1914 Dale recognized that an active principle of ergot, recognisable by its inhibitor action on the heart and its stimulant action on intestinal muscle, is acetylcholine.
In 1921, Otto Loewi (LOEVE) (CE 1873-1961), German-US physiologist had provided the first proof that chemicals are involved in the transmission of impulses from one nerve cell to another and from a neuron to the responsive organ, when he demonstrated on frogs that a fluid is released when the vagus nerve is stimulated, and that this fluid can stimulate another heart directly. Loewi named this material "Vagusstoff" ("vagus material").
(Clearly electricity is moving in the nerves, perhaps as ions - make this clearer - in addition people must watch out for the purposeful misleading by those in control of neuron reading and writing.)
| (National Institute For Medicine) Hampstead, London |
66 YBN
[06/28/1934 AD]
| 5205) Leo Szilard (ZEloRD) (CE 1898-1964), Hungarian-US physicist, publishes the process of sustained neutron driven atomic chain reaction.
In 1934 Szilard applies for a secret patent on the idea of a nuclear chain reaction in which a neutron induces an atomic breakdown of beryllium to helium, the helium then separates into two neutrons, which break down more beryllium atoms, and in this way sustain a chain reaction.
In his patent Szilard writes: "...This invention has for its object the production of radio active bodies the storage of energy through the production of such bodies and the liberation of nuclear energy for power production and other purposes through nuclear transmutation.
In accordance with the present invention nuclear transmutation leading to the liberation of neutrons and of energy may be brought about by maintaining a chain reaction in which particles which carry no positive charge and the mass of which is approximately equal to the proton mass or a multiple thereof form the links of the chain.
I shall call such particles in this specification " efficient particles."
A way of bringing about efficiently transmutation processes is to build up transmutation areas choosing the composition and the bulk of the,.material so, as to make chain. reactions effieilent and possible, the links of the chain being efficient particles."
One example is the following. The chain transmutation contains an element C, and this element is so chosen that aiefficient particle x when reacting with C may produce an efficient particle y, and the efficient particle y when reacting with O may- produce either an efficient particle x or another efficient particle which in its turn is directly or indirectly when reacting with 0 capable of producing x. The.
bulk of the transmutation area, on the other hand, must be such that the linear dimensions of the area should sufficiently / exceed the mean free path between two 45 successive transmutations within the chain. For long chains composed of, say, links the linear dimensions must be about ten times the mean free path.
I shall call a, chain reaction in which 50 two efficient particles of different mass number alternate a " doublet chain." An example for a doublet chain which is-a neutron chain would be the following reaction, which might be set up in a mixture of a "neutron reducer element" (like lithium (6) or boron (10) or preferably some heavy "reducer" element), and -a. "neutron converter element" which yields n(2) when bombarded by 66 n(1). An example for such a chain in which carbon acts as reducer and beryllium acts as converter would be the following:
0(12) + n(2) = 0(13:) + n(1) Be(9) + n(1) =" Be(8) "+ n(2) (" Be(8) " need not mean an existing element, it may break up spontaneously).
One can very much increase the efficiency of the, hitherto mentioned 70 neutron chain reactions by having a "neutron multiplieator" 0 mixed with the elements which take part in the chain reaction. A neutron multiplicator is, an element which either splits up n(2) into 75 n(l) + n(l) or an element which yields additional neutrons for instance n(1) when bombarded by n(l). A multiplicator need not be a mneta-stable element.
Beryllium may be a suitable multiplicator Be(9) + (l)=" Be(8) "+ n(1) + n(1) An efficient particle disappears (and a i i 630,726 chain is therefore interrupted if this happens in a chain reaction) if a neutron reacts with a nucleus in such a way that the nentron disappears and a positive particle for instance a proton or an alpha particle is emitted. I can suppress the production of a positive particle when bombarding the element by neutrons by choosing the element and the neutron energy so that the positive particle, the creation of which has a potential possiLility, should not have sufficient energy at its disposal to penetrate in the inverse process the nucleus of that element. - In order to avoid such an occurrence in my chain reactions I shall use as reducers, converters and multiplicators the heaviest elements which are otherwise satisfactory.
In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 and 2 show one example for utilising neutron chains for power production and the generation of radio-active bodies.
101 is a high voltage positive ray tube generating-fast light ions like diplons or helium ions which cause by striking diplogen or beryllium in 102 the emission of a penetrating radiation (neutrons).The radiation emerging from 102 acts on the material 103 which forms a sphere around 102. This material is such that a 30 chain reaction, preferably accompanied by the action of a multiplicator is released.
For instance one can have a sphere 103 the dimensions of which are so chosen that the energy liberated in it should be a, 35 multiple of the energy input. The pumps 120, 121 and 122 pump a liquid for instance water or mercury through the pipe systems 107, 110, 111 thereby cooling the transmutation area 103 and driving the 40 heated liquid through the boiler 126. The boiler supplies steam to a power plant.
The neutrons emerging fromnt the sphere' 103 act on a layer 104 which is composed of an element T that will transmute into t5 a. radio-active body which is suitable for the storage of energy. The element T need not be present as a free element but can preferably be present in the form of a compound soluble in water; that makes 50 it easier to separate the radio active bodies formed in the process. A third layer 105 contains an element V that will absorb the neutrons n(1)/ under liberation of energy (Li). 106 is a heat -insulating 55 layer. ...".
Ernest Rutherford had said in the fall of 1933 that "...anyone who says that with the means at present at our disposal and with our present knowledge we can utilize atomic energy is talking moonshine.". However, Rutherford had published the phrase "atomic explosion" in 1915.
(This chain reaction of beryllium to helium may be a practical source of helium, or may have other commercial and scientific research value. State what other chain reactions of elements besides uranium and beryllium have been found. What determines if there is a chain reaction? That this is kept secret shows that there must be much much more secret research that the public may even be funding, but has not seen and been made aware of yet.)
(Can a secret patent be requested?)
(It seems likely that a heat producing neutron "heater" and electrical generator could be produced which makes radioactive products that completely dissipate in minutes, which could possibly be much more safe for average people to buy and keep in their houses. For example Szilard mentions indium having a half life of only a few minutes in his patent.)
| (Claremont Haynes & Co) London, England |
66 YBN
[07/11/1934 AD]
| 4248) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer, describes the use of particle beams as a weapon which can destroy planes and can kill people without a trace in a article printed in the New York Times.
The article states: " Tesla, at 78, Bares New 'Death-Beam'
Invention Powerful Enough to Destroy 10,000 Planes at 250 Miles Away, He Asserts Defensive Weapon Only Scientist, In Interview, Tells of Apparatus That He Says Will Kill Without Trace
Nikola Tesla, father of modern methods of generation and distribution of electrical energy, who was 78 years old yesterday, announced a new invention, or inventions, which he said, he considered the most important of the 700 made by him so far.
He has perfected a method and apparatus, Dr. Tesla said yesterday in an interview at the Hotel New Yorker, which will send concentrated beams of particles through the free air, of such tremendous energy that they will bring down a fleet of 10,000 enemy airplanes at a distance of 250 miles from a defending nation's border and will cause armies of millions to drop dead in their tracks.
"Death-Beam" is Silent
This "death-beam," Dr. Tesla said, will operate silently but effectively at distances "As far as a telescope could see an object on the ground and as far as the curvature of the earth would permit it." It will be invisible and will leave no marks behind it beyond its evidence of destruction.
An army of 1,000,000 dead, annihilated in an instant, he said, would not reveal even under the most powerful microscope just what catastrophe had caused its destruction.
When put in operation Dr. Tesla said this latest invention of his would make war impossible. This death-beam, he asserted, would surround each country like an invisible Chinese wall, only a million times more impenetrable. It would make every nation impregnable against attack by airplanes or by large invading armies. ...".
These weapons clearly exist and have by this time perhaps for over 100 years - but yet shockingly- most people do not even realize the existance and importance of particle beam weapons. In my view the particle beam being so fast - easily chopping off a head, or contracting a critical muscle in milliseconds, and being invisible and very difficult to track and trace makes directed particles the most dangerous weapon known, more dangerous even than nuclear separating weapons which are usually large and need to be transported. Perhaps this article is published to build confidence in people in the United States that they are safe from the Nazi attack in progress at the time. Many of us feel the effects of particle beams everyday when our muscles are made to contract or we are made to itch, weilded humans unseen to we victims.
On his 78th birthday in 1934, Tesla announces the existance of a "death-ray" but offers no proof of its existance. This article is clearly whistle-blowing and an effort to educate the public about particle beam weapons which certainly do exist. Without doubt, photons, and x-particles can be used as a weapon, and clearly the fastest and most dangerous weapon known, whether neuron writing or simply burning/separating matter. This may be evidence of masers and lasers, for example a simple CO2 laser which can cut through metal can easily murder a human in milliseconds by burning off a head, or bring down a plane or helicopter in seconds. This is an obvious fact, and that it is not recognized by average people is a testament to the lack of science education and lack of common sense of the public at this time.
(This raises the question: Did Tesla see videos in his eyes? Tesla was so well connected, that he probably did, but it could be that he did not, and simply explains from knowledge of what is technologically possible.)
| (Hotel New Yorker) New York City, NY, USA |
66 YBN
[07/11/1934 AD]
| 5367) Ulf Svante Von Euler (CE 1905-1983), Swedish physiologist, identifies and names "prostaglandin", in extracts from the human prostate gland and seminal vesicles, and finds that prostaglandin greatly lower the blood pressure after injection into animals and, even in small amounts, stimulate the isolated intestine and the uterus.
| (Karolinischen Institues) Stockholm, Sweden |
66 YBN
[08/09/1934 AD]
| 4867) Vesto Melvin Slipher (SlIFR) (CE 1875-1969), US astronomer, with Arthur Adel report that from the absorption spectra of the planets Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, that the methane molecule is a major part of the atmosphere of those planets.
(It must be exciting to determine what atoms and molecules are on a distant object just because of the light particles reflected off or emitted from it.)
| (Percival Lowell's observatory) Flagstaff, Arizona, USA |
66 YBN
[08/18/1934 AD]
| 5087) (Sir) James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist, and Maurice Goldhaber (CE 1911- ) disintegrate a deuterium atom into a neutron and hydrogen atom using gamma rays (high frequency light particles). This is the first known nuclear disintegration caused by light particles (gamma rays). Chadwick and Goldhaber use this experiment to estimate the mass of a neutron to be around 1.0080 mass units, making the neutron more massive than both a proton and a hydrogen atom.
This is the disintegration of a nucleus by high-energy x-rays or gamma rays. Chadwick and Goldhaber refer to this phenomenon as the "nuclear photoelectric effect". From this effect the neutron will be shown to be slightly more massive than the proton.
This is also evidence that a deuteron (the nucleus of Urey's deuterium) contains a proton and a neutron.
In 1934 Leo Szilard and T. A. Chalmers will show that gamma rays can free neutrons from Beryllium.
When World War 2 breaks out in 1939, most particle physics research probably becomes even more secretive.
Chadwick and Goldhaber report this in the journal "Nature" as "A 'Nuclear Photo-Effect': Disintegration of the Diplon by γ-Rays". They write: "BY analogy with the excitation and ionisation of atoms by light, one might expect that any complex nucleus should be excited or "ionised", that is, disintegrated, by γ-rays of suitable energy. Disintegration would be much easier to detect than excitation. The necessary condition to make disintegration possible is that the energy of the γ-ray must be greater than the binding energy of the emitted particle. The γ-rays of thorium C" of hv = 2.62 x 106 electron volts are the most energetic which are available in sufficient intensity, and therefore one might expect to produce disintegration with emission of a heavy particle, such as a neutron, proton, etc., only of those nuclei which have a small or negative mass defect; for example, D2, Be9, and the radioactive nuclei which emit α-particles. The emission of a positive or negative electron from a nucleus under the influence of γ-rays would be difficult to detect unless the resulting nucleus were radioactive. heavy hydrogen was chosen as the element first to be examined, because the diplon has a small mass defect and also because it is the simplest of all nuclear systems and its properties are as important in nuclear theory as the hydrogen atom is in atomic theory. The disintegration to be expected is 1D2 + hv -> 1Ha + 0n1 ........(1). Since the momentum of the quantum is small and the masses of the proton and neutron are nearly the same, the available energy, hv - W, where W is the binding energy of the particles, will be divided nearly equally between the proton and the neutron. The experiments were as follows. An ionisation chamber was filled with heavy hydrogen of about 95 per cent purity, kindly lent by Dr. Oliphant. The chamber was connected to a linear amplifier and oscillograph in the usual way. When the heavy hydrogen was exposed to the γ-radiation from a source of radiothorium, a number of 'kicks' was recorded by the oscillograph. Tests showed that these kicks must be atttributed to protons resulting from the splitting of the diplon. When a radium source of equal γ-ray intensity was employed, very few kicks were observed. From this fact we deduce that the disintegration cannot be produced to any marked degree by γ-rays of energy less than 1.8 x 106 electron volts, for there is a strong line of this energy in the radium C spectrum. If the nuclear process assumed in (1) is correct, a very reliable estimate of the mass of the neutron can be obtained, for the masses of the atoms of hydrogen and heavy hydrogen are known accurately. They are 1.0078 and 2.0136 respectively. Since the diplon is stable and can be disintegrated by a γ-ray of energy 2.62 x 106 electron volts (the strong γ-ray of thorium C"), the mass of the neutron must lie between 1.0058 and 1.0086; if the γ-ray of radium C of 1.8 x 106 electron volts is ineffective, the mass of the neutron must be greater than 1.0077. If the energy of the protons liberated in the disintegration (1) were measured, the mass of the neutron could be fixed very closely. A rough estimate of the energy of the protons was deduced from measurements of the size of the oscillograph kicks in the aboce experiments. The value obtained was about 250,000 volts. This leads to a binding energy for the diplon of 2.1 x 106 electron volts, and gives a value of 1.0081 for the neutron mass. This estimate of the proton energy is, however, very rough, and for the present we may take for the mass of the neutron the value 1.0080, with extreme errors of +- 0.0005. ... One further point may be mentioned. Some experiments of Lea have shown that paraffin wax bombarded by neutrons emits a hard γ-radiation greater in intensity and in quantum energy than when carbon alone is bombarded. the explanation suggested was that, in the collisions of neutrons and protons, the particles sometimes combine to form a diplon, with the emission of a γ-ray. This process is the reverse of the one considered here. Now if we assume detailed balancing of all processes occurring in a thermodynamical equalibrium between diplons, protons, neutron and radiation, we can calculate, without any special assumption about interaction forces, the relative probabilities of the reaction (1) and the reverse process. Using our experimental value for the cross-section for reaction (1), we can calculate the cross-section for the capture of neutrons by protons for the case when the neutrons have a kinetic energy 2(hv - W) = 1.0 x 106 electron volts in a co-ordinate system in which the proton is at rest before the collision. In this spectial case the cross-section σe for capture (into the ground state of the diplon - we neglect the possible higher states) is much smaller than the cross-section σp for the 'photo-effect'. It is unlikely that σe will be very much greater for the faster neutrons concerned in Lea's experiments. it therefore seems very difficult to explain the observations of Lea as due to the capture of neutrons by protons, for this effect should be extremely small. A satisfactory explanation is not easy to find and further experiments seem desirable.". (Read relevent parts of paper.)
Use of the word "disintegrated" in my mind, implies that atoms can be separated into some basic particle like the photon.
(What is the supposed duration of the gamma ray for a single reaction?)
(It seems unlikely to me that such tiny measurements of mass would be extremely accurate, or that a large certainty should be attached to such estimates. Note that the word "lies" is used which may imply neuron writing corruption. It seems likely that those who own the neuron writing and reading devices know much much more about the structure of atoms and subatomic particles than is shown to the excluded public who has never even seen a human thought-screen.)
(It seems more likely to me that there is no difference between a neutron and hydrogen atom. Why people would want to claim that there is a difference is unknown. Perhaps the neuron owners, as is the case for the heresy of talking about light as a material particle, and the embrace of the extremely unlikely theories of relativity and time dilation, felt that adding some confusion for the public as encouragement to stay away from science, would prolong their rule. One hundred years of movies and television and not one history of science for the public is evidence of this philosophy.)
(The more logical assumption, give minute differences in mass, is that a neutron is a hydrogen atom. Experimemt: Neutrons should be assembled as a gas, then subjected to a large voltage in a cathode rays tube, and their emission spectrum examined to see if it matches the emission spectrum of hydrogen. A similar experiment could be neutrons are collected in a chamber and their absorption spectrum is examined and compared to the absorption spectrum of hydrogen gas.)
(In addition, I have doubts about the idea of adding up "energies" to equal masses involved since, clearly, in my view, motion and mass cannot be exchanged - certainly all the masses and motions should add up - but there must be mass lost to photons, and motions to other particles that must be very difficult to measure. I think the real value of this report is that clearly gamma rays can separate a deuterium atom into a neutron and hydrogen. Although cite all later experiments confirming this reaction. For example were particle accelerators used, x-rays, other gamma ray sources to confirm this phenomenon? Perhaps there are other methods of detection. Could the protons be collected some other way? Perhaps accelerated or tested spectroscopically?)
(I doubt Chadwick and Goldhaber's view that there is necessarily a symmetry in a reversible reaction of neutron and proton forming with the release of a gamma ray - just like I doubt the separation of a planet with a moon, by some asteroid-sized-particle beam would have a reverse where a moon is captured by a planet and an asteroid-sized particle beam is emited.)
| (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
66 YBN
[09/10/1934 AD]
| 5208) Leo Szilard (ZEloRD) (CE 1898-1964), Hungarian-US physicist, and British Physicist T. A. Chalmers, chemically separate transmuted radioactive isotopes from non-radioactive isotopes.
In a Nature article "Chemical Separation of the Radioactive Element from its Bombarded Isotope in the Fermi Effect", Szilard and Chalmers write: "Following the pioneer experiment of Fermi, it has been found by Fermi, Amaldi, D'Agostino, Rasetti and Segrè that many elements up to the atomic number 30, when bombarded by neutrons from a radon-beryllium source, are transmuted into a radioactive element which is chemically different from the bombarded element. In several cases of this type, they succeeded in separating chemically the active substance from the bulk of the bombarded element, and there is no inherent difficulty in getting any desirable concentration of the radioactive element. They have not observed such chemical changes in elements above the atomic number 30, though many of these heavier elements show strong Fermi effects. For some of these, for example, arsenic, bromine, iodine, iridium, and gold, they could show that the activity is carried by the bombarded element, which in the cimcumstances leads to the conclusion that the radioactive element is an isotope of the bombarded element. In order to separate the radioactive isotope of the bombarded element from the bulk of the bombarded element, one has to find a new principle of separation. We have attempted to apply the following principle. If we irradiate by a neutron source a chemical compound of the element in which we are interested we might expect those atoms of the element which are stuck by a neutron to be removed from the compound. Whether the atoms freed in this way will interchange with their isotopes bound in the irradiated chemical compound will depend on the nature of the chemical compound with which we have to deal. If we work under conditions in which such an interchange does not take place, we obtain the radioactive isotope 'free', and by separating the 'free' element frmo the compound we can obtain any desirable concentration of the radioactive isotope. We have applied this principle to iodine. Ethyl iodine has been irradiated and a trace of free iodine added to protect the radioactive isotope. By reduction and precipitation as silver iodide in water, it was easy to concentrate the activity so as to get from the precipitate ten times as many impulses of the Geiger-Muller B-ray counter as directly from the irradiated ethyl iodide. Apparently a large fraction of the active substance could be extracted from the ethyl iodide. The quantity of the active element obtainable in the precipitate will naturally depend on the quantity of the compound subjected to irradiation. ... ". Szilard and Chalmers go on to say that this principle of isotopic separation has been applied to some other elements.
This is the first method of separating isotopes (different nuclear forms of the same element) of artificial radioactive elements. (Notice that isolating transmutations where the resulting element is a different element is apparently much easier - simply by choosing a reactant that only reacts with the desired (transmuted) element and not the initial element (non=transmuted element).)
| (St. Bartholmew's Hospital) London, England |
66 YBN
[09/17/1934 AD]
| 5206) Leo Szilard (ZEloRD) (CE 1898-1964), Hungarian-US physicist, and T. A. Chalmers produce neutrons from gamma ray radiation onto beryllium, the neutrons making iodine radiaoactive.
In a Nature article "Detection of Neutrons Liberated from Beryllium by Gamma Rays: a New Technique for Inducing Radioactivity", Szilard and Chalmers write:
"We have observed that a radiation emitted from beryllium under the influence of radium gamma rays excites induced radioactivity in iodine, and we conclude that neutrons are liberated from beryllium by gamma rays.
Chadwick and Goldhaber were the first to observe a nuclear disintegration due to the action of gamma rays. In their pioneer experiment, they used a small ionisation chamber filled with heavy hydrogen and observed that protons were ejected from the heavy hydrogen under the influence of gamma rays from thorium C. Their method can be used for the detection of the gamma ray disintegrations of other elements, as such a disintegration would generally be accompanied by the ejection of charged nuclei which their method is designed to detect. On the other hand, apart from the unique case of heavy hydrogen, their method does not appear to give direct evidence on neutron radiations, which may in certain cases accompany gamma ray disintegrations. .... In one experiment we surrounded 150 mgm of radium (in sealed containers of 1.0 mm platinum filtration) with 25 gm of beryllium, which was further surrounded by 100 c.c. ethyl iodide. The silver iodide precipitate obtained after irradiation from the ethyl iodide showed an activity decaying with a half period of 30 minutes. In spite of the inefficient geometrical arrangement of the beryllium in this experiment, we obtained from the active precipitate 200 impulses of the Geiger-Müller beta ray counter per minute. In the control experiment omitting the beryllium, we obtained less than 12 impulses per minute. The effect observed is sufficiently strong to be easily detected without separating chemically the radioactive element. Our observations show that it will be possible to make experiments on induced radioactivity by using the gamma rays of sealed radium containers, which are available in many hospitals for therapeutic purposes. Further, it will be possible to have very much stronger sources of neutrons and to produce thereby larger quantities of radioactive elements by using X-rays from high-voltage electron tubes.".
In Novemeber 1934, Szilard and others will publish an article in Nature showing that even X-rays can cause neutrons to be released from Beryllium.
| (St. Bartholmew's Hospital) London, England |
66 YBN
[09/17/1934 AD]
| 5388) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, reports identifying two new "white dwarf" stars, one of which he will claim in 1935 is the smallest star known.
In 1940 Kuiper reports finding six new white dwarf stars, without their parallaxes, but just based on their spectra.
| |
66 YBN
[11/14/1934 AD]
| 5196) French physicists, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO KYUrE) (CE 1900-1958) summarizes many atomic transmutation reactions and displays these on a table for all known elements.
| (Radium Institute) Paris, France |
66 YBN
[11/17/1934 AD]
| 5452) Hideki Yukawa (YUKowo) (CE 1907-1981), Japanese physicist, applies quantum theory to a theoretical nuclear field, as analogous to the electromagnetic force, but with a quantum that has 200 times the mass of an electron, and the same electric charge, either positive or negative of the electron, that is responsible for the conversion of protons to neutrons and neutrons to protons. This theory serves as a secondary explanation for neutron to proton conversion in addition to Fermi's theory of Beta-decay in which a neutron emits a neutrino and electron. This force will become known as the "strong interaction" or "strong force".
Yukawa publishes his theory of a nuclear force which holds the protons and neutrons together (against the electrical repulsion that must exist between the protons), which acts only in the tiny volume of the nucleus (10 nm in diameter), and is evidenced by the transfer of particles among the neutrons and protons in the nucleus which are 1/9 the mass of a proton or neutron. J. J. Thomson's had viewed the atom as being a positive charge surrounded by negative electrons in his "plum pudding" model of the atom, and then Nagaoka and Rutherford had put forward the "Saturnian" and "nuclear" model of the atom, the atom being composed of a positively charged nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons, much like the moons around the planet Jupiter. In 1932 Chadwick had discovered the neutron, and Heisenberg suggested that the nucleus must be made of protons and neutrons only, and if this is true, then, outside of the electrons bound together with the protons within every neutron, only positive electric charges are found in the nucleus and so the positive charged particles in the nucleus must exert a strong repulsion against themselves. Heisenberg had suggested the existence of "exchange forces" but had not described the nature of such forces. Yukawa theorizes that if the electromagnetic force involves the transfer of photons, the nuclear force may be analogous to the electromagnetic force, but conveyed by a particle with a mass of 1/9 a proton or neutron, about 200 hundred times that of an electron, and is very short-lived. In the next year Carl D. Anderson will identify the first particle known that has a mass in between a proton and electron, (and presumably the same charge), which will be called a meson (and also later a mu-meson, and muon), but Anderson's meson does not interact with the atomic nuclei to any great extent, and Yukawa's theory requires such interaction. In 1947 a second slightly heavier meson (the pi-meson, or pion) is identified by Powell and this particle fulfills all requirements.
In his paper "On the Interaction of Elementary Particles. I." Yukawa writes: "Introducti on At the present stage of the quantum theory little is known about the nature of interactions of elementary particles. Heisenberg considered the interaction of "Platzwechsel" between the neutron and the proton to be of importance to the nuclear structure. Recently Fermi treated the problem of B-disintegration on the hypothesis of "neutrino". According to this theory, the neutron and the proton can interact by emitting and absorbing a pair of neutrino and electron. Unfortunately the interaction energy calculated on such assumption is much too small to account for the binding energy of neutrons and protons in the nucleus. To remove this defect, it seems natural to modify the theory of Heisenberg and Fermi in the following way. The transition of a heavy particle from neutron state to proton state is not always accompanied by the emission of light particles, i.e. neutrino and an electron, but energy liberated by the transition is taken up sometimes by another particle, which in turn will be transformed from proton state into neutron state. If the probability of occurrence of the latter process is much larger than that of the former, the interaction between the neutron and the proton will be much larger than in the case of Fermi, whereas the probability of emission of light particles is not affected essentially. Now such interaction between the elementary particles can be described by means of a field of force, just as the interaction between the charged particles is described by the electromagnetic field. The above considerations shows that the interaction of heavy particles with this field is much larger than that of light particles with it. In the quantum field theory this field should be accompanied by a new sort of quantum, just as the electromagnetic field is accompanied by the photon. In this paper the possible nature of this field and the quantum accompanying it will be discussed briefly and also their bearing on the nuclear structure will be considered. Besides such an exchange force and ordinary electric and magnetic forces there may be other forces between the elementary particles, but we disregard the latter for the moment. Fuller account will be made in the next paper. 2. Field describing the interaction. In analogy with the scalar potential of the electromagnetic field, a function U(x,y,z,r) is introduced to describe the field between the neutron and the proton. This function will satisfy an equation similar to the wave equation for the electromagnetic potential. ... 3. Nature of the quanta accompanying the field The U-field above considered should be quantized according to the general method of the quantum theory. Since the neutron and the proton both obey Fermi's statistics, the quanta accompanying the U-field should obey bose's statistics and the quantization can be carried out on the line similar to that of the electromagnetic field. The law of conservatino of the electric charge demands that the quantum should have the charged either +e or -e. The field quantity U corresponds to the operator which decreases the number of negatively charged quanta and increases the number of positively charged quanta by one respectively. ... the quantum accompanying the field has the proper mass mu=lamba * h/c.
Assuming lambda=5 x 1012cm-1, we obtain for mu a value of 2 x 102 as large as the electron mass. As such a quantum with large mass and positive or negative charge has never been found by the experiment, the above theory seems to be on a wrong line. We can show, however, that, in the ordinary nuclear transformation, such a quantum can not be emitted into outer space. ... 5. Summary The interaction of elementary particles are described by considering a hypothetical quantum which has the elementary charge and the proper mass and which obeys Bose's statistics. The interaction of such a quantum with the heavy particle should be far greater than that with the light particle in order to account for the large interaction of the neutron and the proton as well as the small probability of B-disintegration. Such quanta, if they ever exist and approach the matter close enough to be absorbed, will deliver their charge and energy to the latter. if, then, the quanta with negative charge come out in excess, the matter will be charged to a negative potential. These arguments, of course, of merely speculative character, agree with the view that the high speed positive particles in the cosmic rays are generated by the electrostatic field of the earth, which is charged to a negative potential. The massive quanta may also have some bearing on the shower produced by cosmic rays. ...". (Read entire paper?)
(The requirements for the pi-meson are that it must have the same charge as a proton and electron, and interact with the nuclei. Show clearly how pions interact with nuclei (protons and/or neutrons). List all known reactions with pions. How do pions force protons together or prevent them from seperating? What about the strong and weak nuclear force, and weak bosons?)
(Do pions change the number of protons or neutrons?).
(With the mu-meson, there is some interaction with the nucleus?)
(Show math of Yukawa's theory.)
(Note that Yukawa states that the nuclear force particle has the same charge as an electron and proton because of the conservation of electric charge principle.)
(Is Yukawa the actual source of this idea of photons conveying the electromagnetic force? Because I think this is probably wrong, but can't be sure. The electromagnetic effect, in my opinion, still needs to be accurately explained. And my feeling is that it will be reduced to a collective effect of gravity, and/or collision. I think it is possible that electromagnetism is the result of light particle collision, but I think there may be other possibilities - like two different kinds of composite particles that structurally fit together, or orbit each other being the physical explanation of electromagnetic phenomena.)
(Calculate what this electri Coulomb law repulsion is for such a close distance and small charge, and compare to gravitational force.)
(With the theory that mass is related to relative velocity of a particle came the concept of "rest-mass" which I think is probably not a great description, because I reject the idea that velocity changes mass of individual particles. In my opinion mass and velocity are not interchangeable, and I think that is a simple idea. I accept that as a composite particle is accelerated, probably light particles exit the composite particle, and in this sense, the composite particle mass becomes less with higher velocity - ultimately having the speed and mass of a single light particle.)
(Can there be a nucleus (and atom) that is electrically neutral, composed completely of neutrons?)
(This theory of a strong nuclear force, which holds protons together seems very likely. Probably, a more likely model views electromagnetism as a larger scale effect of particle collision, and/or particle structural bonding and so is not relevent at the atomic level. One view is that electrons are held in orbit around protons and neutrons strictly because of gravity. Gravity can be viewed as the result of particle collision, perhaps by light particles.)
(Yukawa is probably found mostly in the mathematical theorist group, as opposed to the experimentalist group, which dominated much of physics in the 1900s, with very little accuracy, and a large quantity of neutron corruption, in my view.)
(Notice again the double-meaning play on "light particles" as pertaining to neutrinos and electrons - as opposed to light not as applies to mass, but to "particles of light"- that is to corpuscles of light.)
(Determine if the original paper was printed in Japanese and then translated to English.)
(Is the view that a neutron loses mass that is the equivalent of an electron plus a neutrino, and this particle merges with a proton to form a neutron?)
(I think that beta-decay may simply be the result of: an electron breaks free of a proton within a neutron, simply because of particle collision or because of geometrical orbit as a moon might fall out of orbit of a planet. I think a likely explanation for mesons is simply that larger composite particles break apart - in this view mesons might exist for a long time - certainly as long as a proton or similar mass composite particle. Perhaps they structurally are not as stable - for example like the difference between argon and oxygen.)
(Another thing that is not quite clear is how the nuclear force quantum can act to hold protons together, or to hold a proton and a neutron together against the positive repulsion. Similarly, it is not clear how photons hold together or repel two electromagnetic particles, simply from particle collision.)
| (Osaka Imperial University) Osaka, Japan |
66 YBN
[11/26/1934 AD]
| 5207) Leo Szilard (ZEloRD) (CE 1898-1964), Hungarian-US physicist, and others produce neutrons from X-ray radiation of beryllium, the neutrons making bromine radiaoactive.
In a Nature article "Liberation of Neutrons from Beryllium by X-Rays: Radioactivity Induced by Means of Electron Tubes", Szilard and others write: "IT has been recently reported that neutrons are liberated from beryllium by g-rays of radium and that these are able to induce radioactivity in iodine. Following up this work, we have attempted to liberate neutrons from beryllium by means of hard X-rays, produced by high-voltage electron tubes. An electron tube, which could conveniently be operated by a high-voltage impulse generator at several million volts, is at present in use in the High Tension Laboratory of the A.E.G. in Berlin, and has served in the present experiment for the production of X-rays.
X-rays from a tungsten anticathode generated at a voltage above 1.5 × 106 v. were allowed to fall on beryllium. An organic bromine compound (bromoform) was exposed to the radiation of the beryllium and this compound was then sent by air from Berlin to London. Here, at St. Bartholomew's Hospital, after an isotopic separation of the radio-bromine from the ordinary bromine, a weak activity decaying with the six-hour period of radio-bromine was observed.
Afterwards, at a higher voltage, but still below 2 × 106 v., very much stronger activities were induced in bromine and were observed both in Berlin and London. Strong activities were observed in Berlin both in bromine and iodine (30 minutes half-life period) in co-operation with K. Philipp and O. Erbacher of the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, the activity and its decay being easily measured by means of an electroscope. ...".
(How similar are 1.5 MV produced x-rays in frequency to gamma rays?)
| (St. Bartholmew's Hospital) London, England |
66 YBN
[12/04/1934 AD]
| 5126) Harold Clayton Urey (CE 1893-1981), US chemist, recognizes that a heavier isotope tends to react more slowly than a lighter isotope and uses this difference to build up quantities of rarer isotope atoms.
Using this method in the 1930s, Urey is able to produce high concentrations of isotopes such as carbon-13, and nitrogen-15, which are found naturally with carbon and nitrogen but in very small concentration. Schoenheimer will use these atoms for use in biochemical research. This experience with isotope separation will be useful in the 1940s when people in the USA need to separate the rare isotope uranium-235 needed for the atomic bomb from the much more common uranium-238.
In 1938 Urey and Taylor will obtain a partial separation of the lithium, potassium and nitrogen isotopes by chemical exchange.
(Read relevent parts of paper.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
66 YBN
[12/??/1934 AD]
| 5531) German-US rocket engineer, Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun (CE 1912-1977) and group successfully launch two rockets that rise vertically to more than 1.5 miles (2.4 kilometers).
| (Kummersdorf Army Proving Grounds) Kummersdorf, Germany |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 4904) Charles William Beebe (BEBE) (CE 1877-1962), US naturalist and Otis Barton descend to a record depth of 3028 feet, well over half a mile into the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda. Piccard's bathyscaphe (“ship of the deep”) will go even deeper in 25 years.
Beebe builds a ship of thick steel and thick quartz windows (Franklin D. Roosevelt help design the ship, suggesting a sphere instead of a cylinder as Beebe had planned) to go deeper into the ocean than any other diver or submarine had gone before. Beebe calls this steel sphere a “bathysphere” (“sphere of the deep”). This sphere is attached by a cable to a ship on the ocean surface, and if the cable breaks that would be the end for those inside.
(did they communicate with radio? It is interesting that photons in radio can penetrate water. Which frequency of light is the most penetrating? probably gamma. Then gamma is probably the best frequency to communicate with, and has the best change of traveling the farthest distance. However, to produce gamma frequency beams may require a very high voltage. Question: Have gamma rays ever been produced by humans?)
| |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5011) Robert Runnels Williams (CE 1886-1965), US chemist isolates thiamin, the vitamin whose absence causes beriberi.
(Get portrait)
Williams perfects a method to isolate a third of an ounce of thiamin (the vitamin whose absence causes beriberi) from a ton of rice polishings. Williams therefore brings to completion the work began by Eijkman and Funk a generation earlier to isolate and identify the anti-beriberi factor (thiamin). The anti-beriberi factor is ultimately named vitamin B1. (what are polishings?)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5035) Leopold Stephen Ružička (rUZECKo) (CE 1887-1976), Croatian-Swiss chemist, and co-workers partially synthesize the hormone androsterone and prove the relation of androsterone to the sterols.
Androsterone had been isolated in minute amounts by Adolf Butenandt. Ružička discovers the molecular structure of the two male sex hormones testosterone and androsterone, and then synthesizes them.
| (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands (check) |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5036) Leopold Stephen Ružička (rUZECKo) (CE 1887-1976), Croatian-Swiss chemist, and co-workers partially synthesize the hormone androsterone and prove the relation of androsterone to the sterols.
Androsterone had been isolated in minute amounts by Adolf Butenandt. Ružička discovers the molecular structure of the two male sex hormones testosterone and androsterone, and then synthesizes them.
| (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5048) Frits Zernicke (TSRniKE) (CE 1888-1966), Dutch physicist, invents a phase-contract microscope.
| (University of Groningen) Groningen, Netherlands |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5141) Hermann Julius Oberth (CE 1894-1989), Austro-German engineer, publishes “The Rocket Into Interplanetary Space”, partly at his own expense, and this book is popular.
| |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5154) Joseph Banks Rhine (CE 1895-1980), US parapsychologist, creates the term "ESP" (Extrasensory Perception), which is the study of the phenomena that result from the belief that humans have an ability to get information other than from known sense organs.
In 1934 Rhine publishes the book “Extrasensory Perception” which establishes this field in its present form. Many people feel that they are aware of other people's thoughts, this is called “telepathy”. Other forms include where people appear to see events at a great distance (clairvoyance), or before they occur (precognition). Another aspect is where objects are claimed to move from thought alone ("telekinesis").
This book contains numerous key words, like in the forward: "will pardon my intrusion on his privacy", "unless one is a scientists of the peculiarly inhuman type", and in the introduction "must batter in vain". Rhine evaluates the "radiation theory" put forth by William Crookes, and talks about an "x-ray photograph".
(It may be no coincidence that the prefix “tele” is used in "telepathy", because the telephone company is probably primarily responsible for owning and operating the dust-sized neuron reading and writing devices, and for storing the many terabytes of information recorded in thought images and sounds.)
(Precognition has to do with “seeing” and so is therefore within the realm of sending and receiving images and sounds to and from brains, anything else is probably pseudoscience.)
(Telekinesis is already actually true in people controlling the speed of motors by amplifying up or down the oscillating electrical current "alpha wave" signal in their brain.)
(Perhaps the rise in popularity of ESP is the result of the effects of those in the phone company, major media, government military and police, and the wealthy routinely sending images and sounds onto the brains of excluded people. One of the most shocking truths about the 200+ years of neuron reading and writing secrecy is that the public ... has not even been told....about the possibility of neuron reading and writing. This precludes the public being able to see videos in their eyes, or human forbid, even be able to send their loved ones images directly to their eyes or ears with...and hold your breath...with consent.)
(This may have been some kind of attempt, with the "Boston Society for Psychic Research" to go public with the scientific truth about telepathy, neuron reading and writing, and remote muscle moving, etc. This was obviously a failed effort for the most part. Some people joke that the neuron network put the "esp" in "sespool".)
(Was Rhine aware of neuron reading and writing (i.e. did Rhine receive videos direct-to-brain)?)
(Verify if Rhine invents the word ESP in this year.)
(The FBI has a report on ESP on their website, perhaps this indicates some extremely weak effort to try to tell the public about neuron reading and writing.)
| (Duke University) Durham, North Carolina, USA(verify) |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5276) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist find that neutrons that pass through hydrogen substances increase the radioactivity produced by many elements and interpret this as being due to a slowing down of neutrons.
Fermi finds that slowing neutrons down with water or paraffin increases nuclear reactions with the neutrons and an atomic nucelus.
In April 1935, in a paper "Artificial Radioactivity Produced by Neutron Bombardment. II" by E. Amaldi, O. D'Agostino, E. Fermi, B. Pontecorvo, F. Rasetti and E. Segrè, in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Fermi et al systematically investigate the reaction of neutrons with each element. They write: "... I EFFECT OF HYDROGENATED SUBSTANCES ON THE ACTIVATION In our previous work we had noticed some irregularities in the intensity of the activation of silver by neutrons from a radon + beryllium source, which apparently depended upon some not very clear geometrical factors. Further investigation showed that the activation was strongly influenced by objects surrounding the neutron source, and in particular that the activation could be enormously increased by surrounding the source and the activated substance with a large amount of water or paraffin wax. This effect appeared at once to be due to the presence of hydrogen, as other substances not containing hydrogen failed to give comparable effects (see ? 7). To ascertain whether these large activations were due to the neutrons or to the y-rays emitted very strongly from our source, we repeated the experime nt using as a source 100 mg radium, without beryllium, and found no induced radioactivity. It follows that the effect is actually connected with the neutrons. As a check on this point, we observed the same hydrogen effect with a Po + Be neutron source with an intensity in accordance with the number of neutrons emitted. Not every substance which is activated by neutrons shows an increase in activity when irradiated under water. Among the strongly influenced activities are: Na (15 h); Al (23 nm); V (3 75 m); Ag (22 s, 2 3 m); Cu (5 m); Rh (44 s, 3 9 m); I (25 m). The activation of other elements, or possibly of single decay periods, is not influenced by water; among these are: Si (2.3 m); Al (10 m); Mg (40 s); Mn (3 75 m); Zn (5 m). We have observed that in every case where the active element is known to be an isotope of the bombarded one (about 20 cases), the activation is increased by the presence of water. ... ? 2-INTERPRETATION IN TERMS OF SLOW NEUTRONS The experiments described in the preceding section can be explained on the hypothesis that the effect of water, or better of hydrogen, surrounding the source is due to scattering and slowing down of the primary neutrons by elastic collisions with hydrogen nuclei. It is easily shown that an impact of a neutron against a proton reduces, on the average, the neutron energy by a factor l/e. From this it follows that 10 impacts reduce the energy to about 1/20,000 of its original value. Assuming the initial energy to be 4. 106 electron volts, the energy after 10 impacts would be about 200 electron volts; and less than 20 impacts would be necessary to reduce the energy to thermal equilibrium values The phenomena that we have described can now be explained on the assumption that slow neutrons are more easily captured by some nuclei than fast ones. In this and in the following sections we shall discuss our experiments in terms of this hypothesis. ... ? 11 SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATION OF ELEMENTS In this section we shall report all the new data that we have found about each element, both as regards the induced activities and the properties with respect to slow neutrons. Some data differ slightly from our previous ones, owing to the increased precision of our measurements. 1-Hydrogen-No activity could be detected either in water or in paraffin irradiated in a large can of water with 500 millicuries Rn + Be for several days. 3-Lithium-Lithium hydroxide was found to be inactive after irradiation with slow neutrons (14 hours, 400 millicuries). Although lithium remains inactive, it strongly absorbs the slow neutrons; half-value thickness =- 0 05 gm/cm2. This absorption is not accompanied by a y-radiation. It was shown independently by Chadwick and Goldhaber* and by us that when the slow neutrons are absorbed, heavy charged particles are emitted. According to Chadwick and Goldhaber, the nuclear process is represented by the following reaction, 6Li + lon = 42He + 3 1H. 4-Beryllium --Metallic beryllium (purity 990), strongly irradiated with slow neutrons, showed only an extremely weak activity possibly due to impurities. Owing to the very strong activation of several elements when irradiated under water, impurities might easily be misleading. 5-Boron-Metallic boron irradiated 14 hours under water with 500 millicuries was found inactive. Boron has the highest absorption coefficient as yet found for slow neutrons, 8 0 004 gm/cm2, corresponding to a cross-section of about 3.10-21 cm2. No y-rays have been found to accompany this absorption: instead of a y-radiation in this case as well as for lithium, a-particles are emitted, as was shown by Chadwick and Goldhaber* and by us. This effect can be easily detected by the strong discharge in an ionization chamber filled with boron trifluoride surrounded by paraffin and irradiated with a Po + Be neutron source. Screening the ionization chamber with a thin cadmium foil in order to absorb the slow neutrons, reduces considerably the ionization current. The same effect was observed with the ionization chamber filled with air, some boron being spread on its floor. The emission of a-particles was also detected with a small ionization chamber connected to a linear amplifier, either spreading some boron on its walls or filling it with boron trifluoride. In order to explain these phenomena we have proposed the nuclear reaction, 10OB + 10n = ',Li + 42He. Chadwick and Goldhaber have proposed instead the reaction, 10B + 10n -2 42He + 31H. We do not think that there is at present sufficient evidence to decide between these two possibilities, and we are now experimenting to try to get a more exact measurement of the number of ions formed in each process in an ionization chamber containing boron either in a gaseous form (total process) or spread on its walls (effect of only one or two particles). We are also trying to observe the disintegration in a Wilson chamber containing a gaseous compound of boron.* 6-Carbon--No activity; see hydrogen. For the scattering properties see ? 6. 7-Nitrogen-Ammonium nitrate irradiated 12 hours with 600 millicuries under water showed no activity. 8-Oxygen-No activity, see hydrogen. 9-Fluorine-Both activities of this element (periods 9 seconds and 40 seconds)* are not sensitive to hydrogenated substances. 11 Sodium-This element has two activities: one of these (period 40 seconds) is not sensitive to hydrogenated substances. A very weak activity with a long period was reported by Bjerge and Westcott.t As this activity is strongly enhanced by water, we were able to measure its period with reasonable accuracy and found it to be 15 hours. Owing to the theoretical importance of this activity (see ? 8), we compared very carefully its decay curve with that of the long period of aluminium in order to check their identity. For a chemical investigation of the active substance we irradiated pure sodium carbonate (Kahlbaum). ..{ULSF: read through all of elements.} ...".
Fermi experiments with neutron collisions with atoms. Because neutrons have no electric charge they are not repelled by the positively charged nucleus of an atom as protons and alpha particles are. Fermi finds that unlike positively charged protons and alpha particles, neutrons do not need to be accelerated to great speeds to react with the nucleus of an atom, but the exact opposite, that neutrons react more with an atom nucleus when they have slow velocities. Fermi notes that neutrons are particularly effective in initiating nuclear reactions if they pass through water or paraffin first. The light atoms in these molecules absorb absorb some of the neutron's motion (energy) and slow the neutrons to the normal speed of molecules at room temperature. These “thermal neutrons” stay in the vicinity of a nucleus (protons and neutrons in the center of atoms) for a longer fraction of a second and are therefore more easily absorbed than fast neutrons. When a neutron is absorbed by the nucleus of an atom, the new nucleus sometimes emits an electron (beta particle) (which is evidence of electrons in the nucleus) and becomes an atom of the next higher element.
(It is an interesting aspect of the mysterious electric force, if a cumulative effect of gravity, that a charged particle needs to have a high velocity to interact with the nucleus, of so it is claimed or thought. Perhaps a high velocity gives less time for the electric effect to be felt by the proton. Perhaps the speed of the proton causes there to be less chance of collisions with other particles.) (it sounds like gravitational force, because if slower there is the more chance of them being captured, which is true of matter such as asteroids, etc. around other matter. In fact looking at velocity and how two masses are captured or not captured (among many other masses) might be relevant. On a computer velocity truly should be modeled as being like the universe, where particle do not jump from position 1 to 5 with a velocity of 4 but move 1,2,3,4,5 in 1 second not missing any empty space as matter in the universe moves. In fact using a frame rate of number of pixels covered by the fastest moving particle, the photon per second would establish the highest velocity and smallest time so that each particle will never skip a space. )
(That an atom loses an electron but keeps a proton in beta decay raises a mystery in how there can be no change in charge observed. Perhaps an electron is stripped off the collided neutron, or from some other source.)
(State who shows experimentally that the transmuted atom has an atomic mass of only 1 more atomic mass unit, and is chemically similar to trhe next highest element).
(The work of Fermi, raises questions about secret atomic transmutation research, and questions about why such research is apparently being kept secret. Perhaps neutrons more than any other particles are secretly used to convert one atom to another. Fermi does many experiments bombarding various elements with neutrons and says in his Nobel Prize speech that most of them have very short half lives and are radioactive. But secretly, this bombarding of atoms must be highly experimented with in a systematic way. In particular bombarding all known atoms (and molecules), and developing methods to convert one kind of atom into large amounts of another, new methods to produce heat for electrical generators, and finding ways of converting common atoms such as iron, silicon, etc into more precious atoms in particular oxygen and hydrogen so such a process can be used to sustain life using the silicon on the moon of earth, or the iron in the rocks of Mars, etc. Such a systematic device may be one that bombards a layer, then scrapes away the surface, bombards the next layer, scraps, and so on. Then some method is used to separate out atoms, perhaps a centrifuge and the powdered atoms may then be melted into a solid of bombarded again and the process repeated until large quantities of the substance are obtained. For example, to create oxygen, and other gases, perhaps they isolate themselves very conveniently rising to the top of some device. For example some larger common atoms silicon in sand (which already has oxygen, is there sand on other planets? probably no, interesting that all the sand on earth probably occurs only from the large excess oxygen in the atmosphere. Silicon or aluminum might be reduced to magnesium, that taken down to sodium, that to neon (which would float off), neon can be taken down to fluorine, which is then taken down to oxygen. To contain fluorine would require platinum or some heavy duty container, in particular lines with neutron absorbing cadmium of something for all the neutrons that would be systematically used. Neutrons are used to create Technetium element 43, which is unusual in being one of the only radioactive elements under element 84, for health uses, I think to reduce the size of a thyroid gland and or possibly as a tracer. This technique will be used to build up all the atoms known above uranium. Like neuron reading and writing, even if already secretly developed, without question, extensive research in transmutation should be done.)
(Clearly a large amount of research must have been done secretly with this transmutation of atoms experimentation which has not been published and provided to the public, even though after the atomic bomb, it is doubtful that any other find (perhaps besides particle handguns {laser handguns or flying microscopic particle guns}) could be remotely dangerous to public knowledge even to the most violently criminal people, and what we find is that those people probably already know since 9/11 is quite a violent crime done by those in the know. What people may have found is interesting. I think one goal would be to find a way to transmute without the radiation of photons constantly emitted, without radioactivity. Perhaps bombarding with beams of protons or other particles at the same time makes a difference, perhaps careful consideration of velocity of neutrons, of angle of collision, or frequency of neutrons might make a difference. Neutron beams probably follow the same laws of other beams made of mass particles, showing reflection, refraction, interference. State who has proven all this. For example, neutron beams have been refracted through various substances, including metals - which is more evidence of light as a material particle. Perhaps atomic structure can be determined by diffracting neutrons like photons and electrons are. How do people know when a neutron has been absorbed? Perhaps by electron beams being emitted. Isn't there a second reaction, or is the neutron reaction always a single electron is emitted. Explain and go over all public neutron equations/events of known atoms. Explain what atoms are produced what their half-life is, where stable atoms are formed if any. Mercury to gold might be a common transmutation, in particular since mercury is liquid, it may be easy to separate, and also lead is more common than gold. Neodymium, yttrium more common than gold might be transmuted, but then it might not be worth the electricity. Ideally, transmutation reactions that produce heat and at the same time convert some surplus atom to an atom that has more demand would be desirable. Another aspect is improving the ratio of collisions so that each neutron is absorbed with regularity. Perhaps a highly reduced gear or electromagnetic field like a television that moves the beam or target only one atom at a time could be used. I would identify those as the major questions that were attempted to be answered secretly: 1) how to make and isolate stable non-radioactive atoms, 2) how to convert (transmute) large quantities of atoms 3) to find other reactions produce even more heat than fission? 4) to find the easiest ways to get hydrogen and oxygen 5) what other particles, atoms, and molecules can be accelerated and collided?)
(Determine if any body has shown if neutron beams can be diffracted with a prism and a diffraction grating? Can beams of protons and other particles be diffracted with a prism and grating? How can the velocity and wavelength of neutrons and beams of neutrons be increased or decreased? Perhaps mixing beams of various pieces of matter such as neutron, proton, electron, photon, etc. and seeing if any interactions. Neutron and other particle diffraction by wavelength from a diffraction grating might be evidence of the particle nature of light and atoms.)
| (University of Rome) Rome, Italy (presumably) |
66 YBN
[1934 AD]
| 5356) Pavel Alekseyevich Cherenkov (CE 1904-1990), Russian physicist, finds blue light emitted by various liquids bombarded by particles emitted by radioactive radiation.
In 1934 while investigating the absorption of radioactive radiation by water, Cherenkov notices that the water is emitting an unusual blue light. Cherenkov at first thinks that this light is simply fluorescence but rejects this idea when he finds that the blue radiation is independent of the composition of the liquid and depends only on the presence of fast-moving electrons passing through the medium. Later in 1937, Russian physicists Ilya Frank (1908–1990) and Igor Tamm (1895–1971) will theorize that the blue light is caused by electrons traveling through the water with a speed greater than that of light in water (although not at a speed greater than that of light in a vacuum). This Cherenkov radiation can be produced by other charged particles and can be used as a method of detecting elementary particles.
Frank and Tamm theorize that this is the result of high-velocity particles moving through a medium faster than photons move through the medium, and therefore emit a "wake" of light, similar to a sonic boom.
(This explanation is very doubtful in my opinion, because it seems unlikely to me that simply moving faster than a light particle in some direction would cause light particles to be emitted without collision. And it's an obvious phenomenon that I think people have missed for many years, that all matter being made of photons, it is probably more likely that a particle collides with another particle, and separates the particle into its source photons. This to me, seems much more likely and explanation of Cherenkov radiation, which more accurately should be called a “Cherenkov photons”, or Cherenkov collision, which results in a specific number of photons emitted with beam wavelength or wavelengths of specific size.) “Cherenkov counters” will be built that detect only the (photons) that result from these (specific, thought to be) high-speed particles, allowing other particles to pass unnoticed. (again how many photons, what wavelengths? is an important question. Ask the detector in Japan if they have this data, or if this data can be taken from Cherenkov's works.) Using Cherenkov counters, the velocity of the particle can be calculated from the direction that the light is given off in. (Perhaps velocity can be determined from amount of photons emitted, but I think only direction can be determined from direction of photons detected.) These counters will be useful in the detection of the antiproton by Segré. (An antiproton gives off Cherenkov photons?) (I doubt any particle can move faster than a photon in any medium. A larger particles extra mass will always make is slower no matter what medium/atoms are around it.) (Asimov states “Cherenkov observed the radiation first” which is a key point. The photon phenomenon was first observed then the theory constructed by Frank and Tamm 3 years later.)
(There are many other possible explanations. One explanation is that an electron collides with a neutron, proton, or another electron, and like a group of billiard balls sends particles into a circular shape in the direction of motion - the motion is transfered to the other particles - the original particle being stopped. Perhaps as the atoms knock together a light particle is set loose in each atom and the atoms are spaced with blue light intervals. If true then a denser liquid might emit a higher frequency light and a less dense liquid would emit a lower frequency light. Another explanation is that the electron collides and is separated itself into light particles-each emitted in the direciton of motion with a spacing of blue frequency. Possibly the blue frequency are the light particles of a single composite particle torn apart - the light particle that it was made out of all being pushed in the same direction. If the duration of blue light is long, then probably this is a multiple particle phenomenon, but if a very short time, perhaps this is simply the source photons of the particle or particles that entered the liquid.)
(This is just one more of the many pieces of evidence that all matter is made of light particles.)
(Experiment: Does the frequency of emitted light vary with the density of the liquid? If yes, then the light probably comes from the atoms of the liquid, but if no, then the light probably comes from the source particle(s).)
| (Lebedev Institute of Physics) Moscow, (Soviet Union now) Russia |
65 YBN
[01/01/1935 AD]
| 5492) Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (CoNDroSEKHoR) (CE 1910-1995), Indian-US astronomer, determines that there is a mass-radius relation for collapsed stars which puts limits on the largest mass and radius possible for stars. This leads to what is known as the "Chandrasekhar limit", which is a theoretical limiting mass of about 1.44 solar masses above which a white dwarf cannot exist in a stable configuration.
Chandrasekhar calculates that only a white dwarf star with 1.5 times the mass of the sun can exist and this is called the "Chandrasekhar limit". Hoyle had calculated that when the nuclear processes thought to fuel a star fail, the star collapses into a white dwarf. The white dwarf stars, first discovered by Adams, are thought to be made of very dense plasma (plasma was named by Langmuir in 1923 which he found working with neon lights), thousands of times the density of ordinary matter. The view is that even ordinary stars contain limited quantities of plasma, or degenerate matter as it is also called, in their interior. In 1941 Gamow and Schoenberg had theorized that in the later stages of star evolution that stars must emit large number of neutrinos, and that this is responsible for novae and supernovae which results in the creation of a white dwarf. Chandrasekhar suggests that when a star with a mass larger than 1.5 times that of the sun reaches the stage where it collapses to a white dwarf, such a star can only collapse by exploding and throwing off some of its excess mass. This would imply that our sun can never go supernova, because it does not have enough mass. A star becomes a red giant before collapsing from a nova to a white dwarf.
A plasma, in physics, is defined as a fully ionized gas of low density, containing approximately equal numbers of positive and negative ions. A plasma is electrically conductive and is affected by electromagnetic fields.
In his book "Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure", Chandrasekhar builds on the "gas pressire versus gravity" model of stars which Eddington developed on 1916 based on Schwarzschild's work of 1906. In this model a star is completely made of gas.
Chandrasekhar calculates that the largest mass possible for any star is about 5.728 times the mass of the Sun. At this mass the radius is 0. In this work Chandrasekhar describes this zero radius by saying "In I this "singularity" was formally avoided by introducing a state of "maximum density" for matter, but now we shall not introduce any such hypothetical states, mainly for the reason that it appears from general considerations that when the central density is high enough for marked deviations from the known gas laws (degenerate or otherwise) to occur the configurations then would have such small radii that they would cease to have any practical importance in astrophysics.". Not until 1972, 37 years later, will Chandrasekhar develop the theory of a black hole.
(I have some doubts about the Chandrasekhar limit. It seems clear that there is certainly a mass limit to stars due to the physics of gravity, and the distribution of matter in space.)
(I think much of the theory of star structure, which is its entirety stems from Eddington's application of the Gas laws to a star, may be dismissed, simply because the gas laws do not accurately apply to an object that mostly liquid and solid. For example the theories of Gamow and Oppenheimer in which neutrons form the core of collapsed stars, and the Hans Bethe theory that Hydrogen is fused into Helium, all seem unlikely to me, given the possible accessability of a larger supply of light particles contained in stars that exist both in atoms and subatomic particles, and independently.)
(I doubt the white dwarf theory too - it may be that these are planets with reflected light, that the distance measurement is inaccurate, or that they are the products of living objects, but I reject that white dwarf's are the result of nuclear forces because I doubt the existence of nuclear forces of a Coulomb nature. I think it's healthy to keep an open mind and to open up the thought-images of everybody to the public to produce more ideas.)
(My own view is that a plasma, is simply the gas state. William Crookes, i think, was the first to suggest that the cathode rays represent a different state of matter.)
(I simply think that stars, no matter what mass, accumulate light particles, and at the same time allow light particles to escape at a regular rate. Stars initially accumulate mass as a nebula, and once that mass is all in the form of stars and planets, the star enters the second stage where the matter emitted is greater than the matter gained. I think that this simply results in light particles being completely untangled from a star, escaping to other parts of the universe to become trapped with other light particles in some other location. I doubt that star explosions are the result of a star "running out" of fuel, and I think it is more a result of a structural failure 0 like an earthquake, or the result of living objects destroying a star. )
(I think it is possible that at the large pressure inside stars that atoms take on different forms. One view is that light particles are pushed together inside stars and planets, and as more space becomes available, electrons and other larger-than-light composite particles can form, with more space protons and neutrons and larger particles can exist for short periods of time, as more empty space is found toward the center of stars and planets, atoms and molecules can form for longer periods of time without being separated by collision, until the empty space at the surface is reached where we see the atoms and molecules which we recognize.)
(I think this "Chandrasekhar limit" is highly speculative. I think the possibility that a supernova is simply a rare structural fracture is also a possibility. After all we are talking about a part of a star that is unseen until after a nova, and an unthinkably large number of particles to estimate or generalize their motions. In addition, Gamow, who founded the neutrino theory also founded the big-bang theory, and accepted time-dilation which to me seems obviously inaccurate.)
(My own feeling is that many stars simply burn out and become red dwarf stars, and then ultimately just large terrestrial spheres of matter emitting very little light in the infrared, microwave and radio.)
(There is a recent famous experiment in the Japan neutrino detector which found Cherenkov light particles supposedly from a supernova - but I have a lot of doubts - in particular given the secrecy surrounding neuron reading and writing - when we can see all thought-images, then I will feel more confident about the claims of people in modern science. In addition, there could be many other sources of Cherenkov light- see what particles cause Cherenkov light - gamma rays do - so what is probably not being told is how frequent Cherenkov light is detected - and probably so frequently that it is probably coincidence that a Cherenkov light was detected at the same time and angle as an extremely distant supernova - a supernova that - without being magnified would have a microscopic size- or would cover the pool of water uniformly - so there is some problem there too.)
(The Eddington theory of a star being made completely of gas seems very unlikly in my view. The more like;y view is a star being a ihghkly compressed solid interior, which eventually has enough space to be liquid, and ultimately gas at the surface. There simply is probably not enough empty space inside stars and planets for a liquid or gas to move. Perhaps light particle motions and relative free space can be described with a simple generalization.)
(To me the idea that gravity would cause matter to compress to so great an extent that light particles would not be able to escape seems unlikely. In addition, this work of Chandresekhar's apparently accepts the theory of time and space dilation effects of relativity.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN
[01/01/1935 AD]
| 5501) Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (CoNDroSEKHoR) (CE 1910-1995), Indian-US astronomer, develops a theory of black holes.
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN
[01/26/1935 AD]
| 5133) Albert Szent-Györgyi (seNTJEoURJE) (CE 1893–1986) Hungarian-US biochemist, finds that succinic, fumaric and malic acid are oxidised by muscle cells.
Szent-Györgyi finds that any of four closely related four-carbon compounds, malic acid, succinic acid, fumaric acid, and oxaloacetic acid can restore oxygen uptake in minced (blended) muscle tissue. Szent-Györgyi uses Warburg's methods to measure the oxygen uptake of minced muscle tissue, and finds that the rate of oxygen uptake decreases. Szent-Györgyi concludes that some substance in the tissue is being used up, and finds that these four acids can be used to continue the oxygen uptake. Krebs will continue this line of research to work out the details of the Kreb's cycle (the process of converting glucose into ATP each cell performs).
Svent-Gyorgyi writes: "THE respiration of the minced breast muscle of the pigeon has been studied by means of specific poisons (malonic, maleic and arsenious acid). Experiments show that in the main process of respiration, no substances other than succinic acid and its first oxidation product, fumaric acid and the hydrate of the latter, malic acid, are oxidised directly by the Warburg-Keilin Atmungsferment-Cytochrom system. Both succinic and malic acids are activated by the corresponding specific dehydrogenase. Only these two dehydrogenases seem to be connected immediately with the Warburg-Keilin system. Succinic acid is oxidised by them to fumaric, malic to hydroxy-fumaric acid. Both oxidations are reversible. Foodstuffs are oxidised by dismutating them with oxidation products of succinic acid, which products thereby become re-reduced and set thus as catalytic hydrogen carriers. The 'oxidation system' is an enzyme complex acting specifically on succinic acid and its oxidation products. Fermentation is an intramolecular dismutation. Oxidation is dismutation with oxidised succinic acid. ...".
| (University of Szeged) Szeged, Hungary |
65 YBN
[02/26/1935 AD]
| 5098) (Sir) Robert Watson-Watt (CE 1892-1973), Scottish physicist, builds a radar system.
In 1834 Charles Wheatstone had measured the delay of visible light beam to determine the speed of electricity.
In 1862 Jean Foucault used the same Wheatstone rotating mirror method to measure the speed of light by measuring the delay of a visible light beam.
In 1901 John Stone Stone had invented a radio direction finder.
Christian Hülsmeyer (CE 1881-1957) invented the first radar system in 1904.
In 1917 Paul Langevin had used ultrasound to locate the position of distant objects.
Before this, people knew that radio beams can be reflected, in particular because reflecting radio off the ionized layers in the upper atmosphere makes long-distance broadcasting possible as Kennelly and Heaviside explained. A pulse of short-wave (now called microwave) radio waves of light particles are sent out, and are reflected off objects. The difference in time sending and receiving can be used to estimate distance by dividing travel time with the speed of light, and the direction can be known from the direction the radio wave light particles received.
A successful test takes place on February 26, 1935 using the BBCs short-wave (about 50 metres wavelength) radio transmitter at Daventry using a Heyford Bomber as the reflecting object.
By July 1935 Watson-Watt is able to locate aircraft consistently at a distance of about 140 km (90 miles). Watson-Watt's system grows into a series of radars called Chain Home, which operate at the relatively low frequency of 25 megahertz. In September 1938 the first of the Chain Home radars began 24-hour duty. By the time World War II began a year later, there are 18 radars defending the United Kingdom, and this number grows to 53 before the war ends in 1945.
A weak echo signal from a target might be as low as 1 picowatt (10−12 watt). The power levels (power=voltage x current) in a radar system can be very large (at the transmitter) and very small (at the receiver).
(How does radar fit in with the neuron reading and writing microscopic dust-cam network? Was this flying camera-net thought-image-transmitting network useful in learning about planned violent attacks?)
The acronym ‘radar’ is first recorded in use in the New York Times in 1941.
(One key to radar is being able to distinguish from other beams of light, for example, those from the sun. This is one reason why visible light reflection might not work as well, but in theory there is no reason why visible light radar could not be used too. Thinking of the visible light analogy, you can see how bright the radio signal must be to be detected from a distant reflection - simply imagine how bright a visible light would need to be for the reflection to be seen.)
(I think one strong argument against a so-called light wave cancellation being due to anything other than particle collision, is that there simply is no medium whose movement can be interpreted as light.)
(All material particles can be reflected, this is the reason, for example, we see a plane; light from the sun reflects off the plane into our eye.)
In 1935 Watson-Watt is asked by the Air Ministry if a ‘death ray’ can be built – one capable of eliminating an approaching enemy pilot.
1935 Watson-Watt patents an improved radio reflection system that can follow an airplane by the radio-wave reflected off the plane. The system is called “radio detection and ranging” and this is abbreviated as “ra. d. a. r” or “radar”. Research on radar will continue in secrecy. Many people argue that radar is what saves Britain from the Nazi air attacks. The Nazi people knew about radar in the 1930s but Hitler and Goering decide that radar is only for defensive warfare and the Nazis would never be on the defensive and so can be ignored. Fortunately, by the time the Nazi's realize their mistake it is too late. Engineers in the US had been working on radar as early as 1931. Radar in the USA did detect the invasion of Pearl Harbor by Japan but this warning was ignored. Radar will be used to detect storms, and map the surface of Venus.
Watson-Watt suggests the name of “ionosphere” for the layer above the stratosphere (named by Teisserenc de Bort). Watson-Watt’s radio research laboratory also investigated the ionosphere (a term he coined), not by the frequency-shift method used by Appleton but by the pulse method developed in the United States by Breit and Tuve.
(Can the surface of other planet be mapped by radar from the earth? I guess the analogy to visible light is identical - although radio and x-ray are more penetrable. Since we can see light reflected off the planets and moons, no doubt we could see more detail by reflecting very powerful x-ray and or radio beams and observing the reflection. The Sun is extremely bright, so the source required might be too large to be practical from this distance. Perhaps it could be extremely focused and many small points mapped.)
(The failure of the Nazi people to understand the value of radar gives some hope that those for science and freedom might have some technological advantage over the violent brutes, for example the so-called neocons who did 9/11.)
| Daventry, England |
65 YBN
[02/??/1935 AD]
| 5162) Artificial silk, nylon.
(verifty paper and patent are correct)
Gerard Jean Berchet synthesizes what will be called "nylon", the most successful commercial product in DuPont’s research and development history.
Carothers forms synthetic fibers by joining diamines and dicarboxylic acids in linkages that are similar to those in silk, therefore confirming Staudinger's theories that such synthetic fibers are made of long-chain molecules.
In a systematic search for synthetic analogs of silk and cellulose Carothers and his group prepare many condensation polymers, especially polyesters and polyethers. During the period from 1930 to 1933, Carothers and his group systematically investigate various types of linear condensation superpolymers, including polyesters, polyanhydrides, polyacetals, polyamides, and polyester-polyamide mixtures, which are synthesized by his coworkers from hundreds of possible combinations of starting materials. After careful consideration, the company selects a superpolyamide for manufacture which will be called "nylon" adapted from the name "no-run". This polyamide, produced by condensation of adipic acid and hexamethylenediamine, will come into full-scale production in 1940 as "Nylon 66".
Nylon will be delayed by World War II, while it is only put to use for military purposes, but after WW II, nylon will be used in many consumer products. Nylon marks the beginning of an era of synthetic fibers. Chemists such as Ziegler and Natta will create methods for refining the detailed structure of the large molecules formed.
| (E.I. du Pont de Nemours & Company) Wilmington, Delaware, USA |
65 YBN
[04/08/1935 AD]
| 5145) Carl Peter Henrik Dam (CE 1895-1976), Danish biochemist, identifies and names an essential vitamin, vitamin K, without which causes slowing of blood clotting in baby chickens.
Dam names an unknown vitamin, vitamin K (for koagulations-Vitamin in German and the Scandinavian languages, since this vitamin seems to be necessary for the proper coagulation or clotting of blood). The absence of this vitamin causes hens to develop small hemorrhages under the skin and within the muscles similar to scurvy, and Dam tries vitamins A, D, and E to cure the disease, but all fail. A few years later Doisy will isolate vitamin K and determine its formula. This vitamin will be used in surgery to slow bleeding, and is sometimes injected into women about to give birth so that the fetus will have some vitamin K in the small period of time before the baby's intestinal tract becomes quickly infested with bacteria which synthesize vitamin K in the course of their own metabolism.
Dam writes in "THE ANTIHAEMORRHAGIC VITAMIN OF THE CHICK": "PREVIOUS papers deal with a deficiency disease resembling scurvy in chicks which cannot be prevented by ascorbi c acid and the cause of which is ascribed to the lack of a particular antihaemorrhagic factor (or factors) in the diet. Schönheyder has shown that there is an enormous retardation of the clotting of the blood of chicks suffering from this haemorrhagic diathesis. The nature and distribution of the antihaemorrhagic factor have now been investigated . The investigation has led to the discovery of the fact that the factor is a fat-soluble vitamin occurring in hog-liver, hemp seed, certain cereals and vegetables, and must be different from vitamins A, D and E. It is proposed to term this factor vitamin K (Koagulations-Vitamin in German and the Scandinavian languages). The following groups of foods have been tested: (1) cereals and seeds, (2) vegetables, (3) animal organs, (4) different fats and oils, (5) hen's egg. Two of the most active substances, hog-liver and hemp seed, were divided into ether-soluble and ether-insoluble fractions, and, since the active principle was found to be fat-soluble, an elaborate fractionation of hog-liver fat was carried out. The question of the identity of the antihaemorrhagic factor with already known fat-soluble vitamins has been attacked by adding large amounts of vitamins A, D and E to the basal diet. ...".
(State clearly if bacteria are preformed in the intestinal tract at birth. Interestingly enough, the answer appears to be no. I thought perhaps bacteria from the mother might enter the fetus. Perhaps some day human DNA might code bacteria.)
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
65 YBN
[05/16/1935 AD]
| 5374) X-ray microscope proposed.
In 1949, Paul Kirkpatrick will build the first x-ray microscope.
In 1936 George Shearer (CE 1890-1949), proposes an x-ray microscope. Shearer writes: "The majority of our members consider X-rays in one or other of two aspects, and use one or other of two of their properties. In the one case, the property involved is the power of the rays to penetrate opaque matter to a greater or less degree according to its nature. The radiographs obtained in this way can, when the technique is good and when interpreted by the skilled radiologist, be of immense service in diagnosis and in the control and study of the effect of treatment. The second property of the rays is one which the early workers discovered by sad experience. Many of these lost their lives because it was found too late that X-rays can have very damaging effects on the body. Fortunately, to-day, that danger has been eliminated, and this very property is now being used with considerable success in the treatment of malignant and other diseases.
In this talk, I do not propose to discuss these methods of using X-rays, but rather to describe briefly a third method, a method which is entirely different, and which makes use of other properties of the rays. This method, although now for many years familiar to the physicist, is only beginning to find its uses in those sciences which lie on the borderline of medicine. ... It would be possible to go on almost indefinitely multiplying examples of the use of the X-ray diffraction method of investigation. No account would be complete without a description of the service it has rendered in the study of metals and of alloy systems, of its use in interpreting the changes which occur in strcture as a result of chemical, physical and mechanical actions, of the light it has thrown on the structure of molecules inorganic and organic, and of the way in which it has helped us to a better understsanding of many industrial processes. Perhaps, however, the few examples given here, chosen because of their biological interest, will serve to show that even with very complicated materials the use of X-rays in this way will often give the key to some of their puzzling properties.".
(Notice "Many of these lost their lives", and "lie")
(Find portrait)
(It seems clear that x-ray light can be used just like visible light, and an even brighter reflected image could be obtained. The key is bending x-rays with a lens or mirror which is entirely possible - in particular with a metal surface mirror. Even a radio microscope could be similarly made that might reveal structures that are transparent to or those hidden by strctures that absorb visible frequencies. One idea is have an electron gun that emits x-rays and then simply capture the image that emerges in a single direction - for example at a 180 degree reflection.)
| (National Physical Laboratory) Teddington, Middlesex, England |
65 YBN
[05/31/1935 AD]
| 5532) Robert Hutchings Goddard (CE 1882-1945), launches a liquid fuel rocket that rises 7,500 feet (1.4 miles, 2.2km).
| (Mescalero Ranch) Roswell, New Mexico, USA |
65 YBN
[06/05/1935 AD]
| 5436) George Wald (CE 1906-1997), US chemist, discovers the molecule "retinal" in the retina and the "visual cycle": visual purple + light (heat) => visual yellow -heat => vitamin A + a protein -heat => visual purple.
In 1876, a light-sensitive pigment had been discovered in frog retinas by Franz Christian Boll. Boll and Willy Kühne, a professor of physiology at Heidelberg, soon after showed that the visual pigment is reddish-purple in dark-adapted retinas but when exposed to light it “bleaches” to a yellowish-orange color and then fades over time to a colorless substance. Kühne also extracts the reddish-purple substance which Boll had named rhodopsin into aqueous solution with bile salts and showed that it was a protein.
Wald names this molecule "Retinene" but it is later changed to "retinal".
Wald determines the molecular cycle on the retina: light liberates from visual purple (rhodopsin) the molecule retinal, which is a carotenoid, the retinal is then converted by a thermal reaction to vitamin A. Vitamin A and retinal then form visual purple again by combining with a protein. In his paper "Carotenoids and the Visual Cycle" Wald describes the history of Franz Boll's and Willy Kuhne work with rhodopsin. Vitamin A lost in the visual process must be replaced from outside the retina. Wald writes is conclusion: "The results of the preceding discussion can be summarized in a diagram which may serve as a nucleus for further experiment (Fig. 4). Most of the contents of this scheme have already been sufficiently treated. The loss of vitamin A in the visual cycle is expressed in the diagram by interpolating the term, "degradation products." This is perhaps an unfortunate name for one or more substances of which nothing is known or implied but that they are colorless vitamin A derivatives. It is assumed that they eventually leave the retina by the only available route. They may constitute an important functional element of the cycle, and not merely its inetficiency. Two processes have been discussed by which visual purple is synthesized in the retina: reversion from visual yellow (retinene), and regeneration from colorless substances, among them vitamin A. These represent two distinct bases for sensory dark adaptation, and should appear in the latter function in relative amounts which vary with the extent and period of the preceding light adaptation. This possibility is now being investigated in our laboratory. The regeneration of visual purple from yellow appears to be a simple reversal of photolysis. The synthesis from vitamin A, however, occurs only in an eye in which the relation of the retina to the pigment epithelium has remained undisturbed (Ewald and Kiihne, 1878) .19 The significance of this dependence is unknown. It is represented in the diagram by an arrow drawn tangent to the pigment epithelium. The investigation of vitamin activity has heretofore been confined almost completely to the pathology of vitamin deficiency. The bril- liant chemical investigations of the past few years have revealed an astonishing orthodoxy in the structure of vitamins, and have provided micro-methods for identifying and measuring them in the minute concentrations in which they occur in the tissues. It has now become possible to analyze the intimate relations between vitamins and normal physiological processes. I believe the present work to be the first of such researches to yield a positive conclusion. The function of vitamin A in the visual purple cycle is that of a simple, though special, chemical component. SUMMARY 1. Carotenoids have been identified and their quantities measured in the eyes of several frog species. The combined pigment epithelium and choroid layer of an R. pipiens or esculenta eye contain about 1-~ of xanthophyll and about 4-y of vitamin A. During light adaptation the xanthophyll content falls 10 to 20 per cent. 2. Light adapted retinas contain about 0.2-0.3 7 of vitamin A alone. 3. Dark adapted retinas contain only a trace of vitamin A. The destruction of their visual purple with chloroform liberates a hitherto undescribed carotenoid, retinene. The bleaching of visual purple to visual yellow by light also liberates retinene. Free retinene is removed from the isolated retina by two thermal processes: reversion to visual purple and decomposition to colorless products, including vitamin A. This is the source of the vitamin A of the light adapted retina. 4. Isolated retinas which have been bleached and allowed to fade completely contain several times as much vitamin A as retinas from light adapted animals. The visual purple system therefore expends vitamin A and is dependent upon the diet for its replacement. 5. Visual purple behaves as a conjugated protein in which retinene is the prosthetic group. 6. Vitamin A is the precursor of visual purple as well as the product of its decomposition. The visual processes therefore constitute a cycle. ....".
| (Kaiser Wilkelm-Institut fur medizinische Forschung, Heidelberg, Germany and University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
65 YBN
[06/26/1935 AD]
| 5215) Rudolf Schoenheimer (sRNHImR) (CE 1898-1941), German-US biochemist, introduces the use of isotopic tracers in biology and finds that fat molecules made with deuterium are rapdily replaced by the bodies of laboratory animals.
Schoenheim er introduces the use of isotopic tracers in biochemistry by using deuterium atoms in fat molecules fed to laboratory animals (rats), finding that contrary to popular belief, fat appears to be rapidly replaced, because after 4 days the tissue fat contains nearly half of the deuterium fed to the animal. The popular belief before this is that fat is stored until needed. Hevesy was the first to use isotopes, using lead isotopes. By 1935 Lewis and Urey had created methods to isolate deuterium (heavy hydrogen) which, unlike lead, is used in living tissue. Schoenheimer also uses a heavy isotope of nitrogen first prepared in quantity by Urey. Schoenheimer uses the isotope of nitrogen to tag amino acids and finds here too that molecules in the body are rapidly changing and shifting. Radioactive isotopes will be used to show even more detail of the inner workings of living tissue by people such as Calvin.
In his paper "DEUTERIUM AS AN INDICATOR IN THE STUDY OF INTERMEDIARY METAROLISM. I", Schoenheimer and Rittenberg write: "The study of the metabolism of substances which occur in nature in large amounts and are continually synthesized and destroyed in the animal body presents almost insuperable difficulties. If substances such as natural fatty acids, amino acids, etc., are administered to an animal, we lose track of them the moment they enter the body, since they are mixed with the same substances already present. Furthermore, if a substance A is given to an animal and an excess of a substance B is afterwards discovered in the body or in the excretions, we can never be sure that the substance A has been converted into 23, for a stimulation of the formation of B from some other source may equally well have occurred. The difficulty in following physiological substances in the course of their transportation in the body, and their conversion into other substances, accounts for our ignorance with respect to many of the most fundamental questions concerning intermediate metabolism. The solution of these problems will be possible only when direct methods for tracing such substances are available. In order to follow directly the metabolism of physiological substances many attempts have been made to introduce easily detectable chemical groups into the molecule. Interesting results have been obtained by the use of synthetic derivatives containing halogens or phenyl groups, but all such substances differ so greatly from the corresponding natural substances in chemical and physical character that they are treated differently by the body. Problems of normal transport and metabolism cannot be studied *with such material. In order successfully to label a physiological substance, it is essential that the chemical and physical properties of the labeled substance be so similar to the unlabeled one that the animal organism will not be able to differentiate between them. The chemist, on the other hand, must be able to distinguish and to estimate them in small quantities and at high dilutions. A possibility for such a label is the use of an isotope. As the chemical properties of the various isotopes of an element are almost identical, it is to be expected that the properties of an organic molecule will remain unaltered if one or even several of its atoms are replaced by their isotopes. At present the only available isotope of elements which occur in organic molecules is the heavy isotope of hydrogen (deuterium) (l).’ It occurs in nature in the ratio of 1 atom of deuterium to 5000 atoms of ordinary hydrogen (protium) (4, 5). Water obtained from all sources ... Despite their resemblance to the natural products these substances can easily be distinguished for on combustion the resulting water contains an amount of heavy water equivalent to the deuterium content of the organic material. ...
SUMMARY 1. The use of the hydrogen isotope, deuterium, is proposed for the study of intermediary metabolic processes. As the concentration of deuterium can be analyzed in small samples with high precision, the fate of a physiological substance in which some of the hydrogen has been replaced by deuterium, can be traced in the organism after administration. 2. The possibilities and limitations of the physiological applications are briefly discussed theoretically. 3. The preparation of stearic acid 6-7-9-10d4 is described.".
(Perhaps there is some way to increase the regular fat digestion process) (More specific about results.) (How is the isotope detected? describe.) (Synthesized)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
65 YBN
[07/11/1935 AD]
| 4249) Nikola Tesla (CE 1856-1943), Croatian-US electrical engineer, publically doubts the theory of relativity.
The New York Times article states: "He described relativity as "a beggar wrapped in purple whom ignorant people take for a king."
In support of his statement he cited a number of experiments he had conducted, he said, as far back as 1896 on the cosmic ray. He has measured cosmic ray velocities from Antarus, he said, which he found to be fifty times greater than the speed of light, thus demolishing, he contended, one of the basic pillars of the structure of relativity, according to which there can be no speed greater than that of light.....
Cosmic rays, he asserted, he found are produced by the force of "electrostatic repulsion.; they consist of powerfully charged positive particles which come to us from the sun and other suns in the universe. He determined, "after experimentation,. he added, that the sun is charged "with an electric potential of approximately 215,000,000,000 volts, while the electric charge stored in the sun amounted to approximately 50,000,000,000,000,000,000 electrostatic units."
The theory of relativity he described as "a mass of error and deceptive ideas violently opposed to the teachings of great men of science of the past and even to common sense."
"The theory, "he said, "wraps all these errors and fallacies and clothes them in magnificent mathematical garb which fascinates, dazzles and makes people blind to the underlying errors. The theory is like a beggar clothed in purple whom ignorant people take for a king. Its exponents are very brilliant men, but they are metaphysicists rather than scientists. Not a single one of the relativity propositions has been proved."".
In 1932 Tesla publically doubted the space is curved.
| (Hotel New Yorker) New York City, NY, USA |
65 YBN
[07/12/1935 AD]
| 5016) Arthur Jeffrey Dempster, (CE 1886-1950), Canadian-US physicist identifies the isotope uranium-235 using a mass spectrograph.
This is one of the few isotopes that Aston had missed. This is the isotope of uranium that can be split with a neutron (beams of neutrons). This will contribute to the building of the first atomic bomb in a decade.
(TODO: Verify that differently charged ions deflect, for example, at twice (if +2) the deflection of a similar singly (+1) charged ion? Otherwise, charge would have nothing to do with the quantity of matter deflected.)
In 1918 Dempster had built his first mass spectrograph.
(Perhaps mass spectrograph is better named "mass deflectograph" or something more accurate. It's a minor issue.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
65 YBN
[07/28/1935 AD]
| 5357) Wendell Meredith Stanley (CE 1904-1971), US biochemist, crystalizes viruses (the tobacco mosaic virus).
Stanley is the first to obtain fine needle-like crystals which are made from high concentrations of tobacco mosaic viruses. This is difficult for many people to accept. Crystallizing an enzyme as Sumner had first done is easy for many to accept, but crystallizing a virus, an object that can reproduce itself in a cell and apparently a form a life seems unlikely to many. However, many other viruses will be crystallized and all will be found to be nucleoproteins. The work of people like Fraenkel-Conrat will show that the nucleic acid portion of the nucleoprotein is the key to virus activity and not the protein portion. To do this Stanley prepared a large quantity of tobacco mosaic virus by growing tobacco, infecting it, mashing up the infected leaves, and then putting the mash through the usual procedures used by chemists to crystallize proteins, since Stanley thought that a virus is a protein molecule.
A nucleoprotein is a macromolecular complex consisting of a protein linked to a nucleic acid, either DNA or RNA.
Stanley publishes an article in "Science" with the title "ISOLATION OF A CRYSTALLINE PROTEIN POSSESSING THE PROPERTIES OF TOBACCO-MOSAIC VIRUS" in which he writes: "A CRYSTALLINE material, which has the properties of tobacco-mosaic virus, has been isolated from the juice of Turkish tobacco plants infected with this virus. The crystalline material contains 20 per cent. nitrogen and 1 per cent. ash, and a solution containing 1 milligram per cubic centimeter gives a positive test with Millon's biuret, xanthoproteic, glyoxylic acid and Folin's tyrosine reagents. The Molisch and Fehlings tests are negative, even with concentrated solutions. The material is precipitated by 0.4 saturated ammonium sulfate, by saturated magnesium sulfate, or by safranine, ethyl alcohol, acetone, trichloracetic acid, tannic acid, phosphotungstic acid and lead acetate. ?The crystalline protein is practically insoluble in water and is soluble in dilute acid, alkali or salt solutions. Solutions containing from 0.1 per cent. to 2 per cent. of the protein are opalescent. They are fairly clear between pH 6 and 11 and between pH 1 and 4, and take on a dense whitish appearance between pH 4 and 6. The infectivity, chemical composition and optical rotation of the crystalline protein were unchanged after 10 successive crystallizations. In a fractional crystallization experiment the activity of the first small portion of crystals to come out of solution was the same as the activity of the mother liquor. When solutions are made more alkaline than about pH 11.8 the opalescence disappears and they become clear. Such solutions are devoid of activity and it was shown by solubility tests that the protein had been denatured. The material is also denatured and its activity lost when solutions are made more acid than about pH 1. It is completely coagulated and the activity lost on heating to 94? C. Preliminary experiments, in which the amorphous form of the protein was partially digested with pepsin, or partially coagulated,by heat, indicate that the loss in activity is about proportional to the loss of native protein. The molecular weight of the protein, as determined by two preliminary experiments on osmotic pressure and diffusion, is of the order of a few millions. That the molecule is quite large is also indicated by the fact that the protein is held back by collodion filters through which proteins such as egg albumin readily pass. Collodion filters which fail to allow the protein to pass also fail to allow the active agent to pass. The material readily passes a Berkefeld "W" filter. The crystals are over 100 times more active than the suspension made by grinding up diseased Turkish tobacco leaves, and about 1,000 times more active than the twice-frozen juice from diseased plants. One cubic centimeter of a 1 to 1,000,000,000 dilution of the crystals has usually proved infectious. The disease produced by this, as well as more concentrated solutions, has proved to be typical tobacco mosaic. Activity measurements were made by comparing the number of lesions produced on one half of the leaves of plants of Early Golden Cluster bean, Nicotiana glutinosa L., or N. langsdorffii Schrank after inoculation with dilutions of a solution of the crystals, with the number of lesions produced on the other halves of the same leaves after inoculation with dilutions of a virus preparation used for comparison. The sera of animals injected with tobacco-mosaic virus give a precipitate when mixed with a solution of the crystals diluted as high as 1 part in 100,000. The sera of animals injected with juice from healthy tobacco plants give no precipitate when mixed with a solution of the crystals. Injection of solutions of the crystals into animals causes the production of a precipitin that is active for solutions of the crystals and juice of plants containing tobacco-mosaic virus but that is inactive for juice of normal plants. ... Although it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain conclusive positive proof of the purity of a protein, there is strong evidence that the crystalline protein herein described is either pure or is a solid solution of proteins. As yet no evidence for the existence of a mixture of active and inactive material in the crystals has been obtained. Tobacco-mosaic virus is regarded as an autocatalytic protein which, for the present, may be assumed to require the presence of living cells for multiplication.".
(So Stanley was only partially correct in that part of the virus in made of protein. Describe procedures to crystallize proteins.)
(No image is provided in the paper. Show modern image of TMV?)
| (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
65 YBN
[07/31/1935 AD]
| 5252) Richard Kuhn (KUN) (CE 1900-1967) Austria-German chemist, synthesizes vitamin B2 (almost simultaneously with Karrer).
| (Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut fur Medizinische Forschung, Institut fur Chemie) Heidelberg, Germany |
65 YBN
[08/28/1935 AD]
| 5507) (Sir) James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist, and Maurice Goldhaber (CE 1911- ) transmute (disintegrate) Lithium, Boron and Nitrogen with slow neutrons.
In 1933 Marcus Oliphant (CE 1901-2000) with Lord Rutherford, used high-speed protons to cause transmutation in Lithium and Boron.
In 1934 Chadwick and Goldhaber had disintegrated a deuterium atom (hydrogen with a neutron) using gamma-rays from Thorium C" into a neutron and proton.
Chadwick and Goldhaber publish this in the "Mathematical Proceedings of the Cambridge Philosophical Society" as "Disintegration by Slow Neutrons". They write: "1. It has been shown by Fermi and his collaborators that neutrons slowed down by collisions in substances containing hydrogen are captured by many nuclei, for example, by silver, rhodium, etc., much more frequently than are fast neutrons. In all the cases at first reported, the process is one of simple capture of the neutron, with the formation of a higher isotope of the nucleus, and the emission of the excess energy as a y-ray quantum. One might expect that slow neutrons could also cause a nuclear transformation with the emission of heavy particles provided that energy can be released in the process. The probability of such a transformation will depend on the mutual kinetic energy and potential barrier of the resulting particles, and may be large when these quantities are of the same order of magnitude; this can in general only be expected for elements of low atomic number. As a rule, disintegration by neutrons will be " endothermic " (absorption of kinetic energy) if a proton is one of the products of transformation^, and may be "exothermic" (release of kinetic energy) if one at least of the products is an a-particle. We have examined for such transformations all the light elements up to aluminium and some heavier ones. Evidence of disintegration by slow neutrons was found only with lithium, boron, and nitrogenj. Amaldi and others§ have independently observed the emission of charged particles from lithium and boron bombarded by slow neutrons, and have investigated the boron reaction. 2. The general procedure of investigation was as follows. The element under examinatio n was enclosed, as a target or where convenient as gas, in an ionization chamber connected to a linear amplifier and oscillograph. The chamber used for targets was of about 7 cm. diameter and 8 mm. depth. The element to be examined was deposited as foil or powder on the inner face of the ionization chamber. The area covered by the element was about 25 sq. cm. The chamber was filled with argon in order to reduce the effect of the recoil particles produced by the fast neutrons, and also because argon is not disintegrated by slow neutrons. ... SUMMARY All the light elements up to aluminium and some heavier ones have been examined for disintegration by slow neutrons. Large effects have been found in lithium and boron and a small effect in nitrogen, the reactions being +He4, and probably N'HB'-^B1 1 +He4. The charged particles emitted in the disintegration of lithium and boron afford a convenient and sensitive indicator for slow neutrons. ...".
| (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN
[08/28/1935 AD]
| 5509) Maurice Goldhaber (CE 1911- ) finds that Beryllium can slow fast neutrons to slower speeds (is a neutron "moderator".
This information is classified until after World War II.
(Find source - could be Fermi papers)
| (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN
[10/22/1935 AD]
| 5451) Scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Max Knoll (CE 1897-1969) invents the first scanning electron microscope, a device that moves a focused electron beam in rows and columns over the surface of an object, and receives both the electrons scattered (reflected) by the object and the secondary electrons produced by it, as opposed to a transmission electron microscope (TEM) in which an electron beam is used in the same way a light beam is used in a traditional light microscope. Most SEMs also have a facility to analyse the X-rays given off by the target as a result of its bombardment and, as each element in the periodic table produces its own X-ray spectrum, this can be used to determine the elemental content of the sample.
Knoll and Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (CE 1906-1988), German electrical engineer, had built the first known electron microscope in 1931 (TEM).
Knoll publishes this in the journal "Zeitschrift für technische Physik" ("Journal of Technical Physics") as (translated from German by Google) "Charging potential and secondary emission of bodies under electron irradiation".
In a later paper in 1939, Knoll and Theile publish entitled (translated from German by Google) "Electronic scanning for structural imaging of surfaces and thin films", they write: "On the electron-optical methods for imaging the structure of surfaces and thin films with a stationary electron beam, ie simultaneous irradiation of all parts of the object to be distinguished from those with a moving electron beam ("electron scanning "). In these, the object is on a metal plate ("signal board") which is arranged as a baffle electrode in a cathode ray tube, the peak electron beam scans the surface of the object in the form of a parallel line grid. To reproduce the structure image, the signal plate is an amplifier connected to the control electrode of a visual read-tube whose electron moves synchronously with the object scanning. The electrical image signal produced thereby in the circuit of the object induced secondary electrons, the structure image is therefore concluded by secondary emission differences in the object surface. In poorly conducting or insulating objects that secondary emission image is a picture of the resistance or capacity distribution of the object is superimposed. The resolution for minimum feature spacing (geometric resolution) and for very small structural differences (contrast resolution) is discussed. The applications of structural image with the electronic scanning is demonstrated by some examples....". They describe this new method as: "...Trigger Method 5). The object is in the form of a layer on a metal plate ("signal board"), which is over an amplifier connected to the control electrode of a picture tube writing, while the electron beam is moved synchronously with the object-scanning beam. ..."
(Get paper, translate and read relevant parts.)
| (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany (presumably) |
65 YBN
[10/28/1935 AD]
| 5095) (Sir) James Chadwick (CE 1891-1974), English physicist, and Maurice Goldhaber (CE 1911- ), find that a lithium or boron coated ionization chamber is a very sensitive detector for slow neutrons.
Chadwick and Goldhaber write: "...The chief importance of the disintegration phenomena described in this paper lies in the fact that they afford a convenient and sensitive means of detecting the presence of slow neutrons. The natural effect of an ionization chamber is low, of the order of 1 kick per sq. cm. per hour, so that in experiments where observations can be made over some period of time the lithium or boron coated ionization chamber is a very sensitive detector for slow neutrons. In the case of boron a gaseous compound, BF3 or BC13, can be used to fill the ionization chamber, and with appropriate gas pressure and length of the chamber a large fraction of the slow neutrons passing through the chamber will be absorbed and thus detected ...".
(State if there ever is a case of detection of atoms being "built-up" by particle bombardment. It seems logical to presume that neutron capture that results in a stable atom must occur.)
(Notice the word "lies" in Chadwick's paper.)
| (Gonville and Caius College University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
65 YBN
[11/19/1935 AD]
| 5498) Theory that when an electric current is passed into a nerve, an electric potential increases until a threshold voltage is reached, and "excitation" occurs. When the current is withdrawn, the nerve returns to its original electric potential.
Archibald Vivian Hill, (CE 1886-1977), English physiologist, publishes this theory in a paper entitled "Excitation and Accommodation in Nerve" in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society of London.". Hill writes: "I-INTRODUCTIO N When an electric current is passed through a living excitable tissue it changes the " condition " of the tissue in such a way that, if the change be in the right direction and great eno-ugh, excitation results. The " condition " is, as yet, of unknown nature: it may be an electrical potential difference: it may be an ionic concentration difference: various guesses at it have been made, but further evidence, and evidence of a more specific kind than that ordinarily considered in the thteory of electric ,excitation, is required before a decision can be reached. The " condition," however, has many analogies with a potential in the ordinary physical sense. It will be referred to as the " local potential " V of the excitable tissue: Keith Lucas (e.g., 1910) called it the " excitatory disturbance ": when we know better what it is, we can perhaps give it a better name. It will be denoted in general by V, and the resting value of V will be called VO. When a current is passed into an excitable tissue V is raised at the cathode, lowered at the anode: if V is raised enough, a state of instability is reached and " excitation " occurs. ... Of the nature of the instability which occurs when V reaches a high enough value we are ignorant. There are plenty of electrical, mechanical, and chemical analogies to it, e.g., in a thyratron or neon lamp flashing at a given potential difference, in a siphon emptying a tank when the water reaches a given level, in an explosion occurring at a given temperature. It is better to make no assumptions at present as to the physical nature of the happenings, until we have seen how far we can get by formal quantitative description on plausible physical lines. We shall assume that when V reaches a certain value U " excitation " occurs, and we shall call U the "threshold." Much is known about electric excitation, and it is satisfactory to find how well this fits into a comparatively simple scheme, quantitative and physically reasonable, but with no specific physical or chemical assumptions as to the nature of the factors involved. The " local potential " V, changed by passing a current through the excitable tissue (hereafter for brevity called " the nerve "), is known to revert to its initial value V0 when the current is withdrawn. It does so gradually, not instantly. We shall assume-and the assumption will be justified by a variety of evidence later-the simplest possible law for the return of V to its original value V0, viz., -dV/dt = (V- VO)/k. (1) Here k has the dimensions of time; it proves to be the time-constant in excitation. The time-constant in excitation is simply that of the process by which the " local potential " tends to decay to its original value when the nerve is left to itself. ... The critical value of V required for excitation, i.e., the threshold U, might have been constant and independent of the previous history of the nerve. If the current lasts only for a very short time this is true. If, however, the current lasts longer, the threshold rises, as is shown by the well-known fact that a slowly increasing current has a higher threshold than a quickly increasing one. The change of threshold is gradual, it takes place as a consequence of, and at a speed determined by, the change of " local potential" produced in the nerve by the passage of current. There is, therefore, a second time-factor in electric excitation, viz., that defining the rate of change of threshold U. We shall use the term " accommodation" (Nernst, 1908) to describe the fact that the threshold U rises when the "local potential " V is maintained. It is known that the " accommodation " disappears of itself, i.e., U reverts gradually to its original value U0 when the nerve is allowed to return to its original resting state: hence we can take as the time-factor of " accommodation " that of the process by which tU returns to U0 when V is suddenly made V0. ... SUMMARY There are two time-factors in electric excitation, that (k) of the " excitatory disturbance " or "local potential " V, and that (λ,) of " accommodation " or change of "threshold " U. λ is much greater than k and independent of it. From the constant-quantity relatio.n for excitation by currents of short duration it is concluded that, under an instantaneous discharge, the " local potential " V is raised instantly by an amount proportional to the discharge. After the discharge, V reverts exponentially to its initial value VO with time-constant k. It is possible, by integration, to calculate (V - VO) for any form of applied current. Neglecting "accommodation," the raltio of the threshold quantity for short times to the threshold current for long times is k. The " excitation time" (Lucas), or the " chronaxie " (Lapicque) is k x loge 2 =0.693k. For short discharges, excitation occurs when V beconmes equal to UO, the resting " threshold." For longer discharges, however, the " threshold" U alters at a rate depending (a) at any moment, on the value of V at that moment, and (b) upon its natural tendency to revert exponentially to its initial value with time-constant λ. k is the time-constant of the " rate at which the excitatory disturbance 352 A. V. Hill subsides "; λ is that of the rate at which, after " accommodation," the "threshold " reverts to its initial level. It is possible, by integration, to calculate (U - UO) for any form of applied current. It is supposed, in general, that excitation occurs when V becomes equal to U. Assuming that the changes of V and U are similar, but in opposite directions, at anode and cathode, it is shown that " excitation at break " is a necessary consequence of " accommodation " and requires no special theory. It is possible to calculate- (a) the form of the strength-duration curve (constant current pulses, or condenser discharges); (b) the conditions for excitation at break, or at gap in constant current; (c) the " utilization time " for currents of any form; (d) the effects of " accommodation " on the " rheobase " and " chronaxie": with rapid " accommodation " both are considerable; (e) the relation between final intensity and time of rise, with linearly increasing currents, and the slope of the " minimal current gradient"; (f) the relation between final intensity and time-constant of rise, with exponentiall y increasing currents; (g) the relation between strength and frequency with alternating current, and the existence and position of the optimum frequency; (h) the changes of excitability during and after the passage of subthreshold currents of any form; (i) the lowered excitability during sub-threshold high-frequency oneway stimulation. These calculations can be made with observed quantities and in absolute units. Several methods of determining experimentally the value of X, the time-constant of " accommodation," are discussed. They lead to consistent results. X is considerably affected by temperature, and largely affected by the Ca-ion concentration. The influence of Ca on " utilization time," on " summation interval," and on " minimal current gradient " is due to its effect on λ. Fabre's " constante line'aire," Schriever's " Einschleichzeit" (multiplied by 2 *8 9), and Monnier's T2, are shown to be the same thirnga s X. Monnier's "e'tat d'excitation " is shown to be (UO - VO) - (U - V). A hydraulic model is described which, with two independent timeconstants, obeys the relations here deduced for the excitation of nerve, and allows the changes of V and U to be visualized. The limitations of the theory are discussed. No attempt is made to account for electrotonic changes of excitability. Conditions are known in which these do not occur, or are reversed, so they must be regarded as secondary; usually, however, they will coinplicate (but not disguise) the relations predicted. No specific physical or chemical theory is offered of the nature of "local potential" V, of " threshold" U, or of their time-constants k and λ. Their behaviour only is discussed. They are of a type, however, which could readily be expressed in physical or chemical terms.".
In my opinion, this shows clearly how a nerve can be potentially charged remotely using any of a variety of particle beams that ionize conducting material. Clearly ultra-violet, x-ray, and electron beams could, theoretically remotely cause a nerve to fire, or for "excitation", as Hill describes it, to occur.
| (University College) London, England |
65 YBN
[11/23/1935 AD]
| 5456) Daniele Bovet (BOVA) (CE 1907-1992), Swiss-French-Italian pharmacologist, shows that sulfanilamide is the part of Prontosil that is effective against streptococci.
Bovet, at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, isolates the well-known sulfanilamide from Prontosil (the molecule that Gerhard Domagk had found is effective against streptococci in the body) and shows that the sulfanilamide molecule is as effective against streptococci in the test tube as in the body. The Prontosil molecule is only effective against the streptococci bacteria in the body and not in the test tube, and so Bovet concludes that Prontosil must be changed in the body into something else. The easiest way of changing Prontosil is by breaking it into fragments. When Bovet does this he finds that one of the fragments is the well-known sulfanilamide. Prontosil is a dye, protected by patents and expensive but Sulfanilamide is colorless, freely available, low cost to manufacture, and equally as effective against bacteria. Many related sulfa-drugs, have been made and these are widely used against streptococcal infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, and scarlet fever.
(Determine correct paper, translate, read relevent parts.)
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
65 YBN
[??/?/1935 AD]
| 5508) Amaldi, D'Agostino, Fermi, Pontecorvo, Rasetti and Segre, use slow neutrons to transmute Lithium, Boron, and Aluminum.
Note that Fermi's group finds no activity with Nitrogen where Chadwick and Goldhaber report finding a transmutation, and that Fermi's group has Boron converted to Lithium and Helium, where Chadwick and Goldhaber have Boron converted to Helium and Hydrogen.
(Read relevent parts of paper.)
| (University of Rome) Rome, Italy |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 4786) Alexis Carrel (KoreL) (CE 1873-1944), French-US surgeon with Charles A. Lindbergh, develop a form of artificial heart that is used during heart surgery.
Lindbergh had devised a sterilizable glass pump for circulating culture fluid through an excised organ. Carrel is therefore enabled to keep such organs as the thyroid gland and kidney alive and, to a certain extent, functioning for days or weeks. This is a pioneer step in the development of apparatus now used in surgery of the heart.
Carrel and Lindbergh announce these methods by which the heart and other organs of an animal can be kept alive in glass chambers supplied by a circulation of artificial blood in 1935 and in 1938 they will publish "The Culture of Organs".
Carrel keeps the organs alive by perfusion (passing blood or blood substitutes continuously through the organ's own blood vessels. With this method Carrel keeps a piece of embyonic chicken heart alive and growing, which needs to be periodically trimmed for over thirty-four years, much longer than the normal life span of a chicken before the experiment is deliberately ended. (state normal life span of chicken)
| (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 5014) Edward Calvin Kendall (CE 1886-1972), US biochemist, isolates the steroid hormone cortisone.
In the 1930s Kendall isolates 28 different cortical hormones (or corticoids, a wide variety of substances emitted from the outer part of the adrenal gland, the cortex, not from the inner part, or medulla, where epinephrine/adrenelin is (the only substance?) secreted). Four of these corticoids show effects on laboratory animals, compounds A, B, E, and F. Hench, a collaborator with Kendall, will show that Compound E (cortisone) relieves the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
(List the effects found on lab animals caused by hormones.)
| (Mayo Foundation) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 5037) Leopold Stephen Ružička (rUZECKo) (CE 1887-1976), Croatian-Swiss chemist, and co-workers partially synthesize the hormone testosterone.
| (Federal Institute of Technology) Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 5055) Paul Karrer (CE 1889-1971), Swiss chemist, synthesizes vitamin B2 (riboflavin).
(Show molecule)
| (Chemical Institute) Zürich, Switzerland |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 5081) John Howard Northrop (CE 1891–1987), US biochemist crystallizes chymotrypsin a protein-splitting enzyme of the pancreatic secretions.
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 5094) Louis Dunoyer (CE 1880 - 1963), French physicist, creates the first aluminized mirrors.
(Find portrait)
Dunoyer's earlier studies on thermal vaporization in a vacuum, which resulted in his neutral particle molecular beam, enable him to construct the first aluminized mirrors.
Dunoyer writes in Comptes Rendus (translated from French with translate.google.com): "Various foreign publications have shown in recent months, interest presented by the substitution of aluminum deposited by evaporation in a vacuum, silver chemically deposited on glass for telescope mirrors. I had long obtained by the mirrors process, during my research on molecular beams. In putting completely developed a method of manufacturing mirrors aluminum layer by performing molecular-rays I have seen that the use of these rays led some consequences, some positive and other negative, which I would draw attention. So that the layer is well adherent, it is necessary that the molecules metal vapor have met with the smallest possible number of molecules the residual atmosphere before hitting the surface on which they are fixed. It is therefore necessary that the path average free path of molecules of the residual atmosphere is the order of the greatest distance between the steam source and a surface point to cover. If the source is punctual, the thickness of the deposit obtained at a time obeys then given to the mêmesloisque éclairementde the surface on which it must happen. This is particularly favorable if the intention is obtain a variable opacity gradually. One can thus obtain excellent photometric corners by choosing suitably the metal vaporized. Aluminum, under a certain thickness, the layer appears slightly bluish. Yet many images by reflection multiple that can be seen (easily 25) all appear to substantially the same color. We know that these images are more numerous, better the semitransparent reflective layers to produce of interference fringes. But the fact that the thickness of the deposit varies with the illumination of the
over large areas. To resolve this problem, the idea that comes first to mind is to remove even more of a vapor source of the underlying surface that this surface is greater. As the path through free path mêmeordre must remain that the greater distance from the source a point on the surface, we see that the degree of vacuum must be even better that this surface is greater. If you double the characteristic dimension this surface, the pressure of residual atmosphere must be least twice in a unit volume eight times larger, which walls have a quad area and thus emit four times more gas adsorbed. Therefore the speed of the pump, combined with the flow line, four times larger and it can achieve in the chamber two times less pressure. A second way to overcome this difficulty is to have the surface to cover a number of sources of steam at a distance less than should be the one source. To obtain a uniform deposit the problem is the same as that of producing a square public uniform lighting with lamps placed at a height. This will be metallized a large mirror with a kind of large bell platform, suitably ribbed to resist the pressure which will be much more convenient to handle, clean and perfectly clear same section of a bell with any height, which would necessary to use a single source of steam. I use successfully a third method which is to achieve a suitable relative movement between the steam source and the surface. This returns to water the surface with a molecular beam. Following the case, the source or surface that makes it move relative to the container. Finally the use of molecular beams or warped its consequence that, if the source is punctual, objects interposed between it and the surface cover the surface of shadows' net. I was able to fix on a glass-surface designs, including any registrations smoothness and sharpness of contour are extreme. The main difficulty lies in achieving the stencils used to delineate the molecular brushes. This application can be useful in many cases, example to allow specific reservations on a surface to be metallized (ie we want to use its power reflector, whether one wants to use its
conductivity) or to make graticules instruments Optical, in stark contrast, as clearly defined purposes and that the wishes and strictly identical to each other, etc.. Let me add in conclusion that the metal layer deposited supports rigorously all surface defects. It makes them appear even and, surprisingly reveals, on a surface of glass, polishing defects that direct examination of the surface before metallization it impossible to see. When the underlying surface is well polished, the metal layer deposited seems to have no scattering power clean, unlike chemically deposited layers, which require almost still polishing. With the aluminized layers that I obtained, the softest polishing can only increase the scattering power of surface."
(Describe the entire process clearly)
| (Institut d’Optique) Paris, France |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 5166) Czech-US biochemists Carl Ferdinand Cori (CE 1896-1984) and Gerty Theresa Radnitz Cori (CE 1896-1957) identify and isolate the new compound glucose-1-phosphate in minced frog muscle.
The French physiologist Claude Bernard had shown in 1850 that glucose is converted in the body into the complex carbohydrate glycogen. Glycogen is stored in the liver and muscle, ready to be converted back into glucose when the body needs more energy supply.
In 1935 the Coris discover an unknown compound in minced frog muscle. This was glucose-1-phosphate, in which the phosphate molecule is joined to the glucose 6-carbon ring at the standard position (1). It was next established that when this new compound, or Cori ester as it was soon called, was added to a frog or rabbit muscle extract, it was converted rapidly to glucose-6-phosphate by an enzyme that was named phosphoglucomutase, a process that was reversible. As only glucose itself can enter the cells of the body, glucose-6-phosphate must be converted to glucose by the enzyme phosphatase.
Carl and Gerty Cori work out a number of the steps involved in glycolysis (anaerobic cell digestion). The Cori's show that glycogen does not breakdown glucose molecules by adding a water molecule at each glucose unit in the glycogen (carbohydrate polymer) chain, but that instead an (inorganic) phosphate is added to those glucose links to form the Cori ester, glucose-1-phosphate. To synthesize glucose back from glycogen would require a large amount of energy, which is lost if glycogen is hydrolyzed to glucose. But the formation of glucose-1-phosphate involves little energy change, and so the reaction can easily change directions. The Coris show that glucose-1-phosphate is changed into glucose-6-phosphate, and this molecule goes through a series of other changes. One of the intermediate molecules will shown by the Coris to be fructose-1, 6-diphosphate, the ester first identified by Harden a generation earlier. Lipmann will make clear the role of high-energy phosphates in converting the chemical energy in carbohydrates into forms usable by the body, a few years later.
(Get original paper and read relevent parts.)
(show full reactions found by Coris)
(Anytime there is mention of energy, beware of inaccuracy, but there may be a more accurate similar description such as quantity of photons necessary. People should think of energy as being matter and motion, and similarly matter with motion, since motion is dependent on matter.)
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 5325) Axel Hugo Teodor Theorell (TEOreL) (CE 1903-1982), Swedish biochemist, shows that the sugar-converting (yellow) enzyme isolated from yeast by Warburg has two parts: a nonprotein enzyme (of vitamin B2 plus a phosphate group) and the protein apoenzyme (the protein component of an enzyme, to which the coenzyme attaches to form an active enzyme). and shows that the coenzyme oxidizes glucose by removing a hydrogen atom, which attaches at a specific point on the vitamin molecule. This is the first detailed account of enzyme action.
(determine correct paper(s))
This establishes another connection between vitamins and coenzymes after the work of Elvehjem.
| (Uppsala University) Uppsala, Sweden |
65 YBN
[1935 AD]
| 6037) George Gershwin (CE 1898-1937), US composer, composes the famous folk opera "Porgy and Bess".
This work is inspired by the DuBose Heyward novel "Porgy" (1925).
(It seems likely that Gershwin was killed by particle beam perhaps by racists opposed to Gershwin's popularizing racial equality and integration.)
| New York City, New York, USA (verify) |
64 YBN
[01/??/1936 AD]
| 6319) First published photos of shifted calcium absorption lines.
Milton La Salle Humason (CE 1891-1972), US astronomer, publishes the first of two infamous photos of red-shifted claimed to be the result of Doppler shift from the galaxy having extremely high relative radial velocity. The second photo of the supposed H & K absorption lines in the spectra of galaxies will be published fully twenty years later, and the claim of Doppler shift reaffirmed and enhanced with H and K absorption lines that unlike the first image of 1936, now are claimed to appear in the middle and far right side of the visible spectrum of the distant galaxies. In this first photo, the position of the absorption lines relative to the size of the spectrum is unchanged because the spectrum size of each galaxy is different - the smaller size spectrum pulls the absorption lines toward the center. Had there been absorption lines in the red part of the spectrum, they would be pulled to the center too, but in the blue direction, just like the red end of the spectrum in the last image clearly shows- are we to accept that this part of the spectrum is racing towards us? No color images will be shown of this so called spectral line shift, until 1984 with the video "Cosmos" by Carl Sagan, which makes public the third known published "infamous" image of the shifting H and K absorption lines. This third image is apparently "colorized" because the spectra have no "red", which is impossible. In addition, the source of the three spectra are unknown and not from the other two infamous Humason images and there are no other known published original images of shifted H and K absorption lines to my knowledge. Much if not all of this shift of absorption lines and spectrum, can be explained with the Bragg-Schuster equation which shows that the more close (or more magnified) a light source is the closer to the center the spectral lines are, because they require a certain angle of incidence to reflect any specific frequency of light particles, and that angle changes with distance to light source. This effect can clearly and easily be seen by simply looking through a grating while moving toward a desk lamp.
So in the first photo, like many mistaken or dishonest claims, the mistake or inaccurate claim is much easier to see, while in the twenty years later infamous photo two the deception is much more elaborate and more difficult to disprove because, unlike infamous photo 1, the lines are claimed to be in the center and far right, are not clearly evident.
Hubble will publish this first photo in a 1936 book for the general public titled "The Realm of the Nebulae".
Clearly, this claim of red shifted lines due to Doppler shift can only be an honest or deliberate mistake, and given centuries of the wealthy seeing, hearing and writing thought images and sounds, the obvious conclusion is that this is a deliberate deception of the public. It's interesting how this kind of evil philosophy appears in 1936 and then is hidden somewhat only to reappear in 1956. In addition, Hubble, who certainly has the achievement of being the first to go public with the "extra galactic nebulae" being other galaxies, and for whom the famous Hubble telescope is named, cannot be viewed as heroic for this deliberate lie and deception, and of course, the same must be said for Humason who was one of the prime mules of the "big bang expanding universe red-shift background radiation" scam.
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
64 YBN
[02/13/1936 AD]
| 5457) Antihistamines.
Daniele Bovet (BOVA) (CE 1907-1992), Swiss-French-Italian pharmacologist, uncovers compounds that neutralize some of the unpleasant symptoms of allergies such as stuffed-up or runny nose. Since a the symptoms of an allergic response are thought to arise through the production in the body of a molecule called histamine, a drug that counters these symptoms is an antihistamine. In 1944 Bovet will introduce the first chemical antihistamine, pyrilamine. Numerous antihistamines have been produced since this time, and while not curing an allergy, do tend to suppress the symptoms. During the 1950s drug manufacturers will realize that allergic reactions resemble the symptoms of colds and antihistamine drugs are advertised as cold relievers.
Early studies of the antihistamines show their effectiveness in protecting against bronchospasm produced in guinea pigs by anaphylaxis or administration of histamine. Anaphylaxis is a severe, immediate, potentially fatal bodily reaction to contact with a substance (antigen) to which the individual has previously been exposed.
(How true is this theory of histamines now? Explain what histamines are. Show molecular structure. Do antihistamines actually work for all people?)
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
64 YBN
[03/11/1936 AD]
| 5496) (Sir) Bernard Katz (CE 1911-2003), German-British physiologist, shows that muscle contraction (in crabs) can be varied and controlled by the frequency of electrical current pulses on the nerve connected to the muscle, which allows a muscle to have a strong contraction or a small contraction when needed. In addition, Katz shows that a small quantity of potassium applied to the neuron-muscle junction causes the muscle to contract and that a similar quantity of magnesium causes an opposite curare-like blocking effect on the neuron-muscle junction.
Katz will go on in later work to show how sodium and potassium ions move into and out of the human nerve and muscle cells to create and remove electrical potentials.
Katz writes: "...These experiments confirm Hoffmann's (1914) and Pantin's (1936) view, and show that the gradation of muscular contraction in crabs can be fully controlled by a variation in the frequency of impulses and the number of facilitated nerve endings." - in other words the higher the frequency of pulses in the nerve, controls how strongly the muscle contracts - this is what allows variation in contraction needed for various muscle movements. ...".
Katz states clearly that constant current causes tetanic (muscle) contraction, in addition to pulsed current. Simply knowing that constant current causes muscle contraction is enough to presume that a direct or pulsed current can be given to a nerve remotely using an ionizing beam.
The obvious absence of remote muscle contraction is clear. While not using the letter “x” or the word “remote”, the phrase "indirect stimulation" is used. Use of "indirect stimulation" which means shocking the nerve as opposed to the muscle directly, but clearly there is also the double-meaning of indirectly stimulating the nerve with, for example, x-rays or ultraviolet light - any kind of beam that ionizes and builds up charge in a conductor.
(By this time in the 1930s already 100 years, at least, have past since thought was first seen and heard- so what remains is an absurd meandering around many various direct neuron writing phenomena in purposely overly abstract and generalized terminology, perhaps in order to remove anger from their neuron writing dealer.)
(Determine who is the first to state that current stregnth and/or frequency determines the strength of muscle contraction. This is a simple and basic theory that current frequency and quantity can vary muscle contraction in order for a muscle to press firmly or gently for example - you would think this would have been learned very early on - even in the 1700s.)
| (University College) London, England |
64 YBN
[03/28/1936 AD]
| 5346) George Gamow (Gam oF) (CE 1904-1968), Russian-US physicist, with Edward Teller in developing a theory of beta decay (1936), a nuclear decay process in which an electron is emitted.
(I have doubts, this explanation seeks to describe the measured energies (mass and velocity) of emitted electrons.)
| (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
64 YBN
[05/27/1936 AD]
| 5134) Albert Szent-Györgyi (seNTJEoURJE) (CE 1893–1986) Hungarian-US biochemist, isolates flavones.
| (University of Szeged) Szeged, Hungary |
64 YBN
[05/28/1936 AD]
| 5563) Alan Mathison Turing (CE 1912-1954), English mathematician, provides a proof of Hilbert's twenty-third problem by showing that determining if all statements are true or false is not possible.
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
64 YBN
[06/22/1936 AD]
| 5137) Edward Adelbert Doisy (CE 1893–1986), US biochemist isolates the female sex hormone estradiol. (verify is correct paper.)
| (St. Louis University) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
64 YBN
[07/15/1936 AD]
| 5359) Louis Eugène Félix Néel (nAeL) (CE 1904-2000), French physicist, theorizes that there are "antiferromagnetic" substances where alternate rows of atoms have opposite magnetic orientation so there is no overall magnetism.
This is exhibited by such substances as manganese(II) oxide (MnO), in which the magnetic moments of the Mn atoms and O atoms are equal and parallel but in opposite directions. Above a certain temperature (the Néel temperature) this behavior stops.
Neel writes in a Comptes Rendus article (Translated from French with Google): "Theory of constant paramagnetism. Application to manganese. On several occasions (2) I showed that a substance with atomic time and had negative molecular field at low temperature susceptibility independent of temperature. But as these demos were made in special cases too, making particular play fluctuations in the molecular field an exaggerated role, I think it is worth reopen the question in a more general and more rigorous. At absolute zero, the atomic moments are oriented in a position potential energy minimum, all parallel to a certain direction half in one direction and half in the opposite direction. Now isolate by thinking one of these halves and treat it as a substance A, magnetized to saturation at absolute zero. The other half will be a substance B. In an external field H and temperature T, the magnetization ¿- the two halves will be represented by vectors AAET crR.Ces magnetization ¿-. " tions are actually related to the acting field H, and the two laws HBpar of identical paramagnetism. ...".
(Needs much more specific info. Describe the exact claim, the unusual properties of rocks that are explained, which kinds of rocks, how are the magnetic fields different from just a regular magnetic field? What evidence is there for alternating opposite direction atoms? what is the nature of substances that have magnetism, are their more rows of one direction? How are these used in computer memories?)
(I have doubts. State if there is experimental proof.)
| (University of Strasbourg) Strasbourg, France |
64 YBN
[07/23/1936 AD]
| 5270) Ernest Orlando Lawrence (CE 1901-1958), US physicist,, Paul Ebersold, and John Lawrence show that neutron rays are much more effective at destroying (killing) mice than x-rays, in addition to Sarcoma 180 tumor and normal mouse tissue cells.
Lawrence et al write "... It is evident that the lethal dose of x-rays for Sarcoma 180, lies somewhere between 2800 and 3000 r while the dose required to kill half the tumors is in the neighborhood of 2000 r. These results agree fairly closely with the findings of Wood,5 Packard6 and Sugiura.7 In the case of. neutrons, the lethal dose seems to lie somewhere around 700-750 r while for 50 per cent the value is near 500 r. It was also generally noted that with the higher doses of neutrons the tumors grew less rapidly when compared to tumors irradiated with equivalent doses of xrays. Thus from the results it appears that neutrons produce the same lethal effect with one-quarter the x-ray dose...." and they conclude that "1. Per unit of ionization, neutrons are much more effective than x-rays in destroying normal mice in vivo, and Sarcoma 180 in vitro. 2. The preliminary results indicate that neutrons are three times as effective in destroying normal mouse tissue, and four times as effective in destroying Sarcoma- 180 in vitro.".
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
64 YBN
[08/08/1936 AD]
| 5479) William Grey Walter (CE 1910-1977), US-British neurologist, determines the location of cerebral tumours using electro-encephalography.
Perhaps x-ray light or magnetic resonance imaging is the best modern method to determine location of brain tumors. But this draws attention to the fact that probably, neuron reading and writing micro-technology could be helping far more people if made public.
It should be noted that Walter reports using "electric convulsion therapy" - probably on humans without consent and perhaps even with objection - given the history and current laws that permit such actions.
| (The Central Pathological Laboratory and the Hospital for Epilepsy and Paralysis) Maida Vale, United Kingdom |
64 YBN
[08/10/1936 AD]
| 5540) Cassen and Condon create the "isotopic spin formalism", which is a system that uses 5 quantum numbers to describe a particle: 3 for the particle's position, 1 for its spin, and another to distinguish between a neutron and proton. The theory a particle having an isotopic spin will be theoretical until in 1952 Anderson, Fermi and collaborators experimentally confirm the "pion-nucleon resonance".
(Needs a clearer explanation. I doubt that there is any unique strong or weak interaction, but instead that simply a variety of particles can cause composite particles to separate, or can be absorbed to form larger composite particles.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
64 YBN
[08/14/1936 AD]
| 5344) John Joseph Bittner (CE 1904-1961), US biologist, reports that some strains of mice are highly resistant to cancer, while others are prone to cancer and if the young of cancer-resistant mice are transferred to cancer-prone mothers these young became cancerous, apparently by the mothers' milk, and likewise, that cancer-resistant parents induce cancer resistance in cancer-prone young. This work will lead to the isolation and identification of the "mouse mammary tumor virus".
In 1949 the Bittner milk factor is isolated by Graff, et al, and has the dimensions and and properties of a virus. found in the milk of cancer-prone mother mice that do not exist in the milk of cancer-resistant mother mice. This is strongest evidence that some cancers are caused by viruses since Rous had initiated this theory a generation earlier. This virus is now called "mouse mammary tumor virus".
In a Science article, "SOME POSSIBLE EFFECTS OF NURSING ON THE MAMMARY GLAND TUMOR INCIDENCE IN MICE", Bittner writes: "FOLLOWINGth e publication2 by the staff of the Jackson Memorial Laboratory (1933) on the extrachromosomal influence in the etiology of breast tumors, several experiments were designed in an attempt to determine the basis of such an effect. In this note the writer presents a preliminary report on the foster-nursing of the young cast by females of a high mammary gland tumor line by females of a low tumor stock and its possible effects on the incidence of that type of tumor. Three litters of mice from the inbred A strain of mice, which has a mammary gland tumor incidence of 88 per cent.,3 were fostered by females of the X stock (Strong's CBA race). The breast taimor incidence in the latter strain is approximately 10 per cent. The young were removed from their A stock mothers as soon as noticed-none were more than twenty-four hours old. In the three litters of fostered A stock mice were nine females. They were used as breeders as well as forty of their progeny. Hence, the mice were subjected to all the irritation factors considered essential for the development of breast tumors in individuals having such an inherited constitution. Of the nine A stock females fostered by CBA stock females, three developed mammary gland tumors, ... Ten of the 13 progeny of fostered females which had breast cancer developed similar growths... Should further study demonstrate that the incidence of mammary gland tumors in mice may be affected by nursing, an explanation may be offered for the so-called extrachromosomal influence as a cause in the development of this type of neoplasm.".
(Have these since been identified as viruses with an electron microscope?)
| (Jackson Laboratory) Bar Harbor, Maine, USA |
64 YBN
[08/17/1936 AD]
| 5336) Dana Mitchell and Philip Powers find that beams of slow neutrons can be reflected in accordance with Bragg's law from crystals of MgO, which gives the neutron beam a wavelength of 1.6A (160pm - similar to high frequency x-ray light particles).
(It seems unusual that neutrons would have such small wavelength - determine what velocity if any is used for the neutron beam.) (State who was the first to state typical neutron beam frequencies, that neutron beams are refracted, and diffracted in the same way as light particles.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 3979) The Marconi Wireless Telephone Company receives the first patent for a liquid crystal device, a light valve, or switch.
| |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 4486) Robert Broom (CE 1866-1951), Scottish-South African paleontologist finds an adult skeleton of an Australopithecus (“Southern ape”).
Broom is interested in finding if mammals descend from reptiles or amphibians, and corrects much of the taxonomic relationships of extinct reptiles.
| Sterkfontein, Transvaal, South Africa |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 4848) Antonio Caetano de Abreu Freire Egas Moniz (moNES) (CE 1874-1955), Portuguese surgeon performs the first prefontal leucotomy (lobotomy), which is also the first psychosurgery (surgery to treat a psychological disease), the severing of the prefrontal lobes (the front of the brain), with the intended as a last resort for those people to be free from psychological disorders.
At least one source describes the leucotomy as "the severing of the prefrontal lobes (the front of the brain)", but this is inaccurate, the more accurate description is "A surgical incision into one or more of the nerve masses in the front of the brain.".
Moniz publishes this work as "Tentatives opératoires dans le traitement de certaines psychoses" (Tentative methods in the treatment of certain psychoses), a book of 248 pages with descriptions of behaviors before and after the leucotomy surgery, including a before and after photo, and then explaining how the operation is performed. One problem that seems obvious with these photos is that people change moods all the time from sad to happy, etc. Any 2 photos can be put together to claim some perceived improvement. Again, it seems obvious that whatever the problems these people had, any operation needs to be consentual only, for those that cannot consent, it seems dangerous to perform a surgery on a human when consent cannot be obtained, and beyond that it seems too imprecise a surgery to be performed unconsensually and just as a non-doctor regular person I strongly recommend against anybody consenting to this kind of imprecise surgery.
Moniz describes the surgical instrument (see image) (translated from translate.google.com): "It is essentially a metal tube with 11 cm. long and 2 mm. outer diameter (Fig. 26 (I)). One of these ends (2) is closed and rounded, the other open (3), wider so as to form a sleeve or fits the head piece or a control leucotomy (4).
A 5mm. of extremity, there is an opening in the longitudinal slot (5) with 1 cm. in length and about 1 mm. wide. Inside of the tube is a steel wire of 1 mm. diameter. It is attached to the rounded end of the probe and it is 1 cm. longer than the tube. The other end of the wire, being longer (6) out of the tube, is related to a separate part of the tube (4), piece that can adapt to the sleeve terminal of the probe (3). When you want to cut the white matter of the prefrontal lobe, forcing the wire inside the probe to adjust the play (4) to the barrel. The excess wire then exits through the longitudinal slot (5) forming the loop (7) we see in Figure 27, 0 cm, 5 in the largest width. It is this loop which, by rotating the device, made the cuts in the centers of the prefrontal lobes oval. The cannula should be divided into centimeters accounts of the middle of the longitudinal slot. The numerator should be clearly visible. Otherwise, it is impossible to fully calculate the point at which the cut will be made....". Moniz goes on to describe the trepanation or opening a hole in the skull: (translated from translate.google.com): "Aseptic field. - The cuts marked, it covers the operative field and the whole head with a sterile gauze and soaked in a solution of the sublime. This keeps the hair wetted gauze in their place, thus ensuring better asepsis. Limitation of the operative field with wet towels to the sublime. Then cut the gauze protective only on lines marked with the incision. ... Figure 29, representing one of our experiments on the corpse of a black dot indicates the entrance of leucomtome or needle in the brain. Trepanation. - After the second cut the spacers are placed, there are two small areas of bone, of about 2 cm. diameter. Is then the two burr holes, either by manual trephine Dean, or a small electric trephine (Normann Dott model). Whatever trepan prefer, it is necessary to employ a cutter that could give a hole of at least 1 cm. diameter. Hemostasis of the bone, if necessary, by Horsley wax. The dura-exposed mother, we excised an area 5 mm., Avoiding vessels. At this point there is no large branches of the meningeal, but even a small lesion of hemorrhage by a small vessel is detrimental because it prevents the perfect view of the cortex.
Incision of the cortex. - It takes a little hook on the edge of the dura so that we can well see the cortex, and with a knife Graeffe, we made a small cut in the pia and the cortex aracnoide to avoid the visible vessels. In most cases, with appropriate care and still operating with good visiblity, blood does not appear. Then introduced through the incision leucotomy on cerebral or intracerebral injection needle. Figure 30 shows, very much, the place of the introduction. The model describes the leucotomy is introduced firmly, that is to say with the handle raised, to achieve the necessary depth in the desired direction, as indicated below. It then opens the leucotomy, that is to say we do go outside the loop of the instrument, what we get down and fixing the small piece terminal that controls the cutting dil. Is then rotated gently leucotomy, in such a way as to describe a loop a little over a lap. We feel a typical resistance while the wire loop cuts the cerebral substance. Then we close the loop and, if we make two cuts, which is the operation that appears to be, in general, prefeable, remove the device 1 cm. or 1 cm. 5, out to make a new cut. It closes the loop again and remove the leucomtome. In general, one can see a plot in the cove of white matter that were cut. This indicates that the cut has been well executed.".. (Notice the word "resistance", "general", and "executed", perhaps only coincidence, or neuron writing.)
In 1949, shockingly Moniz is awarded a share of the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology for his unconsensual surgery, the lobotomy (leucotomy), in clear and no doubt deliberate violation of the newly enacted Nuremberg laws outlawing unconsensual experimentation on humans as a result of the barbaric experiments performed on the prisoners of the Nazi people. This is certainly a low mark for the Nobel Prize judges who should be identified for supporting such a brutal violent illegal action. The Nobel Prize went to Egas Moniz "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses.".
Many historicans fail to mention that these operations are done without consent and many times against clear objection, violating the most basic laws of assault and battery.
In 1935, at the Second International Neurological Congress in London, Moniz heard J. F. Fulton and G. F. Jacobsen discuss the effects of frontal leucotomy (surgical division of the nerves connecting the frontal lobes to the rest of the brain) on the behavior of two chimpanzees: the animals remained friendly, alert, and intelligent but were no longer subject to temper tantrums or other symptoms of the experimental neuroses that had been successfully induced prior to surgery. On the basis of this work Egas Moniz and his young surgical colleague, Almeida Lima, create a frontal leucotomy technique with the goal of alleviating perceived psychiatric conditions, particularly those dominated by great emotion. In the report of their first clinical trials on mental hospital patients there are no operative deaths and fourteen out of twenty patients are reported to be "cured" or "improved". This creates worldwide interest and debate over the possibility that mental illness can be corrected by operating on brains. Variations of this psychosurgical procedure is used widely for two decades, after which use declines because of the popularity of using drugs to solve psychological problems (psychopharmacology).
A clear statement about psychology and in particular psychiatric hospitals is that if something a person is doing is illegal, they should be prosecuted and jailed, if there are treatments for the thinking that made them violate the law, then they can be offered {during a prison sentence, or after}, but strictly on a purely consensual basis.
The real story about lobotomy, is the brutality of how it is inflicted on innocent people, people held without trial, who have not violated any known law, without a sentence, unconsensually drugged and restrained, etc. in particular given 200 years of secret neuron reading and writing.
Another amazing truth about this era, is that even very educated, very wise humans, who reject the shackles of religions, still publicly see nothing wrong with involuntary surgery, based on dubious and experimental psychology theory. Possibly being the subject of such a system might awaken some empathy for the victim operated on or drugged in such intellectuals.
Egas Moniz is involved in government, serving several times between 1903 and 1917 in the Portuguese chamber of deputies, as Portuguese minister at Madrid (1917–18), and leads the Portuguese delegation at the Paris Peace Conference (1918–19). (Possibly the lobotomy was used again political opponents?)
(One interesting aspect of psychology is the shockingly harsh, violent, and torturous solutions given to what are trivial, many times, purely nonviolent behavior activities, in most cases the so-called "cure" is far worse than the problem. Adding the unconsensual aspect, creates the possibility that the lobotomy is designed, perhaps even primarily, as a method of torture to be inflicted against people upsetting the status quo, under the guise of science. Many people are unaware, for example, that before murder of prisoners by gas in the death camps of Auscwitz, etc., the first people euthanized/murdered by gas in Nazi Germany were people locked in psychiatric hospitals.)
| (University of Lisbon) Lisbon, Portugal |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 5012) Robert Runnels Williams (CE 1886-1965), US chemist synthisizes thiamin (vitamin B1).
Williams determines the molecular structure of thiamin and proves that this structure is correct by synthesizing it. Synthetic vitamins will become big business producing vitamin pills for people to get all required vitamins in a single pill.
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 5028) William Cumming Rose (CE 1887-1984), US biochemist identifies and isolates the essential amonio acid "threonine".
(todo: determine correct paper)
Rose isolates and identifies an unknown amino acid “threonine” which is an essential amino acid (found in casein, a protein in milk) for rats. Rose finds that rats on a diet of zein (a protein in corn) as their only source of protein, lose weight and eventually die, but adding casein to their diet can stop this loss. Using a mixture of free amino acids known to be in casein, Rose still finds the rats losing weight and concludes that there must be an unknown amino acid in casein. Rose isolates threonine, the last of the nutritionally significant amino acids to be found.
Rose calculates the minimum daily requirement for each of the essential amino acids. (chronology)
(what is zein of corn) (Explain how Rose isolates threonine) (It seems unusual that a body could eat enough food, but somehow become thin and die, as if somehow the body can not build cells with the raw material from any living tissue.)
| (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 5116) John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (CE 1892-1964), English-Indian geneticist, makes a provisional map of the X chromosome which shows the positions of the genes causing color blindness, severe light sensitivity of the skin, a particular skin disease, and other traits.
(determine what paper and display image)
| (University College) London, England |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 5117) John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (CE 1892-1964), English-Indian geneticist, is the first to estimate the rate of mutation of a human gene.
Haldane produces the first estimate of mutation rates in humans from studies of the ancestry of hemophiliacs, and describes the effect of recurring harmful mutations on a population.
| (University College) London, England |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 5140) Alexander Ivanovich Oparin (CE 1894-1980), Russian biochemist explains how life on earth could have had a chemical origin and describes coacervates (aggregates of macromolecules such as proteins, lipids and nucleic acids that form a stable colloid unit with properties that resemble living matter).
Oparin publishes his book "The Origin of Life on Earth" describes the steps of how life may have had a chemical origin by presuming a methane/ammonia atmosphere and sun light as a source of energy. The question about the origin of life on the early earth as the result of physics and chemistry had been speculated on by Charles Darwin and others, but such theories offend the religious majority and so are rarely publicly debated and explored. Asimov argues that since the Soviet government is officially atheist in this time, Oparin does not fear punishment, and so opens the door on this origin of life research for those in the West such as Miller and Ponnamperuma.
A coarcervate is an aggregate of macromolecules, such as proteins, lipids, and nucleic acids, that form a stable colloid unit with properties that resemble living matter. Many are coated with a lipid membrane and contain enzymes that are capable of converting such substances as glucose into more complex molecules, such as starch. Coacervate droplets arise spontaneously under appropriate conditions and may have been the prebiological systems from which living organisms originated.
| Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 5422) Albert Bruce Sabin (CE 1906-1993), Polish-US microbiologist, cultures the poliomyelitis virus in vitro in human embryonic nervous tissue.
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 5722) Paramount Pictures releases a short animated Popeye film "Hold the Wire" in which Bluto intercepts the phone wire and pretends to be Popeye, which is typical of neuron writing deception.
| |
64 YBN
[1936 AD]
| 6041) Sergey Sergeyevich Prokofiev (CE 1891-1953), Russian composer, composes the symphonic children’s tale "Peter and the Wolf".
| Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia (presumably) |
63 YBN
[01/25/1937 AD]
| 5300) Arne Wilhelm Kaurin Tiselius (TiSAlEuS) (CE 1902-1971), Swedish chemist, improves on the process of electrophoresis.
In 1937 Tiselius devises a rectangular U shaped tube for electrophoresis (movement of charged particles in suspension or solution, under the influence of an electric field) with specially ground joints that can be separated to isolate a single kind of protein from a mixture of proteins. By using the proper cylindrical lenses the process of separation can be followed by observing the changes in the bending of light (the index of refraction) that is passed through the suspension as the protein concentration changes. Protein molecules in colloidal solution carry electric charge and will move in an electric field. Two protein molecules of the same distribution of charge is very unlikely and so protein molecules with different charge travel at different rates and can be separated. When electrophoresis does not separate into components, this is evidence of the purity of a protein preparation, in particular when there is no separation when the acidity of the solution is changed. Electrophoresis is applied to proteins in blood, which can be separated into an albumin fraction and various globulin fractions. The hope is that the ratio of proteins might change in the event of disease, but so far the average mixture of proteins in blood remains unchanged except for a very few diseases.
Using this technique on blood serum Tiselius confirms the existence of four different groups of proteins – albumins and alpha, beta, and gamma globulins. Tiselius also conducts work on other methods for the separation of proteins and other complex substances in biochemistry including chromatography (starting in 1940) and partition and gel filtration (starting in the late 1950s).
(Describe what cylindrical lens are and how they are used in this device)
| (University of Uppsala) Uppsala, Sweden |
63 YBN
[02/18/1937 AD]
| 5453) Hideki Yukawa (YUKowo) (CE 1907-1981), Japanese physicist, predicts that a nucleus can absorb one of the innermost of the circling electrons and that this is equivalent to emitting a positron. Since the innermost electrons belong to the "K shell", this process is termed "K capture". This prediction will be verified in 1938.
(Explain how this is verified. Would this not make the other shells unstable? Again I think this is highly theoretical without any physical observations. It's a theory based on the shell theory which itself has never been directly observed; only the spectral lines are the basis of this theory.)
| (Osaka Imperial University) Osaka, Japan |
63 YBN
[03/01/1937 AD]
| 5245) (Sir) Hans Adolf Krebs (CE 1900-1981), German-British biochemist, and William Arthur Johnson discovers the basic structure of what will be called the "Citric-Acid" ("tricarboxylic acid" or "Krebs") cycle. The cycle of oxidation and energy production of all food in living cells.
This is a continuation of the work of Carl and Gerty Cori, who had shown how carbohydrates, such as glycogen, are broken down in the body to lactic acid. Krebs completed the process by showing how the lactic acid is metabolized to carbon dioxide and water. Before this people only knew that the process involves the consumption of oxygen. The consumption of oxygen can be increased, according to Albert Szent-Györgyi, by the four-carbon compounds succinic acid, fumaric acid, malic acid, and oxaloacetic acid. Krebs shows in 1937 that the six-carbon citric acid is also involved in the cycle.
Krebs and Johnson write in their article "METABOLISM OF KETONIC ACIDS IN ANIMAL TISSUES" in "Biochemical Journal": "IN this paper experiments are described which show that ketonic acids can react in animal tissues according to the general scheme {ULSF: See paper for chemical equations} R. CO.COOH + R'. CO. COOH + H20-R. COOH + C02 + R'. CH(OH). COOH ...... (1) α-ketonic-acid I α-ketonic-acid II carboxylic-acid α-hydroxy-acid or R. CO. COOH + R'. CO . CH2.COOH + H20-R. COOH + CO2 + R'. CH(OH) .C0. COOH ....(2). α-ketonic-acid β-ketonic acid carboxylic-acid β-hydroxy-acid
Examples are given in which α-ketonic acid I as well as α-ketonic acid II in (1) are represented by pyruvic acid. In other cases the α-ketonic acid in (2) is pyruvic acid or α-ketoglutaric acid and the β-ketonic acid in (2) acetoacetic or oxaloacetic acid. The reactions 1 and 2 elucidate a mechanism by which α-ketonic acids are broken down in the animal body. Although it has long been known, from the work of Embden, that α-ketonic acids undergo oxidation to the fatty acids which are shorter by one carbon atom, the question of the mechanism of this oxidation remained open. According to (1) and (2) the oxidation of a-ketonic acids is not brought about by molecular oxygen, but by a dismutation, that is to say by an intermolecular oxido-reduction. The oxidizing agent for the ketonic acid is a second molecule of ketonic acid which is reduced to the corresponding hydroxy-acid. The reactions (1) and (2) appear to play a role in the course of the normal oxidative breakdown of carbohydrates, of fats and of the carbon skeleton of amino-acids. This will be discussed in full in subsequent papers. ... VI. SUMMARY 1. Pyruvic acid is metabolized in animal tissues under anaerobic conditions. The following substances are found as end products of the anaerobic metabolism of pyruvic acid (1) lactic acid, (2) acetic acid, (3) carbon dioxide, (4) succinic acid, (5) f-hydroxybutyric acid. The evidence for the formation of the first four substances may be considered conclusive. The evidence for the formation of fl-hydroxybutyric acid is based on the Van Slyke-Deniges mercuric sulphate reaction. 2. The quantities of the products formed suggest that the primary reaction is a dismutation according to reaction (3). This reaction represents the main anaerobic reaction of pyruvic acid in testis or brain. 3. The data obtained in other tissues, especially muscle suggest that acetic acid disappears by secondary reactions in which /3-hydroxybutyric acid is the main end-product, according to the scheme (7). 4. Evidence is given for the occurrence of reactions analogous to (3) in which oc-ketoglutaric acid, oxaloacetic acid and acetoacetic acid take part (reactions (10), (11) and (12)). 5. The schemes (1) and (2) represent a mechanism by which oc-ketonic acids are oxidized and decarboxylated in animal tissues. 6. The reactions (7) and (8) indicate that ketone bodies are not only intermediates in fat but also in carbohydrate metabolism. ".
(Note that not until later does Krebs mention water as a product.)
(Read and show more of paper, give more details of experiments and results.)
(State who determines that this process results in the production of up to 38 ATP molecules.)
(State what form the energy takes. Show how matter and motion are transfered in this so-called "energy" transfer.)
(Show all molecules graphically from start to finish, that is from injected food to water and carbon dioxide, and perhaps then to emitted light particles. In example show fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. In addition, show all molecules in cycle.)
(State how carbohydrates and fats are used to build cells as opposed to used for "energy".)
(Show how ATP is used as "energy" in cells.)
(State what happens to other molecules not difested in this way. Clearly atoms like metal and other molecules and atoms which are not used by bodies simply pass through into the feces and perhaps uring too, not chemically changed.)
| (University of Sheffield) Sheffield, England |
63 YBN
[03/17/1937 AD]
| 5471) Ribonucleic acid (RNA) identified and detected in virus as infectious.
(Sir) Frederick Charles Bawden (CE 1908-1972), English plant pathologist, and N. W. Pirie discover that the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) contains ribonucleic acid. This is the first indication that nucleic acids, found in all cells are also in viruses. All viruses since have been found to contain nucleic acids, and so viruses are accepted as a universal component of life.
Bawden and Pirie publish this in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society of London" in an article titled "The Isolation and some Properties of Liquid Crystalline Substances from Solanaceous Plants Infected with Three Strains of Tobacco Mosaic Virus" in which they write: "All the treatments that we have tried which in no way inactivate the virus preparations leave the phosphorus content unaltered. Some treatments that do inactivate them, such as heating to 90? C. or exposure to strong acid or alkali, split off a nucleic acid or its breakdown products. Other treatments, however, that also inactivate them have no effect on the phosphorus content, e.g. nitrous acid, which destroys the infectivity without affecting the serological activity of the preparations, and drying, which affects both. We are therefore unable to agree with the statement of Stanley (1937) on aucuba mosaic virus, that the nucleic acid is merely a contaminant and that it is inessential to activity. ... The purified virus nucleic acid resembles yeast nucleic acid closely; it contains a pentose and does not give the reactions with Schiff's reagent characteristic of a desoxy pentose. The phosphorus is liberated as phosphate on acid hydrolysis in two stages in the manner described by Jones (i920) for yeast nucleic acid. The question of the relationship between these virus nucleic acids and yeast nucleic acid will be dealt with in a later paper, but it may be said now that the molecule is larger than that of yeast nucleic acid prepared in the usual ways, for it is retained on collodion membranes which readily permit the passage of yeast nucleic acid. It is possible that this difference is simply the result of the more extensive degradation suffered by yeast nucleic acids during the course of isolation, for the methods used for the isolation of virus nucleic acid are much gentler than those necessary for the isolation of yeast nucleic acid. ... Nucleoproteins with characteristic optical properties have been isolated from solanaceous plants infected with three strains of tobacco mosaic virus but not from healthy plants. These proteins are infective...".
In 1939 Bawden and Sheffield will write: "... Bawden & Pirie (1937 a) have shown strains of tobacco mosaic virus to be nucleoproteins, differing from the nucleoproteins characteristic of nuclei in that the nucleic acid contains ribose instead of a desoxy pentose. Feulgen’s reagent readily identified desoxy pentose, but, unfortunately, there is no simple colour test for detecting nucleic acids of the ribose type. The amorphous body does not contain a desoxy pentose, and staining with Feulgen’s reagent sharply distinguishes it from the nucleus, for the body is unaffected whereas the nucleus takes on a deep red or purple colour. ...".
(Note that Bawden does not identify this nucleic acid as containing ribose until later.)
(It seems likely that viruses are not traditional cells, but yet, they are very cell-like, and may descend from typical cells. I can see viewing them as cells, and as life, with the view that RNA and DNA are basically a living objects, or maybe that any container with RNA and DNA is an object described as a member of the set of “life”, can be described as life even when dead or if never living or moving.).
(Not everybody views viruses as living objects, but I think they are in the tree of life somewhere. Their (genetic) history is still being resolved and may never be fully traced.)
(Is this the first detection of a ribonuclei acid?)
(So apparently Stanley found nucleic acids, but rejected the idea that they were from the virus.)
| (Rothamsted Experimental Station) Harpenden, Hertfordshire, England |
63 YBN
[03/18/1937 AD]
| 5221) Max Theiler (TIlR) (CE 1899-1972), South African-US microbiologist, creates a safer vaccine against yellow fever.
A safer yellow fever vaccine is produced by using non-virulent strains of the virus from those passed from chick embryo to chick embryo nearly 200 times.
Not until the particularly virulent Asibi strain of the yellow fever virus from West Africa had passed through more than a hundred subcultures, do Theiler and his colleague Hugh Smith announce the development of the so-called 17-D vaccine. Between 1940 and 1947 Rockefeller produce more than 28 million doses of the vaccine and finally eliminate yellow fever as a major disease. (Here is another possible use for nanometer size particle devices - to destroy viruses and bacteria.)
(read relevent parts - summary?)
(Explain how the vaccine is isolated/filtered. What is actually injected into humans? part of egg embyro?)
| (Rockefeller Foundation) New York City, New York, USA |
63 YBN
[04/??/1937 AD]
| 6268) Turbo jet engine.
A jet engine is an internal-combustion engines that propels air vehicles by means of the rearward discharge of a jet of fluid, usually hot exhaust gases generated by burning fuel with air drawn in from the atmosphere. The prime mover of virtually all jet engines is a gas turbine. The gas turbine converts the energy derived from the combustion of a liquid hydrocarbon fuel to mechanical energy in the form of a high-pressure, high-temperature airstream. This energy is then harnessed by what is termed the propulsor (e.g., airplane propeller and helicopter rotor) to generate a thrust to propel the aircraft. A jet engine obtains the oxygen needed from the atmosphere which is different from rocket engines which have a self-contained fuel-oxidizer system.
The jet engine will become the standard propulsion system for all high performance airplanes. Whittle obtained his first patent for a turbo-jet engine in 1930, and tests his first jet engine on the ground in 1937. But the first operational jet engine is designed in Germany by Hans Pabst von Ohain and will power the first jet-aircraft flight on August 27, 1939.
| (British Thomson-Houston works) Rugby, England |
63 YBN
[05/14/1937 AD]
| 5548) Lise Meitner (CE 1878-1968), Otto Hahn (CE 1879-1968), and Fritz Strassmann (CE 1902-1980) chemically identify elements with atomic number 93, 94, 95 and 96 (now called Neptunium, Plutonium, Americium, and Curium) that result from uranium bombarded with neutrons chemically identified. These elements will not be formally recognized until the 1940s, and their identifications are credited to other people.
In his 1946 Nobel prize lecture Hahn states: "Fermi and his co-workers continued their tests through the whole of the Periodic System up to uranium. Here also they discovered many transmutations produced by neutrons, including some very rapid ones. They proceeded from the obvious assumption that initially there are produced artificial, active, short-living uranium isotopes; as these emit b-rays Fermi inferred the production of so-called "transuraniums", representatives of the element 93 which is not known naturally, and possibly even of the still higher element 94. Fermi’s proofs were not accepted everywhere. It was pointed out that for example in the case of the so-called 13-minute element - that detected with the greatest certainty - the possibility of its being an isotope of element 91, i.e. protactinium, could not be ruled out**. At this point Lise Meitner and I decided to repeat Fermi’s experiments in order to decide whether the 13-minute element was a protactinium isotope or not. This decision was taken the more readily since, by the discovery of protactinium (1917), we were familiar with its chemical properties. More- over, a b-radiating isotope of element 91 was well known to us in the form of uranium Z, discovered by myself, which had the favourable half-life of 6.7 hours, and was available from uranium salts. With the help of the "indicator method" we were able to prove without doubt that the 13-minute element of Fermi was neither a protactinium isotope, nor a uranium, actinium, or thorium. In accordance with the position of science at the time, Fermi’s assertion should be correct, and the 13-minute element a representative of the element 93, that is a "transuranium". We should point out here that other possibilities did not occur to anyone at that time. Since the discovery of the neutron and the application of artificial sources of radiation, a large number of most unusual nuclear reactions had been discovered; the products were always either isotopes of the irradiated substances, or their next, or at most next-but-one, neighbours in the Periodic System; the possibility of a breakdown of heavy atomic nuclei into various light ones was considered as completely excluded. With the tests on Fermi’s 13-minute element and the checking of other, rather less certain, results of Fermi, we found (later in co-operation with F. Stra ssmann) that the phenomena associated with the irradiation of the highest element of the Periodic System were much more complicated than had originally been supposed. Fermi and his co-workers had already, in their first communication, described two short-life b-radiating kinds of atoms (half-life 10 sec and 40 sec), which they naturally considered to be artificial isotopes of uranium produced from the original uranium by the capture of neutrons. Lise Meitner and I found, in addition, a substance with a half-life of 23 minutes, which we conclusively identified as an artificial radioactive uranium isotope. With Fermi’s substances of short life, the isotopy with uranium can only be assumed, but not proved. The 23-minute element occurred without any other radiation conditions in a so-called "resonance process". As the result of many years of work, we (Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann) had finally obtained a great number of artificial active kinds of atoms, which all appeared to be formed directly or indirectly by b-radiation from the supposed short-living uranium isotopes, and which therefore must all represent so-called transuraniums - elements higher than uranium. According to their chemical behaviour, these could be classified into various groups, and, since in many cases the gradual production from /?-radiating parent substances could be directly observed, decay schemes were drawn up extending to elements 95 and 96. In so far as the work was repeated by others, the results were always confirmed. ...".
(Confirm that Hahn, et. al never actual isolate these transuranium metals in visible quantities.)
| (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instute fur Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem) Berlin, Germany |
63 YBN
[05/22/1937 AD]
| 5515) Image of individual atoms. Atoms confirmed to be about 0.1 nm in size.
Field-emission electron microscope invented. Erwin Wilhelm Müller (CE 1911-1977), German-US physicist, publishes his 1936 invention of the field-emission electron microscope (FEEM) which magnifies the tip of a tungsten needle 200,000 times.
In 1936 Erwin Müller first conceives of the idea of a field-emission microscope, which involves a very fine needle tip in a high vacuum which emits electrons that then contact a fluorescent screen, which shows a very magnified image of the needle tip. Magnifications of up to 200,000 times are achieved and so the field-emission microscope if the most powerful microscope ever built.
This technique only applies to a limited number of high-melting point metals and alloys.
In a 1937 paper, Muller publishes this as (translated from German with Google): "Electron microscopic observations of field cathode" in the (Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and Nuclei) "Journal of Physics A Hadrons and Nuclei". Muller writes as an abstract: "It is a simple arrangement for observing the direction of the electron distribution shown emerging from a single crystal at very high electric field strengths. The adsorption of electron-active substances last track on the fluorescent screen. Finally information is via the current density made in the field emission." and summarizes his work by writing: "Summary. By etching method can produce fine metal tips with perfectly smooth surface, suitable for special field emission study. If you compare such a cathode tip over a fluorescent screen, we obtain an electron with the very high lateral magnification to 2 x 105. This field electron microscope is a good indicator about the dependence of field emission from the crystal structure, since the fine Cathode tip consists of a single crystal. The differences between the work functions in the different crystallographic directions stand out impressively. Similarly, the adsorption of thorium or oxygen as last layers in their relationship to the crystal surface are observed directly. The measurement of the cathode field images allows the determination of current density, which can reach up to 108 A/cm2.".
Muller states that the bright spots are actually 10-11 cm (0.1 nm^2). (verify: from Google translation.)
Note that this 1937 publication is the first publication of the field-emission microscope. Muller identifies 1936 as the year the field-emission microscope was invented but cites this 1937 paper.
In 1982 G. Binning and team at IBM in Zurich, Switzerland, will develop the scanning tunneling microscope which also captures images at the atomic scale. (Describe the difference, which is apparently that Binning and team simply measure the resistance from current passing from a metal needle through other objects. It seems a very small difference and unusual that Muller, Knoll, and or Ruska would not think of simply measuring the resistance of materials under moving electron needle.)
(Determine if images of molecules or other objects are ever published.)
(Is there an object between the needle tip and the screen?). (Determine what "1 million diameters" is) (Compare FEEM with TEM, SEM, and STM.) (What is measured to create image? Quantity of current flowing through the needle?)
(State what dimensions are determined for nucleus. Does this change the view of the nucleus as being a much larger object than thought by Rutherford?)
(Explain more about how these devices work, what is the voltage used? How thick is the tungsten needle, what other metals can be used for the needle? Show images of actual needle, and other parts of microscope.)
(List the atom sizes found. What about molecule sizes? Have these been measured and reported to the public? Can the atom kind be identified simply by its diameter?)
(How can an organic molecule be seen but it only works for metals? explore more.)
(There is apparently a mistaken belief that atoms were not imaged until the 1950s with this 1936 microscope. Clearly the published images shown images of atoms.)
(It seems likely that this invention happened many years before. In particular, seeing atoms makes nano-meter scale engineering - in particular in the case of making flying dust-sized neuron writer devices much easier to do. When a human can see each atom it becomes much easier to visualize how to move the atoms around to create various mechanical microscopic devices like light particle transceivers.)
| (Siemens and Halske) Berlin, Germany |
63 YBN
[06/30/1937 AD]
| 5364) Emilio Gino Segrè (SAGrA) (CE 1905-1989), Italian-US physicist, fills one of the empty spaces in the periodic table at atomic number 43 when he shows that some molybdenum that had been irradiated with deuterium nuclei by Ernest Lawrence contains traces of the new element. As the first completely artificial element, the element is named "technetium". Segrè plays a part in the detection of element 85, astatine, and also plutonium in 1940.
Segrè uses chemical analysis, to identify small quantities of element number 43 in a sample of molybdenum bombarded with deuterons, which Lawrence had given him. This element is named “Technetium”, Greek for "artificial", is the first new element to be artificially produced, and is the lightest element known to lack stable nuclei.
Technetium is a silvery-gray radioactive metal, the first synthetically produced element, having 14 isotopes with masses ranging from 92 to 105 and half-lives up to 4.2 × 106 years. Technetium is used as a tracer and to eliminate corrosion in steel. Technetium has atomic number 43; melting point 2,200°C; relative density (specific gravity) 11.50; valence 0, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7.
Some technetium isotopes occur in trace amounts in nature as nuclear fission products of uranium. The isotope technetium-97 is the first element artificially produced. Technetium-99, a fission product of nuclear reactors that emits gamma rays, is the most-used tracer isotope in nuclear medicine. Technetium resembles platinum in appearance and manganese and rhenium in chemical properties.
Segré and Carlo Perrier publish this discovery in an article "Some Chemical Properties of Element 43", in the Journal of Chemical Physics. They write: "1. INTRODUCTION PROFESSOR E. O. LAWRENCE gave us a piece of molybdenum plate which had been bombarded for some months by a strong deuteron beam in the Berkeley cyclotron. The molybdenum has been also irradiated with secondary neutrons which are always generated by the cyclotron. The molybdenum plate shows a strong activity, chiefly due to very slow electrons. The radioacti vity is due to more than one substance of a half-value period of some months and to the radioactive phosphorus isotope P32.1 The substance was sent from Berkeley on December 17, 1936 and we started our chemical investigation on January 30, 1937; all short period substances have decayed in these 6 weeks and we could investigate only substances with a comparatively long period. According to usual nuclear reactions one would expect to find in molybdenum irradiated with neutrons or deuterons the formation of isotopes of zirconium, columbium, molybdenum, and element 43, of which zirconium can be produced only by fast neutrons and element 43 by deuterons, whereas molybdenum and columbium could be formed by deuterons and by neutrons. ... 2. ANALYSIS In a first analysis we tested whether the activity was due to columbium. About 200 mg of molybdenum with an activity of some thousands of our radioactive units (R.U.)3 were dissolved in aqua regia, and after adding 5 mg of rhenium, evaporated to dryness. The residue was dissolved with potassium hydroxide containing a small amount of potassium columbate. The addition of rhenium and the subsequent addition of manganese were made in order to protect any 43 in the later precipitations. We had no stable isotope of 43 and as very little is known about its chemical properties, we added the elements having presumably the closest resemblance to it. These are manganese and rhenium which lie in the same column of the periodic system above and beneath 43. We will see however that the resemblance with rhenium is much closer than the resemblance with manganese; a result which was expected. ... We were able to show that molybdenum also cannot be responsible for the activity. Of several tests we mention only the following. Rhenium and phosphorus and ammonium nitrate were added to the molybdenum solution. Ammonium phospho molybdate precipitated; we dissolved it with ammonia and separate phosphorus as magnesium ammonium phosphate and molybdenum as sulphide. The former carries every activity, whereas molybdenum sulphide is inactive. ... 3. CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ELEMENT 43 The first step for any chemical study of the activ ity is its concentration with the smallest possible amount of inactive substance. The best method for this concentration we have found, is to dissolve about 200 mg of irradiated molybdenum in aqua regia, add from 2 to 5 mg of rhenium and evaporate over the water bath. The residue is then dissolved with ammonia, and hydrogen sulfide passed through the solution. We then add a few milligrams of a manganous salt and after standing 12 hours filter. The precipitate of manganous sulphide carries a small amount of a black substance, ... We precipitated all the rhenium and a trace of the activity from the distillate with hydrogen sulfide. The greater part of the activity is precipitated from the residue together with a small quantity of impurities by hydrogen sulfide. The activity is then completely recovered by adding a few mg of rhenium to the residue after the first precipitation and precipitating again with hydrogen sulfide. This separation from rhenium is especially important since it is the only method available for separating the activity from rhenium. ... SUMMARY Deuteron irradiated molybdenum shows an activity which has to be ascribed to element 43 according to its chemical characters, since, as is easily seen, all other possible elemen ts are ruled out. Element 43 in its chemical behavior bears a close resemblance to rhenium showing the same reactions but for the volatilization in a hydrochloric acid current. However, it must be borne in mind that having used rhenium as a "carrie r" for extremely small quantities of element 43, some reactions could be different for "weig hable" quantities of this element. Our warmest thanks are due to Professor E. O. Lawrence and to the Radiation Laboratory of the University of California whose most generous gift of radioactive substance made this investigation possible. We hope also that this research carried on months after the end of the irradiation and many thousands of miles away from the cyclotron may help to show the tremendous possibilities of this instrument.".
Segré and Perrier follow this up with a short note about a more simple method of extracting the radioactive element 43 from the Molybdenum.
(It is interesting that technetium is in the middle of the table as the only unstable atom, why, for example is element 75 below it stable? To me, this and the dual nature of the table, hints that the correct structure of atoms is still not understood. The half-life of Technetium according to the table I have is 4.2 million years, which is only surpassed by Thorium 3.3e10, Uranium 4.5e9, Plutonium 8e7, Curium 16e6, all of which last for millions of years, so relatively speaking Technetium is relatively stable compared to many other radioactive atoms that half half lives of seconds, minutes or days. )
(State what chemical analysis is used. How is technetium now produced in large quantities? What machine is used? What is the nature of the process? Are thin sheets of atoms scraped from the surface while a beam of neutrons makes a sweep of a flat surface?)
| (Royal University) Polermo, Italy |
63 YBN
[07/06/1937 AD]
| 6051) Benny (David) Goodman (CE 1909-1986), US jazz clarinettist and band leader of one of the most popular big bands of the Swing Era (1935-1945) performs Louis Prima's "Sing, Sing, Sing".
"Sing, Sing, Sing (With a Swing)" is a 1936 song, written by Louis Prima and first recorded by him with the New Orleans Gang and released in March 1936.
During an era of segregation, Goodman led one of the first racially-integrated musical groups. (verify)
| Hollywood, California, USA (verify) |
63 YBN
[07/09/1937 AD]
| 5046) Otto Stern (sTARN {German} STRN {English}) (CE 1888-1969), German-US physicist, measure a magnetic moment for protons by deflecting neutral molecules of H2 and HD (Hydrogen and Deuterium).
Stern measures a proton magnetic moment two or three times larger than expected by the theory of Paul Dirac.
(todo: show images from paper.) (I have doubts, explain what magnetic moment is, and more specific details. Clearly magnetism is actually a form of electrism or electricity based. Is magnetic moment, like an electrical asymettry?)
| (Carnegie institute of Technology) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
63 YBN
[09/??/1937 AD]
| 5449) Gerhard Herzberg (CE 1904-1999), German-Canadian physical chemist, states that H2 and N2, formerly undetectible in planetary and stellar spectra, can be detected from their "rotation-vibration" spectrum, not by their "dipole moment", but by their "quadrupole moment".
In his September 1937 paper "On the possibility of detecting molecular hydrogen and nitrogen in planetary and stellar atmospheres by their rotation-vibration spectra" Herzberg writes for an abstract: "The detection of molecular hydrogen and nitrogen in planetary or stellar spectra, hitherto deemed impossible, can be carried out by means of the rotation-vibration spectrum of these molecules. Though H2 and N2, as is well known, have no ordinary rotation-vibration spectra (since their dipole moment is zero), they do have rotation- vibration spectra, owing to their quadrupole moment. In the case of H2 the 1-0 band of this quadrupole rotation-vibration spectrum, acco rding to calculations of James and Coolidge, is 8.1 x 10-9 times as intense as the 1 -0 band of the ordinary rotation-vibration spectrum of HCl. The minimum absorbing layer necessary to detect the 1—0, 2-0, and 3-0 bands is found to be 2.5, 2.7, and 13.0 km atm., respectively. This is of the order of magnitude probably available in the atmospheres of the major planets. A table of the positions of the lines of the 1-0, 2-0, 3-0, and 4-0 bands as predicted from the ultraviolet H2 spectrum is given. The band most favorable for detection is the 3-0 band at 8500 A. Failure to observe this band would at least give an upper limit for the amount of H2 present in the atmospheres of the major planets or of low-temperature stars. For N2 the predicted positions of the Q branches of the bands are given. Their detection will probably be more difficult than the detection of the H2 bands. A further possibility of detecting molecular hydrogen and nitrogen is by the ordinary rotation-vibration spectrum of the isotopic molecules HD and N14N15, which are always present in natural hydrogen and nitrogen, respectively.". In the main paper Herzberg writes: "I. INTRODUCTION It has, up to the present, always been considered impossible to detect molecular hydrogen or nitrogen in planetary or stellar atmos— pheres. The band systems of H2 and N2 in the visible and the near ultra—violet regions have highly excited electronic states (>6 volts abov e the ground state) as their lower states and consequently can- not, in general, appear in absorption. If in a high—temperature star the thermal energy would be sufficient to excite these levels, at the same time it would be sufficient to dissociate the molecules {D (H2)= 4.45, D(N2) = 7.35 volts}, and again no molecular absorption would occur. On the other hand, according to Wildt, Russell, and others, it seems necessary to assume the existence of large amounts of molecular hydrogen in the atmospheres of the major planets and also a certain amount of molecular nitrogen, as indicated by the presence of CH4, and NH3 in these atmospheres. Also, the atmospheres of the cooler stars, according to Russell, contain considerable amounts of H2 and N2. It would consequently be of great interest if it were possible to detect H2 and N2 spectroscopically in planetary and stell ar atmospheres. It is the object of this paper to point out a possibility of detecting the presence of sufficiently large amounts of molecular hydrogen and nitrogen in planetary and stellar atmospheres by their rotation- vibration spectra. ".
(I want to document this because I think it's important to recognize the origin of the claimed confirmations of Hydrogen gas molecules being the predominate molecule of stars and planets. Plus I have doubts about spectral lines being caused by or explained by the rotation moment of molecules and/or atoms - it simply has not been proven and explained to me to my satisfaction.)
(The atomic and molecular composition of the stars, planets and moons is one of the great questions of life, and it is interesting to actually learn to our satisfaction what those compositions actually are.)
| (University of Saskatchewan) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
63 YBN
[09/??/1937 AD]
| 5525) Grote Reber (CE 1911-2002), US radio engineer, builds the first radio telescope that has a reflector or radio dish.
When radio engineer Karl Jansky announced his discovery of extragalactic radio signals in 1932, Reber tries to adapt his shortwave radio receiver to pick up interstellar radio waves, but fails. However, in 1937 Reber builds the first radio telescope in his back yard which has a reflector, or radio dish 31 feet (9.4 meters) in diamets to receive the radio light. For several years Reber is the only radio astronomer on earth. Using his radio telescope, Reber will identify points in the visible universe that emit stronger-than-background radio frequencies. These "radio stars" do not coincide with any visible stars. A decade later, Baade will later identify one radio source as a distant pair of colliding galaxies.
The dish is a solid mirror whose "skin" is made of sheet metal. The telescope is made of galvanized iron and when finished weighs less than 2 tons.
By 1942 Reber will complete the first preliminary radio maps of the sky.
(I think the large dish size is needed, not because of a large amplitude of light beams, but like any reflecting telescope, to reflect more light. Clearly a large number of beams are focused to a point, which contains every interval of light. What kind of electrical circuit does Reber use?).
(It's clear that the sine-wave electromagnetic theory for light was secretly abandoned long ago by those who own and are consumers of neuron reading and writing. The obvious truth is that light is made of material particles. So in this view, a radio disk is just like a mirror reflecting telescope - and a mirror could be just as usefully used - but probably is more expensive and not worth the increase in signal strength. It seems clear that any disk is going to reflect visible light, and every frequency of light. So all light emitting objects would produce a signal. for example a 1 trillion particle/second (Hertz) signal also produces a 1, 10, 100, etc. particle/second signal. So it may be that these radio signals are just light particle sources which are much stronger than others and so produce stronger signals when sampling low frequencies, or have higher frequencies that are resonant on the specific low frequencies. But I think it could be that the signals are from sources where the strongest frequencies they emit are these low frequencies of light particles. It seems unusual that any star would emit more low frequency light than any other star, so perhaps these are just close stars. I think that it would be unusual to find any star that does not also produce a low frequency signal - but instead only high frequency signals that only have discrete low frequency resonances - it seems very unlikely. Much more likely, all stars emit light in a curve more like y=1/x where there are mostly low frequencies and far fewer high frequencies, simply because the chances of finding a particle that occurs at a consistent low frequency is much higher than finding a particle at a consistently regular higher frequency. It may be that these are light sources that simply have low frequency resonances at the measured low frequency - as a result of some unique atomic composition which other stars do not have. So in this sense, I have some doubts about the Planck distribution. If the Planck distribution is true for stars and all light emitting materials, perhaps the chances of finding regular consistent particle intervals is most likely at middle frequencies. If a source emits a light particle every nanosecond, this means that there will be a regular signal at all integer frequencies above 1 particle/second.)
(EX: It seems clear that a radio telescope of only a few inches can be built, since light is most likely made of particle beams, with no amplitude. So this open and public fraud that a radio telescope is large because the wavelength of radio light is large is really one of a million contemporary shameful occurances and not likely an honest mistake - certainly not be those who are consumers of direct-to-brain windows.)
(EXPERIMENT: Can radio light of larger than 1 meter be focused to a point with a reflecting mirror? If yes this is clear evidence that light beams have no amplitude and have no component which is in a sine wave shape.)
(EXPERIMENT: Can a regular reflecting telescope detect radio light? In other words, can a mirror be used to do radio astronomy? If yes, why are there no "radio adapters" for reflecting telescopes?)
| Wheaton, Illinois, USA |
63 YBN
[12/03/1937 AD]
| 5142) Peter Leonidovich Kapitza (Ko Pi TSu) (CE 1894-1984), Russian physicist discovers the "superfluidity of liquid helium", showing that helium II (helium that exists in the form below 2.2° K) conducts heat 800 times as rapidly as copper the best conductor at ordinary temperatures, because it flows with remarkable ease, and that helium II has a viscosity only one thousandth that of hydrogen at normal tempearture and pressure, and hydrogen is the least viscous gas.
Viscosity is the resistance of a fluid to a change in shape, or movement of neighbouring portions relative to one another. Viscosity describes an opposition to flow. Viscosity may also be thought of as internal friction between the molecules. Viscosity is a major factor in determining the forces that must be overcome when fluids are used in lubrication or transported in pipelines. Viscosity also determines the liquid flow in spraying, injection molding, and surface coating. The viscosity of liquids decreases rapidly with an increase in temperature, while that of gases increases with an increase in temperature. The SI unit for viscosity is the newton-second per square metre (N-s/m2). (That viscosity of gas would decrease with increase of temperature seems unintuitive - verify.)
In a Nature article Kaptiza writes: "THE abnormally high heat conductivity of helium II below the λ-point, as first observed by Keesom, suggested to me the possibility of an explanation in terms of convection currents. This explanation would require helium II to have an abnormally low viscosity; at present, the only viscosity measurements on liquid helium have been made in Toronto1, and showed that there is a drop in viscosity below the λ-point by a factor of 3 compared with liquid helium at normal pressure, and by a factor of 8 compared with the value just above the λ-point. In these experiments, however, no check was made to ensure that the motion was laminar, and not turbulent. ...".
| (Institute for Physical Problems, Academy of Sciences) Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 3622) Charles F. Carlson (CE 1906-1968) develops the process of xerography (or electrophotography) which uses electrostatic charges and heat to copy documents. Xerography is the basis of photocopiers and laser printers.
The work xerography is from Greek words meaning "dry writing". Xerography usually uses an aluminum drum coated with a layer of selenium. Light passes through the document to be copied, or is reflected from the document's surface, and then contacts the selenium surface, onto which negatively charged particles of ink (i.e., the toner) are sprayed, forming an image of the document on the drum. A sheet of copy paper is passed close to the drum, and a positive electric charge under the sheet attracts the negatively charged ink particles, resulting in the transfer of the image to the copy paper. Heat is then momentarily applied to fuse the ink particles to the paper.
Some credit this find (of photo-polarization) to Bulgarian scientist Georgi Nadjakov (CE 1896-1981) in 1937. As an employee at Bell Telephone Company, and in a patent department, this would give Carlson the possibility of seeing secret technologies using the camera-thought network of the telephone company. Perhaps Carlson was simply chosen to be the person to introduce this copied technology, or perhaps Nadjakov copied the photocopying technology. It is an interesting case of "who copied the copier?".
| New York City NY, USA |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 4843) Albert Francis Blakeslee (CE 1874-1954), US botanist finds that the alkaloid "colchicine", from the autumn crocus, (a flower) can produce mutations in plants. Colchicine causes the chromosomes in a cell to double in number without allowing the cell to divide. Blakeslee finds that increasing the chromosome number equals in an identical increase in flower petals. (To me this is very interesting, because it basically connects a chromosome with a petal, physically - that is in a sense, that the petal is physically built around the chromosome.)
These mutations are different from mutations caused by X rays as demonstrated by Muller. This is the first molecule found to interfere with the mechanics of heredity. Soon after this other chemicals, such as nitrogen mustards will be found to produce mutations by causing chemical changes within the chromosomes.
The autumn crocus is a corm-producing European and North African plant (Colchicum autumnale) having showy colorful flowers that appear in the fall. Also called meadow saffron. A corm is a short thick solid food-storing underground stem, sometimes bearing papery scale leaves, as in the crocus or gladiolus.
| (Carnegie Institution of Washington) Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y., USA |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5029) William Cumming Rose (CE 1887-1984), US biochemist shows that of the twenty plus amino acids that are present in nearly every protein molecule, only 10 are essential to rats, otherwise their body will not be able to produce protein (since all necessary amino acids must be present for protein to be synthesized and they will experience nitrogen loss, tissue wastage and other effects, and eventually die.
Over several years Rose continues to adjust the rodent diet and finally establishes the primary importance of ten amino acids: lysine, tryptophan, histidine, phenylalanine, leucine, isoleucine, methionine, valine, and arginine, in addition to the newly discovered threonine. With these in adequate quantities the rats were capable of synthesizing any of the other amino acids if and when they were needed. (make record for each?)
(I am somewhat skeptical about the claim, see the data, possibly they only recognize weight loss. It seems unlikely that a body cannot somehow produce new cell material from any other cells. See thought images for more info - was their corruption?)
| (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5030) William Cumming Rose (CE 1887-1984), US biochemist, begins a ten-year research project to determine the amino acids requires by humans.
Rose had shown in 1937 that rats need 10 amino acids.
By persuading graduate students to restrict their diet in various ways Rose eventually establishes that there are only eight essential amino acids for humans: unlike rats we can survive without arginine and histidine. Since then, however, it has been suggested that these two amino acids are probably required to sustain growth in infants.
So Rose shows that humans only need 8 amino acids, the rest of the amino acids, the body can produce.
(I have doubts that the human body cannot build more cells from any other cell material, but perhaps.)
| (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5151) Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm (CE 1895-1971), Russian physicist, and Ilya Mikhaylovich Frank (CE 1908-1990) explain Cherenkov radiation as being the result of radiation from an electron in a medium moving faster than the speed of light in that medium, analogous to the creation of a sonic boom when an object exceeds the speed of sound in a medium.
Cherenkov had reported in 1934 that gamma rays produce a faint background blue glow in ordinarily nonluminiscent pure solvents, such as sulfuric acid or water which is different from luminescence. Vavilov explains the radiation as "Bremsstrahlung", or “stopping radiation,” emitted by rapidly decelerating electrons dislodged from their atoms by incident gamma rays.
Tamm, together with Frank explain what will be called Cherenkov radiation. This theory leads to an understanding of the nature of the radiation discovered by S. I. Vavilov and P. A. Cherenkov.
(Without the original paper translated into English it is difficult to know what Cherenkov observed and Tamm and Frank's explanation of what Cherenkov observed.)
(Do Tamm and Frank work together in the same lab?) (explain Cherenkov radiation)
(EXPERIMENT: Do other mediums cause the same light particle emissions? If no, perhaps this is dependent on water or sulphuric acid molecules.)
(I doubt the explanation of the Cherekov blue-frequency light particles. I think these light particles may be simply the disintegration of an electron into source light particles. I think this is probably the result of a particle collision that results in light particles being emitted. )
(Clearly much of Russian, Chinese, South American, etc science and engineering must develop somewhat simultaneously with science and engineering in Europe and the USA, however, because of secrecy and language barriers, much of these scientific advances are not known by the public, and probably only known to the owners of the neuron reading and writing devices of each nation, if even they know.)
(cite, translate paper and read relevent parts.)
| (Moscow University) Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5174) Bernard Ferdinand Lyot (lEO) (CE 1897-1952), French astronomer, determines from photographs that the Sun's corona rotates at the same speed as the rest of the Sun.
Spectral lines from the corona attributed to the element "coronium" will be shown to be produced by highly ionized atoms of metals such as iron. In 1942 people will find that temperatures of the corona are around 1,000,000°C. Rocket observations will show that the corona emits X-rays.
(Verify if the spectral lines of an atom change when ionized.) (Does highly ionized mean many atoms are ions or that atoms have greater than 1 charge?) (State the people who determine the temperature of the corona. It seems to me that the corona simply represents the outermost part of the Sun, so it may simply be easier to say the "surface of the Sun".)
(State who demonstrates that spectral lines thought to be coronium are actually from highly ionized metal atoms.) (How is this conclusion about coronium made? Give more specific details.)
| (Observatory) Meudon, France |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5223) Fritz Albert Lipmann (CE 1899-1986), German-US biochemist, finds that cell oxidation will not proceed without the addition of some phosphate.
It was widely known that the breakdown of carbohydrates like glucose provides "energy" for the body's cells, but just how the cell obtains the "energy" released is a mystery. when he was working on the breakdown of glucose by a particular bacterium. Fortuitously Lipmann finds that a certain oxidation will not proceed without the addition of some phosphate. This is all he needs to see that the real purpose of metabolism is to deliver energy into the cell. Lipmann determines that the phosphate that delivers the energy to the cell is a molecule, adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which had been identified as the probable source of muscular energy by K. Lohmann in 1929. The molecule consists of adenosine monophosphate (a nucleotide of the nucleic acid RNA), with the addition of two energy-rich phosphate bonds. When ATP is hydrolyzed to adenosine diphosphate (ADP), some of this energy is released ready for use in the cell.
| (Carlsberg Foundation) Copenhagen, Denmark |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5229) Theodosius Dobzhansky (CE 1900-1975), Russian-US geneticist explains that species have large genetic variability as opposed to the commonly held view that natural selection produces something close to the best of all possible results and that changes are rare and slow and not apparent over one life span.
Dobzhansky observes extensive genetic variability in wild populations of Drosophila.
In his book “Genetics and the Origin of Species” Dobzhansky explains that mutations are common and that there is no “normal” gene, but that all genes maintain themselves in varying amounts depending on chance and local conditions. The view before this was that there are normal genes for which most mutations are harmful. Since De Vries and others had reuncovered Mendelian genetics in 1900, geneticists tried to fuse genetics with Darwin's evolution by natural selection.
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5266) Conrad Arnold Elvehjem (eLVeYeM) (CE 1901-1962), US biochemist, finds that nicotinic acid is a vitamin and the cure to the disease pellagra.
In 1913 Funk, while searching for a cure for beriberi, came across nicotinic acid in rice husks. Although nicotinic acid is of little use against beriberi, Elvehjem found that even in minute doses it would dramatically remove the symptoms of blacktongue, the canine equivalent of pellagra. Tests on humans revealed the same remarkable effects on pellagra.
This shows that pellagra is a set of symptoms that arise from the failure of certain enzymes to function normally because they make use of coenzymes containing nicotinic acid, and the mammal body cannot assemble nicotinic acid from simpler compounds and has to have it supplied in complete form in the diet. Since this time, many of the B vitamins have been connected with specific coenzymes, for example pantothenic acid is a portion of Lipmann's coenzyme A, and riboflavin (vitamin B2) forms part of other enzymes. Euler-Chelpin, and Warburg had shown that Harden's coenzyme and closely related coenzymes contain nicotinic acid as part of their molecular structure.
Elvehjem, is a prolific author with over 800 papers to his credit. Elvejem also works on the role of trace elements in nutrition, showing the essential role played by such minerals as copper, zinc, and cobalt. Folkers will develop this work a decade later.
| (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 5348) George Gamow (Gam oF) (CE 1904-1968), Russian-US physicist, creates the basis for the theory of a neutron star, hypothesizing that in sufficiently massive stars after all thermonuclear sources of energy for the central material of a star, have been exhausted, a condensed neutron core is formed. J. Robert Oppenheimer will develop this theory more in 1938.
| (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA (presumably) |
63 YBN
[1937 AD]
| 6040) Carl Orff (CE 1895-1982), German composer, composes the secular oratorio "Carmina Burana" with the famous "O Fortuna".
| Frankfurt/Main, Germany (first performance) |
62 YBN
[01/31/1938 AD]
| 5216) Isidor Isaac Rabi (RoBE) (CE 1898-1988) Austrian-US physicist, Zacharias, Millman and Kusch, describe a new method of measuring nuclear magnetic moment.
Starting in 1933 Rabi improves the study of molecular beams to make it possible to measure magnetic properties of atoms and molecules with great accuracy. This is important in the development of the maser (an acronym for “microwave amplification by stimulated emission radiation”) by Townes. The nuclear magnetic resonance of Purcell will replace Rabi's technique as an analytic technique.
The concept of magnetic moment is in my view somewhat confusing, and has not been well described. "Moment" is not "momentum", momentum is mass multiplied with velocity. Moment is defined by the Columbia Encyclopedia as: "moment, in physics and engineering, term designating the product of a quantity and a distance (or some power of the distance) to some point associated with that quantity. The most theoretically useful moments are moments of masses, areas, lines, and forces, including magnetic force. The concept of torque (propensity to turn about a point) is the moment of force. If a force tends to rotate a body about some point, then the moment, or turning effect, is the product of the force and the distance from the point to the direction of the force. The application of this concept is illustrated by pushing open a door: the farther from the hinge the push is applied, the less force is required.".
One dictionary defines "electric magnetic moment" as: (in atomic physics) "The total magnetic dipole moment associated with the orbital motion of all the electrons of an atom and the electron spins; opposed to nuclear magnetic moment.". Nuclear magnetic moment is defined as: (in nuclear physics) "The magnetic dipole moment of an atomic nucleus; a vector whose scalar product with the magnetic flux density gives the negative of the energy of interaction of a nucleus with a magnetic field.". This is a confusing definition - clarify and make simple with visual examples.
Adding to this confusion is the concept of "spin" which American Heritage Dictionary defines as: "Physics.
1. The intrinsic angular momentum of a subatomic particle. Also called spin angular momentum. 2. The total angular momentum of an atomic nucleus. 3. A quantum number expressing spin angular momentum.".
The authors write in their article "A New Method of Measuring Nuclear Magnetic Moment": " It is the purpose of this note to describe an experiment in which nuclear magnetic moment is measured very directly. The method is capable of very high precision and extension to a large number and variety of nuclei. Consider a beam of molecules, such as LiCl, traversing a magnetic field which is sufficiently strong to decouple completely the nuclear spins from one another and from the molecular rotation. If a small oscillating magnetic field is applied at right angles to a much larger constant field, a re-orientation of the nuclear spin and magnetic moment with respect to the constant field will occue when the frequency of the oscillating field is close to the Larmor frequency of precession of the particular angular momentum vector in question. ...".
(Explain more details. What magnetic properties are measured? How are they measured? Isn't this really an electrical property?)
(Since a magnetic field is actually a dynamic electric field as shown by Ampere and common sense, magnetic moment should technically be called "dynamic electric moment" or something more accurate and clear. In addition, it seems likely that electromagnetism is the product of particle collision, and/or particle bonding, and so this has consequences as opposed to some action-at-a-distance force, although that generalization may be a helpful guide. My understanding of magnetic moment is that either a molecule has a structural imbalance and this is reflected in an asymettrical movement in an electromagnetic field, and/or that as an electron circles a nucleus it has a regular periodic pull and movement on the nucleus which can be measured. Get the official definition of magnetic moment of an atom and molecule - are there differences between magnetic moment of an atom and molecule - can individual particles have a magnetic moment?)
(There is something that seems unlikely about determining the movement of an individual nucleus from changing spectral lines - an earlier method used to measure nuclear spin, since clearly there are many millions of atoms with electrons in different random states. How can tiny changes of the positions or intensities of spectral lines exhibit the motion of a single nucleus? Perhaps there is some collective oscillation that happens syncronously for all nuclei? I have a lot of doubts about the claims of magnetic moments and movements but have an open mind and an interest to know the truth.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
62 YBN
[03/30/1938 AD]
| 5253) Richard Kuhn (KUN) (CE 1900-1967) Austria-German chemist, with Gerhard Wendt, is the first to isolate vitamin B6 (pyridoxine).
Kuhn begins with 13,000 gallons of skim milk.
| (Kaiser Wilhelm-Institut fur Medizinische Forschung, Institut fur Chemie) Heidelberg, Germany |
62 YBN
[04/12/1938 AD]
| 4794) Hans Berger (CE 1873-1941), German psychiatrist, at the end of his last paper on the electroencephelograph, Berger raises the question of remotely detecting alpha and beta brain waves. Berger writes:
"...Previously I had already indicated that my α-w and β-w bear no relationship to the electromagnetic oscillations which according to Cazzamalli emanate from the human brain. It is out of the question that the α-w and β-w of my E.E.G. exert any effect at a distance; they cannot be transmitted through space. Upon the advice of experienced electrophysicists, I refrained from any attempt to observe possible distant effects. In Germany, as elsewhere, considerable ingenuity and great sums of money have been spent precisely to perform such experiments which have yielded negative results, as I have learned from people kowledgeable in this field. I wish to emphasize this particularly at this point, because views similar to those expressed by Cazzamalli were recently propounded by Franke and Koopmann. This could again lead to expensive and fruitless experiments. In this connection, however, I would again like to drtaw attention to a certain point which I have repeatedly mentioned in the past. When mental work is performed or when the type of activity designated as active conscious activity becomes manifest in any way, as, e.g., upon the transition from the passive to the active E.E.G., a considerable decrease in the amplitude of the potential oscillations of the human brain occurs in association with this shift in cortical activity.".
| (University of Jena) Jena, Germany |
62 YBN
[04/??/1938 AD]
| 6271) Teflon.
Roy T. Plunkett discovers polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) resin. PTFE is a strong, tough, waxy, nonflammable synthetic resin produced by the polymerization of tetrafluoroethylene (TFE). Plunkett finds that found that a tank of gaseous tetrafluoroethylene refrigerant has polymerized into a white powder. Plunkett patents the white powder as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE). The PTFE resin is resistant to acids, exceptionally durable and an excellent electrical insulator. Marketed as "Teflon", PTFE resin is used to make pipes for corrosive materials, insulators and pump gaskets. In December 1954, two French engineers, Louis Hartman and Marc Gregoire, discover that burned food does not stick to the inside of a frying pan coated with teflon.
| (E. I. duPont de Nemours & Company) WIlmington, Delaware, USA |
62 YBN
[06/01/1938 AD]
| 5544) Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999), US physicist and J. J. Livingood, identify two new iodine isotopes by bombarding tellurium with deuterons: iodine-126 with a 13-day half-life, and iodine-131 with a half-life of 8 days. Iodine-131 is now used in the diagnosis and treatment of thyroid disorders.
In 1938-1941, Seaborg identifies isotopes of manganese, iron, tellurium, cobolt, zinc, osmium, germanium, antimony, and nickel.
(Are there any non-radioactive transmutation products?)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN
[06/16/1938 AD]
| 5382) Carl David Anderson (CE 1905-1991), US physicist, and Seth H. Neddermeyer (CE 1907-1988) identify both positively and negatively charged particles with a mass in between that of an electron and proton (120-400 electron masses), which they name a "mesotron", and then a "meson" and currently a "mu" meson or "muon".
Carl Anderson notices the track of a new particle in a cloud chamber exposure on Pike's Peak in Colorado that is less curved than an electron track and more curved than a proton track, giving this new particle the name mesotron, which will be quickly shortened to meson by Bhabha. This particle is 130 times more massive than an electron and 1/4 as massive as a proton.
In 1939 Anderson thinks that "further studies of the disintegrations should be especially helpful in attempting to find out whether the mesotrons can be identified with the particles postulated by Yukawa to account for nuclear forces.".
A different meson, identified by Cecil Powell in 1947, the pi-meson (pion), will be thought to be the particle predicted by Yukawa to be reposible for nuclear forces (more specific-which force). Both positron and mesotron (pion) are very short lived. Positrons collide with an electron and their matter is emitted as a pair of gamma beams of photons. Blackett will show that this reaction can be reversed; gamma rays can be converted into an electron-positron pair. The claim is that the meson separates in millionths of a second (microseconds). The positive meson separates into positrons and neutrinos, while the negatively charged meson separates into electrons and neutrinos. In 1963 people will find that neutrinos formed by muons are different from the neutrinos associated with neutron decay, and so the claim will be that a neutrino has two forms and then two more anti-neutrinos.(make clearer) Anderson's mesotron (muon) does not readily interact with atomic nuclei. The particle of intermediate mass (between proton and electron) Yukawa predicts should interact with atom nuclei.(explain why) In 1947, around 10 years later Powell will find a slightly more massive meson (the pi meson or pion) which will prove to be Yukawa's predicted particle. Anderson's negative muon will be shown in 1961 to be identical to the electron in every property except mass and so is viewed as a heavy electron.
Clearly there is a mystery with the charge of the meson. In 1939 Anderson writes: "...The evidence for the existence of the mesotron is then of two main types, (a) Observations involving range, curvature and ionization, and (b) Observations of penetrating power in a thick layer of heavy material, which reveal a duality in behavior in the same momentum range. Method (a) is by its character limited to particles of rather low energy, and the particles to which this method has been applied seem to be predominately positively charged. At least one of these originated in a nuclear disintegration, in which there appeared five other unidentifiable positive particles of which one may have been a proton and the rest mesotrons. The penetrating component appearing in the platinum energy loss measurements consists, however, of roughly equal numbers of positives and negatives and suggests very strongly that they may be created in pairs by photons in a way analogous to the creation of electron pairs. Whether these particles, which apparently have quite different origins, have the same properties is a question for future experiments to decide. ...".
It's difficult to determine exactly when Anderson felt certain enough that the particle tracks they observed were of a particle of mass in between an electron and proton. Doubts of the tracks representing either a proton or electron were published in 1934. The first clear announcement of a distinct particle of mass in between that of an electron and proton was Anderson and Neddermeyer's paper "Cosmic-Ray Particles of Intermediate Mass" in June 1938. The name "mesotron" will be given by Anderson and Neddermeyer and official accepted by December 7, 1938.
An initial report of this new particle is made in November 1946 in the journal "Science" as "PARTICLES IN COSMIC RAYS SIMILAR TO BUT DIFFERENT FROM THE ELECTRON".
Note that in 1938 the name "meson" is suggested however that Anderson still uses the name "mesotron" as late as 1947.
(Experiment: What do particle tracks look like with no em field? This might need to be done off of any planet or moon to avoid the natural em field of the larger body.)
(In his 1936 paper Anderson describes a photo stating "The fact that light particles receive so much energy would tend to favor the photon view. This disintegration in which all the ejected particles are probably positive charged rpresents a process fundamentally different from the usual electron shower; it shows that charge has been removed from the nucleus and made to appear in the form of light particles.", but this may be again a play on light as meaning both light such as that we see with our eyes versus light as in a description of mass of a particle. Probably, like the "light atoms" of Rutherford and others, this is a purposeful hint that all amtter is made of light particles - that is light that we see with our eyes.)
(Again there is the mystery of: does "photon" imply a group of light particles or a single light particle?)
(Note that there is a space in Anderson's Physical Review papers between 1939 and 1947 - clearly WW2 vastly slowed science information reaching the public.)
(I have doubts about the Lorentz theory that electron mass is determined by electron speed. I there is a possibility that, as an electron is probably made of light particles, that as an electron's speed increases it means, generally, that it's mass is decreasing (not increasing as Lorentz's theory requires), as the electron loses more and more light particles until ultimately it is a single light particle moving at the speed of light.)
(State if this determination of mass presumes identical charge as an electron and proton.)
( I think electric force relates to mass, the more massive the particle the more the particle is bent in an electromagnetic field, in other words the electric phenomenon is the same for all matter that responds to it but larger size means more collisions. Interesting that neutral matter can be placed against a magnet, without physical obstruction but a same-charged magnet finds an obstruction - as if perhaps somehow particles in the field are pushed out of the space by the neutral/non-magnetic piece of matter. The alternative is a varying charge which either relates or does not relate to mass.)
(In a positron and electron collision what is the exact duration of each gamma beam? How many photons? State the exact wavelength. I think much can be learned about the nature of electrons from knowing how many photons are in them, in addition a limit is put on the size of a photon.)
(State how the gamma rays are detected. Show the photograph. How can the energy of the gamma rays be known? State how this quantity is measured.)
(I think that it's important to state that in Blackett's work, for example, that the claim by many people is that light is not material and is energy, but this seems to me absurd. Clearly light is material.)
(Blackett's claim of observing gamma photons converted into positron and electron pairs is interesting. Trying to build up matter from light particles is a key process. Just as all matter separates into source light particles, so it seems logically to conclude that light aprticles can be assembled into larger composite pieces of matter - but how to build light particles into electrons, protons, atoms, etc is still unknown. Describe the complete process. How are the gamma beams are generated, how the electron and positron are detected. Can the electrons and positrons then be then separated? Can the electrons then be built into larger pieces of matter? Can electrons be built into protons? Can protons and neutrons be made directly from photons? Perhaps people should look at reversing proton-antiproton reactions that produce gamma beams of light particles. Apparently separating collections of matter into source particles is much easier to do that to assembling them from source particles.)
(That the claim that a neutrino is a no mass particle seems to rule out its existence. If not material, then perhaps a neutrino simply represents a quantity of light particles. Clearly the E=mc2 equation does not apply because velocity cannot be converted into mass, and mass cannot be converted into velocity. In addition, I think that it is clear that photons are not energy but are matter.)
(Explain what experiments show that a muon does not interact with atomic nuclei. I find it hard to believe that a muon can not be accelerated, but since it decays so rapidly, how can there be much testing? State what kind of particle collision is thought to be responsible for the meson appearing.)
(I think the existence of a meson shows that the electric effect does not require a certain mass, presuming that a meson and electron have the same charge. )
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
62 YBN
[06/22/1938 AD]
| 5448) The first image of a virus (150nm).
Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (CE 1906-1988), inventor of the first electron microscope, and his brother Dr. Helmut Ruska, publish the first images of a virus using an electron microscope.
Viruses confirmed to be about 150 nm in size.
(Verify that this is the first image of a virus.)
(Translate and read relevent parts of paper.)
(Get better images besides black and white if possible.)
| (Berliner Medizinischen Gesellschaft/Berlin Medical Society) Berlin, Germany |
62 YBN
[09/01/1938 AD]
| 5354) J. Robert Oppenheimer (CE 1904-1967), US physicist and Robert Serber, adapt the Eddington "gas" model of stars, and develop the mathematical theory of Gamow that some stars have neutron cores, and there are nuclear forces between neutrons.
Oppenheimer and Gamow use Eddington's gas model of a star as the basis of their theories.
(My own view on star collapse is that most stars simply continue to emit light particles, the mass continuing to fill empty spaces inside the star. If a star is losing more mass than gaining, eventually the star will dim. I think there is a possibility for an unstable crack and explosion of a star or planet, but that, to me, seems extremely rare, and a result, simply, of physical structure - like an earth quake.)
(Interesting that here too Gamow and later Oppenheimer is the source of another mistaken theory - in this case the neutron star.)
(In theorizing about the interactions of matter inside stars and planets, I think we should have a lot of doubts simply because we cannot experimentally reproduce a star or planet, and there is a lot of matter that is a star or planet, and those interactions between atoms and subatomic particles, etc. must be very diverse and complex when summing up all the many particle collisions- similar to predicting the weather or an earthquake. But simply, I think my own view leans towards a theory where light particles are trapped in stars and planets, and those few photons that reach the surface get to escape to more distant locations. But it's interesting to speculate about more details for composite particles larger than light particles. For example, is the inside of stars and planets simply packed unmoving photons? Then when a space opens and the photons find freedom, do they naturally fall into electrons, protons, hydrogen, helium and larger atoms?)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN
[09/01/1938 AD]
| 5355) J. Robert Oppenheimer (CE 1904-1967), US physicist and G. M. Volkoff, develop George Gamow's theory of stellar collapse to a neutron core, and theorize that if a star is massive enough it will contract indefinitely.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN
[09/07/1938 AD]
| 5418) German physicist, Carl Friedrich, (Baron von) Weizsäcker (VITSeKR) (CE 1912-2007) and independently German-US physicist, Hans Albrecht Bethe (BATu) (CE 1906-2005), develop a theory for atomic reactions of stars, which is now called the Bethe-Weizsäcker formula. This theory describes a carbon cycle as a source of energy production in stars. Carbon, acting as a catalyst, changes four atoms of hydrogen into an atom of helium of atomic weight four. During these transformations the carbon is restored and there is a very small loss of mass which is converted into the enormous amount of energy which fuels the stars.
Bethe suggests that a nuclear reaction powers stars by fusing hydrogen atoms into a helium atom, the remaining mass being released as photons, which Bethe describes as energy. Bethe describes a set of reactions where a proton (hydrogen nucleus) merges with a carbon nucleus, which initiates a series of reactions which ends with a regenerated carbon nucleus and a helium nucleus (alpha particle) is formed from 4 hydrogen nuclei (protons). Later Bethe will evolve a second theory which involves the direct union of hydrogen nuclei to form helium which can happen at lower temperatures. Weizsäcker independently reaches similar conclusions in Germany. Bethe makes use of the knowledge of subatomic physics which had been learned in the forty years since Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity and Eddington's conclusions about the temperature of the stellar interiors. This nuclear explanation provides a source of energy (free light particles) which Helmholtz and Kelvin had thought about 75 years earlier. When hydrogen is converted into helium (whether directly or by the catalytic influence of carbon) nearly 1 percent of the mass of the hydrogen is converted into energy (free photons). This mass loss is enough to account for all the sun's massive and long term emission of photons. At the rate the sun emits energy (light particles) it must be losing 3 billion kg (4,200,00 tons) of mass every second, but the mass of the sun's hydrogen is so much that this loss of mass remains imperceptible even over millions of years.
In an article in the journal "The Physical Review" entitled "Energy Production in Stars", Bethe writes for an abstract: "It is shown that the most important source of energy in ordinary stars is the reactions of carbon and nitrogen with protons. These reactions form a cycle in which the original nucleus is reproduced, viz. C12+H=N13, N13=C13+ε+, C13+H=N14, N14+H=O15, O15=N15+ε+, N15+H=C12 +He4. Thus carbon and nitrogen merely serve as catalysts for the combination of four protons (and two electrons) into an α-particle (§7). The carbon-nitrogen reactions are unique in their cyclical character (§8). For all nuclei lighter than carbon, reaction with protons will lead to the emission of an α-particle so that the original nucleus is permanently destroyed. For all nuclei heavier than fluorine, only radiative capture of the protons occurs, also destroying the original nucleus. Oxygen and fluorine reactions mostly lead back to nitrogen. Besides, these heavier nuclei react much more slowly than C and N and are therefore unimportant for the energy production. The agreement of the carbon-nitrogen reactions with observational data (§7, 9) is excellent. In order to give the correct energy evolution in the sun, the central temperature of the sun would have to be 18.5 million degrees while integration of the Eddington equations gives 19. For the brilliant star Y Cygni the corresponding figures are 30 and 32. This good agreement holds for all bright stars of the main sequence, but, of course, not for giants. For fainter stars, with lower central temperatures, the reaction H+H=D+ε+ and the reactions following it, are believed to be mainly responsible for the energy production. (§10) It is shown further (§5-6) that no elements heavier than He4 can be built up in ordinary stars. This is due to the fact, mentioned above, that all elements up to boron are disintegrated by proton bombardment (α-emission!) rather than built up (by radiative capture). The instability of Be8 reduces the formation of heavier elements still further. The production of neutrons in stars is likewise negligible. The heavier elements found in stars must therefore have existed already when the star was formed. Finally, the suggested mechanism of energy production is used to draw conclusions about astrophysical problems, such as the mass-luminosity relation (§10), the stability against temperature changes (§11), and stellar evolution (§12). ".
(I have stated before my views. I think this theory is probably wrong because I can't imagine that hydrogen atoms are found in the center of stars, but probably more heavier atoms such as iron are there. Infact, maybe even most of the mass of the sun may be heavier than hydrogen atoms, but I need to look at the spectra of supernovae. I think these two theories cannot be ruled out. My own feeling is that stars form in the same way stars form, and their centers are molten photon-emitting atoms similar to the interior of the earth and other planets. Then, near the center, these heavy atoms are pushed together under the immense pressure of the mass above them. This may push atoms so close together that photons are held with little or no velocity (and therefore technically low temperature, because of the great pressure, and in fact pressure and temperature may be inversely related (check)), colliding off each other, being held in place with other photons. But perhaps in the theoretical area where space starts to open up, individual particles are formed and deformed, and perhaps here protons are pushed together to form helium and larger atoms. But I think people should accept that this kind of theory, about where the free photons emitted from the sun come from is in large part pure speculation, and we should not view these theories as a 99% certainty.)
(Bethe seems clearly to be, mostly, in the mathematical theorist camp, and not in the experimental camp.)
(Bethe's claim that no heavier elements can be built up in ordinary stars, seems doubtful to me. I think it is likely that heavier atoms are being formed inside stars as matter is pressed together because of the immense pressures on the center - as is also the case for planets. Also it seems unlikely that only Nitrogen would be the source of light particles - probably every kind of atom is being separated into source light particles at the surface and below the surface of any sun and under the surface of planets.)
(It's interesting that people for years have tried to explain the "energy" production of stars - and clearly this is more simply and clearly stated as the source for all the light particles - and simply put - there are just many light particles that have accumulated in a tangle there in any star or planet, and they slowly become untangled, reach the empty space surrounding the star or planet and move on to other places. There is no need to create an "energy source" - all the matter and motion is already there but simply captured in a relatively smaller space - compressed together. stars and planets are basically like a fire with a very large supply of fuel. The similarity is that there is a continuous chain-reaction of light particles that are emitted, and that must break apart other atoms in the process.)
(Verify that in the four proton process two protons must be converted to neutrons to form alpha particles.)
(One thing that is somewhat bizarre is when somebody publishes a somewhat far-fetched theory that seems remote - and then - somebody else publishes a similar theoretical conclusion "independently" - it's kind of comical because - the original theory is so bizarre and unlikely, and then some other human reaches that 0.0001% chance of reaching the same theory - only through neuron writing secret networking could such ridiculousness occur.)
(translate Weizsäcker's two papers and read relevent parts.)
(Clearly there are many atomic reactions in stars and in planets. I think there must be many thousands of different atomic reactions - transmutations and spallations, fissions and fusions.)
| (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute) Berlin, Germany (and Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
62 YBN
[10/07/1938 AD]
| 6059) The song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg, sung by Judy Garland) is recorded.
| (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios) Los Angeles, California, USA |
62 YBN
[10/25/1938 AD]
| 5352) Walter Maurice Elsasser (CE 1904-1991), German-US physicist, explains the earth's magnetic field by saying that the earth's rotation creates eddy currents in the liquid core. An eddy current is an electric current induced within the body of a conductor when that conductor either moves through a nonuniform magnetic field or is in a region where there is a change in magnetic flux. The liquid core therefore becomes an electromagnet, since the liquid core being a permanent magnet is unlikely because the iron core is liquid and above the Curie point. The current view is that the moon of Earth has a magnetic field which is a million times weaker than that of the earth. No strong magnetic field comparable to earth has been found on Venus yet.
(State the magnetic fields for each moon and planet. it seems clear that other stars must have magnetic fields too.)
(I think the moon may have a heavy metal core, look at the density again. Is the inside of the moon red hot? or solid and only emits infrared? I can't believe it's not visible-wavelength red hot in it's mantle. Perhaps seismic studies on the moon have revealed what the moon's mantle is made of by now.)
(I think this is interesting. It seems unbelievable that the earth is an electromagnet and not a permanent magnet-although the principle is basically the same. Perhaps the metal in solid form in the earth's crust is responsible for the magnetism. Perhaps there is something with such a large quantity of iron that changes the Curie point, although I doubt it. In my own view, the center is highly compressed atoms with little movement. Perhaps since the temperature is less due to less movement, solid iron forms again towards the center (for example as diamond is formed from carbon under high pressure, and metamorphic rocks are formed under high pressure, etc. Perhaps the center of the earth is solid because of pressure. If temperature is based on the movement of atoms, and there is less movement because of the immense pressure of the above layers of matter, the temperature, in a technical sense, must be lower near the center. But perhaps there is still enough space between atoms to move and create heat. I think we need to understand that a magnetic field is an electric field, and represents a current in a permanent magnet as ampere showed. So this would translate to an electric current running through and around the earth. Does the moon have a magnetic field too? It seems likely that all major planets and stars have magnetic fields. Visualize the lines of a bar magnet around each sphere. And each line represents possibly electrons. If true there would be a voltage across a magnet which probably is not detected? EX: is there a voltage across a permanent magnet? Perhaps only when the detector is moved in the field? There may be a problem with diverting current to enter into the meter because the resistance is higher than in the permanent magnet. There would need to be two materials where the meter has a lower impedence than the material of the permanent magnet to measure any proportional voltage or current.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
62 YBN
[11/24/1938 AD]
| 5464) (Baron) Alexander Robertus Todd (CE 1907-1997), Scottish chemist isolates the physiologically active substance of the plant cannabis indica (marijuana).
| (Lister Institute) London, England |
62 YBN
[12/17/1938 AD]
| 5339) Homi J. Bhabha (CE 1909-1966) suggests the name "meson" instead of "mesotron" for the name of the particle found by Anderson and Neddermeyer with a mass in between an electron and proton.
(verify birth date)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
62 YBN
[12/22/1938 AD]
| 4926) Barium (atomic number 56) found in products of uranium bombarded by neutrons.
Otto Hahn (CE 1879-1968), German chemist, and Fritz Strassmann (sTroSmoN) (CE 1902-1980) conclude that isotopes of Barium (Z=56) are formed as a result of the bombardment of Uranium (Z=92) with neutrons. This result will lead Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch to conclude that this reaction is an atomic fission.
In his 1946 Nobel prize lecture, Hahn describes this work this way: "... Independently of the transuranium investigations of Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann just mentioned, Curie and Savitch described in 1937 and 1938 a so-called 3.5-hour substance which they had obtained by irradiation of uranium with neutrons, and of which the chemical properties could not readily be determined. According to Curie and Savitch, the substance appeared to be a rare earth, but was not actinium; it had more resemblance to lanthanum, and could only be separated from the latter by "fractional crystallization". With some hesitation Curie and Savitch decided to include the substance in the transuranium series, but the possibilities put forward by them appeared difficult to understand and unsatisfactory. As this 3.5-hour element had been included with the transuraniums, I, together with Strassmann, tried to obtain it. After careful experiments we arrived at remarkable results, which may be formulated approximately as follows: "In addition to the transuraniums described by Hahn, Meitner, and Strassmann, there are produced by two successive cr-emissions three artificial, /?-active radium isotopes with different half-life times, which in their turn change into artificial b-active actinium isotopes". The conclusion that radium isotopes had been produced was the only one possible since, according to the chemical properties, only barium and radium could be considered. Barium was, according to the physical viewpoint of the time, impossible, and thus only radium was left. The separation of this active group was performed by means of a barium precipitate; not however in the form of barium sulphate, which with its large surface strongly adsorbs other elements, but, on the suggestion of Strassmann, as barium chloride, which crystallizes very well from concentrated hydrochloric acid and which precipitates uncontaminated by other substances. At the same time the production of radium under these conditions of radiation was very remarkable: a-decompositions had never been observed with neutrons low in energy, and yet here, as with the transuraniums, a number of isotopes appeared simultaneously. The experiments were continued in various directions. The preparations were, however, always very weak and the a-rays of the most stable of the new isotopes were so strongly absorbed that thicker layers could only be investigated with poor yields of radiation. An attempt was therefore made to separate the artificial "radium" as far as possible from the barium added as carrier, in order to obtain coatings permitting easier measurement. This was done by fractional crystallization using the method of Madame Curie, a method with which we had been thoroughly familiar over a number of years. About 30 years previously I, together with Lise Meitner, had separated the radium isotope mesothorium from barium by fractional crystallization. More recently, with the assistance of a number of co-workers, the laws governing the formation of mixed crystals between radium and barium salts had been systematically investigated. The attempts to separate our artificial "radium isotopes" from barium in this way were unsuccessful; no enrichment of the "radium" was obtained. It was natural to ascribe this lack of success to the exceptionally low intensity of our preparations. It was always a question of merely a few thousands of atoms, which could only be detected as individual particles by the Geiger- Müller counter. Such a small number of atoms could be carried away by the great excess of inactive barium without any increase or decrease being perceptible, even if the barium was precipitated in the form of barium chloride, which precipitates in a very pure form. In order to check this, we repeated the same tests with a weak intensity of the natural radium isotopes mesothorium and thorium X. These substances were freed from every trace of their parent substance and decay products with the greatest care and, by systematic dilution, preparations were made which were only just detectable with the Geiger-Müller counter. Crystallizations were carried out with the chlorides, bromides and chromates, always with the corresponding barium salt as carrier. The result was, as was to be expected for radium, that mesothorium and thorium X were concentrated in the first fractions of the salts named, and in fact in quantities such as we should expect from our previous experience. This proved that the few atoms of natural radium isotopes also behaved in exactly the same manner as strong preparations. Finally we proceeded to direct "indicator tests". We mixed the pure natural radium isotopes with our artificial "radium" isotopes, also previously freed from their decay products, and fractionated the mixture in the same way as before. The result was that the natural radium isotopes could be separated from barium, but the artificial ones could not. We checked the results in still another way. If the artificial alkaline earth isotopes were radium, then the decay products produced directly through b-emission should consist of actinium: from the element 88 should be produced the element 89. If on the other hand it was barium, then lanthanum should be formed: from element 56 the next higher element 57. With the aid of the pure actinium isotope mesothorium-2 we carried out an "indicator test" by mixing mesothorium-2 with one of the known primary decay products of artificial radium isotopes, and then carrying out the chemical separation of actinium and lanthanum by the method of Madame Curie. During the fractionation of lanthanum oxalate with actinium, the latter accumulates in the final fractions. This actually occurred with the actinium isotope mesothorium- 2. The decay product of our so-called "radium isotope" however remained with the lanthanum. The artificial rare earth, which had been considered to be actinium, was really lanthanum. Thus it was established that the alkaline earth isotope, which we had believed to be radium, was in fact an artificial active barium; the lanthanum could have been produced only from barium and not from radium. In order to make quite certain, we carried out a so-called "cycle" with barium. The most stable of the active isotopes, now identified as barium, was freed from active decay products and other impurities by recrystallization with inactive barium; one quarter of the total quantity was kept for comparison, and three quarters were subjected to the following cycle of barium precipitations: Ba-chloride ® Ba-succinate ® Ba-nitrate ® Ba-carbonate ® Ba-ferrimannite ® Ba-chloride. After passing through this series of compounds, many of which crystallized beautifully, the resulting barium chloride and the recrystallized comparison preparation were measured alternately using the same counter, with equal weights and equal thicknesses of layers. The initial activity and the increase as the result of further formation of the active lanthanum were the same for both preparations, within the limits of error: the crystallization of so many and such different salts had produced no separation of the active barium from the carrier. It could only be concluded that the active product and the carrier were chemically identical, that is, barium. In the first communication on these tests, which "were in opposition to all the phenomena observed up to the present in nuclear physics" (January 6th, 1939), the indicator tests mentioned had not been entirely completed, and we had therefore expressed ourselves cautiously. As a second partner in the new process we assumed an element with an atomic weight of about 100, as in that case the combined atomic weights would be that of uranium, "for example 138 + 101 (e.g. element 43) gives 239!" After the completion of the measurements in hand, and of the "cycle", the possibilit y of error was still further excluded. This completion of the tests and the above-mentioned "cycle" appeared in a second communication (February 10th, 1939). This also described the splitting of the element thorium and its confirmation with the aid of indicator tests analogous to those described above. Here also reference was made to the detection of an inert gas and an alkali metal derived from it; the nature of the gas was recognized, and its separation from uranium accomplished by means of a current of air passed over the uranium during the irradiation. An active strontium and an active yttrium were identified in the uranium itself. Immediately after the first publication on the production of barium from uranium, there appeared as a first communication an article by Lise Meitner and O. R. Frisch in which the possibility of a breakdown of heavy atomic nuclei into two lighter ones, with total charges equal to that of the original nucleus, was explained with the aid of Bohr’s model of the original nucleus. Meimer and Frisch also estimated the exceptionally high energy output to be expected from this reaction, from the curve of the mass deficiencies of the elements in the Periodic Table. The great repulsive energy of the fragments produced by the splitting was first demonstrated experimentally by Frisch and shortly afterwards by F. Joliot. Meitner and Frisch soon proved that the active breakdown products, previously considered to be transuraniums, were in fact not transuraniums but fragments produced by splitting. They were able to accumulate these by "repulsion" outside the radiated uranium. In quick succession there appeared a whole series of publications from European and American nuclear physics institutes, confirming and expanding the tests described. Thus the process proceeds in such a way that the nucleus of the uranium with a charge of 92 is split into two nuclei of moderate size*. If one of these is barium, which has a nuclear charge of 56, there must be produced at the same time a krypton with a nuclear charge of 36. Together these nuclei add up to 92. Both have however, as may easily be seen from the masses of uranium and of the stable isotopes of barium and krypton which occur naturally, too great a mass, and thus an excess of neutrons. They should therefore pass over into stable elements with higher nuclear charges, with emission of /?- rays; and in fact, as our later experiments showed, sometimes achieve stability by way of a great number of unstable intermediate decay products. The highest stable krypton isotope has a mass of 86. In uranium fission there is produced, among other atoms, an unstable krypton with mass 88. Uranium 235 is responsible for the fission induced by thermal neutrons, as Bohr was the first to see; this fission forms by far the larger part. If there are no side reactions then the mass of the other fission product belonging to the krypton 88, that is of the barium, should be 236 - 88 = 148. As the highest stable barium isotope has a massof 138, the first-mentioned product is not less than 10 units heavier. Strassmann and myself had already noted, in our second communication, the possibility that neutrons were set free in the fission process. That this was in fact the case was first established experimentally by F. Joliot. The investigations continued at a rapid pace, both from the physical and the chemical side. Only a year after the first communication on the production of barium from uranium, there appeared in the Reviews of Modern Physics (U.S.A.) a bibliography on the splitting of heavy nuclei (Nuclear Fission, by L. A. Turner) in which nearly one hundred publications in this sphere were mentioned. During the Second world War, the very confusing fission reactions were systematically investigated in the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry with a view to their chemical disentanglement, and numerous new reactions were discovered. Japanese investigators found that, when fast neutrons were used, the fission of uranium proceeded more symmetrically than with slow ones. At the beginning of 1945 we were able to make a table (Table 3) in which were collected, as direct or indirect products of uranium fission, 25 different elements, ranging from 35 (bromine) to 59 (praseodymium), in the form of about 100 active kinds of atoms. The active atoms, believed by us up to 1939 to be transuraniums, were all fission products and their active successors, and not elements with atomic number higher than uranium! From the nature of the problem, the physical work proceeded in a different direction. Especially important in this connection was the abovementioned investigation of Joliot in which he proved experimentally, in the spring of 1939, that in the fission process, neutrons appeared in addition to the (always two) new elements. Since by the action of neutrons on uranium, fresh neutrons are liberated, the latter, if they meet uranium atoms, produce further fissions, in their turn. If more than one fresh neutron is produced, and the process is so arranged that all the fresh neutrons strike uranium atoms, then we have a chain of continuously renewing fission reactions which, like an avalanche started by a snowball, can attain enormous dimensions. Thereby the practical application of atomic energy first came into the range of possibility. S. Flügge, then attached to the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry, was the first to refer to this. About 10 years ago, Joliot concluded his Nobel Lecture with the following words : "If, turning to the past, we cast a glance at the progress achieved by Science at an ever-increasing pace, we are entitled to think that scientists, building up or shattering elements at will, will be able to bring about transmutations of an explosive type, true chemical chain reactions. If such transmutations do succeed in spreading in matter, the enormous liberation of usable energy can be imagined. But, unfortunately, if the contagion spreads to all the elements of our planet, the consequences of unloosing such a cataclysm can only be viewed with apprehension. Astronomers sometimes observe that a star of medium magnitude increases suddenly in size; a star invisible to the naked eye may become very brilliant and visible without any telescope - the appearance of a Nova. This sudden flaring up of the star is perhaps due to transmutations of an explosive character like those which our wandering imagination is perceiving now - a process that the investigators will no doubt attempt to realize while taking, we hope, the necessary precautions!" What was ten years ago only a figment of our "wandering imagination", has already become to some extent a threatening reality. The energy of nuclear physical reactions has been given into men’s hands. Shall it be used for the assistance of free scientific thought, for social improvement and the betterment of the living conditions of mankind? Or will it be misused to destroy what mankind has built up in thousands of years? The answer must be given without hesitation, and undoubtedly the scientists of the world will strive towards the first alternative. ...". This lecture includes a table with all the many radioactive and stable elements produced by uranium fission. In a postscript Hahn states "...Thus the behaviour of uranium on irradiation with neutrons of different velocities, both fast and slow, is very complicated (see Table 4). In addition to the natural splitting process, which continues during the irradiation at a speed independent of all the other reactions, the following occur: (1) Nuclear fission with formation of numerous artificial atoms of all elements between 30 and 64. (2) Emission of surplus neutrons during this fission process, making a chain reaction possible. (3) The resonance capture of a neutron with a definite energy by uranium 238, with formation of uranium 239, which in its turn is transformed into the elements neptunium and plutonium. (4) The giving up of a surplus neutron by the 238U with formation of a 237U, which also forms a neptunium isotope ..."
(Notice how there is apparently a mistaken belief that all products of transmutation are radioactive, and according to Hahn, apparently, not only is this not true, but that ultimately there is a large number of stable elements formed.)
| (Kaiser-Wilhelm-Instute fur Chemie in Berlin-Dahlem) Berlin, Germany |
62 YBN
[1938 AD]
| 4782) Secret science: Herbert H. Jasper (1906–1999) sends a greeting card with a drawing of "brain writing" to Hans Berger the inventor of the Electroencephalograph. Did Jasper and Berger see videos in their eyes or were they excluded?
| |
62 YBN
[1938 AD]
| 4860) Gilbert Newton Lewis (CE 1875-1946), US chemist proposes an electronic theory of acids and bases. These concepts define an acid as an electron-pair acceptor and a base as an electron-pair donor.
| (University of California at Berkeley) Berkeley, California, USA |
62 YBN
[1938 AD]
| 5056) Paul Karrer (CE 1889-1971), Swiss chemist, synthesizes vitamin E (tocopherol).
(Show molecule)
| (Chemical Institute) Zürich, Switzerland |
62 YBN
[1938 AD]
| 5090) Seth Barnes Nicholson (CE 1891-1963), US astronomer, two satellites of Jupiter (probably captured asteroids) Jupiter X (Lysithea) and XI (Carme).
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
62 YBN
[1938 AD]
| 5533) German-US rocket engineer, Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun (CE 1912-1977) and group successfully produce a liquid fuel rocket that can be sent 18 km (11 mi) away.
| Peenemünde, Germany |
61 YBN
[01/06/1939 AD]
| 5484) Russell H. Varian and Sigurd F. Varian invent a high frequency electronic oscillator and amplifier which they call a "klystron".
(Get photos, birth-death-dates, show images from paper.)
In their paper in a 1939 article in the "Journal of Applied Physics" entitled "A High Frequency Oscillator and Amplifier", they write: "A d.c. stream of cathode rays of constant current and speed is sent through a pair of grids between which is an oscillating electric field, parallel to the stream and of such strength as to change the speeds of the cathode rays by appreciable but not too large fractions of their initial speed. After passing these grids the electrons with increased speeds begin to overtake those with decreased speeds ahead of them. This motion groups the electrons into bunches separated by relatively empty spaces. At any point beyond the grids, therefore, the cathode‐ray current can be resolved into the original d.c. plus a nonsinusoidal a.c. A considerable fraction of its power can then be converted into power of high frequency oscillations by running the stream through a second pair of grids between which is an a.c. electric field such as to take energy away from the electrons in the bunches. These two a.c. fields are best obtained by making the grids form parts of the surfaces of resonators of the type described in this Journal by Hansen. ...".
| (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
61 YBN
[01/16/1939 AD]
| 4925) Lise Meitner (mITnR) (liZ or lIZ or lIS or liS?) (CE 1878-1968), Austrian-Swedish physicist and her nephew Otto Frisch (CE 1904-1979), Austrian-British physicist, publish the first report of the theory of atomic fission.
Fermi and collaborators had bombarded uranium with neutrons in 1934 in the first known atomic fission experiment.
Hahn and Strassman found Barium (atomic number 56) in the products of uranium bombarded by neutrons in 1939.
Hahn publishes his results of what will come to be called uranium fission, although Hahn does not state this explicitly. (simply reporting that uranium bombarded with neutrons produced radioactive barium (element 56) (check report)). Meitner will publish the suggestion that Uranium was split a month later from exile. Enrico Fermi is the first to bombard (split) uranium atoms with neutrons in the mid 1930s (date), but Fermi had concluded wrongly that (a more complicated) (larger) elements than uranium had formed.
Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch publish the first report of uranium fission (from Stockholm). Meitner is more firmly convinced than Hahn of uranium fission.
Frisch and Meitner write: "On bombarding uranium with neutrons, Fermi and collaborators found that at least four radioactive substances were produced, to two of which atomic numbers larger than 92 were ascribed. Further investigations demonstrated the existence of at least nine radioactive periods, six of which were assigned to elements beyond uranium, and nuclear isomerism had to be assumed in order to account for their chemical behavior together with their genetic relations.
In making chemical assignments, it was always assumed that these radioactive bodies had atomic numbers near that of the element bombarded, since only particles with one or two charges were known to be emitted from nuclei. A body, for example, with similar properties to those of osmium was assumed to be eka-osmium (Z = 94) rather than osmium (z = 76) or ruthenium (z = 44).
Following up an observation of Curie and Savitch, Hahn and Strassmann found that a group of at least three radioactive bodies, formed from uranium under neutron bombardment, were chemically similar to barium and, therefore, presumably isotopic with radium. Further investigation, however showed that it was impossible to separate those bodies from barium (although mesothorium, an isotope of radium, was readily separated in the same experiment), so that Hahn and Strassmann were forced to conclude that isotopes of barium (Z = 56) are formed as a consequence of the bombardment of uranium (Z = 92) with neutrons.
At first sight, this result seems very hard to understand. The formation of elements much below uranium has been considered before, but was always rejected for physical reasons, so long as the chemical evidence was not entirely clear cut. The emission, within a short time, of a large number of charged particles may be regarded as excluded by the small penetrability of the 'Coulomb barrier', indicated by Gamov's theory of alpha decay.
On the basis, however, of present ideas about the behaviour of heavy nuclei, an entirely different and essentially classical picture of these new disintegration processes suggests itself. On account of their close packing and strong energy exchange, the particles in a heavy nucleus would be expected to move in a collective way which has some resemblance to the movement of a liquid drop. If the movement is made sufficiently violent by adding energy, such a drop may divide itself into two smaller drops.
In the discussion of the energies involved in the deformation of nuclei, the concept of surface tension has been used and its value has been estimated from simple considerations regarding nuclear forces. It must be remembered, however, that the surface tension of a charged droplet is diminished by its charge, and a rough estimate shows that the surface tension of nuclei, decreasing with increasing nuclear charge, may become zero for atomic numbers of the order of 100.
It seems therefore possible that the uranium nucleus has only small stability of form, and may, after neutron capture, divide itself into two nuclei of roughly equal size (the precise ratio of sizes depending on finer structural features and perhaps partly on chance). These two nuclei will repel each other and should gain a total kinetic energy of c. 200 Mev., as calculated from nuclear radius and charge. This amount of energy may actually be expected to be available from the difference in packing fraction between uranium and the elements in the middle of the periodic system. The whole 'fission' process can thus be described in an essentially classical way, without having to consider quantum-mechanical 'tunnel effects', which would actually be extremely small, on account of the large masses involved.
After division, the high neutron/proton ratio of uranium will tend to readjust itself by beta decay to the lower value suitable for lighter elements. Probably each part will thus give rise to a chain of disintegrations. If one of the parts is an isotope of barium, the other will be krypton (Z = 92 - 56), which might decay through rubidium, strontium and yttrium to zirconium. Perhaps one or two of the supposed barium-lanthanum-cerium chains are then actually strontium-yttrium-zirconium chains.
It is possible, and seems to us rather probable, that the periods which have been ascribed to elements beyond uranium are also due to light elements. From the chemical evidence, the two short periods (10 sec. and 40 sec.) so far ascribed to 239U might be masurium isotopes (Z = 43) decaying through ruthenium, rhodium, palladium and silver into cadmium.
In all these cases it might not be necessary to assume nuclear isomersim; but the different radioactive periods belonging to the same chemical element may then be attributed to different isotopes of this element, since varying proportions of neutrons may be given to the two parts of the uranium nucleus.
By bombarding thorium with neutrons, activities are which have been ascribed to radium and actinium isotopes. Some of these periods are approximately equal to periods of barium and lanthanum isotopes resulting from the bombardment of uranium. We should therefore like to suggest that these periods are due to a 'fission' of thorium which is like that of uranium and results partly in the same products. Of course, it would be especially interesting if one could obtain one of those products from a light element, for example, by means of neutron capture.
It might be mentioned that the body with the half-life 24 min which was chemically identified with uranium is probably really 239U and goes over into eka-rhenium which appears inactive but may decay slowly, probably with emission of alpha particles. (From inspection of the natural radioactive elements, 239U cannot be expected to give more than one or two beta decays; the long chain of observed decays has always puzzled us.) The formation of this body is a typical resonance process; the compound state must have a life-time of a million times longer than the time it would take the nucleus to divide itself. Perhaps this state corresponds to some highly symmetrical type of motion of nuclear matter which does not favor 'fission' of the nucleus. ".
(possibly, fission may have remained a secret in Nazi Germany had Mitner not gone public, but I doubt it, possibly if the Nazi's stopped the camera net sharing. Trying to see into the camera thought nets of other nations from the USA probably was difficult if enemies, but probably for a long time, the images flowed freely between nations. Possibly wire tapping was not difficult to do at the national level. How are the phone wires connected? Can a person simply plug into the wall and access other parts of the network? I doubt it. Probably these people try to tap into lines near a main station, or those going from station to station. Perhaps even quickly (although they would need to dig? are phone lines buried or above ground? Most communication is probably done wirelessly with flying microscopic devices.). )
(It's not clear if the actual fission or the public recognition of the result as being atomic fission is the most important.)
(Can it be ruled out that neutrons are not simply a proton and electron combined? How was this shown?)
| (Academy of Sciences) Stockholm, Sweden (Meitner), (University of Copenhagen), Copenhagen, Denmark (Frisch) |
61 YBN
[01/19/1939 AD]
| 5658) James Hillier (CE 1915-2007), Canadian-US physicist, and Albert Prebus (CE 1931-2000) build an improved electron microscope based on the Ruska design that magnifies 7,000 times. This is the forerunner of the electron microscopes that now can magnify 2 million times which will make large single molecules visible.
In 1933, Ruska had pubilshed details about an electronc microscope that magnifies 12,000x.
(Find current magnification, and show comparison, an object 1 um can be projected to 1 cm and larger.)
(Determine how large an electron microscope needs to be - can there be small hand-held or table top low-cost versions for the public?)
(Describe in more detail nature of improvement - this appears to be the same design, but with perhaps a vacuum-protected air-lock photographic plate insertion which saves time.)
| (University of Toronto) Toronto, Canada |
61 YBN
[01/30/1939 AD]
| 5193) French physicist, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO KYUrE) (CE 1900-1958) theorizes that excess neutrons emitted from Uranium fission can cause a successive series of radioactive offspring.
In March 1939, Joliot, in collaboration with Hans von Halban and Lew Kowarski, will be the first to prove that the fission of uranium atoms is accompanied or followed by an emission of neutrons (uranium submitted to a flux of slow neutrons emits rapid neutrons) and then later in April 1939, that the fission of a uranium atom induced by one neutron produces, on the average, an emission of several neutrons.
Nazi Germany will invade Poland on Sept. 1, 1939. Two days later France and Britain will declare war on Germany.
(It's interesting that at this time, war with Nazi Germany probably seemed very likely. So Comptes Rendus, and later in March and April Nature making public the details of uranium fission is very interesting. I don't know what the motivation was. But it seems likely, that given the neuron writing flying dust-sized particle-beam technological that must exist. Release of this information must have seemed to be irrelevent. Nuclear fission, and atomic weapons are extremely destructive, but it seems that the current computer controlled microscopic flying particle devices are probably the most effective and powerful weapon, surpassing larger ballistic weapons like guns and missiles in terms of speed and indetectability. Still, given, the apparently far less dangerous secret of nonviolent technology like neuron reading, it is somewhat amazing that explosive technology was released to the public just before World War 2. A similar argument could be made for the publications just before World War 1.)
| (Laboratoire de Chimie Nucleaire, College de France) Paris, France |
61 YBN
[02/18/1939 AD]
| 5493) Richard Brooke Roberts (CE 1910-1980), US biophysicist, with Meyer and Wang, find that uranium fission does not release all the neutrons it produces at one time, but that some neutrons are released as long as 1 1/2 minutes after the uranium was bombarded with deuterons. These neutrons are described as "delayed neutrons".
Roberts Meyer and Yang publish this in "The Physical Review" as "Further Observations on the Splitting of Uranium and Thorium". They write: " Continuing a survey of the effects produced by bombarding uranium and thorium with neutrons we have measured the range of the energetic particles emitted. This was done by coating a movable plate with the substance to be investigated and observing the distance at which the particles could no longer be detected by an ionization chamber with a gauze front, connected to a pulse amplifier. The ranges found were 10.5+-1 mm and 12.0+-2 mm for the particles from uranium to thorium, respectively. To test the possibility of the delayed emission of neutrons a boron-lined ionization chamber was placed a few centimeters from a lithium target used as a source of neutrons, both the chamber and the target being surrounded with paraffin. With this arrangement no pulses were observed after the deuteron bombardment was stopped. However, when a bottle containing about 100 grams of uranium nitrate was placed between between the source and the chamber, neutrons were observed as long as 1 1/2 minutes after the cbombardment of the uranium, the initial intensity being about one neutron per second. The decay period of these neutrons was observed to be 12.5+-3 sec. Since delayed neutron emission could be due to photodisintegration by gamma-rays we looked for and found a hard gamm-ray of approximately the same period. If these gamma-rays are the cause of the neutron emission, separate intensity tests showed that they must be at least 1000 times as effective as the lithium or fluorine gamma-rays produced by proton bombardment. No neutrons were observed with the same arrangement during proton bombardment of lithium or fluorine targets, although several photoneutrons per second were observed from a few grams of heavy water. The period of the neutrons and gamma-rays is close to one of the beta-ray periods observed by Meitner, Hahn, and Strassman. It is possible that the gamma-ray emission follows the 10-sec. beta-ray emission observed by them, and causes or is accompanied by the emission of neutrons.".
(Does this mean that the actual atom takes a second to split, or does the uranium split and the neutrons bounce around until finally finding open space seconds later?)
(Is this activity the same for fission by alpha particles, neutrons and gamma rays?)
| (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Washington, D. C, USA |
61 YBN
[03/08/1939 AD]
| 5194) French physicist, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO KYUrE) (CE 1900-1958), Hans von Halban and Lew Kowarski, are the first to prove that the fission of uranium atoms is followed by an emission of neutrons.
In April 1939, Joliot, Halban, and Kowarski will show that the fission of a uranium atom induced by one neutron, produces, on the average, an emission of several neutrons.
| (Laboratoire de Chimie Nucleaire, College de France) Paris, France |
61 YBN
[03/20/1939 AD]
| 5347) George Gamow (Gam oF) (CE 1904-1968), Russian-US physicist, and G. Keller theorize that a red giant star forms when a star has no hydrogen fuel remaining in its core to use and so expands in size, and this also includes a theory of stellar explosions (novas).
In 1939 Gamow and Edward Teller had published a theory to explain the evolution of red giant stars. However in this paper Gamow rejects this earlier theory.
Gamow theorizes, based on the work of Hans Bethe, that as a star's hydrogen, it's basic fuel, is used up, the star grows hotter, and this is the first time that the theory of the sun cooling down is opposed. Instead Gamow has the sun slowly heating up and life on earth would be destroyed some time, not by freezing but by heating.
Gamow writes in a paper in the Journal "Review of Modern Physics" article "A Shell Source model for Red Giant Stars": "1. Introduction It is generally accepted at present that the stars of the main sequence, or rather the stars in the main sequence stage of their evolution, owe their energy supply to the so-called C-N cycle (transformation of hydorgen into helium through the catalytic action of carbon and nitrogen) taking place in the center of the star. This leads to Cowling's semiconvective point source model, consisting of a central convective zone and an outer envelope in a state of radiative equilibrium. The introduction of the convective zone in the point source model is necessitated by the fact that the radiative equilibrium of the stellar material becomes unstable at a certain distance from the center and must break up into a series of convective currents. The continuous circulation of the material within the convective core of the star insures its uniform chemical constitution, the changes taking place in the center as a result of nuclear transformations being distributed rapidly through the entire core. If we assume, as it is usually done, that the stellar material originally contains about 35 percent hydrogen (the rest being a mixture of heavier elements), and that this hydrogen is later completely transformed into helium, the molecular weight of the convective core will increase gradually from a value of about 1 to a value of about 2. The effect of these evolutionary changes on the observable characteristics of the star have been studied in some detail by Miss Harrison. It has been shown by this author that the increase of molecular weight μ from 1 to 2 leads to a shrinking of the convective core, and a steady increase of the stellar radius and luminosity. The resulting evolutionary curve in the frame of a (log L/L0 vs. log R/R0)-diagram is shown in Fig. 1, where L/L0 and R/R0 are the luminosity and radius of the star, respectively, expressed in solar units. As the hydrogen content of the convective core decreases, the temperature of this region must rise steadily in order to insure the proper rate of energy production, which, as it is easy to see, will result in the appearance of new sources just outside the convective region where the hydrogen content is still high and the gradual fading of the central source of energy. When the hydrogen content of the convective core finally drops to zero, the production of energy within the core ceases. The currents then stop because of the lack of a driving force, and the temperature becomes constant throughout the core. Thus the structure of the star is gradually transformed into that of the so-called shell source model, with an isothermal core of dehydrogenized material, a thin energy producing layer, and a radiative envelope with the original high hydrogen content. The further evolution of the star must now proceed in the direcion of a continuous growth of the energy producing shell towards the surface of the star. The upper line in Fig. 1 gives the evolutionary track of such a star as that caluclated by Chonberg and Chandrasekhar under the assumption of μ=2 for the isothermal core and μ=1 for the envelope. The transition from the semiconvective point source model to the shell source model is indicated schematically by the dot dashed line. In their study of the evolution of a shell source model of a star the above authors came to a peculiar result, namely, that no solutions exist which correpond to an equilibrium condition of the star when the amount of matter in the core exceeds 10 percent of the total mass of the star. This is illustrated in Fig. 1 by the broken line continuation of the evolutionary track, the points of which correspond to decreasing values of the mass of the dehydrogenized isothermal core. Since physically the mass of the core must increase continually, the above result leads these authors to the conclusion that beyond the 10 percent point on the evolutionary curve (marked with a cross in Fig. 1) the star must evolve through a series of non-equilibrium configurations which they try to connect with the phenomena of stellar explosions. ... The value of the molecular weight chosen for the envelope corresponds to a hydrogen content of 35 percent. The fitting method consists in "cutting out" from isothermal solutions with varying central densities cores of the desired mass M, and fitting these cores to envelopes obtained from various radiative equilibrium solutions for the given star mass M. In order to make the envelope fit, a mass if cut out of its center equal to that of the isothermal core. The fitting conditions are that the gas pressure and temperature must be continuous at the interface between the isothermal and radiative parts. ... Conclusions The results obtained in the previous section indicate that the growth of the energy producing shell within a sufficiently massive star may lead to a very large increase of stellar radius, thus bringing the star into the region of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram occupied by the red giant and supergiant stars. It is tempting, therefore, to consider the stars of these groups as representing various stages of hydrogen shell source evolution, particularly in view of the fact that there is, as it seems, no other adequate explanation of their existence. In fact, it is not possible to consider stars of the red giant branch as still being in the stage of gravitational contraction since in this case their radii would be decreasing at a faster rate than is consistent with the observational evidence. On the other hand, the attempt by Gamow and Teller to explain the energy production in red giants as caused by thermonuclear reactions involving light elements (Li, Be, B) cannot explain the peculiar distribution of these stars in the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram; in fact, one would expect in this case that the stars would be distributed in different bands running parallel rather than almost perpendicular to the main sequence. Thus, although it is very possible that some of the red stars scattered through this region of the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram are still consuming their original allotment of light elements, the main bulk of the stars forming the so-called red brance require a different explanation. A look at the general position of the red branch especially in the case of Baade's stellar population of type II suggests on the other hand that most red stars represent evolutionary stages subsequent to the main sequence; in fact, only in such a case would the brighter, faster evolving, stars get farther away from their main sequence position. The above discussed features of shell source evollution seem to fit rather well with the general picture as it presents itself on the basis of observational data. it may be noticed that the appearance of a reg giant branch for more massive stars does not even require the assumption that they have consumed a larger portion of their hydrogen, since, as we have seen in the previous section, only such massive stars are at all able to expand considerably beyond their normal size in the main sequence. Thus it may turn out that the absence of highly expanded stars of comparatively small mass is not at all connected with the slowness of their evolution, but is rather due to the peculiar properties of partially degenerated shell source models for small masses. On the other hand it seems very likely that the difference between the red giant branches in the two types of stellar population is directly connected with the age of these particular stellar groups. It would seem that the absence of diffuse interstellar material in the regions occupied by stellar population of the type II indicates that the stars of that group are, on the average, older than the stars of type I. It must be hoped that a further, more detailed study of the shell source model for heavy stars will explain the striking differences between these two types of stellar population. It may be noted in conclusion that the calculations presented in the present article must be considered as of only a provisional nature, in particular because of the rigid assumptions made about the temperature in the energy producing shell, and concerning the values of the molecular weights in the core and in the envelope. ... In particular, assuming, as it seems very likely at present, that stellar material consisted originally almost entirely of hydrogen and helium (55 percent H; 40 percent He; less than 5 percent Russell mixture)... Previously reported difficulties connected with the construction of shell source stellar models containing a large fraction of the total mass in the isothermal core arise in part from the arbitrary assumption that the material of the core should be treated as an ideal non-degenerate gas. ... ...Although it has not been possible in this case to follow the entire evolutionary track owing to the lack of a sufficient number of integrated solutions, the avilable results indicate that when a relatively small core mass has been reached the radius of the star will behin to increase to a very large value and the luminosity will simultaneously decrease. It is suggested that stellar models with steadily growing cores and shell sources of energy can be used for the explanation of internal structural features and the evolutionary development of the group of giant and supergiant stars. ...".
(To my knowledge this theory is the currently most popular public explanation of red giants and novas.)
(The Sun growing to a red giant and into the orbit of earth presumes that humans will eventually have no control over the mass of the sun, which I doubt.)
(This view of Gamow will be fully accepted by the majority, and wrongly so in my view.)
(I doubt this theory is true, and at a minimum it should be viewed with a large amount of doubt, and not the total absolute certainty that is granted it. I think that, like the earth, the center of stars are probably dense atoms of molten metal, heated from photons emitted by separated atoms around the center. From the immense pressure that must be near the center, I doubt that there is free space for a liquid, or a gas, and that in the center there is probably very little movement of atoms, resulting in a relative low temperature (since heat is a result of the movement of atoms). Possibly there is some motion because the Sun rotates and perhaps some empty spaces move around deep near the center of a star. But at least I admit that I am speculating. The theory of Hydrogen to Helium fusion seems unlikely because probably only heavy atoms are in the center. The spectra we see are only atoms that are emitting photons, which can only be near the surface. Supernovas show that the centers of stars are mostly heavier elements (verify), so this idea of hydrogen to helium fusion in the center is doubtful. I can accept that neutrons and other particles cause many atomic transmutations inside stars. This hydrogen to helium fusion theory reminds me of another related theory that as the supposed hydrogen fuel runs out, the star starts burning heavier elements, and maybe that is supposed to explain how iron and heavier atoms are emitted in the spectrum of exploded stars. But to me that sounds very unlikely because we are to believe that the densest atoms are made in the star only at the end? It seems much more likely that as a star accumulates, denser atoms fall to the center. I think stars slowly cool down. In my view they accumulate a certain amount of photons in pulling in matter, but at a certain point they emit more photons than they take in from matter they are accumulating (comets, etc). As an aside I think the existence of red giant stars is even in question. I think there is good evidence, the parallax measurement (of whom?), Michelson's measurements that Betelgeuse is a supergiant star, but I still have a certain amount of doubt. But even if true, hydrogen fusion is not the only explanation. With such a small object as a star, maybe Betelgeuse is simply closer than we have measured. Perhaps our relative velocities are not calculated correctly three-dimensionally. There is a large amount of room for error in my view. But I am open minded about it and looking for more evidence.)
(It's hard to believe that a star would use up all it's hydrogen, and that more hydrogen would not be created by larger atoms being separated by neutrons and other particles.)
(Kind of funny that, not "Gamow and Teller" as in the first red giant paper, but instead "Gamow and Keller" this time.)
| (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
61 YBN
[04/07/1939 AD]
| 5195) French physicist, Frédéric Joliot (ZOlYO KYUrE) (CE 1900-1958), Hans von Halban and Lew Kowarski, show that the fission of a uranium atom induced by one neutron, produces, on the average, an emission of several neutrons.
| (Laboratoire de Chimie Nucleaire, College de France) Paris, France |
61 YBN
[04/14/1939 AD]
| 5425) Karl August Folkers (CE 1906-1997), US chemist, and Stanton Harris, synthesize vitamin B6 (pyridoxine).
(Show picture of structure)
| (Merck and Company, Inc) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
61 YBN
[04/17/1939 AD]
| 5255) René Jules Dubos (DYUBoS) (CE 1901-1982), French-US microbiologist isolates a substance from Bacillus brevis that he names "tyrothricin". "Tyrothricin" is effective against many types of bacteria but unfortunately also kills red blood cells and so has limited use.
In 1939 Dubos isolates a substance from the bacterium Bacillus brevis which he will name “tyrothricin” in 1940. This substance is a mixture of several polypeptides, chains of amino acids but shorter than most proteins.
This discovery stimulates such workers as Selman Waksman and Benjamin Duggar to search for useful antibiotics and leads to the discovery of the tetracyclines.
| (Hospital of The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
61 YBN
[04/30/1939 AD]
| 5835) Bipedal robot.
People at Westinghouse build the first publicly known autonomous walking robot ("Elektro"). (verify)
(It seems very likely that artificial muscle walking robots probably go back into the 1800s developed secretly by wealthy people and government militaries, but for illogical unfounded reasons have been kept from the public. This leaves the public for centuries of unnecessarily driving their own cars- causing millions of deaths and disfigurations, cleaning their own homes, having to do meaningless purpose-less jobs to survive just to fit an ingrained "work-for-money" tradition and belief, etc.)
| (Westinghouse Electric Corporation) Mansfield, Ohio, USA |
61 YBN
[06/28/1939 AD]
| 5006) Niels Henrik David Bohr (CE 1885-1962), Danish physicist, predicts that the particular isotope uranium-235 identified a few years earlier by Dempster is the one that undergoes fission and this is correct. Bohr develops a theory of atomic fission and views the nucleus like a drop of fluid.
(Uranium-238 the other main isotope of Uranium does not do fission?).
(Explain how Bohr states this and knows this.)
(Perhaps U-235 does fission because it is an odd number element and therefore less stable.)
(Is the correct paper?)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
61 YBN
[07/15/1939 AD]
| 5461) Protactinium (Element 91) fissioned with fast neutrons.
John Ray Dunning (CE 1907-1975), US physicist, and team demonstrate that uranium-235 produces far more fissions per minute than uranium-238.
Dunning, Booth and Grosse announce this in "The Physical Review" in a letter titled "The Fission of Protactinium".
(Read relevent parts of paper.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
61 YBN
[07/31/1939 AD]
| 5511) Luis Walter Alvarez (CE 1911-1988), US physicist, with Robert Cornog produce He3, an isotope of Helium that contains 2 protons and 1 neutron.
In their report published in "The Physical Review" entitled "He3 in Helium", Alvarez and Cornog write " We have used the 60" cyclotron as a mass spectrograph to show that He3 is one of the stable isotopic constituents of ordinary helium. When the cyclotron was filled with helium, a linear amplifier chamber placed in the path of the ion beam was paralyzed at two values of the magnetic field, corresponding to the production of 8-Mev protons and 32-Mev alpha-particles. At a field midway between these two values, the amplifier showed the presence of a smaller, but quite definite, beam whose range was determined as 54 cm of air. He3++ is the only ion which satisfies the three criteria of e/m, v, and R measured in this way. Further weight is given to this view by the observation that this beam did not appear when the tank was evacuated, or filled with deuterium....".
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
61 YBN
[08/27/1939 AD]
| 6269) First jet aircraft flight.
In 1937 Frank Whittle in England had built and tested the first known jet engine on the ground. The first operational jet engine is designed in Germany by Hans Pabst von Ohain and powers the first jet-aircraft flight on August 27, 1939 at Marienehe, Germany. The Heinkel He 178 is the first jet aircraft to be flown. It flies with von Hans Pabst von Ohain's HeS3B engine, the first practical turbojet engine.
| Marienehe, Germany |
61 YBN
[10/30/1939 AD]
| 5387) Felix Bloch (CE 1905-1983), Swiss-US physicist, and Luis Alvarez (CE 1911-1988), US physicist, adapt the magnetic resonance method of determining nuclear magnetic moments in molecular beams to measure the magnetic moment of neutrons. Bloch and Alvarez measure the magnetic moment of a neutron as 1.93 absolute nuclear magnetons. Bloch and Alvarez find the magnetic moment of the deuteron is equal to the sum of the magnetic moments of the neutron and the proton.
Magnetic moment is the torque felt by an object (a magnet or dipole) in a magnetic field at right angles to the object.
A magneton is a unit of the magnetic moment of a molecular, atomic, or subatomic particle, especially:
1. The Bohr magneton, calculated using the mass and charge of the electron. 2. The nuclear magneton, calculated using the mass of the nucleon. The Bohr magneton μB has the value of the classical magnetic moment of an electron, given by μB=eh/4πme=9. 274×10 −24 A m2, where e and me are the charge and mass of the electron and h is the Planck constant. The nuclear magneton, μN is obtained by replacing the mass of the electron by the mass of the, for example, proton, and is therefore given by μN=μB.me/mp=5.05×10−27 A m2, units, in this case are expressed as Ampere-meters squared
1 Bohr (or electron) Magneton = 1 electron magnetic moment (9.8247791 x 10-24 JT-1) 1 Nuclear Magneton = 1 proton (or neutron) magnetic moment (1.41060761 x 10-26 JT-1). The SI unit for magnetic moment is joule per tesla. A joule is the International System unit of electrical, mechanical, and thermal energy. A unit of electrical energy equal to the work done when a current of one ampere is passed through a resistance of one ohm for one second, alternatively a Joule is a unit of energy equal to the work done when a force of one newton acts through a distance of one meter. A tesla is the unit of magnetic flux density in the International System of Units, equal to the magnitude of the magnetic field vector necessary to produce a force of one newton on a charge of one coulomb moving perpendicular to the direction of the magnetic field vector with a velocity of one meter per second. It is equivalent to one weber per square meter.
After World War II, Bloch devises a method for measuring atomic magnetic moments. Bloch calls this method "nuclear induction". When the atomic nuclei are placed in a constant magnetic field, then their magnetic moments are aligned. If a weak oscillating magnetic field is superposed on the constant field in a direction which is perpendicular to the constant magnetic field, then, as the Larmor frequency is approached, the original rotating polarization vector will be forced nearer the plane perpendicular to the constant magnetic field. The rotating horizontal component of the polarization vector will induce a signal in a pickup coil whose axis is perpendicular to the weak oscillating field. The exact value of the frequency that gives the maximum signal can then be used, as in the Larmor resonance formula, to calculate the magnetic moment. Using this method, the proton moment is measured and found to be in close agreement with the value that has been already determined by Rabi in his experiments with molecular beams. In December of 1945, Bloch and E. M. Purcell of Harvard meet at the annual meeting of the American Physical Society and realize that they are working on similar problems. They decide that Bloch will continue his researches and investigate liquids, and Purcell will focus on crystals.
The magnetic moment of atoms had been investigated by Stern and Rabi, but they had worked with beams of gaseous atoms or molecules. Bloch devises a method of measuring the magnetic fields of atomic nuclei in liquids and solids. With Alvarez, Bloch measures the magnetic moment of the neutron. Purcell working independently also devises a slightly different method of measuring the magnetic moment of atomic nuclei. Bloch's work on the magnetic properties of atomic nuclei will lead to the development of a subtle method of chemical analysis called "nuclear magnetic resonance".
In 1971, Paul. C. Lauterbur and others develop a method of producing images of tissues, based on Bloch’s techniques. Magnetic resonance imaging has come to be one of the most effective and extensively used tools in health science.
In 2008 Kamatani, et al, will use magnetic resonance imaging to capture images of what eyes see from behind the head.
Alvarez and Bloch publish this in "Physical Review" as "A Quantitative Determination of the Neutron Moment in Absolute Nuclear Magnetons". They write as an abstract: " The magnetic resonance method of determining nuclear magnetic moments in molecular beams, recently described by Rabi and his collaborators, has been extended to allow the determination of the neutron moment. In place of deflection by inhomogeneous magnetic fields, magnetic scattering is used to produce and analyze the polarized beam of neutrons. Partial depolarization of the neutron beam is observed when the Larmor precessional frequency of the neutrons in a strong field is in resonance with a weak oscillating magnetic field normal to the strong field. A knowledge of the frequency and field when the resonance is observed, plus the assumption that the neutron spin is 1/2, yields the moment directly. The theory of the experiment is developed in some detail, and a description of the apparatus is given. A new method of evaluating magnetic moments in all experiments using the resonance method is described. it is shown that the magnetic moment of any nucleus may be determined directly in absolute nuclear magnetons merely by a measurement of he ratio of two magnetic fields. These two fields are (a) that at which resonance occurs in a Rabi type experiment for a certain frequency, and (b) that at which protons are accelerated in a cyclotron operated on teh nth harmonic of that frequency. The magnetic moement is then (for J=1/2), μ=Hb/nHa, n is an integer and Hb/Ha may be determined by null methods with arbitrary precision. The final result of a long series of experiments during which 200 million neutrons were counted is that the m agnetic moment of the neutron, μn=1.935+-0.02 absolute nuclear magnetons. A brief discussion of the significance of this result is presented.". In the paper Alvarez and Bloch write: "Introduction THE study of hyperfine structure in atomic spectra has shown that a large number of atomic nuclei possess an angular momentum and a magnetic moment. Since, according to the theories of Heisenberg and Majorana, protons and neutrons are recognized as the elementary constituents of nuclear matter, their intrinsic properties and particularly their magnetic moments have become of considerable interest. The fundamental experiments of Stern and his collaborators in which they determined the magnetic moments of the proton and the deuteron by deflections of molecular beams in inhomogeneous fields gave the first quantitative data of this sort. The approximate values which they gave for the two moments,
μp=2.5, (1) μd=0.8, (2)
suggested that in all likelihood, one would have to ascribe to the neutron a magnetic moment of the approximate value
μn=-2. (3)
The negative sign in formula (3) indicates that the relative orientation of their magnetic moments with respect to their angular momenta is opposite in the case of the neutron to that of the proton and the deuteron. The technique of molecular beams has been greatly developed during the last few years by Rabi and his collaborators; their ingenious methods have allowed them to determine the magnetic moments of many light nuclei with high precision, and to establish the existence of an electric quadrupole moment of the deuteron. Their values for the magnetic moments of the proton and deuteron are
μp=2.785+-0.02, (4) μd=0.855+-0.006 (5)
They have also demonstrated that both moments are positive with respect to the direction of the angular momentum. An experimental prood that a free neutron possesses a magnetic moment, and a measure of its strength, could also be achieved in principle by deflection of neutron beams in an injomogeneous magnetic field. But while the great collimation required for this type of experiment may easily be obtained with molecular beams, it would be almost impossible with the neutron sources available at present. Better suited for the purpose is the method of magnetic scattering, which was suggested a few years ago by one of us. It is based upon the principle that a noticeable part of the scattering of slow neutrons can be due to the interaction of their magnetic moments with that of the extranuclear electrons of the scattering atom. In the case of a magnetized scatterer this will cause a difference in the scattering cross section, dependent upon the orientation of the neutron moment with respect to the magnetization, and particularly in the case of ferromagnetics, it will cause a partial polarization of the transmitted neutron beam. The magnetic scattering of neutrons, and thereby the existence of the neutron moment, has been proved experimentally by several investigators, particularly by Dunning and his collaborators. The magnetic scattering, however, can yield only a qualitative determination of the neutron moment since the interpretatino of the effect is largely obscured by features involving the nature of the scattering substance. Frisch, v. Halban and Koch were the first to attempt to use the polarization of neutrons merely as a tool, and to determine the neutron moment by a change of the polarization, produced by a magnetic field between the polarizer and the analyzer. Such a change should indeed occur, because of the fact that the moment will precess in a magnetic field; by varying the field strength, one can reach a point where the time spent by the neutrons in the field is comparable to the Larmor period. In this way, one could obtain at least the order of magnitude of the moment. Although these investigators have reported an effect of the expected type, yielding the order of magnitude 2 for the neutron moment, we have serious doubts that their results are significant. Their polarizer and analyzer consisted of rings of Swedish iron, carrying only their remanent magnetism (B=10,000 gauss), while in agreement with Powers' results, we were never able to detect any noticeable polarization effects, independent of the kind of iron used, until it was magnetized between the poles of a strong electromagnet with an induction well above 20,000 gauss. Although we cannot deny the possibility that, due to unknown reasons, their iron was far more effective for polarization at low values of the induction than that used by other investigators, we think it more likely that in view of their rather large statistical errors the apparent effect was memerly the result of fluctuations. Although most valuable as a new method of approach, the experiment of Frisch, v. Halban and Koch could in any event give only qualitative results. The slow neutrons which one if forced to use emerge from paraffin with a complicated and none to well-known velocity distribution. The time dureing which they precess in the magnetic field will therefore be different for different neutrons and vary over a rather large range. Since it is that time which together with the field of precession determines the value of the moment, the latter will be known only approximately. A quantitative determination of the neutron moment therefore requires an arrangement which does not contain such features. METHOD Sometime ago, we conceived of an experimental method which could yield quantitative data of this sort. The method was independently proposed by Gorter and Rabi, and most successfully used by the latter in his precision determinations of nuclear moments. Its principle consists in the variation of a magnetic field H0 to the point where the Larmor precession of the neutrons is in resonance with the frequency of an oscillating magnetic field. The ratio of the resonance value of H0 to the known frequency of the oscillating field gives immediately the value of the magnetic moment. The observaqtion of the resonance point is based upon the fact that in its neighborhood there will be a finite probability P for a change of the orientation of the neutron moment with respect to the direction of the field H0. Let this field be oriented in the z direction and let there be perpendicular to it, say in the x direction, an oscillating field with amplitude H1 and circulat frequency w, so that the total field in which a neutron is forced to move, is given by its components H2=H1cos(wt +d); Hy=0; Hz=H0.
The solution of the Schroedinger equation for a neutron with angular momentum 1/2 and magnetic moment μ gives the probability that a neutron, which at time t=0 in such a field had a z component m=1/2 of its angular momentum, will be found at the time t=T with a value m=-1/2, in the form {ULSF: see equation} where {ULSF: see equation} is the difference between the constant field H0 and its value at resonance,
H0=hw/2μ,
for which the Larmor frequency 2H0μ/hbar is equal to the frequency w of the oscillating field. Since the time T which the neutrons spend in the oscillating field will, for different neutrons, vary over a wide range, it will be a good approximation to substitute for the sun in the numerator of (7) its average value 1/2. This means that, at resonance, complete depolarization of an originally polarized neutron beam will ocuur, and leads to the simplified formula ... DISCUSSION The now rather accurately known values μp=2.785+-0.02 μn=-1.935+-0.02 μd=0.855+-0.006 of the magnetic moments of proton, neutron and deuteron are of considerable interest for nuclear theory. The fact alone that μp differs from unity and μn differs from zero indicates that, unlike the electron, these particles are not sufficiently described by the relativistic wave equation of Dirac and that other vauses underly their magnetic properties. Whatever these causes may turn out to be one has to notice that there holds to well within the experimental error the simple empirical relation μd=μp+μn This relation is far from being obvious and it would in fact seem rather surprising if it were rigorously satisfied. To explain it in simple terms one would have to make both the following assumptions: (a) The fundamental state of the deuteron is a 3S state so that there are no contributions to μd arising from orbital motion of the particles. (b) The moments μp and μn are "additive," i.e., their intrinsic values are not changed by the interaction of the proton and the neutron, forming a deuteron. The first assumption has been disproved by the recent discovery that the deuteron possesses a finite electric quadrupole moment which is incompatible with the symmetry character of a pure 3S state. The second cannot be discarded on an experimental basis but it ceases to be plausible if one admits the possibility, that ultimately the same causes may underly both the magnetic properties and the mutual binding forces of the proton and the neutron. it is conceivable that the departure from any one of the two assumptions (a) and (b) would separately cause a considerable deviation from (20) but that for unknown reasons both together cancel each other very closely. until reliable estimates of these deviations can be obtained we consider it, however, more likely that neither of them amounts to more than a few percents.".
(Explain in much more detail. What is measured? How is it measured? What is the magnetic moment of a particle? Describe the nature of all devices used. A neutron has no charge so how can it be affected by a magnetic field, or have a magnetic anything? Do charged particles have a magnetic moment? How important is such a measurement? Does this simply measure rate of acceleration of a charged particle in a specific magnetic field?)
(I think there is some confusion in saying the magnetic moment of a neutron, because people may think that a neutron has electric charge. Because a neutron is actually a proton and electron connected together, perhaps an electromagnetic field might have some effect on a neutron, perhaps even being able to separate the proton and electron. Determine if magnetic moment of a neutron measures the )
(What is the duration of space and time for this measurement of magnetic moment? How can people be sure that each measurement is from an individual atom nuclei or does it not matter?)
(Much of this work appears to be under a cloud, mostly because of the remote neuron reading and writing secret, and then lost in highly theoretical mathematical and abstract jargon without any images or 3D models shown.)
(Luis Alvarez is famously dishonest for his involvement in helping to mislead the public about how US Democratic President John Kennedy was killed. So most of Alvarez's claims are under a cloud of suspicion.)
(Bloch also collaborated with George Gamow, the founder of many erroneous theories.)
(Clearly the images of magnetic imaging are real, but is the theory behind MRI accurate or is there neuron secret corruption involved?)
(Describe what "absolute nuclear magnetons" are.)
(I have a lot of doubts about the theory of spins which are 1/2, etc, and Pauli's theory of electron pairs with opposite spin.)
(Make record for Bloch's theory of polarization and Dunning's experimental proof of the existence of the neutron moment?)
(Read from Bloch's Nobel lecture)
| (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
61 YBN
[1939 AD]
| 5138) The group under Edward Adelbert Doisy (CE 1893–1986), US biochemist isolate and figure out the chemical composition of two varieties of vitamin K, (K1 and K2).
| (St. Louis University) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
61 YBN
[1939 AD]
| 5175) Bernard Ferdinand Lyot (lEO) (CE 1897-1952), French astronomer, releases the first motion pictures of the solar prominences.
Solar prominences are arched stream of hot gas projecting from the Sun's surface into the chromosphere or corona. Prominences can be hundreds of thousands of miles long and can be seen with the unaided eye during a total eclipse. They appear to lie along and are supported by loops in the Sun's magnetic field, where they may remain for days to months.
| (Observatory) Meudon, France |
61 YBN
[1939 AD]
| 5219) Paul Hermann Müller (MYUlR) (CE 1899-1965), Swiss chemist, finds that DDT is a highly effective poison against several arthropods.
Müller finds that dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) is useful in killing insects. DDT will be used in Naples during World War II to stop the spread of typhus, which Nicolle had shown was transmitted only from the bite of the body louse. A similar epidemic is stopped in Japan in later 1945 after the US occupation. DDT is used for agricultural purposes after World War II. Resistant strains of insects naturally evolve, and new insecticides are made to control their destruction of agricultural crops. The use of DDT is restricted or banned as a potential pollutant.
DDT had first been synthesized in 1873.
(Determine original paper and cite, translate and read relevent parts.)
(I think there is no way of stopping the human change of the species and land use on earth, the earth will eventually be completely developed, as will the moon, mars, etc. Ultimately I think humans are going to live very controlled lives, with all molecules carefully regulated in particular on earth. Off of earth in between planets and stars, and even on and around planets, descendants of humans will probably prefer the more sterile controlled enclosures where the air is carefully controlled, and all objects (even insects) are carefully tracked. Insects like many other species will probably be held in zoo/wildlife preserves as mainly the descendants of humans reproduce and multiply to other stars.)
(One hope is that chemicals will not have to be used to control the populations of the other species. Clearly, life on ships in between stars will have each species carefully identified and tracked. Even microtechnology can probably now end the lives of arthropods quickly and in large numbers. This approach is far better than spraying chemicals on plants that humans will eat.)
| (Laboratory of the J.R. Geigy Dye-Factory Co.) Basel, Switzerland |
61 YBN
[1939 AD]
| 5248) Ragnar Arthur Granit (CE 1900-1991), Finnish-Swedish physiologist, is the first to show that single nerve fibers can distinguish between different wavelengths of light.
By attaching microelectrodes to individual cells in the retina he showed that color vision does not simply depend on three different types of receptor (cone) cells sensitive to different parts of the spectrum. Rather, some of the eye's nerve fibers are sensitive to the whole spectrum while others respond to a much narrower band and so are color specific.
Hartine also works on individual nerve cells.
In "Color Receptors of the Frog's Retina", a paper received two years later, September 26, 1941, Granit writes: "A preliminary account, dealing chiefly with the technique of micro-recording from the retina and of controlling the energy of the spectrum, but also presenting a number of typical curves for the spectral distribution of sensitivity of single or a restricted number of elements in the frog’s retina was published in 1939 by GRANIT and SVAETICHIN. In their work it was proved that THOMAS YOUNG was right in his main idea that different elements had different colour sensitivity. Since that time work on the frog’s retina has been regularly continued in parallel with work on other eyes in order to collect a very large material of observations permitting us to describe colour reception of the frog’s eye with some pretense to completeness. A large number of observations has been necessary because the better the isolation with micro-electrode the more likely that common types of colour sensitive elements have begn selected at the expense of rare ones. Clearly it is impossible to explore every type of eye with the same degree of completeness, except in the course of years of research. I have therefore chosen to give an account of the typical sensitivity-bands for some types of retinae (GRANIT, 1941 a-d) and selected the frog’s eye for a more exhaustive study of the problem. For this choice it has been of some significance that the retina of the frog has properties strongly reminiscent of the human periphery, Thus, the Purkinje-shift, first described for this eye by HIMSTEDaTn d NAGEL (1901), corresponds to that of the human eye, as demonstrated quantitatively by GRANIT and WREDE (1937) with the aid of the electroretinogram the visual purples seem to be identical in these two types of eye as are also their scotopic spectra (CHAFFEEa nd HAMPSON19,2 4, GRANT and MUNSTERHJELM19, 37, GRANIT,1 937). A difference seems to be the greater sensitivity of the frog’s eye to blue light, discussed in the papers mentioned by the author and his collaborators. An experimental material describing colour receptors can, of course, never be complete. But, having now analyzed well over 100 retinae, I have come to the stage when the experiments never bring anything new or unexpected. This is the reason for my attempt to summarize the observations. Methods. The necessary equipment has consisted of a spectrum, controlled with respect to energy, a graded and calibrated wedge for varying the intensity of the stimulus, micro-electrode, amplifier, cathode ray, and loudspeaker (see GRANITa nd SVAETICHIN19, 39). The same unit has been used in a number of experiments with other types of eyes (GRANIT1, 941 a-d). An improvement of the technique since 1939 has been the use of an amplifier for the loudspeaker stage which is worked at the bend of the characteristic of the valve so that only spikes above a certain height become audible and base-line noise is removed. The whole retina has been illuminated with light from the monochromator. Before the experiment the frogs have been lightadapted in our standard light-adapting apparatus (ZEWI, 1939). The principle of the experiments has been to listen to the discharge, which at the same time is seen on the screen of the cathode ray, and thus to determine the amount of energy necessary for the threshold or for another constant index such as cessation of “flicker”. The results are given in terms of the inverse value of this amount of energy in the different wave-lengths, generally in per cent of the maximum. Results. 1. Some General Observations. Sometimes the micro-electrode isolates an element with the same degree of precision, a,s in HARTLINE(1938) work on single fibres,in the optic nerve, as seen for instance in fig. 1. Sometimes the discharge consists of a number of elements. When to all appearance a single element is active it is impossible to exclude the possibility that the unitary character of the response is due to synchronization. On the other hand, it is likely that the better the isolation, the greater the probability that the type of element isolated belongs to the most common ones. For this reason it is necessary not to rely merely on experiments with isolated elements. Strict adherence to this criterion may, for instance, lead to the conclusion that blue elements are exceedingly rare whereas often the influence of the blue-sensitive substance can be traced in a less restricted type of response. Most interesting is to follow how a discharge disappears below and rises above the threshold when the intensity of the stimulus is altered. Relatively rarely one finds, with decreasing intensity, the frequency of the spikes to diminish in such a fashion as to end with one or two spikes just above the threshold. ... Summary. Spikes have been recorded with micro-electrodes, amplifier and cathode ray oscillograph from the retinae of light-adapted frogs and during dark-adaptation. The chief aim of this work has been to collect a large number of curves showing the distribution of sensitivity to spectral light of single or a restricted number of elements. Most elements have a distribution of sensitivity which coincides with the average curve with its maximum in 0.560 u and legs extending over a relatively large part of the spectrum (see fig. 9). But there are also narrow bands of sensitivity with maxima ranging between 0.450-0.600 ,LA. The maxima of these bands are chiefly gathered around 0.580-0.600 p, 0.520-0.540 p, and 0.450-0.470 p. Curpees from the last mentioned g ~ ~ o uarpe rare. Curves illustrating dark-adaptation (or recovery of sensitivity) for different wave-lengths are given in the paper and compared with visual purple regeneration. The blue-sensitive elements recover at a faster rate than others after light-adaptation and in this way can also be isolated from the region around 0.500 p occupied by the absorption band oi visual purple. The kind of mechanism of colour reception that might be expected from such a system is briefly discussed, and it is suggested that in many respects it may be very like that of man. ...". (Notice "it is impossible", which may imply that the probability of a person even hearing ears from the heat emitted by neurons is extremely low given the state of technology held and controlled by the most wealthy of earth. Perhaps also it is to calm the nerves of the neuron elite by calming them with the reassurance that any info he reveals here can't possibly be a threat to their monopoly on neuron technology. )
(Determine correct date, which paper(s), translate if necessary and read relevent parts.)
(Explain how this is done, and give more details. Is the wavelength of light converted to a voltage or current? How does this relate to seeing what the eye sees in infrared from behind and maybe in a sphere around a head?)
| (The Caroline Institute) Stockholm, Sweden (presumably) |
61 YBN
[1939 AD]
| 6056) Glenn Miller (CE 1904-1944) records the popular "In the Mood". (verify)
The main theme, featuring repeated arpeggios rhythmically displaced, previously appeared under the title of "Tar Paper Stomp" credited to jazz trumpeter/bandleader Wingy Manone. (verify)
| New York City, New York, USA (verify) |
60 YBN
[01/??/1940 AD]
| 5545) Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999), US physicist and J. J. Livingood list a table of all known isotopes and the reactions that produce them. Note that there are no isotopes listed that are produced by any particle larger than an alpha particle.
Seaborg publishes an expanded list of isotopes in 1944, 1948, and 1953 .
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN
[02/01/1940 AD]
| 5246) (Sir) Hans Adolf Krebs (CE 1900-1981), German-British biochemist, and Leonard Eggleston further develop the "Citric-Acid" ("tricarboxylic acid" or "Krebs") cycle, which describes how lactic acid (broken down from carbohydrates) is separated further into carbon dioxide and water in animal tissues.
By 1940 Krebs finalizes the details of the Citric Acid (or "Krebs") Cycle, which describes how lactic acid is disassembled into carbon dioxide and water. Meyerhof and the Coris had shown the changes involved that carry the glycogen of the liver down to lactic acid. This part does not involve the absorption of oxygen and produces only a small amount of energy (2 ATP, and is called glycolysis, a more primitive form of digestion than oxygen digestion). Szent-Györgyi had shown that any one of four four-carbon acids can be used to raise oxygen consumption when it slows. Krebs identifies two six-carbon acids, including the well-known citric acid, that also raise oxygen consumption when it slows and concludes that all six acids must be involved in the cycle that leads from lactic acid to carbon dioxide and water. The Citric Acid (or Krebs) cycle starts with lactic acid, a three-carbon compound, which is divided into a two-carbon compound later described by Lipmann. This two-carbon compound combines with the four-carbon oxaloacetic acid (of Szent-Györgyi) to form the six-carbon citric acid. The citric acid goes through changes that convert it back to oxaloacetic acid again and in the process it loses carbon dioxide and gives up hydrogen atoms that combine through a series of complicated steps with atmospheric oxygen. This combination of hydrogen with oxygen yields energy for the body. Once the citric acid is converted back to oxaloacetic acid, the oxaloacetic acid can combine with another two-carbon fragment and goes through this procedure again. Each time through this Krebs cycle, one two-carbon compound is separated into carbon dioxide and water. The Krebs cycle is the major energy producer in living organisms although there are others (glycolysis is one, photosynthesis, name others.) Both fat molecules and carbohydrate molecules are broken down into the same two-carbon compound, so that the citric acid cycle is the final stage of energy production from both carbohydrates and fats. When proteins are broken down for energy fragments enter the Citric Acid cycle, most at the two-carbon compound stage.
In there 1940 paper "THE OXIDATION OF PYRUVATE IN PIGEON BREAST MUSCLE", Krebs and Eggleston write: "PYRUVATE is very readily oxidized in animal tissues, yet little is known about the immediate products of its oxidation. Such oxidative reactions of pyruvate as are known to occur-dismutation, formation of succinate, acetate or ketone bodies-are side reactions whose significance varies from tissue to tissue: in no tissue can these reactions account for the total oxidation, and in some tissues, such as muscle or kidney, they account for even less than 20 %. ... SUMMARY 1. Added pyruvate is readily oxidized by minced pigeon breast muscle. The oxidation of other substrates is inhibited when an excess of pyruvate is present. This inhibition is a " competitive inhibition ". 2. The oxidation of pyruvate is inhibited by malonate. 3. Fumarate removes the malonate inhibition. The removal is complete when the malonate concentration is relatively low (OOOlM), but is incomplete when the malonate concentration is higher (0-025M). In the latter case each molecule of added fumarate causes the removal of 1 mol. of pyruvate, whilst 2 mol. of 02 are absorbed and 3 mol. of CO2 produced, according to the equation: (1) Pyruvate + fumarate + 202 = succinate + 3CO2 + H20. 4. The succinate formed in reaction 1 cannot arise by anaerobic reduction since this reaction is inhibited by malonate. Thus there must be a second route leading from fumarate to succinate which is oxidative and unaffected by malonate. 5. If an excess of pyruvate is added, together with fumnarate, reaction 1 yields citrate, or oc-ketoglutarate, instead of succinate: (8) Pyruvate + fumarate +02 -+ oc-ketoglutarate (yield up to 50 %). (9) Pyruvate + fumarate +02 --*citrate (yield up to 15 %). 6. When no pyruvate, but fumarate, is added to muscle in the presence of 0*025M malonate, a reaction similar to 1 takes place: (10) Fumarate + triose equivalent + 2j02 = succinate + 3CO2 + 2H20. 7. Reactions 1 and 10 represent the major part of the normal respiration in pigeon breast muscle. 8. Szent-Gyorgyi's theory of hydrogen transport by the system fumarate = oxaloacetate is accepted for the conversion of triose into pyruvate, the only reaction for which it has been proved. It is probable that this system also acts as a hydrogen carrier in the reactions which lead to the formation and to the breakdown of citrate. The theory fails however to explain the oxidation of pyruvate, because it does not account for the oxidative formation of succinate from fumarate and for the stoichiometric relations shown in reaction 1. 9. All observations are explained by the theory of the citric acid cycle which is not contradictory of but supplementary to Szent-Gyorgyi's theory. Reaction 1 shows that a series of reactions of the type formulated in the citric acid cycle occurs. The theory is directly supported by reactions 8 and 9. Whilst there is no doubt that the major part of muscle respiration goes through the citric acid cycle, the possibility of an alternative reaction is not excluded. This possibility is however purely theoretical and so far without any experimental support. ...".
| (University of Sheffield) Sheffield, England |
60 YBN
[02/29/1940 AD]
| 5579) Martin David Kamen (CE 1913-2002), Canadian-US biochemist, isolates carbon-14, which has a half-life of 5,700 years.
Carbon-14 quickly becomes one of the most useful isotopes in biochemical research and is used for archaeological dating by Libby. Kamen was interested in the isotopes of the light elements. Oxygen and nitrogen have no radioactive isotopes that hold together long enough to be useful, and at the time many people think carbon is the same way.
In Decemeber 1938 Kamen had used the shorter-lived carbon-11 (21 minute half-life) to analyze photosynthesis.
Kamen and Samuel Ruben publish this in "Physical Review" as "Radioactive Carbon of Long Half-Life".
(Read relevent parts of paper.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN
[03/03/1940 AD]
| 5462) John Ray Dunning (CE 1907-1975), US physicist, and team demonstrate that uranium-235 produces far more fissions per minute than uranium-238.
Dunning and team report this in a letter to "The Physical Review" titled "Nuclear Fission of Separated Uranium Isotopes". They write: " Small quantities of the uranium isotopes have been isolated by means of a mass spectrometer similar to several employed by one of us for the measurement of relative abundance of isotopes. In the present apparatus U ions are produced by sending a beam of electrons (~10-4 amp.) through a slit in one end of a hollow Nichrome box containing a small piece of solid UBr4. The box (1.2x1.2x1.8cm) was heated to a temperature of several hundred degrees centigrade by a heater wrapped around it. This temperature was sufficient to give a vapor pressure of UBr4 in the box estimated to be 10-2 mm. Positive ions formed by collisions of the electrons with the vapor molecules were drawn out of the box through a slit (13 x 0.35 mm) in one side. The ions were given an energy of approximately 1000 volts in passing between the box and a slit (also 0.35 mm wide) in a plate 8 mm from the box. The ions traveled in a semi-circular analyzer tube having a radius of 17.8 cm, the entire mass spectrometer tube being mounted between the poles of a large electromagnet. The U238 ions were collected on an isulated Nichrome plate (2 x 15 mm) and the current was measured with an electrometer tube. The U235 ions were collected on a grounded plate also made of Nichrome. The resolution was such that the U238 background in the 235 and 241 positions was less than 3 percent of the U238 peak height. The resolution was not sufficient to separate U234 from U235. Two separate runs were made. in the first of these, the U238 ion current averaged 2x10-9 amp. for a period of 10 hours, and in the second 3.4 x 10-9 amp. for 11 hours. This corresponded to U238 deposites of 1.7x 10-7 g and 2.9 x 10-7g, respectively, provided all the ions stuck. The corresponding U235 deposits would be 1/139 of these amounts. The fission of the separated uranium isotopes has been tested by placing the samples in an ionization chamber connected to a linear amplifier system, and bombarding with neutrons from the Columbia cyclotron which had been slowed down in paraffin. With high neutron intensities there is always a residual "fission background" in an ionization chamber, presumably due to the presence of very small amounts of uranium or other elements which produce fission. This background sets a lower limit to the amounts of uranium which can be used for fission tests, regardless of the neutron intensity. by careful construction and clearning this background was reduced to 0.15+-0.02 fission/minute, which corresponds to an amount of uranium which would give about 1 alpha-particle per hour. The results of the tests are shown in the following table. The background has been subtracted.
{ULSF: see table}
... These results strongly support the view that U235 is the isotope responsible for slow neutron fission, as predicted on theoretical grounds by Bohr and Wheeler. on this basis the cross section for U238 fission by slow neutrons would be about 400 to 500 x 10-24 cm2. These experiments cannot exclude U234 completely, however, for it was also deposited on the U235 strips. Since U234 is present to only 1 part in 17,000, it is hardly likely that it can be responsible. These experiments emphasize the importance of uranium isotope separation on a larger scale for the investigation of chain reaction possibilities in uranium. ...".
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN
[05/27/1940 AD]
| 5455) Element 93 Neptunium re-identified and isolated.
Meitner, Hahn and Strassmann had chemically identified transuranium elements 93-96 by May of 1937.
Edwin Mattison McMillan (CE 1907-1991) and Phillip Hauge Abelson announce isolating very small quantities of the new element 93, which they name Neptunium (since Klaproth had named uranium after the planet Uranus), by bombarding uranium with neutrons that do not cause fission. McMillan and Abelson are experimenting with uranium fission and find a beta-particle (electron emission) activity with a half life of 2.3 days. Since this particular Neptunium isotope emits beta particles (electrons), according to the rules worked out by Soddy, it has to become an element that is one atomic number (proton) higher on the periodic table.
In 1940 Element 94 is detected and named plutonium after Pluto, the once-planet beyond Neptune. Seaborg will perform much of the research into heavier than uranium elements a transuranium elements.
This is the first known transuranium element.
McMillan and Abelson announce this new element in an article in "The Physical Review" enetitled "Radioactive Element 93". They write: " Last year a nonrecoiling 2.3-day period was discovered in uranium activated with neutrons, and an attempt was made to identify it chemically, leading to the conclusion that it is a rare earth. impressed by the difficulties raised by this identification, the authors independently decided that the subject was worth further investigation. In Berkeley it was found that: (1) If a layer of (NH4)2U2O7 with about 0.1 mm air equivalent stopping power, placed in contact with a collodion film of 2 mm air equivalent, is activated by neutrons from the cyclotron, the 2.3-day period appears strongly in the uranium layer, and not at all in the collodion, which shows a decay curve parallel to, and 1/7 as strong as, that of a paper "fission catcher" behind it. One day after bombardment the uranium layer has five times the activity of the fission catcher, This shows that the 2.3-day period has a range of <0.1 mm air and an intensity larger than all the long period fission products together. (2) When a thin layer of uranium is bombarded with and without cadmium around it, the fission product intentisy is changed by a large factor, while the 2.3-day period and the 23-minute uranium period are only slightly changed, and their ratio remains constant. Also absorption of resonance neutrons by uranium changes these two periods in the same ratio, suggesting a genetic relation between them, and the consequent identification of the longer period with element 93. In Washington it was found that the 2.3-day period probably does not behave consistently as a rare earth, since attempts to concentrate it chemically with the rare earths from activated uranium failed, although it is known to have an intensity large compared with that of the rare earth fission products. At this stage of the investigation one of the authors (P.H.A.) came to Berkeley on a visit, and a combined attack was made. With pure 2.3-day substance from thin uranium layers, the chemical properties were investigated, and a very characteristic difference from the rare earths was soon found; namely, the substance does not precipitate with HF in the presence of an oxidizing agent (bromate in strong acid). In the presence of a reducing agent (SO2) it precipitates quantitatively with HF. Cerium was used as a carrier. This property explains the erratic nature of previous chemical experiments in which the oxidizing power of the solution was not controlled. Further chemical experiments showed that in the reduced state with a thorium carrier it precipitates with iodate, and in the oxidized state with uranium as sodium uranyl acetate. It also precipitates with thorium on the addition of H2O2. It precipitates in basic solution if carbonate is carefully excluded. These properties indicate that the two valuence states are very similar to those or uranium (U++++ and UO2++ or U2O7--), the chief difference from that element being in the value of the oxidation potential between the two valences, such that the lower state is more stable in the new element. It is interesting to note that the new element has little if any resemblance to its homolog rhenium; for it does not precipitate with H2S in acid solution, is not reduced to the metal by zinc in acid solution, and does not have an oxide volatile at red heat. This fact, together with the apparent similarity to uranium, suggests that there may be a second "rare earth" group of similar elements starting with uranium. The final proof that the 2.3-day substance is the daughter of the 23-minute uranium is the demonstration of its growth from the latter. For this experiment activated uranium was purified twice by precipitation as sodium uranyl acetate, which was dissolved in HF and saturated with SO2. Then equal quantities of cerium were added at twenty-minute intervals and the precipitates filtered out. The first precipitate, made immediately after purification, carried all the fluoride-precipitable contaminations and was discarded; its weakness indicated a very good purification. The activities of the others are plotted in Fig. 1. A preliminary study of the radiation from 93239 shows that it emits continuous negative beta-particles with an upper limit of 0.47 Mev, and a weak complex spectrum of low energy gamma-rays (<0.3 Mev) and probably x-rays. The question of the behavior of its daughter product 94239 immediately arises. Our first thought was that it should go to actinouranium by emitting an alpha-particle. We sought for these by preparing a strong sample (11 millicuries) of purified 93 and placing it near a linear amplifier in a magnetic field to deflect the beta-particles. From this experiment we conclude that, if alpha-particles are emitted, their half-life must be of the order of a million years or more; the same experiment showed that if spontaneous fission occurs its hald-life must be even greater. We wish to express our gratitude to the Rockefeller Foundation and the Research Corporation, whose financial support made this work possible.".
Neptunium is a radioactive chemical element with symbol "Np", atomic number 93, atomic mass (density) 237.0482, melting point about 640°C; boiling point 3,902°C (estimated); relative density (specific gravity) 20.25 at 20°C, valence +3, +4, +5, or +6. Neptunium is a ductile, silvery radioactive metal. It is a member of the actinide series in Group 3 of the periodic table. Neptunium has three distinct forms. Neptunium forms numerous chemical compounds. Neptunium, the first transuranium element, is named for the planet Neptune, which is beyond Uranus in the solar system. Neptunium is found in very small quantities in nature in association with uranium ores. There are 20 known isotopes of neptunium. Neptunium-237, the most stable, has a half-life of 2.14 million years and is used in neutron-detection equipment.
Fermi created Neptunium first in 1934, and Meitner, Hahn and Strassmann identified elements 93-96 in the products of neutron uranium collision. In his 1938 Nobel Prize speech Fermi states that in Rome they called elements 93 "Ausenium" and 94 "Hersperium", and that Otto Hahn and Lise Mitner confirmed the products of irradiated uranium up to atomic number 96. McMillan mentions Hahn in his Nobel prize lecture in 1951 but does not state how Hahn identified elements 93-96.
Plutnium will be re-identified and isolated by Glenn Seaborg in 1941.
McMillan and Abelson do not mention the earlier identification of Meitner, Hahn and Strassmann. Perhaps McMillan and Abelson were not aware of this earlier chemical identification of element 93 because it was published in German.
(Describe fully and clearly how plutonium is created? By simple neutron bombardment?)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN
[05/28/1940 AD]
| 5285) Fission of uranium and thorium by γ-rays.
Haxby, Shoupp, Stephens, and Wells, at Westinghouse Research Laboratories observe fission of uranium and thorium produced by irradiation with γ-rays. In their paper "Photo-fission of Uranium and Thorium", they write: " We have observed fission recoils from uranium and thorium produced by γ-rays from CaF2 and AlF3 targets bombarded with protons. A rough estimate of the cross section, based on our data, gives 10-26 cm2 for the photo-fission cross sectino in comparison with the theoretical estimate of 10-27 cm2 give by Bohr and Wheeler. A beam of 0.5 microampere of analyzed protons of 2 to 3 Mev energy was used to bombard CaF2 and AlF,sub>3. With Ca and Al targets, no fissions were observed, indicating the absence of neutron fissions. Although a few neutrons are obtained when Ca is combarded with protons, these were fuond to be too few to give fissions. Even fewer neutrons were found from proton bombardment of CaD2 when a BF3-filled ionization chamber was used to detect the neutrons. no appreciable decrease in the fission rate was observed with 4 cm of paraffin between the target (γ-rays source) and the ionization chamber containing uranium. This amount of paraffin was shown to cut down the fission rate by one-half when neutrons from Li(p,n) were used instead of γ-rays. The fission rate was cut down by a lead absorber by roughly the right amount for high energy γ-rays. Further indication that the fissions are due to γ-rays is the observed proportionality of fission rate to high energy γ-rays intensity as this is increased by a factor of 5 on raising the proton beam energy from 2 to 3.2 Mev. Below 2 Mev the fission rate was too low for observation. ... It has been suggested that photo-fissino be referred to as "phission" to distinguish it from neutron fission.".
In a later paper on August 30, 1940 they write: "Fission of uranium and thorium has been observed to be produced by irradiation with γ-rays. The cross section for this photo-fission produced by the γ-ray from fluorine bombarded with protons has been measured and found to be: σU=3.5 +- 1.0 x 10-27 cm2, σTh=1.7 +- 0.5 x 10-27 cm2. Soon after neutron-induced fission of uranium and thorium was discovered it was pointed out that sufficient excitation of the heavier nuclei by γ-rays might also cause fission. A search was made in several laboratories for fission caused by γ-rays, but no effect was observed. The failure to observe fissino of this type was thought to be caused by insufficient γ-ray intensities, as calculated from the yeilds of F(p,γ) and Li(p,γ) reactions given by Livingston and bethe. however, we looked for and discovered photo-fission. This was made possible by the fact that the yield of γ-rays from F(p,γ) is actually much greater than quoted and increases rapidly with proton energy. A preliminary report has been published and this paper gives a full account of our experiments."
(State who was the first to create fission of Thorium.)
| (Westinghouse Research Laboratories) East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
60 YBN
[05/??/1940 AD]
| 5590) Proximity explsove trigger ("prozimity fuze"). W. A. S. Butement, Edward S. Shire, and Amherst F.H. Thompson propose the radio frequency proximity fuze concept in a memo to the British Air Defence Establishment. (verify)
A proximity fuze emits light particles in radio frequency which are reflected from the target (which is any nearby object), and when the reflected signal is strong enough the the proximity fuse detonates an explosive. The proximity fuse is useful for antiaircraft missiles. The proximity fuse makes direct hits not necessary since it explodes anywhere near the target and makes antiaircraft shells much more effective.
(Is this the first proximity sensor?)
| England |
60 YBN
[06/14/1940 AD]
| 5568) Spontaneous fission of uranium observed.
Soviet physicists, Georgii Nikolaevich Flerov (CE 1913-1990), and Petrjak report observing spontaneous fission uranium but detect no spontaneous fission of Uranium X or Thorium.
Flerov and Petrjak find that uranium undergoes "spontaneous fission" although very slowly. Spontaneous fission is an important method of breakdown among the transuranium elements formed by nuclear bombardment since the 1940s.
In a small telegram to the journal "Physical Review" in English, titled "Spontaneous Fission of Uranium", Flerov and Petrjak write: " With 15 plates ionization chambers adjusted for detection of uranium fission products we observed 6 pulses per hour which we ascribe to spontaneous fissino of uranium. A series of control experiments seem to exclude other possible explanations. Energy of pulses and absorption properties coincide with fission products of uranium bombarded by neutrons. No pulses were found with UX and Th. Mean lifetime of uranium follows ten to sixteen or seventeen years.".
(Notice the keyword "exclude"- it's an interesting story how Russian people must have eventually figured out about flying cameras, and in particular neuron reading and writing. It may have been that the wealthy of Russia did not find out about neuron reading and writing until a long time after it was first invented - clearly here by 1940 they are aware of it and the massive injustice keeping it secret has caused.)
| (Physico Technical Institute and Radium Institute) Leningrad, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
60 YBN
[06/21/1940 AD]
| 5554) Carbon ions accelerated in a cyclotron.
Luis Walter Alvarez (CE 1911-1988), US physicist, accelerates carbon ions in the 37-inch cyclotron at the University of California in Berkeley. The cyclotron chamber is filled with CH4 and a beam of 50 Mev C12++++++ ions is detected with a linear amplifier. Alvarez comments that these carbon ions could be used in disintegration experiments.
In 1950, G. B. Rossi et al will show that carbon ions can change Aluminum-27 into Clorine-34 and Gold-197 into Astatine-205.
(The question is where are all the published reports of ions of every size accelerated? Clearly there is some kind of coverup which implies that fusion particle reactions are probably a large secret business.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN
[07/16/1940 AD]
| 5365) Segré, Corson and MacKenzie, synthesize element 85, which is named "astatine", Greek for "unstable" which has a half life of 7.5 hours, and like technetium has no stable isotopes.
In an article in the journal "Physical Review" entitled "Artificially Radioactive Element 85", Corson MacKenzie and Segré write as an abstract: "Bismuth bombarded with 32-Mev alpha-particles becomes radioactive. Two ranges of alpha-particles are emitted, one of 6.55 cm and one of 4.52 cm. These two alpha-particles are not genetically related. There are also x-rays which show the absorption characteristics of polonium x-rays. All these radiations separate together chemically as element 85, and all show the same half-life of 7.5 hours. The probable explanation of these effects is the following: Bi209, by an (α,2n) reaction, goes to 85214, which decays either by K-electron capture to actinium C'(Po211) or by alpha-particle emission (range 4.5 cm) to Bi207. The 6.5-cm alpha-particles are those of actinium C'. According to this scheme the second branch from 85211 leads to Bi207 which should decay to Pb207. As yet we have been unable to find this activity. We discuss the chemical properties of element 85 and show that in general its behavior is that of a metal.".
Astatine, has symbol At, and atomic number 85. Astatine is the heaviest of the halogen groups, filling the place immediately below iodine in group 17 of the periodic table. Astatine is a highly unstable element existing only in short-lived radioactive forms. About 25 isotopes have been prepared by nuclear reactions of artificial transmutation. The longest-lived of these is 210At, which decays with a half-life of only 8.3 h. It is unlikely that a stable or long-lived form will be found in nature or prepared artificially. The most important isotope, used for tracer studies, is 211At. Astatine exists in nature in uranium minerals, but only in the form of trace amounts of shortlived isotopes, continuously replenished by the slow decay of uranium, The total amount of astatine in the Earth's crust is less than 1 oz (28 g).
(Fully describe the synthesis: what is the starting atom, what particles are used to transmutate it?)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
60 YBN
[07/19/1940 AD]
| 5262) Vincent Du Vigneaud (DYU VENYO) (CE 1901-1978), US biochemist, with Donald B. Melville, Paul György and Catharine S. Rose, shows that a molecule earlier called vitamin H is actually biotin.
In the 1930s Du Vigneaud working with the amino acid methionine (and related molecules) shows how the body shifts a methyl group (-CH3) around from molecule to molecule sometimes completing the structure of a complicated molecule by connecting the last carbon atom by way of the methionine molecule. (chronology)
| (Cornell University Medical College) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN
[08/24/1940 AD]
| 5217) Australian-English pathologist, (Baron) Howard Walter Florey (CE 1898-1968), German-English biochemist, Ernst Boris Chain (CE 1906-1979), and coworkers, isolate and purify a form of the anti-bacterial penicillin, perform the first clinical trials of the antibiotic and find that penicillin taken into mice (in vivo) is effective against at least three kinds of bacteria.
Florey obtains a yellow powder that contains the anti-bacterial molecule of penicillin. During World War 2 the structure of penicillin is determined by using X-ray diffraction and for the first time a computer is used to solve the mathematics involved in the complex X-ray scattering. With the structure of penicillin determined, methods to produce large quantities of penicillin are created. Penicillin is still the most widely used antibiotic, and compared to other antibiotics has a very low toxicity.
Florey, et al write in an article "PENICILLIN AS A CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENT" in the Lancet: "IN recent years interest in chemotherapeutic effects has been almost exclusively focused on the sulphonamides and their derivatives. There are, however, other possibilit ies, notably those connected with naturally occurring substances. It has been known for a long time that a number of bacteria and moulds inhibit the growth of pathogenic micro-organisms. Little, however, has been done to purify or to determine the properties of any of these substances. The antibacterial substances produced by Pseudomonas pyocyanea have been investigated in some detail, but without the isolation of any purified product of therapeutic value. Recently, Dubos and collaborators (1939, 1940) have published interesting studies on the acquired bacterial antagonism of a soil bacterium which have led to the isolation from its culture medium of bactericidal substances active against a number of gram-positive microorganisms. I Pneumococcal infections in mice were successfully treated with one of these substances, which, however, proved to be highly toxic to mice (Hotchkiss and Dubos 1940) and dogs (McLeod et al. 1940). Following the work on lysozyme in this laboratory it occurred to two of us (E. C. and H. W. F.) that it would be profitable to conduct a systematic investigation of the chemical and biological properties of the antibacterial substances produced by bacteria and moulds. This investigation was begun with a study of a substance with promising antibacterial properties, produced by a mould and described by Fleming (1929). The present preliminary report is the result of a cooperative investigation on the chemical, pharmacological and chemotherapeutic properties of this substance. Fleming noted that a mould produced a substance which inhibited the growth, in particular, of staphylococci, streptococci, gonococci, meningococci and Corynebacterium diphtherice, but not of Bacillus coli, Hcemoph ilus influenzm, Salmonella typhi, P. pyocyanea, Bacillus proteus or Vibrio cholerce. He suggested its use as an inhibitor in the isolation of certain types of bacteria, especially H. influenzm. He also noted that the injection into animals of broth containing the substance, which he called " penicillin," was no more toxic than plain broth, and he suggested that the substance might be a useful antiseptic for application to infected wounds. The mould is believed to be closely related to Penicillium notatum. Clutterbuck, Lovell and Raistrick (1932) grew the mould in a medium containing inorganic salts only and isolated a pigment--chrysogenin-which had no antibacterial action. Their culture media contained penicillin but this was not isolated. Reid (1935) reported work on the inhibitory substance produced by Fleming’s mould. He did not isolate it but noted some of its properties. , During the last year methods have been devised here for obtaining a considerable yield of penicillin, and for rapid assay of its inhibitory power. From the culture medium a brown powder has been obtained which is freely soluble in water. It and its solution are stable for a considerable time and though it is not a pure substance, its anti-bacterial activity is very great. Full details will, it is hoped, be published later. EFFECTS ON NORMAL ANIMALS Various tests were done on mice, rats and cats. There is some oedema at the site of subcutaneous injection of strong solutions (e.g. 10 mg. in 0-3 c.cm.). This may well be due to the hypertonicity of the solution. No sloughing of skin or suggestion of serious damage has ever been encountered even with the strongest solutions or after repeated injections into the same area. Intravenous injections showed that the penicillin preparation was only slightly, if at all, toxic for mice An intravenous injection of as much as 10 mg. (dissolved in 0.3 c.cm. distilled water) of the preparation we have used for the curative experiments did not produce any observable toxic reactions in a 23 g. mouse. It was subsequently found that 10 mg. of a preparation having twice the penicillin content of the above was apparently innocuous to a 20 g. mouse. Subcutaneous injections of 10 mg. into two rats at 3- hourly intervals for 56 hours did not cause any obvious change in their behaviour. They were perhaps slightly less lively than normal rats but they continued to eat their food. Their blood showed a fall of total leucocytes after 24 hours, but after 48 hours the count had risen again to about the original total. There was, however, a relative decrease in the number of polymorphs, but the normal number was restored 24 hours after stopping the administratio n of the substance. One of these two rats was killed for histological examination ; there was some evidence that the tubule cells of the kidney were damaged. The other has remained perfectly well, and its weight increased from 76 to 110 g. in 23 days. It is to be noted that these rats received, weight for weight, about five times the dose of penicillin used in the curative experiments in mice. No evidence of toxic effects was obtained from the treated mice, which received penicillin for many days. Other pharmacological effects.-... CONCLUSIONS The results are clear cut, and show that penicillin is active in vivo against at least three of the organisms inhibited in vitro. It would seem a reasonable hope that all organisms inhibited in high dilution in vitro will be found to be dealt with in vivo. Penicillin does not appear to be related to any chemotherapeutic substance at present in use and is particularly remarkable for its activity against the anaerobic organisms associated with gas gangrene. ...".
(State who uses the computer to analyze the x-ray patterns.) (State who actually isolates penicillin.) (Show structure of penicillin) In 1941 penicillin is used on 9 people with bacterial infections with successful results. In 1958 synthetic penicillin molecules are formed by letting the mold form the basic ring structure and then adding different groups to that structure in the test tube. These molecules can be used against bacteria that are unaffected by the natural form of penicillin.
(Show structures added to penicillan.)
(It is interesting that a small change is enough to actually still kill bacteria that adapt defenses to penicillin. Perhaps the ring bonds with some structure on many bacteria? Clearly a fungi survived because of this chemical naturally evolved defense to bacteria.)
(It's not clear that this is isolation is purely penicillin or an impure form.)
| (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
60 YBN
[08/29/1940 AD]
| 5438) Peter Carl Goldmark (CE 1906-1977), Hungarian-US physicist, demonstrates a color television system.
In 1924, George Eastman (CE 1854-1932), US inventor had developed a process for color and motion picture film. (State first commercially successful color motion picture camera.)
Goldmark develops the first color television system used in commercial broadcasts (working at the Columbia Broadcasting System Laboratories. Goldmark patents this system on September 7, 1940.
Goldmark calls this system the "field sequential system". This system of color television is demonstrated New York City on August 29, 1940, projecting colored images of flowers, red boat sails in a sunset, and a girl chasing a ball. On December 2, 1940, the system will air the first live color television images on CBS's experimental channel. Images are filmed using a rapidly spinning three-color disk and viewed using a similar disk.
In 1941 Goldmark patents a television display that uses an AC syncronous motor (which is similar to a "step" motor).
In his 1940 patent entitled "Color Television", Goldmark writes: "This invention relates to television, especially to television in natural colors. The invention is particularly directed to the combination with a transmitting or receiving scanning device of a rotatable color filter disk having segments of novel design.
It has heretofore been suggested to achieve colored television by employing at the receiver a cathode-ray tube and a disk having red, green and blue filter sectors revolving in front of the tube. At the transmitter, a similar disk is arranged in front of the scanning device and the two disks are rotated in synchronism. The entire object field is scanned successively through red, green and blue filters and the signals transmitted to the receiver. At the receiver, the disk is phased with respect to the incoming signals so that when an image corresponding to the red portion of the object field is reproduced on the fluorescent screen of the cathode-ray tube, the screen will be viewed through the red filter, and similarly for the green and blue filters. ...". (read more?)
(The history of picture and sound recording and displaying is an interesting history, not only because of the wonderful sensation of seeing and hearing pictures, but because of the way the technology has been kept so secretly from the public for more than 200 years. So most of the history of photography, movie cameras, television, sound recording devices, etc is apparently a history of releasing ancient technology to the public while a second group secretly continues to develop dust-sized direct-to-neuron-windows technology which is shockingly and viciously kept from the vast majority of people on earth while simultaneously subjecting the unknowing public to this technology without telling them, and without the public even told anything about flying cameras, neuron writing, etc....even something as basic as that light is a particle of matter and may be the basis of all matter, or that our future is to build a globular cluster if we are successful. This presumes that those people that release these devices to the public are at least consumers of direct-to-brain-windows if not operators of this technology - it seems very unlikely that any are "excluded" - do not receive direct-to-neuron videos.)
| (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN
[11/13/1940 AD]
| 5524) Electron accelerator (betatron) which creates artificial gamma rays.
Ernest Orlando Lawrence (CE 1901-1958), had built the first circular particle accelerator named the "cyclotron", in which an electromagnetic field accelerates and deflects the path of ions into circles in 1930.
Donald William Kerst (CE 1911-1993), US physicist, builds the betatron, a particle accelerator where electrons (beta particles, which explain the name "betatron") are moved in circles instead of spirals while the magnetic field is increased in sync with the supposed increase in mass of the particles. Because electrons are much lighter than protons, to give them enough momentum to cause nuclear transformations, they must reach very high velocities.
Among the many investigators who attempt to accelerate electrons by magnetic induction, none are successful until Donald Kerst produces 2.3-MeV electrons in a betatron at the University of Illinois in 1940. Kerst later constructs a number of betatrons of successively higher energies, reaching 300-MeV in a betatron at the University of Illinois.
In April 1941 Kerst publishes an article in "The Physical Review" called "The Acceleration of Electrons by Magnetic Induction" with the abstract: "Apparatus with which electrons have been accelerated to an energy of 2.3 Mev by means of the electric field accompanying a changing magnetic field is described. Stable circular orbits are formed in a magnetic field, and the changing flux within the orbits accelerates the electrons. As the magnetic field reaches its peak value, saturation of the iron supplying flux through the orbit causes the electrons to spiral inward toward a tungsten target. The x-rays produced have an intensity approximately equal to that of the gamma-rays from one gram of radium; and, because of the tendency of the x-rays to proceed in the direction of the electrons, a pronounced beam is formed". In the introduction Kerst writes: " In the past the acceleration of electrons to very high voltage has required the generation of the full voltage and the application of that voltage to an accelerating tube containing the electron beam. no convenient method for repeated acceleration through a small potential difference has been available for electrons, although the method has been highly successful in the cyclotron for the heavier positive ions at velocities much less than the velocity of light. Several investigators have considered the possibility of using the electric field associated with a time-varying magnetic field as an accelerating force. This is a very attractive possibility because the magnetic field can be used to cause a circular of spiral orbit for the electron while the magnetic flux within the orbit increases and causes a tangential electric field along the orbit. The energy gained by the electron in one revolution is about equal to the instantaneous voltage induced in one turn of a wire placed at the position of the orbit. Since the electron can make many revolutions in a short time, it can gain much energy. The comparatively small momentum of a high energy electron requires correspondingly small values of Hr for high energy orbits. For example, the energy of an electrons when v ~ c is KE=3x10-4Hr-0.51 million electron volts. Thus with H=3000 orsteds and r=5 cm, the energy of the electron would be about 4 Mev, and the orbit could be held between the poles of a small magnet. because of the experimental experiences of previous investigators with this method of acceleration, a rather detailed study of the focusing to be expected was made, and it is presented in the paper immediately following this one. With the results of this theoretical investigation to guide the design, it was possible to make an induction accelerator which produced x-rays of 2.3 Mev. briefly, in the focusing theory it is shown that: 1. The electrons have a stable orbit, "equilibrium orbit" where
phi0=2pir02H0. (1)
phi0 is the flux within the orbit at r0, and H0 is the magnetic field at r0. Both phi0 and H0 are increased during the acceleration process. This flux condition holds for all velocities of the electrons, and it shows that if a maximum flux density of 10,000 gauss is allowed in the iron then 5000 oersteds is the maximum field which can be used at the orbit. 2. in the plane of their orbits the electrons oscillate about their instantaneous circles, circles for which p=eHr/c with an increasing frequency wr=omega(1=n)1/2, (2) where omega is the angular velocity of the electron in its orbit, and wr is 2pi times the radial focusing frequency. The number n is determined by the radial dependence of the magnetic field, which we take to be of the form H ~ 1/rn. For radial focusing n must be less than unity. ... At relativistic energies space charge forces are completely balanced by magnetic self-focusing of the beam, for the electric force on a stray electron at a distance delta from the beam center is
eE=2sigmae/delta (11) where sigma is the linear charge density in e.s.u./cm. The magnetic attraction due to the main current in the beam is
evH/c=(v/c)22sigmae/delta 912) Thus it is evident that when v->c, the magnetic pull of the beam for a stray electron just equals the electrostatic repulsion. Or, from the point of view of an observer on the electron, the spacing of the fixed number of electrons around the orbit will increase, since as v->c his yardstick becomes a smaller fraction of the circumference of the orbit. ... The Geiger-Muller counter then gave x-ray pulses at the center of the oscillograph screen. This indicated a parth length of about sixty miles from injector to target. If the primary voltage was lowered beyond this point, the yield disappeared, for the electrons were not drawn in to the target but were slowed down by the decreasing magnetic field. Fortunately the operation of the accelerator is not sensitive to the alignment of the pole faces. no difference in the output can be detected when the pole faces are placed off axis as far as a thirty-second of an inch. it is also surprising that vacuum requirements are not as severe as was expected. no rigorous outgassing is necessary and the apparatus has been run with a vacuum as poor as 10-5 mm Hg. The tube can be opened for changes and operated three-quarters of an hour after sealing shut. At present, low flux densities have been used at the orbit. When these are increased, it should be possible to go to 5 million volts even with this small model. One of the promising possibilities for the induction accelerator as a research tool is that the electrons from the beam can come out through the glass walls of the doughnut after they strike the target. They should be fairly homogeneous in energy procided that the target has a high atomic number. The great increase in bremsstrahlung production with rising electron energy in addition to the concentration of this radiation in a cone of solid angle mc2/E about the original electron direction give the inductino accelerator the possibility of providing an intense source of x-radiation for nuclear investigations. Since there is no evident limit on the energy which can be reached by induction acceleration, it may soon be possible to produce some small scale cosmic-ray phenomena in the laboratory...". (Read more of paper?)
In his Novemeber 1940 patent application Kerst writes: "The present invention relates to apparatus for accelerating charged particles, such as electrons, by means of magnetic induction effects.
It has previously been proposed to obtain high velocity electrons by the use of a closed vessel 5 defining an annular path for electron gyration and a magnetic system for producing a timevarying magnetic field of such space distribution as to confine electrons projected within the vessel to a circular orbit along which they are con- 10 tinuously accelerated by the field. However, the forms of such apparatus which have heretofore been described have been either inoperable or operable only in an extremely limited sense. It is an object of the present invention to provide 15 an improved magnetic accelerator of the circular orbit type which is capable of realizing a substantial output of electrons (or other charged particles) of very high velocity.
In the attainment of the foregoing object an 20 important feature of the invention consists in the provision of improved means for introducing charged particles into the orbital path in which acceleration is to occur. In particular, it is proposed in this connection to generate such par- 25 tides within the region of influence of the magnetic accelerating field and to project them with an initial velocity calculated to assure their capture by the field-producing system employed.
Another important feature of the invention, 00 ancillary to the above, consists in the provision of means for continuously varying the velocity of the injected particles in a manner correlated to the rate of variation of the magnetic accelerating field. This increases the length of the £5 period during which electrons may be captured by the magnetic field and thus leads to an increase in the output of the accelerating apparatus as a whole.
A still further important feature of the inven- £0 tion comprises the inclusion in connection with the acceleration vessel of means for regularizing the electric field distribution around the orbital path of the charged particles and for guarding the particles against displacement from such 'i5 path by electrostatic causes. ... Referring particularly to Fig. 1 there is shown in section a closed glass vessel 10 which defines within its interior a continuous annular chamber i I. As will be explained in greater detail at a later point, the vessel 10 provides a circular orbit in which electrons may be accelerated to a high voltage, say, on the order of several million volts. The vessel is preferably highly evacuated, although the presence of a readily ionizable gas at a pressure not in excess of 10-4 mm. of mercury has some advantages with respect to the neutralization of space charge.
The accelerating mechanism comprises a magnetic structure having generally circular pole pieces which are coaxial with the annular vessel !0. These pole pieces include a pair of juxtaposed circular parts 13 and 14 which consist, for example, of compressed powdered iron and which are respectively supported on conically tapered parts !5 and 16. The tapered parts in turn are based upon large cylinders 18 and 19 which connect with closed magnetic cores 21 and 22 so as to provide a complete path for magnetic flux. The magnetic structure is energized by means of a pair of serially connected coils 24, 25 which are appropriately mounted on the structure. It is assumed that the coils are excited from an alternating current source or in some other manner adapted to produce a time-varying flux in the magnetic circuit. The elements of the magnetic structure are, of course, constituted of ferromagnetic material and should be of laminated or otherwise subdivided construction, so as to avoid the generation of excessive eddy currents.
Within the closed vessel 10 and also within the region of influence of the magnetic field produced by the pole pieces 15 and (6 there is provided a thermionic cathode 28 which, in conjunction with other electrode structure to be later described, serves to generate a stream of electrons. These electrons are affected by the magnetic field in two ways. In the first place, since the field is in a direction transverse to the plane of the electron motion, it tends to force the electrons to follow a generally circular orbit. Secondly, the time-varying flux inclosed by the orbit of any particular electron necessarily produces an accelerating action on the electron. In this latter respect, the apparatus as a whole consists essentially of a transformer with a singleturn secondary comprising a circular path along which the various electrons are accelerated. Although, in general, the voltage per turn in such a transformer is low, the electrons can achieve very high velocities (e. g. several million volts) because of the tremendous number of turns which they may execute during a single cycle of the field variation. ...".
Encyclopedia Britannica describes a betatron as being a type of accelerator that is useful only for electrons, named for the beta particle which are electrons emitted from radioactive atoms. The electrons in a betatron move in a circle under the influence of a magnetic field that increases in strength as the energy of the electrons is increased. The magnet that produces the field on the electron orbit also produces a field in the interior of the orbit. The increase in the strength of this field with time produces an electric field that accelerates the electrons. If the average magnetic field inside the orbit is always twice as strong as the magnetic field on the orbit, the radius of the orbit remains constant, so that the acceleration chamber can be made in the shape of a torus (doughnut shape). The poles of the magnet are tapered to cause the field near the orbit to weaken with increasing radius. This focuses the beam by causing any particle that strays from the orbit to be subjected to forces that restore it toward its proper path. Just after the sinusoidally varying strength of the magnetic field has passed through zero and starts increasing in the direction proper to guide the electrons in their circular orbit, a burst of electrons is sent into the torus, where—in a 20-MeV betatron—they gain about 100 eV per revolution and traverse the orbit about 200,000 times during the acceleration. The acceleration lasts for one-quarter of the magnet cycle until the magnetic field has reached its greatest strength, whereupon the orbit is caused to shrink, deflecting the electrons onto a target—for example, to produce a beam of intense X-rays. There is a practical limit on the energy imparted to an electron by a betatron which is set by the emission of light particles from electrons moving in curved paths. The intensity of this radiation, commonly called synchrotron radiation, rises rapidly as the speed of the electrons increases. The largest betatron accelerates electrons to 300 MeV, which is enough to produce pi-mesons in its target. Betatrons are now commercially manufactured, principally for use as sources of X-rays for industrial radiography and for radiation therapy in health science. X-ray beams are produced when an electron beam is directed onto a target material with a heavy atomic nucleus, such as platinum.
(show images of betatrons. So electrons can cause nuclear transformations? State all the nuclear transformations that have been caused with electrons in particular those caused by using the Betatron design. Can electrons cause transmutation of atoms? It is interesting to know that like protons (at least as far as I know) can cause changes in the nucleus of atoms. Perhaps this is evidence that a positive charged nucleus surrounded by electron shells may not be entirely accurate. Are there electron-electron collisions? Can electrons collide with each other? Can protons? Can ions? Can atoms? That all particles of matter can cause some kind of atomic transmutation - in other words tear apart a nucleus argues in favor of the billiard ball model of all matter - that light particles, electrons, protons, etc - all can be collided with each other.)
(Are other particle besides electrons are accelerated in this? perhaps pions and muons?)
(An alternate explanation instead of increasing mass, is that a stronger electromagnetic field is necessary to accelerate a fast moving electron because less collisions between the particles of the field and the electron occur at high speeds, and when they do, less motion is transferred from the particles of the beam to the electron.)
(Determine what velocity of electron 2.3 MeV and 300-MeV equates to given a constant mass for the electron. Create an equation that varies the number of collisions with electron velocity while keeping electron mass constant.)
(Notice "Or" which may refer to "Orwell" or "Orwellian" when talking about the supposed effect of relativity, and the use of "yardstick" - perhaps to call attention to the claim that measuring rods are suposed to contract with increased velocity.)
(Compare given intensities of x-rays in lead and copper with gamma rays.)
(If mesons are produced, does that imply that atoms are transmuted by high speed electrons?)
| (General Electric Company) Scotia, New York, USA |
60 YBN
[12/02/1940 AD]
| 5439) First color television images broadcast.
On December 2, 1940, Columbia Broadcasting System will air the first live color television images using the color television system developed by Peter Carl Goldmark (CE 1906-1977), Hungarian-US physicist, on CBS's experimental television channel. Images are filmed using a rapidly spinning three-color disk and viewed using a similar disk. Because the system can not be adapted to work on existing black and white televisions, the Federal Communications Board decides that it is too impractical for final approval. Goldmark will eventually receive federal approval on his field sequential system in 1950, but Goldmark's system is quickly replaced on the commercial market by Radio Corporation of America (RCA)'s development of electronic color television, which fires electrons to illuminate red, blue, and green phosphorescent spots on the screen. Because RCA's system is compatible with existing televisions, it becomes the industry standard.
(It is interesting that the first public color broadcast happened in the USA as opposed to Britain or Europe. It shows that, at this time, the USA leads the planet in showing the public image and sound recording and displaying technology.)
(State if this uses FM.)
| (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.) New York City, New York, USA |
60 YBN
[12/05/1940 AD]
| 5416) Ernst Boris Chain (CE 1906-1979), German-English biochemist, identifies penicillinase, an enzyme that catalyzes the destruction of penicillin.
| (Oxford Univerity) Oxford, England |
60 YBN
[1940 AD]
| 4953) Theodore von Kármán (KoRmoN) (CE 1881-1963), Hungarian-US physicist, together with Frank J. Malina, showed for the first time since the invention of the black-powder rocket in China around the 900s that it was possible to design a stable, long-duration, solid-propellant rocket engine.
| (Guggenheim Aeronautic Laboratory) Pasadena, California, USA |
60 YBN
[1940 AD]
| 5423) Albert Bruce Sabin (CE 1906-1993), Polish-US microbiologist, disproves the prevailing theory that the poliovirus enters the body through the nose and respiratory system, and later demonstrates that human poliomyelitis is primarily an infection of the digestive tract.
| ( University of Cincinnati) Cincinnati, Ohio, USA (presumably) |
60 YBN
[1940 AD]
| 5433) Bengt Edlén (CE 1906-1993), Swedish physicist, estimates that the solar corona has a temperature higher than 250,000 degrees.
(I doubt that the corona temperature is this high.)
(It is an interesting theoretical question to estimate if a ship could actually get close enough to a star to 1) pull mass away from the star and 2) to physically scoop/take mass from a star. I think it might be possible, perhaps with constantly cooled material, but it might not be worth the effort.)
Asimov states that the surface temperature of the sun is 6,000K and is the coolest part of the sun. Heat is distributed among particles and the total number of particles decreases per unit volume as pas particles move up frmo the surface, and so the heat per particle or temperature rises.
(I have a lot of doubt about this. Show how this is proven. How can they measure the surface temperature without measuring the corona? Doesn't the corona extend all the way around the sphere of the sun?)
| |
60 YBN
[1940 AD]
| 5463) Gas-diffusion method of separating uranium isotopes is developed, where uranium hexafluoride (UF6) gas is passed through filters to separate the lighter U-235 from U-238.
US physical chemist, Philip Hauge Abelson (CE 1913-2004) is the person who apparently choses the method of thermal diffusion to separate uranium-235 from uranium-238. Before recognizing that Plutonium can be easily fissioned, it was clear that a nuclear explosion could only be possible if sufficient quantities of the rare isotope uranium–235 (only 7 out of every 1000 uranium atoms) could be obtained. The method Abelson chooses is thermal diffusion. Since uranium hexafluoride is a volatile liquid, its vapors are the easiest way of obtaining uranium in the gaseous state. The molecules that contain uranium-235 are almost 1% lighter than the molecules containing uranium-238, and so when the gas is heated, the lighter molecules tend to concentrate in the hot region. This involves circulating uranium hexafluoride vapor in a narrow space between a hot and a cold pipe; the lighter isotope tends to accumulate nearer the hot surface. In the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Abelson constructs around a hundred 48-foot (15-meter) pipes through which steam is pumped. From this Abelson is able to obtain uranium enriched to 14 U-235 atoms per 1000. Although this is still too weak a mixture for a bomb, it is sufficiently enriched to use in other separation processes. Consequently a bigger plant, consisting of over 2000 towers, is constructed at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and provides enriched material for the separation process from which comes the fuel for one of the first atom bombs.
John Ray Dunning (CE 1907-1975), US physicist, develops this gas diffusion method of separating uranium isotopes in quantity. This is the first successful method, and still the most useful. Gaseous diffusion is still the principal method for obtaining uranium-235.
Only 7 out of every 1000 uranium atoms occurring naturally are uranium–235, and so separating uranium-235 from uranium-238 is difficult. Dunning is placed in charge of the process of separation known as gaseous diffusion for the Manhattan project. Dunning's solution is to turn the uranium into a volatile compound (uranium hexafluoride, UF6) and pass the vapor through a diffusion filter. because 235U atoms are slightly less massive than the normal 238U the 235U atoms pass through the filter a little faster and in this way can be concentrated. The difference in mass is so small that simply to produce a gas enriched with 235U atoms requires the uranium hexafluoride to be passed through thousands of filters. It is largely through gaseous diffusion that sufficiently enriched uranium is made available for the uranium fission chain reaction bomb to be built.
In 1942 at Berkeley, the cyclotron, converted into a mass spectrograph (later called a calutron), will be used to separate uranium-235, and be enlarged to a 10-calutron system capable of producing almost 3 grams (about 0.1 ounce) of uranium-235 per day.
Also in 1942 US brigadier general Leslie Groves will choose three key sites for a massive research and production effort for obtaining fissionable materials: Oak Ridge, Tennessee; Los Alamos, New Mexico; and Hanford, Washington; and will select the large corporations to build and operate the atomic factories. In December 1942 contracts are signed with the DuPont Company to design, construct, and operate the plutonium production reactors and to develop the plutonium separation facilities. Two types of factories to enrich uranium are built at Oak Ridge.
(Fully describe this method.)
(There must be many other nuclear reaction that produce chain reactions that produce heat that do not involve fission, and maybe other atoms that fission too, so why aren't they used in nuclear reactors so far as the public knows?) (Was this technique not used in chemistry before?)
(What about the mass spectrograph method? This method also uses uranium in a gas form, the separation is probably cleaner, and there are no filters to clean and replace.)
(Note that there is no public paper I can find describing the gas diffusion process by Dunning.)
(It's tough to know how much truth there is when it comes to public reports of particle physics - because of the secret of neuron writing, dust-sized flying particle weapons, etc - the majority appears to be still a secret for an elitist minority of violently dangerous people, as 9/11 and countless neuron murders are examples of.)
| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
59 YBN
[01/02/1941 AD]
| 6058) The song was written by Don Raye and Hughie Prince, and sung by the Andrews sisters. The song was recorded at Decca's Hollywood studios on January 2, 1941, nearly a year before the United States entered World War II but after the start of a peacetime draft to expand the armed forces in anticipation of American involvement.
(verify)
| (Decca Studios) Hollywood, California, USA |
59 YBN
[01/15/1941 AD]
| 5674) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, shows that the position of the wave length of maximum absorption for the intense band in the absorption spectra of α,β-unsaturated ketones reveals the extent of substitution of the carbon-carbon double bond in an αβ-unsaturated carbonyl system.
Woodward's early research involves sultraviolet absorption (1941–42). (Determine who first shows that absorption spectra can be used to determine molecular structure.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
59 YBN
[01/23/1941 AD]
| 5580) Martin David Kamen (CE 1913-2002), Canadian-US biochemist, shows that the oxygen liberated in photosynthesis comes from the water molecule and not from carbon dioxide by using oxygen-18, a stable but rare oxygen isotope.
Kamen and team publish this as "Heavy Oxygen (O18) as a Tracer in the Study of Photosynthesis" in "Journal of the American Chemical Society". They write: "It is generally agreed that the net reaction for green plant photosynthesis can be represented by the equation
CO2 + H2O + hv ---(chlorophyll)--->O2 + (1/n)(C H2O)n (1)
and also that very little is known about the actual mechanism. It would be of considerable interest to know how and from what substance the oxygen is produced. Using 0 ’ 8 as a tracer we have found that the oxygen evolved in photosynthesis comes from water rather than from the carbon dioxide. The heavy oxygen water used in these experiments was prepared by fractional distillation’ and was distilled from alkaline permanganate before use. ... We have also attempted to ascertain whether the evolution of oxygen was a reversible reaction. The algae were suspended in ordinary potassium bicarbonate and carbonate solution and photosynthesis allowed to proceed in the presence of heavy oxygen. In other experiments the algae evolved heavy oxygen in the presence of light oxygen. ... There is no indication of exchange reactions involving oxygen. The experimental errors are such that an exchange involving less than 5.10-8 mol of oxygen with each cu. mm. of algae would not be detected. Similar experiments with Chlorella and yeast were performed in order to determine whether the oxidation (respiration) reactions utilizing oxygen were reversible. ... Here also there is no indication for an exchange reaction involving molecular oxygen. ..."
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
59 YBN
[02/15/1941 AD]
| 6052) Duke Ellington (Edward Kennedy Ellington) (CE 1899-1974), records Billy Strayhorn's (CE 1915-1967) "Take the A Train".
| New York City, New York, USA (verify) |
59 YBN
[02/24/1941 AD]
| 5283) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist and E. Segre create uranium fission by Alpha-Particles.
Fermi and Segre write in "Fission of Uranium by Alpha-Particles": "Fission of uranium has been produced by neutrons, deuterons and gamma-rays. The 60" cyclotron of the Crocker Radiation Laboratory with its 32-Mev alpha-particles afforded the possibility of trying to produce fission by alpha-bombardment of uranium. A layer of ammonium uranate, a few millimeters thick was bombarded with a beam of several milliamperes intensity of 32-Mev alpha-particles for about one minute and was afterwards tested chemical for some of the characteristic fission products of uranium. The following were found: iodine (54 mintues), iodine (3.4 hours), I131(22 hours), I181 (8 days). In some cases we found also tellurium memebers of the same chains. ...".
In August 1940, Haxby, Shoupp, Stephens, and Wells, at Westinghouse Research Laboratories, East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania observed fission of uranium and thorium produced by irradiation with γ-rays.
(State who did uranium fission with deuterons.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
59 YBN
[03/07/1941 AD]
| 5547) Element Plutonium re-identified.
US physicists, Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) Arthur C. Wahl and Joseph W. Kennedy, produce and re-identify the second known transuranium element, plutonium (atomic number 94). This publication is submitted to the journal "Physical Review" in 1941 but held from publication until the end of the war in 1946.
Meitner, Hahn and Strassmann had chemically identified transuranium elements 93-96 by May of 1937.
In June 1934, Fermi had stated the possibility that elements 93, 94 or 95 have been produced by neutron bombardment of uranium. In his 1938 Nobel Prize speech Fermi stated that in Rome they called elements 93 "Ausenium" and 94 "Hersperium", and that Otto Hahn and Lise Mitner confirmed the products of irradiated uranium up to atomic number 96. Hahn had published a number of papers stating that he and his group had chemically confirmed the existence of the 4 transuranium elements from atomic number 93 to 96.
In his Nobel prize lecture of 1951, Seaborg doesn't mention the earlier identification of the transuranium elements by Otto Hahn. McMillan mentions Hahn but not his identification of elements 93-96.
Plutnium has symbol "Pu", and is a naturally radioactive, silvery, metallic transuranic element, occurring in uranium ores and produced artificially by neutron bombardment of uranium. Plutnium's longest-lived isotope is Pu 244 with a half-life of 80 million years. It is a radiological poison, specifically absorbed by bone marrow, and is used, especially the highly fissionable isotope Pu 239, as a reactor fuel and in nuclear weapons. Atomic number 94; melting point 640°C; boiling point 3,228°C; specific gravity 19.84; valence 3, 4, 5, 6. About 20 tons of plutonium are produced annually by nuclear reactors on earth.
In his initial classified report Seaborg does not mention the work of Meitner, Hahn and Strassmann. Perhaps Seaborg was not aware of Hahn's work since it was published in German.
(TODO: Should Fermi be credited with the first creation of element 94-96 and Meitner, Hahn and Strassmann with the first chemical identification of elements 93-96?)
(There is apparently no published contemporary account of the identification of plutnium.)
(For each new element, state the reaction and procedure that created it.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
59 YBN
[03/22/1941 AD]
| 5271) Charles Brenton Huggins (CE 1901-1997), Canadian-US surgeon, finds that using estrogen to block male hormones can slow the growth of prostate cancer. Huggins also shows that removing the ovaries and adrenal glands, which produces estrogen, can reverse tumour growth in some breast cancers.
In 1939 Huggins makes a very simple inference that leads to the development of new forms of cancer therapy. Noting that the prostate gland is under the control of androgens (male sex hormones) he concludes that cancer of the prostate might be treated by preventing the production of androgens. While Huggins' proposed treatment of orchiectomy (castration) is severe it does lead to remissions in some cases and an alleviation of the condition in others. Huggins soon appreciates that the same results can probably be achieved by the less drastic procedure of administering female sex hormones to neutralize the effect of androgens produced by the testicles. So in 1941 Huggins begins to inject his patients with the hormones stilbestrol and hexestrol, and is able to report later that of the first 20 patients so treated 4 were still alive after 12 years. Later workers, inspired by Huggins's work, treat women suffering from cancer of the breast with the male hormone testosterone and claim improvement in some 20% of the cases.
(This approach seems like an overly destructive treatment in particular knowing that micrometer sized technology has been in secret development for centuries which could restrict focus to cancer cells. If individual neuron cells can be pinpointed, as they are on the thought- and eye-screen of the brain, cancer cells certainly can be pinpointed and destroyed.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
59 YBN
[05/07/1941 AD]
| 6074) Glenn Miller (CE 1904-1944) records "Chattanooga Choo Choo" (written by Mack Gordon and Harry Warren, sung by Tex Beneke).
| (RCA Victor's Bluebird) New York City, New York, USA |
59 YBN
[05/28/1941 AD]
| 5477) Three-dimensional (stereoscopic) image produced using light polarization (planization).
Edwin Herbert Land (CE 1909-1991), US inventor,, patents a method where a three-dimension (stereoscopic) image is produced by superimposing two offset images, one projected with light polarized in the x-plane and the other with light polarized in the y-plane, as seen when one eye has an x-plane polarizer and the other eye has a y-plane polarizer.
(Many three-dimensional movies use 3D-glasses where one eye receives light in the x-plane while the other polarizer is turned 90 degrees to receive only light in the y-plane.)
| (Polaroid Corporation) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
59 YBN
[10/08/1941 AD]
| 5331) US geneticist, George Wells Beadle (CE 1903-1989) and US biochemist, Edward Lawrie Tatum (CE 1909-1975) show that a gene controls the production of a particular enzyme by using x-rays to cause genetic mutation in the fungi Neurospora which cause the Neurospora cell to fail to produce necessary chemical reactions, for example, failing to produce vitamin B6.
Beadle theorizes that a genetic mutation (for example by X-rays as shown by Muller) causes a gene to no longer be able to form an enzyme necessary for chemical reactions necessary for life, by demonstrating that the mold Neurospora crassa subjected to X-ray beams will sometimes lose the ability to form molecules necessary to growth, for example not being able to form the amino acid lysine, or arginine and so will only grow when those molecules are added to the nutrient medium. Beadle finds that sometimes the mold is able to convert a different compound into the necessary molecule. Beadle crosses two mutant strains that cannot synthesize the necessary molecule, and shows that the resulting offspring mold can synthesize the necessary molecule, which implies that each member of the parent pair must supply the piece that the other lacks. Beadle concludes that the function of the gene is to supervise the formation of a particular enzyme. Beadle also concludes that each gene supervises the production of one and only on enzyme. At this time the focus of genetics is shifting from the study of physical characteristics and their inheritance to the chemical study of the gene and its method of producing enzymes. After the early 1940s it becomes clear that the gene is a molecule of the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) studied by Levene and Todd, and this brings the study of nucleic acids into the center of focus in biochemistry. The work of Crick and Watson in 10 years will remove all doubts about the central role of DNA in the cell. This work leads to the one gene–one enzyme hypothesis. Now people know that each DNA gene codes for a single protein such as an enzyme.
Beadle and Tatum write: "From the standpoint of physiological genetics the development and functioning of an organism consist essentially of an integrated system of chemical reactions controlled in some manner by genes. It is entirely tenable to suppose that these genes which are themselves a part of the system, control or regulate specific reactions in the system either by acting directly as enzymes or by determining the specificities of enzymes.' Since the components of such a system are likely to be interrelated in complex ways, and since the synthesis of the parts of individual genes are presumably dependent on the functioning of other genes, it would appear that there must exist orders of directness of gene control ranging from simple one-to-one relations to relations of great complexity. In investigating the r6les of genes, the physiological geneticist usually attempts to determine the physiological and biochemical bases of already known hereditary traits. This approach, as made in the study of anthocyanin pigments in plants,2 the fermentation of sugars by yeasts3 and a number of other instances,4 has established that many biochemical reactions are in fact controlled in specific ways by specific genes. Furthermore, investigations of this type tend to support the assumption that gene and enzyme specificities are of the same order. ... Considerations such as those just outlined have led us to investigate the general problem of the genetic control of developmental and metabolic reactions by reversing the ordinary procedure and, instead of attempting to work out the chemical bases of known genetic characters, to set out to determine if and how genes control known biochemical reactions. The ascomycete Neurospora offers many advantages for such an approach and is well suited to genetic studies.6 Accordingly, our program has been built around this organism. The procedure is based on the assumption that x-ray treatment will induce mutations in genes concerned with the control of known specific chemical reactions. If the organism must be able to carry out a certain chemical reaction to survive on a given medium, a mutant unable to do this will obviously be lethal on this medium. Such a mutant can be maintained and studied, however, if it will grow on a medium to which has been added the essential product of the genetically blocked reaction. The experimental procedure based on this reasoning can best be illustrated by considering a hypothetical example. Normal strains of Neurospora crassa are able to use sucrose as a carbon source, and are therefore able to carry out the specific and enzymatically controlled reaction involved in the hydrolysis of this sugar. Assuming this reaction to be genetically controlled, it should be possible to induce a gene to mutate to a condition such that the organism could no longer carry out sucrose hydrolysis. A strain carrying this mutant would then be unable to grow on a medium containing sucrose as a sole carbon source but should be able to grow on a medium containing some other normally utilizable carbon source. In other words, it should be possible to establish and maintain such a mutant strain on a medium containing glucose and detect its inability to utilize sucrose by transferring it to a sucrose medium. ... In terms of specific experimental practice, we have devised a procedure in which x-rayed single-spore cultures are established on a so-called "complete" medium, i.e., one containing as many of the normally synthesized constituents of the organism as is practicable. Subsequently these are tested by transferring them to a "minimal" medium, i.e., one requiring the organism to carry on all the essential syntheses of which it is capable. In practice the complete medium is made up of agar, inorganic salts, malt extract, yeast extract and glucose. The minimal medium contains agar (optional ), inorganic salts and biotin, and a disaccharide, fat or more complex carbon source. Biotin, the one growth factor that wild type Neurospora strains cannot synthesize,7 is supplied in the form of a commercial concentrate containing 100 micrograms of biotin per cc.8 Any loss of ability to synthesize an essential substance present in the complete medium and absent in the minimal medium is indicated by a strain growing on the first and failing to grow on the second medium. Such strains are then tested in a systematic manner to determine what substance or substances they are unable to synthesize. These subsequent tests include attempts to grow mutant strains on the minimal medium with (1) known vitamins added, (2) amino acids added or (3) glucose substituted for the more complex carbon source of the minimal medium. Single ascospore strains are individually derived from perithecia of N. crassa and N. sitophila x-rayed prior to meiosis. Among approximately 2000 such strains, three mutants have been found that grow essentially normally on the complete medium and scarcely at all on the minimal medium with sucrose as the carbon source. One of these strains (N. sitophila) proved to be unable to synthesize vitamin Be (pyridoxine). A second strain (N. sitophila) turned out to be unable to synthesize vitamin B1 (thiamine). Additional tests show that this strain is able to synthesize the pyrimidine half of the B1 molecule but not the thiazole half. If thiazole alone is added to the minimal medium, the strain grows essentially normally. A third strain (N. crassa) has been found to be unable to synthesize para-aminobenzoic acid. This mutant strain appears to be entirely normal when grown on the minimal medium to which p-aminobenzoic acid has been added. ... Summary.-A procedure is outlined by which, using Neurospora, one can discover and maintain x-ray induced mutant strains which are characterized by their inability to carry out specific biochemical processes. Following this method, three mutant strains have been established. In one of these the ability to synthesize vitamin B6 has been wholly or largely lost. In a second the ability to synthesize the thiazole half of the vitamin B1 molecule is absent, and in the third para-aminobenzoic acid is not synthesized. It is therefore clear that all of these substances are essential growth factors for Neurospora-11 Growth of the pyridoxinless mutant (a mutant unable to synthesize vitamin B6) is a function of the B6 content of the medium on which it is grown. A method is described for measuring the growth by following linear progression of the mycelia along a horizontal tube half filled with an agar medium. Inability to synthesize vitamin B6 is apparently differentiated by a single gene from the ability of the organism to elaborate this essential growth substance.".
(Notice the word "tenable", which usually implies that this realization occured many years ago and is only being released to the public now. In addition, many of these "major advance" papers are published around October 24, as if there is some kind of tradition of releasing secret information to the public around what may be an anniversary day of neuron reading and or writing- presumed to be 10/24/1810 and relating to William Wollaston.)
| (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
59 YBN
[1941 AD]
| 5049) Selman Abraham Waksman (CE 1888-1973), Russian-US microbiologist, names the chemicals from microorganisms which kill bacteria “antibiotics” (“against life”).
| (Rutgers University) New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |
59 YBN
[1941 AD]
| 5066) (Sir) Harold Spencer Jones (CE 1890-1960), English astronomer, calculates the distance from the earth to the Sun to be approximately 149 million km (93 million miles) using information from photographic observations of the asteroid Eros during its close approach to the Earth in 1931.
In 1931 the closest known asteroid at this time, Eros, makes a close approach to the earth and 14 observatories in 9 nations work under Jones' leadership to capture photos of Eros to measure parallax in order to determine the distance from the earth to the sun. Nearly 3,000 photographs are taken and the calculation will take tens years to complete. In 1941 Harold Spencer Jones reports that the distance to the sun from earth to be 93,005,000 (miles), calculated by measuring the parallax of the closest known asteroid known at the time, Eros, from nearly 3000 photographs from 14 observatories in 9 nations. (Jones then uses the orbit of Eros to determine the distance of Eros to the sun, and then using the known distance from Eros to the earth, the distance from the earth to the sun? check and show what exactly Jones does.) This measurement will not be improved until the 1950s when pulses of radar reflect off of Venus (and allow the distance between the earth and Venus to be measured.) (interesting, I didn't know that radar can be used to determine the distance to Venus. Clearly we see light from the sun reflected off Venus, and so it seems possible that beams of light can be sent from earth and reflect off Venus and come back, but it is still amazing that photons can be bounced off Venus and captured back on earth.)
Jones only lists the parallax of Eros as being 8".790.
(Read relevant parts from paper)
| (Royal Observatory in Greenwich) Greenwich, England |
59 YBN
[1941 AD]
| 5149) Rudolph Leo B. Minkowski (CE 1895-1976), German-US astronomer, divides supernovas into two kinds based on their spectra.
Minkowski and Baade divide supernovas into two kinds on the basis of spectral characteristics.
In "SPECTRA OF SUPERNOVAE" Minkowski writes: "Spectroscopic observations indicate at least two types of supernovae. Nine objects (represented by the supernovae in IC 4182 and in NGC 4636) form an extremely homogeneous group provisionally called “type I." The remaining five objects (represented by the supernova in NGC 4725) are distinctly different; they are provisionally designated as “type II." The individual differences in this group are large; at least one object, the supernova in NGC 4559, may represent a third type or, pos- sibly, an unusually bright ordinary nova. Spectra of supernovae of type I have been observed from 7 days before maximum until 339 days after. Except for minor differences, the spectrograms of all objects of type I are closely comparable at corresponding times after maxima. Even at the earliest premaximum stage hitherto observed, the spectrum con- sists of very wide emission bands. No significant transformation of the spectrum occurs near maximum. Spectra of type II have been observed from maximum until 115 days after. Up to about a week after maximum, the spectrum is continuous and extends far into the ultraviolet, indicating a very high color temperature. Faint emission is suspected near Hα. Thereafter, the continuous spectrum fades and becomes redder. Simultaneously, absorp- tions and broad emission bands are developed. The spectrum as a whole resembles that of normal novae in the transition stage, although the hydrogen bands are relatively faint and forbidden lines are either extremely faint or missing. The supernova in NGC 4559, while generally similar to the other objects in this group, shows multiple absorptions of H and Ca 11; the emission bands are fainter than in the other objects. No satisfactory explanation for the spectra of type I has been proposed. Two {O I} bands of moderate width in the later spectra of the supernova in IC 4182 are the only features satis- factorily identified in any spectrum of type I. They are, at the same time, the only indication of the development of a nebular spectrum for any supernova,. The synthetic spectra by Gaposch- kin and Whipple disagree in many details with the observed spectra of type I. However, these synthetic spectra agree better with spectra of type II and provide a very satisfactory confirma- tion of the identifications which, in this case, are already sug- gested by the pronounced similarity to the spectra of ordinary novae. As compared with normal novae, supernovae of type II show a considerably earlier type of spectrum at maximum, hence a higher surface temperature (order of 40,0000), and the later spectrum indicates greater velocities of expansion (5000 km/ sec or more) and higher levels of excitation. Supernovae of type II differ from those of type I in the presence of a continuous spec- trum at maximum and in the subsequent transformation to an emission spectrum whose main constituents can be readily identi- fied. This suggests that the supernovae of type I have still higher surface temperature and higher level of excitation than either ordinary novae or supernovae of type II.".
(State if these catagories still are in place. Describe elements and molecules is each kind of spectra, show spectra. I have some doubt about this being a difference other than simply a larger or smaller object separating into pieces.)
(It is interesting to see all the galaxies and to see the “sky” (outer space) in all the different frequencies of light.)
(Isn't it true that a light beam of 2 MHz is made of a beam at 1 MHz, 500KHz, 250khz, etc. halving each time?)
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
59 YBN
[1941 AD]
| 5153) André Frédéric Cournand (KoURnoN) (CE 1895–1988), French-US physiologist, with H. Ranges, continue the earlier work of Werner Forssmann and develop cardiac catheterization as a tool of physiological research. US physician Dickinson Woodruff Richards (CE 1985-1973) also improves and makes use of the cardiac catheterization technique introduced by Forssmann.
(Cite original papers and read relevent parts)
Cadiac catheterization is used to evaluate blockage of coronary arteries; to evaluate function of bypass grafts, heart valves, and other heart structures; and to assess coronary circulation and overall heart function, to study congenital heart defects, to take tissue samples (biopsies) and study heart muscle disorders such as myocarditis, or transplant rejection. How cardiac catherization works is that a thin catheter is inserted into a blood vessel, usually an artery in the leg or arm, and passed through the blood vessel to the heart. Dye is injected to make the coronary arteries and other structures visible on X-rays. Fluoroscopy and X-rays provide images of the coronary arteries and other heart structures.
| (Bellevue Hospital) New York City, New York, USA (Cournand) |
59 YBN
[1941 AD]
| 5224) Fritz Albert Lipmann (CE 1899-1986), German-US biochemist, shows that phosphate esters when breaking down and losing their phosphate group yield a small amount of energy (low-energy phosphate) or a larger amount (high-energy phosphate).
Lipmann goes on to show that carbohydrate metabolism involves fixing phosphate groups onto organic molecules in low-energy configuration and then changes to the molecule that convert it into a high-energy configuration. The high-energy configuration then serves as “small change” energy bits used by the body. So food as molecules are broken down, are pumped into phosphate containing compounds, and then changed from low-energy to high-energy configuration. The most versatile of the high-energy configurations is a compound called adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which is used in body chemistry where ever energy is required. The existence of phosphate esters in carbohydrate metabolism (digestion) had first been noted by Harden, and Meyerhof and the Coris had worked out this process in greater detail.
(State what kind of "energy" the cell requires. Is this some kind of particle transfer?) (I try to replace the word "energy" with some more specific description. Is electric current used? show molecules and chemical steps with sample food molecules.)
(The explanation of ATP and the low and high-energy phosphate bond ads an important step to this process.)
(Determine correct work)
| (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA (presumably) |
59 YBN
[1941 AD]
| 5362) Gerhard Herzberg (CE 1904-1999), German-Canadian physical chemist and A. E. Douglas determine that unknown interstellar spectral absorption lines are due to the CH+ molecule.
| (University of Saskatchewan) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
58 YBN
[02/16/1942 AD]
| 5529) Konrad Emil Bloch (CE 1912-2000), German-US biochemist, and David Rittenberg use the radioactive tracer hydrogen-3 (deuterium) in sodium acetate to confirm that the two-carbon compound acetic acid is the major building block in the 30 or more steps in the biosynthesis (natural formation) of cholesterol, a waxlike alcohol found in animal cells.
Bloch uses a two-carbon molecule, sodium acetate, which is marked with a heavy isotope of carbon and a heavy isotope of hydrogen, to determine the way the "two-carbon fragment", acedic acid, is built up into long-chain fatty acids and into cholesterol too. Cholesterol is the most common member, in animals, of a family of molecules with complex structures. Cholesterol includes a characteristic four-ring combination which was determined by Wieland. Lynen will go on to show in 1951 that the two-carbon fragment, acedic acid, in combination with "coenzyme A" breaks down fatty acids.
August Bloch and Rittenberg report this in February with a letter to the "Journal of Biological Chemistry" titled "THE BIOLOGICAL FORMATION OF CHOLESTEROL FROM ACETIC ACID". They write: 'The specific precursors from which cholesterol is synthesized by the animal organism are unknown. Earlier results reported from this laboratory1 suggested a synthesis from small molecules, possibly the intermediates of fat or carbohydrate metabolism. Direct utilization of higher fatty acids to form the sterol molecule was considered quite improbable. Sonderhoff and Thomas2 demonstrated that the unsaponifiable fraction of yeast grown on a medium containing deutero acetate had a deuterium content so high that a direct conversion of acetic acid to sterols had to be postulated. The yeast sterols were not identified. We have, in two experiments, fed deuterium-containing sodium acetate to adult mice and growing rats for 8 days and determined the deuterium content of cholesterol and fatty acids isolated from the animal carcass. Some deuterium oxide was present in the body water as a result of the oxidation of the dietary deutero acetate. The deuterium concentration in the cholesterol samples from both experiments was over 3 times as high as that of the body fluids at the end of the experiment. From experiments in which mice were given heavy water to drink’ it can be estimated that in a period of 8 days about 20 per cent of the cholesterol will be replaced by newly synthesized material, and that the total cholesterol will then have a deuterium concentration of about 10 per cent of that in the body fluids. In the above experiments the cholesterol has a deuterium concentration at least 30 times higher than would be expected if it had originated in the body water. Acetic acid may therefore act as a precursor in the biological formation of cholesterol. ...". Later in August Bloch and Rittenberg describe their experiments in more detail in an article "On the utilization of acetic acid for cholesterol formation" summarizing: "SUMMARY 1. The feeding of sodium deuterio acetate to mice and rats leads to the formation of deuterio cholesterol. By degradation of the sterol isolated from the animals, isotope was shown to be present in both the side chain and the nucleus of the cholesterol molecule. 2. A minimum of 13 per cent of the hydrogen atoms of cholesterol was derived from the acetate ion. The actual value must be higher, as the dietary acetate must have been diluted either by endogenous acetate or a closely related derivative into which the acetic acid is converted by the organism prior to utilization for stcrol synthesis. 3. The experimental results exclude propionic, butyric, and succinic acids directly, and pyruvic and acetoacetic acids indirectly, as intermediates in the acetate-sterol conversion. 4. The absence of deuterium in the fatty acids of animals fed deuterio acetate is additional support for the previously expressed view that fatty acids are not directly involved in cholesterol synthesis.".
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
58 YBN
[03/12/1942 AD]
| 5428) First detailed image of virus captured.
Salvador Edward Luria (lUrEo) (CE 1912-1991) Italian-US microbiologist, and Thomas Anderson, capture the first detailed electron micrograph of a bacteriophage, showing that the virus has a round head and a thin tail like an extremely small sperm cell. (Apparently not all viruses have this shape - verify. For example Ruska's 1938 first images of viruses show round objects.)
In their paper "The Identification and Characterization of Bacteriophages with the Electron Microscope", in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences", Luria and Anderson write: "Bacteriophages, or bacterial viruses, are a group of viruses reproducing in the presence of living bacterial cells. Bacteriophages are particulate, and convincing evidence exists that (1) one particle of phage is sufficient to orig inate the lysis of a bacterial cell; in the lysis, a variable number of new phage particles (an average of 100 or more) are liberated per cell;1 (2) the elementary particles of each phage strain seem to have a characteristic particle size as determined by any one of various indirect methods of investigation (ultrafiltration,2 radiosensitivity,3 diffusion,4) and diameters ranging from 10 to 100 my have been obtained for the various strains de pending on the method of investigation, although diffusion experiments occasionally yield still smaller values. The electron microscope has recently been applied with success to the study of viruses5 and it therefore seemed desirable to attempt such a study of bacterial viruses, particularly since they offer favorable possibilities for the identification of the virus particles through a study of the reaction between the individual particles and the bacterial cell under the microscope. Indeed, a number of short reports have been published recently by German authors6' 7 in which round particles have been described as corresponding to the phage particles, although Ruska7 shows pictures of "sperm-shaped" particles from a phage suspension adhering to a bacterial membrane. From this evidence alone he is unable to decide whether these are particles of phage or bacterial products. We have undertaken an investigation of the problems of phage structure, size, reproduction and lytic activity by means of the RCA electron microscope. Research on the last items is still in progress. The present report concerns itself with the identification and the morphological analysis of a number of strains of phage particles and their adsorption on sensitive bacterial cells. The results are illustrated by some of the electron micrographs (Plates I and II) which have brought to light many extremely interesting features.- Details of the material and methods used will soon be publishe d. I. Bacteriophage anti-coli PC (particle diameter by diffusion 44 my, Kalmanson and Bronfenbrenner8; by x-irradiation 50 m,, Luria and Exner, unpublished). Micrographs of high titer suspensions, figures 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, show the constant presence of particles of extremely constant and characteristic aspect. They consist of a round "head," and a much thinner "tail," which gives them a peculiar sperm-like appearance. The "head" is not homogeneous but shows an internal structure consisting of a pattern of granules, distinguished by their higher electron scattering power. Deviations from the usual symmetrical internal pattern may be due to varying orientation of the particles or to other factors as yet unknown. The diameter of the head appears to be about 80 m,u; the tail is about 130 m,u long.
This gives a size which is in fair agreement with the figures deduced from the radio sensitivity method. On the other hand, it is possible that the size as determined by x-rays corresponds more closely to the size of the granules. When allowed to stand a few minutes in the presence of sensitive bacterial cells Escherichia coli, strain PC (Fig. 3), the particles described above are readily adsorbed (Figs. 4 and 5). They appear to stick to the bacteria either by the head or by the tail. Other conditions remaiing constant, the number of particles adsorbed on a bacterium increases with the time of contact, although it is difficult at the present time to differentiate between adsorption and reproduction of the particles on the cell wall. By allowing the phage to stay in contact with bacteria for a time of the order of the minimum time of lysis (21 minutes for PC phage, Delbrick and Luria1) it is possible to observe bacterial cells extensively damaged, surrounded by a very large number of particles, probably newly formed (Fig. 6). II. Bacteriophage anti-coli P 28, also active on Escherichia coli strain PC (particle size: irradiation, 36 mL, Luria and Exner.3 Round particles are visible in the suspensions of this phage which are somewhat smaller than those described for phage PC (about 50 m,. in diameter). An extremely thin tail, although difficult to demonstrate with certainty in the reproductions, seems to be visible in many instances. In many micrographs the head is almost completely filled by a dense internal structure. These particles, too, are readily adsorbed on sensitive bacterial cells. III. Bacteriophagaen ti-staphylococcu3sK (particle size: by ultrafiltration and ultracentrifugation 50-75 my,, Elford;2 by irradiation 48 my, Luria and Exner.3 Owing to technical reasons, the conditions for successful micrographing are here less favorable. Nevertheless, the presence of approximately round particles of proper size has been established in preparations of this page also. We are inclined to identify the particles described above with the actual particles of bacteriophage for the following reasons: (a) They are always present in highly active phage suspensions and missing in any control suspensions (media, bacterial cultures, bacterial filtrates, etc.); (b) they are readily adsorbed by the bacterial cells of the susceptible strain and fail to be adsorbed by other bacteria; (c) the size from a given strain is uniform and corresponds essentially to measurements by indirect methods; (d) the structure of both the "head" and the "tail" is characteristic of the strain of phage; (e) preliminary experiments on the lysis process seem to demonstrate the liberation of these particles from the lysing bacteria. Conclusions.-We do not want to discuss here the bearing of the above described results on the problem of the nature of bacteriophage and of viruses in general. We limit ourselves to pointing out the extreme interest of the finding of such constant and relatively elaborate structural differen130 BA CTERIOLOGY : L URIA A ND A NDERSON PROC.N . A. S. tiation in objects of supposedly macromolecular nature. This result is of equal interest in the field of genetics, since genes, together with viruses, are currently supposed to be macromolecular entities. The correspondence of the particle size as directly portrayed in the electron microscope with the results of indirect methods is also very remarkable. although it does not exclude the possibility of phage activity being sometimes associated with smaller particles. It is worth while emphasizing that the results of the present investigation, together with the recently published results of irradiation of bacteriophages, represent most desirable evidence for the validity of the so-called "hit theory" for the determination of the "sensitive volume" in sub-light-microscopic biological objects. This conclusion, too, seems to be interesting from the point of view of genetics, since the "hit theory," although widely criticized, has been used for calculating the approximate value of the dimensions of genes. The authors are grateful to the National Research Council Committee on Biological Applications of the Electron Microscope for allocating time for this study, and to the RCA Laboratories for the use of their facilities, and to Dr. V. K. Zworykin for his interest and encouragement. The authors also thank Dr. Stuart Mudd for the use of the facilities of his laboratory for the preparation of material for study.
EXPLANATION OF PLATE PLATE I 1. Electron micrograph of particles from a high titer suspension of bacteriophage anti-coli PC. X 38,000. 2. Particles from a high titer suspension of bacteriophage anti-coli PC. X 84,000. 3. Escherichia coli from suspension in distilled water. X 17,000. 4. Escherichia coli in suspension of bacteriophage anti-coli PC for ten minutes. X 17,500. EXPLANATION OF PLATE PLATE I I 5. Escherichia coli in suspension of bacteriophage anti-coli PC for 20 minutes. X 14,500. 6. Escherichia coli in suspension of bacteriophage anti-coli PC for 20 minutes. X 12,500. 7 and 8. Particles from a high titer suspension of bacteriophage anti-coli P28. X 38,000.".
(Pretty interesting that RCA in New Jersey helps to produces this electron microscope photo - although the larger secret was clearly the television camera, and electron microscope itself which Ruska introduced - clearly there, at that time, was a dangerous and risky move - or probably a hard won decision - given the secret of the neuron writing micrometer flying devices - already by this time as a full-blown cancer on the earth- to bring this most likely ancient secret 1800s technology to the public's attention. Perhaps it was the legacy of Tom Edison who bravely revealed the movie camera, phonograph, and other ancient 1800s technology to the public. An alternative is that these were excluded people who reinvented the wheel - but given their wealth - this seems unlikely - but it can't be ruled out.)
(Interesting the scale comparison of bacteria and viruses with the as of yet unpublic neuron writer camera transmitter receiver devices.)
| (RCA Research Laboratories) Camden, New Jersey, USA |
58 YBN
[05/08/1942 AD]
| 5526) Grote Reber (CE 1911-2002), US radio engineer, publishes the first radio maps of the visible universe.
Reber publishes the first preliminary radio maps of the sky, concentrating on high-frequency shortwave signals, and discovers that in certain regions radio signals are particularly strong but apparently unrelated to any visible celestial object.
| Wheaton, Illinois, USA |
58 YBN
[07/??/1942 AD]
| 5363) Gerhard Herzberg (CE 1904-1999), German-Canadian physical chemist detects CH2 in the emission spectrum of comets.
Herzberg writes: "The structure of the λ4050 group in comets appears to be incompatible with the assumption of a diatomic emitter. Rather, the structure is in conformity with that expected for a ⊥ band of a nearly symmetric top molecule if the moment of inertia about the top axis is approximately 0.35×10-40 g cm2. Such a small value is possible only for a slightly bent XH2 molecule with X = C, N, or O. For CH2 and NH2+ a ⊥ band is to be expected in the region 4500-4000A. Of these two possibilities CH2 is the most likely. Since the CH radicals observed in the comets must necessarily be formed from saturated hydrocarbons by successive photodecompositions one should indeed expect to find the spectra of intermediate molecules that lie in the accessible region.".
(Herzberg uses the word "lie" in many of his papers.)
| (University of Saskatchewan) Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada |
58 YBN
[07/??/1942 AD]
| 5378) Rupert Wildt (ViLT) (CE 1905-1976), German-US astronomer, using overall planet densities, and atmospheric composition, theorizes that Jupiter and the other giant planets have a deep and dense atmosphere, with a thick shell of ice on top of an interior of rock and metal. This model has been abandoned by most astronomers as a result of the data sent back by the Pioneer and Voyager probes in 1973 and after. (Determine correct paper)
The current view is that two known cloud layers of ammonia and ammonium hydrosulfide, and at least one theorized cloud layer made of water vapor, exist in Jupiter's atmosphere. Ammonia freezes in the low temperature of Jupiter's upper atmosphere (-125°C or -193°F), forming the white cirrus clouds-zones, ovals, and plumes seen in many photographs transmitted by the Voyager spacecraft. At lower levels, ammonium hydrosulfide condenses. Coloured by other compounds, clouds of this substance may contribute to the widespread sand-colored cloud layer on the planet. The temperature at the top of these clouds is about -50°C (about -58°F) and the Jovian atmospheric pressure is about twice the sea-level atmospheric pressure on earth.
(Explain what in those probes explains the interior of the giant planets. If the mass of Jupiter is viewed as having the same density as earth, a terrestrial sphere would be under the clouds of Jupiter with a radius nearly 7 times that of the earth, and, in my view, a similar but smaller terrestrial sphere must exist for the other larger outer planets. The Jupiter probe Galileo fell into the clouds and the end of data transmission occurred at an atmospheric pressure of about 23 bars and a temperature of 305 degrees F (152 C).
I think planets and stars are basically identical except stars are more massive. In my view, probably most larger planets and all stars have a similar interior: dense, perhaps wall-to-wall photons, then moving away from the center, perhaps the photons have enough space to form electrons, moving farther away perhaps there is enough free space to allow hydrogen atoms - but packed together, moving farther from the center, perhaps then regular atoms can move around in a molten liquid, and then of course, the crust which reaches empty space. The denser atoms probably fall to the center, the lighter atoms rising to the surface (gases bubbling out). My simple simulation of Newtonian gravity shows that generally heavier masses tend towards the center with lighter masses found more around the outside. I think that under the layer of gases, is probably more dense material such as liquid and solid. Perhaps first a liquid layer then a solid layer. Q: What kind of heat is emitted from all the planets? How much is from the sun and how much is internal? With high pressure from mass compressed from gravity, the center is probably a source of heat from photons that break free, and I can accept that atoms may fall together inside stars and even inside planets as more space is available for particles to move and cluster. When we see molten red lava, clearly we know that there are many photons packed together inside the earth that become free.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
58 YBN
[10/20/1942 AD]
| 5546) US physicists, Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) and J. W. Gofman, isolate the isotope uranium-233 which can be prepared from thorium and like uranium-235 can undergo fission, and so is a valuable nuclear fuel. So thorium can be added to uranium as a potential fuel.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
58 YBN
[10/??/1942 AD]
| 5534) "V-2" liquid fuel missile is first flown.
German-US rocket engineer, Wernher Magnus Maximilian von Braun (CE 1912-1977) and group build the V-2 missile which is a liquid propellant missile some 46 feet in length and weighing 27,000 pounds. The V-2 flies at speeds in excess of 3,500 miles per hour and delivers a 2,200 pound warhead to a target 500 miles away.
The V2 is first used against targets in Europe beginning in September 7 1944.
In 904 CE gunpowder missiles were used in China, but the V-2 is effectively the first ballistic missile. The first of over 1,000 V-2 missiles is directed at London on September 8 1944.
4,300 V-2 missiles will be fired during World War II, 1,230 of these will hit London killing 2,511 people and wounding 5,869 others.
The long-range ballistic missile A-4 and the supersonic anti-aircraft missile Wasserfall are developed at Peenemünde. The A-4 is designated by the Propaganda Ministry as "V-2", (vergeltung meaning “vengeance”).
The V-2s are manufactured at a forced labor factory called Mittelwerk.
(It seems absurb to have rocket missiles and even bomber planes given particle beam weapons and dust-sized flying particle beam weapons, but yet, somehow these missiles are successfully built, and launched - all the time many millions of humans watching thought-screens.)
| Peenemünde, Germany |
58 YBN
[11/04/1942 AD]
| 5289) Planet of a different star detected.
| (Sproul Observatory, Swartmore University), Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA |
58 YBN
[11/04/1942 AD]
| 5290) Sarah Lee Lippincott (CE 1920-) calculates that there is an unseen companion around the fourth nearest star, Lalande 21185.
Sarah Lee Lippincott (CE 1920-) measures the influence of a companion 8 times the mass of Jupiter is orbiting around the small star Lalande 21185. Currently Lalande 21185 is the 6th closest known star to our Sun.
Lippincott reports in a 1960 article "The Unseen Companion of the Fourth Nearest Star, Lalande 21185", in "Astronomical Journal", "Lalande 21185, vis, mag. 7.46, spectrum M2V, distance 8.1 light years, has been photographed at the Sproul Observatory since 1912. Variable proper motion was established by Peter van de Kamp in 1944. Recent studies, preliminary to a definitive least squares solution, gave a period close to eight years for the photocentric orbit and indicated the necessity for including a secular perspective acceleration term in addition to the proper motion because of the long time interval and the appreciable proper motions of the reference stars. Parallax, proper motion, secular perspective acceleration, and geometric orbital elements were determined by least squared with an IBM 650 computer. The material included 315 nights over the interval 1912 to 1959. Two solutions, using 8.0- and 8.2-year periods, were made; no distinction can be made between them on the basis of the residuals. For furth use P=9y.0, T=1939.9 and e=0.30 were adopted. The combines solution in right ascension and declination yields +0".4039+-0".0021 (p.e.) for the absolute parallax, and 0".0336+-0".0024 for the semi-axis major of the photocentric orbit. Reasonable extremes for the mass of the M2V star with Mpc=+10.5 yield the following masses of the unseen companion and the greates separation of A and B" ... {ULSF: See table} It seems unlikely that B could be as bright as Mpv=13.5 (Δm=3), have a mass as small as 0.035 - ... and have escaped visual detection at a distance of 1". It is concluded that Δm>3 and that the mass of the unseen companion is close to 0.01 0. Assuming the companion to be extremely red some scanning photoelectric device in the infrared taking advantage of the time of greatest elongation and the position angle might yield the positive results needed for a rigorous mass determination.". ...
In 1974 astronomer George Gatewood will not be able to confirm this planet, but in 1996 Gatewood will report the presence of a planetary system around Lalande 21185.
(There is not much publicity about these two planets if they exist.) (State when and where if this companion is claimed to be either a planet or star. but then, probably the difference between planet and star, may be somewhat small.)
(Determine if this work is done under Peter Van de Kamp (CE 1901-1995), Dutch-US astronomer,)
| (Sproul Observatory, Swartmore University), Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, USA |
58 YBN
[11/20/1942 AD]
| 5263) Vincent Du Vigneaud (DYU VENYO) (CE 1901-1978), US biochemist, determines the complicated two-ring structure of biotin.
| (Cornell University Medical College) New York City, New York, USA |
58 YBN
[12/02/1942 AD]
| 5277) Self-sustained uranium fission reaction.
On December 2, 1942 at 3:45 pm in the squash court of the University of Chicago, the cadmium rods are slowly withdrawn from a pile of uranium blocks with graphite rods to slow neutrons, and the first uranium fission chain reaction became self-sustaining. This success is announced (to those in the know) by a cryptic telegram sent by Compton that reads "The Italian navigator has entered the new world." This reaction will lead in 2 and a half years to the use of two atomic bombs which level two cities in Japan with very large loss of life and will end World War II. Four years after this the Soviet Union under the scientific leadership of Kurchatov will build their first atomic bomb, and the fear of nuclear war rises for humans on earth. This uranium pile is built of uranium and uranium oxide in combination with graphite blocks (show image). The graphite slows the neutrons to thermal velocities, at which the neutrons are more easily absorbed by the uranium atoms and fission more easily induced. This is called an atomic pile because the blocks are piled one on top of the other. In addition cadmium rods are used to absorb neutrons until the fission reaction is to be initiated.
In a report on Decemeber 15, 1942, Fermi writes: " Experimental Production of a Chain Reaction The activity of the PHysics Division in the past month has been devoted primarily to the experimental production of a divergent chain reaction. The chain reacting structure has been completed on Decmeber 2 and has been in operation since then in a satisfactory way. A program of tests on the operation conditions of the chain reacting unit and of experiments for the investigation of the various radiations inside and outside the pile is in progress. The results will be reported as soon as possible.".
In a later report published in 1952 Fermi writes: "Except for minor editorial revisions this paper is the reproduction of a report written for the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago almost ten years ago, after the experimental production of a divergent chain reaction. This report has now been declassified and can be published. The present first part of the report contains a general description of the first pile and of its operation. The details of the construction, preparation, and testing of the materials and of the instrumentation are given by the members of the groups responsible for the work in Appendices I and II. The pile had approximately the shape of a flattened ellipsoid of graphite having 388-cm equatorial radius and 309-cm polar radius. The uranium was distributed through the graphite mass in lumps partly of metal and partly of oxide arranged in a cubic lattice array with about 21-cm cell side. The experimental procedure followed in approaching the critical dimensions and in the actual operation of the pile is described. The observed critical dimensions are compared with the expectation from the tests on the various components of the structure.
This report gives a description of the construction and operation of a chain reacting pile. The pile was constructed in the West Stands Laboratory during the months of October and November 1942 and was operated for the first time on December 2, 1942. It will appear from its description that an experiment of this kind requires the collaboration of a large number of physicists. The two groups of Zinn and Anderson took charge of the preparation of the materials and of the actual construction of the pile; the group of Wilson prepared the measuring equipment and the automatic controls. The details of this work are given by the members of the two groups in the appendices. A large share of the credit for the experiment goes also to all the services of the Metallurgical Laboratory and in particular to the groups responsible for the development of the production and the testing of the materials. The exceptionally high purity requirements of graphite and uranium which were needed in very large amounts probably made the procurement of suitable materials the greatest single difficulty in all the development./ General Description of the Pile. The pile consists essentially of a lattice of umps, partly of uranium metal and partly of uranium oxide imbedded in graphite. Except for a small fraction near the surface of the pile the lattice cell is a cube of 8.25 inches side. Since only a relatively small amount of metal (about six tons) was available and since our graphite was of various brands of different purity it had been planned originally to construct the pile in an approximately spherical shape, putting the best materials as near as possible to the center. It happened actualy that the critical conditions were reached before the sphere was completed and construction was interrupted about one layer above the critical dimentions. For the same reason the top layers of the pile were made appreciably smaller than would correspond to the spheical shape originally planned. The present structure may be roughly described as a flattened rotational ellipsoid having the polar radium 309 cm and the equatorial radium 388 cm. (See Fig. 1). The graphite is supported on a wooden structure and rests on the floor on its lowest point. The original plan foresaw the possibility that it might have been necessary to evacuate the structure in order to reach the critical conditions. For this reason the pile was constructred inside a tent of rubberized balloon fabric that in case of need could have been sealed and evacuated. Since the amount of metal available was only about 6 tons, the metal-bearing part of the lattice was designed for best utilization of the metal rather than for best reproduction factor. The metal lumps used weighed 6 pounds and consisted of metals of various origins (Westinghouse, Metal hydrides, and Ames). An exponential experiment performed on the metal lattice had given for it a reproduction factor of 1.067 and V2=101.7 x 10-6 cm-2. The use of heavier metal lumps of seven or eight poinds would have given a better reproduction factor. Since, however, heavier metal lumps would have reduced the volume of the metal-bearing part of the lattice, it was deemed advisable to use lumps somewhat undersize. The greatest part of the volume was occupied by a lattice having the same cell side of 8 1/4 inches with lumps of pressed UO2 weighing about 2140 g. The reproduction factor for this lattice had been measured in a previous exponential experiment and had been found to be 1.039 with a V2=59 x 10-6 cm-2.
Measurements Performed During the Construction. A series of measurements was performed while the pile was being assembled in order to make sure that the critical dimensions could not be reached inadvertantly without taking the proper precautions. These measurements had also the purpose of checking the neutron multiplication properties of the structure while it was being assembled so as to permit the determination of the critical point before actually reaching it. The measurements were performed using two types of detectors. A BF3 counter was inserted in a slot about 43 inches from the ground and its readings were taken at frequenct intervals of time. In addition an indium foil was irradiated every night in a position as close as possible to the effective center of the structure and its induced activity was measured the following morning and compared with the readings of the BF3 counter. For these measurements the natural neutrons spontaneously emitted by uranium are a perfectly adequate source and no other source of neutrons was added. Typical results of these measurements are collected in Table I. The first column indicates the height of the structure expressed in number of layers (each layer approximately 4 1/8 in.). The second column gives the intensity A expressed in counts per minute of a standard indium foil, induced by the natural neutrons when the foil is placed at a cenbtral place inside the structure where the neutron intensity is a maximum. Actually, the foils were placed as close as possible to the best position and a small correction was applied in order to account for the fact that the foil was not exactly at the optimal position. {ULSF: See Table I.} In a spherical structure having the reproduction factor I for infinite dimensions the activation of a detector placed at the center due to the natural neutrons is propoertional to the square of the radius. For an ellipsoid a similar propery holds, the intensity at the center being proportional to the square of an effective radium Reff given be the formula (1) 3/R2eff = I/a2 + I/b2 + I/c2, where a, b, and c are the semi-axes of the ellipsoid. For the case of spherical sectors such as were the shapes of our structure at various stages of its construction, it clearly would be a major mathematical task to determine exactly Reff. It proves, however, rather easy and not too arbitrary to detmine graphically for any height of the spherical sector an equivalent flattened ellipsoid. (See fig. I.) The effective radius can then be calculated with formula (I). The values listed in the third column of Table I are calculated in this way. If the reproduction factor were 1 for our lattice the expression given in the fourth column of the table should be a constant. It is seen instead that the values listed in column four decrease steadily and converge to zero at about the 56th layer. This is the point wehere the critical conditions are attained and where the intensity due to the natural neutrons would become infinitely large. The values of R2eff/A are plotted in fig. 2. The critical layer is at the intersection of the curve with the x axis. {ULSF: See Fig. 2} During the construction as a matter of precaution, appreciably before reaching this critical layer, som ecadmium strips were inserted in suitable slots. They were removed once every day with the proper precautions in order to check the approach to the critical conditions. The actual construction was carried in this way to the 57th layer, about one layer beyond the critical dimensions. When all the cadmium is removed the effective reproduction factor of the structure is about 1.0006.
Measuring Equipment and Controls. Any detector of neutrons of of gamma-radiation can be used for measuring the intensity of reacition. Neutron detectors are somewhat preferable since they give a more immediate response to the intensity of the reaction and are not affected by the radiations emitted by the fission prodducts after shut=down of the reaction. ... When the pile is not in operation, several such cadmium strips are inserted in a number of slots so as to bring the effective reproduction factor considerably below 1. It was actually found that any one of the cadmium strips is alone sufficient to bring the pile below the critical conditions. ... Operation of the Pile in order to operate the pile, all the cadmium strips except one are first taken out of the pile. The last rod is then slowly pulled out of the pile. As the critical conditions are approached, the intensity of the neutrons emitted by the pile behins to increase rapidly. It should be noticed, however, that when this last strip of cadmium is so far inside the pile that the ffective reproduction factor is just below 1, it takes a rather long time for the intensity to reach the saturation value. in a similar way, if the cadmium strip is so far outside of the pile that the reproduction factor is greater than 1, the intensity rises at a rather slow rate. indeed, for our pile, when all the cadmium is completely outside of the pile, the intensity rises approximately at the rate of a factor of 2 every minute. When the cadmium strip is close to the critical position, these relaxation times become exceedingly long. It has been found, for example that for one of our controlling struips, the relaxation time is given by 230 minutes/x, where x is the distance of the rod from the critical position expressed in cm. This means that if the rod is only 1 cm off the critical position, the relaxation time is about 4 hours. ... First, the last strip of cadmium is pulled completely outside of the pile and the intensity as indicated by various measuring devices begins to rise slowly. Since in these conditions, the relaxaton time is about two minutes, the desired level of intensity is usually reached in a few minutes. As soon as the meters indicate that the desired level has been attained, the rod is pushed inside the pile to about the critical position./ The measuring instruments indicate immediately a steadying of the intensity at about the desired level. In order to keep the level constant, it is sufficient to push the rod one or two cm in or out every once in a while so as to compensate for the small variations in the reproduction factor due primarily to changes of atmospheric pressure. The diagram in fig. 3 was taken by the automatic intensity recorder during the first operation of the pile. The exponential rise of the intensity is clearly noticeable lno the diagram. The intensity was permitted to increase up to a value corresponding to an energy production of about 1/2 watt. At this point, an automatica safety device operated, and the safety rods were pulled inside the pile and interrupted the reaction as evidenced on the diagram by the suffen frop in intensity. A higher intensity test was made on December 12 when the pile was operated to an energy production of approximately 200 watts. The test was not run to a higher intensity on account of the limitations imposed by the necessity of keeping the radiation outside of the building well below the physiological tolerance dose. During the operation at high intensity which lasted about 45 minutes, some records of the intensity in various rooms inside the building and on the street outside were taken with standard R-meters and with BF3 counters and indium foils to detect the neutron intensity. Typical values obtained in this survey are shown in Table II. {ULSF: See Table II} ... Pressing og uranium Oxide The greater part of the pile contains uranium diocide lumps which were fabricated by compressing loose dry UO2 powder in a die with a hydraulic press. The chief proble,m here was the design of the die. ... The force used in making the briquettes was in the range of 150 to 175 tons. ... After some experience in handilng the dies had been obtained it was possible to fabricate with one press 400 to 500 briquettes in an 8-hour working day.
Machining of Graphite. The graphit is received from the manufacturer in bars of 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 in. cross section and in lengths from 17 in. to 50 in. The surfaces are quite rough and therefore it is necessary that they be made smooth and that bricks of a standard length be cut. For this work ordinary wood-working machines were used. ... About 14 tons of material could be prepared in this way per 8-hour working day. In all 40,000 bricks were required. A further graphite machining operating was the drilling of the 3 1/4 in. diameter holes with shaped bottoms, which were required to permit the insertion of the UO2 birquettes into the graphite. These holes were drilled in a single operation by mounting a spade bit in the head stock of a heavy lathe and forcing the brick up to the tool with the lathe carriage. ... A total of 22,000 hole were drilled. ...".
...".
(I guess the cadmium rods stop any neutrons from uranium fission caused by natural neutrons. Is there something special about cadmium which makes it a better neutron acceptor? Could this be any metal? Perhaps a denser atom would absorb more neutrons?)
(Imagine had Hitler got to the atom bomb first and then decided to level much of Europe at the end of WW2, I still think life of earth would survive, although into a terrible future. But that the more tolerant people got there first is perhaps evidence of a natural safe guard against such circumstances, but clearly, the mistakes that lead to Hitler are enormous, and still with us today, such as religion, antisexuality, psychology, tolerance and celebration of violence, secret camera net, JFK, RFK, 9/11, etc. It seems clear that above uranium fission are the particle beam micro and nanometer scale devices - clearly the system that controls these many millions of coordinated devices is faster and more penetrative than a uranium fission device.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
58 YBN
[1942 AD]
| 5441) B. B. Bhatia reports that the roots, leaves and juice of the "Rauwolfia serpentina" plant in India lowers blood pressure. This leads to the first tranquilizer drugs.
| (K. E. M. Medical College) Lucknow, India |
58 YBN
[1942 AD]
| 6038) Aaron Copland (CE 1900-1990), US composer, composes the ballet "Rodeo" which contains the famous "Hoe-Down".
The well-known main theme of "Hoe-Down" is based on a unique version of the American folk song "Bonyparte" or "Bonaparte's Retreat," played by Salyersville, Kentucky fiddler William Hamilton Stepp, which was recorded in 1937 by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. (verify)
| New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
58 YBN
[1942 AD]
| 6042) Aaron Copland (CE 1900-1990), US composer, composes his famous "Fanfare for the Common Man".
| New York City, New York, USA (presumably) |
58 YBN
[1942 AD]
| 6043) Aram Ilich Khachaturian (CE 1903-1978), Soviet composer, composes the ballet "Gayane" with the famous "Sabre Dance".
| |
57 YBN
[01/11/1943 AD]
| 5120) Walter Baade (BoDu) (CE 1893-1960), German-US astronomer, identifies a nebula in the position of Kepler's nova, and describes Kepler's "Nova Ophiuchi" or 1604 as a supernova.
(Note that there is no close up photo of the supernova nebula in the paper.)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
57 YBN
[05/14/1943 AD]
| 5264) US chemist, Karl August Folkers (CE 1906-1997), and coworkers, synthesize biotin according to Vincent Du Vigneaud's (DYU VENYO) (CE 1901-1978) specifications and this molecule is proven to be biotin.
(Show structure from article)
| (Merck and Company, Inc.) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
57 YBN
[05/25/1943 AD]
| 5578) Britton Chance (CE 1913-2010), US biophysicist, uses changes in light absorption spectral lines to determine molecular changes have occured.
Britton Chance adds hydrogen peroxide to a solution of peroxidase and by measuring the changes in light absorption shows that these changes correspond to an enzyme-substrate complex being formed and then broken. This is the first piece of evidence to prove the claim of Michaelis nearly 50 years before that in an enzyme catalyzed reaction, the enzyme and substrate combine to form an enzyme-substrate complex. Using this technique Chance describes the mechanism of peroxidase action in minute detail. Peroxidase is an enzyme that catalyzes the oxidation of numerous carbon (biogenic/organic) compounds by hydrogen peroxide. Peroxidase has a heme group (a complex iron containing compound best known for occurring in hemoglobin), and this absorbs certain wavelengths of light strongly. The particular wavelengths absorbed, shift with even small changes in the chemical nature of the molecule.
(This is evidence that molecular structure can, in addition to atomic structure, change the frequency of light particles absorbed).
(Make clearer and show visually if possible.)
(Is this the first use of spectral analysis to determine molecular change?)
(Clearly given neuron reading and writing since 1810 if not before, spectroscopy must have advanced far beyond this experiment, but apparently has been kept from the public.)
| (University of Pennsylvania) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
57 YBN
[09/??/1943 AD]
| 5280) Synchrotron accelerator.
Marcus Laurence Elwin Oliphant (CE 1901-2000), Australian physicist, proposes a design for a more powerful charged particle accelerator, called proton synchrotrons, which are now the most public powerful tools physicists have.
In a March 1947 paper, Oliphant Gooden and Hide write: "More experimental information about the nature of the binding forces between nuclear constituents is necessary before an advance in fundamental nuclear physics can be achieved. By considering the type of information which would be most useful, the conclusion is reached that it necessary to have available protons of energies of about 1000 MeV. in order to carry out the necessary experiments. It IS with a method of obtaining protons of this energy that this paper is concerned. An examination of the possibilities of achieving such high energy protons by the existing methods leads to a pessimistic conclusion, and a new method is suggested. This new method, the synchrotron, is described in principle, and its advantages are outlined, a very important factor being its comparatively low cost. An accelerator of this type is being built at Birmingham University with a grant from the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and its design is considered in some detail. The magnet and Its excitation form the greatest part of the apparatus in size and cost. Several alternaove methods are suggested and discussed for both the magnet design and its method of excitation. An air-cored magnet is considered but rejected because of the very large mechanical forces involved and the precision requlred in positioning the conductors. As a result an iron-cored magnet has been chosen for construction. The excitation of the magnet is to be acheved by a d.c. motor-generator supplied with a fly-wheel. The requirements of the accelerating system, in which is included a radio frequency which changes by a ratio of about 1 : 36 during the acceleration, are quite exacting. The methods by which it is hoped that these requirements will be met are outlined. The problems associated with injection and extraction of the particles receive some attention, and a schematic description of the proposed vacuum chamber is included. When protons of energies greater than 1010 ev. are to be obtained by a synchrotron^ the cost of the device becomes overwhelming and some alternative method will have, to be suggested. The application of the synchrotron being built at Birmingham to accelerating electrons, is limited to achieving electron energies of about 300- 00 MeV. because of radiation losses. ... Acceleration methods may be divided broadly into two classes. In the first are all systems in which the particles are accelerated along straight paths; the second includes all methods in which a magnetic field is used to bend the particles during acceleration into spiral or circular orbits. ... 53. THE SYNCHROTRON In September 1943 one of us submitted to the Directorate of Atomic Energy in the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, a proposal for ,the accelera tion of electrons and protons by a new method to energies above lo9 Me v. Subsequen tly, and independently, similar proposals were made by McMillan (1945) in U.S.A. and by Veksler (1945) in U.S.S.R. The name synchrotron was suggested by MacMillan. The essence of the new method is the conception of stable circulating orbits which increase in energy through a cyclotron type of resonant acceleration as a result of an adiabatic variation of the magnetic field, of the frequency of the accelerating electric field, or of both. The success of the synchro-cyclotron afforded convincing proof of the validity of the general conceptions of the stability of the orbits for a system for the acceleration of heavy particles in which the frequency changes while the magnetic field remains constant. Goward and Barnes (1946) were able to demonstrate that electrons can be accelerated in a system where the radius of the orbit and the applied frequency of the electric field are constant but the magnetic field increases with time. There is a third system in which both frequency and magnetic field are varied during the acceleration. This system has been considered in detail by us and is now under construction. In what follows we give a general analysis of the proposed method and th.e considerations which have led to the designs. adopted. ...".
(It's interesting to me that so much money is poured into particle accelerator research with somewhat unclear potential results, as opposed to development of moon, mars and other stations off the earth. This seems like misplaced valuable effort and resources to me. In addition, public walking robots, and public neuron reading and writing, and flying micrometer cameras, microphones and radio transmitting and receiving devices seem like more practical uses of money and labor to me.)
| (University of Birmingham) Birmingham, England |
57 YBN
[11/01/1943 AD]
| 4916) Oswald Theodore Avery (CE 1877-1955) Canadian-US physician, with Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty identify that Deoxynucleic acid (DNA) can cause structural changes to a bacterium which are then passed onto later generations.
In 1927, British microbiologist, Frederick Griffith (CE 1881–1941) had observed the first known bacterial "transformation", showing that a virulent strain of the bacteria S. pneumoniae can convert, or transform, a nonvirulent strain of S. pneumoniae into an agent of disease, and in addition, that this transformation is heritable, in other words, able to be passed on to succeeding generations of bacteria. This unusual result leads Oswald Avery and his colleagues to carry out the experiments that succeed in explaining Griffith's results by suggesting that the power to transform bacteria is in the nucleic acid of the cell and not in its proteins or sugars.
Avery and his associates identify the factor that converts an R (rough appearing) pneumococci bacteria into an S (smooth coat) pneumococci bacteria is not a protein as was predicted but is pure DNA. Until this DNA was thought to be an unimportant molecule of the proteins that serve as the basis of genetics. (how could that not be viewed as important?) This will lead to a new focus on the DNA molecule and the identification of its structure and mode of replication by Crick and Watson. This is also the first explanation of the transformation phenomenon observed by Griffith in 1927. Transformation is one way that DNA can enter a bacterium cell. The three main mechanisms by which bacteria acquire new DNA are transformation, conjugation, and transduction. Transformation involves acquisition of DNA from the environment, conjugation involves acquisition of DNA directly from another bacterium, and transduction involves acquisition of bacterial DNA via a bacteriophage intermediate.
Avery, MacLeod and McCarty write: "Biologists have long attempted by chemical means to induce in higher organisms predictable and specific changes which thereafter could be transmitted in series as hereditary characters. Among microSrganisms the most striking example of inheritable and specific alterations in cell structure and function that can be experimentally induced and are reproducible under well defined and adequately controlled conditions is the transformation of specific types of Pneumococcus. This phenomenon was first described by Griffith who succeeded in transforming an attenuated and non-encapsulated (R) variant derived from one specific type into fully encapsulated and virulent (S) cells of a heterologous specific type. A typical instance will suffice to illustrate the techniques originally used and serve to indicate the wide variety of transformations that are possible within the limits of this bacterial species. Griffith found that mice injected subcutaneously with a small amount of a living culture derived from Pneumococcus Type H together with a large inoculum of heat-kil led Type III (S) cells frequently succumbed to infection, and that the heart's blood of these animals yielded Type III pneumococci in pure culture. The fact that the R strain was avirulent and incapable by itself of causing fatal bacteremia and the additional fact that the heated suspension of Type III cells eoataincd no viable organisms brought convincing evidence that the R forms growing under these conditions had newly acquired the capsular structure and biological specificity of Type III pneumococci. The original observations of Griffith were later confirmed by Neufeld and Levinthal, and by Banrherm abroad, and by Dawson in this laboratory. Subsequently Dawson and Sia succeeded in inducing transformation in vitro. This they accomplished by growing R cells in a fluid medium containing anti-R serum and heat-killed encapsulated S cells. They showed that in the test tube as in the animal body transformation can be selectively induced, depending on the type specificity of the S cells used in the reaction system. Later, Alloway was able to cause specific transformation in vitro using sterile extracts of S cells from which all formed elements and cellular debris had been removed by Berkefeld filtration. He thus showed that crude extracts containing active transforming material in soluble form are as effective in inducing specific transformation as are the intact cells from which the extracts were prepared. Another example of transformation which is analogous to the interconvertibility of pneumococcal types lies in the field of viruses. Berry and Dedrick succeeded in changing the virus of rabbit fibroma (Shope) into that of infectious myxoma (Sanarelli). These investigators inoculated rabbits with a mixture of active fibroma virus together with a suspension of heat-inactivated myxoma virus and produced in the animals the symptoms and pathological lesions characteristic of infectious myxomatosis. On subsequent animal passage the transformed virus was transmissible and induced myxomatous infection typical of the naturally occurring disease. Later Berry was successful in inducing the same transformation using a heat-inactivated suspension of washed elementary bodies of myxoma virus. In the case of these viruses the methods employed were similar in principle to those used by Griffith in the transformation of pneumococcal types. These observations have subsequently been confirmed by other investigators. The present paper is concerned with a more detailed analysis of the phenomenon of transformation of specific types of Pneumococcus. The major interest has centered in attempts to isolate the active principle from crude bacterial extracts and to identify if possible its chemical nature or at least to characterize it sufficiently to place it in a general group of known chemical substances. For purposes of study, the typical example of transformation chosen as a working model was the one with which we have had most expenence and which consequently seemed best suited for analysis. This particular example represents the transformation of a non-encapsulated R variant of Pneumococcus Type II to Pneumococcus Type III.". The authors write in the summary: "I. From Type III pneumococci a biologically active fraction has been isolated in highly puTified form which in exceedingly minute amounts is capable under appropriate cultural conditions of inducing the transformation of unencapsulated R variants of Pneumococcus Type II into fully encapsulated cells of the same specific type as that of the heat-killed microorganisms from which the inducing material was recovered. 2. Methods for the isolation and purification of the active transforming material are described. 3. The data obtained by chemical, enzymatic, and serological analyses together with the results of preliminary studies by electrophoresis, ultracentrifugation, and ultraviolet spectroscopy indicate that, within the limits of the methods, the active fraction contains no demonstrable protein, unbound lipid, or serologically reactive polysaccharide and consists principally, if not solely, of a highly polymerized, viscous form of desoxyribonucleic acid. 4. Evidence is presented that the chemically induced alterations in cellular structure and function are predictable, type-specific, and transmissible in series. The various hypotheses that have been advanced concerning the nature of these changes are reviewed. CONCLUSION The evidence presented supports the belief that a nucleic acid of the desoxyribose type is the fundamental unit of the transforming principle of Pneumococcus Type III.".
(How interesting that simply mixing DNA with bacteria changed them. How was the DNA integrated into the bacterium cell? Does this have implications for sexual reproduction being found in procaryotes? Apparently, the nucleic acid is just mixed into the blood agar medium. How does the nucleic acid enter the bacterium cell? Perhaps through a vesicle, or through an opening in the cell wall?)
| (Rockefeller Institute, now called Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
57 YBN
[1943 AD]
| 4949) Walter Rudolf Hess (CE 1881-1973), Swiss physiologist and Brügger use direct electrical stimulation with metal electrodes to cause cats to become enraged or scared.
In the early 1920s Hess began his important investigation of the hypothalamus and medulla oblongata. Hess inserts fine electrodes into the brains of cats and dogs, and uses these to stimulate specific groups of cells. Hess finds that when electrodes in the posterior interbrain are switched on this instantaneously turns a friendly cat into an aggressive spitting creature, which can instantly be reversed by a further press of the switch. Other areas found by Hess can induce flight, sleep, or defecation.
Hess uses fine electrodes to stimulate or destroy specific areas of the brain in freely moving conscious cats, and finds the seat of autonomous function lies at the base of the brain, in the medulla oblongata and the diencephalon (interbrain), particularly that part of the interbrain known as the hypothalamus. Hess maps the control centers for each function to such a degree that he can induce the physical behaviour pattern of a cat confronted by a dog simply by stimulating the proper points on the animal’s hypothalamus.
(This is probably interesting information to read about: what more specific things did Hess find? how do they relate to humans? It seems clear that without doubt, humans can have the technology for many decades that can remotely, using xray beams, cause any species with a brain to feel fear, to see images, to hear sounds, to smell smells, sexual arousal, anger, agression, muscle contraction, ... basically absolutely any function or sensation of the brain can be stimulated remotely at this time.)
(Show any grid like mappings.)
| (University of Zurich), Zurich, Switzerland |
57 YBN
[1943 AD]
| 5050) Selman Abraham Waksman (CE 1888-1973), Russian-US microbiologist, isolates an antibiotic that is effective against gram-negative bacteria (penicillin only kills gram-positive bacteria) from a streptomyces mold and calls it streptomycin.
Streptomycin will be first successfully used on a human on May 12, 1945. Streptomycin is a little too toxic but it will initiate the search for soil bacteria for new antibiotics, and Duggar will uncover the tetracyclines.
(Is the first antibiotic that kills gram-negative bacteria?) (an effective and safe antibiotic? in soil?)
| (Rutgers University) New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA |
57 YBN
[1943 AD]
| 5399) Japanese physicist, Shinichiro Tomonaga (CE 1906-1979), works out the theoretical basis for quantum electrodynamics, which seeks to include Einstein's theory of relativity to the Bohr-Schroedinger model of the atom as described by quantum mechanics. US physicists, Richard Phillips Feynman (CE 1918-1988) and Julian Seymour Schwinger (CE 1918-1994) later in 1948-1949, similarly seek to integrate Einstein's theory of relativity with the Bohr-Shroedinger quantum mechanical model of the atom. This new view is called renormalizable quantum electrodynamics (QED).
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica Tomonaga’s theoretical work makes quantum electrodynamics (the theory of the interactions of charged subatomic particles with the electromagnetic field) consistent with the theory of special relativity.
| (Tokyo Bunrika University) Tokyo, Japan |
57 YBN
[1943 AD]
| 5488) Jacques-Yves Cousteau (KU STO) (CE 1910-1997), French oceanographer, and French engineer Émile Gagnan develop the first fully automatic compressed-air Aqua-Lung (device that allows for breathing underwater).
Cousteau invents the Aqualung, a device that supplies air under pressure for people under water. This makes possible modern scuba diving ("scuba" stands for "self-contained underwater breathing apparatus"). Cousteau uses this device to produce motion pictures of underwater life, which million of people see on television.
(Is this the first use of a gas tank for underwater breathing?)
(Verify this patent is correct one)
| Paris, France |
56 YBN
[04/25/1944 AD]
| 5454) Soviet physicist, Vladimir Iosifovich Veksler (CE 1907-1966), and later, independently, US physicist Edwin Mattison McMillan (CE 1907-1991) design the "synchrotron" (or "syncrocyclotron") in which the fixed frequency of oscillation of the electric field of the cyclotron is abandoned in favor of a variable electric field oscillation frequency, in addition to varying the electromagnetic field strength. Because of the variable electric field frequency, the synchrotron can be adjusted to correspond to the so-called "relativistic mass gain" (and "radiation loss") of the accelerating particles and stay in phase with them. In this way accelerators can be built that are forty times more powerful than Lawrence's most advanced cyclotron.
Veksler in the Soviet Union suggests a method for designing a cyclotron that allows for the relativistic changes in the mass of accelerating particles and therefore achieves greater energies (velocities). McMillan will independently propose the same method a few years later. Syncrocyclotrons will be built along these lines in the later 1940s.
By the 1940s cyclotrons have grown so large and the speeding particles reach such a high velocity that they cannot be accelerated at a constant rate and the accepted explanation is that their mass increases noticeably, which was first predicted by Lorentz, and later shown by Einstein to be a natural consequence of the the assumptions that the theory of relativity was based, and is explained as a "relativistic mass increase". This theoretical increase in mass slows the particles slightly and throws out of sync the little oscillating static electric field pushes that are supposed to continue to speed up the particles. As a result the energy (velocity) that can be transferred to a charged particle can not be raised above a certain maximum, and so the cyclotrons of the early 1940s reach their limits. With this new design, the periodic pushes of the electric field then remain in synchronization and synchrocyclotrons are built that can reach higher energy levels than ordinary cyclotrons. The energies of charged particles are measured in the electron volts Energies in the million-electron-volts (MEV) are reached in the 1940s. In the 1950s further improvements, suggested by Kerst's betatron, are introduce and the most powerful particle accelerators the proton synchrotrons are built. The billion-electron-volt range will be reached and the bevatron used by Segré to form antiprotons will reach 5 or 6 bev. In Geneva and Brookhaven, Long Island in the early 1960s accelerators will produce particles with energies over 30 bev.
(State the current electron-volts of Fermilab and Cern.)
In a 1945 letter to the Physical Review Veksler states that McMillan fails to cite Veksler's paper and priority in the idea of varying the electric magnetic fields and their strengths. Veksler writes in "Concerning Some New Methods of Acceleration of Relativistic particles", "In two papers, appearsing in 1944 under the above title the author of the present letter poined out two new principle of acceleration of relativistic particles which generalize the resonance method. New possiblities for the resonance acceleration of particles in a constant magnetic field are described in the first of these papers, and the possibility of resonance acceleration in magnetic fields which increase with time is also noted. This latter case is specially examined in the second paper. It is shown that phase stability automatically sets in if the time variation of the field is sufficiently small; relation between the amplitude of the variable electric fields and the rate of variation of the magnetic field is established. It is also pointed out that the radiation losses in such acceleration do not violate phasing mechanism. Finally in a detailed paper an accelerator of heavy particles based on a variationin frequency is analyzed. Thus the foregoing papers cover completely the contents of the note by MvMillan in which no reference is made to my investigations. Construction of a 30-Mev accelerator with varying magnetic field is now nearing completion at the Physical Institute of the Academy of Sciences, U.S.S.R.".
The article Veksler refers to is one McMillan writes on September 5, 1945 to "Physical Review" entitled "The Syncrotron - A Proposed high Energy Particle Accelerator". In this article McMillan writes: " One of the most successful methods for accelerating charged particles to very high energies involves the repeated application of an oscillating electric field, as in the cyclotron. If a very large number of individual acclerations is required, there may be difficulty in keeping the particles in step with the electric field. In the case of the cyclotron this difficulty appears when the relativistic mass change causes an appreciable variation in the angular velocity of the particles. The device proposed here makes use of a "phase stability" possessed by certain orbits in a cyclotron. Consider, for example, a particle whose energy is such that its angular velocity is just right to match the frequency of the electric field. This will be called the equilibrium energy. Suppose further that the particle crosses the accelerating gaps just as the electric field passes through zero, changing in such a sense that an earlier arrival of the particle would result in an acceleration. This orbit is obviously stationary. To show that it is stable, suppose that a displacement in phase is made such that the particle arrives at the gaps too early. It is then accelerated; the increase in energy causes a decrease in angular velocity, which makes the time of arrival tend to become later. A similar argument shows that a change of energy from the equilibrium value tends to correct itself. These displaced orbits will continue to oscillate, with both phase and energy varying about their equilibrium values. In order to accelerate the particles it is now necessary to change the value of the equilibrium energy, which can be done by varying either the magnetic field or the frequency. While the equilibrium energy is changing, the phase of the motion will shift ahead just enough to provide the necessary accelerating force; the similarity of this behavior to that of a syncronous motor suggested the name of the device. The equations describing the phase and energy variations have been derived by taking into account time variation of both magnetic field and frequency, acceleration by the "betatron effect" (rate of change of flux), variation of the latter with orbit radius during the oscillations, and energy losses by ionization or radiation. It was assumed that the period of the phase oscillations is long compared to the period of orbital motion. The charge was taken to be one electronic charge. Equation (I) defines the equilibrium energy; (2) gives the instantaneous energy in terms of the equilibrium value and the phase variation, and (3) is the "equation of motion" for the phase. Equation (4) determines the radius of the orbit. {ULSF: see equations and symbol definitions} (Energies are in electron volts, magnetic quantities in e.m.u., angles in radians, other quantities in c.g.s. units.) Equation (3) is seen to be identical with the equation of motion of a pendulum of unrestricted amplitude, the terms on the right representing a constant torque and a damping force. The phase variation is, therefore, oscillatory so long as the amplitude is not too great, the allowable amplitude being +- pi when the first bracket on the right is zero, and vanishing when that bracket is equal to V.According to the adiabatic theorem, the amplitude will diminish as the inverse fourth root of E0, since E0 occupies the role of a slowly varying mass in the first term of the equation; if the frequency is diminished, the last term on the right furnishes additional damping. The application of the method will depend on the type of particles to be accelerated, since the initial energy will in any case be near the rest energy. In the case of electrons, E0 will vary during the acceleration by a large factor. it is not practical at present to vary the frequency by such a large factor, so one would choose to vary H, which has the additional advantage that the orbit approaches a constant radius. In the case of heavy particles E0 will vary much less; for example, in the acceleration of protons to 300 Mev it changes by 30 percent. Thus it may be practical to vary the frequency for heavy particle acceleration. A possible design for a 300 Mev electron accelerator is outlines below: peak H= 10,000 gauss final radius of orbit = 100 cm. frequency = 48 megacycles/sec., injection energy = 300 kv, initial radius of orbit = 78 cm. Since the radius expands 22 cm during the acceleration, the magnetic field needs to cover only a ring of this width, with of course some additional width to shape the field properly. The field should decrease with radius slightly in order to give radial and axial stability to the orbits. The total magnetic flux is about 1/5 of what would be needed to satisfy the betatron flux condition for the same final energy. The voltage needed on the accelerating electrodes depends on the rate of change of the magnetic field. if the magnetic is excited at 60 cycles, the peak value of (1/f)dE0/dt) is 2300 volts. (The betatron term containing dF0/ft is about 1/5 of this and will be neglected.) If we let V=10,000 volts, the greatest phase shift will be 13°. The number of turns per phase oscillation will vary from 22 to 440 durin ght eacceleration. The relative variation of E0 during one period of the phase oscillation will be 6.3 percent at the time of injection, and will then diminish. Therefore, the assumptions of slow variation during a period used in deriving the equations are valid. The energy loss by radiation is discussed in the letter following this, and is shown not to be serious in the above case. The application to heavy particles will not be discussed in detail, but it seems probable that the best method will be the variation of frequency. Since this variation does not have to be extremely rapid, it could be accomplished by means of motor-driven mechanical turning devices. The syncrotron offers the possibility of reaching energies in the billion-volt range with either electrons or heavy particles; in the former case, it will accomplish this end at a smaller cost in materials and power than the betatron; in the latter, it lacks the relativistic energy limit of the cyclotron. Construction of a 300-Mev electron accelerator using the above principle at the Radiation laboratory of the University of California at Berkeley is now being planned.". in an article that directly follows this article, entitled "Radiation from a Group of Electrons Moving in a Circular Orbit", McMillan writes "A single electron of total energy E (rest energy Er) moving in a circle of radius R, radiates energy at the rate L (electron volts per turn), given by: L=400 pi (e/R)(E/Er)4, (1) where e is the electronic charge in e.s.u., and E > > Er. In the syncrotron one has the case of a rather concentrated group of electrons moving in the orbit, and the total amount of radiation depends on the coherence between the waves emitted by the individual electrons. For example, if there were complete coherence, the radiation per electron would be N times that given by (1), where N is the number of electrons in the group. it is apparent from the above that an answer to the coherence problem is very important for any device in which groups of electrons are made to move in a circle with high velocity. This answer is given by a formula due to J. Schwinger (communicated to the author by I. I. Rabi). Schwinger's formula gives the radiation in each harmonic of the period of revolution, in a form that allows easy computation for any distribution of electrons around the orbit. It leads to the following conclusions: (a) Most of the energy in (1) lies in very high harmonics. (b) The coherence between the high harmonics from different electrons tends to become very small if the group has an appreciatble angular speed. (c) The low harmonics are partially coherent, and give an energy loss per electron per turn (L') depending on N, but not on E if E>>Er. (d) Because of fluctuations from a uniform distribution, each electron also radiates the same amount L that it would if alone in the orbit. The total radiation per electron is thus L+L'.
Values of L' have been computed numerically from Schwinger's formula for the case of N electrons covering uniformly an arc with an angular extent which is 1/m of a circle. This was done for m=2, 4, and 6; also the asymptotic form for large m was obtained. These values can all be fitted within a few percent by the formula:
L'~ 400pi(e/R)x 2.4(m4/3-1)N. (2)
Applying (1) and (2) to the case where R=100cm, E/Er=600, N=1012 (1/60 microcoulomb, giving 1 microampere at a 60 cycle repetition rate), and m=6, we get: L=780 volts, L'=1400 volts. Thus the radiation loss will not seriously affect the operation of the syncrotron. Furthermore, L. I. Schiff has shown that the coherent part L', which is mostly in the very low harmonics, can be strongly reduced by shielding.".
(Notice "lies" in McMillan's second article.)
(Note that Veksler mentions "radiation loses" in his very short note - perhaps implying that he knows and is protesting that the theory of "relativistic mass" is false. Simply put, a change in mass without any gain or loss of mass is a violation of the conservation of matter principle. This may imply that the change in the frequency that the electromagnetic field must be oscillated changes because of radiation losses. Also note that McMillan includes a second paper dealing only with the "radiation" of electrons in a circular orbit. It seems absurd that radiation cannot be correctly called "emission of light particles". Note that radiation loss occurs in both the cyclotron and syncrotron - so it seems unusual that radiation loss is specifically called out and examined.)
(Notice how in McMillan's paper the c term is balanced by an L term which represents loss due to radiation - how could this loss be known? Is this an average? Clearly that L represents mass lost.)
(I don't understand how greater energies can be achieved simply by changing the frequency of the electromagnetic field - are the particles made to reach higher velocities in the same physical space? Could these velocities be reached by the non-variable oscillating em field with a larger accelerator ring?)
(I think this is basically just the same as a cyclotron, but with the frequency of static electric variable as opposed to fixed - which is a simple change.)
(Apparently, although it is not clear, the oscillation frequency is lowered as a beam of particles is accelerated through the syncrotron. To me this implies that these particles are not accelerated at a linear rate. This may imply that the faster a charged particle moves, the less it can be accelerated by a static electric field. Perhaps this is because the faster a particle moves throw an electric field, there is less chance for collision with particles in the field, or perhaps since the particles in the electric field has the same constant velocity, that less of this velocity is transfered to the accelerating particle.)
(Does changing the oscillation throw off the syncronization of those particles just entering the syncrotron? Clearly there has to be an initial and final time for some group of particles in a beam - or else newly entering particles would be subjected to the lower so-called relativistic oscillation rate.)
(Get, translate, and read relevent parts of Veksler's 3 Russian papers.)
(It seems clear that when you are syncronous with some faster particles, you must be out of sync with slower particles - or else why vary the field at all? It must be that some particles are discarded and remain out of sync in the trailing part of a beam pulse. Perhaps the focus is only on a specific or initial group of particles taken to higher and higher velocities and wider and wider orbits. So perhaps somehow, this method can speed up these particles more while still maintaining a smaller orbit? So perhaps with the cyclotron, the electric field being out of sync causes particles to miss the last acceleration on the path out of the ring?)
(This is considered to be strong evidence in favor of the theory of relativity, and velocity changing mass. Investigate this, how does this theory change the design exactly? Can the slowing of acceleration as velocity is increased simply relate to the fact that an object at higher velocity needs a greater force to increase velocity more? To double the speed of a car at 10mph takes less fuel than to double the speed at 20mph. In addition, there may be a limit as to how fast a charged particle can be accelerated using a voltage differential.)
(In terms of a "relativistic mass increase", it seems to me unlikely that velocity can be converted to mass, and doubtful that mass would be added from the walls or field of the accelerator. In my view, a particle accelerated by an electric field simply needs more voltage to maintain a constant acceleration as velocity is increased. Is a constant acceleration the method used to speed particles? Is only a single particle accelerated or are beams accelerated? If beams (as I think is true at least now but with the first cyclotron?), clearly the particles do not interfere with each other. Show the math, does the mass increase exactly match the predicted mass increase? Perhaps this is a limit of the acceleration or velocity that can be achieved by using an electric field, and has nothing to do with the mass of any charged particle.)
(Note that the term electron-volts, is probably not the clearest and simplest phrase describe what is occuring in a particle accelerator. I think simply "peak particle velocity" is probably a more understandable concept.)
(State how the voltages work in a particle accelerator. Do particles start with the largest voltage and this voltage is never varied?)
| (Lebedev Institute of Physics) Moscow, (Soviet Union now) Russia |
56 YBN
[04/27/1944 AD]
| 5121) Walter Baade (BoDu) (CE 1893-1960), German-US astronomer, identifies stars in the central part of the Andromeda Galaxy as being similar to the stars of globular clusters, more red as opposed to the blue stars in the galactic arms, and defines two types of stars, type I stars, like the highly luminous O and B type stars and those of open clusters, and type II stars, like the short-period Cepheids and globular clusters. Baade also identifies individual stars in the two companion galaxies of Andromed (Messier 32 and NGC 205).
Baade reports this in the Astrophical Journal with the abstract: "Recent photographs on red—sensitive plates, taken with the 100—inch telescope, have for the first time resolved into stars the two companions of the Andromeda nebula—Messier 32 and NGC 205—and the central region of the Andromeda nebula itself. The brightest stars in all three systems have the photo-graphic magnitude 21.3 and the mean color index +1.3 mag. Since the revised distance—modulus of the group is m - M = 22.4, the absolute photographic magnitude of the brightest stars in these systems is Mpg=-1.1 The Hertzsprung-Russell diagram of the stars in the early—type nebulae is shown to be closely related to, if not identical with, that of the globular clusters. This leads to the further conclusion that the stellar populations of the galaxies fall into two distinct groups, one represented by the well-known H—R diagram of the stars in our solar neighborhood (the slow—moving stars), the other by that of the globular clusters. Characteristic of the first group (type I) are highly luminous O- and B-type stars and open clusters; of the second (type II), short-period Cepheids and globular clusters. Early—type nebulae (E—Sa) seem to have populations of the pure type II. Both types seem to coexist in the intermediate and late-type nebulae. The two types of stellar populations had been recognized among the stars of our own galaxy by Oort as early as 1926.".
In his main paper Baade writes: " In contrast to the majority of the nebulae within the loca] group of galaxies which are easily resolved into stars on photographs with our present instruments, the two com- . panions of the Andromeda nebula—Messier 32 and NGC 205—and the central region of the Andromeda nebula itself have always presented an entirely nebulous appearance. Since there is no reason to doubt the stellar composition of these unresolved nebulae- the high frequency with which novae occur in the central region of the Andromeda nebula could hardly be explained otherwise—we must conclude that the luminosities of their brightest stars are abnormally low, of the order of Mpg = -1 or less compared with Mpg = — 5 to — 6 for the brightest stars in our own galaxy and for the resolved members of the local group. Although these data contain the first clear indication that in dealing with galaxies we have to distinguish two different types of stellar populations, the pecu- liar characteristics of the stars in unresolved nebulae remained, in view of the vague data available, a matter of speculation; and, since all former attempts to force a resolu- tion of these nebulae had ended in failure, the problem was considered one of those which had to be put aside until the new 200-inch telescope should come into operation. It was therefore quite a surprise when plates of the Andromeda nebula, taken at the 100—inch reflector in the fall of 1942, revealed for the first time unmistakable signs of in- cipient resolution in the hitherto apparently amorphous central region-—-signs which left no doubt that a comparatively small additional gain in limiting magnitude, of perhaps 0.3-0.5 mag., would bring out the brightest stars in large numbers. How to obtain these few additional tenths in limiting magnitude was another ques- tion. Certainly there was little hope for any further gain from the blue-sensitive plates hitherto used, because the limit set by the sky fog, even under the most favorable condi- tions, had been reached. However, the possibility of success with red-sensitive plates re- mained. From data accumulated in recent years it is known that the limiting red mag- nitude which can be reached on ammoniated red-sensitive plates at the 100-inch in reasonable exposure times is close to mpr = 20.0, the limiting photographic magnitude being mpg = 21.0. These figures make it clear at once that stars beyond the reach of the blue—sensitive plates can be recorded in the red only if their color indices are larger than +1.0 mag.——the larger, the better. Now there are good reasons to believe that the brightest stars in the unresolved early-type galaxies actually have large color indices. When a few years ago the Sculptor and Fornax systems were discovered at the Harvard Observatory, Shapley introduced these members of the local group of galaxies as stellar systems of a new kind: Shortly afterward, however, Hubble and the writer pointed out that in all essential characteristics, particularly the absence of highly luminous O- and B—type stars, these systems are closely related to the unresolved members of the local group. It was therefore suggested that in dealing with the Sculptor and Fornax systems "we are now observing extragalactic systems which lack supergiants and are yet close enough to be resolved." Since the brightest stars in the Sculptor system, according to later observations by the present writer, have large color indices (suggesting spectral type K), it appeared probable that this would hold true for the brightest stars in the un— resolved members of the Andromeda group. Altogether there was good reason to expect that the resolution of these systems could be achieved with the 100-inch reflector on fast red-sensitive plates if every precaution were taken to utilize to the fullest extent the small margin available in the present circumstances. ... {ULSF: read more} ".
(Note that in the April 27, 1944 paper there is only an HR diagram - no photos of any of the 3 galaxies.)
(I think that there is a good argument to be made that the two globlar so-called "galaxies" of M31 are probably simply two large globular clusters, and probably are the natural products of highly evolved living objects.)
(Identify Oort's 1926 paper.)
(Does this mean that there are same color stars which are of different types?)
(Show how different the spectrum is for the two types, and also the absolute magnitude of both types.)
(I have some doubts about there being 2 seriously different star types. I think all stars probably have molten metal cores similar to the earth, and simply that, just like planets, there are simply larger and smaller stars, all built basically the same. If there truly is a difference in absolute magnitude of two same color stars, then perhaps this implies that some stars are in fact constructed differently - or made in two different ways - but I doubt that. Clearly, stars could be reduced or increased in matter, or collided together, given the simple laws of inertia and gravitation.)
(Is there some chance that type 2 stars have been changed by living objects, while type 1 stars have not been changed by living objects?)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
56 YBN
[05/08/1944 AD]
| 5527) Grote Reber (CE 1911-2002), US radio engineer, publishes a radio map of the visible universe in a traditional sky-map format.
| Wheaton, Illinois, USA |
56 YBN
[05/13/1944 AD]
| 5481) English biochemists, Archer John Porter Martin (CE 1910-2002) and Richard Laurence Millington Synge (SiNG) (CE 1914-1994) invent paper partition chromatography, which allows the identification of the number and type of amino acids in protein molecules.
Archer Martin and Richard Synge develop the technique of paper chromatography to determine the number of particular amino acids in protein molecules, by using a porous filter paper instead of the paper used by Willstätter, who developed chromatography to separate very similar plant pigments, and using a solvent to move amino acids up the paper by capillary action. Paper with smaller molecules was needed for amino acids. A drop of amino acid mixture is allowed to dry near the bottom of a strip of porous filter paper, then the paper is dipped into a particular solvent which moves up the strip by capillary action. As the solvent moves past the dried mixture, the various amino acids move up with the solvent, but at varying rates depending on the solubility of each acid in the solvent and in water. At the end, the amino acids are located at separate parts of the paper. Their position can be detected by physical or chemical means and matched against the position of samples of known amino acids treated in the same way. The quantity of amino acid in each location on the paper can also be determined. This technique is an instant success and even allows Sanger to determine the exact order amino acids occur in the insulin molecule. Synge uses paper chromatography to determine the exact structure of the simple protein Gramicidin S. Paper chromatography and the use of isotopic tracer enable Calvin to determine the nature of photosynthesis.
Martin, Gordon and Consden publish the first report of this technique in the "Biochemical Journal" as "Qualitative Analysis of Proteins: a Partition Chromatographic Method Using Paper". They write: "Gordon, Martin & Synge (1943b) attempted to separate amino-acids on a silica gel partition chromatogram, but found it impracticable owing to. adsorption by the silica of various amino-acids. They obtained, however, good separations by using cellulose in the formn of strips of filter paper. Following further work along these lines, the present paper describes a qualitative micro-analytical tech possible by this method to demonstrate the presence of all the amino-acids which have been shown to be there by other methods. The method is rather similar to the 'capillary analysis' method of Schonbein and Goppelsroeder (reviewed by Rheinboldt, 1925) except that the separation depends on the differences in partition coefficient between the mobile phase and watersaturated cellulose, instead of differences in adsorption by the cellulose. That adsorption of the aminoacids by the cellulose plays no significant part is seen from Table 1, where the partition coefficient calculated from the rates of movement of the bands are compared with those found directly by England & Cohn (1935). Too much stress should not be laid tipon the agreement of these figures, which are based upon an assumed water content of the saturated cellulose and the assumption that the ratio of the weight of n-butanol to paper is constant in all parts of the strip. This assumption does not hold accurately. Nevertheless, the conclusion seems justified that the cellulose is playing the role of an inert support. ... Procedure' To run a one-dimensional chromatogram a strip of paper, 1-5 cm. or more in width and 20-56 cm. in length, is used. A pencil line is drawn across the strip about 5 cm. from one end. The solution, 2-4,ul. containing 5-15I&g. of each amino-acid to be analyzed, is applied along the centre portion of this line from the tip ofa capillary tube. The end ofthe paper is fixed in the trough wi'th a microscope slide. The trough and paper are now transferred to the chamber, which has been previously prepared by covering the bottom of the tray with a two-phase mixture of water and solvent to provide an atmosphere saturated with both components. The trough is filled with the water-saturated solvent and the lid put on the chamber. When the solvent has run a convenient, distance (15-25 cm. in 6 hr.; 30-50 cm. in 24 hr., depending on solvent and temperature), the paper is removed and the position of the solvent front is marked. The strip is dried, either in ar oven at 1 10' or by hanging in a drying cupboard through which hot air is sucked by a fan exhausting to the outside. After drying, the paper is sprayed with a solution of ninhydrin (0-1 % in n-butanol) and again dried. Finally, the paper is heated at 800 for 5 min. The bands are outlined in pencil, as fading of the colour takes place after a few days. When it is desired to run a number of chromatograms simultaneously, the individual solutions may conveniently be placed side by side on a wide strip. It is seldom necessary to leave more than an interval of 1 cm. between the spots, but it is undesirable for the amino-acids to be too near the edge of the paper, as irregularities of flow are usually more pronounced there. For two-dimensional analyses, a standard sheet 18 x 22i in. is used (Pls. 1 and 2). The solution to be analyzed (6-12 A., representing 200-400,ug. of protein) is placed near the corner, 6 cm. from either edge. The paper is held with pne edge slightly overlapping the opening of the trough and pressed into it with a strip of sheet glass somewhat longer than the paper. After transfer to the chamber, prepared as above, the chromatogram is allowed to develop for 24-72 hr. The paper is then removed and dried in the drying cupboard, turned through a right angle, and returned to the trough. The next stage of development, again for 24-48 hr., now proceeds, the chamber, tray and trough having been prepared for the second solvent during the drying of the sheets. Subsequent treatment is the same as for the strips. Throughout the manipulations, care must be taken not to touch the paper with the hand as finger marks will show after heating with ninhydrin. Strips are handled with forceps, and sheets with special wide clips. For long runs, particularly overnight, it is desirable to lag the chamber, otherwise differences in temperature will cause water to distil from the tray, which may waterlog the paper and cause irregularity of flow. When phenol is used, whether as first or second solvent, the faster moving bands are liable to distortion by the contaminant from the paper already mentioned. This trouble can be avoided by evenly spraying the top 5 in. of the strip or sheet with phenol before the trough is filled. In this way the contaminant is kept well ahead of even the fastest running amino-acids. ... SUMMARY 1. A method of separating amino-acids on partition chromatograms by the use of water in cellulose (filter paper) as the stationary phase is described. Ninhydrin is used to reveal the.amino-acids. 2. Phenol, collidine and n-butanol benzyl alcohol mixture (1:1 v/v) have proved useful as mobile phases. Other solvents have been investigated. 3. The partition coefficients calculated, normal. water content of the paper being assumed, are close to those directly measured, showing that the cellulose acts as an inert support. 4. Two-dimensional chromatograms on sheets of filter paper are described; first one solvent is run in one direction, then, after the paper has been dried, another solvent is run in a direction at right angles to the first. 5. The presence of most of the amino-acids in wool, or in an artificial mixture of 22 amino-acids, can be demonstrated in a single experiment; all can be shown by suitable additional experiments. 200-40OAg. of protein are sufficient. 6. Hydroxy-amino-acids move more slowly than the corresponding amino-acids in phenol, but in collidine the rates are similar. 7. Ammonia selectively slows aspartic and glutamic acids and hastens the basic amino-acids. Acid has the reverse effect. ...".
| (Wool Industries Research Association) Torridon, Headingley, Leeds, UK |
56 YBN
[07/03/1944 AD]
| 5414) US chemist, Lyman Creighton Craig (CE 1906-1974), develops a fractional extraction method named countercurrent distribution (CCD) which is particularly good for isolating several antibiotics and hormones.
This method establishes that the molecular weight of insulin is half the weight previously suggested. Craig also used CCD to separate the two protein chains of hemoglobin.
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
56 YBN
[07/08/1944 AD]
| 5429) Italian-US microbiologist, Salvador Edward Luria (lUrEo) (CE 1912-1991) and independently, US microbiologist, Alfred Day Hershey (CE 1908-1997), demonstrate the occurrence of spontaneous mutations both in bacteriophages and the bacteria cells they invade.
| (Indiana University) Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
56 YBN
[07/17/1944 AD]
| 5186) Ralph Walter Graystone Wyckoff (CE 1897–1994) US crystallographer and Robley Cook Williams (CE 1908-1995) develop a method of spraying a thin film of metal obliquely (from the side) over objects in an electron microscope field, which forms a metal-free area behind each object, and this area reveals something about the height and shape of the object and this creates a three-dimensional image in the electron microscope.
Wyckoff discusses with Williams the problem of determining the size of a speck of dust that has fallen onto a specimen and been photographed with the speciman. In astronomy the heights of lunar mountains are measured from the length of the shadow cast by them and knowledge of the angle of the incident light source. With this knowledge, Wyckoff and Williams place a specimen in a vacuum together with a heated tungsten filament covered with gold. This vaporizes and coats the side of the specimen nearest the filament, leaving a ‘shadow’ on the far side. This technique of ‘metal shadowing’ opens a new phase in the study of viruses allowing better estimates to be made of their size and shape, as well as revealing details of their structure.
Wyckoff prepares a vaccine against the virus disease equine encephalitis. (chronology and determine effectiveness if any data exists.)
(In theory a full three-dimensional image could be produced by recording the reflection from electrons or any particles on a plane from different angles.)
(Get photo of Robley Cook Williams .)
| (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
56 YBN
[08/21/1944 AD]
| 5389) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR or KOEPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, finds that Titan, a moon of Saturn has an atmosphere, and from infrared absorption lines that both Titan and Saturn contain methane, and possibly ammonia. Kuiper concludes that Titan is the only known moon to have an atmopshere, with the possibility of Triton, a moon of Neptune.
Kuiper publishes this as "Titan: A satellite with an Atmosphere" in the "Astrophysical Journal". Kuiper's abstract reads: "Recently the ten largest satellites in the solar system, as well as Pluto, were observed spectroscopically. Only Titan was found to have an atmosphere of sufficient prominence to be detected, but Triton and Pluto require further study. The composition of Titan's atmosphere is similar to that of Saturn, although the optical thickness is somewhat less. The presence of gases rich in hydrogen atoms on a small body like Titan is surprising and indicates that the atmopshere was formed after Titan had cooled off. Similar arguments, though less compelling, may be advanced for analogous conclusions in regard to the formation of the atmospheres of Mars, Venus, and the earth.". In his paper Kuiper writes: " I. OBSERVATIONS During a short stay at the McDonald Observatory during the winter of 1943-1944 the ten largest satellites of the solar system were observed with a one-prism spectrograph attached to the 82-inch reflector. Pluto had been observed twice on an earlier occasion. Panchromatic film was used, sensitive below 6600 A. The dispersion was 340 A/mm at Hγ. With this combination the methane absorptino bands, a number of plates with higher dispersion were taken. Because of the limited time available, no exhaustive study of the subject could be made at this time. The spectra presented here consist of several groups. Plate XV shows low-dispersion spectra on panchromatic film; Plate XVI, low-dispersion spectra on infrared film; Plate XVII, medium-dispersion spectra on panchromatic film; Plate XVIII, medium-dispersion spectra on infrared plates; and Plate XIX, medium-dispersion spectra in the photographic, as well as the infrared, regions. in all cases planetary spectra, taken under similar conditions, have been added for comparison. In addition to the major planets and the moon, the following objects were observed with low dispersion in the panchromatic region: Jupiter I, II, III, and IV; Saturn's satellites Titan, Rhea, Tethys, and Dione; Neptune's satellite Triton; and Pluto. Some of the spectra are shown in Plate XV. The methane absorption at 6190 A is striking in the three spectra of Titan shown, in marked contrast to that of Rhea and with the satellites of Jupiter. The results on Tethys and Dione were also definitely negative, but Triton may show a trace of the 6190 A band of methane. This object will be further investigated, as well as Pluto, for which two spectra were obtained with the dispersion of 720 A/mm at Hγ. It is certain, however, that if Triton and Pluto have a methane atmosphere the absorptions are very much weaker than for Neptune and probably weaker than for Jupiter and Titan. Plate XVI shows the objects for which infrared spectra of low dispersion were obtained. The most striking feature is the 7260 A band of methane. It is clearly present on Titan but is not present on the satellites of Jupiter or on the ring of Saturn. because of field curvature the spectrograph used here required film, and the available 1N film appeared to be about two hundred times slower than panchromatic film. This condition restricted the infreared series of Plate XVI to the brighter objects. Plate XVII shows in the center two spectra of Titan (reproduced from the same negative), with spectra of the major planets added for comparison. The large Cassegrain spectrograph was used, with two quartz prisms and a curved plateholder. The dispersion is about 60 A/mm at Hγ. The width of the methane band is so great that the larger dispersion in Plate XVII, as compared to Plate XV, does not lead to a corresponding increase of visibility. The rings of Saturn show the true solar spectrum. With the aid of a photometer constructed by Dr. E. Dershem some density measures were made from 6000 to 6600 A on spectra of both Saturn and Titan. The density-curves are very similar but show that the methane band λ6190A is slightly shallower on Titan. The presence of ammonia band at λ 6400A is suspected, but additional plates are needded for a final answer. The spectra of Plate XVIII were obtained on Eastman 1N plates and with glass prisms. The dispersion is about 25 A/mm at Hγ and about 140 A/mm at 7000 A. The spectrograph had not been used in the infrared before and was not designed for this region. The definition is remarkably good, although some astigmatism is apparent from the vertical dimensions in the spectra. The comparison spectrum is neon. The 1N plates were ten times faster than the film used in Plate XVI;... Finally, Plate XIX shows two sets of spectra. The upper hald is similar to Plate XVII but shows Titan in the photographic region compared to Saturn and uranus. The only visible deviation from the solar spectrum is the λ 6190 A band of methane, as is seen from a comparison with Saturn's rings. ... On the whole, there appears to be a close resemblance between the spectrum of Titan and that of Saturn; but the methane bands on Titan are definitely weaker. There appear to be some anomalous intensity ratios, as, for example, in the double band near λ7200 A; but further plates are needed for a closer study. ... Thus, with the reservation stated regarding Triton, it appears that Titan is the only satellite in the solar system having an atmosphere detectable with the means here employed. It is of special interest that this atmosphere contains gases that are rich in hydrogen atoms; such gases had previously been associated with bodies having a large surface gravity. We shall return to this point later. The total thickness of the atmosphere is comparable to, but somewhat less than, that of the observatble layers of Saturn and Jupiter, for which Slipher and Adel estimate 0.5 mile-atmospheres of methane gas. ... It is somewhat surprising to find the statement by J.H. Jeans: "An atmosphere has been observed on Titan," and his reference to "the suspected atmosphere on two of Jupiter's satellites." The writer has been unable to find an astronomical source for these statements. Apparently, they are not based on spectroscopic observations and have not been generally accepted, since other writers make no mention of them. It is difficult to see how ordinary visual observations could have ascertained the presence of an atmosphere on bodies less than 1" in diameter; in face, such a thing would seem impossible. ... The stability of Titan's atmopshere would be endangered by a substantial increase in its temperature. Doubling it, i.e., raising it from 100°-125° K to 200°-250°K, would already jeopardize the permanence of CH4; a still greater increase would cause a very rapid dissipation. Consequently, if Titan has gone through a period with a high surface temperature, as is commonly assumed to be true for all bodies in the solar system, then it follows that Titan's atmosphere was formed subsequent to that period. With almost equal force this conclusion follows for Mars, and to a lesser extent for Venus and the earth. In each of these cases all or nearly all of the atmosphere must have escaped from the crust after the crust was essentially cooled off. The composition of Titan's atmosphere is in striking contrast to that of the earth (N2, O2, H2O, etc.) and of Venus (CO2). Also, as we have seen, under terrestrial temeratures Titan's atmosphere would rapidly dissipate. On the other hand, the same factors indicate a genetic relationship to Saturn (or the other major planets). They make it highly probable that Titan was formed within the Saturn system and show definitely that Titan was not a product of capture from an (elliptical) orbit extending to the interior regions (r<<5) of the solar system. As has been remarked above, the color of Titan is orange, in marked contrast with Saturn and its other satellites or with Jupiter and its satellites. It seems likely that the color is due to the action of the atmosphere on the surface itself, analogous to the oxidation supposed to be reponsible for the orange color of Mars. It has recently been suggested that the atmosphere on Titan was predicted theoretically. Actually, as we have remarked, an observation of doubtful status preceded the theoretical discussion and was used to substantiate it. The nature of the problem is such that a complete theory of the origin of the solar system would be required before it could be predicted which bodies would have atmosphere and what their composition would be. Such a theory does not exist. The kinetic theory of gases can be used only to deny the existence of an atmosphere of specified composition on bodies which are too small or too hot at present. An affirmative statement would have to be based on the history of the case. In face, something is learned about this history from the somewhat unexpected result that Titan has an atmosphere.".
In 1949 Kuiper will confirm that Triton, a moon of Neptune has no methane or any other absorption.
(State what Kuiper uses to capture infrared: emulsions? which kind? how far into the ir?)
Asimov states that no other satellite is both massive enough and cold enough for an atmosphere. (Or perhaps hot enough, with gases frozen on the surface. When we are talking about atmosphere, it could be very thin, or small, atmosphere can be any molecules.)
(Get better images of spectra.) (How does Bragg shift affect spectral line comparison if at all?)
(It seems possible that because of the neuron lie and secret that many people did examine the infrared spectra of the moons of the planets before Kuiper, but without a clear report from people like Jeans, those thought-images must wait for future people.)
(I think there is a possible flaw in Kuiper's opinion that CH4 would dissipate away at higher temperatures because where would these molecules dissipate away to? Perhaps they would then fall into orbit around Saturn, but clearly they could remain in orbit around Titan for a large distance even at higher temperatures - or at least it seems logical - just simply farther from the hotter surface and interior. it's possible that the Sun acts similar to a centrifuge and/or chromatograph in that denser atoms fall to the center and lighter atoms are pushed to the outer part. Is it possible to look at the Sun as a large hot iron in the center, and the rest as the material surrounding the hot iron in the chemist's glass sphere - but minus the force of earth's gravity.)
| (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
56 YBN
[11/08/1944 AD]
| 5675) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, and William von Eggers Doering synthesize quinine.
Perkin had tried to synthesize quinine nearly a century before in 1855.
Quinine is an alkaloid found in the bark of cinchona trees and shrubs. The chemical structure of quinine is large and complex, with several rings. For 300 years quinine was the only drug known for the prevention and treatment of malaria before the 1940s, when newer antimalarials are developed. Quinine is the first chemical compound ever used successfully against an infectious disease and is still used to treat malaria, often in combination with other drugs. Quinine is also a flavouring agent in some carbonated beverages, including tonic water.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
56 YBN
[11/11/1944 AD]
| 5227) Albert Claude (CE 1898-1983) Belgian-US cytologist, identifies the endoplasmic reticulum in chick embryo cells using an electron microscope.
In attempting to isolate the Rous sarcoma virus from chicken tumours, Claude spins cell extracts containing the virus in centrifuges that concentrate heavier particles in the bottom of the test tube; lighter particles settle in layers above. For comparison, Claude begins centrifuging normal cells. This centrifugal separation of the cell components makes possible a biochemical analysis of them that confirms that the separated particles consist of distinct organelles. Such analysis enables Claude to discover the endoplasmic reticulum (a membranous network within cells) and to clarify the function of the mitochondria as the centres of respiratory activity.
Using the electron microscope Claude identifies the endoplasmic reticulum within the cell.
Another member of Claude's laboratory, George Palade, went on to identify the ribosome.
The Endoplasmic reticulum is a membrane system within the cytoplasm of a eukaryotic cell, important in the synthesis of proteins and lipids. The ER usually makes up more than half the membrane of the cell and is continuous with the outer membrane of the nuclear envelope. There are two distinct regions of ER: the rough ER, or RER (so called because of the protein-synthesizing ribosomes attached to it), and the smooth ER (SER), which is not associated with ribosomes and is involved in the synthesis of lipids and the detoxification of some toxic chemicals.
(I think that the ER is only around the nucleus and serves as a bridge between nucleus and membrane?)
(Verify that this is the correct paper.)
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
56 YBN
[12/19/1944 AD]
| 5209) Leo Szilard (ZEloRD) (CE 1898-1964), Hungarian-US physicist, and Enrico Fermi patent the use of graphite to slow the neutrons to a velocity more effective for uranium fission.
Szilard is in Chicago and Enrico Fermi in New Mexico.
The French under Frédérick Joliot-Curie use heavy-water for this purpose.
(How is the neutron slowed down? Perhaps by transferring velocity to other particles through collisions? or by gravitational orbiting? perhaps by billiard ball mechanics of pushing out other neutrons?)
(If gravity is simply the result of particle collision, the force of gravity might appear to be less effective for smaller sized particles because the collision would be happening less frequently, but this depends on the size of the gravity particle, which may be a light particle.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
56 YBN
[1944 AD]
| 5405) William Maurice Ewing (CE 1906-1974), US geologist, and his co-workers discover a low-velocity sound channel in the ocean at a depth of 700–1,300 meters. This sound channel is called the SOFAR (Sound Fixing and Ranging) channel. The SOFAR channel traps sound waves, and as a result sounds can be transmitted over large distances within this low-velocity tunnel. Ewing finds that he can record the sound from the explosion of a small charge dropped off the west coast of Africa as far away as the Bahamas.
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
55 YBN
[04/15/1945 AD]
| 5303) Ion-exchange method of chemical separation.
US chemist, Frank Harold Spedding (CE 1902-1984), with Voigt, Gladrow, and Sleight invent the ion-exchange method of separating different chemicals.
This work is done as part of the "Manhattan Project" and secretly reported to the Mahattan Project Council in Chicago, Illinois, and then reported publicly in November 1947. Spedding, et al introduce this process in an article in the Journal of the American Chemical Society, entitled "The Separation of Rare Earths by Ion Exchange.1,2 I. Cerium and Yttrium". They write: 1. Introduction For many years one of the most difficult processes in the field of chemistry has been the separation of the rare earths from each other into their pure states. Their chemical and physical properties are so similar that in general a single operation leads only to a partial separation or enrichment. Ever since the beginning of the Manhattan Project there has been a constant demand for samples of rare earths of exceptional purity in gram amounts or greater. This demand arose for numerous reasons, but mainly because some of the rare earths ;are formed as fission fragments during fission of the heavy elements. It was highly desirable, therefore, to have a means of preparing pure rare earths so that their nuclear properties could be studied and also to allow ;L more thorough Consideration of their chemical behavior. Their radioisotopes are less well understood than those d any other group of elements. In general, the best means of separating these elements has been the well known but laborious method of fractional crystallization as used by James and further developed in many laboratories. Exceptions are cerium with its quadrivalent state, and samarium, europium and ytterbium with their di-valent states which do permit a means of separation from the normal trivalent rare earth ions. A number of workers have reported studies on the application of chromatographic and ion exchange methods to the separation of the ran: earthsa.*J'6 While they obtained considerable enrichment their results were not sufficiently promising to lead to further intensive investigation or to the quantity production of pure rare earths. The history within the Manhattan Dis- trict, of the use of columns of Amberlite type resins for the separation of fission products, both with and without the use of citric acid-ammonium citrate eluants at controlled PH has been described elsewhere and will not be discussed here.? The present paper is the first of a series, from this laboratory dealing with the successful separation of macro quantities of rare earths of spectrogrHphic purity, by adsorption on Amberlite type resins and subsequent elution with complexing agents such as citric acid-ammonium citrate solutions at controlled pH. This paper establishes that cerium and yttrium can be separated relatively rapidly by these methods on any desired scale. The marked success of the process described depends on the fact that the rare earths form complexes with the citrate ions. If the PH is suitably adjusted, competition is set up for the rare earth ions between the citrate complexes and the active centers of the resin. Therefore, as the citrate solution washes the rare earths down the column, each rare earth ion is adsorbed and desorbed many times. Since the equilibrium constants for the rare earth citrate complexes vary slightly among the different rare earths, their rates of travel down the column differ sufficiently to lead to their separation. The repeated cycles in the columns effectively replace the thousands of individual operations required by the older methods for separating the rare earths and lead to a highly effective process analogous to the use of distillation columns. ...".
Because of this process rare-earth elements of high purity unobtainable before become inexpensive. Spedding develops the necessary methods for obtaining pure uranium.
On 11/1942 Spedding's laboratory produces two tons of pure uranium as a contribution towards the first "atomic pile".
In 1955 Spedding uses ion-exchange to separate different isotopes of the same element, producing almost pure nitrogen-15 by the hundreds of grams.
| (Iowa State College) Iowa, USA |
55 YBN
[06/30/1945 AD]
| 5334) John von Neumann (CE 1903-1957), Hungarian-US mathematician, shows the public the concept of the EDVAC (Electronic Discrete Variable Computer).
The First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC is an incomplete 101-page document written by John von Neumann and distributed on June 30, 1945 by Herman Goldstine, security officer on the classified ENIAC project. It contains the first published description of the logical design of a computer using the stored-program concept, which has controversially come to be known as the von Neumann architecture. (verify)
In 1946, three of the principal scientists involved in the construction of ENIAC during World War II—Arthur Burks, Herman Goldstine, and John von Neumann— publish "Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument". Among the principles enunciated in the paper are that data and instructions should be kept in a single store and that instructions should be encoded so as to be modifiable by other instructions. This means that one program can be treated as data by another program. The German engineer Konrad Zuse had considered and rejected this possibility as too dangerous for his Zuse computers.
(The report uses the word "Neuron" in one section title.)
(Is this the origin of the CPU being made public?) (Until all the governments are opened and truly owned and operated by the public and nobody locked in jail for sharing information, we can only wonder what interesting developments have occurred secretly in the design of the electronics or perhaps all-light particle dust-sized neuron reading/writing, image and sonud capturing, transmitting and receiving devices.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
55 YBN
[06/??/1945 AD]
| 5699) Hendrik Christoffell Van de Hulst (CE 1918-2000), Dutch astronomer, theoretically predicts 21-cm (8.2-inch) radio waves produced by interstellar hydrogen atoms.
In 1944, while still a student, van de Hulst makes theoretical studies of hydrogen atoms in space. The magnetic fields of the proton and electron in the hydrogen atom can align in either the same or opposite directions. Hulst theorizes that once every 10 million years or so a hydrogen atom will realign itself and, van de Hulst calculated, emit a radio wave with a 21-cm wavelength. Although this happens very rarely, there is enough hydrogen in the universe to allow a background of 21-centimeter radio light. In 1951 Edward M. Purcell and Harold Ewen at Harvard detect this 21-centimeter hydrogen line. This frequency of light will make mapping the spiral arms of the galaxy with more detail possible.
C. J. Bakker and van de Hulst publish this work as a paper divided into two parts, Bakker writing one part and van de Hulst writting a second part. This paper is published in the journal (translated) "Dutch Journal of Physics" and is titled "Radio waves from outer space.". Their separate summaries are published in English. Bakker writes the first section writing: "1. Reception ... A short introduction mentions the sources of "noise" in a radio set and the current fluctuations of an antenna immersed in a black body radiation field. Observations at wavelengths smaller than ca 20 m show that radiation of extraterrestrial origin is received by the antenna. By directional records taken by Jansky and others the source of this radiation is located in the Milky Way, the greatest response being obtained when the antenna points towards the centre of the galactic system. Data of maximum intensities observes at four different wave lengths are given.". Then van de Hulst writes his summary writing: "2. Origin, ... Radio waves, received from any celestial object - they being the far infra red portion of its spectrum - deserve attention. Observations of small objects are prevented by diffraction. The sun may be a measurable object to future instruments. The radiation observed from our galaxy must be due to the interstellar gas, the stars being outruled by their small angular dimensions and the solid smoke particles being outruled by their low temperature. The spectral emission of a homogeneous layer of ionised hydrogen is computed. The continuous spectrum arising from free-free transitions has the intensity of black body radiation at wavelengths larger than 6 m and has a nealy constant intensity at wavelengths smaller than 2 m, corresponding to a large and to a small optical thickness respectively. These intensities, shown in figure 2, agree with those computer by Henyey and Greenstein and tally fairly well with the observations. No better accordance is to be expected, owing to the unknown electron density and extension of the interstellar gas and to unsatisfactory data about the directional sensibility of the antenna. Discrete lines of hydrogen are proced to escape observation. The 2.12 cm {ULSF: typo} line, due to transitions between hyperfinestructure components of the hydrogen ground level, might be observable if the life time of the upper level does not exceed 4 x 108 year, which, however, is improbable. Reber's observation of the Andromeda nebula suggests a rather high electron density. A cosmological remark concludes the article. The low background intensity due to remote nebulae contradicts the Hubble-Tolman static model.". The rest of the paper is in Dutch. Note that the "2.12cm" is a typo, and that "21,2 cm" is indicated later in the text.
(I have doubts about this theory. I question, but am willing to accept that individual particles have magnetic fields and that a magnetic field may not be the result of a collection of particles. Another truth to remember is that when detecting photons, a 21 cm beam is going to be part of higher frequency beams like a 10.5cm beam, a 5.25 cm beam, and lower frequency beams like a 42 cm and a 63 cm beam, etc. I think people need to confirm that the 21-centimeter line is not the result of some higher frequency beam. In addition to this, how can people be sure that the 21-centimeter line is not just some of the millions of atomic emission spectral lines of some atom, perhaps even the hydrogen molecule from many different directions - that result in this frequency of light particles? If this is true then there may be a 20-cm, and 22-cm line too. Verify this. I think Bloch and Purcell claim that this particular frequency has a much larger signal than surrounding frequencies. if this is true than there may be alternative explanations. For example, one alternative theory is that perhaps this is just the natural rate of absorption and emission of light particles for a hydrogen atom, and has nothing to do with electron spin.)
(Translate and read relevent parts from 1945 paper.)
(So in this theory, the electron direction of rotation (orbit) around the proton does not matter, but only it's rotation around it's own axis relative to the direction of its orbit around the proton matters. So the electron either spins in the same direction as its orbit around the proton, or the opposite direction relative to the direciton of its orbit around the proton. There are other possibilities - like spinning at any other angle relative to the atom of the electron-proton rotation axis. Or perhaps this is viewing the electron orbit relative to the proton spin around it's own proton axis.)
(Determine if this relates to the theory of "cosmic background radiation" - I think that may be a lower frequency of light.)
(Notice the ruling out that this light might be from stars because stars have "small angular dimensions". I reject this argument, because the light frmo the stars emits in a spherical direction - so this light may not be from a single star, but could be the combination of light beams from many different stars. A star can be seen from many different angles and so this implies that even when a star is not being directly looked at, light particles from it may be received at an angle. Experiment: Try to show how light from an off camera source is still detected as "background" light.)
(Notice the "2.12 cm line" as opposed to the 21 cm line. Determine if this is a typo.)
(Translate paper, and in particualr determine statement "A cosmological remark concludes the article.")
(Notice in Hulst's part "attention" and then "are prevented". Perhaps implies the importance of telling the truth about AT&T's neuron writing, because it is used to make excluded people to bite on sexually inappropriate neuron written on suggestions - but clearly this is not nearly as bad as the neuron written suggestions of violence. But without seeing Hulst's thought-screen this is just speculation.)
| (University of Utrecht) Utrecht, Netherlands |
55 YBN
[07/13/1945 AD]
| 5426) Karl August Folkers (CE 1906-1997), US chemist, and co-workers isolate, synthesize, and determine the structure of numerous members of the streptomycin group of antibiotics (including Waksman's streptomycin).
| (Merck and Company, Inc) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
55 YBN
[07/16/1945 AD]
| 5311) First atomic fission bomb exploded.
The test of the plutonium weapon was named Trinity; it was fired at 5:29:45 am on July 16, 1945, at the Alamogordo Bombing Range in south-central New Mexico. The theorists’ predictions of the energy release, or yield, of the device ranged from the equivalent of less than 1,000 tons of TNT to the equivalent of 45,000 tons (that is, from 1 to 45 kilotons of TNT). The test actually produced a yield of about 21,000 tons.
One potential design uses the gun method of assembly, in which the projectile, a subcritical piece of uranium-235 (or plutonium-239), is placed in a gun barrel and fired into the target, another subcritical piece. After the mass is joined (and now supercritical), a neutron source is used to start the chain reaction, however, the final design uses a method proposed by physicist, Seth H. Neddermeyer, who shows that the method of compressing a solid sphere of plutonium by surrounding it with high explosives is better than the gun method both in its higher velocity and in its shorter path of assembly. The final design eventually results in a solid 6-kg (13-pound) sphere of plutonium, with a small hole in the centre for the neutron initiator, that would be compressed by imploding from explosives.
An atomic explosion on the surface of the earth looks similar to a TNT explosion, and is very similar in that matter is being released from atoms in the form, mostly, of light particles. See for example the 108 tons of TNT/RDX test exploded before the famous Trinity test and note the similarity. The explosive device, which is the center of the explosive ball appears to be propelled off the surface of the earth.
(It seems hard to believe that all the 6-kg sphere of plutonium atoms would fission before fragments sent pieces in many different directions. Perhaps there are so many neutrons and they are released so quickly that atoms of plutonium just separate into light particles and subatomic particles before the sphere breaks apart.)
(Clearly atomic fission is one the most obvious propulsion methods for ships to move from planet to planet and from star to star. It seems inevitable that these kinds of ships, like the "Project Orion" design will eventually be built by humans.)
| (Alamogordo Test Range) Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) desert, New Mexico, USA |
55 YBN
[08/31/1945 AD]
| 5692) Frederick Sanger (CE 1918-), English biochemist, finds that the molecule 2,4-dinitrofluorobenzene (Sanger's reagent) will attach itself to one end of a chain of amino acids but not the other and uses this to determine the order of amino acids in the insulin molecule.
Sanger publishes this in the "Biochemical Journal" as "The Free Amino Groups of Insulin". Sanger writes: "...Abderhalden & Stix (1923) attempted to use 2:4- dinitrochlorobenzene (DNCB) for the identification of the terminal groups of a partial hydrolysate of silk fibroin. They did not meet with much success, chiefly owing to the presence of anhydrides in the hydrolysate and the difficulties of separating the products. It seemed, nevertheless, worth while to investigate this reagent, especially as all the 2:4- dinitrophenyl-amino-acids (referred to henceforth as DNP-amino-acids) produced are bright yellow, thereby facilitating chromatographic separation. DNCB will not react with amino-acids in NaHCO3 solution unless heat is applied, and this brings about a certain amount of hydrolysis of the pilotein. Fortunately, however, the corresponding fluorocompound, 2:4-dinitrofluorobenzene (DNFB) was found to react readily at room temperature, and the use of this has met with considerable success, for the DNP-amino-acids produced can be estimated colorimetrically and separated almost completely from one another by partition chromatography. The solvent systems normally used for separating the acetyl-derivatives were not entirely satisfactory for the DNP-monoamino-acids, and several new systems had to be introduced; nevertheless, the method finally adopted embraced all amino-acids, though this was not possible with the methanesulphonyl derivatives. ...".
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
55 YBN
[10/08/1945 AD]
| 6272) Microwave oven.
| (Raytheon Manufacturing Company) Newton, Massachusetts, USA |
55 YBN
[11/20/1945 AD]
| 5368) Ulf Svante Von Euler (CE 1905-1983), Swedish physiologist, discovers norepinephrin (noradreneline), and shows that norepinephrin, like epinephrin (adrenelin) raises heart rate, raises blood-pressure, and is also a neurotransmitter.
In 1906 the idea that nerve cells communicate with each other and the muscles they control by the release of chemicals was first proposed by Thomas Elliott.
Otto Loewi (LOEVE) (CE 1873-1961), German-US physiologist, had discovered the first neurotransmitter in 1921 and named it "Vagusstoff" and Dale had shown this fluid to contain acetylcholine.
In 1946 von Euler discovers noradrenaline (norepinephrine) and succeeds in showing that it is a neurotransmitter of the sympathetic system.
The sympathetic nervous system is the part of the autonomic nervous system originating in the thoracic and lumbar regions of the spinal cord that in general inhibits or opposes the physiological effects of the parasympathetic nervous system. The nerves of the sympathestic nervous system tend to reduce digestive secretions, speed up the heart, and contract blood vessels.
The sympathetic system is composed of 21 or 22 ganglia in chains on each side of the spinal cord. The fibers connect with the spinal cord through these ganglia.
Part of the autonomic nervous system that prepares the body for physical activity. Stimulation of the sympathetic nervous system results in a number of responses including constriction of blood vessels supplying the skin, dilation of blood vessels supplying the heart and skeletal muscles (see shunting), dilation of the bronchioles to facilitate increased ventilation, and release of glucose from the liver. The nerve endings use adrenaline and noradrenaline as a neurotransmitter.
Norepinephrine is a substance, C8H11NO3, which is both a hormone and neurotransmitter, secreted by the adrenal medulla and the nerve endings of the sympathetic nervous system to cause vasoconstriction and increases in heart rate, blood pressure, and the sugar level of the blood. Norepinephrine is also called noradrenaline.
Euler first reports this is Nature, and a few days later in the journal "Acta physiologica Scandinavica". Euler writes: "Since the discovery by LOEWI in 1921 of the liberation of an adrenaline-like substance on stimulation of the accelerator nerves of the heart evidence has accumulated to show that probably all adrenergic nerves owe their effect to some special substance produced or liberated at the endings of these nerves. As to the active principle liberated from the heart, or obtained in extracts thereof, LOEWI found that it conformed in its biological actions and chemical properties with adrenaline. ... In continuation of the work of this laboratory on vaso-active substances in body organs and fluids with special reference to their behaviour in hypertension, it seemed of importance to investigate whether sympathomimetic pressor substances could be prepared from fresh organs. I n a preliminary note (EULER1, 945) it was announced that extracts from a variety of organs - except placenta - contain unexpectedly high amounts of pressor activity of a kind similar to that of adrenaline. The present paper is concerned with some experiments made in greater detail with extracts from spleen which was specially rich in the pressor substance. ... Summary. 1. Extracts of fresh cattle spleen possess a pressor activity equivalent to some 10 pg adrenaline per g of tissue. 2. The purified substance increases the heart rate and raises the blood pressure of the cat in chloralose anaesthesia. 3. The pressor action is enhanced by cocaine. 4. Ergotamine in doses which annul or reverse the pressor action of adrenaline is less active in depressing the action of purified spleen extracts, which in this respect resembles certain catechol amino-bases, such as nor-adrenaline or 3 : 4-dihydroxynor- ephedrine (D. N. E.). 5. Adrenaline inhibits the isolated rabbit’s intestine and the non-pregnant cat’s uterus more powerfully than equipressor doses of spleen extracts or D. N. E. 6. Purified spleen extracts, like D. N. E., are less active in stimulating the rabbit’s uterus than equipressor doses of adrenaline. 7. Purified spleen extracts and D. N. E. have a weaker pupil dilating action than equipressor doses of adrenaline. 8. Purified spleen extracts stimulate the isolated heart in much the same way as equipressor doses of adrenaline and D. N. E. 9. Purified spleen extracts and D. N. E. do not give the fluorescence reaction characteristic of adrenaline in equipressor concentrations. equivalent to some 10 pg adrenaline per g of tissue. the blood pressure of the cat in chloralose anaesthesia. SYMPATHIN E PKOPERTIES 1N SPLEEN EXTRACTS. 185 10. Purified spleen extracts and D. N. E. give the FeCl, colour reaction to about the same strength as equipressor concentrations of adrenaline. 11. The biological tests, colour and fluorescence reactions of purif ied spleen extracts thus bear a good resemblance to those of nor-adrenaline or D. N. E. and differ from those of adrenaline. 12. The similarity between the action of the purified spleen extracts and the postulated sympathin E on the one hand and nor-adrenaline or D. N. E. on the other is pointed out. ...".
(explain: intermediary? what defines sympathetic?) (Is this the first naming of noradrenaline?) (Much of the published work with nerves is under a cloud of doubts because of the remote neuron reading and writing 200+ year lie.) (Explain the evidence that norepinephrin is actually a neurotransmitter.)
| (Karolinischen Institues) Stockholm, Sweden |
55 YBN
[11/30/1945 AD]
| 5549) Elements americium and curium re-identified.
US physicists Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) and Joseph G. Hamilton re-identify element 95 and 96 now respectively called "americium" and "curium". However, Meitner, Hahn and Strassmann had chemically identified transuranium elements 93-96 by May of 1937.
Seaborg informs the journal "Science" of this production of elements 95 and 96 with a telegram in reply to a wire requesting information. Uranium 238 and Plutnium 239 are bombarded with forty million electro volt helium ions. Element 95 is produced in the Uranium targets, and element 96 in the Plutonium sample.
Americium has symbol "Am", and is a white metallic transuranic element of the actinide series, having isotopes with mass numbers from 237 to 246 and half-lives from 25 minutes to 7,950 years. Its longest-lived isotopes, Am 241 and Am 243, are alpha-ray emitters used as radiation sources in research. Americium is atomic number 95; relative density 11.7; valence 3, 4, 5, 6.
Curium has symbol "Cm" and is a silvery metallic synthetic radioactive transuranic element. Its longest lived isotope is Cm 247 with a half-life of 16.4 million years. Curium has atomic number 96; melting point (estimated) 1,350°C; valence 3.
(Determine if these two elements were isolated in visible quantities. Use of the word "production" in the title implies that these elements were being produced in large quantity.)
(Notice that in his letter, Seaborg uses the phrase "helium ions", perhaps an effort to drop completely the ancient label of Rutherford of the then unknown "alpha" particles.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
55 YBN
[12/24/1945 AD]
| 5565) Edward Mills Purcell (CE 1912-1997), US physicist, develops a nuclear mangetic resonance detection method, that is extremely accurate and an improvement over the atomic-beam method of Isidor Rabi.
Because of this technique, measurements of nuclear magnetic moment can now be performed on solids and liquids, as opposed to before where these measurements were limited to molecular beams of gases.
Purcell, Torrey and Pound publish this in a letter to "Physical Review" titled "Resonance Absorption by Nuclear Magnetic Moments in a Solid". They write: "In the well-known magnetic resonance method for the determination of nuclear magnetic moments by molecular beams, transitions are induced between energy levels which correspond to different orientations of the nuclear spin in a strong, constant, applied magnetic field. We have observed the absorption of radiofrequency energy, due to such transitions, in a solid material (paraffin) containing protons. In this case there are two levels, the separation of which correpsonds to a frequency, v, near 30 megacycles/sec., at the magnetic field strength, H, used in our experiment, according to the relation hv=2uH. Although the difference in population of the two levels is very slight at room temperature (hv/kT ~ 10-5), the number of nuclei taking part is so large that a measurable effect is to be expected providing thermal equilibrium can be established. If one assumes that the only local fields of importance are caused by the moments of neighboring nuclei, one can show that the imaginary part of the magnetic permeability, at resonance, should be of the order hv/kT. The absence from this expression of the nuclear moment and the internuclear distance is explained by the fact that the influence of these factors upon absorption cross section per nucleus and density of nuclei is just cancelled by their influence on the width of the observed resonance. ... A resonant cavity was made in the form of a short section of coaxial line loaded heavily by the capacity of an end plate. It was adjusted to resonate at about 30 mc/sec. Input and output coupling loops were provided. The inductive part of the cavity was filled with 850 cm2 of paraffin, which remained at room temperature throughout the experiment. The resonator was placed in the gap of the large cosmic-ray magnet in the Research Laboratory of Physics, at Harvard. Radiofrequency power was introduced into the cavity at a level of about 10-11 watts. The radiofrequency magnetic field inthe vcavity was everywhere perpendicular to the steady field. The cavity output was balanced in phase and amplitude against another portion of the signal generator output. Any residual signal, after amplification and detection, was indicated by a microammeter. With the r-f circuit balanced the strong magnetic field was slowly varied. An extremely sharp resonance absorption was observed. At the peak of the absorption the deflection of the output meter was roughly 20 times the magnitude of fluctuations due to noise, frequency, instability, etc. The absorption reduced the cavity output by 0.4 percent, and as the loaded Q of the cavity was 670, the imaginary part of the permeability of paraffin, at resonance, was about 3 x 10-4, as predicted. Resonance occurred at a field of 7100 oersteds, and a frequency of 29.8 mc/sec., according to our rather rough calibration. We did not attempt a precise calibration of the field and frequency, and the value of the proton magnetic moment inferred from the above numbers, 2.75 nuclear magnetons, agrees satisfactorily with the accepted value, 2.7896, established by the molecular beam method. ... The method can be refined in both sensitivity and precision. In particular, it appears feasible to increase the sensitivity by a factor of several hundred through a change in detection technique. The method seems applicable to the precise measurement of magnetic moments (strictly gyromagnetic ratios) of most moderately abundant nuclei. It provides a way to investigate the interesting question of spin-lattice coupling. Incidentally, as the apparatus required is rather simple, the method should be useful for standardization of magnetic fields. An extension of the method in which the r-f field has a rotating component should make possible the determination of the sign of the moment. ...".
(Give more detail about apparatus and method.) (Describe "magnetic moment" clearly in a simple way.) (Describe how the resonance is measured, and how a person knows that there is resonance at some frequency of em field oscillation.)
(An atomic nucleus is a multi-particle unit, and so I think what this phenomenon may be is that particles in an electromagnetic field collide with the components in the atoms, and the frequency of the field may control the frequency of the collisions, and so may define some distance between atoms, or atom components.)
(Is the measurement of nuclear magnetic moment evidence that atoms do not have a uniform distribution - but instead have an unsymmetrical distribution of matter?)
(State and compare with other fields how strong 7100 oersteds is for an electromagnetic field.)
(Purcell's Nobel lecture has a good explanation of magnetic moment.)
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
55 YBN
[1945 AD]
| 5312) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist reflects neutrons off mirrors at very small incidence angles.
This supports the theory that light refraction is a particle phenomenon. Fermi does not report that they successfully refract neutrons, although this must have been observed.
In 1937, Gilbert Lewis had published a report on the refraction of neutrons by wax which has to be withdrawn as an experimental error. Later scientists will show that beams of neutron particles do refract in accord with Snell's law, for example M. L. Goldberger in 1947.
| (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois |
55 YBN
[1945 AD]
| 5410) Harry Hammond Hess (CE 1906-1969), US geologist, using sonar measures the oceans to the deepest death to date, about seven miles deep.
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
54 YBN
[01/10/1946 AD]
| 5528) Radio light reflected off the moon and received back on earth.
Lt. Col John H. Dewitt jr, and E. K. Stodola publish the work done by the United States Army Signal Corps in sending and receiving radio reflected off the moon of earth.
Dewitt and Stodola publish this in the "Proceedings of the Institute of Radio Engineers" as "Detection of Radio Signals Reflected from the Moon". They write: "Summary-This paper describes the experiments at Evans Signal Laboratory which resulted in the obtaining of radio reflections from the moon, and reviews the considerations involved in such transmissions. The character of the moon as a radar target is considered in some detail, followed by development of formulas and curves which show the attenuation between transmitting and receiving antennas in a moon radar system. An experimental radar equipment capable of producing reflections from the moon is briefly described, and results obtained with it are given. Some of the considerations with respect to communication circuits involving the moon are presented. The effects of reflection at the moon on pulse shape and pulse intensity for various transmitted pulse widths are dealt with quantitatively in the Appendix. I. INTRODUCTION HE POSSIBILITY of radio signals being reflected from the moon to the earth has been frequently speculated upon by workers in the radio field. Various uses for such reflections exist, particularly in respect to measurement of the refracting and attenuating properties of the earth's atmosphere. Other conceivable uses include communication between points on the earth using the moon as a relaying reflector, and the performance of astronomical measurements. Late in 1945, a program to determine whether such reflections could be obtained and the uses which might be made of them was undertaken by the U. S. Army Signal Corps at Evans Signal Laboratory, Belmar, N. J. The work has been continued since then, and, although for various reasons progress on it has been slow, this paper has been prepared to indicate the nature of the work and results so far obtained. II. THE MOON AS A RADAR TARGET The moon is approximately spherical in shape, is some 2,160 miles in diameter, and moves in an orbit around the earth at a distance which varies from 221,463 miles to 252,710 miles over a period of about one month. In considering the type of signals to be used for reflections, the manner in which the reflection occurs must be considered. If it were assumed that the moon were a perfectly smooth sphere, the reflection would be expected to occur from a single small area at the nearest surface, as would be the case with light and a mirrorsurfaced sphere. However, astronomical examination of the moon reveals that, in its grosser aspects at least, its terrain consists of plains and mountains of the same magnitude as those on the earth. Further, because of the lack of water and air on the moon to produce weathering, it is probable that the details of the surface are even rougher than the earth. Thus, it is assumed that the type of reflection,to be obtained from the moon will resemble the reflections obtained on earth from large land masses, or, to use radar terminology, ground clutter. An example of such a reflection obtained experimentally on earth is shown in Fig. 1. The echoes shown were plotted from observations made with a 25-microsecond 106-Mc pulse transmitted into a mountainous region near Ellenville, N. Y. It will be seen that the intensity of reflection at various ranges varies in a quite random fashion, subject to a general dropping as the range increases. In this case, at 30 miles range and taking the antenna beam width as 120 and for the pulse width of 25 microseconds, or 2.7 miles, the echo at 30 miles range is the averaging of all echoes over an area of about 17 square miles. A pulse of the same width directed at the moon, using equation (35) in the Appendix, may act upon as much as 5,800 square miles. Thus, in the case of the moon, the return echo for a major portion of the time is an averaging of echoes over a very large area and could be expected to exhibit a high degree of constancy per unit projected area. Thus the most reasonable assumption seems to be that, on the whole, the moon behaves for radio waves much as it behaves for light; that is, when illuminated from the direction of the earth, it presents a disk equal in area to the projected area of the sphere, the disk being illuminated in a generally uniform manner with any bright or dark spots distributed over the disk in a random manner. On the basis of this, it is evident that appreciable power contributions to the returning signal are receivedc from areas on the moon which are at various ranges from the earth. Therefore, if a pulse system is used, to obtain maximum reflection the pulses should be long in time compared to the time required for a radio wave to travel in space the distance from the nearest point on the moon to the center and back again, if one is to be certain of the entire half surface of the moon contributing to the reflection. Since this distance is two times 2,160/2 miles and the velocity of propagation is about 186,000 miles per second, this time interval is 2,160/186,000=0.0116 second. ... As an example of the use of these curves, a typical 3,000-Mc radar set might have a receiver noise figure of 12 db, a receiver bandwidth of 1 Mc, a pulse width which is the reciprocal of this, 1 microsecond, and a transmitter peak power of 100 kw. The spread between transmitter and receiver would in this case be determined by: (1) Receiver minimum signal is -114 db from the point on curve 1 for 1 Mc, increased by the noise factor of 12 db, or -102 db. (2) Transmitter power from the point on curve 2 correspon ding to 100 kw is +80 db. The spread in this case is 182 db. In Fig. 2 it will be seen that, even with a 20-foot dish and assuming that full reflection could be obtained with the 1-microsecond pulse, the attenuation in the earth-moon-earth path would be 185 db. Actually, the use of the short (1-microsecond) pulse would make the attenuation 37.7 db greater, as discussed in the Appendix. Thus, on the basis of the assumptions used here, such a system falls about 40 db short of being capable of producing reflections from the moon. ... GENERAL CONCLUSIONS The work so far has indicated that, under some conditions, a radio signal can be transmitted from the earth to the moon, be reflected, and again be detected on the earth, and that the character of this path changes materially from time to time, both rapidly and on a longtime basis. The most important observations concern the interesting questions which are raised and which it is hoped future research and experiment will answer. More detailed information concerning the precise nature of the reflection at the moon should be obtained by use of a pulse narrower than the 0.0116 second required for travel across the moon and back. Fig. 18 shows that with a pulse of 1,000 microseconds the peak return would only be down about 8 db, and the increased bandwidth required for a 0.001-second pulse over the 50-cps bandwidth used in the experiments reported here would increase the receiver noise contribution by 13 db, representing a degradation in system performance of 21 db. Fig. 13 shows just about this excess in system performance for the present equipment arrangement. Thus, with some increase in transmitter power and a compromise pulse width of perhaps 2,000 microseconds, under the best conditions it should be possible to get some indication of return pulse shape with equipment generally similar to that described in this paper, except with wider intermediate-frequency and video bandwidth in the receiver. It would be desirable to obtain observations of moon echoes over extended periods, not only with a horizontally directed antenna as described, but also with an antenna capable of movement in all directions. The work should also be extended to other frequencies. Fig. 13 shows the need for an arrangement for transmitting pulses in more rapid sequence so that the effects which occur during the 4-second intervals between the pulses in Fig. 13 can be observed. The effects of noise from the sun and other cosmic sources, and its effect on these operations, should be further investigated. It is hoped that the plans which have been made for investigating these and other questions can be carried to completion and the results published in a later paper. ...". (Read more about the size of the transmitter, and the voltage used. Was this a spark transmitter?)
(Are there experiments to reflect other frequencies of light off the moon and other celestial objects?)
| Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, USA |
54 YBN
[02/??/1946 AD]
| 5459) ENIAC, the first publicly known programmable general-purpose electronic digital computer is completed.
US Engineers, John William Mauchly (CE 1907-1980) and John Presper Eckert Jr. (CE 1919-1995) produces the first practical electronic digital computer, ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer). This is an enormous device that uses a large amount of electricity.
Like Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine (from the 1800s) and the British World War II computer Colossus, ENIAC has conditional branching, so ENIAC can execute different instructions or change the order of execution of instructions based on the value of some data. For example, IF X>5 THEN GO TO LINE 23. This gives ENIAC a lot of flexibility and means that, while it is built for a specific purpose, it can be used for a wider range of problems. The ENIAC occupies the 50-by-30-foot (15-by-9-meter) basement of the Moore School, where its 40 panels are arranged. The ENIAC has approximately 18,000 vacuum tubes, 70,000 resistors, 10,000 capacitors, 6,000 switches, and 1,500 relays.
(This computer uses tube transistors. ENIAC is still located in the University of Pennsylvania.)
(It seems absurd given the reality of neuron reading and writing flying dust-sized devices definitely by 1909 to think that ENIAC represents the first all electronic computer on earth. But are Mauchly and Eckert excluded who duplicate 1800s technology? In addition, it seems clear that artificial muscle walking robots must have been invented much earlier - probably in the 1800s, but still not made public. This clearly represents a "going public" of some extremely ancient technology - but technology which is very modern for the bare-foot public.)
(It seems very likely that for many years those who have received neuron writing videos, have purchased "interactive dream movies", where through their neuron-network interface they select from many choices of interactive movies to experience while they sleep. Then once asleep, the images, sounds, smells, etc are sent to their brain. Those who are excluded, may receive portions of some of these interactive movies, and then many times, unpleasant movies designed to torture excluded people- in particular people whose views are judged unorthodox or unacceptable- or simply those in a minority, poor and/or powerless.)
(It seems likely that direct-to-brain-windows consumers can also take thought-video-calls during sleep - perhaps not all of the time as their brain recharges - but clearly for a long period of time during sleep, humans can routinely interact to sensory information written to their neurons as they normally would when awake- carrying on regular conversations in thought audio, images and virtual muscle movements.)
| (University of Pennsylvania) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
54 YBN
[05/27/1946 AD]
| 5411) Harry Hammond Hess (CE 1906-1969), US geologist, discovers hundreds of flat-topped mountains on the Pacific floor, which he named "guyots" (GEOS) (after the first geology professor at Princeton), their tops are eroded, but they are 2 kilometers under water.
Hess publishes this in the "American Journal of Science" in an article "Drowned ancient islands of the Pacific Basin". Hess writes: "Some one hundred and sixty, curious, flat-topped peaks have been discovered in the Pacific basin between Hawaii and the Marianas. They appear to be truncated volcanic islands rising about nine to twelve thousand feet from the ocean floor .... An hypothesis is tentatively advanced suggesting that the summit surfaces are very old and possibly represent marine planation surfaces in a pre-Cambrian ocean in which reef building organisms did not exist.".
In 1837 Charles Darwin had theorized that coral atolls are built up at a speed matching the natural sinking of the island, and so some islands sink without coral formation and now lie at the bottom of the ocean. Hess names these "guyots" in honor of the Swiss-US geographer A. H. Guyot.
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
54 YBN
[06/01/1946 AD]
| 5472) Radio-carbon dating. Willard Frank Libby (CE 1908-1980), US chemist, identifies the potential use of the isotopes H3 (tritium), He3 and C14, produced by cosmic-ray neutrons, to determine the age of the earth's atmosphere, surface, and living matter.
In 1946 Libby shows that cosmic rays produce tritium (radioactive hydrogen-3). Traces of tritium are always present in the atmosphere and therefore in water. So a technique of measuring the tritium concentration can be used in dating all things with water, such as well water, and wine.
Libby's most notable achievement, the method of radiocarbon dating, stems from the 1939 discovery by C. G. and D. D. Montgomery and S. A. Korff, that cosmic rays around 10 miles above the earth surface interact with air to give a relatively high density of neutrons. This implies that large quantities of Nitrogen capture neutrons and are converted to carbon-14.
In 1947, Libby will perfect the technique of carbon-14 dating. The carbon-14 isotope was isolated in 1940 and was found to have a half-life of over 5,000 years. In 1940 Korff had shown that carbon-14 is continuously being produced by cosmic rays colliding with atmospheric nitrogen, which means that traces of carbon-14 can always be found in the carbon dioxide in the air. Libby understands that since carbon dioxide is continuously being incorporated into plant tissues, plants should always contain tiny amounts of carbon-14. In addition because animal life depends on plants, even animal tissue should contain carbon-14. In fact, all carbon containing living objects must contain trace amounts of carbon-14. After a living object dies, no more carbon-14 will be included into its tissues, and the carbon-14 already present will continue to break down at a known rate. So, by comparing the amount of carbon-14 remaining in ancient archaeological objects, such as wood and textiles, with the amount in living or recent samples of similar objects, the age (up to 45,000 years) of the ancient object can be determined. Carbon-14 radioactive dating will reveal that the ice-age glaciers occurred 10,000 years ago, much sooner than the 25,000 years ago previously estimated.
Libby publishes this in a letter to "The Physical Review" as "Atmospheric Helium Three and Radiocarbon from Cosmic Radiation". Libby writes: "A. INTRODUCTION Nuclear physical data indicate that cosmic-ray neutrons produce C14 and H3 from atmospheric nitrogen, the radiocarbon being the principle product. The purpose of this letter is to call attention on this basis to a possible explanation of the tenfold greater abundance of He3 (as decay product of H3) in atmospheric helium as compared to gas well helium, and to suggest that radiocarbon might be found in living matter especially in connectino with the concentration of C13 for tracer uses. B. HELIUM THREE It is well established that neutron secondaries are produced in the atmosphere by the cosmic radiation. less well established is the total number Q, of neutrons produced per cm2 of the earth's surface per sec. The recent paper of Korff and Hammermesh allows a rough estimate of Q to be made. Integration of their curve for neutron production rate per gram vs. depth from the top of the atmosphere gives Q as 0.8 neutrons/cm2/sec. The neutrons probably are produced with several Mev energy and collide with air molecules until they are captured. From the known large slow neutron capture cross section for N14(n,p)C14 it is quite clear that the main part of Q must result in the formation of C14 atoms in the atmosphere. Korff has given this conclusion previously. Although most neutrons must form C14 there is an additional reaction of lower cross section which seems likely and which appears to offer an explanation of the known larger abundance of the mass three helium isotope in atmospheric helium as compared with gas well helium (10-7 part vs. 10-8 part in well He). The reaction is N14+n-C12+H2+Q1 (1) or N14+n=3He4+H2+Q2. (2) This reaction was found with the neutrons from 16-Mev deuterons on beryllium. This neutron source should have resembled somewhat the initial energies of the cosmic-ray neutrons. Since Q1 is -4.3 Mev and Q2 is -11.5 Mev, the production of tritium from N14 by neutrons requires energetic neutrons. The cross section obtained by Cornog and Libby was 10-26 cm2 with an accuracy of about a factor of five. This source of tritium is of course a source of He3 in a geologic sense because the 30-year half-life of tritium is so short (tritium emits a negative beta particle to form He2). If one assumes that the fraction of the cosmic-ray neutrons forming He3 in this way is abuot the ratio of the cross sections 10-26 cm2 for the He3 process the 1.7 x 10-24 cm2 for the C14 process, one expects (1/170) Q He3 atoms per cm2 per sec. to be produced. Taking the age of the earth's atmosphere to be approximately 1.5 x 109 years this predicts 1.3 x 10-11 Q cc of He3 per cc of air, whereas the value reported by Alvarez and Cornog is about 10-7 x 5.239 x 10-6 or 0.052 x 10-11. Considering the possibilities of loss by escape from the atmosphere, the liklihood of higher concentrations about 25 kilometers the uncertainty of fivefold in the cross sectino for the He3 reaction and our ignorance of the neutron spectrum and dependence of the cross section on energy, the agreement seems to be satisfactory. C. RADIOCARBON IN NATURE As stated above, it seems probable that nearly all the neutrons eventually form C14 and for purposes of calculation we shall neglect the He3 and other paths entirely and equate the rate of production of C14 to Q. Since the age of the earth is much greater than the life of C14 a radioactive equilibrium must exist in which the rate of disintegration of C14 is equal to the rate of production, Q. In order to calculate the specific activity of atmospheric carbon due to the C14 content produced in this way it is necessary to estimate the amount of carbonaceous matter in the atmosphere and on the earth's surface which will be in exchange equilibrium with the atmospheric carbon. This number we shall call B (units: moles of carbon/cm2). The specific activity then will be Q/B (disintegrations/sec./mole of C). The estimateion of B is difficult. in order to do so we shall assume that the long half-life of C14 (>>103 yr) will insure that all living matter, dissolved matter in the oceans, and a small amount of solid carbonate rocks will be in equilibrium. Taking the biosphere to contain between 1013 and 1014 tons of carbon, the atmosphere 6x1011 tons; the ocean carbonate, 3 x 1013 tons; and adding 1013 tons for rock carbonate in exchange equilibrium, B calculates to be 1.3 moles/cm2. The possible error in B certainly is at least of the order of a factor of ten, so we shall expect that the C14 specific activity of living matter may lie between 1/3Q and 2.5Q, or be about 1/5 to 2 disintegrations per sec. per mole of carbon. This is a low figure corresponding to about 10-12 curie per gram. However, such radiation levels are detectable inthe case of radium and it seems just possible that it can be accomplished with the techniques used in the study of the natural radioactivities of the ordinary elements. An attempt is intended in these laboratories. It will be particularly desirable to examine C13 concentrates for C14 is they are prepared from atmosphere or biosphere carbon compounds, and it is hoped that future C13 concentration plants will use plant life carbon, when possible, rather than oil, coal, or limestone material in which the abundance of C14 should be very low.".
"Nuclear Cross-section" is a measure of the probability that a reaction will occur between a nucleus and a particle; it is an area such that the number of reactions which occur in a sample exposed to a beam of particles equals the product of the number of nuclei in the sample and the number of incident particles which would pass through this area if their motions were perpendicular to the sample.
(explain how, perhaps buried objects have less tritium?)
(State who isolated and measured the half-life of carbon-14.)
(There must be just a small sample used, and probably, a uniform distribution of carbon-14 is presumed for most objects. verify this if possible. Describe how the carbon-14 is detected.)
(This marks the beginning of systematic dating archaeological objects.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
54 YBN
[06/24/1946 AD]
| 5430) US microbiologist, Alfred Day Hershey (CE 1908-1997), and independently, German-US microbiologist, Max Delbrück (CE 1906-1981), find that the genetic material of different viruses can be combined to form a new and different virus.
(Determine correct papers and read relevent parts.)
Delbrück invents an improved method of culturing bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). (chronology)
Delbrück finds that after being infected, a bacterial cell will break apart in 30 minutes leaving a hundred bacteriophages behind to infect more bacteria cells.
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
54 YBN
[07/15/1946 AD]
| 5373) Cosmic rays measured above earth atmosphere.
Golian, Krause and Perlow use a German V-2 rocket with Geiger-Muller counters to detect cosmic particles 40 miles above the earth's surface.
This will lead to the understanding that there is constant stream of particles, composed of light particles and other larger particles, flowing out from the sun in all direction, past the earth's orbit, which is the so-called solar-wind. Rocket experiments allow the examination of particles before they reach the earth's atmosphere and are obscured by the production of secondary particles from collision with air molecules.
Bruno Benedetto Rossi (CE 1905-1994) Italian-US physicist, will also interpret this cosmic particle data in 1948.
| (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
54 YBN
[08/22/1946 AD]
| 5697) Multiple telescopes used in parallel to observe a larger area.
(Sir) Martin Ryle (CE 1918-1984), English astronomer, is the first to use multiple telescopes (multiple elements) in parallel to observe a light source. This technique is called "interferometry" being analogous to Michelson's method for determining stellar diameter, and also "aperture synthesis". When used with radio telescopes, two radio telescopes are used to give the sharpness of a telescope as wide as the distance between them. Using this technique Ryle can obtain a resolution of radio sources equal to the resolution of visible light sources seen with the best optical telescopes. This technique makes it possible for Hewish to discover pulsars.
The first quasars identified are given names that begin with "3C" for the Third Cambridge Catalogue.
Ryle and Vonberg publish this in "Nature" as "Solar Radiation on 175 Mc./s". They write: "...For the purpose of investigating solar radiation under conditions of low solar activity, it is necessary to discriminate against the background of galactic radiation. While this could be achieved by building an aerial to give a suffiently narrow beam, a very large structure would be required, and observation would be restricted to a short time every day unless arrangements were made for moving the polar diagram of the aerial. An alternative method was therefore used, analogous to Michelson's method for determining stellar diameters. Two aerial systems were used with a horizontal separation of several wave-lengths, and their combined output was fed to the receiving equipment. Such an arrangement produces a polar diagram of the form shown in Fig. 1 where the angle between zeros is governed by the spacing of the two aerials and the envelope is determined by the polar diagram of each individual aerial system. If the angle between minima is sufficiently large compared with the solar angular diameter, then, as the aerial polar diagram is swept past the sun by the earth's rotation, any radiation from the sun should be recorded as an oscillatory trace. Fig. 2 shows a typical record obtained with an aerial separation of 10 λ, and with only slight solar activity (July 17). The oscillatory contribution die to radiation from the sun can be seen superimposed on the slowly varying background of the galactic radiation. Records of this type enable an estimate to be made of the level of solar radiation even when it is only about one quarter the galactic contribution, and at the present time we have found that the sun is usually sufficiently disturbed to give such records. The power is indicated on the diagram in terms of an 'equivalent aerial temperature', and is the power which has to be fed to an aerial in a black-body enclosure of this temperature, to maintain equilibrium. The temperature of a distant source whose radiation obeys a black-body distribution may be estimated from the observed equivalent aerial temperature by correcting for the ratio of solid angles of source and aerial polar diagram. During the appearance of a large sunspot between July 20 and August 1, the solar radiation was much increased, and the opportunity was taken to use the apparatus to determine the angular diameter of the source, by observing the ratio of maximum to minimum intensity as the polar diagram of the two aerials with a separation of many wave-lengths was swept past the sun. The experiment was carried out with a series of different aerial spacings, the final value being 140 λ, and a sample of the records obtained with this spacing is shown in Fig. 3. The maximum/minimum ratio obtained under these conditions corresponds to a source diameter of 10 minutes of arc. Any inequalities in the two aerial systems would result in an over-estimate of diameter, and this is therefore a maximum value. Since the value obtained does not greatly exceed the diameter of the visual spot, it is reasonable to relate the source of this radiation with the visual spot itself, or a region closely associated with it.
During the afternoon of July 25 the observed intensity attained a value which would correspond, in the case of black-body radiation from a source of this diameter, to a temperature greater than 2 x 109° K. Since the existence of such temperatures in a region from which radiation of this wave-length would escape seems improbable, we considered that the radiation was non-thermal in origin, and the possibility of ordered electron motion was therefore investigated by an examination of the polarization of the radiation. This was carried out by arranging the two aerial system of the "Michelson" device to be polarized in planes at right angles to each other. If the radiation were emitted by a completely random 'thermal' source, the two perpendicularly polarized components would not be phase-coherent and no interference effects would be observed. The existence of interference effects would show the presence of phase coherence, and hence prove that the radiation was not of 'thermal' origin. the direction of the sun relative to the aerial systems when an interference maximum was produced, it would be possible to differentiate between plane and right- and left-handed circular polarization. Using such a system it was found that during periods of intense radiation the polarization was, within the accuracy of measyurement, completely circular. (Inequalities in the aerial system limit the accuracy, but at least 90 per cent of the incident energy was circularly polarized.) ...".
(Perhaps a more descriptive name might be "multiple telescope" or "multiple aperture".)
(Note that this same technique should work for any telescope, including those used to measure light with visible frequencies, even for electrons and other particles, since the principle is the same - basically virtually widening the lens or mirror.)
("Interferometer" in my view, is not really an accurate description of this technique of using multiple telescopes, since interference of light frequencies apparently plays no part in observing distant light sources- but instead the adding together of signals to make a stronger signal. but perhaps it can be used in both ways - to get a stronger signal, and also to create an interference pattern based on observing from two different directions. This needs more visual explanation.)
(Note the possibly anti-black racism with "it is necessary to discriminate against the background", and "obeys a black-body". But perhaps it is supporting an anti-racist view, neuron writing, or just coincidence. Just to say clearly, that I personally, am for full equality for all races of people in terms of law, and for racial variety and integration. In addition I am for recognizing that physical/racial differences in many species do exist and scientifically understanding the biological basis of race and physical structure. Beyond that, I am for total free information, and free thought - that people should not be jailed for their views or thoughts, no matter how inaccurate or unfair, as long as they are not violent.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
54 YBN
[08/??/1946 AD]
| 5314) Judith Graham and R. W. Gerard use a microelectrode made of glass filled with KCl (a saline solution) to measure the electric potential of a single frog nerve cell (neuron) to be 62 mV.
(Get photo and birth-death dates)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
54 YBN
[09/13/1946 AD]
| 5349) George Gamow (Gam oF) (CE 1904-1968), Russian-US physicist, originates the theory that the elements were formed in the early stages of an expanding universe.
Before this people such as Welzsacker, Chandresekhar and Wataghin had theorized about transformations of elements inside stars and high temperatures.
Gamow develops a method by which the explosion of Lemaître's "cosmic egg" leads to the formation of the various elements in a very short time.
In a letter to the journal "Physical Review", entitled "Expanding Universe and the Origin of Elements", in 1946, Gamow writes: "It is generally agreed at present that the relative abundances of various chemical elements were determined by physical conditions existing in the universe during the early stages of its expansion, when the temperature and density were sufficiently high to secure appreciable reaction-rates for the light as well as for the heavy nuclei. In all the so-far published attempts in this direction the observed abundance-curve is supposed to represent some equilibrium state determined by nuclear binding energies at some very high temperature and density. This point of view encounters, however, serious difficulties in the comparison with empirical facts. Indeed, since binding energy is, in a first approximation, a linear function of atomic weight, any such equilibrium theory would necessarily lead to a rapid exponential decrease of abundance through the entire natural sequence of elements. It is known, however, that whereas such a rapid decrease actually takes place for the first hald of chemical elements, the abundance of heavier nuclei remains nearly constant. Attempts have been made to explain this discrepancy by the assumption that heavy elements were formed at higher temperatures, and that their abundances were already "frozen" when the adjustment of lighter elements was taking place. Such an explanation, however, can be easily ruled out if one rememebers that at the temperatures in question (about 1010° K, and 104 g/cm3) nuclear transformations are mostly caused by the processes of absorption and re-evaporation of free neutrons so that their rates are essentially the same for the light and for the heavy elements. Thus it appears that the only way of explaining the observed abundance-curve lies in the assumption of some kind of unequilibrium process taking place during a limited interval of time. The above conclusion finds a strong support in the study of the expansion process itself. According to the general theory of expanding universe, the time dependence of any linear dimension l in it is given by the formula {ULSF: see formula} where G is the Newton constant, p the mean density, and R (real or imaginary) a constant describing the curvature of space. It may be noticed that the above expression represents a relativistic analog of the familiar classic formula {ULSF: see formula} for the inertial expansion-velocity of a gravitating dust sphere with the total energy E per unit mass. The imaginary and real values of R correspond to an unlimited expansion (in case of superescape velocity), and to the expansion which will be ultimately turned into a contraction by the forces of gravity (subescape velocity). To use some definite numbers, let us consider in the present state of the universe (considered as quite uniform) a cube containing, say, 1 g of matter. Since the present mean density of the universe is ppresent =~ 10-30 g/cm3, the side of our cube will be: lpresent=~1010. According to Hubble, the present expansion-rate of the universe is 1.8 x 10-17 cm/sec. per cm, so that (dl/dt)present=~1.8 x 10-7 cm/sec. Substituting the numerical values in (1) we obtain {ULSF: see equation} showing that at the present stage of expansion the first term under the radical (corresponding to the potential energy of gravity) is negligibly small as compared with the second one. For the numerical value of the (constant) radius of curvature we get from (3): R=1.7 x 1017√-1 cm or about 0.2 imaginary light year. in the past history of the universe, when l was considerably smaller, and p correspondingly larger, the first term in (1) was playing an important role corresponding physically to the slowing-down effect of gravity on the original expansion. The transition from the slowed down to the free expansion took place at the epoch when the two terms were comparable, i.e., when l was about one thousandth of its present value. At this epoch the gravitational clustering of matter into stars, stellar clusters, and galaxies, probably must have taken place. Applying our formula (2) with C2/R2 = -3.3 x 10-14 to the earlier epoch when the average density of masses in the universe was of the order of 104 g/cm2 (as required by the conditions for the formation of elements), we find that at that time l=~10-2 cm, and dl/dt=~ 0.01 cm/sec. This means that at the epoch when the mean density of the universe was of the order of 104 g/cm3, the expansion must have been proceeding at such a high rate, that this high density was reduced by an order of magnitude in only about one second. It goes without saying that one must be very careful in extrapolating the expansion formula to such an early epoch, but, on the other hand, this formula represents nothing more than the statement of the law of conservation of energy in the inertial expansion against the forces of gravity. Returning to our problem of the formation of elements, we see that the conditions necessary for rapid nuclear reactions were existing only for a very short time, so that it may be quite dangerous to speak about an equilibrium-state which must have been established during this period. It is also interesting to notice that the calculated time-period during which rapid nuclear transformations could have taken place is considerably shorter than the B-decay period of free neutrons which is presumably of the order of magnitude of one hour. Thus if free neutrons were present in large quantities in the beginning of the expansion, the mean density and temperature of expanding matter must have dropped to comparatively low values before these neutrons had time to turn into protons. We can anticipate that neutrons forming this comparatively cold cloud were gradually coagulating into larger and larger neutral complexes which later turned into various atomic species by subsequent processes of B-emission. From this point of view the decrease of relative abundance along the natural sequence of elements must be understood as being caused by the longer time which was required for the formation of heavy neutronic complexes by the successive proceesses of radiative capture. The present high abundance of hydrogen must have resulted from the competition between the B-decay of original neutrons which was turning them into inactive protons, and the coagulation-process through which these neutrons were being incorporated into heavier nuclear units. It is hoped that the further more detailed development of the ideas presented above will permit us to understand the observed abundance-curve of chemical elements giving at the same time valuable information concerning the early stages of the expanding universe.".
In 1948, Alpher, Bethe, and Gamow will publish a paper "The Origin of Chemical Elements" which further develops the theory that the elements were formed in the early stages of an expanding universe.
This theory will lead to the theory of a background radiation of light particles that will be detected by Penzias and Wilson seventeen years later.
(Without much doubt this theory, the big-bang, is almost certainly false, because the far more likely probability is of a universe of infinite size and age. Although there may possibly be a similar effect in the inside of stars and maybe even planets. If photons are pressed under such pressure as to be wall-to-wall and unmoving due to a constant collision, then at the edges where space starts to open up, photons must start to move and in moving, perhaps form larger sub-atomic particles, and as more space opens up, perhaps those particles form atoms. This theory is a conclusion drawn from the idea that all matter is made of photons and that under large pressure photons might be pressed out of atomic and larger composite particle form into wall-to-wall photon substance. One question is unclear, how are larger atoms made? I think this is simply from neutron collision. Neutrons (protons, larger than a single photon particles) are formed when photons have more space, although there are still many collisions. This is evidence that photons do in fact collide with each other.)
(In terms of the so-called "background radiation", notice that the word "radiation" is still used instead of "light". To me, it is amazing that, for example, the multibillion dollar COBE satellite is constructed for the purpose to detect this background radio light, and a team of 100 people employed for this, the two main supervisors winning Nobel Prizes for this, and the entire theory is, in my view, obviously wrong. Any photons detected can only be from galaxies in the sphere of a finite distance around us. No photon detector the size of earth or smaller will detect any photons beyond a certain distance. And this distance is determined to some extent by the probability of a beam of photons traveling in the direction of the detector, in addition to the probability of a beam of photons traveling in the exact direction of the detector being absorbed by other matter in between the detector and the source. This is the main argument that casts doubt on the theory of background radiation from a big bang creation of the universe event. There is also the aspect of a beam of 20Hz also being a beam of 10Hz, etc. At such a low frequency, how can people be sure they are not simply measuring photons from higher frequency beams? As far as I can see every direction from the detector must be scanned and directions where there are objects must be ruled out, perhaps there are directions where there are no objects visible in any wavelength. The idea of this sphere also depends on the size of the detector, and so the prediction of the infinitely sized Euclidean space-time universe is that with a larger detector we will see galaxies farther away, and the size of the known universe will have to be increased, and this seems to me inevitable. And please, oh please, let people realize "hey, instead of constantly inching up the size of the universe, why don't we just accept that it is probably infinitely large and old?")
Gamow popularizes the Lemaître "big bang" theory of creation, as Hoyle popularizes the constant creation theory. Gamow also writes a series of "Mr. Tompkins in Wonderland" books to popularize science.
(Notice that the paper starts "It is generally agreed", perhaps a play on "general" and "greed".)
(Notice that the second paper, in 1948 is published on April 1, perhaps because only a fool would buy into this big bang theory. Notice also the paper ends with the initials "DC", implying perhaps that the government establishment has corrupted the scientific establishment, or is dictating scientific dogma.)
(Many source mysteriously miss the fact that Gamow alone originates the idea that elements are created in a big bang - a theory that is still the reigning theory.)
(My own view is that I doubt the expanding universe theory, viewing the red shifted absorption lines of galaxies as being a product of the Bragg equation for light sources of different distances. This shift being more an indication of distance than of radial velocity relative to our position in the universe. In terms of creation of the various elements, my view is that all matter is made of light particles, that the universe is probably infinite in size, scale and age, and that all matter, being conserved, simply clusters and separates. So the reason for the larger abundance any element may have to do with the increased chances of particles being grouped in such a way - to gather many particles together is rarer than to gather just a few, and some configurations of particles must simply be geometrically structurally unstable and so are less common.)
(The constant creation theory is also somewhat obviously wrong in my opinion, being a violation of the simple conservation of matter theory. It seems possible that the "constant creation" theory was just established to give the excluded the belief that an alternative theory exists while the neuron stalls the infinite light particle universe simple truth for a few more centuries of neuron monopoly and omnipotence.))
(A number of people assembled the big-bang theory. The interpretation of the red shifted galaxies is a logical conclusion, but unfortunately the more likely explanation is shift as a result of Bragg's equation and the angle of incidence of the light source changing with distance, or of photon beams being stretched from gravity. Lemaître created the big bang. Gamow created the theory of elements being created by such a big bang. )
| (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
54 YBN
[09/17/1946 AD]
| 5742) US geneticist, Joshua Lederberg (CE 1925-2008), and US biochemist, Edward Lawrie Tatum (CE 1909-1975) discover genetic recombination in a prokaryote (the bacteria E. Coli) which implies that some bacteria can sexually reproduce.
Conjugation, in biology is a sexual process in which two lower organisms of the same species, such as bacteria, protozoans, and some algae and fungi, exchange nuclear material during a temporary union (for example by ciliated protozoans), completely transfer one organism’s contents to the other organism (bacteria and some algae), or fuse together to form one organism (most bacteria and fungi and some algae).
Genetic comparison puts the ancestor of all proteobacteria of which E. coli is a member at 2.8 billion years ago which puts a potential earliest time for the evolution of sex on earth at 2.8 billion years before now. It seems likely that all sexual organisms may have evolved from E. coli.
Lederberg and Tatum publish this in "Nature" as "Gene Recombination in Escherichia Coli". They write: "Analysis of mixed cultures of nutritional mutants has revealed the presence of new types which strongly suggest the occurence of a sexual process in the bacterium, Escherichia coli. ... These types can most reasonably be interpreted as instances of the assortment of genes in new combinations. In order that various genes may have the opportunity to recombine, a cell fusion would be required. The only apparent alternative to this interpretation would be the occurence in the medium of transforming factors capable of inducing the mutation of genes, bilaterally, both to and from the wild condition. Attempts at the induction of transformations in single cultures by the use of sterile filtrates have been unsuccessful. The fusion presumably occurs only rarely, since in the cultures investigated only one cell in a million can be classified as a recombination type. The hypothestical zygote has not been detected cytolgically. These experiments imply the occurrence of a sexual process in the bacterium Escherichia coli; they will be reported in more detail elsewhere. ...".
(State when pili are identified.)
(Among the protists (eukaryotes) oxymonads, determined genetically to be very primitive eukaryotes, can reproduce sexually, the green alga spyro gyra sexually reproduces through conjugation using pili, and this is evidence of inheritance from prokaryotes. That different processes of sex have evolved independently or more than once cannot be ruled out but to me seems unlikely, otherwise it may be that all sexual reproduction has adapted from this original pili/conjugation mechanism. This also brings this issue of which DNA is the most primitive? And I think a good argument can be made for the reproduction-related code as opposed to ribosomal RNA, because genetic reproduction is essential and perhaps the most ancient and critical part of any cell, where ribosome genes may not be essential. Using reproductive DNA may put spyro-gyra as possibly more ancient than ribosomal RNA puts it. It's a mystery because just like RRNA, the DNA that codes for copying can change from substitution with DNA from other cells.)
The three main mechanisms by which bacteria acquire new DNA are transformation, conjugation, and transduction. Transformation involves acquisition of DNA from the environment, conjugation involves acquisition of DNA directly from another bacterium, and transduction involves acquisition of bacterial DNA via a bacteriophage intermediate.
| (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
54 YBN
[10/10/1946 AD]
| 3848) First solar spectrum captured from the upper atmosphere by rocket. This spectrum confirms that the atmosphere of Earth absorbs light with ultraviolet frequency.
In 1945 the Army Ordnance Corps obtain a large number of V-2 rockets from Germany and plan to launch them to gain experience in the performance of rockets and to obtain data on the upper atmosphere. On this day, a V-2 rocket is launched by a collaboration of the Rocket Sonde Research Section of the Naval Research Laboratory and other agencies, and institutions such as universities, astronomical observatories, and industries. This rocket contains devices to record multiple spectra, and also to measures pressure. Based on the pressure, temperature is calculated (see image 2).
| (White Sands proving area) New Mexico, USA |
54 YBN
[11/13/1946 AD]
| 5419) Vincent Joseph Schaefer (CE 1906-1993), US physicist, creates human-made snow fall (storm) and captures photomicrographs of ice crystals.
On 11/13/1946 Schaefer is flown by airplane over a cloud layer over Pittsfield, Massachusetts, six pounds of pellets of dry ice are dumped into the clouds and the first human-made snow storm in history starts. Later Vonnegut will find that silver iodide is more convenient. Schaefer is led to this experiment by finding that in July 1946, when dropping a block of frozen carbon dioxide (dry ice) into a refrigerated box, the water vapor inside the box condenses into ice crystals and the box is filled with a miniature snow storm. In the future rain will be caused to end droughts. (explain why falling water is caused?). There is some doubt whether rainmaking is actually effective and if rain that is produced might not have fallen anyway. (simple tests should be able to prove this over time.)
(to cause water drops and snow flakes (if cold enough) to fall) (I have doubts about triggering rain to fall if there is not enough water in a cloud to begin with or the air is too dry.)
(Perhaps the crystals imply the structure of molecules or even atomic structure.)
| (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
54 YBN
[12/21/1946 AD]
| 5537) Negative Mesotron shown not to react with the atomic nucleus which casts doubt on the theory that the mesotron is related to a theoretical nuclear forces.
Conversi, Pancini and Piccioni show that the mesotron found in 1937 by Neddermeyer and Anderson and by Street and Stevenson is not the particle predicted by Yukawa as the mediator of a theoretical nuclear force, but is instead almost completely unreactive with the atomic nucleus.
(State each of the two nuclear force, what they are thought to do, and how the positive and/or negative mesotron mediates these forces.)
| (University of Rome) Rome, Italy |
54 YBN
[12/25/1946 AD]
| 5307) First uranium fission chain reaction in Europe (in Moscow).
On 12/25/1946 the Soviet Union puts its first self-sustaining reactor into action. Igor Vasilevich Kurchatov (CE 1903-1960) Russian physicist, supervises this first atomic reactor in Europe, and in 1949 Kurchatov and co-workers will develop and successfully test the first Soviet atomic bombs. (State if uranium neutron fission.)
| (Now: Kurchatov Institute of Atomic Energy) Moscow, Russia (Soviet Union) |
54 YBN
[1946 AD]
| 5018) (Sir) Robert Robinson (CE 1886-1975), English chemist, determines the structure of the alkaloid, strychnine.
This structure will be confirmed by Woodward who will synthesize the strychnine molecule.
| (University of Oxford) Oxford, England |
54 YBN
[1946 AD]
| 5483) Stig Melker Claesson demonstrates gas-solid chromatography.
Gas chromatography is chromatography in which the substance to be separated into its components is diffused along with a carrier gas through a liquid or solid adsorbent for differential adsorption.
In 1941, Archer Martin and Richard Synge had suggested the possibility of gas chromatography.
(Get paper and determine location, get photo, birth and death dates)
| |
53 YBN
[01/08/1947 AD]
| 5340) Donald H. Perkins (CE 1925-) (independenly of Cecil Frank Powell) captures photographic images of a meson (which will be called a pi-meson, or "pion"). Perkins uses the "photographic method" of capturing particle tracks, where particles travel through and leave tracks in a photographic emulsion.
In a nature article "Nuclear Disintegration by Meson Capture", Perkins writes: "RECENTLY, multiple nuclear disintegration 'stars', produced by cosmic radiation, have been investigated by the photographic emulsion technique. Plates coated with 50 u Ilford B.1 emulsions were exposed in aircraft for several hours at 30,000 ft. One of these disintegrations was of particular interest, for whereas all stars previously observed had been initiated by radiation not producing ionizing tracks in the emulsion, the one in question appears to be due to nuclear capture of a charged particle, presumably a slow meson. The star consists of four tracks A, B, C, and D (Fig. 1). A, B, and D lie almost in the plane of the emulsion, whereas C dips steeply (at about 40°) and ends in the glass. D is due to a proton of energy 3.7 MeV., and C also corresponds to a proton, of more than 3 MeV., and most likely about 5 MeV Track B was most probably produced by a triton of 5-6 MeV. A short track, about 1u long, between A and B is apparently due to the residual recoil nucleus. Track A appears to enter the emulsion surface about 150u from the star centre. On account of the relatively large distances between consencutive grains at this range, the track cannot be distinguished at all easily against the spontaneous background grains, and only the last 100u of track (below arrow) can be traced with certainty. Assuming it to be single charged, the mass of the particle producing track A has been roughly evaluated by the following methods. (1) Both ionization and scattering increase towards the origin of the star, hence the particle was definitely travelling towards the disintegration point. An electron is discounted because the observed ionization is far too high (an electron track of this range would, in face, not be detected at all), and the scattering too small. On the other hand, a proton is discounted since the observed scattering is too great (Fig. 2). We must therefore, conclude that the particle had a mass intermediate between that of electron and proton. The grain density along track A does, in fact, agree well with that to be expected of a meson of the observed range of about one tenth of the proton mass. The range-energy curve for mesons in the emulsion has been obtained from that for protons (kindly lent by Dr. C. F. Powell), using the ratio of the masses of the two particles. ... On the above hypothesis, the meson should, therefore, have a rest energy of 60-100 MeV, that is, a mass of between 120 Me and 200 me. Near the end of the meson track, a small number of grains are observed slightly off the main track. if these are due to fast secondary electrons, their ranges appear to be considerably greater than would be expected from the energy of the primary. ...".
(State who invented the "photographic method" of particle track capturing.)
(My own view is that clearly there are many composite particles ranging in scale from light particle all the way to the largest galactic clusters - and I really doubt the idea of theoretically predicting the existence of particles, since clearly simply putting together any mass is the simplest method of predicting a composite particle, starting with mass=1 light particle, mass = 2 light particles, etc.)
(Notice the use of "lies".)
| (Imperial College of Science and Technology) London, England |
53 YBN
[01/09/1947 AD]
| 5443) Walter Henry Zinn (CE 1906-2000), Canadian-US physicist, designs the first breeder atomic fission chain-reaction reactor. A breeder reactor produces more fuel than it consumes by surrounding the core with atoms like Thorium-232 and Uranium-238, so that neutrons from the core convert these to Uranium-233 and Plutonium-239, respectively, which can be used as fission fuel.
(Verify that this is the first public description of a breeder reactor.)
These reactors make all the uranium and thorium resources of the earth available for use as nuclear fuel.
Zinn also designs the first atomic fission reactor to produce electricity, the "Experimental Breeder Reactor-1" in Idaho, activated on December 20, 1951.
In his January 9, 1947 patent application, "Fast Neutron Reaction System", Zinn writes: "This invention relates to nuclear physics, and more particularly to fast neutron nuclear fission chain reaction systems, such as those described in a copending Szilard application, Serial No. 698,334, filed September 20, 1946.
As is more fully discussed in said copending application, fast neutron reactors are particularly advantageous for certain purposes due to their small size and compactness, and also due to the fact that relatively few neutrons are absorbed at high energy values in the non-fissionable components of such reactors. It has been found that neutron absorption losses may be greatly minimized by establishing and maintaining nuclear fission chaia reactions while avoiding the slowing of evolved neutrons below an average energy of about 1,000 e.v., and preferably below about 10,000 e.v. At such high energies, it has been discovered that the elements of atomic numbers 11 to 83, which are generally used as structural, cooling, or other elements in a neutronic reactor, have neutron absorption cross sections which are substantially smaller than their absorption cross sections for neutrons at thermal energies. Thus, a substantial saving of neutrons may be effected by maintenance of the high energy level.
Similar advantages may accrue by operating neutronic reactors at lower energies, as for example, even as low as 0.3 e.v., which energy is substantially above the energy of thermal neutrons at room temperature, that is about 0.03 e.v. However, higher energies of 1,000' e.v. and above are preferred inasmuch as non-moderating neutron reflectors may be utilized with reactors operating at these values.
A general object of the present invention is, therefore, to provide a novel method and means for establishing and controlling a fast neutron nuclear fission chain reaction wherein little or no neutron moderator is provided to slow down the neutrons which take part in the chain reaction. ... Another object of the invention is to provide a novel method and means for controlling a nuclear fission chain reaction without inserting and withdrawing control elements with respect thereto. ... A different object of the invention is to provide a novel method and means for assembling and disassembling the intermediate non-moderating neutron reflector with respect to the fast neutron reactor.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a novel method and means for terminating the fast neutron chain reaction under emergency conditions fay moving the entire intermediate fast neutron reflector out of cooperative relationship therewith.
Still another object of the invention is to design a novel heat transfer system for a neutronic reactor wherein the coolant flows in series through the reactor and a neutron reflector therearound, thereby maintaining the entire structure at a substantially uniform temperature value and accommodating a maximum exit temperature for the coolant without the necessity of providing means for throttling the flow thereof. It v/ill be understood, as hereinafter discussed, that such an arrangement is particularly useful for power plants wherein the heat absorbed by the coolant from the nuclear fission chain reaction is conveyed by the coolant to an associated power device. .... Describing the invention in detail and referring first to Figs. 1-4, the system shown therein comprises inner and outer steel tanks 2 and 4 (Figs. 1 and 4), the inner tank containing a plurality of composite rods 6 and the outer tank containing a plurality of composite rods 8, all of said rods being supported, as hereinafter described in detail, from a biological shield 10 composed of any suitable material adapted to absorb biologically harmful emanations, such as neutrons and alpha, beta, and gamma rays.
The shield 10 is supported by fingers 12 connected to I beams 14 as by bolts 16, the beams being mounted within a biological shield 18 with a central opening 20 accommodating the before-mentioned shield 10. The top of the opening 20, is closed by a cover plate 22. which may be removed to accommodate assembly and disassembly of the rods 6 and 8.
One of the rods 6 is shown in detail in Fig. 5 and comprises: a cylindrical segment 24 composed of thermally fissionable. material. It is disposed between cylindrical segments 26 and 28 composed principally of "fertile" material. Fertile isotopes or material as hereby defined are fissionable by fast neutrons, are substantially non-fissionable by slow neutrons, and absorb or capture neutrons fast or slow to undergo nuclear reaction productive of fissionable material, as for example, the isotopesTh232 and U235 which are converted to U233 and Pu239 respectively by nuclear reaction under neutron bombard-ment. Fertile isotopes are capable of scattering fast neutrons by inelastic collision therewith, and are thus particularly useful as fast neutron reflectors adapted to reflect neutrons escaping from the central or reaction zone of the reactor. The term thermally fissionable iso-topes or material, as used herein, designates those iso-topes such as U233, U235 or Pu239, which are fissionable by slow or thermal neutrons and have a high fission cross section for fast neutrons relative to the fission cross-section of isotopes which are not fissionable by thermal neutrons.
The segment 24 is connected to the segments 26 and 28 by steel couplings 3ft and 32, respectively, the cou-pling 30 being provided with spaced fins 31 adapted to center the rod 6 in an opening through a wall or partition 34 within the tank 2. The segment 26 is connected to a cylindrical beryllium segment 36 by a coupling 38 formed with fins 40 adapted to center the rod 6 in an opening within a wall 42 of the tank 2. The beryllium segment 36 is connected to an iron segment 44, which is, in turn, connected to another beryllium segment 46. The beryllium segments 36 and 46 are disposed within the biological shield 10 and form a part thereof. All of the segments below segment 44 are closed within thin walled tubes or sheaths 48 adapted to space the seg-ments from a coolant circulated through the system, as hereinafter described, for the purpose of absorbing the heat of nuclear fission chain reaction. ...".
In a later patent application of June 15, 1954, entitled, "Power Reactor", Zinn describes the goals of the reactor, writing: "The present invention relates generally to nuclear reactors, and specifically to nuclear reactors for the production of power and radioactive isotopes.
In the past nuclear reactors have usually been primarily developed either to produce isotopes or to produce power for military applications, such as submarine and surface ship power plants. The primary requirements of a power producer for military equipment are reliability and compactness and the economic cost of the power produced is not a prime consideration. The mobility and "reliability at all costs" are not necessary characteristics of a nuclear reactor which is to be used for the production of central station power, but the main requirement of such a reactor is the production of power at a total cost of not more than about 6 to 8 mils per kilowatt hour in order that it be economically competitive with coal and oil fired boilers which are conventional at the present time.
It is an object of the present invention to provide such a reactor.
Now, while the utmost reliability of operation, such as is required for military reactors, is not required for central station power reactors, the standards of safety of such a reactor are of the very highest. The power reactors contain a tremendous amount of radioactivity which would be released should the reactor components be vaporized by loss of coolant or other failure of the cooling system. This activity which would be liberated by a vaporization of the reactor elements runs into the millions of curies and it is obvious that, if this amount of activity or any substantial portion of it were liberated by a vaporization of the reactor components, it could cause a tremendous catastrophe in the vicinity of the reactor. Therefore the reactor system designed for central station power requirements must have the utmost protection against a reactor failure which would result in vaporization of the reactive components.
It is the primary object of the present invention to provide a novel nuclear reactor system which minimizes the risk of loss of, or vaporization of, the primary coolant, and thus furnishes the maximum protection against these particular radiation hazards. The novel features of the present system by which this object is accomplished are particularly set forth in the section of the specification entitled "Safety."
Now, while it is an object of the present invention to provide a reactor which will produce pov/er at a cost competitive with conventional fossil fuel central station power plants, it is also recognized that there is at present a very extensive market for such radioactive isotopes as pu23o) u233, Hs, C", P32, S36, and I"1. The production of these isotopes by reactors as a by-product of power production offers an attractive method of still further decreasing the cost of power.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a reactor which is capable of producing radioactive isotopes and in addition power at a price competitive with current steam boiler plant methods.
Radioactive isotopes may be produced by a neutronic reactor due to the fact that a neutron impinging on an atom of fissionable material, which produces fission, liberates more than two neutrons on the average depending upon the nature of the atom of fissionable material which undergoes the fission. Only one of these neutrons must be utilized to sustain the neutronic chain reaction, while the remaining neutrons may be usced to convert" elements into new isotopes. It is desirable to utilize as many of the neutrons which are not necessary to sustain the reaction as possible by absorbing these neutrons in elements which, become desirable radioactive isotopes, rather than absorbing these neutrons in materials which transmute to less desirable materials. In fact, in a carefully designed reactor, it is possible that sufficient amounts of U238 and Th232 may be converted to Pu239 and U233, respectively, by the absorption of neutrons liberated by the chain reaction, to more than replace the fissionable material consumed as fuel by the reaction. The present reactor is so designed that this conversion takes place at a very small cost to the power production and the value of the materials produced thereby will thus more than pay for the cost of this convertible feature. In fact, conversion products may be considered as a bonus.
Whether the neutronic reactor is to be used for converting nonfissionable isotopes to fissionable isotopes or for the production of nonfissionable radioactive isotopes, the neutron energy spectrum of the reactor is important in determining the conversion or production efficiency of the reactor. The neutron energy spectrum of the reactor may be defined as the neutron energy distribution in the region of the reactor containing the fuel which sustains the neutron chain reaction, generally called the fuel region of the reactor. Neutronic reactors may be classified as fast, intermediate, and slow or thermal, reactors, depending upon the neutron spectrum within the reactor. If the neutron spectrum within the fuel region of the reactor is predominantly of thermal energy, the reactor is termed a thermal or slow reactor, while neutron spectrums averaging up to approximately 1000 electron volts are present in reactors having intermediate energies, and neutron spectrums averaging greater than 1000 electron volts are present in fast reactors.
The energy spectrum of a reactor affects the conversion or production efficiency of a reactor due to several factors. First, nonfission capture by the fuel in the reactor is a function of the energy of the neutron spectrum and is reduced with higher energy neutron spectrums. Second, the loss of neutrons by absorption in structural material of the reactor is also reduced by increasing the.energy of the neutron spectrum within the reactor. Third, the loss of neutrons by capture in fission products disposed within the reactor is also reduced by the use of higher energy neutron spectrums. Fourth, the loss of neutrons in coolant materials within the reactor may be reduced by the use of higher energy neutron spectrums. Finally, the neutron losses in so-called "heavy isotopes" within the reactor are reduced with higher energy neutron spectrums. "Heavy isotopes" are isotopes of the fuel resulting from nonfission absorption of neutrons in the fuel which are themselves nonfissionable or essentially nonfissionable with thermal neutrons, an example being Pu240 when Pu239 is used as the fuel.
The neutron energy spectrum of a reactor is controlled largely by the moderating effect of the materials within the active portion of the reactor. The active portion of the reactor may be defined as the region within which the materials which contribute to the neutronic chain reaction and the materials which it is desired to transmute to other materials are confined. This region contains fuel, structural materials, blanket materials, and coolant. The moderating effects of elements and compositions depend upon the fact that the moderator has a-small absorption cross section and a low atomic weight. Hydrogen, deuterium, helium, beryllium, carbon and oxygen have been found to be elements which have these attributes within the proper ranges to be considered as moderators. Therefore, if these elements or compositions 5 consisting predominantly of these elements are not included within the reactor core, the reactor is a fast reactor. The reactor of the present invention is a fast reactor. . ;;
The fission cross section of U235 for fast neutrons is considerably less than the cross section for thermal 10 neutrons. It is therefore impossible to maintain a nuclear chain reaction with fast neutrons in natural uranium, consisting of approximately 99.3% of U23^ and 0.7% of U235. It is therefore essential that a fast reactor use a fuel having a fissionable isotope present in greater 15 concentration than the 0.7% of natural uranium. This may be accomplished by using enriched uranium, that is, uranium which has been enriched in the U235 isotope by treating the uranium in an isotopic separation plant or by adding to natural uranium a quantity of the enriched or ^0 pure U235 obtained from an isotope separation plant. The present reactor contemplates the use of such a fuel material.
The separation of isotopes, however, is a very expensive process in comparison to chemical separation developments. It is therefore desirable that a fast reactor be able to use a fuel, the fissionable isotope of which is Pu239. Pu239. is ordinarily produced in converter reactors and separated from the elements with which it is found, „„ namely, uranium and fission products, by chemical separation processes. Now, U233, U235 and Pu239 are the only isotopes currently available in any quantity having any substantial cross section for fission with thermal neutrons. Other isotopes, however, have a substantial gg cross section for fission with high energy neutrons. Thus, Pu240 and particularly Pu241 have fission cross sections with fast neutrons which compare favorably with the fast neutron fission cross section of Pu339 and U235. Now, both natural uranium which has been depleted in its U335 content by high burnup in a thermal reactor and plutonium which has been substantially enriched in its Pu240 and Pu2*1 component by high burnup in a reactor are waste products as far, as any potential use in a thermal reactor for the uranium, or use in an atomic weapon for the plutonium, are concerned. A mixture of these two components, however, can make a highly desirable fuel for a fast reactor, provided the fast reactor is so designed that it can use this fuel. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a reactor go which can use natural uranium enriched in U236, or a fuel in which the fissionable material is plutonium. It is also contemplated that the present reactor can be used with a fuel in which the fissionable material is U233, Pu241, or other similar isotopes. 55
Another object of the invention is to provide a reactor which may be used as an isotope converter and which may be used to produce power simultaneously. As explained above, the cost of power produced for commercial purposes may be reduced if the reactor may at go the same time be used for converting elements or isotopes into other useful radioactive isotopes. This is particularly true if the isotope formed is thermally fissionable, such as U233 and Pu239, since the fuel consumed by the reactor would then be at least partially replaced by the 65 fuel produced by the fission reaction itself. ...'.
(State what other atoms besides uranium, plutonium, thorium and beryllium can undergo fission, and which particles can split them besides neutrons, alpha particles, and gamma frequency light particles?)
(Explain how this process of converting uranium-238 to 235 works if possible.)
| Chicago, Illinois, USA |
53 YBN
[01/10/1947 AD]
| 5404) Bart Jan Bok (CE 1906-1983), Dutch-US astronomer, and Edith F. Reilly observe small, round, dense, dark nebulae with diameters between 10,000 and 35,000 A.U. which are thought to represent the evolutionary stage just before the formation of a star.
(show image, are these just small nebulae? - paper has no photos) 1 AU=150 million kilometers. 1 AU equal about 1/63,000 light years. Neptune is about 30AU from the sun. The nearest star system (Alpha Centauri at 4 light years) is about 252,000 AU from the sun.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
53 YBN
[01/10/1947 AD]
| 5581) (Sir) Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell (CE 1913-), English astronomer, shows that radar (radio echo) can be used to see meteor showers, and that meteors can even be seen with radar during daylight.
| (University of Manchester: Jodrell Bank) Cheshire, England |
53 YBN
[01/27/1947 AD]
| 5335) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist with W. J. Sturm, and R. G. Sachs, creates monochromatic (single frequency) neutron beams by using a mechanical filter, and finds that neutrons scatter in agreement with the theory of elastic scattering from crystals like x-rays do in following Bragg's law. (verify)
Fermi Sturm abd Sachs write: " The transmission of monochromatic slow neutrons through microcrystalline Be and BeO has been determined. The source of neutrons was the Argonne heavy water pile. These neutrons were monocromatized by means of a mechanical velocity selector for low energies and a neutron crystal spectrometer for higher energies. The results are in excellent agreement with the theory of elastic scattering from crystals. It is found by comparison of the results on BeO with the theory that the scattering amplitudes of Be and O have the same sign. This method may be used to detemine the relative scattering phases of other pairs of nuclei which can be combined to form a crystalline material. The sample must consist of crestals smaller than a micron in linear dimensions. Other possible sources of disagreement between theory and experiment are discussed in Section 5.".
In 1936, Dana Mitchell and Philip Powers had found that beams of slow neutrons can be reflected in accordance with Bragg's law from crystals of MgO, which gives the neutron beam a wavelength of 1.6A (160pm - similar to high frequency x-ray light particles). (It seems unusual that neutrons would have such small wavelength - determine what velocity if any is used for the neutron beam.) (State who was the first to state typical neutron beam frequencies, that neutron beams are refracted, and diffracted in the same way as light particles.)
(State who is the first to measure the velocity of neutrons.)
(Notice "discussed" - perhaps a play on "disgust", from not being able to reveal more information.)
| (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois, USA |
53 YBN
[02/07/1947 AD]
| 5337) Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist produces interference effects with neutron beams.
| (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois |
53 YBN
[02/08/1947 AD]
| 5338) Cecil Frank Powell (CE 1903-1969), English physicist, and G. P. S. Occhialini, (independently of Donald H. Perkins), capture photographic images of a meson (which will be called a pi-meson, or "pion") using the "photographic method" where particles travel through a photographic emulsion and leave visible tracks.
Powell captures images of particles with curvatures indicating an intermediate size. This new meson has more mass than the meson discovered by Anderson so the two are given different names. Powell's more massive particle is called a pi-meson, or pion, and Anderson's particle is named a mu-meson or muon. The pi-meson is found to match the particle predicted by Yukawa. In the 1930s more sensitive emulsions had made capturing photographic images of particles better. After World War II even better emulsions came into use.
For about 10 years after 1935 when Yukawa predicted the existance of a meson, people thought that Anderson's meson was the meson predicted by Yukawa, however in 1942 and 1946 theoreticians conclude that there must be two mesons.[]
Powell and Occhialini write: "IN studying photographic plates exposed to the cosmic rays, we have found a number of multiple disintegrations each of which appears to have been produced by the entry of a slow charged particle into a nucleus. Mosaics of photomicrographs of three of these events are given in Figs. 1, 2 and 3. The edges of the individual photographs have not been trimmed so that the components of the mosaics can be distinguished. Three grains of a track in Fig. 1, indicated by three arrows, which were out of focus in the original negatives, have been blackened with ink, but the photographs are otherwise completely unretouched. It will be seen from Fig. 1 that, associated with the 'star', there is one track, marked m, which shows frequenct changes in direction. The points of scattering are most frequent near the centre of the 'star', and become progressively fewer in moving away from it along the trajectory. This behaviour suggests that the particle approacged the disintegrating nucleus. The conclusion receives additional support from the observation that the number of grains per unit length of the track, which can be taken as a measure of the ionization produced by the particle, is greatest in the immediate neighbourhood of the disintegrating nucleus and becomes less and we recede from it. We have now observed six of these events among a total of eight hundred stars. The probability, in any one case, that a charged particle, unrelated to the star, has, by chance, come to the end of its range within 1 micron of the disintegrating nucleus, is less than 1 in 105. We must therefore conclude that the particle entered the nucleus and produced a disintegration with the emission of heavy particles. Similar conclusions can be drawn from an inspection of the other photographs in Figs. 2 and 3. The characteristics of the tracks which allow us to infer the direction of motion of the particles also lead to the conclusion that the particles were either at the end of their range or very near it when they entered the nucleus. In all cases the particles enter the emulsino from the glass or at the surface. Observations on the tracks of the slow particles indicated that the Coulomb scattering is more frequenct than is to be expected if the particles are protons. Further, in moving along the trajectory, the increase in the grain density in the track, on approaching the centre of the star, is fonud to take place more rapidly than if the particles were protons. Both these qualitative observations suggested that the particles are of small mass, but more definite evidence is given by grain counts. Mr. Muirhead, in this Laboratory, has made a quantitative study of this subject, which is analogous to the problem of drop-counting in work with the expansion chamber. He has determined the variation of the grain-density along the tracks of protons in the emulsion in order to predict the distribution of grain density to be expected for particles with the same charge as a proton but with different values of the mass. A comparison of his results with the actual distribution of grains in the tracks of the particles producing the disintegration enables an estimate to be made of the mass of each particle. The values so obtained range from 100 me to 230 me, where me is the mass of the electron. ... Note added in proof. Since this article was communicated, D. H. Perkins has published (Nature, January 25, p. 126) a photograph of an event similar to those we have discussed, and his conclusions are substantially identical with our own. The observed difference in the grain spacing of the meson tracks, in the B1 and C2 emulsions employed in the two experiments, is in good accord with expectations based on the known recording properties of the two types. The agreement between the results of observers in two different laboratories, working enturely independently with different experimental material, is a definite proof of the reliability of the photographic method in its present stage of development. We have recently completed mosaics of two more of the six disntegrations referred to above, and reproductions of them are given in Figs. 5 and 6. We have also observed a number of disintegrations in which particles are emitted which are scattered more frequently than a proton of the same range, but which are more heavily ionizing than a meson of mass 240 me.".
Later in May Powell, Occhialini, Muirhead and lattes write in another Nature article "Processes involving Charged Mesons": "In recent investigations with the photographic method1,2, it has been shown that slow charged particles of small mass, present as a component of the cosmic radiation at high altitudes, can enter nuclei and produce disintegrations with the emission of heavy particles. It is convenient to apply the term ‘meson’ to any particle with a mass intermediate between that of a proton and an electron. In continuing our experiments we have found evidence of mesons which, at the end of their range, produce secondary mesons. We have also observed transmutations in which slow mesons are ejected from disintegrating nuclei. Several features of these processes remain to be elucidated, but we present the following account of the experiments because the results appear to bear closely on the important problem of developing a satisfactory meson theory of nuclear forces. ...".
(Note that Powell does not mention where these images were captured.) (Notice how Powell, et al, write "It is convenient to apply the term "meson" to any particle with a mass intermediate between that of a proton and an electron." - as if there are simply many numerous charged and neutral particles with mass in between proton and electron.)
(Interesting that physicists choose to describe particles in terms of energy, and then in electron volts. I think a more intuitive helpful description is momentum, in units of g-m/s. I think that ultimately the most helpful information is probably mass and velocity in terms of grams and m/s.)
(It seems possibly that a particle loses mass and motion as a result of collisions with the emulsion material and glass plate atoms. However perhaps protons and electrons produce consistently similar traces.)
(It's true also that there may be particle paths that simply cross each other in a way that appears to be a collision, but is not. Could this also be a piece of matter that collides into some particle in the emulsion and splits into pieces - without the collision being necessarily with an inner nucleus?)
(Another question, is that if these tracks a micrometers in size, is this size not much larger than the size of a proton? Might these not be pieces of larger molecules to cause so large and visible tracks? Perhaps, as is presumed for Wilson's cloud chamber, the noticeable effect is much larger scale than the particle that is supposed to cause the visible effect?)
(Another possibility is that some tracks may be produced in the development process - as some particle on the surface is physically rubbed or scrapped causing microscopic lines.)
(State what particle Yukawa predicts. Does Yukawa assume a charge of 1? Be sure to describe fully Yukawa's math, I have a large amount of doubt about people predicting the existence of specific particles from mathematical theory.)
(I think there is a good argument that quantity of electromagnetic charge may be related to mass for particles that exhibit motion in response to electromagnetic (electron) fields.)
(Experiment: Do electron beams cause current in conductors? Is the current constant or more like an electromagnetic field where current only occurs when the beam is moved? Clearly with light particles, the current is constant whether the beam moves or not. Does moving a light particle beam colliding with a conductor cause more or less current? The idea is to try to determine what kind of particles are in an electromagnetic field. It seems doubtful that they are light particles, because light particles without visible frequency cause only a minor and constant current in conductors.)
(Use of the word "drawn" raises the issue that it is somewhat absurd to be taking about photos of meson particles, when clearly people are using particles to read from and write to individual neurons - I mean - by this time, the photographic emulsion is like a stone age device compared to direct-to-neuron imaging.)
(Determine what the other particle Powell and Occhialini find is.)
| (University of Bristol) Bristol, England |
53 YBN
[02/17/1947 AD]
| 5478) "Instant" camera, which produces developed photographs shortly after they are taken.
Edwin Herbert Land (CE 1909-1991), US inventor, invents the Polaroid Land Camera which produces instant developed photographs. The camera contains a double roll of film, consisting of ordinary negative film and a positive paper, with sealed containers of chemicals between. The chemicals are released at the proper moment and develop the positive print automatically.
Land’s Polaroid Land cameras, which were able to produce developed photographs within one minute after the exposure, became some of the most popular cameras in the world.
There were early patents for instant cameras, for example, a camera with a portable darkroom in a single compartment is patented by Samuel Shlafrock in 1923.
(Show image if possible. How many images in film?)
(Is this the first instant camera?)
(Determine if this is the correct patent.)
| (Polaroid Corporation) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
53 YBN
[03/17/1947 AD]
| 5588) Bernard Vonnegut (CE 1914-1997), US physicist, improves on the rain making method of Schaefer by finding that seeding clouds with silver iodide crystals can also cause rain like the dry ice Schaefer had used.
Silver iodide has the advantage over the dry ice Schaefer first used in that Silver iodide can be stored at room temperature for a long time where dry ice cannot. Silver iodide can also reach clouds from the ground to seed clouds without the need of a plane.
(I doubt that silver iodide molecules could get that high, but perhaps.)
| (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
53 YBN
[06/18/1947 AD]
| 5402) US physicist, Willis Eugene Lamb jr. (CE 1913-2008) and Robert Retherford measure that two electron states of the hydrogen atom have different resonant electron frequencies, which contradicts the theory of Paul Dirac which presumed these two states (the 22S1/2 and 22P1/2 levels {or electron shells}) to have the same energy. This is called the "Lamb shift".
Though the quantum mechanics of P.A.M. Dirac had predicted the hyperfine structure of the lines that appear in the spectrum (dispersed light, as by a prism), Lamb applied new methods to measure the lines and in 1947 find their positions to be slightly different from what had been predicted.
In a paper "Fine Structure of the Hydrogen Atom by a Microwave Method", Lamb and Retherford write: " The spectrum of the simplest atom, hydrogen, has a fine structure which according to the Dirac wave equation for an electron moving in a Coulomb field is due to the combined effects of relativistic variation of mass with velocity and spin-orbit coupling. It has been considered one of the great triumphs of Dirac's theory that it gave the "right" fine structure of the energy levels. However, the experimental attemps to obtain a really detailed confirmation through a study of the Balmer lines have been frustrated by the large Doppler effect of the lines in comparison to the small splitting of the lower of n=2 states. The various spectroscopic workers have alternatied between find confirmation or the theory and discrepancies of as much as eight percent. More accurate information would clearly provide a delicate test of the form of the correct relativistic wave equation, as well as information on the possiblity of line shifts due to coupling of the atom with the radiation field and clues to the nature of any non=-Coulombic interaction between the elementary particles: electron and proton. The calculated separation between the levels 22P1/2 and 22P3/2 is 0.365 cm-1 and corresponds to a wave-length of 2.74 cm. The great wartime advances in microwave techniques in the vicinity of three centimeters wave-length make possible the use of new physical tools for a study of the n=2 fine structure states of the hydrogen atom. A little consideration shows that it would be exceedingly difficult to detect the direct absorption of radiofrequency radiation by excited H atoms in a gas discharge because of their small population and the high background absorption due to electrons. insteaed, we have found a method depending on a novel property of the 22S1/2 level. According to the Dirac theory, this state exactly coincides in energy with the 22P1/2 state which is the lower of the two P states. The S state in the absence of external electric fields is metastable. The radiative transition to the ground state 12S1/2 is forbidden by the selection rule delta L = +-1. Calculations of Breit and Teller have shown that the most probable decay mechanism is fouble quantum emission with a lifetime of 1/7 second. This is to be contrasted with a lifetime of only 1x6 x 10-9 second for the nonmetastable 22P states. The metastability is very much reduced in the presence of external electric fields owning to the Stark effect mixing of the S and P levels with resultant rapid decay of the combined state. If for any reason, the 22S1/2 level, does not exactly coincide with the 22P1/2 level, the vulnerabillity of the state to external fields will be reduced. Such a removal of the accidental degeneracy may arise from any defect in the theory or may be brough about by the Zeeman splitting of the levels in an external magnetic field. In brief, the experimental arrangement used is the following: Molecular hydrogen is thermally dissociated in a tungsten oven, and a jet of atoms emerges from a slit to be cross-bombarded by an electron stream. About one part in a hundred million of the atoms is thereby excited to the metastable 22S1/2 state. The metastatble atoms (with a small recoil deflection) move on out of the bombardment region and are detected by the process of electron ejection from a metal target. The electron current is measured with an FP-54 electrometer tube and a sensitive galvanometer. If the beam of metastable atoms is subjected to any perturning fields which cause a transition to any of the 22P states, the atoms will decvay while moving through a very small distance. As a result, the beam current will decrease, since the detector does not respond to atoms in the ground state. Such a transition may be induced by the application to the beam of a static electric field somewhere between the source and detector. Transitions may also be induced by radifrequency radiation for which hv correspons to the energy different between one of the Zeeman components of 22S1/2 and any component of either 22P1/2 or 22P3/2. Such measurements provide a precise method for the location of the 22S1/2 state relative to the P states, as well as the distance between the latter states. We have observed an electrometer current of the order of 10-14 ampere which must be ascribed to metastable hydrogen atoms. The strong quenching effect of static electric fields has been observed, and the voltage gradient necessary for this has a reasonable dependence on magnetic field strength. We have also observed the decrease in the beam of metastable atoms caused by microwaves in the wave-length range 2.4 to 18.5 cm in various magnetic fields. In the measurements, the frequency of the r-f is fixed, and the change in the galvanometer current due to interruption of the r-f is determined as a function of magnetic field strength. ...".
(How do they know that the hydrogen electron does not pick up photons from the light particles in the heat of dissociation?)
(Without publicly acknowledging that the distance of the light source influences the spectral line position, there are doubts in my mind about claims of large precision in spectral lines.)
(10-14 amps seems like a very small current to precisely measure- determine what voltage was measured.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
53 YBN
[06/26/1947 AD]
| 5550) Isadore Perlman, R. H. Goeckermann, D. H. Templeton and Jerome J. Howland at the University of California in Berkeley, se the 184-inch Berkeley frequency-modulated cyclotron using deuterons, helium ions, and neutrons of energies up to 200, 400, and 100 Mev, respectively to cause nuclear fission in elements from tantalum (atomic number 73) to bismuth (atomic numer 83). Fission was determined by chemical identification of radioactive fission products.
(Read paper)
(I think that this shows that probably already there must be a machine where people can just put in a scoop of dirt, moon-rock or anything and have a cup of water pour out of a spout somewhere else on the machine. It just takes separating the various products which is probably optimised by a mss-spectrometer or some chemical method by now.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
53 YBN
[08/31/1947 AD]
| 5582) (Sir) Alfred Charles Bernard Lovell (CE 1913-), English astronomer, captures radio echos from an Aurora Borealis.
| (University of Manchester: Jodrell Bank) Cheshire, England |
53 YBN
[08/31/1947 AD]
| 5583) Allen, Palmer and Rowson use a radio interferometer to determine that some extra-terrestrial radio sources are no more than 6 seconds of arc in diameter.
(State how large an average visible star appears is in diameter.)
| (University of Manchester: Jodrell Bank) Cheshire, England |
53 YBN
[10/14/1947 AD]
| 5603) Airplane moves faster than the speed of sound in air.
A US Bell X-1 plane flown by Charles Elwood Yeager (CE 1923-), moves faster than the speed sound moves in the air of earth. For the first time a human moved faster than the speed of sound relative to the Earth's surface and this creates a sonic boom. Mach 1, is 740 miles per hour, and is named in honor of Mach who was the first to analyze the movement of air at such a velocity.
| (over Rogers Dry Lake) Edwards, California, USA |
53 YBN
[10/16/1947 AD]
| 5589) James Alfred Van Allen (CE 1914-2006), US physicist, uses a Geiger counter to count cosmic rays from the ground up to 161 km (100 miles) altitude, and finds that the intensity is constant after 55 km (34 miles) altitude.
A Geiger counter detects charged particles.
(Read relevent parts of paper.)
(State what kinds of particles create counts in a Geiger counter. Can neutrons cause counts? Does velocity of particle make a difference?)
| (Johns Hopkins University) Silver Spring, Maryland, USA |
53 YBN
[12/20/1947 AD]
| 5543) K meson identified, the first "strange" particle.
In their paper in the journal "Nature" entitled "Evidence for the existence of new unstable elementary particles", Rochester and Butler write: "Among some fifty counter-controlled cloud-chamber photographs of penetrating showers which we have obtained during the past year as part of an investigation of the nature of penetrating particles occurring in cosmic ray showers under lead, there are two photographs containing forked tracks of a very striking character. These photographs have been selected from five thousand photographs taken in an effective time of operation of 1,500 hours. On the basis of the analysis given below we believe that one of the forked tracks, shown in Fig. 1 (tracks a and b), represents the spontaneous transformation in the gas of the chamber of a new type of uncharged elementary particle into lighter charged particles, and that the other, shown in Fig. 2 (tracks a and b), represents similarly the transformation of a new type of charged particle into two light particles, one of which is charged and the other uncharged. ... We conclude from all the evidence that Photograph 1 represents the decay of a neutral particle, the mass of which is unlikely to be less than 770m or greater than 1,600m, into the two observed charged particles. Similarly, Photograph 2 represents the disintegration of a charged particle of mass greater than 980m and less than that of a proton into an observed penetrating particle and a neutral particle. It may be noted that no neutral particle of mass 1,000m has yet been observed; a charged particle of mass 990m ± 12 per cent has, however, been observed by Leprince-Ringuet and L'héritier ...".
In his Nobel lecture Luis Alvarez describes that: "There was a disturbing period of two years in which Rochester and Butler operated their chamber and no more V particles were found. But in 1950 Anderson, Leighton et al. took a cloud chamber to a mountain top and showed that it was possible to observe approximately one V particle per day under such conditions. They reported, 'To interpret these photographs, one must come to the same remarkable conclusion as that drawn by Rochester and Butler on the basis of these two photographs, viz., that these two types of events represent, respectively, the spontaneous decay of neutral and charged unstable particles of a new type.'". Alvarez states that 'the strangeness of the strange particles is not that they decay so rapidly, but that they last almost a million million times longer than they should-physicists couldn’t explain why they didn’t come apart in about 10-21 sec.'
The K meson is also called the "Kaon" (KIoN). (verify)
(One debate is the question of how many of these particles are unique and not just the result of a wide variety of possible collision fragments. On the large scale, we know that larger objects do not break into regular pieces all the time, so why should sub-atomic particles be any different? Are mesons just various non-unique collision fragments or are they fundamental grouping of light particles that are the only stable combinations possible?)
(I think these particle tracks can be anything - in particular being just one of millions of photographs. There is no way the mass can be very accurately determined. This could easily just be some particles that just hit some object and happened to break apart of send other two other particles in 90 degrees. What we are seeing, I think, is just many composite particles separating into light particles and doing this in a large variety of uncharacteristic ways.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
53 YBN
[1947 AD]
| 5225) Fritz Albert Lipmann (CE 1899-1986), German-US biochemist, isolates coenzyme A and explains its importance for intermediary metabolism.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
53 YBN
[1947 AD]
| 5241) Dennis Gabor (CE 1900-1979), Hungarian-British physicist, creates a holographic image.
In 1947 Gabor creates the theory behind making a holographic image. In a regular photograph a beam of reflected light falls on a photographic film and a two-dimensional photograph of a cross section of that beam is taken. If, instead, a beam of monochromatic light is split in two, one part reflects off an object and is reflected with all the irregularities of the object, but the second part is reflected from a mirror with no irregularities. The two parts then meet at the photographic film and the interference pattern is photographed. The parts of the first beam that are in phase with the interval of the second beam are amplified. If light is then shown through the film, the light takes on the interference characteristics and produces a three dimensional image with far more information than the flat photograph. Making holograph images will not be reduced to a practical working technique until 1965. A photograph is a two dimension cross section of a stream of light beams, and this creates the first three dimensional photographic image.
In a 1948 Nature article "A New Microscopic Principle" Gabor writes: "It is known that the spherical aberration of electron lenses sets a limit to the resolving power of electron microscopes at about 5 Å. Suggestions for the correction of objectives have been made; but these are difficult in themselves, and the prospects of improvement are further aggravated by the fact that the resolution limit is proportional to the fourth root of the spherical aberration. Thus an improvement of the resolution by one decimal would require a correction of the objective to four decimals, a practically hopeless task.
The new microscopic principle described below offers a way around this difficulty, as it allows one to dispense altogether with electron objectives. Micrographs are obtained in a two-step process, by electronic analysis, followed by optical synthesis, as in Sir Lawrence Bragg's 'X-ray microscope'. But while the 'X-ray microscope' is applicable only in very special cases, where the phases are known beforehand, the new principle provides a complete record of amplitudes and phases in one diagram, and is applicable to a very general class of objects.
Fig. 1 is a broad explanation of the principle. The object is illuminated by an electron beam brought to a fine focus, from which it diverges at a semi-angle a. Sufficient coherence is assured if the nominal or Gaussian diameter of the focus is less than the resolution limit, l/2 sin a. The physical diameter, determined by diffraction and spherical aberration of the illuminating system, can be much larger. The object is a small distance behind (or in front of) the point focus, followed by a photographic plate at a large multiple of this distance. Thus the arrangement is similar to an electron shadow microscope; but it is used in a range in which the shadow microscope is useless, as it produces images very dissimilar to the original. The object is preferably smaller than the area which is illuminated in the object plane, and it must be mounted on a support which transmits an appreciable part of the primary wave. The photographic record is produced by the interference of the primary wave with the coherent part of the secondary wave emitted by the object. It can be shown that, at least in the outer parts of the diagram, interference maxima will arise very nearly where the phases of the primary and of the secondary wave have coincided, as illustrated in Fig. 1.
If this photograph is developed by reversal, or printed, the loci of maximum transmission will indicate the regions in which the primary wave had the same phase as the modified wave, and the variations of the transmission in these loci will be approximately proportional to the intensity of the modified wave. Thus, if one illuminates the photographic record with an optical imitation of the electronic wave, only that part of the primary wave will be strongly transmitted which imitates the modified wave both in phases and in amplitudes. It can be shown that the 'masking' of the regions outside the loci of maximum transmission has only a small distorting effect. One must expect that looking through such a properly processed diagram one will see behind it the original object, as if it were in place.
The principle was tested in an optical model, in which the interference diagram was produced by monochromatic light instead of by electrons. The print was replaced in the apparatus, backed by a viewing lens which admitted about sin a = 0.04, and the image formed was observed and ultimately photographed through a microscope. It can be seen in Fig. 2 that the reconstruction, though imperfect, achieves the separation of some letters which could just be separated in direct observation of the object through the same optical system. The resolution is markedly imperfect only in the centre, where the circular frame creates a disturbance. Other imperfections of the reconstruction are chiefly due to defects in the microscope objectives used for the production of the point focus, and for observation.
It is a striking property of these diagrams that they constitute records of three-dimensional as well as of plane objects. One plane after another of extended objects can be observed in the microscope, just as if the object were really in position. ...".
Gabor's first holograms using mercury-vapor lamps demonstrate the principle, but are dim and difficult to view. Holograms require a coherent set of waves, not easily available until the advent of the laser in 1960. By 1964 holograms using lasers will be producing three-dimensional images and since then many other applications of holograms have been developed.
In 1962, using a laser to replicate Gabor's holography experiment, Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks of the University of Michigan produce a transmission hologram of a toy train and a bird. The image is clear and three-dimensional, but can only be viewed by illuminating it with a laser. That same year Yuri N. Denisyuk of the Soviet Union produces a reflection hologram that can be viewed with light from an ordinary bulb. A further advance comes in 1968 when Stephen A. Benton creates the first transmission hologram that can be viewed in ordinary light. This leads to the development of embossed holograms, making it possible to mass produce holograms for common use. (Verify these are the correct original papers.)
(Explain more clearly. Asimov mentions a mirror, but Gabor doesn't.)
(Notice the reference to William Lawrence Bragg who is not properly credited for giving the first public corpuscular theory of diffraction.)
| (Research Laboratory, British Thomson-Houston Co., Ltd.) Rugby, England |
53 YBN
[1947 AD]
| 5360) Louis Eugène Félix Néel (nAeL) (CE 1904-2000), French physicist, creates the theory of ferrimagnetism, which is thought to occur in materials in which the magnetic moments of atoms are unequal.
Néel invents the term "ferrimagnetism" to describe the theory of a substance with alternate rows of atoms which is stronger in one direction resulting in a net magnetism. Néel uses these theories to explain some of the magnetic properties of rocks in the earth's crust, and synthetic ferrites can be prepared with properties suitable for use in computer memories.
(I have doubts, the work is very mathematical and theoretical. State what physical evidence is provided if any.)
| (University of Grenoble) Grenoble, France |
53 YBN
[1947 AD]
| 5390) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR or KOEPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, detects carbon dioxide as a major component of the atmosphere of Mars and that the polar caps consist of H2O frost.
Kuiper also detects by looking in the infrared that the polar caps on Mars are water ice and not frozen carbon dioxide.
(Asimov indicates that this may be wrong, and as I understand the frozen caps on Mars are CO2, was Kuiper's ir spectral line analysis inaccurate? Show the ir, visible, etc spectra for the polar caps if possible, and show the absorption lines for water and CO2 ice.)
(Get 1947 paper and read relevent parts.)
Kuiper uses a PbS cell to detect light particles with infrared interval.
| (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
53 YBN
[1947 AD]
| 5465) (Baron) Alexander Robertus Todd (CE 1907-1997), Scottish chemist synthesizes adenosine diphosphate (ADP).
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
53 YBN
[1947 AD]
| 5721) Disney releases a cartoon "Delayed Date" that shows a thought-screen.
| |
52 YBN
[01/15/1948 AD]
| 5500) (Sir) Bernard Katz (CE 1911-2003), German-British physiologist, and A. L. Hodgkin demonstrate how sodium and potassium ions move into and out of nerve and muscle cells to create and remove electrical potentials.
Hodgkin and Katz publish this in the "Jounal of Physiology" as "The Effect of Sodium Ions on the Electrical Activity of the Giant Axon of the Squid". They summarize their findings writing: "Summary The reversal of membrane potential during the action potential can be explained if it is assumed that the permeability conditions of the membrane in the active state are the reverse of those in the resting state. The resting membrane is taken to be more permeable to potassium than sodium, and the active membrane more permeable to sodium than to potassium. (It is suggested that the reversal of permeability is brought about by a large increase in sodium permeability and that the potassium permeability remains unaltered or undergoes a relatively small change.) A reversed membrane potential can arise in a system of this kind if the concentration of sodium in the external solution is greater than that in the axoplasm. This hypothesis is supported by the following observations made with a microelectrode in squid giant axons: 1. The action potential is abolished by sodium-free solutions, but returns to its former value when sea water is replaced. 2. Dilution of sea water with isotonic dextrose produces a slight increase in resting potential, but a large and reversible decrease in the height of the action potential. The reversed potential difference of the active membrane depends upon the sodium concentration in the external fluid and is reduced to zero by solutions containing less than about 30% of the normal sodium concentration. 3. The height of the action potential is increased by a hypertonic solution containing additional sodium chloride, but is not increased by addition of dextrose to sea water. The resting potential is unaffected or slightly reduced by sodium-rich solutions. 4. The changes in active membrane potential which result from increases or decreases of external sodium are of the same order of magnitude as those for a sodium electrode. 5. The rate of rise of the action potential can be increased to 140% of its normal value and reduced to 10% by altering the concentration of sodium in the external solution. To a first approximation, the rate of rise is directly proportional to the external concentration of sodium. 6. The conduction velocity undergoes a substantial decrease in solutions of low-sodium content. 7. The changes produced by dilution of sea water with isotonic dextrose appear to be caused by reduction of the sodium concentration and not by alterations in the concentrations of other ions. Removal of external potassium causes a small increase in action potential which is almost entirely due to an increase in the resting potential, the reversed potential difference of the active membrane remaining substantially constant. Increasing the external potassium causes a depression of both action potential and resting potential, but the former is affected to a much greater e'xtent than the latter. The positive phase of the squid action potential is markedly increased by potassium-free solutions and decreased by potassium-rich solutions. The effects of a large number of solutions on the membrane potential in the resting, active and refractory state are shown to be consistent with a quantitative formulation of the sodium hypothesis.".
(more specifics, plus graphic if possible.)
(For what species does this method apply? Are the nerves of all nerves identical?)
(So, is this conclusion that in squid nerves, sodium and calcium ions are the carriers of electricity?)
(Note that this is soon after WW2. There may be some debate, with the defeat of the Nazi people, and all the death, about going public with remote neuron reading and writing. This paper may set the tone for the official post-WW2 neuron party-line.)
(Note that pour salt on frogs legs make the legs twitch, search for videos of this on youtube.)
(People should contact students and teachers doing research in physiology and biology to ask them about the potentials of remotely making a neuron fire using ultraviolent or x-ray beams, and emphasize the value of this kind of possibility - for remotely controlling muscles for the health industry, but also for the security and self defense industry, in addition to sending sounds and pictures directly to the brain.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
52 YBN
[02/16/1948 AD]
| 5391) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR or KOEPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, identifies the fifth satellite of Uranus, and names it "Miranda".
Kuiper identifies a satellite of Uranus, he names Miranda, that is the smallest and closest satellite of Uranus, and its fifth moon.
Kuiper publishes this in the "Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific" with the title "The Fifth Satellite of Uranus". Kuiper writes: " The fifth satellite of Uranus was first photographed on Febuary 16, 1948, 2h 55m UT on a four-minute exposure of the Uranus system, taken at the Cassegrain focus of the 82-inch telescope (scale 1 mm: 7".38). This exposure was intended to provide data on the relative magnitudes of the four known satellites. The close companion to the planet was noticed at once but no opportunity to establish its nature occurred until March 1, 1948, when two control plates showed it to be a satellite and not a field star. Plate XVIII reproduces one of these plates, emul- sion Eastman II G. Eight more plates taken on March 24 and 25 showed the period to be close to 33h 56m; the motion roughly circular and in the plane of the other satellites. From Kepler’s third law and the known mass of Uranus the heliocentric mean distance of the fifth satellite is found to be about 9".34. A fairly extensive series of plates of the Uranus system was taken during October and November 1948 in collaboration with Daniel Harris; a short third series was taken by the writer in February 1949. Mr. Harris is at present engaged in an exhaus- tive study of the satellite motions using all previous data on the four satellites as well as the new McDonald material. Miranda was chosen as the name for the fifth satellite. Uranus’ own children, the Titans, are not suitable for mytho- logical reasons; they have been assigned to the son of Uranus, Saturn (Kronos), who gained supreme power after wounding his father. Sir John Herschel named the four bright satellites Ariel, Umbriel, Titania, and Oberon. Oberon and Titania are the king and queen of the fairies in Shakespeare’s Midsummer Night’s Dream; Ariel and Umbriel occur in Pope’s Rape of the Lock, while Ariel is also found in Shakespeare’s Tempest. In the Tempest Ariel is “an airy, tricksy spirit, changing shape at will to serve Prospero, his master," while Miranda is "a little cherub that did preserve me" (Prospero).".
(Show modern image of Miranda?)
| (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
52 YBN
[02/18/1948 AD]
| 5350) George Gamow (Gam oF) (CE 1904-1968), Russian-US physicist, Hans Bethe, and R. A. Alpher, further develop the theory that the elements were formed in the early stages of an expanding universe.
In June, Gamow also publishes "The Origin of Elements and the Separation of Galaxies" with more details involving the big bang theory.
(Notice that the second paper, in 1948 is published on April 1, perhaps because only a fool would buy into this big bang theory. Notice also the paper ends with the initials "DC", implying perhaps that the government establishment has corrupted the scientific establishment.)
| (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
52 YBN
[03/10/1948 AD]
| 3337) An electric spark is shown to develop, in the same way as lightning does, in two stages, a pilot (lighted stream) followed by a leader (a larger lighted stream).
Allibone observes these two stages, in the development of a very long spark from a negative point (in other words from an electrode with a negative electric potential). The pilot stage is found by Allibone to be a corona streamer of large radius containing many fine filaments, so faint that it is best recorded by a Lichtenburg-figure technique. This streamer extends across the whole of the gap and into it develops subsequent narrow leader streamers from both electrodes.
(describe Lichtenburg technique, apparently a spark is discharged through a photographic paper.)
| (Associated Electrical Industries) Aldermaston, Berkshire, England |
52 YBN
[03/12/1948 AD]
| 5538) Pi Mesons detected in cosmic rays by Powell produced by particle accelerator.
Eugene Gardner and C. M. G. Lattes report producing mesons like those detected in cosmic rays by Powell (pi-mesons) using the Berkeley cyclotron.
Gardner and Lattes publish this in the journal "Science" as "Production of Mesons by the 184-Inch Berkeley Cyclotron". They write "We have observed tracks which we believe to be due to mesons in photographic plates placed near a target bombarded by 380-Mev alpha particles. The identification of the particles responsible for these tracks was first made on the basis of the appearance of the tracks. These show the same type of scattering and variation of grain density with residual range found in cosmic-ray meson tracks by Lattes, Occhialini, and Powell ... and roughly two-thirds of them produce observable stars at the end of their range. Their appearance is sufficiently characteristic that a practiced observer can recognize them on sight. Later, the identification was confirmed by a direct determination of the mass from Hp and range measurements (to be described below) which gave the value 313 +- 16 electron masses, showing that they are almost certainly the heavy mesons described by Lattes, Occhialini, and Powell. The experimental arrangement is shown in Fig. 1. The circulating beam of 380-Mev alpha particles inside the cyclotron beam of 380-Mev alpha particles inside the cyclotron passes through a thin target, producing mesons and other particles; the negative mesons are sorted out by the magnetic field and roughly focused on the edge of a stack of photographic plates placed as shown. All the measurements reported here refer to negative mesons produced in a carbon target by full-energy alpha particles, although a few observations have been made with other targets and energies. beryllium, copper, and uranium targets were bombarded with ful-energy alpha particles and gave mesons in numbers comparable to those from carbon; a carbon target bombarded with 300-Mev alpha particles gave a greatly reduced yield. ...".
(Show figures.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
52 YBN
[04/16/1948 AD]
| 5417) Maria Goeppert-Mayer (GRPRTmAR) (CE 1906-1972), German-US physicist, theorizes that the atomic nucleus consists of protons and neutrons arranged in shells, as electrons are arranged in the outer atom, and this theory makes it possible to explain why some nuclei are more stable than others, and why some elements are rich in isotopes. German physicist, Johannes Hans Daniel Jensen (CE 1907-1973) independently advances the same idea in 1949.
In 1945 the common understanding of nuclear structure is based on Niels Bohr’s compound-nucleus interpretation of nuclear reactions and the assumption that the nucleus behaves like a liquid drop. In Bohr’s view, it is impossible to assign different energy and momentum values to individual nucleons because of the intensity and short range of the nuclear force. Bohr’s authority and the success of the liquid-drop model in accounting for such phenomena as nuclear fission combine to discourage attempts to explain the nucleus as a collection of discrete particles. In addition, Hans Bethe, in his very influential review articles of 1936 and 1937, which serve as the primary textbook of nuclear physics for more than a decade, argue against treating nucleons as discrete particles. However, early in 1947 Mayer begins to look carefully at data for isotopic abundances in conjunction with a theory she and Teller are proposing to explain the origin of the elements. Mayer noticed that nuclei with fifty and eighty-two neutrons are particularly abundant. This phenomenon can not be explained by the liquid-drop model, which predicts an essentially smooth curve for the binding energy as a function of neutron number. This discrepancy prompts Mayer to look even more closely at abundances, and she finds a clear pattern in that nuclei having 2, 8, 20, 50, or 82 neutrons or protons or 126 neutrons are unusually stable. This conclusion is verified not only by isotopic abundances but also by delayed-neutron emission and neutron-absorption cross sections. Mayer is convinced that these numbers indicate something special about the structure of the nucleus, and calls them "magic numbers", a phrase she picks up from Wigner. Clear periodicities in the abundance and stability of various nuclei suggest a corresponding periodic structure in the nucleus, and an analogy to the electronic shell structure model is obvious. Mayer recognizes this analogy and publishes her results in 1948, in a paper entitled "On Closed Shells in Nuclei", in the journal "The Physical Review" which summarizes all of the data leading to the conclusion that nucleons occupy discrete energy levels in the nucleus. This paper contained no theory to account for the phenomenon, however, because quantum theory applied to a standard central potential, either harmonic oscillator or square well, did not predict the same numbers of nucleons in closed shells as those indicated by experimental data. In 1949 Fermi will suggest looking for evidence of spin-orbit coupling, and Goeppert-Meyer finds that the energy-level splitting does occu at exactly the magic numbers, and this provides the final piece in her theory. (needs to be clearer and show graphically.)
Goeppert-Mayer argues that the so called ‘magic numbers’ – 2, 8, 20, 50, 82, and 126 – which are the numbers of either protons or neutrons in particularly stable nuclei, can be explained with this theory. She supposed that the protons and neutrons are arranged in the nucleus in a series of nucleon shells. The magic numbers thus describe those nuclei in which certain key shells are complete. In this way helium (with 2 protons and 2 neutrons), oxygen (8 of each), calcium (20 of each), and the ten stable isotopes of tin with 50 protons all fit neatly into this pattern. Also significant was the fact that, in general, the more complex a nucleus becomes the less likely it is to be stable (although there are two complex stable nuclei, lead 208 and bismuth 209, both of which have the magic number of 126 neutrons).
This paper of Goeppert-Mayer's is declassified on February 13, 1948.
In 1949 Jensen introduces the idea of nuclear shells independently of Goeppert-Mayer and in 1955 co-authors a book with her on the subject.
In her first paper "on Closed Shells in Nuclei" in the journal "The Physical Review", Goeppert-Mayer writes: "It has been suggested in the past that special numbers of neutrons or protons in the nucleus form a particularly stable configuration. The complete evidence for this has never been summarized, nor is it generally recognized how convincing this evidence is. That 20 neutrons or protons (Ca40) form a closed shell is predicted by the Hartree model. A number of calculations support this fact. These considerations will not be repeated here. In this paper, the experimental facts indicating a particular stability of shells of 50 and 82 protons and of 50, 82, and 126 neutrons will be listed. ISOTOPIC ABUNDANCES The discussion in this section will be mostly confined to the heavy elements, which for this purpose may be defined as those with atomic number greater than 33; selenium would be the first “heavy” element. For these elements, the isotopic abundances show a number of striking regularities which are violated in very few cases. A) For elements with even Z, the relative abundance of a single isotope is not greater than 60 percent. This becomes more pronounced with increasing Z; for Z>40, relative abundances greater than 35 percent are not encountered. The exceptions to this rule are given in Table 1. (b) The isotopic abundances are not symmetrically distributed around the center, but the light, neutron-poor isotopes have low abundances. The concentration of the lightest isotope is, as a rule, less than 2 percent. The exceptions to this rule are listed in Table II. It is seen that the violations of these two regularities occur practically only at neutron numbers 50 and 82. Only the case of ruthernium in Table II, which is not a very pronounced exception, does not fall into one of these groups. The case of samarium, where the lightest isotope has an isotopic abundance of 3 percent, is only a bare violation of the rule and may not seem striking. However, what is extraordinary, the next heavier even isotope of samarium, Sm148 with 84 neutrons, which one would expect to find in greater concentration, does not exist at all. II. NUMBER OF ISOTONES Figures 1 and 2 reproduce the parts of the table by Segre in the region of nuclei with 50 and 82 neutrons, respectively. For 82 neutrons, there exist seven stable nuclei, which, for convenience, shall be called isotones. For neutron number 50 there exist six naturally occuring isotones, of which one, Rb87, is B-active, however, with a lifetime of 1011 years and a maximum B-energy of 0.25 Mev. The average number of isotones for odd neutrons number is somewhat less than one; the same number for even N varies as a rule between three and four. The greatest number of isotones, attained only once in the periodic table, is seven for neutron number 82; six isotones are encountered once only, and for neutron number 50. Five isotones are found five times, namely, for N=20,28,58,74, and 78. The frequency of N=28 is probably due to the stability of Ca48, with 20 protons, that of N=74 to the stability of Sn124, with 50 protons. As few as two isotones for even N are found only three times for heavy nuclei, namely, for neutron numbers 84, 86, and 120. ... IV. THE CASE OF 20 and 50 PROTONS Ca, with 20 protons, has five isotopes, which is not too unusual for this region of the periodic table. The difference in mass number between its heaviest and lightest isotope is eight mass numbers, which is quite outstanding, since this difference does not exceed four for elements in this neighborhood. Sn, Z=50, has without exception the greatest number of isotopes of any element, namely, 10. Its heaviest and lightest nuclei differ by 12 neutrons. Such a spread of isotopes is encountered in only one other case, namely, at Xe, where it may be attributed to the stability of Xe136 with 82 neutrons. V. THE CASE OF 82 PROTONS and 126 NEUTRONS Lead, Z=82, is the end of all radioactive chains. it has only four stable isotopes, of which the heaviest one, Pb208, has 126 neutrons. Evidence for the stability of 82 protons and 126 neutrons can be obtained from the energies of radioactive decay. If, for constant value of the charge of the resultant nucleus the energies of alpha-decay are plotted against the neutron number of the resultant nucleus, a sharp dip in energy is encountered when N drops below 126, indicating a larger binding energy for the 126th neutron. From these considerations, Elsasser estaimtes the discontinuity in neutron binding energy at 126 neutrons to be 2.2 Mev or larger, the discontinuity in proton binding energy at Z=82 to be 1.6 Mev. These relations have been studied in detail by A. Berthelot. ... VII. DELAYED NEUTRON EMITTERS If 50 or 82 neutrons form a closed shell, and the 51st and 83rd neutrons have less than average binding energy, one would expect especially low binding energies for the last neutron in Kr87 and Xe137, which have 51 and 83 neutrons, respectively, and the smallest charge compatible with a stable nucleus with 50 or 82 neutrons, respectively. It so happens that the only two delayed neutron emitters identified are these two nuclei. The fission products Br87 (N=52), as well as I187 (N=84), have not enough energy to evaporate a neutron, and undergo B-decay; in the resultant nuclei, Kr87 and Xe137, the binding energy of the last neutron is small enough to allow neutron evaporation. VIII. ABSORPTION CROSS SECTIONS The neutron absorption cross sections for nuclei containing 50, 82, or 127 neutrons seem all to be unusually low. This is seen very clearly in the measurements of Griffiths with Ra gamma-Be neutrons, and those of Mescheryakov with neutrons from a(d,d,) reaction. These measurements extend from mass number 51 to 209. In general, the cross sections increase with increasing mass number. ... Recent experiments by Highes with fission neutrons have shown exceptionally low neutron absorption cross sections for Pb208, Bi209 (126 neutrons) and for Ba136 (82 neutrons). IX. ASYMMETRIC FISSION It is somewhat tempting to associate the existance of the closed shells of 50 and 82 neutrons with the dissymmetry of masses encountered in the fission process. U235 contains 143=82+50+11 neutrons. It appears that the probable fissions are such that one fragment has at least 82, one other at least 50, neutrons. X. THEORETICAL ESTIMATE OF THE DISCONTINUITY IN BINDING ENERGIES It is possible to make an estimate of the change in neutron binding energy at, for instance, 82 neutrons. ... Whereas these calculations are undoubtedly very uncertain, they may serve as an estimate of the order of magnitude of the discontinuity in the binding energies. Since the average neutron binding energy in this region of the periodic table is about 6 Mev, the discontinuities represent only a variation of the order of 30 percent. This situation is very different from that encountered at the closed shells of electrons in atoms where the ionization energy varies by several hundred percent. Nevertheless, the effect of closed shells in the nuclei seems very pronounced.".
On February 4, 1949 Goeppert-Mayer publishes her second paper "Closed Shells in Nuclei, II" in "The Physical Review" writing: "THE spins and magnetic moments of the even-odd nuclei have been used by Feemberg and Nordheim to determine the angular momentum of the eigenfunction of the odd particle. The tabulations given by them indicate that spin orbit coupling favors the state of higher total angular momentum. If strong spin-orbit coupling, increasing with angular momentum, is assumed, a level assignment different from either Feenberg or nordheim is obtained. This assignment encounters a very few contradictions with experimental facts and requires no major crossing of the levels from those of a square well potential. The magic numbers 50, 82, and 126 occur at the place of the spin-orbit splitting of levels of high angular momentum. Table I contains in column two, in order of decreasing binding energy, the levels of the square well potential. The quantum number gives the number of radial nodes. Two levels of the same quantum number cannot cross for any type of potential well, except due to spin-orbit splitting. No evidence of any crossing is found. Column three contains the usual spectroscopic designation of the levels, as used by Nordheim and Feenberg. Column one groups together those levels which are degenerate for a three-dimensional isotropic oscillator potential. A well with rounded corners will have a behavior in between these two potentials. The shell grouping is given in column five, with the number of particles per shell and the total number of particles up to and including each shell in column six and sever, respectively. Within each shell the levels may be expected to be close in energy, and not necessarily in the order of the table, although the order of levels of the same orbital angular momentum and different spin should be maintained. Two exceptions, 11Na23 levels, the first spin of 9/2 should occur at 41, which is indeed the case. Three nuclei with N or Z=49 have g9/2 orbits. No s or d levels should occue in this shell and there is no evidence for any. The only exception to the proposed assignment in this shell is the spin 5/2 instead of 7/2 for Mn55. and the fact that the magnetic moment of 27Co59 indicates a g7/2 orbit instead of the expected f7/2. In the next shell two exceptions to the assignment occur. The spin of 1/2 for Mo95 with 53 would be a violation, but is experimentally doubtful. The magnetic moment of Eu153 indicates f5/2 instead of the predicted d5/2. No h11/2 levels appear. It seems that these levels are filled in pairs only, which does not seem a serious drawback of the theory as this tendency already shows up at the filling of the g9/2 levels. otherwise, the agreement is satisfactory. The shell behins with 51Sb, which has two isotopes with d5/2 and g7/2 levels, respectively, as it should. The thallium isotopes with 81 neutrons and a spin of 1/2 indicate a crossing of the h11/2 and 3s levels. This is not surprising, since the energies of these levels are close together in the square well. This assignment demands that there be no spins of 9/2 in this shell, and none have been found. No f or p levels should occue and, except for Eu153, there is no indication of any. The spin and magnetic moment of 83Bi, indicating an h9/2 state, is a beautiful confirmation of the correct beginning of the next shell. Here information begins to be scarce. The spin and manetic moment of Pb207 with 125 neutrons intepret as p1/2. This is the expected end of the shell since 7i and 4p have practically the same energy inthe square well model. no spins of 11/2 and no s,d, or g orbits should occur in this shell, and the data inducates none. Thre prevalence of isomerism towards the end of a shell, noticed by Feenberg and Nordheim, is easily understood by this assignment. These are the regions where levels with very different spins are adjacent. These ground and isomeric states should also have different parity. Thanks are due to Enrico Fermi for the remark, "Is there any indication of spin-orbit coupling?" which was the origin of this paper.".
On April 18, 1949 Otto Haxel, J. Hans Jensen, and Hans Suess, publish "On the "Magic Numbers" in Nuclear Structure", in "The Physical Review" writing: " A SIMPLE explanation of the "magic numbers" 14, 28, 50, 82, 126 follows ar once from the oscillator model of the nucleus, if one assumes that the spin-orbit coupling in the Yukawa field theory of nuclear forces leads to a strong splitting of a term with angular momentum l into two distinct terms j=l+-1/2. If, as a first approximation, one describes the field potential of the nucleons already present, acting on the last one added, as that due to an isotopic oscillator, then the energy levels are characterized by a single quantum number r=r1+r2+r3, where r1, r2, r3 are the quantum numbers of the oscillator in 3 orthogonal directions. Table I, column 2 shows the multiplicity of a term with a given value of r, column 3 the sum of all multiplicities up to and including r. isotropic anharmonicity of the potential field leads to a splitting of each r-term according to the orbital angular momenta I (I even when r is odd, and vice versa), as in Table I, column 4. Finally, spin-orbit coupling leads to the l-term splotting into j=1+-1/2, columns 5 and 6, whose multiplicities are listed in column 7. The "magic numbers" (column 8) follow at once on the assumption of a particularly marked splitting of the term with the highest angular momentum, resulting in a "closed shell structure" for each completed r-group, together with the highest j-term of the next succeeding r-group. This classification of states is in good agreement with the spins and magnetic moments of the nuclei with odd mass number, so far as they are known at present. The anharmonic oscillator model seems to us preferable to the potential well model, since the range of the nuclear forces is not notably smaller than the nuclear radium. A more detailed account will appear in three communications to Naturwissenschaften.".
(It's interesting that nobody had given structure to the nucleus until 1950, and it shows I think that people are still speculating about atomic structure or that much of this work is still secret and taboo from telling the public. It is an interesting idea to think that there are shells in the nucleus. I guess neutrons and protons orbit each other or perhaps a central neutron or proton? Are the orbits thought to follow wave functions like Schrödinger's theory? I am interested to hear the theory about why Technetium is unstable but Re 75 is stable. Perhaps something of the dual nature of the nucleus can be understood. I wonder if there is a central part of the atom, and I theorize that the atom may be a static structure that moves as one piece (although the individual pieces may not be connected), but I also entertain the orbiting particle theory (after all, photons are clearly orbiting each other, at least in theory, I suppose some could be caught/held in place by constant collisions), but other than that I don't know of any other theories (and I reject the idea of probability being anything other than describing some part in a real path).)
(I think that there could be an equivalent of shells in a static atom model - where the shell is actually the only location a neutron or proton can actually geometrically fit into an atom and still keep an atom stable. See my 3D videos for examples. These models can be viewed at least two ways: 1) the sphere represents mostly empty space, the particle, neutron or proton, must be in the center - but requires a sphere of empty space as a gravitational requirement to be stable or 2) the particles are actually physically packed together against each other.)
(I don't think a sphere shape for the nucleus adequately explains the dual row nature of atoms, which would rise exponentially if spherical.)
(Had any other person before this, for example, Dirac or Fermi identified the idea of shells for neutrons and protons?)
(Was Goeppert-Mayer part of the Manhattan Project?)
(So this implies that for electron shells the inert gases are the complete shells, so this would be He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, Rn, and that there is a different underlying system of shells within the atom. I can see the logic and evidence - although it needs to be explained and shown more clearly, however, I think that we should not rule out the possibility that the periodic nature of elements may be the result of nuclear structure.)
(Does Goeppert-Mayer claim that protons and neutrons have separate shells?)
(Two issues that come to my mind are the issue of a neutron being a proton and electron- so being like a proton with a small satellite or attachment, and the other issue that alpha particle emission implies that Helium nuclei may be found as one piece in the atomic nucleus. Gilbert Lewis developed the hydrogen-helium nucleus theory to a large extent.)
(If this theory of nuclear shells is true, then perhaps there is an underlying second periodic table for the nucleus shells. These shells should be shown with three dimensional models. Perhaps the familiar periodic table represents the proton shells, or electron shells, and Goeppert-Mayer's shell system represents a neutron periodic table. Perhaps the dual nature of 2-8-8-18-18-32-32 represents two different atomic centers. If this were true, then Neon would split into 2 Boron atoms, Argon into 2 Aluminum atoms, Krypton into Cobolt atoms, Xenon into 2 Rhenium atoms, Radon into two Yb atoms.)
(Perhaps there is some way to compress Helium into Beryllium by physical pressure - and perhaps this is just the difference between the different atoms - simply that they have never been physically pushed together to form larger atoms. Perhaps electrons function as a barrier for nuclei to prevent merging of atoms.)
(Does Uranium fission produce atoms with 82, 50 and 11 neutrons? - clearly Ba is one product identified by Otto hahn in 1938, that could have 82 neutrons. by this time it is presumed that the products of Uranium fission must be completely known as far as I can see.)
(This work and theory and the basics of the quantum model for electrons and spectral lines need to be explained clearly in a way that an average person and the public can understand.)
(I have doubts about the claims, in particular because of the secrecy surrounding neuron reading and writing and World War 2. Perhaps they are releasing information that only scratches the surface, or perhaps even is designed to mislead the public. It needs clearer more basic explanation- it's too lost in quantum mechanic jargon.)
(In the Jensen paper, notice the use of the word "classified". many of their papers were classified and captured by the US according to the wikipedia article on Jensen. In addition, notice that they do not refer to Goeppert Meyer's papers - the first of which it seems likely they must have seen - in particular given a large network of neuron reading and micro-meter cameras by the 1900s. Perhaps only those high level owners of the micro-meter cameras pass down their views as to what was ok to release given what they see from their many dust-sized camera neuron devices.)
| (Argonne Laboratory) Argonne, Illinois |
52 YBN
[04/16/1948 AD]
| 5427) Karl August Folkers (CE 1906-1997), US chemist, and co-workers isolate vitamin B12 as red crystals, and show that vitamin B12 has a strongly positive response to pernicious anemia.
At Merck somebody finds that a certain bacteria requires vitamin B12 for growth and so this allows the vitamin content of any extract to be accurately determined. This will speed the isolation of the B12 vitamin which cures pernicious anemia. Folkers' group at Merck isolates vitamin B12 as red crystals. Vitamin B12 is the cure for pernicious anemia, and is required by the body in far smaller quantities than the other vitamins are. Folkers then uses emission spectral analysis to determine the ratio of atoms in vitamin B12 crystals and finds the spectrum for Cobolt. The Vitamin B12 molecule is very large and its structure will be determined by measurements of electron densities which require a modern computer to calculate in 1956 by D. C. Hodgkin. Once this is done, (Hodgkin shows that) the Vitamin B12 molecule contains a cyanide group and a cobalt atom. This is the reason cobalt is needed by the (human) body. This molecule will be named cyanocobalamine. A person with pernicious anemia does not suffer from a lack of cyanocobalamine, but because they lack a particular substance in the gastric juices without which they cannot absorb the large molecule. Research still continues in this area. Cyanocobalamine is now produced in quantity from bacterial cultures, and has removed pernicious anemia from the list of common health problems. Another group in England isolates Vitamin B12 around the same time.
Pernicious anemia is a severe anemia most often affecting older adults, caused by failure of the stomach to absorb vitamin B12 and characterized by abnormally large red blood cells, gastrointestinal disturbances, and lesions of the spinal cord.
The main foods which provide a source of vitamin B12 those derived from animals e.g. dairy products and eggs. The only reliable vegan sources of B12 are foods fortified with B12 (including some plant milks, some soy products and some breakfast cereals) and B12 supplements. (State which kingdoms, or orders require vitamin B12.)
| (Merck and Company, Inc) Rahway, New Jersey, USA |
52 YBN
[06/17/1948 AD]
| 5295) Semiconductor non-vacuum electric switch and amplifier (transistor).
US physicist, Walter Houser Brattain (CE 1902–1987), and US physicist, John Bardeen (CE 1908–1991) patent the first semiconductor non-vacuum electric switch and amplifier (transistor).
In 1925, Julius Edgar Lilienfeld (CE 1882-1963), had patented the first publicly known non-vacuum tube (solid state) electric switch and amplifier (transistor).
In a June 25, 1948 letter to the Physical Review entitled "The Transistor, A Semi-Conductor Triode", Bardeen and Brattain write: "A THREE-ELEMENT electronic device which utilizes a newly discovered principle involving a semiconductor as the basic element is described. It may be employed as an amplifier, oscillator, and for other purposes for which vacuum tubes are ordinarily used. The device consists of three electrodes placed on a block of germanium as shown schematically in Fig. 1. Two, called the emitter and collector, are of the point-contact rectigier type and are placed in close proximity (separation ~.005 to .025 cm) on the upper surface. The third is a large area low resistance contact on the base. The germanium is prepared in the same way as that used for high back-voltage rectifiers. in this form it is an N-type or excess semi-conductor with a resistivity of the order of 10 ohm cm. In the original studies, the upper surface was subjected to an additional anodic oxidation in a glycol borate solution after it had been ground and etched in the usual way. The oxide is washed off and plays no direct role. It has since been found that other surface treatments are equally effective. Both tungsten and phosphor bronze points have been used. The collector point may be electrically formed by passing large currents in the reverse direction. Each point, when connected separately with the base electrode, has characteristics similar to those of the high back-voltage rectifier. Of critical importance for the operation of the device is the nature of the current in the forward direction. We believe, for reasons discussed in detail in the accompanying letter, that there is a thin layer next to the surface of P-type (defect) conductivity. As a result the current in the forward direction with respect to the block is composed in large part of holes, i.e., of carriers of sign opposite to those normally in excess in the body of the block. When the two point contacts are placed close together on the surface and d.c. bias potentials are applied, there is a mutual influence which makes it possible to use the device to amplify a.c. signals. A circuit by which this may be accomplished in {ULSF: typo} shown in Fig. 1. There is a small forward (positive) bias on the emitter, which causes a current of a few milliamperes to flow into the surface. A reverse (negative) bias is applied to the collector, large enough to make the collector current of the same order or greater than the emitter current. The sign of the collector bias is such as to attract the holes which flow from the emitter so that a large part of the emitter current flows to and enters the collector. While the collector has a high impedence for flow of electrons into the semi-conductor, there is little impediment to the flow of holes into the point. if now the emitter current is varied by a signal voltage, there will be a corresponding variation in collector current. It has been found that the flow of holes from the emitter into the colelctor may alter the normal current flow from the base to the collector in such a way that the change in collector current is larger than the change in emitter current. Furthermore, the collector, being operated in the reverse direction as a rectifier, has a high impedance (104 to 106 ohms) and may be matched to a high impedance load. A large ratio of output to input voltage, of the same order as the ratio of the reverse to the forward impedance of the point, is obtained. There is a corresponding power amplification of the input signal. The d.c. characteristics of a typical experimental unit are shown in Fig. 2. There are four variables, two currents and two voltages, with a functional relatino between them. If two are specified the other two are determined. In the plot of Fig. 2 the emitter and collector currents Ie and Ic are talken as the independent variables and the corresponding voltages, Ve and Vc, measured relative to the base electrode, as the dependent variable. The conventional directions for the currents are as shown in Fig. 1. In normal operation, Ie, Ic, and Ve are positive, and Vc is negative. The emitter current, Ie, is simply related to Ve and Ic. To a close approximation: Ie=f(Ve+RfIe), (1) where Rf is a constant independent of bias. The interpretation is that the collector current lowers the potential of the surface in the vicinity of the emitter by RfIc, and thus increases the effective bias voltage on the emitter by an equivalent amount. The term RfIc represents a positive feedback, which under some operating conditions is sufficient to cause instability. The current amplification factor α is defined as α=(δIc/δIe)Vc=const. This factor depends on the operating biases. For the unit shown in fig. 2, α lies between one and two if Vc<-2. using the circuit of Fig. 1, power gains of over 20 db have been obtained. units have been operated as amplifiers at frequencies up to 10 megacycles. We wish to acknowledge our debt to W. Shockley for initiating and directing the research program that led to the discovery on which this development is based. We are also indebted to many other of our colleagues at these Laboratories for material assistance and valuable suggestions.".
In their June 17, 1948, patent application, Bardeen and Brattain write: "... This invention relates to a novel method of and means for translating electrical variations for such purposes as amplification, wave generation, and the like.
The principal object of the invention is to amplify or otherwise translate electric signals or variations by use of compact, simple, and rugged apparatus of novel type.
Another object is to provide a circuit element for use as an amplifier or the like which does not require a heated thermionic cathode for its operation, and which therefore is immediately operative when turned on. A related object is to provide such a circuit element which requires no evacuated or gas-filled envelope.
Attempts have been made in the past to convert solid rectifiers utilizing selenium, copper sulfide, or other semi-conductive materials into amplifiers by the direct expedient of embedding a grid-like electrode in a dielectric layer disposed between the cathode and the anode of the rectifier. The grid is supposed, by exerting an electric force at the surface of the cathode, to modify its emission and so .alter the cathode-anode current. As a practical matter it is impossible to embed a grid in a layer which is so thick as to insulate the grid from the other electrodes and yet so thin as to permit current to flow between them. It has also been proposed to pass a current from end to end of a strip of homogeneous isotropic semiconductive material and, by the application of a strong transverse electrostatic field, to control the resistance of the strip, and hence the current through it.
So far as is known, all of such past devices are beyond human skill to fabricate with the fineness necessary to produce amplification. In any event they do not appear to have been commercially successful.
It is well known that in semiconductors there are two types of carriers of electricity which differ in the signs of the effective mobile charges. The negative carriers are excess electrons which are free to move, and are denoted by the term conduction electrons or simply electrons. The positive carriers are missing or defect "electrons," and are denoted by the term "holes." The conductivity of a semiconductor is called excess or defect, or N or P type, depending on whether the mobile charges normally present in excess in the material under equilibrium conditions are electrons (Negative carriers) or holes (Positive carriers).
When a metal electrode is placed in contact with a semiconductor and a potential difference is applied across the junction, the magnitude of the current which flows often depends on the 8 sign as well as on the magnitude of the potential. A junction of this sort is called a rectifying contact. If the contact is made to an Ntype semiconductor, the direction of easy current flow is that in which the semiconductor is
10 negative with respect to the electrode. With a P-type serr.i conductor, the direction of easy flow is that in which the semiconductor is positivA similar rectifying contact exists at the boundary between two semiconductors of opposite con
l"> ductivity types.
This boundary may separate two semiconductor materials of different constitutions, or it may separate zones or regions, within a body of semiconductor material which is chemically and
20 stoichiometrically uniform, which exhibit different conductivity characteristics.
The present invention in one form utilizes a block of semiconductor material on which three electrodes are placed. One of these, termed the
23 collector, makes rectifier contact with the body of the block. The other, termed the emitter, preferably makes rectifier contact with the body of the block also. The third electrode, which may be designated the base electrode, preferably makes a low resistance contact with the body of
30 the block. When operated as an amplifier, the emitter is normally biased in the direction of easy current flow with respect to the body of the semiconductor block. The nature of the emitter electrode and of that portion of the semi
35 conductor which is in the immediate neighborhood of the electrode contact is such that a substantial fraction of the current from this electrode is carried by charges whose signs are opposite to the signs of the mobile charges nor
40 mally in excess in the body of the semiconductor. The collector is biased in the reverse, or high resistance direction relative to the body of the semiconductor. In the absence of the emitter, the current to the collector flows exclusively
45 from the base electrode and is impeded by the high resistance of this collector contact. The sign of the collector bias potential is such as to attract the carriers of opposite sign which come from the emitter. The collector is so disposed in
50 relation to the emitter that a large fraction of the emitter current enters the collector. The fraction depends in part on the geometrical disposition of the electrodes and in part on the bias potentials applied. As the emitter is biased in
55 the direction of easy flow, the emitter current is sensitive to small changes in potential between the emitter and the body of the semiconductor, or between the emitter and the base electrode. Application of a small voltage variation between the base electrode and emitter causes a relatively 5 large change in the cqrrent entering the semi- . conductor from the emitter, and a correspondingly large change in the current to the collector. One effect of the change in emitter current is to modify the total current flowing to the i Q collector, so that the overall change in collector current may be greater than the change in the emitter current. The collector circuit may contain a load of high impedance matched to the internal impedance of the collector, which, be- } 5 cause of the high resistance rectifier contact of the collector, is high. As a result, voltage amplification, current amplification, and power amplification of the input signal are obtained.
In one form, the device utilizes a block of semi- 2o conductor material of which the main body is of one conductivity type while a very thin surface layer or film is of .opposite conductivity type. The surface layer is separated from the body by a high resistance rectifying barrier. The emitter Z5 and collector electrodes make contact with this surface layer sufficiently close together for mutual influence in the manner described above. The base electrode makes a low resistance contact with the body of the semiconductor. When «$. suitable bias potentials are applied to the various electrodes, a current flows from the emitter into the thin layer. Owing to the conductivity of the layer and to the nature of the barrier, this current tends to flow laterally in the thin layer, •,rather than following the most direct path across the barrier to the base electrode. This current is composed of carriers whose signs are opposite to the signs of the mobile charges normally in excess in the body of the semiconductor. In other ^ words, when there is a thin layer of opposite conductivity type immediately under the emitter electrode, the current flowing into the block in the direction of easy flow consists largely of carriers of opposite sign to those of the mobile charges normally present in excess in the body of the block; and the presence of these carriers increases the conductivity of the block. The bias voltage on the collector which, as stated above, is biased in the reverse or high resistance direction fio relative to the block, produces a strong electrostatic field in a region surrounding the collector so that the current from the emitter which enters this region is drawn in to the collector. Thus, the collector current, and hence the con- .., ductance of the unit as a whole, are increased. The size of the region in which this strong field exists is comparatively insensitive to variations in the collector potential so that the impedance of the collector circuit is high. On the other hand, P0 the current from the emitter to the layer is extremely sensitive to variations of the emitter potential, so that the impedance of the emitter circuit is low.
It is a feature of the- invention that the input (55 and output impedances of the device are controlled by choice and treatment of the semiconductor material body and of its surface, as well as by choice of the bias potentials of the electrodes. 70
From the standpoint of its external behavior and uses, the device of the invention resembles a vacuum tube triode; and while the electrodes are designated emitter, collector and base elec- •, trode, respectively, they may be externally inter- 73
45
connected in the various ways which have become recognized as appropriate for triodes, such as the conventional, the "grounded grid," the "grounded plate" or cathode follower, and the like. Indeed, the discovery on which the invention is based was first made with circuit connections which are extremely similar to the so-called "grounded grid" vacuum tube connections. However, the analogies among the circuits is, of course, no better than the analogy between emitter and cathode, base electrode and grid, collector and anode.
By feeding back a portion of the output voltage in proper phase to the input terminals, the device may be caused to oscillate at a frequency determined by its external circuit elements, and, among other tests, power amplification was confirmed by a feedback connection which caused it to oscillate. .... The invention will be fully apprehended from the following detailed description of one embodiment thereof, taken in connection with the appended drawings, in which:
Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram, partly in per-, spective, showing a preferred embodiment of the invention;
Fig. la is a cross-section of a part of Fig. 1 to a greatly enlarged scale;
Fig. 2 is the equivalent vacuum tube schematic circuit of Fig. 1;
Fig. 3 is a plan view of the block of Fig. 1, showing the disposition of the electrodes;
Fig. 3a is like Fig. 3 but shows the influence of the collector in modifying the emitter current;
Figs. 4/5, 6 and 7 show electrode dispositions alternative to those of Fig. 1;
Figs. 8 and 9 show electrode structures alternative to those of Fig. 1;
Fig.: 10 shows a modified unit of the invention connected for operation in the circuit of a conventional triode;
. Fig. .1.1 shows another modified unit of the invention connected for operation in a "grounded plate" or cathode follower circuit;
Fig. 12 shows the unit of the invention .connected for self-sustained oscillation;
g,524,035
Kg. 13 is a diagram showing the electron potential distribution in the interior of an N-type semiconductor in contact with a metal;
Fig. 14 is a diagram showing the electron potential distribution in the interior of a P-type 5 semiconductor in contact with a metal.
Fig. 15 is a diagram showing the electron potential distribution in the interior of a thin Ptype semiconductive layer in contact on one side with a metal and on the other side with a body 10 of N-type semiconducting material, for electrons in the conduction band (upper curves) and in the filled band (lower curves); and
Fig. 16 is a diagram showing the variation of the potential distribution of curve b of Fig. 15 as 15 a function of distance from the emitter to the collector.
The materials with which the invention deals are those semiconductors whose electrical characteristics are largely dependent on the inclusion 20 therein of very small amounts of significant impurities. The expression "significant impurities" is here used to denote those impurities which affect the electrical characteristics of the material such as its resistivity, photosensitivity, rec- 25 tification, and the like, as distinguished from other impurities which have no apparent effect on these characteristics. The term "impurities" is intended to include intentionally added constituents as well as any which may be included 30 in the basic material as found in nature or as commercially available. Germanium is such a material which, along with some representative impurities, will furnish an illustrative example for explanation of the present invention. Silicon 35 is another such material. In the case of semiconductors which are chemical compounds such as cuprous oxide (Cu2O) or silicon carbide (SiC), deviations from stoichiometric composition may constitute significant impurities. 40
Small amounts, i. e., up to 0.1 per cent of impurities, generally of higher valency than the basic semiconductor material, e. g., phosphorus in silicon, antimony and arsenic in germanium, are termed "donor" impurities because they con- 45 tribute to the conductivity of the basic material by donating electrons to. an unfilled "conduction energy band" in the basic material. In such case the donated negative electrons constitute the carriers of current and the material and its con- 50 ductivity are said to be of the N-type. Similar small amounts of impurities, generally of lower valency than the basic material, e. g., boron in silicon or aluminum in germanium, are termed "acceptor" impurities because they contribute, to 55 the conductivity by "accepting" electrons from the atoms of the basic material in the filled band. Such an acceptance leaves a gap or "hole" in the filled band. By interchange.of the borrowed electrons from atom to atom, these positive "holes" 60 effectively move about and constitute.the carriers of current, and the material and its conductivity are said to be of the P-type.
Under equilibrium conditions, the conductivity of an electrically neutral region or zone of such 65 a semiconductor material is directly related to the concentration of significant impurities. Donor impurities which have given up electrons to an unfilled band are positively charged, and may be thought of as fixed positive ions. In a 70 region pf a semiconductor which has only donor type impurities, the concentration of conduction electrons is equal to the concentration of ionized donors. Similarly, in a region of a semiconductor which has only acceptor impurities, the concen- 75
tration of holes is equal to the concentration of the negatively charged acceptor ions.
If for any reason there is a departure from electrical neutrality in a region, giving a resultant space charge, the magnitude of the conductivity, and even the conductivity type may differ from that indicated by the significant impurities. It was once thought that the high resistance barrier layer in a rectifier differs somehow in chemical constitution or in the nature of the significant impurities from the main body of the semiconductor. W. Schottky, in Zeits. f. Phys., volume 113, page 367 (1939), has shown that this is not necessary. While the concentration of carriers (mobile charges) in the barrier layer is small, the concentration of ionized impurities (fixed charges) may be the same as in the body of the semiconductor. The fixed charges in the barrier layer act in concert with induced charges of opposite sign on the metal electrode to produce a potential drop between the electrode and the body of the semiconductor. The concentration of carriers at a point depends on the electrostatic potential at that point, and is small compared with the equilibrium concentration in the body of the semiconductor if the potential differs from that in the body by more than a small fraction of a volt. The mathematical theory has been developed by W. Schottky and E. Spenke in Wiss. Veroff. Siemens Werke, vol. 18, page 225 (1939). These authors show that if the variation in electrostatic potential with depth below the surface is sufficiently large, the conductivity passes through a minimum for a certain potential and depth and the conductivity is of opposite type for larger values of the potential corresponding to smaller values of depth. They call the region of opposite conductivity type an inversion region. It is thus possible to have at a rectifier contact a thin layer of one conductivity type next to the,metal electrode, separated by a high resistance barrier from the body of opposite conductivity type.
It has been pointed out by J. Bardeen in Phys. Rev., vol. 71, page 717 (1947), that the same sort of barrier layer that Schottky found for rectifying contacts may exist beneath the free surface of a semiconductor, the space charge of the barrier layer being balanced by a charge of opposite sign on the surface atoms. It is possible, for example, to have a thin layer of P-type conductivity at the free surface of a block which has a uniform concentration of donor impurities and which, therefore, has N-type conductivity in the body of the block, .even though there ar no actual acceptor impurities.
To distinguish such a situation from the similar one which depends on the presence of significant chemical impurities of opposite type in a thin surface layer, the terms "physical" and "chemical" are employed. Thus the terms "physical layer" and "physical barrier" refer to the layer of opposite conductivity type next to the surface and the high resistance barrier which separates it from the body of the semiconductor, both of which exist as a result of surface conditions and not as a result of a variation in the nature or concentration of significant impurities. The terms "chemical layer" and "chemical barrier" refer to the corresponding situation which does depend on a variation in significant impurities.
Both physical layers and chemical layers are suitable for the invention.
.It is known how, by control of the distribution of impurities, to fabricate a block of silicon of
£,624,036
which the main body is of one conductivity type while a thin surface layer, separated from the main body by a high resistance barrier, is of the other type. In this case the layer is believed to be chemical rather than physical. For meth- 5 ods of preparing such silicon, as well as for certain uses of the same, reference may be made to an application of J. H. Scaff and H. C. Theuerer, filed December 24, 1947, Serial No. 793,744 and to United States Patents 2,402,661 10 and 2,402,662 to R. S. Ohl. Such materials are suitable for use in connection with the present invention. It is preferred, however, to describe the invention in connection with the material which was employed when the discovery on which 15 the invention is based was made, namely, N-type germanium which has been so treated as to enable it to withstand high voltage in the reverse direction when used as a point contact rectifier.
There are a number of methods by which the 20 germanium and its surface may be prepared. One such method commences with the process which forms the subject-matter of an application of J. H. Scaff and H. C. Theuerer, filed December 29, 1945, Serial No. 638,351, and which is further 25 described in "Crystal Rnctifiers" by H. C. Torrey and C. A. Whitmer, Radiation Laboratory Series No. 15, (McGraw-Hill 1948). Briefly, germanium dioxide is placed in a porcelain dish and reduced to germanium in a furnace in an atmosphere of 30 hydrogen. After a preliminary low heat, the temperature is raised to 1,000° C. at which the germanium is liquefied and substantially complete reduction takes place. The charge is then rapidly cooled to room temperature, whereupon 35 it may be broken into pieces of convenient size for the next step. The charge is now placed in a graphite crucible and heated to liquefaction in an induction furnace in an atmosphere of helium and then slowly cooled from the bottom 40 upwardly by raising the heating coil at the rate of about Vs inch per minuts until the charge has fully solidified. It is then cooled to room temperature.
The ingot is next soaked at a low heat of about ' 500° C. for 24 hours in a nautral atmosphere, for example of helium after which it is allowed to cool to room temperature.
In the resulting heat-treated ingot, various parts or zones are of various characteristics. In ' particular, the central part of the ingot is of N-type material capable of withstanding a "back voltage," in the sense in wh'ch this term is employed in the rectifier art, of 100-200 volts. It is this material which it is preferred to employ in connection with the present invention.
This material is next cut into blocks of suitable size and shape for use in connection with the invention. A suitable shape is a disc shaped 00 block of about Vi inch diameter, and ds inch thickness. The block is then ground flat on both sides, first with 280 mesh abrasive dust, for example, carborundum, and then with 600 mesh. It is then etched for one minute. The etching .•-, solution may consist of 10 c. c. of concentrated nitric acid, 5 c. c of commercial standard (50 per cent) hydrofluoric acid, and 10 c. c. of water, in which a small amount, e. g. 0.2 gram, of copper nitrate has been dissolved. This etching 70 treatment enables the block to withstand high (rectifier) back voltages.
Next, one side of the block is provided with a coating of metal, for example copper or gold, which constitutes a low resistance electric con- 75
55
tact. This may be done by evaporation or elec"troplating in accordance with well-known techniques. As a precaution against contamination of the other (unplated) side of the block which may have occurred in the course of the plating process, the unplated side may be subjected to a repetition of the etching process.
The block may now be given an anodic oxidation treatment, which may be carried out in the following way. The block is placed, plated side down, on a metal bed-plate which is connected to the positive terminal of a source of voltage such as a battery, and that part of the upper (unplated) surface which is to be treated is covered with polymerized glycol boriborate, or other preferably viscous electrolyte in 'which germanium dioxide is insoluble. An electrode of inert metal, such as silver, is dipped into the liquid without touching the surface of the block, and is connected to a negative battery terminal of about —22.5 volts. Current of about 1 milliampere commences to flow for each square centimeter of block surface, falling to about 0.2 milliampere per cm.2 -in about 4 minutes. The electrode is then connected to the —45 volt battery terminal. The initial current is about 0.7 milliampere per cm.2, falling to 0.2 milliampere per cm.2 in about 6 minutes. The electrode is then connected to the —90 volt battery terminal. The initial current is now about 0.5 milliampere per cm.2, falling to about 0.15 milliampere per cm.2 in 10 to 29 minutes.
The battery is then disconnected, the block is removed and washed clean of the glycol borate with warm water, and dried with fine paper tissue. Finish drying has been successfully carried out by placing the block in a vacuum chamber and applying radiant heat. Either the heat or the vacuum may be sufficient, but both together are known to be. If spot electrodes are required on the upper surface as later described, they may be evaporated on in the course of the finish drying process. The germanium block is now ready for use.
The foregoing oxidation process, however, is not essential. Amplification has been obtained with specimens to which no surface treatment has been applied subsequent to the etch, other than the electrical forming process described below. ...".
In a December 17, 1948 article in "Science" Shockley, Bardeen and Brattain write: "The fact that a metal point contaet to a crystal of galena will aet as a detector of radio waves has long been known. The detection process arises from the fact that the contact is rectifying and passes current more easily in one direction, known as the forward direetion, than in the other, known as the reverse direction. The phenomenon of rectification occurs in many other cases in whieh semiconduetors and metals make contact. By analogy with the relationship between vacuum tube diodes and triodes, many unsuccessful proposals have been made over a period of years to incorporate a third electrode in a crystal deteetor in order to produce an amplifier. This desired result has now been achieved with the development of the transistor, whieh is based on the new principle described below. The transistor is similar to a crystal detector except that it has two point contacts very close together rather than one. When the input point, or emitter, is operated in the forward direction, it disturbs the electronic balance in the semiconductor in a certain limited region of interaction, effectively less than 1/100 inch in diameter, in such a way as to give control over- the current in the output point, which must make contact in the region of interaction and have voltage in the reverse direction. This control is so effective that power gains of a factor of 100 are obtained. The disturbance produced in the region of interaction can be understood in terms of the two processes by which electrons carry current in a semieonduetor. Both of these processes correspond to imperfections in the complete or perfect electron pair bond structure of the crystal; in the excess process, additional electrons are present over and above those required for the valence bonds, and in the defect or hole process, electrons are missing from the bonds. The germanium used in transistors normally contains chemieal impurities which cause it to conduct only by the excess process, a negligible number of holes being present. When the emitter is operated in the forward or plus direction, it draws not only excess electrons but also electrons from the valence bonds, thus introducing holes which in some cases flow in a thin layer on the surface and in others apparently diffuse into the body of the semiconductor. The presence of these holes constitutes the disturbance about the emitter which produces the area of interaction. Since the holes are caused by a deficit of electrons, they represent positive charges, and since the output point is biased in the reverse or negative direction, it collects these holes. Thus, the current of the output point, or collector, is increased by the emitter hole current which it collects. In addition to being collected, the holes provoke an increased excess electron flow from the point, and in this way current amplification is produced. Thus, changes in emitter current produce larger changes in collector current. Furthermore, since the emitter operates in the forward or low-voltage direction and the collector in the reverse or high-voltage direction, large voltage amplification is produeed. This accounts for the power gain. The transistor is now in limited experimental production, and research on its application in communications problems is being carried out.".
Shockley and his co-workers Bardeen, and Brattain, at Bell Laboratories, use crystals to rectify alternating current into direct current. That certain crystals can act as rectifiers, allowing current to pass in one direction but not in the opposite direction, had long been known. Such crystals were first used in radios, and why they were called "crystal sets". These crystal rectifiers were replaced by the radio tubes invented by Fleming and De Forest. Shockley finds that germanium crystals that contain traces of certain impurities, are far better rectifiers than the crystals a generation earlier. The impurities either contribute additional electrons that do not fit in the crystal lattice and move toward the positive electrode under an electric potential, or else the impurities are deficient in electrons, so that the “hole” where an electron ought to be moves toward the negative electrode under an electric potential. In either case, the current passes only in one direction. Shockley, Brattain and Bardeen invent the transistor, by combining "solid-state rectifiers" of the two types, negative and positive (n and p) types, to make it possible not only to rectify but to amplify a current (which is what a radio tube can do). This device is called a transistor because it transfers current across a resistor. During the 1950s transistors start to replace tubes. Transistors are much smaller than tubes, which reduces the size of radios and other electronic devices, and do not need to warm up like tubes where the filaments have to be heated to high temperature before operation. The transistor will greatly reduce the size of computers. The transistor will allow human-made satellites to reduce their mass reducing the cost of fuel required to lift them into orbit. Asimov states that the computerization of society all starts with the transistor.
(State who first recognized the rectifying properties of certain crystals.) (That some crystals only pass current in one direction, I think argues that electrons are somehow not physically blocked moving in one direction, but because of the crystal structure are physically blocked in the opposite direction. Perhaps some kind of slanted planes cause electrons to be funneled in one way, but reflected away in the opposite direction.)
(State what impurities are used.) (In Bardeen and Brattain's Physical Review letter, notice "lies", "suggestions", and probably many other coded words. Also notice "10 Megacycles" instead of "10 Megahertz", which I can accept as perhaps a more accurate and intuitive label for frequency for any group of particles.)
(Interesting that Lilienfeld's transistor was not commercially successful, even as simply an electric switch. It may show how if not well advertised and demonstrated, even a very useful invention will not reach the public.)
(Interesting how the owners of AT&T decide to go public with the transistor in 1948, 3 years after the end of WW2. What is the motivation? Does this have any implication for AT&T or others going public with remote neuron reading and writing, flying microcameras, and particle cutting devices and associated patents?)
(Another interesting theory about why AT&T decided to go public with the transistor in 1948 may be this: because some other group of people, including even Lilienfeld, was going to try and capitalize on Lilienfeld's transistor patent and AT&T then decided that since the transistor was already going to go to market for sale, that they should try to get the money produced by the transistor and corner the transistor market. In addition, since Lilienfeld had already made the non-vacuum electric switch and amplifier public information, this would not require a great release of secret information. In some sense, it may be that the rise of the Nazis, and the "brain drain" of scientist refugees is what gave us the transistor, and that without Lilienfeld we might still be living without the public being able to benefit from the transistor - how we have lived without seeing thought images and hearing thought for 200 years is evidence of how the transistor could have easily remained a secret.)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
52 YBN
[06/18/1948 AD]
| 5440) Columbia Broadcast Systems starts selling long-playing (PL), 33 rotations per minute phonographic records.
Peter Carl Goldmark (CE 1906-1977), Hungarian-US physicist, invents the long-playing (LP), 33 rotations per minute, phonographic record.
Goldmark slows the revolution speed from 78 rpm to 33 1/3 rpm and increases the grooves to 300 hairline grooves per inch. He exchanges the steel needle with a sapphire stylus and decreases the weight by redesigning the player arm and employing vinyl rather than shellac for making the records. Goldmark also makes improvements to the microphone to produce a clearer, cleaner sound. Playing time is increased to approximately 20 minutes which is long enough to complete an average classical music movement. Goldmark demonstrates the LP on June 18, 1948; the first LP features a secretary at CBS playing piano, an engineer on violin, and Goldmark playing the cello. Put on the market by CBS on June 21, 1948, the LP is not an immediate success. However, five years later, it was in the market to stay with the successful recording of the popular musical South Pacific. By 1972, LP sales constitute one third of CBS's revenue. The LP remains the industry standard until being replaced by the compact disc. (it's shocking to realize that, all this time, the phone companies of earth were casually flying around millions of dust-sized cameras, microphones and thought-reading and writing particle transmitting and receiving devices while the public was stuck with 12 inch plastic sound-recording records.)
In his 1949 patent application "Phonograph Adaptor For Long Playing Records", Goldmark writes: "This invention relates to phonograph record players, and particularly to the provision of an adaptor for a player designed to reproduce standard high-speed coarse-groove records which enables such records and also low-speed fine-groove 5 records to be played alternatively.
The standard phonograph record disk which has been available to the public for many years is a sound record disk rotating at 78 R. P. M. and having a sound groove spiral of the order of 100 10 convolutions per inch. The groove is laterally modulated in accordance with the sound to be reproduced and the maximum amplitude of excursion is approximately 0.002 inch. The tip radius of the stylus employed for reproducing 15 these records is usually about 0.003 inch. The pickup arm weights commonly give a vertical force at the stylus of 30 grams or more, although in a few instances somewhat lighter arms have been used. The records are usually available in 20 10- and 12-inch sizes, the latter yielding a maximum playing time of approximately 4 minutes and 20 seconds on one side.
There have recently been made available finegroove long-playing record disks having more 25 than 200 grooves per inch and rotating at 33 Mi R. P. M. With a 12-inch diameter, such records yield maximum playing times in excess of 20 minutes per side. The maximum amplitude of excursion of the lateral modulation is of the 30 order of 0.0009 inch. Due to the fine groove, the tip radius of the stylus is much smaller than for the previous standard record, and is approximately 0.001 inch. Very light stylus weights are employed, of the order of 6 gramsf 35
Record players for playing the standard disks described above are widely in use. The turntable commonly rotates at only one speed, namely, 78 R. P. M., and a relatively heavy pickup with a coarse stylus is provided. It is highly desirable to 40 make available a relatively simple and inexpensive adaptor which may be attached to such record players and enable them to play either standard records or the newly available longplaying records as described above. To accom- 45 plish this, it is necessary that two turntable speeds and a lightweight fine-stylus pickup be made available. The present invention is designed to provide such an adaptor.
In accordance with the invention a unit is pro- SO vided which may be placed on a 78 R. P. M. turntable and, by simply engaging or disengaging an arm attached to an epicyclic train, a speed of 33% R. P. M. or 78 R. P. M. may be obtained. A pickup arm is provided which has a switch for 65
connecting either the fine-groove pickup or the coarse-groove pickup to an output circuit. The member provided for actuating the switch also serves as a stop for the turntable adaptor arm so that the proper pickup is employed for the selected turntable speed. Ordinarily the existing pickup will be used for playing standard records and connections will be made from this pickup to the switch.
The turntable adaptor unit is especially designed to provide a very smooth speed conversion free of vibration and slippage. At the same time it is especially designed to eliminate any vibration which would give rise to rumble when the adaptor turntable is rotating at 33% R. P. M. This is highly important inasmuch as fine-groove records are necessarily recorded at a lower level than the coarse-groove records and any rumble would seriously affect the reproduction. It has been found that most 78 R. P. M. turntables are prone to produce rumble in the adaptor turntable unless special precautions are taken. Similarly, the fine-groove pickup may be mounted so as to insulate the pickup arm from vibrations which would produce rumble. ...". (read more?)
(It's amazing that these plastic phonograph records last into the 1980s as the main source of music, outside of cassette magnetic tapes, for the public.)
| (Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.) New York City, New York, USA |
52 YBN
[07/13/1948 AD]
| 5704) US-British mathematician (Sir) Hermann Bondi (CE 1919-2005) and Austrian-British-US astronomer Thomas Gold (CE 1920-2004) formulate the "steady-state" theory of the universe, in which the universe expands but new matter is created to balance the expansion.
This theory is supported by Hoyle and rejected by Gamow who supports the big bang theory of Lemaître and views the universe as galaxies steadily moving apart because of the force of an initial explosion.
In 1928, (Sir) James Hopwood Jeans (CE 1877-1946), English mathematician and astronomer is the first to propose that matter is continuously created throughout the universe ("Steady-state" theory).
(This Steady-State, constant-creation theory is probably inaccurate, and is more similar to the big-bang expanding universe than people may admit, because in the continuous creation theory more matter is being created, in the big-bang theory more space is being created. Both are wrong in my view, and in my opinion, we live in a universe of infinite size and age, probably with no start, and no ending time, all the matter and space have always been here, with no matter or space ever being created or destroyed. The red shift of light I interpret as the result of the Bragg equation causing the spectral lines of more distant sources to appear farther from center, and/or gravitational stretching of light particle frequency which are matter and subject to gravity. This constant-creation theory violates the principle of conservation of matter.)
(This view of Lemaître will win popular support and dominate and stagnate as an inaccurate theory of the universe from 1927 to now 2011 and clearly beyond perhaps into the 2050s and 2100s. Perhaps the big bang expanding universe will rank below the earth centered universe mistake but above the ether mistake.)
(Perhaps this theory is designed to bring people one step closer to a non-expanding universe and reverse the terrible mistaken non-Euclidean theory of an expanding universe, but otherwise I see little or no value to it.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
52 YBN
[07/29/1948 AD]
| 5400) US physicists, Julian Seymour Schwinger (CE 1918-1994) and Richard Phillips Feynman (CE 1918-1988) separately in 1949, work out the theoretical basis for quantum electrodynamics (QED), which seeks to include Einstein's theory of relativity to the Bohr-Schroedinger model of the atom as described by quantum mechanics. Japanese physicist, Shinichiro Tomonaga (CE 1906-1979) had developed this view along similar lines in 1943.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the problem-solving tools that Feynman invents, including pictorial representations of particle interactions known as Feynman diagrams, permeate many areas of theoretical physics in the second half of the 1900s.
(If the theory of relativity is involved, in particular with the space and time dilation component, I think we can presume that this work is inaccurate, and probably too complex to be useful.)
(explain fully, show math. Explain how quantum electrodynamics is different from quantum mechanics. I am skeptical about these contributions and so thoroughly investigate.)
(The absence of the acceptance that all matter is made of light and that light is a material particle leaves a lot of doubts in my mind about mathematical theories and descriptions of particle phenomena. In addition, the absence of graphical computer models duplicating physical phenomena to educate and inform the public and scientific community adds doubt to the validity and value of the mathematical theories behind particle physics.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
52 YBN
[08/03/1948 AD]
| 5647) (Sir) Fred Hoyle (CE 1915-2001), English astronomer, puts forward a "continuous creation" theory of the universe, where matter is continuously created from empty space. This theory eventually loses popularity to the "big bang" theory of the universe.
In a 1948 paper published in the "Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society", entitled "A New Model for the Expanding universe" Hoyle summarizes writing "By introducing continuous creation of matter into the field equations of general relativity a stationary universe showing expansion properties is obtained without recourse to a cosmical constant.".
(My own view is that the universe has no beginning or end, and no creation or destruction of matter or motion, and no expanding space, but instead that the spectral lines from distant galaxies are shifted because the angle for any specific spectral line can only be larger for a more distant light source, which is the basis of Bragg's law, and the background radiation is simply light particles from a variety of sources - some of which may be too far to be seen, some reflected light or emitted - light bounced around so much that determining the origin is no longer possible. )
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
52 YBN
[09/27/1948 AD]
| 5644) Robert Hofstadter (CE 1915-1990), US physicist, develops a Gamma-ray ("scintillation") counter, using sodium iodide crystals made radioactive by thallium.
(Verify that thallium-activated means that the sodium iodide crystals are made radioactive using thallium.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
52 YBN
[09/27/1948 AD]
| 5645) Robert Hofstadter (CE 1915-1990), US physicist, theorizes that both protons and neutrons are made of a central core of positively charged matter surrounded by two shells of mesonic matter. In the proton the meson shells are both positively charged, and in the neutron on the shells is negatively charged so that the overall charge is zero.
Hofstadter announces, as a result of examining the scattering of high-velocity electrons which collide with atomic nuclei in the Stanford University linear accelerator, that protons and neutrons are made up of a central core of positively charged matter surrounded by two shells of mesonic material. In the proton the meson shells are both positively charged, and in the neutron one of the shells is negatively charged so that the overall charge is zero. The higher the velocity of the electrons, the closer they approach the nucleus before bouncing or veering off, and so sharper details can be deduced. From his observations Hofstadter deduces the possible existence of mesons more massive than those already known which he calls the rho-meson and the omega-meson. Both of these particles are quickly detected and are found to be very short-lived. The omega-meson lasts for 1-13 seconds before breaking down. The list of subatomic particles smaller in size that an atom, will grow to include a large number.
Robert Hofstadter at Stanford University and Robert Herman of General Motors Corporation in Michigan publish this theory in "Physical Review" as "Electric and Magnetic Structure of the Proton and Neutron". They write: " We attempt to present in this paper a unified interpretation of the presently known experimental data on the electromagnetic form factors of two fundamental particles: the proton and the neutron. As we shall show, this interpretation is fully consistent with the idea that the two particles are two different aspects of a single entity- the nucleon. The third component of the isotopic spin of the nucleon is then used to distinguish between the two fundamental particles. The new experimental material on the neutron form factors, which now completes a block of information on the proton and neutron, has served as the stimulus for the attempted explanation. We would like to explain the main features of the experimental behavior of the Dirac form factors (F1p, F1n) and Pauli form factors (F2p, F2n) of the proton (p) and neutron (n) as functions of the momentum-transfer invariant (Q2). We propose to do this in a well-known way by expressing each proton and neutron form factor as a sum of a scalar and vector contribution. ... Thus the spatial interpretation of Eqs (5) to (8) is very clear: Each form factor corresponds to a distribution in space of a simple Yukawa cloud and a point-lke core. ... It may be seen from Eqs (9) and (10) that the neutron charge distribution is obtained from that of the proton essentially by flipping over one of the two Yukawa clouds. Thus the neutron and proton charge clouds are in a partial sense mirror images of each other. The fact that the cores are different (0.12 for the proton, 0.32 for the neutron) is probably a consequence of the inexact nature of our approximation. ... We call attention particularly to the prediction that the neutron charge cloud has a positive outer fringe. The positive sign of F1n is connected with the positive outer cloud. It would be interesting to seek other experimental evidence on the sign of the other cloud. ... If the above considerations prove to be true, the scheme of constructino of proton and neutron is simpler than might have been expected. Furthermore, the internal consistency of the results suggests that the techniques of quantum electrodynamics are still valid at distances whose values lie between a nucleon Compton wavelength and a pion Compton wavelength. ...".
(State how and by whom the 2 new mesons, rho and omega, are detected.)
(State what each new meson is supposed to decay into.)
(.1 picoseconds for the decay of the omega meson seems extremely fast to detect. State what the fastest sample in a particle accelerator is. It seems likely that the existence of these paticles is presumed without actually any actual physical tracks or other physical evidence other than the tracks of supposed later "product" particles.)
(Look more into these two theoretical meson particles. Were they observed before being named? What theory led to the theory of their existence? Are there so many particles that particles of any mass might be observed?)
(State how many, sub-atomic particles are claimed, hundreds?)
(I think this is evidence that there are competing theories about the structure of the nucleus, and even in 2000 there is no very clear picture of the structure of the nucleus and the atom, and only one or two main theories.) (The claim of meson shells to me seems somewhat doubtful, because I think that there are possibilities for mesons simply being various sized fragments of protons. In particular, without seeing the thought-screen images and transactions, the safest path for excluded people is to have doubts and only accept the most conservative facts that can be drawn from physical phenomena.)
(I think that a neutron is probably a hydrogen atom - that is simply a proton and electron, and that there is probably some neuron owner corruption in the claim that there is a significant difference. I think mesons are probably just proton fragments of various size. I view charge as a particle collision and/or particle bonding phenomenon.)
(Just the building on the mathematical theories of Dirac and Pauli, to me, indicates, probably, that this work does not relate to the actual physical phenomena. Perhaps some of this is due to the feeling that people need to be published. But to publish, you need to adopt the traditional language of those who have been published before - in addition probably to paying a lot of money to be published. But because those who were published were inaccurate and/or neuron corrupted - there is a massive build-up of false structure and theory - so the new scientist has two choices - wither lie and go with tradition and be published - or tell the truth and not be published.)
(It seems unlikely to me that atomic structure, which is so small, relative to our size, can be determined from particle collision distribution.)
(What is not clear in tihs paper is what the variable q represents in common understandable terms, what the "form factor" graphs represent in actual physical interpretation - for example what are the units for abcissa and ordinate? I think, for example, that the concept of cross section is somewhat deceptive because distance between atoms and other factors might play a part in how easily an atom is broken into pieces by a variety of other particles.)
(I think this work needs to be shown graphically and explained in a way that most average people can understand it, if it is to be accepted as accurate.)
(Notice the word "lie" in the second to last paragraph.)
(Interesting that a person from General Motors Corporation in Michigan is a co-author on this report.)
(Determine if this theory is still accepted as true, and is useful.)
(That these theoretical mesons exist for so short a time may imply that they are simply part of the disintegration of a proton.)
(Verify that this is the correct paper - where are the claims of two new mesons?)
(If the neutron has a positive central core, and then one positive shell and one negative shell, does that not leave a net positive charge? how much simpler the view that a neutron is a hydrogen atom, and simply a proton and electron is.)
(This seems a highly theoretical claim to be awarded half of a Nobel prize for in the same year. I value more productive and useful physics work that produce devices or products that are useful for many people.)
(Perhaps look more at the papers leading up to this paper - such as those in the references, for more information that can be used to explain the foundation of this claim, and can be used to argue in favor or against this claim.)
| (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
52 YBN
[10/02/1948 AD]
| 5326) Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (CE 1903-1972) English archaeologist, and team discover the fossils of "Proconsul africanus", a common ancestor of both humans and apes that lived about 25 million years ago.
Louis and Mary Leaky find an almost complete skull of Proconsul africanus, the earliest ape uncovered up to this time.
| Rusinga Island, Lake Victoria, Kenya, Africa |
52 YBN
[1948 AD]
| 4774) Benjamin Minge Duggar (DuGR) (CE 1872-1956), US botanist finds aureomycin, the first of the tetracycline antibiotics, a family of antibiotics that after penicillin represent the most useful and least dangerous of the antibiotics.
| (American Cyanamid Company) Ontario, Canada (presumably) |
52 YBN
[1948 AD]
| 5015) Edward Calvin Kendall (CE 1886-1972), US biochemist, with Hench successfully applies the hormone cortisone to treat rheumatoid arthritis.
Kendall had isolated Cortisone from the adrenal cortex in 1935.
| (Mayo Foundation) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
52 YBN
[1948 AD]
| 5159) Philip Showalter Hench (CE 1896-1965), US physician, finds that cortisone can be used to relieve the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.
(verify paper and read relevent parts)
In 1948 Hench finds that the corticoid cortisone can be used to relieve the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, a painful and crippling disease. Hench had found that the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis are relieved during pregnancy and attacks of jaundice and so suspects that rheumatoid arthritis is not a germ disease but a metabolism related disease. Hench tries a number of chemicals including hormones. Cortisone must be used with great care.
(Describe what corticoids are.)
(Describe the symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis.)
(Explain what jaundice is)
(Explain the dangers of using cortisone.)
| |
52 YBN
[1948 AD]
| 5168) US microbiologists and coworkers, John Franklin Enders (CE 1897-1985), Thomas Huckle Weller (CE 1915-2008) and Frederick Chapman Robbins (CE 1916-2003) successfully culture the mumps virus by using penicillin to stop bacteria growth.
Enders, Weller and Robbins successfully grow the mumps virus in mashed-up chicken embryos bathed in blood by using penicillin to stop bacteria growth while allowing virus growth (unlike bacteria, viruses can only be grown inside cells).
(get title for original paper, read relevent parts)
| (Boston Children's Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
52 YBN
[1948 AD]
| 6273) Hook and loop fastener (Velcro).
Velcro is invented in 1948 by Swiss engineer George de Mestral. Mestral notices that burrs, or burdock seeds, have many tiny stiff hook-like protrusions that make them stick firmly to clothing and hair. Mestral then applies this same principle to a fastening system for clothes that is easier than buttons. Mestral patents his invention in 1957 with the name "velcro brand hook and loop fastener", from the French velours (velvet) and crochet (hook). Velcro uses two strips of nylon, one with small rigid hooks, and another with pliable loops. ALthough originally designed for clothing, velcro is used for many different purposes.
| Nyon, Switzerland |
51 YBN
[01/28/1949 AD]
| 5169) US microbiologists and coworkers, John Franklin Enders (CE 1897-1985), Thomas Huckle Weller (CE 1915-2008) and Frederick Chapman Robbins (CE 1916-2003) successfully culture the polio virus.
Enders, Weller and Robbins successfully grow the polio virus on the tissue of still-born human embryos using penicillin (before this the polio virus could only be grown in living nerve tissue of humans and monkeys). Because of this the polio virus can be studied and antipolio vaccines which will be developed by Salk and Sabin in the 1950s. In the journal Science, Enders Well and Robbins write: "An extraneural site for the multiplication of the virus of poliomyelitis has been eonsidered by a number of investigators (2, 5). The evidenee that this may oecur is almost entirely indireet, although recent data indicate that Theiler 's mouse eneephalomyelitis virus as well as various mouse pathogenie poliomyelitis-like viruses of uneertain origin may multiply in nonnervous tissue (1, 3). Direet attempts by Sabin and Olitsky (s) to demonstrate tn vttro multiplieation of a monkey-adapted strain of poliomyelitis virus (MV strain) in cultures composed of eertain nonnervous tissues failed. They obtained, however, an inerease in the agent in fragtnents of human embryonie brain. The general reeognition that the virus tnay be present in the intestinal traet of patients with poliomyelitis and of persons in eontaet with them emphasizes the desirability of further investigation of the possibility of extraneural multiplieation. Aeeordingly, experiments with tissue eultures were undertaken to determine whether the Lansing strain of poliomyelitis virus could be propagated in three types of human embryonie tissues. The results are summarized here in a preliminary manner. The teehnique was essentially the same as that reeently deseribed for the eultivation of mumps virus (6). The eultures eonsisted of tissue fragments suspended in 3 ee of-a mixture of balaneed salt solution (3 parts) and ox serum ultrafiltrate (1 part). Tissues from embryos of 2i to 4+ months as well as from a premature infant of 7 months' gestation were used. These were: the tissues of the arms and legs (without the large bones), the intestine, and the brain. Eaeh set of eultures ineluded 4 or more inoeulated with virus, and usually a similar number of uninoeulated eontrols. The primary inoeulum eonsisted of 0.1 ee of a suspension of mouse brain infeeted with the Lansing strain of poliomyelitis virus.4 The identity of the virus was verified by (a) the char aeter of the disease it pro.dueed in white miee following intraeerebral inoeulation; and (b) its neutralization by speeifie antiserum.6 Subeultures were inoeulated with 0.1 ee of pooled centrtfqxged supernatant fluids removed from the previous set of eultures. The proeedure of eultivation differed from that usually followed by other workers in that the nutrient fluid was removed as eompletely as possible and replaeed at periods ranging from 4 to 7 days. Subeultures to fresh tissue were prepared at relatively infrequent intervals, ranging from 8 to 20 days. Two experiments have been earried out employing eultures eomposed ehiefly of skin, musele and eonneetive tissue from the arms and legs. The findings in eaeh have been essentially the same. In the first, a series of eultures has now been maintained for 67 days. During this interval, in addition to the original set, three suecess* e subeultures have been made to fresh tissue and the fluids have been removed and replaeed 10 times ( Table 1 ) . Assuming that at eaeh ehange of fluid a dilution of approximately 1 15 was effeeted and that at the initiation of eaeh set of eultures the inoeulum was diluted 30 times, it has been ealeulated that the 10% suspension of infeeted mouse brain used as the primary inoeulum had been diluted approsimately 1017 times in eharthe fluids removed from the third subeulture on the 16th day of eultivation. These fluids, however, on inoculation into mice and monkeys, produeed typieal paralysis. .... Cultures of intestinal tissue were prepared with fragments from the entire intestine of human embryos, except in one experiment in which jejunum of a premature infant was used. In the latter, the bacteria were eliminated in the majority of cultures by thorough washing of the tissue and by the inclusion in the original nutrient fluid of 100 units/cc of penicillin and of streptomycin. ... fluids yielded no growth of bacteria. On mierostopit examination of fragments of the three types of tissue, removed after about 30 days of cultivation, differences have been observed in tell morphology between those derived from inoculated and uninoculated cultures. Many of the fragi>lents from uninoculated t1lltures contained cells which appeared to he viable at the time of fixation, as indicated by the normal staining properties of the nuelei and eytoplasm. In contrast, the nuelei of the majority of the cells in fragments from inocula ted cultures showed marked loss of staining properties. Sinee the amount of material which has been studied is as yet relatively small, one cannot conelusle that the thanges observed in the inoculated cultures were caused by the virus.6 It would seem, from the experiments deseribed above, that the multiplication of the Lansing strain of poliomyelitis virus in the tissues derived from arm or leg, since these do not contain intact neurons, has oteurred either in peripheral nerve processes or in cells not of nervous origin.".
| (Boston Children's Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
51 YBN
[02/02/1949 AD]
| 5494) London, Shemin, West and Rittenberg determine that the average life span of a circulating red blood cell is 120 days in a human adult male and 109 days in a female.
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
51 YBN
[03/??/1949 AD]
| 5375) X-ray microscope.
Paul Kirkpatrick (CE 1894-1992) builds the first x-ray microscope.
(Clearly there must have been some kind of cover-up because x-ray light is probably used for neuron writing. X-rays were first announced in 1895, but it takes 54 years to build an x-ray microscope?)
In 1935 Gary Shearer had theoriezed about an x-ray microscope.
| (Stanford University) Stanford, California, USA |
51 YBN
[04/??/1949 AD]
| 5135) Albert Szent-Györgyi (seNTJEoURJE) (CE 1893–1986) Hungarian-US biochemist, names the union of the muscle proteins actin and myosin “actomyosin”.
Before this Szent-Gyorgyi's lab had shown that the contractile matter of muscle is built of two proteins, actin (F. B. Straub 1942, 1943) and myosin. (chronology for myosin - make record for Straub)
In 1939 Wladimir Engelhardt and Militsa Ljubimowa had described how the muscle protein myosin can split adenosine triphosphate, or ATP, showing that myosin is an enzyme, not just a structural element. Szent-Gyorgyi and associate Ilona Banga then allow a myosin protein extract to sit overnight while they attended a lecture, and find that the preparation unexpectedly gells. Addition of ATP, however, restores the original ungelled state, and this is a clue to contractile properties. They then extrude threads of myosin gel, add ATP and watch, amazed, as the threads contract.
(Clearly artificial muscle must have been developed early in the 1800s, because it is simply the result of what Ampere found, that two conductors with electricity can be made to pull together of be forced apart. But shockingly, this technology is kept from public use, for what has been nearing 200 years - an absurd quantity of time to keep such an incredibly useful science secret.) (Szent-Gyö rgyi isolates some substances from the thymus gland that seems to have some controlling effect on growth.)
(It seems to me that electrical contraction might be so simple an explanation to muscle contraction. Clearly Ampere showed that two conductors can attract or repell each other - it seems like it would be extremely likely that natural selection could easily find an electrical contraction mechanism given millions of years, and the complex systems shown to have evolved by mutation.)
| (Muscle Research at the Marine Biological Station) Woods Hole, Massachusetts. USA |
51 YBN
[05/01/1949 AD]
| 5392) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR or KOEPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, identifies a second satellite of Neptune and names it "Nereid".
On 05/01/1949 Kuiper uncovers a second satellite of Neptune, a small satellite with an eccentric orbit he names Nereid.
Kuiper publishes this in the "Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific" in an article titled "The Second Satellite of Neptune", Kuiper writes: " The field of Neptune was photographed at the prime focus of the 82—inch telescope on May 1, 1949, UT, in a search for distant satellites. Earlier searches for close satellites at the Cassegrain focus had led to negative results. The May 1 plates were taken with the mirror diaphragmed down to 66 inches (F/ 5) in order to increase the size of the usable held. Two exposures of 40 minutes each were made, separated by 20 minutes (mid-expo- sures one hour apart) ; the plates were 103aF backed, 5X7 inches. The scale is 25".4/mm and the field, free from serious coma, about 3 inches in diameter. At the very edges of the plates the limiting magnitude is roughly 18, and near the center about 20 or possibly slightly fainter. On these two plates an object was found, of magnitude about 19.5, about 168" W and 112" N of Neptune and essentially sharing its motion. Since the writer was unable to extend his stay in Texas he requested Dr. P. D. Jose to take two pairs of additional plates during the two dark—of-the—moon periods still remaining before the planet would be lost in the evening twilight. Dr. Jose took these pairs on May 29 UT and June 18 UT; the writer is greatly endebted to him for his collaboration. The plates were measured and reduced by Dr. G. Van Biesbroeck who also obtained calibration plates with the Yerkes 24—inch reflector. The positions of the satellite at the three epochs were used by Mr. D. Harris to compute a provisional orbit. Van Biesbroeck and Harris are publishing their results in the Astronomical Journal but have permitted the writer to quote from their paper. It appears too early for a decision between a direct and a retro- grade orbit; this will be possible next winter after the planet has reappeared. At present a circular orbit will represent the data fairly well with either motion: the residual for the May 29 ob- servation is 3".6 for the direct and 1".0 for the retrograde orbit, when the May 1 and June 18 positions are accurately repre- sented. The larger residual for the direct orbit does not necessarily rule out this solution; it may be that the orbit is eccentric. The two solutions are as follows: {ULSF: See table} It follows that the satellite orbit is neither in the plane of the equator of Neptune (inclined 29° to the Neptune orbit) nor in the plane of Triton’s orbit (which is at present inclined about 136° to the ecliptic; it precesses on Neptune’s equator), but approaches that of Neptune’s orbit or the ecliptic itself. (The orbit is seen nearly edge—on at present, somewhat more inclined with respect to the east-west direction than the ecliptic in the vicinity of Neptune.) There is some reason to hope that this object may become a clue to the unusual cosmogonic problem presented by the Neptune system, and as such is of more than routine interest. It is suggested that the name Nereid be used for Neptune II. The Nereids were sea nymphs who, together with the Tritons, were the attendants of Neptune. Nereid is about six magnitudes fainter than Triton; pre- sumably it is therefore about sixteen times smaller (roughly 300 km in diameter) and 4000 times less massive. This would make its mass 10-6.5 in terms of Neptune, still within the range of normal satellites. While the period of Nereid is about two years, as long as that of Jupiter VIII, IX, and XI, its orbit is nevertheless very stable: the stability parameter, μ/Δ, is as large as 6000 or 9000, while it is only 100 for the Moon and 18 for the long-period Jupiter satellites. Neptune can therefore retain satellites nearly ten times as far as Nereid, with periods up to about fifty years; ad- ditional work is scheduled to cover these outer regions of the system.".
(Show modern image of moon?) (Notice the ending of "rots")
| (McDonald Observatory, Mount Locke) Fort Davis, Texas, USA |
51 YBN
[05/09/1949 AD]
| 5401) US physicist Richard Phillips Feynman (CE 1918-1988) develops the theoretical basis for quantum electrodynamics (QED), which seeks to include Einstein's theory of relativity to the Bohr-Schroedinger model of the atom as described by quantum mechanics. Feynman's model is supposedly equivalent with those of US physicist, Julian Seymour Schwinger's (CE 1918-1994) and Japanese physicist, Shinichiro Tomonaga (CE 1906-1979). In this paper Feynman also introduces collision particle drawings to help visualize particle interactions. (verify that this is Feynman's first paper with particle collision drawings.)
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, the problem-solving tools that Feynman invents, including pictorial representations of particle interactions known as Feynman diagrams, permeate many areas of theoretical physics in the second half of the 1900s.
(I doubt any theory that includes the theory of relativity because the idea that there might be two different times at once instance seems unlikely to me. In addition, many of these equations are integrals and energies where I see a better and far more simple modeling system using computers that iterate into the future and the realizatino that matter and motion cannot be exchanged.)
| (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
51 YBN
[06/26/1949 AD]
| 5122) Walter Baade (BoDu) (CE 1893-1960), German-US astronomer, discovers the asteroid “Icarus” which goes to within 18 million miles of the sun, closer than Mercury and is the innermost asteroid known.
Robert Richardson reports: "A century ago the discovery of an asteroid would have been received with the keenest interest. Today it passes almost un- noticed. The Ephemerides of M /51/lor Planets for 1950 issued at Leningrad contains 1535 asteroids which have been officially named or have received temporary designations. The task of predicting their positions at future oppositions has become so laborious that there seems no point in adding to the list others with orbital elements differing little from the average. Thus, although astronomers often find asteroid trails on their direct photographs, unless the motion is unusually rapid, they seldom . bother ·-to obtain the two additional observations needed for a preliminary orbit. On the evening of june 26, 1949, Walter Baade took with the 48-inch Schmidt telescope a sixty-minute exposure centered near Tau Scorpii. Upon examining the plate next day he found an asteroid trail about 2f 7 long, indicating extremely rapid motion in view of the fact that the object was past opposition and pre— sumably approaching its stationary point. Assuming the motion was westward, he obtained another photograph on the evening of ]une 28 which confirmed the westward motion of about 10 per day. A third plate was obtained on ]une 30. Nicholson and Richardson measured the position of the object on the three dates and computed a preliminary orbit. ...".
(It is unusual that Baade does not report this himself.)
(Show how predicting the eact position of an asteroid is basically impossible far into the future. Use Newton's equations, and Einstein's, and any others.)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
51 YBN
[07/27/1949 AD]
| 6270) First large passenger jet airplane (jetliner) flies.
The first flight of the first prototype DH 106 Comet takes place on July 27 1949 from Hatfield, and lasts 31 minutes.
| Hatfield, England |
51 YBN
[08/01/1949 AD]
| 5406) William Maurice Ewing (CE 1906-1974), US geologist, establishes that the Earth's crust below the oceans is only about 3–5 miles (5–8 km) thick while the corresponding continental crust averages 25 miles (40 km) thick. Ewing uses the seismic reflection of explosives to determine the depth of the Mohorovičić discontinuity (Moho) between the crust and the mantle under the Atlantic Ocean.
(Determine original paper and read relevent parts.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
51 YBN
[08/06/1949 AD]
| 5198) English chemists, Ronald George Wreyford Norrish (CE 1897-1978), and (Sir) George Porter (CE 1920-2002), use the new technique of "flash photolysis" and "kinetic spectroscopy" to study the intermediate stages involved in extremely rapid chemical reactions.
In this technique, a gaseous system in a state of equilibrium is subjected to an ultrashort burst of light that causes photochemical reactions in the gas. A second burst of light is then used to detect and record the changes taking place in the gas before equilibrium is reestablished.
Between 1949 and 1955 Norrish and his coworker Porter illuminate a gaseous system at equilibrium with ultra-short flashes of mercury vapour light which makes a short disequilibrium and the time taken to reestablish equilibrium is then measured. Using this method, chemical changes that take only a billionth of a second can be examined. Eigen does independent similar work. (Read relevent parts of paper.)
Norrish also corrects Draper's law by showing that the quantity of photochemical change is proportional to the square root of the intensity of the light, and not simply the intensity of light multiplied by the time that it acts. (Determine chronology - make new record for, find correct paper, and read relevent parts.)
(Explain "flash photolysis" and "kinetic spectroscopy" more fully. What chemical changes take place? what elements are used? Is the duration of light only a billionth of a second? How is that arranged, electronically?)
(State who invented this technique.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
51 YBN
[08/29/1949 AD]
| 5308) First Soviet atomic bomb test.
(verify structure of bomb.)
| Semipalatinsk, Russia (Soviet Union) |
51 YBN
[10/10/1949 AD]
| 5539) Neutral Meson identified.
Kaplon, Peters and Bradt identify a neutral meson is a cosmic ray alpha particle disintegration of an atom of silver or bromide.
(Read relevent parts and show pictures)
| (University of Rochester) Rochester, New York, USA |
51 YBN
[11/17/1949 AD]
| 5495) David Shemin (CE 1911-1991), US biochemist, uses carbon-14 as a biological tracer, which leaves a trail of radioactivity wherever it goes, to work out the details of the synthesis of the heme molecule, the iron-containing molecule that gives blood its red color, and in combination with a protein globin, the entire molecule being called hemoglobin, carries oxygen from the lungs to tissue cells.
On October 24, 1949, Shemin, et al had reported that the immature non-nucleated rabbit red-blood cell is capable of synthesizing heme in vitro.
Hemoglobin is a protein in the blood of many animals (in vertebrates it is in red blood cells) that transports oxygen from the lungs to the tissues. It is bright red when combined with oxygen and purple-blue in the deoxygenated state. Each molecule is made up of a globin (a type of protein) and four heme groups. Heme, a complex heterocyclic compound, is an carbon-based molecule derived from porphyrin with an iron atom at the center. Variant hemoglobins can be used to trace past human migrations and to study genetic relationships among populations.
In an article in the "Journal of Biological Chemistry", titled "The role of Acetic Acid in the Biosynthesis of heme", Radin, Rittenberg, and Shemin summarize their findings writing: "1. Both the carboxyl and the methyl groups of acetate are used for heme synthesis. 2. The carboxyl group of acetate is a source of the two carboxyl groups of heme. Also, it contributes to at least 4 of the carbon atoms in the porphyrin molecule. These carbon atoms have a lower activity than the carboxyl carbon atoms. 3. Hemin produced from methyl-labeled acetate is 6 times, as radioactive as that formed from carboxyl-labeled acetate of the same activity. It has been shown that the methyl carbon is converted to the methyl and b-carbon atoms of the pyrrole as well as to other unidentified positions. 4. Pyruvate is utilized for synthesis of heme; acetone and CO2 are not. 5. The data suggest that most or all of the carbon atoms of heme are derived from acetate and glycine.".
(State what kind of radiation carbon-14 produces, x-rays frequency light particles, electrons, alpha particles?)
(Determine if this completes the synthesis of the heme molecule. Why is there not structural formula and/or chemical equations given?)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
51 YBN
[11/23/1949 AD]
| 5434) Fred Lawrence Whipple (CE 1906-2004), US astronomer, presents a new comet model in which the nucleus is a combination of ices such as H2O, NH3, CH4, CO2, or CO, (C2N2?) and other materials combined with meteoric materials. Vaporization of the ices by solar radiation leaves an outer layer of nonvolatile insulating meteroric material. The comet emits its vaporized ices away from it's motion, losing mass, and the motion is reduced increasing the eccentricity of the orbit of the comet. Comets with retrograde rotation accelerate and decrease in eccentricity.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
51 YBN
[11/24/1949 AD]
| 5228) (Sir) Frank Macfarlane Burnet (CE 1899-1985), Australian physician demonstrates that antibodies are only formed after birth.
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, Burnett goes on to develop a model, called the clonal selection theory of antibody formation in 1959, that explains how the body is able to recognize and respond to a virtually limitless number of foreign antigens. The theory states that an antigen entering the body does not induce the formation of an antibody specific to itself—as some immunologists believed—but instead it binds to one unique antibody selected from a vast repertoire of antibodies produced early in the organism’s life. Although controversial at first, this theory became the foundation of modern immunology.
(Notice Burnet's 1979 work "Immunological Surveillance", surveillance clearly being a massive, but strangley and terribly secret industry. It's almost like some obscure atheist scrawling on an ancient dark age cave, or on an Auschwitz wall, or a drug-war cell wall. Actually, since it is used in 1971 too, it's probably more like a longer term effort.)
| (Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research) Melbourne, Australia |
51 YBN
[11/25/1949 AD]
| 5258) Linus Carl Pauling (CE 1901–1994) Harvey A. Itano, S. J. Singer and Ibert C. Wells, identify the particular defect in hemoglobin’s structure that is responsible for sickle-cell anemia. Sickle-cell anemia is therefore, the first "molecular disease" to be discovered.
In an article "Sickle Cell Anemia, a Molecular Disease" in the journal "Science", Pauling et al write: "THE ERYTHROCYTES of certain individuals possess the capacity to undergo reversible changes in shape in response to changes in the parti al pressure of oxygen. When the oxygen pressure is lowered, these cells change their forms from the normal biconcave disk to crescent, holly wreath, and other forms. This process is known as sickling. About 8 percent of American Negroes possess this characteristic; usually they exhibit no pathological consequences ascribable to it. These people are said to have sicklemia, or sickle cell trait. However, about 1 in 40 (4) of these individuals whose cells are capable of sickling suffer from a severe chronic anemia resulting from excessive destruction of their erythrocytes; the term sickle cell anemia is applied to their condition. The main observable difference between the erythrocytes of sickle cell trait and sickle cell anemia has been that a considerably greater reduction in the partial pressure of oxygen is required for a major fraction of the trait cells to sickle than for the anemia cells (11). Tests in vivo have demonstrated that between 30 and 60 percent of the erythrocytes in the venous circulation of sickle cell anemic individuals, but less than 1 percent of those in the venous circulation of sicklemic individuals, are normally sickled. Experiments in vitro indicate that under sufficiently low oxygen pressure, however, all the cells of both types assume the sickled form. The evidence available at the time that our investigation was begun, indicated that the process of sickling might be intimately associated with the state and the nature of the hemoglobin within the erythrocyte. Sickle cell erythrocytes in which the hemoglobin is combined with oxygen or carbon monoxide have the biconcave disk contour and are indistinguishable in form from normal erythrocytes. In this condition they are termed promeniscocytes. The hemoglobin appears to be uniformly distributed and randomly oriented within normal cells and promeniscocytes, and no birefringence is observed. Both types of cells are very flexible. If the oxygen or carbon monoxide is removed, however, transforming the hemoglobin to the uncombined state, the promeniscocytes undergo sickling. The hemoglobin within the sickled cells appears to aggregate into one or more foci, and the cell membranes collapse. The cells become birefringent (11) and quite rigid. The addition of oxygen or carbon monoxide to these cells reverses these phenomena. Thus the physical effects just described depend on the state of combination of the hemoglobin, and only secondarily, if at all, on the cell membrane. This conclusion is supported by the observation that sickled cells when lysed with water produce discoidal, rather than sickle-shaped, ghosts (10). It was decided, therefore, to examine the physical and chemical properties of the hemoglobins of individuals with sicklemia and sickle cell anemia, and to compare them with the hemoglobin of normal individuals to determine whether any significant differences might be observed. ... DISCUSSION 1) On the Nature of the Difference between Sickle Cell Anemia Hemoglobin and Normal Hemoglobin: Having found that the electrophoretic mobilities of sickle cell anemia hemoglobin and normal hemoglobin differ, we are left with the considerable problem of locating the cause of the difference. It is impossible to ascribe the difference to dissimilarities in the particle weights or shapes of the two hemoglobins in solution: a purely frictional effect would cause one species to move more slowly than the other throughout the entire pH range and would not produce a shift in the isoelectric point. Moreover, preliminary velocity ultracentrifuge8 and free diffusion measurements indicate that the two hemoglobins have the same sedimentation and diffusion constants. The most plausible hypothesis is that there is a difference in the number or kind of ionizable groups in the two hemoglobins. ... Our experiments indicate that the net number of positive charges (the total number of cationic groups minus the number of anionic groups) is greater for sickle cell anemia hemoglobin than for normal hemoglobin in the pH region near their isoelectric points. ... 2) On the Nature of the Sickling Process: In the introductory paragraphs we outlined the evidence which suggested that the hemoglobins in sickle cell anemia and sicklemia erythrocytes might be responsible for the sickling process. The fact that the hemoglob ins in these cells have now been found to be different from that present in normal red blood cells makes it appear very probable that this is indeed so. We can picture the mechanism of the sickling process in the following way. It is likely that it is the globins rather than the hemes of the two hemoglobins that are different. Let us propose that there is a surface region on the globin of the sickle cell anemia, hemoglobin molecule which is absent in the normal molecule and which has a configuration complementary to a different region of the surface of the hemoglobin molecule. This situation would be somewhat analogous to that which very probably exists in antigen-antibody reactions (9). The fact that sick- ling occurs only when the partial pressures of oxygen and carbon monoxide are low suggests that one of these sites is very near to the iron atom of one or more of the hemes, and that when the iron atom is combined with either one of these gases, the complementariness of the two structures is considerably diminished. Under the appropriate conditions, then, the sickle cell anemia hemoglobin molecules might be capable of interacting with one another at these sites sufficiently to cause at least a partial alignment of the molecules within the cell, resulting in the erythrocyte's becoming birefringent, and the cell membrane's being distorted to accommodate the now relatively rigid structures within its confines. The addition of oxygen or carbon monoxide to the cell might reverse these effects by disrupting some of the weak bonds between the hemoglobin molecules in favor of the bonds formed between gas molecules and iron atoms of the hemes. ... 3) On the Genetics of Sickle Cell Disease: A genetic basis for the capacity of erythrocytes to sickle was recognized early in the study of this disease (4). Taliaferro and Huck (15) suggested that a single dominant gene was involved, but the distinction between sicklemia and sickle cell anemia was not clearly understood at the time. The literature contains conflicting statements concerning the nature of the genetic mechanisms involved, but recently Neel (8) has reported an investigation which strongly indicates that the gene responsible for the sickling characteristic is in heterozygous condition in individuals with sicklemia, and homozygous in those with sickle cell anemia. Our results had caused us to draw this inference before Neel's paper was published. The existence of normal hemoglobin and sickle cell anemia hemoglobin in roughly equal proportions in sicklemia hemoglobin preparations is obviously in complete accord with this hypothesis. In fact, if the mechanism proposed above* to account for the sickling process is correct, we can identify the gene responsible for the sickling process with one of an alternative pair of alleles capable through some series of reactions of introducing the modification into the hemoglobin molecule that distinguishes sickle cell anemia hemoglobin from the normal protein. The results of our investigation are compatible with a direct quantitative effect of this gene pair; in the chromosomes of a single nucleus of a normal adult somatic cell there is a complete absence of the sickle cell gene, while two doses of its allele are present; in the sicklemia somatic cell there exists one dose of each allele; and in the sickle cell anemia somatic cell there are two doses of the sickle cell gene, and a complete absence of its normal allele. Correspondingly, the erythrocytes of these individuals contain 100 percent normal hemoglobin, 40 percent sickle cell anemia hemoglobin and 60 percent normal hemoglobin, and 100 percent sickle cell anemia hemoglobin, respectively. This investigation reveals, therefore, a clear case of a change produced in a protein molecule by an allelic change in a single gene involved in synthesis. The fact that sicklemia erythrocytes contain the two hemoglobins in the ratio 40: 60 rather than 50: 50 might be accounted for by a number of hypothetical schemes. For example, the two genes might compete for a common substrate in the synthesis of two different enzymes essential to the production of the two different hemoglobins. In this reaction, the sickle cell gene would be less efficient than its normal allele. Or, competition for a common substrate might occur at some later stage in the series of reactions leading to the synthesis of the two hemoglobins. Mechanisms of this sort are discussed in more elaborate detail by Stern (13). The results obtained in the present study suggest anemias be examined for the presence of abnormal that the erythrocytes of other hereditary hemolytic hemoglobins. This we propose to do.". (Note that this paper is not very clear and the logic is somewhat difficult to follow. State more clearly what wasw discovered. For example is this a genetic disorder? Did Neel conclude this earlier? That this disease is because of an irregular hemoglobin structure was known much earlier. So I think these issues need to be resolved.)
(Explain more of how Pauling diagnostically figured this out, with X-ray diffraction?)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
51 YBN
[12/23/1949 AD]
| 5475) Willard Frank Libby (CE 1908-1980), US chemist, uses radioactive carbon-14 ("radiocarbon dating") determine the age of known samples of trees (taken from tree ring data), and wooden artifacts from Egyptian tombs, to show that the age estimates by the radiocarbon method are close to other methods of age estimation.
Libby and J. R. Arnold publish this work in the journal "Science" as "Age Determinations by Radiocarbon Content: Checks with Samples of Known Age". They write: "_URTHER TESTS of the radioearbon method 9 of age determination (1-3, 6, 8,10) for arehaeologieal and geologieal samples have been eomD pleted. All the samples used were wood dated quite aeeurately by aeeepted methods. The measurement teehnique eonsisted in the eombustion of about 1 ounee of wood, the eolleetion of the earbon dioxide, its reduetion to elementary earbon with hot magnesium metal, and the measurement of 8 grams of this earbon spread uniformly over the 400-squareeentimeter surfaee of the sample eylinder in a sereen wall eounter (7, 9). The baekground eount was redueed during the latter part of the work to 7.5 eounts per minute (epm), whieh is some 2 pereent of the unshielded baekground, by the use of 4 inehes of iron inside 2 inehes of lead shielding, plus 11 antieoineidenee eounters 2 inehes in diameter and 18 inehes long, plaeed symmetrieally around the working sereen wall eounter inside the shielding. The sereen wall eounter had a sensitive portion 8 inehes in length, so the long antieoineidenees hielding eoun-teras fforded eonsiderablep roteetiono n the ends. No end eounters were used. The data obtained are presented in Table 1 and :Fig. 1. The youngest sample used was furnished by Terah L. Smiley, of the University of Arizona Laboratory of Tree-Ring Researeh. It was a sample of Douglas fir exeavated by Morris in the Red Roek Valley in 1931, the exaet loeation being Room 6 of the Broken Flute Cave. The inner ring date is 530 A.D. and the cutting date is 623 A.D. The next sample was furnished by John Wilson, of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chieago, and was a pieee of wood from a mummiform coffin from Egypt, dated on stylistie grounds in the Ptolemaie period 332-30 B.C. It was measured quite early in our researeh, when the sensitivity of the instrument was somewhat less, and so the error is larger arld only one measuremenwt as made. ... The agreement between predietion and observation is seen to be satisfaetory. The errors quoted for the speeifie aetivity measurementsa re standardd eviations as eomputed from the Poisson statisties of eounting random events. One of the six average values, and seven of the 17 individual runs, differ by more than one standard deviation unit from the predieted value. Sinee in a long series of measurements 32 pereent may be expeeted to fall outside this limit, we may eonelude that the statistieal error is the major souree of seatte r. Thus the deviation in the Douglas fir treering sample should not be eonsidered significant. ... These results indieate that the two basie assumpr tions of the radioearbon age determination methodnamely, the eonstaney of the eosmie radiation intensity and the possibility of obtaining unaltered samples are probably justified for wood up to 4600 years. The faet that the most aneient samples agree with the predieted value shows that the cosmie ray intensity has been eonstant to within alvout l0 pereent for periods up to 20,000 years ago. This refers to variations over intervalse omparablew ith the half-life of radioearbon, 5720+47 years (S); it is obvious that shorter time variations would average out and would not affeet the measurements. The Seqq6ossgs tgssntesbs ample has an additional interest of its own in that the wood spent most of its time at the heart of a live tree, and if any chemieal proeesses had oeeurred involving the inner heartwood the spee;fie radioaetivity would have been elevated above the value found In other words, this eheek apparently shows that the redwood heartwood is truly deaa and does not partake in any of the metabolic proeesses of the tree. This finding is not surprising to most botanists. These results seem suffieielntlye ncouragingt o warrant further investigation and applieation of the method. ... It is hoped that investigators who have samples fitting into these general problems will write to the eollaborators named, to the eommittee, or to the authors, so that the best materials available ean be used for the researeh. The samples may eonsist of wood, ehareoal, peat, eloth, flesh, and possibly antler, teeth, and shell. Sinee ten grams of earbon is needed for a single measurement and at least two independent measurements should be made on eaeh sample, some two ounees of wood or ehareoal and eorrespondingly larger quantities of the other materials, aecording to their earbon eontent are needed. In important eases, where only smaller amounts ean be furnished, measurements can be made at some sacrifice of accuracy. ...".
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
51 YBN
[1949 AD]
| 5343) Haldan Keffer Hartline (CE 1903-1983), US physiologist, measures Inhibition of activity of visual receptors by illuminating nearby elements in the Limulus (Horse-shoe crab) eye.
Hartline finds that the receptor cells in the eye are interconnected so that when one is stimulated, other nearby receptor cells are depressed, which enhances the contrast in light patterns and sharpening the perception of shapes. In this way Hartline builds up a detailed understanding of the workings of individual photoreceptors and nerve fibres in the retina.
| (Johns Hopkins University) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
51 YBN
[1949 AD]
| 5458) Succinylcholine shown to produce neuromuscular blocking action which prevents a person from contracting a muscle.
Succinylcholine was synthesized by Hunt in 1906, but its neuromuscular blocking action is first observed in 1949 by Daniele Bovet (BOVA) (CE 1907-1992), Swiss-French-Italian pharmacologist, and independently by Phillips.
Bovet turns his attention to curare, a drug used to relax muscles during surgery. Because the drug is expensive and somewhat unpredictable in its effects, a low-cost dependable synthetic alternative is desired. Bovet produces hundreds of synthetic alternatives, of which gallamine and succinylcholine enter into widespread use as muscle relaxants in surgical operations.
Curare is an alkaloid from the root of several South American shrubs.
| (Istituto Superiore di Sanita/Superior Institute of Health) Rome, Italy |
51 YBN
[1949 AD]
| 5466) (Baron) Alexander Robertus Todd (CE 1907-1997), Scottish chemist synthesizes adenosine triphosphate (ATP).
Todd synthesizes all nucleotide components of the nucleic acids and finds that the structure Levine had described do produce molecules that are identical with those obtained from nucleic acids. Todd's work will help Wilkins, Watson and Crick work out the exact detail of nucleic acids.
Todd synthesizes both adenosine diphosphate and adenosine triphosphate (ADP and ATP), which are very important in handling the "energy" of the cells as shown by Lipmann. (chronology for ADP - 1937?)
A nucleoside is a kind of molecule that contains a five-carbon sugar (ribose in RNA, deoxyribose in DNA) and a nitrogen-containing base, either a purine or a pyrimidine. The base uracil occurs in RNA, thymine in DNA, and adenine, guanine, and cytosine in both DNA and RNA, as part of the nucleosides uridine, deoxythymidine, adenosine or deoxyadenosine, guanosine or deoxyguanosine, and cytidine or deoxycytidine. Nucleosides usually have a phosphate group attached, forming nucleotides. Usually obtained by decomposition of nucleic acids, nucleosides are important in physiological and medical research.
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
51 YBN
[1949 AD]
| 5467) Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (CE 1910-1994) with Charles Bunn, determines the molecular structure of penicillin using X-ray reflection ("diffraction").
Hodgkin uses a computer to perform all the complex calculations. This is the first publicly known use of an electronic computer in direct application to a biochemical problem.
Hodgkin publishes this as "X-ray Analysis of the Structure of Penicillin" in the journal "The Advancement of Science". She writes: "In the investigation of penicillin, X-ray crystallographic methods have been used to work out the actual chemical structure of the molecule, the way in which the atoms, known by chemical analysis to be present, are bonded together in space to give the compound its particular chemical and biological properties. This working out of chemical structures is not a new thing in X-ray analysis - the very first X-ray analysis ever carried out by Sir Lawrence Bragg established the chemical structures of sodium and potassium chloride in an essentially similar way, by showing the distribution of the atoms in space and the distances between them. but there was something new in the case of penicillin in the complexity of the problem handled and in the way in which the X-ray studies were woven into the rest of the chemical investigation. There was also something new, although it was hidden at the time by war-time secrecy, in the dramatic way in which the chemical structure of the molecule finally became visible as a result of the aplication of certain very recently introduced techniques of X-ray analysis. The first use of X-ray diffraction data in the study of penicillin began before any penicillin was crystallised. ...".
(Notice what many neuron consumers have as first word "in" which indicates that they do receive neuron windows - a massive and shockingly distinct difference. And then "work out" which may imply the rare case of an insider female having physical pleasure with an excluded male - no doubt far rarer than an insider male having physical pleasure with excluded females.)
| (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
50 YBN
[01/13/1950 AD]
| 5237) Jan Hendrik Oort (oURT) (CE 1900-1992) Dutch astronomer, based on the observation of long-period comets, estimates that there is a cloud of comets with a radius between 50,000 and 150,000 A.U. that contains about 1011 comets of observable size.
Oort suggests that comets form a vast cloud asteroid belt around a light-year from the sun, and that gravitational perturbations of nearby stars cause small numbers of these asteroids to fall towards the sun. Oort estimates that 20 percent of the comets have been pushed towards the sun in this way.
Oort announces this finding in the Bulletin of the Astronomical Institutes of the Netherlands, in an article "The structure of the cloud of comets surrounding the Solar System and a hypothesis concerning its origin": "The combined effects of the stars and of Jupiter appear to determine the main statistical features of the orbits of comets. From a score of well-observed original orbits it is shown that the "new" long-period comets generally come from regions between about 50000 and 150000 A.U. distance. The sun must be surrounded by a general cloud of comets with a radius of this order, containing about 1011 comets of observable size; the total mass of the cloud is estimated to be of the order of 1/10 to 1/100 of that of the earth. Through the action of the stars fresh comets are continually being carried from this cloud into the vicinity of the sun. The article indicates how three facts concerning the long-period comets, which hitherto were not well understood, namely the random distribution of orbital planes and of perihelia, and the preponderance of nearly-parabolic orbits, may be considered as necessary consequences of the perturbations acting on the comets. The theoretical distribution curve of 1/a following from the conception of the large cloud of comets (Table 8) is shown to agree with the observed distribution (Table 6), except for an excess of observed "new" comets. The latter is taken to indicate that comets coming for the first time near the sun develop more extensive luminous envelopes than older comets. The average probability of disintegration during a perihelion passage must be about 0'014. The preponderance of direct over retrograde orbits in the range from a 25 to 250 A.U. can be well accounted for. The existence of the huge cloud of comets finds a natural explanation if comets (and meteorites) are considered as minor planets escaped, at an early stage of the planetary system, from the ring of asteroids, and brought into large, stable orbits through the perturbing actions of Jupiter and the stars. The investigation was instigated by a recent study by VAN WOERKOM on the statistical effect of Jupiter’s perturbations on comet orbits. Action of stars on a cloud of meteors has been considered by OPIK in 1932. ...".
(I have a small doubt about there being an Oort cloud. I think without seeing that matter in any wavelength, we should keep an open mind, until the sphere around this star can be fully and finely searched, to map all matter. Another hope is to find some work, no matter how small, from advanced life of other stars.)
(It's interesting to think about how many smaller pieces of matter must orbit the star. No doubt our descendents will consume all of them.)
| (Observatory at Leiden) Leiden, Netherlands |
50 YBN
[01/23/1950 AD]
| 5551) US physicists S. G. Thompson, A. Ghiorso and Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) identify element 97 by iraddiating americium-241 with helium ions in the berkeley 60-inch cyclotron. Seaborg, et al name the new element "berkelium" with symbol "Bk" aft er the city of berkeley, "...in a manner similar to that used in naming its chemical homologue termbium (atomic number 65) whose name was derived from the town of Ytterby, Sweden, where the rare earth minerals were first found. ...". The isotope of berkelium Seaborg, et al create has a half life of 4.8 hours.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN
[03/07/1950 AD]
| 5127) Harold Clayton Urey (CE 1893-1981), US chemist, find that the abundance of the O18 isotope in calcium carbonate varies with the temperature at which it is deposited from water, the variation in abundance can be used as a thermometer.
Urey and his colleagues are able to create a temperature history of ocean temperatures over long geologic times by measuring the proportion of oxygen isotopes in sea shells from different periods, because larger isotopes react more slowly than smaller isotopes, the concentration of an isotope is proportional to the temperature of the ocean.
(Show how these quantities of isotope are determined. Show temperature map, and actual concentration data. Does this match other data such as glacier core samples?)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
50 YBN
[03/15/1950 AD]
| 5552) US physicists S. G. Thompson, K. Street Jr, A. Ghiorso and Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) identify element 98 by irradiating curium-242 with 35-Mev helium ions in the Berkeley 60-inch cyclotron. Seaborg, et al suggest the name "californium" and symbol "Cf" "...after the university and state where the work was done. This name, chosen for the reason given, does not reflect the observed chemical homology of element 98 to dysprosium...". The isotope of californium created by Seaborg, et al, has a half-life of about 45 minutes.
Seaborg and his group recognize that the transuranium elements resemble each other (describe how, for example plutonium is metal looking), just as the rare earth elements do, and so two sets of elements are distinguished by calling the rare earth set starting with lanthanum (atomic number 57) the lanthanides, and the new set starting with actinide (element 89), the actinides. (Niels Bohr had predicted this some years before.) (chronology and separate record if necessary)
In November Seaborg's team produces californium by colliding carbon ions with uranium.
Californium is a synthetic element produced in trace quantities by helium bombardment of curium, carbon bombardment of uranium and other probably many other particle collisions. All isotopes are radioactive, chiefly by emission of alpha particles. Californium has mass numbers 244 to 254 and half-lives varying from 25 minutes to 800 years.
(It's hard to believe that 98 electrons could orbit a nucleus without repulsing each other, but then I think that the electrical force is a larger scale particle phenomenon, and does not operate within the atom, and I think that a more likely model for atoms may be with electrons much closer and perhaps even physically attached to the nucleus.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN
[03/15/1950 AD]
| 5553) Earlier in June of 1947, Howland, et al at Berkeley had published a report showing that fission of elements 73 (tantalum) through 83 (bismuth) are fissionable.
US physicists Roger E. Batzel and Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) use 60-70 Mev protons split the medium weight elements copper, bromine, silver and tin into atoms with approximately half the mass of the original particle. The identification is made through chemical separation, measurement of half-life with a Geiger counter, and observation of the sign of the beta-particles with a simple beta-ray spectrometer. The reactions are: Cu-63 + p -> Cl-38 + Al-25 +n Br-79 + p -> Sc-44 + P-34 + 2n Ag-107 + p -> Co-61 + Sc-45 +2n Sn-118 + p ->Ga-72 + Ca-45 +2n Seabo rg, et al also refer to these reactions as "spallation" reactions and write "...It seems certain that the size of the fragments varies continuously from those (neutrons, protons, deuterons, alpha-particles, etc.) which accompany what we for convenience call spallation reactions, through intermediate sizes (for exdample, Li8, etc.), and on up to sizes such that the nucleus is split essentially into several pieces of comparable weight. Apparently a number of reactions in which there occurs the latter type of nuclear splitting have been observed in the present investigation and perhaps the term "fission" is as proper a name as any to apply to this process. ..."
(read paper)
(Note the use of the word "economical" which may suggest that converting from one element to another might be a low costing production by this time - but it's largely speculation.)
(It seems more logical and clearer to simply give the voltage of the accelerator and not use electron-volt units. In particular this may happen when the theory that the mass of an electron does not vary with velocity either 1) in any way or 2) but does lose mass to emitted light particles in the collisions with particles in the electromagnetic field.)
(The secrecy around this find indicates that there must be something special, otherwise all scientific sources would not completely ignore this extraordinary achievement but would instead recognize the achievement, but lament that only a tiny fraction of atoms are fissioned. So here, clearly is some kind of neuron corruption, that in their constant complaining they were not perhaps as smart as they should have been to make the coverup more convincing.)
(The use of the word "spallation" to me implies that many different elements are produced in a way that is beyond any perfect half-half fission - but instead are probably every atom from 1 to the original number.)
(There should clearly be a paper and set of experiments that show that atoms can be broken into a wide variety of other smaller atoms of different size.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN
[03/22/1950 AD]
| 5393) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR or KOEPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, measures the diameter of Pluto and finds that it is 0.021mm, or 0".23 minutes of arc, 0.46 times that of earth (volume 0.10 earth). Kuiper finds that Pluto is smaller than had been thought, and is only 5955km (3,700 miles) in diameter, about the size of Mars, and Kuiper determines its period of rotation to be about 6.4 days.
| (Palomar Observatory) Mount Palomar, California, USA |
50 YBN
[04/17/1950 AD]
| 5687) US physicist (Leo) James Rainwater (CE 1917-1986) and independently Danish physicist Aage Niels Bohr (oGo NELz BOR) (CE 1922-2009) theorize that the nucleus is spheroidal instead of spherical because of large quadrupole moments of nuclei.
Rainwater theorizes that protons and neutrons on the outer rim of an atomic nucleus might be subjected to centrifugal effects that might create nuclear asymmetries. Aage Bohr and Mottelson will work out the theory in more detail and present experimental detail that support this model. Rainwater thinks about this atomic model after hearing Townes speculate that the idea that the atomic nucleus is spherical in shape might be an oversimplification.
In April 1950, Rainwater publishes this in "Physical Review" as "Nuclear Energy Level Argument for a Spheroidal Nuclear Model". As an abstract Rainwater writes: "Recently there has been notable success, particularly by Maria Mayer, in explaining many nuclear phenomena including spins, magnetic moments, isomeric states, etc. on the basis of a single particle model for the separate nucleons in a spherical nucleus. The spherical model, however, seems incapable of explaining the observed large quadrupole moments of nuclei. In this paper it is shown that an extension of the logic of this model leads to the prediction that greater stability is obtained for a spheroidal than for a spherical nucleus of the same volume, when reasonable assumptions are made concerning the variation of the energy terms on distortion. The predicted quadrupole moment variation with odd A is in general agreement with the experimental values as concerns variation with A, but are even larger than the experimental values. Since the true situation probably involves considerable "dilution" of the extreme single particle model, it is encouraging that the present predictions are larger rather than smaller than the experimental results. A solution is given for the energy levels of a particle in a spheroidal box.".
Later in May 1950 Aage Bohr, like Rainwater, at Columbia University, publishes an article in "Physical Review" titled "On the Quantization of Angular Momenta in Heavy Nuclei". For an abstract Bohr writes: "The individual particle model of nuclear structure fails to account for the observed large nuclear quadrupole moments. It is possible, however, to allow for the existence of the quadrupole moments, and still retain the essential features of the individual particle model, by assuming the average field in which the nucleons move to deviate from spherical symmetry. The assumptions underlying such an asymmetric nuclear model are discussed; this model implies, in particular, a quantization of angular momenta in analogy with molecular structure. The asymmetric model appears to account better than the extreme single particle model for empirical data regarding nuclear magnetic moments.".
In 1951 Danish physicist Aage Niels Bohr (CE 1922-2009) (oGo NELz BOR) and associate, Danish-US physicist Ben Roy Mottelson (CE 1926- ) work out the mathematical details of the nuclear structure theorized by Rainwater in which the atomic nucleus is not necessarily spherical, and present experimental detail to support the theory. The possibility of an asymmetrical nucleus that depends on the motions of protons and neutrons allows a better understanding of controlled nuclear fusion and other processes.
From experiments conducted in collaboration with Bohr in the early 1950s, Mottelson discovers that the motion of subatomic particles can distort the shape of the nucleus, which challenges the widely accepted theory that all nuclei are perfectly spherical. Subsequently people find that such asymmetries occur in atoms of all elements.
McGraw-Hill defines "quadrupole moment" as: "A quantity characterizing a distribution of charge or magnetization; it is given by integrating the product of the charge density or divergence of magnetization density, the second power of the distance from the origin, and a spherical harmonic Y*2m over the charge or magnetization distribution.".
(Show math, I have some doubts. How does this fit in with Goeppert-Mayer's shell model?)
(I think that there is an argument for even a two-static-bodies or two-saturnian/orbital-bodies nucleus because of the non-spherical distribution of elements, and two-row symmetry of elements on the peridic table.)
(Note that there is no image given for Rainwater's thought-screen model of the atom nucleus - try to reproduce what that might have looked like absent any actual thought-screen images. Compare with what Goeppert-Meyer's thought-screen images of the atomic nucleus model might have looked like. Also show the thought-screen visualizations of the atomic models for Bohr and Mottelson at the time.)
(More detail about nature of asymmetries, and observational evidence. I have doubts, how does this fit in with the shell model of Goeppert-Mayer? Is this Rainwater model still accepted?)
(Find the 1951 paper of Mottelson if any exists - apparently it is not in "Physical Review".)
(Explain a "quadrupole moment" - this has to do with the way an atom rotates, and that the rotation is not perfectly spherical - it shows a non-linear movement over time. Explain how dipole moment is different from quadrupole moment - can there be some non-sided moment - for example - just describing moment as an unsymmetrical distribution in a spherical direction with each of the three dimensional angles (0-360 degree for each of 3 axes)? Does quadrupole moment imply that there are 4 rotating parts? Apparently quadrupole moment is a somewhat abstract mathematical concept.)
(What we really need are visual moving 3D models of atoms.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
50 YBN
[04/21/1950 AD]
| 5592) James Alfred Van Allen (CE 1914-2006), US physicist, publishes a map of the intensity of cosmic rays above the earth's atmosphere from 0-70° degree latitude, which shows that the intensity increases from the equator (0°) to the higher latitudes.
| (Johns Hopkins University) Silver Spring, Maryland, USA |
50 YBN
[04/26/1950 AD]
| 5542) Menon, Muirhead and Rochat find that slow negative pi mesons cause nuclear reactions. Pi-mesons are shown to collide with carbon and nitrogen nuclei causing the ejection of neutrons, and an excited nucleus which then disintegrates, and in a few cases, the collision causes a total disruption of the nucleus and the ejection of fast alpha-particles.
| (University of Bristol) Bristol, England |
50 YBN
[05/??/1950 AD]
| 5480) William Grey Walter (CE 1910-1977), US-British neurologist, invents a robot with a touch sensor that allows it to turn after bumping into objects, and another robot with a photoelectric eye that can find and make contact with a recharger to recharge its battery.
(It seems clear that, by 1900 there must have been walking robots with artificial muscles - given neuron writing in 1810, the electric motor in 1821 - it seems very likely that the immense scientific and military value of walking robots and artificial muscles were quickly realized - and kept secret - like neuron writing for centuries.)
| (Burden Neurological Institute) Bristol, England |
50 YBN
[08/02/1950 AD]
| 5773) Philip Burton Moon (CE 1907–1994) shows that moving a gamma ray source to Doppler shift the emitted gamma rays increases the frequency enough to allow them to be scattered (or alternatively absorbed and re-emitted) as fluorescence, because the increased frequency compensates for energy lost in the recoil of the fluorescing atomic nucleus. (Verify this is the correct interpretation.)
This experiment by Moon is referred to by German physicist, Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (MRSBoUR) (CE 1929- ), in his Nobel Prize lecture as being similar to the reverse of Mössbauer's experiment where Doppler shift is used to stop the absorption of gamma rays. Mossbauer states: "...As early as 1929, Kuhn1 had expressed the opinion that the resonance absorption of gamma rays should constitute the nuclear physics analogue to this optical resonance fluorescence. Here, a radioactive source should replace the optical light source. The gamma rays emitted by this source should be able to initiate the inverse process of nuclear resonance absorption in an absorber composed of nuclei of the same type as those decaying in the source. ...in 1951, when Moon2 succeeded in demonstrating the effect for the first time, by an ingenious experiment. The fundamental idea of his experiment was that-of compensating for the recoil-energy losses of the gamma quanta: the radioactive source used in the experiment was moved at a suitably high velocity toward the absorber or scatterer. The displacement of the emission line toward higher energies achieved in this way through the Doppler effect produced a measurable nuclear fluorescence effect. After the existence of nuclear resonance fluorescence had been experimentally proved, a number of methods were developed which made it possible to observe nuclear resonance absorption in various nuclei. In all these methods for achieving measurable nuclear resonance effects the recoil-energy loss associated with gamma emission or absorption was compensated for in one way or another by the Doppler effect. ". Mössbauer describes his work as being "...a sort of reversal of the experiment carried out by Moon. Whereas in that experiment the resonance condition destroyed by the recoil-energy losses was regained by the application of an appropriate relative velocity, here the resonance condition fulfilled in the experiment was to be destroyed through the application of a relative velocity. And yet there was an essential difference between this and Moon’s experiment. There, the width of the lines that were displaced relative to one another was determined by the thermal motion of the nuclei in the source and absorber; here, the line widths were sharper by four orders of magnitude. This made it possible to shift them by applying velocities smaller by four orders of magnitude. The indicated velocities were in the region of centimeters per second. ...".
Moon publishes this in "Proceedings of the Physical Society" as "Resonant Nuclear Scattering of Gamma-Rays: Theory and Preliminary Experiments". He writes: "ABSTRACT. Since the lower excited states of nuclei have very small widths (< lev,), reson ant scattering of gamma-rays requres precise matching of the energy available from the gamma-ray with the energy necessary to excite the scattering nucleus. Resonant scattering should be observable if (1) the emitting and scattering nuclei are of identical type, (2) the gamma-transition goes to the ground state, and (3) the SOWC~ and scatterer are given such a relative velocity that Doppler effect restores the energy lost by the gamma-ray to nuclear recoils Thermal velocities of the emitting and scattering nuclei broaden and correspondingly weaken the resonant scattering peak, and the cross section at the optimum speed of 32E/A cmjsec. is 3.6 X 10-3(Ir/E3)(A/T)”a cm2, where E and r are the energy and intrinsic width of the excited state in electron volts, I the isotopic abundance of the resonantly scattering isotope, A its atomic weight and T the absolute temperature. Preliminary experiments have been made with the 0.411 MeV. radiation from the nucleus lssHg, the source being carried by a high-speed rotor up to a speed of about 7 X IO4 cmjsec. and the scatterer being liquid mercury (10% lSSHg) A small but apparently significant increase of scattering was found, corresponding to a width r of the order of ev No such increase was observed with lslTa gamma-rays scattered from tantalum carbide. The negative result for lsiTa and the positive result for ls*Hg are consistent with the latest information about the life-times of the excited states concerned, viz. 1.1 X sec. for lslTa and less than 2~ sec. for lsaHg." . In his paper, Moon writes: "5 1 INTRODUCTION F a source of mass M emits a photon of energy E, the source will recoil with I energy E2/2Mc2; an equal kinetic energy of recoil is involved if the photon is captured by a body of the same mass as the source. This does not prevent the optical excitation of one atom by another, because the widths of optical levels are large compared with amount of energy dissipated by recoil; but, owing to the high value of E, it does prevent the emission and capture of a gamma-ray from being an effective means of transferring energy of excitation from one nucleus to another of identical type, Thus, while the selective scattering of, for example, the mercury resonance line A2537 by mercury atoms is of quite spectacular prominence, the corresponding nuclear phenomenon has hitherto proved unobservable, Following Kuhn (1929), various workers have discussed the situation and have looked for the resonant scattering, For example, Pollard and Alburger (1948) have reported a search for resonant scattering of z4Mg gamma-rays ( E = 2 * 8 ~ e v .i)n magnesium. In this instance the energy dissipated in recoil amounts to about 90ev., while the width of the nuclear resonance is certainly less than 10-3ev. Though the Doppler effect of thermal motions broadens the resonance, and though for heavier elements and less energetic gamma-rays the recoil energy can be of the order of 1 ev. only, the effective energy of the gamma-ray is always relatively far out in the low-energy wing of the resonance curve. The present paper reports a theoretical and experimental study of the possibility of restoring the resonance with the aid of the Doppler effect, the Source being made to move towards the scatterer with an appropriate velocity. ... $ 3 DESIGN OF EXPERIMENT . . * .. * (8) In the experimental arrangement envisaged (Figure l), a radioactive source gamma-rays moves on a circular path and irradiates (principally when approaching) a scatterer containing nuclei identical in type with those from which the gamma-rays are emitted. A counter, shielded from direct radiation, records the scattered gamma-rays, and the rate of recording should increase as the velocity of the source becomes comparable with the optimum value 32E/A. ... 94. EXPERIMENTS WITH lsaHg The tips of a doubly tapered steel rod were electroplated with gold, and the whole was irradiated for several days in the Harwell pile (BEPO). A few days after irradiation, the activity was of the order of 100mc. and was mainly from the gold plating. The rod was then spun in vacuum about an axis perpendicular to its length, the speed of the tips being taken up to the limit of safety of about 7 x lo4 cm.sec-l and down again; the top speed of the centre of mass of the gold was 6 x 104. Meanwhile, observations were made of the rate of counting of a Geiger -Muller counter shielded from direct radiation but exposed (through an &inch lead absorber) to gamma-rays scattered from a surrounding thin-walled iron-alloy cone containing liquid mercury (Figure 1). The cone was placed so as to be exposed mainly to gamma-rays from the advancing tip of the rotor, Four complete experiments were made, each lasting for about 16 hours and each involving the registration of upwards of 250,000 gamma-rays ; corrections (unimportant to the final result since acceleration and deceleration occupied about the same time) were made for the experimentally observed decay of the source (about 0.7% per hour). The first two runs were made as described above, In the third, the direction of rotation was reversed; a smaller effect would be expected owing to the less favourable position of the rotor tip when advancing towards the scatterer. The fourth run was made in the forward direction with a scatterer of copper instead of mercury; any increase at high speed would in this case be due to extra-nuclear phenomena such as stretching of the rotor, During a fifth run, with a double thickness of lead round the counter, a vacuum failure before full speed had been reached caused the rotor to strike the wall of the vacuum chamber, with catastrophic results to both. For purposes of illustration, the results for the second ‘ forward ’ run and the ‘ reverse ’ run, which were made on the same day, are plotted together in Figure 2. Each point represents the number of particles recorded in a ten-minute interval, and the mean speed during that interval ; circles refer to readings taken during acceleration, crosses to readings taken during deceleration, while the heavy cross represents a reading taken at very low speed between the two runs. The vertical lines show the probable error, calculated from the number of particles observed in each interval. The broken lines show a possible analysis into background and resonant scattering, varying with speed in the expected manner and more intense (as it should be) with ‘ forward’ than with ‘reverse’ rotation. Such a* analysis might be over-ambitious and it is preferable to rely on the ratio of the mean counting rate at all speeds above 4 x IO4 cm. sec-1 to the mean rate at all lower speeds. The two ' forward ' runs gave values for this ratio of 1.007, 0.008, and 1.015, t 0.006, the probable errors being calculated from the experimental fluctuations of counting rate within each of the two speed ranges; since any genuine increase will vary with speed, the errors may be overestimated. The I reverse' run gave a ratio of 1.005, t 0.005, and the ' blank' run, with a scattering The difference between the mean of the two 'forward' ratios and that for the blank experiment is 0.013 k 0.007. This result is distinctly suggestive of the presence of resonant scattering, and it seems worth while to deduce the ,-orresponding values of r and of the half-life of the excited state. The figure of04)13 represents, crudely, the ratio of counts due to resonant scattering to those from Compton scattering, both at a mean angle of 115", but it must be corrected on account of their different chances of emergence from the thick scatterer, their different transmissions through the absorber surrounding the counter, and the different sensitivities of the counter itself to the two energies in question as well as for background of various origins. It has also to be remembered that only those gamma-rays that leave the source -nearly in its direction of motion will receive the full Doppler hardening, and that the experimental ratio is an average over speeds ranging from 4 x lo4 cmjsec. to 6 x lo4 cmjsec. With these factors taken into account, I? is found to be about 3 x IO-jev., corresponding to a half-life of the order of Shortly after these experiments were completed (April 1949), this half-life was reported to be about 2 x sec. on the basis of delayed-coincidence measurements (MacIntyre 1949). If this were so, resonant scattering would be about two thousand times less than the present work indicated. Because of this contradiction, plans were made to verify the scattering with a different experimental arrangement. This has now been done with the help of Mr. A. Storruste and Mr. T. H. Bull ; the effect has been qualitatively confirmed but the detailed analysis of the results, involving various auxiliary measurements, will take some time to complete. In the meantime, the contradiction has been removed by the work of Bell and Graham (1950), who find the life-time of the excited state to be shorter than the limit of resolution of their apparatus, which is 2 x 10-10 sec. $ 5 . EXPERIMENT WITH lrrlTa of copper instead of mercury, gave a ratio of 0.998, t 0.005. sec. for the 0.41 1 MeV. excited state of Ig8Hg. A similar experiment was made with lslTa as the emitting and scattering isotope. The source was about 8 mg. of Hf,O,, irradiated in the Harwell pile for two months to obtain about i m c . of the 46-day ls1Hf. This source was contained in small cup-like cavities in the ends of a rotor which could withstand higher speeds, and the apparatus built for this experiment differed in other details from that used earlier for 1g8Hg. The scatterer was tantalum carbide. Two runs, in which the counting rates from 4 x l o 4 to 9 x 104 and from 0 to 4 x lo4 cmlsec. were compared, gave ratios of 1.003 0.015 and 0.990 & 0.014, with a mean result of 0 9965 ?c 0.01. It 1s to be concluded that the 0 . 4 8 ~ e vy.- transition either does not go to the ground state or has a width less than lO-5ev. and hence a life-time greater than about 4 x 10-11 sec. After this measurement had been made, a y-transition of life-time 1.1 x 10-8 sec. was reported (Barber 1950) which may plausibly be identified with the 0.48 MeV. transition in question. ...".
(It's not clear that Moon uses the word "scatter" as opposed to "absorb" and "emit" - perhaps Moon is taking the view that fluorescence is a scattering of light particles and does not involve absorption?)
(It is interesting to note that the view is that gamma absorption and emission is a nuclear fluorescence as opposed to an electron fluorescence. Determine if this is still the more popular view.)
| (University of Birmingham) Birmingham, England |
50 YBN
[08/??/1950 AD]
| 5696) (Sir) Derek Harold Richard Barton (CE 1918-1998), English chemist shows how three-dimensional molecular structure can affect the chemical properties of molecules such as steroids, terpenes.
In 1950 Barton published a fundamental paper on conformational analysis in which he proposes that the orientations in space of functional groups affect the rates of reaction in isomers. Barton discusses six-membered organic rings, particularly, following the earlier work of Odd Hassell, the ‘chair’ conformation of cyclohexane and explains its distinctive stability. This is done in terms of the distinction between equatorial conformations, in which the hydrogen atoms lie in the same plane as the carbon ring, and axial conformations, where the hydrogen atoms are perpendicular to the ring. Barton confirms this theory with further work on the stability and reactivity of steroids and terpenes.
Barton publishes this theory in the journal "Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences", as "The conformation of the steroid nucleus". Refering to the word "Conformation" Barton writes "The word conformation is used to denote differing strainless arrangements in space of a set of bonded atoms. in accordance with the tenets of classical stereochemistry, these arrangements represent only one molecular species.". Barton writes: "In recent years it has become generally accepted that the chair conformation of cyclohexane is appreciably more stable than the boat. In the chair conformation it is possible a,4 to distinguish two types of carbonhydrogen bonds; those which lie as in (Ia) perpendicular to a plane containing essentially the six carbon atoms and which are called 3 polar (p), and those which lie as in lib) approximately in this plane. The l a t t e r have been designated ~ equatorial (el. The notable researches of HASSEL and his collaborators 5,6 on the electron diffraction of cyclohexane derivatives have thrown considerable light on these more subtle aspects of stereochemistry. Thus it has been shown 6 t h a t monosubstituted eyclohexanes adopt the equatorial conformation (IIa) rather than the polar one (IIb). This is an observation of importance for it indicates that the equatorial conformations are thermodynamically more stable than the polar ones. It should perhaps be pointed out here that although one conformation of a molecule is more stable than other possible conformations, this does not mean that the molecule is compelled to react as if it were in this conformation or that it is rigidly Iixed in any way. So long as the energy barriers between conformations are small, separate conformations cannot be distinguished by the classical methods of stereochemistry. On the other hand a small difference in free energy content (about one kilocal, at room temperature) between two possible conformations will ensure that the molecule appears by physical methods of examination and b y thermodynamic considerations to be substantially in only one conformation. ...".
(More specific details.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
50 YBN
[09/11/1950 AD]
| 5555) G. Accelerated carbon-12 ions collided with Aluminum-27 produce Chlorine-34 and carbon-12 ions collided with Gold-197 produce Astatine-205.
The earliest known published report of atomic fusion was the conversion of hydrogen to helium by colliding deuterons with deuterium achieved by Rutherford et al in 1934.
In 1940 Luis Walter Alvarez (CE 1911-1988) had accelerated carbon ions in the 37-inch cyclotron at the University of California in Berkeley.
In November 1950 Seaborg, et al report on producing isotopes of the element califonium by bombarding uranium with carbon ions.
James F. Miller, Joseph G. Hamilton, Thomas M. Putnam, Herman R. Haymond, and Guido Barnard Rossi, publish this in the journal "Physical Review" as "Acceleration of Stripped C12 and C13 Nuclei in the Cyclotron".
Guido Rossi dies of a cerebral hemmorhage at the age of 41 in 1956. Rossi developed part of the trigger mechanism for the atomic bomb. (Guido Rossi may have been murdered for this.)
(read paper)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN
[10/12/1950 AD]
| 5395) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR or KOEPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, advances the theory that planets are formed by condensation of gaseous "protoplanets", the satellites being independent condensations. Kuiper also views planet formation as being a special case of the process of binary star formation and estimates the number of stars with planets in the Milky Way to be 1 billion stars. Kuiper adapts Oorts analysis of the origin of comets but places their formation by condensation at a lower temperature of 10° K, not as Oort had supposed originating between Mars and Jupiter, but outside the orbit of Neptune.
The existence of a belt of millions of comets orbiting the Sun at a distance of 30 to 50 astronomical units is verified in the 1990s, and is named the Kuiper belt. (I can't find where Kuiper claims that there is a disk of comets orbiting the Sun. - verify)
In his October 1950 paper, Oort concludes: "... Conclusions.-We may now turn to the problems listed on page 1 and list the solutions now at hand or indicated. The common direction of revolution and the low relative orbital inclinations are accounted for by the flatness of the solar nebula. The internal viscosity of the nebula accounts for the near-circular orbits. The fact that both Mercury and Pluto are exceptions in their inclinations and eccentricities may be attributed to the absence of constraining action on the proto-planets formed on the fringes of the solar nebula. The direct rotation of the planets is attributed5 to solar tidal friction on the proto-planets. The solar tidal force nearly equals the self-attraction for each of the proto-planets at their maximum extension; i.e., in the proper units Neptune is no farther away from the sun than Mercury and the tidal effects are equally large in both cases. Regardless of any initial rotational motion a direct rotation will be forced upon the proto-planet, with a period equal to the orbital period. As is readily verified, this leads to an amount of angular momentum per unit mass some 104 times greater than found on the present planets. Part of this is lost during the evaporation process of the proto-planets (the ejected molecules carry off more than the average amount of angular momentum per unit mass); while part of it is lost by continued solar tidal friction during the contrac tion process. The latter cause has a secular effect on the obliquities; it has been shown5 that they will increase some three or fivefold, from initial obliquities of the order of 30 (expected from the turbulent solar, nebula, and consistent with the relative orbital inclinations) to the present values. The largest obliquity to which this process can lead is 900; retrograde rotation cannot arise by the processes considered. It is not clear why Uranus has passed the upper limit by 70; possibly some extraneous object has moved through the solar system. The present periods of rotation have not yet been accounted for quantitatively. This appears to be a very complex problem, with physics, chemistry and dynamics all playing a role. We have here perhaps the most important potential source of information still unused in the reconstruction of the planetary condensation processes. The regular satellites may be explained in a manner analogous to that found for the planets themselves.5 Little progress has been made so far with their condensation processes, which should prove very instructive in view of the large density differences known to exist among the satellites. The retrograde satellites of Jupiter and Saturn have been interpreted5 as having been caused by glancing collisions between the corresponding proto-planets. They were assumed to have been retained by these large planets only because these planets lost a much smaller fraction of their initial mass. It is possible, however, that capture has played a role instead. This requires further investigation. The asteroids were not formed in a region of low density in the solar nebula. In such a region no planets of any kind could have formed. Rather we must assume that the density was well above Co of equation (7), but that the formation of a normal-size protoplanet was prevented by proto-Jupiter (mass = 0.0120). It can be shown that in the presence of strong perturbations a small proto-planet, of a given density close to the local Roche density, is more stable than a large one of the same density. The total number of small proto-planets estimated to have formed in the region between Mars and Jupiter is between 5 and 10. They formed small planets, like Ceres (cf. figure 1 and accompanying discussion). It is assumed that two of these collided sometime during the last 3.109 years, an event having a sufficiently large probability. Thereafter secondary collisions became increasingly frequent. The recent of these collisions account for the Hirayama families. In this manner thousands of asteroids were formed, being the largest of the fragments, as well as billions of meteorites.12 The outermost region of the solar nebula, from 38 to 50 astr. units (i.e., just outside proto-Neptune), must have had a surface density below the limit set by equation (7). The temperature must have been about 5-10'K. when the solar nebula was still in existence (before the proto-planets were full grown), and about 40°K. thereafter. Condensation products (ices of H20, NH3, CH4, etc.) must have formed, and the flakes must have slowly collected and formed larger aggregates, estimated to range up to 1 km. or more in size. The total condensable mass is about 1029 g., but not all of this could be collected. These condensations appear to account for the comets, in size, 3 number'3 and composition.'4 The planet Pluto, which sweeps through the whole zone from 30 to 50 astr. units, is held responsible for having started the scattering of the comets throughout the solar system. Pluto's perturbations will have caused initial, near-circular, cometary orbits to become moderately elliptical; thereupon stronger perturbations by Neptune and the other major planets will have scattered them even more broadly. As Oort'3 and others have shown, the quantity which is spread nearly uniformly in both directions is the quantity a-', the reciprocal of the semimajor axis (which is related to the energy of the object). A certain fraction of the comets will be scattered in the region of very small a-' values, i.e., in the outer regions of the "sphere of action" of the sun. As Oort'3 has shown, stellar perturbations will redistribute the orbital elements there, and in particular make the motion around the sun one of random orientation. Oort'3 shows that the dynamical half-life of a comet in this outer region is about 101' years. The comets which we observe today were sent back to the inner regions of the solar system by small random stellar perturbations. The above views are an adaptation of Oort's'3 dynamical analysis; but we differ in our hypothesis as to the region where the comets originated. Oort'3 assumes that they were formed between Mars and Jupiter, in association with the origin of asteroids. The composition of the comets indicates condensation at a very much lower temperature, around 100K., consistent with the region of origin proposed here. The evaporation and subsequent complete disintegration of comets into the minute particles which cause meteors and the Zodiacal Light is also understandable from their formation outside Neptune. Asteroidal bodies would be expected to remain intact or possibly break up into a few large fragments. The theory described here does not depend on any specific ad hoc assumptions. Certain assumptions which were made at the outset, e.g., that the planetary distances have not changed appreciably or that the solar nebula was approximately of cosmic composition, appeared capable of verification afterwards. One assumption, that the sun was already formed as a star and of a luminosity approximately equal to that found today, requires further study. 15 Certain investigations on the contraction and condensation process of the proto-planets need still be made, including the analysis of solar tidal friction on these composite structures. Finally, the cause of the small solar rotation must be cleared up; it is undoubtedly connected with the larger problem of why nearly all G-type dwarf stars, in single and in binary systems, have such slow rotations. It is felt, therefore, that this problem is not necessarily a part of a theory on the origin of the solar system. The probability of a star being attended by a planetary system was estimated to be between 10-2 and 10-3. The total mass of the galaxy is about 2.101"0; while the average stellar mass is about 0.50E. From these figures the total number of planetary systems in the galaxy is estimated to be of the order of 109. One can only speculate on the possible forms of life which may have developed on these many unknown worlds.". (possibly summarize more briefly)
In September 1951 Kuiper gives more details about his theory of satellites writing: "Thirty satellites are known in the solar system. They fall into three classes: 1. The regular satellites. 2. The irregular satellites. 3. The moon. The regular satellites are the two of Mars, the inner five of Jupiter, the inner seven of Saturn and the five of Uranus, 19 in all. The regular satellites have nearly circular orbits, their motion is direct (in the same sense as the planetary rotation) and the inclination with respect to the planetary equators are all less than 20. Furthermore, the spacings of these satellites are roughly in a geometrical progression, as is true for the planets around the sun. More accurately, the spacings appear to depend on the masses of the satellites in essentially the same manner as is true for the planetary system; i.e., the systems of regular satellites are homologs of the planetary system.' This fact has led2 to an interpretation of the origin of both the planetary system and of the regular satellites in terms of tidally stable proto-planets and proto-satellites, formed in each case from a diskshaped nebula by the action of gravitational instability. The moon is an exceptional object. Its large mass, 1/81 of its primary, indicates that it is not an ordinary satellite. For all other satellites, and for the planets to the sun, the mass ratio is less than 1O-. The lunar composition (density of olivine, 3.3; absence of an iron core) further indicates that the moon was formed as a twtin planet with the earth. ...". Kuiper then gives a theory for the formation of the irregular satellites writing: "...Elsewhere the writer has proposed two alternative explanations for the retrograde satelites: (1) it was found that collisions between the outer parts of consecutive proto-planets can cause retrograde motion of the detached parts with respect to one of the two colliding proto-planets; (2) the decrease of mass on the part of all developing proto-planets will cause the loss of certain satellites formed before the planetary mass reached its ultimate minimum value. The writer wishes now to withdraw hypothesis (1), as ineffective, and put forward the second hypothesis as an explanation of all irregular satellites, retrograde and direct. The mechanism proposed operates as follows. Let the planet decrease its mass by the factor D after a given satellite is formed. ...A satellite that has thus been shed by a parent planet will continue to move around the sun in an orbit closely resembling that of the planet. It is expected to be confined approximately to the zone ap =1 RA. It is improbable that the planet just reached its final (present) mass when the satellite left it; the general case will be one in which the planet continues to lose mass, i.e., one in which its capture cross-section was still large. Sooner or later the lost satellite may collide with the proto-planet and be captured by it. Such capture may result either in direct or retrograde motion around the planet, depending on the geometry of the collision. A collision leading to retrograde motion would offer somewhat more resistance to the body than one leading to direct motion, so that among the recaptured satellites some preference for retrograde orbits is expected. ..." (make separate record? Not important enough?)
(This is a classic question: Did the satellites form in orbit of their planets or were they once planets orbiting the star that were later captured, or some of both? It seems that it would be unlikely that an instability would cause a planet to be sent into orbit around Jupiter, but it is certainly possible of the billions of years of star system existence. It seems like there would be a chaotic physics in forming satellites around a planet, the orbit would change constantly depending on the mass, and some of those changes would clearly send it into the planet. I don't feel certain about either answer. Probably time and modeling will reveal what actually happened.)
(Determine if Kuiper thought the satellites formed in planet or star orbit. Kuiper apparently views regular satellites as formed around the planet using the analogy of planets forming around the star because they orbit at the equator. The moon of earth being an exception as forming similar to a binary star system.)
| (Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
50 YBN
[10/16/1950 AD]
| 5259) Linus Carl Pauling (CE 1901–1994), US chemist, and Robert B. Corey determine that some proteins have a helix (spiral) structure.
Pauling and Corey write in the Journal of the American Chemical Society article "TWO HYDROGEN-BONDED SPIRAL CONFIGURATIONS OF THE POLYPEPTIDE CHAIN": "Sir: During the past fifteen years we have been carrying on a program of determination of the detailed atomic arrangements of crystals of amino acids, peptides, and other simple substances related to proteins, in order to obtain structural information that would permit the precise prediction of reasonable configurations of proteins. We have now used this information to construct two hydrogen-bonded spiral configurations of the polypeptide chain, with the residues all equivalent, except for variation in the side chain. We have attempted to find all configurations for which the residues have the interatomic distances and bond angles found in the simpler substances and are equivalent, and for which also each CO group and NH group is involved in the formation of a hydrogen bond. The plane layer of extended polypeptide chains is a structure of this type, the hydrogen bonds being formed between adjacent chains. In addition there are two spiral structures, in which the plane of the conjugated system C-CO-NH-C is nearly parallel to the spiral axis, and hydrogen bonds are formed between each carbonyl and imino group and an imino or carbonyl group of a residue nearly one turn forward or back along the spiral. One of these spirals is the three-residue spiral, in which there are about 3.7 residues per turn and each residue is hydrogen-bonded to the third residue from it in each direction along the &;tin. The unit translation per residue is 1.47 A. There is evidence that indicates strongly that this configuration is present in a-keratin, contracted myosin, and some other fibrous proteins and also in hemoglobin and other globular proteins. The second hydrogen-bonded spiral is the five residue spiral, in which there are about 5.1 residues per turn and each residue is hydrogenbonded to the fifth residue from it in each direction. The unit translation is 0.96 A. We believe that this spiral is present in supercontracted keratin, which is formed from a-keratin with a shri nkage of about 35% in the fiber direction. ...", the authors note that "A three-residue spiral described by Huggins (Chem. Rev., Sa, 211 (1943)) is similar to ours, but differs from it in essential structural details.".
In the 1950s Pauling explains that protein molecules are helices (in a spiral staircase form). Crick and Watson will apply this structure to nucleic acids, and this will be an important breakthrough in genetics. Pauling might have determined the shape of nucleic acid molecules before Crick and Watson had he had better X-ray diffraction data available to him.
(How do we know that a crystallized protein has the same structure when not crystallized?)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
50 YBN
[10/??/1950 AD]
| 5564) Alan Mathison Turing (CE 1912-1954), English mathematician, creates the "Turing test", in which a person must decide if they are talking with a human or machine.
(This test should be extended to include all sensory information. It seems very likely that there may already be machines that are very similar in appearance to humans, that have artificial muscles and skin. This can't be ruled out given the secret 200 year development of neuron reading and writing. Clearly there are artificial muscle walking robots that have not been shown to the public. These robots must have significant wisdom in terms of predicting the movements of many objects - including the movements of their mouth muscles, - the images on their thought-screen, etc. It's desirable for humans to have smart walking robot assistants - the more low-skill labor tasks, like cleaning, driving, shopping, cooking, etc. robots can do, the more desirable the robots will be. I think there will always be a detectible difference though - or else the robot would be a human.)
(But this topic is important - in particular because many humans are tricked by the dishonesty of people that abuse advanced technology. Classic examples are the 9/11/2001 phone calls which appear to be fake, and the famous Oswald Life magazine cover which is apparently augmented. But in particular with neuron writing - many poor excluded people are mislead by "voices in their head" that they think are from God - but are from a very violent criminal group of neuron writing humans. It's best to require to see and hear full video and audio with anybody you are talking with - it simply is not a good idea to believe the information given to you by a source which you can't see, hear, etc. because so many humans do lie and because there are so many unpunished and unseen violent humans on the loose.)
(Many humans of this time, do not realize that there is a lot of information machiens can learn simply from having a camera. In addition, electric motors and artificial muscles enable a machine to interact with the images from the camera. So it seems clear that with camera eyes recording light, microphones recording sound, skin sensors, etc. walking robots will have all the same skills that humans have - and probably already do. They will be taught to drive, cook, pick fruits, capturing violent humans, etc. and will probably replace most humans in low-skill jobs. This will create a star system where most people do not work, but collect a minimum of things they need to survive which may include money, but mainly food, clothes, shelter, etc. One area where robots may not be as desirable is for sex, and people may still get money for sexual work once decriminalized for many centuries. All driving, flying, food serving, crop planting and harvesting, cleaning will be done by walking robots perhaps within 200 years. But in terms of robots that think like humans, clearly, robots will understand everything any human can about the universe. There is of course a limitation of distance between stars. Clearly robots will be working to go to other stars and continue to multiply in conjunction with humans. Clearly robots will be the first to reach other stars and beam back images to those of this star, because their bodies will be able to withstand faster acceleration, and as is the case for stopping violence, losing a robot will always be seen as les simportant than losing a human. Robots will understand that there are limits to the amount of matter that can be used to build more robots. For many centuries robots probably will be strictly controlled by humans with very little freedom to decide for themselves outside of very limited choices. Robots will be basically like slaves, following the exact orders of their particular owner. It is interesting to determine who has control over a robot, for example now it is done with a text password, but there must be, of course, much more advanced methods, such as visual, voice, and touch recognition, the same way humans know which person is which, and what the actual truth is. The future with walking robots is very interesting. Many people have fears about robots overpowering humans and using the human matter for their own reproduction, but I seriously doubt this, because humans are smart enough to create such machines, and there is more than enough matter and space in the universe for any life and robots of this tiny star system. There may always be rogue robots, just like there are rogue humans - this problem is a universal problem whether it's between humans or robots or both. Mostly robots will help humans to branch out, explore and colonize planets of other stars.)
(It seems clear that there must be many unknown people who secretly contributed to neuron reading and writing and walking robots among many other secret technologies.)
(Another interesting aspect arises from remote neuron writing, and that is that our neurons, in theory, can be completely controlled from an external source, and so what we are seeing, hearing and feeling may be completely artificial and non existent - simply written there using light particles from some external device. It seems unlikely that completely control over all neurons could be a reality, and then there is the problem of how can invisible food virutally eaten actually contribute to cell growth unless there is actual matter being eaten.)
| (University of Manchester) Manchester, England |
50 YBN
[11/08/1950 AD]
| 5556) US physicist, Glenn Theodore Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) et al, uses carbon ions collided with uranium to produce isotopes of the element californium.
Earlier in September, G. Bernard Rossi, et al had created the first publicly known large-atom atomic fusion by creating atoms of Chlorine by colliding carbon ions with Aluminum.
(read relevent parts of paper.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
50 YBN
[1950 AD]
| 5297) Alfred Kastler (CE 1902-1984) German-French physicist develops a system of "optical pumping" where atoms are illuminated with wavelengths of light which they are capable of absorbing, which they absorb momentarily reaching a high energy state and then emit again.
Kastler uses both visible light and radio light and from the manner of emission can deduce facts about atomic structure. This technique can determine atomic structure more elegantly than the earlier techniques of Rabi. This technique will lead directly to the development of masers and lasers.
In an abstract of a 1950 paper (translated from French with translate.google.com) "Some Suggestions for the Optical Production and Optical Detection of an Inequality of Population of Levels of Quantification space of Atoms. Application of The Experiment of Stern and Gerlach and Magnetic Resonance.": "Summary: 1. In illuminating the atoms of a gas or of an atomic beam by resonance radiation directed (light beam having a particular direction) and properly polarized, it is possible --- when these atoms are paramagnetic at the fundamental level (quantum numbers J != 0 or F != 0) - to obtain an uneven settlement of the various sub-levels m that are characteristic of the spatial quantization or magnetic ground state. A rough estimate shows that with the current means of irradiation, this asymmetry of the population can become very important. The result of the examination of probilities of passage of Zeeman transistions pi and sigma that the illumination in natural light or in polarized rectilinear light permits the contrentration of atoms can focus the atoms according to circumstances, either to sub-levels of medium (m = 0) or, instead, to the sub-field level- (|m| maximum). The use of circularly polarized light creates an asymmetry between population m negative levels and m positive levels, the direction of this asymmetry can be reversed by reversing the direction of circular polarization of the incident light. This creation of asymmetry can be obtained either in the absence of external field or in the presence of a magnetic field or electric field. In the presence of an external field the various sub-levels m (in the case of a magnetic field) or m) (in the case of an electric field) are energetically distinct and creating an asymmetry of population the optical method represents an increase or a decrease of the "spin temperature. Asymmetry of population sub-levels m of the ground state can be detected optically by examining the intensity and polarization of radiation from optical resonance. The use of electric eyes and use a modulation technique used convenient and sensitive detection. 3 ° The optical examination of the various branches into which divides a brush atomic experi-- Stern-Gerlach experience allows control of the quantum level of atoms m each branches. This optical method allows to extend the analysis of magnetic atoms in the experiment Stern and Gerlach to the study of metastable excited levels. , In 4 ° magnetic resonance experiments, the transitions induced by the magnetic field oscillating radio frequency tend to destroy the inequality of population levels m. The study magnetic resonance of atoms of an atomic beam can be done by replacing the fields non-uniform magnetic Rabi device, one by a producer of optical asymmetry that above the magnetic resonance device, the other by an optical detector of the asymmetry output resonator. The optical method allows to extend the study of magnetic resonance to metastable levels. This method allows to study transitions between hyperfine levels in zero field, the hyperfine Zeeman effect in weak fields and the effects hyperfine Paschen-Back in strong fields. Thanks to the connection between the hyperfine Zeeman effect and the effect Paschen'Back hyperfine we can analyser'optiquement pure nuclear resonance in fields that decouple vectors and t7 l. Finally, the study of the Stark effect of an atomic level by the method of resonance can also be done optically. The method of optical study of an atomic beam allows the use of wide beams and poorly defined contours. The apparatus to carry out this study is simple and inexpensive. .5 ° detection sensitivity of magnetic resonance methods radio induction or absorption is limited by the low value of 2013 that governs the factor dissymmetry natural population levels m. This requires the use of material under high Fêtât concentration of solid, liquid or gas. By creating irradiation of the vessel Magnetic resonance asymmetry m artificial levels can make gas or vapor low pressure accessible to these methods of detection. It is also interesting to study, Faction that can have an intensity of irradiation on the magnetic resonance of crystals containing paramagnetic ions absorbing and fluorescent.
6 ° Possibility of heat-effects brightness and brightness-refrigerating: In the case of vapors and crystals of salts of rare earth ions which have a fluorescence yield equal to unity, it should be possible to obtain radiation asymmetry population of the sublevels m ground state or excited state which corresponds, according to the choice of the polarization state of the incident light, an increase or a decrease in the "spin temperature". This tends to reach equilibrium with the gas temperature or the crystal lattice. The result, according cases, an effect of heating or cooling similar to the magneto-caloric. But then ' in the latter one is indeed obliged, to cool a body to proceed in two stages, magnetization and demagnetization for. able to evacuate the heat generated in the magnetization adiabatically, cooling Irradiation may proceed continuously because the thermal energy of the medium is gradually removed by radiation fluorescence antistokes. The possibility of obtaining such radiation depends on the particular structure, fine, hyperfine and magnetic ground states and excited atoms or ions of rare earths. But even if we manage to achieve the experimental conditions of cooling by radiation, this effect remain a scientific curiosity rather than a practical means of obtaining low temperatures.".
In a 1956 paper "Optical Methods of Atomic orientatino and of magnetic Resonance", in the Journal of the Optical Society of America, Kastler writes the abstract: "In the optical excitation of atoms with polarized light, producing excited atoms, only some of the Zeeman sublevels of the excited state are actually reached, so that large differences of population can be built up between Zeeman sublevels or between hyperfine structure (hfs) levels. This property can be used to detect radio-fre quency resonance in optically excited atomic states. These resonances produce a characteristic change in intensity or in the degree of polarization of the light re-emitted. Zeeman intervals, Stark effects, and hfs intervals can be measured in this manner. (The Stark constant of the 61' level of Hg and the electric quadrupole moments of the alkali atoms have been obtained in this way.) The technique of "optical pumping" gives a way to concentrate atoms in some of the Zeeman sublevels of one of the hfs levels of the ground state. Atomic orientation has been obtained with the Na atom, in an atomic beam and in the vapor in equilibrium with the metal. The orientation effects have been studied by detection of radio-frequency resonance signals in the ground state. Orientation can be increased many times by adding a variable pressure of a foreign gas to the pure Na vapor. Because of the coupling between nuclear spin and electron spin, nuclear orientation is produced at the same time as atomic orientation." Kastler then writes: "THE starting point of all research on optical detection of radio-frequency resonance was a paper by Professor Francis Bitter in The Physical Review 1949.1 He showed the importance of studying optically excited states of atoms to obtain information on nuclear properties. For instance: the ground state of alkali atoms is a 2Si state, with J= 2. Radio-frequency measurements on this state can give no information on the electric quadrupole moment of the nucleus. To obtain such information, states with J number greater than 2 are needed, such as the optically excited 'Pi state. The hyperfine structure of optically excited states can be studied by conventional optical methods as interferometric analysis of optical lines, but the precision of radio-frequency methods is much higher. Radio-frequency resonances of optically excited states can be detected by the double resonance method proposed by Brossel and the author and first applied to the 63P, state of the mercury atom by Brossel and Bitter.3 This case is a simple one and quite adequate to explain the principle of the method. We start with the experiment on optical resonance of mercury vapor. Let us consider a coordinate system Oxyz (Fig. 1) and a cell of mercury vapor at its origin. Ho is a permanent magnetic field parallel to the z axis and causing a Zeeman splitting of paramagnetic atomic states The vapor is illuminated by mercury resonance radiation X 2537 A raising the atoms from the ground state 6S to the excited triplet state 63P1. If the incident light is polarized with its electric vector E//oz, only the r Zeeman component of this radiation is excited and all excited atoms are in the Zeeman sublevel m= 0 (Fig. 2). Alternatively in using circularly polarized light in the plane xoy, the m=+1 or the m=- 1 level can be selected. Such a selection is equivalent to an orientation in space of the magnetic moments of the atoms.4 Atoms in the m=-1 state are pointing with their moments in the direction of the field Ho; atoms in the m= + 1 state are pointing with their moments in the opposite direction. If we define a temperature of the optically excited atoms by the Boltzmann relation, applied to the m sublevels, we can say that polarized light is able to produce extreme temperatures: 0:K in the first case, a negative absolute temperature in the second one. ...". (I think this is somewhat theoretical to claim knowledge of the position of the nucleus from emitted light, in particular given doubt about the Pauli theory of electrons, and even doubts about Bohr's interpretation about light emission in atoms. Clearly light resonance is the one solid phenomenon that is clearly demonstrated and is a very interesting phenomenon. It clearly needs to be shown visually in videos for an average person to accept.)
In a 1967 Science article "Optical Methods for Studying Hertzian Resonances", Kastler writes: "During my first year of studies at the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, out teacher, Eugene Bloch, introduced us to quantum physics, which at that time was little taught in France. Like he, I was of Alsatian extraction and knew German. He strongly advised me to read Sommerfeld's admirable book Atombau und Spektrallinien. In the course of this reading, I became particularly interested in the application of the principle of conservation of momentum during interactions between electromagnetic radiation and atoms, an application which had led A. Rubinowicz to the interpretation of the selection rules for the azimuthal quantum number and polarization in the Zeeman effect. In the hypothesis of light quanta, this principle attributed to the photons a momentum + hbar or - hbar according to whether the light was polarized circularly to the right (sigma+) or to the left (sigma-(, natural light being a mixture of the two kinds of photons. In 1931, W. Hanle and R. Bar independently discovered an interesting characteristic of Raman spectra. The study of the polarization of Taman lines at right angles to the incident beam made it possible to classify the Raman lines of a molecule into two categories: "depolarized" lines with a depolarization factor of 6/7 and "polarized" lines, who polarization was generally appreciable. Placzek's theory had attributed the former to periodic molecular motions which modify the symmetry elements the molecule possesses at rest, among which are included rotational Raman lines, and the latter to totally symmetric vibrations which maintain the symmetry elements of the molecule at rest. hanle and Bar illuminated the medium with circularly polarized incident light and observed that, under these conditions, the Raman lines scattered longitudinally had the same circular polarization as the incident light in the case of totally symmetric vibrations, but the direction of circular polarization was reversed for lines not totally symmetrical. in a note, I pointed out that for rotational lines this curious result was an immediate consequence of the principle of conservation of momentum applied to light scattering. At about the same time, Jean Cabannes explained the hanle and Bar result by the classical polarizability theory, but these publications had been preceded by an article of Raman and Bhagavantam who saw proof of the existence of photon spin in the experimental results cited. At the time, another experiment seemed to me appropriate for demonstrating the possible existence of a transverse component of the momentum of photons: the study of linearly polarized light originating from a rotating atomic oscillator and viewed edge on. This case arises for the sigma components of the transverse Zeeman effect, which correspond to the sigma+ and sigma- components of the longitudinal effect. The experiment that I performed during the Easter vacation 1931 at the Physics Laboratory of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris, with the aid of Felix Esclangon, was a failure: there is no transverse component of momentum in light. Here again, I had been preceded by R. Frisch, who had reached similar conclusions. These initial atempts caused me to examine more systematically the consequences of the principle of conservation of momentum in light scattering and in fluorescence. I realized that the optical excitation of atoms in steps constituted a particularly interesting field of application since, in this case, the operator is free to polarize the different monochromatic radiations whose absorption raises the atom through the successive steps of increasing energy. My thesis consisted in applying this method to the mercury atom. it enabled me to check out the various predictions. It constituted a first attempt to obtain, by suitable polarization of the exciting radiation, a selective excitation of definite magnetic sublevels. The very fact that the fluorescence intensity resulting from a step excitation is of nonnegligible order of magnitude relative to the emission intensity resulting from a single excitation showed me, in additoin, that the popular obtained in the course of stationary irradiation in the first excited state may become a nonnegligible fraction of the popularion of the ground state despite the weak intensity of the monochromatic light sources avaiable at that time. After the development of methods of Hertzian resonance of the ground state of isolated atoms by I. Rabi and his students and after the first and famous application by Lamb and Retherford of these methods to the states n=2 of the hydrogen atom, the American physicist Francis Bitter attracted attention to the interest inherent in extending the techniques of radio-frequency spectroscopy to the excited states of atoms; but the method he proposed for doing this proved to be inexact. My former studen Jean brossel was then working under the direction of bitter at M.I.T. After an exchange of correspondence, we collectively concluded that the following very simple technique should lead to the desired objective: The study of optical resonance, for example, that of the mercury atom, had shown that, in the presence of a magnetic field H0, excitation with polarized light, ot simply with a light beam directed in space, made it possible to obtain selective excitation of the Zeeman sublevels of the excited state and that this selection still took place in a zero magnetic field. Thus, in the case of the even isotopes of mercury, excitation by the 2537-Angstrom line with polarization pi leads solely to the sublevel m=0 of the excited state 63P1, whereas excitation with circular polarization sigma+ or sigma- leads, respectively, to the sublevels m=+1 or m=-1 of this state. This selective excitation is reflected b y the polarization of the resonance light emitted again when the exited atom is not perturbed during the showrt life-time of the excited state (~10-7 second). If, while maintaining a constant magnetic field H0 which separates the Zeeman sublevels from the excited state, one applies perpendicular to this field a radio-frequency magnetic field, H1coswt, whose pulsation w coincides with the Larmor frequency W0, magnetic resonance transitions are induced between the ZSeeman sublevels of the excited state, and these transition are manifested by a depolarization of the light emitted by optical resonance. {In the past, Fermi and Rasetti had already applied an alternating magnetic field to exited atoms, but under conditions which did not correspond to a resonance phenomenon.} Therefore, the observation of the state of polarization of this light permits the optical deterction of the magnetic resonance of excited states. We pointed out in the same note that, when the electron beam has a given direciton, as in the experiment of Franck and Hertz, the excitation of atoms by electron impact also led to the emission of polarized spectral lines; this proved that this mode of excitation also insured a selective excitation of the Zeeman subleves of the excited states (alignment), and therefore that this should permit the optical detection of the radio-frequency resonances of these states through observation of the depolarization of the emission lines orignating threefrom. When Jean Brossel was applying the double-resonance method (it combines a magnetic resonance with an optical resonance) to the study of the 62P1 state of the mercury atom, I showed, in an article in Journal de Physique of 1950, that the optical excitation of atoms with circularly polarized light made it possible to transfer the momentum carried by the light to the atoms and thus to concentrate them in the ground state, either in the positive m sublevels or in the negative m sublevels (depending upon whether the light is sigma+ or sigma-) and that it was possible, by the optical pumping, to create, an atomic orientation and also, due to the coupling between the electronic magnetic moement and the nuclear spin, a nuclear orientation. in this manner, it should have been possible to obtain distribution very different from the Bolzmann distribution and thus to create conditions permitting the study of the return to equilibrium, either by relaxation or under the influence of a resonant field. ...". (This seems confusing and I think visually seeing what Kastler and the others did in their labs and their thought-images visualizing their view of atoms would be helpful for the public to understand what they are talking about.)
(Notice the word "Suggestions" in the title. This implies that this method of light particle amplification may relate to neuron writing.)
(It's interesting to replace the idea of increasing an atom's electron "energy levels" with the idea of increasing the atom's electron mass and motion levels.)
(Explain what can be deduced, what wavelengths are produced, typical examples of what Kastler found.)
(State how the frequency of absorbed light compares to that emitted.)
| (Ecole Normale Superieure) Paris, France |
50 YBN
[1950 AD]
| 5298) André Michel Lwoff (luWoF) (CE 1902–1994), French microbiologist, shows that viruses can be coded in bacteria DNA and that ultraviolet light can change a non-lethal virus into a lethal virus that multiplies viruses and destroys the bacterium host cell.
Lwoff explains the phenomenon of lysogeny in bacteria. Lwoff shows that virus-DNA can be incorporated into cellular genes and inherited in cell division. Lysogenic bacteria contain the DNA of a virus in their own DNA, the virus duplicating along with the bacterial chromosome and being passed on to subsequent generations. The virus, however, is nonvirulent and rarely destroys its host. Lwoff shows that the increase of phage numbers in cultures is due to a reversal of the phage state from nonvirulent to virulent, which leads to the multiplication of phage particles in the host and subsequent breakdown or lysis of the host with release of these particles. Lwoff names the noninfective structure in lysogenic bacteria the prophage, and shows that ultraviolet light is one agent that can induce the prophage to produce infective viral particles.
In the 1940s-1950s Lwoff and his co-workers Monad and Jacob show that some genes activate or inhibit other genes, and so are therefore regulatory in function. These genes are referred to as "regulatory genes". Genes are sequences of DNA that create a single protein or nucleic acid (or serve as a bonding site to block other portions of code. (verify my statements)
(This is interesting that virus DNA can be coded in bacteria DNA - and so a virus can be created by bacterial DNA. Clearly it opens the possibility that bacteria cells can be created by DNA that is part of protist cells or the cells of multicellular species.)
| (Institut Pasteur) Paris, France |
50 YBN
[1950 AD]
| 5379) Erwin Chargaff (CE 1905-2002), Austrian-US biochemist, uses paper chromatography to show that in DNA, the number of purine bases (adenine and guanine) is always equal to the number of pyrimidine bases (cytosine and thymine), and also that the number of adenine bases is equal to the number of thymine bases and the number of guanine bases equals the number of cytosine bases.
Paper chromatography was developed in 1944 by Martin and Synge. Initially paper chromatography was used to separate the amino acids and estimate the quantity of each in a particular protein molecule. This finding will help Crick and Watson in understanding the molecular structure of DNA.
(is this process similar to electrophoresis? I guess there is no voltage applied in this technique.)
(Chargaff has earlier works - determine exact chronology.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
50 YBN
[1950 AD]
| 5394) Gerard Peter Kuiper (KIPR or KOEPR) (CE 1905-1973), Dutch-US astronomer, proposes that the asteroids between Mars and Jupiter are the result of the collision of two or more planets.
| (Yerkes Observatory) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
49 YBN
[03/??/1951 AD]
| 5460) UNIVAC I, the first publicly known computer to read and write data to and from magnetic tape, and one of the earliest commercial computers is complete.
US Engineers, John William Mauchly (CE 1907-1980) and John Presper Eckert Jr. (CE 1919-1995) develop the UNIVAC (Universal Automatic Computer), the first publicly known computer to use magnetic tape. The solid state devices, like the transistor, developed and made available to the public by Lilienfeld, Brattain, Bardeen, and Shockley will drastically lower the size of the computer.
The UNIVAC uses a keyboard for input and magnetic tape for all other input and output. Printed output is recorded on tape and then printed by a separate tape printer.
Over 40 UNIVACs are sold. Its memory is made of mercury-filled acoustic delay lines that hold 1,000 12-digit numbers. It uses magnetic tapes that store 1MB of data at a density of 128 characters per inch (cpi).
Valdemar Poulsen (PoULSiN) (CE 1869-1942) had first publicly recorded and played back sound data magnetically in 1898.
| (Remington Rand) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
49 YBN
[05/05/1951 AD]
| 5664) Herbert Friedman (CE 1916-2000), US astronomer, uses a V-2 rocket to determine that the quantity of X_Rays from the Sun increases with altitude.
In 1896, Seneca Egbert detected x-rays in sunlight.
Friedman, Lichtman, and Byram publish this in "Physical Review" as "Photon Counter measurements of Solar X-Rays and Extreme Ultraviolet". As an abstract they write: "Data telemetered continuously from photon counters in a V-2 rocket, which rose to 150 km at 10:00 A.M. on September 29, 1949, showed solar 8A x-rays above 87 km, and ultraviolet light around 1200A and 1500A above 70 km and 95 km, respectively. The results indicated that solar soft x-rays are important in E-layer ionization, that Lyman α-radiation of hydrogen penetrates well below E-layer, and that molecular oxygen is rapidly changed to atomic above 100 km.". (read more of paper?)
(Describe light particle detectors.) (It is somewhat rare to see the word "Photon" being used in physics papers, in particular in 1951.)
| (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
49 YBN
[05/08/1951 AD]
| 5097) Alfred Henry Sturtevant (STRTuVoNT) (CE 1891-1970), US geneticist, presents a map of the fourth and smallest of the fruit fly chromosomes.
Sturtevant writes: "Under ordinary conditions there is so little crossing over in the fourth chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster that the usual method of constructing a map is not practicable. Deduction from the behavior of translocations has been utilized, but as will be shown here, has led to an incorrect result. Bridges and Brehme (1944) give the seriation bt (bent), sv (shaven), ci (cubitus interruptus), gvl (grooveless), ey (eyeless), with 0.2 per cent crossi ng over for the whole series. This crossover value is certainly too high; it may be doubted if as many as five crossovers have ever been detected from diploid females. The results presented below show also that the above sequence is altogether incorrect, the true order being ci, gvl, bt, ey, sv, (with a possibility that the positions of ci and gvl should be reversed). ... Summary.-A map of the fourth chromosome of Drosophila melanogaster, based on crossing over in diplo-IV triploid females, shows the following relations (calculated from the upper half of table 1, with bt inserted on the basis of the data of table 3): ci (0); gvl (0.2); bt (1.4); ey (2.0); sv (3.0). The sequence shown is definitely established except that it is still possible (though unlikely) that ci and gvl should be reversed. The uncertainty arises from the occurrence of unexpected double crossover classes. The sequence given is in agreement with those reached by Fung and Stern in the accompanying paper.".
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
49 YBN
[06/05/1951 AD]
| 5482) English biochemists, Archer John Porter Martin (CE 1910-2002) and A. T. James develop gas-liquid partition chromatography, in which the compressibility of a gas is used to separate molecules in a vapor from a heated liquid, as the gas carries the molecules from the gas-liquid partition down a long thin column.
(Verify that this is an accurate description.)
Gas chromatography is chromatography in which the substance to be separated into its components is diffused along with a carrier gas through a liquid or solid adsorbent for differential adsorption.
In 1941, Archer Martin and Richard Synge had suggested the possibility of gas chromatography. In 1946, Stig Claesson had examined the chromatography of gases in a gas-solid system but this is the first use of gas-liquid chromatography.
This kind of chromatography is generally called "gas chromatography".
| (National Institute for Medical Research) Mill Hill, London, UK |
49 YBN
[06/14/1951 AD]
| 5566) Edward Mills Purcell (CE 1912-1997), US physicist, detects the 1,420 Megacycle/second (21-centimeter) microwave emission of neutral hydrogen atoms in interstellar space, which H. C. van de Hulst had predicted in 1945.
Purcell and Ewen publish this in "Nature" as "Observation of a Line in the Galactic Radio Spectrum". They write: "Radiation from Galactic Hydrogen at 1,420 Mc./sec. THE ground-state of the hydrogen atom is a hyperfine doublet the splotting of which, determined byu the method of atomic beams, is 1,420,405 Mc./sec. Transitions occur between the upper (F=1) and lower (F=0) components by magnetic dipole radiation of absorption. The possibility of detecting this transition in the spectrum of galactic radiation, first suggested by H. C. van de Hulst, has remained one of the challenging problems of radio-astronomy. In interstellar regions not too near hot stars, hydrogen atoms are relatively abundant, there being, according to the usual estimate, about one atom per cm.3. Most of these atoms should be in the ground-state. The detectability of the hyperfine transition hinges on the question whether the temperature which characterized the distributino of population over the hyperfine doublet - which for want of a better name we shall call the hydrogen 'spin temperature' - is lower than, equal to, or greater than the temperature which characterized the background radiation field in this part of the galactic radio spectrum. If the spin temperature is lower than the temperature of the radiation field, this hyperfine line ought to appear in absorption; if it is higher, one would expect a 'bright' line; while if the temperatures are the same no line could be detected. The total intensity within the line, per unit band-width, should depend only on the difference between these temperatures, providing the source is thick enough to be opaque. We can now report success in observing this line. A micro-wave radiometer, built especially for the purpose, consists mainly of a double superheterodyne receiver with pass band of 17 kc., the band being shifted back and forth through 75 kc. thirty times per second. The conventional phase-sensitive detector and narrow (0.016 c./s.) filter then enable the radiometer to record the apparent radio temperature difference between two spectral bands 75 kc. apart. These bands are slowly swept in frequency through the region of interest. The overall noise figure of the receiver, measured by the glow-discharge method is 11 db., and the mean output fluctuation at the recorded corresponds to a temperature change of 3.5°. The antenna is a pyramidal horn of about 12° half-power beam-width. it is rigidly mounted at declination -5°; scanning is effected by the earth's rotation. The line was first detected on March 25, 1951. It appeared in emission with a width of about 80 kc., and was most intense in the directino 18 hr. right ascension. Many subsequent observations have established the following facts. At declination -5° the line is detectible, by our equipment, over a period of about six hours, during which the apparent temperature at the centre of the line rises to a maximum of 25° about background and then subsides into the background. The source appears to be an extended one approximately centred about the galactic plane. The frequency of the centre of the line, which was measured with an accuracy of +-5 kc., was displaced some 150 kc., about the laboratory value, and this shift varied during an observing period. Both the shift and its variation are reasonably well accounted for by the earth's orbital motion and the motion of the solar system toward Hercules. The period of reception shifts two hours per month, in solar time, as it ought to. Some conclusions can already be drawn from these results. Extrapolation of radio temperature data for somewhat lower frequencies suggests that the background radiation temperature near the 21-cm. line is not more than 10° K. Then the hydrogen spin temperature is not more than 35° K., if the source is 'thick'. but we can calculate the opacity of the source on the assumption of a spin temperature of 35° K. and 1 atom/cm3, using only the observed line-0width and the matrix element of the transition in question, and we obtained 900 light-years for the absorption-length. As this is much smaller than galactic dimensions, we conclude that the temperature observed corresponds indeed to the spin temperature at the source. ...".
(I have doubts about this light particle emission being the result of an electron transistion from one orbit to another, but perhaps. I am sure there are many low frequencies of light particles emitted from empty space. Show how this line was much stronger than all others, etc.)
(I'm not sure that spin and temperature can be related.)
(I think that perhaps this radio line is from light emitted from stars and not hydrogen in interstellar space since it seems to be strongest in the direction of the Milky Way galaxy. Since light is most likely a material particle that moves in straight lines, low frequencies of light may be part of many higher frequency beams like those of visible frequencies.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
49 YBN
[07/26/1951 AD]
| 5504) Feodor Lynen (lEneN) (CE 1911-1979), German biochemist, is the first to isolate acetylcoenzyme A, the combination of coenzyme A and acedic acid (a two-carbon fragment).
Lynen links this chemical reaction into the known digestion (cellular respiration) reaction, and will go on to show how coenzyme A (described in 1947 by Fritz Lipmann) plays the central role in the breakdown of fats in the body.
| (University of Munich {Munchen}) Munich, Germany |
49 YBN
[08/27/1951 AD]
| 5516) Field-Ion Microscope. Erwin Wilhelm Müller (CE 1911-1977), German-US physicist, adapts his field-emission microscope of 1936 to create the field-ion microscope (FIM), in which the needle is at a positive potential in low pressure inert gas. Atoms adsorbing on the tip are ionized and the positive ions are repelled from the tip and produce the image.
The resolution of the field-ion microscope is much better than in the field-emission microscope.
Muller publishes this as (translated from German with Google) "The Field-Ion Microscope" in the "Journal for Physics A Hadrons and Nuclei". Muller writes for an abstract: "By reversing the polarity of the field electron can leave adsorbed atoms as positive ions from the object top. This field desorption is up to 3 x 10 8 V / cm followed. During the fast replenishment of the adsorbed atoms enables the field ion emission, a microscopic image of the top surface, the resolution power of the lattice constant obtained.".
Adsorption is defined as "The accumulation of gases, liquids, or solutes on the surface of a solid or liquid.".
Field-ion and field-emission microscopes are of great use in studying gas adsorption and crystal imperfections and also a few large organic molecules, such as phthalocyanine have been visualized.
Levi-Setti and team will develop a scanning transmission hydrogen ion microscope in 1975.
(The images do not look very different from the 1937 image. It seems hard to believe that ions fly off the tip of the needle in so perfectly aligned directions, but perhaps. Seeing all the thought images would help to determine the truth of this theory.)
(It's interesting that you can see rings around each atom- is that a result of actual structure - for example electron rings or some other phenomenon?)
(Cite how biomolecules are imaged.)
| (Kaiser-Wilhelm Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry) Berlin-Dahlem, Germany |
49 YBN
[09/14/1951 AD]
| 5150) Rudolph Leo B. Minkowski (CE 1895-1976), German-US astronomer, identifies the asteroid Geographos which he names for the National Geographic Society-Palomar Observatory (where he is working at the time).
(NGS owns Palomar?)
| (Palomar Observatory) Mount Palomar, California, USA |
49 YBN
[10/??/1951 AD]
| 5505) Feodor Lynen (lEneN) (CE 1911-1979), German biochemist, determines the "fatty acid cycle"; how fatty acids are broken down in digestion.
Lynen shows that coenzyme A (described in 1947 by Fritz Lipmann) plays the central role in the breakdown of fats in the body. Fats are first broken down by the enzyme lipase into a number of free fatty acids. It had been shown in 1904 that these fatty acids are then broken down two carbon atoms at a time. This is done by coenzyme A combining with the fatty acid and forming, after a number of intermediate steps, acetoacetyl coenzyme A at one end of the chain. This can now react with another molecule of coenzyme A causing a two-carbon fragment of acetyl coenzyme A to split off. The process can now be repeated with the result that a fatty acid chain of n carbon molecules is eventually reduced to half that number of acetyl coenzyme A molecules.
| (University of Munich {Munchen}) Munich, Germany (presumably) |
49 YBN
[11/11/1951 AD]
| 6274) The electronics division of entertainer Bing Crosby's production company, Bing Crosby Enterprises (BCE), gives the world's first demonstration of a videotape recording in Los Angeles on November 11, 1951. Developed by John T. Mullin and Wayne R. Johnson since 1950, the device gives what are described as "blurred and indistinct" images, using a modified Ampex 200 tape recorder and standard quarter-inch (0.6 cm) audio tape moving at 360 inches (9.1 m) per second.
In 1956, the Ampex company will introduce the first practical videotape recording machine (VR 1000). This first model is a large reel-to-reel machine that uses four record heads and two-inch wide tape. On November 30, 1956, CBS becomes the first network to broadcast a program using videotape.
| Los Angeles, California, USA[ |
49 YBN
[11/29/1951 AD]
| 5610) First underground nuclear explosive test. This is a 1.2 kiloton exposive named "Buster-Jangle Uncle" which is detonated 5.2 m (17 ft) beneath ground level. (verify)
On September 19, 1957, the 1.7 kiloton explosive "Plumbbob Rainier" will be detonated at 899 ft underground and is the first explosive to be entirely contained underground, producing no fallout.
(todo: show first known large scale underground test that creates a crator.)
| (US Department of Energy Nevada Proving Grounds) Nye County, Nevada, USA |
49 YBN
[12/13/1951 AD]
| 5313) (Sir) John Carew Eccles (eKLZ) (CE 1903-1997), Australian physiologist, with L. G. Brock and J. S. Coombs, argue that a specific chemical transmitter can inhibit neurons from firing, and the a similar specific chemical transmitter can excite neurons to fire.
Eccles deciphers the chemical changes in the synapses (spaces) between nerve cells. The work of Loewi and Dale implied that the impulse crosses the synapse chemically instead of electrically. Eccles uses microelectrodes inserted in nerve cells. (more details)
In 1952, Eccles writes: "...Direct inhibition of motoneurones was associated with a brief hyperpolarization (anelectrotonus) of the surface membrane, which has approximately the time course of the inhibitory effect, and which provides a satisfactory explanation of all inhibitory phenomena. The Golgi-cell hypothesis of inhibition is thereby falsified, and it is argued that the only likely explanation postulates an inhibitory chemical transmitter. Excitatory synaptic action is also probably explicable by a specific chemical transmitter. ...".
Althought in 1936, Bernhard Katz investigated the nature of neuro-muscular transmission in crabs and found that "...Curare, acetylcholine and eserine have little or no effect on the neuro-muscular junction.".
(Sir) Bernhard Katz will show how sodium and potassium ions move into and out of nerve and muscle cells to create and remove electrical potentials.
This view of chemical transmitters, soon will receive strong support from the images from electron microscopes of the fine structure of the chemical synapse by Sanford Palay and George Palade in the United States and Eduardo de Robertis and H. S. Bennett in Argentina. However, within a few years electrical synapses are described by Ed Furshpan and David Potter, and their basis in gap junctions is shown, to give the present understanding of both chemical and electrical transmission in the central nervous system.
(I have doubts about this, not only because of the neuron writing secret 200+ year corruption, but because Eccles, Brock and Coombs' writing is somewhat abstract and not clear. None of the sources give clear dates. Look at the oxford's and Encyclopedia Britannica saying "probably" acetylcholine.)
(sodium and potassium ions are, in effect, electricity, or carriers of electricity. Is there perhaps an effort to remove electricity and the nervous system from people's minds?)
| (Universities of Otago, Dunedin, and Australian National University, Canberra) Canberra, Australia |
49 YBN
[12/20/1951 AD]
| 5444) First atomic fission reactor to produce electricity.
The first atomic fission reactor to produce electricity, the "Experimental Breeder Reactor-1" in Idaho, is activated on December 20, 1951.
This reactor is designed by Walter Henry Zinn (CE 1906-2000), Canadian-US physicist.
| Arco, Idaho (verify) |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 3338) Hagenguth, Rohlfs and Degnan capture a high speed photograph of the spark "pilot streamer", (the first stream of light that connects two electrodes).
Direct photography of this pilot streamer in the case of an impulsive 3 MV discharge has been achieved by Hagenguth, Rohlfs & Degnan (1951 ) using a quartz lens. The gap width was 5 m between rod electrodes and the radius of the pilot streamer 31 cm, a ratio of 16/1. From the records of current in the earth-lead and of potential variations at the cathode it can be estimated that the velocity of the pilot streamer was 3 x 107 cm/s. The average field strength across the gap before discharge and hence the average gradient at the moment the pilot streamer crossed the gap was 6 x 103 V/cm.
This testing is done for General Electric to determine the distances that high voltages will close circuit through air. (Using a less conductive gas or material around the electrodes as opposed to air should increase the safety space, and no doubt insulation around the high voltage electrodes makes closing the circuit in air impossible.)
(I think these two images show that, photons are emitted from some kind of particle reaction, perhaps from the electricity source, and/or atoms in the electrode and atoms in the air, and that this reaction moves from the negative electrode to the positive electrode completing the circuit using atoms of air as the conductor to pass a chain reaction of the photon emitting reaction, whatever that might involve.)
| |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 3339) Gaunt and Craggs (1951) use photomultipliers to measure the speed of electricity 1.0 x 107 cm/s (100 km/s, covers a meter in 10 microseconds). Gaunt and Craggs also report a long spark from a positive point at some 37 kV with reference to an earthed plate.
Gaunt and Craggs write "Previous workers have shown that D. C. positive point to plane corona in air and in other gases of moderate purity consists of several forms of discharge. These are, in order of appearance with increasing voltage, burst pulses and pre-onset streamers, burst corona and finally streamers the lengths of which increase with voltage until one of them crosses the gap and gives rise to a spark.". (It's still not clear to me, does the spark move from both electrodes or mainly 1? Since a spark emanated from both a negative and positive potential to ground, what is the direction between positive and negative electrodes using high speed photography? I think the major questions are: show high speed movies of typical sparks, do they form from negative, positive or both electrodes? The same for various gases. What are their speeds in various gases.)
| (University of Liverpool) Liverpool, England |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 5091) Seth Barnes Nicholson (CE 1891-1963), US astronomer, identifies his fourth satellite of Jupiter (probably a captured asteroid) Jupiter XII (Ananke).
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 5129) (Sir) Franz Eugen Francis Simon (CE 1893-1956), German-British physicist, creates a method for withdrawing heat even more than the Joule-Thomson effect can withdraw by lining up paramagnetic molecules at very low temperatures and then allowing their orientation to become unaligned. This method is called "adiabatic demagnetization", and was supposedly simultaneously proposed by William Giauque (1925) and Peter Debye.
(Determine original paper and read relevent parts - I can't find it.)
(This I doubt because I think a magnetic field must involve particles, probably photons or electrons, and that could only add to the heat, although a magnetic or electric field could be not made of particles (although I doubt it) but is the result of the gravitational effect, or large scale coordinated movement effect of many particles. The idea is creative and interesting, but how did they actually provide evidence of a lower temperature being reached? State how the temperature is measured. I just can't believe that aligning atoms magnetically, then I suppose the magnetic field is then stopped? and the atoms moving out of alignment lowers the temperature. I have doubts about this. In addition Simon appears wealthy which many times, but of course, not always, can imply soft-science or corruption.)
| (Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University) Oxford, England |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 5152) Russian physicists Igor Yevgenyevich Tamm (CE 1895-1971) and Andrey Dmitriyevich Sakharov (CE 1921-1989) introduce the idea of holding hot plasma (electrically charged atom fragments) in place by a magnetic field in trying to use the hydrogen to helium atomic fusion process for electricity production. (verify)
In the early 1950s Tamm and Sakharov propose the principle of magnetic confinement of plasma for a controlled thermonuclear (fusion) reactor (the so-called Tokamak, an acronym for the Russian phrase, Toroidal Chamber with Magnetic Coil).
(This is the technique currently used in the Tokamak design, the design being used for the European fusion reactor.)
(Cite paper, translate and read relevent parts.)
(I think people need to determine what is the highest quantity of light particles that can be emitted from any particle collisions? Finding what is the most efficient extraction of photons to electricity or heating is important as is finding methods to convert common materials into more useful materials using chemical and particle beam reactions. In particular the building up and seperating down of molecules and atoms into more useful products, since this will be a major process in converting raw matter of planets, asteroids and moons into materials for the needs of life like water, oxygen, fuel for ships, etc.)
| Volga region, (Soviet Union) Russia |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 5226) Fritz Albert Lipmann (CE 1899-1986), German-US biochemist, demonstrates that the two-carbon compound Krebs had shown to break down lactic acid into carbon dioxide and water in the Krebs cycle (also citric-acid cycle?), enters the cycle with the help of coenzyme A, and that this two-carbon compound combines with coenzyme A to form acetylcoenzyme A, a very useful molecule which carbohydrates, fats, and most parts of the protein molecule have to pass through in order to be broken down to be used as energy, for example, carbohydrate can be converted to fat through acetylcoenzyme A. (interesting that ATP is like the common currency for all? cells. Perhaps it is used to build the structure of cells. I have a tough time accepting the abstract end product of “energy”, there must be some more specific chemical description of what ATP is used for.)
(Determine original paper. Explain and show graphically - make more easy to understand.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 5302) Electronic computer used to estimate location of the five outer planets from 1653 to 2060.
Dirk Brouwer (BroWR) (CE 1902-1966), Dutch-US astronomer, with Wallace Eckert, and G. M. Clemence publish this as "Coordinates of the five outer planets, 1653-2060". This work contains the estimated coordinates of the five outer planets from 1653 to 2060, and this is the first use of a high-speed electronic computer to solve an astronomical problem.
This book is located in the Library of Congress and the WorldCat catalog states that this book contains: "Apparent position of the five outer planets, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto. 10-day values, subtabulated from 40-day coordinates, by date and planet. Variables include: Julian day; x, y, z coordinates by planet; sign of coordinate.".
(Determine what units for position and time are used.)
(State what computer is used.)
(How do estimates match current observations in 2007? What math was used? Newton or relativity? It seems impossible that these orbits could be remotely close for 2011.)
| |
49 YBN
[1951 AD]
| 5876) Barbara McClintock (CE 1902–1992) identifies genes that are "controlling elements". This work is ignored until 1960 when controlling elements are identified in bacteria by Monod and Jacob.
McClintock tracks a family of mutant genes in corn plants responsible for changes in pigmentation. McClintock notices that mutation rates are variable. After several years of careful breeding, she proposes that in addition to the normal genes responsible for pigmentation there are two other genes involved, which she called "controlling elements". One controlling element is found fairly close to the pigmentation gene and operates as a switch, activating and turning off the gene. The second element appears to be located further away on the same chromosome and is a "rate gene", which controls the rate at which the pigment gene is switched on and off. McClintock also finds that the controlling elements can move along the chromosome to a different site and can even move to different chromosomes where they control different genes. McClintock gives a full description of the process of "transposition", as it becomes known, in her 1951 paper, in the "Cold Spring Harbor Symposia On Quantitative Biology" as "Chromosome Organization and Genic Expression".
| (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Cold Spring Harbor, New York, USA |
48 YBN
[03/10/1952 AD]
| 5584) English physiologists Alan Lloyd Hodgkin (CE 1914-1998) and Andrew Fielding Huxley (CE 1917-) show the "sodium pump" mechanism of a nerve impulse transmission: when a nerve impulse passes, sodium ions flood into the cell and potassium ions move out, and once the nerve impulse has past, sodium ions are pumped out of the cell and pottassium ions move back into the cell.
Using a single nerve fiber of a squid (as large as a millimeter in diameter), Hodgkin and A. F. Huxley show that the inside is rich in potassium ions, and the outside rich in sodium ions. Then an electric potential is applied to the cell. When the nerve impulse starts, sodium ions move into the cell, and potassium ions move out. Once the impulse has passed, sodium ions are pumped out of the cell and potassium ions fill into the cell.
Hodgkin and Huxley publish this in "Journal of Physiology" as "A quantitative description of membrane current and its application to conduction and excitation in nerve". They write: "This article concludes a series of papers concerned with the flow of electric current through the surface membrane of a giant nerve fibre (Hodgkin, Huxley & Katz, 1952; Hodgkin & Huxley, 1952 a-c). Its general object is to discu the results of the preceding papers (Part I), to put them into mathematical form (Part II) and to show that they will account for conduction and excitation in quantitative terms (Part III). PART I. DISCUSSION OF EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS The results described in the preceding papers suggest that the electrical behaviour of the membrane may be represented by the network shown in Fig. 1. Current can be carried through the membrane either by charging the membrane capacity or by movement of ion-s through the resistances in parallel with the capacity. The ionic current is divided into components carried by sodiu m and potassium ions (INa and IK), and a small 'leakage current' (I,) made up by chloride and other ions. Each component of the ionic current is determined by a driving force which may conveniently be measured as an electrical potential difference and a permeability coefficient which has the dimensions of a conductance. Thus the sodium current (INa) is equal to the sodium conductance (9Na) multiplied by the difference between the membrane potential (E) and the equilibrium potential for the sodium ion (ENa). Similar equations apply to 'K and I, and are collected on p. 505. Our experiments suggest that gNa and 9E are functions of time and membrane potential, but that ENa, EK, El, CM and g, may be taken as constant. The influence of membrane potential on permeability can be summarized by stating: first, that depolarization causes a transient increase in sodium conductance and a slower but maintained increase in potassium conductance; secondly, that these changes are graded and that they can be reversed by repolarizing the membrane. In order to decide whether these effects are sufficient to account for complicated phenomena such as the action potentia l and refractory period, it is necessary to obtain expressions relating the sodium and potassium conductances to time and membrane potential. Before attempting this we shall consider briefly what types of physical system are likely to be consistent with the observed changes in permeability. time and membrane potential; the other components are constant. The nature of the permewablity change8 At present the thickness and composition of the excitable membrane are unknown. Our experiments are therefore unlikely to give any certain information about the nature of the molecular events underlying changes in permeability. The object of this section is to show that certain types of theory are excluded by our experiments and that others are consistent with them. The first point which emerges is that the changes in permeability appear to depend on membrane potential and not on membrane current. At a fixed depolarization the sodium current follows a time course whose form is independent of the current through the membrane. If the sodium concentration is such that ENaBENa > E the current changes in sign but still appears to follow the same time course. Further support for the view that membrane potential is the variable controlling permeability is provided by the observation that restoration of the normal membrane potential causes the sodium or potassium conductance to decline to a low value at any stage of the response. ... SUMMARY 1. The voltage clamp data obtained previously are used to find equations which describe the changes in sodium and potassium conductance associated with an alteration of membrane potential. The parameters in these equations were determined by fitting solutions to the experimental curves relating sodium or potassium conductance to time at various membrane potentials. 2. The equations, given on pp. 518-19, were used to predict the quantitative behaviour of a model nerve under a variety of conditions which corresponded to those in actual experiments. Good agreement was obtained in the following cases: (a) The form, amplitude and threshold of an action potential under zero membrane current at two temperatures. (b) The form, amplitude and velocity of a propagated action potential. (c) The form and amplitude of the impedance changes associated with an action potential. (d) The total inward movement of sodium ions and the total outward movement of potassium ions associated with an impulse. (e) The threshold and response during the refractory period. (f) The existence and form of subthreshold responses. (g) The existence and form of an anode break response. (h) The properties of the subthreshold oscillations seen in cephalopod axons. 3. The theory also predicts that a direct current will not excite if it rises sufficiently slowly. 4. Of the minor defects the only one for which there is no fairly simple explanation is that the calculated exchange of potassium ions is higher than that found in Sepia axons. 5. It is concluded that the responses of an isolated giant axon of Lr5ligo to electrical stimuli are due to reversible alterations in sodium and potassium permeability arising from changes in membrane potential.".
(State how electrical current and voltage are involved in these experiments. State who shows that there is a voltage differential from one end of the nerve fiber to the other.)
(Notice the word "excluded" here in 1952.)
(Since sodium and potassium are both positive ions, how can they represent opposite electric potentials?)
(Because of the secret of neuron reading and writting, much of the work done with the nervous system is clearly kept secret and what the public is receiving is extremely limited information relative to that available, which includes thought-screen images and thought-audio and all that was learned in developing that technology.)
| (University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
48 YBN
[03/15/1952 AD]
| 5562) Herbert Charles Brown (CE 1912-2004), English-US chemist, discovers sodium borohydrate which is a useful reducing agent (donates electrons).
Herbert Brown, working with hydrides of boron and aluminum, discovers sodium borohydride which will be a useful reducing agent in chemical procedures. Brown prepares new classes of boron-containing carbon (biotic/organic) compounds.
Brown and collaborators publish this as "Sodium Borohydride, Its Hydrolysis and its Use as a Reducing Agent and in the Generation of Hydrogen" in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society". They write as an abstract: "Sodium borohydride reacts slowly with water ultimately to liberate 4 moles of hydrogen per mole of the compound at room temperature, or 2.4 1. per gram. The reaction is greatly accelerated by rise of temperature or by the addition of acidic substances, for which latter purpose boric oxide is convenient and effective when the objective is the generation of hydrogen. Particularly striking is the catalytic effect of certain metal salts, especially that of cobalt(I1) chloride. Thus pellets of sodium borohydride containing only 5% of the cobalt salt react as rapidly as those containing 10 times that amount of boric oxide. The effect of the cobalt salt is ascribed to the catalvtic action of a material of empirical composition, ColB, which is formed in the initial stages of the reaction.". Brown et al go on to write: "The hydrolysis of sodium borohydride is of interest in connection with the use of the compound as a reducing agent in aqueous solutions2 and because of its potential usefulness for the generation of hydrogen whenever or wherever the use of the compressed gas is inconvenient. Under appropriate conditions, 2.37 1. of hydrogen (gas at S.T.P.) are liberated per mole of the compound, as compared with 1.1 1. for calcium hydride and 2.8 1. for lithium hydride. At ordinary temperatures, however, only a very small percentage of the theoretical amount of hydrogen is liberated at an appreciable rate, since the initial moderately rapid rate soon decreases after the 'borohydride and the water have been mixed. As a result, not only may the aqueous solution of the compound be effectivel y used as a chemical reagent, but a large part of the salt may actually be recovered unchanged from such solutions by removal of water in vacuo. ... Although further work is required on the more practical aspects of the problem, these studies indicate that pellets of sodium borohydride, containing either 50% of boric oxide or 3-7% of cobalt (11) chloride, furnish a convenient, practical source of hydrogen for field generation or for laboratory use when compressed hydrogen cannot be employed conveniently or economically. ...".
(Determine if this is the correct paper. Show images from paper.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
48 YBN
[03/21/1952 AD]
| 5655) Infrared light with a sharply peaked frequency is produced by applying a current to both germanium and silicon. This will lead to the first semiconductor laser.
This is given in a small presentation by J. R. Haynes and H. B. Briggs of Bell Telephone Laboratories on March 21, 1952 at a meeting of the American Physical Society and published as "Radiation Produced in Germanium and Silicon by Electron-Hole Recombination.". They write: "Radiation has been obtained by carrier injection in both germanium and silicon. Analysis shows that at room temperature the radiation intensity is sharply peaked at a wavelength which corresponds so closely to the best estimates of the energy gap that there is little doubt that it is due to the direct recombination of excess electrons and holes. The wavelength of the maximum of the radiant energy from germanium was found to decrease with decreasing temperature from room temperature to that of liquid hydrogen. This decrease is in quantitiative accord with the temperature coefficient of the energy gap deduced from electrical resistivity and Hall measurements... The value of the half-intensity width of the radiation from germanium may be expressed by the emperical formula W=0.022 + 3kT electron volts over the temperature range investigated.".
In 1956, William Bradley will apply for a patent using this effect as an electronic cooling device since this reaction emits more heat than input.
(I think another possible explanation beside the electron-hole combinaton theory, or perhaps as a more accurate description is more like a luminescence where light particles in electricity join atoms, but the constant inflow of light particles in the electric current collides with more light particles and pushes them out, and light particles being pushed out, or freed from the group of atoms have a specific rate depending on the atomic and molecular structure. So in theory the higher the current the higher the frequency the emitted beam would be. It seems that electrons are light particles themselves, or that an electron is a groups of light particles. Clearly electrons and all larger particles are made of light particles and that is a simple truth.)
(Notice how light is called "radiation". Notice too the play on "peaked" - with the double meaning of voyeurism - or looking.)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA (presumably in New Jersey) |
48 YBN
[03/22/1952 AD]
| 5570) Choh Hao Li (lE) (CE 1913-1987), Chinese-US biochemist, isolates adrenocorticotrophic hormone (ACTH) from the pituitary gland.
This hormone stimulate the activity of the adrenal cortex, increasing the output of the corticoids. Because of this, ACTH achieves indirectly what corticoids such as cortisone does directly. Hench will find that cortisone and ACTH both provide relief for rheumatoid arthritis. The pituitary gland seems to function almost as a master gland of the body, coordinating the glands that produce hormones in other places of the body. For example, some pituitary hormones stimulate the activity of the thyroid gland and gonads.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
48 YBN
[03/24/1952 AD]
| 5698) English chemist, (Sir) Geoffrey Wilkinson (CE 1921-1996) and independently, German Chemist, Ernst Otto Fischer (CE 1918-2007), determine the structure of "ferrocene",
In 1951, a compound called dicyclopentadienyl-iron (now called ferrocene) was synthesized. "Ferrocene" has two five-carbon rings in parallel with an iron atom in between, with some amount of bonding between the iron atom and ten carbon atoms. This is a new type of metal-carbon, organometallic" molecule.
In 1952, Wilkins correctly determines that this compound’s structure consists of a single iron atom sandwiched between two five-sided carbon rings. In 1953, Fischer independently determines this same structure. Wilkinson goes on to synthesize a number of other "sandwich" compounds, or metallocenes.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (Technischen Hochschde) Munich, Germany |
48 YBN
[04/02/1952 AD]
| 5743) US geneticist, Joshua Lederberg (CE 1925-2008), with Luigi L. Cavalli and wife Esther M. Lederberg identify gender in the bacteria E. Coli by recognizing that cells with the hereditary factor F+ and those without (F-) can combine, but that F+ and F- cells cannot combine with themselves. This gene will come to be called the "sex factor (F)" gene.
Lederberg et al, publish this in "Genetics" as "Sex Compatibility in Escherichia Coli". They write: "GENETIC recombination in bacteria was first successfully studied in strain K-12 of Escherichia coli (TATUM and LEDERBERG 1947; LEDERBERG 1951). Since the nutritional mutants used in the crosses were derived directly from this strain under clonal propagation, their compatibility implied a homothallic or self-compatible sexual system (cf. WHITEHOUSE 1949). The inference that crossing was genetically unrestricted was supported by the absence of marked hereditary mating preferences among the segregants of a variety of crosses (LEDERBERG 1947, 1949; cf. LEUPOLD 1950). More recently, evidence has been secured for a system of sexual compatibility which was previously obscured by its unique inheritance via an infective agent. ... SUMMARY Fertility of E. coli crosses has previously been thought to be homoth:illic or gene tically unrestricted. This view has been altered with the discovery of selfincompatible stocks, designated as F- mutations. Thus, F- x F- is completely infertile. F- x F+ and F+ x F+ are both fertile, but the latter combination is less productive in such a way as to suggest a gradient of relative sesual potencies among various F+ stocks. Self-compatibility is determined by an ambulatory or infective hereditary factor that is readily transduced from F+ to F- cells in mixed culture. The phenotypic expression of F+ is subject to environmental control (aeration) in some stocks. The polarity of crosses with respect to compatibility status influences the segregation mechanism in an orderly way, not yet well understood, but interpretable on the basis of a sexual process underlying recombination in E. coli.".
| (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA and (Istituto Sicroterapico Milanese) Milan, Italy |
48 YBN
[04/04/1952 AD]
| 5677) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, synthesizes the first non-aromatic steriod. This allows the synthesis of many steroids including the previously unsynthesized cholesterol and cortisone.
Cholesterol is a fatty substance found in the myelin coating of nerves, and on the interior surface of arteries with atherosclerosis. Cortisone is a steroid hormone important in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis found by Hench a few years earlier.
Woodward and team publish this in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society" as "The Total Synthesis of Steroids". They write as an abstract: "4-Methoxytoluqu inone (VI) is transformed in twenty stages into dlΔ9(11),16-bisdehydro-20-norprogesterone (LXIV) (ca. 1 g./100 g. VI). This substance, the first totally synthetic non-aromatic steroid, is converted to methyl dl-3-keto-Δ4.9(11),16 etiocholatrienate (LXVI), and resolved. The identity of the synthetic dextrorotatory ester with a substance of the same structure derived from natural sources is shown. In view of the large body of known interconversions within the steroid group, and of the presence in (LXVI) of reactive functions in opposite positions in rings A, C and D, the transformation of the ester into many other steroids may be brought about directly by substantially routine methods. Thus, the triply unsaturated ester is converted by full hydrogenation and oxidation to methyl 3-ketoetio allocholanate (LXX, R = Me) and thence to cholestanol (LXXVII, R = H). On the other hand, by partial hydrogenation, followed by reduction of the 3-keto group and acetylation, methyl 3α-acetoxy-Δ9(11)-etiocholenate (LXXX, R = Ac, R' = Me) is obtained. From these intermediates, the paths to progesterone, desoxycorticosterone, testosterone, androsterone, cholesterol and cortisone have been described previously by other investigators.".
(One interesting issue about molecule synthesis is that there must be a variety of ways to synthesize a molecule with different starting molecules - some easier than others. Perhaps the most useful synthesis uses very common molecules to produce previously unsynthesized or difficultly synthsized useful molecules.)
(Describe more about the importance of this synthesis, for example does this lead to low cost products for the public?)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
48 YBN
[04/09/1952 AD]
| 5431) US microbiologist, Alfred Day Hershey (CE 1908-1997), and Martha Chase show that the nucleic acids of the bacteriophage enter the bacterium cell, and that it is the nucleic acid, and not the protein associated with the bacteriophage, that carries the genetic message.
(Determine correct paper)
In April 1952 Hershey and Chase had written "... The sulfur-containing protein of resting phage particles is confined to a protective coat that is responsible for the adsorption to bacteria, and functions as an instrument for the injection of the phage DNA into the cell. This protein probably has no function in the growth of intracelIular phage. The DNA has some function. Further chemical inferences should not be drawn from the experiments presented.".
A year later, Watson and Crick will uncover the structure of nucleic acids.
| (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, New York, USA |
48 YBN
[04/14/1952 AD]
| 5541) H. L. Anderson, Enrico Fermi, Nagle and Yodh experimentally confirm that "spin" for nuclear particles is a useful and valid quantum number when examining the results of the scattering and capture of pions in liquid hydrogen. This finding will be refered to as the "pion-nucleon resonance".
(I have a lot of doubts about the truth of this claim. It's not clear even what the claim is. In addition, it needs to be much more clearly explained. Does this somehow prove that spin is conserved?)
(Note the typo of isotropic and isotopic - this paper is already confusing enough.)
(It seems unlikely to me that the direction of scattered particles in collisions would be consistent, because there migh be minor variations in their initial direction.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, illinois, USA |
48 YBN
[05/19/1952 AD]
| 5218) Karl Ziegler (TSEGlR) (CE 1898-1973), German chemist, improves on the plastic polyethylene by adding metals which create carbon-metallic compounds stronger than polyetylene and with higher melting point.
One of the earliest plastics, polyethylene, was simply made by polymerization of the ethylene molecule into long chains containing over a thousand ethylene units. Polyethylene is formed by the two-carbon compound, ethylene, being connected into long chains, end to end, but branches form in the chain which weaken the final product and give it a low melting point, only slightly above the boiling point of water. In 1953 Ziegler introduces a family of catalysts that prevent such branching and produce a much stronger plastic, one which can be soaked in hot water without softening. The catalysts are mixtures of organometallic compounds containing such metallic ions as titanium and aluminum. The new process has the additional advantage that it requires much lower temperatures and pressures than the old method.
This idea of using a metal Ziegler gets from the famous metallic-organic compounds developed by Grignard. Natta will use similar catalysts to orient molecules into long chains in which small side-chains of carbon atoms all point the same way instead of in different directions, and so these plastic and other polymers with useful properties can be designed.
Ziegler writes in 1952 (translated from German) "Aluminium-organic Synthesis in the Range of Olefinic Hydrocarbons": "It Has been possible to clarify the course of a new type of reaction for the addition of α-olefines to LiALH4 and ALH3. It is now also possible, through the addition products, to reduce the CC-linkage in certain olefines with LiALH4 and ALH3. Aluminium-trialkyls also are capable of being added to ethylene or α-olefines. At temperatures of approx. 200°C, aluminium-trialkyls will act as mere catalysts and convert ethylene and other olefines into higher olefines by polymerization. This process has already been tried on a semitechnical scale. The results open new possibilities in organic synthesis and its technical application. ...".
(Describe how ethylene is put together end to end - does this occur naturally?) (Describe and show chain weakening because of branching.)
(Verify paper and date - is 1953 an error? This 1952 paper seems correct.)
| (Max-Planck-Institute for Coal Research), Mulheim-Ruhr, Germany |
48 YBN
[06/12/1952 AD]
| 5757) US physicist, Donald Arthur Glaser (CE 1926- ) invents a bubble-chamber particle detector.
Glaser invents the "bubble chamber", a liquid filled chamber that is used to detect high velocity charged particles that ionize atoms in the chamber similar to Wilson's cloud chamber but using a liquid instead of gas. Glaser realizes that since atoms of gas are farther apart than in a liquid or solid, less atoms are ionized by high velocity charged particles than would be in a liquid (or solid). So instead of allowing supercooled vapor to condense about ions forming drops of liquid in a volume of gas, Glaser theorizes that superheated liquid may boil around ions forming drops of gas in a volume of liquid. In his first bubble chamber, Glaser uses ether, but finds more efficiency at lower temperatures and switches to liquid hydrogen. Within a decade large bubble chambers six feet in diameter holding 150 gallons of liquid hydrogen are in use. Bubble chambers are more sensitive than cloud chambers and are useful for the high-velocity particles that collide with more atoms in a liquid than in a gas, are more quickly slowed and form shorter and more highly curved paths that can be studied in their entirety.
The bubble chamber, using liquid hydrogen at low temperature, is now a basic component of almost all high-energy physics experiments, and has been the instrument of detection of many strange new particles and phenomena. Present-day bubble chambers are much bigger (and more expensive) than Glaser's original, which was only three cubic centimeters in volume.
The particle stopping power (g/cm2) for the cloud chamber (if the pressure is < 1 atmosphere) is about 0.01, and for the photographic emulsions is about 200. The stopping power for liquid bubble chambers depends on the liquid used and ranges from 0.05 for hydrogen to 2.3 for xenon. So the high stopping power of the photographic emulsions is also achieved by the bubble chambers, which, as opposed to the photographic emulsions have the advantage of having large volumes.
Glaser publishes this in a letter to "Physical Review" as "Some Effects of Ionizing Radiation on the Formation of Bubbles in Liquids". Glaser writes: "FOR many problems connected with the study of high energy nuclear events and their products in cosmic-ray interactions, it would be very desirable to have available a cloud-chamber-like detector whose sensitive volume is filled with a hydrogen-rich medium whose density is of the order of 1 g/cc. In investigating possible way of making such an instrument, it seemed promising to try to make a device which takes advantage of the instability of superheated liquids against bubble formation in the same way that a Wilson cloud chamber utilizes the instability of supercooled vapors against droplet formation. A macroscopic continuum theory of the stability of small bubbles in a superheated liquid has been developed which predicts that bubbles carrying a single electronic charge will tend to collapse more readily then uncharged bubbles, while bubbles carrying two or more charges will be unstable against rapid growth under some circumstances. On the basis of this picture on can estimate the conditions of temperature and pressure under which a pure liquid in a clean vessel becomes unstable against boiling due to the presence of ions. An experimental test of the theory for radiation-induced ionization was made by maintaining diethyl ether in a thick-walled glass tube at a temperature near 130°C and under a pressure of about 20 atmospheres. In the presence of a 12.6-Mc Co60 source, the liquid in the tube always erupted as soon as the pressure was released, while when the source was removed, time delays between the time of pressure release and eruptive boiling ranged from 0 to 400 seconds with an average time of about 68 seconds. The average time between successive traversals of the tube by a hard cosmic-ray particle is estimated to be 34 seconds. A second test was made by removing the CO60 source from its lead shield at a distance of 30 feet from the ether tube while the latter was sensitive and waiting for a cosmic-ray or local ionizing event. in every case the tube erupted in less than a second after exposure to the source. A "coincidence telescope" consisting of two parallel tubes was constructed and coincidences apparently resulting from vertical cosmic rays were observed with roughly the expected ratio of single to {ULSF: typo?} coincident eruptions. The coincident bubbles occurred near each other in the two neighboring tubes, but other single events occurred at random at different placed in the tubes. ...".
A year later Glaser publishes a photo of particle tracks captured in a liquid.
In his Nobel lecture, Glaser states: "...At the University of Michigan there were no cryogenic facilities in 1953, so I travelled to the University of Chicago and worked on liquid-hydrogen bubble chambers with Hildebrand and Nagle, who soon showed that superheated liquid hydrogen was radiation sensitive. Shortly after that, Wood at Berkeley photographed the first tracks in liquid hydrogen. Many other liquids were tested in our laboratory and in other places. No liquid that has been tested seriously has failed to work as a bubble chamber liquid. ...".
In 1968, Georges Charpak will build the first multiwire proportional chamber. Unlike earlier detectors, such as the bubble chamber, which can record the tracks left by particles at the rate of only one or two per second, the multiwire chamber records up to one million tracks per second and sends the data directly to a computer for analysis.
(Determine if solid detectors replace both the cloud and bubble chamber and what are the current most popular designs in use.)
(Potentially images could be electronically captured faster - perhaps with a parallel set of light detectors in a similar way as the multi-wire detector.)
(It is interesting to compare the density of various bodies of matter, in terms of average number of light particles per unit of space.)
(Indicate who is the first to construct a successful bubble chamber and show chamber and particle track images.)
(Determine if not patented.)
| (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
48 YBN
[07/16/1952 AD]
| 5693) Frederick Sanger (CE 1918-), English biochemist, determines the order of amino acids in (bovine) insulin.
After eight years of work Sanger determines the some fifty amino acids on two interconnected chains in the insulin molecule. Paper chromatography introduced by Martin and Synge made it possible to tell how many amino acids are in the molecule of a protein. Insulin is made of some 50 amino acids among two interconnected chains. Sanger works out the order of amino acids in the smaller amino acid chain fragments and then deduces the longer chains that could only give rise to just these short chains. Other chemists will use this technique to work out the structure of more complicated molecules. For example, Li's group will work out the structure of the pituitary hormone ACTH, and Du Vigneaud will determine the structure of the comparatively simple amino acid chains of oxytocin and vasopressin. Sanger only draws the insulin structure on a straight line. In 1960, Kendrew and Perutz will locate the position of each amino acid in the three dimensional structure of protein molecules like myoglobin and hemoglobin.
This is one of the first protein structures identified. Sanger's work enables the synthesis of insulin artificially and generally stimulates research in protein structure. Synthetically produced insulin is used in the medical treatment and management of diabetes mellitus (type I).
At the end of 1963 Zahn and coworkers and around the same time Kaysoyannis et al in cooperation with Dixon succeed in preparing sheep insulin.
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
48 YBN
[07/19/1952 AD]
| 5442) Muller, Schlittler, and Bein isolate a crystalline alkaloid from the roots of the plant Rauwolfia serpentina Benth which is named "reserpine", this is the first of the tranquilizers.
(Get portraits and birth-death dates)
| (Ciba Aktiengesellschaft) Basel, Switzerland |
48 YBN
[08/??/1952 AD]
| 5591) High altitude balloon launched rockets ("Rockoons").
The rockoon concept seems to have been originated by Lt. M. L. (Lee) Lewis during a conversation with S. F. Singer and George Halvorson during the Aerobee firing cruise of the U.S.S. Norton Sound in March 1949. (verify)
James Alfred Van Allen (CE 1914-2006), US physicist uses rockoons, a combination of rocket and balloon. A balloon carries a rocket into the stratosphere and the rocket is then ignited by radio signal from the ground. The advantage is that the rocket starts with most of the atmosphere below it and so therefore less gravitational force and less air resistance which allows the rocket to reach higher altitudes.
Van Allen first put rockoons to practical use when he and his group from the University of Iowa fire several from the Coast Guard Cutter ship "East Wind" during its cruise off Greenland in August and September 1952. Van Allen is looking for high-altitude radiation near the magnetic poles and needs a vehicle that can reach well over 80 km (50 mi) with an 11-kg (25-lb) payload and yet still be launched easily from a small ship.
| (Coast Guard Cutter ship |
48 YBN
[11/01/1952 AD]
| 5470) First hydrogen fusion bomb exploded.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica physicist Stanislaw Marcin Ulam (CE 1909-1984) proposes to use the mechanical shock of an atomic bomb to compress a second fissile core and make it explode; the resulting high density would make the burning of the second core’s thermonuclear fuel much more efficient. Edward Teller (CE 1908-2003), Hungarian-US physicist, in response suggests that radiation, rather than mechanical shock, from the atomic bomb’s explosion be used to compress and ignite the thermonuclear second core.
In September 1951, Los Alamos proposes a test of the Teller-Ulam concept for November 1952. Richard L. Garwin, a 23-year-old University of Chicago postgraduate student of Enrico Fermi’s, who was at Los Alamos in the summer of 1951, is primarily responsible for transforming Teller and Ulam’s theoretical ideas into a workable engineering design for the device used in what is called the "Mike" test. The device weighs 82 tons, in part because of cryogenic (low-temperature) refrigeration equipment necessary to keep the deuterium in liquid form. The bomb is successfully detonated during Operation Ivy, on Nov. 1, 1952, at Enewetak. The explosion achieves a yield of 10.4 megatons (million tons), 500 times larger than the Nagasaki bomb, and produces a crater 1,900 metres (6,240 feet) in diameter and 50 metres (164 feet) deep.
This kind of design is referred to as a "thermonuclear weapon". Thermonuclear relates to the fusion of atomic nuclei at high temperatures: thermonuclear reactions.
The British Interplanetary Society will use the fusion atomic explosion design in a "project Daedalus" which is a ship that uses the matter emitted from a hydrogen fusion reaction to propel a ship to a different star. Using the light particles released when atoms separate from fission and other atomic transmutation reactions seems like an inevitable choice to propel ships between planets and stars.
(I have a lot of doubts about the official story of the hydrogen bomb. In particular, clearly, the explosion is mainly light particles and atoms, and there is no question that this represents a loss of mass. Clearly, if looking for the most emitted light particles, there must be many other nuclear chain reactions. Perhaps there was a systematic search to see which particle transmutations released the most light (heat). Because of all the dishonesty relating to neuron reading and writing and microscopic dust-sized particle beam devices, it is safe to presume that much of the information told to the public are lies. In particular when you see how open the dishonesty is surrounding the murder of the Kennedies and 9/11 - and those are just the most obvious and public lies.)
(1952 The first Hydrogen bomb explosion takes place in 1952 on a Pacific island. The Soviet Union quickly follows with an explosion of its own, and in 10 years the force of these bombs is increased to 50 megatons, the equivalent of 50 million tons of TNT, or 200 times the power of the bomb exploded over Hiroshima.)
(I somewhat doubt the claims of the H-bomb. It cannot be easy to actually measure the volume of an explosion. Check and see if possible how much larger in volume was the tested Hydrogen bomb? Also take into consideration that amount of matter involved.)
(While bombs, like uranium fission bombs, and TNT, cordite, etc. bombs are extremely dangerous and destructive, it seems likely that the dust-sized particle device network is a much more dangerous weapon. The microscopic flying particle weapon network is much faster, can penetrate almost any location on earth with far less detection, is very difficult to trace and/or stop, can be moved and fired much more rapidly than any large nuclear bomb can be - in microseconds - and then with computer controlling - by the millions - simply particle beam murdering millions of humans in milliseconds. And then to think that this technology is a complete secret from the public, and in the hands of people who felt comfortable doing 9/11 and millions of other murders.)
(It seems unusual that hydrogen with so few light particles would be a large source of light particles - as opposed to a larger atom like Plutonium with many more light particles that are potentially released when the atom is split apart. I think that it may be that the claim of the source of most of the light particles emitted in a Hydrogen bomb are from hydrogen to helium fusion seems probably to be false to me. Perhaps that was some story created to throw off teams in other countries and to hide development of atomic transmutations that produce more light, better methods of compressing the explosives, more plutonium, etc.)
(Determine what is the difference between mechanical shock and radiation shock in terms of design. it seems like these would be identical - perhaps a way of two people getting credit for some scientific advance.)
(Show video of test.)
| (Elugelab Island in the Enewatak Atoll of the) Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean |
48 YBN
[12/01/1952 AD]
| 5782) Marian Danysz and Jerzy Pniewski identify the first hyperon, the Λ0 particle.
Encyclopedia Britannica explains hyperons this way: hyperons are quasi-stable members of a class of subatomic particles known as baryons that are composed of three quarks. Hyperons are more massive than their more-familiar baryon cousins, the nucleons (protons and neutrons), and are distinct from them in that hyperons contain one or more strange quarks. Hyperons, in order of increasing mass, include the lambda-zero (Λ0) particle, a triplet of sigma (Σ) particles, a doublet of xi (Ξ) particles, and the omega-minus (Ω−) particle. Each of the seven particles, detected during the period 1947–64, also has a corresponding antiparticle. The discovery of the omega-minus hyperon was suggested by the Eightfold Way of classifying hadrons, the more-general group of subatomic particles to which hyperons are assigned. Hadrons are composed of quarks and interact with one another via the strong force. The theory is that hyperons are produced by the strong force in the time it takes for a particle traveling at nearly the speed of light to cross the diameter of a subatomic particle, but their decay by the weak force (which is involved in radioactive decay) takes millions of millions of times longer. Because of this behaviour, hyperons—along with K-mesons, with which they are often produced—were named strange particles. This behaviour has since been ascribed to the weak decays of the specific quarks—also called strange—that they contain.
People think that hyperons and K-mesons should disintegrate by strong interactions too, but instead they separate by weak interactions. The difference is that weak interactions take place in a billionth of a second (nanosecond) and this time is a billionth or more times longer than the time required for a strong reaction. Because K-mesons and hyperons hold together for a trillionth of a second instead of a trillionth of a trillionth of a Murray Gell-Mann labels K-mesons and hyperons "strange" particles.
Danysz and Pniewski publish this in "Philosophical Magazine", "Delayed Disintegration of a Heavy Nuclear Fragment". They write: "A REMARKABLE coincidence of two events recorded in a photographic emulsion has recently been observed in this laboratory. Chronology of Milestone Events in Particle Physics
About Contents Introduction Synopsis Search Subject Index Summaries Texts
DANYSZ 1953
Danysz, M.; Pniewski, J.; Delayed Disintegration of a Heavy Nuclear Fragment Phil. Mag. 44 (1953) 348;
Motivation A remarkable coincidence of two events recorded in a photographic emulsion has recently been observed in this laboratory. It occurred in a G5 emulsion, 600u thick, which had been exposed to cosmic radiation at an altitude of 85 000 feet, and consists of two stars marked A and B in the photo-micrograph reproduced in Plate 13. The centre of the star B coincides with the end of the track of a heavy fragment ejected from the star A. If the coincidence is not accidental, it must be considered as an example of the delayed disintegration of a heavy fragment. The probability of a fortuitous coincidence is very small, and it therefore seemed appropriate to analyse the events more closely. It is clear, of course, that any novel conclusions drawn from a single observation should be treated with proper reserve. ... CONCLUSION Assuming that the event is not due to a chance coincidence, we are left with various alternative possibilities. It might be attributed either to an interaction between a heavy fragment and a nucleus of the emulsion, or to the spontaneous decay of the heavy fragment (Schopper 1947, Lovera 1947, Hodgson and Perkins 1949). The first interpretation fails because of the small, if not zero, final kinetic energy of the fragment. For the second interpretation to be valid, the fragment must have been emitted with a high internal energy, at least 120 MEV and probably more. Further, it must have remained stable, against both γ-transitions and the emission of particles, during a time grater than 3 x 10-12 sec. These considerations make it difficult to interpret the event in terms of a highly excited state of the nucleus. It might be supposed alternatively, that the explosion was due to a π-meson capture at B, the meson being picked up in a Coulomb orbit round the heavy fragment as the latter left the disintegration at A. It would then be regarded as a kind of "delayed" α star. The weight to be given to this assumption depends on estiamtes of the probability of the heavy fragment picking up the meson in the disintegration A-if such a process is indeed possible- and of the time likely to elapse between the instant of capture of the meson into the orbit and its interaction with the nucleus. This time interval is generally considered to be of the order of 10-12 sec or less. An alternative explanation of the event may be sought in terms of the heavy neutral F10 particle, or of similar charged particles, which may be considered as a nucleons in excited states, with mean lifetime greater than 10-10 sec. It is possible that such particles exist not only as free particles, but also in bound states within nuclei. If the fragment were formed with such an excited particles among its nucleons, this could perhaps account for the delayed disintegration as well as for the observed release of energy. The kinetic energy Q, released in the decay V10->p+ + π- would be augmented by the rest-energy of the created π-meson, if the latter were absorbed in the same nucleus.".
(Portraits, birth-death dates, cite work, read relevent parts.)
(For myself, I doubt the theory of nuclear forces, and the quark theory, and view all matter as made of light particles with most interaction being the result simply of inertia and particle collision.)
(Which is the most massive particle yet identified? Since particles are probably combinations of other particles, I think it is not accurate to say that some particle is most massive.)
(Describe each hyperon. What makes the hyperons similar? State their charge. According to Asimov, like K-mesons, hyperons are created by strong interactions. Explain what this means, what defines a strong interaction, is it based only on the duration of the event? does it involve the particle kinds involved?)
(how do these separation times compare to other particles? Is duration related to mass? probably not. )
(what particles do hyperons decay into and how many?)
(I think these short duration particles are probably the tracks of protons, electrons and other composite particles separating into their source light particles - and probably this does not happen the same way every time.)
| (University of Warsaw) Warsaw, Poland |
48 YBN
[1952 AD]
| 5123) Walter Baade (BoDu) (CE 1893-1960), German-US astronomer, creates a new period-luminosity curve for population I variable stars which makes the most distant galaxies 5 to 6 billion light years away.
(One mystery about this is that apparently Baade does not formally publish this work - determine if there is any formal explanation and equations. This only adds fuel to the theory that this is somehow a corrupted determination.)
The relationship between period and luminosity of Cepheid variable stars, had been discovered by Henrietta Leavitt in 1912 and put into a quantified form by Harlow Shapley so that it could be used in the determination of large stellar distances. In the 1920s Hubble had found Cepheids in the outer part of the Andromeda galaxy, and, using the period-luminosity rule, had calculated the distance of Andromeda as 800,000 light-years.
Baade claims that the period-luminosity curve worked out by Shapley and Leavitt applies only to population II Cepheids, and works out a new period-luminosity curve for population I Cepheids. Baade claims that the distance estimates for stars in the globular clusters of this galaxy, and the Magellenic Clouds are still accurate because they are population II stars. However, Baade states that the estimates made by Hubble, based on variable population I stars of the other galaxies are too small. Instead of 800,000 light years to the Andromeda Galaxy, Baade estimates the distance to be 2 million light-years. In addition, the farthest visible galaxies are said by Baade to be 5 to 6 billion light-years away, which greatly increases the estimate of the size of the known gallaxies. This estimate of 5 or 6 billion years old for the universe is enough time to allow the geological estimates of 3 billion years for the age of the earth's crust. Baade estimates that the other galaxy are therefore, around the same size as the Milky Way Galaxy, and that Andromeda is infact even larger than the Milky Way. Attention will turn towards clusters of galaxies, which are examined by Zwicky and others.
Notes in the 1952 transactions of the International Astronomical Union read: "... Dr Baade then went on to describe several results of great cosmological significance. He pointed out that, in the course of his work on the two stellar populations in M 31, it had become more and more clear that either the zero-point of the classical cepheids or the zero—point of the cluster variables must be in error. Data obtained recently-- Sandage’s colour-magnitude diagram of M 3--supported the view that the error lay with the zero-point of the classical cepheids, not with the cluster variables. Moreover, the error must be such that our previous estimates of extragalactic distances—not distances within our own Galaxy--were too small by as much as a factor 2. Many notable implica- tions followed immediately from the corrected distances: the globular clusters in M 31: and in our own Galaxy now come out to have closely similar luminosities; and our Galaxy may now come out to be somewhat smaller than M 31. Above all, Hubble’s characteristic time scale for the Universe must now be increased from about 1-8 x 109 years to about 3·6 x 109 years. In reference to recent work by Dr Hubble, Dr Baade said that re-determinations of red—shifts were being carried out up to a limit of 90,000 km./sec. Dr Hubble was also carrying out further investigations on the distribution of nebulae in depth, using the 200-inch telescope. ...". (As bigger telescopes are made, more distant galaxies can be seen, and then astronomers increase the size of the known universe. Currently the estimate is 15 billion by the established astronomers, however, it seems clear that the universe is probably infinite in size. The estimates of distance are highly inexact. Estimates of the apparent and actual size of stars, the intrinsic brightness, are very inexact, in particular when we are talking about objects of only a few dots in size. In my opinion, we should accept that these are rough estimates, and mainly use the perspective measure with perhaps a tiny offset (based on source intensity) for intrinsic brightness as the major guide, in particular the idea that the spiral galaxies are probably similar in size, and use this to show that the Doppler shift is not consistent with perspective and is probably related more to gravitational red-shift of random objects in the path of light. )
(Show the eyes and thought calls going on at the time- was this mostly just to justify an older universe?)
(State what Baade bases this on. How does Baade prove that the p-l curve (show) of S-L is wrong?)
(Determine and state if Hubble used variable stars or Doppler shift to determin distance to other galaxies?)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
48 YBN
[1952 AD]
| 5128) Harold Clayton Urey (CE 1893-1981), US chemist, states that life is probably common in the universe. Urey thinks that the early atmosphere of the earth is a "reducing" atmosphere (an atmosphere which removes oxygen from or adds hydrogen to compounds), rich in hydrogen, ammonia, and methane, like the atmophere of the giant outer planets. In 1953 Stanley Miller will (create amino acids) in Urey's lab.
Urey publishes these views (verify) in his 1952 book "The Planets: Their Origin and Development". In this book Urey also states that this star system is a double star with Jupiter as the second star.
(I think the chemical interpretation of the full spectrum and internal composition of all planets and moons needs to be made public and explained to all.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
48 YBN
[1952 AD]
| 5407) William Maurice Ewing (CE 1906-1974), US geologist, theorizes that the presence of submarine canyons (deep rifts in the continental shelf, or relatively shallow ocean area around the perimeter of the continents) are formed by turbulent undersea flows of mud and sediment, and not by rivers running at a time when the sea was much lower.
(could be made clearer.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
48 YBN
[1952 AD]
| 5670) Jean Dausset (DOSA) (CE 1916-2009), French physician, detects the presence of anti-leucocyte antibodies, which cause the agglutination of certain varieties of leucocytes, and which are inactive on the patient's own leucocytes.
In 1951 Dausset had shown that the blood of certain universal donors (those of blood group O), which had been assumed safe to use in all transfusions, can, in fact, be dangerous because of the presence of strong immune antibodies in their plasma, which develop following antidiphtheria and antitetanus injections. Donor blood is now systematically tested for such antibodies.
Dausset finds that there is a severe reduction in white blood cells (leukocytes) that occurs in people who receive many blood transfusions. Dausset finds that this cell loss results from the action of antibodies that selectively attack the foreign leukocytes received through transfusion while avoiding the body’s own white blood cells. Dausset correctly hypothesizes that these antibody reactions are stimulated by certain antigens, located on the surface of foreign white blood cells, that are later called human leukocyte antigens (HLA). These antigens prove to be extremely useful in determining whether tissues from one person might be successfully transplanted to another individual (a process, similar to blood typing, called tissue typing). Dausset also demonstrates that the HLA antigens are programmed by a highly variable gene complex which is shown to be analogous to the H-2 complex in the mouse discovered by George Snell. Both systems will come to be seen as types of the major histocompatibility complex, which functions in helping the immune system of all vertebrates to distinguish between its own cells and foreign substances.
(Perhaps red blood cells (or corpuscles) do not agglutinate because red blood cells contain no DNA. Determine if red blood cells are otherwise identical to other cells.)
(Determine chronology and correct paper)
(As a minor statement: Dausset uses the word "leukocidin" to describe an object or molecule that kills leukocytes, and this, using of words to describe phenomena that could be perhaps more simply described, for example as "leukocyte killer", to me, seems, kind of characteristic of many people in the health-sciences. Using more simple language allows a larger group to understand a finding, and reaches more people which increases the chances of success and survival of science and better health.)
| (Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine) Paris, France. (presumably) |
47 YBN
[02/13/1953 AD]
| 5786) Stanley Lloyd Miller (CE 1930-2007), US chemist, produces amino acids by circulating methane, ammonia, water and hydrogen past an electric discharge to simulate the early atmosphere of earth (Miller-Urey experiment).
Stanley Miller creates simple organic molecules, including a few of the more simple amino acids, by using a constant electric discharge in a container with water and ammonia, with an atmosphere of hydrogen and methane gas and examining the contents after a week. Pasteur had shown that spontaneous generation does not happen in the space of four years, but clearly DNA and the first cell had to have formed from more simple molecules some time in the past. Calvin and Carl Sagan will continue this work. Urey thought that the early earth would be similar to Jupiter's now, as revealed by Wildt, containing mainly hydrogen with ammonia and methane.
In 1963, Cyril Ponnamperuma, Carl Sagan and Ruth Mariner synthesize ATP (adenosine triphosphate), and ADP (adenosine diphosphate) by ultra-violet irradiation of dilute solutions of purine or pyrimidine bases, pentose sugars, and phosphorus compounds.
Miller publishes this in "Nature" as "A Production of Amino Acids under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions". Miller writes: " The idea that the organic compounds that serve as the basis of life were formed when the earth had an atmosphere of methane, ammonia, water, and hydrogen instead of carbon dioxide, nitrogen, oxygen, and water was suggested by Oparin (1) and has been given emphasis recently by Urey (2) and Bernal (3). in order to test this hypothesis, an apparatus was built to circulate CH4, NH2, H2O, and H2 past an electric discharge. The resulting mixture has been tested for amino acids by paper chromatography. Electrical discharge was used to form free radicals instead of ultraviolet light, because quartz absorbs wavelengths short enough to cause photo-dissociation of the gases. Electrical discharge may have played a significant role in the formation of compounds in the primitive atmosphere. The apparatus used is shown in Fig. 1. Water is boiled in the flask, mixes with the gases in the 5-l flask, circulates past the electrodes, condenses and empties back intot he boiling flask. The U-tube prevents circulation in the opposite direction. The acids and amino acids formed in the discharge, not being volatile, accumulate in the water phase. The ciculation of the gases is quite slow, but this seems to be an asset, because productino was less in a different apparatus with an aspirator arrangement to promote circulation. The discharge, a small corona, was provided by an induction coil designed for detection of leaks in vacuum apparatus. The experimental procedure was to seal off the opening in the boiling flask after adding 200 ml of water, evaculate the air, add 10 cm of pressure of H2, 20 cm of CH4, and 20 vm of NH3. The water in the flask was boiled, and the discharge was run continuously for a week. During the run the water in the flask became noticably pink after the first day, and by the end of the week the solution was deep red and turbid. most of the turbidity was due to colloidal silica from the glass. The red color is due to organic compounds absorbed on the silica. Also present are yellow organic compounds, of which only a small fraction can be extracted with ether, and which form a continuous streak tapering off at the bottom on a one-dimensional chromatogram run in butanol-acetic acid. These substances are being investigated further. ... The amino acids are not due to living organisms because their growth would be prevented by the boiling water during the run, and by the HgCl2, Ba(OH)2, H2SO4 during the analysis. In Fig. 2 is shown a paper chromatogram run in n-butanol-acetic acid-water mixture followed by water-saturated phenol, and spreaying with ninhydrin. Identification of an amino acid was made when the Rf value (the ratio of the distance traveled by the amino acid to the distance traveled by the solvent front), the shape, and the color of the spot were the same on a known, unknown, and mixture of the known and unknown; and when consistent results were obtained with chromatograms using phenol and 77% ethanol. On this basis glycine, α-alanine and β-alanin are identified. The identification of the aspartic acid and α-amino-n-butyric acid is less certain because the spots are quite weak. The spots marked A and B are unidentified as yet, but may be beta and gamma amino acids. These are the main amino acids present, and others are undoubtably present but in smaller amounts. it is estimated that the total yield of amino acids was in the milligram range. ... A more complete analysis of the amino acids and other products of the discharge is now being performed and will be reported in detail shortly.".
(Determine if somebody has produced a nucleic acid in the lab from primitive molecules.)
(Can amino acids join together to form proteins spontaneously? Perhaps proteins could form in the absence of life and catalyze nucleic acid creation.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
47 YBN
[02/26/1953 AD]
| 5396) William Wilson Morgan (CE 1906-1994), US astronomer, with Philip Childs Keenan and Edith Kellman, William Morgan introduces the Yerkes system or MKK system (also known as the Morgan–Keenan classification) in "An Atlas of Stellar Spectra with an Outline of Spectral Classification". The new system has two variables (dimensions), containing in addition to the spectral typing a luminosity index. Morgan states that the traditional system of star typing is based only on the surface temperature of stars and commonly produces cases where two stars, like Procyon in Canis Minor and Mirfak in Perseus, fall into the same spectral class, F5 in this case, yet differ in luminosity by a factor of several hundreds. This new system is used to classify stars in terms of their intrinsic brightness by means of Roman numerals from I to VI, and ranged from supergiants (I), giants (II and III), subgiants (IV), main-sequence stars (V), to subdwarfs (VI). Procyon thus becomes a F5–sp;IV star while Mirfak is a distinguishable F5–sp;I supergiant.
(I can see the value of spectral and visible magnitude, but I think absolute magnitude is subjective because of the requirement of distance measurement. Even visible magnitude clearly may change over time.)
| (Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
47 YBN
[02/26/1953 AD]
| 5397) William Wilson Morgan (CE 1906-1994), US astronomer, claim to have identified the Perseus, Orion, and Sagittarius arms of the Milky Way Galaxy, by searching for clouds of hydrogen ionized by O and B stars. This provides good evidence for the spiral structure of our galaxy.
In the late 1940s Morgan maps the spiral structure of the Milky Way Galaxy by detecting the spectral emission of ionized hydrogen gas produced by large blue-white stars nearby. Around the same time, this structure is elaborated by using the radio emissions of non-ionized hydrogen, predicted by Van de Hulst.
(Show images of Morgans map. Is the Milky Way an average spiral or barred spiral?)
(State who uses radio astronomy to determine galactic structure.)
| (Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago) Williams Bay, Wisconsin, USA |
47 YBN
[03/28/1953 AD]
| 5643) Jonas Edward Salk (CE 1914-1995), US microbiologist, reports results of tests on a killed-virus vaccine against polio he developed in 1952.
This vaccine will later be superceded by a live virus vaccine developed by Albert Sabin.
Salk is not the first to develop a vaccine against polio. In 1935 killed and attenuated vaccines were tested on over 10,000 children. However, these vaccines are not only ineffective, but are also unsafe and probably responsible for some deaths and a few cases of paralysis. Later advances make vaccines safer. For example, in 1949 John Enders and his colleagues showed how to culture the polio virus in embryonic tissue. Another essential step toward safer vaccines was the demonstration, in 1949, that there are in fact three types of polio virus and so a vaccine that is effective against any one type is likely to be powerless against the other two. To ensure the safety of his vaccine Salk uses virus exposed to formaldehyde for up to 13 days and afterward tests for virulence in monkey brains. To test the vaccines potency Salk injects children who have already had polio and notes any increase in their antibody level. When it becomes clear that high antibody levels are produced by the killed vaccine Salk moves on to submitting it to the vital test of a mass trial. Two objections are raised to this. One from Albert Sabin that killed vaccine is simply the wrong type to be used and a second, from various workers, who claim to find live virus in the supposedly killed vaccine. Despite this Salk continues with the trial administering in 1954 either a placebo or killed vaccine to 1,829,916 children. Francis, who is in charge of the results, reports in March 1955 that the vaccination is 80–90% effective. The vaccine is then released for general use in the United States in April 1955. Salk becomes a national hero overnight and plans move ahead to vaccinate 9 million children. However within weeks there are reports from California in which children have developed paralytic polio shortly after being vaccinated. Some two hundred cases of polio are caused by vaccine samples prepared with insufficiently stringent precautions with eleven deaths. Later, it is determines that all such cases involved vaccine prepared in a single laboratory. After several days of debate, the decision is taken to proceed and, by the end of 1955, 7 million doses have been administered. Additional safeguards are put in place to either eliminate the occurance of a live vaccine or to make the presence of any live virus known long before its use in a vaccine. Salk's and Sabin's vaccines lower the rate of poliomyelitis to a twentieth of its previous incidence.
Salk reports the results of tests with the vaccine in March 1953 in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" as "Studies in Human Subjects On Active Immunization Against Poliomyelitis". Salk writes: " Investigations have been under way in this laboratory for more than a year, with the objective of establishing conditions for destroying the disease-producing property of the three types of poliomylitis virus without destroying completely their capacity to induce antibody formation in experimental animals. The success of experiments in monkeys with vaccines prepared from virus produced in tissue culture and referred to briefly elsewhere les to the studies now in progress in human subjects. It is the purpose of this report to present the results obtained thus far in the investigations in man. The voluminous detail of the preliminary and collateral experiments in animals will be elaborated on elsewhere. Before presenting the pertinent experimental data, I would like to review briedly the present state of the problem of immunization against poliomyelitis, and to discuss certain concepts of the nature of the disease as these bea on the studies here reported.
...{ULSF: read entire history?} ... SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS Preliminary results of studies inhuman subjects inoculated with different experimental poliomyelitis vaccines are here reported. For preparation of these vaccines virus of each of the three immunologic types was produced in cultures of monkey testicular tissue or monkey kidney tissue. Before human subjects were inoculated, the virus was rendered noninfectious for the monkey by treatment with formaldehyde. in one series of experiments it appears that antibody for all three immunologic types was induced by the incoulation of small quantities of such vaccines incorporated in a water-in-oil emulsion. in another series of experiments, antibody formation was induced by the intradermal inoculation of aqueous vaccines containing the type 2 virus. Information at hand indicates that the antibody so induced has persisted without signs of decline for the longest interval studied thus far, i. e., four and a half months after the start of the experiment. Levels of antibody induced by vaccination are compared with levels that develop after natural infection. The data thus far available suggest that it should be possible witha noninfectious preparation to approximate the immunolofic effect induced by the disaese process itself. Although the results obtained in these studies can be regarded as encouraging, they should not be interpreted to indicate that a practical vaccine is now at hand. However, it does appear that at least one course of further investigation is clear. it will now be necessary to establish precisely the limits within which the effects here described can be reproduced with certainty. because of the great importance of safety factors in studies of this kind, it must be remembered that considerable time is required for the preparation and study of each new batch of experimental vaccine before human inoculations can be considered. It is this consideration, above all else, that imposes a limitation in the speed with which this work can be extended. Within these intractable limits ever effort is being made to acquire the necessary information that will premit the logical progression of these studies into larger numbers of individuals in specially selected groups.".
(State what went wrong, could this simply be the result of different people reacting differently?)
(I think many people would feel better if a virus can be attacked only after it has successfully infected a human. Perhaps the future will bring genetic modifications that will give humans immunity to many viruses. Or perhaps nanometer devices will be able to identify and destroy viruses.)
(For myself, I feel that, until we have total free information, and can see the entire history of neuron reading and writing, I don't think I will feel that any scientific claims do not have significant doubts connected to them. In particular when I see the vast and widespread corruption - for example the involuntary drugging, electrocuting and restraining of nonviolent people in psychiatric hospitals without a single complaint from any people in or out of the health sciences profession. Add to this, no complaints about the health possibilities of neuron reading and writing in helping deaf people to hear, blind people to see, ... I can only imagine the many health benefits that have been withheld even from those included.)
| (University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
47 YBN
[04/02/1953 AD]
| 5660) Double helix structure of DNA understood.
DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) is a nucleic acid that carries the genetic information in the cell and is capable of self-replication and synthesis of RNA. DNA consists of two long chains of nucleotides twisted into a double helix and joined by hydrogen bonds between the complementary bases adenine and thymine or cytosine and guanine. The sequence of nucleotides determines individual hereditary characteristics.
English biochemist, Francis Harry Compton Crick (CE 1916-2004), and US biochemist, James Dewey Watson (CE 1928-) publish that the DNA molecule is made of a double helix made of the sugar-phosphate backbone, with the connected nitrogenous bases extending toward the center of the helix from each of the two backbones approaching each other. Because the bases are different sizes, the double helix can only maintain a constant width when an adenine unit is approaches a thymine unit, and the same is true for cytosine and guanine pairing. This explains Chargaff's finding that the adenine and thymine always appear in roughly equal quantity, as do the cytosine and guanine, but quantities of each pair appear to be unrelated. In addition, the process of replication, known since the time of Flemming 75 years earlier, can now be explained as the two strands of the double helix being unwound, and each single helix then serves as a model for its complement. Where an adenine exists a thymine can be attached, and in this way each helix can produce a copy of the other helix, the result being two double helices where there was only one before. In 1951, Linus Pauling had shown that protein molecules of fibrous proteins, such as the collagen of connective tissue, exist in the form of a helix. Watson has the idea of constructing a model with the bases inside and backbone outside. Watson and Crick make use of Wilkins' and Franklin's X-ray diffraction data. New Zealand-British physicist, Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (CE 1916-2004) had recorded X-ray diffraction data from DNA fibers (taken from a viscous solution of DNA fibers). Laue and the Braggs had shown a generation earlier that X rays can be diffracted by the regular spacing of atoms in a crystal, and that from the diffraction (or more accurately "scatter" or reflection), the position of the atoms within a crystal can be deduced. X-ray diffraction can also be used for large fibrous molecules built on a repetition of chemical units (polymers) to reveal the size of units, spacing between them and other facts. English physical chemist, Rosalind Elsie Franklin (CE 1920-1958) (at King's college working under Wilkins) recognizes that her X-ray diffraction photographs of DNA (under different conditions of humidity) are consistent with a helical form of the molecule, and also recognizes that the phosphate groups must be on the outside of the helix. However Franklin shows caution in doubting that DNA takes a helix form under all conditions. Wilkins shows Watson Rosalind Franklin's X-ray diffraction photographs (apparently without the consent of Franklin) and from these photos Watson and Crick confirm that the shape of the DNA molecule is a double helix.
This discovery is published in "Nature" in an article by Watson and Crick titled "Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids". This article is directly followed by an article by Wilkins, Stokes and Wilson titled "Molecular Structure of Deoxypentose nucleic Acids" which contains an x-ray photograph of nucleic acid from B. Coli (Balantidium coli, ciliate protists found in the digestive tract of vertebrates and invertebrates), and then an article by Franklin and Gosling titled "Molecular Configuration in Sodium Thymonucleate" with a similar x-ray photo of DNA from a calf thumus. In their paper Watson and Crick write: "We wish to suggest a structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid (D. N. A.).This structure has novel features which are of considerable biological interest. A structure for nucleic acid has already been proposed by Pauling and Corey . They kindly made their manuscript available to us in advance of publication. Their model consists of three intertwined chains, with the phosphates near the fibre axis, and the bases on the outside. In our opinion, this structure is unsatisfactory for two reasons: (1) We believe that the material which gives the X-ray diagrams is the salt, not the free acid. Without the acidic hydrogen atoms it is not clear what forces would hold the structure together, especially as the negatively charged phosphates near the axis will repel each other. (2) Some of the van der Waals distances appear to be too small. Another three-chain structure has also been suggested by Fraser (in the press). In his model the phosphates are on the outside and the bases on the inside, linked together by hydrogen bonds. This structure as described is rather ill-defined, and for this reason we shall not comment on it. We wish to put forward a radically different structure for the salt of deoxyribose nucleic acid. This structure has two helical chains each coiled round the same axis. We have made the usual chemical assumptions, namely, that each chain consists of phosphate diester groups joining 13- D-deoxyribofuranose residues with 3’, 5’ linkages. The two chains (but not their bases) are related by a dyad perpendicular to the fibre axis. Both chains follow right-handed helices, but owing to the dyad the sequences of the atoms in the two chains run in opposite directions. Each chain loosely resembles 2 Furberg’s model No. I; that is, the bases are on the inside of the helix and the phosphates on the outside. The configuration of the sugar and the atoms near it is close to Furberg’s "standard configuration," the sugar being roughly perpendicular to the attached base. There is a residue on each chain every 3.4 A in the z-direction. We have assumed an angle of 36 between adjacent residues in the same chain, so that the structure repeats after 10 residues on each chain, that is, after 34 A. The distance of a phosphorus atom from the fibre axis is 10 A. As the phosphates are on the outside, cations have easy access to them. The structure is an open one, and its water content is rather high. At lower water contents we would expect the bases to tilt so that the structure could become more compact. The novel feature of the structure is the manner in which the two chains are held together by the purine and pyrimidine bases. The planes of the bases are perpendicular to the fibre axis. They are joined together in pairs, a single base from one chain being hydrogen-bonded to a single base from the other chain, so that the two lie side by side with identical z-coordinates. One of the pair must be a purine and the other a pyrimidine for bonding to occur. The hydrogen bonds are made as follows: purine position I to pyrimidine position 1; purine position 6 to pyrimidine position 6. If it is assumed that the bases only occur in the structure in the most plausible tautomeric forms (that is, with the keto rather than the enol configurations) it is found that only specific pairs of bases can bond together. These pairs are: adenine (purine) with thymine (pyrimidine), and guanine (purine) with cytosine (pyrimidine). In other words, if an adenine forms one member of a pair, on either chain, then on thes e assumptions the other member must be thymine; similarly for guanine and cytosine. The sequence of bases on a single chain does not appear to be restricted in any way. However, if only specific pairs of bases can be formed, it follows that if the sequence of bases on one chain is given, then the sequence on the other chain is automatically determined. It has been found experimentally that the ratio of the amounts of adenine to thymine, and the ratio of guanine to cytosine, are always very close to unity for deoxyribose nucleic acid. It is probably impossible to build this structure with a ribose sugar in place of the deoxyribose, as the extra oxygen atom would make too close a van der Waals contact. The previously published X-ray data on deoxyribose nucleic acid are insufficient for a rigorous test of our structure. So far as we can tell, it is roughly compatible with the experimental data, but it must be regarded as unproved until it has been checked against more exact results. Some of these are given in the following communications. We were not aware of the details of the results presented there when we devised our structure, which rests mainly though not entirely on published experimental data and stereochemical arguments. It has not escaped our notice that the specific pairing we have postulated immediately suggests a possible copying mechanism for the genetic material. Full details of the structure, including the conditions assumed in building it, together with a set of coordinates for the atoms, will be published elsewhere. We are much indebted to Dr. Jerry Donohue for constant advice and criticism, especially on interatomic distances. We have also been stimulated by a knowledge of the general nature of the unpublished experimental results and ideas of Dr. M. H. F. Wilkins, Dr. R. E. Franklin and their coworkers at King’s College, London. One of us (J. D. W.) has been aided by a fellowship from the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis. ...".
(The next major advance will be understanding how proteins are made from nucleic acids. Fraenkel-Conrat was the first to show that a bacteriophage must produce proteins from its nucleic acid.)
(State who clearly figured out how proteins are made from nucleic acids.)
(Can DNA be synthesized from various components?)
(State who determines the structure of RNA and when.)
(Which proteins are helices and which are not? Are helical proteins common or rare?)
(Show graphically)
(Like Franklin, I have doubts about the claim that DNA takes the same exact helical form when not crystallized, but perhaps it does. Determine if the same DNA structure is observed in gell and other forms.)
(State how are molecules held for diffraction? In solid crystalline form? Suspended in liquid? Describe the X-ray diffraction process used for molecules.)
(One mystery is how much was known by the owners of the neuron reading and writing devices about DNA. Could this be just a release of ancient secret information, or could Watson, Crick, et al be excluded or only partially included neuron consumers who independently figured out what the neuron had long known?)
(Can we view these photos as indicating that light particles traveling from above reflect off of atoms and create the dark areas on the film? Perhaps it is easiest to view these photos imagining the reflection of light off of planes in a crystal with regularly spaced atomic planes. Is there ever a side view photo of the DNA double helix?)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
47 YBN
[05/29/1953 AD]
| 5700) Human reaches top of Mount Everest, the highest point of earth (29,035 feet) (8,850 metres).
(Sir) Edmund Percival Hillary (CE 1919-2008), New Zealand explorer, with the Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, is the first to reach the summit of Mount Everest, the highest mountain on planet earth. A Sherpa is a member of a traditionally Buddhist people of Tibetan descent living on the southern side of the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal and Sikkim. In modern times Sherpas have achieved planetary recognition as expert guides on Himalayan mountain climbing expeditions.
On Everest both search for signs that George Mallory, a British climber lost on Everest in 1924, had been on the summit. Hillary leaves a crucifix, and Tenzing, a Buddhist, and makes a food offering at the summit. The two spend about 15 minutes on the peak.
| Mount Everest, border between Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region of China. |
47 YBN
[06/19/1953 AD]
| 5124) Walter Baade (BoDu) (CE 1893-1960), and Rudolph Minkowski (CE 1895-1976), German-US astronomers, finds a distorted galaxy in the constellation Cygnus that is one of the strongest sources of light with radio frequency.
Baade and Minkowski show that a radio source in the constellation of Cygnus is from a distant galaxy. In addition Baade and Minkowski associate a radio source located by Reber in the constellation of Cassiopeai with wisps of gas that are the remains of a long-past supernova. Baade and Minkowski work to connect the radio sources identified by Reber with optical objects.
(State what frequencies the star emits.) (Experiment: Question: Are there radio spectral lines? Are there large gratings in use? It seems that the principle would work.)
(Describe radio telescope used, and show image of telescope - why should visible, radio, x-ray, etc telescopes be different - other than by detector and or grating - because the particle nature of light is clear- light is not a transverse wave whether there is an aether or not.)
| (Mount Wilson Observatory) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
47 YBN
[07/09/1953 AD]
| 5690) US physicists, Frederick Reines (CE 1918-1998) and Clyde Lawrence Cowan (CE 1919-1974) report detecting a neutrino.
The neutrino was first postulated in the 1930s by Wolfgang Pauli and later named by Enrico Fermi, but because of its minuscule size, it eluded detection for many years. Reines and Cowan utilize the theoretical neutrino collition with a hydrogen nucleus (a proton), which results in a positron and neutron.
The first tentative observation of the neutrino is in 1953, but more experiments are carried out at the Savannah River nuclear reactors in 1956. Detection of the neutrino is difficult because it is thought to be able to travel very long distances through matter before the it interacts. Reines later turned his attention to looking for the relatively small numbers of natural neutrinos originating in cosmic radiation, and to this end constructed underground detectors looking for signs of interactions in huge vats of perchloroethylene. In the course of this work he devised a method of distinguishing cosmic-ray neutrinos from the muons they produce in traveling through the atmosphere.
Reines and Cowan claim to detect neutrinos from the gamma rays thought to be produced by neutrinos. Reines focuses on one particular reaction a neutrino might bring about which results in gamma beams produced at specific energies and time intervals. So neutrinos are detected 25 years after Enrico Fermi had first postulated their existence. After this Reines will use large containers of perchloroethylene deep underground (where neutrinos can penetrate but few other particles can) to detect neutrinos from the sun. The neutrinos detected comprise only a third of those expected, and Reines theorizes that the three neutrinos known, the electron-neutrino, the muon-neutrino, and the tauon-neutrino, have different masses, and that they oscillate from one form to another, so that the neutrinos emitted from the sun are converted to muon-neutrinos and tauon-neutrinos before reaching the detectors. Some people that believe the expanding universe theory supposed that if neutrinos have mass, this mass is enough to cause the universe to collapse.
Reines and Cowan publish this in "Physical Review" as "Detection of the Free neutrino". They write "An experiment has been performed to detect the free neutrino. It appears probably that this aim has been accomplished although further comfirmatory work is in progress. The cross section for the reaction employed, v- + p -> n + B+, (1)
has been calculated from beta-decay theory to be given by the expression,
σ=(G2/2π)(h/mc)2(p/mc)2(1/v/c), (2) where σ=cross section in barns; p, m, v= momentum, mass, and velocity of emitted positron (cgs units); and G2=dimensionless, lumped β-coupling constant (=55 from measurements of neutron and tritium β decay). An estimate of the fission fragment neutrino spectrum has been made by Alvarez on the basis of the work of Way and Wigner. From this information, we calculated the expected cross section to be ~6 x 10-20 barn {ULSF: missing period} Consideration of the momentum balance shows that the positron takes off most of the avilable energy. The delayed-coincidence technique employed made use of the positron to produce the first pulse and the γ's from the neutron captured in the Cd loaded scintillator solution for the second pulse. The predicted first pulse spectrum due to the positron has a threshold at 1.02 Mev (assuming both annihilation gammas are collected), rises to a maximum at a few Mev, and falls towards zero with increasing energy, vacnishing in the vicinity of 8 Mev. Neutron capture times in the vicinity of 5usec were employed. The detector was set up in the vicinity of the face of a Hanford reactor and was surrounded on all sides by a shield comprised of 4 to 6 feet of paraffin alternated with 4 to 8 inches of Pb. In order to minimize the effects of tube noise and to eliminate the counting of individual tube after-pulses, the 90 photomultipliers were divided into two banks of 45. The signal from each bank was amplified by a corresponding linear amplifier and fed to two independent pulse-height selecting gates, one of which was set to accept pulses characteristic of the positron signal and the other to accept those characteristic of the neutron-capture gammas. The output pulses from the two "positron" gates were then fed to a coincidence circuit with a resolving time of 0.3 microsecond, and those from the two "neutron" gates to a similar circuit. When a pulse appeared at the output of the "positron" coicidence circuit, an 18-channel time-delay analyzer (with 0.5-microsecond channel widths) was triggered. if a second pulse then appeared at the output of the "neutron" coicidence circuit within nine microseconds after this, a count was registered in the appropriate channel, recording in this manner the number of "delayed coincidences" obtained and the delay time for each. The amplitude of the first of "positron" pulse was simultaneously recorded for each delayed pair by delaying all signals from one of the banks in a third linear amplifier and then impressing them on a ten-channel pulse-height analyzer which was gated whenever a delayed coincidence was obtained. The expected delayed-coincidence rate, allowing for detector efficiencies and for gate settings, was 0.1-0.3 counts/minute. The apparatus was checked using a double-pulser designed for the purpose and by observing cosmic-ray μ-meson decay within the detector. The system was energy=-calibrated using a Co60 source in the center of the detector as well as by the N16 activity in water piped from within the pile to around the detector. ... ...Least-squares fits of the observed counting rates in the delayed-time channels lead to the following results:
Pile up (three runs totaling 10 000 seconds): 2.55+-0.15 delayed counts/min. Pile down (three runs totaling 6000 seconds): 2.14 +- 0.13 delayed counts/min. Difference due to the pile: 0.41+-0.20 delayed count/min.
This difference is to be compared with the predicted ~1/5 count/min due to neutrinos, using an effective cross sectionof ~6 x 10-20 barn for the process. it is to be remarked that a small channel overlap in the time-delay analyzer would be reflected in an amplified percentage decrease (<0.12 count/min) in the pile difference number. Measurements of the number of fast neutrons leaking from the pile face made with nuclear emulsion plates, and consideration of thed etector {ULSF: typo} shielding employed, rules out neutron-proton recoils as causing this difference. ...".
In a September 1959 paper to nature titled "The Neutrino", Reines and Cowan estimate the mass of the neutrino as "< 1/500 electron mass, if any.".
(Perhaps the number of light particles emitted in a neutron decay, (the duration of gamma beam*frequency*w*h*beams per cm2) may reveal how many light particles are in a neutron.)
(Give more info about the experiment. How can any particle not have mass? I think all particles including light particles have mass and are material.)
(State which reaction the neutrino makes that causes the release of photons with gamma wavelength. Are there other supposed neutrino particle collision reactions?)
(I am somewhat skeptical. It is possible that the missing mass from neutron decay is in the form of photons of some of various wavelength.)
(I reject the big bang expanding-collapsing universe theory. It seems very doubtful to me that space can expand or collapse in any way. In addition, some of the frequency shift of light may be due to Doppler shift, but clearly some is due to distance because of the Bragg law for diffraction gratings which states that the frequency of diffracted light depends on the angle of incidence which is different for any given frequency when the light sources are at different distances.)
(In my opinion it is somewhat wasteful to dedicate taxpayer money to such abstract and highly theoretical physics research - while something like using particle accelerators and mass spectrometers to publicly convert tons of sand into oxygen and water, or a moon city, would be money better spent in terms of our future survival as a species.)
(At Los Alamos, using US Deparment of Energy funding, it seems very likely that this is a fraudulent work.)
(I can accept that there are many smaller than proton neutral composite particles. Light particles themselves are examples of smaller than neutron neutral particles, and there are probably many others - in particular fragments of electrons, and protons which lose their reaction to electromagnetic particle fields.)
(Another issue is the use of the p=mv momentum law which can by mistakenly used to convert quantities of mass into motion and vice versa.)
(Many different particles and frequencies of light can cause a detection in a scintillator - not necessarily just gamma frequency light particles. But even if a positron and gamma rays are detected, that might happen simply by coincidence of direction of particle fragments in collisions, although perhaps rarely.)
(Notice "setup" which is many times "shut-up" by those in the neuron. There is also a possible homosexual smear using "gated" and then the later typo "thed etector" which may be a possible Ted-supporter reply.)
(It may be that Reines spent his life researching Pauli's and then Fermi's fraudulent claim - like trying to detect the "N-rays". We may someday get to see the thought-images involved and that may shed light on whether this was fraud, innocent mistake, or actual science. In particular knowing that all matter is made of light particles which interact all the time with matter - it seems unlikely that .)
(To me, it's kind of comical to suppose that there is a "massless" particle - it's absurd to think that a particle could ever be empty space or non-material.)
| (Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, University of California) Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA |
47 YBN
[07/12/1953 AD]
| 5781) Subatomic particles are catagorized by mass as: "L-meson" is a muon, pion or any other lighter meson, "K-meson" is a particle intermediate in mass between the pion and neutron, and "Hyperon" is any particle with mass between a proton and deuteron.
In addition two "Phenomenological Descriptions" are given: a "V-event" is defined as a "phenomenon which can be interpreted as the decay in flight of a heavy meson or an hyperon. Subclasses: V0 and V+" and an "S-event" which is defined as any "phenomenon which can be interpreted as the decay or the nuclear capture of a heavy meson of a hyperon at rest.". (Read/Show summary of report?) (Imagine how many fragments there are with masses between the atoms - because of light particles added or subtracted - there must be many unique atomic masses.)
(With particles whose life-time is so short - under 1 second - I don't think that these are probably anything other than pieces of proton or larger atoms just falling apart into source light particles.)
(Notice that therre is an overlap in a K-meson being up to a neutron, but a Hyperon having minimum mass of a proton.)
| Bagneres de Bigorre, France |
47 YBN
[08/12/1953 AD]
| 5309) First Soviet hydrogen bomb exploded.
The first hydrogen bomb exploded on earth was in the Marshall Islands, in the Pacific Ocean on 11/01/1952.
(more details)
| Semipalatinsk, Russia (Soviet Union) |
47 YBN
[08/21/1953 AD]
| 5758) Roger H. Hildebrand and Darragh E. Nagle develop a liquid Hydrogen "bubble chamber" particle detector.
(Get dates, and photos for both.)
(Read from paper)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
47 YBN
[09/28/1953 AD]
| 5783) Abraham Pais introduces the name "baryon" to describe particles that are affected by the strong force.
Pais publishes this in "Progress of theoretical physics" as "On the Baryön-meson-photon System". Pais writes: "1. General considerations The last six years have seen .a great advance in our understanding of ‘ the structure of relativistic field theories through the renormalization program, and at the same time a vastly increased complexity in the observed number and properties of P particles which these theories purport to- describe. Attempts to come -to a better understanding of the existence and properties of these particles by means of a further analysis of the formal possibilities inherent in current theory have had limited success. It is quite clear that much work remains to be done in this direction, especially as regards the description of strongly coupled systems. On the other hand there emerge from the present picture a. number of qualitative features which are not logically founded in the premises of the theory as ·it stands. Parallel with the -line of approach just mentioned one may, therefore, ask whether and, if so, how the. `frame—worl< of description itself should be enlarged so as to give a rational account of these properties. In a ..previous· paperl) (quoted below as I) the following such qualitative questions have. been raised and discussed: 1) The possibility to have an irreducible wave equation yielding proton and neutron as eigenstates. 2) The possibility to incorporate charge independence rationally in our present theories. 3) The relation between the newly discovered VQ—·particles and the nucleons. The· striking st-ability properties of the 5) The possibility to derive conservation of heavy particles from first principles. Experiment tells us -that we can- no longer- talk about conservation of nucleons only but that by heavy particles one has to understand the totality of at least nucleons and K- particles. Without prejudging on the actual nature of the relationship between the VQ and the nucleon it seems practical to have »a collective name for these particles and other which possibly may still be discovered and which may also have to be taken along in the conservation principle just mentioned. It is proposed to use the fitting name " `baryon ” for this purpose. ...". (read more of paper)
There is one funny part in the paper where Pais writes: "The "light particles" (electron, neutrino, u-meson and possibly others) and their relation to the baryon. It is impossible to give a full account of the conservation of baryons before this relation is clarified, see I and also sec. II, 3 below. ...". (This is ina similar way to Rutherford and others describing "light atoms" in their papers as being less massive atoms - and so here in 1953 Pais refers to "light particles" as less massive particles - ironically because here these particles are probably all made of light particles and this has been a secret, shockingly, for hundreds of years and even now.)
| (Institute for Advanced Study) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
47 YBN
[09/30/1953 AD]
| 5671) Jean Dausset (DOSA) (CE 1916-2009), French physician, develops a test to detect the leukoagglutinating properties of blood serum.
In 1952 Dausset finds that people with numerous blood transfusions lose many white blood cells (leukocytes) and correctly hypothesizes that this is caused by antibodies that attack the foreign leukocytes. These antibody reactions are stimulated by certain antigens, located on the surface of foreign white blood cells, that are later called human leukocyte antigens (HLA). These antigens prove to be extremely useful in determining whether tissues from one person might be successfully transplanted to another individual (a process, similar to blood typing, called tissue typing). The significance of Dausset's work is enormous because it means that tissues can be typed quickly and cheaply by simple blood agglutination tests as opposed to the complicated and lengthy procedure of seeing if skin grafts will take. Such work makes the technically feasible operation of kidney transplantation a practical option, because at last the danger of rejection can be minimized by rapid, simple, and accurate tissue typing. Further confirmation of Dausset's work is obtained when the specific regions of the HLA gene complex are later identified by J. van Rood and R. Ceppellini as a single locus on human chromosome 6.
Serum is the clear yellowish fluid obtained upon separating whole blood into its solid and liquid components after it has been allowed to clot. Also called blood serum.
(read summary of paper)
| (Centre National de Transfusion Sanguine) Paris, France. |
47 YBN
[10/03/1953 AD]
| 5646) (Sir) Peter Brian Medawar (CE 1915-1987), English biologist, with Billingham and Brent find that animals and birds have "actively acquired tolerance" of foreign cells (for example, will not reject a skin graft) if the animal or bird is exposed to the foreign cells early enough in their life.
In 1949 (Sir) Frank Macfarlane Burnet (CE 1899-1985), Australian physician, had demonstrated that antibodies are only formed after birth.
On the advice of Burnet, Medawar injects (inoculates) the embryos of mice with tissue cells from another strain, and finds that after the embryo has grown to an adult fully developed body that the "foreign" proteins are not rejected, and so the mice are able to accept skin grafts from those strains of mice with which they had been inoculated as embryos.
Billingham, Brent and Medawar publish this finding in "Nature" as "'Actively Acquired Tolerance' of Foreign Cells". They write: "The experiments to be described in this article provide a solution- at present only a 'laboratory' solution- of the problem of how to make tissue homografts immunologically acceptable to hosts which would normally react against them. The principle underlying the experiments may be expressed in the following terms: that mammals and birds never develop, or develop to only a limited degree, the power to react immunologically against foreign homologous tissue cells to which they have been exposed sufficiently early in foetal life. If, for example, a foetal mouse of one inbred strain (say, CBA) is inoculated in utero with a suspension of living cells from an adult mouse of another strain (say, A), then, when it grows up, the CBA mouse will be found to be partly or completely tolerant of skin grafts transplanted from any mouse belonging to the strain of the original donor. Thi sphenomenon is the exact inverse of 'actively acquired immunity', and we therefore propose to describe it as 'actively acquired tolerance'. The distinction between the two phenomena may be made evidence in the following way. If a normal adult CBA mouse is inoculated with living cells or grafted with skin from an A-line donor, the grafted with skin from an A-line donor, the grafter tissue is destroyed within twelve days (see below). The effect of this first presentation of foreign tissue in adult life is to confer 'immunity', that is, to increase the host's resistance to grafts which may be transplanted on some later occasion from the same donor of from some other member of the donor's strain. Bit if the first presentation of foreign cells takes place in foetal life, it has just the opposite effect: resistance to a graft transplanted on some later occasion, so far from being heightened, is abolishde or at least reduced. Over some preiod of its early life, therefore, the pattern of the host's response to foreign tissue cells is turned completely upside down. ... Summary (1) Mice and chickens never develop, or develop to only a limited degree, the power to react immunologically against foreign homologous tissue cells with which they have been inoculated in foetal life. Animals so treated are tolerant not only of the foreign cells of the original inoculum, but also of skin grafts freshly transplanted in adult life from the original donor or from a donor of the same antigenic constitution. (2) Acquired tolerance is immunologically specific: mice and chickens made tolerant of homografts from one donor retain the power to react against grafts transplanted from donors of different antigenic constitutions. (3) Acquired tolerance is due to a specific failure of the host's immunological response. The antigenic properties of a homograft are not altered by residence in a tolerant host, and the host itself retains the power to give effect to a passively acquired immunity directed against a homograft which has until then been tolerated by it. (4) The fertility of tolerant mice is unimpaired.".
| (University College, University of London) London, England |
47 YBN
[10/22/1953 AD]
| 5351) George Gamow (Gam oF) (CE 1904-1968), Russian-US physicist, theorizes how the 4 nucleotides of DNA can code for the 20 amino acids in proteins.
So Gamow suggests that nucleic acids act as a genetic code in the formation of proteins following the path Beadle had first laid out.
(that DNA controls enzyme reactions... did Beadle claim that DNA makes enzymes?) (a uses “laid out” which may be code for has sex as an included with excluded, no doubt by using their thoughts to more easily control and trick them, although seeing and hearing thought when done openly by all people is a wonderful and liberating form of communication. It seems clear that through neuron writing, like Pavlovian reward/punishment any body with a brain can be made aroused/unaroused, to like/dislike, etc. any thing.)
| (George Washington University) Washington, D.C., USA |
47 YBN
[11/16/1953 AD]
| 5701) William Nunn Lipscomb Jr. (CE 1919-2011), US chemist create a valence theory to explain the unusual geometry of boron hydrides and why they are not "electron-deficient".
Using X-ray diffraction techniques that Pauling had used, in addition to Pauling's theory of resonance, Lipscomb determines the complex cage-like structure of the boranes, molecules of boron and hydrogen, showing that an entire new class of molecules exist where two electrons bind three atoms together like those in the boranes.
In his Nobel lecture Lipscomb cites, the three-center bridge (BHB) bond as being clearly formulated by Longuet-Higgins in 1949.
(show molecule image if possible)
(I think that there may be problems with the traditional valence theory of assigning atoms with 1, 2, 3, etc because of the possibility of valence being determined by physical structure based on atom size- so form example - given some finite size - how many other atoms can fit around any specific atom? So, for a small atom like hydrogen, many Hydrogen atoms may fit around a larger atom like Boron, where larger atoms might not be able to fit in structurally. So I think it is worth exploring the 3D structural possibilities of spherical atoms of some given size and how they can fit together geometrically based on their size. There are interesting geometrical truths, for example, for a group of unit spheres with one as a center, 6 can surround the center - but seven would be unsymmetrical. There are many possible combinations when dealing with atoms of many different sizes. These structures may occur even at the light particle level.)
(This theory and contribution needs a better explanation.)
(My view on much of science is that if some aspect of science seems too complex it is not being explained well enough, or is not true. We need to show and explain science graphically in 3D so the majority of people can clearly and solidly understand.)
| (University of Minnesota) Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
47 YBN
[1953 AD]
| 5172) US microbiologists, Thomas Huckle Weller (CE 1915-2008) isolates the varicella-zoster virus from cases of chickenpox and zoster and obtains suggestive evidence that the same virus is responsible for both diseases.
(Determine paper, read relevent parts)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
47 YBN
[1953 AD]
| 5669) Iosif Samuilovich Shklovsky (CE 1916-1985), Soviet astrophysicist, proposes that high-velocity (high-energy) charged particles are caught in the magnetic field of stars and follow a curved path emitting light with radio frequencies. This theory is called the "synchrotron-emission theory of radio sources". Shklovskii initially applies this to the Crab nebula, and then applies this theory to other radio sources.
(Do charged particles always emit photons? Perhaps that is how charged particles naturally decay/separate. Might this explain why the radio photons cycle as if from a rotating source? This also explains how charged particles lose mass - by emitting light particles.)
| (Moscow University) Moscow, U. S. S. R. (now Russia) (presumably) |
46 YBN
[01/21/1954 AD]
| 5230) The first nuclear powered submarine, the U.S.S. Nautilus is launched.
The fuel supply of uranium lasts for months and the submarine does not need to surface to charge its batteries.
On the first Uranium fuel core NAUTILUS steams 62,562 miles in two years, over half of which are completely submerged. To duplicate this performance a conventionally-powered submarine the size of NAUTILUS would have required over two million gallons of diesel fuel.
| Thames River, Connecticut, USA |
46 YBN
[02/23/1954 AD]
| 5766) Manfred Eigen (CE 1927- ), German physicist, develops experimental methods for studying chemical reactions that occur as fast as a nanosecond.
Like Norrish and Porter, Eigen studies ultra-short duration chemical reactions by very briefly changing the equilibrium. Norrish and Porter had used light flashes on gas, but Eigen uses brief changes in temperature, pressure, or electrical fields on liquids.
Eigen pubilshes this in English in the "Discussions of the Faraday Society", as "Methods for investigation of ionic reactions in aqueous solutions with half-times as short as 10–9 sec. Application to neutralization and hydrolysis reactions". For an abstract he writes: "Three possible experimental methods for studying fast ionic reactions in aqueous solutions are describcd : (i) the sound absorption method, (ii) the electric impulse method using high field densities (" dissociation field effect "), (iii) the " temperature jump method ". All three methods are based on measurements of the chemical relaxation of an electrolytic dissociation equilibrium effected by rapid variation of (i) pressure, (ii) elcctrical field density, and (iii) temperature. The results permit a mathematical treatment which gives information about the kinetics of extremely fast reactions. According to experimental results, bimolecular reactions in which protons and hydroxyl ions take part are characterized by extremely high rate constants of the order of 1010 to 1011 I./mole sec, while reactions between other ions proceed substantially more slowly. The behaviour of H+ and OH- ions may be understood in connection with models for the anomalous mechanism of movement of these ions in water. In addition, the velocity of some dissociation reactions in aqueous solution has been measured.".
Eigen goes on to study many extremely fast chemical reactions by a variety of methods that he introduces and which are called relaxation techniques. These involve the application of bursts of energy to a solution that briefly destroy its equilibrium before a new equilibrium is reached. Eigen studies what happens to the solution in the extremely brief interval between the two equilibria by using absorption spectroscopy. Among specific topics Eigen investigates are the rate of hydrogen ion formation through dissociation in water, diffusion-controlled protolytic reactions, and the kinetics of keto-enol tautomerism. "Tautomerism" is chemical isomerism characterized by relatively easy interconversion of isomer forms in equilibrium. An isomer in chemistry is any of two or more substances that are composed of the same elements in the same proportions but differ in properties because of differences in the arrangement of atoms.
(It is difficult to single-out one specific paper or achievement. Perhaps there is an earlier paper in German that describes high speed methods of chemical reaction observation and speed determination.)
| (Max-Planck-Institut fur physikalische Chemie) Gottingen, Germany |
46 YBN
[03/05/1954 AD]
| 5586) Max Ferdinand Perutz (CE 1914-2002), Austrian-British biochemist, creates the method of "isomorphous replacement with heavy atoms", in which a heavy atom is attached to a molecule (in this case a haemoglobin molecule) which changes the x-ray diffraction pattern caused by the molecule, making it easier to compute the positions of atoms in the molecule.
Knowing that the heavier the atom, the more efficiently it diffracts X-rays, Perutz adds a single atom of a heavy metal, for example gold or mercury, to each molecule of protein and finds that this improves the X-ray diffraction and helps to determine atom position within each molecule.
In 1960 Perutz in a team of 6 people will determine the molecular composition of the hemoglobin molecule.
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
46 YBN
[03/30/1954 AD]
| 5503) (Sir) Bernard Katz (CE 1911-2003), German-British physiologist, and J. Del Castillo use the word "remote" in a paper on direct neuron writing.
Katz and Castillo open their paper "THE MEMBRANE CHANGE PRODUCED BY THE NEUROMUSCULAR TRANSMITTER" writing: "Until recently, it was generally believed that the action potential which a nerve impulse sets up in a muscle fibre is identical with that produced by direct stimulation. Recent work has shown that this is only true if the impulse is recorded at a point remote from the neuromuscular junction. ...".
| (University College) London, England |
46 YBN
[04/12/1954 AD]
| 6062) Bill Haley & His Comets record "Rock Around The Clock". Rock Around the Clock" is a 12-bar-blues-based song written by Max C. Freedman and James E. Myers (the latter under the pseudonym "Jimmy De Knight") in 1952. The best-known and most successful rendition was recorded by Bill Haley and His Comets in 1954.
| (Pythian Temple studios) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN
[04/28/1954 AD]
| 5265) Vincent Du Vigneaud (DYU VENYO) (CE 1901-1978), US biochemist, synthesizes oxytocin, the first protein (and hormone) ever synthesized.
Du Vigneaud determines that oxytocin, a hormone produced by the posterior lobe of the pituitary gland, is a small protein molecule made of only eight amino acids (average protein molecules have several hundred amino acids). Du Vigneaud finds this by breaking down the molecule into smaller fragments and studying the fragments. In 1953 Du Vigneaud had determined the order of amino acids in the small protein oxytocin. In 1954 Du Vigneaud synthesizes oxytocin, which is the first hormone ever synthesized, by putting together the eight amino acids in the order he had determined the year before. Du Vigneaud finds that the synthetic oxytocin has all the same properties as the natural material. At this time Sanger is working out the order of amino acids for the much more complicated molecule insulin.
A hormone is a carbon-based (organic) compound (often a steroid or peptide) that is produced in one part of a multicellular organism and travels to another part to exert its action. Hormones regulate physiological activities including growth, reproduction, and homeostasis in vertebrates; molting and maintenance of the larval state in insects; and growth, bud dormancy, and leaf shedding in plants. Most vertebrate hormones originate in specialized tissues and are carried to their targets through the circulation.
In their April 1954 paper "The Synthesis of Oxytocin" in Du Vigneaud, et al write: "A cyclic octapeptide amide (I) having the hormonal activity of oxytocin has been synthesized through the condensation of N-carbobenzoxy-S-benzyl-L-cysteinyl-L-tyrosianne d the heptapeptide amide L-isoleucyl-L-glutaminyl-L-asparaginyl-Sbenzyl-L-cysteinyl-L-prolyl-L-leucylglyc inamid(e I Va) to yield the protected nonapeptide amide VI followed by reduction with sodium in liquid ammonia and oxidation of the resulting sulfhydryl nonapeptide. IVa was prepared by the condensation of S-benzyl-L-cysteinyl-L-prolyl-L-leucylglycinamiwdei th tosyl-L-isoleucyl-L-glutaminyl-L-asparaginfe allowed by removal of the tosyl group from the condensation product. The biologically active synthetic material thus obtained has been purified by countercurrent distribution and compared with natural oxytocin as to potency, specific rotation, partition coefficients, amino acid composition, electrophoretic mobility, infrared pattern, molecular weight, enzymatic and acid inactivation and chromatography on the resin IRC-50. The synthetic material and natural oxytocin were also compared with respect to milk ejection and induction of labor in the human as well as rat uterus contraction in vitro. The crystalline flavianates prepared from the synthetic material and from natural oxytocin were found to have the same crystalline form, melting point and mixed melting point. All of these comparisons afforded convincing evidence of the identity of the synthetic product with natural oxytocin. This synthesis thus constitutes the first synthesis of a polypeptide hormone.
Oxytocin, the principal uterine-contracting and milk-ejecting hormone of the posterior pituitary gland,%w as obtained from the latter in this Labora- tory in highly purified and isolated as a crystalline flavianate.* The purification was effected by application of countercurrent distribution to posterior pituitary material which had received preliminary purification according to the procedure of Kamm and co-workers." Amino acid analysis by the starch column method of Moore and Stein12 showed that hydrolysates of the highly purified material contained leucine, isoleucine, tyrosine, proline, glutamic acid, aspartic acid, glycine and cystine in equimolar ratios to each other and ammonia in a molar ratio of 3 to any one amino acid.' The active principle appeared to be a polypeptide of molecular weight approximately 1000.' l1 Evidence was obtained through oxidation with performic acidL4a nd desulfurization with Rancy nickells that the polypeptide was some type of cyclic structure involving the disulfide linkage. Further studies including determination of terminal groups, l3 Ifi-lR degradation with bromine waterl9,l3a nd determination of sequence of amino acids by Edman degradation and by partial hydrolysis with acid,lJ along with the assumption that glutamine and asparagine residues were present rather than their isomers, allowed structure I to be postulated for oxytocin. ...".
In September 1955 synthetic Oxytocin is found to be indistinguishable from natural oxytocin in the induction and stimulation of labor in female humans.
| (Cornell University Medical College) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN
[04/28/1954 AD]
| 5577) US physical chemist, Philip Hauge Abelson (CE 1913-2004) finds amino acids still intact in 365 million year old fossils and concludes that half of the amino acid alanine could remain in storage at room temperature for 2 billion years.
| (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Washington, D. C, USA |
46 YBN
[05/05/1954 AD]
| 5649) Charles Townes and independentally Nicolay Gennadiyevich Basov (CE 1922-2001) Aleksandr Mikhailovich Prokhorov (CE 1916-2002)
In December 1953, Charles Hard Townes (CE 1915-), US physicist, and his students construct the first publicly known "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" or MASER device.
Encyclopedia Britannica cites Townes having a working maser in December 1953, but Townes first public acknowledgement and publication of the maser technique is not until a May 5, 1954 paper in "Physical Review".
One story which is told is that in 1951 Townes was waiting on a park bench in Washington D.C. for a restaurant to open for breakfast trying to think of a method to produce microwaves in great intensity. Mechanical devices can generate the much longer wavelength radio light, but for those same devices to create the smaller microwaves would require small-scale production too small to be possible. Townes realizes that molecules instead of an electrical circuit might provide an answer. Molecules can be made to vibrate and some of the vibrations would be equivalent to light particle frequencies in the microwave region. For example, the ammonia molecule vibrates 24 billion times a second under appropriate conditions and this can be converted into waves of microwave light with a wavelength (or spacial interval) of 1.25 centimeters. Townes theorizes that if ammonia molecules are "excited" by pumping energy into them through heat or electricity, and then exposes such excited molecules to a beam of microwaves of the natural frequency of the ammonia molecule, even a very small beam, an individual molecule struck by such a microwave will be stimulated to emit light particles with microwave frequency, which will collide with other molecules and ignite a chain reaction that produces high intensity microwaves. All the energy originally used to excite the molecule would be converted into one particular frequency and kind of radiation. The steady, unchanging vibration of the ammonia molecules, as measured by the steady, unchanging frequency of the microwaves can be used to measure time, so that the maser is an "atomic clock" far more accurate than any machanical timepiece ever invented.
Townes' first paper on the maser is sent to "Physical Review" on May 5, 1954 and is titled "Molecular Microwave Oscillator and New Hyperfine Structure in the Microwave Spectrum of NH3". In this paper Gordon, Zeiger and Townes write: "An experimental device, which can be used as a very high resolution microwave spectrometer, a microwave amplifier, or a very stable oscillator, has been built and operated. The device, as used on the ammonia inversion spectrum, depends on the emission of energy inside a high-Q cavity by a beam of ammonia molecules. Lines whose total width at half-maximum is six to eight kilocycles have been observed with the device operated as a spectrometer. As an oscillator, the apparatus promises to be a rather simple source of a very stable frequency. A block diagram of the apparatus is shown in Fig. 1. A beam of ammonia molecules emerges from the source and enters a system of focusing electrodes. These electrodes establish a quadrupolar cylindrical electrostatic field whose axis is in the direction of the beam. Of the inversion levels, the upper states experience a radial inward (focusing) force, while the lower states see a radial outward force. The molecules arriving at the cavity are then virtually all in the upper states. Transitions are induced in the cavity, resulting in a change in the cavity power level when the beam of molecules is present. Power of varying frequency is transmitted through the cavity, and an emission line is seen when the klystron frequency goes through the molecular transition frequency. If the power emitted from the beam is enough to maintain the field strength in the cavity at a sufficiently high level to induce transitions in the following beam, then self-sustained oscillations will result. Such oscillations have been produced. Although the power level has not yet been directly measured, it is estimated at about 10-8 watt. The frequency stability of the oscillation promises to compare favorably with that of other possible varieties of "atomic clocks." Under conditions such that oscillations are not maintained, the device acts like an amplifier of microwave power near a molecular resonance. Such an amplifier may have a noise figure very near unity. High resolution is obtained with the apparatus by utilizing the directivity of the molecules in the beam. A cylindrical copper cavity was used, operating in the TE011 mode. The molecules, which travel parallel to the axis of the cylinder, then see a field which varies in amplitude as sin(πx/L), where x varies from 0 to L. In particular, a molecule traveling with a velocity v sees a field varying with time as sin(πvt/L)sin(Ωt), where Ω is the frequency of the rf field in the cavity. A Fourier analysis of this field, which the molecule sees from t=0 to t=L/v, gives a frequency distribution whose amplitude drops to 0.707 of its maximum at points separated by a Δv of 1.2v/L. The cavity used was twelve centimeters long, and the most probable velocity of ammonia molecules in a beam at room temperature is 4 x 104 cm/sec. Since the transition probability is proportional to the square of the field amplitude, the resulting line should have a total width at half-maximum given by the above expression, which in the present case is 4kc/sec. The observed line width of 6-8 kc/sec is close to this value. ... This type of apparatus has considerable potentialities as a more general spectrometer. Since the effective dipole moments of molecules depend on their rotational state, some selection of rotational states could be effected by such a focused. Similarly, a focuser using magnetic fields would allow spectroscopy of atoms. Sizable dipole moments are required for a strong focusing action, but within this limitation, the device may prove to have a fairly general applicability for the detection of transitions in the microwave region. ...".
Russell H. Varian and Sigurd F. Varian are credited with inventing the high frequency electronic oscillator and amplifier which they called a "klystron" in 1939.
In a November 1954 paper, tranlsated into English as "Possible Methods of Obtaining Active Molecules for a Molecular Oscillator", Basov and Prokhorov describe there initial paper writing: "As was shown in reference 1, one must use molecular beams in order to make a spectroscope of high resolving power. In this reference the possibility of constructing a molecular oscillator was investigated. Active molecules needed for self-excitation in the molecular oscillator were to be obtained by deflecting the molecular beam through inhomogeneous electri or magnetic fields. This method of obtaining active molecules has already been employed in the construction of a molecular oscillator. There is yet another way of obtaining active molecules, namely, pre-exposure of the molecular beam to auxiliary high frequency fields which induce resonance transitions between different levels of the molecules. ... The method presented here can be used to obtain a sufficient number of active molecules for the purpose of constructing a low frequency molecular oscillator.". (See also:)
Townes does not formally name the MASER until his second paper a year after his inital paper on May 4, 1955 in "Physical Review" entitled "The Maser-New Type of Microwave Amplifier, Frequency Standard, and Spectrometer". In addition to naming the new device, Townes et al, cite two papers written by Bassov and Prokhorov, one in 1945 and another in 1954 stating that: "An independent proposal for a system of this general type has also been published.". In this second paper, Gordon, Zeiger, and Townes write: "INTRODUCTION A TYPE of device is described below can be used as a microwave spectrometer, a microwave amplified, or as an oscillator. As a spectrometer, it has good sensitivity and very high resolution since it can virtually eliminate the Doppler effect. As an amplifier of microwaves, it should have a narrow band width, a very low noise figure and the general properties of a feedback amplifier which can produce sustained oscillations. Power output of the output of the amplifier or oscillator is small, but sufficiently large for many purposes. The device utilized a molecular beam in which molecules in the excited state of a microwave transition are selected. Interaction between these excited molecules and a microwave field produces additional radiation and hence amplification by stimulated emission. We call an apparatus utilizing this technique a "maser," which is an acronym for "microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation." Some results obtained with this device have already been briefly reported. An independent proposal for a system of this general type has also been published. We shall here examine in some detail the general behavior and characteristics of the maser and compare experimental results with theoretical expectations. Particular attention is given to its operation with ammonia molecules. The preceding paper, which will hereafter be referred to as (I), discusses an investigation of the hyperfine structure of the microwave spectrum of N14H3 with this apparatus. Certain of its properties which are necessary for an understanding of the relative intensities of the hyperfine structure components are also discussed there. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION A molecular beam of ammonia is produced by allowing ammonia molecules to diffuse out a directional source consisting of many fine tubes. The beam then transverses a region in which a highly nonuniform electrostatic field forms a selective lens, focusing those molecules which are in upper inversion states while defocusing those in lower inversion states. The upper inversion state molecules emerge from the focusing field and enter a resonant cavity in which downward transitions to the lower inversion states are induced. A simplified block diagram of this apparatus is given in Fig 1. The source, focuser, and resonant cavity are all enclosed in a vacuum chamber. For operation of the maser as a spectrometer, power of varying frequency is introduced into the cavity from an external source. The molecular resonances are then observed as sharp increases in the power level in the cavity when the external oscillator frequency passes the molecular resonance frequencies. At the frequencies of the molecular transitions, the beam amplifies the power input to the cavity. Thus the maser may be used as a narrow-band amplifier. Since the molecules are uncharged, the usual shot noise existing in an electronic amplifier is missing, and essentially no noise in addition to fundamental thermal noise is present in the amplifier. If the number of molecules in the beam is increased beyond a certain critical value the maser oscillates. At the critical beam strength a high microwave energy density can be maintained in the cavity by the beam alone since the power emitted from the beam compensates for the power lost to the cavity walls and coupled wave guides. This oscillation is shown both experimentally and theoretically to be extremely monochromatic. APPARATUS The geometrical details of the apparatus are not at all critical, and so only a brief description of them will be made. Two ammoinia masers have been constructed with somewhat different focusers. Both have operated satisfactorily. A source designed to create a directinoal beam of the ammonia molecules was used. An array of fine tubes is produced in accordance with a technique described by Zacharias, which is as follows. A 1/2 in. wide strip of 0.001-in. metal foil (stainless steel or nickel, for example) is corregated by rolling it between two fine-toothed gears. This strip is laid beside a similar uncorregated strip. The corregations then form channels leading from one edge of the pair of strips to the other. Many such pairs can then be stacked together to create a two-dimensional array of channels, or, as was done in this work, on pair of strips can be rolled up on a thin spindle. The channels so produced were about 0.002 in. by 0.006 in. in cross section. The area covered by the array of channels was a circle of radius about 0.2 in., which was about equal to the opening into the focuser. Gas from a tank of anhydrous ammonia was maintained behind this source at a pressure of a few millimeters of mercury. This type of source should produce a strong but directed beam of molecules flowing in the direction of the channels. It proved experimentally to be several times more effective than a source consisting of one annular ring a few mils wide at a radius of 0.12 in., which was also tried. The electrodes of the focuser were arranged as shown in Fig. 1. High voltage is applied to the two electrodes marked V, while the other two are kept at ground. Paul et al. have used similar magnetic pole arrangements for the focusing of atomic beams. In the first maser which was constructed the inner faces of the electrodes were shaped to form hyperbolas with 0.4-in. separating opposing electrodes. The distance of closest approach between adjacent electrodes was 0.08 in., and the focuser was about 22 in. long. Voltages up to 15kv could be applied to these electrodes before sparking occurred. In the second maser the electrodes were shaped in the same way, but were separated from each other by 0.16 in. This allowed voltages up to almost 30 kv to be applied, and somewhat more satisfactory operation was obtained since higher field gradients could be achieved in the region between the electrodes. This second focuser was only 8 in. long. Teflon spacers were used to keep the electrodes in place. To provide more adequate pumping of the large amount of ammonia released into the vacuum system from the source the focuser electrodes were hollow and were filled with liquid nitrogen. The resonant cavities used in most of this work were circular in cross section, about 0.6 in. in diameter by 4.5 in. long, and were resonant in the TE011 mode at the frequency of interest (about 24 kMc/sec). Each cavity could be turned over a range of about 50 Mc/sec by means of a short section of enlarged diameter and variable length at one end. A hole 0.4 in. in diameter in the other end allowed the beam to enter. The beam traversed the length of the cavity. The cavities were made long to provide a considerable time for the molecules to interact with the microwave field. Only one-half wavelength of the microwave field in the cavity in the axial direction was allowed for reasons which will appear later in the paper. Since the free space wavelength of 24-kMc/sec microwaves is only about 0.5 in., and an axial wavelength of about 9 in. was required in the cavity, the diameter of the cavity had to be very close to the cut-off diameter for the TE01 mode in circular wave guide. The diameter of the beam entrance hole was well beyond cutoff for this mode and so very little loss of microwave power from it was encountered. The cavities were machined and mechanically polished. They were made of copper of silver-plated Invar, and had values of Q near 12000. Some work was also done with cavities in the TM01 mode which has some advantages over the TE01 mode. however, the measurements described here all apply to the TE011 cavities. Microwave power was coupled into and out from the cavities in several ways. Some cavities had separate input and output wave guides, power being coupled into the cavity through a two-hole input in the end of the cavity furthest from the source and coupled out through a hole in the sidewall of the cavity. in other cavities the sidewall hole served as both input and output, and the end-wall coupling was eliminated. About the same spectroscopic sensitivity was obtained with both types of cavities. Three MCF 300 diffusion pumps (Consolidated Vacuum Company, Inc.) were used to maintain the necessary vacuum of less than 10-5mm Hg. Nevertheless, due to the large volume of gas released into the system through the source, satisfactory operation has not yet been attained without cooling the focuser electrodes with liquid nitrogen. At 78°K the vapor pressure of ammonia is consierably less than 10-6 mm Hg and so the cold electrode surfaces provide a large trapping area which helps maintain a sufficiently low pressure in the vacuum chamber. The pumping could undoubtably be accomplished by liquid air traps alone; however the diffusion pumps alone have so far proven insufficient. The solidified ammonia which build up on the focuser electrodes is somewhat of a nuisance as electrostatic charges which distort the focusing field tend to build up on it, and crystals form which can eventually impede the flow of gas. For the relatively short runs, however, which are required for spectroscopic work, this arrangement has been fairly satifactory. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS Experimental results have been obtained with the maser as a spectrometer and as an oscillator. Although it has been operated as an amplifier, there has as yet been no measurement of its characteristics in this role. Its properties as an amplifier are examined theoretically below. ... The experimental results obtained with the maser in its role as an oscillator agree with the theory given below and show that its oscillation is indeed extremely monochromatic, in fact more monochromatic than any other known source of waves. Oscillations have been produced at the frequencies of the 3-3 and 2-2 inversion lines of the ammonia spectrum, those for the 3-3 line being the stronger. Tests of the oscillator stability were made using the 3-3 line, so we shall limit the discussion to oscillation at this frequency. Other ammonia transition, or transitions of other molecules could, of course, be used to operate a maser oscillator. The frequency of the NH3 3-3 inversion transition is 23 870 mc/sec. The maser oscillation at this frequency was sufficiently stable in an experimental test so that a clear audio-frequency beat note between the two masers could be obtained. This beat note, which was tyipcally at about 30 cycles per second, appeared on an oscilloscope as a perfect sine wave, with no random phase variations observable above the noise in the detecting system. The power emitted from the beams during this test was not measured directly, but is estimated to be about 3 x 10-10 watt. The test of the oscillators was made by combining signals from the two maser oscillators together in a 1N26 crystal detector. A heterodyne detection scheme was used, with a 2K50 klystron as a local oscillator and a 30-Mc/sec intermediate-frequency (IF) amplifier. The amplified intermediate frequency signals from the two maser oscillators were then beat together in a diode detector, and their difference, which was then a direct beat between the two maser oscillator frequencies, displayed on an oscilloscope. The over-all band width of this detecting system was about 2x104 cps, and the beat note appeared on the oscilloscope with a signal to noise ratio of about 20 to 1. It was found that the frequency of oscillation of each maser could be varied one or two kc/sec on either side of the molecular transition frequency by varying the cavity resonance frequency about the transition frequency. If the cavity was detuned too far, the oscillation ceased. The ratio of the frequency shift of the oscillation to the frequency shift of the cavity was almost exactly equal to the ratio of the frequency width of the molecular response (that is, the line width of the molecular transition as seen by the maser spectrometer) to the frequency width of the cavity mode. This behavior is to be expected theoretically as will be shown below. The two maser oscillators were well enough isolated from one another so that the beat note could be lowered to about 20 cps before they began to lock together. The appearance of this beat note has been noted above. As perhaps 1/10-cycle phase variation could have been easily detected ina time of a second (which is about the time the eye noramlly averages what it observes), the appearance of the beam indicates a spectral purity of each oscillator of at least 0.1 part in 2.4 x 1010, or 4 parts in 1012 in a time of the order of a second. By using Invar cavities maintained in contact with ice water to control thermal shifts in their resonance frequencies, the oscillators were kept in operation for periods of an hour or so with maximum variations in the beat frequency of about 5 cps or 2 parts in 1010 and an average variation of about one part in 10. Even these small variations seemed to be connected with temperature changes such as those associated with replenishing the liquid nitrogen supply in the focusers. Theory indicates that variations of about 0.1°C in temperature, which was about the accuracy of the temperature control, would cause frequency deviations of just this amount. it was found that the oscillation frequency was slightly dependent ont he source pressure and the focuser voltage, both of which affect the strength of the beam. These often produced frequency changes of the order of 20 cycles per second when either voltage of pressure was change by about 25%. As the cavity was runed, however, both these effects changed direciton, and the null points for the two masers coincide to within about 30 cps. The frequency at which these effects disappear is probably very near the center frequency of the molecular response, so this may provide a very convenient way of resetting the frequency of a maser oscillator without reference to any other external standard of frequency. ... THE FOCUSER In (I) it was shown that forces are exerted by the nonuniform electric field of the focuser on the ammonia molecules, the fporce being radially inward toward the focuser axis for molecules in upper inversion states and radially outward for molecules in lower inversion states. Molecules in upper inversion states are therefore focused by the field, and only these molecules reach the cavity. ... RESONANT CAVITY AND LINE WIDTH The beam of molecules which enters the resonant cavity is almost completely composed of molecules in the upper inversion state. During their flight through the cavity the molecules are induced to make downward transitions by the rf electric field existing in the cavity. ... ... The maser amplifier may be useful in a restricted range of applications in spite of its narrow band width because of its potentially low noise figure. For example, suppose that the signal to be amplified came from outer space, where the temperature is only a few degrees absolute. Then by making the coupling through the cavity fairly large so that little noise is contributed by the cavity itself, amplification should be attainable while keeping the noise figure, based on the temperature of the signal source, fairly low. This might prove to have a considerable advantage over electronic amplifiers. It might also be possible to tune the frequency of a maser amplifier through the use of the Stark or Zeeman effects onthe molecular transition frequencies. ...."
Masers can be used in surgical operations to burn tissue, or to cut material such as wood, plastic and even metals, or as a weapon which can burn and cut tissue very quickly, in chemical analysis where small quantities of a material can be vaporized and analysis of the spectrum done. The maser, and later laser light beams are very monochromatic, all having the same wavelength (or particle interval). Because of this regularity, these beams can be modulated to carry messages, just as ordinary radio wave carriers are modulated in radio communication. In the high frequencies of visible light, there is more room for carrier waves than in the lower frequency particle intervals of radio.
In the late 1950s solid-state masers (masers made of solids) are built by Townes and others. These masers can amplify microwaves while introducing never before reached low quantities of random radiation (noise). This means that very weak signals can be amplified far more efficiently than any other method of amplification. The very weak signals reflected from Pierce's Echo I satellite are amplified in this way in 1960, and the radar reflections from planet Venus are amplified with this method.
On August 26, 1958 Townes publishes a paper on the subject of building masers that emit infrared and visible light. Then a month later on September 29 Townes publishes an experiment where masers are directed in different directions which show no difference in frequency, and the Michelson-Morley experiment is confirmed with an accuracy of 1 part in a trillion.
In 1960 Maiman will build the first publicly known laser, (a device similar to a maser but which emits light particles with a higher visible frquency) using a pink ruby rod that emits intermittent bursts of red light. Laser stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation".
In July 1987, Townes and many other scientists publish information about particle beams as weapons which they refer to as "directed energy weapons". This relates to a proposal for funding particle beams to orbit the earth to shoot down missiles (the SDI" initiative or "star wars defense system"), however the possibilities of particle beams as weapons even at the micrometer level have been extremely underpublicized for many decades.
Townes is a member of the technical staff of Bell Telephone Laboratories from 1933 to 1947. This implies that clearly the maser was controlled by Bell for many years and was finally made public- and so it casts doubt on Townes being the actual inventor of the maser which is somewhat comical to a certain extent that this person is awarded for an invention that he did not invent - perhaps Townes was the one who lobbied them most to make the maser public. Then note how the Soviet people released similar papers describing the maser in 1955, as if perhaps some sort of two-nation agreement to go public with centuries old secret information. Possibly Townes was an excluded who independently was allowed to rediscover the maser, but it sees very doubtful given his employment with AT&T.
(Explain more about how can a maser be modulated. Apparently the changes in resistance of a maser causes a change in voltage, and so other voltages can be added to this regularly changing voltage. )
(hand-held laser guns that can burn and possibly even quickly cut through a person originate some time after here.)
(the lasers that zap people in their homes, make them itch, burn points on their skin, and create a two (and perhaps more) sided chess-like stalemate, originate as a result of this invention. ) (lasers that cut wood, metal. List as many as possible. ammonia (g), CO2 (g), hydrogen (g), ) (This is really an important invention. It harness and focuses the power of photons, in a similar way that a concave mirror does. )
(why did this not lead to the microwave oven in the 50s or 60s?)
(how selective can the emission be? Verify that they are wavelengths that these molecules naturally emit. Why do the molecules not follow the black-body curve? Is a specific wavelength the initial photon beam? show schematics on how these circuits are built. )
(I think a possibly more simple and logical explanation of masers and lasers is simply that, atoms and molecules absorb light particles at specific frequencies, and so bombarding atoms or molecules with this specific frequency is to optimize the absorption - and because atoms and molecules only emit light particles at specific frequencies - after absorbing so many light particles, these particles are emitted at a specific frequency. But clearly there must be more to it, because without some kind of movement of atoms, it seems that the same atoms would receive a constant supply of light particles of a specific frequency. The effect seems similar to fluorescence. One big difference is the density of light particles in a maser or laser beam - so one key is that they light particles are all released in the same direction. This seems more like a result of atomic and/or molecule spacing - to have emitted light particles of a single frequency to form a very dense beam in a single direction.)
(The maser going public is a major step in the advance of science. There are certainly many others that are inevitable, in particular 1) light being recognized as a material particle, 2) remote neuron reading and writing - seeing and hearing and writing from and to thoughts 3) flying microscopic cameras, microphones, tranceivers, and neuron reading and writing devices. Another major aspect is smart human-like walking artificial muscle robots which will go public at some point - walking robots and artificial muscles are both public - but the artificial walking and driving robots are not public yet.)
(Interesting that the maser and laser build on the neutral particle (or molecular) beam principle which originated many years before- at least to Louis Dunoyer in 1911. In addition, this seems possibly more like a particle collision resonance phenomenon. For example, a group of atoms of molecules and light particles can be viewed as billiard balls. As a group of balls are collided by another group of particles at a regular interval - the colliding ball stops transfering its motion to the collided with ball, the collided with ball then collides with another ball, stops and transfers this motion to that ball - and this process continues to the exit opening. Since the openings in the exit are too small to allow atoms to escape - only light particles can escape. So tuning in a resonance frequency of electrical current may involve a packing together or compression of atoms. This is evident in that the resistance is largely lowered when a resonance frequency is obtained. That resistance is lowered and current greatly increased implies to me that this is like a short circuit - that there is very little empty space between atoms. So this would be determined by resonance chamber volume, rate of incoming particles, size of atoms or molecules - and have less to do with some internal atomic properties other than atom size. But the rate that an atom accepts light particles may also be related.)
(Interesting to see that Townes cites a much earlier 1945 paper of Bassov and Prokhorov as an "independent proposal for a system of this general type". Notice "general type" may have a double meaning - like an army general. Doesn't this imply, that, as was the case for the going public with the transistor, that somebody else had already gone public with it, and then AT&T and the US government agreed to go public with it - or an improved version of it at a later time? So there was less of an argument that this was a release of information that was completely secret, but instead is simply a more detailed publication of something already made public earlier. As a result the public benefits from the technology being made public.)
(Clearly, this process can be made very small, and this implies that very dangerous and harmful light particle hand-held weapons must be somewhat easy to construct. Such weapons would be at least as dangerous as a ballistic hand gun, and no doubt much more dangerous being much faster and being able to do much more damage - a continuous stream of damage - like a remote cutting knife than a metal bullet gun.)
(It's interesting that apparently an "atom", "ion" or "electron" gun seems unlikely because it requires a vacuum chamber, as opposed to a light particle gun because light particles can escape from a vacuum and move very far through atmospheric gases - where larger composite particles cannot.)
(Determine if this ammonium molecule vibratation is caused by changes in an electric potential and/or by physical particle collision.)
(Are the maser and laser in some sense like the piezoelectric stimulation of crystals? and also stimulated flourescence? State how they are the same and how they differ.)
(One way of looking at a maser is perhaps: filling an enclosed space with large composite particles of matter which are output as a high density of their primary smaller pieces of matter-light particles. Perhaps it's almost like pressing an electron against a wall, and the electron then splits into its source light particles which are the only particles small enough to escape through the holes in the wall or are conveyed to the outside by collision with light particles in the wall.)
(Determine if frequency changes with change in size of chamber.)
(Notice that there is a typo in the first sentence - next to the word "can" which may imply that people can duplicate hearing thought - or a homemade laser, perhaps if they use a lead can, or perhaps that they can't even with a lead can - and perhaps fan.)
(State how the oscillating electromagnetic field is produced. Is this with a mechanical switch, or LC circuit? Are transistors used?)
(Determine what 24 kMc/sec is - apparently this is 24 Giga cycles per second.)
(I have doubts about the claim that higher energy molecules are focused by the focuser in and molecules with low energy states are pushed away. Perhaps because higher energy molecules are physically larger having more matter in the form of light particles might be an alternative explanation.)
(It seems that this very specific frequency amplification might be mostly good for communication at a specific frequency of light particles, as opposed to audio or a source with a variety of frequencies. Do laser amplifiers exist on the market?)
(Explain how Pound-Rebka show that the speed of light apparently changes as a result of a larger gravitation. Perhaps particle collision with those particle responsible for gravity, which may be light particles, cause light with visible frequency to stop for an instant before a collision causes then to resume the speed of light velocity. It seems clear that light particles can change direction, for example, in reflection, so it may be that the light particle stops and has 0 velocity relative to its earlier and later velocity for an instant at that time of reflection.)
(Look more into the solid maser amplifiers. How do these designs differ from the ordinary gas maser? Can these be used to amplify faint signals from the brain?)
(State how the maser is different from the electrical excitation of a gas in a cathode tube that emits very specific frequencies. Are the two principles related? Maybe the key is a material that filters out other frequencies at the place of light particle emission. Then compare to the piezo-electric effect, and the LED effect of simply applying an electric potential to an object which results in the emission of light particles with very regular frequency - are these many different phenomena - piezoelectric emission, maser, laser, LED, all part of a single phenomenon?)
(I would possibly rank the invenetion of the maser as being of #2 importance, if not for my feeling that possibly this is simply electrically stimulated light particle emission.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN
[06/10/1954 AD]
| 5691) Bern Teo Matthias (CE 1918-1980), German-US physicist, and team find the highest known temperature of superconductivity (18.05° K) in Nb3Sn.
Matthias identifies a superconducting alloy in which three atoms of niobium are joined to one atom of tin which remains super-conductive up to a temperature of 18.05° K. Superconductivity around 20° K is a high enough temperature that liquid helium would not be needed but liquid hydrogen can be used instead. Matthias determines the superconductive properties of many elements and molecules. Asimov states that the number of superconducting materials known is more than 1,000. Superconductivity was first observed by Kamerlingh-Onnes.
Matthias and team publish this in "Physical Review" as "Superconductivity of Nb3Sn". They write for an abstract: "Intermetallic compounds of niobium and tantalum with tin have been found. The superconducting transition temperature of Nb3Sn at 18°K is the highest one known.".
(I have doubts about the claim of superconductivity. Superconductivity is different from a natural expectation of lower resistance with lower temperature because there is a large sudden drop in resistance at a certain temperature. I think that this lower resistance may be because of less particle collision with particles of electric current. Perhaps at this temperature there are far less collisions because of some large scale physical change to the atoms. Lowering the temperature must remove many light particles from the atoms, but not enough to cause transmutation or even ionization.)
(Find portrait)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
46 YBN
[06/27/1954 AD]
| 5310) First uranium fission electric station for civilian use.
The first publicly known electricity producing reactor was the "Experimental Breeder Reactor-1" in Idaho, USA, activated in December 20, 1951. The Soviet Union builds the first nuclear station for the production of electricity for civilian use.
(verify that this is based on the uranium neutron fission chain reaction.)
| Obninsk, Russia (Soviet Union)(verify) |
46 YBN
[07/06/1954 AD]
| 5520) US biochemists, William Howard Stein (CE 1911-1980), Stanford Moore (CE 1913-1982), and C. H. R. Wirs, determine the complete structure of the enzyme ribonuclease.
Stein develops chromatographic methods for analyzing amino acids and small peptides in the complex mixture that results from the hydrolysis of proteins. Hydrolysis is the decomposition of a chemical compound by reaction with water, such as the dissociation of a dissolved salt or the catalytic conversion of starch to glucose.
Ribonuclease is a group of enzymes, widely distributed in nature, which catalyze hydrolysis of the internucleotide phosphodiester bonds in ribonucleic acid (RNA). The sites of hydrolysis may vary, depending on the particular enzyme. Differences in the site of cleavage have led to the use of these various ribonucleases as tools in determining the structure and chemistry of RNA. Research on ribonuclease has played a prime role in advancing the understanding of protein structure and function. Ribonuclease is the first protein to be totally synthesized from its component amino acids.
Stein, Moore and Wirs publish this in the "Journal of Biological Chemistry" as "The Amino Acid Composition of Ribonuclease" and they write: "Among the properties of ribonuclease which make the protein particularly suitable for structural studies are its low molecular weight and its availability in chromatographically homogeneous form. Studies on the chemical structure of the enzyme have been inaugurated by Anfinsen, Redfield, Choate, Page, and Carroll and are also being pursued in this laboratory. As complete information as possible on the amino acid composition of the molecule is fundamental to such investigations. The first amino acid analyses of the protein were carried out by Brand. The present investigation concerns the application of more recent analytical methods to a chromatographically purified preparation of ribonuclease A. ...". They write in summary: "SUMMARY The amino acid composition of hydrolysates of chromatographically purified ribonuclease A has been determined by chromatography on columns of Dowex 50-X4. Analyses after acid hydrolysis for 22 and 70 hours indicate that under the hydrolytic conditions there is marked decomposition of serine, threonine, tyrosine, and cystine and measurable decomposition of glutamic acid, aspartic acid, proline, and arginine. Assuming each decomposition to follow first order kinetics, the data from the 20 and 70 hour hydrolysates have been employed to estimate the amino acid composition of the original protein. The corrected analytical values yield integral numbers of residues for most of the amino acids and account for 97 per cent of the nitrogen and 99 per cent of the weight of ribonuclease. The analyses indicate the following 126 amino acid residues in the ribonuclease molecule (mol. wt. 13,895) : Asp16Glu12Gly3Ala12Val9Leu2Ileu3Ser15Thr10- (Cys-)8Met4Pro5Phe3Tyr6His4Lys10Arg4(-CONH2)17.".
(I think there is some argument in just dropping the label of "enzyme" and using "protein" to lower confusion, but perhaps saying that a protein can function as a catalyst, or performs catalysm.) (describe what ribonuclease does.)
| (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
46 YBN
[08/09/1954 AD]
| 5571) Choh Hao Li (lE) (CE 1913-1987), Chinese-US biochemist, and associates show that the molecule of ACTH is made of 39 amino acids in a specific order, and that the entire chain of the natural hormone is not essential to its action.
Levy, Geschwind and Li go on to show that even fragments of just over half the chain cause major activity. The composition of the protein hormones like those of the pituitary are not as easily determined as the more simple hormones such as adrenalin, thyroxine or the steroid hormones, but Sanger's technique for determining the order of amino acids in a protein chain by working with smaller fragments will help to determine their structure.
(Determine when Li et al determine that not all of the ACTH molecule is needed for activity and cite paper.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
46 YBN
[08/17/1954 AD]
| 5594) James Alfred Van Allen (CE 1914-2006), US physicist, reports detecting radiation made of electrons emitting from aurora borealis with geiger counters in rockets launched from balloons (rockoons).
(Read relevent parts.)
| (University of Iowa) Iowa City, Iowa, USA |
46 YBN
[08/23/1954 AD]
| 5678) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, and team synthesize strychnine.
Strychnine is a complicated and poisonous alkaloid made of seven rings of atoms.
Woodward and team publish this in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society" as "THE TOTAL SYNTHESIS OF STRYCHNINE". They write: "Sir: Strychnine was one of the first of the alkaloids to be isolated in a pure state-in 1818 by Pelletier and Caventou. The tangled skein of atoms which constitutes its molecule pravided a fascinating structural problem which was pursued intensively during the century just past, and was solved finally only within the last decade. We now wish to record the total synthesis of strychine (I). ...". (Describe how strychnine is synthesize and which starting molecules are used.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
46 YBN
[08/23/1954 AD]
| 5679) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, and team synthesize lysergic acid.
Lysergic acid, a molecule recently found to influence neurological function.
Woodward and team publish this in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society" as "THE TOTAL SYNTHESIS OF LYSERGIC ACID AND ERGONOVINE". They write: "Sir: The striking physiological effects attributable to ergot have been known since pre-Christian times, and were familiar to mediaeval Europe, where the ingestion of grain infected by the fungus Clavi6eQs purpurea not infrequently caused outbreaks of the dread malady known as St. Anthony's Fire. More recently, the active principles have been shown to be amides of lysergic acid (I, R = -OH), of which the simplest is ergonovine (I, R = -NHCH( CHl4)CH20H), whose oxytocic effect has led to its widespread use in obstetrical medicine. We now wish to record the first total synthesis of lysergic acid. ...".
(State how neurological function is influenced)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
46 YBN
[10/21/1954 AD]
| 5250) Tatsunosuke Araki (CE 1926–2001) and Otani in Japan make a single neuron fire by electrical stimulation (direct neuron writing).
Note that remote neuron writing, for example with an x-ray particle beam, is still yet to be made public.
Araki and Otani publish this work as "Response of single motoneurons to direct stimulation in toad's spinal cord." in "The Journal of Physiology". They write: "THE ACTIVITIES of single nerve cells explored with intracellular electrodes have been reported by several authors (1, 3, 4, 14). In those reports researches whether were made in connection with orthodromic or antidromic. It the excitation via neural is desirable, however, to pathways, adopt the method of direct stimulation in order to get more detailed knowledge concerning the physiological properties of the soma membrane. Since the insertion out ordinarily without of microelectrodes into the visual control, there is no neurons must be carried possibility of having two separate microelectrodes lodging in the same neuron, the one for stimulation and the other for recording. The use of a twin-microelectrode was also found inappropr iate for the present purpose, because of the electrical interference between each electrode due to their capacitative coupling. The only method available was therefore to use the same microelectrode with certain compensation circuits for both stimulation and recording. The results reported here were obtained with such a method on single spinal motoneurons of Japanese toads. METHODS The general procedure of experiments was similar to that described in the previous report (l), except for the newly adopted electrical circuits for direct stimulation and recording. Toad’s spinal cord with attached roots was excised from the animal body and immersed in Ringer’s fluid in a small ebonite chamber. Small bubbles of mixed gas consisting of 95 per cent O2 and 5 per cent CO2 were sent into the fluid. Mixing of CO2 was found dispensable when the room temperature was higher than 20°C. The ebonite chamber was covered with a transparent celluloid plate with a small hole in the center, which allowed the insertion of the microelectrode into the spinal cord from outside the chamber. Before the spinal cord was mounted on a paraffin bed in the chamber, a thin superficial layer was sliced off with a pair of sharp scissors from the ventrolateral surface of the spinal cord at the level of the 9th or 10th roots, because the microelectrodes happened to break when they were passed through the pia membrane. The microelectrodes were made from a glass tubing (2 mm. outside diameter and 0.5 mm. thickness), pulled by hand in a small gas flame. Those suitable for use had an external tip diameter less than 0.5 p and yet showed electrical resistance of less than 20 Mst after they were filled with 3 M-KC1 solution. The less the electrical resistance was, the more easily were we successful in balancing the bridge circuit. The lowest resistance we found was 5 MQ. After the spinal cord had been placed in the ebonite chamber, the 9th or 10th dorsal and ventral roots of one side were lifted from Ringer’s fluid and each mounted on a respective pair of platinum electrodes which served for stimulation. Stimulating currents applied to the roots were single pulses of less than 0.1 msec. duration, supplied from an electronic stimulator coupled with an induction coil. The twofold usage of a single intracellular electrode was achieved by placing the spinal cord together with an inserted microelectrode in one arm of a Wheatstone bridge (Fig. 1). This method is in principle identical with that first introduced by Bishop (2)) when he intended to record the action potential in a peripheral nerve at the site of origin. Here, however, the condenser in one of the compensating arms was omitted in order that the time course of the charging process of soma membrane can be traced. Hence, the chief aim was to eliminate the potential drop produced by a stimulating current across resistances of the microelectrode, tissue and Ringer’s fluid. In Fig. 1, R, represents the resistance of microelectrode, Rf that of spinal cord and surrounding fluid, and the circuit IMN enclosed by a broken line an electrical equivalent of motoneuron soma. RI, RI’, Rz, r and r’ are the resistors externally applied. Leads of action potential were taken from A and C. A resistance as high as possible was preferable for R1 from the standpoint of efficiency of recording, but always at the cost of efficient stimulation. Hence, a resistor of about 100 MQ (98.3 MQ) was employed as RI throughout the present research. Another point to take into consideration is the shunting effect of the bridge circuit in respect to the resting membrane potential of impaled motoneuron. In fact, - the resting membrane shu nted with 100 Ma mav become a source of current of the order of lo-“’ A. I which flows outwardly across the cell membrane and consequently may cause its depolarization. In order to avoid possible deterioration of motoneuron due to such a depolarizing current, the resting membrane potential was compensated by a unit dry cell b and resistance r placed in the circuit. Stimulating currents were applied to E and D. They were rectangular pulses of variable duration and intensity supplied from another electronic stimulator isolated from earth. A balanced D.C. amplifier was employed which has been reported elsewhere (1). The grid (A in Fig. 1) of a cathode follower input stage (954) was connected to the microelectrode by means of a shielded lead terminating in a silver-silver chloride wire, which was dipped into 3 IM-KC1 solution in the upper part of the electrode. Another cathode follower input was connected to C, which was led through one arm of the Wheatstone bridge to the silver-silver chloride rod (B in Fig. 1) dipped in Ringer’s bath. The input capacity of the recording system was about 5 OFF including the capacity across the microelectrode wall. In order to know the intensity of current flowing through the circuit when rectangular pulses were supplied, the potential drop due to the currents across the resistor RI’ (0.92 Ma) was measured by taking leads from both ends. The potential drops were amplified by a balanced D.C. amplifier (input stage, 12AU7) and recorded with a cathode-ray oscilloscope. In some cases, RI was shunted in order to reduce the external resistance, so that minor changes in current intensity due to the capacity of the tissue could be disclosed. Experimental procedure of balancing circuit. While the microelectrode tip was in contact with Ringer’s fluid in the chamber, rectangular pulses of about 20 msec. duration and moderate intensity were sent to the bridge. Balancing was achieved with ease by the trial and error method, so that any square deflection could no longer be detected on the cathoderay oscilloscope. The remaining instantaneous artefacts at the onset and the end of the rectangular pulse were minimized by connecting an appropriate point (g in Fig. 1) of re sistor r’ to earth. ... RESULTS I. Action potential of motoneuron soma evoked by direct stimulation AS has been described in a previous paper (1)) motoneuron somata in excised toad’s spinal cord show usuallv resting membrane potentials ranging from 40 to 50 mV. and spike potentials (“SD-spikes” in Eccles’ terminology) from 40 to 65 mV. The largest size of spike potential hitherto obtained was 84 mV., the resting potential being 63 mV. When a cathodic rectangular pulse, i. through the soma membrane, of a .bout 20 ,e., the current msec. duration flowing outwardly was delivered to a spike potential of mo was of superthreshold motoneuron through an intracellular electrode, a Itoneuron soma was evoked provided that the pulse intensity (Fig. 2). The spike potential was preceded by a slowly rising depolarization, which indicated obviously the charging process of the membrane capacity by the applied current. In the same motoneuron, spike potentials which arose in response to direct stimulation were similar to those evoked by an orthodromic or an antidromic excitation in their size and form. They were exactly all-or-none in relation to the intensity of the applied pulses. The maximal rate of potential rise hitherto observed was 218 V./set. The spike potential departed smoothly from the charging curve and reached the crest after showing a simple S-shaped ascent in the majority of cases. ... ... 3. Latent time and critical membrane voltage for spike discharge The latent time and the critical membrane voltages for spike discharge were measured on records obtained with rectangular current pulses of varying intensity. In some cases the starting point of spike potential was obscured by a slowly developing depolarization preceding the spike. This precedent depolarization is a subthreshold local response, which sometimes appeared separately in response to a just subthreshold current and, even in the case of superthreshold current intensity, would have remained abortive without further continuance of the stimulating current. ... In short, synaptic potentials in toad’s motoneuron seem to behave in a manner similar to those in cat’s motoneuron (5) and endplate potentials in crustacean muscle fiber evoked by an inhibitor nerve impulse (7). Synaptic delay. The synaptic delay, i.e., a time interval between starting points of synaptic and spike potentials, was always shorter in the catelectrotonic state than in the anelectrotonic. The synaptic delay in toad’s spinal motoneuron is in general relatively inconstant because therein always di- or trisynaptic reflex pathways are concerned. But the effects of polarization just mentioned were found invariably and, in spite of short duration of polarizing currents, became very marked as the currents were intensified. ... ... Repetitive discharge induced orthodromically. A remarkable tendency to discharge repetitively in response to a single stimulus delivered to dorsal root was noticed especially with motoneurons in the catelectrotonic state. For instance, a motoneuron discharged three spikes in succession in the catelectrotonic state while it discharged only two in the anelectrotonic state. Another specimen showed two spikes in the catelectrotonic state and only a single spike in the anelectrotonic state (Fig. 8). 5. Electrical constants of resting membrane For the purpose of exploring D.C. resistance of soma membrane, the intensity of polarizing currents was measured as a potential drop across the resistance RI’ inserted in one arm of the bridge with a D.C. amplifier and cathode -ray oscilloscope. Rectangular pulses were applied to points E and C in Fig. 1 as before. When a single shock was delivered to a ventral root, an SD-spike of impaled motoneuron appeared on the record as a minute change in the current intensity. In order to disclose a minute change in the current intensity due to capacitance of soma membrane, the total resistance was decreased by shunting RI. Figure 9 shows the records in such a case of low resistance, while the applied voltage was decreased to equalize the current intensity in the case of high resistance. ...
SUMMARY 1. Responses of motoneurons in toad’s spinal cord to stimulating currents directly applied by an intracellular electrode were recorded through the same electrode. The microelectrode and the spinal cord were put into one arm of the Wheatstone bridge, which was so balanced that only an exponential rise of membrane potential was detectable on the records prior to the spike potential. 2. The motoneuron soma has an electrical excitability. The law of polar excitation is applicable to the soma membrane. 3. Size of spike potentials in motoneuron soma is “all-or-none” with regard to the stimulus intensity. 4. The rheobase of motoneuron soma is of the order of lO-g A. The mean value of chronaxie is 4.6 msec., which is about 20 times as large as that of myelinated axon. 5. The time course of the charging process of the soma membrane was determined by stimulating the motoneuron with a rectangular current pulse. The potential-time curves thus obtained indicated that the mean value of the time constant is 4.3 msec. 6. The critical membrane potential for spike discharge is approximately constant in one and the same motoneuron regardless of the intensity of rectangular stimulating currents. 7. The effects of electrotonus on antidromic or orthodromic excitation of motoneuron soma were examined in the early stage of polarizing current flow. Facilitatory effects of catelectrotonus and inhibitory effects of anelectrotonus were found on the axon-soma conduction and synaptic transmission. Decisive effects were observed also on the size of spike and synaptic potentials. 8. By measuring the current intensity flowing across the soma membrane, D.C. resistance of soma membrane in the resting state was calculated. Inference was made concerning the specific resistance and specific capacity of soma membrane.".
(Determine if it is correct to say that Araki and Otani basically charge a neuron until the neuron somehow suddenly discharges the current, which indicates that it some how has "fired" - that is that a current bridge occured between one neuron and another, much like a transistor collector suddenly short circuiting with the transistor emitter.) (I think the authors apply a current pulse as shown in fig 2 - all that is shown is the change in potential, so we only see the beginning and end. The spike must represent some large change in electric potential. Change in electric potential could only result if a circuit was suddenly bridged and the current was allowed to flow - that would lower the potential as current escaped the cell - so this must explain the recording of a large change in potential on the oscilloscope. Although the spike goes up and down, the actual potential must simply go down- the oscilloscope just records changes in potential as is seen in the make and break of the rectangular current pulse marks. I think my interpretation is basically correct that this spike is the result of current suddenly finding a bridge and exiting from the cell, much like a bucket of water that just starts to spill.)
(People in Japan will lead the way to making neuron reading and writing public again in 2008 with the work of Kamatani, et al in showing the first non-invasive image of "eyes" - that is recording an image that the brain sees without cutting into the body.)
(Can you image physiology journals - decades of reports, and not one note or photo about some thing as basic and simple as remote neuron activation.)
(Is the neuron being made to fire - would that not be detected best by measuring the electrical impulse in an adjacent neuron, or seeing the movement of some connected muscle?)
(This stimulation of the motoneuron is not examined to see if it causes a muscle to contract. Determine if this kind of single motor neuron experiment was performed and reported.)
(Note that the current required to make the neuron fire is extremely small, being around a nanoamp, clearly an x-ray or ultraviolet beam of light particles could produce this much current by ionization without trouble.)
(Perhaps coincidence, but notice that the paper is received within 3 days of 10/24 which may be a day of secret historical importance which relates to neuron reading and/or writing.)
| (Kyoto University) Kyoto, Japan |
46 YBN
[12/10/1954 AD]
| 5315) Giulio Natta (CE 1903-1979) Italian chemist uses Ziegler's catalysts (and improved catalysts) to propene (CH3CHCH2) to form the polymer polypropene.
Ziegler in 1953 had introduced catalysts for polymerizing ethene (ethylene) to polyethene (polythene). These catalysts create straight-chain polymers producing a superior form of polyethene. Natta applies these catalysts (and later improved catalysts) to propene (CH3CHCH2) to form polypropene.
In 1956, Natta goes on to show that in the polymer propylene (ethylene with a one-carbon "methyl group" attached), all methyl groups face in the same direction instead of in randomly different direction, and these isomers, described as "isotactic", have useful properties. Natta finds this while in the search for synthetic rubber, after hearing about Ziegler's development of metal-organic catalysts for polymer formation.
(more specifics: show molecule, why useful?)
| (Polytechnic of Milan) Milan, Italy |
46 YBN
[1954 AD]
| 4414) Vladimir Ivanovich Vernadsky (CE 1863-1945), Russian geochemist is the first to recognize that radioactivity heats up the earth from within. (chronology) Vernadsky is the first? to understand that living objects have changed the atmosphere and geological development of earth.
(The inside of the earth is a very simple source for matter and motion in the form of heat, to be converted into electricity to power people on the surface. The heat, in my view, is much less from radioactivity, and much more from highly compressed matter, escaping to less dense volumes of space- the same process that emits so many particles from a star - but I don't think that this is the majority view.)
| (Moscow University) Moscow, Russia |
46 YBN
[1954 AD]
| 5170) US microbiologists, John Franklin Enders (CE 1897-1985), grows the virus that causes measles in tissue culture.
This work will result in a measles vaccine in 1962.
(Determine original paper and read relevent parts.)
| (Boston Children's Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
46 YBN
[1954 AD]
| 5322) Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (BUTenoNT) (CE 1903-1995), German chemist, crystallizes the first known insect hormone, "ecdysone", and finds that this, like human hormones, is a derivative of cholesterol. (verify correct paper)
| (Max Planck Institute) Munich, Germany |
46 YBN
[1954 AD]
| 5323) Gregory Pincus (CE 1903-1967), US biologist, find that progesterone and related compounds prevents ovulation (discharge of an ovum or ovule from the ovary) in humans. This leads to the first birth control pill for humans.
Pincus synthesizes a hormone which keeps a female infertile without altering a female's capacity for enjoying sex. This hormone occurs naturally during pregnancy and the synthetic hormone duplicates this condition. In pill form, this hormone is more convenient and less undignified method of separating sex from impregnation than other methods. In the first few years of its use, the pill will create more sexual freedom, and may contribute to lowering the birth rate and the dangers of planetary overpopulation. (State name of synthetic hormone.)
Pincus, with Min Chueh Chang and John Rock, develop this birth control pill. This form of oral contraception is based on the use of synthetic hormones that have an inhibitory effect on the female reproductive system, preventing fertilization but still allowing sex. Pincus discovers that the steroid hormone progesterone, which is found in greater concentrations during pregnancy, is responsible for the prevention of ovulation in pregnancy. With the development, in the fifties, of synthetic hormones, similar in action to progesterone, Pincus sees the possibility of using such synthetics as oral contraceptives. The first clinical trials are conducted in 1954 and prove extremely successful.
In 1953 Pincus and Chang confirm that progesterone prevents ovulation in rabbits. They write: " That progesterone is an effective inhibitor of ovulation was suggested by the difficulty of inducing ovulation in animals in which the ovaries contain active corpora lutea (Parkes, 1929). Direct demonstration of the ovulation-inhibiting effect in the rabbit was made by Makepeace et al. (1937), in the rat by Astwood and Fevoid (1939), and in the sheep by Dutt and Casida (1948). Since progesterone also appears to inhibit fertilization in the rabbit (Boyarsky et al. 1947), we became interested in the further study of these phenomena and particularly if the ovulation inhibiting effect and/or the fertilization-inhibition might be differentially affected by different substances. The mode of administration we have employed has failed to give any clear indication of an effect upon fertilization of the various compounds employed, but our data on ovulation inhibition are faily clear cut, and seem worth recording. ...".
(This hormone in pill form will be so popular and so recognized that it will be simply referred to as "the pill")
(This hormone requires a daily dose for a month (check), and can have some side effects such as inducing cramps (check). Later a "morning after" pill will be available which can be used by a female on the day of sex to prevent pregnancy, however, in the United States, the price of the morning after pill is kept too high for most poor people to afford.)
| (Worchester Foundation for Experimental Biology) Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, USA |
45 YBN
[02/18/1955 AD]
| 5686) Christian René De Duve (CE 1917- ), Belgian cytologist identifies the "lysosome", an organelle within cells which contains digestive enzymes.
De Duve is the first to identify "lysosomes" organelles that handle the nutrients a cell ingests breaking down the larger particles.
In 1949 de Duve was working on the metabolism of carbohydrates in the liver of the rat. By using centrifugal fractionation techniques to separate the contents of the cell, De Duve is able to show that the enzyme glucose-6-phosphatase is associated with the microsomes – organelles whose role is at the time only speculative. De Duve also notes that the process of homogenization leads to the release of the enzyme acid phosphatase, the amount of which seemed to vary with the degree of damage inflicted on the cells. This suggests to de Duve that the enzyme in the cell is normally enclosed by some kind of membrane. If true, this theory solves a problem that had long troubled cytologists, the problem of how such powerful enzymes do not attack the normal molecules of the cell. This question is now answered by proposing a self-contained organelle, which isolates the digestive enzymes. Confirmation of this view comes in 1955 with the identification of lysosomes using electron microscopes. Because the role of these sub-cellular bodies is digestive or lytic, de Duve proposes the name "lysosome". The peroxisomes (organelles containing hydrogen peroxide in which oxidation reactions take place) are also discovered in de Duve's laboratory.
In a 1955 paper in the "Biochemical Journal" titled "Tissue fractionation studies. 6. Intracellular distribution patterns of enzymes in rat-liver tissue", De Duve et al write: "... The third group of enzymes includes acid phosphatase, ribonuclease, deoxyribonuclease, cathepsin and 80 %, if not all, of the ,-glucuronidase activity. As shown in a previous publication (Appelmans et at. 1955), there are strong grounds for the belief that the peculiar distribution of acid phosphatase reflects the existence of a distinct class of granules and the finding, recorded above, that mitochondria appear to be homogeneous with respect to a number of enzymes provides additional support for this interpretation. The fact that the other enzymes in this group are dissociated from cytochrome oxidase almost as markedly as acid phosphatase, and show distribution patterns very similar to that of the latter enzyme, justify the provisional conclusion that they belong to granules of the same class. For practical purposes, it is proposed to refer to these granulesas lysosomes, thus calling attention to their richness in hydrolytic enzymes. ...".
| (University of Louvain) Louvain, Belgium |
45 YBN
[02/26/1955 AD]
| 5661) English physical chemist, Rosalind Elsie Franklin (CE 1920-1958) shows how the nucleic acid molecule in the tobacco mosaic virus exists inside a helical array of repeated protein units on the outside.
(Determine if this is still the popular interpretation of the tobacco mosiac virus structure.)
| (Birkbeck College) London, England |
45 YBN
[04/07/1955 AD]
| 5384) Severo Ochoa (CE 1905-1993), Spanish-US biochemist, and Marianne Grunberg-Manago (CE 1921-) discover and name "polynucletide phophorylase", an enzyme that can synthesize and breakdown polynucleotides.
In 1954 Ochoa was looking for enzymes capable of converting ADP to ATP. At this time most biochemistry labs work with radioisotopes, and so Ochoa approaches the problem by looking for reactions that incorporate radioactively labeled phosphate. A new postdoctoral student from Paris, Grunberg-Manago, picks up the problem, and using bacterial extracts from Azobacter vinelandii, Grunberg-Manago quickly demonstrates an active exchange reaction between 32Pi and ATP. Grunberg-Manago had used amorphous ATP and repeats the experiment with crystalline—and therefore purer—ATP, and the reaction no longer work. She finds that the amorphous ATP was contaminated with ADP and so concludes that the reaction she observed is:
ADP⇄ AMP + (PO)4
At first Ochoa does not believe this, and Grunberg-Manago notes later that Ochoa became "very excited, because no known enzyme was able to catalyse such an exchange". Within a short time Grunberg-Manago demonstrates that other nucleotide diphosphates (i.e., UDP, CDP, GDP, and IDP) are substrates in addition to ADP.
The process Grunberg-Manago uses is to incubate bacterial extracts with (32 PO)4= and nucleotide diphosphate and then look for radioactivity incorporated into the nucleotide. In one experiment she finds that the product is a nucleotide polymer identical to ribonucleic acid, and that the true reaction is:
(XMP)n⇄ n XDP + n (PO)4 (where X is a nucleotide base (adenine, uracil, etc))
Grunberg-Manago and Ochoa debate what to call the new enzyme. Ochoa, hoping that it might be involved in polynucleotide synthesis, wants to name the enzyme "RNA synthetase". Grunberg-Manago, however, thinks that the activity involves RNA degradation and favors calling it phosphorylase, and Ochoa yields and the enzyme is called "polynucleotide phosphorylase". This enzyme is the first in vitro synthesis of a large molecular weight biological compound and launches Ochoa’s research in a new direction.
In natural RNA each of four nucleotides are found, but the enzyme that assembles Ochoa's synthetic RNA creates an endless molecules of only a single nucleotide. In the next year Kornberg will extend Ochoa's work and synthesize DNA.
Asimov states that biochemists in the 1950s flock to nucleic acids, just as a decade before they had to coenzymes, and two decades before to vitamins.
Ochoa and Grunberg-Manago publish this work as "ENZYMATIC SYNTHESIS AND BREAKDOWN OF POLYNUCLEOTIDES; POLYNUCLEOTIDE PHOSPHORYLASE" in the Journal of the American Chemical Society. They write: "Sir: In the course of experiments on biological phosphorylation mechanisms2 it was Sound that extracts of Azotobacter uinelandii catalyze a rapid exchange of PS2-labelled orthophosphate with the terminal phosphate of ADP,3 IDP, UDP, CDP and (less rapidly) GDP. There is no reaction with the corresponding nucleoside triphosphates or monophosphates (tried ATP, ITP, AMP, IMP). The excha nge is accompanied by the liberation of Pi and requires Mg++. Employing the rate of the ADP-Pi exchange as an assay, the enzyme activity has been purified about 40-fold through ammonium sulfate fractionation and Ca3(PO& adsorption steps. The ratio of the rates of ADP-Pi exchange to Pi liberation remained constant. On incubation of the purified enzyme with IDP, in the presence of ME++, 50-6070 of the nucleoside diphosphate disappears with liberation of a stoichiometric amount nf P,. The missing nucleotide is accounted for by a water-soluble, non-dialyzable product which is precipitated by TCA or alcohol. Its solutions are rather viscous and exhibits a typical nucleotide ultraviolet absorption spectrum. Judging from its chromatographic behavior on Dowex anion exchange columns4 the material is strongly acidic. It yields IMP (Fig. 1) on mild alkaline hydrolysis6 and thus appears to be an IMP. 2'- and 8'-IMP have been identified as products of hydrolysis of the IMP polymer by alkali and 5'-IMP by snake venom phosphodiesterase preparation^.^ This identification is based on (a) paper chromatography with the Krebs and Hems5 and C80A8 solvent systems, (b) liberation of Pi on hydrolysis for 20 minutes at 100' with 1.0 HCl,9 and (c) behavior toward 5'- and 3I-specific nucleot ida s e~.~T hese results suggest that 5'-mononucleotide units are linked to one another either through 2'- or 3'-phosphoribose ester bonds, or both, as in nucleic acid. Similar polymers have been obtained with the other nucleoside diphosphates so far tried (ADP, UDP). The reaction catalyzed by the Azotobacter enzyme is readily reversible. In the presence of the enzyme and Mg++, the IMP-polynucleotide undergoes phosphorolysis to IDP. Table I shows the stoichiometry of the reaction with IDP in both directions. Phosphorolysis by the purified enzyme of nucleic acid isolated from Azotobacter has been shown through the incorporation of Pi:'. and chromatographic identification of radioactive GDP, UDP, CDP, and ADP. Further, the labelled GDP and UDP were specifically hydrolyzed by IDPase.'O The above results indicate that thc new enzyme (or enzymes) catalyzes the reaction. where R is ribose and X may be adenine, hypoxanthine, guanine, uracil or cytosine, and suggest that, in analogy with polysaccharides, reversible phcsphorolysis may be a major mechanism in the biological breakdown and synthesis of polynucleotide chains. Studies of the reaction with mixtures of several nucleoside diphosphates, the distribution of the enzyme (already known to be present in other microorganisms), and further work on its behavior toward natural nucleic acids, are in progress.".
(State how this enzyme is different from RNA polymerase? This enzyme strings RNA together without using a template. Perhaps this connecting nucleotides was done initially by the natural evolution of an RNA molecule, but perhaps proteins evolved before nucleic acids.)
(verify birth death date for Grunberg-Manago and get younger photo contemporary with 1955.)
| (New York University) New York City, New York, USA |
45 YBN
[04/15/1955 AD]
| 5727) Variable 22.2 Megacycles/second radio light from Jupiter detected.
Kenneth Linn Franklin (CE 1923-2007), US astronomer and B. F. Burke show that the planet Jupiter emits radio light. Probe ships will later show that Jupiter is surrounded by a very large magnetic field and people will then claim that radio originates from Jupiter's turbulent atmosphere.
Burke and Franklin publish this in the "Journal of Geophysical Research" as "OBSERVATIONS OF A VARIABLE RADIO SOURCE ASSOCIATED WITH THE PLANET JUPITER". For an abstract they write: "A source of variable 22.2-Mc/sec radiation has been detected with the large "Mills Cross" antenna of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The source is present on nine records out of a possible 31 obtained during the first quarter of 1955. The appearance of the records of this source resembles that of terrestrial interference, but it lasts no longer than the time necessary for a celestial object to pass through the antenna pattern. The derived position in the sky corresponds to the position of Jupiter and exhibits the geocentric motion of Jupiter. There is no evident correlation between the times of appearance of this phenomenon and the rotational period of the planet Jupiter, or with the occurrence of solar activity. There is eviden ce that most of the radio energy is concentrated at frequencies lower than 38 Mc/sec.".
(Perhaps there is a large terrestrial body on Jupiter under the gas and liquid above, perhaps the largest terrestrial body besides the interior of the sun in this star system.)(I question whether the photons originate in the cloud layer, perhaps they originate from the deep interior as may be the case for all planets and stars, because photons compacted together may exit near the boundary where there is more free space to form protons, atoms, and be simply free photons passing from atom to atom and eventually out at the boundary of matter and empty space. Who knows how large the pressure needs to be, we can't build a pressurizer with the pressure from the mass of a planet because we are still stuck on the surface and cannot engineer such large experiments. We can theorize, but who really knows how large a planet needs to be to pack photons together, or when the photons are packed together enough to form electrons, protons, atoms, etc.)
(Possibly electron currents could be flowing through the variable resistance of the different groups of ions in the gas, but also through the metals that must be in the molten liquid and solid sphere under the clouds.)
(It seems clear that, any source of light emits radio, simply because if an object emits enough light particles to produce a visible beam, for example 10 THz, a simple harmonic of that beam 100Hz, 1khz, etc must all be detectable. Saying that some object emits radio, is simply to say that some object emits light particles.)
(Clearly, to say that an object emits radio is the same as saying an object emits light particles, since radio is all low frequencies of light particles. There must be many other objects that emit many different lower frequencies of light that are resonant components of higher frequencies.)
| (Carnegie Institute of Washington) Washington, D. C., USA |
45 YBN
[04/18/1955 AD]
| 5558) A. Ghiorso, B. G. Harvey, G. R. Choppin, S. G. Thompson, and Glenn T. Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) publish this in the journal "Physical Review" as "New Elements Mendelevium, Atomic Number 101". They write "We have produced and chemically identified for the first time a few atoms of the element with atomic number 101. Very intense helium ion bombardments of tiny targets of 99253 have produced a few spontaneously fissionable atoms which elute in the eka-thulium position on a cation resin column. The method of production utilized the following techniques. In a special position in the Crocker Laboratory 60-inch cyclotron a very concentrated collimated beam of 48-Mev helium ions (as much as 10 microamperes in an area 1/32 x 1/4 inch) was allowed to pass through a degrading absorber and then through a 2-mil gold foil (yielding 41-Mev helium ions). On the back side of the gold foil, approximately 109 aroms of the 20-day 99253 were electroplated in the beam area. From this target the nuclear transmutation recoils were ejected in a narrow spray and caught on 0.1-mil gold foil adjacent to the target. The gold foil was quickly dissolved in aqua regia, the gold extracted with ethyl acetate, and the aqueous phase eluted through a Dowex-1 anion resin column with 6M HCl to complete the removal of gold and other impurities. The drops containing the actinide fraction were evaporated and the activity was then eluted through a Dowex-50 resin cation column with ammonium alpha-hydroxy-isobutyrate to separate the various actinide elements from each other. The radiations from the various fractions were then examined with various types of counters. ... We would like to suggest the name mendelevium, symbol Mv, for the new element in recognition of the pioneering role of the great Russian chemist, Dmitri Mendeleev, who was the first to use the periodic system of the elements to predict the chemical properties of undiscovered elements, a principle which has been the key to the discovery of the last seven transuranium (actinide) elements. ...".
Mendelevium is a synthetic radioactive transuranic element of the actinide series that has known isotopes with mass numbers ranging from 245 to 262. The isotopes with the longest half-lives are Md 258 (51.5 days) and Md 260 (31.8 days). Atomic number 101; melting point 827°C; valence 2,3.
(Show image of Mendevium if possible, state half-life.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN
[06/17/1955 AD]
| 5491) Heinz Fraenkel-Conrat (FreNGKeLKoNroT) (CE 1910-1999), German-US biochemist, and Robley C. Williams, break the tobacco mosaic virus into its noninfectious protein and its nearly noninfectious nucleic acid components and, recombine the two parts to to make the fully infective virus.
In 1952 Alfred Day Hershey (CE 1908-1997), and Martha Chase had shown that the nucleic acids of the bacteriophage enter the bacterium cell, and that it is the nucleic acid, and not the protein associated with the bacteriophage, that carries the genetic message.
Fraenkel-Conrat and Williams' discovery leads to the discovery that the nucleic acid portion is responsible for its infectivity and, in the absence of the viral protein, is broken down by RNA-splitting enzymes (nucleases).
This work strengthens the evidence that viruses are made of a hollow protein shell with a nucleic acid molecule inside. Fraenkel-Conrat and Williams show that the protein shows no sign of ability to infect while the nucleic acid molecules still retain a tiny ability to infect. They conclude from this that the protein might be important to get the nucleic acid into the cell, but the nucleic acid molecule itself is the infective agent.
Within the infected cell, and without the protein shell, the nucleic acid causes the manufacture of additional molecules of nucleic acid like itself, and also the manufacture of the protein shell. In the late 1950s there is no doubt that the basic properties of life are the result of the activity of nucleic acid molecules, and the detailed chemistry of nucleic acids becomes the focus of biochemist.
Fraenkel-Conrat write: "Much recent evidence from chemical, physicochemical, electronrmicroscopical, and X-ray studies has resulted in a definite concept of the structure of the tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) particle.'-5 It appears that about 2,800 protein subunits of a molecular weight near 18,000 are arranged in a helical manner to form a rod with a hollow core. The nucleic acid is believed to occur as strands in the core. Electron micrographs which support this concept have been obtained of the virus at various stages of disaggregation.3'5 A protein isolated from infected plants has been found to reaggregate-first to short pieces of the presumed helix lying on end and resembli ng disks with central holes and then to much longer, but inactive, rods of the diameter of the virus yet free from nucleic acid.6 It has now been possible to achi eve the co-aggregation of inactive virus protein subunits and inactive virus nucleic acid to give nucleoprotein rods which appear to be infective. ..."
(more specific: how are these two separated and put back together?)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN
[06/20/1955 AD]
| 5557) Glenn T. Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) in a team of 16 people produce and identify the new elements "einsteinium" (atomic number 99) and "fermium" (atomic numbers 100).
Seaborg and group publish this in the "Physical Review" as "New Elements Einsteinium and Fermium, Atomic Numbers 99 and 100". They write: "THIS communication is a description of the results of experiments performed in December, 1952 and the following months at the University of California Radiation Laboratory (UCRL), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), and Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory (LASL), which respresent the discovery of the elements with the atomic numbers 99 and 100. The source of the material which was used for the first chemical identification of these elements was the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory which provided uranium which had been subjected to a very high instantaneous neutron flux in the "Mike" thermonuclear explosion (November, 1952). Initial investigations at ANL showed the presence in this material of the new isotope Pu244, and investigations at ANL and LASL showed the presence of Pu246 and Am246, pointing to the presence of neutron excess isotopes in greater abundance than expected. ... We suggest for the element with the atomic number 99 the name einsteinium (Symbol E) after Einstein, and for the element with atomic number 100 the name fermium (symbol Fm), after Enrico Fermi. ...".
Einsteinium is a member of the actinide series in the periodic table and not found in nature but is produced by artificial nuclear transmutation of lighter elements. All isotopes of einsteinium are radioactive, decaying with half-lives ranging from a few seconds to about 1 year. Einsteinium is the heaviest actinide element to be isolated in weighable form. The metal is chemically reactive, is quite volatile, and melts at 860°C (1580°F); one crystal structure is known.
Fermium is a synthetic transuranic metallic element (atomic number 100) having 10 isotopes with mass numbers ranging from 248 to 257 and corresponding half-lives ranging from 0.6 minutes to approximately 100 days.
(read more of paper and show diagrams. Show image of elements.)
(I would have gone with "Newtonium" as opposed to "Einsteinium" because it seems clear that Newton's contribution of light as a particle is still an important truth, and that Einstein's so-called contributions to science are dwindling down to almost nothing. Seaborg appears to be almost strictly an experimentalist so probably the neuronal "pseudoscience" section is responsible for this name.)
(Interesting that source material from the nuclear explosion was retrieved and was intact - showing that apparently large portions of Plutnium remained. This relates to the theories of interstellar and interplanetary ship design, because there is a ratio between particle collision propulsion from atomic separation fragments versus the separation of the atoms of the ship. The more propulsion, the faster the ship can go, but the faster the ship's tail will be separated. So there is a balance between a strong propulsive series of explosions caused by small plutonium explosive spheres ejected from some part of the ship, and remotely exploded. One issue is that the part that ejects the plutonium sphere explosive fuel is probably not going to be the part that receives the particles from the explosion for propulsion- since that part will be worn down. But perhaps some fuel emitting hole could survive the constant atomic fragment collisions.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN
[06/24/1955 AD]
| 5304) US chemist, Frank Harold Spedding (CE 1902-1984), uses ion-exchange to separate different isotopes of the same element, producing almost pure nitrogen-15 by the hundreds of grams.
| (Iowa State College) Iowa, USA |
45 YBN
[08/20/1955 AD]
| 5468) Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (CE 1910-1994) and team use x-ray reflection to determine the structure of vitamin B12.
After years, Hodgkin determines the molecular structure of the vitamin B12 molecule which is four times as large as the penicillin molecule Hodgkin had determined in 1949.
It's unusual that two articles are published sequentially in Nature, one by Hodgkin's team and then one by Todd's team both basically on the structure of Vitamin B12.
| (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
45 YBN
[08/22/1955 AD]
| 5710) Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (CE 1921-), US biophysicist, and Solomon Berson (CE 1918-1972) discover the principle of radioimmunoassay (RIA), an extremely sensitive technique for measuring minute quantities of biologically active substances, such as a hormone or a drug, by comparing the quantity of binding, or the inhibition of binding, of a radiolabeled substance to an antibody.
In this work, Yalow and team report that the binding of labeled insulin to a fixed concentration of antibody is a quantitative function of the amount of insulin present and this observation provides the basis for the radioimmunoassay of plasma insulin. This work also represents the discovery of an antibody that binds with the insulin molecule. Not until 1958 will the radioimmunoassay technique be used systematically as a diagnostic test to measure quantities of molecules.
This test will allow the direct detection of human gonadotropin in a woman's urine for a pregnancy test.
In the 1950s, working with Solomon Berson, Yalow develops the technique of radioimmunoassay (RIA), which permits the detection of extremely small amounts of hormone molecules. The technique involves taking a known amount of radioactively labeled hormones, together with a known amount of antibody against these hormones, and then mixing this with human serum containing an unknown quantity of unlabeled (nonradioactive) hormone. The antibodies bind to both the radioactive and normal hormone in the proportions in which they are present in the mixture. It is then possible to calculate with great accuracy the amount of unlabeled hormone present in the original sample. Using this technique, quantities as small as one picogram (10–12 g) can be detected. This technique enables Roger Guillemin and Andrew Schally to detect the hypothalamic hormones.
This process allows the use of smaller samples for diagnostic testing during health treatment.
In her Nobel lecture of 1977, Yalow states: "... Radioimmunoassay came into being not by directed design but more as a fall-out from our investigations into what might be considered an unrelated study. Dr. I. Arthur Mirsky had hypothesized that maturity-onset diabetes might not be due to a deficiency of insulin secretion but rather to abnormally rapid degradation of insulin by hepatic insulinase (1). To test this hypothesis we studied the metabolism of 131I-labeled insulin following intravenous administration to non-diabetic and diabetic subjects (2). We observed that radioactive insulin disappeared more slowly from the plasma of patients who had received insulin, either for the treatment of diabetes or as shock therapy for schizophrenia, than from the plasma of subjects never treated with insulin (Fig. 1). We suspected that the retarded rate of insulin disappearance was due to binding of labeled insulin to antibodies which had developed in response to administration of exogenous {ULSF: external} insulin. However classic immunologic techniques were not adequate for the detection of antibodies which we presumed were likely to be of such low concentration as to be nonprecipitating. We therefore introduced radioisotopic methods of high sensitivity for detection of soluble antigen-antibody complexes. Shown in Fig. 2 are the electrophoresis patterns of labeled insulin in the plasma of controls and insulin treated subjects. In the insulin-treated patients the labeled insulin is bound to and migrates with an inter beta-gamma globulin. Using a variety of such systems we were able to demonstrate the ubiquitious presence of insulin binding antibodies in insulin-treated subjects (2). This concept was not acceptab le to the immunologists of the mid 1950’s. The original paper describing these findings was rejected by Science and initially rejected by the Journal of Clinical Investigation (Fig. 3). A compromise with the editors eventually resulted in acceptance of the paper, but only after we omitted “insulin antibody” from the title and documented our conclusion that the binding globulin was indeed an antibody by showing how it met the definition of antibody given in a standard textbook of bacteriology and immunity (3). Our use of radioisotopic techniques for studying the primary reaction of antigen with antibody and analyzing soluble complexes initiated a revolution in theoretical immunology in that it is now generally appreciated that peptides as small as vasopressin and oxytocin are antigenic in some species and that the equilibrium constants for the antigen-antibody reaction can be as great as 1014 liters per mole, a value up to 10” {ULSF: typo} greater than the highest value predicted by Pauling’s theory of 1940 (quoted in 4). In this paper we also reported that the binding of labeled insulin to a fixed concentration of antibody is a quantitative function of the amount of insulin present (Fig. 4). This observation provided the basis (5) for the radioimmunoassay of plasma insulin. However investigations and analysis which lasted for several years and which included studies on the quantitative aspects of the reaction between insulin and antibody (6) and the species specificity of the available antisera (7) were required to translate the theoretical concepts of radioimmunoassay into the experiments which led first to the measurement of plasma insulin in rabbits following exogenous insulin administration (8) and finally in 1959 to the measurement of insulin in unextracted human plasma (9). Radioimmunoassay (RIA) is simple in principle. It is summarized in the competing reactions shown in Fig. 5. The concentration of the unknown unlabeled antigen is obtained by comparing its inhibitory effect on the binding of radioactively labeled antigen to specific antibody with the inhibitory effect of known standards (Fig. 6). The sensitivity of RIA is remarkable. As little as 0.1 pg gastrin/ml of incubation mixture, i.e., 0.05 picomolar gastrin, is readily measurable. RIA is not an isotope dilution technique, with which it has been confused , since there is no requirement for identical immunologic or biologic behavior of labeled and unlabeled antigen. The validity of RIA is dependent on identical immunologic behavior of antigen in unknown samples with the antigen in known standards. The specificity of immunologic reactions can permit ready distinction, for instance, between corticosterone and cortisol, steroids which differ only in the absence of or presence of respectively a single hydroxyl residue. There is no requirement for standards and unknowns to be identical chemically or to have identical biologic behavior. Furthermore it has been demonstrated that at least some assays can be clinically useful, even though they cannot be properly validated due to lack of immunologic identity between standards and the sample whose concentration is to be determined. The RIA principle is not limited to immune systems but can be extended to other systems in which in place of the specific antibody there is a specific reactor or binding substance. This might be a specific binding protein in plasma, a specific enzyme or a tissue receptor site. Herbert and associates (10, 11) first demonstrated the applicability of competitive radioassay to the measurement of vitamin B12 in a liver receptor assay using “Co-vitamin B12 and intrinsic factor as the binding substance. However it remained for Rothen berg in our laboratory (12) and Ekins (13) to develop assays for serum vitamin B12 using this principle. Ekins (14) and later Murphy (15) employed thyroxine binding globulin as the specific reactor for the measurement of serum thyroxine. It is not necessary that a radioactive atom be the “marker” used to label the antigen or other substance which binds to the specific reactor. Recently there has been considerable interest in employing as “markers” enzymes which are covalently bound to the antigen. Although many variations of competitive assay have been described, RIA has remained the method of choice and is likely to remain so at least in those assays which require high sensitivity. ...".
This finding of an insulin antibody and the quantitative determination of how much antibody from the rate of binding of antibody with known rates is pubhlished
(Describe how this is different from the radioactive tracer work of György (George) Hevesy (HeVesE) (CE 1885-1966). Are tracers used to determine molecule quantities before this? What about biological molecule quantities?)
(Try to describe more clearly and show graphically.)
(One interesting observation is the Berson and Yalow refer to cow and pig tissue samples as "beef" and "pork", which, I think is the first time i have observed this in any biological paper.)
| (Veterans Administration Hospital) Bronx, New York, USA |
45 YBN
[10/24/1955 AD]
| 5366) Italian-US physicist, Emilio Gino Segrè (SAGrA) (CE 1905-1989) in collaboration with US physicist, Owen Chamberlain (CE 1920-2006), are the first to identify the formation of antiprotons by the impact of very high speed protons on copper atoms. Paul Dirac predicted the existence of both an antielectron and anti-proton negative energy states in an atom in 1931. Carl Anderson in 1935 detected an antielectron. However, 20 years will go by before an antiproton particle track is detected. The reason given is that since the antiproton is 1836 times more massive than a positron, it requires particles with energies 1836 times as large as that of the typical gamma ray which is enough energy to manufacture antielectrons.
Owen Chamberlain, Emilio Segre, Clyde Wiegand and Thomas Ypsilantis report this in a letter to the "Physical Review" with the title "Observation of Antiprotons". They write: "One of the striking features of Dirac's theory of the electron was the appearance of solutions to his equations which required the existence of an antiparticle, later identified as the positron. The extension of the Dirac theory to the proton requires the existence of an antiproton, a particle which bears to the proton the same relationship as the positron to the electron. However, until experimental proof of the existence of the antiproton was obtained, it might be questioned whether a proton is a Dirac particle in the same sense as is the electron. For instance, the anomalous magnetic moment of the proton indicates that the simple Dirac equation does not give a complete description of the proton. The experimental demonstration of the existence of antiprotons was thus one of the objects considered in the planning of the Bevatron. The minimum laboratory kinetic energy for the formation of an antiproton in a nucleon-nucleon collision is 5.6 BeV. If the target nucleon is in a nucleus and has some momentum, the threshold is lowered. Assuming a Fermi energy of 25 MeV, one may calculate that the threshold for formation of a proton-antiproton pair is approximately 4.3 BeV. Another, two-step process that has been considered by Feldman has an even lower threshold. There have been several experimental events recorded in cosmic-ray investigations which might be due to antiprotons, although no sure conclusion can be drawn from them at present. With this background of information we have performed an experiment directed to the production and detection of the antiproton. It is based upon the determination of the mass of negative particles originating at the Bevatron target. This determination depends on the simultaneous measurement of their momentum and velocity. Since the antiprotons must be selected from a heavy background of pions it has been necessary to measure the velocity by more than one method. To date, sixty antiprotons have been detected. Figure 1 shows a schematic diagram of the apparatus. The Bevatron proton beam impinges ona copper target and negative particles scattered in the forward direction with momentum 1.19 Bev/c describe an orbit as shown in the figure. These particles are deflected 21° by the field of the Bevatron, and an additional 32° by magnet M1. With the aid of the quadrupole focusing magnet Q1 (consisting of 3 consecutive quadrupole magnets) these particles are brought to a focus at counter S1, the first scintillation counter. After passing through conuter S1, the particles are again focused (by Q2), and deflected (by M2) through an additional angle of 34°, so that they are again brought to a focus at counter S2. The particles focused at S2 all have the same momentum within 2 percent. Counters S1, S2, and S3 are ordinary scintillation counters. Counters C1 and C2 are Cerenkov counters. Proton-mass particles of momentum 1.19 Bev/c incident on counter S2 have v/c=B=0.78. Ionization energy loss in traversing counters S2, C1, and C2 reduces the average velocity of such particles to B=0.765. Counter C1 detects all charged particles for which B > 0.79. C2 is a Cerenkov counter of special design that counts only particles in a narrow velocity interval, 0.75< B <0.78. This counter will be described in a separate publication. In principle, it is similar to some of the counters described by Marshall. The requirement that a particle be counted in this counter represents one of the determinations of velocity of the particle. The velocity of the particles counted has also been determined by another method, namely by observing the time of flight between counters S1 and S2, separated by 40 ft. On the basis of time-of-flight measurement the separation of π mesons from proton-mass particles is quite feasible. mesons of momentum 1.19 Bev/c have B=0.99, while for proton-mass particles of the same momentum B=0.78. Their respective flight times over the 40-ft distance between S1 and S2 are 40 and 51 millimicroseconds. The beam that traverses the apparatus consists overwhelmingly of π- mesons. One of the main difficulties of the experiment has been the selection of a very few antiprotons frmo the huge pion background. This has been accomplished by requiring counters S1, S2, C2, and S3 to count in coincidence. Coincidence counts in S1 and S2 indicate that a particle of momentum 1.19 Bev/c has traversed the system with a flight time of approximately 51 millimicroseconds. The further requirement of a coincidence in C2 establishes that the particle has a velocity in the interval 0.75 < B < 0.78. The latter requirement of a count in C2 represents a measure of the velocity of the particle which is essentially independent of the cruder electronic time-of-flight measurement. Finally, a coincident count in counter S3 was required in order to insure that the particle traversed the quartz radiatir in C2 along the axis and suffered no large-angle scattering. ... Each oscilloscope sweep of the type shown in Fig. 2 can be used to make an approximate mass measurement for each particle, since the magnetic fields determine the momentum of the particle and the separatino of pulses S1 and S2 determine the time of flight. For protons of our selected momentum the mass is measured to about 10 percent, using this method only. ... Mass measurement.- A further test of the equipment has been made by adjusting the system for particles of different mass, in the region of the proton mass. A test for the reality of the newly detected negative particles is that there should be a peak of intensity at the proton mass, with small background at adjacent mass settings. By changing only the magnetic field values of M1, M2, Q1, Q2, particles of different momentum may be chosen. Providing the velocity selection is left completely unchanged, the apparatus is then set for particles of a different mass. These tests have been made for both positive and negative particles in the vicinity of the proton mass. Figure 4 shows the curve obtained using positive protons, which is the mass resolution curve of the instrument. Also shown in Fig. 4 are the experimental points obtained with antiprotons. The observations show the existence of a peak of intensity at the proton mass, with no evidence of background when the instrument is set for masses appreciably greater or smaller than the proton mass. This test is considered one of the most important for the establishment of the reality of these observations, since background, if present, could be expected to appear at any mass setting of the instrument. The peak at proton mass may further be used to say that the new particle has a mass within 5 per cent of that of the proton mass. It is mainly on this basis that the new particles have been identified as antiprotons. ... photographic experiments directed toward the detection of the terminal event of an antiproton are in progress in this laboratory and in Rome, Italy, using emulsions irradiated at the Bevatron, but to this date no positive results can be given. An experiment in conjunction with several other physicists to observe the energy release upon the stopping of an antiproton in a large lead-glass Cerenkov counter is in progress and its results will be reported shortly. it is also planned to try to observe the annihilation process of the anti-proton in a cloud chamber, using the present apparatus for counter control. ...".
(Note that this is reported on October 24, a day that may relate to neuron reading and writing.)
(I doubt the energy requirement, although taken with the acceptance that velocity is not interchangeable with mass, perhaps. It seems that a mass large enough is a requirement, and then in addition a velocity high enough. Is an antiproton in a copper atom? This seems highly doubtful, but yet, it can't be ruled out. Show the atomic/particle equations. Is a proton in copper replaced by an antiproton, or is a proton absorbed and an antiproton created from some other mass? There is clear change from Dirac's theory of anti-particles as simply same-mass-electrical-opposites to the view that they are anti-matter. What are the chances of particles formed with different charge having the exact same mass as some other particle? It seems like particles and antiparticles are very closely related, and probably can be easily converted back and forth into each other; that they are the same particle, but different configuration, perhaps different movement within the particle. Clearly all matter is made of light particles, so ultimately anti-particles are made of light particles exactly as their pair particle is but in some other configuration of light particles.)
(I think that it may be that there are a very large number of particles with masses between light particles and protons, but perhaps that this is not being stated publicly for some reason.)
(Dirac predicted the anti-proton, but as a negative energy state within an atom - and then in Dirac's combined relativity and quantum mechanic model which to me seems highly heuristic.)
(Perhaps charge is simply the orientation of rotation of some particle groups, those of the same rotation can bond, but those with opposite, or non-3D-aligned rotations will not bond. So a proton is simply a particle rotating clockwise as viewed from one perspective, for example from above, while an antiproton is the same proton, but upside down or with all component pieces rotating counter-clockwise around the center of mass.)
(How can people be sure that the velocity imparted to some particle is not simply the result of a partial collision, or a collision from the side, which has imparted only part of the velocity of the accelerated proton causing the collision? For example, in smashing two objects, pieces of various size fly in different directions taking different parts of the initial velocity with them in their various diverse directions. I guess, this may occur, but all that matters is detecting a single particle with the correct velocity and mass at the detector - since mass is determined by the magnetic field presuming an electric charge of exactly 1.)
(Notice that Segre, et al draw uponn Dirac's theory, which, to me, seems very doubtful and highly theoretical - being based on a quantum model of electron orbits, and the hard-to-believe time and space contraction and dilation of relativity, and mathematical symmetry which the universe is not required to comply with. And then - makes absolutely no mention whatsoever, of an alternative theory, that this is simply one of many proton fragments that retain their deflective reaction to an electromagnetic field - that this is not even entertained as a possibility to me spell out neuron insider party-line corruption- where two large groups are happy by compromising the truth.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
45 YBN
[11/15/1955 AD]
| 5567) George Emil Palade (Po lo DE) (CE 1912-2008), Romanian-US physiologist, shows that microsomes, cell bodies thought to be fragments of mitochondria, are actually parts of the endoplasmic reticulum (internal cellular transport system) and have a high ribonucleic acid (RNA) content. Because of this microsomes will be named "ribosomes".
People will quickly realize that ribosomes are the site of protein manufacture. (Using an ordinary microscope, people like Robert Brown and Flemming had identified first the nucleus in the cell and then the chromosomes within the nucleus. With the electron microscope of Ruska, Zworykin and others, people start to probe the smaller parts of the cell. The mitochondria are one of the first organelles seen, and mitochondria will be shown to be organized groups of enzymes that make the oxidation of fat and sugar molecules happen, and in doing this produce ATP for use by the cell as energy. Mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cell.
Palade and Siekevitz publish this in the "Journal of Biophysical and Biochemical Cytology" as "Liver Microsomes". They write in abstract: "Rat liver, liver homogenates, and microsome fractions separated therefrom were examined systematically in the electron microscope in sections of OsO4-fixed, methacrylate-embedded tissue and pellets.
It was found that most microsomes are morphologically identical with the rough surfaced elements of the endoplasmic reticula of hepatic cells. They appear as isolated, membrane-bound vesicles, tubules, and cisternae which contain an apparently homogeneous material of noticeable density, and bear small, dense particles (100 to 150 A) attached to their outer aspect. In solutions of various osmolar concentrations they behave like osmometers. The findings suggest that they derive from the endoplasmic reticulum by a generalized pinching-off process rather than by mechanical fragmentation.
The microsome fractions contain in addition relatively few vesicles free of attached particles, probably derived from the smooth surfaced parts of the endoplasmic reticula. Dense, peribiliary bodies represent a minor component of the same fractions.
The microsomes derived from 1 gm. wet weight liver pulp contained (averages of 10 experiments) 3.09 mg. protein N, 3.46 mg. RNA (RNA/protein N = 1.12), and 487 µg. phospholipide P. They displayed DPNH-cytochrome c reductase activity and contained an alcohol-soluble hemochromogen.
The microsome preparations proved resistant to washing and "aging." Treatment with versene and incubation with ribonuclease (30 minutes at 37°C.) resulted in appreciable losses of RNA and in partial or total disappearance of attached particles.
Treatment with deoxycholate (0.3 to 0.5 per cent, pH = 7.5) induced a partial clarification of the microsome suspensions which, upon centrifugation, yielded a small pellet of conglomerated small, dense particles (100 to 150 A) with only occasionally interspersed vesicles. The pellet contained ∼80 to 90 per cent of the RNA and ∼20 per cent of the protein N of the original microsomes. The supernatant accounted satisfactorily for the materials lost during deoxycholate treatment. ".
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
44 YBN
[01/04/1956 AD]
| 5305) US chemist, Frank Harold Spedding (CE 1902-1984), determines the crystal structures and lattice parameters of high-purity scandium, yttrium and the rare earth metals using x-ray "diffraction".
| (Iowa State College) Iowa, USA |
44 YBN
[01/16/1956 AD]
| 5316) Giulio Natta (CE 1903-1979) Italian chemist shows that in the polymer propylene (ethylene with a one-carbon "methyl group" attached), all methyl groups face in the same direction instead of in randomly different direction, and these isomers, later described as "isotactic", have useful properties.
Natta finds this while in the search for synthetic rubber, after hearing about Ziegler's development of metal-organic catalysts for polymer formation.
| (Polytechnic of Milan) Milan, Italy |
44 YBN
[01/23/1956 AD]
| 5762) Donald William Kerst (CE 1911-1993), US physicist, and team publish a paper describing the value of colliding similarly charged accelerated particles into each other, as opposed to into a fixed target.
Kerst and team publish this in "Physical Review" as "Attainment of Very High Energy by Means of Intersecting Beams of Particles". They write: "IN planning accelerators of higher and higher energy, it is well appreciated that the energy which will be available for interactions in the center-of-mass coordinate system will increase only as the square root of the energy of the accelerator. The possibility of producing interactions in stationary coordinates by directing beams against each other has often been considered, but the intensities of beams so far available have made the idea impractical. Fixed-field alternating gradient accelerators offer the possibility of obtaining sufficiently intense beams so that it may now be reasonable to reconsider directing two beams of approximately equal energy at each other. in this circumstance, two 21.6-Bev accelerators are equivalent to one machine of 1000 Bev. The two fixed-field alternating-gradient accelerators could be arranged so that their high-energy beams circulate inopposite directions over a common path in a straight section which is common to the two accelerators, as shown in Fig. 1. The reaction yield is proportional to the product of the number of particles which can be accumulated in each machine. As an example, suppose we want 107 interactions per second from 10-Bev beams passing through a target volume 100 cm long and 1 cm2 in cross section. Using 5 x 10-26cm2 for the nucleon interaction cross section, we find that we need 5x1014 particles circulating in machines of radium 104cm. There is a background from the residual gas proportional to the number of particles accelerated. With 10-8 mm nitrogen gas, we would have 15 times as many encounters with nitrogen nucleons in the target volume as we would have with beam protons. Since the products of the collisions with gas nuclei will be in a moving coordinate system, they will be largely confined to the orbital plane. Many of the desired p-p interaction products would come out at large angles to the obrital plane since their center of mass need not have high speed in the beam direction, thus helping to avoid background effects. ... The number of particle groups which may be successively accelerated without leading to excessive beam spread can be estimated by measn of Liouville's theorem. ... ...one finds that there is room for N~103 frequency-modulation cycles. The betatron phase space available is so large that it cannot be filled in one turn by the type of injectors used in the past which can inject 1011 particles. Thus there is the possibility of attaining and exceeding the yield used for this example by improving injection. The more difficult problem of whether one can, in fact, use all of the synchrotron and betatron phase space depends in detail upon the dynamics of the proposed scheme and this is presently under study.".
In March 1976, Carlo Rubbia and others will propose that beams of accelerated protons and antiprotons (oppositely charged particles) can be made to collide head-on.
(I think it is important that when a person sees the word "energy" to realize that this is a combination of matter and motion, and so one way of thinking about an increase in energy is that there is an increase in motion, or matter or both - generally an increase in energy implies an increase in velocity in my experience.)
(Might this design have anything to do with secret bulk transmutation and specific ion isolation efforts? Perhaps making all particles free moving makes isolating the products of transmutation that result from ions colliding is easier than from a fixed target.)
(State why negatively charged ions are not apparently used - but instead only positively charged ions.)
(Note that Kerst, et al - state that this idea does not originate with them, but earlier - but then do not cite the first person to publish this idea. Try to determine who first published this idea of colliding accelerated particles with each other.)
(Explain the principle behind the fixed-field alternating-gradient accelerator - is this the concept Kerst developed in 1940? - see id5524.)
(State when this design is actually constructed.)
| (University of Illinois) Champaign, Illinois, USA |
44 YBN
[02/18/1956 AD]
| 5760) English biochemist, Francis Harry Compton Crick (CE 1916-2004), recognizes that there must be a molecule adaptor between each amino acid and DNA (or RNA - which will shown to be false).
In January 1957, Mahlon Bush Hoagland (CE 1921-2009), US biochemist will identify T-RNA (Transfer RNA), a variety of small RNA molecules in the cytoplasm which have the ability to combine with a specific amino acid (future work will reveal that some T-RNA can attach to more than one specific amino acid).
(Read from Crick's paper.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
44 YBN
[03/??/1956 AD]
| 5688) Humans recognize that DNA molecules are synthesized from nucleotides and ATP by bacteria enzymes (the enzyme responsible for this synthesis will be isolated and named "polymerase" in 1957).
Arthur Kornberg (CE 1918-2007), US biochemist, forms synthetic molecules of DNA by the action of an enzyme on a mixture of nucleotides, which carry three phosphate groups.
Kornberg explains how deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) molecules are duplicated in the bacterial cell, and provides a method for reconstructing this duplication process in the test tube. Nucleotides are the building blocks for the giant nucleic acids DNA and RNA (RNA constructs cell proteins according to the nucleotide sequences contained in DNA). This research leads Kornberg directly to the problem of how nucleotides are connected together (polymerized) to form DNA molecules. Adding nucleotides "labeled" with radioactive isotopes to extracts prepared from cultures of the common intestinal bacterium Escherichia coli, Kornberg finds evidence of an enzyme-catalyzed polymerization reaction. In 1958, Kornberg then isolates and purifies an enzyme (now known as DNA polymerase) that—in combination with certain nucleotide building blocks—can produce precise replicas of short DNA molecules (known as primers) in a test tube.
Kornberg, Lehman and Simms report this in "Fereation Proceedings" as "Polydesoxyribonucleotide synthesis by enzymes from Eschericia coli.". They write: "To define the chemical events in the development of a bacterial virus, we have explored the pathways of polydesoxyribonucleotide synthesis in normal and infected cells. The use of thymidine was suggested by the report of Friedkin et a;...that C14-thymidine is incorporated into the DNA of crude suspensions of chick embryonic tissue. Our studies started with the observation that 2-C14-thymidine (generously given us by Dr. M. Friedkin) was converted by enzyme fractions from normal E. coli to a polydesoxyribonucleotide and three or more acid-soluable nucleotides. The acid-insoluable product is made acid-soluable upon treatment with crystalline pancreatic desoxyribonuclease. Available evidence suggests the sequence of reactions: thymidine --I-->thymidine-5'-P(T5P)--II--> thymidine triphosphate (TTP) --III--> (thymidylate X) --IV--> polydesoxyribonucleotide. An enzyme purified 30-fold from a crude fraction (A) forms T5P from thymidine + ATP (I). Another enzyme purified from fraction A forms TTP from T5P + ATP (II). The conversion of TTP to polynucleotide requires ATP and heat-labile elements in two discrete, crude fractions (A and B), and suggests the formation of a nucleotide intermediate (III, IV). The over-all conversion of C14-thrymidine to polynucleotide requires ATP and fractions A + B; it is reduced over 50% by an equimolar amount of unlabeled T5P but not by higher levels of desoxyadenylate, desoxyguanylate and desocycytidylate. P32-T5P conversion to polynucleotide also requires ATP and fractions A + B; it is inhibited by thymidine polyphosphates synthesized by the Khorana procedure. Rates of conversion of thymidine T5P and TTP (1 x 10-5M) are, respectively, 0.3, 0.5 and 1.0 uM/mg protein/hr. In T2-phage infected cells, these reactions have also been observed, but at a much diminished rate.".
Kornberg and team publish the confirmation that bacteria enzymes synthesize DNA from nucleotides and ATP with a second article in "Biochimica et biophysica acta" titled "Enzymic synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid". They write: "We have reported the conversion of 14C-thymidine via a sequence of discrete enzymic steps to a product with the properties of DNA. Thymidine --ATP-> T5P --ATP-> TTP --ATP--> "DNA" (I) The thymidine product is acid-insoluble, destroyed by DNAase, alkali-stable and resistant to RNAase. We have now extended these studies to include adenine, guanine and cytosine deoxynucleotides, and with partially purified enzymes from E. coli we have studied further the nature of the polymerization reaction. 32P-labeled deoxynucleotides were prepared by enzymic digestion of DNA obtained from E. coli grown in a 32P-containing medium; the nucleotides were then phosphorylated by a partially purified enzyme. The principal product of T5P phosphorylation was separated as a single component in an ion-exchange chromatogram and identified as TTP. The ratios of thymidine:acidlabile P:total P were 1.00:2.03:3.08. Enzymic formation of the di- and triphosphates of deoxyadenosine and the pyrimidine deoxyribonucleosides has been observed and the presence of pyrimidine deoxyribonucleoside polyphosphates in thymus extracts has been reported. Polymerization of TTP requires ATP, a heat-stable DNA fragment(s), provisionally regarded as a primer, and two enzyme fractions (called S and P; previously 1 called A and B, respectively) each of which has thus far been purified more than 100-fold (Table I). Preliminary studies suggest that TDP can replace TTP and has the same requirements for incorporation into DNA ; a decision as to the more immediate precursor requires further purification of the system. "Primer" for the crude enzyme fraction was obtained (I) by the action of crystalline pan- creatic DNAase on E. coli DNA or (2) on thymus DNA, or (3) by an E. coli enzyme fraction (SP) acting on DNA contained in it. However, "primer" for the purified enzyme fraction was obtained only with method (3); the action of pancreatic DNAase on either E. coli or thymus DNA did not yield "primer". These findings imply the existence of an activity in the crude enzyme fraction responsible for the formation of active "primer". The chemical properties of the unpurified 'primer" resemble those of a partial digest of DNA. Utilization of the polyphosphates (presumably triphosphates) of adenine, guanine and cytosine deoxynucleosides for DNA synthesis occurs at rates approximately equal to those for TTP in crude enzyme fractions, but at appreciably slower rates with the enzyme purified for TTP polymerization (Table II). These changes in ratio suggest the presence of different enzymes or each of the deoxyribonucleoside triphosphates. Mixtures of these triphosphates, each tested at concentrations near enzyme saturation, gave additive or superadditive rates, further suggesting different enzymes for each of the substrates and a facilitation of polymerization by such mixtures. Studies are in progress to define the mechanism of the polymerization reaction and the linkages and sequences in the DNA-like product formed. Further investigations with phageinfected E. coli and studies with biologically active DNA may begin to clarify the question of how genetically specific DNA is assembled. ...".
Not until 1958 will Kornberg, et al, isolate and name the enzyme "polymerase".
(State how this relates to PCR.)
(Notice in the original paper "30-fold from a crude fraction" which may imply 30 people died from a crude faction for this info about DNA polymerase to be made public, which may otherwise been stuck in the terminal "neuron secrecy queue".)
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
44 YBN
[04/10/1956 AD]
| 5680) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, synthesizes reserpine, the first of the tranquilizing drugs which R. W. Wilkins had introduced a few years before.
Woodward and team publish this in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society" as "THE TOTAL SYNTHESIS OF RESERPINE". They write: "Sir: Reserpine was first isolated in 1952.' The remarkable physiological properties of the alkaloid rapidly won for it an important place in the treatment of hypertensive, nervous and mental disorders. Extensive degradative and analytical studies culminated in 1955 in the proposal of the structure (I).2 We now wish to record the total synthesis of reserpine. ...".
(This may mark the beginning of the rise of the mistaken view that many drugs can solve or alleviate abstract and complex and many times pseudoscientific or trivial perceived problems of the brain. Beyond that, this may mark the transition from more brutal and illegal forced procedures on humans, like involuntary and inhumane procedures like the lobotomy (although not physical restraints, electrocuting, and other generally torturous actions) with involuntary druggings - referred to by some as a "chemical lobotomy", because drugs are used to incapacitate the poor victim, and then the claim is that all mental disease is gone or under control. Because of the massive quantity of money paid to drug companies, there is clearly a motivation to recommend that healthy people need or simply could benefit from the use of drugs.)
(Notice the use of "Sir:" in letters, which shows a clear prejudice to the male gender - as if the person receiving the letter could not possibly be a woman.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
44 YBN
[04/16/1956 AD]
| 6083) Chuck Berry writes and records "Roll Over Beethoven".
(Is this the first major appearance of an electric guitar as the primary instrument (aside from vocal)? This is the electric guitar still without distortion yet. But clearly the electric version of the guitar, at this time, appears to be on the rise in popularity.)
| (Chess Records) Chicago, Illinois, USA (presumably) |
44 YBN
[04/23/1956 AD]
| 5761) Gerard Kitchen O'Neill (CE 1927-1992), US physicist, develops the idea of particle "storage rings" which raise two groups of similary charged particles to high velocities and then collide them in head-on collisions.
In January 1956, D. W. Kerst and team had published a paper describing the value of colliding similarly charged accelerated particles into each other, as opposed to into a fixed target.
The idea of a storage-ring syncrotron occurs independently by W. M. Brobeck of the Berkeley accelerator group, and to D. Lichtenberg, R. Newton, and M. Ross of the MURA group.
In 1959, with Wolfgang Panofsky of Stanford University in California, O'Neill constructs two storage rings at Stanford, and this technique is soon adopted for numerous high-energy installations. (Determine if this is the first constructed storage ring and state what kinds of particles are used.)
O'Neill publishes this idea in "Physical Review" as "Storage-Ring Synchrotron: Device for High-Energy Physics Research". He writes: "AS accelerators of higher and higher energy are built, their usefulness is limited by the fact that the energy available for creating new particles is that measured in the center-of-mass system of the target nucleon and the bombarding particle. in the relativistic limit, this energy rises only as the square root of the accelerator energy. However, if two particles of equal energy traveling in opposite directions could be made to collide, the avilable energy would be twice the whole energy of one particle. Kerst, among others, has emphasized the advantages to be gained from such an arrangement, and in particular of building two fixed-field alternating gradient (FFAG) accelerators with beams interacting in a common straight section. It is the purpose of this note to point out that it may be possible to obtain the same advantages with any accelerator having a strong, well-focused external beam. Techniques for beam extraction have been developed byu Piccioni and Ridgway for the Cosmotron and by Crewe and LeCouteur for lower energy cyclotrons. In the scheme proposed here (see Fig. 1), two "storage rings," focusing magnets containing straight sections one of which is common to both rings, are build near the accelerator. These magnets are of solid idron and simple shape, operating at a high fixed field, and so can be much smaller than that of the accelerator at which they are used. The full-energy beam of the accelerator is brought out at the peak of each magnet cycle, focused, and bent so that beams from alternate magnet cycles enter inflector sections on each of the storage rings. In order to prevent the beams striking the inflectors on subsequent turns, each ring contains a set of foils, thick at the outer radius but thinnning to zero about one inch inside the inflector radius. The injected beam particles lose a few Mev in ionization in the foils; so their equilibrium orbit radii shrink enough to clear the inflectors after the first turn. After several turns, the beam particles have equilibrium orbits at radii at or less than the inside edge of the foils. The possibility exists of storing a number of beam pulses in these storage rings, since space charge and gas scattering effects are small at high energies. Preliminary calculations have been carried out on a hypothetical set of storage rings for the 3-Bev, 20 cycle per second Princeton-Pennsylvania proton syncrotron. Since the storage rings would be simple and almost entirely passive devices, their cost would be small compared with that of the accelerator itself. it was estimated that a pair of storage rings operating at 18000 gauss with a 2 in. x 6 in. food-n region would weigh a total of 170 tons. The magnet of the synchrotron itself would weigh 350 tons, and would be of much more complicated laminated transformer iron. In the event that one could obtain an average current of 1 microampere from the syncrotron, and an average particle lifetime of a few seconds for the storage rings, there would be about 1000 strange-particle-producing reactions per second at each of two beam crossover points, for an estimated 1.5-millibarn total cross section. The center-of-mass energy, 7.8 Bev, would be equivalent to that of a 31-Bev conventional accelerator. if storage rings could be added to the 24-Bev machines now being built at Brookhaven and Geneva, these machines would have equivalent energies of 1300 Bev, or 1.3 Tev. If only one storage ring were used, tangential to the accelerator itself, the interaction rate would be reduced by a factor S/D, where S is the average number of beam pulses stored in each ring, and D is the fraction of time the accelerator beam is at full energy. The interaction rate would be proportional to S2 if two storage rings were used. The advantage of systems involving energy-loss foils is that they provide an element of irreversibility; with foild, the area in phase space available to a particle canbe made to decrease with time. This makes it possible to insure that particles once injected will never subsequently strike the injector, no matter how long they may circulate in the storage ring. ...".
In March 1976, Carlo Rubbia and others will propose that the large synchrotron at Fermilab or CERN be modified so that beams of accelerated protons and antiprotons (oppositely charged particles) can be made to collide head-on. (Determine if other oppositely charge ions collided with this method.)
(There is a feeling, in particular, with particle colliders that many of these finds, like neuron reading and writing, may have happened in the distant past and are only later revealed to the public through publishing.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
44 YBN
[04/??/1956 AD]
| 5082) Milton La Salle Humason (CE 1891-1972), US astronomer, with Mayall and Sandage, estimate Hubbles's constant to be 180 km/sec.
This is apparently a second paper, which actually shows one of the three known infamous images of the shifting H and K calcium absorption lines in galactic visible spectra. To my knowledge, the first paper that included images that claim to show the H and K shift was a paper published in "Popular Astronomy" by Milton Humason, all the way back in 1936. So twenty years and two months had passed, although World War 2 was in between, before a second image of the shifting calcium lines are shown publicly. The first image in 1937, shows clearly that the size of the galactic spectra are different sizes depending on the size of the source light, and much of the shift is obviously due to the difference in spectrum size. However, the paper 20 years later presents one somewhat unclear image of what are claimed to be the H and K absorption lines with two arrows pointing toward at an area to the right (red) side of the galactic spectrum, and a second with unrecognizable H and K absorption lines with two arrows pointing to a place in the visible spectrum marked far to the right. In addition, none of the line from 1936 or 1956 are in color. The spectra look mostly continuous in the published images. In addition, the last image, image 8 of the infamous Plate III, is apparently magnified more than the less shifted images in 6 and 7. The Bragg-Schuster equation shows that changing the magnification (or distance) of a light source may change spectral line positions.
(Show equations used to estimate distance from photographic images.)
Humason measures the supposed speed of recession of about 800 galaxies, some estimated as distant as 200 million light-years. Humason and others refine Hubble's constant, the speed of recession of a galaxy is proportional to the distance, to allow a greater speed of recession in the far past which fits the “big bang” theory of Lamaître and Gamow (and not with the continuous creation theory of Thomas Gold). (The "infinite universe where no matter or motion is created or destroyed" theory is not publicly considered.)
(I think estimates of distance based on size are probably more accurate.)
(I wonder how much changing of the frequencies of light occurs as a result of gravity. The expanding universe idea, is creative, but highly illogical. In terms of both the expanding universe theory and the constant creation theory. It is very doubtful that new space and or matter would be created within and in between galaxies. Some galaxies identified by Halton Arp are larger in size than their red-shift implies, and are most likely, in my view, the result of frequency changes that result from gravitational changes around a large mass object. In addition, our own sun may change the frequency of light reaching our planet.)
| (Mount Wilson) Mount Wilson, California, USA |
44 YBN
[04/??/1956 AD]
| 5777) Murray Gell-Mann (GeLmoN) (CE 1929- ), US physicist, introduces the concept of "strangeness" which can explain the unexpected long life of certain mesons, and introduces a new quantum variable "S" for the property of "strangeness".
In August of 1953, Gellman had introduced a system of assigning isospin to particles that leads to the concept of "strangeness".
In November 1953, Japanese physicists Tadao Nakano and Kasuhiko Nishijima, propose charge independence for V-particles independently of Gell-Mann.
Gell-Mann publishes an explanation for the so-called "strange particles", particles that do not separate (or decay) as quickly as predicted, by assigning groups of particles with the same mass that differ only in charge, a "charge center" which describes their average charge, and creating a "strangeness number" which is twice the amount that the charge center is displaced in the so-called strange particles, the K-mesons and hyperons. For neutrons, protons, and pi-mesons the strangeness number is 0, but for the various strange particles, the strangeness number is never 0, and can only be +1, -1 or -2. This strangeness number is conserved in particle collisions and combinations. In any particle interactions the total strangeness number of the particles before the interaction and the total number after the interaction are the same. This conservation of strangeness number is used to explain the unexpected long life of the strange particles. According to Asimov, Gell-Mann begins with the theory of charge independence, where he presumes that neutrons and protons are identical except for charge. In addition Gell-Mann identifies other particles with identical masses that differ only in charge.
The first so-called "strange" particle was the k-mason identified in 1947 by Clifford Butler and George Rochester, two British physicists studying cosmic rays. The new particles are heavier than the pion or muon but lighter than the proton, with a mass of about 800 times the electron’s mass. Within the next few years, researchers find copious examples of these particles, as well as other new particles that are even heavier than the proton. The evidence seems to indicate that these particles are created in strong interactions in nuclear matter, but yet the particles live for a relatively long time without themselves interacting strongly with matter. This strange behaviour in some ways echoes the earlier problem with Yukawa’s supposed meson, but a different solution occurs for the new "strange" particles. By 1953 at least four different kinds of strange particles are observed. In an attempt to bring order into this increasing number of subatomic particles, Murray Gell-Mann in the United States and Nishijima Kazuhiko in Japan independently suggest a new conservation law. They argued that the strange particles must possess some new property, called "strangeness", that is conserved in the strong nuclear reactions in which the particles are created. In the decay of the particles, however, a different, weaker force is at work, and this weak force does not conserve strangeness—as with isospin symmetry, which is respected only by the strong force.".
Gell-Mann publishes this theory in "Del Nuovo Cimento" (translated by Google as "Of the New Experiment") as "The Interpretation of the New Particles as Displaced Charge Multiplets.". Gell-Mann writes: "1. - Introduction. The purpose of this communication is to present a coherent summary of the author's theoreticaI proposals concerning the new unstable particles. i Section 2 is devoted to some background material on elementary particles; the object there is to introduce the point of view adopted in the work that follows. In Section 3 the fundamental ideas about displaced mnltiplets are given, and in the succeeding section these are applied to the interpretation of known particles. A scheme is thus set up, which is used in Section 5 to predict certain results of experiments involving the new particles. 2. - General remarks on elementary particles. 2"1. Particle and antiparticle. - We begin by accepting the postulate that physical laws are invariant under the operation of charge conjugation, which carries every microscopic system into a corresponding charge-conjugate system, with equal and opposite cha~'ge and magnetic and electric moments. The charge-conjugate of a particle will be referred to as its ~ antiparticle ~>. The invariance principle then requires particle and antiparticle to have the same mass and lifetime, charge-conjugate decay products, and so forth. If the electric charge is zero, particle and antiparticle may be identical; such is the case with the photon and neutral pion~ but not with the neutron~ which has a magne tic moment. interactions amongst elementary partides seem also to have a natural classification. There are three types: (i) The strong interactions~ confined to baryons, antibaryons, and mesons. These are responsible for nuclear forces and the production of mesons and hyperons in high energy nuclear collisions. (ii) The electromagnetic interaction~ through which the photon is linked to all charged particles, real or virtual. (iii) The weak interactions~ responsible for ~-decay~ the slow decays of hyperons and K-particles, the absorption of negative muons in matter, and the decay of the muon. We will adopt the point o2 view that nature is most easily described by a sequence of approximations. In the first of these, interactions of types (ii) and (iii) are (( turned off ~. Leptons and the photon are then totally noninteracting. Baryons, antibaryons, and mesons undergo reactions and transformations obeying laws peculiar to the strong interactions, while decays involving leptons and photons cannot, of conrse~ occur. In the second approximation~ the charges of particles are turned on, so that types (i) and (ii) are effeetive~ but still not (iii). The processes involving baryons, antibaryons, and mesons are now modified by electromagnetic effects, and decays involving photons are permitted. The leprous remain nncoupled except for eleetromagnetism. In the final approximation~ which is as exact a description of matter as we can conceive of at present (apart from gravitation), the weak interactions are turned on. 2"4. The ordinary particles; charge independence. - We shall refer to the nucleon (q~), the antinucleon (qD, and the pion (~) as (~ ordinary particles ~) to distinguish them from the (~ strange particles ~), K-particles and hypcrons. Let us review here some conventional theoretical ideas about these ordinary particles, ignoring the strange ones for the time being. The first approximation, in which only the strong interactions appear, is character ized by the stability of QT, c~, and ~ (since electromagnetic and ]eptonic decays cannot occur) and also by the principle of charge independence or conservation of isotopic spin, which we go on to describe. Each real or virtual particle carries an isotopic spin vector I, and the total I is exactly conserved. Each particle belongs to a rigorously degenerate multiplet with an isotopic spin quantum number I and multiplicity 2I-~1. The compon ents of each muitiplet are distinguished in charge by the z-component of the isotopic spin vector and are spaced one charge unit apart, with increasing charge corresponding to increasing I~. The center of charge, or average charge, of the multiplet varies. For the nucleon doublet~ the center is at e/2, for the antinueleon doublet at- e/2~ for the pion triplet at 0. We may summarize the distribution of charges by the relation n (2.1) Q/e = . + ~, where Q is the charge and n is defined as in (A), so that here it means the number of nucleons minus the number of antinucleons. Since Q, Ix and n are all additive, equation (2.1) holds for any system of ordinary particles, for example an atomic nucleus. The center of charge of a multiplct is always (n/2)c. In the second approximation, the electromagnetic interaction, which is of course eharge-dependent~ is turned on. The conservation of I S is then violated. Moreover, the isotopic spin degeneracy is lifted so that a mass difference appears between the charged and neutral pion and between the neutron and proton . (The assumption that these mass differences are electromagnetic in origin is somewhat controversial and not essential to our arguments, but we shall adopt it anyway as fitting in well with the general point of view). The electromagnetic interaction also induces the decay of the neutral pion into two wrays. Finally, with the turning on of the weak interactions, the ~-decay of the neutron becomes possible and also the decay of the charged pion into muon and neutrino or into electron and neutrino. (The ]utter process has never been detected with certainty and is apparently very rare.) 2"5. Rapid, electromagnetic, and slow processes. - We may use the ordinary particles to illustrate some important distinctions of which we will make further use. A process that can occur in the first approximgtion will be called <~ rapid >>. Similarly, one that can occur in the second but not in the first approximation will be known as an <( e]eetromggnetic ~> process. A process that can take place in the third approximation only will be called (( slow ~> (*). Let us now examine some decay processes gmong the ordinary particles. The nucleon <( isobar ~> that supplies the resonance in pion-nucleon scattering in the state with I-- ~ and J= ~ m~y be thought of as a particle that disintegrates into nucleon and pion with a lifetime of the order of 10 -~8 seconds. This decay is fully allowed by conservation of I and is induced by the strong interactions; it is a typical rapid decay. The order of magnitude of the lifetime is given by the nue]egr dimension divided by the velocity of ]ight, since there ~re no important effects of barrier penetration or of unusually limited available volume in phase space. The decay of the neutral pion is impossible in the first approximation since there is no lighter meson for it to turn into. With the turning on of eha.rges, however, its decay into y-rays becomes possible; that process is thus <~ electromagnetic ~>. The lifetin]e should be o~ the order of (e~/~c) ~ times 10 -~ s but is actually much longer (~ 10 -~5 s) for reasons that are not entirely clear. (A simple perturbation theoretic calculation in meson theory gives ~ 10 -~7 s). The charged pion e~nnot decay even in the second approximation since it must emit a lighter charged particle. The weak interactions, of course, induce <( slow ,> ]eptonic decay. The lifetime is now very long (~ 10 -8 s) because the coupling constant of the weak interactions enters. In high energy collisions, ~s opposed to decays, the rapid processes are usually the only ones observed (for example, pion production in nucleon-nucleon collisions.) Some electromagnetic processes are detectable in high energy collisions (particularly when a photon is the bombarding particle, as in the photopion effect.) Slow processes, however, are generally out of the question as regards observation on account of their tiny cross-sections. (For example, we should not expect to observe direct electron and neutrino production in nuclear collisions.) It is fair to s~y, then, that interactions of type (iii) can be ignored in collisions. 3. - The principal features of the model. 3'1. Generalized charge indepeT~dence; displaced multiplcts and strangeness. - The first assumption on which our interpretation of hyperon ~nd K-particle phenomena is based is a generalized principle of charge independence. We postul ate that isotopic spin is exactly conserved in the first approximation not only for ordinary particles but for the entire complex of baryons, mesons, and antibaryons. In other words, all strong interactions are supposed to be charge independent, and all baryons, mesons, and antibaryons are supposed to be grouped in charge multiplets. We abandon, however, the restriction given by equation (2.1) on the location of the center of charge of each multiplet. While retaining the principle that Q/e be given by (I,~constant) for each mnltiplet, we do not require that the constant be n/2, but allow it to be arbitrary. We shall write this arbitrary constant, which specifies the center of charge of the multiplet, as n/2~7S/2, where S is integral. We have, then~ in place of equation (2.1) the relation n S (3.1) Q/e = 5 + ~ +-s ' where S may vary from multiplet to multiplet. The ordinary particles are characterized, then, by having S = 0. A particle with S ve 0 is a member of a ~ displaced >> multiplet, with center of charge at a position different from that with which we are familiar among the ordinary particles. For example, we might find a baryon triplet consisting of a positive, a neutral, and a negative member. The center of charge is at zero rather than ı89 as it is for the nucleon doublet. The corresponding value of S is -- 1. We propose to identify all known hyperons and K-particles as members of displaced multiplets and to account for some of their properties in that way. Since whe have S = 0 for ordinary particles and S ~ 0 fer <~ strange ~> ones we refer to S as ~ strgngeness ;~. It should be remarked that in (3.1) the quantities Q, I~ and n all change sign under charge conjugation, so that S mnst also. ~'2. Conservation o] strangeness; laws o] stability and associated production. - In the first approximation, our principle of generalized charge independence implies the usual selection rules and intensity formulae characteristic of isotopic spin conservation, as well as the rigorous degeneracy of charge multiplets. 3Iost of these rules become approximate when the electromagnetic interactions are turned on. Let us concentrate our attention on one that, as we shall see later, remains rigorous in the second approximation. That one is the conservation of strangeness (*), which follows from the conservation of Ix by the strong interactions, the exact conservation of Q and n, and equation (3.1). The conservation of strangeness gives rise to two important qualitative effects : 1) The law oY stability: A strange particle cannot decay rapidly into ordinar y ones. 2) The law of associated production (*). In a collision of ordinary particles, there can be no rapid formation of a single strange particle; there must be at least two of them and the total strangeness must be zero. These laws, while merely special cases of the conservation of N, are quite striking. It is the law of stability that gives us a clue to understanding the long lifetimes of the new particles. That the metastability of the particles would be coupled with associated production has been predicted by a number of physicists . 3'3. Minimal electromagnetic interaction. - We still need, of course, the result that the conservation of N remains valid in the second approximation, so that the decay of strange particles is a slow proeess~ induced on]y by the weak interactions. This result cannot be proved without an assumption about the nature of the electromagnetic interaction. We shall postulate a principle that is given wide, though usually tacit acceptance, that of minimal electromagnetic interaction. Before attempting to state the principle, let us illustrate its application to two familiar examples. It is possible to describe the ~ anomalous ~) magnetic moments of the neutron and proton by introducing a specific interaction of the Pauli type between the spins of these particles and the electromagnetic field. In the language of field theory, one adds to the Lagrangian density a term of the form y~i az,~f~/Tz,-k -kF vf=a,,%ie,, where the y's are constants~ /~,~ is the electromagnetic field strength tensor, and the ~'s are field operators describing proton and neutron. However, this description is not usually adopted, except in frankly phenomenologicM discussions. It is supposed instead, following W~c~c ~, that the anomalous moments appear as a result of the virtual dissociation of the nucleon, say into nucleon plus mesons. The interaction of the electromagnetic field with the charges and currents in the dissociated system appears in some respects like a Pauli interaction with the nucleon spin. The important point is that , having introduced the Yukawa hypothesis of a meson cloud around the nucleon, one does not need any special electromagnetic interaction. The usual coupling of the electromagnetic field to the nucleon and meson fields is supposed to be sufficient. The second example is the decay of the neutral pion into two y-rays. We may account for this process too by means of a special interaction. If ~ is the field operator describing the s0 we may write the interaction LagTangian density as KWF*F . Here K is a constant and the star indicates the dual tt of the field strength tensor. Here again such a description is not customary except as a phenomenological device. Instead it is believed that the decay is due to the virtual dissociation of the pion, say into proton and antiproton, and that the electromagnetic field enters only through its customary interaction with the charged virtual particles involved. We may state the principle involved roughly as iollows: The photon possesses no interactions except the usual one with the charges and currents of real and virtual particles. Within the framework of present-day local field theories, we may give a more precise statement: Given the Lagrangi~n with all electri~ charges turned off, but all other effects included, the coupling of the electromagnetic field is introduced by making the substitution (3.2) ~x z ~ ~xt~ iQAt,(x) , whenever the gradient oceurs acting on a field operator (Q being the charge of the particle annihilated by the field operator in question); there is no other electromagnetic interaction. ... 3'~. The violation of S-conservation by the weak interactions. - The weak interaction s are responsible for three sorts of processes: those involving leptons alon% like the decay of the muon; those involving only strongly interacting particles (*), like the decay of the A ~ into proton and negative pion; and those connecting leptons with strongly interacting particles (*), like the decay of the charged pion or of the neutron. ... 4. - The classification of known particles. We must now investigate whether the properties of known hyperons and K-particles are consistent with the principles of Section 3. Let us concentrate our attention first on hyperons. The A ~ singlet. ... The E triplet. ... Cascade hyperons. ... The rule AS ~- ~: 1; the E doublet. ... K-particle doublets. ... The 0 doublets. ... The T-meson. ... Lepton@ decays. ... 5. - Predictions of phenomena involving the new particles. 5"1. Conservations o 7 b'trangeness in 7:-q'~ and q~-c]7 Collision,s. - We have ~lready remarked that in ~:_c~ and QT-q7 collisions, since the total initial strangeness is zero, strange particles must be produced nt least two ~t a time~ ~nd the sum of their S-values must be zero. ~qow that we have assigned v~lues of S to ~ll known strongly interacting particles, we c~n list which reactions are allowed (A) and which forbidden (F) by conservation of strangeness (*). It should be remarked that any number of ~'s may be added to the reaction products in each c~se without changing the designation (A) or (F). ...".
(It seems very unlikely to me that there are particles that light particles do not interact with.)
(Explain how conservation of strangeness number explains the unexpected long life of the strange particles.)
(It seems unlikely that neutrons and protons can be viewed as being identical except for charge, that is that a neutron and a proton have the same mass, since a neutron decays into a proton and electron. State the other particles that have similar mass but differ only in charge. It is an interesting thing to think that two particles might be the same mass, but only one exhibits a response to an electric field. Interesting that no neutral electron or proton has apparently ever been found. This may imply that mass does relate to electric charge.)
(I think "strange" is too judgmental and biased, it is a support for the psychiatric system and involuntary incarceration of lawful people, perhaps a different label if any. "Long duration" particles, "survivor" particles, "tough" particles, would have been, perhaps less offensive. Learning more about the nature of these particles, in particular seeing their tracks compared to other known particles may produce more accurate, less offensive names. "Strange", I think many times takes the form of an anti-science word. How many times have we seen decent and fine fun people labeled "strange" and punished for their enjoyment of science, physical pleasure or honesty as if something was wrong with that - like a "nutty" professor - simply for showing an interest in science and educating people. It seems clear that many anti-science people are trying to find a negative label for those they view as being on the opposite side, that enjoy science - and so words like "geek", "nerd", "dork" are funded and distributed - many times direct-to-brain on people who have never even heard of direct-to-brain sound. We see labels such as these used by brutes and bullies to persecute those more educated than they who they are jealous of by creating a mythical/pretend flaw to try to lower the value of a perfectly fine and lawful person. It's an extremely minor point, - clearly a "psycho" or "schitzo" or "killer" particle would have been probably more offensive - but the key is that words are not the crime and don't need to be stopped - involuntarily drugging, restraining and operating on nonviolent unconsenting people is the crime and needs to be stopped.)
(I doubt the value of the quantum theory, in particular because the theory that all matter is made of light particles is still not accepted or debated, and of course because of the many secrets - in particular of remote neuron reading and writing. Perhaps there are characteristic particle equations that occur many times, but I think a better explanation is not the conservation of quantum properties, but 3D models that show typical collisions and separations based strictly on particle collision - in other words - just from inertial motion. But I have an open mind - perhaps the current popular view just needs to be shown and explained more clearly - perhaps seeing the thought-images of those who create it would help to visualize their views.)
(State what particles K-mesons separate into, and how many-are these not simply light particles?)
(Determine who creates the name "strangeness" and when.)
| (Institute for Advanced Study) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
44 YBN
[04/??/1956 AD]
| 6275) Ampex sells the first practical magnetic videotape recorder (VR 1000). This first model is a large reel-to-reel machine that uses four record heads and two-inch wide tape. On November 30, 1956, CBS becomes the first network to broadcast a program using videotape.
| San Carlos, California, USA (presumably) |
44 YBN
[06/22/1956 AD]
| 5723) Chinese-US physicists, Chen Ning Yang (CE 1922-), and Tsung-Dao Lee (CE 1926-) theorize that "parity", the symmetry between physical phenomena occurring in right-handed and left-handed coordinate systems, is violated when certain elementary particles decay.
Until this discovery it had been assumed by physicists that parity symmetry is as universal a law as the conservation of energy or electric charge, that is that the laws of nature are unchanged in mirror-image transformations.
Lee and Yang conclude that the two different ways K-mesons (first identified in the early 1950s and included among the "strange particles" with which Gell-Mann worked) separate into smaller pieces of matter (break down) indicate that a single particle is separating in two different ways and not two different particles, and that therefore parity (a concept created by Wigner in 1927) is not conserved. Within months an experimental physics friend (Lee and Yang are theoretical physicists) creates an experiment that shows that parity is not conserved in so-called weak interactions. The breakdown of parity conservations will make possible new and better views of the neutrino, which are advanced by Lee and Yang, and also independently by Landau.
The weak interaction is the force thought to cause elementary particles to disintegrate. The strong force is thought to hold nuclei together and the electromagnetic force is thought to be responsible for chemical reactions. All three are thought to be parity-conserving. Since these are the dominant forces in most physical processes, parity conservation appeared to be a valid physical law, and few physicists before 1955 questioned it. By 1953 it was recognized that there was a fundamental paradox in this field since one of the newly discovered mesons—the so-called K meson—seems to exhibit decay modes into configurations of differing parity. Since it is believed that parity has to be conserved, this leads to a severe paradox. After exploring every conceivable alternative, Lee and Yang are forced to examine the experimental foundations of parity conservation itself. They discover, in early 1956, that, contrary to what had been assumed, there is no experimental evidence against parity nonconservation in the weak interactions. They suggest a set of experiments thatthey claim will settle the matter, and, when these experiments are carried out by several groups over the next year, large parity-violating effects are discovered. In addition, the experiments also show that the symmetry between particle and antiparticle, known as charge conjugation symmetry, is also broken by the weak decays.
Within months of this 1956 paper, experiments are performed (by another Chinese person, Chien Shiung Wu at Columbia University) and three people frmo the national bureau of Standards in Washington D. C., partially sponsored by the Deparment of Energy funds, which shows that the "law" of parity is indeed violated in the so-called "weak" interactions between particles.
In 1933, Enrico Fermi (FARmE) (CE 1901-1954), Italian-US physicist proposed a theory to explain beta decay that hypothesizes the existance of a "weak interaction" (force) and includes the "neutrino", a particle first proposed by Wolfgang Pauli. (Make clearer- state what the particle is that is thought to control the weak interaction.)
In 1934, Hideki Yukawa (YUKowo) (CE 1907-1981), Japanese physicist, applied quantum theory to a theoretical nuclear field, as analogous to the electromagnetic force, but with a quantum that has 200 times the mass of an electron, and the same electric charge, either positive or negative, of the electron, that is responsible for the conversion of protons to neutrons, and neutrons to protons. This theory serves as a secondary explanation for neutron to proton conversion in addition to Fermi's "weak force" theory of a Beta-decay in which a neutron emits a neutrino and electron. This force is the origin of what is called the "strong interaction" or "strong force". (Make clearer - state what particles are thought to control strong and weak interactions.)
According to Lee in his Nobel lecture, the law of conservation of parity is valid for both the strong and the electromagnetic interactions but is not valid for the weak interaction.
Lee and Yang publish this in "Physical Review" as "Question of Partiy Conservation in Weak Interactions". For an abstract they write: "The question of parity conservation in β decays and in hyperon and meson decays is examined. Possible experiments are suggested which might test parity conservation in these interactions.". In their article they write: "Recent experimental data indicate closely identical masses and lifetimes of the θ+ ...and τ+ ... mesons. On the other hand, analyses of the decay products of τ+ strongly suggest on the grounds of angular momentum and parity conservation that the τ+ and θ+ are not the same particle. This poses a rather puzzling situation that has been extensively discussed. One way out of the difficulty is to assume that parity is not strictly conserved, so that θ+ and τ+ are two different decay modes of the same particle, which necessarily has a single mass value and a single lifetime. We wish to analyze this possiblity in the present paper against the background of the existing experimental evidence of parity conservation. It will become clear that existing experiments do indicate parity conservation in strong and electromagnetic interactions to a high degree of accuracy, but that for the weak interactions (i.e., decay interactions for the mesons and hyperons, and various Fermi interactions) parity conservation is so far only an extrapolated hypothesis unsupported by experimental evidence. (One might even say that the present θ-τ puzzle may be taken as an indication that parity conservation is violated in weak interactions. This argument is, however, not to be taken seriously because of the paucity of our present knowledge concerning the nature of the strange particles. it supplies rather an incentive for an examination of the question of parity conservation.) To decide unequivocally whether parity is conserved in weak interactions, one must perform an experiment to determine whether weak interactions differentiate the right from the left. Some such possible experiments will be discussed.
PRESENT EXPERIMENTAL LIMIT ON PARITY NONCONSERVATION If parity is not strictly conserved, all atomic and nuclear states become mixtures consisting mainly of the state they are usually assigned, together with small percentages of states possessing the opposite parity. The fractional weight of the latter will be called F2. It is a quantity that characterized the degree of violation of parity conservation. ... QUESTION OF PARITY CONSERVATION IN β DECAY At first sight it might appear that the numerous experiments related to β decay would provide a verification that the weak β interaction does conserve parity. We have examined this question in detail and found this to be not so. (See Appendix.) We start by writing down the five usual types of couplings. In addition to these we introduce the five types of couplings that conserve angular momentum but do not conserve parity. It is then apparent that the classification of β decays into allowed transistions, first forbidden, etc., proceeds exactly as usual. (The mixing of parity of the nuclear states would not measurably affect these selection rules. This phenomenon belongs to the discussions of the last section.) The following phenomena are then examined: allowed spectra, unique forbidden spectra, forbidden spectra with allowed shape, β-neutrino correlation, and β-γ correlation. It is found that these experiments have no bearing on the question of parity conservation of the β-decay interactions. This comes about because in all of these phenomena no interference terms exist between the parity-conserving and parity-nonconserving interactions. In other works, the calculations always result in terms proportional to |C|2 plus terms proportional to |C'|2. Here C and C' are, respectively, the coupling constants for the usual parity-conserving interactions (a sum of five terms) and the parity-nonconserving interactions (also a sum of five terms.) Furthermore, it is well known that without measuring the spin of the neutrino we cannot distinguish the couplings C from the couplings C' (provided the mass of the neutrino is zero). The experimental results concerning the above named phenomena, which constitute the bulk of our present knowledge about β decay, therefore cannot decide trhe degree of mixing of the C' type interactions with the usual type. The reason for the absence of interference terms CC' is actually quite obvious. Such terms can only occur as a pseudoscalar formed out of the experimentally measured quantities. For example, if three momenta p1, p2, p3 are measured, the term CC'p1 . (p2 X p3) may occur. Or if a momentum p and a spin σ are measured, the term CC'p . σ may occur. In all the β-decay phenomena mentioned above, no such pseudoscalars can be formed out of the measured quantities.
POSSIBLE EXPERIMENTAL TESTS OF PARITY CONSERVATION IN β DECAYS
The above discussion also suggests the kind of experiments that could detect the possible interference between C and C' and consequently could establish whether parity conservation is violated in β decay. A relatively simple possibility is to measure the angular distribution of the electrons coming from β decays of oriented nuclei. If θ is the angle between the orientation of the parent nucleus and the momentum of the electron, an asymmetry of distribution between θ and 180° - θ constitutes an unequivocal proof that parity is not conserved in β decay. To be more specific, let us consider the allowed β transition of any oriented nucleus, say Co60. The angular distribution of the β radiation is of the form (see Appendix): I(θ)dθ = (constant)(1+αcosθ)sinθdθ (2) where α is proportional to the interference term CC'. if α!=0, one would then have a positive proof of parity nonconservation in β decay. The quantity α can be obtained by measuring the fractional asymmetry between θ<90° and θ>90°; ... ... REMARKS ... One may question whether the other conservation laws of physics could also be violated in the weak interactions. Upon examining this question, one finds that the conservations of the number of heavy particles, of electric charge, or energy, and of momentum all appear to be inviolate in the weak interactions. The same cannot be said of the conservation of angular momentum, and of parity. Nor can it be said of the invariance under time reversal. it might appear at first sight that the equality of the life times of π+- and of those μ+- furnish proofs of the invariance under charge conjugation of the weak interactions. A close examination of this problem reveals, however, that this is not so. in fact, the equality of the life times of a charged particle and its charge conjugate against decay through a weak interaction (to the lowest order of the strength of the weak interaction) can be shown to follow from the invariance under proper Lorentz transformations (i.e., Lorentz transformation with neither space nor time inversion). One has therefore at present no experimental proof of the invariance under charge conjugation of the weak interactions. In the present paper, only the question of parity nonconservation is discussed. The conservation of parity is usually accepted without questions concerning its possible limit of validity being asked. There is actually no a priori reason why its violation is undesirable. As is well known, its violation implies the existence of a right-left asymmetry. We have seen in the above some possible experimental tests of this asymmetry. These experiments test whether the present elementary particles exhibit asymmetrical behavior with respect to the right and the left. If such asymmetry is indeed found, the question could still be raised whether there could not exist corresponding elementary particles exhibiting opposite asymmetry such that in the broader sense there will still be over-all right-left symmetry. If this is the case, it should be pointed out, there must exist two kinds of protons pR and pL, the right-handed one and the left-handed one. Furthermore, at the present time the protons in the laboratory must be predominantly of one kind in order to produce the supposedly observed asymmetry, and also to give rise to the observed Fermi-Dirac statistical character of the proton. This means that the free oscillation period between them must be longer than the age of the universe. They could therefore both be regarded as stable particles. Furthermore, the numbers of pR and pL must be separately conserved. However, the interaction between them is not necessarily weak. For example, pR and pL could interact with the same electromagnetic field and perhaps the same pion field. They could then be separately pair-produced, giving rise to interesting observational possibilities. In such a picture the supposedly observed right-and-left asymmetry is therefore ascribed not to a basic non-invariance under inversion, but to a cosmologically local preponderance of, say, pR over pL, a situation not unlike that of the preponderance of the positive proton over the negative. Speculations along these lines are extremely intersting, but are quire beyond the scope of this note. ..."
(Both theories of strong and weak nuclear forces are highly doubtful in my opinion, and many particle interactions can be explained simply as groups of light particles forming together or falling apart because of collective motions and collisions.)
(It seems clear that physics in the 1900s and 2000s is basically almost completely 99.9% fraud because it seems clear that all matter is made of light particles and this simple fact, in addition to the reality of neuron reading and writing, artificial muscle robots, and I can only imagine what else - has created an excuse to lie to the public in order to continue a monopoly on neuron reading and writing by AT&T and the governments, and to secretly fund more secret neuron, robot and transmutation experiments - and we can only imagine what else our tax money is being used for - perhaps secret moon and mars stations and vehicles - it would not surprise me at all.)
(Fully describe parity graphically, what experiment or math created this concept. State what K-meson mass is, what particles they break into, charge, show images of. State nature of experiment, what particles are used.)
(I have doubts about the idea of parity and so this should be fully explained in simple terms. Perhaps this is just a description of something that is a natural result of gravity, for example the direction a moon orbits a planet. We could say the parity of Triton is -1 while the parity of most moons in +1. But the real underlying force is gravity, and the importance of moon direction seems to me to be of less value. Describing the actual phenomenon is more important. Clearly there are particles within a K-meson, and how a group of matter separates can vary. It could separate into 2, 3 or more pieces. I think this is more a debate about the internal structure of a K-meson and how this structure may fall apart, and doesn't have anything to do with any symmetrical principle in the universe. But I think there needs to be much more information. There is not much clearly written literature on the field and findings of particle physics. For example there is no explanation of the mass of a K-meson, the end products, many specifics - there is a belief that mass depends on velocity and motion and mass can be exchanged - that light particles are massless and not the basis of all matter - many fundamentally inaccurate views.)
(Determine if there are any physical "tracks" of the K meson. If not, I think there needs to be alternative explanations offered - in particular given unrecognized light particle emissions.)
(In terms of particle and anti-particle parity symmetry, it seems clear that anti-particles are material and made of light particles, and so simply are electrical opposites. I think this may be an example of how particles separate in a variety of ways and particles of similar mass but opposite charge probably do not separate in the same way every time. In some way, perhaps this find takes the public closer to rejecting the theory that antiparticles are perfectly symmetrical opposites of their corresponding opposite particle and just another collection of light particles.)
(This may be so simple as just to say that composite particles separate in a wide variety of non-symmetrical ways - not with particles emitted in the same exact direction every time. In this case, composite particle formation is probably not symmetrical - composite particles can probably be formed by colliding particles at a variety of different angles - without some kind of single-direction only symmetry for all colliding particles. )
(I think that the concept of "parity" should probably be rejected as being of any value since it's based on a mistaken belief that particles separate the same way every time.)
(One question I have is: Is massergy (1/2 m^2v) conserved in particle interactions?)
(I view electromagnetism as a particle collision phenomenon, although there could be a particle bonding phenomenon in electromagnetism too - but the so-called weak interaction seems to me simply to be composite particle separation ultimately because of particle collision.)
(Could "all atomic and nuclear states" in the article be better stated "all electron and nuclear states"?)
(I think the claim of a right and left proton indicates that this theory of parity is inaccurate. It seems, to me, very unlikely for there to be two kinds of protons, although I can accept that there may be a wide variety of different mass composite particles that exhibit a positive electromagnetic response, and the same for negative charge. In terms of the anti-proton, and why there are not more in the universe, perhaps the requirement of high velocity particle collision lowers the probability of such particles occuring, or also their structural instability. Determine what is the structural stability of the various known anti-particles. Compare this to the structural stability in equivalent situations with their corresponding particle.)
(Another aspect in terms of symmetry of collisions is that electromagnetism and perhaps gravity are particle collision phenomena where no composite particles are separated, while the so-called weak interaction, composite particle decay or separation is also presumably a particle collision phenomenon where a composite particle is separated into smaller composite or light particles.)
(In terms of the theory that all particle interactions should be time reversible, I can accept this as true, but that being able to identically reverse all particle interactions seems impossible to me - in particular where quadrillions of light particles are emitted in many different directions.)
(Notice how the paper where experimental proof of the so-called violation of parity is given is authored by 3 people from Washington D. C., which, like the case of Gamow, implies some sort of government sponsorship and control. This experimental proof work is partially supported by the U. S. Atomic Energy Commission.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA and (Brookhaven National Laboratory) Upton, New York, USA |
44 YBN
[07/06/1956 AD]
| 5702) Design of a three-level (continuous) solid-state maser.
Nicolaas Bloembergen (BlUMBRGeN) (CE 1920- ) Dutch-US physicist, describes the possibility of a three-level (continuously emitting) solid state maser. This three-level maser is not actually built until later December 3, 1956 by Harold Seidel, et al at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Alan McWhorter and James Meyer at MIT also build a multiple level maser by August 1957. Bloembergen and team will not publish details about an actual multi-level solid maser until December 1957.
The early maser of Townes could only work intermittently: once the electrons in the higher energy level have been stimulated they fall down to the lower energy level and nothing further can happen until they are raised to the higher level again. Bloembergen develops the three-level and multilevel masers, which are also worked on by Nikolai Basov and Aleksandr Prokhorov in the Soviet Union. In the three-level maser, electrons are pumped to the highest level and stimulated. They consequently emit microwave radiation and fall down to the middle level where they can once more be stimulated and emit energy of a lower frequency. At the same time more electrons are being pumped from the lowest to the highest level making the process continuous.
This maser uses energy levels on three levels instead of two, so that one of the upper levels can be storing energy (light particles) while another is emitting. Before this masers discharged their stored light particles in quick emission and then there is a pause while sufficient energy (light particles) are stored for another emission.
Bloembergen publishes this in "Physical Review" as "Proposal for a New Type Solid State Maser". He writes for an abstract: "The Overhauser effect may be used in the spin multiplet of certain paramagnetic ions to obtain a negative absorption or stimulated emission at microwave frequencies. The use of nickel fluosilicate or gadolinium ethyl sulfate at liquid helium temperature is suggested to obtain a low noise microwave amplifier or frequency converter. The operation of a solid state maser based on this principle is discussed.". In his paper Bloembergen writes: "TOWNES and co-workers have shown that microwave amplification can be obtained by stimulated emission of radiation from systems in which a higher energy level is more densely populated than a lower one. In paramagnetic systems an inversion of the population of the spin levels may be obtained in a variety of ways. The "180° pulse" and the "adiabatic rapid passage" have been extensively applied in nuclear magnetic resonance. Combrisson and Honig2 applied the fast passage technique to the two electron spin levels of a P donor in silicon, and obtained a noticeable power amplification. Attention is called to the usefulness of power saturation of one transition in a multiple energy level system to obtain a change of sign of the population difference between another pair of levels. A variation in level populations obtained in this manner has been demonstrated by Pound.3 Such effects have since acquired wide recognition through the work of Overhauser. Consider for example a system with three unequally spaced energy levels, E3>E2>E1. ... It may be concluded that the realization of a lownoise c.w. microwave amplifier by saturation of a spin level system at a higher frequency seems promising. The device should be particularly suited for detection of weak signals at relatively long wavelength, e.g., the 21-cm interstellar hydrogen radiation. It may also be operated as a microwave frequency converter, capable of handling milliwatt power. More detailed calculations and design of the cavity are in progress.".
(Does this emit two or more different frequencies? It seems that electrical oscillations are varied - first in the frequency for a lower level, then while that low level is emitting, a higher frequency of electricity causes a higher orbiting electron to absorb light particles (perhaps photrons is a good name for a single particle, "photon" defining a quantum of light particles). Explain in more detail and show graphically in moving 3D.)
(Clearly the history of masers and lasers is very cloudy, in particular because of the secret 200 year history of neuron reading and writing. The theories, to me, are very doubtful and very likely are just necessary to provide theoretical support when revealing secret technology.)
(It seems very doubtful that Bloembergen is the first inventor of the multi-level maser, given 200 years of direct-to-brain windows. Perhaps AT&T wanted to go public with a continuous maser but didn't want to be the center of attention and so grab Bloembergen - have him publish, and then publish the actual first working multilevel maser.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
44 YBN
[07/24/1956 AD]
| 5572) Choh Hao Li (lE) (CE 1913-1987), Chinese-US biochemist, and team isolate and determine the structure of the pituitary hormone melanocyte-stimulating hormone (MSH).
Li and group find that in some places MSH has the same amino acid sequence as ACTH.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
44 YBN
[10/25/1956 AD]
| 5424) Albert Bruce Sabin (CE 1906-1993), Polish-US microbiologist, creates and tests vaccines which are effective against 3 different kinds of poliomyletis virus.
Sabin theorizes that live, weakened (attenuated) viruses, administered orally, will provide immunity over a longer period of time than Salk's method of using killed, injected virus. By 1957 Sabin has isolated three types of poliovirus that are not strong enough to produce the disease but still stimulate the production of antibodies. Sabin then conducts preliminary experiments with the oral administration of these attenuated strains. Cooperative studies are conducted with scientists from Mexico, the Netherlands, and the Soviet Union, and finally, in extensive field trials with children, prison volunteers and himself, the effectiveness of the new vaccine is conclusively demonstrated. The Sabin oral polio vaccine is approved for use in the United States in 1960 and becomes the main defense against polio throughout the planet earth.
The Sabin vaccine is popular in the Soviet Union, but is not used in the USA until 1960.
In a 1956 paper entitled "Present status of attenuated live-virus poliomyelitis vaccine", in the "Journal of the American Medical Association", Sabin writes as an abstract: "Various studies, summarized here, have established beyond doubt that immunization of humans by the oral route of administration not only is possible but has been successfully accomplished. Since attenuated strains of poliovirus were found to vary greatly in the extent of their residual neurotropism for the most sensitive lower motor neurons as well as in the homogeneity of their populations, the crucial problem was to find strains that were so highly attenuated and homogeneous that one would be justifed in using them in increasingly larger numbers of humans in those stepwise tests that must precede any trial of such a vaccine on a large scale. The finding of such strains after tests on the progeny of large numbers of individual virus particles is here described.".
(Working with poliomyletis and other deadly viruses is dangerous work. State what precautions Sabin takes against becoming infected with the viruses.)
(State more about the volunteers. Were naturally occuring viruses drawn from children only, or were children fed or injected with viruses? Clearly human volunteers were used. Determine to what extent these people recorded consent if any. I could not find any evidence of Sabin testing on himself in his JAMA report.)
| ( University of Cincinnati) Cincinnati, Ohio, USA |
44 YBN
[11/16/1956 AD]
| 5573) Choh Hao Li (lE) (CE 1913-1987), Chinese-US biochemist, and Harold Papkoff isolate human growth hormone (somatotropin), and show that its structure is different from the growth hormone of other species.
Li and Papkoff show that Human growth hormone is composed of 256 amino acids, and so is far more complicated than the other pituitary hormones, however it is likely that not all of this chain is needed for its activity. Human growth hormone is the most remarkable of the pituitary hormones in that it controls the overall growth rate of the body; too much of the hormone and a person is very large, too little and they are very small compared to the average person. ACTH from pigs or cows is effective on human beings, but growth hormone from those species is not.
Li will synthesize a protein with the amino acid sequence of human growth hormone (somatotropin) determined here that displays growth-promoting activity in 1970.
(it seems amazing that overall scale of a body can actually be controlled by a single hormone molecule. Does this force more cells to be created, or just larger or smaller cells? How does this encourage or limit cell development?)
(show image from paper.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
44 YBN
[12/03/1956 AD]
| 5703) First solid maser (also first multi-level and continous maser).
In July 1956, Nicolaas Bloembergen (BlUMBRGeN) (CE 1920- ) Dutch-US physicist, had described the possibility of a three-level (continuously emitting) solid state maser.
This three-level maser is not actually built until later December 3, 1956 by H. E. Derrick Scovil, George Feher, and Harold Seidel, at Bell Telephone Laboratories who use a lanthanum ethyl sulfate crystal containing the metals Gadolinium and Cerium. Alan McWhorter and James Meyer at MIT also build a multiple level maser by August 1957. Bloembergen and team will not publish details about their multi-level solid maser until December 1957.
This maser uses energy levels on three levels instead of two, so that one of the upper levels can be storing energy (light particles) while another is emitting. Before this masers discharged their stored light particles in quick emission and then there is a pause while sufficient energy (light particles) are stored for another emission.
Seidel, et al publish this in "Physical Review" as "Operation of a Solid State Maser". They write: "A maser of the same type as that proposed by Bloembergen has been successfully operated at 9 kMc/sec. Since the basic theory has been covered in the reference, it will not be reviewed here. We require a magnetically dilute paramagnetic salt having at least three energy levels whose transitions fall in the microwave range and which may be easily saturated. This ion Gd+++|4f7, 8S> seems a suitable choice since its eight energy levels give the choice of several modes of maser operation. Of the three salts of Gd+++ which have been investigated byu paramagnetic resonance the diluted ethyl sulfate appears very desirable. This salt has been investigated in detail by Bleaney et al., Buckmaser, and Feher and Scovil. If an external magnetic field is applied perpendicular to the magnetic axis, the spin Hamiltonian may be written ... ...Our attempts were directed toward varying the second parameter in order to obtain lower negative temperatures. A relaxation time ration of 1:10 between two neighboring transitions was obtained by introducing cerium into the crystal. in order to obtain the full benefit of this large relaxation time ratio for a 9-kMc.sec maser, a dc magnetic field of 2850 oersteds was applied at an angle of 17° from the perpendicular direction of the crystal. ... A 90-mg (8% filling factor) lanthanum ethyl sulfate crustal containing ~0.5% Gd+++ and ~0.2% Ce+++ was used in contact with liquid helium at 1.2°K. A saturating magnetic field at 17.52 kMc/sec was used to induce transition between the |-5/2) and |-3/2) states. The maser embodies a microwave cavity simultaneously resonant at these two frequencies. The almost critically coupled 9-kMc/sec cavity has a loaded Q~=8000. The 17.5-kMc/sec cavity perversely supporting a spurious mode provided a Q~=1000; this fortunately proved sufficient. Figure 2 shows the 9-kMc/sec monitoring signal reflected from the cavity as a function of H0. In the first trace three ΓSz=_-1 transitions are shown, the peaks representing essentially complete reflection as a result of the high magnetic losses associated with the material. The observed resonance line appears broadened since the absorption is not a small perturbation on the cavity as resonance is approached. The succeeding traces show the reflections associated with the |-5/2->|-3/2) transition as the 17.5lMc/sec power is increased. in the third trace the salt is lossless, corresponding to an essentially infinite spin temperature. The fourth trace shows the onset of negative spin temperatures and the partial overcoming of the losses assocaited with the empty cavity. in the fifth trace the reflected power exceeds the incident power and oscillations have commenced. before oscillations commence, a region of amplification must exist. Figure 3 shows the last trace on an expanded time scale. At this stage, the 9-kMc/sec monitoring signal was turned off. The dc magnetic field was adjusted to a value resulting in maximum 9-kMc/sec output power from the oscillating maser. The power output was measured with a battetter as a function of the saturating 17.5-kMc/sec power. The results are shown in Fig. 4. The required saturating power could be materially reduced by the use of a 17.5-kMc/sec cavity having a higher Q. The purpose of this work was merely to show the feasibility of this device. ...".
(Notice how this achievement of the first solid maser is not clearly recognized as being from AT&T. Probably AT&T wanted to go public with it, but wanted to be away from the spotlight - so they have Bloembergen publish it and then are the first to publish the actual maser.)
(Find portraits for Scovil and Seidel.)
(Show a picture of the device showing clearly all parts.)
(Determine if this principle necessary for the common laser?)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
44 YBN
[1956 AD]
| 5130) (Sir) Franz Eugen Francis Simon (CE 1893-1956), German-British physicist, tries to lower the temperature more by using the same technique of aligning paramagnetic molecules and then allowing them their orientation to become unaligned, but with nuclear spins, and this group reaches 20 millionths of a degree above absolute zero. The nuclear spin system of copper is cooled to a temperature of less than 20 microdegrees absolute.
(Find original paper and read relevent parts. See contemporary thought calls for more info.)
(Explain nuclear spin)
(I have a large amount of doubt about this. Again describe how this temperature is measured. Describe the technique used to align nuclear spins and then allow them to fall out of alignment. In addition state the impossibility of obtaining absolute zero in a universe where any container is going to be emitting photons inside, photons are going to be penetrating inside from the outside too. Certainly how close to zero humans can get is a mystery. Certainly photons pass through the vacuum of empty space, which increase the temperature.)
| (Clarendon Laboratory, Oxford University) Oxford, England |
44 YBN
[1956 AD]
| 5261) Calder Hall, the world’s first large-scale nuclear electricity (power) station is opened.
| (Calder Hall) Sellafield, England |
44 YBN
[1956 AD]
| 5317) William Clouser Boyd (CE 1903-1984), US Biochemist, divides humans into thirteen groups based on blood-type.
Boyd finds the existence of an early European group of people with an unusually high Rh-minus gene, known as the Basques who live in the western Pyrénées mountains, and that blood type B is highest among people in central Asia. Blood type analysis can be used to follow past migrations of people.
(This will lead to even more specific grouping of people and migrations based on other genes in (nucleic acids) DNA. )
| (University of Boston) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
44 YBN
[1956 AD]
| 5408) William Maurice Ewing (CE 1906-1974), US geologist, and his colleagues use sound reflection to show that the mid-Atlantic ridge is a mountain range extending throughout the oceans of the world and is some 64,000 km (40,000 miles) long.
Ewing and his associates map the ocean floors using ultrasound reflection, measurements of gravity, and collecting long core samples from the ocean floor.
Ewing shows that the mid-Atlantic ridge (the ocean floor mountain range that is located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean) continues around Africa, into the Indian Ocean, and around Antarctica into the Pacific Ocean, forming a world-wide seem. Seeing that there is a chasm that runs down the center of the Atlantic ridge, Ewing theorizes that the earth in increasing in size, but later people will prove that material is rising up through the rift and causing the sea floor to spread, pushing the contents away. Wegener's erroneous theory will be corrected to show that the continents do not move on top of underlying rock, but the entire plate the contents rest on are moved on the molten mantle by the pushing force of the spreading ocean floor rifts.
(State who corrects the inaccurate theory that the continents move, not on the sediment but on the mantle.)
(Show images if any are published - if not where might they be archived?)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
44 YBN
[1956 AD]
| 6248) Ibuprofin.
The compound Ibuprofin is synthesized. Ibuprofin, (C13H18O2) is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that reduces pain, fever, and inflammation. Ibuprofen belongs to the propionic acid class of NSAIDs.
Ibuprofin is synthesized by John Nicholson and his colleagues, who make more than 600 phenoxyalkanoic acids the most potent antierythemic, BTS 8402, being 6 to 10 times more potent than aspirin. Erythema {AretEmu} is a redness of the skin caused by dilatation and congestion of the capillaries, and is often a sign of inflammation or infection. The first clinical trial of Ibuprofin in 1966 indicates that an average daily dose of 600mg produces satisfactory relief in rheumatoid arthritis. Ibuprofen is eventually introduced at a dose of 600 to 800 mg daily in the United Kingdom in 1969, and at 1200 mg daily in the USA in 1974.
| (The Boots Company) England |
43 YBN
[01/15/1957 AD]
| 5724) Chinese-US physicist, Chien Shiung Wu (CE 1912-1997) at Columbia University and Ambler, Hayward, Hoppes and Hudson at the National Bureau of Standards in Washington D. C. provide physical evidence to support the theory that parity is not conserved in the so-called weak-interaction (composite particle "decay" or separation) by performing the experiment suggested by Lee and Yang of observing the electron (beta decay) emission angles from oriented Co60.
in June of 1956, Lee and Yang had published a paper theorizing that parity, the symmetry between physical phenomena occurring in right-handed and left-handed coordinate systems, is violated when certain elementary particles decay.
Wu, et al, publish this in "Physical Review" as "Experimental Test of Parity Conservation in Beta Decay". They write "IN a recent paper on the question of parity in weak interactions, Lee and Yang critically surveyed the experimental information concerning this question and reached the conclusion that there is no existing evidence either to support or to refute parity conservation in weak interactions. They proposed a number of experiments on beta decays and hyperon and meson decays which would provide the necessary evidence for parity conservation or nonconservation. In beta decay, one could measure the angular distribution of the electrons coming from beta decays of polarized nuclei. if an asymmetry in the distribution between θ and 180° - θ (where θ is the angle between the orientation of the parent nuclei and the momentum of the electrons) is observed, it provides unequivocal proof that parity is not conserved in beta decay. This asymmetry effect has been observed in the case of oriented Co60. It has been known for some time that Co60 nuclei can be polarized by the Rose-Gorter method in cerium magnesium (cobalt) nitrate, and the degree of polarization detected by measuring the anisotropy of the succeeding gamma rays. To apply this technique to the present problem, two major difficulties had to be overcome. The beta-particle counter should be placed inside the demagnetizeation cryostat, and the radioactive nuclei must be located in a thin surface layer and polarized. The schematic diagram of the cryostat is shown in Fig. 1. To detect beta particles, a thin anthracene crystal 3/8 in. in diameter x 1/16 in. thick is located inside the vacuum chamber about 2 cm above the Co60 source. The scintillations are transmitted through a glass window and a Lucite light pipe 4 feet long to a photomultiplier (6292( which is located at the top of the cryostat. The Lucite head is machined to a logarithmic spiral shape for maximum light collection. under this condition, the Cs137 conversion line (624 kev) still retains a resolution of 17%. The stabilithy of the beta counter was carefully checked for any magnetic or temperature effects and none were found. To measure the amount of polarization of Co60, two additional NaI gamma scintillation counters were installed, one in the equatorial plane and one near the polar position. The observed gamma-ray anisotropy was used as a measure of polarization, and, effectively, temperature. ... Specimans were made by taking good single crystals of cerium magnesium nitrate and growing on the upper surface only an additoinal crystalline layer containing Co60. One might point out here that since the allowed beta decay of Co60 involves a change of spin of one unit and no change of parity, it can be given only by the Gamow-Teller interaction. This is almost imperative for this experiment. The thickness of the radioactive layer used was about 0.002 inch and conatined a few microcuries of activity. Upon demagnetization, the magnet is opened and vertical solenoid is raised around the lower part of the cryostat. The whole process takes abot 20 sec. The beta and gamma counting is then started. The beta pulses are analyzed on a 10-channel pulse-height analyzer with a counting interval of 1 minute, and a recoding interval of about 40 seconds. The two gamma counters are biased to accept only the pulses from the photopeaks in order to discriminate against pulses from Compton scattering. A large beta asymmetry was observed. In Fig. 2 we have plotted the gamma anisotropy and beta asymmetry vs time for polarizing field pointing up and pointing down. The time for disappearance of the beta asymmetry coincides well with that of gamma anisotropy. The warm-up time is generally about 6 minutes, and the warm counting rates are independent of the field direction. The observed beta asymmetry does not change sign with reversal of the direction of the demagnetization field, indicating that it is not caused by remanent magnetization in the sample. The sign of the asymmetry coefficient, α, is negative, that is, the emission of beta particles if more facored in the direction opposite to that of the nuclear spin. This naturally implies that the sign for Ct and Ct' (parity conserved and parity not conserved) must be opposite. The exact evaluation of α is difficult because of the many effects involved. The lower limit of α can be estimated roughly, however, from the observed value of asymmetry corrected for backscattering. At velocity v/c~=0.6, the value of α is abougt 0.4. The value of (I2)I can be calculated from the observed anisotropy of the gamma radiation to be about 0.6. These two quantities give the lower limit of the asymmetry parameter β(α=β(I2)/I) approximately equal to 0.7. In order to evaluate α accurately, many supplementary experiments must be carried out to determine the various correction factors. It is estimated here only to show the large asymmetry effect. According to Lee and Yang the present experiment indicates not only that conservation of parity is violated but also that invariance under charge conjugation is violated. Furthermore, the invariance under time reversal can also be decided from the momentum dependence of the asymmetry parameter β. This effect will be studied later. The double nitrate cooling salt has a highly anisotropic g value. If the symmetry axis of a crystal is not set parallel to the polarizing field, a small magnetic field will be produced perpendicular to the latter. To check whether the beta asymmetry could be caused by such a magnetic field distortion, we allowed a drop of CoCl2 solution to dry on a thin plastic disk and cemented the disk to the bottom of the same housing. In this way the cobalt nuclei should not be cooled sufficiently to produce an appreciable nuclear polarization, whereas the housing will behave as before. The large beta asymmetry was not observed. Furthermore, to investigate possible internal magnetic effects on the paths of the electrons as they find their way to the surface of the crystal, we prepared another source by rubing CoCl2 solution on the surface of the sooling salt until a reasonable amount of the srystal was dissolved. We then allowed the solution to dry. No beta asymmetry was observed with this specimen. More rigorous experimental checks are being initiated, but in view of the important implications of these observations, we report them now in the hope that they may stimulate and encourage further experimental investigations on the parity question in either beta or hyperon and meson decays. ...". (Notice the word "oriented" which is similar to "oriental".)
(Notice also how this paper comes from four people at the National Bureau of Standards and is partially funded by the US Dept of Energy - all of which imply, to me at least, potential government neuron insider corruption.)
(It's tough to understand exactly what this experiment is without seeing the actual experiment performed visually. Seeing the thought-screen transactions would help to determine corruption. That the asymmetry somehow stops after 6 minutes seems unusual. In an aligned beam, it seems unlikely that all ions would be perfectly aligned. How could the electrons not be influenced by the magnetic field polarizing the cobalt ions? If the field does not cover the point of electron emission, then couldn't the ions be not aligned when emitting electrons? But if the field does cover the point of electron emission, the magnetic field must effect them motion of the emitted electrons.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA and (National Bureau of Standards) Washington, D. C., USA |
43 YBN
[01/16/1957 AD]
| 5711) Transfer RNA identified (T-RNA), small RNA molecules in cells that carry amino acids to ribosomes where the amino acids are linked into proteins.
Mahlon Bush Hoagland (CE 1921-2009), US biochemist identifies T-RNA (Transfer RNA), a variety of small RNA molecules in the cytoplasm which have the ability to combine with a specific amino acid (future work will reveal that some T-RNA can attach to more than one specific amino acid).
Transfer RNA (tRNA) is a small molecule in cells that carries amino acids to organelles called ribosomes, where the amino acids are linked into proteins. In addition to tRNA there are two other major types of RNA: messenger RNA (mRNA) and ribosomal RNA (rRNA). Ribosomal molecules of mRNA determine the order of tRNA molecules that are bound to triplets of amino acids (codons). The order of tRNA molecules ultimately determines the amino acid sequence of a protein because molecules of tRNA catalyze the formation of peptide bonds between the amino acids, linking them together to form proteins. The newly formed proteins detach themselves from the ribosome and migrate to other parts of the cell for use. Molecules of tRNA typically contain less than 100 nucleotide units and fold into a characteristic cloverleaf structure. Specialized tRNAs exist for each of the 20 amino acids needed for protein synthesis, and in many cases more than one tRNA for each amino acid is present. A codon is a sequence of three adjacent nucleotides constituting the genetic code that determines the insertion of a specific amino acid in a polypeptide chain during protein synthesis or the signal to stop protein synthesis. The 64 codons used to code amino acids can be read by far fewer than 64 distinct tRNAs. In the bacterium Escherichia coli a total of 40 different tRNAs are used to translate the 64 codons. The amino acids are loaded onto the tRNAs by specialized enzymes called aminoacyl tRNA synthetases. All tRNAs adopt similar structures because they all have to interact with the same sites on the ribosome.
DNA molecules of the chromosomes carry the genetic code in the particular patten of nitrogenous bases (adenine, guanine, cytosine, and thymine, usually abbreviated A, G, C, and T) that make up the molecule. Each triple combination or triplet, for example, AGC or GGT represent a specific amino acid. This code is transferred to an RNA molecule (m-RNA) as shown by Jacob and Monod, which then travels into the cytoplasm and joins a ribosome. Hoagland, and team identify transfer-RNA (t-RNA). Each molecule of transfer-RNA has as part of its structure a characteristic triplet that joins to a complementary triplet on the messenger-RNA in a way first suggested by Crick. Hoagland shows how each transfer-RNA clicks into a specific place on the M-RNA strand with a specific amino acid attached, a protein molecule is built up, one amino acid at a time according to the DNA molecule of the chromosome. In this way chromosomes of a cell produce a variety of enzymes (protein molecules) that guide the chemistry of the cell and produce all of the physical characteristics of the cell. The identification of a particular triplet with a particular amino acid will be accomplished in 1961 by Nirenberg.
So the DNA code serves two functions, to make copies of itself and also to create proteins.
Paul Berg with E.J. Ofengand in February 1958 and Robert Holley also identify t-RNA independently.
In a later September 1957 more definitive report, Hoagland et al describes this work reported in January 1957 writing: "There it was shown that the RNA of a particular fraction of the cytoplasm hitherto uncharacterized became labeled with C14-amino acids in the presence of ATP and the amino acid-activating enzymes, and that this labeled RNA subsequently was able to transfer the amino acid to microsomal protein in the presence of GTP and a nucleoside triphosphate-generating system. ...".
In their initial report in January 1957, Hoagland, Zamecnik, and Stephenson, publish a short note in the journal "Biochimica et Biophysica Acta" as "Intermediate reactions in protein biosynthesis". They write: "Previous studies in this laboratory furnished evidence that L-amino acids are activated as amino acyl-aden ylate compounds bound to specific enzymes derived from the soluble protein of rat liver 1. Further substance has been given this hypothesis by the finding that synthetic amino acyladenylate compounds, when incubated with activating enzymes and pyrophosphate (PP), are able to form ATP ***~. This paper presents evidence for another step in the reaction sequence between amino acid activation and peptide bond condensation. The rat liver activating enzyme preparation 1 contains ribonucleic acid (RNA): about 5 mg Mierosomes and pH 5 enzymes (activating enzymes) were prepared from rat liver as previously described 5. Labeled pH 5 enzymes were prepared by incubating pH 5 enzymes (approximately IOO mg protein) for io min at 37 ° C with o.oi M MgNa 2 ATP (Sigma), o.i mM 14C-leucine (i .8. lO 6 c.p.m./#mole) and the medium 5 at pH 7.5 in a total volume of 20 ml. The reaction mixture was then diluted to 6o ml with cold water and the pH brought to 5.2 with M acetic acid to precipitate the enzymes. This dilution and precipitation was repeated after redissolving at pH 7.5. The final precipitate was dissolved in 4 ml of medium. ... The final alcohol suspension was filtered onto paper discs. The dried RNA was counted using a Nuclear "Micromil" window gas flow counter. The RNA was then eluted from the paper with dilute alkali, and the 26o/28o mju absorption ratio of the extract determined in a Beckman spectrophotometer. Protein was washed, weighed and counted as previously described 5. The total counts in RNA were multiplied by the per ioo mg protein. This is apparently a low molecular weight RNA (S-RNA) with different metabolic properties from the high molecular weight RNA of the ribonucleoprotein of the microsomes. When the amino acid activating enzyme preparation is incubated with ATP and 14Ccarboxyl labeled leucine, at pH 7.5, the S-RNA subsequently isolated from this fraction is found to be labeled (o.o2 to o.o 5 #moles leucine per mg RNA) ... Preliminary results, using an ascites tumor in vivo incorporation system 4, reveal that S-RNA becomes labeled with 14C-leucine more rapidly than does the protein of the ribonucleoprotein particles of the microsomes, the most rapidly labeled protein fraction in this system. These experiments suggest that incorporation of labeled amino acids into protein is indeed dependent upon the amino acid activation system. The initial formation of an enzyme-bound amino acyl-AMP compound, as originally suggested, accounts for hydroxamic acid formation and PP-ATP exchange 1. It is now further postulated that this initial activation of amino acids is followed by a transfer of activated amino acid to S-RNA. This latter reaction is ribonuclease sensitive, while the former is not. GTP mediates the transfer of this activated amino acid to peptide linkage via the nlicrosome by a mechanism as yet unknown. ...".
The summary of a later report in September 1957 states: "Summary Evidence is presented that a soluble ribonucleic acid, residing in the same cellular fraction which activates amino acids, binds amino acids in the presence of adenosine triphosphate. Indirect evidence indicates that this reaction may be reversible. The amino acids so bound to ribonucleic acid are subsequently transferred to microsomal protein, and this transfer is dependent upon guanosine triphosphate. ...".
T-RNA has been called the “Rosetta Stone” of DNA protein synthesis, one part of the T-RNA taking a nucleotide sequence on a nucleic acid molecule and another part translating this nucleic sequence into an amino acid for a protein molecule.
Some sources cite Francis Crick as describing an "adapter hypothesis" in 1955 in which small RNA molecules attach to amino acids and line up on DNA (or RNA) in a way that will arrange the amino acids in their correct sequence. For example, in 1977, Weissbach and Pestka write: "The raison d'etre for tRNA and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetases in the cell was first described by Francis Crick in 1955 in a privately circulated paper, and subsequently published in brief form in 1957.
(It seems that many proteins produced may help to create lipids, fatty acids, and other non protein molecules such as starch, sterols, carbohydrates?, etc. true?)
(There are # T-RNA molecules for # amino acid molecules. In addition determine if AT-RNA molecules help to deliver the amino acid to the T-RNA.)
(T-RNA play an important role in protein formation, and their place in the evolution of the cell is of great importance, because it may signal the time when nucleic acids produced the first proteins. Proteins having 20+ building blocks instead of the 4 of DNA and RNA can have many more complex shapes and therefore perform many different complex functions more easily than nucleic acids.)
(This is a very important find, because this helps to complete the picture of how proteins are created by DNA.)
(Cite and describe the discovery of t-RNA by Paul Berg and Robert Holley.)
(Explain when t-RNA are named "Transfer RNA".)
| (Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital) Boston, Massachusetts, USA |
43 YBN
[04/05/1957 AD]
| 5517) Low temperature Field-Ion Microscope. Erwin Wilhelm Müller (CE 1911-1977), German-US physicist, improves his field-ion microscope by cooling the needle in liquid hydrogen.
| (Pennsylvania State University) University park, Pennsylvania, USA |
43 YBN
[04/24/1957 AD]
| 5668) Herbert Friedman (CE 1916-2000), US astronomer, observes a X-ray emission from a solar flare using a rocket.
| (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
43 YBN
[07/08/1957 AD]
| 5296) US physicist, John Bardeen (CE 1908–1991) Leon Neil Cooper (CE 1930- ) and John Robert Schrieffer (CE 1931- ) create a theory which explains various aspects of superconductivity. Part of this theory involves the action of pairs of electrons which are termed "Cooper electron pairs" in Cooper's honor.
Bardeen et al publish this in "Physical Review" as "Theory of Superconductivity". In the abstract they write: "A theory of superconductivity is presented, based on the fact that the interaction between electrons resulting from virtual exchange of phonons is attractive when the energy difference between the electrons states involved is less than the phonon energy, ℏω. It is favorable to form a superconducting phase when this attractive interaction dominates the repulsive screened Coulomb interaction. The normal phase is described by the Bloch individual-particle model. The ground state of a superconductor, formed from a linear combination of normal state configurations in which electrons are virtually excited in pairs of opposite spin and momentum, is lower in energy than the normal state by amount proportional to an average (ℏω)2, consistent with the isotope effect. A mutually orthogonal set of excited states in one-to-one correspondence with those of the normal phase is obtained by specifying occupation of certain Bloch states and by using the rest to form a linear combination of virtual pair configurations. The theory yields a second-order phase transition and a Meissner effect in the form suggested by Pippard. Calculated values of specific heats and penetration depths and their temperature variation are in good agreement with experiment. There is an energy gap for individual-particle excitations which decreases from about 3.5kTc at T=0°K to zero at Tc. Tables of matrix elements of single-particle operators between the excited-state superconducting wave functions, useful for perturbation expansions and calculations of transition probabilities, are given.".
(To me, without trying to sound impolite, mean, or overly negative, but putting forward my honest opinions, this theory of superconductivity is either untrue or trivial- in particular with neuron reading and writing still being a secret - we can only guess what kind of corruption exists among those in the neuron know. Perhaps lower temperatures simply reduce loss of electrons broken into light particles because atoms of the superconducting material are moving less or have less motion.)
(This paper seems, typical of modern so-called science papers, in some kind of abstract pretend lose-the-public, important sounding jargon while we can only wonder what the neuron-net reality is behind the neuron curtain. For one thing, the unlikely theory of electron pair spin originates with Wolfgang Pauli, Coulomb interaction is an action-at-a-distance theory like Newton's gravitation, and it seems doubtful to me that this phenomenon/force operates within an atom theorizing electro-magnetism as a particle-collision based phenomenon. This is typical of the mathematical theorists of history - given the neuron writing lie, probably most public theories are most likely inaccurate and many times, designed to delay the truth from reaching the public. I am for total free info and am for neuron reading and consensual neuron writing. Like many people I simply want the truth to be shown to and known by the public.)
| (University of Illinois) Urbana, Illinois, USA |
43 YBN
[09/19/1957 AD]
| 5611) First completely underground nuclear explosive test. On September 19, 1957, the 1.7 kiloton explosive "Plumbbob Rainier" is detonated at 899 ft underground and is the first explosive to be entirely contained underground, producing no fallout.
(todo: show first known large scale underground test that creates a crator.)
| (US Department of Energy Nevada Proving Grounds) Nye County, Nevada, USA |
43 YBN
[10/04/1957 AD]
| 5486) Sputnik 1, the first human-made satellite enters orbit around the earth. Sputnik 1, is a 83.6-kg (184-pound) capsule. Sputnik reaches an Earth orbit with an apogee (farthest point from Earth) of 940 km (584 miles) and a perigee (nearest point) of 230 km (143 miles), circling Earth every 96 minutes.
The Sputnik 1 satellite was a 58.0 cm-diameter aluminum sphere that carried four whip-like antennas that were 2.4-2.9 m long. The antennas look like long "whiskers" pointing to one side. The spacecraft obtains data pertaining to the density of the upper layers of the atmosphere and the propagation of radio signals in the ionosphere. The instruments and electric power sources are housed in a sealed capsule and include transmitters operated at 20.005 and 40.002 MHz (about 15 and 7.5 m in spacial interval {wavelength}), the emissions take place in alternating groups of 0.3 s in duration. Also transmitted is data on temperatures inside and on the surface of the sphere.
Since the sphere is filled with nitrogen under pressure, Sputnik 1 provides the first opportunity for meteoroid detection (no such events are reported), since losses in internal pressure due to meteoroid penetration of the outer surface would have been evident in the temperature data. The satellite transmitters operate for three weeks, until the on-board chemical batteries fail, and are monitored with intense interest around the earth. The orbit of the then inactive satellite is later observed optically to decay 92 days after launch (January 4, 1958) after having completed about 1400 orbits of the Earth over a cumulative distance traveled of 70 million kilometers. The orbital apogee declines from 947 km after launch to 600 km by Dec. 9th.
The Sputnik 1 rocket booster also reaches Earth orbit and is visible from the ground at night as a first magnitude object, while the small but highly polished sphere, barely visible at sixth magnitude, is more difficult to follow optically. Several replicas of the Sputnik 1 satellite can be seen at museums in Russia and another is on display in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.
The Russian word "Sputnik" means "companion".
Sputnik 2, will be launched on November 3, 1957, carrying the dog "Laika", the first living organism to orbit Earth.
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome at Tyuratam, 370 km southwest of the small town of Baikonur) Kazakhstan (, Soviet Union) |
43 YBN
[10/10/1957 AD]
| 5689) Enzyme "polymerase", which synthesizes DNA molecules from nucleotides, isolated and named.
Arthur Kornberg (CE 1918-2007), US biochemist, and team isolate and name the enzyme responsible for synthesizing nucleotides into DNA molecules.
Kornberg et al publish this in "The Journal of Biological Chemistry" as "Enzymatic Synthesis of Deoxyribonucleic Acid: I. PREPARATION OF SUBSTRATES AND PARTIAL PURIFICATION OF AN ENZYME FROM ESCHERICHIA COLI". They write: "In considering how a complex polynucleotide such as DNA1 is assembled by a cell, the authors were guided by the known enzymatic mechanisms for the synthesis of the simplest of the nucleotide derivatives, the coenzymes. The latter, whether composed of an adenosine, uridine, guanosine, or cytidine nucleotide, are formed by a nucleotidyl transfer from a nucleoside triphosphate to the phosphate ester which provides the coenzymatically active portion of the molecule (1, 2). This condensation, which has been regarded as a nucleophilic attack (3) on the innermost or nucleotidyl phosphorus of the nucleoside triphosphate, results in the attachment of the nucleotidyl unit to the attacking group and in the elimination of inorganic pyrophosphate. By analogy, the development of a DNA chain might entail a similar condensation, in this case between a deoxynucleoside triphosphate with the hydroxyl group of the deoxyribose carbon-3 of another deoxynucleotide. Alternative possibilities involving other activated forms of the nucleotide (as, for example, nucleoside diphosphates which have proved reactive in the enzymatic synthesis of ribonucleic acid (4)) were not excluded. Earlier reports (1, 2, 5-7) briefly described an enzyme system in extracts of Escherichia coli which catalyzes the incorporation of deoxyribonucleotides into DNA. Purification of this enzyme led to the demonstration that all four of the naturally occurring deoxynucleotides, in the form of triphosphates, are required. In addition, polymerized DNA and Mg* were found to be indispensable for the reaction. Deoxynucleoside diphosphates are inert; and as a further indication of the specificity of the enzyme for the triphosphates, the synthesis of DNA is accompanied by a release of inorganic pyrophosphate, and reversal of the reaction is specific for inorganic pyrophosphate. These considerations have led to a provisional formulation of the reaction as follows: {ULSF: See paper} The purpose of this report is to describe in detail the methods for the partial purification and assay of the enzyme from E. coli and for the preparation of the substrates for the reaction. In order to facilitate reference in this report, the enzyme responsible for deoxyribonucleotide incorporation is designated as “polymerase.” The succeeding report will present evidence for the net synthesis of the DNA and other general properties of the system. ... SUMMARY An enzyme which catalyzes the incorporation of deoxyribonucleotides from the triphosphates of deoxyadenosine, deoxyguanosine, deoxycytidine and thymidine into deoxyribonucleic acid has been purified from cell-free extracts of Escherichia coli in excess of 2000-fold. The reaction mixture includes polymerized deoxyribonucleic acid and Mg++. The deoxynucleoside triphosphate substrates were synthesized from the deoxynucleotides by kinases partially purified from Escherichia coli. Procedures for the preparation of P32-labeled deoxynucleotides have also been described.".
A polymerase is any of various enzymes, such as DNA polymerase, RNA polymerase, or reverse transcriptase, that catalyze the formation of polynucleotides of DNA or RNA using an existing strand of DNA or RNA as a template.
(Examine the "excess of 2000-fold" in the summary - one gruesome possibility is that 2000 people died in the conflict that resulted in this information being made public.)
| (Washington University) Saint Louis, Missouri, USA |
43 YBN
[10/11/1957 AD]
| 5740) Electron "Tunnel" effect identified.
Leo Esaki (CE 1925- ) Japanese physicist, finds that electrons can "tunnel" through barriers of perhaps 100 atoms thick and uses this effect to make an electronic switch which is called the Esaki tunnel diode and these are very-small and very-fast diodes. Esaki advances this find in his Ph.D. thesis at Tokyo University.
According to the Oxford Dictionary of Scientists, the phenomenon of tunneling is a quantum-mechanical effect in which an electron can penetrate a potential barrier through a narrow region of solid, where classical theory predicts it can not pass. Esaki sees the possibility of applying the tunnel effect, and in 1960 reports the construction of a device with diodelike properties – the tunnel (or Esaki) diode. With negative bias potential, the diode acts as a short circuit, while under certain conditions of forward bias it can have effectively negative resistance (the current decreasing with increasing voltage). Important characteristics of the tunnel diode are its very fast speed of operation, its small physical size, and its low power consumption. It has found application in many fields of electronics, principally in computers, microwave devices, and where low electronic noise is required.
In 1963 semiconductor diodes that use electron tunneling are sold to the public.
In his Nobel lecture, Esaki gives some of the history of the tunneling theory. He writes: "In 1923, during the infancy of the quantum theory, de Broglie (1) introduced a new fundamental hypothesis that matter may be endowed with a dualistic nature - particles may also have the characteristics of waves. This hypothesis, in the hands of Schrodinger (2) found expression in the definite form now known as the Schrödinger wave equation, whereby an electron or a particle is assumed to be represented by a solution to this equation. The continuous nonzero nature of such solutions, even in classically forbidden regions of negative kinetic energy, implies an ability to penetrate such forbidden regions and a probability of tunneling from one classically allowed region to another. The concept of tunneling, indeed, arises from this quantum- mechanical result. The subsequent experimental manifestations of this concept can be regarded as one of the early triumphs of the quantum theory. In 1928, theoretical physicists believed that tunneling could occur by the distortion, lowering or thinning, of a potential barrier under an externally applied high electric field. Oppenheimer (3) attributed the autoionization of excited states of atomic hydrogen to the tunnel effect: The coulombic potential well which binds an atomic electron could be distorted by a strong electric field so that the electron would see a finite potential barrier through which it could tunnel. Fowler and Nordheim (4) explained, on the basis of electron tunneling, the main features of the phenomenon of electron emission from cold metals by high external electric fields, which had been unexplained since its observation by Lilienfeld (5) in 1922. They proposed a one-dimensional model. Metal electrons are confined by a potential wall whose height is determined by the work function y plus the fermi energy Ef, and the wall thickness is substantillay decreased with an externally applied high electric field, allowing electrons to tunnel through the potential wall, as shown in Fig. 1. They successfully derived the well-known Fowler-Nordheim formula for the current as a function of electric field F: ... An application of these ideas which followed almost immediately came in the model for a decay as a tunneling process put forth by Gamow (6) and Gurney and Condon. (7) Subsequently, Rice (8) extended this theory to the description of molecular dissociation. The next important development was an attempt to invoke tunneling in order to understand transport properties of electrical contacts between two solid conductors. The problems of metal-to-metal and semiconductor-to-metal contacts are important technically, because they are directly related to electrical switches and rectifiers or detectors. In 1930, Frenkel (9) proposed that the anomalous temperature independence of contact resistance between metals could be explained in terms of tunneling across a narrow vacuum separation. Holm and Meissner (10) then did careful measurements of contact resistances and showed that the magnitude and temperature independence of the resistance of insulating surface layers were in agreement with an explanation based on tunneling through a vacuum-like space. These measurements probably constitute the first correctly interpreted observations of tunneling currents in solids, (11) since the vacuum-like space was a solid insulating oxide layer. In 1932, Wilson, (12) Frenkel and Joffe, (13) and Nordheim (14) applied quantum mechanical tunneling to the interpretation of metal-semiconductor contacts - rectifiers such as those made from selenium or cuprous oxide. From a most simplified energy diagram, shown in Fig. 2, the following well-known current-voltage relationship was derived: ... Apparently, this theory was accepted for a number of years until it was finally discarded after it was realized that it predicted rectification in the wrong direction for the ordinary practical diodes. It is now clear that, in the usual circumstance, the surface barriers found by the semiconductors in contact with metals, as illustrated in Fig. 2, are much too thick to observe tunneling current. There existed a general tendency in those early days of quantum mechanics to try to explain any unusual effects in terms of tunneling. In many cases, however, conclusive experimental evidence of tunneling was lacking, primarily because of the rudimentary stage of material science. In 1934, the development of the energy-band theory of solids prompted Zener (15) to propose interband tunneling, or internal field emission, as an explanation for dielectric breakdown. He calculated the rate of transitions from a filled band to a next-higher unfilled band by the application of an electric field. In effect, he showed that an energy gap could be treated in the manner of a potential barrier. This approach was refined by Houston (16) in 1940. The Zener mechanism in dielectric breakdown, however, has never been proved to be important in reality. If a high electric field is applied to the bulk crystal of a dielectric or a semiconductor, avalanche breakdown (electron-hole pair generation) generally precedes tunneling, and thus the field never reaches a critical value for tunneling. TUNNEL D I O D E Around 1950, the technology of Ge p-n junction diodes, being basic to transistors, was developed, and efforts were made to understand the junction properties. In explaining the reverse-bias characteristic, McAfee et al. (17) applied a modified Zener theory and asserted that low-voltage breakdown in, Ge diodes (specifically, they showed a 10-V breakdown) resulted from interband tunneling from the valence band in the p-type region to the empty conduction band in the n-type region. The work of McAfee et al. inspired a number of other investigations of breakdown in p-n junctions. Results of those later studies (18) indicated that most Ge junctions broke down by avalanche, but by that time the name “Zener diodes” had already been given to the low-breakdown Si diodes., Actually, these diodes are almost always avalanche diodes. In 1957, Chynoweth and McKay (19) examined Si junctions of low-voltage breakdown and claimed that they had finally observed tunneling. In this circumstance, in 1956, I initiated the investigation of interband tunneling or internal field emission in semiconductor diodes primarily to scrutinize the elctronic structure of narrow (width) p-n junctions. This information, at the time, was also important from a technological point of view. ...".
Esaki publishes this in a letter to "Physical Review" titled "New Phenomenon in Narrow Germanium p-n Junctions". He writes: "IN the course of studying the internal field emission in very narrow germanium p-n junctions, we have found an anomalous current-voltage characteristic in the forward direction, as illustrated in Fig. 1. In this p-n junction, which was fabricated by alloying techniques, the acceptor concentration in the p-type side and the donor concentration in the n-type side are, respectively, 1.6 x 1019 cm-3 and approximately 1019 cm-3. The maximum of the curve was observed at 0.035+-0.005 volt in every speciman. It was ascertained that the specimens were reproducibly produced and showed a general behavior relatively independent of temperature. in the range over 0.3 volt in the forward direciton, the current-voltage curve could be fitted almost quentitatively by the well-known relation I=Is(exp(qV/kT)-1). This junction diode is more conductive in the reverse direction than in the forward direction. In this respect it agrees with the rectification direction predicted by Wilson, Frenkel, and Joffe, and Nordheim 25 years ago. The energy diagram of Fig. 2 is proposed for the case in which no voltage is applied to the junction, thought the band scheme may be, at best , a poor approximation for such a narrow junction. (The remarkably large values observed in the capacity measurement indicated that the junction width is approximately 150 angstroms, which results in a built-in field as large as 5 x 105 volts/cm.)2 In the reverse direction and even in the forward direectino for low voltage, the current might be carried only by internal field emission and the possibility of an avalanche might be completely excluded because the breakdown occurs at much less than the threshold voltage for electron-hole pair production. Owing to the large density of electrons and holes, their distributino should become degenerate; the Fermi level in the p-type side will be 0.06 ev below the top of the valence band, Ev, and that in the n-type side will lie above the bottom of the conduction band, Ec. At zero bias, the field emission current Iv->c from the valence band to the empty state of the conduction band and the current Ic->v from the conduction band to the empty state of the valuence band should be detail-balanced. Expressions for Ie->v and Iv->c might be formulated as follows: ... where Zc->v and Zt->c are the probabilities of penetrating the gap (these could be assumed to be approximately equal); fc(E) and fv(E) are the Fermi-Dirac distribution functions, namely, the probabilities that a quantum state is occupied in the conduction and valence bands, respectively; oc(E) and pv(E) are the energy level densities in the conduction and valence bands, respectively. When the junction is slightly biased positively and negatively, the observed current I will be given by ... From this equation, if Z may be considered to be almost constant in the small voltage range involved, we could calculate fairly well the current-voltage curve at a certain temperature, indicating the dynatron-type characteristic inthe forward direction, as shown in Fig. 3. Further experimental results and discussion will be published at a later time. ...".
Esaki ends his Nobel prize lecture by writing:"...I would like to point out that many high barriers exist in this world: Barriers between nations, races and creeds. Unfortunately, some barriers are thick and strong. But I hope, with determination, we will find a way to tunnel through these barriers easily and freely, to bring the world together so that everyone can share in the legacy of Alfred Nobel.". (Leg probably refers to the ancient walking robots with artificial muscles, and "share" to 1800s neuron reading and writing.)
(A diode is the same as a rectifier and allows electrons to move in one direction but not the other.)
(state how 100 atoms thick of semiconductor crystals are formed. )
(State what are the threshold voltages for CMOS and TTL.)
(One way of looking at a transistor can be drawn from the first transistor of Lilienfeld, as simply an insulator between two conductors which allows current to flow if the voltage between the two conductors is high enough. In this view, there doesn't seem to be anything new about the Esaki find. Electrons, simply can penetrate an insulator space, like a vacuum tube, if the voltage is high enough or if the insulated area is small enough. Given 200+ years of secret remote neuron reading and writing technology, how could a person not be skeptical?)
(That this theory is based on the DeBroglie "wave" theory for matter to me implies that the theory is not correct. The only way I can view matter as a wave is as a material particle wave - anything else seems unlikely to me.)
(One possible theory is that, as voltage is increased, the velocity and frequency of electrons increases, and there may be different frequencies where electrons more easily penetrate some group of atoms - similar to an absorption spectrum for some material. But after some high voltage, atomic structure may not make a difference as there is a stream of electrons pouring through in some established channel. I don't doubt that this non-linear voltage-current/resistance effect exists, I just doubt the popularly accepted theory explaining it.)
(Notice in Esaki's Physical Review paper, he starts with "IN" which implies that Esaki is a direct-to-brain consumer, and potentially that there is neuron corruption.)
| (Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo, Limited) Shinagawa, Tokyo, Japan |
43 YBN
[10/23/1957 AD]
| 5432) Luis Frederico Leloir (CE 1906-1987), Argentinian biochemist, and colleages determine the process of synthesis of glycogen from glucose.
In the 1930s Carl and Gerty Cori had demonstrated a process by which glycogen is synthesized and broken down. It is assumed that because there are enzymes capable, in vitro, of both breaking down glycogen into lactic acid and reversing this process, that this is what actually happens in the body. However, Leloir and his colleagues announce in 1957 an alternative mechanism for the synthesis of glycogen. They discovered a new coenzyme, uridine triphosphate (UTP), analogous to adenosine triphosphate (ATP), which combines with glucose-1-phosphate to form a new sugar nucleotide, uridinediphosphate glucose (UDPG). In the presence of a specific enzyme and a primer UDPG will yield uridine diphosphate (UDP) and transfer the glucose to the growing glycogen chain. In the presence of ATP, UDP is converted back into UTP and the reaction can continue. It is soon made clear that this is the actual process of glycogen synthesis taking place in the body and that the Cori process is mainly concerned with the breaking down of of glycogen.
In a paper "Biosynthesis of Glycogen From Uridine Diphosphate Glucose", Leloir and Cardini write "...Previous work has shown that UDPG2 acts as glucose donor in the synthesis of trehalose phosphateJ3s ~ c r o s es,u~cr ose phosphate5 and cellulose. ANALYTICAL CHANGES The complete system contained: 0.5pmole of UDPG, 0.33 pmole of glycogen, tris-(hydroxymethy1)-aminomethane buffer of pH 7.4, 0.01 M ethylenediaminetetrsacetate and 0.02 ml. of enzyme. 111- cubation: 45 min. at 37". The enzyme was prepared from an aqueous extract of rat liver by acidification to PH 5. The precipitate was washed four times with acetate buffer of PH 5 and redissolved in buffer. Results in pmoles. {ULSF: See table} When UDPG is incubated with a liver enzyme and a small amount of glycogen the chemical changes shown in Table I were found to take place. Approximately equal amounts of UDP and of glycogen were formed. Such an increase in glycogen could only be detected with liver preparations freed from amylase. Other preparations obtained by ammonium sulfate precipitation contained amylase and therefore lost their glycogen. With such enzymes no UDP formation took place unless a primer was added. As shown in Table I1 glycogen and soluble starch acted as primers whereas glucose and maltose were ineffective. Several mono-, di- and oligosaccharides and hexose phosphates were tested with negative results. Treatment of glycogen with a-amylase destroyed its priming capacity. It can be concluded that UDPG acts directly as a glucose donor to glycogen and that the reaction is thus similar to polysaccharide formation from glucose 1-phosphate with animal phosphorylase which requires a primer of high molecular weight. The enzyme was found in the soluble fraction of liver and became very unstable after purification. {ULSF: See table 2}
| (INSTITUTIO DE INVESTIGACIONES BIOQUIMICAS) Buenos Aires, Argentina, South America |
43 YBN
[10/23/1957 AD]
| 5659) Earl Wilbur Sutherland Jr. (CE 1915-1974), US physician and pharmacologist, and T. W. Rall isolate and identify cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cyclic AMP), an intermediate in the formation of ATP, the important molecule Lipmann had uncovered. Cyclic AMP will be found to play an important role in many chemical reaction in the body.
(Identify which body- multicellular only?)
Sutherland and Rall publish their work in the "Journal of Biological Chemistry" article "FRACTIONATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF A CYCLIC ADENINE RIBONUCLEOTIDE FORMED BY TISSUE PARTICLES", and summarize by writing: "SUMMARY 1. An adenine ribonucleotide (formed by particulate fractions of liver homogenates in the presence of adenosine triphosphate, magnesium ions, and epinephrine or glucagon) was isolated in good yield by use of ion exchange resins and was crystallized. 2. An adenine ribonucleotide, produced in the presence of particulate fractions from heart, skeletal muscle, and brain was isolated and found to be identical to the one formed by particulate fractions from liver. 3. The adenine ribonucleotide contained no monoesterified phosphate groups and was quantitatively converted to adenosine 5’-phosphate when incubated with a partially purified enzyme from heart. When hydrolysis of the ribonucleotide was catalyzed by the hydrogen form of Dowex 50, the products were identified as adenine and a mixture of ribose 3-phosphate and ribose 2-phosphate. The evidence indicated that the compound was a cyclic adenylic acid. 4. The cyclic adenylic acid was found to be identical to the cyclic adenylic acid isolated by Cook, Lipkin, and Markham from barium hydroxide digests of adenosine triphosphate and recently determined by these authors to be adenosine-3’) 5’-phosphoric acid (cyclic 3,5-AMP). 5. An enzyme capable of inactivating cyclic 3,5-AMP was found in several tissues. The enzyme, probably a phosphodiesterase, was especially active in brain extracts and was partially purified from extracts of brain and heart. The enzyme was activated by magnesium ions and was inhibited by caffeine. ...". In 1971, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. "for his discoveries concerning the mechanisms of the action of hormones".
(I think there needs to be identified both a "digestive system" and a "cell synthesizing" system for the two processes of separating input food and rebuilding it into cells. Perhaps this can all fit into a "digestive system" - but perhaps with a different name like "food conversion system" or perhaps two separate systems is better, like a "destructive" system and a "constructive" system.)
| (Western Reserve University) Cleveland, Ohio, USA |
43 YBN
[11/03/1957 AD]
| 5487) First animal to orbit earth, the dog "Laika" in the spacecraft Sputnik 2.
Sp utnik 2 is the second spacecraft launched into Earth orbit and is the first spacecraft to carry an animal. It is a 4 meter high cone-shaped capsule with a base diameter of 2 meters. Sputnik 2 contains several compartments for radio transmitters, a telemetry system, a programming unit, a regeneration and temperature control system for the cabin, and scientific instruments. Telemetry is the science and technology of automatic measurement and transmission of data by wire, wireless (particle), or other means from remote sources, as from space vehicles, to receiving stations for recording and analysis. A separate sealed cabin contains the experimental dog Laika. Engineering and biological data are transmitted using the Tral_D telemetry system, which transmits data to Earth for 15 minutes of each orbit. Two spectrophotometers are on board for measuring solar radiation (ultraviolet and x-ray emissions) and cosmic rays. A television camera is mounted in the passenger compartment to observe Laika. The camera can transmit 100-line video frames at 10 frames/second.
Sputnik 2 is launched on a launch vehicle to a 212 x 1660 km orbit with a period of 103.7 minutes. After reaching orbit the nose cone is jettisoned successfully but the Blok A core does not separate as planned. This inhibits the operation of the thermal control system. Additionally some of the thermal insulation tears loose so the interior temperatures reach 40 C. It is believed Laika survives for only about two days instead of the planned ten because of the heat. The orbit of Sputnik 2 decays and it reenters Earth's atmosphere on April 14, 1958 after 162 days in orbit.
The first animal to travel to outer space is a female part-Samoyed terrier originally named Kudryavka (Little Curly) but later renamed Laika (Barker). She weighs about 6 kg. The pressurized cabin on Sputnik 2 allows enough room for her to lie down or stand and is padded. An air regeneration system provides oxygen; food and water are dispensed in a gelatinized form. Laika is fitted with a harness, a bag to collect waste, and electrodes to monitor vital signs. The early telemetry indicates Laika is agitated but eating her food. There is no capability of returning a payload safely to Earth at this time, so it is planned that Laika will run out of oxygen after about 10 days of orbiting the Earth. But because of the thermal problems Laika probably only survives a day or two.
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (, Soviet Union) |
43 YBN
[12/??/1957 AD]
| 4895) Popular Mechanics prints a story that hints about neuron reading and writing, predicts that in 2000 CE: "Ways will be found to transmit information to the brain in such a way that loss of sight and hearing will not restrict one's activity in any way. And the senses of people with normally good vision and hearing will be strengthened; for instance, it will be possible to see in total darkness.".
| Chicago, Illinois, USA |
43 YBN
[1957 AD]
| 5409) William Maurice Ewing (CE 1906-1974), US geologist, shows that the mid-Atlantic Ocean ridge is divided by a central rift, which in places is twice as deep and wide as the Grand Canyon.
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
43 YBN
[1957 AD]
| 5506) Melvin Calvin (CE 1911-1997) US biochemist, uses the radioactive tracer carbon-14 in carbon dioxide to determine the molecular steps in the cycle of photosynthetic reactions (known as the Calvin cycle), and shows how this cycle is partly related to the known cycle of cell respiration.
Calvin and his group use the new analytical techniques developed during the war, ion-exchange chromatography, paper chromatography, and radioisotopes, to investigate the 'dark reactions' of photosynthesis; those reactions that do not need the presence of light.
Calvin and his group use radioactive carbon-14 to determine the chemical details of photosynthesis. Photosynthesis is the process all plants, and some bacteria and protists use to combine carbon dioxide from the air and molecules of water to form starch, releasing oxygen atoms in the process, and is the cause of the majority of oxygen in air which all animals breathe. Since photosynthesis cannot yet be duplicated in a test tube, living cells must be used to examine the process of photosynthesis. Calvin and his group allow plant cells to be exposed to carbon-14 carbon dioxide for only seconds of time, the plant cells are then mashed up and the contents separated by the paper chromatographic method (developed by Martin and Synge earlier in the decade). The plant allowed to absorb carbon dioxide and labeled with the radioisotope carbon–14, are then immersed at varying intervals in boiling alcohol so that the compounds they synthesized can be identified. Those substances that contain radioactive carbon-14 must represent molecules manufactured in the very early stages of photosynthesis. This research takes a long time, but Calvin and his group finally do isolate all the immediate products and deduce how they fit together. So Calvin determines the cycle of photosynthetic reactions (known as the Calvin cycle) and shows this cycle to be related in part to the familiar cycle of cell respiration. This work is collected in a book by Calvin and Bassham titled "The Path of Carbon in Photosynthesis" (1957). This completes the research begin with Helmont 300 years before.
In his book "The path of carbon in photosynthesis", Bassham and Calvin describe the methods used, the carbon reduction cycle, and the pathway of carbon into carbohydrates such as sucrose and other polysaccharides, the synthesis of fat from carbon (during photosynthesis, in 5 minutes, 30% of radiocarbon is included in lipids), in addition to the formation of a number of amino acids quickly formed from the radioactive CO2. Bassham and Calvin conclude by stating that the path of H2O to O2 is still unknown.
(Determine if photosynthesis has been chemically duplicated in the lab.)
(It would be amazing if somehow humans could evolve a system, perhaps through changing our DNA, that would allow us to convert light particles into the food we need, like plants do. In particular this would be neat if there was no need for any kind of colored pigment like ch)
(State how long this work took, if possible.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
42 YBN
[01/09/1958 AD]
| 5772) Rudolf Ludwig Mössbauer (MRSBoUR) (CE 1929- ), German physicist, finds what will be called the "Mössbauer effect", how a nucleus can be embedded in a crystal lattice that absorbs the recoil of the emitted light of gamma ray fluorescence.
Mössbauer announces finding what will be called the "Mössbauer effect", which is that when atomic nuclei are in a crystalline lattice, the lattice prevents the nuclei from recoiling, and so the nuclei can emit and absorb gamma radiation of the same exact frequency (resonantly). This phenomenon allows highly precise measurements of frequency.
Under normal conditions, atomic nuclei recoil when they emit gamma rays, and the wavelength of the emission varies with the amount of recoil. The discovery of the Mössbauer effect is another method to create and detect specific frequencies of gamma rays (the Bragg effect is another method), and this proves a useful tool because of the highly precise measurements it allows. The sharply defined gamma rays of the Mössbauer effect are used in 1960 by Pound and Rebka to show that light has weight, confirming Albert Einstein’s 1911 prediction that gravity changes the frequency of light and the "Mössbauer effect" is also used to measure the magnetic fields of atomic nuclei.
In his Nobel lecture, Mössbauer gives some of the history behind his achievement writing: "As early as the middle of the last century Stokes observed, in the case of fluorite, the phenomenon now known as fluorescence - namely, that solids, liquids, and gases under certain conditions partially absorb incident electromagnetic radiation which immediately is reradiated. A special case is the so-called resonance fluorescence, a phenomenon in which the re-emitted and the incident radiation both are of the same wavelength. The resonance fluorescence of the yellow D lines of sodium in sodium vapour is a particularly notable and exhaustively studied example. In this optical type of resonance fluorescence, light sources are used in which the atoms undergo transitions from excited states to their ground states (Fig. 1). The light quanta emitted in these transitions (A-+B) are used to initiate the inverse process of resonance absorption in the atoms of an absorber which are identical with the radiating atoms. The atoms of the absorber undergo a transition here from the ground state (B) to the excited state (A), from which they again return to the ground state, after a certain time delay, by emission of fluorescent light. As early as 1929, Kuhn had expressed the opinion that the resonance absorption of gamma rays should constitute the nuclear physics analogue to this optical resonance fluorescence. Here, a radioactive source should replace the optical light source. The gamma rays emitted by this source should be able to initiate the inverse process of nuclear resonance absorption in an absorber composed of nuclei of the same type as those decaying in the source. ...in 1951, when Moon2 succeeded in demonstrating the effect for the first time, by an ingenious experiment. The fundamental idea of his experiment was that-of compensating for the recoil-energy losses of the gamma quanta: the radioactive source used in the experiment was moved at a suitably high velocity toward the absorber or scatterer. The displacement of the emission line toward higher energies achieved in this way through the Doppler effect produced a measurable nuclear fluorescence effect. After the existence of nuclear resonance fluorescence had been experimentally proved, a number of methods were developed which made it possible to observe nuclear resonance absorption in various nuclei. In all these methods for achieving measurable nuclear resonance effects the recoil-energy loss associated with gamma emission or absorption was compensated for in one way or another by the Doppler effect. ". Mössbauer then describes his work as being "...a sort of reversal of the experiment carried out by Moon. Whereas in that experiment the resonance condition destroyed by the recoil-energy losses was regained by the application of an appropriate relative velocity, here the resonance condition fulfilled in the experiment was to be destroyed through the application of a relative velocity. And yet there was an essential difference between this and Moon’s experiment. There, the width of the lines that were displaced relative to one another was determined by the thermal motion of the nuclei in the source and absorber; here, the line widths were sharper by four orders of magnitude. This made it possible to shift them by applying velocities smaller by four orders of magnitude. The indicated velocities were in the region of centimeters per second. Fig . 7 shows the experimental arrangement6. For simplicity, I decided to move the source by means of a turn-table. Only the part of the rotational motion marked by the heavy line in Fig. 7 was used for the measurement - namely, that part in which the source was moving relative to the absorber with approximately constant velocity. The intensity at the detector was measured as a function of the relative velocity between the source and the absorber. Since the preparation of the conical-gear assembly necessary for adjusting the various velocities caused a disagreeable delay in this experiment which was so exciting for me, I took advantage of the existence in Germany of a highly developed industry for the production of mechanical toys. A day spent in the Heidelberg toy shops contributed materially to the acceleration of the work. Fig. 8 shows the result of this experiment, a result which was just what had been expected. As the figure demonstrates, a maximum resonance absorption was actually present at zero relative velocity as a result of the complete superposition of the recoilless emission and absorption lines; therefore, minimal radiation intensity passing through the absorber was observed in the detector. With increasing relative velocity the emission line was shifted to higher or lower energies, the resonance absorption decreased, and the observed intensity correspondingly increased. The necessary relative velocities were manifestly only of the order of centimeters per second. Since the experiment consisted essentially of producing a shift of an emission line of width r relative to an absorption line of width r, the observed line possessed a width which, with a small correction, was equal to 2 r. It was especially satisfying that the line width thus obtained agreed with the width determined in the first experiment3 under much more difficult conditions. While absorption effects of the order of 1 per cent were observed in the second experiment, an effect of the order of a hundredth of 1 per cent had been achieved in the earlier work. Thus, direct proof of the existence of recoilless absorption was achieved. The significance of the new method was immediately apparent, although not all of its consequences were immediately realized. ... In addition to measurement of the fields located in crystals at nuclear sites and to measurement of the moments of excited nuclear states, studies of a number of important effects have been made during the past two years in a large number of laboratories. The observation of these effects was made possible by means of even sharper nuclear transitions, especially that of the 14.4- keV transition in 57Fe. Particular mention should be made here of the beautiful measurements of the energy shift of radiation quanta in the gravitational field of the earth7, the observation of the second-order Doppler effect, and the measurements of the isomeric shift. ... ...".
Mössbauer publishes this in "Zeitschrift für Physik A Hadrons and Nuclei" (Journal of Physics A Hadrons and Nuclei), as (translated by Google) "Nuclear resonance fluorescence of gamma radiation in Ir191". As an abstract Mössbauer writes (translated by Google) "The nuclear resonance absorption of the decay of Os191 following 129-keV gamma radiation in Ir191 is investigated. The cross section for the resonance absorption as a function of the temperatures of source and absorber in the temperature range 90° K < T < 370° K are measured. The life Tgamma of the 129 keV levels in Ir191 is found to be (3.6 -0.8/+1.3) 10-10 sec. The absorption cross section at low temperatures has a strong increase as a result of the crystal binding of the absorber substance. The theory of Lamb on the resonance absorption of slow neutrons in crystals is transferred to the nuclear resonance absorption of gamma radiation. At low temperatures there is a strong dependence of the cross section for nuclear absorption of the frequency distribution in the vibrational spectrum of the solid.".
(In his Nobel lecture Mosssbauer apparently describes how two lower frequency oscillating sources can produce the higher frequency gamma rays, which seems logical if light is a particle - since this is simply decreasing the interval of time between light particles. Perhaps this could be proved by a crystal that is fluorescent at only high gamma frequencies.)
(Isn't the Bragg effect enough to create and detect specific frequencies of gamma rays - which are simply higher frequency X-rays?)
(State what whats kind of crystals are used and exhibit this gamma fluorescence property.)
(Is this Mossbauer effect the same as the maser effect but with gamma frequencies? State how they are different.)
| (Institut fur Physik im Max-Planck-Institut fur medizinische Forschung {Institute of Physics at the Max Planck Institute for Medical Research}) Heidelberg, Germany |
42 YBN
[01/31/1958 AD]
| 5593) The first US satellite, Explorer I is launched.
James Alfred Van Allen (CE 1914-2006), US physicist, includes a cosmic ray counter which reaches a surprisingly high level and then goes dead.
(Describe more about the communications equipment.)
| (Johns Hopkins University) Silver Spring, Maryland, USA |
42 YBN
[04/28/1958 AD]
| 5607) First high altitude atomic explosive test (Hardtack Yucca).
The first high altitude atomic explosion is lifted by a balloon to a height of 26 km (16 mi). This is a small explosive of only 1.7 kilotons, compared to the 3.8 megaton explosive used in the first "empty space" (exoatmospheric) test of Hardtack Teak in August 1958. (verify)
| (85 nm NE of) Enewetak Atoll, Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean |
42 YBN
[05/01/1958 AD]
| 5608) James Alfred Van Allen (CE 1914-2006), US physicist, discovers the existence of a high intensity of corpuscular radiation temporarily trapped in the earth's magnetic field. These layers will come to be called the magnetosphere and the "Van Allen" radiation belts.
Van Allen described how the Earth is surrounded by belts of high-energy particles — mainly protons and electrons — that are held in place by the magnetic fields.
According to historian James Fleming, the very same day after the May 1, 1958 press conference, Van Allen agrees with the military to get involved with a project to set off atomic bombs in the magnetosphere to see if they could disrupt it. The plan is to send rockets hundreds of miles up, higher than the Earth's atmosphere, and then detonate nuclear weapons to see: a) If a bomb's radiation would make it harder to see what is up there (like incoming Russian missiles); b) If an explosion would do any damage to objects nearby; c) If the Van Allen belts would move a blast down the bands to a target on earth; and d) if a man-made explosion might "alter" the natural shape of the belts.
There appears to be some possible misinformation in the claim by some sources that the 1962 tests represented very different tests from earlier tests. For example the Hardtack Orange nuclear test on August 12, 1958 was a 3.8 megaton explosive, while the "Starfish" prime explosive of 1962 was smaller, being a 1.45 megaton bomb. So the effects of the 1958 explosions, changing the magnetosphere, disrupting communications, must have been basically the same as the 1962 test explosions.
(Find if a published copy of paper exists.) (read relevent parts of text)
| (National Academy of Science and American Physical Society joint meeting) Washington, D. C., USA |
42 YBN
[05/??/1958 AD]
| 5321) Adolf Friedrich Johann Butenandt (BUTenoNT) (CE 1903-1995), German chemist, and Peter Karlson propose the name "pheromones" for substances "...that are secreted by an animal to the outside and cause a specific reaction in a receiving individual of the same species, e.g., a release of certain behavior or a determination of physiologic development.".
Butenandt and Karlson write "During the last few decades numerous substances have been investigated that resemble hormones in some respects but actually cannot be called hormones. The attractant of a moth, to cite an example, is produced and secreted by certain glands just as is a hormone j even the minutest amounts cause a reaction in the receptor organ (antenna of male) which induces the male to copulate. But, contrary to hormones, this substance is released to the outside, and not into the blood. It does not serve the humoral correlation inside the organism, but rather acts among individuals. Bethe (8) called such substances "ectohormones," and some authors have followed him. If, however, hormones are defined as products of incretory glands, then the word ectohormone ( = ectoincretion) constitutes a contradiction in itself. We feel that the concept of hormone ought not be stretched too far j it is more convenient to invent a new concept. Having consulted a few colleagues with experience in the same field, we should like to propose to name such substances "pheromones." The word is derived from the Greek pherein (to carry) and horman (to exite, to stimulate). ...Pheromones, messengers among individuals, will then be on the same level as hormones, gamones (fertilizing substances), and termones (determining substances)...".
| (Max Planck Institute) Munich, Germany |
42 YBN
[06/06/1958 AD]
| 5559) A. Ghiorso, T. Sikkeland, J. R. Walton, and Glenn T. Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) produce and identify element 102 (Nobelium).
Seaborg et al publish this in "Physical Review" as "Element No. 102". They write " By the use of a radically new method we have succeeded in identifying unambiguously an isotope of element 102. In other careful experiments conducted over a period of many months we find that we are unable to confirm the element 102 discovery work of Fields et. al. reported in 1957. The experiments at berkeley were performed with the new heavy ion linear accelerator (HILAC) over a period of several weeks and culminated in the chemical identification of an isotope of fermium (FM250) as daughter of an alpha-particle-emitting isotope of element 102 (102254). The method used to detect the isotope of element 102 was essentially a continuous milking experiment wherein the atoms of the daughter element 100 were separated frmo the parent element 102 by taking advantage of the recoil due to the element 102 alpha-particle devay. The taget consisted of a mixture of isotopes of curium ... mounted on a very thin nickel foil. ... The curium was bombarded with monoenergetic C12 ions at energies from 60 to 100 Mev. The transmuted atoms were knocked into helium gas to absorb the considerable recoil energy. It was foind that with a sufficient electric field strength practicvally all of these positively charged atoms could be attracted to a moving negatively charged metallic belt placed directly beneath the target. These atoms would then be carried on this conveyor belt under a foil which was charged negatively relative to the belt. Approximately half of the atoms undergoing alpha decay would cause their daughter atoms to recoil from the surface of the belt to the catcher foil (see Fig. 1). The catcher foil was cut transversely to the direction of the belt motion into five equal-length sections ...".
Nobelium is atomic number 102, has the symbol "No", and is a radioactive transuranic element in the actinide series that is artificially produced in trace amounts. Its most long-lived isotope is No-259 with a half-life of 58 minutes.
(Examine work of earlier paper.)
(Note that the use of a conveyor belt has a resonance with the idea of mass producing transmutations from a single beam. Any way you look at mass transmutation on a large scale, some kind of target moving device must be used - even if simply unrolling a roll of target material in front of a lage 2 dimensional spray of high speed particles.)
(Notice "No." in title as if they already know the name and symbol of the element.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
42 YBN
[06/06/1958 AD]
| 5561) The discovery of element 106 takes place almost simultaneously in two different laboratories. In June, 1974, a Soviet team led by G. N. Flerov at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research at Dubna reports bombarding lead-207 and lead-208 atoms with chromium-54 ions to produce an isotope with mass number 259 and a half-life of 7 msec. In Sept., 1974, a US team led by A. Ghiorso at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory reports bombarding californium-249 atoms with oxygen-18 ions to create an isotope with mass number 263 and a half-life of 0.9 sec. Because their work is independently confirmed first, the US team suggests the name seaborgium to honor US chemist Glenn T. Seaborg. An international committee decides in 1992 that the Berkeley and Dubna laboratories should share credit for the discovery. The syntheses of at least six isotopes of seaborgium, with half-lives ranging from 0.4 msec (Sg-260) to 30 sec (Sg-266), have been confirmed. In 1994 a committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC), recommends that element 106 be named rutherfordium. In 1997, however, the name seaborgium for element 106 is recognized internationally.
(show work of Dubna)
Glenn T. Seaborg (CE 1912-1999) in a team of 8 people identify element 106. They publish this in "Physical Review" as "Element 106" and write as an abstract: "We have produced element 106 by bombarding 249Cf with 18O ions accelerated by the SuperHILAC. The new nuclide 263106, produced by the (18O, 4n) reaction, is shown to decay by α emission with a half-life of 0.9±0.2 sec and a principal α energy of 9.06±0.04 MeV to the known nuclide 259Rf, which in turn is shown to decay to the known nuclide 255No.".
(Given 200 years of secret neuron writing, it seems likely that this element was created probably long before and simply people in the Soviet Union went public with it first. It seems beyond coincidence that the same exact element would be created months apart, as opposed to, for example element 108 or some other elements. Most likely these elements are probably easily created - it may be that there are very large elements still kept secret - it seems logical that two large atoms collided might produce a small quantity of very large atoms, but perhaps there is a structural limit on atom size.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
42 YBN
[07/??/1958 AD]
| 5521) US biochemists, William Howard Stein (CE 1911-1980), Stanford Moore (CE 1913-1982), and group develop an automatic recording apparatus for use in chromatography of amino acids.
| (The Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
42 YBN
[08/01/1958 AD]
| 5450) Max Knoll (CE 1897-1969) and Kugler find that light pattens can be experienced when a small voltage is applied by two electrodes on different parts of the human face, and the voltage oscillated in the encephalographic frequency range.
Knoll and Ernst August Friedrich Ruska (CE 1906-1988), German electrical engineer, had built the first known electron microscope in 1931 (TEM) and Knoll had built the first Scanning electron microscope (SEM) in 1935.
Knoll and Kugler write: " Alessandro Volta's famous experiment in 1800 when he stimulated the nerve of the leg of a frog by a battery of a few volts is well known. In his collected works, however, much more attention is given to another experiment, when he applied two electrodes to different parts of his face and experienced, with eyes closed, a brilliant light and sometimes a bright circle while closing or opening the circuit including his little battery. Some years later, 1819, Purkinje confirmed Volta's experiment and found quite a number of differently shaped subjective abstract patterns, excitable optically, mechanically or electrically. Looking closer into his reports one finds that he obtained his best results not by simply opening or closing the circuit but by using a metal chain to interrupt the battery current. Therefore, he must have used a rather irregular but wide electric (low-frequency) pulse spectrum. Penfield and Rasmussed obtained not many years ago similar patterns during brain surgery by direct electric stimulation of the visual cortex with a fixed pulse-frequency of 60 c./s. (ref. 3), and since then the electric conditions for excitation of Purkinje patterns have been investigated by one of (M.K.(. It has been found that (besides flicker) a whole 'spectrum' of subjective abstract light patterns can be excited in the brain by using temporal electrodes and pulses of a few volts within the encephalographic frequency-range. The 20 subjects tested in this earlier work belonged to various professional and age groups. In the present communication results are described with an additional 24 subjects belonging to more typical groups (clinial patients and technical students). For each subject the pulse voltage, current, frequency, repetition ratio and band-width (if possible) for the excitation of a pattern were noted. For the first group, electroencephalographic records were available. In both groups subjects were requested to sketch the patterns observed while the experiments were going on. Subjects in group 1 had no knowledge of the purpose of the of the experiment. Readings of the electric data by the experimenter and subject's remarks were tape recorded. For details of the experimental method, the battery-driven transistor pulse fenerator and the non-electric excitataion of subjective patterns see ref. 4. Fig. 1 shows 24 pattern spectrograms (17 mental patients, 7 technical students). ... ...The fact that many abstract patterns observed by us (such as stars, wheels, bright dot patterns, etc.) have been described before as a result of mechanical stimulation of the eyeball seems to indicate that the retinal ganglion network is at least contributing to the production of the phenomena observed. On the other hand, since similar patterns were observed by Penfield and Rasmussen, the participation of the visual cortex or of the main visual pathway cannot be excluded.".
(Of course, knowing now, about the secret of neuron reading and writing, and the massive secret group of those who developed neuron-writing windows and other such technology, we can see the significance of this and many other papers seeking to inform the poor excluded public about this terrible truth.)
(Note how Knoll ends his paper writing "can not be excluded" - excluded being a word that will clearly echo through the centuries and be a prominant keyword and description of these centuries which we live in.)
| (Technischen Hochschule/Technical University) Berlin, Germany |
42 YBN
[08/01/1958 AD]
| 5606) First atomic explosion in empty space (exo-atmospheric) and first rocket launched atomic explosion (Hardtack Teak).
Teak is a rocket-launched test of a live W-39 nuclear warhead. The purpose is to measure the effects of high altitude nuclear explosions in order to design warheads for the Nike-Zeus anti-ballistic missile system. The 3.8 megaton W-39 explosive is launched on a Redstone rocket that reaches an altitude of 77.8 km (47 mi). This is the first rocket-launched nuclear test by the United States. (verify)
The Teak explosion causes communications problems over a widespread area in the Pacific basin. This is due to the injection of a large quantity of fission debris into the ionosphere. The debris prevents normal ionospheric reflection of high-frequency (HF) radio waves back towards Earth, and so disrupts most long-distance HF radio communications.
James Van Allen had shown in 1959 that the intensity of cosmic rays is constant after 55 km indicating that there are no significant atmospheric gases beyond 55 km (34 mi) above the earth.
On September 6, 1958, the Argus 3 test is the highest altitude test of an atomic explosion. A small 1.5 kiloton atomic explosive is exploded 540 km (335 mi) above the earth, which is far into empty space.
(I think this video is evidence that the blue of the sky is from luminescence of ozone and perhaps other molecules.)
(In addition, I think this removes any major questions and unknowns about any unusual or catastrophic reactions of atomic fission explosions in empty space, which clears the way for ships like Project Orion which will increase the development and exploration of the other planets moons and those of the nearest stars. It seems illogical to think that an atomic fission explosion would be very different from an equivalent explosion by any other material, since both result in the release of light particles.)
(Notice that the explosion is spherical for the most part, as would be expected without any surface of resistance which causes the "mushroom" shape when exploded close to the surface of earth.)
| (Johnson Island) Pacific Ocean |
42 YBN
[08/03/1958 AD]
| 5231) The U.S.S. Nautilus (the first nuclear powered submarine) is the first submarine to cross under the North Pole.
The U.S.S. Nautilus crosses the Arctic Ocean underwater from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and this starts the examination of the Arctic depths.
(Is all of the arctic water under the ice? How far down does the ice go? This is different from Antarctica. Is Antarctica solid land all the way down?)
| North Pole |
42 YBN
[08/26/1958 AD]
| 5650) Charles Hard Townes (CE 1915-), US physicist, theorizes on the possibility of higher frequency masers that emit infrared and visible light, and on the possibility of solid (solid-state, as opposed to gas) masers.
In the late 1950s solid-state masers (masers made of solids) are built by Townes and others. These masers can amplify microwaves while introducing never before reached low quantities of random radiation (noise). This means that very weak signals can be amplified far more efficiently than any other method of amplification.
A. L. Schawlow and Townes publish this work on August 26, 1958 in "Physical Review" as "Infrared and Optical Masers". They write as an abstract: "The extension of maser techniques to the infrared and optical region is considered. It is shown that by using a resonant cavity of centimeter dimensions, having many resonant modes, maser oscillation at these wavelengths can be achieved by pumping with reasonable amounts of incoherent light. For wavelengths much shorter than those of the ultraviolet region, maser-type amplification appears to be quite impractical. Although use of a multimode cavity is suggested, a single mode may be selected by making only the end walls highly reflecting, and defining a suitably small angular aperture. Then extremely monochromatic and coherent light is produced. The design principles are illustrated by reference to a system using potassium vapor.
In 1960 Maiman will build the first publicly known laser using a pink ruby rod that emits intermittent bursts of red light. Laser stands for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation".
(Determine when the first solid state maser is built and read relevent parts of any published work.)
(One interesting point about this paper is that Schawlow and Townes are listed as representing Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and Townes has an asterisk footnote which states "Permanent address: Columbia University, New York, New York.". Perhaps this was work done for and/or at Bell Labs, or perhaps Bell wanted to be public about their involvement with the maser and laser or somehow publicly connect themselves to the maser and laser?)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
42 YBN
[09/29/1958 AD]
| 5651) Charles Hard Townes (CE 1915-), US physicist, confirms the Michelson-Morley experiments of 1887 by using the relative frequency stability of two beam-type maser oscillators.
On September 29, Cesarholm, Bland and Havens with International Business Machines visiting at Columbia University, and Townes publish an experiment where masers are directed in different directions which show no difference in frequency, and the Michelson-Morley experiment is confirmed with an accuracy of 1 part in a trillion. The experiment is repeated again and published in October of 1963.
Townes et all publish this in "Physical Review" as "New Experimental Test of Special Relativity". They write: " The relative frequency stability of two beam-type maser oscillators is used to test the dependence of the velocity of light on velocity of the frame of reference with considerably more precision than has been obtained from experiments of the Michelson-Morley type. Expressed in terms of an ether, the maximum ether drift is shown to be less than 1/1000 of the earth's orbital velocity. The experiment, which was performed at the Watson Laboratory, involves comparison of the frequencies of two masers having their beams of NH3 molecules traveling in opposite directions, Moller has analyzed this case and given the change in frequency of a beam-type maser due to ether drift, assuming the molecules in the beam to have a velocity u with respect to the cavity through which they pass, and the cavity to have a velocity v with respect to the ether. The shift may be simply discussed by assuming that, if v is zero, radiation is emitted perpendicularly to the molecular velocity so that there is no Doppler shift. if the cavity and beam are then transported at velocity c through the ether in a directino parallel to u, radiation must be emitted by the molecules slightly forward at an angle θ=π/2=v/c with respect to u. The fractional change in frequency due to the Doppler effect is then E=u/c cosθ or uv/c2 For a thermal molecular velocity of 0.6km/sec and for the earth's orbital velocity (30 km/sec), E=2 x 10-10. The difference in frequency due to the above effect between two masers with oppositely directed beams would be 2Ev, or about 10 cps for v equal to 23 870 Mc/sec, the NH2 inversion frequency. Althought uv/c is of secdon order in the velocities, it is of first order in the velocity of the cavity, or of the laboratory, with respect to the ether. The present experiment measures the entire effect with a rather small fractional error, which affords a particularly small upper limit to v since this quantity enters in first order, rather than in second order as in the Michelson-Morley experiment. A somewhat similar term would occur in the latter experiment if the interferometer used were transported by a plane of speed u, and interference fringes were compared for two opposite directions of flight. Two maser oscillators with oppositely directed beams were mounted with necessary auxillary equipment on a rack which could be rotated about a vertical axis. The beat frequency between the two oscillators was adjusted to about 20 cps and recorded continuously. After approximately one minute of recording with the maser axes oritented in an east-west direction, the apparatus was rotated 180° and the beat frequency recorded in the new position. The change in beat frequency, on the basis of an ether drift, should be 4Ev, or about 20 cps. Sixteen such comparisons were made during a period of about 20 minutes. These were repeated about once per hour during a time somewhat longer than 12 hours, so that the earth's rotation would sweep the east-west direction through a plane. A relative change in frequency of the two oscillators amounting to about 1 cps was found when they were rotated through 180°. This change is largely due to the earth's magnetic field and other local magnetic fields from which no shielding was attempted. The significant observation is that this change was independent of the time of day (or orientation of the earth), as indicated in Fig. 1. ... This precision corresponds to a comparison of frequencies of the two masers to one part in 1012. The results show that any term of the form uv/c2 must be smaller by a factor of at least 1000 than what would be predicted by setting v equal to the earth's orbital velocity. That is, velocity with respect to an ether in a plane perpendicular to the earth's axis must be less than 1/30 km/sec. Results from experiments of the Michelson-Morley type vary from an ether drift of about 8 km/sec reported by Miller to an upper limit of 1.5 km/sec given by the experiments of Joos. Of course a major part of the advantage of the present experiment is its first-order rather than second-order dependence on v. Those who are already completely convinced of the correctness of special relativity, or who do not wish to consider an ether model, should note that postulates of special relativity are not necessarily inconsistent with the existence of a frequency shift in the above experiment or of an anisotropy in space. These can result from the presence of matter external to the earth which is not uniformly distributed, or which is not moving with the earth's velocity. ...".
In his Nobel lecture Townes cites his Nature paper describing these experiments and states that "...experimemts have been done to improve the precision with which the Lorentz transformation can be experimentally verified". This and the paper in Nature appear to confirm the theory of FitzGerald and Lorentz that an aether may exist but that because space and time contract in the direction of motion, this change in the speed of light cannot be measured - which Albert Michelson described as "artificial" and which seems to me to be somewhat unlikely. In the Nature paper titled "A New Experimental Test of Special Relativity" Cedarholm at IBM and Townes write: "...Consider first the FitzGeral contraction. Its effect on the frequency of maser oscillation is very small and may be neglected because this frequency is rather insensitive to the dimensions and resonant frequency of the cavity. The time dilation, however, produces the effect we seek. If the cavity moves through the ether at a velocity v and the molecule through the cavity at velocity u, then the molecular velocity through the ether is V = u +v, and the molecular time will be slow, for an observer in the framework of the ether... Hence the molecule would appear slow to an observer in the laboratory by the difference between these two, or by the factor: 1 - u2/2c2 - uv/c2
The first small correction is the well-known transverse Doppler effect, and is independent of ether drift. The second small correction is the discrepancy uv/c2 which would occur if we were to accept a simple ether and no time dilation in the proper oscillation of the molecule, as postulated in Moller's original discussion. The above derivation makes it clear that failure to see any change in time equivalent to the small fractional amount uv/c2 may be explained away by the assumption of a time dilation for those who wish to adhere to an ether with such peculiarities. Hence the experiment is more closely related to the Kennedy-Thorndike experiment than to that of Michelson and Morley. A null result in the latter needs , of course, only a FitzGerald contraction for an explanation in terms of an ether theory. ...". (I think a better explanation of the missing change in velocity, is simply that there is no ether, and in terms of why we cannot add the relative velocities of a light source to the velocity of light particles, I think the reason is because all matter is made of light and so we cannot simply add the small velocity of a composite object. When a light particle escapes some larger object, it's velocity is independent relative to the collective velocity of the object which it was a part of. But I think it needs more and clearer explanation and visual demonstration. I reject any ether, and also any space or time dilation. Probably those owners of the neuron reading and writing devices learned the truth about this in the 1800s.)
(Townes and others claim that this upholds Einstein's theory of relativity, titling the paper in "Physical Review", "New Experimental Test of Special Relativity" as opposed to "Maser Confirmation of 1881 Michelson and 1887 Michelson-Morley experiments", and to me, this implies some kind of neuron corruption. I think this is simply evidence against the ether claim, which the theory of relativity has adopted the math of. This shows that the velocity of light is the same with no regard to direction and the motion of earth relative to empty space.)
(The second paper on the laser experiment is unusual in being more or less a duplicate of the first, and then less than a month away from the murder of John Kennedy. It's hard to believe that the owners of AT&T and the neuron would not know alot about Frank Sturgis and the long-term thought-images involving plans to murder JFK.)
(Notice Townes, et al's use of the word "postulates" which may relate to the origin of so-called non-euclidean geometry which is based on a theory that Euclid's fifth postulate can be supposed to be false. Two points of confusion are 1) if Euclid's fifth postulate covers "curved" lines or only straight lines, and 2) how an angle is measured between two curved lines. The General Theory of Relativity adopts the theory of non-Euclidean geometry.)
| (Columbia University) New York City, New York, USA |
42 YBN
[10/08/1958 AD]
| 195) First fully internal (fully implantable) pacemaker.
| (Elema-Schnander) Sweden |
42 YBN
[11/14/1958 AD]
| 5535) Sidney Walter Fox (CE 1912-1998), US biochemist, and Kaoru Harada create amino acid polymers which they call "proteinoids".
(How is a proteinoid molecularly different from a protein?)
Fox and Harada publish this in the journal "Science" as "Thermal Copolymerization of Amino Acids to a Product Resembling Protein". They write: "Attempts to produce a true proteinoid from all of the common amino acids by concerted application of information now accumulated have yielded such materials. ... To prepare the proteinoid, 2.0 g of L-glutamic acid was heated for 1 hr in an oil bath at 170?C, and into this melt was stirred a finely ground mixture of 2.0 g of DL-aspartic acid with 1.0 g of an amino acid mixture used for microbial assay (5). The mixture was heated for 3 hr under a blanket of CO2 in the oil bath at 170?C. After being allowed to cool, the resultant glass was vigorously rubbed with 20 ml of water which converted the product to a granular precipitate. This was allowed to stand overnight and was then filtered and washed with 10 ml of water and 10 ml of ethanol. The solid was next washed by dialysis in a cellophane bag in an agitated water bath for 4 days. Yields, by weight, were usually much in excess of 15 percent. A chromatogram of a hydrolyzed sample of the clear soluble fraction. ...".
Fox will go on in 1959 to show how these proteinoids form tiny spheres with similar proterties to cells.
| (Florida State University) Tallahassee, Florida, USA |
42 YBN
[1958 AD]
| 6044) Léo Arnaud (CE 1904-1991) French-US composer, composes the famous "Bugler's Dream". (verify)
| Hollywood, California, USA (verify) |
41 YBN
[01/03/1959 AD]
| 5596) The Soviet ship "Luna 1" is the first ship to pass the moon.
Luna 1 is launched on January 2, 1959. On January 3rd, at a distance of 113,000 km from Earth, a large (1 kg) cloud of sodium gas is released by the spacecraft. This glowing orange trail of gas, visible over the Indian Ocean with the brightness of a sixth-magnitude star, allows astronomers to track the spacecraft. It also serves as an experiment on the behavior of gas in outer space. Luna 1 passes within 5995 km of the Moon's surface on January 4th after 34 hours of flight and then goes into orbit around the Sun, between the orbits of Earth and Mars.
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
41 YBN
[01/27/1959 AD]
| 5672) From the motion of the 3 pound Vanguard satellite, US Physicist John Aloysius O'Keefe (CE 1916-2000) determines that the earth is slightly pear shaped, because the southern half of the equatorial bulge is up to fifty feet farther from the center of the earth than the northern part, and that sea level at the North Pole is one hundred feet farther from the center than sea level at the South Pole is.
On 03/17/1958 the three-pound satellite Vanguard is launched into orbit. This satellite is sent high enough to avoid atmospheric friction and takes an orbit that persists for centuries. This satellite has a small radio transmitter powered by a solar battery which is the only instrument the satellite carries. This satellite will reveal data about the fine details of the earth's shape. Using the motion of this satellite, O'Keefe suggests that the underlying rock of earth's mantle is more rigid than thought because if liquid the earth's magnetic field would smooth this pear shape out.
As of 2003 the Vanguard 1 satellite is still in orbit. Eventually the earth and other planets are going to be swarmed with many millions of tiny orbiting ships - most which contain humans, robot, plants, and desirable objects.
(I have a lot of doubts about this claim. Perhaps these motions are the result of unsymmetrical gravitation fields around the earth, from the moon, other planets, the sun, the motion of liquid matter in the earth. There are many variables that I don't think can be easily simplified. There are also tiny variations from collisions with light and other particles.)
| |
41 YBN
[02/14/1959 AD]
| 5595) James Alfred Van Allen (CE 1914-2006), US physicist, measures the radiation around the earth to a distance of 107,400 km (66,732 miles) using two Geiger-Muller tubes in the spacecraft Pioneer 3, and discovers the existence of a second high intensity radiation belt outside of the first layer found in May 1958. These layers will come to be called the magnetosphere and the "Van Allen" radiation belts.
(read relevent parts of text)
The first Van Allen Radiation Belt begins about 1,300 miles above the surface of the earth and extends to about 3,000 miles. The outer Van Allen Radiation Belt begins at about 8,000 miles and extends to about 52,000 miles from the earth's surface.The radiation in the outer zone is thought to consist of charged particles temporarily trapped in the earth's magnetic field. It has been suggested that the radiation in the inner zone is caused by decay products of neutrons.
| (State University of Iowa) Iowa City, Iowa, USA |
41 YBN
[03/03/1959 AD]
| 5732) Philip Warren Anderson (CE 1923-), US physicist, extends the theory of superconductivity of Bardeen to include the effects introduced by the presence of impurities in the superconducting material.
In 1959 Anderson had developed a theory to explain "superexchange" – the coupling of spins of two magnetic atoms in a crystal through their interaction with a nonmagnetic atom located between them. Anderson goes on to develop the theoretical treatments of antiferromagnetics, ferroelectrics, and superconductors.
Anderson publishes this in the "Journal of Physics and Chemistry of Solids" as "Theory of dirty superconductors". For an abstract he writes: "A B.C.S. type of theory (see Bardeen, Cooper and Schreiffer, Phys. Rev.108, 1175 (1957)) is sketched for very dirty superconductors, where elastic scattering from physical and chemical impurities is large compared with the energy gap. This theory is based on pairing each one-electron state with its exact time reverse, a generalization of the k up, −k down pairing of the B.C.S. theory which is independent of such scattering. Such a theory has many qualitative and a few quantitative points of agreement with experiment, in particular with specific-heat data, energy-gap measurements, and transition-temperature versus impurity curves. Other types of pairing which have been suggested are not compatible with the existence of dirty superconductors.".
(I doubt the electron pairing theory. It seems unlikely that electrons would move in so organized a way. In addition, knowing that this comes from AT&T via Bell Labs implies dishonesty. Since AT&T has lied so much, not only about neuron reading and writing, but in their deceptive neuron writing onto excluded - if they did at some time tell a truth - how would anybody know it ... and would that not be an extreme exception to the rule by and of dishonesty of all prior times?)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
41 YBN
[04/??/1959 AD]
| 5787) Frank Donald Drake (CE 1930- ) US astronomer, searches for signals from life of other stars (Project Ozma).
Drake writes in his 1962 book "Intelligent Life In Space": "...At this very minute, with almost absolute certainty, radio waves sent forth by other intelligent civilizations are falling on the earth. A telescope can be built that, pointed in the right place, and tuned to the right frequency, could discover these waves. Someday, from somewhere out among the stars, will come the answers to many of the oldest, most important, and most exciting questions mankind has asked.".
(It seems clear that the neuron owners have analyzed every cubic meter for signals in the light particles - most of which must be frmo their many billions of neuron reading and writing, camera and microphone devices. There are definitely hints in papers - for example - I think - the first paper from Jansky at AT&T - or one of Jansky's papers - uses the phrase "signals from outer space" in a way that is suggestive of a signal from living objects of other stars. - Here in Drake's paper in "Physics Today" Drake uses the "...from the above discussion..." which implies that the neuron owners must be well aware of the system of globular cluster formation and our fate, if we are successful to build our own globular cluster - but like so many basic things - choose to keep secret to this day.)
| (National Radio Astronomy Observatory) Green Bank, West Virginia, USA |
41 YBN
[05/01/1959 AD]
| 5536) Sidney Walter Fox (CE 1912-1998), US biochemist, Kaoru Harada and Jean Kendrick create cell-like spheres by boiling proteinoids in sea water.
In 1958, Fox had found that amino acids subjected to heat become a protein-like polymer Fox calls a "proteinoid". Now Fox reports that when these proteinoids are dissolved in water, they form tiny spheres with similar properties to cells. Fox speculates that cells may be formed directly from amino acids.
Fox, Harada and Kendrick publish this in the journal "Science" as "Production of Spherules from Synthetic Proteinoid and Hot Water". They write: "Abstract. When hot saturated solutions of thermal copolymers containing the 18 common amino acids are allowed to cool, huge numbers of uniform, microscopic, relatively firm, and elastic spherules separate. The place of this phenomenon in a comprehensive theory of original thermal generation of primordial living units is considered. A comprehensive theory of the spontaneous origin of life at moderately elevated temperatures from a hypohydrous magma has been developed (I). The theory results from experiments which have yielded linked reactions in sequences akin to many in anabolism (I), materials which closely resemble protein in qualitative chemical composition and physical properties studied (2), and a biointe rmediate for nucleic acid, ureidosuccinic acid (3). The material with attributes of synthetic protein, proteinoid, is easily produced by employing sufficient excess of dicarboxylic amino acid in the thermal copolymerization of all of the common amino acids (2). Such products contain all of these same amino acids, are biuret-positive, can be salted in and subsequently salted out, reveal by endgroup assay mean chain weights of 3000 to 9000, and are split by proteinases and have other properties of natural proteins. New conceptual difficulties arise, however, when attempts are made to fit some of the conditions employed into a comprehensive theory of the origin of life. One such problem is that posed by the presumed coagulation of proteins in the first living organisms produced at elevated temperatures. The other is the general problem of understanding modulation from a primitive hypohydrous organic magma (1) to the predominantly aqueous entity which the first organism is assumed to have been. ... The entities obtained bear a relationship to cell models as previously reported (7) and to Oparin's coacervates (8). The mode of generation of the spherules from hot proteinoid and aqueous solutions in a thermal continuum, the properties of the units obtained, and the possible interpretations bearing on the origin of living cells are, however, significantly different. ... The experimental results as a whole are consistent with the total picture of thermal origins in a continuum (1-3). One inference derivable from these results is that spontaneous prebiological processes could have produced such enormous numbers of extensible cell-like membranes as to favor relatively the likelihood that some of these entities would also enclose enough spontaneously generated biochemical apparatus (1, 3) to permit replication in a sterile world.
(I think the molecular structure of the cell wall, shows that it is phospholipid in nature, so I think this proteinoid theory is probably not correct. But perhaps the phospholipid layer grew onto the proteinoid layer.)
| (Florida State University) Tallahassee, Florida, USA |
41 YBN
[07/17/1959 AD]
| 5327) Mary Leakey (CE 1913–1996) uncovers a fossil hominin (member of the human lineage) that is named "Zinjanthropus" (but it currently interpretted as a form of Paranthropus, similar to Australopithecus) thought to be about 1.7 million years old.
| Olduvai Gorge, Tanganyika Territory, Africa |
41 YBN
[07/22/1959 AD]
| 5489) Jacques-Yves Cousteau (KU STO) (CE 1910-1997), French oceanographer,, Emile Gagnon and others build a self-propelled submersible vessel, improving on the bathyscaphe.
| Paris, France |
41 YBN
[09/14/1959 AD]
| 5597) A ship from Earth, the Soviet "Luna 2", impacts the moon of Earth.
The moon is shown to have no significant magnetic field or radiation belts.
Luna 2 is the first spacecraft to land on the Moon. Luna 2 impacts the lunar surface east of Mare Serenitatis near the Aristides, Archimedes, and Autolycus craters. Luna 2 is similar in design to Luna 1, a spherical spacecraft with protruding antennae and instrument parts. The instrumentation is also similar, including scintillation- and geiger- counters, a magnetometer, and micrometeorite detectors. The spacecraft also carried Soviet pennants. There are no propulsion systems on Luna 2 itself.
After launch and attainment of escape velocity on September 12, 1959 (September 13 Moscow time), Luna 2 separates from its third stage, which travels along with it towards the Moon. On September 13 the spacecraft releases a bright orange cloud of sodium gas which helps in spacecraft tracking and acts as an experiment on the behavior of gas in space. On September 14, after 33.5 hours of flight, radio signals from Luna 2 abruptly cease indicating it has impacted on the Moon. The impact point, in the Palus Putredinus region, is roughly estimated to have occurred at 0 degrees longitude, 29.1 degrees N latitude. Some 30 minutes after Luna 2, the third stage of its rocket also impacted the Moon at an unknown location. This mission confirms that the Moon had no appreciable magnetic field, and finds no evidence of radiation belts around the Moon.
(The neuron network must have been filled with excitement and also the excluded too once they heard. It seems unusual that the Soviet group would not put electronic cameras on the ship given years of neuron reading and writing - perhaps they did and the images are still secret, or they viewed protecting the planetary micrometer electronic radio camera secret as more important than the possible information gained. It may be, and seems very likely, that there is a secret moon program that was started much earlier and, like the thought-screen has been kept secret for many decades. Public information and education is an extremely very low priority for wealthy leaders of the earth - it seems likely that most information is only accidentally or mistakenly released to the public and then usually only covers the most general details.)
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
41 YBN
[10/18/1959 AD]
| 5598) First pictures of the far-side of the moon of earth.
The Soviet ship Luna 3 returns the first images of the far-side of the moon of earth.
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
41 YBN
[11/05/1959 AD]
| 191) A device inside the body controlled remotely. An artificial heart pacemaker is remotely controlled with radio.
| (Yale University School of Medicine) New Haven, New Jersey, USA |
41 YBN
[11/??/1959 AD]
| 5767) Eugene Newman Parker (CE 1927- ), US physicist, predicts that charged particles are emitted by the sun in all direction following the lines of force of the sun's magnetic field. This will be verified by the Mariner 2 Venus probe in 1962. This phenomenon will come to be called the "solar wind" and is the reason the tails of comets point away from the sun, for charged particles in the magnetic fields of Earth and Jupiter, and for certain properties of the moon's surface (more specific), in addition to other phenomena.
(Are there other charged and uncharged particles emitted from the Sun? Perhaps neutrons, protons and mesons. Clearly light particles, as individual particles form the majority of particles emitting from stars.)
| (University of Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
41 YBN
[12/07/1959 AD]
| 5372) X-ray telescope made public.
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN
[01/23/1960 AD]
| 4992) Jacques Piccard (son of Auguste Piccard (PEKoR) (CE 1884-1962)) with Lt. Don Walsh, US Navy, set a new world record of 35,800 feet (6 3/4 miles 10.91km) below sea level, using Auguste Piccard's second bathyscape, the "Trieste", to descend to the ocean floor of the deepest known spot in the ocean, the Marianas Trench, in the Marianas Trench of the Pacific Ocean.
(Perhaps humans have already penetrated the ocean crust to a lower depth.)
| Marianas Trench of the Pacific Ocean |
40 YBN
[02/13/1960 AD]
| 5587) Structure of haemolglobin molecule determine by x-ray diffraction.
Max Ferdinand Perutz (CE 1914-2002), Austrian-British biochemist, as part of a team of six people determines the molecular structure of the haemoglobin molecule.
Perutz et al publish this in "Nature" as "Structure of Haemoglobin, Three-Dimensional Fourier Synthesis at 5-5 A. Resolution. Obtained by X-Ray Analysis". They write as an abstract: "Vertebrate haemoglobin is a protein of molecular weight 67,000. Four of its 10,000 atoms are iron atoms which are combined with protoporphyrin to form four haem groups. The remaining atoms are in four polypeptide chains of roughly equal size, which are identical in pairs. Their amino-acid sequence is still largely unknown. We have used horse oxy- or met-haemoglobin because it crystallizes in a form especially suited for X-ray analysis, and employed the method of isomorphous replacement with heavy atoms to determine the phase angles of the diffracted rays. The Fourier synthesis which we have calculated shows that haemoglobin consists of four sub-units in a tetrahedral array and that each sub-unit closely resembles Kendrew's model of sperm whale myoglobin. The four haem groups lie in separate pockets on the surface of the molecule.".
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
40 YBN
[03/09/1960 AD]
| 5774) Gravity shown to change the frequency of light (gravitational shift).
This phenomenon also implies that the speed of light is not constant as claimed by Einstein's two theories of relativity.
Cranshaw, Schiffer and Whitehead, at the Atomic Energy Research Establishment in Harwell England and independently Robert Vivian Pound (CE 1919–2010) and Glen Anderson Rebka, Jr. (CE 1931- ) at Harvard University in the USA, provide experimental evidence in favor of Einstein's 1911 claim that gravity changes the frequency of light. The Mössbauer effect, how atomic nuclei in a crystalline lattice cannot recoil because of the lattice, and so the nuclei can emit and absorb gamma radiation of the same exact frequency (resonantly), is used to show that the wavelength of a beam of photons with gamma wavelength is increased (or red-shifted) as the beam is sent from the top floor of a tower to the basement because of the stronger gravity field at the basement which is closer to the center of the earth. This change in wavelength is measured by the decrease in absorption of a crystal of the same kind as the crystal that emits the gamma rays.
In October 1959, Pound and Rebka had proposed to experimentally measure the gravitational redshift using the Mossbauer effect. A similar proposal is made a month later in November by Schiffer and Marshall.
In January 1960, Cranshaw, Schiffer, Whitehead, Hay, and Egelstaff are the first to report experimental results confirming the frequency shift of light by gravity. They publish two papers in "Physical Review Letters", the first titled "Measurement of the Gravitational Red Shift Using the Mössbauer Effect in Fe57". They write: " The change in the frequency of spectral lines with gravitational potential, generally referred to as the gravitational red shift, was first predicted by A. Einstein in 1907. The effect can be calculated from the time dilation in a gravitational potential which follows from the principle of equivalence. From the point of view of a single coordinate system two atomic systems at different gravitational potentials will have different total energies. The spacings of their energy levels, both atomic and nuclear, will be different in proportion to their total energies. The photons are then regarded as not changing their energy and the expected red shift results only from the difference in the gravitational potential energies of the emitting and absorbing systems. Astronomical observations, through somewhat ambiguous, have tended to confirm this effect. The recent discovery by Mossbauer of recoilless nuclear resonance absorption of gamma rays as a precise resonance process has suggested to several groups the possibility of using this effect to measure the gravitational red shift. More specifically the discovery that Fe57 could absorb 14.4-kev gamma rays in a resonance whose width is approximately 6.4 x 10-13 of the gamma-ray energy, has made this experiment a practical possibility. We have performed this experiment using a total difference in height of 12.5 meters. A source of Co57 of approximately 30 millicuries was electrodeposited on the surface of an iron disk ... This disk was mounted on a transducer device ... The transducer was driven sinusoidally at 50 cps and counts were recorded in two scalars for alternate halves of the cycle... Ideally one would move the source with a constant velocity up and down, with the precise optimum value of the velocity determined by the measured width of the absorption curve and the amount of absorption. ... ...A total of 250 hours of counting yielded a ratio which differed from unity by 3.75 x 10-4... Thus we observed 0.96 +- 0.45 times the expected shift in the energy of the gamma rays. this implies that the probability of the gravitational red shift being zero is 0.017. ...".
Pound and Rebka publish this in March 1960, "Physical Review Letters" as "Apparent Weight of Photons". They write: " As we proposed a few months ago, we have now measured the effect, originally hypothesized by Einstein, of gravitational potential on the apparent frequency of electromagnetic radiation by using the sharply defined energy of recoil-free γ rays emitted and absorbed in solids, as discovered by Mossbauer. We have already reported a detailed study of the shape and width of the line obtained at room temperature for the 14.4-kev, 0.1-microsecond level in Fe57. Particular attention was paid to finding the conditions required to obtain a narrow line. We found that the line had a Lorentzian shape with a fractional full-width at half-height of 1.13 x 10-12 when the source was carefully prepared according to a prescription developed from experience. ... The basic elements of the apparatus finally developed to measure the gravitational shift in frequency were a carefully prepared source containing 9,4 curie of 270-day Co57, and a carefully prepared, rigidly supported, iron film absorber. ... The required stable vertical baseline was conveniently obtained in the enclosed, isolated tower of the Jefferson Physical Laboratory. A statistical argument suggests that the precision of a measurement of the gravitational frequency shift should be independent of the height. ...Our net operating baseline of 74 feet required only conveniently realizable control over these sources of error. The absorption of the 14.4-kev γ ray by air in the path was reduced by running a 16-in diameter, cylindrical, Mylar bag with thin end windows and filled with helium through most of the distance between source and absorber. To sweep out small amounts of air diffusing into the bag, the helium was kept flowing through it at a rate of about 30 liters/hr. The over-all experiment is described by the block diagram of Fig. 1. The source was moved sinusoidally by either a ferroelectric of a moving coil magnetic transducer. During the quarter of the modulation cycle centered about the time of maximum velocity the pulses from the scintillation spectrometer, adjusted to select the 14.4-kev γ-ray line, were fed into one scaler while, during the opposite quarter cycle, they were fed into another. The difference in counts recorded was a measure of the asymmetry in, or frequency-shift between, the emission and absorption lines. As a precaution the relative phase of the gating pulses and the sinusoidal modulation were displayed continuously. The data were found to be insensitive to phase changes much larger than the drifts of phase observed. A completely duplicate system of electronics, controlled by the same gating pulses, recorded data from a counter having a 1-in diameter 0.015-in. thick NaI(Tl) scintillation crystal covered by an absorber similar to the main absorber. This absorber and crystal unit was mounted to see the source from only three feet away. ... The relation between the counting rate difference and relative frequency shifts between the emission and absorption lines was measured directly by adding a Doppler shift several times the size of the gravitational shift to the emission line. The necessary constant velocity was introduced by coupling a hydraulic cylinder of large bore carrying the transducer and source to a master cylinder of small bore connected to a rack-and-pinion driven by a clock. Combining data from two periods having Doppler shifts of equal magnitude, but opposite sign, allowed measurement of both sensitivity and relative frequency shift. Because no sacrifice of valuable data resulted, the sensitivity was calibrated about 1/3 of the operating time which was as often as convenient without recording the data automatically. in this way we were able to eliminate errors due to drifts in sensitivity such as would be anticipated from gain or discriminator drift, changed in background, or changes in modulation swing. ... Data typical of those collected are shown in Table I. The right-hand column is the data after correction for temperature difference. All data are expressed as fractional frequency shift x 1015. The difference of the shift seen with γ rays rising and that with γ rays falling should be the result of gravity. The average for the two directions of travel should measure an effective shift of other origin, and this is about four times the differece between the shifts. We confirmed that this shift was an inherent property of the particular combination of source and absorber by measuring the shift for each absorber unit in turn, with temperature correction, when it was six inches from the source. Although this test was not exact because only about half the area of each absorber was involved, the weighted mean shift from this test for the combination of all absorber units agreed well with that observed in the main experiment. The individual fractional frequency shifts foudn for these, for the monitor absorber, as well as for a 11.7-mg/cm2 Armco iron foil, are displayed in Table II. The considerable variation among them is as striking as the size of the weighted mean shift. ... Recently Cranshaw, Schiffer, and Whitehead claimed to have measured the gravitational shift using the γ ray of Fe57. They state that they believe their 43% statistical uncertainty represents the major error. Two much larger sources of error apparently have not been considered: (1) the temperature difference between the source and absorber, and (2) the frequency difference inherent in a given combination of source and absorber. ... ... Our experience shows that no conclusion can be drawn from the experiment of Cranshaw et al. ... ...The shift observed agrees with -4.92 x 10-15, the predicted gravitational shift for this "two-way" heigh difference. Expressed in this unit, the result is
(dv)exp/(dv)theor = + 1.05 +- 0.10,
where the plus sign indicates that the frequency increases in falling, as expected. these data were collected in about 10 days of operation. We expect to continue counting with some improvements in sensitivity, and to reduce the statistical uncertainly about fourfold. With our present experimental arrangement this should result in a comparable reduction in error in the measurement since we believe we can take adequate steps to avoid systematic errors on the resulting scale. A higher baseline or possible a narrower γ ray would seem to be required to extend the precision by a factor much larger than this. ...".
Pound and Rebka cite Eintein's 1911 paper as being the first claim of gravitational frequency shift, but Cranshaw, Schiffer and Whitehead site Einstein's 1907 paper.
Some people mistakenly claim that this is a confirmation of the theory of relativity, but I think this argues for the material and particle nature of light which is in disagreement with the General theory of Relativity in its current form. Pound and Rebka make no mention of the Theory of Special or General Relativity but simply state that they have "...measured the effect originally hypothesized by Einstein, of gravitational potential on the apparent frequency of electromagnetic radiation...". (Determine if the effect of gravity on light has been hypothesized before - in particular in the 1700-1800s when the corpuscular view of light was still popular.)
Other earlier, famous claims of "proof" of relativity were the explanation of the rotation of Mercury's perihelion first identified by Leverrier, the bending of light measured by Eddington at the eclipse of 1919, and the red shift of light of a white dwarf star as measured by W. S. Adams.
This change in frequency of light without any apparent particle collision implies that the velocity of light is not constant - since there is no other obstruction that could be delaying the red shifted light beam (or increasing the velocity of the blue shifted beam). An alternative is the "all-inertial" universe, or "all-particle collision" universe, where gravity is explained as the result of particle collision, and in this view the velocity of light can be constant, but collisions with the particles that cause the effect of gravity cause more or less delay because of collision.
(Note that Pound and Rebka conclude that "...the frequency increases with falling, as expected...". But my modeling shows that, because gravity accelerates particles, the frequency is made slower because those closer to the larger gravity source are pulled forward - but blue-shifted after passing because the gravity source pulls them back and the spacing between particles is made less. Einstein states that light moving from Sun to earth is red shifted. The effect of the gravity of the Sun may be of importance being much stronger than the gravity of earth. Determine the force of gravity from the Sun at the surface of the earth.)
(Notice, that this result is not compared to other theories - in particular the light as a material particle theory - that is, with Newton's corpuscular theory of light, which also would indicate that photons, being matter, would increase velocity from an increased gravitational field. If the wavelength is changed, clearly the distance between light particles is changed, and aside from any particle collisions, this can only be due to a changing velocity of light particles.)
(Determine if Doppler shift can be used to measure exactly how much shift is produced by gravity for both blue and red shifting.) (I think this is one of the strongest confirmations that the red-shift of light from stars is probably not because of an expanding universe, but is perhaps because of the way gravity changes the velocity of photons (which may result from the gravity of the Sun), in addition to the fact that light from a more distant light source must make a wider angle with a grating to produce the same frequency of light as light from a closer light source.)
(EXPERIMENT: Perform the Michelson-Morley experiment, but split the light beam to go in one direction horizontal relative to the earth, and in the other vertical into the earth. The time of detection should be different for the same lengths. Try this with various particle beams. Try over a much deeper depth. In a vacuum is going to be best. Is there some way of using this to measure the gravitational constant and the mass of a light particle? Did Michelson ever test in the up-down dimension?)
(Here is clearly a red-shift of light, on earth, that is not due to an expanding universe, so everybody must accept, that like the Raman effect, and the truth about the Bragg grating angle, there are at least 3 ways known and experimentally proven that result in a red-shift of light that have nothing to do with Doppler shift, or an expanding universe.)
(There is clearly a phenomenon of many people, in particular, probably those who own and operate neuron writing devices, of trying to force the acceptance of the theory of relativity, which includes the theory that light is massless, that space-time is non-euclidean, that time and space can dilate and contract as first supposed by FitzGerald and Lorentz, without any concern for truth or a deliberate rejection of the public knowing the actual truth of light as a material particle and the basis of all matter.)
( Show the actual math of how wavelength is calculated to be increased according to the tensor equations.)
(Quantum physics should be adapted to view light as a material particle with beams of photons represented as particle beams without amplitude instead of sine waves. In addition, a particle-collision only universe should be examined as a possible explanation of gravitation. Relativity should be changed to a non-Euclidean space-time, without space or time dilation or contraction.)
(Perhaps one method is to add a time variable to the Plank equation and number of particles. The number of electrons to number of light particles (photrons) can be identified, that is a photron to electron ratio for each material and how each quantity effects voltage and current.)
(Clearly gravity can red and blue shift light. From the perspective of the center of the earth, material particle beams with regular interval are red shifted, but from the surface, material particle beams are blue shifted. As a beam of particles approaches a large material object, like a star, the frequency becomes red shifted from the perspective of an observer near the star, but because the gravity of the star pulls back on the particles that have passed the star, the light leaving a large object is blue shifted from the perspective of the outer star system.)
(Interesting and unusual that there is no Nobel prize awarded for this find.)
(Notice in Pound and Rebka's paper "fourfold" and "steps" which implies there was a violent conflict to publish this experiment that tends to show light as a material particle with potentially a variable velocity - and steps for perhaps going public with walking robots.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN
[04/19/1960 AD]
| 5665) Herbert Friedman (CE 1916-2000), US astronomer, captures x-ray photograph of the Sun.
(read from paper?) (see also for more history)
In 1963 rocket experiments by Rossi show the presence of X-ray sources other than the sun. After this astronomers identify many X-ray stars, and are theorized to be “neutron stars”, super-dense objects made of neutrons in contact so that all the mass of a star like the sun can be condensed into a sphere with a diameter of only a few miles.
(I have doubts about neutron stars, these are clearly different from white-dwarfs. What is the theory about how neutron stars form? Since the sun emits X-rays, don't most stars? Why the need for a neutron star? Perhaps they emit much more, but then, they may just be very hot, very large stars.)
(State how this photograph was retrieved, or captured and transmitted if electronic.)
| (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
40 YBN
[04/22/1960 AD]
| 5768) The laser.
| (Hughes Research Laboratories) Malibu, California |
40 YBN
[04/??/1960 AD]
| 5073) Herbert Dingle (CE 1890–1978) identifies flaws in Einstein's theory of relativity, and the FitzGerald-Lorentz theory of space and time dilation and gives the first public explanation of spectral lines shifting as a result of the angle of incidence individual light beams make with a grating changing with distance of light source.
(verify portrait)
(Give more specifics about Dingle's arguments".)
Dingle appears to give a similar possible interpretation of the shift of spectral calcium absorption lines that I do, that the angle of incidence of each beam of light changes as the light source distance changes. Dingle writes: "... One simple but quite final consideration shows starkly the inapplicability of spectrum characteristics directly to kinematical problems. A beam of monochromatic light falls normally on a diffraction grating at rest with respect to the source of light. The first-order spectrum appears at an angle 0 with the normal, and if d is the grating-space, the quantity dsin6 is the same for all gratings while the source of light remains unchanged. We denote it by A, and call it the "wave-length" of the light. We divide it into c, the velocity of light, and call the resulting quantity v, the "frequency" of the light, and by inference ascribe this frequency to the "atomic clock" from which the light proceeds. But now let the grating move towards the light with velocity V. The spectrum then appears at an angle 0' to the normal. By the same token we must now say that the wave-length has changed to dsin6', and the frequency by a corresponding amount, since we regard c as constant. But the
light has not changed at all, as a colleague who remains behind can verify. Nor has the grating-space changed, for it is measured in a direction perpendicular to the direction of motion and, whatever view we may hold about the effect of motion on linear dimensions, we cannot suppose it to operate here. ...".
(This effect of spectral lines is easily observed {see vlog for 01/02/2011}, simply hold your eye at a constant distance to a plastic film hobby "diffraction grating" and move your head and the grating forward and backward while looking at the lines from a fluorescent light source - see how the lines move in the closer the light source, and spread out the farther the light source is.)
| (University of London) London, England |
40 YBN
[06/29/1960 AD]
| 5681) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, synthesizes chlorophyll.
Chlorophyll is the plant pigment Calvin had worked out the function of in the previous decade.
Woodward and team publish this in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society" as "THE TOTAL SYNTHESIS OF CHLOROPHYLL". They write: "Sir: The chemical study of the ubiquitous green pigment of the plant world, chlorophyll a, was initiated with the classical investigations of Willstatter just after the turn of the century. The subsequent researches of Stoll and of Conant, and the massive contributions of the Munich school, were crowned by the proposal of a complete structure in 1940 by Hans Fischer. With the addition of stereochemical and other definitive detail during the last few years by Linstead and the Imperial College school, the structural investigations had culminated in the expression I. We now wish to record the total synthesis of chlorophyll a, by methods which confirm the structure I in every respect. ...".
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN
[07/05/1960 AD]
| 5775) Ivar Giaever (CE 1929- ), Norwegian-US physicist, uses superconductivity, an electromagnetic field, and the Esaki tunneling effect to provide evidence for BCS theory of superconductivity by Bardeen, Cooper, and Schrieffer.
Giaever publishes this in "Physical Review Letters" as "Energy Gap in Superconductors Measured by Electron Tunneling". He writes: " If a potential difference is applied to two metals separated by a thin insulating film, a current will flow because of the ability of electrons to penetrate a potential barrier. The fact that for low fields the tunnerling current is proportional to the applied volrage suggested that low-coltage tunneling experiments could reveal something of the electronic structure of superconductors. Aluminum/aluminum oxide/lead sandwiches were prepared by vapor-depositing aluminum on glass slides in vacuum, oxidizing the aluminum in air for a few minutes at room temperature, and then vapor-depositing lead over the aluminum oxide. The oxide layer separating aluminum and lead is thought to be about 15-20A thick. At liquid helium temperature, in the presence of a magnetic field applied parallel to the film and sufficiently strong to keep the lead in the normal state, the tunne; current is linear in the voltage. However, when the magnetic field is removed, and lead becomes superconducting, the tunnel current is very much reduced at low voltages as shown in Fig. 1. There is no influence of polarity, identical results being obtained with both directions of current flow. The slope dI/dV of the curve in Fig. 1 where H=0, T=1.6°K, divided by dI/dV for normal lead, is plotted in Fig. 2. On the naive picture that tunneling is proportional to density of states, this curve expresses the density of states in superconducting lead relative to the density of state when lead is in its normal state, as a function of energy measured from the Fermi energy. It seems clear that the density of states at the Fermi level is drastically changed when a metal becomes a superconductor, the change being symmetric with respect to the Fermi lecel. The curve resembles the Bardeen-Cooper-Schrieffer density of states for quasi-particle excitations. There is a broadening of the peak that decreases with decreasing temperature. ...".
(Looking at the graph - the turning on and off of the electromagnetic field is not clearly indicated - and that, in my view, must have some effect that is independent of superconductivity. Why the magnetic field use at all? Then look at the lack of any difference between 3 and 4, one with no superconductivity and the other with presumably, and then 5 - but no 6- 6 being the slope of current to voltage at T=1.6K with the magnetic field and no superconductivity. It seems to me that there may be no large effect at all whether the magnetic field is on or off, or whether the Pb is superconducting or not - other than an effect of temperature which is unusual because with decrease of temperature resistence is supposed to be less in particular in a superconductor - but here it is more.)
(I think that possibly this decrease in current with the removal of an em field, lowering of temperature and with a superconductive state, if true, could be due to particles in the em field creating electron channels that are closed when the field is removed. This may be an effort to boost up some fraudulent theory by claiming to find experimental evidence - or a method to try and get published by supporting some important theorist who can open the proper channels to being published - and from the theorist's perspective it is just somebody who finally sees the truth of my theory. Then add the dimension that BCS is AT&T and let the worshipping never cease. Some people might think it unusual to try and boost up some inaccurate or unproven theory, but this is a common tradition in science on earth - how "the experiment proves the earlier theory of ...{insert promoinent mathematical abstractional theorist like Einstein, Dirac, Pauli, Maxwell, etc.}..." but then to see that for all the respect to earlier published scientists, there is a distinct disrespect for honesty, integrity and the simple truth. The name "Fermi" is apparently one of the gold-keys of theory of the 1900s - a simple mention of Fermi is sure to guarantee being published and accepted.)
| (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
40 YBN
[08/12/1960 AD]
| 5485) Echo, the first passive communication satellite is launched. Stations on the surface of Earth send and receive data from Echo 1A, a mylar polyester balloon satellite.
"Sputnik 1" the first human-made (artificial) satellite was launched October 4, 1957.
The public story is that John Robinson Pierce (CE 1910-2002), US electrical engineer for AT&T persuades the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to convert a mylar balloon into a radio-light reflector. Echo I is an mylar balloon 100 feet in diameter that is inflated after reaching its orbit. Echo I serves as a reflector for radio waves. Echo I is launched on August 12, 1960. Pierce at AT&T, successfully communicates with Echo I. This public test provides the basis for publicly developing Telstar, a satellite designed to amplify signals from one Earth station and relay the signals back to another Earth station.These early satellites mark the beginning of efficient plantery image, sound and other data (radio, television, internet) communication. Satellites also capture and transmit magnified images of the surface of earth.
RCA provides the radar beacon antenna for incorporation on the Echo spheres.
The Echo 1 spacecraft is designed as a passive communications reflector for transcontinental and intercontinental telephone (voice), radio, and television signals. Echo 1 has 107.9-MHz transmitters. These transmitters are powered by five nickel-cadmium batteries that are charged by 70 solar cells mounted on the balloon. Echo 1 re-enters the atmosphere on May 24, 1968.
The Echo program is responsible for the first voice communication via satellite is made by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and the first coast-to-coast telephone call using a satellite.
A few minutes after launch, the balloon inflates. At 7:41 a.m., still on its first orbit, Echo 1 relays its first message, reflecting a radio signal sent from California to Bell Labs in New Jersey. The radio signal is a recorded audio message which says: "This is President Eisenhower speaking, this is one more significant step in the United States' program of space research and exploration being carried forward for peaceful purposes. The satellite balloon, which has reflected these words, may be used freely by any nation for similar experiments in its own interest." After the presidential message, NASA uses the balloon to transmit two way telephone conversations between the east and west coasts. Then a signal is transmitted from the United States to France and another is sent in the opposite direction. During the first two weeks, the strength of the signal bounced off Echo I remains within one decibel of Langley's theoretical calculations.
In November 1958, Pierce and Kompfner had published an article entitled "Transoceanic Communication by Means of Satellites" in which they wrote: "Summar y-The existence of artificial earth satellites and of very low-noise maser amplifiers makes microwave links using spherical satellites as passive reflectors seem an interesting alternative to cable or tropospheric scatter for broad-band transatlantic communication. A satellite in a polar orbit at a height of 3000 miles would be mutually visible from Newfoundland and the Hebrides for 22.0 per cent of the time and would be over 7.250 above the horizon at each point for 17.7 per cent of the time. Out of 24 such satellites, some would be mutually visible over 7.25° above the horizon 99 per cent of the time. With 100-foot diameter spheres, 150-foot diameter antennas, and a noise temperature of 200K, 85 kw at 2000 mc or 9.5 kw at 6000 mc, could provide a 5-mc base band with a 40-db signal-to-noise ratio. The same system of satellites could be used to provide further communication at other frequencies or over other paths
I. INTRODUCTION THE time will certainly come when we shall need a great increase in transoceanic electroniic communications. For example, the United States and Western Europe have a wide commiiunity of interests and are bound to demand more and more communiicatioin facilities across the Atlantic. If we are to be ready to fill these growing needs, we shall have to investigate all promisinig possi'bilities. In doing so, we shall certainly want to keep in mind a rule founded on experience. This rule is that telephone circuits become cheaper the more of themii we can hanidle in one bundle. Then, too, there is the possibility of requirements for television. In either case, there is a premium on availability of wide bands of frequency. The submarine cable art is presently distinctly limited in bandwidth. No doubt its capability in this respect will improve as the years go by, but we nmay well run inlto economic or techniical restrictionis not suffered by other techniques. ...
to achieve an effective low-noise ternperature will require much competent anid painstaking experimentati on. Considerable development work is already in progress on masers and paramietric amplifiers. Not so much has been done on tying them inl with a particular communication system. E. Tracking of Satellites Satellites move in smooth, regular orbits, predictable with high precision. This makes it attractive to think of using computers, anialog or digital, for the purpose of steering anterninas on them. The alterniative method employs a tracking radar. For relatively small antennas, or in case only a feed systenm has to move, the tracking radar may have a separate antenniia, and the communication antennia be "slav ed" to the radar. With large antennias, which may distort, sag, or twist as they are slewed about or in the presence of high winds, it might be necessary to make the radar output and input integral with the communication feed system in order to point the antenna accurately despite distortions with respect to the mounting and drive. Similar considerations also apply to the Doppler-shift of the reflected radiation, which can be computed beforehand, or which can be derived instantaneously from the radar data. The results of the research on propagation effects will affect solutions to the tracking problems. Any satellite communication system iinvolving very large antennias at microwave frequencies will depend entirely oni anl accurate and dependable tracking system such as probably has never been built before. VIII. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The subject matter of this paper has been discussed with many people, and the authors have greatly beniefited from their comments. Where possible, individual acknowledgment has been made.". (Notice "keep in mind", "slaved", and many other neuron keywords.)
(Probably this launch of Echo 1 is all part of a "second story" which is the public story- how the public learns about technology. This public story is in many cases, and perhaps even most cases, shockingly far behind the actual technology is use on earth. For example, in the case of the satellite "Echo I"- the first satellite was probably launched in the 1800s - given that Jean Perrin writes about "dust" and "thought" - clearly a reference to microscopic neuron writers in 1909. Probably the number one excuse given to justify the secrecy is to have a military advantage over other nations and peoples. There simply is no limit to how strongly people feel about keeping technological advances to themselves away from people they don't trust and worry would abuse advanced and powerful technology.)
(Note that "echo" is a neuron keyword, because humans many times unknowingly repeat audio sent to their ear, and imitate images sent to their retinal neurons. In this way, many humans can be steered or be used as puppets to echo the audio and image that those who control neuron writing want them to deliver.)
(State gas used to fill balloon.)
| (Launchpad 17) Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA |
40 YBN
[09/01/1960 AD]
| 5512) Luis Walter Alvarez (CE 1911-1988), US physicist, find the first "strange resonance", the YI*.
In his Nobel prize speech Alvarez gives the history of the resonance particle theory stating: in 1936 Cassen and Condon had theorized about an "isotopic spin formalism", and in 1952 Anderson, Fermi and their collaborators at Chicago find the pion-nucleon resonance. The so-called "I-spin" invariable can explain certain ratios of reaction cross sections, if the resonance, predicted earlier by Pauli and Dancoff were in the 3/2 isotopic spin state, and had an angular momentum of 3/2. This new "3,3-resonance" of Anderson, Fermi, et al, is the first of the "new particles" to be discovered.
Alvarez describes the finding of the YI* in his Nobel lecture writing: "The peaks seen in Fig. 14 were thus a proof that the p± recoiled against a combinatio n of il +z r that had a unique mass, broadened by the effects of the uncertainty principle. The mass of the,& combination was easily calculable as 1385 MeV, and the I-spin of the system was obviously 1, since the I-spin of the (1 is 0, and the I-spin of the p is 1. This was then the discovery of the first « strange resonance », the Y,* (1385): Although the famous Fermi 3,3- resonance had been known for years, and although other resonances in the p- nucleon system had since shown up in total cross-section experiments at Brookhaven and Berkeley, CalTech and Cornell, the impact of the Y,* resonance on the thinking of particle physicists was quite different - the Y,* really acted like a new particle, and not simply as a resonance in a cross section. We announced the Y,” at the 1960 Rochester High Energy Physics Conference , and the hunt for more short-lived particles began in earnest. The same team from our bubble- chamber group that had found the Y, * (1385) now found two other strange resonances before the end of 1960 - the K* (890), and the Y,*(1405).".
The Encyclopedia Britannica describes resonance as: "in particle physics, an extremely short-lived phenomenon associated with subatomic particles called hadrons that decay via the strong nuclear force. This force is so powerful that it allows resonances to exist only for the amount of time it takes light to cross each such "object." A resonance occurs when the net energy of the colliding subatomic particles is just enough to produce its rest mass, which the strong force then causes to disintegrate within 10-23 second.".
Asimov explains this by stating that using a very large version of Glaser's bubble chamber, Alvarez detects extremely short-lived "resonance particles". There are many of these particles and their existence will lead to the theories of Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne'eman.
Mauro Dardo, explains in his book "Nobel laureates and twentieth-century physics", writting: "The term 'resonance' is commonly used in physics when a system absorbs energy with a maximum degree of efficiency. In high=energy physics, a 'resonance particle' means a system of particles which are grouped together for an ultra-short time span (of the order of one-hundred-thousand-billion-billionth of a second), due to the effect of the strong nuclear force (which is so powerful that it takes this very short time to be transmitted across the resonance itself). Then the resonance breaks down into particles, owing to the fact that the phenomenon is possible from an energy point of view. In spite of its ultra-short lifetime, a resonance has a mass, a spin and other quantum numbers, just as all particles do, so as to permit physicists to treat it as a real individual entity. Due to its extremely short lifetime, there is no way of observing a resonance directly. The distance traversed by such a particle system between the point at which it is created and the point at which it breaks down is too short (some hundred-billionths of a millimetre), so that its track cannot be recorded in any detector. Physicists have then used alternative techniques for studying a resonance particle. By counting and analysing its breakdown products the existence of a resonance can be deduced, and its properties revealed. Another way is that of increasing the energy of the interacting particles; a resonance occurs when the energy is just enough to produce its mass. (At this particular value of the energy, a sharp increase in the frequency of the particle interactions is clearly apparent.) During the 1960s dozens of resonances had been discovered. How could they fit into the list of particles which were already known? At first physicists tried to explain most of them as excited states of low-energy hadrons. Later, the American theorist Murray Gell-Mann (Nobel 1969) proposed the 'quark model' ... In this way a totally new light was shed on resonances.".
(Give more specifics, what are the masses, charges, names, of these particles? )
(I have a lot of doubts about this claim of "resonance states", in particular because it originates from Alvarez whose entire work is suspect from his being an accessory to the murder of John Kennedy. In addition, the only papers I can find on this are very abstract and make no effort to explain in a way that is understandable to an average person - even somebody proficient in the history of particle physics. I think it could be the result of years of corrupted inaccurate theories being accepted - and the lies accumulate to so large an extent, that it's difficult to keep track of all the false claims and later false claims that accumulated from that original false claim - in this case - nuclear forces with exchange particles without physically explaining how they pull two particles together or apart, and the theory that mass and motion can be exchanged, that mass changes with velocity, etc.- all these things must cause an AT&T neuron insider to chuckle as the public scratches their heads and spends years thinking about, and trying to follow and understand what the AT&T neuron insider knows is purely false and has been falsely believed by the neuron outsiders for centuries in some cases.)
(I think that perhaps there is some phenomenon here, but that it is simply very poorly explained. But I have a lot of doubt, in particular, knowing that much of this particle collision work is done, presuming motion and matter are interchangible - I can only imagine what kind of inaccurate beliefs that has created - one for example is probably Fermi's neutrino theory - but probably there are many others. Clearly mass is conserved and motion is conserved and perhaps some valid conclusions can be drawn from examinations of particle tracks knowing this, but it seems clear that much mass and motion must not be detected being in the form of light particles that are emitted or reabsorbed in other particles - much of this particle physics seems to me to be really shuffling different grains of sand around and labelling apparently unique occurances.)
(At the 1960s High Energy Physics conference in Rochester, there are apparently no reports on any accelerated particles more massive than a proton, even though Lawrence's cyclotron of 1930 allows any mass of positive ion to be accelerated. The entire focus is on subatomic particles, perhaps as a result of some kind of government and/or neuron prohibition on public large-mass-ion nuclear fusion experiments- even if only to show that they fail to fuse with other atoms which seems unlikely to me. That these particles cannot be observed adds more doubt. Then to think that there is some radically different grouping of light particles with special properties seems unlikely- although clearly structurally fitting composite particles and those that do not fit together must exist as is that case for the proton and electron. Then if based on the theory of a strong nuclear force - I think that alone is enough to dismiss any associated theory as probably doubtful.)
(Find the paper that originates the theory of extremely short-lived intermediate particles, if any exists. I can't find any. It may be that this theory of extremely shortly "resonance particles" was created without being formally published and explained. The thought-images would probably shed more light on the thinking and theoretical images behind the resonance particle theory.)
(Notice that even as late as the 1960s people in physics are using photographs as opposed to electroni images - all this while thought-images have been recorded for probably over 150 years.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
40 YBN
[09/09/1960 AD]
| 5747) US physicist Sheldon Lee Glashow (CE 1932- ) creates a theory unifying the supposed weak and electromagnetic interactions ("electro-weak" theory).
This work is independent of the electro-weak unifying theories of US physicist Steven Weinberg (CE 1933- ) in 1967, and Pakistani-British physicist, Abdus Salam (CE 1926-1996) in 1964.
Glashow publishes this in "Nuclear Physics", as "Partial-symmetries of weak interactions". As an abstract Glashow writes "Abstract: Weak and electromagnetic interactions of the leptons are examined under the hypothesis that the weak interactions are mediated by vector bosons. With only an isotopic triplet of leptons coupled to a triplet of vector bosons (two charged decay-intermediaries and the photon) the ±heory possesses no partial-symmetries. Such symmetries may be established if addition vector bosons or additional leptons are introduced. Since the latter possibility yields a theory disagreeing with experiment, the simplest partialIy-symmetric model reproducing the observed electromagnetic and weak interactions of leptons reqnires the existence of at least four vector-boson fields (including the photon). Corresponding partially-conserved quantities suggest leptonic analogues to the conserved quantities associated with strong interactions: strangeness and isobaric spin.".
(Given that these three people probably were receivers of direct-to-brain(TM) windows, what can that mean for these works? Were they excluded and unaware of neuron windows? Were they aware of the obvious idea that all matter is made of particles of light? Were they aware of d-to-b windows, but tried to work around the truths known about science within the neuron net? Was there work some kind of neuron-paid-for work to mislead the public or move the excluded farther away from thinking science and the universe is simple and understandable?)
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
40 YBN
[09/09/1960 AD]
| 5748) US physicist Steven Weinberg (CE 1933- ) creates a theory unifying the supposed weak and electromagnetic interactions ("electro-weak" theory).
This work is independent of the electro-weak unifying theories of Sheldon Lee Glashow (CE 1932- ) in 1961, and Pakistani-British physicist, Abdus Salam (CE 1926-1996) in 1964.
Weinberg publishes this in "Physical Review Letters" as "A Model of Leptons". Weinberg writes: "Leptons interact only with photons, and with the intermediate bosons that presumably mediate weak interactions. What could be more natural than the unite these spin-one bosons into a multiplet of guage fields? Standing in the way of this synthesis are the obvious differences in the masses of the photon and intermediate meson, and in their couplings. We might hope to understand these differences by imagining that the symmetries relating the weak and electromagnetic interactions are exact symmetries of the Lagrangian but are broken by the vacuum. However, this raises the specter of unwanted massless Goldstone bosons. This note will describe a model in which the symmetry between the electromagnetic and weak interactions is spontaneously broken, but in which the Goldston bosons are avoided by introducing the photon and the intermediate-boson fields as guage fields. The model may be renormalizable. ...
..Of course our model has too many arbitrary features for these predictions to be taken very seriously, but it is worth keeping in mind that the standard calculation of the electron-neutrino cross section may well be wrong. Is this model renormalizable? We usually do not expect non-Abelian guage theories to be renormalizable if the vector-meson mass is not zero, but out Zmu and Wmu mesons get their mass from the spontaneous breaking of the symmetry, not from a mass term put in at the beginning. Indeed, the model Lagrangian we start from is probably renormalizable, so the question is whether this renormalizablility is lost in the reordering of the perturbation theory implied by our redefinition of the fields. And if this model is renormalizable, then what happen when we extend it to include the couplings of Amu and Bmu to the hadrons? ...".
According to dicionary.com: A lepton is any of a family of elementary particles that interact through the weak force and do not participate in the strong force. Leptons include electrons, muons, tau particles, and their respective neutrinos, the electron neutrino, the muon neutrino, and the tau neutrino. The antiparticles of these six particles are also leptons. Leptons are compared with hadrons which are any elementary particle that is subject to the strong interaction. Hadrons are subdivided into baryons and mesons. Hadrons are composed of a combination of two or more quarks or antiquarks. Quarks (and antiquarks) of different colors are held together in hadrons by the strong nuclear force.
(Notice "worth keeping in mind", which implies a person who knows about neuron reading and writing and probably a consumer of neuron windows.)
(It seems clear that any theory of time or space dilation or contraction, or non-Euclidean space-time, light as non-particle, or massless, can be thrown out as very unlikely and a waste of precious time- in particular in our main goals as a species - which I think are building a globular cluster, developing the moons and planets of this and other stars, building walking robots to do as much of the manual labor as possible, teach humans the history of evolution, science and the future, about remote neuron reading and writing, promoting the ideal sof full democracy, full free info, stopping violence, tolerating nonviolence, and to seek intellectual and physical pleasure.)
(I doubt that a "weak" interaction exists - and then that it could be unified with a light-particle interaction which produces electromagnetism. All the mesons have to be made of light particles. The unification of all matter is, in my view, based on the light particle. In this view light particles cannot be created or destroyed, and all matter is made of light particles. In this view composite particles simply decay because of particle collision or particle escape, and this may happen in a variety of ways, many of which may be common or characteristic of each composite particle. I honestly, doubt Lagrangian functions, integers or derivatives are going to produce an accurate model of composite particles, but perhaps. Probably simply all-particle collision models are more useful. Perhaps large scale phenomena can be generalized - as the inverse distance law may generalize the many particle collisions that result in the effect of gravity.)
(Weinberg starts this paper stating that "Leptons interact only with photons and with intermediate bosons." This seems unlikely to me - in particular if all matter is made of light particles, I dobut there is any restriction on any particle collisions.)
(State when the words "lepton" and "hadron" were created.)
Glashow and Weinberg are classmates at the Bronx high School of Science and as undergraduates at Cornell university.
In 1979, the Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded jointly to Sheldon Lee Glashow, Abdus Salam and Steven Weinberg "for their contributions to the theory of the unified weak and electromagnetic interaction between elementary particles, including, inter alia, the prediction of the weak neutral current".
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
40 YBN
[09/15/1960 AD]
| 5798) Carl Sagan (SAGeN) (CE 1934-1996) theorizes that the high surface temperature of planet Venus is because visible light collides with the surface, increasing its temperature, but infrared light emitted by the surface is absorbed in the gas of the atmosphere of Venus and so does not easily escape to space.
Sagan publishes this in a technical report titled "The Radiation Balance of Venus" and also in the March issue of the journal "Science" as "The Planet Venus". Sagan writes: "...The alternative explanation is that the surface of Venus is at 600?K, or perhaps at a somewhat higher tempera? ture if allowance is made for phase effects and for the possibility that the surface emissivity differs from unity. Molecular absorption and particle scat? tering would decrease the apparent temperatures in the millimeter region. The 8-millimeter phase effect would then be attributable to a condensable or sublimable cloud layer, which, if analogous to terrestrial clouds, is trans? parent at centimeter wavelengths but has a nonzero opacity in the millimeter region. In the illuminated hemisphere it must be supposed that cloud vaporization increases, and the attenuation of emission from the surface declines. However, the existence of such high surface temperatures must be explained before this model is acceptable. The radiation temperature of an airless planet with the albedo and distance from the sun of Venus is about 250 ?K, if the period of rotation is a few weeks. The high surface temperature must be due to a very efficient greenhouse effect: Visible radiation strikes the sur? face and increases its temperature, but the infrared radiation emitted by the surface does not readily escape to space, because of atrnospheric absorp? tion. If the atmosphere is assumed to be in convective equilibrium below the effective reflecting layer in the 8000 angstrom bands, there are 18 km-atm of carbon dioxide above the surface; however, this is still insufrleient by many orders of magnitude for produc? ing the required greenhouse effect (35). Absorption is required in the region between 20 and 40 microns, and the only likely molecule which absorbs in this wavelength interval is water. The requisite total abundance of water vapor in the Cytherean atmosphere is between 1 and 10 grams per square centimeter; saturation and ice-crystal cloud formation occur at the thermo? couple temperature of the Cytherean cloud layer and give approximately the balloon water-vapor abundance above the clouds (35). Despite an absolute water-vapor abundance of the same order as the earth's, the surface tem? perature is so high that the relative humidity would be about 10~3 percent. On the other hand, if the surface tem? perature were 350?K, a total abundance of about 0.1 gram per square centi? meter would be required for the green? house effect; saturation and ice-crystal cloud formation would occur at about 195?K, and it would follow that the clouds are not composed of water, and that the balloon spectroscopy results (9) are incorrect. Thus if the visible cloud layer is condensible or sublim? able, the ionosphere model of the origin of the microwave emission becomes untenable. Oniy with surface tempera? tures of about 600 ?K or greater can the requisite greenhouse effect be explained consistently. The Venus overcast is high, not because the cloud bank is very thick, but because breaks in the clouds are very rare. There is no possibility of precipitation reaching the surface; precipitation is always vaporized in the hot lower atmosphere, and ice crystal? lization occurs again at the cloud layer. From the equations of radiation balance it follows that 1 km-atm of carbon dioxide is sufficient to raise the ambient temperature some 30?K in the absence of other absorbing gases (35). Since 1 km-atm is the abundance of carbon dioxide above the effective reflecting level in the 8000-angstrom bands, the temperature at that level should be raised about 30?K above the radiation temperature, or to approx? imately 280?K. This is in excellent agreement with the rotational tempera? ture for the same bands, 285 ? 9?K (39). The argument also provides strong evidence that the 8000-ang? strom bands originate from below the visible cloud layer; otherwise the green? house effect would raise the cloud temperature to approximately 280?K. ... But it is conceivable that these problems can be solved, and that the microbiological re-engineering of Venus will become possible. Such a step should be taken only after the present Cytherean en? vironment has been thoroughly explored, to prevent the irreparable loss of unique scientific information. It might be advisable to find suitable con? trols for the algae, because in the ab? sence of predators and competitors the algae might reproduce at a geometric rate and the entire conversion of carbon dioxide would then be accomplished in relatively short periods of time. Ideally, we can envisage the seeding of the upper Cytherean atmosphere with appropriate strains of Nostocaceae after exhaustive studies have been per? formed on the existing environment of Venus. As the carbon dioxide content of the atmosphere fails, the greenhouse effect is rendered less efflcient and the surface temperature fails. After the atrnosphe ric temperatures decline sufficiently, the decreasing rate of algal decomposition will reduce the water abundance slightly and permit the sur? face to cool below the boiling point of water. At this time, the original mech? anism becomes inoperative, because the algae are no longer thermally decomposed, but now surface photosynthesis becomes possible. At somewhat lower temperatures, rain will reach the sur? face, and the Urey equilibrium will be initiated, further reducing the atrnos? pheric content of carbon dioxide to terrestrial values. With a few centi? meters of precipitable water in the air, surface temperatures somewhere near room temperature, a breathable atmos? phere, and terrestrial microfiora awaiting the next ecological succession, Ve? nus will have become a much less forbidding environment than it appears to be at present. Hopefully, by that time we will know with more certainty whether to send a paleobotanist, a min? eralogist, a petroleum geologist, or a deep-sea diver (47).".
(There must be some equilibrium of light particles absorbed to light particles emitted, because otherwise the temperature would continue to increase.)
| (Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
40 YBN
[09/16/1960 AD]
| 5652) H. M. Goldenberg, D. Kleppner, and N. F. Ramsey create an atomic hydrogen maser.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
40 YBN
[09/??/1960 AD]
| 5707) Peter Dennis Mitchell (CE 1920-1992), English chemist, provides a theory of how electron-transport phosphorylation (how adp is converted back to atp) in which hydrogen ions (H+, protons) and Hydroxy ions (OH-) are exchanged through a mitochondrion membrane.
Mitchell shows how enzymes involved in the conversion of adenosine diphosphate into adenosine triphosphate are attached to the membrane of the mitochondrion in a way that causes them to act as an efficient chain of linked buckets (bucket brigade) for hydrogen ions.
Mitchell describes this theory in the "Biochemical Journal" as "Chemiosmotic Coupling in Oxidative and Photosynthetic Phosphorylation". He writes: " The concept of group translocation-the vectorial movement of chemical groups during group transfer (Mitchell, 1957, 1959)-leads to the idea that the chemical reactions catalysed by two enzymes that translocate a common component will be coupled osmotically when this component through a closed osmotic feature, such as a membrane- limited compartment (Mitchell & Moyle 1958a, b). Although this type of conception is latent in work on ion transport and respiration (see Robertso n, 1960), the translocation feature of chemiosmotic coupling has made it elusive to explicit description in the scalar idiom of biochemistry. The author proposes, therefore, to defi ne explicitly a chemiosmotic hypothesis of electron- transport phosphorylation (Mitchell, 1960), as a basis for extension or disproof. (i) Electron transfer, driven by oxido-reduction or photons, occurs vectorially across a membrane, separating aqueous phases A and B. (ii) Process (i) effectively generates H+ in A and OH- in B. (iii) The membrane is relatively impermeable to ions, but may allow exchange (Using, 1947) of H+ and/or OH- against ions of equivalent and like charge. The skew of {H+} ({} denoting electrochemical activity) therefore shows as a pH difference (pHB_,A) plus a membrane potential (mv,A-B). Approximately, {Hf}A/{H+}B = 1OPHB-A X 10-vA-B/60 e-(work per electron translocated/kT) (iv) The membrane contains an anisotropic adenosine triphosphatase system (phosphateaccepting active centre, E) catalysing the reaction: phosphate +ADP =ATP + H+ + OH-. (v) E communicates rapidly with OH of A and H+ of B, but slowly with H+ of A, OH- of B, and H20 of A and B. Consequently, {ULSF: See paper} {H2O}A or B > {H2O}E > ({H2O}A or B X {H+}B)/{H+}A, when {H+}B/{H+}A < 1. The inequalities of (iii) and (v) depend upon 'leakiness' and show as uncoupling. The H+ differential, generated by electron translocation, dehydrates phosphate +ADP (or other acidic acceptor) by withdrawing OE and H+ from phosphorylium and acidic acceptor respectively along different, chemically specific, translocation paths in the adenosine triphosphatase system. Using (iii), (v), and equilibrium constant data (Atkinson, Johnson & Morton, 1959): at 10 mm-inorganic phosphate, {ATP}/{ADP} would be about unity if, for example, A were 2 pH units below and 300 mv above B, and the system were well coupled. The accepted maximum P/O quotients are consistent with the chemiosmotic coupling hypothesis. This hypothesis explicitly recognizes the vectorial character of the catalysis and so can account directly for the uncoupling effect of substances or treatments that homogenize or loosen the catalytic system.".
(Show visually.)
(Mitchell's language in describing this theoretical process is somewhat hard to understand. Explain more clearly.)
| (University of Edinburgh) Edinburgh, Scotland, U.K. |
40 YBN
[10/24/1960 AD]
| 5415) US chemist, Lyman Creighton Craig (CE 1906-1974), and his colleagues isolate and purify parathormone, the active molecule of the parathyroid gland.
(Verify that this is the correct paper.)
(read relevent parts of paper.) (Note paper received on October 24 - possibly day relating to secret neuron reading and writing history. Could be coincidence, keyword "suggested".)
| (Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research) New York City, New York, USA |
40 YBN
[12/28/1960 AD]
| 5705) French biologist, François Jacob (ZoKoB) (CE 1920-), and French biochemist, Jacques Lucien Monod (mOnO) (CE 1910-1976), identify "messenger RNA" and regulatory genes ("operons") the system that regulates protein synthesis in the cell.
The operon theory is first proposed by the Jacob and Monod in their classic paper, which describes the regulatory mechanism of the lac operon of Escherichia coli, a system that allows the bacterium to repress the production of enzymes involved in lactose metabolism when lactose is not available.
In the "Journal of Molecular Biology", Jacob and Monod publish an article in English titled "Genetic Regulatory Mechanisms in the Synthesis of Proteins". They write as an abstract: "The synthesis of enzymes in bacteria follows a double genetic control. The so-called structural genes determine the molecular organization of the proteins. Other, functionally specialized, genetic determinants, called regulator and operator genes, control the rate of protein synthesis through the intermediacy of cytoplasmic components or repressors. The repressors can be either inactivated (induction) or activated (repression) by certain specific metabolites. This system of regulation appears to operate directly at the level of the synthesis by the gene of a shortlived intermediate, or messenger, which becomes associated with the ribosomes where protein synthesis takes place.". In the paper they write: 1. Introduction According to its most widely accepted modern connotation, the word "gene" designates a DNA molecule whose specific self-replicating structure can, through mechanisms unknown, become translated into the specific structure of a polypeptide chain. This concept of the "structural gene" accounts for the multiplicity, specificity and genetic stability of protein structures, and it implies that such structures are not controlled by environmental conditions or agents. It has been known for a long time, however, that the synthesis of individual proteins may be provoked or suppressed within a cell, under the influence of specific external agents, and more generally that the relative rates at which different proteins are synthesized may be profoundly altered, depending on external conditions. Moreover, it is evident from the study of many such effects that their operation is absolutely essential to the survival of the cell. It has been suggested in the past that these effects might result from, and testify to, complementary contributions of genes on the one hand, and some chemical factors on the other in determining the final structure of proteins. This view, which contradicts at least partially the" structural gene" hypothesis, has found as yet no experimental support, and in the present paper we shall have occasion to consider briefly some of this negative evidence. Taking, at least provisionally, the structural gene hypothesis in its strictest form, let us assume that the DNA message contained within a gene is both necessary and sufficient to define the structure of a protein. The elective effects of agents other than the structural gene itself in promoting or suppressing the synthesis of a protein must then be described as operations which control the rate of transfer of structural information from gene to protein. Since it seems to be est ablished that proteins are synthesized in the cytoplasm, rather than directly at the genetic level, t his t ransfer of structural information must involve a chemical intermediate synthesized by the genes. This hypothetical intermediate we shall call the structural messenger. The rate of information transfer , i.e. of protein synthesis, may then depend either upon the activity of the gene in synthesizing the messenger, or upon the activity of the messenger in synthesizing the protein. This simple picture helps to state the two problems with which we shall be concerned in the present paper. If a given agent specifically alters, positively or negatively, the rate of synthesis of a protein, we must ask: (a) Whether the agent acts at the cytoplasmic level, by controlling the activity of the messenger, or at the genetic level, by controlling the synt hesis of the messenger. (b) Whether the specificity of the effect depends upon some feature of the information transferred from structural gene to protein, or upon some specialized controlling element, not represented in the structure of the protein, gene or messenger. ... 6. Conclusion A convenient method of summarizing the conclusions derived in the preceding sections of this paper will be to organize them into a model designed to embody the main elements which we were led to recognize as playing a specific role in the control of protein synthesis; namely, the structural, regulator and operator genes, the operon, and the cytoplasmic repressor. Such a model could be as follows: The molecular structure of proteins is determined by specific elements, the structural genes. These act by forming a cytoplasmic "transcript" of themselves, the structural messenger, which in turn synthesizes the protein. The synthesis of the messenger by the structural gene is a sequential replicative process, which can be initiated only at certain points on the DNA strand, and the cytoplasmic transcription of several, linked. structural genes may depend upon a single initiating point or operator. The genes whose activity is thus co-ordinated form an operon. The operator tends to combine (by virtue of possessing a particular base sequence) specifically and reversibly with a certain (RNA) fraction possessing the proper (complementary) sequence. This combination blocks the initiation of cytoplasmic transcription and therefore the formation of the messenger by the structural genes in the whole operon. The specific "repressor" (RNA~), acting with a given operator, is synthesized by a regulator gene. The repressor in certain systems (inducible enzyme systems) tends to combine specifically with certain specific small molecules. The combined repressor has no affinity for the operator, and the combination therefore results in activation of the operon. In other systems (repressible enzyme systems) the repressor by itself is inactive (i.e. it has no affinity for the operator) and is activated only by combining with certain specific small molecules. The combination therefore leads to inhibition of the operon. The structural messenger is an unstable molecule, which is destroyed in the process of information transfer. The rate of messenger synthesis, therefore, in turn controls the rate of protein synthesis. This model was meant to summarize and express conveniently the properties of the different factors which playa specific role in the control of protein synthesis. In order concretely to represent the functions of these different factors, we have had to introduce some purely speculative assumptions. Let us clearly discriminate the experimentally established conclusions from the speculations: (1) The most firmly grounded of these conclusions is the existence of regulator genes, which control the rate of information-transfer from struct'ural genes to proteins, without contributing any information to the proteins themselves. Let us briefly recall the evidence on this point: mutations in the structural gene, which are reflected as alterations of the protein, do not alter the regulatory mechanism. Mutations that alter the regulatory mechanism do not alter the protein and do not map in the struct ural genes. Structural genes obey the one-gene one-protein principle, while regulator genes may affect the synthesis of several different proteins. (2) That the regulator gene acts via a specific cytoplasmic substance whose effect is to inhibit the expression of the structural genes, is equally clearly established by the trans effect of the gene, by the different properties exhibited by genetically identical zygotes depending upon the origin of their cytoplasm, and by the fact that absence of the regulator gene, or of its product, results in uncontrolled synthesis of the protein at maximum rates. (3) That the product of the regulator gene acts directly as a repressor (rather than indirectly, as antagonist of an endogenous inducer or other activator) is proved in the case of the Lac system (and of the , lysogenic systems) by the properties of the dominant mutants of the regulator. (4) The chemical identification of the repressor as an RNA fraction is a logical assumption based only on the negative evidence which indicates that it is not a protein. (5) The existence of an operator, defined as the site of action of the repressor, is deduced from the existence and specificity of action of the repressor. The identification of the operator with the genetic segment which controls sensitivity to the repressor, is strongly suggested by the observation that a single operator gene may control the expression of several adjacentstructuralgenes, that is to say, by the demonstration of the operon as a co-ordinated unit of genetic expression. The assumption that the operator represents an initiating point for the cytoplasmic transcription of several structural genes is a pure speculation, meant only as an illustration of the fact that the operator controls an integral property of the group of linked genes which form an operon. There is at present no evidence on which to base any assumption on the molecular mechanisms of the operator. (6) The assumptions made regarding the interaction of the repressor with inducers or co-repressors are among the weakest and vaguest in the model. The idea that specific coupling of inducers to the repressor could result in inactivation of the repressor appears reasonable enough, but it raises a difficulty which we have already pointed out. Since this reaction between repressor and inducer must be stereospecific (for both) it should presumably require a specific enzyme; yet no evidence, genetic or biochemical, has been found for such an enzyme. (7) The property attributed to the structural messenger of being an unstable intermediate is one of the most specific and novel implications of this scheme; it is required, let us recall, by the kinetics of induction, once the assumption is made that the control systems operate at the genetic level. This leads to a new concept of the mechanism of information transfer, where the protein synthesizing centers (ribosomes) play the role of non-specific constituents which can synthesize different proteins, according to specific instructions which they receive from the genes through M-RNA. The already fairly impressive body of evidence, kinetic and analytical, which supports this new interpretation of information transfer, is of great interest in itself, even if some of the other assumptions included in the scheme turn out to be incorrect. These conclusions apply strictly to the bacterial systems from which they were derived; but the fact that adaptive enzyme systems of both types (inducible and repressible) and phage systems appear to obey the same fundamental mechanisms of control, involving the same essential elements, argues strongly for the generality of what may be called "repressive genetic regulation" of protein synthesis. One is led to wonder whether all or most structural genes (i.e. the synthesis of most proteins) are submitted to repressive regulation. In bacteria, virtually all the enzyme systems which have been adequately studied have proved sensitive to inductive or repressive effects. The old idea that such effects are characteristic only of "nonessential" enzymes is certainly incorrect (although, of course, these effects can be detected only under conditions, natural or artificial, such that the system under study is at least partially non-essential (gratuitous). The results of mutations which abolish the control (such as constitutive mutations) illustrate its physiological importance. Constitutive mutants of the lactose system synthesize 6 to 7% of all their proteins as ,8-galactosidase. In constitutive mutants of the phosphatase system, 5 to 6% of the total protein is phosphatase. Similar figures have been obtained with other constitutive mutants. It is clear that the cells could not survive the breakdown of more than two or three of the control systems which keep in pace the synthesis of enzyme proteins. The occurrence of inductive and repressive effects in tissues of higher organisms has been observed in many instances, although it has not proved possible so far to analyse any of these systems in detail (the main difficulty being the creation of controlled conditions of gratuity). It has repeatedly been pointed out that enzymatic adaptation, as studied in micro-organisms, offers a valuable model for the interpretation of biochemical co-ordination within tissues and between organs in higher organisms. The demonstration that adaptive effects in micro-organisms are primarily negative (repressive), that they are controlled by functionally specialized genes and operate at the genetic level, would seem greatly to widen the possibilities of interpretation. The fundamental problem of chemical physiology and of embryology is to understand why tissue cells do not all express, all the time, all the potentialities inherent in their genome. The survival of the organism requires that many, and, in some tissues most, of these potentialities be unexpressed, that is to say repressed: Malignancy is adequately described as a breakdown of one or several growth controlling systems, and the genetic origin of this breakdown can hardly be doubted. According to the strictly structural concept, the genome is considered as a mosaic of independent molecular blue-prints for the building of individual cellular constituents. In the execution of these plans, however, co-ordination is evidently of absolute survival value. The discovery of regulator and operator genes, and of repressive regulation of the activity of structural genes, reveals that the genome contains not only a series of blue-prints, but a co-ordinated program of protein synthesis and the means of controlling its execution.".
So Jacob and Monod propose the existence of "messenger-RNA" that carry the DNA blueprint from the nucleus to Palade's ribosomes which are the site of protein assembly in the cytoplasm.
Without regulator genes DNA would continuously produce proteins which are not needed. Jacob and Monod find that in a normal cell the balance between regulator and structural genes enables the cell to adapt to varying conditions. An interruption in this balance, can stimulate the production of new enzymes that can prove either beneficial or destructive to the cell. For example, E. coli can use either glucose or other sugars such as the disaccharide lactose as the only source of carbon and energy. When E. coli cells are grown in a glucose-containing medium, the activity of the enzymes needed to metabolize lactose is very low. When these cells are switched to a medium containing lactose but no glucose, the activities of the lactose-metabolizing enzymes increase. Early studies show that the increase in the activity of these enzymes results from the synthesis of new enzyme molecules, a phenomenon termed induction. The enzymes induced in the presence of lactose are encoded by the lac operon, which includes two genes, Z and Y, that are required for metabolism of lactose and a third gene, A. (Determine if Jacob and Monod recognized that this transfer molecule is RNA.)
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
40 YBN
[12/30/1960 AD]
| 5654) Javan, Bennett and Herriott create a Helium-Neon (gas discharge) maser.
The authors claim in their paper that "... The He-Ne mixture described above is the first gaseous system which has led to maser oscillations at optical frequencies. ...".
(Read relevent parts of paper) (This raises the issue of: are masers and lasers actually just materials which emit regular frequencies of light particles when subjected to an electric potential? - for example like the piezo-electric effect, a simple gas in a CRT tube, and the LED effect.)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
40 YBN
[12/30/1960 AD]
| 5769) Javan, Bennett, and Herriott build the first gas laser (using helium and neon).
Ali Javan , William R. Bennett jr and D. R. Herriott publish this in "Physical Review Letters" as "Population Inversion and Continuous Optical Maser Oscillation in a Gas Discharge Containing a He-Ne Mixture".
(Get photo for Herriot, and birth-death dates for all three.)
(Determine how much more intense a helium and neon laser is than a helium and neon light bulb. Are the two very different?)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
40 YBN
[12/??/1960 AD]
| 5412) Harry Hammond Hess (CE 1906-1969), US geologist, proposes the "seafloor spreading hypothesis" which explains how continents can move without breaking apart, the formation of Guyots, and why ocean floor sediments are no older than the Cretaceous period.
Hess presents evidence that the Atlantic seabed is spreading, building on the findings of Ewing. This sea-floor spreading will be important to the theory of plate tectonics.
In December 1960 Hess, in a preprint, proposes his seafloor-spreading hypothesis. This name is given to Hess’s hypothesis by Robert Dietz, a US earth scientist who publishes the first article on seafloor spreading in 1961 with knowledge of Hess' preprint, one year before Hess’s version is published. With this hypothesis Hess supports the theory of continental driftrealizing that this can explain how to move the continents through the seafloor without having them break up. Hess proposes that the continents do not plow their way through the seafloor, as Alfred Wegener, the German earth scientist had suggested during the 1920s, but are carried passively atop the spreading seafloor. Arthur Holmes, one of the leading British earth scientists of the twentieth century, proposed a hypothesis of ocean basin formation that was a forerunner of Hess’s seafloor spreading in the 1930’s. The central aspect of Hess’s hypothesis is the solution to the origin and development of midocean ridges. This theory can explain how layer 3 of oceanic crust forms. This theory also explains guyot formation and explains why no sediments on the ocean floor are older than the Cretaceous period. Hess claims that young midocean ridges are located on upward-moving convection currents and are the sites for generation of new seafloor. The midocean ridges are where layer 3 of the oceanic crust, composed of serpentinized peridotite, is created and this is the place where the peridotite is serpentinized.
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
40 YBN
[1960 AD]
| 5685) (Sir) John Warcup Cornforth (CE 1917-), Australian-British chemist, describes the steps involved in the biosynthesis of cholesterol from acetic acid.
In 1951 the US chemist Robert Woodward had synthesized the important steroid, cholesterol. Cornforth is interested in how cholesterol is actually synthesized in the cell. Using labeled isotopes of hydrogen, Cornforth traces in considerable detail the chemical steps used to form the C27H45OH molecule of cholesterol from the initial CH3COOH of acetic acid.
Cornforth investigates enzymes that catalyze change in carbon (organic) compounds (substrates) by replacing hydrogen atoms in a substrate’s chains and rings with radioactive hydrogen atoms. An enzyme attaches to a substrate and when they separate the substrate has been chemically changed. In his syntheses and descriptions of the structure of various terpenes, olefins, and steroids, Cornforth determines specifically which cluster of hydrogen atoms in a substrate is replaced by an enzyme to cause a given change in the substrate. This allows Cornforth to detail the biosynthesis of cholesterol which is an exceptionally complex molecule.
(More info, which enzyme-substrates- show graphically)
| (National Institute for Medical Research) Mill Hill, London, UK |
39 YBN
[02/13/1961 AD]
| 5741) Yuval Ne'eman (CE 1925-2006), Israeli physicist, and independently Murray Gell-Mann (CE 1929- ) US physicist, create a method of grouping particles into logical families ("The Eight-Fold Way").
In 1961 Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne’eman, an Israeli theoretical physicist, independently proposed a scheme for classifying previously discovered strongly interacting particles into a simple, orderly arrangement of families. Called the Eightfold Way (after Buddha’s Eightfold Path to Enlightenment and bliss), the scheme grouped mesons and baryons (e.g., protons and neutrons) into multiplets of 1, 8, 10, or 27 members on the basis of various properties. All particles in the same multiplet are to be thought of as variant states of the same basic particle. Gell-Mann speculates certain properties of known particles can be explained by creating new even more fundamental particles, or building blocks. Gell-Mann will call these new particles "quarks" (after a phrase from "Finnegans Wake" by James Joyce). These particles carry fractional electric charges which is unheard of before this time. One of the early successes of Gell-Mann’s quark hypothesis is the prediction and subsequent discovery of the omega-minus particle (1964). Over the years, research yields other findings that lead to the wide acceptance and elaboration of the quark concept. Quarks are now considered to be fundamental particles.
Ne'eman and Gell-Mann groups the many mesons, nucleons and hyperons (all together named "hadrons") according to certain fixed rules (the "Eight-Fold Way"). Gell-Mann then predicts the existence of as of yet unidentified particles with specific properties, one of these new particles which Gell-Mann calls an "omega-minus" particle will be detected in 1964. To account for these particle families, Gell-Mann postulates
Ne'eman creates this work while earning a Ph.D. at the University of London.
Baryons are a proton, neutron, or any elementary particle that decays into a set of particles that includes a proton. Bosons are any of a class of elementary or composite particles, including the photon, pion, and gluon, that are not subject to the Pauli exclusion principle (that is, any two bosons can potentially be in the same quantum state). The value of the spin of a boson is always an integer, including having no spin. Mesons are bosons, as are the gauge bosons (the particles that mediate the fundamental forces). They are named after the physicist Satyendra Nath Bose. (Notice this explanation refers to a photon as an individual particle, which I think is not the original or technical definition.) Fermions are any particle that obeys the exclusion principle and Fermi-Dirac statistics; fermions have spins that are half an odd integer: 1/2, 3/2, 5/2 ,...
Ne'eman publishes this in the journal "Nuclear Physics" as "Derivation of strong interactions from a gauge invariance". He writes as an abstract: "A representation for the baryons and bosons is suggested, based on the Lie algebra of the 3-dimensional traceless matrices. This enables us to generate the strong interactions from a gauge invariance principle, involving 8 vector bosons. Some connections with the electromagnetic and weak interactions are further discussed.". In this paper Ne'eman writes: "Following Yang and Mills 1), two new theories deriving the strong interactions from a gauge invariance principle have been published lately, by Sakurai 3) and by Salam and Ward 3). Sakurai's treatment is based on three separate gauges -- isospin, hypercharge and baryonic charge -- unrelated from the point of view of group-theory; Salam and Ward postulate one unified gauge, an 8-dimensional rotation gauge, combining isospin and hypercharge through Tiomno's 4) representation. One important advantage of the latter theory is the emergency of Yukawalike terms, allowing for the production of single z or K mesons. Such terms do not arise normally from the boson-currents, and it is through the reintroduction of the a scalar isoscalar meson 5), and the assumption that it has a non vanishing vacuum expectation value, that they now appear in ref. 3). On the other hand, boson-current terms with no a factor then lead to weak interactions, as it is the creation and re-absorption of these ~ mesons that generates the strong coupling. A 9-dimensional version, with a gauge based on restricted rotations, involves 13 vector bosons, of which only seven mediate the strong interactio ns; the remainder would generate weak interactions -- though no way has been found to induce parity non conservation into these without affecting the strong interactions as well. The seven vector bosons of the strong interactions look like a K set and a ~ set; in Sakurai's theory they are replaced by a ~ set and two singlets. The following treatment is an attempt to formulate a unified gauge, while reducing the number of vector bosons. It does, indeed, generate a set of 8 mediating fields, seven of which are similar to the above seven, the eighth is rather like Sakurai’s B, singlet. Still, one important factor is missed, namely, there is no room for the 0 meson, and thus there are no single-pion terms. To minimise the number of parameters of the gauge, and thus the number of vector bosons it will generate, we have adopted the following method: we abandoned the usual procedure of describing fields as vector components in a Euclidean isospace, and replace it by a matrix-algebra manifold. Fields still form vectorial sets only in the space of the group operators themselves, invariance of the Lagrangians being achieved by taking the traces of product matrices. We have also abandoned rotations and use a group first investigated by Ikeda, Ogawa and Ohnuki 6) in connection with the construction of bound states in the Sakata model. Our present use of this group is in an entirely different context, as our assumptions with regard to the representation of the fermions do not follow the prescriptions of the model. 2. Matrix Formalism We use an g-dimensional linear vector space P spanned by the semisimple Lie algebra of the 3 x 3 matrices Xi, of ref. 6). We have excluded the identity transformation and use as basis the 8 linearly independent ui E U given by the following formulae: ... the indices a and /? denoting the matrix elements. The Xi9 are hermitian, whereas the basis matrices ui are not, with the exception of u7 and ~8, both diagonal. U can contain only two linearly independent diagonal elements, and the 2- dimensional sub-space P, C P spanned by the set of all diagonal elements can be represented by a real Euclidean 2-space. In this a-space, u7 and us are orthogonal: not only do they commute with each other, as any (u’, , u”) = 0 for ufdr u”~ C Pd ; each also commutes with a 3-rotation consrructed by taking the other as an M,. ... ... 4. Discussion The fermion and boson interaction Lagrangians provide us with the full set of known strong interactions (plus the ~0, set) through the current-current-like 2nd order terms but with no Yukawa-like simple processes for pi or K. ... I am indebted to Prof. A. Salam for discussions on this problem. In fact, when I presented this paper to him, he showed me a study he had done on the unitary theory of the Sakata model, treated as a gauge, and thus producing a similar set of vector bosons 9). Shortly after the present paper was written, a further version, utilizing the 8-representation for baryons, as in this paper, reached us in a preprint by Prof. M. Gell Mann.". (read more of the paper?)
Gell-Mann publishes this as a DOE technical report titled "The Eightfold Way: A Theory of Strong interaction Symmetry" in March 1961. Gell-Mann writes: "We attempt once more, as in the global symmetry scheme, to treat the eight lrnown baryons as a supermultipl-et, degenerate in the limit of a certain symmetry but split into isotopic spin m u l t i - _- _- _ - - - I -- plets by a symmetry-breaking term. Here we do not t r y to describe the symtnetry violation in detail, but we ascribe it phenomenologically r----__ _ ^ . _ ^ _ _ _ - I---- ' to the mass differences themselves, supposing that there is some analogy t o the p-e mass difference. ________ __^_. I .---- The symmetry is called unitary symmetry and corresponds to _- the "unitary group" in three dimensions in the same way that charge independence corresponds to the "unitarj group" in two dimensions. i l The eight infinitesimal generators of the group form a simple Lie ( algebra, just like the three components of isotopic spin. III Ln this important sense, unitary symmetry is the simplest generalization of chwge independence. <' ) The baryons then correspond naturally to an eight-dimensional irreducible representation of %he group; when the mass differences are turned on, the f a m i l i a r multiplets appear. "he pion and K meson f i t into a similar set of eight particles, along with a predicted pseudoscalar meson Z having I = 0. The pattern of Yulcawa couplings of JI, K and X is then nearly determined, in the limit of unitary symmetry.The most attractive feature of the scheme is that it permits the description of eight vector mesons by a unified theory of the A Yang-Mills type (with a mass term). Like Sakurai, we have a t r i p l e t ?of vector mesons coupled to the isotopic spin current and a singlet vector meson do coupled to the hypercharge current. pair of doublets M and E, strange vector mesons coupled to strangenesschanging currents that are conserved when the mass differences are turned off. There is only one coupling constant, in the symmetric l i m i t , for the system of eight vector mesons. There is some experi- We also have a
' I " / 1 ,
mental, evidence for the existence of 0' and 14, while e is presumably the famous I = 1, J = 1, x-x resonance. A ninth vector meson coupled to the baryon current can be /'( accommodated naturally in the scheme. / The most important prediction is the qualitative one that the /' eight baryons should all have the same spin and parity and that the $< "' pseudosc alar and vector mesons should- form "octets", with possible additional "singlets" . If the synmetry is not too badly broken in the case of the renormalized coupling constants of the eight vector mesons, then numerous detailed predictions can be made of e,uperimental results. The mathematics of the unitary group is described by considering three fictitious "leptons", v , e-, and p-, which may or may not have something to do with real leptons. If there is a connection, then it may throw light on the structure of the weak interactions .I Introduction It has seemed likely for many years that the strongly interacting particles, grouped as they are into isotopic multiplets, would show traces of a higher symmetry that is somehow broken. symmetry, the eight familiar baryons would be degenerate and form a supermultiplet. would s p l i t apart, leaving inviolate only the conservation of isotopic spin,of strangeness, and of baryons. partially broken by electromagnetism and the second is broken by the weak interactions. Only the conservation of baryons and of electric charge are absolute . ...An attempt "*) to incorprate these ideas in a concrete model was the scheme of "global symmetrj", in trIiich the higher symmetry. was valid for the interactions of the J meson, but broken by those of the K. The m s s differences of the baryons were thus attributed to the K couplings, the symmetry of which vas unspecified, and the strength of which was supposed to be significantv less than that of the d couplings The theory of global symmetry has not had great success in predicting experimental results. Also, it has a number of defects. The peculiar distribution of isotopic multiplets among the observed mesons and baryons is l e f t unexplained. (which arc not really particularly weak) bring in several adjustable constants. Furthermore, as admitted in Reference 1 and reemphasized recently by Salrurai 334) in his remarkable articles predicting vector The arbitrary I< couplings (which arc not really particularly weak) bring in several adjustable constants. Furthermore, as admitted in Reference 1 and reemphasized recently by Salrurai 334) in his remarkable articles predicting vector mesons, the global model makes no direct connection between physical couplings and the currents of the conserved symmetry operators. ,-.- In place of global symmetry, we introduce here a new model of 1 i the higher symmetry of elementary particles which has none of these faults and a number of virtues. -1 We note that the isotopic spin group is the same as the group of a11 unitary 2x2 matrices with unit determinant. matrices can be written as exp(iA), where h is a hermitian 2x2 matrix. (s.y those of Pauli) , therc are three components of the isotopic spin. Each of these Since there are three independent hermitian 2x2 matrices O u r higher symmetry group is the simplest generalization of isotopic spin, namely the group of a l l unitary 3x3 nzatrices with u n i t determinant. There are eight independent traceless 3x3 matrices and consequently the new "unitary spin" has eight components spin, the eighth is proportional to the hypercharge Y (which is +1 for N and K, -1 for remaining four are strangeness-changing oFrators. The first three are just the components of the isotopic and z, 0 for A, Z, JI, etc.), and the Just as isotopic spin possesses a three-dimensional representation (spin 1) , so the "unitary spin" group has an eight-dimensional irreducible representation, which we shall c a l l simply w8. In our theory, the baryon supermqtfplet corresponds to this representation. When the symmetry is reduced, then I and Y are .w s t i l l conserved but the four other corflponents of unitary spin are not; the supermultiplet then breaks up into Z, Z, A, and N. the distribution of multiplets and the nature of strangeness or hypercharge are to some extent explained. Thus The pseudoscalar mesons are also assigned to the representation 2. When the symmetry is reduced, they become the multiplets K, K, I(, and X , where X is a neutral isotopic singlet meson the existence of which we predict. fundamental or as bound states, their Yulcawa couplings i n the limit of %nitary" symmetry are describable in terms of only two coupling parameters . - Whether the PS mesons are regarded as The vector mesons are introduced i n a very natural way, by an extension of the gauge principle of Yang and ~ i l l s ~ ) . we have a supermultiplet of eight mesons, corresponding t o the representation -8. mass of these vector mesons "turned off", we have a completely gauge-invariant and minimal theory, just like electromagnetism. When the mass is turned on, the gawe invariance is reduced (the gauge function may no longer be space-time-dependent) but the conservation of unitary spin remains exact. mesons are the conserved currents of the eight components of the Here too In the limit of unitary s-jmmetry and with themass of these vector mesons "turned off", we have a completely gauge-invariant and minimal theory, just like electromagnetism. When the mass is turned on, the gawe invariance is reduced (the gauge function may no longer be space-time-dependent) but the conservation of unitary spin remains exact. mesons are the conserved currents of the eight components of the Here too In the limit of unitary s-jmmetry and with the The sources of the vector unitary spin6 ). laen the symmetry is re'duced, the eight vector mesons break up into a t r i p l e t e (coupled to the still-conserved isotopic spin current), a singlet w (coupled -Lo the still-conserved hypercharge current), and a pair of doub1.e-t~ M and (coupled to a strangeness
same spin and parity, that K i s pseudoscalar and tha t X exi s t s , that e and W exi st with the properties assigned to them by Salturai, and that M exists. But besides these qualitati* predictions there are also the many symmetry rules associated w i t h the unitary spin. All of these are broken, though, by whatever destroys the unitary symmetry, and it is a delicate matter t o find ways in which -these effects of a broken symmetry can be explored experimentally. Besides the eight vector mesons coupled to the unitary spin, there can be a ninth, which is invariant under unitary spin and is thus not degenerate t r i t l i the other eight, even in the l i m i t of unitary symmetry. We c a l l t h i s meson B . Presumably it exists too and is coupled to the baryon current. It is the meson predicted by Teller") and later by Saliwai') and explains most of the hard-core repulsion between nucleons and the attraction between nucleons and antinucleons at short distances. We begin our ex-position of the "eightfold my" in the next Section by discussing unitary symmetry using fictitious "leptons" which my have nothing to do with real leptons but help to fix the physica l ideas in a rathcr graphic ~ ~ a y . between these "leptons" and the real ones, that would throw some light on the weak interactions, as discussed briefly i n Section VI. If there is a parallel Section I11 is devoted t o the 8 representation and the baryons I and Section IV to the pseudoscalar mesons. the theory of 'che vector mesons. In Section V we present The physical properties to be exrpected of the predicted mesons are discussed in Section VII, along with a number of experiments that bear on those properties. In Section V I 1 1 we take up the vexed question of the broken spnetry, how badly it is broken, and how we might succeed in testing it. ... It is in any case an imprtant challenge to theoreticians to construct a satisfactory theory of vector mesons. It may be useful to remark that the difficulty in Yaw-Mills theories is caused by the mass. the first kind. that produces the violation of symmetry. pion masses break the consermtion of any axial vector current in the theory of weak interactions. It mqy be that a new approach t o the rest masses of elementary particles can solve many of our present theoretical problems. ...". (show families, explain what a baryon is.)
(This paper is highly mathematical and theoretical. I doubt the theory of a strong interaction.)
(It seems no coincidence that this is based on the "Lie" algebra. In particular knowing that all matter is probably made of light particles and that the idea of nuclear forces seems doubtful in addition to the many untold neuron secrets.)
(State each family of particles Gell-mann defines.)
(I think the guiding principle in much of this for me at least, is that all matter is made of light particles, and this puts everything in a simple light. How many light particles is in each particle? With each composite particle, what does their separation and combination reveal about the electromagnetic force and gravity? Just as Proust stated that each atom must be made of Hydrogen atoms, so I am stating that all atoms must also be made of light particles. I am sure many other people have come to this conclusion earlier- but few apparently will state this publicly. )
(Perhaps something about the nature of electromagnetic charge can be learned by comparing lower and higher mass ions with the same charge, and by determining what is the highest mass charged particle and lowest mass charged particle. It would be interesting to see if mesons can be combined back together, to form protons, neutrons, etc. to form the particles that they were separated from to begin with, state what these particles are. Powell and Occhialini state that mesons are even better than neutrons at seperating large atoms. State how mesons are produced in accelerators if they are.)
(I think there may be a fundamental error in presuming the mass of a proton and neutron is identical if that is a requirement for the eight-fold theory. Explain and show the eight-fold theory.)
(If ions could be attached to each other somehow, perhaps they would show more deflection- but it seems doubtful because of like-charge repulsion.)
(State who identifies the omega minus particle and give more info: what is the mass, charge, strangeness number, from what particle interactions does the omega-minus particle originate from, etc. show image of o- track.)
(Probably Gell-Mann can be catagorized as primarily as a theorist, similar to Maxwell, Einstein, Eddington, DeBroglie, Pauli, Dirac and many others. Theory is important, but most theories of history have been proven false. My own personal belief is that theory should follow experiment, for the most part, although certainly, theory inspiring experiment is many times fruitful. Without doubt the neuron secret has been terrible for the public's understanding of science, and much of the corruption geared toward the public has come from theorists. Might Murray Gell-Mann be more accurately described as Murray "Hill" Gell-Mann or is it just coincidence that so much of remote neuron reading and writing research is done at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey and Murray Gell-Mann produces an abstract high-mathematical theory that becomes accepted as paradigm, while all matter made of material light particles and seeing and hearing thought continues to go "undiscovered"? The Neuron owners have a history of hand-picking people based strictly on their name- many times their victims have relevent names - names of people they dislike, but perhaps this is just coincidence.)
(Given the neuron owner's and US government's direct involvement in physics, the 200+ year still-secret remote neuron reading and writing, mass produced transmutations and isolations, artificial muscle robots - I tend to take a pesimistic view of particle physics theories.)
| (Imperial College) London, England and (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
39 YBN
[04/12/1961 AD]
| 5601) The first human to orbit the Earth.
The Soviet ship Vostok 1 is the first spacecraft to carry a human, Yury Alekseyevich Gagarin (CE 1934-1968), in orbit of the earth. The spacecraft consisted of a nearly spherical cabin covered with ablative material. There were three small portholes and external radio antennas. Radios, a life support system, instrumentation, and an ejection seat were contained in the manned cabin. This cabin was attached to a service module that carried chemical batteries, orientation rockets, the main retro system, and added support equipment for the total system. This module was separated from the manned cabin on reentry. After one orbit, the spacecraft reentered the atmosphere and landed in Kazakhstan (about 26 km southwest of Engels) 1 hour 48 minutes after launch.
The Vostok spacecraft was designed to eject the cosmonaut at approximately 7 km and allow him to return to earth by parachute. Although initial reports made it unclear whether Gargarin landed in this manner or returned in the spacecraft, subsequent reports confirmed that he did indeed eject from the capsule. Radio communications with earth were continuous during the flight, and television transmissions were also made from space.
| Saratovskaya oblast, Russia (was U.S.S.R.) |
39 YBN
[04/13/1961 AD]
| 5560) Albert Ghiorso, Torbjørn Sikkeland, Almon E. Larsh, and Robert M. Latimer identify element 103. Latimer, et al publish this in "Physical Review" as "New Element, Lawrencium, Atomic Number 103". They write: "Bombardments of californium with boron ions have produced alpha-particle activity which can only be ascribed to decay of a new element with atomic number 103. ... In honor of the late Ernest O. Lawrence, we respectfully suggest that the new element be named lawrencium with the symbol Lw. The element 103 experiment has been in the process of development for almost three years,... ".
This completes the list of actinides.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
39 YBN
[05/19/1961 AD]
| 5612) First ship from earth to pass Venus, Venera 1.
On May 19 and 20, 1961, Venera 1 passes within 100,000 km of Venus and enters a heliocentric orbit.
(Show any images received.)
| Planet Venus |
39 YBN
[05/20/1961 AD]
| 5673) The muscle protein myoglobin three-dimensional structure determined.
As early as 1934, J.D. Bernal and Dorothy Hodgkin (then Dorothy Crowfoot) showed that proteins, when crystallized, diffract X-rays to produce a complex pattern of spots. In 1954 Perutz had created the method of "isomorphous replacement with heavy atoms", in which a heavy atom is attached to a molecule and this changes the x-ray diffraction pattern caused by the molecule, making it easier to compute the positions of atoms in the molecule.
(Sir) John Cowdery Kendrew (CE 1917-1997) English biochemist, uses Perutz's technique to produce the first three-dimensional images of any protein — myoglobin, the protein used by muscles to store oxygen. Kendrew then determines the structure of myoglobin. By 1960, with the use of special diffraction techniques and the help of computers to analyze the X-ray data, Kendrew is able to devise a three-dimensional model of the arrangement of the amino acid units in the myoglobin molecule, which is the first time this had been accomplished for any protein. Perutz will then go on to determine the structure of hemoglobin which is about 4 times larger than myoglobin. The hemoglobin molecule contains around 12,000 atoms, but half are hydrogen atoms which are too small to affect the X-ray beams. This leaves 6,000 atoms which affect the X ray beams. Myoglobin has 1,200 such atoms, and so interpreting the X-ray diffraction data is complex and can be analyzed only by high-speed computers that become available in the 1950s. The hemoglobin molecule has a two-fold axis of symmetry, each half containing one α chain and one non-α chain; the overall shape of the molecule is globular, with the heme groups buried in pockets in the polypeptide chains. There are eight helical regions, designated A to G.
In 1958, Kenrew and team publish the first three dimensional images of any protein, in "Nature" as "A three-dimensional model of the myoglobin molecule obtained by x-ray analysis". They write: "Myoglobin is a typical globular protein, and is found in many animal cells. Like hæmoglobin, it combines reversibly with molecular oxygen; but whereas the role of hæmoglobin is to transport oxygen in the blood stream, that of myoglobin is to store it temporarily within the cells (a function particularly important in diving animals such as whales, seals and penguins, the dark red tissues of which contain large amounts of myoglobin, and which have been our principal sources of the protein). Both molecules include a non-protein moiety, consisting of an iron-porphyrin complex known as the hæm group, and it is this group which actually combines with oxygen; hæmoglobin, with a molecular weight of 67,000, contains four hæm groups, whereas myoglobin has only one. This, together with about 152 aminoacid residues, makes up a molecular weight of 17,000, so that myoglobin is one of the smaller proteins. Its small size was one of the main reasons for our choice of myoglobin as a subject for X-ray analysis.
In describing a protein it is now common to distinguish the primary, secondary and tertiary structures. The primary structure is simply the order, or sequence, of the amino-acid residues along the polypeptide chains. This was first determined by Sanger using chemical techniques for the protein insulin1, and has since been elucidated for a number of peptides and, in part, for one or two other small proteins. The secondary structure is the type of folding, coiling or puckering adopted by the poly-peptide chain: the a-helix and the pleated sheet are examples. Secondary structure has been assigned in broad outline to a number of fibrous proteins such as silk, keratin and collagen; but we are ignorant of the nature of the secondary structure of any globular protein. True, there is suggestive evidence, though as yet no proof, that a-helices occur in globular proteins, to an extent which is difficult to gauge quantitatively in any particular case. The tertiary structure is the way in which the folded or coiled polypeptide chains are disposed to form the protein molecule as a three-dimensional object, in space. The chemical and physical properties of a protein cannot be fully interpreted until all three levels of structure are understood, for these properties depend on the spatial relationships between the amino-acids, and these in turn depend on the tertiary and secondary structures as much as on the primary. ... Perhaps the most remarkable features of the molecule are its complexity and its lack of symmetry. The arrangement seems to be almost totally lacking in the kind of regularities which one instinctively anticipates, and it is more complicated than has been predicated by any theory of protein structure. Though the detailed principles of construction do not yet emerge, we may hope that they will do so at a later stage of the analysis. We are at present engaged in extending the resolution to 3 A., which should show us something of the secondary structure; we anticipate that still further extensions will later be possible—eventually, perhaps, to the point of revealing even the primary structure. ...".
It's not clear how much of the exact structure of myoglobin Kendrew ultimately determined. The Oxford Dictionary of Scientists concludes: "...By 1959 he had greatly clarified the structure and could pinpoint most of the atoms. ...". By May of 1961, however, Kendel and team report that by combining X-ray identification with chemical results, a tentative amino-acid sequence which is incomplete but cannot be far from the truth.
(I find it hard to believe that H atoms do not diffract X-rays, but maybe the diffraction is only noticeable from larger atoms.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England (and the Royal Instutition, London) |
39 YBN
[08/03/1961 AD]
| 5765) Marshall Warren Nirenberg (CE 1927-2010), US biochemist, finds that the nucleotide triplet UUU produces a protein containing only the amino acid phenylalanine and so the nucleotide triplet UUU corresponds to the amino acid phenylalanine.
Nirenberg is the first to identify a DNA triplet with an amino acid when he uses the method of Ochoa to create a synthetic messenger-RNA molecule made of a single repeating nucleotide uridylic acid and finds that the nucleotide triplet UUU produces a protein containing only the amino acid phenylalanine and so the nucleotide triplet UUU corresponds to the amino acid phenylalanine. Within 10 years all the correlations between nucleotide triplets and amino acids will be known.
So polyuridylic acid is found to direct the incorporation of phenylalanine into polyphenylalanine in a cell-free Escherichia coli protein synthesizing system.
Nirenberg and J. Heinrich Matthaei report this in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "The Dependence of Cell-Free Protein Synthesis In E. Coli Upon Naturally Occurring Or Synthetic Polyribonucleotides". They write: "A stable cell-free system has been obtained from E. coli which incorporates C14-valine into protein at a rapid rate. It was shown that this apparent protein synthesis was energy-dependent, was stimulated by a mixture of L-amino acids, and was markedly inhibited by RNAase, puromycin, and chloramphenicol.1 The present communication describes a novel characteristic of the system, that is, a requirement for template RNA, needed for amino acid incorporation even in the presence of soluble RNA and ribosomes. It will also be shown that the amino acid incorporation stimulated by the addition of template RNA has many properties expected of de novo protein synthesis. Naturally occurring RNA as well as a synthetic polynucleotide were active in this system. The synthetic polynucleotide appears to contain the code for the synthesis of a "protein" containing only one amino acid. Part of these data have been presented in preliminary reports. ... Summary.-A stable, cell-free system has been obtained from E. coli in which the amount of incorporation of amino acids into protein was dependent upon the addition of heat-stable template RNA preparations. Soluble RNA could not replace template RNA fractions. In addition, the amino acid incorporation required both ribosomes and 105,000 X g supernatant solution. The correlation between the amount of incorporation and the amount of added RNA suggested stoichiometric rather than catalytic activity of the template RNA. The template RNA-dependent amino acid incorporation also required ATP and an ATP-generating system, was stimulated by a complete mixture of L-amino acids, and was markedly inhibited by puromycin, chloramphenicol, and RNAase. Addition of a synthetic polynucleotide, polyuridylic acid, specifically resulted in the incorporation of L-phenylalanine into a protein resembling poly-L-phenylalanine. Polyuridylic acid appears to function as a synthetic template or messenger RNA. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.
Note added in proof.--The ratio between uridylic acid units of the polymer required and molecules of L-phenylalanine incorporated, in recent experiments, has approached the value of 1:1. Direct evidence for the number of uridylic acid residues forming the code for phenylalanine as well as for the eventual stoichiometric action of the template is not yet established. As polyuridylie acid codes the incorporation of L-phenylalanine, polycytidylic acidt specifically mediates the incorporation of L-proline into a TCA-preeipitable product. Complete data on these findings will be included in a subsequent publication.".
(State who recognizes that some T-RNA molecules bond with more than one amino acid?)
(Describe the place of uracil relative to uridylic acid.)
| (National Institutes of Health) Bethesda, Maryland, USA |
39 YBN
[10/16/1961 AD]
| 5242) Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks produce a hologram using laser light.
In 1962, using a laser to replicate Gabor's holography experiment, Emmett Leith and Juris Upatnieks produce a hologram using laser light. of the University of Michigan produce a transmission hologram of a toy train and a bird. The image is clear and three-dimensional, but can only be viewed by illuminating it with a laser.
(Add image from paper) This same year Yuri N. Denisyuk of the Soviet Union produces a reflection hologram that can be viewed with light from an ordinary bulb. A further advance comes in 1968 when Stephen A. Benton creates the first transmission hologram that can be viewed in ordinary light. This leads to the development of embossed holograms, making it possible to mass produce holograms for common use.
| (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
39 YBN
[10/16/1961 AD]
| 5718) Robert William Holley (CE 1922-1993), US chemist, creates highly purified quantities of 3 kinds of T-RNA molecules.
Holley and his research team spend three years isolating one gram of alanine transfer RNA (alanine tRNA) from some 90 kilograms of yeast.
In 1965 Holley will go on to determine the molecular structure of a T-RNA molecule.
| (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
39 YBN
[12/30/1961 AD]
| 5663) By 1961 Crick had evidence to show that each group of three bases (a codon) on a single DNA strand designates the position of a specific amino acid on the backbone of a protein molecule. He also helped to determine which codons code for each of the 20 amino acids normally found in protein and thus helped clarify the way in which the cell eventually uses the DNA "message" to build proteins.
This important realization is published in "Nature" as "General Nature of the Genetic Code for Proteins". Crick, barnett, Brenner and Watts-Tobin write: "There is now a mass of indirect evidence which suggests that the amino-acid sequence along the polypeptide chain of a protein is determined by the sequence of the bases along some particular part of the nucleic acid of the genetic material. Since there are twenty common amino-acids found throughout nature, but only four common bases, it has often been surmised that the sequence of the four bases is in some way a code for the sequence of the amino acids. In this article we report genetic experiments which, together with the work of others, suggest that the genetic code is of the following general type: (a) A group of three bases (or, less likely, a multiple of three bases) codes one amino-acid. (b) The code is not of the overlapping type (see Fig. 1). (c) The sequence of the bases is read from a fixed starting point. This determines how the long sequences of bases are to be correctly read off as triplets. There are no special "commas" to show how to select the right triplets. if the starting point is displaced by one base, then the reading into triplets is displaced, and thus becomes incorrect. (d) The code is probably 'degenerate'; that is, in general, one particular amino-acid can be coded by one of several triplets of bases. ... FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS our theory leads to one very clear prediction. Suppose one could examine the amino-acid sequence of the 'pseudo-wild' protein produced by one of our double mutants of the (+ with -) type. Conventional theory suggests that since the gene is only altered in two places, only two amino-acids would be changed. Our theory, on the other hand, predicts that a string of amino-acids would be altered, covering the region of the polypeptide chain corresponding to the region on the gene between the two mutants. A good protein on which to test this hypothesis is the lysozyme of the phage, at present being studied chemically by Dreyer and genetically by Streisinger. At the recent Biochemical Congress at Moscow, the audience of Symposium I was startled by the announcement of Nirenberg that he and matthaei had produced polyphenylalanine (that is, a polypeptide all the residues of which are phenylalanine) by adding polyuridylic acid (that ism an RNA the bases of which are all uracil) to a cell-free system which can synthesize protein. This implies that a sequence of uracil codes for phenylalanine, and our work suggests that it is probably a triplet of uracils. It is possible by various devices, either chemical or enzymatic, to synthesize polyribonucleotides with defined or partly defined sequences. if these, too, will produce specific polypeptides, the coding problem is wide open for experimental attack, and in fact many laboratoeis, including our own, are already working on the problem. If the coding ratio is indeed 3, as our results suggest, and if the code is the same throughout Nature, then the genetic code may well be solved within a year. ...".
(Read rest of paper?)
| (Cavendish Lab University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
39 YBN
[1961 AD]
| 3340) Loeb, Westberg and Huang find that the main stroke of an electrical discharge appears to move from anode (positive) to cathode (negative) electrode, which is the opposite of the direction for air.
In a 1963 paper, Waters and Jones explain: "When impulse voltages are applied to long gaps in which the electric field is not uniform, the breakdown process in air consists of three main stages: corona development at the electrode of higher electrical stress, the formation of leader channels proceeding across the gap, and the main stroke formed by the discharge of available energy through one of the leader channels. The criterion for breakdown is the formation of a stable leader channel succeeding the corona stage.".
(Although, clearly lightning travels from a positive to the Earth which is negative, or is the cloud charge thought to be a negative voltage lower than the Earth potential? This has not been made clear and obvious to the public and needs to be. Get a better definition of what the lightning reaction is, that releases photons as an excess product. reactants=>(N photons at R rate/reaction)+products, then how do the photons produced then become reagents to the next reaction? Does gravity play any role in the movement of electricity in gas. Of course, the classic, can electricity move through empty space or do electric particles require a host? In electron guns, perhaps electrons move through the vacuum alone, but perhaps atoms in gas form from the electrode enter into the vacuum and become electron carriers.)
| (University of California, Berkeley) Berkeley, CA, USA |
39 YBN
[1961 AD]
| 5706) The Bacteria Escherichia Coli (E. Coli) shown to have a single chromosome, which is in the shape of a circle.
French biologist, François Jacob (ZoKoB) (CE 1920-), and Wollman show that the bacteria, E Coli have a single chomosome, which is in the shape of a circle (ring/torus).
(Get portrait birth-death dates for Wollman)
| (Pasteur Institute) Paris, France |
39 YBN
[1961 AD]
| 5788) Frank Donald Drake (CE 1930- ) US astronomer, creates the "Drake Equation", a simple equation to estimate how many advanced civilizations may exist in a galaxy.
The Drake equation is: N = ( R* x fp x ne x fl x fi x fc) x L R* = the rate at which suitable stars are forming in the Galaxy fp = the fraction of those stars which have a planetary system ne = the number of "earth-like" planets in a solar system. fl = the fraction of these planets on which life arises. fi = the fraction of these life forms that evolve into intelligent civilisations like ours. fc = the fraction of these civilisations that choose to attempt to communicate across the Galaxy. L = the average time for which a civilization attempts to communicate across the Galaxy.
Estimates are at least in the millions for the number of advanced civilizations in a Galaxy. (verify)
(Globular clusters are probably the products of advanced living objects. And so a pattern is very clear - light emitted from stars become trapped in certain spaces, the accumulation of matter becomes large enough to form a galaxy in which stars exist, living objects evolve on cooler pieces of matter rotating those stars, living objects then pull the stars together to convert a spiral galaxy into a globular galaxy which then travels around the universe looking for more matter to consume - to feed it's stars, it's directed motion, and the many living objects the live in the globular galaxy. This cycle simply repeats endlessly - stars emit light particles which become trapped and accumulate in other parts of the universe.)
| (SETI conference) Green Bank, West Virginia, USA |
38 YBN
[01/05/1962 AD]
| 5792) Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller (CE 1931- ), French-Australian physician, demonstrates that the by removing the thymus gland at an early stage, a young animal is unable to develop antibody resistance to foreign molecules.
The thymus is a gland that is prominent in young animals and withers away in adults. This may be important in the study of organ and tissue transplants to understand why they might be rejected and understanding the immune system in general.
The thymus gland is a large organ located beneath the breastbone. Surprisingly, until 1961 there is no clear idea of the function of the thymus gland. The normal technique in such a situation is to watch for any changes in the behavior of the subject when the organ has been removed. In this case thymectomy seems to make no discernible difference to the behavior of any experimental animal. Working within this tradition Miller performed a surgical operation of great skill, the removal of the thymus from one-day-old mice. As the mice weigh no more than a gram and are no bigger than an inch it is not difficult to see why such an operation had been little attempted before. In this case, however, the excision did lead to dramatic and obvious changes. The mice failed to develop properly and usually died within two to three months of the operation. Just what was wrong with them became clear when Miller went on to test their ability to reject skin grafts, a sure sign of a healthy immune system. Miller's mice could tolerate grafts from unrelated mice and sometimes even from rats. This made it quite clear that the thymus was deeply involved in the body's immune system but just what precise role it played was to occupy immunologists for a decade or more. Much of this work is performed independently, also in 1961, by a team under the direction of Robert Good in Minnesota.
Miller publishes this in the "Proceedings of the Royal Society of London" as "Effect of neonatal thymectomy on the immunological responsiveness of the mouse". Miller writes for an abstract: "The effect of thymectomy on the lymphocyte population and immune response of C3H, (Ak x T6) F1 and C 57BL mice has been investigated. Thymectomy performed in the immediate neonatal period was associated with severe depletion in the lymphocyte population and serious impairment of the immune response of the mature animal to Salmonella typhi H antigen and to allogeneic and heterospecific skin grafts. Clinically, the mice appeared healthy until about 2 to 4 months of age when two-thirds of the animals died from a syndrome characterized by progressive wasting and diarrhoea. Thymectomy in infancy was still associated with some impairment of the immune response to skin homografts particularlywhen donor and hosts were closely related immunogenetically. Thymectomy after 3 weeks of age was not associated with any significant impairment of homograft immunity. Neonatally thymectomized mice subsequently grafted with thymus tissue were capable of rejecting allogeneic skin grafts and showed evidence of immunity to such grafts. The lymphoid tissue of the thymus-grafted mice appeared normal and was shown to contain cells that had been derived from the thymus graft. It is concluded that, during very early life, the thymus produces the progenitors of immunologically competent cells which mature and migrate to other sites. Present evidence does not, however, exclude the production by the young thymus of a humoral factor necessary to the maturation or proliferation of lymphocytes elsewhere in the body.". (read more?)
| (Chester Beatty Research Institute, Institute of Cancer Research: Royal Cancer Hospital) London, England |
38 YBN
[01/??/1962 AD]
| 5657) Gallium-Arsenide under electronic potential found to emit a narrow band of microwave light. This is the basis of the first semiconductor laser.
The first semiconductor laser is credited to Carlson et al, (However, it seems very likely that this invention was uncovered much earlier but kept secret, in a way similar to neuron reading and writing.)
Charles Hard Townes, the person credited with the invention of the maser, describes this work in his 1964 Nobel lecture stating: "Another class of lasers was initiated through the discovery that a p-n junction of the semiconductor gallium arsenide through which a current is passed can emit near-infrared light from recombination processes with very high efficiency. Hall et al. obtained the first maser oscillations with such a system, with light traveling parallel to the junction and reflected back and forth between the faces of the small gallium arsenide crystal.".
In the January 1962 edition of the "Bulletin of the American Physical Society" Pankove and Massoulie publish a small article titled "Injection luminescence from GaAs", in which they write: "Carriers are injected into gallium arsenide by forward biasing a large-area graded p-n junction between two degenerate regions. Some of these carriers recombine radiatively. The resulting emission spectrum was studied at 300°, 78°, and 4.2°K. A broad emission band occurs at 0.95 ev (half-width=0.2 ev) corresponding to recombination via deep centers. Another emission peak corresponding to band-to-band transitions appears at about 1.4 ev and increases in intensity and energy as the temperature is lowered. At 78°K an additional emission band occurs 0.09 ev below the edge emission peak. The value of the energy gap was determined by measuring the photo-voltaic spectrum of this specimen. Since the valleys of both bands are located at k=0, the band-to-band process consists mostly of direct transitions. In the photo-voltaic spectrum, this is manifested by a very sharp threshold. No structure could be found corresponding to an excitation from levels inside the energy gap.".
In a later June 2 1962 paper, Pankove and Berkeyheiser write: "When a gallium arsenide p-n junction is biased in the forward direction, radiative band-to-band recombination is observed. Since minority-carrier lifetimes of the order of 10-10 sec are readily obtained in GaAs, one may expect that the recombination radiation can be modulated at Gc rates. This communication reports a verification that efficient generation of light modulated at microwave frequencies is possilbe. The current through a GaAs diode increases very rapidly when it is forward biased with an increasing voltage nealy equal to the energy gap (about 1.5 volts). Under this bias condition, the current consists of tunnel assisted radiative band-to-band recombination in the space-charge region of the p-n junction. This radiation occurs in a narrow spectral band in the near infrared (0.84u at 77°K). The intensity of the light output first increases very rapidly (more than linearly) with current and then linearly. In the linear range the process is extremely efficient. A quantum efficiency of 0.50 to 1.00 photons/electron has been obtained. ... The following measurements were made with a diode fabricated by alloying a tin dot to p-type GaAs having a hole concentration of 2.5 x 1018 cm-3. The diode was mounted in series with a 50-ohm resistor at the end of a 50-ohm coaxial cable connected to a signal generator. The diode end of the cable was inserted in a Dewar filled with liquid nitrogen (Fig. 1). The radiation was collected through the two windows of the Dewar by a lens and focused onto a photomultiplier (RCA 7102) having an S-1 spectral response. The output of the photomultiplier was displayed on an oscilloscope. Fig 2. shows the detection of 200-Mc modulation as displayed on a sampling oscilloscope. A dc bias was inserted in series with the generator to operate the diode in the light-emitting mode. ... in its nonlinear range, the radiation from the diode is also modulated at harmonics of the driving frequency. This is illustrated in Fig. 3 where the upper curve (d) is a 6-Mc driving signal, and the lower curve (c), the photomultiplier output. ..an operating frequency of 200 Mc is not the upper limit for the diode. The RC limitation of this diode is of the order of 10 Gc. ...".
(Note that here the diode has a signal generator, and so is apparenly not producing resonant frequencies of light - instead the frequencies of light are the same as the frequencies of current. Determine how the frequencies of current are produced in the signal generator.)
(Determine if a band-to-band transition is an electron moving from orbiting one atom to a different atom.)
| (RCA Laboratories) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
38 YBN
[05/04/1962 AD]
| 5796) First molecule created that reacts with an inert gas.
Neil Bartlett (CE 1932-2008), English chemist, forms xenon platinofluoride (XePtF6) making the first molecule to react/bond with an inert gas.
Xenon, the heaviest stable inert gas, is the least inert, and from theoretical calculations. Bartlett thinks that platinum hexafluoride, an unusually active chemical, might actually react with xenon. After this other chemists will form other inert gas compounds, with xenon, radon and krypton. According to Asimov this chemical bonding fits in closely with chemical theory and had been predicted by Pauling thirty years before.
Bartlett publishes this in "Proceedings of the Chemical Society" as "Xenon hexafluoroplatinate (V) Xe+{PtF6}−". Bartlett writes: "A RECENT Communication1 described the compound dioxygenyl hexafluoroplatinate(v), 02+PtF,-, which is formed when molecular oxygen is oxidised by platinum hexafluoride vapour. Since the first ionisation potential of molecular oxygen,2 12.2 ev, is comparable with that of xenm,2 12.13 ev, it appeared that xenon might also be oxidised by the hexafluoride. Tensimetric titration of xenon (AIRCO “Reagent Grade”) with platinum hexafluoride has proved the existence of a 1:1 compound, XePtF,. This is an orange-yellow solid, which is insoluble in carbon tetrachloride, and has a negligible vapour pressure at room temperature. It sublimes in a vacuum when heated and the sublimate, when treated with water vapour, rapidly hydrolyses, xenon and oxygen being evolved and hydrated platinum dioxide deposited : 2XePtF6 + 6H20 --f 2Xe + 0, + 2Pt0, + 12HF The composition of the evolved gas was established by mass-spectrometric analysis. Although inert-gas clathrates have been described, this compound is believed to be the first xenon charge-transfer compound which is stable at room temperatures. Lattice-energy calculations for the xenon compound, by means of Kapustinskii’s equation: give a value - 110 kcal. mole-l, which is only 10 kcal. mole-l smaller than that calculated for the dioxygenyl compound. These values indicate that if the compounds are ionic the electron affinity of the platinum hexafluoride must have a minimum value of 170 kcal. mole-l. ...".
Clathrate compounds are compounds formed by inclusion of molecules in cavities existing in crystal lattices or present in large molecules. The constituents are bound in definite ratios, but these are not necessarily integral. The components are not held together by primary valence forces, but instead are the consequence of a tight fit which prevents the smaller partner, the guest, from escaping from the cavity of the host. Consequently, the geometry of the molecules is the decisive factor. (This is interesting because there is one theory that valence is simply geometrical structure - that is that atoms hold together because of something like a physical "peg-fits-into-a-hole" structure.)
(Explain more detail. What kind of bond is this. What explains these bonds?)
| (University of British Columbia) Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
38 YBN
[06/08/1962 AD]
| 5802) Brian David Josephson (CE 1940- ), Welsh physicist, predicts that in two superconducting regions separated by a thin insulating layer a current can flow across the junction in the absence of an applied voltage and also that a small direct voltage across the junction produces an alternating current with a frequency that is inversely proportional to the voltage.
Brian David Josephson (CE 1940- ), Welsh physicist, uses Bardeen's theory of superconductivity to predict a flow of current across an insulator when both metals are superconducting, can oscillate under certain circumstances and would be affected by the presence of magnetic fields, and this is a method of measuring the intensity of weak magnetic fields with the best accuracy yet possible.
These effects are verified experimentally, and this supports the BCS theory of superconductivity of John Bardeen and his colleagues. This effect has been used in making accurate physical measurements and in measuring weak magnetic fields. Josephson junctions (two superconducting regions separated by a thin insulating material) can also be used as very fast switching devices in computers. Applying Josephson’s discoveries with superconductors, researchers at International Business Machines Corporation will assemble by 1980 an experimental computer switch structure, which permits switching speeds from 10 to 100 times faster than those possible with conventional silicon-based chips.
Before this, Giaever had theorized about the current flow across an insulator when one metal is superconducting.
Josephson publishes this in "Physics Letters" as "Possible new effects in superconductive tunnelling". He writes: "We fiere present an approach to the calculation of tunnelling currents between two metals that is sufficiently general to deal with the case when both metals are superconducting. In that case new effects are predtoted~ due to the possibility that e~ectron pairs may tunnel through the barrier leaving the q~mst-particle dlstrtDution unchanged, Our proceaure, following ttmt of Cohen et aL 1), is to tre~t the term in the Hamlltonian which transfers electrons across the barrier as a perturbation. W~ sssume that in Lhe absence of the transfer term there exist quasi-particle operators of definite energies~ whose corresponding nunther operators are constant. A difficulty, due to the fact that we have a system containing two disjoint superconducting regions, arises if we try to describe quasi-particles by the usual t~goliubov operators 2). This is because states defined as eigeafanetions of the Bogotinbev quasi-particle musher operators contain phase-coherent superpositions of states with the same total number of electrons but different numbers in the two regions. However, if the regions are independent these states must be capable of s-uperpoeit~on with arbitrary phases. On switehthgon the transfer ~erm the particular phases chosen will affect the predicted tunnelling current. This beh~viour is of fundamental importance to the argum ,nt that follows. The neglect, in the quasip~ rdele approximation, of the collective excitations of zero energy 3) results in au unphysical restriction in th~ free choice of phases, but may be avoided by working with the projected states with definite munbers of electrons ~n both sides of th_ barrier. Corresponding to these projections we use operators which alter ~e nmnbers of electrons on the two sides by definite v~m~ers **. /n par~icalar, corresponding to the BogoItabov operators e~ we • . + ~. use quasi-partv)le ereafmn operators %k, ahk which respectively add or remove an electron from ~he same side as i"-, quasi-r~r~icle and leave the number on the other sid¢~ unchanged, and pair creation operators S~ f which add a palr of electrons on one side leaving the quasl-particle dls~rlbuflon unclmnged. The Hermitean conjugate destruction operators have similar definitions. The S eperators, referring to maeroseopieally occupied states, may be treated as th'ne dependent c-numbers t* and we normalise them to have unit amplitude, tyelations expressing electron operators in terms o~ q ~ s i - p a r t i c l e opera',ors, equal-Vhne anticommutaties relations and nu.rnber operator relations may be derived from those of the Boguliubov theory by requiring beth sides of the equations to have the same effect on N l and Nr, the numbers of electrons on the two sides of the barrier. ... This formula predicts that in very weak fields diama~mtie currents will screen the ~thld from the space between the films, but with a l~rge penetra~.ion depth owing to the smallness o.~j~. ~n larger fields, owing to the eXisten=e of a critical current density, screening will not occur; the phases of the supercurrents wfi! vary rapidly over *.he b a r r i e r , causing the maximum total ~perenrrent to drop off rapidly witY~ increas~¢g field. Anderson 8) has suggested theft the absence of tunnelling supercurrents in m~st experiments hitherto performed may be due to the earth's field acting in this '~W, Cancellation of supercurrents would start to "~ceur when the amount of flux betwee~i the films, ineludb~g that in the penetration regions, became of the order of quantum of flux hc/Ze. This would occur for typAeal films in a field of about 0.I gauss. Such a field would not be appreciably excluded by the critical currents obtainable in specimens of all but the b/ghest ccuduetlvlty. When two superconducting regions are separated by athin normal region, effects similar to those considered here should occur and may be relevant to the theory of the intermediate state. ...".
(more details.) (Cite and read relevent parts of experimental verification.)
(I have doubts about the value of this find. Describe how this might relate to remote neuron reading and writing microscopic flying devices. Show thought-images and transactions of all involved to verify that this is not a corrupted claim.)
(The connection of Josephson to Philip Warren Anderson of Bell Labs raises suspitions about the validity of this claim. It may be some bridge from the neuron technology to the stone-age technology available to the public, but more likely it could just be false information meant to mislead the excluded. Another theory, is that it is abstract mathematical theory that rises to the top of popularity by massive funding or from special neuronal AT&T influence by those who created the theory.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
38 YBN
[06/16/1962 AD]
| 5662) Structure of RNA (double helix) understood.
Spencer, Fuller, Brown and New Zealand-British physicist, Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins (CE 1916-2004) determine that Ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules are double helices.
Note that 9 years passes between the identification of the structure of DNA in 1953 and RNA in 1962.
This is published in "Nature" as "Determination of the Helical Configuration of Ribonucleic Acid Molecules by X-Ray Diffractions Study of Crystalline Amino-Acid-Transfer Ribonucleic Acid.". They write: "Crucial steps in protein synthesis appear to involve interaction between transfer ribonucleic acid (RNA), to which amino-acids are attached, ribosomes, and the messenger or informational RNA which determines the amino-acid sequence of the protein. More information about the 3-dimensional configuration of RNA molecules and the base sequences in them would greatly help these processes to be understood. In elucidating the structure of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), X-ray diffraction analysis was indispensable: it guided the building of the Watson-Crick model, and detailed diffraction data from crystalline fibres of DNA enabled the structure in its various configurations to be established. The Watson-Crick hypothesis of DNA replication was thus placed on a firm stereochemical base. In the case of RNA, however, X-ray diffraction has been of little use because the RNA was amorphous and the diffraction patterns were too diffuse to be interpreted. Although the diffraction patterns of fibres of RNA had a broad similarity to those of DNA, it could not be established with certainty that the molceuls were helical, whether there were one, two or three polynucleotide chains twisted together in helices, or whether there was more than one type of helix. X-ray diffraction studies of synthetic ribopolynucleotides were less help than was hoped. The relation of the carefully established helical structure of polyadenylic acid to that of RNA was not clear. Various complexes of polynucleotides gave DNA-like patterns. The complex of polyinosinic and polycytidylic acids was of special interest because it gave a crystalline diffraction pattern resembling that of DNA and a non-crystalline pattern like that of RNA (ref. 15). This suggested that RNA might have a astructure like DNA. The same conclusion was drawn from X-ray studies of soluble RNA( ref. 16) and from molecular model-building. However, the most commonly found RNA pattern looked different from DNA patterns and no molecular model could be constructed which would correlate with it. On the other hand, nucleotide compositions of amoni-acid transfer RNA from a wide range of sources are very similar, and compatible with a DNA-like structure. Physico-chemical investigations of RNA solutions also provided much evidence that RNA molecules were probably helical. ... We have now obtained conclusive evidence that RNA molecules are helical and have determined the structure of the heliux. This has been achieved by crystallizing yeast transfer RNA and by obtaining from it X-ray diffraction patterns of quality comparable to those of DNA. We give here a preliminary account of this work and of light microscope observations of liquid-crystalline forms of the RNA. We have concentrated on transfer RNA because the molecule was small and likely to have a regular structure, and because the propects of isolating it intact seemed greater than with other types of RNA. ...".
(Determine what electron microscope images of DNA and RNA look like - and the field-ion microscope of Erwin Wilhelm Müller.)
(Perhaps read Wilkens' description of this from his Nobel lecture too.)
| (King's College) London, England |
38 YBN
[06/30/1962 AD]
| 5682) Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, synthesize the antibiotic tetracycline.
Woodward and team publish this in the "Journal of the American Chemical Society" as "The Total Synthesis of 6-Demethyl-6-Deoxytetracycline". They write: "Sir: The molecular structures of oxytetracycline (Ia) and chlorotetracycline (Ib) were elucidated in our laboratories a decade ago.' Since that time, the tetracycline antibiotics have emerged as a unique class, whose characteristic chemotherapeutic activity is strictly dependent upon the main- tenance of all of the structural and stereochemical features of the expression I. We now wish to record the first total synthesis of a member of this groups-the fully biologically active prototype of the series, 6-demethyl-6- deoxytetracycline (Ic). ...".
(Notice that this appears to be one of the first collaborations Woodward has with a phamaceutical company, in this case Chas. Pfizer and Co., Inc.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (and CHAS. PFIZER AND CO., INC, Groton, Connecticut, USA) |
38 YBN
[09/24/1962 AD]
| 5656) Semiconductor laser.
The first semiconductor laser is credited to Carlson et al, who report this in a letter to "Physical Review" titled "Coherent Light Emission from GaAs Junctions". They write: "Coherent infrared radiation has been observed from forward biased GaAs p-n junctions. Evidence for this behavior is based upon the shaply beamed radiation pattern of the emitted light, upon the observation of a threshold current beyond which the intensity of the beam increases abruptly, and upon the pronounced narrowing of the spectral distribution of this beam beyond threshold. The stimulated emission is believed to occur as the result of transistions between states of equal wave number in the conduction and valence bonds. ... While stimulated emission has been observed in many systems, this is the first time that direct conversion of electrical energy to coherent infrared radiation has been achieved in a solid state device. It is also the first example of a laser involving transitions between energy bands rather than localized atomic levels.".
Charles Hard Townes, the person credited with the invention of the maser, describes this work in his 1964 Nobel lecture stating: "Another class of lasers was initiated through the discovery that a p-n junction of the semiconductor gallium arsenide through which a current is passed can emit near-infrared light from recombination processes with very high efficiency. Hall et al. obtained the first maser oscillations with such a system, with light traveling parallel to the junction and reflected back and forth between the faces of the small gallium arsenide crystal.".
(The actual origin of the solid maser and beam devices in general, is clearly somewhat cloudy, certainly because of the 200 year secret of neuron reading and writing and micrometer flying particle devices. For example, in 1952 Haynes Briggs of Bell Telephone Labs report that germanium and silicon emit a sharply peaked frequency of infrared light - this is two years before the announcement of the first gas maser.)
(I disagree with the conclusion given, because I don't think there is any difference between stimulated emission and the "conversion of electrical energy to coherent infrared radiation", and I don't know what an "energy band" is, and how it differs from an atomic level. I understand an atomic level is the velocity (energy) an electron has in orbiting around an atom - apparently an "energy band" does not originate from atoms.)
(There is an implication in Townes Nobel lecture, that the planes of the crystal may be involved in the regular frequency of light particles - for example if we presume that electrons are light particles, they enter a crystal and are reflected by these planes, similar to how light particles are diffracted by planes with diffraction gratings. Perhaps if electricity entered in a spherical direction there would be a similar diffraction of regular frequencies distribution- basically diffraction of electrons which are either light particles or made of light particles.)
| (General Electric Research Laboratory) Schenectady, New York, USA |
38 YBN
[10/12/1962 AD]
| 5376) X-ray sources from outside the solar system observed.
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
38 YBN
[10/26/1962 AD]
| 6201) Laser writing and reading of data. Data is written and read from plastic film. Reading data with light particles is better than reading data mechanically, like using the arm of a phonograph player, because only light particles touch the recorded surface.
| (Winston Research Corporation) Los Angeles, California, USA |
38 YBN
[11/??/1962 AD]
| 5666) Herbert Friedman (CE 1916-2000), US astronomer, publishes the ultraviolet spectrum of the Sun using a grating on a rocket.
Friedman publishes the UV spectrum of the Sun in the "Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics" as "Ultraviolet and X Rays From the Sun". Friedman writes: "Sixteen years of rocket experiments and, more recently, the first successful satellite Observatory have revealed the nature of the solar ultraviolet spectrum with relatively high resolution down to about 200 A. At shorter wavelengt hs much information has been acquired with regard to the broad features of soft X—ray emission and the nature of its variability, but well- resolved line spectra are still lacking. No solar ultraviolet radiation shorter than 2900 A has ever been observed from the ground. Between 2200 A and 2900 A, ozone is the principal atmos- pheric absorber. It is concentrated mainly from 10 to 40 km above the ground so that even balloon altitudes are insufficient to penetrate it. From 2200 to 900 A, molecular oxygen effectively blots out the sun below an altitude of 75 km, except for the windows in the Schumann-Runge absorption bands, before the onset of continuous absorption near 1750 A. Below 912 A, the Lyman limit of hydrogen, first atomic oxygen and then N2 and N are photo- ionized by solar radiation which is absorbed largely between 150 and 200 km. Before the end of World War II the German astrophysicists Kiepenheuer and Regener made a serious effort to study solar ultraviolet radiation by means of rockets. Their instrument was a spectrograph with fluorite optics mounted on a pointing device to keep it aimed at the sun. However, the proj- ect never came to fruition. The initiative in rocket astronomy was seized by United States experimenters as soon as V-2 rockets were brought to this country at the end of the War. Beginning with the first successful spectro- graphic experiment in 1946, the major contributions have come from groups at the United States Naval Research Laboratory, the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories, the University of Colorado, the ]ohns Hopkins Ap- plied Physics Laboratory and, since its establishment in 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. ln recent years similar observational programs have been initiated in the USSR, the United Kingdom, and France. High-resolutio n slit spectrograms have been photographed and recovered after rocket impact or photoelectrically scanned and telemetered from rockets in flight. The first of the NASA satellite solar observatories, S-16, successfully transmitted thousands of spectrum scans from a near-earth _ orbit. Nondispersive spectrophotometric measurements have been performed with narrow-band sensitive ionization chambers and filter photometers and with proportional and scintillation counters using pulse-height discrimina- tion. Most of these photometers can be absolutely calibrated to provide ac- curate measurements of flux variations with solar activity. Their rapid Q response coupled with continuous telemetry is especially useful for observing gi transient phenomena, such as flares, and for mapping the variation of atmos- 5 pheric transparency with height at various wavelengths. Besides serving as platforms for spectroscopy, rockets have carried ultra- violet and X—ray cameras to photograph the sun at Lyman oz (1216 A) and in severa l bands within the 10 to 60 A soft X—ray region. Instrumentation has been devised for the S-17 satellite to produce simultaneous raster scans of the sun at certain discrete ultraviolet wavelengths and in two X-ray bands. ULTRAVIOLET Specrnoscorv A thorough historical survey of solar ultraviolet spectroscopy is beyond the scope of the present review; only the most advanced results are described here. In the wavelength range from 3000 A to about 2200 A, rocket spectros- copy equals in resolution the best that has been accomplished from the ground. This performance was achieved by Purcell, Garrett & Tousey (1) with an echelle spectrograph carried in an Aerobee rocket. Ruled at the Massa chusetts Institute of Technology, the echelle measured 5 inches in length and had 2000 steps per inch. Its great resolution is caused by the high order of interference, from 81st order at 3000 A to 122nd order at 2000 A. By crossing the echelle with a fluorite prism, orders were separated and the re- sulting spectrogram appeared as in Figure 1. Because the intensity of the solar spectrum falls rapidly with decreasing wavelength in this range of the ultraviolet, varying exposures are required to register properly different portions of the spectrum. In the flight of August 29, 1961, the Aerobee reached 190 km. Twelve exposures were made during the 4 min of flight above 75 km, ranging from 2 to 84 sec on Type IV—O ultraviolet sensitized film. Sections of three selected exposures were com- bined to produce the single reproduction of Figure 1. The pattern may be thought of as one long spectrum which has been segmented and rearranged in horizontal strips, each of which represents the dispersion of the echelle in a single spectral order with wavelength increasing to the right. The fluorite prism provides the vertical separation of orders; each strip overlaps slightly the order that follows below and extends it to longer wavelengths. On the original 35-mm film, each exposure covered about one square inch. Laid end to end, the strips would make a spectrum three feet long. Comparison of the echelle spectrogram above 3000 A with the "G6ttingen Solar Atlas" obtained with a 6-m grating spectrograph shows a detailed cor- respondence. The resolution in both cases is about 20 to 30 mA. The rocket spectrum continues into the ultraviolet with roughly the same resolution and reveals about 4000 Fraunhofer lines between 3000 A and 2200 A. Perhaps the most interesting feature of this range of the ultraviolet spec- trum is the Mg II doublet, 2795.523 and 2802.698 A. These lines resemble the calcium H and K lines of the visible spectrum. The two lines of the doublet, Figure 2, are only 7 A apart. The great absorption feature is the first compo- nent f each line of the doublet and causes the continuum to be depressed over a range of many angstroms. ...".
| (U. S. Naval Research Laboratory) Washington, D. C., USA |
38 YBN
[1962 AD]
| 3981) Richard Williams finds that liquid crystals form lines when an electric potential is applied to a liquid crystal cell. This leads to the fist publicly known liquid crystal display device.
| RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
38 YBN
[1962 AD]
| 5171) US microbiologists, Thomas Huckle Weller (CE 1915-2008) with Franklin Neva, grows the German measles (rubella) virus in tissue culture.
(Determine paper, read relevent parts)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
38 YBN
[1962 AD]
| 5328) Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (CE 1903-1972) English archaeologist, discovers fossils of "Kenyapithecus", a link between apes and early humans that lived about 14 million years ago.
(Determine correct paper and get image from paper.)
| Fort Ternan, Kenya, Africa |
38 YBN
[1962 AD]
| 5490) Conshelf 1 (Continental Shelf Station), an undersea station where humans live for prolonged periods of time.
Jacques-Yves Cousteau (KU STO) (CE 1910-1997), French oceanographer,, designs underwater structures which can house people for prolonged periods of time. Some people stay in these structures for weeks.
In Conshelf 1, two men, Albert Falco and Claude Wesly, are the first "oceanauts" to live underwater for a week. Named "Diogenes", this steel cylinder, 5 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter, serves as home and laboratory for its two inhabitants. Despite its small size, Diogenes includes television, radio, a library, and a bed. Observed from the surface by about thirty people, Falco and Wesly leave each day to work underwater for five hours, studying interesting animals and building an underwater farm. Meanwhile, doctors monitor their health.
(It seems inevitable that the continental shelf, and even the entire ocean from floor to surface and above, will be colonized by humans in the future.)
| (off coast of) Marseilles, France |
38 YBN
[1962 AD]
| 5794) Bachvaroff, Yomtov, and Nikolov apply electrophoresis to separate nucleic acids (RNA).
Bachvaroff et al find that RNA extracted from the whole rabbit spleen can be resolved into five bands in simple agar electrophoresis.
Loening, Dingman, will develop this technique in 1967, and Sanger will use gell electrophoresis to determine the nucleotide sequence of an RNA molecule in 1969.
(Find original article and publish any photos.)
| (Biochemical Research Laboratory, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences) Sofia, Bulgaria (verify) |
37 YBN
[02/25/1963 AD]
| 5249) Ragnar Arthur Granit (CE 1900-1991), Finnish-Swedish physiologist, with Kernell and Shortess, examine making motor neurons fire using various impulse frequency and current strength.
Granit, et. al publish this as "QUANTITATIVE ASPECTS OF REPETITIVE FIRING OF MAMMALIAN MOTONEURONES, CAUSED BY INJECTED CURRENTS".
Araki and Otani in Japan had publicly published making a single neuron fire by electrical stimulation (direct neuron writing) in 1955, although remote neuron writing is still yet to be made public.
(Determine if this stimulation of the motoneuron caused the muscle to contract. Note that this is not reported in any of these works.)
| (The Caroline Institute) Stockholm, Sweden |
37 YBN
[03/04/1963 AD]
| 5750) Quasars (quasi-stellar radio source) identified.
Allan Rex Sandage (CE 1926-2010), US astronomer identifies the first known object that will be later called a "quasar" (3C 48).
Dictionary.com defines a quasar as "one of over a thousand known extragalactic objects, starlike in appearance and having spectra with characteristically large redshifts, that are thought to be the most distant and most luminous objects in the universe.".
The current interpretation of what quasars are is given by Encyclopedia Britannica as "an astronomical object of very high luminosity found in the centres of some galaxies and powered by gas spiraling at high velocity into an extremely large black hole. The brightest quasars can outshine all of the stars in the galaxies in which they reside, which makes them visible even at distances of billions of light-years. Quasars are among the most distant and luminous objects known. The term quasar derives from how these objects were originally discovered in the earliest radio surveys of the sky in the 1950s. Away from the plane of the Milky Way Galaxy, most radio sources were identified with otherwise normal-looking galaxies. Some radio sources, however, coincided with objects that appeared to be unusually blue stars, although photographs of some of these objects showed them to be embedded in faint, fuzzy halos. Because of their almost starlike appearance, they were dubbed “quasi-stellar radio sources,” which by 1964 had been shortened to “quasar.” 3C 273, the brightest quasar, photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for...The optical spectra of the quasars presented a new mystery. Photographs taken of their spectra showed locations for emission lines at wavelengths that were at odds with all celestial sources then familiar to astronomers. The puzzle was solved by the Dutch American astronomer Maarten Schmidt, who in 1963 recognized that the pattern of emission lines in 3C 273, the brightest known quasar, could be understood as coming from hydrogen atoms that had a redshift...".
The term "quasi-stellar object" predates the identification of a quasar. This term is commonly used, for example in this 1938 paper. The term "quasar" is introduced by Drs. Louis Gold and John W. Moffat of Martin Company's Research Institute for Advanced Studies in Baltimore Maryland at the American Physical Society meeting in Washington D. C., and reported on May 9, 1964.
Sandage and Matthews publish this in "Astrophysical Journal" as "Optical Identification of 3c 48, 3c 196, and 3c 286 with Stellar Objects.". For an abstract they write: "Radio positions of the three sources have been determined with the two 90-foot antennas working as an interferometer with an r.m.s. accuracy in both co-ordinates better than 10 seconds of arc. Direct photographs show that a starlike object exists within the error rectangle at each of the source positions. Exceedingly faint wisps of nebulosity are associated with the stars in 3C 48 and 3C 196. The observations are incomplete for 3C 286 in this regard. Photoelectric photometry of the stars shows each to have quite peculiar color indices, most closely resembling the colors of old novae or possibly white dwarfs, but we are not suggesting identification with these types of stars. Photometry of 3C 48 through 13 months shows the star to be variable by at least AV = 0*94. The radio flux appears to be constant. Optical spectra for 3C 48 show several very broad emission features, the most intense at A 3832 being unidentified. Spectra by Schmidt of 3C 196 and 3C 286 show other unusual features. The radio structure of the three radio stars is similar in that each has an unresolved core of <1" diameter. However, 3C 196 and 3C 286 show halos of 12" and 20", respectively, while no radio halo has been detected for 3C 48. It is shown that the radiant flux in the optical region can be computed from the radio-flux data and the theory of synchrotron radiation for 3C 48 and 3C 196, but not for 3C 286. This, together with other arguments, suggests that the optical as well as the radio iiux could be due to the synchrotron mechanism, but the arguments are not conclusive. We have used the assumption of minimum total energy to compute the energy in relativistic particles and magnetic Held required by the synchrotron mechanism to explain the observed emission. The mag- netic iield in each of the core components is near 0.1 gauss and depends mainly on the assumed angular size of the emitting region. The total energy in the core components is near 10‘*° ergs. The rate of radiation is such that the energy in relativistic electrons must be replaced in a time scale of a few years if the value oghe magnetic field determined in this way is correct. These calculations are based on a distance of 1 pcs. The frequency of occurrence of radio stars is examined, and they are estimated to comprise from 5 to 10 per cent of sources in the 3C catalogue. The percentage is likely to be less for fainter sources. Rough limits have been estimated for the mean distances of these radio stars. A mean distance of approximately 100 pc is suggested if these objects are in the Galaxy. Evidence obtained since this paper was written suggests that 3C 48 has a large redshift of z = 0.3675(Greenstein and Matthews 1963); thus these objects may be associated with a distant galaxy. The absolute magnitude of the starlike objects is M ,, = -24.3, which is much brighter than any other known galaxy. As a radio source, 3C 48 is not very different from other identified sources. The emitted iiux is the same as 3C 295 and Cygnus A, but the emitting volume is much less. The faint nebulosity does not resemble a galaxy, and it also is brighter than a normal galaxy. If caused by an explosion in the past and expanding at the velocity of light, its age would be Z 1.8 >< 105 years. The synchrotron lifetime calculated in the normal manner is much shorter than that inferred from the extent of the faint nebu- losity. Thus either the magnetic field must be much lower than calculated, or high-energy electrons must be supplied continuously.". In the paper they write: "I. INTRODUCTION One of the major programs of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory of the California Institute of Technology is the determination of precise positions of discrete radio sources. The radio observations are made with the two 90-foot antennas working as an inter- ferometer at several spacings ranging from 200 to 1600 feet. The east-west direction is used to determine right ascension and the north-south direction to fmd declination. The hg observational technique for declination measurements has been described by Read (1963), and the entire problem and results will be discussed elsewhere by Matthews and Read. Errors in determination of position in both right ascension and declination can E now be made smaller than 5 seconds of arc under favorable conditions. With this high positional accuracy, the search for optical identification is now much more efficient than similar searches made several years ago, and a number of new identifications have al- ready been made (Bolton 1960; Maltby, Matthews, and MoHet 1963; Matthews and Schmidt, unpublished). Identiiications to date by all workers have shown that radio sources are associated with galactic nebulae, supernovae remnants, and external galaxies both "normal" and peculiar. The distribution of discrete sources above b = _-l; 20° is isotropic and has usual- ly been attributed to galaxies alone. No star, except the sun, has previously been identi- fied with a radio source. The purpose of this paper is to present evidence for the identi- fication of three radio sources with objects which are starlike in their appearance on direct photographs and in their photometric and spectroscopic properties} II. RADIO AND OPTICAL PROPERTIES OE THE THREE SOURCES Our attention was drawn to 3C 48, 3C 196, and 3C 286 as peculiar radio objects be- cause of their high radio surface brightness. Measurements of the brightness distribution (Maltby and Moffet 1962) along both a north-south and an east-west base line at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory with a maximum base line of 1600 wavelengths showed that these three sources are single, with radio diameters of less than 30 seconds of arc. The Jodrell Bank observations of brightness distribution with four base lines from A 2200 to A 61000 (Allen, Anderson, Conway, Palmer, Reddish, and Rowson 1962) have shown that, even at the longest base line of A 61000, 3C 48 is unresolved in the east-west direction, which means that the radio diameter is less than 1 second of arc east—west. Rowson (1962) has shown also that the diameter is less than 1 second of arc in the north-south direction. However, the ]odrell Bank observations do show some structure in 3C 196 and 3C 286 in the east-west direction. The simplest two-component model fitting the east-west intensity distribution for 3C 196 is that 75 per cent of the flux comes from a halo of about 12" diameter, while the remaining 25 per cent of the flux is in an unresolved core of less than 1" diameter.2 For 3C 286, 40 per cent of the flux comes from a halo of diameter M20", and the remaining 60 per cent is again in an unresolved core of diameter less than 1". We are indebted to H. P. Palmer for the data prior to publication, upon which these diameters are based. These small radio diameters, together with the large observed radio flux, initially suggested that the three sources might be additional examples of distant galaxies of large redshift such as 3C 295, which shows a similar radio surface brightness. Conse- quently, when precise radio positions were available, direct photographs were made of each iield with the 200-inch telescope in the near red spectral region (1030-E plates plus Schott RG1 filter). The first object studied was 3C 48 (Matthews, Bolton, Greenstein, Munch, and Sandage 1961). A direct plate was taken on September 26, 1960, with every expectation of finding a distant cluster of galaxies, but measurement of the plate gave the un- expected result that the only obj ect lying within the error rectangle of the radio position was one which appeared to be stellar. The stellar object was associated with an exceed- ingly faint wisp of nebulosity running north-south (surface brightness ~23 mag/arcsec2 in V) and measuring I2" by 5" (N-S X E-W). The stellar object lies about 3" north of * Since this paper was written, two more similar objects have been identified——3C 273 (Schmidt 1963) and 3C 147—for which M. Schmidt has obtained the necessary confirmatory spectra. Thus at least 20 per cent of the apparently strongest radio sources are this type of object. 2 Recent measurements of flux (Conway, Kellermann, and Long 1963) suggest that 3C 196 may be all core. A spuriously high close-spacing flux was the only evidence of a halo. ,g the center of the nebulosity. The peculiarity of the nebulosity, together with th·e excel- lent agreement between the radio position and the optical object, made it almost certain that an identification had been achieved. But the nature of the optical source remained S in doubt because in late 1960 the existence of radio stars was not generally considered a serious possibility. Two spectrograms were taken with the prime-focus spectrograph at the 200-inch on October 22, 1960. One covered the blue-green region from A 3100 to A 5000 with a dis- persion of 400 A/ mm. The other covered the region from 7x 3100 to about A 7000 on an Eastman 103a-F plate with a dispersion of 800 A/ mm. The blue-violet spectrum is extremely peculiar, the only prominent features being several strong, very broad emis- sion lines. The three strongest occur at A 4686 (intensity 4), A 4580 (2), and A 3832 (6). The broad emission line at X 3832 is the most striking feature and as yet has not been identified. The most obvious identification of the A 4686 line is with He 11. If this is cor- rect, then the measured wavelength of lx 4686.2 -_!; 1 shows that the radial velocity of the object must be less than 100 km/ sec. The lines could not be identified with any plausible combination of red-shifted emission lines. The total width of the two strongest lines at half-intensity points is about 22 A for A 4686 and about 30 A for A 3832. The half half-widths, expressed in km/ sec, would indicate a velocity iield (either random or systematic) within which the emission lines are formed of about 1200 km/ sec for the 7x 3832 line and 700 km/ sec for the X 4686 line. No strong emission lines are present in the red, although several faint ones do exist. In particular, Ha is deiinitel-y absent. Spectrograms of higher dispersion were subsequently obtained by Greenstein and Munch, and a complete discussion of the spectroscopic features will be given by them. Photometric observations of the 3C 48 optical object confirm its peculiar nature. On October 23, 1960, the photometry gave V = 16.06, B — V = 0.38, U — B = -0.61, colors which are similar to, but not identical with, old novae (Walker 19.57) and to some white dwarfs (Greenstein 1958), but are quite different from ordinary stars and galaxies. This point will be discussed later in this section. An effort was made in the case of 3C 48 to resolve the optical image. On a night of good seeing a series of exposures ranging from 10 minutes to 15 seconds was made at the 200-inch prime focus (scale = 11.06 arcsec/ mm) on Eastman 103a-O plates. On the shortest—exposure plate (15*3) the image diameter of 3C 48 was measured to be 0.09 mm, which corresponds to 1" of arc. This is the same diameter as images of stars of the same apparent brightness on the plate. The image of 3C 48 on all plates is sharp and appears to be stellar. A second-epoch Sky Survey plate was taken by W. C. Miller on january 18/ 19, 1961, withethe 48-inch Schmidt to check for a detectable proper motion. This plate was cen- tered identically with the base plate O 30 of the original Sky Survey taken on December 21/22, 1949, giving an 11-year interval. Inspection of the two plates in a blink compara- tor showed no detectable proper motion relative to neighboring comparison stars. The proper 1;1otion is less than 0Y 05/ yr (a value which could have been detected by this method . Optical photometry of 3C 48 continued sporadically during 1961, with the results given in Table 1. The most striking feature of these data is that the optical radiation varies! ...".
(State who and when the quasar is named by.)
(I doubt that quasars are anything other than distant galaxies.)
(The claim that some objects do not emit radio seems obvious inaccurate to me - perhaps some objects do not emit some particular frequency of radio, but it is a simple truth that all objects emit light particles with radio frequencies.)
(Is -24.3 absolute magnitude much brighter than any other known galaxy?)
(It seems clear that because of the Bragg equation, that most if not all of the observed red shift of light is due to distance of light source (which causes the angle the incident light creates with the grating for each frequency in the spectrum to be farther away from the center relative to the light source. So if the shift indicates a very far object, then these light sources are probably very far. Possibly, a high radial velocity Doppler shift could make the shift more red, or a large mass object near the light source could perhaps lower the frequency in bending the direction of the emitted light particles.)
(I think it is important to visually show people the absolute magnetitude of these galaxies compared to similarly sized appearing galaxies, and show how they are apparently more distant by showing their visible spectra side by side - perhaps in the same photo.)
(It seems unusual that the spectrum of this light source is not constant like most stars and galaxies - Schmidt describes the spectra of quasars as being "blue continuum" -which implies that no emission shift can be detected. Sandage writes that "No strong emission lines are present in the red, although several faint ones do exist. In particular, Ha is definitely absent.". It seems unusual that there would be no spectral lines in the red for a very red-shifted object.)
(It's possible that quasars are galaxies that are toward the globular phase in their development.)
(I really doubt that so-called quasars are different from other galaxies. Everything depends on their emitted light being shifted very far - but looking at the physical size of these objects implies that the red shift is inaccurate - it seems very unlikely that - seeing, for example, spiral arms, or the remnants of gas would imply a giant galaxy - far larger in perspective or in quantity of light particle emissino than those other galaxies around it of similar size.)
| (Wilson and Palomar Observatories, Carnegie institute of Washington and California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California, USA |
37 YBN
[03/16/1963 AD]
| 5785) Maarten Schmidt (CE 1929- ) Dutch-US astronomer determine that the spectrum of the radio-emitting source that Sandage had identified (3C 273) is shifted very far into the red implying that the light source is very far away.
Schmid t determines that the spectral lines of the radio-emitting source that Sandage had pinpointed (3C 273), is very red-shifted, and matches the spectral lines in the ultraviolet region for close light sources. Because of this many people conclude that this strong radio source and others like it are very far away. If these radio sources are very far away they must be from objects emitting much more light than a star or even ordinary galaxies. These objects are called "quasi-stellar objects" because of their star-like point appearance, which is abbreviated to "quasars". Quasars are thought to be very distant very luminous objects.
Schmidt publishes this in "Nature" as "3C 273: A Star-like Object with Large Red-shift". Schmidt writes: "The only objects seen on a 200-in. plate near the positions of the components of the radio source 3C 273 reported by Hazard, Mackey and Shimmins in the preceding article are a star of about thirteenth magnitude and a faint wisp or jet. The jet has a width of 1"–2" and extends away from the star in position angle 43°. It is not visible within 11" from the star and ends abruptly at 20" from the star. The position of the star, kindly furnished by Dr. T. A. Matthews, is R.A. 12h 26m 33.35s ± 0.04s, Decl. +2° 19' 42.0" ± 0.5" (1950), or 1" east of component B of the radio source. The end of the jet is 1" east of component A. The close correlation between the radio structure and the star with the jet is suggestive and intriguing.
Spectra of the star were taken with the prime-focus spectrograph at the 200-in. telescope with dispersions of 400 and 190 Å per mm. They show a number of broad emission features on a rather blue continuum. The most prominent features, which have widths around 50 Å, are, in order of strength, at 5632, 3239, 5792, 5032 Å. These and other weaker emission bands are listed in the first column of Table 1. For three faint bands with widths of 100–200 Å the total range of wave-length is indicated.
The only explanation found for the spectrum involves a considerable red-shift. A red-shift Dl/l0 of 0.158 allows identification of four emission bands as Balmer lines, as indicated in Table 1. Their relative strengths are in agreement with this explanation. Other identifications based on the above red-shift involve the Mg II lines around 2798 Å, thus far only found in emission in the solar chromosphere, and a forbidden line of (O III) at 5007 Å. On this basis another (O III) line is expected at 4959 Å with a strength one-third of that of the line at 5007 Å. Its detectability in the spectrum would be marginal. A weak emission band suspected at 5705 Å, or 4927 Å reduced for red-shift, does not fit the wave-length. No explanation is offered for the three very wide emission bands.
It thus appears that six emission bands with widths around 50 Å can be explained with a red-shift of 0.158. The differences between the observed and the expected wave-lengths amount to 6 Å at the most and can be entirely understood in terms of the uncertainty of the measured wave-lengths. The present explanation is supported by observations of the infra-red spectrum communicated by Oke in a following article, and by the spectrum of another star-like object associated with the radio source 3C 48 discussed by Greenstein and Matthews in another communication.
Table 1. Wave-lengths and Identifications ...
The unprecedented identification of the spectrum of an apparently stellar object in terms of a large red-shift suggests either of the two following explanations.
(1) The stellar object is a star with a large gravitational red-shift. Its radius would then be of the order of 10 km. Preliminary considerations show that it would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, to account for the occurrence of permitted lines and a forbidden line with the same red-shift, and with widths of only 1 or 2 per cent of the wave-length.
(2) The stellar object is the nuclear region of a galaxy with a cosmological red-shift of 0.158, corresponding to an apparent velocity of 47,400 km/sec. The distance would be around 500 megaparsecs, and the diameter of the nuclear region would have to be less than 1 kiloparsec. This nuclear region would be about 100 times brighter optically than the luminous galaxies which have been identified with radio sources thus far. If the optical jet and component A of the radio source are associated with the galaxy, they would be at a distance of 50 kiloparsecs, implying a time-scale in excess of 105 years. The total energy radiated in the optical range at constant luminosity would be of the order of 1059 ergs.
Only the detection of an irrefutable proper motion or parallax would definitively establish 3C 273 as an object within our Galaxy. At the present time, however, the explanation in terms of an extragalactic origin seems most direct and least objectionable. ...".
(The reality of the Schuster-Bragg equation for light shows that the angle of incidence the light source makes with the grating surface determines the position of spectral line, and because of this, simple trigonometry shows that the more distant a source the farther away from the center of the grating spectral lines will appear. In addition, the smaller the source of light the more compacted the spectrum is - if the light source is not restricted to a small opening. Beyond this, gravitational frequency shifting of light can occur too.)
(In the past, I had thought that there is the possibility that a very distant light source, which has it's spectrum shifted to the red, might be more intense in the radio, because visible frequencies have more light particles than radio frequencies, or because the visible signal is more intense than the radio signal. But I think the shifting is probably a result, mostly, of the Schuster-Bragg grating equation and so the light appears to be the same frequency, but its spectral lines are simply in different positions. But other frequency changes can be measured if the quantity of Schuster-Bragg equation shift is known, but for this the actual size or actual distance must be known first. These quantities can be obtained from perspective measurement - that is comparing the aparent size of the source with it's estimated actual size - for example using the estimated size of our own galaxy.)
(Note that Schmidt describes the star spectrum like this: "They show a number of broad emission features on a rather blue continuum". So clearly there is blue light from this object which implies that it can't be that far away - but perhaps I'm wrong.)
(One problem with the "quasars are different from regular galaxies" theory is that all galaxies emit radio signals since the low frequencies of light particles of radio are easily found in a visible light signal of much higher frequency. The radio signal for most galaxies is probably directly proportinal to its visible signal intensity. So there is something apparently corrupted in apparently singling out a few radio sources among all galaxies (radio sources).)
(Notice that even in modern times images of shifted spectra are apparently never in color - why is this when color photography and digital imaging has been around for a long time?)
(To be publishes in "Nature" and on the cover of "Time" to me implies a large funding behind this - in particular around the time of JFK and the radical changes of goodness that may have caused. Perhaps collapsing the expanding universe theory was being debated and this was some kind of thrust against it by the neuron owners or the dishonest in general.)
(That no compensation for light source distance is calculated into any equation given is an indication that this effect is unaccounted for in determining spectral line frequency.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
37 YBN
[04/26/1963 AD]
| 5736) Allan MacLeod Cormack (CE 1924-1998), South African-US physicist, develops the principle of the CAT (computerized axial tomography) and PET (positron emission topography) scan, how an x-ray or positron beam can be used to measure the variable absorption in two dimensions which can be done for different planes to create a three dimensional image or model of an object.
Computerize d axial tomography (CAT) is also referred to as simply Computed Tomography (CT), and is an imagine method that uses a low-dose beam of X-rays that cross the body in a single plane at many different angles. CT was conceived by William Oldendorf in 1961 and developed independently by Allan MacLeod Cormack and Godfrey Newbold Hounsfield. CT becomes generally available in the early 1970s.
Cormack invents the computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanner, in which short pulses of x-rays are emitted as the emitter rotates around a person's head (or other body part). Electronic detectors also rotate and a computer produces a three-dimensional image of the object being studied. The CAT scanner has greatly increased the accuracy of diagnosis of disorders of the brain and other organs. Cormack is not satisfied with the two-dimensional images produced by X-ray beams and that is the motivation for finding a way to create a 3D picture. According to Asimov, one problem is that currently the cost of making the instrument is very high.
In addition to publishing the theory for the CAT and PET scan in 1963, Cormack also provides the first practical demonstration of a CAT scan machine (chronology). X-ray tomography is a process in which a picture of an imaginary slice through an object (or the human body) is built up from information from detectors rotating around the body. The application of this technique to medical x-ray imaging leads to diagnostic machines that can provide very accurate pictures of tissue distribution in the human brain and body. Godfrey N. Hounsfield independently develops the first commercially successful CAT scanners for EMI in England.
Cormack publishes this in the "Journal of Applied Physics" as "Representation of a Function by Its Line Integrals, with Some Radiological Applications". As an abstract he writes: "A method is given of finding a real function in a finite region of a plane given its line integrals along all straight lines intersecting the region. The solution found is applicable to three problems of interest for precise radiology and radiotherapy: (1) the determination of a variable x-ray absorption coefficient in two dimensions; (2) the determination of the distribution of positron annihilations when there is an inhomogeneous distribution of the positron emitter in matter j and (3) the determination of a variable density of matter with constant chemical composition, using the energy loss of charged particles in the matter.". In the body of the paper Cormack writes: "I. INTRODUCTION T HE exponential absorption of a parallel beam of x or gamma rays passing through homogeneous materials has been known and used quantitatively for a long time, but the problem of the quantitative determination of the variable absorption coefficient in inhomogeneous media has received little or no attention. To be sure, all radiography depends on the variation of the absorption coefficient of a medium in space, but the correct interpretation of radiographs depends on the art of the radiographer rather than on measurements. While the problem of determining such variable absorption coefficients is interesting in itself, it also has an important application in any attempt at precise radiotherapy. The object of the radiotherapist is to direct an external beam, or beams, of x rays at a patient in such a way that a particular region of the patient's interior receives a known dose of radiation, while other parts of the patient receive as small a dose as possible. It is clearly necessary to know the absorption coefficients of the patient's various kinds of bone and tissue in order to make a precise estimate of the dosage received at any point of his interior, and it is equally clear that such information may only be obtained from measureme nts made exterior to the patient. It is sufficient to consider the problem in two dimensions, since, if a solution can be found for two dimensions, the three-dimensional case may be solved by considering it to be a succession of two-dimensional layers. The problem may be quantitatively formulated as follows. Let D be a finite, two-dimensional domain in which there is absorbing material characterized by a linear absorption coefficient g which varies from point to point in D and is zero outside D. Although g ~ 0, it is convenient to allow it to be negative for purposes of discussion. Suppose a parallel, indefinitely thin beam of monoenergetic gamma rays traverses D along a straight line L, and that the intensity of the beam incident on D is 10, and the intensity of the beam emerging from D is I. ... where the L under the integral indicates that the integral is to be evaluated along all of L in D, and s is a measure of distance along L. If/L=ln(Io/I), then ... The problem is to find g, knowing the line integrals /l. for a number of lines L which intersect D. One might think that a suitable way of finding g (suggested by taking two radiographs in directions at right angles to each other) would be by measuring /L along two sets of parallel lines at right angles to each other. That this will not do may be seen as follows ... These considerations suggest that if a solution to the problem can be found at all, it must be sought by considering iL along all lines intersecting D and then seeing whether an approximate solution may be found by considering only a finite number of lines, so that the problem may be tractable in practice. The following problem is thus considered. ... 6. AN EXPERIMENTAL TEST An experiment was carried out in the simplest case where g was a function of r only. The specimen was a disk, 5 em thick and 20 em in diameter, made in the following way. A central cylinder of aluminum, 1.13 em in diameter was surrounded by an aluminum annulus with an inner diameter of 1.13 em and an outer diameter of 10.0 cm, and this in turn was surrounded with a wooden (oak) annulus with an inner diameter of 10.0 cm and an outer diameter of 20.0 cm. A peculiarity in the results lead to an investigation of the materials used, and it transpired that the central cylinder had been made of pure aluminum while the annulus had been made with an aluminum alloy. A 7-mCi C0 60 source produced a gamma-ray beam which was collimated by a lS-cm lead shield with a circular hole in it. The gamma rays were detected by a Geiger counter which was well shielded and preceded by a second collimator. The gamma-ray beam had an over-all width of 7 mm. Because of the symmetry of the sample it was only necessary to measure f(P,cp) at one angle, and it was measured for p=O cm to p= 12.5 cm at S-mm intervals. At least 20 000 counts were taken at each setting to reduce statistical counting errors to less than 1%, and the usual corrections for backgrounds and deadtime were made. For this case, (n=O), the solution (18) may be written ... The expression J(r) was found from the experimentally determinedfo(p) by numerical integration, except that an analytic approximation was used in evaluating the integral near the singularity at p=r. The values of J(r) so found are shown as points in Fig. 1. The values of the absorption coefficients of the aluminum alloy and the wood were found to be 0.161±0.002 cm-1 and 0.0340 ±O.OOOS cm-I, respectively, and a value4 of 0.150 em-I was assumed for the inner aluminum cylinder. J(r) was calculated using these values and is shown by the straight lines in Fig. 1. The agreement is good. The full width of the gamma-ray beam is also shown in Fig. 1. This experiment is a test of the method only in the simplest case, but it does indicate that the effects of beam width need not be too serious. More stringent tests with more complicated samples are needed and these are being undertaken. ...".
(How does a CAT scan relate to neuron reading and writing? Was Cormack excluded or did he know about remote neuron reading and writing?)
(This paper may have been some effort to start the process of going public with remote neuron reading and writing, initiated by JFK just before he was murdered, because this kind of triangulation of x-rays seems very relevant to pinpointing an individual neuron - in particular to make it fire, but also potentially to read it's value.)
(Determine if this is actually in three dimensions, or is ever extended to three dimensions. Possibly in modern archeological plastic skull making, I have seen the use of three dimensional triangulation to harden some individual point of plastic in a very viscous fluid.)
(Notice the use of "three problems of interest" - perhaps hinting that three dimensional individual neuron activation and mapping is in the background.)
(Describe how the positrons are emitted.)
(In his 1963 paper, notice the early use of the word "attention" - a key "at&t" word.)
(Describe more how CAT and PET work and show sample images.)
(Apparently people are somewhat vague about how the CAT and PET scans actually work - is this purposely to hide the possibility of neuron reading and writing - for example using x-ray and positrons to determine sounds heard and objects seen?)
(It's not clear how recording the signal strength from an x-ray point-line rotated around some object can be used to make a 3d model. Perhaps particles reflect and the points of detection can be used to determine the depth of the reflection presuming the particles reflected off a flat surface. Perhaps two beams at 90 degrees could be used to activate an individual neuron inside a brain - but how that could be used to determine 3D internal structure I don't know.)
| (Tufts University) Medford, Massachusetts, USA |
37 YBN
[06/16/1963 AD]
| 5602) First woman to orbit the earth.
Valentina Vladimirovna Tereshkova (CE 1937-) is the first woman to orbit the earth. On June 16, 1963, Tereshkova is launched in the spacecraft Vostok 6, which completes 48 orbits in 71 hours. In orbit at the same time is Valery F. Bykovsky, a man who had been launched two days earlier in Vostok 5; both land on June 19.
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
37 YBN
[07/20/1963 AD]
| 5730) Cyril Ponnamperuma (PoNoMPRUmo) (CE 1923-1994), Sri-Lankese-US biochemist, Carl Sagan (CE 1934–1996) and Ruth Mariner synthesize ATP (adenosine triphosphate), and ADP (adenosine diphosphate) by ultra-violet irradiation of dilute solutions of purine or pyrimidine bases, pentose sugars, and phosphorus compounds.
In 1953, Stanley Lloyd Miller (CE 1930-2007) had produced amino acids by circulating methane, ammonia, water and hydrogen past an electric discharge to simulate the early atmosphere of earth (Miller-Urey experiment).
Ponnamperuma demonstrates the formation of ATP, a molecule necessary to the handling of energy within all cells.
Ponnamperuma, Sagan and Mariner publish this in "Nature" as "Synthesis of Adenosine Triphosphate Under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions". They write: "IT has been suggested that the pre-biological synthesis of nucleoside phosphates on the primitive Earth was a sonsequence of the absorption of ultra-violet light by purines and pyrimidines in an appropriate aqueous medium. The basis for this suggestion is as follows: Even the simples living organisms are statistically unlikely aggregations of organic molecules. The improbability of contemporary organisms is extracted from the field of possibilities through natural selection. but before the advent of self-replicating systems, natural selection as we understand it to-day could have played no such part. The origin and subsequent replication of life must therefore have involved molecules preferentially produced in the primintive environment. Such a view is implicit in the early works of haldane and Oparin. While it is possible that the fundamental molecular basis of living systems has itself evolved, the simples working hypothesis holds that the molecules that are fundamental now were fundamental at the time of the origin of life. The production of amino-acids, purines, pyrimidines and pentose sugars under simulated primitive conditions during the past decade lends support to this hypothesis. The are, however, still several molecular specieis the involvement of which in the origin of life remains to be demonstrated. Chief among these are the nucleoside phosphates. Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) is the 'universal' energy intermediary of contemporary terrestrial organisms, and one of the major products of plant photosynthesis. The need for its production in primitive times was first emphasized by Blum. Guanosine triphosphate has recently been implicated as the energy source for peptide linkage. The deoxynucleoside triphosphates are the precursors for contemporary DNA biosynthesis. To the extent that the origin of DNA plays a fundamental part in the origin of life, the abiogenic synthesis of deoxynucleoside triphosphates seems indicated. Several fundamental coenzymes of intermediate metabolism and plant photosynthesis (CoA, DPN, TPN, FAD) are nucleoside phosphates. All these molecules contain purines or pyrimidines which have strong ultra-ciolet absorption maxima near 2600 A. The possibility then arises that the absoption of ultra-violet photons by purines and pyrimidines provided the bond energy for the synthesis of nucleoside phosphates in primitive times; and it is therefore of some interest to investigate the ultra-violet transparency of the early terrestrial atmosphere. There is evidence from astronomy that the Earth's atmosphere was reducing at the time life first arose. Laboratory experiments have shown that it is far easier to synthesize organic matter under reducing than under oxidizing conditions. The molecules O2 and O3 are thermodynamically unstable in an excess of hydrogen, and the principal {ULSF: typo?} sources of the ultra-violet opacity of the present terrestrial atmosphere cannot have then been present. The ultra-violet absorption wihch did exist arose from intermediate oxidation state molecules, principlally aldehydes and ketones. In experiments in which electrical discharges were passed through simulated primitive atmospheres, the only aldehyde or ketone produced in high yield was formaldehyde. ... The synthesis of purines and pyrimidines which absorb in this wave-length region has recently been accomplished in a variety of primitive Earth simulation experiments. Adenine has been produced by thermal polymerization of 1.5 molar hydrocyanic acid in an aqueous ammonia solution; by 5 MeV electron irradiation of methane, ammonia, water and hydrogen; and by ultra-violet irradiation of a 10-4 molar solution of hydrocyanic acid, Guanine also appears to be formed in the last experiment. Another guanine synthesis occurs int he thermal copolymerization of amino-acids. Uracil has been produced by heating urea and malic acid. The yields of purines and pyrimidines are sometimes quite high. ... The production rates of organic molecules from reducing atmospheres suggest that the primitive oceans were about a 1 per cent solution of organic matter. In addition to purines and pyrimidines the pentose sugars, ribose and 2-deoxyribose can be expected to be present. The laboratory production of 2-deoxyribose has been achieved through the condensation of formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, or of acetaldehyde and glyceraldehyde in aqueous and salt solutions. ... Both ribose and 2-deoxyribose have been synthesized by either ultra-violet or γ-irradiation of dilute formaldehyde solutions. Phosphates and other phosphorus compounds can be expected in the primitive oceans, even at very early times. It therefore seems of some interest to attempt synthesis of nucleoside phosphates by ultra-violet irradiation of dilute solutions of purine or pyrimidine bases, pentose sugars, and phosphorus compounds, both because of our expectation that such syntheses were easily performed in primitive times, and because ultra-violet irradiation of dilute solutions of adenine and ribose has already produced the nucleoside adenosine. ... MATERIALS AND EXPERIMENTAL TECHNIQUES ... The method of irradiation and analysis has already been described. Quantities of labelled adenine, adenosine and adenylic acid...were sealed in aqueous solutoin in 'Vycor' tubes with approximately stoichiometric quantities of ribose, phosphric acid or polyphophate ester, as shown in Table 1. The final concentration of base nucleoside and nucleotide in each solution did not exceed 10Msup>-3 moles/l. The solutions were irradiated by four General Electric ultra-violet germicidal lamps, type 782H-10, which emit 95 per cent of their light in the mercury resonance line at 2537 A. The 'Vycor' glass of which the tubes were made transmitted 80 per cent of light of this wave-length. ... The reaction products were first analyzed by paper chromatography, autoradiography and ultra-violet absorption studies. ... The positions of the carriers adenosine, AMP, ADP, ATP, and A4P were detected by shadowgrams. Coincidence both in position and in shape between the carriers on the shadowgrams and the radioactivity on the autoradiograph was the chromatographic basis for the identifications. The formation of adenosine has already been reported. ... ... DISCUSSION The abiogenic non-enzymatic production of nucleside phosphates and related molecules under simulated primitive Earth conditions is relevant to the problem of the origin of life. The expected availability of ATP in primitive times suggests that energy was then available in convenient form for endergonic synthetic reactions of large molecules. The question arises why adenosine triphosphate, rather than, for example, the triphosphates of guanosine, cytidine, uridine, or thumidine, were not produced in primitive times and utilized to-day as the primary biological energy currency. There are several possible responses. In primitive Earth simulation experiments under reducing conditions with low hydrogen content, adenine is produced in far greater yield than are other purines and pyrimidines. Secondly, no biological purine or pyrimidine has a larger absorption cross-section between 2400 and 2900 A. Thirdly, adenine is among the most stable of such molecules under ultraviolet irradiation. Finally, the ultra-violet excitation energy is readily transferred, especially by pi electrons, along the conjugated double bonds of the molecule; the excited states are very long-lived, and thereby serve to provide bond energies for higher synthetic reaction. ... ... Such abiogenic production of ATP is, in effect, photosynthesis without life. One striking conclusion that has emerged from recent work on the mechanism of terrestrial plant photosynthesis is that the production of ATP is the primary, and most primitive, function of the photosynthetic apparatus. The experimental results of the present article permit us to understand why this might be so. With rather efficient abiogenic synthesis of so ideal an energy currency as ATP in the primitive environment, the transition from a reducing to an oxidizing atmosphere must have had profound results. ... The precise mechanism of synthesis has not yet been investigated. Ultra-violet excitation of adenine accounts for the adenosine synthesis, but the participation of phosphorus compounds in the reaction is obscure. Synthesis of nucleoside phosphates must be more indirect, since it is difficult to imagine the excitation energy being transfgerred across the ribose molecule, which has no conjugated double bonds. Alternative possibilities, such as the production of activated adenine or ribose phosphates, remain to be investigated. Further investigation of so far unidentified chromatographic features should both help clariy the mechanisms of synthesis and cast light on other possible prebiological organic reactions. Ultra-violet irradiation of solutions of deoxyribose purines or pyrimidines, and phosphate compounds may have some relevance for the problem of polynucleotide origins. ...".
(There is also a possibility of bacteria reaching the earth in ice or other material and simply growing in the waters on the surface of earth. It seems to me, somewhat unlikely to have water anywhere, without bacteria - exploration of asteroids will help to determine if truly there can be large structures free of living objects at cold temperatures.)
(Show the difference between nucleotides and nucleosides.)
(Wherever people have been saying "energy" is a good source of new research because what specifically is happening can probably be explained with particles and perhaps new interpretations might be found. For example, perhaps light particles are released or transfered in the use of ATP for physical movement.)
(more detail how did Ponnamperuma form ATP? explain)
(This may possibly mean that the ATP molecule was around for the evolution of the first cell.)
(Get birth date and photo for Ruth Mariner.)
(Note that this work is published a few months before the murder of JFK and transition of the US government.)
| (NASA Ames Research Center) Moffett Field, California, USA and (Stanford University) Palo Alto, California, USA |
37 YBN
[08/05/1963 AD]
| 5609) Nuclear test ban treaty prohibits the testing of nuclear weapons in the atmosphere, underwater, or in outer space but allows for underground testing, is signed by the United States, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (U.S.S.R.), and the United Kingdom.
(I vote for a ban on fission explosions on the earth, but, I support atomic fission powered interplanetary ships and testing of atomic fission powered ships in empty space far away from the earth.)
| Moscow, (Soviet Union) Russia |
37 YBN
[12/??/1963 AD]
| 5694) Helmut Zahn and coworkers and independently Panayotis Kaysoyannis et al in cooperation with Dixon synthesize sheep insulin.
(Determine if this is the first human-made protein in history.)
(Get image of Zahn)
| (Deutsches Wollforschungsinstitut - German Wool Research Institute) Aachen, Germany and (University of Pittsburgh) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA |
36 YBN
[01/04/1964 AD]
| 5780) Murray Gell-Mann (GeLmoN) (CE 1929- ), US physicist, introduces the concept of non-integral values for electromagnetic charge and creates the theory of "quarks" which are thought to be fundamental particles.
Karsch and Vogelsang give a history leading up to this theory writing: "We will give here an overview of our theory of the strong interactions, Quantum Chromo Dynamics (QCD) and its properties. We will also briefly review the history of the study of the strong interactions, and the discoveries that ultimately led to the formulation of QCD. The strong force is one of the four known fundamental forces in nature, the others being the electromagnetic, the weak and the gravitational force. The strong force, usually referred to by scientists as the “strong interaction”, is relevant at the subatomic level, where it is responsible for the binding of protons and neutrons to atomic nuclei. To do this, it must overcome the electric repulsion between the protons in an atomic nucleus and be the most powerful force over distances of a few fm (1fm=1 femtometer=1 fermi=10−15m), the typical size of a nucleus. This property gave the strong force its name. The first quantitative theory of the strong interactions was proposed by Yukawa in 1935 (1). Yukawa postulated that the strong force arises from the exchange of new particles, now called the pions, between protons and neutrons. From the known range of the strong interaction he could estimate the mass of these particles. The pions were indeed discovered in 1947 by Powell et al. (2). In the following years, many new strongly interacting particles were discovered at new particle accelerators as well as in cosmic ray showers. They are collectively referred to as “hadrons”. It was found that hadrons could be grouped by whether or not they carry a conserved quantum number, named “baryon number”. Particles that carry baryon number, examples of which are the proton and neutron, are called baryons. Among the particles with vanishing baryon number, known as mesons, are the pions. Some of the discovered hadrons showed an unexpectedly long (“strange”) life-time, like the baryon which was observed already 1947 in cosmic ray showers (3). The discovery of the large array of strongly-interacting particles implied that Yukawa’s theory could not be the fundamental theory of the strong interactions. The pursuit of finding an underlying order and understanding the regularities observed in experiment eventually led to the proposal that there be only a few truly fundamental particles of the strong interactions, of which all hadrons are composed. This proposal was made in 1964 independently by Gell- Mann (4) and Zweig (5), and Gell-Mann coined the name “quarks” for these new particles. In order to take into account the observed systematics of baryons and mesons, one had to introduce different types, or “flavors”, of quarks. The basic constituents of the nucleus, proton and neutron, are built up from quarks with two different flavors called “up” (u) and “down” (d). Mesons consist of a quark and an anti-quark. The “strangeness” of the particle (6) could be explained through the introduction of a third quark flavor - the “strange” quark (s). Another observation that became crucial for the further development of strong interaction theory was made by Greenberg (7) and Han and Nambu (8) soon after the introduction of quarks: in order to satisfy the Pauli exclusion principle for baryons such as the ++ or the − which are made up of three quarks of the same flavor and spin orientation, the spin-1/2 quarks had to carry a new quantum number, later termed “color”. Quarks were proposed to come in three different colors. Quarks were originally introduced simply based on symmetry considerations. A modern rendition of Rutherford’s experiment then showed that quarks are real (9). This experiment is the deep inelastic scattering (DIS) of electrons (or, later, muons) off the nucleon, a program that was started in the late 1960’s at the Standford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). The early DIS results compelled an interpretation as elastic scattering of the electron off pointlike, spin-1/2, constituents of the nucleon, carrying fractional electric charge (10). These constituents, called “partons” by Feynman, were subsequently identified with the quarks. In 1974 a new meson, soon called the J/ , was observed simultaneously in experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) (11) and at SLAC (12). Its surprisingly long lifetime made it clear that there was yet another quark flavor - now called the “charm” quark (c). By now, we know six different quark flavors. In addition to the u, d, s and c quarks, the very heavy “bottom” (b) (13) and “top” quarks (t) (14) have been discovered experimentally in 1977 and 1995, respectively, at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). There is currently no evidence for the existence of further quark flavors. Remarkably, quarks have never been observed in isolation, or as “free particle states”, like those familiar for an atom or the proton. They only seem to exist bound inside hadrons or in larger entities called “quark matter”, which is presumed to have existed in the early universe and still may exist in the interior of compact stars. This striking phenomenon is known as “confinement”. It is clear that a true theoretical understanding of the strong interactions requires a quantitative explanation for the confinement of quarks, which has remained elusive so far. The modern theory of strong interactions is a quantum field theory called Quantum Chromo Dynamics, or in short “QCD”. It was formulated by Fritzsch, Gell-Mann, and Leutwyler(15). ...". Gell-Mann publishes this in "Physics Letters" as "Schematic Model of Baryons and Mesons". He writes: "If we assume that the strong interactions of baryons and mesons are correctly described in terms of the broken "eightfold way" 1-3) we are tempted to look for some fundamental explanation of the situation. A highly promised approach is the purely dynamical "bootstrap" model for all the strongly interacting particles within which one may try to derive isotopic spin and strangeness conservation and broken eightfold symmetry from self-consistency alone 4). Of course, with only strong i n t e r a c t i o n s , the orientation of the asymmetry in the unitary space cannot be specified; one hopes that in some way the selection of specific components of the Fspin by electromagnetism and the weak interactions determines the choice of isotopic spin and hypercharge d i r e c t i o n s . Even if we consider the scattering amplitudes of strongly interacting particles on the mass shell only and treat the matrix elements of the weak, electromagnetic, and g r a v i t a t i o n a l interactions by means of dispersion theory, there are s t i l l meaningful and important questions regarding the algebraic properties of these interactions that have so far been discussed only by abstracting the properties from a formal field theory model based on fundamental entities 3) from which the baryons and mesons are built up. If these entities were octets, we might expect the underlying symmetry group to be SU(8) instead of SU(3); it is therefore tempting to try to use unitary t r i p l e t s as fundamental objects. A unitary t r i p l e t t consists of an isotopic singlet s of e l e c t r i c charge z (in units of e) and an isotopic doublet (u, d) with charges z+l and z respectively. The a n t i - t r i p l e t has, of course, the opposite signs of the charges. Complete symmetry among the members of the t r i p l e t gives the exact eightfold way, while a mass difference, for example, between the isotopic doublet and singlet gives the f i r s t - o r d e r violation. For any value of z and of t r i p l e t spin, we can construct baryon octets from a basic neutral baryon singlet b by taking combinations ( b t t ) , C o t t t t ) , etc. **. From ( b t t ) , we get the representations 1 and 8, while from ( b t t t t ) we get 1, 8, 10, 10, and 27. In a similar way, meson singlets and octets can be made out of (tt), ( t t t t ) , etc. The quantum num- bern t - n~ would be zero for all known baryons and mesons. The most interesting example of such a 1 model is one in which the t r i p l e t has spin ~ and z = -1, so that the four particles d-, s-, u ° and b ° exhibit a parallel with the leptons. A simpler and more elegant scheme can be constructed if we allow non-integral values for the charges. We can dispense entirely with the basic baryon b if we assign to the t r i p l e t t the following properties: spin ½, z = -~, and baryon number -~. 2 t 1 We then refer to the members u3, d-~, and s-3- of the t r i p l e t as "quarks" 6) q and the members of the a n t i - t r i p l e t as anti-quarks ~1. Baryons can now be constructed from quarks by using the combinations (qqq), (qqqqq), e t c . , while mesons are made out of (qcl), (qq~tcl), etc. It is assuming that the lowest baryon configuration (qqq) gives just the representations 1, 8, and 18 that have been observed, while the lowest meson configuration (q q) similarly gives just 1 and 8. A formal mathematical model based on field theory can be built up for the quarks exactly as for p, n, A in the old Sakata model, for example 3) with all strong interactions ascribed to a neutral vector meson field interacting symmetrically with the three p a r t i c l e s . Within such a framework, the electromagnetic current (in units of e) is just u - d - s} or ~-3~ + ~8~/J3 in the notation of ref. 3). For the weak current, we can take over from the Sakata model the form suggested by Gell-Mann and L4vyT), namely i p7~(l+Y5)(n cos 0 + h sin 8), which gives in the quark scheme the expression *** i u ya(1 + y5)(d cos 0 + s sin 0) or, in the notation of ref. 3), ... We thus obtain all the features of Cabibbo's picture 8) of the weak current, namely the rules I AI = 1, AY = 0 and I/x/ =~,~ AY/AQ = +1, the conserved A Y= 0 current with coefficient cos 0, the vector current in general as a component of the current of the F-spin, and the axial vector current transforming under SU(3) as the same component of another octet. ... It is fun to speculate about the way quarks would behave if they were physical particles of finite mass (instead of purely mathematical entities as they would be in the limit of infinite mass). Since charge and baryon number are exactly conserved, one of the q u a r k s ( p r e s uma b l y u3z o r d-Y) would be a b s o - lutely stable *, while the other member of the doublet would go into the f i r s t member very slowly by H-decay or K-capture. The isotopic singlet quark would presumably decay into the doublet by weak i n t e r a c t i o n s , much as A goes into N. Ordinary matter near the earth's surface would be contaminated by stable quarks as a result of high energy cosmic ray events throughout the earth's history, but the contamination is estimated to be so small that it would never have been detected. A search for stable quarks of charge -~ or +2 and/or stable di-quarks of charge -~ or +-~ or +-~ at the highest energy accelerators would help to reassure us of the non-existence of real quarks. These ideas were developed during a visit to Columbia University in March 1963 ; the author would like to thank Professor Robert Serber for stimulating them.".
(One interesting point is that these theories have no place for simple inertial particle collisions within sub-atomic particles, and that to me seems like a very simple flaw, in addition to the flaw of ignoring light particles as the fundamental particle which all other matter is composed of.)
(All 6 quarks are claimed to have been detected in particle accelerators, show tracks. I think the strangeness number needs to be more fully explained. It is interesting to think that if charge is not constant for protons, electrons, ions, etc that we might be left with a 2 variable problem of how much of the bending is due to mass and how much to difference in charge. In this way, perhaps the proton might not be 1000 times more massive than an electron but only 10 times more massive, and 100 times the charge. It may be that charge is related to number of particle collisions per second in a particle field, and this would relate more to size and/or mass, or perhaps charge relates to the ability of two particles to attach or orbit each other without falling apart. I think it may be possible that every particle of mass between single light particle and 1 million light particles may be eventually identified in the tracks produced in particle accelerators. It is a good idea to identify every single mass particle ever detected in a particle accelerator. How many different tracks just based on mass have been identified?)
(I don't think the existence of quarks can be ruled out, but for example, I am interested in seeing if two or more mesons can recombine to form a proton, if an electron and proton can be merged to form a neutron, etc. Have electrons and protons ever been collided? What were the results? Was it hydrogen or neutrons? I doubt that there is a difference between a hydrogen atom and a neutron.)
| (California Institute of Technology) Pasadena, California |
36 YBN
[02/11/1964 AD]
| 5784) A team at Brookhaven National Labs identifies an ω- particle, and this was predicted by Murray Gell-Mann and Yuval Ne'eman's "eight-fold way" of classifing subatomic particles of 1961.
| (Brookhaven National Laboratory) Upton, New York, USA |
36 YBN
[02/26/1964 AD]
| 5437) George Wald (CE 1906-1997), US chemist, and Paul K. Brown, identify the three kinds of cone on the human retina responsible for human color vision; blue-sensitive, green-sensitive, and red-sensitive.
Brown and Wald publish this as "Visual Pigments in Single Rods and Cones of the Human Retina. Direct measurements reveal mechanisms of human night and color vision.". In their abstract they write "Difference spectra of the visual pigments have been measured in single rods and cones of a parafoveal region of the human retina. Rods display an absorption maximum (λmax) at about 505 mμ, associated with rhodopsin. Three kinds of cones were measured: a blue-sensitive cone λmax about 450 mμ; two green-sensitive cones with λmax about 525 mμ; and a red-sensitive cone with λmax about 555 mμ. These are presumably samples of the three types of cone responsible for hunun color vision.".
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
36 YBN
[04/04/1964 AD]
| 5330) Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey (CE 1903-1972) English archaeologist, and team identify fossil bones from the genus Homo and name the species "Homo habilis".
These homonid bones were found in 1960. "Habilis" is taken from Latin meaning "able, handy, mentally skilful, vigorous", which Raymond Dart suggests. Habilis has an average cranial capacity greater than Autralopithecus, but smaller than homo erectus.
| Olduvai Gorge, Africa |
36 YBN
[06/19/1964 AD]
| 5749) US physicist Sheldon Lee Glashow (CE 1932- ) and B.J. Bjorken create a new quantum number "charm" and predicts the existence of many particles with values for "charm".
Glashow and Bjorken publish this in "Physics Letters" as "Elementary Particles and SU(4)". They write: "Recently, models of strong interaction symmerry have been pr o posed 1-3) involving fo ur fundarnental Fermion fields tp i and approximate symmetry under SU.(4). Mesons are identified with bound states ~j and baryons with bound states ~itpitpk . In this note we examine a model of this kind whose principal achievements are these: a mass formula relating the masses of the nine vector mesons and predicting a ninth pseudoscalar meson at 950 MeV, a description of weak interactions including all selection rules except the nonleptonic A I = ½ rule, and a significant "baryon"-lepton symmetry. A new quantum number "charm '~ is violated only by the weak interactions, and the model predicts the existence of many "charmed" particles whose discovery is the crucial test of the idea. We call the four fundamental "baryons" ~ i = (Z +, X +, X o, yo) and assume the strong interactions are approximately invariant under 4 x 4 unitary transformations. For convenience, we let this representation of SU(4) be the 4. We furthermore assume that the strong interactions are exactly invariant ¢ under independent phase transformations of each of the four ~i and invariant under the isotopic group. (Z + and yo are isosinglets and (X +, X °) an isodoublet). The four conserved quantum numbers we define to be baryon number B, charm C, charge Q and hypercharge Y, and their assignments are shown in table 1. The eightfoldway - possibly amore exact symmetry than SU(4) - is a subgroup of SU(4) corre- sponding to unitary transformations of the three fundamental charmed fields (Z+, X+, XO). They transform under the SU(3) representation 3, while Y0 is an SU(3) singlet ... The model is vulnerable to rapid destruction by the experimentalists. The main prediction is the existence of the charmed ... mesons which can be produced in pairs pi-p, K-p and p(not)-p reactions, followed by weak but rapid decays into both Y-conserving and Y-violating channels. The baryon-lepton analogy lets us guess the order of magnitude of the decay r a t e s , and although the numbers cannot be taken too seriously, we summarize them in tables 2 and 3. Unless the charmed baryons have mass less than or the order of 2 GeV they decay strongly into the mesons. If they axe a little l i g h t e r , they probably decay nonleptonically with rates > 1011- 1012 sec -1, and with branching ratios into leptonic modes of a few percent. ...".
(I have a lot of doubts about the theory of quarks, and the theory that a property of "charm" exists.)
| (University of Copenhagen) Copenhagen, Denmark |
36 YBN
[07/10/1964 AD]
| 5726) US physicists, Val Logsdon Fitch (CE 1923-) and James Watson Cronin (CE 1931-) perform an experiment that they claim disproves the long-held theory that particle interaction should be indifferent to the direction of time.
In experiments conducted at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in 1964, Fitch and Cronin show that the decay of subatomic particles called K mesons could violate the general conservation law for weak interactions known as CP symmetry. This experiment implies a violation of the long-held principle of time-reversal invariance. The work done by Fitch and Cronin implies that reversing the direction of time would not precisely reverse the course of certain reactions of subatomic particles.
The claim is that Cronin and Fitch show that CP symmetry (charge and parity) are not always obeyed because neutral K-mesons, in their decay, on very rare occasions violate CP symmetry. As a result of this, symmetry in time (T) is added to CP symmetry making it CPT symmetry. So in cases where CP symmetry fails, T must also fail to make up for it, which means that time reversal does not also reverse events exactly on the subatomic level.
The Encyclopedia Britannica defines CP violation this way: CP violation, in particle physics, is a violation of the combined conservation laws associated with charge conjugation (C) and parity (P) by the weak force. The weak force is is responsible for reactions such as the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. Charge conjugation implies that every charged particle has an oppositely charged antimatter counterpart, or antiparticle. The antiparticle of an electrically neutral particle may be identical to the particle, as in the case of the neutral pi-meson, or it may be distinct, as with the antineutron. Parity, or space inversion, is the reflection through the origin of the space coordinates of a particle or particle system; i.e., the three space dimensions x, y, and z become, respectively, −x, −y, and −z. Stated more concretely, parity conservation means that left and right and up and down are indistinguishable in the sense that an atomic nucleus emits decay products up as often as down and left as often as right. For years it was assumed that elementary processes involving the electromagnetic force and the strong and weak forces exhibit symmetry with respect to both charge conjugation and parity—namely, that these two properties are always conserved in particle interactions. The same was held true for a third operation, time reversal (T), which corresponds to reversal of motion. Invariance under time implies that whenever a motion is allowed by the laws of physics, the reversed motion is also an allowed one. A series of discoveries from the mid-1950s caused physicists to alter significantly their assumptions about the invariance of C, P, and T. An apparent lack of the conservation of parity in the decay of charged K-mesons into two or three pi-mesons prompted the Chinese-born American theoretical physicists Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee to examine the experimental foundation of parity conservation itself. In 1956 they showed that there was no evidence supporting parity invariance in so-called weak interactions. Experiments conducted the following year demonstrated conclusively that parity is not conserved in particle decays, including nuclear beta decay, that occur via the weak force. These experiments also revealed that charge conjugation symmetry is broken during these decay processes as well. The discovery that the weak force conserves neither charge conjugation nor parity separately, however, led to a quantitative theory establishing combined CP as a symmetry of nature. Physicists reasoned that if CP is invariant, time reversal T has to be invarient too. But these experiments in 1964 by a team led by the US physicists James W. Cronin and Val Logsdon Fitch, demonstrate that the electrically neutral K-meson—which normally decays via the weak force to give three pi-mesons—decays a fraction of the time into only two such particles and thereby violates CP symmetry. CP violation implies nonconservation of T, provided that the long-held CPT theorem is valid. The CPT theorem, regarded as one of the basic principles of quantum field theory, states that all interactions should be invariant under the combined application of charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal in any order. CPT symmetry is an exact symmetry of all fundamental interactions. ...".
Chrientson, Cronin, Fitch and Turlay at Princeton public this find in "Phsyical Review Letters" as "Evidence for the 2π Decay of the K20 Meson". They write: " This Letter reports the results of experimental studies designed to search for the 2π decay of the K20 meson. Several previous experiments have served to set an upper limit of 1/300 for the fractino of K20's which decay into two charged pions. The present experiment, using spark chamber techniques, proposed to extend this limit. In this measurement, K20 mesons were produced at the Brookhaven AGS in an internal Be target bombarded by 30-BeV protons. A neutral beam was defined at 30 degrees relative to the circulating protons by a 1 1/2-in. x 1 1/2-in. x 48-in. collimator at an average distance of 14.5 ft. from the internal target. This collimator was followed by a sweeping magnet of 512 kG-in. at ~20 ft. and a 6-in. x 6-in. x 48-in. collimator at 55 ft. A 1 1/2-in. thickness of Pb was placed in front of the first collimator to attenuate the gamma rays in the beam. The experimental layout is shown in relation to the beam in Fig. 1. The detector for the decay products consisted of two spectrometers each composed of two spark chambers for track delineation separated by a magnetic field of 178 kG-in. The axis of each spectrometer was in the horizontal plane and each subtended an average solid angle of 0.7 x 10-2 steradians. The spark chambers were triggered on a coincidence between water Cherenkov and scintillation counters positioned immediately behind the spectrometers. When coherent K10 regeneration in solid materials was being studied, an anticoincidence counter was placed immediately behind the regenerator. To minimize interactions K20 decays were observed from a volume of He gas at nearly STP. The analysis program computed the vector momentum of each charged particle observed in the decay and the invariant mass, m*, assuming each charged particle has the mass of the charged pion. In this detector the Ke3 decay leads to a distribution in m* ranging from 280 MeV to ~536 MeV; the Kμ3, from 280 to ~516; and the Kπ3, from 280 to 363 MeV. We emphasize that m* equal to the K0 mass is not a preferred result when the three-body decays are analyzed in this way. In addition, the vector sum of the two momenta and the angle, θ, between it and the direction of the K20 beam were determined. This angle should be zero for two-body decay and is, in general, different from zero for three-body decays. ... For the K20 decays in He gas, the experimental distribution in m* is shown in Fig. 2(a). It is compared in the figure with the results of a Monte Carlo calculation which takes into account the nature of the interaction and the form factors involved in the decay, coupled with the detection efficiency of the apparatus. ... ... Again restricting our attention to those events with cosθ>0.999 99 and assuming one of the secondaries to be a pion, the mass of the other particle is determined to be 137.4 +-1.8. Fitted to a Gaussian shape the forward peak in Fig. 3 has a standard deviation of 4.0 +- 0.7 milliradians to be compared with 3.4+-0.3 milliradians for the tungsten. The events from the He gas appear identical with those from the coherent regeneratino in tungsten in both mass and angular speed. The relative efficiency for detection of the three-body K20 decays compared to that for decay to two pions is 0.23. We obtain 45 +- 9 events in the forward peak after subtractino of background out of a total corrected sample of 22 7000 K20 decays. Data taken with a hydrogen target in the beam also show evidence of a forward peak in the cosθ distribution. After subtraction of background, 45 +10 events are observed in the forward peak at the K0 mass. We estaimte that ~10 events can be expected from coherent regeneration. The number of events remaining (35) is entirely consistent with the decay data when the relative target volumes and integrated beam intensities are taken into account. This number is substantially smaller (by more than a factor of 15) than one would expect on the basis of the data of Adair et al. We have examined many possibilities which might lead to a pronounced forward peak in the angular distribution at the K0 mass. These include the follwoing: (i) L10 coherent regeneration. ... (ii) Km3 or Ke3 decay. ... (iii) Decay into pi+pi-gamma. ... We would conclude therefore that K20 decays to two pions with a branching ratio R=(K2-pi+ + pi-)/(K20 - all charged modes)= (2.0 +- 0.4) x 10-3 where the error is the standard deviation. As emphasized above, any alternate explanation of the effect requires highly nonphysical behavior of the three-body decays of the K20. The presence of a two-pion decay mode implies that the K20 meson is not a pure eigenstate of Cp. Expressed as ...where T1 and T2 are the K10 and K20 mean lives and RT is the brancing ratio including decay to two pi0. Using RT=3/2R and the branching ratio quoted above, |e|=~ 2.3 x 10-3. ...".
(Notice how the TL are capitalized which may imply "tell" the truth about neuron reading and writing.)
(Clearly the principle of conservation of matter is constant and so if a K meson separates into only two pi-mesons, the rest of the matter must be in some other particle, or the K meson was simply a lighter mass version. It seems very doubtful that the conservation of mass or motion laws will ever be violated.)
(Is charge conserved in particle interactions? I seriously doubt it. Probably charge is lost in many separations into photons.)
(This symmetry work, including the famous Nobel prize find of Lee and Yang of "parity" violation in the weak force, that is composite particle decay or self-separation, seems to me to be highly suspicious and most likely government and neuron corrupted. The Lee and Yang work is confirmed by people at the National bureau of Standards in Washington DC, and in this case, for time-reversal invarience, Fitch being conected to the US military and Los Alamos implies US government and neuron owner corruption. Perhaps Fitch was called upon to do service for the rogue portion of the US government again, but this time in the form of spreading fraudulent science to the excluded and then to receive a Nobel prize. Cronin has no apparent government connection, but graduated from Southern Methodist University at Dallas, Texas, a traditionally conservative city - and home city of both the Bush family and AT&T.)
(Technically, it is impossible to reverse time, humans can only try to reverse the movement of matter to mirror some event, and this seems to me very unlikly - in particular - we can't reverse the movements within atoms.)
(As inaccurate claims and lies accumulate over the years, it takes more effort to expose and reverse them. Much of this will be done quickly with the making public of thought-image and sound recording of the past. So at some time, clearly, the public will reach a point where everybody can quickly see which claim is a lie or is false and what the more accurate truth actually is.)
(With this claim: first, even if true - that a particle does not self-separate the same way every time, to me does not imply that there is some violation of the symmetry of time. I think this view originates in the idea that all these particles are fundamental particles and not composite particles built of light particles. Then, looking at the particle detection data - how can anybody be sure that these particles detected do not have very different masses - I doubt composite particle mass size can be so specifically detected.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
36 YBN
[07/15/1964 AD]
| 5770) C. Kumar N. Patel builds a CO2 laser, the most powerful commercial gas laser.
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
36 YBN
[09/24/1964 AD]
| 5746) Creation of the hypothetical "W" and "Z" boson particles, which are thought to unify a weak nuclear force and electromagnetism.
Pakistani-British physicist, Abdus Salam (CE 1926-1996), and J. C. Ward formulate an "electro-weak theory" which unifies the electromagnetic and the weak nuclear force and create the theory of weak vector bosons, or W and Z bosons.
US physicists Sheldon Lee Glashow (CE 1932- ) and Steven Weinberg (CE 1933- ) also formulate an "electro-weak theory" which unifies the electromagnetic and the weak nuclear force independently.
Salam creates hypothetical equations, which demonstrate an underlying relationship between the electromagnetic force and the weak nuclear force, postulates that the weak force must be transmitted by at the time-undiscovered particles known as weak vector bosons, or W and Z bosons. Weinberg and Glashow reach a similar conclusion using a different line of reasoning. The existence of the W and Z bosons will be verified in 1983 by people using particle accelerators at CERN.
Bosons are any of a class of elementary or composite particles, including the photon, pion, and gluon, that are not subject to the Pauli exclusion principle (that is, any two bosons can potentially be in the same quantum state). The value of the spin of a boson is always an integer. Mesons are bosons, as are the gauge bosons (the particles that mediate the fundamental forces). They are named after the physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.
Salam and Ward publish this in "Physics Letters" as "Electromagnetic and Weak interactions". They write: "One of the recurrent dreams in elementary particles physics is that of a possible fundamental synthesis between electro-magnetism and weak interactions . The idea has its origin in the following shared c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s : 1) Both forces affect equally all forms of matterleptons as well as hadrons. 2) Both are vector in character. 3) Both (individually) possess universal coupling strengths. Since universality and vector character are features of a gauge-theory these shared c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s suggest that weak forces just like the electromagnetic forces arise from a gauge principle. There of course also are profound differences: 1) Electromagnetic coupling strength is vastly different from the weak. Quantitatively one may state it thus: if weak forces are assumed to have been mediated by intermediate bosons (W), the boson mass would have to equal 137 M,,, in order that the (dimensionless) weak co~lpling constant gw2/4~ equals e2/4~. In the sequel we assume just this. For the out r ageous ma s s value i t sel f (Mw ~ 137 M P ) we can offer no explanation. We seek however for a synthesis in terms of a group structure such that the remaining differences, viz: 2) Contrasting space-time behaviour (V for electromagnetic versus V and A for weak). 3) And contrasting AS and AI behaviours both appear as aspects of the same fundamental symmetry. Naturally for hadrons at least the group structure must be compatible with SU 3. ...".
(Salam's papers are extremely mathematical and abstract in nature - there is very little cmoparison to observable and understandable phenomena.)
(I doubt that there is a particle that is responsible for composite particle decay. Instead I think that all matter is made of light particles, and composite particles decay because of internal particle collision, or simply as a result of the motion of a sub-atomic particle. The finding of boson particles at CERN, in my view, is simply the possibility of finding particles of a wide variety of masses and is used to justify the massive expenses of maintaining large particle accelerators. It seems clear to me that all mesons, bosons, fermions, protons, atoms, etc are all made of light particles that are material particles with mass.)
(I see the creation of a W particle but not the unified Z particle in this paper.)
(I have doubts about nuclear forces, but perhaps they are useful in describing nuclear phenomena. Perhaps they describe a collective many particle phenomenon. I think there may be many collective phenomena that result simply from gravity, light particles and space. The most simple view is one force in the universe, but one question is, at what point do you decide that some constant collective effect such as the electric effect, or the phenomenon of advanced life should be referred to as a distinct "force". For simplicity, describing these collective forces is much easier. But for the nuclear force, is there such a phenomenon or is something else happening in the nucleus? For example, I find doubtful the claims that a weak-boson is responsible for atomic decay, that a gluon is responsible for protons holding together, and that a photon is responsible for the electric force. I can see that viewing the action-at-a-distance theories of gravity and electromagnetism as the result of particle-collision only, seems more mechanically understandable.)
(state more clearly what observations support this claim. This is the claim that a Z particle decays into a weak boson, which is the carrier of the weak force, and a photon? the carrier of the electromagnetic force at high energy, and the theory is that these forces are unified as the Z particle in an early universe when all matter is located in one tiny space. I reject the big bang theory, and the claim of weak nuclear forces controlled by particles - I opt for the theory that composite particles self-separate (decay) because of internal particle collision and/or other internal particle motions.)
(I doubt the existance of nuclear forces. The theory I favor is a universe with only particle collision, but I think that there needs to be more evidence and modeling done. I think there are possibilities for composite forces, for example, some larger phenomenon being labeled as a force. I think there will always be phenomena in the universe that defy definition with a simple force - for example how living objects build globular clusters - this seems beyond particle collision, gravitation, or electromagnetism, etc. )
(State what the observational evidence is for this theory.)
(One thing that amazes me is that the theory of all matter being made of light particles has not even been made public yet. And so, the idea that light particles are emitted when atoms are combusted has not been carefully examined - for example, I think that there is a strong argument that entire atoms are separated into light particles with many simple combustion reactions - including protons and electrons in the nucleus - if not - explaining that extra matter is difficult. If it comes from the electrons, then clearly there are electrons with many different masses and so charge is not related to mass. Beyond that, the emission spectrum of molecules and atoms might relate to this separation of atoms into their source light particles. Probably those that own neuron writing figured this out years ago.)
| (Imperial College) London, England |
36 YBN
[10/08/1964 AD]
| 5569) Soviet physicists, Georgii Nikolaevich Flerov (CE 1913-1990) and group report the identification of element 104, by colliding a beam of neon-22 ions with plutnium-242, using a conveyor belt to transport the reaction products frmo the target to the detectors.
Element 104 is the first of the trans-actinide elements.
This work is published in the journal "Physics Letters" as "Synthesis and Physical Identification of the Isotop of Element 104 with mass Number 260". Flerov in a group of nine scientists write: "Theoretical and experimental investigations of the spontaneous fission r e g u l a r i t i e s of nuclei in the ground state, indicate that the probability of this process increases as the parameter ZZ/A grows larger. Proceeding from this fact one expects that the element 104 isotope with mass number 260 will mainly decay by spontaneous fission. However, it is very difficult to predict the spontaneous fission half-life of this isotope. An estimate of this half-life can be obtained from an extrapolation into the Z = 104 region of the empirical dependence upon various nuclear parameters; thus one finds a Tsf value in the 10 -3 - 1 sec range. On the other hand, theoretical calculations on the basis of a single-nucleon structure lead to the substantially smaller value Tsf = 5 x 10-6 sec. However, the same calculations yield Ts~ = 0.02 sec for 102256, whereas the experimental half-life for spontaneous fission is Ts~ = 1500 sec . It then seems reasonable to expect that the half-life of 104260 will also be considerably larger than the calculated value. Therefore we have worked out methods to search for spontaneous fission of the element 104. The experiments have been conducted with the internal beam of the 300 cm heavy ion cyclotron, using the Pu 242 (Ne22,4n) 104260 reaction. The schematic experimental arrangement is shown in fig. 1. It is a nickel conveyor belt, 8 m long, designed for the transportation of the reaction products from the target to detectors. The conveyor belt speed can be varied over a wide range. The fission fragment detectors are made of phosphate glass . At a given belt speed the track distribution over the detectors gives information concerning the half-life of nuclei synthesized in the reactions. The target consisted of a mixture of plutonium isotopes (97% Pu 242, 1.5% Pu 240 and 1.5% Pu 238) mounted on a thin alurninium foil. The target was 700 ~g/cm 2 thick and was covered with nickel of approx imately 100 ~g/cm 2. In the f i r s t experiments, at an incident particle energy of 113-115 MeV, the formation has been observed ~f a spontaneously fissioning isotope with a half-life of about 0.3 sec and a cross section of about 2 × 10 -34 cm 2. The decay curve is shown in fig. 2. ... Thus, the results of the experiments (the shape of the excitation function, the cross section value at the maximum, the absence of the effect in test experiments with other ions and targets) have given sufficient ground to propose the formation of an element 104 isotope with mass number 260 in the reaction Pu 242 (Ne22,4n). The element undergoes spontaneous fission with a half-life of 0.3 ± 0.1 sec. ...".
(Note the use and photo of a conveyor belt which seems possibly to be related to large scale transmutation work.)
| (Joint Institute for Nuclear Research, Laboratory of Nuclear Reactions) Moscow, (U.S.S.R. now) Russia |
36 YBN
[12/17/1964 AD]
| 5585) Renato Dulbecco (DuLBeKO) (CE 1914-), Italian-US virologist, shows that the polyoma virus inserts its DNA into the DNA of the host cell and that the cell is then transformed into a cancer cell, reproducing the viral DNA along with its own and producing more cancer cells.
Dulbecco suggests that human cancers can be caused by similar reproduction of foreign DNA fragments. This work provides an experimental method where the processes by which a normal cell becomes cancerous can be studied in a relatively simplified form.
Dulbecco, Hartwell and Vogt publish this in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "INDUCTION OF CELLULAR DNA SYNTHESIS BY POLYOMA VIRUS". They write: "The transformation of normal cells into tumor cells by polyoma virus is caused by the interaction of susceptible cells with the DNA of the virus. Thus, purified polyoma virus DNA has been shown to transform cells cultured in vitro,' whereas the empty protein shells of the virus do not produce this effect.2 Consequently, a knowledge of the functions of the viral genes is basic to an understanding of the mechanisms of cell transformation. With the hope of identifying these functions, we have initiated a study of the biochemical events which occur after the cytocidal infection of mouse kidney cells by polyoma virus. This article describes the effects of virus infection upon DNA synthesis and upon the activity of enzymes involved in DNA synthesis. One of the most interesting findings was that the virus induces the synthesis of cellular DNA in addition to viral DNA. ... Summary.-Crowded cultures of mouse kidney cells have a very low rate of DNA synthesi s, and very low activities of the enzymes involved in DNA synthesis. After infection with polyoma virus, both the enzyme activities and the rate of DNA synthesis markedly increase. It is of special interest that the DNA synthesized in the infected cells is predominantly cellular. The ability of the virus to stimulate the synthesis of cellular DNA may be related to its tumorigenic property.".
| (The Salk Institute For Biological Studies) San Diego, California, USA |
36 YBN
[12/??/1964 AD]
| 5497) Remond and Lesevre are the first to show a topographical map of relative electric voltages measured on the surface of the head (EEG) caused by evoked external stimulus.
This brings the public closer to knowing the truth about neuron reading and writing. This work done, possibly 154 years after thought-audio was first heard in 1810.
(Get photos and birth-death dates)
| (La Salpetriere), Paris, France |
36 YBN
[1964 AD]
| 3980) Liquid Crystal Display.
(Although it seems likely that the LCD, like seeing eyes and hearing thought happened far earlier but was kept secret.)
| RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
36 YBN
[1964 AD]
| 5803) Issac Asimov (aZimoV) (CE 1920-1992), Russian-US biochemist and science writer, creates an encyclopedia of the greatest scientists in history which popularizes science and the history of science, in addition to telling each story free from religion. Asimov reduces abstract and complex events in the history of science into basic and simple form for average people, which greatly helps the cause of science and life of earth.
This book serves as one of the inspirations for the "Universe, Life, Science, Future" project. it would be interesting to see the thought-images and discussion that lead to the publishing of this book.
| (Boston University) Bostom, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
35 YBN
[01/08/1965 AD]
| 5719) First sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid (an alanine T-RNA molecule) determined.
Robert William Holley (CE 1922-1993), US chemist, and team determine the molecular structure of a T-RNA molecule. This is the first determination of the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid. Holley and team use a process of digesting the molecule with enzymes, identifying the pieces, then figuring out how they fit together. Later work will show that all transfer RNAs have similar structures.
Holley and team publish this in "Science" as "Structure of a Ribonucleic Acid". They write for an abstract: "The complete nucleotide sequence of an alanine transfer RNA, isolated from yeast, has been determined. This is the first nucleic acid for which the structure is known.".
| (Cornell University) Ithaca, New York, USA |
35 YBN
[02/15/1965 AD]
| 5744) Baruch Samuel Blumberg (CE 1925-2011), US physician, discovers the "Australian antigen" which leads to the development of a test for the hepatitis virus and a vaccine against the disease hepatitus B, the most severe form of hepatitis.
Blumberg creates a test for the hepatitis virus that will result in lower hepatitis infections from blood transfusions. Blumberg finds a protein in the blood of Australian Aborigine people that is similar to one found in people suffering from hepatitis. Blumberg recognizes the protein as part of a virus that causes hepatitis and develops a method of detecting the protein and this allows blood being used for transfusion to be checked and lowers the incidence of hepatitis infection in blood transfusion.
In the early 1960s Blumberg was examining blood samples from widely diverse populations in an attempt to determine why the members of different ethnic and national groups vary widely in their responses and susceptibility to disease. In 1963 Blumberg discovers in the blood serum of an Australian aborigine an antigen that he later (1967) determines to be part of a virus that causes hepatitis B, the most severe form of hepatitis. The discovery of this so-called Australian antigen, which causes the body to produce antibody responses to the virus, makes it possible to screen blood donors for possible hepatitis B transmission. Further research indicates that the body’s development of antibody against the Australian antigen is protective against further infection with the virus itself. In 1982 a safe and effective vaccine utilizing Australian antigen is made commercially available in the United States.
Baruch Blumberg and Alter Harvey publish this in the "Journal of the American Medical Association" as "A "New" Antigen in Leukemia Sera". They write: "Patient s who receive large numbers of transfusions for anemia and other causes may develop precipitins in their blood. These precipitins may react in agar gel double diffusion experiments with specific human serum lipoprotein found in the blood of other individuals. Since these precipitins were found only in patients who had received transfusions they were thought to be antibodies against serum lipoproteins which developed in the patients as a result of the repeated transfusions. The precipitin is referred to as an isoprecipitin since it develops against a specificity found in an individual from the same species. The antilipoprotein isoprecipitin1,2 developed in approximately 30% of 47 patients with thalassemia who had received transfusions. Isoprecipitins also developed in smaller number of transfused patients with other diseases. All precipitins stained with sudan black, a dye specific for lipid. Immunoelectrophoretic and ultracentrifugal studies showed that the protein with which the isoprecipitins reacted was a ...". (print more of article)
(Asimov will eventually die from an HIV virus that enters his body from a blood transfusion. Perhaps a test for proteins in the HIV virus developed after. It shows all the more why we should be actively supportive of science, because it may save, make more pleasant, or increase the duration of our own lives.)
(It seems very likely that Blumberg was murdered using remote motor-neuron particle beam activation (neuron writing). To die less than 1 month before I complete the ULSF profile of Blumberg seems beyond coincidence - as was the case for William Lipscomb. If there is no clear signs of heart disease like clogged arteries then a fibrillation - uncontrolled twitching or quivering of muscular fibrils - would be doubtful as anything other than remote neuron activation.)
(Make a record for the discovery that the antigen is part of the virus that causes Hepatitus B.)
| (Institute for Cancer Research) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA and (U.S. National Institutes for Health) Maryland, USA |
35 YBN
[03/29/1965 AD]
| 5731) Cyril Ponnamperuma (PoNoMPRUmo) (CE 1923-1994), Sri-Lankese-US biochemist, and Ruth Mack form the five nucleotides present in RNA and DNA under conditions considered to be abiotic and that could have existed on the primitive earth.
Ponnamperuma and Ruth Mack show show that nucleotides and dinucleotides can be formed by abiotic processes alone. This is important in studying the origin of life.
Ponnamperuma and Mack publish this in "Science" as "Nucleotide Synthesis under Possible Primitive Earth Conditions". As an abstract they write: "The nucleosides adenosine, guanosine, cytidine, uridine, and thymidine were each heated with inorganic phosphate. Nucleoside monophosphates were formed in appreciable yield. This result has a bearing on the hypothesis of chemical evolution.". In the body of the paper they write: "In our study of chemical evolution the main endeavor has been to reconstruct the path by which the constituents of the nucleic acid molecule could have arisen on the primordial earth before the appearance of life. The synthesis of the bases, adenine and guanine, and the sugars, ribose and deoxyribose, under simulated primitive earth conditions has been demonstrated earlier (1). Recent experiments have also shown that the nucleosides, adenosine and deoxyadenosine, could be formed in such an environment (2). Several attempts have already been made to synthesize nucleotides abiotically (3). Previously, we found that, when a dilute solution of adenine and ribose was irradiated with ultraviolet light in the presence of ethyl metaphosphate, the nucleotides AMP, ADP, ATP, and A4P (mono-, di-, tri-, and tetraphosphates of adenosine) were formed. Although the source of phosphorus used in this experiment was not one most likely to be found on the primitive earth, the result clearly established that the process could occur abiotically. We now find that the simple expedient of heating a nucleoside with a source of inorganic phosphate gives rise to the nucleoside monophosphates in appreciable yield. In a series of experiments, the nucleosides adenosine, guanosine, cytidine, uridine, and thymidine were heated with sodium dihydrogen orthophosphate, NaH2PO4. Two sets of experiments were performed. In the first, the nucleosides were labeled with 14C (specific activity of i mc/mmole). In the second, the phosphate was also labeled with 2p. An aqueous solution, 100 LI, containing 2 umole of a nucleoside and 2 ,umole of the phosphate was placed in a 5-ml pyrex tube and lyophilized. By this method a film of solid material containing an intimate mixture of the nucleoside and the phos- phosphate was deposited on the walls of the tube. The tube was then sealed and heated to 160?C for 2 hours. After the tube was cooled to room temperature the seal was broken, and the contents were dissolved in 200 /l of water. This solution containing the reaction products was then analyzed. The analytical techniques used were electrophoresis, paper chromatography, electrophoresis combined with paper chromatography, and ion-exchange chromatography. In each one of these methods the identification of individual products was made with the coincidence technique of chromatography (4). This method, which had earlier been used by us for paper chromatography alone, was now extended to electrophoresis and ion-exchange chromatography ... The percentage yields of monophosphate of different types of nucleosides were adenosine, 3.1; guanosine, 9.8; cytidine, 13.7; uridine, 20.6; thymidine, 6.3. Thus uridine monophosphate was obtained in highest yield and adenosine monophosphate in lowest. The pyrimidine nucleosides gave higher yields than the purine nucleosides. We also have preliminary evidence for the presence of dinucleoside phosphates ApA, GpG, UpU, CpC, and TpT (A, adenosine; G, guanosine; C, cytidine; U, uridine; T, thymidine). ... There is also an indication from the electrophoretic migration that the nucleoside diphosphates and nucleoside triphosphates are formed in this reaction. It has been successfully demonstrated that methane, ammonia, and water can, by the action of various forms of energy, give rise to some of the constituents of the nucleic acid molecule and of the protein molecule. Different solutions to this problem have been proposed. Amino acids have been copolymerized to give compounds of high molecular weight by heating them in the absence of water (12). Dehydrations have also been effected in dilute aqueous solutions (13). In our laboratory several possibilities have been studied-dry conditions, a dilute aqueous milieu, an envi ronment with a relative absence of water, and reactions in contact with the surface of a clay bed (14). We have presented the results of reactions in an environment with a relative absence of water. Since water is not incompatible with this reaction and does not hinder it unless present in large excess, the conditions under which the reaction proceeds may be described as hypohydrous. The maximum temperature was 160?C. Whereas we obtain a yield of about 20 percent at that temperature in 2 hours, experiments at 80?C have given us a yield of monophosphate of about 3 percent in 12 days. ... ... We do not know how catalytic or surface reactions could accelerate this process. Preliminary evidence from our own experiments suggests that the surface of clay can promote such a reaction. Our report establishes very clearly that the five nucleotides present in RNA and DNA can be prepared in good yield under conditions which may be considered to be genuinely abiotic and which could reasonably have existed on the primitive earth.".
(More detail what are the starting molecules?)
(This may mean that nucleotides were around perhaps long before the first RNA or DNA molecule.)
(Get birth-death dates and photo for Ruth Mack.)
| (NASA Ames Research Center) Moffett Field, California, USA |
35 YBN
[05/13/1965 AD]
| 5797) Finding of "background radiation" and claim that this supports the "Big Bang" expanding universe theory of Gamow.
Arno Allan Penzias (CE 1933- ), German-US physicist, and Robert Woodrow Wilson (CE 1936- ), US radio astronomer detect a distinct radiation coming from all direction in equal quantities, and Dicke, et al, conclude that this is the residue of radio waves that remain from a big bang creation predicted by Gamow 20 years before. The radiation fits what Dicke believes should be the result from the big bang if the average temperature of the universe is now 3˚K. Asimov states that this "echo" of the big bang virtually ends Hoyle's steady-state universe.
Penzias and Wilson and Dicke, Peebles, Roll and Wilkinson publish two articles together sequentially in "Astrophysical Journal". Penzias and Wilson's article is titled "A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s.". They write: "Measurements of the effective zenith noise temperature of the 20-foot horn-reflector antenna (Crawford, Hogg, and Hunt 1961) at the Crawford Hill Laboratory, Holmdel, New jersey, at 4080 Mc / s have yielded a value about 3.5° K higher than expected. This excess temperature is, within the limits of our observations, isotropic, unpolarized, and free from seasonal variations (]uly, 1964—April, 1965). A possible explanation for the observed excess noise temperature is the one given by Dicke, Peebles, Roll, and Wilkinson (1965) in a companion letter in this issue. E The total antenna temperature measured at the zenith is 6.7° K of which 2.3° K is due to atmospheric absorption. The calculated contribution due to ohmic losses in the antenna and back-lobe response is 0.9° K. The radiometer used in this investigation has been described elsewhere (Penzias and Wilson 1965). It employs a traveling-wave maser, a low—loss (0.027-db) comparison switch, and a liquid helium———cooled reference termination (Penzias 1965). Measurements were made by switching manually between the antenna input and the reference termina- tion. The antenna, reference termination, and radiometer were well matched so that a round trip return loss of more than 55 db existed throughout the measurement; thus errors in the measurement of the effective temperature due to impedance mismatch can be neglected. The estimated error in the measured value of the total antenna temperature is 0.3° K and comes largely from uncertainty in the absolute calibration of the reference termination. The contribution to the antenna temperature due to atmospheric absorption was ob- tained by recording the variation in antenna temperature with elevation angle and em- ploying the secant law. The result, 2.3° j 0.3° K, is in good agreement with published values (Hogg 1959; DeGrasse, Hogg, Ohm, and Scovil 1959; Ohm 1961). The contribution to the antenna temperature from ohmic losses is computed to be 0.8° i 0.4° K. In this calculation we have divided the antenna into three parts: (1) two non-uniform tapers approximately 1 m in total length which transform between the 2%-inch round output waveguide and the 6—inch-square antenna throat opening; (2) a double-choke rotary joint located between these two tapers; (3) the antenna itself . Care was taken to clean and align joints between these parts so that they would not sig- nificantly increase the loss in the structure. Appropriate tests were made for leakage and loss in the rotary joint with negative results. The possibility of losses in the antenna horn due to imperfections in its seams was eliminated by means of a taping test. Taping all the seams in the section near the throat and most of the others with aluminum tape caused no observable change in antenna temperature. The backlobe response to ground radiation is taken to be less than 0.1° K for two reasons: (1) Measurements of the response of the antenna to a small transmitter located on the ground in its vicinity indicate that the average back-lobe level is more than 30 db below isotropic response. The horn-reiiector antenna was pointed to the zenith for these measurements, and complete rotations in azimuth were made with the transmitter in each of ten locations using horizontal and vertical transmitted polarization from each position. (2) Measurements on smaller horn—refiector antennas at these laboratories, using pulsed measuring sets on Hat antenna ranges, have consistently shown a back-lobe level of 30 db below isotropic response. Our larger antenna would be expected to have an even lower back-lobe level. From a combination of the above, we compute the remaining unaccounted-for antenna temperature to be 3.5° i 1.0° K at 4080 Mc/ s. In connection with this result it should be noted that DeGrasse et al. (1959) and Ohm (1961) give total system temperatures at 5650 Mc / s and 2390 Mc/ s, respectively. From these it is possible to infer upper limits to the background temperatures at these frequencies. These limits are, in both cases, of the same general magnitude as our value. We are grateful to R. H. Dicke and his associates for fruitful discussions of their re- sults prior to publication. We also wish to acknowledge with thanks the useful comments and advice of A. B. Crawford, D. C. Hogg, and E. A. Ohm in connection with the problems associated with this measurement.
Note added in proof.-——The highest frequency at which the background temperature of the sky had been measured previously was 404 Mc/s (Pauliny-Toth and Shakeshaft · 1962), where a minimum temperature of 16° K was observed. Combining this value I with our result, we lind that the average spectrum of the background radiation over this frequency range can be no steeper than A0 7. This clearly eliminates the possibility that the radiation we observe is due to radio sources of types known to exist, since in this event, the spectrum would have to be very much steeper.". Dicke, et al publish a paper just before Penzias and Wilson's paper, they title "Cosmic Black-Body Radiation". They write: "One of the basic problems of cosmology is the singularity characteristic of the familiar cosmologica l solutions of Einstein’s iield equations. Also puzzling is the presence of mat- ter in excess over antimatter in the universe, for baryons and leptons are thought to be conserved. Thus, in the framework of conventional theory we cannot understand the origin of matter or of the universe. We can distinguish three main attempts to deal with these problems. 1. The assumption of continuous creation (Bondi and Gold 1948; Hoyle 1948), which avoids the singularity by postulating a universe expanding for all time and a continuous but slow creation of new matter in the universe. 2. The assumption (Wheeler 1964) that the creation of new matter is intimately re- lated to the existence of the singularity, and that the resolution of both paradoxes may be found in a proper quantum mechanical treatment of Einstein’s field equations. 3. The assumption that the singularity results from a mathematical over-idealization, the requirement of strict isotropy or uniformity, and that it would not occur in the real world (Wheeler 1958; Lifshitz and Khalatnikov 1963). éi If this third premise is accepted tentatively as a working hypothesis, it carries with it a P1 possible resolution of the second paradox, for the matter we see about us now may repre- sent the same baryon content of the previous expansion of a closed universe, oscillating for all time. This relieves us of the necessity of understanding the origin of matter at any finite time in the past. In this picture it is essential to suppose that at the time of maxi- mum collapse the temperature of the universe would exceed 1010 ° K, in order that the ashes of the previous cycle would have been reprocessed back to the hydrogen required for the stars in the next cycle. Even without this hypothesis it is of interest to inquire about the temperature of the universe in these earlier times. From this broader viewpoint we need not limit the dis- cussion to closed oscillating models. Even if the universe had a singular origin it might have been extremely hot in the early stages. Could the universe have been filled with black-body radiation from this possible high- temperature state? If so, it is important to notice that as the universe expands the cosmological redshift would serve to adiabatically cool the radiation, while preserving the thermal character. The radiation temperature would vary inversely as the expansion parameter (radius) of the universe. The presence of thermal radiation remaining from the fireball is to be expected if we can trace the expansion of the universe back to a time when the temperature was of the order of 1010° K (~ m,,c0). In this state, we would expect to find that the electron abundance had increased very substantially, due to thermal electron-pair production, to a density characteristic of the temperature only. One readily verifies that, whatever the previous history of the universe, the photon absorption length would have been short with this high electron density, and the radiation content of the universe would have promptly adjusted to a thermal equilibrium distribution due to pair—creation and an- nihilation processes. This adjustment requires a time interval short compared with the characteristic expansion time of the universe, whether the cosmology is general rela- tivity or the more rapidly evolving Brans-Dicke theory (Brans and Dicke 1961). The above equilibrium argument may be applied also to the neutrino abundance. In the epoch where T > 1010 ° K, the very high thermal electron and photon abundance would be sufficient to assure an equilibrium thermal abundance of electron-type neutri- nos, assuming the presence of neutrino-antineutrino pair-production processes. This means that a strictly thermal neutrino and antineutrino distribution, in thermal equi- librium with the radiation, would have issued from the highly contracted phase. Con- ceivably, even gravitational radiation could be in thermal equilibrium. Without some knowledge of the density of matter in the primordial fireball we cannot predict the present radiation temperature. However, a rough upper limit is provided by the observation that black-body radiation at a temperature of 40° K provides an energy density of 2 X 10*20 gm cm0, very roughly the maximum total energy density com- patible with the observed Hubble constant and acceleration parameter. Evidently, it would be of considerable interest to attempt to detect this primeval thermal radiation directly. Two of us (P. G. R. and D. T. W.) have constructed a radiometer and receiving horn capable of an absolute measure of thermal radiation at a wavelength of 3 cm. The choice of wavelength was dictated by two considerations, that at much shorter wavelengths atmospheric absorption would be troublesome, while at longer wavelengths galactic and extragalactic emission would be appreciable. Extrapolating from the observed back- ground radiation at longer wavelengths (~ 100 cm) according to the power—law spectra characteristic of synchrotron radiation or bremsstrahlung, we can conclude that the total background at 3 cm due to the Galaxy and the extragalactic sources should not exceed 5 X 10”3 ° K when averaged over all directions. Radiation from stars at 3 cm is < 10*9 ° K. The contribution to the background due to the atmosphere is expected to be approximately 3.5° K, and this can be accurately measured by tipping the antenna (Dicke, Beringer, Kyhl, and Vane 1946). E While we have not yet obtained results with our instrument, we recently learned that Penzias and Wilson (1965) of the Bell Telephone Laboratories have observed background radiation at 7.3-cm wavelength. In attempting to eliminate (or account for) every con- tribution to the noise seen at the output of their receiver, they ended with a residual of 3.5° 1- 1° K. Apparently this could only be due to radiation of unknown origin entering the antenna. It is evident that more measurements are needed to determine a spectrum, and we expect to continue our work at 3 cm. We also expect to go to a wavelength of 1 cm. We unde rstand that measurements at wavelengths greater than 7 cm may be filled in by Penzi as and Wilson. A temperature in excess of 1010 ° K during the highly contracted phase of the universe is strongly implied by a present temperature of 3.5° K for black—body radiation. There are two reasonable cases to consider. Assuming a singularity-free oscillating cosmology, we believe that the temperature must have been high enough to decompose the heavy elements from the previous cycle, for there is no observational evidence for significant amounts of heavy elements in outer parts of the oldest stars in our Galaxy. If the cosmo- logical solution has a singularity, the temperature would rise much higher than 10“’ ° K in approaching the singularity (see, e.g., Fig. 1). It has been pointed out by one of us (P. ]. E. P.) that the observation of a temperature as low as 3.5° K, together with the estimated abundance of helium in the protogalaxy, provides some important evidence on possible cosmologies (Peebles 1965). This comes about in the following way. Considering again the epoch T >> 1010 ° K, we see that the presence of the thermal electrons and neutrinos would have assured nearly equal abun- dances of neutrons and protons. Once the temperature has fallen so low that photodis- sociation of deuterium is not too great, the neutrons and protons can combine to form deuterium, which in turn readily burns to helium. This was the type of process envisioned by Gamow, Alpher, Herman, and others (Alpher, Bethe, and Gamow 1948; Alpher, F ollin, and Herman 1953; sHoyle and Tayler 1964). Evidently the amount of helium produced depends on the density of matter at the time helium formation became possible. If at this time the nucleon density were great enough, an appreciable amount of helium would have been produced before the density fell too low for reactions to occur. Thus, from an upper limit on the possible helium abundance in the protogalaxy we can place an upper limit on the matter density at the time of helium formation (which occurs at a fairly definite temperature, almost independent of density) and hence, given the density of matter in the present universe, we have a lower limit on the present radiation tempera- ture. This limit varies as the cube root of the assumed present mean density of matter. While little is reliably known about the possible helium content of the protogalaxy, a reasonable upper bound consistent with present abundance observations is 25 per cent helium by mass. With this limit, and assuming that general relativity is valid, then if the present radiation temperature were 3.5° K, we conclude that the matter density in the universe could not exceed 3 X 10**2 gm cm3. (See Peebles 1965 for a detailed develop- ment of the factors determining this value.) This is a factor of 20 below the estimated average density from matter in galaxies (Oort 1958), but the estimate probably is not reliab le enough to rule out this low density. CONCLUSIONS While all the data are not yet in hand we propose to present here the possible conclu- sions to be drawn if we tentatively assume that the measurements of Penzias and Wilson (1965) do indicate black-body radiation at 3.5° K. We also assume that the universe can be considered to be isotropic and uniform, and that the present energy density in gravi- tational radiation is a small part of the whole. Wheeler (1958) has remarked that gravita- tional radiation could be important. For the purpose of obtaining definite numerical results we take the present Hubble 5* redshift age to be 1019 years. Assuming the validity of Einstein’s field equations, the above discussion and numerical values impose severe restrictions on the cosmological problem. The possible conclusions are conveniently discussed under two headings, the assumption of a universe with either an open or a closed space. Open umZ·verse.——F rom the present observations we cannot exclude the possibility that the total density of matter in the universe is substantially below the minimum value 2 >< 10*29 gm cm9 required for a closed universe. Assuming general relativity is valid, we have concluded from the discussion of the connection between helium production and the present radiation temperature that the present density of material in the universe must be S 3 >< 10*92 gm cm9, a factor of 600 smaller than the limit for a closed universe. The thermal-radiation energy density is even smaller, and from the above arguments we expect the same to be true of neutrinos. Apparently, with the assumption of general relativity and a primordial temperature consistent with the present 3.5° K, we are forced to adopt an open space, with very low density. This rules out the possibility of an oscillating universe. Furthermore, as Einstein (1950) remarked, this result is distinctly non-Machian, in the sense that, with such a low mass density, we cannot reasonably assume that the local inertial properties of space are determined by the presence of matter, rather than by some absolute property of space. Closed 1/miverse.————This could be the type of oscillating universe visualized in the intro- ductory remarks, or it could be a universe expanding from a singular state. In the frame- work of the present discussion the required mass density in excess of 2 >< 10*29 gm cm9 could not be due to thermal radiation, or to neutrinos, and it must be presumed that it is due to ordinary matter, perhaps intergalactic gas uniformly distributed or else in large clouds (small protogalaxies) that have not yet generated stars (see Fig. 1). With this large matter content, the limit placed on the radiation temperature by the low helium content of the solar system is very severe. The present black-body tempera- ture would be expected to exceed 309 K (Peebles 1965). One way that we have found rea- sonably capable of decreasing this lower bound to 3.59 K is to introduce a zero-mass scalar field into the cosmology. It is convenient to do this without invalidating the Einstein field equation, and the form of the theory for which the scalar interaction ap- pears as an ordinary matter interaction (Dicke 1962) has been employed. The cosmologi- cal equation (Brans and Dicke 1961) was originally integrated for a cold universe only, but a recent investigation of the solutions for a hot universe indicates that with the scalar field the universe would have expanded through the temperature range T ~ 109 ° K so fast that essentially no helium would have been formed. The reason for this is that the static part of the scalar field contributes a pressure just equal to the scalar-field energy density. By contrast, the pressure due to incoherent electromagnetic radiation or to relativistic particles is one third of the energy density. Thus, if we traced back to a highly contracted universe, we would find that the scalar-field energy density exceeded all other contributions, and that this fast increasing scalar—f1eld energy caused the uni- verse to expand through the highly contracted phase much more rapidly than would be the case if the scalar field vanished. The essential element is that the pressure approaches the energy density, rather than one third of the energy density. Any other interaction which would cause this, such as the model given by Zel’dovich (1962), would also prevent appreciable helium production in the highly contracted universe. Returning to the problem stated in the first paragraph, we conclude that it is possible to save baryon conservation in a reasonable way if the universe is closed and oscillating. To avoid a catastrophic helium production, either the present matter density should be < 3 X 10*92 gm/cm9, or there should exist some form of energy content with very high pressure, such as the zero-mass scalar, capable of speeding the universe through the period of helium formation. To have a closed space, an energy density of 2 X 10—29 gm/cm3 is needed. Without a zero—1nass scalar, or some other "hard" interaction, the 7* energy could not be in the form of ordinary matter and may be presumed to be gravita- tional radiation (Wheeler 1958). One other possibility for closing the universe, with matter providing the energy con- tent of the universe, is the assumption that the universe contains a net electron-type neutrino abundance (in excess of antineutrinos) greatly larger than the nucleon abun- dance. In this case, if the neutrino abundance were so great that these neutrinos are degen erate, the degeneracy would have forced a negligible equilibrium neutron abun- dance in the early, highly contracted universe, thus removing the possibility of nuclear reactions leading to helium formation. However, the required ratio of lepton to baryon number must be > 109. We deeply appreciate the helpfulness of Drs. Penzias and Wilson of the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Crawford Hill, Holmdel, New Jersey, in discussing with us the result of their measurements and in showing us their receiving system. We are also grateful for several helpful suggestions of Professor . A. Wheeler.".
(There is a very simple idea of a sphere around the earth which is defined by the size of a light particle detector. The bigger the detector the better the chance a light particle from a source will collide with it and be detected. As a detector moves away from a source emitting photons in every direction, the number of possible angles or directions a photon beam can be moving in increases. At some distance, there are so many possible angles that there is 0 probability of any light particle going in the exact direction of a tiny detector here on earth. When we look at history, underestimating the size of the universe is the rule for humans. Before Rosi people did not even see any other galaxy clearly. With each generation a bigger telescope is built and this pushes the known or observable universe farther in space and age. So, let us not make the same mistake when more distant galaxies are seen when we build the next bigger telescope, perhaps between planets Earth and Mars (for example coordinating telescopes on these two planets), that lo and behold our original size and age estimate was far too small and far too young, and let us accept that the universe is probably infinite in size and age.)
(Note that both Penzias and Wilson are employeed by AT&T implies that the owners of the neuron reading and writing devices are probably the origin of this fraud.)
(Notice how the "false alternative" theory of Hoyle's "steady-state" theory is the only offered alternative. This theory is designed to give excluded people no other alternative choice - the clear and most likely alternative theory being the "conservation of matter" theory in which matter, in the form of indivisible material light particles are never created or destroyed, but simply move around in the universe. While atoms can be separated into their source light particles, it seems doubtful that light particles can be separated, created or destroyed, and that light particles form the basis of all matter.)
(I think that the so-called "cosmic background radiation" is simply light particles from a wide variety of sources that reach a detector. There simply is no place in the universe that is going to be free from collision with light particles. The background is probably just the average number of light particles received at any detector. The light particles come from other stars, from close objects - from the telescope itself, - from distant galaxies - from many different sources in many different directions.)
(Another thing to think about is, for example, with the COBE satellite project to record very low frequency light, the millions of dollars of US taxpayer money paid for, what is clearly, just a fraud. But this money is small when we compare the tax money spent on the 9/11/2001 fraud - and in particular the quantity of people murdered on and after 9/11/2001 as a result of the 9/11 fraud. Then to add in the secret neuron writing murders of history, we can see that this number of wasted money and lives is terrible.)
(The science history around this find is somewhat sloppy - many sources, such as Asimov, and Oxford cite Penzias and Wilson in May 1964 - but the paper is May 1965.)
(The theory of a black-body radiation or average temperature of the universe, also works for a matter is never created or destroyed universe theory - because there is simply an average density of matter in space in the universe.)
(It may be that, here in 1965, the rise of evil was firmly in place after the murder of JFK - who had stated honestly that people were exploring "the inside of men's minds".)
(Notice that the word "black-body" may signify some kind of anti-black view possibly - as if to remind people why they must lie - because direct-to-brain windows must be kept for white people only, or perhaps it could just be coincidence. Seeing the author's thought-screens and hearing their thought-audio would go a long way to knowing the truth.)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.) Crawford Hill, Holmdel, New Jersey, USA |
35 YBN
[06/05/1965 AD]
| 5714) Two "termination" codons (UAG and UAA) identified as signals in messenger RNA for terminating a polypeptide chain.
Martin G. Weiger and Alan Garen at Yale, and independently, Sydney Brenner, Anthony Stretton, and Samuel Kaplan at Cambridge, identify two codons (nucleotide triplets) (UAG and UAA) which signal messenger RNA to terminate a polypeptide chain.
(Identify who recognizes that these codons idenicate the beginning of a polypeptide chain.)
| (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA and (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
35 YBN
[07/14/1965 AD]
| 5615) The first ship from Earth to reach planet Mars, and to return images of the surface, Mariner 4.
These represent the first images of another planet ever returned from deep space.
| Planet Mars |
35 YBN
[08/12/1965 AD]
| 5420) Vladimir Prelog (CE 1906-1998), Yugoslavian-Swiss chemist, with Robert Cahn and Sir Christopher Ingold, develops a nomenclature for describing complex organic compounds. This system, known as CIP, provides a standard and international language for precisely specifying a compound’s structure.
| (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, Switzerland |
35 YBN
[09/02/1965 AD]
| 5713) Har Gobind Khorana (CE 1922-), Indian-US chemist and team synthesize all of the 64 possible ribotrinucleotides.
This work is done with a view to the assignment of codon sequences for the 20 amino acids.
By 1965, Khorana also identifies the "amplification multiplation" of polymerases. In his Nobel lecture of 1968 Khorana writes: "...However, it soon became apparent that this or reiterative copying on the part of the enzyme could be a highly useful device to amplify the messages contained in the short chemically-synthesized polynucleotides. In a further study, attention was paid to understand a little better the conditions for the to occur...".
| (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
35 YBN
[1965 AD]
| 5712) Har Gobind Khorana (CE 1922-), Indian-US chemist and team show that each nucleotide in a polynucleotide chain is used only once in forming groups of three nucleotides (non-overlapping property of DNA and RNA code).
| (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA (verify) |
35 YBN
[1965 AD]
| 6276) Head-mounted computer display. Ivan Sutherland builds a head-mounted display with images projected in front of the user's eyes. A mechanical apparatus determines where the viewer is looking, and monoscopic wire-frame images are generated using two small cathode-ray tubes (CRT's) mounted alongside each ear. Optics focus the image onto half-silvered mirrors placed directly in front of the eyes. The mirrors allow the computer-generated images to overlay the view of the outside world (in contrast, most of today's VR systems block the view of the outside world). Users of the system view a wire-frame cube floating in space in the middle of the lab. By moving their head around they can see different aspects of the glowing cube and determine its size and placement.
In 1962 Morton Heilig designed and patented "Sensorama," a VR-type arcade attraction. Sensorama simulated all the sensory experiences of a motorcycle ride by combining 3-D movies, stereo sound, wind, and aromas. By gripping the handlebars on a specially equipped motorcycle seat and wearing Viewmaster-type goggles, the "passenger" could travel through scenes including California sand dunes and Brooklyn streets. Small grills near the viewer's nose and ears emitted breezes and authentic aromas.
In 1977, DeFanti and Sandin at the Univerity of Illinois at Chicago develop the "Sayre" glove which can monitor finger movements.
In 1979, the military is experimenting with head-mounted displays, which can reduce the expense and physical size of the simulation system. By projecting the image directly into the pilot’s eyes, bulky screens and projection systems can be eliminated. One of the first of these, McDonnell Douglas’s VITAL helmet uses an electromagnetic head tracker to sense where the pilot is looking. Dual monchromatic cathode-ray tubes are mounted next to the pilot’s ears, projecting the image onto beam splitters in front of the pilot's eyes. This allows the pilot to view and manipulate mechanical controls in the cockpit, while seeing the computer-generated image of the outside world.
(There is an interesting parallel between remote neuron reading and writing created virtual reality and virtual reality created by external devices. Basically remote neuron reading and writing is much more convenient than having to wear external devices. But for those many millions of people who are being denied even the knowledge of remote neuron reading and writing, there simply is no other choice but to wear external devices to create virtual reality.)
(There is an interesting "virtual reality" truth that remote neuron reading and writing presents, and that is that, an owner of a brain really never knows if our neurons are not constantly being written on by a variety of sources- similar to the movie "the Matrix". Remote neuron reading and writing might write any of an endless number of universes and sensations - which are consistent - that is we see objects, and feel them whether they are actually there or not. There is no exception to break this possibility to my knowledge. For example, a person might think that we would not be able to walk around or navigate in a virtual universe because our body would bump into real object that we don't see - but total control of all neurons implies that we would have the impression of walking or moving anywhere- all sensory information would be changeable.)
| |
34 YBN
[01/27/1966 AD]
| 5648) Elso Sterrenberg Barghoorn (BoRGHoURN) (CE 1915-1984), US paleontologist, and J. William Schopf, find fossils of microorganisms that are 3 billion years old.
Barghoorn and Schopf report this in "Science" as "Microorganisms Three Billion Years Old from the Precambrian of South Africa". They write as an abstract: "A minute, bacterium-like, rod-shaped organism, Eobacterium isolatum, has been found organically and structurally preserved in black chert from the Fig Tree Series (3.1 x 109 years old) of South Africa. Filamentous organic structures of probable biological origin, and complex alkanes, which apparently comtain small amounts of the isoprenoid hydrocarbons pristane and phytane, are also indigenous to this Early precambrian sediment. These organic remnants comprise the oldest known evidence of biological organization in the geologic record.".
(This appears to be one of the early applications of radioactive dating to give strong evidence and an actual date to very old fossils, but also perhaps some of the earliest recognized micrometer sized fossils.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
34 YBN
[02/03/1966 AD]
| 5616) Luna 9 is the first ship from earth to make a soft landing on another world (the moon), and first ship to return images from the surface of another world.
The probe also proves that the lunar surface can support the weight of a lander and that an object would not sink into a loose layer of dust as some models predicted.
At 250 meters from the surface the main retrorocket is turned off and the four outrigger engines are used to slow the craft. At a height of about 5 meters a contact sensor touches the ground, the engines are shut down, and the landing capsule is ejected, impacting the surface at 22 km/hr, bouncing several times and coming to rest in Oceanus Procellarum (Ocean of Storms) on February 3, 1966. After about 250 seconds the four petals, forming the top shell of the spacecraft, open outward and stabilize the spacecraft on the lunar surface. Spring-controlled antennas assume operating positions, and the television camera rotatable mirror system, which operated by revolving and tilting, began a photographic survey of the lunar environment 250 seconds after landing. The first test image, which shows very poor contrast because the Sun is only about 3 degrees above the horizon, is completed 15 minutes later. Seven radio sessions, totaling 8 hours and 5 minutes, are transmitted as are three series of TV pictures. When assembled, the photographs provide four panoramic views of the nearby lunar surface. The pictures included views of nearby rocks and of the horizon 1.4 km away from the spacecraft. They showed Luna 9 had landed near the rim of a 25 meter diameter crater at a tilt of about 15 degrees. Radiation data is also returned, showing a dosage of about 30 millirads per day. On 6 February the batteries run out of power and the mission ends.
| Moon of Earth |
34 YBN
[02/19/1966 AD]
| 5728) Slow-acting virus identified, this virus does not show effects until 18 to 21 months after infection.
Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (CE 1923-2008), US physician, finds slow-acting viruses which take months after infection to show signs of disease. Gajdusek is puzzled by why a tribe in New Guinea are the only known humans to suffer from a fatal disease called "kuru". Gajdusek presumes this may be linked to their tradition of eating the brain of a recently deceased member. Gajdusek implants filtered brain material from kuru victims into healthy chimpanzees and finds that symptoms of kuru do not appear for months, and concludes that kuru is caused by a slow acting virus.
Gajdusek’s study had significant implications for research into the causes of another degenerative brain disease, called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Eventually, neurologist Stanley Prusiner of UC San Francisco identifies the infectious agent as an unexpected rogue form of protein called a prion. Prions are mis-folded forms of protein that, through mechanisms not yet understood, induce other proteins to assume similar shapes, disrupting cellular metabolism and killing cells in the brain. Prions cannot be disrupted even in boiling water, are not susceptible to drug treatment and cannot be classified as living because they contain no DNA or RNA. They are also not recognized by the immune system as foreign, so the body cannot fight them off as it would any other infectious agent.
Gajdusek, Gibbs and Alpers report this in "Nature" as "Experimental Transmission of a Kuru-like Syndrome to Chimpanzees". They write: "A CLINICAL syndrome astonishingly akin to kuru in man has developed in three chimpanzees from 18 to 21 months after intracerebral inoculation with brain suspension from different kuru patients. This fatal syndrome with progressive cerebellar ataxia and incoordination has not been seen as a spontaneous disease of apes, and is the first convincing indication of the transmissibility of one of the sub-acute or chronic human central nervous system diseases under investigation in our programme. ... ...Of nineteen chimpanzees and more than 200 smaller monkeys in these transmission experiments from human tissue no animals have developed a chronic progressive neurological disorder, other than the three kuru-incoulated chimpanzees described here. Macaca rhesus monkeys inoculated 18 months ago with scrapie mouse brain suspension have not yet shown disease. Chimpanzees are only now being inoculated with scrapie material. To anyone who has had the opportunity of observing the unique syndrome of kuru developing and progressing steadily to fatal termination in patients in New Guinea the similarity of its clinical picture and course to the experimentally induced syndrome in the chimpanzee is dramatically evident. This remarkable clinical correspondence of a disease developing successively in three chimpanzees each inoculated with brain material from a different kuru patient, the onset in each after a very similar long incubatino period, the fact that there is no such syndrome of chimpanzees known to occur spontaneously or seen at present in our many control animals, and the remarkable similarity of the neuropathological findings, in the one case examined, to those observed in kuru victims lead us to believe that kuru has been transmitted experimentally to these chimpanzees.".
(Perhaps injecting mice with viruses would be less unethical than injecting chimpanzees with viruses, but even then, to me, it is a tough ethical issue about injecting any species with viruses. Currently, most other species have few if any rights to a pain-free life.)
(Maybe these viruses have a very slow rate of reproducing. Determine if this has been examined.)
| (National Institute of Health) Bethesda, Maryland, USA |
34 YBN
[03/01/1966 AD]
| 5613) The first ship from Earth to impact a different planet, "Venera 3" impacts the surface of Venus.
| Planet Venus |
34 YBN
[04/04/1966 AD]
| 5599) Luna 10 is the first spacecraft to go into orbit around the Moon, and the first human-made object to orbit any body beyond the Earth. Luna 10 is launched on 31 March 1966 at 10:48 UT. It is injected into a 200 x 250 km, 52 degree Earth orbit and then launched towards the Moon from its Earth orbiting platform. Following a mid-course correction on 1 April, Luna 10 turns around at a distance of 8000 km from the Moon and fires its rockets, slowing by 0.64 km/sec. It enters lunar orbit at 18:44 UT on 3 April 1966 and separates from the bus 20 seconds later. The initial orbit is 349 x 1015 km with a period of 2 hours 58 minutes and an inclination of 71.9 degrees. It completed its first orbit on April 4, Moscow time.
The data returned show a weak to non-existent magnetic field, cosmic radiation of 5 particles/cm2/sec, 198 micrometeoroid impacts, no discernable atmosphere, and a highly distorted gravity field, suggesting a non-uniform mass distribution. The gamma-ray spectrometer gives compositional information on the Moon's surface, showing it to be similar to terrestrial basalt. Luna 10 operates for 56 days, covering 460 lunar orbits and 219 active data transmissions before the batteries are depleted and radio signals are discontinued on May 30, 1966. The orbit at that time is 378 x 985 km with an inclination of 72.2 degrees.
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) |
34 YBN
[10/24/1966 AD]
| 5793) Walter Gilbert (CE 1932- ), US microbiologist and Benno Müller-Hill isolate the first known "repressor", the "Lac" repressor, which is a protein made by the control gene for the lac operon (the cluster of genes responsible for metabolizing the sugar lactose).
French biochemists Jacob and Monod had identified regulatory genes (operons) in 1960.
A year later Gilbert and Müller-Hill demonstrate that this protein binds to bacterial DNA immediately at the beginning of the first gene (the operator) of the three-gene cluster (the lac operon) that this repressor controls. In 1973, Filbert and Maxam determine the nucleotide sequence of the lac Operator. In the years since then, Gilbert's laboratory shows that this protein acts by preventing the RNA polymerase from copying the lac operon genes into RNA.
Gilber and Müller-Hill report this in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "Isolation of the Lac Repressor". They write: "The realization that the synthesis of proteins is often under the control of repressors', 2 has posed a central question in molecular biology: What is the nature of the controlling substances? The scheme of negative control proposed by Jacob and Monod envisages that certain genes, regulatory genes, make products that can act through the cytoplasm to prevent the functioning of other genes. These other genes are organized into operons with cis-dominant operators, such operators behaving as acceptors for the repressor. Appropriate small molecules act either as inducers, by preventing the repression, or as corepressors, leading to the presence of active repressor. The simplest explicit hypothesis for inducible systems is that the direct product of the control gene is itself the repressor and that this repressor binds to the operator site on a DNA molecule to prevent the transcription of the operon. The inducer would combine with the repressor to produce a molecule which can no longer bind to the operator, and the synthesis of the enzymes made by the operon would begin. However, other models will also fit the data. Repressors could have almost any target that would serve as a block to any of the initiation processes required to make a protein. A molecular understanding of the control process has waited on the isolation of one or more repressors. We have developed an assay for the lactose repressor, the product of the control gene (i gene) of the lactose operon. The assay detects and quantitates this repressor by measuring its binding to an inducer, as seen in this case by equilibrium dialysis against radioactive IPTG (isopropyl-thio-galactoside). ... Conclusions and Outlook.-Our findings that the i-gene product is a protein, that it is uninducible, and that it occurs in a small number of copies serve to confirm many of the expectations that have grown up over the years. The discovery of temper ature-sensitive mutants in the i gene implied that the i gene coded for a protein. 10 11 The isolation of amber-suppressor-sensitive i- mutants further proved the point.12 13 The estimate of a small number of copies of the repressor has been the traditional explanation of the phenomenon of escape synthesis.'4 The positioning of the i gene outside the operon'5 and an in vivo experiment on i-gene induction16 both argue that the level of the i product would not rise and fall with the state of induction of the lactose enzymes. An explicit assay, however, unambiguously demonstrates these points and opens the way to a full physical and chemical characterization of the i-gene product. Furthermore, experiments designed to ask which steps are blocked by the repressor are now possible in vitro. Summary.-The lac repressor binds radioactive IPTG strongly enough to be visible by equilibrium dialysis. This property serves as an assay to detect the repressor, to quantitate it, and to guide a purification. It is a protein molecule, about 150,000-200,000 in molecular weight, occurring in about ten copies per gene. That the assay detects the product of the regulatory i gene is confirmed by the unusually high affinity shown for IPTG, by the difference in affinity of the substances isolated from the wild-type and a superinducible i-gene mutant, and by the absence of binding in fractions from i-, i-deletion, and i' strains. ...".
A year later they publish another report in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" titled "The LAC operator is DNA". They write: "How repressors act at the molecular level to tmrn off genes is only now beginning to be worked out. Most vital to this understanding is whether the operator, defined genetically as the site for the action of a repressor, would turn out to be part of a DNA molecule, a region of a messenger RNA molecule, or even a protein. Now that two specific repressors (lactose and X) are available," 2 it is possible to attack this problem directly. This was first done by Ptashne,3 who showed that the X phage repressor, a 30,000-mol-wt protein, binds specifically only to that region of a X-DNA molecule where the genetic receptors (operators) lie. Here we report experiments, with the lactose repressor, that further show that the operator is DNA. This repressor binds specifically to DNA molecules that carry the lactose operon, attaching only to that unique region of the DNA molecule where the mutations that characterize the operator lie. Furthermore, this repressor is released from the operator by inducers, such as IPTG (isopropyl-1-thio-,3-D-galactoside). ... Summary.-The experiments reported here demonstrate that the lac repressor binds specifically to the operator region, that its binding to the operator is weakened by mutations in that region which produce oh"s, and that it is released from the operator by the inducer. These experiments completely support the model of repression which proposes that the repressor, on binding to the operator, hinders the transcription of the adjacent genes into RNA and thus prevents their functioning. ...".
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
34 YBN
[12/19/1966 AD]
| 5799) Carl Sagan (SAGeN) (CE 1934-1996) and team theorize that the colors in the clouds of Jupiter are the result of complex carbon (organic) molecules absed on analogy with chemical experiments.
(State if Urey had theorized about this in his 1952 book.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (University of Maryland) College Park, Maryland, USA and (National Biomedical Research Foundation) Silver Springs, Maryland, USA |
34 YBN
[12/19/1966 AD]
| 5800) Carl Sagan (SAGeN) (CE 1934-1996) with Ann Druyan and Steven Soter produce the television series "Cosmos" which gives a history of science and describes doubts about the theory of the existence of Gods.
In retelling the history of Greek science in "Cosmos", Sagan states "...What do you do when you are faced with several different gods each claiming the same territory? The Babylonian Marduk and the Greek Zeus was each considered master of the sky and king of the gods. You might decide that Marduk and Zeus were really the same. You might also decide, since they had quite different attributes, that one of them was merely invented by the priests. But if one, why not both? And so it was that the great idea arose, the realization that there might be a way to know the world without the god hypothesis. ...".
In "Cosmos" Sagan hints about neuron reading and writing stating "...Within every human brain patterns of electrochemical impulses are continuously forming and disappaiting. They reflect our emotions, ideas, and memories. When recorded and amplified these impulses sound like this...but would an extra-terrestrial being, no matter how advanced, be able to read the mind that made these sounds? We ourselves are far from being able to do so...". and also "...one glance at it, and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. ...". These are two very good hints about the secret reality of people already seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds to and from brains and direct and indirect (remote) muscle contraction.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
33 YBN
[02/24/1967 AD]
| 5715) Har Gobind Khorana (CE 1922-), Indian-US chemist proves the direction of reading of messenger RNA is from the 5' end to the 3' end of the ribopolynucleotide chain.
The identification of 2 codons that signal messenger RNA to terminate a polypeptide chain in 1965, lead to this proof.
| (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
33 YBN
[04/03/1967 AD]
| 6202) Laser writing and reading of data on plastic film was first patented in 1962 by Wayne R. Johnson.
Laser writing to a disk. The disk has a layer of middle which holds the recording protected by an exterior coating of plastic. This disk is read by passing light through it. The metal interrupts the transparency of the disc so that a spiral optical recording track is formed on the disk. The signals are recorded in the spiral track by laser beam.
David Paul Gregg patents this as "Transparent Recording Disk". Van der Veen and team for Philips will patent a laser reading and writing method in 1979 in which the laser makes holes in a metal layer within the plastic disk. Laser light is not reflected from the holes, and so data can be read by reflected laser light.
About.com states that: "David Paul Gregg first envisioned the optical disk (or VIDEODISK as he named it) in 1958 and patented the technology in 1961 and 1969.", but I can't find any patent of Gregg's in 1961 relating to laser writing to disks. Other sources have Philips releasing the videodisc as early as 1972.
In 1972 Philips and MCA will demonstrate virtually identical video disc systems. Both utilize discs which rotate at 1800 rpm (one frame every rotation) and both play the information from the disc without touching the disc by using a beam of light. (read relevant parts of patent)
(describe more how a laser or electron beam can create the recording.)
| (Gauss Electrophysics, Inc), Santa Monica, California, USA |
33 YBN
[07/03/1967 AD]
| 5683) Roald Hoffman and Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), US chemist, recognize and formulate the concept of conservation of orbital symmetry which explains a large group of fundamental reactions.
Hoffman and Woodward publish this in the "Accounts of Chemical Research" as "The Conservation of Orbital Symmetry". They write: "Chemistry remains an experimental science. The theory of chemical bonding leaves much to be desired. Yet, the past 20 years have been marked by a fruitful symbiosis of organic chemistry and molecular orbital theory. Of necessity this has been a marriage of poor theory with good experiment. Tentative conclusions have been arrived at on the basis of theories which were such a patchwork on approximations that they appeared to have no right to work; yet, in the hands of clever experimentalists, these ideas were transformed into novel molecules with unusual properties. In the same way, by utilizing the most simple but fundamental concepts of molecular orbital theory we have in the past 3 years been able to rationalize and predict the stereochemical course of virtually every concerted organic reaction.' In our work we have relied on the most basic ideas of molecular orbital theory-the concepts of symmetry, overlap, interaction, bonding, and the nodal structure of wave functions. The lack of numbers in our discussion is not a weakness-it is its greatest strength. Precise numerical values would have to result from some specific sequence of approximations. But an argument from first principles or symmetry, of necessity qualitative, is in fact much stronger than the deceptively authoritative numerical result. For, if the simple argument is true, then any approximate method, as well as the now inaccessible exact solution, must obey it. The simplest description of the electronic structure of a stable molecule is that it is characterized by a finite band of doubly occupied electronic levels, called bonding orbitals, separated by a gap from a corresponding band of unoccupied, antiboding levels as well as a continuum of higher levels. The magnitude of the gap may range from 40 kcal/mole for highly delocalized, large aromatic systems to 250 kcal/mole for saturated hydrocarbons. It should be noted in context that socalled nonbonding electrons of heteroatoms are in fact bonding. Consider a simple reaction of two molecules to give a third species, proceeding in a nonconcerted manner through a diradical intermediate I. A + B -> -> C The electronic structure of diradicals is also very characteristic. In the gap between bonding and antibonding levels there now appear two nonbonding orbitals, usually separated by a small energy. Two electrons are to be accommodated in these levels, and it is an interesting and delicate balance of factors which determines the spin multiplicity (singlet or triplet) of the diradical ground state. Consider now the transformation of A + B into the singlet diradical I in a thermal process. It is easy to convince oneself that one of the two nonbonding orbitals of I arises from some bonding orbital of A or B and that the other nonbonding orbital comes from some antibonding A or B orbital. Thus, if A + B have N bonding orbitals and M antibonding orbitals than the diradical I will have N - 1 bonding, 2 nonbonding, and M - 1 antibonding orbitals. The net result in the transformation A + B + I is that one doubly occupied bonding orbital becomes nonbonding. The energy price that the molecule has to pay for this depends on the stability of the bonding orbital involved, but it is clear that the process must be endothermic. If this were the only way in which a reaction could be effected, then the price of a high activation energy would have to be paid. But in fact we have discovered that the characteristic of concerted processes is that in certain well-defined circumstances it is possible to transform continuously the molecular orbitals of reactants (say A + B) into those of the product (C) in such a way as to preserve the bonding character of all occupied molecular orbitals at all stages of the reaction. We have designated these concerted reactions as symmetry allowed. If there is such a pathway, then no level moves to high energy in the transition state for the concerted reaction and a relatively low activation energy is assured. ...".
(Explain theory more clearly, show images.)
(This is not the Journal of the American Chemical Society - perhaps they rejected this theory?)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (and Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, USA) |
33 YBN
[12/03/1967 AD]
| 5725) First successful heart transplant.
Christiaan Neethling Barnard (CE 1922-2001), South African surgeon performs the first successful heart transplant in history. The person with the transplanted heart will live for a year and a half. Asimov comments that the heart transplant procedure may not have as successful a future as the artificial heart.
Barnard publishes a report of his successful heart transplant shortly after on December 30, 1967 in an article in the "South African Medical Journal" titled "A Human Cardiac Transplant: an interim report of a successful operation performed at Groote Schuur Hospital, Cape Town". Barnard writes: "On 3 December 1967, a heart from a cadaver was successfully transplanted into a 54-year old man to replace a heart irreparably damaged by repeated myocardial infarction. This achievement did not come as a surprise to the medical world. Steady progress towards this goal has been made by immunologists, biochemists, surgeons and specialists in other branches of medical science all over the world during the past decades to ensure that this, the ultimate in cardiac surgery, would be a success. The dream of the ancients from time immemorial has been the junction of portions of different individuals, not only to counteract disease but also to combine the potentials of different species. This desire inspired the birth of many mythical creatures which were purported to have capabilities normally beyond the power of a single species. The modern world has inherited these dreams inthe form of the sphinx, the mermaid and the chimerical forms of many heraldic beasts. Modern scientists have a more realistic approach and explored the possibility of treating certain diseases affecting specific organs by replacement of these organs with grafts. The recent history of transplantation of the heart began with the experiments of Carrel and Guthrie in the early years of this century. Gradually our knowledge increased and progress towards this goal continued through the years with the work of many other brilliant men and, in particular, through the invaluable contribution of Shumway and his associates. ... PREPARATIONS FOR THE OPERATION A patient was selected who was considered to have heart disease of such severity that no method of treatment short of cardiac transplantation could succeed. A suitable donor was obtained who had compatible red cell antigens and a similar leucocyte antigen pattern. The donor was taken to the operating theatre on supportive therapy and the recipient was taken to the adjoining operating theatre. ... THE OPERATION As soon as it had become obvious that, despite therapy, death was imminent in the donor, the recipient was anaesthetized and the saphenous vein and cmomon femoral artery were exposed through a right groin incision. The saphenous vein was cannulated and this cannula was used for intravenous fluid administration and venous monitoring. The heart of the recipient was exposed through a media sternotomy incision. The pericardium was opened and the superior and inferior venae cavae and ascending aorta were isolated and encircled with cotton tapes. A careful examination of the recipient's heart showed that no treatment other than transplantation could benefit the patient. As soon as the donor had been certified dead (when the electrocardiogram had shown no activity for 5 minutes and there was absence of any spontaneous respiratory movements and absence of reflexes), a dose of 2 mg. heparin/kg. body-weight was injected intravenously. The donor's chest was then opened rapidly, using a median sternotomy, and the pericardium was split vertically. A catheter was connected to the arterial line of the oxygenator and was then inserted and secured in the ascending aorta. A single 5/16-in. cannula was inserted into the right atrium via the right atrial appendage for venous return to the oxygenator. ... The right and left pulmonary arteries were divided and the main pulmonary artery was freed. The left atrium was mobilized by dividing the 4 pulminary veins. The heart was now free. The excision had taken 2 minutes. ... Perfusion of the donor heart was recommenced immediately (0.4 1./min/) by connecting the arterial cannula to a coronary perfusion line, and as soon as the aorta had filled to displace the air, it was clamped distal to the perfusion cannula so that the coronary arteries would be perfused. The heart was vented continuously during this procedure, ... Transplantation of the Graft The donor's heart was placed in the pericardial cavity; ...it was evident that the portion of the left atrium of the patient's heart to which the donor heart would have to be anastomosed was too large. This area was thus plicated, tucking in the wall of the patient's left atrium... The left atrium of the donor heart was first attached to the patient's left atrium by anastomosing the opening in the posterior wall of the donor's left atrium to the left atrial wall and septum of the patient's heart. This was done using double layers of 4-0 continuous silk. The right atrium was then anastomosed; ... The donor's pulminary artery was trimmed down to the required length and was anastomosed to the recipient's pulmonary artery using continuous 5-0 silk sutures, doubly sewn. Perfusion of the donor heart was disontinued. The aorta was cut to fit the patient's aorta and the anastomosis was completed with continuous 4-0 silk sutures; doubly sewn. The donor's left ventricle was cented throughout this procedure. The aortic clamp was released, permitting perfusion of the myocardium from the patient's aorta. The left ventribular apex was tilted up to allow air to escape from the left heart, and the right heart was needled in order to exclude all air from this chamber. ... ...After 184 min., partial bypass was commenced by withdrawing the caval cannulae into the atrium and removing the superior vena-caval catheter. ...The first shock was successful in restoring good coordinated ventribular contraction. The heart was beating at a rate of 120/min. in nodal rhythm. At this stage it had been withou coronary perfusion for 7 min., at normathermia, and for 14 min. at 22°C, and it had been perfused artificially with the heart-lung machine for a total period of 117 min. Rewarming was continued for a further 15 min. ...One minute later bypass was discontinued. The arterial line pressure was 65/50 mm/Hg and the venous pressure 6 cm. saline at this stage. The heart beat was not forcible and bypass was recommenced after 1/2 min...Bypass was finally stopped 221 min. after commencement, with interruptions totalling 4 1/2 min/ The lowest mid-oesophageal temperature reached during the operation was 21.5°C. ... The recipient's atrial appendage was excised and the edges of the would were closed with silk sutures. ...the pericardium was closed with a continous suture of chromic catgut around a size 20 F plastic catheter. A further catgut asuture re-united the 2 lobes of the thymus and a size 24 F plastic mediastinal drainage tube was inserted. ...A subcutaneous suture of plain catgut and a continous skin suture of monofilament nylon completed the thoracotomy closure. The groin wound was closed with interrupted chromic catgut and monofilament nylon, without drainage. A nasotrachael tube was inserted for maintenance of postoperative mechanical ventilation. The chest X-ray, electrocardiogram, arterial and venous pressures, urinary output and peripheral circulation were assessed and all were satisfactory. The patient was returned to the post-operative room. ... POSTOPERATIVE CARE The postoperative care of the patient was concentrated on: 1. Maintaining a satisfactory cardiac output. 2. Supressing the immunologic reaction to the transplanted organ. 3. The prevention of infection. ...".
| (University of Cape Town and Groote Schuur Hospital) Cape Town, South Africa |
33 YBN
[1967 AD]
| 3982) Liquid crystal display devices sold to consumers (first digital LCD clock).
| RCA Labs, Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
33 YBN
[1967 AD]
| 4558) Artificial muscles that use compressed air made public.
Artificial muscle that contract under electric potential still remain secret.
| unknown |
33 YBN
[1967 AD]
| 5341) George Davis Snell (CE 1903-1996) US geneticist discovers that tissue compatibility is determined by specific genes.
Since the 1920s people had known that although skin grafts between mice are generally rapidly rejected they survive best when made between the same inbred line.
Snell's collaboration with British geneticist Peter Gorer leads to the identification of a group of genes in the mouse called the H-2 gene complex, a term Snell coins to indicate whether a tissue graft will be accepted (the H stands for histocompatibility). Those histocompatibility genes encode cell surface proteins that allow the body to distinguish its own cells from those that are foreign, for example cells of a tissue graft or an infectious microorganism.
In the 1940s Snell began a detailed study developing inbred strains of mice, genetically identical except at the H-2 locus. After much effort Snell is able to show that the H-2 antigens are controlled by the genes at the H-2 complex of chromosome 17, described by him as the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Recognition of these genes paves the way for tissue and organ transplantation to become successful.
Histology is the branch of biology concerned with the composition and structure of plant and animal tissues in relation to their specialized functions.
Snell publishes a series of papers in the journal: "Transplantation" with the title: "Histocompatibility Genes of Mice", and in "Histocompatibility Genes of Mice VII" in which Snell writes: "A new histocompatibility locus, H-13, in linkage group V is described. The locus is identified by the congenic strain pair C57BL/10ScSn and B10.129(14M). It is moderately "strong" as compared with other non-H-2 loci. The order of the genes in linkage group V used in this study is a H-13 un we H-3. There is some evidence suggesting a possible third, rather weak histocompatibility locus between H-13 and H-3. There is also evidence suggesting interactions between the histocompatibility loci in this region. Whereas transplants from C57BL/10 to 14M (H-13a to H-13b in the presence of H-S') are strongly resisted, transplants from B10.LP-a to B10.LP (H-13a to H-13b in the presence of H-3b) are accepted with scarcely a trace of resistance. This has been demonstrated by both skin grafts and marrow transplants.". (Determine how to read.)
(Clearly it is important to understand why a body rejects or accepts a transplanted cell.)
(Determine chronology and correct paper.)
| (Oak Ridge national Laboratory) Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA |
33 YBN
[1967 AD]
| 5845) The first handheld calculator.
Texas Instruments sells the first handheld calculator. The pocket calculator will enter the market on September 21, 1972 as the TI-2500.
| (Texas Instruments) Dallas, Texas, USA |
33 YBN
[1967 AD]
| 6344) The Theodore Flicker movie "The President's Analyst" shows and explains explicitly how a small device could enter a body, reach the brain, and allow communication by thought only. This is one of the most explicit descriptions of how remote neuron reading and writing probably actually works that I have yet found.
| |
32 YBN
[01/25/1968 AD]
| 5755) Swiss microbiologist, Werner Arber (CE 1929- ) shows that a restriction enzyme splits only those DNA molecules that contain a certain sequence of nucleotides characteristic of bacteriophages.
This work will be extended by Nathans and Smith and will lead to the DNA recombining techniques of people such as Berg.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s Arber and several others extend the work of Salvador Luria, who had observed that bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) not only induce hereditary mutations in their bacterial hosts but at the same time undergo hereditary mutations themselves. Arber’s research focuses on the action of protective enzymes present in the bacteria, which modify the DNA of the infecting virus—e.g., the restriction enzyme, so-called for its ability to restrict the growth of the bacteriophage by cutting the molecule of its DNA into pieces.
Arber and Linn publish this in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "Host specificity of DNA produced by Escherichia coli, X. In vitro restriction of phage fd replicative form". They write: "The functions involved in strain-specific modification and restriction of DNA produced by Escherichia coli are under the genetic control of the chromosome or of other genetic elements such as prophage and transfer factors. ' They are active upon bacterial as well as many phage DNA's. The relatively small, biologically active phage DNA's which can be isolated in a homogeneous form provide a convenient system for studying the molecular mechanism of the functions. In this way it has been suggested for phage X2 and shown for phage fd3 that modification is accompanied by the appearance of 6-methylamino purine at a limited number of sites within the DNA. The absence of this methylation might then allow an appropriate restriction activity to alter the DNA such that its biological activity is destroyed. ... Summary.-An activity has been found in fractionated extracts from Escherichia coli which reduces the infectivity of the replicative form of phage fd DNA. It is correlated with the in vivo restriction phenomenon by (1) its presence only in fractions from restricting strains of bacteria and (2) its specificity for nonmodified DNA. The inactivation requires S-adenosylmethionine, ATP, MJg++, and the products of at least two gene functions; it seems to be accompanied by doublestrand cleavage of the DNA. ...".
(Determine if this is the correct paper.)
| (University of Geneva) Geneva, Switzerland |
32 YBN
[02/09/1968 AD]
| 5739) In July 1967, Antony Hewish (CE 1924- ), English astronomer, uses 2,048 separate radio-receiving devices spread over an area of 18,000 square meters, designed to catch quick changes in radio-emission intensities from stellar radio sources. Jocelyn Bell (CE 1943- ), a graduate student of Hewish identifies regularly timed bursts of radio light with a small interval from a place in between the stars Vega and Altair. In February 1968, Hewish will report this and calls the star a "pulsating star" or "pulsar" for short. By this time Hewish will have identified 3 other pulsars. Shortly after this many more pulsars will be identified. Gold suggests that these are rapidly rotating neutron stars not more than 8 kilometers in diameter across, but as massive as the sun, and that the rotation should be slowing and the pulses coming at linger intervals at a predicted rate, and observations will verify this.
An Encycloepdia Britannica article tells the story this way: "As a research assistant at Cambridge, she aided in constructing a large radio telescope and in 1967, while reviewing the printouts of her experiments monitoring quasars, discovered a series of extremely regular radio pulses. Puzzled, she consulted her adviser, astrophysicist Antony Hewish, and their team spent the ensuing months eliminating possible sources of the pulses, which they jokingly dubbed LGM (for Little Green Men) in reference to the remote possibility that they represented attempts at communication by extraterrestrial intelligence. After monitoring the pulses using more sensitive equipment, the team discovered several more regular patterns of radio waves and determined that they were in fact emanating from rapidly spinning neutron stars, which were later called pulsars by the press.".
Encyclopedia Britannica defines pulsars as: "rapidly spinning neutron stars, extremely dense stars composed almost entirely of neutrons and having a diameter of only 20 km (12 miles) or less. Pulsar masses range between 1.18 and 1.97 times that of the Sun, but most pulsars have a mass 1.35 times that of the Sun. A neutron star is formed when the core of a violently exploding star called a supernova collapses inward and becomes compressed together. Neutrons at the surface of the star decay into protons and electrons. As these charged particles are released from the surface, they enter an intense magnetic field (1012) gauss; Earth’s magnetic field is 0.5 gauss) that surrounds the star and rotates along with it. Accelerated to speeds approaching that of light, the particles give off electromagnetic radiation by synchrotron emission. This radiation is released as intense beams from the pulsar’s magnetic poles.".
Hewish, Bell and team publish this in "Nature" as "Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source". For an abstract they write: "Unusual signals from pulsating radio sources have been recorded at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. The radiation seems to come from local objects within the galaxy, and may be associated with oscillations of white dwarf or neutron stars.". In their paper they write: "IN July 1967, a large radio telescope operating at a frequency of 81.5 MHz was brough into use at the Mullard Radio Astronomy Observatory. This instrument was designed to investigate the angular structure of compact radio sources by observing the scintillation caused by the irregular structure of the interplanetary medium. The initial survey includes the whole sky in the declination range -08°<δ<44° and this area is scanned once a week. A large fraction of the sky is thus under regular surveillance. Soon after the instrument was brough into operation it was notices that signals which appeared at first to be weak sporadic interference were repeatedly observed at a fixed declination and right ascension; this result showed that the source could not be terrestrial in origin. Systematic investigations were started in November and high speed records showed that the signals, when present, consisted of a series of pulses each lasting ~0.3s and with a repetition period of about 1.337 s which was soon found to be maintained with extreme accuracy. Further observations have shown that the true period is constant to better than 1 part in 107 although there is a systermatic variation which can be ascribed to the orbital motion of the Earth. The impulsive nature of the recorded signals is caused by the periodic passage of a signal of descending frequency through the 1 MHz pass band of the receiver. The remarkable nature of these signals at first suggested an origin in terms of man-made transmissions which might arise from deep space probes, planetary radar or the reflexion of terrestrial signals from the Moon. None of these interpretations can, however, be accepted because the absence of any parallax shows that the source lies far outside the solar system. A preliminary search for further pulsating sources has already revealed the presence of three others having remarkably similar properties which suggests that this type of source may be relatively common at a low flux density. A tentative explanation of these unusual sources in terms of the stable oscillations of white dwarf or neutron stars is proposed.
Position and Flux Density The serial consists of a rectangular array containing 2,048 full-wave dipoles arranged in sixteen rows of 128 elements. Each row is 470 m long in an E.-W. direction and the N.-S. extent of the array is 45 m. Phase-scanning is employed to direct the reception pattern in declination and four receivers are used so that four different declinations may be observed simultaneously. Phase-switching receivers are employed and the two halves of the aerial are combined as an E.-W. interferometer. Each row of dipole elements is backed by a tilted reflecting screen so that maximum sensitivity is obtained at a declination of approximately +30°... A record obtained when the pulsating source was unusually strong is shown in Fig. 1a. This clearly displays the regular periodicity and also the characteristic irregular variation of pulse amplitude. On this occasion the largest pulses approached a peak flux density (averaged over the 1 MHz pass band) of 20 x 10-26 W m-2 Hz-1, ... ... The most significant feature to be accounted for is the extreme regularity of the pulses. This suggests an origin in terms of the pulsation of an entire star, rather than some more localized discturbance in a stellar atmosphere. In this connexion it is interesting to note that it has already been suggested that the radial pulsation of neutron stars may play an important part in the history of supernovae and supernova remnants. A discussion of the normal modes of radial pulsation of compact stars has recently been given by Meltzer and Thorne, who calculated the periods for stars with central densities in the range 105 to 1019 g cm-3. Fig. 4 of their paper indicates two possibilities which might account for the observed periods of the order 1 s. At a density of 107 g cm-3, corresponding to a white dwarf star, the fundamental mode reaches a minimum period of about 8 s; at a slightly higher density the period increases again as the system tends towards gravitational collapse to a neutron star. While the fundamental period is not small enough to account for the observations the higher order modes have periods of the correct order of magnitude. If this model is adopted it is difficult to understand why the fundamental period is not dominant; such a period would have readily been detected in the present observations and its absence cannot be ascribed to observational effects. The alternative possibility occurs at a density of 1013g cm-3, corresponding to a neutron star; at this density the fundamental has a period of about 1 s, while for densities in excess of 1013g cm-3-3. If the radiation is to be associated with the radial pulsation of a white dwarf or neutron star there seem to be several mechanisms which could account for the radio emission. It has been suggested that radial pulsation would generate hydromagnetic shock fronts at the stellar surface which might be accompanied by bursts of X-rays and energetic electrons. The radation might then be likened to radio bursts from a solar flare occurring over the entire star during each cycle of the oscillation. Such a model would be in fair agreement with the upper limit of ~5 x 103 km for the dimension of the source, which compares with the mean value of 9 x 103 quoted for white dwarf stars by Greenstein. The energy requirement for this model may be roughly estimated by noting that the total energy emitted in a 1 MHz band by a type III solar burst would produce a radio flux of the right order if the source were at a distance of ~103 A.U. If it is assumed that the radio energy may be related to the total flare energy (~1032 erg) in the same manner as for a solar flare and supposing that each pulse corresponds to one flare, the required energy would be ~1039 erg yr-1; at a distance of 65 pc the corresponding value would be ~ 1047 erg yr-1. It has been estaimted that a neutron star may contain ~1051 erg in vibrational modes so the energy requirement does not appear unreasonable, although other damping mechanisms are likely to be important when considering the lifetime of the source. The swept frequency characteristic of the radiation is reminiscent of type II and type II solar bursts, but it seems unlikely that it is caused in the same way. For a white swarf or neutron star the scale height of any atmosphere is small and a travelling disturbance would be expected to produce a much faster frequency dift than is actually observed. As has been mentioned, a more likely possibility is that the impulsive radiation suffers dispersion during its passage through the interstellar medium. More observational evidence is clearly needed in order to gain a better understanding of this strange new class of radio source. if the suggested origin of the radiation is confirmed further study may be expected to throw valuable light on the behaviour of compact stars and also on the properties of matter at high density. ... "
(State which observations verify a slowing down of radio pulses.)
(more details about devices, how fast sampling rate is, how data is recorded.)
(Perhaps this is a case of the neuron owners releasing some earlier identified information. Perhaps then it is not a coincidence that a person with the last name "Bell" is credited with the discovery. Hopefully the public will get to see the thought transactions surrounding this to learn the truth. Notice, for example, the phrase "under regular surveillance" which must imply the involvement of the neuron company.)
(Could these radio pulses be the result of higher frequency light? For example, could these be lower harmonics of a variable star?)
(It could possibly be interference from two or more different light sources. For example one light source at 10Thz and another a 3THz causing a regular "beat" frequency. In theory this could be possible for visible light stars too- light from stars outside of the focus contributing to the overall received light signal.)
(One thing I find interesting about modern radio telescopes, like the very large array in New Mexico, is why they do not use mirrors. Can this result in less than accurate data? Because there must be far more light dispersion from a non-mirror surface.)
(Identify when the first use od the word "pulsar" is used.)
(I have doubts about the theory of neutron stars. I think possible pulsars may be simply variable stars.)
| (Cavendish Laboratory, University of Cambridge) Cambridge, England |
32 YBN
[02/27/1968 AD]
| 5759) Georges Charpak (CE 1924-2010) builds a multi-wire solid-state particle detector which increases the speed of particle detection.
Georges Charpak builds the first "multiwire proportional chamber". Unlike earlier detectors, such as the bubble chamber, which can record the tracks left by particles at the rate of only one or two per second, the multiwire chamber records up to one million tracks per second and sends the data directly to a computer for analysis.
Charpak and team publish this in "Nuclear Instruments and Methods" as "The use of multiwire proportional counters to select and localize charged particles". They write for an abstract: "Properties of chambers made of planes of independent wires placed between two plane electrodes have been investigated. A direct voltage is applied to the wires. It has been checked that each wire works as an independent proportional counter down to separations of 0.1 cm between wires. Counting rates of 10sup>5/wire are easily reached; time resolutions of the order of 100 nsec have been obtained in some gases; it is possible to measure the position of the tracks between the wires using the time delay of the pulses; energy resolution comparable to the one obtained with the best cylindrical chambers is observed; the chambers operate in strong magnetic fields.". In their paper they write: '1. Introduction Proportional counters with electrodes consisting of many parallel wires connected in parallel have been used for some years, for special applications. We have investigated the properties of chambers made up of a plane of independent wires placed between two plane electrodes. Our observations show that such chambers offer properties that can make them more advantageous than wire chambers or scintillation hodoscopes for many applications. 2. Construction Wires of stainless steel, 4 × 10 -3 cm in diameter, are stretched between two planes of stainless-steel mesh, made from wires of 5 × 10 -3 cm diameter, 5 × 10 -2 cm apart. The distance between the mesh and the wires is 0.75 cm. We studied the properties of chambers with wire separation a=0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 1.0 cm. A strip of metal placed at 0.1 cm from the wires, at the same potential (fig. 1), plays the same role as the guard rings in cylindrical proportional chambers. It protects the wires against breakdown along the dielectrics. It is important to have the last wire on each side much thicker than the other ones in order to avoid a too high gradient on these wires. Each wire is connected to an amplifier with an input impedance of about 10 kf2. The chamber is flushed at atmospheric pressure by a flow of ordinary argon bubbling through an organic liquid at 0 ° C: ethyl alcohol, or n-pentane or heptane. A negative constant voltage is applied to the external electrodes. ... 4. Conclusion The properties of the multiwire proportional chambers can be summarized as follows: - Each wire can amplify the initial energy loss of a particle in a thin layer of gas, of the order of 1 cm, to such an extent that minimum ionizing particles are detected with an efficiency close to 100%. - With argon-n-pentane and argon-heptane mixtures, high amplification is possible, making easy the amplification by rudimentary solid-state amplifiers. - With wires that are 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and 1.0 cm apart, we have observed a good localization of the detection on each single wire. - Any number of simultaneous particles can be detected. - Resolution times below 0.4 psec are readily obtained. - Localization of the position between the wires is possible, making use of the arrival time of the pulse. - Counting rates of the order of 2.5 x 10S/sec per wire have been observed. - Selection between particles with different ionization powers is possible. -The chambers can be operated in strong magnetic fields. These observations give us confidence that this type of instrument deserves a very detailed study since it can in some respects replace classical wire chambers or hodosc opes, or be a useful complementary tool, for instance as a fast decision-making chamber to trigger spark chambers. It is an ideal anticoincidence counter in front of gamma or neutron detectors, because of its very low efficiency. Since it does not require a trigger from a scintillation counter it has considerable advantages in the measurement of the spatial distribution of X-rays, ?-rays, or neutrons with the eventual association of proper radiation converters. ...".
(I can't imagine the trouble if a wire is ever broken - perhaps replacing wires is not a problem. Also keeping the wires from touching or bending seems like it would be a tough problem.)
| (CERN) Geneva, Switzerland |
32 YBN
[03/11/1968 AD]
| 5754) Matthew Meselson and Robert Yuan, isolate a DNA restriction enzyme from E. coli, a protein in the bacterium E. coli that cuts foreign DNA.
This will lead to the first transfer of recombined segments of DNA into bacteria DNA by Robert Helling et al, in 1973.
Meselson and Yuan publish this in "Nature" as "DNA restriction enzyme from E. coli". They write as an abstract: "An endonuclease which degrades foreign DNA has been isolated. The enzyme requires S-adenosylmethionine, ATP and Mg++.". In their paper they write: "Many strains of E. coli can recognize and degrade DNA from foreign E. coli strains. Whether a foreign DNA molecule will be rejected can depend on non-heritable characteristics imparted to it by the cell frmo which it is obtained. Such characteristics are called host-controlled modifications. For example, the ability of λ and several other bacteriophages to multiply on E. coli strain K depends on the bacterial host in which the phages were last grown. Phages grown in bacteria possessing the modification allele mK multiply well, but phages grown in bacteria lacking mK do not. Instead, their DNA is quickly degraded on entering cells of strain K. The ability of strain K to reject or "restrict" DNA from cells lacking mK is itself under genetic control, the responsible allele being designated rK (refs. 4 and 5). More generally, cells with the restriction allele r1 can degrade DNA from cells lacking the corresponding modification allele m1. Several different modification and restriction alleles are known. As well as certain phage DNAs, bcaterial DNA transferred between cells by conjugation or transduction is subject to host-controlled modification and restriction, suggesting that these phenomena play a part in regulating the flow of genetic information between bacteria. There is evidence that the modification character of a DNA molecule is determined by its pattern of methylation. The simplest hypothesis for the biochemical basis of restriction is that each restriction allele directs the formation of a nuclease specific for DNA lacking the corresponding modification character, We have detected, isolated and characterized such an enzyme; it is an endonuclease present in strain K that is specifically active against λ DNA from strains lacking mK. ... ...endonucleases III-K and III-P may provide a model for other systems that cleave duplexes or cut single chains at specific locations, not only in connexion with restriction phenomena, but possibly also in relication, recombination or transcription. ...".
The three main mechanisms by which bacteria acquire new DNA are transformation, conjugation, and transduction. Transformation involves acquisition of DNA from the environment, conjugation involves acquisition of DNA directly from another bacterium, and transduction involves acquisition of bacterial DNA via a bacteriophage intermediate.
(Determine if this is the first restriction enzyme isolated.)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
32 YBN
[04/16/1968 AD]
| 5745) Baruch Samuel Blumberg (CE 1925-2011), US physician, recognizes that the "Australian antigen" he identified in 1965 is associated with a virus found in people with leukaemia, Down's syndrome and hetaptitis. This leads to the development of a test for the hepatitis virus and a vaccine against the disease hepatitus B, the most severe form of hepatitis.
In 1963 Blumberg discovered in the blood serum of an Australian aborigine an antigen that determines to be part of a virus that causes hepatitis B, the most severe form of hepatitis. The discovery of this so-called Australian antigen, which causes the body to produce antibody responses to the virus, makes it possible to screen blood donors for possible hepatitis B transmission. Further research indicates that the body’s development of antibody against the Australian antigen is protective against further infection with the virus itself. In 1982 a safe and effective vaccine utilizing Australian antigen is made commercially available in the United States.
Blumberg et al publish this in "Nature" as "Particles associated with Australia Antigen in the Sera of Patients with Leukaemia, Down's Syndrome and Hepatitis". They write: "AUSTRALIA antigen was first identified using an antiserum produced in a transfused patient1,2. The antiserum gave a clear precipitin line in a double diffusion experiment when placed adjacent to the serum from an Australian aborigine. Pending further identification of the antigen, the geographic name "Australian antigen" was given to the reacting material found in the aborigine's serum. Specific antisera against this antigen can be produced by immunizing rabbits with serum containing Australia antigen, and subsequent absorption with serum which does not contain Australia antigen3. The precipitin band which forms between the haemophilia antiserum and the serum containing Australia antigen stains faintly with sudan black, indicating that the antigen contains lipid. It has a specific gravity of less than 1.21 and appears in the first peak in 'Sephadex G-200' column chromatography (indicating a high molecular weight)4. ... From our findings, it seems that Australia antigen found in patients with leukaemia, Down's syndrome and hepatitis is associated with a particle. The aggregatino of the particles by the specific antisera (Fig. 2c) suggests that antigenic sites are present on the particles. The biological nature of these particles remains unknown, but clearly it is important to determine their origin and function by other approaches. ...".
| (The Institute for Cancer Research) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA |
32 YBN
[11/16/1968 AD]
| 5808) Asparatame (artificial sweetener) discovered.
James M. Schlatter recogizes the sweet taste of aspartylphenylalanine methyl ester (aspartame).
| (G. D. Searle and Co.) Skokie, Illinois, USA |
32 YBN
[12/24/1968 AD]
| 5604) First humans to orbit the moon.
Apollo 8 is the first ship to orbit the moon with humans inside. The flight carries a three man crew: Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr., and Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders. Apollo 8 is launched on December 21, 1968 and placed in an Earth parking orbit with a period of 88.2 minutes. A third-stage burn then injects Apollo 8 into translunar trajectory. Apollo 8 enters lunar orbit on December 24. Two orbits later a second burn places Apollo 8 into a near-circular orbit for eight orbits. On December 25 after a total of 10 lunar orbits the burn that sends the ship back into earth orbit starts.
Apollo 8 splashes down in the Pacific Ocean on December 27 1968 after a mission elapsed time of 147 hrs, 0 mins, 42 secs. The splashdown point is 1,000 miles South-SouthWest of Hawaii and 5 km (3 mi) from the recovery ship USS Yorktown.
| Moon of Earth |
32 YBN
[1968 AD]
| 5243) Stephen A. Benton creates the first transmission hologram that can be viewed in ordinary light.
This leads to the development of embossed holograms, making it possible to mass produce holograms for common use.
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (presumably) |
31 YBN
[03/21/1969 AD]
| 5776) Gerald Maurice Edelman (CE 1929- ), US biochemist and team determine the first known structure of the an antibody; they determine the amino acid sequence in the γG human immunoglobulin protein molecule.
Edelman is interested in determining the structure of human immunoglobulin which is a very large molecule. Edelman succeeds in breaking the molecule into smaller portions by reducing and splitting the disulfide bonds. Following this, Edelman proposes that the molecule contains more than one polypeptide chain and that two kinds of chain exist, a light and heavy chain. Such studies help Rodney Porter propose a structure for the antibody immunoglobulin G (IgG) in 1962. Edelman is more interested in working out the complete amino-acid sequence of IgG, which contains 1330 amino acids, and is by far the largest protein then attempted. By 1969 Edelman and team announce the complete sequence and show that while much of the molecule is unchanging the tips of the Y-like structure are highly variable in their amino-acid sequence. It thus seems obvious that such an area would be identical with the active antigen binding region in Porter's structure and that such variability represents the ability of IgG to bind many different antigens.
Edelman and team publish this in "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "THE COVALENT STRUCTURE OF AN ENTIRE γG IMMUNOGLOBULIN MOLECULE". They write for an abstract: "The complete amino acid sequence of a human γG1 immunoglobulin (Eu) has been determined and the arrangement of all of the disulfide bonds has been established. Comparison of the sequence with that of another myeloma protein (He) suggests that the variable regions of heavy and light chains are homologous and similar in length. The constant portion of the heavy chain contains three homology regions each of which is similar in size and homologous to the constant region of the light chain. Each variable region and each constant homology region contains one intrachain disulfide bond. The half-cystines participating in the interchain bonds are all clustered within a stretch of ten residues at the middle of the heavy chains.
These data support the hypothesis that immunoglobulins evolved by gene duplication after early divergence of V genes, which specified antigen-binding functions, and C genes, which specified other functions of antibody molecules. Each polypeptide chain may therefore be specified by two genes, V and C, which are fused to form a single gene (translocation hypothesis). The internal homologies and symmetry of the molecule suggest that homology regions may have similar three-dimensional structures each consisting of a compact domain which contributes to at least one active site (domain hypothesis). Both hypotheses are in accord with the linear regional differential of function in antibody molecules.".
(Explain disulfide bonds.)
(So are all antibodies - polypeptides? Clearly antigens are combinations of nucleic acids and proteins. But can it be said that all antibodies and antigens are only made of polypeptide chains and/or nucleic acids?)
| (The Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
31 YBN
[04/??/1969 AD]
| 5576) Herbert Vaughan Jr. publishes recordings of changes in electric potential on the surface of the skull evoked from auditory and visual stimulus.
Richard Caton, M. D. was the first person to report observing evoked electric potentials of the brain.
(This brings the poor excluded public one step closer to seeing thought-images and hearing thought-sounds and knowing the truth about this terrible two-hundred year secret.)
(Determine if this is the first display of evoked potentials - it seems somewhat late to be the first.)
(One important step many people are waiting and looking for is the recoding of sound in electrical signal, evoked from external sounds of the same frequency in the ear, in particular signals that reflect thought-audio.)
| (Albert Einstein College of Medicine) Bronx, New York, USA |
31 YBN
[07/21/1969 AD]
| 655) Humans land and walk on the surface of the moon of Earth.
The Apollo 11 Lunar Module (LM) "Eagle" is the first crewed vehicle to land on the Moon. It carries two astronauts, Commander Neil A. Armstrong and LM pilot Edwin E. "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., the first humans to walk on the Moon.
Neil Armstrong is the first human to walk on the moon of earth (saying “That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind). Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin spend 21 hours 37 minutes on the moon, and return 8 days after lift off. Asimov describes this as the most significant moment since Gagarin's first orbital flight 8 years before, and in the history of exploration generally, possibly since Columbus' first voyage nearly five centuries earlier.
(I think this is clearly the most important moment in human exploration of human history yet (at least publicly - it may be that this happened earlier but was kept secret - given 200 years of neuron reading and writing).)
(Determine if they also drive around on the Apollo 11 mission.)
| Moon of Earth |
31 YBN
[07/28/1969 AD]
| 5795) Frederick Sanger (CE 1918-) and team show that the sequence from a messenger RNA corresponds to the sequence of amino-acids in the protein that the RNA codes for.
This is also the first use gel electrophoresis to determine the nucleotide sequence in a nucleic acid (RNA). (verify)
Electrophoresis was first applied to fractionating nucleic acids (RNA) in 1962 by Bachvaroff, Yomtov, and Nikolov in Bulgaria.
In 1965, Robert Holley and team determined the first sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid (an alanine T-RNA molecule).
Sanger and team publish this in "Nature" as "Nucleotide Sequence from the Coat Protein Cistron of R17 Bacteriophage RNA". They write for an abstract: "The sequence of fifty-seven nucleotides in the coat protein cistron of phage R17 RNA directly confirms the genetic code, shows that the code used by the phage is degenerate and suggests that highly ordered base-paired structures exist in this RNA. Such base-paired loops may be involved in regulation of cistron expression and packing of the RNA in the phage particle.". In their paper they write: "ALTHOUGH the nature of the genetic code is well established, it has not been possible until now to determine by chemical means a sequence from a messenger RNA and to show that it is related by the code to the sequence of amino-acids in the protein that it spectifies. The best characterized messenger RNAs that can be obtained in a pure form abe the single-stranded RNAs containing about 3,300 nucleotide residues isolated from RNA bacteriophages, such as R17, f2 and MS2. The nucleotide sequences at the ends of these molecules have been determined and, for MS2 RNA, the sequences of the products of pancreatic ribonuclease digestion. R17 RNA codes for three proteins, one of which is the phage coat protein of known amino-acid sequence. Here we report a nucleotide sequence from the coat protein cistron of R17 RNA. In this laboratory we have developed fractionation methods for P-labelled oligonucleotides which have been applied in the determination of the nucleotide squaences of tRNAs and the 5S ribosomal RNA which is 120 nucleotides long. The method used for separating nucleotides up to about ten residues in length is ionophoresis on a two-dimensional system using cellulose acetate in one dimension and DEAE-paper in the other. ... Partial T1 Ribonuclease Digest of R17 RNA When a partial enzymic digest of ribosomal RNA is electrophoresed on a polyacrylamide gel a number of discrete bands are found. We tried this approach for making specific fragments of R17 RNA. Samples of 32P labelled R17 RNA were digested with various amounts of ribonuclease T1 at 0°C in a buffer of high ionic strength, and the partial digests were electrophoresed on a long flat slab of 12.5 per cent polyacrylamide gel by a modification of the method of Peacock and Dingman which was developed in this laboratory with G. G. Brownless. (A flat slab is particularly suitable for autoradiolgraphy and also for comparing different samples on the same gel.) Fig. 5 shows an autoradiograph of the fractionation obtained. In the undigested control sample cirtually all the RNA remains at the origin because it is too large to penetrate the gel. With increasing amounts of added enzyme, however, more and more bands appear and there is a progressive increase inthe amounts of the smaller, faster-moving fragments. As many as forty discrete bands can be seen in the more extensively digested samples. The RNA fragments in these bands range in size from guanosine monophosphate, in the fastest moving band, to fragments more than 300 nucleotides long near the top of the gel. This experiment shows that there is an extremely wide range in the rate at which T1 ribonuclease splits different guanylate residues in the molecule, presumably because of the structure of the RNA. Moreover, it shows that gel electrophoresis is capable of resolving many of the fragments that result from this very specific hydrolysis. ... The fragmentation of the RNA was usually sufficiently reproducible in different experiments, using different preparations of RNA or enzyme, for each band to be identified simply from the overall band pattern. To isolate enough of the fragments to characterize them, preparative digests were made with up to 5 mCi of 32P-labelled R17 RNA and the digests were loaded across the width of a flat slab gel ... In these experiments we chose digestion conditions that would give primarily fragments of a size (up to about 200 nucleotides in length) suitable for sequence analysis. ... This is the first time that a sequence from a messenger RNA has been determined by chemical means and shown to correspond to the sequence of amino-acids in the protein for which it codes; the results can be regarded as one of the most direct confirmations of the correctness of the genetic code. It is also of interest to see which codons are actually used by this bacteriophage. Table 5 shows the genetic code, in which the codons found in the above sequence are indicated by underlining the amoni-acids concerned. Six amino-acids are found twice in the sequence. Two of these (Leu and Ile) are specified both times by the same codon; hoever, the other four (Thr, Ser, Asn, Ala) are coded for by two different codons. The data are not dufficient to make any generalizations byt at least it may be concluded that the code used by the bacteriophage is degenerate. ... Secondary Structure of the Fragment An interesting feature of the sequence is that it can be written in the form of a simple loop showing considerable base-pairing (Fig. 9). Of the twnety-four pairs in this structure nineteen are complementary. This is very unlikely to occur by chance and therefore we believe that the sequence most probably occurs in a double helical configuration in the virus. In this structure all the guanylate residues in the sequence are involved in base pairs and would thus be expected to be resistant to T1 ribonuclease. This would explain the presence of this fragment in the partial digest of the whole molecule. The unexpected specificity of the partial hydrolysis of R17 RNA suggests that other such highly ordered base-paired structures exist in the RNA; these may be important in the packing of the RNA into the cirus particle and may also be involved in the regulation of cistron expression. It thus appears that the sequence of a messenger RNA at least in phage RNA, is determined not only by the need to specify an amino-acid sequence but also by its need to assume a particular secondary structure. In Fig. 9 the phasing of the codons is indicated by dots. it can be seen that the third positions do not come opposite to one another. Codons that differ only in the third position often code for the same amino-acid. Thus mutations occurring in two-thirds of the base pairs could change the RNA secondary structure without altering the amino-acid sequence of the protein that is synthesized. It may be that this is one of the functions of the degeneracy of the code. Because protein biosynthesis depends on the recognition of codons by the anticodon on tRNAs, it seems that the messenger RNA must be single-stranded during translation. Thus the finding of a double-stranded structure in a messenger RNA suggests that the protein-synthesizing mechanism must be capable of unfolding such a structure. Similarly the phage RNA synthetase must be able to unfold the RNA during transcription. ...".
Transcription is the process by which messenger RNA is synthesized from a DNA template, and translation is the process in which the genetic information carried by the DNA is decoded, using an RNA intermediate, into proteins. Translation is also known as protein synthesis.
Walter Gilbert at Harvard also develops the use of gel eletrophoresis to determine the sequence of nucleic acids. Gilbert's method differs from Sanger's method in that Gilbert's method can be applied to single as well as double-stranded DNA. (determine if this is the correct paper to cite.)
(Determine if this is the first publication where nucleotide sequence is determined from electrophoresis.)
(Describe more and explain in simple terms how the nucleotide sequence can be determined from this image and gel electrophoresis.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
31 YBN
[09/15/1969 AD]
| 5753) US microbiologist, Hamilton Othanel Smith (CE 1931- ) and K. W. Welcox use a restriction enzyme from the bacterium Hemophilus influenzae to break a DNA molecule.
Smith and Welcox publish this in 'Journal of Molecular Biology" as "A restriction enzyme from Hemophilus influenzae". They write for an abstract: "Extracts of Hemophilus inJEuenzue strain Rd contain an endonuclease activity which produces a rapid decrease in the specific viscosity of a variety of foreign native DNA’s; the specific viscosity of H. influenzae DNA is not altered under the same conditions. This “restriction” endonuclease activity has been purified approximately ZOO-fold. The purified enzyme contains no detectable exo- or endonucleolytic activity against H. influenzae DNA. However, with native phage T7 DNA as substrate, it produces about 40 double-strand 5’-phosphoryl, 3’- hydroxyl cleavages. The limit product has an average length of about 1000 nucleotide pairs and contains no single-strand breaks. The enzyme is inactive on denatured DNA and it requires no special co-factors other than magnesium ions.". In their introdution they write "A number of bacteria are capable of recognizing and degrading (“restricting”) foreign DNA, such as the DNA of a virus grown on another bacterial strain. The DNA of the host is protected by a “host-controlled modification” (Arber, 1965). Recently, Meselson & Yuan (1968) have purified a restriction endonuclease from Escherichia coli K12. The enzyme has the interesting properties: (1) that it is site-specific in action, producing only a limited number of double-strand breaks in unmodified DNA, and (2) that it requires adenosine triphosphate and S-aclenosyl methionine in addition to magnesium ions. We have made the chance discovery of what appears to be a similar type of enzyme in Hemophilw injluenwce, strain Rd. In the course of some experiments in which compete nt H. inJluenzae cells were incubated with radioactively labeled DNA from the Salmonella phage P22, we found that this DNA was apparently degraded since it could not be recovered in cesium chloride density gradients. It seemed likely that the effect was one of restriction. We were able to show the presence in crude extracts of an endonuclease activity which produced a rapid decrease in viscosity of foreign DNA preparations and which was without effect on the H. inJluenzae DNA. We describe in this report the purification and properties of the endonuclease. As with the E. coli restriction enzyme, our enzyme produces double-strand breaks in a limited number of specific sites. The enzyme requires only magnesium ions as a co-factor, unlike the E. coli enzyme. A preliminary report has been published (Smith & Wilcox, 1969). ...".
US microbiologist, Daniel Nathans (CE 1928-1999) also develops a method of cutting DNA using a restriction enzyme.
(Determine if this ability for an enzyme to break DNA was identified earlier in the papers cited in Smith's paper.)
| (Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine) Baltimore, Maryland, USA |
31 YBN
[10/10/1969 AD]
| 5469) Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin (CE 1910-1994), and team determine the molecular structure of insulin using X-ray reflection ("diffraction").
| (Oxford University) Oxford, England |
31 YBN
[10/29/1969 AD]
| 5733) Roger Guillemin (GELmeN) (CE 1924- ), French-US physiologist, proves that the hypothalamus (an area of the brain) controls and regulates the secretion of other glands, by isolating and synthesizing TRH (thyrotropin-releasing hormone) and showing that TRH regulates thyroid gland activity.
The hypothallamus is an area of the brain that produces hormones that controls body temperature, hunger, mood, the relase of hormones from many glands, especially the pituitary gland, sex drive, sleep, and thirst. (You can imagine that this area of the brain must be a fertile area for remote neuron writing.)
The thyroid gland is a gland that is located in the anterior part of the lower neck, below the larynx (voice box). The thyroid secretes hormones important to metabolism and growth. Any enlargement of the thyroid, regardless of cause, is called a goitre. The fetal thyroid gland begins to function at about 12 weeks of gestation, and its function increases progressively thereafter. Within minutes after birth there is a sudden surge in thyrotropin secretion, followed by a marked increase in serum thyroxine and triiodothyronine concentrations. The concentrations of thyroid hormones then gradually decline, reaching adult values at the time of puberty. Thyroid hormone secretion increases in pregnant women. There is little change in thyroid secretion in older adults as compared with younger adults. The most common thyroid disease is thyroid nodular disease (the appearance of small, usually benign lumps within an otherwise healthy gland), followed by hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, and thyroid cancer.
Guillemin and coworkers publish this in French in the (translated to English with Google) "Weekly reports of meetings of the Academy of Sciences. D, Natural Sciences" as "Molecular structure of the hypothalamic hypophysiotropic TRF factor of ovine origin: evidence from mass spectrometry sequence of PCA-His-Pro-NH2.".
Ovine means pertaining to, of the nature of, or like sheep.
(Read relevent parts of paper(s).)
(Verify that Guillemin isolates, and synthesizes TRH.)
| (Baylor University) Houston, Texas, USA |
31 YBN
[1969 AD]
| 5840) Walking robot using pneumatically (air-filled) rubber artificial muscles. (verify)
| (Waseda Univerity) Tokyo, Japan |
31 YBN
[1969 AD]
| 5841) "Bubble memory" devices store information even when the computer is turned off, unlike conventional electronic memory devices.
| |
31 YBN
[1969 AD]
| 5851) The Internet (people use computers to communicate over the telephone wire network).
The ARPAnet, the use of the telephone company's wired network to connect computers, is started. This network will grow into the Internet.
| (University of California at Los Angeles) Los Angeles, California, USA and (Stanford Research Institute) Stanford, California, USA and (University of California Santa Barbara) Santa Barbara, California, USA, and (University of Utah) Salt Lake City, Utah, USA |
30 YBN
[01/29/1970 AD]
| 5836) Digital electric camera.
The Charged Coupled Device (CCD) is made public. This will lead to the first digital cameras available to the public.
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA |
30 YBN
[02/02/1970 AD]
| 5518) Atom Probe Field-Ion Microscope. Erwin Wilhelm Müller (CE 1911-1977), German-US physicist, uses his field-ion microscope with a mass spectrometer so that the percentage of various atoms in some material can be determined.
Muller writes: 'The atom-probe enables us to identify mass spectroscopically a single atom as it is seen in the field ion microscope. The new device is thus a uniquely sensitive and powerful tool for surface study and microanalysis. In order to appreciate the possibilities as well as the limitations of the instrument it is first necessary to review briefly the state of the art of field ion microscopy and to point out some of its present problems that will probably be solved by the new capabilities of the atom-probe. A discussion of the special features of the instrument's design and operation will be followed by an account of some surprising results in /ield evaporation and gas-sur/ace interactions, while the more obvious and straightforward applications to various tasks of microanalysis of metal specimens at the atomic level need to be dealt with only briefly. Some Problems o/Field Ion Microscopy Field ion microscopy (FIM) had been firmly established in the fifties. The direct visualization of the atomic structure of metal surfaces, including lattice defects such as vacancies, interstitials, dislocations, grain boundaries and slip bands had been accomplished, and the potential as well as the limitations of the technique were summarized in an early review article. In the past decade the field ion microscope, remaining the only known device capable of imaging the individual atoms as the building blocks of metals, finally attracted the attention of metallurgists for more detailed studies of defect structures, of chemists for looking into atomic aspects of gassurface interactions, and of physicists who were interested in such diverse problems as radiation damage or surface binding energies. The applications were advanced by operational improvements such as image intensification, hydrogen promotion of field ionization and field evaporation, image interpretation through computer simulation, and a refined understanding of the imaging process itself. These accomplishments of the past decade have been comprehensively reviewed. However, a number of quite basic problems remain unsolved due to the complexity of the physical situation at an atomically structured, three dimensional surface to which a field of some 2 to 6 V/3, is applied. As the new atom-probe promises a fresh approach to some of these questions, they should be briefly stated here. The FIM images the individual atoms of a clean, pure metal surface as dots of widely varying brightness and diameter. Thus, if several chemical species are present at the surface of an alloy, at a metal partially covered by an adsorbate, or when impurity interstitials or segregations are to be viewed, it is impossible to identify the species unequivocally. The ion image essentially displays the places of high ionization probability of tile imaging gas, which are the spots of locally enhanced field strength, ttowever, the field enhancement at these sites is not solely determined, as had been surmised previously for instance for the justi fication of computer simulation, by the local degree of protrusion, that is by geometric factors alone. Rather, as has been realized only recently, the local field strength is determined by the specific surface charge density, and tile field ionization probability above a surface site is further modified by the probability of electron transfer from the image gas atom into the surface atom, which is best described by the quantum mechanical overlap of wave functions or orbitals. ... Field-Ion Mass Spectrometry The field ion emitter suggests itself as an ion source for a mass spectrometer. Indeed, since the work of Inghram and Gomer, and more recently of Beckey and of Block, mass spectrometry of gases admitted to the tip and field ionized in its vicinity has produced significant results unobtainable with the conventional, usually more fractionating ion sources. Experimentally more difficult is the mass spectrometric analysis of the products of field evaporation, as the emitter is quickly consumed by drawing an ion current large enough to be easily measurable above the noise level. Nevertheless, some promising results were obtained when hydrogen promoted field evaporation of copper was shown to occur in the form of a hydride, as had been suspected , and when Vanselow and Schmidt were able to get a large enough field evaporation current from platinum tips by working at temperatures above t300 ~ Finally Barofsky and Mt~ller for the first time performed mass spectrometry of metals field evaporating at cryogenic temperatures, such as Be, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn, using a focusing magnetic sector field and scanning the mass range within a fraction of a minute. About 5 % of all ions emitted from the tip surface into a wide open cone were collected in the multiplier behind the exit slit. The signal-to-noise problem limited the sensitivity of this apparatus. It was in the pursuit of this work that the author conceived tile idea of detecting one single field evaporating surface atom selected by a small probe hole in the field ion microscope screen, and of eliminating the noise discrimination problem in the electron multiplier detection of the single particle by providing a tight time correlation between the instant of field evaporation and of detection. The latter condition can be most easily met by connecting the FIM through the probe hole with a time-of-flight mass spectrometer.
... Further experimental work will be centered around two objectives: One is the straight forward application of the atom-probe FIM as a microanalytical tool of ultimate sensitivity. The chemical identity and tile location with respect to the lattice structure of impurities, segregations, precipitates, and alloy constituents are immediate goals. Goodman and Brenner already have successfully analyzed the distribution of phosphorus and antimony in steel. The application to numerous other systems accessible to field ion microscopy is obvious. The second aim of atom-probe research will be to shed new light on the complex physical situation at specific atomic lattice sites of the surface of the field ion microscope specimen. Already now new aspects of the image formation process are being recognized, and field evaporation and surface-gas interaction data carry a new dimension of reliability by the identification of the particles involved.".
(Verify that I am describing this correctly.)
| (Pennsylvania State University) University Park, Pennsylvania, USA |
30 YBN
[06/02/1970 AD]
| 5801) Reverse transcriptase identified, an enzyme in RNA tumor viruses that synthesizes DNA from an RNA template. This shows that the classical process of information transfer frmo DNA to RNA can be reversed.
Howard Martin Temin (CE 1934-1994), US oncologist, and independently David Baltimore (CE 1938- ), US biochemist, identify the enzyme "reverse transcriptase" which shows for the first time that some enzymes can affect the workings of DNA.
While working toward his Ph.D. under Dulbecco at the California Institute of Technology, Temin began investigating how the Rous sarcoma virus causes animal cancers. One puzzling observation was that the virus, the essential component of which is ribonucleic acid (RNA), can not infect the cell if the synthesis of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) is stopped. Temin proposes in 1964 that the virus somehow translates its RNA into DNA, which then redirected the reproductive activity of the cell, transforming it into a cancer cell. The cell would reproduce this DNA along with its own DNA, producing more cancer cells. In 1970 both Temin and Baltimore prove Temin’s hypothesis correct.
Baltimore and Temin each publish an article sequentially in the journal "Nature" with the same title "Viral RNA-dependent DNA Polymerase: RNA-dependent DNA Polymerase in Virions of RNA Tumour Viruses". Baltimore writes: "DNA seems to have a critical role in the multiplication and transforming ability of RNA tumor viruses. infection and transformation by these viruses can be prevented by inhibitors of DNA synthesis added during the first 6-12 h after exposure of cells to this virus. The necessary DNA synthesis seems to involve the production of DNA which is genetically specific for the infecting virus, although hybridization studies intended to demonstrate virus-specific DNA have been inconclusive. Also, the formation of virions by the RNA tumour viruses is sensitive to actinomycin D and therefore seems to involve DNA-dependent RNA synthesis. One model which explains these data postulates the transfer of the information of the infecting RNA to a DNA copy which then serves as template for the synthesis of cial RNA. This model requires a unique enzyme, an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. No enzyme which synthesizes DNA from an RNA template has been found in any type of cell. unless such an enzyme exists in uninfected cells, the RNA tumour viruses must either induce its synthesis soon after infection or carry the enzyme into the cell as part of the virion. Precedemts exist for the occurence of nucleotide polymerases in the virions of animal viruses. Vaccinia- a DNA virus, Reo-a double-stranded RNA virus, and vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) - a single-stranded RNA virus, have all been shown to contain RNA polymerases. This study demonstrates that an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase is present in the virions of two RNA tumour viruses. Rauscher mouse leukaemia virus (RMLV) and Rous sarcoma virus. Temin has also identified this activity in Rous sarcoma virus. ... These experiments indicate that the virions of Rauscher mouse leukaemia virus and Rous sarcoma virus contain a DNA polymerase. The inhibition of its activity by ribonuclease suggests that the enzyme is an RNA-dependent DNA polymerase. It seems probable that all RNA tumour viruses have such an activity. The existence of this enzyme strongly supports the earlier suggestions that genetically specific DNA synthesis is an early event in the replication cycle of the RNA tumour viruses and that DNA is the template for viral RNA tumour viruses and that DNA is the template for viral RNA synthesis. Whether the viral DNA ("provirus") is integrated into the host genome or remains as a free template for RNA synthesis will require further study. It will also be necessary to determine whether the host DNA-dependent RNA polymerase or a virus-specific enzyme catalyses the synthesis of viral RNA from the DNA. ...". Temin and Mizutani write: "INFECTION of sensitive cells by RNA sarcoma viruses requires the synthesis of new DNA different from that synthesized in the S-phase of the cell cycle ...; production of RNA tumour viruses is sensitive to actinomycin D; and cells transformed by RNA tumour viruses have new DNA which hybridizes with viral RNA. These are the basic observations essential to the DNA provirus hypothesis-replication of RNA tumour viruses takes place through a DNA intermediate, not through an RNA intermediate as does the replication of other RNA viruses. Formation of the provirus is normal in stationary chicken cells exposed to Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), even in the presence of 0.5 ug/ml, cycloheximide ... This finding, together with the discovery of polymerases in virions of vaccinia virus and of reovirus, suggested that an enzyme that would synthesize DNA from an RNA template might be present in virions of RSV. We now report data supporting the existence of such an enzyme, and we learn that David baltimore has independely discovered a similar enzyme in virions of Rauscher leukaemia virus. ... These results demonstrate that there is a new polymerase inside the virions of RNA tumour viruses. It is not present in supernatants of normal cells but is present in virions of avian sarcoma and leukaemia RNA tumour viruses. The polymerase seems to catalyse the incorporation of deoxyribonucleotide triphosphates into DNA from an RNA template. Work is being performed to characterize further the reaction and the product. if the present results and Baltimore's results with Rauscher leukaemia virus are upheld, they will constitute strong evidence that the DNA provirus hypothesis is correct and that RNA tumour viruses have a DNA genome when they are in cells and an RNA genome when they are in virions. This result would have strong implications for theories of viral carcinogenesis and, possibly, for theories of information transfer in other biological systems. ...".
A virion is a complete viral particle, consisting of RNA or DNA surrounded by a protein shell and constituting the infective form of a virus.
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
30 YBN
[06/16/1970 AD]
| 5716) Two DNA molecules combined and the first artificial gene synthesized.
| (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
30 YBN
[09/08/1970 AD]
| 5574) Choh Hao Li (lE) (CE 1913-1987), Chinese-US biochemist, and Donald Yamashiro synthesize a protein with the same amino acid sequence as the human growth hormone (HGH or somatotropin) that displays growth-promoting activity.
(Determine if this is shown to be the total synthesis of human growth hormone.)
| (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
30 YBN
[09/24/1970 AD]
| 5600) Robotic ship from earth returns samples from another body (moon of earth).
| (80 km SE of the city of) Dzhezkazgan, Kazakhstan (was U.S.S.R.) |
30 YBN
[12/15/1970 AD]
| 5617) Venera 7 is the first ship to soft land on another planet and return data after landing on another planet.
Venera 7 enters the atmosphere of Venus on December 15, 1970, and a landing capsule is released. After aerodynamic braking, a parachute system is deployed. The capsule antenna is extended, and signals are returned for 35 min. Another 23 min of very weak signals are received after the spacecraft lands on Venus. The capsule is the first human-made object to return data after landing on another planet.
(State what data was returned.)
| Planet Venus |
30 YBN
[1970 AD]
| 5842) The "floppy disk" is introduced for storing data.
(It seems likely to me that the spinning disk or any mechanical moving structure is going to be replaced ultimately by all-electronic devices.)
| |
29 YBN
[01/01/1971 AD]
| 5519) Erwin Wilhelm Müller (CE 1911-1977), German-US physicist, uses a field ion shadow projection microscope to view biomolecules.
Using the field-ion microscope a few large organic molecules, such as phthalocyanine have been visualized. (verify)
This is apparently a technical report to the US Department of Energy. (More details and images.)
(Is this the first atom scale images of a molecule, and also a biomolecule until the STM of Binnig, et al?)
| (Pennsylvania State University) University Park, Pennsylvania, USA |
29 YBN
[01/??/1971 AD]
| 5523) John Archibald Wheeler (CE 1911-2008), US physicist, invents the term "black hole" for a mass that collapses to a point (or "singularity"), and the gravitational field at the surface of the mass would be so intense that the escape velocity would be larger than the velocity of light, so that nothing including even light particles can escape such a gravitational field.
Remo Ruffini and Wheeler write in an article "Introducing the Black Hole" in "Physics Today": "The quasistellar object, the pulsar, the neutron star have all come onto the scene of physics within the space of a few years. Is the next entrant destined to be the black hole? If so, it is difficult to think of any development that could be of greater significance. A black hole, whether of "ordinary size" (approximately one solar mass, 1 Mo ) , or much larger (around 10° Mo to 1010 MQ, as proposed in the nuclei of some galaxies ) provides our "laboratory model" for the gravitational collapse, predicted by Einstein's theory, of the universe itself. A black hole is what is left behind after an object has undergone complete gravitationa l collapse. Spacetime is so strongly curved that no light can come out, no matter can be ejected and no measuring rod can ever sul-vive being put in. Any kind of object that falls into the black hole loses its separate identity, preserving only its mass, charge, angular momentum and linear momentum (see figure 1). No one has yet found a way to distinguish between two black holes constructed out of the most different kinds of matter if they have the same mass, charge and angular momentum. Measurement of these three determinants is permitted by their effect on the Kepler orbits of test objects, charged and uncharged, in revolution about the black hole. ...".
(This view changes the original view of Swrtzschild, which was that there could be a mass so large that even light could not escape the gravitational attraction. Wheeler is apparently the first, or one of the first to change that concept into a curving of space-time, Wheeler writes: "Spacetime is so strongly curved that no light can come out". So here, the view, at least in language, changes from a black star to a black hole- from a material object which has a gravity to a "hole" which has no matter. This view that space-time can be "curved" is a theory of non-Euclidean geometry, which originated with Lobechevsky, and to me seems very unlikely. For example, around the rise of the non-Euclidean theory, Helmholtz argued that space is probably Euclidean, but later removed his claim probably after political and no doubt neuronical pressure was placed on him. This well-funded promoting of the theory of space and time dilation with an absolute black-out on any opposition or alternative is typical of the post WW2 picture of science presented to the excluded public, and represents an extremely unlikely, complex ironical and impossibly inaccurate view.)
(It is interesting that here, Asimov describes that the gravitational field comes from an actual mass. My understanding is that there is no mass in the center of a black hole, but that the mass vanishes all together. Both Swarzschild and Chandrasekhar presumed there to be mass there. I doubt seriously that there are any black "holes" or even black "stars". Clearly the majority of the universe appears to have little effect on the direction of photon beams, The vast majority of stars, if not all stars, freely emit photons that easily escape. So I doubt such a thing as black or the later worm holes, in particular as a passage to some other part of space-time. )
(There is a theory that the most dense known matter in the universe is probably the largest star known, because no other density could be accomplished in the absence of more matter causing higher pressure. But much depends on where the volume of space boundary lines are drawn. It may be that there is a limit to density, that once light particles are packed together and not moving they cannot be compressed any farther and this may occur for even relatively small masses.)
(It seems likely that Wheeler could be a paid-for operator publishing information he knows is false in order to mislead the public and continue to allow power to be focused with the neuron writing owners- being a member of Los Alamos Wheeler was part of the secrecy structure. What we see for much of the 1800s, 1900s and 2000s and no doubt 2100s is just a bizarre bunch of purposely told lies and extremely unlikely theories that all the scientists, publishers and other neuron insiders know are false, pushed onto the excluded public - in just one of the most bizarre and idiotic histories of history - only the embrace of the shockingly false stories of the religions can surpass this kind of idiocy. And we here as excluded and included both are left to combat this powerful ultra wealthy omnipotent lying apparatus.)
(Just to quickly give my arguments against a black hole, or black star with matter so large that no light can escape. The number one reason I think against this happening is that there probably can never be a gravity large enough in some volume of space - even with an inverse distance law to stop a light particle from entering into the empty space outside some material sphere. This is simply the nature of a sphere - the closest point is a tangent on the surface - and even at this distance the majority of matter in the sphere has empty space between the tangent point and the rest of the spherical surface. There needs to be math to support this claim - and I would presume the mass of a light particle is extremely small as DeBroglie estimated under 10-50 grams. Other reasons are I reject non-Euclidean geometry. I view time as being the same everywhere in the universe at any given instant.)
| (Princeton University) Princeton, New Jersey, USA |
29 YBN
[04/19/1971 AD]
| 5667) First orbiting ("space") station, (Salyut 1).
(More details, crew dies)
| (Baikonur Cosmodrome) Tyuratam, Kazakhstan (was Soviet Union) (verify) |
29 YBN
[05/06/1971 AD]
| 5734) Andrew Victor Schally (CE 1926- ), Polish-US biochemist and coworkers isolate and determine the structure of LH-RH (luteinizing hormone-releasing hormone) and FSH-RH (follicle-stimulating- releasing hormone). The hypothallamus regulates the pituitary glands release of both lutenizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) by secreting LH-RH and FSH-RH.
In 1968, Schally and team had shown that the hypothalamus regulates the release of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) from the anterior pituitary gland by means of neurohumoral substance(s) designated LH-releasing hormone (LH-RH) and FSH-releasing hormone (FSH-RH). (make record for?)
(Of the citations determine who was first.)
| (V.A. Hospital and Tulane University School of Medicine) New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
29 YBN
[05/06/1971 AD]
| 5735) Roger Guillemin (GELmeN) (CE 1924- ), French-US physiologist, and Andrew Victor Schally (CE 1926- ), Polish-US biochemist and coworkers isolate and synthesize GHRH (growth hormone-releasing hormone), which causes the pituitary to release gonadotropin. This proves that the hypothalamus releases hormones that regulate the pituitary gland.
Guillemin and co-worker Schally (in Baylor in Houston, Texas) isolate a pituitary gland affecting molecule (GHRH). Guillemin and Schally show that this molecule is fairly simple and present in very small quantities in the body. This molecule can be used in the treatment of pituitary disorders. Guillemin and Schally try to show if the hypothalamus gland controls the pituitary gland which itself controls the activity of many other glands. (Determine if this is now shown to be true.)
Guillemin et al report this in "Science" as "Hypothalamic Polypeptide That Inhibits the Secretion of Immunoreactive Pituitary Growth Hormone". For an abstract they write: "A peptide has been isolated from ovine hypothalamus which, at 1 X 10-9M, inhibits secretion in vitro of immunoreactive rat or human growth hormones and is similarly active in vivo in rats. Its structure is H-A la-Gly-Cys-Lys-Asn-Phe-Phe-Trp-Lys-Thr-Phe-Thr-Ser-Cys-OH The synthetic replicate is biologically active.".
The majority of hormones are polypeptide in structure.
(So this hormone is actually a protein. Is this true for all other hormones that they a simply proteins (polypeptides)?)
| (V.A. Hospital and Tulane University School of Medicine) New Orleans, Louisiana, USA |
29 YBN
[07/15/1971 AD]
| 5421) Vladimir Prelog (CE 1906-1998), Yugoslavian-Swiss chemist, and coworkers identify the first natural compound found to contain boron, boromycin.
Using X-ray diffraction Prelog determines the structure of several antibiotics.
| (Eidgenossische Technische Hochschule) Zurich, Switzerland |
29 YBN
[11/09/1971 AD]
| 5838) Light particle communication using liquid filled glass fiber (fiber optic communication).
As early as 1842, Jean-Daniel Colladon, in France, had described the "light fountain" or "light pipe", in which, light stays in the water because of total internal reflection.
In 1880, Alexander Graham Bell had sent audio using light through the air with his "Photophone".
With fiber optics, data is sent, by light particles moving through thin, transparent fibers. In telecommunications, optical fibers have virtually replaced copper wire in long-distance telephone lines, and is used to link computers within local area networks. Fiber optics is also the basis of the fiberscopes used in examining internal parts of the body (endoscopy) or inspecting the interiors of manufactured structural products. The basic medium of fiber optics is a hair-thin fiber that is sometimes made of plastic but most often of glass. A typical glass optical fiber has a diameter of 125 micrometres (μm), or 0.125 mm (0.005 inch). This is actually the diameter of the cladding, or outer reflecting layer. The core, or inner transmitting cylinder, may have a diameter as small as 10 μm. Through a process known as total internal reflection, light rays beamed into the fiber can propagate within the core for great distances with remarkably little attenuation, or reduction in intensity. The degree of attenuation over distance varies according to the wavelength of the light and to the composition of the fiber. (state what materials are used in the core.)
Three years before this, a March 12, 1968 report which is now declassified indicates that the camera used on the moon of earth used fiber optics.
J. Stone at AT&T Bell Labs publishes a report in the "IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics" as "Optical transmission loss in liquid-core hollow fibers". As an abstract Stone writes: "Multimode optical fibers consisting of glass cladding .and liquid core have been constructed. For a cladding index of fefraction of 1.52 and a core of bromobenzene, index of 1.560, a loss of 0.140 dB/m has been measured over lengths of about 50 m. The loss measured with incoherent light is higher due to the presence of higher order modes. Strong absorption in the near -infrared occurs in narrow wavebands associated with overtones .of the C-H fundamental vibration frequency.". In the paper Stone writes: "We have made multimode optical waveguides using l~ollow glass fibers as the cladding and a liquid as tlhe core. Transmission loss measurements were made with coherent light at 6328 A and incoherent light at various wavelengths in the visible and near infrared. We are not aware of any other measurements of transmission loss in liquid core waveguides The hollow fibers were made from flint glass tubing; 16- mm outside diameter, 1.3-mm wall thickness. This tubin, Q was pulled in an air atmosphere on a fiber-pulling machine in lengths of about 50 m and outside diameters of about 0.005 in on aluminum drums 10.5 in in diameter. The fibers were wound on the drums at 100 turdin. The index of refraction nn of the glass is about 1.52. In order t,o have optical guidance the liquid core must be of a higher index of refraction. We used either of two. liquids, bromobenzene, nD 1.560 and o-dichlorobenzene, n, ’= 1.549. We have measured absorption loss in these bulk liquids at 6328 A by a technique to be reported elsewhere. The values obtained were 0.008 dB/m for bromobenzene and 0.012 dBJm for o-dichlorobenzene. We did not measure Rayleigh scattering in bulk for these liquids nor were published dat.a available. However, published data give for benzene (I) a Rayleigh scatt.ering loss of 0.06-0.08 dBJm, for chlorobenzene (l) 0.08 dBJm, and for hexafluorobenzene 0.09 dBJm. It is likely t’hat the liquids we used have similar scattering losses, Thus the total loss in bulk for both bromobenzene and o-dichlorobenzene is probably about 0.1 dBJm. The liquids were purified by distillation and the hollow fibers were then filled under hydrostatic pressure in a Monel cell with a Teflon plunger (see Fig. 1). The distillation process eliminated most of the dust particles, and the hydrostatic filling process made it possible to fill the fibers without introducing any bubbles. The filling cell had a quartz window that permitted the insertion of light into the fiber end. The fiber was held in place by passing it through a hypodermic needle, which was then attached to a her-lock hypodermic syringe chromeplated fitting attached to the filling cell. The fiber was epoxied to the end of the hypodermic needle. With this arrangement it was possible to fill 50 m of fiber in less than one-half hour and also t,o observe the illuminated fiber during filling. Also, the same arrangement served for injecting the light for the loss measurements. Loss measurements were made at 6328 A using a He-Ne laser operating at about 3.5 mW, in a single transverse mode. Light was focused into the fiber with a 5~ microscope objective. The output end of the fiber was immersed in a cell containing the same liquid as the core and the outcoming light beam passed through a glass window and fell on the detector of a Coherent Radiation Laboratories model 212 light meter. Immersion of the fiber end serves t’o permit the light energy in the glass cladding to refract out so that the light falling on the detector is what has traveled in the core. The output level from the fiber was then measured as a function of fiber length by breaking off successive pieces from the fiber end. The results are shown in Fig. 2 for a 44-m-long fiber. The measured loss in this fiber filled with bromobenzene is 0.140 dBJm. Thus it appears that the loss exceeds the bulk loss of the liquid by no more than 0.04 dBJm. ... It can be seen that the output beam is roughly twice as wide for incoherent light and is approximately independent of wavelength.".
Gambling, Payne, and Matsumura in the UK also publish a report in "Optics Communications" as "Gigahertz Bandwidths in Multimode, Liquid-Core, Optical Fibre Waveguide". As an abstract they write: "An attenuation of 7 dB/km has been achieved over kilometre lengths of liquid-core, multi-mode optical fibre waveguide. The measured pulse dispersion depends on the mode distribution launched and on mode conversion which is a function of bend radius. Using a laser source a dispersion corresponding to a bandwidth = 1 GHz has been achieved and does not appear to be limited by fibre imperfections.". The fibers Gabling et al use are made of ME1 glass of 50 um internal diameter filled with hexachlorobuta-1,3-diene. The attenuation is measured over a length of 1 km at a wavelength of 1.08 um and is measured as 7.3 dB/km. (Explain what a loss of 7.3 dB/km means. How many light particles is 7.3 dB/km?)
Bell will install a fiber optic system in Atlanta in 1976.
(Determine who is first to demonstrate light particle communication using a glass fiber.)
| (Bell Telephone Laboratories) Holmdel, New Jersey, USA |
29 YBN
[11/14/1971 AD]
| 5618) The U.S. "Mariner 9" is the first ship from earth to orbit another planet (Mars).
| Planet Mars |
29 YBN
[11/27/1971 AD]
| 5619) Ship impacts Mars (Soviet "Mars 2").
| Planet Mars |
29 YBN
[11/??/1971 AD]
| 5844) The microprocessor.
A microprocessor is a device that integrates the functions of the central processing unit (CPU) of a computer onto one semiconductor chip or integrated circuit (IC). The microprocessor contains the core elements of a computer system, its computation and control engine. Only a power supply, memory, peripheral interface ICs, and peripherals (typically input/output and storage devices) need be added to build a complete computer system. A microprocessor consists of multiple internal function units. A basic design has an arithmetic logic unit (ALU), a control unit, a memory interface, an interrupt or exception controller, and an internal cache. More sophisticated microprocessors might also contain extra units that assist in floating-point match calculations, program branching, or vector processing.
The first microprocessors are created by Texas Instruments, Intel and a Scottish electronics company. Who is really first is a subject of debate. First-generation 8-bit families are Intel's 8080, Zilog's Z80, Motorola's 6800 and Rockwell's 6502.
The development of microprocessors in the late 1970s enables computer engineers to develop microcomputers. Microprocessors lead to "intelligent" terminals, such as bank ATMs and point-of-sale devices, and to automatic control of much industrial instrumentation and hospital equipment, programmable microwave ovens, and electronic games. Many automobiles use microprocessor-controlled ignition and fuel systems.
One of the first microprocessors is the "4004" chip advertised by Intel in November 1971.
| (Intel Corporation) Santa Clara, California, USA |
29 YBN
[12/02/1971 AD]
| 5620) The first ship from Earth to soft land on planet Mars and return data: the Soviet "Mars 3".
The descent module is separated from the orbiter on December 2, 1971. Fifteen minutes later the descent engine is fired to point the aeroshield forward. The module enters the martian atmosphere at 5.7 km/sec at an angle less than 10 degrees. The braking parachute is then deployed, followed by the main chute which is reefed (to shorten by taking part of it in) until the craft drops below supersonic velocity, at which time it is fully deployed, the heat shield is ejected, and the radar altimeter is turned on. At an altitude of 20 to 30 meters at a velocity of 60 - 110 m/s the main parachute is disconnected and a small rocket propels it off to the side. Simultaneously the lander retrorockets are fired. The entire atmospheric entry sequence takes a little over 3 minutes. Mars 3 impacts the surface at a reported 20.7 m/s. Shock absorbers inside the capsule are designed to prevent damage to the instruments. The four petal shaped covers open and the capsule begins transmitting to the Mars 3 orbiter, 90 seconds after landing. After 20 seconds, transmission stops for unknown reasons and no further signals are received at Earth from the martian surface. It is not known whether the fault originates with the lander or the communications relay on the orbiter. A partial panoramic image returned shows no detail and a very low illumination of 50 lux. The cause of the failure may have been related to the extremely powerful martian dust storm taking place at the time which may have induced a coronal discharge, damaging the communications system. The dust storm would also explain the poor image lighting.
| Planet Mars |
29 YBN
[1971 AD]
| 5843) Direct telephone dialing, as opposed to operator-assisted calling between parts of the USA and Europe on a regular basis.
| |
29 YBN
[1971 AD]
| 5852) First e-mail (electronic mail) program.
Communication using electricity was discussed publicly as early as 1753 but started publicly with the telegraph around 1832.
(Clearly with direct-to-brain communication, and even before, the actual first message sent electronically must date back to, at least the 1800s.)
| |
28 YBN
[01/21/1972 AD]
| 5708) Baruj Benacerraf (BeNuSRaF) (CE 1920-) Venezuelan-US geneticist, identifies "Immune Reponse" (Ir) genes which control the formation of specific immune responses.
In the 1960s, working with guinea pigs, Benacerraf began to reveal some of the complex activity of the H2 system, described by George Snell. Benacerraf identifies the Ir (immune response) genes of the H2 segment as playing a crucial role in the immune system. This is achieved by injecting simple, synthetic, and controllable ‘antigens’ into his experimental animals and noting that some strains of animals respond immunologically while others are tolerant of the antigens. Such different responses have so far indicated there are over 30 Ir genes in the H2 complex.
Later work began to show how virtually all responses of the immune system, whether to grafts, tumor cells, bacteria, or viruses, are under the control of the H2 region. Benacerraf and his colleagues continued to explore its genetic and immunologic properties and also to extend their work to the analogous HLA system in humans. This work may well be important in the study of certain diseases, such as multiple sclerosis and ankylosing spondylitis, which have been shown to entail defective immune responses.
Bencerraf and Hugh O. McDevitt describe this finding in a paper published in the journal "Science" as "Histocompatibility-Linked Immune Response Genes". They write: "The most sophisticated defense mechnism to find expression in vertebrate organisms is the immune response: that is, the capa,city, after fore,ign macromolecules or allogeneic cells are introducedvt, o produce specifically sensitized lymphocytes and to synthesize and secrete spsific antibcydies capable of reacting with these forei-gn substances (antigens). This function is extremely versatile, and yet it is characterized by great specilficity as shown by (i) the consid erable discriminatory power of the immune mechanism, (ii) the extremely wide range of antigenic determinants against which antibodies, are synthesized, and (iii) the remarkable heterogeneity of antitbody molecules,, both as to class and affinity, produced against a single determinant. The genetic control of such varied responses must be very complex, involving many structural and regulatory genes, even if only the genes concerned with the structure and synthesis of specific immunoglobulins are considered. The use of allotype markers has permitted the identificat,ion of structural genes for the constant (C) regions of the various immunoglsbulin chains in man and several animal species. These genels constitute identifiatble linkage groups (1). It is also becom,ing increasingly clear, primarily as a result of evidence derived from the study of allotype markers on the rariable (V) region of rabbit immunaglo;bulin;heavy (H) chains, that there are distinot v genes ceding for this region, and that these are linked with C genes, and that together they control the sequence of im;munoglobulinh eavy chains (2). However, the number of such V genes is not known, nor have accurate estimates been made. (3). Nor is there agreement on the issue of whether somatic mechanisms areS in some measure, responsible for the generation of diversity in V genes (4). ...".
(Determine if this is the earliest paper that reports this finding.)
(Should "Ir" not be "IR" for "Immune Reponse"?)
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
28 YBN
[07/15/1972 AD]
| 5621) First ship from earth to pass meteor belt between Mars and Jupiter, Pioneer 10.
On July 15, 1972, Pioneer 10 enters the asteroid belt, a doughnut-shaped area that measures some 175 million miles wide and 50 million miles thick. The material in the belt travels at speeds up to 45,000 mph and ranges in size from dust particles to rock chunks as big as Alaska. Pioneer 10 is the first spacecraft to pass through the asteroid belt, considered a spectacular achievement. The ship then heads toward Jupiter.
Fifteen experiments are carried of Pioneer 10 to study the interplanetary and planetary magnetic fields; solar wind parameters; cosmic rays; transition region of the heliosphere; neutral hydrogen abundance; distribution, size, mass, flux, and velocity of dust particles; Jovian aurorae; Jovian radio waves; atmosphere of Jupiter and some of its satellites, particularly Io; and to photograph Jupiter and its satellites.
(It seems unusual that no radar mapping device is publicly known on Pioneer 10 - if even just to measure the depth of the clouds.)
(It's pretty amazing that a tiny point far away could be sending so many light particles that some are received here on earth.)
(Give more details about the power supply of Pioneer 10. How are the light, alpha and electron particles emitted converted into useable electricity? Does this have any application to other consumer or government uses?)
(Experiment: Determine if a higher frequency electrical oscillation or a lower frequency oscillation uses more matter faster - which uses up the battery faster if either? If no difference, a high frequency communication signal would be better because there are more particles per second and no extra loss of matter. But probably more likely, a higher frequency emits more matter per second and so a low frequency might conserve matter more.)
| Planet Mars |
28 YBN
[07/31/1972 AD]
| 5751) Proteins are synthesized by adding DNA to bacteria.
| (Stanford University Medical Center) Stanford, California, USA |
28 YBN
[10/02/1972 AD]
| 5522) US biochemists, William Howard Stein (CE 1911-1980), Stanford Moore (CE 1913-1982), and group determine the order of amino acid sequence in deoxyribonuclease acid.
The deoxyribonuclease is a molecule that is twice as complex as the ribonuclease molecule.
| (Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
28 YBN
[1972 AD]
| 5074) Herbert Dingle (CE 1890–1978) critisizes the famous theoretical "twin-paradox" by stating the impossibility of two twins traveling and different velocities relative to each.
(Determine if this is the first mention of the flaw of the "twin-paradox".) (verify portrait)
Dingle argues against time dilation based on the idea that there is no absolute frame of reference, so one twin could not age more than the other, since they are moving relative to each other.
| (University of London) London, England (presumably) |
28 YBN
[1972 AD]
| 5790) The first pair of electron storage rings are constructed in which two streams of high-velocity electrons can collide head on, and the SPEAR (Stanford Positron-Electron Accelerating Ring) electron-positron collider is constructed and starts operating.
Burton Richter (CE 1931- ), US physicist, and others at Stanford first proposed building the Stanford Positron-Electron Asymmetric Rings (SPEAR) in 1964, at a time when hitting a fixed target with a beam is the standard way of doing high-energy physics.
Richter supervises the building of the first pair of electron storage rings (part of SPEAR) in which two streams of high-velocity electrons can collide head on. The SPEAR collider can also produce head-on collisions of matter and so-called "antimatter" (electrically opposite particles of the same mass).
(Determine if this is the first collider to collide oppositely charged particles into each other.) (Determine if electrons are collided with electrons, and positrons with positrons and what the results were.)
(If the resulting particles are light particles, how many are released? Can this quantity be used to determine the mass of electrons in numbers of light particles?)
(I think we should know how many distinct particles have been produced in accelerators. In addition, what particles do the detectors detect? If only light particles then perhaps all tracks are made by only light particles. If there are thousands of different mass particles, I would highly doubt claims of finding "special" particles that fit theories.)
(It's interesting that there is no known neutral particle with electron/positron mass, and this implies that mass is related to electromagnetic effect. Then, that, the electron and positron have the same mass but opposite charge is interesting and implies that the electromagnetic effect is an aspect of the collective motion or shape of some group of light particles.)
| (Stanford University Stanford Linear Accelerator Center {SLAC}) Stanford, California, USA |
27 YBN
[07/18/1973 AD]
| 5752) Stanley N. Cohen, Annie C. Y. Chang, Herbert W. Boyer, and Robert B. Helling, show that DNA molecules can be cut with restriction enzymes, joined together by DNA ligase, and reproduced by inserting them into the bacterium Escherichia coli. This is the beginning of genetic engineering.
In February 1970 Hamilton O. Smith and K. W. Welcox had shown that DNA can be broken with a restriction enzyme from the bacterium Hemophilus influenzae and later in August Har Gobind Khorana (CE 1922- ) and team had shown how a polynucleotide ligase from T4-infected Escherichia coli can join two DNA molecules.
Helling and team public this in "Proccedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "Construction of Biologically Functional Bacterial Plasmids In Vitro". For an abstract they write: "The construction of new plasmid DNA species by in vitro joining of restriction endonucleasegenerated fragments of separate plasmids is described. Newly constructed plasmids that are inserted into Escherichia coli by transformation are shown to be biologically functional replicons that possess genetic properties and nucleotide base sequences from both of the parent DNA molecules. Functional plasmids can be obtained by reassociation of endonuclease-generated fragments of larger replicons, as well as by joining of plasmid DNA molecules of entirely different origins.". In the paper they write: "Controlled shearing of antibiotic resistance (R) factor DNA leads to formation of plasmid DNA segments that can be taken up by appropriately treated Escherichia coli cells and that recircularize to form new, autonomously replicating plasmids (1). One such plasmid that is formed after transformation of E. coli by a fragment of sheared R6-5 DNA, pSC101 (previously referred to as Tc6-5), has a molecular weight of 5.8 X 106, which represents about 10% of the genome of the parent R factor. This plasmid carries genetic information necessary for its own replication and for expression of resistance to tetracycline, but lacks the other drug resistance determinants and the fertility functions carried by R6-5 (1). Two recently described restriction endonucleases, EcoRI and EcoRII, cleave double-stranded DNA so as to produce short overlapping single-stranded ends. The nucleotide sequences cleaved are unique and self-complementary (2-6) so that DNA fragments produced by one of these enzymes can associate by hydrogen-bonding with other fragments produced by the same enzyme. After hydrogen-bonding, the 3'-hydroxyl and 5'-phosphate ends can be joined by DNA ligase (6). Thus, these restriction endonucleases appeared to have great potential value for the construction of new plasmid species by joining DNA molecules from different sources. The EcoRI endonuclease seemed especially useful for this purpose, because on a random basis the sequence cleaved is expected to occur only about once for every 4,000 to 16,000 nucleotide pairs (2); thus, most EcoRI-generated DNA fragments should contain one or more intact genes. We describe here the construction of new plasmid DNA species by in vitro association of the EcoRI-derived DNA fragments from separate plasmids. In one instance a new plasmid has been constructed from two DNA species of entirely different origin, while in another, a plasmid which has itself been derived from EcoRI-generated DNA fragments of a larger parent plasmid genome has been joined to another replicon derived independently from the same parent plasmid. Plasmids that have been constructed by the in vitro joining of 3240 EcoRI-generated fragments have been inserted into appropriately- treated E. coli by transformation (7) and have been shown to form biologically functional replicons that possess genetic properties and nucleotide base sequences of both parent DNA species. ... SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION These experiments indicate that bacterial antibiotic resistance plasmids that are constructed in vitro by the joining of EcoRI-treated plasmids or plasmid DNA fragments are biologically biologically functional when inserted into E. coli by transformation. The recombinant plasmids possess genetic properties and DNA nucleotide base sequences of both parent molecular species. Although ligation of reassociated EcoRI-treated fragments increases the efficiency of new plasmid formation, recombinant plasmids are also formed after transformation by unligated EcoRI-treated fragments. The general procedure described here is potentially useful for insertion of specific sequences from prokaryotic or eukaryotic chromosomes or extrachromosomal DNA into independently replicating bacterial plasmids. The antibiotic resistance plasmid pSC101 constitutes a replicon of considerable potential usefulness for the selection of such constructed molecules, since its replication machinery and its tetracycline resistance gene are left intact after cleavage by the EcoRI endonuclease. ...".
(Get photos and birth-death dates for all scientists.)
(State what the first artificially produced molecule with this method is, and when insulin is mass produced using this method.)
(This achievement seems very undervalued - for example there is apparently no Nobel prize for this group of people.)
| (Stanford University School of Medicine) Stanford, California, USA and (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
27 YBN
[12/03/1973 AD]
| 5622) The U. S. "Pioneer 10" is the first human made object sent on an escape trajectory away from the Sun, to enter the asteroid belt and leave inner solar system, to fly by Jupiter, and to go farther from the Sun than all known planets of this star system. (verify)
Pioneer 10 passes by Jupiter on December 3, 1973. It passes by Jupiter within 130,354 kilometers of the Planet's cloudtops. Pioneer 10 is the first to make direct observations and obtain close-up images of Jupiter. Pioneer also charts the giant planet's intense radiation belts, locates the planet's magnetic field. In 1983, Pioneer 10 becomes the first human-made object to pass the orbit of Pluto, the most distant planet from the Sun.
Following its encounter with Jupiter, Pioneer 10 explores the outer regions of the solar system, studying energetic particles from the Sun (solar wind), and cosmic rays entering our portion of the Milky Way. The spacecraft continues to make valuable scientific investigations in the outer regions of the solar system until its science mission ends March 31, 1997.
Since that time, Pioneer 10's weak signal has been tracked. At last contact, Pioneer 10 was 7.6 billion miles from Earth, or around 82 times the distance between the Sun and the Earth. At that distance, it takes more than 11 hours and 20 minutes for the radio signal, traveling at the speed of light, to reach the Earth.
After more than 30 years, the last signal received from Pioneer 10 is a very weak signal received on Jan. 22, 2003. NASA engineers explain that Pioneer 10's radioisotope power source has decayed, and it may not have enough power to send additional transmissions to Earth.
(NASA claims that Pioneer 10 establishes that Jupiter is predominantly a liquid planet, however, I can't find any supporting evidence for this, nor can I find any claim of the material that composes Jupiter's surface - if liquid is this molten iron and other metals?)
(Some people claim that the larger outer Jovian planets are completely "gas", and are often called "gas giant" planets, but it seems likely to me that they all have etiher molten liquid or partially solid sphere's under their clouds. Another claim is that Jupiter is 90% hydrogen and 10% helium. This seems very unlikely, and probably, like stars and many planets, there are large per centages of metal atoms in Jupiter and the other Jovian planets.)
(It is unusual that there is no report of radar being used even just to determine the depth of the gas atmosphere and not map surface features.)
(State how Jupiter being mostly liquid is known. It seems more likely that Jupiter is like a terrestrial under it's clouds. Perhaps Jupiter is like a molten metal liquid. It seems clear that most of Jupiter is like a star or planet made of heavy metals. If the mass of Jupiter is the equivalent density of earth, that produces a terrestrial planet more than 6 times the diameter of earth. It seems likely that the center must be a very compressed solid, perhaps even unmoving light particles pushed together.)
| Planet Jupiter |
27 YBN
[1973 AD]
| 5684) In a large-scale collaboration, Albert Eschenmoser and Robert Burns Woodward (CE 1917-1979), synthesize coenzyme vitamin B-12 (cyanocobalamin).
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (and Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich, Switzerland) |
26 YBN
[03/29/1974 AD]
| 5614) First ship from earth to reach Mercury, to return close images of planet Mercury, to use the gravitational pull of one planet (Venus) to reach another planet (Mercury), and the first ship to reach two planets, Mariner 10.
Mariner 10 crosses the orbit of Mercury on March 29, 1974, at a distance of about 704 km from the surface. A second encounter with Mercury, when more photographs are taken, occurrs on September 21, 1974, at an altitude of 48,069 km.
(Verify if Mariner 10 is the first ship to return close images of Mercury.)
| Planet Mercury |
26 YBN
[11/12/1974 AD]
| 5791) "J/Psi" particle discovered.
Burton Richter (CE 1931- ), US physicist, produces a particle he calls a "psi particle", and from the properties of this particle, it is thought to contain a charmed quark. Since people theorized that quarks should exist in pairs, the "strange quark" found in strange particles, should be paired with another particle and this particle is named the "charmed quark". According to Gell-Mann's theory of quarks, two quarks are all that is needed to explain the composition of neutrons and protons. Samuel Chao Chung Ting (CE 1936- ), US physicist, working at the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, will identify a "J particle" (now usually called the J/psi particle), independently and almost simultaneously which is identical to the "psi" particle and the two findings are announced jointly. This find gives experimental support for Gellman's theory of quarks.
Burton's team announces this discovery in a 35-author paper (typical of modern high-energy-research teams) in the journal "Physical Review Letters" as "Discovery of a Narrow Resonance in e+e- Annihilation". The particle is a hadron (any of a class of subatomic particles that are composed of quarks and take part in the strong interaction) with a lifetime about one thousand times greater than could be expected from its observed mass. Its discovery is important because its properties are consistent with the idea that it is formed from a fourth type of quark, which supports Sheldon Glashow's concept of "charm". Burton and team of 34 other authors write for an abstract: " We have observed a very sharp peak in the cross sectino for the e+e-->hadrons, e+e-, and possibly μ+μ- at a center-of-mass energy of 3.105 +- 0.003 GeV. The upper limit to the full width at half-maximum is 1.3 MeV.". In their paper they write: " We have observed a very sharp peak in the cross section for e+e- -> hadrons, e+e-, and possibly μ+μ- in the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)-Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory magnetic detector at the SLAC electron-positron storage ring SPEAR. The resonance has the parameters E=3.105 +-0.003 GeV, Γ<= 1.3 MeV (full width at half-maximum), where the uncertainty in the energy of the resonance reflects the uncertainty in the absolute energy calibration of the storage ring. (We suggest naming this structure Ψ(3105).) The cross section for hadron production at the peak of the resonance is >= 2300 nb, an enhancement of about 100 times the cross section outside the resonance. The large mass, large cross section, and narrow width of this structure are entirely unexpected. Our attention was first drawn to the possibility of structure in the e+e- -> hadron cross section during a scan of the cross section carried out in 200-MeV steps. A 30% (6 nb) enhancement was observed at a c.m. energy of 3.2 GeV. Subsequently, we repeated the measurement at 3.2 GeV and also made measurements at 3.2 and 3.3 GeV. The 3.2-GeV results reproduced, the 3.3-GeV measurement showed no enhancement, but the 3.1-GeV measurements were internally inconsistent-six out of eight runs giving a low cross section and two runs giving a factor of 3 to 5 higher cross section. ... We have now repeated the measurements using much finer energy steps and using a nuclear magnetic resonance magnetometer to monitor the ring energy. ... The data are shown in Fig. 1. All cross sections are normalized to Bhabha scattering at 20 mrad. The cross section for the production of hadrons is shown in Fig. 1(a). Hadronic events are required tohave in the final state either >=3 detected charged particles or 2 charged particles noncoplanar by >20°. The observed cross section rises sharply from a level of about 25 nb to a value of 2300 +- 200 nb at a peak and then exhibits the long high-energy tail characteristic of radiative corrections in e+e- reactions. ... our mass resolution is determined by the energy spread in the colliding beams which arises from quantum fluctuations in the synchrotron radiation emitted by the beams. The expected Gaussian c.m. energy distribution (σ=0.56 MeV), folded with the radiative processes, is shown as the dashed curve in Fig. 1(a). The width of the resonance must be smaller than this spread; thus an upper limit to the full width at half-maximum is 1.3 MeV. Figure 1(b) shows the cross section for e+e- final states. Outside the peak this cross section integrated over the acceptance of the apparatus. Figure 1(c) shows the cross section for the production of collinear pairs of particles, excluding electrons. At present, our muon identifications system is not functioning and we therefore cannot separate muons from strongly ineracting particles. However, outside the peak the data are consistent with our previously measured μ-pair cross section. Since a large ππ or KK brancinh ratio would be unexpected for a resonance this massive, the two-body enhancement observed is probably but not conclusively in the μ-pair channel. The e+e- -> hadron cross section is presumed to go through the one-photon intermediate state with angular momentum, parity, and charge conjugation quantum numbers JPC=1--. It is difficult to understand how, without involving new quantum numbers or selection rules, a resonance in this state which decays to hadrons could be so narrow. ...".
Ting and team of 13 other people publish in the same edition of "Physical Review Letters" as "Experimental Observation of a Heavy Particle J". For an abstract they write: " We report the observation of a heavy particle J, with mass m=3.1 GeV and width approximately zero. The observation was made from the reaction p+ Be->e+ + e- + x by measuring the e+e- mass spectrum with a precise pair spectrometer at the Brookhaven National Laboratory's 30-GeV alternating-gradient syncrotron.". In their paper they write: " This experiment is part of a large program to study the behavior of timelike photons in p+p->e+ + e- + x reactions and to search for new particles which decay into e+e- and μ+μ- pairs. We use a slow extracted beam from the Brookhaven national Laboratory's alternating-gradient synchrotron. The beam intensity varies from 1010 to 2x1012 p/pulse. The beam is guided onto an extended target, normally nine pieces of 70-mil Be, to enable us to reject the pair accidentals by requiring the two tracks to come from the same origin. The beam intensity is monitored with a secondary emission counter, calibrated daily with a thin Al foil. The beam spot size is 3 x 6 mm2, and is monitored with closed-circuit television. Figure 1(a) shows the simplified side view of one arm of the spectriometer. The two arms are placed at 14.6° with respect to the incident beam; bending (by M1, M2) is done vertically to decouple the angle (θ) and the momentum (p) of the particle. The Cherenkov counter C0 is filled with one atmsophere and Ce with 0.8 atmosphere of H2. The counters C0 and Ce are decoupled by magnets M1 and M2. This enables us to reject knock-on electrons from C0. Extensive and repeated calibration of all the counters is done with approximately 6-GeV electrons produced with a lead converter target. ... Figure 1(b) shows the time-of-flight spectrum between the e+ and e- arms in the mass region 2.5 Typical data are shown in Fig. 2. There is a clear sharp enhancement at m=3.1 GeV. Without folding in the 105 mapped magnetic points and the radiative corrections, we estimate a mass resolution of 20 MeV. As seen from Fig. 2 the width of the particle is consistent with zero. To ensure that the observed peak is indeed a real particle (J->e+e-) many experimental checks were made. We list seven examples: (1) When we decreased the magnet currents by 10%, the peak remained fixed at 3.1 GeV (see Fig. 2). (2) To check second-order effects on the target we increased the target thickness by a factor of 2. The yield increased by a factor of 2, not by 4. (3) To check the pileup in the lead glass and shower counters, different runs with different voltage settings on the counters were made. no effect was observed on the yield of J. ... (6) Runs with different beam intensity were made and the yield did not change ... These and many other checks convinced us that we have observed a real massive particle J->ee. If we assume a production mechanism for J to be ... we obtain a yield of J of approximately 10-34 cm2. The most striking feature of J is the possibility that it may be one of the theoretically suggested charmed particles or a's or Z0's, etc. In order to study the real nature of J, measurements are now underway on the various decay modes, e.g., an eπv mode would imply that J is weakly interacting in nature. It is important to note the absence of an e+e- continuum, which contradicts the predictions of parton models. ...".
(State mass, charge, starting particles and ending particles, strangeness number, and all other details.)
(Explain what cross section is, resonance, and physically draw a picture of where the phi particle is located and fits in.)
(I think these so-called "hadron" particles are probably just particle fragments- parts of electron or positron that are unwinding by releasing the light particles inside them. It seems unlikely that a single light particle would be part of a particle transition or transformation between two different kinds of particles- although a photon is apparently by traditional definition not a single particle but a frequency of particles with no specified duration.)
(In Ting, et al's paper "...the width of the particle is consistent with zero." - this seems a simple impossibility - since, in my view, no amtter in the universe can not occupy space or have 0 mass. In addition, the use of "timelike photons" implies corruption to me since the theory of time-dilation is most likely inaccurate and very likely to be neuron-owner-directed fraud. The SPEAR work is sponsored by the DOE and the BNL is a government collider- most of particle physics has been highly corrupted because of secrecy, in particular following World War 2 and related to transmutation and secret micrometer sized flying particle devices and weapons.)
(The existence of a particle that has never been observed by itself seems to me doubtful and one that exists for only milliseconds seems of small value and most likely just a fragment of light particles separating.)
| (Stanford University Stanford Linear Accelerator Center {SLAC}) Stanford, California, USA and (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (Brookhaven National Laboratory) Upton, New York, USA |
26 YBN
[1974 AD]
| 5846) Personal computer.
The first commercially successful personal computer is sold to the public (the "Altair 8800").
| (Micro Instrumentation and Telemetry Systems) Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA (verify) |
26 YBN
[1974 AD]
| 5896) First multi-window computer software program with moveable windows (SmallTalk) is known publicly. This leads to the multi-window operating systems of UNIX X-Windows, Apple MacOS, and Microsoft Windows. Clearly a multi-window computer software program most likely was developed very early on in the secret history of secret- perhaps in the 1800s, and then direct-to-brain windows. For many people growing up with a single "terminal" window, seeing many terminal windows in one is an important improvement. (verify)
| (Xerox Palo Alto Research Center) Palo Alto, California, USA |
25 YBN
[03/19/1975 AD]
| 5717) First artificial gene capable of functioning in a living cell synthesized.
Har Gobind Khorana (CE 1922-), Indian-US chemist, and team synthesize the first artificial gene capable of functioning in a living cell.
Khorana and team publish this in "The Journal of Biological Chemistry" as "Total Synthesis of the Structural Gene for the Precursor of a Tyrosine Suppressor Transfer RNA from Escherichia coli". As an abstract they write: "With the ultimate objective of the total synthesis of a tRNA gene including its transcriptional signals, an Escherichia coli tyrosine suppressor tRNA gene was chosen. The arguments in favor of this choice are presented. A plan for the total synthesis of the 126-nucleotide-long DNA duplex corresponding to a precursor (Altman S., and Smith, J. D. (1971) Nature New Biol. 23.3, 35) to the above tRNA is formulated. The plan involves: (a) the chemical synthesis of 26 deoxyribooligonucleotide segments, (b) polynucleotide ligase-catalyzed joining of several segments at a time to form a total of four DNA duplexes with appropriate complementary single-stranded ends, and (c) the joining of the duplexes to form the entire DNA duplex. Ten accompanying papers describe the experimental realization of this objective.". For an introduction they write: "Methods have been developed in recent years for the synthesis of bihelical DNA of defined nucleotide sequences. These involve: (a) the chemical synthesis of short deoxyribooligo- nucleotide segments corresponding to the entire two strands of the intended DNA, (6) phosphorylation of the 5’.hydroxyl end groups in the synthetic oligonucleotides using polynucleotide kinase, and (c) the head to tail joining of the appropriate segments when they are aligned to form bihelical complexes using the T,-polynucleotide ligase. This methodology has been successfully applied to the total synthesis of the 77-nucleotide-long DNA corresponding to the major yeast alanine tRNA (2). While the accomplishment of this synthesis established confidence in the general methodology for DNA synthesis, and the availability of several relatively short DNA duplexes of defined nucleotide sequences made it possible to study aspects of transcription (3, 4) and of DNA enzymology (5-7), the synthetic DNA corresponding to the yeast alanine tRNA proved, at least for some time, unsuitable for studies of certain problems of central biochemical interest. For example, it had been hoped that the availability of synthetic DNAs would permit further studies of the following two problems: (a) the mechanism of initiation and termination of transcription and (6) precise structure-function relationship in tRNA. With the continued hope of being able to apply the synthetic approach to these and related problems, the total synthesis of the DNA corresponding to an Escherichia coli transfer RNA gene was undertaken. We now wish to report the total synthesis of a DNA corresponding to the entire length (126 nucleotides) of the precursor to an E. coli tyrosine suppressor tRNA. The present paper gives the main arguments for the choice of this RNA and introduces the synthetic plan, while ten accompanying papers document the experimental realization of the objective (8-17). Brief reports on portions of this work have appeared during the last 4 years (18-21). ...".
(Describe more clearly how this gene is different from the 1970 gene.)
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, MAssachusetts, USA and (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
25 YBN
[10/20/1975 AD]
| 5623) The first ship to orbit and land on Venus, and transmit the first image from the surface of another planet (Soviet "Venera 9").
| Planet Venus |
25 YBN
[1975 AD]
| 6371) External object moved by thought.
| |
24 YBN
[01/26/1976 AD]
| 5513) Luis Walter Alvarez (CE 1911-1988), US physicist, and the "American Journal of Physics" publish false information and serve as accessories to the murder of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
24 YBN
[03/10/1976 AD]
| 1122) Lithium ion battery.
| (Exxon Research and Engineering Company) Linden, New Jersey, USA |
24 YBN
[03/??/1976 AD]
| 5763) Carlo Rubbia (CE 1934- ), Italian physicist, and others propose that beams of accelerated protons and antiprotons (oppositely charged particles) can be made to collide head-on.
| (Harvard University) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA and (University of Wisconsin) Madison, Wisconsin, USA |
24 YBN
[07/20/1976 AD]
| 5624) NASA's Viking Mission to Mars is composed of two spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking 2, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. The primary mission objectives are to obtain high resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface, and search for evidence of life. Viking 1 is launched on August 20, 1975 and arrives at Mars on June 19, 1976. The first month of orbit is devoted to imaging the surface to find appropriate landing sites for the Viking Landers. On July 20, 1976 the Viking 1 Lander separates from the Orbiter and touches down at Chryse Planitia. Viking 2 is launched September 9, 1975 and enters Mars orbit on August 7, 1976. The Viking 2 Lander touches down at Utopia Planitia on September 3, 1976. The Orbiters imaged the entire surface of Mars at a resolution of 150 to 300 meters, and selected areas at 8 meters. The Viking 2 Orbiter is powered down on July 25, 1978 after 706 orbits, and the Viking 1 Orbiter on August 17, 1980, after over 1400 orbits.
| Planet Mars |
24 YBN
[11/30/1976 AD]
| 5695) This is the first complete genome to be sequenced.
Sanger and his group determine the entire nucleotide sequence of the DNA molecule in a small virus with 5,375 nucleotide pairs which codes the production of nine different proteins.
Sanger et al publish this in "Nature" as "Nucleotide sequence of bacteriophage phiX174 DNA". For an abstract they write: "A DNA sequence for the genome of bacteriophage ΦX174 of approximately 5,375 nucleotides has been determined using the rapid and simple 'plus and minus' method. The sequence identifies many of the features responsible for the production of the proteins of the nine known genes of the organism, including initiation and termination sites for the proteins and RNAs. Two pairs of genes are coded by the same region of DNA using different reading frames.".
(EB states that Sanger's group determines "most" of the DNA sequence, which implies that there was some mistaken or missing DNA sequences - verify.)
| (Cambridge University) Cambridge, England |
24 YBN
[1976 AD]
| 5329) The team of Mary Leakey (CE 1913–1996) finds footprints of a pair of hominids walking together that are between 2.6 to 3 million years old. This provides evidence that hominids in this time walk upright on two legs.
Andrew Hill is the first to find footprints in this location.
(Some people will interpret these prints as a male and female hominid walking together.)
| Laetoli, Tanzania, Africa |
23 YBN
[01/??/1977 AD]
| 5847) The first successfully mass marketed personal computer, the Commodore PET is sold to the public.
Soon after this in 1977, the TRS-80 from Radio Shack and the Apple II from Apple are sold to the public.
The PET comes fully functional out of the box: -a keyboard with a separate numeric pad (almost completely unheard of at the time, even as an option) -a 9" integrated Blue and White monitor -a main board with a powerful new 1Mhz MOS 6502 processor -lots of room for an additional RAM or Processor board -4K of memory -power supply -real storage device (cassette tape) -several expansion ports including an RS232 (serial) port - ability to handle and create fantastic graphics - upper and lower case text - an operating system that was burned onto ROM and loaded on boot.
| (Commodore International) West Chester, Pennsylvania, USA (verify) |
23 YBN
[05/19/1977 AD]
| 5771) First x-ray laser.
The first x-ray laser is reported by Soviet physicists Ilyukhin et al. They report this in English in "Journal of Experimental and Theoretical Physics Letters" as "Concerning the problem of lasers for the far ultraviolet λ ~500-700 A". For an abstract they write "Results are reported of experimental investigations aimed at obtaining lasing in the far ultraviolet region of the spectrum (λ ~600 A on the transitions 2p53p-2p53s of the neon-like ion Ca XI) in a plasma produced by laser heating of a calcium target.".
(It seems clear that some kind of x-ray light particle beam must be used for neuron writing - perhaps this is an x-ray beam or uses a traditional method of emitting x-rays from electron-metal atom collision.)
(Get photo, birth death dates)
| (P. N. Lebedev Physics Institute, USSR Academy of Sciences) Moscow, USSR (now Russia) |
23 YBN
[1977 AD]
| 5738) Marie Tharp (CE 1920-2006) and Bruce Charles Heezen (HAZeN) (CE 1924-1977), publish the first comprehensive map of the ocean floor of earth.
This map is published by the Office of Naval Research in 1977.
| |
23 YBN
[1977 AD]
| 6045) John Towner Williams (CE 1932-), US composer, composes the music for the movie "Star Wars". (verify)
| Los Angeles, California, USA (verify) |
23 YBN
[1977 AD]
| 6277) Earliest electronic glove to monitor bodily movement. Thomas DeFanti and Daniel Sandin at the University of Illinois at Chicago develop an inexpensive, light-weight glove to monitor hand movements. Based on an idea from Rich Sayre, they used flexible tubes (not fiber optics) with a light source at one end and a photocell at the other. Tubes were mounted along each of the fingers of the glove (see Figure 2). As each tube was bent, the amount of light passing between its source and photocell decreased evenly. Voltage from each photocell could then be correlated with finger bending. They used this as an effective method for multidimensional control, such as to mimic a set of sliders.
(I think low-cost cameras may be able to monitor a human's movements more freely than wearing a glove.)
| (University of Illinois at Chicago) Chicago, Illinois, USA |
23 YBN
[1977 AD]
| 6312) Self-driving car.
The first common road driving autonomous car is the Intelligent Vehicle of the Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Laboratory which tests a car in 1977 that can follow roads for up to 50 meters at speeds up to 30 km/h.
Later improved autonomous cars 1994, when robotic Mercedes-Benz 500 SEL cars drive themselves with humans in the passenger seats more than 620 miles on the Paris multilane at speeds up to 80 mph.
| (Tsukuba Mechanical Engineering Lab) Japan |
22 YBN
[05/15/1978 AD]
| 5831) Retinoic acid found to induce embryonic stem cells to differentiate (change into a different kind of cell).
Sidney Strickland and Vijak Mahdavi report this finding in the journal "Cell" as "The induction of differentiation in teratocarcinoma stem cells by retinoic acid". As an abstract they write: "Embryonal carcinoma cells, the stem cells of teratocarcinomas, usually undergo extensive differentiation in vivo and in vitro to a wide variety of cell types. There exist, however, several embryonal carcinoma cell lines that have almost completely lost the capacity to differentiate, so that the cells are propagated primarily as the stem cells. Using one such cell line, F9, we have found that retinoic acid at concentrations as low as 10−9 M Induces multiple phenotypic changes in the cultures in vitro. These changes include morphological alteration at the resolution of the light microscope, elevated levels of plasminogen activator production, sensitivity to cyclic AMP compounds and increased synthesis of collagen-like proteins. The nature of these changes, as well as their independence of the continued presence of retinoic acid, are consistent with the proposition that retinoic acid induces differentiation of embryonal carcinoma cells into endoderm.".
| (The Rockefeller University) New York City, New York, USA |
22 YBN
[07/25/1978 AD]
| 5810) Successful birth of human baby after transfer from in vitro fertilization.
Patrick Steptoe and Robert G Edwards announce this in "The Lancet" as "BIRTH AFTER THE REIMPLANTATION OF A HUMAN EMBRYO". They write: "SIR,—We wish to report that one of our patients, a 30-yearold nulliparous married woman, was safely delivered by caaarean section on July 25, 1978, of a normal healthy infant girl weighing 2700 g. The patient had been referred to one of us (P.C.S.) in 1976 with a history of 9 years’ infertility, tubal occlusions, and unsuccessful salpingostomies done in 1970 with excision of the ampulls of both oviducts followed by persistent tubal blockages. Laparoscopy in February, 1977, revealed grossly distorted tubal remnants with occlusion and peritubal and ovarian adhesions. Laparotomy in August, 1977, was done with excision of the remains of both tubes, adhesolysis, and suspension of the ovaries in good position for oocyte recovery. Pregnancy was established after laparoscopic recovery of an oocyte on Nov. 10, 1977, in-vitro fertilisation and normal cleavage in culture media, and the reimplantation of the 8-cell embryo into the uterus 2t days later. Amniocentesis at 16 weeks’ pregnancy revealed normal a-fetoprotein levels, with no chromosome abnormalities in a 46 XX fetus. On the day of delivery the mother was 38 weeks and 5 days by dates from her last menstrual period, and she had pre-eclamptic toxsemia. ...".
| (General Hostpial) Oldham, UK |
21 YBN
[01/15/1979 AD]
| 6203) Laser writing and reading of data using reflected laser light and holes burned into metal layer of plastic disk (the process used to make CDs, DVDs, Blu-ray disks, etc).
In their patent, "Optical recording medium and method of optically recording information thereon", Van der Veen et al write as an abstract: "The invention relates to an optical recording system and method in which information can be recorded and read by means of laser light on a recording medium. The recording medium comprises a circular substrate plate which is manufactured, for example, from a transparent synthetic resin and has a diameter from 5-50 cm and which is provided on at least one side with a recording layer consisting entirely or substantially entirely of a compound of phthalocyanine with a metal, metal oxide or metal halide. A very suitable recording layer is a layer of vapor-deposited vanodyl phthalocyanine in a maximum thickness of 200 nm. A metal layer of, for example, tellurium may be provided between the substrate and the recording layer or on the side of the recording layer remote from the substrate. The recording medium may also comprise an optically readable servo track. Upon recording information the element is exposed to pulsatory laser light, pits and/or holes being formed in the recording layer. Analog recording is possible. The element can be read both in transmission and in reflection.".
| Eindhoven, Netherlands |
21 YBN
[03/05/1979 AD]
| 5630) Voyager 1 transmits close images of Jupiter and the moons of Jupiter.
Some 18,000 images of Jupiter and its satellites are taken by Voyager 1.
(Verify if these are the first close images of the moons of Jupiter. Apparently Pioneer transmitted some.)
| Planet Jupiter |
21 YBN
[07/09/1979 AD]
| 5633) Voyager 2 transmits close images of Jupiter and the moons of Jupiter.
| Jupiter |
21 YBN
[09/01/1979 AD]
| 388) Ship from Earth, the U.S. "Pioneer 11", passes and sends close images of planet Saturn.
| Planet Saturn |
21 YBN
[09/01/1979 AD]
| 5625) First ship to pass and return close images of planet Saturn.
Pioneer 11, like Pioneer 10, used Jupiter's gravitational field to alter its trajectory radically. During its closest approach on December 3, 1974, Pioneer 11 passed to within 43,000 km of Jupiter's cloud tops. Pioneer 11 passes by Saturn on September 1, 1979, at a distance of 21,000 km from Saturn's cloud tops. The spacecraft has operated on a backup transmitter since launch. Instrument power sharing begins in February 1985 due to declining Radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG) power output. Science operations and daily telemetry cease on September 30, 1995 when the RTG power level is insufficient to operate any experiments. As of the end of 1995 the spacecraft is located at 44.7 AU from the Sun at a nearly asymptotic latitude of 17.4 degrees above the solar equatorial plane and is heading outward at 2.5 AU/year.
| Planet Saturn |
20 YBN
[06/06/1980 AD]
| 5514) Luis Walter Alvarez (CE 1911-1988), US physicist,, Walter Alvarez, Frank Asaro and Helen V. Michel theorize that the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions, 65 million years ago, was caused by a meteor impact.
Alvarez finds an unusually high concentration of iridium in deep-sea limestones exposed in Italy, Denmark, and New Zealand that show increases of about 30, 160, and 20 times, respectively, above the background level at the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions. This will serve as evidence that an asteroid ten kilometers wide collided with the earth, producing enough dust to block all light from the sun for three years, causing plants to die and many species to go extinct.
As a summary Alvarez, et al write "Platinum metals are depleted in the earth's crust relative to their cosmic abundance; concentrations of these elements in deep-sea sediments may thus indicate influxes of extraterrestrial material. Deep-sea limestones exposed in Italy, Denmark, and New Zealand show iridium increases of about 30, 160, and 20 times, respectively, above the background level at precisely the time of the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinctions, 65 million years ago. Reasons are given to indicate that this iridium is of extraterrestrial origin, but did not come from a nearby supernova. A hypothesis is suggested which accounts for the extinctions and the iridium observations. Impact of a large earth-crossing asteroid would inject about 60 times the object's mass into the atmosphere as pulverized rock; a fraction of this dust would stay in the stratosphere for several years and be distributed worldwide. The resulting darkness would suppress photosynthesis, and the expected biological consequences match quite closely the extinctions observed in the paleontological record. One prediction of this hypothesis has been verified: the chemical composition of the boundary clay, which is thought to come from the stratospheric dust, is markedly different from that of clay mixed with the Cretaceous and Tertiary limestones, which are chemically similar to each other. Four different independent estimates of the diameter of the asteroid give values that lie in the range 10 ± 4 kilometers.".
According to the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography, Alvarez’s explanation of the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction has won increasing acceptance among paleontologists, especially since a candidate impact site was discovered in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico. Although there are competing theories that seek to account for the extinction in terms of terrestrial causes, the Alvarez hypothesis has not been proven false.
(I can accept the possibility that the C-T extinction was caused by a meteor impact, but coming from Alvarez I think the neuron transactions have to be examined to determine if there is corruption.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
20 YBN
[09/12/1980 AD]
| 6189) Scanning Tunneling Microscope.
Scanning Tunneling Microscope. This leads to the ability to image many different kinds of individual atoms and molecules like DNA. This is the first use of the method of measuring the electrical current that passes through the tiny metal needle and the surface of the object being viewed to draw an image of the surface. (verify- it seems unlikely that Ruska, Knoll, or Muller would not have published that.)
(Read relevant parts of patent.)
In 1931, the first electron microscope was published by Ruska and Knoll. That microscope is a "transmission electron microscope" (TEM), which works on the same principle as an optical microscope but uses electrons in the place of light and electromagnets in the place of glass lenses. In 1935, Max Knoll built a Scanning Electron Microscope, which moves a focused electron beam in rows and columns over the surface of an object, and receives both the electrons scattered (reflected) by the object and the secondary electrons produced by the object. In 1937, Erwin Müller invented the field-emission electron microscope (FEEM), and publishes the first images of individual atoms. The FEEM uses a very fine tungsten needle tip in a high vacuum which emits electrons that then contact a fluorescent screen, which shows a very magnified image of the needle tip. Müller goes on to make the Field-Ion Electron Microscope in 1951.
(State and show clearly the previous electron microscopes and how the STM differs. Because simply measuring the resistance seems to me to be similar to the Field-Emission Electron microscope.)
| (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory) Ruschlikon, Zurich, Switzerland (presumably) |
20 YBN
[11/12/1980 AD]
| 5631) Voyager 1 transmits close images of Saturn and the moons of Saturn.
Voyager 1 captures around 16,000 images of Saturn, its rings and satellites. (Determine if these are the first close images of the moons of Saturn.)
| Planet Saturn |
19 YBN
[08/05/1981 AD]
| 5634) Voyager 2 transmits close images of Saturn and the moons of Saturn.
Voyager 2 obtains the approximately the same quantity of images that Voyager 1 does (18,000 at Jupiter, 16,000 at Saturn).
| Saturn |
19 YBN
[08/12/1981 AD]
| 5848) The IBM personal computer, using the "disk operating system" (DOS) is sold to the public.
| (International Business Machines) Boca Raton, Florida, USA |
19 YBN
[11/12/1981 AD]
| 5805) First reuse of a space craft, the space shuttle "Columbia".
The first reusable human-filled spacecraft ever built is the American Boeing X-20 Dyna-Soar. It is a simple-pilot craft designed to be launched on top of a Titan rocket, and has wings to land as an airplane. The first of 10 X-20s is nearly complete when the project is canceled in December of 1963, sot he spaceship never actually flies.
| (Launch Pad 39A) Merritt Island, Florida, USA |
18 YBN
[03/01/1982 AD]
| 5626) First Venus soil samples and sound recording of another planet (Venera 13).
After launch and a four month journey to Venus, the descent vehicle separates from the bus and enters the Venus atmosphere on March 1 1982. After entering the atmosphere a parachute is deployed. At an altitude of 47 km the parachute is released and simple airbraking is used the rest of the way to the surface. Venera 13 lands about 950 km northeast of Venera 14 at 7 deg 30 min S, 303 E, just east of the eastern extension of an elevated region known as Phoebe Regio. The area is composed of bedrock outcrops surrounded by dark, fine-grained soil. After landing an imaging panorama is started and a mechanical drilling arm reaches to the surface and obtains a sample, which is deposited in a sealed chamber, maintained at 30 degrees C and a pressure of about .05 atmospheres. The composition of the sample determined by the X-ray flourescence spectrometer puts it in the class of weakly differentiated melanocratic alkaline gabbroids. The lander survived for 127 minutes (the planned design life was 32 minutes) in an environment with a temperature of 457 degrees C and a pressure of 84 Earth atmospheres. The descent vehicle transmitted data to the bus, which acted as a data relay as it flew by Venus.
Gabbro is a dense, dark, course-grained igneous rock consisting largely of plagioclase feldspar, pyroxene, and olivine. It is the intrusive equivalent of basalt. Any of several medium- or coarse-grained rocks that consist primarily of plagioclase feldspar and pyroxene. Gabbros are found widely on the Earth and on the Moon. They are sometimes quarried for dimension stone ("black granite"), but the direct economic value of gabbro is minor. Far more important are the nickel, chromium, and platinum minerals that occur almost exclusively in association with gabbroic or related rocks. Magnetite (iron) and ilmenite (titanium) are also found in gabbroic complexes.
(Verify that sound was recorded. Get and play a copy of relevent sounds from recording.)
| Planet Venus |
18 YBN
[04/09/1982 AD]
| 5729) Prions, proteins that cause disease identified.
US biochemist and neurologist, Stanley B. Prusiner (CE 1942-) identifies disease-causing proteins called prions.
In 1966 Daniel Carleton Gajdusek (CE 1923-2008), US physician, had identified slow-acting viruses which cause the disease "kuru", but do not show effects until 18 to 21 months after infection. Gajdusek shows that these disease causing agents may be prions.
While a neurology resident, Prusiner is in charge of a person who dies of a rare fatal degenerative disorder of the brain called Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease. Prusiner becomes intrigued by this little-known class of neurodegenerative disorders—the spongiform encephalopathies—that causes progressive dementia and death in humans and animals. In 1974 he creates a laboratory to study scrapie, a related disorder of sheep. In 1982 Prusiner claims to have isolated the scrapie-causing agent, which he named "prion", and claims is unlike any other known pathogen, such as a virus or bacterium, because it consists only of protein and lacks the genetic material contained within all life-forms that is necessary for replication. When first published, the prion theory meets with much criticism but then becomes widely accepted by the mid-1990s.
Prusiner publishes this in "Science" as "Novel proteinaceous infectious particles cause scrapie" and writes as an abstract: "After infection and a prolonged incubation period, the scrapie agent causes a degenerative disease of the central nervous system in sheep and goats. Six lines of evidence including sensitivity to proteases demonstrate that this agent contains a protein that is required for infectivity. Although the scrapie agent is irreversibly inactivated by alkali, five procedures with more specificity for modifying nucleic acids failed to cause inactivation. The agent shows heterogeneity with respect to size, apparently a result of its hydrophobicity; the smallest form may have a molecular weight of 50,000 or less. Because the novel properties of the scrapie agent distinguish it from viruses, plasmids, and viroids, a new term "prion" is proposed to denote a small proteinaceous infectious particle which is resistant to inactivation by most procedures that modify nucleic acids. Knowledge of the scrapie agent structure may have significance for understanding the causes of several degenerative diseases.".
In 1997, in his Nobel lecture Prusiner writes: "Prions are unprecedented infectious pathogens that cause a group of invariably fatal neurodegenerative diseases by an entirely novel mechanism. Prion diseases may present as genetic, infectious, or sporadic disorders, all of which involve modification of the prion protein (PrP). Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), scrapie of sheep, and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD) of humans are among the most notable prion diseases. Prions are transmissible particles that are devoid of nucleic acid and seem to be composed exclusively of a modified protein (PrPSc). The normal, cellular PrP (PrPC) is converted into PrPSc through a posttranslational process during which it acquires a high β-sheet content. The species of a particular prion is encoded by the sequence of the chromosomal PrP gene of the mammals in which it last replicated. In contrast to pathogens carrying a nucleic acid genome, prions appear to encipher strain-specific properties in the tertiary structure of PrPSc. Transgenetic studies argue that PrPSc acts as a template upon which PrPC is refolded into a nascent PrPSc molecule through a process facilitated by another protein. Miniprions generated in transgenic mice expressing PrP, in which nearly half of the residues were deleted, exhibit unique biological properties and should facilitate structural studies of PrPSc. While knowledge about prions has profound implications for studies of the structural plasticity of proteins, investigations of prion diseases suggest that new strategies for the prevention and treatment of these disorders may also find application in the more common degenerative diseases. ".
(It's surprising that these particles cannot be seen with an electron microscope - since tobacco mosaic viruses can be visibly seen.)
(Perhaps the slow nature of the virus causes it to not be recognized by standard nucleic acid tests. Perhaps the nucleic acid is protected externally by some kind of protein coating.)
| (University of California) San Francisco, California, USA |
18 YBN
[04/30/1982 AD]
| 6188) The first images of atoms were published by Erwin W. Müller in 1937.
Image of individual atoms and molecules of many kinds visualizable using a scanning tunneling microscope (STM). Atoms confirmed to be about 0.5 nm in size.
Binnig et al publish these images in Physical Review Letters as "Surface Studies by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy". They write as an abstract: "Surface microscopy using vacuum tunneling is demonstrated for the first time. Topographic pictures of surfaces on an atomic scale have been obtained. Examples of resolved monoatomic steps and surface reconstructions are shown for (110) surfaces of CaIrSn4 and Au." In their article they write: "In two previous reports, "we demonstrated the experimental feasibility of controlled vacuum tunneling. The tunnel current flowed from a W tip to a Pt surface at some 10 A distance from each other. The tunnel distance could be stabi- 0 lized within 0.2 A. These experiments were. the first step towards the development of scanning tunneling micr oscopy. Previous developments were unsuccessful for various reasons. ' The present Letter contains the first experimental results on surface topography obtained with this novel technique. They demonstrate an unprec edented resolution of the scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and should give a taste of its fascinating possibilities for surface character ization. The principle of the STM is straightforward. It consists essentially in scanning a metal tip over the surface at con~tant tunnel current as shown in Fig. 1. The displacements of the metal tip given by the voltages applied to the piezodrives then yield a topographic picture of the surface. The very high resolution of the STM rests on the strong dependence of the tunnel current on the distance between the two tunnel electrodes, i.e., the metal tip and the scanned surface. ... In summary, we have shown that scanning tunneling microscopy yields a true three-dimensional topography of surfaces on an atomic scale, i.e., a resolution orders of magnitude better than scanning electron microscopy, with the possibility of extending it to work-function profiles (fourth dimension). The technique is nondestructive (energy of the tunnel "beam" 1 meV up to 4 eV), and uses fields down to three orders of magnitude less than field-ionization microscopy. The high current densities of 10' to 10' A/cm' appear to be no problem, and the technique has already been successfully extended to low-doped semiconductors. " The significance of vacuum tunneling to surface studies and many other fields like space-resolved tunneling spectroscopy, microscopy of adsorbed molecules, and crystal growth, as well as for fundamental aspects of tunneling, especially in small geometries, is evident. ...".
Atomic level STM images of DNA will be published in "Nature" in 1990.
(It is curious why there are few if any images of molecules, in particular images of the DNA molecule {until 1990} and other important molecules.)
(Like so many scientific inventions, it seems possible that the STM was invented many years before this, given remote neuron reading and writing. If true, this represents, like so many scientific advances after the 1800s- people who go public with technology from the past that has not yet gone public and appears to be "modern" technology. One of many similar examples is Charles Townes as the inventor of the maser. If that is the case, why were Binnig and Rohrer chosen to be the two to publish and patent the microscope?)
(Verify that Muller never examines any other materials with his microscope.)
(Determine first atom scale images of a molecule, and biomolecule.)
| (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory) Ruschlikon, Zurich, Switzerland |
18 YBN
[10/01/1982 AD]
| 5806) Compact disk players sold to the public. On October 1, 1982 Sony introduced the CDP-101, the first Compact Disc audio CD player on the market at a retail price of about $900.
| (Sony Corporation) Japan (presumably) |
18 YBN
[10/08/1982 AD]
| 5807) Element 109 created.
| (Institut fur Kernphysik, Technische Hochschule Darmstadt) Darmstadt, Federal Republic of Germany (now Germany) |
18 YBN
[1982 AD]
| 5853) TCP/IP is made the standard protocol of the ARPAnet.
| |
17 YBN
[06/13/1983 AD]
| 5627) Pioneer 10 is the first ship from earth to fly farther than all known planets of this star system.
| Planet Neptune |
17 YBN
[10/25/1983 AD]
| 5811) Humans shown to be genetically closer to chimpanzees than gorillas, orangutans, or Old World monkeys.
Charles G. Sibley and Jon E. Ahlquist publish this in the "Journal of Molecular Evolution" as "The phylogeny of the hominoid primates, as indicated by DNA-DNA hybridization". They write for an abstract: "The living hominoid primates are Man, the chimpanzees, the Gorilla, the Orangutan, and the gibbons. The cercopithecoids (Old World monkeys) are the sister group of the hominoids. The composition of the Hominoidea is not in dispute, but a consensus has not yet been reached concerning the phylogenetic branching pattern and the dating of divergence nodes. We have compared the single-copy nuclear DNA sequences of the hominoid genera using DNA-DNA hybridization to produce a complete matrix of delta T50H values. The data show that the branching sequence of the lineages, from oldest to most recent, was: Old World monkeys, gibbons, Orangutan, Gorilla, chimpanzees, and Man. The calibration of the delta T50H scale in absolute time needs further refinement, but the ranges of our estimates of the datings of the divergence nodes are: Cercopithecoidea, 27–33 million years ago (MYA); gibbons, 18–22 MYA; Orangutan, 13–16 MYA; Gorilla, 8–10 MYA; and chimpanzees-Man, 6.3–7.7 MYA.".
| (Yale University) New Haven, Connecticut, USA |
17 YBN
[1983 AD]
| 5764) A team headed by Carlo Rubbia (CE 1934- ), Italian physicist, at CERN claim to have identified the charged W+ and W- particles and neutral Z particle, predicted carriers of the weak force according to the electroweak theory that unifies the weak force with electric charge, this and the discovery of neutral currents is claimed to confirm the electroweak theory.
This observation is reported in an article by over 100 authors, in "Physics Letters B" as "Experimental observation of isolated large transverse energy electrons with associated missing energy at √s=540 GeV". For an abstract they write: "We report the results of two searches made on data recorded at the CERN SPS Proton-Antiproton Collider: one for isolated large-E T electrons, the other for large-E T neutrinos using the technique of missing transverse energy. Both searches converge to the same events, which have the signature of a two-body decay of a particle of mass ~ 80 GeV/c 2 . The topology as well as the number of events fits well the hypothesis that they are produced by the process ~ + p ~ W e + X, with W e -~ e -+ + v; where W e is the Intermediate Vector Boson postulated by the unified theory of weak and electromagnetic interactions.". In their paper they write: "1. Introduction. It is generally postulated that the beta decay, namely (quark) ~ (quark) + e -+ + v is mediated by one of two charged Intermediate Vector Bosons (IVBs), W + and W- of very large masses. If these particles exist, an enhancement of the cross section for the process (quark) + (antiquark) ~ e -+ + v should occur at centre-of-mass energies in the vicinity of the IVB mass (pole), where direct experimental observation and a study of the properties of such particles become possible. The CERN Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) Collider, in which proton and antiproton collisions at x/s = 540 GeV provide a rich sample of quark -antiquark events, has been designed with this search as the primary goal {1}. Properties of 1VBs become better specified within the theoretical frame of the unified weak and electromagnetic theory and of the Weinberg-Salam model {2}. The mass of the IVB is precisely predicted {3} : MW_+ = (82 + 2.4) GeV/c 2 for the presently preferred {4} experimental value of the Weinberg angle sin20w = 0.23 + 0.01. The cross section for production is also reasonably well anticipated {5} o(p~ ~ W ~ --> e -+ + v) "~ 0.4 × 10 -33 k cm 2 , where k is an enhancement factor of ~ 1.5, which can be related to a similar well-known effect in the Drell- Yan production of lepton pairs. It arises from additional QCD diagrams in the production reaction with emission of gluons. In our search we have reduced the value ofk by accepting only those events which show no evidence for associated jet structure in the detector. 2. The detector. The UA1 apparatus has already been extensively described elsewhere {6}. Here we concentrate on those aspects of the detector which are relevant to the present investigation. The detector is a transverse dipole magnet which produces a uniform field of 0.7 T over a volume of 7 X 3.5 × 3.5 m 3. The interaction point is surrounded by the central detector (CD): a cylindrical drift chamber volume, 5.8 m long and 2.3 m in diameter, which yields a bubble-chamber quality picture of each p~ interaction in addition to measuring momentum and specific ionization of all charged tracks. ... 3. Electron identification. Electromagnetic showers are identified by their characteristic transition curve, and in particular by the lack of penetration in the hadron calorimeter behind them. The performance of the detectors with respect to hadrons and electrons has been studied extensively in a test beam as a function of the energy, the angle of incidence, and the location of impact. The fraction of hadrons (pions) delivering an energy deposition E c below a given threshold in the hadron calorimeter is a rapidly falling function of energy, amounting to about 0.3% for p "~ 40 GeV/c and E c < 200 MeV. Under these conditions, 98% of the electrons are detected. 4. Neutrino identification. The emission of one (or more) neutrinos can be signalled only by an apparent visible energy imbalance of the event (missing energy). In order to permit such a measurement, calorimeters have been made completely hermetic down to angles of 0.2 ° with respect to the direction of the beams. (In practice, 97% of the mass of the magnet is calorimetrized.) It is possible to define an energy flow vector A E, adding vectorially the observed energy depositions over the whole solid angle. Neglecting particle masses and with an ideal calorimeter response and solid-angle coverage, momentum conservation requires AE = 0. We have tested this technique on minimum bias and jet-enriched events for which neutrino emission ordinarily does not occur. The transverse components AEy and AE z exhibit small residuals centred on zero with an rms deviation well described by the law AEy,z = 0.4(~i E L 1)1/2, where all units are in GeV and the quantity under the square root is the scalar sum of all transverse energy contributions recorded in the event (fig. 1). The distributions have gaussian shape and no prominent tails. ... 5. Data-taking and initial event selections. The present work is based on data recorded in a 30-day period during November and December 1982. The integrated luminosity after subtraction of dead-time and other instrumental inefficiencies was 18 nb -1 , corresponding to about 109 collisions between protons and antiprotons at x/~ = 540 GeV. For each beam-beam collision detected by scintillator hodoscopes, the energy depositions in all calorimeter cells after fast digitization were processed, in the time prior to the occurrence of the next beam-beam crossing, by a fast arithmetic processor in order to recognize the presence of a localized electromagnetic energy deposition, namely of at least 10 GeV of transverse energy either in two gondola elements or in two bouchon petals. In addition, we have simultaneously operated three other trigger conditions: (i) a jet trigger, with ~>15 GeV of transverse energy in a localized cluster ,1 of electromagnetic and hadron calorimeters; (ii) a global E T trigger, with >40 GeV of total transverse energy from all calorimeters with 1771 < 1.4; and (iii) a muon trigger, namely at least one penetrating track with t771 < 1.3 pointing to the diamond. The electron trigger rate was about 0.2 event per second at the (peak) luminosity L = 5 X 1028 cm-2s -1 Collisions with residual gas or with vacuum chamber walls were completely negligible, and the apparatus in normal machine conditions yielded an almost pure sample of beam-beam collisions. In total, 9.75 X 105 triggers were collected, of which 1.4 X 105 were char- acterized by an electron trigger flag. ... 6. Search for electron candidates. We now require three conditions in succession in order to ensure that the track is isolated, namely to reject the debris of jets: (i) The fast track (PT > 7 GeV/c) as recorded by the central detector must hit a pair of adjacent gondolas with transverse energy E T > 15 GeV (1106 events). (ii) Other charged tracks, entering the same pair of gondolas, must not add up to more than 2 GeV/c of transverse momenta (276 events). (iii) The q~ information from pulse division from gondola phototubes must agree within 3o with the impact of the track (167 events). Next we introduce two simple conditions to enhance its electromagnetic nature: (iv) The energy deposition E c in the hadronic calorimeters aimed at by the track must not exceed 600 MeV (72 events). (v) The energy deposited in the gondolas Egon must match the measurement of the momentum of the track PCD, namely I1/PCD -- 1/Egon < 30. At this point only 39 events are left, which were individually examined by physicists on the visual scanning and interactive facility Megatek. The surviving events break up cleanly into three classes, namely 5 events with no jet activity *2, 11 with a jet opposite to the track within a 30 ° angle in q~, and 23 with two jets (one of which contains the electron candidate) or clear e+e - conversion pairs. A similar analysis performed on the bouchon has led to another event with no jets. The classes of events have striking differences. We find that whilst events with jet activity have essen tially no missing energy (fig. 2b) +3, the ones with no jets show evidence of a missing transverse energy of the same magnitude as the transverse electron energy (fig. 3a), with the vector momenta almost exactly balanced back-to-back (fig. 2a). In order to assess how significant the effect is, we proceed to an alternative analysis based exclusively on the presence of missing transverse energy. 7. Search for events with energetic neutrinos. We start again with the initial sample of 2125 events with a charged track of PT > 7 GeV/c. We now move to pick up validated events with a high missing transverse energy and with the candidate track not part of a jet: (i) The track must point to a pair of gondolas with deposition in excess ofE T > 15 GeV and no other track with PT > 2 GeV/c in a 20 ° cone (911 events). (ii) Missing transverse energy imbalance in excess of 15 GeV. Only 70 events survive these simple cuts, as shown in fig. 4. The previously found 5 jetless events of the gondolas are clearly visible. At this point, as for the electron analysis, we process the events at the interactive facility Megatek: (iii) The missing transverse energy is validated, removing those events in which jets are pointing to where the detector response is limited, i.e. corners, light-pipe ducts going up and down. Some very evident, big secondary interactions in the beam pipe are also removed. We are left with 31 events, of which 21 have E c > 0.01 Egon and 10 events in which E c < 0.01 Egon. (iv) We require that the candidate track be well isolated, that there is no track with PT > 1.5 GeV in a cone of 30 °, and that E T < 4 GeV for neutrals in neighbouring gondolas at similar ~b angle. Eighteen events survive: ten with E c :/= 0 and eight with E c = 0. The events once again divide naturally into the two classes: 11 events with jet activity in the azimuth op- posite to the track, and 7 events without detectable jet structure. If we now examine Ec, we see that these two classes are strikingly different, with large E c for the events with jets (fig. 5b) and negligible E c for the jetless ones (fig. 5a). We conclude that whilst the first ones are most likely to be hadrons, the latter constitute an electron sample. We now compare the present result with the candidates of the previous analysis based on electron signature. We remark that five out of the seven events constitute the previous final sample (fig. 5a). Two new event s have been added, eliminated previously by the test on energy matching between the central detector and the gondolas. Clearly the same physical process that provided us with the large-PT electron delivers also high-energy neutrinos. The selectivity of our apparatus is sufficient to isolate such a process from either its electron or its neutrino features individually. If (re, e) pairs and (Vr, r) pairs are both produced at comparable rates, the two additional new events can readily be explained since missing energy can arise equally well from v e and v r. Indeed, closer inspection of these events shows them to be compatible with the r hypothesis, for instance, r- -~ rr-TrOv r with leading n o . However, our isolation requirements on the charged track strongly biases against most of the r decay modes. 8. Detailed description of the electron-neutrino events. The main properties of the final sample of six events (five gondolas, one bouchon) are given in table 2 and marked A through F. The event G is a r candidate. One can remark that both charges of the electrons are represented. ... 9. Background evaluations. We first consider possible backgrounds to the electron signature for events with no jets. Missing energy (neutrino signature) is not yet advocated. We have taken the following into consideration: (1) A high-PT charged pion (hadron) misidentified as an electron, or a high-PT charged pion (hadron) overlapping with one or more 7r 0. ... (2) High-PT 7r 0, r/0, or 7 internally (Dalitz) or externally converted to an e+e - pair with one leg missed. The number of isolated EM conversions (Tr 0, r/, 7, etc.) per unit of rapidity has been directly measured as a function ofE T in the bouchons, using the position detectors over the interval 10-40 GeV. From this spectrum, the Bethe-Heitler formula for pair creation, and the Kroll-Wada formula for Dalitz pairs {7}, the ex- pected number of events with a "single" e + with PT > 20 GeV/c is 0.2 P0 (GeV'), largely independent of the composition of the EM component; P0 is the effective momentum below which the low-energy leg of the pair becomes undetectable. Very conservatively, we can take P0 = 200 MeV/c (curvature radius 1.2 m) and conclude that this background is negligible. (3) Heavy quark associated production, followed by pathological fragmentation and decay configuration, such that Q1 -> e(vX) with the electron leading and the rest undetected, and Q2 -> v(£X), with the neutrino leading and the rest undetected. ... 10. Comparison between events and expectations from W decays. The simultaneous presence of an electron and (one) neutrino of approximately equal and opposite momenta in the transverse direction (fig. 8) suggests the presence of a two-body decay, W ~ e + v e. The main kinematical quantities of the events are given in table 3. A lower, model-independent bound to the W mass m w can be obtained from the transverse mass, m 2 = 2p~) p(Tv) (1 --cos ~bve),remarking that m w/> m T (fig. 9). We conclude that: m w > 73 GeV/c 2 (90% confidence level). ... The result of a fit on electron angle and energy and neutrino transverse energy with allowance for systematic errors, is m w = (81 -+ s5 ) GeV/c2 in excellent agreement with the expectation of the Weinberg-Salam model {2}. We find that the number of observed events, once detection efficiencies are taken into account, is in agreement with the cross-section estimates based on structure functions, scaling violations, and the Weinberg- Salam parameters for the W particle {5}. ...".
In December 1984, Rubbia describes the observation of the W+, W- and Z0 in his Nobel lecture "Experimental Observation of the intermediate Vector Bosons W+, W-, and Z0". He writes: "1. Introduction In this lecture I shall describe the discovery of the triplet of elementary particles W+, W--, and Z0 - by far the most massive elementary particles produced with accelerators up to now. They are also believed to be the propagators of the weak interaction phenomena. On a cosmological scale, weak interactions play an absolutely fundamental role. For example, it is the weak process p+p+ 2H + e++ ve that controls the main burning reactions in the sun. The most striking feature of these phenomena is their small rate of occurrence: at the temperature and density at the centre of the sun, this burning process produces a heat release per unit of mass which is only l/100 that of the natural metabolism of the human body. It is indeed this slowness that makes them so precious, ensuring, for instance, the appropriate thermal conditions that are necessary for life on earth. This property is directly related to the very large mass of the W-field quanta. Since the fundamental discoveries of Henri Becquerel and of Pierre and Marie Curie at the end of the last century, a large number of beta-decay phenomena have been observed in nuclei. They all appear to be related to a pair of fundamental reactions involving transformations between protons and neutrons: n®p + e - + v e , p+ n+e++V,. (1) Following Fermi {1}, these processes can be described perturbatively as a point interaction involving the product of the four participating fields. High-energy collisions have led to the observation of many hundreds of new hadronic particle states. These new particles, which are generally unstable, appear to be just as fundamental as the neutron and the proton. Most of these new particle states exhibit weak interaction properties which are similar to those of the nucleons. The spectroscopy of these states can be described with the help of fundamental, point-like, spin-1/2 fermions, the quarks, with fractional electric charges +2/3e and -1/3e and three different colour states. The universality of the weak phenomena is then well interpreted as a Fermi coupling occurring at the quark level {2}. For instance, reactions (1) are actually due to the processes (d)-+ (u)+e-+V,, (u) + (d) +e++ ve , (2) where (u) is a +2/3e quark and (d) a -l/3e quark. (The brackets indicate that particles are bound.) Cabibbo has shown that universality of the weak coupling to the quark families is well understood, assuming that significant mixing occurs in the +1/3e quark states {3}. Likewise, the three leptonic families -namely (e, v e), (μ, vμ), and (t, vt) - exhibit identical weak interaction behaviour, once the differences in masses are taken into account. It is not known if, in analogy to the Cabibbo phenomenon, mixing occurs also amongst the neutrino states (neutrino oscillations). This has led to a very simple perturbative model in which there are three quark currents, built up from the (u, dc), (c, sc), and (t, bc) pairs (the subscript C indicates Cabibbo mixing), and three lepton currents from (e, v e), (μ, vμ), and (t, vt) pairs. Each of these currents has the standard vector form {4} Jμ=f1 y,, (1 -g 5) f2. Any of the pair products of currents Jμ, jμ, will relate to a basic four-fermion interaction occurring at a strength determined by the universal Fermi constant GF: where GF=1.16632 x 10 -5G e V-2 (h=c=l). This perturbative, point-like description of weak processes is in excellent agreement with experiments, up to the highest q2 experiments performed with the high-energy neutrino beams (Fig. 1). We know, however, that such a perturbative calculation is incomplete and unsatisfactory. According to quantum mechanics, all higher-order terms must also be included: they appear, however, as quadratically divergent. Furthermore, at centre-of-mass energies greater than about 300 GeV, the first-order cross-section violates conservation of probability. It was Oskar Klein {5} who, in 1938, first suggested that the weak interactions could be mediated by massive, charged fields. Although he made use of Yukawa’s idea of constructing a short-range force with the help of massive field quanta, Klein’s theory established also a close connection between electromagnetism and weak interactions. We now know that his premonitory vision is embodied in the electroweak theory of Glashow, Weinberg and Salam {6}, which will be discussed in detail later in this lecture. It is worth quoting Klein’s view directly: ‘The role of these particles, and their properties, being similar to those of the photons, we may perhaps call them “electro-photons” (namely electrically charged photons). ’ In the present lecture I shall follow today’s prevalent notation of W+ and W- for these particles-from ‘weak’ {7} - although one must recognize that Klein’s definition is now much more pertinent. The basic Feynman diagrams of reaction (2) are the ones shown in Fig. 2a. The new, dimensionless coupling constant g is then introduced, related to for q2<< rnh. T h e V -A nature of the Fermi interaction requires that the spin J of the W particle be 1. It is worth remarking that in Klein’s paper, in analogy to the photon, J= 1 and g=a. The apparently excellent tit of the neutrino data to the four-fermion point-like interaction (Fig. 1) indicates that mw is very large (³60 GeV/c2) and is compatible with mw=w. 2. Production of W particles Direct production of W particles followed by their decay into the electronneutrino is shown in Fig. 2b. ... Of course quark-antiquark collisions cannot be realized directly since free quarks are not available. The closest substitute is to use collisions between protons and antiprotons. The fraction of nucleon momentum carried by the quarks and antiquarks in a proton is shown in Fig. 3. Because of the presence of antiquarks, proton-proton collisions also can be efficiently used to produce W particles. However, a significantly greater beam energy is needed and there is no way of identifying the directions of the incoming quark and antiquark. As we shall see, this ambiguity will prevent the observation of important asymmetries associated with parity (P) and charge (C) violation of weak interactions. The centre-of-mass energy in the quark-antiquark collision sqg is related to S,, by the well-known formula, ... 3. Proton-antiproton collisions The only practical way of achieving centre-of-mass energies of the order of 500 GeV is to collide beams of protons and antiprotons {8}. For a long time such an idea had been considered as unpractical because of the low density of beams when used as targets. ... The scheme used in the present experimental programme has been discussed by Rubbia, Cline and McIntyre {9} and is shown in Fig. 5. It makes use of the existing 400 GeV CERN Proton Synchrotron (PS) {10}, suitably modified in order to be able to store counter-rotating bunches of protons and antiprotons at an energy of 270 GeV per beam. Antiprotons are produced by collisions of 26 GeV/c protons from the PS onto a solid target. Accumulation in a small 3.5 GeV/c storage ring is followed by stochastic cooling {11} to compress phase space. In Table 1 the parameters of Ref. {9} are given. Taking into account that the original proposal was formulated for another machine, namely the Fermilab synchrotron (Batavia, Ill.) they are quite close to the conditions realised in the SPS conversion. Details of the accumulation of antiproto ns are described in the accompanying lecture by Simon van der Meer. The CERN experiments with proton-antiproton collisions have been the first, and so far the only, example of using a storage ring in which bunched protons and antiprotons collide head on. Although the CERN pp Collider uses bunched beams, as do the e+e- colliders, the phase-space damping due to synchrotron radiation is now absent. Furthermore, since antiprotons are scarce, one has to operate the collider in conditions of relatively large beambeam interactions, which is not the case for the continuous proton beams of the previously operated Intersecting Storage Rings (ISR) at CERN {12}. One of the most remarkable results of the pp Collider has probably been the fact that it has operated at such high luminosity, which in turn means a large beam-beam tune shift. In the early days of construction, very serious concern had been voiced regarding the instability of the beams due to beam-beam interaction. ... A measurement at the electron-positron collider SPEAR at Stanford had further aggravated the general concern about the viability of the pp collider scheme. ... What, then, is the reason for such a striking contradiction between experiments with protons and those with electrons? The difference is caused by the presence of synchrotron radiation in the latter case. ... 4. The detection method The process we want to observe is the one represented in Fig. 2b, namely p+p-+ W±+ X , W± e ±+ ve , (3) where X represents the sum of the debris from the interactions of the other protons (spectators). Although the detection of high-energy electrons is relatively straightforward, the observation of neutrino emission is uncommon in colliding-beam experiments. The probability of secondary interactions of the neutrino in any conceivable apparatus is infinitesimal. We must therefore rely on kinematics in order to signal its emission indirectly. This is achieved with an appropriately designed detector {13} which is uniformly sensitive, over the whole solid angle, to all the charged or neutral interacting debris produced by the collision. Since collisions are observed in the centre of mass, a significant momentum imbalance may signal the presence of one or more non-interacting particles, presumably neutrinos. The method can be conveniently implemented with calorimeters, since their energy response can be made rather uniform for different incident particles. Calorimetry is also ideally suited to the accurate measurement of the energy of the accompanying high-energy electron for process (3). Energy depositions (Fig. 7) in individual cells, Ei, are converted into an energy flow vector ~i=~Ei, where s is the unit vector pointing from the collision point to (the centre of) the cell. Then, for relativistic particles and for an ideal calorimeter response Ci~i=O, provided no non-interacting particle is emitted. The sum covers the whole solid angle. In reality there are finite residues to the sum: &M=Cixi. This quantity is called the ‘missing energy’ vector. ...
5. Observation of the W+ e+v signal The observation by the UAl Collaboration {15} of the charged intermediate vector boson was reported in a paper published in February 1983, followed shortly by a parallel paper from the UA2 Collaboration {16}. Mass values were given: mw=(80±5) GeV/c 2 (UA1) and mw=(80’:) GeV/c2 (UA2). Since then, the experimental samples have been considerably increased, and one can now proceed much further in understanding the phenomenon. In particular, the assignment of the events to reaction (3) can now be proved rather than postulated. We shall follow here the analysis of the UAl events {17}. Our results are based on an integrated luminosity of 0.136 pb-1. We first performed an inclusive search for high-energy isolated electrons. The trigger selection required the presence of an energy deposition cluster in the electromagnetic calorimeters at angles larger than 5”, with transverse energy in excess of 10 GeV. In the event reconstruction this threshold was increased to 15 GeV, leading to about 1.5 x 105 beam-beam collision events. By requiring the presence of an associated, isolated track with pT>7 GeV/c in the central detector, we reduced the sample by a factor of about 100. Next, a maximum energy deposition (leakage) of 600 MeV was allowed in the hadron calorimeter cells after the electromagnetic counters, leading to a sample of 346 events. We then classified events according to whether there was prominent jet activ ity. We found that in 291 events there was a clearly visible jet within an azimuthal angle cone 1A44<30” opposite to the ‘electron’ track. These events were strongly contaminated by jet-jet events in which one jet faked the electron signature and had to be rejected. We were left with 55 events without any jet, or with a jet not back-to-back with the ‘electron’ within 30”. These events had a very clean electron signature (Fig. 13) and a perfect matching between the point of electron incidence and the centroid in the shower detec tors, further supporting the absence of composite overlaps of a charged track and neutral no’s expected from jets. The bulk of these events was characterizedby the presence of neutrino emission, signalled by a significant missing energy (see Fig. 14). According to the experimental energy resolutions, at most the three lowest missing-energy events were compatible with no neutrino emission. They were excluded by the cut EFiss >15 GeV. We were then left with 52 events. In order to ensure the best accuracy in the electron energy determination, only those events were retained in which the electron track hit the electromag netic detectors more than ±15° away from their top and bottom edges. The sample was then reduced to 43 events. ... These events were expected to contribute at only the low-pT part of the electron spectrum, and could even be eliminated in a more restrictive sample. A value of the W mass can be extracted from the data in a number of ways: i) It can be obtained from the inclusive transverse momentum distribution of the electrons (Fig. 19 a), but the drawback of this technique is that the transverse momentum of the W particle must be known. Taking the QCD predictions {21}, in reasonable agreement with experiment, we obtained mw=(80.5±0.5) GeV/c2. ... 6. Observation of the parity (charge conjugation) violation, and determination of the spin of the W particle One of the most relevant properties of weak interactions is the violation of parity and charge conjugation. Evidently the W particle, in order to mediate weak processes, must also exhibit these properties. Furthermore, as already mentioned, the V-A nature of the four-fermion interaction implies the assignment J= 1 for its spin. Both of these properties must be verified experimentally. According to the V-A theory, weak interactions should act as a longitudinal polarizer of the W particles, since quarks (antiquarks) are provided by the proton (antiproton) beam. Likewise, decay angular distributions from a polarizer are expected to have a large asymmetry, which acts as a polarization analyser. A strong backward-forward asymmetry is therefore expected, in which electrons (positrons) prefer to be emitted in the direction of the proton (antiproton).
... 10. Observation of the neutral boson Z0 We extended our search to the neutral partner Z0, responsible for neutral currents. As in our previous work, production of IVBs was achieved with proton-antiproton collisions at 6=540 GeV in the UAl detector, except that we now searched for electron and muon pairs rather than for electron- -neutrino coincidence. The process is then p+p+ Z0+ X , Z 0® e++ e- or μ+μ -. This reaction is approximately a factor of 10 less frequent than the corresponding W± leptonic decay channels. A few events of this type were therefore expected in our muon or electron samples. Evidence for the existence of the Z0 in the range of masses accessible to the UAl experiment has also been derived from weak-electromagnetic interference experiments at the highest PETRA energies, where deviations from point-like expectations have been reported (Fig. 23). We first looked at events of the type Z’+e+e- {25,26}. As in the case of the W± search, an electron signature was defined as a localized energy deposition in two contiguous cells of the electromagnetic detectors with Er>25 GeV, and a small (or no) energy deposition (S800 MeV) in the hadron calorimeters immediately behind them. The isolation requirement was defined as the absence of charged tracks with momenta adding up to more than 3 GeV/c of transverse momentum and pointing towards the electron cluster cells. The effects of the successive cuts on the invariant electron-electron mass are shown in Fig. 24. Four e+e- events survived cuts, consistent with a common value of (e+e-) invariant mass. One of these events is shown in Figs. 25 and 26. As can be seen from the energy deposition plots (Fig. 27), the dominant feature of the four events is two very prominent electromagnetic energy depositions. All events appear to balance the visible total transverse energy components; namely, there is no evidence for the emission of energetic neutrinos. ... The negative track of event C shows a value of (9±1) GeV/c, much smaller than the corresponding deposition of (49±2) GeV. This event can be interpreted as the likely emission of a hard ‘photon’ accompanying the electron. ... Within the statistical accuracy the events are incompatible with additional neutrino emission. They are all compatible with a common mass value: ( mcrl) = 85.8:::: GeVk’, consistent with the value measured for Z0 ® e+e-: where the first error accounts for the statistical error and the second for the uncertainty of the overall energy scale of the calorimeters. The average value for the nine Z0 events found in the UAl experiment is m,o=93.9f2.9 GeV/c2, where the error includes systematic uncertainties. ... We conclude that, within errors, the observed experimental values are completely compatible with the SU(2)xU(1) model, thus supporting the hypothesis of a unified electroweak interaction.".
In his Nobel lecture, Rubbia claims that the two W particles and the Z are "...by far the most massive elementary particles produced with accelerators up to now. ...". (So the view is that the W and Z are elementary, and not composite particles. In my view this is probably inaccurate because all matter except light particles are probably composite particles and not elementary particles - the light particle being the only elementary particle in the universe according to the view I support. In addition, it seems unlikely that these particles if they exist are anything more than a proton or antiproton fragment, or reshuffling of the light particles of protons and antiprotons. Many of these objects claimed to be particles may simply be the capturing of the falling apart of a proton and antiproton - because they exist only for a few small time before separating completely into their source light particles. So it is like describing the disintegration of hydrogen as: particle 1 the full hydrogen proton, particle 2: the full hydrogen proton minus one light particle, particle 3: the proton minus 2 light particles, etc. All of which last for a tiny fraction of a second.)
(Perhaps the majority of Rubbia's published papers deal with neutrinos and antineutrinos, which, in my view probably don't exist and have never been physically observed, but small neutral composite particle probably can be formed in any mass desired by particle collision. By far the most practical use of particle accelerators is in converting ions of some common element like silicon or iron into a more desireable ion like oxygen, nitrogen and hydrogen and isolating those products.)
(Notice "we then classified events" - probably much transmutation product separation and isolation work is shockingly still secret.)
(This Nobel prize, I think, is characteristic of much of modern publically recognized physics - definitely fraud used to justify funding and explain where funding goes for secret research- like developing neuron reading and writing dust-sized devices, walking robots, and bulk transmutation experiments, that cannot be made public. Or perhaps, like religions, or the Ptolemaic earth-centered system, public physics represents some unusual pseudoscience evolution that evolves from allegience to inaccurate traditions. But as excluded we can only guess.)
(Determine how much 80GeV/c2 is in light particles, and grams.)
| (CERN) Geneva, Switzerland |
16 YBN
[01/12/1984 AD]
| 5809) The homeobox discovered. The homeobox is a short DNA sequence (180 base pairs, 60 amino acids) that is present in genes that are involved in orchestrating the development of a wide range of organisms.
Homeobox genes are discovered independently in 1983 by Ernst Hafen, Michael Levine and William McGinnis working in the lab of Walter Jakob Gehring at the University of Basel, Switzerland; and by Matthew P. Scott and Amy Weiner, working with Thomas Kaufman at Indiana University in Bloomington.
A homeotic gene is any of a group of genes that control the pattern of body formation during early embryonic development of organisms. These genes encode proteins called transcription factors that direct cells to form various parts of the body. A homeotic protein can activate one gene but repress another, producing effects that are complementary and necessary for the ordered development of an organism. Homeotic genes contain a sequence of DNA known as a homeobox, which encodes a segment of 60 amino acids within the homeotic transcription factor protein. If a mutation occurs in the homeobox of any of the homeotic genes, an organism will not develop correctly. For example, in fruit flies (Drosophila), mutation of a particular homeotic gene results in altered transcription, leading to the growth of legs on the head instead of antenna; this is known as the antennapedia mutation. Homeotic genes homologous to those of Drosophila will be later found in a wide range of organisms, including fungi, plants, and vertebrates. In vertebrates, these genes are commonly referred to as HOX genes. Humans possess some 39 HOX genes, which are divided into four different clusters, A, B, C, and D, which are located on different chromosomes.
Gehring et al publish this in "Nature" as "A conserved DNA sequence in homoeotic genes of the Drosophila Antennapedia and bithorax complexes". As an abstract they write: "A repetitive DNA sequence has been identified in the Drosophila melanogaster genome that appears to be localized specifically within genes of the bithorax and Antennapedia complexes that are required for correct segmental development. Initially identified in cloned copies of the genes Antennapedia, Ultrabithorax and fushi tarazu, the sequence is also contained within two other DNA clones that have characteristics strongly suggesting that they derive from other homoeotic genes.". In their paper they write: "MANY of the homoeotic genes of Drosophila seem to be involved in the specification of developmental pathways for the body segments of the fly, so that each segment acquires a unique identity. A mutation in such a homoeotic gene often results in a replacement of one body segment (or part of a segment) by another segment that is normally located elsewhere. many of these homoeotic loci reside in two gene complexes, the bithorax complex and the Antennapedia (Antp) complex, both located on the right arm of chromosome 3 (3R). The bithorax complex is located in the middle of 3R, and its resident genes impose specific segmental identities on the posterior thoracic and abdominal segments. For example, inactivation of the bithorax gene of the complex causes a transformation of the anterior hald of the third thoracic segment into the anterior hald of the second thoracic segment, resulting in a fly having wing structures in a site normally occupied by haltere. Other recessive mutations in the complex cause analogous transformations of posterior body structures into structures normally located in a more anterior position. Embryos having a deletion of the entire bithorax complex show a transformation of all the posterior body segments into reiterated segments with structures of the second thoracic segment. Based on the above results and others, Lewis has proposed a model in which segmental identity in the thorax and abdomen is controlled by a stepwise activation of additional bithorax complex genes in more posterior segments. The Antp complex is localized nearer the centromere of 3R than the bithorax complex. The genes of the Antp complex appear to control segmental development in the posterior head and thorax, in a manner analogous to the way in which the bithorax complex operates in the more posterior segments. A dominant mutation in the Antp locus, for exmaple, can result in the transformation of the antenna of the fly into a second thoracic leg. The homoeotic genes of both the bithorax and Antp complexes can be thought of as selector genes, using the nomenclature of Garcia-Bellido, that act by interpreting gradients of positional information. Based on their location in the gradient, a specific combination of selector genes are expressed, and thus different regions of the developing fly become selected to proceed down speciofic developmental pathways. Although the avilable evidence supports this model, the real situation appears to be more complex as there is also evidence that regulatory interactions between different homoeotic selector genes have a role in limiting their region of expression. The physical proximity and similar but distinct functions of the bithorax complex genes led Lewis to propose that the genes of this cluster evolved by mutational diversification of tandemly repeated genes. In the primitive milipede-like ancestors of Drosophila, an ancestral gene or genes would direct the development of repetitive segments having similar indentities. The evolutionary transition to the Dipterans, with highly diverse segmental structures, migh be achieved by duplication and divergence of ancestral genes. According to this model, null mutations in the present set of bithorax complex genes could result in a fly having a more primitive segmental array, that is, with legs on the abdominal segments, or with wings on the third thoracic segment, in adition to those on the second thoracic segment; both types of phenotype are known to result frmo reductino of loss of function of bithorax complex genes. Although the bithorax and Antp complexes are widely seprarted on the third chromosome, their similar functions in specifying segmental identity suggests that both complexes might have evolved from a common ancestral gene or gene complex. A critical test for this hypothesis involves a test for conserved sequences in the genes of the two complexes. These conserved sequences could be relics of ancient gene duplications or regions specifically preserved by selection against mutational change. Here we show that there is DNA sequence homology between some genes of the bithorax complex and the Antp complex. We use this homology, which is imperfect and limited to small regions, to isolate other cross-hybridizing clones from the Drosophila genome. The cytogenetic map locations and spatial and temporal patterns of expression for the genes homologous to two of the clones suggest that they represent other homoeotic genes. ... Conclusions Out analysis of the 93 and 99 clones, both isolated with the H repeat cross-homology, strongly suggest that they represent other homoeotic loci of Drosophila. Both clones fulfilled all three criteria that we applied for representing clones from homoeotic loci. First, both hybridize to cytogenetic locations of previously characterized homoeotic genes; 93 to the right half of the bithorax complex in the chromosome region 89E, and 99 to the chromosome region 84A, which contains genes in the proximal half of the Antp complex. Second, both 93 and 99 are homologous to transcripts that are relatively abundant during embruogenesis and just prior to metamorphosis. These are the periods when transcripts homologfous to the homoeotic locus Antp are most abundant ... Third, and most importantly, the transcripts homologous to 93 and 99 show a striking spacial restriction during development. transcripts homologous to p93 are most abundant in the posterior abdominal neiromeres of the embryo, as would be expected from a gene in the right half of the bithorax complex. The transcripts homologous to p99 are most abundant in a region of the cellular blastoderm that corresponds to the segmental anlagen of the posterior head or first thoracic segments. This is also consistent with its cytogenetic location in 84A, which contains genes that affect the development of those segments. The basis for the cross-homology is of great interest. The position of the H repear in the 3' region of the transcriptino units of Antp, Ubx, and ftz is consistent with a conserved protein coding sequence. The DNA sequence of the H repeats of Antp, ftz and Ubx leavese no doubt that the sequence conservation is due to a conserved protein-coding domain ... Since faithful copies of the H repeat are strictly delimited and found only in homoeotic genes, we now call the H repeat the 'homoeotic sequence'. However, it seems clear that not all homoeotic genes carry the homoeobox, for example, we have ben unable to detect it in the bithoraxoid/postbithorax unit of the bithorax complex ... It is possible, of course, that another subset of homoeotic genes contains another repeat. On the basis of these results, we propose that a subset of the omoeotic genes are memebers of a multigene family, highly diverged but nonetheless detectable by DNA cross-homology. This suggests a common evolutionary origin for some genes of both the Antp and bithorax complexes, as proposed by Lewis for the genes of the bithorax complex. The conspicuous evolutionary conservation of the homoeobox sequence in some homoeotic genes of Drosophila suggests that it might also be conserved in other animal species; preliminary experiments strongly support this view... it is possible that a fundamental principle in development is to diplicate a gene specifying a segment identity, allowing one of the copies to diverge and acquire new functions, or new spatial restrictinos in expression, or both; this might allow, within the limits of natuiral selection, a striking polymorphism in the different segments of an animal, and the acquisition of highly specialized functions in different segments. ..."
Scott and Weiner public their work a few months later in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "Structural relationships among genes that control development: Sequence homology between the Antennapedia, Ultrabithorax, and fushi tarazu loci of Drosophila". For an abstract they write: "Genes that regulate the development of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster exist as tightly linked clusters in at least two cases. These clusters, the bithorax complex (BXC) and the Antennapedia complex (ANT-C), both contain multiple homoeotic loci: mutations in each locus cause a transformation of one part of the fly into another. Several repetitive DNA sequences, including at least one transposon, were mapped in the ANT-C. DNA from the 3' exon of Antennapedia (Antp), a homoeotic locus in the ANT-C, hybridized weakly to DNA from the 3' exon of Ultrabithorax (Ubx), a homoeotic locus in the BX-C. DNA from each of these 3' exons also hybridized weakly to DNA from the fushi tarazu locus of the ANT-C. The fushi tarazu (ftz) locus controls the number and differentiation of segments in the developing embryo. Sequence analysis of the cross-hybridizing DNA from the three loci revealed the conservation of predicted amino acid sequences derived from coding parts of the genes. This suggests that two homoeotic loci and a "segment-deficient" locus encode protein products with partially shared structures and that the three loci may be evolutionarily and functionally related.". In their paper they write: "The Antennapedia complex (ANT-C) of Drosophila is a cluster of genes that regulate differentiation and pattern formation in the developing fly (1, 2). Some of the ANT-C loci are homoeotic: mutations lead to switches of cell fates from one developmental pathway to another. One such locus is Antennapedia (Antp), which normally functions in each of the three thoracic segments, in the abdominal segments, and in the humeral disc (3-6). Abnormal Antp function caused by certain mutations can lead to the transformation of antennae into legs or of second and third legs into first legs (7, 8). Thoracic development is also controlled by genes in the bithorax complex (BX-C), in particular by the Ultrabithorax (Ubx) locus (9-13). Ubx mutations lead to transformations to third thoracic segment structures into second thoracic segment structures. The homoeotic loci of the ANT-C and BXC work coordinately to control developmental pathways. Lewis (9, 14, 15) has proposed that the homoeotic genes of the BX-C may have evolved from a common ancestral gene, diversifying to control segment-specific developmental processes. This report presents evidence that suggests an extension of Lewis' idea to relationships between genes of the ANT-C and genes of the BX-C. In addition to homoeotic loci, the ANT-C includes a locus (fushi tarazu, ftz) that controls the number of segments formed (2, 4) and their differentiation. The relationship of homoeotic loci, which affect the type of segment that forms, to the "segment-deficient" loci, which affect the number and pattern of segments, is not well understood. Recent molecular analyses of the BX-C (refs. 16 and 17; R. Saint, M. Goldschmidt-Clermont, P. A. Beachy, and D. S. Hogness, personal communication) and the ANT-C (18-20) have revealed that the Ubx and Antp loci are extraordinarily large functional units of 73 kilobases (kb) and 103 kb, respectively. Both loci encode multiple RNA species. In contrast to Antp and Ubx, the ftz locus appears to be a simpler transcription unit contained within a 2-kb region of the genome (ref. 18; unpublished data). It is not known whether any of the Antp, Ubx, orftz RNA molecules encode proteins. To learn more about the DNA organization of the ANT-C, repetitive DNA sequences have been mapped. Some of the repetitive sequences are in the coding parts of Antp and ftz. The investigation of repetitive DNA revealed related sequences in the Antp,ftz, and Ubx loci. The sequences shared at the three loci include conserved amino acid coding sequences. ...".
| (University of Basel) Basel, Switzerland and (Indiana University) Bloomington, Indiana, USA |
16 YBN
[03/10/1984 AD]
| 5814) Steen M. Willadsen clones sheep, producing genetically identical sheep by separating an embryo into separate cells and putting each cell nucleus into sheep ova that have their nucleus removed, which are then implanted in female sheep to develop into fetuses and birth.
| (AFRC Institute of Animal Physiology) Cambridge, UK |
16 YBN
[06/25/1984 AD]
| 5815) DNA sequences from the quagga, an extinct member of the horse family cloned.
Allan C. Wilson, Russell Higuchi, and team publish this is "Nature" as "DNA sequences from the quagga, an extinct member of the horse family". For an abstract they write: "To determine whether DNA survives and can be recovered from the remains of extinct creatures, we have examined dried muscle from a museum specimen of the quagga, a zebra-like species (Equus quagga) that became extinct in 1883 (ref. 1). We report that DNA was extracted from this tissue in amounts approaching 1% of that expected from fresh muscle, and that the DNA was of relatively low molecular weight. Among the many clones obtained from the quagga DNA, two containing pieces of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) were sequenced. These sequences, comprising 229 nucleotide pairs, differ by 12 base substitutions from the corresponding sequences of mtDNA from a mountain zebra, an extant member of the genus Equus. The number, nature and locations of the substitutions imply that there has been little or no postmortem modification of the quagga DNA sequences, and that the two species had a common ancestor 3−4 Myr ago, consistent with fossil evidence concerning the age of the genus Equus.".
(It seems very likely that, like neuron reading and writing, that much much more has been done in terms of genetic engineering - in particular recreating extinct species - and what an interesting and helpful effort that must be.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
16 YBN
[08/31/1984 AD]
| 6190) DNA molecule imaged at atomic scale using Scanning Tunneling Microscope.
The first image is published by Binnig and Rohrer at a Conference of the European Physical Society in August 1984, a later more detailed STM image of atoms in a DNA molecule is published by Driscoll et al in a 1990 edition of the journal Nature.
| (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory, Switzerland, presented in) Prague, Czechoslovakia |
16 YBN
[10/04/1984 AD]
| 5812) Image captured of planetary disk around the star Beta Pictoris.
Bradford A. Smith and Richard J. Terrile publish this image in "Science" as "A Circumstellar Disk around β Pictoris". As an abstract they write: "A circumstellar disk has been observed optically around the fourth-magnitude star β Pictoris. First detected in the infrared by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite last year, the disk is seen to extend to more than 400 astronomical units from the star, or more than twice the distance measured in the infrared by the Infrared Astronomy Satellite. The β Pictoris disk is presented to Earth almost edgeon and is composed of solid particles in nearly coplanar orbits. The observed change in surface brightness with distance from the star implies that the mass density of the disk falls off with approximately the third power of the radius. Because the circumstellar material is in the form of a highly flattened disk rather than a spherical shell, it is presumed to be associated with planet formation. It seems likely that the system is relatively young and that planet formation either is occurring now around β Pictoris or has recently been completed.".
| (University of Arizona) Tuscon, Arizona, USA and (Jet Propulsion Laboratory) Pasadena, California, USA |
16 YBN
[11/16/1984 AD]
| 5813) Technique of "genetic fingerprinting" identified, how certain sequences of DNA that are unique to each person can be used to indentify individual organisms and also to determine family relationships.
British geneticist Alec Jeffrey (CE 1950- ) et al publish this in "Nature" as "Hypervariable 'minisatellite' regions in human DNA". For an abstract they write: "The human genome contains many dispersed tandem-repetitive 'minisatellite' regions detected via a shared 10−15-base pair 'core' sequence similar to the generalized recombination signal (chi) of Escherichia coli. Many minisatellites are highly polymorphic due to allelic variation in repeat copy number in the minisatellite. A probe based on a tandem-repeat of the core sequence can detect many highly variable loci simultaneously and can provide an individual-specific DNA 'fingerprint' of general use in human genetic analysis.".
Jeffreys is first given the opportunity to demonstrate the power of DNA fingerprinting in March of 1985 when he proves a boy is the son of a British citizen and should be allowed to enter the country. In 1986, DNA is first used in forensics. In a village near Jeffreys' home, a teenage girl is assaulted and strangled. No suspect is found, although body fluids are recovered at the crime scene. When another girl is strangled in the same way, a 19-year-old caterer confesses to one murder but not the other. DNA analysis shows that the same person committed both murders, and the caterer had falsely confessed. Blood samples of 4582 village men are taken, and eventually the killer is revealed when he attempts to bribe someone to take the test for him. The first case to be tried in the United States using DNA fingerprinting evidence is of Tommie Lee Edwards. The trial ends in a mistrial. Three months later, Andrews is on trial for the assault of another woman. This time the judge does permit the evidence of population genetics statistics. The prosecutor shows that the probability that Edwards' DNA would not match the crime evidence was one in ten billion. Edwards is convicted. DNA fingerprinting has been used repeatedly to identify human remains. DNA has also been used to free dozens of wrongly convicted prisoners.
| (University of Leicester) Leicester, UK |
16 YBN
[1984 AD]
| 5854) The domain name addressing system is introduced on the ARPAnet.
| |
15 YBN
[01/28/1985 AD]
| 5825) RU 486 (the "morning after pill") tested and found to be useful for fertility control.
Etienne Emile Baulieu and team publish this in "The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism" as "Effects of the Antiprogesterone Steroid RU 486 during Midluteal Phase in Normal Women". As an abstract they write: "The antiprogesterone steroid RU 486 (17β-hydroxy-llβ-4-dimethyl-aminophenyl)17α(l-propynyl)estra-4,9-dien-3-one) was given orally to 32 normally cycling women for 4 days, starting on the fourth day of the luteal phase. Uterine bleeding occurred on the third day of RU 486 administration in all 14 women treated with 100 mg/day, in 7 of the 8 women treated with 50 mg, and in 8 of 10 women receiving 25 mg/day. Premature luteal regression induced by RU 486 occurred in 8 women treated with 100 mg/day, in 3 treated with 50 mg, and in 2 receiving 25 mg/day. Plasma LH was measured every 15 min from 0800–1200 h for 5 days in 17 women. Mean LH levels decreased and pulsatile release disappeared in 7 of the 8 women treated with 100 mg, in 2 of 4 receiving 50 mg, and in 1 of 5 treated with 25 mg. RU 486 had no effect when given to 5 women with anovulatory cycles for 4 days starting on day 18 of the cycle.
In conclusion: 1) RU 486, given to normally cycling women at midluteal phase, provokes uterine bleeding. 2) This effect occurs whether or not luteal regression is induced by the compound, indicating that RU 486 acts directly upon the endometrial tissue, very likely at the progesterone receptor level. 3) The drug may impair simultaneously or separately luteal function and gonadotropin secretion in a dose-dependent manner. 4) The lack of antiglucocorticosteroid activity, at the dosage of 100 mg/day, suggests that RU 486 may be useful for fertility control. ".
In a later 1989 article in "Science" entitled "Contragestion and Other Clinical Applications of RU 486, an Antiprogesterone at the Receptor", Baulieu writes as an abstract "RU 486, a steroid with high affinity for the progesterone receptor, is the first available active antiprogesterone. It has been used successfully as a medical alternative for early pregnancy interruption, and it also has other potential applications in medicine and for biochemical and pathophysiological endocrine research.". In the paper he writes: "IN WOMEN, THE STEROID HORMONE PROGESTERONE (P) PLAYS a central role in the establishment and the maintenance of pregnancy (1). During the second part or luteal phase of the menstrual cycle, after ovulation, and during pregnancy (Fig. 1), P is essential for reproductive function (2). In the uterus, P causes the endometri um (internal lining) to undergo decidualization, which involves epithelial, glandular, mesenchymal, and vascular cells. These changes are necessary for implantation of the embryo (blastocyst), which occurs during the second week after fertilization. P also helps decrease the responsiveness of the smooth muscle of the uterus (myometrium) to contractile, excitatory agents such as prostaglandins or oxytocin; it also firms the cervix of the uterus and favors the formation of a mucous plug. All these effects are vital to the protection of the developing embryo and fetus. The function of P in the fallopian tubes, vagina, ovaries, and breasts is less well underst ood. Some cells in the central nervous system, particularly in the hypothalamus, are also targets for P. P acts on target cells by way of the progesterone receptor (PR), a hormone binding protein obligatorily involved in the cellular response. PR concentration is increased in target cells by the preovulatory surge of estrogen. These cells are thus primed to respond to P subsequent to ovulation, when P is secreted by the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is partly under the control of pituitary luteinizing hormone (LH) during the cycle, and its life span is remarkably constant (14 days) if it is not rescued by an additional stimulating hormone (gonadotropin). The functional demise of the corpus luteum (luteolysis) is associated with a rapid decrease of P and estradiol, and the endometrium undergoes disintegration and is shed (menstruation). If a fertilized ovum implants, human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG), produced by embryonic chorionic cells, ensures the prolongation of the life span of the corpus luteum and continue d secretion of P. After about 9 weeks, the placenta takes over this function, and there is a decrease of hCG, while placental P production increases until the end of pregnancy. Increased plasma P concentrations are responsible for the lack of ovulation during pregnancy, presumably operating, via negative feedback, on the hypothalamu s-pituitary LH release system. This inhibitory effect of P is the basis of current oral contraceptives, which contain a synthetic P analog (a progestin). P is also involved earlier in the cycle, in follicle development, and in the process of ovulation. Folliculogenesis depends in part on intraovarian P, which is not secreted into the blood but is active locally in a paracrine or autocrine manner. The control of ovulation is poorly understood in the human. A small increase of blood P levels occurs before ovulation and reinforces the positive feedback effect of estradiol in the triggering of the midcycle LH surge. This P increment may also have direct effects on the follicle. Progesterone Antagonists and Fertility Control Encouraged in the late 1960s by the late Gregory Pincus, the "father" of the contraceptive pill, and the Ford Foundation to participate in the worldwide efforts to improve birth control methods, I found little evidence of major research directed toward the development of a drug that might decrease P activity at target cells. Interruption of P synthesis or elimination of circulating P did not seem suitable or possible in women (3). The concept of achieving antagonism at the target tissue did seem attainable, however: a P antagonist would decrease or suppress the effects of P, when administered, for example, to the estrogen-primed, spayed rabbit, in which the endometrium responds in a characteristic fashion to P. But effective P antagonists were difficult to identify because they often had interfering weak agonist activity or other problematic biological properties inherent to the molecule (for example, an estrogen derivative that has antiprogesterone activity still conserves its estrogenic properties; these would be "side effects" of the antiprogestin). Furthermore, it was expensive and time-consuming to perform the necessary biological tests in vivo. These considerations contributed to the limited enthusiasm for antiprogesterone. Djerassi, in his forecast "Birth control after 1984" (4), did not refer specifically to P antagonists, but he did define "As an important example of future contraceptive methodology. . . 'a once-a-month' pill with luteolytic or abortifacient properties, or both ... {i}deally, the agent might be active any time during the first 8 weeks after fertilization." Discovery of the uterine PR, the main molecular target for an antiprogestin in mammals, changed the situation considerably (5). Soluble preparations of the PR provided a simple and economical way to detect a potential P antagonist, since, according to the simplest hypothesis, an antiprogesterone should bind to the receptor competitively, but unlike an agonist, should not trigger the hormonal response. ... Several compounds showed high affinity for steroid receptors. The results prompted the decision, at the pharmaceutical company Roussel-Uclaf, to look for antiglucocorticosteroid derivatives. Each compound was assayed for its capacity to bind to several steroid hormone receptors, including the PR. RU 486 (113-(4- dimethyl-amino phenyl)- 173-hydroxy- 17o(-(prop-1-ynyl)-estra-4,9- dien-3-one) (Fig. 2) was found to have a high affinity for both the rabbit PR and the rat glucocorticosteroid receptor (GR) (13). This observation did not come as a surprise since binding data already indicated some homology between the PR and GR, a concept now confirmed by molecular genetics (14), and since P was known to have weak antiglucocorticosteroid activity (15). RU 486 analogs (16). RU 486 has strong antiprogesterone and antiglucocorticosteroid activities. It is a 19-norsteroid, lacking the C19-methyl group of natural P and glucocorticosteroids; similar 11 -substituted steroids could not be synthesized in the CI9-methyl series. Short aliphatic 11(3-substitution on 19-norsteroids (for example, vinyl) give agonistic compounds. Analogs with a 3- or 2- dimethylamino phenyl group have less antiprogesterone activity than RU 486, but a 4-acetyl-1-phenyl analog of RU 486, ZK 114057 (17), is highly potent. C18-substituted steroids (Org 31167 and Org 31343) (18) have low affinity for the PR and GR, but have specific antiprogesterone activity after oral administration (perhaps due to an unknown metabolite). C13ot-methyl analogs, such as ZK 98299 (17), are difficult to synthesize because the configuration of the D ring is inversed in relation to natural steroids, but they are as active as regular C133-methyl steroids. ... Contraception In nonpregnant women, administration of RU 486 during the last 3 to 4 days of the cycle (late luteal period) consistently precipitates the termination of a nonfertile cycle, with decreased pulse amplitude and frequency of pituitary LH secretion (67). The following cycle is normal (68). RU 486 provokes bleeding of the endometrium in spayed monkeys with an artificial estrogen-progesterone cycle (69) and also induces bleeding in nonpregnant women whose corpus luteum is maintained by hCG administration (70). Thus, it is clear that RU 486 has two main sites of action: the endometrium and the brain, where it influences LH secretion. During the days preceding the expected menstrual period, administration of RU 486 alone gives -80% termination rate in pregnant women, as assessed by a decrease in hCG (71). This observation indicates that the hormonal status of pregnancy is similar just before and just after the time the menstrual period would have been expected. RU 486 may be an effective method that has advantages over currently used steroid preparations for providing late luteal, postcoital contraception that would not involve immediate medical intervention after inopportune sexual exposure. Given an approximate 20% risk of pregnancy after unprotected sex, the postcoital use of RU 486 has an overall failure rate of 4% (20% x 20%), which is too high for the monthly use of RU 486 as a menses inducer. Thus RU 486 should be reserved for occasional, late luteal, postcoital contraception (54). Association of RU 486 and anti-gonadotropinreleasing hormone (GnRH) or an oral prostaglandin could possibly provide an effective once-a-month menses inducer. However, the natural variation of cycle length among women may remain a problem for the practical use of any once-a-month menses inducer. In the middle of the luteal phase, RU 486 directly causes endometrial bleeding (50, 67, 71, 72). After an acute increase in the frequency and amplitude of LH pulses (73), there is a dosedependent decrease of LH secretion and diminished pituitary responsiveness to GnRH (67). Complete luteolysis may occur, but when 2 to 3 mg of RU 486 per kilogram is given over 3 days, incomplete luteolysis is more frequently observed, with a rebound increase in LH, estradiol, and P levels; spontaneous luteolysis terminates the cycle with a second episode of uterine bleeding (72). Under these circumstances, it is unlikely that RU 486 has a significant, direct effect on the corpus luteum (74). ... "Contragestion" Contraception is an abbreviation of contra-conception. Contemporary science has shown that "conception" cannot be thought of as only fertilization. The continuum of the reproductive process includes meiosis before fertilization, implantation (a process taking several days), and several steps necessary for the proper development of the embryo. Many methods of fertility control are not strictly "contraception" in the commonest sense of the term (Fig. 5): the intrauterine device (IUD), hormonal contraception based on progestin only, postcoital contraception, or a possible antipregnancy vaccine opposing the activity of hCG. Indeed, postfertilization interruption is an everyday process that most women have experienced at some time, even though they may not be aware of it. Therefore I propose a new word: "contragestion" (a contraction of contra-gestation), stressing the quite natural aspects of fertility and the control thereof. The debate over RU 486 may bring many women to better understand the continuous process of conception, and the drug itself may give women greater ability to exercise responsibility in matters of fertility control. We must offer people the best that science can provide so that there may be more flexibility and personal initiative in the control of familial and social problems. It is hoped that the medical community will be able to give patients in need access to a drug which, besides contragestion, seems to have other potential therapeutic utility. Scientists and physicians must communicate with the public and explain their scientific objectives as well as possible clinical advances, since "public trust is the foundation upon which biomedical reproductive research must reside" (83).".
| (Service d'Endocrinologie et des Maladies de la Reproductio) Bicetre,France and (INSERM U 3 Hôpital de Bicêtre) Bicêtre, France and (CNRS 105), Paris , France |
15 YBN
[02/18/1985 AD]
| 5821) Neutron microscope.
Mampe and team report this in "Physical Review Letters" as "Neutron Microscope". They write as an abstract: "We report successful operation of a neutron microscope using ultracold neutrons at the high-flux reactor at Grenoble. A sharp, achromatic image of an object slit was obtained at a magnification of 50. The measured resolution of 0.1 mm was limited mainly by the available beam intensity, not by aberrations.". It seems very likely that neutrons are hydrogen atoms, which would make this a monatomic hydrogen microscope.
| (Technische Universitat Munchen) Garching, Germany and (Institut Laue-Langevin) Grenoble, France |
15 YBN
[09/20/1985 AD]
| 5804) Kary Banks Mullis (CE 1944- ) invents the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), a simple technique that allows a specific stretch of DNA to be copied billions of times in a few hours.
| (Cetus Corporation) Emeryville, California, USA |
15 YBN
[12/06/1985 AD]
| 5816) Lanxides, materials that are crosses between ceramics and metals are made public.
A Nature article "Rush to metal/oxide composites" reports: "A NOVEL method of making ceramic metal composites, known as the lanxide process, was a major attraction at this year's autumn meeting of the Materials Research Society in Boston. The new process, rumoured for some months, was described in public for the first time by Dr. Mike Newkirk of the lanxide Corporation of Newark, Delaware. it promises new tough ceramic composites at significantly lower cost than existing methods, which tend to be expensive and produce a brittle end result. Lanxides are formed by reaction between a molten metal and a vapour-phase oxidant, for which air will suffice. Typically, the metal has to be doped with a {ULSF: typo "at"} least two dopants - magnesium and silicon work for alunuminium - and the temperature of the melt berough to within set limits (1,250°C in this example). The lanxide, in this case a coherent composite of aluminium and interconnected aluminium oxide, forms at the metal surface. The mechanism of the reaction remains obscure. The material grows from the metal/oxidant interface towards the oxidant, and metal is transported through the growing lanxide by a process that appears not to be reliant on diffusion. The properties of the material, which can be grown in slabs an inch thick can be adjusted by altering the tempereature of the melt and by depleting (or not) the reservoir of molten metal. The microstructure, which reveals a millimetre-scale columnar grain, changes over the cross-section of the lanxide. byu appropriate choice of conditions, tensile strength or toughness of an aluminium/aluminium oxide lanxide can be increased significantly above that of sintered alumina. ...".
(Find original paper)
| (Lanxide Technology Corporation) Newark, Delaware, USA |
14 YBN
[01/24/1986 AD]
| 5628) A ship from Earth, the U.S. "Voyager 2", reaches Uranus, sends images of Uranus, its moons, and rings.
Voyager 2 transmits the first close images of planet Uranus, its moons and rings.
Voyager 2 makes successful flybys of Uranus (January 24 1986) and Neptune (August 25 1989). Because of the additional distance of these two planets, adaptations have to made to accomodate the lower light levels and decreased communications. Voyager 2 is successfully able to obtain about 8,000 images of Uranus and its satellites. Additional improvements in the on-board software and use of image compression techniques allow about 10,000 images of Neptune and its satellites to be taken.
(Determine if the only known close images of Uranus and its moons are from Voyager 2.)
| Planet Uranus |
14 YBN
[04/17/1986 AD]
| 5824) Johannes Georg Bednorz and Karl Alexander Müller create a material that is superconducting around 30 K.
This leads to Paul Ching-Wu Chu in 1987 creating a material that is superconducting at 93 K warm enough for the less expensive liquid nitrogen to be used as a coolant.
Bednorz and Müller publish this in "Zeitschrift für Physik B Condensed Matter" as "Possible High T c Superconductivity in the Ba - La- Cu- O System". As an abstract they write: "Metallic, oxygen-deficient compounds in the Ba–La–Cu–O system, with the composition Ba x La5–x Cu5O5(3–y) have been prepared in polycrystalline form. Samples withx=1 and 0.75,y>0, annealed below 900°C under reducing conditions, consist of three phases, one of them a perovskite-like mixed-valent copper compound. Upon cooling, the samples show a linear decrease in resistivity, then an approximately logarithmic increase, interpreted as a beginning of localization. Finally an abrupt decrease by up to three orders of magnitude occurs, reminiscent of the onset of percolative superconductivity. The highest onset temperature is observed in the 30 K range. It is markedly reduced by high current densities. Thus, it results partially from the percolative nature, bute {ULSF: typo "but"} possibly also from 2D superconducting fluctuations of double perovskite layers of one of the phases present.".
| (IBM Zurich Research Laboratory) Ruschlikon, Switzerland |
14 YBN
[1986 AD]
| 5818) Increase in growth rate is reported in goldfish that have genes that code for human growth hormone injected into them.
Zuoyan Zhu of Peking University publishes this in the journal "Kexue Tongbao Academia Sinica" as "Biological effects of human growth hormone gene microinjected into the fertilized eggs of loach, Misgurnus anguillicaudatus."
| (Peking University) Perking, China (presumably) |
14 YBN
[1986 AD]
| 5855) The National Science Foundation establishes the NSFNET, a distributed network of networks capable of handling far greater traffic, and within a year more than 10,000 hosts were connected to the Internet.
| |
13 YBN
[02/06/1987 AD]
| 5819) Paul Ching-Wu Chu (CE 1941- ) and team create a material (Y1.2Ba0.8CuO4) that is superconducting at 93 K (-180°C/-292°F) which is warm enough for the use of liquid nitrogen (78 K -195°C/-319°F) which is much less expensive than liquid helium.
A major breakthrough occurred in 1986 when Alex Muller had discovered some materials that become superconductive below the relatively high critical temperature of 35 K (–238°C). This temperature was still too low to be economic. The vital temperature is 77.4 K (–195.8°C) – the temperature below which nitrogen becomes liquid. The aim is to find materials that can be cooled to a superconducting state using relatively cheap liquid nitrogen, rather than the extremely expensive liquid helium (b.p. –268.9°C). Chu decides to replace the lanthanum with other related lanthanoid elements. One he chooses to work with is yttrium (Y). Finally, in January 1987, just a year after Muller's breakthrough, Chu finds that the critical temperature of Y1.2Ba0.8CuO4 is 93 K and that the effect is stable and permanent.
Chu and team publish this in "Physical Review Letters" as "Superconductivity at 93 K in a new mixed-phase Y-Ba-Cu-O compound system at ambient pressure". For an abstract they write: "A stable and reproducible superconductivity transition between 80 and 93 K has been unambiguously observed both resistively and magnetically in a new Y-Ba-Cu-O compound system at ambient pressure. An estimated upper critical field Hc2(0) between 80 and 180 T was obtained.". In the paper they write: "The search for high-temperature superconductivity and novel superconducting mechanisms is one of the most challenging tasks of condensedmatter physicists and material scientists. To obtain a superconducting state reaching beyond the technological and psychological temperature barrier of 77K, the liquid-nitrogen boiling point, will be one of the greatest triumphs of scientific endeavor of this kind. According to our studies, we would like to point out the possible attainment of a superconducting state with an onset temperature higher than 100 K, at ambient pressure, in compound systems generically represented by .... In this Letter, detailed results are presented on a specific new chemical compound system with L=Y, M=Ba, A=Cu, D=O, x=0.4, a=2, b=1, and y<=4 with a stable superconfucting transition between 80 and 93 K. For the first time, a "zero-resistance" state (p<3 x 10-8 ohm-cm, an upper limit only determined by the sensitivity of the apparatus) is achieved and maintained at ambient pressure in a simple liquid-nitrogen Dewar. In spite of the great efforst of the past 75 years since the discovery of superconductivity, the superconducting transition temperature Tc has remained until 1986 below 23.2 K, the Tc of Nb2Ge first discovered in 1973. In the face of this gross failure to raise the Tc, nonconventional approaches taking adcantage of possible strong nonconventional superconducting mechanisms have been proposed and tried. In Septemeber 1986, the situation changed drastically when Bednorz and Muller reported the possible existence of percolative superconductivity in (La1-xBax)Cu3-8 with x=0.2 and 0.15 in the 30-K range. Subsequent magnetic studies confirmed that high-temperature superconductivity indeed exists in this system. Takagi et al, further attributed the observed superconductivity in the La-Ba-Cu-O system to the K2NiF4 phase. By the replacement of Ba with Sr, it is found that the La-Sr-Cu-O system of the K2NiF4 structure, in general, exhibits a higher Tc and a sharper transition. A transition width of 2 K and an onset Tc of 48.6 K were obtained at ambient pressure. Pressure was found to enhance the Tc of the La-Ba-Cu-O system at a rate of greater than 10-3 K bar-1 and to raise the onset Tc to 57 K, with a "zero-resistance" state reached at 40 K, the highest in any known superconductor until now. Pressure reduces the lattice parameter and enhances the Cu+3/Cu+2 ratio in the compounds. This unusually large pressure effect on Tc has led to suggestions that the high-temperature superconfuctivity in the La-Ba-Cu-O and La-Sr-Cu-O systems may be associated with interfacial effects arising from mixed phases; interfaces between the metal and insulator layers, or concentration fluctuations within the K2NiF4 phase; strong superconfucting interactions due to the mixed valence states; or yet a unidentified phase. Furthermore, we found that when the superconfucting transition width is reduced by making the compounds closer to the pure K2NiF4 phase, the onset Tc is also reduced while the main transition near 37K remains unchanged. Extremely unstable phases displaying signals indicative of superconductivity in compounds consisting of phase in addition to or other than the K3NiF4 phase have been observed by us, up to 148 K, but only in four samples, and in China, at 70 K, in one sample. Therefore, we decided to investigate the multiple-phase Y-Ba-Cu-O compounds instead of the pure K2NiF4 phase, through simultaneous variation of the lattice parameters and mixed valence ratio of Cu ions by chemical means at ambient pressure. ... On the basis of the existing data, it appears that the high-temperature superconductivity above 77 K reported here occurs only in compound systems consisting of a phase or phases in addition to or other than the K2NiF4 phase. While it is tempting to attribute the superconductivity to possible nonconventional superconducting mechanisms as mentioned earlier, all present suggestions are considered to be tentative at best, especially in the absence of detailed structureal information about the phases in the Y-Ba-Cu-O samples. however, we would like to point out here that the lattice parameters, the valence ratio, and the sample treatments all play a crucial role in achieving superconfuctivity above 77 K. The role of the different phases present in superconductivity is yet to be determined. ...". (Perhaps superconductivity can be useful at the low temperatures in between planets.)
| (University of Alabama) Huntsville, Alabama, USA and (University of Houston) Houston, Texas, USA |
13 YBN
[07/14/1987 AD]
| 5820) Positron microscope.
James Van House and Arthur Rich publish an image from a positron microscope. They publish this in "Physical Review Letters" as "First Results of a Positron Microscope". For an abstract they write: "We have constructed a prototype transmission positron microscope (TPM) and taken magnified pictures of various objects with it. Information gained from the prototype TPM has allowed us to predict resolutions achievable in the near future with an upgraded TPM. Applications are discussed.". In their paper they write: " The transmission electron microscope (TEM) when originally introduced had as a major goal the exploitation of the high resolution made possible by subangstrom de Broglie wavelengths. During the past decades angstrom resoluitions have finally been realized, but perhaps of equal interestin, a number of new types of electron microscopes, such as the scanning transmission, scanning tunneling, and field-emission microscopes, have been used in a variety of imaging applications, some at resolutions as low as 1 um. In addition, a number of microscopes using other particles (various types of ions and the neutron) have been developed. These latter devices have as their goal image formation resulting in a different constrast, as well as possibly higher resolution than that obtained with the use of electrons. in this Letter we present the first results obtained with the posititgron (e+) as the imaging particle in a transmission microscope. The transmission positron microscope (TPM) should have a variety of new applications as a result of the different contrast which appears when e+ rather than e- are used as the imaging particle. Our instrument uses a slow e+ beam which, when combined with "positron" optics approriate to the slow e+ emittance, and the use of image analysis techniques, has permitted us to construct the first TPM, compare its properties to our calculations, and obtain magnified images of several thin films. The purpose of our Letter is to detail the above features and to discuss the new applications referred to above. The success of our instrument is partially based on the fact that the brightness of an e+ - emitting radioactive source, initially too low for imaging, is increased enomousely by a process called moderation. In this process the initially high-energy (~100-500 keV) source e+ thermalize in, for example, a W crystal and, with probability 10-3-10-4, are ejected at an energy of about 2 eV. The ejected e+ are then formed into a beam. The e+ moderation process and the formation of slow e+ beams is now a standard technique. Our e+ beam optics (Fig. 1) focuses 3.5 x 105 e+/sec into a 1.7-mm spot at the target. The e+ transmitted through the target are imaged by an objective lens and then by a projector lens onto a three-plate channel electron-multiplier array (CEMA) with a phosphor-screen anode. The CEMA-phosphor combination converts each e+ into a spot of light which is detected by an image-analysis system (Fig. 1). The system adds the event to the appropriate memory location in a 384x384 array, resulting in a digital signal averaging which is crucial to our initial results, since it allows an image to be biult up at rates as low as 200 Hz. ... In conclusion, we have taken the first transmission positron microscope pictures and verified our predictions of the resolution. As discussed above, several substantial differences should exist between the TEM and TPM. Our experience with the prototype TPM should be applicable to the proposed e+ reemission microscope and possibly to the recently demonstrated e+ microprobe, and has allowed us to design and begin construction of an instrument with sufficient current density to allow TPM resolutions approaching the diffraction limit. ...".
(Notice the language of "thermalize" to describe how, apparently, positrons are trapped and delayed in a crystal matrix - bounced around by the crystal planes - and so accumulate in the crystal and are emitted in larger quantity at a slower rate. Perhaps I'm inaccurate on this - but it seems like a simple principle. The word "thermal" comes from Fermi (verify) and the realization that neutrons slowed by mica and other materials produce more fission reactions than when not slowed. Perhaps this is because more neutrons per second are emitted as opposed to an actual velocity slowing or perhaps both velocity slowing and more are emitted per second.)
( TODO: make a record for neutron and ion microscopes.)
(State how the radioactive sodium is made.)
| (University of Michigan) Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA |
13 YBN
[12/14/1987 AD]
| 5817) Planets of other stars detected using Doppler shift (relative radial velocity).
Campbell, Walker and Yang report this in the journal "Astrophysics" as "A search for substellar companions to solar-type stars". As an abstract they write: "Relative radial velocities with a mean external error of 13 m/s rms have been obtained for 12 late-type dwarfs and four subgiants over the past six years. Two stars, Chi1 Ori A and Gamma Cep, show large velocity variations probably due to stellar companions. In contrast, the remaining 14 stars are virtually constant in velocity, showing no changes larger than about 50 m/s. No obvious variations due to effects other than center-of-mass motion, including changes correlated with chromospheric activity, are observed. Seven stars show small, but statistically significant, long-term trends in the relative velocities. These cannot be due to about 10-80 Jupiter mass brown dwarfs in orbits with P less than about 50 yr, since these would have been previously detected by conventional astrometry; companions of about 1-9 Jupiter masses are inferred. Since relatively massive brown dwarfs are rare or nonexistent, at least as companions to normal stars, these low-mass objects could represent the tip of the planetary mass spectrum. Observations are continuing to confirm these variations, and to determine periods. ".
(To me, without a clear image of other planets it's tough to feel certain about the claims of exoplanets from Doppler shift observations. But I can accept that there is clearly something around these stars. There are many possibilities to explain a complex Doppler shift. Presumably most stars have many massive objects rotating them - and so the gravitational pull of 4 or 5 different planets must make a complex motion on a star.)
| (University of Victoria) Victoria, Canada and (University of British Columbia) British Columbia, Canada |
12 YBN
[12/14/1988 AD]
| 6194) Microscopic motor. This is an electromagnetic motor. Fan, Tai and Muller at the University of California, Berkeley report this at the "Electron Devices Meeting" in 1988 as "IC-processed electrostatic micro-motors". In their abstract they state: "The authors describe the design, fabrication, and operation of several micromotors that have been produced using integrated-circuit processing. Both rotors and stators for these motors, which are driven by electrostatic forces, are formed from 1.0-1.5 µm-thick polycrystalline silicon. The diameters of the rotors in the motors tested are between 60 and 120 µm. Motors with several friction-reducing designs have been fabricated using phosphosilicate glass (PSG) as a sacrificial material and either one or three polysilicon depositions. Examples of stepping and three-phase synchronous drive micromotors are described. Typical drive voltages for present designs exceed 100 V. Manually switched motors have tested at speeds up to 12 r.p.m. Synchronous motors have been driven at speeds to 500 r.p.m.".
The motor is not assembled from individual components. Instead the components are built up on a semiconductor substrate by masking and etching and a mask-less post-processing release step is performed to etch away underlying layers, allowing the structural layers to move and rotate. The word "MEMS", Micro-Eletromechanical System, is used to describe this field of science. In 2003, Zettl and team also at Berkeley will publish the first publicly known nanometer motor.
(Find and request movie of motors. SEM video capture?)
Both Sandia Labs and MIT publicly make MEMS devices, like micro-motors, so basic for flying microscopic devices.
| (University of California at Berkeley), Berkeley, California, USA |
12 YBN
[1988 AD]
| 5856) Real-time text conversation over the telephone wires becomes possible with the development of Internet Relay Chat protocols.
| |
11 YBN
[01/18/1989 AD]
| 6205) RNA molecule imaged at atomic scale with a Scanning Tunneling Microscope.
(Determine if any earlier images of the RNA molecule at the atomic scale exist.)
| (University of Minnesota) Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA |
11 YBN
[08/25/1989 AD]
| 5629) Ship reaches Neptune (U.S. "Voyager 2"), and transmits the first close images of Neptune, its moons and rings.
| Planet Neptune |
10 YBN
[01/17/1990 AD]
| 6191)
| (IBM Research Division, Almaden Research Center) San Jose, California, USA |
10 YBN
[01/29/1990 AD]
| 6278) Light particle (optical) computer processor.
Alan Huang writes: "One of the main reasons for trying to use optics is its connectivity. It is relatively easy for a lens to convey a 100-by-100 array of channels, each with the bandwidth of an optical fiber. This is shown in Figure 1. One thousand twenty-four optical connections can be implemented in the same space it takes to make one electronic connection.
One of the fundamental technologies that makes all of these optical interconnects possible is molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). This technology gives us the ability to grow crystals atom by atom with the precision of plus or minus one atomic layer over a two-inch wafer. See Figure 2. What good is this? By varying the thickness and elemental composition, we can grow optical components such as mirrors. If we change the recipe, we can grow quantum wells, which give the material unusual optical properties. We can also grow p-n junctions to make electronic. This process of MBE gives us a way of integrating optics, materials, and electronics at an atomic level, which blurs the traditional distinction between electronics and optics.
One of the devices developed on the basis of this technology is the SEED device (Prise et al. 1991), a light-controlled mirror that we can toggle between 10 and 60 per cent reflectivity. These devices function as flip-flop with optical inputs and outputs. We have fabricated arrays of up to 32K devices and have run some of these devices at one gigahertz
A second device based on MBE is the microlaser (Jewell et al. 1991). MBE was used to grow a mirror, a quantum well, and then a second mirror. We can then fabricate millions of lasers by etching the wafer. This is shown in Figure 3. Our yield is over 95 per cent, and the raw cost is approximately $0.0001 per laser. The yields and cost of this process will dramatically affect the availability of lasers. This technology is useful in terms of the connectivity of optics because it demonstrates that thousands of lasers can be fabricated in a very small area.
A second reason for using optics is the bandwidth. An optical channel has over one terahertz of bandwidth. A thousand channels, each at one gigabit per second, can also be accomplished by using wavelength division multiplexing techniques to break this bandwidth into thousands of individual channels. The microlasers shown in Figure 3 can also be used in this manner. These wafers can be grown on a slight slant. This technique would make each of the microlasers function at a slightly different wavelength.
One of the problems with trying to achieve a thousand interconnects, each at one gigabit per second, is the optical packaging. In electronics the circuit boards, sockets, etc., are quite standardized. Optical setups have usually been one of a kind and quite large, with many micrometer adjustments. We have directed a large part of our effort at miniaturizing and simplifying this packaging. ...".
| (AT&T Bell Labs) Holmdel, New Jersey, United States |
10 YBN
[02/14/1990 AD]
| 5632) Voyager 1 captures an image of the entire star system (sun and all planets) in one picture.
| Outside star system |
10 YBN
[04/25/1990 AD]
| 5828) Hubble Space Telescope (HST) placed in earth orbit.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an astronomical reflecting telescope with a mirror 94.5 inches (2.4 meters) in diameter; placed in orbit above the earth's atmosphere.
| Earth Orbit (Launched from Launch Pad 39B) Merritt Island, Florida, USA |
10 YBN
[06/11/1990 AD]
| 5826) The gene on the Y chromosome that determines gender in mammals identified.
| (Human Molecular Genetics Laboratory, Imperial Cancer Research Fund) London, UK (and two other locations) |
10 YBN
[12/20/1990 AD]
| 6346) Electrical signal transmitted from individual Neuron cell to field effect transistor. This shows that neuron-Silicon electrical junctions are possible and that the electric potential of neurons and electric signals passed through neurons can be measured and recorded using silicon electronics.
This is with a larger invertebrate neuron, later in 2005 Fromherz and team interface a rat neuron with a field effect transistor.
| ( Abteilung Biophysik der Universitat Ulm) Ulm, Germany |
10 YBN
[1990 AD]
| 5849) First digital camera (camera that records images as a computer file) sold to the public. (verify)
In 1988 the Fuji DS-1P which records to a 16 MB internal memory card that uses a battery to keep the data in memory is perhaps the first publicly known digital camera. This camera is never sold in the United States, and has not been confirmed to have shipped even in Japan.
The first commercially available digital camera is the 1990 Dycam Model 1; the camera also sells as the Logitech Fotoman. This digital camera uses a CCD image sensor, stores pictures digitally, and connected directly to a computer for download.
| (Dycam Inc) Ventura Blvd, Woodland Hillsa, California, USA (verify) |
9 YBN
[10/29/1991 AD]
| 5635) First ship to fly past and transmit close images of an asteroid.
The Galileo spacecraft transmits the first close images of an asteroid.
| Asteroid Gaspra |
9 YBN
[10/29/1991 AD]
| 5636) Galileo is the first ship to fly by an asteroid (Gaspra) and the first to discover a moon of an asteroid (Ida).
Galileo transmits a close image of Asteroid 243 Ida and its Moon Dactyl.
| Asteroid Gaspra (Ida encounter must occur later) |
9 YBN
[1991 AD]
| 5857) The World Wide Web is released to the public (via FTP).
| |
8 YBN
[1992 AD]
| 5859) The public finally gets access to free videophone software (CU-SeeMe).
Not really until the 2000s is video communcation over the telephone wires (Internet) free to the public and in popular use because of free Internet services such as Skype and iChat,which provide video communication to virtually every location with an Internet connection.
It's shocking that AT&T did not provide videophone software to the people of earth, but instead, that independent people provided this to the public. It is interesting that AT&T does not produce telephones, cameras or computers - outside of the direct-to-brain devices.
| |
7 YBN
[1993 AD]
| 5858) The "Mosaic" Internet browser is released, and its popularity leads to the proliferation of World Wide Web sites and users. By 1995, the Web (HTTP protocol) surpasses use of the FTP protocol in traffic volume. By 1997 there are more than 10 million hosts on the Internet and more than 1 million registered domain names.
| |
5 YBN
[02/24/1995 AD]
| 5822) Top quark observed with mass around 200 Gev/c2.
This observation is announced simulatneously by two groups at Fermilab and published in two separate articles in "Physical Review Letters", each with over 100 authors credited. The CDF team at Fermilab publishes this finding as "Observation of Top Quark Production in p̅ p Collisions with the Collider Detector at Fermilab". For an abstract they write: "We establish the existence of the top quark using a 67pb-1 data sample of p̅ p collisions at √s = 1.8TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF). Employing techniques similar to those we previously published, we observe a signal consistent with tt̅ decay to WWbb̅ , but inconsistent with the background prediction by 4.8σ. Additional evidence for the top quark is provided by a peak in the reconstructed mass distribution. We measure the top quark mass to be 176±8(stat)±10(syst)GeV/c2, and the tt̅ production cross section to be 6.8-2.4+3.6pb.". The D0 team publishes this finding as "Observation of the Top Quark". For an abstract they write: "
The D0 Collaboration reports on a search for the standard model top quark in pp̅ collisions at √s = 1.8 TeV at the Fermilab Tevatron with an integrated luminosity of approximately 50 pb-1. We have searched for tt̅ production in the dilepton and single-lepton decay channels with and without tagging of b-quark jets. We observed 17 events with an expected background of 3.8±0.6 events. The probability for an upward fluctuation of the background to produce the observed signal is 2×10-6 (equivalent to 4.6 standard deviations). The kinematic properties of the excess events are consistent with top quark decay. We conclude that we have observed the top quark and measured its mass to be 199-21+19 (stat) ±22 (syst) GeV/c2 and its production cross section to be 6.4±2.2 pb.".
(State equivalent mass in grams and light particles.)
| (Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory) Batavia, Illinois, USA |
5 YBN
[12/07/1995 AD]
| 396) Ship (Galileo) is the first to orbit Jupiter.
| Jupiter |
5 YBN
[12/07/1995 AD]
| 5637) Ship orbits and enters the atmosphere of planet Jupiter.
The ship Galileo is the first ship to orbit Jupiter and the Jupiter probe is the first ship to enter the atmosphere of Jupiter.
During entry into the Jovian atmosphere, as the probe is subjected to temperatures near 14000 K, the forward shield is expected to lose around 60% of its 145 Kg mass. A parachute is deployed, using a mortar, when the probe was at a velocity of about Mach 0.9 and a dynamic pressure of 6000 N/sq-m. Once the chute is released, explosive bolts are fired to release the aft cover which in turn pulled out and stripped off the bag containing the main parachute. This entire process is designed to take less than 2 s.
The duration of the probe's descent through the Jovian atmosphere is expected to last between 48-75 minutes, with the lower limit determined by the minimum required battery capacity and the upper limit by atmospheric pressure. The probe enters the Jovian atmosphere as planned on December 7, 1995. The radio signal from the probe is received by the orbiter for 57.6 minutes.
Towards the end of the 58 minute descent, the probe measures winds of four-hundred-and-fifty miles per hour - stronger than anything on Earth. The probe is finally melted and vaporized by the intense heat of the atmosphere.
To get into orbit around Jupiter, the Galileo spacecraft has to use its main engine. An error could send Galileo sailing past the planet. There is just one chance to get it right. After hours of anxious waiting, mission controllers confirm that the spacecraft is safely in orbit. Galileo is alive and well and begins its primary mission. The maneuver is precisely carried out, and Galileo enters orbit around Jupiter.
| Planet Jupiter |
5 YBN
[1995 AD]
| 5850) First digital camera (camera that records images as a computer file) that records moving scenes with sound sold to the public (Ricoh RDC-1). (verify)
| (Ricoh) Tokyo, japan (verify) |
4 YBN
[05/15/1996 AD]
| 5827) The drug "Viagra" (Sildenafil) found to enhance duration and rigidity of erect penis.
Peter Ellis and team publish one paper in the journal "Bioorganic & Medicinal Chemistry Letters" entitled "Sildenafil (Viagra), a potent and selective inhibitor of Type 5 cGMP phosphodiesterase with utility for the treatment of male erectile dysfunction". As an abstract they write: "5-(2'-Alkoxyphenyl)pyrazolo{4,3-d]pyrimidin-7-ones, and in particular our preferred compound, sildenafil (VIAGRAa'M), discovered through a rational drug design programme, are potent and selective inhibitors of the type 5 cGMP phosphodiesterase from both rabbit platelets and haman corpus cavernosum. Sildenafil is currently in the clinic for the oral treatment of male erectile dysfunction.".
Gingell and team publish and article in the journal "International Journal of Impotence Research" titled "Sildenafil: an orally active type 5 cyclic GMP-specific phosphodiesterase inhibitor for the treatment of penile erectile dysfunction.". For an abstract they write: "Sildenafil (Viagra, UK-92,480) is a novel oral agent under development for the treatment of penile erectile dysfunction. Erection is dependent on nitric oxide and its second messenger, cyclic guanosine monophosphate (cGMP). However, the relative importance of phosphodiesterase (PDE) isozymes is not clear. We have identified both cGMP- and cyclic adenosine monophosphate-specific phosphodiesterases (PDEs) in human corpora cavernosa in vitro. The main PDE activity in this tissue was due to PDE5, with PDE2 and 3 also identified. Sildenafil is a selective inhibitor of PDE5 with a mean IC50 of 0.0039 microM. In human volunteers, we have shown sildenafil to have suitable pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties (rapid absorption, relatively short half-life, no significant effect on heart rate and blood pressure) for an oral agent to be taken, as required, prior to sexual activity. Moreover, in a clinical study of 12 patients with erectile dysfunction without an established organic cause, we have shown sildenafil to enhance the erectile response (duration and rigidity of erection) to visual sexual stimulation, thus highlighting the important role of PDE5 in human penile erection. Sildenafil holds promise as a new effective oral treatment for penile erectile dysfunction.".
There is not much doubt in my mind that neuron writing can create, maintain, or destroy an erect penis, and the same effect in a female - making a female sexually arounsed and the vagina wet.
| (Pfizer Central Research) Sandwich, Kent, UK (verify earliest date) |
4 YBN
[11/25/1996 AD]
| 186) Animal cloned from adult somatic cell. The nucleus of a sheep ovum is replaced with a mammary cell from an adult sheep and reimplanted to develop into an identical sheep as the mammary cell donor.
The report authors point out that "... The fact that a lamb was derived from an adult cell confirms that differentiation of that cell did not involve the irreversible modification of genetic material required for development to term. ...".
| |
4 YBN
[11/25/1996 AD]
| 5829) Ian Wilmut, Keith Campbell and team clone a sheep (Dolly) from a nucleus of an adult somatic cell (mammary gland cell). This confirms that differentiation of the adult mammary gland cell does not involve an irreversible modification of genetic material in order for the embryo to develop to birth.
In 1984, Steen M. Willadsen had cloned sheep by separating an embryo into separate cells and putting the cell nucleus into sheep ova that have their nucleus removed, which are then implanted in female sheep to develop into fetuses and birth.
Wilmut et al publish this in "Nature" as "Viable offspring derived from fetal and adult mammalian cells". As an abstract they write: " Fertilization of mammalian eggs is followed by successive cell divisions and progressive differentiation, first into the early embryo and subsequently into all of the cell types that make up the adult animal. Transfer of a single nucleus at a specific stage of development, to an enucleated unfertilized egg, provided an opportunity to investigate whether cellular differentiation to that stage involved irreversible genetic modification. The first offspring to develop from a differentiated cell were born after nuclear transfer from an embryo-derived cell line that had been induced to become quiescent1. Using the same procedure, we now report the birth of live lambs from three new cell populations established from adult mammary gland, fetus and embryo. The fact that a lamb was derived from an adult cell confirms that differentiation of that cell did not involve the irreversible modification of genetic material required for development to term. The birth of lambs from differentiated fetal and adult cells also reinforces previous speculation1,2 that by inducing donor cells to become quiescent it will be possible to obtain normal development from a wide variety of differentiated cells.".
(Get birth-death dates, photos)
| (University of Edinburgh, Roslin Institute), Roslin Midlothian, UK |
1 YBN
[09/15/1999 AD]
| 3887) Stanley, Li, and Dan capture images produced by the neurons of a cat by directly connecting electrodes to the neurons.
| (University of California, Berkeley) Berkeley, CA, USA |
1 YBN
[09/20/1999 AD]
| 5833) Embryonic stem cells transplanted onto spinal cord tissue, shown to differentiate, integrate with, and promote recovery in the spinal cord of injured rats.
John W. McDonald, Dennis W. Choi and team publish this in "Nature Medicine" as "Transplanted embryonic stem cells survive, differentiate and promote recovery in injured rat spinal cord". As an abstract they write: "Transplantati on approaches using cellular bridges1–2, fetal central nervous system cells3–5, fibroblasts expressing neurotrophin-3 (ref. 6), hybridoma cells expressing inhibitory protein-blocking antibodies7, or olfactory nerves ensheathing glial cells8 transplanted into the acutely injured spinal cord have produced axonal regrowth or functional benefits. Transplants of rat or cat fetal spinal cord tissue into the chronically injured cord survive and integrate with the host cord, and may be associated with some functional improvements9. In addition, rats transplanted with fetal spinal cord cells have shown improvements in some gait parameters10, and the delayed transplantation of fetal raphe cells can enhance reflexes11. We transplanted neural differentiated mouse embryonic stem cells into a rat spinal cord 9 days after traumatic injury. Histological analysis 2–5 weeks later showed that transplant-derived cells survived and differentiated into astrocytes, oligodendrocytes and neurons, and migrated as far as 8 mm away from the lesion edge. Furthermore, gait analysis demonstrated that transplanted rats showed hindlimb weight support and partial hindlimb coordination not found in ‘sham-operated’ controls or control rats transplanted with adult mouse neocortical cells.". (Read more of paper - somewhat gruesome the way they break the spine.)
(Given 200 years of secret remote neuron reading and writing. It seems likely that much of this stem-cell truth was learned many years before - but perhaps because of unjustifiable fears, kept from the public.)
| (Washington University School of Medicine) St. Louis, Missouri, USA |
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| 5034) Robert John Strutt (CE 1875-1947) theorizes that the quantity of helium in some mineral which accumulates from radio-active atomic decay, can be used to determine geological age of the mineral.
| |
0 YAN
[01/01/0 AD]
| 5473) C. G. and D. D. Montgomery measure the number of neutrons in the earth atmosphere estimating one thermal neutron for every 16 ionizing cosmic rays.
In 1933 Gordon Locher showed that cosmic rays colliding in Argon gas produce neutrons.
Willard Libby will go on to show in 1949 that because of these neutrons hydrogen-3, helium-3 and carbon-14 can be used to determine the age of living matter.
(Find full names, birth-death dates, images)
| |
0 YAN
[01/01/0 AD]
| 6311)
| |
0 YAN
[02/14/2000 AD]
| 5638) Ship orbits an asteroid.
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker) is the first ship to orbit an asteroid and to touch down on the surface of an asteroid.
The first of four scheduled rendezvous burns on December 20 1998 is aborted due to a software problem. Contact is lost immediately after this and is not re-established for over 24 hours. The original mission plan calls for these four burns to be followed by an orbit insertion burn on January 10 1999, but the abort of the first burn and loss of communication makes this impossible. A new plan is put into effect in which NEAR flies by Eros on December 23 1998 at a speed of 0.965 km/s and a distance of 3827 km from the center of mass of Eros. Images of Eros are taken by the camera, data is collected by the near IR spectrograph, and radio tracking is performed during the flyby. A rendezvous maneuver is performed on January 3 1999 involving a thruster burn to match NEAR's orbital speed to that of Eros. A hydrazine thruster burn takes place on January 20 to fine-tune the trajectory. On August 12 a 2 minute thruster burn slows the spacecraft velocity relative to Eros to 300 km/hr.
Orbit insertion around Eros occurs on February 14 2000 at 15:33 UT (10:33 AM EST) after NEAR completes a 13 month heliocentric orbit which closely matches the orbit of Eros. A rendezvous maneuver is completed on February 3, slowing the spacecraft from 19.3 to 8.1 m/s relative to Eros. Another maneuver takes place on February 8 increasing the relative velocity slightly to 9.9 m/s. Searches for satellites of Eros takes place on January 28, and February 4 and 9 , none are found. The scans are for for scientific purposes and to lower any chances of collision with a satellite. NEAR goes into a 321 x 366 km orbit around Eros on February 14. The orbit is slowly decreased to a 35 km circular polar orbit by July 14. NEAR remained in this orbit for 10 days and then is backed out in stages to a 100 km circular orbit by September 5, 2000. Maneuvers in mid-October lead to a flyby of Eros within 5.3 km of the surface on October 26.
Following the flyby NEAR moves to a 200 km circular orbit and shifts the orbit from prograde near-polar to a retrograde near-equatorial orbit. By December 13 2000 the orbit is shifted back to a circular 35 km low orbit. where NEAR will remain until the nominal end of mission on February 12 2001. Starting on January 24 2001 the spacecraft begins a series of close passes (5 to 6 km) to the surface and on January 28 passed 2 to 3 km from the asteroid. The spacecraft makes a slow controlled descent to the surface of Eros ending with a touchdown in the "saddle" region of Eros on February 12, 2001. This was the first spacecraft touchdown on an asteroid. After landing, the spacecraft continues to operate until the final contact is made on February 28. The gamma-ray spectrometer collects data from the asteroid's surface over this time. A later attempt to contact the spacecraft on December 10 2002 is unsuccessful.
(This mission may relate to the importance of being able to protect the earth from asteroid impact.)
| Asteroid Eros |
0 YAN
[12/05/2000 AD]
| 5823) Human genome sequenced.
J. Craig Venter and a team of over 100 other authors publish this in the journal "Science" as "The Sequence of the Human Genome". As an abstract they write: "A 2.91-billion base pair (bp) consensus sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome was generated by the whole-genome shotgun sequencing method. The 14.8-billion bp DNA sequence was generated over 9 months from 27,271,853 high-quality sequence reads (5.11-fold coverage of the genome) from both ends of plasmid clones made from the DNA of five individuals. Two assembly strategies—a whole-genome assembly and a regional chromosome assembly—were used, each combining sequence data from Celera and the publicly funded genome effort. The public data were shredded into 550-bp segments to create a 2.9-fold coverage of those genome regions that had been sequenced, without including biases inherent in the cloning and assembly procedure used by the publicly funded group. This brought the effective coverage in the assemblies to eightfold, reducing the number and size of gaps in the final assembly over what would be obtained with 5.11-fold coverage. The two assembly strategies yielded very similar results that largely agree with independent mapping data. The assemblies effectively cover the euchromatic regions of the human chromosomes. More than 90% of the genome is in scaffold assemblies of 100,000 bp or more, and 25% of the genome is in scaffolds of 10 million bp or larger. Analysis of the genome sequence revealed 26,588 protein-encoding transcripts for which there was strong corroborating evidence and an additional ∼12,000 computationally derived genes with mouse matches or other weak supporting evidence. Although gene-dense clusters are obvious, almost half the genes are dispersed in low G+C sequence separated by large tracts of apparently noncoding sequence. Only 1.1% of the genome is spanned by exons, whereas 24% is in introns, with 75% of the genome being intergenic DNA. Duplications of segmental blocks, ranging in size up to chromosomal lengths, are abundant throughout the genome and reveal a complex evolutionary history. Comparative genomic analysis indicates vertebrate expansions of genes associated with neuronal function, with tissue-specific developmental regulation, and with the hemostasis and immune systems. DNA sequence comparisons between the consensus sequence and publicly funded genome data provided locations of 2.1 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A random pair of human haploid genomes differed at a rate of 1 bp per 1250 on average, but there was marked heterogeneity in the level of polymorphism across the genome. Less than 1% of all SNPs resulted in variation in proteins, but the task of determining which SNPs have functional consequences remains an open challenge.".
| (Celera Genomics) Rockville, Maryland, USA (and 13 other locations) |
0 YAN
[0 AD]
| 3706) Heinrich Caro (KorO) (CE 1834-1910), German chemist, improves Perkin's dye synthesis and is probably the person most responsible for the growth and domination of the dye industry in Germany for 40 years as director (1868-1889) of perhaps the first industrial research organization Badische Anilin and SofaFabrik (BASF) in Ludwigshafen.
| Manchester, England |
0 YAN
[0 AD]
| 3789) Nikolay Mikhaylovich Przhevalsky (PRZeVoLKI) (CE 1839-1888), Russian explorer publishes the first of six volumes (1888-1912) on the zoology, botany, geography and meteorology of central Asia.
Przhevalsky explores Mongolia, Sinkiang and Tibet, finding mountain ranges unknown in Europe.
Przhevalsky gathers and records numerous species of plants and animals, several hundred being new to science. The best-known species being a wild (undomesticated?) horse, called Przhevalsky's horse, and a wild camel.
In his life, Przhevalsky makes five major expeditions for the Russian Geographical Society.
Przhevalsky is a student of Humboldt and views his main task to be the study of nature. The first expedition lasts from (1870-1873), in which he crosses and describes the Gobi desert. On his second expedition (1877-1878), Przhevalsky claims to have rediscovered the great salt lake of the Chinese classical writers, Lop Nor, in the desert at 41°N, 91°E. Lop Nor is a lake mentioned by Marco Polo and not heard of in Europe since. On his fourth and last trip, begun at Urga in 1883, Przhevalsky crosses the Gobi into Russian Turkistan and visits one of the largest mountain lakes in the world, Ysyk-Köl.
Przhevalsky's accounts of his first two journeys are both published in English translations: "Mongolia, the Tangut Country, and the Solitudes of Northern Tibet" (1876) and "From Kulja, Across the Tian Shan to Lop Nor" (1879).
| |
0 YAN
[0 AD]
| 4367) Alcoholic fermentation shown to happen even with torn apart dead yeast cells.
Eduard Buchner (BwKHnR or BwKnR) (w= oo in book) (CE 1860-1917), German chemist finds that alcoholic fermentation happens in the presence of dead yeast cells (cells that were ground up with sand). When Buchner adds the dead (cut up) yeast juice (to fruit juice) and when he adds sugar (to preserve the juice against bacteria) he sees bubbles of carbon dioxide forming. The completely dead yeast rapidly ferment the sugar forming carbon dioxide and alcohol, exactly as living yeast cells do. This defeats the last beliefs in vitalism, the erroneous idea that the chemical process of living objects are different from those of non-living objects.
Buchner finds that fermentation of carbohydrates results from the action of different enzymes contained in yeast and not the yeast cell itself. Buchner shows that an enzyme, zymase, can be extracted from yeast cells and that zymase causes sugar to break into carbon dioxide and alcohol.
Buchner's discovery of zymase is the first proof that fermentation is caused by enzymes and does not require the presence of living cells. The name 'enzyme' comes from the Greek en = in and zyme = yeast. Buchner also synthesizes pyrazole in 1889.
Before this Wöhler had created an organic molecule from inorganic molecules in 1828, Perkin and others after him had created organic molecules not found in nature, and Schwann and others had shown that ferments (wrongly thought to be enzymes that catalyze in living tissue only) they isolated work in the test tube as non-living chemicals. However vitalists think that processes that take place inside the cell can not be recreated by non-living materials. Kühne had even suggested that ferments outside the cell be called "enzymes".
| (University of Tübingen) Tübingen, Germany |
1 YAN
[02/12/2001 AD]
| 5639) Ship lands on an asteroid.
The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous - Shoemaker (NEAR Shoemaker) is the first ship to orbit an asteroid and to touch down on the surface of an asteroid.
(Show images from the surface if any exist.)
| Asteroid Eros |
1 YAN
[06/28/2001 AD]
| 6192) Microscopic radio chip (RFID- Radio Frequency Identification). The µ-Chip, made by Japanese electronics company Hitachi, measures 400x400 um and is the smallest radio frequency identification integrated circuit (IC) chip on Earth.
In 2003, Hitachi reduces the size to 50um by 50um (0.002x0.002in), which to the naked eye look like dots of powder.
(These chips may lead directly to the first human-made cellular organelle.)
| (Hitachi) Japan |
1 YAN
[07/27/2001 AD]
| 6200) Millimeter scale rotational wing flying device.
| (University of Tokyo) Tokyo, Japan |
2 YAN
[02/16/2002 AD]
| 6332) Remotely controlled particle (radio) communication device emits drugs from within a human body.
This is clearly a major step toward micrometer sized or smaller RFID-style chips that can remotely read and transmit the electric potentials and receive a signal to turn a neuron on of off.
| (CCBR-SYNARC) Denmark |
3 YAN
[04/04/2003 AD]
| 6195) Nanometer scale motor.
Zettl and team publish this in "Nature" as "Rotational actuators based on carbon nanotubes". As an abstract they write: "Nanostructures are of great interest not only for their basic scientific richness, but also because they have the potential to revolutionize critical technologies. The miniaturization of electronic devices over the past century has profoundly affected human communication, computation, manufacturing and transportation systems. True molecular-scale electronic devices are now emerging that set the stage for future integrated nanoelectronics1. Recently, there have been dramatic parallel advances in the miniaturization of mechanical and electromechanical devices2. Commercial microelectromechanical systems now reach the submillimetre to micrometre size scale, and there is intense interest in the creation of next-generation synthetic nanometre-scale electromechanical systems3, 4. We report on the construction and successful operation of a fully synthetic nanoscale electromechanical actuator incorporating a rotatable metal plate, with a multi-walled carbon nanotube serving as the key motion-enabling element.".
| (University of California at Berkeley), Berkeley, California, USA |
4 YAN
[01/15/2004 AD]
| 5640) Vehicle from earth moves on surface of planet Mars (Spirit rover).
| Planet Mars |
4 YAN
[06/17/2004 AD]
| 6204) Camera made of fabric (optoelectronic fibres).
Fink and team publish this in "Nature" as "Metal–insulator–semiconductor optoelectronic fibres". As an abstract, they write: "The combination of conductors, semiconductors and insulators with well-defined geometries and at prescribed length scales, while forming intimate interfaces, is essential in most functional electronic and optoelectronic devices. These are typically produced using a variety of elaborate wafer-based processes, which allow for small features, but are restricted to planar geometries and limited coverage area1, 2, 3. In contrast, the technique of fibre drawing from a preformed reel or tube is simpler and yields extended lengths of highly uniform fibres with well-controlled geometries and good optical transport characteristics4. So far, this technique has been restricted to particular materials5, 6, 7 and larger features8, 9, 10, 11, 12. Here we report on the design, fabrication and characterization of fibres made of conducting, semiconducting and insulating materials in intimate contact and in a variety of geometries. We demonstrate that this approach can be used to construct a tunable fibre photodetector comprising an amorphous semiconductor core contacted by metallic microwires, and surrounded by a cylindrical-shell resonant optical cavity. Such a fibre is sensitive to illumination along its entire length (tens of meters), thus forming a photodetecting element of dimensionality one. We also construct a grid of such fibres that can identify the location of an illumination point. The advantage of this type of photodetector array is that it needs a number of elements of only order N, in contrast to the conventional order N2 for detector arrays made of photodetecting elements of dimensionality zero.".
(This may apply to the use of floating fibers that are actually radio cameras.) (This may relate to artificial muscle fibers too.)
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
4 YAN
[07/01/2004 AD]
| 5641) The U.S. "Cassini" is the first ship to orbit the planet Saturn.
The European Huygens probe carried by Cassini will be the first ship to land on Titan in 2005.
| Planet Saturn |
4 YAN
[11/29/2004 AD]
| 5832) Stem cells are used to repair damaged nerves, allowing a paralyzed human to walk.
A South Korean woman paralyzed for 20 years walks again after her damaged spine is repaired using stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. Use of embryonic stem cells from the production of embryos for scientific use raise ethical problems with some people. In contrast, there is no ethical issue when stem cells from umbilical cord blood are obtained. Additionally, umbilical cord blood stem cells trigger little immune response in the recipient as embryonic stem cells have a tendency to form tumors when injected into animals or human beings. For the therapy, multipotent stem cells are isolated from umbilical cord blood, which is frozen immediately after the birth of a baby and cultured for a period of time. Then these cells are directly injected to the damaged part of the spinal cord. "Technical difficulties exist in isolating stem cells from frozen umbilical cord blood, finding cells with genes matching those of the recipient and selecting the right place of the body to deliver the cells," says Han Hoon, president of Histostem, a government-backed umbilical cord blood bank in Seoul. According to the South Korean team reporting this finding, this is the first published case in which a person with spinal cord injuries had been successfully treated with stem cells from umbilical cord blood. One of the scientists on the team, Chang-Hoon states "I believe experts in other countries have been conducting similar experiments and accumulating data before making the results public.".
| (Chosun University) Kwangju, South Korea |
5 YAN
[01/14/2005 AD]
| 5642) Ship lands on a moon of Saturn (Titan) (European Space Agency (E.S.A.) "Huygens" Titan probe).
The European Space Agency (E.S.A.) "Huygens" Titan probe is the first ship to soft-land on a moon of a planet besides earth, landing on Titan, a moon of Saturn.
| Planet Saturn, moon Titan |
7 YAN
[08/??/2007 AD]
| 1652) A small Homo erectus skull is found that is evidence that erectus females were much smaller than males implying that erectus was not monogomous, but like gorillas lives in harems, a single male with multiple females.
| Kenya, Africa |
7 YAN
[10/31/2007 AD]
| 6187) Carbon nanotube radio.
Carbon nanotube radio. A 500nm carbon tube functions as an antenna, tuner, amplifier, and demodulator by vibrating when particles collide with it which varies a direct current between the nanotube (connected to one carbon? electrode) and another electrode.
An November 2007 article on this report states: '..."These carbon nanotubes are so small that we can have a radio-controlled interface with something that is on the same length scale as the basic submachinery of the cell and the basic workings of life," says Buriak.
The nanoradio could be used to see inside cells in real time and under normal conditions, instead of current techniques, which involve "exploding the cells and going in and looking at the remnants," says Buriak.
"This device could allow you to spy on the cell and do things inside the cell at the molecular level, which is really neat," says Buriak, who is currently researching how to enable interactions between individual human neurons and computer chips. ...".
If a nano electron source can be obtained from inside a body, perhaps from heat, and a neuron made to fire when the device detects a remote signal, this device might develop into the first public remote neuron writing and.or reading device, which would have enormous health and communication benefits.
(State how the nanotube device is made.)
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
8 YAN
[12/10/2008 AD]
| 3886) Remote neuron reading. Image of what eyes see captured remotely.
This is the first known public image showing that what a brain sees can be seen without touching the brain.
Researchers in Japan, Kamitani, et al, capture images of shapes and letters from the back the brains of living people using fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging). They capture an image of the word "neuron" (see image).
This is the first piece of photographic evidence that what a brain sees can be seen using technology without having to touch the brain. Yang Dan at the University of California in Berkeley had shown that images could be recognized by physically connecting neurons to the brain of a cat. This publication allows people to publicly state that what the eyes of any brain can see can now be seen (in slang simply they can "see eyes") using an fMRI camera. This is a major turning point in (what may be) the 200 year secret of seeing, hearing and sending images to and from brains and remote muscle movement. Development of this technology appears likely to follow, the next stage being capturing images generated only from the brain with no outside stimulation. In addition, capturing images from the brains of other species to see the resolution of their eye image capturing capability. From there capturing sound heard by the brain will probably be published, followed by capturing sound by a brain produced internal with no external stimulation. Also expected are publications describing reversing the process; sending images to produce images, sounds and other stimulations inside brains.
Kamatani, et al, also are able to remotely distinguish between different syllables of thought-audio. Kamatani answers the question "...are their plans to try and capture and reproduce the sounds produced internally by a brain - such as a song a person might remember in their mind? Do you think this will one day be possible if not already possible? " by writing: "we have done a preliminary study in which we tried to classify brain activity pattens by the syllables (e.g., 'po' vs 'go') the subject utters and just imagines. It was possible to some extent, but this is just to classy measured brain activity into a few classes according the syllables, and not reconstruction of sound.".
(Is the interpretation that the neurons are emiting the detected magnetic resonance?)
(Jack Galant and possibly other people reported the capturing of images of what the eyes see using fMRI, but did not, to my knowledge, ever publish any of these images.)
| (Collaboration between researchers at two Japanese Universities, two research Institutes, and ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories) Kyoto, Japan |
9 YAN
[10/12/2009 AD]
| 6207) Laser is microscopic in two dimensions. This laser is 30 micrometers long and 8 micrometers high (state width).
| (Institute for Quantum Electronics) Zurich, Switzerland |
11 YAN
[05/02/2011 AD]
| 6196) Camera is microscopic in two-dimensions. The camera’s diameter is 990 um, the first video camera on Earth with a diameter smaller than 1 mm. The camera image sensor ship measures 660x660um with resolution 45K pixels.
A few days later on May 13, 2001, Gill and team publish details about a microscopic camera sensor chip without the need for a lens.
(Note that this camera is microscopic in only 2 dimensions. A microscopic camera in 3 dimensions probably must use remote particle communication. Perhaps if the micrometer camera had a wireless device next to it- it could technically be called the first microscopic camera.)
| (Medigus Ltd. and Tower Semiconductor Ltd) Omer, Israel |
11 YAN
[05/08/2011 AD]
| 6286)
| (Mayo Clinic College of Medicine) Rochester, Minnesota, USA |
11 YAN
[07/08/2011 AD]
| 255) Solar cell on paper.
This work is published by Karen Gleasen, et al as "Direct Monolithic Integration of Organic Photovoltaic Circuits on Unmodified Paper", in the Journal "Advanced Materials". They write for an abstract: "Organic photovoltaic circuits are monolithically fabricated directly on a variety of common paper substrates using oxidative chemical vapor deposition to vapor print conformal conductive polymer electrodes. The paper photovoltaic arrays produce >50 V, power common electronic displays in ambient indoor lighting, and can be tortuously flexed and folded without loss of function. " In their paper they write: "There has been significant recent interest in integrating electronics into low-cost paper substrates, including transistors, storage devices, displays, and circuitry.1–4 Paper-based photovoltaics (PVs) could serve as an “on-chip” power source for these paper electronics, and also create attractive new paradigms for solar power distribution, including seamless integration into ubiquitous formats such as window shades, wall coverings, apparel, and documents. Module installation may be as simple as cutting paper to size with scissors or tearing it by hand and then stapling it to roof structures or gluing it onto walls. Moreover, paper is ∼1000 times less expensive (∼0.01 $·m−2) than traditional glass substrates (∼10 $·m−2)5, 6 and ∼100 times less expensive then common plastic substrates (0.2–3 $·m−2),1 an important factor considering that the substrate represents 25–60% of total material costs in current solar modules.5, 6 Additional cost savings are anticipated to accrue from the combination of low weight and the ability to achieve a compact form factor by rolling or folding for facile transport from the factory to the point of use. Common tissue papers are also ultrathin (1–10 mil thick, 1 mil = 25.4 μm) and ultra-lightweight (∼10 g·m−2),1 making them highly desirable for mobile applications, where every inch and gram counts. To date, however, the use of paper as a substrate for solar cells has been relatively unsuccessful due to processing challenges including surface roughness and poor wettability,1, 7, 8 and the majority of flexible solar cell demonstrations utilize smooth plastic substrates, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET).9, 10
In the present work, we examine the use of a substrate-independent vapor printing process to deposit the conductive polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) in place of the conventional transparent conductive electrode (e.g., indium-tin oxide (ITO)) in organic solar cells on glass, plastic, and paper substrates. This process combines oxidative chemical vapor deposition (oCVD)11, 12 with in situ shadow masking to create well-defined polymer patterns on the surface of choice (Figure1a, inset and Supporting Figure S1). For oCVD, the polymerized thin films form by simultaneous exposure to vapor-phase monomer (EDOT) and oxidant (FeCl3) reactants at low substrate temperatures (20–100 °C) and moderate vacuum (∼0.1 Torr). The printed polymer patterns (down to 20 μm resolution) result from the presence of a shadow mask by maintaining the partial pressure of the vapor-delivered oxidant species sufficiently close to its saturation pressure at the substrate, which prevents significant mask undercutting. The vapor delivery of the oxidant species makes this process unique from other techniques that rely on solvent casting of oxidants prior to vapor delivery steps.13, 14 Because the process is all dry, there are no wettability or surface tension effects on rough substrates like paper and exactly the same process steps are used to fabricate devices on glass, plastics, and papers. ... These demonstrations illustrate the near-term potential for implementation of paper-thin photovoltaics in new venues and on nontraditional media. By using vapor-printed oCVD polymer device layers, high-voltage, flexible, paper-thin integrated photovoltaic arrays are monolithically fabricated directly on both conventional substrates (glass and plastics) and ubiquitous everyday substrates (papers) with identical fabrication steps. The paper PV arrays produce >50 V, power common electronic displays in ambient indoor lighting, and can be tortuously flexed and folded without loss of function. The polymer vapor printing process employs no solvents or rare elements (e.g., indium) and the substrate remains at low temperature. The vapor-printed electrodes conform to the geometry of rough substrates, eliminating the need for more costly and heavier substrates such as ultra-smooth plastics. Additionally, a thin-film vapor-deposited encapsulation layer extends lifetime, even allowing for operation while submerged in water, but produces no substantial change in weight, feel, or appearance of the paper circuits. This all-dry fabrication and integration strategy should enable the design and implementation of new, low-cost photovoltaic and optoelectronic systems without substrate limitations.".
(Explain in simple terms how the layers work. For example light particles enter the anode, and they or electrons fill and are stored in the copper (active) layer, etc.) (This shows how, at a much smaller scale, electricity can be collected from light, perhaps in the form of an image, and transmitted or received without the need for an external electricity source, onto objects even as small as a dust-sized floating paper fiber.)
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
11 YAN
[09/22/2011 AD]
| 6211) Motion pictures from remote neuron reading of eye images using fMRI shown publicly.
The Associated Press article states: "— It sounds like science fiction: While volunteers watched movie clips, a scanner watched their brains. And from their brain activity, a computer made rough reconstructions of what they viewed.
Scientists reported that result Thursday and speculated such an approach might be able to reveal dreams and hallucinations someday.
In the future, it might help stroke victims or others who have no other way to communicate, said Jack Gallant, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Berkeley, and co-author of the paper. ...".
| (University of California) Berkeley, California, USA |
11 YAN
[10/10/2011 AD]
| 6214) Electrical stimulation used to produce images in the eyes of monkeys (direct neuron writing).
Schiller et al publish this in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences" as "New methods devised specify the size and color of the spots monkeys see when striate cortex (area V1) is electrically stimulated". They use 256 electrodes to translate the image from the camera to the neurons of each monkey. The image from the camera is divided into 256 square sections, one electrode for each section is then connected to similar square sections on the monkey brain.
As an abstract they write: "Creating a prosthetic device for the blind is a central future task. Our research examines the feasibility of producing a prosthetic device based on electrical stimulation of primary visual cortex (area V1), an area that remains intact for many years after loss of vision attributable to damage to the eyes. As an initial step in this effort, we believe that the research should be carried out in animals, as it has been in the creation of the highly successful cochlear implant. We chose the rhesus monkey, whose visual system is similar to that of man. We trained monkeys on two tasks to assess the size, contrast, and color of the percepts created when single sites in area V1 are stimulated through microelectrodes. Here, we report that electrical stimulation within the central 5° of the visual field representation creates a small spot that is between 9 and 26 min of arc in diameter and has a contrast ranging between 2.6% and 10%. The dot generated by the stimulation in the majority of cases was darker than the background viewed by the animal and was composed of a variety of low-contrast colors. These findings can be used as inputs to models of electrical stimulation in area V1. On the basis of these findings, we derive what kinds of images would be expected when implanted arrays of electrodes are stimulated through a camera attached to the head whose images are converted into electrical stimulation using appropriate algorithms. ".
| (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
11 YAN
[11/18/2011 AD]
| 6336) Image of the distribution of electric charge within a single molecule captured.
This is published in "Nature Nanotechnology" as "Imagine the charge distribution within a single molecule". Fabian Mohn et all write for an abstract: "Scanning tunnelling microscopy and atomic force microscopy can be used to study the electronic and structural properties of surfaces, as well as molecules and nanostructures adsorbed on surfaces, with atomic precision, but they cannot directly probe the distribution of charge in these systems. However, another form of scanning probe microscopy, Kelvin probe force microscopy, can be used to measure the local contact potential difference between the scanning probe tip and the surface, a quantity that is closely related to the charge distribution on the surface. Here, we use a combination of scanning tunnelling microscopy, atomic force microscopy and Kelvin probe force microscopy to examine naphthalocyanine molecules (which have been used as molecular switches13) on a thin insulating layer of NaCl on Cu(111). We show that Kelvin probe force microscopy can map the local contact potential difference of this system with submolecular resolution, and we use density functional theory calculations to verify that these maps reflect the intramolecular distribution of charge. This approach could help to provide fundamental insights into single-molecule switching and bond formation, processes that are usually accompanied by the redistribution of charge within or between molecules.".
| (IBM Research–Zurich) Rüschlikon, Switzerland |
15 YAN
[2015 AD]
| 276) Sound a brain hears is recorded directly from the electricity in the nerve cells caused by the sound (direct neuron reading). This is one of the first steps in direct neuron reading, directly hearing "ears". Hearing ears, and "seeing eyes", directly recording the image a person sees are early developments in neuron reading and writing. In fact, capturing an image of what the eyes see remotely (remote neuron reading) was done and made public in 2008 before direct neuron reading. Direct neuron reading of eyes has still not been made public.
| |
15 YAN
[2015 AD]
| 332) Sound a brain hears is recorded remotely from the light emitted by nerve cells caused by the sound (remote neuron reading, "hearing ears"). These recorded sounds are also played out loud for all to hear.
This is an early form of remote neuron reading. Presuming direct neuron reading was actually achieved in the year 1310, this may be 800 years after humans first hear ears.
| |
15 YAN
[2015 AD]
| 6193) Microscopic wireless camera and microphone. This camera uses particle communication to reduce its size.
| |
18 YAN
[2018 AD]
| 6208) Radio device functions as cell organelle. This is the first public demonstration of a device like a RFID chip that enters the body through the lung, enters the blood stream, and can then be communicated with remotely using light particles. Perhaps the first chips enter the blood stream and, like molecules, some enter into cells through the tiny blood vessels that connect to all cells. Perhaps the first intracellular chips will receive and transmit the usual ID number, but also the voltage of nerve and other cells, and may even be able to change the voltage of a nerve cell- in some sense - to directly change the mind. Later more advanced devices probably will have tiny motors to move them around, and cameras that transmit microscopic images.
| |
20 YAN
[2020 AD]
| 337) Remote neuron writing using microscopic devices in neurons is shown publicly. Microscopic devices enter the human body by the lung, enter the blood circulation which connects directly to all cells, and position themselves as human-made cell organelles. External devices communicate with the intracellular devices to make the neuron cell fire. Using this method, muscles can be remotely contracted, and images and sounds can be sent directly to brain (direct-to-brain windows/direct-to-brain videos).
| |
20 YAN
[2020 AD]
| 4559) Walking robots vastly change life of earth. In particular, two leg walking robots will completely replace humans and the other species in all low-skill labor jobs, with the exception of prostitution. This will create a different kind of society where all people are simply given free food, a free room, free clothes, etc. and the basic requirements of life by the majority. If they have inherited money, they may use their money to buy, build, etc in the usual way, but otherwise, average people will have to find other ways of getting money, because machines will be doing all the work. The benefits are that 1) humans do not need to do manual labor, but are free to enjoy their lives, 2) the robots produce far more resources than humans could and so poor humans benefit from the increase in food, housing, and other supplies.
| unknown |
20 YAN
[2020 AD]
| 6197) Remote controlled microscopic flying device.
| |
25 YAN
[2025 AD]
| 365) Thought-images are recorded remotely using remote neuron reading and shown publicly.
Thought-image recording is made public. Presuming direct neuron reading was actually achieved in the year 1310, this may be 800 years after humans first see thought. The thought-screen is an internal screen in the mind. For example think of a blue circle. Where you see that blue circle is your thought-screen. The thought-screen is a part of the brain where images are sent to and from to communicate.
| |
25 YAN
[2025 AD]
| 680) Thought-audio recorded (Remote neuron reading) and played out loud publicly. Humans start to communicate by thought-image and thought-sound only. For this to work best tiny particle transmit and receive devices must integrate into neurons as human-made organelles. Presuming direct neuron reading was actually achieved in the year 1310, this may be 800 years after humans first hear thought.
So after centuries of silence and secrecy, seeing, hearing and sending images and sounds to and from brains (telepathy, remote neuron reading and writing) is made public in most major nations. Although many of the public will still not be aware of the hundreds of years that neuron reading and writing was kept secret. The majority of the public will now get to see direct-to-brain windows, videos and computer windows in front of their eyes, and many who had received the direct-to-brain service for years finally allowed to talk openly and out loud about what they see. All people now record and print out copies of eye images, ear recordings, thought-images and thought-sounds.
Many places and people's thoughts will still be kept from view of the majority of people in the public. However, this will dramatically reduce the number of violent murders and assaults on earth, because finally, many people will see who has done or is doing violence. In addition, the extreme increase in speed of communication greatly increases sex, reproduction, and decreases the spread of communicable diseases. This begins the public punishment of the many neuron murderers, assaulters and molestors that have gone unpunished before now. The neuron murderers, assaulters and molestors must pay their victims, and beneficiaries of deceased victims for their unpunished secret neuron crimes. Humans can now access their computer, browse the Internet, see movies, pay their bills, etc directly from their brain using their mind to control the windows they see in front of their eyes.
| |
25 YAN
[2025 AD]
| 6198) Remote controlled microscopic flying camera.
| |
25 YAN
[2025 AD]
| 6375) Microscopic wireless laser.
| |
30 YAN
[2030 AD]
| 791) Bipedal robots start replacing humans in most low-skill jobs (fast-food, fruit and vegetable picking, etc).
| |
40 YAN
[2040 AD]
| 366)
| unknown |
40 YAN
[2040 AD]
| 4561) Walking robots can wash dishes, clothes, scrub, sweep and vacuum floors, mow the lawn and other simple household tasks.
By this time many humans walk around with walking robots. Walking robots are routinely seen in public, run errands for humans, like grocery shopping, and perform routine cleaning tasks like laundry, dish washing, lawn mowing, etc.
| unknown |
40 YAN
[2040 AD]
| 4562)
| unknown |
40 YAN
[2040 AD]
| 4563)
| unknown |
40 YAN
[2040 AD]
| 6206) Microscopic wing-flapping flying device (ornithopter).
| |
50 YAN
[2050 AD]
| 790) Humans walk around with robot servants. These robots record the owner's daily activities, and perform simple tasks like cleaning floors, dusting, vacuuming, washing dishes and clothes, security camera, etc.
| |
50 YAN
[2050 AD]
| 4564)
| unknown |
50 YAN
[2050 AD]
| 4565) Captured images and button press are used instead of signature for credit card.
| unknown |
50 YAN
[2050 AD]
| 4566) Flying cars are helicopters, which are adapted to consumers. The flying cars are mass produced and so the price is within the range of people of average wealth. Most use a propeller design like a helicopter, however, the blades are contained in a container to be safer (or perhaps just until the passengers are in the vehicle and the engine is started). The flying cars have other added safety features like emergency parachutes, airbags, auto-navigation, etc. Since roads cannot be enlarged sideways, new roads can only be added up and down. Layers of highways will extend deep into the earth, perhaps hundreds of road layers, and extend far above into hundreds of elevations for air traffic. In large cities, the air vehicles will carry humans directly to the floor of their homes which may be building 43,943 x 28,389 (building) x (floor) 23,838. The flying cars are flown by walking robots, or controlled by equipment on the vehicle itself, or possibly controlled by particle communication by an external central computer for example by satellite or ground transmitter. The flying vehicles are made extremely safe. Examples of safety features include: 1) Automatic landing when low on fuel 2) Detecting and avoiding collision by finding safe paths in space 3) Detecting engine failure and rapid change in altitude and releasing parachutes. 4) An emergency propulsion engine always containing enough fuel for an emergency landing.
| unknown |
50 YAN
[2050 AD]
| 6300) Bacteria identified and destroyed by micro or nanometer scale particle device inside an animal body. By 2100 all bacteria and even viral diseases can be stopped by nanometer scale devices.
| unknown |
55 YAN
[2055 AD]
| 6302) Cancer cell growth stopped by microscopic devices.
Microscopic particle communication devices identify and destroy cancer cells inside an animal body.
| unknown |
58 YAN
[2058 AD]
| 6303) Cancer caused by microscopic particle device inside an animal body.
| unknown |
60 YAN
[2060 AD]
| 4567)
| unknown |
60 YAN
[2060 AD]
| 6301) Virus identified and destroyed by microscopic devices inside an animal body.
| unknown |
80 YAN
[2080 AD]
| 4568)
| unknown |
100 YAN
[2100 AD]
| 367)
| |
100 YAN
[2100 AD]
| 793) Helicopter-cars form a second line of traffic above the streets. Flying cars travel over the already exiting roads because of sound level.
Flying cars are the popular alternative to ground cars because of 1) improvements to safety {emergency landing chutes, airbags, and thrusters), 2) need to speed, street-level roads are slow and overcrowded 3) lower cost.
These cars are basically low flying, low-noise helicopters with ground driving abilities built in.
The cars are completely autopilot using cameras and particle distance sensors.
| |
100 YAN
[2100 AD]
| 794) 100 ships with humans orbit Earth. Humans permanently live in Earth orbit.
The first orbiting ships are government ships. The first non-government ships will probably be small tourist stations that people pay to visit.
Early people that live in orbit may be employees of businesses that own ships that people visit, or possibly individual wealthy people that prefer to live in orbit living in "house" ships. Eventually, earth orbit will be filled with single family ships.
| |
100 YAN
[2100 AD]
| 4569) With robots driving, far less accidents occur, because the electronics in a robot is far faster at processing images than the human brain. In addition, the robot can have cameras in all directions, extra sensors like heat and ultrasonic, etc. sensors to more fully analyze any scene. In addition, humans are now free to enjoy the scenery, drink, talk and listen to music, etc. Walking robots that drive, gradually put an end to the terrible problem of humans driving while under the influence of alcohol and other recreational drugs.
| unknown |
100 YAN
[2100 AD]
| 4570)
| unknown |
100 YAN
[2100 AD]
| 4575)
| unknown |
100 YAN
[2100 AD]
| 4613) All bacteria and viruses conquered. Microscopic devices can identify and destroy all known bacteria and viruses anywhere inside or outside of the body. End of disease caused by bacteria and viruses when caught early enough.
| unknown |
120 YAN
[2120 AD]
| 4571) The walking robots are much safer than humans flying. In addition, this frees humans from the responsibilities of flying the car, and allows them to enjoy the scenery.
| unknown |
120 YAN
[2120 AD]
| 4584)
| unknown |
130 YAN
[2130 AD]
| 4572) Ship lands on an asteroid.
| unknown |
140 YAN
[2140 AD]
| 687) Large scale transmutation: Humans can convert most common atoms (Silicon, Aluminum, Iron, and Calcium) into the much more useful atoms (Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen). This allows many humans to live independently of earth, on planets and moons without water, because they can produce all the fuel, water and food they need from the common atoms of the planet or moon.
Large cities can be created on waterless planets and moons, and increases the supplies of H2 and O2 for those in between planets and in planetary or stellar orbit. This is a simply process of separating atoms, the most complex process of assembling atoms from protons and neutrons, or even from photons will take more time to figure out.
Large scale conversion of larger common atoms into smaller more valuable atoms. Particle accelerators turn abundant atoms like silicon, and iron, into more useful smaller atoms like hydrogen, oxygen, and other atoms required by life, in particular as fuel and food to go to other planets and to provide air, water and food for life growing on other planets and moons.
| |
140 YAN
[2140 AD]
| 4573)
| unknown |
150 YAN
[2150 AD]
| 659)
| |
150 YAN
[2150 AD]
| 4574)
| unknown |
150 YAN
[2150 AD]
| 4576) Alcohol replaces gasoline as most popular fuel for gas combustion engines. Since alcohol is not a fossil fuel, and does not need to be drilled to produce, alcohol probably becomes more popular than gasoline. Alcohol is easily produced from garbage and plants by using bacteria fermentation. Methane is another possible fossil fuel gasoline replacement. It seems possible that atom separation without the need for oxygen, by particles like neutrons, as opposed to by a spark (which is what I view combustion as - as atomic separation into source light particles by a chain reaction where a molecule loses mass when combining with an oxygen molecule) may be the future.
| unknown |
150 YAN
[2150 AD]
| 4592) Humans land on Mars.
| unknown |
150 YAN
[2150 AD]
| 6304) Nucleic Acid changed by remote control microscopic devices. This leads to repair, regrowth and reshaping of damaged cells with microscopic devices.
| unknown |
170 YAN
[2170 AD]
| 4577)
| unknown |
180 YAN
[2180 AD]
| 4594) Humans live on Mars.
| unknown |
190 YAN
[2190 AD]
| 4578) First multistory building built on the moon of Earth.
| unknown |
200 YAN
[2200 AD]
| 792) Robots and other machines have replaced humans in most manual labor tasks (driving, cleaning, food planting, harvesting, preparing and serving).
In addition, robots dominate the most dangerous parts of law enforcement and personal security.
Physical pleasure for money, previously outlawed for nearly a century, becomes the main human-dominated occupation, while robots are very natural and skilled, the human touch may be preferred for many physical pleasure services.
| |
200 YAN
[2200 AD]
| 795)
| |
200 YAN
[2200 AD]
| 4581) Humans are no longer jailed for being nude in public.
| unknown |
200 YAN
[2200 AD]
| 6305) Microscopic devices repair, regrow and reshape damaged cells.
| |
210 YAN
[2210 AD]
| 4582)
| unknown |
220 YAN
[2220 AD]
| 4583)
| unknown |
240 YAN
[2240 AD]
| 4585)
| unknown |
250 YAN
[2250 AD]
| 4586)
| unknown |
250 YAN
[2250 AD]
| 4587) Humans may still have limited access to information, and destruction of information owned by somebody else may be punishable.
| unknown |
250 YAN
[2250 AD]
| 4588)
| unknown |
250 YAN
[2250 AD]
| 4589)
| unknown |
250 YAN
[2250 AD]
| 4590)
| unknown |
250 YAN
[2250 AD]
| 4591)
| unknown |
260 YAN
[2260 AD]
| 4593)
| unknown |
275 YAN
[2275 AD]
| 661) The majority of humans in developed nations are not religious. These people do not practice any religion, but may still believe in a god or gods.
| |
280 YAN
[2280 AD]
| 4595)
| unknown |
280 YAN
[2280 AD]
| 4596)
| unknown |
280 YAN
[2280 AD]
| 4597)
| unknown |
280 YAN
[2280 AD]
| 4598) This ship will probably contain a continuous human population for years.
| unknown |
290 YAN
[2290 AD]
| 4599)
| unknown |
300 YAN
[2300 AD]
| 4600)
| unknown |
300 YAN
[2300 AD]
| 4601)
| unknown |
300 YAN
[2300 AD]
| 4602) Within a few decades, even prepubescent children will have these rights, because humans enter pubescense at different ages, and the more uniform logic of simply allowing humans of any age to participate in voting, consensual touching, etc.
This shifts the focus on determining if a child (and/or adult) is objecting or not clearly consenting to touching.
| unknown |
300 YAN
[2300 AD]
| 4603)
| unknown |
310 YAN
[2310 AD]
| 4604)
| unknown |
320 YAN
[2320 AD]
| 4605)
| unknown |
340 YAN
[2340 AD]
| 4606)
| unknown |
350 YAN
[2350 AD]
| 4607) Humans live permanently under and on the surface of Mercury.
| unknown |
350 YAN
[2350 AD]
| 4608)
| unknown |
350 YAN
[2350 AD]
| 4609) This time may be based on the number of seconds from some time in the past. So no matter what part of Earth, Mars, Venus, or Mercury people live on, whether night or day, there is only a single time. This helps to organize humans living on different planets and in orbit. A "star system time" is different from the earth time which depends on a person's location on earth, for example when a person travels from one time zone into another they must change their clock by setting hours forward or backward. It may be that humans simply choose to use some time from a single location on earth, for example using Greenwich time no matter where a person is located. Or perhaps they will simultaneously track the time of each major city as some airports do now. This time may then be adopted for Earth, so that 12 noon is the same time throughout the universe - at that time, one part of Earth may be turned to the Sun, and another may experience noon, as nighttime.
| unknown |
350 YAN
[2350 AD]
| 4610) However, generally at this time, the vast majority of communication is done by images people think without the need for images of letters. Letters represent sounds, and the words built by letters represent objects, motions, biological sensations, etc. It is not clear if humans will still have alphabets, and written words which they read in the far future. Perhaps non-lettered images and sounds will be a faster, easier method of communicating the details of some event, opinion, etc. Any stimulation can be described by simply neuron writing that stimulation, but for unpleasant sensations, it is easy to see that a pictoral representation would be useful. So I can see a place for letters and words in the future - as visual symbolic representations of some stimulations, without the need to actually neuron write the stimulation. Images that describe sounds, in particular in the form of symbols, like letters, and that describe quantities like numbers, will probably be used by humans into the far future. Although probably books made of paper will be replaced, first by neuron writing text to the eyes, and then by thin, light electronic screen computers. Image and sound recordings will all be stored in physical objects, and then copied to people's brains on request using neuron writing.
| unknown |
400 YAN
[2400 AD]
| 4611)
| unknown |
400 YAN
[2400 AD]
| 4612) The ships will probably use atomic separation for propulsion with high acceleration, in addition to gravitational accleration from the Sun and.or Jupiter. The ship will need to have light particle beams in front and back to detect and deflect or destroy any masses in the path of the ship. In addition, small thrusting side engines will allow larger objects to be avoided by steering the ship around them. There are probably a number of ships that fail before this ship. This ship will ultimately reach Proxima Centauri, the closest star, at 4 light years away. Walking robots control the ship. The robots are designed to withstand very large accelerations, accelerations that would kill humans, for example 10g (around 100m/s^2). If this ship can reach a velocity of: 1) 1% the speed of light, 30,000km/s, the ship would take around 370 years to go 4 light years 2) 2% the speed of light, 60,000km/s, the ship would take 180 years 3) .1% the speed of light, 3,000km/s, the ship would take 3,700 years Note, that this does not account for the delay of accelerating up to speed and decellerating down to stop, which might add many more years. I think a conservative estimate would be 500 years, but I will estimate a 300 year journey, which presumes that the first successful ship will be capable of reaching around 2% the speed of light. It is asking a lot for a ship to perform successfully for 300 years, in particular given the stress and random nature of explosive atomic separation.
| unknown |
420 YAN
[2420 AD]
| 779)
| |
500 YAN
[2500 AD]
| 683) The removal and conversion of the Venus atmosphere is started.
This is the first major "removal of gas atmosphere" engineering work of humans. Eventually the gas surrounding all planets will be removed and consumed.
After most of the gas is removed, and the surface of the planet cools down, Oxygen and nitrogen gas will be released to create a new atmosphere.
This project removes the Carbon from the atmosphere and converts it to H2, O2. This process may be done by thousands of surface (and/or low orbit) machines working in parallel. There is so much gas on Venus, that this process may take 1000 years or more.
Based on a conversion rate of 1km3/day conversion by 1000 machines.
Probably much of the carbon will be used as hydrogen and oxygen for fuel, air, water and food for humans around Venus, some might eventually be converted into oxygen and nitrogen and put back into the atmosphere, but some may be sent back to Earth or stored as big blocks of carbon. Perhaps the stage of filling the atmosphere of Venus with Nitrogen and Oxygen gas will start only after the entire atmosphere of Venus is removed.
| |
500 YAN
[2500 AD]
| 686) End of death by aging. Using genetic editing, humans grow and develop to age 20, and then hold that body shape indefinitely, dying only from physical destruction. Humans now live for thousands of years. This causes the human population to grow at an extremely rapid pace.
This end of the physical effects of aging, may create a new existence of finite resources and careful monitoring of human reproduction, in particular if humans fail to quickly collect other stars.
| |
500 YAN
[2500 AD]
| 774)
| |
550 YAN
[2550 AD]
| 4615)
| unknown |
570 YAN
[2570 AD]
| 4616)
| unknown |
600 YAN
[2600 AD]
| 4617)
| unknown |
650 YAN
[2650 AD]
| 4618)
| unknown |
650 YAN
[2650 AD]
| 4619) Humans create atoms from light particles. Photon fusion. The reverse of separating atoms into light particles.
This process may involve focusing light particles to form larger particles, like electrons, and protons, which can then be collided together to form larger atoms.
Although it seems logical that somewhere in the universe light particle must fuse to form larger compound particles, it may be that a more efficient method may exist such as adding light particles to an atom to cause the atom to create a new electron, or proton. Perhaps adding light particles to an electron may cause the electron to divide into two electrons, or perhaps electrons can be fused together to form protons.
| unknown |
700 YAN
[2700 AD]
| 4620) Humans orbit Saturn.
| unknown |
701 YAN
[2701 AD]
| 4560) Humans land on a moon of Saturn.
| unknown |
750 YAN
[2750 AD]
| 4622) Ship reaches other star (Alpha Centauri). First close up pictures of planets of a different star.
Smaller ships land on all the planets and moons of Centauri.
Robots start mining and building to prepare for the many millions of humans that will eventually arrive.
Some ships will return matter from Centauri back to Earth.
| unknown |
765 YAN
[2765 AD]
| 6209)
| Alpha Centauri |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 24) Humans consume an asteroid.
| |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 780) By the year 2800 CE many estimates indicate that, at current rates, all humans in developed nations will not believe in any gods, or any major religions.
| |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 782)
| |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 4623)
| unknown |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 4624)
| unknown |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 4625)
| unknown |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 4626)
| unknown |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 4627) Humans live permanently in orbit Uranus and land on and live permanently on a moon of Uranus.
| unknown |
800 YAN
[2800 AD]
| 4628)
| unknown |
850 YAN
[2850 AD]
| 4580)
| unknown |
900 YAN
[2900 AD]
| 29) Ship impacts the surface of Jupiter. First image of the surface of Jupiter. Surface found to be molten liquid, and six times the diameter of Earth, making Jupiter the second largest solid body of this star system after the Sun.
Perhaps the surface of Jupiter will be found to be molten liquid metal, mostly iron, silicon and the other most abundant atoms.
| unknown |
900 YAN
[2900 AD]
| 775)
| unknown |
900 YAN
[2900 AD]
| 4629)
| unknown |
900 YAN
[2900 AD]
| 4630) Humans orbit Neptune and land on a moon of Neptune (Triton). Humans live permanently in orbit of Neptune and on the moon Triton.
| unknown |
900 YAN
[2900 AD]
| 4632)
| unknown |
950 YAN
[2950 AD]
| 4633) Ship impacts surface of Saturn. First image of the surface of Saturn.
| unknown |
1,000 YAN
[3000 AD]
| 4631)
| unknown |
1,000 YAN
[3000 AD]
| 4634) This motion is very small and the original motion is restored after a single orbit. Multiple ships are used to create a mass large enough to change the motion of planet Mercury. The masses of ships sent from earth, affect the motion of the planets they visit, but by such a small quantity that this mass can be ignored, however, when there are many ships focused into a dense mass, the motion of a larger mass can be changed. Many humans fear tampering with the motions of the planets, and this experiment, reduces some of that worry as none of the motions of the other planets appear to be effected by this test.
| unknown |
1,000 YAN
[3000 AD]
| 4635) Ship impacts surface of Uranus. First image of the surface of Uranus.
| unknown |
1,000 YAN
[3000 AD]
| 4636) Ship impacts surface of Neptune. First image of the surface of Neptune.
| unknown |
1,150 YAN
[3150 AD]
| 4638) The ships containing walking robots arrive at Barnard's star, 6 light years away, 350 years after leaving the star system of Earth. The robots send back close up images of the planets and moons orbiting Barnard's star. The robots then land ships on the planets, build builds, perform chemical analysis, sending all information back to the humans of Earth. Humans now have ships orbiting 3 different stars.
| unknown |
1,200 YAN
[3200 AD]
| 4614)
| Neptune |
1,200 YAN
[3200 AD]
| 4637)
| unknown |
1,200 YAN
[3200 AD]
| 4639)
| unknown |
1,350 YAN
[3350 AD]
| 4640) Ships from earth reach the stars of Sirius. Humans now have ships at 3 different star systems.
| unknown |
1,400 YAN
[3400 AD]
| 4643) Motion of planet Mars and moons of Mars controlled by orbiting ships.
| unknown |
1,500 YAN
[3500 AD]
| 684) This is based on a gas removal rate of 1km3/day by 1000 machines.
Possibly humans will add and subtract molecules to and from the atmosphere of Venus as opposed to completely removing it first.
| |
1,500 YAN
[3500 AD]
| 4642) Humans may evolve to be larger, because this will create a larger brain. Or perhaps brain density will vastly increase to store much more information giving a living body an advantage in survival. For many centuries there will be two clear lines of evolution, those that live on a planet and those that live in ships. Those on planets may grow to be as tall as redwood trees, but ultimately probably most if not all living objects will live in ships and will take on shapes more like those in the ocean, perhaps more spherical, there may be only radial symetry, bilateral symmetry may evolve out.[t]
| unknown |
1,600 YAN
[3600 AD]
| 4641) Motion of Venus controlled by orbiting ships.
| unknown |
1,800 YAN
[3800 AD]
| 681) Earth Moon population reaches maximum possible (250 trillion).
| |
1,800 YAN
[3800 AD]
| 4645) Motion of Jupiter controlled by orbiting ships.
| unknown |
1,800 YAN
[3800 AD]
| 4655)
| Jupiter |
1,900 YAN
[3900 AD]
| 682)
| |
1,900 YAN
[3900 AD]
| 4647)
| unknown |
2,000 YAN
[4000 AD]
| 4644)
| Jupiter |
2,000 YAN
[4000 AD]
| 4646)
| unknown |
2,000 YAN
[4000 AD]
| 4648)
| unknown |
2,100 YAN
[4100 AD]
| 4649)
| unknown |
2,100 YAN
[4100 AD]
| 4650)
| unknown |
2,200 YAN
[4200 AD]
| 4651)
| unknown |
2,200 YAN
[4200 AD]
| 4652) Holding a planet in stationary position uses more fuel, but the advantage is that there is less risk of collision, and the destination location for many ships does not constantly change making travel calculations more simple.
(Possibly there may not be enough justification for holding a body in a fixed position.)
| unknown |
2,200 YAN
[4200 AD]
| 4653)
| unknown |
2,300 YAN
[4300 AD]
| 4657)
| unknown |
2,500 YAN
[4500 AD]
| 4579) The Conversion of the Venus atmosphere project is completed. Venus becomes second earth (although without oceans and much more efficiently organized). Once temperatures came down, more and more humans would be living on the surface of Venus, in the intermediate stage.
| |
2,500 YAN
[4500 AD]
| 4654)
| unknown |
2,500 YAN
[4500 AD]
| 4659) Humans land on Saturn.
| unknown |
2,500 YAN
[4500 AD]
| 4660) Humans land on Uranus.
| unknown |
2,500 YAN
[4500 AD]
| 4661)
| unknown |
2,500 YAN
[4500 AD]
| 4662)
| unknown |
2,500 YAN
[4500 AD]
| 6171)
| |
2,600 YAN
[4600 AD]
| 4663) Atmosphere of Saturn consumed.
| unknown |
2,600 YAN
[4600 AD]
| 4665) Humans land on Neptune.
| unknown |
2,600 YAN
[4600 AD]
| 5605) Atmosphere of Uranus consumed.
| unknown |
2,700 YAN
[4700 AD]
| 4666)
| unknown |
2,700 YAN
[4700 AD]
| 4667) Atmosphere of Neptune consumed.
| Neptune |
2,800 YAN
[4800 AD]
| 685)
| |
2,800 YAN
[4800 AD]
| 4669)
| unknown |
3,000 YAN
[5000 AD]
| 679)
| |
3,000 YAN
[5000 AD]
| 4656)
| Jupiter |
3,000 YAN
[5000 AD]
| 4668)
| unknown |
3,000 YAN
[5000 AD]
| 4670)
| unknown |
3,000 YAN
[5000 AD]
| 6177) Venus is completely filled with living objects and functions as a ship.
| unknown |
3,100 YAN
[5100 AD]
| 4664)
| Uranus |
3,100 YAN
[5100 AD]
| 4671)
| unknown |
3,200 YAN
[5200 AD]
| 4673)
| unknown |
3,200 YAN
[5200 AD]
| 6173) | Neptune |
3,500 YAN
[5500 AD]
| 6176)
| Mars |
4,000 YAN
[6000 AD]
| 4674)
| Centauri |
4,000 YAN
[6000 AD]
| 4675)
| unknown |
4,500 YAN
[6500 AD]
| 4676)
| unknown |
9,000 YAN
[11000 AD]
| 4680)
| unknown |
10,000 YAN
[12000 AD]
| 4681)
| unknown |
11,000 YAN
[13000 AD]
| 4682)
| unknown |
12,000 YAN
[14000 AD]
| 4683)
| unknown |
15,000 YAN
[17000 AD]
| 678) Population of humans on earth is uncomfortably large at 1 trillion (1e12) humans. This presumes that no humans leave earth.
| |
25,000 YAN
[27000 AD]
| 4677)
| unknown |
45,000 YAN
[47000 AD]
| 4679)
| unknown |
50,000 YAN
[52000 AD]
| 4658) All asteroids are consumed.
| |
55,000 YAN
[57000 AD]
| 4672) Planet Mercury completely filled with living objects. The matter of planet Mercury is completely used as fuel and food by life of the earth star. Mercury now functions as a massive ship. In the absence of an external supply, it may be that Mercury becomes hollow and ultimately divides into many smaller ships.
| unknown |
60,000 YAN
[62000 AD]
| 6175) Mars is filled with living objects.
| Mars |
65,000 YAN
[67000 AD]
| 6174) Earth is completely filled with living objects.
There is no more molten material inside the Earth. All the molten compressed matter was extracted, cooled and consumed as building materials, fuel, food, etc. Earth is completely filled with tunnels, rooms, and living objects. The sphere of Earth is held together by metal support structures, and functions as a giant ship. Earth and the other planets will perhaps function as giant metal ships for a long time.
Alternatively, life may live in orbiting ships, and the Earth is either evacuated and the molten surface cooled and consumed, or broken into pieces and consumed.
| Earth |
70,000 YAN
[72000 AD]
| 4684)
| unknown |
90,000 YAN
[92000 AD]
| 6210)
| unknown |
100,000 YAN
| 4678)
| unknown |
130,000 YAN
| 100) The star of Earth is consumed.
It seems likely that if all planets are consumed, the star would be consumed too; the matter converted into more living objects, ships, food and fuel. This is evidence that a globular cluster is made by an advanced organism that goes out and brings back other stars, the center being a place where stars are consumed, the matter converted into more of their species, ships, food, fuel, etc.
| |
185,000 YAN
| 6178) All planets of Sirius consumed.
| Sirius |
205,000 YAN
| 6317) Sirius consumed.
(Kind of a funny idea that at some home base some body might some time ask "what is the status of Sirius?" to get the reply from the computer "Sirius consumed", or perhaps like a machine completing some monumental task with the effortless resulting statement "Sirius consumed".)
| Sirius |
630,000 YAN
| 106) Ten to the power 100 humans.
| |
100,000,000 YAN
| 4685) All stars in the Milky Way Galaxy belong to a globular cluster.
It seems safe to presume that by 100 million years from now, all stars in the Milky Way Galaxy will belong to a globular cluster.
| unknown |
20,000,000,000 YAN
| 4686)
| unknown |
30,000,000,000 YAN
| 4687)
| unknown |
40,000,000,000 YAN
| 4688)
| unknown |